p. 304 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 19. (3/13/1893)

Earlier text: The Religious Nature of the East Indian

SECULAR.

—The Kansas Legislature has passed a woman suffrage law.

—All the switchmen on the Vandalia line (Illinois) have struck for higher wages.

—The province of Corrientes, Argentine Republic, is again in revolt against the general government.

—The Minnesota Senate is considering charges of extensive timber land frauds in Itasca County, in which it is alleged that several large timber dealers are concerned.

—Miss Julia Force, of Atlanta, Georgia, who recently shot to death two of her sisters, has been adjudged insane.

—The Hawaiian Annexation Treaty was not ratified by the Senate, and the question is therefore left for the new administration to deal with.

—The press dispatches in regard to the inauguration of President Cleveland say that never before was there so large a crowd of people in Washington.

—A late Panama dispatch says that the Campidan Valley, in Guatemala, has been flooded. Six villages have been swept away and hundreds of people are reported drowned.

—In Rome, on the 27th ult., the police surprised twenty-six Anarchists working in a bomb factory on the outskirts of the city. A large quantity of explosives was seized.

—At Columbus, Indiana, the gamblers are turning the tables on the Law and Order League by entering complaints against society people who play progressive eucher for prizes.

—A press correspondent at Buenos Ayres says that it has been discovered that cartridges served to government troops in Corrientes were filled with coal dust instead of powder.

—On the evening of the 3d inst., a cyclone struck Marion, Mississippi, unroofing and demolishing houses and throwing freight cars from the track. Several deaths are reported.

—Some of the Chinese, a comparatively small number, however, think it safer to register as required by the exclusion law. Up to the 1st inst. 100 had registered at San Francisco.

—A fire, said to be incendiary, destroyed the Colored Baptist College at Little Rock, Arkansas, on the 2d inst. Twenty students jumped from windows; six were badly hurt, two fatally.

—The Supreme Court of Kansas, in the contest between the two rival legislative bodies, decided against the Populists and in favor of the Republicans. The Populists have surrendered.

—The Gladstone government is firm in its maintenance of the present monetary system of England, and insists that the bi-metallists have as yet offered no feasible scheme for a double standard.

—Great destitution is reported in Oldham, England, on account of the prolonged struggle between masters and employees in the cotton mills. Thousands of the idle people are out of food and fuel.

—Ex-President Harrison has formally accepted the law professorship of Leland Stanford Jr. University, at Palo Alto, California. The duties involved are the delivery of ten lectures yearly on general law.

—There is great rejoicing in the mining regions of California over the passage by Congress of the Caminetti Hydraulic Mining Bill, which permits a resumption of hydraulic mining under prescribed restrictions.

—It is estimated that not far from 75,000 men are annually maimed or killed by accidents while coupling railroad cars. Yet nearly 5,000 patents for improved coupling apparatus have been issued in the United States.

—A train on the Iron Mountain Railroad was wrecked near Hope, Arkansas, on the 1st inst. The baggage car, chair car, two coaches, and one sleeper were burned, and fifteen persons were badly injured, but none fatally.

—New York City and Brooklyn are to have another great connecting bridge across East River, to cost $10,000,000. It will take in Blackwell's Island, and will be used by the New York Central and Long Island Railroads.

—The residence of Cyrus Lee, near Greenville, Kentucky, was burned on the night of February 28. Mr. Lee, his sister, brother, and brother's wife and child, were all burned with the building, and no one knows the origin of the fire.

—A Belfast, Ireland, telegram says that the National Federation has elected as president Thomas Sexton, who indorsed Gladstone's home-rule bill and denounced Salisbury for endeavoring to incite Orangemen to outrage and riot in opposition to the bill.

—A high unfinished brick building in Chicago was blown over by the wind early in the morning of the 28th ult. The tumbling bricks fell upon adjoining frame buildings, covering fourteen persons in the ruins. Of these six were rescued alive, four of them seriously injured.

—A Berlin dispatch says that in western Russia and eastern Germany enormous loss of property from floods is reported. In Hungary also rivers are overflowing their banks, submerging villages and sweeping away thousands of cattle. The small river Raab has swollen to three times its usual size and has wrecked some 300 houses in the city of Raab and in surrounding districts. More than 50,000 acres of agricultural land have been laid waste.

—The Roman Times of a recent date says: "A telegram from Washington, U. S. A., states that the ministers of the various nations resident in that city are prepared to recognize Monsignor Satolli, the newly appointed papal delegate, as a member of the Diplomatic Corps."

