Your ShelfYour Projects

Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 6.

General Articles
Earlier text: The Commentary

SECULAR.

—There were 323 suicides in Vienna in 1885.
—Many fatal landslides have been reported of late.
—The Apaches are committing depredations in Sonora, Mexico.
—Last year there were over two thousand fires in London, and sixty lives were lost by them.
—The demand for iron-working tools is so great that within two months the price has been twice raised.
—Spain has been called upon to arbitrate in an unpleasantness between Italy and the United States of Colombia.
—The silk manufacturers of the United States have decided to make a rise of ten per cent. in the price of silk thread and twist.
—Mrs. Bayard, wife of the Secretary of State, died in Washington, January 31. His daughter, Miss Kate Bayard, died two weeks before.
—A bill appropriating $400,000 for the erection of a post office in San Francisco will probably soon be introduced into the House of Representatives.
—If the military force of Europe were drawn up in line, the distance from right to left would be six thousand miles, as the force would consist of 9,000,000 soldiers.
—Ex-Senator Henry W. Corbett, of Oregon, thinks that in a few years the salmon in the Columbia River will disappear, if the Government does not establish hatcheries.
—The Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee Railway freight-house at Grand Haven, Mich., was partially destroyed by fire, February 1. The loss is estimated at $250,000.
—Telegrams of January 31, from various towns in New Hampshire, state that a severe storm of sleet has done incalculable damage to the garden and fruit trees in that State.
—A volcanic disturbance in Central America has resulted in the total destruction of the village of San Vincente de Pacaya. Further trouble is feared from the Pacaya volcano.
—Work will soon be commenced on the Simplon Tunnel, the fourth and longest cut through the Alps. The new tunnel will be twelve and a half miles long, and will cost about $20,000,000.
—The weavers in five cotton mills in St. Quentin, Department of Aisne, France, are on a strike. On the 3d inst., they engaged in such riotous demonstrations that it was necessary to call out a military force to subdue them.
—The Bill to divide Dakota, to admit the southern portion into the Union as a State under the title of Dakota, and to organize the northern portion into a Territory under the name of "Lincoln," has passed the Senate.
—A man in Birmingham, Conn., recently had his front teeth loosened, his mustache and eyebrows burned off, and his eyes completely blinded, by the explosion of a cigar he was smoking. It is supposed that the cigar was loaded as a "joke."
—As a result of Bismarck’s policy in expelling the Poles from Germany, some of the largest estates in Prussia will be offered for sale. Bismarck’s policy is to purchase for the crown, at fair prices, all real estate owned by Polish nobles and gentry, and sell the land to German colonists.
—Several engagements have taken place between the Dacoits and British troops in Burmah. In every instance the Dacoits have been defeated, and it is believed that order will soon be restored. Lord Dufferin, Viceroy of India, has gone to Burmah to arrange for an extension of the British Indian administration to include that kingdom.
—About fifty persons have been arrested in Guatemala for complicity in a treasonable and fiendish plot to overthrow the Government. Their plan was to set fire to the Grand Hotel and theater, and in the panic that would ensue, take possession of the barracks and murder President Barillas and his family; they would then attack the foreigners and sack the city.
The British steamer Castle Craig started out on a trip from New Orleans to Liverpool, February 6. The pilot soon discovered that she would not obey her rudder, and gave orders to reverse the engine. But before she could be securely anchored, she had run into three other British ships and the Norwegian bark Ophir, some of them twice. The damage to the Castle Craig is not known; but the damage to the other vessels foots up $60,000. —Anarchy prevails in the Mexican State Tamaulipas.
—Governor Murray has vetoed a joint resolution of the Utah Legislature providing for the compilation of the laws of Utah at a cost of $10,000. The Governor objects to the compilation, because it would perpetuate on the statute book many obsolete laws, and some which are in direct conflict with the laws of Congress, and hence would be misleading to the people.
—Greece and Servia still refuse to disarm, as requested by the Powers of Europe. The Powers have a naval squadron in the Mediterranean, charged with the duty of keeping peace among the belligerent nations. But even here there is not complete harmony. Russia refuses to take part in the naval demonstration, and German ironclads are ordered to remain at Malta. With the exception of Russia, the Powers have verbally sanctioned the Turco-Bulgarian agreement.
—The new method of sending telegraphic messages from railway trains while in motion was exhibited on the Staten Island Railway, February 1, in the presence of several prominent railway officials. From wires on the car roofs, the messages were transmitted, by induction, to the permanent wires on poles along the line of the railroad. In this way messages were sent with perfect facility to and from New York and other points, while the cars were running at the rate of thirty miles an hour.
—The report of the New York Charity Organization, which recently held its fifth annual meeting, shows that that city annually expends in charity the sum of $7,360,000. The statistics prove that one family alone has, in five generations, cost the State $1,500,000. It has been demonstrated that begging is a profession, followed, like any other, just as far as it can be made profitable. Through the instrumentality of the society, nearly one thousand professional beggars have been arrested, and during the past year nearly nine hundred families have been reformed from pauperism.

