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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



Now, I fear a good many friends think me 

 singular and cranky. Dear brothers and sis- 

 ters, I have been through some sad experiences 

 in this line. In my early business life, when it 

 was so fashionable to give prizes, I advertised a 

 gift 10 every customer who expended 25 cts. or 

 more at our store, and a silver watch was one 

 of the prizes. One day a genteel-looking man 

 asked me to put a glass in his watch. As I 

 received the pay I pushed a box of envelopes 

 toward him and asked him to take one. The 

 stranger drew the silver watch. He did not 

 comprehend the matter. When I explained it, 

 and pushed the watch toward him, he refused 

 to take it. I tried to make him understand 

 that it was honestly his. One of the street 

 boys who stood watching comprehended very 

 easily, and said, "Sir, if you do not want the 

 watch, I wish you would give me your chance. 

 ril take it mighty quick." 



The stranger replied, " Why. you can have it, 

 certainly, so far as I am concerned. I paid only 

 the usual price for having the glass put in my 

 watch, and I believe it is a good one, and, so 

 far as I can see. this is all I have to do with the 

 whole transaction." 



A third party who stood by replied: 



"My dear sir, since you have given your 

 chance away, and that boy has the watch, I do 

 not see but you are a party to the gambling 

 business, as you call it, just as much as if you 

 had received the watch and put it into your 

 own pocket." 



I can remember even yet the look of dismay 

 and sorrow that came to the good man's face. 

 He said something like this: 



"My friends, I am a minister of the gospel. 

 I have never before set foot inside of any kind 

 of gambling-place that I know of. I supposed 

 this was a watchmaker's store, and came in 

 here innocently. I admit that I have been led 

 into taking a chance in a lottery. Perhaps 

 that would be a better word for it. I am sorry 

 I ever came in here; but I certainly did not in- 

 tend to do any wrong." 



At that time I was not a church- member— far 

 from it. I had no faith in any thing unless it 

 was a kind of faith in a devout and praying 

 mother; and through her I had a sort of faith 

 in the religion she professed and lived out. But 

 this minister's words gave me a new glimpse of 

 this whole matter of lotteries, gifts, and things 

 of that sort. I destroyed my envelopes, put 

 away my prizes, and from that time forward I 

 have been content to secure business through 

 the ordinary channels, without the stimulus 

 of something very valuable to the lucky one, 

 and nothing to the others. 



Now, what has this to do with this scene of 

 the crucifixion? It has a bearing upon self and 

 selfishness in the human heart. People are 

 astonished even now to see a man refuse to 

 make use of an opportunity for saving himself, 

 or for getting gain when it comes before him, if 

 he can get the thing legally. The older readers 

 of Gleanings will remember my telling about 

 receiving a shipment of sugar. The railroad 

 company had made a mistake, and did not 

 charge me enough for the freight. I showed it 

 to the agent at our station, and he said: 



"Mr. Root, .I'ust let the matter drop. If they 

 discover it, of course we will correct it. But 

 take my advice, and let this matter balance up 

 some of the overcharges you have paid in times 

 past." 



I told him I could not let it pass that way. 

 On my direction he sent a tracer to correct the 

 charges. In a few days the reply came that 

 the charges were all right. But I saw by a 

 peculiar smile he gave me that he had manipu- 

 lated things so they would not understand I 

 wanted to pay them some money hack. The 



whole matter was so unusual and improbable, 

 that a customer should complain because he 

 had not paid enough money, that no one 

 thought of investigating on that other line. 

 I tried again to have the matter corrected, and 

 was finally told that, if I pushed things any 

 further, the clerk who make the blunder would 

 lose his situation— that he was a good man, 

 and had simply made a mistake, and that the 

 only right and Christianlike thing to do was to 

 keep the money right in my pocket, and keep 

 still. Friends and foes united in calling A. I. 

 Root a queer sort of crank because he was 

 determined to pay a railroad company more 

 money than they had already taken in a little 

 deal. Now, this looks as if I were puffing my- 

 self again. Some of you will know that this is 

 not what I am trying to get at. It happened a 

 good many years ago, when I was a bright 

 young Christian. May be I am not as honest 

 now; but the illustration is the very best one 

 that occurs to my mind. The same class of 

 people are around us now that were present at 

 the crucifixion. They laugh and make sport of 

 one who is so cranky that he refuses to take a 

 prize he has drawn in a lottery; and they look 

 in astonishment at a man who refuses to take 

 a bribe — call it a present if you choose — when 

 it is offered to him. A great part of the world 

 seem to be settling down to the conviction that, 

 practically speaking, there are no honest men. 

 Sometimes they admit there are a few excep- 

 tions. But if this scene were enacted over 

 again that took place about 1867 years ago, I 

 am afraid the verdict would be very much now 

 as it was then. People would say, " Do you 

 mean to tell me that the man who hangs there 

 suffering such excruciating agonies has the 

 power to come down and grind his enemies to 

 powder if he choose to use it? Not much. If 

 he could save himself, he would doit mighty 

 quick." And I could imagine the whole crowd 

 of faithless ones jeering and making sport of 

 one poor solitary person who should attempt to 

 defend the suffering Savior. The two thieves, 

 even amid their sufferings, we are told, took 

 part in this talk during that awful scene. 

 Mark savs. "And thev that were crucified with 

 him reviled him." Matthew says, in describing 

 the same event. "The thieves also, which were 

 crucified with him. cast the same in. his teeth;" 

 and this they did, even in their dying agony. 

 It only illustrates how an evil spirit, when it 

 has entered into the heart of a man. may cling 

 to him and urge him to curse and blaspheme, 

 even with the very last breath he draws. 



But now we come to a brighter feature — in 

 fact, to the only hopeful incident during the 

 whole sad transaction. One of the culprits 

 said, "If thou be the Christ, save thyself and 

 us." I do not think this poor culprit had any 

 comprehension that the man whom they called 

 king of the Jews was or could possibly be 

 the Christ, for it was so exceedingly improbable 

 —at least from his point of view — that Christ, 

 the Son of God, should ever consent to undergo 

 such torture. But his companion, it seems, 

 was, even in his anguish, groping blindly 

 toward a dim sort of faith. He said to his com- 

 panion. "Dost thou not fear God. seeing thou 

 art in the same condemnation? " And then he 

 adds four little words that indicate confession 

 and at least some sort of penitence. He says, 

 "And we indeed justly." He has come to the 

 point where he is fair enough to admit that, so 

 far as they two are concerned, there was no 

 injustice about it. And he adds, "For we 

 receive the due reward of our deeds." At this 

 point we can imagine he was looking back over 

 his past life and that of his comrade, for they 

 two had probably been together. He recalls 

 scene by scene some of the terrible crimes, very 



