p. 11 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 12. (3/22/1910)

The Star of Bethlehem

By Editor

THE question is asked by Prof. Garrett P. Serviss, in the San Francisco Examiner: "Was it Halley's Comet which was the guiding star of Bethlehem?" And any Bible reader can answer just as definitely, "No, it was not." Why it is that men who profess to believe the Bible, will endeavor to fix up some combination of stars, or will suggest or believe that some particular comet must have appeared at that time, is beyond our comprehension. The whole Biblical account is contrary to any such supposition. If the contention was that it was a meteor, there would be some ground for that; but the idea of a comet or a star acting as the light which guided the wise men is preposterous.

That star guided them for days in their journey from the East to Jerusalem; it was not seen when they were counseling with the chief priests and Herod. When they came from that consultation with the king, that star went before them about two miles, out to the little city of Bethlehem, and came and stood over the house where the young Child lay. An utterly preposterous supposition regarding a star or a comet.

Then what was it? By those who believe in God's Word, who believe in angelic ministration, who believe in His miraculous interposition, it can very easily be believed that it was a bright and shining company of heavenly messengers which guided those wise men across the trackless wastes and led them to the very house where the Child appeared. When the mission of those angels was over, their glory became invisible to mortal eyes.

Airman Flies Into Mexico

At an experiment in Arizona, February 27, Mr. Charles K. Hamilton, using a Curtiss biplane, rose to the height of 4,500 feet, and flew over the international line into Mexico. He was in the air twenty minutes, and covered a distance of nearly fifteen miles.

Guatemala Volcano in Eruption

March 4 gives us the information that Fuego, the great volcano of Guatemala, is in eruption, and the people surrounding it are in great fear. The volcano is situated about forty miles northwest of Guatemala City.

Thomas Lawson Against Matched Trades

Mr. Thomas W. Lawson sends out a strong, characteristic appeal to the New York Stock Exchange, to Governor Hughes, and to President Taft, to stop above all things else the most serious phase of gambling in Wall Street, which he designates “a matched trade;” in other words, to expel from the Stock Exchange any member who directly or indirectly executes the buying or selling end of a trade which he knows or has good reason to know [is] a matched trade; and a matched trade he defines [as] one where the stocks, bonds, or securities involved do not in fact change ownership by or because of the transaction. It is pure fraud. And he declares that if that action were taken by the Exchange, there would be little trouble arise from it.

In his appeal to President Taft he cites instances of how money is fraudulently piled up in this way. Wall Street is one of the storm centers. Supreme Court Justice Wesley O. Howard, of New York State, truly says, “While the extremest penalties are being provided for the suppression of penny-ante and kindred crimes, a gambling institution rivaling Monte Carlo in magnitude and audacity, and rivaling it in the wild uproar of its conduct, in the colossal magnitude of its stakes, and in its astonishing freedom from official interruption, is said to flourish in the very heart of the metropolis.”

Meeting of Public Educators

By Editor

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES is in no sense a local newspaper, not having to do with town, county, or state matters. It is a religious journal with a worldwide constituency, and its aim is to preach the worldwide Gospel. But it is published in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, and because of this its editor and his wife had the pleasure of attending the annual meeting and banquet of the Santa Clara County Editors' Association, held in Mountain View the last day of February. This association does not include the city editors of San Jose; yet Mr. E. K. Johnston, managing editor of The Mercury, met with them and gave an interesting and forcible address on the independence and worth of the country papers, which ought to be recognized. San Jose editors will probably be included in the future meetings.

Most of the papers in the county were represented by about a score and a half of gentlemen and ladies, mostly editors and their wives, as follows: Palo Alto Citizen, by Mr. and Mrs. L. P. Hathaway; Palo Alto Times, Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Simkins, and Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Kelly; Mayfield News, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Ostermeyer; Sunnyvale Standard, Mr. W. K. Roberts; Santa Clara Journal, Miss Bernice Downing; Santa Clara News, Mr. and Mrs. Henry R. Roth; Gilroy Advocate, Mr. and Mrs. Will F. Blake; Gilroy Gazette, Mr. and Mrs. L. C. McKenney; Campbell Interurban Press, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis C. Dick; Los Gatos News, Mr. W. H. B. Trantham; Los Gatos Mail, Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Smith; Mountain View Register, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Miller; Mountain View Leader, Mr. and Mrs. P. Milton Smith. Other gentlemen and ladies were present from Mountain View and near-by towns. The election of officers for the association for the following year resulted as follows: Mr. P. Milton Smith, president; Mr. Will F. Blake, vice-president; Miss Bernice Downing, secretary; Mr. W. H. B. Trantham, treasurer.

