Free PublicLibrary Reading RootIs :24 "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22 : 12. VOLUME 8. OAK LAND, CALIFORNIA, FIFTH-DAY, MARCH 9, 1882. NUMBER 10, On! deem not that earth's crowning bliss Is found in joy alone; For sorrow, bitter though it be, Hath blessings all its own; From lips divine, like healing balm To hearts oppressed and torn, This heavenly consolation fell— "Blessed are they that mourn! " As blossoms smitten by the rain, Their sweetest odors yield— As where the plowshare deepest strikes, Rich harvests crown the field; So, to the hopes by sorrow crushed, A nobler faith succeeds; And life, by trials furrowed, bears The fruit of loving deeds. Who never mourned, hath never known What treasures grief reveals— The sympathies that humanize— The tenderness that heals— The power to look within the veil And learn the heavenly lore— The key-word to life's mysteries, So dark to us before. How rich and sweet and full of strength Our human spirits are, Baptized into the sanctities Of suffering and of prayer! Supernal wisdom, love divine, Breathed through the lips which said, " Oh ! blessed are the souls that mourn— They shall be comforted!" --Wm. H. Burleigh. General The Light of the World. BY MRS. E. G. WHITE. SAID Christ to his disciples, " Ye are the light of the world." As the sun goes forth in the heavens to fill the world with brightness, so must the followers of Jesus shed the light of truth upon those who are groping in the darkness of error and superstition. But Christ's followers have no light of themselves. It is the light of Heaven that falls upon them, which is to be reflected by them to the world. Jesus speaks through clay. Let men beware how they slight or reject the words of his representatives, for in so doing they are rejecting Christ. A great responsibility rests upon the professed followers of Jesus. 1f they present to the world self instead of Christ, they will have a fearful ac- count to render at the day of final reckoning. But none need thus to fail. Our compassionate Redeemer has provided for us the help we need. He is waiting to kindle in every heart that will receive his- words such love as he alone can in- spire. He will impute his own righteousness to the sincere penitent, and will fit him to become a witness for Christ. The light of life is freely proffered to all. Every one who will, may be guided by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Christ is the great remedy for sin. No man can plead his circumstances, his education, or his temperament, as an excuse for living in rebellion against God. The sinner is such by his own deliberate choice. Said our Saviour, "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the - rorld, and men loved dark- ness rather than 1; � 'ecause their deeds were evil. For eve- �t doeth evil hateth the light - � J the light, lest his deeds shot � The reason why there are so many of the present time to oppose the truth is, they love some indulgence which the word of God condemns. Hence they hate the light which reveals their sin. There are many styled by the world liberal, generous-hearted, noble men whom God looks upon as wicked and corrupt. He sees not as man sees. His thoughts are not as our thoughts. Many in their self-complacency attempt to gloss over the defects in their lives and characters, and flatter themselves that all is well. To come to the light would reveal their danger, and strike the death-blow to their self-satisfaction. Then they would see the importance of a holy life, and their own need of Christ as a Saviour. Many of those who profess to believe the Bible, and even to expound As sacred truths, are yet liv- ing in the indulgence of some cherished sin—liv- ing as though there were no God whose eye could search the inmost recesses of the soul. They are blessed with Heaven's bounties, and yet they ex- press no more gratitude to the Giver than do the beasts of the field. They may now have no sense of their own sinfulness; but when summoned before the great white throne, they will in speech- less terror stand condemned. The excuses now so flippantly urged to shield themselves from the divine requirements, they dare not mention with the eye of the Judge looking upon them. They knew their Master's will, but did it not, and they will be beaten with many stripes. When the claims of God are presented, those who love sin evince their true character by the satisfaction with which they point to the faults and errors of professed Christians. They are actuated by the same spirit as their master, Satan, whom the Bible declares to be the " ac- cuser of the brethren." Let an evil report be started, and how rapidly it will be exaggerated and passed from lip to lip 1 How many will feast upon it, like vultures upon a heap of garbage. Whether the slanderous tale comes with or with- out proof; they give it ready credence, showing a strength of faith that is surprising. And yet these very persons will refuse to believe the truths of God's word so long as there is the sem- blance of an excuse for doubt. The fact that some professed Christians are not what they should be, does not prove that religion is at fault, but only that these persons are not faithfully obeying its teachings. N either does it prove that the church is corrupt. Does she not deal with an offending member, and separate from her company those who persist in an evil way But the very ones who make the most of a per- son's faults while he is a member of the church, will, when he is expelled, turn about and sym- pathize with him, declaring the church to be uncharitable and severe. it is thus that Satan works through his agents, to turn men away from the Light of life. The true Christian, he that doeth truth, corn- eth to the light that his deeds may be made man- ifest, that they are wrought in God." His godly life and holy conversation are a daily testimony against sin and sinners. He is a living represent- ative of the truth which he professes. Of these true-hearted followers, Jesus declares that he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Every one who at last secures eternal life will here manifest zeal and devotion in the service of God. He will not be ready to flee