FAME is only local. There is no such thing as universal celebrity. When the hostler begged the bishop to shake hands with the bruiser in the stable-yard (“he’ll let yer”) the worthy man simply gave expression to the relative opinions regarding prelates and prize-fighters held in his circle. When Victor Hugo witnessed a marriage at a mairie recently the registrar nearly brought on an apoplectic fit by mildly asking the “maître” whether he spelled his name with or without a “t.” He was unconscious of the existence of the poet. A couple of pious pilgrims from New England once visited the house of Cullen Bryant, reverentially examining every hole and corner, greatly to the delight of the poet, but went away very wrathful when they discovered that they had mistaken the place. They wanted to see the home of “Billy Bryant, the negro minstrel.” None of the farmers close to Tennyson’s house could tell an American tourist anything more about him than that they “heerd as ’ow be wrote poetry-books for the queen.” When the pedestrian asked the rustic for Shakespeare’s house he was asked who he was; and so little do the Norwich innkeepers appreciate the fame of Sir Thomas Browne that when a recent visitor inquired for the house said to be his he was referred to the local directory, which “contains the names of all the resident gentry.”—London World.
SECULAR
—Philadelphia has no public library.
—Cholera has broken out at Valencia, Spain.
—The prosecution of polygamists goes steadily on.
—The decrease of the public debt for May was $4,225,000.
—The Indians in Alaska are causing the miners some trouble.
—The net debt of the United States has now gone below $1,500,000,000.
—The Apaches of New Mexico and Arizona are still on the war-path.
—San Francisco, Cal., boasts of an increase of 5,000 school children in one year.
—During a storm at Chicago, June 2, three persons were killed by lightning.
—England’s acceding to Russia’s demands seems to be taken as a sign of weakness.
—Hay in Mason Valley, Nev., is reported to be selling at $1.00 per ton in stack.
—The Hessian fly is doing a great deal of damage to the wheat crop in some parts of Kansas.
—Dr. Jamie Ferran, who has brought to light inoculation for cholera, is but thirty-three years of age.
—Millions of grasshoppers are coming out of the sandy soil on the south side of the Arkansas River.
—At Pittsburg, Pa., several of the iron mills are stopped because of a strike among the workmen.
—It is estimated that the best beet lands will yield from 3,000 to 6,000 pounds of beet sugar per acre.
—England is likely to have trouble with Germany on account of German traders in Zanzibar, east Africa.
—Washington Territory farmers are now selling their last year’s wheat at fifty-three cents per bushel.
—It is stated that Spain and Cuba have already spent $700,000,000 in trying to put down the natives of Cuba.
—Washington, D. C., is now the eleventh city in size in the United States. In 1880 she was the fourteenth.
—Grasshoppers have appeared in Spanish Valley near St. Helena, Cal., and nearly destroyed every green thing.
—The ship Sherwood, when off the coast of New Zealand, March 14, experienced a terrific hurricane, which lasted eight hours.
—The New York Times says: “It now seems very clear that the wheat crop of 1885 will fall at least 125,000,000 bushels short of 1884.”
—The mayor of Chicago has issued an order for the closing of all gambling rooms, and the police are to see that it is continually enforced.
—Talmage comes out in favor of cremation. He says: “I really think that resurrection is easier after incineration than after inhumation.”
—Beecher’s second sermon on evolution filled Plymouth Church. He accepts as an hypothesis that man came from the great family of apes.
—Beckford Mackay, United States Consul at Rio Grande do Sul, has gotten himself into trouble by shooting an editor. His trial will take place this week.
—The return of 129 Nez Perce Indians to Lewiston, I. T., is reported. The men were gaily appareled in broadcloth, and the women and children had silk handkerchiefs and gold jewelry.
—Mutilated silver coin is to be purchased at the United States Mints at Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New Orleans, in sums of three dollars and upwards. The price paid is the same as for bullion.
—A new bill for hastening the abolition of slavery in Brazil has been brought before the senate. The slaves have decreased in number since 1871, under the law passed then, from 1,547,660 to 1,346,648.
—The school board in Lewiston, Me., having voted to pay the teachers of the St. Joseph Catholic parochial school, are now called on to do the same for the teachers of the French Catholic parish school.
—A fire broke out in the colliery at Durham, England, June 3, shutting in 350 miners. The later dispatches state that all have been rescued but twenty-two persons who were killed by the explosion.
