18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



447 



Are you meek? Perhaps you think you are. 

 Somebody wrote a few days ago, commend- 

 ing my meekness. I knew it was an u awf ul 

 big' 1 mistake, and T presume some of the 

 clerks who were obliged to read the letter 

 thought so too, for from their comments I 

 judged they considered it the best "joke" of 

 the season." 



A little incident that 1 noticed from the 

 window where I am writing will illustrate 

 where we lack meekness. A good friend of 

 mine draws merchandise up town, with a 

 stout wagon and a span of mules. His wa- 

 gon was carefully backed up to a car. and lie 

 was rolling heavy boxes from the floor of the 

 car to the floor of his wagon. The mules 

 have a way of slowly hitching along a little 

 sometimes; I presume they have learned it 

 just to vary the monotony of standing so 

 much while waiting for their loads. Well, 

 our friend was getting an unusually heavy 

 box into the wagon, and the mules commenc- 

 ed to move along a little, lie yelled out to 

 them to ''whoa," but they still edged along. 

 One foot was on the car. and the other on 

 the wagon bed, and the great, heavy box was 

 at the most critical point. His feet were 

 growing more and more unpleasantly remote 

 from each other, and the box was nearly off 

 at both ends. In spite of his angry calls to 

 the mules, and before I could scarcely think 

 of going to his assistance, box and man were 

 both down in the mud, just because 

 the poor dumb brutes took a notion to go 

 ahead regardless of orders. Our friend was 

 up in a moment, and with rage in his face, 

 climbed into the back end of the wagon and 

 grasped hold of the lines. When I explain 

 that he had recently signed the Murphy 

 pledge, and had also attended pretty regular- 

 ly a new church recently started, you may 

 imagine somewhat the solicitude with which 

 I watched the transaction. As he gave the 

 animals a jerk that must have made them re- 

 pent if they ever do repent of disobedience, 

 he seemed to look about to see how many 

 would hear, should he give way to the storm 

 of anger that seemed to have possession of 

 him, and use the words that Satan, no doubt, 

 was trying to persuade him to use. The 

 coast seemed pretty clear and he Iterated his 

 team with a loud string of oaths. Alas, 

 frail humanity! In spite of good resolutions 

 he had made, and the good sermons he had 

 heard, he gave way to evil impulses. I do 

 not mean to censure too severely, for I trust 

 God has forgiven it all, ere this. PoorC! 

 his offense, although a grave one, I can but 

 feel is no worse in God's sight, than is mine 

 when I allow my voice to get into that high 

 tone that it sometimes takes when I get to 

 scolding here about my work. Perhaps my 

 attitude and the tones of my voice are as of- 

 fensive to those about me, as were his won Is 

 to myself. I knew it was my duty to talk 

 with him about his bad example, set before 

 his own and other boys in the street, but I 

 knew very well it was not the time to do it 

 then. At some other time, when he was not 

 busy, and was feeling pleasant, he would 

 acknowledge he was wrong, and would give 

 me a promise that would in all probability 

 be kept, to try hard not to swear, whether 

 anybody was around to hear or not. I felt 



instinctively, that a fitting time and a fitting 

 occasion are very important things, with al- 

 most any of us. I am ashamed to say, it is 

 much so with myself. If one of my hands 

 were to speak to me in a friendly way, in re- 

 gard to my way of fretting and scolding, at 

 sometime when I am feeling pleasant, I 

 should of course take it all quietly, and very 

 likely thank him, even if he should overdo 

 the matter, and accuse me of some things of 

 which I am innocent. I am very meek at 

 times, and then at times I am not. Any- 

 body can be good when they feel like it, but 

 it is the real heroes (and heroines) who can 

 be meek when they feel like tearing things 

 to ] lieces. Do you know what the Bible says 

 about him that is able to rule himself? I 

 wonder how many there are of you, whose 

 eyes are on these pages, who will bear rebuk- 

 ing at all times, and under all circumstances. 

 The worst trouble with me is, that I change 

 my mind when temptation comes, like some 

 of the boys who make such strong resolves 

 not to drink any more. Albert used to say 

 that he changed his mind, and concluded he 

 would drink, was why he had his backsets. 

 I succeed by watching and praying so as to 

 keep in a spirit of meekness for several days 

 and perhaps weeks, but finally, when a strong 

 temptation comes, Satan persuades me that 

 it is right to talk loud and '"decided," and 

 that my business would all be run away with, 

 if I did not get vehement, and let people 

 know "what's what." I hold to this opinion 

 for several hours at a time, and I do not 

 know but I could hold out in justifying my- 

 self for several days or longer, were it not 

 for the noon-day service, and our family 

 prayers at home. These "institutions" 

 cramp and fetter one most inconveniently, 

 at such times, and there is no getting around 

 them. I have more than once meditated 

 skipping them, but then I should have to 

 come back sometime, and what then? Satan 

 would recommend in precipitate haste, if 

 I even hesitate, or cast a look of recogni- 

 tion toward him, to skip them forever, and 

 live as other people do, and give up trying 

 to be a saint, when I make such hard 

 work of it. Old memories of skeptical days 

 troop back, and seem for a time to be trying 

 to test the strength of the growth of the new 

 life. The struggle is not what it used to be, 

 for the dear Savior's presence seems all 

 around, and with joy and thanksgiving, I 

 feel ready to exclaim with the psalmist, — 



I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is 

 my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my 

 God. my strength, in whom I will trust: my buckler, 

 and the horn of my salvation, a)nl my high tower. I 

 will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: 

 so shall I be saved from mine enemies. The sorrows 

 of death compassed me. and the floods of ungodly 

 men made me afraid. Tbe sorrows of hell compass- 

 ed me about : the snares of death prevented me. In 

 my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto 

 my God: he heard ray voice out of his temple, and 

 my cry came before him, even into his ears. 



Some of you may say, it is impossible for 

 one to be even-tempered, always alike; in 

 spite of all we can do, we shall have our 

 pleasant moods, and our unpleasant ones ; 

 and if anybody has anything to say to us, he 

 must take us when we are in a proper mood 

 to listen to it. There may be some truth in 

 this, but it seems a rather sad thought, that 



