MOST Fountain Pens prove unsatisfactory on account of faulty feeding device. This, however, is entirely overcome in the L. E. Waterman's Ideal Fountain Pen. The spoon feed device, illustrated by the accompanying cuts, is a thorough success and prevents the pen from giving forth more ink than is necessary, and insures a continuous flow. All the pens are made by expert workmen from the best of material—gold and rubber. Prices $2.50, 3.00, 4.00 and 5.00 by registered mail.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO. OAKLAND, CAL
"To a Happy Old Age"
By Editor
The following is a sample of the words of praise for the Pacific Health Journal constantly coming to our office:—
Be assured I enjoy the Journal very much. It has been a great help and encouragement to me in improving my health and prolonging my life to seventy-five years, which is far beyond my former expectations, having been so near death's door so many times."
Then she speaks of simple rules which she has learned and followed and which have benefited her.
During the coming year the Pacific Health Journal will be filled with more practical "food" for its readers than ever before.
Besides the general health topics which will be taken up in its articles from month to month, this year the Journal will contain the opening chapters of the new book, entitled "Ministry of Healing," by MRS. E. G. WHITE. This series will appear exclusively in the Journal and will be of great interest and value to its readers. Price per year 50 cents.
Address
PACIFIC HEALTH JOURNAL,
OAKLAND, CAL.
Commandment Cards
By Editor
THESE cards are made in the form of a four-page folder, and will fit in an ordinary oblong envelope. The design is attractive and printed in two colors. A splendid bookmark, a neat gift to Sabbath-school scholars, and are found by some Bible workers to afford a unique way of introducing people to God's requirements. Many are found who have never read God's holy law, or if they have read it, have forgotten just how it reads.
Post-paid to any address at following prices:
Five cards, 10c; 25 cards, 40 cents; 50 cards, 75c;
100 cards, $1.00.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.,
OAKLAND, CAL.
THE EXPERIENCE OF A "SIGNS" WORKER.
By Editor
THE following is selected from a letter just received from a young lady in Seattle, Wash., in which we know our readers will be interested:—
I am still in the restaurant here in Seattle, and working with the SIGNS evenings. I had good success with the Capital and Labor Number, selling from twenty-five to forty an hour. I have had many good experiences, and have disposed of nearly six hundred papers myself. Sometimes we would meet those who had already purchased it, and they spoke highly of its contents. One man handed me a dollar and said he had bought the paper from me the night before, and that it was excellent. Money that has been thus given me I am using in missionary work, and sending between forty and fifty papers to the jail every week.
I do thank my heavenly Father for being with me and helping me. Altho at times I felt almost too tired to go out, yet I would go anyway, and the Lord would give me such good success that I would feel better when I finished than when I began. The largest number of papers sold in a single evening was seventy, but I could have sold more if I had had them. The people really seem hungering for something more than they can get out of worldly papers. By the help of the Lord I will keep up my paper work.
If there are others who desire to take up work of this kind, we would be glad to correspond with them and furnish them with a SIGNS OF THE TIMES badge, which has been found very helpful by those who have secured it. Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
TO OUR PATRONS.
By Editor
Please be careful to write all names of persons and places plainly.
Send money by Post-office Money Order, Express Order, or Bank Draft on New York, Chicago, or San Francisco.
Orders and Drafts should be made payable to the Pacific Press Publishing Co.
Paper money or silver should be sent in a registered letter.
Registered mail is safe. Unregistered mail is at the risk of the sender.
Postage-stamps in five or ten cent denominations will be accepted for small amounts.
The address label on your paper will indicate the time to which your subscription is paid. In case of non-receipt of papers, or any other irregularity, please notify us immediately.
When subscriptions expire, no more papers are sent to the party except by special arrangement.
You are requested to watch the date on your label, and renew early, and save the loss of papers. We can not always furnish missing numbers.
When requesting change of address, be sure to give both old and new addresses.
Important.—If you order SIGNS, Our Little Friend, books, etc., at the same time, use a separate sheet of paper for each. If this request is complied with, it will materially assist in the prompt and accurate despatch of the business.
When writing to the editor, be sure to use a separate sheet of paper.
Christ Cleanses the Heart
The very fact that one seems "strong to sin" is evidence of his lack of power to overcome the sin. The leper most stricken with disease is the least able to recover. The stream which is fullest and runs strongest with corruption from a corrupt source is the less likely to cleanse itself. The human heart is the fountain whence "evil thoughts proceed, fornication, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness," and not until the fountain is cleansed by creative power can perfect good come from it. Praise God, Christ can cleanse the heart. Yield it to Him.
