A Splendid Pen by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 27, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 13.

A Splendid Pen

By Editor

There is a burning Christian zeal for God which is worthy of all praise. It forgets self, regards others, and seeks God's glory.

There is a zeal ostensibly for God, but it is a zeal without knowledge. Great effort is put forth. Great shrewdness is manifest in zeal. Justice toward others is not considered. Sharp bargains are driven for the Lord's sake; and the souls that do it all take great praise to themselves, as did Jehu of old who said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah." Of such zeal the Lord has said, "The zeal of thy house hath eaten Me up."

Nothing built on wrong will prosper. We may rear a superstructure above the highest towers of earth; we may name it after our blessed Lord; we may carve upon every stone the name of saint or angel; we may emblazon the walls with Scripture scrolls and flaming words of truth; but if there be unrighteousness in the building of it, it will not only hold down the truth of the Gospel which may be preached therein, but it will come to desolation at last. Better a hovel on the Rock, builded in righteousness, than the costliest structure founded in the sands of injustice.

A Splendid Pen.

If there is any one who needs a good pen, smooth writer, free-flower, ever-ready pen, it is an editor. Years ago we possessed one. It was a Paul E. Wirt Fountain Pen. We let a friend have it who scribbled till he emptied a full fountain of ink. He was a good penman and voluminous writer. We purchased another, and, after years of using, literally wore it out. Since that we have tried five or six standard makes and highly recommended pens, but never have found any like those first Wirts till the present. The pen used in the writing of this note exceeds them in smoothness and ease of writing; but this, too, is a Paul E. Wirt. It is the best we ever used. There is no scratching or blotting or blank places in its even, delightful work. It seems to us that it is about as near the perfect fountain pen as it is possible for man to make. We are not selling them, but we cordially recommend them to one who wants a reliable fountain pen. It is durable and reliable, easily managed, and is made in a hundred different styles and sizes to suit any hand. All pens are guaranteed. Address, Paul E. Wirt Fountain Pen, Bloomsburg, Pa.

Financial Panic.

March 14 witnessed a panic in Wall Street, and stocks went down to a lower price than has been seen in three years. Many speculators were swept to ruin. It would have been a crash to the country if the government had not come to the aid of the market with a $25,000,000-bond purchase. As it was, it is reported that there was a shrinkage in stocks to the amount of a quarter of a billion dollars. Money rates ran as high as twenty-five per cent. Financiers laid the blame upon the government in its prosecution of the law-breaking railways; others contended that it was a big bear raid by certain financiers. One of these days there will come a panic which the government can not check without imperiling its credit, and the times of prosperity will vanish as in a night. It certainly is a time for conservative, sane, safe business policy; and it is the best kind of wisdom on the part of God's people to invest their money in the Bank of Heaven, which no financial crisis can affect.

The Weight of Souls.

According to despatches from Boston, five Massachusetts doctors have learned that man has a soul and that it weighs something. They have been experimenting for six years, and have found, after deducting all other known losses, such as respiratory air, secretions and excretions of the body, evaporations, etc., that there is a sudden and measurable lack of weight at the moment of death, amounting to from one-half to one ounce. Both dying men and women have been the subject of experiments. This will, we presume, be used as a proof of the immortality and separate consciousness of the soul; but if it is all it claims to be, it means nothing more than that life is a substance, and its loss can be measured. The word of God likens life to a "vapor" that passeth away. It was given as life; as life it departs. The same experiments on dogs showed no difference in weight.

China Relief Fund.

In response to our little note of a few weeks ago, the following has been received, up to March 1: Mrs. J. S. Christiansen, $5.00 C. M. McIlwain, 5.00 Ellehn Terris, 2.00 I. F. Pullen, 1.00 Watertown, N. Y., 5.00 Wm. F. Schmidt, .75 Happy Hansen, .20 C. A. Tiffany, 2.50 Total, $21.45

We have not felt that we could give so much space to this matter because of our plans in other respects. There are also other strong papers, like the Christian Herald, which are making a specialty of this. We do feel, however, that we wish to let our readers know something of the awful ravages which famine is making in China. Last December it was thought that more than a million souls would be affected and thousands might die, but at the present time it is said that fifteen million are affected, with a possibility of four million deaths.

