THANKSGIVING TO GOD by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Nov 21, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 45.

THANKSGIVING TO GOD.

By Editor

SURELY it was a discouraging outlook that faced the directors and employees of the Pacific Press Publishing Company as they stood around their burning building the night of July 20, with no power to stay the fire or save the contents of the building. The smouldering embers of the next morning were an even worse picture, and yet we were not discouraged. There were many causes of thankfulness on the very face of it.

First of all, we thanked God that there were no lives lost. Not a single soul injured physically.

Secondly, we were thankful that that which the building represented was not destroyed in the building itself. The building itself stood for a message, but that message would go to the world even tho the building were in ashes. Notwithstanding our loss of hundreds of thousands, God's old Book with its message was left. For that we praised Him.

We felt also to praise Him for His sweet Spirit which came to us the very night of the fire when we met to counsel, about two o'clock in the morning, to make what decisions were necessary for our employees, to send telegrams to important centers, to thank God together for His goodness in preserving us, and to seek Him for light that we might know the way out of the difficulty.

View of the Pacific Press Building the Night of July 20, 1906.

We are thankful to God that He is leading us over the new path. Formerly we had been engaged in printing the great Gospel message, with more or less of the world's work with all of its temptations in competition, in strife for good paying jobs, in the constant wrestling and commingling with the intense commercialism of the age. We were using splendid talent, which ought to be consecrated to God's work, in work for the world. From all these the fire separated us, and we have been thankful to God every step of the way since that time that so it did.

We have been and are thankful to God for the expressions of kindness and support and fellowship and hearty good-will which have come to us from our friends in this cause and our friends outside of our organization and work. We esteem these highly because of the help which these expressions have given us. "A word spoken in due season, how good it is!"

Humanly speaking, it looked at one time as tho we could not build again, but we are grateful to God that in the place of the ashes and ruin is rising another building, more economical in its simplicity, more convenient in its arrangement, and better fitted in every way for the prosecution of our work; and so at this period of the year, when men all over the country are giving thanks from various motives and for various things, we, too, wish to join with them and express also our devout thanksgiving to God for all His mercies and goodness to us, a renewed expression of that which we feel every day; for we would learn even in all these afflictions, and the clearer light which has shone through them, and the greater blessings which have come because of them, to in "everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus" concerning us.

One of the largest Sunday-law associations in the country is that of New York. A recent meeting was held in Elmira, where special effort has been put forth to make more effective the empire state Sunday law. Our representative was at that meeting. At the same time the International Religious Liberty Association held two mass meetings in the city. These mass meetings were well attended, and the people were given a splendid opportunity to hear both sides. Recently Police Judge Bogart rendered a decision in a Sunday-law case in which the right of trial by jury was denied and the defendant was convicted. Surely every true American citizen ought to see what the denial of jury trial means. The counsel for the defendant in this case was Hon. John B. Stanchfield, one of New York's [[FIGURE]] leading lawyers. Our next issue will contain report of this meeting with illustrations of the prominent men who took part in that convention. That report will discuss the principles involved, and all our readers ought to know what they are. We hope that our friends of religious liberty will give the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, which will keep to the front these great vital questions in both church and state, a large circulation.

God First.—Harriet Beecher Stowe, in speaking of the old-time New England Thanksgiving service, says: "Great as the preparations were for the dinner, everything was so contrived that not a soul in the house should be kept from the morning service of Thanksgiving in the church." It should be so now; God should be first, but O, how changed!

"Life and Health" for November is an excellent number. We wish we had more space to notice it. Get and read it and live it, and you will feel that your investment is not worthy of mention. Send for it for a year. A neat magazine with cover; only fifty cents; five cents a number. Address LIFE AND HEALTH, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C.

While the doctors quarrel the appendicitis patient may learn something. Great Paris doctors are divided as to whether grape seeds cause the difficulty. Dr. Metchnikoff, the celebrated bacteriologist, affirms, "I have never in all my experience discovered a grape seed in an appendix."

The Fall of the Ostrogoths.—In our issue of October 17, page 6, first column, third line from the top, the types make the fall of the Ostrogoths to occur in 533. That is a mistake. It should have been 538.

It is only the tried soul which comes into perfect harmony with Jesus Christ. He is the tried stone of God's eternal character-building; those built on Him must also be tried stones.

Framework of the New Pacific Press Building, taken October 21.