A clear, simple exposition of the noted parable of Dives and Lazarus, given in Luke 16: 19-31. Reading it will help you. Price $1.00 per hundred; single copies, 2 cents.
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Great Controversy
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“The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan” has now been added to the “limp leather bound” list. Printed on a fine grade of thin paper. The contents complete are contained in this beautiful, durable book weighing but 22 ounces. It is 8½ by 5½ inches in size, uniform with “The Acts of the Apostles” and “Patriarchs and Prophets” in the same form. In this binding “Controversy” costs only $2.00.
Prices 10 per cent higher in Canada
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Christ Our Advocate — The Sanctuary
There is no one thing in the Scripture more illuminating, more comprehensive of all the teachings of the Word, than the subject of the sanctuary, revealing as it does the object and purpose of sacrifice, and the priesthood and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This little pamphlet on this great subject is 10 cents.
In Genesis the world was made by God’s creative hand.
In Exodus the Hebrews marched to gain the promised land.
Leviticus contains the law, holy, just, and good.
Numbers records the tribes enrolled, all sons of Abraham’s blood.
Moses in Deuteronomy proclaims God’s mighty deeds,
While Joshua in Canaan’s land the hosts of Israel leads.
In Judges their rebellion oft provoked the Lord to smite,
But Ruth records the faith of one well pleasing in His sight.
In First and Second Samuel of Jesse’s sons we read.
Ten tribes in First and Second Kings revolted from his seed.
In First and Second Chronicles see Judah captive led,
While Ezra leads a remnant back by princely Cyrus’ aid.
The city walls of Zion, Nehemiah builds again,
While Esther saves her people from plots of wicked men.
In Job we read how faith will live beneath affliction’s rod,
And David’s Psalms are very dear to every child of God.
The Proverbs like a goodly string of choicest pearls appear,
Ecclesiastes teaches men how vain are all things here.
The mystic Song of Solomon exalts sweet Sharon’s rose,
While Christ, the Saviour and the King, the rapt Isaiah shows.
The warning Jeremiah, apostate Israel scorns,
His plaintive Lamentations their awful downfall mourns.
Ezekiel tells, in wondrous words, of dazzling mysteries,
While kings and emperors yet to come Daniel in vision sees.
Of judgment and of mercy Hosea loves to tell,
Joel describes the blessed days when God with man shall dwell.
Among Tekoa’s herdsmen Amos received his call,
While Obadiah prophesies of Edom’s final fall.
Jonah enshrined a wondrous type of Christ, our risen Lord,
Micah pronounces Judah lost—lost, but again restored.
Nahum declares on Nineveh just judgments shall be poured.
A view of Chaldea’s coming doom Habakkuk’s visions give.
While Zephaniah warns the Jews to turn, repent, and live.
Haggai wrote of those who saw the temple built again,
While Zechariah prophesies of Christ’s triumphant reign.
Malachi was the last who touched the high prophetic chord.
His final notes sublimely show the coming of the Lord.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John the holy gospel wrote,
Describing how the Saviour lived, His death, and what He taught.
Acts proves how God the apostles owns with signs in every place.
St. Paul in Romans teaches us how man is saved by grace.
The apostle in Corinthians instructs, exhorts, reproves.
Galatians shows that faith in Christ alone the Father loves.
Ephesians and Philippians tell what Christians ought to be.
Colossians bids us live to God and for eternity.
In Thessalonians we are taught the Lord will come from heaven.
In Timothy and Titus the bishop’s rules are given.
Philemon marks the Christians’ love, which only Christians know.
Hebrews reveals the gospel truth prefigured by the law.
James shows that without holiness love is but vain and dead.
St. Peter points the narrow way in which the saints are led.
John, in his three epistles, on love delights to dwell.
St. Jude gives awful warnings of judgment, wrath, and hell.
The Revelation prophesies of that tremendous day
When Christ, and Christ alone, shall be the trembling sinner’s stay.
DANIEL HULL
Restful People
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle
I WISH there were more of them in the world. Why?—Because restful people never start quarrels, never produce wars; they never seem to care whether they have the last word or not; they never argue long and earnestly over trifles; and when occasionally they find that they are mistaken, they just take it gracefully and accept the situation. Restful people are the kind that are always welcome everywhere. They never fidget. They don't whine. They are optimistic. They have cultivated a sweet, sunny disposition so long that it is second nature to them to smile, even when things go wrong.
I have found a good many of these people in my life, and I never tire of their company. I met one of them the other day. I knew she belonged to the “restful family,” the very first glance I had of her sweet face. She was an entire stranger to me; but when I went out from her presence, I felt that she was a friend. I was entirely certain that she would not speak unsavory words about me behind my back, because I felt sure that she was not and could not be a hypocrite—that the kindly smile and the helpful, cheery words she made use of were not put on, but came from the heart.
