AUGUST 1, four were baptized and five added to the church at Arcata, Cal.
A FEW weeks ago a dozen persons were baptized and admitted into the Keene (Texas) church.
BROTHER A. J. OLSEN baptized two a few days since at Grand Rapids, Wis. Others desire baptism soon.
BROTHER F. F. PETERSON baptized four recently at Baraboo, Wis. He has later joined Brother Serns in a tent-meeting at Kenosha.
BROTHER W. F. KENNEDY recently baptized five persons at Heiberger, one at Mancos, two at Bayfield, and two at Gunnison, in the state of Colorado.
June 30, the tent-meeting at Barton, Md., conducted by Brethren Fairchild and Pohle, closed with a baptismal service in a beautiful mountain stream; fourteen persons, in all, were baptized as a result of the meetings.
THE Sixth Annual Calendar of the Adelphian Academy, Holly, Mich., has been received, and presents a very neat and attractive appearance. The academy is a school of the East Michigan Conference. Those interested should address Principal Eugene F. Dresser, Holly, Mich.
EIGHT were baptized as a result of the meetings now being conducted in Portland, Me. When we learn that over fifty columns of present truth have been given the public through the daily papers since the beginning of the camp-meeting there in July, we may be certain that it will have some marked effect.
As a result of a seven-weeks' meeting at Burbank, Cal., conducted by Brethren Ballenger and Adams, twelve have begun the keeping of the Sabbath. The new Sabbath-keepers, with some who have been in the faith for a longer time, were organized into a church of sixteen members Sabbath, July 24.
THE Otsego Academy is a very pleasing, substantial building, judging from the frontispiece of the Otsego Academy Announcement recently received at this office. The academy is ideally located in the outskirts of the village, and has in connection a stock-farm of two hundred and thirty acres, with excellent buildings. This is the school of the West Michigan Conference. The principal is Prof. C. A. Hansen.
BRETHREN FERRIS AND GRAY are holding tent-meetings in an Illinois town. A Presbyterian minister of the place attended their meetings several times, and then told his congregation about the work. He said: “There are some people holding meetings in a tent on the west side of town, and they are teaching the truths of the Bible. They handle the Bible as I used to see D. L. Moody in his great lectures. They probably do not agree with us on many things, in fact, I know they do not on some. One of the peculiar points they teach is, that Saturday is the Sabbath; that it has never been changed to the first day of the week. And friends, I believe it is true, for I have never been able to find any change spoken of in the Bible. We know there has been a change made, but I do not know when it was made nor what it was for. I would advise you to go and hear these men explain the Bible. I am going when I can get away from my work, for I am not afraid of the truth of God's word.” These are brave, good words. There should be no fear of the word of God.
THE Third Annual Calendar of the Central California Intermediate School is now being mailed. You can secure a copy by addressing the principal, Prof. B. L. Howe, Armona, Cal.
ELO THE EAGLE AND OTHER STORIES
By Floyd Bralliar
BY FLOYD BRALLIAR
THIS new animal book for young folks is receiving an eager welcome by all nature lovers. ELO THE EAGLE is the first of a series of ten interesting stories of animals, wild and otherwise; being, with one exception, the life histories of boyhood friends of the author. Many strange and laughable anecdotes are related by Mr. Bralliar, all of which are strictly true and vouched for by reliable witnesses.
The book is lavishly illustrated by special drawings, with a full-page half-tone design printed in Luxotype at the beginning of each chapter. Two hundred pages, printed on egg-shell paper, beautifully bound in red cloth. Price, post-paid, $1.00.
Easily sold by young people. Agents wanted.
Pacific Press Publishing Assn.
Mountain View, California
Portland, Ore. Regina, Sask., Can. Kansas City, Mo.
Wanted for Missionary Work
By H. E. Sawyer-Hopkins
WANTED.— Clean copies of SIGNS OF THE TIMES for missionary work. H. E. Sawyer-Hopkins, Pomona, Cal.
Farm Property Near Sebastopol and Santa Rosa
For Sale.—Several tracts good farm property near Sebastopol and Santa Rosa; liberal terms; excellent improvements; fruit, etc. Address “L,” care of Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.
A Message
By Editor
It is a timely message which is being given by the September number of the SIGNS Monthly, a message that every home should welcome. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” says the Scripture. “This number offers knowledge that may save our boys and girls. It will be a blessing in every home.” Such statements are being used in presenting the temperance feature of this issue.
