1883 



(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



333 



you ever get discouraged ? A Christian 

 ought not to get discouraged, for this is 

 God's part of it. Your part is to do hope- 

 fully the best you can with the world 

 as you liQd it. It is bad to get into a fault- 

 flading way with the world. It is bad to 

 find fault with such friends as God has given 

 you ; with your neighbors and surroundings. 

 Do you not know you can cultivate a way 

 of objecting to every thing you meet V And 

 then you can also cultivate^i way of receiving, 

 pleasantly and thankfully, every thing you 

 meet. I "think I shall have to tell you a lit- 

 tle story here. I may Imve told it before, 

 but it will bear telling again, and perhaps I 

 shall tell it a good many times before I die. 

 It is this: Two men were just about stop- 

 ping work for the night. One of them said 

 he must hurry home, or his wife would scold 

 him, because he had kept supper waiting. 

 The other remarked, as he passed along, 

 that he never heard his wife scold, and that 

 he would like to hear her, just for the novel- 

 ty of the thing. Said his neighbor, — 



" You would like to liear her scold, would 

 youV Well. I can tell you how. Just get 

 her a load of crooked wood. Nothing in the 

 world will make my wife scold so as crooked 

 wood." 



Said the other, " Well, I believe I will try 

 it, just for the fun of it." 



Accordingly, when he was sorting his next 

 wool, he took pains to procure a load of 

 crooked sticks. In fact, he picked out the 

 worst-shaped wood he could lind, andquietly 

 laid it in the usual place, saying nothing, 

 but awaiting the result. Nothing was said, 

 however, until the wood was nearly used up, 

 when his wife said pleasantly, one evening, — 



" Husband, our wood is almost gone; and 

 if you have any more like the last. I should 

 really like it — the crooked sticks Jit around 

 the pots and kettles so nicely.'''' 



Do you get the idea, friends V God is 

 sending you wood, or material foryourwork, 

 if you choose. He sends you friends, neigh- 

 bors, and companions and helpers, and you 

 can look at them as "crooked sticks," if 

 you like. I wonder if any one ever did have 

 the temptation to think God had put him 

 into the world among a lot of crooked people. 

 Do you feel that way, my friends V If you 

 do, I am inclined to think it was Satan who 

 whispered such thoughts into your ear. 

 Don't ever let them come again. Think, 

 rather, that what you see that looks crooked, 

 God sent in his wise providence to be a help 

 to you, if you will only take it so. Take the 

 crooked sticks and use them as best you 

 can, and they will help you on in your worlc 

 to build a Christian character. Y'ou will be 

 better off for having had the crooked and 

 rugged paths to walk in ; and possibly God 

 has given you a faculty for making straight 

 much of the crookedness you lind, if you set 

 about it with a prayer to him to help you. 

 Think how that good woman took the load 

 of crooked wood. I think she must have 

 been a Christion — don't you think so V I 

 suppose she looked on that load of crooked 

 wood smilingly, at the outset. She knew 

 her husband brought it, and she knew, too, 

 that he loved her as no one else loved her 

 in this world, and therefore it must be right 



for her to have it. With the assurance of 

 his love in her heart, she accepted the wood, 

 even though it was diiferent from any she 

 had ever had before, and it proved a blessing. 

 In the same way we are to bear in mind 

 that it is a kind Father who loves us, who 

 gave us these trials. I'ou know how diifer- 

 ently we look at things at different times, 

 friends. Different people, also, have differ- 

 ent ways of looking at things. Some are 

 always pleased, and others are always dis- 

 pleased. Which class do you belong to? 

 0£ course, you know I don't mean that we 

 should let everything p iss just as we tind it; 

 for the great bittle in life is to make right 

 the things that arc wrong. Wrong meets us 

 at every step. Sin and evil meet us every- 

 where. We hear piofanity on the streets. 

 While it is a grievous sin in the sight of God, 

 yet it is so ; and while the sound of it calls on 

 us loudly to wake up and stir ourselves in 

 the cause of Christianity and rigcht, yet we 

 may be the better Chrisiians for having met 

 these trials. The elf ort it costs us to reprove 

 the one who takes God's name in vain (in a 

 way that will make him a friend of ours, 

 and not an enemy) brings with it a blessing. 

 Did you ever try it, my friends V and have 

 you never learned that even the worst blas- 

 phemer may be reached in such a way as to 

 induce him to do better (if not cease entirely) 

 if you go about it in the right way? Many 

 and many a time have I felt that I should 

 like to be spared from such encounters. I 

 have felt that it would be such a privilege, if 

 I could be in a community where there was 

 no swearing or intemperance ; yet if there 

 were such communities, would it be best for 

 all the Christian people to move there ? 

 What would become of the world ? What 

 would become of the boys on the street, were 

 there no one near or on hand to reprove and 

 plead with them ? How does it come, think 

 you, that Christian people are scattered so 

 evenly over our land ? Take a look abroad 

 at the world. There is not a neighborhood 

 or a community that does not contain some 

 good earnest Christian. Here and there 

 they are sprinkled over, as if God, in his 

 providence, had purposely placed them there, 

 for a kind of light-house, as it were, to give 

 warning, and to encourage and lend a help- 

 ing hand to others who are striving for right. 

 Is this all accidental, think you ? Suppose 

 it were otherwise. What would the world 

 be, if each of these old " wheel-horses " in 

 the cause of Christ should give up in dis- 

 couragement, and move away ? Suppose 

 they should want to get out of the world, 

 instead of living in it. A few months ago I 

 had quite a talk with you about those who 

 wanted to get out of the world, or who 

 slipped off life with its cares and trials and 

 responsibilities. What do you think of 

 such? Is it not a pleasant thought, friends, 

 that Jesus prayed that we should not be 

 taken out of the world ? And is it not a 

 wicked thought for us to cherish any linger- 

 ing desires to leave the world, and leave the 

 place of usefulness where God has placed us, 

 before he is ready ? 



Of course, we are not to sit still in the 

 world, and let it go. There would be no vir- 

 tue in that. We are to be as watchmen, as 



