p. 9 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 8. (2/24/1909)

The United States Navy in 1909.

By Editor

THE navy of the United States now stands, by common consent, second only to that of Great Britain, altho its reconstruction was begun but fifteen years ago. This result has been attained by vigorous action and large outlay, especially during the last ten years. For the financial year 1899-1900 the total naval expenditure of the United States was rather less than ten million sterling [$50,000,000], and the vote for new construction and armaments was a little more than two million [$10,000,000]; while the additions to the fleet made during that year consisted entirely of torpedo craft, of which the aggregate tonnage was only eighteen hundred tons. For the current financial year the total vote for the navy closely approaches twenty-six million [$130,000,000], and the vote for new construction and armaments is about £7,800,000 [$39,000,000]. The total expenditure on new ships and armaments in the ten years has been nearly sixty-three million sterling [$315,000,000]. During 1905-'06 the expenditure on these items approached £11,400,000 [$57,000,000], an amount which has only been exceeded by Great Britain during the same period in the two years 1904-'06.—London Spectator.

The High School and College.

In reply to a question of the Yale University News whether a college education is a valuable preparation for railroading, E. H. Harriman, the great railway magnate, declares that a college education will be a great help if the man has kept the foundations of high-school learning firmly fixed. If he has neglected his handwriting, and forgotten his arithmetic in higher mathematics, nothing could be worse for him. He cites a simple statement which a high-school boy will draw with perfect accuracy and clearness, while a young college graduate will draw it in such a way that it is a puzzling scrawl. And

the New York World declares that in many other occupations, excepting the learned professions, what Mr. Harriman says is the cold truth. The boy who begins young gets the better start. The college man must go faster to overtake him, and then cites different persons among the great railway magnates and financial men; some of whom started poor and very young, and others had university educations, and yet there is but little difference between them. Very, very much depends upon the man.

The Worcester (Mass.) “Telegram” states that a silk dyer of Patterson, N. J., claims that he has discovered or perfected a chemical for the purifying of city sewage, so that the very worst specimens of sewage can be taken, and in a short time made absolutely pure. It precipitates all the solids in the sewage and leaves a perfectly pure water at the top. And this gentleman is willing to undertake the purifying of the sewage of the city of Worcester entirely free, simply for the solids which come from the purification which he will sell as fertilizers. It can be done, he tells us, for a very little cost, and that the water from the sewage will be as absolutely pure as any drinking water in the country. If this report is true, it will certainly be a marvelous discovery.

Fires.—The Woman's National Daily tells us that the production of gold in the entire world, something like $400,000,000 per year, would not repay us for our losses by fire and the incidental expenses accompanying them in the same period of time. The value of all the coal mines in this country in a year's time would just cover the cost of our fires. The value of all our lumber production is only a trifle more. Fire is one of our greatest luxuries. In 1907, there were no great conflagrations. It was what might be termed a normal year; but the buildings actually destroyed, and property contained in them that year amounted to the value of $215,000,000.

Open Polar Sea.—There are those who feel that explorer Amundsen has demonstrated the open polar sea at the north. Barrels were set adrift at Cape Bathurst in Alaska and one of these has been found on the northwest coast of Norway, and another in the Arctic Sea. These were positively identified. Casket number 6 drifted from a post northwest of Point Barrow, Alaska, where it was placed in 1899, over a 2,500-mile course to the most northern point in Iceland. They feel, too, that it proves the existence of what scientists have contended for, of a great drift current across the northern extremity of the earth. Captain Roald Amundsen will probably start an expedition for the North Pole across the same route next year.

The so-called Christ-like Club, started in Cleveland, is growing. Its aim is to live as Jesus would, for a certain definite time. It was started by a law student; and it will probably spread from city to city. Nothing would we say under any circumstances which would lessen any true desires for righteousness, and yet a movement to be solid, stable, and growingly secure must be built on more than mere human effort or pledge to do. It takes deeper root in sincere repentance of sin; a recognition of what sin is, and of what Christ must be to the sinner. The Christ-death can only come from the Christ-life.

One of the stock arguments for a Sunday law is: We ought to have it in California because other states have it,—an argument, it seems to us, that rational thinking people should never put forth for one moment. That would justify the worst legislation that was ever effected, and the cruelest laws that were ever placed upon statute-books. Legislation and law-making never ought to be a matter of fashion, but a matter of right, of justice, of equity.

In Benton, Ill., January 10, 25 miners were killed by an explosion shortly after midnight in the mine of the Ziegler Coal Company, at Ziegler. Of 26 who were entombed, but one escaped.