Orders already filled will supply 25,000 homes. Your help is needed in placing it in many more. Tho your time or territory may be limited, have some part with this number.
Partial Table of Contents
General Under the heading, “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” appears a Wall Street Journal Editorial which is a splendid selling feature with business and thinking people.
Bible “Our Reasonable Service,” by Mrs. E. G. White, setting forth the reasonableness of a well-ordered and temperate life; “The Sabbath to Be Restored,” by Eld. C. L. Taylor.
Temperance and Health “Tendency of Highly Seasoned and Other Improper Foods to Produce Intemperance,” by D. H. Kress, M.D.; “The Effects of Alcohol on the System from the Standpoint of the Scientist,” by H. F. Rand, M.D.; “Effects of Tobacco on the System, and How It Strengthens the Drink Habit,” by A. J. Sanderson, M.D.; “The Heritage of Intemperance,” by L. A. Reed; “How May We Gain the Victory?” by the Editor.
Home Story, and illustrations in harmony.
Twenty-five copies cost $1.00; they sell for $2.50. 100 cost $4.00. You sell them for $10.00. Order of your Tract Society. Ask for the SIGNS WORKER which contains selling points and suggestive canvasses.
Signs of the Times
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA
Afraid of a Shadow
The young minister’s text was the twenty-third Psalm, of which he gave a running commentary. When he came to the verse, “Tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” he abruptly paused and said: “I am a Scotchman. Let me tell you a little incident which occurred not long ago in a Scottish parish where I was laboring.” He leaned from the pulpit, and with the sweetest Scottish accent began in a low, tender voice:
“I was sitting in my study one Saturday evening when a message came to me that one of the godliest among the shepherds who attended their flocks upon the slopes of our Highland hills was dying and wanted to see the minister. Without loss of time I crossed the wide heath to his comfortable little home. When I entered the low room, I found the old shepherd propped up with pillows, and breathing with such difficulty that it was apparent that he was near his end. ‘Jean,’ he said, ‘give the minister a stool and leave me a bit; for I wad lie to see the minister alone.’ As soon as the door was closed he turned the most pathetic pair of gray eyes upon me I had ever looked into, and said in a voice shaken with emotion: ‘Minister, I’m dying, and — and I’m afraid.’ I began at once to repeat the strongest promises with which God’s word furnishes us; but in the midst of them he stopped me. ‘I ken them a’, but somehow they dinna gie me comfort.’”},{
“‘Do you believe them?’”},{
“‘Wi’ a’ my heart,’ he replied, earnestly.
“‘Where then is there any room for fear, with such a saving faith?’”},{
“‘For a’ that, minister, I’m afraid, I’m afraid.’”},{
“I took up the well-worn Bible which lay on the bed and turned to the psalm which I have read to-day:
“‘You remember the twenty-third Psalm?’ I began.
“‘Remember it!’ he said vehemently, ‘I kenned it afore ye were born; ye need na’ read it; I’ve conned it a thousand times on the hillside.’”},{
“‘But there is one verse you have not taken in.’ He turned upon me with a half-reproachful and even stern look, ‘Did I not tell ye, afore ye were born?’”},{
“I slowly repeated the verse, ‘“Tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me.” You have been a shepherd all your life, and have watched the shadows pass over the hills, hiding for a little while the light of the sun. Did the shadows ever frighten you?’”},{
“‘Frighten me?’ he said quickly. ‘Na! Na! Dave Donaldson has Covenanter’s bluid in his veins; neither shadow nor substance could well frighten him.’”},{
“‘But did these shadows never make you believe you would not see the sun again — that it was gone forever?’”},{
“‘Na! Na! I cudna be sic a simpleton as that.’”},{
“‘Nevertheless, that is just what you are doing now.’”},{
“He looked at me with incredulous eyes. ‘Yes,’ I continued, ‘the shadow of death is over you, and it hides for a little the Sun of Righteousness, who shines all the same behind; but it’s only a shadow that will pass, and when it has passed away, you will see the everlasting hills in their unclouded glory.’”},{
“The old shepherd covered his face with his trembling hands, and for a few moments maintained an unbroken silence; then letting them fall straight before him on the bed, he said, as if musing to himself: ‘Aweel! Aweel! I have conned that verse a thousand times among the heather, and I never understood it so afore — afraid of a shadow! Afraid of a shadow!’”},{
“Then turning to me a face now bright with an almost supernatural brightness, he exclaimed, lifting his eyes reverently to heaven, ‘Aye, aye, I see it a’ noo. Death is only a shadow — a shadow with Christ behind it — a shadow that will pass — na, na, I’m afraid nae mair.’”—Exchange.
