p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 15. (4/15/1903)

The Times in which We Live

The following publications will be found very helpful in studying the significance of current events

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

The great aim of this paper is to make clear the meaning of current events. It is devoted to the exposition of prophecy and the presentation of the Gospel. Wars, Unprecedented Amassing of Wealth, Conflicts of the Laboring Classes, Vices and Crimes and all other marked conditions of these times are among the subjects considered in this paper. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES is published weekly and contains sixteen pages. The International Sunday-school Lesson appears each week, together with the best notes obtainable. The paper is well illustrated and its general matter and especially the Home department is such that it is enjoyed by the children around the fireside as well as by the older enquirer after Bible truth.

Subscription Price $1.50 per Year, Post-paid

Heralds of the Morning

The subtitle of this volume is “The Meaning of the Social and Political Problems of To-Day, and the Significance of the Great Phenomena in Nature.”

That serious problems, both social and political, now confront the world, no one doubts; that the elements themselves are participating in the general unrest is everywhere apparent; but that these are signs of the times is not so generally known, therefore this phase of the question is given special attention.

Actual occurrences illustrating such subjects as

The Prevalence of Crime a Sign of Our Times

Judgment Is Turned Away Backward

The Social Vice

The Earth Is Filled with Violence, Etc.

are cited, which indicate a far worse state of public morals than is generally thought to exist.

The terrible condition of the poorer classes in our large cities is vividly set forth by the author and emphasized by the artist in a chapter entitled, “Ye Have Heaped Treasure for the Last Days.”

“And the Nations Were Angry” is the title of a fully illustrated chapter on the stupendous preparations now being made for war.

“The Remarkable Century” relates more particularly to the wonderful inventions and discoveries of recent years.

There are other chapters—twenty-one of them—but they are all devoted to the one subject of giving the significance of current events, and it will not be necessary to name them here. They are intensely interesting and of vital importance to every man, woman, and child in the world.

It contains nearly 300 pages and over 100 illustrations, and is issued in two styles of binding.

Cloth, with side and back title in gold — $1 25

Cloth, gilt edges and titles — 1 50

In German at same prices

The Coming King

By JAMES EDSON WHITE

Christ is here shown to be the central figure in the plan of salvation, the Creator and Redeemer of the world, the Divine Law-giver, the Leader of Israel, the Great Teacher, the Man of Sorrows, our Sacrifice, our Mediator, as well as “that Prophet” through whom comes to us definite knowledge concerning future as well as past events.

A considerable part of the book is devoted to the consideration of Christ’s great prophecy as recorded in Matthew 24th chapter, and special attention is given to that portion relating to the

Persecution of the Church

Darkening of the Sun, Falling of the Stars

Famines and Pestilences

Earthquakes and Tidal Waves, Etc.

Historical quotations showing the exact fulfilment of these predictions are made in connection with each.

The author then discusses the significance of such present-day topics as the Amassing of Wealth, Labor Troubles, Distress of Nations, Coming Conflict, etc., in a way that will attract and interest the reader.

Altogether it is a book that will inspire confidence in the Word of God, that will awaken many new thoughts concerning the Saviour and His work, that contains much valuable information concerning the times in which we live, and one that you will be pleased to have in your home and on your reading table.

It contains 288 pages and 150 illustrations. These illustrations are printed in colored ink and present a unique and attractive appearance. The bindings are

Cloth, plain edges — $1 00

Cloth, gilt top and title — 1 50

In German, Swedish, and Danish at same prices

Tracts on the Same Subject

Title	No. of Library	Price	Title	No. of Library	Price
Without Excuse	B. S. L. 40	$0 ½	Heralds of His Coming	A. G. L. 51	$0 1½
Great Day of the Lord	B. S. L. 65	2½	Winning of Margaret	A. G. L. 53	1
God’s Message for To-day	B. S. L. 81	½	The Coming of Our Lord	A. G. L. 40	½
Truth for the Times	B. S. L. 143	1	Scripture References	B. S. L. 10	2
America’s Crisis	B. S. L. 138	2	Signs of Our Times	B. S. L. 174	1
Eastern Question	B. S. L. 144	1	What Do These Things Mean	B. S. L. 176	1
Wonders of the 19th Century	B. S. L. 155	2	We Would See Jesus	B. S. L. 173	1

ADDRESS YOUR STATE TRACT SOCIETIES

Pacific Press Publishing Company :: Oakland, Cal.

