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Review and Herald, Vol. 46, No. 20.

PERPETUITY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS
Earlier text: PERPETUITY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS

Arrangements for the Centennial.

The Director General of the United States Centennial Commission has sent us the following with a request that we publish it for the purpose of laying before our readers much-needed information in reference to the coming exhibition. We give it not alone on this account, but because it will be of interest to all our subscribers to learn more of the gigantic preparations which are being made to celebrate the hundredth year of American independence.
The Act of Congress which provided for “celebrating the one-hundredth Anniversary of American Independence, by holding an International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine,” authorized the creation of the United States Centennial Commission, and entrusted to it the management of the Exhibition. This body is composed of two Commissioners from each State and Territory, nominated by the respective Governors, and commissioned by the President of the United States. The enterprise, therefore, is distinctly a national one and not, as has sometimes been stated, the work of a private corporation.
The Exhibition will be opened on May 10th, 1876, and remain open every day, except Sunday, until November 10th. There will be a fixed price of 50 cents for admission to all the buildings and grounds.
The Centennial grounds are situated on the western bank of the Schuylkill River, and within Fairmount Park, the largest public park in proximity to a great city in the world, and one of the most beautiful in the country. The park contains 3160 acres, 450 of which have been enclosed for the Exhibition. Besides this tract, there will be large yards near by for the exhibition of stock, and a farm of 42 acres has already been suitably planted for the tests of ploughs, mowers, reapers, and other agricultural machinery.
The Exhibition buildings are approached by eight lines of street cars, which connect with all the other lines in the city, and by the Pennsylvania and Reading railroads, over the tracks of which trains will also run from the North Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore railroads. Thus the Exhibition is in immediate connection with the entire railroad system of the country, and any one within 90 miles of Philadelphia can visit it at no greater cost than that of carriage hire at the Paris or Vienna Exhibition.
The articles to be exhibited have been classified in seven departments, which, for the most part, will be located in appropriate buildings, whose several areas are as follows:—
Department Buildings Acres covered
1. Mining and Metallurgy, 2. Manufactures, 3. Education and Science Main Building 21.47
4. Art Art Gallery 1.5
5. Machinery Mach’ry Building 14.
6. Agriculture Agric’al Building 10.
7. Horticulture Hortic’al Building 1.5
Total 48.47
This provides nearly ten more acres for exhibiting space than there were at Vienna, the largest International Exhibition yet held. Yet the applications of exhibitors have been so numerous as to exhaust the space, and many important classes of objects must be provided for in special buildings.
An important special exhibition will be made by the United States government, and is being prepared under the supervision of a Board of Officers representing the several Executive Departments of the Government. A fine building of 4½ acres is provided for the purpose, space in which will be occupied by the War, Treasury, Navy, Interior, Post Office, and Agricultural Departments and the Smithsonian Institution.
The Women’s Centennial Executive Committee have raised $30,000 for the erection of a pavilion in which to exhibit every kind of women’s work. To this collection, women of all nations are expected to contribute.
The list of special buildings is constantly increasing, and present indications are that their total number will be from 200 to 250. Most of the important foreign nations—England, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Egypt, Japan, and others—are putting up one or more structures each, for exhibiting purposes, or for the use of the commissioners, exhibitors, and visitors. Offices and headquarters of this kind, usually of considerable architectural beauty, are provided by the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, West Virginia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Delaware; and it is likely that others will follow the example.
