1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



825 



ydU saw the machinery, and looked at it 

 with a magnifying-glass, you would scarce- 

 ly understand it without explanation. In 

 the first place, the wax is forced through a 

 perforated plate. It then comes out in 

 strings like so many worms, if you will ex- 

 cuse the illustration. Well, these strings 

 are obliged to pass under an enormous 

 pressure between a series of hexagonal 

 plates screwed fast to the perforated plate. 

 Suppose you had a lot of six-sided buttons, 

 placed with such mechanical exactness that 

 the wax that oozed up between them should 

 be as thin as honey-comb. These tubes of 

 wax would then rise up, as they do in fact, 

 making a " losr of wood " composed of six- 

 sided cells. Will this machine ever enable 

 them to get the $1000 by manufacturing for 

 sale artiiicial comb honey V Never. Even 

 if they could get a bottom to the cells, it 

 could not be capped over so as to imitate 

 nature. Any bungler could tell the differ- 

 ence, just as any bungler could tell artiii- 

 cial strawberries from nature's make. The 

 invention, however, may give us frames of 

 comb more accurate than the bees ever pro- 

 duced, and possibly cheaper than the bees 

 can make them Our friends have been at 

 work at it, however, a good many years, and 

 have, during the past season, offered for 

 sale pieces large enough to fill a section of 

 honey ; but the price will not as yet permit 

 it to come into general use among bee-keep- 

 ers. 



1 feel greatly indebted to the members of 

 the Eureka Supply Co. for the information 

 they gave me in regard to the present sta- 

 tus of electrical science. They very kindly 

 took me through the electric-light estab- 

 lishments in Detroit, and gave me an in- 

 sight into the machinery aud workings of 

 the science that will make me feel under 

 obligations to them for a good while. 



0tm flejUE?. 



But now they desire a better country, that is. a 

 heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be 

 called their God; for he hath ^prepared for them a 

 city.— Heb. 11:16. 



Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.— Mat- 

 thew 20: 28. 



lTp S soon as I started on my homeward 

 ^fjbi trip from Wisconsin I unconsciously 



j^r began humming the familiar hymn 

 ■*™- that commences : 



"One sweetly"soleinn thought." 



I do not know what brought it to mind, 

 but it seemed to me all at once as if 1 had 

 never appreciated the wonderful thought 

 embodied in the hymn — 



" I'm nearer home to-day than I have been before." 



I believe that a great part of the world 

 feel a dread of death. Many feel sad to 

 think they are growing old. How is it with 

 you, my friend? Have gray hairs and 

 wrinkles terrors for you? Do you feel sad 

 to think that the springtime of buoyant 

 youth is slipping and ^passing? As your 

 eyesight fails, and you begin to need specta- 

 cles, does it bring a thought of dread that 

 your sight may fail altogether? Hearing 



will very likely become impaired also. Your 

 steps will begin to grow feeble, and may be 

 rheumatic pains have already begun to 

 make you twinge. Robert ingersoll has 

 given perhaps the most vivid picture I have 

 seen drawn of death, as a dark, dismal 

 abyss. From his standpoint of view, there 

 was not one ray of light — nothing at all to 

 make one joyous, but, rather, the utter ex- 

 tinguishing of every thing beautiful and 

 bright. May God be praised, it is not so 

 with the Christian. In the language I have 

 quoted from, it is " Nearer my Father's 

 house," where " burdens are laid down." 

 When I am doing my duty I often feel not 

 only joyous but buoyant at the thoxight of 

 going home. Gray hairs that have come 

 while in the Master's service have no terrors 

 for me. My eyesight has failed greatly 

 during the past summer. Unless the light 

 is very strong, I am entirely unable to read 

 fine print without glasses. Were it not for 

 the invention of spectacles it would be a 

 sad, very sad, cross to bear; but with the 

 aid of even those that are furnished for an 

 almost insignificant price, I can see just as 

 well as I ever did. 'May tne Lord be prais- 

 ed for the invention of spectacles ! But 

 suppose my eyes keep on failing until even 

 specs do no good— what then? Never mind, 

 dear friend. The resources are not limited 

 with Him whom I serve ; and he has said 

 that not one good thing shall be withheld 

 from those who fear him. Since I have 

 been following him, no good thing has been 

 withheld, and a remedy has been provided 

 for every ill that life has brought. When I 

 can read no more (if that time shall ever 

 come), I am sure that Christ Jesus will help 

 me to be useful in some way or other. Now, 

 it would be wrong to be in a hurry to get 

 through with life's duties and cares ; but it 

 is not wrong to rejoice at the thought of 

 that home '' where many mansions be." 



I enjoyed my trips exceedingly, both to 

 Wisconsin and California; but for all that, 

 there came a pleasant thrill when I thought 

 of my home and the loved ones who would 

 be glad to see me. In the same way I have 

 been thinking of that heavenly home— that 

 " better country " spoken of in the language 

 of our text. Before death comes, very like- 

 ly I shall have grievous pains, and may be 

 sore crosses to bear ; and sometimes when I 

 think of how others are called upon to suf- 

 fer, I tremble for fear I may not have the 

 grace and fortitude to bear suffering as they 

 do. But then, again, comes the promise, 

 " Lo, I am with vou alway, even to the end 

 of the world." Perhaps some of you may 

 say, " Now, look here, brother Root, we 

 don't want you to be making calculations 

 about that ' heavenly home,' for many a 

 long year. There is work that we want you 

 to do. Had you not better be planning to 

 do it 'while it is day, for the night cometh 

 when no man can work'?" 



You are right, my good friend ; and the 

 suggestion just brings me to the second 

 text. You see I have two of them for my 

 talk to-day. What would God have = us do 

 while we are waiting? Why, the second text 

 answers the question—' 1 Not to be minister- 

 ed unto, but to minister." If we want to be 



