p. 7 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 17. (11/25/1908)

Schedule for Week Ending December 5, 1908.

By Editor

Sunday Nov. 29 Zechariah 1, 2 Gal. 2 Monday " 30 " 3, 4 " 3 Tuesday Dec. 1 " 5, 6 " 4 Wednesday " 2 " 7, 8 " 5 Thursday " 3 " 9, 10 " 6 Friday " 4 " 11, 12 Eph. 1 Sabbath " 5 " 13, 14 " 2, 3

Suggestive Notes.

Zechariah, whose name means "Jehovah hath remembered," a common and prominent name in the Old Testament, was contemporaneous with Haggai, and prophesied in the time of the reformation under Zerubbabel. The first eight chapters of his prophecy pertain almost wholly to that reformation among God's people and the future reformations of which that was a type. By various figures and symbols, he indicates the nations and the power of God to save. Chapters 9 to 14 are of a somewhat different character, so much so that some scholars have concluded that they belong to the prophecy of Jeremiah, rather than to Zechariah, and that when the manuscripts were gathered together by Ezra, they were placed at the end of Zechariah, instead of in Jeremiah. The two reasons for this are that "the burden of the word of the Lord" is a term used by Jeremiah and is not used by Zechariah in the first part of the book; and secondly, that Zech. 11:12, 13 is ascribed by Matthew to Jeremiah in Matt. 27: 9, 10. No such passage occurs in Jeremiah's writings, but does occur in Zechariah. This, however, does not in any wise affect the prophecy, the general tenor of which is a prediction of Christ's kingdom, of the great day of the Lord, and the punishment of the wicked of earth.

On December 4 we begin the study of the book of Ephesians; another epistle of the apostle Paul to the people at Ephesus, not to them only, but to the faithful in Christ Jesus everywhere. It is one of the great, deep wells of the Bible, one of the fathomless mines which will bear all the working possible, and in which the deeper one goes, the more precious and abundant the precious ores that he finds. It sets forth God's plan of salvation in Christ Jesus, and so wrought out through the spirit in human hearts. A hard book it is for those of little experience in the Christian life to understand, and yet when seen through Christian experience, it is one of the most precious in the whole Bible. Chapter 1 sets forth the plan of God in eternity and time; chapter 2, man's condition without Christ and in Christ; chapter 3, a fuller revelation of the Gospel of God.

With Our Inquirers

By Editor

"If ye will inquire, inquire ye."

[All questions to this department will be answered which to the editors will seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. The same question can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. It is well always to enclose a stamp for reply.]

2656.—Unpardonable Because Unrepentable.

Heb. 6: 4-6.

Please explain the 6th chapter of Hebrews, verses 4 to 6.

Such passages as this will be very clearly and easily understood if we will remember that only those sins are unpardonable which are unrepentable. Only those can not be restored to God's favor who are not willing to be restored. The passage reads: "For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance;" the next sentence gives the reason for this, "Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame."

The margin of the Revised Version reads: "Impossible to renew them again unto repentance, the while they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh." Just so long as they hold that disposition of trampling under foot all these glorious blessings which have come to them, it is utterly impossible for them to be renewed unto repentance.

The illustration which follows teaches the same thing. The land which constantly drinks in the rain that falls upon it, and brings forth herbs which are useful, receives blessing, but if the same beneficent rain falls upon it, and it bears nothing but thorns and thistles, it necessarily is rejected and nigh unto a curse. So it is with humanity. How can we expect other than cursing when we pervert all of God's blessings which come to us? If the disposition remains to turn from the sin and from the perversion of God's blessings, there is renewal in Him; there is absolutely no limit to His mercy, either in quantity or in time. Its limitation is determined by our own disposition toward Him. All sins which are repentable are forgivable.

2657.—Matt. 16:18. The Church.

What does the 18th verse of the 16th chapter of Matthew mean? Does the word "church" belong there, or should it be called "assembly" or something else? It seems to give the Catholics ground for argument that their church has power to change laws and seasons.