A number of Trade and Industrial Associations, which require large amounts of space, will be provided for in special buildings. Among these are the photographers, the carriage builders, the glass makers, the cracker bakers, the boot and shoe manufacturers, besides quite a number of individual exhibitors. The great demands for space will probably render this course necessary to a considerable extent, especially for exhibitors who have been tardy in making their applications. In the Main Exhibition Building, for example, 333,300 square feet of space had been applied for by the beginning of October by American exhibitors only; whereas, the aggregate space which it has been possible to reserve for the United States Department is only 160,000 square feet, about one-third of which will be consumed by passage ways.
The Machinery Building, like the others, is already fully covered by applications. There are about 1000 American exhibitors in this department, 150 English, and 150 from other European countries—which is about 250 more than entered the Vienna Machinery Exhibition. Extra provision is being made for annexes to accommodate the hydraulic machinery, the steam hammers, forges, hoisting engines, boilers, plumbers, carpenters, etc.
Power in the Machinery Hall will be chiefly supplied by a pair of monster Corliss Engines. Each cylinder is 40 inches in diameter, with a stroke of ten feet; the fly-wheel is 31 feet in diameter, and weighs 55 tons; the horse-power is 1400; and the number of boilers is 20. This engine drives about a mile of shafting.
For the Art Exhibition, the most eminent American artists are understood to be at work, and it may be confidently stated that, especially in the department of landscape painting, the United States will present a finer display than the public has been led to expect. Quite aside from the contributions of American artists, applications from abroad call for more than four times the exhibiting space afforded by the great Memorial Hall. Provision for the surplus will be made in temporary fire-proof buildings, though all exhibiting nations will be represented in the central Art Gallery.
The Secretary of the Navy has arranged that a United States war vessel shall call next spring, at convenient European ports, to collect and transport hither to the Exhibition the works of American artists resident in Europe. Among the ports thus far designated are Southampton for England, Havre for France, Bremen for Germany, and Leghorn for Italy, to which, if desirable, others may be added.
Mr. Bell, the eminent English sculptor, who designed the groups for the plinth for the great Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London, is reproducing in terra cotta, at the celebrated works in Lambeth, the one which symbolizes America. The figures in this group are colossal, covering a ground space of 15 feet square. It will probably be placed in the great central gallery, opposite the principal entrance.
The Art Exhibition will include, in addition to the works of contemporary artists, representative productions of the past century of American art—those, for instance, of Stuart, Copley, Trumbull, West, Alston, Sully, Neagle, Elliot, Kensett, Cole. These, as well as the works offered by living artists, will be passed upon by the Committee of Selection, who will visit for the purpose, New York, Boston, Chicago, and other leading cities, in order to prevent the needless transportation to Philadelphia of works of art not up to the standard of admission.
A large number of orders and fraternities have signified their intention to hold gatherings at Philadelphia during the period of the Exhibition. Among those which may now be enumerated are the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the Grand Encampment, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Grand Lodge, United States, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Grand Commandery Knights Templar; Grand Army of the Republic; Presbyterian Synod; Caledonian Club; Portland Mechanic Blues; Welsh National Eisteddfod; Patriotic Order Sons of America; California Zouaves of San Francisco; an International Regatta; the Life Insurance Companies; National Board of Underwriters; State Agricultural Society; 2nd Infantry, N. G. of California; Philadelphia Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church; Cincinnati Society; California Pioneer Society; American Dental Convention; Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America; Independent Order of B’nai Berith; National Alumni Association; Salesmen’s Association; 5th Maryland Regiment; American Pomological Society; Maltster’s Association of the United States; Army of the Cumberland; Humboldt Monument Association; Christopher Columbus Monument Association; Board of Trade Convention; International Typographical Congress; Rifle Association of the United States; Centennial Legion; Philadelphia County Medical Society; International Medical Congress; Old Volunteer Fire Department of Philadelphia.

