—According to the Presbyterian Ministers' Union of San Francisco, the "unemployed ministers are increasing at a rapid rate." On this point the Occident says: "The rapid increase of ministers and the limited increase of churches, together with the financial decline of many churches, renders the situation a serious question. There are able preachers now in San Francisco desiring regular work, for whom there is no employment." Surely a church and its ministry must have wandered far from the New Testament to be wailing in that strain. What saith the Master? "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few." "Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive." "The field is the world." "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." "And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after; and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."
—In the very nature of things, the kingdom of Christ could not be of this world, and he himself has said that it is not. John 18:36. One reason why it could not be so is found in the following dispatch from Omaha: "Charles O. Cedarquist, a private of Company A, Second Infantry, has been found guilty of disobeying his superior officers, and to-day the accused was sentenced to be confined at hard labor for six months, and to forfeit $10 per month of his pay for the same period. This is the first time such a case has arisen in the annals of the army, and it has attracted a great deal of attention in army and religious circles. Cedarquist, on the morning of Sunday, June 17, was ordered by Lieutenant Bookmiller to engage in rifle practice. Cedarquist refused, on the ground that his religious scruples would not allow him to violate the sabbath by discharging firearms. The decision, as handed down by the court, says that the commanding officer has discretion to require target practice by his command on Sunday in case of necessity. The legality of that order and the obligations of the accused to obey it when duly transmitted to him cannot be questioned. It was not for him to judge of the necessity for the issue of the order, that discretion pertaining to his commanding officer, and, once exercised, whether erroneously or not, it was his duty to obey." The power of last resort in any nation of this world is its army. Army (or navy) regulations recognize no such thing as immunity from implicit obedience of orders on account of any scruple of conscience, even in matters of duty to God. The admission of such an element in military discipline would be a constant menace to the effective operation of an army. It is true that the rule of Christ implies voluntary submission in all things. But in his kingdom such service will always be harmonious, for his dictum will always be right, and his servants will also recognize it. There will then be no conflict between orders and conscience.
SECULAR.
—Steerage passage can now be secured from Europe to America on the Cunard steamers for $10.
—Cholera is on the increase in St. Petersburg. On the 14th inst., 218 new cases were reported, with 69 deaths.
—The National Educational Association, in session at Asbury Park, N. J., has passed resolutions condemning the strike.
—A train was ditched by strike sympathizers near Fontana, Ind., on the 14th inst., and the engineer and fireman were killed.
—Near Neosho, Mo., on the 13th inst., a train wreck caused by a misplaced switch resulted in the death of the engineer and fireman.
—Sovereign, head of the Knights of Labor, and Gompers, of the Federation of Labor, have decided not to declare a strike of their order.
—On plea of non-payment of wages, all the iron workers at Elwood, Ind., quit work last week, and the employers threaten to bring in foreign substitutes.
—Admiral Da Gama, prominent in the late Brazilian rebellion, who is now in Portugal, has informed President Peixoto that he is ready to surrender.
—Another polar expedition left London on the 12th inst. Franz-Josef Land was the objective point, and the venture is known as the Jackson expedition.
—The first mails from California in eleven days reached Washington City on the 13th inst., and that included only the mail from the southern part of the State.
—The town of Edon, Williams County, Ohio, was the scene of a disastrous fire on the 12th inst. Seventy-two buildings were destroyed, involving a loss of $175,000.
—The chemical works of Williams & Clarke, at Carteret, N. J., said to be the largest in the world, were destroyed by fire on the 11th inst. Loss estimated at $500,000.
—Great Britain has offered her services as mediator between Japan and China in their controversy over Corea. Japan has accepted the offer, and it is thought China will also accept.
—The local trains in this city and Alameda, connecting with San Francisco ferry lines, resumed regular trips on the 14th inst., having been completely tied up by the strike for ten days.
—Twenty fishing boats were caught in a storm off Bilboa, Spain, a week ago, and have not since been heard of. Two of the boats had seventeen men aboard, but the complement of the others is not definitely known.
—At Red Bluff, Cal., where it was reported a week ago that a person could not buy a loaf of bread unless he were a strike sympathizer, the strikers are now said to have renounced their allegiance to the A. R. U. and returned to work.
—A Warsaw dispatch announces that the proposed army maneuvers at Smolensk have been postponed on account of the discovery of a plot to blow up the building which was to have been occupied as the czar's headquarters.
—The latest news we have from the seat of the strike at Pullman is that the leader of the Pullman men has announced the strike a failure, and the employees so reduced as to be anxious to return to work on the company's terms.
—As a result of the strike situation in the United States an agitation has been commenced by a number of the British Parliament to have the Australian mails now coming through San Francisco, sent East by way of the Canadian Pacific.
