p. 719 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 45. (11/25/1913)

PAMPHLETS

By Editor

That you may be familiar with what is obtainable in the way of Bible helps in pamphlet form, we give the following list and descriptions:

Change of the Sabbath 25 Cents

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Christian Science and Divine Healing 15 Cents

Every missionary worker should have a quantity of this pamphlet to circulate.

Christ Our Advocate 10 Cents

Fully illustrated. This thoroly explains the sanctuary question, the 2300-day period, and other vital points.

Helps to Bible Study 25 Cents

A series of Bible readings to aid in study, and in teaching on Bible subjects.

The Lord's Day the Test of the Ages 10 Cents

Traces the Sabbath through every dispensation.

Matthew 24 10 Cents

Exposition of Christ's prophecy in the 24th of Matthew.

Prophetic Gift in the Gospel Church 15 Cents

Saints' Inheritance 10 Cents

Description of the home of the saved.

The Sure Word of Prophecy 10 Cents

Comprehensive study of the book of Daniel.

The Spirit World and the Future Life 10 Cents

Wonderful manifestations of Spiritualism from a Bible standpoint.

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Order of your tract society or the Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, California.

Our Work in Singapore

By F. A. Detamore

A LITTLE over a week ago I arrived in Singapore from British North Borneo, after an absence of nearly a month. On the way to Sandakan, where Brother and Sister Montgomery and Brother Chan are located, we spent a day and a night at Jesselton, enjoying a visit with Brother Wong, our Chinese brother at that place. We studied some points of truth with him, among which was the subject of tithing. On my return trip I saw him again, and he expressed his joy in accepting the different points of truth, and was planning to pay his tithe. This illustrates how anxious a true child of God is to obey, when he knows the Master's will. This brother has moved to Labuan and purchased a plantation, so that he can support his family and keep the Sabbath. He gave

up a lucrative business when he accepted the truth, and has since refused large salaries because he could not accept them and keep the Sabbath. His friends say he is going mad, but he replies by telling them of the truth in which his heart finds joy and peace.

F. A. DETAMORE.

They Are Calling Us

By L. D. Santee

By L. D. SANTEE

THERE'S a summons from the Master, for the fields of earth are ripe. On every side, they're pleading more and more. Lead the heathen in his blindness out of darkness into light. Tell the world of heaven's bright, immortal shore.

O, the heathen world is waiting for salvation's joyful sound, And heaven's invitation reaches men. Soon will this glorious gospel spread to earth's remotest bound, And the Saviour then is coming back again.

All the world must hear the tidings of the kingdom soon to come, And the far-off lands, and islands of the sea, And the faithful heralds of the cross leave all the joys of home, To tell men of Christ and immortality.

’Tis the “gospel of the kingdom,” that can set the sinner free. God commands us, “Take the light to fallen men.”

O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! He's calling now for thee, For the Saviour soon is coming back again.

Moral Transformation among the Blacks of Haiti

BROTHER ALBERT F. PRIEGER, director of the Haitien Mission, Cape Haitien, Haiti, writes that since January 1 he has baptized ninety-nine persons, and about twenty more candidates are waiting. He says: “I can not speak the language, and have to work through an interpreter; but with the assistance of my wife, we manage to instruct the natives fully in the message. We can say that we have never seen better Seventh-day Adventists than these black people after they accept this truth. It would do your soul good to attend a service in one of our Haitien churches. . . . No display whatever of any kind of jewelry or showy apparel is manifest among the women. They are a shining light wherever they go, and this is the reason why so many accept the truth. . . .”

This husband and wife, within the shadow of the telegraph pole, are worshiping at one of the tree shrines. The person will tell you that he is not worshiping the tree, but the spirit that created it. This spirit is supposed to be resting under the stone pile built around the tree. In villages where girls do not find suitors, the fathers, rather than have them marry beneath their caste, will have them solemnly married to one of these tree gods. The ceremony is a great affair in the village, and the young girl is bound to the tree, and left there to the mercy of the prowling wild beasts, or possibly to be taken away by some man who is beneath her caste.