NOTES ON DAN. 7.

Verse 5. This beast “raised up itself on one side;” for the Medes and Persians extended their conquests almost wholly to the west of their own countries; or “it raised up one dominion,” i. e., the Medes and Persians united to form one kingdom; or the Persians, who were the inferior people, acquired the chief dominion. The “three ribs” are interpreted of the three kingdoms of Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, which the Persians conquered, and grievously oppressed; thus taking the prey, as it were, out of the mouth of the Chaldeans. Those standing by, who called on the beast to “arise and devour much flesh,” may be explained of the providential dispensations which excited the Medes and Persians to attempt extensive conquests; and of the cruelty of the Persian kings, which hardly ever was exceeded or equalled; but may it not also denote their attempts to subdue the Thracians, Macedonians, Greeks, and other European nations, which at length occasioned the ruin of their monarchy? “Their success made them still more greedy of dominion.”—Lowth. Scott. “Ancient historians stigmatize the Medes and Persians as the greatest robbers and spoilers that ever oppressed the nations.”—Paxt.
Verse 6. The swift leopard was used in hunting. “By the swiftness of Alexander’s progress, and the victories which he obtained by small forces, it appeared that Providence gave him the empire of the world.”—Lowth. Scott.
Verse 7. Some expositors have explained this fourth beast, of the successors of Alexander, and have endeavored to make out that Antiochus Epiphanes was “the little horn.” But were any of Alexander’s successors, or even all of them together, more powerful and dreadful than he had been? Were their conquests more extensive and destructive than his? For it is most evident that those of this fourth beast were. The “ten horns” were “kings,” or kingdoms (according to the language of prophecy), all existing at once, and not individual princes rising in succession. “The little horn” was not one of the ten, but arose among and after them.
These reasons have induced almost all modern Protestant expositors to look elsewhere for this “fourth beast;” and the emblems are so apposite that there can be little danger of mistake, or reason for hesitation, as to the grand outlines. This “fourth beast” evidently accords with the legs and feet of iron which were seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his visionary image and which were at length divided into ten toes. It far exceeded in power, fierceness, and destructive rage, all that had gone before it, as well as in the extent and long duration of its dominions; and no animal could be found so terrible and furious as to lend it a suitable name. This was doubtless an emblem of the Roman State, the invincible fortitude, hardness, and force, of which perhaps were never equalled.
This fourth empire was governed in another manner, and by other maxims, than any of the preceding, and in process of time, it was divided into ten kingdoms. These are indeed reckoned up in several ways, by different writers, according to the date assigned to the enumeration; but in general it is clear that the principal kingdoms in Europe at this day sprang from them, and comprise them, excepting some of the more northern regions, and those possessed by the Turks.
Faber’s remarks on this point are well worthy the accurate student’s attention, and his conclusion from it seems well grounded. The historian Machiavel, little thinking what he was doing, reckons up the ten primary kingdoms as follows: 1. The Ostrogoths in Mesia; 2. The Visigoths in Pannonia; 3. The Sueves and Alans in Gascoigne and Spain; 4. The Vandals in Africa; 5. The Franks in France; 6. The Burgundians in Burgunda; 7. The Heruli and Turingi in Italy; 8. The Saxons and Angles in Britain; 9. The Huns in Hungary, and 10. The Lombards, at first upon the Danube, afterward in Italy. The same catalogue is exhibited by that excellent chronologer, Bishop Lloyd, who adds the dates when these ten kingdoms arose: 1. The Huns, about A. D. 356; 2. The Ostrogoths 377; 3. The Visigoths, 378; 4. The Franks, 407; 5. The Vandals, 407; 6. The Sueves and Alans, 407; 7. The Burgundians, 407; 8. The Heruli and Rugii, 476; 9. The Saxons, 476; 10. The Longobards in the north of Germany, 483; in Hungary, 526.
“These, then, upon the concurring testimony of an historian and a chronologer, are ‘the ten kingdoms,’ into which the Roman Empire was originally divided; and consequently they are the first ‘ten horns’ of which we are in quest.”—Faber, vol. i. pp. 170, 171.
The Western Empire was at first divided into ten kingdoms; as the regions conquered by Alexander the Great were into four; and whatever alterations took place in subsequent ages, the one still continued, in the language of prophecy, the ten horns of the fourth beast, and the other, the four heads of the third beast. The Western Empire was broken into ten kingdoms; this, therefore, must be exclusively intended. And John, before he enters on the state of the church in the West, during the reign of the ten-horned beast and the two-horned beast, gives an account of the Eastern Empire, and the subdivision of it by the Saracens and Turks, in a distinct chapter. Rev. 9:11–13.
It is, however, certain, that the Roman Empire was divided into ten kingdoms; and though they might be sometimes more and sometimes fewer, yet they were still known by the name of the ten kingdoms of the Western Empire, which suffices for our general purpose. For though the Romans subdued those countries in the East which had successively belonged to the Chaldeans, the Persians, and the Macedonians, yet their empire (or the body, head, and horns of the beast) was in the West. All the four beasts are still alive, though the dominion of the first three has been taken away. The nations of Chaldea and Assyria are still the first beast; those of Macedonia, Greece, Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, are still the third; and those of Europe, on this side Greece, are still the fourth.—Sir Isaac Newton. Scott.
Verse 8. While the prophet was considering these ten horns, he saw “another little horn,” springing up among them. This evidently points out the power of the church and bishop of Rome, which from small beginnings, long before it became a temporal dominion, thrust itself up among the ten kingdoms and at length got possession of three of them, having turned out those who held them. “If ever three kingdoms were ‘plucked up’ before a little kingdom which arose imperceptibly among the ten primary kingdoms, they must be the three, the names of which occur in the preceding list of Machiavel, and Bishop Lloyd. Accordingly we find that the kingdom of the Heruli, the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, and the kingdom of the Lombards, were successively eradicated before the little papal horn, which at length became a temporal, no less than a spiritual, power, at the expense of these three depressed primary States.”—Faber.
This seems a better-founded opinion than that the Exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards and the State of Rome (owned) the authority of the Roman Pontiff, of which two, the Exarchate of Ravenna and the State of Rome, were not among the ten primary kingdoms. In this horn, were “eyes like the eyes of a man.” This circumstance denoted the policy, sagacity, and watchfulness, by which the little horn would spy out occasions of extending and establishing its interests and advancing its exorbitant pretensions; and the court of Rome has ever been remarkable for this, above all states in the world, as every person at all acquainted with history must know. It had also “a mouth speaking great things;” and we shall have frequent occasion to speak of the arrogant claims, blasphemous titles, and great, swelling words of vanity, of this horn. The style of “his holiness,” “our Lord God, the Pope,” “another God on earth,” and the claims of infallibility, and of a power to dispense with God’s laws, to forgive sins, and to sell admission into Heaven, may serve for a specimen of the great things which this mouth has spoken.—Comprehensive Commentary.

