822 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. — Ex. 

 20:8. 



And he .said unto them, What man shall there be 

 among you, that .'.hall have one sheep, and if it fall 

 into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on 

 it and lift it out?— Matt. 12:11. 



Mr. A. I. Root: — I was siirpri.sed — yes, dumbfounded 

 — to read in Gleanings of April 15 of your laboring 

 on the sabbath (the Lord's holj- day). Do you believe 

 in and iiphold Sunday work ? and what religious de- 

 nomination are you if you do? Perhaps we Eastern- 

 ers are old-fashioned and out of date in not upholding 

 such things. 



P. S.— You can answer if you prefer in Gleanings, 

 and not mention my name. I took great interest in 

 the Home talks, but I must confess that that article 

 knocked all faith and interest out of them B. 



I presume the above letter was called 

 forth because I mentioned last spring that, 

 after having labored hard all the forenoon 

 to start the Sunday-school going, I went 

 over to friend Hilbert's sugar-camp to get 

 my dinner, and after dinner Alice and I 

 took two dippers and dipped sap from the 

 pails that were running over into other pails 

 that were not full. By doing this I saved a 

 lot of hard work for the teams. Our friend 

 who writes this letter comes out pretty 

 square-footed; and in his closing paragraph 

 he says that act "knocked all faith and in- 

 terest out of" Home talks. 



I should be very sorry to find myself 

 among those defending Sunday work; but, 

 on the other hand, may God help me to 

 avoid spoiling my influence with the great 

 wide world by taking the stand that some 

 good people do in regard to this question 

 about keeping the sabbath, especially 

 where there are so many difi^erences of 

 opinion. The Bible sa3's, "Remember the 

 sabbath day, to keep it holy;" but it does 

 not lay down a set of rules as to what shci.ll 

 or shall not be done on that day in order to 

 keep it holy. I am inclined to think that 

 God wishes each and everj^ one of us to 

 strive to keep the day holy, according to 

 the dictates of our own conscience; and of 

 course it is our business to see that we have 

 an enlightened conscience. The Savior re- 

 peatedly reproved the Pharisees for their 

 silly notions in regard to the observance of 

 the sabbath. For instance, at the begin- 

 ning of that 11th chapter of Matthew, from 

 which I have taken my second text, his fol- 

 lowers were severely criticised for plucking 

 ears of corn, as the Bible expresses it, when 

 they were hungry, on the sabbath. The 

 Savior rebukes the critics. He tells us, in the 

 language of our text, that it is right to do 

 certain kinds of work on the sabbath. My 

 understanding of the text is that the sheep 

 was to be taken out of the pit on the sab- 

 bath because it was valuable property. 

 There are people who are not quite willing 

 to agree to this, and say it was because the 

 animal would be suifering; and that it is 

 always right to relieve suffering on the sab- 



bath, even if it is only a dumb brute that 

 is suffering. There may be differences of 

 opinion in regard to this. The whole ques- 

 tion is one of interest and importance to 

 bee-keepers. It has been discussed many 

 times in this journal during the past thirty 

 years. I believe most bee-keepers think it 

 right to hive a swarm that comes out on 

 Sunday ; and it has been suggested that 

 Sunday seems to be a favorite day with the 

 bees to swarm. If I remember correctly, 

 there are a few who say they would let 

 them be lost rather than to be seen working 

 on that day. I think, however, these few 

 would be considered somewhat cranky- 

 Where one owns only a few hives it is not a 

 matter of so much importance ; but when 

 we get up to forty or fifty, or a hundred or 

 more, good business management would in- 

 dicate that somebody should stay in the 

 apiary during swarming-time, at least 

 through the middle of the da^^ on Sunday. 

 We have for years employed somebody to do 

 this; and I hardly think our friend who 

 writes this letter would say we were wrong. 

 Then the question comes up, "How much 

 work shall this hired man do?" I would 

 tell him to sit still and read some good 

 book or religious paper unless a swarm 

 came out that rendered it necessary for him 

 to do some work. The man who really de- 

 sires to keep the day holy has, of course, 

 every thing provided — hives, stands, etc., so 

 the swarm can be cared for with the least 

 possible work, in the same way that the 

 good Christian housewife would make prep- 

 arations for the Sunday dinner so that just 

 as little work as possible may be done on 

 Sunday. 



Now, there are nice questions that we 

 might take up in regard to the care of milk, 

 delivering it to customers, managing cheese- 

 factories, and no end of 'things connected 

 with farm work and rural industries; but 

 I hardly think it will be worth while. 

 Years ago there was a big storm during di- 

 vine service. A large tree fell across the 

 road, not only preventing peoplegetting home 

 from church, but it broke down the fences 

 on one side, and let out a lot of cattle, and 

 broke the fences down on the opposite side 

 so as to let the cattle into the cornfield. 

 What would the writer of the letter above 

 have advised in this case? I am sure I do 

 not exactly know. One of the oldest and 

 most strict deacons in our church got a 

 crosscut saw and helped saw out a log so 

 teams could get by. Others got the cattle 

 out of the corn and fixed up the fences. 

 You see there was quite a little work done 

 on Sunday, and hard work too. I suppose 

 some might have taken the ground that it 

 was not really necessary work — the teams 

 could have gone around and gone home by 

 a roundabout way. Come to think of it, 

 this would have been more work, for the 

 horses at least. The cattle would have 

 damaged the corn, and perhaps injured 

 themselves. 



Well, every farmer knows, even if I do 

 not mention it, that there are cases coming 



