p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 18. (5/5/1909)

Cleanliness and Purity of Conversation

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

THE Master laid great stress upon the importance of our conversation. Words; what little things! and yet it is by them that we are to be justified or condemned. What! the very salvation of our souls depend upon the use we make of that unruly member, the tongue?—Yes; and yet, after all, we must go back farther than mere words; back of those impure words is an impure heart. Ah, that is it. We have found the fountain; for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

The divine Reader of all hearts declared that “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” This is just as true to-day as it was two thousand years ago.

Then there is no use in battling with the wicked words alone, which spring from our lips. The trouble lies deeper than that,—the fountain is impure; it must be so. If the thoughts were only beautiful and pure and holy, there would be no trouble with the tongue. Recognizing this fact, the inspired penman has given us counsel to “keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

“But,” you protest, “what can I do? Am I to be held accountable for my very thoughts? If so, I might just about as well give up. I have often tried to control my evil thoughts, but it is like a child undertaking to check the rushing torrent of Niagara with his tiny hand. It is impossible.”

Impossible in our own unaided strength, yes; but we may obtain the help of Him who is “acquainted with all our thoughts.” He who has made these wonderful minds and bodies of ours with their complex machinery, who knoweth our frame and remembereth that we are dust, is able and willing to help us. If a piece of delicate machinery needs repairing, what do we do? Suppose I break the mainspring of my watch. Shall I go to work with my clumsy and unaccustomed fingers, and try to repair the mischief myself? If I should undertake so foolish a task, I should fail most miserably. But we would have no fear to entrust to the maker of the watch the difficult task of repairing it; certainly not. And have we any less confidence in our loving heavenly Father? Have we less confidence in His power or His wisdom or His infinite love and willingness to save? Have we forgotten that where “sin abounded, grace did much more abound”? O, the fountain of God’s grace is deep and broad and wide. We can not fathom it. It is deep enough and broad enough to cleanse every sinful heart in all the world, if we will but appropriate it.

“But what more can I do?” you question.

“I have often asked the Lord to take away my sins and to cleanse my heart and make it pure, but still every day do I say with the poet, ‘I hate the sinful thoughts that rise.’ I mourn over my sins, but, like Paul, ‘when I would do good, evil is present with me.’ So, what am I to do?”

You remember that Paul wanted to be rid of the dead body of sin. In fact, he questions: How shall I be delivered from this dead body? This you will find in the seventh chapter of Romans, verse twenty-four. But just read the very next verse of the same chapter, and you will have his glorious answer: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

O, the blessedness of the assurance! There is a wonderful virtue in the very name of our Redeemer. He who spoke mighty worlds into existence can speak the word, and the sinful thoughts that have tormented us, and the evil and impure words that have sprung to our lips to defile them will depart. The blood of Calvary is the live coal from off the altar. “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.” Just plead His promises; spread them out before Him. Tell Him of your utter helplessness. Leave it with Him. He can not fail you—He will not. It is not presumption to plead His promise; it is FAITH. He says, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.” The heavens may pass away—be rolled together as a scroll, and the very elements melt; the solid earth may be “removed as a cottage,” but the word of our God abideth forever.

Then, when He has given us the victory, let us cling to His mighty arm by faith, and let us avoid everything which might tend to turn our thoughts downward.

O, if we are ever to associate with pure and holy beings who have never known the taint of sin, we must receive a fitting up here. If we are ever to join the song of redeeming love around the throne, we must submit to the touch of the live coal from off the altar. If our feet are ever to tread the golden pavements of the city of our great King, they must tread the paths of virtue here. If our hands are to bring sweetest music from harps of gold over there, they must be pure hands and honest hands—hands that are swift in the Master’s service. We must not forget that sin is a deadly and a dangerous thing; it is like the leprosy, “Unclean, unclean!” We must have nothing to do with it in any form.

“But,” you ask, “while we are in this world, how can we avoid it?”

Ah, we are in the world, indeed, but we need not be of the world. The Master petitioned His Father: “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”

O, then, brother, sister, while we must associate daily with those who are not Christians, shall we not set a double watch over our lips? Shall our conversation be in heaven? Then, O, then, angels pure and holy shall walk by our side, and we may be indeed “living epistles, . . . known and read of all men.”

