98 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULUTRE. 



Feb. 1. 



ing to wash the town white in the blood of the 

 Lanab— Christ Jesus." 



Then I thought of the words, " Purge me 

 with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and 

 I shall be whiter than snow." 



As that swearing and drinking crowd of men 

 and women gazed at that little band of Chris- 

 tian workers, it seemed to me that my prayer 

 was answered. The dullest and most obtuse 

 one in the lot could and must, in fact, under- 

 stand what it meant to be washed clean from 

 all their sins and iniquities. It seemed to me 

 that I never comprehended before so vividly 

 the difference between sin and godliness as we 

 had it there pictured before us. Taking that 

 crowd as it stood, and considering the matter of 

 cleansing them from all their sins and depravity, 

 I should have said, humanly speaking, that it 

 could not be done— that it would be a physical 

 Impossibility; and yet the brother's words, 

 which he had just spoken, were still ringing in 

 their ears. The marks of years of dissipation 

 were like furrows, and left their tracks on his 

 poor face; and yet he was actually pleading to 

 have them give up their sinful lives and sinful 

 ways, and trust Christ Jesus. I never before in 

 my life saw such a direct hand-to hand conflict 

 betwen Satan and Christ Jesus; and it seemed 

 as though at least once in the world the op- 

 posing forces had met. There was not any 

 abstruse doctrine discussed — at least nothing 

 difficult to understand; but it was the one 

 plain simple question, "Will you throw up 

 your old sinful life, and march with us under 

 the banner of Christ Jesus? " Then I thought 

 of the words of that old hymn- 

 Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

 Other similar testimonies followed, and they 

 were all in a line to support the promise in the 

 text I have chosen. Some of the hymns would 

 have done cr-^dit to any concert I ever attended; 

 and after they adjourned to the hall the captain 

 gave us a short sermon that, in my opinion, 

 would do credit to any pulpit. Doubtless un- 

 usual preparation was made, it being Christmas 

 night. 



1 stayed so late at their meeting in the hall it 

 was a little after my usual lime when I closed 

 my eyes in oblivion, thinking my conflicts with 

 the prince of darkness were over, at least for that 

 day. Not so, however. I was so tired and sleepy 

 I retired without first opening the window for 

 fresh air, as I usually do. Toward midnight I 

 awoke, feeling the air in my room was not ex- 

 actly what we get when— camping out under 

 the stars, for instance. Before the closed win- 

 dow was a heavy paper curtain. As this failed 

 to run up out of the way as it should do I 

 held it back with a chair; then as I could not 

 pull the window up, nor find the fastening, 1 

 turned on the electric light. Even then I did 

 not succeed in getting the window loose; and 

 to get a better chance I stepped up on the sill. 

 Let me explain that the building was like 

 many in hot climates with adobe walls— two 

 feet thick or more, the windows of the lower 

 story being quite near the ground. Well, as 

 soon as I was"up on the sill I found the fasten- 

 ing; but before I touched it I saw that I had 

 attracted the attention of some one at a little 

 distance across the common outside. This some 

 one proved to be a finely dressed woman, and 

 she was tripping swiftly toward my window 

 with its blazing electric light. I stepped down 

 very quickly, removing the chair so the paper 

 curtain covered the window very completely. 

 Tap, tap, tap, came on the glass. I stood very 

 still, and hardly dared breathe. If I didn't 

 answer or move she would surely go away, I 

 thought; but she kept tapping. Finally she 

 essayed to raise the sash; but as I could not 



start it from the inside, I felt quite safe. 

 Imagine my consternation when I heard it go 

 the very top with a rush as soon as she touched 

 it. I moved a step or two behind the wash- 

 stand, while I asKed quietly what was wanted. 

 She pushed the curtain aside enough to show 

 her face, and said, as she smiled in an appar- 

 ently innocent way: 



" I only wanted to wish you a ' merry Christ- 

 mas.'" 



'• You have done so; now go away; good- 

 night." 



*• Don't be cross," she added in a lower tone, 

 with something else, Satan in bodily form 

 stood before me, and gave me a brief glimpse 

 of what he could do in getting 7;ia?ikind to 

 fall at his feet to worship him. 1 stopped 

 her by saying, '-There, that will do;" and 

 at the same time I backed toward the 

 door on the opposite side of the room. I 

 made up my mind very quickly that she 

 and I would never be seen in that I'oom togeth- 

 er, not even by the holy eye of the great God 

 above. When I started to put out my hand to- 

 ward the door, then she went away. Was this 

 another test to see if I would be " faithful unto 

 death ? " In the early evening I had witnessed 

 what woman can do to raise fallen men; the 

 last few minutes had given me a view of what 

 Satan can do, with woman's help, to drag men 

 down. Under other surroundings and circum- 

 stances I should have called this one of the 

 brightest and handsomest women I ever saw; 

 there was a fascination about her looks that, 

 rightly used, might have been a great power 

 for good. I could only groan in spirit as I look- 

 ed at her. " O God! is it -incZeed- true that some 

 of the fairest and brightest of womankind have 

 sold themselves to the work of ruining the 

 world ? " 



It sometimes seems as if no power on earth 

 were sulYicient to warn men of the danger of 

 trifling with intoxicants, and it is the same 

 with this other evil. Had I lost my hold in 

 climbing Superstitious Mountain, and been 

 dashed on the rocks, there would have been 

 some mourning, especially among my intimate 

 friends; but had I fallen in this other way, my 

 memory would have hardly been worth a 

 funeral at all. A man had better die an hon- 

 est, innocent death, a thousand times better, 

 than march boldly on to disgrace and ruin. 

 See what God's holy word says about it: 



" Can a man take fire into his bosom and not 

 be burned '? " 



"But whoso committeth adultery with a 

 woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth 

 it destroyeth his own soul." 



" For she hath cast down many wounded ; yea, 

 many strong men have been slain by her. 



" Her house is the way to hell, going down 

 to the chambers of death." 



Mrs. Root made me a present of a book. She 

 sent it by mail, so it reached me on Christmas 

 eve. I like it so much I should be glad to have 

 it read by every one who reads Gleanings.* 

 The leading character of the book is a minis- 

 ter who spent his life in hardship in " being 

 faithful unto death," and near his end he utter- 

 ed the following prayer while alone by himself: 



" Lord, I have groped after thee, and to 

 know thy will, and to do it if I could. I never 

 expected to be happy. Dost thou mean this 

 draught of human joy for me?" 



It almost startled me to read it, because sev- 

 eral times, recently, I have used much the 

 same sort of prayer myself. You see our friend 

 had " been faithful," without any thought of 

 reward, and when he breathed that prayer he 



*The book Is, "A Singular Life," by Elizabeth 

 Stuart Phelps. 



