166 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



body to singing if possible. No matter vvlieth- 

 er they sing well or not, get everyone to help. 

 Always open the meetiug with a prayer for 

 divine blessing, and a chapter from the Bible. 

 The chapter mentioned last month — Luke vi — 

 seems to answer excellently. Now have an- 

 other song, and while they are singing, invite 

 everyone present to come up and put down 

 their names. If 3'our audience is large, you 

 will need two tables or stands for your paper, 

 ink and Pledges, and a couple of secretaries 

 should be appointed who will hand the signers 

 the pens, take care of and count the nam:'s, 

 and write them for young or old people who 

 find it inconvenient to write themselves. These 

 secretaries are in importance next to the 

 chairman of the meeting, and can by their 

 timely hints and remarks, help the mati,er 

 along amazingly if so disposed. While the 

 people are signing, call on those who have 

 signed, to say a word, especially those who I 

 have been intemperate, for if you can once get 

 them to exhorting and encouraging the rest to 

 come along, you Will hnd they are becoming 

 stronger and stronger every day. Incidents 

 and anecdotes will come up to make the meet- 

 ings lively and entertaining, more so than you 

 can possibly have any idea of until you have 

 tried it, and you will find in your next door 

 neighbor's house those who have a talent for 

 public speaking — possibly in your own liouse 

 also — such as you never dreamed of. Should 

 you send awiy for some great speaker, the 

 eflfeet would very likely a great part of it pass 

 away with him on his departure, but if the 

 work is done by your own townsmen, they will 

 be on hand to follow up the effect of their 

 teachings and to live it as well as talk it. 



There will be those in every community who 

 will object and find fault, but you will need 

 that same broad charity for them, and a dis- 

 position to disarm them by taking them just 

 as kindly by the hand if they do not sign, as 

 if they did, and to try and live out the idea of 

 heaping coals of fire on the heads of those who 

 are disposed to hinder even such a thing as a 

 temperance movement. If some one says he 

 objects to signing any paper, or cutting off his 

 liberty in any way, you can cite to him the 

 time when George Washington signed the 

 Declaration of Independence, or to the time 

 when he received a deed of his farm, etc. Nev- 

 er argue, but talk kindly and pleasantly, and 

 you will be astonished at the way in which 

 ev^en stubborn people may be induced to dis- 

 play good and excellent qualities. 



When you get the ball rolling near home, 

 start out into the country, and every Sabbath, 

 manage to have one or more good Sabbath 

 schools somewhere, getting the young men 

 who have just signed to go with you and help; 

 you have no idea how pleasant these meetings 

 may be made. 



It will bo quite proper Sabbath evening, to 

 have several communities join, and have a 

 large meeting, in the largest church — if anyone 

 objects, it will probably be because you have 

 not followed the true spirit of- the Murphy 

 movement, which is above all things, a relig- 

 ious one. 



This Murphy, as j'ou may have read, was a 

 poor drunken fellow, who was rescued from 

 the gutter by a good Samaritan, and who 



when thoroughly converted, felt that he could 

 in no way show his gratitude so well, as by 

 trying to rescue those who were low down, 

 discouraged, and hopeless, as he had been. 

 For a long time, he labored apparently almost 

 in vain, but bye and bye, he got a few to join 

 him, and then the work went on The Mur- 

 phy club with their blue ribbon badges, were 

 soon known all through the city of Pittsburgh', 

 and soon we hear of a prominent saloon keep- 

 er telling his clerks that the first one of them 

 who sold a drop of liquor to one of the Murphy 

 men would be discharged instantly. After 

 awhile the saloons began to find their trade so 

 dull, that bankruptcy stared them in the face, 

 and soon a large number of them threw up the 

 business, signed the Murphy Pledge, and look 

 to something better for a living. The most 

 glorious of it all, was that they did it all 

 pleasantly, without an unkind word being 

 utttered to anyone, and very soon we heard of 

 Murphy's baud of 60,000 reformed drinkers, 

 who marched the streets of their city pro- 

 claiming the glad news of -rescue and salva- 

 tion to those who were held in a bondage 

 more fearful and tyrauical, than perhaps ever 

 held the poor negro in the days of old. "God 

 helping me, I will be free," and free they were 

 in every sense of the word, for hundreds testi- 

 fied that the old appetite was taken away 

 entirely, when they on bended knee, asked the 

 Saviour to take away that tormenting thirst, 

 they feared so much. This miraculous taking 

 away of the appetite, seems to come oftenest, 

 when the suffering one goes earnestly into the 

 work of saving others ; and dear readers do 

 you not believe after all, that we are more like 

 a hive of bees than has ever been supposed, 

 inasmuch as we can not really e.xist and enjoy 

 life unless we to a certain extent all work to- 

 gether, for the common good of all humanity. 



Is this talk a good ways off from bee cul- 

 ture? I do not feel that it is so very far. 

 Some of the brightest writers we have ever 

 had in our Journals, have had their intellects 

 clouded and dimmed by this very — -shall I say 

 misfortune V— and are perhaps even now, ready 

 to take up a new life, if they could have the 

 very encouragement that the world is now ex- 

 tending to thousands of others. Hovv is it my 

 friends? Shall we not at least make the ef- 

 fort? We can at least pray for them, and we 

 can ask that our own hearts may be brought 

 into the proper spirit, that our effort may be 

 blessed when the time to act comes, and we 

 can meanwhile keep working for those around 

 us, and thereby help this great work along, of 

 stripping intemperance from our land as if it 

 were an old garment that had been worn far 

 too long already. May God be with and guide 

 and help us. 



In regard to this department: Many kind 

 letters have been received with warm words of 

 approval of Gle.\nings, but more for this de- 

 partment than for all the rest of the paper — 

 far more. At the same time, I have during the 

 past month, had three protesting against it. 

 In answer to these three, I would say, the 

 Bible has been the means in our town of turn- 

 ing men, women and children, from bad and 

 evil ways, to such an extent during the past 

 few weeks, that oar worst sceptic — a smart 



