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Signs of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 21.

The Unknown Heroes
Earlier text: Studies in Ephesians

The Plight of the Liar

By Orison Swett Marden

The moment we attempt to express that which is not true, we are crippled, for we are doing an unnatural thing, and are not reenforced by the consent of all our faculties. The best thing in us, the divine thing, protests against the false.
No man can be really strong when in the wrong. Everything within rebukes him; everything tells him of his cowardice. Truth is man's normal state; deception is a cultivated, abnormal thing. There is no substitute for the right. Cunning can not take its place, nor can education. A person may have great ability and a college education; but if he does not ring true, if there is any evidence of counterfeit about him, he never gets our confidence, our order, our business, or our patronage.
There is always a question-mark in our minds when we have dealings with a man who is not perfectly honest. We are not sure of him. On the other hand, a person may lack education, culture, even refinement; but if he has an honest heart, if he rings true every time, we believe in him, we trust him.
No man can look honest, and long give the impression of honesty, when he is a habitual scoundrel. It is only a question of time when something will happen to tear off his mask and reveal the real man.
Just look at the man who has practised deceit and lying all his life. There is not a line of truth in his face. His very expression is false. He radiates dishonesty from every pore. He may attempt to deceive with his smooth, honeyed diplomacy, but we instinctively feel that he is a liar in every part of his being.
It does not matter how he tries to cover up his rottenness by appearances of respectability, his clothes, his money; he can not long continue to cheat the heart. What he says about himself contradicts what we feel.
A perfectly truthful man regards his honor first; his interest comes later. Truth is everything to him. Justice must be done, no matter if it goes against his own interests.
Man is constructed along the lines of truth, and he can not violate his nature without showing it by the loss of the best thing in him. The liar's deception destroys his self-respect, and with it goes his confidence; and what can a man accomplish who can not respect himself or believe in himself?
Why is it that a single man without wealth or position has so often exerted marvelous power in the world?—Simply because he was supported by principle; because one man with the right is always a majority, and can stand against the world for principle—is invincible. One man in the right has often been more than a match for tens of thousands in the wrong.
This was what made Lincoln such a giant. He always stood for truth and justice. He believed what he said, and he knew that the very structure of the universe was backing him.
He would never take a case unless he believed that his side was in the right. He knew that the advocate on the other side would always be placed at a disadvantage by trying to make others believe what he did not believe himself; that he would be weak at best, no matter how great an orator he might be. Lincoln knew there was something backing him that was greater than oratory, mightier than words, and which multiplied his natural ability a thousandfold.
Right speaks with the force of law. The world listens when truth speaks through a man like Lincoln, who was entrenched in principle, backed by the right. Not all of the mighty force which made him a giant among his fellows was generated in his own brain. There was a power back of him loaned from justice, from right, which made him invincible; a power which all men forfeit the moment they forsake truth, principle.
When a man feels that he is buttressed by the right, entrenched in truth, he does not feel weak, altho the whole world may be against him. He feels the everlasting arm about him, because he knows that nothing can stand against principle, nothing can be so mighty as the right.
One of the mysteries of the ages has been the marvel of men going to the stake smiling, without a tremor, standing calm and serene while the flames were licking the flesh from their bones. They were supported by a power back of the flesh, but not of it; by the conviction that they were in the right. They did not feel alone or weak, for they were entrenched in eternal principle. They believed that they were protected by the Almighty, and nothing could shake their confidence or disturb their faith. Their exalted mental condition lifted them even above the pain of physical torture.
The man who goes through the world sailing under false colors, trying to make black appear white, will always have a hard time of it. Nobody will long believe him, no matter how smooth his tongue, how long-headed or cunning he may be. Things are so planned that if a man is ever to get very far or to accomplish very much in this world, he must be honest; for the whole structure of natural law is pledged to defeat the lie, the sham. Only the right, ultimately, can succeed.
