1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



275 



all the rest, she thought it was doing wonders 

 in the way of improving her health. My friend 

 heard of it, and gave his minister, who is a 

 Congregationalist, a copy of our journal. He 

 read it carefully, and what do you think the 

 verdict was? Why, he spoke out square and 

 honest, as any educated minister of the gospel 

 must speak. Said he, " Why. Mr. Root is right 

 about it — unquestionably right. There is no 

 possibility of his being mistal<en." It is this 

 way: Sense and reason stand back of even 

 personal experience. Two and two make four 

 — always have made four, and always will. 

 Now, somebody might as well say that two 

 and two make five, and that they know it by 

 personal experience, as to say these things cure 

 disease. We need a shaking up. all of us. If 

 sense and reason can not be made to come up- 

 permost, we had better go straight to an insane- 

 asylum — the whole lot of us. 



Our Homes. 



As I sit down and think of the two pleasant 

 months I passed away down in those Florida 

 homes, not only pleasant memories, associa- 

 tions, and recollections come up. but there 

 comes also a feeling that God ca7/cd me to go 

 down there, and that it was hi's purpose to 

 teach me some valuable lessons. I am going to 

 try to tell you one of them. During all of 

 those two months I was an invited guest in 

 somebody's home. Sometimes the invitation 

 came about in a strange way — I might almost 

 say in a mysterious way. You know — 



God moves hi a mysterious way 

 His wonders to iierform. 



Well, I was. as I told yon. an invited guest 

 almost every day and every hour. It was quite 

 an abrupt change from many business cares 

 to a life of ease, and of being ministered unto 

 instead of ministering to others. Here at 

 home, with my many responsibilities and more 

 or less things constantly going wrong, which I 

 must set right, it is not very strange that I get 

 into a way of — well, we will say of remonstrat- 

 ing when people are thoughtless: and I am 

 afraid sometimes that I am not just as kind 

 and courteous to imperfect humanity as you 

 might judge by my talks and teachings. I 

 hardly need tell you that, when one goes '• vis- 

 iting," and accepts an invitation, he is. at 

 least for the time being, on his "good behav- 

 ior." He is not to complain, no matter what 

 unpleasant things come up. Why, the man or 

 woman would be a churl indeed" who would 

 scold and find fault while a guest in the home 

 of somebody else. Let me make haste to tell 

 you, however, that I did not, during all my 

 trip, find any thing to scold and find fault 

 about. vSom« accidents happened. It was un- 

 expectedly cold in Florida, and they were not 

 prepared for it. and I had to take my share of 

 putting up with every thing as we found it. 

 But I did not find any thing to complain of nor 

 to feel cross about. Yon may be surprised 

 when I tell you that I really can not remember 

 of having spoken an unchristianlike word dur- 

 ing that whole trip; and I can almost say that 

 I did not have an unchristianlike feeling. It 

 surprises me when I think of it. Is itreallv 

 possible that A. I. Root passed two ivhole 

 months of his life without being what you 

 might really call wicked, or having a wicked 

 or unchristianlike thought? There must be 

 some explanation for this. There is an expla- 

 nation. When the time came for me to leave 

 for home I did not really want to go. Perhaps I 

 felt something as Jonah did when he was com- 



manded to go down to Nineveh. I was not 

 called, however, to go down to Nineveh to 

 preach, and I did not do any preaching, unless, 

 indeed, I did something that might be called 

 preaching on that one particular Sunday I 

 told you about. One great secret of this won- 

 derful change and transformation was that I 

 asked God for grace in the very outset. I 

 felt afraid that I should, by my abrupt or rest- 

 less disposition, hurt somebody's feelings. 

 Therefore, when I started out I prayed earnest- 

 ly for grace to do my work ^vell, whatever 

 work it should be. It does not seem to me that 

 I did very much work after all of auy kind. In 

 fact, in one sense it does not seem to me that 

 my visit amounted to any thing— that is, so far 

 as doing any particular good is concerned. In 

 another sense it amounted to something won- 

 derful, for I met kind friends, a host of good, 

 bright, intelligent, earnest men and women, 

 who '■ loved righteousness and hated iniquity;" 

 and I felt again and again, as I bade them 

 good-hy. " Why, I would not have missed know- 

 ing these good people for any thing in the 

 world." They taught me great lessons, and, I 

 presume, without thinldng how much good 

 they had done me. I verily believe that the 

 thought of that Florida visit will make my 

 heart bound until the last day of my life. I 

 love our nation of people better than I have 

 ever loved them before; and I love God more 

 for having given me these pleasant glimpses of 

 other people's " homes." 



Circumstances and events seem to have 

 strangely crowded me. or pushed me, as it were, 

 into the very inner lives of many people. One 

 of the pleasantest calls I made was where I 

 visited a bee-keeper away off in the wilderness, 

 expecting to call just one brief hour. I was 

 taken sick, and it was not thought best for me 

 to ride back through the woods, in the cold. 

 You see, it was during the February freeze. I 

 did not get any better, and I wa* obliged to 

 stay several days. Sickness and sufTering finally 

 obliged them to take me into the very inner 

 circle of their little home in the woods. As the 

 man and wife were, however, professing Chris- 

 tians, we did not have a very hard time in get- 

 ting along togi'ther. One of the davs was the 

 Sabliaih: and as I was really too sick to sit up 

 much I leaned back in an easy-chair and we 

 exchanged religious experiences, read from the 

 Bible, and sang Gospel Hymn*. Again and 

 again my thoughts go back to this brother and 

 his good wife: to that little home with its bees 

 and chickens and garden, and the dainty little 

 spring beside the babbling brook under the 

 palm-trpes hut a little way from the house. 



Dear friends, do you not remember how often 

 we see inscriptions, not always in the cemetery, 

 where th'^v commence. " Sacred to the memory 



of "? and then follows the name of some 



doar departed one. I think it must be God's 

 Holy Spirit that has been suggesting to me 

 that we need not nmXt until our friends are 

 dead and gone before we erect a little shrine in 



our hearts, "Sacred to the memory of ," 



somebody who is yet full of life; and I have ta- 

 ken great jov and pleasurein thus erecting a host 

 of little shrines stowed away in the little cor- 

 ners of my heart, "sacred to the memory of" 

 the Florida homes I have visited. I might think 

 these friends did not enjoy my visits as I enjoy- 

 ed them, were it not for the postal cards and 

 letters that keep coming now — reminiscences, 

 as it were*. Then I fall to wondering if, in my 



*Here is a brief extract from one of the postals: 

 We all feel ttie better for your coming; and all 

 •join in sending' you our bwst wishes. Come again, 

 please. Surely "goodness and mercy" liave " fol- 

 lowed "you these many years. All the beeworld 

 will say amen. 



