At a recent meeting here in Bombay, the folks came in from Kalyan; and after a talk by myself on “Christ’s Great Commission,” candidates were critically examined before a congregation of more than sixty persons. Nine were baptized, and the service passed off beautifully. The two first candidates, husband and wife, came down into the water together; and after baptizing the man, I baptized the woman. Then came parts of families, and last, another husband and wife. It was a spiritual meeting.
A Roman Catholic lady present said that it was one of the most impressive services she ever attended, and that she would be out again next week. We are planning for another baptismal service soon. Some of the candidates desired to be baptized this time, but we held them back for further preparation.
WOULD NOT ROB GOD
Tithe and Sabbath school collections are coming in very nicely. Among those who have accepted the doctrines of baptism by immersion, the ordinance of humility, and tithing, is a man of considerable influence in Bombay. He paid his first tithe to me last week. His wife was present at the time, and I asked her if she was willing for him to pay tithe. She said, “Most surely,” with emphasis, adding, “After that study you gave at the hall on tithing, if we withheld ours, we should be robbing God.”
Surely such people will come all the way. Pray that they may. We study with them each Tuesday evening. Their little girl comes regularly to Sabbath school, and takes great delight in it. She has, with the rest of the children and the older ones, learned the commandments, and is now learning the names of the books of the Bible. The parents are highly pleased.
Educating the African Natives
By Will H. Hurlow
By WILL H. HURLOW
WE are glad to report steady advancement in the Nyasaland field. There are more calls coming in for schools than we can supply. Our teachers are full of courage, faithful, and eager in their work. Our schools are full, many having to be supplied with assistant teachers. The Bible classes are well attended, the register showing a regularity of attendance which indicates a real desire on the part of the members to learn of Jesus.
IN TOUCH WITH NATIVE LIFE
My trips to the out-schools have been of great interest and educational value to me, as they brought me into close touch with life in the native villages. I have been surprised to see the progress of the children under native teachers, especially in memorizing the Bible. Little, half-naked boys and girls learn a verse each morning, and they were able to repeat all they had learned for a month, giving chapter and verse.
But the necessity of white supervision is very apparent. In one village, our native teacher had adopted radical means to secure attendance at his Sabbath meetings. As the people persisted in working in their gardens on the Sabbath, he went around the village on Friday evening and quietly took away all their hoes. So, not being able to work, they attended service. Of course I was soon able to show him the inconsistency of such compulsory Sabbath keeping.
Last month, nineteen of our students were baptized, several hundred natives, among whom were some teachers from a neighboring mission, witnessing the scene. A number of candidates are now ready, and there will be another baptism in a few weeks.
A keener desire to be faithful to the Lord's requirements is seen in the church members, the present-day events impressing them that time is short; and they are eager to go out to warn their own villages. All together, we feel that our labors are bearing fruit.
Failed to Meet the Queen
By A. C. Gilbert
How often disappointment comes to the heart because some one has failed to keep his promise! Despair has winged its arrow, grief has brought its cloud into many a soul, just because a loved one, a friend, a neighbor, failed to keep his word.
The story is told of an artist who secured permission to paint the picture of the queen of England. The favor was great, for it would make a fortune for the man. The place and time were fixed. At the appointed place and time, the queen arrived; but the artist was not there. He was not yet ready. When he did come, a message was sent to him saying that her majesty had departed and would not return.
Our Father in heaven has consented to make an appointment with man. His object in doing so is to talk over plans for the saving of the sinner. The place of meeting is in Jesus Christ. The time of meeting is now.
How sad is the oft told tale that many have failed to meet the Lord according to His own appointment! How forgetful is man! How neglectful is he of Heaven's proffered gift! The invitation to a confidential interview with the King of heaven, will be extended but little longer. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” A. C. GILBERT.
“I Love My Work”
By Editor
remarked a Signs Magazine agent a day or two ago, with emphasis on the word love.
She sells 400 to 500 a month, frequently secures subscriptions, and has a number of regular purchasers.
Her appetite is good, she sleeps well, and her general health is all that could be desired, because she gets plenty of fresh air and exercise.
This is the experience of many others, too. Some who devote practically all their time to the work earn more — $1.50, $2.00, and even $2.50 a day.
