The apostle Paul uses this expression when encouraging the Corinthian church to put forth personal effort for the salvation of others who when they received the gospel, would praise God on their behalf. See 2 Cor. 9:6-12.
"I would rather have an interest in the prayers of half a dozen devoted widows," said a man who was reproved by his brethren because of his liberality to the unfortunate, "than the best farm in the State of Massachusetts." Disinterested acts of benevolence in the cause of our Redeemer as surely bear fruit as performed. This is true in a special manner with those who are ever trying to enlighten others with the rays of divine light which they have received. The mission of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is to convey these rays of light and truth from God's word to souls who would obey God did they know his will. Already there are hundreds of precious souls, scattered in various parts of the world, who are praising God for these glorious truths, who first had their attention called to them by this paper. In the great day of reckoning many will rejoice in seeing that it was their efforts in remailing the SIGNS, with the blessing of God, which brought these persons to the fold of Christ. Those thus saved will not come from any one nation or people but be gathered from every part of the civilized world. "Give me a little stock in that enterprise" said a brother, when the matter of sending SIGNS to England was spoken of. "I want to see some souls saved from that country through my instrumentality."
A brother who is obliged to labor from six A. M. to seven P. M. at least five days in the week, was anxious to show me some letters which he had received. He uses ten copies of the SIGNS each week, and says he would like to use one hundred. He opened a small trunk in which were bundles of letters. The following are samples of many which he placed in my hands.
"The copies of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES have been received and read, not only by myself and husband but several of our boarders. We are all interested in them and would like very much to read them regularly and also to have more of that class of reading matter. We prefer it to the sensational literature read by a large class of the rising generation. We heartily thank you for the SIGNS, and hope soon to be able to remunerate you for them. Please write me in regard to them and by whom the expense of publication is and has been paid. Again thanking you, I remain yours, etc."
The above is from Massachusetts, and the following is from England: "I was very glad indeed to receive a letter from you the other week, bearing date of Sept. 7th, and thank you very much for your very kind wishes for my spiritual welfare. I am glad at all times to hear of the well doing of a brother in Christ. You may ever depend upon my prayers for your success. May God bless all your labors to further his cause. I read the SIGNS regularly. I feel deeply interested in it, so also does my friend the Rev. Mr. ———. I read with much pleasure the journal on health. I have given them to friends to read who are also interested in them."
We cannot safely conclude that good is not accomplished when no response is received. It is our business to sow the seed; to sow it in tears, trusting in God for the fulfillment of the promise that we shall return with joy bearing our sheaves with us. If we receive encouraging letters in response to those we send, we will rejoice; if not, we pray that God will still bless and give success, knowing that "as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall the word of the Lord be that goeth out of his mouth, it shall not return unto him void, but it shall accomplish that which he please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto he send it."
CLOSE OF THE VOLUME
WITH this issue volume six of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is brought to a close. The average number printed weekly has been about nine thousand four hundred. This speaks well for a religious paper advocating unpopular Bible truths. The improvements which were made in the size and form of volume six and the very low club rates at which it was furnished met the approval of our missionary workers, to whose efforts its wide circulation is largely due, and the experiment of two editions has proved that our people were more anxious to have a good paper than to have a cheap paper.
The eight-page edition, having decreased to about two thousand copies, is discontinued, and all who have subscribed for it will receive the regular twelve-page paper in its place. We leave it to the liberality of those receiving clubs whose term of subscription extend into 1881, whether they will make up to us a part of the amount lost by furnishing them a larger and better paper than they have paid for.
The terms of the SIGNS are as favorable as possible. Two dollars a year is very low for a twelve-page paper filled each week with new matter. In most religious papers several pages are devoted to advertisements which, while they rob the readers, are a great source of income to the publishers.
In order to encourage missionary work, the SIGNS is furnished in clubs of five or more to one address at $1.50 a year.
The season of the year for the greatest activity in missionary work has fully come. During the leisure of winter and the long evenings is the time to call the attention of the people to the importance of Bible truths. Now is the time for a general and united effort. We hope to see the circulation of the SIGNS greatly increased during 1881.
It is desirable that new subscriptions should commence with the new volume. It is also important that our old patrons, whose subscriptions close with this number, should renew at once so they will not lose two or three of the first numbers. Be in season.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
OUR EX-PRESIDENTS.
