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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



Train up a child in the way he should go. and when 

 he is old he will not depart from it.— Prov. 22 : 6. 



The sermon that I am going to give you 

 in this Home paper is by the request of Mrs. 

 A. I. Root ; but before giving it I wibh to 

 tell you just why she selected this sermon 

 among all the other sermons we have Hsten- 

 ed to since the Home papers have been pub- 

 lished— that is, toward thirty years— and ask- 

 ed me to stand aside and give place to it. I 

 need not tell you that A. I. Root is full of 

 hobbies and new inventions. Mrs. Root, 

 during all her life, has had just one ' ' hobby . ' ' 

 Hobby is not just the word to express what 

 I mean, but I will let it go for want of a 

 better one. Mrs. Root's lifework has been, 

 first, last, and always, education. She did 

 not have the advantages I did in youih, and 

 perhaps she did not take hold as easily as I 

 did naturally. It would not be any thing 

 strange if she at times, especially in her 

 early life, joined in with the excitements 

 going on with the rest of those of her age, 

 and did not give as much attention as she 

 might have done to the privileges afforded 

 by the schools of that day. But as she grew 

 older she began to realize more and more 

 the importance of education. After we were 

 married we had happy times together in try- 

 ing to keep posted as to what was going on 

 all over this world of ours. When the five 

 children came trooping along one after an- 

 other, she bent her whole energies toward 

 giving them all the advantages the times 

 afforded. Just as soon as Ernest was old 

 enough to go to school he was started off 

 promptly on time, and eve^y day in the week. 

 She made it her business to see there was 

 no failure and no tardiness. She helped him 

 get his lessons before he started, then met 

 him at the gate at night and asked him how 

 he had succeeded. In a»little time he was as 

 glad to tell her his triumphs as she was glad 

 to hear them. In this way it was kept up 

 with the whole five There was no let-up 

 day or night. She followed them with their 

 studies, kept pace with all the school was 

 doing, visited the schools occasionally, knew 

 the teachers personally, and kept it right up 

 till the last one had gone off to Oberlin to 

 finish. No, she did not give it up even then. 

 When we were first married I rather look- 

 ed down upon her from the lofty heights (?) 

 of my intellect and masculine mental powers. 

 May God forgive me. I knew what she was 

 doing for the children, but I turned it all 

 over to her, and had but little to do with it. 

 / did not know, the children did not know, 

 and probably she herself at that time did 

 not comprehend what good would come 

 from it in later years. I presume that she 

 had read the beautiful little text I have put 

 at the head of this talk; but I am not sure 

 her faith was equal to grasping the won- 



drous truth in the latter part of it. Our 

 children, like all others, were at times con- 

 trary and wayward. They did not want to 

 go to school, and made excuses. They got 

 lazy, and wanted to lag behmd. But there 

 was no escaping that keen indefatigable 

 mother of theirs. Ernest has written about 

 the " lightning operators " in bee culture. 

 Mrs. Ruot has for the greater part of her 

 life done her own work with the children's 

 help; and if ever there was a lightning op- 

 erator in bringing up a family and getting 

 th^in to go to fccaool, she was " it." 



After i became a follower of the Lord 

 Jesus Christ I began to get a glimpse of the 

 wife God gave me ; and instead of looking 

 down on her efforts I began to take a lovyer 

 seat, ahd to look up and admire her untiring 

 zeal for education. If I were sure Mrs. 

 Root would not get hold of this paper I 

 should like to say right here that, during all 

 those years of such strenuous work, she was 

 laying the foundations of the future prosper- 

 ity and success of The A. I. Root Co., Me- 

 ina, O., and the busy little woman did not 

 know it; and if bhe were to see it in this 

 paper she would tear it out and say it was 

 not so. I think the children will all agree 

 with me, however, and we will try to get it 

 into print without her seeing it. 



Now for the sermon that captured Mrs. 

 Root, heart and soul. It was to be preached 

 just before our Medina schools opened, but 

 sickness prevented Bro. Hill from preaching 

 it any sooner. 



And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. 

 I. Sam. 3 : 8. 



There is an unusual pathos in the story of the 

 old priest and his young attendant. EH had two 

 sons. They were both wicked. The excellent 

 behavior, the affectionate and dutiful manner of 

 tliis young attendant in the temple, brought com- 

 tort to tlie old man in the time of sadness. One 

 night the boy was awakened in his sleep by hear- 

 ing his name called. He arose, thinking the 

 prophet had called him, and he went te him aiid 

 said, "Behold, I am here." He found he was mis- 

 taken; the priest had not called him. Three times 

 did this experience occur, and at length Eli per- 

 ceived that God had called him. This is not an 

 exceptional but a specimen case. When we read 

 of the great heroes in the Bible, the great deliver- 

 ances, the great endurances, we are apt to think of 

 their being written for our admiration rather than 

 for our imitation. The method of this call was 

 unusual, but it is not unusual for God to call His 

 people early in life. If the proof of God's in- 

 terest in the young is to be found in the witness 

 of the Scriptures, the testimony of religious biog- 

 raphy through the ages, and the testimony of 

 Christian experience in every age of the world, 

 we must conclude that the great and the good have 

 often been called in childhood. Parents, teachers, 

 and guardians, and others who have anything to 

 do with the young, are warranted, not only in de- 

 siring, ut in expecting that those under their 

 direction shall find themselves walking in the way 

 of righteousness from the very beginning. The 

 voice of parent and teacher is often and ought al- 

 ways to be the call of God to the child. When Pat- 

 rick Henry made his immortal speech before the 

 Virginia convention, two future presidents of the 

 United States, as schoolboys, had come over from 

 a neighboring college to hear the speech. Those 

 bovs made the policy of the nation long after Pat- 

 rick Henry's work was done. When Henry Llay 

 made a stumping tour through the woods along 

 the Ohio River, a lank, uncouth, backwoods boy 

 i;=tens to his speech, and for the first time thinks 

 of being a lawyer and a statesman. In after years 

 it is that backwoods boy who, in the hour of darK- 



