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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



Our Homes. 



Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be 

 with your spirit. — Gal. 6:18. 



Last Sunday evening it was my privilege to 

 listen to a sermon by the Rev. A. T. Reed. It 

 was under the preaching of Bro. Reed, through 

 God's providence, that I was first brought to 

 the light of the gospel of Christ Jesus: and I 

 presume the very tones of his voice will ever- 

 more appeal to me in a way that no other voice 

 can or will. Dear friends, where is the good 

 pastor who brought i/om from the darkness of 

 unbelief out into the light? Do not forget him. 

 If he is so far away that you can not go and 

 hear him preach, send him some little reminder 

 of your gratitude and kind memories, say once 

 a year at least. It will do you good, and it will 

 do him good. But I must riot digress. 



Bro. Reed is now an evangelist. He may 

 come into your neighborhood. If so, do not 

 neglect to hear him and give him an encourag- 

 ing word. I told him at the close of his talk 

 that I was eoing to take his sermon for one of 

 my Home Papers. It would not be exactly his 

 sermon, after all. because it will be after A. I. 

 Root, although the orisinal thoughts for the 

 most part belong to A. T. Reed. 



The subject was grace; but in contrasting it 

 with law, a good part of the sermon might be 

 said to concern law as well as grace. A young 

 lady once asked him to define grace. He 

 thought a moment, and then replied that the 

 Bible itself gave about the best definition of 

 grace he had ever seen. It is in the 15th chap- 

 ter of Luke. The younger son became impa- 

 tient of parental restraint, and begged for his 

 portion, and went away, as you all know, and 

 spent it in riotous living. When his money 

 was all gone, he came home again, as you all 

 know. We do not know how he looked; but 

 probably his face showed the marks of his dis- 

 sipation and excesses. Very likely, with blood- 

 shot and bloated face, and ragged clothing, he 

 decided to go back to his father. Perhaps he 

 recognizes how kind his father had been, even 

 giving him the money that he did not deserve 

 (and which was notjustlv his own), to go off 

 and do as he had done. He had come to him- 

 self sufficiently to decide that he is no more 

 worthy to be called a son. He is simply going 

 to petition, as one of the hired servants. You 

 know the outcome. The broken-hearted old 

 father saw him when he was yet a great way 

 off, and he did not even wait for him to come up. 

 He ran to him. and broke the boy down com- 

 pletely by falling on his neck and kissing him. 

 The poor wretched son manages to say. in 

 broken sentences. " I am no more worthy to be 

 called thy son." The father does not heed this 

 at all. howpver. He calls to the attendants 

 who have followed after him, and bids them 

 bring the very best things to be had in the 

 house; thev take off his tattered and dirty 

 clothing: give him the best robe, put a ring on 

 his hand, and shoes on his feet; then they go 

 and get the fatted calf: " for this ray son was 

 dead, and is alive again: he was lo«t. and is 

 found." Not a word is said ahont his past de- 

 linquencies which he had vainly tried to con- 

 fess: not a word is said in regard to the prob- 

 ability of his going off again on just such a 

 another " spree." It is all forgotten and for- 

 given in the joy of having bank again the' one 

 whom he had long mourned for as dead, or 

 worse than dead. This, my friends, is a pic- 

 ture of grace. It is a very good picture indeed 

 of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ 

 and his gospel. 



Thousands are ready to say, "This is my re- 

 ligion; this is what I believe in. Gentleness 

 and kindness will save the world." Hold on a 

 little. Let us turn back to the 15th chapter of 

 Numbers. Here we have a little story that is 

 often quoted by those who would ridicule or 

 make sport of the Holy Bible. They say that 

 a man was put to death simply for gathering a 

 few sticks on the sabbath. In fact, we read, in 

 the 36th verse. "All the congregation brought 

 him without the camp, and stoned him with 

 stone-*, and he died; as the Lord commanded 

 Moses." 



You will notice that it ends up by saying, 

 "As the Lord commanded Moses." 1 confess 

 this passage has always been a hard one for me 

 to understand. At the time of my conversion I 

 was obliged to put it aside, with a good many 

 others of a like character, hoping and trusting 

 that, at some future time, the Lord would see 

 fit to give me light on the subject. Bro. Reed 

 told us this was an example of law. A school- 

 teacher finds it necessary to forbid certain 

 things. Some rebellions pupil will often be 

 found who will go straightway and break the 

 rule almost as soon as it is made: then the rest 

 of the school look on and say, " What is the 

 master going to do now ?" It is a critical time. 

 What shall the teacher do ? 



As Mr. Reed was telling the story my mind 

 ran quickly back to the first school I ever 

 taught. When I commenced I believed in 

 grace, and succeeded in gaining the respect and 

 good will of at least the most of my pupils, and 

 they were making excellent progress. Toward 

 the close of the term, however, whispering and 

 talking became so prevalent in that country 

 school that I knew something would have to be 

 done. I talked with my pupils good-naturedly, 

 and plead with them earnestly, and finally, as a 

 last resort, gave notice that, after a certain 

 time. I expected all communications during 

 the hours of study wotxld be stopped A young 

 man of nearly my own age. and my superior in 

 weight and muscle, whispered to his next 

 neighbor almost as soon as I had laid down the 

 rule. I took him to task. He admitted he had 

 broken the rule, and finally told me then and 

 there that I was "not man enough " to teach 

 that school, anyhow. The most unpleasant 

 part of it was that he had told the truth. I 

 was obliged to agree with him— at least to this 

 extent: Before that. I had not heretofore 

 shown enough manliness together with grace 

 and mercy. Boys and girls sometimes grow 

 from cliildhood to maturity in a very short 

 space of time. In the few minutes I stood be- 

 fore my defiant pupil I made some amazing 

 steps in growth from boyhood to manhood. Of 

 course, a good many of the pupils were on my 

 side: but the whole school was mentally taking 

 my dimensions. That young man. I presume, 

 will remember that day to the last day of his 

 life, and I certainly shall. I kept on with the 

 school, and by request taught a month longer 

 than the usual winter term. Not only was the 

 whispering stopped from that day forward, but 

 I was a different man. and a better man (in 

 many respects) from that time on. I was fore- 

 ed. as it were, into a crisis in my life. I hardly 

 need tell you. dear friends, that our whole na- 

 tion is going through just such experiences 

 almost everv day and every hour. If our laws 

 can be held up and enforced by grace and 

 mercy, all right: but if not, then hard, unyield- 

 ing law. with its iron bands and prison bars, 

 must do 'the work.' 



Complaint is often made that parents, teach- 

 ers, and even officers of the law. punish one 

 offender, while they let another go, when both 

 have committed the same offense. This is 



