18&5 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



427 



0a^ peMEp. 



In the beginning- God created the heaven and the 

 earth.— Genesis 1:1. 



For God so loved the world, that he gave his only 

 begotten Son, that whosoever beliveth in him 

 should not perish, but have everlasting lil'e.— 

 John 3: IC. 



T was a warm Sunday night ; in fact, a 

 thunder-storm was approaching. The 

 liouse was all still, and every one, I be- 

 lieve, was wrapped in slumber. The 

 weather was so warm that baby Iluber 

 had not only kicked the clothing off, but, be- 

 ing restless, he had crawled down near the 

 foot of the bed, with his head over toward 

 an open window. lie seemed a little nerv- 

 ous, even in his sleep, for the day had been 

 an eventful one to him. He had attended 

 the young people's prayer-meeting in the 

 evening for the tirst time in his life. lie had 

 been at one meeting once before, it is true. 

 You may remember I told you about it a 

 year ago. It was the moniing of the 

 Fourth of July. Well, both Iluber and his 

 papa had been on a tease for several Sun- 

 days past that he might " go meeting with 

 papa." At length mamma consented, and 

 iluber sat on a chair by his papa's side, and 

 was permitted to hold a hymn-book while he 

 listened to the chorus of voices. He is fond 

 of music ; and when some of the pieces were 

 unusually full of melody I noticed by the 

 movement of his little white dress as he 

 drew long breaths that the whole scene all 

 together was stirring his little heart. A'ery 

 likely he could not quite make out what the 

 purpose was of having the meeting. He 

 turned his head one way and then another, 

 and looked at the liajijiN laces, and ddublless 

 concluded that the liutlicring was for some 

 good purpose, even th(»ugh his baby heart 

 could not (piite make out wliat the purpose 

 was. So many nice ladies was a mystery to 

 him. He calls them "ni' 'adies." As they 

 caught his admiring glances, is it any won- 

 der that he got back many a pleasant smileV 

 When he saw the rest liovving their heads 

 in prayer, he seemed to calcii the si)irit of 

 devotion as well as llie spiiit of song, and 

 his little hand was raised reverentl> to liis 

 forehead while he bent his head as "lie had 

 seen the others do. He did not know what 

 it was all for. yet something in even his lit- 

 tle heart seemed to sa\ it was good to be 

 there, and there could certainly l)e nothing 

 Avrong in bending his little head with rever- 

 ence and resjiect for the si)irit that seemed 

 to be mo\ ing the hearts of this body of peo- 

 ple. His nianuna had said, over .ind over, 

 when the matter was talked of. that he 

 would talk out lond in meeting, and "■holier" 

 and carry on. He had not lisped a word, 

 with but a single exception. \\'hen the 

 meeting was about half over, while iie was 

 looking at the difl'erent things he saw with 

 open-mouthed wonder, he chanced to glance 

 at the large chandelier, and it was so much 

 nicer than any thing he had seen at home, 

 that he comniencc(l an exclamation of sur- 

 prise, but stojjped short at a look from papa. 

 Well, the meeting was over, and we were 

 all sleeping soundly, as 1 told you, until the 

 noise of the thunder and the almost inces- 



sant blaze of the lightning awakened him. 

 He crawled up to mamma first, and then, 

 contrary to his usual habits, turned over to 

 where his papa was sleeping soundly. I was 

 awakened by a piping little voice: 



" Papa! papal " 



" AVhat is it, my boy?" 



I noticed that something was on his mind, 

 and he was trying to give expression to it ; 

 but his briet vocabulary of words did not 

 quite admit of hitting the point he wished 

 to express. Finally he managed to make 

 me understand. How strange It is, that we 

 learn to define the purport of the few brief 

 fragments of words that these little ones get 

 hold of ! What he said was this, as neaj- as 

 1 can remember: 



'• Papa, where 'gettie'— where 'gettie'V" 



'• Where "gettie' what, my boyV ' 



'' Where "—with quite a pause— " where 

 'gettie' thun'erV" 



Now it was plain to me. He wanted to 

 know what the thunder and lightning were 

 for. and where they came from. The ele- 

 ments were making <niite an uiiusnal disturb- 

 ance wiliiout. and tlic blazing ot the light- 

 ning might call forth wonder and astonisli- 

 ment from any one, who did not sleep as 

 papa usually doe?*. That meek little voice 

 wanted an explanation of the rumpus going 

 on without, which papa did not seem to 

 mind any thing about. Papa evidently 

 seemed to think it was all right, and nothing 

 to be alarmed about ; but his little playmate 

 (Iluber and I are ])laymates, you see)' could 

 not quite understand it, and he felt pretty 

 sure that papa would not object to being 

 awakened m the middle of the night, espe- 

 cially when baby Iluber seemed disturbed, 

 and "wanted so much to know about these 

 things. How should I explain to him about 

 the phenomenon of thunder and lightning? 

 and esjiecially, how should I allay tlie fears 

 that were troubling his little breast':' Papa 

 had already told him aliout (Jod, and had 

 tried to instill into his little mind a proper 

 idea of this great Father who, according to 

 tiie language of our text, created the heaven 

 and tlie earth. 



•' My l)oy, (iod made the thunder and the 

 lightning. 'and it is all his." 



He reiieated it over after me, evidently to 

 get a little more assurance, and then came a 

 further interrogation : 



'•Hurt Iluber?" 



" No, my boy. it woift hurt Hul)er. It is 

 (iod's thunder and (iod's lightning, and (iod 

 loves little Huber. He loves iiajia and mam- 

 ma, and lie loves all the people tiiat are 

 good." 



I had struck the point. His little mind 

 was alieady groping and reaching up toward 

 that gieat rnknown. I can imagine that it 

 seemed to even his little mind tliat it could 

 hardly be we are sent alone into this strange 

 world without help and without i»rotection, or 

 that it could hardly be that there was noth- 

 ing to satisfy this almost indefinable long- 

 ing for sympathy and love from this •' Great 

 Spirit." as the dusky children of the forest 

 would term it. He wanted to know about 

 Him who holds the winds and waves and 

 lightnings in the hollow of his hand, and 

 who on earth could tell him truly about 



