224 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Mak. 



February 15, no glimpse of that old tempta- 

 tion came near. As the clays passed I be- 

 gan gradually to forget about it, however ; 

 and when I became so much absorbed in 

 the great crowd of business that I began to 

 forget or neglect daily prayer alone by my- 

 self, before I knew it this old shadow began 

 to creep slowly back ; and it came in the 

 line, too, with what I have said in regard to 

 giving a dollar for a glass of beer. Satan 

 approached me one day, almost unawares, 

 and began something in this way : " Mr. 

 lioot, suppose you could, by money, pur- 

 chase a fair and dear title to this ' cloud 

 land ' that has been disturbing you.'' 



What I should have done at this point was 

 to have said, " Get thee behind me, Satan. 

 My business is here on earth, and not up 

 in the clouds. I have nothing to do with 

 investments in cloud land. Get thee 

 hence !" 



That was not what I did, however. The 

 subject had never presented itself in just 

 that light before, and I fell to thinking of 

 the orange-groves and the beautiful ranches 

 that some of the rich men purchased in Cal- 

 ifornia, and then, just for the fun of it, I 

 began speculating as to just what amount I 

 would be willing to pay, provided I could 

 have just what I fancied, and in a way that 

 would wrong no one. Satan was keen 

 enough to make the most of his advantage, 

 and he went on, in a very smooth and plaus- 

 ible way, "• You would probably give a thou- 

 sand dollars, without any hesitation, would 

 you not, friend EootV Well, now, would 

 you not give five thousand dollarsV And 

 then he began explaining how it might all 

 be managed without any thing derogatory 

 to the character of the Christian. I do not 

 know how many minutes I spent in building 

 air castles in the clouds, in just this way. 

 Perhaps it was not more than a second or 

 two— no matter. The brief parley did me 

 harm. Old temptations came trooping 

 back in rainbow colors, and for a brief mo- 

 ment I was ready to— to — what? Sell my 

 " birthright " for a " mess of pottage"? No, 

 thank God. not quite; for the old prayer, 

 '' Lord, help," came to my aid. But I felt 

 at once that my bright spiritual vision was 

 dimmed, stained, and soiled by sin in con- 

 templation. The brief glimpse that Satan 

 held up haunted me. I once met in our 

 county jail a man who had set his store on 

 fire in order to get the insurance. Said he, 

 '' Mr. Eoot, I first began planning as to how 

 the thing might be done, without the remot- 

 est idea in the world of doing such a thing. 

 I kept saying to myself all along, ' I would 

 not be guilty of such a thing for worlds ;' 

 but yet there seemed to be a mysterious fas- 

 cination in speculating upon and going over 

 the ground, and planning on how it might 

 be done so as to escape detection." The 

 end was, that he set the building on fire. 

 riease believe mp. friends, when 1 tell you 

 that a great part of the crime that curses 

 our land, and sends human souls into the 

 bottomless pit. starts in just that way. I 

 turned away from Satan, thinking that I 

 had not been harmed, but I had. A fence, 

 when it has been once broken down and re- 

 paired, is rarely as good as it was before ; 



but I did not think very much about it un- 

 til that communion Sunday. Now, friends, 

 I have been emphatic and vehement in urg- 

 ing you to attend church. I have urged again 

 and again the importance of being united 

 with some band of Christian people. Most 

 of you have a good deal of faith in your old 

 friend A. I. Eoot ; but I tell you, friends, it 

 would not be a safe thing for me to stay 

 away from church. When those searching 

 words from God's holy book took hold of 

 me, at first it seemed as if there was not 

 any help for it. The best I could do would 

 be to keep my mind on the sermon as well 

 as I could, and go home without any spirit- 

 ual blessing. I have attended church, and 

 remained through the service in a dead, dull 

 sort of way, without very much heart in it, 

 and, as a result, went home in a low state 

 spiritually, and may be went through the 

 week with a dead kind of religion that was 

 more a form than any thing with life or 

 heart in it. On this particular morning I 

 felt tired of the unceasing conflict. Then 

 the words of the text came to me again — 

 " Nevertheless, I have somewhat against 

 thee" Why? ''Because thou hast left thy 

 first love." 



When the above struck me so forcibly, 

 and kept ringing in my ears for some time 

 afterward, 1 had no thought that the pastor 

 was going to choose it for his text. He read 

 the whole chapter, or the greater part of it, 

 but I got hold of that one verse, or, rather, 

 it got hold of me ; and when he announced 

 it as his text 1 was startled, and it seemed 

 again as though there were a providence in 

 it. It seemed as if God had put it into his 

 heart to read this chapter, and to preach 

 from this text for my special benefit. 



You will notice that, while the words are 

 a reproof and a rebuke, they are exceedingly 

 kind. The dear Savior seemed to have in 

 mind just what I had done for his cause in 

 times past ; and he seemed to grieve, almost, 

 as it were, because I had neglected him (my 

 first love) and turned away for the things 

 that Satan had produced and held up. In 

 my earlier experience, one of mv favorite 

 prayers when tempted was, " O Lord, may 

 thine image take the place of these things 

 ihat would lead me astray and do me harm. 

 Help me to love righteousness and purity; 

 and may thoughts of tlice crowd out and keep 

 away all that is sinful and unholy." It 

 seemed that morning as if Satan stood be- 

 side me. It seemed as if he plead with me 

 as he did with the Savior himself when he 

 said, " All this power will I give thee, and 

 the glory of them." With the thoughts of 

 the text, and the earnest words of the pas- 

 tor, came visions of reservoirs, water-pipes 

 for irrigation, beautiful gardens; and a host 

 of other things of a worldly character seem- 

 ed crowding forward and insisting on a 

 place in my thoughts. Then the commun- 

 ion-table near by ! how could I partake in 

 my present frame of mind ? I knew I was 

 bad and wicked; but • notwithstanding the 

 victories of the past, some way I felt dis- 

 couraged and helpless. Satan whispered 

 again, "What is the use of praying about 

 being good when you know you do not want 

 to be good ? " The matter was tangled up, 



