p. 286 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 18. (5/2/1916)

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Fireside Correspondence School

By Editor

THE report of our good Fireside Correspondence School for 1915 is at hand, and shows that it is making commendable and continuous growth. It was started in the year 1910, under the direction of Prof. C. C. Lewis, one of our ablest and most experienced educators. The school affords an opportunity to many young men and women, as well as the older ones, who have not had the advantages of a regular schooling, to obtain nevertheless a liberal education. The prospects for a heavy enrollment in 1916 are of the brightest. The enrollment of new scholars during the first two months of this year was as great as it was up to May 15 of last year. These figures indicate more than a doubling of what was done in 1915. Those who may be interested should address Prof. C. C. Lewis, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., who will be glad to furnish literature giving courses of study, expenses, and any other information that may be desired.

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By Editor

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SIGNS OF THE TIMES MAGAZINE Mountain View, California

A NEW BOOK

"Rays of Light on the Sabbath Question." Written in the interests of the work in Portland, Maine. A new plan—a book for busy people, to meet the needs of a busy age. Ready about April 1. Price 25 cents in paper, 50 cents in cloth. Edition limited. Please order at once if you desire a copy. Address Eliza H. Morton, Woodford Station, Portland, Maine.

Paying the Price on the Installment Plan

By L. A. Hansen

From a Dime to Perdition

Paying the Price on the Installment Plan

By L. A. HANSEN

A STALWART champion of prohibition is Major Dan Morgan Smith, of Chicago, formerly chief counsel of the Model License League. His conversion to the interests of the Anti-Saloon League of America was again and again lauded at the recent convention. Well it might be, for he is a powerful speaker, and exerts a telling force.

In his address "The Price of a Drink," he gave some of the best arguments on the liquor evil. We quote the following:

"If the results of drinking were purely personal, then the complaint of the wets that the anti-liquor forces are trying to interfere with the personal liberty of drinkers might carry with it some force; but drink is sold on the installment plan — first payment is made when you get the drink, the others when the drink gets you.

"The greater part of the payments are made by those who do not drink.

WHO PAYS THE PRICE?

"The price of a drink ranges from a dime to damnation — the drinker pays the dime, and humanity pays the damnation.

"The immediate payment is made in cash; some of the delayed payments are made by the drinker in brawn and brains, ambition and efficiency, morality and decency, duty and honor; but you and I, although we never touch liquor, must pay the price of a drink in loss of trade, in loss of profits, in damage suits in one way or another, depending upon our business, profession, or occupation; but no one is exempt.

"The merchant pays in loss of trade; for the moderate drinker of to-day is the drunkard of to-morrow, and drunkards do not buy liberally of groceries, clothing, shoes, or of anything else, except liquor.

"If we be manufacturers, we help pay the price of a drink when our machinery lies idle because the operator is sobering up; help pay the price when fewer workmen report Monday than were working the preceding Saturday; pay in sluggish brains and trembling limbs; in damage suits caused by carelessness, or inefficiency, or drunken workmen; pay in less output than the pay roll justifies us in expecting.

EVERYBODY PAYS

"True, employers of labor are seeking to avoid this great drain upon their profits by discharging the drinkers; but a man permanently out of work becomes a charge upon the taxpayers, and the manufacturer is a taxpayer. Supplanting trained workmen with untrained men is expensive, and yet it is less expensive than to put up with the drinker.

"The union men are paying installments upon the price of a drink; for ultimately wages and hours of labor must be based upon the earning capacity of the workman, and the earning capacity depends absolutely upon willingness, health, and ability — upon efficiency, and science leaves no doubt that even one drink lessens efficiency.

"Farmers pay their installments, even though no person on the farm were to drink; for the farmer pays for the drink of the miller who grinds his wheat, and of the clerk who sells the flour of the middleman and who stands between the maker and the consumer. The farmer also pays because of the lessened demand for the products of his farm; but pays most of all in taxes expended to support the cities' poor and criminals — the victims of drink.

"Professional men help pay, because the drunkard pays no professional fees.

POPULATING THE PENITENTIARY

"Every taxpayer is assessed to pay the price of a drink; and let us not forget that every renter, every buyer of anything, is a taxpayer. The taxpayer's money is used to pay the judges and juries that are trying, with so little success, to stem the tide of crime that is unquestionably attributable, in the main, to the use of drink. The taxpayer supports the penitentiary that is largely populated with men who violate the laws either when drinking or after drink has made them moral lepers.

