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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



397 



out and say they will not pay, and tell me to 

 get it if I ran, are invariably the ones who 

 declare they have no faith in God, 

 man, or the Devil. Suppose I print the 

 names of those who have refused to pay their 

 debts, or even answer a letter of inquiry, 

 during the past :20 years, and then let us find 

 out whether or not they profess to be Chris- 

 tians. Will my skeptical friends consent to 

 such a trial as this? 



My heart warms toward you, my friend, 

 because you have confessed to me that you 

 have trials rigid in the very line where I 

 have been tried so much, and I wish that I 

 lived nearer you that I might show you the 

 practical workings of the spirit that Christ 

 taught, — of how it opens and broadens one's 

 life, how it gives him power and influence, 

 aye, and all that he can ask for here in this 

 world, besides the safe, sure promise of a 

 life of joy and peace in the world beyond 

 this life. Put these temptations under foot, 

 my friend, Reach up and accept the help- 

 ing hand of that Savior of mankind, and 

 step above these petty trials that would 

 weigh us down. Your sex have heen brave, 

 strong, and hopeful, even when ours have 

 been weighed down by doubts and distrust. 

 Instead of discouraging your husband and 

 those near you, you may be a strong pillar 

 in the army of the Lord ; in His name I en- 

 treat you to rise up and help poor, sellish hu- 

 manity, instead of blaming them ; help them 

 in pity and love, even as Christ wept over 

 Jerusalem, and you shall have treasures laid 

 up in heaven. 



KNOW then, soul, thy full salvation; 



Rise o'er sin, and fear, and care; 

 Joy to And, in every station. 



Something still to do or bear. 



Think what Spirit dwells within tbee; 



Think what father's smiles an' thine; 

 Think that .Jesus died to win thee: 



Child of heaven, canst thou repine? 



Haste thee on from grace to glory, 

 Armed by faith, and winged by prayer, 



Heaven's eternal day's before thee: 

 I lod's own hand shall guide thee there. 



Soon shall close thy earthly mission, 



Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days, 

 Hope shall change to glad fruition, 



faith to sii^lit, and prayer to praise. 



Thanks for the insertion of my communication in 

 Our Homes [June No.], and kind comments thereon. 

 I send a word of rejoinder in the same spirit. You 

 say, "God can not, from the very nature of things, 

 answer the prayer of a lazy man." Rut you will (if 

 course defer to the following from Jesus: "With 

 God all things are possible." -Matt. xix. :.'u. 



Therefore, when God sees tit, he can not only an- 

 swer the lazy man's prayer, but cause him to be lazy 

 no longer. In like manner all mankind can be trans- 

 formed into saints, and the millenium at once ush- 

 ered in. 



Now, friend E., if your theory of the ellicacy of 

 prayer is well founded, this consummation so de- 

 voutly to he wished lacks only a suitable invocation. 



Stephen Young. 



Memphis, Mo., June 1">, 1880. 



Even the Bible, friend Y., must he taken 

 with reason, and is to be interpreted by the 

 sound common sense God has given us for 

 the purpose. Jesus might have said, "With 

 God all things are possible, except sin.'' but 



would it not have been paying a poor tribute 

 to man's intelligence, to have added those 

 last two words? God can not save a man 

 who is stubborn and willful, and does not 

 want to lie saved. Were such the case, man 

 could not be a free agent, and would not 

 therefore be responsible for his acts. There 

 is no need to argue on this point; all 

 mankind assent to it in their actions, if 

 they do not in words. If you, friend Y., 

 stubbornly refuse to accept God's offers of 

 salvation, and refuse to listen to his plead- 

 ings with you, as did Cain, God himself can 

 not save you, nor can the prayers of all the 

 "world convert you against your will. 



A mother's prayers and pleadings are pow- 

 erful in intluencing her wayward children, 

 but still they have the power to resist it all 

 if they choose. We are praying for you, 

 friend Y., and in answer to these prayers 

 God will throw strong influences about you, 

 but still the responsibility rests with you, to 

 "choose this day whom ye will serve." Sup- 

 pose the mother would refuse to plead with 

 the wayward child, and give as an excuse 

 that he would do as he pleased in spite of all 

 she could say. By prayer we hope to induce 

 people to "ph c.sv to do right.'' If the father 

 will unite with the mother in pleading with 

 the child, the chances are much greater that 

 he will yield, and if the brothers and sisters 

 unite also, the chances are still greater. If 

 all the inhabitants of a town will go one by 

 one, or collectively, to a saloon keeper and 

 plead with him to give up his business, it is 

 almost beyond the power of humanity to 

 hold out very long, and yet he yields of his 

 own free will. Prayer is like this pleading; 

 it wants the united hearts and voices of 

 many, and your inference is right that even 

 a lazy man can be made lazy no longer, pro- 

 viding he can he induced to yield, but it will 

 likely require the prayers and pleadings of 

 many instead of one. 



I presume it is no more than natural, my 

 friends, that you should have a desire to 

 know what your friend, who has talked to 

 you so long on these pages, looks like. I 

 have been reminded of this, for some time 

 past, by letters, or sentences in letters, some- 

 thing like the following which happen to be 

 at hand : 



We want to see the man who has accomplished so 

 much by trusting in the Lord for help and success. 



A. McKee. 



ltockford, Wright Co., Minn., Nov. 29, 1879. 



I received the ABC book I ordered of you, and it 

 gave good satisfaction. I think all it lacks is your 

 portrait in the front side. ADDISON JONES. 



Stcamburg, N. Y., March 25, 1880. 



Xow, in giving a picture of myself and 

 of our little girl of whom I have spoken 

 so often, I do not wish to have you think we 

 are anxious to put ourselves forward for your 

 notice, but we come before von just exactly 

 as I may some time do, should I come up the 

 walk and announce myself as your old ac- 

 quaintance from whom you have heard so 

 often, but have never before seen. The pic- 

 ture is not as good as a photograph, it is 

 true, but it is rather less expensive, for a 



