p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 31. (8/4/1898)

NEW LITERATURE.

Three more numbers of the Apples of Gold Library are now ready. They treat of Prayer, the Millennium, and Christian Help duties.

PRAYER. No. 52. By Arthur T. Pierson, D.D., Editor of Missionary Review of the World. Price, $1.00 per 100.

“As surely as God is lifting His people in these latter times to a higher level of life, and moving them to a more unselfish and self-denying service, there will be a new emphasis laid upon supplication and especially upon intercession,” are among the opening words of this truly golden number. The Oklahoma Gleaner refers to it as “one of the best little tracts that has been published of late.” It will bring new life and light into your church, missionary society and home.

THE WINNING OF MARGARET. No. 53. By Fannie E. Bolton. Price, $1.00 per 100.

How Margaret and her skeptical friend Ralph were converted. Ralph sees nothing but war and confusion in the world and pride and selfishness in the church; while Margaret, tho a Bible believer, shares his view, and can not reconcile it with the orthodox idea of the millennium. As a result, the former is a skeptic, and the latter, in her own words, is “like a poor bird beating its wings against the wires of a cage in a vain attempt to find liberty of spirit.” How she found that liberty, and Ralph came to see in all this a fulfilment of the Scriptures, is an interesting and well-told story.

UNAWARES—“YE DID IT UNTO ME.” By unknown authors. Price, 50 cents per 100.

This number consists of two poems, the object of which is to impress the mind with the fact that Christ often seeks our hospitality in the guise of the sick and suffering. The first poem closes thus:—

“And He said, ‘The sin is pardoned, But the blessing is lost to thee; For, failing to comfort the least of Mine, You have failed to comfort Me.’”

In view of the terrible poverty and distress among our large cities and elsewhere, literature on this subject is peculiarly appropriate and will, we believe, be generally appreciated.

Pacific Press Publishing Company,

Oakland, Cal.

39 Bond St., New York City.

18 West Fifth St., Kansas City, Mo.

PRAYER

We notice the following editorial in the Oklahoma Gleaner:—

“One of the best little tracts that has been published of late in A. G. L. No. 52, on ‘Prayer.’ The price is one cent. Send for a number and hand them around to the members of the church. They will all be benefited by reading it. We need to commune more with Christ, and know Him as our dearest Friend.”

This tract is by Arthur T. Pierson, D.D., editor Missionary Review of the World. The first sentence, “The pivot of piety is prayer,” is an earnest of that which follows.

Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. 39 Bond St., New York City. 18 West Fifth St., Kansas City, Mo.

TO CONTRIBUTORS.

By Editor

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES is a purely missionary enterprise. For this reason it has felt free to ask for contributions from its friends. It pays nothing for contributions, either prose or poetry, unless solicited by the editor, and then the fact is stated when the articles are asked for. This is a plan rarely followed, but sometimes deemed expedient.

Articles Desired.—Those which set forth in the Spirit of Christ the great saving truths of God, short and to the point. It is better to treat one important truth clearly, in a short article, than many points vaguely in a long one. We desire no caustic, critical productions, which might minister to personal pride or pleasure, but can not save souls.

How Prepared.—Write plainly, with typewriter or ink, with wide space between the lines, to freely admit of editing, writing of subheads, etc. Write on one side of the sheet only. Sign the name to the manuscript, as it becomes oftentimes separated from accompanying letter. Anonymous contributions are not used, whatever their merit. If the writer does not wish his name to appear, let him furnish a pseudonym for the public. But we wish the name.

Manuscript Returned.—We will return all unused manuscript desired if stamp and directions are inclosed. We are forced sometimes to return good manuscript mainly for three reasons: (a) Sometimes the articles are too long; (b) sometimes we have a number on the same subject; (c) sometimes our plans are such that an article can not be used till it is out of date. We therefore hope that no offense will be taken by those who have freely contributed their best thought if their productions are returned. When we receive so much matter, we can not use all.

A CARD.

To ALL interested in carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the inhabitants of other lands, and who desire to assist in supporting missionaries already there and others who may engage in the work, the opportunity is given to make an offering to the Foreign Mission Board of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Such donations should be sent to W. H. Edwards, the Treasurer of the Board, 1730 North Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Penn.

THE TALENTS.

By M. C. Wilcox. A brief essay on “The Parable of the Talents,” showing that the talents represent the various gifts of the Spirit which God bestows as he will upon those who are consecrated to him, with the duties and blessed privileges involved therein. Bible Students’ Library, No. 77; 16 pp., price 2 cents.

