p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 41. (10/8/1902)

Earlier text: Astounding. Marvelous. Unprecedented

ALFRED MALLETT,** Nyack, N. Y. (New Address)

By ALFRED MALLETT

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ALFRED MALLETT,** Nyack, N. Y. (New Address)

Baptism: Its Significance, Its Nature, and the Necessity for It

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

BAPTISM: Its Significance, Its Nature, and the Necessity for It. By E. J. Waggoner. Bible Students’ Library, No. 79. Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. 16 pp.; 2 cents.

PRICE 75 CENTS

This picture is reduced from one of the chapters in The House We Live In

In the book Mrs. Farnsworth compares the human body to a house. The Telephone System chapter compares the nerves to telephone wires. This illustrates the method used by this gifted author in teaching physiology to children

The book is full of pictures and the binding an attractive cloth

PRICE 75 CENTS

Devoted to What?

—Our Sunday-school lesson this week is an instructive one. Jericho and its people might have lived. At least there is nothing in the record to the contrary. One version declares that the city was accursed. The original, and also the Revised Version, and elsewhere, declares that the city was “devoted” and all in it. To what it should be devoted was determined by character. The gold and silver, and treasures of that character went into the treasure house of God. The people were destroyed. But might they not all have been saved?—Yes, if they had been willing to have been Jehovah’s. Rahab and her household were saved because they had faith in Jehovah. God is no respecter of persons. He would have saved all the others who had the same faith. More than this: For what purpose did that silent army, led by priests and the holy ark of God, for seven days march around that city? God could have destroyed it as easily on the first day as the seventh. Why then the marching?—It was to give opportunity to all the people in that city to open its barred gates, throw them wide to the hosts of Israel, and say, “Come in, ye blessed of Jehovah.” Every day of that seven days it was their privilege. During all that time God’s army (Joshua 2:13-15) waited for the people to yield to God’s mercy. But when the city was compassed for the last time, and the people were bidden to shout, it was too late. The invisible host of God threw down the walls, and the city was devoted to destruction. It is a present lesson, and has a personal application.

Forthcoming South Africa Mission Articles

By Editor

Our Missionary department is badly crowded in this issue, and must therefore lack in interest. One page, in fact, has been crowded out. The books there advertised we can recommend as exceedingly cheap reference books. We do not know where so much could be gotten for the same money. After this week we shall present an interesting series of articles from South Africa, in mission lines, from Brother G. W. Reaser, superintendent of that field. These will be illustrated and of great interest.

A Sinister Sidelight on Men of Wealth

A sinister sidelight is thrown on the secret lives of at least some men of wealth and leisure; for it goes without saying that Fish and Craft are representative in their habits of many more. The former, of historic family, an aged man who had seen public service, well-known throughout the country, was killed by the blow of a ruffian’s fist in a low-down resort in New York City, where he had accompanied dissolute women. The latter, Craft, a man of affairs, position, and wealth, connected with well-known families of wealth, is brutally murdered for his money in a Tenderloin resort in the same city, where with lewd women he had been drinking all night. Once the country would have been shocked; now these things are but items of news.

Wide Spread Calamity.

News despatches bring the details of a fearful cyclone which swept over the island of Sicily the last week in September. The greatest damage was wrought at Modica where 200 lives were lost. Property is damaged to the extent of $250,000,000. September 27 a pleasure yacht capsized in the Black Sea and 20 persons were drowned. The same day, a passenger train in France, en route from Lille to Châlons, was wrecked, in which 20 were killed outright and a score injured. On the same day, too, there was a collision of freight trains in Rawlins, Wyo., and in the wreck and fire which followed, six men are believed to have been killed. September 28 a fire broke out in a pavilion used for exhibitions in which a fair was in progress, in Stockton, Cal., and ceased not its ravages till it had consumed nearly six blocks, four almost entirely. The four which suffered most are bounded by Washington, Hunter, Sonora, and Sutter streets. The fire beginning in the day time, but one life was lost. Damage is estimated at a half million dollars, with little insurance. Volcanic activity is reported from Mexico and from Stromboli, in the Mediterranean.

Old World Rumors.

—In the East there are still rumors that Russia is pushing on to the Indian Ocean as well as to the Pacific. It is said to reach the Indian Ocean she will if need be, fight both England and Germany. In Europe it is rumored that there is prospect of alliance among the Latin countries, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. This would probably include Russia. It is designed against England’s hold upon the Mediterranean. Spain, it is said, contemplates building a navy, and yet the government is practically bankrupt, having placed as security with Portugal for a loan, the crown jewels. There is outward peace over a slumbering volcano.

Articles for the Home.

