p. 799 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 50. (12/21/1915)

NOT a New Idea

By Editor

But a Good One

Place on your holiday list a few subscriptions to the Signs of the Times Magazine.

So different from most others, because it gives the Bible interpretation of current events, and forecasts the future. 48 pages and colored cover, monthly.

You send the order along, with $1.00 for each yearly subscription, or 60c for each in case five or more are ordered, and leave it to us to do the rest. We will explain to the recipient, in a neatly printed card like the form herewith, if you request us to do so.

Considering value and low price, it is hard to beat this suggestion.

Send through our representative in your district or to the publishers direct.

OFFICE OF

Signs of the Times Magazine

As a token of remembrance, requested us to send the “Signs of the Times Magazine” to you for the coming year. In no way will this subscription incur any obligation on your part.

With appreciation, we remain,

Respectfully yours,

Publishers “Signs of the Times.”

How to Answer a Fool

By Eliza H. Morton

THE Bible apparently contradicts itself in the admonitions, “Answer a fool according to his folly” (Prov. 26: 5), and, “Answer not a fool according to his folly” (Prov. 26: 4). The reason for the last quoted is, “lest thou also be like unto him,” which implies that one should not manifest, in his reply, the same evil, bantering spirit manifested by the fool. Exposing the folly of a fool by answering him not according to his folly, is well illustrated in Christ’s course with the Pharisees. He replied to their questions in a way to silence them. Matt. 22: 36-46. ELIZA H. MORTON.

Wanted for Missionary Work

Mrs. Abbie J. M. Young, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin: a continuous supply of Signs weekly, Youth's Instructor, our Little Friend, and our magazines.

A New Record

Signs Magazine agents think nothing of selling 25 to 50 copies a day. Frequently one reports sales of 100 in a day. But even this has been eclipsed by an agent in Missouri, who sold 200 copies in two days. Sales, $20.00.

Profits, $12.00

The January number is now ready. Other agents are wanted in every community. Will you be one? Our representative in your state will furnish you with additional information, or help you get started.

Signs of the Times Magazine

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Automatic Block Safety Signals Protecting more miles of Railroad than on any other line in the world

Awarded Grand Prize for Railway Track, Equipment, Motive Power, and Safety-First Appliances, San Francisco Exposition, 1915

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Over 2,000,000 copies sold to date. All these books are cloth-covered. Those for the small children are printed in colors.

Why not start your gift list to-day? Start right by placing on it one or more of the excellent books described herein. These may be secured from our representative in your state or from us direct.

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WINTER READING

Consider how well informed on great religious subjects your neighbors might be if you would provide them with tracts from the $1.00 package.

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Plan a campaign, select your readers, and arrange to give them a new tract each week until the supply is used up.

In the spring, your readers will have a good understanding of these important subjects, and you will have the satisfaction that comes from doing for others.

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Determined to Have Peace

NEW plans are continually formulated to cause the warring nations of Europe to lay down their arms, and furthermore, that we may have permanent and perpetual peace. One of the latest plans is that brought forth by Mr. Henry Ford, the great automobile manufacturer. He says that he is going to spend all of his millions, if necessary, in the effort to cause the warring nations to cease their strife, and to free the world from belligerent bloodshed. He even hopes that this will be accomplished before Christmas time of this year.

The odds are very strongly against him; but reason, humanity, and common sense are on his side. He, with his associates, may be able to make impressions that will lessen the strife, at least for a time; but we must never lose sight of the fact that we are plainly in that period of the world's history when the prophets have foretold that the nations will be angry, that they will be mad with strife, and regardless of reason or humanity, they will continue their frenzied career until finally they drive pell-mell into the great climax of the war of Armageddon itself.

According to the word of God, the mass of mankind will refuse to heed the plain teaching of the Bible prophecies, and will fulfill the predictions of the prophets by filling the world with a spirit of war. But every individual who can be induced to give careful heed to what God has foretold, must be reached and persuaded to accept the truth of inspiration. Every effort must be made to keep men from falling under the deceptive delusions that are leading people to believe that this mad, wicked world can be brought into a permanent, perpetual peace. Awful are the delusions of this time, and terrible must be the final awakening of those who refuse to heed the warning God has sent out concerning these days in which we live.

We should put forth the utmost endeavor to keep men at peace. We should encourage every reasonable peace movement. But we must not allow our work in behalf of peace to blind our eyes to the condition of the time, nor to shut out from our vision the prophecies that so clearly shine upon these days, and disclose the fact that war and not peace will characterize this time.

It is possible for men and women to become so determined in an effort to force peace upon the world, that they will actually hypnotize themselves into believing ultimately that they have secured peace, while the powder magazines of war are lying all around them. Let us not fail to keep before us that prediction of the apostle Paul, that in the last days, while men are saying, “Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape.”

News from Around the World

ANNOUNCEMENT has been made from Washington that England, France, Italy, and Russia have joined the United States in recognizing the Carranza government in Mexico. It is stated that Japan will soon follow in a like recognition. Let it be hoped that a stable government will soon be established there, and the country be freed from the revolution that has been tearing it so long.