News and Notes.

RELIGIOUS.

—“If London did not have four hundred city missionaries,” said the Earl of Shaftesbury, “it would require 40,000 more police.”
—St. Peter’s at Rome is to have a square portico in front, formed by forty-eight granite columns ornamented with statues of the apostles. Another bridge is to be built over the Tiber, making a direct communication between St. Peter’s and the beautiful church of St. Paul, without the walls.
—The Moniteur de Rome, which is the recognized organ of the Vatican, longs for the time to come “when the world shall see Protestantism extirpated from Ireland entirely, and Catholicism universally recognized.” Substitute “the world” for “Ireland,” and you will have just what the pope and all his minions are working for.
—Chief-Justice Waite and other prominent citizens of Washington are planning to form a Children’s Aid Society in that city similar to the one in New York. It appears that not more than two-thirds of the children of school age attend school; and a fifth of the criminals last year were between the ages of ten and twenty.
—The Roman Catholic Church in Australia has “outgrown the missionary state;” and a Plenary Council has recently been held there, to conform “her internal policy to that of the church in older lands.” The Council was presided over by Cardinal Moran, and was attended by sixteen bishops and many other ecclesiastical dignitaries.
—Mayor Smith of Philadelphia, at the request of the “Sabbath Association,” has issued a proclamation calling attention to a law of 1794, forbidding any worldly employment or business on Sunday. But the law seemed to have no terrors for those who had been in the habit of doing business on that day, and it is generally believed that it cannot be enforced unless coercive measures are resorted to by its friends. The animus of the attempt to enforce this obsolete and almost forgotten law cannot be mistaken.
—In a recent sermon Mr. Spurgeon said: “I have but little care, as a general rule, for the Revised New Testament, holding it to be by no means an improvement upon our common authorized version. It is a useful thing to have it for private reference; but I trust it will never be regarded as the standard English translation of the New Testament. The Revised Version of the Old Testament is so excellent that I am half afraid it may carry the Revised New Testament upon its shoulders into general use. I sincerely hope that this may not be the case; for the result would be a decided loss.” With the exception of the unqualified praise of the Revised Old Testament, we think that this verdict is a just one.
—Postmaster-General Vilas, out of respect to the “moral sense of the community,” has decided that Baltimore shall not have a Sunday mail delivery. This leads the Tribune, to say: “A large accumulation of moral sense, not to speak of common sense, backed the petition which the business men of the United States addressed to Mr. Vilas, begging him not to array himself against them by crippling the mail service. But Mr. Vilas, who is so tender of Baltimore’s Sunday morning, showed that he cared nothing at all about the best interests of business men. It is statesmen like Vilas who strain at a gnat, and swallow a whole caravan of camels.” Mr. Vilas has not shown himself a competent and faithful officer; but his action in this matter will no doubt make him popular with a large and influential class.
—A correspondent of the London Times has been investigating the use made of the relief fund raised for the benefit of the sufferers from earthquakes and cholera in Spain. The whole sum sent to Spain was $4,211,040. The amount placed in the hands of the Royal Commission was $1,242,200, of which only $168,442 has been used for the aid of the sufferers. “The Bank of Spain had the profitable use of these charity funds for over a year, and now the Commission propose to use them in building bridges for the public roads!” The archbishops of Southern Spain refused to account for the money intrusted to them; and no wonder, for they had used it in repairing their churches and convents. “Nowhere else but in priest-ridden Spain,” says the Illustrated Christian Weekly, “could such sacred funds have been used for bank speculation, bridge-building, and church restoration.”

