140 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. lii. 



estly and truthfully to the best of their knowl- 

 edge what it is they are giving their patients: 

 and I for one lielieve that a good many valuable 

 lives would be saved if the number were larger 

 who absolutely refuse to take opiu)n under any 

 circumstances. Do as a neighbor of mine did 

 wlien the doctor told him he would die if he did 

 not take whisky. "All right," said lie; "then 

 I will die: but I am going to die a sober man." 

 Did lie die? Not a bit of it.- A man who has 

 grit enough to tell his physician, "All right, 

 then I will die." generally gets well. And I 

 think instances are quite plentiful in most 

 neighborhoods where peoijle die because of the 

 medicines and not because of the disease. Our 

 most intelligent and soundest-thinking people 

 are coming strongly to this conclusion. Our 

 good friend Prof. Cook leads us. as you may re- 

 member. The last time I met him he told me 

 to go on preaching and teaching to let medicine 

 alone. He said I could not very well overdo 

 the matter just now. 



Well, now. about this opium habit. The mis- 

 sionary doctor told the poor heathen, crippled 

 and stupefied as he was by the opium habit, 

 that no man in the wide world could cure him. 

 All the doctors and all the remedies known to 

 the present age are helpless. They can fuss 

 and experiment some with the patient, no 

 doubt; they can, may be. substitute one stimu- 

 lant for another: but the Satanic demand is not 

 satisfied. The inexorable craving will swiftly 

 drag the patient down to a grave that is much 

 the same as the grave of the drunkard. This 

 missionary doctor, mind yon, had other reme- 

 dies besides those known to the materia inedica. 

 When the patient needed spii'itual help he was 

 ready to give it in place of medicine. "He 

 pointed him to the Great Physician as his only 

 hope." Perhaps he did it with little faith. 

 The poor heathen Chinee, howevei', had faith, 

 even if the doctor had not. He followed direc- 

 tions as best he knew how. 



And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 

 ness, even so must the Son of mjui be lifted up: 

 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 

 but have eternal life.— John 3: 14, 1.5. 



He looked to the Lamb of God who taketh 

 away the sin of the world, and was healed. 

 Was he then able to give up opium? Why, to 

 be sure he was. The Gi'eat Physician does not 

 make any half-way work about it: and our 

 poor besdttted heathen brother that was, is to- 

 day walking in the light of the gospel. Is it 

 anything strange or wonderful? Not at all. 

 Evidences of such wonderful healing are lying 

 all round about us. Those who are only partly 

 healed, or have afterward gone back, have 

 surely forgotten or neglected to look constantly 

 up to the Great Physician. The figure of Moses 

 lifting up the serpent in the wildei'ness is per- 

 haps the plainest that can be placed before us. 

 It shows us by a picture, or by an object-lesson, 

 how exceedingly plain and simple is the remedy 

 for aft sin. Of course, we must look in faith 

 believing — there must be no half-way work 

 about it: and we must keep our eyes constantly 

 on Christ Jesus. 



A good deal is said nowadays about tobacco 

 substitutes. I should be very glad indeed to 

 know that there is a substitute that is not just 

 as bad as the tobacco itself. But. bless you. 

 friends, he who is looking to Christ .lesus n»>eds 

 no tobacco substitute nor substitute of any kind. 

 Besides, when we come to Jesus to be cleansed 

 from all sin. the Great Physician does in reality 

 cleanse us from (ill sin. A man with evil and 

 vicious propensities is not very much better off 

 when he gives up tobacco — that is, if he holds 

 on to those evil propensities and passions just 

 the same. We need to be cleansed fi'om (dl sin. 

 The use of stimulants is only a small part of 



what goes to make up a sinful heart: and if we 

 lay all the blame to stimulants or intemperance 

 we are making a mistake. Although, as a rule, 

 we find the inmates of our penitentiaries and 

 jails using tobacco and liquors (when they can 

 get them), thei-e are quite a few of these who 

 practice total abstinence so far as stimulants 

 are concerned. 



A few days ago I was talking with a friend 

 who is fighting against the tobacco appetite. 

 He said. " I would give a hundred dollars this 

 minute if I were clear of it." A bystander said, 

 "Oh! I would give more money than that." I 

 assured them that the terrible fight against the 

 old habit would not last always, and that it 

 would by degrees grow less aiid less. I told 

 them that these flerce temptations occur only 

 occasionally, and that very soon they would 

 discover that, a great part of the time, it would 

 not torment them at all. The first speaker then 

 mentioned a man by name — a mutual friend of 

 all present— who tried for two years to shake 

 off this habit, and he said he wanted tobacco 

 just as bad the last day as he did the first. 



"Mr. Root, it is asking a man to shoulder a 

 pretty big task, if this thing has got to continue 

 right straight along for two years without 

 respite." 



Very likely he did noi use exactly the above 

 words, but it amounted to that, as nearly as I 

 can I'emember. As our friend is a Christian — a 

 member of th(> church — I exhorted him to bear 

 it for Christ's sake. Said I: 



" Look here, my friends: there are boys all 

 around you. They are influenced more or less 

 by you. You are expert mechanics, each in his 

 own line. These boys have good reason to look 

 up to you with admiration and I'espect for your 

 separate abilities: and they will also, in spite 

 of all yon can do, be inclined more or less to do 

 as you do in regard to this matter of using to- 

 bacco. When you think of them, and think 

 that it is something that will follow them 

 through life, can you not for their sokes, or, as 

 I said before, for Christ's sahc, undertake to 

 bear this burden? When it becomes too heavy 

 for you to cai-ry, go down on bended knee and 

 ask help of Him who said, "Come unto me, all 

 ye that labor and are heavy laden.' " 



Then I tried to tell them that Christ Jesns 

 bore far heaviei' burdens than any of us are 

 called upon to bear. Foi' our sakes he said. 

 " Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." 

 And as the Father did not see fit to let the cup 

 pass from him, he bowed his head in meekness 

 and submission. He extended his arms, and 

 meekly bore the anguish and torture of being 

 nailed to the cross. The first speaker remarked 

 right here. "Mr. Root, that is something I 

 never could understand nor comprehend. I can 

 not see why (rod should demand of his only Son 

 that he should undergo this awful torture for 

 anybody's sake." 



Now. my friends. I want to tell you that, in 

 attempting to answer this, I unconsciously 

 brought new light into my own soul: and I 

 want to confess to you to-day that, through all 

 my life whil(> I was a skeptic, and since I have 

 become a Christian, there has been something 

 dreadful to me in regard to this spectacle of 

 the cross. It has seemed as if some mistake 

 had been made in bringing such a horrible 

 spectacle into the Holy Scriptures. It has 

 seemed tome like a relic of heathen savagery. 

 Can human imagination picture any thing more 

 revolting to sensitive and tender feelings than 

 the spectacle of driving great nails through liv- 

 ing flesh and blood, and of such a scene of slow 

 and horrible torture? God is love, so the Bible 

 tells us. What good can come by holding ui> 

 before our gaze constantly and frequently this 

 picture of a meek, innocent, inoffensive char- 