From “The Shadow of the Bottle”
“Payments are made by the drinker in brawn and brains, ambition and efficiency, morality and decency, duty and honor.” — From “The Shadow of the Bottle” “Payments are made by the drinker in brawn and brains, ambition and efficiency, morality and decency, duty and honor.”

"Men who should know, assert that seventy-five per cent of crime can be directly traced to drink; that thirty-three per cent of the inmates of asylums are there because they or their ancestors were poisoned by drink. Social workers assert that a large number of women walk the street because the use of liquor has lessened their resistive powers, blunted their moral senses, or excited their sexual desires.

"Are these percentages true? Do these statisticians know what they are talking about?

"I do not know; but if there be in any penitentiary one person who is there because the government permits the sale of liquor; if in some asylum there is one person who is spending all of life muttering foolish nothings; if in all the world there is one girl — just one little girl — who has kissed her mother good-by and can never come home again, because of drink, then I am in favor of national constitutional prohibition.

"If these things be true — and I believe them to be true — I want to see this country so dry that a rattlesnake's bite won't dig up a drink between oceans.

THE SALE OF DAMNATION

"No small part of the price of a drink is paid by the drinker's family. His wife pays in lost happiness, deprivations, shame, and tears; his children pay in lack of opportunity, in lessened advantages, and, worst of all, in physical infirmities, mental deficiencies, and moral degeneracy. Many children come into the world doomed to have stunted bodies, warped minds, and blunted moral senses, because they were sired by a drunken father.

"Cities pay their installments in waves of crime, lowered standards of conduct, the unwarranted, pernicious, and controlling influence of the liquor interests in politics. Cities pay in the inefficiency and dishonesty of men elected to office by the interests that make but one inquiry of the office seeker — 'Are you a wet?'

"States pay the price of a drink in the passage of vicious laws, and the defeat of needed legislation, by legislators whose election was made possible by the activity of the liquor interests in politics.

"The national government helps pay the price of a drink by putting its seal of toleration upon the sale of this damning article to its citizens; by ignoring the fact that a government, as an individual, cannot be pure if the source of its income is impure; by pleading the need of its treasury — thus weighing dollars against decency."

The Underlying Cause

SENATOR JOSEPH T. ROBINSON has introduced a bill in the United States Senate for the purpose of having established in the Department of Justice “a bureau for the study of the abnormal classes.” These abnormal classes are the criminals, the paupers, and the defectives. The Hon. Joseph Taggart has introduced the same bill in the House. This bill is designed to provide for the employment of professional experts by the government to investigate the causes that are producing, in such increasing numbers, these classes of individuals.

Such investigations would discover, without doubt, many of the physical causes for these undesirable classes; and the information thus obtained would cause serious reflections on the part of many thoughtful people, which would result in much good.

But lying back of these physical considerations is one cause which must not be overlooked, and that is sin itself. The trouble with the human race is that it is drowning itself beneath a flood of all kinds of vices and sinful indulgences, and this is producing criminals, paupers, lunatics, and all classes of defectives, in appalling numbers. The progress in medical science helps to keep these defectives alive longer than they ordinarily

would live, and thus they reproduce their kind.

But sin—just plain sin—is the one underlying cause of it all. “The curse causeless shall not come.”

Disposing of Sin

By E. Hilliard

WHEN a person transgresses the law of God, he becomes debtor to the law. Gal. 5: 3. A debtor is one who owes something; and to be a debtor to the law is to owe what the law demands. It demands righteousness, and cannot be satisfied with anything short of that.

For a man to steal would be an unrighteous, sinful act, for the law forbids it. Ex. 20: 15. Would the doing away with the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," pay the debt?—God forbid. God has ordained no such way for the disposal of sin.

How, then, shall the obligation be met? Simply enough. The Spirit of God, through the law, convicts the man of sin; "for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. 3: 20. Pricked in the heart, he bows at the feet of Him who has promised to pay the debt, confesses his guilt, and makes restitution to the one from whom he has stolen. He is abundantly pardoned. He is a free man in Christ Jesus, and is in harmony with the law. Death has no claim upon him.

