1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



149 



The contents of this leaf and the one following are 

 not directly connected with the subject of bee-culture. 

 On this account, I make no charge for them; and, if you 

 choose, you can cut them <mt without reading. 



§ur toim-h 



Come unto me. all ye that labor and are heavy la- 

 den, and I will give you rest.— Math. XI; 28. 



FEW days ago, as I was returning from 

 dinner, I s iw a man coming toward 

 - me, evidently intoxicated. He saw 

 that my eye was upon him, and seemed in- 

 clined to turn away to avoid meeting me; 

 but as he could not well do this, he changed 

 his plan, and started right toward me. Evi- 

 dently feeling that I would be sure to speak, 

 he put on a familiar air. and came straight 

 up, put his hand on my shoulder, and began 

 assuring me that he was in' hearty sympathy 

 with the work I had been doing. Said I : 



"I am very glad to hear it, my friend. 

 "Will you please give me your name, and tell 

 me where you live?" 



"What do you want my name for?" 



"Oh, I want to come aiid make you a visit 

 some day, and have a good talk." 



"But you must not talk on religion ; I can 

 not stand that ; you see, I ain't one of that 

 kind." 



While we talked, I saw a bottle in his 

 pocket that had just been tilled, evidently, 

 from the saloon near our place of business. 

 I heard afterward that he was one of the 

 most blasphemous skeptics that could be 

 found in our town, and that no one could 

 even talk with him on the subject. I felt 

 very much the same reluctance toward go- 

 ing to see him, that I did in the visit I told 

 you about in the Nov. No. I went to the 

 hotel where he boarded three times, but 

 could not well see him. The last time he 

 had gone to bed. I know God likes pluck 

 and courage ; I dreaded the task so much 

 that T wanted it over with. I secured per- 

 mission to go into his bed room. The door 

 was closed, and as I sat on the bed side, and 

 saw that he was perfectly sober, I felt the 

 field was clear; all the skill, energy, and 

 wisdom God had given me, I felt was need- 

 ed. Kindly but firmly, I came to the point. 

 He had no recollection of meeting me on the 

 street at all. When he first commenced 

 drinking, years ago, he could remember 

 things that happened, but of late, when he 

 got on on? of his crazy fits, as he called them, 

 he knew nothing of what lie had done. 



"Why, you might commit murder in one 

 of those fits." 



"I know it/' 



"Do you know what delirium tremens is? 

 Did you ever see a man who had them?" 



He nodded ; I have since learned that he 

 knew quite well what they were. 



"Now. my friend, we are getting at the 

 point. What do you think about going on 

 in this way. Has such a fate no terrors for 

 you??' 



"I used to think about it a great deal, but 

 I am now such a hardened sinner, I have got 

 used to it. I tell you, Mr. Root,"— here he 

 raised himself on his elbow and began to 



talk in earnest— "I tell you, Mr. Root, lean- 

 not guide that horse. I used to try to stop, 

 and I have promised not to drink any more, 

 until I have concluded it is not any wickeder 

 to drink than to tell so many lies about it. 

 I do not like that kind of a way of dying, 

 but what am I going to do about it? I tell 

 you that is a horse I can't handle.-' 



Do you know, my friends, why my sympa- 

 thies are always drawn toward such a man? 

 Do you know why that confession struck to 

 my heartV Here was one who had been 

 struggling in the bands of Satan until he 

 had lost all hope, and given up. Can you 

 understand how I rejoiced to be able to tell 

 him of hope and help, even for one like 

 him? 



I had to tell him something of my old life, 

 before I could draw out his sympathies and 

 get him to even take a view of a better life 

 and a better world. I cannot tell just whom 

 I am talking to, but to reach you, my friend, 

 I feel that I must go back to the old life, 

 where I left off last month. 



When one of the commandments is will- 

 fully trampled down, it seems to open the 

 way for a host of other Evil Impulses, and it 

 is not strange that my temper, which had 

 been carefully kept within bounds in my 

 earlier years, began to increase and develop 

 amazingly. The act of smashing the door 

 down, given in the Dec. No., was only a nat- 

 ural sequence of what I have been telling 

 you. The Home Papers, for the last 4 years, 

 have touched frequently on the events of 

 this portion of my life. * To be sure, it was 

 not always thus; there were weeks when I 

 seemed to have conquered the Evil Impulses, 

 and to have regained my old, natural self, 

 but Satan had a purpose in this, as I shall 

 explain presently. 



About this time, I began to feel the strong 

 conflicts between good and evil, and al- 

 though it may seem a direct contradiction of 

 terms, I seemed to be growing worse and 

 better all at the same time. Good influences 

 were around me, enough, it would seem, to 

 have rescued almost any one. When the Sab- 

 bath afternoons hung heavily on my hands, 

 I used to go down to see my mother. The 

 walk of 2i miles had the effect of rousing 

 my spirits, and for some reason which I can- 

 not now explain, I used to like to hear her 

 talk of religion. I combated her, and told 

 her of the modern revelations of science, and 

 tried to persuade her the Bible was not quite 

 understood, and that a newer and better way 

 was being unfolded. Sometimes she was 

 half inclined to accept some of the ingenious 

 new ideas, but the next time I saw her, she 

 told me it was all wrong, and that the Bible 

 was just right as it was; at least, it was a 

 safe guide, while the other was not. Little 

 did that dear old mother know how much 

 depended on her simple, unswerving faith, 

 and the danger that lay in her giving way in 

 the least to the philosophy which the man of 

 35 was presenting to her. I was then waver- 

 ing between the two paths, life everlasting, 

 or eternal ruin. 



God sent another agency to call me back, 

 and to warn me, as Christian was warned in 

 ]'il<jj-i m's Progress, of the rock that hung ov- 

 er his head. Do angels come to men nowa- 



