Earlier text: A NEW RELIGION WANTEDTHE CHRISTMAS OVERCOAT
By Fannie Bolton
"WELL, what shall we do for the children this year?" asked Mr. Adams, after his wife had returned from tucking her nestlings away to bed. "You know that money is scarce. We shall barely be able to make both ends meet during the winter; but I can't think of letting Christmas go by without giving the children their usual presents." "I've been thinking about it myself," said Mrs. Adams, "but I am very strongly of the opinion that it is time we were teaching our children lessons of denying self for the good of others. Even if they are young, they are not too young to share your burdens and the burdens of others. Suppose that we tell them all about your restricted circumstances, and how it will hamper you to buy their Christmas gifts. Let us test them a little, and see if they really do honor father and mother." "What! and not try to give them anything? I would rather go without my winter overcoat than think of doing such a thing." "Yes, but that would not be just either to yourself or to the children. The cruelest thing we could possibly do for them would be to deny them the privilege of learning the lesson that this opportunity affords." "Very well, mother. You are almost always right, but you may have the privilege of unfolding this opportunity and its blessings to them, for I am afraid they will be grievously disappointed." "I hope that you will be happily mistaken. I shall insist on your being present also, to hear their unselfish response." "Well, I will take my station behind the door, and hear your persuasions; but I have not much faith in the unselfish response of the young ones." The next evening as Mrs. Adams prepared the children for bed, she told them of how many things were needed for the winter, how money was scarce, and provisions high, and unless papa went without an overcoat, they must go without Christmas presents. "Now, my children," said Mrs. Adams, "which shall it be, no overcoat for your papa, or no presents for you?" Little Johnnie was the first to answer. "Let papa have his overcoat. Me don't want any Christmas presents." "Bless your brave heart," said mamma, as she hugged him up in her arms. The other children were more reluctant to reply. "Oh, dear! I do want a wax doll so much, mamma," said Ethel dolefully. "And I want a set of tools. I've just lotted on them for months," said Harry. "And can't I have my skates?" asked Tom. There was a tone of disappointment in their voices that cut right through Mr. Adams's heart, and made him whisper, "The children shall have their things, and I'll make the old coat do," but Mrs. Adams felt more determined than ever that her little ones should learn the lesson. She did not chide them, however, but simply asked, "What do we celebrate Christmas for? what is Christmas?" "Well, it's the day upon which Christ was supposed to have been born. At least that is what it is celebrated for," said Harry. "Did Christ give up anything that we might have this day of joy? or did he simply come here that he might receive gifts and gratify himself?" "Why, of course not. He left his throne in Heaven and his power to come down here to be born in a manger so that we might be saved and be brought to Heaven at last," said Ethel. "Then, Tom, won't you please turn to First Peter, the second chapter, and read the twenty-first verse, and let us see what we are to do?" Tom read: "For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps." "You see that we are to follow in his steps. Wherever we can suffer by denying ourselves for the good of others, we can find an opportunity to follow in his steps. Now, my children, if you want your own way, and do not wish to follow your Saviour, who did so much for you, and if you would rather have your toys than get papa a warm overcoat, all right. I shall leave it altogether with you. But I am sure that if you conclude to deny yourselves, you will find it the merriest, blessedest Christmas you ever spent, and you will follow in His steps who left you an example." "Let me ask you another question. What kind of men came to Bethlehem, when they saw the star in the east?" "Wise men," said the children. "Wise men, were they? Wouldn't you like to be wise?" "Well, what did they do?" "They brought gold and frankincense and myrrh to Jesus," said Ethel. "That is right. Now, Harry, please turn to the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, and read from the thirty-fourth to the fortieth verses." Harry read: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." "Now you