p. 383 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 24. (6/15/1915)

Earlier text: Young Women and Temperance

Our Representatives

By Editor

UNITED STATES AND CANADIAN

Alabama Tract Society, Room 316, Lyric Building, Birmingham, Ala.

Alberta Tract Society, Lacombe, Alberta, Can.

Arizona Tract Society, 417 West Fifth St., Los Angeles, Cal.

Arkansas Tract Society, 37 E. South St., Fayetteville, Ark.

British Columbia Tract Society, 1708 Maple St., Vancouver, B. C., Canada.

California Bible House, 537 25th St., Oakland, Cal.

California-Nevada Missionary Society, 341 E. Lodi Ave., Lodi, Cal.

California Tract Society, Northwestern, 537 25th St., Oakland, California.

California Tract Society, Southeastern, 417 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, Cal.

California Tract Society, Southern, 417 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, Cal.

Central California Bible House, Box 1304, Fresno, Cal.

Chesapeake Tract Society, 1611 Tenth St., Baltimore, Md.

Colorado Tract Society, Eastern, 112 Kalamath St., Denver, Colo.

Colorado Tract Society, Western, 122 So. 8th St., Grand Junction, Colo.

Connecticut (See New England, Southern).

Cumberland Tract Society (Eastern Tennessee), Graysville, Tenn.

District of Columbia Tract Society, 708 McLachlen Bldg., Washington, D. C.

Florida Tract Society, Room 11, Yowell-Duckworth Block, Orlando, Fla.

Georgia Tract Society, 169 Bryan St., Atlanta, Ga.

Greater New York Tract Society (See New York).

Hawaiian Tract Society, 767 King St., Honolulu, H. T.

Idaho, Northern (See Upper Columbia Tract Society).

Idaho Tract Society, Southern, Room 327 Sonna Building, Boise, Idaho.

Illinois Tract Society, Northern, 3645 Ogden Ave., Hawthorne Sta., Chicago, Ill.

Illinois Tract Society, Southern, 304 W. Allen St., Springfield, Ill.

Indiana Tract Society, 521 E. 23d St., Indianapolis, Ind.

Iowa Tract Society, Nevada, Iowa.

Kansas Tract Society, Room 615 Butts Bldg., cor. First St. and Lawrence Ave., Wichita, Kan.

Kentucky Tract Society, Box 398, Nicholasville, Ky.

Louisiana Tract Society, 810 Jackson Ave., New Orleans, La.

Maine Tract Society, 75 Grant St., Portland, Me.

Manitoba Tract Society, 290 Bannerman Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Maritime Tract Society, Can. Pub. Assn., Oshawa, Ont. Canada.

Maryland (See Chesapeake Tract Society).

Massachusetts Tract Society, 607 Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass.

Michigan Tract Society, East, 426 Trumbull Ave., Detroit, Mich.

Michigan Tract Society, North, 510 Petoskey St., Petoskey, Mich.

Michigan Tract Society, West, 1214 Madison Ave., Grand Rapids, Mich.

Minnesota Tract Society, 336 East Lake St., Minneapolis, Minn.

Mississippi Tract Society, 932 Union St., Jackson, Miss.

Missouri Tract Society, 203 W. Franklin St., Clinton, Mo.

Montana Tract Society, 411 S. Black Ave., Bozeman, Mont.

Nebraska Bible Supply House, 905 N. California Ave., Hastings, Neb.

Nevada (See California-Nevada Missionary Society).

New England Tract Society, Northern, 136 N. Main St., Concord, N. H.

New England Tract Society, Southern (Rhode Island and Connecticut), 51 Whitmore St., Hartford, Conn.

Newfoundland Tract Society, Box 217, St. Johns, Newfoundland.

New Hampshire (See Northern New England).

New Jersey Tract Society, 200 Columbus Ave., Trenton, N. J.

New Mexico Tract Society, Box 286, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

New York Tract Society (Greater), Room 902, 32 Union Square, New York, N. Y.

New York Tract Society, Eastern, 317 W. Bloomfield St., Rome, N. Y.

New York Tract Society, Western, 527 Garson Ave., Rochester, N. Y.

North Carolina Tract Society, 234 Summit Ave., Greensboro, N. C.

North Dakota Tract Society, Drawer N, Jamestown, N. Dak.

Ohio Tract Society, Box 8, Mount Vernon, Ohio.

Oklahoma Tract Society, P. O. Box 644, Oklahoma City, Okla.

Ontario Tract Society, Box 308, Oshawa, Ont., Canada.

Oregon Missionary Society, Western, 508 E. Everett St., Portland, Ore.

Oregon Missionary Society, Southern, 1164 Military St., Roseburg, Ore.

Pennsylvania Tract Society, Eastern, 4910 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa.

Pennsylvania Tract Society, Western, 715 Mt. Vernon St., Pittsburgh, Pa.

Rhode Island (See New England, Southern).

Saskatchewan Tract Society, Box 244, Regina, Sask., Can.

