p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 9. (2/28/1911)

Life and Health

By Editor

A PRACTICAL health journal, published with a view of meeting hygienic needs in every home; teaching how to care for the health and how to preserve life; prescribing simple home treatments to assist nature in throwing off diseases rather than adding more poison by using drugs or unnatural stimulants as remedies; teaching how to avoid disease as far as possible, how to manage in the home when sickness does come, and how to combat the disease by simple remedies which nature provides.

Send for sample copy and special rates to agents. Price 10 cents per copy or $1.00 per year.

Address, LIFE & HEALTH, Takoma Park, D.C.

The Message Due Our Large Cities

By T. E. Bowen

CITIES need the pure Gospel of the Bible. The old-fashioned faith of past generations in the blessed Book of God, is something well-nigh unknown to-day. Pulpits uplift noted men more than Christ Jesus the Lord. Churches have fallen from pure religion so far that they have become to a large degree societies of fashion, a place for the rich to gather to be amused by some good orator a short time one day each week. Some exceptions to these are found, but generally speaking the laboring classes do not find church homes in the popular Protestant churches of our large cities of to-day.

In “Modern Cities,” by Samuel L. Loomis, in the chapter “The Threat of the Cities,” page 99, we read: “Now, city churches of the Protestant order are usually attended and sustained by persons of means and intelligence. It makes a man prosperous to be a Christian. The Protestant city churches are, therefore, to the laborer, the churches of the capitalist. He will have nothing to do with them. Their cushions and carpets, their polished pews, stained windows, and pealing organs, as well as the rich garments of their prosperous congregations, were purchased, as he thinks, with money wrested from his toil-worn fingers. What wonder that the invitations of the church ring in his ears like tones of hollow mockery, from which he turns away with bitter heart!”

No city of the world presents stronger pictures of patient poverty than does London through the long, wet winter. It is one of the richest cities in the world. It has its types of the world's awful wretchedness. There is also there large charity. On the left is shown a scene of the distribution of bread and soup on the Thames embankment. A policeman is keeping order at the bread box and soup kettle. On the right is another scene of the homeless after receiving soup and bread. (Photos are from the Transatlantic Co., New York.)

The toilers in the cities feel the iron hand of fate that keeps them from enjoying more of the fruit of their toil. Unreasonably, it may be true, much of their condition is in their minds traced to the door of the church where, in many instances, worships their employer. Among themselves such as the following, a quotation from Iron Moulder’s Journal, not a Socialist paper, but a labor organ, passes between them and is freely discussed:

“One hundred workers, of as many occupations, will produce, working as they now work, treble the amount of all the necessities and comforts that one family will consume. How in God’s name is it that they can not get enough to eat and wear? What is it, and who is it, that takes it all from them and grudgingly doles back to them just sufficient to keep body and soul together for not the allotted life of man, but for the time necessary to work and starve them into the grave?”

The blessed Book of God sends the only true answer to these distressed souls. They should hear it fresh from warm-hearted Christian lips: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields [toiled in your workshops and markets], which is of you

kept back by fraud [called legitimate profits to-day], crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord.”

To the laborers God sends this word: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” The third angel’s message holds out the only hope to these people. This message of hope and cheer is certainly due, and long overdue, to the toiling multitudes in the great cities.

One other quotation from “Modern Cities,” page 210, emphasizes this special need for helping the common people. It should not be forgotten that Jesus was poor. He felt the pangs of poverty. He knows how to sympathize with the poor and distressed to-day—and He does. Mr. Loomis says: “No words can tell, brethren, no words can commence to tell, how tremendous is the importance of giving to our working people the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. As water can not be boiled by applying heat at the top, so society can not be saved by a religion of the upper classes.

. . . The fire must burn down to the bottom or the fire must go out. Christianity, from the nature of it, can not remain the religion of a class; it must be the religion of the whole people, or that of none.”

A danger is here pointed out. After speaking of our leaders here in the United States, who have, generally speaking, sprung from the hard-working class, coming from homes of piety where the Bible was studied, and where prayer was often heard, this same writer adds: “But these humble homes, both in the country and in town, have now for many years been fast passing into the hands of strangers. What if our future leaders are being reared in Roman Catholic households, and cradled by the firesides of unbelief? Wo to the nation whose cottages have no Bibles. The poor and the stranger must be taught to know the God of our fathers; it is our only hope. This only hope

is a large hope. The Gospel was made for the poor—they need it, they hunger for it, they will receive it when it is faithfully preached.”

And so they will. Hundreds and thousands will take the pure water of life in the midst of the smoke and din and sin of the great cities, when messengers, humble messengers, in the love of Jesus, hand the life-giving cup to them. This is our real call to-day. It is not orators that are needed so much as Spirit-filled men and women to go to the perishing multitudes, as did Jesus Himself, and give them the blessed Word of God.

