The revised election returns of the Associated Press give McKinley's plurality over Bryan at 737,285; majority over all candidates, 260,097. The United Associated Presses, used by the New York Tribune, Sun, and Herald, give McKinley's vote over Bryan at 600,799. Grant's plurality over Greeley was 762,991. The national Democrat ticket carried but one town in the United States, in Kansas, in which the Palmer-Buckner ticket received three votes, McKinley one, and Bryan two. The percentages of the entire vote were as follows: McKinley, .5093; Bryan, .4564; Palmer Democrats, .0094; Straight Populist, .0108; Straight Prohibition, .0091; National or Silver Prohibition, .0009; Socialist Labor, .0024; scattering, .0017. It is questionable whether this report does full justice to the last three parties. It is stated that the precinct in which Mr. Palmer lived and voted, gave no returns for his party. The total vote was 13,924,653, an increase in the last four years of 1,813,124. These figures are of interest; but it is much more interesting to know where these men will stand in the final judgment of all.
GOOD WORDS FOR THE “SIGNS.”
From a subscriber in Illinois: “We are well pleased with the journal, and will not do without it again as long as we can raise the money.”
Another in New York writes: “I have thought so many times I would write and tell you how much I appreciated and have been benefited by reading your most excellent paper, especially within the last year. . . . I take great pleasure in handing the papers out, for I know they contain truth, just what the world needs at this time.”
And this word comes from an aged Spanish brother in United States of Colombia: “I have read with pleasure the blessed progress of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, for the praiseworthy good it has done, and may it ever continue to do.”
Another, who does not agree with us in all things, writes from Kansas: “I have been an interested reader of the SIGNS for a number of years, and am so well pleased with it that I should be very sorry to be compelled to give it up. Every paper contains much that is good and well worth remembering. While I read it, I am many times impressed with a wish that I might have the privilege of reading it to all my neighbors.”
Still another, in southern California, who does not yet see the force of Sabbath truth, writes in renewing his subscription: “I think very highly of your paper, and feel I can not do without it. There are many most excellent articles which are a great pleasure to read, and much information is gained thereby.” We trust as our brother and we study the Bible we will see more and more as the Lord sees and says.
We hope that these and the many other dear souls who are blessed by reading our paper will tell to others the good they receive, and thus induce still others to become readers also. In this way many lives may be blessed, and become blessings.
Our Premium Offers
By Editor
Our Premium Offers on pages 14 and 15 are worthy of careful attention. Read them; they are of mutual benefit to paper and readers.
Tithe Decreases Despite Church Growth
The last number of the General Conference Bulletin is replete with information, and of great value. It shows an increase of 25 ministers, 43 licentiates, 106 churches, 4,917 members, but a decrease of $12,374.30 in tithe. This ought not so to be. One reason is doubtless the increased hard times; but are there not other causes?
Home Missionary Work
Bible Students’ Library, No. 147, December Extra, is entitled “Home Missionary Work,” by Mrs. E. G. White. It is a most stirring appeal to missionary work on the part of all, ministers, and lay members, and children. God has a part for all. Every professed child of God should read this stirring appeal. Price, 4 cents. Address Pacific Press Publishing Company, Oakland, Cal., or any of our branch houses or tract societies.
Gospel Instead of Guns
By Editor
If those ministers who are “slumming” in the great cities of the land should go with the Gospel instead of guns, to break the Bread of Life instead of a bottle of beer, their ministrations would be soul-saving. We do not see how they now are otherwise than soul-destroying. Such work is not Gospel work.
The Daily Reminder Calendar
ONE of the neatest little things we have seen in the way of a vest-pocket aid to memory is “The Daily Reminder: Calendar, Diary, and Memorandum Combined.” It contains valuable statistical information, blank spaces for addresses and cash, and blank space for every day in the year, with calendars for 1897 and 1898. It is convenient for the vest pocket, bound in leatherette, and may be obtained of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES for the strictly nominal and exceedingly low price of ten cents.
