1888 



GLEANIJNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



537 



both get* We were both professing Chris- 

 tians, and are now ; and 1 trust that this fact 

 alone, if nothing else, kept us from wasting 

 many words, or from cherishing any unkind 

 feelings, in regard to the matter. Do you 

 see the application ? Have you not seen 

 professing Christians argue on the subject 

 of baptism, or, if you choose, on the obser- 

 vance of the iSabbatli, much in the same 

 way y The whole trouble is in misunder- 

 standing, or, perliaps, more accurately, in a 

 difference of opinion. In giving orders to 

 the help about our establishment we fre- 

 quently run against both extremes. One 

 man will be so literal that he stops progress, 

 and may be . is a laughingstock to those 

 about him. 1 generally take such a one's 

 part, however, for he is a valuable man 

 when you come to know him. More often, 

 however, we meet people, especially young- 

 er ones, that it seems impossible to get to 

 do as they are told. They have never been 

 accustomed to working to the line or to the 

 letter, and just as saon as your back is 

 turned they have deviated so far from what 

 you have told them that the work is spoiled. 

 Where is the golden mean V Why, 1 think 

 it is in exercising good common sense. 

 Please do not understand me to mean to be 

 offensive when I use this term. One who 

 assumes important places, who takes the 

 management of men and property, must 

 contiiuially use his judgment in deciding to 

 obey according to tlie letter or according to 

 his better judgment. 



Is it not true, dear friends, that we glorify 

 (Jod by using our judgment and common 

 sense in the way 1 have indicated ? l)o you 

 not dishonor him by getting angry and stub- 

 born and headstrong in arguing unimpor- 

 tant matters, as in the case of the postage- 

 stamps? It is sad enough to see two pro- 

 fessing Christians losing their temper in this 

 way ; but think of the spectacle before the 

 great outside world, of bodies of Christians 

 manifesting an unbrotherly and unchristian- 

 like spirit. Do the seven churches in that 

 town glorify God by the spectacle of seven 

 empty churches V May God help us ! 



Ko, dear friend L., I have not any idea 

 that the Marys came to tlie sepulclier at 

 midnight. Neither have I any idea that 

 God's people counted time from mid- 

 night as we do. Why, dear friend, you give 

 me pain when you go to such lengths on 

 this matter that I must think unimportant. 

 Pray consider a moment. The Bible was 

 certainly intended for all times and for all 

 localities. Well, even the very pages of 

 Gleanings, on which your eyes are resting 

 are now read in localities where the sun 

 does not rise at all for several days, and 

 again at another season of the year it does 

 not set at all for several days.f How shall 

 we count time in such localities? 



And now we come to your last point, for I 

 feel that it would be wrong to occupy more 

 space or more time in this matter. 



Perhaps I should say, in answer to your 



* I have Vieen tolil that two Christian ministers 

 once Spent several weeks in arguing on the subject 

 of baptism. One talked a certain length of time, 

 and then the other talked. Nothing resulted, how- 

 ever, from all this talk. 



t See p. 796, Oct. ioth issue, 1887. 



cl'jsing thought, that I have never gone 

 over the arguments on eitlier side of this 

 question, and I hope I am excusable if I say 

 it does not seem to me to be necessary. As 

 in the case of the setting of the sim, there is 

 no possibility, as I understand it, of decid- 

 ing what day was kept as Sunday in olden 

 time. Some time ago the Scientific Ameri- 

 can made mention of an island in the Pa- 

 cific, settled by two companies of people, 

 each coming from a different direction. 

 Both companies had counted correctly, yet 

 the days of the week did not agree, and it is 

 not yet settled which company has the best 

 authority to be c uisidered right— that is, 

 one company might call a certain day Mon- 

 day, and the other company can with equal 

 propriety call it Tuesday. Does not this 

 geographical fact upset the whole matter? 

 If, however, our Seventh-day friends confine 

 themselves to something still narrower— 

 that is, that the day univeisally counted as 

 the last day of the week, shall be called the 

 Sabbath, it seems this state of affairs is sad- 

 der still. 



So far as 1 am concerned, with all my 

 privileges and with all my intercourse with 

 the world, 1 did not know, until recently 

 told, that Sunday was generally considered 

 the first day of the week. As Monday is 

 the first working-day of the week, if some- 

 body had made an appointment for me for 

 the first day of the week, I should have ac- 

 cepted Monday as the day, without any hes- 

 itation. Now, If our friends are so tena- 

 cious about this matter, which I must think 

 comparatively unimpoi"tant, why shall not 

 the world at large accommodate them by 

 agreeing to call Monday tlie first day of the 

 week, and Sunday the last, or seventh?! If 

 they reply, even that will not satisfy them, I 

 will try to say with the best grace I can, that I 

 can not give the subject any further atten- 

 tion. While our jails are overflowing, and 

 new additions are being constantly require- 

 ed ; while the fight against intemperance 

 seems to be gaining ground, and nothing 

 more is needed but to unite Christians ; and 

 while other great questions are before us, 

 needing every inch of space in our journals, 

 and every hour that every Christian man or 

 woman has to spare, can we waste time 

 about a civil war among ourselves in regard 

 to something that at least a large part of 

 earnest Christians deem only a technicality? 

 Dear friend L., after the "kind letter you 

 have written us, can it be possible that you 

 and your people are only (as the Savior ex- 

 pressed it) straining out gnats and swallcno- 

 ing camelsf Think of the town with seven 

 empty churches going to dilapidation. 

 Think of the other towns where saloons are 

 running rampant because members of differ- 

 ent churches refuse to work together ; then 

 let us ask ourselves the question if we are, 

 in our differences, conforming to the lan- 

 guage of the text with which I started this 

 talk to-day. 



Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 

 all to thf^ glory of God.— I. CoR. 10: 31". 



t The world at large never uses the terms second, 

 third, fourth, etc., as applied to the days of the 

 week; therefore no change of any moment will oc- 

 cur to business or any thing else, if people who pre- 

 fer, decide to consider Monday the first week day. 



