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Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 48.

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
Earlier text: WHAT TIME IS IT?

Perilous Times Predicted

By Editor

Some say a long era of peace will follow Europe’s war. God’s word holds out no such hope. It tells us that in the last days, there will be those who will cry, “Peace and safety”; that there will be wars and rumors of wars; that there will be earthquakes in divers places; that there will be destruction by the elements; that there will be conflicts between capital and labor; that there will be violence in the land; that godliness will be seen in form, but lacking in power. In short, perilous times were predicted for our days.
Give heed to the forewarnings of Bible prophecy. A fine article on this subject appears in the December Signs Magazine.

OTHER ARTICLES

War, Peace, and Prophecy.
Perilous Times Predicted.
Prophecy and Progress.
The Star in the East.
Strange Gods in Christendom.
Sunday Observance.
A Call to Consecration.
The Curse of the Common Cold.
A Religious Despotism.
The Sabbath of the New Testament.
Current Events.
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Signs of the Times Magazine
Mountain View, Cal.

OUR LITTLE FRIEND “SURPRISE” NUMBER

By Editor

TWICE as many pages as usual, and a pretty colored cover too. Here are some of the surprises in store for its youthful readers:
Captain and King (two wonderful horses) at the Exposition; A New Year’s Story; Puzzle Cut-outs; January Surprises, and How to Find Them; Missionary Story; Coverall Babies (large type); Drawing Lesson. This lesson, by Mr. Pedro Lemos, director in the San Francisco School of Applied Art, will be the first of a series that alone will be worth the price of a year’s subscription.
And oh, ever so many other surprises for the children in the double number of January 7, 1916!
Surprise your boy or girl or little friend with a gift of a year’s subscription. It will cost you but 70c. We will start it with the “Surprise” number upon request.
Orders and subscriptions should be sent through our representative in your state.
OUR LITTLE FRIEND, Mountain View, Cal.

The Heaven-Prepared Path

By W. A. Westworth

“FOR we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained [prepared] that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10.
How sweet it is to know that our Father in heaven has prepared the way for His children to walk in; every experience of life, every crook and turn in our daily path, every up or down grade, all prepared by a hand of love; His loving watch care, His tender regard, His kindly sympathy, fixing up for you and for me every little experience, whether of weal or of woe, all through our life.
But you say, “Do you mean to tell me that these trials and sorrows and afflictions are from God?”
Well, at any rate, He has prepared our paths so that they will go right past those very trials, because He knows that is the best way and shortest way to get up into the kingdom. While the enemy of souls may be responsible for many of the things that come up before us, let us remember that our heavenly Father overrules. If He wants to lead me along a path that will bring me into conflict with some severe trial, He knows best; and when the work is over, and the city eternal has been reached, methinks we will all join in praising Him that He has led us just that way. Remember He says that He has prepared the way that we should walk in it.
W. A. WESTWORTH.

R. S. OWEN

By R. S. Owen

In His secret place abiding, Sweetly in His love confiding, Anchor cast within the veil, Trusting when the foes assail, Earthly hosts cannot prevail. Little children of our Lord, Learn to take Him at His word. Ever having faith and hope, An anchor and a cable rope.

R. S. OWEN

Preparing to Speak Clearly

“By earnest prayer and diligent effort we are to obtain a fitness for speaking. This fitness includes uttering every syllable clearly, placing the force and emphasis where it belongs.”

OLIVES, DRIED FRUIT, and NUTS

By A. E. Crist

Large olives, excellent quality, five eighths of an inch to three fourths of an inch, 50-gal. bbl., 55c per gal.; 25 gal. @ 65c; 5 gal. @ 70c; 1 gal. 80c. Canned for keeping through summer in 1-gal. and 5-gal. cans, 10c extra per gal. In one quart cans, $3.00 per doz. One half to five eighths of an inch, 10c less per gal. The fruit is choice grade. Peaches 5½c; figs 5½c; raisins 10c; prunes 8½c; apricots 11c; apples 9c; peanuts 9c, roasted 11c, skinned and salted 20c; almonds 15c and 18c; walnuts 18c; extra fine pure honey, light, gal. $1.00, five gals. $4.00. Satisfaction guaranteed.
A. E. Crist, Chico, California.

