1882 



(JLEAJNINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



253 



§ur tcnm. 



The woman whom thou g-.ivest to be with me, she 

 gave me of the tree, and 1 did eat.— Gen. 3: 13. 



!'HEN' Adam was placed in the beauti- 

 ful garden of Etlen, and told that it 

 was all his own to care for and look 

 after, he was probably very happy. If he 

 was not a child in stature, he was at least a 

 child of the childhood of humanity, and we 

 can imagine him going about in the garden 

 in almost childish glee,"as he named the ani- 

 mals, and wandered here and there, eating 

 of the fruits of the trees, and seeing new 

 sights day by day. Without sin, with a clear 

 conscience, and the innocence of childhood, 

 his life was one long holiday; and with the 

 great God, who made all, for his best friend, 

 what more could he ask forV Perhaps he 

 did not ask for any thing ; but his kind Fa- 

 ther above, who, out of his great love for 

 this child of his was still working so as to 

 best conduce to his needs and happiness, 

 saw that he needed companionship. lie 

 lacked a playmate. As Adam had never had 

 a playmate, he probably knew nothing of the 

 new happiness that was in store for him un- 

 til his eyes first rested on a beautiful little 

 girl, or,"if you choose, a beautiful little wo- 

 man. In spite of what happened afterward, 

 I am inclined to think Adam loved her at: 

 first sight. He was surely as capable as any 

 of us of appreciating all that is good and 

 pure and lovely ; and I can imagine that 

 Eve, on the day when she was first intro- 

 duced to Adam as his companion in the gar- 

 den, was as pleasing in his eyes as was ever 

 woman in the eye of man since her time. 

 No lovers' quarrels, no memory of unkind 

 words, marred the feeling they had toward 

 each other; and no doubt her smile was as 

 pretty, that morning, as were those of the 

 woman whom God gave you, my friend, when 

 you first learned to know and love her. Oh 

 how I should like to know that Adam, on 

 bended knee that first day, thanked God for 

 the great and priceless boon he had given 

 him ! If it would be strictly orthodox, I 

 should like to suggest, that, had he done so, 

 there would never have been any trouble. 



Have you, dear reader, ever thanked God 

 for the woman he has given youV If you 

 haven't, and have any faith in my ability to 

 guide, do so now. You can do so as you 

 kneel by her side at night, before retiring to 

 rest, if you choose ; but besides putting it in 

 words, let yenr actions say every day and 

 every hour, that you thank God for the wo- 

 man he has given you. If she has faults and 

 failings, thank God all the more, not for her 

 faults and failings, but because to you he 

 has given the task to bear with them, and to 

 win her to better things. You love her as, 

 no one else does ; therefore you can bear it 

 better than anybody else. If you don't love 

 her as you once did, by God's help get back 

 that love. Y'ou have no more business let- 

 ting that loVe wane, or grow cold, than you 

 have to lose your love for your right hand. 

 Y'ou have no more business to neglect her 

 than you have to neglect your right hand, 

 and let it get burned or frozen. In fact, you 



have not as much right ; for it is your busi- 

 ness to endure fire and frost, rather than to 

 let her suffer pain or needless trial. God 

 gave her to you, and he will hold you re- 

 sponsible. Neglect her, at your peril. Love 

 and cherish her, and God will send you great 

 happiness ; neglect her, and you will be un- 

 happy, dissatisfied with yourself and all the 

 world, and possibly without knowing why 

 either. 



Never trust a man who speaks ill of his 

 wife. Several ye;'rs ago our pastor asked 

 me to conduct the weekly prayer-meeting 

 during his absence. I was young in the 

 Lord's service, and felt it quite a privilege. 

 Of course, I exhorted to repentance, just as 

 I do now ; but I was then a little more sure 

 tliat everybody who gets up and speaks in 

 meeting will hold out, than I now am. To- 

 w'^ard the close of the meeting a man arose, 

 and tried to say he wanted to be a Christian, 

 but broke down, and, amid sobs, declared it 

 was his purpose to serve the Lord. Of 

 course, I at once concluded it was the effect 

 of the earnest way I had been putting the 

 matter, and inwardly thanked God that he 

 had paid me the great honor of permitting 

 me to lead a soul to the kingdom. It is true, 

 the man did, in his confession, say that he 

 had a very hard time of it at home (poor fel- 

 low!) because his wife was a hard, bitter 

 skeptic, and he asked praj^ers for her. I 

 talked with him about her after the meeting 

 was over, and proposed to go and see her, for 

 I had never yet met a woman who was not at 

 least open to conviction on the subject. He 

 objected, saying it would do no good, for she 

 would not talk reasonably on the subject, 

 nor even tolerate prayer in the house. He 

 did not come to meeting any more ; and as 

 I met him occasionally, I exhorted him to 

 come along and unite publicly with Chris- 

 tian people. One of the excuses he gave 

 was that our pastor had never called on him, 

 nor given him any encouragement, and, in 

 fact, I was the only one who had paid any 

 attention to him at all. Y''ou see, like Adam 

 of old he first complained of the woman God 

 gave him, next of the pastor of the church, 

 indirectly of those who were present the day 

 he spoke in meeting, and it bordered so 

 closely on complaining of the Church and 

 Christian people in general, that I was be- 

 ginning to wonder if 1 were not the only real 

 live Cliristian there was anywhere around. 

 The Murphy meetings started up, and he 

 went out with us as a speaker ; but I noticed, 

 and felt a little troubled about it, that he 

 was more given to exhorting other people to 

 repent of their sins, than to allude to the 

 fact that he, too, was a sinner. I inquired a 

 little about him, and asked why none of our 

 Christian ladies had called on him or his 

 wife. Something like this was repeated to 

 me. I do not give it as gossip, but that you 

 may know what to think of a man who gets 

 up "in meeting and complains that he isn't a 

 Christian, because of '' tlie woman thou gav- 

 est me." It seems he had gone to a picnic, 

 or something of that sort, down to the lake ; 

 and instead of taking his wife, as any man 

 would be expected to love to do, he took 

 some other woman. His wife heard of it, 

 got a horse and buggy at the livery stable at 



