After the construction of the cells comes the gathering of the honey.
Honey, as every boy knows, is the thick, sweet fluid which bees gather
from the cups of flowers. Or in the language of myth and fable, it is
the veritable nectar of the gods. The mouth of the bee is framed for
the purpose. It is so constructed that it forms a sort of proboscis or
tongue by means of which the insects suck up the nectarine juice. It
serves both as a mouth and a pump through which the liquid passes into
the first stomach, and thus is carried to the hive.
The abundance of honey is frequently mentioned in Holy Scripture.
Palestine itself is described as "a land that floweth with milk and
honey." And we remember that on one occasion Jonathan, the Son of Saul,
was faint and weary, and when he saw honey dripping on the ground from
the abundance and weight of the comb, he took it up on the end of his
staff, and ate sufficient to restore his strength (1 Sam. xiv. 27).
John the Baptist also was evidently in no danger of starving from lack
of food, when the wild bees afforded him a plentiful supply of the very
material which was needed to correct the deficiencies of the dried
locusts which he used instead of bread. His food was locusts and wild
honey.
There is only one connection in which we find honey prohibited. It was
to have no place in the Jewish meat offering (Lev. ii. 11). Everything
liable to _fermentation_ was excluded from the altar; and "the same
principle covers the prohibition of honey" (Smith's "Religion of the
Semites"). "The effect of honey is similar to that of leaven, since it
easily changes to acid" (Oehler). Honey then was forbidden on the same
principle as an animal with any kind of blemish was forbidden. There
must be no defect in the sacrificial lamb, and there must be no
fermentation in the meat offering. The offering brought by man must be
clean--a spotless sacrifice (and God's Lamb is such), an honest heart,
and an earnest, unfeigned prayer. Only the pure in heart shall see God.