The verse reads as follows: "And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." The words of our Saviour can only be understood by a consideration of the context. Peter has just confessed Christ. Jesus tells him that that conviction did not come by flesh and blood, but by the revelation of the Father. He had confessed Jesus as Christ, the Son of the living God. Our Lord said unto him: "I say unto thee, that thou art Peter;" "petros," Greek, meaning a stone; "and upon this Rock" — petra — the Christ whom thou hast just confessed, "I will build My church." Who this Rock is, is elsewhere shown. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 3:11 that there can be no other foundation laid than that which is laid — Christ Jesus. And Peter himself tells us, in the first epistle, that we who believe are living stones, built upon the Foundation, Christ Jesus.

Peter was simply one of the living stones, built upon the Rock whom he confessed. We will see by still other scriptures that everywhere God in Christ is the Rock. It is never applied to His children who build upon the Rock. Therefore, "the gates of Hades can not prevail against it" because it is built upon Christ Jesus, and therefore again it gives the Roman Catholics no ground whatever for the argument that their church has power to change laws or seasons.

The word "church" comes from "ecclesia." The translation is all right if we will give to the term "church" the right meaning. It means "the called out ones," those who heed God's call. Peter had done so, and he became a living stone, builded into Christ Jesus, the Rock, and so it is with every believer.

2658.—The Woman and the Beast.

Please explain Rev. 17:3: "And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." Is the woman the same as in Rev. 18:7, who says, "I sit a queen"?

In brief, the persecuting power of the church of God is represented by three different symbols in the Revelation: in chapter 12, by the great red dragon, the devil; in chapter 13, by his agent, the beast — church and state united; in chapter 17, by a beast which is guided by a woman, the two symbols of church and state being kept separate. In Revelation 12 we have the figure of a woman representing the true church; one who is hunted, persecuted, driven into the wilderness, yet whom God cares for notwithstanding all her misery and sorrow and travail. In Revelation 17 we have the apostate church represented as sitting in triumph upon the powers of the earth during the very time that the true church is suffering persecution. We understand that the woman of the scripture quoted above is the apostasy during the Dark Ages, that the beast is the civil power which the woman guided to do her will. The same apostasy is identical with that of Revelation 18; only Revelation 18 is a further development which will include all the apostasies of the earth finally, before her destruction at the coming of the Lord.

2659.—The Taking of Life.

Does God take the life away, or does the devil? That is, if a man dies, does God take his life, or does Satan?

All death comes in consequence of sin. If sin had never entered the universe, there would never have been death. But when sin entered into the world, death came by sin, and so death passed upon all men; so primarily it is sin which brings death, and Satan brought sin. Of course, it is Satan's object, ever and always, to cause men to die. And therefore he is spoken of as he that has the power of death. Heb. 2:14.

The Lord is gathering out from these death-doomed mortals in this world a people who will glorify Him. He dwells within those who yield to Him, who receive of His Spirit, and gives them of His everlasting life that they may overcome sin. That does not mean that they will not physically die, for, inheriting mortality, they will, and God permits them to die. Sometimes it would seem that in His great mercy, He permits them to die before their time is come to save them from evils to come. It is better for His children that they sleep; for death is but a sleep to him who is in Christ Jesus; yet the original cause of their dying is, as before stated, the mortality which comes in consequence of sin. Therefore, Satan may be said to be the death-bringer, while Jesus is the Life-giver.

2660.—Burying the Dead.

Could a Sabbath-keeper help those who are not in preparing burial clothes for the dead on the Sabbath-day without a violation of the command? Or does what the Saviour said, "Let the dead bury the dead," apply here?

It wholly depends on circumstances. If a neighbor's family were afflicted by death and our help was demanded on the Sabbath, we know no reason why we should not render it in a service more important than the rescuing of a sheep or ox. If others can do it as well as we, if they are willing to do it, we could leave it to them, and perhaps render more important service after the Sabbath closed. Our Lord's words would not apply unless He had called us to more important work.

