THIS is the last number of the special Gospel series of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES which we began last May. From time to time your attention has been called to some of the good things we have in store for you in the numbers to follow; but the half has not been told. Let us briefly recapitulate:
World's Missions Special.
Our next issue will be the great World's Missions Special, a double number, fairly bristling with facts and figures and interesting information. Of all the great specials we have ever issued, none equals this in beauty, power, and general information; and it tells truth, wonderful truth, and will interest believers and unbelievers alike. Here is a list of the articles:
"The Open Doors Before God's People," by Arthur T. Pierson, D.D., editor "Missionary Review of the World," a stirring article.
"A Century of Missions," by I. H. Evans.
"Christianity a Life," by Geo. B. Thompson.
"A Personal Saviour," by W. A. Colcord.
"The Power of the Word to Save," by Abdiel.
"The Great Missionary," by Mrs. E. G. White.
"Medical Missions," by A. O. Tait.
"The Evangelization of the World in This Generation," by A. G. Daniels.
"The Divine Program of Missions," by W. A. Spicer.
"The Latter Rain," by M. C. Wilcox.
"A Mighty Factor in Missions," by J. N. Anderson, China.
"Child Wives and Widows of India," by Bessie L. Shaw.
It has an excellent song with the missionary spirit running throughout. There are messages and appeals from workers in the great mission fields of Asia, Africa, South America, and the islands of the sea.
Besides these, there are two pages showing God's great, needy field in picture object-lessons, telling in wonderfully graphic form of the more than one billion of unsaved heathen, and on the other side the millions upon millions that "Christian" America spends in sin and pleasure while giving but seven and one-half millions for foreign missions. It is an awful indictment.
There are two pages of portraits and biographical notes of thirty-two noted pioneer and prominent missionaries, which we have called, "God's Advance Guard in Mission Fields." Such an array of portraits can be found in no other publication, or any twenty publications. Books and magazines and libraries have been ransacked to obtain them. This feature is worth more than three times the cost of the paper.
In all our specials the general testimony has been that our performance was better than our promise, but this is far better. No man can read the Missions Number without being stirred.
Bible-Reading Series.
Following the Missions Number we will have a series of twenty-four numbers which will be of great value and peculiar interest to all. One of the most prominent features will be a series of illustrated Bible-readings which will appear under the heading of "Home Bible Studies for Winter Evenings."
These readings will be in the form of studies covering all the great features of the Gospel. The subjects will be taught by questions, quotations from history, notes from authors, and a marshaling of facts that all ought to know. They will be embellished by diagrams and illustrations that will explain the lessons and make them simple and impressive.
There will also be articles on the books of Daniel and the Revelation.
Articles on the book of Romans, the "therefores" and "wherefores" and the reasons for them.
Articles on the miracles, teaching, and life of Jesus Christ as the great Physician.
A series on the Ten Commandments.
The kingdom and priesthood of Christ.
Conditions in the world. Able correspondents in the Old World and the New. Labor and Capital. Wealth and Poverty. Plenty and Famine. Peace and War. Health and Hygiene.
In the future, as in the past, the SIGNS will keep abreast of the times, and in the Outlook Department will give special attention to current events that have a bearing upon the fulfilment of prophecy. This year we have had one or more special representatives at all important gatherings, such as the Peace Conference in New York, the Peace Conference at The Hague, the Christian Endeavor Convention at Seattle, and the American Federation of Catholic Societies at Indianapolis, Ind. It is our purpose to continue to send representatives to all important gatherings in order that our readers may be kept fully informed as to what is going on in the world and the bearing these movements have upon God's work.
Home Department.
Beginning November 13, a very interesting and instructive series of articles will appear under the heading of "Home Building." These articles are from the pen of Mrs. L. D. A. Stuttle, and will be of special interest to every member of the family. Here are the titles:
(1) Home—What It Means.
(2) Honorable Young Manhood.
(3) Beautiful Young Womanhood.
(4) Acquaintance, Friendship, Proprieties.
(5) Honorable and Proper Courtship.
