Your ShelfYour Projects

Signs of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 7.

THE BARREN FIG TREE
Earlier text: The Conscientious Stomach

KODAKS

There is no Kodak but the Eastman Kodak
How to hold the camera.
How to hold the camera.
Half the charm of a photographic outing is lost if one carries along several pounds of glass plates and holders and has every moment filled with anxiety for their safety.

KODAKS

use non-breakable film cartridges which weigh ounces where plates weigh pounds.
KODAKS $5.00 to $35.00.
EASTMAN KODAK CO.
Catalogues free at agencies or by mail. Rochester, N. Y.

Books for Parents

TEACHING TRUTH

The aim of this book is to answer, in chaste and scientific language, the queries of children as to the origin of life. Price, 25 cents.

ALMOST A MAN

A frank talk to a boy who was "almost a man," and the good it did him. As it is in story form, every boy will read it and be the better for it.
Teaching Truth. SEVEN. OREGON SERIES.
Teaching Truth. SEVEN. OREGON SERIES.
ALMOST A MAN
ALMOST A MAN
It is intended to help mothers and teachers in the delicate task of teaching the lad concerning himself purely and accurately. Price, 25 cents.

ALMOST A WOMAN

Presents in attractive form the pure instruction needed by a girl. Mothers will find this just what they have wanted to place in the hands of their daughters. Price, 25 cents.
Pacific Press Publishing Co. Oakland, Cal.

New A. G. Library Numbers.

The Earnest of Our Inheritance. By W. N. Glenn. No. 59. 50 cents per 100.
This "earnest" is shown to be the Holy Spirit, and its reception absolutely essential to spiritual life and progress. The case of a young man, heir to a large property which he will receive at a future time, is used to illustrate the principle involved, and it does it so clearly that even the children will understand it.
A Living Saviour. By M. C. Wilcox. No. 60. Illustrated. 50 cents per 100.
The words of the angel to the women at the tomb, "He is not here. . . . He goeth before you into Galilee," are used to draw men's attention away from dead forms and creeds and direct them to Christ, their only help. The latter portion of the scripture quoted, "He goeth before you," is shown to apply to the present time—that He would have us follow Him just now into the haunts of sin in the search for souls. It is indeed a precious number.
Gracious Invitation: Blessed Promises. No. 61. 25 cents per 100.
One of the most attractive and earnest little appeals to the sinner we have ever published. Its first page is a reproduction of that beautiful engraving showing Christ standing at the door knocking for admittance. The scripture, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," is used as a text.
In addition to the regular matter, this number includes a full description of each number of the Bible Students and Apples of Gold Libraries, giving the inquirer or interested reader an opportunity of reading farther.

THE ATONEMENT.

AN EXAMINATION OF A REMEDIAL SYSTEM, IN THE LIGHT OF NATURE AND OF REVELATION.
BY ELD. J. H. WAGGONER.
THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND GREATLY ENLARGED.
THIS work is a critical and exhaustive treatise on the plan of salvation as revealed in the Scriptures, showing its harmony with the principles of justice and mercy, its consistency with reason, and its final results as affecting the destiny of the human race. 368 pp.; cloth, $1.00.
Address, PACIFIC PRESS Oakland, Cal.

Unawares

"YE DID IT UNTO ME." "And He said, 'The sin is pardoned, But the blessing is lost to thee, For, failing to comfort the least of Mine, You have failed to comfort Me.'"
Such is the closing verse of one of the two poems found in No. 54 of the Apples of Gold Library under the above title. They are very touching and very good. Price, 50c per 100.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO. New York City Oakland, Cal. Kansas City, Mo.

Terms of Subscription.

Per Year (52 numbers), post-paid . . . . . $1.00 Six Months, 50 cts. Three Months, 25 cts. To Foreign Countries, per year, $1.50.

SPECIAL TERMS.

  1. One new yearly subscription and one renewal, or two new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $1.75.
  2. Two new yearly subscriptions and one renewal, or three new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $2.50.
  3. Three new yearly subscriptions and one renewal, or four new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $3.00.
Sample copies sent on application.
All orders sent direct to the publishers, either for single subscriptions or for clubs, must be accompanied by cash. If credit is required, please order through your State Tract Society. Club rates and terms to agents sent on application.
Signs of the Times, Oakland, Cal.

