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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



Our Homes 



By a. I. Root 



Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that 

 believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And 

 whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest 

 thou this .' — John 11:25, 26. 



I presume, friends, you are all more or less fa- 

 miliar with that wonderful 11th chapter of John, 

 in regard to the death and raising to life of 

 Lazarus. Many of you, like myself, are getting 

 along in years. The friends of our youth are 

 dropping away on the right and left all around 

 us; and, as one after another is taken away, a sort 

 of feeling of loneliness comes over us. Only a 

 few of us get to be threescore and ten; and, as we 

 approach that period, sooner or later we take a 

 sober thought — a thought that we do not have in 

 our younger years — in regard to this matter of 

 life and death, especially death. What is it.? I 

 have spoken several times of the sudden calling- 

 away of those near and dear to me. Two have 

 recently gone out of our office; and during the 

 past winter, while I was absent in Florida, first a 

 brother-in-law and then his wife, my youngest 

 sister. While my mother lived it was the habit 

 of my life to pay her a visit every Sunday after- 

 noon when it was possible; and as she lived with 

 this youngest sister I was sure to see her, and 

 have a talk with her at least once a week. After 

 mother's death I somehow kept up the habit of 

 calling on that sister and her husband Sunday 

 afternoon. I can not remember a time in my life 

 when that sister failed to give me a genial smile 

 and a kind welcome. As she had some pretty 

 strong opinions and convictions of her own, I fear 

 that that smile was not always given to everybody ; 

 but when I came around, expectedly or unexpect- 

 edly, I always found it. 



While in Florida we were informed that " Mat- 

 tie," as we called her, was very sick with pneu- 

 monia. One day while in the postoffice I received 

 a letter telling of her sudden and unexpected 

 death. I put the letter in my pocket, and walked 

 a mile to my home; but some way my intellect 

 seemed dull or benumbed; -I could not realize 

 that Mattie ^uias really gone from this world. 

 When I came into the house and told Mrs. Root 

 what the letter contained, she burst out cry- 

 ing; but I did not shed a tear. I felt troubled 

 about it; but some way I could not take in or 

 realize that the letter told the truth. I kept think- 

 ing that it was a mistake or misunderstanding 

 somewhere; in fact, I took up a daily paper in 

 an absent way and began looking it over. Pretty 

 soon I thought I would go out and take a look 

 at the chickens and see if they were all right. I had 

 got as far as the steps that go down into the wood- 

 shed back of the house. I was half way down 

 before my mind seemed to take in fully that this 

 youngest sister was really dead and gone. She 

 was considered the healthiest one of the whole 

 family of seven children. She has been sick 

 scarcely a day in her life. When a full compre- 

 hension of what had happened came over me I 

 dropped on one of the middle steps of the stairs 

 and began to cry. Yes, I cried like a child, in 

 a way I had not done for years past; and that cry 

 did me good. I think my little prayer, " Lord, 



help," was uttered (at least mentally) a good 

 many times; and I also prayed, as I have been 

 doing so much lately, that I might be able to 

 take in and learn the lessons the dear Savior is 

 constantly striving to teach us. 



Well, this event, and the further knowledge 

 that others had died while I was absent from my 

 northern home, has turned my attention to the 

 text I have chosen to-day. The text embodies 

 that wonderful promise — perhaps the most won- 

 derful and difficult of comprehension of any 

 among the precious promises the Bible contains. 

 Let us go over the circumstances a little. 



Martha, the housekeeper, as you will remem- 

 ber, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, 

 went out to meet him while Mary remained in 

 the house. Martha's first greeting was, "Lord, 

 if thou hadst been here my brother had not died." 

 Please notice that Mary uses the same words 

 when she met him later on. They could not under- 

 stand how it was that, when they had sent word 

 to him four days before, he had so long neglected 

 or delayed to come to the rescue of that brother 

 whom they loved. Martha had faith, we know, 

 even if she was such a diligent housekeeper, for 

 she says, " I know that even now whatsoever thou 

 wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." Does 

 not this indicate that she had a sort of glimmering 

 faith that he probably had power to raise even 

 the dead t and did she know of any case in which 

 he had raised the dead before this time .? When 

 Jesus told her that Lazarus should rise again, she 

 replied, "Yes, I know that he will rise in the 

 resurrection at the last day. " We gather from 

 this that the Jewish people had a belief or faith 

 in the judgment day. Although the Old Testa- 

 ment does not tell us much about it, they expected 

 and looked forward to a future life. Then we 

 come to the wonderful words of our text — " I am 

 the resurrection and the life." This is the part 

 of the promise I have been trying, sometimes al- 

 most in vain, to grasp and comprehend and believe. 

 This resurrection that all mankind has looked 

 forward to, more or less, is not only under the 

 direction and control of the Son of God, but he 

 is the resurrection and the life. And then comes 

 the rest of our text: " He that believeth in me, 

 though he were dead, yet shall he live." 



This last does not seem to require so much 

 faith, because it might be only a promise that he 

 should live again in the judgment day; but the 

 26th verse says, "Whoso liveth and believeth in 

 me shall ne'ver die,'''' and that is the most astound- 

 ing and wonderful of all. I am not a theologian. 

 Very likely I have not gotten things right; but 

 the great truths we are searching for and trying 

 to grasp, I am sure, do not depend very much on 

 whether we all think alike or even have things 

 right or not. As we come to mature years we 

 have a sort of judgment and wisdom given us 

 that does not come to us in our younger days. 

 I do not think the younger people will quarrel 

 with me about this. Old age has taught us les- 

 sons. Watching the great wide world, especially 

 in a prayerful attitude, has taught us lessons and 

 given us wisdom. A man who has had experi- 

 ence in things of this world can give a pretty fair 

 judgment as to what is best to be done in a case 

 of emergency. Now for that wonderful prom- 

 ise. I do not understand, and I think that very 

 few will understand, that the dear Savior meant 



