p. 736 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 46. (12/3/1885)

Earlier text: The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul Subversive of the Truth

The Success of Prohibition

The Hon. Neal Dow says that the State of Maine has to pay $12,000,000 as her share of the “National Drink Bill, while half a million will cover the cost of all the liquors smuggled into the State and sold in violation of the law. We call it a million.” Nobody in Maine disputes this; therefore Mr. Dow continues:—

“We save at least twelve millions annually as the result of prohibition, and indirectly as much more, resulting in making Maine one of the most prosperous States in the Union, while in the old rum time it was the poorest, our people spending in strong drink the value of our property of every kind, in every period of less than twenty years, as the people of the Union are now doing in every period of less than thirty-five years. The Maine law is no ‘failure,’ but a great success.”

Dr. B. W. Richardson, the well-known scientist, has given some interesting estimates of the value of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors. He says that in a population of 35,000,000, it would save more than 200,000 lives per year. According to this ratio, total abstinence would save in the United States, counting our population 56,000,000, more than 320,000 lives annually, or, to put it in another form, the use of such liquors costs this country over 320,000 lives per year, or 876 per day.

Sincere Piety and Daily Conduct

No one can well believe that our piety is sincere, when our behavior is loose and irregular in its little details.

SECULAR.

—Since 1866, nine thousand divorces have been granted in Italy.

—Venezuela is building a breakwater at Laguayra which is to cost $40,000,000.

—Large numbers of hogs near Bergen, N. J., are dying of a disease resembling cholera.

—About forty thousand lives have been sacrificed in the mines of Great Britain during the last thirty years.

—A political crisis in Denmark seems imminent. The press and the telegraph are under strict censorship.

—Mayor Smith of Philadelphia has dismissed two police captains for not reporting gambling-houses in their districts.

—From September 5 to October 30, there were 104 cases of cholera in Yokohama, Japan, of which 69 proved fatal.

—The British steamer Aurora foundered near Hartlepool, England, November 26. Three of the crew were drowned.

—Vice-president Hendricks died very suddenly, of paralysis of the brain, at his home in Indianapolis, Ind., on the evening of November 25.

—In Russia, ninety thousand liquor-shops will be closed the 1st of January, as the Government has decided to allow the retailing of liquor only in hotels and eating-houses.

—On the 24th of November, a severe storm raged along the Atlantic Coast. Considerable property was destroyed. Several wrecks are reported, with some loss of life.

—Turkey is making war preparations on a grand scale, and is confident of being able to repel an attack by either Greece or Servia, or, a combined attack by both powers.

—The gradual-emancipation law of Brazil contemplates the freeing of all slaves in that empire in thirteen years; but it is believed that slavery will be extinct within nine years.

—The British forces in Burmah have reached Mandalay. Four deputy commissioners and as many assistants have been appointed. This is regarded as equivalent to annexation.

—At the close of the first week in November, 2,641 persons had died of small-pox in Montreal, of whom only 97 were Protestants. The unfortunate city is now suffering from typhoid fever and diphtheria.

—In Mexico vast swarms of grasshoppers are devouring everything in their reach. In several States the cereal crops have been entirely destroyed, and there will be severe suffering among the poorer classes.

—Nearly all the vessels in the whaling fleet in the Pacific have now arrived in San Francisco, or have sent in their cargoes. The catch for the season amounts to over 25,000 barrels of oil, 510,000 pounds of bone, and 5,000 pounds of ivory.

—Two more trans-continental railroads have been completed. The last spike was driven on the Canadian Pacific Road November 8, nearly six years ahead of its contract; and the California Southern, of which San Diego is the terminus, was completed November 9.

—Alfonso XII., king of Spain, died at El Pardo, November 24. His reign of ten years has been, on the whole, peaceful and prosperous, and his death is believed to be a misfortune to the country. His five-year-old daughter, the Princess Mercedes, is the heir to the throne, and her mother, Queen Christina, has been declared regent. It is reported that a Carlist uprising is imminent in Navarre.