The banquet given by the Mountain View Board of Trade was all that could be desired. Sufficient and ample was the unique menu. There was nothing stronger than water, nor weaker than tea. After the banquet followed speech-making; all of which were sensible, kindly, suggestively helpful, and genial. The chairman of Mountain View City Council, Judge B. E. Burns, welcomed the editors in his peculiarly happy vein, and was responded to in an excellent speech by Mr. L. P. Hathaway, the out-going president. After the banquet a ride in automobiles in the vicinity of the town, closing with a brief visit to the home of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, completed the day.

We were glad to meet this clean, genial body of public educators. May the shadow of each never grow less, and may they ever keep before their constituencies with whom they come in such direct and living contact, all that makes for true manhood and womanhood and for the highest type of liberty-loving citizenship.

Good

By Editor

The Reverend Doctor A. Rücker has lately entered emphatic protest against the theory that it makes no difference what our religious beliefs are. He concedes that differences of opinion on subordinate things have practically little or no effect upon the character and life of men as long as they agree on fundamentals; but on the other hand it is a fact beyond dispute that a man's religious ideals and ideas will consciously or unconsciously be transferred into practical life as molding forces, and preeminently it is true that a man will be what he believes. Absolute indifference as to religious belief can not help affecting what a man is and does. The popular claim that doctrine and dogma are nothing, while life is everything, is entirely untenable. And then illustration is given that the atheist who believes nothing greater or better in the world than humanity, becomes practically his own god, and consequently there follows self-deification, with all that grows out of the imperfect human.

The summary of Dr. Rücker's article is given in Current Literature for March, 1910. We hope that it may get strong grip on those who are preaching the senseless and utterly unchristian, unbiblical theory that it matters not what we believe.

Oriental Powers

REFERRING to war forces in the Far East, we learn from the Literary Digest of February 26 that Russia continues to maintain 200,000 men in the Far East, which could be quickly reinforced by 100,000 more. Japan maintains her army on a peace footing of 250,000 men who in time of war could be reinforced by 750,000 men. Japan has also on the stocks several great cruisers of the Dreadnought type, so that at the present time, she holds the fifth place among the naval powers of the world; and it is quite probable that by 1911 she will have attained the fourth place.

China, on account of her military feebleness, has not been considered as of any consequence in the political estimation of the Far East; but now she is organizing her army on a European basis, and in accordance with this project the Chinese army will comprise, on a peace footing, some thirty-six divisions of 20,000 men each. These statistics are taken from the Prussian General von der Boeck in an article appearing in the Deutsche Revue. The nations of the East are also getting ready for Armageddon.

Sunday-School Conversions in Methodism

The "Christian Advocate" declares that four fifths of the membership of the church is recruited from the ranks of the Sunday-school. From 1846 to 1909 4,712,225 conversions were reported from the Sunday-schools by the pastors, an average of 73,600 per year. The statistics for 1909 report 154,346 conversions in the Sunday-schools, and 63,047 net gain in the total membership of the church. That is, the deaths and excommunications were less than one half of the conversions from the Sunday-school, on the supposition that there were no other conversions from other sources. This of course has to do with the Sunday-schools of the Methodist Church alone.

The Comet A 1910

"A 1910" is the name given to the recent wonderful comet, which appeared unexpectedly, to indicate that it was the first important comet seen in the year. Prof. Garrett P. Serviss gives us the following characteristics of this wonderful visitor as science looks upon it.

First, it is a brand new comet.

Secondly, it is composed of sodium, or practically common table salt, and radium, the rarest known element.

Thirdly, its orbit is like a hairpin, which is why it could creep up behind the sun unperceived.

Fourthly, it ran only 3,000,000 miles from the sun—closer than any other comet known.

Fifthly, it was heated, by this proximity, to a temperature equal to about 600 times that of the hottest summer day on earth, which is why it could be seen in the daytime.

The course of A 1910, showing how it came up behind the sun, swerved toward the earth, turned a little toward Venus, but was held by the sun. It shows also how its tail diminished.

Sixthly, it showed at one point of its orbit an unusual desire to break away toward the earth; manifested the same desire as it approached Venus.

Seventhly, it had first one tail; then two tails; and at last one tail broke near the top and fell away at an angle of 70 degrees.

