THE supreme test of love is applied when it is wounded — lies bleeding in the house of its friends in loving loyalty to its highest aim and obligation, and in tender ministry to those whose cruelty has pierced it through and through, and left it bleeding and unbound! To love and suffer thus at the same time is the supreme test of human affection. At this point the danger is that the wounded feelings may change to those of a hateful nature; and between the two there is only a step, and a short one at that. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, while the wounds are jagged and sore, Satan presses the sensitive nerve of the soul with the thumb of our friend's cruelty, and makes that the basis of his instigation to prejudice and hate. How easy to fall a prey to his passion and spite! But how sublime and Godlike it is to suffer in submission, making our painful need a potent appeal to Heaven for more love and greater patience, and by God's help and in the spirit of His dear Son, kiss the hand that smites us, and pray for those who despitefully use us, even tho it be repeated again and again. If those whom we love see fit to hate and hurt us, and even prolong the painful excoriation, giving no word of explanation or sign of recognition, must our love break down at the point of supreme privilege and need, or limp away in a fit of the sulks? Never! Our love must assert itself when there is no return of mutual fellowship, even when it is spurned and trampled upon. If we only love those who love us we have an easy job. The world can do that fairly well. Love all the time and everybody, and especially while you suffer. That is the supreme test.—Religious Telescope.
"He Never Told Me I Ought to Do Better"
It is always better to help others to criticize themselves than it is to criticize them. They will believe themselves; they are not likely to believe you. The way to bring about this healthy and helpful condition of self-criticism, with its accompanying desire for improvement, is to show by our lives, silently, the better way, while resolutely refraining from urging it on others. It was a high tribute paid to a man who is not now living, when one who had known him intimately said, "He never told me that I ought to do better, but I always came away from any conversation with him wanting to do better." If we would do this for others, let us seal our lips to criticism, and incarnate the better way in our lives.—Anon.
Contents of the Magazine
By Editor
THE JULY SIGNS MAGAZINE
Contained within this pleasing and appropriate cover is much for thinking people.
"The Rights of the Individual," by M. C. Wilcox. For liberty-loving people.
"All Past Time," by the Editor — containing some pertinent quotations from good authority, and proving scientifically the exact day of creation. A convincing and unusually important article. You will enjoy every word.
"Freedom for the Other Man," by A. O. Tait. A strong article on religious liberty.
"The Stimulant in Modern Society," by Frank S. Weston.
"An Unclean Mouth and Tooth Decay as Related to General Health," by D. H. Kress, M.D. Valuable and important.
"When Were the Stars Created?" by the Editor. You will thoroughly enjoy it.
"Creation and Evolution," by George McCready Price.
"Can We Know?" by the Editor. Some striking inconsistencies considered.
"An Era of Liberty, and Why," by the Editor. An interesting and appropriate article.
"The Gospel in the Promises of Abraham." Further important studies in Old Testament history, by William Covert.
"Geneva and the Reformation," by Mrs. E. G. White.
And a number of others.
Don't fail to see a copy of this magazine. If the agent doesn't call on you, send ten cents to—
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Mountain View, California
An Offer to Our Young People
An opportunity for you to secure a professional training, including all expenses, uniforms, etc., with monthly cash payments the second and third years. Only nine hours per day. Overtime extra. At the St. Helena Sanitarium and Hospital Training School for Missionary Nurses.
The course is especially strong because of the large number of patients, providing ample experience in both medical and surgical practise. Our San Francisco dispensary provides opportunity for experience in city mission work. Consecrated graduate nurses readily find employment in institutions and mission fields at home and abroad. Just now we desire to secure ten or more at good salaries.
It is not yet too late to join the spring class. Mention these offers to your friends who may be interested.
Write immediately for particulars and full information, addressing—
DR. H. F. RAND, Medical Superintendent, or MRS. S. J. WHITNEY, Secretary, Sanitarium, Napa County, California.
Bibles.— Remember that we are headquarters for anything in the Bible line. We shall be pleased to send you our catalog of Bible selections on application. Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.
FOR SALE
An Ideal Home
On corner, 100 x 150. New modern house of six large rooms; excellent water system, sewer, and electricity; model arrangements throughout; variety of bearing fruit-trees; excellent garden; barn. Five minutes walk from S. P. station; frequent trains. Convenient to both school and church. Built for a home and not to sell. Price reasonable.
