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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



companioiisbip at all. People during all ages 

 have made the mistake of thinking they could 

 be better by holding aloof from mankind. 

 The Bible, however, gives us no encourage- 

 ment for any such way of living. When Jesus 

 left this earth he pray, d for his disciples. 

 Now, he did not pray that they might be kept 

 entirely from evil men, or, if you choose, from 

 falsehood and deceit. He said, " I pray not 

 that thou shouldbt take them out of the -world, 

 but that thou shouldst keep them from the 

 evil." If \\e ae to be the "salt of the 

 earth," we must be all around among the peo- 

 ple, in order that we may meet and put down 

 fraud and untruth. 



The theology of Gleanings is probably- 

 very far from being perfect ; but surely, dear 

 friend, it does not ignore Nature; in fact, I 

 believe it is because it has been so devoted to 

 Nature and Nature's gifts that it has received 

 the support and patronnge it has. Perhaps I 

 have not touched direclh' on the matter of 

 dreams; but you know how severe (.iLEANiNGS 

 has been in its criticisms of all supersiitions ; 

 and a faith in dreams would, in my opinion, 

 be su].erstition and nothing else; but lor all 

 that, I can by no means doubt that God might, 

 in past ages, have used dreams as a means of 

 conveying h's will to man. The steam- 

 engine and telegraph are nothing but dreams 

 realized. No human being can tell just how 

 how much the mind of God is reflected in 

 suitable human minds. You say the storj- of 

 Christ is unnatural, and I agree with you. 

 It is an abrupt departure from nature — that is, 

 from what is usual. I once held just about 

 the ground that you do. Full well I remem- 

 ber the day when the truth you have partly 

 expressed burst upon me. The little text, 

 " Love ye your enemies, do good to them that 

 hate you," was by accident brought promi- 

 nently before me when I was a busy business 

 man a little more than thirty years of age. 

 As I attempted to go on with business I pon- 

 dered the matter. What an idea to be intrud- 

 ed into the world of business ! Why, it is the 

 most unnatural thing anybody ever heard of, 

 to love his enemies. Think of loving a man 

 who puts himself out of the way to injure you! 



Not many hours ago a man dropped a box 

 containing two cans of beaiitiful honey. 

 Now, I do not know for sure, but I rather 

 suspect he tried to break it and let the honey 

 run all over the floor because he was mad 

 He was vexed because he could not have his 

 own way. You have seen people like this, 

 who would purposely damage people or prop- 

 erty because they were ugly. Now. if you 

 choose, let us consider loving a man who pur- 

 posely and deliberately does a thing of this 

 kind — wastes your nice honey and spoils 

 property scattered about on the floor. It is 

 contrary to Nature, is it not? 



A poor boy in the jail once said to me some- 

 thing as follows : " Mr. Root, it is agin Nature 

 to love a man who purposely does you a mean 

 turn." He had it exactly. These words and 

 others of a like kind were not spoken by 

 humanity. In talking about the matter before 

 I became a Christian I said to my mother, 

 " As I think over these words, ' Love ye your 



enemies, and do good to them that hate you,'' 

 somehow it impresses itself on my mind that 

 they came from heaven and not from earth." 

 They are the words of God to his children, 

 and not llie words of any human being. 



You s:iy the slory of Christ is " unnatural," 

 and, consequently, nut true. When Dzierzon 

 firit proclaimed the natural history of the 

 bee, the whole worM said it was " unnatural," 

 and hence nut true ; but they were finally 

 compelled to admit that the theory was true, 

 and then, and not before, they admitted the 

 teachings were in accordance with Nature's 

 laws. The story of Christ is, I believe, uni- 

 versally accepted now; at least, millions of 

 our most intelligent and scholarly men accept 

 it — so universally, at least, that it is a long 

 while since I have heard anybody dispute its 

 truth. When we date our work every day 

 a)ino Dojuini (year of our Lord) 18!:'8, we 

 simply acknowledge it is so many years since 

 Christ was on earth ; and, if I am correct, 

 every civilized nation on the face of the earth 

 noiv so dates its ivritings. When you say 

 church aiid state ought to be separate, I sup- 

 pose you mean that religion should not be 

 used as a lever to push business enterprises, 

 or that the priest or minister of any particular 

 church should not have power invested in 

 him to push or hold back political machinery, 

 and I entirely agree with this. But you 

 should remember that the church never 

 sought union with the state, and has now al- 

 most entirely disengaged itself from the use 

 of secular power. Only very bad men have 

 tried to govern in religious matters through 

 the agency of human government. You may 

 thank the church itself in this country that 

 you are not taxed to support it. In Turkey, 

 the government would tax you half of all you 

 earn to support the church of that country. 

 Perhaps you would call that "unnatural," 

 and, hence, not true; but the reality would be 

 very stern. S.ill, I do think the pulpit should 

 be using all the influence it can summon to 

 enforce righteous laws, and that the laius of 

 our land should protect our people in wor- 

 shiping God according to the dictates of 

 their own consciences. The laws of Moses 

 and the laws that are being enacted now 

 throughout the world for the protection of our 

 people certainly run along in parallel lines. 



I thought in my talk to which you referred, 

 where I quoted Jesus' words, "I came not to 

 bring peace on earth, but a sword," I made 

 my meaning plain. Every little while some 

 person, or perhaps some sect or denomination, 

 cqaies up, carrying moral suasion so far as to 

 say ihat it is zvicked to fight or to have war. 

 Not a week ago I had a little talk with a very 

 good old man who said the denomination to 

 which he belonged did not permit him to 

 fight. Said I, "My good friend, if a lot of 

 drunken burglars and highwaymen were to 

 break into your house at night, would you not 

 fight for the sake of your wife and children ?" 

 He shook his head, and said his people were 

 not allowed to fight, even under such circum- 

 stances. Now, I can imagine that a quiet and 

 peace-loving old man like himself might 

 choose to let the ruffians have all his money. 



