1880 



GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTURE. 



558 



could; but I see no escape. My own broth- 

 er's boy I was compelled to let go, because 

 we could not think alike on this very point. 

 I mention this to you, that you may know 

 what a vital point among my boys I feel it 

 to be." 



" If I give up tobacco I sball be so nervous 

 it will be almost impossible for me to set 

 type at all; but 1 will try.' 1 



As he said tliis, there shone from his face 

 a determination of purpose that gave me 

 much hope. The minister told him God 

 would help him over the nervousness, and 

 that we would all pray for him. lie re- 

 mained there to dinner, while I went back to 

 my work, to find our boys out of copy, and 

 many things needing me sadly; but I felt 

 sure God would help me to bring it all out 

 right when I had been absent on such an er- 

 rand. 



It may be well to remark here, that M. 

 had been falsely imprisoned. When he told 

 me in the jail he had been put there 

 through spitework, he was right; but I had 

 heard the story so much that I gave little 

 credit to it. After being kept there 56 days 

 he was tried by a jury of his peers and dis- 

 charged, because they could find nothing 

 against him. He was charged with forgery; 

 but when the charge failed to be substan- 

 tiated, our laws opened his prison-door aad 

 set him free; but not one word of apology 

 did the law tender him, — no recompense did 

 it offer for the time lost, and none for a tar- 

 nished name. 



In the afternoon he came down and went 

 to work. It was very soon evident that no 

 such skill had ever before been in our com- 

 posing-room. The very first whole day he 

 set about 10,000 ems; and, at the rate we 

 pay, 25 cents per thousand, he was placed in 

 a position where he could soon retrieve, in a 

 financial point of view, what he had lost by 

 his incarceration in prison. In the evening 

 I asked him how he got along without tobac- 

 co. He told me that when he got so ner- 

 vous he could not work, he went over to his 

 room and prayed for strength, and that it 

 always came. Xot without some suffering, 

 though, dear boys; for, besides the praying, 

 he said he chewed up nearly the whole of an 

 old leather pocket-book by tearing off little 

 pieces. 



Said my nephew, young Gray, the boy who 

 is crazy on microscopes and electricity, " Un- 

 cle Ame, how are you going to keep M. at 

 work, if he sets type every day like that? " 



■• We are going to ask God to give us some- 

 thing to do, George." 



George has a very practical way of looking 

 at all these things; and, although he is, lam 

 sure, deeply interested in all my efforts to 

 reform humanity, he likes to see some kind 

 of a chance for the prayers to be answered. 

 I am glad he does, for I like to be watched; 

 and I like to have the closest scrutiny ap- 

 plied, to see whether God's promises are sure 

 or not. 



•• But you will have to get something pret- 

 ty quick. The journal will be all done, and 

 there will be no more type." 



George was right, lie who asks God to 

 help must expect to work, both with hands 

 and brain, and to endure trial and fatigue. 



that he perhaps would not have without 

 calling on God for help. 



k ' George, 1 do not know how long M. is 

 going to hold out; but if he keeps on in this 

 way, looking to God for help in every trial 

 that comes up in his new life, there will be 

 no trouble at all in giving him plenty to do. 

 A thousand places will be open to him, and 

 thousands, like him, are wanted every day of 

 our lives. The demand for such men is, and 

 always has been, far beyond the supply." 



How is it. boys? Are men plenty, who 

 live constantly in the fear of God, and who 

 can also set over 10,000 ems a day? 



This question soon came pretty squarely 

 before me : Was I right in what I said to 

 our minister as we walked up the street? 

 Would I always be able to give employment 

 to all who should come to me with faith in 

 God and zeal for work? As I have so often 

 before, I took the whole matter to my heav- 

 enly Father, and asked him to tell my friend 

 and I what we should do. The answer, as it 

 seemed to me, was, that I should gather up 

 the leaves of the old Home Papers, and put 

 them into the book I have so long talked 

 about, and that M. should set the type. The 

 idea is already under way; and, my friends, 

 will you not breathe a prayer to God as your 

 eyes rest on these words, that he may hold 

 out and not be drawn back again into the 

 toils of Satan? It is his hand that is setting 

 the letters, one by one in their places, for the 

 very words your eyes arc voting on this mo- 

 ment. 



The question comes up: When he got out 

 of jail, why did he not come at once to my- 

 self or to the minister, and get assistance be- 

 fore breaking his pledge? He did promise 

 me to come and see me as soon as he got 

 out; but he said everybody seemed so prone 

 to consider him a jail-bird, and to be so sure 

 that he must be at least somewhat guilty, 

 that he became discouraged, and concluded 

 that his presence would be a disgrace to 

 either of us. Every one turned a cold 

 shoulder to him, he imagined, and so dis- 

 couraged, he gave up, little caring what would 

 become of him. He would undoubtedly 

 have kept on his downward course, had not 

 the minister come to me that Monday morn- 

 ing and plead so earnestly for him. 



There are crises in the lives of almost all 

 of us. Do we, as Christian people, keep our 

 eyes open to see when circumstances places 

 it in our power to lend a helping hand just 

 at that all-important time? M. now says, 

 that, in one sense, it was the best thing that 

 ever happened to him,— his being sent to 

 jail. Almost the very day he chose to put 

 his trust in his Savior, the man who was in- 

 strumental in getting him imprisoned was 

 arrested for drawing a revolver on another 

 man, and would have gone to jail had not 

 friends come to his rescue. My friends, 

 there is a God above who hears even the ra- 

 vens' cry, and who, in his own good time, 

 administers justice. 



Conversion in the human heart has al- 

 ways been an interesting subject with me. 

 The question during revival times is often 

 asked if anybody can be a Christian who 

 wants to. I should say, most decidedly, 

 yes! In M.'s case, it seemed as if tie had 



