IN the editorial section of one of our great dailies there is an article—and it is in very large type—based upon the startling affirmation that—
“This earth on which we live has existed for millions of years. Men do not guess about that. They know it. Those that deny it are childishly ignorant or pervert the truth.”
This very strong affirmation is drawn from the fact that in some little town in England a skull has been recently dug up that the editorial says was “half human being and half ape.” He further says that the teeth of the skull were human teeth, but they were imbedded in the jaws of an animal—a jaw like that of a chimpanzee. And then from this wonderful skull, the “scientist” would seek to ridicule us into the thought that we are “childishly ignorant,” or that we are seeking to pervert the truth, if we do not believe all of his learned nonsense in regard to what happened 400,000 years ago.
Why would it not be a good idea to say that since that skull and jaw-bone so closely resemble those of a chimpanzee, they are nothing more nor less than a chimpanzee’s skull and jaw-bone, as chimpanzees can be found still in quite numerous congregations in some parts of the world? All talk about that skull’s having existed, as affirmed, in a gravel bed for 400,000 years, is nonsense, and any person ought to be able to see that such dreaming is not science, but speculation.
To Discredit the Bible
His satanic majesty is doing everything in his power to discredit the Bible story that man has lived upon this earth only about 6,000 years. And if the virus of the devil’s hatred of the Bible were entirely taken out, there would be no difficulty in harmonizing all the facts and conditions seen in the physical world with the utterances of the Bible itself. It ought to be a great deal easier for a person to see that such a skull has degenerated from the primitive human being, whom God created in perfection and uprightness, than to think the more perfect man has come up from such a low order of beings.
The God of the Bible would never make any useless laws. He had some very strict laws in regard to the amalgamation of the human family with the brute creation, as every one knows who has ever read the five books of Moses. Such debased morals would drive man downward at an inconceivable pace. The latter part of the first chapter of Romans also tells, in very vivid and striking language, the degeneracy that was produced in the world as the result of sin. It is far more scientific and altogether in harmony with the facts to believe and understand that this low order of beings that so much resemble the human family have degenerated from the race of Adam. They are down toward the bottom of the ladder in the scale of degeneracy and degradation, in the place of being on the upward grade toward the higher order of beings.
Dr. Wallace and the Success of Evolution
Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, to whom has been given a place in the scientific world very close to that of Darwin and Herbert Spencer, and who has been as ardent a writer and teacher of the doctrines of evolution for the last forty or fifty years as was ever Darwin himself, has this to say in his latest book:
“Darwin proved, by a series of converging facts and convincing arguments, that the physical structure of man was in all its parts and organs so extremely similar to that of the anthropoid apes as to demonstrate the descent of both from some common ancestor.
“So close is this resemblance, that every bone and muscle in the human body has its counterpart in that of the apes, the only differences being slight modifications in their shape and position; yet these differences lead to external forms, attitudes, and modes of life so divergent that we can hardly recognize the close affinity that really exists. This affinity is so real and unmistakable that such a great and conservative zoologist as the late Sir Richard Owen declared that to discover and define any important differences between them was the anatomist’s difficulty.”
This illustration gives the artist's idea of a creature that he thinks existed 400,000 years ago, whose bones were recently discovered in a gravel pit in England. He also suggests the well-developed human head that has evolved during these long millenniums from that original character.
The Bible has claimed, all through the ages, that sin is degrading, and that its whole tendency is to degenerate and throw the human race lower and lower. Notwithstanding the fact that Dr. Wallace still holds to his theories of evolution, he is forced to admit, in another chapter in the same book from which the foregoing quotation is taken, that—
“Taking into account these various groups of undoubted facts, many of which are so gross, so terrible, that they can not be overstated, it is not too much to say that our whole system of society is rotten from top to bottom, and the social environment as a whole, in relation to our possibilities and our claims, is the worst that the world has ever seen.”
The doctor still thinks that evolution has a way out of the difficulty; but his foregoing admission, that society is rotten from top to bottom, and that we have the worst conditions existing to-day that the world has ever seen, confirms the teaching of the Word, that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” When we have an authoritative Book given to us by the great Creator Himself, why will we insist upon leaving the strong foundation of that Book, and, contrary to existing fact, undertake to make a god out of a science that is mere speculation from beginning to end?
