1882 



GLEANIJ^GS m BEE CULTURE. 



305 



For God so l:)ved the world, that he gave his only 

 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 

 should not perish, but have ever'astlng- life.— John 

 3:10. 



mEADER, does it pay you to liveV Is 

 , life a boon, a blessing V Have you 



never, amid trouble, trial, perplexity, 



and sorrow and disappointment, been tempt- 

 ed to think it didn't any more than i)ay? I 

 say tempted, for one is surely tempted of the 

 evil one when he harbors such thoughts. 

 They may come, as all other selfish thoughts 

 at times ]>resent themselves to poor- frail hu- 

 manity ; but I trust they don't come to you 

 often, and that, when they do, you give them 

 to understand very quickly they can have no 

 dwelling-place with you. As I sit at my 

 type-writer the sun is just rising, and it is 

 the 19th day of May. The apple-trees are in 

 bloom, and, as the day is warm, we shall 

 have a merry time with the bees to-day. 

 All nature is lovely ; but the happiest part 

 of it to me is the little verse at the head of 

 the chapter. As I read it over and over, my 

 heart swells with thankfulness, and the 

 most precious word in the whole verse is 

 that one "loved" — for God so loved the 

 world. As I am one of the world, it means 

 me as well as you, and all the rest of us. 

 God loves us. These are the words of Jesus 

 himself ; and just before he uttered them he 

 said, — 



If I have told j'on earthly things, and ye believe 

 not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly 

 things? 



Then this verse was one of the heavenly 

 things he alluded to. It is indeed a heaven- 

 ly thought, that God loves tis. I know what 

 a great sea of unbelief rises up to contradict 

 and deny it. I have tried to tell the men in 

 jail of this great and wondrous love of God, 

 and have heard their unbelief expressed. 

 Many of them would like to believe it ; but 

 with their past habits it seemed a great un- 

 dertaking to grasp it all at once. I have 

 heard those out of jail deny it, too, as an im- 

 possibility. If God loves us, why is it thus 

 and soV Poor, weak, sinful humanity, — 

 poor, warped humanity,— says, '' If he loves 

 me, why does he thus afflict meV " 



I once knew a beautiful child, so pretty 

 and beautiful that his kind parents called 

 him " Lovey." They were well to do in the 

 world, and the child had every thing he 

 could ask for. As they lived in town, he 

 was beautifully dressed every day, and was 

 a great part of the time on "the streets, at- 

 tracting the attention and kind words of the 

 passers-by. He had bright, smart, pretty 

 ways, and, as a consequence, was rewarded 

 with cakes, candy, and sweetmeats, a great 

 part of the time. Years passed, and I lost 



sight of him. When we were building our 

 factory, a shabbily dressed fellow came 

 prowling around ; and, as he had no errand, 

 was finally driven away from the station by 

 the agent, and some of the boys said he was 

 crazy. After committing some petty theft, 

 he in anger smashed in a window of one of 

 our stores, and for that and some other of- 

 fenses was sent to jail. He was the victim 

 of an ungoverned temper, until some called 

 him crazy. I had some friendly talks with 

 him, but he was too stubborn and unyield- 

 ing for me to get much acquainted with 

 him. It was the child " Lovey " — the one 

 who was so lovable in his childhood, and, 

 with sadness I think of it, might have been 

 a lovable man still, with the proper training. 

 Now, friends, I ask you the question. How 

 should the parents iaave shown that they 

 truly loved that beautiful boy God had giv- 

 en them? Even in his infancy his childish 

 will needed subduing, and very likely he and 

 the street loafers who gave him candy would 

 have thouglit his parents hard and cruel had 

 he been trained in the way he should go. 

 He is now in the penitentiary ; but the bond- 

 age of that unrestrained will and temper is 

 a thousand times w^orse than the stone walls 

 and iron bars that cut off his liberty. In 

 fact, that very stubbornness seemed to be a 

 barrier I could not get through, even suffi- 

 ciently to tell him about God's love for a 

 sinful world. It avUI shut him out of heaven. 



Now before you declare that there is no 

 God about it, or that God could not thus af- 

 flict one whom he loved, will you not consid- 

 er the point now before usV Is it not a kind 

 hand that afflicts? and are not these afflic- 

 tions and trials, that we may grow strong 

 and good? We shall not grow strong and 

 good, mind you. unless we take these things 

 patiently, and with a submissive spirit ; for 

 parents punish, and (Jod punishes, often- 

 times, when it only hardens the heart. Many 

 a parent has been made even more bitter to- 

 ward God because a loved child was taken 

 away ; and very likely children have, in a 

 few cases, been driven away from home be- 

 cause the parent insisted on "obedience. The 

 discipline of the law sometimes hastens the 

 criminal to ruin and death. Shall we on this 

 account abolish law? You see, friends, these 

 afflictions and trials are beneficial, only to 

 those who take them as coming from a lov- 

 ing hand. Had this boy, when desired by 

 his mother to take off his nice clothes, give 

 up his candy, and carry in wood, said to him- 

 self, "• I know that my mother loves me, and 

 would not require of me any thing that isn't 

 for my best good," you all know he would 

 have risen to be a good and useful man. 

 Proper training, froni infancy upward, will 

 almost always make a good man ; but the 

 time must come, sooner or later, when the 

 child feels the power within him of deciding 

 for liimself, and the fearful responsibility 

 comes up before him, — 



Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.— Josh. 21:15. 



It has been suggested, that man got his 

 bodily form from tne lower forms of animal 

 life, by successive stages of evolution. It is 

 not in my province to discuss whether or not 

 this doctrine agrees with that laid down in 



