HERE is a strong tension among the nations, and constantly we are being apprised of new rumors of war.
As an instance, on April 19 the news was flashed around the world that Italy had ordered a squadron of eleven war-ships to proceed to Turkish waters to make a "demonstration" against the Sultan. And, as remarked by the San Francisco "Chronicle" recently, these "demonstrations" are "the international way of saying, 'I can lick you hands down and have a good notion to do it.'"
The trouble between the two governments is caused by the refusal of the Sultan to permit the king of Italy to establish Italian post-offices thruout Turkey, the same as other powers are allowed to do. The Italians have come to feel that Turkey is acting in a high-handed manner because she thinks Italy will not do anything, and so all this great "demonstration" is set on foot.
But the next day after the despatches had told of what Italy had decided upon, and also how that the "powers" of Europe had approved her course, the reports said that Turkey had yielded, and that the "demonstration" has been abandoned.
Incidents of this kind show that there is an ever-readiness for war, but for some reason the nations do not begin the struggle. The war-cloud may be hovering around Italy and Turkey to-day, while yesterday it was the question of how soon Japan and China would be called to arms. To-morrow it may be two or more other nations in some other quarter of the globe. The constant commotion is going on, and there is the ever-present feeling among all the nations of earth that sooner or later a great war will break out to involve the whole world. But as the calamity has been stayed in a wonderful manner, many persons have come to the conclusion that we are to have no more wars. They tell us that the battles of the future must be among the diplomats, and not between soldiers and marines.
This comforting and soothing dream of a world-wide peace may be very pleasant to contemplate, but will it be a realization, or will it be only a dream after all?
The prophecies of the Bible, as we have set forth in these pages again and again, show that the very closing days of time will be marked by the "war of the great day of God, the Almighty." But the prophetic scriptures also tell of a message of warning that will be given to the world, showing to all that the great day is at hand and giving to each one an opportunity to repent and enter the haven of security and safety that the Lord has provided against the evil hour. And while this message of warning, entreaty, and salvation is being given to the world the winds of strife and war are held in check so that men may have the opportunity in comparative peace to study and accept the salvation of God before His day of visitation and destruction breaks forth. The words of this latter prophecy are:
"After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Rev. 7:1-3.
"Winds" in this symbolic prophecy, as in other prophecies of a like nature, indicate commotions and strifes among the people. The wording of this prophecy itself will show that to any mind who thinks of it closely. This holding of the strifes and warfares of earth comes at a time when God has commissioned His messengers to set His seal upon all His servants in all the earth. There is something special indicated in this sealing. It is not the ordinary work of converting people to the acceptance of the Gospel, a work that has been going on all thru the ages. It includes the acceptance of the everlasting Gospel, it is true, but it is in a time of great threatened strife and commotion, hence there are special difficulties and trials to overcome; and this seal of God that is set upon the individual is the Lord's mark of acceptance of the successful attainments of the individual in the face of the fiercest conflict.
King Victor Immanuel III of Italy.
But while prolonged and disastrous wars are held in check until this sealing work is done, they will not always be so held. For the angels are commissioned to hold the winds only for a certain time, and then they will be directed to fulfil the other part of their commission; namely, "to hurt the earth and the sea." War by sea and land is being restrained now. How numerous are the instances wherein the whole world seems to be on the verge of being drawn into a struggle to the death! How often do we hear it said that war can not be averted! But soon the storm blows over and all is calm again.
The Sultan of Turkey.
We should clearly see thru this prophecy and thru the shaping of events that God is powerfully holding back the great storm of strife and war that is hovering about the world. But we should not be lulled into a false security. We should see the real facts and the real issues, and get ready for what is before the world. The storm will break by and by, and when it does, the threshold of eternity will be reached, and the opening heavens will reveal the Son of Man in His glorious second advent. No one can afford to be mixed up with the strifes and broils and angry wars of earth in that day.
Tall Buildings in New York City.
