622 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE, 



Dec. 



of self-sacrifice is so foreign and opposite 

 to tliat of selfishness, that there must ever 

 be war between the two elements. An old 

 friend said, a few days ago, that whisky 

 would be drank, in spite of temperance peo- 

 ple, just as long as it '' tastes good." I fear 

 there is a great truth there. We have those 

 among us who will drink any thing that 

 '■'■ tastes good," no matter what the conse- 

 quences are, and no matter what it d' es to 

 other people. I once heard of a steamboat 

 accident on the Oliio River, where the num- 

 ber of planks and floats was insuthcieut to 

 keep all the passengers above water until 

 help could be obtained A great strong bur- 

 ly man knocked a poor weak woman from a 

 plank, that he might have it to save his own 

 life. What do you suppose that man did 

 when he got ashoreV lie saved his life, did 

 he? Jesus said, "• He that saveth his life 

 shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for 

 my sake, shall find it." My friend, do you 

 want to be one with Jesus and his followers, 

 or with those like the man in the river? I 

 fear it must be either one or the other. " He 

 that is not for me is against me." 



Jesus told Pilate that he came into the 

 world to bear witness unto the truth. His 

 kingdom is truth in the hearts of men. 

 He who would be a true man must not be a 

 selfish one. Truth and selfi.'>hness can not 

 go together. If I mistake not, the greater 

 part of untruth comes from selfishness. 

 When a man coolly decides to muke self 

 foremost and first, he lets go of truth. Men 

 addicted to periodical intemperance are oft- 

 en truthfnl, frank, and honest, until tliey 

 yield to temptation, and then their honesty, 

 as well as honor, is all gone. They have 

 dropped all love to God and their fellow- 

 men, or at least they have made it second- 

 ary, and made self foremost. Those famil- 

 iar with such people can tell in an instant 

 when God and self-respect has gone out and 

 self and Satan has come in. Even if they 

 have not signed any pledge, nor promised 

 anybody they will not drink any more, it is 

 almost impossible for an intemperate man to 

 have even a shade of honesty. It is the 

 same when we do violence to our honest 

 convictions in the indulgence of any thing 

 else we know to be a sin. The disposition 

 to hide our infirmity is in itself a sort of 

 falsehood. We are anxious that the world 

 may think us what we are not. Adam and 

 Eve stood in the garden honest and pure be- 

 fore God. It was only afier they had sinned 

 that they had any anxiety to hide in the 

 bushes, or to cover themselves with lig 

 leaves. Dear reader, is there any thing ia 

 your life that you are anxious to cover up, 

 or that you fear to have the clear daylight of 

 truth shine on? 



Jesus came into the world to bear witness 

 to the truth. All who love simplicity and 

 truth must love the gentle spirit with which 

 he taught, and must love him. Any one 

 who loves truth, and hungers and thirsts aft- 

 er righteousness and puiity. must love to 

 study the life and character of Jesus. Just 

 after our text we rend, '•'• Every one that is of 

 the truth heareth my voice." I believe there 

 are no exceptions to this. Most of you know 

 how imperfect is humanity ; you know how 



you have to make allowances for even your 

 best friends. You know how rare it is to find 

 one who is always pei fectly fair, especially 

 when he gets a littlestirred up and contrary. 

 Well, now, if there were in the world a per- 

 fect character, one without even a shade of 

 selfishness and prevarication, would you 

 know that person when you saw him? would 

 you recognize Christ as the Messiah, if you 

 should meet him in the world? 



"Every one that is of the truth heareth my 

 voice." Those who wanted to find him would 

 find him at once: and those who wish to find 

 him to-day, dear friends, will surely find him, 

 and hear his voice of entreaty too. The trou- 

 ble is, that we in our selfishness and untruth 

 do not always want to find him. There are 

 at least times in the lives of most of us when 

 his presence would be such a rebuke that we 

 would want to hide in the bushes, as did 

 poor guilty Adam and Eve. May God help 

 us to guard well against such times as these! 



When Jesus said he came into the world 

 to bear witness to the truth, Pilate replied 

 by asking. " What is truth?" I don't think 

 Pilate wanted any information in regard to 

 what truth is ; but his uneasy, guilty con- 

 science, prompted him to make the remark in 

 a soit of evasive way. We often see this 

 spirit among intemperate men. They would 

 very much rather argue about things in the 

 abstract, than to consider the glaring sins 

 right square bel'ore them. I remonstrated 

 with a distinguished surgeon because he 

 used oaths right before a company of boys. 

 " What is blasphemy? " said he ; " it de- 

 pends upon what a man means by the term." 

 He knew he was guilty, but he was too proud 

 to acknowledge it, and so he tried in a weak 

 way to defend himself. Such arguing and 

 prevaricating is very common ; but, friends, 

 do you luit realize how very far it is from 

 simple, honest truth ? Consider tlie charac- 

 ter of people who tluis evade, as a whole. 

 Both Pilate and this great doctor were pro- 

 bably guilty men at heart, and, what was the 

 worst part'of it, they deliberately proposed 

 to be guilty, and to go on so to the end of 

 then- lives. They had no sort of intention of 

 saying, " God have mercy on me a sinner," 

 and then making a sharp turn toward a bet- 

 ter life. A man who says by actions, if not 

 words, " ^Ve are all in for number one, and 

 every man must look out for himself," can 

 hardly have a shade of truth about him, for 

 he does not propose to be fair or just in the 

 outset ; and one of the first elements of truth 

 is fairness. 



Now, it was among a people like this, or 

 largely of this element, that Jesus came to 

 establish his kingdom. " Blessed are the 

 meek," he said, " for they shall inherit the 

 earth." The other class can't well inherit 

 the earth, for tlieir selfishness would destroy 

 it, and themselves ahmg with it. Shortly 

 before our Savior's death on the cross, he 

 was praying for liis disciples. Poor weak 

 fellows like ourselves at this minute, they 

 little knew what was before them. He told 

 Peter that Satan desired to sift him like 

 wheat ; but notwithstanding this, Peter, in 

 his itmocence and self-confidence, calculated 

 that he alone was a match for Satan. How 

 did it turn out ? Well, in this prayer for 



