708 



GLEA2^mGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



of honey for the hungry multitudes. Ours 

 is surely a praiseworthy calling, brothers 

 and sisters ; and we have the words of holy 

 writ to indorse it. Well, although God 

 rained bread from heaven, this did not stop 

 their grumbling. Please remember, friends, 

 tliat we have reason to think this bread of 

 heaven was something perhaps remotely 

 akin to honey-dew of the present day. We 

 are pretty sure, however, that it was more 

 palatable than some samples of the honey- 

 dew honey we get in some localities. Well, 

 I need not follow the miracles and the re- 

 peated murmurings. Shortly after tlie man- 

 na, they complained because they did not 

 have any meat, and God sent them quails, 

 the very nicest kind of meat, in quantitit-s 

 so unlimited that the two or three millions 

 of people all had a great abundance. Soon 

 after, tlierti was a lack of water again ; but 

 instead of trusting in the loving hand that 

 had, at every exigency, supplied tliem abund- 

 antly, we learn, " The people did chide with 

 Moses, and said. Give us water, that we may 

 drink." Ami then they took to their old re- 

 frain, '• Wherefore is this that thou hast 

 brought us out of Egypt, to kill us and our 

 cattle with thirst?" Moses finally, in great 

 distress, went to the Lord, telling him the 

 people were almost ready to stone him ; and 

 then God directed that he should strike the 

 rock. One is reminded of a little boy who 

 wanted a piece of cake because his brother 

 had one. The brother, as he munched 

 away, informed him, " You will have to cry, 

 and then mother will give you a piece. That 

 is the way I got mine." It was no human 

 mother, however, that these children had to 

 deal with. God wisely forbore surfeiting 

 them with every thing they clamored for, 

 just exactly as he wisely withholds things 

 from us when he sees it is very much better 

 for us to work as well as pray for the things 

 we need. What a wonderful history is this 

 that lies before us — the dealings of an infi- 

 nite God with his people whom he has hon- 

 ored, by creating them with the power to 

 do right or wrong! They knew what was 

 right as well as we do ; but they were stub- 

 born and unthankful as we are. They did 

 not scruple to give way to evil impulses just 

 as we, dear friends, too often unscrupulous- 

 ly give rein to the suggestions of evil 

 thoughts. In spite of the miracles, and in 

 spite of the timely relief given them over 

 and over again, they did not or would not 

 learn the lesson of faith in God. One falls 

 to wondering what would have been their 

 lot had they been left to suffer Egyptian 

 bondage. Wtre they any happier on the 

 road to the promised land, or even in the 

 promised land, than in bondage in] Egypt? 

 Was it possible for God to do any thing for 

 them to nuik(^ their lot better? I am really 

 afraid it was not possible for God to do any 

 thing for them so long as they renuiiued 

 stubborn and willful ; and I have sometimes 

 thought it impossible for God to do any 

 thing for us so long as we persist in remain- 

 ing on the low level of thinking only of self- 

 ish pleasures and selfish gratifications. The 

 old prophet E/.ekiel says, '^ Turn ye, turn 

 ye, for why will lye die?" And one of our 

 favorite hymns thus expresses it in verse : 



Oh, turn ye ! oh, turn ye ! for why will ye die, 

 When God in great mercy is coming- so nigh? 

 Now Jesus invMtes you ; the Spirit says, "Come," 

 And angels are waiting to welcome you home. 



The contrite in heart he will freely receive; 

 Oh! why will you not the glad message believe? 

 If sin be your burden, why will you not come? 

 'Tis you he makes welcome ; he bids you come home. 



Our old friend Moses bore all these mur- 

 mm'ings with a wonderful spirit of meekness. 

 When even God himself seems to have 

 decided that forbearance had ceased to be 

 a virtue, and decided on tlieir destruction, 

 Moses throws himself in the dust and pleads 

 for his stubborn and weak biethren. In 

 fact, Moses as the intenessor gives us a 

 glimpse of Christ Jesus liimself. Well, 

 Moses bore this fault-tinding and complain- 

 ing, through a whole generation. He saw 

 the fathers and mothers, one after another, 

 die and pass away, and their children giow 

 up in their stead. Perhaps he vainly hoped, 

 as have many of us at the present (i;iy, that 

 a new generation would inaugurate a new 

 order of things ; hut, deai friends, humanity 

 is humanity still ; and our children, as they 

 grow up, exhibit very mucli of the spirit and 

 very much of the weakness of ourselves. 

 Moses, at the time of our opening text, was 

 dealing with a new generation ; but they had 

 followed their parents only too well ; and in 

 their impatience at the lack of water they 

 had the audacity to tell him. '' Would to God 

 we had died when our brethren died before 

 the Lord. ' 



I shall have to go back a lillle to explain 

 this speech. To add to Mo-e><' bur<iens. 

 every little while some jealous or dissa. i.^lied 

 one in the ranks had accused him of taking 

 too much responsibility. In chapter lb, we 

 are told that several of these, with one 

 Korah as their leader, with 250 princes of 

 the assembly, even famous men and men of 

 renown, visited him with a speech something 

 as follows : '' You take too much on you, 

 seeing all the congregation are holy, every 

 one of them. . . . Wherefore, 

 then, lift ye up yourselves above the congre- 

 gation of" the Lord ?" Now, this whole 

 thing was the most absurd folly. God him- 

 self had chosen Moses as the leader, and had 

 commanded him day by day to speak his 

 wishes to the children of Israel. Moses, 

 with his usual meekness, remonstrated and 

 begged them to consider. But they were 

 stubborn and rebellious. They even taunt- 

 ed him with words like these : "• Thou hast 

 not brought us into a land that lloweth with 

 milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of 

 fields and vineyards. Wilt thou put out the 

 eyes of these men ? We will not go up.''' 



Their expression about putting out the 

 eyes, probably alluded to scenes of cruelty 

 among the heathen kings round about them; 

 but poor Moses never did an act of cruelty 

 in his life. These men finally became so 

 mutinous and wicked that there was noth- 

 ing to be done but destroy them ; and Moses, 

 after repeated warnings, called upon all 

 who would heed the wrath of God to with- 

 draw from that evil conclave, so that those 

 who met death met it fairly and understand- 

 ingly. With awful stubbornness they stood 

 and "defied the Lord God of the imiverse. 

 We are told that, as Moses made an end of 