can see from this scripture that if we do good to those around us, it will be just the same as though we did it for Jesus. Wouldn't you all like to give our dear, precious Saviour an overcoat this winter? Papa is one of his brethren. That is all I shall say, and now you can do just as you please, but remember that 'the Lord loveth a cheerful giver.'" "Well, mamma, I am perfectly willing," said Ethel. "So am I." "So am I," said the boys. "We don't want any Christmas presents at all. We'll just make papa and Jesus a present." There was great whispering going on for several days, and then a consultation with mamma, and then the boys were off every night after school until dark, working for the grocer, and Ethel found herself employment in taking care of Mrs. Larkin's cross baby. Mamma smiled every night as she tucked them to bed, and noticed the marks of toil on their tender hands, and many a time when they were sound asleep, she knelt beside their beds and prayed that God would give them truly unselfish hearts. "Now, papa," said Mrs. Adams, "why not give the children the money, and let them take you down to the tailor's and get your coat? It would be a great pleasure to them, and will help to present this lesson of self-denial to them in a new light." "Just the thing," said Mr. Adams. "Have them all ready this afternoon." What a happy time they did have as they trudged along to the tailor's through the crisp air! And what fun it was to look over coats, and fit them on their father, and find out which one he wanted, and then count out the bills to the funny tailor just like real men and women. They scarcely noticed the gay shop windows, full of wax dolls and tools, and everything beautiful. Without a pang of disappointment Tom called Harry's attention to a pair of shining club skates that he781 had picked out, but he said, "I don't care about them now, when papa can have such a good warm coat to wear when he goes to earn money for us." When Christmas morning came, four little white-gowned children stood beside their parents' bed, holding up four stockings, and shouting, "Merry Christmas." "Heigh-ho! Merry Christmas, you young rogues! What have you got here?" asked papa, as they thrust before his face his stockings, from which two slipper heels projected. "A pair of slippers for me? What does this mean? Mamma, have you been playing tricks?" "No, indeed," said Mamma. "But what is this in my stocking? A breakfast shawl, I do believe. Well! well! where did it come from?" "We earned the money ourselves, working for Mr. Waters, and Ethel earned five cents a night, taking care of Mrs. Larkin's baby, and we thought we'd be papa and mamma this year, and buy our big children some presents." "This is splendid!" said papa, slipping his bare feet into his new slippers, and bundling mamma in her shawl. "Why, mamma, we shall soon have nothing to do but sit in the chimney-corner and sing. Thank you, my dear children. But where are your stockings?" "Oh, we weren't going to have any this Christmas! We gave up having any presents for ourselves so that you could have a new overcoat." "Well, you just run and see if Santa hasn't been here with something." Sure enough, there was something—a square-looking parcel under each stocking, and some pop-corn and apples, and a couple of turkey's legs in the two oldest boys' stockings, while in Ethel's and Johnnie's were the wings. When they opened the parcels they found a pretty book for each one, with their names printed on the covers in gilt letters. Johnnie's was all about a wily fox. Tom's was a description of birds, beasts, and fishes. Harry's was a sort of scientific story, and Ethel's a beautifully illustrated copy of "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress." Mamma was as much surprised as the children when papa handed her a new hymn-book from the stand. "You see, my dear, my connection with the book concern has given me some advantage, and I was able after all to afford you each a little present. The dear Lord has been good to us all." After breakfast Mr. Adams opened the new hymn-book, and they all gathered around the sweet-toned melodeon and sang the following hymn with the spirit and the understanding, making melody in their hearts unto the Lord:—
"My Maker and my King,
To thee my all I owe;
Thy sovereign bounty is the spring
Whence all my blessings flow.
"The creature of thy hand,
On thee alone I live;
My God, thy benefits demand
More praise than I can give.
"Lord, what can I impart
When all is thine before?
Thy love demands a thankful heart;
The gift, alas, how poor!
