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Signs of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 13.

General Articles
Earlier text: Dimanche

The Boy Who Was Not "Sensitive."

By Annette L. Noble

Two boys, almost young men, were standing before a closed shop-door in earnest debate. It was a half-holiday, and Ned Grey was teasing Morris Parker to go with him on a barge up the river to a firemen's picnic.
"No, Ned; there are, as you say, some grand fellows going, but you know we can't keep away from Tom Allen's set; he won't let us; and they all drink."
"You need not care for that; you boast that you aren't afraid ever to say 'No!'"
"I don't mean to boast about it; but it is true I can say 'No' to an invitation to drink any hour of the day or the night."
"Well, you aren't sensitive, and I am. I can't bear to set myself up for sombody with extra-fine notions and so seem to cast reflections on other people; and it hurts me to be made fun of and sneered at. You never do seem to feel that; some folks never are sensitive. It is good; I wish I had been made that way," said Ned.
Morris colored; he considered himself, and with reason, a boy of quite as much fine feeling as was Ned, who many times had spoken in this way.
"Perhaps you would not think some things worth feeling now if you had felt more in the past—if you had felt half what I have."
"Tell me your life, Methuselah," said Ned, with a careless laugh.
"Sit down a minute, then, on that box and I will," said Morris; and Ned sat down.
"I was born in G——, fifty miles from here. My father was an educated gentleman in the fullest sense of both words. He was a lawyer. But he drank. For years he managed to conceal it from everybody but mother. She did everything for him a woman could do, but if she had not had a small property secured to her in a way he could not appropriate, she would have come to want. By the time I was nine years old I realized that father earned little or nothing and that mother spent hours crying alone in her room. I had the loveliest little sister Bess you ever could imagine. I never saw any fancy picture half so pretty. She had long, floating yellow hair and the strangest blue eyes, with long, jet-black lashes. Father was very proud of her, and always kind to us both; but then we had really never seen him drunk. When he came home intoxicated mother must always have got us out of the way. Well, one day she had gone away from home and father returned at a very unusual hour. He was going on business to L——, a large city near our town.
Bess and I teased to go, and he took us along just as we were—Bess with her little straw hat stuck full of flowers, I remember, and her pretty hands all strawberry stains. We got to L—— early in the day and father attended to his business. We followed him up and down long stairs until we were tired and hungry, for it was a hot June day. About noon Bess said she wanted ‘something cool to eat—some nice frozen pudding;’ she meant ice-cream. Father discovered then that he had only a little money in his pocket. He had come off in haste, and our tickets had taken his extra change; but he had enough for a cheap lunch for us all, he said. He looked about and saw a saloon and took us in. It was cool and neat—just like all such places; they make me deathly sick when I glance in even now. They were just out of ice-cream, the waiter said, but had sent for some. Wouldn't we wait a minute? Then he asked father to have a drink of something. From the little I knew I was alarmed, and little Bess, too, was quick enough to begin begging him away. ‘Papa, papa, do let us go on; by the other corner I saw such nice cake, and I am very hungry; we don't want the cream so much as cake and meat, papa.’
