p. 16 (288) | Signs of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 18. (4/30/1896)

Earlier text: St. Helena Sanitarium

STRONG'S Exhaustive Concordance of the BIBLE

By James Strong

In the Authorized and Revised Versions

With Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words

By JAMES STRONG, S. T. D., LL. D.

Send for 20-page Catalogue describing the work and showing sample pages.

Address all orders to PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Kansas City, Mo., or New York City. OAKLAND, CAL.

Acceptable Service

What kind of service God accepts and how we may render it. Order Apples of Gold Library, No. 21. Price 50 cents per hundred or one cent each in small quantities. Address PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Oakland, Cal.; Kansas City, Mo.; or New York City, N. Y.

THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE

By Alonzo T. Jones

Or Civil Government and Religion

BY ALONZO T. JONES

An Up-to-Date Pamphlet on the Principles of Religious Liberty.

“THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE” contains fifteen chapters, the following being a portion of the chapter headings:— Christianity and the Roman Empire—What Is Due to God and What to Cæsar—The Powers That Be—How the United States Became a Nation—What Is the Nation?—Who Made the Nation?—Religious Right in the United States—Religious Rights Invaded—The People’s Right of Appeal—National Precedent on Right of Appeal—Sunday-law Movement in the Fourth Century and Its Parallel in the Nineteenth—Will the People Assert and Maintain Their Rights?—Religious Rights in the States.

In the four appendixes to the book are given the Declaration of Independence—The Constitution of the United States—The Dred Scott Decision, and the “Christian Nation” Decision.

This is a book of permanent value for reference and study and one that all should possess. It contains 384 pages, with several illustrations, is issued as No. 32 of the Religious Liberty Library, and is bound in paper covers. Price 40 Cents.

A FINER EDITION on laid paper is also ready. It is neatly bound in cloth. Price One Dollar.

Address orders to

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Oakland, California. 18 West Fifth Street, Kansas City, Mo. 43 Bond Street, New York City.

NEW HISTORICAL ATLAS AND GENERAL HISTORY.

By Robert H. Labberton

By ROBERT H. LABBERTON.

As a Class Text-book it is superior to any other in Unity, Brevity, Clearness, Logical Arrangement, and Suggestiveness.

As a Reference Book it should be in the Library of every school-room in the country; every Student of History should possess a copy.

In your Reading Circle or at home when you wish to consult an Atlas you need a map for a particular date. Your modern Atlas will not give it. This is the only Atlas which has a map for every period.

A Map for any particular date can instantly be found by anyone, each map having over it in figures, the year or period it covers.

It is the only Atlas in which each nationality has, and always retains, its own distinctive color; hence every period has a map, and they are progressive, forming in themselves a panorama of events effective in the highest degree.

NEW MAPS OF ANCIENT EMPIRES.

It contains, now made for the first time, maps of the Chaldean, Elamitic, Egyptian, Kossean, Armenian, Hittite, and Assyrian Empires.

The text is brief, suggestive, fascinating, but gives in an attractive form the leading events in the history of the world (not a bundle of particular histories), free from unnecessary details. It has an index.

Labberton's New Historical Atlas and General History is indispensable to Libraries, Reading Circles, School Officers, Teachers, Students, etc. It contains 198 Maps, printed in colors, 30 Genealogical Charts, and is complete in one volume, 4to. Cloth, 312 pages. Sent by Mail or Express, prepaid, for $2.50. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

SUNDAY LEGISLATION IN THE TRANSVAAL.

By Geo. B. Thompson

Still the agitation concerning religious legislation continues in the colony, and a bigoted clergy are persistent in their demands for a more rigorous enforcement of the laws protecting the “wild solar holiday.” But the Cape is not the only colony in which this wicked matter is receiving attention. The South African Republic has always had a Sunday law, but recently felt called upon to remodel this ecclesiastical engine of tyranny and persecution. The law as amended, now reads as follows, according to a recent issue of the Staatscourant:—

“ARTICLE I. Every person guilty of desecration of the sabbath (Zondagschending) shall be punished for every contravention with a maximum fine of five pounds, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding one month, as under: (a) He who executes field or garden work on Sunday, except in cases of urgent necessity, and for maintenance of field or other fruit; (b) he who fires a gun or other firearm, unless legally or otherwise entitled to do so; (c) he who hunts wild or other animals with dog or other animals; (d) a transport rider, or the director of a transport wagon, who invades the boundaries of a village on a Sunday, or who causes such to be done.

