1885 



GLEANLNGS LN BEE CULTURE. 



211 



0a^ peMEg. 



But the wise answered, sajing-, Not so; lest there 

 be not enoug-h for us and you : but go ye rather to 

 them that sell, and buy for yourselves.— Matt. :.';j: 9. 



fllE twenty-tifth chapter of Matthew as 

 ' a whole, seems to be concerning im- 

 providence; that is, it tells of the 

 awful consequences of going through 

 the world in a heedless, slip-shod, 

 careless way. It tells what will be the end 

 of those who make no provision for the fu- 

 ture ; and the text I have selected touches 

 especially on those who expect to Ijorrow of 

 their neighl)ors, to make tip for the conse- 

 (luences of their foolish forgetfulness. At 

 iirst thought one might think the verse 

 sounded a little hard. The parable speaks 

 of two classes of people, and in this case 

 there was an equal number of the foolish 

 virgins and the wise ones. I am afraid it is 

 as uad as that in our da>', dear friends. 

 There seem to lie about as many people 

 Avho ex])ect to get through the world burden- 

 ing their neighbors, as there are those who 

 expect to bravely shoulder the resi)onsibili- 

 ties of life. Forgetfulness does not seem to 

 be quite tlie word to apply to tlie five foolish 

 virgins. Our Lord calls them foolish. They 

 were foolish, because they made no provi- 

 sion for something they 'knrui they wcmld 

 want and nmst have. The ti'anip who stops 

 at our doois, and asks if we can not give 

 him his dinner, is a glaring type of tliis kind 

 of foolishness. There is no forgetfulness 

 about it. He voluntarily and deliberateJy 

 decides to depend iii)()ii somebody else to 

 l)u> his food ; and moi(> than that, he does 

 noi even proi)ose to do tlie cooking, to say 

 nothing of setting the table, washing dishes, 

 and putting things away. I slionid c:ill it 

 worse than folly. We can not call it steal- 

 ing, because ho boldly looks us in the face, 

 and i)roposes that we give something for 

 nothing. On page 17!) of our last number. 

 Prof, ("ook makes the following statement : 

 "■ Something for nothing is the bane of our 

 age."' Jesus intended these words to have 

 their a])plicntion in a s])iritual sense, no 

 doubt; l)ut I tliink he intended it also to 

 apply to temporal duties. One wlio makes 

 provision for the needs and the demands of 

 this world, who strives not to be a burden 

 upon any one. and to accord to every one his 

 just rights, as a rule makes provision for the 

 world to come. 



It has sometimes seemed to me as if my 

 teachings and exhortations were a good deal 

 th(> same thing over and over; and I have 

 thought again!, that i)erhaps this is the held 

 (iod has given me to work in, and that it is 

 my duty to keep going over and over on this 

 same groiuid. line upon line and preceiit up- 

 on precept. The matter is constantly be- 

 fore me, and I am constantly l)eing saddened 

 because of the number who come to me 

 wanting something to do; and with sadness 

 and sorrow I ani obliged to say it. a very 

 great many of those who complain that no- 

 body will give them anv thing to do. are like 

 the foolish virgins. If I send them off in 

 the lields to work, in half an hour they will 

 come back, loitering around for a driidv of 



water, wasting the precious morning hom-s. 

 AVlien I say to them, " My friend, when you 

 started out for the Held, why did you not re- 

 member that you would soon be thirsty, and 

 take the jug in the well-room along with 

 you, filled Avith water? "' And so it is all 

 through. They often go to their place of 

 work without their tools, and then come 

 back very leisurely and deliberately for 

 something to work with, or for what they 

 should have known would be needed. I do 

 not want to have you think we have many 

 such with us here now, for I can not keep 

 such long; I am ab.solutely obliged to let 

 those go who take no thought nor responsi- 

 bility in regard to the needs of the day. I 

 have often wondered if they would work in 

 the same way if they were working on their 

 own ground : and after watching carefully, 

 and looking into the matter, I am obliged to 

 admit they would. It is not altogether self- 

 ishness, then. They wrong themselves as 

 well as the one who should undertake to em- 

 ploy them. 



Xow, then, suppose because these people 

 are poor and needy, we should give them a 

 part of our stores— give it to them because 

 they are unfortunate, and lack judgment. 

 AVhat is the thing to do? In our text the 

 wise virgins llatly refused : and they gave as 

 a reason for refusing, that there would not 

 be enough left for them ; that if they divided, 

 the probability wouhl be they would be in 

 the same boat, and told them there was no 

 other way for them to do tlian to go and buy. 

 as they had done. Was it hard-hearted, un- 

 feeling, unchristianlike? It is a very hard 

 thing for me to refuse a favor ; and it is es- 

 pecially hard to refuse a friend or a neigh- 

 bor; but I have a great many times looked 

 back, and have been obliged to decide that 

 I had done a positive harm— an injury to 

 some friend— by being too obliging, as the 

 world calls it. 



Whenever there is a revival of religion, 

 there is always a great tendency to fall into 

 the error of supposing that Christianity con- 

 sists in being easy and obliging and lilieral, 

 and in giving to the poor ; in helping folks 

 out of tight ])laces ; but, my friends, if you 

 do not look out, I am sure a great evil creeps 

 in here. IVrhaps one reason why our re- 

 vival seasons do not result in more per- 

 manent good is because we do not encourage 

 starting on a sound basis. One's sins may 

 l)e forgiven, it is true ; but I am afraid God 

 does not forgive our sins until we have 

 shown a manly sjurit in the way of making 

 up the wrongs we may have done to our 

 fellow-men before we repented. It is well 

 known about here that our institution is 

 based and builded on godliness— at least. 1 

 try to have it so. Well, sometimes those 

 who have applied unsuccessfully to me for 

 work, have come out and united with some 

 of om- various chtu'ches ; and after having 

 come out, the question comes, if not right 

 away sometimes after a time, "■ Now, Mr. 

 Root, will you give me a place?'' I have 

 said before in these pages, that I am not 

 afraid to take the risk of giving almost any 

 girl or boy a place when I can be sure that 

 such people are looking to the Savior, and 

 trusting him ; but I have been obliged to Ue- 



