p. 13 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 24. (6/23/1909)

The Chinese Mandarin Bible and Natural Immortality

By Percival J. Laird

By Percival J. Laird

IN view of the final revision of the Mandarin New Testament, quite a little correspondence is springing up on the question of terms. It will help us to appreciate this better, and call forth sympathy for translators on account of the many difficulties that confront them, to know that at present the American Bible Society has to print no less than three Mandarin Bibles, each with its distinct and special term for “God.”

A writer in “Chinese Recorder,” January, 1909, says: “I have read that Chinese students mock about Christianity because of our indorsement of the Buddhist term diyu (hell). . . . This stumbling-block debars some from Christ. Wang, in his excellent criticism of Confucianism, is also puzzled by it, and even maintains that the Buddhists borrowed the idea from Christianity. Let us beware we do not MISREPRESENT Christianity by using any longer such a term.” After a long interview with a Chinese scholar of eminent ability, who called to inquire if we preached these things, the writer is inclined to agree with the thought expressed above.

But the trouble is that men have been led astray by Satan to set up their own vain imaginations, occult science, mysticism or esoteric philosophy, as to man’s natural immortality. Hence when “man goeth to his long home,” this supposedly immortal “precipient entity” must have a like habitation. In dealing with this subject, it is comparatively easy to harmonize many texts often misquoted from the English Bible, but the task is difficult when handling the Mandarin Bible.

Let us examine just a few texts together, and as there are but two delinquent characters, as illustrated, in the Chinese, the argument should be quite clear with your Bibles open before you. Turning to Eccl. 3: 21, we read, “Who knoweth the SPIRIT [ling] of man, . . . the SPIRIT [huen] of beasts?” also 1 Thess. 5: 23: “May your SPIRIT [ling] and SOUL [huen] . . . be preserved blameless.” Please note the two distinct terms used in Chinese. Then compare Luke 23: 46: “Into Thy hands I commend My SPIRIT” (ling and huen); Acts 7: 59: “Receive My SPIRIT” [ling and huen]; Eccl. 12: 7, “The SPIRIT [ling and huen] shall return to God.” Here it will be seen that, in contradistinction to the Greek, Hebrew, and English renderings of these passages which speak of “the spirit” only leaving the body at death, the Chinese suggests that soul AND body take their flight at that time. But that which proves too much proves nothing clearly. Moreover it sounds too much like Chinese superstition which endows a man with three huen.

Again, inasmuch as Eccl. 12: 7 draws no distinction between classes of men absolutely, then as every man alike must possess this ling (spirit) and huen (soul), so these parts of both righteous and unrighteous men “return to God,” in heaven, being understood; and accordingly, Chinese might reason, “No matter how wicked you are; no matter whether you believe or disbelieve in God or the Bible; live as you please, heaven is your home.”

But we know that such doctrine can not be of God, for it fails to differentiate between the precious and vile, and such teaching places the notorious infidel or sinner in heaven, along with the good and holy.

There is, however, another serious problem to be solved if we accept the fact that Christ’s ling and His huen left His body at death; because one third, or the body only, of Christ could hardly make atonement for the sins of the world. This gives credence to the Roman Catholic sacrifice of the mass, and countenances the theory of the Mohammedan who avers Jesus only swooned at the cross, but did not die.

Peter answered the Lord, “To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of ETERNAL LIFE.” John 6: 68. O that men would believe when God says so plainly, “The DEAD KNOW NOT ANYTHING.” Eccl. 9: 5. To believe Satan’s lie, “Ye shall not surely die,” is to open the flood-gate for Spiritualism.

Changsha, Hunan, China.

Spiritism in France and Switzerland

By Jean Vuilleumier

(From Our Own Correspondent)

The great war of Armageddon, predicted in the Scriptures (Rev. 16: 12-14, and elsewhere), is laid to the subtle working of the spirits of demons. These go to the kings of the earth, endowed with miraculous tho' deceptive power. Such is the character of modern Spiritism.