(6) Marriage and Its Meaning.
(7) The Husband in the Home.
(8) The Wife in the Home.
(9) The Family Altar.
(10) The Father.
(11) The Mother.
(12) The Son.
(13) The Daughter.
(14) Reading in the Home.
(15) Order in the Home.
(16) Simplicity in the Home.
(17) Economy in the Home.
(18) Mutual Helpfulness.
(19) Gatherings in the Home—Associations.
(20) The Master in the Home.
(21) The Outshining of the Home.
Besides this list of helpful articles will be another series, entitled "Observations on Home Life," by Mrs. E. H. Adams, an author of several excellent books and a lady of many years' experience.
There will also be talks to the youth; talks on health and temperance; interesting information; and occasional helpful stories and sketches. The Home Department alone will be worth the price of the paper for a year.
Bible-Readers' Band.
A "Bible-Readers' Band" will be started, and it is hoped that many thousands of subscribers to the SIGNS will join this band and will read the Bible thru in one or two years. A brief outline of each book in the Bible, by whom and when written, and other important data, will be given together with suggestions as to how to take up the study in order to make it the most interesting and profitable. The senior editor will have special charge of this department.
An Appeal.
In looking over our subscription list we find that many subscriptions expire with this number. We are glad to say that renewals are coming in quite rapidly. We do not want to lose a single subscriber, and more than that we hope to add many thousands to the list. Will you not help us in securing new names?
Please see how it is with your own subscription. You can tell this by the label on your paper. If it expires with this number, please renew at once, for we have a feast of good things in store for you.
Here is the subscription-price for both the Missions Special and the Bible-Reading Series:
The Ideal Wife.
By A. J. S. Bourdeau
By A. J. S. Bourdeau.
HAPPY the youth who early paints upon the unspotted canvas of his memory his “ideal woman.” Happier the lover who woos and wins her. But happiest of all, the benedict who, after many years of married life, finds himself still a devoted lover, captivated more and more by the growing charms of his “ideal.”
The term “ideal,” like the word “riches,” is a relative one; that is, what would be “ideal” and “riches” to one, would be inferior and poverty to the other. All depends upon the standard set by the one making the mental picture; and this standard is high or low, according to his environment, education, and moral perfection. Thus there would be great antagonism between the “ideal” of the Hottentot, the Chinese, the Turk, and the “ideal” of Anglo-Saxon civilization.
Even among civilized peoples and individuals, we find numerous standards of the “ideal woman”—standards set by those who view her from the physical, the mental, the moral, or the social standpoint.
The chief needs of her husband, or husband-to-be, also conjure up to him visions of his most-to-be-desired better half, which may, and do, cut directly across the dreams of his fellow mortals who are differently situated.
For instance, the ideal wife of the first settler or pioneer would need to know how to endure physical hardships, how to handle the saw, ax, or rifle even, on occasion, helping to provide fuel, clear the land, or repel an attack of Indians or of wild beasts. How different would be the requirements for the wife of an artist, a clergyman, an editor, or a congressman.
Viewed as to her character, the “ideal” woman must conform to one great standard—the moral law of Ten Commandments. All mankind having “sinned and come short of the glory of God,” she only who attains most nearly to the fulfilment of God’s law may be accounted as one of “the most to be desired” of her sex. And she attains this standard only by becoming the embodiment of love, which is the fulfilling of the law.
All sensible, Christian gentlemen agree as to the love-fruits which the tree of the ideal woman will bear. Let her be loving, cheerful, patient, pure, gentle, brave, and modest. Let her ever be open-hearted, reverential, avoiding small talk and small reading, and gossiping never; let her point out only the good traits of her friends, yes, her enemies; let her be dignified without being stiff; let her be cultured, interested in the salvation of the world thru the salvation of her family, rather than thru her club at the expense of her family.
My ideal woman is she who has “a sound mind in a sound body,” who recognizes that without a sound physical basis—a strong and healthy body—all her other attainments, be they mental or moral, are so much energy wasted. She possesses moral earnestness, avoids frivolity, and remembers that life is more than meat, and the mind more than clothes.
