p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 35. (9/10/1912)

Lessons from a Wine-Taster

By M. Elisabeth Burns-Howell

FOR the sake of authenticity, I wish that I had preserved the name, address, and other definite data; but I have not. However, if you are skeptical, and possess a desire to confirm the story, I can refer you to the source of my information — one of the most widely read American dailies, in a recent Sunday issue, magazine section. Examine its files.

At the time, I merely scanned the article, then tossed it aside as another sample of the sensational froth that floats nowadays, bromo-seltzer-like, in such copious quantity, upon the goblet of current literature.

Subsequently, it dawned upon my perception that here was a fine lesson for the moralist, an excellent text for the teacher of temperance, paradoxical tho it may appear.

Now you infer that I am to reiterate that trite yet ever true precept, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging," and cite one more terrible example of downfall thereby.

I was about to reply, "Not at all, this time." Yet, after all, in a negative way, and most positively too, the same abiding lesson is taught; for so patent it is, that the potency of its principles may not be escaped.

But my story is about another sort of wine-taster — a wine-taster only, and not a wine-bibber in any sense. Hence the usual record of direful effects does not, in this case, furnish the sequence so sadly common.

Therefore while endorsing to the full the sacred warning as to the use of intoxicants, we may yet make certain deductions from this instance, thus confirming the precepts of Holy Writ and sound science, "holding fast that which is good," while rejecting the body of evil involved. I may not approve of the deadly stiletto, but I am at liberty to appreciate the excellent temper of its blade, tho deploring the murderous purpose in the use of the weapon.

The maker of so-called fine wines will claim that no art of modern or ancient times is more perfectly developed, no science more finely attenuated, to the sharpest line of discrimination and delicacy, than the brewing of rare wines.

Personally, I do not know one brand or sort from another. "Champagne," "sherry," "port," or "claret" — one and all are, to me, mere meaningless names, without distinction or difference.

Having been brought up a "teetotaler" in the good old-fashioned way, and expecting ever to abide therein, these leaves upon the tree of knowledge shall, for my part, remain forever untouched.

Not so your connoisseur; my simplicity would only excite his amusement or scorn. His is a taste, altho acquired, and hence artificial, yet cultivated to the farthest degree; and for its delectation he willingly pays fabulous prices for rare old brews of famous vintage.

Who has not heard of the exorbitant sum a single flask of age-old wine will command!

Now is this elusive quality thus highly valued a merely fancied or reputed flavor, or is it a certain and definite character actually existing, and determined by real standards?

If the latter, what is the standard?

It would seem that the gage of quality is simply and only the taste of the individual — certain individuals, that is, who possess the determining faculty; for no scientific instrument or set of tests has yet been devised capable of revealing such a secret.

Here arrives the subject of our sketch, Mademoiselle —, a young French woman, greatest of living wine-tasters. You see she is designated as belonging to a certain class; and quite correctly, for the art of wine-tasting has developed into a profession, albeit a most exclusive one, for its exercise requires a faculty so exceptional as to be almost unattainable. Indeed, it is usually regarded as a rare gift of nature, with which habit has nothing to do.

And some will tell you that this is all there is to it — either they can or they can’t, and that ends it.

Let us see.

What sort of person is this particular example we have cited — a sort of superstitious personage, "seventh daughter of a seventh daughter," who has but to shut her eyes, press the cup to her lips, and tell us by instinct or intuition what and whence? Does she cultivate her strange necromancy in the secret chamber, at the dark-some hour of midnight, as a sort of mysterious witchcraft?

Farthest from it.

She is by no means such an uncanny sort of being, but on the contrary — and here begins our lesson — is a most wholesome young person, of absolutely normal propensities (unless you except her odd choice of occupation), and the most rational and indeed rigid system of living one could find.

For all severity, and sacrifice of personal desire or appetite, however, she is well repaid, for her services command the munificent sum of $25,000 a year — good pay, rather, and quite worth her while, you will admit. Higher benefits in a personal sense are a part of the moral of our sketch.

Mademoiselle the wine-taster visits regularly the establishments of certain famous European wine manufacturers, and by a mere sip of the lips is able to detect a pure beverage (in the sense of genuineness, not as to being harmless) from an adulteration. Further, she can by the taste alone not only tell the exact age of any brand of wine, but state accurately its source; that is, from which particular locality, not only giving the specific vineyard and kind of grape, but detecting to the minute degree of valley or hillside. A most unique faculty, certainly!