Address Box 261
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Our Work and Workers
By Editor
FOURTEEN have been added to the believers at Jena, Alabama.
SEVEN were baptized and added to the church at Newburg, New York, on May 21.
MAY 27 six were baptized at Eagle Grove, Iowa, and two have been added to the church at Council Bluff.
BAPTISMAL services were held in connection with the dedication of our church at Portland, Maine, on May 27.
BROTHER STUREMAN reports eight who have recently been baptized and united with the church at Peoria, Illinois.
NINE persons were added to the church at Ridgefield, Washington, as the result of the meetings that closed there on May 17.
ON May 27 the brethren at Toronto, Ontario, opened their new church building for service at the corner of Bloor and Dufferin Streets.15OUR new meeting-house at Park Rapids, Minnesota, has recently been dedicated, at which time three were baptized and added to the church.
OUR new meeting-house at Grove, Kentucky, was dedicated on June 24. A Sabbath-school and Young People's Missionary Volunteer convention was held at the same time.
PLANS are being made by the brethren at Morrill, Texas, for a new church and school building; and five have taken their stand with the believers at Goodcreek, Texas.
ON May 28 our meeting-house at Lents, Oregon, was dedicated. Just previous to that date four were baptized; and eleven others who had been previously baptized were added to the church.
PASTOR C. M. GARDNER reports that he has baptized five into the church at Reno, Nevada. The interest in the work at Reno and Fallon is good, and he hopes for still further results.
BROTHER A. N. ALLEN sends the interesting word from the mission in which he is laboring in Peru that thus far during this year thirty-four converts have been baptized, fifteen of these being from the Inca Indians.
PASTOR W. W. SHARP reports, "I have recently baptized fifteen" at Seattle, Washington. This makes about one hundred that have been added to that church by baptism during his pastorate of five years in that place.
ON May 28 Pastor Morris Lukens baptized eleven at Hartford City, Indiana. This makes thirty-five that have been baptized and united with this church during the last five months. A few days earlier in May, in connection with the closing exercises of the Beechwood Academy, Pastor Lukens baptized three others.
PASTOR JOEL C. ROGERS reports that on March 4 he baptized twenty-five natives who had accepted the faith through the work in the Malamulo Mission, in South Africa; and on March 11 he went to the Monekera Mission, where he baptized twenty-five more. At Richmond, Orange Free State, Africa, Brother Tarr baptized five on March 4. The reports that are coming from all the workers in that field are very encouraging.
TEN were baptized at the recent camp-meeting held at Tulare, California; Elder Taggart baptized twelve at Farmington, California; four have recently accepted the faith in San Francisco; twenty-four have been added to the company of believers in Pepperwood, California; sixteen have joined with us in the observance of the Bible Sabbath at Cottonwood, California; and a church has been organized at Holtville, California.
As the result of a special effort with a tent in Wellington, Queensland, Australia, twenty-two have been added to the number of believers there, and plans are under way for the erection of a meeting-house. Four have been added to the church at Mt. Gambier, a good interest and baptism are reported from Penola, seven are awaiting baptism in the vicinity of Rockhampton, and twenty-one persons were baptized at the close of the camp-meeting at Petone, all in Queensland.
Burma—the Land of the Pagoda
By H. H. Votaw
WHEN there began, more than a century ago, that movement which aimed at the presenting of the “Gospel of the kingdom” in the vast heathen world, in the strongest of Satan’s citadels, in the very heart of the enemy’s country, courageous men were needed. The call rang clear for men of faith and godliness and that “perfect love” which “casteth out fear.” Such were not wanting. The Lord of the harvest sent forth laborers. Carey left off cobbling shoes, and became a mighty apostle to India. Judson, heeding the call to service, responded with his all. Permission to labor in India being refused by the East India Company, which held grants from the British crown that made its directors virtually rulers of the great peninsula, Judson took boat for Burma, then generally called the kingdom of Ava.
Of his experiences, there is no need that I write. Who has not read, and been stirred to his heart’s depths by reading, the account of the things that he endured? Is there a woman in the land who has not felt a new pride in her kind as she has read of the things which Judson’s wives—he was thrice married—bore without murmur, constrained by the love of Christ and perishing souls? What Gospel worker has not gained inspiration for more persevering effort as he has read that Judson waited six long years before he saw the first Burman converted? Who, knowing anything of languages, can repress an exclamation at the thought of mastering a difficult Oriental, Mongoloid tongue, without the aid of a single “help”—a teacher who knows some at least of your language, suitable textbooks, a grammar, etc.—such as we consider so essential to success? Yet God was with him, and the Burmese Bible has been fitly termed “Judson’s greatest monument.” For three quarters of a century it has stood without revision—a masterpiece.