WE have noticed with considerable interest the animated discussion which has been going on of late as to what disposal should be made of our ex-presidents. They seem heretofore to have been regarded very much as the little girl did her wax doll when she was obliged to sit and hold it all day because she could find no place nice enough in which to lay it. A more practical, and to our mind correct, view of the matter we have nowhere seen than the following from a leading New York paper:—
"The newspapers must have something to talk about, and plans for pensioning ex-presidents or making life senators of them are as harmless topics as any they are likely to hit upon, but neither plan is likely to serve any other purpose than that of a day or week's discussion in the political press. As to pensioning, there is no reason why an ex-president should not earn his daily bread like the rest of us, and there are many reasons why he should. Labor is honorable, idleness is ignoble. The spectacle of an ex-president at work in productive industry would itself be an incentive and an inspiration to industry, while the spectacle of a nation retiring its ex-presidents from toil would be a kind of public endorsement of the aristocracy of idleness as demoralizing as it would be un-republican. The proposition to make them life senators is more specious, but not more sound."
"The Senate is a representative body of the separate States, and, being such, no one can rightly become a member who does not represent a State. What State does an ex-president represent? Obviously none as such. If the State at any one time give a majority for the party opposed to that of which he is a member, it is clear that he does not represent his State. But who does the ex-president represent? Obviously not the people, for the people have already elected some one else to fill the place which he once occupied. The ex-president, therefore, represents neither his State nor the people. He only represents himself and those who may think with him; and so far he is on a plane with any other citizen. As a representative, therefore, an ex-president is not entitled to a seat in the Senate."
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
By J. H. Waggoner
THOUGH circumstances, with which the readers of the SIGNS are sufficiently acquainted, compel me to be absent for a season from the Office, I have not ceased from my labors for the paper, nor lost any of my interest in it. I have of late had opportunities to learn, in person, how the paper is esteemed by the missionary workers and friends of the cause in general. I am very happy to know that it is not losing in interest or in usefulness. It is doing a great work, the importance and extent of which will never be fully realized until we “shall know as we are known.”
It is my intention to return to the Office as soon as the condition of my health will warrant; and I would not now absent myself did I not know that it is the only means by which I shall be able to serve the work successfully in the future. In the meantime I must congratulate the readers of the SIGNS in its continued interest and prosperity. It is my daily prayer that God will bless and guide those who are laboring so faithfully in Oakland, and I ask all who feel an interest in the paper to join me in this prayer. God has blessed them, and he will bless them.
I would say a word to the friends in California in behalf of the coming volume. At this period in the work of the third angel’s message the possibilities of a year are immense, and we cannot afford to let such opportunities pass unimproved. Let us stand by our paper which has been blessed to the good of so many who are now rejoicing in the present truth.
God is favoring us with great opportunities. He gives us a season of peace and quietness in which to labor for his truth, and for the salvation of our fellow-men. In the light of prophecy, we must look for a change not long hence. The nations are making great preparations for the coming “time of trouble,” which they all dread, but which none can avert. Dan. 12:1; Jer. 25:15–33. But the most important preparation is that which God’s people are making, that they may “stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.” Eze. 13, etc. And he works best for himself who works most for his fellow-men. Now is our opportunity; and let us work in faith, imitating our Saviour who was not discouraged (Isa. 42:1–4,) though, to all human appearance, his efforts made but little impression upon the world. Results are with God. Trust in him; delight thyself in him and in his work, “and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
J. H. WAGGONER.
Newton and Voltaire on Railway Traveling
In the SIGNS of December 9, there was published a short paragraph entitled, "Newton and Voltaire on Railway Traveling," credited to Rev. J. Craig. It was merely an extract, and given as such, and for the statements contained therein, the editors of this paper are not responsible, while they have every reason to believe them true. But the San Francisco Chronicle's religious column editor has doubts of the correctness of Mr. Craig's statements, as might be expected, and very inconsistently challenges the editor of the SIGNS to prove them. And more, it challenges us to give "the passage in Daniel (or 'Revelations') predicting railway traveling at the rate mentioned, with chapter and verse." This challenge is mere infidel braggadocio, for there is no intimation in the paragraph referred to, of the existence of such a passage anywhere. There is the simple statement that—
"Sir Isaac Newton wrote a work upon the prophet Daniel, and another upon the book of Revelation; in one of which he [Newton] said that in order to fulfill certain prophecies before a certain date was terminated, namely, one thousand two hundred and sixty years, there would be a mode of traveling of which the men of his time had no conception; nay, that the knowledge of men would be so increased that they would be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour."