—The United States steamer Corwin, which sailed for a cruise in the Arctic, last April, returned to San Francisco for repairs. The Corwin reports that the whaling bark Rainbow was crushed in the ice. No lives lost.
—Over 4,700 persons have been inoculated with cholera microbes by Dr. Ferran in the province of Valencia, Spain, as a preventive of the disease. The new system is said to be entirely successful, and the epidemic is disappearing.
—Another tenement house, this time in Jersey City, N. J., has collapsed, killing four persons and wounding nine others, more or less seriously. How long will our American people allow this kind of criminal carelessness to go unpunished?
—At Astoria, Or., six of seven fishermen, convicted of rioting, asked that the seventh man, who was a married man, be allowed to go free, to care for his family, asserting their willingness to suffer his penalty for him if divided among them.
—Beaver Park reservoir, in South Sturan Canon, Nevada, burst its banks, and a column of water 120 feet high came rushing down the canon at a fearful rate, carrying away houses, barns, bridges, and destroying much property. No lives lost.
—In the fall of “Professor” Odlum, as he jumped from Brooklyn bridge, the tremendous force with which his groin struck the water tore the skin, parted the spleen, tore off one kidney, ruptured the liver, broke five ribs, and almost every important internal organ was injured by the shock.
Physiological Happiness.
WAYLAND defined happiness as “pleasurable consciousness.” The well-fed horse, the browsing cow, the gamboling colt, the playful kitten and its mother-cat fondly watching it, are filled with pleasurable consciousness. This is provided for on the normal action of the physical system.
The capering child is happy for the same reason. Ancient sages thought that the spheres were so arranged that their various motions made entrancing music. Happiness is the music of the physical system in its proper working. It is most perfect where the vitality is fullest and most vigorous.
This is quite different from the enjoyment of the appetites. The latter may be legitimate, but it is brief at best. He who lives for it destroys at length his power to enjoy.
That eminent scientist, B. W. Richardson, F. R. S., has gone a little further, and given us the particular seat of this pleasurable consciousness. He says, “The center is not in the brain; it is in the vital nervous system—in the great ganglia of the sympathetic, lying not in the cerebro-spinal cavities, but in the cavities of the body itself, near the stomach and in the heart. We know where the glow which indicates felicity is felt, and our poets have ever described it with perfect truthfulness as in the breast. It comes as a fire kindling there.”
The London Lancet declares this to be a scientific truth, demonstrated by a man of genius. It adds, “In other words, felicity is a physical result of a brisk and healthy circulation of blood through the vessels supplying the ganglia of the great sympathetic system of nerves; and whatever quickens, and at the same time frees, the flow of blood in these vessels particularly, engenders the feeling we call happiness. This is the fact, and we believe it explains the action of many articles of food and medicine and medical appliances. Everything in life and nature acts and reacts in a circle. Be happy, and your sympathetic ganglia will have the blood coursing through them with the bound of health; and this quickening of the pulse, if it be produced by good cheer, whether at the table or the mountain-side, will produce happiness.”
Even intellectual enjoyment connects with the normal activity of the cerebral centers, and thus quickens the arterial flow through the sympathetic nervous system.
It will be seen that, other things being equal, that man will be happiest whose physical system is kept in the best working order.—Youth’s Companion.
News and Notes.
RELIGIOUS.
—Over 100,000 copies of the Revised Old Testament were sold in New York City the day of its first issue.
—The Independent says: “The ‘Westminster Confession’ teaches us plainly as words could declare it, that some infants are left to perdition.”
—In the Revised Old Testament, the psalms are divided into five books, the last four beginning respectively with the 42d, 73d, 90th, and 107th.
—The churches in Toronto have once a year an Inter-denominational Exchange Day, when Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians exchange pulpits.
—The American Tract Society issued 68,862,904 pages of publications last year. The receipts amounted to $353,818.29, and expenditures $352,141.76.
—Three new Quaker missionaries are reported to have arrived safely at the capital of Madagascar, and a second doctor has been appointed to assist Dr. Fox in the medical mission there.
—No less than 33 distinct missionary agencies are at work in Africa at the present time. In South Africa there are 450 Protestant missionaries, 95 native ministers, 40,000 communicants, 250,000 under instruction, and probably 1,000,000, more or less, under the influence of Christianity.