The Change That Has Been Wrought
But how the land has changed since Judson’s day! The proud monarchs who styled themselves “Lord of the White Elephant,” “Lord of the Golden Umbrella,” “Lord of Gold, Silver, Rubies, and Amber,” “Lord of Lords and King of Kings,” rule no more. The last of the line is a political prisoner in a foreign land. The beneficent reign of the English has made possible the preaching of the Gospel message freely in all Burma.
Rangoon, at that time “a collection of mat huts in a swamp,” has grown to possess a population of more than 300,000 souls, and is admittedly one of the most Western cities of the East. Owing to the wonderful fertility of the soil of this province, it is fourth port in the Indian Empire. Within the past half dozen years, since we first arrived here, electric lights and street-car service have been installed. A good supply of city water and a good system of sewage disposal have reduced to almost nothing the ravages of cholera, and done much toward promoting general healthfulness.
BURMESE DWELLINGS
Whereas a century ago the journey to Mandalay required weeks, it is now a matter of eighteen or twenty hours. From Maulmain to Myitkyina, a distance of nine hundred miles, the railway runs. The numerous creeks and rivers are traversed by well-equipped steam-launches. Telegraph and post-offices are all over the land. Printing-offices, schools, and churches—evangelizing agencies all—are found in many places. London is but nineteen days distant. All these things has the Lord brought to pass, because a short work will He make upon the earth.
The Result of Commingling with the West
Where God works, Satan is always to be found. The mingling of the East and the West has been beneficial in many ways. In others it has been a detriment. The greatest hindrance to our work is the unregenerate son of the West. One or two questions that have been asked of me will reveal the attitude of mind that these people have toward all foreigners. Being questioned whether my brother is an Adventist or not, I replied, “No, he is not a Christian.” Immediately the rejoinder came, “What is he? a Buddhist?” It seemed an impossible conception to my questioner that any man should have no religious faith. To the minds of the Burman, being born in a Western land makes a person a Christian. We know that a man “must be born again.”
On another occasion a merchant in the bazaar asked whether the Christian religion teaches us to drink intoxicants. Unhesitatingly I answered “No.” “Then,” said he, “why do all the Roman Catholic priests drink?” He also pointed to the fact that most of the members of the Church of England and many of the ministers are addicted to the same habit. It was difficult for him to see that the profession of Christianity did not of itself make one a fit representative of the Master. He seemed to think that I was better than my religion in this point, and that I had grasped what is not really taught in my Bible.
If there is a place in all the world where we become epistles known and read of all men, it is in these dark heathen lands. Untold millions can not or will not read the written Word, who yet watch our every deed, and judge our Christ thereby. Often we feel to exclaim with Paul, “Who is sufficient for these things?”
During a visit to America, in delivering lectures in several States, many strange questions were asked me; and while I feel sure that very few, if any, of the readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES would display such a lack of knowledge, I shall devote a little time to some things that may not be generally known.
H. H. VOTAW.
Brother, Be Faithful
By M. D. Warfle
By the Late M. D. Warfle
O brother, be faithful, and God will provide
Encampments of angels close by at your side,
To keep you from dangers that hover so near,
And help you to follow the Saviour so dear.
O brother, be faithful, and soon we'll be home,
No longer in by-paths of error to roam,
But standing with prophets we'll join in the song
That comes from the happy and glorified throng.
O brother, be faithful! That day will soon come
When Jesus will gather the righteous, who run
The race set before them with patience and love,
To beautiful mansions in heaven above.
— ★★ —
The Depths of the Gospel Plan
LITTLE by little has the Gospel plan been unfolded, as man had need; but never, as long as the ceaseless ages of eternity roll, will the redeemed or angels be able to fathom its wonderful height and depth.