—The Gentiles of Salt Lake City claim to have evidence that the authorities of the Mormon Church have been hiring disreputable women to entrap Federal officers and other prominent men. Several arrests have been made. Circumstances have come to light which show that several assignation houses in Salt Lake City are subsidized by the church, and managed under its direction. However, the Mormons have been foiled in their designs by a decision of Judge Zane.

—Fighting in the Balkans has been suspended, an armistice having been effected November 28. The suspension of hostilities was brought about by the efforts of the Austrian Minister at Belgrade. The Bulgarians have invaded Servia. They have captured Pirot, after severe fighting. King Milan was with his army at Pirot, and had under his command eighty thousand men. The Constantinople conference on the Balkan affairs has decided that neither Bulgaria nor Servia shall have any increase of territory.

—The storm in California, which set in again the 24th, has been such as no one remembers to have seen in the State before in the month of November, and such as there is no parallel for since the record of the rainfall has been kept. A railroad bridge in Santa Cruz County was washed away, precipitating a train of cars into the stream; no lives were lost. Below Colusa, the levees have given way, and thousands of acres are under water. In other places, houses and barns have been destroyed and bridges carried away. In some parts of the State the wheat-fields have been damaged.

Neglected Opportunities.

If you should go into any home in the land, where even a limited amount of intelligence prevails, and ask the question, "Do you take an interest in the school life of your child?" you would be met by an indignant air, and the positive declaration, "Of course I do." If you pursued the matter further, and said, "How do you interest yourself?" there would be no hesitation in saying, "I always send them unless they are sick, and I see that they leave home in time to reach the school-house at the proper hour." Further questioning would reveal to the questioner the astonishing fact that they had but the most vague and chaotic ideas as to the life in the school-room, the studies their children are pursuing, the kind of training given, or its adaptability to the future of the child, the child's talents or natural bent. Schools at present are adapted to display the beauty of certain systems of education, and results are shown by the averages maintained, at what a tremendous price the impaired and enfeebled physical powers of many of the finished (?) pupils testify.

Societies may talk, individuals may grow eloquent; but until fathers and mothers realize the importance of educating children in harmony with their talents and the possibilities of their future, but little will be accomplished.

Parents largely feel that the hours from 9 A. M. to 3 P. M. are hours that are free, in a large measure, from responsibility, because the Government has assumed the care of the child for that time, and opened a place in which a child is put through a process that fits it to meet the future fully equipped. What this process is, how this result is accomplished, they never take the trouble to find out.

If the parents meet their children's teachers on the street, they do not know them; they have never crossed the sill of the building in which the majority of the waking hours of the child are passed, nor held five minutes' conversation with the person who controls the mental, moral, and physical destiny of their child in a large degree. The school life is so linked in with the home life that good results can only be obtained for the individual child when there is a perfect understanding between the heads of the two factors which make the sum of a child's success.—Sel.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The Advance calls the Sunday journal "a banner of the enemy."

—More than one hundred Jews have been ordained as ministers of the Church of England.

—Rev. George Müller acknowledges the receipt, during the past year, of over $200,000 for his orphan houses in England.

—There were two hundred baptisms among the Indian Baptists of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Associations the past year.

—Mr. Spurgeon has declared in favor of disestablishment, because he considers the union of Church and State unscriptural, fraught with countless evils, and an injustice toward dissenters.

—The Church of England has organized a church army, modeled somewhat after the Salvation Army. The design is to employ the lay-members in evangelistic work. Over five thousand members are already enrolled.

—Mr. Spurgeon's church carries on a very effective system of colportage. Last year it employed seventy-eight men, who visited fifteen hundred towns and villages. The sales of Bibles and other religious publications amounted to nearly $45,000.

—Thirty-five years ago, the Bible was, in Italy, on the list of revolutionary and forbidden books. Its possession went to make up the crime of high treason, and subjected a man to prison, to the galleys, and even to death. Now, Bible depots are established in every Italian city, and itinerant venders circulate the book freely.