The Temporal Power of the Papacy

IT is stating a well-known fact to say that ever since the pope was driven to give up his temporal power, he has remained in the Vatican, as a protest against what he regards as the surrendering of some of his most dearly cherished rights. While at first the popes were inclined to be very strict about applying to themselves the term “a prisoner in the Vatican,” there has been a growing tendency, particularly on the part of the present pope, toward disregarding this “Vatican prisoner” idea. A short time ago, the dispatches told of Pope Benedict XV leaving the Vatican to visit a church, and a later dispatch states:
“It is understood that Pope Benedict, at the approaching consistory, will declare renunciation of temporal power. The pontiff takes this step to guarantee liberty in spiritual work, and to allow his presence at the general conference following the war.”
It will be necessary to await the action of the consistory to ascertain whether or not the determination of the pope, as expressed in this dispatch, will be carried out. But regardless of whether that particular thing is done or not, one of the most remarkable occurrences connected with the progress of the European war is the very active interest that has been taken in the proceedings by the papacy. Every effort is made to leave the papal power in a position where it can wield a powerful influence when settlement shall be under consideration in the peace congress that must follow.
The European war is an explosion of the pent-up feelings of strife that are in the world. Men had insisted that conditions on our earth were growing better and better, but the Bible prophecies had warned us to the contrary. The prophets had specifically and plainly told of the turbulent conditions that would prevail toward the close of time. These prophecies had forewarned us that evil men and seducers would grow worse and worse. They had told us that the days just preceding the second coming of Christ would be marked by the outbursts of violence and rioting that characterized the world just before its destruction by the Flood.
But men had disregarded these Bible warnings, and treated them as idle tales. They thought, if their oft repeated remarks were any indication of their sentiments, that those who held to these Bible teachings were narrow-minded fanatics, worthy of no particular consideration.
But the explosion in Europe came; and the most awful, the most barbarous, the most destructive war that the world has ever seen, is in progress. Indeed, all previous wars in the world's history fade into insignificance compared with the slaughters and the barbarities of the war of 1914 and 1915. This war has come in the very face of the teaching which has been carried around the world, that we have reached the period of the greatest enlightenment, when every one has recognized “the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of men.”
This war has created conditions that lay the foundation for revolutions and strifes the worst that have ever been. Turbulent unrest seems to be in the very air we breathe, and this is true of nations universally. And if we may place any dependence whatever in the divine Book and its inspired predictions, we may know that unrest, strife, rioting, and turbulent revolution will grow worse and worse. To use the Master's own words, men will be “fainting” [“expiring,” margin] for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world.” Luke 21: 26, A. R. V.
Under such conditions, the natural thing for men is to turn to religion. The most dominant religion in the world is that of the papacy. And events as they are now shaping themselves in the world, should lead men to see, through the sheer philosophy of history, that the papal power is coming toward a well-nigh universal supremacy. But on this subject we are not left to the philosophy of history. The prophet, as presented in the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, saw the papacy receiving a “death stroke.” This “death stroke” came to the papal power through the influences of the Reformation, which gave the spirit of freedom to Europe, and laid the foundation for the further freedom that has characterized our great nation.
But almost in the same breath in which the prophet tells of the death stroke received by the papacy, he informs us that “his death stroke was healed; and the whole earth wondered after the beast.” Rev. 13: 3. He goes on to say further that “they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? and who is able to war with him?”
Observe the significant questions that the world, in a mighty chorus, will ask. The people will say, “Who is like unto the beast? and who is able to war with him?”
On the part of many people, one of the cherished dreams of this time is that we will have a universal peace. Men insist that regardless of forbidding conditions, there must be a world-wide cessation of war. This sentiment will open the way for the papacy to step in, and say that its communicants in all parts of the world are so vast in number, that from the sheer force of political power, it can create peace if opportunity is only given it. The opportunity will be granted. All the world will wonder after the beast. Or, as expressed in the seventeenth chapter of Revelation, the kings of the earth “have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto the beast.” Rev. 17: 13. Then they count their numbers. They point to the vast array of the millions who are under the sway of the papacy, and in exultation they exclaim, “Who is able to war with the beast? For a brief time, while under this delusive spell, the world will cry out, “Peace and safety.” They will say we shall have no more wars. But God's sure word of prophecy, which foretells conditions as they are, and not as men paint them, says that then “sudden destruction” shall come upon them, and “they shall not escape.” When the conditions throughout the world are so clearly fulfilling the Bible prophecies, men should stop to consider carefully, devoutly think and pray. The issues of eternity are in the balances, and the great day is rapidly approaching.
Photo Underwood & Underwood
Photo Underwood & Underwood
It has never been the plan or the desire of the publishers of this paper to utter scathing and scornful protestations against the papal power, for we believe that some of the very best people in this world are communicants of the Catholic Church. But it is our desire to present the prophecy, and to ask not only Protestants, but Catholics as well, to note carefully the trend of events in the light of the prophetic Word. We are not the authors of the prophecy. God has given that; and the Spirit that gave the prophecy, will impress its teaching upon the heart, if we will but permit it. God will send convictions deep down into our souls as we study His word; and we need to be careful that prejudices do not keep us from receiving truth which God has ordained for our salvation, in these tempestuous times in earth's history. There is too much at stake for us to afford to take any chances.

