The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-02-12
TRAPS FOR THE UNWARY
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses Up
on the Worlds Pitfalls.
Upon Every Hand They Abound to Allure
Mankind from the Straight PATH
Every One of Them
Has Its Sting.

by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in lieu of
his regular Sunday delivery. 1t is
based on the text: ',-- fts
did but taste q little honey with the end OF
thu rod that was In my hand, and 10, must
die.-L Samuel, XIV, A.
The honey bee is a most ingenious
architect, a Christopher Wren among
insects; geometer drawing hexagons
and pen tagons, freebooter robbing
fields Of pollen and aroma, wondrous
creature of God whose biography,
written by Huber and Swammerdam,
is an enchsntment for and lover OF
nature. Virgil celebrated the bee in
his label OF Aristaeus; and Noses and
Samuel, and David, and Solomon, and
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and St John
used the delicacies of bee manufacture
as Bible symbol. A miracle Of for
nation is the bee; five eyes, two
tongues, the outer having a sheath of
protection, hairs on all sides of its tiny
body to brush up the particles of flow
ers, its high SO straight that all the
world knows of the bee line. The
honey conb is palace such as no one
but God could plan, and the honey bee
construct; its cells, sometimes store {.
house, and sometimes a cemetery.
Those winged toilers first make eight
strips of wax, and by their antennae,
which are to them hammer, and chisel,
and square, and plumb-line, fashion
them for use. Two and two these
workers shape the wall. If an acci-
dent happens, they put up buttresses
of extra beams to remedy the damage.
When about the year 1776 an insect
before unknown, in the night time at
tackled the bee hives all over Europe,
and the men who owned them were in
vain trying to plan something to keep
out the invader that was the terror OF
the bee hives of the continent, it was
found that everywhere the bees had
arranged for their own protection, and
built before their honey-combs an es-
pscial wall of wax with portfolios
through which the bees might go to
and fro, but not large enough to admit
the winged combatant, called the
Sphinx A'ropos.
Do you know that the swarming OF
the bees is divinely directed? The
mother bee starts for new home, and
because of this the other bees of the
hive get into an excitement which
raises The heat of the hive some four
degrees, and they must die unless they
leave their heated apartments and fol-
low the mother bee and aligbt on the
branch of tree, and cling to each
other and hold on until "a committee of
two or three bees have explored the
region and found the hollow of tree
or rock not far off from stream OF
water, and they here set up u new col
ony, aud ply their aromatic industries,
and give themselves to the manufac-
ture of the saccharine edible. But
who can tell the chemistry of that
mixture of sweetness, part of it the
very life of the bee, and part of it the
life OF the fields?
Plenty of this luscious product was
hanging in the woods of Be haven
during the time of Saul and Jonathan.
Their army was in pursuit of an enemy
that by Gods command must be exter-
minated. The soldiery were positively
forbidden to eat anything until the
work was done. If they disobeyed
they were accursed. Coming through
the woods they found a place where
the bees had been bnsy-a great honey
manufactory. Honey gathered in the
hollow Of The trees until it overlooked
upon the ground in great profusion oil
sweetness. All the army obeyed orders
and touched it not save Jonathan, and
he, not knowing the military order
about abstinence, dipped the end of a
stick he had in his hand into the can
died liquid, and, as yellow and tempt
ing it glowed on the end OF the stick,
he put it to his mouth and ate the
honey. Judgment fell upon him, anG
but for special intervention he would
have been slain. In my text Jonathan
announces his awful mistake: II die
but taste Il little honey with the end o.
the rod that was in my hand, and, 10,
must die Alas, what multitudes o.
people in all ages have been damaged
by forbidden honey, by which | meal
temptation, delicious and attractive
but damaging and destructive!
Corrupt literature, fascinating bu
beautiful, comes in this category
Where one good, honest, healthfu
book is read now, there is q hundred
made up of rhetorical trash consumed
with avidity. When the boys on thu
cars come through with pile of publ
. cations, look over the titles and notic
that nine out OF ten of the books ar,
injurious. All the way from here t,
Chicago or New Orleans notice that oh
isctionable books dominate. Taste 70
pure literature is poisoned by this scum
of the publishing house. Every bool
in which sin triumphs over virtue, o
in which u glamour is thrown over dis
sipation, or which leaves you at it
last line with less respect for tn
marriage institution and less abhor
renee for the paramount, is depression
of your own moral character. Tn
book bindery may be attractive, an
the plot dramatic and startling, an
the style of writing sweet as tn
honey that Jonathan took up with hi
rod, but your best interests forbid it
your moral safety forbids it, your Go
forbids it, and one taste of it may lea
to such results that you may have t
say at the close of the experiment, o
at the close of misimproved life: 81
did but taste little honey with tn
rod that was in my hand, and 10!
must die"
Corrupt literature is doing more tC
day for the disruption of domestic lif