The editor of the SIGNS is also challenged to mention the volume and page of the passage in Voltaire, where Newton is called "a poor dotard," for expressing the sentiment accredited to him above. Now we do not presume to know upon what authority Mr. Craig based his assertions; there are, no doubt, authentic sayings of Voltaire not in any of his own published works. But we would ask the editor of the Chronicle if he holds himself ready to furnish vouchers for all the statements made in selected articles in his paper, even though they bear the indelible impress of truth on the face. Or, is the unreasonable demand made in this particular instance merely to cast a shadow of doubt upon the genuineness of the Bible prophecies?
That railroad travel is a subject of prophecy, and a sign of the day of God's "preparation," may be seen by a reference to Nahum 2:3, 4.
God’s Presence in Trial
GOD did not take up the three Hebrews out of the furnace of fire, but he came down and walked with them in it. He did not remove Daniel from the den of lions; he sent his angel to close the mouths of the beasts. He did not, in answer to the prayer of Paul, remove the thorn; but he gave him sufficiency of grace to sustain him.
True Penitence and Pride
We are often more ashamed than grieved and humbled for our sins. Our own consciousness of them and of God's being privy to them, does not pain us near so much as it would to have them known to others; see, therefore, whether what you call your penitence, is not more pride than anything else.
The Dignity of Self-Mastery
THE noblest thing on earth is the man who rises to the dignity of self-mastery.
Appointments.
CHURCH QUARTERLY MEETINGS.
THE church quarterly meetings will be held Sabbath and Sunday, Jan. 1, 2. On Sabbath the list of members should be read by the clerk, and each member present is expected to respond by testimony. Those who cannot be present should send in a letter that all may be heard from at this time. Evening after the Sabbath or on Sunday the church T. and M. meeting will be held, at which time the reports of labor will be handed in by the T. and M. members and the one-third or donations paid in. This will also be a proper time to “bring in the tithes” that have been laid by during the quarter.
DISTRICT QUARTERLY MEETINGS.
By Editor
The quarterly meetings of the several districts will be held as follows:—
No 1 at Santa Rosa,.................... Jan. 8-9.
" 3 " St. Helena......................... " "
" 4 " San Pasqual...................... " "
" 5 " Woodland.......................... " "
" 6 " Chico.................................. " "
" 7 " Oakland............................... " "
" 9 " Santa Ana............................ " "
" 2 " Lemoore.............................. " 15-16.
" 8 " San Francisco..................... " "
We hope to have a report from every church in each of these districts, and that each district will be prompt to report in time for the State quarterly meeting.
STATE QUARTERLY MEETING.
THE State quarterly meeting of the California T. and M. Society, will be held at Oakland, on the fourth Sabbath and Sunday in January. As this is the commencement of another year and the best season for missionary work, we would urge that as many of the directors and brethren be present as possible, that plans may be decided upon for work during the coming year.
M. C. ISRAEL, Vice President.
Business Department
By Editor
RECEIVED FOR THE "SIGNS."
$2.00 EACH. Almira Preston 8-1, H H McKinstry 8-1, Maria Young 8-1, Dr M G Kellogg 7-37, Mrs Mary Gould 8-1, Mrs Arnold 8-1, Geo H Roberts 8-1, M A Eldridge 8-1, Mrs John Cox 8-1, Betsey Healey 8-1, C P Ridemour 8-1, Lucy Gardiner 7-6, Mrs A P Wheelock 8-1, A J Beeler 8-1, W H Sewart 8-1, C S Wilson 8-1, C S Towers 8-1, Mrs H Everts, 8-1, Mina Kiener 8-1, Harriet E Carr 8-1, S M Moore 7-23.
$1.50 EACH. J W Owen 7-17, Onarga Public Library 8-1, James Watt 7-43, Homer P Draper 8-1, Bertha Farnum 8-1, Charles Lea 8-1, Y M C A Medina N Y 8-1, Alden Hetherty, 8-1, G Newcomb 8-1.
$1.00 EACH. E C Slawson 7-29, A C Huntington 7-24, John A Hardy 7-24, Almon D Farrar 7-47, Mary A Remley 7-30, Mrs M E James 7-36, Elden Mahaffey 7-24, T A Myers 7-24, J St Nichols 7-24, Benjamin Souther 7-24.
