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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



seat; but before I had even flourished it 

 toward them I asked the Lord if such a 

 thing would have his approval. The answer 

 came very plainly as before, and I never 

 used the stick at all. I took it off the seat 

 of the auto as soon as I got home. The an- 

 swer came partly through a recollection of 

 those precious and beautiful texts that I 

 have already quoted : " Love ye your ene- 

 mies; do good to them that hate you;" and 

 " if thine enemy smite thee on one cheek, 

 turn to him the other also." The implica- 

 tion would be that I should be forgetting my 

 Christian character or standing, if I so 

 much as even flourished the yardstick to- 

 ward them. At every point I was handi- 

 capped — that is, handicapped so far as 

 striking back was concerned; and I confess 

 to you that it went awfully " agin the 

 grain," as my poor friend Fred expressed 

 it as we knelt together on the stone floor of 

 the old Medina jail. 



Many times our prayers are answered by 

 not being answered at all; or let us put it 

 this vfay: A child often asks for things that 

 would do him harm. The wise parent re- 

 fuses the request, and many times without 

 explaining why. When Joseph was cast 

 into the pit he no doubt prayed over the 

 matter; and the same way when he was sold 

 as a slave into Egypt; and again when he 

 was cast into a dungeon for refusing to be- 

 tray the sacred trust that had been con- 

 ferred on him; and, if I am correct, he 

 was something like two years in prison 

 without any prospect, so far as he could 

 see, that his prayers were answered or that 

 his liberty would be granted. God saw fit 

 to test his faith. In the same way Joseph 

 seemed to his brethren hard and cruel; but 

 he was only testing tJiem and sifting them 

 to see whether they had repented or reform- 

 ed since he had lost sight of them. Al- 

 though Paul had many wonderful answers 

 to prayer, there was one thing he prayed 

 about all his life, so far as we know ; and 

 yet his faith in the loving Father wavered 

 not. God did not see fit to remove the thorn 

 in the flesh, although he had, in answer to 

 prayer, given him gi-ace to bear it. 



My good friend, I have asked the Lord 

 repeatedly to guide me and to give me wis- 

 dom in regard to beekeeping, gardening, 

 poultry, health, eating, etc. ; and I would 

 gladly submit the matter to the readers of 

 Gleanings as to whether my prayers have 

 been answered or not. The large circulation 

 of our journal at present, the many kind 

 words that come for my department, urging 

 me to keep it up, is to me abundant proof 

 that my prayers have not only been answer- 

 ed but are still being answered. I think 

 vou will asTee with me that we have abun- 



dant reason to thank God for the wonderful 

 progress that is being made in the things 

 you have mentioned, not forgetting temper- 

 ance and religion; and my impression is 

 that this progress has come largely in an- 

 swer to earnest and faithful prayer. Not 

 only is the Bible being read now in a way 

 that it has not been before since the world 

 began, but there are more people praying 

 than ever before. 



Our second text admonishes us that God 

 prepares and plans his answers, even before 

 the i3rayer is uttered. How do we know 

 that God in his infinite love and goodness 

 did not plan letting those boys full of mis- 

 chief test my Christianity? One of the 

 writers in the Sunday School Times sug- 

 gests that, after we finish the study of the 

 histoi'y of Joseph, we should take a birdseye 

 view of the whole transaction. Sometimes 

 in traveling we get to the summit of a hill 

 where we can look back over the winding 

 road that we have traveled over during the 

 day. On the way to California you can 

 many times look back and see how the rail- 

 road l:as twisted here and there in order to 

 reach a certain point. Well, we want to 

 take a birdseye view of that story of Joseph 

 in the same way, and see the mysterious 

 and crooked ways through which Joseph 

 was led amid the perplexities and disap- 

 pointments at tlie hands of his brothers, and 

 yet which ended in placing him on the 

 throne of Egypt beside Pharaoh himself as 

 prime minister, and still later as the savior 

 of the nation. Joseph held fast to the faith 

 he had in God's many and gracious prom- 

 ises, and he had his reward. 



Our last text contains another wonderful 

 piece of information. In our prayer we 

 should ask for that which we think we need 

 and for that which is best for us. Jesus tells 

 us to ask it in his name, and that is why we 

 so often hear the expression at the close of 

 a prayer, " in Jesus' name," etc. He says 

 again, " Ask, and ye shall receive." This 

 implies that, if the answer does not come 

 all at once, as it does sometimes, by an en- 

 lightened conscience and intellect we know 

 it ivill come eventually. Then he finished 

 the sentence by saying, " That your joy may 

 be full;" and I confess that I never fully 

 realized what that means until this very 

 moment. After having that wicked and 

 spiteful spirit that I felt toward the boys 

 who annoyed me — after having that bad 

 spirit banished by prayer, I felt happy. 

 And, my good friends, whenever any of you 

 get to feeling spiteful and unpleasant to- 

 ward your neighbors, prayer will dispel 

 such feelings. Do you not agi-ee with me? 

 And when you are inclined to get into such 

 a frame of mind again, just breathe this 



