GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1922 



And another thing, I went to searching my 

 Bible, and found the words were spoken by 

 the veteran soldier of the cross, Paul. He 

 liad his "thorn in the flesh," and God liad 

 lionored me by giving nie, too, a thorn in 

 the flesh to keep me humble and to keep me 

 on my guard. If you will read over the 

 precious Psalms of David you will see how 

 often David was tempted, and that these 

 temptations are what brought out his won- 

 derful prayers for help. And even the dear 

 Savior himself when on the cross, when his 

 multiplied sufferings were so great, gave 

 voice to the words, "My God, my God, why 

 hast thou forsaken me?" 



In the fourth chapter of Matthew, after 

 the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, 

 when Satan had shown him the kingdoms of 

 the world he said, "All these things will I 

 give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship 

 me. ' ' The dear Savior consented to listen 

 to him, but he finally replied, "Thou shalt 

 worship the Lord thy God, and him only 

 shalt thou serve. ' ' Well, during those times 

 of conflict with Satan, I shall have to con- 

 fess that several times I listened, with a 

 sort of curiosity, to know (and see) what he 

 really had to offer; and I shall have to 

 confess that I have greater charity than 

 I ever had before for those who deliber- 

 ately decide to give up all hopes of heaven 

 for the gilded suggestions of what Satan 

 has to offer. He told Eve in the garden of 

 Eden that, even if she did eat of the for- 

 bidden fruit, she would not surely die; and 

 so he has been telling poor, infirm human- 

 ity ever since the world began. Let me 

 digress a little right here. 



I have been reading the dailies pretty 

 carefully, or at least running them over 

 hastily, to see that nothing escaped my no- 

 tice, for the most of my life. Of late I scan 

 the pages to see what progress the Anti- 

 Saloon League is making in law enforce- 

 ment in regard to prohibition. I have also 

 been making a study of crime and crim- 

 inals. In Bible times we are told of men — 

 yes, and I am sorry to say women, too — who 

 were "possessed of devils"; and I fear that 

 even Christians have been inclined to jest 

 about "demoniacal possession." I have 

 wondered of late why some great man or 

 woman, some minister of the gospel, or other 

 friend of humanity, did not suggest or had 

 not suggested that we are having demoni- 

 acal possession, 7iow. You all know, I sup- 

 pose, that there seems to be a growing fash- 

 ion for some man to shoot his wife or sweet- 

 heart, and then turn the weapon on him- 

 self. Who but the devil would suggest to 

 any man the killing of his wife before he 

 kills himself? Yes, in some cases the "de- 

 moniac" kills all his children, or as many 

 as he can, and then kills himself; and lovers 

 shoot their sweethearts. T had been hoping 

 that, with proliibition, this kind of Avork 

 would let up. Perhaps it has let up some- 

 what, but a good many times a drunken 

 man shoots his wife before he shoots him- 

 self, and a rejected suiter frequently shoots 



tlie girl he says he loves. Sometimes he 

 gives as a reason that lie can not bear to 

 see her married to anybody else. If 

 there is such a thing as self or sefishness 

 hailed down, this would seem to be the cul- 

 mination of it. By the way, Satan's work 

 is ahcaijs selfish. He cares for nothing but 

 to destroy and ruin everything that is good 

 and pure on this earth. 



There is still another form of demoniacal 

 possession. A marled woman — yes, perhaps 

 the mother of several children — deliberate- 

 ly runs away with some man who is a devil 

 in human form. Sometimes tlie woman later 

 comes to her senses and begs piteously to 

 have the poor, outraged husband receive her 

 back. The children cry piteously for the 

 dear mama whi has been gone perhaps for 

 weeks, or even months, and the mother's 

 heart yearns "piteously" to be permitted 

 to go back after she has shaken off her in- 

 fatuation and freed herself from Satan's 

 clutches. Shall the poor sin-scarred and 

 crippled mother be permitted to go back to 

 the wronged husband and to her children? I 

 may say that I have been consulted in just 

 such a matter, and decided that, if the 

 poor woman is truly penitent, by all means 

 let her come back.* 



Just one more case of men who are pos- 

 sessed of devils. A poor man in the city 

 of Cleveland came over to this country and 

 worked for six years to get money enough 

 to go back and get his wife and children. 

 Before he started on his trip back he was 

 so overjoyed with the thought of meeting 

 his loved ones that he confided the matter 

 to some of his friends. He drew his money 

 out of the bank, and was ready for the 

 trip. Two demons in human form waylaid 

 him and demanded his money. He had wait- 

 ed so long, and had planned so carefully, 

 that he was reluctant about giving it up. 

 They pounded him almost to a jelly, and 

 left him crippled for life, and took every 

 cent of his hard earnings. I leave it to you 

 to say if those two, devil-possessed, were 

 not devils in human form. In olden times 

 the only remedy we know of was "the 

 Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of 

 the Avorld, " who, by word of mouth, banish- 

 ed the devils wherever they had taken pos- 

 session either of man or woman; and I am 

 afraid that the only remedy clear up to 

 this year of 1922 is the spreading of the 

 gospel, Avhich is equal to the task of ban- 

 ishing devils from the face of the whole 

 earth. 



I 



* Years ago, when I was learning shorthand by 

 myself from a book, exercises were given to test 

 the pupil's ability to read shorthand with vowels 

 omitted. No answer was given in the book to 

 these exercises. The pupil was supposed to be 

 able to work them out by himself. I had mas- 

 tered them all but one, and on that one I worked 

 not only days but for a week or more. When I 

 got it. it was so impressed on my memory that 

 I shall never forget it. It read like this: 

 Think gently of the erring; 



You may not know the power 

 With which the dark temptation came 

 In some unguarded hour. 



