SEPTEMBER 15, 1913 



Our Homes 



A. I. Root 



Know ye not that your body is the temple of the 

 Holy Ghost which is in you? — I COR. 6:19. 

 Wash ye, make you clean. — ISA. 1:16. 



KEEPING THESE GOD-GIVEN BODIES OF OUKS 

 IN GOOD REPAIR. 



Terry and I have a pleasant challenge, 

 one with the other, as to which one will live 

 to be a hundred years old. Now, we are 

 both professing Christians; and in our 

 teachings, if we do not honestly own up 

 when we get sick, we shall not be livimg up 

 to our profession as health teachers or as 

 followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Doc- 

 tors and professional nurses, if they wish 

 to be consulted as authorities, ought to be 

 very careful about getting sick. If my good 

 friend and neighbor Terry should get sick 

 down would go his teaching, or at least they 

 would go down a little way. Of course, he 

 does not charge any big fee for his instruc- 

 tions, and, in fact, he does not charge anj 

 thing, so all his healing is, to a certain ex- 

 tent, like that of the great Master, who did 

 his work when on earth " without money 

 and without price." Terry must not get 

 sick; in fact, I have felt sure the great 

 Father would indorse the great truths Ter- 

 ry is giving us, by giving him health. Well, 

 with this preface I have made another great 

 discovery. It may be new to some of you, 

 at least, as it was new to me. 



To be honest, I do have spells of indiges- 

 tion ; and I had such a spell lasting several 

 days in July. I first cut otf evei-y thing 

 sweet. Then I tried going a little hungry; 

 but the fermentation in i-uy bowels did not 

 let up until I had several meals of pure lean 

 beef on the old Salisbury treatment. This 

 got me in better shape, as it always has 

 done. But still I had the bad taste in my 

 mouth when I got up in the morning. When 

 my digestion is real good my mouth is al- 

 ways sweet and clean — like a baby's, for 

 instance. Perhaps one who is 74 years of 

 age can not expect his breath to be as sweet 

 as that of a baby; but I think it ought to 

 come somewhere near it.* Well, when my 

 teeth needed some repairs I at once went to 

 a dentist. If we are going to chew every 

 thing until it is liquid or semi-liquid we 

 must have good teeth. This dentist is a 



* Should God in his loving providence permit me 

 to reach the age of eighty or ninety, I am hoping 

 and working and praying to be able to keep clean, 

 pure, and sweet, in body, mind, and spirit. I fear 

 old people ofttimes get to be careless about their 

 dress and personal habits, etc., just as I have been 

 careless about my teeth. I have been scrubbing my 

 body daily, from the top of my head down to my 

 toes, but forgetting, ignoring, and overlooking the 

 teeth and mouth — tlie " gateway," as we might call 

 it, of every thing taken into the stomach in the 

 way of food to keep up that " storage battery " of 

 health and strength. 



new one, or new to me. He is a young chap, 

 and I think he is pretty well up to date. 

 The first thing he said when he looked into 

 my mouth was, " Mr. Root, when did you 

 clean your teeth last?" 



I replied, " My good friend, I am asham- 

 ed to say that I forgot to clean them, as I 

 fully intended t-o do, before I started to 

 come here; and, to tell the truth, I am 

 afraid it is some little time since I gave my 

 teeth a good brushing." Mrs. Root keeps 

 scolding me, and usually brings me my 

 tooth-brush, tooth-paste, and a dish of wa- 

 ter on Sunday morning before I go to 

 church, saying that I ought to clean my 

 teeth at least every Sunday morning since 

 I insist on refusing to clean them once or 

 twice a day. Well, the dentist went on to 

 say : 



" Mr. Root, I know you will excuse me 

 when I tell you that, if you let your teeth 

 go in the shape they are now in, it is a 

 wonder if you do not have indigestion. The 

 matter collecting in the cavities in your 

 mouth you can not very well get out with 

 a toothpick. It will begin to ferment over 

 night; and if you chew your food ever so 

 well at your breakfast next morning, this 

 matter from the teeth is mixed with it, and 

 will keep up the fermentation in your 

 stomach and bowels. If you wish to pre- 

 serve your health, and live to be a hundred 

 years old, as you and Terry have talked 

 about, you must clean your teeth thorough- 

 ly every day." 



Deal" friends, I want to make two apol- 

 ogies right here. James enjoins us to con- 

 fess our faults one to the other; and wliile 

 I am ashamed to make the above confes- 

 sion, I tliink that, under the circumstances, 

 it is my duty, and that it will do good all 

 around. 



The other confession is (and I wish to 

 include an humble apology to my young 

 friend the dentist), all at once Satan put it 

 into my head that this dentist, perhaps, had 

 tooth-brushes, tooth-powders, or tooth-paste 

 for sale. I had been to two different den- 

 tists and paid them quite a little money 

 within the past year, and neither one of 

 them had said a word about my unsanitary 

 teeth. I said, " My good friend, do you sell 

 tooth-brashes or tooth-paste?" 



" Notliing of the kind. You can get the 

 best up-to-date implements for the care of 

 the teeth at any of the drugstores." 



Somebody has been mean enough to in- 

 sinuate that dentists would lose a chance of 

 getting jobs (with big pay) if they, like our 

 physicians, should be too vehement in urg- 