The Decay of the Home Life
(From a recent sermon by the Right Rev. F. H. Chase, D.D., Lord Bishop of Ely, preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, London.)
Present-Day Tokens
Are the warnings of the Bible and of history wholly without a meaning and a message to ourselves? Is it not the case that thoughtful men see reason anxiously to ask themselves the question whether in England to-day the home counts for what it used to count, whether the standard of family life is the standard it used to be? There are tokens which can not be mistaken that, whereas, if it be God's will, children are the rightful fruit of marriage, there is a growing tendency to regard a family as a burden, an avoidable curtailment of comfort and luxury and wealth, and to frustrate the clearest and plainest purposes of the Creator. Again, during the last week the newspapers have recorded a debate in the House of Lords, which is one of many indications only too obvious that divorce has a growing place in English life, and that there is a lessening of that reverence for the marriage-bond on which the wholesomeness and the soundness, and ultimately the existence, of society depend.
The evidence of laxity of view and of practise in these grave matters suggests many anxious questions to a lover of his country. He can not but ask himself whether the average parent to-day has the same care for, and consequently the same authority over, his children that parents used to have; whether he is willing to practise the same self-denial for his children's sake in regard to amusement and luxury which our fathers and our grandfathers were willing to practise; whether religion is the basis and bond of English family life as it used to be half a century ago.
Vital Matters
Here are matters which are of vital importance to us all, but which in the hurry and bustle of daily life, in the excitement of political and ecclesiastical controversies, we may easily overlook and disregard. Depend upon it, in the long run the prosperity and happiness, nay, the stability, of a nation depends less, infinitely less, on the strength of its armaments or the growth of its commerce or the security of its finance or its store of scientific achievements ministering to the ease or the business of life than on the home life of its citizens. That is its citadel and its palladium. Weakness in other departments of life may be retrieved. Weakness here is like an insidious disease which, if unnoticed in its earliest stages, gathers a force too great for later remedies, and slowly and surely undermines the vitality of the strongest constitution. Perhaps the greatest of our national needs at this moment of our history is a strong, serious, watchful, Christian public opinion as15to the inviolable sacredness of the life of the home and the supreme obligation of its responsibilities and duties. To do all that in him lies to maintain and to strengthen such a sound public opinion is within the power, as it is the sacred duty, of every Christian man and woman.
The Old Hymns
THERE'S lots of music in 'em, the hymns of long ago,
An' when some gray-haired brother sings the ones I used to know
I sorter want to take a hand — I think o' days gone by,
“On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wistful eye.”
There's lots of music in 'em — those dear, sweet hymns of old,
With visions bright of lands of light and shining streets of gold;
And I hear 'em ringing — singing, where Mem'ry, dreaming, stands,
“From Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strands.”
They seem to sing forever of holier, sweeter days,
When the lilies of the love of God bloomed white in all the ways;
And I want to hear their music from the old-time meetin's rise
Till “I can read my title clear to mansions in the skies.”
We never needed singin' books in them old days; we knew
The words — the tunes of every one the dear old hymn-book through!
We didn't have no trumpets then — no organs built for show;
We only sang to praise the Lord “from whom all blessings flow.”
An' so I love the old hymns, and when my time shall come —
Before the light has left me and my singing lips are dumb —
If I can only hear 'em, then I'll pass without a sigh
“To Canaan's fair and happy land, where my possessions lie!”
— Atlanta Constitution.
Plant Good Deeds Every Day
PLANT trees, plant flowers, plant roses, plant smiles, plant good deeds every day, and above all plant the feet in the way of right doing.—Town and Country.
Death to the House-Fly
(From advice of Merchants’ Association Committee of New York City.)
FLIES are the most dangerous insects we have. They are much more dangerous than bees or hornets; these may sting you, and the sting is painful, but you soon get over the pain. Flies do much more harm than this. They walk over filthy places such as sewers and garbage-cans; and after eating the filthy food which they find there, they come into your house and walk on the food you eat, carrying on their feet the tiny germs which live in filth just as you live in a house. These germs are not only filthy and disgusting, but many of them cause such diseases as typhoid fever, cholera infantum, and summer complaint. When the flies bring them from some dirty place to your food or leave some of them when they crawl on your face or hands, you may swallow these germs without knowing it and be taken ill with one of these diseases. So the fly that seems so harmless may do you much more harm than a bee or a hornet. Flies lay their eggs chiefly in stable manure, and if this is left without screens or other covers to keep the flies away, great numbers will be hatched in every stable.