A Priest-Ridden People.

A WALDENSIAN pastor was lately traveling through the beautiful island of Sardinia, and some extracts from his journal will doubtless be of interest to our readers. They have been translated from the Italian, and forwarded to us by the Rev. R. S. Ashton:—
“At Oschiri I saw a peasant-poet who has suffered much persecution at the hands of the priests, owing to the fact that one of his poems contained an attack upon the State religion and a denial of the existence of hell. He was dragged before the civil tribunal and convicted, but was released on appeal. The priests, however, continue to persecute him. They forbid their penitents to read his poetry, and refuse absolution to any who admit that they possess his works.
“In one village, I met with a woman who had flung the Bible away because it condemned marriage. Her absurd notion arose from her happening to see the words, ‘Blessed are the paps which never gave suck.’ She and her father also thought Jesus vindictive, because he had overthrown the tables of the money-changers. And nothing that I could say would remove their prejudices.
“At Usini, a village of 2,000 inhabitants, the principal man is a Catholic, but thoroughly skeptical. The Bible he regards as a mass of fables and immoral stories. His wife, who was present, and who could talk of nothing save saints and our lady, said she only wished she were a man, and she would contend with me by means of the tongue and a stick. Thereupon her husband interposed, saying that Jesus bids us love our enemies. But she would not be pacified. She persisted that I had come there to send the people to hell or to buy them over to my religion; but, said she, ‘you will not be able to buy any here.’ The conversation with this strange couple lasted four hours, and on leaving I said to myself, ‘Here we see how skepticism and Catholicism unite to oppose the truth.’
“In Alghero, an important town of 11,000 inhabitants, I first of all found out some of the principal people, and especially a retired captain. They were favorable to Protestant doctrines, but unwilling to incur the odium of opening their houses for a meeting. The fact is, the priest is all-powerful through the women who go to the confessional. He gets them to give up the Bibles which their husbands have bought from the colporter. But not infrequently the husbands have torn out a few leaves or the whole book of Psalms, which they carry with them in their pocket-books. In Sassari, where there are a few Protestants, I was called on to bury a child. After a service at the house of mourning, the procession started for the grave, headed by the town band, and attended by a large number of persons. A festa was being celebrated at the cemetery, which thus happened to be crowded. Taking my stand on the base of a large crucifix in the center of the place, I preached to the thousands around for nearly an hour, and not a person moved. As they left the place some one was overheard saying, ‘He spoke about Christ, therefore he is not a Protestant, but a Christian.’
“Cagliari is one of the chief towns of Sardinia. Its patron-saint is St. Efesio, and a German Catholic has published a work to show that the worship of this saint goes back to pagan times, when Cagliari was founded by the Carthaginians, and is a relic of the old worship of Baal and Moloch. The difficulty of work in Sardinia is great and manifold. The dialects are numerous. Ignorance and corruption abound. Perfidy is a pretty general characteristic of the people. In this island you find yourselves, as it were, in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, ‘everything is possible with God.’” —London Christian World.

Ability and Opportunity to Do Good

Ability and opportunity to do good ought to be considered as a call to do it.

Obituary.

