p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 41. (10/19/1904)

General Conference Recommendations

By Editor

At the General Conference council recently held at College View, Neb., plans for a mighty missionary campaign were inaugurated, and The Third Angel’s Message Series of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES was specifically recommended as a campaign document.

How It Is Being Received

BEFORE deciding definitely as to the advisability of issuing The Third Angel’s Message Series of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES in four sections, we corresponded with a large number of Conference officers and experienced workers. Their replies were in almost every instance not only favorable, but enthusiastic.

Listen to Some of Their Brevities

“I am pleased with the arrangement, and shall be glad to do all in my power to make this effort a blessing to our people and the world.” A. G. DANIELLS, Pres. Gen. Conf.

“We shall do what we can to help in the circulation of these numbers of the SIGNS.” W. W. PRESCOTT.

“We here in New York will do all we can for the circulation of the four special numbers of the SIGNS. The scheme is a good one, and well planned. It seems to me that the combined circulation should reach a million. I will do all I can personally for it, and induce others so to do.” S. H. LANE, Pres. New York Conf.

“I am very much interested in the movement for the special issues of the SIGNS. We shall do our best to arouse the people of the Missouri Conference to take hold of the work of circulating these special issues with the enthusiasm their importance demands.” R. S. PORTER, Pres. Missouri Conf.

“I was real interested in noting the outline of the special numbers of the SIGNS which are to appear during the month of November. I am sure that great good will follow from this effort to place the Third Angel’s Message before the people. I do not know when I have seen a plan which strikes me with so much favor as this one—much more so than the single issues which have been published heretofore.” F. M. Burg, Pres. W. Ore. Conf.

“Such a series will be productive of untold good. Think I can use a hundred sets.” H. G. THURSTON.

“I feel that these four numbers of the SIGNS will have a wide circulation, and they ought to accomplish a world of good. I will do all I can to help the matter along.” W. S. SADLER.

“I think you have come nearer to the ideal thing in this effort than ever before, because people will sell just as many sets as they will single numbers, and will, of course, do that much more good.” DAVID PAULSON.

“This series fills the greatest need of the hour, and is something for which I have hoped and prayed. I can use a hundred and fifty sets.” GEO. H. CRAMER.

“I believe the same spirit that is guiding the SIGNS out of the city is leading in this Third Angel’s Message series. May God strengthen your hands for the effort. I can use fifty sets.” J. A. STARR.

“There is not the slightest doubt but that your effort will receive hearty co-operation from our people and the public. Think we can use two hundred fifty sets.” E. H. HALL.

“I sold six hundred of the Capital and Labor number, and think I can use five hundred sets of this.” J. H. Kraft.

“I think the series will sell well. We believe we can use two hundred and fifty of each number, or a thousand in all.” R. MARTIN.

“You can count on me doing all I can. Our church will probably want one hundred and fifty sets.” JUDD H. SIMPSON.

“Think I can use a hundred or more sets.” A. KITTILSON.

“We are very deeply interested in this work. We hope, with the blessing of the Lord, to do more in Colorado than we have ever done in the past. We are going to aim at the twenty thousand mark for each of the four special issues in the city of Denver alone.” MEADE MACGUIRE.

“We ought to use as many sets of The Third Angel’s Message series as we used copies of the Capital and Labor number.” N. P. DIXON.

“Am glad to hear of the plan. I can use four hundred sets.” MARINA WHITMAN.

“We think it the finest thing yet thought of, and believe we can use four hundred sets.” MELISSA BANTA.

No Place for a Peace Palace.

This is not a world of peace. After the great Peace Congress at The Hague Andrew Carnegie gave the Dutch Government $1,500,000 for a Peace Palace for the permanent court of International Arbitration. Two years have passed, and no choice of a site has been made, nor has the plan of the building been selected. The government can find no place for it in The Hague, and every other site suggested by the commission has been disapproved by the authorities. It is fitting, for men may cry, “Peace; peace; when there is no peace.” In no country of earth is there more than outward peace, which may be broken in a moment by the turbulent passions within. The truest palaces of peace in this world are the hearts where Christ and His righteousness reigns. By-and-by, when the King comes, He will usher us into a kingdom and a city where, and only where, the inhabitants shall “delight themselves in the abundance of peace,” because His “people shall be all righteous.”

