NOVEMBER 15, 1913 



Our Homes 



A. I. Root 



Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourg- 

 eth every son whom he receiveth. — Heb. 12:6. 



TAKING CARE OF THESE BODIES OP OURS. 



Just now in this present age of progress 

 the whole wide world, especially the younger 

 jiortion, is studying automobiles. " Even in 

 farming communities (at least in and 

 around our Medina home), there are auto- 

 mobiles to get around in the world rather 

 than depend on horses as we did a few 

 years ago. And most of these farming 

 friends have learned that automobile doc- 

 tore are expensive as well as the old-fash- 

 ioned kind of doctors. Automobile owners 

 are studying up the mechanism as they never 

 studied any thing before; and they are 

 learning to make their own repaid instead 

 of going to the garage. It has been a won- 

 der to me how the boys get hold of the 

 intricate mechanism of an automobile; and 

 even older ones have learned by experience 

 the imi^ortance of using an automobile — 

 I was going to say in a humane way, so as 

 to avoid the expense of running, as much as 

 possible. Now, this is a grand undertaking. 

 I do not know of any branch of education 

 that is as important just now as something 

 along this line, unless indeed it is an educa- 

 tion that concerns these bodies of ours — 

 these God-given bodies — in order to keep 

 the human frame up to its best. The whole 

 wide world is making great progress just 

 now along this line. 



Now, tliis Home paper may be objected 

 to because both Terry and I are going to 

 talk exceedingly plain; but, notwithstand- 

 ing, I believe this talk will be of more help 

 to humanity — especially suffering humanity 

 — than any thing else I have talked about 

 for a long while. 



On page 657, Sept. 15, I said, " If my 

 good friend and neighbor should get sick, 

 down would go his teachings, or at least 

 they would go down a little way." The 

 above was dictated somewhat in pleasantly; 

 and little did I dream while I was speaking 

 that my good friend Terry was seriously 

 ill, with a doctor and a trained nurse. While 

 he was unable to write, the good wife gave 

 me full particulars in regard to the matter; 

 and already I for one began to see God's 

 loving hand in this affliction ; and instead 

 of his teaclnngs going down, I think the sad 

 occurrence will be the means of making liis 

 teachings even more valuable. 



With this preface I wish to give you the 

 following, whicli I clip from the Practical 

 Farmer; and by the way, friends, if you 

 are not already taking the Practical Farmer 



I tliink it will pay you to subscribe for it 

 for Terry's teachings alone. No other writ- 

 er, so far as I can learn, has ever under- 

 taken to give the world, without a cent of 

 pay, such sensible exhortations on caring 

 for these bodies of ours, exactly as we are 

 caring for automobiles nowadays, that they 

 may run thousands of miles without a cent 

 for repair. Here is the clipping: 



ATTENDING THOROUGHLY TO NATURE'S CALLS. 



This is an important matter which has never been 

 discussed in detail in these columns. And still 

 many thousands of people suffer more or less from 

 lack of attention to as simple a thing as this, and 

 do not know it is because they are violating one of 

 nature's fixed laws. The points we wish to bring 

 out strongly to-day are attending promptly and 

 thoroughly to the slighest call of nature for the 

 evacuation of the bladder or bowels. You may think 

 this too simple a matter to pay any attention to. 

 But let us explain how neglect works. In the rush 

 and haste which is so common a man may fail to 

 disicharge quite all of the urine from the bladder. 

 This urine contains poisons, usually more than it 

 should have. Any left over in the warm bladder 

 begins to decay. Tliis may, in the course of time, 

 bring on more or less irritation, and in the end per- 

 haps inflammation, swelling of prostate gland at 

 neck of bladder, and so on. Then in extreme cases 

 life may be worse than death at times. Getting a 

 little chilled, overeating, improper food, overwork- 

 ing, even worrying, may start up trouble on short 

 notice. What we call a cold may bring on an in- 

 flammation in the bladder which will cause serious 

 illness. You see nature chooses this weak point, 

 unless there is a still weaker one, to build a Donfire 

 to burn up surplus waste. This trouble is quite com- 

 mon among elderly men. The writer has known a 

 number to whom life was almost unbearable. Some 

 of them let the surgeon cut O'Ut part of what nature 

 put there, and in every case the end came within a 

 year or two of agony following the operation. The 

 general impression is that old men can not avoid 

 this trouble. The truth is that improper ways of 

 living, such as are mentioned above, bring on the 

 terrible ill. It can be relieved after one be«comes 

 badly off, so he can get along comfortably, by living 

 as we teach. I have full faith that it can be cured; 

 if not, it will always remain a weak point, and God 

 help the poor man who, by some little carelessness, 

 lets the inflammation get started again. 



ATTENDING PROMPTLY TO NATURE'S CALLS. 



Fifteen years ago the writer got up early and rode 

 in an open wagon 12 miles one frosty morning. 

 He was very cold, and should have gone straight to 

 the water-closet when he landed at the hotel. In- 

 stead, he stopped in the office before an open fire to 

 warm a little. And then in came a party of ladies 

 to show us about town. Had he dreamed of the 

 terrible trouble to follow he would have excused him- 

 self for a few minutes. But you know this was not 

 a pleasant thing to do, with the closet door in plain 

 sight and a sign on it. So he went with the ladies 

 and suffered severely before he got back to the hotel. 

 That evening he was taken dreadfully sick with what 

 afterward proved to be inflammation of the bladder. 

 He picked up enough in a few days to get home, and 

 then went down flat again and suffered death almost 

 daily. This was the beginning of the serious troubles 

 in this line which the writer of these columns has 

 had. Doctors proved powerless to tcure. With no 

 end of grit he set about learning to live so he could 



