1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



211 



CHILDBEN OF THE KING. 



SOMETHING ABOUT BEES AND OTHER THINGS, 

 FROM SINGAPORE. 



SROTHER ROOT:— I have just been reading 

 Gleanings; and when I got over to what 

 you had written on Isaiah 55:9 I felt like the 

 man at a family reunion, who met for the 

 first time a distant relative whom he had 

 never seen. As he extended his hand and looked 

 him in the eye he said, " I have never seen you, but 

 I should know you were a Smith, even if I should 

 meet you in London. Here's my hand; we're of 

 one blood." So I was sensible of a thrill of friendly 

 feeling as I read how the hard places in our Fa- 

 ther's word used to trouble you, and how our elder 

 Brother made them plain to you in answer to ear- 

 nest, honest prayer; and I said, "This is one of the 

 family, and I can see the family likeness. So, here's 

 my hand; and though I never saw you, and proba- 

 bly never shall, I want to send you a word of en- 

 couragement, and ask you to pray for the Master's 

 work in this distant heathen city. 



If you haven't looked to see whose name is at- 

 tached to this letter by this time, then I miss my 

 guess; but if you haven't, you must begin to ask, 

 " Who is the fellow, and why does he not let us 

 know who he is?" Well, I am a missionary from 

 Ohio, and Gleanings is sent to me by friend Dr. A. 

 B. Mason. He knows me and Mrs. M. and both our 

 families; but suffice it to say to Gleanings, I am a 

 Buckeye, at work for my King, like a bee for its 

 queen, among the Chinese and Malays of the isl- 

 ands of Singapore. 



I have often read your plain, simple expositions 

 or explanations of texts, and have been helped and 

 encouraged; not only by that, but also by the Scrip- 

 tural way in which you seem to combine business 

 and religion. Let your light shine; you probably 

 could not glorify God more or half so much in any 

 other sphere. 



I was a year in Burma, but I have never seen a 

 hive of bees in either that land or this, but heard 

 that some were known of by some one else, and I 

 am inclined to think it a matter of doubt whether 

 any one has an apiary in this part of the world. 

 But there are bees, for a month or two ago I saw a 

 large swarm settle on a big teak-wood tree near our 

 mission house. The Chinese schoolboys (boarders) 

 tried to knock some of the comb down, which they 

 said the bees would make very quickly, but they 

 concluded to let them alone, and the bees went 

 away after a few weeks, I think. 



We have perpetual summer here, as we are less 

 than a hundred miles from the equator. But we 

 are so exposed to the sea-breezes that it seldom is 

 over 90° or less than 70°. Foliage is superabundant, 

 but flowers not numerous, yet I have no doubt hon- 

 ey is found to some extent. This I know, we have 

 here some of the finest fruits that grow in the 

 whole world— chiefly sub-acid or sweet— and there 

 is no season, no month, even, when we can not get 

 fruit of some kind in the fruit market or stalls. 

 Oranges, pine-apples, and bananas, abound almost 

 the whole year round. There is now growing, in 

 our compound, cocoanuts, pine-apples, pomellos, 

 nutmegs, cocoa, mangostines, jack-fruit, rambu- 

 tans, and duriens. The four last are peculiar to 

 this region. The last is called by some writer the 

 " emperor of sub-acids." 



It is hard to get acquainted with, but a fast friend. 



This, like the jack-fruit, smells from afar. It re- 

 quired a year and numerous attempts to kindle a 

 fondness for either of them, but I am strongly at- 

 tached to them now. 



I left New York in Nov., 1886, and landed in Bom- 

 bay, India, Jan., 1887. I had a good look at the 

 great city of India, and crossed over the continent 

 to Madras, on the eastern coast. Jan. 28 I plucked 

 the choicest tea-roses from the abounding bushes 

 in the station yard, at the top of the western 

 Ghauts. 



I am teaching by day in the Anglo-Chinese school 

 (we have a large school of 250 day pupils, and a doz- 

 en boarders), and we hold regular gospel meetings 

 among the artillerymen in Fort Canning, and an- 

 other among the poor Eurasians in a narrow street 

 called Saliga Road. 



Last week several from both these quarters iden- 

 tified themselves with the church of Christ. Our 

 boarders (Chinese boys) are most of them from 

 wealthy Chinese homes. They eat at the same ta- 

 ble, and of the same food, that the principal and 

 teachers do. We carefully train them in books, and 

 at the same time teach them about God's word and 

 its contents. Nothing so interests them as Bible 

 stories. The older ones understand the gospel 

 message, pray, and some have said in actions and 

 words, " I want to be a Christian." I saw one of 

 our brightest, most promising boys on his knees be- 

 fore going to sleep, praying to the God of the Bible. 

 We find great joy in doing such work for our 

 Master. 



But how often and how keenly do we feel our in- 

 competence alone to undertake the great task of 

 bringing these boys and these people to a knowl- 

 edge of Jesus Christ as the every-day Savior of men 

 from sin as well as wrath ! 



Pray for me and the other missionaries, that God 

 may use us in accomplishing the great work, sure 

 to be accomplished in time, of making the king- 

 doms of this world the kingdoms of God and of 

 his Christ. R. w. Munson. 



Singapore, Malaysia, Asia, on Straits of Malacca, 

 Dec. 7, 1888. 



Here is my hand, dear brother, with 

 thanks for your exceedingly kind words, es- 

 pecially as I had felt that that chapter of 

 mine was one of my poorest— at least I didn't 

 succeed in telling it so as to give one an idea 

 of the actual experience I passed through 

 in finding great truths where in the first 

 place I had seen only great stumbling- 

 blocks. I wish to emphasize one thought of 

 yours in regard to getting accustomed to 

 new products of the soil. In California the 

 people were, almost without exception, ex- 

 ceedingly fond of pickled olives— that is, 

 with the exception of the " tender feet " as 

 they call them, meaning Tthe new comers. 

 They all assured me that everybody who 

 tasted olives, for the first time, declared 

 they were anything but pleasant; and while 

 the rest devoured them greedily I was shut 

 out. But I kept tasting them, however, 

 and now I not only find them delicious but 

 nourishing ; and if one who goes into a new 

 country'gives way to his likes and ^dislikes, 

 especially prejudice, he will lose a great 

 fund of enjoyment afforded by getting ac- 

 quainted with such of God's gifts as we 

 have not been accustomed to.— It stirsTmy 

 heart to hear you speak of the Chinese boys, 



