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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



OUR 



hoMes, 



BY- A.L R OOT. 



And they come to Jesus, and see him that was pos- 

 sessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and 

 clothed, and in his right mmd. — Mark 5:15. 



There has been no end of discussion in re- 

 gard to this matter of demons, demonology, 

 and being possessed of devils; and the gener- 

 al opinion seems to be nowadays that devils do 

 not take possession of human beings as they 

 did in olden time. In our text above we are 

 told that the poor unfortunate, who had been 

 possessed with a devil, or, rather, who possess- 

 ed a legion of devils, was found sitting, and 

 clothed, and in his right mind, and listening 

 to the teachings of Jesus, who by his word 

 had rebuked and cast out all the evil spirits ; 

 and, blessed be his holy name, he does, even 

 at this present day and age, rebuke and cast 

 out devils of every sort. By the way, I have 

 been bantered a good deal because I believe 

 in the existence of devils as well as in that of 

 angels. Not only skeptics but professing 

 Christians laugh at my "superstition," as they 

 term it, in regard to the power of the evil one. 

 Well, it seems to me in these latter days that, 

 if certain people are not possessed with evil 

 spirits, they are certainly possessed with some- 

 thing that may well frighten the humanitarian 

 and the one w T ho is hungering and thirsting 

 after righteousness. As an illustration, with- 

 in a year or two past a new phase of suicide 

 has come in, and seems to be growing. I al- 

 lude to the suicide who murders somebody be- 

 fore he kills himself. Some nice young wo- 

 man refuses to marry a certain young man, 

 perhaps because he is intemperate and disso- 

 lute. He urges his claim. Then his love for 

 her, which he has been claiming has been as a 

 consuming fire, turns in an instant to hate, 

 and he murders the being he loved, or says he 

 loved, more than he did any one else on earth. 

 After this he shoots himself, or puts an end 

 to his life in some other way. 



It is not always a jilted suitor who becomes 

 possessed with this kind of devil. We hear 

 of it here and there in the family circle. The 

 father and mother get into a wrangle over 

 some trifling matter. Both, for the time be- 

 ing, become possessed with a devil — at least 

 that is my decision after studying many cases 

 of this sort. The father winds it up by shoot- 

 ing the dear wife and then putting an end to 

 his own existence. My impression is. after 

 having studied cases of this kind, that neither 

 one of them had any particular grievance 

 when they started into the little quarrel. I 

 do not believe the husband thought of killing 

 himself at all when he shot his wife. When 

 he stopped to realize that the awful deed was 

 really done, Satan seems to have whispered, 

 " Better wind up the whole matter by putting 

 yourself out of the world also. It is a miser- 

 able sort of world, anyhow." And before he 

 has had time to reflect or think, he too is the 

 victim of this devilish work. 



For quite a while I was entertaining some 

 hope because womankind does not go to such 

 lengths. But within a few days I have been 

 appalled to notice that murder and suicide are 

 getting a hold on women as well as men. 

 Even mothers have murdered their children, 

 and then put an end to their own existence. 

 People who try to make it appear that it is not 

 Satan's work say, " Why, the poor woman 

 was crazy. She was no more responsible for 

 the act than you and I." But, hold on, my 

 friend. There is something in this work that, 

 at least in my mind, throws out the excuse of 

 insanity. Anybody is liable to become insane. 

 But such things are comparatively few and far 

 between — too few to admit of the explanation 

 that two people accidentally became insane at 

 the same moment. I allude to the double sui- 

 cides. Why, it is almost getting to be the 

 fashion for two (if that is not a proper word, 

 supply a better one yourself) to commit sui- 

 cide together. There are quite a few cases 

 showing that man and wife talked the mat- 

 ter over, and deliberately decided to destroy 

 themselves. 



Within a few days the most horrible thing 

 of this kind has come to light that anybody 

 ever heard of so iar as I know. A husband 

 and wife somewhere out west had decided to 

 commit suicide; but before doing so they pro- 

 ceeded to put to death their family of three or 

 four children. Now, as if what I have been 

 telling you were not enough to indicate that 

 Satan himself had taken possession of this 

 father and mother, the papers tell us some- 

 thing still more heart-rending. The neigh- 

 bors heard the children's cries, broke into the 

 house, and found the parents had wrapped 

 them up, saturated the wrapping with coal 

 oil, and then set fire to them. I decided once 

 not to put any thing so horrible in print ; and 

 I do it now only because it is the strongest 

 proof that both men and women do get pos- 

 sessed of devils, or of a devil, even in modern 

 times, that I ever heard of. I think we may 

 honestly say that sue a work is not only of the 

 Devil, but that it is absolutely hellish. If 

 only one of the parents did this we might ex- 

 cuse him on the ground that it was insanity; 

 but how could two people both become insane 

 at one and the same time ? and how could both 

 father and mother, under any circumstances, 

 so far lose the natural instincts of the human 

 race as to proceed deliberately to murder their 

 own offspring, and in a way that fairly makes 

 one's blood run cold to consider it? Please 

 consider further that no laws can be passed to 

 reach cases of this kind. You can not fright- 

 en a criminal who has determined in his own 

 mind to commit suicide, because neither hang- 

 ing nor electrocution would be any punish- 

 ment for the very thing he had proposed to 

 do without law. These murders and suicides 

 that are going on together are outside of law, 

 and exempt. W T hen a man gets this into his 

 head he may safely defy law; and that is what 

 they do do. Law is power/ess, and therefore 

 our only hope rests in the gospel of Christ 

 Jesus. Booker Washington, in a recent ad- 

 dress, in considering this lynching business, 

 calls attention to the fact that every colored 



