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

Earlier text: The Chinese Mandarin Bible and Natural Immortality

“HERALDS OF THE MORNING”

The appalling loss of life by murder and suicide, political and social troubles, dissatisfaction between employer and employee, strikes and fires, wars and rumors of wars—all these are of daily occurrence. What do they mean? and is there any significance to these things at this particular time? To the close observer, all these are evidences that there is a nearing social vortex into which all unsettled factions, and the world at large, will be plunged. When and how this will be brought about is revealed in “Heralds of the Morning.” By appealing to the “sure word of prophecy,” the author clearly shows that these conditions were to exist just before the Lord’s return, and points out many other signs that the Scriptures tell us are certain heralds of the glad morning when strife shall cease, and peace and happiness reign forever. That the reader may understand these events, and be prepared for the final outcome, is our reason for calling attention to this valuable work. More than 150 illustrations vividly portray that upon which the subject-matter treats. A live book upon a live subject.

Bound in cloth, with marbled edges, $2.00.

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN.

Mountain View - - - California

Early Writings

Early Writings. By Mrs. E. G. White. A new edition of this popular work, rearranged and reprinted from new plates. This book is a compilation of the first published writings of the author, and contains many encouraging words for those who are looking for the soon return of our Lord. Cloth, 75c; limp leather, $1.25. Address this office.

The Power of Home Influences

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

We sometimes talk about the influences which schools or workshops or factories exert over our youth, either for good or for ill. We rejoice over the influence of good companions, and lament the influence of others — the questionable sort.

But who can estimate the power of home influences either for good or for evil, over the plastic hearts and minds of the young?

The influences of home are the mightiest in the world

“Mary has taken a great notion to her Sabbath-school teacher,” said a care-worn mother. “I'm so glad. Now I'm really in hopes she'll be influenced to go to Sabbath-school every Sabbath. She has seemed so careless and unconcerned for a year or two. I haven't said much to her myself, nor has her father; it doesn't do any good. We have no influence over her. But now Sister A., her Sabbath-school teacher, seems to understand her. She is able to influence her.”

What! no influence over your own daughter! Let me tell you that you yourself certainly do have more influence over her than any one else. But whether that influence be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death, is for you alone to decide. But the influence which you, as the mother of your child, must possess over her, is mighty. You may not realize it; you may be quite indifferent to the truth of it; but the fact remains. And with this influence, and because of it, comes a serious responsibility — a responsibility which is not to be shifted to other shoulders or lightly to be thrown off.

It is a fact that the influences of home are the mightiest in the world; and O, the pity of it! this fact, tremendous as it is, is not half understood to-day. But men and women are largely just what their home training has made them. Are they generous, kind, gentle, forgiving, courteous? — they were trained to be such in early childhood.

It is a hard thing, I tell you, to teach courtesy and kindness, good manners and gentleness to a grown-up man who has been a clown or a boor all his life,—it is well-nigh impossible. If any doubt remains in the minds of any of my readers, I ask them to try it and see.

But how easy a thing it is to teach a little child to lisp its sweet “thank you,” or “I beg your pardon,” or, “yes, thank the Lord,” it is easy, if one only begins early enough, to teach most children to say, “I am very sorry; forgive me,” when a fault has been committed. O, if only more children were taught to say these sweet words of humility in their very babyhood, we would not now meet so many people who seem to consider it unmanly or unwomanly to confess that they have made a mistake.

“But,” some one says, “I pay my money to the church-school teacher, and I expect her to teach my child those things. The fact is, I have no time to do so.”

But, my friend, do you think that your responsibility ends with the employment of a church-school teacher? Ah, there are duties for you to do, which the mere payment of money will not excuse you from doing. Do you think that if John or Alice never or seldom hear the voice of prayer in their own home, the church-school teacher ought to be held entirely responsible if she fails to lead them to the Saviour? If Mary and William have never been taught to read the Bible for themselves, and very rarely see the blessed Book in the hands of their parents, do you think the Sabbath-school teacher ought to be criticized if she fails to interest them in its sacred teachings? Can we reasonably expect that a few hours' daily training at church school, or one hour weekly on the Sabbath, will counteract and undo the influence of a careless, prayerless, Christless home?