Seismological.—January 23, the seismographs of the continent of Europe and England recorded a very severe earthquake about eight o'clock in the morning. The intensity was said to be nearly as great as that recorded last month at the time of the Messina disaster. The disturbance is placed somewhere in the Caspian region in Asiatic Russia. At four o'clock the same morning seismographs in Vienna and Pola registered very strong earthquake shocks. At 3:55 a violent earthquake was registered at Potsdam; the instrument broke under the oscillations. Other seismographs registered the same earthquake. The same was noted in Washington, but no news of the local occurrence of the great quake has yet come to hand. It may have occurred in an uninhabited region of mountain or sea. The next day several other shocks were recorded at St. Petersburg and other places in Russia. It is thought that the great quake occurred somewhere in the wilds of Turkestan.—Reports from the Island of Luzon in the Philippines are to the effect that a volcano has broken out there and torrents of lava spout from the crater. The inhabitants fled to the hills. Sufficient lava flowed from the volcano to pour down the mountainsides and run over cultivated lands, wiping out bridges and roads.

It is said that the twenty-two people who were not long ago burned to death in a railroad wreck in Colorado would have been saved if the block signal system, the interlocking signals and derailing switches, had been a feature of the railway. There is a strong plea being made, shown in the multiplied articles upon the question, that public sentiment and legislation should force the adoption of the block system and other needed reforms in all railway operations. It certainly would make much safer the running of trains. In the block system no two trains are supposed to occupy the same block, or extent of road, at the same time, the train upon that block for the time signaling automatically all other trains that could come in collision with it. If a certain minimum distance were always preserved between trains, the interest of the public would be greatly served. As Professor Gerrish points out in the Scientific American, a train arriving at an opposing block signal ought to be required to stay there until the block is cleared, even if a few minutes are lost in consequence. The saving in time should be effected by keeping the track clear, and not by disregarding danger signals.

The New Reformers.

One of the characteristics of proposed legislation in the state governments, especially manifest this year, is the vast number of so-called reform bills. One writer expresses it regarding the California Legislature, that “the old guard or the machine men are feeling it greatly. Men who have held control of certain rings and cliques for years in the past are losing their power.” All this would be good if the reformed forces really stood for the right kind of legislative reform. One of the great dangers is that they are trying to legislate not simply for men, but for God, and not simply for right civil laws, but for morality and religion. This is manifest in the constant plea for Sunday laws, or laws of the same significant character.

After its disuse for two years, in which the very world itself had hoped that it was forever abolished, France has again resumed the use of the guillotine for the execution of capital crimes. The news of the beheading of four victims at Bethune, January 11, tells us that the whole day preceding the awful scene was a revolting one of merriment and drinking. The mob cheered and cheered as the heads rolled into the basket.

A new Lincoln commemorative two-cent postage-stamp has been issued by the United States, and was placed on sale February 12. Its design is to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Its color is red. The dates of Lincoln's birth and of his hundredth anniversary are printed on the stamp.

Sunday Theaters and Common Law.

AT a mass meeting in New York City, January 18, attended by 400 clergymen, there was strong attack upon the Sunday theatricals of all kinds, and indecent theatricals on secular days. Neither Catholics nor Jews were represented in the gathering, and the principal attack was against Jews who have much to do in the management of theaters. The meeting also declared by resolution "that Christianity is a part of the common law of this country; that the Constitution of the United States and of New York State recognized Sunday as a day of rest existing by a common law without need of legislative action;" "that the state Legislature has the right to regulate its observance as a civil and political institution." And yet they declare that "the enforcement of laws enacted by the Legislature for this end have been nullified of late through the activity of skilled lawyers and political manipulators."

They think the Jew is ungrateful and that he is not ethically justified in distorting the legal permission to labor on Sunday which is "a generous concession to his interpretation of the fourth commandment, into permission to conduct any amusement or other business on that day." "Even now," they declare, "Hebrew business men are compelling Christians to work on Sunday."

In the matter of human rights, how can it be said that one class is generous in permitting another its rights? This is one of the wicked things which religious classes have always arrogated to themselves. The simple fact of the matter is, human rights are not a matter of concession or of tolerance. They belong to every individual, and the rights of the one individual are as sacred as those of the mass. For if the individual is deprived of his rights, there is no ground for hoping that the mass will long preserve theirs.

It might be well pointed out that the interpretation which the Jew gives of the fourth commandment is not an interpretation nor construction at all; it is taking the command just as God gave it, the very way in which the Author of Christianity Himself understood it and observed the day in harmony therewith.

Then, too, the matter of compulsion. The Constitution declares that there shall be no involuntary slavery. The idea of continually telling free-born Americans, or men who are living under American freedom, that they are slaves; that they are compelled to do this or that! Why not teach them rather to assert their God-given manhood and refuse to do anything that is wrong? The simple fact of the case is that many of these men who work Sunday are glad to get work, and do not consider Sunday in any wise a sacred day. And we submit to every soul, whatever his belief is, that reputable employment on Sunday is far better than enforced idleness.

