Our tent-meeting, still in progress in this city, has some encouraging features. We have from 100 to 150 interested hearers every night. We are now canvassing the Sabbath question, and so far with seemingly good interest.
Since our meeting began four have taken a decided stand to keep the Sabbath. This is not entirely the result of the meeting, but is due partly to missionary labor. We confidently expect others to take their stand with us soon, for some have expressed convictions of duty upon this point.
We had our first Sabbath meeting yesterday at 2:30 P. M. About twenty besides our people were present. We spoke on the Institution of the Sabbath and its Perpetual Obligation. There was some feeling and a good impression was made on all. There was a good attendance last night while we examined the claims of the first day of the week. We hope for several, who seem to be deeply interested, to forsake the institutions of men, and return to the obedience of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
June 25, 1882. I. D. Van Horn.
Salinas, California.
By G. D. Ballou; A. Brorsen
MANY who have been in attendance are called away to engage in harvesting, but still the interest is deepening with those who attend. Some leading citizens have just become interested, and attend every evening. The universal consent is that this people have the truth. Several are deciding to obey. The temperance feature of our work continues to hold the attention of the people. The donations to date reach nearly forty dollars.
G. D. BALLOU,
A. BRORSEN.
June 20.
Camp Meeting at Allegan
By Editor
The Review contains a cheering account of the Camp-meeting in Allegan, Mich. Received too late for our paper. Fifteen were baptized.
Ukiah, California.
By J. D. Rice, E. A. Briggs, L. A. Scott
Our meetings continue in this place. Attendance and interest have both gradually increased. Audiences are quite regular, and range from about fifty to a hundred. Held a Bible-class and testimony meeting last Sabbath. A number were present, most of whom took part. Some who could not meet with us were at home keeping the Sabbath. Quite a number have expressed their determination to no longer do homage to the Pope of Rome, but keep, instead, all the commandments of God, not excepting his holy Sabbath. We hope to see a permanent company established here in Ukiah, who shall be living witnesses for God and his truth.
The Baptist minister of the place tried his hand against the “Law of the Lord” last Sunday, in a discourse before his congregation. He ignored the distinction between the Law which God commanded the people, and wrote upon stone—the ten commandments—and the law which his “servant Moses commanded” them. (See 2 Kings 21 : 8, Ex. 20 : 1–17; Deut. 4 : 13, 14; 5 : 22, etc.) He jumbled everything together, declaring that God’s moral law is an inseparable part of “the handwriting of ordinances” and was consequently “nailed to the cross!” and that if we go back to the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord, to be consistent, we should keep “the handwriting of ordinances” also. Seeing, probably, that this argument would be equally against himself should he “go back to the observance of any one of the ten commandments, he acts consistent with his theory, and gives a new code of ten commandments, which does not include one of the original ten! Not even those against murder, adultery, blasphemy, theft, idolatry, etc.
Some of his people thought his position was all right, but the more thoughtful did not like it. We reviewed him before quite a large audience Monday evening, showing the fallacy of his position and the dangerous, not to say damnable, tendency of his doctrine. The Lord gave freedom in replying, and the eyes of the people were opened. We hope they may not shut them again. It has helped to settle some in favor of the truth. Truly, they “can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” Remember us when you pray.
J. D. RICE,
E. A. BRIGGS,
L. A. SCOTT.
Upper Columbia T. and M. Society.
By Editor
REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1882.
REPORTS of labor from the field, east and south, are generally encouraging. The laborers seem to be in good spirits and the people willing to hear. Let all pray for the prosperity of the work.
The Washerwoman's Plaint.
“So let your lips and lives express
The holy gospel we profess.”
SHE was a jolly soul, and everybody liked her—and liked her ironing, too, for that matter. Many a party dress came out of her little cottage looking as if fresh from the dressmaker. And she was always so good-natured and obliging that one lady called her a “sunbeam,” and thereupon we had a merry war of words: “A black sunbeam!” “But then so cheery and bright!” “And then so old!” “How much older than the sun?” and I gave it up.
