p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 8. (2/25/1913)

Questions and Answers

The Premium of This Journal

Over 250 pages. Almost 300 Questions and Answers. Topical and Textual Indexes. Full Cloth Binding.

Practical and comprehensive exposition of difficult, perplexing, or hard texts in the Bible. Recognized and accepted by leading Bible students.

You can not purchase a copy. It is given only as a premium of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES weekly at these terms:

The journal one year ........ $1.75 Value of the book ........ 1.25 Total ........ $3.00

SPECIAL,— the journal one year and the book, $2.00, or free with two yearly subscriptions at $1.75 each.

Paper and book to separate addresses if desired. You will find both a great help to you in your study. Address our depositories, or

Signs of the Times Mountain View, California.

IN THREE DAYS SAN FRANCISCO

Overland Limited

TAKES YOU

To Chicago

ACROSS GREAT SALT LAKE AND HIGH SIERRA BY DAYLIGHT

Luxurious High-class Equipment Electric Lighted Throughout

Pullman Drawing-room Stateroom Vestibuled Sleeping-cars Careful and Attentive Dining Service Parlor Observation-car with Library and Cafe Ladies' Reading-room Gentlemen's Smoking-room Daily News Bulletins Latest Papers and Magazines

Southern Pacific

Bibles

Bibles.—Remember that we are headquarters for anything in the Bible line. Address this office.

(Pure Refined Paraffine)

Parowax

(Pure Refined Paraffine)

Washes clothes cleaner and whiter. Cannot possibly hurt the daintiest fabric.

Parowax has the cleansing power of naphtha and benzine. It is nature’s concentrated cleansing force refined into pure white wax.

Just add a little shaved Parowax to the soap in the wash-boiler. It does away with all the hard, destructive rubbing on the washboard.

Parowax is also invaluable for sealing jellies and preserves.

STANDARD OIL COMPANY

(California)

461 Market St. San Francisco

Just try Parowax. Pound and half-pound cartons. Grocers and department stores everywhere.

Glimpses of Our Work in China

By I. H. Evans

By I. H. Evans

God has greatly blessed the work in China during the past year. Tho we have had many perplexities to meet, and tho the revolution was a great hindrance for a number of months in the early part of the year, still good results, in general, have been seen for the efforts put forth. In some provinces, from sixty to eighty have been baptized. When we remember that only two foreign families are located in a province, it surely seems as tho the Lord is going before us, and we gratefully acknowledge that He is helping us most wondrously.

Many of our foreign laborers have not yet acquired the language, therefore they can not do the best quality of work, but when men present the Word of God in humility and fear, they seem to get results from their labors. We have foreigners in only six provinces of the eighteen, and should we put but two families in each province, we would need at least twenty-four new families to cover the field in this way. However, some of the provinces have a much larger population than others. One province has seventy million souls, and it does not require much thought to see that two families would be entirely inadequate to handle such a work. There will also have to be new families gaining a preparation, to step into the ranks for those who fall out by the way. China is certainly not a paradise for health, and as long as men are mortal they will sicken and die here.

The new homes we are building will doubtless do much to conserve the health of our workers. Not only so, but when people have a pleasant and comfortable place to come to after their contact with the Chinese, and the conditions that prevail in such a country as this, they are not so apt to lose courage, and to feel the calls of the home land beyond their strength to resist.

Already we have nine mission homes built, and have laid plans to build nine more during the coming season. As Brother Anderson and Brother Hankins, of Amoy, have built their own homes, this will make good houses for twenty families in China. We surely feel greatly encouraged at this progress, both for what has been already accomplished, and for what we see our way clear to do in the coming months. It is our plan, if the General Conference gives its approval, to use the rent moneys, above what is necessary to keep the properties in good repair, in adding new homes from year to year for other workers, as they shall come to us. Any one who has not seen China as it is, and spent a whole year here, can never realize the difference between having such a home as these mission houses are, and being obliged to put up with such conditions as China can furnish, especially in the interior.

The Schools at Amoy

We have two schools at Amoy,— a boarding-school for boys, and a day-school, for girls. The boy’s school has very poor accommodations, many of the boys living in the compound in which the school is situated, which also serves as a chapel for the church. It is a desolate, dreary room, and the sunlight never enters the place.