The authenticity of its miracles was recently proved by “Le Matin,” one of the leading papers of Paris. That journal asked M. Camille Flammarion, the distinguished astronomer, to tell what he knows to be absolutely certain about the phenomena. In his answer, M. Flammarion mentioned the experiences of such men of good faith as Count de Gasparin, Professor Thury, of Geneva, and Victor Hugo, and those of the Dialectic Society of London. As strong believers in spirit manifestations, he quoted the electrician Varley, author of the first transatlantic cable; the naturalist Wallace; Dr. Lapponi; Schiaparelli, director of the Milan observatory; Zollner, director of the observatory at Leipsic; Farro, director of the observatory at Turin; Professor Lodge, rector of the University of Birmingham; Dr. Dariex, Count de Rochas, Professor Richet, Victorien Sardou, Sully Prudhomme, Jules Claretie, Adolphe Brisson, Professor Duclaux, the famous chemist Currie, Arsonval, professor of physics, Dr. Maxwell, etc.

Then, after citing the best-known phenomena, Flammarion says that he has observed them for forty-five years; that some of them have been photographed and are thus absolutely incontrovertible. But he does not decide whether they are the work of disembodied spirits or of demons. Yet he adds the following significant confession:

“There are other phenomena stranger yet than the above and for which it seems that we are obliged to admit the existence of invisible, odd, and incoherent beings.”

Elsewhere in the same article he says: “I have heard violent blows struck on a table, on a door, blows capable of killing a man. Generally these blows are protest against unbelief. For instance, when I say: ‘All this foolishness does not prove that there are spirits in these things,’ then three mallet blows fall with crushing power on the table.” “THIS PROVES,” says Flammarion, “THE EXISTENCE OF A WILL-POWER WHICH IS FOUND MANIFEST IN ALL THE PHENOMENA.”

What other evidence is needful in order to recognize that we live in the days predicted in Scripture in which “signs and lying wonders” would prove that the coming of the Lord is near at hand?

JEAN VUILLEUMIER.

Russell Sage’s Bible Society Gift

The American Bible Society is to receive a half million dollars from Mrs. Russell Sage, of New York, provided the society raises a like amount during this calendar year, this entire sum to be used as a permanent endowment fund. Something like $300,000 is still required in order to secure this munificent gift by Mrs. Sage.

The Government’s Trust Policy.—

Attorney-General Wickersham made a speech at a dinner in New York, April 30, in which he uttered some things of significance and weight concerning the policy of the government with respect to the enforcement of the anti-trust law. It is asserted that his statement had been approved in manuscript by President Taft and the cabinet. He said:

“You all know that the attitude of a very large part of the business community toward some of the laws enacted by Congress was prior to six or seven years ago one of indifference when not of hostility. There was a prevailing impression that many of the laws dealing with economic subjects had been passed to be pointed to with pride rather than to be enforced.

“Then there came a rude awakening. The last administration set to work with vigor, with energy, which was accompanied at times with newspaper clamor, to enforce these laws. Business men, who eight years ago had not read the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, to-day know of it by heart, and railroad men and shippers alike have an intimate personal acquaintance with the Interstate Commerce Act. No American business man can to-day truthfully say that he does not know that it is a crime for a railroad to give or a shipper to accept a rebate from the established interstate rates.

“The work of the present administration is none the less important than was that of the last in continuing to enforce the laws of the country and in endeavoring to effectuate the intent of the people speaking through Congress, in preventing the things which the people have come to believe to be inconsistent with the welfare of the Republic, but the methods which were necessary to awaken the business community to a recognition of the existence and vitality of these laws are no longer essential.

“It may be, it probably is, true that in the movement to impress upon the whole business world the meaning and force of certain laws and the necessity of attention and obedience to them, some suits were instituted and some prosecutions commenced without sufficient consideration and without adequate cause. When such conditions are found to exist, the present administration will not hesitate to withdraw the suits or dismiss the prosecutions. Such action must not, however, be taken as any indication of an intention by the administration to abandon in the slightest degree the vigorous, impartial enforcement of the law or to undo in any degree the splendid work of the last administration.”— The Independent.

