“The people of this mission extend a hearty welcome, and cordially invite all the people to come inside and listen attentively to the preaching of the great warning message.”
Thus read the Chinese characters painted on two strips of cloth twenty feet high fastened to either side of the entrance to our tent at Nanziang, a village of about ten thousand people, twelve miles from Shanghai, where a special series of evangelistic meetings was opened on May 11 of this year.
A Tent of Mats and Bamboo Poles
The tent is made of straw mats, doubled on the roof, with oiled paper between, and the mats lapped like shingles, thus making it waterproof. The mats are mounted on a framework of bamboo poles, the whole structure being tied together with bamboo cords, and not a nail or a piece of wood is used anywhere in the construction of the tent.
It is forty feet square, with movable windows on each side to insure plenty of light and ventilation. Seats were provided for four hundred persons, by driving stakes into the ground and nailing six-inch boards on top of them. In the center, directly opposite the large door, is the speaker's platform, two feet high, with a cloth railing around it, and steps on both sides.
Directly back of the pulpit is hung a large scroll of the Ten Commandments; and on either side, across the front of the tent, are suspended the prophetic charts of Daniel and the Revelation.
Curiosity of the Villagers
During the two weeks of preparation for the meetings, great curiosity was manifested by the villagers to know what we were going to do; and on the opening day, by the time the last decorations were put up and handbills distributed over the town, a large crowd had gathered to see what was going to be done.
The people listened attentively from the start. Three meetings were held every day. One at two o'clock was for women. At three o'clock easy subjects like the love of God for man, and Christ's parables, were presented in a simple manner for the benefit of a large number of the country people who came in during the day. At night a regular series on the prophecies and the third angel's message was given; and at these meetings we had our best attendance of the educated class of people,—those who are able to read, and to understand conditions existing in the world at the present time.
Christ's Coming the Central Theme
We decided to make Christ's soon coming the central theme of every discourse; and no matter what subject was presented, we would bring it around to focus on that one grand theme.
By F. E. STAFFORD
In preaching to heathen, nothing can be taken for granted; so we commenced at the foundation of the one true God, and wound up by telling them to prepare to meet that God when He returns in the clouds of heaven.
Then in presenting creation, we finished by telling them that God is about to create a new heaven and a new earth, and we must be preparing now if we wish to enter. So at every meeting, the truth was driven home that the Judgment-day is at hand. This truth was also emphasized by the literature we sold and the hundreds of folders that were given away at every meeting. It is safe to say that there is hardly a man, woman, or child in Nanziang or the country around who does not know now that the end of the world is near, and that in order to be saved at that day, it is necessary to have faith in Jesus and keep God's Ten Commandments.
Name and address cards were distributed at every meeting, and personal work was done among the audience in seeking to lead the people to take their stand. In this way nearly two hundred names were secured, and Bible workers were sent out daily to visit these people in their homes, and explain the Bible to them, and encourage them to come out to the meetings.
Immense Crowd Makes Lecture Impossible
On Sunday night we announced a stereopticon lecture, showing pictures of earthquakes and other signs of the end; and in order to get only those who were interested in the truth to hear the lecture, we gave out tickets to those who would sign their names and addresses. Five hundred tickets were given out; but long before time to open the meeting, a great mob of people gathered before the door, pushing and trying to force their way in, so that only with great difficulty were we enabled to keep order.
The chief of police and several local policemen had been regular attendants at the meeting from the start, and they came to our rescue at this time, and restrained the crowd from violence. When the people found they could not get in, some of the rough class started a disturbance outside, yelling, and pounding on cymbals, so that it was impossible for us to talk. We then rushed the pictures through so quickly as possible and dismissed the meeting.
The framework of a Japanese house.
On the following Sunday night, we secured the use of a large parade-ground near the railroad station, at one end of which is a high wall of a building. We had this wall whitewashed, and used it for a screen to throw the pictures on. We had a bamboo fence put up to divide the men and the women, so that the women, with their small feet, and the children, would not be13crushed in the dark; and then, by using a megaphone to talk through, we presented the signs of Christ's coming before as large an audience of Chinese as has ever heard the truth at one time.
We had no way of knowing how many were present, as the night was dark, and there was no light except what was thrown on the screen; but from the reflection of this light, as far as we could see in every direction were upturned faces and eyes bright with expectation as picture after picture was shown of signs which prove that the Saviour's coming is near at hand.
The Dragon Festival
The last week of the meetings was the time of the annual dragon festival, the fifth day of the fifth moon. Hundreds of the country people came from miles around to Nanziang to see the dragon boats; and being in town, they naturally came to the big tent to see what was going on. So the attendance at the meetings was a record one right up to the last day.