"It wasn't any use; he had found a man he knew standing at the bar, and they drank together, and father forgot he hadn't much money and paid for all they drank. They talked and laughed, and at last tried a new drink the barkeeper joked them about. Bess began to cry, and father remembered, perhaps, that he had nothing to pay for anything more and in shame hurried us off. He said he was ‘so sorry,’ and if ‘poor little sister was very hungry’ he would pawn something. She said: ‘No, no, papa; let us go right home!’"
"She looked all white around her lips, and it was very hot; but both we were afraid to be left with father, and longed to get him home. He had begun to talk and roar and laugh before he left the saloon. Soon he staggered and mumbled and pulled us here and there, or half tumbled over us. People began to stare and whisper; boys jeered and yelled, ‘Hi! hi! Old Tipsy!’ I tell you for two high-spirited children it was pretty hard. We felt it. Bess was like a little woman; she said: ‘We must get him right to the station, and he may wait there until the train comes. In the depot we can sit each side of him and hold him up straight.’ She looked like a little broken white lily in the blazing sun as she said it. A policeman insisted upon arresting him, but when we pleaded with him he was very kind and went to the corner near the depot with us. We got there at last, and father went to sleep. Bess kept getting dizzy, and said the benches and the stove were swimming in the air. There was a refreshment-table in the room with great sugar-sprinkled buns and cool milk for sale. It seemed as if we must have some, but when Bess put her little stained hands in father's pockets she could not find one penny; the barkeeper had the last. I make more of this because I can't bear to tell the—Well, one, two, three trains came in at once. We waked father up to go and see which was ours for G——. He could not think at first and staggered about; then he got into a great hurry, and tried to be very smart and appear to know just where we were to go. He was half ashamed and half crazy. Little Bess thought he knew where to go when we got out to the tracks. A man pushed me one way. Father must have started and sent her ahead another. An engine started, a train backed; I heard people groan and others cry, ‘Where?’ ‘Who?’ I rushed with the rest, and saw—O Ned! You think I haven't any sensitiveness! Was it just the cruel great iron wheels that had crushed my beautiful little sister's body into a mass of blood and broken bones? Wasn't it the brandy in my father's brain that sent her little feet straight under that backing train? and you wonder I can stand being sneered at when I say I hate it! I did not know what it meant until a brakeman picked up a little straw hat with a wilted pink rose in it; then I don't remember how we ever got home or who told my mother. Poor mother! who left Bessie happy as a queen in the quiet garden at home."
"That was not the end of trouble, either; but it was the end of my father. He drank to forget—drank, drank, drank. It did not kill him, but it made him almost idiotic. A year after he was put in a ward in a lunatic asylum. For three years I went with my mother once a week to see him. People used to ask why she took me, and she always said, ‘That my boy may learn to hate
his father's murderer. In old times some of a murdered man's family vowed to slay the murderer. I want Morris to give his life to hunting down the devil of intemperance.'"
"We took that poor silly creature, sitting mumbling to himself, grinning or crying from one day's end to another, cakes, fruit, anything he asked for. Sometimes he would say ‘Give Bessie some, Bessie likes cake!’ And this is the reason, Ned, I am not afraid to say ‘No.’ But it is no reason why I should not feel some things."
Ned's eyes were full of tears. He got off the box, and, grasping Morris' hand, said: "I will stick to you hereafter, and you stick to me. I don't go off to any drinking spree this day."—Annette L. Noble, in Youth's Temperance Banner.

