1877 



GLiSANINGS IN BEE CUL'irURiE. 



23 



(kir f ( 



'EXtEPT YE UKCOME AS LITTLE ClIILDKEN— '' 



MOTHER one morning gave her two littlo ones 

 books and toya to ahnise them while eho went 

 upstarr? t ) httend to something. \ half hour 

 iiHsscd quletlj- away, and liieh one ol' the little ones 

 went to tiie foot of the stairs, and in a timid voice 

 called out, "Mama, are yoa there ?" 



"Yes, darling." 



■All right,"' said the little one, ami went oi\ with 

 iier play. By and by the question was repealed. "Ma- 

 ma are you there ?" 



••i'es, dArling."^ 



"AH right,'' said the child again, and once more 

 went on with her play. And this is just the way we 

 "'Uoiild feel towards Jesus. He has gone upstairs, to 

 Ihe right liand of God, to attend to some things for ns. 

 he has left us down in this lower rocm of this world 

 to be occupied hero fot a while.^ But to keep us frotn 

 being worried by fear or care, He speaks to us from 

 ills word, as that mother spoke to her little ones. He 

 •iays to us, "1b\'ar not : lam with thee. I will never 

 leave thee, nor forsake thee." "Jchova-Jireh, the 

 i.ord will provide." 



And so we see how certain it is that God does pto- 

 vide relief in tiouble for those who love and serve 

 him.— Svndag School W'oWrf.— Sept.. lsi7«. 



Are there those among our readers who 

 A-bulcl coiisi'der such a ftiith f.-liild-like ? and 

 bordering oii superstition to suppose that 

 some unseen power for good were hovering 

 over us, aiid ready to strengthen us in all 

 *4O0d iinpulses and resolutionsV Perhaps I 

 rau so exphiiti it as not to seem so very vis- 

 ionary aftcl- all. But a few months ago, I was 

 •struggling in vain, to free myself from habits 

 liiat I cbitld but admit ih my better momients 

 were fast making ine worse instead of better ; 

 were makiug me selfish, overbearing, sullen^ 

 impatient, and unhappy; and w^re slowly but 

 .-^urely, chasing away all vestige of the pleas- 

 ant sunshiny smile that seemed so peculiarly 

 TO belong to me in my childhood, and that had 

 many times enabled me to cheer up others, 

 when amid trials and troubles. Perhaps a lit- 

 tle prosjxrity had something to do with this, 

 :tad it may Ix; that I was getting too great an 

 idea of my own importance ; an idea that I 

 could not be expected to wast<! my valuable 

 time in fussing with everybody's wants and 

 wishes, all for nothing. What do you think 

 of such an individual, dear friends, when you 

 come across them V Well, I used to think just 

 so of myself, when in my lx;tter moods, I got a 

 luir view of the "chap" that usually, selflsh- 

 uess prevented my seeing at all. 



"Look here old fellow ! Do you sec what 

 a, fool you are making of yourself V Why can 

 you not be decent V" And in sober moments 

 when no temptation was near, I made huge 

 resolves that 1 would be a perfect model of all 

 that was good and lovable, but perhaps before 

 t»ue hour had passed I would find that all 

 these resolutions had been swept away like 

 cobwebs across the path, by some sudden 

 temptation, and in despair I drifted on until 

 some view of better things again awakened 

 aHi'W the desire to be better Hiyself, and to 

 hi'lii make the world better. 

 Now our friends in our prayer meetings 



would explain the matter very readily by say- 

 ing that I failed, because T relied on my own 

 strength alone ; but to others, this kind of 

 reasoning does not seem very logical ; to the 

 latter, I would speak, for I feel that every thing 

 about the Christian religion, has a clear and 

 lucid explanation. My attempts were without 

 any very clear idea of the change that would 

 have to be made to bring a man bf middle, 

 age back to the innocency of i^hildhood : I fear 

 that I had but a small idea of the amount 

 of sacrifice needed, and of the reg- 

 ular breaking up one has to go through with 

 to "become a new being." An intemperate 

 man may break away from his cup all at once, 

 and he may remain firm all the rest of his life, 

 but i never heard of a human being who sud- 

 denly broke away from dU his bad habits and 

 became, a different man, unless it was by ta- 

 king that beaten track, the Bible as his 

 guide. 



Did you ever feel that your door yard need- 

 ed slicking up, and that' you really must "get 

 at it," but after you started, you found each 

 individual thing was not sO very bad after all, 

 and perhaps after fussing with it a little, you 

 finally left it in almost the same condition as 

 before? As days pass along, you lament that 

 it is such a disagreeable and untidy place, but 

 you have tried several times to better it, and 

 it did no good. A kind friend conies along, 

 .and shows you a picture of k yarc^ with ^ 

 beautiful grassy lawn, nice , trees and every 

 thing in sifch perfect order, that you exclaim, 

 "Oh that I c(ndd have such an one ! wha,t 

 would I give." Suppose he tells you that you 

 can have just that exactly, and, without cost- 

 ing you any money at all, if you will just work. 

 What is to'hinder V Suppose he tells you that 

 he has plenty of time, and would really like to 

 help you do it. Under his direction and kind 

 advice, you take off your coat and go to work, 

 and are told that all old things must be cleared 

 away, eten to the very grass under your feet. 

 As the old crooked and ungainly trees are 

 rooted out, and as one thing after another that 

 you felt you could not spare are cleared away, 

 you may feel now and then that it is a sore 

 trial, but after you have fully decided on it, 

 and as the new" begins to come out in its puri- 

 ty and beauty, you can then indeed begin to 

 feel "My yoke it is easy, and my burden 

 it is light." 



Now is all this peace and beauty going to 

 remain thus without further effort on the part 

 of the owner ? By no means, for just as surely 

 as you sit down v/ith folded hands, just so 

 surely will it all run to waste, and the old or- 

 der of things will come back. Is it not better 

 that it is so ? We are only contented wheu 

 we are busy, and happiest when we have some- 

 thing to accomplish. Unless we are pushing 

 ahead in s-ome direction, we are very sure to 

 be slipping back. Our yard — or garden per- 

 haps we might call it — is all in nice and beau- 

 tiful order ; old offensive things are all cleared 

 away — all forgiven — and we are left in charge, 

 and expected to keep all neat and tidy. Ala3, 

 we are but human, and with all this fresh new 

 start, perhaps we would never amount to any 

 thing at all, were not this same kind friend 

 still near, and ready to advise or direct the 

 work, for each day. Furthermore, He never 



