•6m 



GLEANINGS 1:N BEE CULTURE. 



May 



When I am doing my best to honor Christ, I 

 love to be watched. Yes, I love to be criti- 

 cised, for I know from past experience that, 

 if we take all these criticisms to the Master, 

 asking him to give us wisdom, as in the 

 language of our text, to meet these criticisms, 

 we shall not only be happy in meeting them, 

 but good fruit will be borne as a conse- 

 quence ; therefore I for one am glad to have 

 neighbors— not only neighbors who watch, 

 but wlio speak right out wlien they think I 

 am getting astray ; so you see I can honest- 

 ly thank the neighbors who have written to 

 me in regard to this matter of Sunday ob- 

 servance. 



Another neighbor criticises me pretty se- 

 verely because I liave again intimated that 

 it may be a proper thing to shoot down the 

 midnight assassin. He quotes a great num- 

 ber of Scripture texts. Xow, I vs^ant to say 

 to him and to all others who take the stand 

 he does, that I should l)e glad to stand with 

 them ; and I do hope the time may soon come 

 when we shall have made sufficient progress 

 in intelligence and godliness, so it will be no 

 longer necessary to take life. Our brother 

 tells us what we ought ?)o^ to do, but he gives 

 us no remedy nor substitute for our present 

 laws. 



A few years ago our mails were l)eing rob- 

 bed ; in fact, the letters from the readers of 

 Gleanijs(J8 were being stolen. The mis- 

 chief was located in a neiglilxn-ing town. 

 A trusty man was appointed to sleep in the 

 postofflce. During the night lie heard a noise, 

 and struck a match. As soon as the light 

 of the match revealed to the burglar the 

 presence of the watchman, the assassin drew 

 a revolver and shot down the I'aithful gov- 

 ernment employe. lie not only came to 

 steal your hard-earned money and mine, but 

 he provided himself with a murderous weap- 

 on to shoot down whoever should attempt to 

 interfere, and he did shoot him. The wound- 

 ed man lived just long enough to tell how 

 lie was injured. Suppose a policeman had 

 come on the scene just at this time, would 

 anybody say he did wrong for shooting the 

 ' burglar? You may say lie should have tak- 

 en the man alive, and tliat our government 

 should have imprisoned him for life, instead 

 of hanging him. Well, this is just exactly 

 what we would do ; but suppose the police- 

 man liad come on the ground in time to 

 save the life of the postoffice clerk by a 

 timely shot ; or suppose, if you choose, this 

 burglar tried to run, and the policeman call- 

 ed on him to stop, and he would not. 

 Should he not have crippled or killed himV 

 Most assuredly ; and I believe I could go 

 down on my knees and thank God for hav- 

 ing placed it in my power to kill a man un- 

 der such circumstances — that is, when I can 

 save tlie life of a good man by taking the 

 life of a midnigiit assassin, I hope the spirit 

 of Christ may strengthen my nerves and my 

 arm to do" my duty. We shall find all 

 through the Old Testament, that God took 

 life — yes, and by the wholesale, when it 

 seemed best. Jesus, when he wept over 

 Jerusalem, pronounced their doom ; and 

 history tells us that more than a million 

 were murdered and put to death. God per- 

 mitted this as a punishment; and Jesus 



foretold this punishment that would come 

 upon them if they did not heed his words. 

 Some may say that God has the right to 

 take life, but that we have not ; but I believe 

 that (rod authorizes us to take life when 

 thereby lives may be saved, as in the case of 

 outlaws who defy the law. 



Now, it seems to me that nothing that I 

 have said can be construed into an encour- 

 agement of neighborhood quarrels ; and 

 most of the texts that have been quoted to 

 me, I think refer to these. Anger and re- 

 venge should have no place in this matter 

 of taking life because the law demands it. 

 We should do every thing possible to 

 save life. We should suffer injury and 

 loss of property ; in fact, we should " love 

 our enemies,"' and '' do good to those who 

 hate us." We should also '' resist not evil.'" 

 But when these texts are applied in such a 

 way as to say that the father of a family 

 should, on his own premises, stand idly by 

 while the assassin is taking the lives of his 

 wife and children, I think we lose sight of 

 reason and common sense. In our own 

 town, just twenty-five years ago, a whole 

 family was murdered, even to a helpless 

 child in his little crib, that the midnight 

 murderer might get hold of a few hundred 

 dollars. So you see the cases I have given 

 you are not imaginary ones. 



Another brother complains because I 

 make the matter of salvation too easy. He 

 admits my argument of the thief "on the 

 cross, but says we have no proof that tiie 

 thief went to" heaven at all. Jesus only said, 

 " This day shalt thou be with me in para- 

 dise,'' and nobody is able to prove that par- 

 adise is heaven. To which I would reply, 

 dear brother, ought not any follower of 

 Christ to be content and satisfied if he can 

 be with Jesus, no matter where that place 

 shall beV 



What grace divine that he is mine, 

 And T shall be with him there. 



Another friend also objects, something in 

 the same line. He admits tliat the thief on 

 the cross was pardoned fully and freely, and 

 even with but a very small show of peni- 

 tence, so far as outward words would indi- 

 cate ; but he says, in substance, this was a 

 special case, and it was the Lord Jesus 

 himself who saw fit to take him into the 

 kingdom, without any ceremony or ordi- 

 nance whatever. To which I reply, that no 

 man, as I understand it, ever receives any 

 penitent sinner. Christ Jesus, and he only, 

 is the one who has power to forgive sins. It 

 is true, it was Jesus himself, in his own 

 person, who was present at the time ; but, 

 dear brothers and sisters, is not C'hrist 

 Jesus present now, and just as ready now 

 as he was when he spoke to the dying "thief? 

 I w^ould by no means be imderstood as say- 

 ing that baptism can or should be omitted ; 

 but I do think this matter should be taken 

 as we take the observance of Sunday, as 

 only one of the many things a Christian 

 should attend to — not giving any one of 

 these commands undue prominence. 



A little way back I said, " I like to be 

 criticised ;'■ but when I wrote it 1 did not 

 expect such a criticism as comes in the fol- 

 lowing letter • 



