p. 367 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 23. (6/6/1916)

THE CHURCH

By Editor

Correcting God

Getting things twisted a bit when they attempt to do that, aren't they? This article shows that this is the tendency nowadays. The title is no more startling than many of the statements that you will find in the article.

The two dejected, homeless souls depicted on the cover are comforted by their invisible Friend. Beautiful in its three colors, and sure to make a lasting impression.

Ten or twelve other topics, any one of which may be of even greater interest to you, are featured in the July number. Consider carefully the following:

"My Kingdom Is Not of This World" Fifteen Facts Regarding the Sabbath The World Outlook The Great War in Heaven Christ's Example in Prayer Talking for Peace Our London Letter Current Topics

Think of It

All of this for a single dime. Even less if you subscribe for a year — $1.00, or 8 1-3c a copy.

You can keep pace with developments in the religious world, and understand the unfolding prophecies of our Lord and His servants of old, only by reading and studying such publications as the Signs of the Times Magazine.

He Buys Fifty

A Boston gentleman who has a class of fifty-two men in the Methodist Sunday school, was so impressed with a recent number, that he personally called on our representative, and bought fifty more for distribution among his class members.

Our representative nearest you will gladly forward your subscription to us.

SIGNS of the TIMES MAGAZINE

Mountain View, California

"ADVANCE GUARD" REDUCED

By Editor

The officers of the Young People's Society of Missionary Volunteers have selected ADVANCE GUARD as one of the books to be used in their Reading Course for the year beginning October, 1916. No doubt there are hundreds of people, both young and old, who would be glad to read this excellent series of missionary biographies, even though they do not belong to this society. Therefore we are making the same price to all during the year, which is seventy-five cents for the regular one dollar cloth bound book. A partial list of missionaries whose lives are sketched in this volume is as follows:

John Eliot The Mayhews David Brainerd Marcus Whitman Bartholomew Ziegenbalg Hans Egede Count Nicholas Ludwig Zinzendorf The Wesleys Christian Frederick Schwartz William Carey Henry Martyn Robert Morrison Adoniram Judson and Ann Judson

Gordon Hall Dr. John Scudder William Butler Robert Moffat and Mary Moffat David Livingstone William Taylor John Williams John Gibson Paton Allen Gardiner Guido F. Verbeck J. Hudson Taylor Alexander Duff William Miller

Each chapter has an engraved heading, which in nearly every instance gives a portrait of the subject of the sketch. This gives a feeling of acquaintance with the person described that will be greatly appreciated by the reader. The author, Prof. C. G. Howell, has been particularly fortunate in selecting such incidents in the lives of these men and women as combine the deepest interest with the greatest profit, and he has presented them with rare power and pathos.

The book contains nearly 350 pages. Remember that this Reading Course edition is identical with the regular dollar cloth bound style. Orders are now being filled at the reduced rate. Address your tract society

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, Mountain View, California PORTLAND, OREGON CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

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Consoling to the Elderly

A LATE issue of the London Times gives the names of the leading British, French, and German generals that are at the head of the armies in this terrific slaughter.

The average age of the British generals is fifty-three and nine tenths years. The youngest one is forty-six years of age, and the oldest is sixty. The forty-six-year-old general is the only one that is below fifty-one years of age.

The average age of the fifteen French generals is sixty and five tenths years. Ten of these French military leaders are sixty or above, the oldest one being sixty-seven years of age, and the youngest one forty-seven.

There are twenty-one German officers in the list, and their average age is sixty-three and five tenths years. Five of the German military leaders are seventy or over. Two of them are sixty-nine years of age, and only three of them are below sixty. These three are thirty-four, forty-seven, and fifty-one respectively.

It is too bad that the great ability of these strong old men is used so effectively in the work of destruction. The sentiment has prevailed, for a number of years, that old men could not do anything; but these facts show that this notion is a very sad and gruesome mistake.

If a man cultivates the preservation of his power as he should, by leading a careful, well regulated, and helpful life, there is no reason why he should not do the greatest part of his life work after he passes sixty; and for the Christian there is the inspiring promise:

"He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isa. 40: 29-31.

A Plan to Save the World

A PARAGRAPH sent out recently to the socialist press, telling how the world will be saved, reads as follows: "The system that fabulously enriches the few and impoverishes the many because the many are economically dependent upon the few — and this only because the few privately own the earth's resources and the means of life, which were intended for the equal use of all — has got to be destroyed; and when it is destroyed, and the new system, based upon industrial democracy and universal freedom, takes its place, and all men and women have the inalienable right to produce and enjoy on equal terms, vice and crime will vanish, peace and good will will prevail, and the sons of God will again shout for joy."

One of the fondest dreams of humanity is to devise some plan by which the whole human race will be made ideally good. Men have dreamed about it and talked about it all through the centuries; but the divine Book tells us that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved," aside from the name of Jesus. We may seek for many different plans of salvation; but we will find ultimately that God knew the human race, and knew how to devise a plan, and His plan is the only one that will bring success.

