41(1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



that I would rather do it than not. It was 

 after 12, hefore I could get the poor mother 

 to lie down, and then she lay on the floor, so 

 as to be near the children, and laid the wee 

 babe on the treadle to her sewing machine, 

 to raise him a little from the floor. All night 

 I stepped round among them, in my stock- 

 ing feet, and, for the first time in my life, 

 made coffee, broth, etc., for the convalescing 

 boy, kept two fires burning without rattling 

 the stoves and things very much more than 

 my wife did, got acquainted with the chil- 

 dren and soothed them in their childish 

 wants and troubles, cheered the mother by 

 reviving her faith in God, and tried to give 

 the father a view of the religion that Christ 

 taught while here on earth. Although I 

 only slept 15 minutes at one time, and ;->0 at 

 another, I felt no disposition at all to sleep 

 when the daylight came, and almost as fresh 

 and able for business as if I had slept in my 

 own bed. Before going away in the morn- 

 ing, the father made the remark that, though 

 I was unused to the work, I had taken hold 

 of things in a strange house, about the handi- 

 est of any body they had had there. I tell 

 you, my friends, it wants just the same spirit 

 that the boy had who raised the lettuce heads 

 in the winter, of whom I have told you on 

 another page. "Why did I not get dizzy and 

 faint (I did not want a particle of refresh- 

 ment of any kind, although it was provided 

 for us) V Because God answered my prayer 

 in the starting out, when I undertook to do 

 as he has bid. You may, if you choose, say 

 it was because I took a fancy for the work, 

 because it was a new thing. If God answers 

 our prayers, I do not see that it matters just 

 how he does it. I did it all, because I loved 

 the Lord, and when that is our inspiring 

 motive, when we work for the love we bear 

 to him, or for Christ's sake, if you choose, 

 he will always answer our prayers, and all 

 things shall work together for good. 



Now, suppose I had done all this with a 

 purpose of gaining the applause of men, or 

 that I might put it into these pages, to let 

 you all see how good I am. do you think God 

 would have helped me V Most assuredly he 

 would not, and I speak from practical expe- 

 rience ; for, a great many times, something 

 else besides my Savior comes uppermost in 

 my work. When I sat down to write this 

 morning, I had no thought of giving you 

 this little incident, but as my thoughts dwelt 

 on the events, it occurred to me that it was 

 all in answer to my prayer in the meeting 

 last evening. God blessed me, and that 

 family too, and who knows but that this 

 simple story may bless you, and some neigh- 

 bor near you. Am I worn out this morning, 

 so that my Home Papers are not as good as 

 usual ? I do not fear to say that I think it 

 is good, for it has been thus far, at least, 

 God's work and not mine. 



Afternoon. — Since I left my type writer, I 

 have had occasion to pass the house, and I 

 called to inquire after my friends of last 

 night. As my thoughts have been much on 

 them, of course, I have been praying for 

 them, and this is what I heard, when I open- 

 ed the door. 



"O Mr. Root, we are all of us ever so much 

 better." 



Now this is not all, either; a few minutes 

 after, by accident, I passed the friend who 

 had invited me to go there. Now I am go- 

 ing to make a little confession, even at the 

 risk of injuring myself in his estimation. 

 He has always been a most exemplary 

 Christian, in looking after, and caring for, 

 the sick, and, as he had often talked to me 

 about it, I got a notion that he thought I 

 was not doing my share of this kind of mis- 

 sion work, and I am afraid I felt just a little 

 "edgewise" toward him. I had reasoned 

 thus: He has plenty of time, and knows 

 how, but I am so "awful busy" all the while, 

 and don't know how either; he ought not to 

 think of my doing as he does. Looking back 

 at it now. I am not at all sure that he ever 

 did think about it, but it illustrates how 

 .Satan will encourage us in thinking wrong- 

 fully about the best friends we have. Well, 

 I passed him as I said, and what a change. 

 I told him I had a very pleasant visit with 

 my friends during the night. Said he, 



"I knew you would, for you are just the 

 man for that kind of work." ' 



How pleasant and friendly he seemed to- 

 day. That man is a real, true Christian, if 

 we have any in our town. Why, he looked, 

 to-day, positively handsome; but I presume 

 he is not different from what he has been, 

 all the time. All the difference was in me. 

 Does not this illustrate how Satan hates to 

 see us exhibiting a Christ like spirit toward 

 each other V 



The great point I am trying to arrive at by 

 this little story is, that it is not so much 

 what we do as it is the spirit in which we do 

 it, 



Let us go back to the point we were dis- 

 cussing last month. If that confession had 

 been made with a view of making a sensation, 

 of attracting attention, of making people 

 stare, by boasting of what a great sinner I 

 had been, God could not have been with me 

 in it. If, on the other hand, it was to warn 

 against such trifling, to let mankind know 

 that the Devil lurks in such things, as well 

 as in the intoxicating cup or in gambling, 

 and to show them that nothing but trouble 

 and ruin can come of it, that it makes one 

 as heartless and unfeeling as the drunkard 

 who strikes his wife down with clenched 

 fist, my purpose was a good one, and my 

 prayers would be answered there just as 

 surely, as they were in my attempts to care 

 for the sick. But it was such a shock on 

 community, &c. My friends, it was a shock 

 on community when I had an old resident of 

 our town arrested for being intoxicated in 

 our streets. I do not know but that more 

 than half of our town's people felt pained to 

 think that I, so long a peaceful and quiet 

 citizen, had gone out of my way, and made 

 so many bitter enemies. The saloon keepers 

 j of our town, without doubt, think that relig- 

 ion has made me a worse man than I was 

 before. Because of offending them, shall I 

 stop V In the confession I have made I pain- 

 ed and wounded almost every friend and 

 relative I have. My friends in my native 

 town, in my own church, and all the churches 

 in our town, as well as the skeptics and in- 

 fidels, were most bitter in their denuncia- 