This dragon boat festival is supposed to have originated some 2,500 years ago, when one of the court counselors, named Chu Yuan, incurred the displeasure of the emperor, and was therefore commanded to go to the river and fish for the moon, which was a polite way of asking him to commit suicide. When he went to obey the emperor's command, he of course fell into the water and was drowned.
After a time, Chu Yuan's wise counsels were greatly missed. The empire rapidly declined in power, and eventually passed to a new dynasty. The former counselor was then remembered, and greatly honored for his fidelity to the emperor's commands; and the people all over the empire were ordered to prepare boats and search the rivers for his spirit on the anniversary of his death.
From that time till now, the boats have gone out every year. The people have forgotten what they were hunting for, and the day has become a mere holiday. The boats in use at the present time are made with a dragon's head at the prow, and the other end projects high in the air, like the dragon's tail sticking up out of the water. The boats themselves are painted in variegated colors, and decorated with many beautiful flags and embroidered silk streamers. A band of Chinese musicians is seated inside each boat, and it is paddled up and down the canals, whirling and twisting like a dragon.
Lose Their Senses in the Races
In some of the larger cities, there are costly boats. In Wusih it is claimed that the people spend one thousand dollars to fit out one boat. In some places, they have many boats, and they race and carry on imitation warfare. They go so fast that the men who are paddling seem to lose their senses, and work themselves up into a frenzy, so that the boats often collide, and sometimes sink, and many people are drowned. For this reason the dragon boat races have been prohibited of late years in such places as Shanghai and Hongkong.
Interior of tent at Nanziang—Native evangelist T. S. Zee on the right of Elder Stafford.
Why is it that Satan can inspire men to do such senseless and disgusting things? But when he asks men to worship him, he can do nothing else than to give them what is in his own heart. His supreme passion is to degrade and thereby destroy.
Two Children a Sacrifice
This year at Nanziang a boat loaded with spectators was overturned, and two little children were drowned. The water was not very deep, and they might have been saved if any one had tried; but according to long established custom, no effort is made to save any who may fall into the water on this day. They are regarded as a sacrifice to the dragon, and to rescue them would be to incur his displeasure and bring worse misfortune upon the rescuers.
Thus while the message of Christ's coming and the end of all things is sounding in the ears of the people, they still go on with their superstitious customs and heathen practises, and no perceptible change is made in the great mass of the population.
Thus it was in the days of Noah, before the Flood. “They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
Some Heed the Message of His Coming
But, praise the Lord, there are some who are stepping out from heathen darkness into the glorious light of the gospel, and are firmly taking their stand to keep God's commandments and prepare for the end. The number is not large; but there are a few of the Lord's jewels in every place, and may the Lord help us to gather them out quickly, before the end comes.
We are continuing the meetings now in our chapel at Nanziang, and several persons have already taken their stand for the truth. The Sabbath meetings are well attended, and we pray that a good sized company may be gathered out, as a result of this effort, to meet the Lord when He comes in the clouds of glory.
Curious old tree, at Nansiang, China. The wood has all decayed away, leaving only the bark. Yet the tree stands, and the leaves are as green as on any other. Elder R. C. Porter at the right, Elder O. A. Hall at the left.
Chapel and assembly room of China mission training-school, Shanghai, at dedication, May 3, 1914.
Waiting for the dragon boat. Many of the Chinese hire a house-boat and float around on the canals, playing, singing, and gambling, during the time of the dragon boat festival.
The Gift of Speech
"Precious indeed in this world of sin and ignorance is the gift of speech, the melody of the human voice, when devoted to the praise of Him who hath loved us and given Himself for us."
Primary and Fundamental Health Truths
By David Paulson, M. D.
Relation of Morality to Health — The Use and the Need of the Will — Painstaking Effort Required
By DAVID PAULSON, M. D.
Medical Superintendent Hinsdale Sanitarium, Hinsdale, Illinois
I never walk across that wonderful bridge but I think of its heroic builder, and feel inspired to do more with the health, strength, and opportunities that God has so bountifully entrusted to me.
SOME years ago an eminent European physician declared that there were but few natural deaths. Life is generally cut short by wholly avoidable causes.
Dr. Gould, formerly president of the American Medical Association, author of our great medical dictionary, said in a paper read before the Wisconsin State Medical Society:
MAN'S SIN AND THE DEATH-RATE
"We know how to lengthen the average of human life by many years, with an appropriate reduction of all the suffering and expense, but we are powerless to do it because simply of sin. There is no doubt that sin alone prevents a reduction of the death-rate and sickness by one half, and a lengthening of life to fifty or sixty years. . . . We can never cure a much greater proportion of the sick until we have better bodies and souls in the patients."
