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Australiasian Signs of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 26.

A Blessed Assurance
Earlier text: A Blessed Assurance

The True Test

By F. N. Lamplough

F. N. LAMPLOUGH
God today is testing the world by the special message of Rev. 14:6-12, which has been going to the world since 1844, calling attention to the judgment and its requirements—the moral law of ten commandments that God gave to mankind for their observance. Eccl. 12:13.
Why this test? God saw that men would make void His law. The Scriptures tell us a false Sabbath would be exalted before the world. History tells us how it came in. God has allowed it, and the truth regarding it was not made fully manifest to the world until the time of the end.
God is now calling His people out from the various religions and out from the world, to unite in the one faith and doctrine—the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. His loyal and disloyal subjects are thus made known. His loyal people keep the law in its entirety, keep the definite seventh day which it commands , the day God calls “His,” and of which Jesus declared Himself the Lord. It is a sign between them and God that they know Him and love Him who has bought them with His blood.
Many professing to speak by the Word of the Lord seek to draw away the people from the observance of His requirements, and point them to the customs and fashions of the world, telling them that “what was good enough for their fathers is good enough for them,” and to “have nothing to do with new-fangled doctrines.”
God’s Word tells us that men shall arise who will draw away disciples after them, men who are “deceiving and being deceived,” because they “received not the love of the truth”; they believe a lie, being drawn away by their own lust and enticed. Their religion is a mere profession. They say, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that the Lord requires of them. How fearful will be the awakening when they realise that their deception has led them to death.
Our first duty is to listen to God. Nothing we can get in this world will atone for our loss of eternity, and failure to listen to God will make the loss of eternity certain. Let us look at things in the light of God’s Word, and not by the lights of human reasoning coloured by the selfish interests of man.

The Results of Disobedience

The misery, pain, sickness, and death we see in the world remind us constantly of the results of disobedience, and as we read the records of God’s dealing with men since the beginning, we see that none who are wilfully disobedient will escape the final punishment.
Our Lord in His teaching insists again and again that a man’s responsibility for what he does corresponds exactly to his opportunities of knowing what is right, and he will be judged accordingly.
“God must be obeyed. In that one word you have the key to the life and death of Jesus.” Jesus says: “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” “There shall in no wise enter into it [the heavenly city], anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

More Than Profession Needed

Mere profession of adherence to God, however enthusiastic, is to be no passport into the kingdom of heaven. God looks upon what we do, not what we say, as a test of character. A tree is known by its fruits. Is our fruit unto God? Are we obedient unto His requirements? The day is coming when each one will stand face to face with God. Nothing will help us then except that which has been made by God’s grace genuinely our own. God wants us, above all things, to be sincere in our service for Him, and Jesus Christ has promised to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. The salvation He gives is a restoration to obedience, as He is “the Author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Mercy still calls for all men to repent and turn to the Lord and live. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
“Look at the generations of old and see, did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded; or did any abide in His fear and was forsaken; or whom did He ever despise that called on Him?” Ecclesiasticus 2:10.