Branches: 11 W. 20th Street, New York City :: 18 W. 5th Street, Kansas City, Mo.

REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich. :: SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSOC’N, Nashville, Tenn.

The Life Giver

The Life Giver.—Jesus Christ gives life, new life, to every believer. This life comes to each of His children as “the earnest of the Spirit,” called in Rom. 8:23, “the first-fruits of the Spirit.” “Earnest,” says Worcester, is “part of the price paid for property or goods sold, or money given in token that a bargain is ratified, or to bind a contract, often called ‘earnest money.’” That portion of His Spirit which God places upon His people is the earnest money, or pledge that God will do all that He has promised, if they will but meet the conditions. And God promises men life, not death. Christ’s coming is life, not death. Col. 3:3. Then the faithful whose house has been “dissolved,” or taken down, will receive the house from heaven, immortal bodies. Then the faithful, who are “not found naked,” or “unclothed,” who are alive at His coming, will be “clothed upon” with immortality, and “mortality,” will be “swallowed up of life,” even as it has been through His grace overcome of life.

The mightiest thing of worth in all this universe is character. All that makes God what He is is His character. And all that is of worth in God’s children is character. In the great day when all men shall be tried, it will not be asked, How many dollars is he worth? What is his fame or reputation? but, What is his character? Righteousness alone will avail then, even the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.

General Conference Notes and a Sabbath Meeting

By Editor

Our Missions department is filled this week with notes on the General Conference. In the variety they furnish, these notes will, we are sure, be of interest to our readers.

We call attention to the last article in the series, “What Do These Things Mean?” Read all these articles again at one sitting, and read also, in connection with them, the extract in our Outlook department from the report of the Anthracite Coal Commission. This extract has not been given in the newspapers generally.

The meeting Sabbath forenoon, April 4, in this city, was a wonderful meeting. The earnest, practical talk and soul-stirring appeal by Sister White, based on the letters to the last three churches in Revelation 3, took hold upon hearts; and the prayer which followed was enough to move the hardest heart. It took hold upon God, and souls by faith moved with its pleading up to the throne of the Infinite. Sister White has grown old during the burden-bearing of the last few years, but she spoke Sabbath with the vigor and power of twenty years ago. May God greatly bless her labors; may God greatly bless her.

The Greatest of All

(1 Corinthians 13, American Standard Revised Version)

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of Prophecy, And know all Mysteries and all Knowledge; And if I have all Faith, so as to remove Mountains, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I am nothing.

And if I bestow all my Goods to feed the poor, And if I give my Body to be Burned, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, It profiteth me nothing.

LOVE suffereth long, and is kind; LOVE envieth not; LOVE vaunteth not itself, Is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, Seeketh not its own, Is not provoked, Taketh not account of evil; Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, But rejoiceth with the Truth; Beareth all things, Believeth all things, Hopeth all things, Endureth all things.

LOVE NEVER FAILETH: But whether there be Prophecies, they shall be done away; Whether there be Tongues, they shall cease; Whether there be Knowledge, it shall be done away.

For we know in part, And we prophesy in part; But when that which is Perfect is come, That which is in Part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror darkly; But then face to face: Now I know in part; But then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.

But now abideth FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, These three; And the greatest of these is LOVE

The Working Time

The Working Time.—The present is often spoken of as the “watching and waiting time.” It is also the working time. Satan is trying to lull us to sleep. We are on the “enchanted ground,” breathing its potent, deadly atmosphere. The sensation is pleasant; we do not like to be disturbed. Like the sluggard, we murmur, “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep;” and the time passes, the morning dawns, the Sun of Righteousness rises in all His glory, and we awake to find ourselves shut out. “So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.” Prov. 24: 33, 34.

