p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 1. (11/7/1892)

CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER

By Editor

We send no papers from this office without pay in advance unless by special arrangement. When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the SIGNS are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon for pay. Please read the papers and hand them to your friends to read.

CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER.

Editorial.—Notes and Comments—Our Purpose—The Next Step in Christianity—What a Secular Journal Says—England's Peril—The Modern Way to Preserve the Gospel—Make Yourself Understood (selected) 1-3

Doctrinal.—"Image of the Invisible" (poetry)—Man's Sin and Saviour—The Nature and Existence of Man, No. 1—Genealogy of Sabbath Observance—Man Perverted by Sin—Is There a Difference between Salvation and Reward?—A Colored Higher Critic 4-6

Miscellaneous.—Afterwards (poetry)—Christ's Use of Parables—Blessed are the Peacemakers—A Plague-Stricken City—Seventh-day Adventists—Church Follies—Unhallowed Diversions—The Blessing of Adversity—Take Ye Away the Stone—The Needed Preparation 7-9

The Home Circle.—Uncertainty (poetry)—Education and Motherhood—How People Sleep—A Thrilling Ghost Story—The Hen Hawk Deceived 10, 11

Health and Temperance.—Is Tobacco Using Sin?—A Universal Curse—What Rum Will Do for an Athlete—Cure for Cold in the Head—Leprosy in Russia 11

Mission Fields.—Good News from China—A Leper's Devotion 12

Our Work and Workers.—Missionary Work in Nebraska—Field Notes—The New College—Encouraging to the Workers 13

International S. S. Lesson.—Paul's Sermon at Antioch—Notes on the Lesson 14

News and Notes.—Religious—Secular 15

Editorial.—Various Notes and Comments—That "Christian Sentiment"—Who Will Gain by Sunday Closing?—Literary Notices 16

We begin in this issue a series of articles to which we ask special attention, as it deals with a most important subject. We refer to "Man's Sin and Saviour," by Elder Uriah Smith.

THE paper entitled "Man Perverted by Sin," is an entirely independent article, which will be followed by others from the same writer. While independent of each other, they will also be connected.

THE article on the "Nature and Existence of Man," from the pen of Elder G. C. Tenney, editor of the Bible Echo, of Australia, will be followed by three others. We bespeak for them a careful reading.

A GENTLEMAN in Florida writes under date of October 23:—

"By chance I picked up part of a copy of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, but it did not contain subscription rates, as the outside was torn off. I was much struck with the reading matter which it contained. Please send me terms of subscription."

THE times are pregnant with matters which ought to enlist the interest and activities of every child of God. Christ is soon coming; the old earth is in the birth throes of a coming age. Satan is working as never before to deceive, if possible, the very elect of God. Only those will not be deceived whose trust is in the word of God. Reader, where do you stand?

THE manager of our book department wishes us to state that orders for stencils illustrating Sabbath school lessons in the primary departments for the present quarter cannot be filled, for the reason that the manufacturer failed to make good his contract. Arrangements are being made with other parties to procure stencils for the lessons of the first quarter of 1893, which will be duly announced.

WE have received the "Annual Report of the Board of State Viticultural Commissioners for 1891-92," with a request to notice. Well, it is a pamphlet of 280 large pages, compiled and printed at the expense of the State of California, in the interest of the grape-growing industries. While many tons of grapes are eaten in their natural state, and many tons more are made into raisins, there is one other item that is simply appalling, and that is the enormous amount of wine manufactured. The crop of 1891 yielded 14,600,000 gallons of wine, besides about 1,475,000 gallons of brandy. And it is claimed that there is a home and foreign market for at least 3,000,000 gallons more. If this vast use of the energies of the soil and labors of the people in the interest of human depravity and destruction can be called enterprise, then we are an enterprising people. It would certainly be discouraging from a moral standpoint were it not for the claim that "this is a Christian nation."

BROTHER H. A. ST. JOHN contributes for this number a short article on the "Genealogy of Sabbath Keepers." In two previous papers he has given the genealogy of Sunday keepers and Sunday laws. The reader will notice the difference, that while Sunday, as a religious institution, and Sunday laws have been handed down from generation to generation, Sabbath keepers all trace their genealogy from the same universal common source, the word of the ever-living God. Reader, which will you choose?

WHO WILL GAIN BY SUNDAY CLOSING?

By Editor

SENTINEL LIBRARY No. 52, entitled, "Jesus, the Church, and the World's Fair," has just been issued from the press, and orders will be filled immediately. This is a very comprehensive though brief presentation of the points involved. It was written by the editor of the Arena, Boston, and was first published as an editorial in the July number, 1892, of that magazine. As the tract (16 pages) only costs two cents, we naturally expect a large circulation, therefore we will not insert any copious extracts here. There is one thought, however, that is somewhat startling. After showing the advantages to the 5,600 saloons of the city of Chicago by having the fair closed, the author says:—

"Close the World's Fair, and what will be the inevitable result? The Sabbath Union, the saloon, the brothel, and the gambling hell will have triumphed. There will be hundreds of thousands of strangers in the great city with nothing to do. If it is fair to judge results by those seen in our great cities to-day, it will be easy to say which of the two great powers will reap the richest harvest. The ministry to-day in all great metropolitan centers have so lost their power on the people that they can no longer fill the pews. I received, less than three weeks ago, a letter from a leading orthodox minister of Boston, which contains the following frank but mournful concession:—"

"'The churches have all they can do to keep alive. They have no religion to spare. There is scarce any church where religious truth is the central attraction. We ministers must conjure by the social principle, and by amusing, lecturing to the audience in an engaging manner, or we have empty pews. Look at the topics we advertise. I do not believe twenty thousand persons, different individuals, attend morning or evening services on any Sunday in Boston.'"

