A sentence from an article that appeared recently on the editorial page of one of the big dailies says that "public opinion is coming to stand for the idea that preparedness in war is the best promoter of peace." And in the same article, Mr. Gatling is quoted as having said that his "guns have saved more lives than they have ever destroyed. The Gatling gun is a peacemaker." These sentiments are worked overtime at present. There is a section of the press that is doing all it can to stir the United States to building greater navies and enlarging its army in order that we may insure peace. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES is not in the statesmanship business, and so can not speak from that standpoint. It may be that wise statesmen ought to announce such sentiments as the foregoing, and insist on having the great navies and the great armies. But if such is the case, why have we been told so many times that we are in the gray dawn of the morning of the millennium, when we are to have universal peace, and when war will be simply ridiculed off the earth? Why is it, if we are in such peaceful times, that it is necessary to build the most powerful and the most destructive navies that have ever been known, and to equip the greatest and most destructive armies of all history? There must be a mistake somewhere about this millennium idea; and after all, is it not wise for us to conclude that the good old book of God is right? For its prophets make it clear, beyond all question, that instead of approaching a time of world-wide peace, we are standing within the shadows of the universal war of Armageddon, that is to mark the very closing hours of this world’s history. Men who become intoxicated with theories can never see facts, for they allow their theories to brush away from their minds the substantial presence of actual realities.
Progress in Flying-Machines.—It has been only five or six years that we have had the assured prospects of really successful flying-machines, but these five or six years have been a period of the most marvelous development. Every country is now experimenting with the air-ship and we are getting numerous kinds of them. We have the dirigible, which is something after the fashion of the old balloon with propellers and passenger apparatus attached. Then we have the biplanes, the monoplanes, and the hydroplanes, the hydroplane being a ship that is so constructed that it can both arise from and alight on water. Among the recent achievements in aeronautics we find that a French aviator carried six passengers in his biplane for an hour and a quarter. Another carried a passenger from Bremen, Germany, to London, a distance of about 450 miles. In making this flight he went directly over the city of London, which was contrary to law, and a few days later was haled into court. Another aviator has recently made the third successful air voyage across the Alps. In crossing the Alps he had to make such a high altitude that it became so cold he was almost frozen to death. He had to be helped from his machine when he alighted. Another aviator won the $10,000 prize by flying from Key West to Havana, a distance of about 100 miles. A few days later another aviator made the same flight, in a hydroplane and won the second prize of $5,000. Then we have the German company that is quite successfully conducting a regular passenger line of dirigible air-ships. Something like $250,000 is being offered in prizes for the one who will make the first successful voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in one of these air craft, the London Daily Mail alone offering a prize of $50,000 for this purpose.
The Supreme Court of California has decided that laws passed through the use of the initiative and local option are valid; that is, localities have a right to shut out liquor and make their territory dry, or vice versa, if they desire. The State Anti-saloon Conference held June 17 and 18 decided that California pledges its temperance workers to strike and strike hard at America’s greatest curse when all the temperance forces of the nation are ready; but they do not feel that it is wise to press for state prohibition in California at the present time. They feel that they would lose more than they would gain by demanding too much at once, and that the work in California should be prosecuted with great wisdom. Temperance sentiment has grown here till it is politically influential, and yet we are felt to be far behind the average of the nation. While in the country at large more than half of the people live in no-license territory, in California only one quarter of the people enjoy such an experience. The urban population doubtless has something to do with this. California has a large proportional city population. We feel, however, that the action of the conference was wise and right regarding this state.
It is said that $50,000,000 of government funds will be deposited in the national banks of the South and West at once by Secretary McAdoo, to facilitate the movement of crops, and anticipate the money stringency which invariably accompanies the marketing and moving of crops, especially when they are large. Federal, state, and municipal bond and prime commercial paper will be accepted as security for the money, on which the banks will pay two per cent interest.
One thing which has brought satisfaction in many circles is the establishment of what is called the "National Board of Mediation and Conciliation" by our government, the design of which shall be to help settle the great labor disputes. The government’s attitude, of course, is not one of coercion. It will endeavor to mediate and conciliate, and so secure justice to both parties. How it will work out remains to be seen.
