496 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



opportunities of making good investments. 

 What I mean by good investments is oppor- 

 tunities of doing a great deal of good, or the 

 most good, perhaps, with the amount of 

 money and time I have decided to devote to 

 God's work. Many times money is given 

 for charitable purposes where it does harm. 

 A soldier with one leg came in a few days 

 ago, wanting help : he used the money to 

 get drunk with. A young man in trouble 

 told me of getting with bad companions and 

 losing all his money, and I loaned him $2.50 

 to get home, and took his ring as security ; 

 I was sorry for him, and thought I had made 

 a good investment, but I afterwards found 

 he had told the same story, and disposed of 

 several rings of the same kind, right in our 

 town ; so I had given money to Satan, in- 

 stead of the Lord. 



The Christian people of N. Y. City, one 

 winter, decided to furnish food free of charge, 

 to the suffering and destitute. While good 

 may have been done in some cases, in many 

 others it only resulted in inducing persons 

 to give up situations where they were sup- 

 porting themselves very well, and relapse 

 into idleness, where they would be ready 

 tools for Satan. I fear the investment was 

 a bad one. Recently some individual with 

 philanthropic purposes bequeathed a million 

 of dollars toward civilizing the world through 

 missionary work. This sum did a vast 

 amount of good, without question, but it al- 

 so did harm by inducing churches and indi- 

 viduals to withdraw their small subscriptions, 

 which they had been in the habit of paying 

 yearly, thinking, with such a sum in the 

 treasury, there would be no need of their 

 giving. In this light, the million of dollars 

 was a bad investment. Cod wants the 5-cent 

 pieces, and you, my friends, need to give the 

 o-cent pieces, and every time you neglect to 

 give them, or withdraw your subscriptions, 

 you are harmed. Weak churches are harmed, 

 when they stop giving. The poorest Sabbath 

 school in our land should be taught to give 

 to God's work outside of their own little cir- 

 cle. In one sense, it is but selfishness to 

 give only to your own church, Sabbath 

 school, or neighbors. You get narrow and 

 contracted views by so doing. To reap the 

 great benefit of giving, and to secure the 

 blessings that God has promised to pour out, 

 you must give until you feel it, until it is 

 really a sacrifice, and you have to go with- 

 out something you greatly desired. In the 

 old Bible times, God asked for the first and 

 best of their flocks, and those who gave these 

 freely to the Lord were blessed with more 

 flocks and herds, until, like Abraham, the 

 land was hardly broad enough to contain 

 them. 



If it has proven to be unwise to help those 

 who come asking for help, what shall we do 

 that we may not be imposed upon, and make 

 bad investments ? Ask the Lord to help you 

 to see those about you who need assistance, 

 but who do not ask for it. Ask him to 

 move your heart toward the objects he would 

 have you look after. Just last week, I felt 

 strongly impressed to call and see how a 

 friend who was addicted to intemperance 

 was getting along. lie is one I have written 

 of before, who, in a fit of intoxication, hung 



himself, and was cut down and restored 

 by his wife. I felt that I ought to look after 

 him and his family, but finally neglected it. 

 As nearly as I can remember, it was the 

 next day after these impressions that he com- 

 mitted suicide ; and last Sunday morning I 

 saw his lifeless body lifted out of the river. 

 Had I heeded this feeling that came, I know 

 not how, he might have been now looking 

 after his fatherless children. When you are 

 feeling that you ow/lit to do something, do 

 it. 



But, if those who are in trouble and need 

 help, do not ask anybody for assistance, how 

 is anybody to know it ? and how are they to 

 get help V Let them ask God, and he will send 

 somebody. Muller never told anybody he 

 was in need of funds ; even when they were 

 in the greatest straits, when a friend came 

 to him and asked him how his funds were, 

 he declined telling him. The friend replied 

 that he came there intending to give him a 

 thousand dollars, but that, unless he told 

 him how their affairs stood he would not 

 give him a cent. Muller was decided in his 

 sense of duty, in telling only God of his 

 needs, and his friend never gave him a cent. 

 I may not have given the sum correctly, but 

 it was a large amount. Is it not easier to go 

 to God for the things you need, than to ask 

 of any human friend V It is, if your motives 

 are right and pure ; but I know, from ex- 

 perience, what it is to be afraid to ask God 

 for help or for his blessing on our plans in 

 life. Where one man is on his knees asking 

 God for help , and another is asking God to 

 show him where to bestow help, it will be a 

 pretty safe thing to have these parties know 

 each other, and God will surely bring it 

 about sooner or later, to their mutual good 

 and happiness. 



1 like to make good investments, and I do 

 not know of many things that give me a 

 keener pleasure, than when I get a box of 

 goods and find the articles all well and beau- 

 tifully made, and the price moderate. Tor 

 instance : — 



"Just look there, Mr. Gray ! are not those 

 beautiful spirit- levels? see, they have a 

 plumb and level too, and we can sell them 

 for only a half-dollar.''' 



"Why, I declare, those are nice. Can you 

 really afford to sell them for 50c. ?" 



"Yes, sir ; theymade them for me toorder, 

 and said if I would take a whole gross, they 

 would put them at an even $54.00. This, 

 you know, would be only 37|c. each." 



Shortly afterwards, during a very dry, 

 dusty season, I told Mr. Gray we wanted a 

 watering trough, at the well right in front 

 of our building, for watering horses. He re- 

 plied that the well was so deep it would be 

 very hard to draw water from so great a 

 depth, with our pump. Pretty soon, I bought 

 a new pump, with rubber buckets, that 

 draws water from the 30-foot well, so easily 

 that a child could water almost any number 

 of horses. I then petitioned again, for a nice 

 trough. 



"Why, Amos, it will be the greatest nui- 

 sance of any thing you ever undertook. 

 Your pump will be worn out in no time, and 

 there will be slop and a mud puddle all the 

 time. All the farmers around will come 



