—It is announced that Evangelist Moody has recovered from the attack which a short time ago it was thought would necessitate his permanent retirement from the evangelistic field.
—A Rome dispatch says that the archbishop of Bologna, Milan, and Verrari, Monsignor Segna, assessor of the congregation of the holy office, and Father Steinhuber, Bavarian member of the Society of Jesus, have received official notification that they will receive appointments as cardinals at the next meeting of the Consistory.
—The Board of Education of Pittsburg, Pa., has adopted a resolution prohibiting the wearing by any teacher, in any of the public schools, during school hours, of any garb or dress distinctive of and indicating any religious order, or any attachment or adornment on the person symbolic of any order, or of the teachings of any particular religion or creed. This resolution is designed to settle the vexed question of nun teachers, which has been a source of much discussion in that city.
—The Superior Court of San Bernardino County, Cal., has affirmed the validity and constitutionality of the Sunday-closing ordinance of the city of San Bernardino. The court assumes that the ordinance does not discriminate in favor of or against any class, but is general in its character and in its operation; nor is it a violation of the rights and privileges of any religious sect or denomination. But if that ordinance curtailed one-sixth of the judge's salary, because of his conscientious scruples in regard to obeying the law of God, he would no doubt see it in a different light.
—A writer in the Christian Work, W. S. Leavitt, D.D., endeavors to show the impossibility of union between the Roman and the Eastern, or Orthodox, Churches, because union necessarily means subordination of the Eastern to the Roman. He quotes another writer as saying that "the Orthodox Churches are intensely national and patriotic, while the Catholic Church seeks to subordinate those feelings and put itself above them, and the Eastern people know this perfectly; their first thought in Russia, Greece, or Servia is of their nation, and they do not want union with a foreign organization, still less subjection to it." The argument is plausible from a human standpoint, but the foreknowledge of God overrides human probabilities. The prophecy shows us that the Roman "beast" received a "deadly wound," but it also shows that the "deadly wound was healed," and afterward "all the world wondered after the beast." The prophecy will not fail, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding.
—On the 2d inst. a meeting of Methodist ministers in Chicago adopted resolutions appealing to the pope for aid in behalf of Protestants in South America, representing that they labor under oppressive disabilities. Commenting on this singular action, the Harbinger (Disciple) says: "It cannot be expected that anything beneficial will come of this, for the pope and his followers consider that no sort of respect is due the wishes of such heretics as these Methodist ministers be." It is true that nothing "beneficial" to the Methodists may be expected from this act, but it is reasonable to expect that something favorable to Rome will eventually come of it. The pope is just now posing as the champion of religious liberty, and may be expected to be wondrous kind in the disguised role of the spider seducing the Protestant fly. The flattering assumption of these Methodist ministers that the pope holds sovereignty of South America will not be so curtly snubbed as some may suppose. The advantage they thus voluntarily place in the papal hands will not be slightingly received. The general trend of weakening Protestantism toward the Roman camp will receive many a little encouraging sop to entice them on. When Protestants stoop to ask favors of Rome, thus acknowledging her prerogative to grant favors, the complete surrender is not far ahead.
SECULAR.
—The bill to legalize civil marriages has passed the Hungarian Diet by a majority of 165.
—The plant of the American Glucose Company at Buffalo, N. Y., was burned on the night of the 12th inst., entailing a loss of $600,000.
—Louisiana planters get $11,634,461 bounty from the general government on their sugar crop of the past season. One planter received $568,900.
—Late advices from Australia report a great rush to newly discovered gold fields in West Australia, and the finding of some very large nuggets.
—The British Admiralty has made arrangements with the Cunard, Peninsular, Oriental, and Canadian Steamship Companies, by which the companies are to hold twenty-eight of their vessels at the disposal of the government, against nine so held last year.
—At St. Louis 1,200 striking tailors have agreed to return to work, leaving the matter of wages to be fixed by the master workmen of the trade.
—It is said that an offer of $1.00 a day and steady employment to two ranch hands went begging last week in Bakersfield, Cal., as no one responded.
—It is said that large numbers of Huns, Sclavs, and Poles are being sent from Pittsburg, Pa., to Texas, to take the places of negro laborers on the cotton plantations.
—Judge Dundy, of the U. S. Court at Omaha, has ordered that the wages of Union Pacific employees be restored to the old rates before the reduction last September.
—San Francisco's city hall commissioners have awarded a contract for $249,700 to build a dome and tower to the "new city hall" (now about a quarter century old).
—R. S. Heath has been the second time acquitted of the charge of murdering Attorney McWhirter at Fresno, Cal., the jury standing ten for conviction and two for acquittal.
