NOVEMBER 15, 1914 



915 



While I write (Oct. 21) the pai:)ers tell us 

 the Germans are massing their zeppelins to 

 drop bombs on London. I mentioned the 

 matter to Ernest a few minutes ago. He 

 said something like this : 



" Father, if they undertake to do that, 

 there will be such a world-wide protest that 

 the Germans will be obliged to stop." 



God grant that tnis may be true. 



There used to be a class of people who 

 claimed (or pretended to claim) that there 

 is no God; and just one man, a beekeeper 

 too, made a remark to the effect that he did 

 not see any particular need of a God.* I 

 believe that this doctrine is now abandoned, 

 or at least largely. All mankind now ac- 

 knowledges, and I hope bows down in 

 reverence to the God of creation. There 

 are, however, quite a few who still maintain 

 that it is a myth that God cares for us. 

 They cannot lielieve that God loves us 

 individually. A poor friend once said to 

 me in jail that it would be a happy moment 

 for him when he could believe that God 

 loved or had any regard for his poor self. 

 It was years ago, and I cannot remember 

 now the outcome; but that single expression 

 T have used among our texts, " For God so 

 loved the world," ought to bring happiness 

 and joy to every son of humanity. 



In closing let me make a little summary. 

 During my comparatively brief span of life 

 I have seen many wonderful things invent- 

 ed. I can remember when tallow candles or 

 a gi'easy lamp filled with lard oil were the 

 only means of lighting our homes. Many 

 an evening have I spent reading by a tallow 

 candle. I remember the snuffers sometimes 

 used to get lost by the careless children. 

 Some of the othei youngsters would drop 

 the greasy, smutty contents out of the 

 snuffers. It was my privilege to see oil 

 brought out of the ground, and to see it 

 go through the different stages of refining; 

 to see utilized the waste product running 

 out into the creeks and rivers until it got 

 to be a great and dangerous nuisance. I 

 have lived to see these waste jDroducts util- 

 ized in a thousand different ways, while the 

 doctors' shelves now contain more medicines 

 made from the refuse from the refinings 

 than from almost any other source. One 

 invention or discovery seems to pave the 

 way for another. The Wright brothers 

 could not have invented their flying-machine 

 without gasoline. Gasoline-engines are now 

 not only moAang great factories, but they 

 are supplying strength to the farmers and 

 to the farmers' wives. They are moving 

 little electric-light plants to have the f arm- 



* The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. 

 — Psalm 14:1. 



er's house and barn lighted in a way that 

 lamps and lanterns could never do. Dur- 

 ing the past fifty years the whole wide 

 world has roused up and come to life. I 

 have not only been permitted to be present 

 at the birth-time of oil and gas, but I might 

 almost say I have seen electricity in a like 

 manner ushered into this world of ours, and 

 grow to the mighty proportions of the 

 ]iresent day. There has been talk about the 

 "good old times," and there were some good 

 things in olden times that I am sorry to see 

 being dropped; bat who is there whose eyes 

 rest on these pages who would want to be 

 transplanted to the times of fifty years ago? 

 You might say in a thoughtless way j^ou 

 would like to try it; but, my friends, you 

 would get homesick in less than 24 hours. 

 With the wonderfully good things that have 

 come to light from the hands of the kind 

 and loving Father, I am sorry Satan also 

 has managed to wedge himself in here and 

 there. I have been trying to think that it 

 is perhaps well foi us that we do have to 

 fight evil — at least in certain ways; but 

 may God help me, as I close this Home 

 paper, to have faith to believe some " good 

 things " will in some way come out in the 

 end from fighting the liquor-trafiic that has 

 so long oppressed us, and from the terrible 

 war that is now raging without any partic- 

 ular symptom of letting up at the time I 

 close this paper. 



Just a word more before closing. Mrs. 

 Root's mother died over in England when 

 Mrs. Root was but a little child — only two 

 years old. As photography was not known 

 at that time she has no picture of her good 

 mother. Well, I would give a hundred dol- 

 lars for just a picture of Mrs.Root's mother, 

 but it cannot be furnished. Once more : I 

 would give another hundred dollars to hear 

 that mother talk to the children she was 

 obliged to leave. But the phonograph and 

 dictaphone and these things that are so 

 common now had not then been invented. 

 I think I saw about the first telegraphic 

 wires that were put up in Ohio. The boys 

 at school made fun of me when I said that 

 men could talk through the wire; but now 

 they talk without any wire, clear across the 

 ocean. I might go on telling about the 

 things that have been discovered and devel- 

 oped dui'ing my brief lifetime. 



Now, then, friends, have we at this stage 

 explored and invented eveiy thing? is there 

 no more discovery to be brought out like 

 getting oil and gas out of the bowels of the 

 earth, like chaining the lightning to do our 

 bidding by driving our cars, making fast the 

 reflections from a looking-glass, and holding 

 human speech for future generations? Has 



