1056 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTbRK. 



Dkc. 15 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A. L ROOT. 



Dear readers of Gleanings, I have some 

 good news for you — yes, something that is 

 worth more than honey or money or world- 

 I3' possessions or any thing else. I am not 

 exactly sure that we shall a/l rejoice, but 

 I am sure we all ought to rejoice.* In the 

 first place, I got hold of a letter from Bro. 

 York, of the American Bee Journal, that he 

 did not expect would ever be printed. I do 

 not know but he will scold a little when he 

 finds I have put it in Gleanings; but when 

 he sees the good that is coming from it, I 

 am sure he will saj' his old friend A. I. 

 Root was right after all; and I do not know 

 but it would be a pretty good idea for a lot 

 of us to have a little experience meeting, or 

 class meeting, as the Methodists call it, 

 and shout praises to God for his great and 

 wonderful blessings. The letter is as fol- 

 lows: • 



Dear Bro. Root:—\ must tell you that E. Whitcomb, 

 of Nebraska, has been soundly converted— tobacco and 

 all the lest cleaned out. He's praising the Lord, and 

 teaching a Sundav-'chool class. We ought to rejoice 

 that a n an like Whitcomb has yielded to the pleadings 

 of the Ho'y Spirit. 1 wish you would have him write 

 his experience for Gleanings. It is interesting— yes, 

 wonde ful— and might he p some other bee-keepers 

 who ought to follow the same course. All honor to 

 Bro. Whitcomb for taking this stand, and also for 

 erecting and maintaining a family altar. He is not a 

 man to be discouraged easily, so I know he will be 

 faithful and win his crown at last. 



1 ju--t thought Id write you about this, as perhaps 

 you didn't know it. It's too gcod to keep. 

 ^^^ Sincerely yours, George W. York. 



On receipt of the above letter-l- 1 immediate- 

 ly wrote to friend Whitcomb, telling him 

 that I especiall}' wanted something for the 

 Homes department of Gleanings, if it was 

 all true, and he felt like giving it. Now, 

 please do not imagine that Bro. Whitcomb 

 is a very bad man, from what has been 

 said. On the contrary, he has a wide cir- 

 cle of friends; has filled honorably many 

 very important places in the affairs of his 

 State, and, if I am not mistaken, in the af- 

 fairs of the nation. He occupied a very re- 

 sponsible position at the Omaha exposition, 

 and, I think, was also president of the 

 convention held there at that time. Few 

 men at the present time wield a more pow- 

 erful influence among the people than Bro. 

 Whitcomb. 



Now read the letter below; and may the 

 Holy Spirit bless the message that Bro. 



* In fact, the Bible tells us there is joy in the pres- 

 ence of the angels of God over such news as this Home 

 Paper contains. 



fDear friends, this footnote is supposed to be said to 

 you in Bro. York's absence. The editor of the Amert- 

 can Bee Journal may maiie mistakes; but after reading 

 the above confideiitial letter, can you not all agree 

 with me in saying that Bro. York means to do right? 

 He means to be fair and ju-t toward all; and may God 

 spare him and bless him in working on the pages of 

 the only weekly bee-journal in America. May God 

 bless him in his faithful efforts \ear after year, month 

 after month, and week after week as he works for the 

 best interests and good of us all. 



Whitcomb seems glad to bring to us 

 each and all; for it is the finger of God that 

 has done this, and not the work of man. 



Dear Brother Root: — Yours ot the 21st received, and 

 in reply 1 will say that, bless the Lord, the news you 

 have received at Roolville was true; yes, better than 

 that. I bear within my heart the witness of the Holy 

 Spirit that I am my Lord's and he is mine. I should 

 fall very short of my duty at this time were I to fail to 

 bear testimony of his loving kindness in this matter. 

 Wnile I am feeling sad over the fact that almost a life- 

 time, crow'ded with splendid opportunities, has been 

 lost for God, yet I have before rue the parable of the 

 man who came at the eleventh hour, who also received 

 his penny; and I am determined at this time, as God 

 has been so very good to me, and inasmuch as I am at 

 this time in penect health, without an ache or a pain, 

 that 1 will do what I can to compensate for the time 

 which has in a measure been worse than wasted 



I bl ss God this morning that 1 had a praying mrth- 

 er whose prayers have followed me all through life; 

 and I ble^s God for the praying mothers of America. 



My conversion catne aboiit in this way: The Olivers 

 were holding a series of meetings at this place, and in 

 compmy with a sixteen-year old adopted daughter I 

 attended, mote out of curiosity than otherwise. We 

 had been quitting the meetings as soon as the preach- 

 ing was done; but one evening as we passed out of the 

 tent and down the sidewalk the choir began to sing 

 that familiar hymn. 



Just as I am, without one plea. 

 But that thy blood was shed for me. 



I had heard this hymn hundreds of times. I heard 

 but the>e two lines on this ccca.--ion; but they sank 

 deep into ray heart, atid something kept repeating 

 them to me all the way home; and duiiug the night 

 that followed whenever I a*oke, and that was possi- 

 bly a hundred times, these two lines were ringitig in 

 my ears, and continued to. until I got ( own on my 

 knees befoe God and prayed. " O Lord, be merciful to 

 me a sinner." Oh how abundantly God did bless me 

 when I uttered this prayer of the publican ! I have re- 

 peated it many times since, and received God's blessing 

 as frequently as I have uttered it. 



And. again, I have another thing to be thankful for. 

 Preparing myself fo God I have left off the use of to- 

 bacco, which! had used faithfully for fifty years, and 

 a great deal of the time used as much as a pound a 

 week. O my dear brother, I have so very many things 

 to be thankful for that I do not know where to begin 

 to enumerate them. God knows the desires of our 

 hearts, and he will be able to sort them all out in his 

 own good time. I have gone into harness, and am 

 teaching one of the most interesting bible-classes here 

 in Friend that I have ever been connected with; and 

 in the s udy of these lessons, in explaining them, God 

 has greatly blessed not only myself, but there frequent- 

 1} comes up from this interesting class a fervent 

 "amen." Oh what a char.icter David was! Hovp near 

 he seemed to get to God! and when he had sinned 

 against God and his fellow man he did not do as m -ny 

 have since done, get as far away from God as po-sible, 

 and go on committing other and greater sins, but he 

 got right down before God and asked his forgiveness. 

 And how willingly God has responded to his supplica- 

 tions! Here is a character which in many ways is 

 worthy of emulation. David possibly did not have the 

 Christian light and influence that we have in our day 

 and age. This was many years before our plan of sal- 

 vation had been worked out through our Lord and Sa- 

 vior Jesus Christ, and David possibly did not live in 

 the light that we now have. And the Bible — what a 

 wonderful book it is, as revealed 10 me under this new 

 light and the blessings of God! How it is filled with 

 blessed promises! and how prominent these promises 

 stand out! and how many new things we are able to 

 discover in them as we peruse them over and over 

 again! and I ble-s God that he does interpret his own 

 word to us whenever we get ourselves under the light 

 which he has shed thereon. 



"While I pray Gcd that he baptize my heart with the 

 Holy Ghost, and feel that he from day to day is ans- 

 wering mv prayers, often with the measure running 

 over, yet I beg an interest in your prayers as well as 

 in the prayers of all professed Christians, that I may 

 ever be faithful. 



By thi-i time you are doubtless asking what became 

 of the daughter. She has not been found wanting, 

 and we bow together daily around the family altar, 

 and our names are inscfibt d side by side upon the 

 church-roll. There are yet otl ers who are near and 

 dear to us who are out of Christ; but as God does hear 