The Closing Scenes and Your Decision

By A. Hayes

A. Hayes
IN these troublous times, when nation is rising against nation, when there are wars and rumours of wars on every hand; when men's hearts are failing them for fear because of those things which are coming upon the earth, those who are wise will take an interest in that fast approaching event, the greatest in this earth's history,—the second coming of the world's Redeemer. Soon we shall see Him coming in the clouds of heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords, to gather together all those who through trial and tribulation “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Have you made preparation for that great day of the Lord? Will you view earth's closing scenes with joy and gladness? Is Christ to you a living, loving reality? Will you be one of that blood-washed throng who, with shouts of joyful praise, will cry, “This is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us”?
Or will you tremble with fear at His coming because of the awful realisation that you have sinned away your day of grace and forever closed the door of God's mercy?
The latter need not be your condition. The eternal God does not desire it, but in loving entreaty He says to all, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa. 1:18. It is not His will that any should perish, but rather that all should turn to Him and live. “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Do not trifle with your eternal destiny. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”; and then this glorious promise is held out to you that all other things you need will be added unto you. Then, in the name of Him who gave His life a ransom for all, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
We are living in the time of the end of all things, the last closing scenes of this world's history are upon us, “the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation,” prophesied in Dan. 12:1, is at hand. Soon the King in all His glory will appear and all earthly governments will forever pass away. “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion endureth throughout all generations.” “At His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation.”
Accept His pardoning love; let Him guide your faltering footsteps along the highway of righteousness, secure in Him who has all power to keep you from falling. Go not in your own way, heedless, careless, and indifferent to the loving entreaty of the Word of God. He seeks your eternal welfare. You cannot afford to reject the offer of divine love and mercy held out to you today. He alone can save you and keep you amid the trials and temptations of this sin-cursed world. What is your answer? God invites you to “choose this day whom ye will serve.” Let your decision be that which will open the glories of the eternal world to you and bring with it that life which will never end. Choose now, and choose in harmony with God's leading and His Spirit's pleading.