Dr. Wallace has had a long life of laborious study and writing. He has sought to teach evolution as a mighty truth. He has made a careful study of conditions in society; and his scientific mind leads him to make deliberately these conclusions in regard to the rottenness of society and the general condition of the world. May it not be, after all, that the infinite Creator, who is seeking to save men from the errors and delusions of this time, has preserved the venerable doctor to make the acknowledgment that his doctrines, so far, are not working out in harmony with the theories presented?
The one thing that has kept the human family, through all the ages, from breaking to pieces under the sins they have been committing, has been the upward working of God’s infinite power of righteousness. His love would not let humanity go; and some individuals in each generation have always yielded to these divine influences, and exemplified the divine truth.
Hence not all of the human family has at any time been degenerated and degraded, otherwise there would be no superior beings at all in the race. We have Egyptian and Babylonian illustrations that reach back to the very beginning of the authentic history of the human race; but in these pictures that have been preserved for this time, the leading characteristics of the human family are as strikingly marked as they are at the present day. There has been no material change in them, except that we know there has been more or less degeneracy. It is only when men seek to go beyond what they know, and out into the realm of speculation about what they do not know, that such foolish conclusions are reached—that the chimpanzee skull dug out of a gravel bed in England must have been one of our ancestors of 400,000 years ago.
Created in the Image of God
The Bible story is that God created man in His own image, after His own likeness. He created him by the word of His power. There is something sublime, dignified, and reasonable in this Bible story. We submit that it is much easier to believe this true story of the divine Book than to follow off into such far-fetched speculations about the monkey’s skull and the British gravel pit. This scientist is asking us to believe too much when he would have us think that in the little span of his finite life he could dig back 400,000 years and tell us with such wonderful accuracy what happened then. If he wants to tell such things as fairy tales, it is his privilege. But in the name of every principle of sound sense and divine truth, don’t call such speculation science. However, he might put it under the head of what the apostle Paul has termed “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.”
We are very rapidly approaching the time, as is abundantly shown by the accurate fulfilment of prophecy, when this world will be brought to stand face to face with the great10Creator; and in that time, how foolish and how absurd will appear all these visions of false science with which men have become intoxicated, and through which they have thrown away the plain teaching of the word of God—teaching which is not only in harmony with true science but should be the guide in the study of all the important truths of nature!
Exact Truth
When we come into the field of astronomy, we find exact truth, for there we are dealing with the great themes of God. When we come into the great field of mathematics, we find truth that can not be bent or twisted, because we are dealing with another one of the exact sciences of God. Chemistry teaches profound accuracy, and produces definite results. Geology gives us many reliable and useful facts. But when that which is true in geology becomes mixed with the speculations of evolution, the dreamy writer of “science” fiction is tempted to float far out into the mists where his chosen god dances before his mind in scientific draperies, until his intoxicated and deluded fancies cause him to cry out, “Behold, what a great truth!” How good it would be if he could be aroused from his hallucinations long enough to realize what a dastardly thing it is to set aside the word of the almighty Creator by introducing in its stead his idle dreamings of evolution!
When we go off into the field of speculation in regard to what occurred 400,000 years ago, we are following an extreme that is not only a useless waste of time, but can not help resulting in disaster to the individual who would thus mock at the word of the Infinite.
Civic Righteousness
We hear a great deal, in these days, about civic righteousness and civic reforms; and an interesting thing in connection with it is that a great deal of this talk is by ministers of the gospel, and others who are professedly religious and who are working in the interests of religious work. The teaching of these individuals would seem to convey the idea that you could have a righteousness apart from Christianity that will make men civilly decent, and these civil responsibilities are to be brought about through certain reformatory laws and their enforcement.
We would not argue with those who hold such positions from the world's standpoint. Civil laws are necessary, and civil government is ordained of God to hold outbreaking lawlessness in check, so that people may be able to live on this planet. But as gospel ministers and Christian workers, we should recognize the truthfulness of the Master's words, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing.” The Master says, “Apart from Me ye can do nothing,” and He says that without a single qualifying word. The terror of punishment may restrain the evil-doer from outward deeds of lawlessness, but the work of the Christian is to go much deeper than that. We are to have truth implanted in the soul, so that we become partakers of the divine nature, and detest wrong because of the indwelling of God's great truth and righteousness in the soul.
Political movements are a necessary part of civil government, but at best they can only produce superficial reforms. Christianity goes deep down into the heart and the life, and lays a foundation of righteousness that can not be overthrown by any power on earth.