“Mother isn’t well enough to do your washing,” came to me one day. I put my hat on at once, whether from pure benevolence or—well, motives are mixed, and soiled clothing is not lovely. I found her quite sick, and in trouble, too. And I spoke to her of God—a present help and an eternal refuge. She smiled. I was pained at her levity, and not willing to go on with the subject, nor yet willing to give it up entirely, I said: “Where do you go to church?” Then she laughed outright, and in her merriest tones said:—
“I’ve done your washing nigh upon fifteen years, and you always liked me, and you’ve spoke to me a thousand times, and this is the first time you ever said church to me!”
Then she laughed again. I was silent. How silent we shall all be that day of days!
“I’ve washed for the best folks in town, one time and another. Good folks, pious folks, but only one of ’em ever said ‘God’ to me. It ’pears like they think colored folks haven’t any souls.”
“Why,” I said, “think what the country has done for your race!”
“That’s so. I’ve heard ’em talk down to Town Hall; but that’s for colored folks somewhere else. I tell you it’s splendid to repent of other folks’ sins—’taint quite so nice when it comes home. When I hear ’em tell of money taking up for the churches and Sunday-schools ’way off, I think of my boys growing up heathen, and one of ’em getting bad, and I an honest, hard-working woman.”
“But, my good woman, every church and Sunday-school here is open to you and your boys.”
“That’s the talk. I’ll tell you how it works. First, you see, I was brought up in a minister’s family. You know about Mr. ——?”
“Yes indeed.”
“Well, in his family I went to Sunday-school with his girls, and when I joined church I stood right next to his oldest daughter, and drank out o’ the same cup,” and her voice grew very soft and gentle, and there was a far-off sound in it as she added slowly, “They just lived religion in that house!”
After a moment, with her old cheery voice, she said: “Well, I got married and come here. First Sunday I said, ‘Where do you go to meeting?’ ‘We never go to meeting.’ I stayed to home that day, but I knew ’twant right, no ways. Next Sunday I went alone to the ——, where I s’posed I belonged. I stood in the entry. One after another went along, looked at me; not one smiled. I’ze a stranger, I know; but if I’d been a white lady, all dressed up, guess somebody’d seen I had a seat. I stayed till the sexton had done ringing the bell. Then he looked at me, I looked at him; and he went off into the meeting-house and left me! Next Sunday I went somewhere else. Just about the same everywhere. So I thought I’d be a better Christian at home, reading my Bible, than going where it made me so wicked. You see from that, getting provoked at Christians, I felt kind o’ provoked at God for giving me a black skin. I wonder what he made folks so different for? Well, I got to staying home; ’twant no way to do; I didn’t like it. And when my boys came, I wanted ’em to go to Sunday-school, and not loaf round all day Sunday. So when Jim—that’s my oldest, you know—was going on eight years old, I spent a heap of time fixing him up real pretty, and I fixed up my best things—ironed ’em myself, you know.”
“And I know they were ironed faultlessly.”
“You may believe that. Then I took my boy and went to meeting. ‘Folks know me,’ I said, ‘and I’ll get a seat somewhere,’ and put my Jimmy into the infant class. I went early. Mrs. A. came along—nice woman; one of the salt of the earth—she came along, bowed, smiled, and went in. So they kept on coming, and bowing, and smiling to me, and one said, ‘How nice your little boy looks,’ but not one of ’em ‘Have you got a seat?’ And the same old sexton rang his bell and went off into church. But I wasn’t going to be put off so that time, and I just walked in and sat down in the back seat. I sat there while they opened the Sunday-school (directly after morning service), and the Superintendent came smiling along down the aisle and took a pretty little girl by the hand and found her a class; but nobody came after my boy; so I went home, and he laughed fit to kill himself, and said, ‘I told you our boy ain’t wanted along side o’ rich folks.’
