—General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, and the man who it is said never reads a newspaper, is to visit America this fall.
—A committee of cardinals recently appointed by the pope to consider certain matters pertaining to America, have made a report said to be in every way favorable to Satolli.
—The Baptist Examiner, it is said, does not recognize as ministers the eight women of the denomination who have at different times been ordained to the work of the ministry.
—The new administration of Peoria, Ill., has undertaken to strictly enforce the Sunday closing ordinance, which includes all stores and ice cream saloons, and even forbids the sale of Sunday papers.
—The Present Truth, of London, says: "It is stated that the names of three bishops of the Church of England were signed to the letter sent by Anglican clergymen to the pope, begging for closer union with Rome."
—Rev. J. B. Stewart, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, Cal., was stricken with apoplexy while delivering a dedicatory sermon at a new house of worship on the 22d inst., and died three hours afterward.
—Bishop Paret, of the Episcopal diocese of Maryland, having for nine years tried persuasion to keep the use of incense out of the churches, has at last decided to use his authority and forbid its use by the ministry. But it is permitted in some other dioceses, and the leaven is working.
—Citizens of Frankford, Del., have burned a small church where a notorious colored preacher, head of a small body whom he styled the Sanctified People, held forth. He had formerly conducted his operations on Chincoteague Island, where he enforced rules which he claimed to have received in a dream, and also walked on the water. But it was discovered that he walked on planks laid beneath the surface, when he received a severe beating, and was compelled to leave.
—A new labor organization has been started in Chicago, which is designed to swallow up everything else in that line. It is called the American Labor Union, and begins with a local union at the stock yards having a membership of over 1,500. It is designed to coöperate with the American Railway Union. And so the work of "confederacy" organization goes on, the whole world trusting in human orders, societies, unions, institutes, associations, etc., for relief from the prevailing evils. There is but one source of true reform and refuge from the evil that is sure to come upon all the world, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." Ps. 37:3.
—The colonel of an Illinois militia regiment, recently called out to quell the riots engendered by coal miners, thus commends his Catholic chaplain: "I wish to say a word of Father E. A. Kelly, the chaplain of the regiment. He is the first chaplain thus far who has responded to the call and gone to the front with the troops. He was notified at 2 o'clock in the morning, and at 2:30 he was at the armory. He remained at camp and performed his duty and underwent all the hardships with the rest of us." Such readiness on the part of a professed Christian minister to fly to arms will of course be commended by the world, and by a church element that believes in the use of carnal weapons by the disciples of Christ. But it does not manifest the Spirit of Christ, which, through an inspired writer, says that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal." What business has the disciple of Christ engaging in any other warfare than that indorsed by his Master?
—The San Francisco Call says that the majority of the ministers of the gospel sympathize with the strikers. And the Harbinger (Disciple) says, "We do not doubt the statement; they are, or ought to be, the followers of Him of whom it is written, 'The common people heard him gladly.'" There is truth in this statement, yet it is one thing to be in sympathy with the "strikers," and another thing to be in sympathy with the "strike." The strike has been and will yet be the cause of untold suffering on the part of many who engaged in it, as well as of thousands of other poor people directly and indirectly affected by it. And it would be hard to find any who have been in any wise benefited by it. The question has been asked, "If Christ should come to California, would he indorse the strike?" The answer is easy: "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Matt. 5:39. Again: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Rom. 12:19.
SECULAR.
—Nineteen companies of regular troops are guarding railroad property at Butte, Mont.
—Labor day (the first Monday in September) has been made a national holiday by act of Congress.
—A new census of Chicago gives the city a population of 1,700,000, an increase of 100,000 in two years.
—The Anarchist who recently attempted to murder Premier Crispi, of Italy, has been sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment.
—The Pullman Palace Car Company pays an annual revenue tax of $25 on each of its 500 buffet cars on which liquors are sold.
—A cyclone swept a portion of Elk County, Idaho, one day last week, leveling large tracts of timber and destroying thousands of sheep and cattle.
—The Secretary of the Interior has officially decided that the natives of Alaska are not Indians, and therefore Alaska is not an Indian country.