Meat Exports and Vegetarianism

RETAIL meat dealers in the middle West think an embargo on the exportation of meat necessary. They declare that at the rate it is going abroad, America will soon have to go on a vegetarian diet. That is one benefit of the war, we had never thought of before. It is a good thing to be a vegetarian.

Progress on the Alaskan Railroad

The first twenty miles of the new Alaskan railroad, authorized by Congress last year, have been completed, and Secretary Lane reports that satisfactory progress is being made with the remaining 450 miles.

Columbia University Enrollment

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY now leads the colleges of the world in the number of students enrolled. The entering class this year numbered 1,059, passing the thousand mark for the first time. The total enrollment on October 5 was 14,573 students, against 12,745 enrolled at the same date last year. Counting the night school enrollment, and the enrollment in the extension teaching department, the total will probably reach another five thousand. The total income of the university for the year just past was $2,920,031. The expenditures exceeded the income by $13,592.55. The approximate cost per student therefore was $255.

The Music of the Lamps

Dr. LEE DE FOREST announced, the other day, that he had made electric lights play for him music far surpassing the best efforts of the best orchestra. He called it “the music of the lamps.” The doctor says that a master musician may sit in his studio in New York and play by wireless the music of the lamps into the ear of the Sphinx. All that is necessary, he claims, is to transmit the electric current to the lamps that give out the music. Dr. De Forest uses for his musical experiments electrical bulbs not over three inches in diameter.

Forecast of a Long, Cold Winter

AUGUSTIN REY, a naturalist and meteorologist of France, has advised his government that all signs indicate a long and cold winter, comparable only to that of 1870-71. Here are some of his signs: early snows in the Alps, even in low altitudes; trees began to lose their leaves in August; field mice began to burrow into winter quarters that same month, instead of waiting until September; birds commenced to migrate in advance of the ordinary season.

General Wood on Military Training

GENERAL WOOD says: “I want to see the military schools send at least 15,000 men every year to the summer training camps. We have splendid material in this country, and out of this material we ought to be able to train a body of officers who would be ready for service in case of need.” The general is also reported as saying that large numbers of engineers are needed to carry out military engineering plans in all cities that might be attacked.

The Extent of Hookworm Infection

THE Rockefeller Foundation has discovered that in whole or in part, that zone of the world included between 36 degrees north and 30 degrees south is infected by hookworm. Fifty per cent of the laboring classes in Egypt are found to be infected; in Ceylon, as high as ninety per cent; and of about half a million of our own Southern children who were examined, thirty-nine per cent were found to be infected.

Southern Pacific Revenue Declines

The Southern Pacific Railroad publishes a statement that its reduction in operating revenues in the passenger department is partly due to “the serious inroads made upon local railroad travel by automobile competition, which the improvement of highways has encouraged and rapidly developed.” It also claims that the Mexican war and the Panama Canal have cut into its revenues,

Children and Women Making Ammunition

In the British Isles, large numbers of boys too young to go to war have been taken from school and set at work making ammunition. Women also are employed in this work. American labor-saving machinery is said to have increased the output of cartridges and shells to five times the quantity hitherto produced by the same factories.

Railroad Revenues Increase

FIGURES published by the Interstate Commerce Commission show that 116 railroads, covering all parts of the country, increased their net revenues in September $12,000,000 as compared with the same month of 1914. The October report is even better.

Maine Automobile Spending and Licenses

MAINE has spent for automobiles the past year approximately $6,515,000. She records 24,326 operators' licenses.
“One of His Chosen Disciples Was Yet to Give the Traitor’s Kiss”
“One of His Chosen Disciples Was Yet to Give the Traitor’s Kiss”
“While talking with His disciples, the Master suddenly began to ascend into heaven.”
“While talking with His disciples, the Master suddenly began to ascend into heaven.”
“Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee.” Job 12:8.
“Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee.” Job 12:8.

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Signs of the Times · Dec 7, 1915