SCIENCE HAS OUTRUN MORALITY
Dr. Gould, in this same paper, uttered these remarkable words: "Science, it is plain, has outrun morality."
When I was a medical student in the University of Michigan, I heard a well-known professor deliver a masterly address on the evils of tobacco. He vividly portrayed its effect on the human system, its baneful influence in the shortening and narrowing of human life, but at the close of this illuminating instruction he said, "Summing it all up, I would not give a cent for a young fellow who could not smoke a good cigar." And taking one from his pocket, he lighted it, and walked off the platform smoking it in the presence of them all, and the students naturally applauded him most vigorously.
During the great antislavery agitation, Charles Sumner stood up one day in the halls of Congress, and said: "I desire to speak to-day of some laws greater than any passed in this capital or this country, older than America, older than India. I mean the laws of God."
THE LAWS OF HEALTH ARE THE LAWS OF GOD
We shall make but little more progress in this campaign for better health, temperance reform, and community welfare, until our souls are gripped with the great truth that the laws of health are the laws of God, and that sickness and suffering are directly or indirectly due to the violation of those laws, that ill health does not run down ready-made from heaven, that we make ourselves sick, that "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6.
When the driver of an automobile exceeds the prescribed speed limit, he is liable to arrest. Likewise nature arrests by sickness, suffering, and premature death those who exceed her speed limit. To have health restored and to remain permanently well, it is not enough to smother a few symptoms — in other words, to pick at the leaves. The ax must be laid at the root of the tree. Matt. 3:10. It is necessary not only to acquire but to practise certain essential health requirements.
COULD GET WELL IF THEY WOULD
Surprising as it may seem, in every community there are a number of sick people who could get well if they only would. The earnest determination to recover is an important factor in the cure of almost any disease.
Some years ago I had a patient under my care who to all human appearances was incurable. But he was determined to get well; and he recovered, and as far as I know is alive to-day. His determination undoubtedly did much toward saving him from an untimely grave. No one can predict in advance what obstacles a determined, persistent will can surmount.
This is of particular importance to the Christian invalid, who, when he finds his own will faltering and insufficient, can read in his Bible that God is willing to come in, brace him up, and work through him "both to will and to do." Phil. 2:13.
PARALYZED, BUT STILL A POWER
The engineer who built the first Brooklyn bridge, met with an accident, in the early stages of the work, that practically crippled the lower part of his body. But instead of settling down whimpering and whining over his disaster, and employing a nurse to fan him and bless him, he determinedly stuck to his job, and completed that great enterprise. I never walk across that wonderful bridge but I think of its heroic builder, and feel inspired to do more with the health, strength, and opportunities that God has so bountifully entrusted to me.
GOD MEETS US MORE THAN HALF WAY
It is a tremendous stimulus to our wills to remember that in our struggle for health God is willing to meet us more than half way, for it is marvelous what nature is willing to do for us in the restoration of life.
In my early medical experience, I saw a surgeon perform an extensive abdominal operation. In closing up the wound, he did not make the two sides match, so he had to take in a tuck. I said to myself: "What a horrible looking thing that is going to be! How fortunate it will be covered with clothes!"
A few weeks later I had the opportunity to see the final results. To my surprise nature had completely corrected the surgeon's blunder. That is what nature is constantly doing with our blunders and mistakes. If it were not for that, I fear our life's work would present a sad showing.
TROUBLESOME EFFORT TO GET WELL
It is too much trouble for some people to get well, and that is the only reason they do not recover. Surprising as the statement may seem, there are many who prefer to die comfortably.
Genuine old-fashioned repentance was always a painful process. People had to confess their sins, and go to their neighbors and make right their wrong-doing, before they could be right with God. Some of the modern revivals seem to have a new and more comfortable kind of repentance. All that is really necessary is to sign your name to a card and pass it in to the leader. It is so much more convenient than the old method.
NATURE INSISTS ON REFORM
But nature has devised no new and comfortable method for health restoration. She insists on genuine reform, sometimes painful reform. There are many people who prefer to keep on sinning, swallow a few drugs to keep them comfortable, die years before God intended, and have it said at their funeral, by some ill advised and poorly instructed minister, that it was "a mysterious dispensation of providence."
When I was completing my medical studies in Bellevue Hospital, New York, the pugilist Fitzsimmons was preparing himself for a great prize-fight. He ran around Central Park every morning to improve his "wind." But one rarely finds any preacher, lawyer, or business man who will do anything so inconvenient to improve his health.
