1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



579 



Qm P0ME5. 



Say not unto thy neig-hbor, Go, and come ajrain, 

 and to-morrow I will g'ive; when then hast it by 

 thee.— Prov. 3:38. 



}N the Old Testament we read over and 

 over again, " And tlie Lord spake unto 

 Moses, saying;" and a great many times 

 the words are added, " Speak unto the 

 children of Israel," indicating that God 

 had some message he wislied Moses to deliv- 

 er to the children of Israel. The children of 

 Israel were free agents, remember. God 

 gave them commands what to do ; and al- 

 though they were his creatures, w^e leadily 

 understand by history that it was their priv- 

 ilege to obey liim or liot, just as they chose, 

 and a good many of them chose to disobey. 

 In one place he says to them. "Thou shalt 

 make thee no molten gods." The command 

 was plain and direct as any thing could be ; 

 and yet Aaron very quietly informed Moses 

 that he gathered up their gold and put it in 

 the Are. When it was molten it assumed 

 the form of a calf ; and straightway they set 

 to work to worship this molten god. We 

 learn, also,that the God of Israel was patient 

 and longsuftering. Notwithstanding their 

 stiffneckedness and repeated disobedience, 

 God strove with them, as it were, and sent 

 communications to them. There were doubt- 

 less many among the children of Israel who 

 felt it a pleasure to do God's will, and who 

 gladly received tliese messages, and set about 

 fulfilling them joyfully, just as there are 

 people nowadays who delight to do his will. 

 These same people, however, often disobey 

 God's commands, and doubtless displease 

 him, by a sort of carelessness or heedlessness. 

 They commit grievous wrongs — at least as 

 we stand outside and look on, their acts ap- 

 pear to us to be grievous wrongs — and yet 

 they do not seem to be particularly conscious 

 of having done any thing out of the way. 

 I don't know but our talk to-day would more 

 properly come under the head of "Neigh- 

 bors " instead of " Our Homes ;" but to me. 

 Our Neighbors and Our Homes are so inti- 

 mately connected that I can not well speak 

 of one without speaking of the other. 



Well, I fell to wondering the other day 

 whether it were not true that God speaks to 

 people nowadays as he spoke to Moses in 

 olden time. Does he say, with that still 

 small voice to the hearts of men, " Speak 

 thus and so to the people"? I certainly 

 hope it is true that the sermons which each 

 pastor delivers to his people on the Sabbath 

 day are the messages that God has commit- 

 ted to his care, to be spoken and made plain 

 to his people. And while I ponder on this 

 matter, I have wondered what it was that 

 God M^ould have me say to my people ; for 

 the letters I receive daily assure me over 

 and over again that these messages through 

 these Home Tapers are received by quite a 

 multitude ; and I hope it is God's Spirit that 

 prompts and directs them. If this be true, 

 the message he desires me to deliver to you 

 to-day is in the line of our opening text — 

 " Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come 

 again, and to-morrow I will give ; when thou 

 hast it by thee." 



It is only a few days ago that I discovered 

 there was such a passage in the liible. But 

 just as soon as I heard it read I said at once, 

 " 1 am sure tliat God wishes me to talk to 

 my people on this very matter." It is a lit- 

 tle strange, too, dear friends, for I do not 

 know my people as the pastor of a congrega- 

 tion knows his people, most of them, indi- 

 vidually. A great many to whom I speak, I 

 do not know at all ; and yet I feel that God 

 gives me a message to deliver to them. I do 

 not mean by this that my readers are prob- 

 ably composed largely of a class who do not 

 pay their debts ; and I do not mean, either, 

 that God wants me to find fault with you, 

 and reproach you. The message he would 

 have me deliver is, without question, a mes- 

 sage that will help to make you better and 

 happier— a message that will show you how 

 to enjoy life better, and to appreciate God's 

 gifts more than you have heretofore done. 



The principal thing that has suggested 

 this topic to me is the fact that I see people 

 so often made to wait for their money after 

 they have delivered their goods or done 

 their work. We tell a man, for instance, 

 we should like to have him do some work 

 for us. He goes to work and finishes it, per- 

 haps deliveis it, and stands waiting for his 

 pay. Now, before giving him orders to do 

 said work, we ought to have liad the money 

 right in pocket, ready to pay for the work, 

 or else we should have made arrangements 

 so he could have it promptly. A great 

 many times, however, he is desired to call 

 some other time. We have not the money 

 by us, or it is not convenient. Sometimes 

 he waits and waits. May be he is backward 

 about asking for his money. Saddest of all, 

 a good many times he never gets it. You all 

 know how it is, friends. Pe(.ple toil hard; 

 they work painfully tl.rough fatigue or ill 

 health, a great many times, in completing 

 the work they are set to do. They use their 

 own tools, and perhaps buy their own mate- 

 rial, fondly hoping they shall have the just 

 reward of their hard labor of brain and 

 muscle. Now, is it not a sad thing to be 

 obliged to go without itV It is wrong and 

 unkind to oblige the one who has done the 

 work, to wait at all. In fact, one real source 

 of happiness to me lately has been in con- 

 triving to pay people for what I purchase of 

 them, the very minute the goods are deliv- 

 ered. Sometimes I take real comfort in 

 paying them a little before the goods are 

 fairly delivered. Let me illustrate : 



In our neighborhood, a good many of us 

 are trying hard to see who can have the 

 first nice potatoes on the market. I have 

 told you how I have worked to get mine 

 ahead, protecting the vines from the frost, 

 after having started them in the green- 

 house, etc. Well, about five miles from our 

 ])lace (in fact, it is down to Abbeyville 

 where I used to have a Sunday-school) there 

 is a piece of sandy soil that grows all kinds 

 of stuff earlier than we get it here ; yes, it 

 was one of my old Sunday-school boys who 

 drove up with a nice load of ripe potatoes, 

 and a smiling face, to think he had got a 

 little ahead of me. He wanted $1.10 a bush- 

 el for them. I told him I did not believe I 

 could afford to give over fl.OO; but I finally 



