p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 5. (2/1/1910)

Earlier text: The Alarming Drift in Christendom

A Rule for Happiness

By Clifford M. Loveland

Make a rule, and pray God to help you to keep it, never to lie down at night without being able to say, “I have tried to make one human being at least a little wiser or a little happier or a little better this day.” You will find it easier than you think, and pleasanter,— easier, because if you want to do God’s work God will surely find work for you to do; and pleasanter, because in return for the little trouble it may cost you, or the little choking of foolish, vulgar pride it may cost you, you will have a peace of mind, a quiet temper, a cheerfulness and hopefulness about yourself and all around you, such as you never felt before. And over and above that, if you look for a reward in the life to come, recollect this: What we have to hope for in the life to come is to enter into the joy of our Lord. And how did He fulfil that joy but by humbling Himself, and taking the form of a slave, and coming, not to be ministered to, but to minister, and give His whole life, even to the death of the cross, a ransom for many?

Be sure that unless you take up His cross, you will never share His crown. Be sure that unless you follow in His footsteps, you will never reach the place where He is. If you wish to enter into the joy of your Lord, be sure that His joy is now, as it was in the Judea of old, over every sinner that repents, every mourner that is comforted, every hungry mouth that is fed, every poor soul sick or in prison who is visited.

CLIFFORD M. LOVELAND. High Point, Ga.

Swallowing a Farm

THE humorist, Bob Burdette, gives this recipe for swallowing land:

“My homeless friend with the chromatic nose, while you are stirring up the sugar in a ten-cent glass of gin, let me give you a fact to wash down with it. You may say you have longed for years for the free, independent life of a farmer, but you have never been able to get money enough to buy a farm. But there is where you are mistaken. For some years you have been drinking a good improved farm at the rate of one hundred square feet at a gulp. If you doubt this statement, figure it out for yourself. An acre of land contains 43,560 feet; estimating, for convenience, the land at $43.56 an acre, you will see that it brings the land to just one mill per square foot. Now pour down the fiery dose and imagine you are swallowing a strawberry patch. Call in five of your friends and have them help you gulp down that 500-foot garden. Get on a prolonged spree some day and see how long it will take to swallow a pasture land to feed a cow. Put down that glass of gin; there is dirt in it — three hundred feet of good, rich dirt, worth $43.56 an acre.”

There Is No Time So Miserable

THERE is no time so miserable but a man may be true.—Shakespeare.

Light and Shade

Perhaps as you look back over the past years there are some bits of experience which seem very dark to you, tho they were even darker when you passed through them. You have only to reach the right perspective to see that the shadows were not the least important part of your life.

Rev. Hugh S. Johnson tells a story of a queen sitting for her portrait, who commanded that it be painted without shades. “Without shadows!” exclaimed the astonished artist; “I’m afraid your majesty is not acquainted with the laws of light. There can be no good portrait without shading.”

No more can there be developed Christian character without sorrow; and to the pure in heart the vision brightens through all the clouds, so that with fondest aspirations smitten, the dearest plans blighted, alone and comfortless, the soul is still able to say, like Mrs. Sigourney, the poetess, when bereft of her only son, “God’s time and will are beautiful, and through blinding tears I would fain give Him praise.”—The Outlook.

Life and Health

A PRACTICAL health journal, published with a view of meeting hygienic needs in every home; teaching how to care for the health and how to preserve life; prescribing simple home treatments to assist nature in throwing off diseases rather than adding more poison by using drugs or unnatural stimulants as remedies: teaching how to avoid disease as far as possible, how to manage in the home when sickness does come, and how to combat the disease by simple remedies which nature provides.

Send for sample copy and special rates to agents. Price 10 cents per copy or $1.00 per year.

Address, LIFE & HEALTH, Takoma Park, D.C.

LIBERTY

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY BUREAU

AN illustrated, 48-page, quarterly magazine, published as an exponent and advocate of true religious liberty; defending Christianity and the rights of conscience; upholding the Bible as the infallible word of God; recognizing the church and state as ordained of Heaven for specific and distinct purposes, but vigorously protesting against the alliance of the church with the state in the attempt to advance religion and to promote the state. Price 25 cents per year. Liberal terms to agents.

Address, LIBERTY, Takoma Park, D. C.

Good Home for Sale

Modern six-room house on 50 by 150 corner lot. Located two blocks from Seventh-day Adventist Church, Mountain View, Cal. This is a new house, well built, up to date in every way, well located. Price and terms reasonable. Address, S. L. W., care SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, Cal.

Another Choice Property for Home or Investment

Modern six-room double house. Each apartment contains three rooms, bath, etc. Ideal for renting to small family. Located on 50 by 150 foot lot adjoining property described above. Reasonable price and terms. Address S. L. W., care SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, Cal.