What would you think of a man who tries to defeat the laws of mathematics? He is a bigger fool who tries to get ahead of right, tries to defeat justice by lying and deceit. No man ever yet got around God, good, justice, right. It is true a man may get something in the wrong—so may a thief. But the wrong always defeats itself, because it has no principle in it. A man in the wrong is out of place, for the same reason that discord is out of place in the presence of harmony.
Not long since, nine students were suspended at Brown University for cribbing in their examinations. A great many well-intentioned students lie by cribbing in all sorts of ways in their recitations and examinations. They put formulae and figures and suggestions and all sorts of helps upon their cuffs and shirt bosoms, finger nails and paper rolls, to help them during their recitations or examinations, thus laying foundations for future forms of deceit and dishonesty on a large scale, which may ultimately ruin them.
Many prosperous business men who are very conscientious about telling verbal lies are consummate liars in the deceits they work into their manufactures, their commodities. I know a man who is always talking to his sons about telling the truth, yet he has for nearly half a century been selling lies in his store—boxes of lies, barrels of lies, lies in “foreign” silks made in New Jersey, and all sorts of “imported” articles.
American liars in high places have recently had the flash-light of public scrutiny turned upon them. Men who not long ago stood high in the American regard are worse than nobodies to-day, for they are despised by their fellow men.
Does it pay to sell one's birthright for a little mess of pottage?
Veracity to a man should be as priceless as virtue to a woman. When he has lost truthfulness and the reputation for it, he is a burned-out man, a mere shell, like one of our great sky-scrapers gutted by fire.
Can any amount of money or any temporary satisfaction compensate for the contempt of one's better self, for the awful isolation which one feels when condemned by his fellow men and exiled from his own self-respect because of his own self-inflicted infamy? Money and all the luxuries and splendor which it can purchase are powerless to bring happiness to a soul self-condemned.
Think of the terrible suffering which must come to Dr. Cook, if he is sane, for having deceived the whole world! When Aristotle was asked what a person would gain by telling a falsehood he replied, “Not to be credited when he shall tell the truth.” Is it not a pitiable sight, a most lamentable thing, when a man who is supposed to represent the highest state of the world's civilization should propose to call upon a semisavage Eskimo to convince his fellow men that he is telling the truth?
Think of the position of this man, who, but a few months ago, received the plaudits of men all over the world, but who is now the butt of ridicule, the subject of jest and caricature in the press the world over! Wherever Dr. Cook goes, he will meet with the contempt of the world. Whichever way he turns, he can not escape his worst accuser, which is within him, and which is constantly upbraiding him for selling out the best thing in him for the sake of three months of admiration and the divided worship of mankind.
When a man turns traitor to himself, there is no power in wealth or fame to still the accuser within which is ever reminding him of his infamy and taunting him for his treason against himself.
Does it pay to take such chances with one's reputation? Nothing can compensate the lily for a smirch upon its whiteness; nothing can compensate the rose for the loss of its perfume and beauty.
What is a man good for when the best thing in him is rotten, when all that makes him a man, all that marks him from the brute, is decayed?
The time will come when the liar will be despised and ostracized by all decent people. The liar is a mere burlesque of a man, a perverted human being. We might as well call a composition full of discordant notes, played on an instrument jangled out of tune, by the name of music, as to call him a man who has violated the fundamental principles of his God-given nature. Just in proportion as a man departs from the law on which he was made—truth—he approaches the brute, and should be so classified by all decent people. Is there a sadder sight in America to-day than that of so many young men gambling with their reputations, taking chances with their good names, for the sake of a few more dollars or a little notoriety, with as little thought as they would bet on a race-horse?
What use is a fortune so gained that wherever the owner goes he will be pointed out as a man who has “sold out”—sold out his honor, his good name, his friends—everything that a manly man holds dear?—Orison Swett Marden.

