SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE. Ephesians iv. 15. 66 THE REV. F. Wybrow relates a remarkable instance of the power of the truth spoken in love. In a conversation with William Churun, I became aware of the following pleasing fact: which will shew his faithfulness as a preacher, and afford an example of the allegorical method by which Oriental Teachers strive to set forth the Truth. William Churun was on a Missionary excursion in the Oude Territory when he fell in with a number of men, who decoyed him from the road, saying that they would bring him to their village, where he would have an opportunity of saying all that he wished. When they had thus withdrawn him from the observation of all who might have helped him they threw off the mask, and appeared in their true colours;-a band of dacoits, i. e. robbers; but before any deed of violence, they demanded of him whence he came, whither he was going, and what was his purpose ? "Alas!" thought he, my last hour is, perhaps, come, and these plunderers will murder me! Let me, then, die in my vocation, and spend my last efforts as becomes a teacher of the truth. Ah!" said he to the robbers," I heard that some of my relations were sick, nigh unto death, of a most malignant disorder; and, having procured medicine of a most efficacious nature, suited to their complaint, I was in all haste carrying it to them, when you thus stopped me, and interfered with my purpose." This naturally drew on further inquiry, when William, in all love, declared that they, even the dacoits, were his relations, sick unto death of the disease-sin, and proposed that they should avail themselves of the Gospel remedy, the efficacious nature of which he endeavoured to exhibit. Much astonished, and struck with an involuntary respect, the rude marauders did not hurt a hair of his head: they placed him in safety, honourably dismissed him, and bade him pursue his way in peace. Lines written upon seeing a Statue of Neptune without a Trident. Thy sceptre fallen from thy powerless hands; That dare t'oppose Jehovah's boundless power. A LETTER ON BEES; Showing how to take the Honey from them and yet to preserve them. I FEAR that most persons who keep bees have already proceeded to put them down,"—that is, to destroy them with brimstone. Should there be any, however, who yet possess weak stocks, and who are in doubt whether, with the provision which they have, they will live through the winter, allow me to advise them, through the medium of your paper, to take the comb and honey from such stocks, and transfer the bees to other hives. This plan will be attended, in the first place, with an immediate gain of honey, it being an ascertained fact that two stocks of bees, when put together in one hive, will not consume much above one-half the quantity of honey which they would consume if kept separate. By keeping the two stocks of bees, therefore, separate, if one hive will contain them both, persons are actually wasting honey. Another advantage from the plan is, that if two or three stocks of bees are put together in one hive there will be earlier and stronger swarms when the season for swarming arrives. The consequence of this I need not say will be the amassing a much larger quantity of honey in the following summer, This will be the result in a common way. If, however, the following season turn out to be a particularly good honey season, there will be so many additional thousands of bees to collect that which would otherwise be lost if the bees were destroyed. Perhaps some persons may smile at the idea of taking the honey without killing the bees, and declare that it is impossible. In reply I can only assert that it is not only possible, but perfectly easy, and attended with as little-if not indeed often with less-trouble than killing them. The operation is performed in a very few minutes; and, if done with care, scarcely a single bee need be lost. Within these two or three weeks past I have shown some cottagers how to do it, who are really delighted with the plan, seeing how perfectly practicable and easy it is. I have taken away the honey and comb from fourteen hives, and transferred the bees to other hives; and the bees, thus united, are as quiet and peaceable as if they had always been together. The plan I have adopted is the following:-At the proper season-that is, before they were fully ripe-I picked up three or four large fuzz or puff-balls: these I compressed a little, and then had them thoroughly dried in an oven, after the bread had been taken out. I kept them in a dry state till I wanted them. I had also a kind of round tin box made, with a top full of holes, to take off: the diameter of the box is about two inches, and its depth about an inch and a half; the top is also about an inch and a half in height ending in a point. At the bottom of the box are three holes. The box and fuzz-ball being ready, I took an empty hive as near as possible of the same size as that from which I intended to take the bees-turned it bottom upwards, and placed it in a pail. I then cut a stick sharp at one end, and fixed the other end in the middle hole at the bottom of the tin box. Having done this, I cut off a piece of the fuzz-ball, about double the size of a hen's egg, lighted it in the fire, placed it in the box, put on the lid, fixed the sharp end of the stick in the bottom of the empty hive as it stood in the pail, and then immediately put upon the empty hive the hive from which I intended to take the bees, and put a wet cloth round the two hives (where they joined) to prevent any smoke from getting out. In about a minute the bees began to drop, just as if peas were dropping, or heavy drops of rain were falling. Soon after they began to drop I tapped the top of the full hive several times to make them drop faster. In a short time the dropping ceased. I then took off the cloth, and found all the bees lying still and quiet in the bottom hive, except perhaps a few which remained sticking to the combs or in the cells. I then turned out the bees upon a table, found the Queen, and placed her in safe keeping under a glass. Having found the Queen, I swept the bees back into the empty hive with a feather, and placed the hive again in the pail as before. Having done that I sprinkled them freely with a thick syrup made of sugar and ale boiled a minute or two, and placed upon the empty hive containing the stupified bees the other hive with which I intended to unite them, and pinned a cloth round them so close as to prevent any opening for a bee to escape. I then put them by in a place where no accident could happen to them by being thrown down, &c. and let them stand till about ten o'clock the following night, or the night after the following night, when I brought them quietly out, unpinned the cloth, and placed the top hive immediately on the spot from whence it had been before taken, and left them. This completed the operation; and it has answered in all the fourteen cases I have referred to. In three instances I have put two