1891 



GREANIXGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



65 



take a new lease of life. If he can not walk, 

 roll him out in a whed-chair and put a light 

 tool in his hands. If he can not dig and plant, 

 do this for him. and let him cultivate them. 

 The blood will soon be bounding through his 

 veins, and he will be a boy again. 

 Peoria. III.. Dec. ."i. "Mk.s. L. Hakrlsox. 



0U^ P0MEg. 



But one tiling' is needful;, and Mary hath chosen 

 that g-oodpart, vrhich shall not be taken awaj- from 

 her.— Luke lU:t:i. 



Bunyan. in the Pilgrim's Progress, gives us a 

 picture which he calls "The Man with the 

 Muck-rake. ■■ A poor, needy old man. poorly 

 clothed, and bent with age. stands stooping 

 over with a poor, miserable, rickety rake, with 

 which he continues to pull up toward him the 

 straws and the leaves, and the dust and the 

 rubbish: and while he is thus busily engaged, 

 an angel of light holds tpiiove his head a celes- 

 tial crown. The old man. however, is too busy 

 with his sticks and straws to pay any attention 

 to the celestial crown: in fact, he "won't even 

 look up toward it. He is too busy. The straws 

 and the sticks, the dust and the rubbish, are of 

 too much importance, in his poor feeble judg- 

 ment, to take the time to cast even one glimpse 

 toward the crown of gold. The angel even 

 tries to make a trade with the poor old man. 

 and offers to swap the crown of gold, "even up." 

 for the poor, miserable, dilapidated old rake. 

 But the man stubbornly refuses to trade. Did 

 you ever think, my friend, what a wonderful il- 

 lustration that is? I hai'dly need tell you that 

 the man with the muck-rake is ourselves— you 

 and I — and our neighbors. Bunyan, by his fig- 

 ure, means to remind us that there is a shining 

 crown just above our heads, and that it is held 

 there by an angel of light. This angel is plead- 

 ing for attention. He is calling us to look up 

 from our busy cai'es. and to see the golden 

 crown. 1 wish I could look into the faces of 

 the readers of Gleaxixos this new year, and 

 see how they receive the picture I have tried to 

 place before them. Some of them. I know, will 

 say it is true: others will admit that it is a very 

 pretty fable, but will rather conclude that it is 

 mostty fable. Still others, who are dissatisfied 

 and disgusted with the straws and leaves — yes, 

 and perhaps with the miserable old muck-rake 

 too — will admit the fore part of the illustration, 

 but will deny that there is a crown — a celestial 

 crown, for each one of us: and I am afraid that 

 we are all, in fact.moreor lesslackingin faithin 

 regard to the crown of glory that awaits us. 

 The question is. " Is Bunyan's figure a truthful 

 one?"' Is it too extravagant? Is it real? Let 

 us turn 'to God's holy word, and see what au- 

 thority good old John Bunyan had for his won- 

 derful figure. He was a student of the Bible, 

 and his wonderful illustrations came right 

 home from the Bible itself. In fact, he had 

 nothing to work with except the word of God. 

 and the inspiration of God"s Holy Spirit. May 

 that Holy .Spirit be with you. friends, in my 

 talk to you this morning, and enable me to un- 

 fold the Bible promises in this very line. 



We will first turn to Proverbs, fourth chap- 

 ter, where it speaks of Wisdom. We read: 

 " She shall give to thy head an ornament of 

 grace: wi crown of glory shall she deliver to 

 thee." These are the words of Solomon. He 

 knew what it was to wear a crown. He had 

 wisdom beyond the average of humanity, and 

 he says that this wisdom shall give us an" orna- 

 ment of grace — an ornament for the head, mind 

 3'ou. We like to see grand meia and beautiful 



women. It is the duty of all of us to look well 

 before our friends. Our wives and daughters 

 give considerable attention to ornaments, es- 

 pecially for the head; and they do well, provid- 

 ing they forget not this ornament of grace 

 which Wisdom gives. Wisdom is used in the 

 Bible sense as tin- opposite of folly. One who 

 listens to Satan, and gives way totemptation, 

 has forgotten wisdom. Wisdom directs us to 

 be pure in heart: and it also directs us to seek 

 first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 

 and in-omises that the sticks and straws, and 

 the things that we need, shall be added: and 

 the Bible promise goes further, and says. ''A 

 crown of glory shall she deliver unto thee." 



Let us now turn to first Corinthians. 9th chap- 

 ter. Paul, in exhorting us to godliness, uses 

 the figure of the races, and says, " Know ye not 

 that they which run in a race run all ? but one 

 receivetii the prize." You see. they had prizes 

 in those days, as they do now. In their con- 

 tests of skill and phy.sical strength, but one re- 

 ceived the prize. It is not so in God"s service, 

 however. There are cro.wns enough for all, and 

 there is no partiality and no respecting of per- 

 sons. Paul conliimes : " So run that ye may 

 obtain: and every man that striveth.for the 

 mastery is temperate in all things."' In those 

 days, as well as now, they had discovered that 

 a man must be temperate to obtain a prize in a 

 physical contest. No drinking man can expect 

 to excel. Now comes the point of our lesson: 



" Now. they do it to obtain a corruptible 

 crown: but we an incorruptible." Paul tells 

 us that the crown held out to tis by the angel of 

 light is an incorruptible one, "which fadeth 

 not away.'" 



Let usnow turn to James, first chapter. We 

 read: "Blessed is the man that endureth 

 temptation: for when he is tried, he shall re- 

 ceive a crown of life, which the Lord hath 

 promised to them that love him.'" Bunyan calls 

 it a celestial crown. In the text atjove it is 

 called a crown of life. It also tells us that it is 

 given to the one that endureth temptation: and 

 it comes, too. whim he is tried. We sometimes 

 think it is hard to meet trials. Some of tis have 

 prayed, perhaps, that God would remove these 

 temptations that beset us and pester us contin- 

 tially. Our last text, however, seems to indi- 

 cate" that it is a good thing to be tested and 

 tried. In fact, we could not have a crown of 

 life otherwise. I sometimes think that it can 

 not be possible that others are called upon to 

 meet temptation so continually as I am. As I 

 look out upon the world, it seems to me that 

 nobody ever had such terribly hard work in 

 trying to be good as I have had. I once heard 

 a minister of the gospel say in his sermon that 

 Satan himself, the prince of the powers of 

 darkness, could be in only one place at the same 

 time. I was tempted to question this theology. 

 Yei'y likely the lu'eacher gave it as his own 

 opinion, in an off-hand sort of way. Why 

 could I not accept such a doctrine? Well, it 

 did not seem to be possible that the prince of 

 evil should leave all mankind, and turn so 

 much of his attention to my poor self: and then 

 came a helping thought: If it were true. I 

 might feel glad that the rest of humanity had 

 a respite a good deal of the time. 



I used to think that Revelatiou was a dry 

 book: but of late I have learned to turn to it 

 and get much comfort and consolation. Espe- 

 cially do I like that second chapter that has so 

 many promises to him that overcometh. For 

 instance: "He that overcometh and keepeth 

 my works to the end, to him will I give power 

 over the nations."' And again: "To him that 

 overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden 

 manna, and I will give him a white stone, and 

 in the stone a new name written which no man 