DR. A. C. SELMON PERFORMING A BAPTISM IN THE WHANGPOO RIVER, NEAR SHANGHAI

“This year is really the first that an attempt has been made to circulate our literature; and although it is a very bad year financially all through the republic, our colporteurs have stood through it in a remarkable manner. This has demonstrated to us over and over again that the Lord is able to do a mighty work through the humblest of instruments. We now have ten colporteurs in the field,—six men and four women, most of them being young people who are earning their way to attend our schools in the States. Our first student leaves for our school at Huntsville, Alabama, next month, and we hope to send six more next year.

“This country is very little known outside of itself. We see white people very seldom, but the work takes up our time to such an extent that we do not get lonesome or homesick. The Lord is very near to us in our isolation, and His angels seem to take a special care of us and the work here.”

Hearts Moved at Simla, India

BROTHER S. A. WELLMAN tells of an effort being carried on at Simla, north India, which he states still continues with excellent interest. Eight have thus far definitely taken their stand for the truth, and are preparing for baptism. He says they have encountered the most bitter opposition, “but God leads in every work that directs men and women to the study of His word; and that which was done to drive men away, only drove the honest in heart to a more friendly attitude, and created a desire to know the whole message.

“One person was much troubled. She had some years back severed her connection with Rome, being convinced that God was not in that faith; and when the Sabbath truth came to her, the conflict was as sharp as before, and finally she decided not to see any of us, but to study and pray over the question for herself. One of the last words we heard from her was, ‘I am coming through all right’; and although opposers are not letting her rest, yet we believe that, trusting in God, she will gain the victory and decide to obey Him fully.

“All together, the work in Simla is very promising. Among a large class, there is a very friendly feeling; and we believe that in the next year or two a good, strong church will be established there.”

INDIAN WOMEN ENGAGED IN WEAVING IN THE OPEN AIR

Progress in Buildings at Honan and Hankow

By R. F. Cottrell

DURING the past five weeks, we have remained in Chang-Sha, endeavoring to keep as cool as possible. The early part of the summer was quite cool; but for the last three weeks we have had a steady, uninterrupted heat. Notwithstanding the fact that many about us have been ill, the Lord has kept us in usual health.

The mission houses in Honan and Hankow are nearing completion, and will be ready for occupancy soon. Brother Westrup is also erecting, in a compound adjoining the foreign cottages, buildings for an intermediate school for Honan province. The school buildings are being erected according to native style, arranged to accommodate boys and girls in separate buildings. The buildings should be ready for use this autumn, and we trust the school will prove a great blessing to the work in Honan.

R. F. COTTRELL.

From Kagoshima, Japan

By H. Kuniya

RECENTLY one of the colporteurs who was converted during the tent meeting went out to work in the vicinity, and found one young man who once listened to a sermon. This young man, hearing the new colporteur's experience, made up his mind to follow him, but he knew nothing about the Bible study; and while I was absent, Mrs. Kuniya had Bible studies with him. The Spirit of the Lord worked wonderfully, and he began to tell the gospel to others, but his parents forbade him to do so. “I can not but speak the things which I have seen and heard,” was his answer. His father became very angry, and drove him out. The poor boy had no place to stay, no food to eat, but he would not yield to his parents. Upon my arrival, he came to counsel with me, and we took him into our home, and are educating him for the Lord's service. He is a bright boy, and strong physically. He is fully determined to be a Christian soldier.

We had a baptism. Two sisters whom I mentioned in my former letter were baptized in the ocean with Christ by faith, and joined with us. One of them is a sister of the governor of the next prefecture. She is a devout Christian. I hope the way may be opened among the higher class through this lady.

Last week I went to celebrate the wedding for our young workers in Sose-ho; then I baptized two souls. H. Kuniya.

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Signs of the Times Mountain View, California

A Shameful Law

By L. A. R.

A FEW years ago we were admonished to work for the colored people of the South with despatch, because the times would come when our work for the colored people would be greatly hindered. That admonition was perfectly justifiable, as we now see.

A most extraordinary and unchristian law has lately been enacted in the state of Florida. It makes it unlawful “for white teachers to teach Negroes in Negro schools, and for Negro teachers to teach in white schools.” Violation of this prohibition will be punished with a penalty of $500, or imprisonment for six months.

The purpose of this act is perfectly plain. There is very little danger of Negroes’ teaching white pupils. The object is to close mission schools for Negroes taught by white men and women, and the only reason for this must be because the legislators want the Negroes repressed and kept under.