I suppose the youthful David must have seemed a very restful person to the poor, demon-possessed monarch. There was something in this young man's quiet personality and the sweet music which flowed in witching cadence from his fingers, that soothed and stilled the mad tempest which ever and anon raged in the disquieted spirit of the king.
Prince Jonathan was another quiet, peace-loving, restful young man. Inheriting none of his father's restless, fiery disposition, it was the mission of Jonathan to save life rather than to destroy it.
Then there was John, called the Beloved. We can not think of him in any other light than that of a restful person. His epistles constantly breathe forth the spirit of divine love. His love for his Master was constant, beautiful, and touching. When we read his writings, a feeling of peace and quietness settles down upon us, and fills our souls with a comfort to which the world is a stranger. His is the gospel of peace and good will; yet he hesitates not and stammers not in speaking even an unpleasant truth plainly. In describing the work and the mission of the Christ, the loving disciple declares with divine pathos, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” But then, as if the writer would banish the sadness which these pathetic words must ever cause the children of God, the loving disciple makes use of one of the most remarkable utterances in the entire Book,—an utterance so wonderful, so beautiful, so divinely restful to the sin-sick and tempest-tossed sons and daughters of Adam, that it has become the very pillar and groundwork of the Christian's hope: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
But the acme of perfect restfulness is fully reached in the gracious invitation of the divine Nazarene: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
Rest! Ah, that is what the weary world is looking for! Tired of the fever and fret of life, weary of its turmoil and its unsatisfying joys, nauseated with the sickening sweets of sin, homesick and unhappy, the old world is stretching out her trembling arms yearningly toward that which offers her rest.
Shall not you and I point the heavy-laden to Him who is able to give them true rest? Shall we not feed the hungry with the bread of life? Shall we not cry mightily to him that is thirsty, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters”?
Ah, how well we know that the jaded sons and daughters of folly and fashion have no knowledge of real peace or perfect rest! From one excitement to another, from one scene of riot and dissipation to another, from one orgy of licentiousness and drunkenness to another and another, they rush blindly and madly on, hoping thus to banish thoughts of a coming Judgment—thoughts which will intrude themselves betimes. In the cup of the drunkard, or in some other sensuous pleasure, they seek one moment's forgetfulness—one moment's rest.
O the pity of it! What shall we do to stem the flood of evil and drunkenness and misery and wo? What shall we do to help snatch a few precious, struggling souls from the black, seething, whirling, horrible maelstrom of sin? Ah, we can watch for opportunities to “throw out the life-line”! We can speak a word of cheer and hope to some one whose ears are unaccustomed to such words as you, my sister, know well how to speak. O, let us learn to be restful people!
But while we are looking out with eyes of pity toward a perishing world, let us not forget that our own dear ones need more loving words, more sweet smiles, more tender caresses. What is the matter with us, that we have allowed Satan to incrust our hearts with selfishness? What is the matter with us, that we speak unloving words so often, and beautiful, loving, restful words so seldom? Have we forgotten the blessed instruction of the poet-prophet, when he pleads with us, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people”? O, if we would only learn to be comforters instead of complainers; to be workers instead of whiners; to be filled with gratitude instead of grumbling; to be cheerful instead of cheerless; and instead of restless, to be restful!
O, these quiet, restful people! God bless75them! They never nag. They are peace-makers. They are the backbone of the church. They are to the dreary world what the flowers of spring are to the frosts of winter. Their gentle voices make the sweetest music this old earth knows.
The more we imitate the Master, the more peaceful and restful will we become. Little children will flock to our open arms, as they did to His. The lame, the halt, and the blind will find comfort in our presence, and best of all, we shall win the approval of Him who has commanded us to “serve the Lord with gladness.”
MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE.
Do You Know Your Bible?
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Shiloh, the Man of Sorrows
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Suttle
Notice
“SHILOH, THE MAN OF SORROWS,” published three years ago in the Signs, will soon be published in book form, if enough additional advance subscribers can be obtained to warrant it. I wish to thank those who have already sent in orders. The book will be neatly bound in cloth, 350-400 pages. Price, from $1.00 to $1.50. Agents wanted. Send no money, but address the author, quick.
Mrs. L. D. Avery-Suttle, 1215 Vermont Ave., Lansing, Mich.
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The Lord’s Day the Test of the Ages
This little monograph, costing only ten cents, gives more information as to the great Sabbath question than any dollar book ever published. The Sabbath, its origin, its history, before and after Christ to the present day. A medium in parvo.
One of the most fearful utterances in the whole Bible regarding the wicked, a wrong conception of which has made men infidels. This tract presents an exposition of the text which is reasonable and just—a vindication of God’s character. B. S. L. No. 111. Price $1.00 per hundred; single copies, 2 cents.