Compromise by Submission

By Editor

IT was in a suit for divorce in Kansas fifty years ago that the husband gave testimony as follows: “We quarreled about sheets. She wanted linen sheets and I wanted cotton; and we compromised on cotton.” Such is the compromise which the arbitrators present to the Georgia Railroad at the demand of the white firemen. The number of negro firemen is to be reduced until it does not exceed 25 per cent. The first place is always to be given to a white man, no matter which is the more faithful and efficient. The white man shall always be the senior and be preferred in assigning a job.

We are not inclined to blame the United States Government severely for its slowness in the matter. It takes some time to get ready to act, and the Georgia authorities avoided the difficulty by sending out mail trains with no passengers. We must presume that if the mails had still been stopped, President Taft would have acted as vigorously as did President Cleveland in the Chicago strike. That was understood and expected. But we can not exculpate Governor Hoke Smith. He utterly refused to protect the Georgia Railroad and thus forced the submission. He got his election on the cry of danger of negro supremacy, and had to carry out his infamous policy of injustice.

Possibly the wrong of this settlement is the escape from a greater and more extensive wrong. Negroes have been employed from the beginning as firemen, but without the privilege of promotion as engineers. It is a laborer’s job, requiring simple, faithful, manual labor. Now the white men want it all, and were this demand made the basis of a contract, it is likely that the trouble would spread to all the railroads in the South.

We have been told that the South is the paradise of the negro; that there the people welcome the negro to all sorts of labor, as mechanics as well as scavengers and porters. But here was the attempt to forbid just this ordinary humble sort of service. It represents the ill will to the aspirations of the negro felt by the lower class of white men. The trouble has been fomented among the country poor whites along the lines of the railroad. It is they that have dragged the black firemen off the engines and beaten them. They would drive the negro back to the soil.

Well, let them try it. Even their success would be the greater failure. Those that own the soil in the end own the country. If the whites go to the cities and the blacks to the country, in the end the latter will get the better of it. It is the whites that are crowded out of the country, and in the end the successful and wealthier blacks will go to the cities also. The great black belts will have their mechanics, their merchants, their bankers, their men of property and culture, and they will find their level, no matter how high. We have had this week an important conference in this city at which Professor Wilder, of Cornell, and other anatomists and anthropologists have shown most clearly that there is no skull or brain structure by which we can tell a white man from a negro, and this is the present conclusion of science. Every race has its medium men, and its great men, and no class prejudice can permanently shut out a race from its opportunity. But even now, a great hope for the negro in the South is the growing sense of justice among the whites. The general condemnation of the Georgia Railroad strike by the Southern press is a most encouraging symptom of a better public sentiment demanding a fair chance for all men.—The Independent.

The Georgia Railroad Strike

A strike affecting the service of the Georgia Railroad Company was ended May 29, largely owing to the influence of federal authorities. Out of a total of 100 firemen, the company had about forty negroes. The negroes were not eligible for engineers, but were promoted for the best places that firemen could hold, if they gave good service. They were paid less than the white men. Of course as the white men rose in the way of promotion toward engineers, the colored men held positions in their way. The strike was precipitated when ten men employed at terminals were discharged and their places supplied by negro firemen. As a result the railroad was tied up for more than a week. People living in towns along the line attacked and beat negro firemen. The governor refused to protect the company with troops. On the 28th a riot and brutal assault upon one of the negro firemen who was to be employed presented new difficulties. Owing to the prospect that federal troops would be called out, the strike was ended by concessions on both sides, but the whites have gained the greatest victories. The discharged white men were reinstated, and there are to be no more colored firemen employed at the terminals. It is expected that the negro firemen will gradually be excluded, as nothing but this will now satisfy the people living along the line of the railroad.

Experiences with Spiritualism

By Mrs. Luella Harmon

During the first days of Spiritualism in this country, my grandfather had a brother who became a Spiritualist. He, with his little daughter, visited grandfather and brought Spiritualism into his home, where the whole family except grandmother were all “taken up” with it. Tables and chairs walked around the room and no person there was strong enough to hold them down. One of grandfather’s daughters mesmerized the little cousin and giving her a slate asked her a great many questions. The answers were all written out in a fine handwriting—which the child could not have done of herself. The young lady then asked her to draw on the slate the profile and write the name of the one whom they had been conversing with that evening. They then took the slate and there was the profile and under it this name,—“Devil.”