TWENTY-FIVE MILLION pounds of prunes are being shipped by California to one of the great nations engaged in the European war. This is nearly half the crop of 1915. This great demand upon California for prunes is doubtless occasioned by the difficulties in the Balkans, one of the other great world sources of the prune supply.

THE College of Agriculture connected with the University of California has recently issued a new publication on “Wood Decay in Orchard Trees.” This will be found of great help to the orchardist, and may be secured by addressing the University of California, Berkeley, California.

THE Canadian government has authorized an increase of the Canadian over-seas army from 150,000 to 250,000 men. Thus Canada answers the appeal of England for “more men, and still more men.”

THE new super-dreadnought Nevada burns only oil fuel, the first in any navy to do this. It carries anti-air-craft guns, and in various other respects outclasses all sister ships.

A DISPATCH from Rome indicates that some 500,000 Armenians have been slaughtered by the Turks during the recent revolutions and fighting.

Blessings Made into Curses

No age in the world's history has been favored with more material blessing than the present one. Whichever way we turn the eye, we may see inventions and improvements calculated to bless mankind, and not only to make it easier for him to subsist, but also to heighten his enjoyment.

The whole world has been brought into such a state that man can communicate quickly with his fellow man clear around the world.

Medical science, by laying hold of sanitary laws, has robbed the world of much of the terrors that were produced in former generations by plagues and deadly maladies of various kinds.

But in the midst of it all, we find that wicked man has turned all of these material blessings into destructive agencies to curse mankind. The high explosive which is such a great help in tunneling mountains, and in gathering the mineral wealth from the earth, is used in the most awful manner, by individuals as well as by nations, in slaughtering their fellow creatures, and spreading the destruction of property like a mighty conflagration.

Electricity, which furnishes us light and heat and power in such a convenient form, is also one of the chiefest agencies in developing the effectiveness of the awful engines of war in modern times.

Motive power, as expressed in the railway, the steamship, the trolley line, and the automobile, is not only one of the great conveniences, but also one of the great blessings, of the age. But never could there be such slaughter of men and destruction of property as is now manifested in Europe's reign of terror, were it not that these facilities, which should bless mankind, have been turned to the rapid moving of troops and munitions of war, so that men and their homes could be crushed beneath the heel of the terrifying war god.

Men have been given to boasting over their great achievements. Our twentieth century “civilization” has been lauded to the skies. Men have proudly proclaimed that the achievements of the past century were only the beginnings of the new era of human success. But all at once, our great boastings are dashed to the ground; for we see every one of the things that were designed to bless mankind, used for his destruction. God has told us all along, and He continues to tell us, through His word, that it is vain to trust in the mere achievements of men.

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God; who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is; who keepeth truth forever; who executeth justice for the oppressed; who giveth food to the hungry.” Ps. 146: 3-7, A. R. V.

No Paper Next Week

By Editor

THE paper this week is the fiftieth number that we have issued this year; and as we advertise to furnish only a volume of fifty numbers during the year, there will be no paper next week. The next issue will be dated January 4, 1916. We trust that all our patrons will make a note of this, and when they do not receive their paper next week, will understand the reason, and will not write to inquire why their paper does not reach them.

Bottling Up Strife

By Editor

A DISPATCH says that some two hundred socialists within the borders of one of the large nations in Europe have been ordered shot. The dispatch may misstate the facts; but however that may be, there are continued rumors of attempts to suppress the socialists in the war zone. While the military power is so strongly in control, the feelings and sentiments of the socialist party will be largely held under; but there is a day of reckoning coming. The socialist is practically the same, no matter what nation he may reside in; and the pressure that restrains his feelings and sentiments at the present time, must cause all the more terrific explosion later.

We are not setting this forth as a theory either for or against socialism. We are simply stating what we believe to be a fact, and ask our readers to consider it carefully. Are you thinking about what must be the outcome of the intense unrest of this time? The military power is but a feeble agency to cope with the forces that sooner or later must be let loose. Hiding our eyes to the facts of this time in which we live will not avert the catastrophe that is surely coming. The only sensible thing for us is to understand what these things mean, and then prepare ourselves for the issue; for if we are properly prepared, we will not go down in the revolution that is hanging over this world, but we will instead arise to the joys of immortality. It is this great event of Christ's coming alone that will be successful in bringing to a terminus the turmoil and bitter strife of these days in which we live.

An International Commercial Enterprise

A DISPATCH from New York states that leading financiers in that city, representing Kuhn-Loeb and Co., the Morgan and Rockefeller interests, etc., have “formed the American International Company to finance and control enterprises in all parts of the world.” The capitalization of fifty millions at the start will be increased, so they say, as demanded by the acquisition of other properties.

Little do the financial kings of this world seem to realize what they are doing. The international money trust will first be called to account by an enraged populace, as is clearly shown by the prophecy of the apostle James; and later, they must meet at the tribunal of the great Jehovah Himself the work they have done in hoarding their millions of money while the millions of people claim to be driven to strife and revolution through the poverty and destitution created by the hoardings of the great controllers of the world's finance.

“Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee.” Job 12: 8.