Things or Character
By M. E. Olsen
THERE are two kinds of people in the world. One class mind things,—money, good clothes, house, furniture, etc. Another class have their minds on character building. Things are of value to them only in so far as they will forward the great life-work of building a beautiful character, and of helping others to build such characters. To which class do you belong? M. E. OLSEN.
Parental Responsibility
By J. W. Lowe
The Sacred Duty Can Not Be Delegated
IT is the first and most important work of all parents, especially Christian parents, to make every proper effort to train their children aright.
Many parents are very anxious to do missionary work outside their own family, when at the same time their own children are sadly neglected.
Heredity undoubtedly influences the life of an individual; but proper training of the young has more to do in shaping their future than anything else that can be done in their behalf. And who is to supply this training, if not their parents?
Teachers can do much in molding the character of the young, but this work must fall largely upon the parents. And they are under obligation to provide for all the needs of the family.
Some parents seem to think that when they have supplied their children with necessary food and clothing, their responsibility has reached its limit; but the moral and spiritual education that children ought to receive is infinitely more important than their food and raiment.
The mere rearing of one's family is likely to look so insignificant compared with what can be done in the world at large! So while the parents seek for some large work outside, the children are neglected, and left to come up according to their own inclination and wayward tendencies, and too often, to perish.
The ambition to become a missionary, even to going to foreign fields, is a worthy one; but the parents' first missionary field should be their own household. If they perform their duty there faithfully and successfully, they will be better qualified to labor for others; but if they fail as parents, they will never succeed as missionaries, unless they have first experienced a reformation.
But the training of our own children is not a small undertaking. It is the work God has appointed fathers and mothers to do, and it is the greatest and most acceptable that they can do. If all the parents in the world would do their entire duty in the training of their children, what a great work would be accomplished!
J. W. LOWE.
THE THREE BEST WAYS
BETWEEN
California and the East
THE CENTRAL ROUTE
Less than three days to Chicago
THE SOUTHERN ROUTE
All rail or via the palatial Southern Pacific
steamers between New Orleans
and New York
THE SHASTA ROUTE
Via Portland or the North
The best of equipment and service
Protected throughout by auto-
matic block signals
INQUIRE OF ANY AGENT, OR
MR. C. S. FEE
General Passenger Agent
San Francisco, California
SOUTHERN PACIFIC
The Rich Man and Lazarus
By Mrs. E. G. White
A clear, simple exposition of the noted parable of Dives and Lazarus, given in Luke 16:19-31. Reading it will help you. Price $1.00 per hundred; single copies, 2 cents.
A truth that produces the same sanctifying effects upon every people of the world.
A. G. Daniells
THE WORD OF GOD THE UPLIFTING AGENCY
The Bible to the world—Its influence. I. H. Evans
PROVIDENTIAL AGENCIES FOR A QUICK WORK
To be finished in this generation—Intercommunication, transportation, transmission—Their real significance. W. A. Spicer
LOVE THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF GOD'S RULE
Revealed at crucifixion—The true nature of Satan's kingdom also revealed. R. C. Porter
WALKING IN THE LIGHT
A work of reform in this generation—God's word the test—Our relation to God depends upon our obedience. Mrs. E. G. White
THE SINNER'S FATE
What will it be?—A fair question and a clear answer—What the Bible says. William Covert
SPIRITISM
Its nature—Some interesting facts regarding it. Jean Vuilleumier
GOD'S ETERNAL PURPOSE IN CHRIST
The one foundation—Testing truths for every age—The test for our time. T. E. Bowen
REASON OR REVELATION
Modern thought and where it leads—Three centuries of progress—What is it leading to? George McCready Price
CURRENT EVENTS
Relating strongly to Christian freedom and Sabbath observance—A valuable selection. Well illustrated.
A real message number. The clear note of gospel triumph in every article. Be sure to get a copy for yourself and a few for your neighbors.
Single copies ten cents.
Five to forty copies, five cents each.
Address our depository for your state or
# SIGNS OF THE TIMES MAGAZINE
Mountain View, California
"Tormented Forever and Ever"
One of the most fearful utterances in the whole Bible regarding the wicked, a wrong conception of which has made men infidels. This tract presents an exposition of the text which is reasonable and just—a vindication of God's character. B. S. L. No. 111. Price $1.00 per hundred; single copies, 2 cents.
There is no one thing in the Scripture more illuminating, more comprehensive of all the teachings of the Word, than the subject of the sanctuary, revealing as it does the object and purpose of sacrifice, and the priesthood and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This little pamphlet on this great subject is 10 cents.