At one time the young people held a social in the parlors of a certain (Baptist) church. They had there a planchette which spells out words as it moves under the hands of those whose fingers rest upon it. The spirit of the dead were supposed to come back and write on the table with this planchette.

I put my fingers on the instrument with another young lady, and young people crowded around us to see what the “spirits” wrote. After many things had been written which proved afterwards to be genuine lies, I asked this question, “What power is it that causes this planchette to write?” It moved frantically as tho in a rage. I continued to ask the question, and did not cease until the planchette finally ceased its frantic movements and very slowly and reluctantly spelled D-E-V-I-L.

Flint, Mich. MRS. LUELLA HARMON.

Guilty of Conspiracy

Guilty of Conspiracy to extort money from employers for the discontinuance of strikes, was the sentence, May 29th, as the result of a long trial in Chicago of Martin B. Madden, president of the Building Trades Council, and two of his associates.

Malamulo Mission, Nyasaland

By Joel C. Rogers

At our recent baptismal service in April, seventeen natives from three tribes received the ordinance, administered by the writer in a pool of a small stream crossing the mission. One of the candidates was a chief of local prominence in the Angoni Tribe. He is a skilled carpenter, and is doing the wood work on our church building, now nearing completion. Twenty other candidates who had been at the mission only one year were deferred for more instruction. These are now in a special Bible class receiving necessary instruction.

The new building is a combined school and church. Its dimensions are 28 by 60 feet, having two class rooms at the rear, 12 by 16 feet. It is made of brick, the material of which is taken from one ant-hill found one hundred yards from the building. Already over one hundred thousand good bricks, 3 by 9 inches, have been made from this ant-hill, and it is not quite exhausted. While the workmen were digging one day, I found the queen (white ant) larva, measuring one and one-half inches long. The age of these ant-hills is unknown, but I would estimate it at many hundreds of years. The brick is made by native brickmakers, one by one, with the hands, in a wooden mold. A good workman makes 1,000 a day and his wage is ten shillings ($2.50) a month of 27 days.

Native Students and Teachers, British Central Africa

The floor is of tile, made in the same way. The walls are plastered with sand found on the mission, with only water added, and looks like the best rough cement plaster of America. The outside is pointed with lime and sand, a little Portland cement being used on foundation and chimney.

All wood used grows on the mission land. Door and window frames and beams to strengthen the walls are sawn by natives with pit saws from the Mbawa-tree, African mahogany. One log of this tree sold in Liverpool in 1903 for 1,046 pounds sterling, a little over $5,000. It contained 1,647 sale feet, bringing $3.00 a foot. But the report fails to say how much it cost to transport and market it.

The rafters are poles from another native tree, as also the braces. The roof is thatch, supported on the rafters by bamboo tied with bark of another tree. The only imported articles are nails, glass, and locks.

Malamulo Mission School holidays are May 1 to July 31. During the holidays many of our boys and some families walk to their home villages, distant 100 to 300 miles. This year a teachers’ summer school was held during July for our sixteen native teachers. The subjects taught were Bible, reading, writing, arithmetic, and school methods.

The school opened August 3, with an enrolment the first week of 124.

By August 16 the enrolment of our school was 142, the daily attendance 139. The proportion of attendance will be some less in the rainy season. Last term the average attendance in all our schools was 300.

It is a peculiar fact that the attendance at Sabbath-school is less than at the day school. Evidently some village children are not so much interested in the Sabbath-school as in the day school. But in an attendance of 119 at Sabbath-school, 76 had verses memorized.