HILLIGOSS.—Died at Moline, Elk Co., Kan., Jan. 2, 1886, of typhoid fever, Emily Hilligoss, aged 46 years, 11 months, and 23 days. Sister Hilligoss was born in Kentucky, and embraced present truth in this State about twelve years ago, having formerly been a member of the Christian church. Her death was quite unexpected, as her health had always been quite good; but caring for members of her family afflicted with the same disease, overpowered the system, and after an illness of thirty-two days she fell asleep in Jesus. Sister Hilligoss was a patient and faithful wife and mother, and as a laborer in the church and Sabbath-school was ever ready to fill her post of duty. She leaves a husband and four children, and a large circle of brethren and sisters, all of whom sustain a great loss. Remarks by the writer, from Ps. 46:1. H. G. BUXTON.
HOWARD.—Edith Elizabeth, only daughter of G. W. and Mary Howard, died in Oakland, Cal., Feb. 3, 1886, aged 21 years, 3 months, and 19 days. Last October she contracted malarial and lung fever; this terminated in consumption, of which she died. One year ago she was baptized, and united with the Oakland church of Seventh-day Adventists. From that time she was a consistent Christian, and won the love and respect of all her associates. She was specially devoted to the Sabbath-school, and gave promise of being an active and useful worker. She bore her sufferings with patience, and was very calm in view of death, of which she said she had no fear. Words of Bible comfort were spoken to the mourning friends, who sorrow not as those who have no hope, believing that it will be but a short time till Jesus shall come to arouse the dead from their slumbers. E. J. W.

Appointments.

SANTA ROSA.—Sabbath and first-day, Feb. 13 and 14. Baptism will be administered after the forenoon service on Sabbath.
FERNDALE.—Sabbath and first-day, Feb. 20 and 21. Preaching at the commencement of the Sabbath, on the evening of the 19th. Other appointments in Humboldt County will be arranged by letter. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

Publishers' Department.

AGENTS AND BOOK DEPOSITORIES.

Australia—International Tract Society, "Burnam House," corner Rae and Scotchmer Sts., North Fitzroy, Victoria. California Tract Society—1067 Castro St., Oakland, Cal. Canada Tract Society—South Stukely, P. Q. Colorado Tract Society—831 California St., Denver, Colo. Dakota Tract Society—Vilas, Miner Co., Dak. District of Columbia.—International Tract Society, 1831 Vermont Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. England—The Present Truth, 72 Heneage St., Grimsby, Eng. Florida Tract Society—Moultrie, St. John's Co., Fla. Hawaiian Islands—L. A. Scott, Honolulu, H. I. Idaho—Carrie E. Mills, Walla Walla, W. T. Illinois Tract Society—No. 95 Thirty-fifth St., Chicago, Ill. Indiana Tract Society—No. 32 Cherry St., Indianapolis, Ind. Iowa Tract Society—1315 E. Sycamore St., Des Moines, Iowa. Kansas Tract Society—Ottawa, Franklin Co., Kan. Kentucky Tract Society—West Clifty, Grayson Co., Ky. Louisiana—International Tract Society, 732 Magazine Street, New Orleans, La. Maine Tract Society—113 Pearl St., Portland, Me. Michigan Tract Society—Battle Creek, Mich. Minnesota Tract Society—2820 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis, Minn. Missouri Tract Society—321 Lamine St., Sedalia, Mo. Nebraska Tract Society—Fremont, Dodge Co., Neb. New England—N. E. Tract Society, South Lancaster, Mass. New York Tract Society—Rome, N. Y. New Zealand—Edward Hare, Upper Queen Street (Turner Street), Auckland, N. Z. North Pacific—N. P. Tract Society, East Portland, Oregon. Norway—Tidernes Tegn, Christiania, Norway. Ohio Tract Society—near Citizens' Savings Bank, Columbus, Ohio. Pennsylvania Tract Society—No. 5 Madison St., Wellsville, N. Y. South America—Joseph R. Brathwaite, 152 Church St., Georgetown, Demerara, British Guiana, S. A. Switzerland—Elder W. C. White, 48 Weiherweg, Basle, Switzerland. Tennessee Tract Society—Springville, Henry Co., Tenn. Texas Tract Society—Denton, Tex. Upper Columbia—U. C. Tract Society, Walla Walla, W. T. Vancouver Island—Bernard Robb, Victoria, B. C. Vermont—Lizzie A. Stone, South Lancaster, Mass. Virginia Tract Society—New Market, Shenandoah Co., Va. Wisconsin Tract Society—901 E. Gorham St., Madison, Wis. Wyoming—J. T. Trees, Tie Siding, Albany Co., Wyo.
All of the above Agencies are authorized to receive subscriptions to the Signs of the Times, American Sentinel, and Pacific Health Journal & Temperance Advocate. Catalogues of our books, pamphlets, and tracts, in English and the various foreign languages, can be obtained from them. Write to the agency nearest you.

