SKPTEMBER 1, 1915 



7S1 



A. I. Root 



OUE HOME 



Editor 



And Phnruoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should 

 obey his voice to let Is.rael go? I know not the 

 liOrd, neither will I let Israel go. — Exor)US 5:2. 



At our Thursday prayer-meeting our 

 yood pastor informed us a recjuest liad been 

 made that our prayer-meota'ngs between 

 now and the Ohio election on Nov. 2 be 

 devoted more or less toward the work of 

 making- Ohio dry. I do not know whether 

 all denominations aside from the Congrega- 

 tional are requested to act in harmony with 

 the above; but God gi-ant that it may be so. 

 1 presume our readers are sufficiently 

 acquainted witli the book of Exodus so that 

 I do not need to tell the story in detail. The 

 Israelites were groaning under the o^^pres- 

 sion and bondage put on them, and Jehovali 

 beard their prayers and commissioned 

 Moses to intercede for God's people. Moses 

 was reluctant to undertake the task. He 

 probably feared he would lose his head as 

 soon as he made known his request, and our 

 text is Pharaoh's reply. Like the kings of 

 the present day — at least most of them — 

 IMiaraoh was proud and stubborn, and said, 

 " Who is the Lord, that I should obey his 

 voice?" Now, if king-s and princes only, 

 stood up against God's command it would 

 be a better world than it is now. While I 

 am loyal to our good president, and thank 

 God almost every day that we have a Chris- 

 tian man at the head of our nation, I still 

 have reason to feel that this Cliristian man 

 is not permitted to have his way in some 

 things. As I write, the whisky party still 

 1 ules over us, and with its millions of ill- 

 gotten gains defeats us again and again as 

 l-'haraoh apparently defeated Jehovah again 

 and again. In order to make him let the 

 people go, Moses, by God's command, turn- 

 ed the river Nile into blood. Then Pharaoh 

 finally gave up and promised to submit to 

 Moses' request. But he forgot or ignored 

 Ills promise. Next came the plague of lice 

 and flies, but with apparently no better 

 results; then the plague of boils and blains; 

 ihe plague of hail; the plague of locusts 

 and of darkness. But Pharaoh was still 

 contrarj" and ugly. Last, but by no means 

 least, was the slaughter of the first-born. 

 Then Pharaoh apparently gave up and told 

 Moses to get out of the way witli his peo- 

 |.le. I presume likely Pharaoh had some 

 wicked counselors — some who were in league 

 with Satan just as the United Slates of 

 America has some such counselors just now. 



They told Pharaoh things would be in bad 

 .diape without the Lsraelites for servants. 



I'l-rhaps they suggested lliat the.'^e troubles 



in the past liad all gone by, and poor fool- 

 ish Pharaoh, blinded by Satan and Satan's 

 allies, rushed to destruction, and God's peo- 

 ple rejoiced over the miraculous deliverance. 

 1 hardly need say to the followers of the 

 Lord Jesus Christ and to those who love 

 truth, honesty, temperance, and purity, that 

 a Pliaraoh is standing over us right now in 

 Ihi.s twentieth century, and loading us with 

 grievous burdens — burdens that we have 

 brought on ourselves because we have "for- 

 saken the living God," and are letting idols 

 of various sorts come in between us and our 

 Iieavenly Father. Punishment has come 

 again and again in times j^ast, and we as a 

 |)eople repent and reform for the moment, 

 but soon become so busy with our idols that 

 we drift back again. 



A few years ago a great school building 

 full of cliildren was burned up in Cleve- 

 land, and such a reform was started in the 

 way of better arrangements for schoolchil- 

 dren in the case of fire that even away 

 down in Bradentown we were roused u}». 

 As soon as I saw the account in the daily 

 paper I remembered a two-stoiy school 

 building in sight of our Florida home; but 

 almost before 1 could bring the matter up 

 in our prayer-meeting the carpenters were 

 at work fitting up good substantial outdoor 

 stairways — two of them; and I believe such 

 was the ease over nearly all the United 

 States. Much as the fathers and mothers 

 of our land love their children, they had 

 become stupid and forgetful. Another dis- 

 aster in Chicago taught the whole wide 

 world, almost, the folly of having the doors 

 of public buildings swing inward, so that 

 ■.vhen a panic occurred the doors could not 

 be opened. Just now, go where you will, 

 you will find ihe doors of such buildings 

 open outward, and there are plenty of ex- 

 its also. I believe the laAvs of our land 

 demand it. '' Safety first " has become a 

 watchword; and there is some dispute as to 

 v^dio first started it. The great Pennsyl- 

 vania Railroad Company claims to have 

 originated the idea some eighty years ago, 

 as you will notice further on. 



When the Titanic disaster occurred, I 

 said, just as soon as we got the first partic- 

 ulars, that whisky was at the bottom of it; 

 and we soon had facts, if yon remember, to 

 sliow it, but the truth was carefully sup- 

 l)resscd and covered up. Fngland did not 

 relish the idea of having it go abroad that 

 lier partiality for beer or strong intoxicants 

 lay at the bottom. I believe a careful in- 

 \estigalion has been made, and the entire 