Ah, sad indeed and much to be pitied are those lives which have no sweet memories of childhood; no sacred remembrance of the evening and the morning prayer; on the tablets of whose memory lingers not the sound of mother's or father's voice in prevailing prayer for the children. They who have no remembrance of sweet twilight hours spent in the old home, of bedtime lullabies and evening visits, when father and mother seemed to get acquainted with the boys and girls, can never have experienced one of the sweetest joys of life.

Such evening hours as these are among the most sacred memories of after life. How many times when a child, have I watched the golden glory of the sky at sunset, and imagined I could see the spires and turrets of that city of which my mother used to read — the city whose gates are of pearl and whose streets are of gold. I could almost hear the rustling of the wings of that innumerable company of angels around the throne and hear their voices, singing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.”

As I think these thoughts, the passing years are forgotten. Hush! I am listening again to one of the old songs we used to sing before our little household band was scattered, when we gathered for our evening prayer:

“The day is past and gone, The evening shades appear,”

O, the influences of a Christian home will do, have done, more for the betterment of humanity, than sermons or lectures of schools or lessons. Home influence is one of the mightiest factors in the world. Other influences, other memories may fade and become dim; but the sweet memory of a Christian home will never fade away in this life, and even over on the immortal shore, me-thinks this, the sweetest of earth's memories, may linger yet.

— Josiah Gilbert Holland

By Josiah Gilbert Holland

Bethlehem

THERE'S a song in the air! There's a star in the sky! There's a mother's deep prayer, And a baby's low cry; And the star rains its fire while the beautiful sing For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king!

There's a tumult of joy O'er the wonderful birth, For the Virgin's sweet boy Is the Lord of the earth. Ay, the star rains its fire, and the beautiful sing, For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king!

In the light of that star Lie the ages impearled; And that song from afar Has swept over the world; Many hearths are aflame, and the beautiful sing, In the homes of the nations, that Jesus is king!

— Josiah Gilbert Holland

The Home Garden

“The Home Garden,” a book on vegetable and small fruit-growing, for the use of the amateur gardener, by Eben E. Rexford, author of “The Four Seasons of the Garden.” Price, $1.25 net. J. B. Lippencott Co., Philadelphia and London.

This is a beautiful little book; nicely printed, and the story well told. Mr. Rexford is a well-known author, and those who have read his writings will expect much of the little volume. It is an inspiration to those who are so situated that they can have gardens, to plant them, care for them, and it ought to be an inspiration to those who are shut in-doors to cultivate a little piece of land however small. All the various things necessary in the cultivation of a garden are told in this volume. The location in the soil, the preparation of the garden, planning and planting of the garden, the implements needed; weeding and transplanting, hot-bed and cold-frame, insecticides and fungicides, what to grow, herbs and miscellaneous plants, asparagus and rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants and gooseberries, grapes, the garden's calendar,—all are treated. There are eight illustrations. Every one who has a farm or garden or farm papers, and yet one of the difficulties with these is that it is not always convenient to tell you just what to do. You want something that was told a few months before, and the paper is gone, but the book stays with you, and it gives good instruction all the year round.

BOOK NOTICES

By Editor

We have received from Prof. W. E. Howell, our missionary to Athens, our first Gospel tract in modern Greek—“The Way to Christ.” The text is beautiful and clear and we know that the tract is excellent. It is just what is needed in a land that has been cursed for centuries with dry, dead formalism. We give below a sample paragraph from page 3, reduced from 3⅜ inches to 2¾. It will give the reader an idea, however, of the clearness of the type which is larger than our sample.

