1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



8(J1 



■grow with very poor vigor where they are now, 

 compared with the other sorts. Therefore yoii 

 see it is difficult for me to either condemn or 

 recommend it. Had I made a report while it 

 was in our rich plant-beds I should have called 

 it a great acquisition: but out in the fields, 

 along with the others, it is certainly not a suc- 

 cess in our locality. One or two have purchased 

 plants, and reported favorably; but the general 

 testimony seems to be that it is not a success 

 here in the East. There is certainly no ■"com- 

 bine" about it. There is not money enough in 

 it to make it an object, even if any one were so 

 unscrupulous as to ivish to push a worthless 

 plant. Besides, our experiment stations are 

 always on the alert to expose any deliberate 

 plan to humbug the people. They have recent- 

 ly reported that it seems to lack vigor under 

 ordinary ti'eatment here in the East. You re- 

 port, however, that you find it a "good strong 

 grower."] A. I. R. 



Our Homes and My Neighbors. 



When j-e spread forth your hands I will hide mine 

 eyes from you ; yea, when ye make many jjrayers I 

 will not hear: your liauds are f ull uf blood.— IsA. 

 1:15. 



Our county jail has been for a long time 

 empty. In fact, since the saloons were banish- 

 ed from Medina, as a rule our jail is empty. 

 As an exception it has an occupant: and this 

 occupant is usually there for something per- 

 taining to the liquor-traffic, directly or in- 

 directly. Last Sunday a little girl in Sunday- 

 school told me the>-e was a man in jail. He 

 looked like a hard-working farmer, just about 

 the same age that I am. Why should he be in 

 jail'.' I found he was a farmer, as I judged, 

 and a hard-working man. He had, however, 

 been induced to get liquors at wholesale — as he 

 said, at first for medical purposes; then, under 

 the influence of temptation, he let others have 

 it, and finally the officers were on his track. 

 He received notice that they were coming one 

 day, when he was thrashing. He left his work, 

 and sought refuge at the home of a relative in 

 an adjoining county. His wife wrote him (un- 

 der cover, of course) that he had better leave 

 the State, as the prospect was that he would be 

 fined two hundred or three hundred dollars, 

 and may be a year or more in the workhouse. 

 At the time of his flight he had in his pocket 

 some money that did not belong to him. How- 

 ever, he reasoned that extreme eases justify 

 extreme measures, and he decided to take his 

 wife's advice and use this money to get beyond 

 the reach of the law. He went to the railroad 

 station and called for a ticket to his place of 

 destination, and found he had just money 

 enough to get him through. Just at this time, 

 however, he began to hesitate. Although he 

 had been a liquor-dealer, as I have told you, in 

 one sense of the word, he had never before 

 committed a deliberate crime like the one he 

 now contemplated. Years before, he had been 

 a professor of religion and a member of the 

 church. The church dwindled down, and what 

 were left got into a quarrel; and in that quar- 

 rel he became involved, and they said some 

 unkind things of him, misrepresenting his 

 motives, and he got soured. He concluded he 

 would read his Bible at home, and be a Chris- 

 tian all by himself— or he and his wife would 

 lead Christian lives together without any help 

 from the church. It is not at all strange that 

 his Bible soon became neglected, that his re- 

 ligion became a thing of the past, and that he 

 resolved to adopt desperate measures in order 

 to help him out of his straitened circum- 



stances. By the way. friends, do you know 

 how often circumstances do become straiten- 

 ed when one loses his religion or lets it go? 

 Yes. though he niav work hard, and strain 

 every nerve, misfortunes and trouble come uijon 

 him. Instead of, as we have it in the first 

 Psalm. " Whatsover he doeth shall prosper."' it 

 seems just the other way— whatsoever he doeth 

 shall 7iot prosper. But, to go back: In order to 

 help him out of his straitened circumstances 

 he went to selling liquor, at good profits, no 

 doubt. But no prosperity came of it: and when 

 he was about to be .arrested for violating the 

 law he decided to use money he had no right 

 to, and was even counseled by his wife to do 

 this in order to evade the law. Perhaps I said 

 his religion was forgotten. May the Lord be 

 praised, it was not quite forgotten. When he 

 stood before the ticket-office with the money in 

 his hand, an old text flashed through his mind 

 that he had heard years before. The text 

 startled him. He told the ticket agent that, 

 on further consideration, he would not take the 

 ticket. He put the money into his pocket, and, 

 as soon as he could, he restored it to those to 

 whom it rightfully belonged. Of course, he 

 was arrested. He told me he gave himself up 

 to the officers of the law. If it was not that 

 way exactly it was pretty near it, for my good 

 friend the sheriff said the prisoner made no 

 attempt to escape; and here I found him with 

 the sentence of four months in the workhouse 

 and a fine of a hundred dollars. He had already 

 directed that his horse be sold to pay the hun- 

 dred dollars, although the horse was pretty 

 nearly all the available property he had in the 

 world, and he was going on the morrow to the 

 workhouse to commence his servitude of one 

 hundred and twenty days. He felt pretty sad 

 over the whole matter; and although he had de- 

 cided to abandon his evil ways and do right as 

 far as he knew how, it did not seem to have 

 brought him very much comfort. 



Do you want to know about that text? Well, 

 it is the one at the head of this talk to-day. An 

 eccentric individual who preached occasionally, 

 delivered the sermon. People were a little sur- 

 prised at the strangeness of his text, and this 

 friend remembered it on that account. After a 

 little questioning I found I knew the preacher 

 well— in fact, he was a near relative, having 

 married my own mother's sister. Both are 

 dead and gone: but his eccentric sermon and 

 strange text are still here continuing their 

 work nevertheless. Ah, friends, this is only 

 one of the wonderful things about the Bible 

 and those Biljle texts. Cast thy bread upon the 

 waters, and thou shall find it after many days. 

 Yes, even after you have passed away, the 

 words you have uttered may sound 'down 

 through the ages. The connection, perhaps, is 

 not very clear without a little explanation. 

 This person had been a praving man in years 

 gone by. Very likely he expected to go back 

 to his religion by and bv, just as you and 

 I have thought we should do in times past. 

 When, howevei-. he stood face to face with the 

 crime he had contemplated, conscience told him 

 if he went on. (rod would not hear him. You 

 remember the text. '"If I regard iniquity in my 

 heart, the Lord will not hear me:"' and this 

 text before us not only contains this, but adds, 

 "And when ye spread forth your hands I will 

 hide mine ey<^s from you; yea. when ye make 

 many prayers I will not hear; your hands are 

 full of blood." Of course, he did not propose to 

 dip his hands in blood: but crime is sure to fol- 

 low crime, and probably bloodshed would event- 

 ually be the outcome. As I sat by his side in 

 the jail I continued to read. The next verse 

 runs, " Wash yc make you clean; put away the 

 evil of your doings from before mine eyes. 