The paragraph quoted above says that "vice and crime will vanish," and "peace and good will will prevail," and that in consequence of this, "the sons of God will again shout for joy"; but the old Book says that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived"; that the last days will be made "perilous" because men are "lovers of self" and "lovers of money." The Book describes the conditions, and tells us that these conditions of greed which create perils will be the very worst in the last days.

We shall see which will stand the test, the dreams of men, or the statements of the divine Book.

Trailing in the Dust

By L. E. F.

"IN the first place, the divorce evil is not the divorce. Neither is the divorce the remedy for the divorce evil. The divorce evil is the evil, whatever it may be, which leads to divorce. Consequently the divorce never removes the evil. The divorce only alleviates — or aggravates — the unfortunate situation arising in some particular case from a previously existing evil."

And this pertinent statement from the Independent of May 1, 1916, is true. Divorce is rather a symptom than a disease, due to the ruthless abandonment of the divine principles of the marriage institution. The former standards of morality are trailing in the dust. The pitch of the moral tone is being lowered year by year.

Will Christians be swept along by the popular current? — They will if they do not "watch and pray." Sin loses its repulsiveness to those who constantly behold it.

God has forewarned us of these distressing conditions that are to characterize the "last days." "As it was in the days of Lot, . . . even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." Luke 17: 28-30.

The sins of Sodom will be, are being repeated. L. E. F.

Sponsor for the New Powderless Weapon

MRS. KATHRYN M. STANTON

An absolutely new type of gun, the invention of an American citizen, and sponsored by Mrs. Kathryn M. Stanton, of Whitestone, Long Island, is soon to be tried out by the United States government at Fort Hancock. The new weapon is operated without powder, is noiseless as well as smokeless, and hurls missiles with deadly aim. The missiles may be anything from an egg to a lump of dynamite. There is no barrel, and the gun can be operated by an untrained man or woman. It is simple of construction, and all of its parts can be made at any machine shop, with a cost of less than one tenth the price of a weapon using explosives. Mrs. Stanton is an ardent preparedness advocate, and she soon became interested in the gun, after the workings had been explained to her. She financed the building of a model, and personally superintended the making of the gun. The weapon was tried out at Sandy Hook, and the officers who were present pronounced the gun the weapon of future warfare. It is a purely mechanical device, and can be operated by any sort of motor, including hand power. To put it more scientifically, the harnessing of centrifugal force is what does the work. Any kind of engine will run the machine—steam, gasoline, or electric.

The first crude working model could be packed in a dry goods box. It threw shots to a distance of a mile and a half, so accurately that fifty shots struck inside of a two-foot ring. The power?—An electric motor of only one half of a horse power. With more powerful motors, there seems to be hardly any limit to what the new "gun" can do. It can be regulated to fire one shot a second or one shot an hour, as desired. A large model will be ready for trial in a few weeks.

The Greed for Gold

By L. E. F.

WITHIN two days (May 5 and 6), the price of sugar advanced 25c a hundred pounds, making the wholesale price $7.85 and the retail $8.35 a hundred. Commenting on this, one press dispatch says: "The reason for the continued and prospective advance of sugar is due to conditions that give the wealthy plantation owners of Hawaii and Cuba an opportunity to squeeze the consumer. They are availing themselves whole-heartedly of this opportunity. High ocean freights, small European production, and other circumstances due to the war, all claim a part just now in lining the pockets of sugar plantation owners with gold." And this is but one example of a like principle that has fastened its grip upon nearly every phase of the world industries.

Nineteen hundred years ago, the apostle Paul declared that "in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous." 2 Tim. 3: 1, 2. It is this greed for gold that constitutes the real yellow peril of to-day. It is this greed for gold that makes the last days "perilous." It is this greed for gold that causes so much distress in the lower half of the world, that inflames the passions of men without Christianity in their hearts, resulting in threats and deeds of retributive justice by the laboring classes. It is this greed for gold that will act as a spark in setting fire to the mighty powder barrel of force and lawlessness in the coming industrial conflict.

The miseries that will come upon the rich as predicted in James 5: 1-4, will be caused by the infuriated workers, the desperate idlers, the despairing, poverty-stricken wretches, who some day will refuse to tolerate longer such conditions. The times are growing more and more unsettled. It behooves every serious minded person to study earnestly these strained conditions, in the light of the Scriptures, and to obey the divine admonition to set the affection on things above, not on the world, with its golden god, which will soon be destroyed in the fire of the last days. L. E. F.

America’s Love of Pleasure

By L. E. F.

THERE are now 350 producing companies in the moving picture business, 17,127 moving picture exhibitions, at least twenty star actors on a contract of $1,000 a week, one actress who is receiving $200,000 a year, and a comedian whose net receipts are $600,000 a year. As high as $100,000 is spent on a single production. More than $350,000,000 is spent annually in the moving picture theaters of the United States.

Such are a few of the evidences of the appalling grip that pleasure has upon America, and the price the devotees will pay for their favorite pastimes and dissipations.

In the "last days," the inhabitants of earth will have this undeniable characteristic,—"lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." 2 Tim. 3: 1-5. L. E. F.