—A little victim of the cigarette habit, aged twelve years, recently committed suicide at Saginaw, Mich.
—The insane asylum at Stockton, Cal., reports 1,531 patients, and the cost of maintenance for the past year was 35½ cents each per day.
—On the 8th inst., Frank Port, of San Luis Obispo, Cal., and Charles Hurst, of Cloverdale, Cal., were each mistaken for deer and shot by a hunting companion. In both cases the shooting was fatal.
—In a railroad collision at Green’s Station on the Southern Pacific Railroad in Oregon, on the 6th inst., a fireman and a brakeman were instantly killed, while an engineer, a fireman, and five trainmen were seriously injured.
—A wine manufacturer of Elmira, N. Y., has called the attention of the district attorney to the fact that the churches of that city are violating the law by giving away wine at the communion. The grand jury will take cognizance of the matter.
—The Woman’s American Protective Association held a Supreme Council in Washington City last week. Mrs. M. E. Richardson, of this city, was elected supreme vice president. She is also grand president of the state organization in California.
—Near the town of Summit, in Benton County, Ore., on the night of the 4th inst., a family consisting of mother and three children were burned with the house, and no one knows anything of the cause of the disaster. The sad incident was not discovered by the nearest neighbors until the next morning.
—John and Cæsar Cummings, who were to have been hanged September 26, at San Quentin, Cal., and who were granted a reprieve until the 30th inst., have had their sentence commuted to imprisonment for life. Their crime was robbery and murder. It appears that three parties were engaged in the robbery, but the one who dealt the fatal blow when the victim showed fight, turned state’s evidence and was not prosecuted.
—Last week a number of mining men sailed from San Francisco for Korea. They represent a syndicate of capitalists who have a concession from the king for opening certain mines said to be valuable, and for building a railroad from Chemulpo 180 miles into the interior to the mines. A ten-stamp mill was sent over before the war between China and Japan, but the enterprise had to be temporarily abandoned on account of that conflict. The capitalists are mostly Colorado men.
—Fifty Chinese employed in various capacities around the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, peremptorily quit work last week because their Chinese boss was discharged. The manager of the hotel had found it convenient to employ Chinese cleaners and dishwashers through the agency of the one who had charge of them. It leaked out that he was exacting $2.50 a month from each one of them, and he was discharged. Strange as it may appear, his victims all quit because of his discharge. The manager has now decided to employ white men.
—California has an irrigation law, under which the people may organize water districts and utilize the natural water supply for irrigation. Another law was passed in 1893 enabling the people to disorganize these districts if they should desire to do so. But as all the districts had to issue bonds in the beginning to raise money for necessary improvements, the bondholders naturally want to continue the bonds indefinitely, and have combined to oppose disorganization. An attempt is being made to have the Supreme Court declare the last law unconstitutional, and, in case of failure in this, to have it repealed by the next Legislature. If the capitalists can succeed in electing legislators who will repeal the law, they will be prepared to perpetuate the bonds as a permanent investment. The scheme is about the wickedest trust plot that has yet been projected.
—Bishop Keane, rector of the Catholic University at Washington, has been deposed by order of the pope. The matter has created quite a sensation in the capital city, not only among Catholics, but in Protestant circles, where the bishop was quite popular. It is claimed that Cardinal Satolli and Mgr. Schroeder have not properly represented American conditions to the Vatican, and the same powerful party has kept the pope and his advisers in ignorance of the differences existing between the Roman Catholics of the United States and those of the rest of the world.
—Mrs. Phœbe J. Clymer, of this city, aged eighty-two years, who had been totally blind for thirty-six years, died on the 8th inst. Her blindness had been caused by neuralgia of the optic nerve, and, strange as it may seem, her eyesight returned a few days before her death, and she was permitted to see her friends. A great deal of money was spent in efforts to restore her sight, and she had lived with one and another of her children during the years of her affliction. They claim the blessing of a few days’ restoration of sight to have been in response to earnest prayers to that end.
—At first the people of San Francisco thought it a fine piece of postal accommodation to have the street-cars utilized as mail-carriers. It turns out, however, to be a tremendous weapon in the hands of the street-car monopoly; for every driver of a vehicle, or any one else for that matter, who may happen to cause the slightest delay to a car is liable to be brought before a United States court for obstructing the mails, and fined $100, with imprisonment. It seems that everything, from government policy down, is being turned to the advantage of the rich corporations in these last days.
—The yacht Coronet, which recently arrived at San Francisco from Yokohama, reports a narrow escape from a waterspout in mid-ocean. The column of water was about a hundred yards across, traveled at a frightful rate, and passed within a few hundred yards of the vessel. The officers of the bark Santiago also report the passage of a waterspout while the vessel lay in a dead calm in latitude 44° 11' north, longitude 146° 50' west. The body of water bore down from the west directly toward the vessel until within about a thousand feet of it, and then veered and passed by on the north side.
