p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 31. (8/11/1914)

Earlier text: THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD

Twenty Lincoln Highways from Sea to Sea

By Editor

A One Thousand Dollar Automobile Every Four Hundred Feet on Each Thoroughfare

REPRESENTS THE NATION'S LIQUOR WASTE FOR ONE YEAR

This is the miniature of the front cover illustration of the special Temperance Campaign Number of the

Signs of the Times

Dated September 1, 1914

A Practical Temperance Journal prepared especially for the Temperance Campaigns this fall.

Sixteen pages of the livest temperance matter in word and picture, now ready for mailing. Designed to retail at five cents a copy. Cost to agents, 2½c a copy in lots of forty or more.

AGENTS WANTED EVERYWHERE

Address your depository, or

SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, California

An Old Woman’s Lament

By Mary Alice Hare Loper, M. S.

By MARY ALICE HARE LOPER, M. S.

I NEVER see sech sickly folks As walk the airth to-day. They've nearly every blessed one Got somethin' wrong, they say.

One has the gout, rheumatics one, An' one has "headache so." Neuralgy has grown populare, An' backache's all the go.

When I was young, we used to think O' sickness as disgrace. In talkin' with the people then, Small ailments found no place.

But you are out o' fashion now Unless you feel somewhere A pain or ache, with some big name To make it populare.

Some people wonder why it is That everybody's sick. The problem ain't so awful hard As some in 'rithmetic.

I never studied cause an' 'fect, But one thing's very plain: We didn't use to live as though We's catchin' some fast train.

The people went to bed o' nights, An' got up with the sun. They didn't turn the day around, As many now have done.

A weddin' breakfast didn't mean You'd wait till afternoon, An' dinners warn't served, in them days, By candle-light nor moon.

The women didn't squeeze their waists, An' wonder why it was Their stomachs didn't quite accord With all o' nature's laws.

We didn't eat all times o' day, Much less all times o' night. There warn't much use for doctors then, To fix the stomach right.

But now the doctors fairly swarm — To remedies no end; An' on 'em, every blessed one, Poor creatures now depend.

They think they've solved the mystery Why everybody's ill, An' then they've got the remedy That's "sure to cure" — or kill.

They flourish dictionary words, An' tell in glowin' terms About "backtery" an' "toemains" An' multitudes o' "germs."

Well, mebbe "backtery" does explain These backaches that we meet, An' "toemains" tells the cause o' corns On everybody's feet.

They boil the milk so as to kill The "germs" before you eat 'em; An' to make ice an' water, too, Most healthful, you should heat 'em.

They take the poetry all out O' songs which childhood learns. The dear old oaken bucket now Is covered o'er with "germs."

How sweet the blest assurance given, When here we say farewell, There surely are no "germs" in heaven, For ev'rybody's well!

ONE MEAL A DAY

By Mary Alice Hare Loper, M. S.

Perpetual Motion of the American Stomach — “Meals at All Hours”

By MARY ALICE HARE LOPER, M. S.

INFANTS are taught to expect food as a remedy not only for feelings of hunger, but for bumps and pin-scratches. Children learn to bury their sorrows and disappointments in ice-cream cones, pop-corn bags, and candy sacks. Young people but follow the example of those of older years when at all hours they patronize public eating places and drinking places, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the stomach sometimes needs rest. We hear of overworked bodies and overworked brains, but overworked stomachs are much more common.

A CHIEF SOURCE OF DYSPEPSIA

Eating between meals is a pernicious practise of which the American people are almost universally guilty; and this is one of the chief reasons why the people of our beloved country are to-day a nation of dyspeptics, and are fast filling untimely graves.

There is some consolation in observing that attention is called more and more to the fact that success in infant feeding depends not alone upon the quality and the quantity of food taken, but also upon the regularity with which it is administered. And this rule holds good with those of older years. There is a vast difference between eating to live and living to eat. One is a law of life, which calls for a reasonable expenditure of means; the other is a law of death, whose expenditures are unlimited. It is appalling to think of the vast sums of money wasted, and the amount of disease incurred, as the result of gross transgression of nature’s laws in regard to eating and drinking.

