1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



103 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A. L ROOT. 



This poor man cried, and the I,ord heard him, and 

 saved him out of all his troubles. — Psalm 34 :6. 



Dear fellow-travelers, I want to talk a little 

 about the grip this morning ; and if you have 

 had it I think you will be interested in what I 

 have to say. I told you in our last issue about 

 getting a crick in my back, and catching cold. 

 Well, by being careful, and staying indoors, I 

 got over it in the course of two weeks, or 

 thought I had ; but after I began to get around 

 a little, something — at least it seemed as if 

 something — took hold of me by the back of 

 my neck and held on with quite a " grip." I 

 tried to stay indoors, but peculiar circum- 

 stances rendered it necessary that I should go 

 out just a little ; and then I began to have 

 toothache, earache, and sore throat all at once. 

 You know, without my telling you, whenever 

 I am in trouble I begin to ask God for guid- 

 ance; or, if you choose, I begin to inquire 

 what God would have me do under certain 

 circumstances. A recent writer of great power 

 has expressed it, "What would Jesus do?" 

 A traveling man who came quite a distance to 

 see me on business remarked that he also had 

 the grip. He said he had it a great deal of 

 the time, but still he kept traveling, and at- 

 tending to business. Said I: 



"Why, how do you manage to travel and 

 attend to business when you have the grip? " 



- ',Oh ! I keep driving it off with quinine." 



" But quinine does not seem to answer with 

 me. Other people find relief by taking qui- 

 nine, and I often try it because others use it so 

 freely; but it does not seem to work well with 

 me." 



"Oh! that is true. It won't work with 

 some people. But I will tell you what to do. 

 You take some whisky with it. ' Quinine and 

 whisky.' That is what I take right along. It 

 is the only thing that keeps me up." 



I had tiken a good lcok at my companion 

 before, and had been fearing he was an intem- 

 perate man. There was not time, and I did 

 not think it worth while, to tell him that I 

 considered the remedy wor^e than the disease; 

 but it kept going through my mind the rest of 

 the day — quinine and u hisky. I wonder how 

 many doctors there are in this land of ours 

 who tell their patients to take quinine and 

 whisky. Grip is doing a great deal of harm, 

 no doubt. An old doctor book, printed before 

 grip was known, tells me that influenza is a 

 peculiar disease that afflicts whole cities ; and 

 of recent years it has been still more of a city 

 and town epidemic. It breaks up schools and 

 cripples factories; it keeps physicians running 

 until they are worn out ; it causes an untold 

 amount of pain and suffering, and sends many 

 invalids and old people to their graves ; but, 

 oh dear ! grip is not a circumstance — not a 

 drop in the bucket, compared with the rav- 

 ages of whisky. Why ! I think I am safe in 

 sa\ing that all the epidemics and plagues that 

 ever troubled mankind are as nothing: com- 



pared with intemperance. A man may die of 

 smallpox, cholera, or yellow fever, and be 

 an honest man and a Christian ; but when he 

 dies of whisky it is not only a lost body but a 

 lost soul . 



When I was inquiring what God would have 

 me do for the earache and toothache together 

 the answer came very decidedly that whisky 

 above all things was what the great Father 

 would not have his people use. While I was 

 kept at home with my face over the hot radia- 

 tor, trying to get relief from pain, I prayed 

 over this matter a good deal ; and right dur- 

 ing my sufferings one of the clerks brought 

 over to the house a bundle of papers and the 

 letter I submit to you below : 



Dear Mr. Root: — I take the liberty of addressing 

 you because I feel led of the Spirit to do so. I have 

 been a reader of Gleanings for a number of years 

 through the kindness of a friend who lent them to me, 

 and For about two years just past I have been a regu- 

 lar subscriber ; and dear old Glkanings is a very 

 much loved and honored member of our family. I 

 have loved very much to follow you through your 

 many experiences in the Christian warfare as I find it 

 recorded from time to time in Notes of Travel and 

 Our Homes. If I can find words to express my feel- 

 ings toward you t think I shall come the nearest to it 

 by saying you have seemed verv much like a very 

 dear elder brother who has advised, comforted, and 

 helped me many times when in sore perplexity : but 

 for a long time I have wished you knew God's way of 

 healing ; what his will is c mcerning these things. I 

 will not attempt to explain, but will leave that to the 

 leading of the Spirit and God's teaching through his 

 servant. Dr. Dowie. If you have any doubts or pieju- 

 dices in regard to these things for Jesus' sake and 

 the sake of sin-stricken sufferine humanitv, ask 

 God to hr'lp you to lay them all aside, and seek di i- 

 gently for the whole truth until it is opened up to you 

 in all its grandeur, beauty, and power. 



I mail to you three copies of a paper printed in 

 Chkago. in which you will find the true bread < f life 

 broken to the world. These are old numbers of the 

 papers, but I send them to you because they have done 

 a mighty work since they were published, and I feel 

 that the Spirit of God especially accompanies them. 

 I have thoutiht many times what a power for God our 

 belovt d Bro. Root would be if he only knew God's way 

 of healing; and I send the-e papers to you with a hope 

 and prayer that, by his Spirit, he will lead you fully 

 into the blessed truth that God sent the Great Physi- 

 cian that we might receive through him healing for 

 our wounded bodies as well as soul and spirit: that he 

 came indeed and in truth that we might have life, and 

 that we might have it more abundantly 



Your brother in Christ, 



Edinburg, O., Jan. 12. G. G. Northrup. 



The papers that came with the letter were 

 Leaves of Healing, from Dr. Dowie's estab- 

 lishment in Chicago. I have read these Leaves 

 of Healing for a long time. I have also look- 

 ed over Dr. Dowie's establishment while pass- 

 ing along the streets while in Chicago. There 

 is certainly very much that is good in the 

 Leaves of Healing; yes, there are some of the 

 grandest truths, expressed with wonderful 

 force, and I am glad that such a man as Dr. 

 Dowie has been raised up to deal terrible blows 

 at existing evils; but I do think that he makes 

 some grievous mistakes; and, for that matter, 

 is it not true that all of our great teachers, es- 

 pecially those who seem to have great gifts 

 along certain lines, make more or less mis- 

 takes? 



Let me thank the dear brother who sends 

 the above kind letter, before I go any further. 

 And then let me protest against one expres- 

 sion that Dr. Dowie uses quite often in his de- 

 nunciations. It is this : " Doctors, drugs, and 

 devils." No doubt there are doctors who are 



