1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



141 



0ai^ pejiEg. 



Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy 

 laden, and I will give you rest.— Matt. 11 : 38. 



Perhaps no other verse in the Bible has 

 been more npon peoples tongues, and often- 

 €r quoted, than this simple little verse. In 

 fact, I think I have used it for my text be- 

 fore in these Home Papers. What I wish to 

 consider novv^, however, is just this : Is the 

 promise true ? Perhaps many of my good 

 friends who love Christ Jesus may almost 

 feel hurt to think 1 should ask such a ques- 

 tion. Well, I have asked, just because I 

 am inclined to think there has been, or is, a 

 good deal of skepticism in regard to it. You 

 will notice, that the conclusion promises 

 rest; and when Jes^is promises rest, he 

 means it, I assure you, in the fullest sense 

 of the word. Why," then, do we go through 

 life so loeary, and bearing burdens so heavy f 

 I think it is because we refuse to accept the 

 plain, simple invitation. A good many say 

 that we shall have comparative rest ; that 

 we need not expect to be free from the cares 

 and responsibilities of life— at least, not in 

 this world. Very likely this is true. Bat, my 

 friend, suppose you have broken off from 

 some sinful habit. Suppose, if you choose, 

 you are a slave to tobacco. You feel that 

 it is wrong, and you stop using it. You 

 stop from a sense of duty, proposing to 

 tight it out. Is there any thing in the Bi- 

 ble that encourages you to believe that you 

 have a right to expect that you can be de- 

 livered from the dreadful hankering and 

 longing for the accustomed stimulant V 

 Why do I ask such a question V Because of 

 the differences of opinion. Even our good 

 friend who wrote the Tobacco Manual — one 

 who has been fur years a faithful servant of 

 Christ Jesus, is at least not quite settled in 

 regard to the matter. And now I want to 

 allow him to speak on this subject : ^ 



ARE WE TO EXPECT THAT ODD WILL, IN ANSWER 



TO PRAYER, DELIVER US AT ONCE FROM SIN- 



FDL HABITS? 



Bro. JJoot;— I want just a word with our good 

 friend at Woodbura, 111., Mr. Muhleman, on a sin- 

 gle phase of the tobacco question. Brother Muhle- 

 man seems to carry the idea that any person can 

 <5ontrol the desire for tobacco, whether acquired or 

 inherited, or both, by asking help of God. T do not 

 wish to enter into any controversy on the subject. 

 It would be like entering again upon a controversy 

 concerning the nature of " original sin." I simply 

 want to say that I have thought over that phase of 

 the subject for more than fifty years, with single 

 and individual instances before my mind— in all not 

 •exceeding, perhaps, a dozen or twenty. And then, 

 on the other hand, I have met and talked with 

 thousands who give the best of evidences of being 

 •Christians, who tell me that the desire clings to 

 them, and they have to fight it every day and hour. 

 Some tell me that the desire for tobacco, even 

 though they have not used it for years, on seeing 

 •or smelling it, comes on them with almost irresisti- 

 ble power— the Bible would express it, "Like an 

 armed man." 



In considering this subject, I take into the ac- 

 count the will power of man, its influence on hab- 

 i ts, passions, and tastes. I also take into the ac- 



count the tendency of liquor, tobacco, and opium 

 to destroy the will power— tobacco more than liq- 

 uor, and opium more than either. Arranging these 

 testimonies against each other, at least a huudred 

 against one, I dare not take the testimoLy of the 

 one, and reject the testimony of the hundred. 

 Hence, in my manual on tobacco, also in my lec- 

 tures and newspaper articles, I do not refer to 

 what is often called the " Murphy doctrine," 

 though I do not deny it, nor even ignore it. I wish 

 I could see many more instances of it. Perhaps in 

 the generations following, more will be witnessed. 

 I have three sons in the ministry. If they reach 

 the age I have attained, some of them may bear 

 testimony on this subject, such as 1 have not been 

 privileged to witness. N. A. Hunt. 



Dear brother, you do not know how ear- 

 nestly I have pondered over this very mat- 

 ter w^hich you bring up before us. I have 

 been compelled to admit, that, while God 

 did in some instances seem to give instant 

 and perfect emancipation from sin in a 

 special direction, at other times I have 

 known good earnest faithful followers who 

 seemed to be called upon to bear the con- 

 sequences of their past sins in just the way 

 you have mentioned. Paul besought the 

 iSavior to remove the thorn ; but in answer 

 he was given grace to bear it. When I gave 

 you that talk about loving righteousness and 

 hating iniquity, I had this thought in mind ; 

 and my conclusion then was, that the rea- 

 son why deliverance does not oftener come 

 is because we still cherish a lingering love 

 for clinging to the evil, and so the memory 

 continually haunts us. We are like Lot's 

 wife— prone to look back, and go over, in 

 memory, the forbidden sin. Since then, 

 however, I have had a new experience of 

 my own that I wish to tell you about to-day. 



At different periods of my life I have had 

 experience in being lifted at once from the 

 miry clay to the solid rock of Christ Jesus ; 

 and I am sorry to say that I have also had 

 exj)erience long afterward, that convinced 

 me that w^e must not be too sure that we are 

 thoroughly emancipated. When I wrote 

 that little paper in regard to the machinery 

 of the universe, more than once the thought 

 came into my mind of the special line of 

 machinery manipulated by the prince of 

 darkness, with the express design and plan 

 of leading souls to ruin. There is some- 

 thing fascinating in gazing into the crater 

 of a volcano ; and this love of looking down, 

 or, if you choose, going down, into the very 

 jaws of death (and a horrible death too), 

 has prompted men to let themselves down 

 by ropes, in order to study the boiling and 

 seething caldron of melted lava. The dis- 

 position is very strong in my own heart to 

 want to see and know, not only all about 

 the workings of the slumbering fires of the 

 interior of our own earth, but there is some- 

 thing terribly fascinating to me along some 

 lines of the machinery of Satan, even when 

 good sense bids me turn my back and hast- 

 en away. Something in my nature makes 

 me inquisitive to know more about these 

 dreadful dangers, even when I know that 

 to look is sin, and to dally may be fatal. 



Some time ago a little speck of cloud be- 

 gan to dim my spiritual enjoyment. I do 



