1082 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



the choice. " That does not make any difference, 

 my friend. You once stood up before one of 

 God's ministering servants and took the most 

 solemn oath ever assumed in all your life to 

 "love, cherish, and protect." I do not know 

 just the words you used, but doubtless you re- 

 member them. These words and this oath were 

 not taken before the court of men. It was before 

 the great Father above, who created us in his own 

 image. Let me beg of you, dear friends, to be- 

 lieve I am speaking the truth when I declare it 

 was the most solemn and sacred promise you 

 ever gave to anybody in your life ; and your 

 happiness here on earth and in the world to come 

 depends on how faithfully you keep this promise. 

 For the sake of the children, the fruit of your 

 union, if for nothing else, remember that 

 sacred obligation and be faithful to it to the last. 

 Ernest and our good pastor both laughed at 

 the idea that I objected to even the discussion of 

 this matter as it is discussed in the Home Journal. 

 They suggested that a woman may not have 

 written it; but I claim that it is poison all the 

 same, and I am sorry it ever came up. It is true 

 there are some good lessons suggested in it. For 

 instance, this husband under discussion used to- 

 bacco, and I want to make an extract from what 

 his wife says about it: 



I am perfectly willing that my husband should smoke, but in 

 some degree of moderation. Instead of that he smokes inordi- 

 nately — it is cigar after cigar, pipe after pipe, until the room is so 

 charged with smoke that I simply can not breathe. It is not the 

 smoke I object to so much, I think, as the absolute lack of con- 

 sideration for me on his part — his unwillingness to curb a grow- 

 ing selfish habit in the slightest degree. His lips and his mus- 

 tache invariably reek with the fumes of tobacco, and he knows 

 that 1 kiss him mechanically. Why do I kiss him at all .' I 

 know no better answer to this than that he is all I have. Even 

 with all his lacks and with a realization of all his sins against 

 me, I am glad, I suppose, that he kisses me at all. 



Now, the above is a big clip at the tobacco 

 habit. It seems to me the man who loves his 

 wife, especially if he is a Christian man, would 

 give up the habit for his wife's sake if for nothing 

 else. But suppose he does not give it up — sup- 

 pose he keeps right on; is his wife excusable for 

 saying if she had it to do over again she would 

 marry somebody else.'' She is not excusable. 

 Even the tobacco habit, much as I dislike it, is 

 not a sufficient reason for divorce*, nor for the 

 mother to let even the thought enter her mind for 

 an instant, that, if she had her life to live over 

 again, she would marry somebody else. It is 

 infidelity to the marriage vow and the marriage 

 obligation. It is opening the door to Satan and 

 letting him come in with other suggestions; and 

 when he once gets a hold of a human heart there 

 is no letting up, and finally comes separation, 

 perhaps divorce, and oftentimes murder. How 

 many times we have read in the papers where 

 some man and woman have connived together to 

 poison or put out of the way the obstacle (in the 

 way of husband or luife) whose presence, let us 

 say, prevents Satan from carrying out his plans! 



Some years ago, in these very Home papers, I 

 quoted the old proverb that " love will not go 

 where it is sent," and I declared with all the ve- 



*Much as 1 dislike and deplore the use of tobacco I am not sure 

 but that, in the sight of God, this woman is more to blame than 

 her poor husband. I mean that she is to blame for deliberately 

 summing up his shortcomings. If Mrs. Root should set seriously 

 about it, and make a business of compiling a list of my faults 

 and failings, knowing me, as she does, better than anybody else 

 in the world, I should fear for the result. 



hemence I could muster that the saying was one 

 of Satan's falsehoods. Love ijoill go "where it 

 is sent." The man or woman who has been per- 

 suaded by the Devil (for he is the one who does 

 all this kind of work) that she does not like or 

 love her lawful companion, can, if he or she so 

 decides, turn about and love the one he or she 

 is in duty bound before God to love and cherish. 

 Dear friends, I have had some experience along 

 this line during the years God has permitted me 

 to live. While Mrs. Root has one of the gentlest 

 and most lovable dispositions in the world, she 

 has also, when circumstances bring it out, about 

 as stubborn a disposition as any of us. Were 

 it not so, she would not have brought up her five 

 children and made them " toe the mark " as she 

 has done. Well, years ago, when we did not 

 know each other as we do now, especially before 

 I became a Christian, there were some clashings. 

 I remember a time when I had been praying most 

 earnestly in regard to some differences between 

 US; but I asked the Lord to help me, and he did 

 lead me. The outcome of it was a complete sur- 

 render. Probably a surrender on both sides — I 

 can not exactly remember, but she said something 

 like this: " Dear husband, when you love me and 

 treat me with the kindness and consideration you 

 have shown of late, I feel as if I could go through 

 fire and water to do any thing you wish to have 

 me do." Then in a little while this love and 

 kindness are reciprocated in a way that made me 

 think, if I did not say it out loud, " Bless the dear 

 little woman ! If I too would not go through 

 fire and water to please her, I should be most 

 heartily ashamed of myself." 



Just a word more in regard to this matter of 

 love that will not go where it is sent. Dime 

 novels and some silly poems tell us about people 

 who have been " true to the last." Because they 

 could not have the one they wanted they went 

 through life on the mourners' bench. I told you 

 about Dick Bassett up on the island near our 

 northern home. His girl would not have him, 

 and so he went off and lived all alone on the 

 island for eight years, just for spite. Finally she 

 relented and went to live with him on the island. 

 When he finally got the girl his fond ambition 

 had pictured all those eight years, according to 

 the dime novels they ought to have lived in bliss- 

 ful happiness evermore; but, if I remember cor- 

 rectly, she very soon declared she was not going 

 to be cooped up on that island for him or any- 

 body else. Then they tried living on the main- 

 land, and finally decided they could not live 

 together comfortably anywhere. Perhaps another 

 divorce ensued — I do not remember. 



Now I hope a couple of good friends of mine 

 will excuse me if I mention a little romance that 

 came under my observation. May be I do not 

 know all about it, but I guess I have the main 

 part of it about correct. 



Some fifty years ago a boy and girl who were 

 going to school together became acquainted, and 

 were finally engaged to be married. I think 

 some of the parents objected because the children 

 were too young. As usual, they had a disagree- 

 ment after a time, and each one was too proud to 

 relent, and so they separated. The young man 

 went to a distant State, and was gone quite a 

 spell. But after a time he felt that perhaps he 

 was to blame, and he came back to that country 



