p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 19. (5/7/1912)

Earlier text: What to Do Before the Doctor Comes

Our Liberty Series

By Editor

It is good advice which the editor of a Catholic paper, the Western Watchman, gives its people, in its issue of April 11, 1912: "They have elected a priest mayor up in Michigan. The office of a priest is divine, and consists of prayers, not politics; sermons, not stump speeches; confessions, not caucuses. There ought to be enough good Catholics up in Lapeer to keep a priest out of the mayoralty." But he was probably in politics before he was made mayor.

Our Liberty Series

We are stating the matter mildly when we say that our next six weeks' issues are of vital importance. There is no greater boon that earth can give than Liberty, Civil Liberty; the Liberty that our Revolutionary fathers fought and bled and died to secure and establish. And this Civil Liberty includes Religious Liberty — Liberty to worship God according to the dictates of conscience and creed, provided we do not infringe the equal rights of our fellows.

How few know what Liberty is, what its boundary lines are between license on the one side and tolerance on the other! How few know the limit where there can be no compromise if Liberty is to be preserved!

Those who intelligently read our next series will know the meaning of Liberty from the view-point of the statesman, the Christian, the citizen.

They will learn of Liberty's source.

They will learn much of its history.

They will learn of its blessings. They will learn that Liberty in this land is in danger; that the sappers and miners are at work; that good men, deceived by unholy sophistry, are battling on the wrong side of the question.

It is time to give the warning, and this journal is attempting to do it simply, clearly, strongly, truthfully.

Our advocacy is for principles of eternal truth; our warfare is against the perversion of those principles.

We plead with our subscribers to read and study the series, and arouse the interest of friend, and neighbor, and fellow citizen, male and female.

One hundred and thirty-six years ago the great struggle for Liberty — civil and religious — centered on a narrow strip of country in the East; to-day the mightiest battles are to be fought in the coast section of the great Golden West.

Would you know how men are seeking to subvert Liberty and enslave conscience? Then read our next six weeks' series.

Price for the six numbers, sent to any address, 25 cents. See on page 14.

Now is the time to work. To-morrow may be too late.

Our correspondent, Mr. J. F. Blunt, secretary of the Religious Liberty Association of the coast, writes us from Arizona that the barbers' bill in the interest of Sunday closing, known as House Bill No. 33, was withdrawn. There were presented before the legislature resolutions adopted by a mass-meeting held at Phoenix, expressing the thought that man was created a free moral agent, not subject to the dictation of his fellow men in matters of conscience, reciting the sad history of the past where human rights had been trampled upon, and asking the State of Arizona to safeguard this freedom which had been vouchsafed to mankind. But an amended bill, or a new bill, has been presented, endeavoring to meet the defects of the former bill, and the fight is on at the present time over this, with a seeming disposition to set aside all class legislation, in which, of course, a barbers' Sunday bill would fall, and this not in antagonism to labor, but on the very merits of the question itself. It is reported that the women's suffrage measure has been killed in the senate, and both houses have voted down the union label measure. We hope that Arizona will put itself on record as a State in which the rights of men are guaranteed.

LATER: The above note was written for last issue but was omitted through oversight. Word received from Phoenix April 22 states that the barbers' Sunday bill was defeated in the house by a vote of 20 to 13.

Is That Liberty?

By Editor

A despatch in the San Francisco Examiner of April 5, dated the day before, tells the story of one hundred Industrial Workers of the World, "almost all of whom admitted they were anarchists," who "knelt on the ground and kissed the folds of an American flag at early dawn to-day near San Onofre," a small village near the Orange County line. These men were forced to do this by "deputies and armed citizens" from San Diego. Then the men were marched back to the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner," and "compelled to make a show at least of joining in singing." And this in free America! The lawless deputies and lawless citizens of San Diego who thus used the flag, did more to foster the spirit of anarchy and disrespect for the national colors than all the Emma Goldmans and her ilk that ever spoke.

San Diego is sowing to the wind; she will reap the whirlwind. We do not know as we are at all in sympathy with the principles of the I. W. W.; for we do not know them. But we are not in sympathy, we do not see how any lover of human liberty can be, with the illegal, high-handed methods of San Diego's city government.

