1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



239 



whip, and his neighbor (a friend, too, lie was 

 in reality) died from the effects of the blow. 

 Did God place ns here on this earth to strike 

 each other blows like that? How our very 

 nature recoils at the thought ! Did you ever 

 see a full-grown man strike another ? Have 

 you not felt the voice of conscience remon- 

 strating, and saying in strong terms that we 

 were never made for that ? What do you 

 think of it, boys V Are you going to neglect 

 the " throttle-valve" that God has given you 

 for governing humanity, and attempt' to 

 govern by brute force V 



For some reason, God lias seen lit to place 

 in our own hands the matter of freeing our- 

 selves from this taint of the savage nature 

 we have inherited, and of raising ourselves 

 up to the plane of an intelligence which, 

 our reason tells us, is a part of God himself. 

 It is in this sense that we are created in his 

 own image. The power of intellect to sub- 

 due brute force is like that of the engineer 

 of a locomotive over a heavily laden train of 

 cars ; and the man who knocks another 

 down for calling him a liar is trying to rem- 

 edy the nutter about as intelligently as the 

 engineer would do, who, when he wished 

 to start the train, should neglect bis throttle- 

 valve, and get down in front of the locomo- 

 tive and attempt to start it by grasping hold 

 of the cow-catcher. 



" But I say unto you, That ye resist not 

 evil." Shall' we never make any resistance V 

 Shall we let a man call us a liar, and go on and 

 talk the worst a man can possibly talk, and 

 pay no attention to it? I think 1 would let 

 him go on, so far as I might be concerned 

 personally. If his talk was such as to be an 

 outrage on society, I would remind him, or 

 get some one else to do it, that, for the sake 

 of the good of community at large, he must 

 be restrained. Treat him as you would a 

 mad-dog. in some respects. That he might 

 not heap his spite all upon you, get others of 

 his friends and neighbors to go with you. and 

 talk to him ; if this does no good, go, all of 

 you together, and make complaint, and have 

 him dealt with by the proper authorities. If 

 the rest of the community all around you 

 think it not best to have the matter taken 

 up, I should think you would better, as a 

 general rule, bear it in silence. 



Shall we bear blows in silence ? I think it 

 depends much on who gives them. If they 

 come from one who is generally an honest 

 or even tolerated member of the community 

 in which he lives, I would advise you to bear 

 them ; or, at least, I would be careful that I 

 took up only the defensive. Ward off the 

 blow, but don't strike back. If the wind 

 blew your barn-door against you and knock- 

 ed you over, you would only fasten it better 

 next time. What would you think of a man 

 who should kick and pound it, and tear it off 

 its hinges? If it should swing so as to en- 

 danger your foot or leg, and you have a ham- 

 mer in 'your hand, and find the readiest 

 means to get your foot out of danger is to 

 knock a board or two off, do so, but do not 

 knock any more boards off. I E the one who 

 attacks you is ordinarily a fair sort of a man, 

 remember his average character, and treat 

 him accordingly. 



But the midnight assassin, the horse-thief. 



and such characters, — what shall we do with 

 them V If that barn-door we talked about 

 had hurt a great many people, and it was 

 impossible to fasten it so it would not get 

 away, I would take it off the hinges or nail 

 it up ; in fact, I would not have any barn- 

 door. The law permits you to shoot the 

 man who breaks into your house in the 

 night, or who tries to steal your horse. The 

 law is doing its best to protect us in a fair 

 and impartial way. If you are using the 

 law. do it in a quiet, u'nimpassioned way. 

 Go to work with the good of community in 

 your thoughts, rather than because of any 

 personal feelings. A near relative of mine, 

 and a most estimable young man, had his 

 horse stolen, and very nearly surprised the 

 thief in the act. He followed after him, and 

 got so eager in the chase that he rode in a 

 cold storm until he took a cold that cost him 

 his life. Do you not see how much we need 

 moderation, even in these extreme cases ? I 

 would have you cultivate courage and brav- 

 ery, and I wish every one of you to be able 

 to knock a man down or shoot him, when- 

 ever that is the best thing to do ; but, ( ) my 

 boys ! I wish to see you able to reach up 

 higher still, and take hold of that strong arm 

 that will help you to bear being knocked 

 down, ay, or being shot too. whenever God 

 or your country demands it, and to do either 

 one unflinchingly. 



At present, perhaps the best thing we can 

 do with the one who breaks into our house 

 while we are asleep is to shoot him down 

 that he may do so no more, and that he may 

 be a warning to others. I say perhaps, for 

 since my work of the past few years with the 

 criminals in our jails, I have had glimpses 

 of a better way, and of a spirit that is going 

 to rise among our people, a thousand times 

 more potent than the power of the law. If 

 I recollect aright. Lord Shaftesbury made 

 the remark that, should the missionary force 

 of the city of London be withdrawn, the po- 

 lice force would have to be increased ten- 

 fold. In other words, one missionary, in a 

 dollar-and-cents view even, is worth as much 

 as ten policemen. We need both missiona- 

 ries and policemen, at present at least ; but 

 let us pray the time may hasten when more 

 of the former and fewer of the latter may 

 suffice ; and, to that end, may we all be do- 

 ing, at our own homes, what we can. 



Before closing, I wish to say a few words 

 in regard to answers to prayer. You will 

 remember that, in the Feb. No., "W. O." 

 was granted an extension until the J5th of 

 April. As the time drew near when the 

 money was to be paid, I felt no little anxiety 

 about it ; not that I feared God would not 

 remember us, but that my friend might 

 again get disheartened and distrustful. I 

 did not hear much from him, but, although 

 he was having a great many orders for ink, 

 I knew that at the very small profits he 

 made he could not well raise $700.00 in so 

 short a time. He wrote me the property was 

 well worth $1600.00, but that, if the mortgage 

 was foreclosed, it was likely there would be 

 nothing left. It would leave him a bank- 

 rupt, and, worst of all, absolutely helpless to 

 pay a kind friend, a Christian lady, who had 

 entrusted her money to his care, just be- 



