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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



OUR 

 HOMES, ^^rga. 



BY A. I. R O OT. 



Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and perse- 

 cute you. and say all manner of evil against you false- 

 ly, for my sake. — Matt. 5:11. 



When I came back from Northern Michi- 

 gan last summer I was asked to take a par- 

 ticular class of boys in our Sunday-school; 

 I was also told that those boys, or perhaps 

 I should call them young men, were not a 

 very easy class to manage; and the super- 

 intendent said he hoped I would be able to 

 keep them in order, and do them some good, 

 as many of the best teachers had about 

 given them up. In accordance with this I 

 prepared myself carefully with the lesson, 

 and did my very best to get the boys inter- 

 ested in seme way, and hold their attention. 

 It kept me pretty busy, but I succeeded 

 rather better than I had reason to expect 

 from what I had heard. They were really 

 a nice lot of young men in many respects, 

 children of well-to-do parents, and pretty 

 well posted on what is going on all over the 

 world; and for several Sundays I really en- 

 joyed teaching the class. When I told them 

 I was sorry I should have to be away again 

 for a month or more, I had one of my 

 pleasant surprises, for two or three express- 

 ed regret, and said they wished I could 

 keep the class all the time. 



While it is true I was succeeding fairly 

 well with the class, it is also true that there 

 was a good deal of disorder and outside 

 talking. The secretary told me the class 

 had had no quarterlies for a long time, be- 

 cause they just tore them up as fast as they 

 were received. They had a lesson-paper 

 each Sunday, but these were usually torn 

 up to make wads to throw at each other. 



I presume the average Sunday-school 

 teacher will think, when I confess I allow- 

 ed more or less of this work to go on, it is 

 somewhat a question whether I was really 

 doing the boys any good. When the class 

 was small, or when the ringleaders were 

 absent, I got along very well; but when the 

 whole ten were present it kept me about as 

 busy as any j ib I ever undertook. I almost 

 began to dread God's holy day. Of course, 

 it set me to praying for the class; but, with 

 scarcely an exception, when the lesson 

 closed I felt happy. The Holy Spirit 

 seemed to say, not exactly, perhaps, " IVell 

 done, thou good and fiithful servant," but 

 it did say to me that I had done fairlj' well; 

 and I felt happy because I had made the ef- 

 fort. I felt happy because I had reason to 

 think I was gaining the friendship, little 

 by little, of each one of 'hose boys. 



During Mrs. Root's sickness, however, I 

 was absent several Sundays; and when I 

 got back I seemed to have lost my grip on 

 the class. I kept thinking each Sunday I 

 would get back; but Satan seemed to have 

 gotten the better of me — he had a better 

 grip. The class kept getting worse and 



worse. Now, very likely some of these same 

 young men will read what I am saying 

 here in print. In view of this, may God 

 help me to be " wise as serpents, and harm- 

 less as doves." In talking with the super- 

 intendent and the pastor of our church in 

 regard to the matter, they both decided I 

 had been too easy with the young men. 

 Let me give j'ou an illustration. 



Our church has been recently warmed 

 with steam radiators. There is a very 

 pretty radiator in our class-room. When 

 the class is all on hand, some of the boys 

 are obliged to sit very near this radiator. 

 Our radiators are all equipped with up to- 

 date automatic air-valves that cost quite a 

 sum of money. We were told the radiators 

 would not be complete without them; but 

 that when thus equipped there need be no 

 shutting and opening of valves to let the air 

 out. These valves are automatic, needing 

 no manipulation or handling. Well, these 

 young men had got into a fashion of med- 

 dling with the air-valve. They would twist 

 it one way and then the other, and change 

 the adjustment, etc. First one boy and 

 then the other would be meddling with it. 

 When I mentioned the matter to our pastor 

 he said I ought to insist on prompt obedi- 

 ence in such matters; and that if nothing 

 else would do I should slop the lesson until 

 I had gained obedience, even though it 

 broke up the class. Just once in my life I 

 sent a young man home because he deliber- 

 ately disobeyed orders in the Sunday-school 

 class; but I have been sorry since then that 

 I did it. He felt very much hurt; and when 

 he was transferred to another class he be- 

 haved himself like a gentleman. This 

 would look as if it were the fault of the 

 teacher rather than that of the boy. May 

 God help us, who are trying to teach in our 

 Sunday-schools, to be sure, before we re- 

 sort to severe measures, that the fault is not 

 with the teacher, but with the pupil. Now 

 please, dear friends, do not jump to the con- 

 clusion that I would advise a teacher to re- 

 sign, and conclude that he has no ability, 

 just because he has trouble, or, say, such 

 troubles as I have mentioned. 



Yesterday, Feb. 14, my class behaved 

 worse than ever. I finally stopped proceed- 

 ings, and told them that I feared the class 

 would have to be broken up. Several said, 

 '• All right, break it up;" but it had the 

 effect of quieting thetn for a while. I said 

 something like this: 



" Boj's, you are my personal friends — at 

 least I believe you are. It will not only be 

 a disgrace Xo you if the class is broken up, 

 but a disgrace to me, because I shall have 

 to admit that I am not equal to the task of 

 keeping order; that I have not a faculty, 

 even with the long years of experience I 

 have had in Sunday-school work, for main- 

 taining discipline. It will also cast a slur 

 on our whole Sunday-school to have it pub- 

 licly said that there was a class of boys in 

 it that no one could manage. Now, I might 

 send you home one by one because you re- 

 fuse to obey orders; but I do not want to do 