And how does she do it? — As was said, by "a sip of the lips," and only a sip. This is vitally important to this discussion, for it is the keystone principle in the preservation of her wonderful powers of taste.

All ye who are devoted to the sparkling glass and flowing bowl, should you chance upon these lines, and scanning, surmise that thus far the narrative is on your side — a tale of wine for wine-drinkers — if such has been your opinion, read again, please, that this expert under no circumstance ever swallows the slightest portion of the beverage she is testing. Nor does she at any other time, in her private life, when "off duty" as one might say, ever permit herself to taste even, not to say drink, of any stimulant whatsoever.

In other words, she is that very individual at whom most of her employers would scoff, — a teetotaler in the strictest sense.

She is quoted as saying: "I drink wine? Never! Should I do so, I would at once lose the keen edge of my sense of taste, by which I am able to detect the fine discriminations between the many sorts of beverages I am required to test."

And she goes farther with her temperance — or abstinence, rather. Tea, coffee, cocoa, are equally tabooed. Also all spices and condiments, as pepper, ginger, mustard, are excluded, as well as rank cheese, pickles, preserves, pastries, and confections. Among vegetables she rejects onions and all others of strong flavor.

Quite a dietitian, one must allow. In other words, here is a case of childlike simplicity in the matter of diet, with marvelous results as to health in general, and the highest development of special nerve sense in particular. But the path traversed is admittedly very straight and narrow. Well might the scorner appropriately apply this most decisive epithet — "health reformer" — in this connection!

No dissipating indulgences, no enervating irregularities here; but rule, and law, with order, and more than "moderation in all things."

And by the bye, ladies, we would here append the minor detail that our heroine (for she is certainly heroic in her soldierly self-discipline) is possessed of the most matchless complexion, exceeding fresh and fair as the rose petal; and that her toilet-table is innocent of those cosmetic aids so in vogue nowadays, her chief resource in this line being the blessed boon of pure soap and clear water, so simple and accessible to all.

Also, it is to be noted that this condition of bloom includes a charming youthfulness of contour and serene repose of expression, free from those aging lines with which the pursuit of perverted appetite and desire so soon engraves and hardens the face.

Here is a lesson, all ye whose chief diversion is "beauty culture," your shrine the "beauty parlor," and patron saint the "beauty doctor," so called, tho a poor physician he generally proves to be, in the long run, for by his arts and artifices true beauty — which can result only from a state of harmonious health — is apt to die a certain death.

Well, we will not attempt to analyze more fully the régime of this remarkable young woman’s daily living, except to conclude that her habits one and all are of the strictest, simplest sort — of such a character that as a result, she is possessed of the most perfect degree of physical health, upon which, she asserts, her unusual abilities entirely depend, for she has demonstrated that whatever affects the first, depletes the second, in a direct ratio.

Hence that she may maintain her "mastery," she is "temperate in all things." How much more worthy that they so strive who aspire to the eternal ascendency!

And what would happen if the gentlemen — and ladies — of Monsieur the Winemaker’s clientele, votaries of Bacchus the Bibulous, were to emulate the pattern of her whose skill they so much esteem, and upon which their own indulgence so largely depends?

Did the legions of this multitude but adopt the principles of purity and simplicity which govern the wine-taster’s daily routine, it is self-evident that the young lady herself would soon be out of a situation, for the bottom would surely drop out of the hogshead of the wine industry, for the law of economics ever operates — when the demand discontinues, the supply must inevitably cease. And how wonderful the vision one glimpses in such a reverse of conditions, could the change really occur!

Instead of the battered and broken wrecks of humanity that totter blear-eyed and sodden into decrepit age or premature graves, along a pathway hedged with poverty and strewn with shame, tragic to the last extreme in the degree of its misery and wreckage — instead of this sad picture, which we know to be the actual one, could the principles of abstention and self-control prevail, the eye beholds a procession as of a vast and noble army, all picked men, clear-eyed, noble-browed, broad of shoulder and deep of chest, strong-limbed and free of action, as with firm step and manly stride they march on and up the heights of worthy achievement, each man alert, his every faculty keen to the highest point of efficiency.

And the emotional concomitant of such a state of health, mental and physical, could only be happiness, in the peace and power of such priceless possessions.

