p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 15. (4/11/1906)

For Young Folks.

By Editor

The Home department in our next will be given to the young folks, young either in years or heart.

We hereby tender our thanks to Hon E. A. Hayes, M. C., for a copy of the Federal Government "Year Book of the Department of Agriculture," 1904.

Our next issue is a "Resurrection Number." It will contain some good reading and excellent instruction for this "Eastertide." The meaning of the Crucifixion is set forth in this issue.

Whose Is It?

Have received an article from Seattle on "The Spread of Spiritism," but there is neither name signed to it, nor aught else with it, by which we are able to learn the writer. Will he let us know?

Our Home department the first week in the month will be devoted largely to mother's work; the second week, to miscellaneous; the third week to our older boys and girls, the young folks; and the fourth week to temperance. When a fifth week occurs, as it does once a quarter, the department will be held for what is most needed.

A Cruel Thing.

We saw a song the other day which is circulating by the thousands, called "The Goblin Man." On the front page is a young mother by her little one's crib, making a horrible shadow picture on the wall, upon which the sweet little fellow is staring in wide-eyed horror, while the mother is supposed to be singing, "Now go to sleep, . . . or you'll be taken by the goblin man;" and the second stanza of the wretched thing reads,—

"Now here you are awake again and crying, Now baby you don't seem to understand, While in your little bed awake you're lying, You'll be taken by the goblin man."

And the chorus says to him: "It will scare you till you don't know what to do."

The mother who will sing that song to a timid child—or any child—to frighten him is worse than a fool; she is a destroyer of her child's character. She is lying to him,—a thing which he will sooner or later find out,—and so, losing his confidence, she is awakening in him morbid fears which he may never conquer; unbalancing his nervous system; and implanting within him superstition and horrors which will haunt him for years. Most children are timid at best. In no way should that timidity be fed or fostered. No lie from darker ages ought to shadow their lives. Teach them that the great, good Father in heaven watches over them in night as in the day; that He "neither slumbers nor sleeps;" that "He giveth His beloved sleep." How much better to let the little one sink into sweet and beautiful slumber, rather than lie in horrible suspense, to fall asleep at last through utter exhaustion. Such a song is cruel and wicked; and the person who will sing it to a little child is crueler and wickeder.

Referring to the train wreck in Colorado, Brother C. H. Parsons writes from Ville Grove, Col., March 20, that he was in the train immediately behind the train wrecked. He saw the burning wreck soon after the wounded were removed, and talked with several of the survivors. One gentleman thought the loss of life about one hundred. In three to five minutes after the collision the wreck was a roaring furnace, caused by exploding gas tanks; and all sounds had ceased. A reputable physician said that he could not place the dead at less than fifty. There were no charred corpses, but bleached bones. The fire devoured everything devourable. He remarks that James 4:13, 14 was literally fulfilled. How uncertain is this life. Who would not long for the life to come!

Heathen Philosophy versus the Scriptures.

A report comes from New York that a certain old gentleman, thirty years official photographer of Columbia College, asserts that he has discovered the secret of the divine transmission to the earth of the Ten Commandments, and coupled with this that he has been able to communicate with the dead, and he has learned what he has from the messages which the dead have given. For twenty-five years he has been praying for this, to be answered at last by raps and various visible manifestations. Through this he feels that he has discovered a sensitive plate which registered thought worked out through a black-backed mirror. There are thousands who will be deceived by just such things as this, but who will not believe the simple reasonable account which God has given us in His Word. The dead know not anything, and those who receive communications from the pretended dead are but receiving communications from the demons. It is simply the old necromancy brought down to date.

It is not true that Christ sent ignorant men into the world to preach the Gospel. It is true that He called fishermen from their nets to make of them "fishers of men;" but He first instructed them. They had a good course under the greatest Master the world ever knew. Never have divinity students had such an educational advantage. Then when He left them to carry on the work, He endowed them with His Spirit, and gave them such a gift of tongues as no institution in the world ever could impart to its students. He did set some missionaries to work who might be deemed uneducated. For instance the lunatic whom He healed in Gadara. That man wanted to go with Christ around the country. But the Lord told him it would be better for him to stay at home and tell the people who had known him what had been done for him. All he was to do was to tell his experience. This he did faithfully, and when the Lord came around again the people who had formerly rejected Him were ready to receive Him and hear the preaching of the Gospel. This is a work that any person can do—tell what the Lord has done for you; and not only tell it, but let them see it in a renewed life. But to assume to preach the Gospel while purposely ignoring education is the height of presumption. "Study to show thyself approved unto God."