282 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Apr. 



how work should be done, and other people 

 have theirs. Butalthoughtheir way is wide- 

 ly different from my own, it does not neces- 

 sarily follow that m'ine is so much the better. 

 Perhaps when he gets through he will have 

 accomplished as much, or more, than I would 

 have done. If he is really lacking in ability, 

 what a very unkind and unchristian act it 

 would be to call him a fool! If it were really 

 a fact that he is dull, and I am bright and 

 ready, the proper thing for me to do would 

 be to feel a brotherly sorrow for his mistakes, 

 and an earnest desire to give him a little 

 lift, out of gratitude to God for having given 

 me abilities beyond his own. I am suppos- 

 ing, you see, that my abilities are superior 

 to his. The fact is, this is probably only one 

 of Satan's wicked suggestions. What a 

 very poor way it is, anyhow, to get into a 

 habit of calling folks fools ! or, to put it into 

 the language of the little story we have been 

 giving an extract from, to call folks "sim- 

 pletons," or to even say they act like sim- 

 pletons. If somebody should want to know 

 of me the best way in the world to be un- 

 happy and bine and miserable. 1 think I 

 should tell him to commence by finding 

 fault with his neighbors ; call them fools 

 and simpletons ; and if you do not get the 

 blues pretty soon afterward, it will be very 

 strange indeed. In the same line, I shou d 

 advise one who wanted a recipe for making 

 one happy, to speak good and think good of 

 everybody he comes across. Or, to come 

 right down to the science of the matter, pray 

 for people you have any thing to do with ; 

 and especially pray for them when Satan 

 persuades you to feel unkindly toward them. 

 This matter of praying for people is not 

 simply Avords, mind you. The repeating 

 forms of prayer because somebody told you 

 to, will no more bring the blessing than will 

 talking sibout the garden, get it free from 

 weeds, and make the plants flourish. You 

 must get right down to the business. Some- 

 times people urge that they can not feel a 

 love and interest in others. My friends, you 

 can do kind acts for others, and you can 

 speak gently to them, and you can stop 

 wicked thoughts about them, just as surely 

 as you can go out into a garden and kill 

 weeds, and loosen the dirt about the plants 

 you love. 



In our Tobacco Column, quite a number 

 have said of late, " Pray for me." I am al- 

 ways glad to hear this, because I know it in- 

 dicates spiritual growth. It does us good to 

 ask our friends to pray for us, in the same 

 way that it does to pray for them. One who 

 stands up in prayer-meeting, and says, '' Pray 

 for me, friend's," must be an arrant hypo- 

 crite indeed, if he could, after this, indulge 

 in spiteful thoughts or speeches toward those 

 of whom he had asked to be remembered in | 

 their prayers. When I have asked some 

 friends to pray for me, I am afraid I shall 

 do something'inconsistent with this request. 

 I am afraid I shall dishonor the name of I 

 Ilim who taught us to pray. ; 



One day, not a great while ago, I had been 

 talking about this same matter of prayer, 

 and I was so afraid I should say something 

 afterward, or do something inconsistent with 

 what I had said, that I actually meditated 



having some little cards stuck up around 

 through the rooms "of the factory, and I 

 would have printed on them, '-' Look Out ! " 

 Then, when my eye caught them, I might re- 

 member that I was to look out and do noth- 

 ing out of keeping with what I had said. 

 Thus you see, friends, how prayer is a safe- 

 guard. If is a contract, or compact, as it 

 were, between ourselves and (iod the Fath- 

 er. In the 17th chapter of .John we have a 

 record of the way in which the Savior pray- 

 ed. Here is what he says about this com- 

 pact that should bind us to him and to each 

 other : 



Holy Father, kesp thr.)ugh Ihine own name those 

 whorr> thou hast given me, that they may be one, as- 

 we are. 



And again : 



As thou. Father, art in me. and I in thee, that they 

 also may be one in us: that the world may believ© 

 that thou hast sent me. 



Through prayer we get acquainted with 

 God, as it were. This communion with him 

 opens out and enlarges and expands like any 

 thing else we study in nature, or, rather, be- 

 yond any thing else ; and after we have 

 made progress in this direction we seem to 

 live and move in a different world, so to 

 speak. Others, may be, who have no faith 

 in God and prayer, may laugh and scoff at 

 us. But it does not harm us one bit. We 

 know we are safe, because we are at home. 

 The sense of security and safety that comes to 

 an honest follower of the Savior's teachings 

 is more sure and satisfying than any thing 

 else in this world. See these concluding 

 words of that wonderful prayer, and the 

 promise that is carried with it : 



O righteous Father, the world hath not known 

 thee: but [ have known thee, and these liave known 

 that thou hast sent me. Xnd I h>ive declared unto 

 them thy name, and will declare it; that the love 

 wherewith thou hast loved me may be la them, and 

 1 in them. 



%€bmp ^eliiiiin. 



WHAT A GOOD SERMON DID. 



EAM a member of no church, but I believe the 

 Bible, every word of it. We have got as good a 

 pastor here in our church as 1 ever heard 

 preach. Some ten months ago he gave the young 

 men a sermon, and it was about this one thing. Hs 

 told them to go horaa and pray to the Lord Jesus 

 Christ to help them. So I did as he said, and there 

 has not been a night, in ten months but that I have 

 prayed, and God his heard my prayers, for I prayed 

 that he would take that appetite for tobacco from 

 me, and he has, for I have not wanted it since; and 

 before that I used almost .$0 00 worth per month. I 

 spent over $200.00 for smoking and chewing. Now 

 suppiso T had taken that and bought s^mo good 

 books, or given it to my ueigbbors to buy Gr,KAN- 

 iNGS with. How much better it would have been 

 for my fellow-men and me I Now I sdy, young men 

 and old men, put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ; 

 pray to him, so when you go to town on Saturday, 

 and election day, you will come home to your 

 mothers, to y<iur wives, and to your sisters, good, 

 sober men as you went. I believe in Christ, and he 

 will answer prayer. A. H. Tisdale, 



Minneapolis, Minn., March 18, 1884. 