LOVE IN ALL.

By Chambers' Journal

NAME the leaves on all the trees; Name the waves on all the seas, All the flowers by rill that blow, All the myriad tints that glow. Winds that wander through the grove— And you name the name of Love: Love there is in summer sky, As in light of maiden's eye.
Listen to the countless sounds, In the wind that gayly bounds, O'er the meads, where, on the wing Bright bees hum and linnets sing. Pat of raindrop, chat of stream, Of their song, sweet love's the theme: Love there is where zephyr skips, As in breath of maiden's lips.
In the west, mild evening glows; Angel's fingers fold the rose; Silvery dews begin to fall. Crimson shades to shadow all; Holy Nature veils her face; Earth is lost in heaven's embrace— Love is in an hour like this, As in guileless maiden's kiss.
Go where, through the voiceless night, Trips fair Luna's silver light; Hear of Nature's pulse the beat, Like the tread of unseen feet; See from out the lambent north Shimmering arrows shooting forth: Love is in a meteor's start, As in throb of maiden's heart.
Love's the essence of all things; 'Tis from love that beauty springs; 'Twas by love, creation first Into glorious being burst: Veiled in maiden's form so fair, I do worship thee in her. Spirit sweet—all else above— Love is God, since God is love!
—Chambers' Journal.

Deacon Barnes' Sunday.

"BEAUTIFUL, beautiful," mentally ejaculated Deacon Barnes, at the close of a sermon on heaven. "Those are my ideas exactly."
And so enrapt he was with his thoughts, as he passed out of the church, that he forgot to ask lame old Mrs. Howe to ride home with him, as was his custom.
"Perhaps it is just as well," he thought, "for she is a worldly old woman, and would probably have drawn my thoughts away from heaven."
At the dinner table his son exclaimed, "Oh, father, I have a situation at last."
"Have you forgotten that it is Sunday, John?" asked his father, sternly. "Don't let me hear any more such talk."
John ate his dinner in silence. How could his situation be a wrong thing to speak of on Sunday! He was so thankful for it that it seemed to come from the hand of God. God knew all about the restless months in which he had answered an advertisement a day.
When the minister gave thanks in church for all the mercies of the past week John's heart gave a grateful throb, and he determined anew to acknowledge God in all his ways.
John ate his dinner in silence, while his father thought about heaven.
In the afternoon Mr. Barnes' nephew, a stranger in the place, came over from his boarding place opposite, and sat on the piazza, talking with John.
"I can't allow this, Tom," said Mr. Barnes, coming to the door with the Bible in his hand. "You must not sit here breaking the Sabbath. Go back to your boarding house, and read some good book."
Tom started up angrily, and spent the afternoon fishing and bathing with an old colored man, his only other acquaintance in the place, while Deacon Barnes sat in a large rocker on the piazza, with a handkerchief over his face, and thought about heaven.
Presently his two little granddaughters came out on the piazza with a large picture book, and sat down near him. There was a flutter of leaves, and a great deal of buzzing as the little yellow heads bent over the book, and finally they laughed outright.
"Children, where is your mother?" sternly demanded Deacon Barnes, springing to his feet.
"Upstairs, putting baby to sleep," they answered, both together.
Deacon Barnes strode into the hall.
"Ellen! Ellen!" he shouted, "I should think you might keep these children quiet on the Sabbath. They won't allow me to think."
Ellen had been awake all night with a fretful baby. She had hushed him, and had just fallen asleep when her father's voice aroused her, and awoke the baby.
"Please send them upstairs," she said wearily.
And all the sultry afternoon she amused the three children in a close upper room, while her father rocked and fanned himself, and thought about heaven.—Sel.

Public Morals

By New England Methodist

The smoking car is one of the greatest nuisances of modern times. It never ought to be allowed. It is the den of utter nastiness. No gentleman ought to be content to ride in one. Even if a man uses tobacco, he ought to have self-denial enough to ride for an hour without yielding to the temptation to indulge in the wasteful and useless habit of smoking. There ought to be a decided toning-up in this matter.—New England Methodist.

News and Notes.