Settle it forever that God's law perverted is not God's law. God's plan perverted is not God's plan. God's gospel perverted is not God's gospel. God's life perverted is not God's life. The anathema of God rests upon the preaching of the perverted gospel; what about the preaching of a perverted law and perverted life? The preaching of the perverted gospel puts man in the place of God. The preaching of the perverted life puts human life in the place of the divine. "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Socialist Victory in Italy
By Editor
Socialist Victory in Italy.—A news despatch from Rome, of the 14th ultimo, states the following: "After a long struggle for a naval parliamentary inquiry, the Socialists at last have gained a victory. This inquiry was opposed by former Premier Zanardelli and his Cabinet and rejected by the Chamber of Deputies. It has now been decided by the Committee on the Navy of the Chamber of Deputies that this inquiry shall be held with the sanction of the Cabinet, and a bill authorizing it soon will be presented in Parliament." And the Socialists are everywhere gaining in Europe. The incoming of the democratic clay is breaking up the iron imperialism of the old-time rule.
Not in Man, but in Christ.—We sympathize with these "new thought" souls who are seeking unselfishness, purity, goodness, victory over sin, in themselves. We pity them in their vain quest. We tried as they are trying. We sought, as expressed by a recent number of their papers, "the overthrow of sin." We vainly thought, as the writer quoted declares,
"that sin and self can be conquered and entirely transcended; that he who aspires and wills can scale, here and in this life, the unassailable heights of Purity, Love, and Spiritual Knowledge, and that, having attained, he can point out the way to others, and help the world. We see, know, and proclaim man's power to rise and conquer. Shall man, who has chained even the elements to his will, and made the invisible forces of the universe do his bidding, be powerless to chain the elements of his mind, and render his own thoughts and inner forces obedient to his commands? If man is strong to sin, is he less strong to conquer sin? (Italics ours.)"
Paul thought so; and multitudes of others have thought so. Every conceivable device to conquer human selfishness has been devised by the "aspiring" heart who willed in himself to overcome himself. But sooner or later, if sanity has been retained, the despairing heart has returned from its quest of the holy to bow to the words of Inspiration: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt; who can know it?" "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I practise. . . . Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?"
Blessed is that man who looks out of himself and finds deliverance in Christ Jesus. Puny man boasts of his power to chain the elements, but ever and anon is he shown by some manifestation of God's power perverted that all his boasted knowledge and skill is worthless. He not only has not chained the elements, but he is the slave of sin, and the strength of sin is a perverted law; and no man has the power in himself to break the bonds of his slavery. All he can do at its seeming best is to turn his energies into another development of sin more hateful in God's sight, because dethroning God,—the sin of self-righteousness. When man can tame the cyclone, guide the tornado in its path, still the earthquake, put a safety valve on Peleé, or quiet the mighty turmoil of the stormy sea, then, and not till then, can he overcome himself. But Christ Jesus knows the heart, and he who will put his heart in His hands, yielding it not to human reason, but to His law, can overcome sin. And this is the Gospel, the power of God unto salvation, of which no one who has ever known it will be ashamed. There is victory in the power of Christ's endless life.
CONTAINED IN THIS NUMBER.
Poetry.
Song for Troubled Hearts, BENJ. PHILLIPS . . . . . 2
The Battle of Life . . . . . 10
How to Live Long . . . . . 11
Brought Out . . . . . 12
General.
Victory at Last, L. D. SANTEE, . . . . . 1
The Bible to Be Understood by All, MRS. E. G. WHITE, . . . . . 2
Musings, ELIZA VEEDER DOW, . . . . . 3
The Establishment of Imperialism, A. T. JONES, . . . . . 3
Christ's Transfiguration, SARAH E. BILLYARD, . . . . . 4
Do Not Commit Suicide, ARTHUR FOX, . . . . . 4
Instances of Soul-winning . . . . . 4
Burdens, a Measure of Strength, CHAS. T. EVERSON, . . . . . 5
Waiting for the Fire, H. A. ST. JOHN, . . . . . 5
How They Became Convinced (A Sabbath Symposium). . . . . 5
Editorial.—Decide Now—The Past and the Present—Our Business in This World—Worse and Better . . . . . 6, 7
Question Corner—Nos. 1464, 1465. . . . . 7
Outlook.—Can the Church Afford It?—The Spread of Socialism—Child Labor—Ignoring Their Own Resolution—President Roosevelt on Capital and Labor—"By the Wild Beasts of the Earth"—Evils of Suggestion . . . . . 8, 9
The Home.—The True Standard, JOSEPHINE WEATHERLY—An Entertaining Evening—The Blind Man Saw It—A Thought for Mothers—Why His Marriage Was a Failure—Worry Is a Disease . . . . . 10, 11
International Sabbath-school Lesson, The Sanctuary and Its Cleansing—In Type . . . . . 14
International Sunday-school Lesson, A Sabbath in Capernaum . . . . . 14
Publishers . . . . . 15
A NEW SERIES OF ARTICLES ON CAPITAL AND LABOR.
