750 



GLEANINGvS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



He said, "Come unto me.'" After having 

 come unto liim, and making him first and 

 foremost, there certainly can be no objection 

 to uniting with any denomination 3'ou think 

 proper. But denomination must never be 

 first. In communion seasons I have frequent- 

 ly heard pastors, in inviting people to partake, 

 say, " Let all who love the Lord Jesus Christ 

 partake with us." I do not know whether 

 this is always the case or not. It seems to me 

 as though it shoiUd be so. 



When I was having that pleasant trip with 

 Mr. Hugh Vankirk, of Washington, Pa., we 

 passed quite a pretty public building near his 

 home. He is five or six miles from the city, 

 and the little station near his home is called 

 Vankirk Station. There is no church within 

 several miles. Friend Vankirk pointed out 

 the building I mentioned, and I asked him if 

 it was a church. 



"No, Mr. Root, it is not a church — it is a 

 Sunday-school. The building was made on 

 purpose for a Sunday-school, and has always 

 been used as such. Of late we have been 

 having preaching almost ever\' Sunday. The 

 ministers are of various and different denomi- 

 nations; but as the audience is made up also of 

 various denominations we have it understood 

 that the speaker is not to use the house and 

 occasion to further the interests of his particu- 

 lar school or organization." 



My attention was aroused at once, and I 

 asked a good many questions. The building 

 was erected by the people. Friend Vankirk, 

 who is a mason and brick-layer, laid the foun- 

 dation and built the chimney. Others did 

 likewise according to their trades. Then a 

 large enthusiastic Sunday-school, with a fine 

 library, was organized. The minister who 

 preaches is paid cash down after the sermon ; 

 and, if I am correct, they have some money 

 ahead. The Sunday-school teaches Christ 

 Jesus and nothing else. The various minis- 

 ters who come by invitation to preach, preach 

 only Christ Jesus, and the people all come. 

 If any particular denomination were to preach, 

 there are a good many who would not come. 

 We who live in country places know all about 

 this. In little towns all over the United 

 States there are often three or four churches — 

 a good many times three — where there are not 

 people enough in the whole three churches 

 to make one fair-sized audience, or to pay a 

 minister a decent salary. I have often thought, 

 and frequently said, that it was a pit}' we 

 could not do with these churches as the bee- 

 keeper does with his weak colonies of bees 

 when winter comes. He breaks up three or 

 four colonies and unites them in one. If left 

 to go through the winter alone they would all 

 die, or pretty nearly so. United they make 

 a rousing colony that can drive out intruders, 

 and make a stand against any enemy. Is it 

 not so, dear friends, with the churches ? A 

 saloon tries to come into a town. The people 

 are so busy in settling differences between 

 their denominations that they forget to fight 

 the saloon-keeper, and he gets their boys away 

 from the Sunday-school. If the little town 

 were united — if the Christian people were all 

 one body, pulling the same way, repelling sin 



from every point of the compass — the saloon, 

 the dancing-teacher, and the professional 

 gambler would be afraid of them, and would 

 conclude the town was not a good locality for 

 their occupation. I do not know what should 

 be done to bring about this happy millennium, 

 where all people shall understand and say 

 that the only really iuiportant thing in this 

 world is to come to Christ — " come unto me.'' 



Mr. Vankirk told me the people were all 

 pleased with this union Sunday-school and 

 union preaching. He said the only objection 

 he had ever heard was from ministers them- 

 selves. Dear friends, perhaps I am getting on 

 dangerous ground. If so, may the dear 

 Savior set me right; but is it true that it is the 

 uiinisters themselves who are greatly respon- 

 sible for so many sects ? Our own Congrega- 

 tional Church has made several blunders, to 

 my knowledge, in building new churches and 

 trying to build up a church where another 

 denomination was not needed. Within ten 

 miles of where I now sit a beautiful brick 

 church with stained-glass windows stands un- 

 occupied, or at least has preaching only at 

 intervals b}- a pastor who does not live in the 

 town. The expense of building this church 

 pretty nearly ruined one or two good old 

 farmers financially; and yet the church stands 

 empty and unused a great portion of the time. 



One more thing I want to speak of, and 

 perhaps I am treading on dangerous ground 

 again. The ministers of these three or four 

 churches where only one is needed are very 

 poorly paid. As they are poorly paid they 

 have to work at something else to make a 

 living. A cheap minister or a cheap school- 

 teacher is a ver}' poor investment. I need not 

 enlarge on this point. The man who is to 

 expound the vScriptures should be one of the 

 best and brightest men in the whole commu- 

 nity, and the people should pay enough to 

 support a good man. 



Please bear with me a little further when I 

 suggest that the Electropoise people would 

 never have found a hundred ministers of the 

 gospel in our land to help sell their fraud, were 

 it not true that there is a mistake somewhere. 

 Dr. Wilford Hall, as you may remember, 

 pushed his water-cure fraud mainly through 

 ministers of the gospel — that is, people who 

 had ' ' Rev. ' ' attached to their names. I know, 

 dear Ijrothers of the clergy, there are many 

 devoted and saintly men who are very poorly 

 paid for their services. I know of some who 

 have been promised a meager salary of con- 

 siderably less than ir^lOOO a year, but who 

 never got — at least not promptly — the amount 

 subscribed. I do not know how mau}^ places 

 there are where Christian people of all denom- 

 inations unite to support a church and pay a 

 minister. I mentioned one such I found in 

 Florida. There are difficulties in the way 

 that I confess I am not able to manage. We 

 can get along with communion very well; but 

 during a revival season, when new converts 

 are to be added to the church, I confess I am 

 not equal to the task of deciding how it should 

 be done; but I have unbounded faith that the 

 dear Savior, who invited us clearly and plainly 

 to come to him with all difficulties of what- 