By Editor

  • After promises of clemency, Russia has resumed her severity on the Nihilists.
  • The Levant Herald, an English daily newspaper, has been suppressed at Constantinople.
  • The Proctor House on Kearsarge Mountain, N. H. has been burned. Loss, $75,000; no insurance.
  • News from Dublin, Ireland, says: There can be little doubt that Fenianism is terribly rampant here.
  • Paris despatches say: In a gale on the Algerian coast two barks were wrecked and fourteen persons drowned.
  • The House Committee on Naval Affairs recommend an appropriation of $2,500,000 to complete unfinished monitors.
  • Owing to a strike of 700 moulders at Troy, N. Y., nearly all the shops have closed, throwing 2,000 men out of work.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, America's great poet, died at his home in Cambridge, Mass., on the afternoon of March 24.
  • Sixty houses and fifty outbuildings at Baeszenfa, and two hundred and forty-eight houses at Saks, Austria, were burned March 27.
  • There was a thunder storm at Los Angeles, March 13, attended by a cloud-burst which filled a dry canyon to the depth of seventeen feet.
  • It is thought that Sergeant Mason will be pardoned. The "sober second thought" is to the effect that the sentence is needlessly severe.
  • The entire square of the business portion of McArthur, Ohio, was burned March 24, the fire starting from a defective flue. Loss, $200,000.
  • A freight train on the Cumberland and Ohio broke through the bridge near Clifton Forge, killing the engineer and fireman and injuring several others.
  • March 25, there was a sand-storm of unprecedented severity at Merced, Cal., in the San Joaquin Valley. The same day there was a thunder storm at Tucson, Arizona.
  • The electors have taken a friendly suit against Bradlaugh to compel him to perform his parliamentary duties. It is hoped they may introduce the question and obtain a decision of the law court.
  • A bill to grant money to Prince Leopold was opposed with considerable strength in Parliament. The English are losing their love of paying large sums to support a rich and numerous royal family.
  • Cadet Whittaker, whose case at West Point made him famous, has been released from arrest, the verdict against him being set aside; he has also been dismissed from the Academy for deficiency in studies.
  • Richard Smith's Temperance Convention at Columbus, O., passed resolutions urging the Legislature and Government to adopt the Smith amendment to regulate the sale of liquor and maintain the sanctity of the Sabbath.
  • About 400 arrests were made in San Francisco on Monday for violations of the Sunday law. Nearly 800 had been arrested previously. There's fun ahead for the lawyers if a tithe of these cases ever come up for jury trial.
  • The murdering of wives is becoming alarmingly frequent. We give no accounts of these crimes, too horrible to relate. The number might not be so large if the murderers were treated as criminals, instead of being lionized by silly women.
  • The distress in the lower Mississippi country not only continues, as the waters are not abated, but is likely to increase, as the decaying carcasses of drowned animals and the miasma from the deluged districts will breed distempers as the water dries up.
  • March 23, at Philadelphia, a tugboat exploded her boiler, killing four men. The captain was blown over the house tops into Water Street. Immediately a fire broke out which burned one tug, a railroad passenger and freight station, and many other buildings were injured.
  • A very severe hailstorm visited Lexington, Ind., and Wheeling, W. Va., on the 27th. Also buildings were blown down at Evansburg and Pittsburg, Pa., the same day. Also near Macon, Ga., the same day, a tornado destroyed much property and injured many persons.
  • An explosion of gas occurred in the Laurel Run mines, of the Delaware and Hudson Coal Company, near Wilkesbarre, Pa., March 25. James Williams, fire boss, William Scoville, William Ashford, and two unknown miners in the pit at the time are supposed to be all dead.
  • The Anti-Chinese Bill passed the House by a heavy vote, 177 to 65. It has been claimed that large numbers of Chinese can be landed in San Francisco before the law takes effect, the Chronicle gives a list of the vessels in the China service and their capacity, showing that no more than 9,771 can possibly be landed within that time.
  • Ireland is not quiet under the laws for her relief. There have been continual disturbances in Galway between the Eighty-eighth Regiment (the Connaught Rangers) and the Eighty-fourth, an English regiment. Recently the Connaughts, assisted by a mob, attacked the picket of the English, and cheered for Ireland. There were several bayonet wounds received on both sides.
  • At Plattsburg, (N. Y.) March 25, the railroad house, freight and passenger depot of the Chateaugay Narrow-gauge Railroad was burned. Two locomotives, a passenger coach, and two freight cars were destroyed. The loss is $25,000. A boy named Lowell, twelve years old, was burned to death in the round-house. The station agent was dangerously burned by an explosion of a barrel of kerosene.

Religious Notes.