Not the Sayer but the Doer

Not the Sayer but the Doer.—It matters not what great professions we may make, nor how much we may desire to do, if we make no effort ourselves. “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing.” (See also Matt. 21:28-31.) The curses, not the promises, belong to the idler. “Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Judges 5:23. The divine injunction is, “Go labor in My vineyard.” And the plaudit that will greet the faithful laborer at the end will be, “Well done.”

Evils of Athletics

A physician, writing in American Medicine, according to the Literary Digest of March 21, condemns “the athletic habit.” In other words, the abnormal muscular development, the enormous lung capacity, the demand for a large amount of food, are not needed in ordinary life. And when one ceases training a reaction and degeneration follows. The “large muscles unused are pernicious,” become flaccid and weak. The stomach and other organs of digestion demanding in training more food, especially abundant proteids, and their proper digestion and assimilation demanding vigorous exercise, when the training ceases, “visceral degeneracy.” follows. Immense lung capacity, necessary in the prize ring, is not of use in the counting room, and degeneration takes place, and therefore lack of resistance to disease germs. The writer says: “A big arm with fine biceps, triceps, and deltoid development may be very pretty to look at but such arms have ofttimes cost their owners their lives.” He gives his own experience, in harmony with the above, and declares that the abnormal training once begun fastens on one as a habit as hard to break as the habitual use of narcotics and alcohol in most individuals. He instances cases where pugilists have died, very soon after changing their habits, from physical degeneracy. The lesson to all is, Be normal, temperate in all things. Eat and exercise, not to minister to a life of brute strength, but to a life of usefulness in whatever sphere Providence may place you.

Multiplying Bibles

The Oxford University Press, of England, has been publishing Bibles for 300 years. It now prints in 150 languages and dialects. Every year 600 tons of paper are used for Bible publications. Orders are frequent for 100,000 Bibles, and printed sheets are kept in such quantities that orders for a half million of copies can be soon filled. The average product is from thirty to forty Bibles a minute. Editions of Oxford Bibles reach now 110, ranging from the magnificent folio in English type to the tiniest Bible in the world set in “brilliant.” Fourteen editions are published of the Revised Version. The Caxton Magazine tells us that “more than a million copies of the revised New Testament had been ordered before the day of publication in May of 1881, and it is claimed that the working men of the establishment refused a bribe of some £4,000 ($20,000) to furnish a copy of the book before the day of issue.” Such tokens as these give cheer amidst the appalling wickedness of earth.

Whole-hearted Service

God accepts no half-hearted service. What we can do just as well as not does not show any love or devotion to Him who hath loved us, and given Himself for us. Yet we drift along day by day as tho we believed that all God requires of us is to work for Him in our “spare time,” when it does not interfere with other affairs. It was a sacrifice for our Lord to leave heaven—to suffer and die, and those that are gathered when He comes will be those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. Ps. 50:5. God has given us talents and means to use in His service, and He will require His own with usury. May we awake to our true condition, put on more of the Spirit of Christ, and render to Him the service due. Brethren, friends, let us be found doing His work.

Why Old Age?

A short time ago a scientific writer presented an elixir of life on the basis that the hardening of the arteries is the cause of old age. A new theory is that the nerve cells are eaten up by nerve-eating cells called macrophages, just as color cells or pigment cells are destroyed by color-eating cells, causing the hair to turn gray. These macrophages also appear in various diseases. After all, the primal cause of old age is sin. Let us let Christ Jesus eradicate the primal cause—sin. In God's earth, when sin is forever banished, there will be no “aged” ones; eternal youth will be the boon of all. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Temperance in Tennessee

By an almost unanimous vote, the Tennessee Legislature has passed a strong anti-liquor law. Under this law towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants can not have a saloon. This reduces the number of legalized saloons in the State to a comparatively small number.