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OLIVES, DRIED FRUIT, and NUTS
By A. E. Crist
Large olives, excellent quality, five eighths of an inch to three fourths of an inch, 50-gal. bbl., 55c per gal.; 25 gal. @ 65c; 5 gal. @ 70c; 1 gal. 80c. Canned for keeping through summer in 1-gal. and 5-gal. cans, 10c extra per gal. In one quart cans, $3.00 per doz. One half to five eighths of an inch, 10c less per gal. The fruit is choice grade. Peaches 5½c; figs 5½c; raisins 7c; prunes 7½c; apricots 11c; apples 9c; peanuts 9c, roasted 11c, skinned and salted 20c; almonds 15c and 18c; walnuts 18c; extra fine pure honey, light, gal. $1.00, five gals. $4.00. Satisfaction guaranteed.
A. E. Crist, Chico, California.
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Influence of Food on the Home Life
By Lauretta E. Kress
Sunshine, Air, and Non-Stimulating Foods — Helping to Answer Our Prayers — Spirituality and Indigestion
By LAURETTA E. KRESS, M. D.
THE Creator never designed that man should experience suffering or sorrow. In the beginning, man was made perfect, with the possibility of developing a holy character, and living forever. Every needed provision for the development of such a character and the maintenance of life was made.
HEALTH-GIVING CONDITIONS
Man’s home was to be the open air, with the canopy of heaven as a ceiling. The sunshine and the pure air were among the means to be used by the Creator in ministering to him life.
His occupation consisted in dressing and training the vines of the garden. Activity was necessary to quicken the circulation of the blood, by means of which life ministered by air, sunshine, and food, could be carried to the brain, keeping it in a healthy condition, susceptible to divine influences and promptings, thus making character building and eternal prolongation of life possible.
His food consisted of seeds, nuts, and fruits. In these products there lurked no evil. Only life and energy were stored up in them. They were also perfectly adapted to man’s needs. Out of them a maximum amount of life might be obtained, with a minimum amount of work on the part of the digestive organs. To the lower creatures, the green herbs of the field were given for food. These also we find perfectly adapted to their needs, but they were not the most suitable for man.
SUNSHINE, AIR, AND PROPER FOOD
God intended that man should constantly partake of His life through sunshine, air, and food. Therefore the development of his character and the continuance of his life depended upon a constant recognition of these means by which God had chosen to communicate it to him. To despise any one of these could result only in loss.
Man was persuaded by the tempter that altogether too much stress was laid upon the matter of eating. He asked, Has God said you shall not eat of everything you want? The woman acknowledged that they were warned to eat only the good. Ah, he said, this is only a fad, a craze. “Ye shall not surely die.” It is a food to be desired, having a wonderfully vivifying and stimulating effect on the mind. By eating it, “ye shall be as gods.”
PROBABLY MOMENTARY STIMULATION
Eve was persuaded to test the matter. “She took, . . . and did eat.” She probably experienced no sensation of death, but may have felt momentary stimulation. She could now speak from her own personal experience, and no doubt she affirmed that it was really a food “to be desired to make one wise.” She persuaded her husband to partake of the new delicacy.
This deception became a part of Eve. It was woven into her character, and transmitted as an inheritance to her posterity, so that by natural instinct alone we can no longer discern accurately between the good, and the good and evil in combination, and like her we too often ignorantly choose the latter.
AFRAID OF PURE AIR
Men and women under this deception act as though they were afraid of the pure air, and prefer to live in an atmosphere laden with organic impurities, tobacco smoke, etc. The bright sunshine is regarded as an enemy carrying destruction in its beams, instead of health. The food originally given to man is despised, as being insufficient to make one strong and wise; and anything, even to the slimy, germ-covered oyster, is taken in preference to the food containing only life.
The result of this departure from the original plan was predicted by the Creator, to persuade man to choose again the good. To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception,” and “thy husband . . . shall rule over thee.” There is but one remedy for the race, and that is, a return to the original plan. Pure air, plenty of sunshine, agreeable work, and the simple food products of the earth prepared in as natural a form as possible, free from grease and condiments, will do much toward lessening woman’s sorrows, and making a loving, considerate man out of the rash and impetuous husband. Preaching has its place, but to throw the seed on ground not prepared for it is useless. Truths are frequently powerless, as far as transformation of character is concerned, when thrown upon minds corrupted by blood laden with impurities.
SOMETHING TO DO IN ANSWERING OUR PRAYERS
Henry Ward Beecher, in one of his sermons, gave an admirable illustration of physiological theology, in the following words:
“It is not enough for you to pray that God will give you self-control. You are to study it, both according to the law of moral truth and the law of physical truth. If men would go to their physicians, they frequently would find an answer to prayer in the revelations of truth concerning their structure.