The Rev. C. D. Trexler, of Brooklyn, declares with much force that "the real source of vice among young people is in the home." He declares that in the mad rush of the world, parents and children do not get acquainted, there are no confidences between them, and the consequence is that the young are left to choose their own companions. The responsibility rests upon parents.
Congressman Heflin is credited with coining the word "suffrotescent," which he applies to the male suffragette, and says it means "wooden-headed." But the "Standard Dictionary" gives "suffrutescent," meaning "having the character of an undershrub; slightly woody at the base."
The papal Swiss guards who struck for certain privileges have been refused. Some of the leaders have been expelled from the Vatican. They left singing the "Marseillaise," and shouting, "Viva Garibaldi."
It is said that the Russian treaty is held up by President Wilson. He demands that American Jews shall be permitted to enter Russia freely.12Dr. Wells, of Chicago, declares that syphilis, after consumption, is the greatest scourge to the human race.
Criticism
ONE should not give way to a spirit of resentment when made the object of criticism. He should not even feel such a spirit. Even tho the mind of the other man should be captious and his words harsh and unjust, the object of his attack should not become vengeful. The greatest weakness many men have is their inability to profit from their critics, and their determination to regard every word of censure as personal, and the man who utters it, as a knocker. This amounts to a justification of self without investigation.
Whatever the source or the purpose of criticism, one should profit from it. It will do no harm for one to put himself on trial, and cross-question himself to ascertain whether there is any fault. To clench the fist, and set the teeth, and talk about bordering on personal perfection, are not so many signs of wisdom. Such conduct paves the way for just criticism, even tho the first was unjust. Why not make an honest examination of self, to ascertain whether there is any fault, instead of going off half cocked, hot-headed, and acting the dunce? Most of us need to restrain ourselves rather than follow our inclination. The chances are that criticism reveals a weakness which should be made strong, perhaps a sinful tendency where reformation should follow.
What is true of a man is true of a church. If an outsider charges the church with being unsocial, why should members of the church fire up and talk back? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the outsider is right. The church should be grateful for having its faults pointed out. If critics charge the church with lacking evangelistic fervor, flying into a passion will only prove the truth of the charge. If one says that the church is indifferent and neglectful in time of sickness or death, there is no advantage in retorting that the plaintiff himself is wholly to blame. The critic may have shortcomings, but that does not excuse the church for being short in its comings. In brief, the church should withhold all censure of the complaint until it itself is performing its full duty; and then there will be very little criticism.—Religious Telescope.
The Awful Slavery of Fashion
THE subject is old and threadbare; and yet it would seem that every thoughtful Christian, and especially thoughtful Christian women, ought to raise voice against the manifestations of the thralldom of fashion at the present time. It is not the object of this writing to present a long essay upon the subject, but simply to gather together a few of the utterances which have been given by others.
First of all, the slavery of fashion leads to extravagance, to the constant demand for every change and whim of the fickle dame, and it is because of this that girls are tempted to secure money in immoral ways in order to keep abreast with the tide. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst declares that passion for luxury has been one of the causes assigned for the sinking of the Titanic, that extravagance “is both a form of lunacy and a form of immorality,—lunacy because there is no sense in it, immorality because it is a contemptuous waste of values.”
But the worst thing about fashion is not the matter of its mere extravagance; it is its immodesty, and it is not too strong to use the term “indecency.”
Margaret E. Sangster, Jr., conducts a department in the Christian Herald, and she speaks of the floods of letters which have come in to her regarding it. For instance, the matron of a home devoted to rescue of girls gives this advice:
“A girl’s clothing should be modest and simple, yet so neat and becoming that she can go on the street or in public places without attracting attention. Regardless of the demands of fashion, it would be well for us to bring up our standard of dress.”
A lady of the old South sends this message to the girls:
“A young man of high ideals said to me: ‘The women of the day are not due the courtesy and chivalric spirit as they once were. By their mode of dress they prove their own degeneracy.’”
Another woman thus writes:
“My husband, who is a street-car conductor, recently remarked, ‘I wonder if women talk about men the way men do about them.’”