You and Your Boy

By Christine Terhune Herrick

I HAVE never been one to feel that the best love was won from a child by extreme indulgence. In fact, I hold that the contrary is the rule. Observing the families of my contemporaries and predecessors it is borne in upon me that the most indulged children have not been the most devoted to their fathers and mothers. On the contrary, having had the happiness to be associated with several households where strict obedience has always been demanded and received, I feel justified in declaring that the families where discipline is observed are those whose children are most affectionate.

Be it noted that strictness does not mean harshness or severity. It does stand for reasonable rules, positively enforced, for

commands which must be obeyed, and, above all, it should stand for justice.

Were I asked to put in a word the most desirable quality in dealing with boys, or with girls, either, for that matter, I would put justice first. It would not be a synonym for hardness, altho this is a meaning often applied to it. It would mean obedience to orders, and penalties when orders were disobeyed, but it would mean also an appreciation of the child's standpoint, an almost agonizing care that he should not be punished without adequate cause, a rigid adherence to promise of reward as well as of rebuke, an understanding of what led to this or that course of action which from an adult's view-point may seem inexplicable.

There may be well brought-up children who resent a just punishment. I have never known them. But I have found injustice of reproof or of penalty resented with a bitterness which left its mark for years afterward.

— Christine Terhune Herrick in “The Circle” magazine for March.

Millinery Impromptu

By M. Elizabeth Burns-Howell

[A lady contributor, to whom, as to many others, even of fashion’s devotees, the present styles of hats are, to put it mildly, repugnant, sends us the following note and verse. Bishop Moore, of Cincinnati, calls the tub hats “Korean hapadodles,” and declares that one Easter hat would buy a clergyman’s entire outfit.]

APROPOS of the “newest thing” in spring styles for women’s hats, which are conceded by even avowed devotees of fashion to be the most absurd and outlandish yet developed, without rule or reason, so unwieldy as to be often an actual menace to comfort, and with no claim whatever to beauty or becomingness. In many cases they can only be regarded as freaks, the hybrid offshoot of that lawless spirit which more and more dominates the times, setting aside the laws of nature in their harmony of form and color of real use and simple beauty.

After an hour upon the city streets or upon viewing the fashion show of the recent Easter parades, one turns away in disgust, sated with the morsel of the world’s pomp. The soul instinctively turns back to that lost Eden, pristine and pure, where “Our ancient mother, sun-crowned, wind-kissed Eve, / Trod Eden pathways hatless, free did rove, / All unadorned, her beauty primitive,” and longs for the refreshing simplicity of a life that is harmonious with nature in all her beautiful laws, simple and unaffected, yet rich and powerful in her spontaneous expression of a life within; a wealth of being that art can only imitate and never actually approach, even in its sincerest attempts.

But this travesty of a hat — never were the words of the preacher so apt — “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!”

(Before a shop window, this month of April, 1909.)

Dear me! What’s that? Aye ’tis a dream, The new spring hat? “Creme de la creme,” This latest shape. Curiosity! (Where is the ape Monstrosity! Would dare don it?) A freak, a fraud, Fie! who said it! — A giddy gaud. Ladies, pardon. Newest wrinkle? O lost garden! Queerest crinkle — Nature-wise, A kitchen pot, Hither, hatless, Or hod — what not? Simple, artless, (Reverse it.) Would I wander; Tower, steeple, Learn life’s wonder, Wheel — dear people! Glean time’s glory — Or flat, or high; Old, old story; No reason why, Sung long aeons, “Fashion’s dictum,” Primal paeons, So we wear ’em, Paradise! And pay the price. (The sum is nice, O vanity! Doth purse fit?) Non sanity!

M. ELIZABETH BURNS-HOWELL.

Why People Will want the May Signs of the Times Monthly

By Editor

Now Ready

The cover is beautiful, a photo of a California wild poppy field with children gathering poppies. Printed in colors.

One of the features of the world-wide tour of the Chapman-Alexander Missionary Company “will be to leave a trail of Testaments more than 25,000 miles long.”

This great movement, with photographs of members of party, is described in an interesting way in this number.