OUR WORK AND WORKERS

THREE new churches have been organized in Finland.
NINE believers recently went forward in baptism at Barbados, West Indies.
WE learn of the baptism of fifteen Chinese at Singapore, Straits Settlements.
AT a general meeting held at San Luis Potosi, Mexico, nine persons were baptized.
NEWS comes of the organization of another church in the Philippines, with a membership of twenty-seven.
FOUR more have been baptized at Lord Howe Island, one of the number a woman ninety-five years of age.
IN Old Providence Island, South America, during the past year thirteen souls have received baptism, and four more are preparing for this rite.
BAPTISM has been administered to ten in St. Johns, Newfoundland, and two others have declared their intention to walk in the light of the message.
DURING a recent trip to various churches in Asiatic Turkey, Pastor E. E. Frauchiger, superintendent of the Turkish Mission, baptized ten persons.
PASTOR F. W. SPIES reports the baptism of nine believers at Sao Paulo, Brazil. The past year's work has resulted in the baptism of forty in the Brazil Conference.
THE recently completed buildings of our new mission station and publishing plant in Seoul, Korea, were dedicated on Sabbath, February 1, 1913, Prof. H. R. Salisbury delivering the dedicatory address.
ON April 15 Dr. Law Keem and family, who have been in this country on furlough, returned to China, their field of labor, sailing from Seattle. About the same time, Brother and Sister F. H. Loasby sailed for England, en route to India to engage in missionary work.
NINE at the Maranatha Mission, South Africa, have received baptism, and others are awaiting the rite. Six at Zandfontein, Orange Free State, have been baptized. At Majita, German East Africa, baptism has been administered to twelve, and twenty-eight have asked for baptism. Three churches have been organized lately in this field. In British East Africa sixteen have been baptized at Gendia.
A REPORT from J. L. Shaw gives an encouraging word in regard to the work in India. He says: “It now looks as tho the number of converts to the truth in India this year will be more than in any previous year. In January several were baptized in Rangoon, and eighteen at Nazareth, South India. People are accepting the truth in Lonavla and Bombay. Twenty-two have begun the observance of the Sabbath in Calcutta as the result of the efforts of Elder Comer and his associates.” A Sabbath-school has also been organized in Bombay.
ON the last Sunday of the New Zealand camp-meeting, twenty-four were baptized. On Sabbath, March 15, another baptism was held in Wellington, eight candidates going forward in this ordinance. A church of twenty-three members has recently been organized at Ourimbah, New South Wales, and a church building is in course of erection nearby. Five new converts are reported at Auburn. At the close of the South Australian camp-meeting, twenty-five were baptized. Forty-six were baptized at the Victorian meeting.
CONCERNING the work in Hunan, China, we glean the following from a report from E. F. Cottrell: “At Lin-yang we held a three days’ meeting, which was attended by about forty persons. A goodly number presented themselves for baptism; but as many had so meager a conception of its meaning, we advised the most of them to defer a little time, while they studied the gospel more thoroly. On Sabbath morning four persons were immersed in the beautiful river that threads its way among the mountains, and in the afternoon a church of twelve was organized. . . . On the following Sabbath, at Ih-yang, six were baptized; and in the afternoon of the same day, twenty persons united in church fellowship. . . . Churches have likewise been established at Hwa Yung, Heng-shan, and Ning Siang.” At the last-named place “ten persons presented themselves for baptism, nine of whom were accepted.” “All the candidates were direct from heathenism. . . . This gives for the year a total of sixty additions to the church by baptism. . . . We have ten young men in the Union Training-school at Nanking, preparing for various lines of Christian service.”

The Home Field

(Since last reported)

Baptisms

PENNSYLVANIA 22; Ohio 20; New Jersey 10; Oregon 30; California 41; Arizona 10; Ontario, Canada, 4; Kansas 15; Missouri 17; Minnesota 30; Iowa 12; Massachusetts 43 (Boston 40 since January 1); Connecticut 4; Indiana 13; Michigan 40; Wisconsin 10; Kentucky 5; Louisiana 18; Alabama 3; Oklahoma 22; New Mexico 4.

Conversions

FLORIDA 21; Ohio 20; Massachusetts 4; Tennessee 23; Pennsylvania 11; West Virginia 12; Virginia 15; Oregon 15; California 107; Saskatchewan, Canada, 12; Ontario, Canada, 43; Quebec, Canada, 18; Missouri 7; Kansas 10; Minnesota 132 (Minneapolis 102 in 10 months); North Dakota 6; Iowa 29; Wisconsin 4; Michigan 68; Illinois 21; Kentucky 52; Louisiana 6; South Carolina 8.

Additions to Church-Membership

PENNSYLVANIA 11; Oregon 4; Missouri 7; Kansas 11; Oklahoma 5.

Churches Organized

WEST VIRGINIA 1; British Columbia 1; Ontario 2; Kansas 1; Wisconsin 1; Alabama 1.