Ὁ Κύριος ἠδύνατο νὰ ἐξολοθρεύσῃ τὸν ἁμαρτωλὸν καὶ νὰ ἐκμηδενίσῃ αὐτόν. Ἀλλὰ ὁ δαπανηφόρος τρόπος ἐξελέχθη. Μεγάλης ἀγάπης παρέχει ἐλπίδα εἰς τοὺς ἀτελπίδας, δίδων τὸν μονογενῆ αὐτοῦ Υἱὸν ἵνα βαστάσῃ τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ κόσμου. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ οὗτος ἔδωσε τὸ πλουσιώτατον δῶρον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ δὲν θὰ ἀρνηθῇ εἰς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καμμίαν βοήθειαν τὴν ὁποίαν χρειάζονται ἵνα λάβωσι τὸ ποτήριον τῆς σωτηρίας καὶ γείνωσι κληρονόμοι τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ συγκληρονόμοι μετὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

This is only one of several others which are in preparation, and we earnestly hope that Professor Howell will be able to get them out and into circulation as soon as possible. The need of such literature is clearly shown by the articles that have been running in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES from his pen, on “The Bible in Greece.”

Pamphlets on African Missions

We have received two little pamphlets from the Africa Diamond Jubilee Commission, Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 150 Fifth Ave., New York, which are of interest in the history of missions. The first is “Four Years in Liberia,” by Bishop Isaiah B. Scott, a quadrennial report to the General Conference, 1908; price, 5 cents; and the second is “Forward Movements in Africa,” by Bishop Joseph C. Hartzel, also a quadrennial report to the same General Conference; price, 5 cents.

Echoes from the Tomb of the Living Dead

“Echoes from the Tomb of the Living Dead” is a story in verse, told by one who was sentenced for life in San Quentin State Prison, California. He is not of the criminally inclined. He shot another, he avers, in self-defense, but he was alone as to the facts at his trial, and there were two witnesses who were against him. He has cherished no hard thoughts toward any one, but has taken his punishment, and under it all Chaplain Drahms says, “He has been ever a kindly, generous, ever-courteous gentleman,— honest, truthful, and sincere.” His reasons for publishing these verses and prose sketching, for which he claims no literary merit but which tell an eloquent story, is to bring about a better understanding between those who are in prison and those without. There are also pieces of history in the little pamphlet. Mr. Moore was pardoned after serving for eight years. The price by mail is 15 cents, one copy. Address, J. Wess Moore, 1203 Devisadero St., San Francisco, Cal.

Engineer Wanted at Garden City Sanitarium

WANTED.— Man who has had some experience in engineering to fire boiler (oil fuel). Single man, S. D. A. in good standing. Garden City Sanitarium, San Jose, Cal.

Life and Health

A PRACTICAL health journal, published with a view of meeting hygienic needs in every home; teaching how to care for the health and how to preserve life; prescribing simple home treatments to assist nature in throwing off diseases rather than adding more poison by using drugs or unnatural stimulants as remedies: teaching how to avoid disease as far as possible, how to manage in the home when sickness does come, and how to combat the disease by simple remedies which nature provides.

Send for sample copy and special rates to agents. Price 10 cents per copy or $1.00 per year.

Address, LIFE & HEALTH, Takoma Park, D. C.

LIBERTY

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY BUREAU

An illustrated, 48-page, quarterly magazine, published as an exponent and advocate of true religious liberty; defending Christianity and the rights of conscience; upholding the Bible as the infallible word of God; recognizing the church and state as ordained of Heaven for specific and distinct purposes, but vigorously protesting against the alliance of the church with the state in the attempt to advance religion and to promote the state.

Price 25 cents per year. Liberal terms to agents.

Address, LIBERTY, Takoma Park, D. C.

Our Little Friend

_An Illustrated Paper for the Smaller Men and Women, for the Children and Little Ones_

Instructive and entertaining, clean, wholesome, sensible. It is a character builder, a helper to father and mother. Our Little Friend would plant seed in the joyous life of the children in the Present, that it may bear blessed fruitage in the Harvest of the Future. Respect your child's individuality. Take the paper for him or her. Only 50 cents a year.

_Address, OUR LITTLE FRIEND,_ _Mountain View, Cal._

INDIVIDUAL COMMUNION SERVICE.

Should be used by every church. Seventh-day Adventist Church, Lincoln, Neb., writes, “Service used April 6th with greatest satisfaction.”

We are delighted with it.” Outfit sent for trial before purchasing. Not expensive. Address

THOMAS COMMUNION SERVICE CO., Box M., Lima, Ohio.