Contained in This Issue

By Editor

Question Corner

3745 — The High Calling; 3746 — Creed and Union; 3747 — Making of Worlds; 3748 — As the Angels; 3749 — A New Creation; 3750 — Question on Tithing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Our Bible Band

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

General

Feeding the Five Thousand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Man in the Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Healing Not a Sign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Sanctuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Studies in Daniel — Conclusion — Chapter 12 . 6 In the Light of Jewish Customs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Outlook

Strikes Throughout the World . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 "The Mighty Titanic" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 "Schoolboys as Train Wreckers" . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 16

Home and Fireside

What to Do Before the Doctor Comes . . . . . 12

Book Notices

"The American Commonwealth;" "Indian Basketry, and How to Make Indian and Other Baskets;" "Temptation, What It Is and How to Meet It;" "Our Primary Department;" "Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians;" "Star Flowers; or Songs in the Night;" "The Voice of the Infinite and Other Poems" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Poetry

The Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Do Angels Feel the Cold? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Co-operation Funds

By Editor

WE again call the attention of our readers to requests that we are constantly receiving from different parts of the world for copies of our paper for use. These come from hospitals, from foreign fields where there are many English-speaking people, for clubs for ship work among the sailors. We can always put to good use any sums, large or small, which our readers may desire used in this way. We can assure them that the means will be made to go just as far as possible.

Bible Versions Used

By Editor

Our authority is the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. When the Common ("King James" or "Authorized") Version or the American Standard Revised Version is used, the version will not generally be designated in reference. Any Bible quotation in this paper, therefore, differing from the Common Version, unless otherwise indicated, will be almost invariably from the American Standard edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 1910, by Thomas Nelson & Sons.

For further particulars, subscription rates, etc., see page 15.

Fighting for Her Life

"Fighting for Her Life."—The Rev. Alex. Esler, of Calgary, answering another Presbyterian minister, in the Albertan of February 28, on the matter of union, says: "When we grow away from the old faith, we are on the road that leads away from the supernatural to the natural. The church is to-day fighting for her life. It is the same in all the denominations. And before the Lord can receive His church, she must get back to these eternal truths from which she has been growing."

The sad fact is that she does not seem to be fighting; there would be hope then. She rather seems to be dreaming and drifting.

NO PAPER NEXT WEEK

By Editor

Bible Band Schedules

By Editor

On account of there being no paper next week, we give Bible Band schedules for two weeks.

No Paper Next Week

By Editor

We advertise and publish fifty numbers each year, and omit two, one in the early part of the year, one the latter part. Next week we omit the first for the year, so there will be no paper next week.

Bible Study Series Concludes

By Editor

Our Bible Study Series of twenty-five numbers closes with this issue. That it has been profitable, we are assured by the many letters which have come to us from interested readers. Apart from the many practical articles on Christian life and experience, by Mrs. E. G. White, we have had our studies on the Coming of the Lord, Life in Christ, the Law of God, the living Sabbath Question, the Israel of God, the Priesthood of Our Lord in the light of the Sanctuary, Studies in the great Book of Daniel, fifteen Bible Readings, 157 questions answered, many articles on the signs of our times, and excellent home and health instruction. Many other things of importance have been given. Yet we have not said all we have desired; and two or three things promised, it was impossible to get in, but they will be given, the Lord willing, and will be better for the keeping.

A New Series Begins

By Editor

After our Religious Liberty Series of six numbers, we present another series of a half year, better, we hope, than has been the series closing with this issue. We can assure our readers that the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will be up to date in the presentation of Bible truth and in the setting of great current events in the light of prophecy.

Bombing from an Aeroplane

Lieutenant Rossi recently made a daring reconnaissance over the Turko-Arabian camp outside of Tobruk in an aeroplane. The trip was made for the purpose of dropping a bomb to see what would be the results. As soon as the air-ship came within range of the Turkish camp, the latter opened fire and the machine was struck a number of times, and the man who was with Mr. Rossi to drop the bomb was wounded. He said the experience of being in the air and having bullets whistling around one was not only very novel, but very trying. When the bullets first began their whizzing, he felt a strong inclination to turn back, but thought it would never do to show his lack of courage in this way, so went ahead. They dropped the bomb in the midst of the camp, and said that it caused a great scurrying of camels, horses, and men, but they did not know the exact damage that was done. This seems to be the first case where the air-ship has been brought into actual use in dropping bombs upon an enemy.

Our Mission Funds

By Editor

Our Mission Funds.—The report of mission funds on another page should have been printed two weeks ago. Accounts are made up in our treasury department monthly. This will explain why some donations are not acknowledged in this. They will come in our next month's acknowledgment. We are sure that our April donations will be far in excess of March.