She is welcome not only to her allowance, but, if need be, to my bank-book—to all I possess. Her sunny smiles and winning ways make my home-coming a daily feast and compel me to drop my bundle of worries just outside the door.
She is neat, but not showy, both in her dress and house furnishings. She is not afraid of the house called “they,” but has the courage to live up to her convictions, regardless of Madam Society or Madam Fashion. Glorying in physical culture and the simple life, she is free from the bondage of drugs, headache-powders, cosmetics, from all things superficial and artificial.
So solicitous is she of her husband’s welfare and advancement in his calling, that, with Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, she well says of him, “Nobody exactly understands him except me, who am in the inside of him, and hear him breathe.”
Finally, with true womanly instinct, she turns from the glare of public life to joyously “fulfil a woman’s highest calling as a wife and mother.”
Not long ago one hundred representative unmarried men were asked to name the qualities best fitting a young woman for an ideal wife. Among the many requisites mentioned, the following eight were named as most to be desired:
Remarkable tho it may seem, “beauty, money, fine attire, position, family, social influence, were comparatively little in demand. Not one asked for money. Only one asked for good clothes; twelve asked for beauty, and not one asked for position, family, or social influence.”
Thousands of ideal women have lived, and are living, ideal wives, who, by their quiet, yet powerful, home influence have helped their husbands to build empires and make history. Margaret, the wife of Henry VI; Mary, the wife of William, Prince of Orange; Martha, the wife of George Washington, and countless other faithful spouses, made their husbands what they were. And of such an ideal wife it was that the Prince Bismarck said: “She it is who has made me what I am;” and of another such Luther said: “I would not exchange my poverty with her for all the riches of Crœsuswithout her.”
There Shall Be No More Night.
By Susan B. Roberts
No night, no night, how blessed the days
With no dark shadows interlaced,
No sunset rays that fade too soon,
Nor yet oppressive, sultry noon,
No threatening clouds by tempest chased.
No night, no night, all tranquil days,
Transcendent light, a sacred chain,
Link after link, each locked in each,
As thru eternity they reach,
'Mid hallelujahs' glad refrain.
No night, no night of sorrow there,
No midnight cry for dawn of day,
For day shall dawn upon the soul,
Nor ever cease, but onward roll,
Nor lose in night one cheering ray.
No night, no night, with mantle dark
To cover sin—no sin to hide!
Ecstatic thought, no ill to shun,
Eternity of joy begun
With Christ in heaven to abide!
No night, no night, no traveler
Shall grope about to find his way,
For o'er the fields of living green
The radiance of His face is seen,
The glorious One, the Light of day.
SUSAN B. ROBERTS.
Souvenir Earthquake Edition
By Editor
THE Souvenir Earthquake Edition of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES can now be secured.
For more than a year it has been impossible to supply this number, but recently we have been able to get a few hundred copies from one of our agents in the East. These so far as we know are the last in existence which are obtainable.
To those who were privileged to see this number a description is unnecessary. To those who have not, we will say:
That it has the reputation of being the finest thing issued descriptive and illustrative of the California Earthquake and San Francisco Fire.
It contains eye-witness reports from San Francisco, San Jose, Stanford University, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, and other stricken places.
Forty-two half-tone engravings illustrate these reports.
In the center of the paper there are two great panoramic views, each 5 x 18 inches. One is a photo of San Francisco taken from Twin Peaks (reproduced in two colors), showing the terrific fire making its way toward the heart of the city.
The other a photograph of the ruins after the fire had swept over.
These special features with numerous diagrams, maps, etc., indeed make this a "Souvenir" of the great earthquake, and one which will be more highly prized as April 18, 1906, is left farther behind.
Altho the prices of other earthquake-literature gotten out in the earthquake-district has been advanced, our friends may have these Souvenir SIGNS OF THE TIMES, while our limited supply lasts, at ten cents each. In quantities of one hundred or more, six cents each.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.
Mountain View - - - California.
