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GLEANINGS m BEE CULTUEE. 



469 



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Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 

 righteousness: for they shall be filled.— Matt. 5: 6. 



FEW days ago I was passing along 

 the street, on my way to our young 

 people's prayer-meeting. Many trials 

 had come during the day, and I had not met 

 them all as I felt that a follower of Christ 

 should have done. Some things had been 

 neglected and some forgotten that it seemed 

 to me I had no business to forget or neglect. 

 All together, I had a rather sad sort of feel- 

 ing that I was not doing very much for the 

 Master in any way. As I reviewed events, 

 and my busy, tangled-up life, as it seemed 

 to be, I was wondering if there were any 

 good thing about me at all. I began search- 

 ing, in my thoughts, of course, for some 

 comforting Scripture texts — some places of 

 solid rock on which I could fix my feet. Do 

 you remember in the Pilgrim's Progress 

 where Evangelist told Christian there are 

 steps made through the Slough of Despond V 

 And we are told afterward that these steps 

 are God's promises. Christian and his com- 

 panion Pliable blundered into this slough, 

 and got daubed with mud, because they did 

 not look lor the steps ; and these steps are 

 Scripture texts — not only for our comfort, 

 but for our safety in treading the straight 

 and narrow path. 



Well, that evening I was somewhat in the 

 Slough of Despond, and I felt instinctively 

 that the trouble was, I had neglected the 

 steps. I tried several, but they did not seem 

 to give much comfort or satisfaction until I 

 struck on the one at the head of our talk to- 

 day —" Blessed are they which do hunger 

 and thirst after righteousness : for they 

 shall be filled." That answered it surely. I 

 do hunger and thirst after righteousness, 

 God knows ; and that, too, every hour of my 

 life. Whatever sins may lie at my feet, I do 

 not know that I can remember a time when 

 I did not love righteousness ; when the sight 

 of it did not give me real, true, honest plea- 

 sure — the most abiding pleasure, in fact, 

 that this world gives. Hungering and thirst- 

 ing after righteousness ! who but our Savior 

 could have thought to put so much in a few 

 words ? There are many things we want in 

 this world ; but who is there who wants it 

 in such real truth as one who hungers and 

 thirsts V Sometimes people do not seem to 

 see the sad need of righteousness in their 

 own hearts, but they almost always see the 

 need of it in others, i^ven when humanity 

 is at its lowest ebb, it looks out upon the 

 world lamenting the sad need of rigbteous- 

 ness. 



What is righteousness, friends V Is it 

 God's law ? Do you remember what David 

 says in that first Psalm about those whose 

 delight is in the "law of the Lord," and 

 those who meditate on it both day and 

 night y And then, again, away over in that 

 long Psalm, do you remember that little 

 verse," Great peace have they which love thy 

 law "V Well, friends, I want to tell you a 

 little incident to illustrate some of my trials 

 while hungering and thirsting after right- 



eousness, and to illustrate, also, a fulfillment 

 of the little text before us to-day. 



Perhaps a half a year ago a man came to 

 me, asking for employment. I told him I 

 had nothing on hand then, but would con- 

 sider the matter, and see what I could do 

 for him, or something to that effect. Not 

 long afterward I saw him with a great long 

 pipe in his mouth ; and feeling that, if I 

 should employ him, it would only bring up 

 a discussion on that old tobacco question, I 

 mentally concluded it would be best, perhaps, 

 not to engage him. I tell you, friends, I do 

 have trials and discouragements in giving 

 places to those who are strongly addicted to 

 tobacco. (Jf course, they promise to give it 

 up ; but the temptation too often overpow- 

 ei s their sense of honor, and then I am ac- 

 cused of using my facilities for giving em- 

 ployment to so many, just to make hypocrites 

 of them, or to induce them to tell falsehoods. 

 Finally this same fiiend came to me and de- 

 manded why 1 had engaged others, and had 

 found no work for him. I told him it was 

 his pipe and tobacco that discouraged me; 

 and I told him, too, that I feared he would 

 not like to give it up just for the sake of 

 having work; therefore I had not given 

 him employment. Ilis reply was, that he ex- 

 pected to conform to the rules of our estab- 

 lishment, and not use any tobacco around 

 the factory, or during working hours. Of 

 course, I explained to him that this was not 

 the rule of our establishment, and that I did 

 not hire people with that understanding. 

 He argued, as so many others do, that he 

 expected to do as well as the rest did, and 

 that part of my boys used tobacco habitually 

 when otf from my premises. A discussion 

 followed in regard to my right to dictate to 

 my hands what they should do outside of 

 working hours. I asked him if he would 

 not concede to me the privilege of employ- 

 ing whom I chose. While he assented to 

 this, he criticised my way of doing things 

 pretty severely, perhaps, and I so far forgot 

 one other of my favorite stepping-stones as 

 to talk back a little harshly. Do you want 

 to know what this other stepping-stone is, 

 dear reader? It is, "Not by might nor by 

 power, but by my Spirit." 



After he went away, conscience began 

 telling me that the conversation had closed 

 with something else uppermost than " my 

 Spirit " — than the Spirit of my Lord and 

 Master. I felt uneasy, and went back to 

 where I left him, but he was gone. I 

 made inquiry for him ; and a good brother, 

 overhearing me, told him next day that I 

 wanted to see him. I did not quite mean to 

 have him do this ; but next day he came 

 down, quite a little piece from here, and said 

 he was told I wanted to see him. What 

 should I say now V I told him I felt sorry 

 that the spirit I had shown toward him had 

 not been a better one ; and we pleasantly 

 began again the discussion of tobacco. He 

 said that he had used it all his life, and it 

 would be a hard matter indeed for him to 

 give it up entirely. During the conversa- 

 tion I asked him, while thinking of this 

 struggle with a strong appetite, if he had 

 ever been a professor of religion. He replied 

 very quietly, and I thought, rather sadly, 



