1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1451 



ItOMLS 



6yA.LROOT 



He which coDverteth the sinner from the error of 

 his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a 

 multitude of sins.— James 5 : 20. 



Cast thy bread upon the waters ; for thou shalt find 

 it after many days.— Ecc. 11 : 1. 



In our issue for Aug. 1, 1905, I told you 

 about meeting a boy in our county jail, who, 

 although seventeen years of age, could nei- 

 ther read nor write ISome of you may re- 

 member about it. His name was Kansom 

 G. Murray, and the title of that Home paper 

 was, "Out of the Jail into the Prayer- 

 meeting." Over two years have passed, and 

 I have been so busy with other cares, and a 

 good deal of the time with other boys, that I 

 had almost forgotten about Ransom. A few 

 days ago. however, my oldest grandson, who 

 is now himself nearly seventeen years of 

 age, said to me something like this: 



"Grandpa, do you believe it is worth 

 while to spend as much time as you do with 

 some of the boys, say Ransom Murray, for 

 instance? He did not turn out very well 

 after all, did he? " 



" Why, Lei and, it is not proper for me to 

 get discouraged, even if the boys do not all 

 turn out as well as I should like to have 

 them. My duty is to lend a helping hand 

 and do the best I can with them, and trust 

 (iod for the result. What brought Ransom 

 Murray to your mind just now? " 



"Oh! nothing particularly, only he did 

 not turn out very well, did he? He never 

 united with our church, and then he finally 

 ran away, and nobody knows what became 

 of him " 



"Yes, Leland, it is true he did not unite 

 with our church; but I never felt much dis- 

 couraged about that. He did unite with one 

 of the other churches in our town ; and, for 

 any thing I know to the contrary, he did 

 nothing particularly out of the way for a 

 church-member. ' ' 



"But he ran away, didn't he?" 



"Yes, he ran away — or at least he went 

 away without saying a word to anybody, 

 and his friends were all greatly worried 

 about him for quite a spell; but when he left 

 us so suddenly he was not in debt anywhere. 

 His board- bill and all others were paid up, 

 and he did not even draw the wages that 

 were coming to him. He did not even take 

 away his trunk and clothing Some time 

 afterward he wrote from Chicago, and asked 

 one of his friends to get his pay and pack up 

 his clothing, etc., and forward it. This was 

 done, and we have heard nothing from him 

 since. In regard to his uniting with some 

 other church than ours, I am rather glad he 

 did. Let me tell you a little story. A great 

 preacher was once going along the streets 

 and took an intoxicated man by the hand 



and lifted him out of the gutter. When he 

 roused up enough to talk he said, 'Why, 

 parson, don't you know we? I was one of 

 your converts last winter.' 'Yes,' replied 

 the minister, 'I think you must have been 

 one of my converts ; for if you had been 

 converted to the Lord Jesus Christ you nev- 

 er wt)uld have got back into such a predica- 

 ment as this in so short a time.' Now, Le- 

 land, if Ransom had followed me and united 

 with our church I might have feared, as £ 

 often do, that the step was taken more to 

 please me, the one who had befriended him, 

 than because he truly felt he was 'born 

 again.' When I learned, while in Florida, 

 that he was going to another church, and 

 had become a member of that church, I felt 

 rather pleased than otherwise. In regard to 

 leaving our employ in the abrupt way he 

 did, it is true he finally became dissatisfied 

 somewhat with the pay we were giving him; 

 but as our people felt that he was getting all 

 he was worth I suggested that he try work- 

 ing a while for somebody else. He did so, 

 buD did not stick to his job very long. Ran- 

 som had a peculiar disposition. He became 

 uneasy when he was doing reasonably well 

 and seemed to want to get out and see the 

 world. Well, instead of being discouraged I 

 expect to hear something good from the 

 boy, even yet. Leland, did you ever hear 

 the Bible text, ' Cast thy bread upon the wa- 

 ters for thou shalt find it after many days'?" 



He replied that he had. When asked if he 

 knew what it meant to cast bread upon the 

 waters he said he did not. Then I replied: 



"Well, it means that we who are follow- 

 ers of the Lord Jesus Christ should lend a 

 helping hand, right or left, doing good every 

 day as we have opportunity, without ques- 

 tioning whether it is going to pay or not. It 

 is our duty to do it. That is what the Bible 

 means where it speaks of casting our bread 

 upon the waters. Now I think you know 

 what the latter part of the text means with- 

 out my explaining it, do you not? " 



"Why, I suppose that it means that some 

 time after — may be a long time afterward— 

 you will find out or hear from somebody that 

 what you did amounts to something after all. 

 But do you expect to hear from Ransom? " 



" Yes, I hope to hear something good from 

 him. And since you have reminded me of 

 him I will try to remember to pray oftener 

 for him as well as for these other boys I have 

 helped. But how do you come to know so 

 much about what I did for Ransom, any- 

 way? " 



"Why, grandpa, don't you remember? I 

 went with you one Sunday afternoon when 

 he was in jail, and I heard you talk to him 

 and to the rest of the boys in the jail." 



After the above conversation I did pray 

 for our young friend Ransom; but I am afraid 

 I did not pray with very much faith, after 

 ^1, for it was a great surprise when our 

 youngest daughter, in New York city, for- 

 warded us a letter she had received from 

 Ransom. Before giving you the letter, how- 

 ever, let me explain that when I told the 

 folks at home about Ransom, that he could 



