Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 41. (10/19/1915)

Signs of the Times

Oct 19, 1915

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 19, 1915

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS

By Arthur G. Daniells

Interesting Lands Under the Equator — Nights and Days of the Same Length; Shipping and Commercial Center — Our Malaysian Field Work

By ARTHUR G. DANIELLS

Most readers will agree with the tourist who said, “The political distinctions obtaining to-day in the Malay peninsula are rather confusing to strangers, and the assonance of straits and states does not make them clearer.” It should be remembered that the whole of the Malay peninsula south of Siam is divided into “states” and “settlements.” In this letter, we shall consider the settlements only.

The number and location of these settlements were given in my last report. They are all British territory, and form a government known as the “Straits Settlements.” The city of Singapore is the capital of this government. This city is located on the south coast of the island of Singapore. It is the most southern city of the Malay peninsula, being only one and a half degrees north of the equator. Here the sun holds rigidly to a program of “rising and setting that ranges only from six minutes before to six minutes after six o’clock morning and evening the year round,” making all the days of the year practically twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness.

CROSSROADS OF THE EAST

Much has been written about Singapore by visitors to the peninsula. One recent writer says it “is a geographical and commercial center and crossroads of the eastern hemisphere like to be no other port in the world. Singapore is an ethnological center, too; and that small island swinging off the tip of the Malay peninsula holds a whole congress of nations, an exhibit of all the races and peoples and types of men in the world. . . . Japanese, Chinese, Siamese, Malays, Javanese, Burmese, Singhalese, Tamils, Sikhs, Parsis, Lascars, Malabars, Malagasy, and sailor folk of all coasts, Hindus and heathens of every caste and persuasion, are grouped in a brilliant confusion of red, white, brown, and patterned drapery, of black, brown, and yellow skins; and behind them, in ghostly clothes, stand the pallid Europeans, who have brought the law, order, and system, the customs, habits, comforts, and luxuries of civilization to the tropics and the jungle.”

SIXTY-NINE LANGUAGES

The statistician of Singapore reports that sixty-nine languages are spoken by this congress of races. The population of the city is 320,000. Fully two thirds of these citizens are Chinese. The Malays and the Indians number about 30,000 each. The Europeans and the Eurasians come next, with 12,000 each. Then there is a mixed class numbering about 15,000.

The island of Singapore is separated from the mainland of the peninsula by the Tebrau Strait, which is about three quarters of a mile wide. The length of the island east and west is twenty-seven miles, and the width is fourteen, giving a total area of 226 square miles. The distance around the island is sixty-six miles. This island became British territory in 1819, and the city of Singapore was made the seat of government for the Straits Settlements in 1837.

The harbor is large and deep, giving ample accommodation for the great volume of shipping that passes through it to both the east and the west. It forms a naval base of the highest importance to British interests at this great international highway.

Singapore is the headquarters of our Straits Settlements division of the Malaysian mission field. Here we have a church of nearly one hundred believers. Pastor C. M. Lee has charge of the Chinese section of this church. A neat, creditable building has been erected for church services. The believers receive thorough Bible instruction regarding the Christian life. They are also organized, and taught how to do personal missionary work for their neighbors and for the

unsaved about them. This church enjoys the advantages that cluster about the general headquarters of the entire Malaysian Division.

SCHOOL IN SINGAPORE

The school for the training of workers for the entire Malaysian Mission is located in Singapore. The presence and services of the faculty and students in the Singapore church are a source of great encouragement to the church. The work done by the students in the circulation of gospel literature aids in building up the church membership.

WORK IN OTHER SETTLEMENTS

Up to the present time, but little work has been done in the other settlements — Penang and Province Wellesley, the Dindings, and Malakka. Penang and Province Wellesley are located up the Straits of Malakka a distance of 370 miles from Singapore. Penang is an island separated from the mainland of the peninsula by a narrow channel of water. The island is nine by fifteen miles. Here, in 1786, was established the earliest British settlement in the Straits of Malakka. It is the first port of call for all steamers traveling east from India and Burma to the East Indies, the Philippines, China, Japan, and North America.

