1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



359 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A. I. R OOT. 



And he said unto them. This kind can come forth by 

 nothing but by prayer and fasting. — Mark 9 : 29. 



Matthew, in telling the same little story, 

 tells us that Jesus answered his disciples by 

 saying, " Howbeit, this kind goeth not out 

 but by prayer and fasting." The latter form 

 of the text is another illustration of how Jesus 

 put much meaning into a very few words 

 Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three tell this 

 story about the demoniac child. Suppose we 

 go over it. They had just come down from 

 the mount of transfiguration. Peter, James, 

 and John were the only ones that were per- 

 mitted to be present on the mount. Matthew, 

 Mark, and Luke, for some reason unknown to 

 us, were left behind. When they came down 

 and returned to these three there was a multi- 

 tude gathered about them, and some were run- 

 ning. Finally, when the crowd caught sight 

 of the Master they ran to him saluting him. 

 He courteously asked the scribes what the 

 trouble was — • what they were discussing. It 

 transpired that a father had brought his son 

 to be healed of an evil spirit. You will re- 

 member that all of his disciples had been heal- 

 ing, and casting out devils, even when the 

 Master was not present with them. In this 

 case, however, there seemed to be a difficulty. 

 The prince of darkness defied the disciples of 

 Jesus. Satan was too great and powerful for 

 them, and they were entirely helpless — at 

 least Matthew, Mark, and Luke thought they 

 were. They failed. The poor father comes 

 to the Master and explains matters. He says, 

 "I spake to thy disciples that they should 

 cast him out, and they could not." Now, the 

 Savior's reply is significant. He says, "O 

 faithless and perverse generation ! how long 

 shall I be with you and sufFer you ? ' ' All three 

 agree in this statement substantially. I take 

 it that he meant by these words, the three 

 could have cast out this bold, dtfiant devil if 

 they had only kept their faith, or, perhaps, 

 obeyed the instructions he had previously giv- 

 en them ; or, let us say, if they had really gone 

 into the business heart and soul with a deter- 

 mination to succeed ; and right here is where 

 the whole point of my talk comes in to day. 

 But let us first finish our little story: 



He says, " Bring him to me." Luke tells us 

 that he said to the father, " Bring thy son to 

 me." Now a strange thing occurs. As soon 

 as Jesus set eyes on the boy, Mark tells us, 

 " Straightway the spirit tare him, and he fell 

 on the ground, and wallowed foaming." Sa- 

 tan sometimes gets terribly desperate when he 

 seems likely to lose his victim. In rescuing 

 intemperate men and boys I have frequently 

 seen cases where it seemed as if it were a 

 hand-to-hand conflict with the Devil himself. 

 The poor victim seems really penitent. He 

 gladly takes hold of the hands of Christian 

 people that are extended to help him, and, 

 without question, honestly desires to break 

 away from the toils of the evil one. We re- 



joice that he has been rescued. Parents, 

 friends, and Christian people gather round 

 him ; but, to our astonishment and wonder, 

 all of a sudden the man turns about in a most 

 inexplicable way. Some demon in human 

 form has managed to get him to drink, or has 

 persuaded him that we are not his friends. 

 He drinks again and again, going to a lower 

 depth than ever before, curses his rescuers, 

 strikes his own mother, and, oh dear me ! I 

 need not tell you the rest of it. 



While this poor boy was on the way to the 

 Savior to be healed, the devil threw him down, 

 and tore him. Now another strange thing 

 transpires. Jesus asks, with infinite sympathy 

 and love, for both parent and child. "How 

 long is it since this thing came unto him?" 

 The father replies that his son has been &fflict- 

 ed almost all his life ; and he adds, ' ' Of ttimes it 

 hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters 

 to destroy him." 



Are there no such things nowadays, do you 

 say ? Some twenty years ago there was a man 

 in our town who always tried to commit sui- 

 cide as soon as he was under the influence of 

 liquor. He had been rescued several times. 

 The last time his wife found him in the wood- 

 shed hanging by a rope, apparently dead. He 

 was rescued, confessed his sin, and said he 

 never thought of suicide unless he had been 

 drinking. He came to prayer-meeting, and 

 when asked to pray he replied he could pray 

 in German, but he could not pray very well in 

 English ; and those who understood him said 

 it was a most beautiful prayer to be saved from 

 a devil that so constantly beset his footsteps. 

 This was when we had open saloons in our 

 town. We explained the matter to the saloon- 

 keepers, and they all promised not to let him 

 have a drop. When his " spells " came on he 

 went to them repeatedly ; but everybody kept 

 it out of his way. Finally a low-lived fellow 

 started a new saloon in spite of our remon- 

 strances. It had not been running a week be- 

 fore this poor unfortunate slipped in and got 

 some liquor. He borrowed a revolver, went 

 and stood over the bank of the river, so that, 

 if the bullet failed, the water would make 

 sure. The sa'oon-keeper should have been 

 tried for murder, but he was not. Public in- 

 dignation, however, was so much against him 

 that he could not make it pay, and quit. We 

 temperance people were blamed for not telling 

 him he must not sell liquor to Mr. H. 



Dear friends, how much difference is there 

 between the two cases ? With the boy, Satan 

 persuaded him to cast himself into the water 

 or fire to destroy him. With the man I have 

 been telling you about, the evil spirit suggest- 

 ed to him to take the revolver and the river 

 both, so that meddlesome people could not 

 prevent him from — what? I do not know but 

 our whisky-dealers would say, from restrain- 

 ing his liberty of thought and action 



At this exhibition of Satan's powf r the poor 

 father says, " If thou canst do any thing, have 

 compassion on us and help us." Why, my 

 dear friends, while I am dictating these piti- 

 ful plaintive words my voice shakes with emo- 

 tion, and I can scarcely keep back tears. The 

 poor father, in his despair, feared even Jesus 



