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Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 32.

The Kings of the East in Prophecy
Earlier text: PIONEERING IN CHINA

The Three Best Ways to and from California

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Our Representatives

By Editor

UNITED STATES AND CANADA

Alabama Tract Society, Room 316, Lyric Building, Birmingham, Ala.
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Arizona Tract Society, 417 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, Cal.
Arkansas Tract Society, Box 14, Little Rock, Ark.
British Columbia Tract Society, 1708 Maple St., Vancouver, B. C., Canada.
California Bible House, 537 25th St., Oakland, Cal.
California-Nevada Missionary Society, 341 E. Lodi Ave., Lodi, Cal.
California Tract Society, Northwestern, 537 25th St., Oakland, Cal.
California Tract Society, Southeastern, 417 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, Cal.
California Tract Society, Southern, 417 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, Cal.
Central California Bible House, Box 1304, Fresno, Cal.
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Colorado Tract Society, Eastern, 1112 Kalamath St., Denver, Colo.
Colorado Tract Society, Western, 122 S. 8th St., Grand Junction, Colo.
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Missouri Tract Society, 203 Franklin St., Clinton, Mo.
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New England Tract Society, Northern, 136 N. Main St., Concord, N. H.
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Washington Missionary Society, Western, 228 S. Brannan St., Auburn, Wash.
West Virginia Tract Society, 124 Marion St., Fairmont, W. Va.
Wisconsin Tract Society, Box 57, Grand Rapids, Wis.
Wyoming Tract Society, Crawford, Neb.
Above is a list of our authorized agencies and depositories, and we invite you to communicate with them if you wish to secure any books or periodicals advertised in this journal.
OUR foreign tracts are put up in envelopes, price 25c each. They are obtainable in Arabic, Armenian, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and many other languages. Address your Tract Society.

Anxious for the Pope’s Influence

THERE has been considerable discussion, throughout the world, of the reported interview of Latapie with the pope. This is one among the many things that show how the world is turning toward the papacy and is anxiously seeking to know where the pope will stand upon great international problems. English papers have demanded that the pope express himself on such matters as the sinking of the Lusitania, and kindred questions that are receiving so much public attention.
The English cardinal Bourne seemed to think that the discussion had become sufficiently strong to demand his defense of the pope’s position. A very significant sentence in Cardinal Bourne’s utterances is the following:
“It is a strange phenomenon to find that men representative of English thought, who once upon a time would have derided the very idea of appealing to the holy father in such a crisis, are now the very first to condemn what they regard as the political silence of the sovereign pontiff.”
The attention that is given to the pope in this time is indeed a striking phenomenon. The appalling calamities of the war raging in Europe are causing many people to turn toward religion who have been both godless and irreligious in the past. These people reflect that the pope has great power because he has such an immense following, and naturally they turn in multitudes to him for his leadership and to learn his opinions on great vital questions. But this power of the papacy, while outwardly spiritual in appearance, and as the calamities come upon the world more and more, it will be found that the people will turn stronger and stronger toward the papal church.
It is indeed significant, as Cardinal Bourne remarks, “that men representative of English thought, who once upon a time would have derided the very idea of appealing to the holy father in such a crisis, are now the very first to condemn what they regard as the political silence of the sovereign pontiff.”
The very fact that England, since the beginning of this great war, sent Sir Henry Howard as an envoy to the Vatican, speaks whole volumes. Millions of the common people in England are strongly Protestant in their sentiments; but this act of sending Sir Howard to the Vatican shows that the government of England has turned toward the papacy.
The duke of Genoa, the acting ruler of Italy while the king is at the battle front.
The duke of Genoa, the acting ruler of Italy while the king is at the battle front.
As we view these strikingly marked tendencies of this time, how significant is the prophecy which states, in the clearest language, that when the last generation is reached, all the world will wonder after the beast! This is not a question of theory, but it is a question of fact and of prophecy, and we would that these matters might be so discussed that no one, be he Catholic or Protestant, would have any feeling over them whatever, but would calmly weigh the evidence and take his stand accordingly. This is no time for bitter denunciations or acrimonious discussions. We are standing in the presence of the greatest climax, in the fulfillment of prophecy, that the world has ever seen. A new religious despotism is forming. It will have but very brief duration, but it will be as cruel and oppressive as anything that the world has ever seen; and the sad part is that all the factions of nominal Protestantism, as well as those of Catholicism, will unite in bringing it about.