THE HABIT OF NIBBLING

Children are permitted to acquire the habit of nibbling all day long, like squirrels. When too young to share only the family meals, instead of having simple lunches at proper times, they are encouraged to cultivate the one-meal-a-day tendency, adding a new course whenever anything accessible appeals to the appetite. America’s bill for confectionery alone is in the neighborhood of one hundred eighty million dollars a year.

“MEALS AT ALL HOURS”

This is distinctively an age of eating and drinking. The significant sign, “Meals at All Hours,” has become very familiar; while ice-cream parlors, candy kitchens, lunch counters, pop-corn and peanut venders, fruit stores, tamale parlors, etc., afford ample opportunity for the masses of one-meal-a-day adherents to have their multitudinous wants supplied. When very warm, people carelessly take ice-cold drinks — a practise which has so often resulted in sudden death that some one has tritely said:

Full many a man, both young and old, Has gone to his sarcophagus By pouring water, icy cold, Adown his hot esophagus.

Pure water, rightly employed, is one of the necessities of the human system, and it should be taken between meals. Generally speaking, it is not used as abundantly as it should be. But many of the popular drinks are injurious because of the poisons they contain. This is true of all alcoholic drinks, and of some of the so-called soft drinks. Persons who totally abstain from alcoholic liquor are said to live, on an average, nearly fourteen years longer than the moderate drinker, and thirty years longer than the hard drinker. America’s bill for alcoholic drinks in one year reaches the enormous sum of more than two billion dollars. May the death-dealing liquor traffic be wiped from the fair face of every state where the matter is submitted to the people at the coming election.

Everybody knows that the drink habit is very difficult to cure. We should remember that the “eat” habit, also, may become difficult to cure.

A HABITUAL EATER

I once knew a habitual eater whose appetite had become so perverted, and whose form so emaciated, that he had a constant craving for food, and would resort to strategy, if need be, to secure it. His physicians could not control his appetite; and when he should have been in the very prime of life, he died, a victim of one of the worst forms of dyspepsia.

REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED

It is a publicly recognized fact that the mere announcement, “Refreshments will be served,” will insure a crowd at almost any free entertainment. Dyspeptics learn that for a time they can eat and drink almost anything they wish, within certain limitations, and escape pain temporarily by the use of some patent nostrum or some one’s favorite prescription which has a paralyzing effect locally. Many Adams and Eves to-day partake of forbidden fruit, while they listen credulously to the same old story, “Ye shall not surely die.” It is surprising how long nature will endure such abuse — how long some persons live who continually transgress the laws of their being.

IT WOULD KILL PET DOGS

Christmas, new year’s day, fourth of July, Thanksgiving day, and individual birthdays, are especially observed as days of feasting. If fashionable women were to feed their premium pet dogs as children are fed, they would expect them to die. It is barbarous to punish a child for becoming fretful and cross after being fed upon a murderous diet. The condition of the stomach in childhood determines largely one’s disposition in later years (if one lives), and his success or failure in reaching his possibilities in life.

THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST

People in general have lost sight of the fact that the human body “is the temple of the Holy Ghost,” and that we are not our own. “For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” If any man

defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 6: 19, 20; 3: 17.

“DON’T SWALLOW YOUR GUM”

In addition to eating and drinking at all hours of the day and night, Americans use about one billion dollars’ worth of tobacco a year; and besides this, they possess the distinction of being the gum-chewing nation of the world, expending fifteen million or more dollars a year on this worthless commodity. Children begin the habit when so young that “Don’t swallow your gum” has become a familiar household precaution; and some way, there is about the habit a fascination that appeals also to those of older years.

