1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



493 



ent one. I could not help tliinking of what 

 a wonderful help the.se trained children 

 would be in a prayer-meeting, Sunday-school, 

 or any other gathering where singing was 

 desired. And now it occurred to me why it 

 is that of late years we have such ex- 

 cellent singing in our prayer-meetings and 

 Sunday-schools, and without any apparent 

 effort on the part of any one. Our children 

 are brought up to it. 



In another room, more advanced, one of 

 the pupils was told to take the floor and 

 drill the school. This he did until I was 

 still more astonished. Mr. Harding asked 

 me to notice this spirit of independence 

 with which they sang. A little girl was de- 

 sired to stand up and sing, which she did 

 without any hesitation, and with perfect 

 composure. Then two were desired to stand 

 up at the same time, each one to sing a dif- 

 ferent piece of music. This they did, and 

 eacli one did her part perfectly. Then the 

 school was desired to sing a piece in the 

 proper key ; afterward a little higher, then 

 higher still, until only a few of the girls 

 could reach the key at all. Then they went 

 down, until only a few of the boys could, 

 with their lowest bass, reach it. When the 

 master tried to put them out by means of 

 various interruptions he could not do it — 

 they were at home, and handled their voices 

 with as much contidence and skill as an ex- 

 pert mechanic handles his tools. These chil- 

 dren will probably never know the pain and 

 mortitication their parents suffei-ed in trying 

 to take part in some public meeting ; neither 

 will they ever know how mucli their parents 

 have left undone through life because of 

 bashf ulness and the /ear of men In our bee- 

 conventions there are only a few, compara- 

 tively, wiu) are perfectly at home in a public 

 discussion. I have nottime here to mention 

 the progress that is being made in other de- 

 partments, (io and visit your own schools, 

 and yon will see it for yourself. 



The world is constantly discussing again 

 and again the problem that lies before us in 

 regard to sin and crime. Our civil war is 

 over, but we have only just recovered from 

 a sort of civil war between labor and capital. 

 Anarchy is not yet dead in our land ; our 

 penitentiaries are constantly kept full; and, 

 if I am correctly informed, most of them 

 need continually to be enlarged. Our worst 

 criminals so often escape justice that good 

 men and women are often tempted to think 

 that the cause of righteousness will never 

 prevail. Every day brings to our ears the 

 accounts of some awful tragedy that so 

 startles us we are tempted to lose faith in 

 humanity, and sometimes I fear we come 

 pretty near losing faith in God. Our laws 

 are so slow and im]>erfect that every little 

 while criminals are taken from our jails and 

 executed by a crazy mob. And thoughtless 

 people declare that criminals had better be 

 punished in this way than not at all. What 

 shall be done V 



In my last talk to you I mentioned that, 

 when Jesus told IVter to put up his sword, 

 he reminded him that more than twelve 

 legions of angels were ready to do his bid- 

 ding, if he wanted them. As our Lord and 

 Savior did not call for them, we must take 



it for granted that he decided they were not 

 wanted. In his last words to his little band 

 of disciples, he gave them a commission. 

 These eleven volunteers were to subdue the 

 world ; but they did not need armies of 

 soldiers; they did not need legions of angels; 

 they did not need swords nor pistols, nor 

 firearms of any kind. How, then, are they 

 to subdue the world, and to root out sin 

 from the human family V Why, dear friends, 

 it is all to be done, if I am correct, in the 

 line of what I have been telling you to-day. 

 '• Not by might nor by power, but by my 

 Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.'* The work 

 being done in our schools is to counteract 

 sin and crime, and to do away with the 

 necessity of jails and penitentiaries. I be- 

 lieve the eleven teachers employed in the 

 schools of Medina are all Christian workers. 

 They are on hand at our prayer-meetings, 

 Sunday-schools, and religious services. To 

 our teachers is intrusted the sacred respon- 

 sibility of molding and forming the minds 

 of our children. Do you, as parents, en- 

 courage them and support them by your 

 prayers and sympathies as you ouglit to do V 

 I told you, some years ago, of a hot dis- 

 cussion i had with an intemperate man who 

 had drank all his life, and who declared he 

 meant to drink as long as he could draw 

 breath. lie parried every blow, and I had 

 reached the door, thinking my visit had 

 l)een an utter failure. One more thought 

 occurred to me. Said I, "Mr. A., do you 

 wish your boy to grow up exactly such a 

 man as you are ?" 



He did not answer. I then repeated the 

 question to him with more emphasis. I 

 charged him to answer truly, before God as 

 a witness. '■'■ Mr. A., do you wish to see 

 this boy of yours exactly such a man as you 

 are when he grows up?" 



The reply came finally: "No, b'gorra, I 

 don't." 



I had been searching through the dust of 

 the earth, and the accumulated rubliish of 

 more than half a century, for the " little 

 pinch of God '" that remained in the man, 

 and I had found it. Now, dear friends, we 

 are here, as I suggested in the connnence- 

 ment, and we are in very truth but dust of 

 the ground. Shall the God part that is in us 

 be developed, and take root, and grow? or 

 shall Satan extinguish this spark of divini- 

 ty? Go visit the schools where your chil- 

 dren are educated, and see if you tlo not de- 

 cide very soon that their growth, their care, 

 and their development is of more impor- 

 tance than the crops, or commerce, or houses 

 or lands, or. in fact, any thing else that this 

 M'orld can furnish. 



If a great part of the responsibility of 

 bringing a human being stej) by step from 

 the dust of tlie earth to a point of sufficient 

 intelligence and capacity to see and know 

 (iod, then what a sacred, "what an awful re- 

 sponsibility rests ui>on our teachers ! We 

 are told, tiiat "the pure in heart shall see 

 God ;" and who but the teacher who niolds 

 the infant mind has so much to do with en- 

 couraging both purity and godliness? The 

 teacher who cZoc.s this should have the best 

 pitii and the best encouragement that our land 

 affords. 