—At Akron, Ohio, 900 employees of the Werner Printing Company went out on a strike against a ten per cent. reduction of wages, and subsequently agreed to submit to the reduction.
—Herr Leis, chancellor of the German colony in the Camaroons, Africa, who was responsible for the flogging of native women, which led to a serious mutiny, has been recalled by the government.
—It is said that a secret circular is being sent throughout the country to labor organizations calling a conference at Philadelphia to take steps for presenting a solid front to employers and legislators.
—It is said that the Mexicans have gone back to their old game of bullfighting. They tried American horse racing as an amusement, but that was too tame; and they tried American football, and that was too brutal.
—An attempt was made last week by Chicago contractors to lock out all the workmen belonging to the Building Trades Association, numbering about 60,000. But the effort failed, owing to lack of unanimity of action.
—Press dispatches note the deaths of three prominent men,—David Dudley Field, the eminent lawyer, General Slocum, of military fame, and U. S. Senator Vance, of North Carolina, for many years a leading spirit in the Senate.
—On the 13th inst. an Anarchist establishment was raided at Aubervilliers, near Paris, and large quantities of explosives seized. Several persons were arrested. It is said that the Paris jails are overflowing with persons suspected of being Anarchists.
—The effort to enforce in Alaska the Edmonds law against illicit cohabitation is said to be making trouble. Many white men of rough character are living with Indian women, and every arrest precipitates a quarrel. In each case the accused demands a jury trial, which always results in acquittal.
—The convention of the United Mine Workers, in session at Columbus, Ohio, has resolved that "on and after 12 o'clock, noon, Saturday, April 21, no coal shall be mined in any State or Territory where the organization has control, until authorized by the national officers and the executive board."
—An election for delegates to a constitutional convention will take place in the Hawaiian Islands May 2. Registration for the election is said to be going slowly, because the royalists are using all their influence to keep the native population from registering. They thus hope to make the movement a minority affair.
—A destructive fire broke out in Santa Cruz, Cal., on the night of the 14th inst. The business part of the city was ruined. A large building, erected last year, and supposed to be absolutely fireproof, is said to have "melted away like so much tinder." To make matters worse, the city's main water supply pipe was broken.
—Train robbers held up a train at Pond Creek, in the Cherokee Strip, on the 9th inst. The door of the express car was blown open with dynamite, and as the robbers attempted to climb in, the messenger opened fire upon them. He killed one and crippled another so that he fell, and the rest ran away. Two horses and the wounded robber were captured by the train men.
—A cyclone is reported to have done great damage to farmhouses, crops, and live stock in Coffey County, Kansas, on the night of the 8th inst. At Burlington City several houses were wrecked, and barns and orchards damaged. At Greenwood also a number of houses were damaged. At the same time a house was blown down near Siloam Springs, Ark., and one man killed.
—The Great Northern and Montana Central Railroad system was almost paralyzed last week by a strike of employees. It seems that the various classes of employees had joined issue and unitedly decided to ask for the restoration of the wage rate that prevailed before the cut of last August. The strike extends from Larimore, N. Dakota, to Spokane, Wash., and includes 1,500 men.
—The people of Vallejo, Cal., are about to memorialize Congress for an appropriation of $600,000 to fit up the old war ship Hartford, which has been for several years consigned to Rotten Row, at Mare Island Navy Yard. It was the flagship of Admiral Farragut during the Rebellion, and the desire of the petitioners is to preserve it as a memento, now that the Kearsarge is out of existence.
—The Spanish pilgrims to Rome, 1,400 in number, left Madrid on the 11th inst. When they arrived at Valencia, there were repeated attempts to assault the bishops and prelates of the company by a strong mob. So determined were the rioters that it became necessary for the military to protect the dignitaries of the church until the pilgrim band had departed. A score or more persons were injured.
—At Crawford, Neb., on the 12th inst., a stranger entered the bank, as the cashier was preparing to close. The latter happened to be alone, when the stranger suddenly put a pistol to his head and demanded the money in sight, about $2,500. The cashier handed it over, and the stranger then ordered him to get into the vault. This order was also obeyed, and the vault door was closed. The situation was not discovered until after the robber had disappeared.
—The following telegram from Vienna is dated the 10th inst.: "Two thousand bricklayers striking for an increase of wages paraded the streets to-day, smashing windows and destroying other property. They were dispersed by the police. There was also rioting by the pottery workers on strike at Pilsen yesterday. The military drove the rioters off. One riot has also taken place at Daudled, where the gendarmes charged the strikers, and a number of strikers were wounded."
