APKIL 1. 1915 



295 



A. I. Root 



OUE HOME 



Editor 



Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.- — Josh. 

 44:15. 



His sons made themselves vile, and he restrained 

 them not. — I. S.^m. c:13. 



Honor tliy father and mother, which is the first 

 comtnandnu'iit with promise; that it may be well 

 with thee, and that thou inayest live long in the 

 earth. — Em. 6:2. 3. 



I was brought up by godly parents, and 

 attended Sunday-school regularly until I 

 was toward a dozen years old. We lived in 

 a small town; and when I approached my 

 teens T got in with a crowd that made light 

 of religion, and soon began to think I was 

 getting too old to keep on w'ith the children, 

 notwithstanding the efforts of my parents, 

 especially my mother. I was born on a 

 farm in the woods near my present home; 

 but when 1 was four years old father was 

 persuaded to abandon the farm, move into 

 town, and work at his trade. He always 

 had a longing for the farm, however; and 

 after about eight years in the town (see p. 

 167, Feb. 15) he moved back to the old 

 farm. It just now occurs to me that very 

 likely he decided the farm would be a better 

 place for his two boys approaching man- 

 hood. As we were about 21/2 miles from 

 church, one of his first moves was to get a 

 six-seated carriage in order that he might 

 take the w^iole family to " meeting " regu- 

 larly every Sunday. 



It happened, however, in this case, as in 

 most others, that there were sabbath-break- 

 ing boys in the country as well as in the 

 village, and my brother and 1 preferred 

 rambling about Avith these new acquain- 

 tances rather than going to church. Father 

 expostulated several times; but it seems we 

 gave little heed, and, I am son-y to say, I 

 cannot remember I had been to church with 

 the family a single time until I was close to 

 sixteen. 



One Sunday morning, when my older 

 brother and I were just ready to start off as 

 usual, father came to us looking pretty stern. 

 As well as I can remember he spoke some- 

 thing as follows: 



" Boys, a responsibility rests on my shoul- 

 ders. The carriage stands there ready to 

 take you to church, and there is plenty of 

 room. If you decide to go with us, well 

 and good, and you ar*e most heartily wel- 

 eora^e to our home as long as you choose to 

 stay. If. however, you choose to spend 

 your Sundays as you have been doing, and 

 with the crowd you have been going with, 

 you will have to find a home elsew-here. I 

 have thought the matter over for some time 

 past, and I am sure T ara right. Think it 

 over, and take your choice." 



As memory goes back, may God forgive 

 me for being obliged to relate that, at that 

 time, I regarded this as an encroachment on 

 wliat might now be called " personal liber- 

 ty." 1 advised that we go ahead as we had 

 started, and suggested the " old gentleman " 

 would probably " let up a little." Marshall, 

 however, knew father rather better than I 

 did, and suggested we " go to meeting " just 

 this once, any way. I didn't seem inclined 

 to agree, however, until he further added : 

 " Ame, there is a lot of pretty girls up at 

 the church, as well as off where we were 

 intending to go," and that turned the scale. 

 We went to church, and, singing in the 

 choir of that country church, I caught about 

 the first glimpse of her who is now Mrs. 

 Root. Please don't smile, dear reader, when 

 I confess that, after that Sunday, I needed 

 no more urging toward church-going. My 

 motive was not a very good one, perhaps, 

 but it resulted in my hearing some good 

 honest sermons that I very much needed at 

 that age. It was the turning-point in my 

 life. Father did not say, as did Joshua, 

 " Choose ye this day whom ye will serve," 

 but it came pretty near to it. It is, I happen 

 to know, just now, a question as to how far 

 a father shall go with boys just turning into 

 manhood. To threaten to " turn the boys 

 out of house and home " is certainly a pret- 

 ty severe procedure; but what other course 

 had he? Let me tell briefly how we had 

 been spending our Sundays. 



It is true we usually went to a Sunday- 

 school in a country schoolhouse; but we 

 went there only to interrupt the services and 

 "have fun."* After Sunday-school we went 

 to a sort of grocery (there were no saloons 

 at that early day), and bought beer. One 

 treated the crowd, and the next time another 

 treated. As an evidence of my want of 

 sense at that early age my brother had to 

 inform me that after I had taken the beer 

 others paid for it was incumbent on me to 

 treat likewise. At that time my " income " 

 was from chickens, and it came a little hard 

 to take my well-earned " chicken money " 

 to treat a crowd to beer. (Have any of 

 our " chicken " readers had a like experi- 

 ence?) Well, I got the experience "good 

 and hard." As the barkeeper filled the 

 glasses he asked me if we would not like a 

 little wine in with the beer. As it never 



* Years afterward, when I started to serve the 

 Ijord one of my first promptings was in regard to 

 that .'\bheyville .Sunday-school, and for eight years I 

 went down there (five miles), winter and summer, 

 and kept the school going. I have in past papers 

 mentioned some of the results. 



