GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



did lio say and do diiiiiig his hnyhood — during 

 th()>(' yoars of young manliood. bpfore ho ontor- 

 ■ed tipbn his ijiiblic ministry? Wliat wcro tlu' 

 "gi-acinu-! wofds that pi'ocoi'ch'd ont of his 

 mouth." at wliich his ohi acquaintancos mar- 

 veled upon his return to Nazareth? If we ac- 

 cept the aecount of tlie woman taken in adul- 

 tery, what was it iiis tingi'i' traced wlien he 

 "stooped down and wrote upon tlie ground"? 

 Amid the divergence of opinion as to what 

 propliecies of the Old Testament arc Messianic 

 and what are not. who would not be delighted 

 to know which oru'S he chose when, walking 

 with the two disciples to Emmaus. he " began 

 at Moses and all the pi'ophets. and expounded 

 unto them in all the Scriptures the things con- 

 cerning hims(df"? What nuignificent Sunday 

 reading that (^x|)ository s(M'mon wouk! make if 

 we only had of it a stenographic I'eportI How 

 thankful we should be that/oii;- writers instead 

 of one were inspired to record the life and 

 words of Christ, so that we have many an event, 

 many an utterance, pri'served from the rapidly 

 disappearing tradition, that we should not 

 have had were only one n\oved by the Spirit to 

 perform this deed of love I Suppose the sacnnl 

 Narrative liad been closed before John had 

 wi'itten his Gospel — wlio can measure the ex- 

 tent of the loss we should have sustained? 

 What if that glorious chapter of comfort, the 

 lith, or that beautiful chapter of prayer, the 

 '17th, were not recoixled — would not the burden 

 of sorrow and discouragement have rested 

 heavier upon the world ? It is now agreed that 

 the 31st chapter of .lohn's Gospi^l was a later 

 (idditloti. written by John himself, no doubt, 

 yet some time after the rest of liis narrative 

 was completed. How, at the very thought of 

 the possibility of having lost it, our hearts 

 throb with thankfuln(^ss for the preservation of 

 our Lord's conversation with IVter, therein 

 contained, when Jesus forgives the denial and 

 restores him to the discipleshij)! It has proved 

 to many the magic touch that has restored 

 courage to theii- fainting hearts, lint John by 

 no means coniplcte-s the I'ecord of Christ's words 

 and deeds. In the last verse of this last chap- 

 ter he says: "And thei-e are also many otluM' 

 things which Jesus did. the which, if they 

 should be written every one. I suppose that 

 even the world itself could not contain the 

 books tliat should be writt(>n " — a hyperbole, to 

 be Piire, and yet giving us a hint at the vast 

 mass of unrecorded tradiiion. still familar to 

 the disciples' minds, but soon to (lisai)pear. 



With the close of .John's record a feeling of 

 sadness steals over us at the thought that, in 

 the I'emainder of the New Testanuuit, we are to 

 find recorded no more of the dii'ect utterances 

 of Christ. Next to this Fourth Gospel stands 

 the book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is their 

 deeds and words, and not Christ's, that we are 

 now to read. It is no longer the light, but the 

 witness to the light— no longer the face-to-face 

 vision, but the reflection— the echo, and not the 

 voice itself— that we shall see and iiear. 



But as we read on. how our hearts pulsate 

 with gladness to lind among the jewels of this 

 precious book one roi/r/? (/c//i. To the elders of 

 the Ephesian church Paul speaks. The words 

 that he addresses to them are golden words. 

 full of self-saci-ilice and zeal in the Master's 

 cause: but suddenly from amid the gold there 

 scintillates forth a si)arkling gem. hithiu-to un- 

 seen by us. but polished and set by Christ him- 

 self. " Remember the words of the Lord Jesus." 

 says Paul, "how he said. It is more blcused to 

 give thitn to receive." With tliese words he 

 closes his addiess; and we search tlie remain- 

 ing books of the New Testament in vain for 

 another gem from the li])s of Christ when here 

 on earth. 



