p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 38. (9/28/1904)

Earlier text: MARVELS OF MEMORY

The American Standard

Obscure verses and difficult phrases are made clear, and the precise thought of the writers rendered plain.

The American Standard

Revised Bible

“The best translation of the Bible ever published in the English language.”

Published in over 70 styles, prices 35c. to $12. Teachers’ Edition, $2.25 to $10. New Testament alone, 15c. to $2.50.

Sold by all booksellers. Catalogue and specimen pages sent free. Address

Thomas Nelson & Sons

Publishers

37 E. 18th Street, New York

Mountain View—10-Acre Lots for Sale

MOUNTAIN VIEW—10-Acre Lots for Sale—$160 to $225 per acre.

Two miles from R. R. Electric Cars projected through the tract from Stanford University to San Jose. Desirable for Fruit Vineyard or Homes. 32 Lots in tract, 14 of which are sold to neighbors. $50.00 per acre; cash balance, 1, 2, and 3 years, 7 per cent. Address, B. E. & R. V. Burns, Mountain View, Cal., or I. J. Truman, Call Building, San Francisco, Cal.

THE NORTH-WESTERN LINE RUSSIA-JAPAN ATLAS.

Send ten cents in stamps to R. R. Ritchie, No. 617 Market Street, San Francisco, for Russo-Japanese War Atlas, issued by the Chicago & North-Western Railway, three fine colored maps each 14x20, bound in convenient form for reference. The Eastern Situation shown in detail with tables showing relative military and naval strength and financial resources of Russia and Japan.

TOURIST CARS EAST VIA S. P. LINES

Personally Conducted Quickest Time Cheapest Rates

Your choice of a dozen routes

Through cars to—

Portland	Los Angeles	Salt Lake City
Omaha	Denver	Kansas City
St. Paul	Minneapolis	Chicago
St. Louis	Louisville	Cincinnati
Memphis	El Paso	San Antonio
Houston	New Orleans	Montgomery
Atlanta	Washington, D. C.

Remember these cars run through to above named cities without a change from Oakland or San Francisco. Our fast limited trains in connection with the above mentioned service.

C. T. FORSYTH

Div. Pass. Agent

12 San Pablo Ave., Oakland, Cal.

PHONE MAIN 543

What They Say About It

By Editor

LAST WEEK we presented the plan of a special series of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES to be issued during the month of November. We give below extracts from some of the correspondence we have received concerning it:—

“I do not know when I have read of any plan into which I can enter more heartily. It must commend itself to any individual who has any part to act in this work. You can count upon us in Upper Columbia straining every nerve and fiber of our being to place this matter in the hands of just as many people as we possibly can.” A. J. BREED, President Upper Columbia Conference.

“I am pleased. The plan is timely. All things are surely ready for such a movement among this people. We must scatter the principles of the Message like autumn leaves. Your plan, I truly believe, will accomplish much. We are a weak conference, but will work hard to push the issue to success. If the series is published I think I can use 500 sets.” A. J. HOWARD, President Arizona Conference.

“I approve highly of the advisability of such a series. I think that through its publication thousands will be brought to see the light of the Third Angel’s Message, thus hastening the coming of our Lord.” C. RASMUSSEN, Half Moon Bay, Cal.

“I believe the plan a good one, and will be productive, that is, will bear fruit. I will do what I can to spread the message by that means.” E. L. PAULDING.

“It would be a grand idea for November. Just the time.” C. W. SMOUSE. Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

“We think that as it is the Third Angel’s Message to be given to the world at this time that this special SIGNS should not only be issued, but given an unlimited circulation. We will do our best for it.” L. M. HODGE, San Jose, Cal.

“I think it would be a most excellent thing. The members of our church are all willing to help sell them. I think it would be a good way to do missionary work, and to place the truth in the hands of the people. They certainly are cheap, and I think everyone will be willing to pay the price.” MRS. JOHN PEARSON, Librarian, Palisades, Colo.

Remember this series is to be called the Third Angel’s Message series, that it will take the place of the regular November issues, that each number will have cover and will be fully illustrated. Prices are as follows:—

From one to four sets of four papers each . . . 20 cents a set

Five or more sets to single names and addresses . 15 " "

Five to twenty sets to one address . . . . 12 " "

Twenty-five or more sets to one address . . . . 10 " "

Special Offer

By ETHAN A. BROWN

Just to introduce and get before the public at once. “THE ORPHANS’ BENEFIT NON-ALCOHOLIC CRYSTAL VANILLA,” I’ll give the first one answering this ad., and enclosing 25 cts. for sample box, their choice of $5.00 worth of our subscription books. Enclose quarter and address.