—Chancellor Caprivi, of Germany, is not willing to enter into any international arbitration arrangement that would possibly relegate Alsace-Lorraine back to France. He says that "rather than to give up that country the Germans would prefer to shed the last drop of their blood."

—A terrible sandstorm is said to have prevailed in a large portion of Arizona on the 26th ult. A Phoenix dispatch says that on the Agua Fria River whole groves of mesquite were borne down, and the drifting sand covered up and annihilated many wood camps scattered along the edge of the desert.

—The civil war in the State of Rio do Sul, Brazil, is said to be of a purely local nature and does not represent any widespread dissatisfaction with the general government. This is probably true, as the trouble appears to be confined to that one State; but the fact that the general government seems unable to quell the disturbance indicates a rather unexpected degree of weakness.

—A labor mass meeting was held at San Jose de Costa Rica, at which the dictatorship of President Rodriguez was denounced. Colonel Mena was named as the candidate for President. A riot was caused by an attempt of the police to disperse the meeting. Many of the labor leaders were arrested. It is predicted that the reign of Rodriguez will be suddenly terminated.

—A new feature of the ceremonial exchange of official positions at Washington City took place on the evening of March 1. It was a grand reception to Vice President Stevenson, given by the outgoing vice president, Mr. Morton. This courtesy is said to be the first of the kind in the history of the nation, and is said to have been the result of a personal friendship of many years' standing.

—A new battle ship, the Indiana, was launched at Philadelphia, on February 28. She is one of three vessels of which the Secretary of the Navy says: "In these battle ships the United States will become possessed of three vessels of the highest power, whose equal as fighting ships does not exist at the present day." The other two are named Massachusetts and Oregon. The last named is being built in San Francisco.

—The wool sorters at the Milwaukee Worsted Mills have quit work. The strike is partly against a large reduction of wages, but the strikers also allege that a portion of the wool used comes from districts in Persia and Turkey where cholera has been raging for a year. They also state that they have been notified that the work of disinfecting the wool from these parts would be stopped. The superintendent denies the latter complaint.

—On the 3d inst. a destructive cyclone cut a swath through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, passing out into the Atlantic Ocean. There was great destruction of property, and over fifty persons are said to have been killed. The town of Greenville, Georgia, was completely wrecked, although of the 1,000 inhabitants only one was killed. At Hogansville some houses were carried two miles and then dashed to the ground.

—The boomers encamped along the line of the Cherokee Strip country, waiting for Congress to open the land to settlement, having suffered much from exposure and the want of necessary supplies, are said to be getting desperate. Threats are made that if Congress does not move soon, they will invade the coveted domain, secure homes, and, if necessary, fight for them. A Washington dispatch says that Secretary Noble has asked for a military force to prevent the threatened invasion.

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THE TALENTS. By M. C. Wilcox. A brief essay on "The Parable of the Talents," showing that the talents represent the various gifts of the Spirit which God bestows as he will upon those who are consecrated to him, with the duties and blessed privileges involved therein. Bible Students' Library, No. 77; 16 pp., price 2 cents.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 6.

RELIGIOUS.

—The Christian at Work says: "Resolutions in favor of keeping our American Sunday are being adopted by religious bodies all over the country."

—One of the striking features of the late papal jubilee was the action of the czar of Russia in granting permission to collect subscriptions in his dominion for an offering at Rome.

—It is said that the Methodists feel that they have been unfairly treated because they are allotted only 400 square feet of space for an exhibit at the World's Fair, while the Catholics are allowed 20,000.

—News from San Salvador indicates a serious clash between the authorities of Church and State. The government threatens to expel the bishop unless the clerical press ceases its attacks on the President.

—President Cleveland specially requested that the design of the Inaugural Committee to extend the ceremonies to a concert on Sunday, the 5th inst., be not carried out. So that feature of the parade was postponed until Tuesday, the 7th.

—The Methodist ministers of Chicago, at a recent meeting, adopted a resolution urging all small local Sunday unions throughout the country to coöperate with the American Sabbath Union in maintaining Sunday closing of the World's Fair.

—A London News dispatch from Rome says that the pope is greatly displeased by the abandonment of the American pilgrimage on the occasion of his recent jubilee. He attributes the abandonment of the undertaking to the disputes between Mgr. Satolli and the American bishops, and has ordered an inquiry. Of course the anticipated pilgrimage would have added considerable to the receipts of the occasion, as also to the appearance of universal allegiance.