—Rev. A. J. Gordon, D. D., Rev. H. L. Hastings, and others, were arrested and fined ten dollars each for conducting religious services on Boston Common on Sunday, May 17, without a license. Upon which one of the secretaries of the American Missionary Board remarked that there is not a heathen city on the globe where such preaching would not be allowed. But then, Boston is “cultured,” you know. Yes, it is.
—The Christian at Work says: “The conviction is deepening that there will have to be a revision of the New Testament Revision, unless the work is to be limited to students and scholars. Its use has been discontinued in many pulpits which first adopted it; and it certainly is making very slow headway into popular favor, its stiff literalism and unidiomatic English militating against its adaptability to popular use.”
—The Index argued lately that Washington was a deist. The Congregationalist answered by quotations of Washington’s words and acts in respect to Christ and his religion. The Index rejoined, that, as, in our day, professors at Andover subscribe to creeds which they can accept, only by an interpretation of the language never designed by those who wrote the creeds, so Washington “in times less enlightened than these,” may have said what he did about “the divine Author of our blessed religion” without meaning anything in particular by it. To this the Congregationalist replies: “But, then, Washington seems to have had an exceptionally high standard of honor and right.” That is all right so far as Washington is concerned, but it sets the Andover Professors in not a very enviable light as regards “honor and right.”
TRACT AND MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
By Chas. L. Boyd; J. E. Graham; J. C. Hall
The ninth annual session of the North Pacific T. and M. Society will be held on the camp-ground at Portland, Or., June 24 to July 1. Matters of vital interest will come before this society. We would be glad to see every lover of present truth at these meetings.
We hope to have all business connected with these societies finished up at an early date, that the last of our meetings may be devoted wholly to religious exercises. This will necessitate the presence of every delegate. Every one who loves, and is willing to assist in, the holy work committed to our trust, is particularly urged to be present at the very beginning of this annual convocation.
CAMP-MEETING COMMITTEE.
The following brethren are appointed to act as a camp-meeting committee: Wm. Potter, John Cole, H. A. Baxter, Chas. Kline, and Z. T. Warren.
CHAS. L. BOYD,\nJ. E. GRAHAM,\nJ. C. HALL,\nConference Committee.
G. W. COLCORD
By G. W. Colcord
Obituary.
CUSHMAN.—Died of consumption, at St. Clair, Nev., May 24, 1885, Mary E. Cushman, aged 41 years, and 11 months.
Sister Cushman was born in Ohio, came West in her youth, and resided almost twenty years in the neighborhood where she died. Her disease dated back more than fifteen years before her decease. She embraced the present truth in the winter of 1877-78. Her sufferings at times were intense, but she told her friends to be anxious for themselves, and not for her. Her husband and two sons, with other relatives and friends, are bowed with grief; nevertheless they expect immortality to be given soon. Sermon by the writer from Num. 23:10.
G. W. COLCORD
North Pacific Conference.
BIBLICAL INSTITUTE.
A BIBLICAL institute, to be conducted by Elder E. J. Waggoner, will be held on the camp-ground, Portland, Or., commencing Sunday, June 14, and continuing till the 24th. Ministers, tract society officers, colporters, canvassers, and lay members, you cannot afford to lose this opportunity. Come as early as Friday, and have your tents pitched before the Sabbath. Come and learn how to work for the Master.
CAMP-MEETING
The North Pacific Camp-meeting will be held June 24 to July 1, between B and G Streets, and just west of Twenty-first Street, Portland, Or. This is in close connection with the terminus of the Washington and Third Street car lines, which with their branches, reach nearly all parts of the city.
Brethren, bring your neighbors and your children. Get ready now, and come in season.
CONFERENCE
The next annual session of the North Pacific Conference will be held at Portland, Or., in connection with the camp-meeting June 24 to July 1.
Let each church elect delegates and furnish them with credentials, and a full report of the church. Will the elders assist the clerk in this matter? Appropriate blanks will be sent to each church clerk.
SABBATH-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION.
The annual session of this association will be held on the camp-ground at Portland, Or., June 24 to July 1. Special instruction will be given to Sabbath-school officers. Appropriate essays will be expected.
Appointments.
OAKLAND.—House of worship, northeast corner of Clay and Thirteenth Streets. Sabbath-school every Sabbath at 9:30 A. M. Preaching at 11 A. M. Prayer and missionary meeting every Tuesday evening at 7:00. Seats free.