Rules for Dealing with the Fly Nuisance
Keep the flies away from the sick, especially those ill with contagious diseases. Kill every fly that strays into the sick-room. His body is covered with disease germs.
Do not allow decaying material of any sort to accumulate on or near your premises.
All refuse which tends in any way to fermentation, such as bedding, straw, paper waste and vegetable matter, should be disposed of or covered with lime or kerosene oil.
Screen all food.
Keep all receptacles for garbage carefully covered and the cans cleaned or sprinkled with oil or lime.
Keep all stable manure in vault or pit, screened or sprinkled with lime, oil, or other cheap preparation.
Cover food after a meal; burn or bury all table refuse.
Screen all food exposed for sale.
Screen all windows and doors, especially the kitchen and dining-room.
Don’t forget, if you see flies, their breeding-place is in near-by filth. It may be behind the door, under the table, or in the cuspidor.
If there is no dirt and filth, there will be no flies.
If there is a nuisance in the neighborhood, write at once to the health department.
To Kill Flies
The London “Lancet,” the leading medical journal of the world, says that the best and simplest fly-killer is a weak solution of formaldehyde in water (two teaspoonfuls to the pint). Place in plates or saucers throughout the house. Ten cents’ worth of formaldehyde will last an ordinary family all summer. It has no offensive smell, is fatal to disease organisms, and is practically non-poisonous except to insects.
Pyrethrum powder, which may be bought at any drug store, burned in the house, will also kill the flies.
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SUBSCRIPTION RATES TO UNITED STATES AND CANADA
By C. H. Jones
Manuscripts should be addressed to the editor. Address all business and make all money-orders, etc., payable to the Signs of the Times, Mountain View, Cal.
N. B. We send no papers from this office to individuals without pay in advance. 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 to pay for them. Please read the papers you may receive, and hand them to your friends to read.
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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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Life and Health
A PRACTICAL health journal, published with a view of meeting hygienic needs in every home; teaching how to care for the health and how to preserve life; prescribing simple home treatments to assist nature in throwing off diseases rather than adding more poison by using drugs or unnatural stimulants as remedies: teaching how to avoid disease as far as possible, how to manage in the home when sickness does come, and how to combat the disease by simple remedies which nature provides.
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LIBERTY
THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF
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An illustrated, 48-page, quarterly magazine, published as an exponent and advocate of true religious liberty: defending Christianity and the rights of conscience; upholding the Bible as the infallible word of God; recognizing the church and state as ordained of Heaven for specific and distinct purposes, but vigorously protesting against the alliance of the church with the state in the attempt to advance religion and to promote the state. Price 25 cents per year. Liberal terms to agents.
Address, LIBERTY, Takoma Park, D. C.
Our Little Friend
An Illustrated Paper for the Smaller Men and Women, for the Children and Little Ones
Instructive and entertaining, clean, wholesome, sensible. It is a character builder, a helper to father and mother. Our Little Friend would plant seed in the joyous life of the children in the Present, that it may bear blessed fruitage in the Harvest of the Future. Respect your child's individuality. Take the paper for him or her. Only 50 cents a year.
Address, OUR LITTLE FRIEND, Mountain View, Cal.
Turning Obstacles Into Means of Ascent
Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, the noted Presbyterian preacher of New York, declares that making excuses results in making “an idle man more lazy, an ignorant man more foolish, and a bad man more depraved.” “To consent to the governance of circumstances is to deny our own personal power and efficiency. It is to make ourselves the slave of circumstance, rather than to act in the light and the consciousness of such superiority lodged in ourselves as fits us to get the better of circumstances. It is to deny our birthright.” “All the progress that has ever been made in the world has been made by the men and women who, instead of being afraid of obstacles and running away from them, have climbed up onto them and used them as means of ascent, and, like the oak before the wind, have woven the blast into the fabric of their own character and activities.”
The Spirit World and a Future Life
“The Spirit World and a Future Life,” by Prof. G. W. Rine, is now ready. It is a neat pamphlet, No. 202 of the Bible Students’ Library, and the price is only 10 cents.
