1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



783 



0a^ JlejiE?. 



He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice 

 to be heard in the street.— ISA. 42:2. 



irp FEW mornings ago, as I came into the 

 ^Pj printing-office, one of the boys asked 

 ]P| me if I was not afraid Ernest would 

 -'^^ get shot if he remained longer in Ober- 

 lin. Of course, I wondered greatly at 

 such a remarli, although I made up my niind 

 at once, even if I did not say it, that l" didn't 

 believe Ernest would get shot anywhere — 

 at least not at present. AVhen I asked for 

 an explanation, a daily paper was handed 

 me. I give you the following extract of 

 what I found there: 



AN UN.TUSTIFIABLE ACT. 



Oberlin, O., Nov. 7.— There was g-reat excitement 



here last night over the reported election of . 



A crowd of men and boys built a large bonfire of 

 straw and dry-goods boxes at the corner of College 

 and Main Streets and then flred off anvils in lieu of 

 a cannon. The crowd, numbering about 200, then 

 started to serenade a number of leaders. Aft- 

 er singing around Professor F.'s house for nearly 



an hour they surroinided that of the Rev. , on 



West Street, and furnished him with some free mu- 

 sic. The reverend gentleman did not appreciate 

 the serenade, and in return tired out of one of his 

 windows four shots. No one was wounded, howev- 

 er, as the nearest shot only passed through the hat 

 of one of the serenaders. A warrant for the arrest 

 of Ml-. M. was secured this morning, and he was 

 brought before Justice Locke, and his bail set at 



$100, which was given by . His hearing was 



set for 10 o'clock to-morrow morning. He is a senior 

 in the college, but has taken a leading part in the 



movement of this State, and by his actions in 



this campaign has brought upon himself the ill- 

 feeling of a good many in this community. The au- 

 thorities here expect to put him through for last 

 night's work. 



There is considerable excitement here over the 



shooting affair last night, and the opinion is 



general that he should be dealt with to the letter of 

 the law. He was arrested on the charge of "shoot- 

 ing with the malicious intent to wound." There 

 has been considerable feeling over the way in which 

 election returns have been reported here. 



This is a sad little story, dear friends. 

 One does not need to be a Cliristian to de- 

 cide that shooting is not the thing, especial- 

 ly for one before whose name there is now 

 or may be attached the sacred title of 

 "•Rev.," or any thing else tliat would indi- 

 cate connection with the Christian ministry. 

 I have before told you, that whatever may 

 be the discussions about the Christian relig- 

 ion, all the world knows pretty well what a 

 Christian ought to be, and how a Christian 

 should deport himself. Perhaps when call- 

 ed upon to explain, all the world would not 

 be able to tell right off what a Christian 

 should be ; but I tinnk if the words of our 

 text were read, the world would, that is, in 

 their calm, quiet, and reasonable moments, 

 almost without exception, say, " Yes, that is 

 exactly what a Christian ought to do. He 

 should not cry out, nor lift up, nor cause his 

 voice to be heard in the street. Whatever 

 he does should be done quietly, kindly, de- 

 liberately, and lovingly."' 



Several years ago one of our young con- 

 verts got into a little ''squabble" with a 

 brother-printer, in one of our local newspa- 

 pers. The one who attacked him did not 

 profess to be a Christian ; perhaps he would 

 openly declare he was not. May be he pro- 

 fesses infidelity and skepticism— I do not 



know ; but he seemed to have a very clear 

 idea of what was Christianlike ; for when 

 his opponent twitted him of a bodily intirm- 

 ity he turned upon him and showed remarka- 

 ble clearness in pointing out the way in 

 which one who professes to be a follower of 

 Christ ought to behave himself, even when 

 misused. The brother whose name is men- 

 tioned in the extract above is, I am inform- 

 ed, a man of unusual intelligence, and his 

 sermons and lectures on temperance would 

 indicate that he has a full share of love to- 

 ward his fellow-men, and the grace which 

 God bestows on all his followers. He has, 

 perhaps, been carried away, like many oth- 

 ers, by the excitement of the times ; or, per- 

 haps better, by the political excitement of the 

 times. The boys, too, have got a little beside 

 themselves under the influence of the pres- 

 sure that has been upon most of us. 



The town of Oberlin has for many years 

 enjoyed a reputation, on account of the 

 faithfulness with which the college faculty 

 watch over the students, and keep them 

 from excesses. Though we should hardly 

 expect boys belonging to the college to de- 

 port themselves in this manner, yet perhaps 

 if we examine into the matter we may find a 

 reason for even this state of affairs. Many 

 parents, to my personal knoM^ledge, have 

 sent their boys to Oberlin, just because of 

 Oberlin 's strong moral influences. No young 

 man who is a member of the college is per- 

 mitted to use tobacco in any form, and other 

 rules and regulations are correspondingly 

 strict. Knowing this, is it any wonder that 

 many parents, finding their boys are begin- 

 ning to learn bad habits, decide to send 

 them to Oberlin? It is also well known 

 that many a wild youth has, under the in- 

 fluence of such a t)and of Christians, come 

 out and declared himself for the Master, when 

 tlie probabilities are strong that he would 

 never have done so elsewhere. Well, under 

 these circumstances, and with the reputa- 

 tion this place of learning has, is it at all 

 strange there shotild be found as many as 

 200 wild college boys out of the 2000 or some- 

 where about that number that congregate 

 there V I know the faculty have had trouble 

 with the boys since these exciting times, for 

 their mild old president has given them 

 some pretty severe talks of late— severe for 

 him, 1 judge, for he has a remarkable por- 

 tion of that grace embodied in our little text. 

 His voice is never loud, and the quietness of 

 his reproofs is one of the greatest elements 

 of the power he holds theie over the young 

 people. liwas once present at an afternoon 

 prayer-meeting where he presided. An op- 

 portunity was given for questions. As a 

 considerable number were present, of course 

 but a limited time could be given to each 

 subject ; however, one brother whom I took 

 to be a stranger, like myself, insisted on 

 pressing some of his own ideas upon the 

 meeting, and in a way that seemed very un- 

 civil, at least to the chairman. Pretty soon 

 it became apparent tliat this friend would 

 have to be called to order, and I was greatlv 

 interested in seeing how this man of whom 1 

 had heard so much would manage it. The 

 president, in a few brief words, gave him to 

 understand that his remarks were not ex- 



