572 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CUETUllE. 



Nov. 



no man, my father had a new survey made, 

 in order to have the road before his house 

 made straight. Well, as other interested 

 parties preferred to have it crooked, the sur- 

 veyor's stakes were pulled up by night, and 

 so nothing was gained. Years passed, and 

 it was evident to his family that the fence 

 matter was robbing him of his peace of 

 mind. He used to dwell on it, and talk 

 about it. He would stop his work and talk 

 with neighbors as they passed by; and if 

 one came near enough to overhear, it was al- 

 ways the same old subject. We began to 

 fear that so much dwelling on it would af- 

 fect his mind, for he would recount the 

 whole story to visitors who came from a dis- 

 tance, and ask their opinion in regard to the 

 matter. 



The pastor of the church advised him to let 

 it go, and consider the acre of ground, more 

 or less, that he was lacking, as so much giv- 

 en to the Lord for the sake of peace. Right 

 is right, he insisted ; and when surveyors in- 

 timated that it was rather unusual to break 

 up old landmarks that had stood for such a 

 term of years, he felt hard toward them, be- 

 cause they were inclined to obey the spirit 

 of the law, rather than the letter. Father 

 was given to insisting that his children 

 should obey to the very letter, and I thank 

 God he was so ; but his stubborn will, when 

 he thought right was on his side, made him 

 much trouble during his life. It was not 

 long before he refused to commune with the 

 Church because they were more lenient with 

 some of its members than they should be. 

 He insisted they should strike his name from 

 the church-books ; but old and tried friends 

 gathered around him, and good-naturedly 

 coaxed him out of it. When it came com- 

 munion Sunday we plead with him, and 

 sometimes he would soften a little, and com- 

 mune with the Church; but next time he 

 was hard and severe again, and would at- 

 tend meeting at some of the other churches 

 when it was communion Sunday. We could 

 tell by his face when the hard spirit was up- 

 permost ; but it seemed almost in vain that 

 we plead and prayed for him. 1 told him, 

 that if he encouraged such feelings they 

 would grow on him, and that he would soon 

 have trouble in other matters besides about 

 the road. It happened as I said ; and as he 

 grew in years it seemed to me he grew more 

 exacting, and had less charity. When any- 

 body gets so determined on any thing, is it 

 any use trying to get them to relent V I re- 

 member pondering on the above, and I con- 

 fess my faith was getting weak. We could 

 sometimes coax him out of it, and he even 

 went so far as to shake hands with those 

 against whom he felt hard ; but he kept 

 slipping back into the hard spirit again, 

 although he continually kept up family wor- 

 ship. He was upright, and fair in deal, and 

 was loved and respected by a large circle of 

 neighbors ; but he lacked the spirit of our 

 IjOrd when any one suspected there was a 

 Judas among us. 



Communion Sunday seemed the great day 

 of conflict ; and, oh how mother did dread to 

 see him absent himself ! I remember one 

 day when he told the pastor that he would 

 have withdrawn from the Church long ago. 



had it not been for his companion (meaning 

 mother). 



"Brother Root," said the pastor, "your 

 good wife, with her bright faith, has pulled 

 you through many a danger here in this 

 world, and I hope and pray she may be the 

 means of taking you safely into the kingdom 

 of God, in the world to come." He smiled, 

 and, if I remember rightly, a tear glistened 

 in his eye as he replied briefly,— 



"Perhaps she will." 



One Sabbath afternoon, perhaps a year or 

 more before his death. I was disappointed in 

 the brother who promised to carry me to the 

 Abbeyville Sunday-school. I waited until 

 I could hardly have time to get there on 

 foot, my horse being gone, and then I start- 

 ed out on foot. The old homestead was just 

 half way, and I knew if I could get my eye 

 on father as I passed, he would get up the 

 buggy and take me that last half of the five 

 miles in a twinkling. He was out in the 

 barnyard, and I called to him. I don't be- 

 lieve' he has a son, or grandson either, 

 who could have got the horse out of the sta- 

 ble quicker than he did. I ran the buggy 

 out of the carriage-house, and we got to 

 Sunday-school in very fair time, after all. 

 On the way home I gave him a pretty severe 

 talk on the road matter, and urged, with all 

 my energy, arbitration. He had always de- 

 clined arbitration. I quoted the Bible, and 

 Christ's plain words on every point, tell- 

 ing him he was old, and his example before 

 a large family of children and grandchildren 

 might be a curse to them for years to come. 



" Father, do you want to see me using my 

 brains and money in law and quarreling, in- 

 stead of doing as I have for a few years 

 back?" 



"No." 



" Then set me a good example, and put 

 this whole matter in my hands, to be settled 

 by arbitration." 



The effect of the Sunday-school, the texts 

 the children had repeated, and other things, 

 perhaps, were telling on him more than I 

 had counted on, and, to my great joy, he 

 consented, and gave me the prooiise. 



"Now, father, let us finish it up now and 

 for ever. Who will be the arbitrators?" 



" Well, I do not know that I want any, 

 after all ;" and after he had once turned his 

 back on Satan he made swift headway back 

 to the Church, and back to his God. He 

 was never absent from communion after- 

 ward, and the last year of his life was char- 

 acterized by a childlike gentleness, and a 

 softening of his stern will that was in strong 

 contrast to his life of a few years before. 

 No more did we fear his mind might be af- 

 fected, for Satan's sway was over, and the 

 beautiful garment of meekness and charity 

 was his after that, until the day of his death. 



Despair not, my friends, even though you 

 have plead and urged and prayed. Human 

 nature does change when the spirit of the 

 Master is allowed to come in. Being pres- 

 ent at communion is but a simple matter of 

 itself, it would seem ; but when it comes to 

 be a test of loyalty to God and the Church, 

 life and death may be centered in it. I have 

 sometimes thought that indulging in hard- 

 ness of heart is a danger almost like intem- 



