190^" 



GLEANFNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1091 



By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if 

 ye have love one to another. — John 13 : 35. 



This little church near our home in the 

 woods is a continued surprise and joy to me. 

 I look on in wonder and surprise to see it 

 grow and prosper. I presume it is more of 

 a joy to me because I have for five summers 

 worked, watched, and prayed for it. Like 

 the peach-trees in the clearing around our 

 home I have seen it bud, blossom, and, just 

 recently, bear fruit. May God be praised 

 for the fruit. What particularly impresses 

 me just now is the loving harmony among 

 its members. They are a unit. If there is 

 any self or selfishness among its members I 

 have yet to see it. Each one seems to vie 

 with his neighbor in not only showing a lov- 

 ing sympathy and interest in the affairs of 

 his neighbor, but he is ever ready to lend a 

 helping hand. It makes me thmk of the 

 day of Pentecost; and I have just been read- 

 ing with a new interest the last ten verses 

 of the second chapter of Acts. In response 

 to Bro. Shelly's earnest preaching they 

 said, as the people said to Peter, "What 

 shall we do?" When he told them, "they 

 that gladly received his word were bap- 

 tized. ' ' Then we are told, ' ' They continued 

 steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fel- 

 lowship, and in the breaking of bread, and 

 in prayers." And, again, "And all that be- 

 lieved were together and had all things com- 

 mon." Once more, "Praising God, and 

 having favor with all the people." The 

 above description is wonderfully like the 

 Bingham church just now. 



I have several times mentioned a young 

 man who has worked for me more or less 

 for the past four summers. I have often 

 plead with Earl to "seek first the kingdom 

 of God and his righteousness," but he didn't 

 "see things" as I did. When he came to 

 Sunday-school I tried to have him go up in 

 the choir and help the singing, as he has 

 quite a talent that way; but for some time 

 past he continually refused, and all the oth- 

 er young men seemed to have dropped out 

 of the choir. Well, since his conversion he 

 never misses a meeting of any kind. He is 

 first to march to the front in the singing, 

 and in getting the other boys to go with 

 him. His bashfulness and timidity are all 

 gone. I look at him and wonder if it can be 

 really the same Earl. No! it is not the 

 same, for he has really and truly been 

 " born again." 



Last evening the meeting, for some rea- 

 son, did not seem to start out as full of life 

 and interest as usual. I, while on my knees, 

 was conscious of half-heartedness and de- 

 pression, and was praying against it. When 

 we all rose to our seats Earl left his seat 

 among the singers, came forward near the 

 pulpit, and spoke something as follows: 



" Dear friends, I am glad to tell you I am 

 not only happy to-night, but my rehgiqn 

 makes me happy all day long. I am alraid 

 this is not the case with some of the rest of 

 you, or this meeting would not drag as it 

 does. It seems as if a lot of you were ' down- 

 hearted' about something. Tell us about it, 

 and let us wake up. We are not living up 

 to our privileges as followers of the Lord 

 Jesus Christ." 



I almost had to rub my eyes to be sure I 

 wasn't dreaming. Could this indeed be Earl 

 who was rebuking me and other old veterans 

 for being lukewarm and faint-hearted? 

 Some one then started the hymn, "Higher 

 Ground," and we had a meeting full of life 

 and faith after that. 



Some of our readers may think I am mak- 

 ing a great fuss over a commonplace revival 

 in a little backwoods country Qhurch. We 

 get mail here every day, and I take and read 

 two daily papers, so I know pretty well 

 what is going on outside. Let me give you 

 a sketch from one of these dailies: 



Mr. W. R. Andrews of Grand Rapids, Mich., at a re- 

 cent toast, got off the following appeal to the Filipinos: 



You Filipinos don't know what you are missing by 

 not wanting to become citizens of this grand country of 

 ours. There isn't any thing like it under the sun. You 

 ought to send a delegation over to see us the land of 

 the free— land of fine churches and 46,000 licensed sa- 

 loons; Bibles, forts, and guns, houses of prostitution; 

 millionaires and paupers; theologians and thieves; lib- 

 eralists and liars; politicians and poverty; Christians 

 and chain gangs; schools and scalawags; trusts and 

 tramps; money and misery; homes and hunger; virtue 

 and vice ; a land where you can get a good Bible for 

 fifteen cents and a bad drink of whisky for five cents ; 

 where we have a man in Congress with three wives, 

 and a lot in the penitentiary for having two wives; 

 where we put a man in jail for not having the means of 

 suppoit, and on the rock pile for asking for a job of 

 work; where we license bawdy houses, and fine men 

 for preaching Christ on the street corners; where we 

 have a Congress of 400 men who make laws, and a Su- 

 preme Court of nine men who set them aside; where 

 good whisky makes bad men and bad men make good 

 whisky; where newspapers are paid for suppressing the 

 truth, and made rich for teaching a lie; where profess- 

 ors draw their convictions from the same place they do 

 their salaries; where preachers are paid $25,000 a year 

 to dodge the devil and tickle the ears of the wealthy; 

 where business consists of getting hold of property in 

 any way that won't land you in the penitentiary; where 

 trusts "hold up" and poverty 'holds down;" where 

 men vote for what they do not want for fear they will 

 not get what they do want by voting for it; where 

 " niggers " can vote and women can't; where a girl who 

 does wrong is made an outcast, .ind her male partner 

 flourishes as a gentleman; where the political wirepuller 

 has displaced the patriotic statesman; where we have 

 prayers on the floor of our national capitol, and whisky 

 in the cellar; where we spend $500 to bury a statesman 

 who is rich, and $10 to put away a working-man who is 

 poor; where to be virtuous is to be lonesome, to be hon- 

 est is to be a crank; where we sit on the safety-valve of 

 energy, and pull wide open the throttle of conscience; 

 where we pay $15,000 for a dog, and fifteen cents a doz- 

 en to a poor woman for making shirts; where we teach 

 the " untutored " Indian eternal life from the Bible, and 

 kill him off: with bad whisky; where we put a man in 

 jail for stealing a loaf of bread, and in Congress for 

 stealing a railroad; where the checkbook talks, tin 

 walks in broad daylight, justice is asleep, crime runs 

 amuck, corporations permeate our whole social and po- 

 litical fabric, and the devil laughs from every street 

 corner. 



The above may be somewhat of an exag- 

 geration, but I think we all must agree there 

 is at least a large amount of truth in it. 

 What is the remedy? Dear friends, the 

 remedy, and the only remedy, is getting the 

 love of Jesus Christ into the hearts of the 



