1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



20S 



be offered liigh salaries ; and so vast and un- 

 w'orked is this great lield. that I am not sure 

 but that yon would soon be Avanted as presi- 

 dent of the United States, even though your 

 abilities might be nothing more than ordina- 

 ry. Besides all the above. Satan would want 

 you ; and after you had climbed only a little 

 way in righteousness, he would try every 

 weapon in his great artillery to get you di- 

 verted from your purjiose. He might suc- 

 ceed, and you might be led away; for with 

 money, influence, and friends, come tenfold 

 greater temptations. 



My friends, what should Ave know of God, 

 without the Bible'i:' Should we know any 

 thing of him at aH':" Avould there be a word 

 for the Ruler of the universeV Yes, because 

 nations that have no Bible, nor knowledge 

 of it, have a sort of an idea of the Deity. 

 Suppose you had no Bible, and never heard 

 of one. and yet should have a great desire 

 spring up to know of this great being, and 

 to know all that had ever been thought or 

 written on the subject. What books would 

 you get, and of whom would you inquire? 

 Now, while you have this before you, allow 

 me to digress a little ; and pardon me for the 

 illustration I shall use. 



Vears ago, as many of you know, I was at- 

 tracted by a truant swarm of bees. I got 

 possession of' them, and kept them perhaps 

 one day. During the short time I had them 

 1 was peering into the cluster almost inces- 

 santly, and striving to scrape acquaintance 

 with this queer little community of indus- 

 try, of whom we had all heard so much. 

 The bees went off, but not my enthusiasm. 

 I began to question people about bees ; and 

 on learning there were bee-books to be had, 

 I went directly to the bookstore of our town, 

 but found none. The disappointment seem- 

 ed only to excite my enthusiasm, and it 

 seemed strange to me that anybody could 

 live in this world, and know nothing about 

 "bees." I found some old volumes of agri- 

 cultural papers, and devoured eagerly every 

 word on bees, and thirsted for more. I went 

 to see a man who had kept bees for years, 

 and he said he had heard there is a queen in 

 each hive, that " bosses " the work and leads 

 the swarm, but he did not know whether it 

 were true or not. Finally, off I started for 

 Cleveland one afternoon. I could notw^ait 

 for morning, you know ; and when there I 

 went straight to the bookstores. I got Lcmg- 

 stroth, and, going to a hotel, read a great 

 part of the night. Of course, I got some 

 bees; and witli the book and hive side by 

 side, I tested the wonderful teaching. With 

 a single comb observatory hive in the win- 

 dow, I watched the whole process of queen- 

 rearing. The book was proved and verilied. 

 I knew it was truth. Although I had read 

 the book through and through, I spent most 

 of my evenings reading it again, here and 

 there. My delight was in poring over its 

 pages, and meditating on its wonders, by 

 day and night. My mother called one day, 

 and found me rapt up in the book and my 

 papers on bees. She made a remark some- 

 thing like this:— 



'" Amos, I believe the day will come when 

 you will read and study the Bible just as you 

 do those bee-books now." 



I laughed good naturedly, for I thought it 

 a good joke then. 



" Why, mother, the Bible does not interest 

 me a particle ; I have tried to read it for 

 your sake, but I can not make any thing out 

 of it.'' 



Perhaps she remembered the time when I 

 took no notice of bees and bee-books ; so her 

 faith was undimmed, and she kept praying 

 for me as well as the rest of her boys. My 

 friends, do not, I beg of you, forget those 

 '' mother's prayers." 



I am now coming to my third and last 

 point. My enthusiasm on bees was not a 

 very unusual thing ; in fact, it is a rather 

 common occurrence in business. No partic- 

 ular credit is due me for it, for I took it up 

 simply because I happened to be attracted, 

 and my curiosity aroused, by that branch of 

 natural history. Well, keeping this right 

 before you, what would be the result, think 

 you, if some young man should take it into 

 his mind to study about God in the same 

 wayV Suppose he should take up the Bible 

 exactly as I did the book on bees. He opens 

 the book, and finds, " In the beginning God 

 created the heaven and the earth." He 

 turns further on and reads, " The fear of the 

 Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from 

 evil, is imderstanding." He finds rules for 

 the conduct of life, and promises to those 

 who are faithful. Over further along he 

 reads, "But I say unto you, love ye your 

 enemies, and do good to them that hate 

 you." Not only is the book his constant 

 "companion, but he ponders on it, even 

 through the hours ot the night, and resolves 

 to prove it in his intercourse among men. 

 It is a hard matter to do good to those who 

 hate us ; but in his enthusiasm to explore 

 the new world opened up to him, he sets 

 about doing good to those who are most bit- 

 ter toward him. Just exactly as I saw the 

 queen hatch before my eyes, from a worker 

 egg, he sees the book proved and verified. 

 In a strange and wonderful way enemies are 

 disarmed, and he feels as did the disciples of 

 old when they returned, saying, " Lord, even 

 the devils are subject to us through thy 

 name." He reads, " Blessed are the pure in 

 heart, for they shall see God ; " and with 

 that same enthusiasm he strives to make 

 even his inmost thoughts pure ; not because 

 of men or this world, but because the prom- 

 ise is only to those who are pure in heart be- 

 fore God. In the same way he goes over the 

 Bible and reads it through and through, at 

 the same time shaping and conforming his 

 life to it. Reader, where do you suppose 

 such a man would end? Do you know of 

 such a man or woman anywhere? If not, is 

 there not a great and unexplored region for 

 you and me, right here before us? Please, 

 now, look again at the verses we have just 

 been considering. Look at the conditions 

 and the promise: — 



But his dcligrht is in the law of the Lord; and in 

 his law doth ho meditate day and night. And he 

 .*hall bo like a tree planted by the rivers of water, 

 that bring^eth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf 

 also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall 

 Ijrosper. 



Now, if you are not prospering, do you 

 not see why it. is? Do you love that book 

 and that law? are you meditating on it day 



