1802 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



671 



and siipt-rstitiiin fioiii real s(>iiso and wisdom. 

 You may rcmt'mlx'r that Taul liassfvtM-al times 

 spoiitMi of tliinRS in rcjiani to which God had 

 not si'cn lit tosiivc iiim lifiiu that lhor:i in tho 

 tiosh. for iiistaiK'i'. w liicli was nt'vrr i-cmovcd. 

 Apain. in tlic Tiii ohaiJloi- of \. Corintiiians lie 

 speaks of i-(M'tain thinjjs wliereiii he liad receiv- 

 ed no lijjht, as it were, from the Lofd — he sim- 

 ply irives liis own private opinion. Now, I 

 liresiime 1 may lie paidoned if 1 say tiiat. in 

 tliis matter of medicine, I seem to liave liad no 

 direct answer to i)rayer. God has not seen lit — 

 at least, so it S(>enis to me- lo give me any iifrlit 

 in tlie matter as to wiiethet we sliould continue 

 to doctor our bodies witli incdicines or not. 

 Several times I have thoufrht I received so 

 nuich benelit from a certain medicine recom- 

 mended by kind friends that I have felt almost 

 as if it were in answer lo prayer; but on giving 

 tlie matter a full and fair test, as our exper- 

 iment stations lest the valu(> of fertilizers, etc., 

 I am forced lo the conclusion that each separate 

 medicine in question had ndthtiuj tn do with 

 my feeling better or worsi I do not mean while 

 I was conHned lo my bed by sickness, but since 

 I have been enjo\lng lolerabl(> health; there- 

 fore I say 1 do not kuoir whether it is wisdom 

 to take ionics and invigorators or not. So far 

 as I am concerned. I am inclined to think that 

 I have received no licncflt from them whatever, 

 and I have tried a great many that were rec- 

 ommended most vehemently. I think I may be 

 pardoned, however, for saying this, that I don't 

 believe God intended we should, as a general 

 thing any way, make ourselves well by the use 

 of medicines, "either animal, vegetable, or min- 

 eral. 1 cdn say. however, with a clear con- 

 science, and with perfect faith, that God has 

 given me some most wonderful and striking 

 answers lo prayer in this matter of coping suc- 

 cessfully with "sickness and disease; and the 

 answers have come along the lini; where com- 

 mon sense would seem to indicate they s/i-outd. 

 come. I have been over the ground before so 

 much that you probably know what I tnean. 

 Pure air to breathe, and plenty of it; pure water 

 to drink, and plenty of it: free, unobstructed 

 sunshine, and plenty of it; the' right sort of 

 exercise, and plenty of it, to develop energy and 

 muscle to enable nature lo cure the different 

 organs of the body, in her own way; plenty of 

 sleep:* and, lastly, summing up all the rest, as 

 it were, perfect cleanliness— not only clean In 

 body, butc^can In heart. If you want to get 

 well, commence with my favorite text that I 

 gave in the last number, and one that still 

 rings in my ears like music— ■• Let the words of 

 my mouth and the meditation of my heart be 

 acceptable in thy sight." Ilememlx'r. also, "If 

 I regard iniijuiiy in my liearl, the Lord will 

 not liear me." Of course, you remember 

 well what 1 said about being cureii by us- 

 ing a horse and cultivator on Decoration day. 

 In fact, few things I have ever written have 

 called forth more comment and sympathy than 

 this one article. In that case the answer to my 

 jtrayer came in the lineof>orne simple c(jnimun- 

 place work right near my home. First. I needed 

 laitli in God: theu the right ^ort of exi-rcise. 1 

 very much doubt whether the use of the horse 

 and cultivator, without faith that God heard 

 and was pleased to answer my fervent prayer, 

 would have done any thing like the amount of 

 good I received from the exercise of that one 



* While Mr-. Langsti-otli was visiting- us, one day at 

 dinner lie was commenting- on my good fortune in 

 being able to sleep just l)efore dinner and just be- 

 fore supper time; and then he repeated, in liis inim- 

 itable waj-, the following lines: 



For if ignorance be indeed a bliss. 