There is the Cookman Institute in Jacksonville, a Methodist school for colored folks. The teachers in this institute will not be allowed to teach correct English, or arithmetic enough to keep a store account, nor to show girls how they can make and mend their dresses, or bake bread and biscuits. The boys can not be taught by competent instructors how to sow or plant or fertilize their land, or how to make bricks or brooms or shoes. Pupils can not be taught manners or morals, or how to read their Bibles, or to obey the Christian religion. Christianity is to uplift those who are downcast and downtrodden. The principles of altruism even demand it.

While this law is unconstitutional in spirit, it seems to be constitutional in form; and the great danger is that if the courts do not annul it, other states may pass similar laws.

It is to be hoped that there is Christian spirit enough in Florida to resent and repeal this law.

L. A. R.

The Faith of Jesus

The book of Revelation, without any question, must have its application in the Christian dispensation, for it was not written until some ninety-six years after the birth of Christ. In that book we find the text, “Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Then those who have the faith of Jesus, according to this word, are commandment keepers. They do not manufacture the commandments; they keep them. The commandments of God come from a higher than human source. In the same way, the text is clear in showing that this people keep the faith of Jesus. The text does not say that they keep their faith in Jesus, but that they keep the faith of Jesus. In other words, there is bestowed upon them as a gift the powerful faith that was manifested by Jesus Himself when He was here upon earth. That faith which He possessed enabled Him to conquer every besetment of Satan, and to come off victorious in everything. That faith enabled Him to endure all of His anguish and His suffering, to pass through all of the ridicule and the tortures of His tormentors. And that same faith finally enabled Him to triumph over every one of the superhuman efforts of Satan to cause His overthrow. That faith enabled Him to keep His Father’s commandments; for He says, “I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” John 15: 10.

His faith having enabled Him to triumph completely over Satan and every form of sin, and in human flesh to live a spotless life, He bestows that faith upon us as a precious gift. It has been tested and tried, and in no particular found wanting. Now if we will but receive it, He offers His faith to us as a gift, the same as He offers us His righteousness; and it is His design that the faith by which He triumphed shall be imparted to us as the precious gift through which we shall triumph over sin the same as He did.

The foregoing text quoted from Revelation is a prophecy which states a great fact. It tells of a class of people that would meet the great wrath of the beast which would be seeking to enforce some false worship, and that the power through which they would triumph was their loyalty to the commandments of God, while holding the faith of Jesus.

Thanksgiving Day

Two days after the date of this paper is the time set apart by our president for thanksgiving throughout the nation. This custom, handed down to us from the fathers of the republic, is a very fitting and proper one.

It will mean more than just a mere custom to the truly Christian portion of our country; for he who has learned to know the Christ of the living God, finds things about him all the time to cause him to be truly thankful.

And while we have our great problems in this nation, and while many of our statesmen are at their wits' end to know what to do with the difficulties, both internal and external, yet may we be thankful for our great prosperity. We may be thankful for the bountiful crops that have been harvested in almost every section of the land. We may be thankful that there is peace within our borders, even though there are many mutterings of war, particularly to the south of us. And even though our nation may be plunged into a conflict with our southern neighbor almost any day, yet may we be grateful to the infinite Father that peace has been prolonged thus far.

But above all the things for which we may be thankful, to the student of prophecy a knowledge of Christ's soon coming is the preeminent source of gratitude. This world is confronted more and more by its distressing problems. It is loaded down beneath its increasing weight of misery and sorrow. There is no one so happily situated but that the dark shadows are continually throwing sadness into his soul; and a large part of the race is, humanly speaking, doomed to destitution, hardship, and despair. In the midst of conditions of this kind that are acknowledged by all to exist, how the soul thrills with joy when it learns, as a definitely demonstrated truth, that Jesus is coming soon!

Those who do not know the delights of this knowledge that Christ is coming, of course can not understand its joys; but to him who has had this great well-spring of faith in his soul there is constant thanksgiving and praise, even amid the darkest, the most foreboding, and the most hopeless surroundings, because he knows he is in contact with the Infinite One, and infinite power and infinite wisdom are never confronted by impossibilities.