Now to keep free from the law, he must keep out of debt to the law. He must heed the instruction given by the apostle Paul, "Let him that stole steal no more." In other words, he must keep the commandment that forbids theft.

The violation of any of the Ten Commandments is to be treated in the same manner. No human substitute to meet the demands of God’s holy law will exonerate the debtor. Nor will the abrogation of the law cancel the sin, and save the transgressor. Nothing but a frank acknowledgment of the offense, and pleading for pardon, will answer God’s purpose.

All who refuse to confess their sins during probationary time, will be found guilty at the bar of God. At the great Judgment day, those found in debt to the Decalogue will have no pleading Saviour to pay their obligations. Having trampled the divine precepts underfoot, they themselves must pay the penalty. Now is the time to study carefully the conditions of salvation, and through Christ, to render full, cheerful obedience. Blessed, indeed, is the man whose transgressions of the divine law are forgiven; and twice blessed he who, through faith in Christ, is kept in full obedience to the commandments of God. In such dwell the Father and the Son, the hope of glory. E. HILLIARD.

The Triumph of Faith

By R. S. O.

THE triumph of faith is to assert a present victory, while facing apparent present defeat. R. S. O.

FOR SALE

A most attractive home at Mountain View, California, in the famous Santa Clara Valley. A new six-room chalet, modern and first-class, with large bathroom, closets, and sleeping porch. Electric lighted. Built-in bookcases, buffet, window seats, etc. About one and a fourth acres, with choice young orchard of seventy trees, also grapes and berries. Within a few blocks of a church school of ten grades, seven miles from Stanford University, forty miles from San Francisco. Price $3,000. Address G. O. Wellman, Mountain View, California.

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Foreign Tracts in Many Languages

By Editor

OUR foreign tracts are put up in envelopes, price 25c each. They are obtainable in Arabic, Armenian, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and many other languages. Address your Tract Society.

ALL ABOUT

By Editor

Armageddon

In the new 128-page, paper-bound book known as ARMAGEDDON Vividly portrays great future events, such as social unrest, industrial disturbances, religious conditions, and political changes. Illustrated with 77 entirely new pictures.

17,000 Copies Sold Before Printed

Europe's present conflict does not compare in any way with soon-coming Armageddon. And it means so much to mankind! Probation will have closed, and the kingdom of God will be ushered in soon thereafter. For these reasons, you and your friends should read this book, and become informed on the question.

Single copies may be had for the low price of 25c postpaid. Orders of ten or more to one address at the lower price of 12½ cents a copy, forwarding charges extra. Canadian prices: single copies, 30c postpaid; 15c each in quantities, forwarding charges extra.

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DO THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD RETURN?

SOME time ago, a young woman in New York City committed suicide because the man she loved had turned away from her.

Beside the body of the suicide was found a letter which read: "My only hope is that if you ever take another girl in your arms, there will appear before your eyes the word 'murderer,' and if there is any hope of coming back to earth, I will be there to single you out."

The girl's suicide, together with her threat to her fickle lover, was widely advertised. The advertising led to the discovery of the man, and it was found that he was wanted by the arm of justice for the numerous crimes he had committed. Then the question was raised as to whether or not the girl would be able to come back in the form of a spirit to torment the man she had formerly loved. Whereupon a leading newspaper said: "In the hope of solving this difficult problem, and arriving at the latest conclusions of science upon this question, the case was placed before Mr. ——, one of the leading scientific writers on astral and psychical phenomena in America, and his opinion asked concerning the reality or otherwise of these facts."

THE CLAIMS OF SCIENCE

This "scientist" replied: "Whether or not the spirits can come back, is part of the general problem before us; namely, whether spirits ever come back at all, or whether such things as spirits really exist or not. It is very certain that many of the cases on record are due to hallucination induced by fright, but in other cases there seems to be strong evidence that those who have promised to come back to this earth have actually done so."

Then the "scientist" proceeds to give some authenticated cases which he thinks show conclusively that there is such a thing as the spirit of a dead individual, which could come back and talk with those who are living. He endeavors to show that the cases he presents are of such a character that the factors of mental hallucination, or other deceptions of that character, were excluded, and that the spirit, in the very nature of things, must have been an actuality. His conclusion is, therefore, that the spirits of the dead do return.