Then would life become "one grand, sweet song," despite its burdens, and the upward way a triumphant processional of praise — a "consummation devoutly to be wished."

— ★★ —

Our Work and Workers

SUBSEQUENT to a successful tent effort at Martinsburg, West Virginia, baptism was administered to six souls.

AT the Eastern Pennsylvania camp-meeting twenty-three persons were baptized, and several others chose to be baptized at their home churches. Five at Pittsburg have received baptism, and five at Butler have embraced the message.

FIVE persons have been added to the Swedish church at Jersey City, New Jersey, by baptism. This rite has been administered to five at Rockaway, and three others who were prevented at this time will go forward later. Twenty-three were baptized at the camp-meeting.

ON a recent Sabbath six persons at Huntsville, Alabama, were buried in baptism, four at Elkwood, seven at Sylacauga, at Dothan six, at Pensacola four, and at Cool Springs six, where a church of ten members has been organized. Five have been added to the Oak Level church, and three at Montgomery have taken their stand to obey the truth.

AT two places in Korea churches have been organized, one with a membership of eleven, and the other of fourteen. At each of these places others are preparing for baptism, and it is anticipated that before the end of the year each company will have increased their membership to twenty or more. Three other companies are nearly ready for organization.

THE ordinance of baptism was administered to seven persons at Port Huron, Michigan, on a recent Sabbath, fourteen at Detroit, three at Lansing, ten at Oxford, six at Byron Center, three at Homer, eleven at Berrien Springs, two at Muskegon, where two more are obeying the truth, three at Denver, four at Lakeview, sixteen at Jackson, and four at Sandusky.

A NEW German church with twenty-six members has been organized at Alhambra, California, and others will join later. A church for the colored people in Los Angeles has recently been dedicated, and eleven persons have received baptism. Sixteen have been baptized at Turlock, three at Lodi, and subsequent to the Santa Rosa camp-meeting, fifty-five persons received this rite. Six new converts are reported at San Jacinto, six at Hemet, and twelve at San Bernardino. A church of twenty-nine members has been organized at Lindsay, another at Anaheim with a membership of twenty-two, and a Sabbath-school of about forty at Elmhurst.

SUBSEQUENT to the Alberta, Canada, camp-meeting twelve persons were baptized, and others were baptized later at their home churches; four were baptized at the Quebec meeting; thirteen at the Canadian Union Conference meeting; twelve at Hamilton, Ontario; thirteen at Harvey, New Brunswick; fourteen at Waldheim, Saskatchewan; and nine at Kamloops, British Columbia. The conversion of seventeen individuals at Napanee, Ontario, is reported; six at Petrolia; five at Arthur; and seven at Toronto. A church of thirteen members was organized at Nanaimo, British Columbia, and another of fourteen members at Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

THE rite of baptism has been administered to fifteen at Charleston, Illinois. Three at Chatham and three at Rockford have espoused the message. Report comes of a peculiarly interesting incident in Chicago, where a company of truth seekers were meeting weekly near Lincoln Park, were paying tithe, obeying all the commandments, and were strict health reformers. They had received no instruction from Seventh-day Adventists on these lines, but welcomed all the light which was revealed to them. This company is composed of educated people, some of them being prominent teachers in Chicago schools. They are able to speak and teach in several languages, and doubtless God has called them out to assist in proclaiming this closing message to the world.

AT Lassater, Texas, a church of nine members has been organized, and another of twelve at Jefferson, where three went forward in baptism. Ten have been added to the Oplin church, twenty to the church at Dallas, and three to the little company at Houston, Texas. Four have accepted the truth at Corsicana, two of whom have been baptized, and eleven were baptized at the South Texas camp-meeting.

Religious Liberty Series of the Signs of the Times can now be secured in bound form. : : :

By Editor

THESE six special numbers are stitched and bound in substantial manila. Striking front cover with statements of Religious Liberty in principle and in history. Second and third pages of cover contain analysis of the proposed Sunday Law, and strong, pointed utterances of the secular press. Fourth page of cover contains the text of the proposed law.

This cover added to the six special numbers, bound and trimmed, makes it an important volume, and one that is highly prized by those who have secured copies. A complete volume of Religious Liberty matter that would be difficult to equal.

The subject-matter is such as is well worth preserving by every American citizen, and is especially valuable to lend to friends and neighbors.