Sabbath-Schools Organized

CALIFORNIA 1; Alberta 1; Saskatchewan 1; Minnesota 1; Michigan 2; Kentucky 3; Alabama 1.

Churches Dedicated

MARYLAND 1; California 2; British Columbia 1; Connecticut 1; Indiana 1.
An announcement of the summer school of the Emmanuel Missionary College, Berrien Springs, Michigan, has come to our desk. This is volume 2, No. 3, of the Emmanuel Missionary College Bulletin, published quarterly by Emmanuel Missionary College. We note that the summer school is to be held from June 17 to July 28. Its object is to afford teachers an opportunity to make regular progress in their chosen work; to prepare for teachers’ examination, to review studies, and prepare for regular college work; to enable regular college students to make up back work, work off conditions, or pursue regular studies. Those interested in this school, and desiring further information, can write to Prof. O. J. Graf, president of the college, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
We are in receipt of an interesting report of evangelical work done during the past year at the Healdsburg (California) Medical and Surgical Home, the managers and chief physicians of which are Dr. Ira A. Wheeler and Dr. J. M. Bond. As a result of the Bible studies held in connection with their morning worship hour, they have had the joy of seeing eight dear souls renounce the world and follow the example of our Lord in burial in the watery grave. Four others are awaiting baptism, and more than a score of others have expressed their intentions of living out the truth as they have learned it. Those who have gone to their homes are followed up either by correspondence or through the personal efforts of some of our Bible workers who may chance to be working in the vicinity. Thus the truth is imparted to those in various walks of life.

Ideal Tract Assortments

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Wanted for Missionary Work

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Co-operation Corner

By Editor

Special Call No. 4 — Colorado

From one of our ministers in Eastern Colorado comes a desire for a club of 20 or 25 copies of the SIGNS for six months. Let us get them to him right away. Will not some of our Colorado readers contribute to this worthy missionary enterprise? $15.00 will supply 25 copies. You can send all, or only a part.

WESTERN OREGON CONFERENCE

By H. W. COTTRELL; J. L. KAY

The eleventh annual session of the Western Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is hereby called to be held at Portland, Oregon, in connection with the annual camp-meeting, June 19-29, 1913, to enjoy a spiritual feast and to transact such business as may be the pleasure of the delegates. Conference will organize for work Friday, the 27th, at 9 a.m. Each church is entitled to one delegate for the organization and an additional one for every ten members.
H. W. COTTRELL, President.
J. L. KAY, Secretary.

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By H. W. Cottrell; C. E. Olcott

Western Oregon Conference Association

The Western Oregon Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists, a legal corporation, is hereby called to meet on the camp ground in Portland, Oregon, Thursday, June 26, 1913, at 10 o'clock a.m., for the purpose of electing a board of five trustees, whose offices shall continue for one year, or until their successors are elected and are qualified, and of transacting such other business as the delegates may desire. The accredited delegates to the religious body are the delegates to the association.
By order of the Board of Trustees.
H. W. COTTRELL, President.
C. E. OLCOTT, Secretary.

The Law

That question of “Under the law? or under grace?” is a constantly recurring one. Bible Students’ Library tract No. 163 gives a careful answer from the Bible. Single copy, 2 cents; a hundred, $1.00. This office.

Sabbath

The Apples of Gold Library tract No. 45, “Historical Facts and Incidents Relative to the Sabbath and the Sunday,” presents the most vital points from history in chronological order. They are the facts that one longs for in his study of the Sabbath. Single copy, post-paid, 3 cents; $2.00 a hundred. This office.

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Immortality

We would recommend as a brief help in study of the immortality question, “Is Man Immortal?” Apples of Gold Library, No. 86. Single copy, 2 cents, post-paid; $1.00 a hundred. This office.
Those who are making an investigation of the Bible teaching on immortality should secure the tract “Thoughts for the Candid,” Bible Students’ Library, 47. Single copy, post-paid, 2 cents; 50 cents a hundred. This office.

