"THE EARLY AND THE LATTER RAIN."
By Editor
CALIFORNIA, like Palestine, has two seasons, the winter and summer, the wet and the dry. Throughout the dry season, from June to October, there is practically no rain. During the wet season there are normally abundant early rains for the plowing and seeding, occasional rains all through the season, and the latter rain in the Spring to ripen up the grain for the harvest. The Lord uses this figure to illustrate the outpouring of His Spirit. The early outpouring fell in the beginning of the Christian era, the latter rain falls at its close, when the Spirit of God will be poured out abundantly. The above is the briefest sort of statement of what five short articles by T. E. Bowen will tell to our readers on "The Early and the Latter Rain." These contain important, vital truth, and our readers and the world needs it. Help us to spread this truth abroad. Which?—The San Francisco Examiner has a page devoted to the various blessings which the pope has bestowed upon the American people. He calls America "the grandest daughter of the church," and declares, "I love the Americans who are the blooming youth of Catholicism. Convey to all of them how gladly I impart my apostolic blessing to the whole country." Many, indeed, will appreciate this, while some will fear and tremble. There is evidence in the past which leads some to believe that the papal blessings and curses have become sadly mixed. The "invincible Armada," for instance, received, we believe, the papal blessing, but it seemed really to prove a curse. In modern history, Spain was a specially favored child of the church, but the blessings seemed to be curses in the Philippine War. After all, in the light of the Scriptures, human blessings and curses amount to little. Of this we may assure ourselves. "The curse causeless shall not come;" and where God "hath blessed," man, even tho a prophet, "can not reverse it." There is one blessing we may all share: "Blessed are they that do His commandments." The Saloon's Worst Feature.—Under this heading, the editor of Backbone utters this truthful sentiment: Let us not be understood as holding that a saloon conducted in violation of the laws and ordinances governing it, is so very much worse than one conducted according to law, if such a one exists. The index of the character of a saloon is the stuff that is passed across the bar, not whether it is sold during legal hours or to proper persons. If the liquors were as pure as their advertisements claim; if the saloon were run by the angel Gabriel, if the day's business ceased on the stroke of the clock as required by law; it would still drive the nation's subjects to hell like sheep to the slaughter. We mention the lawlessness of the saloon only because it constitutes one more reason why it should die. If a man have no horror of the saloon for any other reason, and yet has high respect for law, let him know that the saloon is to-day the chief Anarchist of the land. It is no exaggeration to say that the saloon would be no better if "run by the angel Gabriel," for it is now run under the auspices of an angel that once stood higher in rank than Gabriel. However, the exalted position did not prevent the development of a spirit of selfishness and covetousness that caused his downfall to the lowest depths of iniquity. Neither the high rank of the saloon's propaganda, nor the law by which it is protected, nor the day or hours in which it does its deadly work, can make the institution any better. Its worst possible feature is the "stuff" it sells; this begets all its other vile features, and without this it could not exist. And there are enough people in nearly every state or municipality, who profess to believe it bad, to wipe it out of existence. "Not Suitable."—A German theological writer concludes that "the teachings [of Jesus] as they stand are unsuitable to our times and to a large extent antiquated." And this is true, tho not in the sense this religious infidel designed. The teachings of Christ do not suit "our times." They did not suit the times of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They did not suit the times of the Dark Ages. The carnal mind is ever, and has been ever, at enmity with God's will and way; and the carnal mind controls "our times." The teachings of Jesus can never be mingled with, or patched upon, the political life or institutions of the world. They will never fit. But they meet the needs of every soul in every age, at all times; and whenever a soul will yield himself by full personal surrender to Jesus Christ, he will find a new life, the life of the Christ within, to which only the teaching of Christ and His Book will be suitable. For, reader, Christianity is not a mere ethical system, but a life, transforming in its power, and lifting other lives onto a new plane in a new sphere. It is old, but not antiquated; it is new, but not novel; it is eternal, but livingly eternal. The copy of the beautiful poem on the first page was contributed to the SIGNS some months ago, but we have not found fitting opportunity to use it before. Just at the time we handed it out for copy, we received the same set to music by Jules Faber, and published and copyrighted by Harry H. Sparks, Toronto, Canada. We have also received two other songs by the same author and composer and publisher, namely, "Rock Me to Sleep," and "Over the Journey." These are of the Star Edition of Popular Music, at 10 cents each. Erratum.—In the article on "Religio-Political Affairs in Europe," in the SIGNS of January 28, the writer was made to say, "The fact was recalled that during the minority of Isabella II., in 1836, the 'company of Jews' was suppressed, as it had been in 1767, in all the Spanish dominions." It should have been, "company of Jesus."