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Signs of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 43.

Will California Go Blue?

Signs of the Times

Nov 4, 1930

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 4, 1930

Will California Go Blue?

By Alonzo L. Baker

Will the Golden State by the Golden Gate succumb to an attack of the blue laws?
Alonzo L. Baker
State capitol, Sacramento, California
State capitol, Sacramento, California
Under the guise of a labor measure, a Puritan Sunday blue law is on the ballot in the State of California for the election November 4. This proposition, mistakenly called by some a “barbers’ bill,” is a thoroughgoing blue law. It is true that it was initiated and sponsored by the barbers of the State, but it comprehends much more than the tonsorial trade. Here is the way it reads in part on the ballot itself:
“SUNDAY CLOSING LAW. Initiative. Prohibits keeping open for business any store, barber shop, workshop, factory, or other place of business, or performing or employing labor, on Sunday.”
Eighteen subsections of the proposition recount the exemptions covering works of charity, necessity, recreation, public utilities, railways, newspapers, etc.
In opposing all such measures as this, the SIGNS OF THE TIMES would not have it appear that it is against either the workingmen or the churches, for such is far from the case. We believe that every man and woman is entitled to one day’s rest each week. Indeed, both by precept and example, God gave us the weekly cycle consisting of six working days and one rest day. It is fundamentally wrong that any should be compelled to labor seven days a week.
Furthermore we hold that society as a whole is much the gainer when worship as well as rest is a prime factor on the one rest day each week. Civilization would rise to new heights if all the people were regular in their attendance upon divine services, for religion is the mainspring of idealism, morality, integrity, and righteousness.
But blue law legislation is neither the cure for the ills the workingmen suffer nor for irreligion on the part of the masses. In fact, the disease is better than the cure if the latter is an attempt at legislation on the things of religion.
California needs no law making it possible for the barbers to have one day’s rest in seven, for very wisely the lawmakers of that State long ago passed a statute making it illegal for employers to require their employees to work more than six days in any one week without a day of rest. See California General Laws (Deering, 1923), tit. 350, act 4718. When that law was made, the legislators very wisely refrained from prescribing the day upon which employees should rest. They left that to the wishes of the employees and the employers.
Therefore, so far as the laboring classes are concerned, this Sunday closing law proposed for California is altogether superfluous. No barber needs to work at his trade seven days in the week if he does not want to. If hisemployer should demand such a thing, he could be haled into court and prosecuted forthwith.
Some of the religionists of California are very zealous that this Sunday closing measure should become a law. They feel that it will greatly aid church attendance, for, they reason, the more things that are shut up on Sunday the greater the number of people who will go to church. But such logic is fallacious.

No Help to Religion

There is no law or other hindrance in the State of California to church attendance. Every one may go to church who so desires. And how, pray tell us, will it benefit religion to have people in church who don’t want to be there? If religion is not voluntary, it is not religion. If people go to church because every other place is locked up, it would be far better for the church for them not to be present. Such a situation is the prolific spawning ground for lukewarm religion, hypocrisy, and often bitter antagonism to the church. Husbands cannot pass laws making it compulsory for their wives to love them. Neither by compulsion can men be made to love God or the church. Religion is altogether a matter of persuasion and attraction. Men are drawn to God, not pushed.
Rev. Harry W. Bowlby, secretary of the militant Lord’s Day Alliance, says that if a man’s ball bat, golf sticks, fishing tackle, and theater ticket are taken away from him on Sunday, it will be easier for him to go to church. But if a man is yearning for home runs, par scores, five-pound trout, or Ziegfeld’s Follies while sitting in a church pew, is his presence any advantage to himself, to the church, or to God? Such a man is present in the body but absent in the spirit; and in religion the spirit is what counts.