“But seven or eight years ago they went round—there’d been a revival, you know—getting children into Sunday-school. And one came here and talked to me, and I was glad enough. But ’twas winter, and the boys hadn’t good overcoats, and was all off the notion of going. So I had to tell her. She said she’d see to that, and the ladies got ’em good ones, and the boys felt nice. I was real thankful, and he was pleased as could be, and it was a lively time in our house that Sunday morning, and when they came home with their picture papers and cards, and wanted me to help ’em get their lessons, it seemed like old times, and I don’t know when I have had such a good Sunday. That night I went down to prayer-meeting and took both the boys, and he went as far as the door, and was most a good mind to go in. The seats were just crowded, and they brought in chairs, and don’t you think, not a living soul came into the seat where me and my boys sat! I’ze glad enough he didn’t go in. Next Sunday my boys had their lessons and were fixed up nice. The white boys nudged each other and hitched off a little; but the teacher smiled and called ’em good boys, and said they had good lessons, so they didn’t care so much. But next Sunday she just smiled and said, ‘I’d like to have you come and sit in the seat with me,’ and they did, and the other boys kind of chuckled. Next Sunday they cried; he said they needn’t go, and so it ’twant no use for me trying to make ’em. And the boys to school twitted ’em of going to Sunday-school to get some new coats, and one of ’em said his mother said she hadn’t faith when she gave her fifty cents, for we’s a bad lot; and he just sent fifty cents to her, and told her. ‘There’s plenty of colored folks with souls whiter’n hers.’”
“I am very sorry, but will our sins excuse yours?”
“Some they do and some they don’t. Can’t you see if they had done as James tells ’em to in his second chapter, I’d got him to meeting pretty soon, my boys would have grown up different as could be, and he wouldn’t have died as he did, and I shouldn’t have backslidden down—well most down to the bottom of the hill, I guess. Smiles don’t cost much; and they are worth a good deal sometimes.”
“We haven’t realized their value, that is all.”
“Haven’t you? When any of you want some extra nice work done, and I’ve got more than I can do without sitting up nights, then don’t you smile and coax and flatter me? If all the Christians in this town put together had said as much to us about our souls, teased us as hard to go to meeting as any one of the girls will tease to have a dress done up when I hadn’t time to do it, we’d all been members of the church before this. Now that’s so. But the boys were just like he was—an infidel. I guess I’d be, if I hadn’t lived with those dear old saints. I tell you, Christians makes heaps of infidels. Ain’t they half of ’em kind of infidels themselves? Now if they’d believed that God is father of us all; his house our home; the poor his heirs; we are one in Christ; that we must love our brothers as ourselves—as my minister used to preach—they wouldn’t left me stand out there all alone. And how many do you s’pose of all that church, when they was praying for everybody and feeling so good and pious, believed that as they had ‘respect to persons,’ they were ‘convinced of the law as transgressors?’ I thought when I was going home, so sorry, that first Sunday, that Christ was pitying of me;” and tears came into her eyes.
“And he was. And you looked fairer to him than any of us that day. But I am afraid that since you have lived on the faults of Christians—a very poor food.”
“’Tain’t very good food, but it gives folks enough to eat, so they don’t hunger much after righteousness. When a tree bears apples, folks don’t tap it to get maple sugar. I know you think I am awful wicked to talk against Christians. I s’pose I am, but now ain’t it awful for Christians to let their lives talk against Christ?”—N. Y. Observer.
The Value of Encouraging Boys
By Companion
ONE of the greatest of English divines, Isaac Barrow, received in his boyhood only blame from his father, who thought him stupid. He used to express his contempt for him, by saying that if it pleased God to take from him any of his children, he hoped it might be Isaac. Yet when the University of Cambridge sought for a successor to the great Newton, stupid Isaac Barrow was the man they selected. Mr. William Matthews tells an anecdote which illustrates the stupidity of some parents and teachers. A boy was brought one day to General Salem Towne, labeled as an incorrigible dunce. No master had been able to make him learn, and if Mr. Towne couldn't, he should be apprenticed to a trade. Mr. Towne proceeded299to examine him. The boy made a mistake and instantly dodged, as if frightened.
"Why do you do that?" asked the master.
"Because I was afraid you were going to strike me."
"Why should you think so?"
"Because I have always been struck whenever I made a mistake."
"You need never fear being struck by me," said Mr. Towne. "That is not my way of treating boys who do as well as they can."
Under the wise teacher's judicious encouragement the boy showed so much intelligence that he was sent to college. In after years he became a lawyer, an editor, a judge, a governor, United States Senator, and Secretary of War and of State. That boy was William L. Marcy, of New York. —Companion.
The Home Circle.
ONLY A SMILE.
Only a smile that was given me
In the crowded street one day!
But it pierced the gloom of my saddened heart
Like a sudden sunbeam's ray.
The shadow of doubt hung over me,
And the burden of pain I bore;
And the voice of hope I could not hear,
Though I listened o'er and o'er.
