38 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



so kindly sending just at the time, when I 

 need it most sorely. Is it not possible, my 

 friends, that it is one of the greatest mercies, 

 that we have been kept poor ? I most earn- 

 estly pray, that we may all be kept poor, so 

 long as riches have any power to do us harm, 

 rather than good. 



I do not know why God has seen fit to 

 punish the wicked eternally. A boy once, 

 in anger, threw the scissors at his sister, and 

 one of her eyes was put out. For that little 

 simple act, the boy was punished for life, 

 and it may be eternally, but can you blame 

 God for making eyes so that they can never 

 be restored again t 



I frankly admit, friend Y., that I cannot 

 answer your principal argument. During 

 the years that I was a skeptic, I frequently 

 dwelt upon the absurdity as I then express- 

 ed it, of God's wasting his time in futile 

 efforts to improve stubborn and unthankful 

 mankind, and the thought would trouble me 

 even now, if I should allow myself to think 

 I was capable of comprehending and discuss- 

 ing such a matter, as I grow older, I begin 

 to get a view in it, of man's natural depravi- 

 ty and of God's loving kindness, even to the 

 unthankful. 



Is it probable, friend Y., that we are en- 

 tirely capable of understanding why God 

 does all these things thus and so V i)o you 

 remember Job, xxxviii. 2? 



Who is this that darkcnetta counsel by words with- 

 out knowledge? 



And xxxviii. 33. — 



Knowest thou the ordinances of rieaven? Canst 

 thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? 



I remember much such a letter as yours 

 some little time ago, btit the writer, after 

 ridiculing the Bible and my faith in it. took 

 me to task also, for saying in the A B C that 

 the drone had a mother but no father. I an- 

 swered him mildly, and quoted Langstroth, 

 Quinby, and others. He replied, sweeping 

 all these men away with a single wave of his 

 hand, and called us a pack of fools for dis- 

 seminating any thing so contrary to common 

 sense, and all known laws of nature. I 

 wrote him once more, and asked him to get 

 some bees, and test the point himself. His 

 reply to this was more abusive than any 

 thing before, and in despair I gave the man 

 up. What do you think of such a man, my 

 friends? He was so sure of his ability to 

 reason out these wonderful things in nature, 

 he would not even take the trouble to follow 

 the directions I gave him. 



God, in his infinite wisdom has seen lit to 

 give these humble Home Papers (the off- 

 spring of prayer) a power for saving immor- 

 tal souls, and hundreds have felt their influ- 

 ence as well as you, friend Y. Shall we 

 waste, in discussion, these precious moments 

 that may just as well be spent in the service 

 of the Master? 



Whether it be in bees, or the Bible, among 

 all that we do not understand, there is 

 enough we do understand to enable us to go 

 to work, and you know, 



If any man will do his will, he shall know of the 

 doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak 

 of myself.— John, vii. 17. 



Or, in other words, as in our opening text, 

 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his 



righteousness; and all these things shall be added 

 unto you. 



Now here is a brother that seems stumb- 

 ling, discouraged, and disheartened, on the 

 very words of that last text. Let us see if 

 we cannot help him and others, who are in 

 debt and in trouble. 



Mr. A. I. Root:—0 I how I wish I could spe and 

 talk with you one honr ! I have read with great in- 

 terest your Home Papers. After a religious life of 

 fifty years, 1 am in the greatest darkness 1 hat has 

 ever fallen to my lot. Something over a year ago, I 

 did for a brother Christian, what I thought to be re- 

 quired of me as a Christian, and ihe result is that it 

 has involved me in financial embarrassment, so i hat, 

 by to-morrow, 1 must raise seven hundred dollars or 

 have the mortgage foreclosed on my house and lot. 



Fur weeks and months, I have resorted in secret 

 to God, in earnest pleadings for a way of deliver- 

 ance, pleading every Bible promise that I could 

 think of, and yet, up to this moment, every thing is 

 as dark as Egyptian night. I cannot think of any 

 thing that I have not brought to the al'ar, so that £ 

 am like the Children of Israel ai the Red Sea, — an 

 impassible sea before me, mountains on the right 

 and left, with the enemy pressing me forward. 

 Sometimes, I think I am like Saul on Mount Gilboa, 

 forsaken and left alone. My creditor, in Europe, is 

 worth his hundreds of thousands, and I suppose 

 never knew what it was to want for a dollar, and yet 

 has a heart like the nether mill stone. 



I think I do not dread so much the loss of my prop- 

 erty as the loss of my life long trust in God, as hear- 

 ing and answering prayer iti temporal matters as 

 well as spiritual. I have been a Sabbath School 

 tencher or superintendent for forty years, and have 

 taken so much pleasure in impressing my scholars 

 with the impossioility that ami one. under any cir- 

 cumstances, should trust God in vain, and yet 1 am 

 to-day out on a stormy and tempestous sea. 



After my T secret devotions this morning, I was im- 

 pressed with the idea of writing to you, as my heart 

 yearns for sympathy; 1 have nowhere to go for that 

 but to God, and if all is swept away I will still look 

 up. In trouble, - W. O. 



Nov. 28, 1879. 



Friend ()., I thank you for your kind. 

 frank letter, and for the confidence you have 

 shown in me in coming to me in such a time 

 of trouble. I pray God to direct the words I 

 may say to you, and that it may not be in 

 vain that you heeded the Spirit which 

 prompted you to write as you have. I fear, 

 my friend,' that you are doubting. I know 

 it is a trial to lose the property you speak of, 

 but God knows best, and, if your heart is 

 right before him, and the money will con- 

 tribute to your best spiritual welfare, your 

 prayers will certainly be answered. As you 

 know, I have had some experience in asking 

 God for the money I felt I needed, and I 

 think I know something of the conditions 

 he requires of us before he can consistently 

 answer such prayers. Forgive me if I ques- 

 tion closely, for 1 sincerely wish to guide you 

 into a happier and more trustful frame of 

 mind. The promises of his word are sure in 

 giving us peace of mind, as well as the 

 things of this earth, of which we stand in 

 need. 



Are you at peace with everyone you know 

 of on the face of the earth at this present 

 moment? Can you put out your hand cor- 

 dially and in unfeigned friendliness to every 

 human being you know, even to the one who, 

 you say, is rich and does not need the mon- 

 ey ? When you signed with the brother you 

 speak of, or did some equivalent act, did you 

 not do it with a fair and plain understanding 

 that you were to pay it if he did not ? If you 

 did this when you knew you had not the 

 means to spare, you did wrong, and God may 