Church Federation and Public Morals
By Editor
The Church Federation of San Francisco is taking quite a strong hand in the proposition to clean up that city. At one of their recent meetings, they passed the following resolutions:
“Whereas, Representatives of this federation and other similar organizations have made repeated demands upon the mayor of this city to enforce the laws of the city and state relating to prostitution; and— “Whereas, No reply has been made to their demands; now, therefore, be it— “Resolved, That the secretary write to the mayor, respectfully requesting an immediate answer to their requests as often made, assuring him that we expect him and his administration to enforce the laws above referred to.”
All good people should be interested in the enforcement of proper civil law. Public sentiment should be aroused and strongly expressed against the evils in the Barbary Coast district of San Francisco, as well as similar evils in all other parts of the country; and if our Federal Council of Churches went no farther in its resolutions directed to officials than to require them to enforce such proper laws, there would be no danger in the movement. All good people could strongly unite with them in such things as that. But when church combinations become strong enough to dictate to the rulers what they shall do in certain civil matters, it is only a step toward beginning to dictate to them in the matter of making and enforcing laws respecting religion and conscience. A large part of the evils of this world have been brought about through overweening church combinations that have got control of the state and compelled it to do their bidding.
This country is the first nation in all the history of the world that has had a total separation of church and state both in theory and in fact. But there are strong currents setting in the direction of church combinations that will lead the world again into religious despotisms. The majority of men see, in the church combinations that are forming, nothing more than the organized effort of all good men to put down the vices and the crimes of this time; but the thing will not stop there. The natural thing is, when great majorities form themselves into popular, enthusiastic organizations, that they become despotic and tyrannical. It has been this way invariably in the past, and history will repeat itself. We have had a period of the greatest enlightenment and the most unlimited religious freedom. The prophet of Patmos describes this time and condition under the symbol of a beast that was coming up with the mild characteristics of a lamb; but by and by the scene shifts, and according to the same prophet, this lamblike beast will speak as a dragon.
We do not expect that anything we can say on this subject will stop the movement of church federation, but we do hope that honest men will weigh carefully the meaning of the conditions of this time that are so rapidly shaping themselves into great religious combinations. Study these conditions in the light of history. Study them in the light that is given through the word of Him who is the Prince of Peace and the Man of Calvary and Gethsemane.
How We Will Have the Millennium
THE past hundred years is a period that has been marked by much discussion of a promised millennium. There are many people who actually believe that the world will become completely converted, that there will be no more war, nor any of the distresses that come through sin. Men have preached it, men have written it, and it has become a popular sentiment. At the same time, these men see the necessity of great reforms before the millennium can arrive; so they are talking, in these days, of bringing these reforms about by votes, and by general popular discussions that will create great waves of popular sentiment. When a thing becomes popular, people will fall in with it, oftentimes, whether they believe it or not. And after the popular enthusiasm has gone about so far, it is an easy thing for people to be hypnotized with the thought that they have actually brought about their proposed reforms, and that the world, after all, is converted, and that everything is all right. And we may expect that in this way the world at large will finally be led into the delusion that it is converted, the same as we are already suffering under the delusion that we have our Christian nations. And yet the deluded people will still be loaded down with the sins that will merit their destruction.
In speaking of the times when the day of the Lord is imminent, the apostle says: “When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” If that text says anything, it declares that there is to be a time of great spiritual darkness, when men will be saying all is peace and safety, and yet they will be saying that in the midst of conditions that call for the sudden outburst of God’s destruction.
We must not allow our eyes to be blinded to the actual conditions in these times. We must see things as they are, and recognize the facts that are pointed out so clearly to us in the Book of Him with whom is infallibility and hence no possible mistake.
Immodest Dress and Moral Decline
The despatches say that a young woman in West Virginia appeared on the streets with one of11the much-talked-of slit gowns, with this variation, however,—that the slit extended down the back. She attracted such a mob around the station where she was seeking to board a train that the train was blocked for some fifteen minutes. We should make due allowances for the exaggerations that reporters get into such occurrences; but having made all of these allowances, we still have a superabundance of truth left to show the temper of a large majority of the people that make up society to-day. Some people seem to find no occasion for alarm in the things that are done; but women are appearing on the streets in dresses to-day that would have occasioned such an outburst of disgust twenty-five or thirty years ago that they would not have tried to appear the second time. People who have clear discernment, and who hold to the simple teachings of modesty and uprightness that are an essential part of the gospel of Christ, have no difficulty in seeing that the foundations of morality are being broken up. That is one reason why it is so hard to uproot commercialized vice and to break down the white slave traffic and kindred evils. The people are in too large numbers who either approve such things or else wink at them, or, what is possibly just as bad, are indifferent to them.
