334 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Pilate wasn't so bad, but he had no backbone or 

 convictions. Where the vertebrae should have been 

 there was only gristle. Like the grain in the field, 

 he swayed every direction. He was looking for the 

 vote. He wanted prestige, the favor of the crowd. 

 Do you know any like him about here ? The town 

 is full of them — side-steppers, men who lack con- 

 viction and courage, and are always apologetic, men 

 who always train with the big crowd. 



AFRAID or PUBLIC OPINION. 



" Pilate was afraid of his friends. He could not 

 stand ridicule. How sorry I am for many people 

 of Tampa, many of them church members, who are 

 of this class. While this campaign is talked up and 

 down the streets they are cravenly and cowardly, 

 and can't stand the criticism, so they don't speak 

 up. They apologize for the campaign, and side in. 

 Next thing you know they lose an opportunity. 



" Within the next ten days I hope to see the 

 issues drawn closely, and you will be on one side or 

 on the other. If you are a mere church member, 

 Almighty God wiU put you on the side where you 

 belong. 



First, they knock me because I am the handiest 

 thing to knock. Next they knock the tabernacle, and 

 next the church, and then the question becomes 

 deeper — it becomes one of righteousness or unright- 

 eousness. Then it becomes one of enforcing or 

 breaking of law, and before this campaign is much 

 older it will be a line between Jesus Christ or the 

 devil. 



" Pilate tried to side-step, and he chased Jesus to 

 Herod, but Herod drove him back. He could not 

 get rid of the question, and neither can you. 



" Pilate was afraid of his sins. He was crooked, 

 and therefore a crook. He has lots of relations in 

 Tampa. He had a record that he was ashamed of. 

 There are men in this town who are opposing this 

 campaign because they know that, if their record is 

 shown up, state's prison is their desert. 



"Tissort's famous painting shows Jesus and Pilate 

 face to face, and underneath the painter has written, 

 'Christ before Pilate;' but he has painted better 

 than he has written, for it really is Pilate before 

 Christ." 



A few days ago a visitor called who said 

 his fatliev took Gleanings years ago, when 

 he was a boy, and A. I. Root's Home papers 

 were liis especial delight, etc. ; yet this man, 

 the father of a family, had never united 

 with any band of Christian people. If I 

 am right about it, he seemed to think, as 

 above, that " living a decent and respectable 

 life " was enough. I said, "Surely, my good 

 friend, your sympathi&s and feelings are 

 with Christian people and what they are 

 trying to do to save the world." He replied 

 something like this : 



" Oh, yes ! of course," etc. 



I should have said (but I did not get 

 around to it) in the language of our text, 

 " What are you doing with Jesus ? Do you 

 accept him as Peter did, as the Son of the 

 living God?" 



My good friend, whose eyes are resting 

 on these pages, how is it with you? Do you 

 aceejit Christ as you know him, as the Son 

 of God? Your answer settles the whole 

 question. Will you not write and tell me 

 you do, that there may be more "joy in 

 heaven," as we read about in God's holy 

 word ? 



When the world accepts Christ or even 

 a majority of the world, war will end in an 

 histant as the evangelist has said. I hard- 

 ly need add that the one who makes this 

 acceptance must stand up before the world 

 and live in accordance with it ; iand I am 

 glad to note that the thousands who are 

 coming forward in answer to Billy Sunday's 

 earnest appeals, and other evangelists like 

 him, are living out their profession nobly, 

 with very few exceptions. Remember the 

 voice from heaven that proclaimed to a sin- 

 ful world, "This is my beloved Son in whom 

 I am well pleased." 



FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OP GOD. — 



LUKE 18:16. 

 The following from the Christian Herald 

 of March 15 is an excellent supplement to 

 the Home paper of Feb."l: 



SHALL WE LET THESE BABIES DIE? 



Judge Ben B. Lindsay recently addressed a meet- 

 ing held at New York under the auspices of the 

 Citizens Committee for Food Shipment, on the ques- 

 tion of sending shipments of milk to save the lives 

 of the starving babies of Germany. Judge Lindsay 

 said : 



"One of the most gripping scenes I ever witness- 

 ed, and one that I shall carry with me to my dying 

 day, was the sight of a long line of mothers with 

 tiny babies in their arms, waiting to be supplied 

 with milk. I saw the splendid sanitary equipment 

 and other arrangements for handling the milk-bottles 

 and caring for the milk, but I saw no milk. The 

 supply for the day had given out, and stiU there 

 were hundreds of mothers left in the line who must 

 pray for milk on the morrow, for milk to keep their 

 babies alive. I saw the tear-stained faces of those 

 mothers as they turned away, not knowing whether 

 the little bit of life in their babies could be sustain- 

 ed until tomorrow. 



" In many cities of 30,000 or 40,000 in Poland 

 there is not a baby alive under three years, and in 

 many places not a child under ten years, so terrible 

 has been the demand for milk." 



There seems to be plenty of other sorts of food in 

 Germany ; but the one thing that the babies cannot 

 live without, the country is short of. Germany has 

 never been a grazing country. Much of the food for 

 its cows has been imported. Now these imports are 

 cut off, and the babies are dying. 



England and France say the United States must 

 not allow the shipment of condensed milk to Ger- 

 many to save the lives of these babies. What does 

 the United States think about it? 



One plan suggested by the committee is to arrange 

 for shipments of milk to the Netherlands, to be 

 reconsigned to Germany. 



The Christian Herald would stop, if we could, 

 the air raids on England, in which babies have been 

 killed. We would stop, if we could, the submarine 

 warfare in which children have perished. But the 

 fact that these dozens of babies have been slain is 

 no reason why America should acquiesce in the 

 killing of millions of babies in Germany by taking 

 away the milk they cannot live without. 



You know the cry of the hungry child. You hear 

 your own baby cry in the night. You know the 

 sweet little sounds of content, as it finds the milk 

 nature demands for it. Can you hear these other 

 cries that do not cease, night or day ? Can you see 

 the little forms wasting, the cries growing fainter, 

 the little eyes, their brightness long since gone, be- 

 ing drained at length of their tears, growing more 