Almost every one is familiar to some extent with the “Emmanuel Movement.” “It was in the fall of 1906 that the Emmanuel movement had its birth. Altho for years the Emmanuel Church was apparently one of the most prosperous churches in Boston, Drs. Worcester and McComb saw that she, like so many churches, was becoming more and more powerless to attract and hold the people.” Prof. Geo. W. Rine, in his article on the subject in this number, tells of the methods adopted by these leaders to “reinvest their church with the genuine faith and power of the Christian religion.” He goes into the whole subject thoroly, explaining the system of teaching so clearly that all may understand it.

“IS THE WORLD FACING A RELIGIOUS DESPOTISM?” is the heading of the article in the new Religious Liberty Department, in which incidents from state after state are presented showing exactly how religious legislation is regarded.

The Departments on TEMPERANCE and the HOME are filled with helpful, health-producing, educational articles.

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Early Writings.

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Efforts to Unite the English and Roman Churches.—

A movement to unite the American English and Roman churches has been started in Boston by the Rev. W. H. Van Allen, rector of the Church of the Advent, one of the powerful Episcopal churches in that city. He declares that he had received letters from prominent clergymen who were favorable to such an alliance; one of which was from one of the intellectual bishops of Italy. “The only barrier that now stands in the way,” he declares, “is the claim made by Rome of supremacy and infallibility;” but he thinks that stronger walls than these have fallen in the Roman church and it would not be difficult to break down this barrier. Of course, he says, “the bishop of Rome would be the first of all bishops. Some day a converted pope will be content with that and abandon the other claims.” He continues that “the Church of England never ceased to love the church of Rome, and the wall that has been built up by centuries has been built up on the Roman side.” It is safe to say, however, notwithstanding the desire of Dr. Allen, that when the union comes, it will be compromise on the part of the Episcopal Church and not on the part of Rome.

Be Not Unequally Yoked Together

“Be Not Unequally Yoked Together.”—While we believe that there should be no marriages between the believer and the unbeliever, or between those of different beliefs, yet where such are married, we would not even intimate that they should separate. The same apostle, who gives us the instruction at the head of this note, also says to the Christian wife or husband not to seek to separate from the unbelieving companion. If he or she wishes to depart because of their unbelief, we should not seek to compel them to remain. “God hath called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? But as God has distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk.” See 1 Cor. 7:12-17, 27. God is able to change the heart. Labor and pray for the salvation of the unbeliever; not for a change in your position.

God in Nature

We call the attention of our readers to the article by Mrs. White, “God in Nature.” It is worthy of study and contemplation.

The Bible in Modern Greece

By Editor

We begin in this paper a series of articles on the Bible in Modern Greece. We plead with our readers to study them. They are worthy of study.

No Man Taketh My Life from Me

The article “No Man Taketh My Life from Me,” by George E. Langdon, is worthy of reading. It shows very clearly that it was not necessary to have a Judas. That was Satan’s work, not God’s.

The Spirit World and a Future Life

The article in Professor Rine’s series, “The Spirit World and a Future Life,” is long; but it is interesting, every word of it, and we are sure that the reader who begins it will finish it. It shows something of the wonders that are developing in the new psychic experiments.

Another Laborer Fallen.

We were greatly pained to hear of the death of Elder J. M. Rees, which occurred in Washington, D. C., April 9. He was struck by a street-car and his skull fractured. He never recovered consciousness. His bereaved wife is an invalid in a sanitarium in Washington. Of children, we believe, he leaves two, son and daughter. He was an able minister and lover of the truth, served acceptably as president in several conferences. We have had a meeting acquaintance with Brother Rees for many years. Have always enjoyed being with him. His relatives have our heartfelt sympathy.

The Fall of Abdul-Hamid

Just now the Eastern Question is assuming a phase of international interest. A few months ago reform government was instituted in Turkey. What is known as the Young Turks Party in February announced many new reforms. An attempt by the Sultan’s court to overturn the Young Turks party has resulted in a bloody revolution. Reports under date of April 24 state that the Sultan is a prisoner in his own palace. Two thousand soldiers he had bribed into loyalty to his tottering throne were killed or wounded in the day’s fighting. Two thousand more were taken prisoners. All of the garrisons which guarded his palace were carried by storm save one. The Yildiz barracks is still holding out and another battle may be necessary before it yields. The fate of the Sultan is in doubt; he is begging for his throne. The Young Turks may let him keep it—or they may exile him, or they may execute him. The career of Abdul-Hamid is one that is far from enviable. He ascended the throne Aug. 31, 1876, after deposing his brother, Murad, whom he held in prison until he died Aug. 29, 1904. During his rule he has lost the kingdom of Servia and the provinces of Bulgaria, Roumania, Herzegovina, and Roumelia. In 1895 alone, according to new published newspaper reports, thirty thousand Armenian Christians were massacred. There have been further horrible brutalities since then.

