19-2 



GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



May 



a duH sermon, and that Mr. R. scarcely 



f reached as well as usual. Was it possible? 

 lad the difference really been with myself, 

 and not with the sermon V I hurried home, and 

 as some friends were there, 1 hastened down 

 into the green house. . 



As soon as my wife could excuse me . 

 and herself, she came down. I tried i jeers, and those of the crowd with him. j 

 to talk, but could not. Great sobs convuls- j looked up, troubled, and the light hearted 

 ed me, and the tears came down like rain. I smile had gone from niv face 

 The bees buzzed back and forth merrily at 



hian Sights, and when I began thinking of 

 it, it seemed sure to me that this had been 

 copied from that book. 



"Do you pretend to sny that you believe 

 such jargon as that?" said the voice of the 

 Tempter, and when I stopped to consider 

 the matter, I almost fancied I heard his 



my side : totally oblivious {poor little crea 

 tures) ot the revolution that was going on 

 within my soul. I cried until the clean saw- 

 dust at my feet was wet, before I could talk, 

 and then I began to tell my wife of my past 

 life. She, like a true wife, would have hush- 

 ed me up, and been perfectly satisfied with 

 dropping the past, but the new Presence 

 seemed to tell me plainly, that my hope of 

 safety, and my freedom from this old sin, 

 depended much on a full and complete 

 confession. I told her the story I have tried 

 to tell you, stopping and breaking down 

 again and again, as I proceeded. While I talk- 

 ed, old [things seemed to pass away, and the 

 new life seemed to unfold and spread out. 

 A ew recesses in my being that I had not be- 

 fore suspected of existing,seemed being open- 

 ed and aired, and although humbled before 

 my Savior, I seemed to have risen up as a man 

 and as a father to my family. I held ray wife's 

 Hand that Sunday afternoon, and put my 

 arm about her, with a hundred times more 

 love and happiness, than I had experienced 

 w h ?- da - ys of our courtship. Our Savior's 

 benediction was over us, and we both felt, 

 for the first time m life, that that which God 



ami. ^ et ^ er ' man cannot P tlt asunder. 

 Although her conversion was not of the 



frZfhT? ki ? d like , m ™, Ithink she wal 

 S,? day f0 ?™rd just as fully accepted 

 fL ™? avi0I \ as T wa9 >™<! Perhaps more so. 

 WhS » w n nd ^^ths afterward, I kept con- 

 durimf tinPV had f0 JK° tten to mention 

 kS g w Wr S V nda 7 aft emoon. I do not 

 T^-^ iat ^°. d caUs on others ^ do, but 

 i tio know that my strength as a Christian 



SwBlLffiSW brin ,? inR al ? t^se evilslo 

 w hi ;3l gh ^ f day - *tany times, it wrung 

 h * r > art ™th anguish, but 8l »e could looE 

 e?en .°v£r hert ^' and thank G ° a th atnot 

 about' ifefnusband" 1 ^ f WaS left n0W ' 



I told my 

 wife in despair, that 1 could not believe 

 what seemed to me such arrant nonsense. 

 She, dear woman, had far more faith than I, 

 and, after a little study, told me to go down 

 and see that young minister about it. 



"But it is after i) o'clock, and he will be 

 gone to bed." 



"■Never mind," said she, "he will be glad 

 to see you, even if he has. Go right along.' 



How often I have thought of this little in- 

 cident since. I wonder how many of my 

 ministerial readers would hesitate at getting 

 up under similar circumstances. It seems 

 to me I could not only get up, but go miles 

 in the night, if need be. to help one who was 

 in the same trouble I was at that time. 

 What inconsistency! A legion almost of 

 devils had just been banished from myself, 

 but when I came to read about them, just 

 because I did not understand it all at first 

 sight, I was tempted to throw down my 

 Bible in disgust. The minister had not re- 

 tired. How kindly he spoke to me, when I 

 attempted an apology! I explained the 

 trouble. 



"Why! Bless your heart, Mr. Root! and 

 did you think you were the first person that 

 had been stumbled at that passage?" 



"Has it really; then,' ever troubled any 

 body else?" said I, beginning to take a lit- 

 tle hope. 



He smilingly took down a large book, enti- 

 tled, I think, jDemonology, and told me to take 

 it home and see what great and good men 

 had to say about it. 



He is a very pleasant man, and there is a 

 vein of rare humor in his make "IN 

 which twinkled in his eye as he asked me 

 which book I thought was written first, the 

 Arabian Nights, or the Bible. We knelt down 

 and as he prayed that God would guard me 

 trom the temptations of skepticism, how 

 near he seemed to God! He talked to him, 

 The tears and'confessinn^ n ™ nil ^u alm ostas if he were talking to some visible 

 ^farasthey^mTnnd& person in the room. My faith had come 



I have no fear but th it Tm, J w*E S l the ft kck ' e , ven before l read the book, and he 

 have accepted me\utwor^ 



and I was to be called hTtn %nl L ™ e ' I at 1 any J time l mi S h t care to have his coun- 

 than I exnPPtPc? tV, iS™L.^S n « so ^ ner i se l?nd advice. How different he seemed now 



iiguiejfwTestarnfh^ 3 £ e ' '? f ome . , way ' to the s »PP° rt of a mini3 ; 

 as I had* been throoin Tthe dS? i niSFfc ' ?* 1 d< ? notkno w who that minister is, and 

 the passage about the! eirion i% '.JviUhS™ ' * d ° ?°J H now that I care much; he is God's 

 driven from the man! S allowed bv theS I HSHH se, T ant ' and he is the one t0 help 

 request, to go into a drove of swW Wvhil ] ? i- i to C0 V n * el J" 011 - ( ^o to him in the way 

 is this?" said I, and I Ad it over iin i 5£' d ' and s ^e if it will not cheer and encour- 

 What had devils to do w"h a drove of E' £ s ^ nn l' e l en if ifc a ° es not you. If he k 

 and how could it hurt Crista havetheE ! SufiiS'K!* °W ht to be ' such vi9its wiU 

 run down into the sea/even if tliev did df> ' wl h,m bette1 "' for God al ™*s takes care 

 so. I used to be a great reader of the A ,7. ! K !as i e . rva nts have wisdom given them, 

 grtai reaaer of the ^lrn- 1 in proportion to the demands they may have 



