1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



37 



Lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth, where 

 moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break 

 through and steal: but lay up for yourself treasures in 

 heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, 

 and where thieves do not break through nor steal. — 

 Matt. 6 : 19, 20. 



My attention was called to the above text 

 recently by finding a book on the table of a 

 relative of mine. The title of the book was 

 "Moth and Rust." It instantly occurred 

 to me that the book must be something re- 

 markably good; and although it was a very 

 entertaining piece of fiction it had very little 

 to say about that beautiful text. After my 

 attention was called to it, the text seemed 

 to unfold and spread out. It was to me, as 

 I have often mentioned before, a "shining 

 light." It seemed as if I could see those 

 wonderful words emblazoned on the vault of 

 heaven in letters of fire. It comes from 

 that celebrated sixth chapter of Matthew, 

 where Jesus seems to be giving his friends 

 wholesome advice and instruction. He com- 

 mences the chapter by admonishing us not 

 to do our alms before men; and he tells us 

 when we pray to go into our closets and 

 shut the door. Then he tells us about avoid- 

 ing vain repetitions, and finally gives us that 

 prayer which has been repeated thousands 

 of times, over and over, and yet few seem 

 to comprehend or grasp the wonderful in- 

 struction and truth in that prayer. Finally, 

 when the chapter is about half finished he 

 admonishes us not to lay up for ourselves 

 treasures on earth. Oh dear! what a scram- 

 ble there is for earthly treasures! not only 

 in the way of deal, but under the influence 

 of strong drink, wretches calling themselves 

 men knock down poor hard-working people 

 to get their watches or little hoard of hard- 

 earned savings! And that is not all. Help- 

 less women— women who teach school for a 

 living — have been knocked down in the 

 streets of the cities of Ohio just so that 

 some low fiend could grab from them the 

 small pittance they had earned by honest 

 toil. We wonder how anybody calling him- 

 self a man could get to such depths of 

 selfishness and depravity. 



And yet these drunken highwaymen are 

 hardly more to be despised than the million- 

 aires who get their wealth by stealing from 

 the honest tax-payer. The words "moth 

 and rust ' ' took my attention. Mrs. Root 

 spends a great part of her time in house- 

 cleaning. It is hard work. She does it her- 

 self, mostly, because nobody else does it ex- 

 actly to her notion. She says that, unless 

 the house is cleaned about so often, and the 

 clothing, carpets, etc., gone over faithfully 

 and carefully, "moth" will get it; and ev- 



ery little while some garment she prizes 

 will be found ' ' moth-eaten. " I do not know 

 which she hates more — moth or mice; but 

 she wages incessant warfare on both.* She 

 says if we ever build another house she is 

 going to supervise it personally, and have it 

 absolutely mouse-proof. I hope science will 

 enable us also to make a house that is moth- 

 proof very soon. Another thing Mrs. Root 

 can not endure is rust. If I borrow one of 

 her tin pails to use in the greenhouse, it 

 must not only be turned upside down when 

 I am done with it, but she says it should be 

 dried on the stove and then wiped out with 

 a clean cloth. The tin pails that she han- 

 dles never rust out, even if they are made 

 of cheap "Yankee" tin. We have some 

 tinware doing service yet, that was pur- 

 chased when we were first married, made of 

 good old-fashioned tin. Well, almost every 

 thing in this world rusts if left out in the 

 weather uncared-for. Even the stones in 

 our buildings rust and rot and wear away 

 under the influence of sun, frost, and water. 

 Our iron bridges that cost away up into the 

 millions rust out if they are not kept paint- 

 ed. Every thing in this world wears away 

 and goes to pieces. Now think of the won- 

 derful truth packed in that little sentence, 

 ' ' Where moth and rust doth corrupt. ' ' Just 

 take in that word "corrupt." How won- 

 derfully expressive it is! We speak about 

 our men in oflftce who are corrupted by rich- 

 es. Those at the head of our great insur- 

 ance companies were so burdened with the 

 millions entrusted to them by the honest, in- 

 nocent, and unsuspecting people that they 

 became so corrupt they did not seem to have 

 any regard or respect for anybody — neither 

 God, man, nor the Devil, as the expression 

 goes. A few days ago I saw an editorial in 

 one of the daily papers. It got away from 

 me by some hook or crook, and I have not 

 been able to find it since. The editor start- 

 ed out something like this : 



" We read in the good book thvt 'a good 

 name is rather to be chosen than great rich- 

 es;' but the officers of our insurance com.pa- 

 nies evidently consider this a mistake. They 

 seem to have decided that great riches are 

 rather more important, and a good name of 

 not very much account — at least when they 

 discover their good name is gone they mani- 

 fest but very little concern; and just so they 

 can keep the great riches safely in their 

 clutches they are not much troubled about 

 the loss of their good name. We as a people 

 are taking great pains to send Bibles to the 

 heathen in foreign lands. Why not send 

 some Bibles as well to the oflftcers of our 

 great insurance companies. Perhaps if some 

 of these beautiful passages were marked 

 with a blue pencil they might be induced to 

 read and ponder, and see what they have 

 lost and how little they have really gained." 



* Yesterday I found our grandson Ralph, two and a 

 half years old, with a cloth in his hand dusting and 

 wiping the furniture as well as the floor. He had seen 

 his grrandma dusting the furniture, floors, etc., and 

 helped her in her housecleaning. He has surely started 

 out to be a chip of the old block. 



