MAY 15, 1913 



355 



and on my way I mentioned to Mrs. Root 

 what bad liappened. She said something- 

 like this: 



" Oh dear me! Is it not too bad that they 

 should come Saturday night, and after your 

 help has all gone"?" But when 1 looked 

 up and rei^lied, with a smiling face, that 

 " to tell the truth, / was glad to see them/' 

 she looked at me with something of the 

 same astonisluuent she did when she heard 

 me laughing, when I was I'eading the Bible. 



"' Why, dear husband, you do not mean 

 that you are glad to see those swarms of 

 bugs come here late Saturday night, do 

 youf" 



" Yes, my dear wife, I mean exactly what 

 I say. I am glad to see them." 



I was anxious for an opportunity to test 

 my proposed remedy, and it proved to be 

 all 1 had hoped. 



Perhaps I might tell you right here that, 

 about the time 1 was having my tussle with 

 the boj's, our good pastor of the Presby- 

 terian church asked me to lead the prayer- 

 meeting on the following Thursday night. 

 The subject he gave me was '' Christian 

 humility." Perhaps I startled some of the 

 good friends on that prayer-meeting night 

 by telling tliem the above story and adding 

 that 1 was at that veiy time praying for 

 giace to say to the next crowd of boys Avho 

 came near, just as I said to the bugs, 

 " Bo3's, / am glad to see you." And I ask- 

 ed the friends to pray for me that I might 

 have grace to say from the bottom of my 

 heart, to say it truthfully, "Boys, I am glad 

 to see you." I began to think, just as the 

 time was nearing to go back to my Medina 

 home, that no boys were going to come 

 near. I realized that I had undertaken a 

 big job. Just take a look at it. Suppose 

 a gang of hooting and yelling schoolboys 

 looldng for fun somewhere should say. 

 " Let's hold up that old gray-haired gent 

 who wears a fur cap, and hear him scold. 

 He does not know our names, and he can 

 not harm us much any way." 



Years ago, after kneeling with my poor 

 friend Fred, whom I have told you about, 

 on the cold stone floor of the Medina jail, 

 and after poor Fred had prayed for him- 

 self, he took a look at that text I have been 

 talking about — " Love ye your enemies ; do 

 good to them that hate you." etc. He said 

 something like this: "Mr. Boot, that may 

 be all right. Perhaps it will work out as 

 you say; but I tell you it goes awfully 

 ' agin the grain.' " And Fred was right. 

 It does go " awfully agin the grain " even 

 to trg to love our enemies; and T felt it 

 when I approached the conflict. I told 

 Mrs. Root I hoped the boys would test 

 mv Christianity at least once more; and I 



told the honest truth. I did not want the 

 boys to do wrong and be uncivil to the 

 traveling public; but I did feel anxious to 

 have an oijportunity to show that I was a 

 changed man — changed at least in some re- 

 spects, as poor Jacob was changed after 

 wrestling with the angel. The test came. 

 The boys, three or four of them, with 

 mischief in their looks, ran down and held 

 on to the projecting springs at the back of 

 my automobile, wiiile two more of them 

 grasped the wheels; but when I slowed up 

 and looked at them pleasantly they were 

 astonished. They had planned for harsh 

 and severe words; but they had not plan- 

 ned for the soft answer that " turneth away 

 wrath." When they saw I was pleasant, 

 and had not a word of reproof for them, 

 they looked at each other in perplexity. 

 What could it all mean? They retreated 

 a little, thinking that may be I had some 

 firearms or something else. When they 

 stood oft' a little distance at the side of the 

 road I did not tell them in so many words 

 that I was glad to see them. I feared they 

 might think that it was only sarcasm; and 

 the Holy Spirit instructed me that sarcasm 

 has no place in the heart of one who is 

 " clothed with humilitj'," as in our text. I 

 simply scraped u^d grace enough to say, 

 " Boys, one of my tires is in bad shape, as 

 you will notice. I expect to go north soon, 

 and am trying to get along with it as it is 

 until I go away. I do not believe you 

 would willingly hinder me under the cir- 

 cumstances, would you?" 



At this unexpected turn of affairs a little 

 chap looked toward an older one who seem- 

 ed to act as leader. He simph^ said, "Don't 

 meddle with it, boys, any more." Then they 

 turned and went away. Years ago I said, 

 in considering this subject, that returning 

 good for evil is a great unexplored region, 

 and that the world had not yet even dream- 

 ed of what could be accomplished by heap- 

 ing coals of fire on the heads of our ene- 

 mies. I have taken a good deal of space to 

 give full particulars oi the above transac- 

 tion, because it carries a tremendous moral. 

 You see how easily I could have fanned the 

 flame of hate. Inadvertenth' I had started 

 the boys in this way of having sj^ort at the 

 expense of somebody else. I confess, my 

 friends, it is a pretty hard pill to swallow^ 

 to treat such conduct as fun, and avoid 

 stirring up strife. The boys had the ad- 

 vantage, because they could come up behind 

 when I could not see them. They could 

 have their fun under the cover of darkness. 

 Having them arrested and put in jail might 

 have aroused their bad feelings so they 

 would have retaliated by cutting my tires 

 or otb.erwise damaging my automobile. This 