ETHAN A. BROWN

1741 Lyon St. Des Moines, Iowa

Agents wanted. Agents’ price, $1.80 per dozen.

CO-OPERATION CORNER.

SAN FRANCISCO has a large harbor in which ships from almost every civilized nation load and unload. A good energetic young man is supplying these ships with our literature. At the present time he can use to good advantage 500 copies of the SIGNS each week, in addition to other literature which he already has. The publishers of this paper have donated a large number of books, pamphlets and tracts, and have also given him a club of fifty SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

Are there not many of our readers who will gladly donate towards the 450 copies still needed. Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, Cal.

Christ Is Coming Again

A study of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, showing prophecy already fulfilled, and proving that the generation now living is the last one before Christ shall come to this earth again.

Bible Students' Library No. 58, 94 pp.

Price 10 cents post-paid.

ADDRESS PUBLISHERS OF THIS PAPER.

Making Room for God

God can fill with His own fulness the heart that yields self. There is no room for Him in the heart which retains self.

Seek the Master After Falling

If you sin and fall, seek the Master. The One you have sinned against is the most merciful, most helpful, Friend you have.

He Who Counts Himself Sufficient Is Inefficient

He who in God’s work counts himself sufficient in himself, is utterly inefficient. Jesus said: “Apart from Me ye can do nothing.” “Our sufficiency is of God.”

The Choice of Life or Death

The choice of life or death rests, reader, with you. Will you remain under the thraldom of Satan, the prince of darkness and death? or will you choose the free service of Christ, the Prince of Life?

Japanese Patriotism and Christian Zeal

Would to God that Christians would show the same earnest zeal for their Lord and King that the Japanese manifest for their country and emperor. No example of patriotism and devotion of modern times equals that which is manifest in far Manchuria.

He Breaks It.

An exchange says:—

When a man cuts down twenty acres of clover or timothy on Saturday he puts himself where it is very easy to break the fourth commandment.

He not only puts himself where it is “easy to break the fourth commandment,” but he breaks it; for Saturday, or at least, all the light part of it, falls within the seventh day; and the fourth commandment declares, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8-11.

The Lynch Era

“The Lynch Era.”—Dr. A. M. Williams, of the Trinity Methodist Church, Savannah, Ga., in a recent sermon said:—

The future historian regarding our day in its relation to law can rightfully term it “the lynch era” of American history. The substitution of popular demand for conformity to previously-fixed rule of action is the essence of the lynch practise. The spirit of the times is to relegate law, its studied principles, its public sanctions, to the prejudices, the prepossessions, the whims, of the unorganized people. This is the rule of the mob or lynch law.

It takes two very opposite directions—violence when public opinion becomes angry, pushing aside all legal form; laxity when public sentiment seeks indulgence, pushing aside all legal exactions.

While the two directions seem distinctly opposite, they are really manifestations of the same evil. One is occasionally attracting the attention of the world to the helplessness of government. The other is constant, regular, subtle, concealing its enormity. Mayors declare it as policy in administration; chiefs predicate apologies on it for their failures in detecting crime; solicitors adopt it as axiomatic in handling their offices.

Jurors vindicate refusal to indict on such grounds. In the meantime, law is a plaything.

This is a sad, tho true, statement of present conditions. What is the primal cause?—Disregard of God and His requirements lie at the base of all lawlessness. The remedy?—Returning to God. Read Isaiah 59.

Faddist, Extremist, Radical

“Faddist,” “Extremist,” “Radical.”—A “faddist” is one who makes much of some particular whim, or fancy, or fad,—the fashion of a day. The fad may be utterly worthless, but the faddist emphasizes the fad above everything else. It may be a fashion in religion, a form in worship, an article of apparel or of diet; to the faddist everything else must have second place. The fad may be a good thing, but the faddist does not help it. He is too unstable in his fashions to help even a good thing.

An “extremist” is one who pushes a thing to the limit. Sometimes he is right; more frequently he is wrong. His theories do not balance. They are like the play of see-saw. He is either away up, or away down. He does not make a success as a missionary. He prejudices people by unbalanced presentation of his message. He may be a good man, but he is never a wise man. His natural disposition is as likely to carry him to a wrong extreme as to a right.

A “radical” is one who goes to the root of the matter, and holds to his principles, because he has gone to the root of them. Sometimes the faddist and extremist are erroneously called radical. Sometimes the radical is called a faddist and extremist, when he is neither. No Christian can afford to be either of the first two; he ought always to be the third. He ought always to be able to distinguish them. There are vital differences. The devil would make us a faddist or extremist. God would have His children to be strongly, wisely, truly, radical.

It Is Correct.