Early Writings.

By Mrs. E. G. White. A new edition of this popular work, rearranged and reprinted from new plates. This book is a compilation of the first published writings of the author, and contains many encouraging words for those who are looking for the soon return of our Lord. Cloth, 75c; limp leather, $1.25. Address this office.

Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing.

—An exposition of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. It has 218 pages and six chapters: On the Mountainside, The Beatitudes, The Spirituality of the Law, The True Motive in Service, The Lord’s Prayer, Not Judging but Doing. A new edition just printed on fine enameled paper, new type, and reillustrated with 27 beautiful half-tone engravings specially prepared for the book by eminent New York artists. It will be found full of comfort and blessing by all fortunate enough to obtain and read it. A beautiful gift book. In paper covers, 35 cents. Address this office.

Education

Education.—The object of true education and how it may be realized by the youth, the parent, the teacher, the writer, the tiller of the soil, and the business man, is the great theme of this book. Its first chapter is devoted to First Principles; following that are illustrations taken from the history of Israel. Master Teacher, Nature Teaching, the Bible as an Educator, Physical Culture, Character Building, the Under Teacher, and the Higher Course, are titles of other chapters. 321 pages. Cloth, $1.25. Address this office.

Our Little Friend

An Illustrated Paper for the Smaller Men and Women, for the Children and Little Ones

Instructive and entertaining, clean, wholesome, sensible. It is a character builder, a helper to father and mother. Our Little Friend would plant seed in the joyous life of the children in the Present, that it may bear blessed fruitage in the Harvest of the Future. Respect your child's individuality. Take the paper for him or her. Only 60 cents a year.

Address, OUR LITTLE FRIEND Mountain View, Cal.

Native Convert Growth in Mission Lands, 1908

The increase of native converts in all mission lands during the year 1908 was 164,000, or 450 each day. The rate of increase of church membership in the United States during the same year was 1½ per cent. The increase of American missions in the foreign fields was 12 per cent.

Christian Science Protest and Editor's Reply

By Editor

In another column we have admitted a letter from Mr. Alfred Farlow, the chief publicist of the Christian Science organization. Mr. Farlow objected to some of the strictures made by Mr. Reed, our associate editor, on Christian Science views, and he enters protest. We admit the protest with Mr. Reed's reply. We think that it is fully set forth in the article that Christian Scientists do not hold to the Biblical doctrine of the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ.

Steamer Czarina Lost on Coos Bay Bar

In the storm of the second week in January the steamer Czarina foundered on the north spit of the Coos Bay bar. Harry Kentzel, the first engineer, is the sole survivor of the thirty-two souls aboard the steamer when she went down. It was a fearful storm—stronger than the ship. Another ship partially weathered that storm, the schooner San Buena Ventura, which was at last abandoned off Cape Mendocino. All the lumber was thrown overboard, masts and spars were broken, two of the sailors disabled, one insane. Still the captain was disposed to hang to the worthless vessel, until his wife threatened to jump overboard if he did not leave it. They were rescued by the Fair Haven. The gale was a fearful one, one of the strongest for years.

To the Regions Beyond.

The Review and Herald of January 13 gives a list of 134 missionaries sent out into the regions beyond during 1909, and this right on the very top of an expensive General Conference. The year before 140 went out, nearly double the number of any former year. It did seem, the secretary, Brother W. A. Spicer, writes, as tho there must be a halt called; but the demands have come and the missionaries have offered themselves and they have been sent, almost as many as in the year before, and it is very probable even more than the year before if news had been gotten from the Australasian fields when this list was compiled. Almost every field in the world is covered or is named in these appointments. This demands greater sacrifice, a larger amount of funds for mission fields. The secretary says, “It is marvelous how the money has come in to keep such a procession moving into the fields,” and yet he feels that a larger force should go in 1910.

Our Next Issue

By Editor

February 9 will continue the discussion of the beast power of Revelation 13 and its attitude toward God’s law, and will show the change which the beast attempted to make in that law. It will discuss “the mark of the beast,” show what it is and who possesses it. Surely a thing so strongly emphasized in the last book of the Bible ought to be clear to Christians, yet there are many Christians who do not know what the mark of the beast is, and what its possession means. Our next issue we believe will make this plain.

