1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



395 



for all that, I cannot help thinking Christian 

 people should beware of using too many of 

 these set phrases and forms of expression 

 that are so very apt to disgust those who are 

 unfamiliar with their real meaning and in- 

 tention. I was growing up a skeptic, be- 

 cause I did not see religion applied to real 

 work, as I could see men make use of a 

 steam engine. Let us go back to the subject 

 of love to God. 



Suppose the president of the bank should 

 come to you. a poor boy. and ask you all 

 about your bees, look over your books, ex- 

 amine your hives, and then talk to you about 

 your plans in life, and finally tell you that he 

 thought your honest hard work should be 

 rewarded; that he would furnish you the 

 means to get you out of your present pecun- 

 iary embarrassment ; aud, furthermore, that 

 he would stand by you, and see that you got 

 into no trouble, and that your work should 

 not be stopped through the lack of necessa- 

 ry means. Would you not love that man? 

 Not because of the money he furnished, but 

 because lie could understand and appreciate 

 you, when no one else did. His practiced 

 eye saw at a glance that your head was clear, 

 that all your plans were well laid, and not 

 the crazy projects of an idle boy, as some of 

 the neighbors expressed it. He walks by 

 your side down the street; the very act 

 changes the attitude of the whole town to 

 you in an instant. He is old and has weight, 

 not only in your own town but in the whole 

 county and state, and he believes in you. 

 He introduces you to people whom you have 

 never met and never expected to meet on 

 such familiar grounds. Work opens up be- 

 fore you; and, at times, you rub your eyes 

 to see if it is a reality, and not a dream. 

 Through his influence,' your humble work is 

 brought before the great minds of the day, 

 and you almost tremble as you are intro- 

 duced to great authors whose books you have 

 read in your humble retirement, but whom 

 you had never expected to see face to face. 

 It has all come through the untiring kind- 

 ness of this great, true friend. Of course 

 you had been honest and hard working, and 

 had patiently taken your humble lot, and 

 made the best you could of it, but how 

 would you have succeeded at all, without 

 him? My friends, what should your atti- 

 tude be to this friend? Hoes my little story, 

 which is not all fiction, make any plainer 

 what love to God is? Would you not die for 

 such a friend, if a time should come when it 

 were necessary that your poor life should be 

 given? 



What should the attitude of man be to- 

 ward his creator? Is not God what I have 

 pictured him? If not, go over the ground 

 again, and see wherein I have been at fault. 

 If God is not that, picture God as you would 

 have him, and then answer the question,— 

 is your attitude toward the God of your own 

 belief just what it should be? 



The poor boy I have pictured had a heart 

 that was in harmony with his kind friend. 

 Had it not been so, his friend could not have 

 given him such help. My friend, your life 

 may be in harmony with God, and, when it 

 is, it will also be in harmony with your fel- 

 low men. When you are in a respectful and 



obedient frame of mind toward God, you 

 will be, at peace with him, and at peace (with 

 proper qualifications) with your fellow men. 

 One who deliberately takes God's name in 

 vain, cannot be in a right attitude toward 

 him; if I am correct, neither can one who 

 is bitter or uncharitable toward his fellow 

 men. If I am right, deliberate hostility to- 

 ward God indicates, as a general thing, a 

 guilty conscience; and deliberate hostility 

 toward those who make a public profession 

 of Christianity also indicates that Satan 

 holds a mortgage, as some one has expressed 

 it, in some shape or other, over the individ- 

 ual who gives utterance to such uncharita- 

 ble thoughts. I have of late, been led to 

 conclude that Satan is about as well pleased 

 when he can get a person started in thinking 

 all the world dishonest, as when he secures 

 a victim through intemperance. Here is a 

 letter from one whom I have long regarded 

 as a friend, and whom I regard as a friend 

 still, but I fear worse things are in store for 

 her than she mentions, if she does not wake 

 up and get over such uncharitable thoughts. 



Mr. Root: —The things have come, and here is the 

 70c you demand of me, although I can prove that the 

 said letter passed the third ollice from here. I— we 

 —have done a "sight" of gratis advertising for other 

 people, bee journals, bee fixings, &c, and been gen- 

 eral amanuenses, in such matters, for the whole 

 community (usually paying the postage), and the 

 privilege of paying this extra 70c is one of the happi- 

 fying results. This summer we have lost several 

 hundred dollars through the honor and kindness of 

 others, and find the case looks about "thusly" now: 

 Both of us sick and discouraged, nearly two hun- 

 dred dollars of borrowed money to meet, having to 

 hire almost everything done, a steady decrease in 

 valuation of property through others, because we 

 are too ill to attend personally to affairs, and an 

 ominous glimmer of poor-house portals in the near 

 future, unless affairs mend rapidly. Another point 

 tending strongly to increase our faith in the preten- 

 tions of humanity is, every fraud perpetrated upon 

 us or our effects this whole season has been invaria- 

 bly by some church attache especially "loud mouth- 

 ed" in his assertions of spiritual and moral superior- 

 ity "through the bliod of Christ!" I leave you to 

 draw your own inference as to the conclusions, 

 merely suggesting that perhaps you would not 

 blame if I sighed because he did not shed "blood" 

 enough to drown the wretches entirely. Well, our 

 lessons are dear ones, but one clause fully committed 

 is "Never recommend other people's business again 

 (with a few honorable exceptions); never transact 

 business for others where they can shirk any re- 

 sponsibility on to me." I'll not say quite yet, "Nev- 

 er accommodate a neighbor," but don't know how 

 soon I shall, if many more denouements occur. 



July 8, 1880. Cabrib P. 



The above name is one I substituted for 

 convenience. Now, friend Carrie, that 1 

 may not make one more in your list of hyp- 

 ocritical professors of love for Christ, I will 

 beg you to accept the 70c back again, and al- 

 low me to furnish your friend the things 

 without any recompense whatever. The 

 first intimation we ever had that you had 

 sent money, was the following : 