“I have known men who prayed for the grace of good temper in vain, until their physician told them to stop eating meat; for they were of a peculiar temperament that could not endure such stimulation. So long as they ate animal food, they could not control themselves, they were so irritable; but as soon as they began living on a diet of grains and fruits, they were able to keep their temper. They sought, in prayer, relief from their irritableness. Their physician, by the aid of science, revealed to them the cause of that irritableness, and their prayer was answered. They were not unwise in praying, but they were wise when, to prayer, they added medical advice.”
SPIRITUALITY AND INDIGESTION
It is quite in vain for you to pray for a tranquil spirit, or a genial, hopeful spirit, when your organs of digestion are out of order. Not that one who is sick should not pray for health; but prayer is to be joined to diet. It is vain for you to pray that God will give you patience, and then run heedlessly into those very circumstances where experience shows that the causes which lead to impatience will be omnipotent. Is it wise for me to ask that I may not be torn by briers, and then run into the thickest hedge? Is it wise for men to pray that God will give them all the fruit of the Spirit, and then associate with men that will contaminate them? Have I a right to pray that God will purify my heart, and then let my ears drink in all the vile sayings and wicked speeches and vulgar insinuations of corrupt men? Can a man take fire in his hand, and not be burned? Has a man a right to pray that he may be honest, and then deliberately go into temptation? Has a man a right to pray that he may be a truth seeker, and then take no pains to seek the truth?
A MEANS TO THE END
It is folly for a man to pray for common morals even, and still more to pray for spiritual graces, and then take no heed of the way, humanly speaking, by which these things are achieved. Just as soon might a man pray for a knowledge of numbers, and then shut his arithmetic; or pray that he might be a practiced civil engineer, and sit in his chamber, as to pray for Christian graces, and then do nothing.
You must study these things. They are dependent on certain causes, and study is one of those causes. And the presumption of your prayer’s being answered is measured by the degree in which it leads you to study the conditions that tend to bring about that for which you pray. You are to work for it not without prayer, and you are to pray for it not without works.
In a home where simple foods are simply prepared, and where its inmates eat to live, happiness and good cheer are usually found.
Teaching Public Speaking by Correspondence
By C. C. Lewis
I AM going to take as my text a sentence written in an exercise by one of our Correspondence School pupils in public speaking: “In this age, when so much is spoken that deserves forgetfulness, and when so much that is good is spoken in such a manner as to defy remembrance, the pleasurable duty of continual improvement in effective speaking is manifest to all.”
It is indeed true that the world is teeming with speakers whose thoughts are not worth remembering—“deserve forgetfulness.” At the same time, there are some whose thoughts are worth while—deserve remembering; but they are spoken in such a scattering, disorganized form that it is difficult to grasp them—they “defy remembrance.” Surely, then, it is important to study two things—how to improve our thinking, and how to improve our manner of expressing our thoughts.
QUALITIES OF GOOD SPEAKING
The author of a recent work on public speaking tells his readers that there are four qualities of good speaking:
1. Clear organization of the ideas in the mind of the speaker.
2. Retention of these well organized ideas during delivery.
3. Mastery of the language.
4. Technical control of voice in speech and of body in gesture.
He begins with the matter of clear thinking and organization, and says: “If I were to ask you suddenly to tell me immediately all your ideas about trade-unions, a great, unorganized number of impressions would seek haphazard expression. You might say: ‘Labor unions start strikes. Sometimes there is disorder and even bloodshed. They have walking delegates. I know a union man who received financial help from his organization when he was ill. Unions try to get more pay for the members. There is a local chapter of the building trades in my neighborhood. I visited one of their meetings once. Unions try to get an eight-hour day,’ etc. But if you were given some time for reflection, you would organize your thoughts somewhat as follows:
“1. What labor unions are: They are organizations of laborers for mutual protection and improvement.
“2. What they seek to accomplish among their members: (a) social improvement, (b) sick benefit, (c) life insurance.719
“3. What they seek to exact from the employer: (a) shorter hours, (b) better pay, (c) better working conditions, such as ventilation, safeguarded machines, clean rooms, etc., (d) exclusion from the shop of nonunion men.
“4. Results of unionism: (a) good results, (b) bad results, etc., (c) means they use to accomplish their objects.
“5. Our consequent attitude towards unions.
