1881 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



147 



ties fullj% her friend said, "Suppose your little 

 Charley should come running to you to-morrow and 

 say, 'Mother, I have made up my mind to let you 

 have your own way with me from this time for- 

 ward. I am always going to obey you, and I want 

 you to do just whatever you think best with me. I 

 know you love me, and I am going to trust myself 

 to your love.' How would you feel toward him? 

 Would you say to yourself, ' Ah, now I shall have a 

 chance to make Charley miserable; I will take away 

 all his pleasures, and fill his life with every hard 

 and disagree:>ble thing I can find; I will compel him 

 to do just the things that are the most dilHcult for 

 him to do, end will give him all sorts of impossible 

 commands'?" " Oh, no, no, no I " exclaimed the in- 

 dignant mother; "you know I would not. You 

 know I would hug him to my heart, and cover him 

 with kisses, and would hasten to fill his life with all 

 that was sweetest and best." "And are you more 

 tender and loving than God?" asked her friend. 

 " Ah, no," was the reply ; " I Fee my mistake, and I 

 will not be any more afraid of saying, ' Thy will be 

 done,' to my heavenly Father, than I would want my 

 Charley to be of saying it to me." 



Of course, I have skipped a great deal that 

 I would have been glad to give, had it not 

 been for want of space; but I am almost 

 sure after giving you thus much, that you 

 have the same feeling with myself, that this 

 kind writer, whom 1 know only as "II. VV. 

 S.," would go still further and tell us all ex- 

 actly what to do — even the very words we 

 should utter in giving ourselves fully up to 

 the kind care and guidance of the great Ea- 

 ther who made us in such infinite love. I 

 had been praying for many weeks for more 

 light on this very matter, and for veiy" plain 

 directions as to what was my duty, that I 

 might grow and rise above some of the sore 

 temptations that I am sure mar my Christ- 

 ian work and my Christian usefulness. 

 Chief among them is my great temptation to 

 uncharitableness, as I have often spoken of 

 before. Well, this book seemed so perfectly 

 to cover the whole subject that I felt truly 

 God had sent it, and that he had raised up 

 this kind woman to lead a multitude of sin- 

 ners, who were stumbling with the cares of 

 this world. Well, in view of this you can 

 probably imagine with what joy I hailed the 

 following, which I found at the close of one 

 of the chapters:— 



A lady, now very eminent in this life of trust, 

 when she was seeking in great darkness and per- 

 plexity to enter in, said to the friend who was try- 

 ing to help her, " You all say abandon yourself and 

 trust— abandon yourself and trust— but I do not 

 know how. I wish you would just do it out loud so 

 I may see how you do it." 



Shall I do it out loud for you? 



"Lord Jesus! I believe that thou art able and will- 

 ing to deliver me from all care, and unrest, and 

 bondage of my Christian life. I believe thou didst 

 die to set me free, not only in the future, but now 

 and hore. I believe thou art stronger than Satan, 

 and that thou canst keep me, even me, in my ex- 

 treme of weakness, from falling into his snares, or 

 yielding obedience to his commands. And, Lord, I 

 am going to trust thee to keep me. I have tried 

 keeping myself, and have failed, and failed most 

 grievously. I am absolutely helpless. Sonowlwill 

 trust thee. I give myself to thee. I keep back no 



reserves. Body, soul, and spirit, 1 present myself to 



thee, a worthless lump of clay, to be made into any 



thing thy love and thy wisdom shall choose. And 



now, I am thine. I believe thou dost accept that 



which I present to thee; I believe that this poor, 



weak foolish heart has been taken possession of by 



thee, and that thou bast even at this very moment 



begun to work in me to will and to do of thy good 



pleasure. I trust thee utterly, and I trust thee 



now!" 



Are you afraid to take this step? Does it seem too 



sudden, too much like a leap in the dark? Do you 



not know that the steps of faith always "fall on the 



seeming void, but find the rock beneath ? " If ever 



you are to enter this glorious land flowing with milk 



and honey, you must sooner or later step into the 



brimming waters, for there is no other path. And 



to do it now, may save you months and even years 



of disappointment and grief. Hear the word of the 



Lord,— 



" Have not I commanded thee! Be strong and of good cour- 

 age; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thj 

 God is with thee wliithersoever thou goest. " 



Again, in«,nother part of the book, I find 

 this: — 



To sum it up, then, what is needed for happy and 

 effectual service is simply to put your work into the 

 Lord's hands, and leave it there. Do not take it to 

 him in prayer saying, "Lord, guide me. Lord give 

 me wisdom, Lord arrange for me," and then arise 

 from your knees, and take the burden all back, and 

 try to guide and arrange for yourself. Leave it with 

 the Lord ; and remember that what you trust to him 

 you must not worry over nor feel anxious about. 

 Trust and worry can not go together. If your work 

 is a burden, it is because you are not trusting it to 

 him. But if you do trust it to him, you will surely 

 find that the yoke he puts upon you is easy, and the 

 burden he gives you to carry is light, and even in the 

 midst of a life of ceaseless activity you shall find 

 rest to your soul. 



" If your work is a burden, it is because 

 you are not trusting him." This has been 

 ringijg in my ears, as it were, since I com- 

 menced reading the book. Visitors, after 

 going over our factory and premises, often 

 turn round and say, " Why, Air. Root, how 

 is it possible that you can stand it, to look 

 after and supervise so many different trades 

 and industries, without being worried to 

 death ? My reply is that it don't worry me, 

 because I do not worry about it ; but it is 

 not always that I have i^een able to carry my 

 cares and "worries" to that great strong 

 Friend and leave them there, as our friend 

 so aptly expresses it ; there is a lack of faith 

 and trust that almost constantly stands in 

 the way of this new and happy life, and yet 

 no one ever gave the Bible teachings in this 

 matter a fair test and found them wanting. 

 I liave read thie book to a great many friends, 

 and it has been a surprise to me to see how 

 many there are who, although they almost 

 hold their breath as they catch views of a de- 

 liverance from the burdens of this life, turn 

 back with a sigh, and refuse to accept Bible 

 teachings in any such way as this. It is too 

 good to be true, they say, by actions, if not 

 words. We have got to stand up for our 

 rights in this world, and v/e have got to take 

 care, worry, and darkness, when God sees fit 

 to send them. 



When I was a boy, I used to go in swim- 



