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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



0ni^ pej^Eg. 



But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the 

 tares ye root up also the wheat with them.— Matt. 

 13 : 29. 



A FEW days ago I went up into our swamp 

 garden. Owing to the cares of building, and 

 other cares combined. I had not been up 

 there for some time. But as the onions had 

 been thoroughly weeded only a short time 

 before that, I concluded that nothing could 

 be suffering very much. To my astonish- 

 ment, however, the whole piece of ground 

 was literally matted with great plants of 

 purslain. One would wonder how one little 

 root could produce so great an amount of 

 foliage, and I began to conclude that purs- 

 lain must be a sort of air-plant ; that is, it 

 gets largely of its sustenance from the air 

 and rain as well as from the medium of the 

 root. The onions were making a splendid 

 growth, but a great many of them were get- 

 ting badly choked. I like to pull out purs- 

 lain, because we get such a great amount of 

 weeds bv pulling up only one very small 

 root. These roots were branching, how- 

 ever, a great deal like the tops, and the rich 

 black soil was so loose that, when the weeds 

 came up. out came with them several nice 

 onions. The onions were of the new Victo- 

 ria, that I have told you about, and they 

 came up so white and beautiful that it real- 

 ly seemed too bad. But, what was to be 

 <lone V That purslain must all come out of 

 the swamp before night. I called the hands 

 and instructed them to hold the onions 

 down very carefully while they pulled the 

 weeds out. By using care and patience the 

 onions would be harmed but very little. 

 But if one went at it with a rush, and just 

 scraped the "pusley" up by the armsful, 

 the onion-patch would be almost ruined. 

 While deciding what to do, the text at the 

 head of this lesson came to my mind. Oh 

 how much need there is of careful people in 

 this world— of careful boys and girls ! How 

 I do love them ! In order to be careful, one 

 needs to have a love in his heart for his 

 work. Somebody who is enthusiastic in 

 gardening, and loves to see the onions grow, 

 would probably, without instruction, get the 

 weeds out without making mischief. And 

 so it is, dear friends, in weeding out the sin 

 and evil that are to be found in this world- 

 yes, in these daily lives of ours. I am in- 

 clined to think that most of those who read 

 these pages are called upon daily, perhaps 

 hourly, to instruct others, to rebuke and to 

 reprove sin, and very likely to take to task 

 those who have been remiss in duty. Oh 

 what a glorious thing it is to have the spirit 

 of Christ in our hearts — to have the grace of 

 God uppermost when we undertake to right 

 wrongs ! 



Let me give you some samples in daily 

 business. There are certain things that 

 greatly annoy and vex our clerks here in the 

 office. Yes, and these things also annoy 

 and vex the great world at large, more or 

 less, also. Perhaps no one thing occasions 

 more vexation here than to have people or- 

 der bulky or heavy goods by express, and 

 then refuse to take them when they get to 



destination. I have told you before that, in 

 order to facilitate rapid transit, we obligate 

 ourselves to pay every bill of express charges 

 on every thing we send out — that is, where 

 the consignee refuses to pay ; and our clerks 

 have had so many trials and losses in this 

 line that perhaps they are almost too ready 

 to stand up for our rights. If one even 

 thoughtlessly orders something by express 

 that ought to go by freight, if he is not a re- 

 sponsible man it will, of course, be like any 

 other transaction— he can not be made to 

 pay for what he has ordered unless he 

 chooses to. If the goods are refused, in due 

 time the express company notifies us of the 

 fact, and asks for a disposition, and pre- 

 sents a bill of charges. Now, if the man 

 who orders the goods would write and tell 

 us that he had refused them because the 

 charges were more than he expected, it 

 would make the matter better. But usual- 

 ly he refuses to pay the charges, and there 

 drops it. We write and write ; and when 

 we can get no answer we ask the postmaster 

 about him ; then perhaps the commercial 

 agencies hunt him up to see whether he is 

 responsible. If the amount is considerable, 

 an attorney sometimes needs to be employ- 

 ed in the case. 



What has all this to do with the Bible 

 text V you ask. Why, this much : In these 

 days of Endeavor societies, young people's 

 weekly prayer-meetings and revival times, 

 it often happens that the one who ordered 

 the goods is a Christian— perhaps a young 

 convert; and I hardly need tell you that 

 nothing quenches the spirit of Christ in the 

 heart of a young convert like a quarrel- 

 perhaps a lawsuit. Where one has fairly 

 started out on the road from earth to heaven, 

 something of this kind may cause him to 

 settle back and give it all up. Now, then, 

 how shall we take him to task for putting 

 us to the trouble and sometimes large ex- 

 pense by his own thoughtlessness ? Our usu- 

 al way is to wait 30 days, or until the express 

 company notifies us that the goods are lying 

 at destination, uncalled for. Then we write 

 the one who made the order, asking him 

 why he refuses the goods, explaining the 

 circumstances. If he still refuses to pay 

 the charges after we have traced them up 

 to see that they are correct, we then tell 

 him that we hold his order in plain black 

 and white, with his signature at the bottom, 

 and that we shall have to hold him to his 

 contract if he is worth enough to be respon- 

 sible. Now, this is right and proper. As a 

 rule, it does the young Christian, or anybody 

 else, good, to hold him to his contracts. One 

 can not be a Christian, nor even a fair busi- 

 ness man, and repudiate his promises made 

 in plain black and white. But the trouble 

 with us here is, that we are in too much 

 haste to take it for granted that somebody 

 means to beat us out of our money. Then 

 we go to work straightening him up, as I 

 went to work pulling the purslain out of the 

 onions. Our friend is made angry, and be- 

 comes soured toward us and toward the ex- 

 press companies also. If he is starting out 

 to be a Christian, he may be soured toward 

 Christ Jesus, and may be lost, and never 

 make another start. Think of comparing 