—Some students at the Baptist Mission College at Wewala, the capital of the Seminole Indian nation, have outhazed the hazers of the great universities of the white man. One Indian boy became very unpopular in the school, and was subjected to several insults, which he heroically resented. On the night of the 5th inst., after he had gone to sleep, some boys went to his bed, which is on the third floor, and, taking him up, threw him out of the window. He died soon afterward from the effects of the fall.
—The demon spirit has again broken out among the striking workmen in the Pennsylvania coke regions. At the Frick Coke Company's plant, near Uniontown, work was resumed on the 11th inst., with sixty workmen. In a short time 500 armed strikers came down upon them, when the men ran and took refuge in the storehouse, where for a time the mob was kept at bay by officials and guards. But a threat to burn the building brought the men out, when they were terribly beaten and compelled to join the strikers.
—Justice Brewer, of the U. S. Supreme Court, has made himself conspicuous again by introducing Kate Field to a Washington audience, to deliver a very inappropriate address on the anniversary of the birth of Neal Dow. Her theme was "The Intemperance of Prohibition." She expressed the wish that Neal Dow might "live to see every prohibitory law wiped from the statute books." Justice Brewer's attitude on this occasion, his "Original Package" decision in Kansas, and "Christian Nation" decision, combine to put him in the position of holding Christianity and rum as inseparably connected.
—The superintendent of schools and the principal of the High School of this city have returned from a trip to Pueblo, Colo., whither they went to investigate the "Search system of teaching," of which considerable has been said of late. The official delegates give a good report of Professor Search's method, which after all is but a return to old methods. It provides that the bright or industrious boy or girl who is able and willing to go ahead shall have the privilege of doing so. It is coming to be generally admitted that both teachers and pupils are too much bound by cast-iron rules that cannot be varied either way to fit special cases. The dull and the bright, the indolent and the industrious, are all driven in the same rut by the present system. It is not best for the one class, nor just for the other.
—At last account the San Francisco industrial army, under General Kelly, was at Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they received an enthusiastic ovation. Seven companies of militia were on hand by order of the governor, but there was evidently no use for them. It is said that the Oklahoma army, 300 in number, have made arrangements for transportation to Washington in box cars. The Coxey army is getting along slowly in the mountain region of Pennsylvania, but it is thought it will be largely reinforced on the way, and will travel leisurely until other contingents arrive in the vicinity of Washington. The Second Southern California army seems to be stranded at Colton and San Bernardino, where the people have determined to starve them out. Several leaders are in jail, and will be tried on charges of inciting a mob. The contingent now being raised in this city attended the First Presbyterian Church in a body on Sunday, the 15th inst., in the morning, and the First M. E. Church in the evening.
Words to Our Readers
By Editor
Read the "School of Christ." Do you not want to be a disciple in that school?
The sermon by Mrs. White, "Christ Came to Break Sin’s Chain," concludes in this number. We hope that those bound by sin and iniquity will take home to their hearts its precious truths, and go free in the Lord.
In this issue we begin a series of five articles on "The Perfection of the Law," God’s law, of course, for no other law is perfection. We again ask for them a careful reading, and a suspense of judgment till the series is finished.
We begin next week a series of independent historical notes on the great apostasy. It will, we are sure, be of interest to our readers and workers to know how the simplicity of the gospel was corrupted by the mystery of iniquity.
To Our Correspondents.—Several who have asked for an explanation of Heb. 6: 4-6 will find a brief consideration of the text in our Question Corner. Others whose questions may not be answered directly will frequently find satisfactory replies in various articles. There are still others of our correspondents who have written us by mail, some of which have long waited. This we regret. We will reply as soon as possible, and we ask them to kindly have patience.
To Our Many Friends.—We have received many letters of late, speaking words of approval for the SIGNS and for the truth it contains. We would be glad to print these letters, or reply to each one separately, but lack of space forbids the former, and lack of time forbids the latter. We are thankful for all these unsolicited words of encouragement. They are among the visible evidences of the to us invisible work which the Lord is doing through his truth. It cheers us in the office of publication to know that there are hearts responding to God’s truth for this time. Some one or more of these letters we may publish once in a while, not because they are particularly better, but as a sample of many. May God’s blessing rest upon the labors of all connected with our paper, not only the editor, contributors, and publishers, but upon our large and increasing circle of friends and supporters throughout the world. For all the good it has done, or may do, to the God of all grace be all the praise. The work is his, and his the power and glory.
We have received from Brother Elliot C. Chapman, of Tahiti, a neatly printed and illustrated pamphlet, entitled “Te Huru e te Haapaoraa o te Sabati no te Faaueraa Maha.” Published at Hamuta, Tahiti. It is, we judge, a translation in the Tahitian language of Bible Students’ Library No. 54, “The Nature and Obligation of the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment,” by J. H. Waggoner, abridged and revised, with some illustrations and diagrams added. May the Lord bless it to the good of the island work.
