1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



31.5 



dm p©ME?. 



II' thiiu' enemy hiing'er. feed hiln; U he thirst, 

 fjive him drink.— Kom, 12: 3tl. 



T DC) iH)l know, my I'lieiids, but that I 

 iM shall (Hit a little (litt'eient coiistrnction 

 ^t upon this vevse from tiie one usually 



'*' given to it; or. rather, maybe L shall 

 stait off t»n a difiert ut line of thought. 

 Missionaries have long since decided that 

 the first thing to be done toward winning 

 souls is to feed the heathen, or win their 

 confldence and friendship by giving them 

 something pleasant to tiie taste an(l satisfy- 

 ing to their hungei'. And it is not only the 

 heathen who are won by something good to 

 eat, but it is the street Arab of our cities ; 

 and, in fact, the bad boys of our towns and 

 villages ma> often be won from evil ways 

 by something pleasant to the taste or satis- 

 fying to their hunger. Somebody h;is said 

 that the shortest cut to a man's heart is 

 down his throat, or something to that ef- 

 fect; meaning that, if he is to be won to 

 better things, or to good nature, if you 

 clioose, the quickest way to do it is to give 

 him a good palatable square meal ; and, in- 

 deed, 1 liave discovered that the same law 

 runs through all the animal kingdom. If 

 you want to win the conlidence and affec- 

 tion of your horse, give him clioice morsels 

 whenever you come around him— a little 

 salt, a little sugar, or an apple ; in fact, al- 

 most the only method of leading animals to 

 go where you want them to go is by reward- 

 ing them with something they love to eat. 

 My Brahma chickens I have so often told 

 you about have feed and drink right where 

 ti)ey have constant access to it ; and I have 

 discovered that this state of affairs is a con- 

 stant bar to close accjuaintance. They do 

 not care to l»e handled or meddled with so 

 long as the grain-hopper and tiie water- 

 fountain never need replenishing. Let one 

 or the other give out, however, so that the 

 chickens get hungry or thirsty, and they 

 will walk right up to me, let me pick them 

 up, or do what I please with them, especial- 

 ly if they can remember sundry handfuls of 

 corn given them at such times, or a panful 

 of nice clean water when the water-w orks 

 happen to be temporarily suspended. How- 

 I do love to see them enjoy their food I I 

 also love to see them enjoy nice clean pure 

 water. Somebody has said in sarcasm, that, 

 when the chickens lift their heads toward 

 the sky, and wink their eyes as, they let the 

 delicious cooling draught go down their 

 throats, tlie\ do it in praise to the great 

 ('reator of "all things. No doubt they feel 

 thankful when fed, and supplied with nice 

 water ; but I am unable to say whether 

 their little l)rains can compass a thought so 

 great as to include the Author of their be- 

 ing or not. 



I wonder if you begin to suspect that I 

 am going to talk about food and <lrink this 

 time. AVell. that is to be one of the princi- 

 pal objects of my talk. The Master said. 

 •' Do good to them that hate you ; "' and as 

 if somebody might have asked the question, 

 "How shall we do good?'" Paul placed 

 lirst and foremost, food and drink. Many 



of our young people in prayer-meetings, and 



in convtrsati(m with their pastor or otlier 

 spiritual advisers, say, "How can I do good 

 to anybody V 'v May be you, my young 

 friend, who have sometimes felt a burning 

 desire to lolhiw in Chrisfs footsteps, have 

 asked yourself the (jueetion, " How shall 1 

 do good to anybody y ■■ I answer, •• In the' 

 line of food an*! drink."' If you want to win 

 your papa to Christ, and wish that he may 

 "love the Savior, study his wants and tastes, 

 and assist mamma in providing promptly 

 something nice for him to eat, or a cool vb- 

 freshiug drink when he is too tired to go 

 after it himself. 



Now, skipping l)y these domestic relations 

 and taking the world at large, whenever the 

 question comes up, " How shall I win souls 

 to Christ y oiihow shall I show to Cod that I 

 love his ci'eatures and my fellow-men V " my 

 answer is, " Through the medium of food 

 and tlrink."" Some way it has seemed to me 

 that the world is careless and negligent, and 

 I have sometimes thought actually selfish, in 

 this matter of food ami drink. We pay big 

 prices for a meal of victuals ; yes, it seems 

 to me prices far beyond what we pay for 

 other comforts proportionally. No one, I 

 believe, thinks of furnishing a meal of vict- 

 uals to the traveling public for less than 25 

 cts. ; and even in a country town, if you get 

 a meal that is decent and' nice, the price is 

 40 or 50 cts. In towns a little larger, it is 50 

 or 75 cts. ; and in our cities it comes up to 75 

 cts. or $1.00; and I am told that even $1.50 

 for a single meal is sometimes asked, but I 

 have never in my life paid over a dollar. 

 Those who receive money for feeding the 

 })ublie, should, of course, render a fair equiv- 

 alent for the amount of money received ; 

 but, my friends, there is something that hu- 

 manity is hungering and thirsting for, that 

 money can not buy. It is friendly and home- 

 like service. It is the kind of service that 

 the mother gives to her children because 

 she loves them. One of our great workers 

 among the lost ones in our cities once said, 

 " Never give any thing to any one. without 

 breathing a prayer that God "may bless the 

 gift ;"' arid I thiiik it should be so when one 

 who loves the Savior furnishes or assists in 

 any way in providing food for the hungry 

 multitudes. Jesus set us an example wheii 

 he passed the bread to his disciples. It was 

 his custom to bless it and give thanks. 



Sometimes good may be done by making a 

 gift of food. Drinking-water is always a 

 gift, so far as I know. In fact. 1 have never 

 heard of any one charging for it, and I am 

 sure that great good has already been done 

 by the Women's Christian Temjierance Un- 

 ion, and other benevolent societies, in j>ro- 

 viding ways and means to furnish refresh- 

 ing water wherever hungry and thirsty man- 

 kind may be expected to long for it. How I 

 do love neat and tasty drinking-fountaiiis 

 and bright clean Inibliling springs I Why. I 

 have often felt that I would go miles just to 

 look at one. and I am glad to notice that 

 Blue Eyes is just beginning to share her 

 papa"s enthusiasn/in the matter of springs 

 of watei-. I remember one about twelve 

 miles from my home that gushes out from 

 the rocks near the summit of a very long 



