1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



heard-of temptalioiis and trials were proba- 

 bly yet in store lor me. Riglit close after the 

 prayer uttered. '• Lord, help!'' came Scrip- 

 ture texts, many oL' them, to comfort me. It 

 seemed'as if ministering augels were near — 

 as if they had been all the time waiting 

 with bated breath until bidden to approach 

 and offer comfort ; and one of the brightest 

 and most precious of these texts was the 

 one at the head of this paper—" Ye are 

 not your own, ye are bought with a price." 

 May God be praised for the conciousness 

 that this is really so. 



We are in the habit of thinking that we 

 can do what we ple;ise with that wliich is 

 our own. If you want to tear your own 

 house down, you can do so : but you can not 

 tear down your neighbor's house. You can, 

 under certain restrictions, destroy property, 

 if you choose ; but you can not destroy your 

 neigbor's property. Well, my friends,"is it 

 not true, that a great part of the world seem 

 to be laboring under the delusion that they 

 can do any thing they choose with these 

 bodies— these temples of the Holy Ghost? 

 But, hold on a minute, dear brother. The 

 text says, " Ye are not your own, ye are 

 bought with a price." You may say this 

 text is for the beneiit of Christians; that 

 those who have no faith in God or the i3ible, 

 and who see things differently, may decide 

 that they can do what they please with 

 their own bodies ; but, my friend, I believe 

 that good common sense will decide here as 

 elsewhere, that the Bible teachings are true, 

 whether you have faith in God and the Bi- 

 ble or not. No one, since the world began, 

 has ever had the right for a single moment 

 to put himself out of existence. God gave 

 life, and it is God alone who has the right to 

 take it away. Probably none of us have any 

 comprehension of the depths of suffering 

 that a human being may be called upon to 

 bear ; but whatever comes, there is no ques- 

 tion but that it is our duty to bear it. Of 

 course, we are privileged to do every thing 

 in the power of science or medicine to alle- 

 viate this pain ; but when we fail we must 

 bear it, and try to bear it patiently. 



You know how strongly I have taught 

 faith in prayer, all along these years. 1 ou 

 know how earnestly I have enjoined every 

 suffering son of Adam to go to the Savior 

 when in trouble. Now, then : When we 

 are suffering excruciating pain from sick- 

 ness, toothache, earache, rheumatism, neu- 

 ralgia, or all these things, does God hear, 

 and does he care? To l)e sure, he does both. 

 He may not think it best, however, to spare 

 us these trials. I have been trying to tell 

 you of a way in which he has not spared my 

 poor self. I have not suffered very much 

 bodily pain, it is true : but 1 have been pes- 

 tered and tormented by the Prince of dark- 

 ness more or less ever since I started out to 

 be a Christian. 



I have many times received much com- 

 fort in reading the experiences of the veter- 

 an Paul. You remember that thorn in the 

 flesh. Paul wanted it taken away, but God 

 decided differently, lie told Paul, however, 

 that his grace was sufficient, and it seems as 

 if he had told me this many times. Well, 

 during the night in question my suffering 



was at a time— that is, so it seemed to my 

 poor weak self— almost more than 1 could 

 l)ear. I think it (|uite probable, however, 

 that it did not compare with much that my 

 kind and sympathizing wife has been called 

 upon to suffer in many ways. Be that as it 

 may, it was to rvc about all I could stand ; 

 and when these texts came thronging to my 

 memory 1 begged piteously that God would 

 have compassion on his poor weak child, 

 and give him a respite, if consistent with 

 his holy will' Now please, dear friends, be- 

 lieve that I am trying to give you plain and 

 simple facts, without exaggeration or coloi- 

 ing, when I am telling you the experiences 

 of this brief hour. I remember this vividly 

 — the answer to my prayer came. 1 believe, 

 almost instantly. The phantoms of my fe- 

 verish brain seemed to vanish. 1 was cowt- 

 paratively free from pain, I was myself once 

 more, arid happy — yes, very happy, after the 

 pain and the contlict. 1 stopped counting 

 the tickings of the clock, and the hours as 

 they struck, and slept peacefully, for I was 

 at peace wit;h my Maker. 



You may notice in the above, that there 

 is an intimation that I was out of my 

 head a part of the time, as a result of the 

 fever. Suppose a person should commit 

 suicide under similar circumstances, when 

 he did not know what he w^as doing, and do 

 not such things often occur? My friend, it 

 is my opinion, after what I have heard and 

 read, and the experiences I have been 

 through, that Satan is more or less in league 

 with what we call insanity. I don't want 

 to judge harshly, and I don't want to be un- 

 charitable ; but I do feel satisfied of this : 

 That no insanity will ever be the cause of 

 my committing any such terrible crime. 



One of Satan's suggestions at the time I 

 have been mentioning, was like this: " Sup- 

 pose you were doomed to suffer thus, not 

 only one night, but weeks, months, or years. 

 You know many people do suffer in this 

 way, and good Christian people too ; would 

 you bear it without a murmur?" Now, 

 dear friends, I did not answer l)ack that I 

 would not bear it : but the pain and the de- 

 lirum goaded me so that I felt very much 

 inclined to say mentally, that I woidd not 

 bear such pain, or worse yiain, months or 

 years, for anybody or any thing. 1 don't 

 think I formed any idea in my mind just 

 what I would do to get rid of" bearing it, 

 but there was a stubbo)-nness and obstinacy 

 in my heart that oiight not to be in the 

 heart of a Christian — no, not even when he 

 is sick. Job's wife suggested to him that 

 he should curse God and die. Job, how- 

 ever, was man enough to tell her she spoke 

 as one of the foolisli women. '' Have we 

 received good at the liand of God, and shall 

 we not receive evil?" And the Bible says, 

 that in all this Job did not sin with his lips. 

 Perhaps he sinned inwardly, something as I 

 did; but I believe, unfriends, a human be- 

 ing under torture does pretty well when he 

 keeps perfect comniand and control of the 

 words that pass his lips. Satan commenced 

 again : '• You are partly crazy now. Is it 

 not (juite probaljle that you might be so de- 

 lirous with fever as not to be aware of what 

 you are doing? In that case, even God 