The temporal blessings and the temporal joys of this life are indeed a source of thanksgiving, and should call forth rich songs of praise; but it is impossible to describe the thankfulness that fills the heart of the one who stands in the watchtower of prophecy and beholds the unmistakable evidences that all distress and sorrow is about to end in the glorious event of the soon coming of the Son of the living God.

School-Books of 4,000 Years Ago

IN the researches that the University of Pennsylvania is conducting in Nippur, it seems quite apparent, from the tablets that are being disclosed, that the students in the schools of that time studied geography, history, grammar, geology, and theology. A “slate” was found on which a student had written the names of a number of jewels. An error in spelling had caused him to smudge over one of the words and to discard the slate. The researches of the last hundred years in the territory of the great nations of antiquity are disclosing beyond any doubt that the Bible story of that period is correct. Men were questioning many of the statements in Scripture, and it was becoming difficult to disprove their assertions. Of course those who had faith in the Bible, would depend upon the utterances of the Book, no matter what men might say to the contrary; but God in His providence had the great works of those ancient nations buried and preserved, and they are now brought out in all their detail. Even the school-books of the time are disclosed.

The divine Book is inspired by One whose knowledge is infinite, and completely accurate, and His providence has preserved facts of history that enable the individual to know, beyond any reasonable question, that the Book is right, and that its promises, its prophecies, and its precepts may be depended upon. And in the light of the evidence, how filled with joy is the thought that the prophecies of this Book make it clear that this earth is nearing the end of its reign of sin, of misery, and of sorrow! The great Creator, the infinite Christ, is about to return to earth in person, to give immortality to all who are ready to meet Him in that day. We can depend upon the statements of the Book which show it.

No Divine Sanction

GOVERNOR BALDWIN is a pillar in the Congregationalist Church of Connecticut. Congregationalism was the first form of the Christian religion known in the original Connecticut settlements. And in the proceedings of the New England Presbyterian Synod, held at Hartford, we find this sentence:

“We pleaded with Governor Baldwin to veto the bill authorizing them [Sunday sports], but he seemed to be inclined to think that Sunday did not have any divine sanction, but an economic origin.”

The governor regretted, so the reports from the meeting indicate, that Connecticut had fallen into the habit of permitting Sunday sports; but when it came to a question of the divine sanction for Sunday, the governor seemed to think that that important factor was lacking.

And the governor is perfectly correct in this matter, for there is absolutely no sanction in the Bible anywhere for the observance of Sunday. The intelligent and fair-minded men of this world are coming more and more to recognize that this is so. If there were a single word anywhere in the Bible authorizing the observance of Sunday, some one would have found it long before this, for the Bible has been ransacked from cover to cover, during the recent discussions of the Sabbath question, in order to find some such evidence.

The Power of the Promises

The word of God says that there “are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” There is life-giving power in the promises of God. We can keep those promises in our minds until they completely change our natures. That is the purpose of them. The promises come from the divine Father Himself, and they impart to us His nature. By these we become partakers of the divine nature, and we escape the corruption of the lusts of this world. That is God’s plan for giving to each individual overcoming power. We are to feed upon these promises.

Do you know the joys of dwelling upon the promises of God? Do you have them in your mind so that they are exerting their uplifting influence and power upon you? The word of God gives us the prayer, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength, and my Redeemer.” Ps. 19:14. If the meditations of our hearts are upon the promises of God, these meditations will be acceptable; and not only so, but they will be transforming us into the divine nature. God’s word is a living word. It has the active powers of life and growth within it; and as these words of promise are reverently and prayerfully taken into the mind, they are acted upon by the Spirit of God, and a transformation wrought by the power of God is the result. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” The most wonderful blessings, the most inexpressible joys, the greatest transformations of character, are for us through the ministrations of God’s blessed word, if we will but accept them.

New Zealand to Build Its Own Navy

New Zealand has decided to follow the example of Australia, and build a navy of its own, rather than continue to pay an annual subsidy to the British navy. The pretext for this action is that England has not kept up its agreement to send certain war-ships to New Zealand ports.

World Passenger-Carrying Record Broken

An aviator in London recently broke the world record for passenger carrying. He was in the air for seventeen minutes and thirty-five seconds, and had seven passengers in his car with him.