Testimonies for the Church

Nos. 1 to 33 Are now published in five volumes 2,904 pages

Cloth, $1.00 per volume; $5.00 per set Library, $1.50 " " $7.50 " "

Volume 5, containing Nos. 31 to 33, may be obtained on thin paper and bound in limp leather and colored edges, very convenient for workers, $1.50.

THE SABBATH SCHOOL LESSONS

for the next six months will be on the book of Genesis. The new lesson pamphlet, which is now ready, contains a carefully selected series of notes and suggestions on these lessons, and no student should be without a copy. Price, 50c.

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., OAKLAND, CAL.

39 BOND STREET, NEW YORK CITY. 18 WEST 5TH STREET, KANSAS CITY, MO.

Will a Man Rob God

“WILL A MAN ROB GOD” is an important pamphlet on the tithing system. It treats every phase of this great question, and deserves especial attention in these days, when the Lord’s means of supporting His cause is almost lost sight of. Price, 10c each.

Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. Kansas City, Mo. New York City, N. Y.

The Coming King

Takes up the connection of our Saviour with the earth from creation to its final restoration and the redemption of man. It presents Christ as Creator, the Leader of Israel, the Man of sorrows, the Redeemer of His people, and King of the earth made new. Contains 290 pages, fully illustrated.

Cloth, ink title .......... $1 00 Cloth embossed in gold, gold top .......... 1 50 Prospectus .......... 60

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Oakland, Cal.

39 Bond St., New York City. 18 West 5th St., Kansas City, Mo.

THE WAR SPIRIT

Is not dying. It is growing stronger every day. Especially is this so in our own country. Let us therefore redouble our efforts to circulate the truth concerning this spirit. Such tracts as—

Christian Demand for War ............ $1 00 per 100 Alarm of War .................................. 2 00 per 100 Arming of the Nations ...10 cents each, or 5 00 per 100

will help do this. If you can’t afford to give them away, sell them. Says Lewis Hilliard in Workers’ Bulletin:—

“Please send me fifty more copies of ‘The Alarm of War.’ All the workers should have this tract. There is no trouble in selling it, for it almost sells itself.”

Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. 39 Bond St.,　　　　　　　　　18 West Fifth St., New York City.　　　　　　　　Kansas City, Mo

THE NEW LESSON PAMPHLET

Is a great help to the lesson student. The questions show careful thought, the notes are brief and to the point, the suggestive questions excellent. Contains 40 pages. Price, 5 cents each.

Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. New York, N. Y. Kansas City, Mo.

Typewriters Cheap

Until recently we have had the Pacific Coast Agency for the “World’s Greatest” Densmore Typewriter. The magnitude of our publishing work has compelled us to relinquish this agency, and we are closing out our old model machines VERY CHEAP. Write for particulars.

They Sell

I SELL the “Alarm of War” in nearly every house.

J. Jensen, in The Kansas Worker.

WE notice that 7,000 of the English “Alarm of War” have been used in our State, and the orders are still coming in at a good rate. Let the good work go on.

The Kansas Worker.

SCARCELY a mail comes but what brings a good-sized order for “The Alarm of War” and “Arming of the Nations.” A number are meeting with excellent success selling them on the streets and in the stores. Let all who can engage in this work while the demand for such timely literature exists.

Workers’ Record.

Bible Students’ Library Nos. 151 and 152 have been combined and enlarged in a ten-cent pamphlet entitled “The Arming of the Nations.” This is an especially timely publication, as the heading indicates. In harmony with the mind of our State agent, we suggest that our canvassers use this pamphlet in connection with their other helps.

The Workers’ Bulletin.

SEND us 50 “Arming of Nations.” These pamphlets go like hot cakes. The people are hungry for them.

Oklahoma Gleaner.

Prices.

“Christian” Demand for War . . . . . $1 00 per 100 Alarm of War . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 00 “ “ Arming of the Nations . . . . . 10¢ each or 5 00 “ “

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.

OAKLAND, CAL.

39 Bond St., New York City

18 W. 5th St., Kansas City, Mo.

“THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF DIVINE IMMANENCE.”

“The Divine Immanence” is a phrase which theologians, evolutionists, semi-Buddhists, and other imitators delight nowadays to conjure with. The thought generally meant to be conveyed is that God dwells permanently within every one. The doctrine has its substratum of truth; it has its dangerous side of error. While it is true that in God all live and move and have their being, by virtue of the life which comes from Him, the Source of life, yet it is also true that God’s life perverted by sin is His life no longer, nor does He own it as such. It is man’s “vain life.” The Divine Immanence is true in its absolute sense only when the will of the individual is in harmony with God. Then God’s life flows into his being as the life of God, bringing forth the fruits of righteousness and life. But if that life is perverted by a sinful heart, it brings forth death.

A writer in a recent number of the Independent tells us

“that this doctrine of immanence in no way affects the contents and values of things. It simply affirms that all finite things, whatever they are, have no self-sufficient being, but depend on God for their existence. The immanence does not mean that things are in God in a spatial sense, or that God is in things in a spatial sense; it means only the constant dependence of things on God. But this dependence does not make all things alike or of equal value. Worms and men alike have their being in God, but they are not made of equal value thereby. Even the evil will is not independent of God, but that does not make it divine. The immanence in question is a metaphysical doctrine, and throws no light on the problem of ethical relations and values. Unless we bear this point in mind, we shall proceed to identify clams and saints as alike and equally divine. Indeed, one speculator . . . has announced that he has no difficulty with the doctrine of a divine man, as he believes in a divine oyster.”

It is true that all have their being in God, and that all are dependent on Him for existence; but it is not true that this throws “no light on the problem of ethical relations.” It seems to us that here is the whole practical value of the doctrine. While all are dependent upon God for existence, why do not all things continue to exist in this world? The clam dies; men die. It is evident, then, that the Divine is no longer immanent, or death would not ensue. How may continued existence, individual existence, be prolonged indefinitely?—By a continuation of the Divine Immanence. But this involves “ethical relations,” which summed are simply faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is the Biblical expression of the Christian (true) doctrine of Divine Immanence: “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me; and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.” Gal. 2:20. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Eph. 3:17. “God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery, . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1:27. “He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.” I John 5:12. Faith is yielding to God’s law in Jesus Christ; and God’s life flows in the channels of His living law.

Receiving Unordered Copies of the Signs

By Editor

☞ We send no papers from this office to individuals without pay in advance.

☞ When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the “Signs” are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon to pay for them. Please read the papers you may receive, and hand them to your friends to read.

Socialism Weakens Imperialism

It is said that the Socialists in Germany had one deputy in the Reichstag in 1870, and 102,000 voters; they now control 2,000,000 votes, and have 57 deputies. So is the iron of imperialism being weakened by the clay of democracy.

The Trumpet of Truth

Among our bright, fresh exchanges in the religious field not one seems to be more awake and energetic than the Trumpet of Truth, a monthly missionary paper, published in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for that part of the British field, at 60 cents a year. May it ever give “the certain sound,” according to the Lord’s instructions.

This Is Not Christian Teaching.

A writer in an Eastern paper, who was present at a convention of one of the leading religious organizations of young people, reports that in almost every sermon the exhortation was given, “Christians must be more patriotic.” Whenever a reference to the present war was made, it was cheered to the echo. One speaker said that he would “like to give the sultan of Turkey a dose of Christianity with a hundred-ton Krupp gun, red hot;” and would like to do the same for every Spaniard on the American continent. We truly hope that these bright, active young people will not confound such teaching with Christianity.

Another Find

“Another Find.”—Another wonderful “find” is noted by the sensational New York Journal. It tells us that papyrus, containing a prayer believed to have been composed, written, and signed by Jesus our Saviour, has been found by Dr. Bruesselbach, of Germany. But the reader need not go wild over the discovery. Our Lord wrote no such prayer nor any prayer. True prayer is talking with God in praise and supplication, pouring out, sometimes thinking out, the longings of the heart, the fulness of the soul. Jesus, the Son of God, wrote no prayers. He did not pray to men, and the Father did not need that the prayer should be written.

Wings and Halos.

A New York paper tells us that one of the latest society fads is the manufacture and wearing of wings and halos. Lady Huntingdon, of London, is the originator, we are told. The wings are made of white feathers, and worn on the shoulders, after due artistic style, while the halo is elevated on a light and invisible wire frame. Is the idea born of the fear that there will be no such opportunity in the hereafter? Poor “Society”! Would God that she might learn to use her means and time to bless others now. If she did, she would be willing to forego her child’s playthings, and leave the wings and halos to God.

“A Dead Dog.”