—The Edgar Thompson Steel Works, at Braddock, Pa., owned by the Carnegie Company, have resumed operations in full, giving employment to 1,500 men.
—It is said that the Industrial Army demonstrations in the several States affected have cost the government over $50,000 for expenses of deputy marshals.
—Ogden, Utah, was considerably shaken by an earthquake shock on the 10th inst. Cracks were made in the walls of some large blocks, and people were frightened from their houses.
—A republican government was proclaimed in the Hawaiian Islands July 4, Sanford G. Dole, president of the provisional government, becoming first president of the republic by constitutional provision.
—The Constantinople correspondent of the London Standard says that, notwithstanding the attempts at concealment, it is certain that over 1,000 persons lost their lives in the recent earthquakes in that vicinity.
—An excursion train was partially thrown from the track at La Otto, Ind., on the 22d inst., and several passengers were severely bruised. The track had been tampered with by someone designing mischief.
—It is said that the authorities of Lima and Callao have discovered plots to blow up public buildings with bombs, and many arrests have been made. The spirit of anarchy seems to be cropping out everywhere.
—As the result of the burning of a Union Pacific Railroad bridge, near Lima, Mont., the managers of the company have offered a reward of $1,000 for the conviction of anyone destroying any of its property in that State.
—Of the "black plague," recently so prevalent and so fatal in certain localities in China, the Medical Examiner says, "It is a filth disease." Cleanliness is an important factor in the prevention of epidemic diseases of all kinds.
—The Mount Clare repair shops of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company were closed last week without previous notice to the 1,000 employees. The reason assigned is general business depression, augmented by the strike of coal miners.
—The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad shops at Albuquerque, N. M., have been closed for an indefinite length of time, owing to the financial depression occasioned by the great strike. About 400 men are consequently thrown out of employment.
—At Virginia City, Nev., the Miners' Union and the Mechanics' Union have appropriated sums amounting to $1,500 for the benefit of the American Railway Union, and have undertaken to raise by subscription enough to increase the amount to $3,000.
—The cholera epidemic is said to be assuming alarming proportions in Russia. St. Petersburg alone reports 200 new cases and many deaths daily. A week's report from different parts of the empire summed up on the 21st inst. aggregated over 800 deaths.
—Fourteen strikers, arrested at Raton, N. M., for contempt of court, have been sentenced by Judge Seeley to terms of imprisonment varying from fifteen to sixty days. The judge also approved the action of the receivers of the Santa Fe Railroad in discharging striking employees and putting new men in their places.
—At Sacramento, Cal., where the A. R. U. has manifested its principal strength and most stubborn resistance, the strike has been declared off, officially and unconditionally. It is claimed, however, that, in order to be recognized by the order, it must have the indorsement of the other unions on the Southern Pacific system. At Los Angeles it is reported by telegraph that "the strike is completely dead; not an indication of it is to be noted." In this city the spirit of the contest is kept alive by a popular animosity to the railroad company, and by the sympathy of political partisans, who evidently hope for the support of the strikers and their sympathizers at the polls.
—"Whitecappers" are at work in Brown County, Ind. Perry E. Bloomfield, his wife and father, three brothers named Stephen, and their wives, have recently been severely beaten. The youngest of the Stephen brothers attempted to escape, and was shot through the leg. Other persons in the neighborhood have been warned to leave the county.
—We have heretofore noted the court-martial of Private Cedarquist, of the regular army, at Omaha, for disobedience of orders in refusing to engage in target practice on Sunday. On account of the peculiarity of the case, the department commander mitigated the sentence, with a warning that clemency need not again be expected. It is, however, stated that the War department is likely to call to account the officer who ordered the Sunday target practice.
—At El Dorado, Ark., last week a leading minister and a man with whom he had trouble repaired to a designated spot to settle the difficulty. Each was accompanied by friends. The fact that all were armed showed that there was a suspicion that the settlement would not be amicable. And it was not, the result being that the minister was shot dead, one man was mortally wounded, and two others received severe injuries. The minister had accused his antagonist of circulating scandalous rumors about him.
