146 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



Suppose I were to be describing to a person who 

 was entirely ignorant of the subject, the way in 

 which a lump of ciay is made into a beautiful ves- 

 sel. I tell him first the part of the clay in the mat- 

 ter, and all I can say about this is, that the clay is 

 put into the potter's hands, and then it lies passive 

 there, submitting itself to all the turnings and over- 

 turnings of the potter's hands upon it. There is 

 really nothing else to be said about the clay's part. 

 But could my hearer argue from this that nothing 

 else is done, because I say that this is all the clay can 

 do? If he is an intelligent hearer he will not dream 

 of doing so, but will say, "I understand. This is 

 what the clay must do; but what must the potter 

 do? " "Ah," I answer, "now we come to the impor- 

 tant part. The potter takes the clay thus abandoned 

 to his working, and begins to mold and fashion it ac- 

 cording to his own will. He kneads and works it; he 

 tears it apart and presses it together again; he wets 

 it and then suffers it to dry. Sometimes he works at 

 it for hours together; sometimes he lays it aside for 

 days, and does not touch it. And then, when by all 

 these processes he has made it perfectly pliable in 

 his hands, he proceeds to make it up into the vessel 

 he has purposed. He tiu-ns it upon the wheel, 

 planes it and smoothes it, and dries it in the sun, 

 bakes it in the oven, and finally turns it out of his 

 workshop a vessel to his honor and fit for his use." 



Once more, p. 31:— 



Most Christians are like a man who was toiling 

 along the road, bending under a heavy burden, when 

 a wagon overtook him, and the driver kindly of- 

 fered to help him on his journey. He joyfully ac- 

 cepted the offer, but when seated continued to bend 

 beneath his burden, which he still kept on his shoul- 

 ders. "Why do you not lay down your burden?" 

 asked the kind-hearted driver. "Oh!" replied the 

 man, " I feel that it is almost too much to ask you to 

 ■ carry me, and I could not think of letting you carry 

 my burden too." And so Christians who have given 

 themselves into the care and keeping of the Lord 

 Jesus, still continue to bend beneath the weight of 

 their burden, and often go weary and heavy-laden 

 throughout the whole length of their journey. 



When I speak of burdens, I mean everything that 

 troubles us, whether spiritual or temporal. 



I mean first of all ourselves. The greatest burden 

 we have to carry iu life is self. The most difiicult 

 thing we have to manage is self. Our own daily liv- 

 ing, our frames and feelings, and our especial weak- 

 nesses and temptations, and our peculiar tempera- 

 ments,— our inward afEairs of every kind— these are 

 the things that perplex and worry us more than any 

 thing else, and that bring us oftenest into bondage 

 and darkness. In laying off your burdens, therefore, 

 the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You 

 must hand yourself and all your inward experience, 

 your temptations, your temperament, your frames, 

 and feelings, all into the care and keeping of your 

 God, and leave them there. He made j'ou, and 

 therefore he understands you, and knows how to 

 manage you, and you must trust him to do it. Say 

 to him, "Hero, Lord, I abandon myself to thee. I 

 have tried in every way I could think of to manage 

 myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to 

 be, but have always failed. Now I give it up to 

 thee. Do thou take entire possession of me. Work 

 in me all the good pleasure of thy will. Mold and 

 fashion me into such a vessel as seemeth good to 

 thee. I leave myself in thy hands, and I believe 



thou wilt, according to thy promise, make me into a 

 vessel unto thine honor, ' sanctified, and meet for 

 the Master's use, and prepared unto every good 

 work.' " And here you must rest, trusting yourself 

 thus to him continually and absolutely. 



And again, p. -So: — 



Do you recollect the delicious sense of rest with 

 which you have sometimes gone to bed at night, alt- 

 er a day of great c.xeition and weariness? How de- 

 lightful was the sensaticn of relaxing every n.uscle, 

 and letting your body go in a perfect abandonment 

 of ease and comfort! The strain of the day had 

 ceased for a few hours at least, and the work of the 

 day had been laid off. You no longer had to hold up 

 an aching head or a wearj' back. You trusted your- 

 self to the bed in an absolute confidence, and it held 

 you up, without effort or strain, or even thought on 

 your part. You rested ! 



But suppose you had doubted the strength or the 

 stability of your bed, and had expected each moment 

 to find it giving way beneath you and landing you on 

 the floor; could you have rested then? Would not 

 every muscle have been strained in a fruitless effort 

 to hold yourself up; and would not the weariness 

 have been greater than not to have gone to bed at all? 



And still again, p. 37: — 



Who is the best cared for in every houscholJ? Is 

 it not the little children? And docs not the least 

 of all, the helpless little baby, receive the largest 

 share? As a late writer has said, the baby " toils not, 

 neither does he spin; and yet he is fed and clothed 

 and loved and rejoiced in," and none so much as he. 



This life of faith, then, about which I am writing, 

 consists in just this: being a child in the Father's 

 house. And when this is said, enough ii said to 

 transform every weary, burdened life into one of 

 blessedness and rest. 



Let the ways of childish confidence and freedom 

 and care which so please you and win your hearts in 

 j-our own little ones, tern h you what phould be your 

 ways with God; and leasing yourselves in his hands, 

 learn to be literally cari ul for nothing, and you 

 shall find it to be a fact that "the peace of God 

 which passeth all understanding shall keep (as in a 

 garrison) your hearts through Christ Jesus." 



" Trust in thi' Lord anrl do good; so shall thou dwell in tho 

 land, and verily tlion shalt be fed. 



' ' Di'lijjlit thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the 

 desires of thine heart. 



"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he 

 shall lirintr it tii i>ass: 



" And he shall brinff forth thy righteousness as the light, and 

 thy .iudgnient as the noon-day. 



'■ Rest in the Lord, and wait patientl.y for him. 



" And the work of righteousness shall.be peace; and the ef- 

 fect of righteousness, qitietness and assurance for ever. 



' ' And my people shall dwell in a jjeaeeable habitation, and in 

 sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places. * ' 



Now a few words about how we shall start 

 in this happy Christian life. I will quote 

 again, p. 4.: — 



A great many Christians actually seem to think 

 that all their Father in heaven wants is a chance to 

 make them miserable, and to take all their bless- 

 ings; and they imagine, pnor souls! that if they hold 

 on to things in their own will Ihey can hinder him 

 from doing this. I am ashamed to write the words, 

 and yet we must face a fact which is making wretch- 

 ed hundreds of lives. 



A Christian lady who had this feeling was once ex- 

 pressing to a friend how impossible she fotmd it to 

 S9y, "Thy will bo done," and how afraid she should 

 be to do it. She was the mother of one only little 

 boy, who was the heir to a great fortune, and the 

 idol of her heart. After she had stated her diflScul- 



