1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



3oo 



agree, aud we will not try to trade any longer. 

 Is this not the best way?" 



" "Well, Mr. Root, what must I do to stay 

 here? I do not want to go away anywhere 

 else." 



" AVhat must you do. D.V It seems to me 

 that it is your duty to go at once and marry 

 that woman, the niother of your child. I do 

 not see how else you can stand right in the 

 sight of God and your fellow-men." 



A gueer smile came over his face at this, 

 and I heard afterward that he complained 

 of the severe penalty I had imposed. Others, 

 too. have smiled at my plan of remedying 

 the evil ; but it seems to me a man who 

 would live with a woman to whom he was 

 not married has no right to complain of be- 

 ing obliged to live with her as her husband. 



He thought he had better go away, and I 

 thought so too. I turned back, however, 

 and said,— 



"• D.. you know I am right. Yon know it 

 is best for a man to have one wife to love, 

 cherish, and support, and you agree with me. 

 at least in heart, if you do not in actions, do 

 you not? Come, lei us part friends, in any 

 case."" 



•' Yes, ^Ir. Root, of course I know your 

 way is best. " 



" And. I)., when you hear my name men- 

 tioned, you are not going to blame and speak 

 ill of me. I will try, too, to speak of your 

 good qualities and not your bad ones. You 

 know Avhat a Savior's love is ; but, my friend, 

 you have left it. and I fear you are going 

 straight to the prison again. Think on these 

 things, and remember I shall not forget to 

 pray for you." 



My last view of liim was as he left on the 

 cars, with a cigar in his mouth. While 

 Avriting this I thought, many times, that his 

 eye might some time reach these lines, and 

 I have tried to make them truthful ; but if 

 he sees aught in it to criticise, I hope he 

 will forgive it, for I have tried to give the 

 substance of it, if not the words. 



The lesson for us is, that we are to be very 

 careful of the tirst wrong step. Note how 

 quickly Satan came in after D. had fust gone 

 back to a companion of his bad days. It is 

 said a bad woman has tenfold the ability to 

 work ruin that a bad man has. After he 

 met her. drinking followed almost inevit- 

 ably; and with the consciousness of this 

 guilt on his soul, it was easy for him to tell 

 me the tirst falsehood; easy for him to listen 

 unmoved to that soul-stirring sermon ; easy 

 to hire a horse right after, and gooff on Sun- 

 day with a weak reformed man ; easy to see 

 him back again in the hold of Satan, and 

 then he hated and sneered at the whole 

 world of Christian people. 



Y'ou never, /KIT/', XEVER, can be a Chris- 

 tian whileyou hold a single sin in your heart, 

 concealed from God and your fellow-men. 

 It must be a whole heart surrender, or it 

 Avill never avail. 



I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, etc.— Ex.30 :5. 



You thought me vehement, my friends, 

 when I tirst took up the cross before you 

 here on these pages; but you little knew 

 how life and death stood before me. I was 

 sometimes tired and wearied with my strug- 



gles with and against Satan ; but you can 

 not tell the joy I feel now and then when I 

 look back and see that these fights with so 

 many different temptations were only bricks 

 laid "in a foundation for future usefulness. 

 You know how much I have spoken about 

 my besetting sin of fretfulness and impa- 

 tience ; well, for the past few months I have 

 been almost entirely delivered from this. I 

 say it tremblingly, for I expect Satan will 

 give me some fearful tussles, just to pay for 

 my having said this much ; but. •' the Lord 

 is my shepherd." I fear I have been a little 

 proud of the success of my jail work ; but I 

 am humbled now, and have been taught a 

 most useful lesson. Blessed be the hand 

 that afflicts and chastises, for we read, — 



Whom he loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth 

 every son whom he receiveth.— Heb. 13:6. 



TAKING THE NAME OF GOD IX VAIX. 



Dear Bro. Root:— Ihavc just been reading your 

 kind offer in last No. of Gleanings, to furnish 

 to any one who would use them properly, 

 cards with some pointed lines against profane and 

 vulgar swearing. This is a good inspiration; may 

 the Lord bless you for placing this means in the 

 hands of his servants, for checking this very pre- 

 valent practice of blaspheming " that worthy Name 

 by which we are called." I inclose stamped envel- 

 ope. Please send me a dozen. Our neighbor's son 

 across the waj' uses the most shocking profanity; 

 but for this one fault he is a good, honest, kind- 

 hearted, generous boy. His parents do not try to 

 check him, and now the habit has grown on him, 

 until a volley of oaths is his common resource for 

 even trifling vexations. I have so often wanted 

 to help him be ashamed of it, but could not see my 

 way clear. There are many others who might be 

 touched and helped in this way better than any 

 other. Let us try, any way, and ask God to bless 

 our efforts. T)o you remember that I, through you, 

 sent Gleanings to our foreign missionary, the Rev. 

 A. Bunker, Tonghoo, Burmah, India? Well, we did 

 though (you and I), and he writes and sends us his 

 warmest thanks, and tells how much he enjoys it, 

 and he is hunting up items and facts about the three 

 kinds of bees in that country, and pretty soon he 

 will send us a letter for Gleanings. Think of that 

 now. I should like you to read his interesting let- 

 ters about his work there, but I know you are too 

 busy to read long letters. X. Y. Z. 



You see, friends, I have omitted the name 

 of the lady who wrote the above, for I wish 

 to have every boy who swears, whose eye 

 rests on these pages, imagine that it is some 

 lady in his neighborhood that is writing to 

 me in regard to it. A great many boys are 

 constantly asking me for places ; but for all 

 that, when I wanted a trusty boy a few days 

 ago to carry the money to and from the bank, 

 I had to look quite a little while before I 

 found one, among all the list of applicants, 

 whom I liked to entrust with such a posi- 

 tion. Do you think I would naturally pick 

 out one who swears, one who smokes, or, if 

 you please, one who lounges about the 

 streets and hitching-posts on the Sabbath, 

 while people are at church? 