It was my privilege while at Amoy, to help select land for a more suitable home for this school. Even under the present unfavorable conditions, good progress has been made, and we hope that when we have the new buildings, where better conditions healthwise will prevail, and where more attention can be given to the students, still better results will be seen. The school has some bright students, and we are looking forward to the time in the near future when we shall have some young men, who have had four, five, and even more years of training in the message, to go into the field and take up active service for God. At the time of my visit, some of the students had gone out into the city, to sell papers, so I did not get to see them all, but I counted twenty who came in to shake hands with me.

One night last spring, when I was visiting Amoy, four of these boys arose at the close of my preaching service, and sang, in English, the old familiar song which has touched so many hearts when far distant from home. I was very weary, and had been out for several weeks, and had not expected, when the boys arose to sing, to hear anything but Chinese, not a word of which I can understand. When I heard the words, “Home, Sweet Home,” sung in the sweet, musical voices of the quartet, I could not but weep. This was their surprise to me, and truly it touched my heart.

The Girls’ School

The girls’ school is situated some distance from the home of our brethren, and in order to reach it, Mrs. Anderson, who has the general charge and oversight of the school, has to go some distance on foot and in a sampan. The walk, which she takes three times a week, is anything but a pleasant trip. Amoy is one of the plague-spots of China, and the cholera, the bubonic plague, and other virulent diseases, carry off their victims the year round.

Rarely can one find more dreadful streets in a big city than these in Amoy. As one looks into the haggard faces of the women and children, whose homes open onto the narrow, filthy alleys, many of which are not six feet in width, one can only wonder why the people prefer to huddle, like beasts, in the towns, rather than to scatter out into the country. But one must remember that this is the custom in China, and it is a custom that has its foundation in fear. The people gather together and wall themselves in for protection from the thieves and bandits, who swarm over the land, and who would make short work of the unprotected farmer.

At the time of my visit to the girls’ school, there were sixty present, the seventy-two is the usual number in attendance. When I looked into the faces of these girls, some of them married women or widows, and some of them so young that it would seem a pity for them to be away from their mothers, in more enlightened lands, I wondered what effect the school will have on their future lives. Certainly it can not fail to be a great blessing and help to them. Here they listen to the Word of God. They hear what Christianity has done for others, and they can see the uplift the gospel is to women, even in China. As they learn to read, their eyes sparkle with intelligence. They learn rapidly, and even if they never become Christians, they will still have a different outlook on life than would have been possible had they never received this instruction. Some of them will be really converted, and will go on with their education till they are ready to enter the work of God.

Like the boys’ school, the girls’ school is wholly inadequate to do the work that it might easily accomplish were it more favorably situated. However, we hope sometime to have a good girls’ school, where we can take the brightest and best of the students in the smaller schools in Fukien, and train them for God and His service.

Brother Hills and the Thieves

Leaving Brother Anderson sick in bed with a high fever, I went on to Swatow alone, and stayed one day with Brother and Sister Hills. As there was no one here to interpret for me, I could hold no meetings with the Chinese, and did not think it profitable to spend more time at this place on this visit. In many respects, Brother and Sister Hills have had a trying year. They have had considerable trouble with soldiers. Brother Hills has had quite an affliction with boils. And recently, while he was inland on a trip, thieves broke into the house and helped themselves to whatever they could get. When Brother Hills reported the matter to the police, he was asked to bring the guilty parties to the station, and told that if he would do so the officers would see that they were punished. When Brother Hills suggested that it was their business to find the thieves, they said: “How do we know who took the things? We did not see them. We can do nothing unless you bring them to us.”

Notwithstanding all the perplexities that have come to this young couple, their courage is good, and they have seen excellent results from their labor. The Sister Hills has had less than a year’s study of the language, she is conducting a girls’ school, said to be the best in Swatow. Of course, the instruction is given to the girls by two young Chinese women, both earnest Christians, but Sister Hills has the oversight of the work, and it is by her energy and influence that the school has been such a success.

