p. 560 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 35. (9/7/1915)

Earlier text: Insanity as Related to Drunkenness

Our Representatives

UNITED STATES AND CANADA

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

Alberta Tract Society, Lacombe, Alberta, Canada.

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

Arkansas Tract Society, Box 14, Little Rock, 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, Cal.

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 10th St., Baltimore, Md.

Colorado Tract Society, Eastern, 1112 Klamath St., Denver, Colo.

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

Connecticut (See New England, Southern).

Cumberland Tract Society (Eastern Tennessee), 404 Tremont St., N. Chattanooga, 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 Kinau St., Honolulu, H. T.

Idaho, Northern (See Upper Columbia Tract Society).

Idaho Tract Society, Southern, Room 327, Sona Bldg., 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 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, Minn.

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

Missouri Tract Society, 203 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, Box 644, Oklahoma City, Okla.

Ontario Tract Society, Box 208, 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, 7155 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 586, Watertown, S. Dak.

Tennessee, Eastern (See Cumberland Tract Society).

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

Texas Tract Society, North, Box 15, Keen, 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, Western, 228 S. Brannan 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.

Our foreign tracts are put up in envelopes, price 25c each. They are obtainable in Arabic, Armenian, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and many other languages. Address your Tract Society.

ADVANCE ORDERS FOR 3,214 COPIES

The day that “Life Sketches of Ellen G. White” was ready, our advance orders called for 1,139 leather and 2,075 cloth bound copies, or 3,214 in all.

The first half of this book is Mrs. White’s own story of her childhood days, her conversion, and her call to bear special messages of warning, instruction, and encouragement to individuals and the church as a whole. Then follows her narrative of more extended travel and labor with her husband, Elder James White.

The later incidents of her life and work are given by Mr. C. C. Crisler, one of her secretaries and assistants. This includes an account of her last sickness, and the funeral services held in California and Michigan.

Price, in cloth . . . . . $1.00 Limp leather . . . . . 1.50

Ten per cent higher in Canada

A German edition will soon be issued by our College View house.

Pacific Press Publishing Assn. Mountain View, California

CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA COLLEGE VIEW, NEBRASKA KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI PORTLAND, OREGON

The Three Best Ways to and from California

The Overland Route via Ogden

The Overland Limited

Extra Fare Train

The Pacific Limited

The San Francisco Express

All Making Less than Three Days to CHICAGO

“The Sunset Route”

Via the Elegant Sunset Limited

Three Days to New Orleans

Connecting with Palatial Southern Pacific Steamers, or Trains for the East

“The Shasta Route”

Through the beautiful Shasta Region, through Portland and the North

All protected throughout with automatic block signals. Inquire of any agent, or

C. S. Fee, Passenger Traffic Manager

Flood Building, San Francisco

SOUTHERN PACIFIC.

The War Craze and Conscription

Any one who is giving any attention whatever to passing events knows that the world has passed into an unprecedented mania for war. There have been times in bygone ages when the world has seemed to have gone mad and plunged into war, but never have we had a time of such war madness in the face of so much enlightenment and boasting of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.

The conditions in these times and the theories that many have been holding are sadly out of harmony. But now that this furious war in the Old World has broken out and is spreading with such dreadful rapidity, the nations that are at peace are filled with men who are hysterically calling their fellow countrymen to prepare for war; and if some of the men who are in leading positions in this nation can carry out their plans when the next United States Congress meets, there will be laws passed requiring all the male population of the war age to receive military training. And while this military training is in process, our factories will be set to work turning out millions of the latest guns, and the latest and most effective ammunition, and for the purpose of being able on short notice to mobilize millions of men thoroughly equipped and ready to fight the prospective invader.

Now if our civilization is what we claim, why is it that these militarists can drown the voices of the sane advocates of peace? Why is it that some of our great militarists receive rounds of applause when referring to our renowned peace leaders in the nation as “amiable old ladies”? It must be, after all, that we do not possess the real Christianity and the civilization that we have thought; and furthermore it must be true, as the Bible declares, that “the whole world lieth in wickedness.” And furthermore there must be some truth to the statements of divine Writ that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse”; and after all, it must be that Jesus of Nazareth was correct when He said: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

The Christ who knows the hearts of men has told us what the condition of the world would be; but multitudes of men have said: “No, Christ is wrong; the world is getting better. Those scriptures that seem to speak to the contrary, and to be so plain and obvious, have not been correctly interpreted.”

Yet somehow or other, when we get right down to the facts, we find that the scriptures and the facts are in perfect harmony. But what a sad jargon of discord we get when we place the facts alongside the theories that men have been maintaining? Surely the theories of peace and good will that have been so urgently advanced cannot be true if it is necessary for an isolated nation like the United States to adopt military conscription to repel the possible invading armies that are said to be liable to come to us from other “Christian nations.”

God’s word makes it plain that the last days will be characterized by war and unprecedented wickedness; and if we are willing to admit that God knows how to tell the truth in these matters, there will be no occasion for us to be misguided by the delusions that result in destruction.

Causes for Unrest

A LEADING financial organ published in New York City said recently: “The skilled artisans are persuaded that these profits [the profits on manufacturing war supplies] are very great, and this explains why so many of them are now making demands for largely increased wages.”

Another dispatch at about the same time told the story of a wealthy New York matron and society leader who was paying $2.00 a steak for her dog.

The profits on the manufacturing of war materials, it would seem from unquestioned sources, are indeed quite enormous, and the facts concerning them are published broadcast to the world. The fact is also published in regard to the New York woman paying $2.00 a steak for her dog. She may or may not have done this, but the story is told just the same; and one of the leaders of a proposed strike in New York, according to this same dispatch, is making a very strong point out of the wanton extravagance manifested in such expensive care of a mere dog. He is urging that a dog is not worthy of such attentions when human beings by the thousand are working beyond human endurance in order to maintain a mere existence.