—It is stated on the authority of a Japanese paper that in the recent census of that empire more than eighty thousand Japanese avowed themselves Christians, of whom thirty thousand are Romanists, ten thousand Russo-Greeks, and the rest connected with British and American missions. The Russian Greek Church is said to be the most popular, the Mikado himself being inclined to it; and its head, Bishop Nicholas, is the most popular missionary in the empire.

—The districts of Spain which were devastated by earthquakes last year are now quite accessible to Protestant missionaries. During the year, the number of congregations and schools in Spain has increased, and there is also an increased demand for Christian literature. But religious liberty is by no means established in that country. The Minister of Public Instruction has issued a decree in which he affirms the right of the civil and university authorities to watch the religious instruction given in the schools. Innumerable hindrances are put in the way of private educational institutions, while the convents and ecclesiastical institutions are declared free from these burdens. The Independent pronounces the decree "really the formal reintroduction of the Inquisition."

—Since 1866, one week each year has been set apart to be observed as a week of prayer for young men and Young Men's Christian Associations. This year the week of prayer commenced November 8. There are now 2,900 of these associations in the world, distributed as follows: North America, 934; Great Britain, 503; France, 72; Germany, 549; Holland, 36; Switzerland, 268; Denmark, 43; Belgium, 24; and a few in each of the following countries: Spain, Italy, Turkey, Russia, Austria, Japan, Syria, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Madagascar, and India. The American Associations are the strongest and best organized of any. They own 82 buildings, valued at $3,533,000, and have a total net property of $4,333,000; 415 men are devoting their whole time to the work as secretaries, librarians, etc.

"If I Were Rich."

ONE evening, passing along a crowded street, I heard one boy saying to another, "If I were rich, I wouldn’t—" and then the rest of the sentence was lost as I hurried on with the throng. But I have wondered often since how that sentence was finished. Did the boy say, "If I were rich, I wouldn’t snub my poor relations;" or, "If I were rich, I wouldn’t spend all my money on myself;" or, "If I were rich, I wouldn’t work any more," or what?

We cannot know; but there is one thing quite certain. Whatever that boy does now that he is poor, he would do if he were rich. If he is generous now, he would be generous then. If he is mean now, he would be mean then. If he works faithfully now, he would work with fidelity then. For "he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."—Sel.

The Prussian School System

It has been quite the fashion to suppose the Prussian school system an absolute model. But a correspondent of the Philadelphia Times says the volksschulen are over-crowded and the teachers miserably underpaid. From eighty to three hundred children are often in charge of a boy fifteen to eighteen years old. Most of the teachers are forced to other employments, out of school, to gain a living. The system is probably the best in Europe. But that is far from proving it equal to ours.—The Advance.

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 7:30. Seats free.

SAN FRANCISCO.—House of worship, 914 Laguna Street, between McAllister and Tyler. Sabbath-school every Sabbath at 9:45 A. M. Classes in the English, German, and Scandinavian languages. Prayer and missionary meeting every Wednesday evening at 7:45. Mission Reading-rooms at the church.

EAST PORTLAND (Or.)—House of worship on G Street between Tenth and Eleventh. Sabbath-school every Sabbath (Saturday), followed by services. Preaching or Bible-reading Sunday evening. Prayer-meeting Wednesday evening. The public is cordially invited. Free public reading-room, corner of L and Fifth Streets.

Librarians, District No. 1.

By N. C. McClure

To THE Librarians of District No. 1, California T. and M. Society: Please address all T. and M. communications and orders to Miss Effie Morrison, Secretary of the T. and M. Society, Healdsburg, Cal. N. C. McCLURE, Director.

THE ADVENT REVIEW

By Editor

AND SABBATH HERALD,

A RELIGIOUS FAMILY JOURNAL,

PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT BATTLE CREEK, MICH., BY THE S. D. A. PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION.