“Such an arrangement or organization of thoughts does three things. First, it insures a thorough and clear grasp of each idea by the speaker. We often let hazy and untrustworthy impressions hold sway in our careless thinking of everyday life. However, if an idea is to be put into an organized form, the very act of classifying it, makes us inspect it more closely. Therefore carefully organized thinking about a topic leads to a clearer understanding and approval of every idea involved. Second, the plan puts the speech in an order easy for the audience to grasp and retain. Ideas thrown out haphazard do not form part of a well arranged whole; they are confusing. Certainly all cannot be remembered. Third, the organization helps the speaker himself to stick to his topic and to develop all of it.”
Following this instruction, the author sets forth a variety of exercises, with directions for carrying them out, designed to aid the student to secure organization of his ideas.
“SWINGS HIS ARMS AND HOLLERS”
It would seem that a book filled with such instruction would be helpful to any speaker. Yet there are people who say that public speaking cannot be taught effectively through correspondence lessons based upon good textbooks, such as that from which I have quoted. Evidently their idea of public speaking is similar to that of the boy who said he liked to hear a real preacher. When asked what he meant by a real preacher, he replied, “Oh, one that swings his arms and hollers!” Those who think that the student cannot learn anything worth while about public speaking through correspondence, doubtless suppose that because the teacher cannot see his pupils swing their arms and hear them “holler,” there is no other avenue open by which he may improve their speaking.
This, however, is not the opinion of those who have pursued studies in public speaking through the Fireside Correspondence School. They are unanimous in the opinion that they receive much benefit, even though their instructor is not present to criticize their oral work. It is doubtless true that they would also receive benefit from oral criticism; but as they are not able to obtain such criticism, they feel themselves well paid for pursuing, through correspondence, other instruction just as important, while embracing opportunities to improve their delivery and their gestures through observation of good speakers.
If any of my readers are interested in the matter of instruction in public speaking through correspondence, I would invite them to write to the Fireside Correspondence School, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.
C. C. LEWIS, Principal.
How Much More Now!
By M. G. Conger
THE object of John the Baptist's ministry was, to convert souls. His message was, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Since John gave as a reason for repentance, the fact that the kingdom of heaven was at hand before the first advent of Christ, of how much more importance is it for us who are living just previous to the second advent, to repent, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand!
This repentance is not an outward form, a pleasing appearance, an eloquent speech. It is an inward grace, having God in the heart, and having the mind of Jesus. It consists in having all the heavenly graces mingled in one. We are regenerated by giving our entire selves, our all, to God. He creates in us a clean heart, renews in us a right spirit, and makes us happy and contented. Our wicked thoughts, evil words, and unrighteous ways, which mean death, are relinquished; and God gives us His love, His favor, and His life, which means everlasting salvation. M. G. CONGER.
Prophecy & Progress
By Editor
The specifications in the prophecy of Nahum 2:3, 4 certainly do fit the automobile and the locomotive, as suggested in an article bearing the above title in the December Signs Magazine. The steamboat, the airship, the telephone, and the telegraph are associated with the prophecy of Dan. 12:2 in the same article.
Cardinal Gibbons, Dr. Lyman Abbott, and others in support of the seventh-day Sabbath are quoted in a fine Sabbath article.
The futility of the efforts of peace propagandists is fully set forth in two articles—“Perilous Times Predicted Instead of Peace,” and “War, Peace, and Prophecy.”
For we have seen His star
Dr. Paulson, in his characteristic style, interestingly tells how to avoid “catching” cold, or once having “taken” cold, how to get rid of it.
The churches in our country gained last year 28,000 less members than the year before. One denomination reported 1,617 (one half) of their churches as having failed to make a single convert in 1912. This condition is attributed to the repudiation of portions of the sacred Word, and the acceptance, by church members, of evolutionary theories. Look for an able presentation of the matter in the editorial section of the December
Signs of the Times Magazine
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Alcohol in the War
THE Journal of the American Medical Association says:
“The time has passed when alcoholic liquors are to be regarded as inseparable from warfare and essential for military activities. Efficiency is now the prime consideration. . . . The overwhelming preponderance of scientific evidence is in favor of the proposition that the use of alcohol, in any amounts, large or small, tends to impair muscular coordination, to dull the special senses, to retard muscular and nervous reactions and mental processes, and to reduce efficiency in any work requiring rapid and accurate mental or physical effort. . . . The physiologic effects of alcohol on military efficiency would probably not be so clearly apparent in the army as in the navy. The modern battleship, cruiser, and submarine have become marvels of mechanical complexity and delicacy. . . . There is abundant testimony on the part of naval experts to show that alcohol diminishes the accuracy of the gun-pointer on the battleship, and so reduces the number of probable hits. . . . The present war will reverse the opinions of the civilized world on a good many questions, and it is possible that the indispensability of alcohol in the army may be one of them.”