South Carolina Tract Society, 1208 Calhoun St., Columbia, S. C.

South Dakota Tract Society, Drawer R, Redfield, S. Dak.

Tennessee Tract Society, Eastern (See Cumberland Tract Society).

Tennessee River Tract Society (Western Tennessee), 509 Cole Bldg., Nashville, Tenn.

Texas Tract Society, North, Box 15, Keene, Texas.

Texas Tract Society, South, Box 755, San Antonio, Texas.

Texas Tract Society, West, Amarillo, Texas.

Upper Columbia Tract Society, College Place, Wash.

Utah Tract and Bible Society, 776 E. 6th South, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Vermont (See Northern New England).

Virginia Tract Society, 2705 W. Main St., Richmond, Va.

Washington Missionary Society, Eastern, 228 S. Brandon St., Auburn, Wash.

West Virginia Tract Society, 124 Marion St., Fairmont, W. Va.

Wisconsin Tract Society, Box 57, Grand Rapids, Wis.

Wyoming Tract Society, Crawford, Neb.

Above is a list of our authorized agencies and depositories, and we invite you to communicate with them if you wish to secure any books or periodicals advertised in this journal.

THE Horror of Europe's War

By Editor

Is sustaining an interest in the “Eastern Question” and “War” articles that are found in the Signs Magazine from month to month.

In the JULY number, now ready, are the following:

WILL THE WAR BECOME UNIVERSAL? REAL OUTCOME OF THE EASTERN QUESTION SHALL THERE BE NO MORE WARS? AN AWFUL WAR ENGINE OF TO-DAY THE POPE AND THE EUROPEAN CRISIS Good as the titles seem to indicate.

But this is not all. Many will prize this number for its astronomical article, entitled, “His Definite Foreknowledge as Demonstrated by the Scheduled Motion of the Stars.” Others will appreciate “Science and the Sabbath,” or “The Greatest Apostasy of the Ages,” or “A Great Deceiver,” or “A Divine Contract with Humanity,” or “Heroes of the Cross,” or “No Second Probation.”

COULD ONE EXPECT MORE FOR TEN CENTS?

Hundreds of persons are selling this magazine and taking subscriptions for it. If you are not among them, and are interested, let us hear from you. That July cover in colors would help greatly in making sales. Address all orders and communications to our representative in your state. See list on this page.

Prices: Yearly subscription rate, $1.00; 5 to 25 copies, 5c each; 50 or more, 4c each.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES MAGAZINE

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State Religions and the War

SINCE the war broke out in Europe much has been said in regard to the “breaking down of Christianity,” and the state religions of the Old World are being considered anew. In the North American Review for March Francis J. Peabody has the following to say:

“The American abroad is profoundly impressed by the dignity and splendor which European religion assumes. An established church seems to share the permanence of an established state. The magnificence of European cathedrals makes a fitting frame for the pageant of European politics. How ephemeral and impertinent seem by contrast the petty denominations and mushroom sects and clapboard meetinghouses of American Christianity! How reassuring it is to live where religion has deep roots and expanding branches, so that the church becomes a great tree under which a nation may rest! Then, in an instant, this umbrageous beauty of an external, governmental, and superimposed religion crashes to the ground like a tree smitten by a tornado, and at its heart there is laid bare an interior rottenness and decay. Never was there such a disclosure of spiritual impotency as institutional Christianity has been condemned to reveal. The pomp of ritual, the pride of hierarchies, the immemorial traditions, which to many Americans abroad have made religion seem so substantial and permanent, suddenly prove themselves incapable of providing the most elementary support for national duty or international brotherhood. It may not unreasonably be believed that Christianity conceived as a form of government, an external organization, a state within a state, regulating a nation from above, can never again command the loyalty of thoughtful men.”

Mr. Peabody thinks that the experiment in state religions has proved such a failure that they “can never again command the loyalty of thoughtful men.” Without question, state religions of every kind and in every age have been an utter failure. The state religions of heathenism have led many nations into degenerating vices and superstitions that have resulted in their overthrow. The countries that have made Christianity the basis of their state religions have found no exception to the rule that the religion of the souls of men cannot properly be made a subject of constitutional statement and legal decree. State religions, whether pagan or Christian, have invariably resulted in disaster. Men have depended upon them, and, as found in these recent experiences in Europe, they were depending upon a prop that could support neither weight nor strain. But regardless of these experiences, and contrary to the expectation of Mr. Peabody, the greatest experiment of all the ages in church and state religions lies just before us. The prophecies call for it, and the world conditions that will bring it about are shaping themselves. This next experiment will be world-wide. The text says that all the world will wonder after the church and state beast.

On Both Sides of the Question

NOT many months since, one of the best known editors in these United States, through his papers, was calling together large assemblies in peace conventions. He made a very strong agitation in favor of having the United States exert all of its influence and power to bring about peace in Europe. At the present time the same editor, through the same papers, is conducting a most active propaganda in favor of building a large American navy and equipping and drilling a strong army. Thus the same man, through the same editorial pages, is very strongly in favor of peace, and also just as strongly in favor of war.