They are being presented to editors, attorneys, educational and legislative men, reading-rooms and libraries. There should be a number of copies placed in your city. Why not accept the responsibility?

This volume is equal to a book of about 600 pages, and the price is unreasonably low. Only 25 cents each, post-paid. We want several thousand orders quick, and it will be to your interest to order right away.

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Wanted

By the Paradise Valley Sanitarium Training School for Missionary Nurses, twenty consecrated young men and women who are willing to devote their lives to the Master’s service.

This school affords a most thoro and up-to-date training in all departments. Its location is ideal. Its climate is the very best, warm and sunny in winter, and cool in summer. New commodious home for nurses just completed. Class begins October 1, 1912. Write at once for illustrated booklet. Supt. of Training School, Paradise Valley Sanitarium, National City, California.

The Law

By Editor

That question of “Under the law? or under grace?” is a constantly recurring one. Bible Students’ Library tract No. 163 gives a careful answer from the Bible. Single copy, 2 cents; a hundred, $1.00. This office.

Many confuse the ceremonial and moral laws. A brief explanation is entitled “Ceremonial and Moral Law Distinguished.” You will find it very helpful in your studies pertaining to the law. Copy, post-paid, 2 cents; a hundred, $1.00.

Young Men for Mission Fields

“ARE there not hundreds of young men in the churches of this country who might be serving God in the mission fields?”

Mountain Pathways

By Editor

"Mountain Pathways," a study in the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, by Hector Waylen. Second edition. Price $1.00 net. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., Broadway House, Carter Lane, London, E. C.

This study gives us a revised translation and critical notes of the Sermon on the Mount, and also contains an introductory letter by F. C. Burkitt, M.A., D.D., Norrisian professor of divinity in the University of Cambridge. The aim of the volume is to cover really much more than the Sermon on the Mount. It shows how that Sermon on the Mount includes and is really based upon much of the richness of the Old Testament Scriptures. There is one chapter which discusses the language that Jesus spoke. In this the author feels that the critical methods of Westcott and Hort were sometimes of a mechanical nature, and that internal evidence should have greater weight than is often given to it. He feels that a more sympathetic acquaintance with the Greek would greatly help in the understanding of the Bible, and if the whole Bible could be perfectly translated it would simply glow with light. "The Law of Marriage," "The True Nature of an Oath," "Christian Non-Resistance," "Our Continual Bread," "Treasures upon the Earth," "Judge Not," "The Way of Life and the Way of Death," "Many Powers," "The Lamp of the Body," "The Heavenly Messenger of the Kingdom," are headings to various chapters in the book, covering in a general way the great sermon. Then follow the translation and the notes. The student may not always agree with Mr. Waylen's conclusion, but he will receive many good thoughts and excellent suggestions in the reading and study of this work. It has a happy title, "Mountain Pathways," and the reader is often refreshed, as he follows in this path, in the fountains that are opened by the wayside. We are glad to get the second edition of this book, and hope that it may prove a blessing to those who walk in its pleasant lights and shadows.

The Revelation

By Editor

"The Revelation," by James Seaton Hughes. Published by the author, 410 W. 65th St., Chicago.

From the circulars describing this study on the Revelation by Mr. Hughes, we had been led to expect very much, in fact, such a strong, clear, new view that it would outshine all that had been given in the past, and throw new light on the wonderful book. In the beginning of the volume there is deserved rebuke to those who would discourage the study of the book, or throw doubt upon its wonderful prophecies. He condemns the way in which many have approached the book, and have led others so to approach it—as "a cryptogram," something so completely shrouded with mystery that only the initiated could hope to understand it. In this the author has done good work. He offers to his analysis of the great drama some good suggestions, but in its interpretation we are indeed disappointed. It seems to us that he fails to see the great, seven times sevenfold drama which God has given us in this book of the Revelation, that it is not a continued series of prophecies, or two continued series of prophecies beginning at some particular time and continuing through to the end, but that it is a sevenfold series of prophecies beginning with the Christian dispensation, or a little later, but continuing until the consummation, the coming and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have not space in this brief notice to point out in detail where it seems to us that Mr. Hughes is wrong, because it is not in the attention to the mere details that the book of the Revelation will be understood. One of the special points which we would criticize in the work is in bringing our Lord Himself into the politics of the world. We believe that the book of Revelation is in perfect harmony with our Lord's words in John 18:36, "My kingdom is not of this world." We wish that it were true that our present Christian ideas did not admit that in any real sense "the government shall rest upon His shoulders," that is, in the sense of this earthly government, in the present political plan of this world's affairs. When the government shall rest upon Christ's shoulders in the fullest sense, it will be when those who through His

righteousness are fit to survive, shall be with Him in the earth made new, and the rule of man is forever past.