"Oh, let thy grace inspire
My soul with strength divine;
Let every word and each desire
And all my days be thine." A little while before dinner Mrs. Adams called the children to carry four small baskets, which she had prepared with a nice dinner in each for some of her needy friends. Johnnie was to carry his basket to poor Grandma Horton, who lived alone in a little house near by. Ethel was to take hers to a little invalid child who was dying with consumption. Tom was to take his to a young Swedish girl who worked down town and boarded herself, and Harry was to carry his and deliver it into the hands of an orphan boy who had to live with a very unkind aunt since his own mother died. The children came back with glowing faces and happy hearts. Each one had some interesting thing to tell about his visit of mercy, and there was a little of the joy of the angels in that pleasant home. How good the dinner did seem, for their walk had given them an appreciative appetite! Mr. Adams read aloud from Ethel's new book all the afternoon. How interested they did get in Bunyan's pilgrim! There was no stopping until the book was finished, so all through the winter evenings when Mr. Adams was at leisure he read the beautiful allegory to his children, and the story of Christian and his family became the absorbing theme of the happy circle. Ethel grew quite anxious to know when they should start out for the Celestial City, and some of them did start that very winter. "If we hadn't given up our presents we should never have had this book," said Ethel one day, "and I would rather have it now than a thousand wax dolls. I think it pays to give up one's own way to do good to others, and to follow in His steps who gave us an example." "So do I," said Tom, brushing his whittlings into the coal bucket, and looking over her shoulder at the picture of Giant Despair. "If I had got my skates, I expect I would have broken my nose before this time, and I never would have been content to stay at home and hear this story about being a Christian." "Yes, and poor papa would have been cold all winter. He wouldn't have had any nice slippers, and mamma wouldn't have had any breakfast shawl, and everything would have been different. I just enjoy my book, and I'm learning how to use my tools scientifically when I do get them. So that's all right." "But the very best thing you have received has been the blessing of Jesus. I am hoping that my children will always be better, more unselfish, children because of this Christmas lesson. The Bible says we are not to look on our own things, but on the things of others, and we must not only be unselfish at Christmas-time, but at all times, always looking around to see where self may be forgotten, and someone else remembered, following in His steps who went about doing good. If it is ever so little a service to ever so humble a person, if it is done unselfishly for love's sweet sake, it will be recorded by the angels of Heaven, and received by the Lord of glory as though done unto himself." The Home Circle.
By Margaret J. Preston
T'was a day in the dead of winter,
And the echo of hurried feet
Struck sharp from the icy pavement
Of the pitiless city street. Each passer was loath to linger,
Though wrapped in a fur-clad fold;
For the air was a-tingle with frost flakes,
And the sky was benumbed with cold. The cimeter wind, in its fury,
Bore down like a sweeping foe;
The tempest was waiting the onset,
And abroad were its scouts of snow. Yet 'midst it all, with his tatters
A-flap in the whirling blast,
A child who seemed born of the winter—
A creature of penury—passed. So tremulous were his accents,
As he shivered and crouched and sung,
That the names of the mumbled papers
Seemed frozen upon his tongue. He paused for a bitter moment,
As a wondrously genial face
Arrested his voice and held him
With a pity that warmed the place. "Have a paper?" The kind eye glistened
As the stranger took the sheet,
And glanced at the stiffened fingers,
And thought of the icy feet, Then dropped in his hand the value
Of his fifty papers sold;
"Ah, poor little friend!" he faltered,
"Don't you shiver and ache with cold?" The boy, with a gulp of gladness,
Sobbed out, as he raised his eye
To the warmth of the face above him,
"I did, sir—till you passed by!"
—Margaret J. Preston. TEMPERATURE OF FOOD AND DRINK.