Partner Wanted

In good blacksmith business. Must be a first-class smith and horseshoer. Adventist preferred. Address C. J. Swanson, Box 76, Riverton, Wyo.

PLAN YOUR VACATION NOW AT OUR EXPENSE

A Choice of Four Free Trips Is Offered You

Seattle, during Alaska-Yukon Exposition

Yellowstone National Park

Yosemite Valley

Lake Tahoe

All Your Expenses Paid

If you have friends in the East who want to visit the Pacific Coast, we can arrange it

THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY

For complete information address SUNSET TRAVEL CLUB

ROOM 16, FLOOD BLDG., San Francisco

Health and Religion

Heresy, and orthodoxy also, so the Homiletic Review thinks, are sometimes more a matter of the stomach than of the heart or head. A great deal of trouble in this world is due to bad feelings caused by a bad stomach, and yet it should not mislead a man in the plain doctrines of the word of God. If a man is nervous and irritable, he had better investigate the cause, but it does not follow that he need see things crooked, even if his head is congested in sympathy with an inflamed stomach. Good health, however, and good religion should go together.

God Thinketh Upon Each Individual

The Bible is remarkable for the emphasis which it puts upon the individual. God deals singly with men, but as there is the one Mind guiding all those who yield, unified action results, notwithstanding the many separate units. Thus God has given to “every man his work;” “there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth;” “salvation to every one that believeth;” “every one that asketh receiveth;” etc. In the light of this fact would you presume to say that He does not regard you? Say rather with David, “I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me.” Ps. 40:17.

The Author of the Bible.

It took perhaps a half century to build the great pyramid of Cheops. As it employed a hundred thousand workmen at a time, and there were four relays of workmen a year, probably millions of workmen helped to build the great structure. But there was only one plan and one architect, no matter how many workmen. So God’s great book for man had many workmen, but it is all built in accordance with one plan, and it has in reality but one Author.

Buying and Selling

Buying and Selling.— The great markets of the world are places where men buy at as advantageous figures as they can merely to sell again at such an advance as will give a good profit. But there is one thing that the wise man counsels us to buy and not sell again. “Buy the truth and sell it not.” To sell it is to lose it, and it is far too valuable to lose; it is worth all that life is worth, for it alone makes life of worth. But we can give the truth to any who will take it, and have even more than we had before. It takes effort to get truth; it takes self-sacrifice and denial, and this is the buying. But to sell it would mean to take something else than truth in exchange for truth, but this would be a poor exchange—something else than truth is error.

The Bible and the Hittite Nation

PROFESSOR SAYCE, of Queen's College, Oxford, England, announces that he is in process of deciphering the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the monuments of Asia Minor. It has been suspected for some time that these were the work of the Hittites, and Professor Sayce states that this is true. It is now known positively through the recent work of a number of archeologists that the Hittite nation at one time rivaled that of Babylon and of Egypt.

Going back only a few years, we find historians disputing the existence of any such nation. The Bible made mention of them in a number of places, but so much the worse for the Bible, for when historians are ignorant of a thing, skeptics are certain to point to the inaccuracy of the Bible for stating something beyond the knowledge of the world's wise men. Thus in Genesis 23 we read that there were Hittites at Hebron; Ezekiel includes the Hittites among the founders of Jerusalem (Eze. 16:3); Solomon imported horses from the Hittites.

But now historians tell us that this is probably all correct. Professor Sayce says: “The discovery of this empire, all memory of which had so long been lost, was for the history of the ancient East what the discovery of the planet Neptune was for astronomy—it explained facts which otherwise did not admit of solution and supplied as it were the missing link in the historical chain.”

Daniel was told by the angel that he should stand in his lot in the latter days, doubtless referring to the fact that the prophecies of Daniel, having preeminently to do with the last days, would be understood at the time when they were specially applicable. And so, too, God has by His providence a great host of evidence in the form of monuments and tablets stored away from ancient times and these are now being brought forth to give their evidence to the truth of that word which can not fail and to help convince man of the surety of God's predictions. No less than two libraries of clay books have been recently unearthed at Boghaz Keui, north of the Halys. Altho not many of these tablets have as yet been read, the revelations already made are wide-reaching in the extreme. A new chapter has been opened in the history of Oriental civilization, and the important part played in it by the Hittite people has been made plain.