—Science is popularly supposed to demonstrate all the claims of science; that is, when men who pass as scientists say anything not within the absolute knowledge of the common mind, it is taken for granted. To such an extent does this credulity obtain, that the merest supposition from a scientific standpoint is often taken up, and popularly held as demonstrated fact. But, as a matter of fact, the discoveries, or supposed discoveries, of science are but the assertions of previous scientific error. The latest astronomical announcement of this character comes from the Lowell Observatory, at Flagstaff, A. T., under date of the 7th inst. The astronomers of that institution claim to have discovered that the planets Mercury and Venus each turns once on its axis during one revolution about the sun, making the day just equal to the year on these planets. They find further that Venus is not cloud covered, as has been reported, but has about it a thick atmosphere, while Mercury has none.
NEW COMBINATION OFFERS.
By Editor
Lincoln Fountain Pen has been used by us for some time, and we find it perfectly reliable and always ready for work. It contains a high-grade gold pen, and the barrel is beautifully chased. It is equal to any, and superior to many $2.00 pens on the market, and we can heartily recommend it. Sent neatly boxed, with filler and full instructions for using, with the SIGNS one year, for only $1.75.
Geikie’s Life of Christ is just now a book of special importance while our Sabbath schools are studying the life of Christ as given in the Gospel of John. Our stock of the book is rapidly melting away, but as long as it remains, we make the following offer. Remember that this book contains over 800 pages of choice reading, in connection with the life of our Saviour, and has an excellent index, referring the reader at a glance to any particular incident made mention of in the book. This offer will never again be repeated. If your own subscription is not expiring, secure an order from some one else, as the book will be sent to one address and the paper to another; as will also the Lincoln Pen.
Geikie’s Life of Christ and the SIGNS OF THE TIMES for one year, $1.40.
For five yearly subscriptions to the SIGNS, at $1.00 each, we will mail free the Lincoln Fountain Pen.
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WHAT DO THESE THINGS MEAN?
By Editor
THE above is the title of a tract published two years ago. Its aim was to give the true meaning of the then unsettled condition of "Capital and Labor," finances, etc.
Since then the condition has grown more serious, and these questions have demanded more attention, but the real import of it all remains the same. For this reason the tract is especially adapted for distribution just now. Price 2½ cents each, with special discount in quantities.
Pacific Press Pub. Co.,
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"POLITICAL SPEECHES AND DEBATES
of
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas,"
CONTAINS all the important speeches of "The Giants" from 1854 to 1861, giving a fair and full history of the slavery question and the great Constitutional questions involved therein from the beginning of the nation to the outbreak of the Civil War.
Though the great Civil War is a thing of the past, the principles over which the war was fought will live till the national life is extinct. The vital question of that day was, whether "government of the people, for the people, by the people" should remain or be destroyed.
Is it not as necessary to the well-being of government that these principles be maintained to-day? As a fresh attack is now being made on our Constitution, should not every thinking man study the history of those days, that he may know how to direct his efforts to-day? These questions are pertinent, and every American should give them careful consideration.
The work contains 555 pages, printed from new, clear type, with numerous full-page half-tone illustrations, including portraits of Lincoln and Douglas. Bound in Buckram - - - - - - $1.75
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TUESDAYS AND SATURDAYS
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Initial Trip NOV. 7
MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS
From New Orleans
Initial Trip NOV. 9
Residents of California and elsewhere in the West, who have planned for Eastern tours previous to the date named, should keep in mind the important fact that the return trip can be arranged for SUNSET LIMITED without additional cost. A trip across the continent via the popular Sunset Route, in a Pullman vestibule train of palatial elegance, provided with every comfort and luxury that can be suggested for the inner as well as the outer man, is a good fortune that falls but rarely to the average lot. Don't forget this when purchasing your ticket.
A NEW TRACT CATALOG
"Descriptive Catalog of the Bible Students', Apples of Gold, and Religious Liberty Libraries" is the title of this 36 Page Catalog.
It gives a pithy description of each tract and pamphlet in the above Libraries, together with their size and price. It will greatly assist the reader to select such numbers as he may desire to read and circulate; and may be obtained free of charge by addressing your State Tract Society; the Pacific Press Publishing Company, Oakland, California; 39 Bond St., New York City, N. Y.; 18 W. 5th St., Kansas City, Mo.; or Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Michigan; Atlanta, Ga.
"This Rock, or the Foundation of the Church." (Spanish.) Showing that the Rock of Matt. 16: 18 is Christ, and not Peter; 4 pp.; 50 cents per 100. Address, PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING Co., Oakland, Cal.
