Items of General Interest
By Editor
We can fill no more orders for the SIGNS of January 23. The edition is exhausted. We are not thru with the Sacramento Sunday Amendment hearing of February 4. Our readers want to hear some of those "capital speeches" of which the California Christian Advocate speaks. They are on both sides of the question. A Desired Work on Botany.—Mr. C. Russell Orcutt, editor of the Western American Scientist, of San Diego, is issuing a work on California botany. It will be issued in parts, each containing descriptions of about 100 species of the native trees and flowers. The price is $3.00 for twelve numbers. It is hoped that the first volume of the twelve parts will be completed during 1907. Mr. Orcutt's address is 3322 E St., near 23d, San Diego, Cal. One of our readers of Bartow, Fla., kindly corrects a note in the SIGNS of Nov. 7, 1906, concerning Mrs. Jefferson Davis. Our note was based on a news item, presumably without thinking of the fact, well known, that Mrs. Jefferson Davis, recently deceased, was the second wife of Mr. Davis. As our correspondent says, Mr. Davis' first wife was the daughter of President Taylor, but his second wife who recently died was a Miss Howell, of Natchez, Miss. Thanks for the correction. The workers in the SIGNS office are daily delighted with the advance omens of summer—spring is already here. The almond trees are full of beautiful white and pink blossoms, in places presenting solid banks of blooming trees for many blocks, or along the country road. Peach and plum flower-buds are just bursting, callas are opening, rosebuds are swelling, and soon the grassy fields and waysides will be a blaze of golden poppies. It is a beautiful earth the Lord has given us, and objects of beauty and purity greet the eye and heart of the lover of nature and nature's God on every hand. "An Interesting Experience."—This is what the editor of the California Christian Advocate calls his presence at the hearing on the Sunday rest day amendment before the Assembly Committee on February 4, at Sacramento, Cal. He states that it was by "the courtesy of the Judiciary Committee" that the hearing was granted. In this, as in many other things, the Advocate is mistaken. The hearing was before the Committee on Constitutional Amendments. Of course, the editor thought that the "brethren of the church federation" "made capital speeches," while the opponents, the Adventists, "contended in a vague sort of way that the measure was religious, and therefore the State had no right to enact a religious law. They affected to believe such a law was the beginning of a bitter religious persecution." And they contended rightly. Just the justice and fairness they might expect under such a law is shown by the Advocate itself. It made certain statements, derogatory and insulting, a few weeks since, relative to Adventists and their opposition to the law exempting church property from taxation in 1899. We printed what they said in the SIGNS of January 30, and denied the statements in toto. Let the Advocate correct those statements or prove them. Common courtesy demands it, to say nothing of Christianity. The Advocate further declares that the opponents of the bill "had logic, but no premises." That may be true to the editor, who seems to know neither religio-political history nor the "more sure word of prophecy." The courteous editor puts this language in the mouth of Adventists: "Saturday is Sunday, Saturday is a religious day, therefore, Sunday is a religious day." We again say that no Seventh-day Adventist ever so argued. Such logic was hatched in the sanctum sanctorum of the California Christian Advocate. Let us tell him again that Saturday is not Sunday; Saturday is not a religious day (tho the Sabbath is a holy day). Sunday is a religious day, and is so held by "the church federation." The Advocate continues, "Every effort was made to get them to agree to any sort of a day of rest, but they would not even agree to Saturday." No, sir; the law has no right to impose a day of rest upon free humanity. If Seventh-day Adventists numbered nine-tenths of the people of this State they would have no right to impose a legal seventh-day rest upon the one-tenth, nor upon their own membership. With God, they find no trouble with the Sabbath rest. The Committee on Constitutional Amendments reported back a substitute providing for one rest day in seven, but no specific day. Is the Advocate satisfied with this? We trow not. NEWS FROM SACRAMENTO informs us that the substitute offered by the Assembly Committee on Constitutional Amendments for the Sunday Rest Amendment was voted down. Then Assemblyman Grove L. Johnson called up the original measure and endeavored to get it thru without debate. But after a thoro discussion, it was defeated by a vote of 46 to 20. So ought all such measures to perish. They are not proper subjects for legislation. "Not Religious?"