Qecember, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



751 



you find that passage in the Bible? It de- 

 scribes Germany just now to a dot." 



Now, my good friends whose eyes rest 

 on these pages, I want you to read that 

 passage over and over again. Is it not in- 

 deed true that Germany has made " a cove- 

 nant with death?" and good authorities 

 tell us tliat Germany has spent years and 

 years in making this covenant; and she 

 has not hesitated — at least she does not 

 hesitate now- — to declare, " With hell are 

 we at agreement." And then she seems 

 to imply, certainly by actions if not by 

 words, that " when the overflowing scourge 

 shall pass thru it shall not come unto us." 

 But, praise the Lord, at the very moment 

 while I write she is disappointed, because 

 the overflowing scourge has finally reached 

 her — the "scourge of the good people of the 

 whole wide world. Now, if Germany ever 

 tries to give a reason, what other reason, or 

 what better reason, can she give than the 

 concluding words of this text — " For we 

 have made lies our refuge," and " under 

 falsehoods have we hid ourselves." 



At this very moment our good President 

 is calling attention to the fact that, while 

 Germany offers a partial if not complete 

 " unconditional surrender," she has been 

 sinking our vessels; and not only that, but 

 firing on boatloads of helpless women and 

 children in their attempt to get to a place 

 of safety. And this last trick of the U- 

 boats, if we are eoiTectly informed, was to 

 torpedo the vessel without giving the pas- 

 sengers a single minute to get into the life- 

 boats and save their lives; and not only 

 that, her armies in the French and Belgian 

 territory are destroying towns and cities 

 by the wholesale. When they find that they 

 are conquered, instead of retreating in the 

 way conquered people have retreated ever 

 since the world began, she is destroying 

 churches, libraries, etc., that were the re- 

 sult of the accumulation of many years, 

 and I might almost say centuries — books 

 that can never be duplicated — ^just because 

 of an insane desire to wreck and ruin 

 everything pure and holy. Retaliation has 

 been suggested. Some of the papers ad- 

 vise telling Germany that if she keeps on 

 in this work, when our soldiers get across 

 the line the valuable buildings and other 

 forms of property in Germany will be de^ 

 stroyed in like manner. While I can hard- 

 ly blame people for making this sort of 

 threat I can not feel that it is the right and 

 proper thing for Christians to do. There 

 is trouble enough and enough loss of prop- 

 erty and life already. 



I think it was just a few days ago we 

 had an account of a German soldier who 

 Avas near death. He was calling piteously 



for a drink of water. Two young Ameri- 

 can boys were passing near him, and, altho 

 every minute of their time was urgently 

 needed to give a drink of water to our own 

 suffering and dying people, this boy could 

 not resist the appeal from a dying man. 

 He gave him the full contents of his own 

 canteen. Did this German soldier thank 

 him? I will tell you what he did. Under 

 the invigorating influence of the drink of 

 water, he roused up enough to shoot this 

 poor boy, who died instantly as the reward 

 for giving a drink to one Avhom he sup- 

 posed to be a dying man. Is this a type of 

 Germany? I can not think for a moment 

 that it is. It is a type of those who have 

 been ruling Germany, and a type of the 

 pupils, at least some of them, they have 

 sent to war. 



Let me now digress a little in closing. 

 For years past, Germany has been receiv- 

 ing the credit of being progressive. A 

 large part of our Christian people, and I 

 am sorry to say considerable numbers of 

 our ministers of the gospel, have been" 

 listening to the teachings of Gennany. 

 They called it " higher criticism." You 

 know all about it. I will give you just 

 one illustration. A minister of the gospel 

 in good standing, supposed to be thoroly 

 orthodox, suggested ih a men's Bible class 

 on Sunday that it was possible that no such 

 persons as Adam and Eve ever lived. May- 

 be you have heard such talk. When it was 

 repeated in my hearing I replied, " Wliy 

 not go a little further and say that ' j^os- 

 sibly,' Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never 

 lived — that it was only symbolic?" And 

 then I added (please remember this was 

 years ago), "If you will go to the editor 

 of our Medina Gazette he will fall right in 

 with you, and also add that it is not unlike- 

 ly that even the Lord Jesus Christ never 

 had an existence. He will tell you it was 

 all a tradition without any foundation." 



I do not think I need waste any more 

 time in considering Germany's higher criti- 

 cism, or, if you choose, Germany's "Kul- 

 tur." It has got the " discard " so severe- 

 ly that she will never be quoted again. 



Just one more illustration of that comes 

 to mind just now. Some forty years ago 

 the editor of this same Medina Gazette 

 announced that a distinguished geologist, 

 who had contributed largely to the columns 

 of a certain scientific magazine, would ad- 

 dross a IMedina audience. In telling of the 

 discoveries that liad been made in regard 

 to Bible teachings, and with the teachings 

 of science, he made some slurring remarks 

 in regard to the Christian religion. I am 

 sorry to say that at that time there were 

 quite a good many " advanced-science " 