From Swatow I went to Hongkong, leaving the next day for the interior, in company with Brethren Harlow and Nagel. It was a two days’ trip, and the river was so infested with robbers during the summer that it was considered unsafe to travel thereon. When we got on the boat that night for the trip, it was pitch dark. I wish I could describe what an island Chinese boat is like, but there is no way to describe it. The only way to know it is to see it, and to ride on it. We had a guard of soldiers, and it took us two nights and one day to make about eighty miles. One night about forty additional soldiers came aboard, and we were well “protected.” Of course, there is always the possibility that the soldiers themselves may turn pirates, and then, as you know, all earthly protection would be at an end. However, we arrived safely at our journey’s end on Thursday night, and remained till the following Tuesday, holding meetings four times each day.

Second Coming of Christ

Thousands believe in a second coming of Christ, but are confused as to how He will come. The sixteen page tract “Manner of Christ’s Coming,” Bible Students’ Library, No. 124, will assist greatly in a careful study of this subject. Single copy, post-paid, 2 cents; $1.00 a hundred. This office.

An outline of the messages presented in the Revelation, and especially the one mentioned in the fourteenth chapter, is clearly given in Bible Students’ Library, No. 188, “The Gospel Message for To-Day.” Price for single copy, post-paid, 2 cents; $1.00 a hundred. This office.

“Heralds of His Coming,” Apples of Gold Library, No. 85, gives an outline of the unmistakable signs of the nearness of Christ’s coming. Increase of riches, of crime, of knowledge; last-day scoffers; signs in sun, moon, and stars; peace and safety cry; preparation for war; great spiritual declension,—are some of these evidences. This popular tract, a copy, 3 cents, post-paid; a hundred, $1.50. This office.

As a brief work to assist in the study of any phase of Christ’s prophecy relating to His second coming, we can recommend nothing more highly than the pamphlet “An Exposition of Matthew 24.” You will appreciate its simple, thoro, direct manner of explanation. Contains 94 pages, and costs only ten cents, post-paid. This office.

Now is the time to circulate

Turkey and Its End

A 32-page tract which clearly outlines Turkey in Bible Prophecy. Maps to illustrate. 70,000 already sold.

Price $2.00 a hundred

Order of your tract society or PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN.

Mountain View, Cal.

SANITARIUM COOKING OIL

Refined Cotton Seed Oil direct from refinery. Pure, wholesome, and delicious.

8 1-gallon cans, $7.50; 5-gallon can, $4.20; 10 gallons, $8.20; 30-gallon barrel, $22.00; 50-gallon barrel, $36.00. Cash with order.

Sanitarium Cooking Oil Co., Louisville, Ky.

FRUIT FARM

For sale, or exchange for good real estate, 24 acres, with about 1,100 cherry-trees beginning to bear; 500 pear-trees, bearing; 292 peach-trees, bearing; and 100 apple-trees; 8 acres in strawberries. The proper elevation for fruit or health. Soil good. Fine well water. A paying proposition. Close to Graysville, Tennessee; ¾ mile to church and school — Adventist. Near railroad. Price $2,500. Also one seven-room house and lot near church, $1,000. Write to owner: J. W. Carlock, Graysville Tennessee.

The Law

An excellent tract to study in connection with the law of God is Bible Students' Library, No. 178, “The Perpetuity of the Law of God.” Single copy, post-paid, 2 cents; $1.00 a hundred. This office.

A Bible Atlas

By Editor

New Premium of the Signs of the Times Weekly

The Bible Atlas contains 38 Physical Maps of Palestine, based upon the results of an actual survey, with an identification of the Biblical Sites as far as known; also 82 Progressive Historical Maps embracing a special map for each specific period of the country's history, from the earliest date to the present time.

These maps have been endorsed by Historical Authorities and by Religious Workers, irrespective of Creed, as the best maps on the subject ever printed, and we are glad to provide this helpful volume for our Bible Students.

Bound in Leather All maps are in colors

Rates

“Signs of the Times” Weekly, 1 year $1.75

Atlas, 121 pages (maps only) 1.00

Total value $2.75

Special, the two $2.25

“Signs of the Times” Weekly, 1 year $1.75

Atlas, with text and maps, 246 pages 1.50

Total value $3.25

Special, the two $2.50

Address our depository for your state, or

Signs of the Times, Mountain View, Cal.

STANDARD HOUSEHOLD LUBRICANT

For bicycles, lawn-mowers, go-carts—anything you want to run smoothly and easily—the best oil you can find is Standard Household Lubricant.

In the Handy Oiling Can

Standard Household Lubricant is guaranteed not to gum or corrode.

