1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



515 



find it hard work to keep cool enough to re- 

 prove them. If it were my daughter and 

 some one else, my first impulse would be to 

 say that he needed a horsewhipping, and a 

 right smart one too. If any one whose eye 

 rests on tliese pages is or has been guilty in 

 a similar way, let him read Christ's words on 

 the subject, and see how far, how immeasur- 

 ably far, he is from loving " his neighbor as 

 himself." If it is your daughter, or your sis- 

 ter, there is a difference, you will find ; ay, a 

 fearful difference. Poor Lysander, when 

 "he said I was " not man enough to teach 

 that school," was right.'''' Had he told me 

 plainly just what he thought of the way I 

 had been doing, and given me the pounding 



I deserved Hold on I hold on I is tliat the 



way to reclaim sinners, my friends, even 

 just the kind of sinners I have given you a 

 view of ? Lid Jesus knock men down, or 

 horsewhip them, or even command the earth 

 to open and swallow them up V Lysander, 

 if your eye ever meets tliis, will you and the 

 rest of tliose boys and girls forgive me ? 

 Instead of setting my heel down on the 

 face of a fellow-being, — one who was created 

 in God's own image,— why did I not set it 

 down a month before, on the iniquity in my 

 own heart, and, like the soldier Paul, buffet 

 my own body into subjection V God says, he 

 that ruleth /ru>(Sf/f', and not he that pounds 

 unruly scholars, is greater than he that tak- 

 eth a city. 



Why, oh why ! did I, during all that winter, 

 forget my Bible and the kind teachings of 

 my good mother V I can not lemember of 

 going to church one single time that winter ; 

 and I think it very likely that sermons were 

 then distasteful to me. It seems to me 

 that, had some good and earnest Christian 

 taken me in hand just then, and talked to 

 me kindly and firmly, it must have stirred 

 within nie a better spirit. If there were any 

 such, I do not remember them. Dear read- 

 er, is there one in you,- neighborhood ? If 

 not, are you ready to — 



Go, with the name of Jesus, to the dyin?. 

 And speak that name in all its living power? 



Why should thy fainting heart grow chill and 

 weary? 

 Canst thou not watch with me one little hour? 



And are you ready to call them back with 

 patient love (rather than horsewhips), as in 

 the following V 



Not now; for I have- wanderers in the distance. 

 And thou must call them in with patient love. 



From that day to this I have never learned 

 whether the law the judge laid down was a 

 fact, or only a little pleasantry for the time 

 being ; but while I sincerely hope we have 

 laws just so stringent, I pray God that his law 

 may be so instilled into the minds and hearts 

 of our teachers that it may shine out over a 

 sinful world, and render it unnecessary that 

 even one of the ijupils should ever need re- 

 minding of this law of our land. The law 

 did good; but oh, could I have been led to 

 walk from that time to this, feeling the eye 

 of Almighty God was over and above and 

 around me, nay, rejoicing that such was the 

 case, how much more might I have been 

 worth to myself, my nation, and my God, in 

 restraining crime ! 



Now, with what I have just told you in 

 mind, and the lesson I have brought out, 

 please go back and read those two letters 

 again, I gave in the beginning of this paper, 

 and see if you do not get some new ideas. 

 What shall we do with crime, what shall we 

 do with criminals, and, above all. how shall 

 we stop iniquity in its first germs V 



It is quite likely that, if friend Baird had 

 gone out to those turkey thieves, and read a 

 chapter to them then and there, it would have 

 done no good; but was there not a time 

 away back when friend B. might have man- 

 aged to read the Bible to them under fitting 

 circumstances ? Are there no towns or 

 small settlements near him where Sunday- 

 schools may, or might have been organized V 

 and is brother Baird, or you, my friend, in 

 the habit of standing up in these schools, 

 and reading the Bible to the boys and girls 

 who will always be found ready to listen to 

 this kind of instruction V Is it not in your 

 line y ]Methinks it is in the line of every one 

 who detests crime and wickedness, and 

 hungers and thirsts after righteousness. 



It has been said, that, just as sure as we 

 get another president who is as good a man 

 as Garfield, just so sure will he be shot down. 

 Who will do it V Show us the enemy, and a 

 hundred thousand strong, if need be, will be 

 in arms in an instant. Point out the man, 

 or banded army of men. My friends, it is no 

 man. In this case it was no banded army of 

 men. It was simply Satan, or the inborn siu 

 of the untrained and unsubdued human 

 heart. .Just rally around Paul with our open- 

 ing text on your banners, and you will have 

 the enemy right before your face. On the 

 coins of our land we read, Ta God ice trust ; 

 yet I fear that in every little town in our 

 land you will hear God's name taken in 

 vain bv the boys of our streets. Is that loy- 

 al V AVould it "be safe to curse our President 

 in the same way ? and would it be worse to 

 curse him than'to curse the God of our fa- 

 thers y Is there not an enemy among us, at 

 our very doors ? Is not cursing the God in 

 whom our nation trusts, openly and on our 

 very streets, one step toward shooting down 

 the man whom our nation delights to honor? 

 Rouse up, ye brave, ye strong of muscle and 

 strong of heart, and come to the fight ; but 

 let the blows be dealt within. Cease not the 

 warfare, until we can pray, with David, — 



Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.— Psalm 

 51:7. 



A kind Christian talk with a 5'oung man 

 or woman, now, may stop a fight in school a 

 month hence, or the assassination of a pres- 

 ident a few years hence, and possibly a great 

 civil war a century hence. It will not do to 

 wait until the fight has begun, or until just 

 the eve of a crisis. Noiv is the appointed 

 time: and, my friend, if your name is not 

 already enrolled among those Avho " are on 

 the Lord's side," for the suppression of the 

 crime and wickedness in our land, I invite 

 you, in his name, to come and enlist under 

 his banner and commence the fight ; yea, this 

 very day and hour. 



So light T, as not beating the air; but I buffet my 

 body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means 

 that after I have preached to others, I myself should 

 be rejected. 



