1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



95 



ur %€m(ii- 



Therefore, if ttou bring- Ihy^tt to the altar, and 

 there rememberest that thy brother hath ought 

 ag-ainst thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, 

 and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, 

 and then come and offer thy gift.— Matt. 5; 23, 24. 



f;HERE is one portion of the text above, 

 that I \%ould call attention to; it does 

 — ■ not say, if you remember you have 

 ought against your brother, but it says, "if 

 thy brother hath ought against thee." 



A pleasant letter from one of our readers, 

 speaking of the Home papers, contains the 

 following: 



I can't deal with men as you want me to do. [f a 

 man deals honestly with me, I'll do the same by him, 

 and with eA'erytody, but if a man willfully cheats me 

 out of my just rights and 1 can by any means get 

 back what is rightfully my own, I'll rto if, but 1 want 

 no more from him than is my own. If one man 

 cheats me, I will not cheat another to make it up. If 

 a man hits me on one cheek, I'll give him one on Ms 

 if I can. 1 know you try to teach a diflerent spirit 

 from that, but I can't agree with you there. 



As the writer is a jolly good natured sort 

 i)t a fellow, I presume he gets along very 

 well vvith his code of morals, more es- 

 pecially, as he is generous and liberal heart- 

 ed. We will suppose that he is so fair, in 

 all his dealings, that he could be trusted to 

 take just what is right, and no more; are 

 you sure his neighbors would all agree with 

 him in respect, of what is right? of course 

 they woidd not, and then, the thing for 

 them to do, is to watch for an opportunity, 

 and fix it according to their ideas of w hat "it 

 should be. Our friend might take the very 

 common attitude, saying, 



"All right! let them drive on; they are 

 welcome to all they can get. The one that 

 gets ahead the farthest, is the best fellow." 



This state of affairs does very well for 

 iiwhile, but the narrow line between sharp 

 dealing and downright theft is soon ap- 

 proached, and pretty soon one party steals— 

 they always call it by some softer name, at 

 such times — from the other. Perhaps it is 

 in such shape that you can not well prove it, 

 and therefore the only way you have left, is 

 to steal back. iSoon somebody gets into a 

 lawsuit, and very likely into jail. Worse 

 than all, many times the one who is least 

 guilty, gets into jail. The reason is, that 

 the officers of the law, are often of that class 

 who hate those who hate them, and love 

 those who love them, as we had it in our 

 text last month. If the offender has, at 

 some time, done them a service, they screen 

 him, but if he has wronged them in some 

 way, in times past, he is now in their power, 

 and they can easily make matters "square." 



Do you say that a man ought to be ashamed 

 of himself, who would thus abuse his priv- 

 ileges and station? Perliaps he would not 

 state it in quite that light. Put it this way; 

 "I am sin-e that man is a bad man, from the 

 way he treated me w hen w e had that trouble 

 yeai-s ago, and I believe it is right, and my 

 <luty, to have him punished." If tlie offend- 

 ■er w;)s a personal friend, the reasoning for 

 tlie ."^aine offence, might be, ' Appear;inces 

 are rather against this man, it is true, but 

 he was provoked to it, and I can not think 



he is a very bad man, for he showed such an 

 excellent (?) spirit, when appearances were 

 against me, several years ago." 



I need hardly say that an officer of the 

 law, should be entirely free from all such 

 feeling, but I tell you it is a very difficult 

 matter, to divest one's self of all tendency 

 to favor those who have favored us, and vice 

 versa. I know of no other way of doing it, 

 than to cultivate a spirit of loving our ene- 

 mies, and doing good to those w ho hate us. 

 I suppose our Savioin- knew just how much 

 we lacked in this direction, when he gave 

 this advice, and that he intended it as a cor- 

 rective of the natural tendency to love none 

 but our friends. 



When I was a boy, I was very bashful 

 and awkward, and it seemed to me I was 

 always, when in public, making cue awk- 

 ward blunder or another. If I went to 

 hotel, I was afraid I would not do every- 

 thing just as other folks did, and if any- 

 body laughed at me because I was not post- 

 ed in the general usages of society, the 

 matter used to weigh on my sensitive spirit 

 to such an extent I could hardly sleep the 

 night afterward. It has just occurred to 

 me that my antipathy to Conventions may 

 be, a great part of it, owing to this very 

 cowardly feeling that I may make some 

 great blunder, and be laughed at for my 

 ignorance. If this is the case, perhaps the 

 very best thing I can do, is to go and be 

 laughed at. This would perhaps be the 

 readiest means of curing me of that foolish 

 pride that prevents me from being willing 

 to be laughed at; supposing, of course, 

 that I might be able to do seme good by 

 going. Wei], when I wrsa bashful boy I 

 stopped at a hotel, and when I went to pay 

 the bill, I offered the money to the hostler; 

 somebody laughed at me and told me to go 

 to the landlord. Frightened out of my 

 wits, almost, at the airjid blunder I had 

 made, I vent to the landlord, who, seeing 

 how excessively rustic I was in my ways 

 and manners, charged me at least double 

 the usual price. My brother censured me 

 for paying sx'ch an exorbitant bill, then 

 told the iriends where we were visiting, 

 about my going to the liostler; and al- 

 together, I was just about as miserable 

 during tlie visit as I v ell could be. I 

 declared mentally, I would go way off in 

 the woods and live alone, where none in 

 human shape could laugh and jeer at my 

 unfortunate and awkward mishaps. Can 

 you think how I thanked a kind friend who 

 had much experience in the world, for tell- 

 ing me kindly it was no matter at all, and 

 that anyone might have made the same mis- 

 take? How my childish heart clung to him, 

 and remembered it for years afterward. 



Now about the landlord who took my hard 

 earned half dollare. I made up my mind 

 that if I could ever cheat him, oli! wotUd it 

 not be sweet, to take that money back with 

 compound interest! I remembered him full 

 well, and many times did I mentally plan 

 some w ay of cheating him back. 



The op])ortmiity came; years afterward, 

 he came into my store, and asked if I could 

 put a mainspring in his watch right away. 

 It is a long lane that has no turning, thought 