The strong and proper argument for the prohibition of the liquor traffic is not to remove temptation from the drunkard; it is to protect the civil rights of the widow, the orphan, the tax payers, and to save expense to the State in the prosecution of criminals, and the support of the paupers and insane, for which the drink traffic is largely responsible. If there is not reason enough here to prohibit the liquor traffic, it ought not to be prohibited; but there is more than sufficient ground. The moral and religious questions lie outside of politics.
Parents and Their Responsibilities.—The responsibilities are great, and we know it. Would to God that all parents realized the fact. Many do, but do not know how to meet these responsibilities. We say, for the benefit of all parents who desire instruction, that, beginning with next week, we will publish from the pen of Mrs. E. G. White the following articles, which will be especially helpful to parents: "Parents Should Be Christlike," "Self-discipline Necessary to Parents," "The Family Circle the School of Christ." We hope they may be a blessing to many homes.
The organ of the Advent Christian denomination on this coast, Messiah’s Advocate, in its issue of April 15, contains a report of "The Debate at Napa" between "a S. D. Adventist brother" who "challenged Elder H. W. Bowman to debate the question whether the two-horned beast of the thirteenth chapter of Revelation was a symbolic prefiguration of the United States of America in its religio-political aspect." Elder Bowman reports the "debate" in the above issue. All we have to say about it is this, that either the report misstates the positions taken on the affirmative, or else the "S. D. Adventist brother" did not rightly represent Seventh-day Adventists.
War No More.—Hon. Frederick R. Coudert, the eminent Catholic lawyer, discusses in the Catholic Mirror of April 7 the question of arbitration under the heading "War No More." But the only hope he holds out is the following: "The best preserver of peace is the cost of war." But he thinks that out of the "senseless methods of war" this country will, by "the example that we have set," "lead mankind to better and greater things than it has yet known." But there has not been a time in this nation’s history since the Civil War that there was more of the war spirit among the masses than now. War will be no more when sin and selfishness are no more. This is not our opinion, it is God’s truth.
The Church All That Is Needed.—The church of Christ is nothing if not a missionary society. That is one of the prime objects of her existence. "But ye," says the apostle Peter, "are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises [margin, "virtues"] of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." At the present time the church is a new recruiting ground for extra or intra church societies, associations, clubs, guilds, sisterhoods, etc., to do the work, at a vast expense of time, talent, and multiplied machinery, which God ordained the church itself to do, and which she is abundantly able and fitted to do, through the grace of God. When will we learn the simplicity of the gospel?
Present Truth and Present Duty.—Our esteemed contemporary, the Sabbath Recorder, says: "The term ‘present truth’ is often used, especially by our Adventist friends, in a way somewhat significant of their own peculiar interpretation of the Scriptures. But there is another phase, at least of equal importance, and should be kept constantly in mind by every person, and that is ‘present duty.’ We do not so much need a prophet’s vision to reveal to us future events as we do an ever present sense of present duty. Or, as Carlyle aptly says, ‘That grand business is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.’"
To all which we say, Amen. But we need "present truth" to show us "present duty." Let it be "present truth" and "present duty," for which God is always a "present help."
“BIBLE STUDENTS’ LIBRARY.”
By Editor
(Continued.)
READ the following and see if there is not some publication in the following list which you wish to read yourself, or which may be of eternal benefit to some friend. The numbers omitted are not now published.
No. 63. The Sure Foundation and the Keys of the Kingdom. An excellent exposition of Matt. 16:15-19, by Elder E. J. Waggoner. An excellent tract to hand to a candid Catholic. Price, 2 cents.
No. 64. The Full Assurance of Faith. A 16-page tract, by E. J. Waggoner. Illustrating faith and showing its reasonableness and verity. Price, 2 cents.
No. 65. The Great Day of the Lord. By M. C. Wilcox. A tract of forty pages, showing what the “day of the Lord” is, its nature, the events of that day, and when it ends. Price, 5 cents.
No. 67. Bible Election. Predestination in the light of the Scriptures, a doctrine of beauty and encouragement, revealing the necessity of trials. Price, 3 cents.
No. 68. The Old Testament in the New Dispensation. A tract of 24 pages, by W. N. Glenn, showing the harmony existing between the Old and New Testaments, and that the Old Testament Scriptures are a part of “the word of the gospel,” and “is profitable for doctrine.” Price, 3 cents.
The above will be sent post free on receipt of price. Address Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.