Senate Tariff Debate Continues

The Tariff is still the great question in the Senate. There is talk that it will take a month yet to settle the whole matter. There seems to be considerable difference of opinion throughout the country as to just what ought to be done in every case. The Republicans seem to be standing pretty well with Mr. Aldrich and his committee. There is some talk of night sessions, in order to shorten the period necessary for the discussions.

A Strike in Philadelphia

of the street railway company's employees was called on the 29th ult., their demand for an increase of wages from 21 to 25 cents an hour having been refused, although an increase to 22 cents had been given and was soon to take effect. Half of the 6,000 employees quit work, and two-thirds of the cars were not in use. As a result of the strike there has been considerable disorder, non-union men have been dragged from cars and beaten, and the service has been checked by mobs. The company recently increased the price of transportation, and consequently is in disfavor with the people.

England’s New Dreadnoughts

England is to have eight new “Dreadnoughts.” These new battle-ships are to be at least thirty per cent more efficient than the first “Dreadnought.” After the Japanese-Russian War, English naval experts got together and devised the first “Dreadnought.” She outclassed everything in the line of battle-ships that had been built up to that time. Previously it had been supposed that it required from three to four years to build a battle-ship, but from the time of laying the keel of this vessel to her completion the entire construction consumed only one year. When England builds these eight new vessels of the new type, along with those that the English colonies will add to her navy, and counting in all the new battle-ships of this class, or in competition with this class, that the United States, France, Germany, Japan, and other nations are building or have built, the navies of four years ago will become obsolete.

Signs Editor Returns from Conference

The editor of the “Signs” writes us from Buffalo that he is on his way home again, after attending a very successful meeting of the General Conference at Washington, D. C. A. O. Tait, of the Signs Monthly, returns by way of Seattle to secure material for the August Monthly which is to be devoted to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition and other such valuable matter as are usual with it.

Death of Edward Everett Hale

Edward Everett Hale, D.D., chaplain of the United States Senate, Unitarian, and well-known author of “The Man without a Country,” and other works, died at his home near Boston on the morning of June 10. Dr. Hale has been well known as a prominent man for a great many years. Messages expressing sorrow and esteem are pouring into the Hale household, one of the first being from President and Mrs. Taft.

Unprecedented Preparations for War

Lord Rosebery recently at a banquet is reported as having said that the present situation in Europe is ominous of war and that “the threatening and overpowering preparations for war were unprecedented in history.” No one, not even himself, seems able to explain it. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, calls this unparalleled activity a sort of hysteria. Are we able to read this sign of the times?

The American Prohibition Year Book for 1909

“The American Prohibition Year Book for 1909,” price 25 cents, published by the Lincoln Temperance Press, 92 La Salle St., Chicago, Ill. It is bound in both cloth and paper. Cloth, 50 cents; paper, 25 cents, post-paid. It has for its contents the regular almanac common to year books, 30 pages on Benefits of Total Abstinence, showing the physical and moral evils of liquor-using; deals with the consumption and cost of drink; the Economics of the Liquor Traffic; Legislation; Results of Legislation; Courts and Decisions; the Attitude of the Church Toward Prohibition; the Fact That Prohibition Is a Great National Problem; the Records of Political Parties Upon the Question; Political Action; Election Returns; Organizations and Periodicals Connected with the Temperance Work; and a good index. This is the tenth year of the book. It is one of the great authorities on this subject in America. It will be of great help to ministers, lecturers, temperance workers, religious teachers, Sunday and Sabbath-schools, young people's societies; in fact, working men, legislators, and many others. Some of the very latest scientific facts on abstinence, the use or non-use of alcohol are brought out. All the various plans of dealing with the liquor traffic are discussed more or less. It considers the three notable articles by Dr. William Smith in McClure's Magazine, and shows how the people spend over two billion dollars annually for alcoholic drinks.