But there came a rift in the crowd about,
And a face that I knew passed by,
And the smile I caught was brighter to me
Than the blue of a summer sky;
For it gave me back the sunshine clear,
And scattered each somber thought,
And my heart rejoiced in the kindling warmth
Which that kindly smile had wrought.
Only a smile from a friendly face
On the busy street that day!
Forgotten as soon as given, perhaps,
As the donor went her way;
But straight to my heart it went speeding
To gild the clouds that were there,
And I found that of sunshine and life's blue skies
I also might take my share.
The Child and the Infidel.
I REMEMBER hearing of a Sabbath-school teacher who had led every one of her children to Christ. She was a faithful teacher. Then she tried to get her children to bring other children into the school. One day one of them came and said she had been trying to get the children of a family to come to the school, but the father was an infidel, and he wouldn't allow it. "What is an infidel?" asked the child. She had never heard of an infidel before. The teacher went on to tell her what an infidel was, and she was perfectly shocked. A few mornings after, the girl happened to be going past the post-office on her way to school, and she saw the infidel father coming out. She went up to him and said, "Why don't you love Jesus?" If it had been a man who had said that to him, probably he would have knocked him down. He looked at her and walked on. A second time she put the question, "Why don't you love Jesus?" He put his hand to put her away from him, when, on looking down, he saw her in tears. "Please, sir, tell me why you don't love Jesus." He pushed her aside, and away he went. When he got to his office he could not get this question out of his mind. All the letters seemed to read, "Why don't you love Jesus?" All men in his place of business seemed to say, "Why don't you love Jesus?" When he tried to write, his pen seemed to shape the letters "Why don't you love Jesus?" He couldn't rest, and on the street he went to mingle with the business men, but he seemed to hear a voice continually asking him "Why don't you love Jesus?" He thought when night came, and he got home with his family, he would forget it, but he couldn't. He complained that he wasn't well, and went to bed. But when he laid his head on the pillow that voice kept whispering "Why don't you love Jesus?" He couldn't sleep. By-and-by, about midnight, he got up and said, "I will get a Bible and find where Christ contradicts himself, and then I'll have a reason," and he turned to the book of John. My friends, if you want a reason for not loving Christ, don't turn to John. He knew him too long. I don't believe a man can read the gospel of John without being turned to Christ. Well, he read through, and found no reason why he shouldn't love him, but he found many reasons why he should, and before morning he was on his knees, and that question put by that little child led to his conversion.—Moody's Anecdotes.
News and Notes.
By Editor
-A bill has been passed in the House, retiring the trade dollar from circulation.
-The Pacific dock and ware-houses, at Portland, Oregon, were burned, June 24.
-The total bullion product of the State of California, for the year 1881, is $18,950,000.
-The store-house of the Pacific Mills, at Lawrence, Mass., was burned June 23. Loss $500,000.
-The crew of the ship Rodgers recently burned in the Arctic, arrived in San Francisco June 23.
-There have been £14,000 subscribed for the new Chair of Celtic in the University of Edinburgh.
-The Japanese War department contemplates sending subalterns to America to study photography.
-The university of Vienna has so many students in Sanskrit that a second professor has been appointed.
-An order from the Czar has fixed the number of recruits for the Russian army and navy, during the year 1882, at 212,000.
-The Johnson Harvester Works, at Brockport, N. Y., were burned, June 20. Loss $500,000. The fire throws 450 men out of employment.
-The Kentucky State Bureau of Agriculture estimates the wheat crop of that State at eleven million bushels, the largest crop ever raised.
-James B. Doyle, the celebrated counterfeiter of United States bonds, was sentenced, June 20, to twelve years' hard labor in the penitentiary.
-The Alta says there is very little harvesting to do on Tulare river, in Tulare County. The fruit crop will be short in Pajaro Valley owing to the frost in May.
-Dr. Jules Crivaux and party of seventeen men, engaged in exploring the northern tributaries of the river Platte, have been killed by Obah Indians in Bolivia.
-The American schooner Massasoit, while under full sail, crashed into an immense iceberg and sank almost immediately, June 19. Five of the crew went down with the vessel.
-Among seventeen applicants for admittance to the District of Columbia bar, the best examination was passed by Mrs. M. M. Ricker. She was particularly well versed in the law of real property.