—The Pope created seven cardinals, March 27, including Archbishop McCabe of Dublin.
—Dr. Lilienthal, an eminent Jewish Rabbi, of Cinninati, has been stricken with paralysis, and there is no hope of his recovery.
—The League of Freedom bailed their members by the hundreds who were arrested in San Francisco for violating the Sunday Law.
—The commission appointed in Germany to revise Luther's translation of the Bible has held its last sitting and brought its work to a close.
—The Scottish United Presbyterian Church gathered in for foreign missions last year $167,725, an advance of upward of $15,000 on the previous year.
Dr. Kalloch calls those church members and ministers who speak in behalf of the Chinese, "Chinaphobists." Wonder where Dr. K. graduated in philology?
—A petition, numerously signed by the inhabitants of London, asking that museums and art galleries be kept open on Sunday afternoons, has been presented in the British Parliament.
—Dr. Jessup, of Syria writes that the Sultan has granted permission to Russian Jews to settle in Asia Minor, but prohibits them from entering Syria or Palestine on the ground that they might attempt to form a Judaic empire.
—News from London says: The Mansion House Jewish Committee reports that £64,000 has been received, of which £27,000 has already been voted for emigration and other purposes. Of 228 families assisted the majority have gone to America.
—At a San Francisco Sunday law meeting Judge Lake said: "This Sunday law is reasonable, for it allows citizens to do everything on a Sunday but go into these corner rum-shops." How any man who has read the law can make such a wild statement is a wonder to us.
—The authorities in San Francisco decided to make no more arrests under the Sunday Law, having too many cases on hand to handle. The friends of the law then besought the Commissioners to revoke the licenses of all transgressors. The officers finally changed their mind.
—Papers signed by 300 persons, including the Earl of Aberdeen, Samuel Morley, Canon Farrar, Fleming, Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon and 253 other clergymen, have been forwarded to Moody and Sankey at Glasgow, asking them to spend a year in London in evangelical work.
—From the North Indian mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church it is reported that there is a growing prospect that the whole Chumar caste, which embraces about half a million people, will ere long come over in a body to Christianity, which may be true, but we have but little confidence in these wholesale conversions, such as used to take place when a warrior embraced the faith of the church, followed by his fighting hosts.
—The Pacific Churchman, speaking of the prevalent sin of withholding means from the Lord's work, says: "Men talk of giving their hearts to the Lord, as though it was a sentimental impulse, an emotional excitement. * Nothing can be more shallow or misleading than the prevalent notion that religion alone among all other interests, may be left to triumph or defeat, with no pecuniary resources but the scanty, precarious, and capricious contributions of its so-called friends."
—The Occident (Presbyterian), of San Francisco, severely criticises the creed as adopted by the First Congregational Church of that city, of which Mr. Barrows is the newly-elected pastor. It says the doctrine of the Trinity has been rejected; also that of the Divine sovereignty and decrees; of original sin; the relation of a world's ruin to the first transgression; that neither the word "atonement," nor the atonement itself is retained; and the doctrine of eternal retribution is left out. What is Congregationalism, anyhow?
—The San Francisco Pacific Methodist (South) says of the Sunday law: "We do not look for the fulfillment of our desires in the execution of this law. Its present form is weak and inefficient, and the opposition of capital and whisky is thoroughly organized and energetic. * The campaign is to be carried on with active zeal. Mass meetings will be held, and every aid will be given to officers of the law. Political parties had better be careful of their platform in this direction. Any yielding or temporizing on this and kindred subjects will be resented by the better class of our citizens, who, in all cases, are the power in the land."
—The San Francisco Jewish Times takes issue with the Christian clergymen of the city who claim Sunday to be a divine institution, and avers that there is "nothing divine about it; 'that not one particle of authority for its observance as a Sabbath can be found in the New Testament, and that, in fact 'it had its origin with the mandate of Constantine, the 'cruel and blood-stained emperor,' as impartial history calls him." The Times quotes the advice of Martin Luther to any upon whom ascetic Sunday restrictions should be imposed, viz., "to ride on it, to dance on it, to do anything that will reprove this encroachment on Christian spirit and liberty," and adds that Major Whittle gave the Sunday law preachers some good counsel the other day when he told them that "what the people wanted was less law and more gospel.—Call.
—Speaking of the miracles of healing by faith, the California Christian Advocate says: "We could never understand why the very clear, positive, and final teachings of the New Testament could be satisfactorily set aside or entirely neglected by the church. It must be obvious to every candid Christian that Christ's miracles of healing were only the beginning of miracles that might be continued in the church. * The healing of the sick through faith was common down to the age of Constantine. Justin Martyn, Irenæus, Tertullian, Origen, and Clement, all believed it, and some give instances of healing. The Waldenses, Moravians, Huguenots, Covenanters, Friends, Baptists, and Methodists believed it, and their ministers give instances of healing in answer to prayer. Richard Baxter, Edward Irving, and Thomas Erskine, all illustrious in God's church, believed and gave instances of such healing."
—The San Francisco Chronicle, speaking of "Prejudice" in general, says: Numberless heathen superstitions survive in the common life and religious worship of nations which have been Christian for many hundred years. Among the Lapps and the Finnish peoples of Northern Russia the religion of Christ seems like a foreign scion engrafted upon heathen tradition and native prejudice. The names of heathen gods and goddesses are perpetuated in our names of the days of the week. Monday will to all time be "Moon-day;" Tuesday, "Tiwes-day" (named from the Scandinavian god of war); Wednesday, "Woden's day;" Thursday, "Thor's day;" Friday, "Freia's day;" Saturday, "Saturn's day;" and Sunday, "Sun day," or the day of the sun. Our church worship perpetuates the memory of heathen temple service and sacrificial rites, and the modern pastor stands in unbroken line with the priests of ancient Greece and Rome.

