Sept. 12, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



585 



of thought and substance ; but it is not so in this case. The 

 thoughts are not all above criticism, but there Is a good supply 

 of them, some of them rather striking. The trouble seems to 

 be that he was too mortally lazy (probably on account of some 

 hot July days) to correct the metre of a few lines. 

 " Is praying in animal language for rain," 



is a nice amphibrachtic line — but, as there isn't another one 

 in the poem, it rather jars us when as rocking back and forth 

 in iambics we unexpectedly come upon it. The time has 

 entirely gone by when one could afford to be " slouchy " in the 

 technical finish of his published poetry. — fWe thought some 

 one else would "straighten out " this matter, so we let the 

 '• poem " appear just as it was written. Hot weather is often 

 responsible for over-heated brains — and some other things. — 

 Editok] . 



colont and prime s\varm "repeaters." 



On page 493, C. H. Harlan contributes an extreme case 

 of the repeating of both prime swarm and old colony. One 

 year in the long ago (not very far from 35 years ago) we had 

 the same sort of swarming here. It was a warm and showery 

 summer; and the crop that year was not very large. I have 

 no records going back so far as that, and so can not tell 

 whether his bees made better time than ours or not. 



^ ^ The Home Circle. ^ ^ 



Conducted bu Prof. ft. J. Gook, Glaremont, Calif. 



THE BIBLE. 



To our friends — all the American Bee Journal home 

 circles I count as my friends — we enjoy to talk of those we 

 love, of what we love. A man of old who had visions of 

 truth said, " Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 

 speaketh." What more fills our hearts than our real, true 

 friends. We tnust talk of them. What will make the genu- 

 ine American patriot light up with gladness and enthusiasm ? 

 The mere mention of such names as Washington and Lincoln. 

 They were — ever will be — glorious friends of us all. How our 

 eyes brighten, and how our faces kindle at thought or mention 

 of them. How our tongues are loosened as we speak of the 

 nobility and grandeur of their lives. They were friends 

 whose blessed acts touch each and every one of us with bless- 

 ings that ever grow with the ages. We ought, we must, we 

 will, always sound forth their praises with most hearty accents 

 and with fullest accord. It is good for us and the world that 

 we are all ever ready to voice their incomparable virtues. 



And so our friends in all the walks and relations of life 

 must be in our words, as they are in our hearts. We must 

 voice the praises of our country, our State, our neighborhood, 

 the dear ones of the home circle. Why will the coming 

 reunion of bee-keepers at Buffalo be such a glad occasion ? 

 Why will all be so enriched, and why will all we that stay at 

 home lose so much? Only because we love our 

 work, and we love to talk of its needs, its suc- 

 cesses, its projects. To talk of these to those 

 who are so fondly enlisted as are we, gives new 

 impetus to our life and work. 



I love my new home in Southern California. 

 If we may judge from its rich gifts, it loves me. 

 Ought I then to tire in singing its well-merited 

 praises? 



In my visit to the home circles last week, I 

 referred to a friend who, like its Author, is "too 

 wise to err ; too good to be unkind." Who next 

 to its Author is our very best friend. Who with 

 its Author is ever coveting for us the best gifts, 

 and ever urging us to such life and action as will 

 as surely bring such gifts, as will the breathing 

 of pure air bring life and vigor to our bodies? 

 I hardly need say that I refer to "The book of 

 books"— the blessed Bible— for there is no other 

 such friend. 



Few of the blessings of my childhood and 

 early youth rank at all in my esteem witli the fact 

 that daily I heard ray dear old father read from 

 God's Word. To-day the very accents and the 

 oft-repeated comments on various passages are 



among my most treasured memories. Had my very busy 

 father neglected this opportunity, how much of richest value 

 and blessing would have been omitted from my life. Thus 

 early I learned to love the grand old volume. In all my col- 

 lege life it was my daily companion, and ever urged mo to my 

 best work. Latei-, as I came to California, it came with me as 

 my dearest friend; and as I went to teach, away up in the 

 mountains, in a rude mining town, where there was no church 

 and no profession of Christianity, its aid stayed by me. 



As I started a Sunday-school, and gathered the dear, 

 eager children together, it was from choice my first and best, 

 and most excellent, assistant. There were great temptations 

 in those days. But there wore two precious friends ever 

 close, to sound in my ear the ringing word, " Don't." Need I 

 say that these were the mother-love and the blessed Word? I 

 am glad that later my own home repeated the good habit of 

 my father's home; that my children, like his, daily heard the 

 blessed word of truth. I rejoice that my own children, who 

 now have their own homes, and their own special temptations, 

 continue the habit. This, of course, takes them to the Sun- 

 day-school, and makes them its earnest supporter. 



Oh, it is a good and a blessed thing for all our children to 

 receive into their hearts and lives the blessed truths of this 

 most blessed of books. I wish I might be so happy as to say 

 the magic word that would open its pages, and speak its sav- 

 ing messages in every home circle of our land I What a power 

 this would become, to check untruth, to stay dishonesty, to 

 snatch away the victims of idleness and the horrid saloon ; to 

 wiie out the foulest blot of all on our history's pages — the sin 

 of impurity and the blasting social evil. 



How certain is it that the authors of this grand book 

 spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of God, else we would 

 not have had the oft-repeated invitations to what all experi- 

 ence proves to be the highest virtues — would not have been 

 urged over and over, to a life that all experience shows will 

 bring happiness ; would not have been warned, almost on 

 every page, against ' those evils and sins which surely imperil 

 the soul. How black is untruth and dishonesty; how thick 

 the Bible warnings to thrust them wholly from our lives and 

 thoughts. How blasting and full of menace is intemperance 

 and lust, and how over and over the dear old Book points the 

 warning finger, and says, " Touch not.'' 



Oh I I would not only read it, but with the children I 

 would learn so we could often repeat the Ten Commandments, 

 the many grand passages from Isaiah, such Psalms as the 1st, 

 8th, 19th, 23d, 'J-tth, 12 1st, etc. Such portions of the New 

 Testament as the Beatitudes, yea, most of the Sermon on the 

 Mount, the 12th Chapter of Romans, and l3th of 1st Corin- 

 thians. " For if these be in us and abound, they would make 

 us that we could not be barren or unfruitful." 



That grand chapter from Paul's great heart — the 13th of 

 1st Corinthians— is almost enough in itself to guide us in all 

 life's perplexities. Learned aright, and we can not go astray. 

 I like to repeat it often together about the morning table. It 

 is easy, by use of such transcendent passages as these, to show 

 our dear children the glories of this the very Word of God, 

 that they will hunger to know more of its divine truth, which, 

 if well and rightly learned, will make us all "wise unto sal- 

 vation." 



AI'IAIiV OF Lor: 



KOKUi.EK -fSee page .580.) 



