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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 1 



dise with the penitent thief on that very 

 day, just as the New Testament states it. 



Let us now consider for a moment the 

 opinions of the great men of the present 

 day, say the great missionaries. It was my 

 good fortune to be intimately acquainted 

 with Dr. Ament, the great Chinese mission- 

 ary mentioned on page 23 of our previous 

 issue. Mr. Ament was for several years the 

 pastor of our church here in Medina. I have 

 had long confidential talks with him. After 

 his great work in China and his return to 

 .America I had confidential talks with him 

 again. I know what his opinion was, at 

 least in outline, of the future after death. 

 By the way, I think I have read in some of 

 the magazine^s that Dr. Ament did more to 

 bring heathen China out of the darkness of 

 heathenism into the light of the present-day 

 civilization than any other man. Dr. Ament 

 is dead and gone. A little pamphlet, "In 

 Memoriam of William Scott Ament," has 

 just been printed, and I wish to make ex- 

 tracts from three celebrated divines who 

 wrote articles for that book. 



In closing I have the sense of failure to express the 

 significance of Dr. Ament's work and character. I 

 have asked others to supplement my words; but I wish 

 to say for myself that, with the passing of this friend 

 to the other side, I have lost the precious consolation 

 of a true earthly friend in time of despondency. I 

 have lost a high note in the call to noble living. I 

 have lost a great inspiration to hard work and sacri- 

 fice for the Master. Lost these, did I say? Nay: they 

 are only removed from sense— idealized, spiritualized 

 —for our friend has but crossed a wider sea than the 

 Pacific; and as he entered the further Golden Gate the 

 breath of the eternal morning on his bewildered brow 

 has cleared the clouds that lowered over his mental 

 life. When he left us he scarcely recognized his clos- 

 est friends; yet we believe that now in the radiant 

 light of eternity, with clear vision and sympathy una- 

 bated, he looks on us with the same kindly loving in- 

 terest as of old, and that he also sees and knows the 

 loved Master for whom he wrought so long and faith- 

 fully — yea, and for whom he longed. Let us rejoice 

 with him that the longing is now satisfied, and that his 

 life is hid with Christ in God.— REV. G. D. Wilder. 



It seems to me standing here that he should yet be in 

 our midst, a man in the very prime of life; a man who 

 had the knowledge not only of the written but also of 

 the spoken Chinese language. We believe that tie is do- 

 ing hisfier woric noiv. and in due time ttie reason of his 

 removal will be made plain to us. And although the 

 church below seems to have been weakened by part- 

 ing with one of its ministers, yet it will be seen that it 

 is not weakened thereby, but strengthened. — Rev. J. 

 Wherry, D.D. 



We have prayed that his life might be spared for fu- 

 ture service in the work that had consumed the heart 

 and strength of his mature manhood. He does not re- 

 turn, for the loving Father has plans that reach beyond 

 our narrow vision. His work is not ended. His serv- 

 ice has only been transferred to anoth<»r field, to be 

 continued without pain, fatigue, or misunderstanding. 

 With a broader vision and boundless horizon his 

 strong personality will ever have unlimited scope for 

 activity.— Rev. H. H. Lowry, D.D. 



In the second one I have put a sentence 

 in italic, as follows: "I believe he is doing 

 higher work now, and in due time the rea- 

 son of his removal will be made plain to us." 

 The word "now " would refer to 1909. The 

 writer, Dr. Wherry, evidently believes that 

 the activity, at least of great reformers, does 

 not end with death, and I believe most ortho- 

 dox teachers accept this as the teaching.^ of 

 the Bible. During the life I have lived, I 

 have seen many busy good men called off 

 suddenly. I have known those who have 

 made great progress in rts and sciences 



and inventions of the world. Some of them 

 have marked peculiarities. I recall to mind 

 vividly one friend who was very emphatic 

 and abrupt. He was a pusher — yes, a vehe- 

 ment pusher — and he accomplished a lot of 

 things that would never have been done at 

 all if he had not done them. This vehement 

 man had several clashes with other workers 

 here in our factory, and I frequently had to 

 interpose. One night something had brok- 

 en down that would prevent us from start- 

 ing on time in the morning. This friend 

 was in poor health, but I found him away 

 back in the lower basement repairing a pul- 

 ley. He was not only in poor health, but 

 well along in years. I asked him if some 

 younger man could not do that fatiguing and 

 difficult work. He said he ,supposed he 

 could, but nobody else wanted to do it. I 

 inquired about his health, and asked him if 

 he did not feel very tired in working so late. 

 He replied something as follows: 



" Mr. Root, I do feel pretty tired; and I am 

 subject to a heart trouble that may take me 

 off any minute. But while God lets me live 

 I do not propose to shirk responsibility." 



I do not think his work that night djd him 

 any particular harm, but in less than one 

 year he was suddenly taken away. For 

 quite a time I missed his positive, vehement, 

 and sometimes aggressive ways, and I asked 

 myself the question if it was really true that 

 this man with his peculiar, vehement, posi- 

 tive, assertive temperament was suddenly 

 "cutoff," or "snuffed out, " as somebody 

 has expressed it; and I decided, perhaps 

 with that sort of instinct that God has im- 

 planted in us all more or less, that it did not 

 seem reasonable or true that my friend Gove 

 had been brought to an abrupt stop. 



Let us consider the man Edison for an il- 

 lustration.* I have followed him from his 

 childhood. He has done an immense service 

 to the world. He will probably die before a 

 great while — at least if he keeps on working 

 as he has been doing all his life. Now, is it 

 reasonable to think that his researches end 

 with the termination of his life here? Edi- 

 son has, by his indefatigable labor, opened 

 up to the whole wide world new and pre- 

 viously undiscovered territory in the realm 

 of science. He has pushed out into God's 

 domain where no other man has trod, and he 

 has opened up to the world the fact that 

 there are sf/// unexplored regions in the lines 

 of science and electricity that nobody ever 



* Edison has given the whole wide world a glimpse 

 behind the curtain of nature. We stand appalled as 

 we look into the view he has opened up. Years ago, 

 when I was a boy, we had " infidels," as we used to 

 call them, who claimed that there is no Godrand, fur- 

 ther, that there is no need of one. But such men have, 

 thank God, dropped out of sight. We do not see them 

 now nor hear of them. All mankind, at the present 

 time, seem to agree that there is some great personali- 

 ty wiio knows all about these hidden forces that man- 

 kind is just now exploring and opening up; and the 

 question comes up again and again, "Shall ii'c, some 

 time in the future, get a glimpse of the domain that is 

 now hidden by the confines of human life? " Is it in 

 God's plan to set us free and give us a knowledge and 

 comprehension that we may know him and his mighty 

 worlcs? Paul says in the 13th chapter of I. Corinthi- 

 ans, 12th verse, " For now we see in a mirror, darkly ; 

 but then face to face." 



