p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 3. (1/16/1896)

Earlier text: INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

TO OUR READERS AND COWORKERS.

By Editor

The editor, the contributors, and the printers alone can not make and establish a paper. They may write the matter, by the Lord’s blessing, and put it into type; if they have sufficient money to spend, they might for a while circulate many copies. But this would not be satisfactory. What is demanded is subscribers, friends, who are as interested in the paper as the editor is, who are as anxious that it should live because of the cause it represents, and the ideas it stands for, and who will labor earnestly to extend its circulation.

We believe that the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has such friends. Our subscription list, increasing during the last year from 8,000 to 23,000, attests this; but we want a larger constituency, a greater number of friends. We do not want this to make the publication of the SIGNS a “good investment” from a worldly view, but to carry the message of “the everlasting Gospel” to the millions who need its healing, helpful truths.

The price of the SIGNS has been put at the lowest possible limit. Will you not help to increase its circulation? If it has helped one soul, it may another. Has it blessed you? let it bless your neighbors. Ask them to subscribe. It is only $1.00 a year.

San Francisco Examiner on Roman Catholic Controversy

The San Francisco Examiner of January 10 prints a scholarly and courteous article on the “Roman Catholic Controversy” from the pen of Dr. C. W. Wendte, minister of the First Unitarian Church of this city. Dr. Wendte discusses three points: The doctrines of Peter’s primacy, the Roman Catholic position on church and state, and the comparative truth and excellence of the Protestant and Roman Catholic theories of religion and church government as shown in its practical influence on individuals, States, nations, and men. The primacy of Peter is lucidly discussed in the Examiner of the above date, to be followed by other articles. The first article is worth reading.

Elder O. A. Olsen Departs After Pacific Coast Visit

ELDER O. A. OLSEN, president of our General Conference, has just departed for the east after a few weeks’ profitable visit on the Pacific Coast. Besides the matter of the next voyage of the ship Pitcairn, which we understand will not be taken till July or August next, the most important business transacted was in connection with the Rural Health Retreat, St. Helena.

God's Law Changed: Human Alterations and Dependence

“God’s Law Changed.”—How flippantly men talk of change in God’s law and Sabbath. It was changed by the apostles, or by the church, etc. And now we have ministers and great organizations telling us that it is the duty of the governments of earth, not only to enforce God’s law, but to enforce the change in the law—man’s interpretation—as God’s law. What this means is well illustrated by an incident in the history of the development of the dependent Irish Parliament about 200 years ago, concerning a certain law of the imperial government, which the Irish Parliament presumed to tamper with. Says Macaulay in his “History of England,” chapter 23:—

“The Irish lords and commons had presumed not only to reenact it but with alterations. The alterations were indeed small, but the alteration even of a letter was tantamount to a declaration of independence.”

He says further:—

“The colony in Ireland was emphatically a dependency; a dependency, not merely by common laws of the realm, but by the nature of things. It was absurd to claim independence for a community which could not cease to be dependent without ceasing to exist.”

But a declaration of independence meant rebellion. How much more so with human governments, especially when professedly Christian. To change God’s law and to enact it as his law is antichristian.

Methodist Petitions to Senate on Labor, Divorce, Sunday

In the U. S. Senate, on the 3d inst., Mr. Sherman presented a petition of the Methodist Preachers’ Meeting of Columbus, Ohio, purporting to represent twenty-five pastors and 10,000 members, praying that an investigation of the labor problem be made with a view to industrial arbitration. Also a petition from the same body praying that the nine-day divorce law of Oklahoma Territory and the divorce law of Arizona Territory be repealed. Also a petition from the same source praying for the enactment of a Sunday-rest law, and for the enforcement of a law for compulsory education at the national capital. Congress having squarely opened the door for religious legislation in the Chicago Exposition precedent, and having given certain religious elements the idea that “the churches hold Congress in their hand,” we may look for church petitions and demands for all manner of “reforms,” which it will be expected to concede because the church says so. We have had the beginning, but the end is not yet.

A New Patriotic Paper.

By Editor

J. B. Daly, ex-priest, who was on the Pacific Coast some two years ago, has started a monthly paper in Chicago, called the Reform, published at 15 South Centre Avenue, Chicago, Ill.; 16 pp., magazine form; price, $1.00. The first number is neatly printed. We would, in this connection, like to suggest to this class of reformers three things: (1) Do not indulge in so many personalities. Do not be vindictive. It does no good. (2) Do not fight Rome with her own weapons. Preach the gospel of liberty and love, not of force. (3) When giving quotations from Roman Catholic authors, give definite references.

An Earnest Prohibition Worker's Unpaid Zeal

An earnest Prohibition brother writes us from San Diego, Cal:—

“Most of our lecturers want to know how much money we’ve got before they will tell us what they think of national prohibition, of sin and saloons, and the supposition of crime-breeding. I have been here two years. I have preached on the streets 750 times, in the halls over 200 times; I have written 7,000 short, red-hot articles on reform, and have given 200 Testaments, besides papers and other godly literature; and I have never asked a cent. I ask God, and it is always forthcoming.”

Would there were more of the same earnest zeal.