This makes it splendid for every kind of household use, and the can in which it comes, with patented nozzle attached, prevents leakage and loss by breaking.

Dealers Everywhere

STANDARD OIL COMPANY

(Incorporated)

461 Market Street

San Francisco

“Unspeakable and Unutterable”

By Editor

The Western Watchman, a Roman Catholic journal of St. Louis, has the following from its Rome correspondent anent the Balkan question. It speaks for itself:

“It is all very well for certain American editors to chant the Te Deum over the humiliation of the unspeakable Turk, but we have got to think of the probable position in which the Oriental Catholics shall find themselves, if the schismatic states come to rule them. For, if the Turk is ‘unspeakable,’ the schismatic is unutterable, and, if any, the former is preferable. The list of the few thousand Catholics in the schismatic states, which was given in this column two weeks ago, shows how firmly the iron heel is being kept upon Catholic activity. ‘It is the Greek, not the Turk, who causes us Catholics trouble here,’ remarked a priest to the writer when driving through the streets of Constantinople a few years ago. In this despatch referred to, a tribute of gratitude and admiration is borne by the Moslems for the bravery with which the Italian missionary priests rescued many Mussulmans from the massacres commenced by the Greek and Bulgarian lambs.”

And the editor remarks:

“Our Rome correspondent speaks of the ‘unutterable’ schismatics of the East, and is of the opinion that they are of a far more virulent species of persecutors than the Turks ever were. But both the ‘unspeakables’ and the ‘unutterables’ will find the Catholics of the East a far different race of fighters from those that did the ‘dog’ act under fierce Ottoman tyranny. Now that the Balkans are admitted into the family of Christian nations they will have to behave themselves.”

“The Passing of a Chief.”

Under the above heading, the Fiji Times of December 10, 1912, records the death of Ratu Ambrose, the hereditary king of Suva, who died December 8, of typhoid fever, at the age of sixty-five. The Times says: “Of recent years Ratu Ambrose had been a most stanch follower of the Seventh-day Adventists, and a strict teetotaler. . . . Yesterday, practically the entire population of Suvavou left for the Rewa to attend the funeral.”

The Roman Curia

By Editor

The Roman Curia.— We call attention to an article in another column from the pen of one who was once a strong, stalwart Roman Catholic, and a warm friend of the late Cardinal Manning, of England. When Montagu saw that the plan of the Papacy was to subjugate and humble England, his strong love for his country and for justice compelled him to break from the Roman Catholic Church and warn his fellow countrymen. This he did in a series of letters to the London Times a third of a century ago. These letters were afterward placed in book form. The description of the Roman Curia speaks for itself.

Busy Season at the Publishing House

This is the season of the year when work at our publishing institution is usually slack, with many of the departments only working part time. But at this writing we are crowded with work all the way through. Only a few days ago the manager wanted a man, for a few hours, to do a special piece of work that was a little out of the ordinary, and he had to go from one department to another, until he finally went all through the factory before he found a man that could be spared. In some departments we are working overtime, and our linotypes have had to be sufficiently manned to be kept running night and day. And this, too, is all on our own regular denominational work; we do no commercial work whatever. We are grateful to our heavenly Father for His marvelous blessing on what we are doing.

A Present Saviour from Sin

Do you know of anything in the theories of men more hopeless to the individual man than evolution? After ages and ages, he ascended from the molecule to the monkey; then ages elapse, and the primordial man appears; then after other ages, the pithecanthropus is reached; ages and ages more roll on, and the man of the twentieth century appears, in whom there has been no appreciable improvement since the days of Moses and Socrates and Julius Caesar. How long will it be before man is fitted to live forever? What are all these generalizing guesses to the poor man in the bonds of sin, longing for deliverance? Evolution says to him, “Die; but your son of ten thousand generations removed may be worthy of life.” What help is that to him now? It is a dying torch in the depths of despair. But Christianity brings a different message. It tells man that he by right is God’s child, created in His image; that sin has defaced, distorted, marred, that image; that man is in sin’s bondage, but that in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, there is plenteous redemptive and mighty creative power to save, and save now. That is God’s message to you, poor mortal, to-day. God is a present help. Jesus Christ is a present Saviour from sin—One who will save to the uttermost all who will accept His salvation.