Professor Uffelmann, of Rostock, publishes his conclusions, drawn from experimental researches by himself and others, on the effects of food and drink at different temperatures. In brief, these are: 1. A temperature of food and drink which approaches that of the blood is most healthful. For nurslings such temperature is essential. 2. For quenching the thirst, the best temperature is from 50° to 68° Fahrenheit. 3. Very hot or very cold food or drink in health has a damaging effect, which is increased just in proportion to the rapidity with which the hot or cold substance is taken. 4. The use of very hot and cold substances, following or alternating, is injurious to the teeth. 5. Cold food and drink lessen the bodily temperature, whether it be normal or febrile. 6. Cold fluids lessen the irritability and raise the tone of the stomach. 7. Hot food and drinks stimulate the stomach more than cold. But after repeated use they lessen the tone of the digestive tract and cause congestion and dyspepsia.—Chicago News. It Is Not Good to Eat Much Honey
"It is not good to eat much honey." If mankind descend from the proper dignity of their nature to a fondling intimacy with beasts, they are sure to find, sooner or later, some penalty that is inseparable from every sort of what the Mosaic law denounces as "confusion." The following (says the London Sanitary Record) is an illustration of the possible connection between diphtheria in children and in cats: A little boy was taken ill with what turned out ultimately to be fatal diphtheria. On the first day of his illness he was sick (modern insular for nausea), and the cat, which was in the room at the time, licked the vomit on the floor. In a few days (the child meanwhile having died) the animal was noticed to be ill, and her sufferings being so severe, and so similar to those of the dead boy, the owner destroyed her. During the early part of its illness the cat had been let out at night in the back yard, as usual. A few days later the cat of a neighbor, who lived a few doors further off, was noticed to be ill. It had also been out in the back yard at night. The second animal, which, however, recovered, was the pet and playfellow of four little girls, who, grieved at the illness of their favorite, nursed it with great care. All four girls developed diphtheria, their mother being convinced that they got it from the cat; and, indeed, no other known source of contact with infection could be discovered. It is easy to imagine cats catching an infectious disease like diphtheria when we remember how often milk and other unused food from the sick-room is given to the cat, or by some people thrown out into the back yard for the benefit of their neighbors' cats if they have none of their own.—Sanitary Era. —Harper, the Cincinnati bank wrecker, is insane. —Two skaters were drowned at Ithaca, N. Y., on the 12th inst. —Corea has made a treaty granting exclusive privileges to Russian traders. —Rear Admiral Leroy, of the U. S. Navy, died on the afternoon of the 10th inst. —Four men were killed by a boiler explosion near Evergreen, Ala., on the 12th inst. —Russia imports annually 360,000,000 pounds of cotton, chiefly from America and Egypt. —Two men were instantly killed by a boiler explosion at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 10th inst. —December 9 the banks of New York City held $7,200,000 in excess of the legal requirement. —Late advices from East Africa report active hostilities between the natives and the Germans. —December 12 a barn was burned near San Diego, Cal., and twelve horses perished in the flames. —The State Central School building at Lockhaven, Pa., was burned on the 9th inst. Loss, $1,500,000. —The French have recently broken up a band of pirates in Tonquin. Eleven of the pirates were shot. —Two men were killed and several others injured by an explosion in a Colorado coal mine on the 10th inst. —The roof of a large steel mill at Newark, N. J., collapsed on the 10th inst., seriously injuring ten workmen. —A family residence was burned near Cookville, Texas, on the 11th inst., and eight persons perished in the flames. —Count Herbert Bismarck, who is looked upon as the probable successor of the Iron Chancellor, delivered his maiden speech in the Reichstag on the 15th inst. —The explosion of a gun on a French iron-clad during target practice near Paris on the 13th inst. instantly killed six men. —Seventeen bridges now span the Missouri River. The last one erected was formally opened and tested at Sioux City on the 5th inst. —Senator Butler has introduced a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment enlarging the presidential term to six years. —The White Caps have invaded Watertown, N. Y., and propose to regulate social affairs there after the same fashion followed in Indiana and Ohio. —The police officers at Niagara Falls have been instructed to arrest all persons who may hereafter visit there for the purpose of performing daring feats. —At Pomona, Cal., a few days since a ten-year-old-boy fatally wounded his sister, aged seventeen years, with a gun which he supposed was not loaded. —The Boston school election held on the 11th inst. resulted