1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



410 



0a^ JiBfiEg. 



Thou Shalt not covet thy ncig-hbor's «it'e, nor his 

 iiiuuscrvant, nor his maidserviiiit, nor his ox, nor 

 his ass, uor any thinf? that is tliy neighbor's.— Ex. 

 'M : 17. 



'IIILE I write this beautiful lOlh day 

 of May, ouv country is stirred by 

 lieree couliicts l)et\veen labor and 

 capital. With the beautiful weatli- 

 er we liave had, and the bright pros- 

 pects for bountiful crops, it would seem as 

 if not only all nature but all mankind should 

 be at peace with themselves and at peace 

 with God. Why must we have such troubles, 

 and this, too, in a land of liberty, and a land 

 of churches and Christian people? Some 

 will tell us it is caused by one thing and 

 some another. But is it not true, that the 

 one great prime cause is the breaking of this 

 last of the commandmentsV \Ve are con- 

 tinually wanting something that belongs to 

 our neighbors. I have been told that the 

 Chicago troubles were mainly caused by a 

 class of people that would take all the prop- 

 erty in the world away from the rich and 

 give it to the poor ; that is, that they would 

 luive it divided up and equalized. I have 

 not been told wlietlier gamblers and inebri- 

 ates and higliway robbers were to have an 

 equal share with the rest or not ; but I sup- 

 pose they would, of course, come in. The 

 only class that could think of w^anting such 

 an arrangement brought about would, of 

 course, be those who expect to gain, and 

 who are dissatisfied with the place in life 

 that God has seen tit to give them. Now, it 

 is not alone the gambler and inebriate and 

 the higliwayman who want what belongs to 

 their neighbors, but I am afraid, ray friends, 

 the disposition lurks to a greater or less ex- 

 tent in the hearts of all of us. While it is 

 true, that there are multitudes of good 

 peoi)le who do not want a copper but what 

 justly belongs to them, and who would not 

 find any happiness in the possession of some- 

 thing for which they had given no fair 

 equivalent, yet for all that these same good 

 people sometimes get mistaken notions 

 about the rights of property. Sometimes 

 one who is employed by a large tirm or 

 company gets into a way of fault-finding, 

 something like this : 



"Now, just look here; I have been at 

 work for Mr. A, B, and C, and have just 

 been coining money for them, and yet I get 

 only a paltry so much a month. If it were 

 not for me, their business would half go 

 down."" 



Or, perhaps. A, B, and C may get into a 

 way of speaking of some of the best of their 

 help as follows : 



'•Just look at that man. What was he 

 when we first took him into our employ? 

 lie was not earning, all together, fifty cents 

 a day. We took him in hand and taught 

 liim business principles. To make him feel 

 pleasant iind contented we advanced his 

 wages time and again, and are now really 

 paying him more than he is worth. But do 

 you suppose he ever thinks of it, or ever feels 

 a spark of gratitude? Not lie." 



Now, friends, the attitude of the employ- 

 ers is a bad one, and the spirit of the em- 



ploye is a bad one. On both sides there has 

 been the sin of covetousness, and the only 

 real, true, rational remedy for this sin is the 

 spirit of Christ— a spirit that prompts us to 

 make it our business in life to do good, and 

 to help the world along ; the spirit of suffer- 

 ing long and being kind, even to the un- 

 tlmnkful ; a spirit of not being puffed up ; 

 of not thinking of what is our own or our 

 just dues; of not being too hasty to think 

 evil ; the spirit that will enable us to bear 

 and believe and hope and endure. I have 

 told you before how this disposition grows 

 on us — a disposition to complain and find 

 fault when not getting our just dues. Do 

 you not see that it is in direct opposition to a 

 spirit of thankfulness? When Miss Ophelia 

 asked Eva where she had rather live, up 

 north or down south, she replied at once, 

 "Down south, by all means." When asked 

 for an explanation she replied, "Because 

 there are so many more to love down south," 

 meaning the negroes. Sometimes we com- 

 plain because our station in life compels us 

 to wait on so many different people. Read- 

 er, are you a waiter? If you are, instead of 

 complaining of your lot, rejoice because you 

 have so many more to love. Do you not 

 think such a spirit would do much to quell 

 the dissatisfaction that lias sown the seeds 

 for these present strikes that are stopping 

 our railway trains, stopping the freights in 

 many of our large cities, stopping mills, 

 coal-mines, and factories, because of the 

 disagreement between employer and em- 

 ployes—disagreement where there ought to 

 be thankfulness and warm friendship on 

 both sides? While so many are seeking 

 work, it seems to me the man who furnishes 

 work ought to be regarded as a public bene- 

 factor ; and while so many are seeking to get 

 faithful helpers, ought not those wlio pay 

 them their wages week by week and month 

 by month, to feel grateful because they have 

 efficient and faithful helpers? I suspect that 

 all these troubles attendant upon strikes 

 have started in the first place from a habit 

 of gossip in our homes. Perhaps at the fam- 

 ily meals we have been discussing imagined 

 wrongs when we ought to have given thanks 

 for undeserved blessings. Before eating our 

 food we ought to give God tlianks; and 

 then, to carry out the spirit of asking a 

 blessing, we ought to be, by Avord and action, 

 giving God thanks while we sit at the table ; 

 and thanks to God come pretty near, as you 

 know, to tlianks to our fellow-men. " Inas- 

 much as ye have done it unto one of the 

 least of these my brethren, ye have done it 

 unto me." If you liave said " thank you " 

 and fcU " thank you," to those who have 

 lielped you during the day, you have in one 

 sense said "thank you " and felt " thank 

 you " to Christ the Savior, llow little 

 chance there would be f\)r strikes and quar- 

 rels in our business relations, if this spirit of 

 thankfulness were cultivated and developed I 

 There is a Avant of faith between employer 

 and employe — a want of confidence. Each 

 seems to recognize the other as an enemy. 

 Each seems to recognize the other as greedy 

 and avaricious, and working only for the 

 "almighty dollar," and not for love to his 

 fellow-man. There is too much of greed 



