1910 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CULTURE 



703 



Our Homes 



By A. I. Root 



The wages of sin is death.— Romans 6 : 23. 



Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.— Ex- 

 odus 20:8. 



And the Lord took off their chariot wheels, that 

 they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians 

 said. Let us flee from the face of Israel: for the Lord 

 flghteth for them against the Egyptians.— Exodus 

 14:25. 



While I write, flying-machines seem to be 

 in the air and in the minds of a great many 

 of our people. I have been predicting for 

 some time that we would soon see them 

 overhead in such numbers that they would 

 not call forth any more attention than the 

 automobiles that are getting to be almost as 

 common, even in country places, as the 

 liorse-drawn vehicles. When I announced 

 the coming of electric railways in my boy- 

 hood, I was somewhat disappointed because 

 they were so slow in getting along; and when 

 I told you five years ago what I saw the 

 Wright brothers do, I felt sure that flying 

 would be a common thing in a year or two; 

 and after its development across the seas 

 about a year ago I said that before snow 

 t!ew there would be plenty of them all over 

 the United States. Well, we have not seen 

 the snowflakes yet here in Medina; and fly- 

 ing-machines are not going to be as plenti- 

 ful as I expected, during this year of 1910. 



Now to get down to business, or to take 

 up the subject I had in mind, let me remark 

 that as much as three or four weeks ago a 

 project was put on foot to have a lot of avi- 

 ators attempt a flight from New York to 

 (^'hicago. The matter was presented to the 

 Wright brothers, and, if I am correct, they 

 promised to enter into the contest. All to- 

 gether there were to be toward a dozen fly- 

 ing-machines. At first the date was fixed 

 for the fore part of the first week in Octo- 

 ber. As it might take four or five days, it 

 occurred to me in the outset that they would 

 have to start during the fore part of the 

 week to avoid being out over Sunday, espe- 

 cially if they flew only in the day time and 

 not by night. Well, as nearly as I can 

 make out, the event was postponed several 

 times until they were talking about starting 

 on Saturday. I felt sure the Wright broth- 

 ers would object, as they always have done, 

 to ani/ Sunday flying. They would do this 

 out of respect to their old father, who is a 

 minister of the gospel, if for no other reason. 

 Therefore! was not surprised when told that 

 only four were going to make the flight, and 

 they were going to start on Saturday after- 

 noon. Later still I was yet more pained to 

 have the papers tell us (without protesting 

 or commenting), that the flight was to 

 begin on Sanday afternoon, October 9. I 

 think the Saturday papers informed us 

 further that all had dropped out but one — 

 Eugene Ely — and he was to start alone on 

 Sunday afternoon. Two others with their 



aeroplanes were to go a piece with him, and 

 see that he got under way all right, without 

 any mishap. I suppose that most of you 

 know from accounts in the papers how it 

 turned out. Here is what I found in the 

 Cleveland Plain Dealer in regard to the 

 matter: 



HE MAY ARRIVE LATE. 



Kissing his wife and assuring her that he would 

 join her at the Hotel Astor, in New York, not later 

 than next Friday noon, Eugene Ely sailed from Chi- 

 cago In a Curtiss liiplane Sunday afternoon. 



Then he flew nine miles. 



IjCt US pause a little right here. If I should 

 say that I almost kneiu he would have bad 

 luck if he started on Sunday afternoon some 

 of you would call me superstitious and per- 

 haps fanatical. If you recall the matter, 

 you will remember that once Agrippa told 

 Paul he was mad. 



Paul answered, "I am not mad, but speak 

 forth the words of truth and soberness." I 

 am sure, friends, if you will listen to me you 

 will agree that I speak forth the words of 

 "truth and soberness" in defense of our 

 Christian sabbath. If I am right about it, 

 starting out with a lot of flying-machines 

 on Sunday afternoon is breaking the laws 

 of our land, and I think the officers of the 

 law, if they choose, could forbid such an un- 

 dertaking; and it is most certoin/^ breaking 

 the laws of God. Did you ever think of and 

 admire the wonderful wisdom of the way in 

 which we are told or asked to observe the 

 sabbath — "Remember the sabbath day to 

 keep it holy " ? 



Now, in the above we are not told just what 

 we should do and what we should not do on 

 Sunday. The Pharisees tried that, and had 

 over a hundred rules for it. We can, each 

 one of us, if we desire to obey the great 

 Father above, decide what course of conduct 

 is holy and what is not. Please do not un- 

 derstand that I think Sunday particularly 

 different from any other day. People gen- 

 erally, especially good people, have decided 

 on one particular day of the week to be call- 

 ed God's day — a day of rest from all of our 

 duties and cares, and a day to consider espe- 

 cially God's wishes and God's commands 

 to his children. 



I am well aware that there is much dispo- 

 sition of late to regard Sunday as a holiday 

 rather than a holy day; and a certain class 

 of people have seemed to think it proper 

 and fitting to select that day for running 

 automobiles, testing flying-machines, etc. 

 When the Gorge Railway was opened some 

 years ago they ran their first cars on Sun- 

 day — or, rather, undertook to run them on 

 that day — but they had a bad breakdown. 

 I was not surprised, for I rather expected it 

 when the papers announced that the first 

 car was to carry passengers through that 

 gorge on Sunday. Since then various un- 

 dertakings and enterprises of a similar kind 

 have been started on Sunday. Recently a 

 daring and reckless young man undertook 

 to run the Whirlpool Rapids at Niagara, 

 and took Sunday for the feat. He did not 

 lose his life, but came so near it that he was 

 fished out so nearly dead that he had just 



