1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



679 



will you please tell me where you found that 

 passage in the Bible you just read in the shoe- 

 shop adjoining? Perhaps you did not know 

 it, but there is only a half-inch partition, that 

 was put up temporarily, that separates our 

 two rooms, and several of us in here heard 

 you reading, and heard your prayer." 



I had to laugh when I told him that I did 

 not have any Bible at all. Then I added, 

 "What you heard me read was on a little 

 scrap of paper that I found on the floor 

 among the scraps of leather. I do not know 

 where it is in the Bible; but when I get home 

 I will hunt it up." 



The above is something of a confession to 

 make, I am aware, but it was true. When a 

 child in the Sunday-school I went over those 

 same verses, and I knew pretty well that 

 they were somewhere in the New Testament. 

 I pulled the scrap of paper out of my pocket 

 and suggested that I had better go into the 

 drugstore and read it over again to the little 

 crowd gathered there. By the way, friends, 

 I shouldn't wonder if there were a good 

 many shoe-shops and stores — yes, and drug- 

 stores too — where they need the latter part 

 of that message in the sixth chapter of Luke. 

 I went into the drugstore and read the words 

 over again, and talked to the little crowd 

 there as well as I could, for he, like the rest 

 of them, was beginning to see the light shin- 

 ing through the beautiful words from that 

 precious book. I think I went and told my 

 good pastor, the Rev. A. T. Reed, about my 

 adventure of the morning. He said, as soon 

 as I showed him the scrap of paper, that it 

 came from the sixth chapter of Luke. 



I am now coming to the point of my story 

 — a point that I never realized till this morn- 

 ing, when I read the two verses of our open- 

 ing text. The druggist, Mr. B., in that drug- 

 store, said something like this. I hope he 

 has not forgotten it, and that he will be able 

 and willing to reiterate with emphasis the 

 words he spoke so many years ago. This is 

 what he said: 



"Mr. Root, I am no church-member, and 

 I have not always stood up for the Bible, 

 perhaps, as I ought to have done; but I want 

 to say right here that if all the Bible were 

 lost and destroyed except the few words you 

 have just read to us. it is sufficient of itself 

 to save the world if the world would take 

 hold of it and follow it." 



Now for the second verse of our text. The 

 first one, I have been familiar with foryears. 

 I have heard it read over and over; and yet 

 it never struck me before as it did this morn- 

 ing when I read it at our family worship. 

 With our great business there are at present 

 many perplexities. Some of them the boys 

 keep away from me because they think it 

 might worr>' me needlessly. But I beg them 

 to let me take hold of any matter whenever 

 I can be of service. As I read the verse I 

 remembf red the many troubles that beset 

 IS — our insurance, for instance. Just now 

 we are making great changes in order to re- 

 duce the insurance. Our factory has been 

 almost torn to pieces — that is, the inside work 

 has been taken out during the past few 



weeks, and there are constant problems com- 

 ing up as to how to avoid loss and waste. 

 Sometimes the work has been done wrong 

 and has to be torn down and done over. But 

 all these things are trifling compared to some 

 other matters that concern the great outside 

 world — the divorce problem, for instance. 

 When we hear that some near friends are 

 about to break up their family because hus- 

 band and wife can not agree, it is a far more 

 serious thing than the loss of property. 

 What shall we do in all these things? Just 

 how far are we responsible for the acts of 

 our neighbors? Right here comes in that 

 glorious text, "Fear thou not, for I am with 

 thee." What an uplift just the sight of that 

 passage gives one! The present crusade for 

 temperance awakens lots of animosity and 

 bitterness. Persecution and death come. 

 Not only ministers but officers of the law and 

 business men have been shot down because 

 they had the courage to fight the speak-eas- 

 ies. But this verse tells us, "Be not 

 dismayed, for I am thy God." There are cir- 

 cumstances where it is right and proper 

 for us to risk our lives for the good of hu- 

 manitj;;. If we die in a good cause it will be 

 a glorious death, and may, perhaps, bring 

 about a greater reform just now than we 

 could have accomplished by living. "I will 

 strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I 

 will uphold thee with the right hand of my 

 righteousness." I told you how a few words 

 from that old Bible silenced all argument and 

 brought us all on our knees in humble agree- 

 ment and in obedience to God's law. Just 

 now it occurs to me that that druggist said, 

 also, that the words I had read have the 

 stamp of heaven on them — that they had the 

 impress that they were from heaven and not 

 of earth; and then that other precious verse 

 — I must confess that, as much as I had read 

 the Bible I did not know till to-day that there 

 was any passage in it where it says plainly 

 that the great Creator of the universe will 

 take us by the "right hand " and lead us in 

 the straight and narrow path. I have told 

 you how lonesome I sometimes feel when I 

 am in a great city; and oh what a change 

 comes over every thing when I get hold of 

 the hand of a bee-keeper or one who reads 

 Gleanings! When I tell him what I came to 

 the great city for, and what I want to se* , 

 he usually turns around with a bright smile, 

 grasps me by the hand or takes hold of my 

 arm, and says, "Well, we will see if we can 

 not find some greenhouses to show you." 

 What a pleasure it is tohavea^///t/e — a guide 

 who knows you, and who is interested in 

 your welfare! Well, that last text promises 

 — yes, it is a /a/rand square promise — there 

 is no question about ' ' inspiration ' ' right here ; 

 it is God's own word. The old prophet 

 Isaiah made no mistake when he told the 

 Jewish people what God would do for them 

 if they were only obedient. "Fear not, and 

 I will help thee." What wonderful words 

 are these! who spoke them? Who i«; it tliat 

 promises such help? It is God, the creator 

 of all things. 

 When I said a short time back that, so far 