No more certain are the workings of the law of gravitation than that such discussions are bound to produce dissatisfaction and deep-seated discontent. And who can make a reasonable logical argument that would meet the situation? And because the wealthy are more and more grasping, and because they are continually making wanton and profligate displays of their wealth, the man or the woman who is struggling for a bare existence is bound to be discontented.

The apostle, through the prophetic gift bestowed upon him by the divine Father, has informed us that selfish greed would make the last days perilous; and the hands of greed that are grasping the wealth of the world are creating perilous problems not merely in this nation but throughout the world. Arguments over the right or the wrong of what these people are doing will never be able to save us. There is but one hope, and that is the second coming of Christ.

The White Ghost

A NEWS dispatch reports that the soldiers in one of the larger armies in Europe have repeatedly seen a white ghost riding on a white horse. The ghost is supposed to be the spirit of one of the great generals who has fallen.

Reports of this kind have found their way into the newspapers from several of the different nations engaged in the conflict. A great many men scoff at such things as this as foolish delusions; but many of the same ones who scoff, both affirm and believe that every man has a spirit which survives his body, and that it is roaming around in space; and if there is such a spirit that survives, why should people not see it? The real trouble comes through believing the delusion that when a man dies he is not dead, that it is only his body which is gone.

The modern scholar and thinker has been wont to believe and teach that only the darkness of the Middle Ages could produce such stories of the ghosts of dead horses and men. But during the last half century, there has been almost a complete revolution in what men think upon that subject. The spiritistic teaching that the man lives on after death, is capturing the strongest men of science as well as the untutored; and this belief of the survival of the spirit after man's death, is laying the foundation for some of the greatest delusions with which Satan has ever been able to deluge the world.

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: even Him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 2 Thess. 2: 8-10.

Observe that this text points out that the coming of Christ is after the working of Satan with all power and with signs and with lying wonders. This is but one of the scriptures that tell of the delusions with which Satan will flood the world in the last days, and there is no channel through which he will work more powerfully than through the deceptive teaching that man is conscious in death. We need to open our minds and hearts to an understanding of God’s word, so that we may not fall under the spell of the deceptions Satan has prepared for this time.

A Long Step Backward

THOMAS J. LENNON, presiding justice of one of our appellate courts, referring to the Frank lynching, said: “If a few headstrong and violent men are permitted to take the life of a person convicted of crime, but whose punishment, legally determined, appears to them to be insufficient, we shall take a long step backward—almost to days antedating the dawn of civilization.”

The trial of men through the newspapers and by popular sentiment, often of the mob, is increasingly becoming a determining factor in the attempts to administer justice. Juries and judges are swayed, oftentimes contrary to their convictions, by these influences. And indeed, as Mr. Lennon suggests, such conditions are a long step backward. We have some of the best men and women living to-day that the world has ever known; but our civilization, taken en masse, is largely a sham. The humanity of to-day is very much the same as the humanity of all the ages of the past; only if we will give heed to the Bible suggestion, the wicked section of humanity is growing worse.

Pope Will Not Leave Rome at Present

By M. C. W.

THE Rome correspondent of the Western Watchman (Roman Catholic) says that the offer of the bishops of Spain to make that country a place of refuge “cannot be adduced to prove that in the Vatican a serious thought has been given at any time since the outbreak of the European war to the pope’s leaving Rome in search of a safer place of residence. To those in Rome who see how highly improbable such a step has been ever since the struggle began, it did not seem worth while contradicting the rumor, until it was repeated several times. Neither the Italian government nor the Roman people would wish for one moment to see the pontiff turn his back upon the Eternal City, even for a brief absence. And when one has scanned all Europe, he will likely conclude that the safest spot on the continent at present for the vicar of Christ, is that upon which he has stood for nigh twenty centuries.” M. C. W.

War Production Defies Sunday Laws

REPORTS from Wall Street say that “large war orders received by the Westinghouse Air Brake Company have forced that company to a seven-day-a-week schedule.” This great company, whose legitimate business is the making of air brakes for cars, has turned aside from its normal course, along with nearly all the other big manufacturing companies of the country, for the manufacture of war materials. But what about the idea of a “seven-day-a-week schedule” in old Pennsylvania, the great mother of Sunday laws, and the great defender of Sunday rest? If Sunday laws were consistently enforced, they would be invoked against great concerns of this character as well as against the individual of smaller influence.

Lynching and Disregard for Law

Dr. C. F. Aked, of San Francisco, says, “It is through disregard for human life, our contempt for the laws of the land in which we live, that we have tolerated lynching.” Sentiments of this character are freely expressed by many other men as eminent as Dr. Aked; and what will be the possible outcome of such disregard for human life and contempt for law, may well call for some of our most careful and serious reflections.

Italy’s War Against Turkey

WHEN Italy declared war on Turkey a few days ago, it was said she had a million soldiers trained and equipped that she could not use in the limited territory where she was fighting against Austria-Hungary, and that these men would be immediately dispatched against the Turks. The determination seems to be strong to crush Turkey at all hazards. The outcome of the conflict will be watched with great interest.

Cholera Cases in Austria

The Austrian minister of the interior, it is reported, says that there were 1,566 cases of Asiatic cholera in Austria on August 19. If an epidemic of cholera or some other similar plague does not sweep through those war-devastated countries, it will be a miracle.

Russia Seeks U.S. Cartridge Order

From the financial centers in New York, the report comes that Russia is seeking to place with manufacturers in this country an order for two billion cartridges. But already the factories are so overstocked with war orders that no one has been found as yet to do this work.

MEXICANS PROTESTING AGAINST FREE FOOD DISTRIBUTION