p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 11. (3/18/1913)

A Valuable Little Companion.

There has come to our table just recently a little vest-pocket leather volume 5¼ x 2¾ inches. It bears on its outside the now familiar figures “1913.” It has on its title page, “Diary, Cash Book, and Memorandum, with Compendium of Information Regarding the Beginning and Growth of the Work of Seventh-day Adventists in its Different Departments. Arranged by N. Z. Town. 1913. Seventh-day Adventist General Conference, Takoma Park, D. C.” It is a valuable little volume, much more so than many of the vest-pocket diaries which are published. For instance, it has a Reminder Index of two pages covering every month and every day in the year. It takes up the work of the denomination under Evangelical Work in Non-Protestant and Heathen Lands, Publishing, Sabbath-School, Medical, Educational, and Missionary Volunteer departments, with the progress which each of these departments has made from its beginning to the present time. It gives total contributions to missions up to the close of 1911, the various presidents of the General Conference, the various secretaries, the various sessions of the General Conference, and a financial summary. It has twelve pages of maps, table of weights and measures, an interest table, antidotes for poison, help in case of accidents, with eighteen pages for cash account, pages for notes, bills receivable and payable, summaries of sales for various months, weather record, pages for memoranda, addresses, various data, and blank for every day in the year, with calendars for 1912, 1913, 1914. We have thought that we had a pretty good book of this sort, but this beats it. To tell the simple truth, we have to say it. It is an excellent little pocket companion, and it would seem as if every worker ought to have it. It may be obtained of the General Conference for 25 cents, while they last, or it can be ordered of the Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.

Thousands Leave Protestant Church in Germany

In a recent article in the “Western Watchman”, it is stated that a committee in Germany, engaged in the war against religion, announces that in Berlin and its environ cities no fewer than 10,000 persons decided during 1912 to quit the official Protestant church.

Keep the Superintendent Elected

By Editor

We do not believe that it is the best for the cause of education in the State of California to abolish the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as an officer elected by the people, and make him one of a board or an individual, as designed by Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 20, and Senate Bill No. 645. We believe that one who comes into such intimate touch with the people should be chosen by them and be responsible to them.

When the Desert Shall Blossom

By Editor

One of Pastor Russell's syndicate sermons has been sent us, asking our opinion of the statement that what men are doing now in the way of irrigation is a fulfilment of the promises of the Bible that the desert shall blossom as the rose, etc. Of course such statements as that, to the diligent Bible reader, are a long way from the truth. When that time comes that the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like the rose, it will be when the new heavens and the new earth have come forth from the creative power of God, and the curse of sin is forever blotted from the earth. Men with nature do wonderful things now, material dreams of things to be, but the very best that men can do will not compare with the sinless new earth which comes through the creative power of Christ.

The Horrors of the Balkan-Turkish War

About 200,000 persons have been killed in the Balkan-Turkish war already. The estimate is said to be rather under than over the figures the facts will warrant. To this destruction of life must be added the immense destruction of property. Whole villages and towns have been laid waste in addition to the havoc wrought in the large cities that have been besieged. This destroyed property, in many instances, has taken away all the home and shelter the people had. War has been awful in all the ages. It has been both cruel and destructive. But with the modern weapons of death and destruction, it has become so awful that it would seem the hearts of the very demons should be made to shudder at the thought of it. And if we have such scenes of devastation and death in these preliminary skirmishes, what will it be when Armageddon itself is finally reached.

Can the Dead Speak?

It has been but a few days since Joaquin Miller died, and now the widow has announced that she has received a “spirit message” from “the beloved poet of the Sierras.” Most of our Protestant churches teach that Spiritualism is a delusion of the devil, but at the same time they also teach that every man has an immortal soul that can not die. This soul, so they tell us, leaves the body at death and is fully as conscious as it was before the person died. The Spiritualist goes just one step further and says that if this soul is conscious he wants to talk to it so as to learn something from it of “the beyond.” The Bible plainly teaches that God only hath immortality, and this gift is received only by the overcomer through Christ. It is an absolute impossibility to prove the immortality of the soul by the Bible. The Bible offers immortality through Christ for those who seek for it, but nowhere does the divine Book say that the individual possesses it of himself. It can be shown clearly from the Word of God that the spirits that come to people purporting to be our “departed friends” have no connection whatever with the dead. They are, to use the words of inspiration itself, “spirits of demons, working signs.” These sign-working demons, according to the Word of God are to draw all the world in their delusions, except those who will study and be guided by that divine Book. It is important that we learn what the Book says on the subject.