1885 



LEANIKGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



875 



0aR pejiEg. 



Thy king-dom come. Thywillbe done on earth, as 

 it is in heaven.— M.A.TT. 6 :10. 



a ID it ever occur to you, dear friends, 

 that the first petition in the prayer 

 which our Savior gave us is, that 

 God's kingdom may rule on earth as 

 it rules in heaven V And as we have 

 (Jod's promise that our prayers shall be an- 

 swered, it is certainly true that the time 

 shall come when his will uill be done on 

 earth as it is in heaven. Well, is this to 

 come about all at once, like the shock of an 

 earthquake, or is it to be brought about by 

 the progress of human intelligence, and by 

 the Spirit of God moving in the hearts of 

 men V Unquestionably, the latter way ; and 

 one who does not see evidences of th'e com- 

 ing of this kingdom, even now at this pres- 

 ent day, must be dull indeed. 



I have just returned from the convention 

 at Detroit, and the thoughts I have just 

 been giving you were called forth by this 

 national gathering. The matter first came 

 up on the cars, in talking with a commercial 

 traveler. Like too many others of his class, 

 he was inclined to ridicule Christians and 

 the Christian religion. I don't believe much 

 in argument, as you know, especially in con- 

 troversies in a public place ; and although I 

 replied to him quietly and carefully, I did 

 not hesitate to let him know that 1 \vas a 

 follower of Christ. As he left me he replied 

 that it would be a glorious thing, without 

 question, if Christians would only bold out. 

 and not forget their profession anil their re- 

 ligion. I liad been answering him with 

 texts ; and my parting word was the ad- 

 monition, that only -'he that endureth to 

 the end shall be saved. "" lie siuiled as I 

 looked him full in the face while I gave him 

 my answer, and apparently he openetl his 

 mouth to reply ; but catching the glance of 

 a passenger in the next seat, there was a 

 little general laugh all around, and he evi- 

 dently thought he might as well give it up. 

 The Bible is equal to every and all emergen- 

 cies ; and if one follows its precepts, there 

 is no danger of one getting around it or 

 avoiding its conclusions. Wliile talking, a 

 nice-looKing young man about the age of 

 Ernest came up and asked if he had the 

 pleasure of speaking with A. I. Hoot. As I 

 smilingly nodded, 1 extended him my hand. 

 He is a reader of Gleanings, and lives in 

 Lancaster Co., Pa., and he is an earnest 

 Christian. How I do love to see young men 

 who are not afraid to acknowledge the Sav- 

 ior! We roomed together that night and the 

 next. My acquaintance with him strength- 

 ened my' faith in the idea embodied in our 

 text. That glad time is coming ; and, oh 

 what a help these vigorous young hearts are 

 going to be in bringing it along ! The next 

 morning I met a couple of bee-friends whom 

 I fear have little or no faith in (iod, and, as 

 a matter of course, not much in their fellow- 

 men. What a sad, sad thing it is to lose 

 faith in humanity, and to decide that the 

 world is all hollow and deceitful ! 



When we reached the convention we 

 found the hall filled, and the members seem- 



ed to be in the midst of an animated dis- 

 cussion. That I might not interrupt, I 

 quietly slipped into a seat by the door, pro- 

 posing to go forward when there was a bet- 

 ter opportunity. Somebody near the speak- 

 er's stand, however, caught sight of me and 

 motioned me forward. There were Bro. 

 Jones, Bro. Jfewman, of the A. B. J., W. F. 

 Clarke, friend W. Z. Hutchinson, friend 

 Heddon, and good old father Langstroth 

 be.sides. Mr. L. C. Boot, of ^>w York, whom 

 I had never seen before, occupied the pres- 

 ident's chair, while roundabout were the 

 friends whom we have heard from through 

 the journals, and read about for years. 

 Scarcely a face was missing, unless it was 

 that of Dr. C. C. Miller. Pretty soon W. F. 

 Clarke stood up with a large paper box in his 

 hand ; and what do you think were my feel- 

 ings when he spoke something as follows '? 



"' Mr. A. I. Root will please stand up 

 here before me and look me in the face." 



I suppose you have heard, or had ex- 

 perience, of the way in which people think 

 of a great many things while they are fall- 

 ing from a building, or during some great 

 danger. Well, while I Avas rising to my 

 feet and obeying orders, I thought of a 

 great many things. I inventoried, as it 

 were, all tliat I had been guilty of, to see 

 whether there was any thing there that I 

 might fear to have brought to light. Well, 

 although I am bad enough as it is, I could 

 not think of any thing that should warrant 

 calling me up in this way for a public rep- 

 rimand; so I concluded (while I inwardly 

 thanked CJod that no guilty secrets lurked 

 within my soul) that friend Clarke's •' med- 

 icine " certainly could not be any thing very 

 bad to take. Xow, I can not remember 

 what his address was. only that it was in 

 substance something like the following : 



"Bro. A. I. Root, we, the bee-keepers of 

 Xorth America, in recognition of your ser- 

 vices during the years that are gone by, not 

 only in laboring for our temporal good, but 

 in view of the energy and zeal with which 

 you have toiled for our spiritual good as 

 well, do hereby tender you this beautiful 

 book. Now, dear brother, while we say 

 this, remember, please, we do not all of us 

 indorse all of your peculiar doctrines, neith- 

 er do we think exactly as you do on many 

 points ; but for all that, we know you have 

 worked honestly and faithfully and un- 

 selfishly ; and in view of this we take plea- 

 sure in^ianding to you this small testimonial 

 of our esteem and friendship. Take it ; and 

 may God spare you to work with us for 

 many years yet to' come." 



As he took his seat, he indicated, in a low- 

 er tone, that I was expected to make a 

 speech. Xow I want to say, by way of pa- 

 renthesis, that, a few weeks ago, I was call- 

 ed upon to tell my story about Mammoth 

 Cave, in our neighboring town of Akron, 

 Summit Co., O. It Avas at a large Sunday- 

 school convention, and of course the papers 

 advertised me pretty well, and I had a large 

 church pretty well filled, for an audience. 

 The next day, the papers, in reporting a 



Sart of my talk, made the remark that "Mr. 

 loot told the truth when he said at the out- 

 set, -that he was not much of a speaker." 



