1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



137 



taken a big step from earth toward heaven. 

 Such a man will also be wanted right and left 

 to till important positions among his fellow- 

 men. He has commenced to rule himself, rec- 

 ognizing that ■■ be that ruleth his own spirit is 

 greater than he that taketh a city." Now. tbe 

 groundwork toward getting this upper hand of 

 evil is in recognizing and admitting that 

 humanity, alone and unaided, is entirely inad- 

 equate to cope with Satan. You will notice 

 the attitude is very, very different from that of 

 the one who says. "lean drink or I can let it 

 alone. No doubt it is well for some people to 

 let the thing entirely alone, because they are 

 ivenk. But I can take care of myself." My 

 friends, the human being does not live, and 

 never did live, who could take care of himself 

 under all circumstances without the help of 

 any higher power. Our penitentiai'ies are full 

 of men — yes. even young men: and 1 am told 

 that the majority of them are young men who 

 boasted that they could go just so far in gam- 

 bling, drink, licentiousness, or other crimes, 

 and no further. In other words, they did not 

 believe the proposition presented in our text. 

 that, just as soon as one commits sin — even a 

 little sin— he is the servant of sin. and in the 

 bondage of sin. An illustration of what I have 

 been saying was presented vividly to my mind 

 a few days ago by the confession of a poor pen- 

 itent sinner in our county jail. 



When I first found him lie was very reserved, 

 j.nd seemed to dislike my questioning. He 

 smoked his pipe and read the new spaper, and 

 answered me in the briefest monosyllables. I 

 made up my mind he was a man who had no 

 acquaintance with Christianity and Christian 

 people — one who had probably been much with 

 a rough, hard set. and. therefore, he had no 

 relish for the conversation between myself and 

 his fellow-prisoners. Sunday after Sunday he 

 maintained this same reserve. I concluded that 

 he was bearing some burden on his mind that 

 he was unwilling to confess. I asked him about 

 his wife, children, and relatives; but he replied 

 very briefly. I felt pretty sure, from my former 

 experience, that the time would come, however, 

 when he would talk. Close confinement, espe- 

 cially where it comes to be solitary confinement, 

 is pretty sure to soften, sooner or later, the most 

 stubborn heart. When the story came out, it 

 was something like this: 



This poor man is a farmer; and he knew well 

 what it is to try to make farming pay on rented 

 land. He was fitting ground for a piece of 

 wheat. It was already in good trim, but he 

 had no wheat to sow, and no money to buy any 

 seed. It was just here that Satan found a 

 chance to whisper to one who had heretofore, 

 so far as I could learn, been at least fairly hon- 

 est and upright among his fellows. Near by 

 there were some bags of wheat stored in an old 

 log barn. The owner was well-to-do. and did 

 not look after his property very carefully. But 

 my friend finally yielded to the temptation, and 

 took wheat enough from this old barn to get in 

 his crop. It has always seemed to me as though 

 sowing whea' were one of the nicest things to 

 do on a farm. I like to sow seeds of any kind, 

 but I especially enjoy putting in autumn crops 

 that will soon look green and thrifty while 

 every thing else speaks of death and decay. I 

 like to see the wheat when it first pierces the 

 surface of the mellow soil; and I like to watch 

 it day by day as it shoots up the blade and puts 

 out the root that it may get sufficient hold in 

 the soil to stand the wintry frosts and the zero 

 freezes. Very likely our friend enjoyed his 

 work as much as I do. ordinarily. But there 

 was no enjoyment in putting in his crop f/ti^ 

 time. No doubt he planned to replace the 

 wheat, or settle with the owner, or something 



of that sort, after he had got his crop in on time. 

 But after the act was done, Satan kept whis- 

 pering that the man was a terribly hard and 

 severe man, and that, if he confessed he had 

 taken tlu> wheat wilhfiut, any sort of permission, 

 he would be puniylied to the full extent of the 

 law: and so he put it off. bearing the burden of 

 sin and guilt and remorse that was harder to 

 bear than any thing in all his experience he 

 had ever been called upon to bear before. He 

 lay awake nights, and went about in a dazed 

 sort of way during the day. Of course, he 

 could not tell his wife — or. ai least, he thoiigJit 

 he could not. Oh what a foolish blunder! He 

 had lost his good sense and reason; his judg- 

 ment was impaired; but had he decided to con- 

 fess the whole matter to his good wife, she 

 could have told him what' to do. for s/jc had 

 committed no such sin or crime. Poor fellow! 

 he could not do it. Had he only reasoned fairly 

 he would have seen that, at the present low 

 price of wheat, the few bushels he had taken 

 amounted to only a very little sum of luoney, 

 after all. If the owner of the wheat were ever 

 so hard and severe, the penalty for his theft, 

 according to law, would not have been any 

 thing serious; but Satan persuaded him that it 

 would never do to confess it and unload the 

 burden from his heart. On the contrary, he 

 kept urging his poor victim luitil he got him 

 into a far more serious trouble. This old log 

 barn was off by itself, and it could beset on fire, 

 and burned up— then no one would know that 

 the wheat had ever been taken at all. After 

 more sleepless nights and weary days he yield- 

 ed to the temptation, and bprned the building. 

 Of course, an investigation followed at once; 

 and then it transpired that the poor goaded 

 victim of unrest had forgotten to restore a por- 

 tion of the wheat that he had taken away but 

 had not sown. The owner's name was found 

 on the bags, and one clew followed another, 

 until his guilt was so clear that he was sent to 

 jail. Like many another, however, Satan per- 

 suaded him to keep denying his guilt, even if it 

 were folly to deny it any further. I met him 

 shortly after he had. after a long conflict, 

 decided to plead guilty. The consequences 

 were, of course, the penitentiary. But even 

 the thought of the penitentiary, and separation 

 from his wife and child, was so much easier 

 than bearing that awful burden of guilt that 

 his countenance brightened up. and he even 

 laughed and talked so unlike his former self, I 

 could hardly believe him to be the same man. 



dear friends! does anybody know what a 

 clear conscience is wort/if No one knows until 

 he has exchanged it for such a burden of guilt. 



1 presume his natural disposition was to be 

 pleasant, good-natured, aud full of animal 

 spirits. This guilt that had rested on his soul 

 had borne him down so long that, when the 

 reaction came, it was like getting out of prison. 

 It almost brought tears to my eyes to hear him. 

 in his poor way, tell how he had suffered, and 

 to see him contemplate the penitentiary and 

 separation from his home in the light-hearted 

 way in which he did. But he was right. The 

 punishment of the law is as nothing compared 

 to the remorse of a guilty conscience. He had 

 been in bondage to Satan: but had shaken off 

 the chains of the demon, and he was now free. 

 "If the Son. therefore, shall make yon free, ye 

 shall be free indeed." 



While I had tieen talking and exhorting, and 

 reading the Bible to him, without, so far as 1 

 could see, having enlisted his sympathies at all, 

 the spirit of God's holy word had been doing its 

 work. Said I, •' And now, my good friend, are 

 you not almost ready to choose Christ Jesus, 

 instead of the evil one, and to become a Chris- 

 tian ?" 