SHOULD CHEW THE FOOD MORE

Strange as it may seem, while there is such a thorough mastication of gum on the part of the American people, there is a serious lack of thorough mastication of food; and this has much to do with the prevalence of digestive disorders. No wonder that children, after swallowing quantities of half-masticated pop-corn and peanuts, should not feel well; or that adults who consider fifteen or twenty minutes ample time for a full meal, should suffer from digestive disorders.

It is all right for the ostrich to swallow oranges whole if he wishes; but the human being should remember that he is not supplied with a gizzard, however much he may feel that up-to-date business demands it.

A Midsummer Night

By Augusta Wolcott Heald

Interesting Suns and Constellations

“'Tis the middle watch of a summer's night. The earth is dark, but the heavens are bright. Naught is seen in the vault on high But the moon, and the stars, and the cloudless sky, And the flood which rolls its milky hue, A river of light on the welkin blue.” —Joseph Rodman Drake.

THE great planet Jupiter may now be seen in the eastern evening sky, a most beautiful object. Our modest telescope shows it the apparent size of the full moon, and attended by four lovely satellites. These little moons are very interesting. Sometimes they are all on one side, again two on each side, and often one is just emerging from the shadow, every night presenting a different appearance. The diameter of Jupiter is eleven times that of earth. Nearly twelve of our years are required for its revolution around the sun. It turns on its axis in ten hours, thus making its days and nights each about five hours long.

In the southeast the great constellation Scorpio rears its kite-shaped form, bright red Antares glowing at its heart, the trail and the sting gleaming with bright stars, some of which are naked-eye doubles.

THE ARC LIGHT OF THE SKY

Beautiful Vega, the leading star of Lyra, is nearing the meridian. It is often called the “arc light of the sky,” from its clear bluish light. With the aid of an opera-glass or a field-glass, many lovely double stars are seen in the constellation Lyra.

North of Lyra appears the great Cross of Cygnus, with the bright star Deneb, and many fine field-glass doubles. Steel-blue Altair shines out in the east, and with Vega and Deneb forms a large triangle.

“CANST THOU GUIDE ARCTURUS?”

Somewhat past the meridian, the Great Dipper glows forth in regal splendor, with its seven bright stars, the two lower ones known as “pointers” to the pole-star. Following the curve indicated by the handle of the Dipper, we behold the great sun Arcturus, sparkling with brilliant colors,—the same mentioned by the Idumean seer,—“Canst thou guide Arcturus with his suns?” Job 38:32. Prolonging the curve, we find silvery Spica, the leading star of Virgo.

Leo, the Lion, is quite low in the west; but we can see Regulus in the breast, and Denebola in the tail. A straight line from the handle of the Dipper to Denebola cuts the charming constellation Berenice's Hair about half way between the two.

These are only a few of the starry gems we have traced on this midsummer night. We feel that the hour has been a profitable one. The contemplation of these glowing orbs is a source of deepest enjoyment. We forget the daily struggle, perplexities, and trials, and seem for the moment to catch a gleam of infinity. Our hearts are filled with deeper yearnings for the dawn of that glorious morning when our God shall “make all things new,”—when the dear ones who sleep in Jesus “shall come again from the land of the enemy,” and we with them shall, as we trust, be permitted to “see the King in His beauty,” and to “behold the land that is very far off,” where “they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.” Dan. 12:3. AUGUSTA WOLCOTT HEALD.

Christ Our Advocate—The Sanctuary

By Editor

There is no one thing in the Scripture more illuminating, more comprehensive of all the teachings of the Word, than the subject of the sanctuary, revealing as it does the object and purpose of sacrifice, and the priesthood and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This little pamphlet on this great subject is 10 cents.

Pacific Press Publishing Assn., Mountain View, Cal.

“Tormented Forever and Ever”

By Editor

One of the most fearful utterances in the whole Bible regarding the wicked, a wrong conception of which has made men infidels. This tract presents an exposition of the text which is reasonable and just—a vindication of God’s character. B. S. L. No. 111. Price $1.00 per hundred; single copies, 2 cents.

