p. 608 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 38. (7/31/1893)

Earlier text: TESTIMONY OF AN ARCTIC BROTHER

SECULAR.

—A fire in Susanville, Lassen County, Cal., on the 19th inst., destroyed property to the value of $250,000.

—The rolling mills and iron mines of the Oxford Iron and Nail Company, Belvidere, N. J., have been closed, which leaves 350 men out of employment.

—Governor Markham has appointed Ex-Governor George C. Perkins U. S. Senator from California to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Leland Stanford.

—At Priceburg, Pennsylvania, on the 23d inst., a race conflict between Hungarian and Polish miners resulted in three deaths and over thirty contestants injured. Whisky was the cause.

—Rumor says that President Hill, of the Great Northern Railroad, is making arrangements in London for steamer connections between his Pacific Coast terminals and all Asiatic points.

—The first financial effect of the new German Army Bill is the resignation of Von Moltzhan, secretary of the imperial treasury. The added load on the treasury seems to have been too heavy for his faith.

—A late decision of the U. S. Supreme Court holds that all shippers must be treated by carriers with absolute equality. It also recognizes the right of law-making bodies to regulate railways through commissions.

—At Wier City, Kansas, on the 20th inst., a number of striking miners, together with their wives, attacked some miners while at work. A fierce fight ensued, in which several persons on both sides were severely injured.

—A fire near Althlone, in Merced County, this State, on the 17th inst., destroyed the grain fields of three ranches, amounting in all to 1,200 acres. The flames jumped the Chowchilla Creek at a point where its banks are 200 feet apart.

—A great fire occurred on the 21st inst. in Long Island City, N. Y. It is said that more than 100 families are left homeless. The property loss is estimated at $800,000. A new Catholic Church, which cost $300,000, was destroyed.

—Although there have been 200 national bank failures since January 1, there is no loss to the government, as each national bank that is a government depository has to deposit U. S. bonds to the amount of the government money it is allowed to carry.

—The trial of Heath for the murder of Lawyer McWhirter, which has caused so much excitement in Fresno, Cal., for the past six weeks, ended in a disagreement of the jury,—eleven standing for conviction of murder and one for manslaughter. There will be another trial.

—A Rome dispatch of the 17th inst. says: "It is stated here on good authority that Germany has intimated to the Vatican that no official opposition will be made in the Reichstag to the Centrists' proposals looking to the adoption of a law allowing the return to Germany of the Catholic religious orders."

—Prospectors report the discovery of the ruins of an ancient temple on the Colorado Desert, in San Diego County, Cal. The character of the carved columns and the specimens of pottery found indicate a higher degree of artistic skill than that possessed by any of the aborigines now known in history.

—The government has instructed the collector at New York that the certificates of the Chinese Consul there are not to be any longer received as proof in identifying Chinese merchants who may go away and desire to return. The reason is that so many of such certificates are used for fraudulent purposes.

—U. S. Senator Peffer, the only Populist member of that body, is making a tour of the Pacific States in connection with his duty as a member of the Committee on Agriculture. He is making a personal inspection of the condition and prospects in the Western States. Other members of the committee are inspecting other sections.

—The present status of the French-Siamese difficulty does not augur a peaceful solution. Siam has declined the French demands, and the latter refused to grant further time for negotiations. It is said that China will assist Siam, and it is further rumored that England is behind China. The territory demanded by France embraces 95,000 square miles.

—The Rio Grande do Sul rebellion in Brazil manifests prolonged vitality. A dispatch of the 22d inst. announces an important battle, with the defeat of the government troops and the death of their commanding officer, General Soares. Brazil is assuming a hostile attitude toward Uruguay, because of the encouragement the rebels are said to receive from the people of that government.

—It is now conceded in government circles that the experiment of making soldiers of the Western Indians is not a success. The idea of improving the red man's condition by enlisting him in the army is pronounced by the authorities "a flat failure." It is a mystery how it ever could have been thought otherwise, as experience ought to have shown that becoming a soldier was never known to improve anybody.

—The Supreme Court of Minnesota, in a recent decision, says: "This is the age of associations and labor unions. Confined to their proper limits they are not only lawful but laudable. Carried beyond these limits they are liable to become dangerous agencies for wrong and oppression. Beyond what limits these combinations cannot go without interfering with the legal rights of others is a problem which the courts will doubtless be frequently called to pass upon."

—Not only Denver, but all Colorado, is suffering from a financial panic. Last week the banks of the capital city experienced an unprecedented run, and about a dozen of them were obliged to close. But this is not the worst of the situation, for the run was probably precipitated by an unwarranted fright on the part of depositors. The worst thing for the State is the low price of silver, which has caused the closing of most of the mines. Private letters to this office from patrons indicate that business in the mining towns is at a standstill. A Leadville merchant, in countermanding an order for books, writes: "My reason is because the sudden drop in our only resource, silver, has closed all our mines and smelters. Everybody is out of employment and the condition of things here is deplorable, in fact, many people are in want. I was therefore compelled to cancel all my orders as I knew business would be dead." The Denver people expect that at least 30,000 idle men will be congregated there as a public charge, and the railroads are being asked for a $5.00 rate to the Missouri River, where the men may be shipped to probable employment. It is estimated that Colorado, Utah, Montana, and New Mexico merchants have countermanded orders for goods in New York to the amount of $12,000,000.

