(! I, K A X I N (I S IN I! !•; !•: 



(■ r I. T r i; 



ALMOWT ni 

 years a"!) 



Ill 



lino- 



union 

 .f all 



liict 



t h (■ M (■ <l i II a 

 (•]iui\-lies I stodil 

 up and s a i <l 

 s in e tlii ng as 

 follows, as near- 

 ly as I can rec- 

 ollect: 



' ' IVIy friends, 

 you are proba- 

 . bly well aware 

 that 1 have al- 

 ways 1) e e n a 

 busy man; and 

 T projiose to bo 

 a busy man as 

 long as God lets me 

 time on, witli God's 



ff? 



SlOI'TI'.Mr.KR. 1!»21 



anil 



OUR HOMES 



A. I. ROOT 



;nul his 

 ic a fide 



Seek ye first tlie Uiimdmn of (ind 

 enusness ; and all these tilings shall lie a 

 .\()u. — Matt. 0:3i). 



Cast thy bread upon the waters: for 

 lind it after many days. — Ecc. 11:1. 



Pie wliifh converteth a sinner from tli 

 liis way shall save a soul from death, and 

 a multitude of sins. — .J.x.MKs 5:20. 



riu-ht- 

 uuto 



iho\i shall 



eri'dv of 

 shall hide 



live. But from this 

 lielji, I expect to be 

 busy first for the Lord Jesus Christ and for 

 A. i- Root second. 



As T sat down Satan suggested: "Why. 

 you can never carry out that program, you 

 'kiioir you can't. You had better get up 

 and take back at least a part of it." 



But, mv dear friends, what a ridiculous 

 thing that would be! There is really no 

 backtrack in such an undertaking. I had 

 just been getting hold of what I have some- 

 times called my "emergency" prayer — 

 "Lord, help," and I asked the dear Savior 

 to help me to "hew to the line," no matter 

 what happened to business or anything 

 (dse. Ill fact, as I considered the matter I 

 did not feel really sure I would not have to 

 drop the work of making onr land ''a land 

 (lowing with milk and honey." Did my new 

 undertaking really conflict with or harm the 

 work with the bees? I leave it to you to 

 answer. 



It did not occur to me Just then, and, in 

 fact, I do not know that T thought of it 

 until just a few days ago. My decision at 

 that union meeting, to put Christ first and 

 self second, was, in fact, taking God at his 

 word in that precious text that heads this 

 Home paper — "Seek ye first the kingdom of 

 God and his righteousness, and all tliese 

 things shall be added unto you.'' 



Well, a short time after tlie above there 

 was a church conference not far from our 

 town, and I was present. One reason why I 

 dropped business for the day, was because 

 I wanted to know more about the (diurehes 

 of onr county and what they were doing. A 

 few miles out of our town there is a little 

 place called Abbeyville. One of the sjieak- 

 ers at that conference called attention to 

 Abbeyville as the "sore spot" of our coun- 

 ty. A brewery and two or more saloons 

 were running day and night, week days and 

 Sundays, and on Sunday night they had 

 what they called a "Dutch- dance." Abbey- 

 ville is only two and a half miles from the 

 old farm where I was born, and I knew 

 something about the place, for I had been 

 there years before, with other boys and 



drank beer 

 (III Siiitilini. 



\ f t (■ r liie 

 spi':il<i'r had (iii- 

 islied I got lip 

 a H d suggested 

 th-it t h e first 

 and best thing 

 to do for Abbey- 

 \ille w a s to 

 start a Sunday 

 scdiool there. As 

 1 was a new- 

 comer in (duircdi 

 work, and but 

 little known at 

 (hat time, the 

 jK'ople t u r n e d 

 and stared at me, 

 and I think that some smiled at the idea of 

 a Sunday school in Ahhriirillc. Some good 

 pastor well along in years tooiv my jtart, 

 and suggested that a committee be apjioint- 

 ed l)v the church, and I was to start tiiat 

 Sunday school, and that was about the start 

 of my putting the Lord's work first from 

 that time on. 



The novelty of the Sunday school attract- 

 ed attention far and wide; and I had the 

 boys and girls singing hymns and repeating 

 texts from the jilatform until in a few Sun- 

 days we had the schoolhouse filled. In fact, 

 some of the toughs of the town who did not 

 feel like coming inside, stood around on 

 the outside near the open windows and lis- 

 tened to what was going on inside.^ 



j\Jy good friends, there are thousands of 

 places right now iii our land where people 

 will crowd into the Sunday schools if those 

 schools are rightly managed. But Siitdii 

 got wind of what was going on, and came 

 around as he usually does. Tlie brewer 

 found out that it was hurting his business. 

 One Sunday morning I found a roomful of 

 gills and women, but scarccdy a man or boy 

 was present. In rejily to my ((uestioniiig I 

 was told that tlie brewi'r had given out tliat 

 during the hour of Sunday school there 



* I think I oimht to nuiUion here that one fea- 

 ture of that Sunday school tliat drew the crowd was 

 the Sci'ipture texts that were repeated liy the well- 

 dressed .iuveniles. Every one who would stand up 

 on the platform and repeat any Bilde text received 

 a picture card : and when they had a sufficient num- 

 ber of these picture cards containing Bilile text.s 

 they received a pretty little book also iniblished by 

 the American Sunday School Union. As any text, 

 no matter how short, answered, on one particular 

 Sunday a dozen or more little ones stood up on the 

 platform and repeated the words, "God is love." To 

 cap the climax, one wee girl with lisping tongue 

 stood up and sang a little hymn, the first verse of 

 which is as follows: 



"I am .Tesns" little lamb: 



Happy all the day I am. 

 I am his and he is mine: 



Oh. I'm His lamb!" 

 Now. even if tliis is making a rather long foot- 

 note, I think I shall have to add that this little 

 girl of toward 50 years ago is now the mother of 

 two stalwart men: and both of them give promise 

 of lieing a lilessing in the lino of clionistvy and 

 electricity; not only To our State but ]iciiiai>s to onr 

 nation. . 