Pacific Press Publishing Assn., Mountain View, Cal.

For Sale

Five-room cottage, with large sleeping porch, bath, hot and cold water, fireplace, two acres of land, with plenty of wood for fuel. Ten-minute walk from Pacific Union College, St. Helena, California. Would like to sell at an early date. For further information address Mrs. C. L. Taylor, St. Helena, California.

SMALL WORKS ON

By Editor

Christ’s Second Coming

Matthew 24 — pamphlet — 96 pages . . . . . 10 cents Presents Christ’s own prophecy, and cites conditions which fulfil

His Glorious Appearing, 114 pages, cloth . . . . . 50 cents A careful study of the signs of the times in the light of Scripture

TRACTS

The Great Day of the Lord . . (B.S.L., 65) .02
Manner of Christ’s Coming . . (B.S.L., 124) .01
The Gospel Message for To-Day (B.S.L., 188) .01
Signs of the End . . . . . . . . . (B.S.L., 194) .01

Add 2 cents for postage with order for less than 10 cents. Prices 10 per cent higher in Canada.

ADDRESS YOUR TRACT SOCIETY, OR PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA

SHORT STUDIES ON

The Law

You should have a supply of the following "Apples of Gold Library" and "Bible Students' Library" tracts on the law of God:

The Two Covenants	(A.G.L., 83)	.01
What Is “Done Away” in Christ?	(B.S.L., 149)	.01½
“Under the Law” or “Under Grace”? Which?	(B.S.L., 163)	.01
Relation of the Law to the Gospel	(B.S.L., 166)	.01½
The Perpetuity of the Law	(B.S.L., 178)	.01
Ceremonial and Moral Law Distinguished	(B.S.L., 195)	.01
A Perfect Law	(B.S.L., 208)	.00½

With order for less than 10 cents worth, add 2 cents for postage.

ADDRESS YOUR TRACT SOCIETY, OR PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA

THE THREE BEST WAYS

BETWEEN California and the East

The CENTRAL ROUTE

Less than three days to Chicago

The SOUTHERN ROUTE

All rail or via the palatial Southern Pacific steamers between New Orleans and New York

The SHASTA ROUTE

Via Portland or the North

The best of equipment and service Protected throughout by automatic block signals

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The Sabbath

By Editor

Following is a list of tracts in our “Bible Students” and “Apples of Gold” libraries as it appears in our regular tract catalogue. These are short, comprehensive studies that you will find most helpful.

THE SABBATH QUESTION

The Seventh, or One Seventh? (A.G.L., 39) .00½ Historical Facts and Incidents (A.G.L., 45) .02 Day of the Sabbath (A.G.L., 50) .01 Which Day Do You Keep? and Why? (A.G.L., 75) .00½ Is Sunday the Sabbath? (A.G.L., 76) .00½ Sunday in a Nutshell (A.G.L., 88) .01 Why Not Found Out Before? (B.S.L., 52) .00½ Jewish (B.S.L., 69) .00½ From Sabbath to Sunday (B.S.L., 95) .00½ Identical Seventh Day (B.S.L., 114) .01 The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast (B.S.L., 130) .02 The Lord’s Day (B.S.L., 134) .10 New Testament Sabbath (B.S.L., 137) .01 Sabbath in the Greek (B.S.L., 154) .00½ Who Changed the Sabbath? (B.S.L., 187) .01 Elihu on the Sabbath (B.S.L., 192) .01 The Bible or Tradition? (B.S.L., 193) .02 The Christian Sabbath (B.S.L., 205) .03

On orders for less than 10 cents add 2 cents for postage.