A Barbers’ Quarrel

So far as the barbers are concerned, this Sunday closing law is an attempt to settle differences among themselves. A few shops in the larger cities of the State want to keep open at least a few hours on Sunday. Their competitors want to close them up. Therefore, they want to shackle the entire State with blue law chains in order to squelch their competitors.
We hold that this is not a fair way to settle such differences. The carpenters, the plumbers, the electricians, and other trades of the State have regulated their hours and days of labor quite satisfactorily without dragging all the people of the State into the quarrel. Why shouldn’t the barbers do likewise?
The days of labor is not a matter to be regulated by law. So far as civil law is concerned, any act that is lawful on Wednesday is also lawful on Friday or on Sunday. Why should the state attempt to say that building a house or giving a shave is lawful on Monday but a crime on Sunday? Religion alone has holydays. Religion alone says that an act is all right on six days but a sin on the seventh. Therefore when the state attempts to make a day holy or holier by legislation, it is stepping over into the domain of religion;and the interference of the state with religion, or religion with the state is wholly un-American and unchristian and diametrically opposed to the principles of both.
(Continued from page 2)

Only a Beginning

One of the great dangers in such legislation as is proposed for California is that the regulation of one’s labors and recreation will not stop with such a mild measure as the one on the ballot. California has long withstood all attempts of the National Reform Association and the Lord’s Day Alliance to foist a blue law upon the Golden State. They know they must allow many exemptions and camouflage their proposition for it to have any chance at all of getting on to the statute books. But once the blue law camel has his nose within the tent, it will then be only a matter of time until he is in, legs, hump, tail, and all. The blue law proponents never seem satisfied until they have locked everything up tight on Sunday except the churches. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are this very year doing their utmost to free themselves from puritanical blue laws long ago fastened upon them by these reform organizations. In those States practically all labor and amusement are prohibited on Sunday, even “Tom Thumb” golf!
Let the barbers adjudicate their differences among themselves; let the churches make religion so attractive that men will feel they cannot afford to miss attendance at their services; let us not mix up the things of Caesar and the things of God; let us remain true to the principles of Christianity and the principles of the Constitution of the United States.

TWICE-BORN MEN

By Allen Walker

The cardinal doctrine of “the new birth” set forth in a group of short articles by
ALLEN WALKER
The great teacher, Nicodemus, sought Jesus by night.
The great teacher, Nicodemus, sought Jesus by night.
The doctrine, “Ye must be born again,” is the greatest in the New Testament. Should a man accept every other teaching except this one, he would still be a lost man. The rebirth of the soul is not only the most wonderful experience, but it is also the most important that can come into the life. There are many experiences a person may never have and yet be saved, but he may go through every other experience except that of the new birth, and he will certainly be lost. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3. Jesus never taught a truth that He emphasized more strongly than this. In Matthew 18:3 He said, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” There is no Scriptural fact more positively stated.

REASONS FOR ASSERTIONS

When the Bible states a thing as a fact, there is always a reason. That reason may not always be discoverable, but it is there just the same. When Jesus said that it is impossible to be saved without being “born again,” there is some very important reason. Why is it so utterly impossible for a man to enter the kingdom of God without the new birth? The necessity of it rests upon the fact of the depravity of human nature. There is no doctrine of the Bible that annihilates the modernistic teaching of “the inherent goodness of man” so completely as the necessity of the new birth. Regeneration proves that man by nature is sinful and depraved, and the importance of the new birth is based upon this unescapable fact.
The Scriptures teach that human nature at its very best is “corrupt.” Away back in the days of Noah “all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” Genesis 6:12. If that was true then, how much more so to-day? The most scrupulous Jew—one who could boast that he was “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5)—had finally to admit, “I know that in me . . . dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). His verdict was that “the old man” (that is, the unrenewed man) “is corrupt.” Ephesians 4:22. With the advantage of ancestry, of education, of the best environment, as well as culture, discipline, and training, man is still “corrupt” and not a proper subject for the kingdom of God! Only the miracle of the new birth can make him fit for the kingdom.

GOOD AND EVIL FRUITS

A tree produces fruits that correspond to its nature. This principle acts the same in human beings. Illustrating this fact, Jesus declared, “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” Matthew 7:17-19. This teaching seals the final doom of the unregenerate man. The fire of destruction awaits him, for “he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This teaching of Jesus with reference to the good tree and the good fruit and the corrupt tree and the evil fruit shows that so long as human nature is unregenerate it is degenerate, and the fruit will be evil. In Romans 1:29-31, Galatians 5:19-21, 2 Timothy 3:1-3 we find that depraved man is guilty of the following: fornication; wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, deceit, backbiting, hating God, witchcraft, uncleanness, adultery, idolatry, hatred, variance, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revelings; they are despiteful, proud, boastful, unmerciful, lovers of their own selves, blasphemers, unthankful, fierce, traitors, heady, high-minded, and so forth. These evil things are the fruit of the corrupt tree of degenerate humanity. This gives to us some idea of God’s estimate of human nature. In the article next week we shall see how very powerless man is to change this nature or to regulate its fruit.