To Both Old and New Subscribers.

THE PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal., will send the American Sentinel, an 8-page monthly paper, one year, and either of the following books, in cloth binding, post-paid, for $1.25 (to foreign countries, 5s.) viz: "The Atonement; in the Light of Nature and Revelation," by Elder J. H. Waggoner, 368 pp.; "The Marvel of Nations: Our Country, its Past, Present, and Future," by Elder Uriah Smith, 282 pp., over forty illustrations; "The Life and Words of Christ," by Cunningham Geikie, D. D., over 800 pp.
The Temperance Advocate, a 24-page health and temperance bi-monthly, one year, and either of the above-mentioned valuable books, post-paid, for $1.25 (5s.).
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES one year, and your choice of any one of these books, post-paid, for $2.50 (to foreign countries, 12s.), or the SIGNS one year and the illustrated "Great Controversy," post-paid, for $3.00; foreign, 14s.

RECEIPTS.

CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE FUND.—Healdsburg $18.30, W N King $3.80, R & A T Stickney $50.00, Burrough Valley $32.95, P Penfold $3.00.
E. AND S. MISSIONS.—S Baker $1.00, F & C Bell $20, Santa Ana Church $2.50.
AUSTRALIAN MISSION.—E & T Ford $2.
RECEIVED ON ACCOUNT.—Tenn T & M Society $10, Ohio T & M Society $100, N Y T & M Society $500.
CALIFORNIA T & M SOCIETY.—Dist No 3, Oakland Soc $32.50, Wm Ings $10.

ORDERS FORWARDED.

BOOKS SENT BY FREIGHT.—Clara E Low, Henry Scott, Edward Hare.
BOOKS SENT BY EXPRESS.—Mrs E T Palmer, Geo A King, H Munn, Geo W Winn, Willard Lamb, S F Mission, Florence Hutchins, W N King, M Schultz, Miss Cora Smith, H P Holser, A G Davidson, Prof S Brownsberger, Wm Hutchinson, F R Dunlap, Ambrose Johnson, Mrs C Ruoff, Mrs H P Gray.

SANCTUARY AND 2,300 DAYS,

BY ELD. URIAH SMITH.
THIS work shows the nature of the mistake made in expecting the Lord to come in 1844, which was not an error of time computation, but in the nature of the event to take place, namely, the cleansing of the Sanctuary. The work sheds a flood of light on the Scriptures, especially on the subject of the Atonement.
352 pp. Price, cloth, $1.00. Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. Or, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.

THE TRUE PRINCIPLE OF INTERPRETATION

Thoughts on the Books of Daniel and the Revelation.

By Uriah Smith, PROFESSOR OF BIBLE EXEGESIS IN BATTLE CREEK COLLEGE. AN INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE BOOK, WHICH SCIENTISTS, HISTORIANS, SCRIPTURISTS, AND ALL LOVERS OF GOOD LITERATURE EVERYWHERE, CAN READ WITH INTEREST AND PROFIT.
It is generally conceded that the books of Daniel and the Revelation are the most wonderful books in the Bible. What reader of the Scriptures, as he has scanned the marvelous landscape of those prophetic fields, has not felt an intense desire to understand the striking images that appear, and find the key that unlocks the meaning of the mazy movements of the different agents in the panorama, as their long evolutions unfold, and kingdoms arise and disappear, and the thunderbolts of God's indignation at length smite from his path all the organized host of his incorrigible enemies.