We have constant opportunities of opening village schools far and near. At present we have only four village schools and two small out stations. We should have scores of them. Our great need is well-trained native teachers for the village schools, and converted, soul-loving European overseers for out stations. Africa awaits the coming Saviour’s message. Our teachers who went out to hold village meetings last Sabbath, reported 184 in attendance at the several meetings held in seven different villages. At our Monekera out station, north of Blantyre, the Sabbath attendance is about 100. Malinki, our head teacher there, has just reported two schools with 91 enrolled. Another school in that district is to be reopened, with an attendance of fifty or more. All being well, I shall spend next Sabbath at that station, where a Bible class of 21 are preparing for baptism.

Three new boys have just come to Malamulo School from the Kirk Mountains whose homes are near our Matandane out station. This out station is 100 miles from our main station at Malamulo. As soon as we have a European teacher for that out station, it will not be necessary for them to come so far.

Last month, a chief came to Malamulo from Angoniland, some two hundred miles away, begging us to send a teacher who would teach his people the word of God. On inquiry of him, I found that other missions have schools not far away from his villages and they have asked his permission to open schools for him. He told me that he declined because he has been waiting several years for a teacher of the Sabbath truth. He heard this truth of a former Sabbath missionary, and has patiently waited for a teacher ever-since. It was hard to put him off still longer, but we have not one teacher to spare from our schools already open. May the Lord of the harvest soon give us more reapers!

Our hearts were refreshed last Sabbath by having three young men, for whom we have worked and prayed for a whole year, come to us to confess that they want to give their hearts to God. This is the one thing above all others that keeps the worker’s courage up in a field like this. The people do seem to desire to know God’s word and to serve Him. The change from heathenism to Christianity is a great one and few of us can grasp the mighty work of God required to bring about this change. It is beyond mortal comprehension. But God is doing the work, and we praise His name. I often

wonder that such wonderful changes can be wrought in one generation.

Sleeping sickness has made terrible havoc among the natives of Uganda on our northern border. Reliable authority states that already two hundred thousand out of the population of three hundred thousand are dead, and the end is not yet. It is moving southward and nobody knows where or when it will stop. It has no known remedy at present. May God give power to His word to turn many heathen hearts to Him before this plague is upon them!

We need health for the work; we need money; we need men.

JOEL C. ROGERS.

Morning Prayer

By William Henry Burleigh

For the dear love that kept us through the night, And gave our senses to sleep’s gentle sway,— For the new miracle of dawning light Flushing the east with prophecies of day, We thank Thee, O our God!

For the fresh life that through our being flows With its full tide to strengthen and to bless— For calm, sweet thoughts, upspringing from repose To bear to Thee their song of thankfulness, We praise Thee, O our God!

Day uttereth speech to day, and night to night Tells of Thy power and glory. So would we, Thy children, duly, with the morning light, Or at still eve, upon the bended knee Adore Thee, O our God!

Thou know’st our needs, Thy fulness will supply Our blindness,—let Thy hand still lead us on, Till, visited by the dayspring from on high, Our prayer, one only, “Let Thy will be done,” We breathe to Thee, O God!

— William Henry Burleigh.

ELO THE EAGLE AND OTHER STORIES

By Floyd Bralliar

BY FLOYD BRALLIAR

THIS new animal book for young folks is receiving an eager welcome by all nature lovers. ELO THE EAGLE is the first of a series of ten interesting stories of animals, wild and otherwise; being, with one exception, the life histories of boyhood friends of the author. Many strange and laughable anecdotes are related by Mr. Bralliar, all of which are strictly true and vouched for by reliable witnesses.

The book is lavishly illustrated by special drawings, with a full-page half-tone design printed in Luxotype at the beginning of each chapter. Two hundred pages, printed on egg-shell paper, beautifully bound in red cloth. Price, post-paid, $1.00.

Easily sold by young people. Agents wanted.

Pacific Press Publishing Assn.

Mountain View, California

Portland, Ore. Regina, Sask., Can. Kansas City, Mo.

“Just a Minute of Your Time, Please”

By Editor

Mrs. Lulu Wightman’s masterly address before the Missouri Legislature is reproduced in the July Monthly. Mrs. Wightman delivered this address “American Birthright of ‘Religious Liberty’” in other capital cities of the Central States as well. Another audience represented by thousands of SIGNS readers will appreciate her words as tho they heard them from her lips direct.