Eighthly, it is the fastest comet known, having a speed of forty miles a second. The earth's circumference is about 25,000 miles, and the earth turns once in 24 hours, or, roughly speaking, a thousand miles an hour; but A 1910 moved at the rate of 144,000 miles an hour.

Ninthly, it has been estimated that its size is 500,000 times that of the earth; yet if its substance were condensed to that of the earth, it might not weigh more than 100 tons.

Tenthly, if its radium-laden tail had swept earth, it might have produced extraordinary phenomena. It might have destroyed life by injection of deadly gases, or by intense radio activity. This, however, is all supposition. The last supposition that he gives is that it isn't likely ever to return.

Criticism of the Bible’s Inspiration

By Editor

There has come to our table a pamphlet which attempts to disparage the inspiration of the Scripture by casting ridicule upon various things which seems to the great wisdom of the writer ridiculous. The writer starts out in the very beginning by showing his utter ignorance of the Bible when he states there were only two animals of a kind on earth, for they had just come out of the ark. A casual reading of the record shows that Noah took into the ark clean beasts by "sevens." The Hebrews have a dual number, and the "sevens" indicates that there were two sevens. They went in two and two; fourteen of each kind of clean beasts, instead of two as this brilliant writer declares. Of the unclean beasts there were simple pairs. This is generally characteristic of critics of the Bible. Many, very many of them are ignorant of its teachings.

Mammoth Meat and Scientific Claims

A number of scientists ate some of the steak from the mammoth the carcass of which was discovered in Russia some time ago. Some scientists declared that this mammoth was alive before the glacial period, and their estimate is that the steak was about 250,000 years old, but the meat was pronounced excellent. So states the news item, but all of it can doubtless be taken as was the aged meat, cum grano salis.

Horse Flesh for Food

Horse Flesh for Food.—In 1908 2,000 horses were shipped from Leith, Scotland, to the European continent for food. Most of these horses were old, broken, poor. There are seventy shops in Paris which advertise by the sign of a gilded horse head that horse meat is for sale. Much of it is made into sausages and "dried beef."

Shiloh: the Man of Sorrows

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Chapter IV—The Plotting of Herod

"NOW," continued the prophet, turning to the young man Bar-jona, "I will tell thee where I beheld Him—the Desire of the nation. Not many days ago, as I was praying in my house, the Holy Spirit came upon me, and the angel of the Lord said unto me, 'Arise, O Simeon, and go into the temple of the Lord; for there thou shalt behold the Holy One, even the Shiloh of Jacob.' Then I arose, and threw my mantle about me, and entered into the temple. Then the Spirit led me to a young Babe, the first-born of His mother. In an ecstasy of spiritual delight I listened to the simple prayer of the Nazarene carpenter, as he presented the Child unto the priest according to the law:

'Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of heaven and earth, who hath sanctified us with Thy commandments, and commanded us to perform the redemption of a son. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, who hast maintained us, and preserved us to enjoy this season.'

"When he had left off praying, I took the Babe in mine arms, and lifting up mine eyes toward heaven, I blessed the Most High that He had verified His promise toward me, and that mine eyes beheld His Anointed."

The aged prophet settled back upon his couch, and his voice grew faint and fainter. The roll of parchment slipped from his stiffening fingers; a gray shadow passed over the wrinkled face; the long, white locks fell over the bolster, and surrounded the noble head like a halo; the lips moved in prayer. A gentle breeze stirred the light draperies at the window, which seemed to the spellbound visitors like the soft rustling of an angel's wing. Suddenly the dim eyes opened for a moment and rested upon Bar-jona.

"Young man, understandest thou the words of the Lord which I have read unto thee?"

"They are very plain, O prophet of God."

A look of perfect peace rested upon the marble countenance, as the dying man whispered:

" 'I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and tho after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.' Now, Lord, lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thine Anointed."

The eyes closed once more; the flickering lamp of life had gone out. The silver cord was loosed. Hurriedly the attendants glanced into the peaceful face, and at once broke out into loud and plaintive wailing for the dead. The chamber of death echoed with their mournful cries, as Sylvanus and his young companion sought the streets of the sacred city.

As they passed out of the chamber, they noticed a man standing in the outer doorway, who stepped back hastily as they passed, as if he would avoid them. Something in his appearance arrested the attention of Sylvanus, who glanced quickly into his face:

"Ho, Demas, thou servant of Jozarus the high priest, how camest thou in hither? Verily, I believe thou wast in the chamber, and I saw thee not—eh, fellow?"