Just across the channel is a strip of land called Province Wellesley, which was purchased by Great Britain in 1800. It is forty-five miles long and seven miles wide. These two—the island and the province—are united in the one settlement, and have a population of 270,000. The climate at this place is hotter and drier than it is at Singapore. Coconuts, betel nuts, spices, and fruits are the principal products of this settlement. It is the plan of the committee in charge of the division to establish a mission at this place in the near future.

TIMBER AND TIN IN THE DINDINGS

Eighty miles south of Penang is a settlement called the Dindings. There are only seven or eight thousand people in this settlement. It has no railway connection, and is not a port of call for the large steamers. This place furnishes a large quantity of good timber and some tin.

As we sailed down the straits from Penang, we could see the lights of Malakka not far away. This is the oldest European settlement in the Far East. In 1511 the Portuguese formed a European settlement at Malakka. In 1641 the Dutch dispossessed the Portuguese of the settlement, and established themselves behind the strong fortifications. They made this the headquarters of their enterprise in this part of the world.

KEEN BUSINESS MEN

However, in 1795 Malakka was taken from the Dutch by the British. It was returned to the Dutch in 1818, but fell into the hands of the British in 1824, and has remained there ever since. The prevailing races in all these settlements are the Chinese and the Malays. The former, being industrious, and keen in business affairs, have come into possession of the sources of income which originally belonged to the Malays.

LABORS FOR THIS CHRISTLESS PEOPLE

It is in behalf of these Christless, hopeless people that we are carrying on gospel missionary work in that part of the world. The results thus far are not as encouraging as in some non-Christian lands, yet enough fruit has already been gathered to encourage the workers to press forward.

The superintendent of this division, Pastor R. L. Mershon, is extending the circle from Singapore as fast as he can obtain help from the Board of Foreign Missions.

Group of workers who attended our last Shanghai general meeting, all of whom received their training, at least in part, at our Walla Walla College, Walla Walla, Washington

Jonah and the Whale

By John Norton Loughborough

By J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

INFIDELS and the “higher critics” discard the Bible account of the whale’s swallowing Jonah. They claim that the throat of a whale is not large enough—that it is not so large as the fist of a man. That depends on what kind of whale is meant.

MORE THAN ONE KIND OF WHALES

In the year 1852, in Rochester, New York, I attended a lecture on whales, delivered by E. C. Williams, the man who made our first meeting tents. In early life, he was on whaling voyages, in both northern and southern seas. His lecture was illustrated by an oil-painted panorama of his whaling experience. He noted the above objection, and said: “That depends on what whale you are talking about, whether of the northern or of the southern sea. That objection is true of the north sea (bone) whale, but is not true of the south sea (sperm) whale.”

He showed us a picture of a sperm whale that, after they had harpooned him, turned on their boat, and crushed it. Then he said, “If you had looked into that whale’s throat, as I did when we were scrambling to get out of his way, you would have thought his throat was large enough to take in at once all four of our little boat’s crew.”

THE LARGE THROATED WHALE

“Chambers’s Encyclopædia” says, “While the northern (bone) whale has a very small throat, the sperm (south sea) whale has a very large throat.” Of the former it says: “The gullet of the whale is very narrow. It is said to be not more than an inch and a half in diameter, so that only very small animals could pass through it.”—Volume 10, page 151, article “Whale.”

Of the cachalot, or south sea sperm whale, Chambers says: “It may almost be said to inhabit all seas, although it is most abundant in the southern hemisphere. It is not of frequent occurrence on the European shores, although it sometimes enters the Mediterranean. The cachalot sometimes reaches the length of seventy or eighty feet. The head is enormously large, forming about one third of the bulk of the animal, and occupying one third of the entire length. . . . The mouth is very large and wide; and the throat, unlike that of the Greenland whale, is very wide, sufficiently so to admit the body of a man.”—Volume 2, pages 450, 480. The testimony of the British “National Encyclopedia,” volume 8, article “Whale,” confirms these statements.