An Invaluable Library
By Editor
Equal to Over 3,000 Ordinary Book Pages
A volume fresh and new every week. Twenty-five up-to-date numbers in all. Will cost you only 65 cents. Various phases of the great second advent movement to be covered in the next six months by the Signs of the Times weekly. A special series contributed to by the leading men of the movement.
Note the Subject-Matter
The True Israel of God — Three articles
Not now a visible church in one body or in a combination of bodies.
A great spiritual body — invisible body known now only to God.
To be united under the call, “Come out of her, My people.”
The Gospel of the Kingdom to the World in This Generation — Eleven articles.
Signs of the End Studies — Six articles.
Capital and Labor, or the Industrial War — Six articles.
Federation of Churches — Three or four articles.
The Controversy Series — Twenty-five articles.
The Waldenses — Six articles.
The Nature of Man — Three articles.
The Nature of Man — From the View of the Objector — Five articles.
Coming of the Lord — Five articles.
The True Science of Christianity and Its Principles of Health Contrasted with Christian Science and So-Called Divine Healing — Several articles.
The Angels — Two articles.
The Resurrection — Two articles.
The Earth Made New — Two or three articles.
Prophetic Studies in Daniel — Four articles.
Prophetic Studies in Revelation — Three articles.
The Sanctuary — Three articles.
The Judgment — Two articles.
The Millennium — Eight articles.
Several leading physicians and surgeons will furnish practical things along health lines.
Spiritualism — Four articles.
True Spiritual Gifts and Their Manifestations — Several articles.
A Bible reading every week on leading doctrines of the message — Twenty-five readings.
The Sabbath Question — About ten articles.
The Law — Five articles.
Conversion — Several articles by successful evangelists.
Baptism — Several articles.
The Kingdom of God — Twelve articles.
Our usual full, regular Home Department, with its helpful matter for every member of the family, to be made of more practical use and help, if possible.
Our “Question Corner” and “Bible Band” every week. Editorials, News Letters, Mission Stories, and Outlook.
Surely it is a pretty good investment to send to your friends such a wonderfully good library of such invaluable matter, at such an astonishingly low price.
THE WHOLE SIX-MONTH SERIES OF 25 NUMBERS
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Single subscription, 90 cents for six months.
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Mosaic Sanitation and Typhoid Fever
The Journal of the American Medical Association is authority for the statement that typhoid fever has been practically banished from the United States army. The prevalence of this disease has been greatly reduced, not only throughout the United States, but in most of the civilized countries of the world. Those who will strictly observe the sanitary regulations that were established by Moses when he was the leader of Israel, will have very little trouble with typhoid fever, or any other disease of that character. Established facts of this kind ought to give added confidence in Him who inspired Moses and the other writers of the grand old Book.
National Tuberculosis Day
The National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis has designated Sunday, December 7, as national tuberculosis day. This is the fourth annual effort of this kind. This association is doing an incalculably good work in the knowledge that it is disseminating upon the subject of tuberculosis. While the work of curing tuberculosis after it has once taken hold of the individual is an important one, yet the work of this association in preventing tuberculosis is more important still. Everybody should lend a hand in any way that they can.
Naval Preparedness as a Peace Policy
Secretary-of-the-Navy Daniels is said to be in favor of the idea of greatly strengthening the effective force of the navy. Of course such aggressive measures are advocated as a peace policy; but why do we need such precautions to preserve the peace if we are on the borders of the millennium, and the nations are not going to learn war any more? It should not be difficult to see the inconsistency.
Panama Canal Expansion Predicted
Bunau Varilla, who was the chief engineer of the old De Lesseps Canal Company that undertook the project of building the first Panama Canal, is on his way to Panama to see the first water turned into the canal. He predicts that within twenty years the canal will have to be widened to 600 feet in order to care for the increased traffic that will be drawn in that direction.
Volcanoes Active in Alaska
Ships returning from Bering Sea say that the volcanoes in Alaska have been active all summer. Earlier in the year, it will be remembered, there were very violent eruptions in that section.
Radium Treatment for Hardening of the Arteries
Physicians in New York City assert that they have found a process, in which radium is used, to cure the hardening of the arteries. They claim a case that is an actual cure.
