1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUE. 



631 



dm peMEg. 



For where your treasure is, there will your heart 

 be also.— Matt. 6: 31. 



Though I walk through the valley ol' the shadow 

 of death, I will tear no evil.— Ps.m.m 2;i: 4. 



ONNIE and Caddie and I took a two- 

 days' vacation. They are a^ed respect- 

 ll^J ively fourteen and nine, and 1 liad 

 long talked with them about sliowing 

 them the liome of my boyiiood ; and I 

 wanted especially to showlliem the beauti- 

 ful soft-water spring.s tiiat gnsh out of the 

 hillsides and rocks of old Sunnnit (bounty. 

 Well, we fotind the springs ; and as it was 

 in the midst of an August drought w:- en- 

 joyed them, I assure you. But as I shall 

 have a special article on springs ere long, I 

 vk^ill not tell you about tlieni just now. 



In visiting a relative, by chance I met an 

 old schoolmate. We liadirtseen each other 

 for more than thirty years. My recollec- 

 tion of her was of a good-natured, light- 

 hearted schoolgirl, and, to tell the truth, I 

 had so nearly forgotten that stich a person 

 existed I had to make an effort to refresh 

 my memory before I could exactly locate 

 her. Then" we talked about the old school- 

 house, and of the time wlien the trustees de- 

 cided to build a better one, and of the vari- 

 ous other events tluit happened when we 

 were careless, heedless children. Then the 

 intervening years were gone over. The 

 talk lasted from twenty minutes to half an 

 hour, and during that interval several times 

 the thought cante into my mind as to 

 whether this old schoolmate was a (Chris- 

 tian, and were her hopes centered in Christ 

 Jesus ? 1 thought I would bring the sub- 

 ject in before I Avent away, but there did 

 not seem to be any good opportunity. 

 When she smiled she looked much like the 

 girlish schoolmate of former days ; but when 

 the smile had passed there was a look some- 

 what akin to sadness; and this look, with 

 the gray hairs and occasionally a wrinkle, 

 seemed to indicate that she liad had her 

 trials and sorrows as well as the rest of us. 

 1 tried to think of some way of liroaching 

 the subject of the Clhristian's hope ; but 

 others were present, and I was afraid they 

 would think me eccentric, or odd. Now, I 

 do V)elieve, friends, that it is a Christian duty 

 to avoid eccentricity, and especially to avoid 

 any thing that would look as if we wanted 

 to attract attention to our peculiarities. A 

 Christian shoitld strive to have his litV count 

 all it possibly can, and he can not take any 

 risks. I am sure, however, that Satan often 

 offers these suggestions, that we shall do 

 more harm than good by speaking out. and 

 I feel sure it was so in this case, because, as 

 I passed otit through the beautiful dooryaid, 

 a weight of gloom rested on my spirits be- 

 cause I was going away without si>eaking a 

 word for the Master. I did not tell her of 

 the great change that came into my life 

 during about the middle of thes(^ thirty 

 years. I did not tell her of the joyous in- 

 si)iration that makes life worth living, and 

 tiiat comes to every one whose hoi^es are 

 founded, not on self , but on Christ . I esus. 

 Conscience whispered, that Caddie and Con- 



nie, for whom my wife and I have been 

 praying so much, might get an impression, 

 from the talk tliey had listened to during 

 these twenty or thirty minutes, that all 

 there is in this life is to go along quietly and 

 take good and evil as they come, looking on 

 it all as an idle show, or, like some simple 

 panorama for our entertainment. I don't 

 think they could have gatheretl any thing 

 from our talk, to the effect that either one 

 of us regarded liie as a sacred and solemn 

 gift from God, or that we regarded it as a 

 great and inestimable privilege to live, and 

 to work for the upbuilding of mankind. 

 The memory of that fac;- comes back to me 

 over and over again ; but the opportunity 

 was allowed to slip by, and may never come 

 again. If it does, I am going to tell her 

 how sorry I felt tliat I did not tell her of the 

 new-born hope that had come into my life 

 in middle age, and made this world — nay, 

 the whole universe — so intensely real, be- 

 cause, during the last part of my life, I have 

 been living for something, wliile before I 

 was living for nothing or worse than noth- 

 ing — for self and selfish ptirposes, and for 

 selfish ends. 



This friend had heard of me during these 

 years, and had no doul)t heard that I was an 

 earnest and enthusiastic Christian. I can 

 imagine that she might say, after I had gone. 

 "• Why, I've heard so much about Mr. Root's 

 Christianity, and that he never lost an op- 

 portunity of speaking to every one about 

 their soul's salvation. I did not see any 

 thing about him different from people gen- 

 erally, or people of the world. There was 

 nothing in his looks or actions, and surely 

 not one single sentence in his talk, to indi- 

 cate that he had any such faith or earnest 

 convictions ;is I have heartl about."' If my 

 treasure was in heaven, why did not my talk 

 have some reference to it in some way ? In 

 other words, why did she not see that my 

 heart and soul were where this treasure was 

 also? It was because I didn't act natural. 

 I had somehow got it into my head, that, 

 when I met old friends, the way to do was 

 to make a sort of fashionable call, as people 

 generally do. My friends, it is a blunder 

 and a mistake, and I will tell you how I 

 know it. 



It had been so many years since I visited 

 my relatives whom I proposed to call on 

 next, that I \vas obliged to ask directions. 

 I didn't understand the directions, or, ra- 

 ther, I didit't listen very carefully, and so 1 

 called at the wrong house. Ijy the way, 

 Connie says I was stopping at the wrong 

 bouse every little while. I told her it didn't 

 matter, any way. foi- they were all otu- neigh- 

 bors at all hoiises, and that I liked to see 

 folks, and talk with them, even if they were 

 entire strangeis. When 1 suggested that 

 we had reached the place, she demurred. 



" Why,"' said 1, ''the lady said one cousin 

 lived on one side of the road, and another 

 cousin on the other side, and hei-e are the 

 two houses on opjiosite sides of the road. 

 Besides that, see those chaff' hives so nicely 

 arranged (.ver there. We can not be very 

 much mistaken in calling where there are 

 bee-hives." 



Accordingly, we three passed up the shady 



