1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



331 



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BEAR friends, I take pleasure in giving 

 you a sermon preached several weeks 

 ago by my good friend and fellow- 

 worker, Mr. C. J. Ityder, of Medina, Ohio. 

 You will observe how nearly his line of 

 thought runs with the Home Papers I have 

 been giving you for a month or two past. 



I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the 

 world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the 

 evil.— JOHX IV: 15. 



"A good sermon, that," said a man to his neigh- 

 bor when returning from one of our city churches, 

 where they had listened to a sermon on the Christian 

 duty of not being conformed to ihis world. 



" Yes, it was a good sermon enough," replied the 

 one to the other, "but somehow these requirements 

 of the Bible in that matter are impracticable for a 

 man in business or society. It was all right for him 

 to speak as he did; he is a minister of religion; but 

 this thing can not be carried out in practical life." 



What this man said, many others think. The ideas 

 of the Bible seem beyond the possibilities of evei-y- 

 day life. The rank and file of men may look at these 

 bright spots in tho moral sky as they look at the 

 stars at night— admiring them, but never dreaming 

 of possessing them. A poet leaning o\'er a ship's- 

 rail at night sang these words: — 



Five thousand stars are in the sky. 



Ten thousand in the sea; 



And every wave with dimpled cheek 



That leaps into the air 

 Has caught a star in its embrace, 



And holds it trembling there. 



So of these moral stars in the galaxy of the Bible, 

 even if they reflect in the troubled sea of life around 

 men, they are held only by the liquid fingers of the 

 waves. Too far away these high ideals of the Chris- 

 tian life seem. But they ought not to be far away. 

 The Christian is to be found in the world. He is to 

 be a Christian in the world. The gospel is meant for 

 busy men. No new version of the Scripture suited 

 to the possibilities of cvery-day life in this 19th cen- 

 tury is needed. The old version is intended for these 

 very possibilities. This text gives us the u'7ic/'c and 

 liDW of the Chi-istian life. The first is a guideboard, 

 pointing out the road; the second is the wagon in 

 which to travel. It is not a carriage, with rich up. 

 bolstered cushions, nor is it an ambulance with a 

 soft couch; it is the plain old wagon of Christian en- 

 deavor. Peter and John jolted over the road in it. 

 Paul traveled in it; Luther and Calvin and Knox 

 and Finney — every earnest Christian, in every age 

 has ridden in this same old wagon of Christian en- 

 deavor. No soul was ever "carried to the skies on 

 flowery beds of easp." The sky to which a soul came 

 in that way would be that of ii3sthetic sentimental- 

 ism, not the heaven of the Scripture. The soul that 

 wanted to travel on a bed would better be taken to 

 a spiritual hospital for treatment, than to heaven 

 for lazy enjoyment. It is in the midst of this busy 

 world that the follower of Christ is to be found. 



This text locates the Christian. " I pray not that 

 thou shouldst take them out of the world." These 

 words of the Savior put the Christian in the world; 

 that's his place. Christians are to be followers of 

 Christ. What value would there have been in 

 Christ's life if it had been spent in the cell of a monk 

 on Mount Hermon or Tabor? Our Savior found his 



work among men. Seclusion is of ten cowardice, not 

 sanctitude. Ignorance of what we ought to know is 

 not virtue. Paul could reason with the cultured 

 Athenians, reaching them through his familiarity 

 with their "own poets." If we can find a common 

 theme between them and ourselves, the way is open 

 at once for presenting Christ as Paul did. A Chris- 

 tian, after reading the Bible, took up a daily paper, 

 saying, "Now let me see how God is governing this 

 world, and which of his promises he is fulfilling 

 among the nations to-daj'." We can not neglect the 

 world's work, its thoughts, its sorrows, its hopes, if 

 we are really intent on following Christ. In olden 

 times men were familiar with the affairs of their 

 neighbors in their own school-district, but what an 

 enormous school-district we live in, in these days! 

 There are mother Bull's boj'S just across the pond 

 in England; beyond them, the jabbering German 

 lads, and the fun-loving French boys. The sons of 

 the old lady that has built a stone wall all around her 

 lot, to keep out the children, are well known to us. 

 There is only one family in this great school-district 

 of the world with whom we are unfamiliar, and that 

 is the black family of Africa. They live in an un- 

 healthful neighborhood. How near we stand to the 

 heart of the world! We touch the throbbing pulse 

 in the telegraph; we listen to its measured breath- 

 iiig in the putting steam of locomotive or ship; we 

 think with the world; individualism is giving place, 

 perhaps too largely, to socialism. It is in this world, 

 busy, eagrr, restless, that Christ has put us. 



The Christian's place is in the closet of secret 

 prayer; it is at the family altar; it is in the sanctu- 

 ary of public worship; but it is also in the busy mar- 

 ket on the street; in the office or store. "I pray 

 not that thou shouldst take them out of the world," 

 was the best request that Christ could offer for us. 

 He made no mistake. Not only for the sake of the 

 world, but also for the sake of his followers, the 

 world is the best place for them. 



It is said, that in Mexico there is a marked differ- 

 ence between those living in the mountains and 

 those living in the lowlands. The mountaineers are 

 strong, vigorous, active. They are intelligent be- 

 yond their lowland neighbors. The reason for this 

 is evident. The mountaineers must work for their 

 bread. In the lowlands, food grows around them 

 with scarcely an effort. We need Christian mount- 

 aineers — those whose spiritual sinews are made 

 strong by hard toil; those who have climbed the 

 heights of Christian experience in the face of a 

 mountain gale. Spiritual strength comes as physi- 

 cal strength comes — by meeting and overcoming 

 opposition. Lowland Christians who live on the 

 self-produced fruits of tropical growth never do 

 any thing to feed others. They are line a queen 

 bee: you must put them in a colony of workers, or 

 they will starve to death. 



Take a map of the world, and put the pointer on 

 the thought-centers; where are they? The United 

 States, with only the thumb of one hand and the tip 

 of one finger reaching below the 30th parallel of 

 north latitude. Look at Europe; where are the cen- 

 ters of thought and of action there? England. But 

 Lizard's Point is only just down to the line chat cuts 

 Canada from the United States. Germany, which 

 holds in her hands the destinies of Europe, has eve- 

 ry inch of her area north of the 45th parallel. 



As I take it, there is a great spiritual lesson in this 

 map of the world. What does it say to us? It says 

 that ice and snow and cold make men rugged; that 



