1882 



GLEANINGS IN B^E CULTUEE. 



465 



could not drown the thoughts of the future 

 in drink, as men foolishly try to do some- 

 times. I opened the Bible and read,— 



Come unto me. all ye that labor and are heavy la- 

 den, and I will g-ivc you rest. Take my yoke upon 

 you, and learn of nie; for I am meek and lowly in 

 heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For 

 my yoke is easy, and my burden is liifht.— Matthew 

 11:28-30. 



lie had learned the same verses years ago 

 in the Siniday-school, but he never under- 

 stood their rneaning until now. I turned 

 the Bible and read to him in different places. 

 How bright and liopeful, and how full of 

 comfort seemed those words I they were so 

 to him, and so to me. Thank God there is 

 a haven of rest, always oi)en to such as he. 

 In his traveling about in that uneasy way he 

 had once sold Moody's " Best Thoughts and 

 Discoiu'ses," but he never read it, even 

 when he carried it about. Now lie could 

 read it, just as he could read his Bible. lie 

 even began to get glimpses, during that one 

 short Sunday evening, of the great truth, 

 that troubles, and this great trouble, are 

 sent by God in loving kindness. It was bet- 

 ter, far better, that he had been stopped by 

 these iron bars and stone walls. Even the 

 world's scorn would not harm, with Jesus by 

 his side. I told him more trials would come, 

 and that he would lind it hard work to hold 

 to the cross and lead a Christian life, but 

 that with each struggle and trial, would 

 come a corresponding reward, sooner or la- 

 ter. The sunshine that comes from the rifts 

 in the clouds through which we catch faint 

 glimpses of heaven, are all the brighter and 

 sweeter because of the dark clouds that liave 

 hovered over and threatened us for days, 

 and it may be weeks, past. 



"Friend II., which would make your 

 mother happier, to know that you had be- 

 come an earnest and humble Christian, or 

 that you had become President of the United 

 States V " 



" To know that I had become a humble and 

 earnest Christian." 



" And who is there in this world that is a 

 better friend of yours, or whose judgment is 

 wiser and truer, in matters that pertain to 

 your highest good, than your mother V " 



" No one." 



" Then by your own acknowlegment, my 

 friend, I present to you to-night, in this 

 prison, the offer of a position in the army of 

 the Lord, that is above and beyond any that 

 man can confer; for it gives you not only 

 peace and happiness here in tliis world, but 

 a crown of glory and eternal life in the world 

 to come." 



Dear reader, I extend to you the same of- 

 fer. It is not an offer coming from me, but 

 from God your Creator. The offer has been 

 open since the foiuidation of the world. It 

 is not an offer of an easy time, free from 

 hardships, but it is, on the contrary, a life 

 full of toil and care. It is a life full of dis- 

 agreeable duties, or duties that the w<jrld 

 may term such. It is a life full of perplexi- 

 ties and difficult places, where your way is a 

 great many times not plain ; but if you push 

 ahead as far as you can see, a way will be 

 always opened up to you, and yoii will event- 

 ually go on rejoicing. It is "a life wherein 

 you will often be called upon to approach. 



people you feel you want nothino- to do with 

 and, further still, you will be ci:Vlled upon to 

 "do good to those who hate you ;" but if 

 you push forward, you will find you go not 

 alone. If you evade any of these calls, or 

 shrink back from your duties and responsi- 

 bilities in a cowardly way, darkness and 

 doubt will come, for God wants none but the 

 true and the brave. The enemies you will 

 have to meet are i)rincipally those in your 

 own heart; and if you make them come 

 down imder your foot, you have little to fear 

 from any other. You may set it down, that 

 when any Christian has mitch difficulty with 

 his near neighbors, it is an indication that 

 these foes in his own heart are unconquered. 



Many times we are tempted to wish the 

 way God has laid out were not such a very 

 narrow as well as straight way. We chafe 

 against being hampered and pressed up 

 against so closely on all sides. And yet we 

 know by experience that there is no true 

 happiness except by holding close to the 

 promptings of that still small voice of con- 

 science. Tlie temptation is often very great 

 to waste a little time, instead of holding 

 on steadily to the duties we know ought not 

 to be neglected ; but we know by past expe- 

 rience, that this little indulgence brings a 

 lack of Christian peace and enjoyment, just 

 as a faithful holding-on to even tiresome 

 duties brings peace and happiness after the 

 task is over. The consciousness of some- 

 thing constantly on one's mind that ought 

 to be attended to, and yet is not, is anything 

 but a pleasant feeling, and yet how often we 

 do this, over and over ! 



To those who are already professing Chris- 

 tians, I would say. Do not be uneasy, if God 

 does not see tit to make your path clear and 

 plain. How much progress would a child 

 ever make in mathematics, if his teacher 

 should perform all the examples for him, or 

 spare him the mental labor and discipline he 

 would get from working them out for him- 

 self V How long would an inventor en- 

 joy his work, if the results he achieved were 

 not dug out, little by little, by hard labor V 

 Well, so it is in the task of building up Chris- 

 tian character. Difficitlties, and nothing 

 but difficulties, can give us the growth and 

 discipline that fit us to be useful here, and, 

 for aught I know, to be of use in the world 

 to come. Not that one should rush into dif- 

 ficulty, nor that he should by any means 

 bring dithculty upon himself; for one who 

 Avould do that could not be a Christian ; 

 but when, after doing the very best he 

 could, difficulties meet him, thick and fast, 

 he swerves not a particle, but, with a prayer 

 for help and guidance, braves it tln'ough. 

 Fight, if fighting seems to be the thing, but 

 let it all be done on the line of doing good 

 to those who hate you, and never for an in- 

 stant lose faith in the rules laid down by 

 our Savior for meeting and conquering evil. 



A few years ago, when our present facto- 

 ry was in process of building, one day as I 

 was going home to dinner, the weight of 

 cares and the number of difiiculties ahead 

 seemed so great as to be more than I could 

 bear. As I had the whole street to myself, I 

 talked aloud to God, and told him of my tri- 

 als, and plead with him to show me if it was 