Sixteen large, closely printed pages of choice reading matter, treating upon all the Prophetic themes of the Bible, the Signs of the Times, Second Coming of Christ at Hand, Closing Reforms in the Church, the Gospel of Christ, Conversion, Practical Godliness, etc. etc.

This is the organ of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, the oldest journal of this people. It is now in its sixty-second volume. Contains full reports from the ministers and the doings of the different organizations of this denomination. No one should fail to take the REVIEW AND HERALD.

Price, in advance, $2.00 per year. Address, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

By Editor

FOR 1886. A 16-PAGE WEEKLY PUBLISHED AT OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, FOR THE

INTERNATIONAL TRACT AND MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

WITH the beginning of the new year, the SIGNS OF THE TIMES enters upon its twelfth volume. The publishers are determined to spare no pains not only to keep up its present reputation, but to make improvements during the coming year, which will make the journal of great interest, and more efficient for good than ever before. There is probably no other paper published which UNIFORMLY contains so great a variety of choice reading matter. Its departments are, EDITORIAL, MISSIONARY, TEMPERANCE, SABBATH-SCHOOL, HOME CIRCLE, SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS NEWS, AND GENERAL ARTICLES.

This is not simply the scope of the paper in general, but in each number every department is represented by fresh and interesting reading matter.

Editorial Department.

In the Editorial Department the articles are principally devoted to Biblical exposition and the answering of questions on Bible subjects. Current events of general interest are discussed, when they have any bearing on morality and religion. With politics, as such, the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has nothing to do. Believing that a religious paper should be one that can be read by all classes of people without arousing sectional or party feelings, this journal leaves the discussion of politics to political papers, of which there is a sufficient number to meet the demand, and devotes itself to matters of more importance which receive less attention.

Sabbath-School Department.

The Sabbath-School Department is largely a running commentary, by the editors, on those portions of Scripture covered by two series of lessons. The lesson notes, while of great service to students in the preparation of their lessons, are of interest and profit to the general reader. Original and selected articles of interest to the Sabbath school workers are published in this department.

Missionary Department.

In the Missionary Department will be found reports from mission fields, both home and foreign, together with a brief description of them and their wants. During the past year this department has been extremely interesting, and the prospect is that it will be still more so during the coming year.

Temperance Department.

No department of the paper has met with more favor in the past than the Temperance Department. While the SIGNS OF THE TIMES advocates prohibition, it does not believe that the cause of temperance is advanced by mingling it with politics; neither does it confine itself to a condemnation of the liquor traffic, but considers temperance in its larger relations, as embracing everything that in any way affects health. Many temperance societies are accustomed to use the articles in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES in their regular meetings.

Home Circle Department.

The Home Circle Department is fully described by its name. Short stories of an elevated character are published, but no serials. Besides light, entertaining reading for the family circle, this department contains many practical hints and suggestions for the household.

Religious and Secular News.

The Department of Religious and Secular News is in keeping with the moral tone of the paper. The news is carefully sifted of everything sensational or low. It is the design that the reader shall be able to find in this department the current news in the most simple and direct form, and only that which is reliable.

Among the other things that will make the coming volume one of special value, is the

Series of Historical Articles

Already begun. The articles are entirely independent of one another; yet they in reality form a series in which the prophetic records are placed side by side with the records of history, thus showing the exact and literal fulfillment of the former. Every lover of history cannot fail to be interested in these articles, because he will find in them the

Outline of History,

Graphically portrayed; and the lover of the Bible will find them invaluable, because, in tracing the fulfillment of the prophecies, they show beyond all controversy the divine origin of that book.

Another series of articles, soon to be begun, will take up a portion of

Church History,

Showing how, when, and why men departed from the simplicity of the gospel, and brought in the many errors which made a reformation imperative.

Besides these, it is designed, in addition to matters that incidentally come up for consideration, to take up certain lines of Scripture doctrine and canvass them thoroughly, so that the reader may obtain a connected and comprehensive view of the subject treated upon. Among the subjects to be considered, are the Sanctuary, the Law of God and its relation to Christ and the Gospel.

