p. 6 | More Signs by C. S. Veeder

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 17, 1872

More Signs.

By C. S. Veeder

The day of God's wrath is approaching. The signs of his coming are fast being fulfilled. The distress of nations, spoken of in Luke 21:25, is beginning to be felt. Men's hearts are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth. Although many attempt to explain away by natural causes the pestilences and diseases that are at present pervading the land, yet Adventists cannot fail to perceive the hand of God in them. We think it is warning of the last days, or, rather, it is a forerunner of more direful calamities to be visited upon the nations that forget God.

The horse, in this country, has been almost an object of worship. Men of means and ability, and of high, social, and political, and we will not except religious, standing, have taken a great interest in cultivating and improving the breed. Large sums of money have been expended in building and preparing race-courses for the purpose of testing their speed, and weeks of time have been devoted by thousands of people in attending and witnessing these races. The winner's name, his achievements, pedigree, owner, and all other points of interest, have been heralded abroad by the public press, and the animal has truly been idolized, by thousands, for his qualities. Men's minds have been led from things of a serious nature to those of such a demoralizing nature as horse-racing, which is but a feature of gambling. It has become one of the great sins of the day, and we believe it has come up before God as offensive, because it is one of the things that make people forget him. We believe it to be right to have horses, and good horses, for the service of man, to aid him in the business affairs of life; but to exalt them above measure, to give them our best time, our talents, and money, for the purpose of competing for the superiority, to the neglect of our eternal interests and God's requirements, is a sin of no small degree. Is it not God visiting calamity upon us for this thing?

Again, it becomes all God's people to wean themselves from certain kinds of food, such as flesh-meats; for already large numbers of fowls, a kind of food which many of our friends have indulged in, have shown symptoms of disease, which might be communicated to the person who ate them. Who would not rather abstain from eating that which might possibly be diseased than to run any risk by gratifying his perverted appetite? And who can tell but that cattle and sheep will next be suffering from some disease that will make it dangerous to use their flesh for food, or even to use milk and butter from cows? Are not health reformers almost walking by sight now? Those who have laid aside this kind of food will thank God for the precious light of truth which led them to abandon these things, and overcome their appetite for them. We believe that health reform is inseparably connected with the third angel's message, and it is God's design to have a people who have overcome their former wrong habits of eating, as well as all other sins. Let us take warning by the signs of the times, and be prepared for whatever is our future.

C. S. Veeder.

Battle Creek, Mich.