Search the Scriptures.

Constitution of T. & M. Society.

By H. A. St. John

I do not say that it is perfect; but it is certainly very excellent, and very comprehensive. It seems to embrace about our whole duty to a world lying in wickedness. I admire it. Reader, are you a member of the T. & M. Society? and do you inquire, “What is duty?” Allow me to briefly express what I conceive to be the duty of its members and officers.
1. DUTY OF PRESIDENT : To understand and support the Constitution.
2. DUTY OF VICE-PRESIDENT : To understand and support the Constitution.
3. DUTY OF SECRETARY : To understand and support the Constitution.
4. DUTY OF TREASURER : To understand and support the Constitution.
5. DUTY OF DIRECTORS : To understand and support the Constitution.
6. DUTY OF LIBRARIANS : To understand and support the Constitution.
7. DUTY OF AGENTS : To understand and support the Constitution.
8. DUTY OF MEMBERS : To understand and support the Constitution.
To understand is one thing, and to support is quite another thing. Both complied with, we shall be found at our post. What would we think of a man in a responsible place in our government, sworn to support the Constitution, who yet knew nothing about it, perhaps had never read it. Now if our duty is plain, I am sure we shall find the greatest need of divine grace, that we may have a heart to do it. Let us come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. H. A. St. John.

Prayer: Description from the New York Tribune

Prayer.

THE following impressive description of the nature of prayer, and for a secular paper, very remarkable description, is from an article in the N. Y. Tribune:—
“The attitude and act of prayer are beyond all other things in life invested with solemnity and clothed in mystery. It is the supreme act of faith; approached by the penitent with doubts and questions and infinite wondering; only slowly apprehended, and so immeasurably vast in its meaning to the helpless soul struggling upward on it that man at his very best can only throw himself upon it in utter self-distrust and leave the rest to God.”

Meeting of the Publishing Association.

By Uriah Smith; Mrs. Freddie H. Sisley

According to appointment in Review, No. 16, a special meeting of the Publishing Association was held in our house of worship in Battle Creek, Nov. 12, 1875.
After the usual opening preliminaries, the business was called up according to the statements in the written notice of the meeting. Resignations were presented from U. Smith as President of the Association, from L. McCoy as Vice-president, and from J. H. Waggoner as one of the editors of the Review. These were acted upon singly and accepted.
A nominating committee was then called for to nominate persons to fill the vacancies made by the foregoing resignations. The chair, being empowered by vote to make the appointment, named Burleigh Salisbury, G. W. Amadon, and J. G. Whipple, as said committee.
Having conferred together a few moments, the committee reported an informal nomination as follows:—
For President, Eld. James White.
” Vice-president, U. Smith.
To fill vacancy on Editorial board, Eld. James White.
The meeting then proceeded to ballot upon the names presented, whereupon the persons named were unanimously chosen to the positions designated.
No one having any further business to introduce, the meeting adjourned sine die.
U. SMITH, Pres.
MRS. FREDDIE H. SISLEY, Sec.