This July number of the SIGNS MONTHLY might very properly be called a “Liberty number,” for we are giving considerable space to the enunciation of those foundation principles which made this great Republic of ours a possibility. There is no better way to show our love and patriotism for our country, the very destiny of which is subject to our attitude on these principles, than by circulating this splendid magazine which so clearly shows the danger toward which we are so rapidly drifting. The following sentiments are being taught the nation’s coming leaders in some of our universities to-day: “Men are no more born equal and free than they are born of one size.” “The Declaration of Independence is a delusion, and the hope of equality fantastic.” A striking cartoon shows these same professors pulling the statue of liberty from its pedestal, and other quotations of theirs equally as strong are given. What can the logical outcome of such teaching be? Won’t you help us open the eyes of thinking people? We have manufactured just the thing needed. We must depend on you to do the rest.

Besides the religious liberty feature, the Home, Temperance, Bible-Readings, and Current Topics departments will appear as usual. Under this latter head is a significant article entitled “Why England Fears a German Invasion.”

Here are just a couple of extracts from letters: “God wonderfully helped me this month. I sold 40 each day I went out. Please send me a hundred more. I must tell you there are a lot of people in Toronto who like that magazine. I have had blessed experiences in selling them, and also a blessed chance of telling the people the truth.”

“A gentleman (one of my regular customers) told me to be sure and not forget his magazine as it was a source of great help to him in teaching his Sunday-school class. He said he got so many good things out of it. It is no trouble at all to sell 1,600 magazines in Portland. So please find $12 enclosed for fourth shipment of magazines.”

We furnish 100 copies for $4.00; you sell them for $10.00. Twenty-five copies will cost you but $1.00; 50 copies, $2.00. You will wish at least to send copies to your friends. We will mail them direct at a cost to you of only five cents per copy providing you order five or more. Now don’t put off this important matter until too late only to find we can’t fill your order for lack of stock. Why not “do it now”?

Send orders to your tract society, or

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

1109 E. 12th St., Kansas City, Mo.

Mountain View, Cal.

Our Work and Workers

SABBATH, May 8, a church of thirteen members was organized at Atlanta, Mo.

EARLY in May the little company of believers at Leesburg, Ohio, was increased by six, who were received by baptism.

RECENT letters tell us that Brother Luther Warren is laboring at Pomona, Cal. A large opera house is used for the services.

FOUR are rejoicing in the truth through the labors of Brother and Sister W. R. French at Blessing, Texas.

IN a series of meetings at Kelso, Wash., conducted by Brother J. A. Holbrook, seven were added to the church, five by baptism.

THE church building at Village Creek, Iowa, has been remodeled, and was rededicated June 10. Brethren M. N. Campbell and E. Rosenwald conducted the services.

OUR workers in South Africa find the magic lantern a great help in working with the natives. Brother W. S. Hyatt reports interest in this work through the “South African Missionary.”

THE brethren at Richmond, Cal., have just dedicated a church building purchased from another denomination. The purchase was made possible through the liberality of Sister Lucy Murray.

R. B. COBERLY reports two series of meetings, one at Tiawah, Texas, and the other eight miles northwest of Tiawah, at Harmony Grove school-house. At the latter place ten are keeping all the commandments of God; at the former, there are eight.

AFTER a stay of several months in the United States, Prof. H. A. Owen and family returned to their field of labor in Spanish Honduras late in May. They take with them a supply of tools, farm implements, etc., to take up practical self-supporting missionary work.

Wanted for Missionary Work

SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Watchman, and Sabbath tracts. W. P. Ethington, Moreland, Ky.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Watchman, and Life Boat. Mrs. James F. Woods, 322 S. Detroit St., Warsaw, Ind.

Two Years’ Nurses’ Course

THE Glendale Sanitarium now offers a high-grade nurses’ training course, covering two years, at the completion of which the nurse receives a diploma. There are vacancies at present for one young man and three young ladies. Only those should apply who have had a good Christian experience, and who expect to devote their lives to the Master’s service. Address, Glendale Sanitarium, Glendale, Cal.

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