A CHINESE Admiral ADOPTS VEGETARIANISM

By Admiral Tsai Ting-Kan

Admiral Tsai Ting-Kan
of Darien, formerly minister of foreign affairs for China, here gives you his personal testimony on his views on diet. Admiral Tsai is a one-time graduate of an American university. He is a subscriber for the “Signs of the Times,” and wrote this article expressly for our paper.
THIRTY years ago I suffered much of rheumatism. When I rose in the morning, I could not stretch out my fingers. I had to rub my hands in bed till the circulation accelerated and my finger joints warmed by the quickened flow of blood. My shoulders and knee joints suffered excruciating pains.
I was advised to buy hot plasters from a Chinese doctor in a temple dedicated to the city god of Shanghai. The plasters gave some relief, but failed to produce a permanent cure.
I was next advised to try another Chinese doctor who was reputed to have been particularly skillful in the use of needles. With these he would thrust into the joints of hands and fingers of patients, claiming that by so doing he could stimulate the nerves and rouse them to greater activity. He would probe one patient after another without even stopping to disinfect the needle after each operation. This careless act appeared to me highly dangerous, being a most effective way of transmitting various diseases from one individual to another. Some of his needles were eight inches long. He did not hesitate to insert the needle two inches into the knee joints and muscles of some of his patients. In case of stomach trouble, he inserted one three inches into the patient’s bowels. I concluded that the pains from rheumatism were preferred to such reckless treatment with the double risk of getting some other disease by a contaminated instrument or by blood poisoning through a rusty needle.

CHINESE DOCTOR CONSULTED

I next consulted a Chinese doctor educated in a Western school of medicine. He said rheumatism was caused by acid in the blood. Instead of pressing for further information on the subject, I hastily concluded that the acid must have come from fruits and vegetables. These I stopped eating at once, though I was very fond of them.
After refraining from fruits and vegetables, I went to the other extreme of adopting a total meat diet, including beef, mutton, pork, fish, fowl, liver, kidney, ham, sausages, duck, crabs, lobsters, eels, prawns, shrimps, turtles, and sharks’ fins. In my ignorance, I thought vegetables were as bad for rheumatism as they were for diabetes. A meat diet was then thought to be able to keep safe from acid altogether. I did not even suspect that I was taking in the very poison that produced the disease from which I was so anxious to cure myself.

VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL ACID

In the years 1901 and 1902 I suffered indescribable pains. There was no relief. In despair, I gave up all doctors. My joints seemed to have been bound by wires of steel specially made to check the free movements of my limbs. Days before the coming of foul weather the pains become more acute, so that I could predict accurately a change a day or two ahead. Rheumatism was thus to me what unequal treaties are to China. But in either case the cure must be effected principally from the inside and not entirely from the outside.
In 1903 I consulted an American doctor in St. Louis. He corrected my ignorance by explaining the difference between vegetable and animal acid. My meat diet had intensified rather than diminished my trouble. Uric acid was the poison I should eliminate from my system, he said. He then enjoined upon me the necessity of stopping all meat, at least all red meat. Fish and fowl were to be taken sparingly. All alcohol, tea, coffee, and chocolate were to be avoided. Vegetables should be the chief diet, especially the top part of plants. Regular movement of the bowels should be a daily necessity, and drinking six or seven glasses of water after and between meals would flush the system properly. I followed his instructions. As I gradually left meat, the rheumatism became less aggravating. There was less frequent application of plasters, but I was still sensitive to weather conditions.
In 1921 I was advised by a friend in Boston to try sodium phosphate. Three thousand tablets were ordered and taken regularly for three years. “How to Live” was given me by a friend in Baltimore, from which I gleaned some useful lessons on health and diet.
In 1927 I came to Darien to seek health, having an irregular heart and suffering of a nervous breakdown. With plenty of leisure on hand, I devoted my time to the reading of medical books. The more I learned the closer I adhered to a vegetable diet. In place of cow’s milk I made a milk from small round beans called Huang-tou, or yellow bean. A cup of beans is soaked overnight and ground the next morning in a stone hand mill. The product is put into a cloth bag and the fluid squeezed out. It is then boiled for half an hour, and removed to cool. It is taken in the same way as ordinary cow’s milk. It has cream, and will curd in precisely the same way as milk, possessing more fat and less sugar. It cannot transmit the diseases that milk is liable to. When it is first tried, it has the taste of fresh beans; but if well boiled and drunk for some time, the sense of taste will be accustomed to the beverage. I also made milk from almonds, peanuts, Sesamum seeds, etc. They have a delicate flavor, and are most nourishing and easily digested.

