1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



133 



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We know that we hare passed from death unto 

 life, because we love the brethren.— I. John, iii. 14. 



fp SPOKE to you last month about my 

 JB class of boys in the Sabbath school. I 

 told you also that it is well to have wants. 

 Xovv I am going a little further, and tell you 

 it is well to have troubles, or, at least, it is 

 well to be troubled in one sense. I would 

 by no means have you borrow trouble, nor 

 would I have you be troubled in any way 

 that would lead you to useless repining anil 

 fault finding ; but I would have you troub- 

 led in a way that would set you earnestly at 

 work to remedy existing evils all about you, 

 and for which you are more or less responsi- 

 ble. I felt troubled about the boys of my 

 class, and because my teachings seemed to 

 have little or no effect in increasing their 

 faith in the Bible, or in counteracting the 

 prevailing skepticism of our town. Do you 

 not see that it is well to be troubled in this 

 way? Well, I prayed quite earnestly over 

 this subject, but still matters did not im- 

 prove. These boys seemed more bent on 

 turning every thing into fun, and making 

 light of religious teaching, than before, and 

 I began seriously doubting whether anything 

 could be done for them. I feel ashamed to 

 own it now, but thoughts did begin to come 

 into my mind of blaming the poor boys, and 

 saying if they did not come to Sabbath 

 school to behave themselves, and listen 

 while they were taught, it was no fault of 

 mine, and, for almost the first time in my 

 life, I allowed thoughts to come into my 

 mind of another class. May God forgive 

 me, and if any of those boys should chance 

 to see these words, will they try to forgive 

 me too. The point that I could not easily 

 get around was that there were so many of 

 them, and they seemed all to do about alike. 

 The class kept increasing too ; why did they 

 come at all? Was it because they enjoyed 

 the fun of seeing how they could baffle me, 

 and of seeing me talk and work for their 

 salvation? My friend, you may have one or 

 two bad boys in your class, but never a 

 whole class of them that are beyond the 

 reach of the gospel. You may, my brother 

 or sister, have one or two bad neighbors, 

 difficult to get along with, but you are never 

 among a set of people that are all bad. God 

 would not allow it ; and whenever you are 

 tempted to think thus, just make up your 

 mind you are the bad neighbor and the rest 

 of them good in comparison. Let the man 

 or woman fear and tremble, who has Quar- 

 rels with a great many people round about 

 him, or, to go still farther, who finds many 

 about him that are unlovable; especially, if 

 you claim to be a Christian, look out now 

 you allow yourself to get into an uncharita- 

 ble mood, and speak bitterly of those whom 

 God has thrown around you. Do you love 

 the brethren, such as they are? If not. is it 

 not very likely you have not passed from 

 death unto life? You can be troubled about 

 the sins and faults of your neighbors, but in- 

 stead of loving them less on this account, 



you shouid love them more ; in fact, they 

 need your love all the more, if they are wick- 

 ed and unconverted. I know my great and 

 grievous fault in this direction, and it has 

 of late been looming up before me like a 

 great mountain. It is true, one may be per- 

 secuted for Christ's sake, but I am sure such 

 is not often the case with me. My persecu- 

 tions come mostly, because of my grievous 

 faults, and because I deserve them, and they 

 are best for my spiritual growth and good. 

 In answer to more earnest and intense pray- 

 er for these boys, God showed me where I 

 stood, and that it was outside of the bounds 

 of possibility, that those boys, were all be- 

 yond hope of being converted. It's my own 

 work, and the class is my appointed field 

 which God has given me. I thought of how 

 much kind encouragement you have all giv- 

 en me in regard to these Home Papers, and 

 then I thought how disappointed you would 

 all be, should you find out the truth, and 

 discover that I was the poorest teacher in 

 that whole school of over 200 pupils. Slow- 

 ly it began to dawn on my mind that I must 

 take the time and go and see these boys, all 

 of them, individually, and at their homes. 

 I pleaded I had not time, and evaded and 

 put off the duty. Stronger came the still, 

 small voice, speaking finally almost in plain 

 words. 



"Mr. Root, you must hunt those boys up, 

 and use the power God has given you, to get 

 them out of the attitude they seem tending 

 toward, in regard to the Christian religion. 

 If you can not handle them together, you 

 certainly can, by taking them individually." 



I wonder if Jonah felt at all in the same 

 Avay when God told him to go and preach to 

 the children of Nineveh? I do not know 

 that I ever before felt so much diffidence at 

 taking up any such work, as I did this sim- 

 ple task, and I can only explain it by saying 

 I had been listening so long to Satan, that 

 he had a great deal to say in the matter. 

 The especial thing that kept coming up was, 

 "What will their parents think? 1 ' and "It 

 will be a pretty way to get the good will of 

 the boys, by going to their parents and com- 

 plaining of them." 



In vain I prayed that my Savior would go 

 before me aud pave my way for the work, as 

 he had done so many times before. It seem- 

 ed to me as I started out, as if it certainly 

 was a blunder this time, and all I could do 

 was to say, as I have so often said before, 

 ''Well, I will go ahead, any way, and if it is 

 a blunder, it will be a blunder for Christ's 

 sake, and lie will certainly take care of it." 



Do you think it was a blunder my friends? 

 Blunder? To be sure it was not. I had a 

 very pleasant talk with the parents at the 

 first place, and such warm thanks for my 

 solicitude in looking after their boy, that I 

 went away "just happy- 1 ' Just about the 

 same result followed with the next, and, be- 

 fore I got to the third, the boys found out 

 what was going on, and, to my great sur- 

 prise, one day, the boy I had "first visited 

 came bounding up to me with, — 



"Mr". Root, Mr. Root, are you going to Mr. 

 G.'s to-night?" 



I told him I intended to go. 



"Please may I go too?" 



