GLEANINGS IN B K K CULTURE 



OUR HOMES 



A. I. ROOT 



The fool hath said in his heart, There is no 

 God. — Psalm 14:1. 



Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also 

 go away? Then Simon Peter answered unto him, 

 Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words 

 of eternal life. — John 6: 67, 68. 



Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light 

 unto my path.- — -Psalm 119:105.- 



What God hath joined together, let not man 

 put asunder. — Matt. 19:6. 



Backward, turn backward, O time in thy flight ; 

 Make me a child again, just for tonight ; 

 Mother, come back from the echoless shore — 

 Take me again to thy heart as of yore. 



800 



MY g o o (1 

 friends, 

 there is ti 

 particular reason 

 why I wish to go 

 over once more 

 the turning-point 

 in my life. For 

 two or three 

 years in my ear- 

 ly manhood I 

 was in touch 

 with unbeliev- 

 ers, but they 

 gave me no coin- 

 f r t. I think 

 somebody once 

 said that skep- 

 ticism and unbe- 

 lief are the most 

 unsatisf ac t o r y 

 things ever in- 

 vented; and I 

 think somebody 

 else added that 

 they are the 

 most ungenteel 

 and uncivil 



things ever invented. Eobert G. Ingersoll 

 was much in vogue about 50 years ago. If 

 I remember correctly lie (perhaps indirect- 

 ly) rather encouraged the practice of sui- 

 cide; and a number of suicides resulted 

 from his teachings. Years ago a prominent 

 Medina man suggested, as we were talking 

 the matter over, that our churches had bet- 

 ter "pitch the Bibles all out of the win- 

 dow." He did not say what they should do 

 next. I had good reason to believe that 

 the poor man objected to the Bible just as 

 I did, because one or more of the ten com- 

 mandments hit us both tremendous blows 

 right fairly between the eyes.* I recall that, 

 one day in the long ago, I had to take a 

 freight train and was several hours in the 

 caboose and had nothing to read. May the 

 Lord be praised that there were a few even 

 then who held fast to the Bible, and one of 

 these, a railroader, had a Bible on his desk. 

 I opened this Bible, and made a vain effort 

 to find something that interested me, but it 

 was dull and dry reading. I told the dear 

 wife, after I got home, my experience with 

 the old Bible. I did not tell it to my good 

 old mother, for I knew how badly it would 

 have made her feel. I was not happy, and 



* I hardly need tell you, friends, that even now, 

 altho it has been .50 years since the above oc- 

 curred, somebodv has been suggesting, every little 

 while, we should pitch the Bible out of the win- 

 dows or cut it short, leaving out certain things 

 that happened to hit certain persons. A shorter 

 Bible has been tried; but, so far as T know, it 

 has failed. Attempts have also been made to cut 

 out some of the special miracles — Jonah and the 

 whale, concluding from their feeble human stand- 

 point that things like this were too hard for even 

 the great God of the universe. My suggestion has 

 always been to such, that, if they are going to 

 curtail the Bible at all, they cut it all nut but in 

 some May if seems to continue to hanij together 

 through all the ages. 



Dkce.mbkr, 1922 



I was becoming 

 more miserable 

 every day. ■ I 

 tried breaking 

 loose from Sa- 

 tan's clutches, 

 but found my- 

 self helpless. 

 One night after 

 I had closed 

 business on the 

 street, and put 

 up the shutters 

 over the win- 

 dows, just as T 

 was ready to go 

 away and lock 

 the door, I fell 

 down on my 

 knees in the 

 darkness — some- 

 thing I had not 

 done before for 

 years. My pray- 

 er was some- 

 thing as f 1- 

 lows: 



"O God, if 

 there be a God, have mercy on a poor, hum- 

 ble specimen of thy handiwork." 



Much to my surprise, the brief prayer 

 had an immediate answer — at least I took it 

 for an answer; and the answer, as nearly as 

 I could make out, was something like this: 

 "All right, child. What do you want?" 

 I hesitated a moment and replied, "I 

 want the happy innocence of childhood back 

 again. ' ' 



I do not know but the little verse at the 

 head of this talk came to my mind, and the 

 answer came so quickly that it startled me, 

 and it was something as below: 



"What are you Avilling to give or fore- 

 go?" 



I think I answered at once out loud to 

 the effect that I would give up everything I 

 had in this world. But Satan still had a 

 hold. He was not ready to give up, and he 

 suggested that I was making a fool of my- 

 self, for I knew there was one ihing I would 

 not give up. My good friends, I had become 

 very much interested; in fact, I began to 

 feel happy to get just a little glimpse of 

 "the peace of God which passeth all iinder- 

 stanflinfj-" but as I hesitated the darkness 

 of unbelief began to gather around me 

 again. I think this all happened about the 

 time, or shortly after, when U. S. Grant laid 

 down his terms of "unconditional surren- 

 der," and I was made to understand that 

 nothing Avould answer in my case, but un- 

 conditional surrender. Suddenly I caught a 

 glimpse of my old oft-repeated prayer, 

 "Lord, help." Perhaps a verse of an old 

 hvmn will explain it better than anything 

 else T can now think of: 



"Here T give my all to thee — 



Friends and time and earthly store; 

 Snnl and body thine to be — 

 Whollv thine forever more, 



