1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



855 



the liberty I take, I am sorry to find you 

 are a swearing man. Don't you believe you 

 could get along just as well, and may be 

 better, if you kept back those bad words?" 



"Well, now, what is your name?" 



"I am A. I. Root, of Medina, Ohio. I 

 pi'ofess to be a follower of the Lord Jesus 

 Christ, and it always pains me to hear such 

 words as you have just been using." 



He made some reply with a remark rather 

 defending himself, and was a little incHned 

 to resent my rebuke, so I di-opped the sub- 

 ject. After a while, when the difficulty 

 with the machine was gotten over, and he 

 was pleasant and good-natured, I tackled 

 him again. 



"Friend Baldner, if you were hiring a 

 new man, wouldn't you give more for one 

 who is patient with his work, and never 

 swears? Suppose the skill of two men to be 

 exactly equal, wouldn't the man be worth 

 more money, in your opinion, who, no mat- 

 ter how much he is vexed and tried, keeps a 

 cool head and holds his temper without ever 

 uttering a bad word? " 



He looked at me a minute and then began 

 to laugh. 



"Why, Mr. Root, the man who never 

 swears and never becomes impatient — that 

 is, who never lets it come out — is worth the 

 most money, of course. There is no ques- 

 tion about it. But if you have worked much 

 with automobiles, you know how things 

 sometimes act, especially when you are in a 

 hurry, as I am now." 



"What does your wife think about it? I 

 believe you are a inarried man." 



"Oh! she is with you, and you are both 

 right." 



When the work was completed I could not 

 only go 25 miles without filling the water- 

 tank, but even 30 or more. The auto in- 

 struction-book says, "Give water about ev- 

 ery 25 miles." Then I went on my way re- 

 joicing. But on my way home the machine 

 began to miss explosions. I went over all 

 the connections, cleaned the carburetter, 

 and did every thing I could think of. Some- 

 times my efforts resulted in bettering the 

 matter for a time; but it kept gradually 

 getting wor3e until I spent a good deal of 

 time under shady trees along the way for 

 almost two days, trying to find the defect. 

 I had prided myself on being able to hunt up 

 the cause of any failure in a very little 

 while. I had had no trouble I could not lo- 

 cate very soon, for almost a year past. The 

 machine would make four or five explosions 

 all right, and then it would miss almost as 

 many. Sometimes it would run up a hill al- 

 most without a miss; then it would miss 

 three or four; and just about as it was ready 

 to stop and go backward it would commence 

 again. It was pretty hard on the engine to 

 endure those shocks; but as I did not suc- 

 ceed in finding the trouble I thought I could 

 get home, even if the auto was crippled 

 some. Finally one afternoon about three 

 o'clock, when I was just on the edge of a 

 little town calleJ Raymond, Union Co., my 

 auto all at once stopped going forward, al- 



though the engine kept right on. It would 

 not move ahead with either high or low 

 speed. I found out, however, it would go 

 backward all right, so I created no little 

 merriment among the villagers by going into 

 their town backward. As I had not learned 

 to steer in that way, my course was rather 

 crooked. I ran up to a blacksmith shop and 

 inquired if there was an automobile owned 

 in that vicinity. No such thing was within 

 miles. 



"Does anybody know of a mechanic who 

 would be likely to be capable of pulling my 

 machine to pieces?" 



Of course, I could pull it to pieces myself; 

 but to take the engine apart would be rath- 

 er heavy work, and it would be a pretty 

 hard task on the nerves of an old man like 

 myself. I wanted a bright young man for a 

 helper. I meditated sending for Huber, but 

 he was about a hundred miles away. Un- 

 consciously my little prayer welled up in my 

 heart, "Lord, help! Give me wisdom and 

 understanding to decide what is best to do 

 under the circumstances. " I am glad that 

 I added, "Not only what is best for me to 

 do, but what will be best for these my 

 friends and neighbors who are all about me. 

 Help me to be ready to carry any message 

 that I can carry to these people who are all 

 strangers. ' ' 



Of course, the above was a mental prayer. 



Almost as soon as it was finished, a one- 

 armed man of the group who had gathered 

 around the machine suggested, "Why coul:l 

 not Ed Lowe help him out?" 



And then a small boy piped in, "Why, 

 yes; Ed Lowe has built two or three auto- 

 mobiles already. He will be all right." 



In a few minutes the oae-armed man vol- 

 unteered to pilot me to Mr. Lowe. He ow/i- 

 ed a shop for making gas-engines, in Colum- 

 bus, 0., but had just finished his job on the 

 gas-engine at the grist-mill, and was ready 

 to take the next train. When I told him ot" 

 my predica;nent he sa'd he thought he could 

 help me out. as he had overhauled several cf 

 the Olds machines. We both got on our 

 overalls, and began pulling the machine to 

 pieces. I happened to remark to him that I 

 would have undertaken the job alone, but I 

 feared I should be considerably worried. 

 Then he surprised me by something hke the 

 following : 



"Mr. Root, if you will take all your cares 

 and burdens to the Lord Jesus Christ you 

 need not be burdened or worried by any 

 thing. ' ' 



This surprised me, because it is very un- 

 usual for me to find a man who anticipates 

 me in recommending the gospel of Jesus 

 Christ. 



Let us now consider for a moment the 

 many things included in that Httle prayer 

 of mine for help — the many reasons I had 

 for i?/;on/i-?/(.g God instead of feeling cross be- 

 cause of my breakdown. I found a man 

 who was, by chance, right in the town where 

 I stopped. He was not only an expert me- 

 chanic, but a professing Christian. But this 

 is not all. Before we got the machine 