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Second Coming

By Editor

"Heralds of His Coming," Apples of Gold Library, No. 85, gives an outline of the unmistakable signs of the nearness of Christ's coming. Increase of riches, of crime, of knowledge; last-day scoffers; signs in sun, moon, and stars; peace and safety cry; preparation for war; great spiritual declension,—are some of these evidences. This popular tract, a copy, 3 cents, post-paid; a hundred, $1.50. This office.

BOUND VOLUMES

By Editor

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

can still be secured as follows:

8 leather 1907 at $2.00 each 9 paper 1907 at 1.75 each 4 cloth 1909 at 2.00 each 6 cloth 1910 at 2.00 each 3 paper 1910 at 1.50 each 21 cloth 1911 at 2.25 each

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BOOK NOTICES

By Editor

"Joel, a Boy of Galilee," by Annie Fellows Johnston, with pictures by L. J. Bridgman. Chatterton-Peck Co., New York.

This is a story in which the author has sought to present to children glimpses of the life and times of Jesus. Jewish customs are portrayed as connected with Joel, his friends and acquaintances. Joel is a bright crippled boy of Galilee, nourishing a deep hatred for the one who injured him, but afterward, coming in touch with the Master, forgives his enemy, and is healed by the touch of Jesus. It tells of the boy's love for his Saviour, his bitter disappointment at the crucifixion, and his consecration to the Lord's service when he learned that Jesus had risen from the dead. It is a helpful, interesting book, almost unvariably true to the Bible, and inspiringly helpful to boys (or any others) who care to know more of the great Book or the Man of Galilee. We commend it as a good book for a boy's library. It is nicely illustrated and well printed, bound in blue cloth, stamped in white, with a picture in colors on the side.

Select Readings for Recitation

By Editor

"Select Readings for Recitation," from Hinds, Noble, and Eldredge, New York City. These are No. 2 of Volume 4 and No. 3 of Volume 5 of "The Speaker," edited by Paul M. Pearson. These are known as No. 14 and No. 19 in a series of reading and speaking volumes. They are paper covered. No. 14 contains more than 100 selections, some of which are very excellent indeed, some of them old, old poems, or selections, learned in boyhood days, some worth the price of the volume. Among these are Holland's "God Give Us Men," "Be Strong," "Abou Ben Adhem," "My Mother," others too numerous to mention. And what is true of No. 14 is also of No. 19. No. 14 is largely moral and religious. No. 19 has more than 100 selections on the temperance question, an excellent thing for teachers and those who have to do with temperance programs. We commend them as volumes of excellent selections. Price each, 40 cents.

Strange Siberia, Along the Trans-Siberian Railway

"Strange Siberia, Along the Trans-Siberian Railway," a journey from the great wall of China to the sky-scrapers of Manhattan. By Marcus Lorenzo Taft. $1.00. Eaton & Mains, New York.

A very readable little volume, indeed—especially so from the fact that it covers new ground with that which makes new ground interesting—the author is telling us his personal experience as he passes over that great stretch of country called Siberia. The great wall of China, Mukden, Harbin, across Manchuria, the regions of Genghis Khan, Siberia, Irkutsk, and all the various changes which are incident to the journey across the vast Russian possession, we are told about in an interesting and taking way. The book is quite well illustrated, with a frontispiece in colors. It affords a real contribution to our knowledge of an almost unknown land.

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The Test of Christian Science

You may utterly refute the teachings of Christian Science for yourself, but can you successfully bring them to the test by Scripture?

Are you prepared to explain its principles to your friends who may be investigating it?

"Christian Science and Divine Healing in the Light of Reason and Revelation" is designed to prepare you to do this, and to enable your friends, who may be studying it, to know whether or not Christian Science is of the Bible.

The booklet has been thoroly revised and a chapter added on "Divine Healing"—that feature so potent in attracting the people.

