GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE 



exhibitions of wrecked humanity? and why 

 are there so many of them in almost every 

 county? This wise mother might have 

 told him just what was one of the gTeatest 

 agencies in bringing this about. But I do 

 not know but she was wiser still when she 

 pointed him to one of the texts that I have 

 chosen at the head of this paper. Come to 

 think of it, I do not know after all that she 

 called his attention to the text. I do not 

 know what words she used, but it was some- 

 thing to this effect, and the boy has never 

 forgotten it, even though now he is a grown 

 man. The mother told him at least a large 

 l^art of the idiocj' and imbecility came from 

 breaking a holy command that God has not 

 only written in his word, but has implanted 

 in the heart of every child of humanity, 

 more or less. Let me digress a little right 

 here. 



From the time w'e come into this world 

 until we step out, dangers beset us on every 

 side. The babe is onlj' a few months old 

 when it reaches out its hands to the hot 

 stove or to the candle, and is told, " Burny ! 

 barn ! Mustn't touch it," and so on through 

 life it has to learn. Sometimes when it is 

 all by itself it thinks it Avill try the experi- 

 n:ent and see what tlie consecjuences will 

 I.e, and, sure enough, the little tender finger 

 is burned, and it gets a lesson in the w-ay of 

 punishment. Eve told the tempter that God 

 said they should not only refrain from 

 eating of the tree of knowledge, but that 

 they should not even " touch it." 



My dear friends, there are things in the 

 make-up of all of us where danger lurks 

 near, whenever we even so much as touch 

 the forbidden thing. Not only has God's 

 holy word forbidden our touching it, but 

 our consciences that he has implanted with- 

 in us to tell us when we are getting over 

 on to the danger ground. None of us know 

 exactly, but it has always seemed to me 

 quite probable that God projiosed, in his 

 own time — that is, when Adam and Eve ar- 

 rived at the proper stage of human life — to 

 make known to them all about the fruit of 

 that tree, the tree of the knowledge of good 

 and evil; but, as I have said, we don't know 

 exactly about this. We do know, however, 

 that God has planned, Avhen we are fully 

 matured, to give us knowledge that would 

 be hurtful and dangerous to childhood and 

 early manhood and womanhood. If you 

 want to live to a good old age, and if you 

 want to enjoy to the fullest extent every 

 year of your life, let me urge of you to 

 cultivate not only pure actions and words 

 but pure thoughts. " Blessed are the jDure 

 in heart, for they shall see God." This one 

 beautiful text covers the whole of it ; and 



you know when you are pure in heart 

 (when you permit other than pure thoughts 

 to enter your mind) better than anybody 

 can possiblj^ tell you. Sometimes jDarents 

 excuse their sons by saying the young man 

 is sowing his wild oats, and that in due 

 time he wdll get over it and come down 

 steadj' and honest. Perhaps the \vov& honest 

 is not just the one I should use here; but 1 

 think, after all, I will let it remain. Sup- 

 pose he does get his crop of wild oats 

 sow'u, and settles downi honest and steady, 

 and marries a good girl. Do not those wild 

 oats, sown long ago, bear any crop? My 

 dear friend, the crop is the one I have men- 

 tioned in the infirmaries, poorhouses, and 

 insane-asylums in this land. Do you w'ant 

 to contribute to such a crop? Whatsoever 

 a man soweth, that shall he also i"eap. 



God has wisely planned to arrange so 

 that the best years of every man and woman 

 shall be used for the production of off- 

 spring. If you want to make a good con- 

 tribution to humanity, it is not wise or well 

 to commence too early in life. Wait until 

 you are fully matured. In the same way 

 it is not wise nor good sense, in ever so 

 many ways, to delay the matter too long; 

 in fact, God has placed a limit to mother- 

 hood, and I have sometimes thought he 

 ought also to have placed a limit on all. I 

 do know that old men frequently, after 

 having given up the cares of life, perhaps 

 moved into town and settled down to take 

 tilings easy, still allow thoughts to take 

 place in their minds that should be put 

 away and forgotten for ever. I have known 

 friends of vay acquaintance who have gone 

 to the insane-asylum, I think just because 

 they gave up work and persisted in indulg- 

 ing in things that ought to have been put 

 awa}^ long ago. If 3'ou want to live to be 

 a hundred years old, if you want to have 

 the full use of the powers of both mind 

 and body, do not, I beseech you, ruin your- 

 self, both body and soul, by letting selfisli 

 and ignoble feeling-s have any place in your 

 thoughts or actions or life. I feel quite 

 confident that there are people Avhose ej-es 

 rest on these pages who have had glimpses 

 of the insanity and imbecility that eom'^ 

 right along the very line on which I am 

 talking. Perhaps they heeded the warning 

 that God sent, for I feel sure it is God 

 himself who does send such w^arnings to 

 turn us back into the straight and narrow 

 path. The very first pages of the Bible tell 

 us that man was created in God's own im- 

 age, and we are told in the back part of that 

 same holy book that we are designed to be 

 temples of the Holy Ghost. How can the 

 Holy Ghost have any place or any perma- 