in a victory for the Anti-Catholic School Committee ticket. Over 17,000 women voted. —M. Hammer has been chosen President of Switzerland. The President of that republic is elected for only one year and cannot hold office two terms in succession. —The Belgian king, as head of the Congo Free State, has prohibited the introduction, transport, and sale of fire-arms and ammunitions within the territories of the State. —Mad wolves have recently bitten thirty persons near the villages in the neighborhood of Orsov, Hungary. A number of the victims have already died in great agony. —The Standard Oil Company will soon lay a pipe line from Lima, Ohio, to St. Louis, for the transportation of oil for distribution over the Southern and Southwestern States. —December 11 a veterinary surgeon of Taylorsville, Ill., was sentenced to twenty-eight years in the penitentiary for torturing forty-five horses with sulphuric acid and croton oil. —Two battalions of troops have been ordered to the scene of the great Belgium strike. A large number of strikers have been arrested, charged with attempts at dynamite outrages. —A late dispatch to the London Standard from Rome is to the effect that the Pope has appointed a commission, headed by Cardinal Monaco, to consider the encouragement of Catholics voting in Italy. —The postmaster at Alameda, Cal., was appointed in March, 1855, and has held the office continuously ever since. His term of service has been longer than that of any other postmaster in the United States. —Three men were fatally burned by the explosion of naphtha at Providence, R. I., on the 13th inst. The same day one white man and two negroes were killed by the explosion of a boiler at Montgomery, Ala. —The German hospital in New York has received from Prince William, of Wurtemberg, 16,640 marks (about $4,000). This money is part of a legacy of $50,000 left to the hospital by Gustave Adolph Meyer, a rich German-American who died in Stuttgart two years ago. —England is building a 200-ton gun, which will throw a 4,000-pound shrapnel fifteen miles, and can be fired once every five minutes. A single shot from such a gun would sink any ship afloat. The weapon is designed for coast defense. —A new route, it is stated, has been discovered for the proposed Nicaragua Canal, by which the total length of the excavation from Ochoa to Greytown will not exceed nineteen miles, and will consist of several short embankments instead of one long one. The cost will be greatly reduced. —The type on the Hartford (Conn.) Evening Post is all set and distributed by machinery. The type is set in one continuous line, and is broken into lines of the proper length and justified by hand. Three hands are required to operate one machine, which can do the work of six rapid compositors. —December 9 a mob of Socialists attacked a Catholic meeting in Amsterdam and prevented the orator of the occasion from making the address. A riot ensued, and before it could be quelled, the police were compelled to fire upon the warring factions. Several were wounded, and a large number of arrests were made. —Chauncey M. Depew estimates that the recent presidential election cost the country not less than $506,000,000, as follows: Loss of ten per cent. on $5,000,000,000 representing the business of the country during the campaign, $500,000,000; expended by the national committees of the great parties, $1,000,000; by individuals, $1,000,000; uniformed companies, $4,000,000; total, $506,000,000. —Congressman Butterworth, of Ohio, has introduced a resolution authorizing the President to invite negotiations looking to assimilation and unity of the Dominion of Canada and the United States under one Government. —A Cape Breton dispatch of the 13th inst. reports a furious storm in that quarter. The wind, blowing at the rate of seventy miles per hour, unroofed houses and wrecked vessels. The weather was intensely cold, and probably the loss of life was considerable. —The London Standard expresses the belief, founded upon recent advices from Suakin, that Stanley succeeded in joining Emin, and that the latter held out against the Arab forces until his men mutinied and delivered both himself and Stanley over to the Mahdi. Their subsequent fate is unknown. —The Canadian Minister of Marine has requested the Knights of Labor to take hold of the prosecution of several vessel owners who are known to have sent unseaworthy vessels to sea during the last season, thus recognizing the order on behalf of the Government, which the Knights believe is a big point gained. —Two years ago the Knights of Labor had a membership of 723,000; its treasury was full and its assemblies united. Its present membership is probably less than 200,000, while its treasury is worse than empty. Reckless strikes, and bickering among its officials, are the causes assigned by members of the order for its rapid decline. —The National Executive Committee of the Prohibition party met in Pittsburg on the 11th inst. to lay plans for work during the winter. It was resolved that members of the committee should visit various parts of the South as soon as possible, as that section of the country seems to demand most