1805 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



69 



procure the best seat in the stage-coach, or to 

 drive a stylish rig of one's own ? Again, no, no. 

 Will expensive clothing that will make people 

 stare and wonder? Will a suit that costs enough 

 to buy a farm, worn around every day. make 

 you joyous and full of good nature? Surely 

 not. It may be well for us, undpr certain cir- 

 cumstances, to wear our best clothing, and to 

 look neat and tidy, and to be well dressed. We 

 expect the pastor of our church to wear good 

 clothes, and to keep them clean. His appear- 

 ance is expected to be somewhat a symbol of 

 his holy office; but where any individual ex- 

 pects by his fine and expensive clothing to let 

 people see how much money he has, or have 

 them take notice that he does not have to work 

 for a living, or to let his clothes indicate in any 

 way that he thinks himself of more consequence 

 than people at large, then we certainly need 

 not envy him, for I am quite sure he is not 

 having a happy New Year. A good many 

 times he is really to be pitied. So is the man to 

 be pitied who. through pride or any other mis- 

 taken idea, burdens himself with that which 

 does not benefit his fellows, or make him hap- 

 py. There is no pure, lasting, substantial hap- 

 piness to be found in this world except that 

 which comes from helping to make others 

 happy; and this is the secret of the Christian's 

 Joy and peace. 



There is always a tendency among humanity 

 to think that getting a great lot of this world's 

 goods makes one happy. Children, at a very 

 early age, exhibit selfish traits. They get a 

 taste of delicious fruits, and straightway the 

 little one, who has not got far enough along to 

 know better, reaches out his hand to grasp and 

 control a?/, of the good fruit. When he takes a 

 look at his brother or neighbor's child, and con- 

 siders that the little companion loves thi se 

 things too, a struggle commences in the little 

 heart. Shall he divide ? or shall he, because of 

 superior strength, or because he has possession, 

 monopolize the whole of it? Sometimes you 

 can see the struggle going on in the little 

 heart. It is a conflict between self and the 

 higher and better trait of benevolence and love 

 toward one's fellow men. Oh, dear mel if it 

 were only in childhood that we see this dispo- 

 sition, what a grand thing it would bel Who 

 has not read of the exposures being made in the 

 Tammany Ring business, without wondering 

 how it is that men can be so foolish or so be- 

 hind the times as to want, besides a liberal sal- 

 ary, large bribes of money, or gifts that may be 

 offered them as a reward for violating a sacred 

 promise, or for violating and trampling down 

 the best instincts that can enter into the hu- 

 man soul? Surely there can be no "good 

 things "—that is, 7-erti, .sMh.st^i?itiai good things 

 — in the life of a man who recognizes at every 

 minute that he is traitor to his employer or 

 traitor to the government which he serves. I 

 ■wonder if they ever find professing Christians 

 in such disgraceful work as this. What a dead 

 kind of Christianity it must he, to find a man 

 who professes to love God and his fellow-men 

 selling his soul for the privilege of enriching 

 himself just a little with something that does 

 not belong to hi ml There are complications in 

 business, I know, dear friends; there are places 

 where it seems hard to decide what is exactly 

 right and what is wrong. 



But may God be praised, there is always open 

 a way before us, or before any one who wants 

 to do right. Make the matter a subject of 

 prayer; ask God to tell you what is right and 

 what is wrong. If you are honest and sincere 

 in this you certainly can never go a great way 

 astray. Our walk in life may be a very hum- 

 ble one. We may have to work very hard, and 

 we may be obliged to wear poor and cheap 



clothing; but we may enjoy to the fullest a 

 host of good things — good things that rich mil- 

 lionaires have no suspicion of. 



By the wav, as the years roll on I am getting 

 better and better acquainted with the men sent 

 out by the different States to teach at our farm- 

 ers' institutes I have been greatly pleased to 

 see how plainly and simply these teachers fur- 

 nished by the State are dressed. They get 

 pretty good pay; and if these men saw fit they 

 might dress in much finer clothing than the 

 average farmer, even when he comes to a 

 farmers' institute. They are nice-looking men, 

 every one of them; but I never saw any thing 

 flashy or dudish about a single one of them. 

 Almost if not quite all of the institute workers 

 are Christian men. They quote quite largely 

 from the Bible in their teachings and instruc- 

 tions. T. B. Terry often speaks Sunday even- 

 ing, and his talks are very p7'acticat sermons, 

 even if they do not contain very much theolo- 

 gy. W. I. Chamberlain, the originator of the 

 whole idea of farmers' institutes, is an ordained 

 minister. Waldo F. Brown, whom I met only 

 last week, at Ada. O., gave us one talk that I 

 wish could be given from every pulpit in our 

 land. It might include a good many practical 

 every-day matters for a Sunday sermon, but I 

 do not think it would be of any less value on 

 that account. By the way, I have sometimes 

 wondered who is back of our farmers' insti- 

 tutes. • Who is it that decides in regard to the 

 men who are safe and those who might be un- 

 safe? Evidently, somebody who thinks our 

 farming people do not need any more teachings 

 in the line of skepticism. By the way. is it not 

 true that progress in agriculture goes hand in 

 hand with faith in God and belief in immor- 

 tality? 



The man who labors only for self, and for the 

 enjoyment that he can find in selfish pleasures 

 while his life shall last, and no further, can not 

 well be a progressive man. He can not well be 

 a help to the community in which he lives. He 

 can not well be a blessing to humanity round 

 about him. One who builds, however, for the 

 benefit of generations who shall come after him, 

 must have faith in God. It seems to me. too. he 

 must have an animation and inspiration that 

 come only through faith in God. belief in a 

 hereafter, and love toward his fellow-men. 

 The man who does great things is the one who 

 rejoices to see things going on. and to see people 

 happy, even though he has no part in it. To go 

 still further, the real hero whom we all love and 

 reverence and respf^ct is the one who is willing 

 to hear toil and pain that others may be happy, 

 and grow, and arrive atachievement^ that were 

 unknown to him. Thi* is the Christlike spirit. 

 The lowly Nazarine died that we might live; 

 and when we so far forget self that t\e are re- 

 joicing and feeling happy to see others happy, 

 and to see them grow in wisdom's ways, then shall 

 we all at once discover we are getting hold of the 

 good things ourselves. We are slowly discover- 

 ing \,\w pearl of great price. Let us now close 

 with that beautiful thought given by Christ 

 himself: 



Then shall the King say unto tlieni on his right 

 hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father, intierit the 

 king-dom prepiired for you from the foundation of 

 tlie world. For I was a liungered, and ye gave me 

 meat; I was tliirst.v, and ye gave me dritik: I was a 

 stranger, and ye took me in. Then sliall tlie right- 

 eous answer him, saying. Lord, when saw we thee a 

 hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and giive thee 

 drink ? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and 

 came unto tliee? Then shall the King answer and 

 say unto them. Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as 

 j'e have done it unto one of the least of these my 

 brethren, ye have done it unto me. 



