AUGUST 15, 1916 



A. I. Root 



OUR HOMES 



Editor 



Without iiK' ye can do nothinu:. — John 15:5. 



Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any 

 Mian hear my voice, and open the door, I will come 

 in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 

 — Key. 3:20. 



A friend of many years has just sent me 

 the tract below. Read it. and see what you 

 think of it. 



CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST. 



If T were asked what is the thing which the 

 ilHvil, the world, and the flesh try hardest to pre- 

 vent Christians from getting, I should reply, "Con- 

 versations with Christ." I say this from my own 

 cxpeiience, and from observations of all the Chris- 

 tians I have ever known. A quiet, unhurried 

 speaking to Jesus alone and hearing his replies — 

 this is what every Christian needs every day, and 

 wliat many get only O'Uce a month — or more seldom 

 still — or never. 



VvHEN UID YOU L.A.ST SO TALK WITH CHRIST? 



Slop and answer this question to yourself before 

 you read on. 



Tt is so easy to go to services and listen to pray- 

 ers and to join in them. It is so easy to sing or 

 pr.iy to him with others, or to think we are doing so 

 because we feel refreshed and helped by it. But 

 what if it should turn out that it was a mistake of 

 ours to imagine that we were actually conversing 

 personally with him at those times ; and that we were 

 really talking and singing for other people and our- 

 selves to hear ? I tremble for people who pray only 

 in churches or at prayer-meetings, or with other 

 Christians present. 



Com.niunion services are very blessed helps and 

 means of grace, but they are BOt necessarily con- 

 versations with Christ ; nor is preaching or teaching 

 or working for him. You may be a most religious 

 person — busy all day about God's matters; you may 

 give time and money and thought to him, and yet 

 you may never converse with him. And the danger 

 is, if you do not converse alone with him each day, 

 \ ou will certainly get on the wrong road and get 

 thoroly wrong altogether, and that when you and he 

 meet you will see all your work crumble away, and 

 \ourself naked — suddenly waked up to the fact that 

 >ou and your Savior are strangers to each other. 

 It will be a horrible surprise to you that nothing 

 should remain of all the work on which you spent 

 your life, the solemn words, " Without me ye can 

 do nothing," having been forgotten by you. 



He meant that you should have talked to him 

 continually about everything you did, and everything 

 you cared nbout, and should have been always con- 

 scious of his sympathy and oversight and working. 

 But instead of that you talked only to men and 

 women, and made shift with their sympathy, advice, 

 and help. He meant you to ask his counsel about 

 that money trouble. He would have arranged it all ; 

 but you only asked your lawyer, and it turned out 

 badly. He meant you to tell him your anxieties 

 about your son, and he would have ended them ; but 

 .\ou only consulted your friend, and matters grew 

 worse. He meant you to ask him for light about 

 that doctrine which you could not understand; but 

 you went to books to get it explained, and you be- 

 came more uncertain than before. He would have 

 satisfied you. He meant you to confess to him that 

 secret sin, and he would have forgiven you and 

 cleansed you ; but you confessed it to your clergyman 

 or minister, and it torments you to this hour. He 

 meant you to commit to him that painful illness, 

 and he would have been your physician and healed 

 you; but you trusted your family doctor only, and 

 got no relief. He meant you to ask him how niucli 



money you were to give away ; but you settled that 

 yourself, and settled it wrong. He would have been 

 your counsellor about the profession you chose, the 

 situation you accepted, the servant you engaged, the 

 books you read, the friendships you formed ; but 

 you chose other counsellors, or did after your own 

 choosin:;. and all lias I een failure. 



\n hour of conversaiion with him each day will 

 make all the diti'erence. 



May the Holy Spirit strike the scales from your 

 eyes now, and may you arise from your enchant- 

 ment, and take Christ n<iiv for your personal friend 

 and counsellor! 



One there is above all others; 



Oh, how he loves I 

 His is love beyond a brother's — 



Oh, how he loves ! 

 W'ith his precious blood he bought us, 

 In the wilderness he sought us. 

 To his fold he safely brought us ; 



Oh, how he loves ! 

 Best of blessings he'll provide us. 

 Naught but good shall e'er betide us. 

 Safe to glory he will guide us. 

 Oh, how he loves ! 

 And will not we take such an almighty lover. 

 Savior, and friend, vjholly as our counsellor and 

 guide while here below — his own chosen ones, soon 

 to be with him and like him in the glory above? 



Tliis little tract has startled me. 1 have 

 read it several times, and the more I read it 

 the more I am impressed with its truth. In 

 reply to the question which is printed in 

 small capitals, "When 'did you last so talk 

 with Christ'/" the answer to this question 

 will make this Home paper. Those of you 

 who have read Our Homes for years past 

 will remember that I have several times — 

 jierhaps not very lately — spoken about get- 

 ting off by myself where 1 can pray aloud. 

 AVhen g-reatly discouraged in years past I 

 have sometimes gone off in a held of tall 

 growing corn; and I like to pray when 

 walking along. 



In answer to the above, the last time I so 

 jn-ayed was when I paid a visit to the old 

 cabin in the woods, July 13. I reached 

 Traverse City about six in the evening; 

 but I felt as if I must spend the night out 

 in tlie country up near that old cabin, in- 

 stead of in a city hotel. 



As we api^roaehed Traverse City the 

 baggageman on the train said it would cost 

 me .$5.00 to send me up near the old Biug-. 

 ham dock on Grand Traverse Bay by auto- 

 mobile. When I suggested that 1 was equal 

 to the task of walking eight miles instead 

 of investing so much money, he insisted it 

 was eight ecu miles, and then came down to 

 $2..50; but when I agreed to pay so nuieh a 

 mile for all over eight miles, he came down 

 to .$2.00, and finally agreed on $1..50. 



I stopped with the nearest neighbor; but 

 before T went to sleep 1 pushed my way 

 thru the dense undei'growtli and ex;di);ed 



