Office Notices and Week of Prayer
We send no papers from this office to individuals without pay in advance. 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 to pay for them. Please read the papers you may receive, and hand them to your friends to read. We are issuing an eight-page extra SIGNS for California, packed full of important matter on Sunday laws. While relating directly to the issues here, it is good for circulation everywhere. One to 75, two cents a copy; 100 or over at the rate of $1.50 per 100. Every longing, unfulfilled desire on the part of humanity is met in Jesus Christ. The man who condemns another is in duty bound to do better than the one he condemns. The Week of Prayer.—The period set apart for that purpose this year by the General Conference Committee is December 15 to 22. The readings for the special services are printed in the Review and Herald of November 22. They are as follows: "The Ministry of the Holy Spirit," by A. G. Daniels; "The Spirit of Prophecy," by G. A. Irwin; "The Baptism of the Holy Spirit for Service," by E. W. Farnsworth; "God's Mystery to Be Quickly Finished," by L. R. Conradi; "The Former and the Latter Rain," by W. W. Prescott; "Spiritual Finance," by I. H. Evans; "The Holy Spirit at Work in Mission Fields," by W. A. Spicer; "Even at the Door," by Mrs. E. G. White. There are also outlines for children's meetings. At the close of such a year, this season ought to be of great interest and profit. God grant that thus it may be, and that church officers shall plan for this end. What Do You Think About It?—We have much to say in this number, we have had much to say in numbers of the recent past, we shall have much to say in the future, on the matter of the world-wide Sunday-law movement, and the union-of-church-and-state tendencies manifest in every quarter. We could have filled this whole issue with current news upon this subject. The outlook is fearfully alarming to every lover of civil and religious liberty. What do you think about it, reader? Are you an American? You have boasted of American liberty and rejoiced in it. Do you know that it is in danger? Do you know that potentially the recrudescence of the Dark Ages is in this Sunday-law movement? Do you know that the Dark Ages began in even milder measures than are advocated by the mistaken supporters of the Sunday-law movement? Are you a Christian? You have doubtless thanked God for the privilege of worshiping Him according to your own conscience, with none to molest or make afraid. Would you support any movement which takes that liberty from the other man? Do you believe in religious liberty only for yourself? Do you admit, reader, that the Sunday-law may be wrong, but think it will prove harmless? Do not be deceived. It is the nose of the camel in the tent; it is the first strand of the spider's web around its victim. The first evil principle inevitably leads on to others, and necessitates further steps, till slavery has usurped the place of liberty. In the destruction of religious liberty in the smallest degree is involved the loss of civil liberty and the ruin of the government. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES is one of the very, very few papers which presents the facts and underlying principles of this departure from primitive Americanism and primitive Christianity. Your neighbors ought to read it in the year to come. Help them to do this and so become acquainted with the imminent danger confronting this nation. December 25.—To those who do what they can to relieve distress and bring joy to the lonely homes and wretched worse-than-homes on that day of any other, we bid Godspeed; but in this work so much is sometimes paid out for ostentation and trimmings that but little good is done for the amount invested. If Christians would really remember Him who became poor that we might be made rich, let them remember the neglected, bleeding, suffering cause of Christ, in the homeless, houseless, joyless dwellings of the poor, in the rayless, sin-sick heathen all around, into whose souls the light of the Gospel never broke. In other words, let Christians be partakers with Christ in self-sacrifice for others, and thus carry the glad tidings of—
> "Glory to God in the highest,
> On earth peace
> And good-will to men." Let every day be a day in which Jesus in all His glorious work shall be remembered, and then indeed will there be joy because of His birth. Such a happy, joyous Christian life we wish all our readers.