1042 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Rourke, Evangelist, Spring-field, Ohio." I 

 received a prompt reply; but brother 

 Rourke told me he was not an evangelist, 

 but just a regular Presbyterian preacher; 

 and he said, furthermore, that Homer was 

 bringing more recruits into their men's 

 Bible class than any other member. Did 

 you ever? Just think of it — this boy whom 

 I was worrying about was in regular at- 

 tendance at a men's Bible class, and bring- 

 ing in others. Of course I urged my: 

 nephew to follow the leadership of the 

 good minister of whom he thought so much, 

 and become a member of that Presbyterian 

 church; and I furthermore added that, 

 when I should hear the good news that he 

 was an enrolled member, I would go and 

 hear the minister he had learned to think 

 so much of. By the way, this good pastor 

 said something like this in his letter to me : 



"Mr. Root, you cannot think how. much 

 good it does the pastor of a church to get 

 such a letter as yours containing the one 

 from Homer. When defeat and disappoint- 

 ment seem at times to be almost the only 

 result of a clergyman's labor such letters as 

 yours and his are like an oasis in the desert. 

 It gives me an inspiration to go on." 



One Saturday morning in September I 

 started on my trip to Springfield. It had 

 been some time since I had seen my nephew ; 

 and the more I talked with him and became 

 acquainted with the family of his good wife, 

 the more I was impressed with the transfor- 

 mation in the Avild and careless boy of a 

 short time before. He looked different and 

 acted ditferentiy, for he is now a bright, 

 manly Christian gentleman. When he in- 

 troduced me to the different members of 

 that great Presbyterian church, and seemed 

 to be recognized on all sides as one of them, 

 I could not help saying mentally, " Thank 

 God, thank God." It brought to my mind 

 vividly a verse in a familiar hymn that 

 comes in something like this : 



His power, and his alone, 



Can change the leopard's spots 

 And melt a heart of stone. 



I questioned a good deal about Homer's 

 wonderful change. If I am correct about 

 it, the good young wife u"rged him repeated- 

 ly to go to church with her just once. Per- 

 haps his first attendance was at the men's 

 Bible class. He became interested. This 

 devoted minister seemed to have a faculty, 

 not only for getting hold of young men but 

 of holding them ; and in a little time Homer 

 was inviting his shopmates to go to the 

 class. Now here is the point, friends. When 

 you get a man or boy to work bringing in 

 recruits you will very soon have him " born 

 into the kingdom." 



Away out west there is a town or city 



(it may be a city now) called Anacortes. It 

 was built up, or at least was started, in one 

 year, and, as a matter of course, saloons 

 were galore on both sides of the street. One 

 of the prime movers in starting the town 

 had the good sense to recognize that some- 

 thing besides saloons is needed to build up 

 a community. Then this man commenced 

 to talk about a church ; but on all sides they 

 considered it a big joke, and again and 

 again his friends would say, "You scheming 

 for a church? Why, what has got into you? 

 Turned pious? " 



He said he had not particularly turned 

 pious, but in his opinion they could not 

 have a nice and enterprising town without a 

 church. Then the next thing was to get a 

 preacher. So this man commenced hunting 

 for one. He finally met a minister on board 

 a steamer, and told him he would have to 

 stop at Anacortes and preach a sermon. 

 The minister demurred, saying, "How about 

 an audience? " Our real-estate man said he 

 would guarantee an audience if the minister 

 would stop over one trip ; and then he went 

 about going thru the town, inviting every- 

 body to come and hear this minister preach. 

 They had some trouble in finding a room 

 big enough and in getting seats. But our 

 vehement friend carried the day, and all of 

 them heard a sermon. Do I need tell you 

 the outcome? Altho he had not planned in 

 the outset anything of the sort, he soon 

 became a devoted Christian worker. How 

 could he invite people when he himself was 

 outside the fold? And, my good friends, it 

 will work so every time. Get to work ; get 

 these boys and girls at work doing some- 

 thing good and useful. Get them interested 

 in building up churches and Sunday-schools, 

 and in doing away with saloons and broth- 

 els, and God will take care of the harvest. 



Well, of course I was greatly interested 

 to see this man of whom I had heard so 

 much conduct the Bible class. The lesson was 

 somewhere in the book of Acts ; and the in- 

 cident refeiTed to in our second text, where 

 Paul said he was ready not only to go to 

 prison, but he was ready to die for the 

 Master. Our leader, in commenting on the 

 incident, asked how many there were ready 

 to go to jail for righteousness' sake. He 

 said that he himself was ready to go to jail 

 any minute rather than to compromise with 

 the powers of darkness. I could honestly 

 say amen to this, and I did come near say- 

 ing it; but in a minute more I was glad I 

 did not. By the way, friends, I have heard 

 a good many different preachers of the 

 gospel in the past thirty or forty years ; and 

 it is rare that I hear a sermon where I do 

 not find occasion to give some point in 

 it, somewhere, a hearty indorsement by 