Current Events

DURING thirty-nine years of mining, Alaska has produced gold to the value of £62,000,000.
A “COMMUNIST university” is to be opened at Vitebsk, Russia, “for the preparation of responsible workers.”
FOUR hundred and fifty thousand pounds is to be spent on the Brazilian Government Census of the population this year.
BEFORE the war, one hundred thousand persons in Greater Berlin registered as having “no religion.” There are now one million.
A SAPPHIRE is reported found in Burma measuring eight inches long and weighing more than five pounds. Its value is estimated at nearly £30,000.
APPROXIMATELY forty thousand million cigarettes were manufactured in the United States last year, an average of one each day of the year for every man, woman, and child.
THE Protestant churches of America can seat 53,500,000 persons. The membership is only 25,000,000, and not more than sixty per cent, or 15,000,000, attend church regularly.
THE number of drug addicts in the United States is now estimated at more than one million. Newspapers report that the society women of London are becoming addicts to perfume tippling.
RELIABLE reports stated that in December of last year the supplies in Petrograd were so limited that food was distributed only by order of a physician. The fuel supply was also alarmingly low.
PARIS has been visited by a new form of influenza called “Italian grip.” It is attended by violent headache, a feeling similar to seasickness, intense fatigue, and a hacking cough. It is not considered so dangerous as Spanish influenza.
BARON ROSEN, former Russian ambassador to America, declares: “If Bolshevism be not now extirpated root and branch and if it be suffered to spread any further, it might ultimately come to mean the doom of our race and civilisation.”
BEFORE the Prince went to Canada he made a point of becoming acquainted with the slang of the country. He made a similar study of the picturesque expressions of New Zealanders and Australians, so that he might not be caught napping here.
THE Mayence correspondent of Le Petit Journal asserts that three secret organisations in Germany are plotting against the British Empire, i.e., the Hindoo Club, the Asiatic Club, and the union of Islam. These, it is alleged, are all sending arms and ammunition to India.
STRIKES and lockouts referred to the American Department of Labour for settlement during 1919 involved 2,300,000 workers, and cost them in lost wages upwards of £20,000,000. But, we are further told, these cases constituted “only a small percentage of the actual number of strikes.”
OF the first eighty-six daily flights scheduled between Paris and London 83 were successful. One was interrupted by a mechanical defect, and one by weather. Only once was the weather so bad that the flight was not attempted. Yet this route is considered one of the worst in the world in the matter of weather.
THE Prince of Wales takes photographs of his family with him wherever he goes. Numbers of these are to be seen even in his private apartments on the Renown. Several favourite ones of his mother the Queen and Princess Mary, and his young brother, the late Prince John, of whom he was very fond, are among them.
“A COMBINATION pontoon and floating dry-dock, being built by the British Admiralty for raising ships that have been sunk during the war. Extensive operations are being made by all the nations to salvage the immense amount of tonnage that was sunk in the past four years.”
A BRITISH syndicate has obtained an option from the Persian Government to build a railway from the present railhead at Karaitu, via Hamadan and Kazvin to Teheran, with a branch from Kazvin to the port of Enzeli. The Caspian port will be fortified and closed to the outside world. A line from Teheran to Meshhed later is contemplated.
ALL building records went by the board recently when a 230 x 36-foot structure, complete with electric lighting, bathrooms, tiled floors, and sewer connection, was completed in New York City in five hours. It was the last of sixty-five buildings constituting a Federal base hospital on Staten Island. The entire sixty-five buildings were completed in ninety days. They accommodate three thousand beds.
THE late Dr. Osler said, “When workers have living wages, when the house becomes the home, and the nation spends on food what it now spends on drink, then there will be millions instead of thousands with practically continuous immunity from tuberculosis. For the enemy has been tracked to its stronghold, which is defended by three allies—poverty, bad housing, and drink.”
ON May 1, 1788 (just 132 years ago), the live stock of Australia consisted of 1 stallion, 3 mares, 3 colts, 2 bulls, 5 cows, 29 sheep, 19 goats, 49 hogs, 25 pigs, 5 rabbits, 18 turkeys, 29 geese, 35 ducks, 122 fowls, and 87 chickens. The marines owned two of the rabbits, the others belonged to Governor Phillip, which settles any dispute as to who had the doubtful honour of introducing the rabbit to Australia.
A PROCESS has been discovered by which wine-grapes can be turned into a kind of raisin, which has not been produced before, but which is finding a ready market, both in England and abroad. The demand for it, we are told, will be large enough to absorb the entire wine-grape crop of California, amounting to about 400,000 tons, which will probably not be needed for wine under temperance legislation.
PRINCESS MARY recently bought a big floor mop of the labour-saving order in the hardware department of a great store in London. It is said the Princess takes on a spell of duty in assisting the professional housekeeper in the Palace from time to time in order that she shall understand everything about household management. The Queen has a great contempt for women who do not know how to conduct their household both in theory and practice.
IN a report recently issued by the Chicago Elevated Railroads, attention is called to the fact that these lines have operated for eleven years without a single fatal accident to a passenger on a train. During this period approximately two billions of men, women and children have been carried. For the year ended December 31, 1918, the amount expended for damages amounted to only 1.3 per cent of the gross operating revenue. It is claimed that this notable record is unequalled by any similar transportation company.
A LIGHT that far surpasses any existing arrangement of artificial rays and that is the closest approximation to actual daylight ever effected, is understood by the American Chamber of Commerce in London to have been perfected there, says E. C. Porter in The American Machinist (New York): “The apparatus consists of a high-power electric-light bulb, fitted with a cup-shaped opaque reflector, the silvered inner side of which reflects the light against a parasol-shaped screen placed above the light. The screen is lined with small patches of different colours, arranged according to a formula worked out empirically by Mr. Sheringham, the inventor, and carefully tested and perfected in the Imperial College of Science and Technology. The light thrown down from the screen is said to show colours almost as well as in full daylight. Under the new light, delicate yellows were quite distinct, indigo blues were blue, cobalts had their full value, and violets lost the reddish shade which they display under the ordinary electric light. The American Chamber says a great future is expected for this invention in such uses as the lighting of show-windows and art-galleries, studio work of all kinds, dyeworks, tea and tobacco blending, and many other industries. Colour photography will also probably benefit from it.”

An Age of Infidelity

By F.

A RECENT issue of the Australian Christian World (May 21, 1920) lamented the fact that “the tendency of the age is to ignore God—the God of the Bible and of the Christian and Jewish Churches.” There can be no doubt as to the honesty of the lament, because we are undoubtedly living in an age of infidelity. Infidelity literally means lack of faith, and by usage has come to mean lack of faith in God and the religion of the Bible, a condition which can also be truly expressed by the terms atheism and scepticism.
The whole world lives by faith and to declare that one has no faith is equivalent to asserting that one does not live. Many people assure us with great vehemence that they are sceptics, atheists, unbelievers; but unbelief is in itself a belief, even as with a traveller the absence of a mapped-out course is nevertheless a course. Yet the world is peopled with those who call themselves infidels, and with those who are infidels without calling themselves such. Lack of faith is a characteristic of practically every class of people, and, saddest of all sad facts, is particularly prevalent among the churches. Preached from many an elaborate pulpit, taught in countless religious colleges, and fostered by the leading theological literature, lack of faith in God and disbelief in His Word is a prominent feature of nominal Christendom today. Call it atheism, scepticism, agnosticism, infidelity, higher criticism, or what you will, the unbelief is there, proving that we are in the last days, for the Saviour Himself has placed on record the question: “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. F.

