1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



81 



and I do not wish to have my business in 

 any such shape, that a bad move on my part 

 might involve others."" 



He approved this. T have given above 

 the substance of the conversation, as nearly 

 as I can remember. 



Finally, said he, ••Have you any bills com- 

 ing due very soon, that may trouble you to 

 meet?" 



I could not help looking at him in surprise 

 at this, and he apologized. 



"Perhaps I am going too far." 



"No r ; said I. "I have some bills to meet 

 that trouble me some, especially, the balance 

 I owe the man who made the brick for my 

 building." 



"Well," said he, "I have a proposition to 

 make you, and I hope you will be frank to 

 say so, if you do not wish to accept it/' 



There! "thought I, I see through it all now. 

 He wants to go in company with me. I had 

 concluded some time ago, that the only com- 

 pany I should ever have in doing "God's 

 work was my Savior himself. You see I 

 did not, even then, have faith enough to see 

 the connection between this conversation 

 and my prayer of- the night before. His 

 next words, however, opened my eyes, and 

 it all became plain. 



"If it will be of service. I will send you 

 SoOO.OO, and you may keep it a year, at 7 per 

 cent." 



"But, my friend, you will want security?" 



'•None, only your note of hand." 



"•But why do you. an utter stranger, trust 

 me thus? How do you know I will not 

 make a foolish use of the money, and get us 

 all into trouble?" 



"Well, I think you are trying to do good, 

 and I want to help?' 1 



"But I am really doing very little good ; 

 you give me far more credit than I deserve. 

 I cannot understand it." 



"Well", said he, "I have been reading 

 your Home Papers for a few months past, 

 and I got to thinking about it, and wonder- 

 ing whether you might not be in need of a 

 friend, just about now. The more I thought 

 of it, the more I thought I would like to 

 come and see you, and see if a little money 

 would do you good rather than harm. I 

 have seen you. and am satisfied." 



I thought of the strange intertwining of 

 events; of the lines of that hymn; of my 

 frankness in telling him how annoyed I was 

 about the disorder in the wax room. I 

 thought, too, of what the Bible says of enter- 

 taining angels unawares, and of how uncourt- 

 eously I had many times treated visitors. 

 I saw clearly that God was in it all, and I 

 almost felt frightened, as I realized how 

 near He had been to me. Lnless I lived a 

 purer and better life, I felt almost afraid to 

 take that money, so manifestly from God's 

 own hand. I told my friend that God had 

 sent him here in answer to prayer. He did 

 not dispute it although he made no profes- 

 sions of religion. 



I told the circumstance at our prayer meet- 

 ing that evening, and to several others, as an 

 illustration of the way in which God answers 

 prayer. A great many inquired if the mon- 

 ey had come; when I told them it had not. 

 the greater part of them replied that they 



! would like to see it, before they were con- 

 vinced. I told it to the boys in jail, but they 

 insisted it was some new confidence game, 

 and that I would be the loser in some way. 

 Finally, I told them I would bring the check 

 over and show it to them before the day 1 

 had agreed to pay the man for the brick: In 

 vain, I told them' God did not answer prayers 

 by sending swindlers ; they wanted to see 

 the full proof. After my Sabbath school, I 

 stopped at my mother's. She, of course, had 

 a faith like mine, but father feared some- 

 i thing would happen to prevent its getting 

 around in time. Said he : 



"The man may be taken sick." 



"But God will see that the money comes 

 nevertheless." 



"The mails may be stopped by deep snows." 



"God will take care of the snows, and see- 

 that the money gets here by the appointed 

 time." 



The cashier of the bank said it was a won- 

 derfully strange thing, and asked if the man 

 had not some selfish purpose in view. 



"Did he ask for no favor?" 1 



"None." 



"Did he not carry away something? I saw 

 him, if I am not mistaken, carry off a pack 

 age under his arm." 



"He took with him some goods, but he 

 paid for them all." 



•'Strange; very strange." 



I wish right here to digress a little. 



The next morning after this strauge friend 

 left, a gentleman came in. xVs soon as my eye 

 caught him, I remembered my new resolu- 

 : tion, to be careful hereafter about being un- 

 ! courteous to strangers. After a few com- 

 j monplace remarks, he gave his name as Bing- 

 ham. 



"Bingham of Michigan?" said I. 



•"The same." 



"Mr. Bingham, I am very glad to meet 

 you," and as I said it. I thanked God that I 

 was glad to see him, from the bottom of my 

 heart. 



Well, we had a long talk about smokers. 

 You do not know how glad I am, as I look 

 back upon it, that it was a long, friendly 

 talk. We did not agree on many things, 

 but, although we talked plainly, and criti- 

 cized each other pretty severely, on several 

 things in the past, we did not so far forget 

 ourselves, but that we indulged in some 

 most hearty laughs, as we reviewed the past. 

 The Home Papers caught it some, but it 

 does not now trouble me, as it did once, 

 when their imperfections are pointed out. 

 Friend Bingham, in his plain talks, did me 

 a great deal of good. 



lie told me all about the history of his 

 smoker. I saw how he had got to look upon 

 it as a child of his brain. I looked on mine 

 too; I reviewed the different features one 

 1 by one, the short cuts I had made from 

 time to time, in saving expense, its extreme 

 simplicity, as it seemed to me, compared 

 witli other smokers, and it seemed as if I 

 could not give it up. It is true, I could not 

 make it without valves, unless I managed 

 t<> blow the lire from a little distance. This 

 blowing the fire from a little distance, in- 

 stead of putting the bellows' nose right into 

 the fire, he claims as his invention. I should 