2661.—Making Water Wine.

When I am talking to a person regarding the use of intoxicating drinks, I am often told that Christ made wine at the marriage of Cana, as recorded in John 2:1-12.

There are two kinds of wine recognized in the Bible; one the wine that "makes glad the heart of man," and the other, the cup that intoxicates, concerning which the Scripture says: "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." The one wine is not intoxicating; the other is. It would hardly seem that a wine drinker could conceive that our Lord made water into wine that would intoxicate and bestialize as it does at the present time. There was no drunkenness that followed the wine which He made.

The Schooner "Tiare"

By B. J. Cady

BELIEVING that the readers of the SIGNS will be interested to hear of the schooner that has recently been secured for the Eastern Polynesian Mission, we will give a few items in regard to it. It has a Tahitian name, "Tiare," which means "flower."

In the past, we have had no regular communication with Pitcairn Island. It is true that ships from various parts of the world call there occasionally, but the captains seldom know beforehand whether they will call there or not, as it usually depends upon the wind and the condition of the weather, so it was very seldom that a ship would take their mail to them.

If we are to help the people, we must be able to reach them. Some have subscribed for our papers, but at times would not receive a copy during the year. They need a teacher, and it is important that we be able to communicate with this teacher as well as with the people.

The "Tiare" was purchased last April, and was sent away as soon as possible to Pitcairn Island to bring Brother Carey, our teacher, and others to attend our conference on Raiatea in June. We were all pleased to have Brother O. A. Olsen with us at this meeting. It was a real spiritual feast to us, and we hope the good resolutions made at this meeting may be carried out.

On the first trip of the "Tiare" to Pitcairn, the freight and passage money received nearly paid expenses, besides something over $200 worth of missionary work was done. She is now on her second trip to Pitcairn Island to take back some of the people who attended our meeting. She has freight for the islands of Tubuai and Mangareva, so will call at those places and leave some Tahitian literature. We hope that much good may be done in this way. Tho our schooner has but few comforts for the passengers, we are glad to have this means of communication with Pitcairn, and we hope it may be a real blessing to the people there, as well as to many of the other islanders in this part of the sea.

Brother Carey is expected to continue his school work on Pitcairn during the coming year. Brother George Sterling and wife, recently from Mount Vernon, Ohio, are to work on Raiatea. Our Tahitian laborer, Paul Deane, is working on Huahine at present. Brother J. R. McCoy goes on the "Tiare" as ship missionary.

The first cost of our schooner was $1,520. We had to have a chronometer and other things for the ship, which cost us about $150. Then the cost of transfer in ownership will be about $60.00, making in all $1,730. We have paid $918.48, which leaves a balance of $811.52 yet to pay. When this is paid, the schooner will be the property of the Australasian Union Conference. We hope to have a donation of $282 with which to help pay off this debt. It is money that was received from the sale of the old cutter which was bought for the Pitcairn people, and afterward condemned as unseaworthy.

We feel very thankful for the assistance that our brethren in other lands have given us in getting this boat, for without this help we could not have secured it. We hope that the Lord may always direct in its movements, and that it may be a means in His hands of much good.

Our Duty to Foreign Missions

"How much are we actually doing for foreign missions—you and I? Do we tithe our income conscientiously, and are we careful to see that this, the Lord's money, is so applied as to do the most good?"

Each Day a New Life

By Joseph Hall

EACH day is a new life and an abridgment of the whole. I will so live as if I accounted every day my first and my last; and as if I began to live but then and should live no more afterwards.—Joseph Hall.

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The Stolen Coin.

By T. E. Bowen

A CHINESE pastor, in seeking to impress the sacredness of the Sunday upon his people, used the following parable:

"It came to pass that a man went to market, having on his shoulder a string of seven large copper coins [holes being in the Chinese coins, they are strung on strings, and carried on the shoulder]. Seeing a beggar crying for alms, he gave the poor creature six of his seven coins. Then the beggar, instead of being grateful, crept up behind the kind man, and stole the seventh coin also. What an abominable wretch! Yes; but in saying this, you condemn yourselves. You receive from the hand of the gracious God six days, yet you are not content. The seventh you also steal!"