Roman Catholicism and America.

By Editor

THE great Catholic paper of America, the "Western Watchman," published at St. Louis, in its issue of October 29 of the current year, declares that America is the church's land of promise, and tells us that "his holiness is enthusiastic over America, especially the United States. To begin with, he likes our government and our public officials, with whom he has come into official relations."

Strange statement, isn't it? When so much of the United States is Protestant and all her liberties grew out of Protestantism! Strange that the United States should be preferred to so many other countries on the Western Hemisphere which are decidedly Roman Catholic. Surely it would seem that if the pope were pleased with any countries, he would be pleased with those which had been under the control of Roman Catholicism so long. But the article continues:

"It must be confessed that the United States had treated Rome well whenever we had an opportunity. The correspondence between the Vatican and Washington has been marked by respect and fairness on the one side, and candor and confidence on the other. . . . The powers of the Old World regard the church with distrust and yield nothing to her except forced thereto by the fear of public opinion. . . . If the holy father needed an arbitrator in any dispute with a European power, he would very probably choose the President of the United States. And the confidence is reciprocal."

Europe understands the Papacy better. We are further told that "the church is making advances only in America," that over in Europe the church is

"growing weaker by dissensions and emigration. The outlook across the water is very discouraging to any but those of the strongest faith. . . . American shoulders are to-day holding up the Vatican. Its revenues are largely derived from this country; and what is now a steady stream will soon be an on-flowing river. The Catholics of this country are Romans. They swear by the pope. They stand up for papal authority. WE PLACE NO LIMITATIONS ON THE JURISDICTION OF THE VATICAN. Any man who is not with the pope is excommunicate with us. . . . France prides herself on the title of 'oldest daughter of the church;' the United States can claim the appellation of the 'youngest, fairest, and best.'"

It seems that such utterances as these ought to show to Protestants and even American Roman Catholics the danger that confronts this nation. It was said years ago that what the church had done for other nations, she would do for the United States. What she has done for other nations where she has had full control may be seen in the condition of those nations to-day; and we can read in the condition of those decadent nations to-day just what the United States will be if Rome should ever come to have full control.

We also can see by these words of Editor Phelan just where Roman Catholics will stand if there should ever come a conflict in this country over the matter of religion. Roman Catholicism is a state religion. It claims state power. It holds that it has the right to direct and control states. The true idea of the Christian religion is that man's worship and obedience belong to God, but that has nothing whatever to do with right civil duties. He is to render tribute to whom tribute is due, and honor to whom honor, and to God that which belongs to God; and he can be a dutiful, loyal, faithful Christian in every controversy that may arise, and still be a loyal subject to his country in all matters that pertain to civil conduct. But the "Watchman" tells us that the Catholics of this country are Romans; they owe allegiance to a foreign power, and acknowledge it; not a foreign religious power only, but a foreign power which claims civil authority. "THEY SWEAR BY THE POPE, THEY STAND UP FOR PAPAL AUTHORITY. WE PLACE NO LIMITATIONS ON THE JURISDICTION OF THE VATICAN." That simply means this, that if the Vatican should control the United States, every man who is not willing to yield to that jurisdiction, who is not with the pope, "is excommunicate with us" [them]. All such utterances as these are counted by a greater part of the American press as simply sentiment. Our Catholic friends do not so count them. They are sentiment, but they are determined that they shall be more than sentiment. They shall be crystallized into law.

The hope of continued religious liberty in America does not lie either with Roman or federated Protestant sentiment, but in preserving intact the principles of the Constitution, the equality of man, and the protection of man in his inalienable rights. If these be preserved, warring sects may live in physical peace; but wo be to the land when controlled by religious bodies, singly or federated.

We admire the "Western Watchman" for its frankness and for its loyalty, but we warn every lover of Christianity and every true American patriot, both Catholic and Protestant, against such sentiments as inimical to the best and greatest good of the country.

"In the Valley of Decision."

By Editor

[So God places the multitudes of the last day. Joel 3:14. Great principles are at stake. Men are choosing between the word of God and the word of man. Lowell's words from "The Present Crisis" are most applicable.—EDITOR.]

ONCE to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side; Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.

Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand, Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land? Tho the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong, And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.

What Is the Lord's Day?

THE expression occurs but once in all the Bible, but the passage in question does not reveal the day of the week. It reads as follows: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Rev. 1: 10. Now, according to God's word, for this alone is authority upon this question, what day is the Lord's day? Three scriptures will answer this most conclusively: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day." Isa. 58: 13.

"The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20: 10.

