1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



987 



HOMES, 



BV A.I. R O OT. 



No good thing will he withhold from them that walk 

 uprightly.— Psalm 84 : 11. 



I presume almost every one of our readers 

 has at times been startled by the recent 

 wonderful achievements in science, in the 

 arts, and in mechanics. When I was but a 

 child people were talking and holding up 

 their hands in astonishment at the advance 

 of the locomotive. A little later one of my 

 schoolmates said, "On the way to Akron 

 there is a lot of folks putting up wires on 

 poles. On top of the poles there is a cross- 

 piece like the letter T, and some of the poles 

 have two or three wires. What in the world 

 are they for? ' ' 



Just one boy in the lot was able to explain 

 that people talked through those wires; but 

 his explanation was received with a shout of 

 contempt. "Talking through a wire!" 

 Then a general exclamation of derision fol- 

 lowed, because of even the idea of any thing 

 so ridiculous. A few years later, when I 

 became crazy on electricity I went around 

 to the schoolhouses showing a model of an 

 electric engine operated by a battery, and I 

 predicted that, in just a short time, say 

 three or four years, electricity would sup- 

 plant steam. Instead of three or four years, 

 however, it took thirty or forty years. During 

 this period there were various inventions and 

 improvements in the lines of both electricity 

 and steam. When the boy Edison began to 

 startle the world I was full of interest and 

 enthusiasm. At our prayer-meeting last 

 Saturday afternoon our pastor said it was 

 his belief the Holy Spirit was giving the 

 world these great inventions; and he asked 

 the question, "Does anybody know whether 

 Edison is a professing Christian? " I said I 

 believed he was not at the time of many of 

 his great discoveries; but that, if I was cor- 

 rect, he married a devoted Christian woman, 

 and soon after, probably through her in- 

 fluence, united with the church. Soon after, 

 Marconi came with wireless telegraphy and 

 startled the earth. Then Prof. Currie and 

 his good wife (perhaps I ought to say Mad- 

 am Currie and her good husband) gave to 

 the world radium, startling and upsetting 

 some established points held by the greatest 

 scientists of the world. Well, we have not 

 yet quite caught our breath since radium 

 has come on the stage. We are waiting for 

 the united scientists of the world to tell us 

 what it is and what it is good for. 



Now, then, is there a man or woman of 

 average intelligence, and one who loves God. 

 who has not been startled by these new and 

 wonderful achievements? I should prefer to 

 say gifts from God, and I presume a few, 

 myself among the number, are beginning to 

 beheve that the great Father has some spe- 

 cial purpose in this period of the world's his- 

 tory of opening his hand, and showering 



forth these new and precious gifts. I did 

 not mention the telephone; but not a day 

 passes that I do not start and almost trem- 

 ble when I take in the fact that we are now 

 talking to each other face to face, almost 

 oblivious of distance. What is coming next? 



This has been ringing in my ears for some 

 time. I do not know how many other ears 

 have caught on to that question or a similar 

 one; but I think there must be a good many, 

 especially those who love and reverence the 

 great Ruler of this mighty universe, the lov- 

 ing Father, who perhaps also feels a thrill 

 of gladness when we express to him our 

 thanks, and recognize him as the great giver 

 of all good. And now for our text. 



Some may urge that these good things 

 are, many of them, sent to those who do not 

 walk uprightly; but may it not be true, dear 

 brothers and sisters, that God thinks best to 

 send his Holy Spirit just as he does the gen- 

 tle rain, on the just and on the unjust? Yet 

 it pains me all the same when I see the auto- 

 mobile mostly in the hands of those who 

 recognize no God. 



May be I am making a little mistake right 

 here, and perhaps they do recognize God in 

 some sort of fashion. But what hurts me 

 most is that they seem to make no sort of 

 recognition of his holy sabbath or his will 

 concerning it. 



Now_ just a word to those who say that 

 great inventors are not all known as pro- 

 fessing Christians. In my list I omitted 

 the submarine cable; and while I recall it to 

 mind (for I remember distinctly the years of 

 hard work and almost a mint of money ex- 

 pended before it was a success) I remember 

 with joy that Cyrus W. Field was a devoted 

 Christian; and so were Morse and Franklin; 

 and we should not forget Swammerdam, 

 who knew so much about bees; and the list 

 might be continued indefinitely. Well, 

 friends, what is coming next? When some- 

 body told me we were to shout so as to be 

 heard across the ocean. I was startled again, 

 and said to myself, "What is there in the 

 future that can be more wonderful? " I 

 need not tell you of the progress that has 

 been made and is being made every day in 

 more rapid transportation of individuals. 

 For a long period a mile a minute was the 

 desideratum; and when we got up to that 

 there seemed to be a general agreement that 

 it would not be safe to move human beings 

 any faster; but the electric locomotive that 

 I predicted in my boyhood has been getting 

 in its work, and over in Germany they have 

 already moved human beings at the rate of 

 over two miles a minute; and just recently 

 the automobile on a steel railway track has 

 b3en covering long distances in a shorter 

 time than either steam or electricity. A 

 paper of this week announces that it is now 

 possible for one to have breakfast in Chica- 

 go and supper in New York, and he can have 

 both meals by daylight. But the automobile 

 is the only "craft" that can do it just now. 

 I extract from the Cleveland Leader the fol- 

 lowing, which may suggest to you something 

 of what I have in mind: 