—At the Methodist Conference in session last week at Hagerstown, Maryland, a committee was appointed to visit President Cleveland, Cardinal Gibbons, and Mgr. Satolli, and urge them to use their influence in behalf of the Rev. Mr. Nelson, a Methodist missionary, now imprisoned in Brazil. His arrest and imprisonment were caused, it is said, by statements made in his sermons concerning the patron saint of Brazil, which was offensive to the authorities.

—A fight ensued in a church in the rural district of Baden, Tennessee, on Sunday, the 26th ult., over the hoop-skirt innovation. A woman came into church arrayed in the balloon style, when someone made a remark which was resented by her husband. Several men engaged in the fight, and several came out with bleeding heads, while children screamed and women fainted. Tennessee is the State most noted for its fanatical endeavors to enforce the Sunday law against honest labor.

—The Protestant section of Ireland is bitterly opposed to the Gladstone home rule measure for Ireland, for the reason that if it carries the new government will be dominated by the Catholics. And it is authoritatively stated that thousands of Orangemen in Canada and Australia are preparing to assist their brethren in Ulster should the home rule proposition be successful. There is little doubt that home rule would, for a time at least, beget a religious-political contest between Catholics and Protestants in that turbulent island.

Preaching Christ in the Churches

By Editor

THE pastors of this city are seemingly afraid that preaching Christ will not draw the people. On Sunday, the 5th inst., one of them preached Blaine, one preached Gough, and another one preached an ex-mayor of the city. A few weeks ago most of them preached Phillips Brooks. The subjects of all these sermons are dead. When ministers of the popular churches get through preaching a living Christ, we may well conclude that "Babylon is fallen."

A PARIS dispatch of February 28 says: "The Waldenses, the descendants of the famous sect so cruelly persecuted for centuries on account of their religious opinions, and who still inhabit a mountain district on the Italian side of the Cottian Alps, are preparing to emigrate to the United States. Their chief business, cloth making, has become so depressed that even with their frugality it is difficult to live. They are sending agents to North Carolina to make inquiries looking to settlement there. If the reports are favorable, 2,000 of them will emigrate in the spring. They are a hardy, thrifty people, retaining to a remarkable degree the virtues of their ancestors."

HOW LONG it will be before the winds of national conflict and war are let loose, is difficult to determine. Each month witnesses an increase of war preparations on the part of European nations. Every passing year, by her new military laws, France will add 42,000 men to her army. Russia, on an outbreak of hostilities, could now place in battle line twenty-five army corps; and, not content with this, the army drill still goes on, and new men are trained for service. Even in our own country each year makes our relations with other countries more strained and complicated, and material increase in our navy is already talked by the new administration. Surely all of these preparations for war denote that the world is preparing for future conflict. We are on the eve of startling developments. These are small indications of a reign of peace among the nations of men. Rather do they denote a fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel 3:9, 10, a condition precursory of the coming day of wrath and the destruction of every earthly power. The nations are fast preparing for the last great conflict, the battle of the great day of the Lord. May we see in the omens around us the signs that indicate our nearness to the day of wrath, and be led thereby to sustain that relation to the King of kings and Lord of lords that we shall be found of him in peace when he comes.

THE children of God, as they witness the power of Satan around them and his control of the nations of men, oftentimes feel that they themselves are in the small minority, and, so far as this earth is concerned, this is indeed true. But when God's great universe is considered, the "whole family in heaven and earth," they may feel that they are in the majority after all. They can feel as did Elisha, that "they that be with us are more than they that be with them." But if the lonely Christian felt that every power in God's universe, and every created being in the universe, were opposed to him, and God only was on his side, he might ask by way of challenge to all the opposing hosts of evil, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Let the Christian not seek counsel or encouragement from men, but realize the exhaustless and never-failing source of strength to be found in Him who created the worlds and all the intelligences of his great universe by the breath of his mouth.

REV. DR. VAN NESS (Unitarian) is quoted by the San Francisco Leader as follows:—

The Unitarian Church is but a continued existence of what was once the Puritan Church. And the Puritans—who and what are they? They were a righteous, fearless, and trusting communion. They possessed an intense conviction of the truth of their dogmas. They were blessed with a tremendous courage, which nothing could daunt when support of their faith was at stake. Furthermore, they were noted for their superb self-sacrifice and an intense sense of righteousness.

