1S!)7 



GLKANINGvS IN BKIC cn/rURK. 



()70 



mother or sister, or allowing thetii to kiss him. 

 There is not much danjrer that boys will la- 

 come too well acquainted with their niotlurs 

 and sisters. Rut let us now tjo hack to this 

 idea of lovinij each other. 



When somebody explained to me that lo\e 

 meant iiiari/\\ and charity meant love, or at 

 least pretty nearly so, that put a sli,i,ditly dif- 

 ferent construction on the matter. When I 

 got to be a business man, and met other busi- 

 ness men, I must confess I was inclined, as a 

 good many l)usinL;ss men are, to laugh at 

 Christians, and to call them soft and silly. 

 And, by the way, I still think that many of 

 the expressions used in prayer-meeting — at 

 least some of the stereotyped expressions that 

 zcetr used in prayer-meeting when I was a 

 bo}- — are rather unfortunate. I think the 

 Endeavor Society has done very much to 

 change these things, and to make religion a 

 practical common-sense ez'cry-dav business 

 matter. The sentence prayers that have been 

 recently introduced are a grand improvement 

 over the long stereolyp.^d prayers of years gone 

 by. May be I am " Iniilt that way," as the 

 boys say ; but a sentence praytr is often aboiit 

 all I can handle and comprehend at " one 

 dose." I do not mean to say that those long 

 old-fashioned prayers were not good. As I 

 came to understand them better, after I be- 

 came a Christian myself, I was many times 

 impressed \nth the sublimity and grandeur of 

 the thought expressed. It was often, how- 

 ever, " away up in the skies ; " and when the 

 good old deacon who uttered those sublime 

 and lofty prayers cheated his neighbor in 

 trading horses — why, I lost faith. I do not 

 think this happened very often ; but I do 

 think the prayers of olden times were further 

 away from the practical lives people lived 

 then than the prayers of the present time are 

 from the lives we are living. Some of the 

 older readers of Gleanings can remember 

 when I first got a glimpse of what the religion 

 of Jesus Christ and Bible teachings really 

 mean. Let me explain a little In- an illustra- 

 tion right here. 



A few days ago a man ordered some buck- 

 wheat, and asked particularly to have us tell 

 him all about preparing the ground and sow- 

 ing it, for he was entirely new to the business 

 and wanted us to be sure to send him our cir- 

 cular on the cultivation of buckwheat, as it 

 was so late in the season he would have to go 

 at it at once and get the seed in as soon as re- 

 ceived. The seed went promptly by the first 

 train ; but his request for that circular, and 

 his explanation that he knew nothing about 

 growing the plant, were entirely passed by. 

 The clerk who receipted the money said she 

 supposed they alwaj-s put a circular in each 

 bag of seed. The man who sent the seed said 

 he thought the clerks in the office answered 

 his request. Now, we have arrangements to 

 prevent just such omissions as this ; but some 

 way or other his kindly request, accompanied 

 with the cash, received no attention of any 

 kind. Then he wrote again, explaining that 

 his seed was received, but not a line of direc- 

 tions. I was a good deal stirred up, and re- 

 monstrated. I said that, on general princi- 



])les, everybody wlio has a hand in business 

 should have cnougli /oz<c for his fellow-man so 

 Uiat he would not do things of this kind, and 

 I think still I am right about it. (Genuine 

 love toward oin^ neighbor is worth more in 

 business and everywhere else in life than any 

 thing else /;/ llir -vorhi. I hope you have all 

 read Drummond's little tract, " The Greatest 

 Thing in the World," for he agrees with me 

 exactly. Paul tells us in that wonderful chap- 

 ter, that, if we give all our money to the ]:)Oor, 

 and our bodies to be burned, and have not 

 this kind of love, it amounts to nothing. 



Now, please excuse me for taking myself as 

 an illustration. Years ago growing buck- 

 wheat was a hobby of mine, as you may know.' 

 I asked questions of farmers, got suggestions 

 and hints from the readers of Gleanings, 

 and put the whole of it in pamphlet form. I 

 told you how to grow buckwheat before sow- 

 ing wheat, so the buckwheat crop would cost 

 almost nothing. I gave other short' cuts and 

 discoveries to the man handling it. I watched 

 the printers as they set up the type for that 

 circular, and read it carefully again and again; 

 and then I said that every purchaser of buck- 

 wheat might have one free of charge ; and 

 every time I saw a letter asking for that circu- 

 lar on growing buckwheat it gave me a pleas- 

 ant thrill. I said to myself, " Won't this fel- 

 low be pleased when he sees in his circular all 

 that is known about growing buckwheat, es- 

 pecially if he ivants to know?" Well, for 

 years past, whenever anybody has asked any 

 sort of question about buckwheat, I have 

 greatly enjoyed mailing him a circular. It 

 would be impossible for Die to forget any sort 

 of request for it. It is my hobhy, you know.* 

 Mrs. Root says this may be all true, but that I 

 have no right to expect that other people will 

 be " enthused " over each one of my hobbies. 

 She said my clerks would have to be more 

 than human if they were. I replied that it 

 was only good sound common sense to be en- 

 thused over what brings you 3'our daily bread 

 and butter. Just another point : 



My enthusiasm over how to grow buck- 

 wheat made me in love with people I had 

 never seen. Of course, it was a kind of " love 

 at first sight." Now, some people do not be- 

 lieve in love at first sight. I do. I believe we 

 ought to feel in love with people we have nev- 

 er seen, everv- day. W'e ought to fall in love 

 with them, not the first time we see the per- 

 son, but the first time we see a letter from 

 him. We should be glad to find somebody 

 who needs help. In that beautiful parable 



* Two things occur right here. The first is, that no 

 particular credit is due me in this matter, for it was a 

 sort of negative virtue. It was the outgrowth of my 

 strong bent for hobbies, and for riding them to the 

 uttermost. The second point is this: There is no kind 

 of advertising in the whole wide world that can com- 

 pare with this sort. A man may get out circulars of 

 the most expensive kind, and he mav sow them broad- 

 ca.st, and spend heaps of money in advertising his 

 busine.ss ; but if he has not this love for his fellow- 

 man — love at fir.st sight, as I have called it — for some- 

 body who wants to have his questions answered pa- 

 tiently, his advertising amounts to almost nothing. 

 As I look back over the years, I believe no one thing 

 has done so much to build up our business as this mat- 

 ter of answering patiently, promptly, and thoroughly 

 every inquiry, even in regard to the'little details. 



