368 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Sept. 



said "Get thee behind me, Satan." I prayed as best 

 I could, as I walked home, and after I got home I 

 prayed the Lord to show me his face before another 

 21 hours should pass. 



Well, I went to bed about 10 o'clock and slept 

 soundly till a little after 2 o'clock, when I awoke and 

 heard the line, 



"All to leave and follow thee," 

 plainly repeated, and my fingers began to twitch 

 and tingle, and pretty soon it was all over me, and I 

 had to slap my hands for ,ioy; and finally had to get 

 up and dress, and kneel down and pray; then had to 

 go and get the hymn book and look for the hymn 

 that you quoted from, and after reading several 

 hymns I went to bed again, but slept no more that 

 morning, for joy. I do believe that I have felt more 

 real joy and happiness since that time, than in all 

 my life before, although I suppose I have lived 

 about as happily as the common run of unconverted 

 men, having had a kind and loving wife, and laised 

 a family of sober and well behaved children. 



Now, brother, I do feel that I can truthfully say 

 amen, to the last line of the verse you Quoted, that 

 God and Heaven are my own, and that if I hold out 

 faithfully to the end, I shall receive a crown of 

 glory. I do think that if brother Sedgwick, or any 

 one else, has the love of God in his heart, and will 

 read the 13th chapter of Paul's First Epistle to the 

 Corinthians, he will not say "Confounded 'Home De- 

 partment' " or any other hard words about "Our 

 Homes"; for brotherly love and charity cover a 

 multitude of sins. "And now abideth faith, hope, 

 and charity; but the greatest of these is charity." 



Now, brother, you can make what use of this pa- 

 per you please, for I feel that every word of it is the 

 plain truth. From jour loving brother in the Lord. 



O'Fallon, Ills. C. T. Smith. 



All these letters came almost at that one 

 time, and none had ever come hefore telling 

 of conversions that have resulted from the 

 "•Home Papers," nor have any such come 

 since ; yet I am sure other conversions have 

 resulted from them. I am satisfied of this, 

 that God moved the hearts of these three 

 brothers to write so that their letters should 

 reach me, just when I should be praying for 

 light on this very matter. It may be inter- 

 esting to read a farther letter from our 

 friend Parshall. 



We have a large Sabbath school at <mr school 

 house, with about 60 scholars besides teachers and 

 officers, and we raised $18. in one day for a library. 

 They have selected me as superintendent, and I 

 think they could have done better. It makes me 

 feel that there is a great responsibility resting on 

 me, but I know that God will help me, and 1 have 

 the prayers of Christians. James Parshall. 



Union Valley, Mo., May 9, 1879. 



Do you know how anxious a parent is to 

 hear from an absent child? Do you know 

 how he dwells on and repeats the slightest 

 incident connected therewith? And do you 

 know how the eyes of the fond mother rill 

 with tears when she hears of the absent 

 one's good deeds, and that he is doing good 

 among his fellow men? Well, my friend, 

 when God has permitted you to be instru- 

 mental in saving a soul, you will always 

 afterward have this feeling in regard to 

 him. I wonder if the three whose letters I 

 have given know how fondly I look for any 

 word from them? 



I wonder if friend P. has any idea of the 

 pride and joy with which I read that he was 

 the superintendent of a Sabbath school, and 

 to know that a whole community of earnest 

 Christians would probably grow up around 

 him. This is the work that civilizes and 

 educates the world, and that makes men in 

 God's own image, of even the veriest 

 savages that exist on the remotest islands of 

 the sea. 



Before leaving this point in my narrative, 



I wish to give another letter received at. 

 about that time, that seemed to have been 

 sent for the purpose of showing me that it 

 was not only in my own country and nation 

 that these Home Papers reached the hearts 

 of my fellow men, but clear away on the 

 other' side of this globe had they cheered and 

 encouraged faith in God, as the director of 

 all our affairs in life. 