The Condition of the Kan. & Mo. Conferences.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

IT was my privilege to attend the camp-meeting of the Missouri and Kansas Conference, held at Mound City, Kansas, Sept. 9–13, 1875. I found all the preachers and most of the leading brethren in these two States at this meeting, besides some three hundred brethren and sisters gathered from all parts of the Conference. From these I learned the financial condition of the cause in that new Conference. I felt very much distressed at their destitution, and promised to do my utmost to help them. I therefore waited anxiously for Bro. White to say something on the subject through the REVIEW; and was glad that he called attention to it in No. 18, of present volume. He was there himself last spring and knows something of their circumstances.
The brethren there feel that Bro. White has done his whole duty by them, and they are thankful for the means that have been sent them in the past by brethren generally; but still the preachers are in pressing need of money with no possible way of raising it.
In the first place, both these States are new. Money is always scarce in newly settled countries. The brethren have been consumed by the drought one year, and entirely eaten out by the grasshoppers twice. Still they had to live, pay their taxes, buy their clothing, &c. This has necessarily involved many of them in debt. This season they have raised an abundant crop, much larger than usual, so that they will not suffer for food. But what they have raised is so exceedingly cheap that they can raise no money with it to speak of. The finest peaches I ever saw sold for twenty-five cents per bushel. We bought corn on the camp-ground at the rate of about ten cents a bushel. Other things are in proportion, so that the chances for raising money are very poor.
There are about a dozen preachers in these two Conferences, and nearly all of them have families. I looked over their accounts for the last season, and I cannot see how, with the strictest economy, they have managed to live on what they have had. But nearly all of them wore the cheapest clothing, and with several of them this was faded, threadbare, and patched. At first the auditing committee decided to pay, as the highest wages, six dollars per week, and the lowest, five dollars, for time actually spent in the field. But even these figures run several hundred dollars above what there was in the treasury, or what there was any probability of raising for months to come, so we cut them down again all around from twenty-five to fifty per cent. This seemed hard, but it was no use to make a pretense of giving them what we had not to give. Then we paid out the last cent in the treasury, raised about a hundred dollars among the more fortunate brethren, and borrowed over one hundred dollars out of the bank to pay even these small allowances. Yet, with all these discouragements, the cause has been rapidly gaining in these two Conferences.
I have visited no part of the field where labor has been more successful than here. God has evidently blessed the spirit of sacrifice with which these brethren have labored. There were preachers among them who had given their whole time to the work for a year, receiving only from twelve to sixteen dollars per month, who could have earned from thirty to thirty-five dollars per month teaching school.
Now, brethren and sisters, what shall be done for these needy preachers? Must they be compelled to leave the work for want of means to sustain their families this winter? I often think of them as I see in other places the abundance, and even luxuries, with which many of our brethren and sisters are surrounded in their comfortable homes. We appeal to these friends to open their hearts and divide with those who are just now in such urgent need of even the very necessaries of life. Do not put it off for weeks and months. What you do, do now. What is done should be done immediately.
What you wish to contribute, perhaps can best be sent to the REVIEW Office and forwarded from there. While at the camp-meeting, I gave ten dollars to aid these preachers. Myself and wife now forward twenty-five dollars more for the same purpose. There are quite a number of brethren and sisters in Kansas and Missouri who have not been eaten out by the grasshoppers. Some of them are in very comfortable circumstances. These friends should feel a special responsibility at this time in this matter to raise their S. B. fully up to the Bible plan, and then pay up promptly. If they do not, God may visit them next.
D. M. CANRIGHT.
Vassar, Mich., Nov. 6, 1875.

