18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



49,3 



\ur f ch*#. 



Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that 

 there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now 

 herewith, snith the Loud of hosts, it' I will not open 

 you the windows of heaven, and pour^you out a bless- 

 ing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 



MALACHI iii. 10. 



fONCE heard a story of an old lady who 

 was one day entertaining friends ; hut, 



' while she was ahsenton some household 

 duty, some one picked up her well-worn Bi- 

 ble, and, on turning over the leaves, was 

 somewhat puzzled to know the meaning of 

 the capital T"s written on the margin of the 

 leaves, sprinkled all through the hook. He 

 turned it over, and studied in vain, until she 

 happened to reappear. 



'• .My good woman," said he. " what am I 

 to understand by these letter T's, that I rind 

 written so plainlv all through your Bible?" 



"Those letter T's ? Oh! those are to indi- 

 cate that I have tried those passages, and 

 found them true, for you know T is the first 

 letter of tried." 



Well, my friends. I have tried a great 

 many passages in the Bible, during the last 

 five years, and I do not know of any one 

 that 1 have rejoiced over, more than the one 

 above. Please now do not misunderstand 

 me, or get off upon side issues, in the beauti- 

 ful thought I am trying to get before you, 

 but let us all honestly try to understand the 

 great promise embodied in our text, just as 

 God intended it for us. 



Suppose you had money without limit, ly- 

 ing idle, and that you also had a son, whom 

 you wished very much to grow up to be a 

 great and good man. This son goes into 

 business, but common prudence and fore- 

 thought would dictate that you first try him 

 with small amounts, before giving him un- 

 limited access to the money with which you 

 hope to aid him toward a useful life. If he 

 should commence at once by asking for 

 money with which to hire hands, and then 

 pay them their wages without any care as to 

 whether they earned what was paid them or 

 not, and go to buying expensive machinery 

 that he had no use for, you would feel at 

 once, that it would defeat the end you had 

 in view, to give him money too freely. Now 

 let us, on the contrary, suppose the son 

 showed a wonderful love for agriculture, 

 and only employed a few trusty hands, and 

 only a few good tools, and those not until 

 he absolutely needed them. Suppose, too, 

 that he produced a crop, exceeding that of 

 even the most experienced farmers, and kept 

 his accounts so accurately, that he could tell 

 almost as well what it cost cash out, as what 

 it brought cash in hand. Do you see any 

 difference? Suppose, besides this, that he 

 encouraged an enthusiasm in all the boys in 

 the neighborhood around, for going right in- 

 to honest, hard work, instead of trusting to 

 speculation; and that the effect was to stim- 

 ulate all, both young and old, to a love for 

 agriculture. 



We are God's children,— perhaps the only 

 children he has in the universe, and the 

 wealth, if we may use the expression, that 

 he has at his command, he has no use for, 



except to give to us, as fast as he sees we 

 are making a good use of it. Do some of 

 you say he makes us work very hard for what 

 little we get? How many boys* think the same 

 tiling of their parents V The parents certainly 

 know best, as a general thing, and God cer- 

 tainly knows best always. Do some of you 

 think you would like to have God give you 

 a little to try you ? He has tried you, and is 

 trying you, "with what you have. Do you re- 

 member the widow who invested her two 

 mites ? 



Turn again to the two boys: one of them 

 very likely felt hard toward his father for 

 with-holding from him the money that would 

 do him harm, while the other did not care 

 for the money that, very likely, might have 

 been given him without doing him harm. 

 One had faith in his father's superior judg- 

 ment and wisdom, while the other had none, 

 and censured and complained. I fear there 

 are many of you who reject this idea of God's 

 special providence and care. A few days 

 ago, one of our boys resisted the marshal 

 and was thrown into jail. I talked with him 

 about it, but he said the marshal was unjust. 

 I told him inasmuch as we, the people, elect- 

 ed him for marshal, it was our duty to obey 

 him, even if he ordered us to do unreason- 

 able things. We should obey him so long as 

 he was marshal, out of respect to his office, 

 if nothing more ; and, if he really was an 

 unwise or unreasonable man, elect a better 

 one next time. I appealed to the rest of the 

 boys to know if 1 was not right. To my sor- 

 row, they all decided against me. I quoted 

 the passage about giving the cloak also, 

 when sued by an enemy, and told them it 

 was the words of Jesus, our Savior, for just 

 such poor misguided fellows as we are, but. 

 in spite of all I could say, they rejected 

 Christ and his teachings altogether. \Y*as I 

 going too far, in thinking that they were put 

 in jail and kept there solely because they re- 

 jected him and his teachings, and that they 

 would come out forthwith if they would ac- 

 cept him as their guide, and try to follow 

 him ? I mused farther, that the greatest 

 part of the troubles we have, — we who are 

 out of jail, — comes from refusing to accept 

 this same Savior and his teachings. I know 

 it is the greatest trouble of my life. 



How shall we accept him ? how shall we 

 bring tithes into the storehouse ? how shall 

 we get these blessings so great in number 

 and quantity that we shall not find room 

 to store them ? I know some of you who 

 read these pages are poor in money, for 

 I have heard you tell of waiting all sum- 

 mer to get 2oc. that could be spared to send 

 for Gleanings; but, my friends, if my 

 income were only 50c. a year, I would most 

 assurdly take 5c. of it, or one tenth of the 

 whole, for God"s work. I do not mean that 

 I would always give it to the minister, but I 

 would invest it for the good of humanity in 

 someway which my conscience approved. 

 I would certainly give a part of the tenth to 

 the churches and Sabbath schools around me ; 

 I would give some to the Bible Society, and 

 the work of helping to send missionaries to 

 educate and civilize foreign lands ; and, be- 

 sides all these and others I have not mention 

 ed, I would constantly pray < Jod to show me 