Men do not seem to see any inconsistency in such a course. Yet if the United States could not exert an influence in Europe that would tend toward peace, why have the peace conventions? And if, on the other hand, she can exert such an influence, what is the need of the navy?

It is apparent that this editor recognizes that there is a strong sentiment in the world in favor of peace. He also recognizes that there are strong influences working for war. And in spite of himself he finds that he and his papers are first in one camp and then in the other. This condition of things would not be so remarkable were it not for the fact that the prophets, as so often pointed out in these pages, have told us that the last days would be characterized by the anger of the nations, which would be driving them into the furies of war, and the same days would also be marked by the multitude who would be saying “Peace and safety.”

These contradictory conditions are in the world. The editor to whom allusion is made in these paragraphs is only one of a multitude who are acting in the same way; and how remarkable it is that the prophet could have foretold it!

“Widespread Laxity”

IN discussing the problem of the “war baby,” which in plain English means the illegitimate children of soldiers since the war started, the bishop of Oxford is quoted as saying:

“The controversy indicates a very widespread laxity of sentiment and feeling with regard to sexual matters. I do not doubt in the least that of the two vices, intemperance and immorality, the latter is working incomparably greater havoc. There is also an extraordinary and almost universal laxity of the sanctity of the marriage vow.”

All persons who are alive to the conditions of this world will recognize that the bishop states the truth in regard to social conditions. But do we also recognize the fact that the Lord, when He was here nearly two thousand years ago, told us that the last days would be characterized by the disgusting sexual vices of Sodom? This is one of the large number of signs by which we are to know that we are living very near the close of time. As God overthrew old Sodom and Gomorrah because of their vices in that time, so He will soon destroy the wickedness of this world by the dazzling brightness of the second appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven. The prophetic voices that are uttering this great truth speak in the strongest, clearest tones. As we value eternal life, we should get ready for the event.

Cannot Permit Turks to Hold It

SERGIUS SAZANOFF, Russian foreign minister, in commenting upon Italy's entering the war, is reported to have said: “We already have two closed seas—the Baltic and the Black Sea. We do not want a third. If it were the Atlantic, then that would be different; but with the Adriatic we have nothing to do. The Black Sea is a Russian sea. Russia cannot permit barbarian Turkey to possess the key to this sea. The commercial life of Russia already has suffered by the closing of the Dardanelles, which must end. Bulgaria and Roumania have nothing to fear, because all would have equal commercial rights through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, which in the hands of Russia would guarantee order and safety of navigation.”

Without much question, Italy was drawn into this war not so much because she desires additional territory, but that she may have her fullest opportunities in settling the questions that are involved in the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, the great keys to the Black Sea. The Turkish question is thrown into this conflict, and it will be one of the most perplexing problems with which the nations involved will have to deal. By the student of prophecy the outcome is watched with intense interest.

The Papal Call for Peace

By Editor

IN a recent document sent out to the world, and addressed especially to the warring nations in Europe, the pope says:

“There certainly are other ways and means for redressing their violated rights. Let them resort to these with a sincerely sound conscience and willing soul.

“It is charity toward those in every nation, not our own interest, which prompts us to speak thus. Let them not allow our paternal, friendly voice to fall void. But the voice of the father-friend—we say it with sorrow and a broken heart—was not heeded. The war continues to stain Europe with that blood, employing on land and sea means that are offensive and contrary to the laws of humanity and international law.”

It is not within our province to question the sincerity of Pope Benedict XV in giving utterance to these sentiments. We know of no reason why we should believe that he is not kind at heart. What we say in these columns, from time to time, in regard to the Catholic Church, is said with an understanding that some of the best of people are within the folds of the Catholic Church. They are there because they were born there and have not taken the pains to study for themselves the system of religion that is represented by the papal hierarchy.

The papal power stands to-day, and ever has stood, for a union of the state with the church; and where the state and the church are united, that means that the church must be the supreme governing power; and whether consciously or unconsciously, all of these activities on the part of the papacy are tending in the direction of fulfilling the prophecy that will give that church a short reign of supreme power just before the close of time.

It is as important that the Catholic should study these things as it is that the Protestant should think about them; for in the ultimate Judgment, what God’s word has said, and not what men may think, will be the deciding factor. Foolish prejudices may misguide us, but not if we will open our hearts to the convictions impressed upon us by the Spirit of God acting upon our minds through our faithful study of His word.

Battles in the Air and Under the Sea

Among the marvels of the present war are the accounts that are coming to us of battles between fleets of airships in the skies overhead. The dispatches that tell of them are very meager; but when the story of this war is written, there will be records of the daring experiences of men who fought in the air, that will show in a remarkable manner some of the awful things this generation has developed in the field of destruction. Men who died no more than twenty-five years ago would hardly have dreamed that in this day we would have battles between the fleets that navigate the air, and also other battles between fleets that sail under the surface of the seas.