-Seventy-five persons were poisoned in Adrian, Mich., recently, by eating cheese. A microscopic examination showed the cheese to be filled with some unknown parasites. None of the persons were fatally poisoned.
-The father of the Emperor of China, called the Seventh Prince, who is at the head of the foreign-drilled military in Peking, has issued an order calling upon all the soldiers under him to abandon opium smoking within six months.
-The American bark, Roswell Sprague, which left San Francisco June 25, for Port Townsend, was discovered to be on fire when she was twelve miles outside the Golden Gate. She was towed back, but in spite of all efforts she was destroyed.
-The authorities have refused to interfere with the execution of the sentence against Guiteau, and he will in all probability meet his just fate next Friday, June 30. None will lament that the blasphemies of this notable villain are stopped.
-Six little boys, none of them over ten years of age, were seen on the road near Sonora, Tuolumne County, Cal., the other day, beastly drunk. When asked where they got the liquor, they were too much intoxicated to make themselves understood.
-Herr Meling, one of the principal navigators in the German navy, has been arrested at Kiel, on a charge of having accepted a bribe of 150,000 roubles to deliver to the Russian Government copies of the plans of all the works of defense on the German coast.
-An edict was recently issued by the Czar, which virtually bankrupts every wealthy Jew of Russia. It provisionally suspends all payment for contracts or debts due to Jews, prohibits them from settling outside towns and villages, and otherwise provides for their speedy extirpation.
-The London Times says the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and his subordinates, after careful investigation, are convinced that crime in Ireland is not sporadic, but is controlled by machinery deliberately set in motion through organized agencies, commanding large resources and obeying impulses of foreign origin.
-The Mexican Minister has received official information from the Department of State, Mexico, to the effect that the Mexican Congress has repealed its export duty on silver coin and silver bullion, which has been in existence since the Spanish rule, and which was one of the principal drawbacks to the development of the mining industries of that country.
-Advices from Sherbro Island, near Sierra Leone, dated May 21st, state that the natives of Martio had plundered a boat belonging to Bunthe island, where the British officers are stationed, and had fired on the police who went to arrest them. The Governor of Sierra Leone has proceeded to Martie with a force of blue jackets and inflicted a loss of 200 killed on the rebellious inhabitants.
-Chinese capitalists have a complete monopoly of the cotton trade in China, and are making arrangements to build, in Shanghai, one of the largest and most complete cotton mills in the world. The American Consul at Shanghai says that all the arrangements are made, the money secured, and an American expert builder of cotton mills is now in America making a selection of the best machines he can find for the working of the short staple cotton of China.
-The Commercial Advertiser’s Washington correspondent says: 'The impression prevails here that the Chinese Government does not intend to accept the action of our Government in reference to the exclusion of her subjects for the next ten years without an emphatic protest. It is already known that that Government regards the provisions of the bill recently passed as a direct violation of the treaty existing between the two nations. While a protest will undoubtedly be made, it is believed in official circles that China will not go to the extent of abrogating the treaty, but will, after expressing forcibly her belief that the treaty has been violated, quietly accept the situation.' It is stated by others, however, that this is unfounded rumor, and that China will accept the legislation quietly, as being clearly within the limits of the treaty.
Religious Notes.
By Editor
-There is a Baptist Church in the city of Athens, Greece.
-In Jamaica, the Baptist missionaries baptized last year, 2,181 persons.
-A German Congregational Church has just been organized in Chicago.
-Rev. John Nelson Darby, leader of the sect known as "Plymouth Brethren," is dead.
-The total heathen population now open to missionary effort is placed at 800,000,000.
-Dr. Wm. Hanna, the eminent Presbyterian minister and author, son-in-law of Dr. Chalmers, died May 24.
-Among the 275,000 Indians reported in the United States there are 219 churches, and 30,000 church members.
-Mr. Moody pronounces the revival work in Glasgow the deepest in interest of all in which he has been engaged.
-A third Presbyterian Church has been organized in Canton, China, with twenty-eight members. Two native elders were chosen.
-The success of Christian missions in Japan has aroused the Buddhists to unwonted exertions. They are holding meetings all over the land.
