46 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



the position of the priest and elders to whom Jesus 

 talked. (See Matt. 31:31.) I used to be an infidel 

 and a public advocate of infidelity, and know their 

 strong point is, that Christianity is not practical; 

 they say, "Voii Christians care as much for money 

 as we do, and depend as much on the strong arm of 

 the law by force to protect it for you." Now, I be- 

 lieve Christianity is practical, and wo do not need 

 the law; but the government of Christ is sulficient; 

 his kingdom has come to those who will recognize 

 and look entirely to him. AVho will trust the Lord 

 —make Christianity practical, and take away the 

 strong weapon of the inflde ? 



I want to be a Christian, and with the Savior stand; 



To live as he has taught— be guided by his hand; 



For grace and love is all there is on earth worth liv- 

 ing for. 



Though many blessings are around and many more 

 in store. 



I would gladly give them up, or lay their pleasures 

 down, 



To take the Christian's cross and wear the Christian's 

 crown; 



To be at one with Jesus, Lord, in the blest abode 

 above. 



To live in heavenly harmon3-— be filled with holy 

 love. 



Praying that the good work j'ou have started to do 

 may go on to perfection in Christ, I am yours, 



ISA.\C B. RUMFORD. 



Bakersfleld, Kern Co., Cal., Dec. 12, 1880. 



Gently, my friends, both of you, while we 

 reason together. You may not be aware 

 that this question is now agitating the great- 

 est minds of the world. — What shall we do 

 with criminals? It is not likely it will be 

 settled all at once ; and it may not be in our 

 day that it shall be decided there is a better 

 Avay than to shoot down for the sake of pre- 

 serving life. Great difficulties stand in the 

 way of friend R."s plan, and I will give you 

 one of tliem. Suppose you are a bank clerk, 

 and are employed to giiard the i)roperty of 

 your fellow-men ; are you going to tell the 

 thief to take it along? A great part of us are 

 guarding the property of others, and are in a 

 measure responsible. Now, in defense of — 

 let us say not shooting— i)lease consider that 

 you are in a measure responsible for every 

 man that turns assassin. In a great major- 

 ity of cases, you have open saloons in your 

 town where boys are trained to be assassins. 

 You can close these in a twinkling, if you 

 will, only a few of you, join hands. The 

 boys of your county are i)ining in solitude in 

 your jails, where they would gladly listen to 

 a kind word from any one of you, and yet 

 you withhold it, most of you. These boys 

 can be raised to a post of honor and useful- 

 ness— nay, tliey may be, by the love of God, 

 led from their bad ways, and sometimes, in 

 just a few months they may be at work res- 

 cuing others. 



Well, now while stich is the case, is it not 

 a terrible thing to shoot these boys down? 

 You may say it is all very well to talk to 

 them while in jail, and ask me to try such 

 talk while they are in the acts of robbery. 

 Perhaps I am not equal to the task ; but I 

 think there are those who might do it. Per- 

 haps there are many of us w-ho miglit attain 

 to it. In any event, it is our privilege to 

 labor with humanity before they get to these 

 lengths. No man becomes a burglar or as- 

 sassin at once. He has to be drilled by Sa- 

 tan, and pass through many intermediate 



stages. On another page we are told of two 

 of our fellow-men who are in the interme- 

 diate stages that lead to crime because of 

 their bees and grapes. It is a terrible thing 

 to take the life of a fellow-man, my friends, 

 and I Avould to God you all thought it a ter- 

 rible thing to quarrel with a neighbor. If it 

 is necessary that life should be taken, shall 

 it not be only as the last, the veri/ last, resortV 



MR. MERRYBANKS AND HIS NEIGHBOR. 



HOW FRIEXD M. BROUGHT THE "SUK- 

 SHINE." 



f^EFORE going on with my story, I shall 

 f\JM have to go back a little, to show- just 

 why it was that even the sight of friend 

 M."s good-natured face brought abetter feel- 

 ing to both father and son. You doubtless 

 remember about the swarm that ran away 

 last summer. AVell, you remember, too, do 

 you not. how the horse got frightened and 

 broke his buggy, and he came tumbling into 

 the dust? Come to think of it, I believe I 

 Avill give you the picture again, so you will 

 recall the whole scene to mind. 



"SWARMIXG TIME.'' 



Well, friend M. picks himself up, not much 

 w^orse for his sudden stop. Old ''Dobbin," 

 as the distance widens between the general 

 commotion and his nag-ship, is not so badly 

 scared as he thought, and is easily caught by 

 a neighbor hurriyng to the scene of action. 



a>ut the bees— oh where are they? sailing 

 away, a mere speck in the blue sky. 



Mr. M.'s neighbor was completely discour- 

 aged, and as he turned away, says, discon- 

 solately, — 



"There! that's just the Avay with bees; 

 there goes all honey and profit too, for this 

 year."' 



Not so Avith friend JSIerrybanks, however. 

 His tumble in the dust had in no way abated 

 his zeal, and uiion the spur of the moment he 

 burst forth with, — 



"They ain"t gone either; we'll follow "em 

 and bring "em back. If you don"t want to 

 go after them, I'll give you $2.62ic for them 

 up there on the winar, and get them myself." 



I confess it was a little singular that friend 

 ]\[. should offer just the above-named sum, 

 to the splitting of a cent; but as our story 

 proceeds, we shall perhaps find out why he 