stocks of bees to a third; thus having in a single hive three quantities of hees, It is better, I think, (though I will not say it is absolutely necessary,) to take the Queen away: it avoids all risk of disagreement, and she is easily found by looking out sharply. I generally look for her by stirring the bees about with a quill, if she cannot be observed at once. If persons choose to sacrifice the few bees which remain in the combs they can, and this will shorten the operation; but there is generally time enough to take them all out before the stupified bees return to activity. It is important not to forget to sprinkle the stupified bees with the syrup of ale and sugar, as the scent of that attracts the bees down from the full hive: smelling that, they will soon go down and commence licking the sprinkled bees clean. They thus get intermingled, and afterwards all go quietly up to the top hive, as if they had always been one family. If any person choose to try the plan the puff-balls, which may now be found in the meadows, will do, if dried, as I have before pointed out. If, however, none can be obtained, a substitute may be found described in Taylor's Beekeeper's Manual. It is better to preserve the captured Queen as long as she will live, in case of any accident to the other. She generally lives about three or four days. When I teach a cottager or farmer the plan, I generally extract a promise that he will again teach it to others. Should these observations prove the means of leading any persons interested in bees to save their own, and of teaching so useful a plan to cottagers, I shall be most happy. ALIQUIS. October 21st, 1839. P.S. There is a cheap tract called the Conservative Beekeeper, admirably adapted for distribution: it contains much valuable information on bees, and may be obtained of Booksellers for 2d. Taylor, in his Beekeeper's Manual, recommends, in the absence of the fungus or blind-ball, common blotting-paper, several times folded, and a portion of tobacco leaf placed between the folds; this to be saturated in a solution of nitre, and dried before the fire. The paper, when divided into small pieces, will readily light, and produce sinoke abundantly. A small tea-spoonful of the nitre to a pint of water will be sufficient.A tin box, as described above, will be made by Mr. Howell, Brazier, of Whitchurch, for 4d. Frinted by T. Thomas, Eastgate-street Row, Chester. VOL. II. THE CHRISTIAN BEACON. "THE LIGHT SHINETH IN DARKNESS."-John i. 5. NOVEMBER, 1840. NEW SERIES. HOUSES OF REFUGE. We cannot do better than commence this Number of the Beacon with an appeal to our readers on behalf of the New Institution, about to be opened, for the city and county of Chester. Though we heartily wish that no prisons were needed in our beloved country, we are persuaded that while they are necessary, no system of prison discipline can be complete which has not attached to it houses of refuge for males and females coming out of prison-houses of mercy, we may call them, where the weak, friendless, pennyless being, who has been convicted of crime, and suffered under the punishment of crime, and has no longer a fair name in the world-may find a shelter, and food, and healthful employment, in a retreat where all means are used to enable them to learn new principles, and form new habits of conduct and to return them to their proper place in Society. We trust that the time will come when, to every prison in the land, such a refuge will be appended. Through the benevolence of an unnamed individual, the Female Refuge is about to be opened immediately, in Chester, and the Male Refuge will be opened as soon as possible. It has been deemed advisable to hold a Bazaar in the first week of January-and the Editor of the Christian Beacon will be truly obliged to any of his kind readers who will send him some small contribution in work or money. He is quite aware that many of his readers have no personal interest in the county of Chester; but there are some benevolent persons in every place, who rejoice in having an opportunity of doing good whenever it comes before them. The generous individual above mentioned, who first suggested the opening of the two houses of Refuge for Cheshire, and afforded the munificent donation which has enabled us to begin the work, has no connexion either with the city or the county of Chester. We trust, from time to time, to give a report in the Christian Beacon of the working of our Houses of Refuge, T and to lead others, if we should have the answer to our prayers, the blessing of God upon the undertaking, to follow our example in other places. We have already seen a smaller institution which was begun in Chester, in the midst of difficulties and discouragements, blessed with the most encouraging success. We speak of the Home* and the Registry for Female Servants of good character; and we have every ground of hope, that an undertaking like the one we are now advocating for the good of a most neglected and wretched class of our fellow-creatures-will meet with His approval, in whose name we work, and to whose glory we would dedicate both it and ourselves. The name and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ-the Friend of Sinners and the Saviour of the Lost. Any contributions, however small, will be gratefully received by the Rev. Charles B. Tayler, St. Peter's, Chester.} We add the Notice which we are circulating about the "Houses of Refuge." "A House of Refuge furnishes an intermediate step between coercive confinement, and unrestrained intercourse with the world. It confirms voluntarily a system of reform which the house of correction has commenced compulsarily; and it gives time for ripening in sheltering security any seeds of good, which may have been planted." IT has been thought advisable to open two Institutions for the reception of persons, in the County and City of Chester, who have lost their character, and whom there is yet hope of reclaiming, one for males, and the other for females. The female Refuge is to be at Boughton, under the management of a Matron and Master of high character and tried worth; (who are already engaged;) and a Committee of ladies who will meet weekly, and pay constant visits of inspection. This Refuge is to be divided into two departments. In one the women who may be admitted for a few nights only, perhaps on coming out of prison, will be lodged and fed in the very commonest manner. In the other department the inmates will be employed in washing, needle-work, spinning, carpet-work, &c. and their earnings will be chiefly applied to the expenses of the institution. The male Refuge is to be a farm house in the neighbourhood of Chester, and the details of its management will be given on a future occasion. It will be chiefly for the reception of boys or young men discharged from prison; and will be, as far as possible, after the first expenses of its establishment are defrayed, self-supporting. A similar institution is *We hope in a future Number to give some account of The Servants' Home. |