The Signs of the Times.
By Editor
OAKLAND, CAL., SECOND-DAY, JANUARY 21, 1889. We send no papers from this office without pay in advance unless by special arrangement. When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the SIGNS are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon for pay. Please read the papers and hand them to your friends to read. A LARGE number of the sermons delivered in Oakland on Sunday, the 13th inst., were on some phase of the Sunday question. The churches are doing all in their power to influence legislation on this subject. Let the matter be agitated. THE first number of the weekly American Sentinel will bear date of January 30, and will be issued at once. This volume is to consist of forty-eight numbers, and will be furnished at the low price of one dollar. The matter of which the Sentinel treats is the leading issue of the day; and as liberal terms are offered to agents, we are sure that they can do well canvassing for it. How many will begin at once? THE Review and Herald comes to our table in a new dress at the beginning of the year, much improved in appearance. Its columns are wider and longer, having dropped the border; and it is now printed from stereotype plates, the same as the SIGNS, instead of type. May God bless the Review in its mission, and give it ever-increasing success in the way of the Lord, till the blest work in which we are mutually engaged shall triumphantly close. THERE has been no religious subject, or religio-political subject, ever before this nation which has caused such universal comment on the part of both the religious and secular press as legislation on the Sunday question. Like Banquo's ghost, the agitation "will not down." Why? Because God's fullness of time has come for a reform on his holy Sabbath (Isa. 58, Rev. 14:9-12), and Sunday legislation is but the work of the enemy in opposing the truth. Rev. 13:11-16. Reader, on which side of the conflict are you? MR. MOODY is credited with saying that "the biggest lie that ever came out of hell" is the statement that "it makes no difference what a man believes about religion so long as he is sincere." Certainly the idea which Mr. Moody so emphatically condemns is a most pernicious one; it is highly important to believe the truth, for it is that by which God sanctifies his people. In his prayer for his disciples the Saviour prayed, Father, "sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." To despise truth is to despise the Author of truth. THE members of the California Woman's Christian Temperance Union are circulating petitions to the Legislature for the enactment of a Sunday law in this State. These petitions are prepared for the signatures of both voters and non-voters in separate columns, and the superintendent of the Department of Legislation told a Chronicle reporter a few days since that they were being numerously signed by people of all denominations except Seventh-day Adventists. Said the superintendent, "Sectarian lines are being ignored and a strong showing in favor of the object is confidently expected." The women of the Union are in earnest, said the lady, and with another month of hard work would be able, she was sure, to roll up a memorial which the Legislature would not venture to treat with disrespect. Copies of the petition, she added, had been sent to all the pastors in the State, to secure signatures in their congregations, and return to her for presentation. Should not the friends of religious liberty see to it that their representatives in the Legislature know how they stand?