Sympathy With Man

“THERE is no communion with God without sympathy with man.”

Talking of Weather and Life

"It is always easier to talk of the weather than of the way of life."

Our Work and Workers

By Editor

THREE have gladly welcomed the truth at Hamilton, Ontario.

THREE young ladies have been baptized recently in Havana, Cuba.

A BODY of thirty-one believers has been organized at Lents, Oregon.

A COMPANY of fifty-two has been organized into a church at Clinton, Missouri.

AT Dickinson Center, New York, six persons have taken their stand for the truth.

TWENTY-EIGHT candidates are awaiting baptism at the Solusi Mission, South Africa.

TWO have been converted and two others are awaiting baptism, at Danville, Virginia.

AT a general meeting held in Tasmania, fourteen persons have received the ordinance of baptism.

PASTOR H. W. COTTRELL reports that he baptized three young ladies recently in Oakland, California.

THE company of fourteen believers at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, has recently been organized into a church.

FOUR new converts to the faith are reported at McKinney, Kentucky, and four more are awaiting baptism.

AT Pleasantville, New Jersey, seven persons have gladly welcomed the new light from God's Word, and many others are interested.

A CHURCH of twenty-seven members has been organized at Nagasaki, Japan, and at Kumamoto six others are obeying the truth.

TEN at Kirby, Montana, have declared their purpose to keep the commandments of God, and six at Forsyth have decided to obey the truth.

WORD comes from Kempsey, New South Wales, that fourteen have announced their decision to "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."

ANOTHER great island field has been entered by our workers for the first time. Two young men will pioneer the work into Formosa. They report good success so far.

A REPORT from Worcester, Massachusetts, states that nine were baptized and have been received into the church. Several others desire baptism, and other additions to the church are expected soon.

FOURTEEN souls were buried with their Lord in baptism and united with the North Fitzroy church, Australia; also three at Calliope, Queensland, where six others have expressed a desire to go forward in the near future.

IN the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, South America, thirty-one have been baptized, and fifty are at present witnessing for the truth there. In Minas-Geraes, in the same province, seven have responded to the call of the message.

A CHURCH of fifteen members has been organized in Detroit, Michigan. Five more persons are rejoicing in the light at Grand Rapids. At Hancock there are two new believers, and five have united with the church at Battle Creek.

—**—

The Vegetarian Cook Book

By E. G. Fulton

By E. G. FULTON

THE author has had years of experience in vegetarian cookery and in the management of vegetarian cafes and cafeterias. With its aid the chef, cook, or housewife is able to prepare appetizing, healthful meals without the use of any flesh food.

This book contains 419 pages, including a handy and well-arranged index of all the recipes given.

Tastily bound in cloth, price, post-paid, $1.00.

Pacific Press Publishing Assn. Mountain View, California Portland, Ore. Calgary, Alberta. Kansas City, Mo.

Mrs. Stuttle's HOME SERIES

These three books by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle furnish to the parent a much-needed help in the instruction and entertainment of their children

Making Home Happy

Pictures before the reader in interesting story form the relations that should exist and the lines of influence that should be guarded and cultivated in every home. (200 pp.)

Making Home Peaceful

Is the sequel to the above, and every one reading the first book will want to learn more about "Deacon Beardsley's" family, and how an unhappy home was made peaceful. (227 pp.)

Those Bible Readings

While especially suited to the needs of the young, there is an attractiveness in the arrangement and presentation of these readings that will hold the interest of all, old and young. (206 pp.)

These books are beautifully bound and may be obtained singly at 75 cents each, or the entire set of three for $2.00.

Pacific Press Publishing Assn. Mountain View, California Portland, Ore. Calgary, Alberta Kansas City, Mo.

Notes on the Conference

At the recent annual meeting of the California and Nevada Conference, held in Fresno, the conference was divided into three smaller conferences as follows:

1. A Coast Conference consisting of the following coast counties, beginning on the north: Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, Mendocino, Lake, Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz.

2. A Central California Conference composed of the following counties: Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern, north of Tehachapi Range; San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito.

3. Northeastern California Conference composed of the following counties: Siskiyou, Modoc, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama, Plumas, Glenn, Butte, Sierra, Colusa, Sutter, Yuba, Nevada, Placer, Yolo, Sacramento, El Dorado, Amador, San Joaquin, Calaveras, Alpine, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, Mariposa, and the northern part of Nevada.