—The California Christian Advocate contends that the Sunday law demanded is not in the interests of religion, but is purely a civil measure for the workingmen. But the only ones who favored the measure before the committee who had it in charge were the "brethren of the church federation." And it is well to remember that the object of the national federation of which the above is a branch, is "to secure a larger combined influence for the church of Christ in all the matters affecting the moral and social condition of the people, so as to promote the application of the law of Christ in every relation of human life." Among these is the legal sabbath. Let Californians remember that the advocates of Sunday law amendments contend that they are working for 100,000 poor slaves who are compelled to work Sunday in this State. But the fact remains that no labor representative appeared for the measure in the committee hearing, and the representatives of labor present were opposed to it, and so declared after the hearing. They were given no place in the hearing. Asking in Vain.—Surely people have a right to ask of their teachers the meaning of the great important passages of the Bible. Before us lies a paper calling itself Christian, having a tremendous circulation. It also answers questions. In the issue before us is one question: "What is the meaning of the three angels' messages of Rev. 14:9-12?" And this is the answer: "There was a prediction that an image should be set up which would have the power of speech, and a decree would be issued that all men should worship it; and that no man should buy or sell who did not worship it, and bear the mark or symbol of it (Rev. 13:15-18). It is this worship, whatsoever it may mean, whether the worship of money or of the head of a party, that the angel denounces." We could not help wondering what satisfaction that could be to the one who asked the question. Here is one of the most fearfully solemn messages in all God's word. Connected with it is one of the most awful penalties pronounced in His word. Out of the dire dangers of which we are warned, God will deliver by most marvelous manifestations of His power. Those who faithfully heed the warning will develop a character which the Lord will delight to honor, and of whom He says, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." And yet we are told that we know nothing about it; it may mean this, it may mean that, it may mean something else. We appeal to our readers who know something of what this glorious message means to do all in their power to enlighten those who are anxious to know what it means, but are put off with such uncertainties as the above. Peace and the Hague Conferences.—A national peace conference will be held in New York, April 14 to 16, in Carnegie Hall, beginning with a great musical consecration service, followed by brief addresses by Bishop Potter, Cardinal Gibbons, Edward Everett Hale, and others, and during the meeting it is expected that the British ambassador James Bryce, William J. Bryan, Samuel Gompers, Professors Chas. W. Elliott, Nicholas Murray Butler, David Starr Jordan, and others will address the meeting. This is preliminary to the International Peace Congress, which meets in Germany next autumn, and it will doubtless send delegates to The Hague Congress, which it is now said will meet in June, probably June 15. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES will have representatives at all these great conferences and will report them. The Melbourne "Age," of Nov. 21, 1906, comes to us with a long article on what it calls, "The Individualistic Settlement," a write-up from the standpoint of the paper itself. It is a description of the settlement of our own people at Warburton, near Melbourne, where the Australian Signs of the Times is published. It describes the surroundings on the Yarra River as very beautiful indeed, tells us how the seventh day is kept as the Sabbath, how each of the employees has a portion of land to work for himself, and, in fact, presents an ideal condition, if there can be such in this world. The little settlement, we are told, is Wonwondah, and the natural water power supplies all that is needed for the printing plant and to irrigate the land. Strength of character does not come by the forgiveness of God unless we continue to use the divine means for imparting strength. God gives us strength that we may overcome, but we add no strength to our character unless we use that strength in overcoming, in resisting the evil, in doing the good. When temptation comes we may fail, and God will forgive, but that imparts no strength. The strength comes by using His word to resist, overcome, the temptation, transmuting His word into our character. "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one." "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee." We have before noticed a chart published by W. H. Wild, of Hinsdale, Ill., entitled, "The Good Way," lithographed in nine colors, mounted and varnished, with a key giving description, making it especially helpful to fathers and mothers and Sabbath-school teachers. Those who are needing something of this kind would do well to write to the author at the above address. A New "Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels."—Charles Scribner's Sons are publishing in two large volumes of nearly a thousand pages each, an absolutely independent dictionary of Christ and the Gospels. The advance sheets of this work indicate that it will be one of value indeed; the fullest, completest thing, without doubt, on the customs, times, and persons of the Gospel age.