SOME of the Catholic papers will really criticise the high dignitaries of "the church," as the following clippings from one of the papal journals witnesses:—

"'The Alumni of the College of Our Lady of Angels gave a dinner at Hartford, Conn., on September 27. 'The clergymen largely predominated,' says The Telegram's report. They had sherry, claret, Roman punch, Pommery Sec and cognac—and 'the clergymen largely predominated'—of course. No wonder but one priest of Hartford is known as a Prohibitionist—and a strange being he must be thought; and the reunion ended by the singing of 'He's a Jolly Good Fellow,' and I guess they all were; but it wasn't the Prohibition priest they sang of.'"

"'The Pope said, 'Let priests shine as models of total abstinence.'""

"'What if he did?'"

The same editor throws out the following hit at Cardinal Gibbons:—

"'Archbishop Carroll once issued a Pastoral to Catholics, asking them 'to take an interest in the lottery for building the cathedral at Baltimore.'"

"Now The Mirror, under the direct jurisdiction of the Cardinal, the successor of Archbishop Carroll, could not go in the mail if it published a lottery ad, or even the drawings at a church fair."

"But it prints rum ads, and the Cardinal favors licensing saloons if they pay high."

"There are some people who think I am a crank for saying that a successor of the Cardinal will present as great a contrast to that course as his attitude on lottery does to Archbishop Carroll's.'"

THAT "CHRISTIAN SENTIMENT."

By Editor

It is commonly claimed by Sunday-law preachers that all adherents to the Christian religion are in favor of such laws, and they are wont to class all opposers as infidels, sympathizers with saloons, etc. But the admission of some of the leaders in the movement for closing the World's Fair is decidedly against the theory of unanimous Christian support. Mr. Crafts, speaking of the success of the Sunday-closing measure in Congress, has this to say in Our Day for October:—

"Professed friends of the Sabbath who have not helped to secure this victory by petition or letter or both may well hide their faces in shame. Fully 150,000 petitions were sent to pastors in the mails by great labor and at great cost, of which 100,000 should have come back from that number of religious organizations of various kinds, but not 10,000 of these organizations have so petitioned."

What then becomes of the claim, made so positively in the lobbies of Congress and elsewhere, that the Christian sentiment of the country was a unit for Sunday closing? It is by such misrepresentations that these men are seeking to secure religious legislation in this country, against the spirit of our much boasted constitutional freedom of conscience. Their success means Church and State union and consequent religious persecution, notwithstanding their stout professions that such is not the design. They have no idea of stopping with merely closing the World's Fair on Sunday, that is but the opening wedge to further church interference in national and State legislation. Their undisguised sympathy with religious persecution in certain parts of the United States, where public officials can be used for such purpose, is proof of their ultimate designs when they shall have secured further political power. Legitimate Christian work can be done only in the power of the Holy Spirit.

LITERARY NOTICES.

By Editor

A SPANISH translation of the tract "Living by Faith" has just been issued from the Review and Herald Publishing House, Battle Creek, Mich. It can also be procured of the Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal. The great number of Spanish-speaking people on the Pacific Coast, and on our Southern border, ought to be an incentive to our brethren in those regions to distribute large numbers of this valuable tract. It was translated by Brother F. C. Kelly, of Oakland. 16 pp.; price 2 cents.

"In the Chain Gang for Conscience' Sake," is the title of a 12-page tract which pointedly exposes not only the cruelty, but the vindictive partiality and injustice, manifested in the execution of the Sunday law in some parts of the State of Tennessee. The growing tendency towards religious persecution on such whimsical pretexts as these prosecutions are based upon, makes it necessary that such literature should have a wide circulation. Price, 50 cents per 100. Address, National Religious Liberty Association, 267 W. Main Street, Battle Creek, Mich.

The Whittier is the name of a paper published by the State school for boys and girls at Whittier, California. It is published for a threefold purpose, which, briefly told, is as follows: (1) To give the boys and girls of the school an education in printing; (2) to encourage composition and penmanship, and reportorial ability in a paper of their own; and (3) to use the paper as the best means of communication with the outside world. The first number is highly creditable to its managers. A sample copy will be sent to anyone who is interested enough to send his address.

SUNDAY LAWS OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES. A comprehensive collection of laws and decisions regarding Sunday observance, especially useful as a compendium of information. Paper covers, 25 cents. Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal.

NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION. Political and Scriptural reasons why the popular claim that this is "a Christian nation" is utterly unfounded and impossible. 8 pp.; $1.00 per hundred. Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal.