242 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1.5. 



are making excuses, or when you are, even in 

 your own mind, trying to persuade yoim^eif 

 that something is so when you know it is not 

 so. A young Christian enjoys going to meeting, 

 prayer-meeting, and Sunday-school, when lie 

 first gets into tlie clnirch. In due time, how- 

 ever, old thoughts and feelings come back. He 

 says to himself, " 1 do not want to go to meet- 

 ing to-day. There is not anybody who goes to 

 hear every sermon that is preached. Why 

 shouldn't I stay at home as well as others? 

 Besides, I do not feel real well this morning, 

 any way." 



Do you know, my friend, that this is danger- 

 ous ground for a Christian to stand on? Sup- 

 pose you answer before God, "Are you staying 

 at home because you do not feel well physically, 

 or are you slaying at home because you do not 

 feel well spiritually? Where is the real truth ? 

 or why do you want to stay at home — because 

 you do not feel well? or is it rather because 

 you do not feel like going to meeting? Is 

 it the physical or the spiritual part that is 

 just a little ill ?'' If it were the spiritual part, 

 you need above all lliings to go to church, and 

 have that spiritual part cured. If you do 

 really value your peace with God, you will cer- 

 tainly lose it if you listen to your inclinations, 

 and let laziness come before duty. Sometimes 

 we have a headache; and with the little head- 

 ache we have a good deal of laziness— spiritual 

 laziness — that is, a disposition to hang back, 

 and to give way to feelings that are not praise- 

 worthy feelings at best. As you value your 

 peace with God, dear friend, be honest with 

 Jiirn at' all hazards. "God is not mocked." I 

 have been all over this again and again. I 

 have tried going to meeting, and I have tried 

 staying at home; and I have taken a sort of 

 invoice of my spiritual condition Sunday night 

 as I went to bed, and I never yet felt blessed in 

 staying away fiom places of worship; and I 

 certainly never felt blessed in making excuses 

 in my own mind that are not well founded. 



Well, I had prayed again and again that 

 God would lielp me to put the whole matter 

 out of my mind; but for some reason or other 

 God did not see tit to grant my request. I was 

 not particularly surprised at that, because God 

 does not always answer our prayers by giving 

 us exactly what we ask for. There seemed to 

 be a sort of fascination about dwelling on the 

 matter — an unprotitable dwelling; in fact, it 

 was quite the reverse of being profitable. I 

 would sometimes get up vehenn-ntly — mentally, 

 of course — and say. "Get thee bi-hind me, Sa- 

 tan;" and Satan would travel off with a rush. 

 But when I sat down at work again, before I 

 knew it he was looking over my shoulder, and 

 whispering in my ear. I presume many of you 

 have had similar experiences. Have you not 

 said to yourself. " Bother take the whole mat- 

 ter; I wish I could n(;ver think of it again"? 

 But it had got too well started; it made me think 

 of a puppy that is bound to follow ybu when 

 you want him to stay at home. You chase him 

 clear back to the house, and then keep watch; 

 but just about as you begin to be satisfied he is 

 not coming any more, there he is, close to your 

 coat-tails again. 



A week passed. The temptation was gain- 

 ing ground. Instead of chasing it away as I 

 had been doing, I began to look at it curiously. 

 It began to exhibit new phases, and I knew it 

 was sin or the evil one that I was dallying with. 

 There was a sort of fascination about it in this 

 way. I have talked with many criminals in 

 our jail, as you know. Sometimes I read 

 accounts of terrible tragedies, in papers. What 

 is it that gets into men's hearts, and moves 

 them to such folly? Why, it is the very same 

 chap I have been scraping acquaintance with 



for a few days back. Something suggests that,, 

 may be, if 1 knew more about him I could more- 

 successfully tight him and warn people against 

 him. Our entomologists, when they want ta 

 destroy an injurious insect or fungus, first get 

 most fully acquainted with the enemy. Here 

 is a chance for me to study all about the cloven 

 hoof. 



Now, there is truth and error mixed up to- 

 gether right here. It is true, as our text tells 

 us, that it is a good thing to be tempted and 

 tried — yes, severely tried; but it is a tremen- 

 dous error to think we are called upon to step 

 out of the right way to find temptation. 



My test in all these years back has been 

 something like this: How does this thing affect 

 your spirituality — your love to God and to your 

 fellow-man? 1 was obliged to say, promptly 

 and decidedly, " I am losing my ground spirit- 

 ually." Finally this matter was taking so much 

 of my thoughts that sometimes I did not realize 

 what I was doing. I remember of going down 

 to the greenhouM' to open the ventilators wider; 

 but instead of having my mind on my work it 

 was so much on this other thing that I closed 

 them up, endangering my plants. I looked 

 around to see if anybody was watching. My 

 friends might have noticed that I was at times 

 abstracted, but perhaps they did not. 



Are we really forgiving a person when we 

 say we want nothing moi'e to do with him? 

 That old familiar Lord's prayer that we have 

 so often on our lips says, " Forgive us our debts 

 as we forgive our debtors." When we ask God 

 to forgive us for a wrong that we have con- 

 fessed, we expect him io feel toward us as if it 

 had never happened. And right here came 

 an experience that troubled me. I could not 

 forgive nor overlook the wrong; that is, it did 

 not seem to stay overlooked nor forgiven. Well, 

 one day, quick as a flash, it burst in upon me 

 that I was committing exactly the same offense 

 that I was severely censuring in another. Some 

 of you may have read that wonderful little 

 book, "The Manliness of Christ." Every thing 

 about Christ Is manly, straightforward, and 

 noble. Even his enemies acknowledged that 

 much. But every thing about Satan is coward- 

 ly, mean, and ignoble. Here we see an illus- 

 tration of it. The thing that I could not toler- 

 ate in another, when I was the transgressor 

 myself assumed a far different phase. When I 

 flrst became conscious of it the telltale blood 

 rushed to my face; and as I was in the presence 

 of busy workers all around me I felt like hiding 

 my face to conceal my guilt and shame. You 

 see, these experiences give me new glimpses of 

 Bible teachings. "Why beholdest thou the 

 mote that is in thy brother's eye, and consider- 

 est not the beam that is in thine own eye?" 

 Yea, verily, why is it? It is because, as the 

 Bible tells us, "The heart is deceitful above all 

 things, and desperately wicked. Who can 

 know it?" If I ever had any temptation to 

 think I was getting to be any thing like a saint, 

 the experience of the week fairly took it out of 

 me; and I could say with more sincerity, per- 

 haps, than I ever said before, "Lord, have 

 mercy upon me a sinner." 



It was Sunday morning, t knew I should 

 have a tussle. If Satan ever works hard it is- 

 when he succeeds in going with you to the 

 house of God. He will keep your mind from 

 the sermon, if it be a possible thing. He will 

 persuade you to stay at home if he can. If he 

 can not do that, he will go to church with you. 

 When you get inside he will persuade you to 

 sit down near the door, or as far from the min- 

 ister as he can. Oh I I know him, you see. He 

 and I have been in sight of each other, at least, 

 for nearly twenty years. Before I was a Chris- 

 tian I used to sit away back; but now I want; 



