p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 48. (12/5/1911)

Questions and Answers

By Editor

The Question Corner

of this paper is a feature of ever increasing interest, and is greatly appreciated by our readers.

The following is only one of many testimonials that might be presented:

"I have received, and I am still receiving, so many consistent answers to puzzling questions through the SIGNS, that I always peruse the Question Corner of your valuable paper the first thing I do when I open it."

How is it with you?

How would you like to see these questions and answers in book form?

That is just what we have. The most important of the matter that has appeared in this department for the past seventeen years has now been compiled into a book, very carefully selected, and arranged according to subject.

The book is —

Questions and Answers

and contains over 250 pages and almost 300 questions and answers, with textual and topical indexes, substantially bound in cloth, and is worth about $1.25.

It is not for sale, tho, but is a premium of this paper, and is certainly making a host of friends.

The first edition of 3,000 has now been passed through the bindery, and is going out rapidly,—from 50 to 90 each week.

Have you secured a copy?

The premium offer is an extremely liberal one, and you should lose no time in taking advantage of it.

For $2.00 we will send you this paper one year and one copy of the book.

For example — The paper, one year ....$1.75 Value of book .......... 1.25 Total ...................$3.00 Special, the paper and book, $2.00

Or for $3.50 we will send you the paper for two years and one copy of the book free.

Or for $3.50 we will send the paper one year to two addresses, and one copy of the book to you free.

Papers and books may be sent to separate addresses.

Send your orders at once to our nearest depository, or to — SIGNS OF THE TIMES Mountain View, Cal.

Wanted

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Colds

Colds.—By G. H. Heald, M.D. A treatise on the causes, prevention, and cure of colds. White leatherette binding. 58 pages, 25c.

Address this office.

Pacific Press Publishing Association

"The New Testament Sabbath." B. S. L. 137. An examination of the various New Testament texts thought by some to teach Sunday sacredness.

Fully illustrated. Sixteen pages; one dollar a hundred.

"Who Changed the Sabbath?" B. S. L. 187. Biblical and historical sketch of the change of the Sabbath.

One of the most widely read of our Sabbath tracts, 33,000 copies having been shipped out the past year.

Paul Preached . . . till Midnight" "Ready to Depart on the Morrow"

Sixteen pages; one dollar a hundred.

Order of your tract society, or

Pacific Press Publishing Association

Mountain View, Cal.

61 Park St. N., Portland, Oregon

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Box 1599, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Leaflets on the Sabbath

By Editor

One each of the following, with complete catalog, post-paid, 25c

“Elihu on the Sabbath.” B. S. L. 192. The author of this popular treatise is unknown. The manuscript, with just the word “Elihu” for a title, was handed to James White over half a century ago; and editions by the score have been printed since.

Last year’s sales in English alone were 24,000 copies; and we have no means of knowing the sales in the various foreign languages into which it has been translated.

Sixteen pages; one dollar a hundred.

The Lord's Day

By Editor

Among the more comprehensive and yet inexpensive studies on the Sabbath is "The Lord's Day, the Test of the Ages," by the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. The following from its table of contents shows its scope:

The Patriarchal Dispensation

The Institution of the Sabbath During the Patriarchal Dispensation Sabbath Reform

The Levitical Dispensation

The Sabbath Affirmed During the Levitical Dispensation Close of the Levitical Dispensation

The Christian Dispensation

Christ and the Sabbath The Gospel of Christ and the Sabbath Sunday in Apostolic Times The Change of the Sabbath The Testimony of Men The Close of the Christian Dispensation

Copiously illustrated by original drawings and diagrams. Contains 125 pages; only 10 cents, post-paid.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

By Editor

PUBLISHED WEEKLY (Entered Sept. 15, 1904, as second-class matter at the Mountain View, Cal., post-office, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.) Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Milton C. Wilcox Associate Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. O. Tait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L. A. Reed

Manuscripts should be addressed to the editor. Address all business and make all money-orders, etc., payable to the Signs of the Times, Mountain View, Cal.

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What One Denomination Is Doing

By Editor

What One Denomination Is Doing.—Before us lies a little leaflet entitled "Summary of Statistical Reports of the Seventh-Day Adventist Denomination." These reports reach down to the close of 1910. From 1863 to 1910 the membership increased from 3,500 to 104,526; the annual tithe, from $8,000 to $1,338,689; the per capita tithe during the same period increasing from $2.29 to $12.80. Offerings for missions in 1875 amounted to $7,000; in 1910 to $458,943.70; other funds in 1910, $426,134.17, a total of denominational funds for the year of $2,223,767.52, or $21.27 a member.

