1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



815 



graceless lot of " street Arabs," I think I 

 might almost call them, as he had for his 

 people. Before I leave that expression, 

 '' street Arabs," however, I want to tell you 

 that, during these studies, the conviction 

 has been forcing itself upon my mind, again 

 and again, that, to come right down to it, 

 A. I. Root is himself more of a "street 

 Arab" in truth than any thing else. God 

 was patient aud kind and long-suffering 

 with those children of the wilderness, ages 

 ago ; and in the same way he has been kind 

 and patient and long-suffering with at least 

 one child I know of. so much like those in 

 his disposition and nature that it is hard 

 telling which of the two is the worse. There 

 is this difference, however : / have had the 

 advantage of Christian parentage, and of 

 living in an enlightened and Christian age, 

 which they had not. A parent once tried to 

 have a son of his stay at home and be a far- 

 mer, and accept of liis father a goodly farm 

 as a free gift. His son, however, had his 

 own ideas, and would not accept the farm 

 nor listen to any of ids counsel. The father 

 was greatly surprised as well as grieved, and 

 made the remark that he could not under- 

 stand why it was, that, when he tried to put 

 the bread to the son's mouth, he would not 

 take it. I have often thought of this before 

 in the figuie before us. God strove with the 

 children of Jacob, and tried to feed them 

 with the bread of heaven, but they would 

 not have it. They preferred to go after 

 their own lusts. lie planned not only for 

 their temporal wants, but for their spiritual 

 and mental needs. lie purposed to unfold 

 to them the hidden treasures of knowledge, 

 and to lead them to the promised land — a 

 land flowing with milk and honey. They 

 were, however, such a stiff-necked, contra- 

 ry, stubborn, thankless, evil-minded set that 

 it was up-hill work, I tell you. Even the 

 great God of the universe himself was baffled 

 again and again in his attempts to make 

 them behave with any sort of decency at all. 

 At times they seemed to have a spark of di- 

 vinity in their composition, and made great 

 resolves, and took solemn oaths of obedi- 

 ence ; but while Moses had gone to the top 

 of Sinai to receive the commandments cx;t 

 in stone, they even made haste to break the 

 first and most important commandment of 

 all. In fact, the history of the whole hit- 

 man race shows hardly a parallel of deprav- 

 ity. Moses could hardly believe it of his 

 fellow - men and kindred ; and when the 

 spectacle was submitted to his own eyes and 

 ears, in righteous indignation he threw the 

 tablets of stone to the ground and broke 

 them. What was the use of keeping them 

 any longer ? There, right before him, with 

 Aaron as their leader, they had trampled 

 under foot their promises and the obligation 

 they had taken. For the time being it 

 seems as if Moses himself said by his action, 

 " Well, we might as well give it all up and 

 quit. If you think best to wipe them off 

 from the face of the earth as entirely hope- 

 less, I have nothing at all to say." 



Moses' real true self soon came upper- 

 most, however, and he begged piteously to 

 have them spared, lie even proposed that 

 ]ie be taken if they might be tried a little 



while longer ; and here Moses shines out, a 

 glorious hgure of a mediator between God 

 and man. He gives us a glimpse of Christ 

 Jesus himself, when he came to this world 

 on a similar errand. 



Something strange now begins to appear 

 in this history of God's dealings with the 

 human family. In the promises which he 

 gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to 

 Moses also, no distinct word is said of any 

 future life beyond this. In tact, there is 

 very little allusion to it. It is true, he 

 speaks about their being gathered to their 

 fathers ; but that might mean simple 

 death. Some writer has said, there is not a 

 passage in the Old Testament that holds out 

 any distinct promise of a hereafter. I pre- 

 sume, however, there are differences of 

 opinion in regard to the meaning of certain 

 passages and promises. If the Old Testa- 

 ment does not have much to say in regard 

 to the future life, the fact stands forth all 

 the stronger, that, in the plan of the re- 

 demption of the human family, this work 

 was reserved for Christ Jesus, the Son of 

 God. It seems, in fact, to have been a part 

 of his mission ; and when, on the mount of 

 transfiguration, we see Moses and Elijah 

 talking with Jesus, indicating that they 

 were still not only in existence, but that 

 they had been all along down these ages, 

 and, furthermore, that they were fully in- 

 formed in regard to the progress of God's 

 work in this tvorld, then we begin to get a 

 glimpse of God's plan from the beginning. 

 Christ boldly and positively declared that 

 this life is only a preparatory one for a 

 greater and grander awakening beyond the 

 grave. 



When a young Christian starts out to turn 

 his back on evil and sin, and to follow 

 Christ, he commences a conflict ; and as he 

 fights the good fight he begins to discover a 

 wonderful likeness between the evil in him- 

 self and the Savior's love, to God's dealings 

 with the children of Israel. To the proud 

 and self-righteous man of the world who 

 openly and boldly declares he is not aware 

 of having left any duty undischarged, there 

 is nothing in the Old Testament to attract 

 him. It is only to those who have been 

 striving to be pure in heart>— those who 

 have, like David, gone down on their knees 

 in agony of prayer, beseeching God to 

 "create in me a clean heart, and renew a 

 right spirit within me,'' that these truths 

 become apparent. 



One passage in the Old Testament stum- 

 bled me particularly. In fact, I felt afraid 

 to read it over; when, however, our com- 

 mittee for selecting our Sunday-school les- 

 sons boldly, as it seemed to me, chose a les- 

 son including that passage, I felt a little 

 surprised at, their procedure. I expected 

 that, when we came to study this lesson, a 

 great many,' and especially the younger 

 ones, would call up this passage and com- 

 plain of it. It did not seem to strike any 

 one, however, as it struck myself. Here is 

 the passage : 



And it sbal! come to pass, while my glory passeth 

 by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and 

 will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And 

 I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my 