A beautiful parable, indeed! But what a pity that, while as related it is true, yet it is made to become untrue in its application. The seventh coin has been stolen, true enough, not only by the poor beggar, but by many pastors and people, as well. That counterfeit—the first day—can never be palmed off onto God (where the true light shineth), for that other genuine coin upon which He has placed His own image and superscription, that day which He claims as His own—the seventh. Neither will the Lord accuse any one of stealing a day He Himself gave to man for his own use in the beginning.

Would that the Chinese pastor, and all others, might see this, and humbly return the stolen coin, with that confession and contrition of heart necessary to receive God's forgiveness for the great sin of not only breaking the fourth commandment themselves, and teaching others to do so, but that other commandment as well, which says, "Thou shalt not steal."

T. E. BOWEN.

Ministering to Our Neighbors

"THE heart is best nourished when we are ministering to the needs of our neighbors."

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San Francisco Graft and Tuberculosis Treatment

By Editor

Right upon the heels of the graft cases of San Francisco comes the looting of the city treasury of about $60,000 or more. Will justice be as tardy in this as in the graft cases? About all that has been done thus far is to cause more or less temporary inconvenience to the grafters.

News comes from Chicago that Dr. Emil Beck of that city has been very successfully treating children who are crippled through tuberculosis of the bones. The treatment consists in filling the cavity caused by the disease with bismuth and sub-nitrate compound, combined with the basis of vaseline. In five weeks' trial it is said that twenty out of forty crippled children were cured by the treatment. The formula, says the news item, contains 30 grains of bismuth and sub-nitrate compound, with 60 grams of vaseline. The paste is solid at the temperature of the body, but if a fever is induced, it will run out of the cavity. As the healing is continued, the mixture is absorbed.

The War-Mad Fever.

By Editor

A STRIKING evidence of the mental condition of the world has been presented again and again in connection with some of the exciting things taking place, such as the flight of air-ships, aeroplanes, etc. Current Literature, referring to Count Zeppelin's balloon flight, witnessed by thousands in Germany, including the emperor, thus speaks of the effect of that event upon those who beheld it:

" 'The emotional effect of this flight,' says one of the press correspondents, after trying in vain to keep up with the dirigible in a fifty-horse-power automobile, 'on some of the people who witnessed it was remarkable. Some laughed wildly, and apparently without control; others raised their voices in ineffectual cries of welcome and encouragement, others wept, and still others gazed mutely at the apparition in the air. As the air-ship turned a bend in the river beyond Laufen, an old man, feeble, white of beard and wrinkled of face, was crawling painfully to the top of a hill. . . . He reached the crest all out of breath just in time to see it disappear. "Ah, I have seen it!" he exclaimed. His steps were uncertain, he tottered, and the tears were streaming down his face.' " Referring to this, the Springfield Republican says:

"The stories of Germans in all parts of the empire when the Zeppelin air-ship was reported to be destroyed, are more than melancholy, they are sinister in their significance. They seem to reveal a state of mind that regards the frantic pursuit of new and novel engines of war as the highest function of a nation."

Do our readers think when such spectacles call forth all the emotions of humanity in uncontrollable degrees, that they are fulfilling just what God's word has said concerning this time when He tells us that there are spirits of demons going out into all the world and preparing them for the battle of the great day of God Almighty?

Another question is pertinent. Could any such emotion be aroused if those air-ships were used and could be used only for the sole purpose of relieving the wants of humanity? And after that air-ship that was designed to put Germany to the forefront in war machinery of the air was destroyed, in a few days' time offerings to the amount of more than a half-million dollars had been subscribed by the government and private individuals to enable Zeppelin to build another. France is driven to almost the same frenzy of delight in the success of the Wright aeroplane upon which that government has an option.

DATE OF EXPIRATION.