There was one publishing house from 1855 to 1870; in 1910 there were twenty-eight. In 1850 there was one periodical published; now there are 126. In 1855, sales of all publications reached a total of $2,000; in 1910, $1,560,510.58. One copy of each publication would cost in the aggregate $525.00. All these publications as late as 1870 were printed only in the English language; now there are publications in sixty-seven languages. In 1875 there was one sanitarium, with assets valued at $70,189; in 1910 there were seventy-four sanitariums, having aggregate assets of $3,368,941.

Primary schools increase from one in 1880 to 594 in 1910, with an enrolment of 13,357; and academies, colleges, and higher training schools from one in 1880 increased to eighty-six in 1910, with an enrolment of 7,169. Many children attend public schools and other outside institutions of learning. In 1878 there were 178 Sabbath-schools; in 1910, 4,157. The contributions increased from $2,000 in 1880 to $138,037.72 in 1910, 97½ per cent of which was contributed to missions. We shall note other interesting items later.

Our Bible Band for 1912

By Editor

Who Will Join?

SURELY there is no more important book than that which reveals God's will, and no one believing the Bible would affirm that we can be too familiar with its contents. Then, too, those who have read it most and longest, love it most and are anxious to read it more.

There has come to us one objection from our busy readers, many of whom are carrying special studies like the S. S. lesson; namely, that the readings are too long. Nearly half of our correspondents last year wanted a shorter course.

We have prepared a shorter schedule for 1912. It covers practically the whole history of the Bible period, beginning with Genesis and ending with the Revelation.

We omit from the readings details in ceremonial instructions, genealogical records, parallel scriptures, some of the prophets and some of the poetical books. As a result we have reduced the 1189 chapters of the Bible nearly half.

The schedule for these readings is published in a four-page leaflet, convenient to carry in the Bible, which will be furnished for 5 cents, and your name enrolled in Our Bible Band.

If you desire the little booklet furnished last year, containing this schedule and the schedule of last year also, together with a calendar for 1912, send us 10 cents.

The little booklet contains many facts concerning the Bible, as the canon, the Hebrew divisions, the original languages, manuscripts, various versions and translations, punctuation, weights, measures, money, interesting facts, Bible societies, suggestions for reading, etc., etc. It is a constant little helper to the Bible reader. Remember, the leaflet alone, 5 cents. The booklet with the two schedules, calendar for 1912, and many other facts, 10 cents.

Join our Band. Act quickly. The journey through the Word will be both pleasant and profitable.

Contained in This Issue

By Editor

Question Corner 3611—The Psalms and Our Lord; 3612—Baptized for the Dead; 3613—The Gifts; 3614—The Seventh Trumpet; 3615—Satan and the Deluge ... 2

Our Bible Band ... 2

General The True Light ... 3 Christian Science ... 4 What Christ's Coming Means to the Earth ... 5, 8 Studies in Daniel—God the Teacher—A Lesson for the Ages ... 6

Our Bible Reading Christ Will Come Again ... 8

Present World Movements in Prophecy World-Wide Ecclesiastical Empire ... 9

The Outlook The Johnston Sunday Bill ... 10 Revolution in China ... 11 Notes ... 10, 16

Home and Fireside The Fall Fashion Show ... 13

Poetry Happiness ... 4 In the Lions' Lair ... 8

Studies in Daniel

By Editor

We invite special attention to our "Studies in Daniel." There are great lessons in the book for these days.

The War Situation in China

By Editor

Articles sent by mail from China on the war situation are a little late when they reach us, but they give more of the true inwardness of the situation than do the telegraphic reports. At this writing matters are in a decidedly critical condition.

Come Unto Me

By Editor

The invitation of our blessed Lord is to all our SIGNS readers: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." There is greater freedom and sweeter rest under the yoke and in the service of Christ, than all the world can give.

