1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



301 



$ur gfiimi' 



I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way 

 which ihou shalt go : 1 will guide thee with mine 

 eye.— Psalm ',ii : 8. 



C^^\Ull I'riends will remember that we were 

 Jlj considering?, last month, a letter from 

 ~^ friend Leonard. Toward the opening 

 of the letter he makes this remark: — 



" I do not care how much you mix your business 

 up with your religion; it is none of my business, 

 any more than if you should mix salt with your tea 

 for breakfast. What conceras me is, are you an 

 honest man, and trying to do to others as you would 

 like to be done by?" 



If I am correct, this is the ^reat question 

 that most of us care about. Is he who pre- 

 sumes or undertakes to teach, thoroughly 

 honest? In fact, this question comes up to 

 me again and again; and as I weigh opin- 

 ions of one great mind after another, I fall 

 to wondering how many of them are thor- 

 oughly honest. Yes, even in talking with 

 and listening to ministers, T ask this same 

 question. IIow much of what we hear or 

 read is there that has not imderneath it all 

 some thing that we do not know all about? 

 I don't mean to allude to those who have a 

 deliberate purpose of cheating, but only to 

 the involuntary (as it were) deception that 

 seems to well up from the heart, almost with- 

 out poor humanity being for the time aware 

 or it. 



The heart is desperately wicked, and deceitful 

 above all things : who can know it?— Jek. 17 : 19. 



After all that has been said about honesty 

 of purpose, it seems to me now there is no 

 commodity in the world so eagerly sought 

 for and so highly prized, as a wide-awake 

 honest boy or girl, woman or man. TCvery- 

 body rushes for him, and everybody wants 

 him. It was his simple honesty that gave 

 Abraham Lincoln the large place in the 

 hearts of the people that almost no other 

 man has had since the days of AVashington. 



One particular ])oint strikes me strangely 

 and almost painfully, illustrating strongly 

 the great need of a purer honesty of purpose 

 than the world often finds. It is words just 

 like yours, friend L., commending me for 

 my honesty. I do not deserve it, and if the 

 world at large make such bungling work of 

 trying to be honest as I do, I tell you the 

 state of affairs is bad indeed. At the time 

 of my conversion, I promised God on my 

 knees I would try to be honest and true to 

 him and my fellow-men, no matter what 

 consequences came from so doing, and I 

 have been trying to remember this ever 

 since; but it is with sadness I reflect that 

 much of the time it has been too much by 

 fits and starts, instead of a constant, steady 

 purpose. Before this change of heart, or 

 change of purpose, if you choose to call it so, 

 I had been so much in the habit of making 

 excuses and giving reasons that were not 

 strictly facts, that it required a most power- 

 ful effort to break away from the habit. 

 AVhile the words were on my lips, I would 

 sometimes remember, "thou, God, seest 

 me," and stop abruptly, or change the con- 



versation in a way that might have puzzled 

 my hearer, and often sadly embarrassed my- 

 self; but God heard and approved. To my 

 astonishment, it seemed as if men, too, 

 heard and approved. I have been wonder- 

 ing whether there were not intimate friends 

 of mine who knew this weakness, and saw 

 the strtiggles I was making to overcome it. 

 My friends, all the arguments that were 

 ever written in defense of the truths of the 

 Bible are not as powerful to the eyes and 

 ears of the world as the sight of a weak sin- 

 ner fighting his way up to God in the way I 

 have mentioned. 'The world pays a high 

 premium for such work. It gives every such 

 soul more credit than it deserves. Now, 

 mind you right here that you will get no 

 such credit if your inspiring motive is to 

 earn the applause of men : it must be to win 

 the approval of the God who made you. 

 Tour prayer must be like that of David, — 



Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a 

 right spirit within me.— Psalm 51 : 10. 



Many of you know with what pleasure we 

 receive some new discovery, or some new 

 unlooked-for feature or help in bee culture. 

 AVell, my friends, there are new truths that 

 open ui^ and develop, just in the same way, 

 to one who is striving to be freed from sin. 

 I want to tell you of an experience of the 

 past year. Almost every one knows what it 

 is to have wrong thoughts and feelings in- 

 trude tliemselves, and at times, too, when 

 you are almost sure they came entirely un- 

 invited. You can see no reason why they 

 should intrude their hideous forms at all. 

 Old temptations of years gone by suddenly 

 force themselves into your mind, and you 

 regard them more with surprise and curiosi- 

 ty, at first, than any thing else. Could it 

 really be that you ever in life harbored any 

 thing so vile? I knew these thoughts were 

 wrong and dangerous, and I first knelt in 

 prayer, to have God keep me from tempta- 

 tion. By and by they trooped back again. 

 I took to praying wherever I was, and in a 

 few months I was so used to saying to my- 

 self, or aloud if no one was near, "Lord, 

 help," that it began to come involinitarily. 

 While in the street, if any thing happened 

 to even remotely suggest the dangerous 

 ground, " Lord, help," rang out sharp and 

 clear, before I had even time to see why the 

 signal of danger was sounded. After a little 

 thought, I saw clearly what it was — well, 

 let us say suggested the thought, that danger 

 was coming. Is this not wonderful? and is 

 it not glorious to think that God will, in 

 time, as a reward for faitlifulness, send 

 along, as it were, an ever-present monitor? 

 I do not know but you, friend L., and some 

 of the rest, may say I am going crazy ; but I 

 think I can dispel that idea by what follows. 

 A few weeks ago, I think it was not more 

 than that, there came a temptation to make 

 an excuse that was not quite an honest one, 

 and, to my surprise, sharp and clear came 

 the little warning, " Lord, help," to Avarn 

 me of dangerous ground in that direction, as 

 well as improper thoughts. The warning 

 lias come here once this morning since I sat 

 down to write. Now mind you, it is like the 

 alarm clock I talked to you about a few 

 weeks ago. It will be of no avail, and in 



