390 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1917 



"A. 1. R.," but 111" Lurd Jcsu.s Christ he 

 would liave to deal with. It was one of 

 my " happy sui'i)rises " that the strong arm 

 that never fails was always at hand so long 

 as I let him take the lead.* 



Now just a word about the " blindness " 

 part. ' A little time before what I have just 

 been telling you I was one day compelled to 

 ride several hours in the caboose of a slow 

 freight train. All I could find to read was 

 a copy of the Bible and a medicine almanac. 

 I first read one and then the other. I tried 

 in vain to find something in the Bible that 

 interested me, and 1 was, in one sense, hon- 

 est in so reporting when T got home. I was 

 blind to Bible truths and teachings, because 

 I did not propose to obey its teachings. 



After that prayer I have told you 

 about 1 luu-ried home and hunted up the 

 unused Bible. I wanted to know all about 

 the new life that had opened up before me, 

 and no other book in the whole wide world 

 could unf(.)ld it. Do you wonder that I 

 found it sparkling with new and precious 

 truths? From that day to this every little 

 while some Bible text stands out sharp and 

 clear as if it were written across the sky, 

 and I wonder I had never noticed its 

 beauty before. Let me give you an illus- 

 tration. 



A few days ago some business matters re- 

 quired me to be some hours with people who 

 smoked cigarettes, used bad talk, and were 

 ungodly all around. After I left I was 

 thinking that the experience made me Igve 

 good Christian people m.ore than I ever 

 did before ; and then all at once the beauti- 

 ful text shone out sharp and clear, " Bless- 

 ed are they who do hunger and thirst after 

 righteousness." Just think of the expres- 

 sion, " hunger and thirst." There are many 

 people who do " about right " in a lazy sort 

 of way, and give little or no thought to it ; 

 but how many are there who really go thru 

 the world liungering and thirsting after 

 right doing? Last evening in prayer-meet- 

 ing I asked if all in that areat roomful of 



* How did it affect business? Here is a sample: 

 Next morning I recalled that the other jeweler in 

 (own and I had been paying 20 cts. a line to adver- 

 tise how much better our own store was compared 

 with our competitor, etc. I went up to his plaie the 

 very fir.st thine: and said: 



"Mr. W., I have started out to be a Christian: 

 and if you will forgive me for the past I will tvy to 

 be a friend of yours instead of an enemy." 



Before long I had a chance to " prove out." A 

 lady wanted quite an expensive article, but she said 

 she liked rather better the one Mr. W. had than mine, 

 and asked me if T thought bis ,iust as good (iuality, 

 etc. She told him what I said, and liougbt of him; 

 and this thing went on, for I always siioke well of 

 luy rival. Bid T suffer by it? Bless yon, no. The 

 outcome was that be came to me one day and said, 

 "Mr. Root, if what you have done for me is Chris 

 tianity, I too want to be a Cliristian;" and it was 

 my great pleasure to lead him to " the T^amb of God 

 that taketh away the sin of the world." 



people were hungering and thirsting in 

 this way. And now 1 want to ask all the 

 good people who read these Home j^aiiers, 

 are you, my friend, following the dear 

 Saviour in this hungering and thirsting? 

 If the great wide world that seems just now 

 hungering for war were hungering for 

 righteousneas, how long would the war last ? 



May God in his infinite love bless this 

 message to a world groping in spiritual 

 blindness. 



When out in the woods as narrated, L 

 .stood up, raised my hand, and called on 

 Grod to " witness " what I was going to do. 

 When I with bowed head acknowledged my- 

 self a helpless (and hopeless) sinner I was 

 the witness, while God did the work of 

 opening my blind eyes and revealing the 

 new world that all at once opened up be- 

 fore me. 



One thing I know, that I am he 

 Who o:i e was b ind and now I see. 



iiiiiiiliii:iiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiii:iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 



" THE LAMB OP GOD THAT TAKETH AWAY 

 THE SIN OF THE WORLD." 



In my writeui? of my visit to the 

 great Ford factory in Detroit a few 

 months ago I suggested, at the close, in 

 speaking of Ford's reform work, that possi- 

 bly Ford ivas a Christian but didn't know it. 

 Having tliis in mind you may be sure I 

 read over and over the cliiiping below 

 from the Sunday School IXmes, for the 

 lesson of Jan. 14. 



A man known thruout America for his work 

 with the honor system in reforming prison criminals 

 recently made three interesting statements, accord- 

 ing to a newspaper account. " I am still convinced 

 that there are no bad men in the world; I am sure 

 that my method is right," he said. Asked whether 

 a certain notorious criminal, then under sentence of 

 death, having confessed to murdering his wife's 

 p irents, could be redeemed, " No," was the reply, 

 " but that means nothing ... he is not even a type." 



There are three mistakes in these three statements. 



First, it is not true that " there are no bad men in 

 the world," for there is no other kind than bad men. 

 "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 

 3:10). " For all have sinned, and come short of the 

 glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). 



Second, a man like that murderer caiu be redeem- 

 ed. " For God so loved the world, that he gave 

 his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 

 him should not perish, but have eternal life " 

 (John 3:16). "The law of the Spirit of life in 

 Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and 

 death " (Rom. 8:2). 



Third, that murderer is a type of the logical out- 

 working of the sin that is in every man. " There is 

 a way which seemeth right unto a man ; but the end 

 thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12). 



The sincere but mistaken reformer's statements 

 were made without recognition of the central truth 

 in to-day's lesson: the Lamb of God. He overlooked 

 every man's sin, every man's need of the Lamb of 

 God, and the infinite sufficiency of the Lamb of God 

 to meet every man's need. 



Charles Gallaudet Trumbull. 