ADVANTAGE OF VEGETABLE DIET

The advantage of a vegetable diet in China is the fact that China has a far greater variety of vegetables than any other country on the globe, including many plants, roots, and bulbs raised on land and grown in water, and many kinds of seeds and nuts. Therefore a rotation of diet is easy, and choice of material has a wider range. The Chinese method of cooking vegetables is reduced to a fine art, preserving all the nourishing elements; at the same time digestibility and flavor are not forgotten, while in western countries the vegetables are boiled so much that all the wholesome matter is extracted and thrown away. The fibrous material only is eaten, lacking natural flavor and devoid of nutriment. In Chinese temples or special restaurants an elaborate dinner can be ordered consisting entirely of vegetables, nuts, roots, bulbs, beans, peas, the seeds and roots of the lotus lily, the water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, silver lichens, and many vegetable products unknown to foreign countries, besides vegetable products of the sea, all cooked so tastily and artistically that imitations of meat dishes of every description are produced and brought out steaming hot, and so tempting and digestible that even an invalid may enjoy a hearty meal without evil effects.
Since I have adopted the vegetable diet, I know no more of rheumatism, headache, indigestion, bowel complaint, or skin trouble; I no longer need the use of fruit salt or plaster and, at last, no longer possess the power to foretell the coming of foul weather through the aching of joints.

APPLICABLE TO PRESENT CONDITIONS

By John L. Shuler

Is CIVILIZATION on the Edge of aPRECIPICE? . . . . . JOHN L. SHULER

The present world status cannot remain long without a change. Will that change plunge us back into chaos, or will a new order replace the present decaying and unpromising civilization?
The extraordinary conditions that now prevail on the international stage forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude. When we compare current conditions and developments with God's outline of what would happen at the end of this age, as set forth in the Scriptures, we shall clearly understand the true meaning of the times in which we live, and know whither we are tending.
We shall consider two prophecies from our Lord's great forecast of the future, in response to His disciples' question, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?” Matthew 24:3. In verses 6, 7, we read: “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . . For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”

APPLICABLE TO PRESENT CONDITIONS

How applicable are these words to the present time! This is the day of wars and rumors of wars. We have witnessed in our day the greatest rising of nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom that the world has ever known since Jesus Christ uttered this great prophecy on Olivet.
During the lifetime of many people now living, there have come great wars such as the American Civil War, the Austro-Prussian War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Russo-Turkish War, the Chinese-Japanese War, the Spanish-American War, the Boer War, and the Russian-Japanese War. But it remained for the World War of 1914-1918 to put the capsheaf on the history of all war from the beginning of time. Every other war preceding it sinks into utter insignificance when compared with this one.
More deaths occurred in this World War than in all the previous wars for more than one hundred years. The war costs of this recent world conflict in four and a quarter years amounted to nine times the cost of all previous wars for the preceding one hundred twenty-four years, from 1790 to 1914.

SECOND GREAT PROPHECY

The second prophecy under consideration is the one in which Christ pointed out certain things that would happen in the last generation of mankind, as harbingers of His speedy return. “There shall be signs; . . . upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear.” Luke 21:25, 26.
This forecast agrees exactly with the conditions that now exist. Mark the four characteristics here enumerated:
1. “Distress of nations.” How well these words describe the conditions of the nations in recent years and the widespread groaning and anguish of mankind! Distress has not been confined to merely two or three nations; it has been international and earth-wide in its reach. The World War brought a period of political, social, and economic distress that is without a parallel in modern history.
2. “With perplexity.” Statesmen have been put to their wit's end to know how to guide their ships of state away from the rocks that threaten to crush them to pieces. Situations are constantly arising with which the wisest of statesmen are unable to cope successfully. International conditions ever since the war have been more or less a hopeless muddle. The world's practical men are not sure whether the next step will leave them on solid ground or hurl them over a precipice.