Great Missionary Activity
ON this and the succeeding page are some groups of individuals who are sailing to various parts of the Orient as missionaries. The first group is of three men who are returning to their fields in the Hawaiian Islands, in the Philippines, and in Japan, as superintendents of our missionary work in these respective countries. The large group is of a company of people who are going with them to assist in spreading the gospel of the soon coming of Christ among these various nationalities.
On August 16 a similar group of fourteen sailed also from San Francisco Bay, in company with Elder Porter, principally for work in China. On September 10 Alfonso Anderson and wife sailed for Japan.
All told, our Foreign Mission Board has sent out something over 150 recruits to the foreign fields since the close of our General Conference last June. The majority of those are young people who have but recently married, and who are just stepping onto the threshold of life. All of life's great prospects are before them. Many of them had good homes, well-to-do parents, and splendid opportunities were offered them in the world to make a good living and to enjoy themselves. Why is it that they give up all these prospects of present enjoyment and emolument to go into the forbidding countries of the East, where privation and suffering of every sort await them? There is one great thought that is thrilling their souls and leading them on. They believe that the Bible plainly teaches, through its great array of prophecy, that the second coming of the blessed Christ of Nazareth is right at hand. They believe that this generation is to see the great event, and imbued with that faith, and inspired by that hope, they are leaving everything behind them that this world holds as dear, in order that they may impart to the unenlightened minds of the Orient the great hope that is inspiring their own souls.
This splendid army of workers that is being constantly recruited will soon spread the knowledge of the coming and kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into every corner of the world. There could be no more inspiring hope, there could be no higher ideals, than those begotten by a knowledge of prophecy, which enables us to understand that the coming of the Lord draws very near. The mighty power of God that is leading men and women in such numbers to such a wonderful work is truly one of the marvels of His grace. It shows in a significant manner the deep conviction that attends faith in the soon coming of Christ.
Saving for the Work
By R. P. Montgomery
The other day a good Chinese sister was telling us how she planned to save money for offerings. She said that she would have to pay a first-class rickshaw seventy-five cents from her house to church, and forty-five cents for a second-class. She always takes the second, and thereby saves thirty cents every Sabbath. Her children, who can not understand her motive, try to persuade the old lady to take the first-class rickshaw, telling her that it takes longer to go in the second-class, and is much harder riding. This sister has given a great deal to the work. Besides paying tithe and other offerings, she has to my knowledge given $100 on two different occasions for special purposes.
Left — Elder L. V. Finster, superintendent of our work in the Philippines; center, Elder F. H. Conway, superintendent of our work in the Hawaiian Islands; right, Elder F. H. De Vinney, superintendent of our work in Japan
R. P. MONTGOMERY.
Marvelous Workings in Pakhoi
By Mrs. A. H. Bach
Since Brother Harlow left us, we have had some experiences which I think beautiful and wonderful marks of the Lord’s tender care over His sheep. Se-go is a fisherman of Tegat, where my husband took Brother Harlow, to show him the family who threw away their idols on account of the plague. This man was heavily in debt, so that no one would lend him anything, not even our Bible woman, who is a near relative. He came with a heavy heart to Pakhoi sometimes, to keep Sabbath, and would often think he ought to go fishing instead; but the only son, who was saved from the plague after he began keeping the Sabbath, kept him from going. Some weeks ago, returning home from Pakhoi, and in the evening starting out fishing, he went in a direction opposite to his fellow fishermen. He himself was aware that it was not a good place, and also the others told him not to go on that route. But he heeded no one, and went, following some inward guidance. Erelong he had a full load of fish of a very large size—$100 worth. Some weeks after, again going out in the evening after the Sabbath, he made a draft of $300 worth, and all the rest of the men caught nothing, and were greatly astonished. He paid all his debts, and bought new shoes and clothes for his boy, who is learning weaving with us. His joy, as well as ours, is great.
One woman, whom Tai-su, the Bible woman, visited, had lost six members of the family through the plague. She is a good Chinese scholar, knowing about five hundred characters. Tai-su showed her many texts in which the plague was mentioned as the result of disobedience to the commandments, but she would not believe it or take much notice of it. At last Tai-su said to her that her case itself, of unbelief, was stated too, in the Bible; that is, that in spite of the plagues, they would not believe and be converted. When she showed her this text in Revelation, her heart was melted, and she was persuaded, and now is coming and keeping the Sabbath of the Lord.