On March 29, 1909, in a museum at Hobart, Tasmania, I saw the lower jaw of a sperm whale. It stood on the floor, nose end up. I stood in the space of the jaw. It was five feet wide at the gullet, and the nose must have been about eight feet high. I thought, “Surely a man could go through that space.”

On June 11, 1909, I visited a museum of African animals, serpents, etc., at Port Elizabeth, South Africa. In the largest room was suspended from the ceiling the complete skeleton of a sperm whale. As I gazed on that immense group of ribs, I thought, “Surely such would make quite a house for Jonah’s brief abode.”

RECENT EXPERIENCE IN A WHALE’S BELLY

As the tablets with cuneiform inscriptions are coming forth to confirm many Bible records, we have a well authenticated case of a man who, on August 25, 1895, was swallowed by a whale, and was taken out of the dead body of the great fish after thirty-six hours. When restored to consciousness, he related his experience. This account is in the Bible Training School of September, 1914.

The Bible says, “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” Jonah 1:17. His boat was making for Tarshish, near Gibraltar, at the west entrance to the Mediterranean. It was very easy for the Lord to move upon the fish to turn into the Mediterranean, and come along just in time to pick up Jonah as he was cast from the ship.

“Not Going to Keep Your Sabbath”

By A. S. Marchus

“I AM not going to keep your Sabbath day,” said a woman to me. I replied: “The Sabbath day is not mine. It is the Lord’s; for He said, ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.’ It was not I, but the Lord, who said, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ Therefore you had better tell the Lord to-night, in your prayer, that you are not going to keep His Sabbath day.”

When I saw her again, at the next service, she said: “I could not tell the Lord, to His face, that I would not keep His Sabbath day. I thought of His great love to me; and that night, alone with God, I settled the question. His love changed my heart; and now, by His grace, I am going to keep His Sabbath day according to the commandment.”

A. S. MARCHUS.

Thank God for Thoughts!

“THANK God for thoughts!”

THE TRUE AIM IN EDUCATION

By Ellen G. White

An Eternal Purpose Must Be Kept in View—Unselfish Plans Give True Success—Train for Responsibility and Independent Thinking

By the late MRS. E. G. WHITE

THE TRUE education means more than the pursuit of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world, and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.

The source of such an education is brought to view in these words of Holy Writ, pointing to the Infinite One: In Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom.” Col. 2:3. “He hath counsel and understanding.” Job 12:13.

WHAT GIANT INTELLECTS HAVE DONE

The world has had its great teachers, men of giant intellect and extensive research, men whose utterances have stimulated thought, and opened to view vast fields of knowledge; and these men have been honored as guides and benefactors of their race; but there is One who stands higher than they. We can trace the line of the world’s teachers as far back as human records extend; but the Light was before them. As the moon and the stars of our solar system shine by the reflected light of the sun, so, as far as their teaching is true, do

the world’s great thinkers reflect the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Every gleam of thought, every flash of the intellect, is from the Light of the world.

In these days, much is said concerning the nature and importance of “higher education.” The true higher education is that imparted by Him with whom “is wisdom and strength;” out of whose mouth “cometh knowledge and understanding.” Prov. 2:6.

SOURCE OF ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE

In a knowledge of God, all true knowledge and real development have their source. Wherever we turn, in the physical, the mental, or the spiritual realm; in whatever we behold, apart from the blight of sin, this knowledge is revealed. Whatever line of investigation we pursue, with a sincere purpose to arrive at truth, we are brought in touch with the unseen, mighty Intelligence that is working in and through all. The mind of man is brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite. The effect of such communion on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate.

In this communion is found the highest education. It is God’s own method of development. “Acquaint now thyself with Him,” is His message to mankind. The method outlined in these words was the method followed in the education of the father of our race. When, in the glory of sinless manhood, Adam stood in holy Eden, it was thus that God instructed him.

PURPOSE IN CREATING MAN

In order to understand what is comprehended in the work of education, we need to consider both the nature of man and the purpose of God in creating him. We need to consider also the change in man’s condition through the coming in of a knowledge of evil, and God’s plan for still fulfilling His glorious purpose in the education of the human race.