NEW YORK is about to realize her dream of a fifty-story office building. The Singer Building, with a height of 612 feet from the sidewalk to the apex, has been holding the record. But the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company began the erection some time ago of a building to be forty-six stories, mounting to a height of 658 feet above the sidewalk. This building is now well under way, and the architect is not satisfied with the appearance of the top of the structure, and so four more stories are to be added, bringing it to the bewildering height of 700 feet from the sidewalk, and 726 feet from the foundations, there being two stories below the surface.
This building, when completed, will be devoted to office purposes, and thousands of people will be contained during office hours in its many rooms.
New York has also in contemplation an immense sight-seeing tower that will rise still higher, if built, than this insurance company's building. Surely men are projecting great things in these days, little thinking of what the word of God has said concerning His purposes in regard to the wicked cities of earth. For it is a known fact that the great cities are veritable cesspools of vice and corruption. This fact is admitted and deplored by every one who knows the facts so far as they are revealed, for it can not be assumed that any one, aside from God Himself, knows all of the awful facts of the wickedness with which these great centers of population are both openly and secretly reeking.
History and the Bible have given us the accounts of numerous cities in the past that have become infamous for their vaunted wickedness. And it has been the invariable example that they have been overthrown by the mighty judgments of God. These are simple facts that any one may know who will take the pains to inquire into the subject. God's unvarying plan will be carried out with the wicked cities of this time, as the following words from His own Book abundantly show:
"Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil; but to do good they have no knowledge.
"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before His fierce anger.
"For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Wo is me now! for my soul fainteth before the murderers." Jer. 4:20-26, 31.11
This scripture pictures the time when the whole earth will be a desolation—the time when there will be "no man," and when the fruitful fields will become one vast wilderness. Such language could apply to no other time than when the judgments of God have depopulated the earth in the great day of its final doom.
And in that time observe that it is said that "My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." And then again it speaks of the anguish that is caused among those who cry out, "My soul fainteth before the murderers."
This is a day and age of the world when a very large portion of mankind claims to be the children of God. But of them he says, "My people are foolish, they know Me not." They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do the right. They claim to know the Lord of righteousness, but they have not really learned of Him the ways of right-doing.
And now do not fail to note particularly that the text clearly says that because of this wickedness "all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before His fierce anger." We may know from this divine decree that there will not be a city on the face of the earth that will not be "broken down." And when the wickedness that may be seen just on the surface of any of these cities is taken into consideration, who can say that the decree is not a just one?
It will be an awful time when these cities, with their towering structures that men claim can not be thrown down, are turned into tumbling ruins. The majority of mankind will not sense the meaning of all this till it is forever too late. They mock at the warnings that God is giving us thru His word. But those who will heed the warning will not be flocking to these great, wicked centers, neither will they be found dwelling in these death-traps that men are erecting in every city in the world. This is a time for serious reflection concerning these important subjects.
T.
Floods in Northern Texas
By Editor
Northern Texas has been suffering because of heavy rain-storms that prevailed there for several days prior to April 19. On that date the worst of the storm seemed to be over. The loss is estimated at more than $1,000,000. The Texas and Pacific Transcontinental Railway was cut in two by the floods, and trains were not able to pass to or from California for nearly a week. At Waco the Brazos River reached a depth of thirty-five feet, and the eastern portion of the town was inundated by the breaking of a levee. Farms in the lowlands are greatly damaged, and hundreds of head of livestock are drowned. The Cotton Belt Railroad lost many of its bridges, and it will be some days before it can attempt to run trains. At Fort Worth the water in the park and vicinity rose to a depth of ten feet. Between Fort Worth and North Fort Worth, where the packing houses are located, the water reached a depth of six or seven feet. Fully 8,000 persons, principally of the poorer classes, were driven from their homes in the submerged districts. Later reports indicate that the storm swept on to northwestern Texas, where there were a number of cloudbursts, and five towns were swept away. It is said to be the worst storm that was ever known in that region.
"Flat-Iron" Building, New York, Only About Half as High as the Life Insurance Building in Course of Construction.
