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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



Several times in our Home papeis we have had 

 a little talk about overcoming. There is a whole 

 string of promises in the book of Revelation con- 

 cerning those who overcome. Here are some of 

 them: "To him that overcometh will I give to 

 eat of the hidden manna;" again, " He that over- 

 cometh, and keepeth my works to the end, to 

 him will I give power over the nations;" again, 

 " He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed 

 in white raiment;" again, " Him that overcometh 

 will I make a pillar in the temple of my God;" 

 and, finally, " To him that overcometh will I 

 grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also 

 overcame and am set down with my Father in his 

 throne." 



I once heard a minister say, up in the back- 

 woods of Michigan, that this last promise meant 

 that God wanted a lot of good men to counsel 

 with him in regard to the affairs of the universe. 

 Every man who occupies an important position in 

 this nation of ours has about him, or ought to 

 have, some good wise men to advise him and 

 counsel with him; and this backwoods preacher 

 had the audacity to say that even God needs help 

 and counsel from human beings; and he said that 

 those who had learned to overcome all selfish and 

 wrong feelings were going to sit with God on his 

 throne, and receive a commission from him to 

 help him do his work. Now, you can take the 

 suggestion for what it is worth. One thing we 

 know is that God does need the help of good 

 men in this world of ours. I do not know as yet 

 what he will want us to do in that great unseen 

 and unknown world. 



While I was considering whether that statement 

 in the Press could be absolutely true, our Medina 

 people were favored by a lecture from Dr. N. C. 

 MacCormick, of Bowling Green, Ky. — a physi- 

 cian of world-wide reputation. Well, this doc- 

 tor gave us the statistics and illustrations from all 

 over the world, corroborating every point made 

 by the editor of the Press. He said that the sin 

 and suffering and pain and death of the present 

 age are due, at least to a very great extent, to 

 brutes in human form, many of them, it would 

 seem, who never ought to be permitted to live. 



May God be praised for the temperance wave 

 now spreading over the whole world, that promises 

 to eliminate such hellish work and stop to a great 

 extent this matter of bringing cripples into the 

 world, and children born blind. 



Now, do not think that I am condemning eve- 

 rybody else, and holding myself up as a pattern 

 of what a man should be. God forbid. When 

 I was a boy (I am ashamed to tell it) my boyish 

 mind was poisoned by evil associates to some ex- 

 tent, and by bad books to some extent. Thank 

 God, that, through Anthony Comstock's inde- 

 fatigable labor, bad books have been mostly ban- 

 ished. Mind you, I do not say my body was poi- 

 soned, for my good father and mother watched 

 over me too closely for that; but when I was get- 

 ting toward marriageable age I rather enjoyed 

 the fun, as I called it then, of persuading — that 

 is, to a greater or less extent — any bright girl 

 whom I came across to think (perhaps in pleas- 

 antry) that she was to me the center of the uni- 

 verse, or was at least for the time being. It was 

 what we used to call at that time " having fun 

 with the girls." Some of us had fun with several 

 different girls at a time. When I became ac- 



quainted with Mrs. Root, however, she gave me 

 to understand that, if I proposed to call on her 

 regularly — that is, in a way that would attract 

 the attention of people to the matter — that I 

 could not at the same time keep up similar rela- 

 tions with other girls. She said I was, of course, 

 at perfect liberty to do as I pleased; but if I con- 

 tinued to call on her as I had been doing, I would 

 have to make a choice. Now, I remember distinct- 

 ly of thinkingat that time that I would rather not 

 get married, even if I -xvas of marriageable age. 

 I thought I could have more fun, and get more 

 enjoy ment out of the world, without being " hitch- 

 ed up for life " to any special woman. May God 

 forgive me for letting such a thought come into 

 my mind. 



By the way, friends, let us consider this thing 

 a minute; and I wish to speak now particularly 

 to men say between twenty-five and forty years 

 of age. Why did God send you into this world.? 

 Was it to get all you can out of it for your own 

 particular self, to haxefun with every thing, say 

 with some pretty girls or some nice bright intelli- 

 gent woman and all the rest.? If so, you do net 

 deserve a human life; and if you follow out that 

 selfish course you will never find any Iriie happi- 

 ness. It is the people of that class who commit 

 suicide. Ernest has often laughed at me tor my 

 fashion of asking every bee-keeper, or anybody 

 else with whom I become acquainted, if he is 

 married and has a family. But I still think I am 

 right, that every good man should be a married 

 one. A minister has no business being a preach- 

 er, and I do not think he ever becomes very inuch 

 of a preacher in God's sight (and I hope he does 

 not in the sight of humanity), until he is married 

 to some good woman or has some good woman 

 in view, and lets everybody know that he expects 

 to be a married man. I do not care who this 

 hits, for I am sure I am right about it. And the 

 same thing is true of a doctor. There are some 

 greater reasons why a doctor should be a married 

 man than perhaps any other professional man in 

 the world. How can a doctor take up his work 

 of helping humanity as he ought to donniW he has 

 a wife and children.? 



The article that I quoted from the Press tells 

 us that it is the fault of the men themselves in 

 half of the childless homes for having such homes. 



Let me put this matter of going through life 

 without marriage in another way. I recently met 

 an old friend of many years ago — a good man 

 and an able one — and yet he is not a married man. 

 I said to him, as I stood before my two sons, 

 Ernest and Huber, "Mr. A., I regret to know 

 that you are still unmarried. Now, suppose I 

 had done as you have done, and yielded to that 

 selfish temptation to go through life without mar- 

 riage; then these two good men who supply read- 

 ing-matter for our journal (I am sure our readers 

 will excuse me when I say this) would never have 

 had an existence." 



The editor of the Press spoke about burning 

 out the eyes of a day-old babe with a hot wire, 

 and we shudder at the thought; and I believe all 

 mankind agree that it is a crime, and a terrible 

 one too, in the sight of God and man, to murder 

 these little innocents even before they are born. 

 Well, how about the man or woman who refuses 

 to give these little innocents even a chance to live.? 



A good friend of mine, who at that time lived 