When Adam came from the Creator’s hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker. “God created man in His own image” (Gen. 1:27); and it was His purpose that the longer man lived, the more fully he should reveal this image,—the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator. All his faculties were capable of development; their capacity and vigor were continually to increase. Vast was the scope offered for their exercise; glorious the field opened to their research. The mysteries of the visible universe—the “wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16)—invited man’s study. Face-to-face, heart-to-heart communion with his Maker was his high privilege.

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FOREVER

Had man remained loyal to God, all this would have been his forever. Throughout eternal ages he would have continued to gain new treasures of knowledge, to discover fresh springs of happiness, and to obtain clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the wisdom, the power, and the love of God. More and more fully would he have fulfilled the object of his creation, more and more fully have reflected the Creator’s glory.

But by disobedience this was forfeited. Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh obliterated. Man’s physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death. Yet the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized,—this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life.

THE BASIS OF LOVE

Love, the basis of creation and of redemption, is the basis of true education. This is made plain in the law that God has given as the guide of life. The first and great commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” Luke 10:27. To love Him, the infinite, the omniscient One, with the whole strength, and mind, and heart, means the highest development of every power. It means that in the whole being—the body and the mind, as well as the soul—the image of God is to be restored.

FOUNDATION OF TRUE DEVELOPMENT

Like the first is the second commandment,—“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Matt. 22:39. The law of

love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true development. Through unselfish service, we receive the highest culture of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the divine nature.

Since God is the source of all true knowledge, it is the first object of education to direct our minds to His own revelation of Himself. Upon every page of the great volume of His created works may still be traced His handwriting. Nature still speaks of her Creator. Yet these revelations are partial and imperfect. And in our fallen state, with weakened powers and restricted vision, we are incapable of interpreting aright. We need the fuller revelation of Himself that God has given in His written word.

SHOULD HAVE HIGHEST PLACE IN EDUCATION

The Holy Scriptures are the perfect standard of truth, and as such, should have the highest place in education. To obtain an education worthy of the name, we must receive a knowledge of God, the Creator, and of Christ, the Redeemer, as They are revealed in the Sacred Word.

Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator,—individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character.

TO BE INDEPENDENT THINKERS

It is the work of true education to develop this power; to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstance, men who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.

MORE THAN MENTAL OR PHYSICAL TRAINING

Such an education provides more than mental discipline; it provides more than physical training. It strengthens the character, so that truth and uprightness are not sacrificed to selfish desire or worldly ambition. It fortifies the mind against evil. Instead of some master passion becoming a power to destroy, every motive and desire is brought into conformity to the great principles of right. As the perfection of His character is dwelt upon, the mind is renewed, and the soul is re-created in the image of God.

Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s ideal for His children. Godliness—godlikeness—is the goal to be reached. Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge.

EDUCATION AS BROAD AS THE UNIVERSE

He who cooperates with the divine purpose in imparting to the youth a knowledge of God, and molding the character into harmony with His, does a high and noble work. As he awakens a desire to reach God’s ideal, he presents an education that is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe, an education that cannot be completed in this life, but that will be continued in the life to come; an education that secures to the successful student his passport from the preparatory school of earth to the higher grade, the school above.

How Long, O Lord, How Long?

By W. R. Patterson

By W. R. PATTERSON

How long, O Lord, how long Shall justice be denied, While we're swept along By the maddened throng, And Love is crucified?

How long shall selfish Greed The scales of justice hold, While Truth is crushed, And her voice is hushed With bribes of shining gold?

How long, O Lord, how long Must rise from earth the wail, While the ground echoes To the maddening woes Of nations in travail?

How long shall tyrant Hate Rule with a cruel hand, While Mercy weeps, And Justice sleeps, And Peace forsakes the land?

How long, O Lord, how long? Hear Thou the bitter wail From the gory sand Of a war-swept land— A planet in travail.

While the battle smoke, like incense, To the god of wars ascends, The martial tread O'er fields of dead With the voice of weeping blends.

They've bowed the knee to Mammon, And sacrificed to Mars; And now in keeping Comes the reaping, The baleful fruits of wars.