Rising Cost of Living in 1909

Increase in the Cost of Living.— Bradstreet's Review for December 11, 1909, “shows that the average wholesale price of 106 general commodities was 60 per cent more on December 1, 1909, than on July 1, 1896. It shows that the average price on October 1 for the three years 1907-8-9 was 35 per cent greater than that for the same day in the three years 1896-7-8. In 8½ years from July 1, 1901, to December 1, 1909, the increase has been 23 per cent.” In general provisions the increase for 13 years has been 70 per cent. This is based on the estimate of Mrs. Louise Bolard Moore, in her book on wage-earners’ budgets, that 45 per cent of the wage-earner’s income goes for food. Of the 14 commodities listed by Bradstreet, only three have diminished in price—coffee, tea, and molasses—during the last 13 years. Bakers’ bread remains at nominally the same price—the loaf smaller. No estimate is made of rent, but it is conceded that it is higher than it was 13 years ago. The disproportionate price of food and labor is causing country-wide discussion. It has attracted the attention of Congress. Even Cardinal Gibbons declares, “I myself have felt the weight of the high prices in the necessities of life,” and he “feels that something ought to be done to correct this evil;” and thousands upon thousands feel just the same.

A Balanced Work

A WRITER in The Baptist Chronicle, in speaking of denominational work, points out the danger there is of giving all attention to one branch. He speaks of the various phases of Baptist work, and declares that all denominational enterprises “should be comprehended, in our thinking, as one work. To build around one single enterprise means to narrow down the life and develop lopsided churches.” He further suggests that all the men engaged in different departments of the work, “each in his own sphere of special work, to be truly denominational, must stand for the larger interests of the denomination as a whole. . . . It is only as each of these interests stands for its proper relation to the work as a whole can it hope to develop into a full-rounded and healthy denominational life and service.” All of which is true, and all of which emphasizes the great importance of placing men at the head of different branches of work who can comprehend not simply their branch, but the whole work. And the application is a good deal broader than the Baptist denomination.

The Mizpah Ring Fraud and Its Misleading Claims

A characteristic fraud which plays upon the ignorance of many honest people who may be somewhat superstitious over religious matters, is an attempt that is made to sell a cheap ring having upon it the word “Mizpah.” An advertisement professes to quote from an old Hebrew sage, “Desire what you may and it is yours so long as the Mizpah is on your finger.” Now the word “Mizpah” is found in Gen. 31:49. It has no such meaning as this advertisement would seem to indicate or that many people get from it. Jacob called that pillar Mizpah. It was a witness between Jacob and Laban that each should keep his covenant, that one should not take advantage of the other or war against him. It stood there as an emblem of justice, forbidding Laban to overreach into the dominion of Jacob, and a pledge that Jacob would care for Laban’s daughters and their children. It had an existence because men were suspicious of each other, and not because they loved each other. If any such advertisement as that comes to any more of our readers, as it has to one, we hope they will set it aside as utterly worthless, as probably the ring is which it advertises.

Christmas Customs and the Roman Catholic Influence

Referring to Christmas, “The Western Watchman declares that ‘the little child is bringing the Protestant world back to the [Roman Catholic] faith. . . Where the cross failed, the crib succeeded. In this country the children of the unchurched millions are taught at this Christmas time the story of Christmas night, and they listen with rapture. . . . Yes, the whole world is very near Catholic the last week of every year. When will it be all the weeks?’” But it is not the Christ-child that is bringing them back to the Roman Catholic faith. The only true conception of the Christ-child is every day in the year. An old Saturnalian feast, professedly Christian, but essentially worldly, is all that brings homage from the world on the 25th of December. That yearly festival is like the weekly Sunday festival. It has no basis in Scripture. It is the tradition which makes void the truth, that is having its influence over a waning Protestantism.

Humanity Cannot Insure Its Own Life

Humanity can not insure life, altho they have life insurance companies. They can not assure continued existence, altho they have life assurance companies. If a man pays sufficiently long, he may get the return of a part of what he has paid into the company. If he dies, his relatives are supposed to get it. One man in this country—Rodman Wanamaker, of Philadelphia—carries $4,000,000 on his life. George E. Nicholson, of Kansas City, has policies to the amount of $2,800,000; and there are many others running down to as low as $200,000; but of what particular worth are they? Sometimes the money left to relatives results in worse than would poverty. The life insurance of God has reference not only to the life which now is, but that which is to come.

Criticism of Selective Bible Acceptance Condemned

The Boston “Journal” of some time ago tells of a sermon preached in the Old South Meeting-house by the Rev. Charles W. Casson in which he is quoted as saying, “I accept the Bible as you would a fish, picking out the bones before swallowing it, and I agree with it when it agrees with me.” We need not quote further; for this is the end of higher criticism always. It ends by man's becoming his own standard, his own saviour; and the record of the ages is that he has made mighty poor work of either.

Scientist on the Uncertain Nature of Matter

Prof. E. L. Larkin, of Mount Lowe Observatory, in reply to questions, declares that “at present there is no certainty as to what matter is. If it be said to be electrons in motion, the question arises, What are electrons? None is able to answer; for electrons are known to be electricity, but what electricity is can not even be surmised.”

San Francisco Plans International Exposition for Panama Canal

San Francisco has appointed committees to lay plans for a great international exposition for the celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal.