p. 491 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 41. (11/3/1881)

IF I WERE A BOY AGAIN.

By James T. Fields

LET me tell you my dear lads, some of the things I would do if I were a boy again—some of the too often neglected acts I would strive to accomplish if it were in my power to begin all over anew.

This paper was written expressly for you, young fellows, who are beginning to think for yourselves, and are not averse to hearing what an old boy who loves you, has to say to his younger fellow-students.

I think I would learn to use my left hand just as freely as my right one, so that if anything happened to lame either of them, the other would be already to write and "handle things," just as if nothing had occurred. There is no reason in the world why both hands should not be educated alike. A little practice would soon render one set of fingers just as expert as the other; and I have known people who never thought, when a thing was to be done, which particular hand ought to do it, but the hand nearest the object took hold of it and did the office desired.

I would accustom myself to go about in the dark, and not be obliged to have a lamp or candle on every occasion. Too many of us are slaves to the daylight, and decline to move forward an inch unless everything is visible. One of the most cheerful persons I ever knew was a blind old man, who had lost his sight by an accident at sea during early manhood. He went everywhere, and could find things more easily than I could. When his wife wanted a spool of cotton, or a pair of scissors from upstairs, the gallant old gentleman went without saying a word and brought it. He never asked any one to reach him this or that object, but seemed to have the instinct of knowing just where it was and how to get at it.

Surprised at his power of finding things, I asked him one day for an explanation; and he told me that when he was a boy on board a vessel, it occurred that he might some time or other be deprived of sight, and he resolved to begin early in life to rely more on a sense of feeling than he had ever done before. And so he used to wander, by way of practice, all over the ship in black mid-night, going down below and climbing around anywhere and everywhere, that he might, in case of blindness, not become wholly helpless and of no account in the world. In this way he had educated himself to do without eyes when it became his lot to live a sightless man.

I would learn the art of using tools of various sorts. I think I would insist on learning some trade, even if I knew there would be no occasion to follow it when I grew up. What a pleasure it is in after-life, to be able to make something, as the saying is!—to construct a neat box to hold one's pen and paper; or a pretty cabinet for a sister's library, or to frame a favorite engraving for a Christmas present to a dear, kind mother. What a loss not to know how to mend a chair that refuses to stand up strong only because it needs a few tacks and a bit of leather here and there! Some of us cannot drive a nail straight; and should we attempt to saw off an obtrusive piece of wood, ten to one we would lose a finger in the operation.

It is a pleasant relaxation from books and study to work an hour every day in a tool-shop; and my friend, the learned and lovable Prof. Oliver Wendell Holmes, finds such a comfort in "mending things," when his active brain needs repose, that he sometimes breaks a piece of furniture on purpose, that he may have the relief of putting it together again much better than it was before. He is as good a mechanic as he is a poet; but there is nothing mechanical about his poetry, as you all know who have read his delightful pieces. An English author of great repute said to me not long ago, "Professor Holmes is writing the best English of our time." And I could not help adding, "Yes, and inventing the best stereoscopes, too!"

I think I would ask permission, if I happened to be born in a city, to have the opportunity of passing all my vacations in the country that I might learn the names of trees and flowers and birds. We are, as a people, sadly ignorant of all accurate rural knowledge. We guess at many country things, but we are certain of very few.

It is inexcusable in a person like my amiable neighbor Simpkins, who lives from May to November on a farm of sixty acres in a beautiful wooded country, not to know a maple from a beach, or a bobolink from a catbird. He once handed me a bunch of pansies and called them violets, and on another occasion he mistook sweet-peas for geraniums.

What right has a human being, while the air is full of bird-music, to be wholly ignorant of the performer's name? A boy ought also to be at home in a barn, and learn how to harness a horse, tinker up a wagon, feed the animals, and do a hundred useful things the experience of which may be of special service in after-life, as an explorer or traveler, when unlooked-for emergencies befall him. I have seen an ex-President of the United States, when an old man, descend from his carriage, and re-arrange buckles and straps about his horses when an accident occurred, while the clumsy coachman stood by in a kind of hopeless inactivity, not knowing the best thing to be done. The ex-President told me he had learned about such matters on a farm in his boyhood, and he was never at a loss for remedies on the road when his carriage broke down.

If I were a boy again, I would learn how to row a boat and handle a sail and above all, how to become proof against sea-sickness. Of course, every young person now-a-days, male or female, learns to swim, so no advice on that score need be proffered; but if I were a boy again I would learn to float half a day, if necessary, as in rough a bit of water as I could find on our beautiful coast. A boy of fifteen who cannot keep his head and legs all right in a stiff sea ought to—try until he can. No lad in these days ought to drown—if he can help it.

I would keep "better hours," that is, I would go to bed earlier than most boys do. Nothing gives more mental and bodily vigor than sound rest when properly applied. Sleep is our great replenisher, and if we neglect to take it naturally in childhood, all the worse for us when we grow up. If we go to bed early, we ripen; if we sit up late, we decay; and sooner or later we contract a disease called insomnia, allowing it to be permanently fixed upon us, and then we decay even in youth. Late hours are shadows from the grave.

If I were a boy again, I would have a blank book, in which I could record, before going to bed, every day's events just as they happened to me personally. If I began by writing only two lines a day in my diary, I would start my little book, and faithfully put down what happened to interest me.

On its pages I would note down the habits of birds and animals as I saw them, and if the horse fell ill, down should go his malady in my book, and what cured him should go there too. If the cat or the dog showed any peculiar traits, they should all be chronicled in my diary, and nothing worth recording should escape me.

There are hundreds of things I would correct in my life if I were a boy again, and among them is this especial one; I would be more careful of my teeth. Seeing, since I have grown up how much suffering is induced by the bad habit of constantly eating candies and other sweet nuisances, I would shut my mouth to all allurements of that sort. Very hot and very cold substances I would studiously avoid. Toothache in our country is one of the national crimes.

I would have no dealings with tobacco, in any form, if I were a boy again. My friend Pipes tells me he is such a martyr to cigar-boxes that his life is a burden. The habit of smoking has become such a tyrant over him that he carries a tobacco bowsprit at his damp, discolored lips every hour of the day, and he begs me to warn all the boys of my acquaintance, and say to them emphatically, "Don't learn to smoke!" He tells me, sadly, that his head is sometimes in such a dizzy whirl, and his brain so foul, from long habits of smoking he cannot break off, that he is compelled to forego much that is pleasant in existence, and live a tobacco-tortured life from year to year. Poor Pipes! He is a sad warning to young fellows who are just learning to use the dirty, unmannerly weed.—James T. Fields.

A PLEA FOR YOUNG WIVES.

By Christian Union

WE have just passed through a trying time to all business men. Many have been the honorable, unavoidable failures, and we all know many have been the dishonorable failures, also; advantage being unhesitatingly taken of customs, laws, and licenses to secure freedom from financial embarrassment by a sacrifice of moral principle.

Proudly happy be that man to-day, who, after an honorable course of strict economy in each minutest detail of his public and private life, now breathes easily; relieved of the burden of terrible anxiety, in many instances more on account of the loved ones of his home than of himself, and in too many instances borne alone. To repay him, he stands to-day with the world before him, honor upon his right hand, re-awakened ambition upon his left, and the broad pinions of hope overshadowing all. Scarcely a home in the length and breadth of our happy land that has not felt the effects of the late searching crisis. In speaking of this, said an old gentleman in my hearing the other evening, "The young women of our country have much to answer for in many, many cases of bad business failures. Yes, yes, they have had much to do with it." My whole being cried out against the injustice of the old banker's remark—although he intended none—and his opinion is that of a great many others. We felt that we could cry out with more truth, "They have not had enough to do with the great crisis!" We can all recall instances of young men, who seeing nothing but total financial ruin before them, involving everything but honor, and the knowledge that the loved ones at home must stand face to face with poverty, without a moment's hesitation have taken their own lives; and the terrible, life-long burden of sorrow was then laid on the fair young wife to whom the knowledge of the cause of her husband's suicide, when explained to her, was her first intimation of trouble in his hitherto prosperous business. Mistaken love, blind affection that shut her out of that business trouble!

At its first appearance a plain, sensible talk with the young wife who was only ignorantly spending too freely, not knowingly dragging her husband down, would have enabled them to join forces, and meet the approaching trial with a system of coöperative economy that would have gone far toward retrieving matters.

One of the saddest instances connected with the late crisis was a young man in New York in 1876. With the mistaken kindness of which we have spoken, all knowledge of financial embarrassment was carefully kept from his young wife. She spent freely as ever, with no idea that the money to meet the bills did not come as easily as it appeared to do. Her knowledge came to her on the day that her husband's business trouble reached the crisis and left him a mental wreck. To-day she earns her scanty living in the shadow of the building known as an "insane asylum;" between whose walls lives—a life in-death—the man who promised to cherish, love, and honor her. Had he honored her with his confidence, loved her with far-seeing love, he might to-day cherish her. Had he told her, what every woman who is worthy to be the wife of a manly man and the mother of his children should know, the exact condition of her husband's finances, all might have been so different! Our great longing now is to reach some, if only one, that will read this and profit by it. Pay your wife the compliment of believing she has the sense to understand as much of your business as is necessary to place before her your actual resources. For her sake as well as yours do not let her compromise your honor as well as her own by allowing her to spend money that is not, strictly speaking, yours to give her. It is no kindness to place her in a false position before her friends. "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." But it does not follow that ignorance

always is bliss. Before it is too late, while we are once more in the broad and, thank God, gradually broadening era of prosperity, before we fast-living, slow-to-be-warned Americans bring upon ourselves another panic, once more we beg, let our young wives, more especially, know each minutest detail of that business whose fair honor and success shall be as dear to them as to you; and for more reasons than the fact that it gives them money to spend. We young wives (our secret is out) stand ready and willing to aid the husbands that we love and honor, ready and willing to do anything honorable to help them through hard places. All we ask is a chance. Some of us have had it already, and we, one of the thankful ones, beg it for all. When the baby falls we tell our husband. If stocks fall let our husbands tell us. If the bread rises too much we do not hesitate to tell him; if there has been a corresponding "too much" rise in coal and sugar let the little wife know and have the satisfaction of saving a little. Begin right with little things. Train the young wives gradually into business-like ways of handling their household money; and then the great financial crises—of the far future, God willing—shall be met by husbands and wives hand in hand, heart joined to heart; and fewer shall be the recorded names of those who, rather than face poverty with those they love, prefer to face death alone.

Looking at it from all sides, are we not right? Have not the young wives had too little, instead of too much to do with the late panic?—Christian Union.

The Home Circle.

By Adelaide Anne Procter

KNOWING AND TRUSTING.

I THINK if thou couldst know, O soul that will complain, What lies concealed below Our burden and our pain, How just our anguish brings Nearer those longed-for things We seek for now in vain— I think thou wouldst rejoice, and not complain.

I think if thou couldst see, With thy dim mortal sight, How meanings, dark to thee, Are shadows hiding light; Truth's efforts crossed and vexed; Life's purpose all perplexed— If thou couldst see them right, I think that they would seem all clear, and wise, and bright.

And yet thou canst not know, And yet thou canst not see; Wisdom and sight are slow In poor humanity. If thou couldst trust, poor soul! In Him who rules the whole, Thou wouldst find peace and rest. Wisdom and sight are well, but trust is best. —By A. A. Procter.

ITEMS OF NEWS.

The Russian Government is trying to retain the Jewish emigrants.

Small-pox has broken out among the students of Bellevue Hospital, N. Y.

The Peoria (Ill.) Sugar Refinery was destroyed by fire, Oct. 27. Loss $400,000.

Walla Walla has had two inches of snow. Fruit was much injured in that section.

There is a "whisper" in London that the Government intends to sell Gibraltar to Spain.

Baron James Rothschild, one of the noted family of millionaires, died in Paris, October 25.

Eleven lives were lost—seven men and four women—by the sinking of a steamer at Rock Island, Ill.

Mayor Grace of New York, has given peremptory orders to the police to protect the Chinese in that city.

Thomas L. James has been confirmed as Postmaster General, and Frank Hatton of Iowa as First Assistant.

The total estimated yield of wheat in Michigan is 16,200,000 bushels, which is a little over half of what it was last year.

Ex-Governor Morgan having declined the office of Secretary of the Treasury, Judge Folger of New York has received it.

A Fresno, Cal., report says: The trial of the first of the 100 Sunday law cases resulted to-day in a disagreement of the jury.

An explosion occurred a few days ago in the Bald-win Gas Works, San Francisco. Several persons were quite severely injured.

It is reported that President Arthur has taken steps to procure impartial and complete information concerning polygamy in Utah.

Parnell has been imprisoned, and the Land League is evidently weakening. The Land Act is growing into favor, and the Land Court is busy.

The steamer Calcutta, bound from Melbourne to Sydney, Australia, foundered in a gale at sea, recently, and all on board, twenty-two persons, perished.

Henry Ward Beecher has retired from the editorial management of the Christian Union. Mr. Abbott, who has been associate editor, now succeeds him.

Menke, Grimm & Co.'s Planing Mill was destroyed by fire in Quincy, Ill., Oct. 30, together with a two-story brick block on the east of it. Loss $20,000.

The danger of fire from contact with uninsulated electric light wires, is beginning to excite fear on the part of the New York insurance companies and police.

The ship Maritime Union of St. Johns, N. B., with a cargo of 2,270 tons of coal for a firm in San Francisco, was burned at sea on the 6th ult. The crew were all rescued.

The eleventh annual session of the American Women's Suffrage Association, met recently in Louisville, Ky. Eleven States were represented by forty-four delegates.

A boiler explosion in a hub and spoke factory at Dayton, Ohio, October 25, resulted in the death of three men. The dwellings for several blocks around were demolished.

The greatest flood ever known at this season of the year now prevails in the Mississippi river. The levee at Hannibal, Mo., has given way, and the loss to farmers is very great.

It is predicted that the Republic of Columbo will be united to the United States. Blaine's letter on the Isthmus Canal question, against foreign influence, is favorably received in Columbo.

Dan Carey, postal clerk on the Union Pacific Road, has been arrested for stealing from the mail a registered package containing $2,000, between Kearney and Sidney, Neb. He confessed his guilt and turned over $1,600.

A Chinese college is to be established in Shanghai. There will also be branch institutions or academies in the French concession, and in Hongkong. The college is to be under the control of the Southern Methodist Mission.

Nine Governors were present at the opening of the Cotton Exhibition at Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 27. Two suits of clothes were made that day for Governors Colquitt and Bigelow, from seed cotton picked at 7 o'clock that morning.

At Salt Lake a Gentile has been convicted of bigamy, because of his unorthodox condition. If he had been a Mormon and had sealed the second wife, he would have been all right. His plea was that he was drunk on the second marital occasion.

James Hope, one of the most notorious bank robbers living, and who was engaged in the robbery of the Manhattan Bank, New York, in 1878, has just been sentenced to seven and one half years' imprisonment in the penitentiary, for an attempted bank robbery in San Francisco.

Henry Villard is the "Railroad King" of the Northwest. He, or the Company for which he acts, is pushing the North Pacific, and other enterprises of interest to Oregon and Washington. Freight rates have been reduced, and wheat is now selling at Walla Walla at 65 cents, against 45 cents last year.

The financial statement of the Spanish Minister of Finance in the Cortes completes a plan for the conversion of all Treasury and redeemable issues into £60,000,000 of 4 per cent. stock, redeemable in forty years. The equalization of the revenue and the expenditures is not expected until the year 1882-3.

Rain has fallen in a large part of California during the past week. It is unusual to have as much so early in the season as has fallen this year. Some damage has been done, but wheat and grass have commenced growing, the farmers are plowing, and all seem content. The frost of Oct. 14, injured grapes in some places.

A frightful catastrophe took place last month at a dance held at a small hotel in the neighborhood of Meiningen, Germany. A petroleum lamp fell from the ceiling and set fire to the room and several of the dancers' dresses. During the rush to escape, the staircase gave way, and about fifty persons were thrown into a deep cellar. Six girls and two boys were killed, and about thirty other persons more or less seriously injured.

The Governor of California has pardoned George McClintock, aged 12 years, and sentenced from Placer county to the State Prison for breaking into a car. The pardon was granted because of the extreme youth of the boy, and because James Routier, a reputable citizen, has been by Court appointed his guardian, and proposes to take him on his farm, and endeavor to bring him up to useful manhood. Several boy hoodlums are yet in the penitentiary, whom the Governor will pardon out if homes are found for them.

The recent earthquake in the Abruzzi far exceeds in destructiveness anything that was indicated by the first news. The Archbishop of Chieti writes that more than one thousand houses are uninhabitable, and the remainder are badly damaged. The churches left standing are in a tottering condition, and religious services have to be celebrated in the open air. At another town, Orzogna, the ruin is still more complete. Of 1,340 houses, 618 were destroyed, and 79 others are tottering. Four-fifths of the population are without shelter, but fortunately the loss of life has been comparatively small. The army has forwarded a number of tents, and appeals for assistance are made with good success in Italy.

JUVENILE BOOKS.

The Sunshine Series. Stories for little ones, in ten small books, adapted to children from the ages of four to ten years. In glazed paper covers, 320 pp. 50 cts.

Golden Grain Series. A choice collection of instructive stories suited to the wants of children from eight to sixteen years and older, illustrated and beautifully bound in three volumes.

THE HARD WAY, 160 pp. 40 cts. THE SCHOOL-BOY'S DINNER, 160 pp. 40 cts. GRUMBLING TOMMY, 160 pp. 40 cts.

Golden Grains in Ten Pamphlets. The same reading as in the first two volumes, without pictures, in ten pamphlets of 32 pages each, 320 pp. 50 cts.

Sabbath Readings for the Home Circle. In four volumes, containing moral and religious reading for the household; carefully selected, and compiled for the use of Sabbath school and family libraries. Each, 75 cts.

The Child's Poems. Containing Little Will and other stories, teaching beautiful lessons of temperance and virtue. Bound in cloth and richly embossed in gold and black. 128 pp. 30 cts.

Address, Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.

STANDARD BOOKS

Issued by the S. D. A. Publishing Association, and for Sale at this Office.

History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week for the period of 6,000 years. By Eld. J. N. Andrews. 528 pp. $1.25

The Sanctuary and the 2300 Days of Dan. 8:14. By Eld. U. Smith. This work explains the past Advent movement, and makes plain the present position of those who wait for the Lord. 352 pp. $1.00

Thoughts on Daniel, critical and practical. By Eld. U. Smith. An exposition of the book of Daniel, verse by verse. 416 pp. $1.25

Thoughts on Revelation. By Eld. U. Smith. This work presents every verse in the book of Revelation with such remarks as serve to illustrate or explain the meaning of the text. 420 pp. $1.25

Life of Wm. Miller, with portrait. This book gives interesting sketches of the Christian life and public labors of this pioneer in the Advent movement in this country. 416 pp. $1.00

Life of Elder Joseph Bates, relating his experience of twenty-five years on ship-board, with incidents of his rise from cabin-boy up to master and owner. The closing chapters relate to his labors in the ministry and in the cause of temperance and other moral reforms. Fine tint paper, 352 pp. $1.00

Life Sketches of Elder James, and Mrs. E. G. White. The early lives and Christian experiences of both are given in this volume. Their subsequent history is so connected with the cause, that this book gives an outline of the rise and progress of our people and our cause. With fine steel portraits of both. $1.25

Thrilling Incidents in the political life of Francesco Urgos, while a soldier with Garibaldi, including his perilous escape from the tyrants of Rome, and his subsequent travels in Africa and Syria. 328 pp. $1.00

The Biblical Institute. This work contains a synopsis of the lectures given at the Battle Creek College by Eld. U. Smith, and at Biblical Institutes. 352 pp. $1.00

The Nature and Destiny of Man. By Eld. U. Smith. This work treats on the great questions of the condition of man in death, and his destiny beyond the resurrection. 356 pp. $1.00

The Spirit of Prophecy; or, the Great Controversy between Christ and his angels, and Satan and his angels, in four volumes. By Mrs. E. G. White. These volumes cover the time from the fall of Satan to the destruction of sin and sinners at the close of the one thousand years of Rev. 20. Each, 400 pp.

Vol. I. Old Testament Facts to Christ. $1.00 Vol. II. Life and Ministry of Christ. 1.00 Vol. III. The Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, with the Lives of his Apostles. 1.00 Vol. IV. (In preparation.) 1.00

The Constitutional Amendment; A discussion between Eld. W. H. Littlejohn and the editor of the Christian Statesman, on the Sabbath. 384 pp. $1.00

Spiritual Songs. A book of hymns and tunes. 537 hymns, 147 tunes, 416 pp. $1.00 Morocco, gilt, $1.50

The Song Anchor. A popular collection of songs for the Sabbath-school and praise service. 164 pp. 35 cts. Bound in muslin, 50 cts.

The Bible from Heaven. By Eld. D. M. Canright. An argument to show that the Bible is not the work of men, but is in deed and in truth, the work of God. 300 pp. 80 cts.

The Soul and the Resurrection, showing the Harmony of Science and the Bible on the Nature of the Soul and the Doctrine of the Resurrection. By J. H. Kellogg, M. D. 75 cts.

The United States in the Light of Prophecy; or, an exposition of Rev. 13:11-17. By Eld. U. Smith. Dealing with our own land and applying to our time. Of surpassing interest to every American reader. 200 pp. 40 cts.

Thoughts on Baptism. By Eld. J. H. Waggoner. The subject viewed in the light of the Bible and History. 186 pp. Bound in flexible cloth, 35 cts. Paper covers, 25 cts.

A Word for the Sabbath; or false theories exposed. A poem, by Eld. U. Smith. 60 pp. 30 cts. Glazed paper covers. 15 cts.

The Game of Life. Three lithographic illustrations with explanations. These scenes represent Satan playing a game with man for his soul. Neatly bound in board. 50 cts.

The Advent Keepsake. A collection of Bible texts for each day in the year, on the subjects of the Second Advent, the Resurrection, etc. Muslin, 136 pp. 25 cts.

Bible Lessons for Little Ones, No. 2. Flexible cloth. 15 cts.

Bound Volumes of Review and Herald. Each, $2.50

The Youth's Instructor for 1879-'80. Firmly bound. $1.00

Bible Lessons for Little Ones. A Sabbath-school book designed for the use of beginners, and prepared with special regard for the wants of very young children. In flexible cloth, 84 pp. 15 cts.

Gems of Song. A vest-pocket song book containing hymns only. A choice collection. 96 pp., 119 hymns, bound in flexible cloth. 15 cts.

BOOKS IN PAPER COVERS.

Constitutional Amendment. Condensed, 336 pp. 40 cts.

Sanctuary and 2300 Days. Condensed, 224 pp. 30 cts.

Facts for the Times. A collection of valuable extracts from eminent authors. 224 pp. 25 cts.

Eleven Sermons on the Sabbath and Law. By Eld. J. N. Andrews. 226 pp. 25 cts.

SUPERFICIAL EDUCATION.

It is the boast and glory of our common school system that it brings an education within the reach of all the youth of the land; but it has to be confessed that there is a tendency to that hurry and "cram," which is not at all conducive to thoroughness. In a late number of the Army and Navy Journal, is found a report by the Board of Visitors to West Point Military Academy, in which are the following suggestive remarks:—

"The examination of new cadets resulted in rejecting 49 out of a total of 118 who reported for examination. The examinations were conducted with the usual great fairness and impartiality, and each candidate was asked if he desired to have more time than the usual allowance. The result does not give a high character for the progress of education in the schools of our country, when nearly one-half of the young men, all over 17 years of age, selected from all parts of the country, are not proficient in the mere elements of learning required for admission to the Academy. The rejected applicants are not confined to any part of the country, and many of them come from the older States, whose citizens are proud in the belief that all their youth acquire a good knowledge of the elements of education."

CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE

By Editor

ELDER HASKELL objected somewhat strenuously to being re-elected to the Presidency of the California Conference; not because of any lack of interest in the work in this important field, but because it will be impossible for him to spend as much time on this coast as he considers necessary to do justice to the position. All appreciate his feelings, and would be glad to have him spend much more time with us than he possibly can with so many other duties devolving upon him. But we urged, and we think with good reason, that, as he understands the work and its wants in all its branches in this Conference, and is well acquainted with the workers here, he can manage its affairs to much greater satisfaction than could one who might be here all the time, but who lacked experience and administrative ability. The condition of the cause here—the management of its finances during the past year—gives the utmost satisfaction to all friends of the cause. If we faithfully do our part as laborers and church members, we may safely count on a year of prosperity before us.

A VALUABLE PAMPHLET.

By Editor

"BIBLE SANCTIFICATION: A Contrast of True and False Theories." This is the title of a pamphlet of 82 pages, written by Mrs. E. G. White, for sale at this office. Price 10 cents.

No recommendation of this work is necessary to those who are acquainted with Mrs. White's writings. It ought to have a much wider circulation than it has yet had; no book is more needed in this age of deceptions and false theories. Our tract societies could not do the cause of truth greater service than to circulate it extensively.

CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT.

By Editor

In an article on the Sabbath, we find the following:—

"We never could see any reason in a requirement that is physically impossible. If God required the same time to be kept as the day of worship and rest, then we should have great, central astronomical observatories, where calculations could be made, and telegraphic communication maintained with all the world. As you go east, west, north or south the days vary, until one would be utterly lost if he had to obey a rigid law of the Sabbath."

It makes a wonderful difference how one looks at anything. We never could see how there could be any physical impossibility in any of God's requirements. The fact that God has given such a commandment, is sufficient warrant for the possibility of its performance. Let our friend read Exodus 16, and Numbers 15. If such rigid observance of a definite Sabbath were possible for forty years, why not always?

ECCLESIASTICAL ABUSES.

THE Episcopal church, or "Church of England," professes to be the only Christian church, all others claiming the title being nothing but religious associations, or mere clubs. If this is true the world is to be pitied; nay, Christianity is to be pitied. The following statement of abuses presents nothing new to the minds of those acquainted with the working of the system of "sales of livings," and of "preferments" for any reason but that of fitness for the Christian ministry. The great shame to the church is that the evil has not been corrected a generation ago. The following, from the N. Y. Independent, is an "inside view" of the matter, by which the very name of Christianity is shamed:—

"The bishop of Bangor, in the course of his triennial charge, recently delivered at Bangor, said he could not disguise his feelings of shame and indignation at the manner in which lay ecclesiastical patronage was exercised. Most unfit and incompetent men were preferred for livings, owing to political sympathy or family ties, and when inducted they alienated churchmen by indifference and negligence. He hoped the time would come when the parishioners would, at least, have a negative voice in the selection of the man to whom their spiritual welfare was intrusted. The advertisements of sales of livings in ecclesiastical journals were scandalous."

Our Publications in England.

By Editor

ANY of the books, pamphlets and tracts issued at this Office may be obtained of Eld. John Norton Loughborough, Ravenswood, Shirley Road, Southampton, England, who will furnish catalogues and prices in English money, and receive subscriptions for all our periodicals.

Appointments.

If nothing in the providence of God prevents, I will meet with the friends of the cause in Santa Rosa, Sabbath Nov. 5. Hope to see the friends from Petaluma and surrounding country present.

S. N. HASKELL.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

The next annual meeting of the New England Tract and Missionary Society will be held at South Lancaster, Mass., beginning Friday, Nov. 11, at 7 P. M. and continuing through the 12th and 13th; any readers of the SIGNS desiring to attend the above meeting will find a welcome among the friends of the cause in Lancaster. By inquiring for Elders S. N. Haskell or D. A. Robinson such will find entertainment during the meeting.

D. A. ROBINSON, Vice-Pres. N. E. T. and M. Society.

PENALTY OF THE GOSPEL.

By Eld. R. F. Cottrell

BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.

IN an article written by Eld. Chadwick, of the Christian denomination, is an able defense of the doctrine of the destruction of the wicked; yet he conveys the idea that the second death is the penalty of the gospel. Although he understood the claims of the holy, just, and good law of God so far as to be a Sabbath-keeper, yet he seems to have been befogged with the idea that the law was superseded by the gospel, and consequently that the penalty is the penalty, not of the law, but of the gospel.

If gospel means good news, then the penalty of the gospel is the penalty of good news. Sin, then (if there is such a thing during the gospel day, as it is called), must be the transgression of the gospel.

To illustrate this, let us suppose a case. A number of the citizens in a certain kingdom rebel against the king, and openly transgress his laws, the penalty of which is death. But the king, instead of giving orders for their immediate arrest and execution, issues a proclamation to the rebels, kindly offering pardon to all who come and confess their guilt, and take a solemn oath of future allegiance to their king. A portion of them comply with these conditions, and are restored to their citizenship. But the rest, neglecting to fulfill the conditions of pardon, are arrested, tried, and the penalty of death is executed upon them.

Now who would think of saying that death was the penalty of the king's proclamation? It only offered life to those that were deserving of death for the violation of the king's laws. They were judged by the laws they had violated; and if the king's proclamation was brought into court at all, it was only to show that they were undeserving of mercy, because they had already rejected it, on the most reasonable terms.

Again, who would presume that the proclamation of pardon abolished the laws of the kingdom? Those who obeyed the proclamation obtained pardon. They were no longer under the condemning power of the law, but under favor. Says Paul, “Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid!”

Sin is still the transgression of the law; and the wages of sin is death. Those who suffer the second death will suffer the penalty of the law, not of the gospel.

THE HOME HAND-BOOK.

By Editor

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