p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 17. (4/23/1902)

Is It Not Sometimes True?

A political “Boss,” writing in the New York Independent, declares with emphasis “that, compared with the church boss, the society boss, and the business boss, the political boss is the meekest and most considerate of men.” And it is about so. When the cause of God gets to that place that it can endure not a boss, but to be bossed, it is pretty well down; and the boss is a pure politician instead of a leader.

The Biblical Meaning of Miracles

The word “miracle” in the New Testament comes from two words; the first (dunamis) signifying force, power, strength, might, is from the same root as our word “dynamite.” It is rendered in the common version “miracle” or “miracles” nine times, as follows: Mark 9:39; Acts 2:22; 8:13; 19:11; 1 Cor. 12:10, 28, 29; Gal. 3:5; Heb. 2:4. It is rendered “mighty works,” “mighty signs,” “mighty deeds,” in the following places: Matt. 11:20, 21, 23; 13:54, 58; 14:2; Mark 6:2, 5, 14; Luke 10:13; 19:37; Rom. 15:19; 2 Cor. 12:12. The word is used with special reference to superhuman, supernatural, extraordinary power. The other word (semeion), rendered “miracle” in the New Testament, occurs in these texts: John 2:11, 23; 3:2; 6:2, 26; 7:31; 9:16; 11:47; 12:37; Acts 6:8; 8:6; 15:12; Rev. 13:14; 16:14; 19:20. The same Greek word is used in the Septuagint in Ex. 7:9; Deut. 29:3. It is defined by Strong to mean “An indication especially ceremonial or supernatural.” It is rendered “miracle,” “sign,” “token,” “wonder.” Sign or token is the better rendering. The mighty works, or miracles, which Christ wrought were signs or tokens of His divine mission. Moreover, they were distinct from the ordinary working of nature. The constant growth of plants, the revolution of the heavenly bodies, the circulation of the blood, the digestion of food, are all evidences of God’s wonderful wisdom and power; but none of these are miracles in the Bible sense. Many of these operations move on according to, from the divine view-point, perverted or abnormal law, performing their functions in a defective manner. But when God works a miracle, He by His mighty power lifts the thing above the common working of abnormal law nearer to its divine standard. Despite of sin, God’s common working in His creation is wonderful; but His miraculous working is more. Sometime, when sin is blotted out, we will have the divine life working normally through perfect, unperverted law. Study the above:

Apostolic Authority.

Peter gives us his understanding of this question in his discourse at the house of Cornelius. In the first place, he forbade Cornelius to do him reverence, stating that he was but a man, thus putting himself on an equality with those whom God had sent him to instruct. Then he spoke of Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews had slain, and whom “God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.” Acts 10:39–42. Commenting on this discourse, Dr. A. McLaren aptly remarks: “Peter’s notion of apostolic authority was simply that of competent witnesses and messengers appointed to tell a plain story and its necessary implications. Nobody would have been more astonished than he if he had been told what a portentous fabric would be built on the notion of apostolic authority.” To this it is pertinent to add, that the authority of the apostle is really vested in the Word, the Gospel of Christ, which he is commanded to teach, and not in the apostle himself.

American Mother Magazine

An excellent magazine is the American Mother, conducted by Mary Wood-Allen, M. D., and published by the American Mother Company, Battle Creek, Mich. Monthly, $1.00 a year, single copies 10 cents. The April number has among others the following articles of interest, “To Whom Does the Child belong,” “The National Congress of Mothers,” “Children’s Gardens,” and “Nature’s Playthings.”

Self-Exaltation

Self-exaltation is ever thinking of the broad, high top; humility is working for a sure, broad base. The former builds a fragile pyramid on its apex; the latter, a mighty structure on a strong, stable foundation.

Public Opinion

Public Opinion notes the fact that many ministers are “now writing novels.” It is sad; but some of them have dealt in fiction so long that the unreal world of novels is a natural sequence. The true minister of Christ could find no time to write fiction.

The Trouble.

An exchange says:— A careful reading of Governor Taft's testimony convinces one that everything would be lovely in the islands were it not for the Filipinos.

And that is similarly true of every country in the world. Everything would be lovely in Spain, in Italy, in Russia, in Turkey, were it not for the Spaniards, the Italians, the Russians, the Turks. Everything would be lovely in America, were it not for Americans. And it is a serious question whether the same people and principles which cause trouble at home in America, will not cause it abroad. It is true that humanity is benefited by God through humanity, but it is also the saddest truth that the cause of all the trouble on earth is through man and because of man. In the last analysis there is but very little difference between the Jew and Greek, American or Filipino.

Boiled Water Again.

By Editor

A medical friend writes us that the item on “Boiled Water” in the SIGNS of March 12 saying that zymotic disease germs may be boiled three hours and not be destroyed, is misleading; and he thinks that we must have taken the statement from some “author who was not well informed or else he was a soured crank who did not have a proper regard for truth.” On the contrary, the item was based on a summary of reports of very learned savants in medical lore like Professor Percy Frankland, Ph.D., F.R.S., said to be a “noted English scientist and recognized authority on water.” How much the newspapers are at fault it is hard to say. If we are to judge by the denials of reports concerning his work by Professor Loeb of Chicago, these men may have never said a thing about water. But our medical friend above—and we are prone to believe him—declares over his own signature in plain typewritten English, that “it has been demonstrated over and over again, and is now accepted as a scientific fact, that from fifteen to twenty minutes boiling will destroy almost all the common bacteria which are the causes of such diseases as diphtheria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, malarial fevers, and many others.” The only safe way doubtless in epidemics is to boil the water unless it is known to be pure, and to boil milk at all times.

Readers Praise the Signs of the Times

By Editor

Good words are continually coming to us from readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES in all parts of the field, from far-away India and South Africa, from South America, Egypt, and England, from Texas, Alaska, and Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. One brother, a fine young farmer from Missouri, calls to give us a word of cheer and say God bless you. He tells us that he and his family read themselves into the last Gospel message with its bright hope of everlasting life through the SIGNS. Another writes us from New York that it would be like parting with a dear friend to let the SIGNS go, and continues: “There isn’t anything I read aside from the Bible that I get so much help from as I do the SIGNS. You know that if you were going to save a man from drowning or help him out of a ditch, you would have to get right in the water or in the ditch where he was. Well, that is just what the articles, or some of them, at least, in the SIGNS do for a poor miserable sinner like me. They seem to get right down where a fellow is, and help him up. O; I can not tell you how much and what a means of encouragement the paper has been to me. I feel as tho sometimes that I would like to drop everything and just go out and tell everybody what a good paper it is, and get them to read it.” And why not do it once in a while? To God be all the praise for all the good the SIGNS is doing. We are here to be used; our friends are out in the field to be used. Let us unite in doing what we can to give the paper a much larger circulation than it has ever known before. May God bless our co-workers in the field.

G. E. J. G. E. JOHNSON. Copyright 1904, by G. E. Johnson