An unprejudiced authority like the Journal of the American Medical Association should overwhelmingly submerge the opinions of some of the trumped-up interested “scientists” that the liquor dealer employs for a stipulated sum to write opinions on the values of alcohol.
Highest Dam in the World
By A. R.
The highest dam in the world has recently been completed in Idaho. It is called Arrowrock Dam. It is a part of a twelve-million-dollar irrigation project. The time estimated as required to build the dam was six years; and the cost, $7,500,000; but it has only been a little over four years since the project was begun, and the cost has only been one third of the estimate. Two million dollars has been saved on the estimate of the entire reclamation system.
Before undertaking the work, experts determined, after exhaustive surveys, that enough flood water was going to waste in winter and spring to reclaim and irrigate 240,000 acres. This problem of impounding so large a quantity of water has been completely solved, and the desert will blossom like the rose.
From the base of the dam, ninety feet below the normal river bed, to its crest, ten feet above the level of the stored water, it attains to a height of 351 feet. Between the up-stream and the down-stream face, the base of the structure is 247 feet thick.
An outstanding engineering feature is the elaborate drainage system within the dam. It is traversed from one side to the other by three galleries, or tunnels, connected by spiral stairways, thus making possible frequent inspections of practically every portion of the dam’s interior.
The dam is arranged to handle logs, as there are three billion feet of merchantable timber above the dam, while the mills are below. The device for picking up a log of any size or length, carrying it across the top of the dam, and delivering it into a chute, has a capacity of sixty million feet of timber a year. At this rate, it will take fifty years to exhaust the supply.
The government has a railroad running twenty miles out of Boise; and in the four years that it has been conducted, it has earned a surplus of $60,000, taking in $238,000 for freight, and $50,000 for passenger fares.
A. R.
“An Enduring Peace”
KING GEORGE V of England made a proclamation to his people on October 22, in which he said, speaking of the war: “The end is not in sight. More men, and yet more, are wanted to keep my armies in the field, and through them secure victory and an enduring peace.”
This war will more than likely come to a cessation as suddenly as it broke out, for we are living in the days when God has specially commissioned the angels to hold the winds of war.
Since wars are thus forcibly held in check, when they do break out, they will come with explosive suddenness. And when the divine decree is issued for them to cease, they will be brought to a termination in the same strong, quick way.
But we may not hope for permanent peace. Men are crying peace on every hand. They are saying that this war must be brought to an end, and that we are never to have any more. They told us, before this war broke out, that no more big wars could ever come, for the world was too highly civilized and enlightened. But the worst and most cruel war that history affords is upon us; and may it not be that the divine Father has permitted this war to come in the way it has, in order to break the illusion that was over men's minds, and to enable them to see that after all His word is correct? That Word tells us that this generation would be marked by the spirit of war, and that it would sweep everything before it, regardless of the righteous sentiments of peace that the many strong and influential men possess.
Increased Cost of Drugs
By L. A. R.
THE United States, according to a New York manufacturer, depends on Europe for seventy-five per cent of its supply of drugs. Europe, otherwise occupied this year, is not producing more than a very small fraction of the normal supply of herbs and other plants that go to make up most of the household remedies. Because of the embargo on shipments, only a small part even of these products come across the ocean. Furthermore, the necessity for drugs is much more widespread in Europe now than in a time of peace.
Quinine costs five times as much to-day as it did a short time ago. In two weeks, the wholesale price rose from forty cents an ounce to $2.25. Camomile tea leaves have advanced thirty-five cents a pound. Horehound herb has jumped from six cents to fifteen; and licorice, imported from Smyrna, has risen from six cents to twenty.
Cod-liver oil, despite its name, is made from crude oils, which come from Norway, not Boston. The cost of the crude product has advanced from $40 to $80 a barrel.
Other advances in price may be noted: permanganate of potash, twelve cents to $1.15; olive oil, fifty cents to seventy-five cents a gallon; Russian cantharides, seventy-five cents to $4.00; dog grass, six to sixty cents a pound.