KEENE INDUSTRIAL ACADEMY.
By C. B. Hughes
THE Academy opens October 28. This is favorable for those who were not prepared to enter school at an earlier date. The energetic young man can earn enough during the school year to reduce his cash expenses to about seventy-five dollars. The Academy offers Preparatory, Christian Workers,' Academic and Ministers' courses of study. Write for calendar.
C. B. HUGHES, Principal.
PERIODICALS WANTED
OUR papers, in any language, are much needed for hospital and Christian help work in Washington. Address, postpaid, Elizabeth W. Harris, 2012 Brightwood Ave., Washington, D. C.
PUBLICATIONS ON THE
SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
MATTHEW 24, OR THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. An exposition of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew's Gospel. 96 pages, paper covers. Price 10 cents.
SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. A brief resumé of the advents of Christ and the prophecies which cluster around these events. Two diagrams assist in the study. 80 pages, paper covers. Price 10 cents.
CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE. Showing the work that Christ accomplishes in the Sanctuary in Heaven, before his second coming. 112 pages, paper covers. Price 10 cents.
SURE WORD OF PROPHECY. A consideration of the important prophecies of the book of Daniel, the last chapter of which brings us to the "time of the end," just previous to Christ's second coming. 96 pages, paper covers. Price 10 cents.
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Preach the Word
By Editor
We ask a careful reading of the articles on "The Controversy of the Ages." They began last week. The subject will develop in interest as we proceed.
Reader, do you desire to know what Bible faith is in contrast with what it is not? Then read the articles "Christianity versus Catholicism," by A. T. Jones. The series will close with next issue.
Preach the Word.
When it is said by each of two ministers that God directs him to preach politics in this campaign, and they both preach different politics, the spectator has the right to question at least whether one of them is not following a wrong inspiration, and maybe both are. Both are certainly wrong if as ministers of the Gospel they are preaching human law and human policies, and party politics for the ills of men. What God gave as his commission was, "Preach the Word." If the vital principles of life and salvation are involved in the conflict, he can warn his people against the evil and set before them the good as it is in Christ, but he degrades the pulpit when he descends to partisan politics.
But What Does the Word Say?
We clip the following from a religious paper as a sample of many of the arguments put forth against the Sabbath of the Lord:—
"That is, he blessed the seventh-day period in which he had rested from all his creative work. There is no account of his engaging in any subsequent creative work; so the period of God's rest which he sanctified is not yet ended. No twenty-four-hour day was sanctified in Eden, or mentioned there. This is the only mention that is made of a sabbath day in the book of Genesis."
"Had rested" is past tense, and this is correct, for so the Bible states: "And he [God] rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." The resting was in the past before the blessing and sanctification were pronounced. The period of God's rest of Gen. 2: 2 was therefore ended when the day was blest. The seventh day was just like all the days which preceded it, days measured by the sun, alternate periods of light and darkness, or night and day.
By the steamer Australia, from Honolulu, which arrived at San Francisco on the 10th inst., there came as passengers Sister Rosa Young, of Pitcairn Island, and Sister Hattie Andre, who has been engaged as a teacher on the island for the past three years. They went from Pitcairn Island on the Pitcairn to Samoa, and there took steamer via Honolulu for America, stopping over at Honolulu sixteen days. Sister Andre will continue her journey next week to her home in Wheelersburg, Ohio, while Sister Young will stay for a time at St. Helena Sanitarium for rest and recuperation healthwise. They report Elder Gates and wife, of Honolulu, both in poor health, and contemplating an early return to America.
It Is Not an Old Charge.
The following from the Christian Soldier is substantially what was said of Elijah and the Prophets and Jesus Christ, and the Apostles, and the Reformers. It is not an old charge. The real question is, Is it truth from the standpoint of the word of God?
"The advocates of the Saturday for Sabbath idea are demoralizing whole communities, breeding strife, contention, and infidelity. It is a hurtful error. It dishonors Christ; returns to Judaism; breaks down faith; hinders religious progress; blots out spiritual joy, fettering the soul with gloom; renders its victims sour, vindictive, controversial, and in many ways proves itself an enemy of New Testament Christianity."
Christ kept the seventh-day Sabbath. He brought strife and a sword, because erring man would not accept of truth and peace; but to those who accepted him with all the heart, even as to those now who accept him in his truth, including his downtrodden Sabbath, there is peace which the world does not know. No person in the world is so soundly happy as is he who in Christ observes the blessed Sabbath day of the word of God.
"How happy are they
Who their Saviour obey?"
We wish the Soldier knew this by experience.
LOYALTY DEMANDED.