The wise man tells us that “a living dog is better than a dead lion,” but “a dead dog” would certainly be of questionable value. David used the term as expressive of no value, placing it in the same category as “a flea.” But the wealthy magnate, J. Pierpont Morgan, places a different estimate on his dead bulldog, that fell ignominiously in a fight with a Maltese cat, which clawed out his eye. His remains were placed in “a handsome satin-lined casket,” we are solemnly told, and “a monument will be raised to him.” Well, well, well, and well! But, after all, it is only human folly, a little exaggerated. Eyes clarified with the wisdom of God and illuminated with the light of eternity, would see differently.

America Repeats Rome’s Example

Dr. Chapman, of this city, is reported to have said in an address, delivered July 24, that “this was the only nation in the world that had ever voluntarily gone to war to assist another and humbler nation.” The good doctor has forgotten or neglected his Rollin. He had better read up. Rome did that very thing, and boasted about it. We are living Rome’s life over again in more aspects than one.

A Better Vegetarian Diet

A vegetarian diet does not mean a diet of “vegetables,” commonly so called. Many vegetarians do not eat turnips, beets, onions, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, etc. Not that these are harmful in proper quantities; but they find a better dietary in fruits, grains, and nuts. These latter may be prepared in an innumerable variety of ways, presenting to a normal appetite a great variety of wholesome, appetizing dishes. He who lives on such a diet may more easily be a patient man, a temperate man, a pure man, a high-thinking man.

Ten Years of Vegetarianism.

A minister of the Church of England, the Rev. J. C. Street, writes to the Herald of the Golden Age of what ten years of vegetarian diet have done for him. He adopted it from conscientious motives, not wishing to take the life of God’s creatures for his sustenance. He thus concludes: “I am not among the idle men of the world; I have not lived without labor and without service; and I have never been so free to labor and render service as during the last ten years. In no sense has my strength diminished, or my mind lost its clearness, or my spiritual nature been injured; but in all directions of my life I have been a substantial gainer; and I have learned the lesson which I ought to have learned before—that he who does right and obeys conscience enters into the supremest joy. Our concern is simply to do our duty and leave the result to Him who ‘doeth all things well.’” And so many others have found such a diet.

“Undiluted Joy.”

The Bohemian club of San Francisco numbers among its members many of the prominent citizens of that city, and no doubt many of them are professedly Christians. But there could be no better term to describe their yearly outing, divided into “high jinks” and “low jinks,” than the old heathen one of “Bacchanalia.” The papers tell us that the last one was a time of “undiluted joy.” One of their “high jink” contributions to the “joy” was a sermon by their high priest “on the downfall of civilization by the entrance into the world at large of Christianity,” on which occasion a cross was erected in the center of the stage and illuminated. “The most amusing feature was a tug of war between two ox teams for first and second prizes, and a gallon of whisky to the driver who used the most picturesque language during the contest,” that is, to the one who could be the most profane, ribald, and blasphemous. Two of the members, it is said, “admit that the atmospheric effects at that time were the bluest kind of blue they ever witnessed.” All of which recalls the words of the wise man, “Folly is joy to him that is destitute of understanding.” Reader, there is purer, better joy than this, namely, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy.”

Joy in Cruelty.

An English minister tells us how one morning he met a boy in Ireland, near Belfast Lough, with a bright, happy face, whistling with delight; when he asked him, “My boy, what makes you so happy?” “Why, sor, I’ve just killed six lambs.” He was a butcher’s boy and evidently had no sense of wrong-doing. He had his work to do, and he did it without a thought of its brutality. He evidently felt glad because he was advancing in his trade. So it is that the young are oftentimes trained to cruelty. It begins with cruelty to the brute creation, insensibility to and even delight in their sufferings. It ends oftentimes in cruelty to mankind and perhaps murder. The tender sensibilities and gentle-heartedness of the child can not be too safely guarded. It is a mistake to think that these will lead to cowardice. The bravest, manliest man that this world ever saw was Jesus Christ; he was also the gentlest, the kindest, the most merciful.

Not Christian

By Editor

Not Christian.—When an American naval commander saw a Spanish ship going down, and his men were about to cheer, he is reported to have said, “Don’t cheer; the poor devils are dying.” This sentiment has been lauded as “Christian.” It is certainly good not to rejoice in the fall of one’s enemies, but it is not Christian to denominate them “devils.” True Christianity says: “If thine enemy hunger, feed him.” “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” To kill one’s enemies, even tho regret is expressed at their death, can hardly be called Christian. Now we hold naught against this officer, or any other, but we do protest against such perversion of Christianity.