OCTOBER 1, 1914 



777 



A. I« Moolt 



OUM 



Editter 



Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words 

 shall not pass away. — Matt. 24:35. 



Before they call I will answer; and while they are 

 yet speaking, I will hear. — ISA. 65:24. 



Whoso liveth and bflieveth in me shall never die. 

 — John 11:26. 



I have again and again mentioned the 

 kind words that c-ome to me in regard to 

 this department cf our journal. In fact, 

 we have printed quite a number of these 

 kind words. They keep coming continually. 

 Every mail brings more or less of them. In 

 fact, many of the friends, as you will re- 

 member, who are not beekeepers take this 

 journal year after year for this department 

 alone. Now, Avhile these kind words have 

 been coming by the hundreds, and I might 

 say by the thousands, there are some criti- 

 cisms and fault-findings. Years ago, when 

 Our Homes department was first started, 

 there were quite a good many who objected 

 to my faith in the Bible and to my belief 

 that God hears and answers the prayers of 

 his people. I am led to think that skepti- 

 cism and infidelity, however, are passing 

 away, and that the Bible is held in greater 

 reverence just now than ever before since 

 the world began. Our periodicals, especial- 

 ly our industrial journals that are making 

 progress, all favor the Bible and Christian- 

 ity. In fact, if I am correct, humanity 

 now, almost with one accord, agree that the 

 Bible and its teachings are the real fore- 

 runners of all real progress in the arts and 

 sciences and in ''aring for these bodies of 

 ours. Wherever missionaries make a start, 

 not only churches but schools spring up. If 

 the language is unknown the Bible or por- 

 tions of it are soon translated. Then comes 

 in the printing-press and civilization. Skep- 

 ticism and unbelief never emancipate the 

 heathen from their darkness. I think I am 

 pretty well informed in regard to these mat- 

 ters, because we exchange with periodicals 

 printed in many languages and in all parts 

 of the world, and I get more or less of a 

 glimpse of what is going on in the world, 

 esi^ecially in the way of progi'ess. 



Just now I recall three persons who are 

 objecting to the Bible and to its teachings, 

 and to my belief that God answers prayer. 

 These three keep writing to me every little 

 while. One of tliem, a man older than I 

 am, who, I think, has been a skeptic all his 

 life, jokingly writes me that, instead of my 

 converting him o^■er to my faith, he hoped 

 to convert me eventually over to his faith; 

 but, if I remember correctly, his faith is no 

 faith at all. He does not accept the Bible 

 as the word of God; in fact, he questions 



Avhelher there is any God anywhere to direct 

 the affairs of this vast universe. I have 

 not always replied to these three friends. 

 Sometim^es I think it useless to reply; and 

 then, again, I sometimes fear that arguing 

 the matter only makes things worse. I do 

 not believe in long arguments such as 

 Christians used to have years ago in regard 

 to doctrinal points. Now, I hope the little 

 illustration I am going to give you will not 

 hurt anybody, even these three friends I 

 have spoken of. This is the story : 



When I first began to succeed with the 

 Italian bees it made quite a stir in this 

 community. One poor man came into my 

 store one day (I think he lived off in the 

 woods somewhere) and said he wanted to 

 talk Avith me a little. 



'' All right," I said. 



Then he began something as follows: 



" Mr. Boot, I am told you claim that 

 every hive of bees and every swarm of bees 

 has a king or a queen." 



I assented. Then he went on : 



" Well, if you will just give me a little 

 time and listen to me, I think I can convince 

 you tliat you are mistaken." 



I asked the man if he kept bees, and he 

 said he had kept them all his life. I asked 

 liim if he had movable-comb hives, which 

 were then a comparatively new thing. He 

 said he had no use for any such "contrap- 

 tions," or something to that etfect. Now, 

 under the circumstances what use would 

 there have been in holding an argument? 

 I did not make any reply. I reached for 

 my cap and asked him to follow me. He 

 tried to talk and go on with his argument 

 on the way; but I made little or no reply. 

 Wlien we arrived at the apiary I opened a 

 hive, took out a comb, showed him the yel- 

 low bees, found their Italian queen, let him 

 see her lay, and his astonishment was so 

 great that he forgot all about his desire to 

 argue. In fact, )iow could there be any ar- 

 gument when he was compelled to admit 

 that I had shown him more about bees in a 

 few 7ninutes than he had ever even dreamed 

 of in his whole lifetime? 



Now, I hope the three good friends whom 

 I have mentioned will not feel hurt, when 

 their eyes rest on this, if I suggest that the 

 opponents of Christianity, especially those 

 who declare Christians are all deluded hyp- 

 ocrites, are about on a par with the poor 

 man who made a trip of several miles in 

 order to teach me bee culture. As an illus- 

 tration I am going to give you a few sen- 

 tences from a letter I received recently. 