By Editor
ONE of the noblest qualities in a soldier is loyalty to the law of his king and captain, and bravery to follow where that king leads. He has no right to pervert the law or construe the commands of his commander or follow in the footstep of an enemy. The Christian Soldier, of Louisville, Kentucky, has the following note:—
"Suppose some Sunday you board a train, reader, and after a few miles' ride, the whole is wrecked. Immediately you wake up before the Judge of all men with the Fourth Commandment in characters of living fire blazing down on you. Then what? If you do not know what the Fourth Commandment is, look it up in Ex. 20: 8-10. It is good, substantial reading, but is much neglected by the bulk of the people."
But the Fourth Commandment, which by the way includes Ex. 20: 8-11, says nothing about Sunday. It enjoins another day, the seventh day, the day just before the first day of the week. Loyalty to the King would demand obedience to his law as he gave it, and loyalty to the Captain of our salvation, together with true bravery, should, it seems to us, lead the Soldier to follow in his steps. But Christ kept the Sabbath, the seventh day. Why does not the Christian Soldier follow him?
"God changes not. We change. Conditions change. Necessarily an unchangeable God always asks the same things in the same conditions, but different things in different conditions. So every command that fits a universal need must be universal. A restudy of the purpose of the Sabbath as given last month shows that it fits a universal need; hence it is for all. Again, it is plain that the Sabbath fits the physical, mental, social and moral need of the individual, society, and nation. God has written the law in man's nature, hence his revealed law of the Sabbath must be universal."—Christian Endeavor.
That is a real good Sabbath argument. A good argument for the perpetuity of the law of God, and its unchangeable nature. True, "God changes not;" yet the author of that sentiment believes that he has changed his law, which is the expression of his character, and has changed it in the very important part that comprises the seal of the law. The Sabbath "fits a universal need;" then why attempt to change it? David says: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Then the alleged change of the Sabbath, if such a thing were possible, must of necessity produce an imperfect Sabbath and an imperfect law. Surely none but an adversary of God would instigate such a pretense. The "Lord of the Sabbath" has declared that, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
"HOW DRUNKARDS ARE MADE."
The New York Herald recently published an article with the above title, in which it revealed the following sad picture. It is a conversation between a beer-seller and the Herald reporter:—
'Now, you watch those children. They'll drink half that beer before they get home, and their mother will scold me for not giving a good pint, and I've given nearly a quart,' said the bartender of a down-town saloon the other day, referring to two little girls of six and eight, thinly clad, who came for a pint of beer. The reporter did watch the little ones. They had scarcely got outside the saloon door when the one that carried the tin pail lifted it to her lips, and took a draught. Then her companion enjoyed a few swallows. A little further on they entered a tenement house hallway, and both again took a sip. 'I've lots of such customers,' said the bartender, when the reporter returned to the saloon. 'Girls and boys and women form half our trade. We call it family trade. It pays our expenses. Our profits come from the drinkers at the bar. But I tell you what—half the children who come here drink. That's how drunkards are made. Their parents send them for beer. They see the old folks tipple, and begin to taste the beer themselves. Few of the children who come in here for beer or ale carry a full pint home. Sometimes two or three come in together, and if you'll watch them you'll hear one begging the one who carries the pail for a sip. We must sell it, however, when their parents send for it. We are bound to do so. Business is business. We don't keep a temperance shop.'
No, they do not keep a temperance shop, but a drunkard manufactory. Would to God that this simple truth might be realized on the part of those who grant license, those who work at the trade of drunkard maker, and those who compose the material out of which they are made. There would soon be no more saloons.
"Equality of Men"—Whose Invention?
Says one of the world's honored scholars, of Dublin, Ireland, Prof. J. P. Mahaffy, LL.D., F.R.S., in the Christian World of July 23, 1896:—
"There is no doctrine which is more false, or which has done more mischief, than the invention of the 'equality of men' by Rousseau and his school. It may yet prove the most mischievous lie in all history."
Professor Mahaffy does not write in the spirit of a century ago. Neither does he go back far enough to find the origin of the "equality of men." It was not an invention of Rousseau or his school. It had a better, nobler Author. Said our Lord: "One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." Matt. 23:8. If this is not equality, what is? Again: "God that made the world . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men." Acts 17:24, 26. "For there is no respect of persons with God." Rom. 2:11. The equality of men is of God; their inequality is of sin and of men.
Waiting.
Nearly everybody expects to be saved sometime. But the fact that they expect sometime to be ready to give up to the Lord, makes them satisfied with not being ready. This is what produces the feeling of indifference and lethargy. The Lord will never work with any greater power than he is now using. He is just what he is. He has not two measures of strength. When he works, he works with his own power, and he is working now. Those who are expecting some mighty movement to come and sweep them off their feet, and carry them upward to Zion, will be disappointed. God never can increase in power. He is the perfection of power and goodness. Our part is to recognize the power already here, and to yield to it.