A man was one day handling a number of bees, and one of them settled on his face. In knocking it away he dislodged the muslin screen by which his head was covered. The bees instantly settled upon him, three of them entering his mouth and stinging his throat, which swelled internally so rapidly that he died from suffocation within two or three minutes. Two dead bees and one living bee were taken from his mouth after his death.
The sting of the bee, which lies close to its body, is a very wonderful thing. It consists of two long very sharp darts joined together, enclosed in a sheath, which itself is so sharp that its point, under a strong magnifying glass is quite invisible. When wishing to use the sting, the sheath is first extended and inserted. The puncture being made, the poison is conducted in a groove to the end of the sheath. And now the most singular part of the business follows. The long darts are armed with nine or ten barbs at the end, and this prevents them from being too quickly withdrawn. Immediately the poison flows in, the darts are withdrawn, and the deadly liquid has a cavity to enter, which soon festers and sometimes produces death.
Death is spoken of in Scripture as having a sting, and that sting being sin; but Christ by dying, has taken out this sting. “O death, where is thy sting?” exclaims the apostle Paul; who could also say, “There is now no condemnation,” as the great Surety had answered for His people’s sins; and this thought so deprived death of its terrors, that he could write: “Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.... We are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.” And again: “Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; for it is far better.”
ML 02/24/1946