ISSG 



GLEAXlXCiS IN BEE CULTURE. 



151 



0a^ pej^Eg. 



Supper being ended, the devil .... put it 

 into the heart of Judas Iseariot, Simon's son, to 

 betray him.— John 1.3: 3. 



'IIO is there uLo has not pondered 

 over this strange and apparently in- 

 comprehensible matter of sin in the 

 hnman heart? We might almost 

 think that poor Judas was not very 

 much to blame liere. Sometimes we are al- 

 most inclined to think it Avas the devil's 

 fault entirely. Had lie left poor Judas 

 alone, Judas "might have been as good as any 

 of the rest of the disciples. These questions 

 are imdoubtedly beyond our province ; but 

 even if they are, does it follow that the oth- 

 er disciples were left alone? Didn't Satan 

 try them, each and all? What is sin, any 

 way, and what is the use of it? 1 speak 

 reverently, without any disposition to ques- 

 tion the wisdom of the Almighty. In fact, 

 I wish in tliis paper to help you all, dear 

 friends, toward a better comprehension of 

 God's wisdom, goodness, and love to us, his 

 poor fallen creatures. 



A temperance lecturer gave me a vivid 

 iilea of sin, a few evenings since, when, per- 

 liaps, he did not intend to. He was likening 

 intemperance to the cholera, and he spoke of 

 the time when the cholera threatened to in- 

 vade the shores of America. He told how 

 we all went to work, not only in the large 

 cities, but in the towns and villages, to pre- 

 pare to meet the dreaded foe. ' We estab- 

 lished boards of health, who went around 

 and examined the cellars and outbuildings, 

 and they were clothed with authority to de- 

 mand and insist that the people should be 

 clean, and take care of themselves. Our 

 cities weie purified and slicked up; our 

 most intelligent pliysicians and scientists 

 jiointed out the probable cause of such epi- 

 demics, and from one end of the land to the 

 other a general reform was inaugurated. 

 Did we meet and conquer the foe? Yea, 

 more. The result was as any sane man or 

 w'oman might have guessed." Not only did 

 we keep awav the cholera, but tlie death-rate 

 Avas rendered less, to the jiimiber of inhabi- 

 tants, than it had ever been before. We 

 demonstrated, by ligures, that not only chol- 

 era, but tyi)hoid" fever, yellow fever, and no 

 one knows h<iw many other ailments, were 

 capable of being controlled. Welbegan to 

 see that disease could l>e led captive, the 

 same way in which father Cole has " the 

 waters led captive." The point the lectiuer 

 made was this: Who did this, and who 

 should have the credit of it? Was.it the 

 llepublicans? Surely not. No such thought 

 was ever uttered, that to the Hepublicans be- 

 longed the credit of the sanitary measures 

 put in force in our cities. Well," was it the 

 Democrats? Why, no. Was it the Prohi- 

 bitionists, or were the Trohibitionists more 

 active than any of the otlier parties in this 

 matter? True, they might have been, an<l 

 may be they were; in fact, I think they 

 ouyht to have hern, according to their profes- 

 sion ; l)ut nobody ever mentioned it, if such 

 WHS the case. Neither was it any religious 

 sect, nor was it the women who led thp 



movement principally. Of course, they did 

 their part, and may be in one sense they 

 took the lead, because women are naturally 

 more in favor of order, cleanliness, and pur- 

 ity, than the men are ; but they never 

 claimed any more credit, and no one ever 

 claimed it for them. To whom, then, does 

 the credit belong? Why, to all of us. The 

 people united, no matter Avhat were their 

 politics, religion, age, or sex ; and when you 

 get our American people united on any 

 thing, we are hnmul to succeed. Did you 

 know it, my friend? Well, why can't we be 

 united in other good Avorks? Why not be 

 united in resistiiig Satan, the prince of all 

 evil, and the prince of the powers of dark- 

 ness. AVhy, the great truth lies here : The 

 cholera was a common foe ; the cholera 

 hadn't a friend any where. Even the man 

 or woman who had determined on suicide 

 didn't want the cholera. He was recognized 

 as a miiversal enemy and tiend, and we 

 massed our powers "against him. Now, 

 then, wliy not do the same way with intem- 

 perance? or, if you choose, viiiy not do the 

 same Avith sin and Satan in crcr;/ form? Be- 

 cause men Jove evil in its A^aried forms. Je- 

 sus told us, centuries ago, that " men loved 

 darkness rather than light, because their 

 deeds AA'ere evil." But, Avhy do men loA^e 

 evil? To get a better vicAv of it, Avhy do we 

 love evil? Wliy shouldn't evil be like the 

 cholera — a hideous and hated foe to every 

 one? Perhaps, had Adam not fallen, such 

 might have been the case ; but so long as 

 the fact remains that it is not the case, and 

 that we, for the time being, love sin and 

 Satan. Avill it not be Avisest for us to meet it 

 as it is? We are in a fallen Avorld : Avhat 

 shall Ave do? 



I have talked to you at different times, of 

 late, in regard to making tb.e elements, that 

 do us harm, our servants. The sudden and 

 terrible frosts of Avinter get into our cellars, 

 and freeze our vegetal)les, and aAvay go hiui- 

 dreds of dollars in a single night, because 

 AA'e didn't expect such a freeze. During this 

 present Avinter. Ave are told that the friends 

 in Florida Inue suffered the loss of OA^er a 

 million of dollars by the freezing of their 

 oranges, and that such a frost has not been 

 known before for over lifty years. Shall Ave 

 sit down helpless before old Boreas, and call 

 it a "'dispensation from Ciod,'' and say there 

 is no help? CJod forbidi By the help of 

 science, we shall get more and more able to 

 manage these erratic forces of nature. Let 

 us employ these freezes in converting water 

 into big ])locks of ice ; and let us carry the 

 big blocks of ice into these same cellars, and 

 make them arrest rot and decay in these, 

 same fruits and vegetables that the frost 

 Avas before liable to destroy. By recent in- 

 ventions in cold-storage rooms, apples can 

 l)e kept safely from one year to another. 

 Strawberries can Ije bought up, when live 

 cents a (luart, and kept until the glut in the 

 market has passed by, and then sold at good 

 paying prices. A\'e do this Ijy simply know- 

 ing how. The frost becomes our hionljlc and 

 obedient servant, and does our bidding so 

 faithfully that a good cold - storage room 

 need not vary more than two or three de- 

 grees in a year. Careful experiments hfvye 