"The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2: 28.

These texts conclusively show that the Lord's holy day is the Sabbath, and that the Sabbath is the seventh day, and that the seventh-day Sabbath is the day of which Jesus Christ is Lord. Therefore, according to the Lord's word, the Lord's day is the seventh-day Sabbath. Could we ask clearer evidence?

To-Day.

By H.

MAN is not naturally "good." Left to himself, he does the evil. The declaration is often made that certain worldly people are better than many Christians. This may or may not be true. What makes them better? Anything of themselves, of their own human nature?—No, indeed. The fact is that Christianity is responsible for all the good in the world. Christianity sets the standard of right. If one who denies Christ, the Author of Christianity, does good deeds, is kind and generous, unselfish and true, no credit is due to him as a man. What of his mother? What of his teachers? What of his environments?—The majority Christian, you must admit. Mosheim truthfully said:

"Many despise and speak ill of the Christian religion, because they do not know themselves indebted to it for all the blessings they enjoy."

For centuries Christianity has stood before the world the exponent of right living—righteousness. True it is that there are multiplied examples of infidelity and dishonesty among professed Christians; but these weigh nothing at all when placed in the balances over against the countless millions who were true to their profession. Judas betrayed his Lord; shall we therefore condemn the faithful eleven and their Master? Do not the hosts of martyrs testify in unmistakable tones to the efficacy of Christianity to inspire a godly life?

How many times we have seen the man who has spurned Christianity and Christianity's God all his life, call upon a humble representative of Christ at the hour of death! He dares not die without a prayer. Then how does he dare live without a prayer? If a matter is serious in the hour of death, it is equally as serious in the day of active life. If there is hope for help in the hour of dissolution, when man is helpless, there is surely hope for help in the time of strength and vigor. In all the Scriptures, the only time for seeking salvation is "to-day." No promise is given of to-morrow; no hope is held out for a more opportune future, a "more convenient season." This is the day of salvation. You must now accept of life in Christ if you would be sure of life eternal with Christ. H.

Suggestive Notes

By Editor

Su.	Feb.	28	Num.	17, 18, 19	Mark	6:30-56
			"	20, 21, 22	"	7: 1-13
Mo.	March	1	"	23, 24, 25	"	7:14-37
Tu.	"	2	"	26, 27	"	8: 1-21
We.	"	3	"	28, 29, 30	"	8:22-38
Th.	"	4	"	31, 32, 33	"	9: 1-29
Fr.	"	5	"	34, 35, 36	"	9:30-50
Sa.	"	6	Deut.	1, 2	"	10: 1-31

Suggestive Notes.

A mistake was made in the printing of our calendar, which was inadvertently passed over by editor and proof-readers. It was printed in 1908. In 1908, February had twenty-nine days. Twenty-nine days were given in the calendar in the place of twenty-eight as should have been. We do not know any better way than to ask our readers to read two days in one in the present week's reading. That would give us from Numbers 17-22 for the first day's reading. These can be distributed as we have time. It is not, however, a long reading; a little over five pages in the large print Bible which lies before us in the Old Testament, and about thirty-four verses in the New Testament.

Chapters 17 and 18 reveal how God pointed out the tribe to which the priesthood belonged; chapter 19, the purification of those unclean; 20 records the fact of Miriam's death; the complaining of the people; the waters of Meribah; the refusal of Edom to allow Israel to pass through their land, and the death of Aaron. Chapters 21 to 24 record the experiences of Israel, and especially the attempt of Moab to use divination against the chosen people. Some beautiful and sublime passages come in through the apostate Balaam's prophecy whom God used despite his covetousness.

Chapter 25 is a sad record of Israel's yielding to temptation through the devices of Balaam. The only way by which Israel could be overcome was through sin, and the prophet sold himself to destroy them. Chapter 26 is the second numbering. Compare with the first numbering forty years previous in the first chapter of Numbers, and note the difference in the tribes. Chapters 28, 29, and 30 deal with various offerings and vows; all of which have their lessons. In chapter 30 we have the division which the Lord indicated regarding spoil that was taken in war; chapter 32, the settlement of the two and one-half tribes east of the Jordan; 33, their journeying in the wilderness; 34, directions concerning the division of the land; 35, regarding cities of refuge; and 36, laws concerning the inheritance of daughters.

Deuteronomy 1 and 2 close the week; a recounting of the goodness of God, and the unbelief and stumbling of the people, by Moses. The word "Deuteronomy" means the repetition of the law, the second statement of it. Very rich it is indeed in righteous precept.

Our New Testament lessons for the week begin with Mark 6:30 and close with Mark 10:31; and rich they are indeed with the story of the life of our Lord; His wonderful teaching; His mighty miracles.