VALUABLE BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS.

SACRED GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES.

WITH maps and illustrations, by Rev. E. P. Barrows, D. D. The investigations of missionaries and explorers during the last century have thrown a flood of light on many points once involved in obscurity, and it is the aim of this book to condense and put into methodical form what has thus been collected. 685 pp. $2.25.

BIBLE GEOGRAPHY. HAND-BOOK OF

Containing the name, pronunciation and meaning of every place, nation, and tribe mentioned in both the Canonical and Apocryphal Scriptures. By Rev. Geo. H. Whitney, A. M. Illustrated by one hundred engravings and forty maps and plans. 12 mo. 400 pp. $2.50.

BIBLE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. HAND-BOOK OF

Containing descriptions of the ancient manners and customs mentioned in the Bible, and explaining over three thousand Scripture Texts. By Jas. M. Freeman, D. D. Illustrated by 168 engravings, and accompanied by an Analytical Index, a Textual Index, and a Topical Index. 12 mo. 515 pp. $2.50.

SMITH'S NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY.

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THE WORLD'S PROGRESS, A DICTIONARY OF DATES.

Being a Chronological and Alphabetical Record of all essential facts in the progress of society, from the creation of the world to the present time, with chart. By T. B. Perkins. Octavo size. 1,020 pp. $3.00.

LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL,

By Conybeare and Howson, giving a living picture of St. Paul and the circumstances by which he was surrounded. Illustrated with maps and engravings. 764 pp. $1.50.

THE LIFE AND WORDS OF CHRIST.

By Cunningham Geikie, D. D., with marginal references to the Scriptures, notes and index. Two volumes complete in one book. Printed in pica type, octavo size. 1,260 pp. $1.75.
We have just received the following commendation of this work from an earnest Christian worker in Maine:—
HAVING read Dr. Geikie's life and works of Christ, I find it more interesting the farther I read; and when he introduces us to the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, one can almost imagine himself present to witness the cruel mockery, and the terrible scenes of Calvary. Although I am not prepared to indorse all that is said in the book, yet I think it the best I ever read of the kind. J. B. GOODRICH.
Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

A MINE OF INFORMATION.