-A Brahmin graduate of Madras University says: "I would never argue if I were a missionary; I would simply give the Bible and say, 'Read that!'"
-Leipzig, in Germany, has only seven churches, all poorly attended, and no such thing as a Sunday-school. The people are indifferent to religion, and look upon a religious person with curiosity.
-The infidel who boasts that he is not confined by the narrow faith of the Bible, is like the man on the bleak wintery moor who boasts that he is not hampered by the petty limitations of a house to shelter him.—Censer.
-A colored man, Mr. J. R. Ballard, was ordained, May 20, in St. John's church, Jacksonville, Florida, which is called the most aristocratic church in the State, by Bishop Young, in the presence of a distinguished audience. It was the first case in the State that a colored man has been ordained in a white church.
-Papal excommunication does not seem to be dreaded very much now, especially by the women of Cleveland. The Bishop's threat to excommunicate all the women who remained members of the Land League, brought forth the following response: "In answer to your official of last week, and in the face of your terrible threats, I stand forth in the name of the women of the Parnell branch of the Land League, and say we will not deviate nor falter in the righteous cause we have undertaken."
Our Publications in England.
By Editor
ANY of the books, pamphlets, and tracts issued at this Office may be obtained of Eld. J. N. Loughborough, Ravenswood, Shirley Road, Southampton, England, who will furnish Catalogues, and give prices in English money. He will also receive subscriptions for our periodicals.
VALUABLE BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS.
SACRED GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES.
WITH maps and illustrations, by Rev. E. P. Barrows, D. D. The investigations of missionaries and explorers during the last century have thrown a flood of light on many points once involved in obscurity, and it is the aim of this book to condense and put into methodical form what has thus been collected. 655 pp. $2.25.
BIBLE GEOGRAPHY. HAND-BOOK OF
Containing the name, pronunciation and meaning of every place, nation, and tribe mentioned in both the Canonical and Apocryphal Scriptures. By Rev. Geo. H. Whitney, A. M. Illustrated by one hundred engravings and forty maps and plans. 12 mo. 400 pp. $2.50.
BIBLE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. HAND-BOOK OF
Containing descriptions of the ancient manners and customs mentioned in the Bible, and explaining over three thousand Scripture Texts. By Jas. M. Freeman, D. D. Illustrated by 168 engravings, and accompanied by an Analytical Index, a Textual Index, and a Topical Index. 12 mo. 515 pp. $2.50.
THE WORLD'S PROGRESS, A DICTIONARY OF DATES.
Being a Chronological and Alphabetical Record of all essential facts in the progress of society, from the creation of the world to the present time, with chart. By T. B. Perkins. Octavo size. 1,020 pp. $3.00.
SMITH'S NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY.
This work gives the connection between the Old and New Testament History, the relation of the Holy Land to the surrounding nations, a full account of the political and religious life of each separate section of the Jewish nation, and a clear and harmonized account of the Gospel and Apostolic History. 12 mo. 730 pp. $1.75.
LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL,
By Conybeare and Howson, giving a living picture of St. Paul and the circumstances by which he was surrounded. Illustrated with maps and engravings. 764 pp. $1.50.
THE LIFE AND WORDS OF CHRIST.
By Cunningham Geikie, D. D., with marginal references to the Scriptures, notes and index. Two volumes complete in one book. Printed in pica type, octavo size. 1,260 pp. $1.75.
We have just received the following commendation of this work from an earnest Christian worker in Maine:—
HAVING read Dr. Geikie's life and works of Christ, I find it more interesting the farther I read; and when he introduces us to the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, one can almost imagine himself present to witness the cruel mockery, and the terrible scenes of Calvary. Although I am not prepared to indorse all that is said in the book, yet I think it is the best I ever read of the kind. J. B. GOODRICH.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE FORETOLD.
By Uriah Smith
THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
By Eld. U. Smith.
THIS is a full exposition of a portion of prophecy which applies to our own Government, showing the position the United States holds in prophecy, and the part it has to act in the closing scenes of time.
THE SUNDAY MOVEMENT,
which is now attracting such general attention, is thoroughly canvassed and abundant testimony is given to prove that in a few years this will be the
ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION
In this country. Facts and statistics are largely presented, showing in the most conclusive manner that this government is the one pointed out in the prophecy quoted. 200 pages. Bound, 40 cents. Paper covers, 20 cents.