—A railroad bridge near Glydon, Minn., on the Northern Pacific Railroad, was burned on the 11th inst., having been fired in three places. But for the timely discovery of a farmer, a train with a large number of passengers would have been wrecked.
—The daily papers of Fort Wayne, Ind., were served with the following notice on the 11th inst.: "We request that you remain neutral or we will be obliged to take some action in regard to your editorials in regard to the American Railway Union."
—At Dallas, Texas, the Santa Fe Railroad Co. started its delayed trains on the 13th inst., with non-union men, under protection of U. S. marshals. The company reports enough non-union men to man the yards, and trains are moving as before the strike.
—General Daniel E. Sickles gives out the opinion that the Western Union Telegraph Company, in forwarding President Debs' dispatches directing the strike, is liable to prosecution for conspiracy under the same law under which Debs is being prosecuted.
—A young man of 18 years, who some time ago was chastised for stealing ties from the railroad at San Dimas, Los Angeles County, Cal., thought he had cause for grievance against the company. So he burned a bridge near that place, and has been arrested.
—Prendergast, the murderer of Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, was hung on the 13th inst. Every legal device known to the Practice Act was exhausted in the endeavor to save him, but his fate seems to have been sealed from the day he committed the terrible deed.
—The cause of the insanity of a mother and daughter taken in charge by the authorities of San Francisco last week has been traced to starvation. They had evidently suffered a long time, being too proud to make their wants known until pride was overcome by partial derangement.
—Fire destroyed fifteen frame dwellings on Russian Hill, San Francisco, on the 14th inst. But the most appalling feature of the disaster came when the firemen dug out of the debris the charred remains of two little boys, aged 4½ and 7½ years, named Peter and Henry Laydecker.
—Letters from the gold fields in the vicinity of Johannesburg, South African republic, report a marked increase in the gold production. A late letter to a San Francisco paper says that the country has grand natural capabilities, with a sleepy, unprogressive native population, who need the enterprise of European and American people to develop the resources.
—Constantinople and vicinity have been the scene of a series of earthquakes during the past week. Great damage to property is reported, and the death list is known to be over 100, but is believed to be much more. The center of the disturbance is thought to be at the town of Brusa, at the north foot of Mount Olympus, fifty-seven miles south-east of Constantinople. A noted feature of the disaster in the great capital was the fall of the Grand Bazar, the central market for fine wares of all kinds.
—The Mississippi Legislature having authorized the issuance of State warrants in denominations of $5.00, to be used in general circulation, to tide over the critical financial stringency, the chief of the United States Secret Service at Washington has demanded that the unsigned warrants and the plates be turned over to him, which demand the governor refuses to obey.
—A few years ago quite a large number of colonists from New Zealand and Australia went to Paraguay, South America, to seek homes. But now come the most pitiful stories of poverty and degradation. They have been reduced to the lowest depths of poverty. Some have sold themselves to the plantations. But even here there is little relief, many of the Paraguayans are themselves suffering in like manner.
—Congress has passed the bill enabling Utah to become a State. Of the requirements, the following are notable: The constitution shall provide by ordinance, irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of the State, that perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and that no inhabitants of the State shall ever be molested on account of their mode of religious worship. And it must provide that polygamous or plural marriages be forever prohibited.
—A new issue in the strike of railway employees is thus stated in a St. Paul dispatch of the 13th inst.: "The Great Northern is threatened with a tie-up, the American Railway Union stating they would tie up that road if it carried troops or munitions of war for the government during the present troubles. The Great Northern has stated therefore that its line is not at the service of the government for these purposes. Business on the various railroads conferring here was being handled as usual to-day."
—The ending of the great strike will not end the retaliatory acts of many who have engaged in it, and of their sympathizers. Reports of dynamite bombs being placed on railroad tracks and in other places calculated to damage railroad property, come from various quarters. Also we have the report that the engineer and fireman of a train in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Cal., were fired upon by someone in ambush. An engineer on strike was arrested soon after in the vicinity of the ambush and placed in jail on charge of having committed the deed.
—Henry George, the noted anti-monopoly political economist, addressed a mass meeting at New York, called in sympathy with the great railroad strike. Although severe upon the railroad companies and upon President Cleveland, he told the workingmen that their unions and strikes could not better their condition, and urged them to use the ballot. It does seem that with the widespread sympathy manifested by the public at large, and the admitted organizing power of their leaders, they ought to be able to elect legislators favorable to the cause. The ballot is a legitimate weapon of defense.