“For all the under-mentioned offenses there shall be inflicted a fine penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds (£100), or an imprisonment penalty not exceeding six months: (a) The person who sells or offers for sale on a Sunday, any goods, merchandise, cattle, or other live stock; (b) the person who keeps open a shop, warehouse, or other premises on a Sunday with intent to sell or to trade; (c) the person who works, or causes work on Sunday with steam and other machines.”

This is certainly savage enough to satisfy religious intolerance for the present at least.

In the days of New England Puritanism the fearless advocate of religious liberty, Roger Williams, whose locks were whitened with the frost of age, had to flee from his comfortable home amid the snows of winter and lodge with Narragansett Indians, the red man of the forest thus becoming the champion of religious freedom. So here, a rigorous Sunday law is in existence in all the colonies, and the only place—be it said with shame—where the dove of religious freedom can find a place to rest is among the savage, untutored aborigines of the “dark continent.”

GEO. B. THOMPSON.

East London, Cape Colony.

Partition of Africa: Trade and Territory by Nation

Partition of Africa.—Great Britain claims about 2,000,000 square miles of central Africa, with a total yearly trade of about £9,500,000. The French possessions come next in extent, with an area of about 1,000,000 square miles, and with a yearly trade of about £2,500,000. The Kongo Free State has about the same area, but its general trade may be set down at not more than £700,000 in all. The area of German central Africa is about 900,000 square miles, or, excluding German southwest Africa, of which only a small part lies to the north of the line of the Zambezi, about 550,000 square miles, with a trade value of about £1,500,000. Portugal claims an area of some 750,000 square miles, almost all of which is in tropical Africa, and its trade may be set down at about £2,250,000.

The total trade of Italian Africa is reckoned somewhat doubtfully as about £500,000, and that of Liberia at about the same. It appears, therefore, that in central Africa Great Britain takes the lead in every way—in extent of possessions, in their total trade value, and in the amount of trade per square mile of territory, which may be roughly stated as £4 10s., as against the £3 per square mile of German and of Portuguese Africa, and the £2 10s. per square mile of French Africa.—The Manufacturer.

Notes on Zion, Babylon, and Type and Antitype

By Editor

IN the paper on Zion and Babylon will be found some thoughts on type and anti-type suggestive of further study.

DO NOT miss the article on Romans. “Freedom,” its title, is what every one desires; and the way to get it is given in this article.

READ the article “Loyalty to the Law, Loyalty to God.” Query: How can one be loyal to a government without being loyal to its law?

WE reprint in another column a portion of a speech made recently in Congress. The quotation from the late Judge Black we do not recall having seen in print recently. It is most appropriate in these days of religious legislation agitation through which we are passing. More next time.

Anonymous Letters

By Editor

We do not receive many anonymous letters, but we do a few. Our sentiments regarding such communications are so well expressed in a note in the Sunday School Times that we reproduce it in part for the benefit of our readers:—

“Anonymous letters . . . are neither replied to nor read. Recently such a letter was received from Florida, with inclosures, but, as a matter of course, both letter and inclosures were destroyed without being read. The first thing looked at, or looked for, in a letter, after its opening, is the signature. If that be lacking, no further notice is given to the letter. If the man who writes the letter doesn’t think it worth signing, the man who receives it doesn’t think it worth reading.”

Names are not asked by the editors of papers for the purpose of publication, even if the letter be published. Editors will publish names if so requested by correspondents, but they must know the name.

SUNDAY-LAW LIBERTY.

Sentenced Contrary to Law, and Compelled to Work on the Sabbath.