Northeastern Tract and Missionary Society Meeting at South Lancaster

Bro. Haskell writes that the meeting of the N. E. Tract and Missionary Society, held in So. Lancaster, Nov. 7, was the most interesting meeting of the kind he ever attended. The report will appear next week.

Reports from Those Reclaimed from Infidelity

By Editor

Our call for reports from those who had been reclaimed from infidelity by S. D. A. teachings, is calling in some telling and interesting responses. Let them still come in. One of the marked features of the last Iowa Camp-meeting was the number of testimonies from those who had been involved in skepticism before hearing on the views of S. D. Adventists. We know there are many of this class. Let us hear from them all.

Salisbury Press Reviews Sermon Against the Sabbath

The Salisbury Press, published at Salisbury, Mo., by Bro. J. M. Gallemore, in its issue of Nov. 5, 1875, contains an able review of a sermon by one Eld. Davis, against the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It is by this continual agitation of the truth that the public mind is to become enlightened. Let the good work go on.

Elder White Restored as Publishing Association President

By Editor

By the report of the Association meeting given in another column, it will be seen that Bro. White has been put into his usual and appropriate position, as President of the Publishing Association, and Editor-in-chief of this paper. All the members of the Association will concur in this action. It was in anticipation of this move that we have made no change in the prospectus on our first page and the editorial board at the head of our first editorial page since the election at the annual meeting in August last. They now express the facts in the case.

Sunday and the Centennial.

By Uriah Smith

Nothing, perhaps, more plainly shows the wide-spread interest beginning to be felt upon the Sunday question in this nation than the fact that at this early day, the subject is greatly agitated, whether or not the Centennial Exhibition shall be opened on Sunday. And the friends of that day are jubilant over the assurance given by Gen. J. R. Hawley, President of the Centennial Committee, that it will not be open on the first day of the week, and that he would resign if it should be voted thus to open it. U. S.

A Sad Commentary.

By Uriah Smith

The following item from the Detroit Evening News, describing a scene that occurred in the celebrated Ward will case, just tried in Detroit, gives just cause of alarm at the evident demoralization going on in the tastes of those who have been supposed to be the better classes of society. During the argument of one of the lawyers, who was showing up the awful revelations of this case, the News says that
“The occupant of the pulpit of the finest church and the worst criminal of the Potomac, shoulder to shoulder, eagerly listened to the torrents of obscenity and abuse as they flowed in one continuous stream from the lips of the leading criminal lawyer of the universe. The intense interest the ladies took in the portions most given to filth, and things that grate harshly on moral sensitiveness, was a sad commentary on their natures.” U. S.

Fast Trains.

By Uriah Smith

IN this lightning age, the saving of a day's time in travel, or the transmission of mail matter, seems to be regarded of immense consequence. From a late paper, we clip the following item:—
“The Baltimore and Ohio Company proposes to put on two lightning mail trains between Chicago and Washington. It is promised that by these trains a gain of one day in time will be realized by points west of the Mississippi.”
We are glad to see all these enterprises prosecuted to success. They will aid in the transmission of the last message of mercy. U. S.

The Storm Gathering for Turkey.