A criminally inclined person, while under the influence of liquor a few days ago, shot and killed a leading citizen of a small town in Nevada. The person killed had served his community as justice of the peace and had been called upon at different times in the discharge of his duties to sentence the man who finally murdered him. The murderer had been about the streets trying to pick a quarrel with different persons he met, and finally walking into the place of business of the ex-justice of the peace, called out, "Prepare to die; I am going to kill you," and immediately fired. His bullet passed just below the heart of his victim, killing him instantly. Liquor-drinking inflames the criminal propensity, and then the old grudge comes up against judges that have passed sentences for former crimes, and murder is the result. This is one of the things that has come to be recognized as a menace to both judges and juries in these days. The possibility as well as the probability of meeting the fate of the Nevada justice of the peace is keeping many a righteous sentence from being pronounced.
In a collision at Baybrook Junction, eight miles from Melbourne, Australia, on April 20, forty-two persons were killed and sixty others badly injured. Serious wrecks on English trains, or on trains in any of the English colonies, are very infrequent. It has been one of the boasts of England that she so conducts her railway traffic that the possibility of accidents is reduced to the minimum. But in spite of her great precautions, here is one of the worst wrecks on a railroad that has ever occurred. The driving activity of this age has put a strain upon men that is beyond the legitimate powers of endurance, and the breaking under this strain is bound to result in carelessness or forgetfulness or something of the kind, and these big accidents are the fruitage. God did not create men to work under a constant nervous tension of the highest pitch.
A diplomatic difficulty has arisen between France and Turkey over the coal-mines at Ereglee, Asia Minor, 128 miles from Constantinople. Turkey is seeking to regain control of the mines, but the concessions are held by French capitalists who decline to consider the resale of the property until the Porte furnishes evidence of its ability to pay. In the financial condition of Turkey it is impossible for her to consummate the deal, and in the meantime France has closed her market to any Turkish loan, and has notified the Porte that she will exact an indemnity of $2,500 a day until settlement is made, in addition to a compensation of $2,800,000 for losses to the company incurred by disturbances.
An attempt was made to assassinate Manuel Estrada Cabrera, president of the Guatemala republic, on the evening of April 20 in Guatemala City. The assassin fired several shots, all of which went wide of the mark except one which struck the president's finger. The latest despatches say that discontented students with anarchistic tendencies were at the bottom of the plot. It has been only about a year since underground mines were fired beneath Cabrera's carriage, killing his coachman and two of his horses, and narrowly missing him.
A despatch from East St. Louis under date of April 15 gives the information that three hundred workmen fought at the works of the American Aluminum Works to-day when Armenian, Greek, and Turkish laborers became angry because the company, in taking back its employees, gave preference to Americans and negroes. The timekeeper's shanty at the main gate of the works was demolished and many heads were battered with sticks and stones.
It is good to learn that all liquors are barred on all Pullman cars in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The reason is not because of a temperance sentiment on the part of the Pullman company, but because the territory is becoming so spotted with Prohibition laws, that the company's employees were in constant danger of breaking them in dispensing liquors. The only safe thing the company could do was to discontinue altogether.
As an indication of the awakening and progress of China may be mentioned that on April 19 a twenty-five mile railroad from Shanghai to Sunkeank was thrown open to traffic. It was constructed entirely by Chinese engineers and capital. This is an interesting fact to keep note of.
An electrical engineer at the Union Pacific shops at Omaha, Frederick H. Milliner, has succeeded in applying the principle of wireless telegraphy to an electric motor. For some time he has had a wireless electric truck in successful operation in the shops.
Insurgents attempted on April 19 to wreck a Seoul train on which Marquis Ito was riding. It is said that the Japanese activity and domination in Korea is causing hundreds of the people to cross the frontier and become Chinese subjects.
A Japanese War-Ship Cruise.
By T.
A JAPANESE squadron, including some of their most powerful battle-ships, five armored cruisers, and several torpedo boats, fifteen vessels in all, has been ordered to proceed to Chinese waters, visiting Foo Chow, Amoy, and Canton. The purpose of the cruise is ostensibly for a friendly visit. But it is believed that in reality it is intended to impress the Chinese and check the boycott against Japanese goods.
