1902 



GLEANIGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



991 



he wanted to withdraw from the church. 

 I remember hearing him tell the pastor of 

 the church that he would have withdrawn 

 long before if it had not been for his wife. 

 The pastor replied something- like this: 



"Dear brother Root, I am well aware 

 that your good wife has pulled you through 

 manj' troubles, and has succeeded pretty 

 well in keeping you from breaking away, 

 and getting out of the straight and narrow 

 path; and through God's providence I ex- 

 pect that your good wife will eventually 

 pull you through the pearly gates ; and 

 then her work so far as you are concerned 

 will be done. Now be patient and follow 

 her guidance, and do not let the enemy pre- 

 vail against her." 



The above are not the exact words, per- 

 haps, but the substance of what was said ; 

 and it was her privilege to see him breatlie 

 his last, at peace with all the world and 

 with God. 



Lest I give j'ou the impression that moth- 

 er was always and under all circumstances 

 of the non-resisting class I think I shall 

 have to mention that, a few times in her 

 life, she showed a spirit of war — that is, if 

 that is what it should be cal'icd. Once she 

 had soinethiug to do with a woman who 

 was coolly and deliberately bad. This 

 woman, if she had had an opportunity, 

 would have led some of our family astray. 

 Mother came out squarely for war. She 

 showed a spirit no one ever suspected in 

 her usually mild make-up ; and in conver- 

 sation with me afterward I was almost 

 startled to hear her say that she sometimes 

 thought that, where a woman of this kind 

 had given herself wholly over to Satan, and 

 made it her business in life, not only to 

 ruin mankind, and lead our youth in the 

 patli to ruin, but to break up homes, the 

 bestthingthatcould bedone with such women 

 was to biirn them up. You will remember 

 that there are places in the Bible where it 

 seems to teach as if the welfare of humani- 

 ty sometimes required that L.od should 

 bring swift destruction where there is no 

 hope that the guilty parties would ever be 

 any better. 



Now, dear friends, lest I give you the im- 

 pression that these peculiar traits I have 

 mentioned were the result of birth, or of be- 

 ing " built that way," to use a common ex- 

 pression, let me tell you that she gave her 

 childish heart into the Savior's keeping 

 when she was but eleven years old.* Her 

 mother was a devoted Christian ; but I am 

 sorry to say that her father was not a be- 

 liever. He gave her no help in her Chris- 

 tian life; in fact, it was the other way. He 

 was an upright, honest man; in fact, he 

 often prided himself on being more fair in 

 deal and upright in life than some of the 

 professing Christians about him. If I am 

 correct, he encouraged his daughter in go- 



* I,et me emphasize this point a little more. If there 

 is any credit, either in her life or mine, it belongs to 

 the gospel of Christ Jesus, and not to either of us. She 

 did not want praise, and I do not want praise. Give 

 God the praise. 



ing to neighborhood dances, and for a time 

 she went, perhaps mostly to please him. 

 But she very soon decided that the neigh- 

 borhood dance was not the place for a 

 Christian 3'oung woman, and I believe she 

 told him so, and asked him to excuse her 

 from going any more. During those early 

 years, when books and papers were not as 

 plentiful as now, her Bible was her almost 

 constant cotnpanion. I have heard her tell 

 about going into the fields with her Testa- 

 ment, and reading its precious passages by 

 moonlight. Truly her "delight" was "in 

 the law of the Lord." 



When she was about sixteen years old 

 she began to be beset with doubts, and she 

 began to fear that she was not a Christian; 

 and I have heard her tell many a time how 

 earnestly she praj'c-d over the matter, and 

 asked God to give her plain evidence that 

 would dispel all doubts along that line. 

 That evidence was given; and all through 

 her life she looked at it as something bor- 

 dering on the miraculous. At any rate, it 

 was so plain and clear that she never after- 

 ward doubted for one instant. Her faith 

 never wavered. 



I hope our readers will excuse me here 

 for speaking a little of myself. I came so 

 near d3'ing when I was about three years 

 old that a council of doctors said I would 

 have to die — there was no help. The doc- 

 tors gave me up; but sJie kept on praj'ing ; 

 and when she pulled me through after a 

 flickering life of mciuy weeks she declared 

 I was a child of promise, and held fast to 

 the idea, during quite a period, at least, of 

 partiat skepticism during my early man- 

 hood, that I would be converted. I remem- 

 ber very distinctly her saying to me one 

 day, when I was studying " Langstroth on 

 the Hive and Honey-bee," that the time 

 would come when I would study God's word 

 with just as inuch interest and deliglit as I 

 was then studying bees. Although we 

 laughed at her unswerving faith she ans- 

 wered that it would certainly come. She 

 did not know how soon, but she said some- 

 thing to the effect that, when God gave me 

 bacK to life in answer to her prayers, some 

 promise or assurance was given her that I 

 would in some way teach Christ and him 

 crucified. Poor mother! she watched and 

 waited a good man3' years before her pray- 

 ers were answered. 



Mother's life is ended; but her faith and 

 example will continue to make themselves 

 felt, not onl3' through her children but also 

 through her children's children, for man3' a 

 long 3'ear; and I think we can truthfully 

 say of her, " Blessed are the dead who die 

 in the Lord from henceforth: 3'ea, saith the 

 Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, 

 and their works do follow them." 



IS THE SALOON A BENEFIT TO A TOWN? 



Quite a number of people nowadaj's claim 

 that the saloon helps business, enables the 

 citizens to build better sidewalks with the 

 mone3' the3^ get from the saloon-keeper, etc. 