The Law and the Sabbath

By Editor

"The Law and the Sabbath."—A correspondent sends us a copy of El-Bethel Messenger, "devoted to the missionary news of the El-Bethel Mission." This sixteen-page issue constitutes two issues of a quarterly; and more than fourteen of its pages are used in an endeavor to show that "the royal law" of the eternal God (James 2:8-12), which He spoke with His own voice, which He wrote with His own finger (Deut. 5:22), of which our Lord declares that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail" (Luke 16:17), which Jesus affirmed and observed (Matt. 5:17-20; John 15:10), which is the full standard of human duty, and the rule of eternal judgment (Eccl. 12:13, 14; James 2:8-12), which points out sin (1 John 3:4; Rom. 7:7), which is distinctly by and of itself called "a law" (Ex. 24:12), which approves and shows to be correct the righteousness by faith with which God clothes the sinner (Rom. 3:21, 22), and against which the Scripture places one thing only, namely, the carnal mind (Rom. 8:7), is abolished. God makes clear distinction between this great moral code and the ecclesiastical, ceremonial, and temporal codes, in the nature of the laws themselves, in the manner and material of giving, in their preservation, in the word of the Scriptures. God gave one Himself; He gave the others through Moses. Neh. 9:13, 14. The one was perfect, perpetual, holy (Ps. 19:7; 111:7, 8; Rom. 7:12); the other was imposed only to the time of a reformation pointing to Christ (Heb. 9:10). He in whose heart God's grace has written His holy law, will say with the psalmist, "O how love I Thy law," and with John, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous."

The Bible as a Whole

By Editor

A LITTLE tract has come to us called "Christian Conservation," by Wilbert W. White, president of the Bible Teachers' Training School, New York. It emphasizes one thing which seems to us pre-eminently true, and that for which the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has stood through all the years, and that is that the Bible as a whole is true, if any of it is true. Dr. White says:

If there is not good and sufficient reason for accepting the message of the Bible as a whole, I, for one, have no particular interest in studying or teaching it. Let its trees be cut down. If, I say, its message in its entirety, as the Bible itself interprets itself, and, if you please, corrects itself—if, I say, there is not good and sufficient reason for accepting the message of the Bible as a whole, as a unique revelation from God Himself, then there is no future for us. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, if the dead are not raised. Life and immortality are brought to light in the which I insist is the Bible as a whole, or the is vain. The church of Christ has accepted the apostolic teaching concerning God and Christ, and this as a whole is true, or as a whole it is false.

This is indeed refreshing, in these days of infidelity. Dr. White further says:

Let not the issue be obscured; it is the message as a whole with which we must deal. We always lose vantage-ground when we allow the adversary to limit us to this miracle or that, to this doctrine or that, in our defense of the Gospel. Each particular is to be defended in its setting. Reasons which might appear cogent against a doctrine or a statement in isolation, may not be weighty in the light of the context. The context here is Genesis-Revelation. . . . Again I say, let us not allow any one to confuse us as to the issue of to-day; it is not, Is this doctrine, or that doctrine, true? It is this: Is the Bible as a whole true, or is it not true? . . . This is the question.

And it is the question. And it is this question which Christianity to-day must face. And it is upon the decision of this question that not only the church of Christ itself, but the Christian as an individual, must stand or fall.

A New Design for the Flag

Mr. Alfred Beirly advocates a new and beautiful design for the flag of this country. The stripes and the blue field remain the same, but there is a different arrangement of the stars in the field of blue. There are twenty-eight stars in a circle. Within this circle is a star composed of twenty stars, and inside the great central star a circular field of red separated from the blue by a ring of white. The stripes, as now, represent the thirteen original States, the forty-eight stars the individual States, "the star circle symbolizes Federal Unity, continuous and unending." The large star of stars represents the nation, "the great Republic of the World," and the red circle within the star our colonial and insular possessions. It is a unique and beautiful design.

The Education According to God.

By Editor

It is a sad, sad picture that the great Christian world is going on in the old Babylonian system of education, when the simple, rational Bible idea is so much better, so infinitely superior. God's plan is the education—the building—of the whole man, physically, mentally, morally, spiritually. It puts God first. It opens, enlarges, expands, mind and soul with great thoughts of Him. It faces the individual right; it gives him proportion. Read the "Studies in Daniel" in this issue.

Subscribe Now

By Editor

We are nearing the end of our volume. Many subscriptions expire with the year. Now is the time to subscribe; and if you do not have the little volume "Questions and Answers," add 25 cents to your subscription and send for it. Paper and book together $2.00. It is not boasting to say that more Bible truth for these times is given in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES than in any other journal published in the world. It will be better, God willing, in 1912 than ever before.