1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



85 



his power, and is it in accordance with Bible 

 teachings? 



And it shall come to pass, that beforothoy call, I 



will answer; and while they are yet speaking', 1 will 

 hear. - Isaiah, lxv. ~l. 



I do not mean that he is going to change 

 the contents of the letters, as they lie on the 

 table, by a miracle, but that God knew I 

 would so pray, and moved the hearts of peo- 

 ple accordingly. Well, suppose, at jnst 

 about that time, I had lost faith in prayer 

 for temporal things, and so had not prayed: 

 God would have known that such would be 

 the case, and so the contents of those letters 

 would have been, at least in a measure, ac- 

 cording to my faith and my prayers. Such 

 a view and such faith makes man small, but 

 God all-powerful. Now, .Mary, you want 

 just this faith amid your trials. 



You say it sometimes seems as if (.od him- 

 self were thwarting your every wish. There 

 is a bright wide-awake little "chick 1 ' down 

 at our home, whose wishes are thwarted al- 

 most constantly; and, sometimes, when she 

 evidently seems to think forbearance has 

 ceased to be a virtue (she is but two years 

 old) her blue eyes are raised and fixed on her 

 mother's face as if to say, "Is it because you 

 wish to pester my little fife out of me, that 

 you continually thwart me thus? or do you 

 really do it because you love me, and would 

 make me happier and better by withhold- 

 ing?" I do not pretend to say that these ex- 

 act words pass through her baby mind, but 

 she seems to be considering the matter, and 

 debating why she cannot have tilings. Is 

 the mother's wisdom really so much greater 

 than hers? Child as she is, in the linn moth- 

 er's look, she reads love a thousand times 

 greater, than that of the mother who gives 

 her child everything it cries for. What a 

 beautiful sight it is, to see a child wide-awake 

 and full of wants and wishes, yet with such 

 perfect confidence in the parent's love and 

 wisdom as to be perfectly and cheerfully 

 obedient in all things. Now, Mary, can you 

 not look up to God, your heavenly father, in 

 that same way? Canyon doubt either his 

 love or his wisdom? Is it not probable that 

 he knows far, far better than you? 



If the child rejects the mother's advice 

 and assistance, and will not trust to be guid- 

 ed, you well know the result. Mary, are you 

 not rejecting your Savior, in the same way? 

 You have allowed skepticism to get ahold in 

 your heart, and — see where Satan has led 

 you! "The wages of sin is death,'" and he 

 is hurrying you on to death, in a double 

 sense. ' Satan's wiles, every one of them. 

 turn sooner or later into death; into the 

 death of the bottomless pit. 



In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 

 died for sinners, I invite you. Mary, and all 

 others who feel themselves to be sinners, es- 

 pecially, helpless sinners, — in his name, I 

 invite you at once, this instant, to come out 

 of the toils of Satan, and to accept rest for 

 your souls. 



Last week, some boy was swearing vehe- 

 mently, on the street near our home. It 

 proved to be one of my boys, in my class in 

 the Sabbath school. After the lesson was 

 over, last Sabbath (we have a little room by 



ourselves), I told the boys I had been much 

 pained to know that one of our number had 

 iieen heard swearing during the past week. 

 To my surprise, one who was not the boy I 

 had in mind said, he should think it strange, 

 if I had one in the class who had not sworn 

 during the past week. Before judging too 

 hastily of the boys, or their teacher, bear in 

 mind that they are nearly all boys of the 

 streets, and too many of them, I fear, have 

 parents who are skeptical, or do not care 

 much whether their boys swear or not. I 

 know I am to blame, and, with God's help, I 

 hope it may be different. After this remark 

 was made,! said nothing, but waited for 

 them to go on with it, as 1 was pretty sure 

 they would. 



Finally said one, "I am afraid I have 

 sworn during the past week." 



"I am sure I have," said another. 



•■Audi,"' "andl," "audi,'' said they, 

 one after another, until only one boy was 

 left, who said nothing. 



•Do you not swear, G.?" said the rest. 



"No." This was so astonishing that some 

 of the rest said they did not believe it. Is 

 Medina worse than* the towns generally in 

 our land? 



"I can keep from swearing, except when I 

 get real mad," said one. Another said he 

 did not believe a boy could help swearing 

 when he was "awful'"' mad. I looked from 

 one to another. They deny the Bible, and 

 ridicule or jest about religion almost every 

 Sabbath, in spite of all I can do with them. 

 Their associates during the greater part of 

 the six week days are, I fear, mostly irrelig- 

 ious people, to say the least. The one who 

 does not swear has godly parents, and lives 

 a little out of town. Is it possible for boys 

 who roam the streets in the evenings, who 

 do not think the Bible of any particular con- 

 sequence, and who do not accept Jesus Christ 

 as the son of God, to break off swearing, if 

 they try ever so hard? I am afraid it is not 

 possible. These boys all agreed that it was 

 bad. and wrong, whatever they believed, but 

 they had got into the habit, aiid they could 

 not break off. 



A poor girl once went to do house-work 

 for some rich people. There were, at the 

 house, two daughters of about this girl's age. 

 They were of that class who thought it gen- 

 teel not to labor, and therefore added to the 

 poor girl's other trials, by ill-treating her at 

 every opportunity. She tried not to resent 

 it, lint humanity was too weak, and she of- 

 ten, to her own shame, lost her temper, and 

 made matters worse by answering back. A 

 well-to-do young farmer was in the habit of 

 visiting there often. Our poor girl had of- 

 ten noticed him. and thought what a really 

 true gentleman he was; but the idea had 

 never entered her mind that lie ever so much 

 as even thought of her poor self. One day, 

 he called when the family was away: she an- 

 swered his call, and, after explaining that 

 the young ladies were both absent, was 

 about excusing herself, that she might go 

 about her work, but he insisted that it was 

 she, and she only, whom he wished to see. 

 Before he left, they were betrothed, but it 

 was thought best for her. at least for a time, 

 to go on with her duties as if nothing had 