The Mills of God Grind Slowly

“Tho' the mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small; Tho' with patience stands He waiting, With exactness grinds He all.

England and Germany Prepare for War

“The Philadelphia Press” of April 18 editorially remarks that “the world wants peace, talks peace and all are for arbitration in theory. But man is a fighting animal. War shadows all.” It refers to the old wars between England and Spain, England and Holland, England and France; all fought out to a finish. The world changes and centuries pass, but man changes little, and now England and Germany face each other in the world’s fighting ring. The Press admits that it is a disgrace to civilization, nevertheless it is a great and striking fact. Now the two nations are fighting with their treasuries. Germany’s financial system may break down before she has built a fleet to equal England’s. Whether the masses will accept of the added taxation or not is a question. Meanwhile the Press calls for a bigger fleet for the United States because the victor will demand possessions in which the United States is interested; and even thus speaks the prophecy: “Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, . . . beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong.” And just beyond that lies the great day of God.

Helpful

Helpful.—The despatches state that Prof. Henry B. Sharman, instructor of New Testament history in the University of Chicago, has issued a book in which he declares that the sayings of Jesus are grossly misrepresented by Matthew and Luke; especially in regard to His declarations of the future. How easy that is to say, isn't it? What special revelation has Professor Sharman, or what authority has he for saying that Jesus has been grossly misrepresented? Who is likely to know the most about it, Matthew and Mark and Luke, or one who lives in the 20th century, however wise he may be? Some of the higher critics however are less charitable of the Master than is Professor Sharman, and there are those who do not fear to say that Jesus Himself was mistaken regarding some of these things which He said. So they would leave us to their own fanciful calculations, without a Bible and without a Saviour. Man himself as a saviour is not a noted success.

Bishop Moore on Women’s Hats

Bishop Moore of the Methodist Episcopal Church has felt stirred over the prevailing styles in feminine head-wear, and says: “For a woman of moderate means to pay $40.00 or $35.00 or just $19.00 for a plain hat without trimming is absolute wickedness. It is outrageous, nothing less. Why, one woman's Easter hat could buy an entire clerical outfit.” Regarding their wearing in church the Bishop says: “Should not Christian women show more consideration for their fellow worshipers? Is not the present practise a genuine imposition not only upon good nature, but upon the rights and privileges of those who gather in the house of God? If women must don their Korean flapdoodles, let them remove them as soon as they are seated in church.” Severe words, but we opine that the women in their heart of hearts agree with the bishop, and wish fashion had decreed some other shapes.

Long Life of Jews

Life insurance companies have made the matter of vital statistics such a careful study that it has come to be a science. At the head of all nationalities the Jews stand in the matter of long life. The insurance companies say that the life of the average Jew is more than forty per cent more valuable than that of any other people, except Quakers and preachers. Dr. M. Levy, a learned French physician, believes that the average term of life among Gentiles is twenty-six years, while among Jews it is thirty-seven. “According to Lombroso, of 1,000 Jews born 217 die before the age of seven years, while 435 Christians, more than twice as many, are likely to die within the same period.”

Increase of Crime

Boston's police commissioner reported in the Boston Journal of January 29 that the arrests of last year increased from 57,000 to 68,000. The court fines from $110,000 to $160,000. The total years of imprisonment for convicted criminals from 2,807 to 3,904. A larger number of disorderly houses existed in Boston than ever before in her history, numbering 114. The number of girls between 12 and 17 years of age roaming the streets far from home and late at night is increasing with startling rapidity; 3,829 juveniles were arrested.

The New Battleship Neptune

It is said that the new “Dreadnought,” the keel plate of which was laid recently in England, is a larger and improved edition of her predecessor, the “St. Vincent.” The name of the new one is “Neptune.” And this will be followed by still others, still larger, still more expensive, with greater burdens upon the people. Greater secrecy is surrounding the building of the later ships than the former, The Times tells us.

“... THIS BOOK OF STARS LIGHTS TO ETERNAL BLISS.”—George Herbert.