San Francisco Church Services and Meeting Times
SAN FRANCISCO.—House of worship, 912 Laguna Street, between McAllister and Tyler Streets. Sabbath-school every Sabbath at 9:45 A. M. Preaching at 11 A. M. Prayer and missionary meeting every Wednesday evening at 7:45. Preaching every Sunday evening at 7:30. Mission Reading-rooms at the church.
Aroostook County Spring Camp-Meeting at Houlton
By A. O. Burrill
THE Seventh-day Adventists of Aroostook Co., Maine, will hold their spring camp-meeting at Houlton, beginning Thursday, June 25, 7:30 P. M., and continuing over two Sabbaths, closing Tuesday morning, July 7. Competent help has been secured. All are invited. A. O. BURRILL.
Canada Camp-Meeting at Lenoxville, Quebec
By R. S. Owen
THE Canada camp-meeting will be held at Lenoxville, P. Q., June 25-30. A desirable location has been secured for this annual gathering—a pleasant grove near the village. Lenoxville is a railroad center, an enterprising village, and only three miles from the city of Sherbrooke. A large attendance is anticipated. It is earnestly desired that every Sabbath-keeper in the Province of Quebec shall attend this meeting. Brethren from Vermont are cordially invited. R. S. OWEN.
Publishers’ Department.
By Editor
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.
OUR GENERAL AGENTS.
Michigan—Miss Hattie House, care Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.
New England—Mrs. E. T. Palmer, N. E. Tract Repository, South Lancaster, Mass.
North Pacific—Mrs. C. L. Boyd, East Portland, Oregon.
England—The Present Truth, 72 Heneage Street, Great Grimsby, Eng.
Norway—Eld. J. G. Matteson, Akersveien No. 2, Christiania, Norway.
Switzerland—Addie S. Bowen, Belchenstrasse 20, Bale, Suisse.
Hawaiian Islands—L. A. Scott, Honolulu, H. I.
RECEIPTS
NOTICE.—The change of figures on the address labels will be in all cases a sufficient receipt for money sent for the paper. If these changes do not appear in due time, and if books ordered by mail are not received, please notify us. All other business is acknowledged below.
CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE FUND.—S W Sedore (tithe) $35.20, San Jose church $13, Oakland church $170.90, Petaluma church $41.48.
CASH RECEIVED ON ACCOUNT.—Colorado T and M Society $200, Texas T and M Society $50, Ohio T and M Society $73.70.
HEALDSBURG COLLEGE.—B R Sheckler $65.
CALIFORNIA T AND M SOCIETY.—District 3, per Sara McEnterfer $73.35, Josef Badescu $1, John Bahler $5, Mrs E Bryant $7.50, O. A. May Peoples $2.25, Mrs Sarah Belden $3.
Orders Forwarded.
Books Sent by Freight.—Australian Mission, N H Drullard.
Books Sent by Express.—F H Butcher, Mary Heileson, N C McClure, H A Whittaker, G H Derrick, J J Bolton, Maria Huntley, J G Smith, E A Briggs.
TEMPERANCE PACKAGES.
By Editor
We have put up in packages three different assortments of our health and temperance works which we will furnish, post-paid, at the prices named.
Ten Cent Package.
The smallest package contains 100 pages in thirteen tracts, as follows:—
True Temperance—Alcohol, What is it?—Our Nation’s Curse—Cause and Cure of Intemperance—Effects of Intemperance—The Drunkard’s Arguments Answered—Alcoholic Medication—Alcoholic Poison—Tobacco Poisoning—Tobacco-Using a Cause of Disease—Tobacco-Using a Relic of Barbarism—Evil Effects of Tea and Coffee—Ten Arguments on Tea and Coffee.
Forty Cent Package.
The second package, costing forty cents, post-paid, contains the above list and the following in addition:— Pork, the Dangers of its Use—Diphtheria, its Causes, Prevention, and Proper Treatment. By J. H. Kellogg, M. D. This book should be in every household. Its instructions, if faithfully carried out, will save many a precious life.
One Dollar Package.
The third package, costing $1.00, post-paid, contains in addition to the above:—
Proper Diet for Man, price 15c—The Uses of Water, price 25c—Dyspepsia, Its Cause and Cure, price 25c.