By John Nevins Andrews

History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week

BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS.
THE Bible record of the Sabbath; the secular history concerning it; the successive steps by which the change to the first day was made; and the work of restoration, are given in detail.

EVERY TEXT OF SCRIPTURE

Concerning the Sabbath is commented on at length; and the

COMPLETE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS

In regard to the Sabbath and first day is given. The comparative merits of the seventh and the first day Sabbaths are fully shown. A copious index enables the reader to find the comments on any text, or the statement of any historian.
☞ Should be read by everybody. 528 pp. Price, $1.25. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

The Sunday Law.

By Editor

Arrests under the Sunday Law last Monday, March 27, in San Francisco, numbered nearly 400, the whole number in that city amounting to nearly 1,200. Trade in some kinds of business was considerably less last Sunday than on the Sunday before; but in general there was but little difference.
There seems to be a growing distrust in regard to this movement on the part of the most ardent friends of the Sunday interest. One minister in San Francisco declares that the law itself is inefficient. Dr. Hemphill sees disaster in the distance. The Bulletin of March 27 contains the following notice:—
"Last evening, at the Calvary Church, Rev. John Hemphill spoke to his congregation on the Sunday law and the issues at stake. He presented many of the arguments which have become familiar by use in discussions recently. He said he was afraid that a mistake had been made by the friends of the Sunday law in bringing up the question for decision just at the present time. Circumstances at another time might be more favorable for success. He thought that the next Legislature would take measures to repeal the law. A majority of its opponents would in all probability be members of that body."
Major Whittle, the evangelist, after listening to two ministers who urged the rigid enforcement of the Sunday Law, said it would be better if the clergy preached less about the law and more of the gospel; that the present excitement about enforcing a State law will react disastrously to the churches.
It is generally believed that the officers who are now so busy making arrests, have little or no sympathy with the movement. They expect, and with reason, that the courts will be blocked with the great number of cases. At San Jose the League of Freedom has caused numerous arrests of persons in various branches of business, to offset the action of those who are directed by the clergy. This creates some bad feeling, but we do not know why it should, as the law is equally against all business, and open to all complainants.
Some still persist in declaring that the whole movement is against the liquor traffic, and that the law is only a temperance law. One man in San Francisco said the law only forbid visiting the corner saloons on Sunday! And this man was dignified with the title of Judge, which increases our astonishment at his statement. We would call their attention to one interesting fact: Not one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, in delivering an opinion of this law, made any reference to the sale of liquor on Sunday or on any other day of the week. Why was this, if it was an anti-liquor law? They treat it as an anti-labor law, made for the preservation of the Sunday-Sabbath. And such is its character.

Correction to Sabbath-School Lesson Date

By Editor

The Sabbath-school lesson upon which comments are made on page 149, should bear date of April 8, instead of April 1.

The California Sunday Law

By Editor

PERSONS at a distance may think we make considerable of the Sunday Law of California. If they were conversant with the state of the case here they would not think so. The SIGNS does not give as much space to the subject as many of the secular papers do.

Dimanche

By Editor

The article entitled Dimanche, in this paper, properly precedes that published March 16, on the "Sanctification of the First Day of the Week." But that was translated for us by a friend, before we received the copy for this. We are thankful that our co-editor, "J. N. A.," is able to furnish his articles directly for the SIGNS. We have several now on hand.

Another Terrible Explosion.

POWDER works in California are very unfortunate. Another explosion occurred, on the 27th, at Stege Station, on the Central Pacific Railroad, some ten miles north of Oakland. Five white men and six Chinamen were killed, and four white men fatally burned. This was the most terrible of the many explosions which have occurred on this coast; the descriptions of the scene just after the accident are sickening in the extreme.