Gospel Reading Primer
Gospel Primer, The.—The object of this little book is to teach reading, and at the same time combine lessons that will instil into the mind of the learner the truth of the Gospel. The first pages are devoted to the alphabet, each letter of which combines some Bible scene. The remaining part of the book is given to Bible stories, made so simple that any child can understand them. Each story is illustrated with a full-page engraving. 128 pages, board covers, cloth back, cover design in gilt and colors, 25c; fine English cloth, embossed cover, lemon edges, 50c. Address this office.
DATE OF EXPIRATION.
The SIGNS wrapper bears date of last issue due on your subscription. Unless renewed in advance, paper stops with expiration date.
If herewith is an order blank, you will know you have overlooked sending renewal. You will not wish to miss a single issue. Back numbers often can not be furnished.
Beautiful Bible Mottoes
No home complete without them
There is no better time than the present to sell them. They sell readily everywhere, and agents are making good wages. An inspiration to higher living in every home. Nearly 75 styles of mottoes in English, and two each in German, Danish and Swedish. Ten dozen beauties, $7.00. Sell for $25.00. Five dozen, $3.75. Sixteen samples, all different, $1.00. All prepaid. Safe delivery guaranteed. Particulars free.
Address, Home Art Co., Box 114, College View, Neb.
WANTED.—A Seventh-day Adventist woman to do housework. Good home and wages to the right party. Address, O. O. Osborne, Lodi, Cal.
BEAUTIFUL BIBLE MOTTOES.
They are selling everywhere. Three agents ordered 5,000 each. One agent has taken, in less than eight months, 6,783 mottoes. If you send us a good recommendation from the elder of your church we will mail you one dozen on thirty days' time. 100 mottoes, as fine as you ever saw, for $6.00, by mail. Address, Hampton Art Company, Hampton, Iowa.
Second Advent Movement, The Great. By J. N. Loughborough. A late revision of the old book "Rise and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists." Address this office.
GRANDMOTHER'S SERMON
Church School Reader No. 5
THE new Church School Reader for the fifth grade is now ready. It contains 353 pages and is fully illustrated. Its reading selections are the best we have ever seen, while the method used for combining reading with language and spelling, makes the use of a separate grammar and speller unnecessary in the grade for which it has been prepared.
As an indication of how this is done, we refer you to a portion of a poem found on pages 214 and 216 and reproduce the page in which the lesson study, based on this poem, is given.
GRANDMOTHER'S SERMON
7. "Life is a stocking, grandma says,
"And yours is just begun;
But I am knitting the toe of mine,
And my work is almost done.
11. "But the saddest, happiest time is that
Which we court, and yet would shun,
When our heavenly Father breaks the thread,
And says that our work is done."
10. "There are long, plain spaces without a break,
That in youth are hard to bear;
And many a weary tear is dropped
As we fashion the heel with care.
12. The children come to say "Good night,"
With tears in their bright young eyes;
While in grandma's lap, with a broken thread,
The finished stocking lies.
—Selected.
217
must be ripped? the long, plain spaces? the fashioning of the heel?
Spelling
Why is the consonant doubled in these words: saddest, knitting, ribbing, ripped, dropped? Why is it not doubled in these words: sadly, golden, sweeter? Why is the y changed to i in "happiest"? Why is the e dropped in "wrinkled" and not in "scarcely"?
Word Study
Word Forms.—See, do, and go.
Give the four forms of see, do, and go. Insert saw, seen, did, done, went, or gone in each of these blanks:—
I know that he —— it.
The day is ——.
I have —— no man wrong.
I —— it.
Alice said that she had —— it.
Do you know who has —— away?
Have you —— the picture?
Yes, I —— it yesterday.
Mary thinks that I —— it.
Do you know who —— it?
Write three sentences using saw correctly; three using seen correctly; three using did correctly; three using done correctly; three using went correctly; three using gone correctly.
Homonyms.—Copy these sentences, using the right word:—
Be thou like a (roe, row) or a young hart.
Will you (row, roe) me across the water?
We set out a long (row, roe) of trees.