The object in arranging these packages is to get them in a convenient form for sale and for selection.
Address SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
YOUNG'S ANALYTICAL CONCORDANCE TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
The latest and most complete work of the kind ever published is now offered at a price within the reach of every Bible student. This book places in the hands of everybody knowledge heretofore limited to a very few.
It contains one hundred and eighteen thousand more words than Cruden's Unabridged Concordance. It gives every English word, also the Hebrew and Greek original words, with their pronunciation and literal meaning. The Greek and Hebrew words are transliterated so that they are intelligible to any English reader.
A complete index of the original words is added, referring them to the English words under which they are found.
Price, post-paid, $4.25.
Address,
SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal., Or, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.
SMITH'S COMPREHENSIVE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE.
NEW EDITION, octavo size, 1,200 pages, with many important additions and improvements from the works of the most eminent scholars, commentators, and travelers. It is designed to be
A COMPLETE GUIDE
In regard to the pronunciation and signification of Scriptural names; the solution of difficulties respecting the interpretation, authority, and harmony of the Old and New Testaments; the history and description of Biblical customs, events, places, persons, animals, plants, etc.
In this book it is designed to make everything intelligible to those who understand only the English language, and to place them as nearly as possible on a level with the scholars who are familiar with the original languages of the Scriptures.
All the words in the vocabulary are pronounced and divided into syllables, and words or parts of words are respelled whenever this is necessary to indicate the pronunciation.
The book contains numerous maps, and is abundantly supplied with superior engravings, which are of real utility to the student.
No one who desires to study the Scriptures intelligently will be without a copy of this most excellent book.
Price, in cloth, $5.00; in library binding, $6.00.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. Or, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.
THOUGHTS ON REVELATION, CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL.
By Uriah Smith
BY ELD. U. SMITH.
This work presents every verse in the book of Revelation, with such remarks as serve to illustrate or explain the meaning of the text. It is a new and harmonious exposition of that important book and is designed to create an interest in its study.
416 pp. Price, $1.25.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
Or, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.
BIBLE SANCTIFICATION: A CONTRAST OF TRUE AND FALSE THEORIES.
By MRS. E. G. WHITE.
This is a pamphlet of only 84 pages, but its value is not to be judged by its size. It is just what its title indicates: a faithful presentation of Bible truth on this important subject, and an exposure of the false theories prevailing in regard to it. Every believer in Bible truth should read it. Buy it, read it, and lend it to your neighbor. Price, 10 cents.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. Or, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.
EARLY WRITINGS OF MRS. WHITE.
Comprising “Experience and Views” and “Spiritual Gifts, Volume One,” bound in one volume. This makes a neat and attractive book of nearly 200 pages, and should be read by old and young. The matter and the style in which it is presented are so interesting that no one who has read one chapter will forego the pleasure and profit of reading the remainder. Price, 75 cents.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
EXPERIENCE AND VIEWS.
By Mrs. E. G. White.
This volume contains the earliest writings of Mrs. White, first printed in 1851. It contains an account of her early religious experience, and a brief account of the wonderful dealings of God with her. Apart from its intrinsic value, it will be of interest as showing the harmony between the earlier writings of the Seventh-day Adventists and those published at a later date. Its publication is very timely. In paper covers, with Supplement, 25 cents.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
Proud of Perjury.
By Editor
THE prevalence of perjury in our courts is alarming, and makes it impossible to administer justice with any certainty. The “Sharon Divorce Case” developed an unusual amount, and the noted witness, Nellie Brackett, now comes into court, and without a blush or sign of regret, swears that all her evidence in the case was false. She was complimented by a lawyer on her powers as a liar, and coolly replied: “Well, I told a good many lies, and told them well; I am a success at it.” A fifteen years’ sentence to San Quentin might cool her ardor, and take away from her silly head the romance of false swearing. But there is so much of it done that it loses its vile character in the eyes of the world.
We would cheerfully make one suggestion, if it would do any good. Our public prosecutors ought to add perjury to the indictments of “defaulters,” alias thieves, and others who serve themselves in offices at the public expense. Why administer an oath, making a man swear that he will faithfully discharge the duties of an office, and never take note of the perjury when he violates his trust? Nothing serves more to make the oath a farce than this practice. But we fear the current is set in too strong; it will scarcely be checked.