And then she says:
“I am sure there is food for thought in that remark. Why shouldn’t men talk? Do you believe that the styles of to-day were created for women only? How many would slit their skirts quite so much just to let women see the color of their underskirt? Would they care whether women saw their new lace stockings?—Certainly not. It is for the men that these styles are created,—created by those who care only for men’s admiring glances.”
This sentiment is expressed by a New Jersey girl:
“I am counted as a well-dressed and fashionable girl, but however peculiar I may be called, no one shall ever see me dressed in the manner which is so appalling to all Christian humanity.”
Another woman, who places herself in the grandmother class, says:
“Since I can remember, fashions have come and gone, and it seems that about every possible change has been made; but for immodest dress surely the present-day styles exceed anything I can ever call to mind. I remember the low neck and short sleeves of the late fifties, but they were not to be compared with the present styles.”
England’s noble queen is endeavoring to correct this. The report is that she has recently refused to permit one of the highest noble ladies in the realm to appear at a royal wedding with a collar lower than one inch from the neck.
Classed with this immodest dressing are the indecent dances. A writer in the New York Musical Observer thus presents a picture:
“Is it not pitiful to look upon a little girl perhaps seven or eight years old, snapping her fingers, swaying from side to side, and lustily singing as if her very heart were in every note, ‘Ev’rybody’s doin’ it, doin’ it?’ She hears her big sister sing it; her big sister hears it at a ‘show,’ and her beau buys it for her. Glance at the sheet music displayed on the piano in the ‘front parlor’ of nearly every home in the country. Do you see any songs like ‘Annie Laurie,’ ‘Ben Bolt,’ or ‘The Last Rose of Summer’?—No; you see ‘The Devil’s Ball,’ ‘The Dippy Rag,’ ‘The Baboon Baby Dance,’ and ‘The Tango Twist,’ each one with a title-page picturing contortioned dancers partly clothed, and the printed words ‘The reigning success of the day.’ And the worst of it all is that these songs appeal not only to the low- and vicious-minded, but the great majority of our church-going, pious-minded people pay out their money to attend theaters in order to hear and applaud them.”
A writer in the Wesleyan Methodist, of Syracuse, says:
“If girls had a faint idea of the disgusting sight they presented, or could hear some of the unmanly, dissolute remarks made about them as they pass along the streets clad in transparent waists, or one of those short, outlandish, tight-gripping, hobble skirts, they would feel so ashamed that if they had a spark of virtue left in them they would go to their rooms or get out of sight somewhere till they had a sensible dress to put on. How can they expect people to distinguish them from the low and corrupt if they dress exactly like them?”
The same writer quotes a Catholic priest of New York City as saying that “never in history were the modes so abhorrently indecent as they are to-day. One may make the closest study of costumes through the prints and drawings and sculptures of five thousand years, and find nothing to equal the shameless styles worn unabashed in the crowded streets and summer resorts by hundreds of thousands of apparently respectable girls.”
The Kansas City Catholic Register says regarding the mode of to-day, “There is no artistic excuse for some of the costumes to be seen in public places,” and classifies certain garments as “designed to compel instant attention to their indecency.”
The New York Times, in a comment on a despatch from its Paris correspondent that woman’s dress models this summer are “the most audacious since the Directoire,” says:
“The Directoire audacity is understandable. France had been having a debauch in the name of freedom, religion had been insulted, anarchy had just been quelled; and in the slow process of restoration of law and order, old conventions had been nearly obliterated, morals were at a low ebb, and the social condition was exactly expressed in the dress of the women. But that social condition surely does not exist now. Therefore fashions, to express the new sense of the alarming development of evil and the need of suppressing it, should become more formal and modest, not take on the aspect of the bacchanalia. There is no accounting for the extravagance of the prevailing Parisian mode.”
But is this true? If the dress at that time exactly expressed the condition of social life and the morals of the day, may it not be said that such is the case now?
Dr. Edwin H. Lewis, in American Medicine, declares that “immodest dress is responsible for many a young girl’s ruin and downfall,” and proclaims it a fact that “every medical man of large practise and experience knows only too well the fires kindled by the present dress of young females.”