LETTER FROM A MISSIONARY IN INDIA. 



Dear Brother Root :— Although we are not engaged 

 in bee culture, yet Gleanings In Bee Culture, 

 on account of the Home Department, has not been 

 an unwelcome Aisitor. I have often found there 

 new encouragement to prayer, and to trust in our 

 heavenly Father. How blessed it is to trust Him! I 

 want to tell you of just one case. Our pice have 

 been getting rather low, and Miss Fron, Mrs. Sibley, 

 and I have been praying for money, and hopefully 

 looked for it in the English and American mail 

 which arrived to-day. We had about sixty cents on 

 hand. Our servant brought the mail, but in it was 

 no money for us. The Gleanings for January came, 

 and while I was reading the account of your own 

 experience when in need, and how wonderfully God, 

 in answer to prayer, sent you that $500., and was 

 finding courage and comfort in it, the post-man 

 came, bringing a letter for Miss Fron. It took half 

 of our pice, 80 cents, to pay the postage, as the send- 

 er in America had failed to put on enough postage, 

 in which case double rates are charged. But, upon 

 opening it, we found that God had hearkened to our 

 prayer, and had sent us one hundred dollars. Oh, 

 how our hearts went up to Him who hears the rattens 

 when they cry, and teedeth theml "1 have been 

 young and now ( am old, yet have I not seen the 

 righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." 



At another time, not long since, we were quite out 

 of pice. We laid the case before our Father. That 

 day, one of the families here sent in 12 rupees, and, 

 in a few days, before we needed it, 100 more came to 

 us. Thus you see how God cares for us. That we 

 get all that we ask for, all that we think we need, I 

 do not say; but our real need is supplied, and we 

 lack no necessarily good thing. How blessed it is to 

 feel, yes, to know, that God regards us, listens to 

 our cry, and reaches forth his Almighty arm to sup- 

 ply our needs. If Christian business men and farm- 

 ers, and all christians everywhere, would thus make 

 God one with them in all their financial matters, 

 there would be less debt, more confidence in one 

 another, and infinitely less financial distress. I re- 

 joice that you do not hesitate to testify publicly, to 

 the fact that you make the Lord Jesus Christ an 

 interested partner in all your business. May the 

 dear Lord keep and bless you, as I know he will if 

 you stick close to Him. 



I feci a deep interest in "your boys," and hope 

 that you may be abundantly blessed in your efforts 

 to turn them to Christ. If they could realize just 

 what they owe to Christ, they would all begin at 

 once to love and serve him. Sin, in the human heart, 

 is the same, the world over. In these poor people, 

 it has more perfect sway. They can tell you a lie 

 with as innocent an air, and with as much compo- 

 sure, as if it was the most solemn truth. Here sin 

 manifests itself, as it does not in America. If the 

 secret history of some of your boys could be written, 

 I do not doubt that it would present as dark a page 

 as that of many of these poor heathen children, who 

 from a want of the sense of shame openly sin. 



I sometimes think, too, that sin in the heart of a 

 bad boy in America is about as stubborn a thing as 

 we find it here. None but the Lord Jesus is able to 

 cleanse the heart. But he is able and will give you 

 victory in the work — the blessed work of trying to 

 lead them to Himself. Perhaps, some day, some of 

 those boys who now give you only trouble, annoy- 

 ance, and insult for all your kindness to them, will 

 rise up and call you blessed for your love and for- 

 bearance, and they, in love for the lost, will be go- 

 ing forth to teach darker minds and hearts, but not 

 more wicked, in distant lands, of Jesus who saved 

 them from a life of sin, degredation, and sorrow. 

 God bless and save the boys, and help them to see 

 the worth of a noble life, the joy, the true happiness 

 that there is in a consecrated life. May you never 

 "grow weary in well doing," for the influence of 

 your life and work has already reached farther than 

 you know. 



I suppose that you would like to know something 



