1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



^9 



and we will not, if he will forgive us for 

 our past neglect. If he will pardon our 

 past ingratitude when we have turned our 

 backs toward him, we will come to him this 

 Xew Year's day. We will gladly accept of 

 his companionship." Why, the word '' com- 

 panionship " almost makes me tremble, to 

 think of so familiar a term in regard to the 

 mighty Son of God. And yet, is it not trueV 

 Do not the words I have quoted prove it? 

 While considering this theme I have been 

 wondering why it is that any one should re- 

 fuse to accept Christ. Some of us have abun- 

 dance of this world's goods. May be we 

 have every thing we need, aud think we do 

 not need to ask any odds of anybody. But, 

 dear friends, all the wealth in the world can 

 not preserve health. The very breath you 

 draw is in Gods hand, and death is near. 

 In that one respect, at least, we are all 

 alike helpless. We are all dependent upon 

 the gieat Ruler of the universe. We must 

 sooner or later come to him, whether we wish 

 to or not. We may carry our dehance and 

 stubbornness to the brink of the grave, but 

 we are helpless finally. Spite and stub- 

 bornness are terrible things. I once heard 

 of a husband and Avife who carried it to 

 such length that it is said they did not speak 

 to each other in long years, even though liv- 

 ing in the same household. Of course, there 

 was none of the spirit of Christ Jesus in the 

 heart of either. It is Christ Jesus that cures 

 just such difficulties. He heals all such 

 troubles by a single touch, as he did ages 

 ago ; and it is his delujhl to heal and help, 

 and nothing else can do it. I suspect that 

 many hold aloof, and continue to refuse to 

 hear him, and even turn their backs toward 

 him, l)ecause of some such foolish spite or 

 jealousy. Some refuse, and turn from him, 

 because they are guilty of wrong doing. 

 Some seem to recognize that, should 

 they become Christians, they must be fair 

 and open, and honest and true with their 

 fellow-men : but they have been so long ac- 

 customed to being little and small, and 

 tricky and evasive, that they will swap their 

 chances of a home in heaven, just to gratify 

 this foolish, silly, evil passion; and at the 

 same time these little tricky ways defeat the 

 very object in view ; for no man or woman 

 can well accumulate property while having a 

 reputation for little vices like these. Xow, 

 then, dear brothers and sisters, if you have 

 lived until the present moment without the 

 joys of being a seri;«/(£,/or ChrisVs sakelQt 

 me beg of you to commence this day. Let 

 us do as he did, and take upon ourselves the 

 form of a servant, remembering that, by so 

 doing, we shall be serving him ; for he has 

 said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 

 one of the least of these my brethren, ye 

 have done it unto me." And let us, when 

 tempted and tried, and when we get inclin- 

 ed to be stubborn, and say we are not going 

 to be a slave to anybody any longer, repeat 

 the text that I gave you when I started out 

 to talk to-day — " But made himself of no 

 reputation, and took upon him the form of 

 a servant." 



Have you any room for Jesus, 

 He who bore your load of sinV 



As he knocks and asks admission, 

 Sinner, will you let him in? 



Room for pleasure, room for business; 



But for Christ, the crucified, 

 Not a place that he can enter 



Tn the heart for which he died? 



Cho.— Room for Jesus, King of g-lory ! 

 Hasten now ! his word obey ! 

 Swing the heart's door widely open- 

 Bid him enter while you may. 



THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION 

 AT BRANTFORD. 



CONVENTIONS IN OENERAL, AND WHAT THOSE WHO 



DO NOT ATTEND, AND DEPEND SIMPLY ON THE 



PUBLISHED REPORTS, DO NOT GET. 



As I came back, I found, after all, there 

 was very little I could put down on paper ; 

 and yet there was much that I had absorb- 

 ed, and which I know, from past experi- 

 ence, will be of value to me. There are a 

 great many things that do not get into re- 

 ports, that stick by us ; and he who attends 

 the convention will get the benelit of it. It 

 is these same things in editors that have a 

 fashion of cropping out now and then 

 through the pages of the bee-journals. 



I wish to commend the most excellent 

 report which is given in the American Bee 

 Journal, by friend Hutchinson. While I 

 am about it I might extend the same com- 

 pliment to Mr. Macpherson. of the Canadi- 

 an Bee Journal. Both gentlemen have left 

 out the chaff and given us the kernels. As 

 at almost every convention, there was some 

 chaff with the wheat, and it requires no lit- 

 tle discrimination to get at the gist of it, or, 

 to carry out the figure, separate the wheat. 

 After one good brother, who had wasted, as 

 I thought, a good deal of valuable time on 

 the floor, and had finally, to the relief of 

 everybody else, taken his seat, Bro. Hutch- 

 inson (who sat near me) leaned over to me 

 and whispered, " What is the gist of that ? '" 

 I laughingly replied that I could not tell 

 him ; but as it did not appear in the report 

 published, I presume there was not any gist 

 to it at all. I do not wish to convey the im- 

 pression here that the convention was bor- 

 ed very much with such chaffy speeclies ; 

 but at every convention there are a few of 

 them, and he who reports the proceedings 

 carefully must exercise a great deal of ed- 

 itorial discrimination. Did you ever think 

 of it ?— editors and reporters are nothing 

 but professional fanning-mills. They try to 

 retain the wheat, and blow out the chaff. I 

 wish that we might have more wheat and 

 less chaff at conventions when many of us 

 are on expense. The president can do a 

 great deal, but the members of the conven- 

 tion can do more, in helping him. 



There is one thing which I wish could be 

 put on paper, and that is the enthusiasm 

 which we all get at conventions. It is as 

 good as a show to hear Dr. Mason get off' 

 some of his dry jokes while in the chair. 

 Thev were not nonsensical jokes either. 

 And there was that inimitable J. B. Hall, 

 with his Scotch accent. In his earnest and 

 apparent innocence, he had the whole con- 

 vention laughing before they knew it, sever- 

 al times. And there was R. L. Taylor, who 

 scarcely if ever smiled, but in some way or 

 other had the faculty of getting off some- 

 thing pretty sharp every now and then. To 