THE religious liberty granted by Sunday laws and their promoters is well illustrated in Arkansas, a little worse even than has been in other states. Arkansas has a Sunday law exempting Sabbath-keepers. Contrary to law, two Sabbath-keepers, as we related last week, were by a church committee spied out doing work one-half mile from any dwelling, where no person could possibly be disturbed, arrested, fined, and, contrary to law, imprisoned. More than this, they were compelled to work on the Sabbath. That is, they are not only not allowed to work Sunday, contrary to law and conscience, but the officers of the law compelled them, contrary to law, to work on the day they hold as sacred. This is the religious liberty granted by Sunday laws and their promoters, and where are the protests? Do our brethren in other denominations, professedly followers of the Christ who gave the Golden Rule, who said, “I judge no man,” believe in this sort of thing? Have they no protest to make? Well, God takes cognizance; we, and so can the persecuted, leave it with him. Our greater sorrow is for the persecutors. Our sympathy is with the persecuted. And the Lord sympathizes; for,

Whatever Is Done to the Humblest One

“Hast thou not said that what is done Unto thy weakest and thy humblest one Is even done to thee?”

He's True to God Who's True to Man

“He's true to God who's true to man: wherever wrong is done To the humblest and the weakest, 'neath the all-beholding sun, That wrong is also done to us; and they are slaves most base Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all the race.”

Sunday-law Work in California.

The secretary of the “California State Sabbath Association” says that the association will hold its first annual meeting in San Francisco, Thursday, May 14. The association now has two field secretaries, Rev. M. C. Briggs, of San Jose, for northern California, and Rev. J. L. Cartney, of Claremont, for southern California. The secretary says:—

“Conventions will be held in different parts of the state. Wise plans have been adopted, and preliminary steps have been taken towards securing a California law against Sabbath desecration, and to secure a weekly rest day for all classes. Arrangements are now being made whose object is the closing of the liquor saloons on the Lord’s day in three of the cities in which it is thought that the greatest power can be brought to bear against these most iniquitous sabbath desecrators. If success follows these efforts, a similar movement will be made in other cities. With this first effort will be another,—to close the saloons on the same day on the ferry-boats crossing the bay to and from San Francisco.”

Let the friends of liberty sow the seeds of truth and Gospel liberty. Sunday is not the Sabbath or the Lord’s day, but if it were, the state has no business to meddle with the matter. Enlighten the people, and do it in the spirit of Christ and of liberty.

The Sabbath a Memorial.

It is strange that men will dispute the fact that the Sabbath—the seventh day—is a memorial of creation, a sign of the only true God. And yet men will become so blinded as to say: “There is no such thing in the Bible as a memorial of creation. It is all imagination; it is all fancy. There is no hint in the Bible of such a thing.” Thus writes “Thos. Syrus,” of Alexandria, Minn. Others seem to be as fully astray concerning Bible facts. But thus saith the word of God:—

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore [for which reason] the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:8-11.

“He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered.” Ps. 111:4.

“Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.” Ps. 135:13.

What could be plainer than this? There is much more proof.

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE “SIGNS.”

By Editor

To Our Friends and Patrons.

NEARLY one year ago the SIGNS OF THE TIMES was placed at the exceedingly low price of $1.00 per year; and, altho no great special effort was put forth to increase its subscription list, it was at that time nearly doubled. It has since more than trebled.

But a large number of the subscriptions of a year ago, both in clubs and single copies, expire this month; may we not hope that nearly all of these will be renewed? May we not expect more than this, that there will be more than enough new subscribers to make good whatever falling away there may be?

Our paper is a missionary paper, heralding the “Gospel of the kingdom” of Christ. It can not stoop to many of the methods used by other papers to increase its circulation. It can not admit patent-medicine advertisements, or others of like character, to secure funds to do advance work. It feels that this would be doing injustice to its friends and readers. It does, however, depend upon its friends. It asks their assistance, in not only maintaining the present circulation, but in greatly increasing it. Do we ask or expect too much?