Do You Want an Easy Time?
That easy time may cost you your soul. William Hetherington, of England, uses this striking illustration of the necessity of effort on our part: “A beekeeper told me the story of the hive,—how, when the little bee is in the first stage, it is put into a hexagonal cell, and honey enough is stored there for its use till it reaches maturity. The honey is sealed with a capsule of wax, and when the tiny bee has fed itself on the honey and exhausted the supply, the time has come for it to emerge into the open. But, O, the wrestle, the tussle, the straining to get through that wax! It is the strait gate for the bee, so strait that in the agony of exit the bee rubs off the membrane that hid its wings, and on the other side it is able to fly. Once a moth got into the hive and fed on the wax capsules, and the bees got out without any strain or struggle. But they could not fly, and the other bees stung them to death. Are you congratulating yourself on having an easy time, no hardship, no difficulties, no cross? Beware lest, like the bees, you lose your wing-power and perish miserably in the dust.”