p. 288 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 18. (5/4/1915)

Our Foreign Magazines

For Second Quarter, 1915

ZEICHEN DER-ZEIT (German)

TIDENS TECKEN (Swedish)

LYS OVER LANDET (Danish-Norwegian)

The subjects considered in these missionary magazines are practically the same as appear in the Signs of the Times Magazine from week to week. Similar also in size of page and in general appearance.

Same prices too—5 to 40 copies, 5¢ each; 50 or more, 4¢ each.

Remember your foreign neighbors.

Order of our representative in your state. See list on this page.

PACIFIC PRESS PUB. ASSN. Mountain View, California

Barbers Testing a Sunday Law

By Editor

THREE barbers in South Portland, Oregon, who are said to observe Saturday, the seventh day of the week, for the Sabbath, have been arrested for keeping their shop open on Sunday. The Barbers’ Union is seeking to make a test case.

Regardless of the question of the seventh day, or Saturday, being the only Bible Sabbath, simple justice ought to show fair-minded people that if an individual conscientiously observes one day of the week, he ought to be permitted to labor on the other days if he so desires. Indeed, when it comes to the inalienable rights of the individual, if he cannot perform honest labor on any day that he may choose, we are confronted with a species of despotism that our forefathers opposed when they announced the great principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

There is something about perverse humanity that causes it to determine to prescribe to others just what they shall do, and this is particularly observable in the direction of the growing disposition to enforce the observance of Sunday. If a man desires to rest on Sunday, it is his privilege. But when religious sentiment, no matter under what guise it may come, undertakes to compel a man to rest on that day, the realm of tyranny has been entered, and despotic persecutions will follow.

We have been pointing out through these columns, for more than a third of a century, that we would yet have a religious despotism in this country, and that when it came, the Sunday Sabbath would be the central ground upon which all the factions would meet in enforcing their ecclesiastical decrees. Many people have laughed at this; but the evidence is growing on every hand that the time is drawing on rapidly when church forces will combine to secure the enactment and the enforcement of Sunday laws in city, state, and nation. There is a persistent activity in this direction.

In many instances, the church power works through labor organizations; and thus it is made to appear that labor, and not the church, is seeking to secure the Sunday rest. But back of it all is the church sentiment in favor of Sunday.

Standing opposed to all these Sunday measures is the fact, so clearly presented in the Bible, that the seventh day, or Saturday, and not Sunday, is the Sabbath. And it is reasonable to conclude that we may not count on having God with us in attempting to enforce upon mankind the observance of a day that He has not sanctioned.

Live Stock and the War

THE Wall Street Journal makes the observation that “after peace has been declared, and sufficient time has elapsed to take count of the cost, it will be found that the loss of live stock will be one of the wastes most difficult to mend, while the world-wide shortage makes the question one of international importance.” The Journal further asserts that the area of the fiercest fighting is also the locality of the greatest density of stock-raising.

Underwood and Underwood
PHILIP SCHEIDEMAN — Underwood and Underwood PHILIP SCHEIDEMAN

Not only is the meat supply jeopardized, but domestic animals with which to till the soil will be almost wholly destroyed. The rapidity with which the engines of destruction can be moved from place to place makes it possible to spread ruin and death as never before.

Following this war, we will see conditions that beggar description; and persons who have cultivated a taste for a good, wholesome, vegetarian diet will by no means be in such a straitened condition as those who contend that they must have a certain amount of meat every day in order to get along.

“O Fools, and Slow of Heart!”

When, after His crucifixion, Christ met with two of His disciples journeying to Emmaus, He found them distressed and perplexed because of what had occurred. They could not understand why Christ should have been crucified, and they were astonished at the report that He had been raised from the dead. The Master said to them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Luke 24:25. The prophecies were clear concerning the suffering and the crucifixion of the Master; yet the disciples were so absorbed in theories they had imbibed, that they failed to see the strong rays of light shining from the prophetic Word.

Is there not a great lesson in this for those of us who are living in this generation? Prophecy is fulfilling in tremendous proportions. The conditions about us have been described most accurately by the seers of the sacred Word. Do we see these things, or are we among that class that is so foolishly slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken?