—F. W. Phelan, a coworker of Debs in the strike of the Railway Union, has been convicted in the United States Court, at Cincinnati, of unlawful conspiracy, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. Phelan had endeavored to induce men to leave a road which is in the hands of a receiver appointed by the court, thus interfering with the business of the road and its connections. Applying the law to the facts, the court held that to undertake to force a break of contracts was an unlawful conspiracy. Moreover, the whole plan was a boycott, which has been declared by all the States except Minnesota to be unlawful. The court plainly recognized the right of laborers to unite, and even to combine their unions, and appoint leaders, for the purpose of obtaining a better price for their labor. They were warranted in striking—that is, leaving their employers in a body—to better their own interests, but there was no warrant in law for a boycott.
—The great railway strike has descended to train wrecking as a last resort. The government troops took possession of the blockaded depot at Sacramento, Cal., on the morning of the 11th inst., without opposition. In the afternoon a train was started for San Francisco, but it had gone only three miles when it was thrown from a trestle track into the water. The trestle had been cut in such a manner as not to show the damage until the train ran onto the weakened part and broke through. The result was the death of five soldiers who were on the train as guards, the engineer, and the fireman. While the strikers at Sacramento have all along been professedly deprecating violence, three of them, one a leader, have been arrested for committing the horrible deed, and the evidence is strong against them. Large rewards have been offered by the railroad company, the governor, and the United States Attorney General, for the conviction of the culprits. Still another job of wrecking was done at San Pablo, ten miles from this city, on the 15th inst. Someone had loosened a brake beam in a large freight train, and the mishap occurred as the train was backing onto a switch to let a passenger train go by. One car was thrown from the track, and the track considerably torn up. To add to the delay, a culvert a few miles further on had been burned out.
Religious Liberty in Russia
THE world moves backward. Peter the Great, of Russia, guaranteed to the Princess Wolfenbüttel-Braunschweig perfect liberty in the matter of religion, and permitted her to have her own chapel after the manner of English and Danish royalty.
But Alexander III. by imperial ukase demands that the future czarevna "should make her conscience part of her dowry," and embrace the Russian orthodox creed. The German princess Alix, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and now betrothed to the heir apparent to the throne of Russia, is a Protestant. She will on her marriage, or previous, become a member of the Greek Catholic Church, the State orthodox creed of Russia. It is just as well perhaps. The Protestantism she possesses is merely conventional and traditional.
Loyalty Is Obedience
Loyalty Is Obedience.—During the last few days the sensible and patriotic people of this country, whatever their sentiments, have seen and felt the necessity of the maintenance of order, of upholding the integrity of the law of the government. Without law, confusion, anarchy, and destruction are sure to follow. Are not these principles just as valuable concerning the government of God? God has a government; "his kingdom ruleth over all." He has a law; for a government cannot exist without a law. God spoke this law from heaven itself; he wrote it with his own finger on tables of enduring stone; he "added no more," showing its completeness; he declares that his law is "perfect," "holy," "just," "good;" the Son of God declares that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tittle of the law to fail." All this and much more might be cited, showing the universality, the completeness, the perfectness, the integrity, the immutability, and eternity of God's law. He who is loyal to God will obey God's law.
Says Jesus (who declared, "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me"), "If ye love me, keep my commandments;" "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." Loyalty to God means loyalty to his law.
Says Albert Barnes, "They who pretend that there are any laws of God so small that they need not obey them, are unworthy of his kingdom."
Address—Signs of the Times,
By Editor
PROPHETIC LIGHTS. By E. J. WAGGONER. Prophecies of the Old and New Testament explained by the Bible and History. Finely Illustrated. Paper bound, 180 pages, 50c.
STEPS TO CHRIST. By MRS. E. G. WHITE. A wonderfully helpful book to the sinner who would find his Saviour, as well as to young and old in Christian experience who would know Christ better. Neatly bound in Cloth, 158 pages, 75c.
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Address—Signs of the Times,
12th and Castro Streets, Oakland, Cal.
SAYS the St. Louis Christian Advocate:—
By Editor
SAYS the St. Louis Christian Advocate:—
"Christian men are sometimes found who plead that legal prohibition is wrong because you cannot legislate men into morality. Yet seven of the ten commandments in the Decalogue are prohibitory, and begin with, 'Thou shalt not.'"
But to us it makes a wonderful difference who says, "Thou shalt not." Because God does a certain thing is no evidence that we may do it. He does not compel morality; in the very nature of the case it cannot be done, because morality rests upon choice. If prohibition of the liquor traffic can be defended on no other than moral grounds, it has no right to exist. But it can be.
ANGELS; THEIR NATURE AND MINISTRY. Contains also some hints on the origin, history, and destiny of Satan as gleaned from the Scriptures. Bible Students' Library, No. 8. Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. 140 pp.; 20 cents.