"Wherefore should I refuse to go whither my master sendeth me, especially when he maketh my heels nimble with a coin? Verily, the aged patriarch speaketh well but he will speak no more. But, behold, all Jerusalem is filled with his idle tales, and those of Anna the prophetess, who is so aged that she babbleth like a foolish child; so saith my master. What sayest thou, Sylvanus? Believest thou that the carpenter of Nazareth hath indeed departed into Egypt? And pray," continued Demas, sneeringly, "why tarry the wise men of the East at Bethlehem, that they return not hither, even to the palace of our lord King Herod?"

"Verily, Demas," replied Sylvanus, "the princes of the East tarry not in Bethlehem. But I believe thou art a spy, suborned by Jozarus thy master. I thought it not of thee," he continued; while his young companion, Bar-jona, panting with excitement and indignation, exclaimed hotly:

"Give me thy staff, Sylvanus, that I may lay this fellow low. What!" he demanded, as his more prudent companion slipped an arm about him, and compelled the young man to follow. "What! shall the fellow stir all Jerusalem with his prating tongue? Wherefore should the priests and rulers persuade Herod to pursue either the magi or the carpenter of Nazareth?"

"Verily, Bar-jona, Herod the king needeth no persuasion; surely his crown already resteth uneasily upon his gray head," replied Sylvanus.

Conversing thus, the two men passed on toward the eastern gate of the city, while the servant Demas hastened in the opposite direction, his sneering laugh echoing unpleasantly in their ears. We follow them as they pass Mount Moriah, where almost two thousand years before, the patriarch bound his son,—the mountain over which echoed the welcome voice of the angel, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad."

Hastening onward, they pass the bridge which crosses the Tyropeon vale, past the palace of Herod and the hill Zion. Now they reach the gate called Gennath, over which hang the shadows of the three frowning towers of Herod; and finally pass out of the sacred city. As they journey on over the road toward Bethlehem, glancing backward they see the all-glorious temple with its royal porch white and dazzling, as the rays of the westering sun linger lovingly upon it; on over the far-famed Valley of Hinnom, with its perpetual fires and its ascending smoke; past the beautiful mansions of the lordly Pharisee or Sadducee, or the more sumptuous palaces of their Roman conquerors. Now they pass the "Valley of Giants," where were the magnificent gardens of Solomon, climb the hill on its western slope, and gaze with reverent awe over the historic mountain of Zion.

"Seest thou how the bloody theater of the apostate King Herod looms up against the sky?" questioned Sylvanus. "The unholy house is adorned with pagan ornaments, and is an offense unto Jehovah."

"Ah, surely," replied Bar-jona, "when Shiloh shall take to Himself the kingdom and shall reign over Jerusalem, then shall He subdue all the heathen, and Israel shall rejoice over her enemies."

Finally, about a mile from Bethlehem, they pass the sacred place where Jacob buried his loved wife—the tomb of Rachel; and just before reaching the northeastern gate of their home city, they pause to drink at the well of David, the same cooling waters of which were brought to the king by his three mighty men more than ten centuries before.

At last, just as the sun is sinking behind the hills of Judea, our travelers enter the gate of Bethlehem.

"Come in, come in, Sylvanus, and thou, Bar-jona," cried Esther joyfully, while the little child Perpetua hastened to unfasten the door.

"Surely, my husband, thou didst not tarry long at Jerusalem. Didst thou find the carpenter, Joseph of Galilee?"

"What news, my son?" questioned the patriarch eagerly. "Verily, I wot the young Child is safe; surely He who is compassed about with legions of angels, needeth not the protection of feeble arms like thine and mine. But didst thou find the Babe?"

"Nay, father Eliab, the holy Babe journeyeth afar into the land of Egypt; so said Simeon the prophet this day ere he died."

"Is Simeon of Jerusalem dead?" cried Esther and the old man in one voice, while the former, with the babe Matthias in her arms, seated herself by the side of her husband, listening intently as he and Bar-jona related the adventures of the day.

"Yes; they bury him to-morrow in the sepulcher of his fathers. But father Eliab, it is plain from the rolls of the prophets, that not only hath Shiloh already been born, but that He must appear as Messiah, the Anointed, when He is thirty years old. But dost thou remember Demas, the servant of Jozarus the priest?"

Then followed a minute description of the chance meeting with the man servant Demas, of his strange words and still stranger conduct.