The War Storm Spreading

For a number of weeks, Italy has been trembling along the brink of the great vortex of European war, ready to plunge in at scarcely more than a moment’s notice. Spain is now saying that she must be ready to act. The Scandinavian countries are discussing, to a greater or less extent, the possibility that they may take a hand in the strife. The Balkan States that are not already in action are in a very uneasy condition, and a situation may arise at any moment that will draw them into the fray. Practically all of the Old World is either engaged in this desperate strife, or else is in angry turmoil, ready to plunge into it.

Rev. 11:18 plainly shows that when the time of the Judgment is reached, the nations will be angry. How literally do we see the fulfillment of the great prophecy!

Washington Missionary College Special

By Editor

SEVERAL months ago, an arrangement was made for the advanced students in our missionary college at Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., under the direction of their teachers, to prepare the copy for a complete issue of this paper. The theme selected by the students was “The Second Coming of Christ.” Such topics as the following have been presented in a clear, Scriptural, direct manner: “The Necessity of His Coming,” “His Coming the Hope of the Ages,” “When Will He Come?” “A Century of Predicted Progress Preparatory to His Coming,” “Missions and the Coming of Christ,” “War,” “The Unprecedented Amassing of Wealth,” “The Conflict Between Capital and Labor, Etc., as Signs of His Coming.”

This students’ special will be dated May 18. We believe it will be one of the best numbers of the year; and we are sure that those who believe in the soon coming of the Lord, will be desirous of helping to give it the widest circulation possible.

The Condition of Mrs. E. G. White

The many readers of the Signs, who, for so many years, have enjoyed and been benefited by the writings of Mrs. White, are anxious to know of her physical condition.

Several weeks ago we told of the accident that had befallen her, and which, at her advanced time of life, was of a very serious character. She has been reasonably comfortable regardless of the accident, which is usually so painful. She is cheerful in spirit, and expresses the conviction that her work is done, and she is only waiting patiently for the end to come. Her attending physician believes that it is only a question of a few weeks until she will pass away.

From her girlhood days to a very ripe old age, she has been a tireless worker in the cause of Christ. And the thought of a brief rest in the tomb, before the Lord shall come, is by no means unpleasant to this worn and faithful servant of the Lord. She will enter upon her rest in the confident hope that it will be only a very little while until, according to the sure word of prophecy, she will be awakened to life and immortality at the resurrection and the second coming of Christ.

Indoor Sports

There is a man over in Illinois, with apparently some kind of organization back of him, who believes that a great many of the social ills of our old world can be cured by providing proper games and sports for young men and women. He addresses considerable ridicule to the minister who does not see the value of the picture show, the “billiard table,” the “baseball game,” and other like amusements.

One of the greatest degenerating causes of this age is the fact that church people are allowing their morals to be broken down. They are reaching the place where they would make common amusements and pastimes a part of church work; and the practical working out of the plan is really to starve out the gospel, and give the major part of the attention to amusements that will draw the crowd.

But gathering a crowd to a church edifice under the attraction of amusement is no more a gospel work than is gathering them to some other building where amusement is the specialty. The work of the church is not to amuse people, but to lead them to salvation; and the minister or other church worker whose soul is aflame with the desire for the salvation of souls, readily finds that his work is on a very different plane from that of the one who dispenses fun and amusement to satisfy the follies of the age.

Rome knew how to amuse her people. Her sports and games attracted the vast multitudes. But this did not stop Rome from breaking to pieces under the weight of her degenerating vices. We need something besides games and sports to cure this world of its social ills. We need the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ; and the minister of God should absorb his energies in pressing home upon the conscience this great truth.

War and Human Speculation

WHERE are the people now who were shouting so loudly, a few years ago, that the building of such terrible guns and other war equipment was the surest means of peace? They told us that men could not be driven to face the guns of to-day, and therefore war would become obsolete. This is one of the human theories on the subject of war that has been violently exploded during the few months. The good old Book of God tells us, without any mistake or equivocation, what we may expect in these closing days of earth's history, and a spirit of war that will face any engine of death the demons of destruction could devise, according to this Book, will characterize this time. Men may indulge their theories, but the infallible Book states the facts. It is well, therefore, to stand on the Book regardless of human speculation.

Competitive Athletics in Schools

The Journal of the American Medical Association makes frequent protests against the widespread tendency in the United States toward the extension of competitive athletics in schools. The Journal, while advocating proper physical exercise and physical development, says that “competitive athletics is attended with an undue sacrifice of time at the expense of the intellectual pursuits.” And everybody should say “Amen” to the suggestion of the Journal, and second its efforts in this good work.

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