—"The strike is still on," say the principal leaders; but practically it makes very little difference what the situation is called. The railroads, in the main, are running, with some petty annoyances, which it is expected will be continued. The strikers are learning that the roads can run without them, so far as the work is concerned. No labor strike ever stands any show to win a long contest if stripped of the usual violence that accompanies it. With most men necessity will ever wield a stronger influence than sentimental patriotism, or even a just resentment to arbitrary demands. If men, through fear of their fellow-strikers, cannot work in one locality, they will seek employment where they are not known. The long range of such opportunity is especially favorable to the railroad men, and many of them are not slow to take advantage of it. That the roads can be operated without the strikers is being demonstrated even in California, where the situation was for a time more embarrassing to the railroad company than anywhere else. But the spirit of the strike, at least the spirit that always takes advantage of such demonstrations, is still on, and will continue to be on, and in waiting for every like opportunity. The railroad companies have so far recovered equanimity, but the spirit of unrest is at work in every department of industry, especially among the more dependent classes, and we "know not what a day may bring forth."
From Eden to Eden
In the twenty chapters into which this book is divided, the author discusses the unity of the divine plan and the continuity of God's purpose through all the ages, showing that in all dispensations the truths constantly impressed upon the minds of the people have tended to one end,—the elucidation of one central idea,
THE RESTORATION
By Editor
one end,—the elucidation of one central idea,
THE RESTORATION
of the dominion which was lost in Adam.
CHAPTER I is a brief discussion of the Creation of the World; Man's Dominion and How He Lost It; the Origin and Authorship of Sin, with the divine remedy for its consequences.
CHAPTER II treats of the “Promise of God to the Fathers,” with all that it implied in heaven and on earth. In other chapters are discussed such subjects as “The Abrahamic Covenant;” “Righteousness through Faith;” “The Covenant with Israel,” the reasons for it, and the universality of its application; “The Return of the Jews;” “The World's History in a Dream;” “The Setting Up of the Everlasting Kingdom;” “The Hour of Judgment;” “The Fall of Babylon;” “The Seal and the Mark;” “Signs of the Second Coming of Christ,” and the responsibility of man in recognizing them; “The Resurrection of the Dead,” and what the doctrine involves.
THE LAST CHAPTER is a GRAND COMPILATION of the Promises of God in regard to the “Restoration of the First Dominion,” with a vivid portrayal of the earth's appearance and condition when clothed in the garb of Edenic purity and loveliness.
THE BOOK is substantially bound, and handsomely embossed with floral designs; gold title on side and back; heavy, cream-tinted, sized and super-calendered paper; size, 5½ in. x 9 in.; price, postpaid, $1.00; gilt edge, with side design embossed in gold, $1.50.
Address, PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.,
Or 43 Bond St., New York. Oakland, Cal.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
ITS OFFICES AND MANIFESTATIONS TO THE END OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
By Eld. J. H. Waggoner.
This is a brief but comprehensive argument on the solemn and important subject of the Spirit of God. Its chapters embrace the following heads: The Holy Spirit of Promise; The Power from on High; Circumcision of the heart; The Unity of the Faith; The Law and the Testimony; Try the Spirits; The Great Commission; Gifts in the Reformation; In the Present Century; Spirit of Prophecy Restored. These are subjects of vital importance to all and especially to those who are looking for the return of their Lord. 144 pp. Price, 15 cents.
Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.
It Does Not Look Like a Converted World.
By Editor
Anthony Comstock, president of the Society for Suppression of Vice, has the following to say on the fathers of the land, and what promise this gives to manhood of the future:—
"I must make the startling statement that we are at present developing a race of drunkards. Statistics show that, leaving out the children, there is one drunkard to every forty-two persons. This means that nearly one-half the adult people in the United States drink something else than water.
"As there are 22,000,000 children in the United States, and they are all under the care of this society, I have sufficient evidence to encourage me in my belief that any man who tipples cannot be a good father; not that the greatest wrong is to himself, but because of the wrong done his children. I find that nine out of every ten men who drink had drinking fathers or a drinking family before them. The father says, 'Oh, I only drink a little, you know; it never affects me!' But the father never knows what terrible effects just drinking 'a little' may reveal in his offspring; what awful influence it may have upon the mind and habits of his child.