The northern part of San Bernardino County, and the counties of Mono and Inyo in California, and of Esmeralda, Nye, Lincoln, and Clark in Nevada were ceded to the Southern California Conference. The approximate membership of these three conferences is as follows: Northwest or Coast Conference, 2800; Central Conference, 1128; Northeastern Conference, 1185. The respective annual incomes from tithes are as follows, $37,500, $18,300, $19,700. The assets and liabilities were divided among the three conferences pro rata according to membership.

—**—

A Ray of Sunshine.— This is how a Catholic woman writes to one of our sisters who had been giving her the Signs and some other Christian publications:

Dear Christian Sister: I write you a few lines this Thanksgiving Day. How beautiful is the day outside; but dear friend, how dark is the inside of my home. You know this day is celebrated joyfully to many, and also to many it is a sorrowful day. But I will say this,—the Signs of the Times comes to me every week, and it is just like a ray of sunshine. Its beautiful words are a comfort to read. They give one hope of a better and more peaceful life. O, I can't express all I wish to, but those three little books you left me—I many times steal away to read them, and the consolation they give I can not find words enough to tell you.

This sister desires to be remembered in prayer. There are many others to whom the paper comes as a ray of light.

Publications Wanted

By Editor

THE following persons desire late, clean copies of our denominational periodicals for free distribution:

Miss Myrtle Lashier, 645 W. 6th St., Reno, Nev.

J. Gregory, Paradise Valley Sanitarium, National City, Cal.

M. S. Hubbell, Route 1, Box 180, Fort Smith, Ark.

Margaret Wright, 1517 Seventh St., Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

J. W. Kimber, Route 1, Camas, Wash.

Mrs. H. T. Moor, 1319 Vermont Ave., Washington, D. C.

Scandal Buying

By Editor

The London Times editorially and by its correspondents points out a dastardly mean kind of journalism recently disclosed by a person who is by letters and offers of money over an assumed name, endeavoring to bribe servants of prominent persons in England to reveal the weaknesses, secrets, foibles, faults, family skeletons, and whatever else will pander to a prurient taste, of prominent important personages, royalty, bearers of titles, etc., etc. This anonymous journalist says that she wants it for American journals, who will pay handsomely for such stuff.

No words can rightly denounce such reprehensible and pitifully low conduct. No honorable journal would stoop to such methods; no honorable or decent "correspondent" would seek to bribe or debase a class of persons who should hold in highest confidence the families and households in which they are trusted employees. For servants thus to betray a household, for guests or sojourners thus to betray those of whose benefits and hospitality they have partaken, is dishonorable, mischievous, malefic, corrupting, detestable, mean, abominable.

There may be a few American journals that would stoop to such things. The great mass of the people, we are constrained to believe, have little interest in them, especially among those in other lands. Such journals are seeking the patronage of a cheap and superficial class of people. What an accursed thing gossip is anywhere and everywhere!

Guatemala Loan Negotiations

Guatemala has for some time been negotiating a loan with American bankers to the amount of $40,000,000. According to an official cable despatch from that country it is stated that the loan will be placed about March 1.

Opening of the English Parliament

The English Parliament was opened February 6 by King George and Queen Mary amid all the traditional pomp and dignity of past centuries. The great state coach of gold and glass drawn by six magnificent chargers in their harnesses of gold and silver presented a brilliant spectacle as the royal couple were escorted from the palace to the Parliament buildings.

The Coming Exposition

The Coming Exposition.—Of course all California journals are rejoicing over the fact that the great exposition to be held on the finishing of the Panama Canal, will be held in San Francisco. Some are rejoicing for one reason and some for another, but all nearly look upon it as a great help commercially to this State, and educational to all who attend. It is now said that the canal will be completed September 1, 1913, and the cost will be $350,000,000.

Children Arrested for Playing

By Editor

The New York "Evening Journal" rightly protests against the laws that make children's playing criminal. It says: "Don't you think it interesting to know that whereas one hundred and twenty-eight children were arrested in a given period for playing baseball and seventy-seven children were arrested for playing 'cat,' only twenty-three were arrested for 'shooting craps,' that is to say, for gambling, which injures the children's morals, and NOT ONE was arrested for smoking cigarettes, which destroys the children's health!" Now if it is wrong for children to play the only place where they can play, then some other place ought to be provided. There is need of such editorials.

Tuberculosis Education Campaign

The National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, during the next six months will send broadcast throughout the United States 20,000 educational bill-board posters, showing in graphic form how fresh air, good food, and rest cure tuberculosis; how bad air, overwork, and closed windows lead to it; and how the careless consumptive menaces the health of his family by his spitting.

