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GLEANINGS from A WORLD-WIDE HELD
FATHER OF ROBERT BURDETTE DEAD.
F. E. Burdette, the gray-haired patriarch who gave
to the world such an illustrious son in the person of
Rev. Robert J. Burdette, pastor emeritus of the
White Temple, Los Angeles, is dead. He had reached
his ninetieth ihilestone ere the Death Angel slipped
the draw-bridge from beneath his tottering feet and
rowed his tired sp'rit across the mystical river. Mr.
Burdette died in Chicago and was interred at Peoria,
111. The hearts of thousands go out in tender sym
pathy to the bereaved son.
DEMOCRACY SPREADS TO SWITZERLAND.
The canton of Basel, Switzerland, has cast a vote
of 7,413 for to 1,036 against the separation of church
and state. Generous provisions are made in regard
to church property and the continuation of pensons
now in force. Salaried clergy are to be employed
for state hospitals and prisons. The change is said
to be welcomed by all religious bodies except the
Roman Catholics, who form a small minority.
A SWORDLESS REVOLUTION.
The Record of Christian Work gives a striking
biographical sketch of the late Christian missionary
to Moravia. Hagenauer, faithful and devoted, started,
in 1856, to evangelize the Bush People of Australia —
a people so degraded that Charles Kingsley de
scribed them as “poor animals in human form, who
simply can not be reached by the Gospel. They, as
other wild creatures, must perish from the earth.”
Hagenauer and his colleague, Spiescke, were not
daunted, however. They established their station,
Ebenezer, and later that of Ramahyak, in Victoria.
Their first convert was baptized in 1860. He sa’d
that one day, in passing to the river for water, he
was so overcome with the thought of the Gethsemane
sufferings for his sins that he then and there gave
his heart to Christ. Others were converted, and
gradually a neat, orderly village arose, with good
homes, supplied with furniture, sewing machines and
house organs —all bought with the products of their
industry. The school developed so markedly that on
one visit from the national inspector it was given
the highest rank among the 1,500 common schools of
Australia.
“THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYR SHALL BECOME
THE SEED OF THE CHURCH.
The truth of God’s Word has been fully vindicated
in at least one recent instance. In Grammont, Bel
gium, in the year 1566, a gathering of Christians was
attacked by the agents of the Inquisition. Twelve
were hewn down, twenty-two hanged and thirty
scourged. Thus was Grammont Protestantism
stamped out. In 1853, after nearly three hundred
years, the Belgian Mission Church again attempted to
start evangelical services in the place. The owner
of the house in which the meetings were held came
home staggering and deadly wounded one night
shortly after. He died in an hour, and nobody ever
knew whose knife dealt him the blow. The few
Christians in Grammont left the place, and again
Protestantism was stifled in blood. Another half
century has passed, and the seed has once more
sprung up, and Grammont has at last an evangelical
church. The first person to attend was the widow of
the Protestant who was so wickedly murdered in
1853.
• - X. i t
*
. ... BURNING THEIR HEATHEN RELICS.
A first real jungle trip must be full of novel expe
riences, to say the least. Mr. Cope, of Haka, Burma,
made his first long trip in February and March
through territory among the Chin Hills that had
n.ever been v'sited before by a missionary. Most of
the villages-which he visited were so small that the
whole population came to the meetings. Often he
was the guest of the village chief, and everywhere
he was received kindly, the people showing so much
interest in him and his message that they came even
after he had retired at night to hear more and ask
questions. A week after visiting one of these vil
lages a delegation came asking him to return, as
there were nine houses ready to give up their
heathen worsh’p. Mr. Cope says: “It was interest
ing to watch them throw out. their skulls and other
. relics of heathenism to be burned the next day. It
reminded cne of the burning of the books at Ephe-
The Golden Age for August 11, 1910.
sus. We hope in a few months to baptize thirty peo
ple in that village.”—Baptist Commonwealth.
BIBLES AS TEXT-BOOKS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
BARRED IN ILLINOIS.
By a decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, the
Bible is barred from the public schools of that State.
Among other things, the court says:
“The pupils can not hear the Scriptures read with
out being instructed as to the divinity of Jesus Christ,
the Trinity, the resurrection, baptism, predestination,
a future state of punishment and rewards, the author
ity of the priesthood, the obligation and effect of the
sacraments, and many other doctrines about which
the various sects do not agree. Granting that in
struction on these subjects is desirable, yet the sects
do not agree on what instruction shall be given. Any
instruction on any one of the subjects is necessarily
sectarian, because, while it may be consistent with
the doctrines of one or many of the sects, it will bo
inconsistent with the doctrine of one or more of
them.”
Os course, at the bottom of this decision is the
doctrine of the separation of church and state, and
that doctrine, it seems to us, carries to an extreme
point. While we do not believe in a state church,
still ours claims to be a government of the people, by
the people and f?r the people; and it hardly seems
consistent with this for a small minority to bar from
the public schools the element of religious worship
that has existed. The reading of the Bible, the sing
ing of a hymn and the offering of a prayer are not
go ng to hurt any one.
