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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



of the Bible. I tried to excuse myself one 

 Sunday morning by saying, " Mrs. Root 

 forgot to bring ours." But the superin- 

 tendent would not accept that as a good 

 excuse; and when I was obliged to see there 

 was no other way I carried my own Bible 

 every time. 



Well, my good pastor of the Congrega- 

 tional Church here in Medina is following 

 Bro. Rood. May be, however, he is ahead 

 of him. As soon as he came to Medina he 

 commenced building up our prayer-meeting 

 — yes, " building up " is the word ; and just 

 as soon as the meeting was opened on 

 Thursday night he would say, just as Bro. 

 Rood does, " How many of you have your 

 Bibles in hand? Hold them up." 



Now, although it is not a part of the dis- 

 covery I am going to relate, I want to say 

 right here that our Medina prayer-meeting 

 has been built up from a dozen or so (per- 

 haps more in good weather) to over 100, 

 We recently had 127 out to our week-day 

 prayer-meeting. Yes, they Avere " mostly 

 women," as you may guess; but may God 

 be iDraised for the women. They are going 

 to vote pretty soon here in Ohio, and then 

 you will see whether or not they will 

 '' count," and count for righteousness. 



Well, since I have opened tlie way pretty 

 thoroughly, as you will probably all agree, 

 I now want to announce my discovery. 

 Nobody thinks of objecting — surely not the 

 pastor of the church — if you open the Bible 

 you have been carrying under your arm and 

 read it at every opportunity when one min- 

 ute seems going to waste. If I get there 

 early I read my Bible; and while they are 

 singing — at least while the choir is singing* 

 — I I'ead my Bible. And while they are 

 taking up the collection I read my Bible. 

 I began with Genesis and have read it to 

 myself in church, clear up into Exodus. 

 During our Sunday-school lessons in Gen- 

 esis I read many parts of that book over 

 and over; and it has not only been a great 

 help but a gi-eat blessing as well. Of course, 

 I do not think of reading even the Bible 

 when our pastor is speaking or when they 

 are singing, and the audience is expected 



* Years ago, even before I was a Christian, I 

 made the discovery that I could enjoy a good book 

 or a good story, for that matter, very much better 

 ■when listening to music. When my two sisters were 

 playing together on what we called a melodeon in 

 those days I would many times get a favorite book 

 and get enthusiasm and inspiration from the book 

 and music together; and throughout all my life, if 

 I want to enjoy looking at a beautiful picture or 

 painting, or even a piece of statuary, I sometimes 

 have a craving for music for an accompaniment. 

 Now, then, while the choir were singing some beau- 

 tiful anthem I would turn over and read the story 

 of .Joseph; and with the inspiration of the music, 

 and, I may say also, with the sense of the presence 

 of the Holy Spirit, I could comprehend God's deal- 

 ings with mankind in a way that would be almost 

 impossible without the stimulus of inspiring music. 



to join in. I try not to be so rude as to 

 read while anybody is talking — that is, 

 when he is talking about any thing I am 

 expected to hear. 



Now, if you want to test my discovery 

 and decide for yourself whether it is a great 

 discovery or not, take your Bible — the one 

 you are used to and are familiar with, to 

 Sunday-school, prayer-meeting, Christian 

 Endeavor meeting, to the Y. M. C. A., or 

 to the Men's Brotherhood. When the Bible 

 or something from the Bible is touched on, 

 you want to be able to put your finger on 

 it quick. I am getting to be quite an ex- 

 pert, if you will excuse so much boasting, 

 in turning to any passage quickly that may 

 be inquired about or called for; and you 

 do not know how happy I feel over it. 

 Now ask your pastor and Sunday-school 

 sui^erintendent or any other good authority 

 if anybody can think of objecting to your 

 having a Bible with you, especially on Sun- 

 day, and reading it at every spare moment. 

 Does God's word indorse my discovery in 

 that beautiful first Psalm — " in his law doth 

 he meditate day and night " ? Of course, 

 all people do not look at the Bible and re- 

 gard it as I do ; but I think I may safely 

 say that it does not make any diffei'ence 

 who you are or what you believe, it will 

 richly repay you to become conversant with 

 that book. If you are a skeptic or an in- 

 fidel, and will continue to read the Bible as 

 I have been reading it year in and year out, 

 it will do you a vast lot of good. I think 

 I may safely say it will be money in your 

 pocket, although I dislike to speak of the 

 Scriptures in that way. Let me tell you 

 a little story I have told before. It fits in 

 exceedingly well right here. 



My good friend Irving Keck, who occa- 

 sionally writes for these pages, was a well- 

 to-do banker, and started oft with his wife 

 and family to locate in Southern Florida. 

 In order to reach their destination they 

 were obliged to take a long drive through 

 a large piece of woods, without any human 

 habitations on the w'aj^ Their route took 

 them over a road that had been very much 

 injured by floods. When out in the woods, 

 miles from any dwelling, their wagon was 

 overturned ; and while the good wife was not 

 much injured, their year-old baby was kill- 

 ed. There was no other way than to bury 

 the little darling of the household in that 

 lonely spot — at least for the time being. 

 The mother was a professing Christian, but 

 the father was not. At that date (years 

 ago), it was not customary or "fashion- 

 able " for bankers to be professing Chris- 

 tians. I wonder if there has not been a 

 change for the better since that time. Well, 

 before that sad household had fixed up to 