You go through the most interesting part of the Great Southwest. You can stop and visit Earth's Scenic Wonder, the Grand Canyon of Arizona, also the Petrified Forest and Ancient Indian Pueblos.
Our picture folders will interest you.
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The Fundamentals of Geology
Every person who would understand how to meet the present-day theories of geology and evolution as opposed to the Bible story of Creation should have this book. The fundamentals of geology, and the theories taught, are presented in a most interesting way. Maps and illustrations of great sections in Montana and Alberta where geological research is being carried on are given.
In the closing chapter, where the evidence is grouped, the author says: “And now geology, when allowed to give her testimony in a thoroughly scientific fashion, testifies to the same general truth regarding the great groups of plant and animal forms, like physics and chemistry pointing backward along the great perspective of the ages to the same vanishing-point, already charted long ago in the Christian Bible as the birthday of the world.”
247 pages, bound in strong cloth. Price $1.25.
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The European Situation
By L. A. R.
REGARDING the situation in Europe, the November Review of Reviews is authority for the following statement:
“The Near Eastern question is probably worse to-day than it ever has been. All the original elements of unrest have been aggravated. Macedonia, far from being liberated, has been transferred to a new bondage. The equilibrium of the Balkans, about which so much has been solemnly written, has been attained, first, by nearly doubling the area of Greece (which did the least during the war), by adding seventy-five per cent to the area of Servia (which had the second easiest time), while leaving to Bulgaria (which did most of the fighting) only about ten per cent. According to the agreement regarding ‘autonomous Albania,’ the tribe of the Malissories, who hate the Montenegrins with a murderous bitterness, are to be transferred to the government of King Nicholas. Rumania, which did no fighting in the first war and practically none in the second, has obtained a valuable strip of territory at the expense of Bulgaria. Turkey and Greece are at swords’ points metaphorically, and may be so literally before these pages reach our readers. The Turk has not been expelled from Europe. According to the agreement between the Bulgarian and Turkish representatives signed at Constantinople, on September 18, a large proportion of the territory taken from the Turks by the Bulgarians is restored to them.”
One of the most direct results of the war in the East has been a general war scare throughout Europe, which has driven all the great nations to a more determined preparation for war. The nations are now arming as they never have before in all their history.
“As to the general situation in Europe, it is the same—only worse than before the allies attacked Turkey, and were prevented by the great powers from finishing their task. The first effect of the Balkan victories was to upset the general European equilibrium. The victories on the plains of Thrace gave a tremendous impetus to the growth of armaments throughout Europe. We have already, in these pages, noted the additions to the armies of Germany and France, the augmentation of the military establishments of Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland, and the intensified bitterness of the Anglo-German naval rivalry. Finally, Russian intrigue and Anglo-German jealousy in Asiatic Turkey have revived in that portion of the sultan’s domain almost forgotten animosities and complications. King Constantine of Greece has been traveling over western Europe telling the German emperor and the French premier how much Greece owes to both French and German civilizations. Meanwhile the Bulgarians are working, despite enormous odds, to bring about an understanding with Turkey which shall enable them to renew the conflict with Servia and Greece. If it had not been for the jealousy of these so-called great powers, a Balkan federation on modern lines might have been formed, based on justifiable national aspirations, religious liberty, and freedom of commerce within a territory that would form a dignified European state. As it stands to-day there is hardly a frontier in the whole Balkan region across which hatred and jealousy are not likely to look at each other for many a year to come.”
Thus we see that to-day there are tokens of trouble, omens of a dark and bloody conflict yet to come. That day will dawn when the great battle of Armageddon takes place under the sixth plague. Rev. 16:12. It will be the consummation of the world’s ruin. To-day every movement that the nations make for increase of armament is a preparation for that time, and a real and effectual gathering of the nations for Armageddon. Just before that battle is fought, Turkey as a nation ceases to exist, the river Euphrates is dried up, East and West unite, and soon the clash of arms is heard, and hill and vale of the whole land run red with blood. See Joel 3:9-16; Rev. 19:11-21.
L. A. R.
Unstable Conditions
ANOTHER big mine explosion occurred November 18, at Acton, Alabama, in which from twenty-five to forty miners were entombed. This is the third notable mine explosion within very recent weeks, and it may have been due entirely to carelessness or accident. But this mine in Alabama is said to have been one of the best ventilated and most properly managed mines in the country.
This old earth, from some cause or other, seems to be very unstable. We have rioting and unrest among the people; we have an increasing number of violent storms in many parts of the world; and even the interior of the earth itself, by frequent earthquake and volcanic disturbance, is in a condition of unrest. Is it not possible that these frequently occurring explosions may be related in some way to the disturbances within the earth itself?
