232 



GiiEAi^iyGS IN J3EE CULTURE. 



MAit. 



time, day or night. Was I equal to the task 

 now y 1 began to feel that I was not, nntil 

 I questioned myself in regard to God's prom- 

 ises. "Wiiose property was it that was bvu'n- 

 ing up V I lield tlie title to it, and it was all 

 paid for. Was it mine, or the Master's ? I 

 had often told him, on bended knee, to take 

 me, and all that I am and all that I have, 

 into his care and keeping. Here was a chance 

 to practice what 1 had preaclied. " Seek ye 

 first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 

 ness, and all these things shall be added 

 unto you," came into my mind; and again, 

 " Tha Lord gave and the Lord hath taken 

 away; blessed be the name of the Lord." 

 If it was through any fault of mine that the 

 building was burning, I might lie awake and 

 worry, or get up and right the fault. If, 

 however, if was something I had nothing to 

 do with, why should I be troubled ?■ If the 

 property was all in God's hands, and he had 

 seen fit to permit it to be taken away in this 

 manner, why should I worry or lie awake 

 when rest was so much needed ? " Behold 

 the lilies of the field ; they toil not, neither 

 do they spin, yet your heavenly Father feed- 

 eth them." And, again; in our opening text 

 the man whom Jesus told about liad great 

 property, and was obliged to build even 

 greater barns; but he expected to get all his 

 happiness and contentment and peace from 

 the contents of those barns. If my hopes 

 were planted on the contents of the ware- 

 house, and sections by the million, then 

 might I lie awake ; but if they were rooted 

 and grounded on the rock Christ Jesus, why 

 should I not sleep as well as in any other 

 time, when duty and friends seemed to 

 point out that 1 should husband my powers 

 to help others, by taking rest ? The above 

 reasoning took me, perhaps, five minutes, and 

 I went to sleep as if nothing had happened. 

 When the fire-engine stopped for a few min- 

 utes, however, I sprung up instantly. My 

 wife asked what the matter was. I told her 

 they had stopped throwing water. Can you 

 imagine how sweet the sound came as 

 the booming commenced oncv, more? I 

 afterward learned they stopped long enough 

 to disconnect the hose and put it under the 

 railroad track instead of over, so it should 

 not be cut by an approaching train. One 

 other stoppage happened, birt I awoke as 

 promptly, and commenced dressing until 

 they got started again. Even while sleeping 

 soundly I kept in mind that, if our city wa- 

 ter-works should give out, the fire would be 

 again upon us. 



When daylight came, the flames still 

 burned higli, but they were held captive. 

 Sure enough, the firemen had exhausted the 

 water from the reservoirs, and they were 

 obliged to wait until afternoon so that more 

 could be pumped, and then, and not until 

 then, was the fire put clear out. 



Perhaps I might say, briefly, that our loss 

 amounts to some ten or twelve thousand 

 dollars. Insurance covers of the above a little 

 less than five thousand dollars. As we have 

 a great abundance of seasoned basswood and 

 pine that the fire did not touch ; better ma- 

 chinery than we ever had before, and I trust, 

 too, a better -disciplined force of willing 

 hands, we shall not be much if any behind 



on orders. The day after the fire, I gave the 

 hands a talk at the noon service, reading 

 from the book of Nehemiah about how they 

 built up the walls when the gates were 

 burned down by the enemy ; and it seemed 

 to take a happy hold of our little band of 

 workers, so that we to-day, March 10, have 

 quite a little pile of sections ahead, awaiting 

 orders ; and by working from daylight till 

 dark, we think we can supply the wants of 

 our customers, as if iftthing of the kind had 

 occurred. 



Now, then, how did the building get on 

 fire ? Nobody knows. But in telling what 

 we do know, it brings to me sadder thoughts, 

 — a hundred times sadder, than does the 

 thought of the loss of property or the loss of 

 the lives of our domestic animals. When 

 my wife inquired about our old trusty 

 family liorse, who has, for toward twenty 

 years", been the faithful servant of the fam- 

 ily, from the time when he used to bring my 

 wife to church, from her home down by the 

 river, until he took each new baby out for 

 its first ride, allowing it to hold the lines, 

 and drive, or to pick grass for him when he 

 was older, sit astride his back, until he was, 

 as it were, one of the family — when she in- 

 quired after the welfare of this faithful old 

 friend. Uncle lien showed her a blackened 

 horseshoe. It was all he could bring her as 

 a remembrance of the horse that had been 

 her special property for so many years. The 

 first neighbor who came on the ground when* 

 the building was burning, saw the doors of 

 the warehouse open, and the two horses 

 loose in the field. Poor old Jack ! in his 

 fright he ran back into the fire, and turned 

 up to his old accustomed stall. Finding it 

 full of smoke, with a snort he started for the 

 other end of the warehouse. Being unable 

 to get out there, he wheeled back and fell 

 down inside, just before the door where he 

 went in. Both horses had very strong 

 leather halters on their heads, and the rings 

 to the halters were found in the ashes by the 

 manger, indicating, without question, as it 

 seems to me, that somebody unbuckled the 

 halters and slipped them off, turning the 

 horses loose after they had removed the bar 

 and opened the doors. It also seems as if the 

 warehouse had been fired in different places. 

 "An enemy hath done this," is the language 

 of every one ; but what enemy have I who 

 should thus desire to destroy my property V 

 taking the lives of the domestic animals, and 

 endangering the whole of this part of the 

 town ? Whoever planned the scheme must 

 have remembered tliat it was an exceedingly 

 dry time, and that the wind was blowing 

 pretty strongly right in the direction of 

 those dry lumber piles. 



Am I to l)lame for having such enemies? 

 I may be, but it is not certain. It is a sad 

 fact, that throughout our land there is a bit- 

 ter feeling among some of the laboring 

 classes against those who manage capital. 

 Intemperance is a large factor in this troub- 

 le ; and even now, while I write, the papers 

 are full of accounts of strikes and trades- 

 unions. How great, how very great, is the 

 need of God's love in the hearts of both cap- 

 italist and laborer! Sometimes men who 

 have been discharged for unfaithfulness, or 