The Gospel Trumpet, in response to a question as to whether it were a sin to sell milk, butter, etc., on Sunday, just to favor people, thus speaks in part:—

It certainly would be no sin against God, for He has nowhere told us in His Word not to do this, or anything similar, on Sunday, or to regard that day as morally different from any other day of the week. The laws of our land, on the other hand, following the example of the Ten Commandments, which were divinely given for the moral government of, not a spiritual, but a fleshly, people, forbid the regular pursuit of business not deemed necessary to be done on Sunday. Where obedience to the laws of our land does not lead us to disobey a law of God to us, we should obey them. There are many earnest people whose zeal is not according to knowledge, who are going about striving to establish laws concerning Sunday, framed from the standpoint of the fourth commandment which only and always refers to Saturday. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” Ex. 20: 10.

Now this is absolutely true as regards the Bible and Sunday. The Bible gives no support to the Sunday Sabbath. But the Trumpet is wrong when it declares that Sunday laws in our land follow the example of the Ten Commandments. All civil Sunday laws have their root in paganism. Perverted Christianity has continued and fostered them; but the Decalogue has naught to do with them.

The Fearful Effects of Mob Law.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong. It is the doing of wrong that injures the character. Enemies may beat us helpless, but we are not injured if we come forth with no malignity, no feeling of revenge to mar, to disfigure, to paralyze, the soul. Dr. A. M. Williams, of Savannah, Ga., in a recent sermon shows how this evil principle works in mobs to the fearful hurt of those who yield to it. In referring to the lynching of some colored men, he says:—

All the arguments against lynching are illustrated in this affair. The fair name of the section and state is stained. The confidence in the efficiency in government is shocked. Faith in the good judgment and self-control of the common people is weakened. The effect on the participants is lamentable.

The mean victims suffered less than these men will. A few moments and their fearful agony is over, but a person can not take part in a lawless, an inhuman, an atrocious tragedy, even as an eye witness, without leaving an eternal scar on the soul.

These horrible details will be woven into the very retina of the eye, reverberated perpetually in the ear, fastened in memory, painted on the imagination, burned into the conscience, for the remainder of their natural lives. One account notes the presence of boys in knee pants. What a fearful education! The hellish effects will tell on their characters in ways past discovery.

Its immediate effects also show the wickedness of mob law. Two guiltless negroes already slain while others have been beaten. When lawlessness reigns, the innocent suffer as well as the guilty. Then add the demoralization of business and you recognize how prompt the evils of the lynch rule follow on its adoption.

It is a strange thing that Christians can not see this, nay, more, that they do not know this. It is strange that they can not leave results with Him who has said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” rather than to turn their own souls into a hell hatred and violence. It is strange that they can not see the education they are giving their children—the coming generation. We need not to ask, “What shall the harvest be?” It is self-evident.

Life and Health

By Editor

“Life and Health.”—These are two expressive words, full of cheer, of promise, of power, of usefulness, of happiness. For these two things men will give all else. Yet when possessed, they are so often little appreciated. So few persons know how to nourish either. Well, to those who are interested in the maintenance of life and health and who desire to become intelligent for themselves as well as for others, we commend the little magazine of the above name, published at 222 North Capitol Street, Washington, D. C. Life and Health is the Pacific Health Journal in a new home, under a new name, with a wider field, larger aspirations, and stronger inspirations; and therefore it ought to be much better and brighter than in times past. Then it was good. The August number has come to our table full of good things on Health and Home and Hygiene. Send for a sample copy; or, better, inclose 50 cents for a year’s subscription to the above address. It is much cheaper and more helpful than doctor’s bills.

The Sabbath as a Preventive of Idolatry

The Sabbath day being a memorial of creation and of the Creator’s rest, the faithful observance of it as holy unto the Lord must prove a sure preventive of idolatry. Remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy—that is, with the intent to keep it holy—is an every-day business, and necessarily keeps in mind the power and majesty of the true God. If the memory of the day to keep it holy be limited to the day itself, there will be six days in which the memory of God may become more or less obscured by the cares of the world. The inspired sentiment, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,” will find its complement in remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

A Reply on Sabbath Observance

“How to Observe the Sabbath?” is the title of a pamphlet of 24 large pages by Robert St. Clair of Rainham Center, Ontario. For years the Christian Herald, which, under Dr. Louis Klopsch, has done a large amount of good in various parts of the earth, has also given currency to more or less error in its editorial columns on one of the vital questions of the day, namely, the Sabbath question. This teaching has been mainly in response to correspondents. Mr. St. Clair has collected these and amply replied to them from the Bible, and also quoted from eminent authors on the principles involved. It may be obtained by inclosing 10 cents to the author to the above address.