The Signs of the Times by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 11, 1891

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 17, No. 19.

The Signs of the Times.

By Editor

OAKLAND, CAL., MONDAY, MAY 11, 1891.

We send no papers from this office without pay in advance unless by special arrangement. When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the Signs are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon for pay. Please read the papers and hand them to your friends to read.

WE have quite a number of queries that are waiting answer. Will our friends be patient?

READ the commendations on the preceding page of the Young People's Library. These books are just what our youth need.

THE April meetings of our various institutions on the Pacific Coast, which have just closed, were encouraging. The canvassers' institute, conducted by Elder G. H. Derrick, was a decided success. A good corps of workers goes out into the field, better qualified and equipped for service, with stronger encouragement, than ever before. May God bless those who thus carry the truth to the world.

THE Healdsburg College has also had a good year, showing but a small loss. It was stated by the president of the board that if twenty-five more pupils could be furnished there would be no loss to the institution in the year to come, but a gain. This is a remarkable showing for an institution of this kind. A report of the college finances will appear next week.

THE Rural Health Retreat Association held its annual stockholders' meeting April 30. The following board of trustees was elected: W. P. Burke, M.D., John Fulton, D. T. Jones, N. C. McClure, Wm. Ings, W. A. Pratt, and A. B. Atwood. The workings of the institution showed a net profit of $12,000. What will add greatly to the prosperity of the institution in the year to come is the increase of water obtained from land belonging to the institution, and the renting of a large ranch, thus supplying better and fresher food products for the patients and boarders. A good spiritual influence is also in operation at the Retreat. The stockholders were courteously, hospitably, and generously entertained. More room and more physicians are wanted. What a field for doing good the sick world presents! May God make the Health Retreat a blessing to thousands.

NEW plans were also laid for extended work in the Conference and Tract Society, which will, we hope, under the blessing of God, result in winning the coming year a more abundant harvest of souls to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus than California has ever seen. Elder D. T. Jones, superintendent of General Conference district No. 6, is on the Pacific Coast, and we believe that the Lord will make his labors a blessing to this section. Let there be union and consecration throughout our ranks.

ALAS! and has it come to this? Has the matter of "entertainment" in connection with the church of Christ gone so far that a department in a paper is devoted to that sort of thing? A literary notice comes to us on a printed postal for such a journal, which says that its April number "contains descriptions of 'A Baby Entertainment,' 'A Box Sociable,' 'A Cake Festival,' and 'Soap-bubble Parties'! all good entertainment for church or society use." A minister, "one of the most experienced church workers in the country," is in charge of the church-work department of this "entertainment" journal. We have no use for such things; they belong to "soap-bubble" Christianity. It coruscates, scintillates, flashes, shines, and reflects its various colors, but is after all vanity.

THE fact that "special contributors" have been selected for this journal should not deter others from sending whatever they may think would be of use. We will use what seems to us will be of service to God. Let contributions be short and to the point; our paper is not large.

THERE are thousands of professed Christians who remain forever weak because they are forever looking at their trials. No one has so hard a time as do they; no one has ever met such sorrows, such sore temptations, such trials of faith; no one ever had such a bad disposition to contend with, never had such a hard place to live a Christian, etc.; but it is a blessing to be thankful for that we live at all.

"Rand, McNally & Co.'s Indexed County and Railroad Map and Shippers' Guide of California" may be procured of the Pacific Press Publishing Company, Oakland, Cal., for 25 cents. This map locates all cities, towns, post-offices, railroad stations, villages, counties, etc., etc., with the population of each place according to the latest official census. It is just what will prove of great use to all our workers.

OUR Baptist neighbor across the bay makes the following good confession:—

"When we first saw preachers turn politicians and lovely ladies becoming lobbyists, we cried victory and thought we had it. We went in like the rest, and with the sweet women and the dear pastors we 'whooped up' elections and sang and shouted, 'On to the polls for God and Home and Native Land.' It was lovely, too, while we were flying. . . . We are now satisfied that there is no greater failure under the sun than the preacher as a politician. We have heard somewhere a gospel about cobblers sticking to the last, and we have done trying to work political wires. The church will not gain sympathy by using the world's weapons. . . . We are at present fighting the saloon with weapons of the world; we need to fight saloon keepers with Christian weapons. Saloon keepers are men, and ought to be reasoned with and prayed for, that God by his grace may enable them to see the error of their way. One thing sure, the Christian is a failure when hatred against anybody moves him to action."

And all this is true. We are glad that the Leader is coming to Christian principles, and we hope that it will have the good sense to apply them to the Sunday question as well. The Oakland Tribune thinks that Mr. Garnett, the editor, is wrong in this; but the world is not supposed, in the very nature of things, to understand the church. The world is moulded by policy, the church ought to be by principle.