p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 19. (5/12/1909)

China

China.— In a letter to a friend in Mountain View, Sister Louise Roberts, who went from our publishing house to China, writes very encouragingly indeed regarding their work in that field, and how much freer they are than our workers in Japan, whose mail is opened without any apology on the part of the authorities. She also tells us that Koreans are very friendly to American missionaries, but the Japanese Government is grinding the very life out of poor Korea.

Referring to some of our own workers over there who have been sick, she says: “In spite of all the sickness among our foreign workers here lately, our work has never been so strong as it is now, and new interests are constantly springing up. The stations are using large clubs of the paper and many tracts, and the native evangelists and colporteurs are meeting with excellent success. Clubs of the paper are being increased from month to month as they gain experience. So you see that is a sure sign that the work is going.”

She expresses the wish that the time may soon come when they can have their own printing-office, and also declares that a sanitarium is needed there very much, and also more dispensaries at our stations and out-stations. Another splendid thought of the good missionary is: “We like the Chinese and find that it is no discomfort to us to adapt ourselves to their customs and ideas; so that is no trial to us as it is to some, yet we rather expected it would be to us. Of course, the most of the Chinese are dirty and ignorant and superstitious, and they have all the faults that they have been accused of, but still there is lots of good in most of them, and some of them lead such honorable lives that I often wonder how they can be as good as they are under the blighting influences of heathenism. When they are converted—they are admirable Christians, and I don't believe that they have their superiors anywhere. That is the miracle of the Gospel, that it takes these poor souls and makes of them subjects for the kingdom of God. As far as personal preference goes, I know now that I would rather be in China than any other mission field.”

Health Commissioner Evans on Milk Safety

Health Commissioner Evans, of Chicago, declares that God did not make cows to supply milk to human beings. “Before man took a hand in the matter, a cow gave only sufficient milk for the use of her young.” She has really been forced to gradually increase her supply of milk that it might be used for human needs. The modern cow is peculiarly susceptible to disease, especially tuberculosis, and “the product of any dairy adjacent to a big city, no matter how clean or well managed that dairy may be, is not good enough to use without being pasteurized, unless all of the cows have been tested for tuberculosis. A city health department examined many samples of milk sold in Chicago as pure milk, and has found in some of them as high as three million germs in fifteen drops of milk. If water has one thousand such germs we condemn it.” All of which means that people ought to be very careful regarding their milk supply.

A Bill to Regulate Vivisection

The New York Anti-Vivisection Society has prepared a simple bill for the regulation of legitimate vivisection. The Society wishes it understood that it is not opposed to proper experimentation by competent persons, but that it is outraged by present conditions. The bill before the Legislature aims at letting the daylight in before all such experiments and maintains that secrecy surrounding vivisection should be done away. The Evening Post in noting the bill says, “It is hard to see much to criticize in the bill before us.” This clearly shows that the statement that is often made that vivisectionists value brute life above that of the human, is not true. It is extreme and unnecessary cruelty to which they are opposed.

Lulu Wightman on Civil Government

We noted in a recent number that Mrs. Lulu Wightman, a public advocate of civil and religious liberty, was invited by the Missouri Legislature to address the body on that subject. The Jefferson City Daily Tribune of April 14 tells us that she was attentively listened to by nearly every member of the Legislature. Her address lasted from 5 o’clock to 6:15. Her subject was, “The Object of Civil Government.” We are glad to note this and to express the wish that every legislator in the country might give more consideration to the important subject of religious liberty.

The Sword of Laban

“The Sword of Laban” is the title of a vigorous monthly published by R. B. Neal, of Pikeville, Ky. Mr. Neal is the general secretary of the American Anti-Mormon Association. The paper is devoted wholly and solely to the work of battling the advances of the evangelists sent out by Mormons. If a sample copy is desired, send ten cents to Mr. R. B. Neal, Pikeville, Ky., and sample copy, 16 2-page leaflets, and a ten-cent tract, called Cowdery’s Defense, will be sent also, if you mention the name of this paper.

Christ Our Life and Power

Jesus Christ is more than a mere leader. To simply take Him as a leader, as a grand man, is not Christianity. Christianity is imbued with His life, as actual life and power as the electric force from the dynamo is actual. To those who receive Him He is made “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”