Our Mission Funds
CHINA PRESS FUND
Previously reported $307.90
Edward E. Young .70
Fannie M. Noble 7.20
Lewis Witsten 1.00
Lou R. Dearborn 4.00
Curtis and Louise Shingler 1.00
T. J. Sutherland 6.00
Wm. Peake 10.00
Louis B. Honorez 4.00
Jas. Platt 10.00
Total $351.80
CHINESE FAMINE FUND
Previously reported $710.80
Mr. and Mrs. Baker 5.00
Friends 3.00
Louis B. Honorez 4.00
Lloyd Cowles 1.00
Mrs. S. M. Pierson 2.00
Sabbath-keeper in Ireland 2.43
Mrs. Lottie Gerlach 1.00
Anna G. C. Steele 3.00
Archie Stepp 5.00
E. E. Parlin 3.24
Sarah B. Leighton 1.00
Mrs. Laura Scott .50
A. V. Dyberg 5.00
A Friend 1.00
Mrs. Sophia L. Hopkins 5.00
California-Nevada Conference 38.50
Central California Conference 24.00
California Conference 1.05
Southern California Conference 15.00
Arizona Conference 5.00
Southern Idaho Conference 2.36
Montana Conference 1.50
Western Oregon Conference 1.50
Southern Oregon Conference 8.60
Mountain View Church 5.00
H. C. Kelley 2.25
Total $857.73
INDIA MISSION
Previously reported $68.35
James Platt 5.00
Mr. and Mrs. C. V. Thayer 3.00
Total $76.35
The Vegetarian Cook Book
By E. G. FULTON
The author has had years of experience in vegetarian cookery and in the management of vegetarian cafes and cafeterias. With its aid the chef, cook, or housewife is able to prepare appetizing, healthful meals without the use of any flesh food.
This book contains 419 pages, including a handy and well-arranged index of all the recipes given.
Tastily bound in cloth, price,post-paid, $1.00
Pacific Press Publishing Assn.
Mountain View, California
Portland, Ore. Calgary, Alberta. Kansas City, Mo.
An exposition, verse by verse, of one of the most striking chapters in the New Testament; covering our Lord's great discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the world, and the special signs of His second coming to reward His children.
Matthew Twenty-four
Second Coming of Christ
The facts of fulfillment given make this pamphlet worth many times its price. 94 pages, price 10c. PACIFIC PRESS Mountain View, Cal.
LIBERTY
THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF
THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY BUREAU
An illustrated, 48-page, quarterly magazine, published as an exponent and advocate of true religious liberty; defending Christianity and the rights of conscience; upholding the Bible as the infallible word of God; recognizing the church and state as ordained of Heaven for specific and distinct purposes, but vigorously protesting against the alliance of the church with the state in the attempt to advance religion and to promote the state.
Price 25 cents per year. Liberal terms to agents.
Address, LIBERTY, Takoma Park, D. C.
Life and Health
A PRACTICAL health journal, published with a view of meeting hygienic needs in every home; teaching how to care for the health and how to preserve life; prescribing simple home treatments to assist nature in throwing off diseases rather than adding more poison by using drugs or unnatural stimulants as remedies; teaching how to avoid disease as far as possible, how to manage in the home when sickness does come, and how to combat the disease by simple remedies which nature provides.
Send for sample copy and special rates to agents. Price 10 cents per copy or $1.00 per year.
Address, LIFE & HEALTH, Takoma Park, D. C.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
(Entered Sept. 15, 1904, as second-class matter at the Mountain View, Cal., post-office, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.)
Manuscripts should be addressed to the editor. Address all business and make all money-orders, etc., payable to the Signs of the Times, Mountain View, California.
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The SIGNS wrapper bears date of last issue due on your subscription. Unless renewed in advance, paper stops with expiration date.
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The Drug Curse
The Drug Curse.— It is a sad fact that 500,000 pounds of opium a year is used in the United States. The New York Independent of May 18, 1911, is authority for this. One fifth of this amount, we are told, is sufficient for all medicinal purposes; 400,000 pounds is used by those addicted to the drug, and its use is rapidly increasing.
"The most frequent victims of the opium habit are physicians and trained nurses."
"Clergymen are not infrequently victims, and occasionally settlement workers, and people, both women and men, who are devoted to charity, are found to be takers of drugs."
Of cocain 200,000 ounces is consumed in this country, one tenth of which is sufficient for legitimate medical purposes. It is more dangerous even than opium. In the antidotes for opium and morphin is often found the drug itself, and all sorts of advertised remedies for asthma, colds, catarrh, consumption, etc., contain cocain and other habit-forming drugs. The drug habit is a mighty evil; but the grace of Christ can cure that.
