25i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUilE. 



May 



his expense, went down to the lake too, and 

 took the baby along. When she found them 

 sitting down enjoying the breeze and the 

 scenery, thinking no harm to anybody I pre- 

 sume, she just went up and planted his baby 

 ill his lap, and drove off home. It was an 

 awful wicked thing for her to do ; but you 

 know she was a skeptic, and didn't believe 

 in the Bible a.s he did. 



Time passed. I heard reports that he had 

 been arrested somewhere out West, and 

 that, when arrested, he was a member of a 

 prominent church, in good standing, and en- 

 gaged to be married to one of the nicest girls 

 in the community ! I had hardly got over 

 the surprise at such a statement, before in 

 he came one day with his father. They 

 asked to see me alone; and as there wasn't 

 a quiet spot in our then cramped-up quar- 

 ters, I took him down by the engine in the 

 basement. He took a chair, and covered his 

 face with his hands. \^iile he shook as if 

 with the ague. His father said he had chills 

 and ague, but I thought, and think still, it 

 was the ague of a guilty conscience. 1 point- 

 ed him to the Lamb of God, who taketh 

 away the sin of the world ; but it seemed 

 to be hollow mockery, for he said he be- 

 lieved ia that, and told me he had been 

 trying hard to get away from his old asso- 

 ciations, and live the life of a good Chris- 

 tian man. My friend, you will never suc- 

 ceed in living a Christian, in any such way. 

 If there be any spot on earth that knows all 

 there is bad about you, that spot, above all 

 others, is just where you are to stay and live 

 it down. It is one of Satan's games, to per- 

 suade you that you can be better among 

 folks who don't know you, and with some 

 other than " the woman thou gavest me." I 

 didn't talk much to my friend then, for I 

 felt that I wanted to see him and his wife 

 together. She was living near his father, 

 several miles out in the country, and the 

 next Sunday, after Sabbath-school, I turned 

 the horse's head that way and arrived at the 

 place a little after dark. He was on the 

 lounge, and seemed quite uncommunicative. 

 I was much surprised, however, to hnd that 

 his wife was a very pleasant, ladylike wo- 

 man, and I could hardly understand how it 

 was possible she was the one who had threat- 

 ened anyone who should attempt to read the 

 Bible or offer up prayer in their home. I 

 had prayed on the way, that God might help 

 me to be faithful in tlie mission he sent me 

 on, and I determined to speak plainly, if 

 permission were granted me. To my great 

 surprise, she was ignorant of the charge 

 against her husband, and he had even con- 

 trived to keep the newspapers out of her 

 sight. I shall never forget the look of sur- 

 prise and pain on her face when it came out. 

 The only words sounding like reproach were 

 " Why, oh why, Fred, did you not tell me of 

 all this before ? " and she bowed her head in 

 anguish. He, too, covered his face with his 

 hands, but said nothing. The little home 

 was neat and tidy, and the children wei-e 

 well behaved and neatly attired, although 

 all around showed evidences of the need of 

 a father's care. Here she had been hard at 

 work, doing all she could to make both ends 

 meet, while he, the father of her children, 



was courting another girl, and talking in 

 meeting, may be, and exhorting "sinners" 

 to repentance. Strange indeed, was it not, 

 that his wife once threatened him, if he at- 

 tempted to ask a blessing at the table V 



I read a few verses from the Bible, and 

 she, with tlie children, knelt with me in 

 prayer. 



" Mr. Hoot," said she, " I have been wick- 

 ed, and said things I ought not ; may God 

 forgive me ! I tried not to do so, and I 

 wanted to be better, but I was goaded to it. 

 I do believe in the Bible, and I believe in 

 God ; and may he have mercy on a poor soul 

 in misery and trouble ! " 



She was the woman whom her husband 

 spoke of in meeting as a skeptic. Who was 

 the sinner and unbeliever, in the sight of 

 God ? Do you think her husband could ever 

 have made her a Christian by arguing the 

 matter? Whenever I hear tvvo individuals 

 arguing on the Bible or Christianity, I have 

 a sort of feeling that Satan will get them 

 both if they don't stop it and set right to 

 work liviiig the gospel. 



After Adam had sinned, he not only found 

 fault with his little companion whom God, 

 in his loving kindness, had given him, but 

 he, in a most seltish and unmanly way, tried 

 to lay the whole of the blame on her poor 

 frail shoulders. Not only this, but he in the 

 same breath reproaches God for not having 

 given him a better woman. The woman 

 whom thou gavest me, she it is who is to 

 blame for it all. We are Adam's children, 

 and I suspect we are liltle Adams now, and 

 shall be to the end of tlie chapter, unless we 

 accept of the blood of Cluist, and are born 

 again. My friend, did you ever know a per- 

 son who, when he had done wrong, did not 

 straightway try to tuck it off on somebody 

 else's shoulders V A'ery likely, too, they will 

 put it on some worn in,or somebody who can 

 not very well defend himself. Sin always 

 makes people unfair, and it makes them 

 cowardly. It makes them suspicious of and 

 abusive to their fellow-men, unreasonable in 

 their demands, and bitter and blasphemous 

 toward God. It all goes along together. If 

 your heart is not full of thanks toward God, 

 it is because you are sellish and wicked. 



Did you ever know of a person who was 

 always ready to bear his full share of the con- 

 sequences of all his wrong-doings, and a lit- 

 tle more ? They are very scarce, I assure 

 you, though some are a great deal more 

 ready than others. You all know how re- 

 freshing it is to have one own a fault, when 

 it is pointed out to him, and even to make 

 an acknowledgement, and express regrets 

 for the harm done. <^'ourteous words, in 

 themselves, often atone for sins of omission. 

 I fear we are every one of us remiss in the 

 little act of making a courteous apology, 

 When it would so often lighten the burdens 

 our friends have to bear. Neither is it 

 enough that we should bear our own bur- 

 dens ; for in doing all this, we should have a 

 sadly selfish world. We should stiive to do 

 it, and then besides,— 



Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the 

 law of Christ.— Gal. 6: 3. 



Sometimes, perhaps, you feel the world 

 has taken up and appropriated every thing 