THE REPLY OF SCRIPTURE

Lovers of truth will, in the very nature of things, respect the facts that are the findings of genuine science. We ought to be able to distinguish, however, between speculations that pass under the guise of science, on the one hand, and that which is the "genuine article" of science, on the other hand.

And when it comes to these speculations over the question of the spirits of the dead, he who believes the Bible, will have no difficulty whatever in arriving at a sound conclusion; for in that sacred volume he reads: "To him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9: 4-6.

Conclusive and clear is this language, "The dead know not anything," and not only so, but "neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." If they do not have "any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun," they cannot come back either to torment or to comfort the souls they have left behind alive on earth. Not only their love, but also their hatred and their envy, are buried with them in the tomb, to remain there until that great resurrection day so clearly taught in the Bible. At that time, they will come forth again; but until then, they will quietly sleep. Therefore this young woman positively cannot come back to torment her former lover.

But the question is still asked: "What are these spirits that visit the living? Are they not realities?" Let another scripture answer this important question: "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16: 13, 14.

The spirits of devils, according to this text, work miracles to deceive. They go to "the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty;" and the only proper conclusion to arrive at is that these spirits which come to us pretending to be our departed friends, are the spirits of demons, working to deceive. Every true scientific conclusion will conform to this solid Bible fact and truth. The good angels of God do not come to us in the guise of spirits of the dead.

FOURTEEN WORTHY CALLS

By James Cochran

In our issue of April 11, an article appeared under the caption "Coöperation Corner," setting forth in detail the purpose of the "Coöperation Department," which has been carried in the SIGNS for many years. Numerous requests have come, within the last two weeks, from ministers and other missionary workers, calling for clubs of the SIGNS to be used in connection with evangelistic efforts. The effectiveness of the SIGNS in pointing unbelievers to Christ has been so thoroughly demonstrated, we do not regard it as being out of the ordinary that so many calls for clubs of this paper should come to us. We give below the names of workers who have made request for papers, the number of papers desired, the cost, and the place of using:

Professor Russell, Mason, Nev. ................. 15 2 mos. $ 3.00 R. L. Benton, Albert Lea, Minn. ................. 50 10 wks. 12.50 E. A. Brown, Paso Robles, Cal. ................. 30 10 wks. 7.50 C. H. Rittenhouse, John Day & Canyon City, Ore. 20 3 mos. 6.00 E. W. Wolfe, Cresco, Iowa ........................ 100 2 mos. 20.00 L. K. Dickson, Lacomb, Ore. ..................... 50 3 mos. 15.00 W. K. Smith, Burlington, Iowa ................... 100 6 mos. 60.00 B. L. Howe, Bakersfield, Cal. ................... 50 1 mo. 5.00 J. D. Alder, Eureka, Cal. ....................... 25 6 mos. 15.00 Prof. C. T. Everson, New York City, N. Y. ...... 1,000 3 mos. 300.00 F. C. Bruce, Memphis, Tenn. ..................... 100 4 mos. 40.00 F. C. Bruce, Jackson, Tenn. ..................... 100 4 mos. 40.00 F. N. Johnson, Richmond, Va. .................... 100 3 mos. 30.00 B. F. Kneeland, Dubois, Pa. ..................... 50 2 mos. 10.00

In behalf of these workers, we earnestly plead for liberal donations with which to supply the number of papers called for. Think, for instance, of New York City, with its several millions, many of whom know nothing of Christ or the way of salvation. Surely our workers there should have at least one thousand copies of this good missionary paper to use in their meetings this season. We feel very confident that these worthy calls will meet with hearty response from friends everywhere. Address all communications to the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, "Coöperation Corner," Mountain View, California. JAMES COCHRAN, Circulation Manager.

AN IGNOBLE ASPIRATION

By F.

A YOUNG woman in New York aspires to the "fly-weight" boxing championship of the world, and challenges all women fighters of her weight to meet her. A press announcement says, "She is extremely clever with her hands; more so than many fighters who masquerade under the name."

What an unnatural, unwomanly challenge from one of the gentler sex! How sad to see one, the weight of whose influence should ever be on the side of sweet refinement and noble gentleness, deliberately choosing brutalizing pugilism! If the manhood of men gives itself over to prize fighting, let the womanhood of woman refuse to countenance it. F.