Famine Relief in China
By Editor
on in some sections. He says in a letter to the editor:
Enclosed please find receipt for £95 and 16 shillings, received from the SIGNS OF THE TIMES for the famine relief work. It was a great surprise to us to receive such a sum as this, and at the same time it was a cause of rejoicing, for by this we are assured that the distressing conditions here in China appeal strongly to those in the home lands.
We are sending this money on up into the province of Anhui at once. The needs there are becoming aggravated in some sections rather than bettered, for the rivers have overflowed again, and that means that the crops are destroyed for this present year.
I learn from the reports in the Chinese papers, and also from our brethren in that section, that human beings are being killed and eaten, so desperate are the straits in which the people find themselves.
It takes fully two weeks to get word back from our brethren there, and as soon as I hear from them more fully of the present situation I will write you.
We have helped our brethren in various ways, usually by making them a loan so they could carry on their business. They receive this loan with the expectation of repaying it all, but we will forgive a good portion of the sums they owe when they get to the place where they can begin to repay. Under the most favorable conditions it is a hand to mouth struggle with them.
I wish to take this occasion to express heartfelt thanks to all those of the SIGNS readers who have had a part in the making up of this sum.
There is another greater need in China; four hundred million souls are starving for the bread of life. The Chinese Press Fund is one splendid means by which the need may be supplied. Do you not wish to have a part in supplying truth to those who are feeding on the soul-shriveling husks of idolatry?
The Reality of Death
It has been proposed in Christian Science circles to raise a fund with which to build a monument over the grave of the late Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Augusta Stetson, the former leader of the "First Church of Christ, Scientist," in New York City, resents the idea, and sends out a spirited disclaimer against it. She says that to erect a monument over the grave of Mrs. Eddy would be to profess their belief in death, which was against all of Mrs. Eddy's teaching. Mrs. Stetson thinks it would be very amusing to Mrs. Eddy for her to come around and see her friends building a monument over her tomb when she was not there. There is nothing plainer than the teaching of the Word of God that men do actually die. And there is nothing plainer in that Word than that men when they die remain dead until the power of God releases them from death in the resurrection. Any views to the contrary are based upon myth and fables, and are opposed to the plainest facts of common observation. Every outward appearance shows that man in death is actually dead. No reliable test of science, it has to be admitted, can prove by actual demonstration that there is any part of the man that does not die. With these facts the Word of God is in full accord. It is very unsafe to spurn such powerful evidence. It will yet be seen that any doctrine that sets aside the resurrection by teaching that there is no death, will bring its adherents into bitter and irreparable grief.
The Pre-Existence of Christ.—
By Editor
Are some of our readers troubled about the pre-existence of our Lord? We invite them to read some of the Biblical evidences briefly set forth in our Question department on page 2 of this issue. His pre-existence is not only Biblical, but supremely fitting to the divine plan.
BIBLES; THANK GOD, BIBLES
By Editor
The above illustration comes a little too late. We wish we had had it last week; but we use it now. It represents two car-loads of the American Standard Revised Version sent in one shipment to the great Sunday-school Convention now on in San Francisco. These Bibles were ordered by the "Gideons" to be placed in hotels. We hope and pray that the seed may fall in fertile soil, and find deep root in the hearts of millions who may read. This great convention will emphasize the Word. Thank God for that also.
Our Mission Funds
By Editor
IN behalf of the needy fields we thank our donors for their gifts, and tell them that we are glad of the pleasure of sending them forward. We thought that before this more famine funds would not be needed, as the new crops would relieve them. But the following excerpts from a letter this day received from Dr. Selmon show that the need is still
A REQUEST
By Editor
Does Your Church Follow the Tithing System?
A gentleman in Chicago has for years put forth effort and expense by literature and otherwise, to induce churches of all denominations to adopt the Biblical plan of tithe-paying. We publish his request to help on the good work:
A REQUEST
The subscriber desires the names of all pastors whose congregations have adopted in whole or in part the Tithe Covenant Plan of church finance; i. e., bringing all the tithes into the modern storehouse—the local church. A postal card, with your address, will bring you helpful literature with explanation of the reason for making this request. Address LAYMAN, 143 N. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois.
We have seen and experienced its benefits and blessings objectively and subjectively for years.
