1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



201 



lur %cim§' 



For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but 

 whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the 

 Gospel's, the same shall save it.— Mark 8; 35. 



^^^OULDN'T it be as well to leave the "relig- 

 W"M ious" department of Gleanings for inser- 



WW tion in some specially "religious" or sectari- 

 an journal? There may be, and probably are, many 

 conscientious and honest Hebrews, Catholics, and 

 free thinkers, who feel a great interest in bee cul- 

 ture, and who might be offended to read anything 

 of a religious nature, in their favorite "See paper." 

 Scoffers also might say, and have said, that when 

 "piety" appears in such a connection with "busi- 

 ness," it is for the benefit of the latter. 



You are at liberty to publish anything in this let- 

 ter which you may see fit, and I trust nothing I 

 have said will offend you. 



Very truly yours, John D. White. 



Chicopee, Mass., April 17th, 1878. 



To be sure, I am not offended, friend 

 White; on the contrary, I thanlv you for 

 your kind and frank expression of your 

 views. I have had perhaps a half dozen 

 similar letters, in the past 3 yeai"s, since the 

 Home Papers were started, but, on the other 

 hand, I have hundreds of letters urging that 

 they be not, under any circumstances, 

 dropped ; and what is of still more impor- 

 tance, a great many have given tangible ev- 

 idence of good done. I confess, it was with 

 some misgiving as to its paying, that I first 

 started them. But the question was not 

 whether it would pay, but whether it would 

 do good. Of course, I have been accused of 

 doing it as a shrerw'd way of advertising, and 

 with the sole end and aim of making mon- 

 ey. To such I can only offer my simple 

 statement that I had no thought of increas- 

 ing the circulation of Gleanings when it 

 was started ; on the contrary, I expected I 

 should lose a great many subscribers, but 

 concluded that the good that might be done, 

 would more than overbalance the loss. To 

 tell it more exactly, at the time of my con- 

 version, I turned the journal, with all my 

 other earthly effects, over to God, to do as 

 he chose with tliem. I did not know what 

 his purpose would be, and I hardly knew 

 what the impelling force was that was 

 prompting me to start the Home Pa- 

 pers, but my faith was such, and I hope is 

 now, that I had no fear in following as well 

 as I could, the path he seemed to be point- 

 ing out to me. I had no fear, but that God 

 would take care of me, and the journal. 



I agree with y'bn about the Hebrews, 

 Catholics, free thinkers, and others, and 

 would plead that I have not taught Catholi- 

 cism, Metliodism, Presbyterianism, nor even 

 Baptism, but Jesus Christ the Savior of us 

 all, just as he came to me, at the tirst. In 

 other words, I have tried to teacli truth, 

 honesty, and unselfishness. I think you will 

 all bear witness that I have not sought to 

 exalt myself, for the confessions I have 

 made to you all, here in these pages, sliow 

 me to be a very connuon place individual, 

 with perhaps more faults, and beset by more 

 tem])tations than people in general. I have 

 extolled, and advertised, if you ch(X)se so to 

 term it, the religion taught by Christ in the 

 Bible, and I have upheld truth and lionesty 

 with all the energy and veliemence that God 



implanted in my nature. So long as I do 

 this. (remember I am human, and full of 

 mistakes and blunders) I have no fear but 

 that God will take care of myself and 

 Gleanings. To go still farther, God will 

 take care of my blunders, and when I need 

 punishing, he will punish me. If I get proud 

 and overbearing, he will take away the 

 money that he has seen tit to entrust me 

 with, and the circulation of Gleanings 

 will go down ; but even should this happen, 

 I hope I may have grace to say, "blessed be 

 the name of the Lord." 



The question is sometimes asked, "Why 

 is your doctrine any better than tliat of oth- 

 ei-sV" Why, my friends, I do not believe I 

 have any doctrine; truth, honesty, sobriety, 

 etc., the world all believe in, and that is the 

 only work in hand, and what Christ taught 

 us. If we are agreed on that, there is no 

 need of stopping to argue, for we can shake 

 hands over it, and set to work. Let any one 

 get right into the mission work, or the work 

 of reforming inebriates, those who sell intox- 

 icating liquors and the like, and he will soon 

 see Christ and feel his love, without any 

 further argument. I cannot say I do not 

 care what scoffers say, for I do care what 

 everybody says, and I should be very sorry 

 to have needlessly given any occasion, for 

 any unkind remarks, but, if I should be de- 

 terred from doing my duty because of the 

 ridicule I might encounter, I would be a 

 very poor soldier indeed. It is a delicate 

 piece of business, to introduce a religious 

 department into a journal of this class, I 

 know full well, and I know too, how careful 

 I ouglit to be, if I would have my teachings 

 do good; if I teach one thing and practice 

 another, my words will have but little ef- 

 fect. I have all along felt this, and I shall 

 feel thankful to you all, for any criticisms 

 you may feel like making, even if it is not 

 always possible to reply personally. 



Shall I not tell you something of my work, 

 just to illustrate what I have been saying? 

 I confess it will be far more to my taste. 

 Of late there has developed, rather unex- 

 pectedly to me, among all those with wliom 

 I have labored, a disposition to want to work 

 forme. Next door to us, lives a boy who 

 had a most inveterate habit of swearing. In 

 common conversation, nearly every other 

 sentence was interlarded with almost all the 

 different oaths that pass current among 

 those who are addicted that way, and besides 

 this, he was a very disobedient boy. When 

 something was amiss between him and his 

 parents, or grandparents, the whole neigh- 

 borhood was shocked by the strings of pro- 

 fanity. I will mention one instance ; one 

 day, we heard window glass rattling, and on 

 looking out, saw the boy breaking the win- 

 dows in the barn one after another, and 

 eacli time, pausing to demand some thing of 

 his grandfather. I felt, at the time, that a 

 responsibility rested upon nie, as he was so 

 near our liome, but what could I do? I in- 

 quired and found he had been to Sabbath 

 school a little while, but would go no more ; 

 neitlier would he go to the day school, but 

 spent his time mostly on the streets. As the 

 matter, for the time, was dropi)ed, I felt in 

 my heart, "may Cod help me, and give me 