By Editor
FROM the pen of Prof. G. W. Rine, who has for years been a student of the subject, we shall soon present the following articles under the general heading:—
THE INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION.
I. Work a Duty and a Blessing;
II. Wealth and the Obligations It Imposes;
III. The Demon of Avarice;
IV. Monopoly, Its Nature and History;
V. Present-Day Monopoly;
VI. Phenomenal Increase of Wealth in the End of the Age;
VII. Congestion of Wealth versus Diffusion of Knowledge;
VIII. Prevalence and Duration of Poverty;
IX. "Lovers of Pleasures;"
X. Lawlessness of Labor;
XI. What Will the Harvest Be?
XII. How the Problem Will Be Solved;
XIII. "They Shall Not Build and Another Inhabit."
The above are not to be considered as exact titles, but as indicating the general scope of the subject.
We know that these will be intensely interesting. The paper for this period of time ought to receive a large number of short term subscriptions. We shall endeavor to announce when the series will begin in our next.
Do Not Be Deceived by Names
There are many seemingly beautiful theories afloat in these days, theories that tend to the exaltation of the human, but they are utter perversions of God's Word. They are using the terminology of the Gospel, “the livery of heaven,” to better serve the devil. It is time for every Christian to know whether these theories are founded in the Word of God. Do not be deceived by names.
The Golden Morning
The outlook of God's Word is ever hopeful, ever looking to the bright morning of promise. The very first book of His revelation opens with a six-fold prophecy of the coming eternal day of gladness; the evening preceding the morning, the night ushering in the day. And so it will be as regards this old earth. The long night of sin is almost over, and just beyond breaks the day of eternal righteousness, gilding the glorious Land of Promise.
"O, we see the gleams of the golden morning,
Piercing through this night of gloom."
The Fathers of the Catholic Church
By Editor
"The Fathers, the Fathers, the Fathers!" Martin Luther tells us was the cry in the day of the Reformation by those who opposed the living, developing truth of the Gospel. The great reformer's opponents tried to silence the voice of God by tradition. It is even true to-day. Many make the Word of God void by new theories. Many others make it equally void by setting up over it the traditions of men, the now unfounded theories of centuries ago. Many persons believe that the first three centuries were largely free from error. They do not know what the character and teachings of the "Fathers" of those early centuries are. To such we wish to commend the book, "The Fathers of the Catholic Church," by E. J. Waggoner. This little work shows the condition of the heathen world at the time of Christ, sets forth the principles of heathen philosophy, and shows how many of these principles were incorporated into the teachings of the church, lowering and corrupting the pure and holy standard of the apostolic church. The book is a mine of information on the Fathers, and in these days every one who seeks to be well informed without wading through a vast morass of matter, would do well to obtain the book. It contains 400 pages, is well bound in cloth, and the price is $1.00. It may be obtained at this office.
A Splendid Source of Supply.
By Editor
Farmers and gardeners, and florists, and home people generally want seed for either field or garden. Well there are seed houses and seed houses; but one of the most reliable of all which stays and grows, holding its old customers and gaining new, is Ferry's. You can buy their seed in every city, village, and hamlet in the land, and always good and fresh, true to name, unless the fault is on the part of the store which sells them. The 1904 annual is before us, and will prove a great help in the selection of valuable seed. The annual will be sent free to all readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, who apply to D. M. Ferry & Co., Detroit, Mich.
A Magnificent Number
By Editor
A Magnificent Number.—If you want to know all about Southern California, its beauties, its advantages, its opportunities, its peoples, its businesses, send for the magnificent "Midwinter Number" of the Los Angeles Times. It consists of 12 pages of the regular daily, 80 pages of its special, and four large pages, two of which contain 180 excellent portraits of the members of the "Bench and Bar of Los Angeles." Price ten cents a copy; postage 5 cents.
Christ Within or Separate from Christ
If all men have Christ within them, how could Paul say that those who did not believe "were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world"? Was the apostle mistaken, or are these modern teachers?
