1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



145 



§m ihiim- 



And whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, 

 shall find It.— Matt. 30:25. 



M LADY once came from quite a dis- 

 J^^ taiice, to work with us in the apiary, 

 ' to learn bee culture. She was to as- 

 sist in the apiary, enough to pay for the 

 knowledge she obtained, so that she had the 

 freedom of the ai>iary, with few or no re- 

 strictions. She also "had entire charge of 

 perhaps lialf a dozen liives. After a few 

 weeks, it was mentioned to me that the boys 

 who worked in the apiary were not always 

 as accommodating and respectful to lier as 

 they should be. I felt sad to hear this, and 

 remonstrated with the boys. It seems this 

 did not entirely cure it, for the same friend 

 mentioned the matter to me again, and 

 asked me if I did not think it too bad that 

 she, a stranger, and a lady of culture, sliould 

 be so used. I assented ; "but as I had been 

 watching things a little, I. could not but feel 

 that the trouble was a little, at least, on both 

 sides. As I did not like to say this, I was 

 silent. After a little rellection, I replied in 

 substance as follows :— 



''My friend, you are a lady; you have 

 taught school, and had experience with boys 

 and men, and people in general. You know 

 the world pretty well, as we generally lind 

 it. Well, keeping this in view, suppose you 

 were to go out among the men in the fields, 

 for the purpose of studying up some branch 

 in agriculture; or, if you choose, suppose 

 you, a stranger, were to" come into a factory 

 like ours, or go out among a lot of boys like 

 ours, would you not expect,— nay, are you 

 not sure,— you could win their respect and 

 friendship, and kind treatment V 



She looked up with a sort of smile, and 

 replied, — 



"Why, yes, I think I could; in fact, it 

 seems to me I almost /yiiow I could." 



I knew she could too; and, my friends, 

 dare I say I know you could V I ask this 

 question, because it is in regard to winning 

 your way in the world by just; this same spirit 

 I have been talking about, that I wisli to 

 speak. Well, when this matter is presented 

 to one in trouble with somebody, or with the 

 world (it amounts to the same thing, for the 

 world is made up of people of whicli you 

 and I are a vmit), the hrst reply is, that they 

 are willing to accept any thing in the bounds 

 of reason, and you might quote tome that 

 forbearance sometimes ceases to be a virtue. 

 My friends, 1 suppose there are cases where 

 forbearance ceases to be a virtue ; but these 

 cases come so rarely in your life and mine, I 

 should advise i)ractically counting them out. 

 There is a kind of gambling by throwing 

 dice, where a gold watch is given to the one 

 who throws ten dice so that each one of the 

 ten has six spots up. The proprietor says, 

 and says truthfully, that it is possible to do 

 this and get the watch ; and thousands of 

 young men have wasted their time and 

 money in trying to throw ''No. 60;" but I 

 have never yet heard of one who did it. The 

 keeper knows by experience that his watch 

 is just about as safe on Xo. 00 as in his pock- 



et. A mathematician Avill work out for you, 

 by the rule of chances, that, if you throw 

 dice day after day, say for a year, you would 

 not be likely to hit No. GO. Well, I should 

 say the times when forbearance ceases to be 

 a virtue will be about as rare, especially if 

 you wish to lay claim to being a Christian. 



Are there any quarrels in your neighbor- 

 hood V did you ever know two Christian 

 people who couldn't agree V May be you 

 have in your life had a chance, once or 

 twice, to listen to the account of it from both 

 sides. If it is an old feud, each one has been 

 doing ever so much for tlie other for years 

 past, in a most self-sacriticing way. in cases 

 of such great number tliat it would make 

 quite a book to tell it all; and even then, 

 ever so much would have to be left out. 

 When you hear one man's story you say, at 

 intervals," Why, is it possible V Who would 

 ever have thought that possible, of neighbor 

 A? It is really monstrous!" But when 

 you go over to talk with neighbor A about 

 it, and hear his side, you are tempted to use 

 the same expression. Well, where is truth 

 and where is justice V Is the world really so 

 bad ? No, the world is not so bad as tliese 

 tvi'o friends have perhaps, in a sense, hon- 

 estly made it out to be. They are both in 

 the power of Satan, and their own sins are 

 greatly lessened, in their eyes, while the sins 

 of their opponent are magnified and distort- 

 ed to a fearful extent. If you get into a 

 quarrel you will do just the same way. I 

 know, for I have tried it. There are two 

 remedies for such a state of things, that sug- 

 gest themselves to me. The first is to recog- 

 nize that you are sick, and unable to reason 

 intelligently and reasonably in the matter, 

 and put the whole case into the hands of 

 some disinterested friend, and demonstrate 

 that you have a little good sense left, by do- 

 ing exactly as he directs. Jesus pointed out 

 the way in the r)th chapter of Matthew. If 

 you are a (/hristian, or even a reasonable 

 man. you will show it by cheerfully submit- 

 ting to such a case, ratller than by going to 

 law, and, may be, getting some one who is 

 not a Christian to settle these differences 

 for you. Jesus said, " They that be whole, 

 need not a physician." If you are in trouble 

 with any one, you are sick, in Satan's toils. 



The second way is not to have any trouble 

 with anybody, t do not mean by this that 

 you are to give way to everybody in every 

 thing, and go crippled through the world, 

 but, on the contrary, I mean you should 

 tight your way. step by step and inch by 

 inch, to the attainment of every thing good 

 and noble in the universe. There may seem 

 a contradiction here, but I think there is not. 

 Instead of fighting your neighbors, you are 

 to fight against the temptations of your own 

 heart. If you whip in the latter, you will 

 whip the neighbors, in the best sense of 

 whipping them. You will win them. When 

 you can whip out the evil in your own. heart 

 as fast as it springs up, and go through the 

 world thus, transacting all kinds of business 

 with all kinds of people, you will not only 

 win neighbors, but towns and cities, nations 

 and continents ; yea, the whole world shall 

 you liave for your inheritance. Is that a 

 pretty large promise V See : — 