ADDRESS YOUR TRACT SOCIETY, OR PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA

Items of General Interest

The "Protective Tariff Cyclopedia," prepared and published by the American Protective Tariff League, New York, will be ready for distribution on or about August 1. The cyclopedia will contain the official text of the Underwood law; the Underwood and Payne-Aldrich laws compared, giving every rate of duty on articles in both laws; what one hundred and fifty-two United States senators and congressmen said for and against the Underwood bill; and a copious index of over 8,000 citations. The volume will consist of about 900 pages, and will answer all questions on the tariff question.

At its recent session at St. Paul, Minnesota, the National Education Association, without a dissenting vote, elected Dr. David Starr Jordan as president; and Oakland, California, was selected as the meeting place of the association next year.

The announcement has been made by Colonel Goethals, that in compliance with orders given by Secretary of War Garrison, the Panama Canal will be thrown open to the world's commerce on August 15.

Two hundred and three separate peace societies make up "The Union of International Peace." It is the plan of this vast peace organization to hold a convention in San Francisco, California, in 1915.

The War Lords in Action

By Editor

ON July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war against Servia. The population of the former power is about fifty-one million, while Servia has only about four and a half million. But back of Servia is the Triple Entente, which embraces three of the most powerful nations of the Old World,—Russia, France, and Great Britain; while Austria is a part of the Triple Alliance, Germany and Italy being the two powers associated with her.

With the six greatest powers of the Old World preparing to fly at each other in superhuman fury, the European situation is most ominous. We must not forget that we are living in the time that the prophecies point out as one in which unprecedented storms of war are to be stirred up by demoniacal agencies.

These same prophecies also tell of the power of God that is holding the winds of war, so that they may not blow upon the earth until He has carried to all the inhabitants of the world, His message of the soon coming of Christ. God's merciful power is working on the one hand to save men, and to prepare them for the coming of His Son and the joys of eternity; while on the other hand Satan is working with masterly demon skill, to destroy men through pestilence and war.

Since, as pointed out in the prophecy, God is holding the winds of war, we would naturally expect that as wars do break out, they should be characterized by the suddenness of gusts of wind that have been restrained. All Europe may for a time be embroiled in this war. At the beginning of the recent Balkan war, which appeared for a time destined to involve all Europe, we pointed out, from the prophecies, that it could not continue for very long. The conflict in prospect now will also be of comparatively short duration. God has a work to do in warning the world of the second coming of Christ, and He will not permit these war-mad nations to interfere with that work.

We say this not as human speculation, but because it is shown most clearly in the prophecies of the Word itself. Any one who will take the pains to study them, may understand these prophetic utterances, and may see with definite clearness the meaning of all the alarming events that are passing in this unstable world. They may know that war, bloodshed, violence, and rioting will continue to grow worse and worse; for has not the Master Himself said that men's hearts will be failing them for fear while viewing the turbulent and calamitous conditions of the world in these last days? Luke 21:26. And yet, amid it all, there will be a restraining hand. It can go only so far, until after God concludes His work.

God has great agencies for peace. Without any question, in holding these winds of war, He is using many of the strong and noble-hearted men and women who are working in the numerous peace societies that have been organized. By a strange coincidence, just as this flame of war is bursting forth in Europe, one of the strongest peace societies of the time, the "Church Peace Foundation" recently established by the two-million-dollar gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, is about to convene in Switzerland.

It is the duty of every Christian to work for peace. Our great Leader is called the Prince of peace. But as we work to promote peace, we must understand that while the war storms of these last days are driving the world to Armageddon, men who ignore or fail to study God's prophetic word will be intoxicated with the idea that they will be able to establish peace on the earth, and that some earthly kingdom will be raised up to maintain it. Yet according to the definite statement of the divine Word, it will be when these mistaken people feel assured of success, and when they are saying, "Peace and safety," that sudden destruction will come, not only to all their hopes and plans, but to themselves, as the climax of the second coming of Christ, is reached.

