1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



297 



gone around among tho farmers on the wheel, 

 giving ihem checks for the contents of their 

 corn -cribs, I think he would have enjoyed a 

 good dinner of corn-meal mush and maple 

 moias^ses as he had never (Zrcamed of enjoying 

 a dinner before.* 



Now, friends, there are probably not many 

 millionaires who read Gleanings. There may 

 be a few— I do not know. If there are, may 

 God's Holy Spirit bless this little message, and 

 make it bear fruit; and even if you are not a 

 millionaire, may you catch the inspiration from 

 the Holy Spirit, and cast your mite into the 

 fund to move these great masses of corn, that 

 is like the sand of the seashore, to where it 

 will do good. Won't it make you happier to 

 put off buying something you had planned to 

 buy, and give at least a part of ynur possessions 

 to the Lord ? You see, there aro three birds to 

 be killed with one stone: First, the saving of 

 precious human life; second, relieving the 

 farmers, and setting them at work rejoicing; 

 third (I put it last because it comes the nearest 

 to self), open the way for prosperity in your 

 own business by helping your brothers both 

 east and west. Why. bless you, it will not be 

 lost. In this short life of mine I have many 

 times thrown money away, as some people 

 would look at it— yes, as some of my friends 

 have said— but it was really, however, casting 

 my bread upon the waters; and in many days 

 this bread so cast forth for Christ Jesus' sake 

 has come back with renewed and wonderful 

 interest. You can not think how cheering and 

 encouraging it has been while ofT on my travels 

 to find that I had, away '^ack, helped to benefit 

 somebody, and had forgotten all about it. I 

 need not tell you of these things, because it 

 would seem like boasting; but the very fact 

 that our business has been prospered is owing 

 very much indeed to occasions where I had for- 

 gotten business, as it were, and contributed 

 sometimes pretty heavily to demands from 

 foreign fields. Ever since I became a Christian 

 I have given heavily to the cause of missions — 

 many times when i was paying interest on Dor- 

 rowed money to do it; and again and again has 

 business come along in some unexpected and 

 unheard-of way because I had years before 

 listened to the call and promptings of God's 

 Holy Spirit rather than to heed the promptings 

 of selfishness. 



Perhaps there are many among the readers 

 of Gleanings who really can not give very 

 much consistently. If so, then let them give a 

 little trifle and back it up with earnest prayers 

 that God may move the hearts of men during 

 this beautiful springtime. 



It is not only in sulTering India just now, but 

 w^ithin the past few days the floods in the South 

 have been so severe that great quantities of 

 corn and other things will be needed there as 

 well, in all probability. Even as I write, an 

 organization has been formed, and the Presi- 

 dent of the United States has been asked to 

 give governmental aid. Now, let us spring 

 forward as we did during the Chicago fire, and 

 later during the .Johnstown disaster, and let 

 these suffering friends know that at least we, 

 who profess to be a Christian nation, do love 

 our neighbors. Even if we do not quite come 

 up to the scripture injunction to love them as 

 well as ourselves, let us show that we have re- 

 gard for those who have lost their homes and 

 their farms through no fault of their own, but 

 rather through a wonderful dispensation of 

 Providence which we can not just now under- 



* May I digress just a minute to say that the corn- 

 meal mush should be boiled at least four hours as 

 we do the wheat and rye ? 



stand. I do believe good is coming out of it all, 

 and I rejoice that as yet there has been so little 

 loss of life. , Let me digress again just a little: 



House-breaking and highway robbery have 

 been worse during the past year or two than 

 perhaps ever before in the United States. This 

 matter of "holding up" and taking a man's 

 money is now getting to be alarming. It is 

 said that even the boys are practicing it. 

 There seems to be a sort of wave, or. as some 

 would call it, a '" fad " to take a man's money 

 away from him by force. God forbid that this 

 craze or fad should go any further. Is it not 

 possible that, in God's providence, it may be 

 counteracted by another and a greater wave in 

 the line of the little text which says, " Do good, 

 and lend, hoping for nothing again " ? and 

 may not this wave be so great as to throw 

 accounts of prize-fighting into the background? 

 May it not sweep away and blot out the cigar- 

 ette business? May wholesome activities in 

 the way of benevolences toward our fellow-men 

 crowd out selfishness and brutality 1 May the 

 Lord bless and help in this work that comes 

 just now before our beloved United States of 

 America! 



It se-^ms a little funny, but just now the very 

 best recommend that the Anti-saloon League 

 of Ohio has ever heard from any source comes 

 straight from our enemies. May the Lord be 

 praised for such testimony as they have seen 

 fit to give publicly and in print. 



The following is an extract from the Wine 

 and Spirit News. ofBcial organ ofgthe Ohio 

 State League, of Feb. 24, 1897: 

 c: You are scarcely aware of the activity of the Anti- 

 saloon League. It is but little over three years old, 

 and yet in that brief time it has accomplished more 

 than any organization ever formed in a similar 

 time. The first year it held 2000 meetings. The 

 second year it held 6000 meetings, and the third year 

 13,000 meetings were held in the State of Ohio. In all, 

 the officers and members of this league have slan- 

 dered your business and my business in the pres- 

 ence of 300,000 people in the three years, or at the 

 rate of 100,000 every year. The highest number of 

 saloons In this State at one time was over 13,000; 

 now the total number has been reduced to less than 

 9000. The Anti saloon League has reduced the 

 number within the last year and a half 1500. In the 

 same length of time they championed a bill in the 

 legislature that would make sixty counties of this 

 State vote "dry" at the very next election, which 

 would have been this spring; and, what is more 

 amazing still, they actually secured fifty votes in 

 favor of its passage. Two years have almost gone 

 by, and we are face to face with the same issue 

 again. The same enemy is again in the field, better 

 equipped, with more men and more supplies than he 

 was when the Haskell bill was defeated in ihe last 

 General Assembly by the narrow margin of seven 

 votes. Our duty, therefore, as business men, en- 

 gaged in the liquor-traftic in this State, ought to be 

 plain. We must fight fire with fire. 



L On page 26, Jan. 1, I told you I was getting in 

 training for an expedition of 380 miles overland 

 to the Grand Canyon. A little more than half 

 this distance had been made. When we were 

 at Robert Phinney's, up in the mountains, we 

 were about 30 miles from Flagstaff; and Flag- 

 staff is about 75 miles from the Grand Canyon. 

 Our trip of 150 miles or more overland had been 

 gradually ascending. The city of Phoenix is 

 but a little above the level of the sea, with its 