We've heard the cruel trumpet, And tramp of the maddened throng, And the people's cry To Thee on high, “How long, O Lord, how long?”

The end of wars and carnage, Thy scepter’s peaceful sway, Thy coming soon, Sum up the boon For which we wait and pray.

Man’s Lost Dominion Restored

By Allen Moon

Created to Enjoy the Creator’s Works—Transferred His Allegiance—Complete Deliverance

By ALLEN MOON

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” Gen. 1:27. The Lord has not left us without a knowledge of His purpose in the creation of man as well as of all things that were made. It is written that heavenly beings exclaimed, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” Rev. 4:11.

ASSOCIATED WITH THE FATHER IN CREATION

The Son of God was associated with the Father in the work of creation. He was the “Word,” or expression, of the Father in its accomplishment; as we read, “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” Col. 1:16.

The expression in this text, “All things were created by Him, and for Him,” proves to the student of the Word that all created beings and things were for the purpose of extending and enlarging God’s dominion.

To man was given “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Gen. 1:26. Yet that dominion was “created by Him, and for Him,” and did not cease to be God’s dominion when it was given to man. God retained dominion over the man. Man and his dominion still belonged to God.

GOD SHARED DOMINION WITH MAN

The Creator did not bring man into existence for His own selfish pleasure, “for God giveth to a man that is good in His sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy.” Eccl. 2:26. He evidently shared dominion with man in order to contribute to man’s joy and pleasure. And being made in the image of God, man had capacity to enjoy dominion over a creation that was good; for “God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God saw that it was good.” Gen. 1:25. All was in perfect accord with man’s nature, and completely met his requirements as a source of pleasure. Thus he became a sharer in the pleasures of his Creator.

ETERNITY OF JOY BEFORE HIM

Man had the promise of an eternity in which to enjoy, not the works of his own hands, but the work which the hands of his Creator had wrought. It is written, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” This promise was made known to Adam in the gift of the tree of life. God could not have done more to inspire, in the heart of His subject, devotion and satisfaction to the dominion of the One who purposed his supreme happiness. Man certainly could reasonably do no less than conform to the will of his Creator.

But man sinned. He transgressed the law of his God. In his act of transgression, he obeyed the will of another; and “to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.” Rom. 6:16.

MAN’S ALLEGIANCE TRANSFERRED

So man transferred his allegiance to another than the Author of his being, and with him went the dominion conferred upon him by his Creator. Jehovah had not consented to the usurpation of dominion; but as man had received dominion over the earth, he was left free to dissipate it if he chose. Although warned, he chose the way of disaster and ruin.

Man’s transgression separated him from the source of life. The being to whom he had transferred his services, was a created being, under condemnation of death. There was therefore no hope of eternal life in this condition.

GOD SO LOVED THAT HE GAVE

God alone could rescue man, restore him to a life of obedience, and to the hope of eternal life, and finally bring back to him his lost dominion. God renewed the promise of life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. The promise of life now rests upon changed conditions. The Son of God now stands for the tree of life. He put life in the tree of life for man, but the Son has immortality in Himself. To believe on the Son, in the true sense, restores to man not only the gift of life, but all else that he lost when he sinned — his possession, his dominion, his satisfaction, and his joy.

Peter rejoiced in the new hope; for he exclaimed, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope”—the hope of living. 1 Peter 1:3. Man has now an added reason for rendering loyal service to his Creator, who has become his Redeemer from the ruin and death that he brought upon himself. The first provision in this plan of salvation was an unconditional resurrection from the death into which man had plunged

himself. Thus all men could be partakers of eternal life.

COMPLETE DELIVERANCE

Man’s redemption, then, means complete deliverance from the dominion of the usurper; “for to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived [relived], that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.” Rom. 14:9. Again it is written, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Col. 1:13. Satan, so long as he was permitted, could invade the realm of God’s government, and by deception lead men into allowing him to usurp authority over them. But he cannot, by any means, debar the Almighty One from entering His own rightful dominion for the purpose of delivering man, whom He had created, from the power of the adversary, and restoring him to the realms of his true Sovereign.

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