Signs of the Times, Oakland, Cal.
Appointments.
By M. C. Israel
Oakland and San Francisco.
OAKLAND.—Church N. E. corner Clay and 13th Streets. Meeting every Sabbath (Saturday) at 11 A. M. Preaching every second and fourth Sunday evening of each month. Prayer-meeting every Tuesday evening. Eld. J. H. Waggoner, Pastor. Sabbath-school at 9:30 A. M. Dr. E. J. Waggoner, Superintendent. Seats always free.
SAN FRANCISCO.—Church on Laguna Street, between McAllister and Tyler Streets. Meeting every Sabbath (Saturday) at 11 A. M. Prayer-meeting Wednesday evening. M. C. Israel, Elder. No regular preaching. Sabbath-school at 9:45 A. M. E. A. Stockton, Superintendent. Street-cars of the Hayes Valley Line, and Central and Lone Mountain Line, pass close to the meeting-house.
THE quarterly meeting of the San Francisco Church will be held at the meeting-house, Sabbath, July 1, at 10:30 A. M., at which time the ordinances will be administered. Eld. Van Horn will be present. Preaching at the tent, corner of Larkin and Washington Sts., at 2:30 P. M. and 7:45 in the evening. The T. and M. district and church quarterly meeting will be held Wednesday, July 5, at 6 P. M. at the tent. We hope to have a report from every member of the Society. What will be the decision? Are we acting well our part?
M. C. ISRAEL.
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
By Editor
PUBLISHED WEEKLY, AT OAKLAND, CAL., FOR THE
# Missionary Society of Seventh-day Adventists.
A twelve-page Religious Family Paper, devoted to a discussion of the Prophecies, Signs of the Times, Second Coming of Christ, Harmony of the Law and Gospel, with Departments devoted to Temperance, The Home Circle, The Missionary Work, and the Sabbath-school.
Price Per Year, . . . . . . . . . . . $2.00
In Clubs of five or more copies to one address, to be used in Missionary Work, . . . . . . . . . . . 1.50
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
—OR—
REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Michigan.
MISS ELIZA THAYER, Sec. N. E. Tract Society, South Lancaster, Mass.
ELD. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, Ravenswood, Shirley Road, Southampton, England.
W. L. RAYMOND, Gaston, Oregon.
Perilous Times.
By Editor
MORE calamities have been recorded during the week just past, than in any similar period, for a long time. Passing over the list of fires, murders, suicides, lynchings, robberies, and numerous other crimes, we notice briefly a few of the most important disasters occurring in our own country.
First in order was the terrible cyclone in Iowa, June 17. This storm exceeded in severity and extent anything ever known in the Mississippi Valley. The following appeal for aid, from the Mayor of Grinnell, where the greatest damage was done, will give some idea of the work of destruction:—
To the Public: After two nights spent in traversing the track of the tornado that swept over this State with such fearful havoc last Saturday night, and having reports from scores of reporters sent to all parts of it, I find the condition of the stricken people so piteous, so needful of instant, generous help, that I send this appeal to the people of the United States, in their behalf. The tornado made a swath of destruction through a thickly settled portion of Iowa, some 150 miles in length and an average half-mile in width, extending from a point south of Ames, in the center of the State, whence it swept in the shape of a crescent to South English, in Keokuk County, in the southeastern part of the State. We have the names now of sixty-nine dead and five hundred wounded. Half of the latter are grievously hurt, probably a fifth of them fatally. Over 300 families have had their homes totally destroyed. There are now, at least, 1,500 people homeless and in want. The loss in property will exceed $2,000,000, and may reach $3,000,000. In the town of Grinnell alone, over $400,000 in property was destroyed, on none of which was a cent of insurance, as in case of fires. It will take at least $300,000 to put the people there beyond need and distress. It will take $100,000 at once to put the wounded people in condition to be cared for. It will take $1,000,000, at the lowest, to keep the sufferers from want, and to help them to put the humblest of roofs over their heads. The people of Iowa are responding generously. It will take the help of every humane city and town in the West, of every liberal city and town in the East, to put comfort and safety between the stricken people and further suffering.