Sociologists and scientists are busy with their theories, but none of their theories seem to terminate the difficulties and perplexities that are on every hand. Human theories may give a momentary sense of relief, but the only real solution of these things is found in the knowledge of the word of God itself.
When the Master was here, He told of a time coming when there would be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:25-28.
These words of the Master are a challenge to the whole world. Just so surely as they are inspired by the great Author of truth Himself, just that surely will this world pass into a regular storm of turbulence of every variety and kind. There will be perplexity and distress that will cause men's hearts to fail them for fear, as they are looking after the things that are coming upon the earth. And the cheering hope is held out to those who understand the meaning of the conditions, that they are to look up in the midst of all this calamity and perplexity, for their redemption draws nigh.
We are only in the beginnings of the calamities that are to invade every part of this planet. The prophecies make that perfectly clear, and we may not find a solution of the troubles before us in any of the theories of science.
If there were only occasional occurrences of an unusual character, there would be nothing about which to remark; but when calamitous disturbances are following each other in such rapid succession, and in such endless variety, and in so many parts of the world, it is well that we give serious thought to the meaning. For just as surely as God has uttered prophecies, just so surely will those prophecies be fulfilled. And the climax of the fulfilment is the second coming of Christ, with eternal life and eternal joy amid an eternal weight of glory for all that are prepared. We will not make a mistake if we allow the Book to guide us.
Juvenile Courts
A SUPERIOR judge in one of our Western counties recently appointed a committee of six to assist him in his juvenile court work in one of the outlying towns of his district. There are a great many people who point with pride to our juvenile courts as one of the signs of progress in this time. In the days when our mothers and fathers were judge, jury, and executive officers in the juvenile courts, we had far better success and a much better condition of society. It may be taken as a rule that has practically no exceptions whatever, that where a father and a mother are doing their full duty in an intelligent way in their home, their children are never brought into juvenile courts, or any other kind of courts, for that matter. The facts of the situation are that fathers and mothers are either indifferent to their children, or else they are so fully occupied in business or pleasure that they neglect them, or with some other excuse they fail to give them the training and the moral government that they require. Because of this situation every section of the country has to have its juvenile courts. It should be plain to any one, that these conditions are a strictly literal fulfilment of the statement in God's word that one of the many things that will make the last days perilous is that children will be disobedient to parents. Please read carefully the first five verses of 2 Timothy 3.
Indiscreet About Sunday
THE Springfield Republican is authority for the statement that Prof. Willard C. Fisher “was forcibly retired from the faculty of Wesleyan university for an alleged indiscretion of speech regarding Sunday observance.” There are some very interesting times ahead of us in the discussions of this matter of keeping Sunday. There is a large army of theologians who, while compelled to admit that they can find no evidence for Sunday sacredness, are nevertheless determined to enforce the observance of the day upon the people, whether they want it or not. This enforcement will be attempted by civil law, but civil law has never been able, in all the history of the world, to smother intelligent Christian conviction. Intelligent Christian conviction has ever opposed unrighteous enactments, and braved the most terrible persecutions rather than surrender the plain teaching of God’s word.
Why is it, with all of the history of the past to teach us, that men will not learn the lesson, but rather, will persist in making religious laws and seeking to enforce them?
Premonitions of the Struggle
A FEW days ago, an automobile containing three men and the chauffeur drove up to a factory in Harrison, New Jersey, when one of the men alighted and entered a room where the foreman and fifteen men and girls were at work. This man approached the foreman, drew a revolver, and fired three shots at him, two of which struck him. The man then turned to run away from the factory, followed by the workmen. The people in the automobile became frightened, and sped away without waiting for the man to return. He ran to the railway station, boarded a train that was just pulling out, and, notwithstanding the fact that this was all in broad daylight, and many people were about, he made his escape. The foreman of the factory was a non-union man, and had been warned that he would be killed if he did not recognize the union and discharge two of his sisters who were employed in the factory.
Occurrences similar to this, which are becoming more and more common, emphasize the significant facts that are set forth in the articles we are now publishing from Professor Rine.
Chicago’s Court for Working Girls
Chicago has given us something new, in the way of a special court for the working girl. The girl who is out of money, or who is dissatisfied with the wages paid her, provided her wages are below $8.00 or $10.00 a week, may come to the judge of this court, where it is said she will have a sympathetic hearing, and help will be given her in her difficulties and perplexities. An effort will be made to find her a new job, where she can get better wages, or, if she is out of employment altogether, to find her a place to work. Social workers are quite enthusiastic over the plan, and of course, as usual, a great many people will point to this as another one of the “great evidences of social progress.” But if we were making such great strides in social progress, why should we be under the necessity of forming such courts? What is the matter with the Christian homes in our country, and the Christian churches in our country, that girls in these destitute or distressing conditions are not taken care of in the proper seclusion and shelter of the home, rather than having to seek a public court for sympathy?