TO THE WORLD'S FAIR.

Weekly Excursions.

ARE you going? If so, it will be to your interest to call on, or write to, the undersigned before arranging for your trip.

The "Santa Fe Route" being the only line under one management from California to Chicago, we can offer you advantages, for a safe and pleasant journey, unsurpassed by other lines.

It is the only line running Pullman Palace and Tourist sleeping cars through to Chicago, every day, without change, on the same train.

Select Overland Excursions leave every Tuesday, with manager in charge through to Boston. Baggage checked to destination. Steamship tickets sold to and from all European points, via all the popular steamship lines. J. J. Warner, Agent, 972 Broadway, Oakland, Cal., or W. A. Bissell, G. P. A. 650 Market Street, Chronicle Building, San Francisco, Cal.

BIBLE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONCERNING MAN. By Alonzo T. Jones. Bible Students' Library, No. 76 Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. 16 pp.; 2 cents.

THE ATONEMENT. Part I, "An Atonement Consistent with Reason." Part II, "An Atonement as Revealed in the Bible." Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. Cloth, $1.00.

Our Work and Workers

By Editor

Our Work and Workers' department is much fuller than usual this week, while we have but little in our Mission Fields. But the matter in the former is of a character which will really do for both, and we are sure will be of interest to all. We have the quasi-promise that our correspondent in New South Wales will present to the readers of the SIGNS in several articles a description of the Australian field. Our readers will be glad to learn through Brother Chapman of the interest in the Tahitian group and surrounding islands; and the description of the life of the Lapps, by one of their own number, will be of interest. Then there are the Field Notes, besides.

Among the distinctive characteristics of the Prohibition party claimed by the Rev. B. W. Williams in the July American Journal of Politics, is that of the maintenance by the State "of the weekly rest day." Of course this is equivalent to a statement that Prohibitionists demand the passage and enforcement of Sunday laws. He says: "The Prohibition party alone declares for the preservation of such a day." And it is for that very reason, for the reason that such declaration is a declaration for a union of Church and State and all the consequent evils of religious intolerance and persecution, that every true lover of liberty should refuse to have aught to do with such a party.

Sabbatarians, Sundarians, Saturdarians, et al.—Some persons whom we esteem have criticised the use in the SIGNS of the term "Sundarians" as applied to the Sunday-law people, and we are asked: "Is it good policy to adopt the slurs of the opposition?" We have not adopted the term "Sundarians" as a slur. It is a word properly formed and properly applied, and is no more a term of reproach than "Sunday-keepers." The term "Sabbatarians" as applied to Sunday-keepers, is erroneous. They are not Sabbatarians, and only those are Sabbatarians who observe the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day. To the proper use of this term we have no objection. The term "Saturdarians" as applied to seventh-day keepers is erroneous and falsely applied; for those who properly observe the seventh-day Sabbath do not keep Saturday; for Saturday begins at midnight Friday night, and ends the following midnight, but the biblical Sabbath begins at sunset the evening of the sixth day, Friday eve, and closes the following sunset, so that the world's Saturday and the Bible seventh day are not identical. Therefore to call the observers of the Sabbath by "Saturdarians" is to use a term falsely. But Sunday-keepers say that they believe in Sunday laws; most of their laws read "Sunday;" they call their services Sunday services, and their schools on that day Sunday schools; and declare that they are working for Sunday laws, for "the American Sunday." Why then should "Sundarians" be considered an improper term or a "slur?" We never knew a Sunday observer to object to it. Why is it not as good as "Sunday-keepers," or "Sunday-law people?" It is certainly much more convenient, shorter, and more easily written. Is it not right and proper? Is it not then perfectly proper, and perfectly right; and is not right the best "policy"?

The Baptist Ensign of Minneapolis is quoted by the Literary Digest as saying, after referring to the different views of Christ's coming:—

It should be added that side by side with the expectation of Christ's coming this year the Seventh-day Adventists are planning for the extension of their peculiar views among the heathen! Further comment might spoil the force of that statement.

Now the Ensign knew, if it knew anything about that people and their views of prophecy at all, that Seventh-day Adventists were not, are not, expecting Christ's coming this year in the sense conveyed by the above words and what goes before. And if they do not know this, they had no right thus to speak. The language seems to imply a desire on the part of the writer to be witty at the expense of truth, else why the implied untruth? Better things could once be expected from a Baptist source. If we are wrong in our interpretation, we stand ready to apologize.

"BIBLE STUDENTS' LIBRARY."

By Editor

WE have said little with reference to the above publication for some time; but it is still issued with its accustomed regularity. The numbers for this year are as follows:—

No. 101, for January, price 1 cent, 8 pp., entitled "The Rest That Remains," by E. J. Waggoner. It is a brief but helpful exposition of Heb. 4:4-8.

No. 102, for February, is Sabbath School Lessons on the Coming of the Lord for the second quarter of 1893.