This is. indeecL a. royal saying, n^scued from 

 oblivion, and added to the abiding treasures of 

 the church. It is a saying worthy to proceed 

 from the lips of th(>. Son of Crod. " It is oiore 

 hlcsxed to give tliun to I'eceive." Or. the words 

 might be transposed in the oi-dei' that they 

 stand in the original Greek: "Blessed, or ' bliss- 

 giving." is it to give rather than to receive." 

 " Happier is the (livcr than the receiver.'' is no 

 doubt the thought that Christ intended to impart 

 — he who gives leceives the greater blessing. 



" King Neon loved rich(>s. so he shared them 

 with his people." said ^lencius, the Chinese 

 sage. 350 B. C. When depressed, and at the ebb 

 of fortune. Mark Antony cried out: "I have 

 lost all. except what I have given away." Thus 

 reads an Italian inscrii)tion: "What I gave 

 away I saved: what I sijent I used: what I kept 

 I lost." These are truthful sayings, the product 

 of a philoso))hical bent of mind, and underlie 

 the declai'ation of Christ that "it is more bless- 

 ed to give than to reciu've,"' but fall far short of 

 the Christian conception of tliose words. Let 

 us look at another class of (vxpressions. "I never 

 knmv how it was." said Richard Baxter, "but I 

 always seem to have tlie most conu' in when I 

 give the most away." Savs Dr. Taylor: "This 

 is ever the divine law: We get by giving. We 

 must sow if we would rea|): we must open our 

 hearts in love to others, if we would have God's 

 love shed abroad in our own souls." Says 

 George MacDonald. in "Mary Marston," "In 

 giving, a man receives more than h(^ gives, and 

 the more is in proportion to the worth of the 

 thing given." Says Gladstone, in a recent ar- 

 ticle in the Xineiecntli Coitunj: "He (who 

 gives) will learn as to giving, that, like mercy. 

 •It blesses him tliat gives and him that takes;' 

 nay, that, done in a certain manner, it is even 

 a surer and a larger blessing to the first than to 

 the second." Tlie expression of one other is. 

 that "in this world it is not what we take up, 

 but what we give up. that makes us ricli."" 

 These are Christian truths, based upon such 

 declarations of Scrii)ture as these: "Give, and 

 it shall be given unto you" (Luke 0:38). "He 

 that hath |)ity on the poor lendeth unto the 

 Lord: and that which he hath given shall he 

 pay him again"* ( Prov. 19:17). " He that sow- 

 eth sparingly shall reap also sparingly: and he 

 that sowetli bountifully shall reap also bounti- 

 fully. Every man according as he purposeth 

 in his heart, so let him give: not grudgingly, or 

 of necessity: for (rod loveth a cheerful giver. 

 And God is abl(> to make all grace abound 

 toward you; that ye. always having all suffi- 

 ciency in all things, may abound to every good 

 work; being enriched' in everv thing to all 

 bountifulness" (II. Cor. 9:(i. 7. 8. 11). All this, 

 and much more we might quote, has reference 

 to a return i)Lki)td tlidt God will (jive to those 

 who give. This is a Christian truth, because 

 the non-Christian world conceived not of it, be- 

 cause the nf)n-Chi'istian mind receives it not 

 to-day. " What a man can keep from giving is 

 so much gai;i."" is the maxim of the world — "It 

 is more blessi'd to receive than to give." But 

 the world has been convinced that it, (letiiall)i 

 pays in the end to observe one day of rest in 

 seven; that it actually pays to take the good, 

 grain from the granary and scattei' it forth 

 upon the earth: and why should not the world 

 be convinced that it actually pays to give a 

 portion of one's income, as well as of one's time, 

 to the Lord? and that it actually pays to scat- 

 ter seeds of henevalencc, especially when God 

 has declared of this very act: " He that soweth 

 sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he 

 that soweth bountifully shall nnip also bounti- 

 fully"? If God can multiply a man's income by 

 tico, there is no reason in the world why he can 

 not multi])ly it by ten. In a thousand ways is 



