The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-01
HONEY COATED PILLS0F HE'LL
TALMAGE SHOWS UP THE HID.
DEN DANGERS OF TEMPTATION

LIE DISCOurse "Opens Win n fascinating
Description of the Habits of the Honey
Beetle Bee the Christopher Wren
Among Inscc,s-Temptatfon the Forbid
den Honey Of the and
Attractive, but Damaging and Destruc-
tive
Rev. DR.. Talmage did not preach
here to-day, but the sermon which
he was to deliver starts with an
oriental secene, from which he draws
practical lessons as to the allurements
which entrap the unwary, n the
discourse will put many on their guard.
The text is 1 Samuel IA: 43: did but
taste a little honey with the end of the
rod that was in my hand, and. 10, 1
must die"
The hiney-bee is a most ingenious
architect, a Christopher Wren among
insects; geometer drawing hexagons
and pentagons, a freebooter robbing
the fields Of pollen and aroma, Won
drOus creature of God whose biogra-
ply, written by Huber and Swammer-
dam. is an e-nchantment for any lover
of nature. Vie celebrated the bee in
his label of Aristaeus; and Moses, and
SAMUEL, anu DdNlO, dHQ SOlOLIiOu, dLlu
jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and st. John
used the d~elicacies Of bee-manufacture
as a Bible symbol. "A miracle of for
NATION is the bee; five eyes two
tongues. the outer having a sheath of
protection, hairs ON al sides of its
tiny body to brush up the particles of
flowers, it's flight so straight that all
the world knows of the Decline. The
honey-comb is a palace such as no one
but God could plan and the honey-bee
construct; it's cells, sometimes a dor
mitory and sometimes a cemetary.
These winged toilers first make eight
strips of wax, and by their antennae,
which are to them hammer, n chlsel,
and squar and blumbline, fashion
them for use. Two and two these work.
ers shape the wall. If an accident nap
pens, they will put up buttresses of
extra beams to remedy the damage.
Wlen 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, 1t was
found that everywhere the bees had ar
ranged for their own protection, and
built before their honey-combs an es-
DSCldl wall I'll "oA Win pm hAAIA~S
Through which the bees might go to
and fro, but not large enough to admit
the winged combatant, called the
Sphinx Atropos.
DO you know that the swarming of
the bees is divinely directed? The
mother bee starts for a new home, and
because of this the other bees or the
hive get into an excitement which
raises the heat Of the hive some four
degrees, and they must die unless hey
leave their heated apartments and
they follow the mother bee and allght
on the branch of a tree, and cling to
each other and hold on until a COM
mittee of two or three bees have ex-
plored the region and found the hollow
OF a tree or rock not far off from a
stream of water, and they here set up
a new colony, and ply their aromatic
industries, and give themselves to the
manufacture of the Saccharine edible.
But who can tell the chemistry or that
mixture of sweetness, part OF 1t 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 Bethaven
during the time of Saul and Jonathan.
Their army was in pursuit of an enemy
that by God's command must be ex-
terminated. The soldiery were posi-
lively forbidden to stop to eat anything
until the work was done. If they dis
obeyed they were accursed. Coming
through the woods they found a place
where the bees had been busy-a great
honey mandatory. Honey gathered
in the hollow of the trees until 1t ha0
overflowed upon the ground in great
%profusion Of sweetness. All the army
obeyed orders and touched it not save
Jonathan and he NOT own the
military order about abstinence, dip
ped the end of a stick he had in his
hand into the candied liquid, and as
yellow, and tempting, it glowed on the
end of the stick, he put it to his mouth
and ate the honey. Judgment fell upon
him. and but for special Intervention
he would have bee. slain. In my text
Jonathan announces his awful mis-
take: II did but taste a little honey
with the end of the rod that was In
my hand, and, 10, I must die" Alas,
what multitudes Of people in all ages
have been damaged by forbidden
honey, by which I mean temptation,
delicious and attractive, but damag-
ing and destructive!
Corrupt literature, fascinating but
beautiful, comes in this category.
Where one good, honest. healthful
book is read now, there is a hundred
made up of rhetorical trash consumed
with avidity. When the boys on the
cars come through with a pile of pub
LEGATIONS, look over the TT 5 and notice
hat nine out Of ten Of the books are
injurious. All the way from here to
Chicago or New Orleans notice that
Objectionable books dominate. Taste
for pure literature Is poisoned by this
scum Of the publishing house. Every
book in which sin triumphs e VIZ
tue. or in which a glamour is thrown
over dissipation, or which leaves you
at it's last line with less respect for the
marriage institution and less abhor
renee for the paramount, is a depresslon
of YOUR own moral character. The
b~ookbindery may be attractive and the
plot dramatic and startling, and the
STYLE Of writing sweet as the honey
that Jonathan took up with his rod
but your best interests forbid 1t, your
moral safety forbids it, your Coo for-
1:I- - ooI ona "a ste of IL NAV lead 70