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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



Our Homes. 



Oh how I love thy law!— Psalm 119:97. 



A little boy whom we will call Johnny was 

 getting ready for Sunday-school. His face was 

 thoroughly washed, and his hair combea. He 

 had on his Sunday-school clothes, clean cuffs, 

 and collar; and all together he was, so far as 

 outward looks are concerned, a boy to rejoice 

 any mother's heart. Just before starting out 

 for school, however, Johnny went out without 

 letting his mother know any thing about it, 

 and slipped some marbles from his every-day 

 pocket into the pocket in his Sunday suit. 

 That was not a verv bad thing for a small boy 

 to do; but it was just one little step out of the 

 way. He knew it was not exactly the thing to 

 do or he would not have taken pains that his 

 mother should know nothing about it. 



On his way to school he crossed the common. 

 Just ahead of him was a bad boy named Sam, 

 and very few mothers permitted their boys to 

 have any thing to do with him if they knew it. 

 But Sam was an expert marble-player. He 

 had an extra nice marble, different from any 

 other marble in the town; and with this mar- 

 ble he had a knack of " shooting," exciting not 

 only the admiration but envy of all the other 

 boys of his age. Ever so many had tried to get 

 hold of the trick; but Sam did it so quickly 

 that they never could see how it was done. As 

 soon as Sam saw Johnny he challenged him to 

 play. At first Johnny objected by saying he 

 must go to Sunday-school. Sam told him it 

 was not near time yet; and then Johnn"y re- 

 flected that, if no one was yet around, it would 

 not be at all strange if he should get hold of 

 that trick of shooting a marble with such 

 accuracy; and he would be sure to stop in time 

 to be on hand at his class. A ring was soon 

 formed, and the boys were deeply absorbed in 

 the game. Did it ever occur to you. my friend, 

 that you are sure to have bad luck when you 

 consent to do any thing on Sunday that you 

 know is not just right? This time was no ex- 

 ception to the rule. Sam produced his cele- 

 brated marble, and popped the one out of the 

 center the very first shot. But that precious, 

 valuable marble also "' popped " into a puddle 

 near by, for it had been raining the night 

 before. Sam at once plunged his naked arm 

 down into the puddle just where the marble 

 disappeared, but did not find it. Johnny also 

 very soon began poking around in th^ mud, 

 notwithstanding his clean spotless cuffs and 

 Sunday clothes. You know about how the 

 average boy would manage. Now. even Sam, 

 bad as he was. it seems, did not for a moment 

 suspect that Johnny, a Sim day -school boy, 

 would be so wicked as to steal his marble. Aft- 

 er Johnny had poked a while he stood up and 

 said: 



" [ declare, Sam. I can't imagine where that 

 marble could have got to; but I am late for 

 Sunday-school already, and I really can not 

 stop another minute. You will be pretty sure 

 to find it if you keep on hunting." 



After Johnny had got a little way off he slip- 

 ped the precious marble into his pocket and 

 hurried off to Sunday-school. We will not fol- 

 low him any further just now; but I presume 

 that every child who reads Gleanings (and I 

 have been told several times that there are 

 quite a few who do) knows as well as every 

 older person about how Johnny felt as he took 

 his place in the class. 



The above little story was repeated in my 

 hearing by the teacher of our juvenile depart- 

 ment, after she had returned from attendance 

 at the Ohio State Sunday-school Association. 



Perhaps I have not told it just as she did. She 

 made an object-lesson of it by having some 

 thin glass tumblers, numbered from 1 to 10. 

 She told the children that those tumblers were 

 to represent the ten commandments. Then she 

 asked them how many of the commandments 

 Johnny had broken that beautiful Sunday 

 morning after the summer shower, while he 

 was on the way to Sunday-school, all fixed up 

 nice and clean. Those beautiful clean cuffs 

 and nice starched clothes with which his moth- 

 er fixed him up were soiled, and their beauty 

 was more or less marred by the muddy water. 

 But, oh dear me! how much worse was the 

 state of poor- Johnny's heart! That bright 

 clear conscience which he had as he started out 

 in the morning — oh what a wreck and ruin! 

 He might have said, when he first got up that 

 morning, like David, "Oh how I love thy law!" 

 Poor Sam! with all his wicked ways, dirty 

 clothing, and bad talk— poor Sam, whom we 

 left poking away in the muddy water-^why, 

 Sam was a ijrince beside poor wicked sinful 

 Johnny. 



The speaker asked how many of the com- 

 mandments Johnny had broken that morning. 

 Several hands went up. Then she asked some 

 one to mention one particular command, and to 

 repeat the commandment. Then she broke one 

 of the little tumblers with a hammer, as a sam- 

 ple of the way Johnny had broken God's holy 

 law. Almost everybody was startled. And 

 then another commandment wa« repeated 

 which Johnny had broken, and crash went the 

 hammer again into the glass that represented 

 that command. To get right down to the real 

 truth, he came pretty near breaking every one 

 of God's commands when he got started, by 

 being so careful not to let his mother see him 

 slip the marbles into his pocket. When he 

 yielded to Sam's invitation to play marbles on 

 Sunday he forgot about the command, "Re- 

 member the sabbath day to keep it holy." 

 When his fingers touched that precious marble 

 in the mud he broke the one that says, "Thou 

 shalt not covet." When he said it was time for 

 him to go to Sunday-school he broke the one 

 about bearing false witness; and when he start- 

 ed off with the marble in his pocket, he had 

 deliberately smashed in pieces and trampled 

 under foot the one which says, "Thou shalt 

 not steal." Why! if Johnny had been a little 

 older I am not sure but he might have broken 

 every command of the ten before the sun went 

 down that night, had he kept on in the way he 

 started 



So far this is just a child's story. But, dear 

 friends, we are all children of a little larger 

 growth. Grown-up men in business circles get 

 into just such scrapes, and they sometimes 

 yield to Satan's suggestions j ust as poor Johnny 

 did. The good clothes, the bringing-up, and 

 the fact that they go to church, and are some- 

 times on the way to church, does not save them. 

 Truly the tempter is constantly going about 

 seeking whom he raav devour. 



It was David who gave voice lo the beautiful 

 words of our text— "Oh how I love thy law!" 

 and he spoke truly. In another verse he says. 

 " I hate and abhor lying; but thy law do I 

 love." David was such a godly man— he lived 

 such a good and pure life, as a rule, that he 

 was at one time called a man after God's own 

 heart; but even David himself was in danger. 

 Perhaps the very fact that he had got into a 

 way of thinking that so good a man as he was 

 could not well commit sin, or at least such ter- 

 rible sins, was one reason why he at one time 

 in his life made that terrible fall. Through his 

 early years he endured persecution, such as 

 perhaps no other man had experienced. He 



