338 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



Some wondered for a while if we had not all 

 been making a great mistake — a mistake be- 

 cause we lacked in faith. Miiller loved hu- 

 manity; at least, he did after the Holy Spirit 

 made its dwellingpiacc^ in his heart. Then he 

 began to u^nrk and pnnj. He believed it was 

 not God's will that the homeless ones of the 

 gi'ea*^ city of London should grow up educated 

 to sin and crime. He had faith to believe that 

 God would furnish the means for a reformation. 

 The great busy world looked on and concluded 

 that it must be a siring of couiciclences, or that 

 it was just a ■• happin-so," and could not last 

 very long. But years go and come, and there 

 are few business enterprises on earth that seem 

 more flrmly established than Miiller's work. 

 Now for a consideration of some of the state- 

 ments he makes. A man who is industrious 

 and diligent that he may obtain the means for 

 supporting his wife and family, is, according to 

 Miiller, making a rnlsPike. 1 do not suppose 

 that he means that the above is not a praise- 

 worthy object, and really above the heads of 

 some of us; that is, we have people all about 

 us who do not take care of their wives and 

 children — in fact, some who neglect or refuse 

 to provide even the necessaries of life. If these 

 people can not be moved by any higher motive, 

 I should most strongly urge this; but for all 

 that, there is a higher plane to live on, and a 

 higher motive for exertion. This matter of 

 laying up something for a rainy day. or for 

 sickness, or for old age, that is so often talked 

 about, and so often discussed, what is it but 

 selfishness after all? A missionary from China 

 gave us a glimpse of what a nation is without 

 Christianity, by remarking that, if a comrade 

 were drowning, very frequently the natives re- 

 fuse to go to his rescue; and a poor fellow act- 

 ually drowned because the missionary could 

 not make some fishermen move quick enough 

 to go to his aid. They n'fused to stir until 

 he would give them a sum of money something 

 like five dollars. When he told them at once 

 that he would give it, they insisted on having 

 the money first. By the time the money was 

 handed over, the poor man was drowned. I 

 saw a newspaper statement in regard to the 

 recent flood in Mississippi, in our own United 

 States of America, where the colored folks re- 

 fused to stir a peg to the relief of other colored 

 people until they had been paic? /o?' laboring 

 for the rescue of tlieir own people; and, further- 

 more, they insisted on having their pay before 

 they went to work. I am greatly surprised at 

 this, for I had formed a pretty favorable opin- 

 ion of our colored population in the South— at 

 least of the intelligent and educated ones. I 

 hope it is a mistake, and not true; or, if tine, 

 that there were only a few. comparatively, who 

 took this stand. Had it been their own rela- 

 tives and children, very likely these people 

 would have stirred themselves at once; but as 

 it was somebody else they didn't care particu- 

 larly. Now, the man who is simply trying to 

 lay up something for a rainy day, or against 

 old age, sickness, and the like, is a good 

 deal after this fashion: and if he steps no 

 further, or goes no higher in his plan of life- 

 work, he may both lie and steal in order to get 

 the wherewith for a rainy day or for old age. 

 Years ago. when we had saloons here in 

 Medina. I went to a neighbor and remonstrated 

 because he proposed opening a bar in his hotel. 

 He said that he nmst do something to earn the 

 wherewith to support his family and educate 

 his children: therefore he opened the bar. Be- 

 fore the children w(>re educated, however, he 

 filled a drunkard's grave, and they had to edu- 

 cate themselves. Miiller says. " If our possess- 

 ing the necessaries of life depended upon our 

 working, we cOuld never have freedom from 



anxiety." There we have it. A man who is 

 trusting to his own powers of mind and body — 

 one who is trusting in the probability that he 

 inay have health, etc.. has great need to be 

 anxious, for all these things are but luck and 

 chance; but, on the contrary, when he is trust- 

 ing on the strong arm of the Lord, and has 

 faith in him instead of in poor feeble human 

 brain and muscle, then may he be at peace, for 

 " the Lord uiill provide." Then, again, there 

 is something wonderfully comforting in the 

 little text I have chosen. I got it from Miiller's 

 book — '• Ye are not your own. for ye are bought 

 with a price." Oh I am so glad that I am not 

 my own! It fairly makes my heart thrill to 

 feel that Christ Jesus cared so much forme 

 that he really wanted me to such an extent 

 that he of his own free will and choice bought 

 me with a price. Therefore I am his. He owns 

 me, and I am not my own. I remember the 

 dreary years of'my earlier life when I called 

 myself my own. t had become so old that I 

 was no longer under my mother's charge, and 

 my good father had decided to let me plan for 

 myself. For a time I thought it was very nice 

 to be my own boss and master. It was stepping 

 out into pretty broad liberty when I felt myself 

 no longer accountable to any one. I did not 

 think of God— ill fact. I thought I was all-suffi- 

 cient. How soon I learned my mistake I Have 

 you not learued it too. dear brother and sister? 

 Ohl I do hope you have reached the point 

 where you felt as I expi'essed it last issue — 

 " I am weak; but thou art mighty.'" Again, the 

 man who is not working or thinking about lay- 

 ing up soinething for old age or a rainy day. or 

 for the childi'en, has something to spare for 

 missionary work. Miiller says, in his quaint 

 way, page 14 of the little book: 



I do not tind in the whole New Testament <ine sin- 

 gle passage in which, eitlier directly or indireetly, 

 exhortations are given to provide aK'ainst deadnes^ 

 in business, bad debts, and sickness, by laying up 

 money. 



What a thought! An appeal may come for 

 the suffering people in the South, or even from 

 across the ocean, and you may say to yourself, 

 " Well. I should like to give something with the 

 rest of you. But suppose I should get sick, or 

 should have losses in business, then what a sad 

 thing it would be if I had sent the money away 

 that I needed myself!" I wonder if there is a 

 professing Christian whose eye meets this who 

 has been guilty of such reasoning. Miiller 

 gives a great list of texts in this direction. Here 

 are a couple of them: 



"Tliereis tliat scattereth and yet increaseth; and 

 tliere is that witlilioldetli more tlian is meet, but it 

 tendetli to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made 

 fat; and lie that watereth shall be watered also 

 himself" (Prov. 11:24, 25'. In connection with 1 

 Cor. 16:2, I would also direct my brethren in the 

 Lord to tlie promise made in Luke 6:;i0, " Give, and 

 it shall be given unto you; good measure. i>i'essed 

 down, and shaken together, and running over. shall 

 men give into your l)osom. For with the same mea- 

 sure that ye mete withal it shall be me;isured to you 

 again." 



And now. dear friends, I am coming to a 

 thought that has been on my mind for a long 

 time— in fact, something has been said in regard 

 to it in these pages already. It is. the starving 

 brothers and sisters in Russia. Our church is 

 to make a contribution next Sunday. I have 

 been urging a long while: and when they de- 

 cided to wait until next Sunday, I made the 

 remark that ever so many hundreds and may 

 be thousands might starve before our contribu- 

 tions get there. Of conrse.it is not as bad as 

 the men who demanded five dollars in advance 

 before they would stop fishing long enough to 

 save a man from drowning; but I do think we 

 sliould make liaste to let it be known that our 