A Needed and Useful Work

By Editor

WE commend to our readers a book entitled “American State Papers, Bearing on Sunday Legislation—Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.” The first edition was compiled and annotated by William Addison Blakely, of the Chicago Bar, for some years Doctor of Philosophy and Lecturer on Political Science and History in the University of Chicago, member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. The last edition has been edited by Willard Allen Colcord, of Washington, D. C., author of “The Rights of Man.” Contents and Foreword by Judge Thomas M. Cooley, author of “Constitution Limitations.” Published by the Religious Liberty Association, of Washington, D. C. This compilation brings together in convenient form, with excellent index, more upon the subject of religious liberty, the utterances of the government in its threefold phase, and of prominent men, than any other work in existence. It gives the Sunday laws of the various states, and the progress which has been made toward religious legislation in this country. Its nearly 800 pages are packed full of just such material as every judge, legislator, executive officer, of any nation, state, or municipality, every teacher, every professional man, and every patriotic citizen, ought to have. We cordially commend it. Its price is only, cloth, $1.25; full law sheep, $2.00; flexible leather, $2.50. It may be obtained at this office.
Whether fully acquainted, or partially so, with the history given in Daniel 7, you will find its careful outline in “Waymarks to the Holy City” intensely interesting. It is what its name suggests, a tract pointing out the events which are truly waymarks of prophecy. Single copy, 2 cents, post-paid; $1.00 a hundred. This office.
As a brief work to assist in the study of any phase of Christ’s prophecy relating to His second coming, we can recommend nothing more highly than the pamphlet “An Exposition of Matthew 24.” You will appreciate its simple, thoro, direct manner of explanation. Contains 94 pages, and costs only ten cents, post-paid. This office.

A MORE EXCELLENT MINISTRY

A New Pamphlet on the Sanctuary Question
A study of our Lord’s sacrifice and more excellent ministry, which explains the subject of the sanctuary and its services, and the ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary for His people. Has 18 chapters, more than 200 pages. Price, 25 cents, post-paid.

Heralds of His Coming

“Heralds of His Coming,” Apples of Gold Library, No. 85, gives an outline of the unmistakable signs of the nearness of Christ’s coming. Increase of riches, of crime, of knowledge; last-day scoffers; signs in sun, moon, and stars; peace and safety cry; preparation for war; great spiritual declension,—are some of these evidences. This popular tract, a copy, 3 cents, post-paid; a hundred, $1.50. This office.

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The Gospel Message for To-Day

An outline of the messages presented in the Revelation, and especially the one mentioned in the fourteenth chapter, is clearly given in Bible Students’ Library, No. 188, “The Gospel Message for To-Day.” Price for single copy, post-paid, 2 cents; $1.00 a hundred. This office.

Signs of the Times Magazine

(Published Monthly)

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DEVOTED to the study of present-day affairs, worldwide. The place of these events in the great plan of God as revealed in His word. The right setting for each. The Bible furnishes the only dependable solution of present world problems. You ought to know their meaning. Several evenings of real, uplifting study for thinking people every month. There is a satisfaction in studying these subjects of world-wide import from this standpoint. It is the satisfaction of knowing — knowing something that can be depended upon.
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Progress of Roman Catholicism

ACCORDING to the statistics of the official directory of the Roman Catholic Church, there are now in the United States alone 15,154,158 Catholics. In the Philippines there are more than 7,000,000, a million more in Porto Rico, 11,500 in Alaska, 42,000 in the Hawaiian Islands, and 900 in the Canal Zone. All told, under the stars and stripes there are 23,329,047 Catholics. A new church and more is built on an average of every day in the year. There are 14,312 churches in the United States, and 17,945 Catholic clergymen in the dioceses of the country. There are 5,256 parishes which have parochial schools connected with the churches, in which 1,360,761 boys and girls are receiving their elementary education. The states having the largest number of Catholics are as follows:
New York 2,790,000 (we omit the hundreds), Pennsylvania 1,633,000, Illinois 1,460,000, Massachusetts 1,383,000; and twenty-one others range from Ohio with its 743,000, to Colorado with its 105,000. California is credited with 403,500. This shows that the number of Catholics under the stars and stripes is almost as many as in Austria or in Germany, more than in Spain, and more than in the British Empire. The only country which exceeds it in millions is Italy. Italy has thirty millions, while the United States has twenty-three millions, and Austria and Germany do not reach the twenty-four million mark. There is certainly food for thought in this tremendous increase.
Continue reading: No Prospect of Universal Peace