By Uriah Smith

The Chicago Times of Nov. 8, 1875, has a long article, headed, “Hostile Attitude of Russia toward the Ottoman Empire,” from which we take the following opening and significant paragraph:—
“The unfortunate state of affairs in the Herzegovina has greatly agitated the Russian officials at St. Petersburg. The revelations made by the insurgent committee at Metkovitch, the descriptions of Herzegovinian life under Turkish rule, the desecration of the church, the altar, and the most sacred rights of marital existence by the Ottoman officials, appear to have rekindled the smoldering sparks left unquenched by the Crimean campaign. The official and semi-official journals are publishing dispatches and governmental condemnation of the violence practiced in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia appears to hold the Turk in anything but the high esteem stated in the insurgent memorandum to the great powers, and covertly hints that it may be necessary to take from Turkey the power she now possesses of embroiling the whole of Europe in war. The Voix, an official organ, makes a strong excuse beforehand for any acts that Russia may feel called upon to commit in order to protect the Christians in Turkish provinces, and to place the Porte without the pale of European dynasties.”
At the same time that this appears in the Times, the Detroit Evening News contains the following paragraphs, which look in the same direction:—
“Europe is a chess board, and if you watch closely you will probably see some masterful play this winter on the part of the Czar.”
“It is very significant that the fate of Turkey seems to rest in the hands of the emperors of Russia, Germany, and Austria, and that Great Britain’s interest and influence in the business is the very subordinate one of protecting the moneyed interests of English bondholders.”
“Coincident with the designs against Turkey (for such beyond question is the meaning of all this hob-nobbing of the three emperors) comes a demand for the British occupation of Egypt, as a step necessary, so the argument runs, for the preservation of the British Empire in India. If Turkey is a ‘sick man,’ as the cant phrase goes Egypt is by no means in the best of health; and it seems not unlikely that the present generation will witness the absorption of both lands, England to take the country of the Khedive and the pyramids, and the three powers to partition Turkey as they did Poland eighty years ago.”
And still another paper has the following paragraph upon this question:—
“It is reported that the Northern Powers of Europe will interfere in the Eastern question, and insist upon Turkey’s according needed reforms to the insurgent States. Count Andrassy, the Austrian Prime Minister, will draw up and present to the Sublime Porte the propositions agreed upon.”
These paragraphs show a movement on foot in reference to Turkey, which evidently has not been entered upon to be abandoned, till it is pushed to its ultimate results. The steps taken are not merely like straws showing which way the wind blows, but like uprooted trees and drift-wood borne down by the flood, showing that an irresistible current is setting in to press the Turk out of Europe. The closing sentence of the first of the preceding quotations, gives the key-note to this whole movement: “To place the Porte without the pale of European dynasties.” This means, to drive the Turk out of Europe; and this means, further, the soon drying up of the great river Euphrates, Rev. 16:12, the signal for strife and trouble which shall involve all nations, and the setting up of an everlasting kingdom by Him whose right it is to reign. U. S.

The Review and Voice.

By Uriah Smith

The present volume of the VOICE is drawing to a close. Forty-eight numbers will complete it. As recently stated in the REVIEW, it will then cease to be published, the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal., taking its place as a pioneer paper. Those whose subscriptions extend beyond that time will be supplied with other papers, of the same general matter.
We wish to ask all who have sent in names to the VOICE, to now canvass the ground, learn how the paper has been received, what is thought of the views presented, and to see how many they can secure as subscribers for the REVIEW. Enough doctrinal matter has been presented in the VOICE to show to those who have read it, our views on many points, and the reasons therefor. They are now prepared to continue their investigations by becoming readers of the REVIEW.
The discontinuance of the VOICE, which has been published under unfavorable circumstances, will enable more time and energy to be concentrated upon the REVIEW. The editors design to make this the very best church paper ever published. A series of articles will soon be commenced in the paper, on the subject of the Sanctuary, to fully set forth the truth on that great subject now of such absorbing interest to every student of prophecy and to all the world. Every reader of the VOICE should have it. How many of them will subscribe for the REVIEW? Will our brethren who have canvassed for the VOICE give this question a fair trial, and thus carry forward the work they have already begun? We would like to see our subscription list doubled by the commencement of the new year, 1876.
U. S.

The Signs of the Times.

By H. A. St. John

The first volume of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is in the past, and the second volume has already commenced. This excellent and live paper, laden with precious, golden truth from the golden State, deserves our liberal patronage just now, in the period of its infancy. I have two or three suggestions for my brethren in Ohio especially.
1. At our last camp-meeting, quite a good many of us subscribed for the SIGNS at $2.00 a year. For reasons clearly set forth in the REVIEW, the subscription price has been raised to $3.00. Now I suggest that we all pay $1.00 more for the second volume of the SIGNS. Inclosed, with a note stating what it is for, in a good envelope, securely sealed, and plainly directed, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal., it will no doubt reach its destination safely.
2. I suggest that every subscriber make diligent effort to obtain at least one $3.00 subscriber before Dec. 1, and thus double the present subscription from our Conference.
3. I suggest that all who possibly can, pay half price, and send the SIGNS to some friend or relative, one or more, who thereby may be brought to rejoice in the light of present truth.
There is but a short time in which to work, so let us go about it at once. The T. & M. Society should take hold of the work soon.
H. A. St. John.
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