Mabel Ashton's Dream

(Concluded)
Of course, all this time you, friends, were looking much in our direction, wondering at our embarrassment, and perhaps guessing that we had been made uncomfortable by the arrival of a not altogether welcome guest. I led Him first to some of the church-members among you, and there was not one of you who looked so comfortable after the introduction as before.
“As it became known who the guest was, faces changed colour, and some of you looked very much as if you would like to leave the room. It really seemed as if the church-members were quite as unwilling to meet Jesus as those who were not Christians.”
“One of you came up quietly and whispered to me, ‘Shall I tell the musicians not to play the dance music, but to look up some sacred pieces?’ Jesus caught the question, and, looking us both squarely in the face, He simply asked, ‘Why should you?’ and we could not answer. Some one else suggested that we could have a very pleasant and profitable evening if we should change our original plans, and invite Jesus to talk to us. And he also was met with that searching question, ‘Why should My presence change your plans?’”
“After I had introduced the Lord Jesus to you all, and no one knew what to do next, Jesus turned to me and said: ‘You were planning for dancing, were you not? It is high time you began, or you cannot complete your programme before daylight. Will you not give the word to the musicians, Mabel?’”
“I was much embarrassed. If my original plan was all right, His presence ought only to add joy to the occasion; yet here were all my guests, as well as myself, made wretchedly uncomfortable by the presence of Him whom most of us called our best Friend. Determined to throw off this feeling and be myself, at His word I ordered the musicians to play for the first dance.”
“The young man with whom I was engaged for that dance did not come to claim me, and no one went upon the floor. This was still worse embarrassment. The orchestra played once more, and two or three couples, more to relieve me than for any other reason, began to dance in a rather formal fashion. I was almost beside myself with shame and confusion, when the Lord Jesus turned to me and said: ‘Mabel, your guests do not seem at ease. Why do you not, as their hostess, relieve their embarrassment by dancing yourself? Would it help you any if I should offer to dance with you?’”
JESUS IS KNOCKING AT EVERY CHILD'S HEART. WILL YOU LET HIM IN?
JESUS IS KNOCKING AT EVERY CHILD'S HEART. WILL YOU LET HIM IN?
“My confusion gave way to an expression almost of horror, as I looked into those tenderly sad eyes and cried, ‘You dance! You cannot mean it!’”
“Why not, Mabel? If My disciples may dance, may not I? Did you think all this winter, when you and others of My disciples have gathered for the dance, or the card-party, or at the theatre, that you left Me at home or in the church? You prayed for My presence in the prayer-meeting; you did not quite want it here; but why not, My dear child? Why have you not welcomed Me tonight, Mabel? Why has My presence spoiled your pleasure? Though I am ‘a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,’ yet I delight to share and increase all the pure joys of My disciples. Is it possible that you leave Me out of any of your pleasures, Mabel? If so, is it not because you feel that they do not help you to become like Me and to glorify Me; that they take your time and strength and thought to such an extent that you have less delight in My Word and in communion with Me? You have been asking, ‘What’s the harm?’ Have you asked, ‘What is the gain?’ Have you done these things for the glory of God?’”
“It was plain to me now. Overcome with self-reproach and profound sorrow, I threw myself on the floor at His feet, and sobbed out my repentance.”
“With a, ‘Daughter, go in peace; thy sins be forgiven thee,’ He was gone. I awoke and found that it was all a dream. And now I want to ask you, my friends, shall we go on with the programme tonight, or shall we take these lists which we have prepared, and discuss for a time with our partners the question, ‘What can young people do to make the world better for their having lived in it?’”
As the vote was unanimous in favour of the latter plan, which was followed by other wholesome recreations, and as the social evening was declared the most delightful of the winter, it is safe to say that the Lord Jesus had sent that dream for others besides Mabel Ashton.—Presbyterian Journal.

