Nov. 1. 1911 



be soundly converted, came to our prayer- 

 meeting, and took part. I had told him the 

 story of Fred's emancipation, and he seem- 

 ed to be very much impressed by it. We all 

 thought him honest and sincere. In a few 

 months, however, he made a visit to his old 

 home, and when he came back he brought 

 a young lady with him whom he introduc- 

 ed as his u'ife. As he had never before men- 

 tioned being married, the transaction did 

 not look right, and I finally told him he 

 must show us his marriage-certificate or he 

 would not be permitted to work in our 

 establishment. This was a reflection on 

 the character of the woman he was living 

 with, as you will notice. And he told around 

 town that the next time he caught me off 

 by myself he would teach me a lesson I 

 would always remember, or something to 

 that effect. 



Not long afterward I saw him at a dis- 

 tance, and walked up to him and asked him 

 about his threat. As he had been a desper- 

 ate character it seemed quite probable I 

 might receive bodily injury. He was an- 

 gry; but I went over the matter gently, and 

 assured him again that, notwithstanding 

 his conduct, I was still his friend, and a 

 friend of the young woman in question. 

 Little by little he softened down, and final- 

 ly admitted I was right. For some reason 

 unexplained I could not persuade him to be 

 legally married to the woman he had been 

 living with, but he sent her back home, and 

 tried to live down the ejMsode. Friend Lan- 

 ham did not suggest that the Holy Spirit 

 protected him and myself also, but one who 

 is doing God's bidding is seldom molested. 



I do not know just how many of you 

 have had experience in being " snubbed " 

 by having some one you have offended turn 

 his face the other way when you pass him, 

 or refuse to reply or look toward you when 

 you address him. As friend Lanham sug- 

 gests, it is a pretty hard matter to keep on 

 when you are repeatedly ignored. 



I once put out my hand to a man in the 

 jail who was angry because I reported him 

 for being intoxicated on the street. Instead 

 of taking my outstretched hand he put both 

 his hands behind him. I said: 



"Why, friend A., won't you even shake 

 hands?" 



He replied, "Mr. Root, I will shake hands 

 to get rid of you, but for no other reason." 



"All right, my old friend," I replied, 

 "let's shake hands that way. That will be 

 better than nothing at all." 



Of course I then left. 'Some time after- 

 ward I tried to explain to him that I was 

 only doing my duty. He turned on me and 

 said: 



"Mr. Root, that operation of yours took 

 several hard-earned dollars out of my pocket, 

 and I am a poor man, and have a family to 

 support. ' ' 



1 put my hand in the money-drawer (for 

 it was in my store where we were talking) , 

 took out some bills, and asked him to figure 

 up all the expense, and offered to pay it. 

 To my great surprise he softened instantly. 



and changed about as if by magic, and smil- 

 ingly replied, "No, no, Mr. Root. I shall 

 not take a cent of your money. You were 

 right and I was wrong. You simply did 

 your duty, and I will try to do better in the 

 future." 



It was the first time the poor old man had 

 been in jail; but although he had been ad- 

 dicted every little while to this bad habit, 

 none of his friends and neighbors would un- 

 dertake to have the law enforced — probably 

 out of respect to his wife and family. 



Yes, I too have many times passed through 

 the experience of having the Devil suggest 

 that my religion was making a fool of me; 

 but oooner or later I had my reward. 



Those who have read Gleanings since 

 the time it was started may remember that, 

 when I began publishing Our Homes, our 

 journal was for a brief time ruled out of the 

 mails on the grounds that it was simply an 

 advertising sheet. The man who was editor 

 of our county paper, and at the same time 

 postmaster here, had been all his life an 

 avowed infidel. He and I had been on 

 friendly terms up to the time of my conver- 

 sion. After that it seemed to me he left no 

 stone unturned to harm me or my business. 

 Getting our journal excluded from the mails 

 was only a sample of many things. Of 

 course I did some most earnest praying; and 

 as I felt that God had called me to start 

 these Home papers in our journal I had 

 faith to believe that he would override even 

 the authorities at Washington. Hon. James 

 Monroe, of Oberlin College, was at that time 

 in Washington as a member of Congress. 

 My old pastor, Rev. A. T. Reed, wrote to 

 Mr. Monroe, stating the circumstances. Mr. 

 Monroe carried this letter to the Postmaster- 

 General; and a letter, saying the decision in 

 regard to our journal had been reconsidered 

 and was withdrawn, reached Medina jws^ in 

 time for our next issue. I distinctly remem- 

 ber our postmaster remarking to me with a 

 cynical smile that he would probably have 

 the privilege of selling me quite a lot of 

 postage-stamps. As he did so, he removed 

 his cigar from his mouth and puffed a cloud 

 of smoke (which he knew had always been 

 peculiarly offensive to me) near my face. I 

 made no reply, but I remember I had faith 

 to believe our journal would reach the homes 

 of our subscribers, without a great lot of ex- 

 pensive postage-stamps. Well, when this 

 man came near to death he sent a particular 

 request to see me. To my great surprise he 

 was anxious to see me in order to tell me he 

 had accepted Christ Jesus as his Savior. Let 

 me go back a little. 



After his repeated unkindnesses, which 

 had always been met in the spirit of our 

 text, he came down to our factory one morn- 

 ing and said something like this: 



"Mr. Root, you and I have been for a 

 long while at odds and ends. Now, there 

 is no need of it. I can help you, and you 

 can help me," etc. 



I was surprised at this, even though our 

 difficulty had always been on one side (for 

 I had tried cqntinually to "do good " to the 