The Overproduction of Lawyers

By Editor

An editorial in the New York "World" declares that among lawyers practise was never less remunerative, and never were expenses so high. The causes are the panic, the evils of which have just fallen upon the legal profession, less litigation (a good thing), and chiefly the overproduction of lawyers. It is computed that there is one to every 500 men, women, and children in the United States. Greater New York is said to have from 14,000 to 18,000 practising lawyers, while the law schools will graduate from 500 to 750 more this year. It is becoming as unprofitable a profession as medicine was a few years ago.

King Caucus Dethroned

By Editor

"King Caucus Dethroned" is the heading of an editorial in Harper's Weekly. Colonel Harvey refers to the caucus in Congress, its proclivities to program, and its power to put in practise its policies. It ought to be dethroned not alone in State but in church. It is well for leaders who have served to outline what they believe to be the best for the future of any religious body; but it is pure politics which will call together the cliques, program the future, and rush it through regardless of the opinion or will of the church or their constituents. Yet this is what is done in religious bodies over and over. We said above that this was "pure politics;" we used the term to mean that it was politics only, and not the high standard of religious principle which ought to obtain in all things professedly Christian. But it is not pure politics in the flattest political sense; it is the worst kind of politics in the long run. A political party may long survive such methods; but the church of Jesus Christ loses her power to fulfil her mission when she stoops to such methods. Her high mission is to witness for the Master, and by the power of His Spirit save souls. But the repudiation of heavenly principles, and the adoption of worldly policies, strip her of that power and make her a field for missionary effort, and not God's spiritual force in the winning of souls. Let King Caucus and all his kin be dethroned in the church forever.

Another Message from Mrs. Eddy

Another message from "Mrs. Eddy."—This time it comes through Mr. William T. Stead, the noted journalist. He tells us that he had no expectations of hearing from Mrs. Eddy, and that none of the sitters in the séanse were Christian Scientists. In her message to Mr. Stead the alleged Mrs. Eddy claimed that altogether too much attention was given to her body, "that shell which I so recently left. This will do the movement much harm. . . . There is no death; all is life; all is freedom. I protest against the action of my board."

She declared that she was still "against ordinary Spiritualism." When asked to prove her identity, the voice said: "I am myself. You can not prove that to mortal mind. The realm of personality and mortal minds is a delusion and a snare." It sounds somewhat like her, doesn't it? Is it? Some will think so. He who knows God's Word will also know that the message is from an evil, deceiving spirit. "The dead know not anything."

How Much Is It Worth?

By Editor

A New York church has invited an eloquent English preacher to minister to them at a salary of $12,000 a year. Many say it is too much. The preacher himself so declares. A paper, comparing it with what prize-fighters and actors and singers and persons of other professions are paid, thinks it too little. It is difficult to compare a true preacher's salary with those of other professions. Of course, if his eloquence is paid for, the comparison is just. If his true worth as a minister of Jesus Christ is to be estimated, it can not be measured by money. It ought to be of eternal worth in the salvation of souls, and a soul saved to immortality is of more value than all the gold of worlds. In such case, if his people can afford it, he should be paid a good salary, and he should expend that salary so as to glorify God.

The Japanese Budget

The Japanese Budget.—The Japanese Budget presented in the Lower House by Marquis Katsura, January 21, places the ordinary receipts at 492,000,000 yen, or $246,000,000; the extraordinary receipts, $28,500,000; the total, $274,500,000; the ordinary expenditures, $203,500,000; the extraordinary expenditures, $72,000,000; total expenditures, $275,500,000, leaving $1,000,000 to be provided for, or as deficit. For prevention of flood damage, $96,500,000 was provided; $7,000,000 for naval expenditure. During the next six years it is planned to distribute on railway improvements $137,000,000.

Slow Poison

Slow Poison.—Prof. Otto Folin, of Harvard Medical School, seriously questions whether preservatives in food do not slowly poison those who use them, and so shorten life. These antiseptics, he contends, have never been truly tested. What is worse, some of them that are cheap are liberally used "in preparing food products for the market from materials already so decayed as to be unsalable in their original condition." It is a word of warning worth heeding.

Military Message by Aeroplane

Harry S. Harkness carried a military message in an aeroplane 45 miles in 56 minutes on February 7. The message was from Major McManus, commander of Fort Rosecrans, California, to Lieutenant Ruhlin, in charge of the American patrol of the Mexican frontier near Tia Juana. The roads between the two points were almost impassable on account of rains.

The Habitable Planet Venus

Prof. T. J. See, director of the naval observatory at Mare Island, says that the year on Venus is 225 of our days long, the day 23 hours, and the climate and seasons similar to ours, and that the planet is undeniably habitable in every respect.

Peace Congresses and Dreadnoughts

Men are pleading for peace, and Peace Congresses are yearly in evidence; but the latest British Dreadnought was committed to the sea with the rites of the established church, the archbishop of Canterbury conducting the religious service.