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES is the only religious journal in the United States which does no advertising. Its entire sixteen pages, with the exception of the necessary notices from the publishers, are filled with choice reading matter in endless variety. Advantageous offers of advertising are continually being refused. The publishers, and all connected with the paper, are determined to give subscribers many times the worth of their money; and the steady pursuance of this determination has given it the largest circulation of any purely religious journal in the world. The fact that the SIGNS OF THE TIMES contains SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY, has gained for it a world-wide reputation. For terms see last page.

Two Gentlemen.

I SAW two gentlemen on a street-car to-day. One of them was grown up. He was handsomely dressed in a gray business suit, and had very neat kid gloves and fine boots. The other was about twelve years old. His jacket had several patches, and needed more, and his shirt was of brown cotton, and not very clean. Do you wonder how I knew he was a gentleman? I will tell you.

The boy went through the car to give some message to the driver. As he returned, he gave a little jump through the door, and as he did so, his bare foot touched the grown gentleman's knee, and left a little mud on it. Turning around on the platform, he raised his straw hat, and said very politely, in a clear tone, "Please excuse me." Then the other gentleman bowed in his turn, just as he would have done to one of his own age, and said with a pleasant smile, "Certainly."—Youth's World.

Mastication, Reading, and Hope

THE design of the Creator is that we should prepare our food for the stomach by grinding it to a paste, and saturating it with the juices of the mouth; and, as digestion is the pivotal function of the animal economy, and the only direct contribution we can make to it is in the mouth, it follows that the importance of thorough mastication can hardly be exaggerated.—Dio Lewis.

RESOLVE to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.—Horace Mann.

HOPE never affords more joy than in affliction. It is on a watery cloud that the sun paints those beautiful colors in the rainbow.—Gurnall.

A New Ally.

By Editor

It is well known that all socialistic organizations, whatever their names, are either infidel or atheistic in their sentiments. For this reason many people imagine that the "National Reform" league will have the opposition of these organizations in its efforts to enforce Sunday observance. This is a mistaken idea. A friend sends us a copy of the Labor Inquirer, a socialist paper published in Denver, Col., which advertises infidel books and publishes atheistic articles; yet in announcing a sermon on the Sunday closing of stores, to be preached in Denver, it added the following note:—

"This outrageous abuse of Sunday by doing business and compelling clerks to work thereby, on that day, depriving them of that rest which humanity demands and which is their just due, must be stopped. We ask all lovers of freedom to unite with us in attaining this much-desired end. The stores must close on Sunday."

"Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they

A Sign Fulfilled.

ONE of the signs of the last days is, according to the apostle James, that men will then heap treasure together. The word "heaped," in the expression, "Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days," shows that men will have more than they are able to spend in a legitimate manner. Poor men do not "heap" treasure. Their actual wants do not allow them to accumulate it. When a man begins to "heap" up treasure, then extravagance begins, and that is one of the most noted features of this age. Two instances among the thousands have just attracted our attention. An exchange says:—

"A wealthy lady of Philadelphia is having built a miniature castle of polished oak as a kennel for a pet mastiff. The structure will cost $500."

Another item is the statement that the bar room of one of the noted hotels of Chicago, has eight hundred silver dollars set into the tiling of the floor as ornamentation. When such extravagance becomes common, it must necessarily be accompanied by dissipation and vice. And this "heaping up" of treasure tends to hasten the last day, as also it tends to hasten the "miseries" that shall come upon those who heap up the treasure. For certainly such waste of wealth by the few, only tends to beget socialistic and nihilistic ideas among the many.

Church Socials and Dance Music

An Independent correspondent severely lectures and earnestly exhorts those backslidden church members who don't enjoy church socials, and speaks slightingly of the "unthinking person" who has "said that dance music is not proper for the Lord's parlors."

Advice on Persecution for Faith

By Editor

WE have received, too late for this paper, a report from a committee appointed by the General Conference to consider what advice to give those who are in danger of persecution for their faith. It is an interesting document, and will be read with interest by all. It will appear next week.