Instructions for Ordering.

1. REMIT by P. O. Money Order, Express Order, or Bank Draft on New York, Chicago, or San Francisco.
2. If paper money or silver is sent, register the letter.
3. Orders and Drafts should be made payable to the PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., or to SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
Postage-stamps.—Please do not send postage-stamps, as they are liable to stick together, and are useless in this condition.
Foreign Money.—Do not send any.
Receipt.—No formal receipt is sent unless by special request. The address label on your paper will indicate the time to which your subscription is paid. In case of non-receipt of papers, or any other irregularity, please notify us immediately.
Expiration of Subscription.—All papers are discontinued at the expiration of the time paid for. Notification will be sent several weeks before date of expiration, thus enabling you to renew in ample time to secure unbroken files. Please be prompt, as we can not always furnish back numbers.
Change of Address.—When ordering change of address, please give both the old and the new address.
Important.—Use a separate sheet for SIGNS orders, separate for other papers, separate for books, for tracts, etc., and if you address the editor, use a separate sheet. All can be sent in one envelope, and the money all sent in one order, but write each kind of business on a separate sheet. In this way each order can be handed to the proper clerk and filled at once.

TO CONTRIBUTORS.

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES is a purely missionary enterprise. For this reason it has felt free to ask for contributions from its friends. It pays nothing for contributions, either prose or poetry, unless solicited by the editor, and then the fact is stated when the articles are asked for. This is a plan rarely followed, but sometimes deemed expedient.
Articles Desired.—Those which set forth in the Spirit of Christ the great saving truths of God, short and to the point. It is better to treat one important truth clearly, in a short article, than many points vaguely in a long one. We desire no caustic, critical productions, which might minister to personal pride or pleasure, but can not save souls.
How Prepared.—Write plainly, with typewriter or ink, with wide space between the lines, to freely admit of editing, writing of subheads, etc. Write on one side of the sheet only. Sign the name to the manuscript, as it becomes oftentimes separated from accompanying letter. Anonymous contributions are not used, whatever their merit. If the writer does not wish his name to appear, let him furnish a pseudonym for the public. But we wish the name.
Manuscript Returned.—We will return all unused manuscript desired if stamp and directions are inclosed. We are forced sometimes to return good manuscript mainly for three reasons: (a) Sometimes the articles are too long; (b) sometimes we have a number on the same subject; (c) sometimes our plans are such that an article can not be used till it is out of date. We therefore hope that no offense will be taken by those who have freely contributed their best thought if their productions are returned. When we receive so much matter, we can not use all.

A CARD.

TO ALL interested in carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the inhabitants of other lands, and who desire to assist in supporting missionaries already there and others who may engage in the work, the opportunity is given to make an offering to the Foreign Mission Board of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Such donations should be sent to W. H. Edwards, the Treasurer of the Board, 1730 North Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Penn.
"WILL A MAN ROB GOD?" is an important pamphlet on the tithing system. It treats every phase of this great question, and deserves especial attention in these days, when the Lord's means of supporting His cause is almost lost sight of. Price, 10c each.
Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal.

An Announcement

Heralds of the Morning

By A. O. Tait Will be Published February 23
It will contain 280 pages and over 100 illustrations. Prices will be as follows: Cloth, with gold side and back title . . . . . $1.25 Cloth, gilt edges and title 1.50 Canvassing Outfit . . . . . .60
Address the publishers for advance pages And your Tract Society for terms and territory
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Oakland, Cal.

The February Good Health

The February Good Health is just to hand, and as usual is brimful of the most intensely interesting and helpful matter relating to the subject of health. Good Health is a magazine devoted to the work of teaching people how to return to the simple laws of nature, and if sick give nature a chance to make them well, and if well give nature a chance to keep them so. We heard a man with quite a good-sized family say that his doctor's bills had amounted to just twenty-two dollars, and that was what he had expended for his subscription to Good Health. By reading and practising what the journal taught he had not had any serious illness in his family. And the rosy cheeks and buoyant spirits of his children showed that he was making no exaggerated statements. Send to the Good Health Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich., for sample copies.

CHILDREN FOR WAR.

