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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. L 



Ceas(^ to do evil." Why, was it not wonderful? 

 But a niiinite before. I was meditating where I 

 should tiud sometliiiig in the Bible applicable 

 to his case and to his state of mind. While I 

 was turning the leaves absently he directed me. 

 I do not know that I ever noticed befoi'e these 

 wonderful words in the first ehaptei' of Isaiah. 

 Now just lool\ at the words of the next verse. 

 After I read "Cease to do evil." 1 followed on — 

 "Learn to do well." What plaJn. simple terms 

 the prophet usesi And a little further on we 

 read. •"Come now and let us reason together, 

 saith the Lord. Though your sins he as scarlet, 

 they shall be as white as snow; though th(^y 

 be red like crimson, they shall be as white as 

 wool." It seemed then just as if the words of 

 the M(tster shone through those Bible texts. In 

 fact, 1 had a sort of feeling that some third 

 party was there with us, pointing out to me 

 what to read, and telling me what to say. T 

 cheered and comforted my poor friend. I told 

 liim that lie had obeyed the scripture command 

 so far. lie had ceased to do evil as well as he 

 could, and was trying to do well. As I shook 

 hands with him, perhaps never to meet him 

 again, there were tears in his eyes; but, dear 

 friends, they were not altogether tears of sorrow 

 at the hard path that lay before him. A new hope 

 had come into his soul there in that jail; and I 

 fully believed he was honest and sincere in his 

 determination to take up again his .forgotten 

 and neglected Bible, and to leave all and fol- 

 low Chi'ist Jesus. He said there was no church 

 of the denomination he belonged to. now in his 

 neighborhood. Said I, '"But, dear brother, 

 never mind if there is not exactly that one 

 church you like and prefer. Thei'e is certainly 

 some church or some gathering of Christian 

 people. Unite with them, and help them in 

 their endeavors to lead Christian lives. Never 

 again make the mistake of trying to follow 

 Jesus all alone by yourself. It never works." 

 "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath 

 seen, how shall he love God whom he hath not 

 seen?" 



And now, dear brother or sister, if this little 

 lesson strikes any one of you — if any who look 

 on these pages have strayed away from the fold 

 because the church has dwindled down, or 

 there has been quarreling, take warning, I 

 beseech you, and do not wait until the prismi- 

 doors come, but go now like the prodigal son, 

 and take up your cross, and live and die a live, 

 earnest Christian. 



A hard thing for humanity to learn is that 

 there is no satisfaction nor profit in sin. " The 

 wages of sin is death;" and yet, after repeated 

 experiences showing the truth of this, we can 

 not believe it. Satan persuades us that we can 

 Ije happy with ill-gotten gains; and yet we have 

 illustrations continually, showing us that this 

 is not true. The man who runs away with 

 money belonging to somebody else, or with 

 money intrusted to his care, never finds happi- 

 ness nor enjoyment of any kind. A case illus- 

 trating this is just liefore me. One of our bee- 

 keeping fiiends, Mr. C G. Ferris, of Miller's 

 Mills, N. Y., was induced to send ten kegs of 

 honey to an institution styling itself the Cham- 

 pion City Produce Co., Springfield, O. They 

 had quite a taking nam(\ and he thought that 

 they were all right. After a while he inquired 

 about his honey, and they told him that one of 

 tiu^ kegs was smashed, and the contents lost, 

 and they were waiting to get the railroad com- 

 pany to settle up in regard to it. Although the 

 price agreed upon was F. O. B. at friend Fei'ris' 

 railroad station, he finally, to get the matter 

 settled, told them to deduct the price of one 

 keg and send the rest of the money. Then they 

 did not answer at all. The matter was submit- 

 ted to us, and what do you think investigation 



showed? Fii'St. that the Champion City Pro- 

 duce Co. Iselonged to a young man by the name 

 of Ed. L. Bowlus; that he was continually 

 making purchases of every thing he could get 

 hold of. without any intention of paying a cent 

 for any thing; and he even succeeded in get- 

 ting a large amount of stuff. It is strange that 

 bee-keepers or anybody else should persist in 

 sending honey or other pi'oduce to any person 

 or institution without first making inquiry at 

 the bank, or inquiring of us wliether such per- 

 sons are reliable. As this young man Bowlus 

 never paid for any thing, one might suppose he 

 would get lots of money, and have a good time 

 so long as he could escape the law. Did he? 

 Not at all. After continuing in this way, and 

 getting all the enjoyment that ])roperty with a 

 guilty conscience could give him, he — comrnlt- 

 ied suicide! When a man has deliberately de- 

 cided on such a coui'se of fraud and cheat, he 

 has, of course, turned his back on God. He has 

 abandoned all thoughts of right, justice, and 

 religion. He is in opposition to the great God 

 above. In the language of our text, he knows 

 that God can not hear him. Right along in the 

 same line he defies public sentiment, and the 

 good opinion of his fellow-men; he forfeits all 

 claim to sympathy from his fellow-men, and 

 finally ends in suicide. Oh! shall we not be 

 warned while yet it is time? shall we not, in 

 the words of Holy Writ, " cease to do evil and 

 learn to do well "? 



There seems to be something really strange 

 about the way a man loses the respect of his 

 fellow-men when he loses his respect for God. 

 When a man says in his heart. " I am going to 

 look out for No. 1, and have a good time with- 

 out any regard to conscience or any thing else," 

 he commences almost at once to ignoi'e the 

 claims of humanity upon him. Just a few 

 days ago an incident came to my notice as fol- 

 lows: 



A man of considerable property rented a little 

 place to a German family. This family had 

 borrowed some money of a miller near by. By 

 hard work and careful saving they had scrap- 

 ed together the amount necessary to take up 

 the note; and as this man of wealth was going 

 to pass the mill, they sent word by him that, if 

 the miller would send the note by the bearer of 

 the message, they would take it up. This 

 wealthy man, however, saw a chance for spec- 

 ulation. The note was for f'T.'i.OO. Instead of 

 deliv(a'ing the message as given him, he told 

 the miller the German family were not doing 

 very well, and that there was but little pros- 

 pect that they would ever be able to take up 

 the note at all. He remaj'ked that he, however, 

 might get at least a part of it by letting them 

 work it out on his own premises. The miller, 

 not suspecting any trap or swindle, finally sold 

 the note of .^T.'i.OO for .?40.00— a little more" than 

 half price. The rich man carried the note back, 

 presented it, and got his fT.^.OO. The Gei'man 

 family supposed, of covu'se, that he had simply 

 brought the note for them to take up. So he 

 put f 3.5.00 into his own pocket as the result of 

 his own shrewdness. Of course, the matter got 

 out; but as he was used to such sharp practices, 

 he seemed to care but little or nothing about it. 

 He offered the miller ?40.00 for it, and he took 

 him up; so in one sense he made what miglit 

 be considered a fair and square bargain. Very 

 likely he could have been arrested for obtain- 

 ing the note under false pretenses or false-rep- 

 resentation; but as the parties were poor and 

 he was rich, it was allowed to pass. I need not 

 tell you that such a man never thinks of prayer. 

 Well might the prophet say to all such as he, 

 " When ye make many prayers I will not hear." 

 At another time this same man of wealth and 

 means purchased a farm. I have seen the farm. 



