184 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apk. 



see greed and little, mean things in all man- 

 kind, but I myself am alone pure in heart. 

 Don't throw down the paper in disgust, my 

 friend, it is only when I am crazy, when the 

 Devil himself has got me by the button-hole 

 that I think these things, and so I hope you 

 will forgive me. I am sorry for it, I assure 

 you, and I am fighting it down day by day. 

 You know, in these past pages, I have told 

 you how I have fought down these tempta- 

 tions, one after another, and how others 

 loomed up in sight as fast as one was con- 

 quered. Well, it seems as if Satan was 

 bound to try every string to his bow. before 

 he lets me go, and, of late, I have thought 

 he had massed all his forces and had rushed 

 on me with a legion of his angels, in trying 

 to make me uncharitable and impatient with 

 the many friends God has given me. I will 

 tell you a little story, to illustrate how 1 oft- 

 en whip him out, and send him off howling. 

 I beg pardon fen - the language, but it is such 

 fun to see him "licked," it seems as if that 

 was just the right word. 



An old deacon in the church who was 

 about equally celebrated for both stinginess 

 and piety, after hearing a "moving" sermon 

 from his pastor, one day repaired to the 

 smoke house, with the avowed purpose of 

 picking out a ham to be donated to said min- 

 ister. He lifted them down, looked them 

 over, and tried in vain to find one that he 

 thought he could spare. They all looked too 

 good to be just "given away,''' and he actu- 

 ally began meditating a 1 tout cutting in two 

 one of the twenty or thirty hanging there. 

 Finally the sermon came fresh to his mind 

 again, and he recognized the presence of the 

 "cloven hoof"" that had been persuading 

 him a whole ham was too much, and. in 

 desperation, he resolved to give a whole one, 

 and a nice one too. His better self suggest- 

 ed the best one, but still Satan urged it 

 would be throwing away good nice hams to 

 be so extravagant, but, for once in his life, 

 our friend declared he would "lick," and 

 drive out the prevailing sin of his life. He 

 first picked out the best, and as Satan still 

 demurred, he took the next best, and finally, 

 when a neighbor came along and saw him 

 heaping his hams up, he asked him what he 

 was doing. 



"Going to give some hams to the minis- 

 ter." said the deacon. 



"But you are not going to give him the 

 whole pile, are youV" 



"Why, you see, every time I thought of 

 giving him a nice one, Satan tempted me to 

 think it was too much, and I finally told him 

 if he did not 'shet up,' I would give the 

 minister every last ham in the smoke 

 house." 



I do not know how it turned out, but I 

 hope our friend had grit enough to carry out 

 his resolution, if it took all the hams and the 

 smoke house too; nay, his whole farm, and 

 himself— soul and body ; for " What shall it 

 profit a man," etc. 



Now, my friends, struggling and praying 

 alone by ourselves is a great thing, but those 

 who go to God in prayer earnestly will find 

 a greater work opening out before them. I 

 have shown you before, cases where the con- 

 ditions under which our petitions were 



granted were that we should go out into the 

 world, and confide our troubles and trials to 

 some one else. Many of you have noticed 

 how wonderfully God has answered requests 

 made known on these pages. Well, nothing 

 does so much to make me proof against these 

 tricks of Satan, as to get really earnestly at 

 work for some poor suffering brother who 

 has been snared by uncharitableness to the 

 rest of humanity. In this talk, I have 

 shown you uncharitableness in colors that 

 would almost awaken loathing and disgust, 

 but it was no overdrawn statement of some 

 of the glimpses I have had of the wicked- 

 ness and selfishness that I have found en- 

 trenching itself in my own heart. Beware 

 how you get an idea, or let one slip in, that 

 you are better than other people. Keep con- 

 stantly in mind, that whatever you see in 

 others is very likely to be found in yourself, 

 or something else equally bad in God s sight, 

 and you will get it, as a general thing, about 

 right. When you get right there, you will 

 have charity and love for the erring, and you 

 can then do them good with a word, every 

 time. In other words, when Satan has fled, 

 and the spirit of Christ has taken possession 

 of your heart, you will be led to think well 

 instead of ill of every one, and it is far bet- 

 ter to give a neighbor more credit than he 

 deserves than to accuse him continually in 

 your own heart, of that which he is not 

 guilty. I know there is a foolish extreme of 

 trusting even rogues with your money, but 

 there is so little danger of that extreme, and 

 as we are to-day dealing with law abiding 

 citizens rather than theives and burglars, I 

 shall pass over that part of it for the present. 

 Let us have a few illustrations of unchar- 

 itableness in the actual affairs of life. I 

 think my friends will exewse, if I suppress 

 names and addresses. 



Your card is at hand, giving- me credit for 10c. 

 Should I not have 25c? 1 have worked up the bee 

 business in this neighborhood and, last year, I sent 

 you an order for 3,003 sections and about 301b. of fdn., 

 and it will be double that this year; but, I assure 

 you I will not encourage any one to subscribe for 

 Gleanings, if I only get 10c. when you give others 

 25c. If you can't stand the 25c. I will (live you the 10c. 

 for I think you will need it if that is the way you 

 conduct your business. C. 



Upon first reading the letter, my natural 

 disposition inclined me to say something un- 

 kind about the writer, but it was just while 

 I was fighting these battles, and so I said 

 mentally, "Hold on, boys, let us see if we 

 cannot draw out this man's better spirit ;" 

 and so I penciled a kind answer, telling him 

 that I do try to use all alike, but that, if he 

 insisted after having it thus explained, we 

 would credit him the 25c. I put down un- 

 charitableness, and see what he wrote next. 



Friend Runt: — In my last, I used language which, 

 on second thought, I wish had not been written. 

 The fact is, I had just returned from looking after 

 my bees, and had found one de id colony. Your card 

 was handed me when I came into the shop, and I an- 

 swered when I was a little •'huffy." I beg your par- 

 don. Instead of not doing anything more for 

 Gleanings, I will try to see what I can do. [ am in 

 A B C as yet. 