Justice and the White Woman’s Problem

By Editor

A Southern writer in the New York Times declares that the real question in the South is not the race problem, but “The White Woman’s Problem.” And he declares that women can not go out into the forests or along the highways alone unmolested and without fear; that they must have a bodyguard, to protect them from the insults or assaults by wanton, brutal negroes; that these outrages are increasing alarmingly; that women are practically imprisoned because of the fear of assault, and hence the resentment on the part of whites toward the colored. But lynching and cruelty does not seem to help it; why not let justice try it awhile? We believe that orderly, law-abiding procedure would greatly help the matter, and the better class of the colored people would also help matters by doing all on their part to bring the guilty ones among their own race to justice. Let the issue be the protection of chastity, life, and property on the part of all law-abiding citizens, whether white or black.

Too Late.

Only one minute too late! only one-sixtieth of an hour! only one of seventy heart beats! It is such a little bit of time; but O, how potent with eternal realities. A little extra time in getting ready; a few words of explanation which might have been left with God, a failure to calculate slower progress on account of the mud, and the station is reached one minute too late; a congregation is disappointed; and some soul fails to hear the word of life which may have helped on to the kingdom, and all because the preacher was one minute too late for his train. O, the importance of the minutes of time. God gives opportunity to speak a word to a soul in sin. He moves upon your heart to-day; and, as He never works by halves, He moves upon the soul to receive your message of warning, or encouragement, and always of love. But, when the moment comes, you hesitate, and wait; the minute passes, and the opportunity is gone. The king was slow in granting the pardon, or the messenger dallied by the way, and the news reached the place of execution one minute too late. Duty, insistent, clamorous duty, awaits, demands; but you take your own time; the Master calls some one else, and your character and perhaps a life-time opportunity is forever gone, simply because, through love of ease or stubbornness, you were one minute too late. O soul, the time to act is now.

Hast thou duty to be done? Do it now. Do not wait another sun, Do it now. Speak the word or do the deed, Help the fallen, meet his need, To the Master's voice give heed; Do it now.

Do not let the moment pass; Heed it now; Heeded not, ’twill bring, alas, Thorns on brow. Use it now for God and man; Raise the burden, lift the ban; Help as only duty can, Do it now.

“Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Regarding Unordered Copies

By Editor

We send no papers from this office to individuals without pay in advance. When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the "Signs" are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon to pay for them. Please read the papers you may receive, and hand them to your friends to read.

Our Authority Is the Bible

By Editor

Our authority is the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. When the Common (King James) Version, the Revised Version, or the American Standard Revised Version is used, quotations will not be designated in reference. Any Bible quotation in this paper, therefore, differing from the Common Version, unless otherwise indicated, will be from one of the two revised versions, usually the American Standard.

Four Special Issues Announced

By Editor

Please read carefully our announcement on pages 14 and 15. These four specials will contain many other articles not there noted.

True Greatness and the Marriage Supper

We have received from the author, Pastor A. E. Place, of South Lancaster, Mass., a beautiful little booklet entitled, “True Greatness, an Address.” It has been printed by request of those who heard it. The first edition consists of 100 copies, of which this is No. 95. It is printed by the South Lancaster Printing Co., and is very creditable work indeed. The address is most helpful and inspiring to all who would be truly great. “The Marriage Supper of the Lamb” is a neatly printed tract of 32 pages, price, 2 cents, by the same author, a development of that precious text, Rev. 19:9.