MISCELLANEOUS. J S Green 20.00, 8-1, J N Loughborough (sent by Mrs M J Green) 15.00, 8-1, C Turnipseed 6.00, 8-1, James Bowles 3.50, 7-43, Thomas Francis 75c, 7-24, John Wair 75c, 7-24, Allie Coombs 3.00, 8-1, J E Graham 4.00, 7-24, J B Hall 45.00, 8-1, J E Morgan 4.00, 8-1, Mrs M D Morgan 4.00, 8-1, Mrs Anna Haynes 8.00, 8-1, Zerah Brooks 3.00, 8-1, W H Eggleston 3.00, 8-1, Wm Lucas 3.00, 8-1, L P Baldwin 3.00, 8-1, Mrs M — Fryer 5.63, 7-12, J W Morsman 50c, 7-12, Florence Butcher 45.00, 8-1, J L Decker 4.50, 8-1, Wm Arnold 3.60.
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
By Editor
PUBLISHED WEEKLY, AT OAKLAND, CAL., FOR THE
MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS.
A twelve-page Religious Family Paper, devoted to a discussion of the Prophecies, Signs of the Times, Second Coming of Christ, Harmony of the Law and Gospel, with Departments devoted to Temperance, The Home Circle, The Missionary Work, and the Sabbath-School.
PRICE PER YEAR, . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2.00
In clubs of five or more copies to one address, to be used for Missionary work, each . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.50
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
—OR—
REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.
MRS. ELIZA THAYER, Secretary N. E. Tract Society, So. Lancaster, Mass.
ELDER J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, Ravenswood, Shirley Road, Southampton, England.
MRS. A. P. VAN HORN, Beaverton, Or.
OBITUARY.
By W. M. Healey
GRANT.—Died at Walnut Creek, Contra Costa Co., Cal., Dec. 13, 1880, Bro. Melvin Grant, aged 22 years, 4 months, and 13 days. Bro. Grant has been a patient sufferer for several years, from that dread disease consumption, but patiently endured and fell asleep in Jesus, in full hope of the resurrection. Funeral services were held by the writer in the Methodist church at Walnut Creek.
W. M. HEALEY.
ITEMS OF NEWS.
—Electric light is to be tried for lighting the Hoosac Tunnel.
—In Paris $120,000 is paid out annually for sweeping the streets.
—It is estimated that 100,000 Canadians immigrate annually to this country.
—The son of Abraham Lincoln was one of the Presidential electors of Illinois.
—The 179 Government life-saving stations were the means of saving 1,980 lives.
—Broadway, New York, is being lighted with electricity a few weeks on trial.
—Mrs. Garfield refuses to have her photograph sold or her portrait engraved.
—The Maine rivers froze earlier than usual this winter, and millions of logs were locked in the ice.
—The Pope has presented 50,000 francs to the sufferers by the earthquake at Agram, Austria.
—Illinois will be out of debt at the end of this year, and have $100,000 to begin the New Year with.
—Aroostook county, Me., has 22 starch factories, which will consume 135,000 bushels of potatoes this season.
—There are only five ministers in the Spurgeon family—Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, his father, brother and two sons.
—The American Israelite states that there are only two Jewish synagogues in the United States wholly free from debt.
—Two new transatlantic cables are projected, to be used in connection with the American Union Telegraph Company.
—The sale of the Penny Testament in England, the cheapest edition ever published, has already reached nearly 500,000.
—The San Francisco Board of Health has petitioned Congress for a grant of land on Angel Island, for quarantine grounds.
—Hon. D. A. McKinley, a prominent merchant of San Francisco, has been nominated by the President as U. S. Consul to Honolulu.
—Spurgeon will spend the winter at his favorite resort in Mentone, Southern France. His health is said to be slowly but surely failing.
—Maj. Whittle and Mr. McGranahan are holding meetings in Glasgow, Scotland. They will devote January to Edinburgh and February to Dublin.
—On Wednesday last, Healy and Walsh were tried at Cork, Ireland, for intimidating farmer Manning. They pleaded not guilty, and were acquitted.
—The directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad have completed arrangements with a Syndicate of American and foreign bankers for the completion of the road.
—The loss of life among the fishermen of Gloucester, Mass., for the year has been forty-one, which is two more than in 1877, and six more than in 1878, but smaller than for any other year since 1866.
—A woman was arrested in Brooklyn on a charge of having too many husbands. It was proved that she rejoiced in not less than fourteen, whom she inveigled into marriage in order to rob them.
—It is proposed to divide Dakota Territory, and admit the southern part into the Union as a State. The population of the new State would be about 100,000, and that of the Territory about 36,000. The former would include about 80,000 square miles, and the latter 70,000.