The region affected is in northern China, known as Kianpeh. It means "North of the River," that is, the Yangtze River. A territory nearly as great as the state of Pennsylvania, forty thousand square miles, is affected. All the horrors of the last year, including the great earthquakes, are not to be compared with this awful horror of China; and yet news comes to us that thousands will also die in Russia as the result of prevailing famine there. Any of our readers who wish to contribute to the needy field of China, the physical needs of which are simply the indication of its spiritual needs, may send the money to us and we will forward it for them.

The Springfield "Republican" of March 7 devotes almost two columns to an editorial on the fearful and constant increase of insanity, and tells us that "wherever any careful count is made of this class of persons, both in the public and private establishments and in private families, or indeed where only the insane under public care are counted and classified, as new cases or old, as curable or incurable, this increase is manifest." Among the cases of insanity which are rarely curable, is mentioned syphilitic insanity. French physicians declare that a large increase of the incurable forms come from alcoholism. Dr. Robert Jones, having charge of the largest asylum in England, with more than four thousand patients, declares that with the progress of civilization mental break-down becomes more serious and more frequent, and the form of insanity more frequent and less curable than when life was simple and men were more content. It is stated that the percentage of the incurable insane is growing fast. Massachusetts records as her insane population fourteen thousand, or one for every 225, and the Republican estimates the whole United States to have not less than 350,000. One hundred years ago but very little was known of insanity at all. It might be well to inquire how many of these weak-minded souls are as truly possessed by demons as were the afflicted ones in the days of the first advent of Christ. If we are to believe the New Testament as a record of that time, we certainly know that there were many indeed who were possessed with demons—insane; and there are many evidences at the present time that show that the afflicted now are similarly affected to those who were afflicted then.

"The Circle" for March has a most interesting article entitled "The Adventurous Army of Bible-Sowers," by William George Fitz-Gerald, showing something of the romance connected with the scattering of the Bible thruout the world, and especially in the wilder regions of the earth. It also shows what wonderful labors the translators of the Bible have been thru. For instance Bishop Schereschewsky, a remarkable Bible scholar, well-nigh helpless thru incurable paralysis, for over fourteen years pounded on a typewriter with a solitary forefinger, whose use he retained, prepared every word of both Testaments for this monumental translation into the Easy Wen Li dialect of Chinese, thus making the Bible accessible to scores of millions of people who speak that tongue. The Bishop sat in the same chair for nearly twenty years, working with amazing persistence, and requiring two secretaries to keep pace with him; and yet this grand old man, at the time of his death a few weeks ago was planning twelve years' additional work. There are many other good things in the Circle, but every Bible student will feel that this article will repay him. The price of the magazine is fifteen cents.

Investigations of the affairs of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy are being inaugurated by her son, George W. Glover, and others, who demand a statement as to her financial affairs, and also seek to ascertain her mental condition, which from letters purporting to be from her to her son, seems to be weak. To prove this untrue, her coterie of advisers, four of whom have been served with papers to appear in equity proceedings in Concord, N. H., will be obliged to bring Mrs. Eddy into court, or produce physician's statement as to her condition, both of which proceedings will be distasteful to a Christian Scientist, especially to the venerable founder of the cult.

The March number of "Sunset Magazine" is full of information which almost every reader would like to know. In dealing with the great West, there are three striking articles, one on the Great Northwest, one on Oakland, and one on the Capture of the Colorado River. The last article is of exceptional interest, showing how for three times over man made a fight with the Colorado River before it was restored to its own bed, and thousands upon thousands of dollars saved to the State of California and to Mexico. The article is well worth the price of the magazine.

In Our Issue of March 6, we noticed a little pamphlet entitled, "Recent Researches in the Japanese Slave Trade in California," by those noble women, Elizabeth Andrew and Katherine Bushnell. We said at that time the tract could be procured at Oakland, Cal., General Delivery, as the copy we then had gave no address. Dr. Bushnell writes that their correct address is Post-office Box 203, Oakland, Cal.

Our steady rain for the last three months has not been pleasant, but it seems to have been exceptional weather thruout the country. There have been fearful floods at the headwaters of the Ohio, in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and in Pittsburg and other towns along the Ohio Valley. Many thousands made homeless for a time. The loss in Pittsburg and vicinity is estimated at $10,000,000.

The most reasonable thing in the world is to trust in the Most High God. The most unreasonable, is to trust in self, which has failed us a thousand times.