1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



273 



\ur %mx^. 



For everyone tiiat doeth e%il hateth the light, 

 (neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be 

 reproved.— John, 3; :J0. 



^r J EVERAL yeai-s ago, u very intelligent 

 j^j bee-keeper paid nie a visit of several 



- days, and as he had been visiting bee- 

 keepers and localities with a view ot select- 

 ing a new gronnd, our convereation turned 

 upon the prominent bee men and writers. 

 At the time, I was not a believer in the Bi- 

 l>le. or at least I claimed I was not, and he 

 iseemed to rejoice wiien he had discovered 

 the fact; if I recollect aright, he made the 

 remark that the greater part of our ijiunber 

 ■were skeptics; that Mr. A. did not believe 

 in religion, and worked with his bees on 

 Simday; also Mr. B. and V. and D. and E.; 

 that Mr. F. was a Free Thinker ; Mr. G. a 

 Spiritualist ; Mr. II., something else, ami so 

 on. I remember a little feeling of pain at 

 this, for lightly as I was in tlie habit of 

 speaking of the Bible. I could not help feel- 

 ing a slight shudder. Would he, while vis- j 

 iting other bee-keepei-s, say of me, *'Yes, ' 

 jind Novice, too, does not believe in Bibles i 

 ;ind churches and Sunday schools ; but says I 

 it is an old piece of sui)erstition, and it is 

 high time that it was all done away with, 

 and reckoned among the things of the past?" 

 It is true, my friends, I was fond of saying 

 just those words; but, mind you, I had not 

 been in a Sabbath school for nearly 20 yeare, 

 ;ind my knowledge of the Bible was just 

 about as detinite as of Sunday schools. 



Finally, said he, "Oh! what sort of a man 

 ■do you think Mr. so and so isV 



''A very pleasant writer, and a good sort 

 of a man, is he not?" 



''Well, you would not think he favored re- 

 ligion very much, were you to hear him 

 talk ; not he. He has a very pretty home, 

 but when he introduced me to the woman 

 with whom he is living, he did so with an 

 apology, because she was not his wife." I 

 .started in surprise and horror. 



"Did you remain?" 



"Why, yes; I did not want to hurt their 

 feelings. He is a Spiritualist, and the Spir- 

 its told his wife she had better go away with 

 another man, and she sent this wonian to 

 take her place. He said they were going to 

 iiie married after a wliile." 



I presume I shall be accused by some, of 

 having descended in these Home Papers to 

 scandal and gossi]), and, at about the time 

 this conversation took place. I was, myself, 

 loud in my denunciations of gossi])s and 

 sewing societies : but T thank God now, for 

 a people wJio will talk out, and condenm 

 ^•rime and ini(puty. even if they do, at times, 

 ■exaggerate and oVei-ste]) the mark. I have 

 jxiven the above convei-sation as nearly as I 

 •can, if not in the exact words, in sul«tance. 

 I have given it. because^ I felt the lesson 

 ■was too great a one, to be lost. Time passed, 

 and I received letters as tisual from the man 

 who liad thus dared to defy the laws both of 

 (iod and man. but it was impossiltle for me 

 to reply to him, in the same spirit I had 



done lieretofore. Pretty soon, lie wrote that 

 business called him near me, and he should 

 like to pay me a visit. I did not know what 

 aiLswer to'make; I dared not tell him the 

 truth, and I could not feel it my duty to in- 

 vite to my home . 



Tlie subject lay on my mind, on my con- 

 science perhaps, for it was the Mrst time I 

 had ever come so near being face to face 

 with that yaVvning abyss that is so terrible, 

 and yet is approached by such very quiet 

 and innocent looking paths. It is quite 

 likely, the thought of this niairs life had 

 ; something to do with my conversion. Some 

 of you remember the March No. (Ib77) that 

 gave notice of my conversion. I expected 

 persecution, and expected to lose some of 

 my subscribers, when I wrote wJiat I did. I 

 I do not know whether I lost any or not.- I 

 do know tliat the tirst vehement objection 

 to having such thmgs in a bee paper came 

 from this man. A few months later, when 

 the Home Papers were commenced, a letter 

 came from him demanding that such fool- 

 ishness be stopped ; saying that I had a de- 

 paitment in my paper for humbugs and 

 swindles, and, inasmuch as religion was the 

 greatest humbug and swindle the earth had 

 ever been ciuvsed with, it should be shown 

 up in that department. I have now, per- 

 haps, a million of letter's liled away, that 

 have come from bee friends. In reading 

 them all. I have never seen anything ap- 

 proaching aii oath, with but one "exception. 

 Need I tell yon that tliis one came from the 

 man I have just been speaking of. I re- 

 plied to all, even his threats and blasphemy, 

 as best I could, but, in all my experience, I 

 have never found one so bitter and so angry, 

 at the mere mention of the Bible or Jesus 

 Christ, as this man has been. In one of liis 

 letters, I believe he stated he had once been 

 a professor of religion, and therefore knew 

 all about it. 



I have had one case to deal with, that is 

 somewhat parallel. I have mentioned be- 

 fore, a young man whose besetting "sin is in- 

 temperance. While sober and steadily at 

 work, he believes in (iod and the Bible ; but 

 after he luis been on one of his dnuiken 

 si)rees, the sight of the Bible seems to anger 

 him beyond measure ; and then he is skep- 

 tical. He has been working with us for the 

 past three months, and has been as steady 

 and faithfid as we could ask, until some- 

 thing tnrne<l u]) in his work that displeased 

 him. and he got angry and took Gods name 

 in vain. This w;is, as I told him. straight in 

 the wrong direction, and a pulling up of the 

 stakes he had been slowly planting, to hold 

 him in a better way. After swearing, he be- 

 gan to be absent from the Bible class and 

 Sabbath school, anil finally, one night after 

 10 o'clock, one of his old conu'ades offered 

 him some whisky and he drank. Down, 

 down, he went at once; and the next day, 

 when he had i-ecovered, he had lost all faith 

 in religion, and defended his old books of 

 Thomas Paine "s, and thought he would rath- 

 er be a Spiritualist. I questioned him close- 

 ly, and he finally told me that when he con- 

 cludes! to give way to temptation he thought 

 lie could keep it all from me. .V few months 

 ago. in the jail, he told me. after I had 



