1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



541 



and becomes acquainted; then when they come 

 to hear his gospel message in the evening he 

 gets acquainted more, and in this way he has no 

 lack of audiences, even through the busy time 

 of harvesting ana haying. His sermons, every 

 one of them, arn soul-stiiring and to the point. 

 I can not give them all here, but I am going to 

 use a few of his illustrations. The one that 

 Impressed me, periiaps. most of all, was the one 

 from the text given at the head of this talk. 



I shall not attempt to give the discourse as 

 Bro. Reed gave it; in fact, I am going to give 

 you only some of my own ideas suggested by 

 listening to that and other sermons on the 

 Fourth of July and the Sunday following. 



Jesus told us we shall all perish unless we 

 repent. We can not stop now to consider the 

 circumstances under which these words were 

 spoken, but only the point included in thf text. 

 We all need penitpnce. This implies that we 

 are all sinners. The speaker said he talked 

 with people not only all through that town, but 

 in other places where they had preached. 

 Some would say, " I beli^'ve in the existence of 

 a God: but I do not believe in such a God as 

 you do. I do not believe that God would send 

 us into the world, and then deliberately tor- 

 ment and curse us." 



Mr. Reed replied, "My friend, let us *ake it 

 on your own ground. You do believe in an 

 overruling power and a Creator. Well, have 

 you so far in life trpated that Crpator, the God 

 In which you believe, with all the respect that 

 is justly due him ? Have you so far in life done 

 this ?" 



He told the audience that he had never met 

 more than one man who could boldly claim he 

 had given even the God of his belief the respect 

 and consideration that such a being should 

 have from a creature of his. Th^n the proper 

 thing for us all to do is to repent of our misdeeds 

 and shortcomings toward the Creator we all 

 acknowledge. We are guilty of sins of omis- 

 sion as well as sins of commission: and whoever 

 has tried to live a pure and upright life before 

 God has. sooner or later, become conscious of 

 the impulses and feelings that are continually 

 swaying us more or less from the straight and 

 narrow path. We need penitence and forgive- 

 ness. A man's life may be in harmony with 

 God, even though he be guilty of sinful thoughts 

 and acts that are common to weak humanity. 

 Mind you, I do not mean to excuse by this 

 remark anyone for being guilty of sinfulness. 

 There are two ways of living. One way is in 

 harmony with God and his laws. The other 

 way is out of harmony with God. The first 

 brings peace, happiness, joyousness, and life is 

 a great and precious gift for which we can 

 thank the Almighty day by day and hour by 

 hour. The Psalmist has it correctly in his ex- 

 pression, " But his delight is in the law of the 

 Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and 

 night." If a man is out of harmony with God 

 and his holy laws, he is unhappy, dissatisfied 

 with everybody and every thing, and his life 

 finally comes to a rebellion. Unle«s he repents, 

 and turns from his evil ways, he is a lost soul. 

 "The man who deliberately and calmly takes 

 God's name in vain is a /o.st .so?tL" When the 

 speaker uttered these words with his terrible 

 vehemence and eloquent oratory, it almost 

 made me tremble to think of it. Then he went 

 on to say that, right in that beautiful town of 

 Thompson (I think it was during some of their 

 religious meetings right on the square), a man's 

 voice was hc^ard in cursing and blaspheming, 

 so plainly as to be heard clear across the town. 

 One who permits himself to indnlee in such 

 laneunee i« in defianee nf God Almighty. As a 

 rule he will go on and on. Satan never lets up 



when he gets a hold on a human being. The 

 speaker then told of men whom he had met and 

 talked with, who openly defied God, who chal- 

 lenged him to curse them with a thunderbolt, 

 if there was a God who ruled over all, and who 

 cared any thing about these things. In one of 

 our cities there was an intemperate man who 

 was in the habit of boasting, whenever he could 

 get anybody to listen to him, that he was not 

 afraid of God. He even dared and defied his 

 Maker to show his power. Along with his ter- 

 ribly sinful life he had a habit of getting on the 

 railroad track when he was intoxicated, and 

 his friends had to watch him and get him 

 away. One night, in one of his drunken orgies, 

 he got on the track just before a swiftly pass- 

 ing locomotive. He was seen to shake his fist 

 at the fiery monster, and to say, in a loud boast- 

 ing voice, ■' Who is afraid of a locomotive? who 

 is going to be scared by a red light? Come on, 

 and crush me, if you dare. I am not a child, 

 and T will give you to understand that I am 

 not afraid of any thing or anybody." These 

 were his last words. Before his friends could 

 reach the spot he was crushed to death between 

 the terrible wheels of iron and tracks of steel. 

 While the blasphemer does not always meet his 

 fate so quickly, it is none the less sure. 



At the supper-table at the hotel, some one 

 used an oath. It was used carelessly, and he 

 perhaps did not know that he had linked the 

 word in, as h^ spoke rapidly. Some of us re- 

 monstrated. He gave as an excuse— or some- 

 body did, I do not exactly remember — that doc- 

 tors always swear. This brought forth another 

 remonstrance, and somebody present asked a 

 young doctor who sat at my elbow if he ever 

 swore. I think the question was asked inno- 

 cently; but it seems that, innocent as it was, it 

 was cutting pretty close to home. I did not 

 know it at the time; but I have been told since 

 that he was the person whose loud talk and 

 blasphemy had been heard almost all over the 

 town. The young man's face colored some- 

 what as hf refilled that he sometimes swore 

 when he felt like it. My little prayer, " Lord, 

 help," began to well up at once as I meditated 

 on an answer that would not olTend. I said 

 something like this: "My dear friend, if I were 

 in the habit of always doing every thing I feel 

 like doing, I am afraid I should have landed 

 ere this in the penitentiary." As soon as I had 

 spoken I began to feel that perhaps my remark 

 was not a very wise one after all. His lip 

 curled with slight sarcasm, and a merry laugh 

 went round the table as he looked at me and 

 said quietly, "Very likely." I was almost an 

 entire stranger in the community, and this 

 brief reply was a little hard on me; but it all 

 passed off as pleasantry, and of course I accept- 

 ed it as such. There were these two doctors 

 at the table — one an aged disciple of the allo- 

 pathic school, and this younger one was a 

 bright progressive disciple of homeopathy. 

 The two had been bantering each other over 

 the different methods of treatment frequently 

 during my visit They did not agree at all in 

 regard to methods nf treating disease. Not- 

 withstanding, they did agree (it would seem) 

 in regard to speaking lightly of the great 

 Creator of all things. 



I wonder how many there are who practice 

 medicine who read Gleanings. Dear friends, 

 is it true that doctors as a rule are in the habit 

 of swearing? If it is true that some doctors 

 and some surgeons of great skill are in the 

 habit of deliberately taking God's name in 

 vain, can it be true that the medical fraternity 

 at large think it helps a man in his profession, 

 or adds dignity to his ph-iracter. to set such an 

 example before others? God forbid I My friend, 