W
TO “ONE OF THE LAST.”
Haydn, the famous composer, when a boy, was em
ployed by the organist of the cathedral at Vienna;
but when his voice broke, his master dismissed him
from the choir and afterwards turned him into the
streets. A poor musician of the name of Spangler
discovered him, and, though he himself lodged w ! th
his wife and children in a single room on the fifth
story, he offered the outcast Haydn a corner of his
garret and a seat at his table. Haydn, at a later
date, nobly repaid the kindness by appointing Spang
ler as the principal tenor s’nger in the chapel of the
Prince Esterhazy.
I?
HER DAILY RULE.
She was just a little woman, well trained in mas
sage, who went around all day giving treatments to
this one and that, and who was kept busy from
morning till night, so capable and pleasant a worker
was she. Always on time, always doing good work,
she was continually in demand. “How is it you never
seem to get cross or worried, Mary?” one of her girl
patrons asked her; and the reply was illuminating:
“Well, you see, Miss Lucy, before I start out in
the morning I just make a little prayer that my work
shall be all right, and that I shall do my very best.
I’ve never done a day’s work without the prayer
first, and it does help you through wonderfully.”
The girl listened. Also she felt ashamed. The
work she had to do was not often done in that spirit,
she realized. Mary’s rule made a different thing of
work —a thing placed and kept before God and done
as unto Him. With such a daily preparation, the
little worker was indeed certain to be on time and to
do her work cheerfully and well. It became a con
secrated thing, not a dull labor in the pursuit of dol
lars and cents. Mary made her dollars and cents,
but with a difference, a beautiful difference.
The little worker never knew how much she had
done for her patron that day. But the girl knew;
and now another prayer goes up every day, and an
other worker does her appointed tasks as unto God,
and not unto men. —Selected.
*
A TALKING MACHINE IN BURMA.
Every year in Shan land, Burma, the people cele
brate what they call the fourth month feast. This
year the natives of Mongnai made their festival more
elaborate than usual, and people from all the neigh
boring towns and from the mountains round about
flocked in great numbers to the place sacred to
Buddha, some miles out of the city, to celebrate the
holidays. Since there were people of half a dozen
different races and tribes assembled, some of whom
had never heard of the Christian religion before, this
festival offered a rare opportunity to the mission
aries to spread the Gospel. A unique device used in
collecting an audience was the talking machine. This
proved a great attraction to the natives, who began
to assemble before the missionaries’ tent early in
the morning. After two or three records in the
talking machine, the preacher, having gamed the
people’s attention, spoke to them for an hour or
more. Then more records were played and another
sermon was preached, and so on through the day till
late in the afternoon, when the crowd began to
break up into groups. This gave the missionaries a
chance to move about among them and engage in
friendly conversation while they tried to explain the
difference between the true religion and Buddhism.
In the evening the missionaries got out their magic
lantern and threw upon the screen many beautiful
colored views of the life of Christ, which held the
attention of the audience for hours and impressed
upon their minds the words they had heard during
the day. Many of them sought out the preacher
afterwards to hear more about the Christ, acknowl
edging the superiority of the Christian religion over
their own. And so many went back to their homes
thoughtfully, carrying with them the first news of a
Saviour.
it
MY CREED.
I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.
I would be a friend to all —the foe, the friendless;
I would be giving and forget the gift.
I would be humble, for I know my weaknesses.
I would look up—and laugh—and love —and lift.
—Harper’s Bazaar.
it
ONE STALK OF WHEAT.
A bell hangs in the church tower of the little town
of Grosslasnitz, in the north of Germany. On it is
engraved its history, a bas-relief representing a six
eared stalk of wheat, and the date, October 15, 1729.
A bell was needed in the v’llage, because the one
already there was so low of tone that it could not be
heard at the end of the town. But the people were
so poor that their united offerings did not amount to
nearly enough.
One Sunday, when the schoolmaster, Gotfried
Hahn, was going to church, he noticed a flourishing
green stalk of wheat growing out of the church yard
wall, the seed of which must have been dropped by
some passing bird. The thought came to him that
perhaps this one stalk of wheat could be the means
of getting the bell they wanted so much.
He waited till the wheat was ripe, and then
plucked the six ears and sowed them in his own gar
den. The next year he gathered the little crop thus
produced and sowed it year after year; then he di
vided the seed among a certain number of farmers,
who went on sowing it, until, in the eight years, the
crop was so large they had enough money to buy a
beautiful bell.
And there it hangs, with its story* and its birthday
engraved upon it, and above the legend a cast of the
wheat stalk to which the bell owes its existence. —
Exchange. ~
X X
t WANTED —One young t
t X
t man or young lady in each t
t town in the South —perma- +
t nent employment, good t
t pay. Write us at once. t
t Address, Miss Dora O’Neill, :
t 814 Austell Bldg., Atlanta, i
t Georgia. t
Mill,. Mint,l unit ttMirmnutj
