1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



183 



advises this very thing: Take your trouble, 

 your care, and your burdens, whatever they 

 may be, to Him who said. " Come unto me, all 

 ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will 

 give you rest."" 



This book, "In Health,"" quotes Scripture, 

 and quotes it with such a direct practical bear- 

 ing, that it almost startles me. When I found 

 the text at the head of this talk, quoted in one 

 of those direct and practical illustrations, it 

 seemed to me that I had never found it before, 

 and I love to read it over and over—" He that 

 followeth me shall not walk in darkness;'" my 

 friend, how ofter, have yon felt that you were 

 walking in darkness? — "but shall have the 

 light of life." What is the light of life'.' The 

 Savior used the word " life " in a grander and 

 loftier meaning than it had ever been used be- 

 fore or has been since. He meant by it. spirit- 

 ual life — a life that brings us near to (Jod, and 

 tells us of God and of his plans and purposes. 



Perhaps I should say. before going further, 

 that this book, " In Healtii." is mainly to mar- 

 ried people. It is a wonderful exhortation to 

 conform to God"s laws, and to believe that God 

 made no mistake. It is a book that, very likely, 

 you would not care to leave on your center- 

 table: and yet I begin to have a conception of 

 a good time coming when such books may be 

 safely given to the children. I would a thou- 

 sand times rather have my children taught by 

 a grav-haired patriarch like Dr. IngersoU, than 

 that they be taught by the poisoned and impure 

 minds that ev(M'y now and then are found even 

 in our public schools. 



One of the singular things in this book, and 

 one that will doubtless offend many people, 

 especially if they do not have patience to read 

 the book carefully and thoroughly, is, that the 

 autlior. in teaching social purity, says the.se 

 natural feelings that come to us as we approach 

 matuiity should not be stumped out and lillled 

 out. They should be allowed to grow and 

 develop, but in a sanctified way. They should 

 be recognized as a part of our being, sent from 

 God, to b.i consecrated and used like other gifts. 

 I think some of the teachings of the book are 

 possibly a little dangerous, because, perhaps, 

 they may be misunderstood; but yet I do be- 

 lieve there is great truth in them. We are in 

 the habit of calling certain things low and 

 animal. We do this because we see them 

 allowed to go unrestrained, in a low and animal 

 direction. When consecrated to Christ Jesus, 

 and guided by an earnest, honest, loyal devo- 

 tion to God. they are Ood-riLven; in fact, they 

 are one of the things that go to make up a man. 

 Now, suppose this man, with mistaken notions, 

 tries to stamp them out; suppose he makes it a 

 subject of prayer, that God may stifle and kill 

 this part of his manhood. Many a man has 

 done this; and in some cases it seems as if God 

 had granted that prayer. The man is a man 

 no more, in the sense that God intended him to 

 be one and wantcd^ him to be. He is crippled 

 in one of the greatest essentials of manhood. 

 He has lost, in a sense, one of the strongest, 

 most endiu'ing sources of energy that courses 

 through the veins of manhood from one gener- 

 ation to another. In ofher words, we may 

 have been ascribing to Sdtan certain things 

 that came from God. The business of a real 

 true man is to guide and direct this force with- 

 in him, tbat sometimes seems like the pent-up 

 steam, that shrieks as it rushes forth, while it 

 draws tlie heavy laden train of cars behind it. 

 Wh(!n I use the term " man '" I use it in the 

 broad sense that includes woman also: for she 

 has a part, to be sure, in every thing that con- 

 cerns manhood. It is the woman's mission to 

 fill the sacred office of motherhood to the world; 

 but while she discharges this office in a way 



that is pleasing in the sight of her Maker, she 

 can also, we are beginning to learn, fill most 

 gloriously many other offices. The world is 

 just now beginning to discover that not only 

 are the mothers to train the children while 

 they are small, but they are to look after their 

 training while in the schools. Whenever I 

 hear of a mother being a member of a school- 

 board. I inwardly say, " May Clod be praised!'" 



Well, I hardly need tell you that women suf- 

 fer more from a certain class of diseases than 

 men do. Why is if? This book suggests that, 

 in a certain sense, they are more rebcXlwus 

 against God's laws than men are. They rebel 

 against discharging the duties of this very 

 same motherhood. There are more women in 

 this land, perhaps, than you are aware of who 

 declare they are not going to be mothers; they 

 are not going to sacrifice their lives, nor wear 

 themselves out for iinybody. born or unborn. 

 They are going to have an easy time of it. 

 Perhaps they do not say outright, " No matter 

 what the Bible teaches, and no matter what 

 nature teaches," but they are rebellious, 

 and they insist on having their own way. 

 Sometimes they get so determined to have their 

 own way in tJiis matter that they break not 

 only one but perhaps half a dozen of the com- 

 mands of the decalogue. 



Please excuse me. dear friends, if the above 

 seems hard and severe. I know it does not be- 

 long to all of you. Permit me to make an ex- 

 tract from the book I have mentioned: 



Faith in Christ is the all-sufficient remedy for the 

 sins of men and nations. If mankind would re- 

 ceive the pnwci- of Cluist for the regeneration of 

 sexual lift-, the sacrf(hies8 of mariia.a-e would never 

 be profaned liy the terriljle sui of interference with 

 the Almighty in the birtli of iuunortal souls. No 

 person ruled by God could ever liave such a thought 

 or purpose. Wliile in the deptlis of the heart it is 

 acknowledged to be a great sin by those wlio com- 

 mit it, still they invariably seelc to justify their 

 murderous designs and deeds by the counsel of 

 physicians or friends. The darkness in whicli they 

 live can never be dispelled by tin- wisdom of man,— 

 only by Christ, through the ledeiniitioii of se.xual 

 life. 



" Marvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must 

 be born again." 



Does this office of motherhood wear women 

 out. bring them to premature graves, or send 

 them to the insane-asylum '? Oh, nol nol Sta- 

 tistics, if they could be had. would show it just 

 the other way. The mothers of our nation are 

 healthier than those who rc/fi.S'C to be mothers. 

 In fact, right among your own circle of friends 

 and acquaintances you can find plenty of cases 

 where stubborn diseases that our doctors and 

 sanitariums could not cure have all disappeared 

 when the patient became a mother. When she 

 had a rollicking boy of her own to love and 

 train and teach, and absorb the best and noblest 

 instincts of her motherly soul, then she forgot 

 to be sick: and when this boy grows up and 

 starts off to school with a mother's love in his 

 heart, and a mother's kiss on his cheek, just see 

 that woman growl See not only how her phys- 

 ical frame, but her intellect, broadens and ex- 

 pands! Heretofore a selfish, frivolous girl, she 

 begins to be interested in the affairs of nations; 

 for this boy — \ier very onui hoy — is soon to go 

 forth, possibly out ainong the nations; and 

 tliroucjli him. and the possibilities that lie be- 

 fore hiiu. sh(^ begins to study geography, com- 

 merce, manufactures, and ijossibly politics and 

 law. for she is an Interested party. The w(>lfare 

 — no! no! — not welfare, but the safety and per- 

 petuity of our nation depend upon the mothers; 

 and yet how many there are, who. through 

 narrow and mistaken ideas, refuse to he moth- 

 ers! 



I can imagine right here, that a great con- 