UPON the eve of the czar's congress in the interests of peace a sweeping plan is being inaugurated for making skilful the hands of children in the bloody business of war. The Earl of Meath is originator of the scheme, and its adoption by England will be the signal for similar action by every other military nation on the globe.
The plan is to make military drill compulsory for all lads from thirteen to eighteen years of age. It is estimated that 200,000 will thus be enrolled in England each year, so that in the future the government will have hundreds of thousands of young men qualified to enter the ranks of the regular troops. Aside from the additional burden of increased taxation which this new institution will bring upon the people of England, and upon the people of those nations which follow her example, there is the deplorable effect which it will have upon the children themselves who are thus compelled to be initiated into the horrors of human slaughter.
Think of it, parents! your child of thirteen slipping from your knee to be taught the evolutions of the army, tutored in the parry and thrust of the murderous bayonet, skilled in the sweep of the saber, with bloody intent, trained to sight the rifle at the vital parts of a human target.
How cheap will human life seem to children educated in such a school! How hard for the Spirit of Christ to find a dwelling in the childish breast thus early taught to seek the "glory" of the tented field and revel in the excitement of the deadly onslaught! How different from the instruction which the Word prescribes for the children! Deut. 11: 18-20. How different from the instruction which the children themselves in olden times received at the feet of Jesus, and should be receiving now from the lips of godly parents!
This is but another incident to show the trend of events converging toward earth's great finale. C. M. S.

THE CRAZE OF FORMING TRUSTS.

IN our news notes columns on page 14 we have been making brief mention for a few weeks past of the new trusts that are being formed. By referring to what is presented this week it will be seen that new trusts are in process of formation that may soon combine a capital of over $750,000,000—more than three-quarters of a billion dollars.
The facts that these immense figures represent are among the most alarming features of this time; for the men who are covetously grasping such immense hoards of wealth are not merely piling money and property in heaps about them, but they have the faithful warning of the Word of God that their unnatural and supremely selfish accumulations will "eat" their flesh "as it were fire." This inhuman seizure of all the treasures and property that men can "corner" seems more like the raving work of maniacs than the deliberate actions of men endowed with power to reason. These men who are so crazed in their wild race to accumulate money are, of all others, the most to be pitied. Can they not be awakened to what they are doing? Can they not be aroused to the calamities that they are bringing upon both themselves and the multitude of others that will be involved in their miseries and ruin?

Regarding Unordered Papers

We send no papers from this office to individuals without pay in advance.
When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the "Signs" are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon to pay for them. Please read the papers you may receive, and hand them to your friends to read.

CONTAINED IN THIS NUMBER.

Poetry.

Abounding Love, THORO HARRIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A Call for Christian Workers, G. T. WILSON . . . . . . . . 9 The Lament of a Missionary Box, MRS. MARY ST. CLAIR. 10 Baby's Other Mother, MINNIE EMBREE . . . . . . . . . . 12

General.

The Barren Fig Tree, MRS. E. G. WHITE . . . . . . . . . 1 The Gospel in the Diet Question, DAVID PAULSON, M.D. . 2 Studies in Galatians (Gal. 3:15-22), E. J. WAGGONER . . 3 "What Is Man," C. P. B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 "What Must I Do to be Saved," A. SMITH . . . . . . . . . 5 Are the Ten Commandments Abolished? C. H. BLISS. . . 5

Editorial.

Heaven Gave the Best—Saved in the Child-Bearing—Spirit-ualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,7 Question Corner.—Nos. 912, 913, 914 . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Outlook.—Another War—Catholic Relics—The King among Nations in His Hall—The Slaughter of the Innocents . . . 8 Missions.—Pitcairn among the Islands, E. C. CHAPMAN . . 9 International Sabbath-school and Sunday-school Lessons . . 11 The Home.—How to Live a Century, No. 3, B. F. RICHARDS —"Help Sally to Count Forty" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 13 News and Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Vick's Garden and Floral Guide

Vick's Garden and Floral Guide is now ready for distribution. Those who are interested in such matters and who are looking for one of the best and most reliable firms with which to deal should write at once to James Vick's Sons, Rochester, N. Y.

Peace and Preparation for War

"We recognize the blessings of peace, and shall do everything in our power to maintain peace between the nations, but"—and then follows a demand for more battle-ships, more cannon, more regiments. That seems to be the formula the world over just now.—Minneapolis Times.

Pardon and Cleansing

How full and complete are the Lord's promises of pardon and cleansing! "In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve." Jer. 50: 20.

