1891 



GLEAXIXrrS IN BEE CULTURE. 



337 



should I trouble myself? Before convei-sion I 

 was afraid that thegreat outside world might 

 point out some things about nic that I would 

 not liave anybody know for tlic world: but 

 itftcr conversion I had notliing to conceal. 

 Wlien there were rumors that sometliing in my 

 past life might get into the papers. I decided, 

 as some of you may remember, to put it in print 

 iniiKClf. and then I should never be afraid that 

 it might come up at any future time. About 

 tliis lime I was in pursuit of information of a 

 certain character, and was dii'ected to a certain 

 place. My informant added, also. " Yon had 

 better not be -src/i goiug there. Mr. Root: for if 

 you are, you may get " talk(Hi about,' and you 

 know you could never stand that."' And then 

 tiie bystanders had a big laugh, as they sup- 

 posed, at my expense.- There was a moral to it. 

 however, for every one of them recognized that 

 (ill fcdv In that direction was gone. My atti- 

 tude was tlien, and I hope and pray is still, 

 that, when tlie tiiith will do harm, let harm 

 cmne. We r(>ad in the ll-.'th Psalm. " He shall 

 not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, 

 trusting in the Lord: his heart is established, 

 he shall not be afraid." And then in the 91st 

 Psalm we read: "He shall give his angels 

 charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 

 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest 

 thoii dash thy foot against a stone.'" 



One of the great hindrances to these happy 

 surprises I have been telling you of is the dis- 

 position, not only to lose faith in God. but to 

 lose faith in your fellow-men. And. by the way. 

 there is something really wonderful in the way 

 this temptation to be uncharitable will follow 

 one. and continue to hang to him. even after he 

 has had experience again and again that should 

 teach him better. I have been between fifteen 

 and twenty years battling against this beset- 

 ing sin of mine. If anybody should ever have 

 learned by abundant ('Xperience to look out for 

 danger and delusion right here. I am that one. 

 Let nie give you an experience of yesterday: 



Circumstances seemed to indicate that a cer- 

 tain individual was purposely planning hin- 

 drances in our way. 1 watched him narrowly, 

 and finally I had proof of it (or at least I sup- 

 posed I had) in plain black and white. There 

 could be no mistake about it. I had his own 

 handwriting in my fingers. It fii-st gave me a 

 feeling of pain that he should, for any reason, 

 real or imaginary, be so perverse and wicked. 

 Then I began planning unconsciously what I 

 should do to stop it. It disturbed me so I could 

 hardly talk or eat my supper, yet I decided 

 that it was not worth while to trouble my wife 

 about it. Then I remembered the many "griev- 

 ous mistakes I had made just in this line, and I 

 finally submitted it to my wife's better judg- 

 ment. She said at once, '"lam sure you are 

 mistaken." 



" But, my dear wife, how cnn there be a mis- 

 take? Oh. how I wish there irere some chance 

 for him I But right heri' are the /arts." 



'"I can not help it. I am sure this friend of 

 ours has not deliberately and purposely done 

 this thing.'" 



I felt a little relieved: but the facts were so 

 straight and clear, I placed the matter before 

 another good friend. This friend said inst as 

 Mrs. R. did. 



" It can not be, Mr. Root. I do not know 

 what it means, and it is hard to explain: but 

 there is certainly a reason for it that we do not 

 see." 



I had decided, therefore, out of respect to 

 these two good friends of mine, that I would 

 ask the one who seemed to be going wrong, for 

 an explanation. I decided, too, to put it very 

 mildly, and to assume, for the time being, that 

 no wrong had been premeditated. What do 



you think the result was? Why, it was just 

 the old. old storj— nothing was wrong at all: 

 or, i)eih^l)S I should say. nobody was \\ rong at 

 all. except my own self, and the bad. uncharit- 

 able condition of my nw n heart. In the piece 

 of handwriting I had looked at so suspiciously 

 tliere were two little characters I had overlook- 

 ed, and these made it all plain and simple. Oh 

 how thankful I felt tiiat I had listened to the 

 advice of these two friends, whose minds were 

 in no way biased, as mine was for the time be- 

 ing by my old fo(> and old enemy. Now. then: 

 Jesus knew all about this. He knew exactly 

 wh(>re we should be likely to be ti'ipped and en- 

 trapped; tlierefore he said, as a preventive— as 

 a safeguard— perhaps I might say as a note of 

 warning, " Love ye your enemies: do good to 

 them that hate you,"' etc.. knowing beforehand 

 that we should be prone to look for enemies 

 where none exist, and tliat we should be very 

 likely to imagine people iiated us when no such 

 hatred existed: so you see that, if we listen to 

 these woi-ds of Scrlptiue, we shall, irithout 

 /iHOH'inr/ if, escape Satan"s snares: and in this 

 way we shall meet with the happv surprises 

 that I have been telling you of. We shall find 

 warm friends where we had been looking for 

 foes, and we shall discover good loving hearts 

 where .Satan whispered only envy and enmity 

 existed. 



In our issue for March 15, page 23(3, I publish- 

 ed a letter from friend Braley. I did it with a 

 feeling that there had. perhaps, been too many 

 kind words in Gleaxixos. and not enough o"f 

 the opposite sort. I feared the impression was 

 going out among my good friends that the bee- 

 keeping world were all pleased with our estab- 

 lishment, whereas that is not true. There are 

 quite a few who do not agi-ee with the majoritv, 

 and justice and trutJi demand that they have'a 

 hearing. I did not feel unkindly toward friend 

 B.. but I felt sorry to know that he did not un- 

 derstand me better, sol replied to him in afoot- 

 note. By the way, may I suggest that editors, as 

 a rule, are afraid of adverse criticism? We put 

 in plenty of notices in regard to the value of 

 our journals, and how well they pay as advcr- 

 ti.simj mediums: but when somebody writes a 

 complaining letter, and says he '" never got a 

 ce/it ■' in response to his advertisement, it is a 

 little against human nature to publish it. Now, 

 it seems to me that our pati'ons have a right to 

 all the information we can give in the matter. 

 If we wisii to be honest and square we should 

 give both sides: therefoi'e 1 rather enjoy giv- 

 ing both sides. Why, bless you. dear friends, it 

 never hurts one nor hurts his business to be 

 Jionest. See the promise in Isaiah .54: 17: 



No weapon that is formed ag-ainst thee shall pros- 

 per; and every tongnie that shall rise atiiiinst thee 

 in judgment thou Shalt condemn. This is the Iieri- 

 tag-e of the servants of the Lord, and tlieir right- 

 eousness is of me. saith the Lord. 



But. please believe me. I had not the remotest 

 thought, when I published friend Braley's criti- 

 cism, that it would be the means of bringing 

 me the kindest expressions of abiding friend- 

 ship, high esteem and gratitude, that I ever got 

 in my life. Had I been xcckinrj praise I c-ould 

 not have invented a better scheme than the 

 one I innocently and unconsciously took, of 

 publishing that letter. In fact, it "brought a 

 series of •• happy surprises.'" and quite a few 

 from good friends whom I longed to hear from, 

 but whom we could not get to write. I did not 

 feel hurt nor troubled because he accused me 

 of being a hypocrite, for I am greativ afraid 

 that hypocrisy docs get into my com"position 

 now and then: but I certainly was not bright 

 enough to recognize that nothing in this world 

 brings to light one's friends like unjust perse- 

 cution: and I suspect that herein is one of the 



