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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



Jesus has much to say about forgiveness. 

 Suppose we call this the second obstacle. He 

 not only says, " Love ye your enemies, and do 

 good to them that hate you," but he bids us 

 over and over to forgive as we hope to be for- 

 given. He tells us we must forgive and for- 

 get if we expect to be forgiven. That won- 

 derful passage in the Lord's prayer ought to 

 be sufficient ; but for fear it may not be, the 

 Savior seems to have expressed that same 

 thought over and over again. A great many- 

 times we must suffer loss in this world. In 

 the effort to lift humanity above human weak- 

 ness, his admonition sometimes seems to be 

 almost extravagant. For instance, he says, 

 ' ' Blessed a.' e ye when men shall persecute you 

 and revile you, and say all manner of evil 

 against you falsely for my sake." 



In this day of temperance crusades against 

 the saloon-keepers, many ministers of the 

 gospel have been severely persecuted and 

 misrepresented, and falsely accused. I won- 

 der if they all remember the wonderful prom- 

 ises to those who have been thus wronged. 

 In the sixth chapter of Luke we are bidden to 

 rejoice and leap for joy when we are persecut- 

 ed just because we are taking a bold and de- 

 cided stand against sin. 



The question may come up right here, " Mr. 

 Root, do you mean to claim that God hears 

 your prayers because your life is free from 

 sin ? " Those who know me best are aware 

 that my life is not free from sin or sinful 

 thoughts; but I hope it is free from deliberate, 

 willful sin. My heart is selfish, and the 

 selfishness sticks out and hurts people, and 

 does harm, I fear, wherever I go; and I am so 

 selfish I am afraid I do not see it or notice it 

 till somebody calls my attention to it. Mrs. 

 Root may say, "Dear husband, you walked 

 through the house with your rubbers on, and 

 probably just after you had been in the muddy 

 greenhouse ; and there are your foot-tracks 

 across my clean kitchen floor, just after it had 

 been so nicely scrubbed." Then she takes 

 the mop and pail, and cleans up the footprints, 

 when I am sure she is already tired and weary. 

 Perhaps I was in quite a hurry, and forgot to 

 remove my rubbers, and I commence what is 

 intended for an apology: "I did not mean to 

 make any trouble, but I was in a brown study 

 about something more important than muddy 

 (or clean) floors." 



There, do you see any selfishness sticking 

 out when I try to tell the story? and is not 

 selfishness sin ? Most surely it was a sinful 

 act of mine to be so much taken up with my 

 own affairs that I forgot the dear wife, and did 

 not think a word about her anxiety to have 

 her home neat, healthy, and tidy - looking. 

 Giving way to this kind of selfishness may 

 ruin the happiness of some fellow-being, or 

 result in loss of life. And I am just now 

 reminded that Bro. Gordon said the third 

 hindrance to answers to prayer is selfishness. 

 Oh, dear me ! When I come to think how 

 many of my prayers have been selfish ones I 

 am literally astonished and amazed to think 

 that God could constantly hear and answer a 

 single one. It is true, I had some good and 

 generous thoughts in mind when I prayed 



over my troubles. When we got into that 

 difficulty with the electrical machinery, I had 

 in mind setting many needy people at work ; 

 and when I prayed to be delivered from the 

 pain of toothache and earache, I asked for a 

 kind of deliverance that I could consistently 

 recommend and teach to all mankind ; and I 

 hope that through all my toil and all my 

 prayers I have been keeping constantly in 

 mind my neighbors, community in general, 

 and all who read these Home Papers. 



Many wives and husbands pray for uncon- 

 verted companions. The Christian mother 

 prays for her husband, perhaps day after day r 

 and may be year after year. W T hy does she 

 wish her husband more than other men to 

 become a Christian ? Naturally, because he 

 is her husband, and it is right and proper that 

 she should long for his conversion. If she 

 wants him converted because it would be nice 

 to have him go to church and sit by her side,, 

 because it would be nice to introduce him to 

 her Christian friends, have him ask a blessing 

 at the table, and all these things, her pra) er 

 may be a very selfish one after all ; and if 

 while she prays she indulges in various human 

 weaknesses, and lets him see that she is petu- 

 lant, ill-tempered, and the like, it is certainly 

 not strange as the years pass that her prayer is 

 not answered. 



And just here, dear friends, is the great 

 thought of this talk of mine to-day. I am 

 anxious that each and all who come to me will 

 have faith in my words, and may lead lives of 

 prayer, because a life of prayer means and 

 includes so much. All sorts of plans and 

 devices have been invented to make people 

 honest. The beauty of truth, unselfishness, 

 etc., has been talked about and written about. 

 Young people have been told, oh how many 

 times! that honesty is the best policy, and yet 

 they are not honest. We, each and all, have 

 agreed that honesty is best ; but we are not 

 honest. We assent, but we do not act. We 

 take the best side of the bargain. May be we 

 do not all the time, but every little whde that 

 demon of .Self gets in, and we take the better 

 side, and let some patient, good-natured poorer 

 brother in this world's goods take what is left. 

 Education does not help the matter. Belong- 

 ing to the church helps it some, but I have 

 sometimes thought not very much. But how 

 is it about beginning a life of prayer ? Was 

 anybody ever so stupid as to think that he 

 could humbug God when he goes off by him- 

 self and kneels in his closet? Why, the 

 veriest idiot that was ever born would not be 

 so silly as to take words on his lips when none 

 but his Maker could hear, that were not honest 

 and true. The man who prays — that is, he 

 who has felt the need of God — and goes into 

 his closet alone to pray, is honest then if he 

 ever is in his life ; and if he expects God to 

 hear and answer a great part of his daily sup- 

 plications it will be because he has made those 

 words in the 139th Psalm, 23d and 24thversts, 

 his own : "Search me, O God, and know my 

 heart ; try me, and know my thoughts, and 

 see if there be any wicked way in me, and 

 lead me in the way everlasting." 



A life of constant and honest prayer will 



