1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



487 



.and let them jjo away quietly, rather than to 

 undertake to shed blood. It would be a ques- 

 tion with many people ■whether it is worth 

 while to undertak'" to kill the midnight assas- 

 sin, to save property; and one might even let 

 the ruffians pound him (personally) to jelly 

 rather than strike back. 



I would gladly stop here, dear friends, and 

 not go any farther ; but j-ou who are in 

 the habit of reading the newspapers know 

 that is not all of it by considerable. These 

 despera'loes who break into houses because 

 they have reason for .'inspecting there is 

 money there, are usually crazed with drink. 

 They are not human beings — they are wild 

 animals. Now pardon me if I hold up before 

 you what has bef-n enacted many and manj' a 

 time of late in different parts of this country. 

 Suppose these devils in human forni should 

 presume to lay violent hands on you wife or 

 daughter ; will you still say you can not lift a 

 hand in their defense because of your religion, 

 and at the same time you claim to be a man in 

 the highest sense of the word ? What would 

 become of u^ if there were no man amc ng us 

 ready to sell his life, and sell it as drarly as 

 possible, in defense of the home and family? 



During the war that is just now upon us, 

 our brave men are not all fighting for their 

 wives or their daughters ; but, thank God, we 

 are showing a higher t3'pe of Christianit)- still 

 in fighting for the women and children of 

 poor outraged Cuba. Now, dear brother (for 

 such I prefer to ca,ll you, although I must 

 think you are a greatly mistaken one), can 

 not this man who defends his wife and chil- 

 dren, as every father is expected to defend his 

 own — can not this man at the same time be 

 "humble, meek, merciful," etc.? These ter- 

 rible sceuf s of the invasions of homes by 

 drunken men have been enacted in our own 

 neighborhood ; and if a party of masked men 

 should beat in our door, as we read about in 

 our papers, I should pray God to give me 

 strength and skill to beat the brains out of one 

 ■or more of them if I could ; and if he answer- 

 ed my prayer I would go down in thanksgiv- 

 ing and praise to him for having heard that 

 prayer. 



Now, God forbid that I should utter a sen- 

 tence like the above, and stop right there. 

 Whenever I read of one of these outrages I 

 feel more and more the importance of pushing 

 all sorts of missionary work. I feel more like 

 helping our churches, Sunday-schools, En- 

 deavor Societies, Young Men's Christian As- 

 sociations, and last, but not least, the Salva- 

 tion Army; and I feel, too, in view of the fact 

 that strong drink is always back of it some- 

 where, that our Oliio Anti-saloon League and 

 our National Anti saloon League should have 

 men and money to back up their work. I feel, 

 too, that we fathers and mothers should see 

 to it that our laws requiring children to be in 

 school shoulfl be more rigidly enforced. Let 

 the truant-officers know we are back of them. 

 We are each and all to blame for letting crim- 

 inals ^'■;'cz/:'. Instead of killing them off as fast 

 as they appear (as we do the potato-bugs) we 

 want them to grow up to be God-feai'ing men 

 and women instead of anarchists and foes to 



society at large, as is now too often the case. 

 So far I have had but little to say in regard 

 to the text at the head of this talk. Our good 

 brother asserts that Christianity is "unnatu- 

 ral," and I have partly agreed with him ; but 

 the natural man is a brute, or worse than a 

 brute. In different parts of the world where 

 peoj^ le, under force of circumstances, have 

 grown up without Christianity or education, 

 we find them heathen and cannibals. A can- 

 nibal is, if 3'ou choose, a natural man, or a 

 man who has grown up with no teacher but 

 Nature. Jesus said to Nicodemus, and with 

 much force, " Except a man be born again, he 

 can not see the kingdom of God." The little 

 text about loving your enemies and doing 

 good to those who hate you was instrumental, 

 among other things, in opening my eyes to 

 something that is not jValnre. or, in one sense, 

 that is not A^atnre's law. I got a glimp'-e in 

 that little text about the new birth, and from 

 that da}^ to this (some of my readers doubtless 

 remember the time) I ha\e been untiring in 

 teaching, wherever people would listen to me, 

 this new birth that comes from heaven and 

 not from earth. I have been untiring in point- 

 ing mankind to the Lamb of God that taketh 

 away the sin of the world. 



Dear brother, that o5th verse of the 10th 

 chapter of Matthew to which you refer is only 

 to remind Christ's followers that he who wish- 

 es to be a Christian in the best sense of the 

 word must choose Christ Jii'sl. In fact, Christ 

 should stand before father, mother, or any other 

 earthly tie In other words, a man must do 

 right as God and his own conscience tell him 

 what right is, even if it breaks up the dearest 

 of family ties. Or, to make it a little plainer, 

 let me tell you something of my own experi- 

 ence : Two neighbors quarreled about a line 

 fence. One shot the other. But the man 

 who did the shooting had a brother who was 

 well to do, but he was a Christian man. Now, 

 should this Christian man use his money to 

 screen his brother, or tr}' to keep him out of 

 the penitentiary, when he had deliberately 

 transgressed the law? Should a Christian 

 man use his money to screen his own brother 

 from a just and deserved punishment? This 

 thing meets us almost continually at the pres- 

 ent day. We have lynchings because people 

 say the laws are not enforced. The reason the 

 laws are not enforced is because the criminal 

 has wealthy friends or relatives ; and the law- 

 yers openly declare they will get a man out of 

 his trouble (no matter about his guilt) provid- 

 ing his friends have the money to do it. Now, 

 if one wants to be a man, and manly, in the 

 best sense of the word, which shall he love 

 most — right doing, or, if you choose, right- 

 eousness, or father or mother, or son or daugh- 

 ter? Then our Savior adds, " He that taketh 

 not his cross and followeth after me, is not 

 worthy of me." And he says again, " He 

 thatvnll find his life shall lose it ; and he that 

 loseth his life, for my sake, shall find it." 



Dear brother, let me, in closing, ask you if 

 the truths of the Bible as I have presented 

 them are not infinitely more grand and enno- 

 bling than the bare unfeeling truths that you 

 find in Nature. 



