r34 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 1 



You are unfortunate because* you are in his 

 toils; but you may rejoice that you are each 

 and all professing Christians, and can honestly 

 kneel and join with me while 1 implore the 

 dear vSavior to come to our rebcue and to help 

 us each and all to recognize the cause of all 

 the mischief, and tu say, ' Get tliee behind me, 

 Satan.' " There is not any trouble— at least 

 not usually — in getting them all to kneel; and 

 if I could as easily persuade them, each and all, 

 that the whole trouble lies at Satan's door, then 

 weshould havequick and complete deliverance. 



There will usually be more or less who think 

 it is only one of A I. Root's notions that it is 

 Satan's work; and these skeptical ones (in re- 

 gard to this matter of Satan) will go on facing 

 him, and the troubles will not be enoed. 



Satan sometimes gets in among a lot of friends 

 in a way that would almost seem as if it were 

 the smallpox.* If a'doctor should come into a 

 home and announce that the whole family 

 were aftlicted more or less with the smallpox, 

 with one accord and with perfect agreement 

 they would all set to work to get it out. Now, 

 when the pastor tells you that Satan has crept 

 in among you, what a gtortoits thing it would 

 be if you could be made to believe it in the 

 same way that you would believe the doctor in 

 the former case! Why, the most trivial things 

 will sometimes give him an excuse for dividing 

 friends. People who should be on the most 

 friendly and pleasant terms, all at once, with- 

 out sense or reason, begin quarreling with each 

 other. Yes, he sometimes gets right in among 

 Christians and into the church. I have heard 

 of his getting into the pulpit; but, thank God, 

 I have never seen him there in all my experi 

 ence. Let me give you just one illustration: 

 While a certain pastor was off on a vacation 

 his people went to work and fitted up the in- 

 terior of the church in the most beautiful shape; 

 and then the question arose as to whether liiey 

 should not invite another minister, and have 

 services a Sunday or two before their own pas- 

 tor returned. Somebody started the idea that 

 the church should be kept vacant until the 

 pastor's return, out of respect to him, that he 

 might be the first to hold services amid the im- 

 proved surroundings. One part of the people 

 (and I am afraid it was a minority) thought 

 the church should be opened and services held 

 just as soon as the building was ready; and in 

 discussing a simple matter like this, some of 

 the people got terribly stirred up, and showed a 

 most unchristianlike spirit. On general prin- 

 ciples, it is certainly bad to have the doors of a 

 church closed on Sunday; but I am afraid that 

 on this occasion Satan fairly chuckled while he 

 urged one party to declare that there shfiuld be 

 and must be preaching, and at the same time 

 exhorted the other side to the eff<'Ct that it 

 would be disrespectful, and not to be thought 

 of. to let anybody else occupy the new pulpit 

 and surroundings for even one Sunday. 



I started out to give you a neighborly talk 

 this time. Well, these skeptical ones, instead 

 of accepting my version of the matter, will in- 

 sist that it is his neighbor or his fellow work- 

 man that causes the trouble. He says to him 

 self, if he does not say it out loud, ''This man 

 is all very good and fair to my face; but just as 

 soon as my back is turned he is doing every 



* If your neig-hbor is craaky, disobliging', and 

 hard to get along witli, please remember he is to be 

 pitied somewhat as well as blamed. Try to feel 

 toward him as if he had the smallpox, as I have put 

 it elsewhere. Banish the bad spirit by doing him a 

 friendly tuin whenever an opportunity offers. 

 Now, don't say this is one of A. 1. Root's notions, 

 for you know full well it was the Master who said, 

 "Love ye your enemies; do good to those who hate 

 you." 



thing he can to trouble me and injure me in the 

 sight of my employers. He purposely hinders 

 my business; he looks over my work, and 

 makes fun of it, and points it out to others. He 

 is a regular 'snake in the grass.'" And when 

 Satan gets him well under his thumb he 

 goes so far as to say, " Either he or 1 will have 

 to work somewhere else." 1 have seen this 

 thing enactHU for years. When it goes on a 

 little further, the victim of Satan will declare 

 these things he imagines are true. 1 remember 

 one person, years ago, who had been a dear 

 friend of mine. He became jealous of me, and 

 imagined that I was acting dishonestly and un- 

 neighborly. I remonstrated with him, and told 

 him his statements were preposterous; but he 

 finally wound up by saying, ■"It is true, for I 

 saw you do it with my own eyes." Now, the 

 man did not see me do it, because he was not 

 there at the time and place, and he was obliged 

 to admit that much. He finally got out of it by 

 saying something like this: " Well, I can not 

 understand just how it happened; but I saw 

 you do it, even if I was 7wt there." There was 

 no other thing for me to do but to think that 

 the man had, for the time, taken leave of his 

 senses; but he had not: he was simply under 

 the power of Satan; and Satan had got such a 

 hold on him that he lost sight of reason and 

 common sense at just that particular point. 

 He was sound enough and sane enough on every 

 thing else. 



Now, neighbors, when they get into a quarrel 

 —when they become suspicious of each other — 

 when they get into this awfully uncharitable 

 spirit— do lose sight of sense and reason. They 

 are like the man who declared he was not drunk 

 at all; but that the truth was, all the rest of 

 the world was drunK and he alone was sober. 

 The remedy for all these ills and troubles is 

 Christ Jesus, and he only ; " for there is no other 

 name given under heaven among men, whereby 

 we must be saved." And tnis is true. There 

 is no other real remedy. I am convinced that 

 the only deliverance from the prince of dark- 

 ness is through Christ Jesus, the Lord and 

 Savior of mankind. 



Perhaps I should suggest that the first step 

 toward getting into Satan's toils is some wrong 

 act. The one who begins to be suspicious has 

 usually opened the way by taking advantage 

 of somebody else. If 1 knew all of you, dear 

 readers, you might think me personal, and feel 

 hurl about it. Perhaps it is well that 1 do not 

 know you— at least, that I do not know of the 

 quarrels you are entangled in; therefore I can 

 say with the greater prospect of doing you good, 

 that, when you find yourself beginning to be 

 suspicious of your friends and neighbors, it is 

 because you have been in some way violating 

 your own conscience. You have wronged some 

 one of them. You have done something that 

 you know very well is not exactly fair and hon- 

 est and neighborly. Whether you are a pro- 

 fessing Christian or not, if you wish to enjoy 

 this life God has given us all to live, you must 

 not only be /air, but you must be liberal. The 

 man who gives good measure — perhaps a little 

 more than exactly full — is the one who enjoys 

 life, and who succeeds. 



Just now a good many people find it difficult 

 to hold their places or positions of employment. 

 There are ever so many struggling to get the 

 work that is to be done. There are unusual 

 temptations to be greedy and to crowd on your 

 neighbors. You may reason that your circum- 

 stances are more critical than those of the 

 others — you must have something to do. Now, 

 it is perfectly right for you to strive by every 

 honorable means to hold your position. No- 

 body has talked this more strongly than my- 

 self; but when you go beyond right and justice 



