1270 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



Ing about ? When I first heard of it I said it was 

 incredible, and I would not believe it till Mr. 

 Brown himself confessed it. Why, it seeins that 

 either one of them or both had lost their senses, 

 or at least have lost all sense of decency and pro- 

 priety before they considered such a step, or, to 

 call things by their right name, before they vol- 

 untarily decided on committing a crime, not only 

 in the eyes of God but against the laws of man 

 as well. And, by the way, I think such a thing 

 has happened at least half a dozen times here in 

 our locality within my recollection. Two people 

 have gone to a hotel, and the devil has persuaded 

 them that, by signing fictitious names, they could 

 evade discovery. So far as I know, in every case 

 the thing was found out sooner or later. " Mur- 

 der will out;" yes, and s > will adultery. And, 

 thank God, these things do get out — at least a 

 great deal of the time, and the criminals have to 

 suffer ever afterward the condemnation of all good 

 people. This man was living at peace with his 

 wife and family until this event occurred; but 

 when the wife found it out, perhaps he confessed 

 it and begged her pardon. I do not know how 

 that was; but I know he bitterly regretted his 

 folly. If I am correct he was never guilty of 

 any thing of the kind before this event, and cer- 

 tainly never was afterward. He was one of the 

 kindest and most genial men I ever met. He 

 tried to make up by a straightforward, upright 

 life for the sins of the past; but his wife refused 

 to forget or to forgive. She said that either he 

 would have to leave and go somewhere else or 

 she herself would do so. Perhaps she had scrip- 

 tural authority for her course, and yet I feel sure 

 she made a mistake. Whenever a man or woman 

 seems truly penitent for even a sin of this kind, 

 and starts out to live an honest life afterward, I 

 think the partner of such a person should forgive 

 and forget the past; and 1 am sure there is noth- 

 ing in the Bible contrary to my position in regard 

 to the matter. 



Long years passed by. At different times I 

 urged that the father be permitted to go back 

 home, and he finally did go there and stayed a few 

 weeks; but his wife soon decided he would have 

 to go away again. She said the sight of him 

 brought back again the old bitter memories, and 

 he would have to go away somewhere out of her 

 sight. Once more, dear friends, I dread to tell 

 the ending. It can be told in almost one word. 

 That aged father finally died a suicide. Do you 

 think that the second one of our texts is too harsh 

 and severe.? That young woman who fixed her- 

 self up so as to look attractive (before she went 

 out to see a man old enough to be her father), 

 perhaps had no thought of any thing so serious 

 and terrible as what I have just been relating; 

 and yet this thing she had planned certainly -xvas 

 "on the road to hell." She broke up the family, 

 brought misery and unhappiness untold into that 

 household, and the end was, as we have it in our 

 text, " going down to the chambers of death. "* 



God grant that this little story may be a warning 

 to men and women, both old and young. 



My second illustration is, in some respects, a 

 sadder one still. Years ago I became acquainted 

 with a boy who in many ways showed marked 

 ability. I plead with him to go to Sunday-school 

 and to become a Christian; and part of the time 

 I thought he was on the way to the " promised 

 land. " I finally lost track of him; and as he had 

 a bent toward mechanical work he left the farm 

 and spent one winter in a nearby city. When I 

 heard of him again, somebody told me he had 

 got into some bad habits. Before he went to the 

 city to work I had him one time at work out in 

 the woods with a hired man. This latter man 

 was rough and profane, and the boy finally spoke 

 right out and said something like this: 



" Mr. Root, I like to work for you, and I am 

 well satisfied with my pay; but I am not in the 

 habit of being sworn at, even if I do not under- 

 stand e\ery thing; and I have been brought up 

 where I did not hear any swearing at all. Now, 

 1 hope you will excuse me when I say that this 

 man, who bosses the work when you are not 

 around, must either stop his bad talk or I shall 

 have to look for another job." 



I put my hand on the boy's shoulder and told 

 him I admired his spunk and grit; and after a 

 pleasant talk with the hired man I told him he 

 really would have to stop his swearing while he 

 was on my premises. Now, that very boy, after 

 being in town just one winter, had learned to 

 s^vear. I could not comprehend it. I found 

 him out in the field at work one day; and after 

 shaking hands with him I said, "John, do you 

 remember how you once refused to work for me 

 any longer unless I made that man stop swear- 

 ing .? " 



He said he remembered it well, but he rather 

 hung his head. 



" Well, John, what in the world has changed 

 you, and your opinion of people who swear, to 

 such an extent that you are now addicted to the 

 very thing you were so vehement against only two 

 years ago .-' " 



He said he did not know exactly what had 

 made the change. 



"Why, John," I continued, "it seems to me 

 that the Devil himself has somehow crept into 

 your young and boyish heart and caused such a 

 change in just one short winter." 



About this time John was either crying or 

 came pretty near it; and he owned up to me, in 

 a general way, that Satan had probably got hold 

 of him. I got him to go back to the Sunday- 

 school, and he soon became a leader in the prayer- 

 meeting and in all Christian work. The boy 

 was literally born again, and everybody was sur- 

 prised at his piety and devotion.* When the good 

 pastor who had united with me in getting John 



■ 1 do not know how many other families were ruined and 

 broken up by the schemes of this woman. I only know that she 

 made a remark once to a young girl in her teens (wnen this girl 

 was shocked at her familiarity with men in general), something 

 like this: That, according to her ideas, about all the satisfaction 

 or fun that this world has to offer is along the line of what might 

 be called indiscriminate flirtation with the opposite sex, married 

 or unmarried — it did not matter very much which. 



* I am told that this same girl met John one day on the street, 

 after he had united with the church. He evidently had little 

 or nothing to say to her — perhaps did not even recognize her. 

 Then she complained to some of her acquaintances that since 

 John had got religion he did not amount to any thing at all. 

 He could not even be civil to his old friends when he met 

 them on the street. May the Lord be praised that John did have 

 sense enough, after he had been born again, to shun this evil 

 woman as he would turn out of the way of a mad dog. Hydro- 

 phobia may bring suffering and death; but it is not to be com- 

 pared in its final results with the one who poisons mind, body, 

 and soul, and leads hervictims "in the way to hell," and "down 

 to the chambers of deatn." 



