1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



183 



Our Homes 



By a. I. Root 



That thjr days may be Ions upon the land which the Lord thy 

 God giveththee.— Ex. 20:12. 



Before considering the text I have chosen, I 

 wish to take up another matter briefly. The fol- 

 lowing letter from a reader of Gleanings will 

 introduce it: 



Mr. A. I. Ro»t: — GLEANINGS is growing better and larger 

 (rem year to year. This surely must be encouraging to all Root- 

 ville and especially to its founder, our dear old " Uncle Amos." 

 1 wonder whether the management finds it easy to keep the ball 

 rolling, ard whether they would take it amiss if a reader would 

 pot bis shoulder to the wheel and give it a little impetus, or at 

 least help them with a little suggestion. 



My attention was called to an inconsistency existing between 

 the heading of the Home papers and the subject matter, or be- 

 tween the text and the sermon. This matter was brought up 

 some years ago, in a small gathering of ministers, several of whom 

 were bee-keepers. 1 was reminded of this wht n I read the beau- 

 tiful text, Isa. 52:7 in the Christmat number, expecting to read 

 a genuine Christmas sermon full of the peace and love of God, as 

 was that first Christmas sermon delivered by the angel to the 

 shepherds: " Fear not, for behold, 1 bring you good tidings of 

 great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this 

 day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." 

 Instead of this I found an article on shoes and ftel, which would 

 have looked well under the heading of Health Notes; but under 

 Ibis beautiiul text from holy Scripture it looks — to me at least — 

 ridiculous. Ves, it seems to me as if the holy name or word of 

 the Lord is taken in »ain. Where the appropriateness of the 

 text comes in 1 utterly fail to see. It is true, the word " feet " 

 appears in the text, the word being used in a flowery way to ex- 

 press as much as the " coming of," the same as if we say, " It 

 makes me glad to see the approaching carriage of my friend." It 

 ii the friend, not the carriage, that gladdens me. Well, I am 

 not a preacher, and may be the meaning of a text is immaterial 

 in these days of which the Lord speaks — Matt. 24. We may be 

 glad if we are permitted at least to hear the Bible text read in 

 some of our churches; but it always comei up in my mind again, 

 " Have these preachers never come across the passage where Jesus 

 said, ' But in vain they worship me, teaching for doctrines the 

 commandments of men'.'" 



Yours for improvement all around, 



Mrs. I. B. G. 



My good friend Mrs. I. B. G., while I thank 

 you for your kind criticism, and while I plead 

 guilty, at least to a certain extent, I want to of- 

 fer a little defense. You were disappointed be- 

 cause I, a poor humble layman, did not give you 

 such a Chr stmas sermon as you hear from al- 

 most every pulpit year after year as this sacred 

 holiday comes along. I know, and have known 

 for years, that the message God gives me to pre- 

 sent in my own way does not always fit very 

 well with the precious words I select as well as I 

 can to place at the head of my talk. May I con- 

 fide to you all right here that for years past I 

 have at times felt as if it was, as you put it, "ri- 

 diculous" to ihink of putting such poor efforts 

 in print.' But there was no time even to try to 

 write something better; neither had I at the time 

 the brains and energy to get up something else 

 quick. All I could do was to ask God to send 

 his Holy Spirit along with it so that it might be 

 understood and bear fruit. When a host of kind 

 words came from far and near in regard to that 

 very Home i)aper I began to conclude it was Sa- 

 lan that tried to persuade me I was off my base 

 •just as he did when I was in that great barber- 

 shop in Atlanta), and I can now think of only 

 two Home papers that ever went into the waste- 

 basket in over thirty years. 



Now, my dear Christian friend, may I not 

 make a brief defense of that paper about " beau- 

 tiful feet " .' Is there any thing we can do to 

 make our feet beautiful in the sight of both God 



and man like what the text brings out so clearly 

 — keeping them busy in " bringing good tidings" 

 and "publishing peace," and, best of all, "pub- 

 lishing sal-x'ation " r' 



Can you imagine any " good tidings " of 

 more moment to the world than that " eman- 

 cipation " which the missionaries have, by their 

 "busy feet," brought about in China.'' Let me 

 repeat it, millions of --wotnen, crippled for life for 

 more than a thousand years past, and this thing 

 going on and on! 



Let me digress a little. A few months ago, at 

 a conference of ministers they were discussing 

 county local option. When 1 found I was the 

 only layman present I apologized, and was about 

 to withdraw, when one of them who knew of 

 these Home papers said: 



" Friends, some of us here may in time get to 

 be great preachers; but there is little hope or 

 prospect that we shall ever speak to as great an 

 audience as our friend here talks to twice every 

 month." 



How does it come that I have such an audience, 

 and have held on to it for years } Because 

 sometimes " God hath chosen the foolish things 

 of the world to confound the wise," etc., and be- 

 cause I have called attention to great evils like 

 the crippling of the poor Chinese women's feet. 

 To come back to our own country, is not this 

 man who advertises the common-sense shoe, and 

 ignores fashion, " publishing peace " to a silly 

 and sinful world that would destroy both feet 

 and spirituality rather than be out of fashion > 

 Few of the Home talks have brought more le- 

 sponses and kind words than the one about shots 

 and feet; and I am sure it has helped push along 

 a needed reform, even if it was, in some respects, 

 perhaps, a little off from the usual interpretation 

 of that beautiful text. 



Now for the text I have chosen for my talk to- 

 day. I feel sorry about it, but I fear it is open 

 to the same objection as the one we have been 

 discussing. I have taken it from the command- 

 ment about honoring the father and mother, and 

 yet I propose to discuss mainly long li'ving. 1 

 do this because I have not found any thing in 

 the Bible that hits so exactly what I want. My 

 talk has been planned mostly for old folks like 

 Mrs. Root and myself. Our fathers and mothers 

 are dead and gone. They did their duty by us, 

 and have ceased from their labors, but I feel 

 sure they are looking down from their home in 

 heaven in a loving way as of old, watching anx- 

 iously, perhaps, to see what progress we are mak- 

 ing out of the darkness and into the light that 

 the Heavenly Father has all these years been 

 holding out before us. 



Now, then, what shall we do that o«r"days 

 may be long on the land," etc.? After having 

 been loyal and filial to our parents and all out 

 relatives we aie to take care of these bodies of 

 ours. Much of my correspondence of late has 

 been from elderly people who have been consid- 

 ering coming to Florida to avoid the rigid win- 

 ters of the North. After having passed five or six 

 winters in a southern clime I do think many old 

 people will live longer and happier by getting 

 where they can be more in the open air, and at 

 the same time avoid being "bundled up " as we 

 must be in a cold climate. From the fact that 

 so many old people drop off during the winter 



