1881 



GLEAl^IKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



563 



$jir $fiimh 



1) 



THE AVATERIXG-TROUGII BY THE BRIDGE. 



After seeing the minister mark on a 

 shingle with a piece of coal, John thought 

 he would try his hgncl at it, and you will see 

 a sample of his work up over the playhouse. 

 On the post by the trough you will see a tin 

 cup hanging. ~ Well, this tin cup has a pleas- 

 ant history, and unless I am very much mis- 

 taken, it (the history, not the cup) contains 

 something helpful 'to more than one of my 

 readers. It is too dark to work, and all the 

 family, except John, are sitting on the log 

 that goes across the bridge, listening to the 

 ripple of the water as it falls from the water- 

 wheel. 



The ground was pebbly and sandy near 

 where the water flowed out of the small 

 trough, so there was but little danger of its 

 being muddy ; but back, further up the 

 bank, there was a spot of clay. As there 

 were a great many stones in their garden 

 and corn-field, Mr. Jones was speaking about 

 having them all gathered up and p\it around 

 the watering-trough, that it might not get 

 muddy for the horses as they came up to 

 drink. While he was planning how he 

 would make a stoneboat for drawing the 

 stone, both from the adjoining roadsides as 

 well as from the garden, Johncame running 

 up, saying,— 



" O father, father 1 the bees are actually 

 building comb again in the boxes. I thought 

 they were gathering honey in the pail bee- 

 hive, and so I went and looked in them out- 

 doors, and the boxes are full of bees, and 

 you can see the white comb where it sticks 

 out of the cluster. They are just more than 

 scrabbling around and working." 



•• Scrabbling?'' said his mother. 



" Well, you just come and see if they don't 

 ' scrabble.'" 



" It must be from the peppermint,'" said his 

 father. 



" Father," said Mary, "you do not think 

 Uncle Billy is ' an old curmudgeon ' now, do 

 you V" 



" No, my child, and I was very wrong and 

 wicked to have spoken so of any of my 

 neighbors." The next sentence was spoken 

 more to his wife. " Can it be possible that 

 this is the same world, and the same people 

 that I knew only last week? Is it really 

 possible the change is only in my poor self, 

 and nowhere else?" 



"T\ T \R FRIENDS : — Did you never hear 

 of a minister asking a friend in whom 

 he had great confidence, to occupy his 

 I)ulpit in his stead once in a while V Well, I 

 do not mean to say that I have a pulpit, or 

 that I am a minister, by any means ; but I 

 know somethinsrof the great crowd of friends 

 that look monthlv for the talks I have given 

 ^ou here; and while listening to a sermon a 

 Sunday or two ago, I could not help think- 

 ing how much I would like you all to hear 

 it. It was not so much because it was re- 

 markably able, as it was that it happened to 

 be right "in the line of my teachings and my 

 talk to you, and because I know that there 

 are some of you who think you have almost 

 too hard a time of it in this world. I have 

 often thought that you little know what a 

 blessing it is for you that you did have a 

 hard time, and that you did have to work 

 and scrape for every thing you enjoyed ; but 

 it seems to me I have never been able to tell 

 it so plainly and clearly as has our young 

 friend. Rev. G. J. Webster, of Weymouth, 

 Medina Co., Ohio. It may be well to state, 

 that I never saw him until my eyes rested 

 on him in our pulpit, and I was very much 

 inclined to murmur at seeing the face of a 

 stranger, in place of our regular pastor. I 

 finally decided that it would be a better spir- 

 it to accept him as one whom God had sent. 

 Now I wish you to welcome his kind, hope- 

 ful words in the same way. May the spirit 

 of the Master carry these words home to 

 your hearts, and into your week-day lives, ex- 

 actly as they were carried into mine! 



Without doubt, the word here translated " temp- 

 tations " is not to be taken in the ordinary modern 

 sense; i. e., an inducement to do some wicked thing; 

 but, rather, it means something evil to be borne. 

 The Greek word means, a putting to the proof; 

 proof, trial, calamity, affliction. It means, also, a di- 

 rect temptation to sin, but hardly in the text. Ther.? 

 the apostle exhorts the saints to rejoice in every 

 trial, or testing; that is, all loss, evil report, perse- 

 cution, sickness, death, etc., for they are good, even 

 though they be evil. 



Let me then take for the topic of this discourse, 

 this subject, drawn directly from the text already 

 given— 



TBE GOOD OF TRIAL AND DISCIPLINE. 



Judging from the habit of the world, we should in- 

 fer that its value was chiefly medicinal; trials are 

 to be taken, onlj- because we must, and never with 

 joy. Everywhere we find parents and friends who 

 plan and work with might and main to keep away 

 trial of every kind from their loved ones. How 

 many young people there are, especially girls, who 

 are reared as carefully as hot-house plants. They 

 are taught only what is pleasant to know — the ac- 

 complishments; they never soil their hands, or 

 harden their muscles by severe labor; they are kept 

 carefully away from all sights and sounds that 

 might shock their delicate senses; as far as possi- 

 ble, every wish is gratified; "they toil not, neither do 

 they spin." Quite common this Is with the children 