"I tell thee, my children," said Eliab, "the words of this Demas are cruel; but this I know, I am assured of, the God of Jacob will protect you. But the heart of Herod is filled with the chief, and Jozarus the high priest deviseth evil. Well saith the prophet David: 'Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed.'"

Esther pressed her babe closer to her heart, and murmured, "May the God of Israel protect His chosen!" But that night as she laid herself down to sleep, a feeling of unrest and insecurity haunted her. The dream of the magi, which they had related to Sylvanus and Heber but the day before, together with the strange conduct of Demas, was sufficient to arouse the fears of her timid and gentle heart. Why should the angel of the Lord have been sent with a warning to the princes of the East, unless there were arising grave dangers? Again, for what purpose had Jozarus sent his servant Demas to the chamber of Simeon to act as spy? What could have been the real object of the high priest?

Meanwhile, over in Jerusalem, at the palace of Herod, there is excitement and unrest. Lights flash through the latticed windows, and dart and gleam from one end to the other of the sumptuous grounds. Servants gather in little groups, and speak to each other in whispers.

In an inner chamber, closeted with the king, are two centurions. The aged monarch, as cruel and unscrupulous as he is suspicious and jealous, is giving his parting instruction and orders to these officers before they set out upon their murderous errand. The deep, dark eyes of the angry monarch are bloodshot and terrible; and often, as he speaks to his officers, he thrusts his trembling and bloated fingers into his gray hair, while his voice shakes with a passion which he makes no effort to control.

"Look thou, Varro, and thou, Marcus; let not one child escape. It hath also been told me by Demas, the servant of Jozarus the priest, that the Persian princes have already left Bethlehem two days since. I suppose they be now hiding—perchance in the mountains of Moab. But for them I care not, tho I should pursue after them and spill their treacherous blood. But the Babe of Bethlehem—He that is born King of the Jews—hearest thou, Varro—let Him not escape. And hark ye; it hath now been a long time since by their own confession the strange star first shone upon the magi. So, slay ye all the males, from two years old and under; thus shall I make sure the work, and teach the treacherous princes of the East, that I, King Herod, reign over the land of Judea;" and again the bloated fingers coil themselves among the gray locks.

"But hear, O king!" exclaims Marcus, the younger of the two soldiers, while his dark eyes flash indignantly, and the blood surges to his temples; "how knowest thou that the Babe is yet in Bethlehem? Did not Demas tell thee that the old man Simeon, a prophet of the Jews, declared that He was gone into Egypt? Why wouldst thou slay an hundred helpless babes for naught?"

The wrinkled face of Herod grows livid with passion, and his voice shakes with rage, as he turns upon the young centurion:

"Ha! and thou failest me also, thou son of a Roman father. One would think thee a Jew. Verily thou art no Roman soldier; thou wouldst weep like a woman, at sight of blood! What thinkest thou, Varro?" he continued, turning to the other officer, a gigantic man of ferocious aspect; "thinkest thou not that this fine tale concerning the journey of the carpenter of Nazareth into Egypt, is but a cunning fable devised to save his life? Thinkest thou not that the Child still bideth at Bethlehem! Speak, Varro; what sayest thou?"

"Thou speakest well, O king," replied the centurion. "Great is thy wisdom; and, by the gods of Rome, what are an hundred babes, more or less, more Jewish spawn,—to the will of him whom thou hath appointed king?"

"In fact, O king," interrupted Marcus boldly, "thou forgettest that thou art a Jewish proselyte—aye, more; thou hast thyself a young babe, thine own son, who bideth in Bethlehem with his young nurse. Verily, if one hair of his head perisheth, we shall endanger our own heads. Wo be unto the man whose hands drip with the blood of the son of Herod the king!"

The young centurion hoped by mention of this fact, to rouse some faint spark of pity or paternal tenderness in the callous soul of the despot. But the centurion knew not the depth of wickedness in the black heart of the royal Edomite. Once again the claw-like fingers bury themselves in the gray locks:

"I know not, and I care not. Disobey the orders of the king at thy peril. Hearest thou, young man? To-morrow morning at rise of sun, King Herod hath no rival in Bethlehem."

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SOUTHERN PACIFIC

Bibles.—Remember that we are headquarters for anything in the Bible line. We shall be pleased to send you our catalog of Bible selections on application. Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.

Help Wanted

By Editor

WE are desirous of securing the services of ten graduated or trained nurses at once. Apply St. Helena Sanitarium, Sanitarium, Cal.

Notice

By Editor

THE next class in the St. Helena Sanitarium and Hospital Training School for medical missionary nurses will be organized Monday, April 4, 1910.