"You cannot enervate the mind and body and have strength and intellect remain. If you are a father, as you show strength and intellect in yourself, so shall you reap strength and intellect in your children. If drunkenness and licentiousness go hand in hand, if we are generating a drunken race, then we are producing at the same time an unclean race. There is room here, I regret to say, only for the cruel, hard facts. Let thinking men and women consider them."
Christ's coming is the only thing which will regenerate the world by sweeping the curse of sin (of which drunkenness is one of the greatest factors), and all those who have identified themselves with sin, with the besom of destruction from the earth.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
By Editor
The Christian Statesman, of July 7, says on the strike question:—
"The violence connected with the railroad strike owes its origin to the education the railroads have given their employes in sabbath [Sunday] desecration. They have compelled men to disregard God's law until they have come to set all law at defiance. We believe the time is not far distant when those who teach men to set the law of God at defiance will reap the fruit of their own sowing, and it will be so manifest that they cannot mistake it. It is just as inevitable as destiny that the nation that will not obey God's law shall perish. Patriotism as well as piety demands a return to a strict compliance with the fourth commandment as well as all other divine requirements affecting the nation. 'Be not deceived; God is not mocked.'"
Let the reader consider the above carefully. It is worthy of consideration. "Patriotism as well as piety demands a return to a strict compliance with the fourth commandment." Now the fourth commandment reads as follows:—
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day [the day of the rest, the seventh], and hallowed it." Ex. 20: 8-11.
Now certainly that language is plain that the fourth commandment requires the observance of the seventh day, and a "return to a strict compliance" with it would demand the observance of that day. But this is not what the Statesman means; it means that the first day shall be kept. But he who would read the law of God as he would that of any other book of law, would declare that by no means could a strict compliance with the fourth commandment result in the observance of the first day of the week.
From this we can draw but one conclusion, that those who are demanding the observance of a day which God never enjoined in the place of one which he has enjoined, are teaching men to transgress God's law; and we may well say, in almost the language of the Statesman quoted above: "They [those who teach first-day observance by a seventh-day commandment] have taught men to disregard God's law until they have come to set all law at defiance. We believe the time is not far distant when those who teach men to pervert God's law will reap the fruit of their own sowing." We appeal to Christian brethren of all denominations whether "a return to a strict compliance with the fourth commandment" of God's law does not demand the observance of the seventh day? Does not loyalty to God demand obedience to his law, not to men's perversion of his law? Who are responsible—those who have taught that God does not mean what he says, or those who have simply demonstrated the logic of such teaching in their daily life?. "God is not mocked;" and those who, under cloak of Christianity, pervert his word will so learn it by and by. God desires them to learn it now. Will you do it, reader?
CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER.
By Editor
Editorial.—Notes and Comments—Christ and His Church (The Relation—One with Christ—What It Means—Spiritual Fornication—All in Christ—Anti-christ—The Only Hope)—A Universal Sunday Law....................................................................593, 594, 608
Question Corner.—146, Not a Crawler—147, The Song of Moses—148, The Matter of Feeling........................................................ 594
General Articles.—Songs in the Night (verse)—Accountability of the Rich—The Sabbath in Creation—Sinners Destroyed out of the Earth—Miracles in the Fourth Century—"In the Stocks" (verse)—Individual Rights, No. 2 (The Domain of Religion and that of Civil Governments)—Civil versus Ecclesiastical Supremacy in the Affairs of Men—The Sunday Question—Archbishop Ireland on the Strike—How Sunday Is Observed in the British Navy..... 595-600
Home and Health.—Commonplace Lives (verse)—The Fever of "Doing"—Home Influences—No Time to Pray—How to Run—Health a Duty.......................................................601, 602
Mission Fields.—"To Thine Own Self Be True" (verse)—Wang's Trials and Triumphs—Temperance in Japan—Superstitious Worship in India..........................................................602, 603
Our Work and Workers.—Matt. 6 : 19 and Job 3 : 17 (verse)—God's Presence—What a Little Girl Did—Arise, Shine—Field Notes........................................................................604, 605
International S. S. Lessons.—The Temptation of Jesus (Lesson 7, Sunday, August 12, 1894)—Called to the Feast (Lesson 6, Sabbath, August 11, 1894).....605, 606
News and Notes.—Religious—Secular....................................................607
A FRAUD—BEWARE OF HIM.