(Toe, tow) the disabled vessel into port.
This rope is made of (tow, toe).
Composition
Think of something else to which our lives might be compared; such as a tree, a day, the seasons, or a voyage, and write several paragraphs about it.
Please remember that this is one of the series of reading books recommended by the Educational Department for use in all our church schools. It is substantially bound in cloth. The price is $1.00 post-paid.
Prices of the other numbers in series are as follows: "No. 1" 75 cents. "No. 2" 75 cents. "No. 3" 90 cents.
ADDRESS YOUR TRACT SOCIETY OR
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.
Mountain View, Cal.
285 Salmon St., Portland, Ore.
1109 E. 12th St. Kansas City, Mo.
His Marksmanship Praised
In the getting out of our large Missions Number, a portion of which has of course been under preparation for months, our regular issues have been somewhat demoralized. Beginning with Number 46 they will contain the regular departments as usual, and also note the passing events up to the latest hour of going to press.
Do not forget to read the article from our own representative from the Peace Conference. Both our correspondents were on the ground, attended the meetings, interviewed the delegates. They know whereof they speak. The article this week concludes our reports from the conference. Thus far the actions are largely like nightmares where men look for beautiful dreams. The beautiful wish of the dream is outlined this week, with an article setting forth some of the predictions of God's word.
In harmony with our promise, the last issue of the six months is a review of what we have passed over. Had we not promised it, we would not have given it, for other matter would have been of equal importance and of equal interest. And yet we plead with our readers to study the unusually long articles which this paper contains. They are well broken up into divisions, each of which is an article by itself. But little proof has been given in the restatement of the ground that we have covered, on account of space. The articles on the peace question are of peculiar importance and show how uncertain indeed is the dream of the earnest peace workers.
An Orgy with the Dead.—It is a horrible story of the doings of drunken revelers which comes to us from fashionable, wealthy Menlo Park society. Sitting up with the dead body of a friend he is taken from the casket, propped up at a table, liquor is poured down his throat at each toast or round of drinks, and the poor body is at last pushed into the casket with bread and liquor and cigars, a carving knife and hatchet. From the description it is unjust to an Indian burial to liken it to that; it could only be compared to the worst of heathenish Irish wakes. And this is civilization of the nineteenth century! Thank God, it is not Christian.
At the target practise at Cape Cod, the battleship Alabama scored eighty per cent of hits with her 13-inch guns at a distance of 6,000 yards. The Georgia made fifty per cent with her 12-inch guns at a similar distance.
There is no peace apart from truth. Error is essentially at war with truth. More, it is inherently inconsistent, and the patched-up peace which may be effected thru its compromises sooner or later breaks down. Satan will bring temporary peace and joy to the soul which yields to him and rejects God's truth. Sometime that false peace will persist with the strength of insanity; but when the opening heavens shall reveal the glorious Christ, and God's righteous law shall be disclosed in all its glory, the peace of error will fade as a dream, but the peace with God—absolute surrender to Him—shall eternally abide.
His Marksmanship Praised.
SERGEANT BERG, of the State of Washington, recently won the laurels for best marksmanship in the "President's match" at Camp Perry, Ohio. For his encouragement the President wrote him the following letter:
"My dear Sergeant Berg: I congratulate you heartily upon winning the President's match. I feel that in this country, with our complex and rather overluxurious civilization, it is above all things important that there should be no falling off in the virile qualities which make of the average man a good soldier as well as a good citizen. It is absolutely essential that we should keep up a first-class fighting navy; but in the event of a land war we should have to rely chiefly upon our volunteer forces, and when war has come it is too late to teach a man how to become a really formidable shot, while good marksmanship is one of the three or four vitally important qualities in a really efficient soldier. As an old national guardsman myself, I feel an additional pride in your success.
"Thanking you and congratulating you heartily, I am,  Sincerely yours,
  , (Signed) "THEODORE ROOSEVELT."