The Leader comments in these words:—

We easily recognize the Puritans from the pen picture drawn, but look about the Unitarian camp of to-day in vain to find the least "hint of a tint" resembling that picture. We did see their solitary missionary on a foreign field at a late day when it was fairly safe to reach any religion anywhere, but we also saw him return to Boston after two long years, and heard him confess that the little difference between his "faith" and that of the heathen was rather in favor of the heathen and hence he became a Buddhist.

NEW diseases are continually springing up that are unknown to the medical fraternity, and for a time at least baffle professional skill. The latest report we have of this character is a dispatch from St. Petersburg, which says: "Advices have been received from the province of Astrachan, in Southeastern Russia, adjoining the Caspian Sea, to the effect that a strange epidemic, whose character is as yet unrecognized, is killing thousands of people in the transcaspian region." Not many years hence, if years at all, a greater epidemic than anything that has yet befallen the human race will afflict the people. It will not only be incurable, but it will be universal, affecting all who have rejected the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. This epidemic is called in the Scriptures the "seven plagues," and is particularly described in Revelation 16. This will be the end of human probation, when all who are at all susceptible to the truth will have been sealed by the Spirit of God. The only escape from these plagues is in prevention, and that prevention is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The people who will escape are designated as "they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.

A short time ago there was formed in the city of Boston a society for the purpose of investigating Spiritualism. This society was composed of many great minds, and at its head stood a prominent minister of a professed Christian church. It is now stated that some of the leading scientific lights of Italy are banded together for a similar purpose. At the head of the Italian enterprise stand "Schiaparelli, the astronomer, and Lombroso, the greatest expert on criminology." Satan is well pleased to measure strength and compare notes with these great men, and we may be assured that he will in no way make the comparison unfavorable to his own interests. Spiritualism will be the gainer by all these investigations. It cannot be combated by scientific means. Man cannot hope to successfully cope with the rulers of darkness. God's word reveals that Spiritualism is but the modern manifestation of old-time sorcery and necromancy, and that through it in the last days Satan will work with "all power, and signs, and lying wonders," "to deceive if possible the very elect." God's truth is the only safeguard of his children. To its decision every theory in the world must be submitted. God has not left his people to cope with the adversary single-handed, nor by the methods of human reasoning or scientific research. He that gives heed to divine revelation will not be misled nor deceived.

IN a recent lecture by Joseph Cook upon the subject "Is the Fourth Commandment Binding upon Christians?" the noted Boston lecturer is reported by the Advance of February 23 as using the following words with respect to the commandments of the Decalogue:—

While God remains God, and man is man, the Decalogue must stand. It seems beyond human efforts, and is written in the very constitution of things. Where it has been obeyed even partially it has poured out blessings on the people. It is worthy of such an origin as it claims. It is of this Decalogue that Christ said he did not come to do away with the law, and said, "Keep the commandments." Is the fourth different from the other nine? Any authority they may have belongs to it. The civil and ceremonial laws of the Jews were superseded, but not the moral, and the Decalogue belongs to the moral. A day of rest is in the laws of nature. It was made for man, not for the Jews only, but for all mankind. The week is of immemorial antiquity. The very latest rationalistic discussion against the Decalogue admits that a sacred seventh day existed among the Jews when they first left Mesopotamia. The week is probably as old as the family.

Mr. Cook then proceeds to argue that no particular day is enjoined in the commandment, but that the observance of one day in seven is all it requires. If this were true, which we by no means admit, why do Mr. Cook and his coworkers contend so zealously for the observance of a particular definite day, the Sunday sabbath—a day too that is neither enjoined nor even hinted at in the Decalogue? Why should these same Sunday advocates, who claim the binding obligation of the Decalogue, and yet hold that it does not command the observance of a definite day, demand that seventh-day keepers should violate their consciences and observe a definite day contrary to what they believe the law of God commands? If no particular day is enjoined, why not leave it to every man to choose the day he desires in which to worship? But the Decalogue does enjoin a definite day. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." God does not leave the matter of religious duty at loose ends, to be defined or determined by the caprice of men. As Mr. Cook truly says, "While God remains, and while man is man, the Decalogue must stand," and we may also add that the day enjoined by the Decalogue will be obligatory so long as the law of which it is a part shall endure. God's requirements are not mystical nor uncertain, but they are yea, and amen. God says what he means, and when all men shall stand or fall, as their allegiance to God shall be determined by the law of liberty, it will then be seen, if not before, that God means what he says.

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