Oakland’s High Liquor License

By Editor

An effort is now being made in Oakland to secure what is called "high" license. The present liquor license is twenty-five dollars a quarter, or one hundred dollars a year. It is proposed to double this, making a license to sell liquor cost each saloon-keeper two hundred dollars a year. We are sorry to say that several clergymen of the city are the chief movers in this weak compromise with crime.

Utah and Palestine Compared

By Editor

IN the first editorial, reference is made to the fact that in order to complete the analogy between Utah and Palestine, the lake from which the "Jordan" River, in Utah, rises is called by the Mormons, the Sea of Galilee; Salt Lake, into which the river flows, is, of course, the Dead Sea; and Salt Lake City is Jerusalem! The analogy seems to be quite perfect, with the exception of the name of the city. If we are not mistaken, the most noted city near the Dead Sea in ancient times was Sodom.

Statesman Republicanism

By Editor

The Christian Statesman speaks of government modeled after "Bible republicanism." That is a kind of republicanism of which we have no knowledge; a kingdom is the model government according to the Bible. We believe that under the present condition of things a republican form of government is the best; but with Christ as king over a "righteous nation which keepeth the truth," we can conceive of nothing better than a kingdom. The Statesman, however, is grievously muddled both in its Christianity and in its statesmanship. It holds that when Sunday is universally observed, then the millennium will begin, and that then Christ will reign as king of this republic! That is "Statesman republicanism."

Persecution of Sabbath Keepers

By Editor

READ the article on the second page of this issue, concerning the trial of Sabbath-keepers in Arkansas, for working on Sunday. It will enable those who have never had a chance to observe the methods of religious persecution, to learn the peculiar means by which inoffensive keepers of the law of God may be branded as criminals. The report says that the judge likened the case of the Sabbath-keepers to that of the Mormons. In this State, three years ago, when the Sunday law was being pushed, Sabbath-keepers, who of course could not favor so unrighteous a law, were classed with infidels and the keepers of saloons and brothels, and that, too, by those who well knew the reputation of Seventh-day Adventists for morality and temperance. The false report served its purpose, however, in arousing prejudice against us. But all this, and more, we must expect. If those who "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus," are faithful to their trust, they will yet be able to prove the truth of these words of the apostle Paul: "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3:12.

The Image to the Beast

should make an image to the beast." Rev. 13:14. The preparations are being quietly but actively made; and soon it will be seen that "the people" of all classes and beliefs are a unit in enforcing the observance of Sunday, thus shaping this Government after the model of the papacy of the Dark Ages.

Renewed Effort in Christian Work

By Editor

"THE time for renewed effort in Christian work is at hand." So says a writer in a recent number of the Advance. Yes, so it is; it is constantly at hand, so that the above statement is true at every season of the year. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand." This provides for no periodical slacking up of work, and subsequent renewals of effort, but for steady, unremitting labor. Only one day at a time, but every day fully employed. The present is the time for work. "There's resting by and by."

Napa Valley Wine Product

The Napa Valley (Cal.) wine product this year is said to be 2,750,000 gallons. This is considerably less than the yield last year, but the wine is said to be of the "best quality."

California Asylums Overcrowded

THE two insane asylums in California are filled to overflowing, and it is thought that the proposed new asylum will be filled almost as soon as it is completed.

Topics of Eternity

An old bishop, when asked why he did not preach more upon the topics of the day, replied: "Why can't you let one poor clergyman preach on the topics of eternity?" A very good retort.

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES,

By Editor

PUBLISHED WEEKLY, AT OAKLAND, CAL., FOR THE

International Tract and Missionary Society.

A sixteen-page Religious Family Paper, devoted to a discussion of the Prophecies, Signs of the Times, Second Coming of Christ, Harmony of the Law and Gospel; with Departments devoted to Health and Temperance, the Home Circle, the Missionary Work, and the Sabbath-school.

Price Per Year, post-paid, . . . . . . $2.00

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