p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 31. (8/9/1910)

Progress in China

By F. E. Stafford

II. The Reform Movement

W have received unmistakable evidence that the Lord is blessing our work, and it has grown in a remarkable way, at times the demand for literature getting ahead of our ability to supply, with our meager facilities.

From the beginning of a few small papers printed under great difficulties on a diminutive hand-press, the demand has steadily grown, until at the present time we have a strong subscription list, and are publishing the monthly paper Signs of the Times in two dialects, the Wen li and Mandarin; and this month (June) will print at least 17,000 copies, possibly more, as it will be a special number, with subject-matter written especially to reach the large number of educated Chinese people who will gather at Nanking to see the First National Educational and Industrial Exhibition, which opens the fifth of this month.

We are also printing a number of tracts on the Sabbath, and now have translations of "Steps to Christ" and "Christ our Saviour" ready for the press.

Shanghai-Nanking Railway Station, the finest station in China. Trains run in the station at the left of the picture. The street entrance is at the right.

We believe the printed page will be one of the mightiest instruments in proclaiming the Gospel to this people in this generation, as it will reach hundreds of people who can be reached in no other way. We have now a number of faithful native Christians who have embraced the truth through reading our literature; and many other interested ones are anxiously seeking for more light.

We hold our meetings in a Chinese house which we have fixed up for a chapel, and have very good attendance of the Chinese at Sabbath-school and church services.

We are planning now for more systematic Bible work with the Chinese here; and we believe that out of this large city of half a million people, the Lord will raise up a large number of faithful workers to help proclaim to this nation the message of Christ's soon coming.

China is now in the midst of a great reform movement, such as was never dreamed of for ages. She is throwing off the great pall of ignorance, fear, and superstition that has held her bound for thousands of years. She is awakening to the possibilities of foreign inventions, such as the railroad, telegraph, telephone, etc.; and while these things are only just beginning, we can clearly see that the way is being prepared to give the Gospel message to these 400,000,000 people in a short time.

Yuen Luen Gardens, near the Bubbling Well, Shanghai. Rocks are artificial, concrete and cement, characteristic of all China. The group is of our missionaries.

Another great advance step comes in an imperial decree signed the twenty-fourth of May, calling for a national reform of the currency. If there is one thing that has hindered all reform, blocked the wheels of every new enterprise, and kept the nation in a state of disintegration, it is the disorganized condition of her money system. In fact she has never before had any money system; and each province has been allowed to coin any kind of money that was convenient, that becoming legal tender for that province, and very likely would be refused or discounted in another province. Worse than that, the coinage consisted principally of the brass cash pieces with a square hole in the center for stringing; and as one string of 1,000 cash is only worth about fifty cents United States money, it can be readily seen that these coins were entirely too cumbersome for transacting the increasing amount of foreign business. So Mexican money was imported; and here in Shanghai to-day, be it said to China's shame, we are using the coinage of Mexico, which is brought in here and sold as a commodity like rice. Its value changes every day. When money is scarce, it of course costs more; and vice versa. This has made a demand for money exchanges; and now there are hundreds of men that make their living by exchanging money, and the amount of "squeeze" they make on each dollar is only limited by their own avariciousness. This has opened the way for floods of corruption, which exists everywhere, from the government officials down to the lowest coolie; and it has become so notoriously bad, that it is impossible for China to secure a foreign loan only at a high rate of interest.

St. John's College for Chinese, near Shanghai, one of the oldest foreign-taught schools in China, patronized by wealthy Chinese. Full course, 10 years; 700 students.

This will all be changed by the imperial decree, which goes into effect immediately, and calls for a government coinage of a standard money, the value of which shall not be subject to change, and which consists of a silver dollar, fifty cent, twenty-five cent, and ten cent pieces of silver, five cent pieces of nickel, two cent, one cent, one half cent (five cash), one tenth cent (one cash) pieces of copper, and these shall all bear decimal relations to each other. In the present money there is no proper relation. For a dollar we get from $1.08 to $1.15 in small money (twenty cent, ten cent, and one cent pieces); and for a twenty cent piece we get from twenty-one to twenty-five one cent pieces; and for one cent, we get from eight to ten cash pieces, according to the rate of exchange and the temper of the money exchanger.

The decree also calls for the closing of all provincial mints, and the withdrawal of all old currency as fast as the new can be put into circulation.

As we behold these evidences of progress, we see in them the providences of God, calling

for renewed consecration and clear discernment to grasp every new opportunity and enter every open door. We need both men and means. Who will say,

"Take my all, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee"?

F. E. STAFFORD.

Our Work and Workers

By Editor

A STONE church is being erected at the Kolo Mission Station, South Africa.

BRETHREN Whitmarsh and Oberg report several new Sabbath-keepers at Laurel, Miss.

