134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



"Why, most certainly, my friend, if you 

 wish to go." 



Do you see what a blunder I had made in 

 my lack of faith? I thought the boys would 

 be embarrassed and annoyed, but here was 

 one who wanted to be "talked to" some 

 more. Who can fathom a boy's nature? 

 and who can fathom God's wisdom? A lit- 

 tle farther, and the one I had called on at 

 the second visit came bounding through a 

 snow drift, with the same question. Did 

 you ever? I was told afterward, that some 

 of them were on hand at the appointed place 

 before dark. At this, the third visit, so 

 many of the class being present, there was a 

 little danger that the spirit of the Sunday 

 school might rise up ; but one of the parents 

 was present, and it had a marked influence. 

 A sister of one of the boys, who is in the 

 Sabbath school, helped me very materially, 

 and nearly all of the boys had a verse learned 

 for our next lesson. When it was time to 

 go home (I was startled to find it was after 

 nine, for I had been so intent on my work 

 that I had forgotten time and place) the idea 

 came into my mind suddenly, whether it 

 would be wisdom to ask so many to kneel 

 with me in prayer. In meeting one of them, 

 I had always closed the talk with prayer. 

 There were so many, and they Avere so boil- 

 ing over with suppressed fun, I feared they 

 would not kneel down. I finally decided 

 that if I omitted it, I should feel a little 

 guilty, as I know by past similar experi- 

 ences, for not having done my work thor- 

 oughly and well, and I therefore asked them 

 if they would not all, out of courtesy, unite 

 with us as we knelt and thanked God for 

 our pleasant evening. As the young lady 

 and her father set the example, they all 

 knelt, but the idea seemed to them so funny, 

 that, for a brief time, their suppressed gig- 

 gling threatened to drown my voice. Even 

 this did me good, for when I began to feel 

 that I was not equal to the occasion, I 

 grasped at once upon the idea that God was 

 able, and God did restore quietness, while he 

 admonished me to make short prayers before 

 so young an audience. With joy in my 

 heart, I dismissed them, and prepared to go 

 home; but imagine how surprised I was, and 

 how I thanked God for his answers to my 

 prayers, when two of them came up to me 

 at once, and made the request that we have 

 a meeting of our own, every week. 



"O ye of little faith," I felt like saying to 

 myself as I went home. We have had one 

 Sabbath school since, and Oh. such a differ- 

 ent one ! God does hear, and help, I keep 

 thinking all the more. The boys have final- 

 ly arranged that they will have "the meetings 

 around from house to house, and all I shall 

 have to do with it, is to come when and 

 where I am invited. Do you not see how 

 like it is to our noon-day service? I am only 

 a passenger, as it were", and they do all the 

 work, and take the whole matter into their 

 own hands. Is it not wonderful? 



Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust nlso in Him, 

 and He shall bring it to pass.— Ps. xxx, vii, 5. 



That still small voice came again, and 

 pointed out the course I was to pursue some- 

 thing in this way : "Mr. Eoot, if those boys 



have chosen you to meet with them, you cer- 

 tainly are equal to the task of interesting 

 them for an hour or two every week, and of 

 thus keeping up the work God has so mani- 

 ifestly called on you to do." The second 

 week I gave them some experiments in me- 

 chanics ("tricks," I presume some of them 

 call them), lasting an hour, and then wound 

 up with 20 minutes earnest work on the les- 

 son for the next Sabbath. Next week, I am 

 to give them some electrical experiments. 

 They all enjoyed it, I am sure, and I am 

 pretty sure too, that none of them enjoyed 

 being a boy again, so much as your old 

 friend Novice. Said my wife, — 



"But will it not be something of a task on 

 your time, to take one whole evening every 

 week?" 



Perhaps it will, but the thought of 

 those boys waiting for and expecting me 

 would make it a pleasant task to go 5 miles 

 through the worst of roads or weather, so 

 long as I was leading them in the strait and 

 narrow path to the mansions above. 



Now it is not only in the matter of that 

 class that God seems guiding and directing, 

 but through these Home Papers there seems 

 to be coming and developing a new field. 

 The boys themselves are going to do the 

 greater part of that work, and I do not know, 

 my friends, but that it is you who are going 

 to do the greater part of this work. The 

 friend who writes below gave me my open- 

 ing text : 



"By this ye may know that ye have passed from 

 death unto life, because ye love the brethren." 



I have just finished reading your sermon in Feb. 

 No., and must confess my heart burned within me, 

 while you were talking to Mary. You have told her 

 the truth. I am glad to find a man of God, and one 

 who has faith. I know you are a man of like pas- 

 sions with myself, and love to meet hearts which 

 beat in unison with your own. I, too, have trusted 

 God in faith, and have had miraculous answers to 

 prayer, but faith and works go together; our lives 

 must square with God's word. "As your faith is, so 

 shall it be with you." If we feel God's smiles, we 

 dare ask him for great things. Rro. Root, I think 

 your home readings are like sparks from the electric 

 machine; they stir the dorm int powers of the 

 Christian reader. You will please excuse my poor 

 hand-writing; I think it is nearly as bad as Horace 

 Greeley's used to be, but, if you can make it out, be 

 assured it comes from an honest heart. I wonder 

 how you find time to hold meetings, and write for the 

 Gleanings, and attend to all the minutiae of your ex- 

 tensive business, and yet hold your temper. I am a 

 man in business, and in dealing with the multitude, 

 my inward graces are tried. Bro. Root, you have 

 my prayers and sympathy, and I bid you "God 

 speed." J. B. Goewey. 



Lansingburgh, N. Y., Feb. 3, 1880. 



Never mind the writing, brother G. Fine 

 penmanship is an excellent thing, hut the 

 spirit that shines through your words is of 

 far greater importance in God's sight. I 

 thank you for that beautiful text, for it has 

 seemed to me since you sent it, one of the 

 brightest of the many shining ones to be 

 found in God"s sacred word. 



Here is another letter that makes my heart 

 rejoice much as it did when the boys asked 

 to have a little meeting every week: 



