1883 



GLEANIKGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



197 



|M.r f oi#. 



O righteous Falher, the world hath not known 

 thee: but I have known thee, and these have I 

 known that thou hast sent me.— John 17: 35. 



eVEIl and over have I felt of late that 

 ' those who ignore or oppose the teach- 

 ^^ ings of Christ our Savior do so with- 

 out scarcely comprehending or understand- 

 ing what it is that they do oppose. jSTot on- 

 ly do they fail to comprehend what it is that 

 Christian people want, or would do, but 

 with a sort of unconscious perversity, if 

 such a thing were possible, they go so very 

 wide of the mark, and fail so utterly in rec- 

 ognizing the work that Christianity seeks 

 to do, that even the contemplation of it 

 seems sometimes awful. One little circum- 

 stance now comes to mind, to illustrate the 

 point I wish to make. Several years ago, 

 during Mr. Moody's labors, it was remarked 

 that he on some public occasion prayed for 

 the Spiritualists. It was said they were 

 greatly offended at this, and proposed, by 

 way of retaliation, praying for Mr. Moody. 

 The idea they seemed to have of the matter 

 was, that Mr. Moody would feel greatly hurt. 

 or offended, in case they should turn around 

 and pray for him. 



In the first place, these people, it would 

 seem, were offended because they took it for 

 granted that Mr. Moody had, right in the 

 midst of his prayer, a purpose of hitting a 

 little clip at them, as he would have done 

 had he been one of some rival political 

 clique, or party, and that his greatest desire 

 was to have his own party succeed. Again, 

 they would have it that Mr. Moody would 

 feel hurt, or offended, if they should retali- 

 ate by praying for him. They seemed to 

 have forgotten, or perhaps had never heard, 

 that Mr. Moody has, all through his minis- 

 try, constantly asked the prayers of praying 

 people, nor tlid they understand that prayer 

 is always for the highest good of the person 

 prayed for, no matter by whom offered. 

 Christ came into the world to bring "■ peace 

 on earth and good will to men," and to 

 make it plain, so that no one need misunder- 

 stand, the angels heralded forth the fact 

 with voices from the skies. 



A little over 400 years ago, people were 

 content to live and die along the borders of 

 a body of w^ater, without any man being 

 able to say what was on the other side of it ; 

 or, still worse than that, until the day of 

 Christopher Columbus, no man was able to 

 say whether or not there was any other side 

 at all, and yet all that w^as wanting was sim- 

 ply to sail out of sight of land and explore ; 

 and this, too, while a temperate clime and 

 fair and favorable winds offered every facil- 

 ity for such exploration. Just think of it, 

 boys ! If children then were like the 

 children of to-day, we might imagine some 

 inquiring youngster of less than a dozen 

 summers saying, — 



" Pa, what is there over t'other side of the 

 big water?" 



" I don't know, my boy." 



" Why, pa, doesn't anybody know V" 



"I do not think anybody knows, my 

 son." 



" Why, don't you think, pa, that there 

 must he ground away over there, and that 

 some kind of folks live there as we do ?" 

 How do you suppose the father could stand 

 such questioning V I wonder if all the boys 

 knew of it when it first began to be noised 

 abroad, that a man had suggested the bold 

 project of starting out with a fleet of ships, 

 to see whether or not there wasn't some- 

 thing in place of nothing away over beyond 

 that vast, dim, blue expanse. Did they 

 have newspapers then, and was it the ab- 

 sorbing topic of conversation? Just think 

 of it. But a few years have passed since 

 then, comparatively, and yet just because 

 there is a small spot around the frozen poles 

 that man has not troden, expedition after 

 expedition has gone out, and many valuable 

 lives have been sacrificed. In this case no 

 one expects any thing like a new continent, 

 or H new race of people either; but it is the 

 furor for exploring unknown regions, and 

 for knowing more of the earth on which we 

 live. This thirst for knowledge is not con- 

 fined alone to geographical matters either, 

 but the whole realm of nature and thought is 

 being ransacked in the same way. Every 

 avenue that promises even a shadow of a 

 chance for giving an insight into something 

 we did not knov/ before is canvassed in 

 much the same way. Every year that 

 passes witnesses some new element of na- 

 ture called in to serve man; with electricity 

 we have banished night ; with the telephone 

 we have annihilated distance, and muscular 

 strength is fast being relieved by new ma- 

 chinery that makes hard labor a pleasant 

 pastime, instead of a back-breaking drudg- 

 ery. 



Now, friends, is it true that all these great 

 strides are confined to science and mechan- 

 ics and travel? Has nothing been done 

 in the way of making men better and purer, 

 and more worthy of communing with God, 

 who is truth and righteousness itself ? I re- 

 joice to think that something is being done 

 in this very line. I feel sure there was nev- 

 er before a time when the profession of 

 Christianity meant so much as it does at this 

 present time. I feel sure, too, there never be- 

 fore was a time when only the genuine coin 

 would pass current as is the case now. We are 

 just beginning to learn that there are depths 

 of wisdom in the teachings of the Savior 

 that have never as yet been hardly glanced 

 into, and that the unexplored regions lying 

 there yet to be opened full to the light of 

 blazing noonday are beyond any thing that 

 has yet been brought to light in the realms 

 of science. See here: — 



V erily, verily, I say unto you. He that believelh on 

 me, the works that 1 do shall he do also; and great- 

 er works than these shall he do; because 1 go unto 

 my Father.— John 14: 13. 



Is not that a promise ? Do you believe 

 any one has yet sounded the depths of all 

 there is in that little verse ? What are the 

 conditions, and how shall we do these works 

 that are even greater than Jesus himself 

 did ? It is expressed in the little verse very 

 plainly and simply. He that believeth on me. 

 While I read the words over, there comes 



