1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



295 



%im pejiEg. 



Kejoiceth not in iniquity— I. Cob. 13 :6. 



A FEW evenings a^o, before our teachers' 

 meeting opened, I remarked that I had got 

 hold of a new and beautiful text. When 

 asked what it was, I repeated the words at 

 the head of this talk. 



" Why," said our pastor, "you have had 

 that before ; " but when I told them I was 

 sure they must be mistaken, one of the teach- 

 ers also insisted that it was either the very 

 same text I had a few weeks ago, or remark- 

 ably like it. And she added, further, that it 

 was certainly something about iniquity. I 

 felt sure I was right ; but it was some min- 

 utes before I remembered my other text : 

 " Thou hast loved righteousness and hated 

 iniquity." Of course, you all remember the 

 latter. In that case it was Jesus who hated 

 iniquity; but in the text before us, Paul is 

 speaking of human beings who, if they do 

 not really love iniquity, perhaps sometimes 

 unconsciously have a fashion of rejoicing, or 

 at least seeming to be pleased, when they 

 come acros„ iniquity in the acts of their 

 friends and '' neighbors." Of course, we do 

 not rejoice at finding iniquity m our oion 

 hearts— at least I never heard of such a case. 

 But I am afraid that even the best of us do, 

 too often, harbor thoughts and feelings that 

 are at least a little like rejoicing. As an il- 

 lustration of rejoicing in iniquity: 



.V friend of mine is a schoolteacher. After 

 having taught quite successfully in a country 

 school he was invited to take a larger school 

 in a town near by. I do not know whether it 

 is always true that there are more bad boys 

 in the town than in the country, but it seem- 

 ed so in this case ; and these boys, embold- 

 ened, probably, by their previous experience 

 in getting the upper hand of teachers, perse- 

 cuted our friend severely. He went to the 

 directors about it, and they told him to make 

 the boys behave, even if he had to take the 

 poker or a stick of wood, and knock them 

 down. My friend, however, is a follower of 

 Christ, and he told them he did not feel call- 

 ed upon to resort to such methods to enforce 

 obedience with grown-up young men. The 

 boys discovered this, and took advantage of 

 what might be called his (Quaker principles, 

 and overpowered him. As he stated it to me 

 I told him I believed he erred on the right 

 side. The directors, however, thought dif- 

 ferently. Instead of expelling the boy who 

 took the lead, they told my friend they pre- 

 ferred to hire a teacher wlio would enforce 

 obedience. 



Let us, while we are about it, consider this 

 matter a little, even if we are digressing 

 from the subject of our text. Those who 

 read the papers are aware that it is not un- 

 common to have lawsuits grow out of this 

 very matter of making bad boys obey the 

 teacher at school. Pupils have been maimed 

 for life, and 1 do not know but that a few 

 liave been killed by teachers who felt it in- 

 cumbent on them to enforce obedience, even 

 i f they were obliged to use any weapon they 

 could get hold of. Which is the better way 

 — to ask the directors to take the boy out of 

 school, or admihister a thrashing that seems 



the only alternative left, because he was 

 never made to mind at home V I suppose 

 that circumstances would alter cases ; but I 

 should very much fear to advise a teacher to 

 conquer in that way, for fear that he might 

 let his temper get the better of him, or by 

 mistake do more injury than he intended to 

 do. All things considered, I felt pretty well 

 satisfied that my advice was safe, even 

 though my friend lost his school by follow- 

 ing it. Many teachers have a faculty, or 

 have learned by experience, if you choose, to 

 enforce obedience without striking a blow, 

 something on the principle that I made old 

 Charlie step into the thills by simply having 

 a piece of lath in my hand. Now for the 

 application of our text : 



My friend secured another school, and 

 taught it quite successfully. The directors 

 of the first school employed another teacher 

 who thought he could make the boys mind. 

 Of course, my friend was watching anxious- 

 ly to see how teacher No. 2 would come out. 

 As he is a follower of Christ, he could not 

 consistently hope that No. 2 would have 

 trouble with the boys. If he did have trouble 

 trying to conquer by brute force and main 

 strength, would it be wrong for teacher No. 

 1 to feel glad just a little V Certainly it 

 would, because it would be rejoicing in in- 

 iquity. My friend prayed over it, and 

 climbed above the temptation. No doubt 

 he said many times in his heart, " Get thee 

 behind me, Satan. I do not want this teach- 

 er to have any trouble, even if I did have 

 trouble myself. I honestly hope he will 

 succeed with the boys, even though I fail- 

 ed." He did all this, but he said it was 

 about all that human nature could stand. 

 Now, dear friends, have you any like tempt- 

 ations '^ Is it a hard matter for you to go 

 through life without any disposition to re- 

 joice in iniquity V 



This disposition to rejoice in iniquity is, 

 perhaps, the foundation for the greater part 

 of the scandal and uncharitable speaking 

 that we have in the world. Somebody who 

 has borne a good reputation, and made a 

 fair record for years, suddenly does some- 

 thing shameful. The story of it passes from 

 mouth to mouth. It seems as if the greater 

 part of the community talk it over as if it 

 were not only something funny but pleasant 

 to think of. Of course, they say, " Is it pos- 

 sible ? " and, again, "Who would have 

 thought it, after all the profession he has 

 made ? " and still others, a little lower down 

 in the scale, add, " There is one of your 

 pretty Christians ; " and then somebody else 

 says, " Well, that is about the way they all 

 turn out. The world is full of hypocrisy ;" 

 and then somebody adds, " Well, 1 do not 

 make any profession ; and I guess, when 

 you get right down to it, it is all a pretense, 

 anyhow, and just a kind of game to make 

 folks believe they are a little better than 

 common people." 



Did you ever hear any such talk as the 

 above, dear friends ? Were you ever in any 

 sense guilty of rejoicing in iniquity in that 

 way V Weil, I hope you are not. For one, 

 I am guilty in that very line. I do not 

 mean that I indulge in any such speeches as 

 those quoted last ; but I catch myself every 