"In view of the fact that many are led to accept the faith of Christian Science without a knowledge of what its teaching involves," says the author in the first chapter, "I wish to present to the reader some of the plain statements of Mrs. Eddy's book, 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' and compare the same with the teaching of the Bible."

This clear method of study is illustrated by the following quotations from chapters:

CHAPTER ONE — Creation, Sin, Atonement

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE 1. The creation of man and the universe taught as fundamental truth in the Bible. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. 1:1.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AS FOUND IN "SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES" 1. Christian Science denies the material creation of man and the universe. "Man is deathless, spiritual; he is above mortal frailty, he does not cross the barriers of time, into the vast forever of life, but coexists with God and the universe." Page 266.

CHAPTER TWO — Christian Science and Pantheism

7. The gospel of Christ affirms the material man. "He [Christ] was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." John 1:10.

7. Christian Science denies the existence of matter. "Spirit and matter no more commingle than light and darkness. . . . The mind supposed to exist in matter, or beneath a skull-bone, is a myth, a misconceived sense and false conception as to man and mind." Page 281.

CHAPTER THREE — Spirits, the Holy Spirit, Heaven

13. The gospel of Christ presents the benefits of prayer. "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Phil. 4:6.

13. Christian Science belittles prayer and makes it a hindrance to spiritual growth. "The habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly circumscribed,—an error which impedes a spiritual growth." Page 2.

16. The gospel of Christ offers a definite and literal place for the eternal home of the redeemed. "In My Father's house are many mansions," etc. John 14:2, 3.

16. Christian Science denies that heaven is a locality. "Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind." Page 291.

Then there follow chapters on — SPIRIT AND MATTER, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE'S CLAIM TO HEAL, WRESTING THE SCRIPTURES, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALISM, "YE SHALL BE AS GODS," DIVINE HEALING.

We repeat, and emphasize, that this valuable work will enable you to test Christian Science by the Scriptures; and it will serve you as a messenger by which to reach others who may now be considering these principles. To these you may have the book sent direct, by sending list of names, with fifteen cents for each.

There is a beautiful library edition, bound in cloth, at 50 cents.

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Catholic Federation Convention

By Editor

We call particular attention to the report by C. M. Snow on page 10 of the convention of the American Federation of Catholic Societies recently held in Louisville, Kentucky. The movement is one of the significant signs of this time. We have held the position for years that the prophecies teach that we are yet to have a great world federation of all religious bodies, with the Catholic Church at the head of it. It is interesting to observe the events that are turning such powerful currents in that direction. Mr. Snow's article should be read with more than ordinary care, for it gives important facts concerning the power that the Papacy is developing in this country. And it might not be amiss to call attention, in this connection, to the fact that we have ever held that this country is to be the ground on which the Papacy will regain her power to rule the world. We believe that the clear prophecies of the Bible abundantly show this, and it will be intensely interesting to watch the development of events that are called for in the prophetic Word.

A Very Important Document

By Editor

A few weeks ago we published a series of six issues of this paper on the subject of religious liberty. Some of the very best writers that could be obtained were secured to prepare the matter that went into these papers. The subject of religious legislation is being agitated more and more in many parts of the land. These papers go thoroly into the principles involved in Sunday rest-day laws and other kinds of religious legislation. We printed several thousand extra copies, and have bound them in heavy manila paper. On this manila cover we have printed the proposed Sunday law for the state of California, together with an analysis of the same, and other valuable extracts as well. This document forms a text-book on religious liberty that ought to be in every home in the land. Get it for yourself and to loan to your friends and neighbors. See our advertisement on page 13 for prices, etc.

The Growing Threat of Sunday Laws

By Editor

The postmaster-general has made a new ruling in regard to Sunday mails that is quite sweeping. Some of the papers are saying that it is the recurrence of the old "blue laws," and this may be true. But it is more than that. It is a little breeze which shows the sentiment that is growing stronger and stronger to force Sunday upon the people, and it will finally become a great popular craze, with a death penalty attached. Many will laugh at this statement, we know. But we have showed again and again in these columns the prophetic evidence that a great religious despotism is yet to grip this world; and when it does, a Sunday law will be in the very center of it. And it is not at all likely that Sunday will be observed then any better than it is now. But all will be required, under pain of death, to bow to the authority of those who want things in that way. Laugh at this if you like, but still keep your eyes open and think. The days that are ahead will change laughter into seriousness if the mind is only kept free from bias in the matter.

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