If ever there was a time when men needed to study and to understand the definite meaning of the conditions that surround us, that time is now. God's prophetic word is a treasure that every individual should prize above all earthly things, because it alone gives light that shines through and beyond the troubles of these days.

Carnegie and Rockefeller Too Active

By Editor

THE National Education Association, in its last meeting, passed this resolution:

"We view with alarm the activity of Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations, agencies not in any way responsible to the people, in their efforts to control the policies of our state educational institutions; to fashion after their conception and to standardize our courses of study; and to surround the institutions with conditions which menace true academic freedom and defeat the primary purpose of democracy as heretofore preserved inviolable in our common schools, normal schools, and universities."

To commercialize our educational system, and to make it serve the purposes of the big business combines, has been charged for many years against the great leaders in the financial world. There have been evidences cropping out here and there in many places, which have indicated that "big business" was carrying on an educational campaign that would advance the interests of its commercial arrangements.

This action of the nation's great educational association is certainly quite significant. It shows, at least, that the educators of the country have reached the point where they are not afraid to speak their mind openly to the financial kings. And it has a still broader significance. It shows that the barriers that have been surrounding these great men of business are being broken down, and they may expect more and more to be visited by the furies that the outraged feelings of the populace have been storing up.

We are not speaking of what ought to be the condition of the times, but are merely calling attention to that which is. Nearly two thousand years ago, the prophet told of the rich men being called to weep and howl in the last days, because of the miseries that are coming upon them. And this is preparatory to the final scene of casting their hoarded wealth to the moles and to the bats, as they "go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Isa. 2:20, 21.

Scenes in this direction that beggar description, lie just before us. And again we desire to emphasize the fact that we are not talking about what should be, but are calling attention to the conditions which now surround us, and which are so emphatically fulfilling the prophetic Word.

"The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy: for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land." Zeph. 1:14-18.

A PHYSICIAN in Massachusetts claims to have weighed the soul of a man. He puts a dying consumptive on delicately adjusted scales, and asserts that the difference in weight at the moment of death and instantly after was three fourths of an ounce. It is curiously interesting to think of men who have made scientific research, and who, in a general way, are quite sane, engaging in such nonsense. The idea that a man has an invisible, intangible, incomprehensible, immortal soul that escapes from his body at death is not founded upon any basis that is scientific, or any evidence either human or divine. It comes solely from the superstitions of idolatrous men who have wholly departed from God, and who are seeking for some theory by which perpetual existence could be maintained and accounted for.

Highways and Automobiles

By Editor

THE startling fact has been figured out that twenty Lincoln highways from ocean to ocean could be built with the money that is expended annually in this country for drink, and that after building these twenty expensive transcontinental roads, there would be still left enough from this annual drink bill to purchase 800,000 automobiles at the average price of $1,000 each.

It is when we make comparisons of this kind that we begin to realize what drink is costing annually in dollars, to say nothing of what it costs in human depravity, suffering, and loss of life.

We have devoted one whole issue of this journal to the subject of temperance, as a part of our contribution to the prohibition campaign that is on in so many states. This special issue is packed full of not only interesting but very valuable matter, of which the facts presented above, in regard to highways and automobiles, are a sample.

The price is five cents a copy; five to thirty copies, three cents each; forty or more copies, two and one half cents each. Address Pacific Press, Mountain View, California.

What Do You Think of This?

By M. C. W.

THERE is a Keeley Institute for the curing of drunkards at Dwight, Illinois. There is or was the Kentucky Distillers' Distributing Company at Kansas City, Missouri. The president of the company writes to the Keeley Institute, and says, "Our customers are your prospective patients." Then follows an offer of a "new, live, and active" mailing list of 50,000 names of whisky buyers, at the rate of from two to four cents a name. The liquor men know, and acknowledge in this letter, that their business makes drunkards, wrecks, derelicts; and at last, when they can get no more profit from their drinking, they will sell their names. M. C. W.

Just think of a . . . preacher . . . sawing wood.