Lately we had Lu, the evangelist, down from Limchow. He saw opposite our house a man, sitting near the altar dedicated to the snake idol. Often I had thought of means to destroy this idol. This man was looking very sad. Lu asked him why he was so sad, and said that he had come purposely to speak to him. This man told him that he had lost a dearly beloved girl, and that he had done all that the priests told him to do. The whole night we heard the noise going on, and he was lying prostrate before the idol all night. Lu, the evangelist, began to read to him the texts about the plague, and told him how to serve God and keep His commandments, and this man is a new convert. So we plainly see the good the plague is doing. In spite of the 2,300 who have died, a few have accepted the gospel who otherwise would never have turned to the Lord. All praise and honor to His name!
Mrs. A. H. Bach.
The Unchangeable
By Eliza H. Morton
By Eliza H. Morton
Hast thou met coldness where there once was love,
And hardness where you thought it not?
Has want of sympathy thy heart made sad,
And loneliness been all thy lot?
Ah, child, the Love that died for thee knows all
Thy pain, and all thy secrets dire.
Thy inmost heart of hearts is bare to Him,
With all its wild, consuming fire.
Then look to Him alone, and trust His love,
And cast thyself upon His breast.
Thus satisfied forever thou shalt be,
And find true peace, and joy, and rest.
Bible School and Mission in China
By J. J. Westrup
From Yen Cheng, China
AFTER the public debate in the north, there is a mighty stir in that neighborhood. Many are sending to us for literature, and others are coming down to the Bible school which we intend to conduct during the summer. For about a month and a half the heat is so intense that it is unwise to travel, hence our workers can use their time to the best advantage by remaining here and studying this blessed truth. Many others also have a chance to attend these classes. The colporteurs have carried the truth six hundred li west of us, where quite a number keep the Sabbath, and we have invited some of them to come to our Bible school. The message is also going now to the extreme north and east; and when God's time comes, it will go south, and then this province will surely have had a chance to hear the grand message of the soon coming of Christ and kindred truth.
The barley and wheat crop has been good, hence conditions are better here, tho for a time they looked rather blue. The robbers are a terrible pest in this province, and have done more damage than several revolutions. We are completely surrounded by them. Last week they were very near us, so that I had to transfer all the money over to the chapel, where it was perhaps a little safer. I am confident that the angels encamp round about them that fear Him, and that God will surely protect His children. These perilous times help us to pray. This is about the most precious lesson we can learn in this world, because when we have learned really to pray, we are able to draw down the blessings of heaven; and thus connected with our dear Lord, there is no limit to what we shall be able to accomplish in His name.
J. J. Westrup.
Growing Work in the Philippines
By E. M. Adams
Our work is growing steadily here. There were so many at our last quarterly meeting in Manila, and so much to do, that we had to hold meeting in both the morning and the afternoon. Before, we had been holding it in the morning only. It was a beautiful sight to see the faces of those who had just recently been brought to the knowledge of this truth. There were thirty-three members taken into the church, and twenty-one others that are keeping the Sabbath applied for membership.
Last Sabbath I went to Malolos to hold quarterly meeting with the believers, and there, as in Manila, I was impressed with the growth of the work. The Sabbath-school has grown from thirty to fifty members.
We had a little experience in electing and ordaining another deacon at Malolos which made me feel that we are near the time when the Lord will let His blessing rest upon and indicate His will to His church even as He did in the days of the apostles. The church was so divided as to who should fill the new office, that we called for a season of prayer to decide the matter. After prayer, the selection was clear; and before the roll was called, this brother was ordained. When his name was called, in place of bearing his testimony, he asked to pray. We bowed in prayer, and his prayer brought the Spirit of the Lord into that meeting so that hearts were touched and the people wept. After this, he bore his testimony. While he was speaking, the evangelist that was sitting by me said to me, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon the new deacon.” O, for a closer walk with God! E. M. ADAMS.
From left to right: Robert Stewart and wife, Brother Lanier and wife, Dr. Carlos Fattebert and wife, Miss Sadie Blodgett, Mrs. R. E. Hay and two children, Mrs. L. V. Finster and Elder Finster; in the front row, beside Elder Finster, Mrs. F. H. De Vinney and Elder De Vinney; just back of Elder Finster and Mrs. De Vinney, Elder F. H. Conway and wife; and at the extreme right, G. O. Ryd and wife. Elder Hay and Dr. and Mrs. Williams were also in the party, but could not be secured for the photograph.