By Editor

The SIGNS' wrapper bears date of last issue due on your subscription. Unless renewed in advance, paper stops with expiration date.

If herewith is an order-blank, you will know you have overlooked sending renewal. You will not wish to miss a single issue. Back numbers often can not be furnished.

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For 1909.

By Editor

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, we believe, has the best list of subscribers in the world. That may not be the way to put it, for the biggest list is considered the best list. It is better to say that we have a list of the best subscribers in the world. They are of the noble, helpful kind. They are found among all peoples, persuasions, nationalities, races, and classes, who speak the English language. They rarely find fault, and if they do, a hundred to one are the chances that they have the right to do so under the circumstances.

Such a list of friends as that we ought at least to try to please and still be true to truth and our mission.

Our attempt to do this has not been wholly successful during the last six months. They have said so, said so so kindly and tenderly, yet so plainly that we have had no doubt about it; and our hearts have sympathized with them.

It was a mistake to try to substitute for what some have been pleased to call "the grand old SIGNS" a weekly consisting of three small issues each month and one large one. We know it; we all know it. Now let "bygones be bygones," only as they serve for object-lessons.

There is a demand for the monthly. It will meet that demand. Let this suffice for that in this connection.

But the weekly, the regular old 16-page weekly will be restored for 1909.

The preaching of the Gospel of God ever widening, developing, demands it.

The great strenuous age, filled to the full with fulfilments of the word, portentous with omens of a mighty change, gleaming with lights shining from across the harbor-bar of Home, and the needs of perishing humanity demand the publication of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES as it has been and better.

Therefore, beginning with the year 1909, the regular SIGNS OF THE TIMES will be published as before, weekly, 16 pages, at the regular price of $1.50 per year.

Equitable adjustment will be made with all those who have subscribed for both papers.

Next week we will tell you more about it. We have delayed our forms a day to say this. Look for what we shall say next week.

Aeroplane Garages

With the aeroplane comes the elevated garage, or repair shop. A gentleman in Paris has built one with a large landing-place on the top of a large tenement house.

Suffragettes and Respect

By Editor

Let their cause be just or otherwise, we do not see how the suffragettes of England are helping it by their unwomanly, not to say unladylike acts. It seems to us that they would lose the respect of every decent supporter, male or female.

Home Training and Missing Girls

"Two Girls Gone; Police Seek in Vain," is the heading of a San Francisco daily. It is typical of many like announcements. Sometimes the girls have left home and decency of their own volition, sometimes forcibly abducted. The real cause generally lies back of the present wrong in the lack of home training.

The Election and God’s Providence

By Editor

As we go to press the election of the Republican national ticket is assured by a good majority, Mr. William H. Taft will be chosen president; and "the country is safe for four years more," some of our ardent Republican readers would exclaim. But they would have had no more doubt about the matter if the Democratic ticket had been elected. It is worth something to know that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will." Mr. John R. Johnson was elected governor of Minnesota; Mr. Charles E. Hughes, of New York; and Mr. Judson Harmon, of Ohio. The latter seems to be a whisky triumph.

Spiritism and Psychic Phenomena

By Editor

We shall have more to say in future numbers concerning the subject of Spiritism or "psychic phenomena," as it is usually called in these scientific days. Never was the world more stirred over this matter than at the present time. It is less than a generation ago that it was regarded by most scientists as either a popular fad or a base superstition. Not so at the present time. Scientific men have been testing it, and while they have found more or less fraud connected with public manifestations, they have also found that which has confounded all their science, and led many to accept these phenomena as true manifestations of spirit existence—yea, spirits of the dead. All sorts of hypothesis have been presented by others, such as "telepathy," "astral body," "subconscious self," and a half dozen other meaningful and meaningless terms, and yet all seem to be unwilling to accept the hypothesis given in God's word. It is really more than a hypothesis there. The Lord has revealed to us just what these phenomena are, and just what the source is; and He has predicted just what the world is now seeing, but of this more hereafter.