Circulating the Word in Russia

RUSSIA has adhered to the Greek Catholic faith, and because of this, has not been aggressive in circulating the word of God among the common people. But our American Bible Society, in cooperation with the World's Sunday School Association, has been seeking to place Bibles in the hands of the soldiers that are fighting Russia's battles. These good workers that are so earnestly seeking to spread the consolations of the living word of the living God have been greatly encouraged by the cooperation they have received in this work, from the empress. She has authorized that the following inscription be placed in each Bible as it is passed on to the soldier:
“His imperial highness, the czarevitch, heir apparent and Grand Duke Alexander Nicholavitch, most graciously presents this gospel, which has been sent to him by a Sunday school scholar in America.”
It will be seen, from this inscription, that the czarevitch accepts the Bible from the Sunday school scholar, and passes it on to the soldier. Thus it becomes in reality a gift from the czarevitch himself, and the soldier will therefore greatly appreciate it, and read it as he would not under other circumstances.
The miracles that God is performing in these times in the way of getting His living word into the hands of the people show without question the supreme power that is working to prepare this world for its great harvest. Who knows how many thousands of souls may be reached by this one effort, and will be led to that knowledge of God's word that will prepare them to stand in the great day of the second coming of Christ?

“Will Never Be ‘Over’”

MR. H. G. WELLS, who is usually optimistic in all that he says, affirms concerning the present war, “This war and its consequences will never be ‘over,’ and we have not even begun to realize what it has cost us.” He furthermore says that “there never was so blind a superstition as the belief that progress is inevitable,” and he reaches the climax of his gloomy utterances in the expression:
“It is quite conceivable that ours is the last generation for many generations that will go freely about the world, that will have abundance of leisure and science and free speech and abundant art and much beauty and many varied occupations.”
The outlook in the world must be very sad indeed to all intelligent people who do not have the blessed assurances of the prophetic Word to illuminate their minds and hearts; for it is perfectly evident, to any one who is really intelligent concerning present-day conditions, that this old world of ours is facing dissolution, social, moral, and physical. We are having such storms of various kinds as are causing the stoutest hearts to tremble; society is breaking to pieces through its corruptions, its strifes and profligate debaucheries; and the nations at large, instead of manifesting the peace that the “civilization of the twentieth century” has promised, are insanely mad with the furies of war.
The stoutest hearts are trembling as they contemplate these conditions; but to him who has been following the light of the prophetic Word, all is clear. A great conflict lies just before us; but this conflict is nothing more than the dying agonies of sin and the rebellion against the righteous government of God. It will end very soon in the glad and glorious fulfillment of every promise of the second coming of our Lord and Master.
Let it be known everywhere that the richest and the fullest joys lie just ahead for all who are prepared to receive them. He who has never had his heart touched by the blessed assurances of the sacred Word, that the Master’s coming is very near, has never tasted of the fullest contentment and peace that can come to the soul. Those who will live for God to-day, will soon hear from the Master’s own lips at His coming, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

War Swallowing Up Billions

CAREFULLY compiled figures gathered from the most reliable sources by the Wall Street Journal give the great total of war losses by the various nations during the last year as $15,856,380,000. There were a few figures not available that the Journal says would bring the complete sum to about sixteen billion dollars.
Careful estimates indicate that the nations at war are spending $53,000,000 a day; and that means that if they continued the war for another year, they will expend at least $19,345,000,000 in addition to the vast sums already expended. These sums account for nothing more than the actual expense of the armies in the field. It is perfectly safe to say that an equally large sum has been lost through the destruction of property.
In the year that the war has been in progress the nations in the conflict have increased their war debts by about seventy per cent, and have destroyed much of their business. Previous to the war, they were groaning under the burden of debt incident to war preparations. What will the burden be like when this war is over? Divine power may give us a little time of peace, so that the gospel message promised by Christ in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, to go to all the world, may have an opportunity to do its work; but outside of divine power, there is absolutely no prospect for peace. As many writers are saying who are looking at the future from the cold standpoint of philosophy, the outlook is hopeless.
But no individual should allow himself to be deprived of the blessed hope that God has provided for each and every soul in this time. The outlook is dark, gloomy, and foreboding only when we look at it from the human standpoint and through human eyes. If we see these conditions through the brilliant light of the prophetic page, we will see on beyond this darkness the shining brightness of the coming Christ, and the glories of the New Jerusalem, and the beginnings of everlasting joys, in the which no shade of sadness can possibly come. We will have no fears for the future, for the reason that the prophetic page has made plain what the foreboding conditions of to-day mean.

Whisky Left Out

By W. H. S.

THE new edition of the United States Pharmacopoeia, which is the authoritative list of medicinal substances for this country, leaves out whisky and brandy.
This is how it came about, according to the New Republic: It seems that the government, called upon during the last ten years to answer specifically the question, “What is whisky?” has rendered a definition differing considerably from that of the Pharmacopoeia, which specified straight spirits of fermented grain aged two years at least. When the revisers got down to spiritus frumenti, as the doctors call the stuff, there was a contention whether to adopt the new government definition or stick to the more exigent standard of the earlier edition.
While the discussion was going on, it dawned on them that they were wasting their time, because scarcely a doctor ever prescribes this “medicine.” To repeat a quotation from one of their number, “We don’t use whisky as a medicine anyhow, and there is no more use of fixing a standard for whisky than there is of fixing a standard of garbage.” So now the doctors do not officially know what whisky and brandy are.
W. H. S.

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Signs of the Times · Aug 17, 1915