196 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



and hard. I have often pondered on this, 

 and I have watched the lives of great, strong, 

 good men, to see liow nearly they could go 

 through life and live at peace with all men, 

 as Paul advises. One miy get along in the 

 world by letting things go about as he 

 finds them ; but if he takes hold of the 

 work of rebuking sin, he must meet 

 trials and ditflculties. 1 have often told you 

 of the pleasant friends and neighbors we 

 have here in our factory. I have told you, 

 too, how many times I have thanked God for 

 sending to me such pleasant neighbors and 

 companions ; but yet, dear children, it is not 

 all pleasant. As a rule, those who have 

 once worked here prefer to stay ; and al- 

 though occasionally a boy or girl wants to go 

 away, as I shake hands with them in parting, 

 I sometimes tell them that they will probably 

 come back again after a while, and they al- 

 most always do. Even our girls after they 

 get married, frequently come back and want 

 to take their old places. We are rejoicing 

 now in having our friend Ida with us again, 

 although when she got married and went 

 away last summer we hardly expected to 

 have her among us again. Such things are a 

 comfort to me, for it indicates that those 

 who go out on the world and try getting 

 work elsewhere seem to miss the pleasant 

 associations and intliiences of our home here, 

 as it were ; and it always does me good to 

 receive a letter from one of our former help- 

 ers, asking if he can not have his old place 

 back again. Now about the unpleasant 

 part. 



Employing, as we do, over one hundred 

 different people, of all ages and dispositions, 

 it would be strange indeed if it did not hap- 

 pen now and then that the good of the estab- 

 lishment makes it necessary that some one 

 of the number be suspended, or dismissed 

 altogether. How shall this be done V How 

 shall a Christian employer tell one of his 

 helpers he can not keep him any longer V Of 

 course, the tirst thing to do is to go to him 

 as I went to the drinking man, and tell him 

 plainly and kindly what he may expect if he 

 does not amend. More than that, the em- 

 ployer should be patient and long suffering, 

 and not until he is fully satistied that there 

 is no hope of amendment should he decide 

 upon a dismissal. How can such a thing be 

 done, and be done with kindness V or, indeed, 

 can it be done at all so the one dismissed 

 will take it kindly V With sadness and sor- 

 row I have been obliged to decide there i.-< no 

 way. If the one who is reproved or rebuked 

 is trying to do right, there probably will be 

 no trouble ; for a Christian will take reproof 

 meekly and quietly, and without hard feel- 

 ing, even though the reproof be undeserved 

 and unjust. Do you know what J'eter says V 



What glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your 

 faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do 

 well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is ac- 

 ceptable with God.— 1. Peter 2:20. 



One who deliberately proposes to do wrong, 

 however, will usually take reproof or rebuke 

 in a hard and revengeful spirit, and will lay 

 up and cherish hard feelings, many times 

 for years. I have often been called very pa- 

 tient, and-in some respects I presume I am 

 patient, especially since I have been trying 

 to serve the Master; but yet there are few 



things I have prayed more earnestly for than 

 for more charity, more love, and more for- 

 bearance with my fellow-men. I have heard 

 my mother say, that when I was but a wee 

 child, busy with my playthings on the floor, 

 I was remarkable for my wonderful amount 

 of patience. The older children sometimes 

 used to have sport with me by trying to see 

 how far my forbearance would go. They 

 would ioir down my machinery and houses, 

 and with great pains and meekness I would 

 go to work slowly and build it all up again. 

 If knocked down once more, I would proba- 

 bly let it go, and go to work and do it all over, 

 and so on, till a stranger might be tempted 

 to think I had no spunk at all. liut my moth- 

 er, who knew me better, said she always 

 knew that my patience would hold out only 

 to a certain limit : if tried beyond that limit, 

 or until I was thoroughly aroused, I became 

 a tiger, almost, with passion. I then fright- 

 ened the whole household by the vehemence 

 and unscrupulousness with which I grasped 

 whatever might be at hand, and soon made 

 my persecutors flee as if for their lives. Long 

 and patiently did my kind mother strive 

 with me through my earlier years, to beware 

 of this bad temper ; and in later years I have 

 learned by the grace of God to keep down 

 these feelings (even when I felt that forbear- 

 ance had ceased to be a virtue, as the saying 

 is) and, instead of breaking forth vehement- 

 ly, to do what must be done, with meekness 

 and gentleness, and I think I have been ena- 

 bled to do the latter pretty well. But of late, 

 God has been teaching me another lesson ; 

 and that is, to rebuke sin and wrong when 

 it first commences ; to speak out plainly 

 and decidedly, although kindly, when things 

 just commence to go wrong. And just now, 

 dear friends, old and young, my most earnest 

 prayer is for grace and wisdom and under- 

 standing in this very hard and diflicult mat- 

 ter of protesting against sin and wrong 

 wherever it comes within my province to do 

 so. 



Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: 

 for I am with thee, anfi no man shall set on thee to 

 hurt thee.— ACTS 18:9, 10. 



HOW I BECAITIE A BEE-KEEPER. 



SOMETHING ABOUT BEE-KEEPING IN OLD TIMES. 



HEN^ I was quite a small boy, father took & 

 colony of bees of a neighbor living about a 

 mile distant, to keep on shares, each to have 

 half of the increase and half of the surplus honey, 

 I suppose the older readers, if not the juveniles, 

 know that in the early days of bee-keeping the sur 

 plus was mostly taken by killing the bees in the fall 

 with the fumes of burning brimstone, and then tak 

 ing whatever honey they had laid up for winter 

 Thuslwhen fall came, the neighbor and father would 

 look over the bees, and decide how many and which 

 colonies should be killed, after which- the honey ob- 

 tained was divided equally between them. If more 

 was obtained than was necessary for family use, a 

 portion was taken to our nearest village (this being 

 always the best part), and exchanged for groceries, 

 boots, dry goods, etc. I well remember the pails of 

 beautiful snow-white oomb honey father would car- 

 ry to town,Tfbich was obtained from second and 

 third Bwarms, tbought to be too light to winter. 