No. 103, for March, 24 pp., price 3 cents, "Shall Christians Be Members of Secret Societies," by Mrs. E. G. White. This tract should be widely circulated, as it contains important truth, pressed home by abundance of Scripture testimony.

No. 104, for April, 16 pp., price 2 cents, "Justified by Faith." This is a reprint of the excellent articles on Justification in the Signs a short time since. This number is most worthy of study, and is worth more than many elaborate theories.

No. 105, for May, 16 pp., price 2 cents, "The Way to Christ," by Mrs. E. G. White, a reprint of a publication first issued at the Bible Echo office in Australia. This is a helpful little tract.

No 106, for June, is the Sabbath School Lessons on 1 Peter for Senior Divisions, for the present quarter of 1893.

No. 107, for July, 24 pp., price 3 cents, is an absolutely new edition of "Who Changed the Sabbath?" We are sure it will commend itself to our workers everywhere as more direct, concise, and complete on this question than the old edition. It is the same size as the old No. 19 of the Library, and will take its place. No. 19 will be discontinued.

No. 108 will be a small pamphlet on "Life, Its Source and Purpose," by Wm. Covert. It will present the nature of man and the life question from the positive and biblical side rather than the negative.

Other numbers will be announced as they are ready. The Bible Students' Library is at present, and has been for some time, undergoing revision, and a large number of the old tracts will be either discontinued, consolidated, or thoroughly revised, bringing them into harmony with the rapidly advancing work of God.

"APPLES OF GOLD."

By Editor

THE above term is used in Prov. 25:11, the Revised Version of which reads, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver." That is, a word appropriately spoken, fitting to the occasion, is like beautiful golden fruit in baskets of silver filagree work. Apples of Gold Library, with the above text as its motto, is the name of a new serial publication issued by the Pacific Press Publishing Company, Oakland, Cal. It will be published monthly, of a size suitable to send in a No. 6 envelope. This is a publication which has been under consideration and in the embryotic stage for over a year, and it has now matured. Each number will be from four to sixteen pages, not exceeding the latter, suitable to slip into an envelope and send with a letter to those with whom we are corresponding. The nature of the matter printed in this library will be biblical, spiritual, and helpful in the Christian pilgrimage. The title of the first number is "Looking unto Jesus," written by that thoroughly evangelical Frenchman, Theodore Monod. It consists of 8 pp. and sells for 50 cents per hundred. The price of the Library is 10 cents a year. Address as above.

THE "CALIFORNIA COLD PROCESS."

By Editor

THERE is more or less advertised at the present time the "California Cold Process," an acid preparation for preserving fruits. This we noticed in the SIGNS something like a year ago, and gave at that time the unprejudiced testimony of Prof. E. W. Hilgard, of the State University, as to the worth of the preparation. After speaking of a name by which it is called, "Compound Extract of Salyx," he says:—

The name of this "Compound Extract" is incautiously suggestive of salicylic acid. An examination of the sample fruit distributed by the canvassers accordingly shows, in the liquid around the fruit, one-third of one per cent of salicylic acid, which, of course, is well known to preserve fruit, as well as other vegetable and animal matter, but is better adapted to the preparation of show specimens than to preserve for human consumption. Doubtless there are persons who may for some time take such doses of the well-known preservative with impunity. There are others with whom its use would in a short time create very serious disorders of the digestion; and there are those whose digestion is stopped, point blank, when such "preserves" are eaten.

Anyone is at liberty to take his choice as to which of the above classes he considers himself as belonging, and may take his dose of medicine with his dessert, if he chooses. But should anyone desire to do so, it is quite unnecessary for him to pay the "Ohio Fruit Company" at the rate of $8.00 a pound for what he can get at retail for $1.50. Nor need he be alarmed about the fruit company's threat of prosecution. The use of salicylic acid (elsewhere forbidden by sanitary regulations) is guarded by no patent, and never has been; that of "Coffee C" sugar prescribed by the company certainly is not. All are therefore at liberty to sweeten their fruit according to taste, and to spice it with the antiseptic acid without asking leave of anybody.

Freedom of Conscience and Religious Liberty

In the Vestnik Europy, a Russian paper published at Moscow, Prof. V. S. Solovier makes a plea for the freedom of the conscience. He contrasts the orthodox or Russian Church, in which he believes, with the non-conformist sects, and notes the prosperity of the latter under persecution. The following words are worthy of consideration:—

There can be no doubt that the utility of persecution consists, not in the sufferings endured, but in the necessity of resisting the persecution with one's own spiritual strength. Not the persecution is beneficial, but the defense, not the external restrictions, but the internal freedom from legal patronage, which generally has a blighting effect on spiritual health. This utility, however, results still more surely from religious toleration and freedom of conscience, when each belief is obliged to defend itself in a free field. Such a condition is most advantageous for the truth, while any application of force in the interest of religious truth helps error by investing it with a dignity not belonging to it. . . . Life on our earth is a struggle, and the creed which is backed and imposed by force has no occasion to struggle—hence does not really live.

Our National Reformers may learn a profitable lesson in liberty from this member of the Orthodox Russian Church.