THE STING OF THE HONEY-BEE. 635 



mystery of existence as now I find it — at such times I shall ever feel it impos- 

 sible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible.' 



It is well that Churchmen should be aware of this state of things ; 

 and especially that the clergy, when they are tempted to have their 

 fling (secure from all reply) against the so-called " infidel," should bear 

 in mind how often the bravery of defiant arrogance is a mere mask to 

 cover a sinking heart. For pity's sake, therefore, as well as for their 

 own sake, the clergy should guard against two gross but common mis- 

 takes : 1. The mistake of abusing modern science, and depreciating its 

 imquestiouable difficulties in relation to the established theology ; 2. 

 The still more fatal blunder of trustina^ to worn-out tactics and to the 

 " artillery " of Jonathan and David for the reduction of these modern 

 earthworks. " To the Greeks became I as a Greek," said St. Paul. 

 And so must the minister of Christ in these days make up his mind to 

 bring home the gospel to his own countrymen, with all their faults and 

 peculiarities ; and to the Englishmen of the nineteenth century must 

 become an Englishman of the nineteenth century, that he " may by all 

 means save some." 



But no success will be obtained, unless Churchmen will remember 

 that the vast domains recently conquered by science are (practically 

 speaking) assured and certain conquests. They are no encroachment, 

 but a rightful " revindication " of scientific territory. And, accepted 

 in a friendly spirit, harmonized with skill and boldness, and consecrated 

 (not cursed) in the Master's name, they bid fair to become a new realm 

 whereon his peace-bringing banner may be right royally unfolded, and 

 where, even in our own day, the beginning of a permanent unity may 

 certainly be effected. And this must be attempted by a brave and tell- 

 ing proclamation of the great Christian doctrines — that the awful self- 

 existent " I AM " is none other than " our Father in heaven " ; that 

 Christ, the blameless Son of man, is the best image of his person ; and 

 that his pure Spirit, brooding over the turbid chaos of human society, 

 offers the surest means and pledge of a future Cosmos, where " life " 

 may perhaps transcend these baffling veils of space and time, and, in 

 forms " undreamed of by our philosophy," display the boundless riches 

 of nature and of God. — Contemporary Heview. 



THE STING OF THE HONEY-BEE.^ 



PERHAPS there is no object more common in the cabinets of mi- 

 croscopists than mounted specimens of bee-stings. Almost every 

 popular work on the microscope describes and figures them, but it is 



- Pbysicus, "On Tbeism," pp. 51, 63, 114. 



* Abstract from a paper, by J. D. Hyatt, in the " American Quarterly Microscopical 

 Journal," October, 1878. 



