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CHW03D ENCMED NO O 





He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.— Luke 16:10.. 



JMMA, 



Vol. II. 



AUG., 1883. 



No. 5. 



MYSEIiF AND MY NEIGHBORS. 



WHO IS MT NEIGHBOR?— LUKE 10: 29. 



Every one that asketh receiveth: and he that seeketh find- 

 eth; and to him that knoiketh it sliall be opened.— Matt. 7: 8. 



T must be eight or ten years ago, chil- 

 dren, when I first conchided, after a 

 good deal of faithful deliberation, that 

 I wanted to be a Christian ; or, at least, I de- 

 cided that I wanted to be with Christians, 

 and on the side of Christianity. I remem- 

 ber one Sunday afternoon especially, when 

 my thoughts were first turned quite forcibly 

 in that direction. The circumstances were 

 something like this : 



One of our townsmen had a cider-mill, and 

 he made cider. I kept bees, you know, and 

 the bees made honey, or gathered it for me, 

 to be precise about it. Well, every fall I 

 had trouble when he made sweet cider; the 

 bees would come and stand on his " cheese," 

 and suck up the sweet cider as fast as he 

 could squieeze it out. In fact, they seemed 

 to think that he squeezed it out on purpose 

 for them. And finally my Italians came in 

 such droves, that, when he turned on the 

 screws to the press, they took every bit of 

 the juice that was squeezed out, and he did 

 not have any at all to run into the tub. Aft- 

 er a good deal of hard talk about it, I decid- 

 ed to move my bees away until cold weath- 

 er. So I hired a man with a team, and, aft- 

 er a great deal of fuss, we loaded them up 

 and started off. I did not feel very happy 



about it, because I took them away under 

 protest ; and at that time I was not asking 

 God about all these things, and asking him 

 to tell me what was the best thing to do. It 

 rained that afternoon ; and after we set 

 them down in the field, off by a dreary-look- 

 ing swamp, I felt rather sad and homesick. 

 As it was pretty well along in the fall, the 

 rain cleared off, and we had a frost that 

 night, thus killing the flowers in the swamp, 

 so that my bees were away from home, with 

 no one to care for them, and no prospect of 

 any honey being gathered. This was Satur- 

 day night. As I was not a church-going 

 man, of course I went off to look after my 

 bees on Sunday. To save expenses, I went 

 on horseback, for I did not have any horse 

 of my own ; and as I expected to overhaul 

 the hives, I went in my every-day clothes. 

 As I neared the bees, well-dressed and intel- 

 ligent-looking people stared at me as I pass- 

 ed them, to see me in my every-day clothes, 

 so far away from home on the Sabbath. 



I had a dismal day with the bees, and 

 started back just in time to pass the people 

 again on their way home from church. Then 

 the question came up in my mind. Was I do- 

 ing right to be thus attending to my week- 

 day duties on the Sabbath ? Was I satisfied 

 that the public at large should class me as 

 one who had no respect for God's holy day V 

 I felt a good deal troubled. I wanted to be 

 considered on the side of all good people ; 

 and I remember, as I rode home that Sun- 