These war-ship cruises and "demonstrations" are getting to be quite the common thing. We have the big battle-ship cruise of the American fleet; then there was the "demonstration" that Italy was on the point of making; a "demonstration" against Venezuela is being talked of and strongly urged by some; and now Japan starts out with a big fleet to make a "friendly cruise," with the possibility that it may develop into a "demonstration."
All of these things mean that the materials for war are very abundant, and that the various nations are uneasy. There will be no more perfect peace in this world till He comes who is the Prince of Peace. Every soul should be studying the prophecies that show that the great event is near, for the dangers that are looming up so threateningly in this old world are calculated to paralyze us with dread unless we have the great anchor of hope that comes thru a knowledge of the soon coming of our Lord and Saviour. Now as never before we should know what all the events of this time mean.
T.
Porto Rico.
By B. E. Connerly
Its Climate and Productions.
THE island of Porto Rico, ceded to the United States by Spain under the treaty of Dec. 11, 1898, is one of the great volcanic ranges that constitute the Greater and Lesser Antilles, it being the easternmost of the four largest of these islands. It is separated from Santo Domingo on the west by the Mona Passage and from the Virgin Islands on the east by the Virgin Passage. It lies about 450 miles east and slightly south of the southernmost point of Cuba, seventy-five miles east of Santo Domingo, and forty miles west of the Danish island of St. Thomas. It is well within the tropics and contains, according to the Bulletin 302 of the United States Geological Survey, 3,435 square miles and includes some tiny islands adjacent.
Being of volcanic origin, the central part of the island consists mostly of high hills or small mountains, the largest of which are the Loquillo Mountains which contain El Yunque (the anvil), the highest summit. This summit reaches a height of 3,790 feet.
Encircling these hills is a belt of playas, or plains, at some points six or seven miles wide, and at other points almost entirely lacking. It is on these plains that we find the fine sugar lands which at the present constitute the principal wealth of the island. However, we must not forget to note, for it is frequently the cause of comment, that some of the mountain slopes which are nearly vertical are cultivated, productive crops of tobacco and cane being raised on declivities on which an American farmer would hardly risk his limbs. Cultivation in such cases is carried on wholly by hand. The average rainfall in the north is fifty and in the south 100 inches. From the mountains flow down into the plains streams of crystal gurgling waters to carry life and moisture to the plant life below. These streams number a thousand which are worthy to be named, thirty-eight of them being rivers of considerable size.
The climate of Porto Rico is remarkable for its freedom from extremes. One writer has said of it that it is “a perennial May-day” and when it is considered that the temperature generally ranges between 70 and 82 degrees, it is easy to see why he called it thus. There is never a hint of frost, and, quoting again from our voluble author, we find that “The winters are as soft as the moonlight of summer. No ice of nature is ever seen in the island except on rare occasions, when a vagrant blast from the North, sweeping along the upper atmosphere, drops down on the vaporous air of the mountains and shivers it into hailstones. There is hardly an hour that one absolutely needs clothing to keep him warm. The Indians went naked thru the winter months; and even now many of the little children never have a stitch of clothing on them the entire year.”
A Native Home, Porto Rico.
When the island was discovered, it was very poor, according to history, the Indians only raising enough of such articles as yams, maize, yucca, etc., to appease their hunger. But this was not the fault of the soil, but the lack of cultivation; for that it was not poor in natural wealth is proved by the fact that a little scratching here and there caused it to produce sufficient with the addition of the fish that they caught, to support 150,000 of the Indian inhabitants (some authorities give twice that number). At that time there were no pineapples, coffee, sugar, coco-palms, orange trees, or plantain, but the soil being capable of almost infinite production, in time all of these products were introduced. To-day the coco-palm is one of the ornaments of the island, and the plantain one of its necessities. Some one has said that a hundred years ago, if a stranger had been dropped down from the skies with no other capital than health he might have married the next day and maintained a family without serious difficulty. Of course he would not have the luxuries of life, except leisure, of which he would sadly have plenty.
Panorama of San Juan, Porto Rico.
