iyu2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



823 



up continually where property is {,''oing- to 

 waste unless the owner turns out and works. 

 Floods and storms injure crops that may be 

 saved by a certain amount of work. Yes, 

 I know, dear friends, that if we grant that 

 it is rig"ht to work on Sunday to save mon- 

 ey we may excuse a man for g^etting- in his 

 ha_v, and even go further. I have seen a 

 man running- his mower on Sunday because 

 it was the first good day they had had to 

 work for some time. I certainly would not 

 think of excusing- him for doing things like 

 that; and I do not believe such a man will 

 be prospered in the end. When I gathered 

 that sap on Sunda}' there was an unusual 

 run. Mr. Hilbert had been up all night 

 before; in fact, he was so used up for want 

 of sleep that he came pi'etty near being 

 cross that afternoon. His helpers did not 

 very much want to work — that is, the most 

 of them — and he was urging them to do 

 what they could to save the sap that was 

 rapidly going to waste from many hun- 

 dreds of trees. He is a man who does not 

 work on Sunday unless something extraor- 

 dinary demands it. In order to avoid things 

 of this kind he has a large cement cistern 

 made to hold the sap. But this cistern was 

 full, and every thing that would hold sap 

 was full. By working hard, however, un- 

 til the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, 

 we got ahead so no more sap went to waste, 

 and all hands went home to take a rest, and 

 I hope many of them in order that they 

 might attend the evening service at the 

 church.* 



Now, there are ever so many differences 

 of opinion, even among devoted Christians, 

 as to how much work we should do on Sun- 

 day to save property. We must milk the 

 cows, and we must feed the domestic ani- 

 mals. If the weather happens to be very 

 warm where milk is produced in large 

 quantities, it must be cared for to prevent 

 spoiling. Sometimes this can be done at 

 home, and in other cases the milk must be 

 carried to the trains ; and to do this the 

 trains must run on Sunday. I presume the 

 friends are all very well aware that I very 

 emphatically object to Sunday trains and 

 Sunday travel. Electric cars, so far as I 

 know, all run on Sunday. A near rela- 

 tive of ours comes to church Sundays by 

 the electric cars when she could not very 



* Is it not possible — nay, is it not likely— \.\\sX, with 

 my assistance for a short time with the dippers, I 

 helped them to get things in shape so the Sunday 

 work might stop a little earlier than it would have 

 been stopped otherwise— that is, by going around with 

 teams and emptying all the sap from the pails that 

 were running over as well as those that were not full ? 

 What I had in mind was to turn in and help so that 

 their Sunday work might be stopped sooner, so they 

 would have time to go home, and, as I have said, get 

 ready for church. I had hoped that my presence and 

 infiu'ence might induce some of them to attend the 

 services who would not have done so otherwise. They 

 did not know I was in the neighborhood, for I got in 

 the Saturday night before as you may remember, by 

 some very hard work on my wheel long after dark; 

 and I took this long hard ride after dark with the 

 idea in view of getting where I could remember the 

 sabbath day. to keep it holy; and I still had this idea 

 in mind when I gathered the sap with the tin dippers. 

 If I made a mistake I believe God's Holy Spirit, will 

 point it out to me. 



well g-et there in any other waj'. Expending 

 a nickel to go and another to return is vei 3'' 

 much less work than to get up a horse and 

 give the horse the necessary care. She has 

 sold her horse since the electric cars began 

 to pass by her home. Now, I am not de- 

 fending even electric cars on Sunday. With 

 the light I have on the matter, if I owned 

 these cars they would stand still from 12 

 o'clock Saturday night till 12 o'clock Sun- 

 day night; but I do not feel like criticising 

 my cousin, and telling her she had better 

 stay at home when the cars pass right by 

 her door. I really do not know just what 

 I would do under the circumstances. I 

 should prefer to go on foot if only myself 

 were to be considered. If I were pretty 

 sure some of my neighbors would say, 

 "There goes that cranky old fellow on foot 

 to church, when he could ride on the cars 

 for just a nickel — I don't think much of 

 such religion," perhaps I should consider 

 it the lesser of two evils to ride in the car. 

 It might depend on the company I usually 

 meet on that car. If they were mostly 

 Christian people going to church, perhaps 

 I ought to decide it was a new way of less- 

 ening Sunday labor. There are many new 

 questions just now coming up where we can 

 not well decide until we see the outcome. 

 "By their fruits ye shall know them." 



There is another thing, dear friend (by 

 the way, I wish you had not forbidden me 

 using your name), it is very hard work in- 

 deed for me just now to feel well and have 

 my natural enthusiasm unless I have some 

 brisk muscular exercise every day of my 

 life. For me to sit down and read even 

 good books all day Sunday', or, say, all the 

 time when not at church, would not only be 

 bad for me physically, but I fear it would 

 hurt me spiritually. I must get outdoors 

 and ramble around. I think God wants me 

 to do so, and I meet other people more or 

 less on Sunday. There are some kinds of 

 Sunday visiting that are all right, and 

 there are some which my conscience tells 

 me are prettj^ much all wrong. If I visit a 

 neighbor and have a long talk with him in re- 

 gard to standing out before the world for 

 Christ Jesus, and joining that little church 

 over among the hills, I feel happy and joy- 

 ous — ever so much better than if I had stay- 

 ed at home and read the Sunday Sc/iool 

 Times or my Bible — that is, if I tried to 

 read them all the time. I do read them a 

 great part of every Sunday — oftentimes com- 

 mencing my reading at daylight. If, how- 

 ever, I should visit this same neig-hbor, or 

 some other one, and look over his potatoes 

 and peach-trees, and find out all I could 

 about his methods, my conscience would 

 trouble me. A few days ago a stalwart 

 young man in my Sunday-school class — one 

 whom I have already' learned to love and 

 respect — said to me, as the school was clos- 

 ing, "Mr. Root, I should like to go over to 

 your place this afternoon and have a little 

 talk with you if you would not think it any 

 thing out of the way." I told him I should 

 be glad to see him, and to come along by 



