1880 



GLEANLNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



'83 



The contents of this leaf and the one. following arc 

 not directly connected with, the subject of bee-culture. 

 On this account, I make no charge for them, and, if you 



choose, you can cut them out without reading. 



!ur tenm. 



Come unto me, all ye tbat labor and are heavy la- 

 den, and I will give you rest.— Matt. .\i. 23. 



M FEW days ago, in our noon services. 

 Jr^ t lie thought was brought out. that it 



' is a good thing to have wants. Xow 



that I think of it. I am pretty sure it is a 

 good thing for me, at least.' that I have 

 wants. — yes. and great wants. t nless I 

 want something, and want it intensely, I 

 can not pray intensely. It seems as if it 

 was only the earnest and intense prayers 

 that God honors by answering. If we go to 

 prayer-meeting because we think we ought 

 to go, and then pray solely because we think 

 Ave ought to pray, or because it seems to de- 

 volve upon us to pray, as people will expect 

 it of ns from the position which we occupy 

 in community, it— -well, what do you think 

 about it. my friends ? I do not quite like to 

 answer the question, because I am pretty 

 sure it is better to go to prayer-meeting with 

 such a motive than not to go at all. 



Suppose you have found where you can 

 buy a lot of bees extremely low, and the 

 man who has them is so anxious to go away 

 that he wants to get them off his hand's 

 within an hour. You have examined them, 

 and ask him to wait until you can go to the 

 bank and get the money, lie agrees to do 

 this, if no one else will make him a better 

 offer before you get around with your mon- 

 ey. On the way to the bank, you go over 

 the bargain mentally, and plan where you 

 will locate your new apiary, how you will 

 manage so as to get your money back this 

 very season perhaps, and you are so full of 

 energy and excitement about it, that yon are 

 in a glow of pleasure and exuberant spirits. 

 Do you dread going to the bank ? Why, 

 no. Banks are pleasant places to go to when 

 you have a balance to your credit ; and all 

 you have to do. when you want money for 

 some useful purchase like this, is to go there 

 and demand it. There is a satisfaction and 

 a pleasure in doing business among men, 

 and i« knowing that your demands will be 

 honored with alacrity and without question, 

 and in feeling that you are known, respect- 

 ed, and recognized, and are somebody. Sup- 

 pose that Bomebody should say that hanks 

 are dry. dull, and insipid, and that they can 

 see no sense in them. Would you not natu- 

 rally conclude thai they have no money de- 

 posited in them, or else that they have no 



wants that make them need money V Then 

 are not wants a good thing to make us hap- 

 py ? Did it never occur to you that you 

 might, with much propriety, thank God for 

 having wants — yes. for having a great many 

 wants V Putting it that way. it seems to me 

 I ought to be a very happy individual in- 

 deed. There is, in fact, no end to my wants. 

 One of the greatest wants I have at present 

 is to he able to give everybody that comes to 

 me something to do. If I could say, " Yes, 



sir. — yes. my friend, — plenty of work; I 

 want every one of you ; I can give you but 

 small wages to commence with. but. if you 

 are faithful in few things. God will make 

 you ruler over greater things; come one, 

 come all,'" it seems to me I should be per- 

 fectly happy, for a while at least. 



To go back to the prayer-meeting matter : 

 Some may ask, " Do yoh really mean to say, 

 Mr. Root, that we should go to prayer-meet- 

 ing with our wants, in the same way we 

 would go to the hank after money?" Per- 

 haps I would better be careful about laying 

 down rules for others, hut as for myself. I 

 am sure that God wants me to go to prayer- 

 meeting with exactly the same spirit I would 

 go to the bank after money. 1 know that he 

 wants me togo there full of wants, and when 

 I do, I am sure to come back with an armful 

 of good things. I told you last month how 

 Mr. House and 1 went to the Thursday eve- 

 ning prayer-meeting, and how we both came 

 back with our wants supplied. Well, I am 

 sure this is the way it should be every time. 

 Of course, I know that your wants, many 

 times, are far different from mine, but of 

 this I am sine : God will accommodate any- 

 body whose wants are for the good of their 

 fellow-men. or are at least innocent wants. 

 and those that will harm nobody. I recog- 

 nize that these ideas are a little out of the 

 line of a great many prayer-meetings, but I 

 am afraid that many of the praye ra offered 

 in prayer-meeting spring more from a sense 

 of duty than from really heart-felt wants. I 

 can not feel that very long prayers are often 

 needed. In going to the bank, there are 

 few people who have a list of wants which 

 requires ten or even five minutes, to state. 

 If God should answer some of these general 

 prayers that cover the whole world, the one 

 who made them would be surprised, if not 

 troubled, with such a multitude of gifts. In 

 saying these things, my friends, I by no 

 means wish you to get an idea that I think 

 myself perfect in this respect, for I know I 

 am guilty, a great many times, of praying 

 because 1 think I ought' to, and of praying 

 when I have no particular want of any kind, 

 or, at least, I do not call to mind just what 

 it is, at the time the prayer is made. I have 

 often felt this strongly at our noon service. 

 Many times I say to myself, — 



"Xow. old fellow, look out you do not 

 come before these hoys and girl s again with- 

 out some definite idea of what we all need 

 and want, and prepare yourself to ask God 

 for something for which you are sure that at 

 least a great part of them can join heartily 

 in asking." 



When I make this preparation, and have 

 my prayers strike, like bitting a nail on the 

 heul, at the very events of that day. in 

 which we all feel our need of God's help and 

 wisdom. I am sure to feel afterward that ap- 

 proving voice of conscience which tells so 

 plainly when our work is acceptable in God's 

 sight. 



In regard to wants: I want money, be- 

 cause—at least I hope it is because — 1 seem 

 to be able to do more good with money than 

 in almost anv other way; but in saying this, 

 I recognize that my heart in common with 

 the hearts of the rest of mankind, is "des- 



