.53fi 



GLEANINGS IN UEE CULTURE. 



July 



terof Sunday observance. Conclude, therefoi-e, that 

 it is either unprofitable or uusanctloned, and take 

 God at his word; keej) the right day next Sal)bath, 

 and, between the hours that Ood designed it to be 

 kept, it can not be kept too strictly. See Ex. 34:^1, 

 and Isa. 58: 13. Yours in hope,— 



N. E. LOVELAND. 



Green Spring, O., May 38, 1888. 



I thank you, dear friend, for the very kind 

 and fair way in which you write ; and 1 want 

 to say here to our readers that I have receiv- 

 ed a great many letters on the above subject. 

 Some of them I have replied to privately, 

 and others seemed so unreasonable and in- 

 tolerant that I felt that I could do nothing 

 but breathe a prayer that the great Father 

 might help us all to climb above the tempta- 

 tions that seem mysteriously to-attach them- 

 selves to discussions of a theological nature. 

 Geike, in his Life of Christ, says that reli- 

 gious hatred is the most intense of all ha- 

 treds. Now, may God help us both to have 

 Ciiristian charity enough to avoid all such 

 temptations. I will explain to our readers 

 further, that, after the stars given above, 

 follows matter too lengthy foi' our columns. 

 Most of it is Spripture texts, to prove that 

 God expects us to obey likralh/his command 

 in regard to keepiijg the Sabbath. I would 

 remind our good friend what Paul says — 

 '' The letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh 

 alive. '' Now, may (iod give me grace to be 

 truthfid and loleraiit and fair, when I say 

 that none of the texts quoted by our brother 

 would indicate to me there ought to be a 

 change in regard to what we call the Sab- 

 bath-day. Let me illustrate my convictions 

 on the subject by a little incident in our 

 office. 



Book-keepers, above all other people, 

 ought to be accurate and literal. The safe- 

 ty of the accounts intrusted to their care 

 depends upon being accurate, even to a fig- 

 ure or fraction. In fact, we have, in our 

 business, decided that there is no other way 

 than to keep accounts, even to coppers. Not 

 a few of our good friends have been offend- 

 ed because they have received statements 

 where debits and credits were made, when 

 the amount involved was only a few cents. 

 And I have sometimes been obliged to ex- 

 plain to them that our work is done by a 

 system' of rules; and in carrying out these 

 rules it frequently happens that one might 

 think we were singular and small, in taking 

 notice of such little things— for insfance, 

 notifying a man tliat 11 or 12cenls remained 

 to his credit, and asking him what disposi- 

 tion he wished made of the amount. Well, 

 some years ago the book-keeper informed 

 me we were not receiving engugh postage- 

 stamps for the needs of our business, and 

 that some would need to be purchased. J 

 assented, and then came the question, 

 '" How many shall, we get? " Now, ordina- 

 rily I should have said : 



"Oh! perhaps you had better get, say, 

 ten dollars' worth." lieiiig in a hurry, 

 however, I presume I omitted the qualifica- 

 tions, and answered briefly. '' Get ten dol- 

 lars' worth." 



A little time after, I found an important 

 mail, containing, letters of much moment, 



standing on the wheelbarrow, "after the 

 time they should have gone to the dttice. 

 Delays in the U. S. ni;iil always vex me, and 

 1 went from one to another, and demanded 

 the cause. I found the trouble was, that, 

 just as the mail-boy was starting to the of- 

 fice, he was asked to wait a miuutejjfor the 

 moneyjto get some postage-stamps. \Vhen 

 I found the book-keeper she was hurrying 

 around to get the ten dolhtrs, there not being 

 enough in the money-drawer for the pur- 

 pose. They had scraped up from the'ditter- 

 eut clerks perhaps eight or nine dollars, and 

 were going to othei s to get the rest of it. I 

 was somewhat stirred up by this time, and 

 replied, perhaps rather vehemently : 



"Why, you need not get ten dollars. 

 Give th6 boy what you have, and start him 

 along before those important letters fail in 

 getting off on this traiu." 



My manner and w^ords stirred up a^little 

 ill feeling, peihaps, in the heart of the 

 book-keeper, for I was criticising her meth- 

 ods. Slie replied, " Mr. Root, you ybiirself 

 said we should get ten dollars' worth.'' I 

 shall have to admit right heie a bad trait in 

 my character. ^VHien I am vexed I am apt 

 to be a little regardless of the truth. It 

 was on my tongue's end to say, and I am 

 afraid 1 did say it, " I did )iot Say get ten 

 dollars' worth." What F meant bytnis, and 

 what I should have said had I not been ex- 

 cited, would have been, perhaps, as fol- 

 lows : 



" Why, my good friend, I am sure I did 

 not say "that you should get exactly ten dol- 

 lars' worth of stamps. Jkit even suppose 

 that I did say so, do you not kuow as well 

 as I do, that it is of lio moment whatever, 

 whether you get nine dollars' worth or even 

 only five dollars' worth iu place of just ten 

 dollars' worth V The boy was already late, 

 as you were probably aware, and there is 

 great danger that letters will fail to get off 

 where many dollars were at stake. Why, 

 then, insist on keeping the boy till you 

 could scrape up fifty cents or a dollar, that 

 you might obey your orders to the letter, 

 when the ?e<ter was of no consequence V In 

 fact, when you asked me the (luestion as to 

 how many "stamps we had better get, the 

 very question implied that only a few were 

 wanted to make up for the lack.' One dol- 

 lars' worth might have answered ; but to 

 avoid being obliged to make a second de- 

 mand for stamps very soon, it woidd be bet- 

 ter, perhaps, to get several dollars' worth ; 

 and in mentioning ten I did so supposing 

 there were plenty of funds to be had, with- 

 out any delay, as is usually the case." 



Now, the book-keeper might have replied 

 that my orders were to get ten dollars' 

 worth, and that, under the circumstances, 

 she had no authority to get any more or 

 less. She might have added, too. that she 

 was entirely innocent in the matter, and 

 that I was very much out of place to get 

 cross, and to scold, when they were all do- 

 ing tlieir l)est to do e'j^actly as I had told 

 them to. 



You see, dear friends, we might have 

 talked on this very subject lor half a day, 

 and, very likely, tlie longer we talked, the 

 more bitter and unchristiaulike we should 