Growing Insanity

Three noted Chicago alienists, those who have to do with mental diseases, declare that we are fast becoming a nation of lunatics, and that Chicago is the worst afflicted of any city in the world. These men are V. H. Podstata, Superintendent of the Dunning Insane Asylum; Dr. James P. Lynch, and Dr. Oscar A. King. They are corroborated by Judge Orrin Carter, who presides over the court in which the insane are given trial. Dr. Podstata says that one person in every one hundred and fifty in Chicago is insane, and one in every five predisposed to insanity. One of the most popular songs of the year in Chicago is called, “O, Gee! Ain’t It Great to Be Crazy?” Dr. James P. Lynch sees the earth one big lunatic asylum in 700 years unless conditions change. “Insanity has increased 300 per cent. in fifty years, and it has increased half of that in ten years,” said he. “Drink, drugs, speculation, worry, overwork, are some of the causes of insanity. The conditions of women must change in order to have a healthy race. Either America will become a childless nation or the list of insane will swell because of the nervous, weakling offspring of the nerve-wrecked mothers.” And there is more to be said.

Question Corner

A Word to Our Questioners.—It is easy to ask questions, sometimes from mere curiosity, sometimes to get an answer to meet an opponent, sometimes to trap the editor if possible, sometimes to get somebody else to bear our responsibility in deciding a question,—in other words, to be conscience for the questioner,—sometimes because we really desire to know what the Lord says, what is truth. It is easy to ask a few questions which would take as many columns to answer. This is done thoughtlessly, we are sure. For instance, some will ask for an explanation of the last eight chapters of Ezekiel, the last three chapters of Zechariah, and three or four other questions in the same breath. Sometimes there is only one point in a scripture that is not clear, but that is not indicated. Now the Question Corner is limited to direct questions which can be briefly answered, to which simple explanations can be given which take but a few words. These answers must be such as we believe will be of interest to other readers and profitable to many. When an answer is much better given in a tract, pamphlet, or book, we may refer the reader wholly to that. Some of these questions we may prefer to answer by mail, and therefore please enclose stamp. There are times when other work crowds letter writing into the background; we hope our correspondents will be patient and wait.

1575.—Does God Compel?

Does God use a compelling power as in the case of Moses (Ex. 4:11, 12), of Jonah, and in Paul's case? J. C.

We do not know what particular things are referred to in the cases of Jonah and Paul; is it the way God sent them? If so, they could have refused, even as Moses might have refused. They were all pledged servants of God; and God placed before them strongly their duty; yet every one could have refused. It is expressly said of Moses that he chose affliction with the people of God. God will do all in His power consistent with our nature and free will and His love to induce us to choose the right way, but the choice must be ours.

1576.—God's Throne.

In last Sabbath's lesson the question occurs, “Will God's throne be there?” Rev. 21:3. We would like to know if this is the Father or Son. F. O. O.

The context would indicate that it is the throne of the Father. “Behold,” says the heavenly voice; a new thing is to be seen,—“the tabernacle [dwelling-place] of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, . . . and God Himself shall be with them.” “And the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein.” Rev. 22:3. How supremely fitting it is that the place where the Son of God suffered and died should be the most exalted in all the universe. Where sin's curse lay the heaviest, there God's grace will restore it, a fitting place for His throne. The time of Rev. 21:3 is after the millennium; 1 Cor. 15:24 is before the thousand years.

1577.—Let the Dead Bury Their Dead.

Who are the dead spoken of in Matt. 8:22? M. H.

The first dead are those spiritually dead to the great work Christ was doing. The latter dead are the physically dead. Leave those who were dead to Christ's work to do the necessary things, but let those alive to Christ's work attend to that.

1578.—Hide a Multitude of Sins. James 5:20.

“Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.” James 5:20. Do the hidden sins here mean that of the sinner or of the person that converts the sinner? M. H.

It is the sinner who is converted. The one who under God does this work is assumed to have had his sins forgiven. Only Christ can truly hide the sins; no work that man can do will accomplish this. The converting of the sinner brings him to the great Cleanser.