780 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



this old prayer so many times that it falls 

 on our ears, I fear, without meaning, it is 

 a wonderful prayer after all. I wonder if 

 the Holy Spirit will give me grace and 

 wisdom to present it to your view from a 

 little different angle or view-point. I have 

 often wondered if the dear Savior consider- 

 ed or waited a while before he gave us that 

 brief petition for a copy. I am inclined to 

 think he gave it offhand. First, he says, 

 " Our Father who art in heaven." What does 

 that mean? First, we are told that God has 

 a dwelling-place, and that his dwelling-place 

 is heaven. There has been a good deal of 

 talk about heaven here on earth; and I am 

 quite in agi'eement with the statement that 

 we can have both heaven and hell here in 

 this world, and it is largely a matter of our 

 own choosing. Well, Jesus told us that all 

 prayer should be addressed to our Father in 

 heaven. What next? " Thy kingdom come, 

 thy will be done on earth as it is done in 

 heaven." Heaven is not only Grod's dwell- 

 ing-place but his kingdom, and God has 

 subjects there. They are loyal, faithful 

 subjects, trusting in him — a place where 

 his will is the constant effort of every one 

 of his subjects. 



We might speculate as to what sort of 

 place God's kingdom is. Now, I need not 

 try to explain it, for the dear Savior spent 

 a lot of time in trying to explain to his 

 faithful followers what God's kingdom is 

 like, as we see in the 13th chapter of Mat- 

 thew. Get the good book and go over it 

 yourself. Now, Corwin, you and I specu- 

 lated sixty years ago as to what the future 

 would be here in this world, or after we 

 had left the world. I supjiose that, during 

 all of our separate lives, we have wondered 

 and conjectured as to what we are here for. 

 What is to be the outcome? What does 

 God expect of us? What did he expect 

 Avhen he created us and gave us our physical 

 bodies and our mental and si^iritual intel- 

 lects also? Is it at all reasonable to sup- 

 pose that he would lose interest in man, the 

 crowning work of his creation? You and 

 I have witnessed the wonderful develop- 

 ments in electricity, X-rays, radium, etc. 

 Are we to drop it when old age comes on 

 and we pass away? God forbid. 



I forgot to mention, when I quoted the 

 first word of that prayer, we are told God 

 is our Father. A father never loses interest 

 in his children. His whole life, as a rule, 

 is spent in making the best provision for 

 them he knows how. God is our Father. 

 Are these busy lives of ours to be all there 

 is of it ? Shall we never get a better glimpse 

 of astronomy than we have here from our 

 comparatively small and narrow standpoint 

 in the universe? God forbid. I fully ex- 



pect to get a glimpse of these " eight mil- 

 lion suns " you have talked about, far, far 

 beyond and above what any telescope can 

 reveal in this world of ours. 



Did you ever stojD to consider how many 

 times Jesus promised over and over " ever- 

 lasting life," or eternal life — a life beyond 

 the lives we live here? He kept saying it 

 over and over, in substance, " Whoso liveth, 

 and believeth in me, shall never die." 



Now to get back to where we started. Is 

 it iDossible that God can recognize and listen 

 to us individually with all the responsibil- 

 ities he has on his hands? 



Last night in closing down our wood- 

 working factory some of the machinery 

 gave out. In fact, we are just now at work 

 putting in different boilers and a new en- 

 gine. I was awaj' when the mishap occur- 

 red. When I arrived home I questioned as 

 to whether the hands had been notified tliat 

 we could not start up our wood-working 

 machinery in the morning, and I fear 

 our people did not consider it as a very 

 serious matter for a lot of good faithful 

 hands to come here with their dinner-pails 

 without exjDecting they would have to be 

 sent back home. The matter worried me so 

 much that I awoke several times in the 

 night. Twenty minutes before the whistle 

 blew I stationed myself near the entrance 

 at the time desk, and explained to each 

 man and boy the condition of affairs; and 

 with the help of other members of the firm 

 we studied up work that needed to be done 

 about the premises until they all had a job; 

 and I did not breathe easy nor feel happy 

 until each one who wanted work was start- 

 ed. Tibere was seasoned basswood to be 

 taken down from the hill; and in order to 

 have the teams and wagons in readiness I 

 was up before five ; but it was quite a 

 resiionsibility on my old shoulders to plan 

 some useful work for toward a hundred 

 Ijeople until the " wheels could go around " 

 once more. Some of you may laugh at the 

 idea of being responsible for only a hundred 

 or less workmen. Down at the Panama 

 Canal, now nearing completion, Goethals 

 had charge of something like ten thousand 

 men. We had to ransack the world, how- 

 ever, to find a man who was gTeat enough 

 and big enough to undertake the task. He 

 is now finishing it, and it promises to be 

 one of the greatest triumphs of the world 

 and of the age. Our country is producing 

 such men ; but I confess there ai'e only a 

 few of them. 



Now, dear old friend, we might try (but 

 that is about all we could do) to compre- 

 hend a being who can lay plans and keep 

 in mind the best good and tlie well-being of 

 all the people in this great world, or some- 



