p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 34. (9/2/1913)

Earlier text: World Federation

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

How They Look upon It.

We are sometimes accused of being harsh and uncharitable toward Roman Catholics, but we are not. We have all charity for them. We will not judge one of them. We pray they will all be saved. But we do not believe in Roman Catholicism. Nor do Catholics believe in the Protestant religion either in Luther’s day or this. The Western Watchman of August 7, 1913, speaks of “the absurdity of the statement that the Protestant religion is better than no religion at all,” and quotes Bishop Dunne as saying regarding it:

“A counterfeit half-dollar is better than no money at all only in the estimation of a conscience man.”

Cures for Disease

Benjamin Keech has made a fine suggestive division of the word “disease,” and given us some sure cures for it, in our Home department.

Fruit for India

Will those in the West note the little call made on page 14 for fruit for India? It is not designed, of course, for those who would have to pay heavy freights, but especially for those on the Pacific Coast.

The Septuagint and Baptism

Those who are at all troubled over the question of baptism will find real help in the article “The Septuagint and Baptism,” by F. D. Starr. It brings out some things in the Old Testament that are not apparent in our Common Version.

The Baptism

Those who love poetry will note that Miss Beck’s poem on the Sabbath day is one of a series. She has in this poem described event after event which took place on the Sabbath. This is the second in the series,—“The Baptism.” Others will follow.

History Making in China

By Editor

Our Outlook department has some good things this week, not the least of which is “History Making in China.” It will help our readers to understand the difficulties between Russia and China, and some of the great problems which China has to work out in an educational way.

The Longest Prophetic Period

Do you want to know what the longest prophetic period is in the Bible?— the one that reaches the farthest, the one that ends definite time prophecy? Study the Bible reading on pages 8, 9. That will show you why those that hold that view regarding Christ and His priestly work can never be time setters.

The Two Kingdoms

Many are perplexed over the question of the kingdom. Was Christ King when He was here upon the earth? Was His kingdom set up on the Day of Pentecost? We are sure that help will come to those by reading the article “The Two Kingdoms,” by T. H. Starbuck, on page 4.

The Calendar and Proposed Changes

By Editor

In our next week's issue there will be an important article with a very illuminating diagram on the calendar and the proposed changes in the calendar. The diagram itself will give various calendars. It will be a number which those who are interested in chronology or calendars will want to preserve. It will be worth it.

The Passover

The Passover.— There is a beautiful double sense in the meaning of the word “passover.” It is usually applied to the passing over of the Hebrews’ houses by the destroying angel, wherever he saw the blood marks of the covenant, and entering the houses of the Egyptians and slaying the first-born; but does it not also mean that God’s presence passed or crossed over the threshold into the home of every child of faith, and afforded them protection and consolation?

A Living or Dead Creed

The Bible is a sufficient creed for the living Christian. In that, he ever finds living, consistent, expanding truth. But to him who feels that he knows all, that Book is not sufficient. Surely when a man or a church has obtained full knowledge, why should not that knowledge be formulated into a creed? The minds that can comprehend, can at least attempt to express their thought. Why not write it down, and put at its close, “Ne plus ultra!”—No more beyond? But the living Christian and the living church, holding the living word of the living God, know that God is infinite, as is His word; know that man is finite, as is his understanding; and know that that Word teaches, in many ways and in many places, that “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” To shine more light, more light must be received; and God gives more and more until the day dawn. Let that church which refuses the light and refuses the forward command, write her little creed, her human conceptions of God’s law, and nestle by it. But let the living church go on and wax stronger. She can afford to trust God, she can not afford to depend upon men.

The Unchangeable God

By Editor

The Unchangeable God.—We receive frequently papers containing articles against the Seventh-day Sabbath. The arguments are usually old and badly frayed, and have been answered many times. They are oftentimes found in papers of limited circulation, whose readers we could scarcely hope to reach. Often, put together, they are like the “cats of Kilkenny,” self-devouring. One holds that Sunday is the Sabbath of the Bible, another that there is no law for any sabbath, another that a seventh part of time is all that is necessary, and so on and so forth. Let our readers settle on these two great facts: first, that the eternal, unchangeable God has made the seventh-day Sabbath precept a part of the immutable law, spoken and written by Him (Ex. 20:1–17; Matt. 5:17–20; Ps. 111:7, 8; Mal. 3:6); secondly, Jesus our Lord, the Sinless One, the perfect Example, observed that day (Luke 4:16, 31; John 15:10; 1 John 2:6). What more does the Christian need? The gospel is itself given to bring man back to harmony with God and to obedience to His law. The gospel which these men proclaim, brings men to confusion, and leaves them—generally ignorant of it—in transgression.

A Revolution Impending.—

This is what Archbishop Glennon, of St. Louis, is reported as saying at a recent meeting of the Catholic Social Service Commission in that city, June 16 (we quote from the St. Louis Republic of June 18, 1913):

“Many of us believe we are on the verge of a revolution worse than the Civil War.”

“Such a struggle would be a war of class against class, a war in which every door-post would be marked with blood.”

“In our Civil War the North was arrayed against the South, and families were divided; father fought against son, but a war of the classes would be far worse. It would be a reign of terror, a repetition of 1793.”

“Many deadly, revolutionary and dangerous doctrines are creeping into our life, not only in the labor-unions, but in the capitalistic unions as well. Often our politicians are elected to office on principles that their own consciences will not allow them to accept.”

And all this has been foretold by the Bible. Truly men's hearts are “failing them for fear.” See Luke 21:25-27; 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

A Powerless Remedy

The Epworth Herald of August 2 has an editorial on “What if We Play on Sunday?” It admits the need of recreation, but the Herald feels that the final argument is against it. Here are two utterances:

“The Sabbath was made for man; when man unmakes it, he is getting ready to lose it. And everything that wipes out the difference between Sunday and Saturday makes it easier to use Sunday as another Saturday—in short, as a work day.”

“To save everybody’s Sunday—more free time on the other days, and half of Saturday without labor. To lose Sunday—no time to play, and, when ‘necessity’ arises, a little more time to work.”

That is to say, We will set aside the only day that God has called holy, upon which He rested, which He gave to man as a Sabbath, we will do more if possible to secularize it, in order to save the law-enforced religious day that has no Bible sacredness, and in the nature of the case could have no divine sanction as the Lord’s Sabbath. It will never work for man’s spiritual good; it can not.

An Unappreciated Joke.—

By Editor

The SIGNS OF THE Times does not perpetrate many jokes, and the one here referred to was evidently not wise under the circumstances, nor was it designed as a joke. A correspondent wanted to know, “In what chapter can I find where it speaks about women voting in the last days?” and we replied, “The twenty-ninth chapter of Matthew, perhaps, or the sixty-seventh of Isaiah.” And straightway one infidel declares that this shows what the revisers have done in adding to the Bible, and others have thought we must have a different version. Of course, every well-versed Bible student knows that Matthew has but twenty-eight chapters and Isaiah sixty-six. The above answer was designed to say that the Bible says nothing about women's voting. It deals with bigger things. Its aim is to train citizens for an eternal kingdom.

An Index

An Index.— Is the national “conscience fund” an index to the nation’s honesty? It was established by President James Madison in 1811; $5.00 was sent in by a man who had defrauded the government. It has now grown to nearly a half-million dollars. The greatest yearly amount received was $35,862 in 1902. This year it is but $2,814.44, the lowest since 1901. Is the public conscience more benumbed, have opportunities for fraud been less, or is the nation becoming more honest?