The Christian Work and Evangelist, referring to modern dances, tells us that the immorality in these dances is resented by professing Christians, but declares that the facts are against them, and says:
“What means all of the stir of to-day over the cabaret shows and afternoon dances, with their ‘tango’ and ‘turkey trots’ and ‘grizzly bears,’ and all the rest, too shameful to print? Police, church, and school authorities everywhere are stirred to conference and to action over the demoralization that is plainly evident through the incoming of these indecent dances which are sweeping over the country like an epidemic. Things must be bad, indeed, when public officials, never accused of being overscrupulous, are aroused and issue decrees against these forms of the dance.”
The Baptist Examiner, of New York, says that “the whole tendency of these outrageous performances is toward the indecent, the immoral, the putrid.”
This perhaps is sufficient, altho we might fill columns regarding the low, debasing tendencies of modern social functions. It would seem as tho Christian women, women who were not Christian, but were virtuous, would rise up en masse and protest against them, and, let fashion dictate what she would, would set their faces against fashion, and originate their own, which would at least be modest, and which could not be more ungraceful or deforming and ridiculous than the outrageous styles which fashion has been dictating for some time past.
OUR LITTLE FRIEND
By Editor
The Children's Eight-page Weekly
Stands for great and sound principles of goodness and truth, and instils them, by simple lessons and stories, into the minds of its little readers.
Its General Contents
The Great Out-of-Doors and Some of Its Delights and Wonders, Children of the Bible, Our Feathered Friends, Dumb Creatures of the World, Confidential Talks with Boys and Girls about Themselves, What a Boy Can Do, What a Girl Can Do, How to Spend Rainy Days, The Bulletin Board.
A Strong Staff of Interesting Writers
Just the kind of honest little stories of more than moral worth that you would wish a child of yours to read.
70 cents a year 35 cents six months
A postal card will bring you a sample copy. Look it over and request it sent to some little one. An appreciative gift for any youngster.
Address
Our Little Friend, Mountain View, California
ZEROLENE
The Standard Oil for Motor Boats
Holds compression and makes the engine deliver full power with the least friction and wear. Does not thin out or break up under intense heat. Flows freely in cold weather.
Sold by dealers everywhere and at all agencies of the
Standard Oil Company
(CALIFORNIA)
SAN FRANCISCO
Co-operation Corner
By Editor
WORD comes from one of our Christian workers in the Tennessee hills, who has been using a club of the SIGNS for some time. Results are being seen; but on account of lack of funds, the papers must be discontinued unless some of our readers feel that they would like to aid in this most deserving call by supplying the necessary funds. Twenty copies a week are desired. These twenty copies will cost $2.00 a month. We invite your coöperation. Send remittance to this paper, and state what it is for.
FOR SALE
4.7 acres three miles from Sebastopol, California; one fourth mile from electric car station. Near church school and public school, stores, electric power, and lighting. House, well, 140 fruit-trees, berries, etc. For price and further information, address C. W. Peter, Ukiah, California.
The Law
By Editor
That question of “Under the law? or under grace?” is a constantly recurring one. Bible Students' Library tract No. 163 gives a careful answer from the Bible. Single copy, 2 cents; a hundred, $1.00. This office.
IN THREE DAYS
SAN FRANCISCO
Overland Limited
TAKES YOU
# To Chicago
ACROSS GREAT SALT LAKE
AND
HIGH SIERRA BY DAYLIGHT
Luxurious High-class Equipment
Electric Lighted Throughout
Pullman Drawing-room
Stateroom
Vestibuled Sleeping-cars
Careful and Attentive Dining
Service
Parlor Observation-car with
Library and Cafe
Ladies' Reading-room
Gentlemen's Smoking-room
Daily News Bulletins
Latest Papers and Magazines
Southern Pacific
Great Controversy
In Limp Leather
"The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan" has now been added to the "limp leather bound" list. Printed on a fine grade of thin paper. The contents complete is contained in this beautiful durable book weighing but 22 ounces. It is 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches in size, uniform with "The Acts of the Apostles" and "Patriarchs and Prophets" in the same form. In this binding "Controversy" costs only $2.00.
