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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



NOY 



need it day by day, every day of our lives, 

 or we slip back again into indolence, de- 

 pravity, and death. Well might the old 

 prophet Isaiah say, as in our opening text, 

 "Awake, awake." To the Church of God, 

 the united people of God, were the words 

 addressed. " Awake, awake, put on thy 

 strength, O Zion." It is in the power of a 

 church to have strength, and it is in their 

 power to put on strength. May God help 

 us, when our churches are weak and their 

 members sinful ! How beautifully these 

 plaintive, pleading words are put ! I fear it 

 is now, as it was then, that our churches and 

 our Christian people have good reason to be 

 called sleepy and feeble. AVe need to awake, 

 and we need to arise in our strength, and we 

 need to put on the beautiful garments of 

 righteousness and purity before we can be 

 the messengers of Christ to a sinful world. 

 It was but last evening that I found these 

 beautiful words in my Bible, dear friends, or, 

 rather, it was but last evening that I flfst 

 noticed their meaning ; and although I have 

 read them many times, yet even when I read 

 them now they fall on my ear like music, 

 and like a calfcoming down from heaven to 

 a sinful world. 



"Awake, put on thy strength, O Zion ; put 

 on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem." 



Do you want to know what these words 

 mean to you, my friends? Are you loyal to 

 the Church, and are you holding to it with 

 all your might and mind? In olden times 

 God spoke to man direct ; but now he speaks 

 to us through our fellow-men. Through 

 them we see God ; and united together, it is 

 that we are to put on those beautiful gar- 

 ments. If there are things in the Church 

 that are bad, and you see it, and know of it, 

 the more need is there that you hold to it, 

 and remain among them, as I told you last 

 month. Divided, we should surely fall and 

 go to ruin ; but united, with God in our 

 midst, we shall stand through death and 

 eternity. 



In my recent visit to Columbus I had a 

 grand old visit with our friend Mr. Oldroyd. 

 I need hardly tell you that God has heard 

 his prayers, and that his pecuniary troubles 

 are almost if not quite at an end. Well, 

 during our visit something was said about 

 the act of withdrawing from a church. 



" Friend Oldroyd," said I, " did you ever 

 know of a case where a man became better, 

 or where any kind of good came from it, by 

 his withdrawing from the Church? " 



" Friend Boot, I have watched that thing 

 from a boy, and I can not remember a single 

 case where the one who withdrew did not, 

 from that day forward, go down." 



I think, my friends, that would be the tes- 

 timony of you all. The one who has stood 

 up for Christ can not withdraw without the 

 desolating process commencing — may be 

 very slowly at first, but soon it is like the 

 cottage in the wilderness, after the family 

 have moved out ; spiders and reptiles, and 

 all manner of unclean things, soon begin to 

 creep in. 



Suppose you feel you have grown cold, and 

 would like to awake and put on those beau- 

 tiful garments again that you had when first 

 you put yourself in .lesus' care. What is to 



be done? If you have " aught against your 

 brother," or are conscious of any transgres- 

 sion, of course that is to be attended to first 

 of all, and forgiveness asked. But suppose 

 there is nothing of this sort; what is to be 

 done? Suppose you have only become some- 

 what listless and indifferent in your religion, 

 what then? My friend, I would take the 

 text literally at first. Get up early Sunday 

 morning— just as early as you do week days. 

 Let the first move you make, even before 

 getting dressed, be to kneel down and ask 

 God's blessing on the duties of the day. 

 Now, if you haven't had a bath the night 

 before, make yourself as clean as you well 

 can be. Attend to all needful duties, and 

 never think of letting stock, children, or 

 neighbors, or any thing else, be neglected 

 because it is Sunday. Do every thing your 

 conscience tells you ought to be done, and do 

 it well and faithfully, in a way that a Chris- 

 tian ought always to do. While you shun 

 the appearance of evil as far as may be, use 

 good common sense. Necessary work being 

 done, put on your best garments, and make 

 yourself as pleasing to the eyes of your 

 friends (consistently) as you know how, and 

 you will be pretty sure to feel you are pleas- 

 ing in God's sight. Now study your Sun- 

 day-school lesson thoroughly. Of course, 

 yoii have a Sunday-school lesson, if you are 

 in the army of the Lord, no matter who you 

 are, nor your age, sex, and condition. Read 

 the lesson, and talk about it with the whole 

 family, and spare no pains in getting all to- 

 gether to Sunday-morning prayers. Don't 

 hinder anybody by making this exercise 

 lengthy, but do your level best to make it 

 all so lively and interesting that it will be no 

 task to get the children and all to come and 

 kneel down with the rest. Do not have the 

 prayer long, but have it so the children will 

 never urge, as an excuse for being away, 

 that they know already just what you will 

 pray about. Now get up from your knees, 

 and pitch right in and help everybody who 

 may be late in getting ready for church. 

 Make yourself really useful. Don't have any 

 loitering, loafing, or talking about the neigh- 

 bors around your home, on Sunday morning. 

 Bend your whole energies toward getting all 

 hands to go to church. After you have got 

 your own family ready, see if there isn't a 

 neighbor's child you can take along. 



"Awake, put on thy strength ; " and if 

 everybody else who goes to your church does 

 likewise, you will fulfill the command of the 

 old prophet pretty thoroughly, in your neigh- 

 borhood. When you are at church, give the 

 minister your whole attention, as completely 

 as you would the doctor if he were telling 

 you about the health of one of your children 

 whose symptoms were alarming. I do not 

 believe there would be very much danger, at 

 such a time, of letting your thoughts wan- 

 der off on crops, and affairs of business, 

 while the doctor was speaking. There is no 

 need now for any one to say they can't help 

 their thoughts, for that day and age are 

 gone. You are responsible for what you 

 think aboiit, very much as you are what you 

 read about. Listen to the sermon. When 

 church is over, stay to the Sabbath-school, 

 and take hold and help as you would if they 