A CHURCH of nine members, the fruit of a tent effort, has been organized at Hastings, Fla.

FORTY-FIVE were buried with their Lord in baptism at a recent camp-meeting at Palouse, Wash.

THIRTEEN were baptized July 2 at Madera, Cal. It is hoped that a church will shortly be organized here.

AS A result of the efforts of Brother M. W. Lewis, three have lately been baptized at Burlington, Iowa.

FIVE have taken a stand for the truth at Darbyville, Iowa. Brother S. B. Kephart has been laboring there.

ISOLATED brethren often report that they have not heard a sermon for two, five, or ten years. How much should church-members appreciate their opportunities!

AT A council for the study of our work in cities, held at New York, July 7-11, it was decided to open up new training-schools in Philadelphia, Boston, and Buffalo.

Do You Need Money

By Editor

Now don't mistake us for capitalists or money lenders; nothing of the sort. But we know how you can make money just the same. Lots of people unafraid of a little work, are making good wages selling our easily-sold SIGNS OF THE TIMES MONTHLY. This is what we recommend. There is room for others.

Now is the time, young man, young woman, to earn a few dollars for those odds and ends you will want while attending school next winter. Besides earning something you will gain a valuable experience and have opportunity of helping yourself and others in the Christian way.

You see, it is this way: You order of your tract society, say fifty copies of the splendid August number and pay two dollars therefor. These magazines with their beautiful cover will sell quickly and you will realize five dollars for them. You net three dollars, you see. If you don't know your tract society address write to us direct.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES MOUNTAIN VIEW, CAL.

The Restlessness of Modern Cities

The busy whirl of modern cities is well analyzed by a newspaper thus: An immigrant reaches New York every 42 seconds, a passenger-train arrives every 52 seconds, a new business firm opens every 42 minutes, and a new building raises its head to the skies every 51 minutes. In the incessant clatter and activity of a city, one's devotional aspirations would nearly be drowned. Nothing is more to be feared than the pandemic restlessness that cities breed. No wonder both science and revelation call us into the idyllic quietude of country life.

British Regency Bill

A regency bill is before the British Parliament providing, says the Times (weekly) of June 17, "that should a regency be necessary, her majesty Queen Mary should have full authority under the style and title of regent to exercise and administer the royal power and government of this realm and of the dominions and territories belonging to the Crown." It disables the regent, if she should become reconciled to the Church of Rome or should marry a person professing the Roman Catholic religion, from continuing to exercise or hold office.

Increasing Death Rates From Disease

E. E. Rittenhouse, president of the Providence Savings Life Assurance Society of New York, according to an article in the Good Health for July, has called attention to the anomalous fact that six of the seven important classes of disease have increased enormously during the past thirty years. The death-rate from heart diseases, in Massachusetts, has increased 105 per cent; in the federal registration areas, 57 per cent; from apoplexy, in Massachusetts, 135 per cent; in the federal registration areas, 84 per cent; from kidney trouble, in the registration areas, 83 per cent. Consumption only has had a retarded death-rate.

Society Leaders.

By Editor

And now the newspapers are telling us that Miss Eleanor Sears, the Boston heiress who wears men's clothes and delights in doing masculine things, is smoking, and is leading other society women in the same direction; and she tells us, with the wonderful wisdom of the years that she has, "I don't think moderate cigaret smoking has any baneful effect on a woman morally or physically," but good doctors who are not steeped in nicotin fumes will tell us that it affects women in both these ways. Yet the paper that gives us this interview quotes Miss Sears as saying, "There are many society women who are inveterate cigaret smokers, and they have thereby injured themselves very much." There are others, she declares, who do not smoke, simply because they do not care for it. The article tells us that Boston is shrugging its shoulders and saying, "Well, if Eleanor is going to make us smoke cigarets, I suppose sooner or later we will all be smoking cigarets." Such is the power of wealth by example. If Miss Sears were a poor working girl she would be considered a silly freak.

Bahaism

By Editor

Bahaism.—A marked copy of the Kansas City Star is sent us containing an article on Bahaism, in which we are told that it is spreading with remarkable rapidity, numbering two million adherents already. Evidently the very article is written with the purpose of puffing the new cult. It aims to build up what it calls a creed of love, resting for its foundation on all preceding religions, a wonderfully composite foundation which like the clay and iron in the great image of Daniel will be found to crumble under the stress of time. It is truly a cult, not a power or a life. It will doubtless make its many converts among those who do not know the power of Christianity. But to those who do know, to turn to it would be like leaving the cold snow-waters of Lebanon to drink from the broken and corrupted cisterns of men.

