18«7 



GLiiAi^li^GS IJM iJJiii CULTUKE. 



871 



dm pe.ME^. 



Him that cometh to me, T will in nowise cast out.— 

 John (5:37. 



K. ROOT:— You liave asked the question, 

 "What other one is there who wants to 

 commence rig'ht lirre and now. in laying' up 

 treasures in heaven'?" I would say, here is 

 one who has long: desired to be a Christian; 

 and it seems to me that I have done everything I 

 could, and yet it has done no good. What am I to 

 do? Reading your little sermons, and Elsie Myr- 

 tle's and Frank C.'s letters, has influenced me to do 

 this, and ai-e partly the cause of my interest in my 

 eternal welfare. Sometimes I have almost imagined 

 I have experienced some kind of a change, but 

 think I must have been mistaken. Now, Uncle 

 Amos, I want you to pray for me, to ask God to for- 

 give me, for Jesus Christ's sake; or if I am a 

 Christian, to enable me to see my way clear. I 

 would give millions of worlds, were I able to say 

 from my heart, " Iknowl am one of God's children," 

 and how gladly would I serve him! I want all the 

 Christians who read Gleanings to pray for me too. 

 God bless you, and the grand work you are doing 

 for him. Your little friend, S. D. 



Texas, Oct. 34, 188T. 



May God bless yoii, my little friend ; and 

 may he give [^ncle Amos wisdom in leading 

 you" and other lambs of the fold in safe pas- 

 tures, and by pure, wholesome waters. My 

 dear friend, you are wasting time in longing 

 for something, and waiting for sometliing 

 that God has not, at least as yet. seen tit to 

 give you. May be I shall be cutting on to 

 some of the doctrinal points that I know but 

 little about, in my answer ; but I feel sure 

 that I can advise you safely. In becoming a 

 Christian, there should surely be a change of 

 heart; and many times, where the penitent 

 sinner has been gitilty of great sins, or even 

 crimes, the change of heart is so wonderful 

 that we may truly say, " This individual 

 has been born again." And such converts 

 often startle communities by exhibitions of 

 emotion and joy and peace, which we do 

 not find at all where some one who has al- 

 ways lived a pretty good life turns to Christ. 

 I should infer from your letter, friend S., 

 that no very great change is needed in your 

 life, to make it a consistent Christian life. 

 Remember, I don't know you, and I am 

 guessing somewhat in the dark. What you 

 need is faith in (Jod— implicit trust in him 

 and his promises. In our text we are told, 

 " Ilim that cometh to me, I will in nowise 

 cast out."' Now, dear young friend S., you 

 have come to Christ ; aiid if his promise be. 

 true, you arc one of his children ; and all 

 that remains for you is to go right to work 

 serving him, without waiting any longer. 

 Do it out of love to him, and not wilh a hope 

 of reward. If you do this, I think this peace 

 and joy which you have been craving will 

 probably come in his own good time ; but 

 remember, S., that we are unlike in dispo- 

 sition and experience. Wlien I tirst turned 

 to Christ it was a big turning abotit, I tell 

 you. I had been ridiculing the Bible and 

 prayer- meetings, and had been persuading 

 people not to go — yes. even the boys and 

 girls in my employ. I told them it was 



wasting time. More than that, I tried to 

 prejudice people against the meetings, and 

 against God's chosen servants. Now, when 

 I turned right squarely round about, and 

 even went to the prayer-meetings, and pub- 

 licly recalled what I had said, and promised 

 to be a faithful follower and servant of 

 Christ Jesus, so long as he gave me life, I 

 coidd not help feeling differently. I was a 

 new man, as it were, and a very "much bet- 

 ter man, my dear young friend. Under these 

 circumstances it was quite natural that 1 

 should have a bright and joyous experience. 

 It should be remarked, too, that I am 

 naturally imaginative and enthusiastic. I 

 get happy over bees and gardens and poul- 

 try, and you must remember, too, that I get 

 blue and low-spirited at times, also. Now, 

 when one has long been evading some duty 

 that stood before him, he almost always 

 feels a thrill of happiness when he takes up 

 this duty. This is a law of the human 

 mind •,!'yet these feelings, of themselves, do 

 not amount to much, after all. Some new 

 converts who have these bright and joyous 

 experiences, backslide and give up their re- 

 ligion in just a little while. Feeling is a 

 good thing, but there must be a substantial 

 purpose back of it. I remember one young 

 convert who said that he could not say that 

 he had experienced a change of heart, but 

 he had certainly experienced a change of 

 purpose. Now, a change of purpose is what 

 God wants. He wants yoii to stop doing every 

 thing you know is wrong, and commence 

 doing everything you think you ought to do. 

 In other words, do your duty, whether you 

 feel like it or not. It is like getting up in 

 the morning. Your feelings are not to be 

 consulted at all. Your duty is the thing to 

 consult and consider. Duty says, "• Get up 

 and attend to your work in proper season." 

 Feelings would say, " It is too cold, and I 

 am too sleepy."' etc. 



Now. I am glad to be able to tell you of a 

 Christian experience that was so entirely 

 unlike mine, that the person could hardly 

 believe she was accepted of God ; and this 

 one I am going to tell you about is no other 

 than my dear wife. Before I became a 

 Christian she was not a member of any 

 church. She was in the habit of reading her 

 Bible, and of going to her heavenly Father 

 in prayer whenever she was in trouble. She 

 prayed for her children, and sent them to 

 Sunday-school, and tried to do her duty as a 

 Christian ; but she had never thought much 

 about church membership, and perhaps had 

 an idea something like yours, dear little 

 friend, that when God should give her a 

 bright and vivid experience she would know 

 then that she was called of him, and would 

 be ready to do whatever he asked her to do. 

 Well, when I, all of a sudden, as it seemed, 

 took hold of the Bible and united myself 

 with Christian workers, she was, like every- 

 b Hly else, surprised and astonished ; and 

 she,' too. like many others, felt sorrowful be- 

 cause she could not have an experience like 

 my own. .Vs a p:!atter of course. I urged 

 he'r to join the church with me. She said at 

 first she did not dare to. She said she had 

 no feeling in regard to the matter. Our pas- 

 tor tried to explain to her that it made no 