While the President has frequently expressed himself encouragingly to the peace congresses, yet the foregoing shows very clearly that he is not of the opinion that the time is come yet for the nation to be negligent in regard to its army and navy. His attitude is that of desiring peace, but he is not willing to allow the nation to become a prey to all the other powers of earth thru failure to keep up the fighting ability of the men.
The figures show that over half a billion dollars are being expended this year on the armies and navies of seven of the leading nations over and above what was expended in 1897, only ten years previous to this. The Hague Peace Congress, so called, has done nothing so far except to discuss how far the nations may go in war. As suggested by our correspondent at The Hague, the congress has the appearance of a great school to teach the best arts of war, with leading teachers from all the nations, rather than a council of peace.
The Lord's word points out that the last days will be a time of great war manifestations. And these manifestations will finally bring all the nations to the battle of the great day at Armageddon. And in the midst of all this war fever, the word shows that there will be great assemblages that are prophesying peace. The events of this time are exceedingly interesting, and should be studied closely.
Our Next Issue
By Editor
is the best missions number of any journal ever published.
“The Open Doors Before God’s People,” by Arthur T. Pierson, D.D., editor Missionary Review of the World, is worth the price of the number.
But there are several other articles just as good; for instance, “The Evangelization of the World in This Generation,” “The Divine Program of Missions,” “A Century of Missions,” are thrilling papers on the great theme.
There are thirty-two portraits of great pioneer and devoted missionaries—from John Eliot, apostle to the Indians, to Mary Reed, missionary to the lepers, now living—with brief biographical notes. Missionary libraries have been ransacked, and America and England have been drawn on to obtain them. Who that is interested in humanity would not purchase a copy containing them? They can be obtained in no other publication, book, paper, or magazine.
How much does “Christian” America pay for foreign missions? It is such a little sum. How much does she pay for intoxicating liquors, tobacco, patent medicines, and many other hurtful, foolish, and useless things? This is told in our missions number in a wonderfully striking way.
How much do the great denominations pay per member?
Then there are many other things too numerous to mention. For the sake of Christ and the souls for whom He died, give the paper a wide circulation.
Remember this number will be followed by a Bible-reading Series for six months.
Now is the time to subscribe if you are not a subscriber, or to renew your subscription if it is nearing its expiration.
The Next Six Months.
By Editor
MANY of our subscriptions expire with this issue, but we do not wish to part company with our subscribers. We greatly desire them to journey with us in the year to come.
They may not agree with all they have read. That is not strange; but journey with us in the year to come, and we shall find many precious mines of knowledge, as yet, perhaps, unexplored by us. We shall find green, fragrant pastures where we can walk together with the Master.
The next six months of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will be preeminently a Bible-reading series, in which the great and eternally important doctrines of the Bible will be set forth in the very words of Inspiration.
We hear on every side what man says; let us hear what God says.
The great present-truth books, the up-to-date books of to-day are Daniel and the Revelation. What do they teach? They are God's great time-tables; where are we in earth's journey toward the eternal rest? The next six months will tell you.
Jan. 1, 1908, the SIGNS Bible Band begins the systematic reading of the Bible together, to read it thru in one year. Will you not join us? Such a journey will take us thru four thousand years of earth's history, and will forecast the eternity to come. And all sorts of questions will be asked and answered as we journey.
Many important events will occur in the year to come, events of world-wide importance. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES will endeavor faithfully to record them and show in the light of God's word their proper setting and bearing on the present and future.
There will be many other articles besides. From Mrs. White's intensely practical pen will be some splendid, illustrated articles on Christ as a missionary and healer. The great book of Romans will be opened to the reader. Our mission news from the great field is always of interest.
Then there is our Home Department. In our copy drawer there waits a series on Home Building, precious, helpful lessons for every member of the family. These by Mrs. Stuttle. Then Mrs. Adams, a lady of education, refinement, travel, and keen observation, will contribute to our readers some of the choicest lessons.
But we can not tell it all. It is impossible. It is our aim, by God's help, to make the SIGNS OF THE TIMES the best home paper in the world the coming year, a paper which you will welcome to your home, clean and wholesome.
