324 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



Abbeyville), and pinned it to tbe wall of the 

 stone room. On the card were these words : 



"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 

 God." 



As I sat and meditated how Satan had 

 woven his meshes of sin through and through 

 my very nature, it seemed to me almost 

 hopeless, that I should ever think of being 

 pure in heart at all. What trifling incident 

 do you suppose it was, that Satan had taken 

 advantage of this time ? It was simply the 

 sound of a footstep. The owner was one 

 with whom I was scarcely acquainted, yet 

 this involuntary and almost unconscious 

 current of evil had made such headway as 

 to suggest by that faint sound alone, who it 

 was. I spoke, a few lines back, of the way 

 bees would try one hive after another, when 

 they once got started in robbing. Well, 

 suppose they And a hive by accident without 

 any bees to guard it, or but poorly manned. 

 Do you know what an uproar there is almost 

 instantly ? How they pour in by the scores, 

 and how the note of warning to the apiarist 

 rises higher and higher, and how they very 

 soon trample down sentries and everything 

 in their mad haste for ill gotten gains V 

 Well, the sins of years past are much like 

 the robber bees. 5Tou are to keep guard 

 night and day, and to watch for and expect 

 Satan, under all possible disguises. I have 

 all along laid these charges to Satan, and 

 perhaps in a way that seems to imply that I 

 myself am not to blame at all. I may not 

 have been to blame, or much to blame that 

 these thoughts presented themselves, but I 

 certainly am responsible for harboring them 

 a single instant. If I allow them to remain 

 just long enough to investigate the phenom- 

 ena, out of any sort of curiosity, I certainly 

 am greatly to blame. In this last incident, 

 I have drawn a picture; please keep it a 

 moment before you. 



Since the partial paralysis of my right 

 arm, which I have told you about, when I 

 have had much mental labor to perform, I 

 have, at different periods, had trouble with 

 my health. The numbness in that arm, 

 when aggravated by over brain work, ex- 

 tends to my head, and threatens to stop my 

 work entirely. For years, my wife has been 

 well acquainted with these symptoms, and 

 by insisting that I work less, stay much in 

 the open air, see few visitors, have a plain, 

 simple diet, etc., she brings me through my 

 arduous duties generally in good health. 

 On Sunday mornings, not only are my 

 clothes all in readiness, but my books, papers, 

 cards, pennies, and all these things are each 

 in the right pocket. If much hurried, I of- 

 ten And my shoes, too, neatly blacked ; and, 

 just before church, to enable me to go 

 through with two services without my din- 

 ner, a dish of beef tea is handed me, with a 

 kiss, and a prayer that my labors may be 

 blessed. Sometimes I have barely 15 min- 

 utes for dinner in order to reach my appoint- 

 ments promptly, and no matter how cross 

 or out of sorts the baby has been, my steak 

 is always ready at the minute I rush into the 

 house, and every need or want is supplied 

 almost before I am aware of such need or 

 want. When I get through, Sunday night, 

 the little family are all looking their best to 



welcome papa. The baby lias learned to 

 lis)» some wonderfully bewitching little sen- 

 tence during the day, and as we sit beneath 

 the harvest apple trees in our pretty little 

 door yard, it seems that, if there is any one 

 in this world who should thank God, I am 

 that one. Well, what return do I make this 

 faithful wife, for having made my home 

 I such a happy one, for having in every way 

 I so contributed to my comfort, and, finally, 

 for having restored me to health again by 

 j her unremitting care, even when that health 

 I had been lost, by sinning against her and 

 I my God? I had shown my gratitude, by 

 I listening for other footsteps. 



I cannot tell of the evil and depravity 



| there is in the hearts of others, but I know 



something of what there is in my own heart. 



How one can understand Paul after such 



trials. 



For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil 

 vvhieh I would not, that I do.— Kom. viii. 10. 



After trying to live even one day, without 

 sinful thoughts, we are better prepared to 

 have charity for others. What does my 

 wife say to all this? She says, so long as I 

 am lighting hard against it, and so long as I 

 come to her daily with that frank, honest, 

 confiding look, she has no fear, for she 

 knows that God will take care of me. Nay 

 farther ; she does not fear insanity or death, 

 so long as 1 am trusting II im, and he is 

 holding me up by his strong arm. When I 

 shall cease to trust him, when I shall go 

 back to my old life, and come home dull and 

 abstracted, avoiding her gaze or meeting it 

 with one stony and assumed, then will she 

 fear. The first glimpse she catches of my 

 face as I come home is evidence enough. 

 There may have been battles during the day. 

 and Satan may have suggested evil thoughts, 

 but she is sure none have been harbored. 



Why does God allow us to be so tempted? 

 Why does lie allow the blasts of winter to 

 bend and twist the sturdy oaks? Is it not 

 that they may become the' toughest and most 

 enduring timber known in the world? Well, 

 I told you in the first of this chapter, that I 

 had many of the other sex in my employ ; it 

 is my prayer day by day, that these young 

 people, both boy's and girls, may be pure in 

 heart. They are scattered all about the 

 building and grounds, but my eye is almost 

 hourly upon them. I know they are far 

 more faithfully cared for than would have 

 been the case, had my life been otherwise. 

 Is it not possible that God has been trying 

 me by fire, to see whether it would do to en- 

 trust me with human souls? "He that is 

 faithful in a few things shall be made ruler 

 over many things." 



Already I begin to catch glimpses of a 

 victory over this great weakness of my life, 

 and already do I see this perverted trait of 

 my character begin to mold itself over into 

 something pure and holy. In this, my 

 native town, reside my own sisters, and I 

 have also a daughter, full grown nearly ; as 

 I have passed along the streets, I have 

 prayed most earnestly, that God would give 

 me exactly the same love and admiration for 

 all womankind, as I have for these sisters 

 and daughters ; that He, in looking into my 

 inmost heart, should discover no thought or 