The Signs of the Times
By Editor
“The Signs of the Times.”—How do you like our paper in its new dress? Our type was late in coming, and we were greatly hurried in getting it out. The next number will be better still, and we hope that the paper will grow better all through the year. Its subscription list is now nearing 30,000, the highest it has ever been. We hope to double this this year. We want the help of our readers and friends. May we not have it? Working together, with God's blessing, the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will do a work in the year to come greater than in all the years of its past existence. Shall it not do this?
Signs Bible Offer
Read Our Offer of the “Signs” Bible on page 15.
Catholic Chapel at West Point
Not long ago Secretary of War Lamont gave permission to some Catholic clergymen to erect a chapel on the military reserve at West Point. When the application was made, it is said that permission was asked for merely a temporary structure; but as soon as the permit was granted, work was begun that indicated a very substantial and permanent structure. Then some leading Protestants, remembering the almost legal honors with which Apostolic Delegate Satolli was received on his visit to the institution, began to sound the alarm. All at once the war office was almost flooded with applications from various denominations for permits to erect churches on the reservation; and at last the secretary has deemed it expedient to withdraw the permit for the Catholic chapel. So says the Primitive Catholic.
AN APPEAL FOR GOSPEL PREACHING.
MR. MOODY makes an earnest appeal for Gospel preaching. He asks that the churches may be open every Sunday night for “the preaching of the Gospel.” (The italics are his.) He bases his appeal on a statement which appeared in the Independent, that in this country 1,400 Congregational Churches and 1,750 Presbyterian Churches did not report a single accession on confession of faith during the year 1895. Upon this we shall have more to say hereafter. What we wish the reader to think of is this: Is there any relation between the spiritual decadence of the churches and the demand for religious legislation coming up from all sides? Would there be as many petitions to the thrones of men if there were more to the Throne of Grace? Verily there is a need of Gospel preaching, the unperverted Gospel of Jesus Christ, which “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”
The Nature of the Sabbath.
It is not for the mere resting upon the seventh day that we contend. It is not to lead men to refrain from physical labor on that day that we labor. This is not the Sabbath-keeping required of God. If this were all, civil laws might suffice, and compulsory observance might be beneficial. But this is not the requirement; it is not the essential idea of the requirement. God says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” He who does not keep it holy does not obey. He who is not holy can not keep the Sabbath. Man can be made holy only in Jesus Christ, and that by faith. Jesus Christ in the holy Sabbath, and Jesus Christ in the heart wholly given to him, find sweet concord, and the Sabbath is hailed as “a delight,” and “honorable.” He who knows Christ knows the works of Christ in him; and he who knows his works knows his rest, twice blessed in the Sabbath. This is the nature of true Sabbath-keeping. It is to call men to the knowledge of this blessing that we labor. “Blessed is the man that doeth this; . . . that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.”
The X Rays and Blindness.
There have been many sensational reports published of late concerning Edison's experiments with blind men; and these reports have had the tendency to mislead and deceive the blind. On this the editor of the Electrical Review offers the following good sense:—
“The sensational daily press has been printing page after page about how the blind may be made to see by means of the X ray and the fluoroscope. It is known that, where the lens of the eye is destroyed by disease or otherwise, it is a physical impossibility to transmit light sensations to the brain. All the talk about ‘stimulating the optic nerve’ to the extent of making the blind see is bosh. The function of the optic nerve is simply to carry to the brain the result of what is seen by the eye. It may be true that where the lens of the eye is intact, or practically so, but is obscured in some manner, as by a cataract, that the subject may be made to distinguish between light and darkness by means of the X ray and the fluoroscope. But if the vital element of the eye is wanting, nothing can restore the sight, and it is the acme of cruelty to hold out any false hope to persons so sadly afflicted.”
Forewarned by Prophecy
The hoped-for good times seems to be ending in an epidemic of bank and business failures of various kinds. It is not to us unexpected; God has foretold it all in his word. None need be deceived. The grasp and grind of greed, the counting of money more than men, will go on till the fearful reaction comes, in revolution. We deplore the results as we do the cause, but we need not hide from our eyes the facts. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, if we will heed the warning of the “more sure word of prophecy.”