Readers Praise the Story Shiloh

By Editor

One reader writes us, "I am enjoying the good, instructive reading of the weekly SIGNS, especially the story 'Shiloh.' It grows more and more interesting as the story advances. It sets forth the mission of our Saviour so beautifully, in perfect harmony with the Scriptures." She speaks also of friends who are reading the story, and well observes the greatest danger is that the superficial reader will fail to appreciate the depth and get a practical lesson from His life so clearly portrayed.

Tobacco Using; A Dispassionate Consideration

By Editor

A tract has come to us entitled "Tobacco Using; A Dispassionate Consideration." By G. H. Heald, M.D. Published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D. C. The subject is treated not only from its moral and social view-point but from a physiological stand-point as well. It certainly is worthy of consideration, especially as a warning to the young and to those who have them under instruction. It ought also to be helpful for those who have used tobacco for years.

Buddhism’s Christian-Like Activities

Buddhism is aggressively working in lines similar to those of Christianity. In Japan there are Buddhist Sunday-schools, preaching services on Sunday, and young men's associations. They have even adopted a marriage ceremony as a substitute for that of Christian denominations.

Insanity

Insanity.—More than one seventh of the entire revenue of New York is spent in maintaining hospitals for insane people. Over fifty-four million dollars was used for that purpose in the last ten years. The New York American tells us that successive federal censuses show that in the country at large there is a steady and ominous increase of insanity; an increase out of all proportion to the growth of population. In the asylums of the United States in 1880 there were 876 insane persons to every million of the population. In 1890 there were 1,182; and in 1900, 1,862. At the same rate of increase the census now being taken will show about 2,800 insane to every million of the population. And at the same rate, if time should go on as now, more than half of the inhabitants of the United States would be in the mad-house at the end of the present century. Yet the whole strenuous life that people are leading is tending to insanity; and above all other causes is that which utterly disregards God, man's obligation to Him, and faith in Him as the source of life and strength. Forgetting God, people go into all sorts of excesses.

Present Victory Over Temptation

The only time to conquer the besetting sin is in the temptation of the present. We do not conquer the sin by confessing it after it is past. We do not to-day conquer the temptation of to-morrow, only as we conquer to-day's temptations to-day. The surest hope of future triumph is present victory. And the grace of Christ is sufficient.

Present Help in Trouble

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." We long that that shall be true when the storm breaks and we are helpless in weakness. But the assurance we have that He will help in that time is that He helps us now.

Battle Creek’s Many Religious Sects

By Editor

"The California Weekly" tells us that Battle Creek, Michigan, is the home of almost everything religious and irreligious. Besides the regular ordinary religious denominations there are Spiritualists, Quakers, Harmonists, Christadelphians, Mind Healers, members of the Heraldic Brotherhood, Age to Come, Millennial Dawn, Bread of Life, Church of the Larger Hope, Elohim's Brotherhood, Theosophists, Gnostics, Fire Worshipers, Restitutionists, Saints of God, and perhaps a few more have been added since the last reports came in. "There are few places," we are told, "where a person can come so near to taking his choice in selecting his own private door to heaven as he can in Battle Creek." And yet that is about a fair condition of the world everywhere, and it has all come because people are not willing to take the simple Word of God as a whole, interpreted in the light of His eternal, unchangeable law and the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ.

The War Spirit.

By Editor

What will grow out of this new "boy scout" idea it is pretty hard to say. One thing certainly will; the idea of war will permeate the minds of the youth, and especially those who engage in it. A uniform is always attractive to a boy; and connect with that uniform the paraphernalia of war, and the war spirit will soon permeate the mass. From the boys who engage in it, it will reach up and take hold of the hearts of fond parents; and, on the other side, of the boys who are too young to enlist; and if the movement spreads, as it seems likely to, how long will it be before the whole world nearly is war mad?

This is just what we are told in Scripture will occur, that the whole world will drink of the war spirit. See Jeremiah 25. This is one of the boy oaths taken: "I do on my honor promise to do my best; (1) To do my duty to God and my country; (2) To help other people at all times; (3) To obey the scout law." But in the nature of things the scout law may be found many times in direct opposition to duty to God. There are some things connected with it which are excellent. In this respect we suppose it will help a great many of the boys who are gathered from the street; yet there ought to be elements in the church of Christ which would do all this for the boys, unconnected with the spirit of war.

Russo-Chinese Bank Agency Loss

The Russo-Chinese Bank agency of New York lost $600,000 through the peculations of its cashier, Erwin Wider. Part of it may be recovered. As there are political powers behind the institution, it is said international relations may be changed in the reorganization of the bank — to Russia's loss.

Earthquake and Eruption in Hokkaido

A severe earthquake and volcanic eruption on the southern side of Hokkaido Island, Japan, is believed to have caused the death of many persons. One report says a tidal wave followed. Details have not been received.