What blessed ignorance equals this, 



To sleep and not to know it! 



afternoon. Similar experienc<'s have come all 

 along. Of course, I could not be sjiared to cul- 

 tivate all the whilci; and although this is a 

 healthy occupation, we are by no means to take 

 it that it is the best occui)ation at all times and 

 for all persons: but it has its |)lace. 



In my enumeration of things that had im- 

 pressed themselves on my mind in answer to 

 prayer, 1 mentioned first pure air, and ph>uty of 

 it. Now. a plenty of it can not very well b(^ 

 secured without brisk exercise of some s(jrt. So 

 you see they are linked together. Again, with 

 brisk exercise and jiure air comes thirst. Water 

 to drink seems to be a great luxury: and one 

 who is worn out by nervous disorders and in- 

 digestion becomes very sensitive? to imiiurities 

 in drinking-water. I believe the whole world 

 is now giving more attcntieii lo tliis matter 

 of pure and wholesome water lo drink than it 

 ever has before^ Sonn; time ago oik; of our 

 agricullurul papers ask(>d if it paid Sor fanners 

 to take a vacation; and they called upon several 

 prominent men to give their experience. One 

 man said that a vacation of a few weeks once 

 gave him almost a new lease of life. He visited 

 a relative in some distant State. On the prem- 

 ises was a spring of pure soft w-ater that seemed 

 to him more delicious than any he had ever 

 tasted before. He went into the harvest-Held and 

 helped them out in their work, and drank great 

 quantities of this spring water. It acted like 

 magic on his worn-out and run-down system. 

 Chronic ailments of years' standing disappeared 

 in a few weeks. We have all heard of cases 

 of similar experiences. Many leading physi- 

 cians are recotnmending large quantities of hot 

 water as a beverage, to be drank either two 

 hours before or two hours after a meal. Drink 

 as much as you can. and as hot as you can. 

 This is one of the uses of water in different 

 forms, for different conditions of the system. 

 Sometimes, wh(m one is continually thirsty, 

 and is distressed by drinking water either hot 

 or cold, he can swallow almost any quantity of 

 pounded ice, putting it down as fast as he can 

 swallow it, in pieces as large as he can swallow. 

 I have frequently had a disordered stomach 

 made sweet and clean in just this way: and I 

 do not know that I ever experienced any bad 

 result from swallowing great quantities of ice 

 in this way. It seemed to cool off the stomach, 

 allay the fever, break up fermentation, and, in 

 fact. I felt much as one does when he has had a 

 good wash during a hot summer day. The 

 washing was inside, however, instead of exter- 

 nal. The internal water cure has been helpful 

 to me many times. On one occasion, for several 

 days I felt a pain at the base of my spinal 

 column. It kept there day and night, and I 

 began to feel as if I could not stand on my feet 

 much longer, unless I could get relief. I thought 

 of going to a physician. Instead of that, how- 

 ever. I concluded I would try a very thorough 

 cleansing of tlu! colon, with a large quantity of 

 water as warm as I could beai- it. After per- 

 sistent effort I succeeded in rcunoving a mass of 

 trash, among which were (juiti- a good many 

 blackberry seeds from berries I had eaten sev- 

 eral days before. The relief was as pi-oinpt and 

 plain as if 1 had washed soniethiug out from 

 between my toes, that had been making my 

 feel sore and lame. l'erhai)S nature would 

 have succeeded in expelling that foreign mat- 

 ter without the use of the water; and may be a 

 heavy dose of physic would have done it in the 

 same way: but I greatly preferred the use of 

 the water, ajiplied in a common-sense way. 

 The question might arise. "Are not blackber- 

 ries, which have been so much lauded, unwhole- 

 ■some after all. with their quantity of gritty 

 seeds and skins?" I do not think that follows. 

 They may be unwholesome to persons of weak 