Other works in this form that all should have are
Patriarchs and Prophets . $2.00
The Acts of the Apostles . 2.00
The Desire of Ages . . 2.00
Steps to Christ . . . 1.00
Prices 10 per cent higher in Canada
Order of your Tract Society, or
Pacific Press Publishing Association
Mountain View, California
MISSIONS
By O. A. Hall
Need of Qualified Workers in China
Our Training-School
DEAR BROTHER WILCOX:
Those connected with the China training-school are very much interested in the efforts the SIGNS family is making to raise funds to aid in the training of workers for the China missions. Those who are in the field appreciate that our greatest need at this time is qualified Chinese workers. There are many out-stations being opened in every province where our work has been started. At most there are but two families of foreign missionaries in each province or local mission. Some are not so fortunate as to have two families.
It takes weeks of time for the foreign laborer to make even a few days' visit to each of these stations. It is therefore necessary that the work of these stations be largely carried on by the Chinese evangelists. To send a man to an out-station where he sees the superintendent of his mission but once or twice a year, is a great risk unless that man is grounded in the truth, and in the principles of gospel organization, and qualified to lead others to the standard they must reach. In more favored lands, all recognize the need of qualified laborers. That need is even more apparent here where the people have for ages known practically nothing of Christianity.
To build a strong house requires the skill of capable men, from the foundation up. The apprentice may assist, but not lead. The work upon the building must be such as will pass the careful inspection of the skilled architect. Great care in selecting men is required. This care is exercised in the mission field as we endeavor to build God's house; but where are the men with the required qualifications? They have not long known God and His truth. They have never even seen a house like the one we ask them to build. They have seen but few men such as we ask them to be and lead others to be. They must first have the image of God restored in themselves, become trained and fitted for the Master's service.
Interior view of street chapel, Honan Road, Shanghai
The work of building a strong church can not be entrusted to untried, untrained men. When the reader gives of his means to further the work of the training-school in China, he is helping to qualify workers for such responsibilities. Perhaps some would be interested to know that to pay a student's transportation to and from school, and his board for nine months, requires only about twenty-five dollars. Perhaps many would like to have a student in school next year. This year our room was limited, as we had only rented buildings; but there were thirty-five bright young men, who did earnest work, and returned to their fields full of zeal to work during the summer.
Next year we plan to have our own buildings, where we can do better work and accommodate a goodly number of both young men and young women; and a good attendance is expected. We shall watch with interest the growth of the fund for this work, and ask also for the prayers of all.
Sincerely your brother,
O. A. HALL.
The Chinese Signs of the Times Press, which our family helped to build, in process of erection, now finished
DR. BERTHA SELMON
By Dr. Bertha Selmon
From Ying Shang (April 27)
DR. A. C. is teaching about two and one half hours each day in the Bible institute, using "Thoughts on Revelation" as a text-book, and I teach every forenoon in the girls' school. The girls' school opens daily at 8:40 A.M., with chapel exercises and four periods in the forenoon. The afternoon session, from 2 P.M. to 5 P.M., is divided into four periods. One woman sixty-eight years old is a model of diligence, if she does not accomplish anything more. She can not see very well, but she learns a few characters. She is an earnest believer, and is always smiling. It does me good to see the zeal of some of these poor souls, whose opportunities are so few. A young woman came to the last Sabbath meeting, who is not able to come very often, for her husband beats her every time he finds out that she has done so. Another woman has a daughter-in-law and two sons who oppose her and threaten to starve her if she persists in believing the gospel.
Going to Market in China
DR. BERTHA SELMON
Our Mission Funds
By Editor
THERE have been few donations to our mission funds the last month. There are two reasons. July is not a harvest month, and there are heavy calls for the many missions in the churches, and heavy expenses in a time of financial depression. But we hope as the harvests come in our readers will remember the needy fields.
While the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is interested in all missions, it is especially interested in the training-school for workers in China. All these other objects fall within the sphere of regular donations, but the training-school does not. It is "our" training-school; it belongs to "our" family; it is greatly needed; it is a splendid investment. Who wants a part?
