1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUBE. 



471 



went up from many and many a heart for 

 God's blessing for him who had spolien. A 

 blessing had Indeed come to our meeting, 

 and a general hand-shaking took i)lace after 

 the meeting had closed. Our sister's prayei's 

 Were answered. " iJlessed are they which 

 do hunger and thirst after righteousness : 

 for they shall be filled." V/e had been hun- 

 gering and thirsting, and the promise had 

 come. 



Now, friends, do not make a mistake here. 

 Of course, I can not say positively that this 

 man will renounce his unbelief, and be a 

 consistent Christian from now on ; but I 

 think he will. If he holds on to that strong 

 Arm, there will be no trouble, for one of our 

 best stepping-stones is God's promise — 

 " Ilim that cometli unto me, I will in no 

 wise cast out." 



I wish to call attention to two points 

 brought out in this experience : First, the 

 backwardness of professing Christians to 

 talk with others on the subject of religion. 

 Our friend said that, during the four or live 

 years he had been a resident of the State of 

 Ohio, he could not remember that any one 

 before had talked with him in regard to the 

 salvation of his soul ; in all this time, no one 

 had asked liim the simple little question, 

 "■ xlre you a Christian ?" Perhaps 1 should 

 not have done so, if the thought had not 

 come into my mind that, if he only had faith 

 to ask God's help, the matter of breaking off 

 from tobacco would be easy. I asked him, a 

 little time ago, how he got along with tobac- 

 co, fie looked up with a bright, honest look, 

 and, dear friends, it was a pleasant, happy 

 smile, too, as he replied, " Why, I do not 

 have any trouble with it at all." One other 

 morning he quietly remarked as he passed 

 me, " Mr. Root, I dreamed of smoking my 

 pipe last night." 



"• Did you V well, how did it seem?" 



" Why, I dreamed it made me sick," said 

 he, with a good-natured laugh. There you 

 have it friends ; when God's love lills the 

 heart, these old appetites are crowded out, 

 and are easily conquered. " And the truth 

 shall make you free." 



Now my other point : He laid consider- 

 able emphasis on the point of his feeling re- 

 buked at the utter llimsiness of any excuse 

 he could offer in answering the question, 

 " Then why are you not a Christian nowV" 

 Is there any one whose eyes are resting on 

 these pages who has been a professor of re- 

 ligion, and who knows the comforts of a 

 faith in Christ V If so, I ask you , dear friend, 

 to answer in your own heart, why are you 

 not a professor of religion still ? Can any 

 excuse be offered that is not a flimsy one ? 

 Is there any reason to be found in the whole 

 universe for ceasing to stand up for Christ 

 and righteousness after you have once thus 

 stood up ? Who hungered and thirsted 

 after righteousness, more than any one that 

 ever lived ? Who is it that, even in his child- 

 hood, showed such a depth of longing and 

 craving to see righteousness in the hearts of 

 men V Who but our Lord and Savior, our 

 JVIaster and Redeemer, was it that gave his 

 whole life toward reproving sin and wrong 

 and deceit, and to holding up righteousness V 

 If you take the gospels, and study the life of 



Christ, how quickly will you see where his 

 whole heart and soul lay ! "■ Blessed are the 

 pure in heart," said he to the multitude, and 

 then gave them a promise, " for they shall 

 see God." Suppose, dear friends, you should 

 put it this way : " I once hungered and 

 thirsted after righteousness ; but I do not 

 any more ; I gave it all up because some- 

 thing happened." How would that sound V 

 Or suppose you say, " I once tried daily to 

 be pure in heart, but I gave it up after a 

 while. It was all foolishness and imagina- 

 tion." What do you think of such reasoning V 



Why, it is awful ; to be sure, it is. Now, 

 to be a Christian is to be a follower of Christ. 

 To be a Christian is to hunger and thirst 

 after righteousness. J'erhaps the greatest 

 number of excuses is the inconsistencies of 

 Christians. Suppose you give, as a reason 

 for not caring any more for righteousness, 

 or for not striving any more for being pure 

 in heart, that nobody else does. If all the 

 world should give up righteousness and 

 purity of heart, and turn to wickedness, 

 would there be any comfort in your doing so V 



We all feel our unworthiness. Every one 

 who stands up in meeting for the cause of 

 Christ feels, as he never felt before, his 

 inconsistency, for his life falls so far short 

 of what it should be. It is well that it is so. 

 There is nothing in this world that I know 

 of that keeps a man in the straight and nar- 

 row path, like confessing Christ before the 

 world, or like saying publicly, "I am hun- 

 gering and thirsting after righteousness." 

 The success of the Tobacco Column, that is 

 doing so much good, is owing to the fact 

 that each one who promises to give it up 

 makes a public promise before the world. 

 His wife and children read, what he has put 

 down in his own handwriting. It was well 

 that he wrote to me when he promised to 

 use no more tobacco. IJis wife and children 

 read it, his friends and neighbors read it ; 

 they say, " There, Jim has promised not to 

 smoke any more. It is right down in print. 

 If people see him, they will talk about it, 

 and they will all report him." The truth is, 

 friends, he dare not smoke. If he has more 

 respect for the eyes of the world than he has 

 for his own sense of honor, he might go off 

 in the woods and smoke ; but God would see 

 him there. He knows it, and he believes in 

 God. All men do. Now, mind you, I am 

 not holding up tobacco as a great sin. That 

 is not what we are discussing. It is break- 

 ing one's promise that is the great sin. You 

 can not say that he is in bondage, because 

 he voluntarily made the promise; he pro- 

 posed to give up tobacco of his own accord ; 

 and perhaps he knew, poor fellow, that it 

 would help him carry it out, if once that pro- 

 mise were in public print; and maybe the 

 sight of that innocent little smoker would be 

 a help, too, when the battle was a hard one. 

 May God help you all, my friends. 



Now, then, let us drop tobacco. One who 

 stands up in prayer-meeting, as did our 

 friend, and asks the prayers of (Christian 

 people, has publicly avowed himself on the 

 cause of right. They all heard him speak 

 of his new resolution ; they heard him say, 

 too, that he was hungering and thirsting aft- 

 er righteousness. Those who attended the 