Acknowledgment

By Editor

We have received from Senator John F. Miller his speech on the Chinese Bill in the United States Senate, for which we return thanks. It was an able speech, which won for him the congratulations of his fellow Senators and the thanks of his constituents.
But there is one point in which justice seems never to be done to the Chinese. Thus Mr. Miller says: “California for Americans and those who will become Americans.” This would sound better if those intelligent Chinamen who apply for papers of naturalization were permitted to receive them. Thousands of people are naturalized in New York City knowing as little of, and caring as little for, our Republican institutions as the Chinese. Whether the Chinese would develop into as good American citizens as those, we cannot tell until the experiment is tried.

Sunday Law Tract.

By Editor

AFTER some delay another edition of our Sunday Law tract has been printed. It was suggested by the officers of the Publishing Association that the tract be enlarged, and made more fully to set forth our views, especially on the prophecies. But our time being all required on the paper at present, this is impossible just now. The demand for the tract is urgent. The missionary workers give good reports of its reception by the people, and of the influence it is exerting.
The Preface has been altered to suit the present state of the work, and a note added on page thirty-one. All the warrants issued in this city prior to the decision of the Supreme Court, have been withdrawn. Consequently Bro. White is no longer under arrest. But as our interest in this matter is neither personal nor political, but entirely of a religious nature, the fact of his release makes no change in the general issue; it does not effect any principle involved in this controversy. The agitation, as a political question, is on the increase, and will doubtless continue to increase until after the next election.

Appointments.

Oakland and San Francisco.

OAKLAND.—Church N. E. corner Clay and 13th Streets. Meeting every Sabbath (Saturday) at 11 A. M. Preaching every second and fourth Sunday evening of each month. Prayer-meeting every Tuesday evening. Eld. J. H. Waggoner, Pastor. Sabbath-school at 9:30 A. M. W. C. White, Superintendent. Seats always free.
SAN FRANCISCO.—Church on Laguna Street, between Mc-Allister and Tyler Streets. Meeting every Sabbath (Saturday) at 11 A. M. Prayer-meeting Wednesday evening. M. C. Israel, Elder. No regular preaching. Sabbath-school at 9:45 A. M. E. A. Stockton, Superintendent. Street-cars of the Hayes Valley Line, and Central and Lone Mountain Line, pass close to the meeting-house.

Quarterly Meeting.

THE quarterly meeting of the Red Bluff District will be held at Vina, April 1 and 2. Bro. Briggs will be with us. Vina is the most accessible point for all our members. D. S. HEMSTREET.
Every one in this region who is interested in the Advent work ought to attend this meeting, as we anticipate an important and interesting meeting. The ordinances of the Lord's supper, and probably baptism, are to be administered. To begin with preaching at 11 A. M., Sabbath morning, at the school-house. E. A. BRIGGS.

Southern California Camp-meeting.

By S. N. Haskell, M. C. Israel, John Morrison

THIS meeting will be held in Tulare County, commencing May 4, 1882. Further particulars as to the locality and other arrangements will be given as soon as made. It is expected that Elders Waggoner and Van Horn and Mrs. E. G. White will be there. Elder Healey contemplates making a visit East on business this spring; if so he will not be with us.
S. N. HASKELL, M. C. ISRAEL, JOHN MORRISON. } Conf. Com.

Annual Meeting.

By W. N. Glenn, Secretary

THE members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Oakland will please bear in mind that the annual meeting of the church will take place on Wednesday, April 5, 1882, at 7:30 o'clock, P. M. They will bear in mind also the necessity for general and prompt attendance, that the proceedings may be in all respects legal.
W. N. GLENN, Secretary.

State Quarterly Meeting.

By M. C. Israel

The California State quarterly meeting of the Tract and Missionary Society will be held at Oakland, April 22, 23. This will be a very important meeting and a general attendance is expected. Matters pertaining to the cause in this State will be considered, such as the distribution of labor, and how we may best improve our present opportunities by missionary efforts. All the directors, and as many others as can attend, are invited to be present and to remain to attend the annual meeting of the Publishing Association to be held April 24.
M. C. ISRAEL, Vice-President T. & M. Society.
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