Owing to the large number and great variety of cases that flock to this institution for relief, and the wide experience thus offered the students both in surgical and general hospital nursing, the course is especially strong from a practical missionary standpoint. In addition to the opportunities for missionary work at the sanitarium, the San Francisco Dispensary, which the institution has taken over, affords training in city mission work. The institution has also undertaken to open up mission work in China the present year, thus giving those who desire, a definite foreign mission field for which to prepare and upon which to enter when their course is completed.

Twenty-five consecrated young men and women, whose desire it is to enter the work for the sake of fallen humanity and not for profit, are wanted to join this class.

There are also classes in Bible, history, and music for the regular workers.

Send for the training school catalog by addressing: Dr. H. F. Rand, superintendent, or Mrs. S. J. Whitney, secretary, Sanitarium, Napa County, Cal.

Free

By Addie H. Parker

Home-Grown Seeds for Signs Readers

I will send 1909 seed of the beautiful Santa Rosa Poppy—looks like wrinkled silk; lovely shades and bright colors; also seed of the "Sunny South" Poppy, very showy; also other seeds FREE to any who will simply write for Seed Circular, and not forget to enclose a plainly self-directed and stamped envelope. Good seed sold at moderate price. Address Addie H. Parker, Taylor, Cortland County, N. Y.

For Sale

THREE and one half acres full bearing orchard, mostly prunes, inside city limits of Morgan Hill, one half mile from S. D. A church and high school, and within a few blocks of two public schools. No saloons. Excellent location for small home. Price, $1,000. For further particulars address B. J. Snow, Mountain View, Cal.

LIBERTY

By Editor

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY BUREAU

AN illustrated, 48-page, quarterly magazine, published as an exponent and advocate of true religious liberty; defending Christianity and the rights of conscience; upholding the Bible as the infallible word of God; recognizing the church and state as ordained of Heaven for specific and distinct purposes, but vigorously protesting against the alliance of the church with the state in the attempt to advance religion and to promote the state.

Price 25 cents per year. Liberal terms to agents.

Address, LIBERTY, Takoma Park, D. C.

Life and Health

By Editor

A PRACTICAL health journal, published with a view of meeting hygienic needs in every home; teaching how to care for the health and how to preserve life; prescribing simple home treatments to assist nature in throwing off diseases rather than adding more poison by using drugs or unnatural stimulants as remedies; teaching how to avoid disease as far as possible, how to manage in the home when sickness does come, and how to combat the disease by simple remedies which nature provides.

Send for sample copy and special rates to agents. Price 10 cents per copy or $1.00 per year.

Address, LIFE & HEALTH, Takoma Park, D.C.

The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection

By Editor

"The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection." A correct understanding of the work of Christ, our "faithful High Priest," is quite necessary to a knowledge of the times in which we live. "The Consecrated Way" clearly shows the relation of Christ to the work of the Gospel, and brings out the facts concerning His present ministry and second coming to this earth in a most convincing manner. 129 pages. Price, post-paid, 50 cents. Address this office.

Our Lord's Coming

By George Muller

THE first deeply important point in connection with the subject before us is this,—it is certain that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again. It is certain that it is the will of our heavenly Father that the second coming of Christ should ever be the great hope of the church of God. Let us increasingly seek to meditate on this, to lay to heart and rejoice in the truth,—Jesus will come again; Jesus will destroy the works of Satan; Jesus will reign; Jesus will be manifested in His kingly office.

Another deeply important point is this,—are we prepared for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we, individually, truly converted? The question is not, Are we among the number of the professed disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ? not, Are we reckoned among the people of God? but, Are we able, on Scriptural grounds, to satisfy ourselves that, by the grace of God, we do trust alone in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of our souls? Have we been made to see, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, that we are lost, ruined, wicked, guilty sinners? Have we confessed this before God, and have we been enabled, after having passed sentence on ourselves, to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of our souls? If so, we belong no more to the world, but to the heavenly family. If so, we are regenerated, we are pardoned sinners, we stand justified before God, we have an interest in the intercession of our adorable Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, and we need not be afraid to hear about His coming. But if this matter is not settled, so long as it is not settled, we have no real peace in our

souls. Let me entreat and beseech any not thus prepared for the return of the Lord Jesus, to see to it that they delay no longer to cry earnestly to God to have mercy on them, and to believe in Christ for the salvation of their souls.—George Muller.

Continue reading: How to Breathe