1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



291 



this, for you must really cast yourself into 

 God's hands, soul and body ; you must say 

 thy will be done, and do it, whatever the 

 cost, and then shall you have rest ; then will 

 life be satisfying. 



Friend Hoot: — I see your method of prayer is sim- 

 ilar to that of Fred Douglas, as he used to give it in 

 his lectures. He said that, when a slave, he prayed 

 for freedom with his lips a great deal, but that his 

 prayer was never answered until he began to pray 

 with his legs. So I suppose your prayers with your 

 lips in secret, have to be supplemented by your 

 Home Papers, to be "read of all men," in order to 

 insure fruition. Stephen Young. 



Memphis, Mo., May 5, 1880. 



To the first part of your proposition, I 

 should most certainly assent, friend Y. 

 Have I not urged, over and over again, with 

 all the energy I possess, that God can not, 

 from the very nature or things, answer the 



Erayer of a lazy man? Do you not remem- 

 er about the man who prayed that God 

 would take care of his sheep, but that, in 

 spite of his prayers, they all starved to death? 

 The story was related to me by a saloon 

 keeper, as an Bvidence of the futility of pray- 

 ing to God when we are in trouble. Does 

 not the story itself bear the stamp of an ab- 

 surdity, on the face of it? If the man sat 

 lazily by the stove, instead of facing the 

 storm to do his duty by his Mocks, could any 

 thing he uttered, in reality, be a prayer at 

 all? Do you not recall how earnestly I have 

 insisted that, if you wished*your prayers ans- 

 wered, you should not only be working early 

 and late to do every thing you possibly could 

 do yourself, but that your whole life should 

 be literally in God's hands? that you be 

 in an attitude, every minute, to take up or 

 lay down anything in life, for His sake? 

 that you not only have no cherished pur- 

 pose of sin, but that the very minute you 

 discover you have been in the least acting 

 selfishly, you give up and yield, and root out 

 the evil, at whatever cost? Those who ex- 

 pect that God is going to listen to their 

 pleadings should be praying not only with 

 their legs, as you express it, but with their 

 hands and brains too ; and, in short, with 

 every fiber of their whole being. Do you 

 say that anybody who does this will succeed 

 without praying? lie may succeed in mak- 

 ing money, it is true ; but will he succeed 

 in gaining the highest happiness, and in 

 benetitting and helping his fellow men, as a 

 child of God is sure to do? Praying alone 

 does not avail, any more than does working 

 alone ; but the two carried along right to- 

 gether may move the universe. 



In regard to your second point; it mny be 

 that the friend who sent W. O. the 1800.00 

 had seen Gleanings; of this I do not 

 know. I only know that the idea had not 

 occurred to me, until you mentioned it. 

 God uses natural means to bring about these 

 things, without question. I certainly am 

 not sharp enough, or shrewd enough to lay 

 plans that shall bring about all these results, 

 even were I disposed so to do. It was once 

 suggested to Muller, that the publication of 

 his book was the secret of the sums of mon- 

 ey pouring in to him for the purpose of con- 

 structing asylums, and, to test the matter, 



the book was withheld for a considerable 

 period of time. It made no difference. The 

 money came right along in answer to prayer, 

 just as before. Friend Y., you know, as 

 we all know, that the man who honestly prays 

 daily, ''Create in me a new heart, (") God, 

 and renew a right spirit within me," at the 

 same time that he deals his "best licks 1 ' 

 right and left for the accomplishment of 

 some purpose, which he feels both God and 

 his fellow men will approve, will succeed as 

 one who is selfish, designing, and intrigu- 

 ing cannot possibly do. The difficulty is 

 that you will have it that the prayers are 

 empty words, and not real and sincere. You 

 cannot conceive of a human being who real- 

 ly has enough downright honesty and sin- 

 cerity of purpose, to be in earnest, in such a 

 work. How often we hear it said, "There 

 are no such men ; " and " Humanity is pret- 

 ty much the same, the world over;" and 

 such like expressions. You doubt God, and, 

 in the same line, you also doubt human pro- 

 fessions of godliness. What a beautiful 

 thing is a loving faith in humanity, — a faith 

 that nothing can shake or change! It is akin 

 to that faith and trust in God which holds 

 out, no matter what may be the trials or cir- 

 cumstances. I think I can illustrate it. 



If you will look back to page 459 of the 

 Nov. No., for last year, you will see that I 

 gave our young friend B. another imported 

 queen, in place of the one. he lost. Well, 

 here is a postal in regard to that queen : 



Friend Root: — To-day I send you seven bees from 

 the imported queen I had of you. Five are the 

 darkest, and two the lightest she produces. Please 

 examine, and if you pronounce them three-banded 

 bees, I'll be a happy boy. Now please let me know 

 right off, for I want to start queen cells from her, 

 if she is all right. Good wishes. O. F. Bowen. 



Randolph, N. Y., March 23, 1880. 



The bees sent were, some of them at least, 

 little, if any, better than pure black bees. If 

 our friend has been careful ami there is no 

 mistake, we have at length an imported 

 queen that produces not only hybrids, but 

 black bees. I hardly know what to make of 

 it. As it is the first case of the kind I have 

 ever met, I am inclined to think somebody 

 has made a mistake. I cannot think it pos- 

 sible that we have, for the queen was ship- 

 ped just as she came out of the shipping 

 box. I know nothing about friend B.; I 

 never saw him, and have hardly heard from 

 him, except in the few letters I have given 

 from him. How do I know he is neither 

 dishonest nor careless? Perhaps I cannot tell 

 you, but I will try. I believe him to be a 

 child of God, and, as such, I would not be at 

 all afraid to trust him with every cent I 

 have in the world. I would feel perfectly 

 easy in giving him my pocket book, without 

 knowing what it contained, and I sent him 

 another queen at once, without charge, even 

 though my losses on imported queens have 

 been so heavy. Suppose he has made a mis- 

 take of some kind like the friend on page 

 2fi4? Well, if he has, it does not trouble me. 

 If it is my loss, it is his gain, and God will 

 certainly take care or us both, and make all 

 right that is not right. Are there no others 

 among you in whom I can feel this trust and 

 confidence? 1 am glad to say there are a 



