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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from 

 doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call the sab- 

 bath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable ; and 

 shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor find- 

 ing thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, 

 then shalt thou delight thyself in the I^ord ; and I 

 will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the 

 earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy fa- 

 ther ; for the mouth of the l,ord hath spoken it.— ISA. 

 58:13. U. 



Create in meaclean heart, O God. and renewa right 

 spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy pres- 

 ence, and take not thj- Holy Spirit from me. Restore 

 unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with 

 thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy 

 wavs. and sinners shall be converted unto thee. — 

 Psalm 51:10—13. 



I was up in the Traverse region, on the very 

 summit of one of the high hills. My board- 

 ing place was about a mile and a half from 

 •my little ranch in the woods, and each morn- 

 ing my wheel and I climbed this hill. It was 

 jast a little after sunrise. Cool breezes were 

 coming from across the water ; in fact, water 

 was visible more or less in every direction. 

 But before one gets to the water there are fer- 

 tile fields, and homes of the tillers of the soil, 

 scattered here and there in the valleys and on 

 other hills. I was all alone. No human be- 

 ing was anywhere near, and there was nothing 

 to hinder mv speaking out loud as I thanked 

 God (as I often do) for having given me a hu- 

 man life to live. Then I thanked him for my 

 privileges, and almost unconsciously I began 

 praying aloud for the different ones of my 

 friends and acquaintances 



Some of the friends who read these pages 

 m-^y think it a singular thing that I enjoy 

 talking out loud to the Maker of this universe. 

 But the fact is, for many years I have greatly 

 enjoyed this sort of communion, whenever I 

 am sure no human being is near ; and really 

 is there any seclusion — that is, if we take it 

 in the sense of freedom from interruption — 

 like being on a hilltop when the hill is far 

 away from all human beings? If I am cor- 

 rect, tbe Bible tells us of several cases where 

 Jesus went up into a mountain to pray. There 

 were several reasons that morning why I need- 

 ed an opportunity for communion with God. 

 You know what I said about that neighbor- 

 hood, and being neighborly. Well, I had al- 

 ready got into an entanglement with a neigh- 

 bor. I did not mind the few dollars involved, 

 for I would have freely given the money to 

 him ; but I did not feel it would be right to 

 let him think he succeeded by means that 

 were not (as it seemed to me) fair and honor- 

 able. I prayed that God would give me grace 

 to do just right in the matter.* Then I praved 

 for the inmates (whom I knew) of the differ- 



* I also prayed for that little Sunday-school where I 

 talked to the young people the day before, nestled 

 down in the valley, scarcely half a mile away. It 

 seemed then an easy matter to pray for every thing 

 and for everybody, for my enemies as well as for my 

 friends ; and there was a sort of feeling of confidence 

 or faith given me that at least some of these prayers 

 would be answered. 



ent homes that were right in sight in different 

 directions. 



I went down the hill through the cool shade 

 of the old lumber road, through the ravine, 

 very happy. In a few hours more I was work- 

 ing pleasantly side by side with the man with 

 whom I had trouble, and I did not let him 

 have his own way either. The Holy Spirit 

 seemed to be with me. 



After several days of hard work on the 

 ranch I decided to take a rest by visiting some 

 of the summer resorts further north. Bay 

 View, just one mile north of Petoskey, is a 

 sort of Michigan Chautauqua. Here religious 

 people and some of our great divines address 

 the people in the auditorium, not only every 

 day but several ttiites a day. I reached there 

 Friday evening. I rather wanted to spend 

 Sunday at Bay View because of the religious 

 instruction ; but what should I do with Satur- 

 day ? My eye soon caught on a little bulletin 

 that read, "An excursion of 170 miles for 

 only 50 cents, to Mackinac Island and return, 

 July 22." This would hit me exactly right, 

 but I wanted to start home Monday. During 

 the evening we had a splendid address, illus- 

 trated by a magnificent stereopticon, in regard 

 to a trip over the route, as nearly as can be 

 made out, where the children of Israel wan- 

 dered for forty years. After the talk was over 

 I noticed some new bulletins swinging in the 

 breeze under the electric lights I stopped to 

 read them. It was something like this : 



"The steamer Fanny Hart will touch at 

 Petoskey at 9 o'clock Saturday morning. She 

 will give passengers two hours at Mackinac Is- 

 land, six hours in the middle of the day at 

 the Soo, returning Monday. Price only $5.00, 

 including board and lodging." 



Now, this gave me Mackinac Island with 

 the "Soo " thrown in. It was to start Satur- 

 day morning, and that would let me make 

 my trip back home Monday morning. The 

 only trouble was, it was, at least in some sense, 

 a Sunday excursion, and you know how pro- 

 nounced I have been all my life against such 

 things. But there was to be a stop of six 

 hours at the Soo. This would take in church 

 time, and why couldn't I attend church there 

 as well as anywhere else ? I debated the mat- 

 ter more or less all night, and finally decided 

 to take the trip, although I did not feel quite 

 easy about it. We had a very pleasant trip 

 on Saturday, and reached Mackinac Island 

 just a little before sundown ; but we could not 

 look over the celebrated objects on the island 

 as we had planned, on account of a thunder- 

 storm. We reached the Soo rather late Sun- 

 day morning, on account of the great number 

 of vessels passing to and fro through that 

 wonderful canal, cut through Saint Mary's 

 River ; but for some reason, unknown to the 

 passengers, the captain announced that the 

 boat would leave the Soo at 10 o'clock a. m. 

 sharp. This shut off all chance of attending 

 religious services. I inquired if there were 

 any Sunday-schools before church, but did 

 not find any. I also inquired if there was a 

 Y. M. C. A. building there. A policeman told 

 me the city had been talking about it, but 

 hadn't got around to it yet. So I wandered 