urgently immediate attention. —The White Caps of Northern Illinois have demanded the resignation of a member of the common council of Rockford, who has been active in passing an ordinance prohibiting liquor selling in that city. A few days after serving the notice they emphasized their request by depositing a dynamite bomb at the door of the objectional official. —The total number of post-offices in the United States is 57,376, an increase over 1885 of 6,124. The number of postmasters appointed during the year ending June 30, 1888, was 12,288, of which 6,521 were upon resignation and commissions expired, 4,344 upon removals, 639 to fill vacancies by death, and 3,864 on the establishment of new post-offices. —Senator Stewart has introduced a bill authorizing the Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy, and the General of the army, acting as a board, to have constructed 250 pneumatic torpedo throwers of the highest power, capable of throwing steel torpedoes charged with not less than 500 pounds of dynamite or other explosives, a distance of five miles. —The great Panama Canal Company is on the verge of failure, in fact has failed, and unless the French Government comes to its rescue its collapse must be final. That Government has granted the company three months' time in which to dispose of additional bonds, with permission to defer the payment of its debts for the same period, but it is not at all likely that it can recover its lost prestige. —A Democratic Congressional caucus has agreed on an omnibus bill to admit as States the Territories of Dakota, Montana, Washington, and New Mexico. The question of the division of Dakota is to be left to a vote of the people. Quite a number expressed themselves in favor of the admission of Utah, and it is likely that a separate bill for the admission of that Territory will be introduced at an early day. —The Maryland authorities are waging war against the oyster pirates on Chesapeake Bay. On the 11th inst. the State steamer Governor McLain encountered a fleet of pirate dredgers, when a sharp fight ensued, in which two of the dredgers were sunk and another captured. Probably more than a dozen lives were lost. The cook from one of the vessels reported that he was the only man who escaped out of a crew of eleven. —White Caps have recently perpetrated most cruel outrages in the vicinity of Toledo, Ohio. As a rule their victims are not good citizens, but their methods are nevertheless utterly unjustifiable. One of their notices, served at Napoleon, Ohio, contained the words: "God hates liars and perjurers and adulterers. The White Cappers are the Lord's chosen people to wreak his vengeance on the wicked and the unjust." —One of the leading papers of Chicago in its issue of December 12 published a long article relative to child murder in that city. It says: "Horrible crimes are being perpetrated here daily, and no coroner's inquests are held. The victims are so quietly disposed of that not a ripple is caused in the social stream. Prominent physicians and well-known midwives are engaged to commit murders, and commit them without compunction of conscience." —There are in Burmah 502 Baptist Churches, with over 28,000 communicants, and some 70,000 adherents. —The first convention of the so-called National Sabbath Union was held in Washington City, December 11 to 13. —Missionaries in the Sandwich Islands must, if they would reach all the people, preach the gospel in five different languages. —Seventy thousand Italians and 30,000 Spaniards in New York City are said to be almost entirely destitute of Protestant religious instruction. —It is thought that the membership of the Protestant churches of the United States is over one-fifth of the total population of the country. —Bishop Hurst, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, says that there are in Mexico 3,000,000 people who never saw a copy of the holy Scriptures, and yet Mexico is called a Christian country. —English foreign missionary societies report 1,361 stations, 4,258 out-stations, 2,148 male missionaries, 408 female missionaries, 18,226 native helpers, 258,868 communicants, and incomes aggregating $4,019,921. —The Catholic Review makes the statement that in 1830 the Catholic population of the United States was only 50,000, and that now it is nearly ten millions, or two hundred times what it was fifty-eight years ago. —A late dispatch from Rome says that the Pope proposes to establish diplomatic relations with Russia the same as with Germany, a Russian Minister being sent to the Vatican, but no Nuncio to St. Petersburg. —Less than two years ago King Mwanga, of Uganda, Africa, burned scores of Christians on the stake; now, however, the interdict upon Christianity has been removed, and English missionaries hold their meetings within sight of the king's palace. —Having tried voluntary attendance at chapel for four years, the Harvard faculty is meditating a change. At the last meeting of the overseers it was resolved to request the Committee on Government to consider the advisability of making attendance upon daily prayers and upon recitations and lectures compulsory. Publishers' Department.