Earthquakes Disrupt Wyoming Coal Mines

Earthquake shocks so violent as to force the abandonment of work at coal mines, occurred in Wyoming July 24 and 25. The seismograph at San Jose recorded an earthquake the morning of the twenty-fifth.

Assassination of Former Mayor Bouseman

As H. A. Bouseman, former mayor of Ridgeway, Va., lay sleeping in his hammock, an assassin crept up and laid a bomb under him. The sleeping man was blown to pieces.

New York Dealers to Sell by Weight

In the early part of August, all the egg and bread dealers of New York will be forced to sell by weight only.

Successful Aeroplane Demonstration

A successful aeroplane demonstration was made at Petaluma, Cal., July 24. The machine was built and manned by two Californians.

Gun Breech Explosion Kills Eleven

The blowing out of a gun breech during mimic warfare at Norfolk resulted in the death of eleven.

Saenz-Pena Proclaimed Argentine President

Senhor Saenz-Pena was proclaimed president of Argentina July 21.

New Gun for Powerful Explosives

Gen. Frederick Dent Grant announces that a gun capable of shooting the most powerful explosive known to man has been devised by American army officers. So far no gun has been made strong enough to use some modern explosive mixtures. This gun, then, is the most terrible engine in present-day war equipment.

Porfirio Díaz and Mexico’s Future

That General Porfirio Diaz of Mexico is a great man is conceded by the whole world. At the age of eighty he enters upon his eighth term as the president of the Mexican republic. It is a real question whether the reforms he has inaugurated will persist after he lays aside the office of what is practically a mild dictatorship.

A Glimpse of Santa Clara County

By Editor

There has come to us from the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Joseph T. Brooks, secretary, San Jose, a fine booklet entitled "A Glimpse of Santa Clara County." Very interesting indeed are the sketches in the pamphlet. Besides descriptions of landscapes of the county and many illustrations, it also gives much information regarding agriculture and fruit growing. Copies can be had of the secretary.

Edward Hyatt and the State Schools

By Editor

The "Signs of the Times" is not in politics in any way, and consequently has no candidates for any offices of any sort. We do not know whether there is any opposition to the present Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mr. Edward Hyatt; but in watching his work for the last two years it seems to us that he is an excellent man for the place, and is doing splendid work for the schools of the state.

Child Deaths During the Heat Wave

The death of 146 children of New York during the week ending July 24 is attributed to heat. The whole number of children dying in the same period was 872, an increase of 21 per cent over the same week a year ago. The heat wave extended to the cities of the West. Kansas had its hottest day July 25, with temperature at 101; the thermometer at Joplin, Mo., was 107; at Guthrie, Okla., 111.

'Tis Sad 'Tis So

'Tis Sad 'Tis So.—Leading book publishers of London were invited to give testimony before a conference on public morals regarding books and their influence, and they were agreed in the statement that women write most of the books which are objectionable from a moral point of view, and that the success of such books depends mainly on the number of women that buy them. That certainly is a sad sort of condition. The latter conclusion that women largely buy these books, may be due to the fact that curiosity is much stronger in women than in men generally. If this element of curiosity is not properly educated, it is very likely to lead souls astray.

Labor Not a Curse.

If Ella Wheeler Wilcox would read a few verses in Genesis, she would not say in poor rhyme and poetry,—

"The time has come, aye, even now it is, To rank that parable in Genesis Of God's great curse of labor placed on man, With other fairy tales."

She is not alone; others are equally ignorant. The substance of the text is this: The ground was cursed for man's sake; it would bring forth thorns and thistles, making it necessary for man to labor, as one of the means of triumphing over the curse. See Gen. 3:17-19. Labor is ever a blessing. "Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth." Idleness is the devil's handmaid.

Contained in This Issue

By Editor

Editorial

The Interpretation of Prophecy ········· 9 Our Bible Band ······························· 9

General

Man's Sin and Saviour.—V. A Nation of Slaves ······································· 3 The Living Testimony ························ 4 What Do Our Great Men Say? ············ 5 "Out of Babylon to Zion."—XVIII. God's Plan for Jerusalem ····················· 6 XIII. Higher Criticism and Interpretation 7

Question Corner

Questions Nos. 3211 to 3217 ············ 2

Our Bible Reading

The Sabbath ································· 8

Outlook

Roman Catholicism and the Reformation 10 It Makes a Difference ······················ 10 The British Coronation Oath ·············· 10 Notes ·································· 10, 11, 15

Book Notices

··················································· 11

The Story

Shiloh: the Man of Sorrows.—Chapter XXIII. Mary Magdalene ··················· 12

Missions

Progress in China.—II. The Reform Movement ······································· 14 Our Work and Workers ····················· 15

Poetry

In the Night ································· 6

From "The Lord's Day, the Test of the Ages"