180 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar, 



tbe Father wlio shall know of the doctrine. 

 The jjoor neii-liboi- of whom I have just 

 been speaking assented to my proposition 

 tliat tliere must be a supreme ruler of this 

 universe ; in fact, every honest man must 

 assent to this. Tiiere "was not only a God 

 in the first place who created the heavens 

 and the earth, but there is the same God 

 still, and he has a plan and a purpose with 

 it all. May be there was a time in the his- 

 tory of this earth when the sun shone and 

 the plants grew and the birds sang, some- 

 thing as they do now, when no human in- 

 telligence looked out upon the scene. 

 Doubtless brute nature enjoyed life in the 

 same way that it does now. The pigs 

 criniched the acorns as they fell from tlie 

 huge oaks, with some sort of a sense of en- 

 joyment; ])ut I am sure that no pig ever 

 gazed aloft to question where the acorns 

 came from, or to consider liow they grew 

 amid the leafy l)ranches. No i)ig ever got 

 so far as that in intelligence; and even if lie 

 did, he certainly never for one brief instant 

 cast a thought as to the origin, end, and 

 purpose of this teeming world of life. Not 

 one of tlie brute kind was ever capable (even 

 if he cared to, which is very doubtful) of 

 even turning his thoughts in the direction I 

 have indicated. In considering such a state 

 of affairs, one miglit pause and ask the 

 question. " What is the use of all this, with 

 no intelligence to look upon it and appreci- 

 ate it ? ■" I should say there is not any use, 

 if the machinery were to stop there. These 

 things were preliminaries ; these were prep- 

 arations, as it were, for the opening of the 

 doors, at some time in the future, to the 

 vast audience. By and by the audience 

 stepped on the scene. God created man. 

 Man looked in on what had been done, as 

 through a window. At first lie may have 

 looked something as the dumb brutes did ; 

 but by and by his God-given reason prompt- 

 ed liim to study and compare. As soon as 

 a child can talk he begins to look at the 

 moon, and then turns to his teachers with 

 inquiries. '" What is it? where is it V what 

 keeps it there? what is it for?"' This 

 thirst for knowledge does not pass unsatis- 

 fied. The Bible says, '' Knock, and it shall 

 be opened unto you ; " and the child finds 

 the promise verified. So vast is the field, 

 however, for learning and intelligence, that 

 long years must pass ; yes, before he is 

 fit to enter school ; then long years more 

 must pass before he is fit to enter college ; 

 years more of drill in college are to fit him to 

 use his God-given powers intelligently, and 

 that he may not make stupid blunders at 

 every turn. In a very short time his 

 thoughts turn to the master Spirit that 

 framed and planned these things. Now, if 

 this pupil does God's will, as in our opening 

 text, he certainly will know of the doctrine. 

 He will know of God's plan and God's 

 promises. 



Not ([uite four hundred years ago, Colum- 

 l)us, impelled by this tliirst for knowledge, 

 stood up head and shoulders above his fel- 

 lows, and declared that God had something 

 in store for us beyond the vast unknown 

 seas. Is it indeed possible, that, so short a 

 time ago, he stood for a time almost alone 



in his demand for knowledge beyond the 

 unknown expanse of water ? I need not tell 

 the story. Once when he landed, his com- 

 rades declared he had discovered an island ; 

 yes, a whole island that was heretofore un- 

 known. Columbus, however, was head 

 and shouldeis above them here. He looked 

 on the vast current of the Orinoco Iliver as 

 it poured forth into the sea ; and as he took 

 in at least something of the real truth, he 

 declared, ''Not so ; this is no island. That 

 vast volume of water you see pouring forth 

 there is the drainings of a continent. No" 

 island ever gave forth such a stream.'' 



Columbus exhibited only plain common 

 sense. Reasoning from what he saw he in- 

 telligently declared what was beyond im- 

 mediate vision. Well, my friends, what 

 does this vast flood of intelligence and prog- 

 ress mean that pours forth before our vevy 

 eyes ? Forty years ago we went to school in 

 log schoolhouses, and learned to read and 

 write and cipher. xVs I sit here, writing bids 

 fairto be done away with. Instead of using a 

 a quill pen, whittled by the teacher, even a 

 poor humble individual like myself does not 

 use a pen at]all nor pencil. I simply talk to 

 men and women who make crooked marks, 

 one of which often means more than a 

 wliole line used to mean in our copy-book. 

 Now, instead of sending these crooked 

 marks to the man I wish to speak to, a 

 thousand miles away, he gets a nice beauti- 

 fully printed letter. " Every one of you see 

 them almost every day of your life. This 

 printed letter is done quicker— vastly quick- 

 er—than we used to do it with quill pens. 

 Still further, the day is just dawning when 

 paperand ink both seem destined to be put on 

 the shelf. You talk to a machine. The 

 machine staiitls still and mute, until called 

 for, and then it talks back the very words 

 you pronounced, giving back even your own 

 tone of voice too. It talks or is silent, as 

 the master-spirit directs. Every year short- 

 ens and simplifies plans for moving these 

 cumbersome bodies of ours. We take such 

 a trip as Columbus did, as we would go across 

 the lots to a neighbor's. If anybody is starv- 

 ing in consequence of drought, earthquake, 

 or blizzard, swifter than the wind the call of 

 distress spans a thousand miles, and, al- 

 most as quickly, food and clothing rush 

 back. 



Suppose that somebody should now stand 

 up and declare that, although these things 

 are wonderful, God has got through or 

 abandoned the work. We would send him 

 to an insane-asylum, if he should keep on 

 talking in that way. Well, now, suppose 

 that one of our brightest young minds, say 

 one who has made the strides that Edison 

 has, for instance, should, by sickness, come 

 down to death. Our doctors have not mas- 

 tered sickness and death yet. Suppose you 

 were required to give him counsel at his 

 bedside. Would you say, ''My friend, you 

 have done a glorious work. It is indeed as- 

 tonishing and wonderful to contemplate 

 how, step by step, you have dived into the 

 mysteries of creation, and it is grand to 

 think of what you have given the world in 

 return for what it has given you. Had you 

 not been cut down here in middle life, no 