By Editor

—Those of our readers who followed the articles of Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, on “The Child,” from infancy to adolescence, published some months ago in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, we are sure greatly appreciated them. Some of them have been appreciated and published by our exchanges, even as far as Europe and Australasia, sometimes without credit. At any rate the precious lessons have been taught. The SIGNS will soon begin another series of articles by the same experienced writer, carrying forward the subject to maturity. Some of these are already in hand; others will soon follow. Of those received we have four on the subject of “Adolescence,” as follows:—

Its Physical Significance;

Its Mental Significance;

Its Religious Significance;

Rules for Parents and Teachers.

The subject of “The Home” is treated as follows:—

Parents and Children;

Brothers and Sisters;

Companionship.

Under “Society” we have “Comradeship.”

These are what every parent, teacher, family, needs. Who will help to give them the widest circulation possible?

What Did It Prove?

In our News and Notes columns there is an item to which we call especial attention. It relates to the wounding of a gentleman, Mr. Kensit, who has felt himself called upon to work against the Ritualist, or High Church, movement in the Church of England. Doubtless he has presented strong arguments which have worried his hearers. Some, it seems, have become angry. One of them attempted to meet the gentleman’s arguments by throwing a chisel, and severely wounding Mr. Kensit. Now what did such kind of an argument as the throwing of a chisel prove? It did not prove that Mr. Kensit was wrong. It did not show any of his arguments to be defective or illogical, or any of his statements to be untrue. If it had killed him, it would only have emphasized the truth that he spoke. But the use of the chisel did prove something. It proved that the man that used it had no better weapon with which to meet his adversary; it proved that the user had no faith in God for his cause, or he would have been willing to have left it with God. In all ways it worked against the user and his cause, and made a deeper wound and will leave a deeper scar in his own character than it did in Mr. Kensit’s face. Of the same order as the chisel argument are the boycott argument, the various inquisition arguments, the “scab” argument, and many others. The advocates of truth can always afford to be fair, and leave results with God. It is the evil that “can not brook delay; the good can well afford to wait.”

Christianity Admits of No Qualification

Christianity admits of no qualification. It admits of no degree or classification. There are degrees of faith manifested in different individuals, but Christianity is Christlikeness—no more, no less. One man discourses on “applied Christianity,” but Christianity is entirely wanting where it is not applied. “Faith without works is dead.” A religious journal grows eloquent in advocacy of “social Christianity,” but anything unsocial is not Christianity. Strange as it may seem, the ideal of this “social Christianity,” is reached in the President’s touring the country and making speeches to the people. But that is about as high as any qualified Christianity could reach. We sometimes speak of “true Christianity” as opposed to “false Christianity,” but the prefix “true” is superfluous, as Christianity is always true. And there is no such thing as false Christianity; there may be a false profession of Christianity, but that is hypocrisy.

The Limits of Astronomical Observation

It is not the true scientist who is so sure of everything as it is the man who jumps at the mere suggestions or hypothetical suggestions of scientists. For instance, with all the great telescopes and other instruments, but little comparatively has been done. As Mr. Garrett P. Serviss expresses it: “When we consider the facts of astronomy we perceive that the observers have hardly yet won the first battle. There is not yet a telescope in existence that is able to reveal a single one of the myriad worlds which we have reason to believe revolve in the light of the stars. . . . There are stars in the heavens thousands of times greater in actual brightness than our sun, but the mightiest of telescopes is unable to bring them near enough to show their disks.” And he further tells us that the telescopes will have to be built on a new plan before greater results in these directions may be expected.

Volcanic Calamities and the Eternal Refuge

Mont Pelee is still in eruption. Professor S. E. Bishop, a seismologist of reputation, predicts the destruction of the whole island of Martinique. He tells us that conditions are similar to those which preceded the destruction of the island of Krakatoa several years ago. The volcano is also active on St. Vincent Island. These are among the premonitions which God is giving of the fate of this world. Men may laugh at these things at a distance of time or space; but as true as the “more sure word of prophecy” is true, they will sometime be stern, unlaughable realities. And yet, from all these calamities there is a refuge, safe, sure, and sempiternal. “The eternal God is thy refuge; and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Power of Superstition.

The New York World has a despatch dated “Washington, September 13,” which says: “The passing of to-day without the return of Postmaster-General Payne relieved the anxiety of several thousand government officials and employees who have been apprehensive that the new United States postage stamp bearing the denomination of 13 cents would make its appearance on the 13th of this month. There were comparatively few who cared to wave their defiant hands, in the face of this double superstition.” Men are afraid to fly in the face of a senseless, baseless superstition; but the same ones will walk in persistent rebellion against God and the very law of their life. Superstition is not dead.

Railway Improvements on the Burlington

The vast capital invested in railways is indicated by the one item that the Burlington has in the last three years expended $18,000,000 in building double track, reducing heavy grades, and eliminating sharp curves. Curves have been reduced from 3½ degrees to 1 degree, and grades from 70 feet to the mile to 30 feet. It is a splendid line of road.