Grinnell is a town of New England people, thrifty and intelligent—a people with the lowest rate of crime and illiteracy in the State, and the highest rate of intelligence and morality. The rich towns of the East may well help these sons of New England in a calamity which has killed so many of their people, destroyed 160 of their homes, maimed and mutilated 200 more of their people, many of whom will soon die, and all of whom must be cared for for months, and wiped out totally nearly $500,000 in uninsured property. Iowa College has had all its buildings destroyed, its 400 students made homeless, and has suffered a loss of $75,000 uninsured property. The condition of other towns and farming communities is fully as pitiable and helpless.
The fury and power of this utter calamity were as indescribable in their mightiness of strength as their havoc and powers were cruel and complete. Of the houses of many people, there was left not a splinter as large as a finger, not a shred of furniture as large as a skein of silk, and hundreds have no length left except the night-clothes they had on.
Every condition of woe exists that most tenderly appeals to the human heart. The wounds inflicted by the debris that filled the air like chaos, by electric balls of fire that seemed to traverse every inch of space, and that exploded with fearfully fatal effect, will, many of them, defy all the skill and nursing, even with the tenderest care. The fury of the storm, which was clearly of electric origin, and which, indeed, may be described as having been electricity itself, precipitated in chaos, may be understood from the statement that in various places it took houses up a thousand feet in its great spirals or funnels, and carried large flocks of cattle through the air for thousands of feet, and dashed them down dead in heaps. Many thousands of cattle, horses, hogs, and other animals, now lie in the track of the tornado.
Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, is also reported as having been damaged to the extent of half a million dollars.
The same day different places in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois were visited by heavy storms. At Leavenworth, Kan., and vicinity, the loss is put at $500,000. Several persons were also killed. Heavy damage is also reported from the eastern part of Michigan; also from New York, and New England.
This storm was followed by another in the southern and western parts of Iowa, and soon after by a third in the northern and western portions of the State. The last two, although very destructive, were much less severe than the first.
Then we have the strange account of a tidal wave at Cleveland, O., June 23. The wave was said to be two miles wide and eleven feet higher than the surface of the lake. It came in the wake of an angry black cloud, with neither wind nor rain. Boats were thrown on the shore, and everything lying on the shore was scattered.
Nearer home we have to record the loss of the British steamship, Escambia, bound to Liverpool with a cargo of wheat. She was just outside the Golden Gate when she capsized and sunk. The captain and three sailors were washed ashore, but twenty-five men were drowned. The accident is generally attributed to carelessness, the vessel being overloaded and topheavy.
The same night a portion of Oakland Long Wharf, the C. P. R. R. warehouse, and the American bark Great Western, were burned. Other vessels were injured. This was at the old depot, and did not interfere with travel.
Every morning the papers bring further accounts of disasters by wind and rain, the greatest damage being done in Iowa and Minnesota. Omaha has also been visited with a storm of great severity. Houses were unroofed, and portions of the town were flooded.
God is warning the world by his word and by his providence. The evidence in the Scriptures proves beyond a question that we are in "the last days." Perils and dangers are fast increasing. We will not publish accounts of the crimes which are committed every day; their number is appalling, and the details are horrible. And it is impossible, in our limited space, to record all the fatalities by crimes, accidents, fires, floods, and hurricanes. All seem to be greatly on the increase.
But we have no idea that the mass of the people will be aroused more by these providences, which are foretold in the Scriptures, than they are by the more direct warnings of the words of prophecy. As did Pharaoh, they will harden their hearts by means of the very judgments which God sends to convince them of his will in regard to them. Instead of bowing to these judgments and inquiring what these things mean, they will shut their eyes against evidence, and so endeavor to explain the "seven last plagues" by "science," and attribute them to "natural causes."
But there will be a "few" who will heed the warnings, and find the narrow way that leads to life. A "little flock" will receive the kingdom. For these we labor in hope. If the multitude turn away from our testimony, we know they turned away from the warnings and entreaties of the Saviour, and we will not be discouraged. "The servant is not greater than his Lord." But we shall labor and pray that some who are crying, "Peace and safety," may accept the warning before "sudden destruction shall come upon them."
Camp-Meetings.
DAKOTA, Parker, June 29-July 4.
TEXAS, Waxahachie, July 21-31.
OHIO, Delaware, Aug. 11-21.
ILLINOIS, " 22-29.