For two or three hundred years coffee has been the chief export, and was grown with very little work and brought a magnificent price in European markets. Everywhere in the island were vast estates, the owners of which collected vast fortunes. This continued until the cyclone in 1899 which was so terrific that in some cases it completely demolished the large estates and greatly damaged all of them. This, coming shortly after the change of government, resulted in a number of years of financial distress, but while complaints of “hard times” are still heard, the statistics show a condition of general improvement in every line of industry. While the coffee does not bring so good a price, owing to the change of government and duty imposed in the European markets, where it once went free, still there will be a better grade of cultivation, and coffee will ever be one of the great industries of the island.
The cane land is being constantly improved, and the results to those owning it are most flattering. There are in operation thirty sugar-mills.
Ten thousand acres of land are now planted to orange trees which in the future promise to be a successful department in the industries here; pineapples have proved to be a successful crop, and five canning factories are already being operated.
One of the increasing industries is the weaving of palm hats, the export of which amounts to something like $125,000 a year.
For the twelve months ending June 30, 1906, the total trade of the island was $45,085,195, or, approximately $10,000,000 greater than any similar period in its history; while the total trade of the year ending June 30, 1907, is estimated at $55,13000,000 and the production of principal commodities for the same period is:
Sugar .......................$17,000,000
Coffee ....................... 5,000,000
Cigars ....................... 5,000,000
Molasses ..................... 700,000
Fruits and nuts ............. 500,000
Other leading articles .... 2,000,000
Rest Is Not Quitting
By John Sullivan Dwight
REST is not quitting
Life's busy career;
Rest is the fitting
Of self to one's sphere.
'Tis loving and serving
The highest and best;
'Tis onward, unswerving—
And this is true rest.
—J. S. Dwight.
Our Work and Workers.
By Editor
FIVE members were recently added to the Scandinavian church at Minneapolis, Minn.
A CLASS of eight nurses graduated from the St. Helena (Cal.) Sanitarium, April 13.
LOVELAND, Colo., has a German Sabbath-school of about twenty members, recently organized by Brother Aufderhar.
As the result of meetings held at Stanley, Va., fourteen have decided to obey God and keep His commandments.
"Six are keeping the commandments. A sabbath-school of ten members has been organized. Four have asked for baptism. There are others who are interested and are making an effort to lead Christian lives."—Arthur Belding, Pittsville, Wis.
BROTHER H. H. VOTAW writes from India: "We spent a little over two weeks in Meiktilla, and five adults have taken a decided stand on the Lord's side. There are many children in the homes of the believers, and we were able to organize a Sabbath-school of about seventeen members. Of those who began the observance of the Sabbath, two are attorneys, and it was recorded in the court journal that because they had become Seventh-day Adventists they would no longer appear in any cases upon the Sabbath."
Wanted for Missionary Work.
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Life and Health.
By Editor
IN the May number of Life and Health, D. H. Kress, M.D., presents one of the most reasonable and convincing arguments on the cause and cure of intemperance, maintaining that the thirst for stimulants must be cured thru diet. Mrs. E. G. White shows that diseases and suffering are due largely to popular errors in diet, and suggests practical methods by which this suffering can be materially reduced. Other important articles by Dr. Leadsworth, Mrs. Fitch, and others. Departments are well sustained.
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FOR SALE.
Six acres of land with small house, five blocks south of the industrial school at Keene, Texas; good place for families to send their children to our school. Will sell cheap, apply to H. Gellert, 3133 South Broadway, St. Louis, Mo.
UP TO DATE
By Editor
MISSIONARY AMMUNITION
TO BE USED ON THE FIRING LINE
Let them be sown as deep and scattered as widely as the leaves in autumn.
We refer to the compact, truth-filled Signs Leaflets.
This series of Leaflets covers vital phases of Bible truth for this time, and is condensed to the last degree. Each Leaflet has an especially engraved heading, and consists of two well-filled pages of matter. The titles are as follows:
The Sure Word of Prophecy.
Prophetic History of the World.
Second Coming of Christ.
Signs of Our Times.
The Sanctuary.
The 2,300 Days.
The Law of God.
The Sabbath of the Bible.
The First Day in the Bible.
Who Changed the Sabbath?
The Great Threefold Message.
The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast.
Church and State.
Life and Immortality.
The Great Judgment Day.
The Home of the Saved.
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