CHRIST AND THE SABBATH: Or Christ in the Old Testament and the Sabbath in the New, by Elder James White. Paper covers, fifty-six pages, sent post-paid for ten cents. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.
Good Advice.
By Editor
The following from Archbishop Ireland, anent the labor troubles and recent great strike, is worthy of reproduction. It would be well for some of our Protestant clergy who have been giving utterance to anarchistic sentiments to take lessons from this Roman prelate. He says:—
"Labor must learn that, however sacred its rights may be, there is something above them, and absolutely supreme,—social order and the laws of public justice. There is no civil crime as hideous, as pregnant of evil results, as resistance to the law and the constitutional authority of the country. This resistance is revolution. It begets chaos; it is anarchy; it disrupts the whole social fabric.
"Labor, too, must learn the lesson that the liberty of the citizen is to be respected. One man has the right to cease from work, but he has no right to drive another man from work. He who respects not the liberty of others shows himself unworthy of his own liberty, and incapable of citizenship in a free country."
Next week we may print more from the same prelate in this line.
DUTY VS. RIGHT.
By Editor
REV. ROBERT COYLE, D.D., of the First Presbyterian Church of this city, preached a most impressive sermon, last Sunday, on "The Signs of the Times," especially as manifested in the great strife between labor and capital. Among the good things uttered was that the question of the hour for us is not, What are our rights? but, What is our duty? The Bible enjoins duty oftentimes at a great sacrifice of rights. He spoke of the almost universal and selfish cry of "rights," which was raised in opposition to every faithful warning of evil. If the great liquor curse were denounced, the cry of "personal rights" was raised. If the corrupting influence of wealth were mentioned, it is said that we are trenching on the "rights of capital." If law and order were demanded, and the crimes of strikers were deplored and deprecated, we were told that we were against the workingman. But God demands of us duty, stern duty to all, rich or poor, high or low, duty to God, duty to man, without reference to our rights.
REMEDIES AND RESULTS.
THERE are thousands of proposed remedies for the ills which afflict the State and Church, most of which are but revamped and rehashed ideas of the centuries past, which have been tried over and over again, and have deplorably failed. Among these is the strike and boycott for the betterment of the condition of the laboring man. A good illustration of the practical value of the strike, as well as of many other proposed remedies which will suggest themselves to the minds of our readers, is found in the following from an article on "A Ward of the Government," in Home and Country for July, by Captain Lawrence Fish. In speaking of one Indian character, he says:—
"Indian Jim was sitting in my shack, one day, and, while regaling himself with coffee and biscuit, told me the latest news of the reservation. Smallpox had broken out among them, he said. I asked what treatment they employed in cases of this kind, and he gave me a graphic description of it.
"A tepee is erected close to the bank of some stream, and made as snug as possible. Then a hot stone is rolled into the center of the tent, and water poured over it. The patient is shut up in the tepee, and subjected to this primitive steambath. When he is almost suffocated, the tepee is thrown open, and the patient makes a dash for the stream, and plunges in. I asked Jim if the same heroic treatment was resorted to in winter; he said it was.
"Don't many of them die? I inquired.
" 'Mos' die,' was the laconic reply."
The Leaven of the Pharisees
By Editor
We commend to our readers the article on "The Leaven of the Pharisees." It is not only instructive, but suggestive. It presents ideas which grow.
Gospel in Peru and Corea
By Editor
In our Mission Fields department will be found two articles of interest just now, "The Gospel in the Land of the Incas," and "The Land of Corea."
Christ in Creation
By Editor
"Christ in Creation" is the title of an article in another column, which we commend to our readers. It will be followed by others, setting forth the power, and wisdom, and love of our Redeemer.
Individual Rights
By Editor
"INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS," an article in another column, is the first of a series, each one of which is independent, which we now begin to lay before our readers. The principles discussed are of paramount importance in these times. We cannot afford to be ignorant concerning them.
The Church as the Minister’s Force
It has been aptly said that a church is not a minister’s field, but his force. He should lead them on in the winning of souls. They should coöperate with him in bringing souls to Christ. The preaching of no man will save others. We are not saved by others' effort, by listening to what others say. We are saved by receiving so much that it becomes outflowing.
The Great Railway Strike Ends
By Editor
OUR subscribers will rejoice with us that the great railway strike is practically over. We are just beginning to receive letters and papers at this office over three weeks due. Now that mail is beginning to come, it will doubtless come with a rush, and orders may be somewhat delayed. But we have done our best to get the SIGNS off to its many thousand friends, and will do the best we can in the future. The strike has entailed immense loss upon the entire country, the leaders who inaugurated it losing but little save their reputation. We are sorry, however, for the workingmen and their families who have been thus led into a hopeless conflict.