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GLEANINGS IN KEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



Our Homes. 



But seek ye first tlie kingdom of God, and his 

 righteousness, and all these things shall be added 

 unto you.— Matt. 6:3.3. 



The conviction forcps itself upon me. that in 

 these Home Papers I ought at least to recognize 

 the difficulties and troubles that are visiting 

 our United States of America just at the pres- 

 ent time. In fact, I believe it is the Holy Spirit 

 that admonishes me that I can not consistently 

 evade or avoid the problem* that are confront- 

 ing so many just now. At the same time, I 

 recognize it is a difficult, and. 1 might almost 

 say. dangerous, thing, for spiritual teachers or 

 spiritual advisers to undertake to say what men 

 should door should not do during these times, 

 for, in fact, more than human wisdom seems to 

 be needed; and my prayer in thinking of this 

 talk to you to-day has been, "O Lord, help, 

 and give me wisdom that I have not of myself, 

 and that is not human wisdom." In thinking 

 of this, the old familiar text comes np to me 

 again. T have used it so many times that I 

 almost hesitate to use it once more; but yet I 

 am sure that humanity has not yet begun to 

 explore the depths of wisdom contained in the 

 few simple words that compose it— the few sim- 

 ple words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ. 

 When I undertake to talk on this subject I 

 recognize how easv it is to find fault, and to sav 

 that this. that, and the other is the cause of all 

 our trouble; and I am impressed just now that 

 no one thing is the sole cause of all our trouble 

 unless that one thing be sin in the human 

 heart; and if we put it that way. we are all to 

 blame, for God knows we are all sinners; and 

 this beinsr true, can we do better than to use 

 that old. old prayer, " Lord, have mercy on me, 

 a sinner"? 



You will remember that, before these finan- 

 cial and social troubles came upon us, there 

 have come up at different times many innova- 

 tions and new things in society. The million- 

 aire development is of comparatively recent 

 date. The "sudden wealth that demoralized 

 society and individuals commenced, perhaps, 

 with the gold excitement in California. I can 

 remember it well. Then the oil business of 

 Pennsylvania and other States came on the 

 stage. 'and men got rich suddenly without cor- 

 responding effort and years of labor. And right 

 upon the heels of the oil business, or, perhaps, 

 almost at the same time, came our civil war; 

 and it is a little sad to think that men secured 

 colossal fortunes during the war, but it is in- 

 deed so." Our best and wisest men tried to 

 frame laws to make provision for the unsettled 

 and demoralized conditions of society; but with 

 the best intentions in the world, on the part of 

 our law-makers, sharpers, and those greedy for 

 gain, caught sight of imperfections or loop- 

 holes in these laws, and thus secured, fabulous 

 wealth. It got to be a fashion to get rich with- 

 out hard work: and. oh dear me! I am afraid 

 it is even now the fashion to do the same thing; 

 and not only that, but to look down upon peo- 

 ple who are depending upon their hard day's 

 work to get to be comfortably off. All these 

 events that I have spoken of seemed to prepare 

 the way for the general dissemination of a sort 

 of eamhling mania. Let me illustrate; 



Mrs. Root went into a store yesterday. While 

 she was waiting a little to speak with one of 

 the proprietors, a young clerk, with perhaps the 

 best intentions in the world, undertook to enter- 

 tain her with an account of their gift enteprise. 

 Perhaps I have not got the facts exactlv. l>ut it 

 does not matter. Something very much like it 

 is going on, I presume, at this verv moment in 

 every town and city of the United States. So 



many beans, or grains of corn or some other 

 seeds, are put into a bottle, and the customer 

 who guesses nearest the exact number in the 

 bottle is to have— a " house and lot." It seems 

 that long practice and experience in this mat- 

 ter of guessing the number of seeds in a bottle 

 has been worked down so fine that people go 

 and get a bottle of the same size, and till it 

 with corn. Then they can guess pretty nearly, 

 so as to get the house and lot. This special 

 bottle in question, however, was of such pecul- 

 iar form and fashion that no one could get 

 another one like it. So this time the thing was 

 going to be fair and honest (?). or more so than 

 similar schemes elsewhere— as if gambling and 

 lotteries and all things of that ilk could ever l)e 

 fair and honest in nnxj sense of the word! 

 Now, any one who knows Mrs. Root at all 

 would recognize that she did not want a house 

 and lot, and would not have it under any cir- 

 cumstances unless it were bought and paid fof. 

 Do you suggest that she might give it to some 

 poor woman who did wantit? Well, my friend, 

 if this would be any better, it is only gambling 

 to help the poor, after all. Such work is cer- 

 tainly in no sense or manner "seeking the 

 kingdom of God and his righteousness." You 

 need not suggest that Mrs. Root has so many 

 houses and lots already that she does not want 

 any more, for she has none at all except the one 

 we all occupy. I have frequently heard Iht 

 say she would li^ce some little houses on suit- 

 able lots, to be rented at a low price to poor 

 women; but she has never yet, I am sure, 

 wanted one as a reward for guessing the num- 

 ber of seeds in a bottle. 



Now the question arises. How often do mer- 

 chants and others get any sort of rebuke tm 

 this sort of lottery or gambling business? How 

 many Christian people, members of churches 

 are ready to say, when the thing is presentee 

 to them, "No, no, my friend, I do not gei 

 things in that way, and I do not want then 

 that way. I profess to be a Christian, and 1 

 could not conscientiously take any thing with 

 out rendering some sort of fair equivalent " ? 



Even though times are hard— even thougl 

 thousands of fathers and mothers complaii 

 that they can scarcely find money to purchas( 

 the bare necessaries of life— notwithstanding al 

 this, lotteries and gift enterprises, and thins; 

 of that sort, grow and thrive; and it is the pooi 

 and needy people who support them. Tin 

 managers of the Louisiana Lottery Co. havi 

 offered ndllions, as you know, for the privilegi 

 of working certain territory. Yes, and tlu 

 saddest part of it is, by some hook or crool 

 they manage to make their millions open tin 

 way to work said territory. I am told every wluri 

 it is true. I saw it plainly indicated all over tin 

 great citv of New Orleans, that it is the pi">i 

 and needy, as a rule, who support this gre;i 

 Louisiana Lottery. The great masses— I v. a- 

 going to sav ignorant masses— pinch themselve; 

 in the way'of food and clothing to get hold o 

 money for this kind of gambling; and not onh 

 this, but even members of churches, and fathers I 

 of families M\o have their little farms heavili 

 mortqaged, also scrape up money to invest, 11 

 not in the Louisiana Lottery, in some othei 

 gambling enterprise, with the vain hope that 

 they may thus get money to pay off the mort- 

 gage, or something of that sort. I am afraid 

 the tiling is growing and increasing. Million- 

 aires set the example, or, at least, they are 

 hired iojtretend they do; and all the way down.i 

 people follow in their wake because they hav€| 

 no conscientious scruples against taking moneyl 

 or property without rendering some sort ol 

 equivalent." I have told you of a scene I wit-| 

 nessed in San Diego, Cal. Real-estate specu- 

 lation had become a gambling craze. Mechan 



