p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 35. (9/9/1886)

Camp-Meeting Fare Rates

RATES of fare to the camp-meetings in California, Nebraska, and Indiana will be found on the preceding page.

German History of the Sabbath

By Editor

A FEW weeks ago we noticed the publication in German of the first part of “History of the Sabbath,” without naming the price. The book sells for forty cents, and orders may be sent to this office. We hope our German friends will see that it has a large circulation in this country.

Tent Meeting in Brownsville

ELDER T. M. STEWARD writing from Brownsville, Canada, says:— “We have just pitched our tent in this place. The prospect is fair for a candid hearing. The best I have seen in Canada. I baptized nine at St. Catharines.”

National Defense in Congressional Elections

The San Francisco Bulletin thinks that the people of the United States should make the question of national defense an issue in the coming Congressional elections, and require candidates to give assurances that if they are elected they will attend to the providing of suitable artillery and fortifications for national defense. Says the Bulletin: “It is about the most prominent practical question now before the country.”

Cheering News from Australia

The last Australian steamer brings cheering news from the brethren laboring there. At Ballarat forty-five have begun to keep the Sabbath of the Lord, and others are investigating. The donations during the tent meetings amounted to $195. Elder Corliss intends to go next to Adelaide, South Australia, and Elder Israel will remain for a time to organize the work in Ballarat. The church in Melbourne is progressing, and several of the members are preparing to give themselves to the work.

Europe as a Powder Magazine

THE San Francisco Chronicle, in a short article on the relation of Russia, Germany, Austria, and France, says:—

“Is a general European war likely? It is hard to say. As a general rule, when people throw lighted matches around recklessly in a powder magazine, it is prudent to look out for an explosion. All Europe is a powder magazine, with a casus belli ready to the hand of every adventurous statesman, and the rulers of the nations seem to have nothing better to do than to keep throwing matches. It will be well for Europe if the nineteenth century ends without another of those terrible wars which retard civilization, and disgrace humanity.”

SAYS the Tennessee Baptist:—

SAYS the Tennessee Baptist:—

“If it is a fact that God changed the computation of time when he appointed the Jewish Sabbath, setting it back one day (which who can successfully deny?), then the whole Sabbath question is forever settled. Christ arose on Sunday, the Edenic Sabbath day, which was appointed for the entire race.”

Ah, yes. “If it is a fact.” But is it a fact? Of course it is not, and the editor of the Tennessee Baptist knows that there is no evidence to that effect, but knowing that his readers are willing to be convinced that Sunday is the Sabbath, he is content to let the whole matter rest on an undemonstrated and undemonstrable hypothesis. He makes an assertion, and without offering argument, because there is none, he attempts to cajole people into the belief that he has proved his assertion by asking, “Who can deny it?” Such methods are the stock in trade of most Sunday advocates, but they cannot pass current with thinking people. The Scriptures forbid any such assumption as the one quoted. Christ rose on Sunday, the first day of the week, just one day after the day of “the Sabbath according to the commandments,” the Edenic Sabbath which God appointed for the entire race.

Brooklyn: The City of Saloons

BROOKLYN, N. Y., used to be called “the city of churches.” It should now be called the city of saloons, for it has one dram shop to every forty voters. Politics must flourish in such a city.

Russia Copying after America.

FROM a private letter from Elder W. C. White, dated Basel, Switzerland, August 16, we take the following item:—

“At last report from Russia, Brother Conradi was lying in prison on the charge of heresy. He was having real good meetings, and had organized one church, and the sound of the truth was going all about. The devil could not bear to see this, and stirred up some of his agents to secure Brother Conradi’s arrest. On Sabbath afternoon, July 31, the officers entered the meeting and arrested him and Brother Perk. They were to be tried in two weeks; but meanwhile were treated with much severity, not being allowed to write, and to see friends only in the presence of the officers.”

We trust that all lovers of the present truth will heed the apostle’s injunction to “remember those that are in bonds as bound with them.” The trial of these brethren is now no doubt some time in the past, but news from them comes slowly. Brother White has kindly promised to give us the facts as soon as he learns them. Russian officials know how to treat prisoners with severity, and prisoners for conscience’ sake usually have the least consideration shown them in any country. It will not be long, however, till there will not be a land where there are not Seventh-day Adventists in bonds because they have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. But it will not be for long, for the morning cometh as well as the night.

Since writing the above, we learn that through the efforts of the U. S. minister, Brother Conradi has been set at liberty, but has been ordered to leave Russia.

“A Great Crime” Indeed.

LATELY there has been conducted in San Francisco an official investigation into the labor problem. The investigation began with the cigar-making trade—whether because that is the leading industry of San Francisco or not, we are unable to state definitely, but from the length of time given to it, and from the space occupied in the newspaper report of it, we should fairly conclude that it is. Whether it is or not, is not the question which we notice here, but in the investigation a certain principle was developed which is worthy of the attention of every fair-minded person, not because of its value, but because of its essential wickedness. In the investigation, labor was represented entirely by the trades-unions. One day the commissioner asked the following question:—

“Suppose an employer of both white and Chinese labor says, ‘I will discharge my one hundred Chinese, if you will allow me to engage one hundred apprentices.’”

The answer by the official representative of the cigar-makers was,—

“It would be a great crime against the cigar-makers to introduce these boys into the trade.”

If this applied only to the trade of cigar-making, of course nothing could be justly said; for it would be a real mercy to the boys to be kept as far away as possible from that filthy, poisonous business, and we should count it, not a crime against the cigar-makers, but a crime against the boys. But this principle is applied by the trades-unions to every industry. They would no more allow boys to enter these industries to learn the trades than they would allow the Chinese. This question and its answer develop the real principle of trades-unionism; and it will be seen that that principle is not only anti-Chinese, but anti-American as well, and not only that, but is essentially immoral and anti-human. And there is where the great crime lies.