THE TRUE PRINCIPLE OF INTERPRETATION.

The author gives us in this work the mature conclusions of nearly thirty years of study. Speculations and fanciful theories are not indulged in; but by means of these principles of interpretation by which such men as Tyndale, Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingle, and their co-laborers, brought out the truth which they gave to the world, a flood of light is thrown upon these books unequaled by that of any other work, ancient or modern. This is believed to be the only attempt to explain these books, or at least the Revelation, according to those rational principles of exegesis which have been the basis of all the reforms of the past five hundred years, and the result is indeed marvelous.

A SAFEGUARD AGAINST SKEPTICISM.

We recommend this work as one of the most effectual antidotes for infidelity. Whenever a writing is found to have predicted events to occur from five to forty centuries from the time it was written, and those events have been fulfilled to the very letter, such facts place upon that writing a stamp of divinity which it is hard for prejudice or sophistry to efface. And such is the case with the prophetic portions of the Holy Scriptures. Hundreds have been rescued from skepticism by these lines of argument. The prophetic Scriptures are too little studied. It is these which especially constitute the Bible a lamp to our feet and light to our path. Ps. 119:105; 2 Pet. 1:19.

HISTORICAL VALUE.

Historically, the book is of great value. The main currents of history are explored, and the leading events of the greatest national developments of the earth are so grouped together, and presented in such a light, as to make a deep impression upon the mind, and take a lasting hold upon the memory. Abundance of testimony is drawn from historical works, both ancient and modern, and the most reliable authorities, making clear the meaning of these important books of the Bible, and conveying an amount of information not to be found elsewhere in so concise a form.

THE GREAT CHAIN OF HISTORY.

The rise and fall of the four leading kingdoms of the past are uniquely presented at one view by Daniel's great image of gold, silver, brass, and iron. But we are taken from the days of the old Chaldean Empire, down through Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The introduction, development, and final triumph of the gospel of Christ is shown. The divisions of Rome, from which have sprung the modern nations of Europe, are clearly set forth. We are then taken down through the Dark Ages, during which the Romish Church and the false religion of Mohammed divided the civilized world between them. The terrible French Revolution of 1789 to 1798, in which, for the purpose of teaching mankind a lasting lesson, the principles of infidelity and merely human philosophy were suffered to come to maturity and bear their baleful fruits, is not passed by. This is followed by a wonderful age of knowledge, in which such advancement is made in the arts and sciences as was never before dreamed of, and the discovery of new elements in chemistry, new principles of philosophy, and marvelous inventions, continually astonish the world.

SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. AGENTS WANTED.

We can give profitable employment to 1000 energetic, wide-awake agents, either men or women. Send for circulars and terms to agents, etc. Address, PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING HOUSE, Twelfth and Castro Streets, Oakland, Cal., U. S. A., General Agents for the Pacific Coast States and Territories, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, and Australia.

SABBATH-SCHOOL HELPS.

Bible Lessons for Little Ones, No. 1. Flexible cover...........15 cts. Bible Lessons for Little Ones, No. 2. Flexible cloth...........20 cts. Bible Lessons for Children, No. 3.........................................25 cts. Bible Lessons, No. 4, with map...........................................25 cts. Bible Lessons, No. 5...........................................................25 cts. Bible Lessons, No. 6 ...........................................................25 cts. Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.; Or, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.

The Signs of the Times.