By Editor
A SISTER writes from the Southern part of this State that a man, representing himself to be a Seventh-day Adventist, is obtaining money from credulous ones by telling them that he has just come in on the train, had been robbed of his ticket, that he had no money, and had been put off the train by the conductor. He desired to borrow money to get to Lancaster, where he had relatives. At Bakersfield he gave the name of Clark, at Riverside of Patterson, at each of which places he obtained five dollars. He has a clubfoot, and tells a very plausible story. The sister who gave us this information truly says "that it seems too bad to give such scoundrels money when the cause needs it so badly." Beware of such.
The Great Strike! A Fulfillment of Prophecy
By Editor
Sentinel Library No. 60.—There have already been published two editions of this tract, entitled "The Great Strike! A Fulfillment of Prophecy." Let it be circulated freely. Price, 1 cent. Address, Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.
What Do These Things Mean?
"What Do These Things Mean?"—This is the title of Religious Liberty Library No. 24; it consists of 20 pages, price 2½ cents. It deals especially with the "Industrial Armies," the labor troubles, and the great accumulation of wealth, and shows from the word of God what these things mean. Let them be scattered like autumn leaves. It may be ordered from the Religious Liberty Association, 271 West Main Street, Battle Creek, Mich., or from any of our tract societies.
The Signs During the Strike
By Editor
ONE of our religious contemporaries across the bay which boasts itself as being the largest religious paper published on the Pacific Coast, has printed two issues of half size (8 pages, four of which are advertisements and plate matter) during the strike. One of the reasons which is given for this is that they "were receiving no mail, and there was no matter of proper class to put in the paper." Well, we make no boast, but the SIGNS has been out in fairly good time, and filled full of good matter, each week of the strike. It may have reached our subscribers a little late, but they will find it full of good matter, ever fresh, like "the old, old story."
Worth Heeding
Worth Heeding.—Said Henry Ward Beecher, "No matter how many are with you, if your councils are in the face of divine principles." This is worthy of attentive regard by Sunday and Sunday-law advocates. And here is another, by Hon. Geo. W. Wendling: "In the name of all history I implore you to remember that the only power that can restrain and safely guide ourselves is the unseen but mighty power of 'Thus saith the Lord God Almighty.'" Sunday observance has neither the authority of a "Thus saith the Lord," nor is it in harmony with "divine principles." Jesus says, "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." These are counsels worth heeding.
Defense of Cleveland and the Courts
By Editor
It is worthy of note that the defense of President Cleveland and the federal courts in their action concerning the strike is, so far as we can learn, indorsed by all reputable journals of the East, both secular and religious, Republican, Democratic, and Prohibition. The worst enemies that good government has seemed to have on this coast have been some of the great dailies. Some sat on the fence. A few dared to speak their conviction. The majority seemed to have axes to grind.
The Accountability of the Rich
By Editor
In another column will be found an article on "The Accountability of the Rich." We hope that it may be read by those who have abundance. The riches which God permits men to have are blessings if rightly used, but curses to those who possess them if hoarded or used to gratify self.
How Sunday Is Observed in the British Navy
By Editor
The beauties of a State religion and a law-enforced sabbath may be seen in the letter, in another column, from Mr. A. Bartholomew, sergeant in the marine service of Queen Victoria. The heading of the letter is, "How Sunday Is Observed in the British Navy."
Sunday Services in Chicago Theaters
CHICAGO has got it. There is a movement in that city to have Sunday services in the theaters, with stereopticon views on the life of Christ, and the St. Andrew Brotherhood are preparing the slides. This will be a shading down of the "passion play."