WORLD FILLED WITH UNREST

3. “The sea and the waves roaring.” In Scripture the sea is used to represent the peoples of the earth which, away from God, know no rest. (Isaiah 57:20, 21; Revelation 17:15.) Like the sea, the masses to-day are in a seething turmoil. The world is filled with unrest, agitation, uprising, and tumult. There never was a time in this Christian era when there was such widespread and profound unrest among the peoples of the earth as there is to-day.
This is the day of upheaval and revolution. At the beginning of 1914 there were approximately forty hereditary rulers in Europe. Before the next decade passed, this number was reduced to sixteen. Three imperial dynasties—the Romanov of Russia, the Hohenzollern of Germany, and the Hapsburg of Austria-Hungary—were suddenly deposed. Governments that had endured for centuries and were considered as stable as the earth itself suddenly crashed into atoms. Empires that “were like the fixed stars in the firmament” have been “rolled down” into utter, endless darkness. The world was turned upside down, and “no one can tell how far it has been shocked out of its course.”
The political map of Europe was practically redrawn during a period of six years, 1914 to 1920. Six entirely new nations were created. The governments of six other nations were completely changed by revolutions. Three others were so thoroughly transformed by the addition of new territory as to be substantially new nations.
The great political changes taken all together constitute the greatest revolution in history. And be it remembered that this great revolution of the twentieth century is a sure sign of coming dissolution of the present order of things at the coming of Jesus Christ, and the introduction of a new order of things, where Christ will reign supreme.

MEN'S HEARTS FAILING

4. “Men's heart failing them for fear.” Human society is becoming panic stricken. Fear is the dominant emotion throughout the world to-day. There is apprehension in the hearts of men everywhere. A sense of undefined danger pervades civilization. Men are fearful of what they see approaching, and are powerless to hinder and prevent it. Men's hearts are “failing them.”
When were human politics so confused, so contradictory, so threatening, as they are now? When was the stability of government trembling in the balance as it is to-day? When was law so utterly impotent to restrain the violent passions of men? Our time is a day of peril, as predicted in 2 Timothy 3:1.
Every day brings new indications of disquietude and convulsions. The waves of human passion are rising higher and higher, and threaten utterly to swamp the landmarks of the ancients. Every day the spirit of general restlessness, insubordination, lawlessness, and anarchy is gathering strength, and will erelong burst like a dam before a mighty torrent, and deluge society with a flood of trouble.
Everywhere, in all countries, there is a movement on among the lower classes, seeking to change the existing order of things, to discard all governmental forms, to abolish established customs, to cast off the restraints that civilization has imposed. Socialism, anarchism, syndicalism, communism, are in vogue as never before. Revolt is in the very air. Political ferment is everywhere. These are only the mutterings of the coming storm, the tremblings of the coming world-desolating shock, the eddies of the approaching world-destroying whirlwind, the rumbling of the thunder of the on-coming cataclysm of ruin that overhangs the world.

CONDITIONS ACCURATELY DESCRIBED

The condition of the nations and of mankind in general in recent years is certainly correctly described in this brief prophetic outline,—“distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” And what does this mean? Read verse 27, and see what is coming next: “Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
This restless, apprehensive, bewildered, confused world is one of the many indicators of the time in which we live. The ultimate issue from all world problems and their true solution will find a climax in the coming of earth's true King.
Whether men realize it or not, the coming of Jesus Christ is the only arrangement that can fulfill the world's needs. Conditions on earth have now reached such a pass that no human skill can steer clear of the mighty maelstrom that is rapidly drawing all nations within its awful whirl. In the impending return of Jesus Christ is the perfect solution, and the only solution, of the political, social, and industrial problems that now vex mankind. “The demonstration of man's utter incapacity is about complete. When his unworthiness of trust, and his inability for any progress except in a downward direction, are wholly demonstrated, God will set him aside as ‘a despised and broken vessel,’ and bring in the ‘second man,’ ‘the last Adam,’ even His own eternal Son.”