Conditions in Mexico

A LETTER from a gentleman in Mexico, who has spent years there, to Mr. G. W. Reaser, president of Arizona Conference, has this passage: “At times it seems as if Madero will not be able to handle the government. He took off the lid and let a lot of subjects loose, and now he is having a hard time getting the lid back on and quieting down the people. The condition of this country reminds me of how thin the crust of civilization is. Altho I have lived in Mexico sixteen years, and have thought that I knew the people quite well, I now find that I know nothing about them. I really thought that a large per cent of them were fairly well civilized and law-abiding, but since the Madero revolution I have discovered that a large percentage of them would a great deal rather make their living as bandits than as honorable citizens. Many people who were very anxious to get rid of President Diaz now wish that they had him back again, or at least some one of his ability.” Mr. Reaser further says, “Another man tells me that men who pass for good citizens will secretly congregate at night, and on horseback go out and rob, and be back home in the morning, passing as honorable men.” And this is a revelation of what all civilization is without God.

The above was hardly written before the news came of the revolution which burst February 8, in which General Reyes was killed, the army as a whole almost in rebellion, and Félix Diaz, one day before in prison for life for treason, was liberated, and is now dictator of Mexico. President Madero is in flight. Two hundred and fifty were killed including women and children. It is impossible to tell what a day will bring forth.

The Building of Dreadnoughts

In a recent editorial paragraph, the Springfield Republican has the following to say in regard to the unnatural activity of the nations of the world in building large and expensive war-ships.

“A study of the latest naval tabulations makes the world seem to ring with the vast din of shipyard and gun foundry. On December 1 there were some 58 battle-ships and battle cruisers of the so-called Dreadnought or super-Dreadnought type actually under construction for the different nations. Ten or 12 more had been authorized, and may, in a number of instances, have had their keel plates now laid. These 70 battle craft of the first line will represent on the average fully $10,000,000 apiece; some of them have been reported to cost much above that, and $10,000,000 is probably a low estimate. The total is therefore not less than $700,000,000, to which must be added millions more for cruisers, torpedo-boats and other auxiliary craft also in course of construction. There are already in commission approximately 50 Dreadnought battle-ships and battle cruisers, which, being somewhat smaller than those now building, have cost on an average at least $8,000,000, or $400,000,000 in the aggregate. Thus, since the launching of the Dreadnought in 1906, the world has engaged to spend well over $1,100,000,000 on the mere construction of fighting craft. It is a big bill.”

Facts like the foregoing are a part of the evidence that leads us to earnestly teach, as we have done for more than a third of a century, that the prophetic time is almost reached for the great war of Armageddon. That furious war that is stirred up and urged on by the demons, is the last great struggle of the war-gods, and then comes the promised second advent of our Lord. The prophecies are clear upon the subject, and the evidence of fulfilment is unimpeachable.

Discoveries at the Lick Observatory

Discoveries at the Lick Observatory have been quite numerous, according to the report of the director, Dr. W. W. Campbell,—some very important ones through spectrographic observations. They think that they have proved that stars travel more rapidly the older they are. They have also proved that several hundred thousand nebulae, visible to the telescope or the camera, are waiting discovery, and also that most nebulae have a spiral form. They have also demonstrated that vast numbers of stars—which look like one, even to powerful telescopes—are either double, triple, or quadruple. Work with the spectroscope showed that at least one star in every four is double. The great star Capella, for instance, consists of two nearly equal in brightness, which revolve around their common center every 104 days. The north star is not a single star, but three stars, or three suns revolving about a common center. They feel that they have also shown that the “principal new stars which now and then blaze up in the heavens, only to fade away, have been converted into nebula.” How much of the nebula theory will fade away under future investigation is a problem.

A Panacea

A Panacea.—A remedy over which the world will go wild for a few days, and then settle down to be sick and die as always before, is a Dr. Doyen’s “Elixir of Life,” which he declares will cure ninety-nine diseases. It is called “Mycolysine,” and is a solution of “colloidale phagogene polyvalente.” By the time the ordinary man could learn to pronounce that solution, his disease would have run its course.

The Sunday Law and Conversion

If the proponents of the Sunday law would use one half the energy and zeal to convert souls to Christ they are using to secure civil enactment for religious dogma, they would secure greater and better results. They are putting man in the place of God in enforced religious dogma, and are thus interposing humanity between the soul and its Saviour. Why do they not see this?