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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



Our Homes 



By a. I. Root 



The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath appointed 

 me to preach the gospel to the poor; he bath sent me to heal the 

 broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recov- 

 ering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. 

 — LUKB 4: 18. 



But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe 

 in me, it were belter for him that a millstone were hanged about 

 his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. — 

 Matt. 18:6. 



To introduce my theme to-day, let me quote 

 as follows from Gleanings for June 1, 1906, p. 

 755: 



Years ago some men were drawing heavy flagging for side- 

 walks and road-crossings. They unloaded the great flat stones; 

 and to make them easier to handle they propped them up at an 

 angle with a piece of wood two or three feet long. Some of 

 these sticks of wood were set at such an angle that almost a 

 touch might cause them to slide along the smooth stone and so 

 let it fall. One day in coming home, and when quite a piece 

 away from these stones, I noticed some children making mud 

 pies, or amusing themselves in a similar way in the shade of one 

 of those heavy pieces of flagging. The back of one of the chil- 

 dren was close to one of those pieces of wood. He might have 

 easily loosened the stick and let the flagging down, making a 

 terrible deadfall for the thoughtless prattlers. I thought at first 

 it was our own children; and as I started on a run, the blood al- 

 most froze in my veins to think what might happen. As I came 

 near, however, 1 discovered they wete not our children at all. 1 

 stopped running, and came pretty near saying, " Thank God! " 

 Had 1 said so it would have meant I thanked God it was my 

 neighbor's children and not my own that were in such danger. 

 Was that loving my neighbor as myself? Not much. This inci- 

 dent often occurs to me, reminding me of how hard a matter it is 

 to fulfill that command — " Thou shall love thy neighbor as thy- 

 self." 



The above incident often comes into my 

 mind. At the time it happened, if I remember 

 correctly, I sat down and considered the deprav- 

 ity and selfishness of my heart. I was not quite 

 so bad, it is true, as the man who uttered the 

 prayer, " O Lord, I thank thee that I am not as 

 other men are. " A good friend of mine protest- 

 ed when I used the above incident as an illustra- 

 tion. He said it is every parent's duty to look 

 after his own children. He can not be expected 

 to feel the interest (or perhaps a better word 

 would be responsibility) in other children that he 

 feels for his own. But that does not excuse the 

 matter. If we are true followers of the Lord 

 Jesus Christ we ought to feel at least almost as 

 much anxiety when our neighbor's children are 

 in danger as we would if they were our own. 

 When God called to Cain, away back in the gar- 

 den of Eden, and asked him where his brother 

 was, he impudently replied, "Am I my brother's 

 keeper.?" and whenever you hear any one giving 

 utterance to a sentiment like that, you may be 

 sure that he is not a Christian, or at least when 

 he speaks he is not full of the spirit of him who 

 came into the world " to preach deliverance to 

 the captives, to give sight to the blind, and to 

 set at liberty them that are bruised. " Jesus knew 

 no kindred or nationality. When reminded at 

 one time that hie mother and brothers and sisters 

 were outside wanting to speak to him he said, as 

 he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, 

 "Behold my mother and my brethren! For 

 whosoever shall do the will of my Father which 

 is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister 

 and mother." 



Well, friends, it was a task for me to get into 

 a frame of mind where I could feel as much anx- 

 ious solicitude for the safety of my neighbor's 



childien as for my own. While I was hastening 

 to the spot where that great propped-up slab of 

 flagging was standing, I thought the three chil- 

 dren playing under it were Ernest and his two 

 sisters, Maud and Constance. The smallest of 

 the three went to rise up, and her back was then 

 just touching that prop with it top resting against 

 the smooth surface of that soft flagging. A very 

 little force — in fact, something not more thaa a 

 touch of the hand — might cause that prop to slip 

 and let that heavy stone (that was selected be- 

 cause there was to be a crossing there for heavy 

 wagons) drop on the three innocent prattlers. I 

 shall always remember that involuntary change 

 in my feelings when I got near enough to see 

 that none of the three were our own children. 

 By the way, friends, if I am right about it, noth- 

 ing but the influences of the Holy Spirit can so 

 enlighten our consciences that we shall feel the 

 same anxious love for humanity everywhere that 

 we do for our own kindred and our own offspring. 



Now, it was a hard task for me to climb up 

 out of self and near to God, and also to feel even 

 just as anxious for other children — in fact, all the 

 children in that neighborhood and the town and 

 the country round about — as for my own. God 

 heard my prayer and answered it. It was in ans- 

 er to this prayer that I was induced to go into 

 the jail and to starting mission Sunday-schools 

 round about Medina. The older readers will re- 

 member what I told them about over thirty 

 years ago. Now for the task that lies before us. 



If I interpret God's word and his wishes aright, 

 it is not only the little prattlers that are growing 

 up in our town and in the towns of the several 

 States of our nation, but it is the little prattlers 

 likewise that are away across the ocean on the 

 other side of the globe. Just lately China, with 

 its ^00,000,000 people, has been swinging open 

 her doors, tearing down her wall of prejudice, 

 and welcoming Christianity and the messengers 

 who are bringing tidings of " peace on earth and 

 goodwill to men." In that discussion about 

 the crippled feet of the Chinese women we got a 

 glimpse of it. Most of our readers know more 

 or less about how China has been cursed by the 

 opium traffic. I do not know whether the Anti- 

 saloon League has made any progress or got a 

 foothold in China or not; but I am pretty sure 

 they do not have much of what we call here " lo- 

 cal option," They are getting hold of the idea, 

 thank God. But when the best people of China 

 began to demand the privilege of deciding by 

 vote or something similar whether the opium 

 traffic should go on or not, they were told by 

 Christian England (I hope that is not true, friends) 

 that they could not stop the opium traffic, no 

 matter how big a majority they had against it. 

 Yes, it has been said that Christian England, at 

 the mouth of the cannon, demanded that the traffic 

 go on; that the Chinese people must continue us- 

 ing opium because there was " money in it" 

 — that is, money in it for the domineering 

 English nation. But just of late England has 

 let up a little. I think she has turned the can- 

 non around in another direction; and I have 

 been told, too, that she does not like to hear peo- 

 ple talk about that particular cannon and the 

 opium traffic. China is now waking up, thank 

 God, and the prospect is that she will take hold, 

 or is already taking hold, of every thing belong- 