By Editor
LONDON MISSION.—Cal S S Association $7.45. INTERNATIONAL MISSION FUND.— Mrs J J Bolton $10. FOREIGN MISSIONS.—Mrs Critchlow $1, Georgia Burrus $1.50. CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE FUND.—M Burns $3, Mrs Critchlow $2.15, Julia Loomis $3.40, F E Bosworth $8, Emily Groom $23.70, George B Thatcher $2. CALIFORNIA TRACT SOCIETY.—Dist No 1 Healdsburg $64.10, Dist No 2 Fresno $24.45, Dist No 3 Oakland Rivulet Society $2.50, Dist No 4 San Francisco $6.55, Dist No 7 St Clair $25.80, Dayton $14.20, Reno $5, Elder Loughborough $7, Elder Wm Ings $20.75, Mrs M E Sisley $10. A BROTHER who has lately arrived from Roumania would like to secure work among Sabbath-keepers on a ranch. Any who need such help may address, J. V. Badescu, Pacific Press, Oakland. QUITE a number of subscriptions to the SIGNS expire soon. Please examine the address label on your paper this week, and if your time is out in December, 1888, or January, 1889, please send us your renewal at once, so that the letter will have time to reach us before your subscription expires. TERMS, cash in advance, six months $1.00, one year $2.00, or we will send the SIGNS, American Sentinel, and Pacific Health Journal one year, post-paid, anywhere in the United States or Canada for $3.00. Or, we will send the illustrated "Great Controversy between Christ and Satan," popular edition, and the SIGNS one year for $3.00. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Publishers, Oakland, Cal. THE AMERICAN SENTINEL.
By Editor
Assorted back numbers of the regular edition of the American Sentinel will be sent post-paid to any address in the United States or Canada for $1.50 per hundred, or sixty copies for $1.00. The American Sentinel is just the thing to hand to your neighbor, mail to friends, use in depot racks, for tract distributors, etc. If you will send us two yearly subscriptions to the American Sentinel, at fifty cents each, we will send you the paper one year free. The Sentinel in clubs of five or more, at thirty cents a copy per year. Now is the time to get up clubs. Address, AMERICAN SENTINEL, Oakland, Cal. ASSORTED BACK NUMBERS.
By Editor
We have on hand an assortment of the Signs of the Times of various dates which we can furnish at $2 per 100 copies, $15 per 1,000. These can be used in different ways in missionary work; they can be mailed to your friends, handed to your neighbors, placed in tract distributors and depot racks, used in ship work, etc. NEW RECEIPT BOOK.
By Editor
This office has printed a style of receipt book, or book of guarantee cards for periodicals, which can be used for either the SIGNS or American Sentinel, either with or without a premium book. Any canvasser can get a copy of this new periodical receipt book by sending a two-cent postage stamp to SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. BOUND VOLUMES OF THE PACIFIC HEALTH JOURNAL.
By Editor
VOLUMES 1 and 2 of the Pacific Health Journal, from June, 1885, to November, 1887, inclusive, have been bound up in one neat volume, leather back and corners, cloth sides. It contains over 400 large octavo pages of very useful and instructive reading. Every family should possess a copy of this book. Price, post-paid, $2.25. Address, Pacific Health Journal and Temperance Advocate, Oakland, Cal.