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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



one who is constantly seeking wisdom and 

 guidance from on high will always be told 

 very quickly when he is sinning against 

 God or against his fellow-men. Now, when 

 my enjoyments are of that nature that 

 make me feel even just a little bit guilty, this 

 sense of guilt constantly mars the enjoy- 

 ment. The little prayer I have told you of, 

 " Lord, help." begins to ring with its warn- 

 ing note. When my pleasures and enjoy- 

 ments are of such nature that I can freely 

 ask God's blessing on them, it gives a new 

 and pure sense that I can hardly explain. 

 But you know how it is yourself. When I 

 am out among my strawberry-plants, say at 

 the close of the day, between sundown and 

 dark. I often say to myself, '' Thank God I 

 thank God ! There is nothing wrong or 

 wicked in being happy with these gifts that 

 come directly from his hand." And this re- 

 minds me of a single sentence in a letter 

 just received from friend Terry : 



Those Haverlands yielded at the rate of more 

 than $im() per acre. T. B. Terry. 



Hudson, O , July 8. 



Now, it is not the money that friend Ter- 

 ry is after, that makes him rejoice at this 

 result, but it is because of the possibilities 

 that he sees along the line where he is mak- 

 ing discoveries. It is because he sees plain- 

 er than ever before that he has made no 

 mistake, and that his convictions were 

 right. 



There is another line of temptations that 

 beset and trouble and worry a great many 

 of the friends who come to me, and it may 

 get in and mar the enjoyment of any kind 

 of recreation — yes, even strawberry-raising. 

 The temptation I allude to is the one of un- 

 wise expenditures, or extravagance, if I may 

 so term it. Some of you who read these 

 pages may say, " Well, I am going to have 

 my recreation as Bro. Root does, in raising 

 strawberries." He may commence by buy- 

 ing a piece of ground he has no right to 

 buy ; or he may take time that belongs to 

 his employers. He may purchase manure 

 unwisely. He may finally order a great lot 

 of strawberry-plants (of A. I. Root), when 

 he could have got a few near home to much 

 better advantage. If there is any class of 

 sufferers that I feel sorry for from the bot- 

 tom of my heart, it is those whom Satan 

 tempts to pay out their money unwisely as 

 fast as it gets into their fingers, and some- 

 times a little faster. Do not mar your hap- 

 piness in this line, dear friends. My first 

 experiment with strawberries, and the one 

 I think I enjoyed the most, was in taking 

 some old dried-up plants during a drouth in 

 July, and giving them water until their 

 dried-up runners revived and put out new 

 leaves. I did most of the work between 

 sundown and dark, so it cost little or noth- 

 ing. Then I wheeled manure on a wheel- 

 barrow from a place where it was doing no 

 good, to make a mulch. With this start, 

 and without buying any plants at all, I pro- 

 duced the finest crop of strawberries, I be- 

 lieve, I ever raised. Of course, I did not 

 know what variety I had got hold of ; but 

 that did not matter very much then. Now, 

 when you can use something for recreation 

 and enjoyment that costs us nothing, and 



does not encroach upon anybody else, you 

 can truly rejoice. A little beginning can be 

 made in almost all of these rural industries 

 in just the way I have indicated ; and when 

 we are learning to love plants or domestic 

 animals, and are led through them to look 

 up in wonder and joy and praise to the great 

 God above, we are in a measure safe from 

 Satan's allurements. 



I now want to refer to the text about the 

 Holy Spirit, in my talk of June 15. I am 

 still praying for the Holy Spirit according 

 to the promises of Christ Jesus the Son of 

 God ; and something a little surprising in 

 regard to this matter of temptation has 

 come to me along this line. One who is 

 praying for the Holy Spirit is not likely to 

 fall into temptation ; for the attitude of 

 heart that would prompt one to pray for the 

 Holy Spirit would be very sure to crowd out 

 thoughts of evil. The trouble is, then, that 

 we get into an attitude of heart where we 

 do not want the Holy Spirit— where we rath- 

 er excuse ourselves and turn to the pursuit 

 of something else. In this attitude of heart 

 we are in great danger of falling into Sa- 

 tan's hands. The gift of the Holy Spirit 

 crowds out and keeps away every thing evil, 

 and it is this that makes it the greatest of 

 all God's gifts. We read in the first Psalm, 

 '■ Blessed is the man that walketh not in 

 the counsel of the ungodly." When we are 

 busy with something good we are not likely 

 to be led away by something that is evil. 

 AVith the Holy Spirit in our hearts we shall 

 be constantly prompted toward acts of 

 kindness and acts of mercy, and these 

 promptings should keep us so busy that we 

 shall have no time and no taste or desire to 

 join in with those whose works are evil. 

 And since I have been praying for the Holy 

 Spirit, my busy days seem to be my happy 

 days. I greatly enjoy being what I have 

 been mentally calling myself— a "connect- 

 ing link." I do not mean the connecting 

 link that Darwin sought for and did not 

 find, but a connecting link in a helpful 

 way. Were you ever out in a field with a 

 plow or cultivator, and horse and whiffletree, 

 but could not go on with your work because 

 you lacked a simple connecting link? Some- 

 times a piece of harness is made to do duty 

 in default of something better. A clevis, 

 if it is on hand, makes a good connecting 

 link ; and I have often declared that I 

 would have clevises of different sizes hung 

 up in the tool-house, so that, when one gets 

 lost or broken, an extra one might save time 

 and vexation. Well, I have been happy in 

 making myself a connecting link in the ma- 

 chinery of every-day life. Two men were 

 drawing a heavy burden, during a hot July 

 day. The burden was too heavy for them. 

 I glanced out of the window and saw a man 

 approaching them from an opposite direc- 

 tion, with a horse all harnessed, ready to 

 hitch on to some vehicle. I remembered a 

 whitlletree standing against a post in the 

 tool-house. If the whiffletree could be on 

 the spot when the horse passed the two men 

 with their burden, the horse would do easi- 

 ly what they were doing with difficulty. If 

 I should call a boy, he would not under- 

 stand where the whiffletree was, and the 



