1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



141 



acter like that of Christ Jesus, going meekly 

 and humbly to an ordeal like this? My friends, 

 mind you, had just been telling of the crosses 

 they had to bear. One of them said, that, if he 

 gave up tobacco, he could not sleep nights — he 

 would be unlit for business: but notwithstand- 

 ing, I urged that it was the thing for him to do. 

 All at once it burst upon me that God had 

 chosen, for good and wise reasons, to hold up 

 before a sinful and struggling world a picture 

 of the hardest trial and most severe ordeal that 

 any human being could think of. In short, this 

 whole thing was arranged with the express 

 idea that no poor struggling soul should ever 

 say, " My burden is greater than even the So7i 

 of God was called upon to bear." Men are 

 often called upon to meet sudden death, and, in 

 some cases, a death of torture: but I can not 

 remember that civilization or Christianity ever 

 demanded that one should take up voluntariUj 

 a slow, lingering torture, such as that of the 

 cross. We are told by history that tlie victims 

 frequently lived, unless sooner killed with clubs, 

 for several days in a kind of anguish and tor- 

 ture which we sincerely hope are unknown at 

 the present time. Our Savior suffered about 

 six hours; and while he suffered the bodily 

 pain, he suffered in angish of soul in seeing the 

 whole world, comparatively speaking, choosing 

 wickedness, sin, falsehood, injustice, corrup- 

 tion, and crime. In this present state of affairs 

 he could realize that nothing but his death 

 and the shedding of his blood would answer. 

 He died, that humanity might evermore look 

 up to him as a model, not only in life, but as a 

 model in death— a sacrifice for us. He died, 

 that we might live. Now, then, my friend, 

 when your burden seems heavy — when you are 

 tempted to think you can not stand it any 

 longer, or when you feel like saying, "I (^'o/i"t 

 stand it any longer," remember the example of 

 the Master. It was as hard for him as it is 

 hard lor us. He shuddered and shrank at the 

 very thought of it. He looked in vain for some 

 outlet — for some other way — just as you and I 

 have been doing. He prayed even for God to 

 spare him; yes, we are told until the sweat like 

 great drops of blood stood upon his forehead. 

 But when God decided that the sacrifice and 

 the atonement must be made, he bowed his 

 head in submission. We, as a rule, suffer be- 

 cause of our sins: Jesus was without sin. The 

 thief on the cross hit it exactly when he said, 

 '" We receive the due reward of our deeds; but 

 this man hath done nothing amiss." A young 

 friend told me, not long ago, that his struggle 

 against a certain kind of temptation was just 

 about all he could stand. I knew of his former 

 trials and difficulties; and I noticed, too, that for 

 some time back he had apparently risen above 

 them all. His record has been for some time al- 

 most faultless. He attends our meeting, testifies 

 for Christ, and presents a cheerful and pleasant 

 face to all his friends. He is apparently " hold- 

 ing the fort nobly;" yet when I came to get a 

 glimpse behind this fair exterior he said some- 

 thing like this: 



" Mr. Root, if this thing does not soon let up, 

 it seems as if the strings would break." 



Do you ever feel so, dear reader? Don't be 

 lacking in faith. The strings will not break. 

 An all-wise Father has given his promise to 

 the contrary (see text in our previous Home 

 paper). "There hath no temptation taken you 

 but such as is common to man." 



Be not weary, dear friend, in fighting life's 

 battles, and in fighting hard for the cause of 

 Christ Jesus, even though you have suffered 

 long and have been kind, without any special 

 blessing coming from it. Be steady, and hold 

 on; the reward will come soon. Ye shall reap 

 if ye faint not. Remember the words in Reve- 



lation— "These are they which came up out of 

 great tribulation, and have washed their robes, 

 and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 

 Your old friend A. I. Root has had some experi- 

 ence in this line; and I tell you there are no 

 truer words in the Holy Scriptures than these: 

 " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 

 hath entered into the heart of man the things 

 which God hath prepai'ed for those that love 

 him." It is the overcoming that does the busi- 

 ness. " To him that overcometh will I grant to 

 sit with me in my thi'one." I had been uncon- 

 sciously holding up to these friends of mine the 

 cross; and I want to tell you of the reward that 

 came to me for my poor feeble exhortation right 

 in that line. I too, as you may know, have 

 been fighting against temptations. It has seem- 

 ed many times to me as if. as my young friend 

 expressed it, the "strings" would break. But 

 I held on and kept on praying. Now and then 

 deliverance would come, as I have told you. 

 But when I had climbed ovei- one temptation, 

 another was sure to come. Well, the greatest 

 deliverance I have ever known in my life came 

 after that talking about the cross. The tenip- 

 tations that I had been battling with so long 

 and so fiercely on that morning seemed to fall 

 away and go away off' in the dim distance. In 

 trying to describe it, these words came to mind: 

 " So far as the east is from the west, so far hath 

 he removed our transgressions from us." I have 

 told you how I have for years avoided temptation 

 as the intemperate man did in going home by a 

 longer route so as not to take the street where the 

 saloons were. It just occurred to me that day, 

 tiiat I need not take the longer route any more. 

 I met old temptations face to face, without a 

 waver. It has all my life been hard for me to 

 take people to task, even when it is my duty to 

 do so. Yes. I usually dread for hours, some- 

 times, to talk with even the boys when they 

 need talking to. I have many times prayed 

 that God would help me to overcome this diffi- 

 dence in doing duty. I have wished and prayed 

 that I might be able to reprove, without a 

 shaking tremor in my voice, and an embarrass- 

 ment that made it seem as if I were the guilty 

 one; but God had not seen fit to answer the 

 prayer, and so I had come to regard it as a 

 thorn in the flesh. Once in defending myself a 

 man said to me something like this: 



"If you are honest and sincere, what makes 

 your voice tremble so, and why do you get so 

 excited? Why don't you talk coolly and quietly 

 as I do?" 



I replied, "My voice trembles because I am 

 excited and stirred up. I wish I could talk 

 coolly and quietly at times like this. God has 

 not seen fit, as yet, to give me coolness and calm- 

 ness, therefore I am doing the best I can." 



Well, since I have got my mental vision fixed 

 on a crucified Savior, it has seemed as if that 

 prayer of these long years has been suddenly 

 answered. I have been through our whole es- 

 tablishment, and talked with our boys about 

 the tobacco habit as coolly as I would talk with 

 my wife about it. I have met with provoking 

 things, and have passed through many trying 

 places; but I have not once since that time 

 spoken a word hastily or that I would recall. 

 I have read over the words of our text, perhaps 

 hundreds of times, yet it never was plain to toe 

 until just now that it is our privilege to look 

 and be healed, just as it was when Moses lifted ■ 

 uj) the serpent in the wilderness. Instead of 

 looking at the brazen serpent, however, it is 

 our privilege now, since Christ has come and 

 suffered, to turn our eyes toward the figure of 

 the cross. And thei-e is no mistake in the words 

 of the last of our text: '" Whosoever believeth 

 in him shall not perish, but have everlasting 

 life." 