MISSION FUNDS FOR JULY
"B" Mission through "Little Friend"
Previously reported ...........................$165.75
Received during July ........................... 10.30
Transferred to Training-school .................$176.05
50.00
Total ..........................................$126.05
China Training-School
Previously reported ............................$733.61
"S" ............................................ 115.00
X. Y. Z. ....................................... 50.00
$898.61
Rich and Smith transferred to "B" Mission ...... 5.25
Total ..........................................$893.36
India Mission and Hospital
Previously reported ............................$ 97.95
"S" ............................................ 50.00
C. A. Lee ...................................... 1.05
Total ..........................................$149.00
GENERAL DONATIONS
Japan
Previously reported ............................$ 25.00
"S" ............................................ 25.00
Total ..........................................$ 50.00
Korea
Previously reported ............................$ 45.00
"S" ............................................ 25.00
Total ..........................................$ 70.00
Previously reported for Africa .................$ 14.50
Previously reported for Burma .................. 20.30
Received for Chinese in Mexico "L" ............. 5.00
Received through "Little Friend" for Philippine Islands .................................... 2.45
Totals to Date for 1913
China Training-school .....................$893.36
Through "Little Friend," "B" Mission ........... 126.05
India Mission and Hospital ..................... 149.00
Japan Mission .................................. 50.00
Korea Mission .................................. 70.00
Miscellaneous .................................. 42.25
Total ..........................................$1,330.66
FREDERICK LEE
By Frederick Lee
From Hankow (April 7)
WE are thankful for the openings that God is making for us in this province. In one place, where one of our evangelists has visited, a company gathers from scores of miles around, to keep the Sabbath. They rent their own chapel, and supply their own benches. They are very anxious that we send them help to study the truth. In another place, where we have been working but nine months, we have an earnest company. Every Sabbath we have seventy or eighty present, including school children. We have opened a school, which is self-supporting, with forty-two pupils enrolled. We are very thankful for this little school; for while winning the hearts of the children, we hope to lead their fathers and mothers to the truth. The Sabbath-school is run on modern plans, with officers, teachers, etc.
We have many interesting cases in this place. One thick-set, clumsy-looking fellow has a very interesting story. Many years ago he desired to be able to go to heaven. He knew nothing of the gospel, so he did the best he knew, spending his money in building a temple. There he fasted and chanted prayers before the idols, that he might be made "pure and refined," but he says he got no peace, and gave it up. His temple is still standing, and he showed it to an evangelist. After giving up this temple, he entered on a life of wickedness, and at last became a detective, in which business he had many narrow escapes. God saved him for the gospel. Just before our meetings at Hsiao Tau last fall, this man dreamed that he would have only two opportunities to repent. The next night, he came to our meeting, and was converted. He has given up his bad habits, and is very happy in the light of present truth. In such a way can the Lord lead a poor heathen to find the gospel.
FREDERICK LEE
Questions and Answers
By Editor
The Premium of This Journal
Practical and comprehensive exposition of difficult, perplexing, or hard texts in the Bible.
Recognized and accepted by leading Bible students.
You can not purchase a copy. It is given only as a premium of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES weekly at these terms:
The journal one year ......$1.75
Value of the book ............ 1.25
Total ................................$3.00
Over 250 pages.
Almost 300 Questions and Answers.
Topical and Textual Indexes. Full Cloth Binding.
SPECIAL,— the journal one year and the book, $2.00, or the book free with two yearly subscriptions at $1.75 each.
Paper and book to separate addresses if desired. You will find both a great help to you in your study. Address our depositories, or
Signs of the Times
Mountain View, California
FOR EXCHANGE
A large seven-room house in Portland, lot 50 x 100. Young bearing orchard, chicken park. Walking distance church school, near car line. Price $2,700. For house and lot in or near Los Angeles. Same price or less with easy terms. Address Mrs. P. A. Frizzell, 1480 E. Glisam St., Portland, Oregon.
Elihu on the Sabbath
By Editor
Doubtless the tract "Elihu on the Sabbath" has brought light on this question to more earnest inquirers than any other tract published. It is a simple, logical review that we can heartily recommend for your personal study and distribution. Price, $1.00 a hundred; single copy, post-paid, 2 cents. This office.