CHRIST'S COMING IMMINENT

In this prophecy of Luke 21:25-27, Christ tells us plainly that this period of “distress of nations, with perplexity” is to be immediately followed by His second coming in power and majesty. Accordingly there cannot and will not be any millennium of peace this side of Christ's reappearing.
In harmony with this, we find in Revelation 11:18 that in the closing years of this age the spirit of anger and war will prevail among the nations. And true to that word, this is the day of unrelenting hatred among nations, races, colors, and classes. General Smuts, the South African statesman, says,
“Never has there been so much hatred in the world—never have people everywhere hated one another so much—never has hatred been so great and so deep.”
“Europe is a seething caldron of international hates.” Throughout all Asia the hidden fires of anti-European hatred are burning. The colored races hate the white race with a most intense hatred. Europe and Asia, which contain over two thirds of the human family, are under a pall of hatred.
Just as a heap of wood, a pile of coal, or a tank of oil contains the potentialities of a fire, so this international hatred and interracial hatred in these continents contain the potentialities of a great world conflagration. David Lloyd George says: “A temple to human right was built with material quarried out of all that is choicest in the soul of man. But its timbers are being drenched with the kerosene of hatred, and one day a match will be lit by some careless or malignant hand which will set fire to this magnificent edifice; its splendor will be reduced to black embers, and the hope of mankind will be once more laid in ashes.”—“Where Are We Going?” page 40.
As long as there is all this hatred, malice, hostility, distrust, and bitterness in the hearts of men and in the soul of the nations, war will be an ever-present possibility. Whenever the match is applied to these forces of hatred, there will be war.

WAR CANNOT BE AVERTED

Never was national and racial feeling stronger upon earth than it is now. Even the smallest nations are seized by a national frenzy. The whole world is at fever heat.
Has this condition of hatred among the nations and peoples of earth a significance that you and I should understand? Yes. Nineteen centuries ago the seer of Patmos, looking down through the ages to the closing days of earth's history, declared, “The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldst give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth.” Revelation 11:18.
This hatred among the nations to-day is a sure sign that the great day of God's wrath is about to come. And mark it well, from the above text, that at the time when the nations are angry, Jesus Christ will intervene and will put forth His hand in mercy and judgment, in judgment upon the ungodly, in mercy for the delivering and rewarding of those who fear and serve Him.
It means that the time has come for “the kingdoms of this world” to “become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever.” Revelation 11:15. Then sin and sinners will be destroyed out of the earth, and there will be nothing ever to mar the glorious era of peace that its righteous inhabitants will enjoy forever.
Thus it is that, notwithstanding the fact that civilization is crumbling into oblivion, the brightest prospects man has contemplated since Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden lie just ahead of us. This coming development will appear plainer and surer as we follow on in our study of the world's situation in the light of divine prophecy.
Looking under the huge turret rifles of the U. S. S. "West Virginia." The great guns of modern warships can fire tons of steel at targets many miles away. Surely such developments do not presage peace for the future.
Looking under the huge turret rifles of the U. S. S. "West Virginia." The great guns of modern warships can fire tons of steel at targets many miles away. Surely such developments do not presage peace for the future.

The Secret of Success

They were successful because they were cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful, and patient when it was difficult to be patient; and because they pushed on when they wanted to be still, and kept silent when they wanted to talk, and were agreeable when they wanted to be disagreeable,—that was all. It was quite simple, and always will be.—Anonymous.

Becoming Like Christ

The truer you are, the humbler, the nobler, the more you will feel Christ to be your king. It is not by saying Christ’s words, or by doing Christ’s acts, but it is by breathing His spirit that we become like Him.—Frederick W. Robertson.

My Prayer

By J. Wilton Ashton

J. WILTON ASHTON
There is a God who rules on high, Yet cares for all on earth; He paints the rainbow in the sky, And knows each creature's worth.
He guides the birds through trackless air, And marks each sparrow's fall. The tiny ant receives His care; Our Father cares for all.
He rules the storm cloud's wildest flight, He sends the gentle rain; He forms the lily's cup aright, And keeps it free from stain.
My life was sad and full of fears Until I learned His care, But now I'm glad; I know He hears Each time I pray this prayer:
O God, I pray Thee, take my life, And lead it where Thou wilt; For Thou canst guard it through all strife To where Thy throne is built.
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