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GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. 



237 



feeling it was to look back and see that I 

 was really making progress, and to feel that 

 approving voice at night, when I lay down to 

 rest. Where it was possible, I trained my- 

 self to giving exact figures, instead of rough 

 guesses, and some of you may remember the 

 time, when I decided to give in each number 

 of Gleanings the exact number of sub- 

 scribers each month. I tried, too, to culti- 

 vate a disposition to tell the worst side of a 

 story, as well as the best, and to forbear tel- 

 ling a part of the truth instead of the whole 

 truth. After these victories, came another 

 one that I had not foreseen. In employing 

 many boys, and especially those I wished to 

 help, I found those that were untruthful. 

 The discipline I had passed through fitted 

 me exactly, both to sympathize with and 

 have charity for them, and to give them 

 just the kind of help and encouragement 

 they needed to get them to take up the task 

 I had taken. 



I do not know but that Christian people, 

 as a general thing, have just as many temp- 

 tations as other people, and, at first thought, 

 one might be inclined to say, inasmuch as 

 other people, as well as Christians, fight 

 against their besetting sins, there is little 

 if any difference. The difference I should 

 make" would be that unbelievers ask no help 

 from God, and, I believe, almost, if not 

 quite, universally try to reform themselves 

 in certain directions, letting pet sins pass by 

 unrestrained. I never heard of^any body 

 that set seriously to work to reform himself 

 in every particular, recognizing the whole of 

 the ten' commandments, and making a clean 

 sweep of all of his sins at once, unless he 

 took God and the Bible to help him. Unbe- 

 lievers are sometimes most zealous temper- 

 ance workers, and so far as I know may ex- 

 cel in any one of the virtues, but I never 

 saw a skeptic who took the whole list of 

 virtues and made it his study in life to re- 

 strain all wrong tendencies at one and the 

 same time. 



A year or two before my conversion, I car- 

 ried a lot of bees to a neighboring swamp. 

 Being busy through the week, I anticipated 

 having a hue time with them on Sunday, 

 and accordingly started early one Sunday 

 morning to go and see them. As I should 

 probably have to look the hives over consid- 

 erably, I wore my every day clothes. On 

 the way down, I met people dressed up and 

 going to church, and as they looked at me 

 curiously, I could not help feeling ashamed 

 of my errand, and ashamed to be thus em- 

 ployed on the Sabbath day. A frost had 

 killed all the bloom, and the bees lost in- 

 stead of gained. I tried to work with the 

 bees and feel the interest and enthusiasm 

 that I did during a week day, but a few days 

 previous, but my conscience troubled me, 

 and after deciding that there was nothing in 

 the world that I cared for very much, just 

 on that particular, dry, dusty, Sunday after- 

 noon, I started for home. The people were 

 returning from church at the different 

 towns as I passed. I began studying on the 

 matter, ami commenced a review of my life, 

 something as I did at the time of my con- 

 version. Finally, as I rode along on horse- 

 back, wondering if there was a God, better 



thoughts began to come, and almost before I 

 knew it, I began audibly to promise to live 

 a different life. As the duties that would 

 be demanded of me began to shape them- 

 selves out, conscience lifted up prominently 

 to view the one great sin of my life. I very 

 soon took back my good resolutions, and de- 

 clared it was no body's business, and I 

 would do as I pleased. I did not go to bed 

 much happier that Sunday night, you may 

 be sure, as I reviewed the events and the 

 work of the day, but hardened as I was, I 

 made up my mind that I did not enjoy work- 

 ing with bees on Sunday, when all of the 

 best people were passing continually, on 

 their way to church. 



Again ; when a man deliberately sins in 

 one direction, he will be pretty apt sooner or 

 later, to sin in other ways. I will illustrate 

 it. I used, at one time in my life, to drink 

 a great deal of ale. It was first advised by a 

 physician, and I used to keep a keg of it in 

 my cellar and treat visitors occasionally. 

 My partner was very strong in her ideas of 

 temperance, and finally I promised that I 

 would drink no more beer. I always kept a 

 promise made to any body else, I believe ; it 

 was only those made to myself, that I was in 

 the habit of breaking. I never drank a glass 

 of beer afterward. I used to be a little proud 

 of this, even if it did cause me to exercise 

 some self control, and I used to tell her that 

 I had never drank a glass since, that she 

 might think she was exercising a good influ- 

 ence over me. Well, one summer, we got 

 out of honey barrels, and not being able to 

 get any more at once, some whisky barrels 

 were purchased. After filling a couple, it 

 was discovered that the whisky had not all 

 been poured out, and that some was standing 

 on top of the basswood' honey in the bung 

 hole. My partner touched her finger to the 

 honey, and told me it tasted of whisky. I 

 replied it was a little on the surface that 

 would soon evaporate and do no harm, and 

 knowing her antipathy to it, purposely 

 changed the conversation. After our work 

 was over, I went down to the honey house, 

 after dark, cut a stem from a pumpkin vine 

 near by, and sucked the whisky from the 

 surface of those barrels. There was not as 

 much as I expected, for, in fact, it was only 

 a taste, and knowing my wife had a bottle of 

 brandy in the house, I went and got it, mix- 

 ed it with the honey, and drank until it was 

 with difficulty I could walk. Had not a 

 friend called to see me just then, I do not 

 know where it would have ended. This il- 

 lustrates the point I wish to get at exactly. 

 I had given a faithful promise not to drink 

 any beer, and I knew, full well, this promise 

 was exacted with the understanding, that I 

 should not get into a habit of using intoxi- 

 cants. Because of that promise, I would 

 not drink beer, but I did not scruple an in- 

 stant, to evade it in the way I have mention- 

 ed, simply excusing myself by saying to my 

 conscience, I had made no promise not to 

 drink whisky. One who has given a prom- 

 ise toman is in much the same attitude; 

 but one who has made a promise to God, 

 and fears him, and him only, stands square- 

 ly on a mighty rock, compared with the oth- 

 er. Crippled by sin as I then was, my self 