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By Editor

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A Bible Colporteur’s Ordeal

DURING the war a Bible colporteur who was doing work in Mesopotamia had a very unpleasant experience with a band of Kurds. His name is Yusuf Boghas Ikaib, and his headquarters are at Mosul, on the Tigris River. He was stoned and imprisoned, horribly tortured and then left for dead with three bullets in his right leg, surrounded by a number of his friends who had been shot down in cold blood by this band of Kurds. He recovered and eventually got into touch with the British and Foreign Bible Society's depot at Bagdad and is once more circulating the Scriptures in Mosul. This colporteur, after relating his experiences to the Bible Society, closed by saying, “I would not give up my present position for the highest position of the world and all its riches.”

The Jerusalem News

The latest “news” is known as the Jerusalem News, a twelve-page daily 11½ by 16 inches in size, being published by the Anglo-American Society. The language is English, which is said to be a good point in its favour, notwithstanding the polyglot population of the “holy city.”

Toronto Crime Rises After the War

THE chief of police for Toronto, Canada, reports a considerable increase of crime over the past year. “This was to be expected,” he states, “as similar conditions have prevailed nearly everywhere, and are likely to continue until the civilised world settles down after the convulsions of a war so prolonged.” Property lost or stolen during 1919 amounted to over two million dollars.

Single Men at Salvation Army Shelters

ACCORDING to statistics gathered by an official in charge of a Salvation Army industrial home, less than one per cent of the men seeking shelter and refuge there were married. He says, “The few married men that drift in here are men whose homes have been broken up. They are comparatively easy cases to restore, however. The single man is our hardest problem, and even he is capable of redemption if we can find a sustaining interest to engage his attention.”

WANTED

WANTED a middle-aged woman to assist in light duties. Good home for a Seventh-day Adventist. Wages 10/- weekly. Apply Mrs Keatley, 168 St. Leonards Rd., Ascot Vale, Melbourne.

THE HOME STUDY HABIT

THAT is the habit to form if you cannot go to school. And the Fireside Correspondence School was organised to help you form this habit. The President of the General Conference says, “I believe this school is conferring an unspeakable benefit upon our people.”
For full particulars write to-day to
C. C. Lewis, Principal, Tokoma Park, D.C., U.S.A.

Australia's Home of Health

(The Warburton "San.")
is the place to get well if you are sick, or if you need a health-restoring rest or change.
WARBURTON is a beautiful township situated in the Upper Yarra Valley amidst magnificent mountain scenery, 48 miles from Melbourne. The climate, both in summer and in winter, is bracing and invigorating. Fine scenery and a good climate, coupled with the hydro-therapeutic, electro-therapeutic treatments, and the excellent vegetarian diet of the Sanitarium, are just the factors which are needed to restore the sick to health.
Send for illustrated booklet to
THE MANAGER, Australia's Home of Health, (The Warburton "San.") Mt. Donna Buang Road, Warburton
Conveyance meets train when advised Telephone 5 Warburton Ex.
THE PILGRIM FATHERS LEFT THEIR HOMES BECAUSE THEIR COUNTRYMEN FAILED TO RECOGNISE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAW AND LIBERTY
THE PILGRIM FATHERS LEFT THEIR HOMES BECAUSE THEIR COUNTRYMEN FAILED TO RECOGNISE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAW AND LIBERTY
THE SCIENTIST DOES NOT MAKE THE LAWS OF NATURE; HE DISCOVERS THEM
THE SCIENTIST DOES NOT MAKE THE LAWS OF NATURE; HE DISCOVERS THEM

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Australiasian Signs of the Times · Jun 28, 1920