Dr. Paulson’s Articles

The article from Doctor Paulson in this week's paper is one from among a number that we have just received from his pen. Following articles will discuss such timely topics as "Divine Healing," "The Need of a Gospel of Health," "God's Willingness to Relieve the Suffering," etc., etc.

Correction

Correction: In our issue of January 25 it was stated that every subscriber for the Signs for 1899 would receive a copy of the Quarter-Centennial issue. We should have said a copy of this special issue will be sent to every new subscriber requesting us to send it, as long as we have a supply on hand.

Following Truth Wherever It Leads

The man who honestly desires nothing but truth is ready to promptly part with error, no matter how dearly he may have cherished it. He is also ready to change his mind when truth invites him to do so. It is the bigot or the self-conceited man that wishes to hold opinions simply because it is his adopted creed or perchance, because "he has always believed that way." But he who has tasted the joys of real truth wishes to follow it, wherever it may lead. Truth is always the very best thing, and he who accustoms himself to the best will not be satisfied with an inferior or spurious article.

Exemption of Church Property from Taxation—a Protest.

A noted writer in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner says: "The churches are again clamoring for exemption from taxation." He makes no exception as to "the churches." But there is one denomination in California which does not join in the clamor. The Seventh-day Adventists do not believe in exemption of church property from taxation. They protest against this proposed amendment now before the Legislature. They believe that the church of Jesus Christ is fully able to stand alone without State aid. They do not believe that the church of Christ ought in any way to bind herself to the State machinery. They believe in the apostolic injunction: "Render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." They will, therefore, pay willingly the humanly equitable taxation of property imposed by the State; but they do not believe in honoring a State sabbath; for the Sabbath belongs to God, and He alone has the right to command it. Where are the Baptists, and the spirit of Roger Williams?

Porter’s Commission to Cuba

Robert P. Porter's commission to Cuba has evidently been a successful one. It was for the purpose of facilitating the disbandment of the Cuban army. Commissioner Porter carried with him authority to negotiate, as the government's representative, with General Gomez, the commander of the Cuban army. The latter, on behalf of the Cuban soldiers, has accepted the offer of $3,000,000 as part pay for their services, and the actual work of mustering out the Cuban troops will soon begin. The $3,000,000 will be repaid to the United States from the customs receipts of Cuban ports. There is considerable agitation among American statesmen in favor of withdrawing the troops from the island as speedily as the circumstances will permit, in order that there may be as little delay as possible in placing upon the Cubans themselves the responsibilities of their own governing.

Christianity and the Manila Fighting

The press despatches, giving the account of the recent fighting at Manila, are full of glowing expressions in regard to the American soldier's deeds of slaughter. On one bulletin displayed in letters formed by small electric lights were the words, "The California boys fought like demons." There is a strange inconsistency between the trumpeted profession that this is a Christian nation and these descriptions of the fighting done at Manila. And if any one will lay aside his prejudices and fancies and look at the actual facts he will readily see that the people, not of this country alone but of the whole world, are in an excitable frame of mind that tends more to the strife of warfare than the quiet pursuits of peace.

The Treaty of Peace Ratified

ON February 6 the United States Senate, with a margin of one vote, ratified the treaty of peace signed at Paris between the representatives of this government and Spain; and the United States comes into possession of whatever sovereignty Spain possessed in the Philippine Islands, as well as the islands of Porto Rico and Guam. Provision for the payment of the $20,000,000 to Spain has already been made, and it is safe to say that Spain knows of many ways in which she can use the money.

The Midwinter Number

The Midwinter Number of the Los Angeles (California) Times comes to our table with its sixty-four pages filled with the story of California and her industries. County by county are taken up the resources and productions of the southern part of the great Golden State. Those who desire to know anything about that part of the country will find their wants supplied in its illustrated and well-written pages. The price of this special number is ten cents per copy.

Darkness at Noon

"The Western Workman," published at East St. Louis, Ill., in its issue of the 23d ultimo has the following item: "We had a spell of London weather Wednesday, and it grew dark at noon. Dark night dropped down upon us. It was day by our Waterbury, but night by the skies. Pigeons sought their perches. Chickens went to roost, and all bird life was preparing for a nap, when the clocks sounded the hour of noon."

You have reached the end of this edition.

Signs of the Times · Feb 15, 1899