Bible Evidence Against Christian Science
By Editor
We again call the attention of our readers to the articles on Christian Science which are running in our Editorial department. Notice the tremendous amount of Bible evidence which is contradicted directly and diametrically by “Christian Science” teaching. Many other scriptures, such as John 20:31, might have been quoted. The apostle, referring to all the various miracles and signs which Jesus had wrought, the record of which he had given, declares that: “these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life in His name.”
Calvin
Calvin.— The way some are inclined to exalt Calvin recalls the anecdote of the Scotchman concerning Calvin’s disciple, John Knox. Said a Scotch cabby to an American tourist, “Yon’s the house of John Knox.” The tourist responded, “Well, who was this John Knox, anyway?” Indignantly the shocked Scotchman replied, “Mon! Do ye no read your Bible?” Neither Calvin nor Knox was a Bible prophet or apostle. Both lived according to their lights, tho both held serious errors. God blessed them both despite the errors. Calvin had his place, and he filled it, perhaps, too well, at least too strongly, of himself.
Subscribe Now for the Coming Six Months
By Editor
On pages 8 and 9 will be found an interesting schedule of what will be given to the readers of this paper during the six months beginning with October. This statement is but partial. The fulfilling will, by God's help, be more ample than the promises. Now is the time to subscribe; for the next six months following will be as good as the first. The world — your neighbors, friends, relatives, all for whom Christ died,—needs these great truths. Join with us in giving them the widest circulation.
The Growth of Gambling
It is a sad fact that the gambling instinct and practise are increasing everywhere. The London Times points out that for the fiscal year of 1907-8 the gross receipts from state lotteries in Italy, were over £3,300,000 ($16,500,000)—a clear profit of $8,500,000 to the State, an increase of $600,000 over the year previous; and that the lottery is most popular among the poorest and most illiterate classes.
The Elsie Siegel Murder Mystery
Now it is declared, and with seemingly some show of reason, that Elsie Siegel was not killed by the Chinese at all, but that rather she eloped with her supposed murderer, and that the girl found in the trunk was another individual. This seems to be demonstrated by a very full comparison made between the body found in the trunk and Miss Siegel herself, not only as regards the physical features of the person, but the clothing that was worn, and other circumstances.
The Big Trees of California
“The Big Trees of California,” the sequoia gigantea are not the biggest trees in the world by any means, Mr. Egerton R. Young tells us in the National Geographical Magazine for August. He says the Eucalyptus Amygdalina is the tallest, if not perhaps the largest, tree that grows. Specimens as high as 470 and 480 feet have been found. In one of these trees a great cavern has been scooped out for a commodious kitchen with all of its appliances. It is not uncommon to find some of these trees 120 to 200 feet in circumference, so large that it does not even pay to cut them down.
A Mountain Boy’s Hungry Heart
A writer in the “Sunday School Times,” in speaking of the South, tells us of a trip that he made through the mountains of Kentucky, in which he met a real keen, clear-eyed, mountain-boy, eleven years old, who had been to Sunday-school only once in his life, and knew nothing about the Bible. He had been to school but very little, a few days each year, but did not care particularly for that. From an illustration at hand the missionary talked with him about yoking up with Christ. The little fellow had never heard anything of the kind, but he was an interested listener. The missionary closes by saying: “His hungry little heart was ready to take in the wondrous truths of God’s word when told to him,” and then asks, “Where are the reapers?”
Love to God and Man Requires the Gospel
In the new religion which Dr. Charles W. Eliot, ex-president of Harvard University, predicts, one of the great principles will be love to God and love to man; and yet he tells us it will be a religion “not based upon any authority.” That sounds real good, but the great simple fact is, as the Scriptures declare, that the carnal heart is not subject to the law of God, but is at enmity with that law. Man of himself does not love the law. In the very nature of the case he can not of himself love the law. Only as the Spirit of God is shed abroad in his heart, does love come in, and that can come only through the regenerating power of the Gospel of Christ.
Hypnotism and the Human Will
A recent article in a daily paper informs us that hypnotism is regularly practised in Bellevue Medical Hospital, New York, and gives the statement of Dr. M. S. Gregory that he thoroly believes in the efficacy of the work. It is a wicked thing. Hypnotism places the will of one under the absolute control of another, a fellow creature. It was God's design, and is still, that the human will should be subject, absolutely subject, to no other will save His own. Whenever man yields his will to a creature, let that creature be man or angel, he becomes an automaton. He has weakened one of the essential faculties in forming right character, and makes himself a prey forever after to stronger creature influences, which will almost invariably be malefic.