OAKLAND, CAL., FIFTH-DAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1886.
We send no papers from this office without pay in advance, unless by special arrangement. When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the SIGNS are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon for pay. Please read the papers and hand them to your friends to read.
BROTHER E. R. Jones reports good meetings and a good interest at Woodland, Cal.
A MINISTER traveling in California, writing to a religious paper in the East, says of the Chinese, "They refuse to be naturalized." This is news. We were aware that they had been refused the privilege of naturalization, but never before heard that they refused to be naturalized.
THE New York Evening Post says that the opera season at the Academy of Music closed with an opera which is a mere endeavor to "deify vice and raise it above virtue." And yet people will talk of the ennobling influence of the opera. Souls that can be ennobled by such performances must have reached an unheard-of depth of depravity.
THE London Truth, which cannot be accused of being "Puritanical," has the following to say about horse racing: "Let us hear no more cant about 'the noble sport;' for it is evident that the English turf is now a vile welter of knaves and fools, and the Prince of Wales has been very ill advised in plunging into such a pandemonium." Can anything better be said of the American "turf"?

In This Paper.

THE contents of this paper will be found valuable reading. To the following we call special attention.
The article commencing on the second page (or page 82), entitled, "Similitude of Adam's Transgression," is published by request of the Biblical Class in Healdsburg College, which is studying the book of Romans. The subject is an important one, over which antinomians have run wild.
Attention is also called to the article in the editorial pages, on "Faith Healing." We believe that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up;" but we do not indorse the fanatical views and actions of those who advertise their power in prayer! Here in Oakland, we have seen cards distributed at the doors of dwellings, asking those who have sick ones to call on the advertisers to pray for them. The Red Sea would not have divided if Moses had not stretched forth his rod; but we never heard of Moses advertising to the nations around, that if they wished to cross the Red Sea they could call upon him to divide it before them. Fanaticism always exalts self, and there is no pride so disgusting as that which comes in the garb of humility.

Not a Joke.

THE San Francisco Bulletin says: "A movement against Sunday railroad trains is on foot in Rhode Island. A railroad train running on Sunday in Rhode Island disturbs public worship in every church in the State." While this may seem to be merely a newspaper joke on the small size of the State of Rhode Island, we can assure our readers that it is no exaggeration. California is more than one hundred and forty-four times as large as Rhode Island; and it is not long since a large proportion of the church people in the State were disturbed beyond measure because a few people were quietly working on their farms or in their shops on Sunday. There is scarcely any limit to the disturbance that may be caused by a very little quiet work on Sunday. Rhode Island is not peculiar in this respect.

A Truth Well Stated.

A SHORT time since the trustees of Princeton College appointed a committee of five to consider and report “the best means to be adopted to put an end to the detestable practice of ‘hazing’ in the College.” In their report, the committee say:—
“The ruffian has no rightful place among gentlemen; least of all in an institution of learning. Not only does his influence tend to contaminate all with whom he comes in contact, but the very intellectual training he may receive will only serve to render him a more dangerous member of society. His presence in the institution should not be for a moment tolerated after his real character becomes known; and should he be found guilty of any outrage (inflicting upon any student personal indignity or violence), he should be ignominiously expelled.”

Rural Health Retreat.

THIS institution is now permanently opened on a good basis, and its prospects for success are more flattering than they ever were before. Its facilities for caring for patients and boarders have been much increased; and still further enlargement is to be made immediately. To all who are suffering from disease, or who need rest from overwork, we can unhesitatingly recommend the Rural Health Retreat. We never knew any one to speak otherwise than favorably of the location, the climate, and the surroundings generally; and from personal acquaintance with the physicians and managers, we are able to assure all who may go there that they will be promptly and kindly cared for. As a winter resort for people who wish to escape the intense cold of the East, it is unrivaled in the United States. Send for circular giving full particulars. Address, Rural Health Retreat, St. Helena, Napa Co., Cal.

A Much-Needed Reform.

A CORRESPONDENT of the California Christian Advocate says:—
"The gospel-hymn rage has run its race. We have just passed through the age of silly melodies and musical medleys that have seized the public like a vast epidemic—a kind of bric-a-brac, bazaar poetry, without meter or melody; sold by the hundred, peddled by evangelists, pushed by semi-religious people, which dethroned the poets, martyred the masters, took possession of the people, and perverted the public taste; a kind of caterwauling chorus, lullaby ditty, dithyrambic doggerel, rendered by irrelevant, irreverent, ungodly noises; a kind of cross between a jingle and a jig."
How glad we should be if we could only know that this is so, and that we might now be assured of hearing only devotional music when we meet for public or private worship. But we greatly fear that the public taste has been hopelessly perverted. We have just read that the pope has issued a brief to the clergy of Italy, forbidding the use of polkas, waltzes, and other forms of dance music in churches. We do not believe in popery; but we do wish there was a recognized authority in this country, which would issue a decided protest against the jingle and jargon which is inappropriately called "poetry" and "music."

Questionable Alliance.

IN a recent lecture in Chickering Hall, New York, Mr. Joseph Cook expressed the hope that the rising prohibition party would make a stand for the thorough Christianization of our whole national life. We have no doubt that the prohibition party is destined to prostitute itself to serve the ends of the "National Reform" Association. And this very thing will have the effect of preventing thousands of good temperance people and earnest prohibitionists from acting with the prohibition party. Thus the gaining of entire prohibition will be delayed until chains can be forged with which to bind consciences, and then a righteous measure will be made a means of carrying an unholy and tyrannical one.

Washington Mission.

THE Washington, D. C., mission and reading-room is located at 1831 Vermont Avenue, N. W. This is also the address of Brother Reuben Wright, Brother and Sister W. H. Saxby, and Brother and Sister Parmelee.

The Rink Curse.

An exchange says: "Skating rinks have caused so many divorces in Madison, Wisconsin, and so much domestic unhappiness and other scandal, that the Common Council has taken action intended to drive the rinks out of the city." Many Christian people have thought that the rinks afforded a good place for "innocent amusement" for the young people; but it is a question if they are not quite successful rivals of the liquor saloons. It is not a question, however, which will be first compelled to go. The liquor saloons will out-stay the rinks; and this makes us almost believe that the rinks are not quite so bad as the saloons.

An Argument on High License.

A PETITION in favor of high license having been presented to the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, the "Licensed Tax Payers' Union" presented a protest, in which they speak as follows:—
"Because, as a temperance measure, it would not meet, or even aid, the end in view, liquor being still on sale at the same or a lesser cost, and in unlimited quantities.
"Because it would be a false and misleading subterfuge, framed in the interest of the wealthy dealer, and resulting only in the increase of his business.
"Your petitioners aver that the 'liquor traffic' is 'bad' and 'pernicious;' if so, why license it at all? and if licensed, why centralize a profitable 'evil' in the hands of a few? Why create a liquor-selling monopoly? A mobilized evil is certainly more impregnable than one disintegrated.
"Your petitioners express a desire to raise the 'moral' tone of the 'liquor traffic' and to place it in the hands of a 'better order of men,' and they propose to raise the 'moral' tone of a 'bad' and 'pernicious evil' by raising the cost of license.
"Is the financial ability to pay a gauge of character? If so, the wealthy scoundrel has clear sailing. Poverty should not thus be made to soil the character of men, nor should a patent of purity, be thus open to purchase.
"On these grounds, and aside from all questions of personal and business interests, we place our opposition to the demand of your petitioners."
This statement is unanswerable. It shows the folly of "high license," and, in fact, the error of any license at all. The truth is, that the more respectable you make the liquor traffic by professedly raising its "moral tone," the more you increase its power to do mischief. It is only an evil to license an evil.

A Chinese Mission in Corea

EVEN China has entered the mission field. A recent paper states that a "thoroughly Chinese mission" has been started in Corea. It is conducted by J. R. Wolfe of the Church Missionary Society, aided by two Chinese Christians. A wealthy Chinese Methodist gave $1000 to start the mission, and went to Corea to help the missionaries in commencing their work.

You have reached the end of this edition.

Signs of the Times · Feb 11, 1886