at the approach of trial, hard- ship, or reproach. He does not search the Script- ures to find some excuse for resistance to the truth. He does not inquire, What will my friends say, if I take my position with the people of God ? To know his duty, is to do it heartily and fear- lessly. He follows the light, as it shines upon his path, regardless of consequences. The God of truth is on his side, and will never forsake him. All apparent losses for Christ's sake will ()cunt to him as infinite gain. he *gns DI the Zime13. PUBLISHED WEEKLY, FOR THE S. D. A. MISSIONARY SOCIETY. [For terms, etc., see last page.] Entered at the Post Office at Oakland, Cal. BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN. Our thoughts and purposes are the secret springs of action, and hence determine the char- acter. Every thought, feeling, and inclination, though unseen by men, is discerned by the eye of God. With what care, then, should we exam- ine our hearts in the light of the divine law, and compare ourselves with the one faultless Pattern, that no defect may be found upon us in the day of God. We cannot afford to make a mistake in a matter in which eternal interests are involved. The rebellious purpose formed in the heart needs not expression by word or act to consum- mate the sin, and bring the soul into condemna- tion. The unlawful word or deed is but the fruition of the evil which has taken root in the heart; the outward evidence that temptation has prevailed, and hell has triumphed. Says the apostle, " Every man is tempted [that is, enters into temptation] when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed." God has provided the means by which we may resist temptation. These are the study of his word, and earnest prayer. In his encounters with the prince of darkness, our Saviour prefaced every answer with the words, " It is written." It was the word of God that vanquished Satan. Those who make that word their study are arming themselves with weapons of divine power against the attacks of the foe. " Thy word," said the psalmist, " have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Every Christian should be a diligent student of the Scriptures. The word of God, believed and obeyed, exerts a transforming power upon the life and character. Its sublime truths, its pure and holy principles, strengthen the intellect, ennoble the affections, enlighten the understand- ing. How great the loss which they sustain who neglect this store-house of eternal riches. We should know why we believe as we do, and should be able to give to others the reasons fbr our faith. But this will require effort. The mind grows by what it is fed upon. The understand- ing gradually adapts itself to the subjects which it is required to grasp. If allowed to dwell only upon the things of this life, it becomes dwarfed and enfeebled. If absorbed in vanity and folly, it will after a time almost lose the power of growth. To secure strength and vigor, the mind must be tasked; and there is no other means by which this can be so successfully accomplished as by the study of the Scriptures. Hours are worse than wasted when spent in the society of those who are not seeking to im- prove in mind or morals. Idle gossip, frivolous chitchat, the cruel slander, the base innuendo, weaken the intellect and corrupt the heart. Time is precious. We have but a brief space in which to prepare for the future life. All who expect to dwell hereafter with the pure and holy, must here obtain a fitness for such society. Let the moments heretofore squandered in idleness and folly be henceforth devoted to prayer and the reading of God's word. This discipline every Christian may have, and, rightly improved, it will make him wise unto eternal life. Many accept the theory of the truth, whose hearts have not felt the renewing power of divine grace. They do not wholly renounce their for- mer life of sin and folly. They do not see the work which must be wrought in them by the Holy Spirit before they can be transformed from Satan's subjects to sons of God. In his words to Nico- demus, Christ explained the nature and impor- tance of true conversion. He solemnly declares, " Except a man be born again,"—unless he receive a new heart, new desires, purposes, and motives, leading to a new life—" he cannot see the king- dom of God." He must no longer remain in sub- jection to the power of sin. He is no longer to be a willing subject to the enemy of Christ. He is to become an heir of God by faith, a son of God by adoption. Those who have experienced the new birth have 110 � THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. �VoL. 8, No. 10. least, warned by the example of Roman Catholics, should avoid the danger of attempting to admin- ister in the matter of designating holy days; since, manifestly, this is alone the province of God. Hence, we inquire, Has the Holy Ghost ever said that the resurrection of Christ imparted a holy character to the day upon which it oc- curred ? The answer must, undeniably, be in the negative. No such declaration is found in the Holy Word. Nor is this all; even from the stand-point of human reason, every analogy is against it. It were fitting that, when God had closed the work of creation, and ceased to labor, he should appoint a day in commemoration of that rest. The propriety of such a course, all can see. But, on the contrary, is it not equally manifest that to have remained inactive on that glorious morning, when the Son of God had burst the bands of death, and the news was flying through all parts of the great city of Jerusalem, " Jesus has risen to life again," would have been a condition of things wholly out of the question ? Both the enemies and the friends of Christ—the one class stimulated by hate, and the other released by the mighty power of God from the overwhelming gloom and crushing despond- ency of three terrible days—were, by the very necessities of the case, moved to action by an en- ergy which would cause them to overleap every barrier and to break away from every restraint. Everything, everywhere, animated by the new aspect which affairs had suddenly assumed, demanded immediate, ceaseless, and untiring activity. And such it had. From the early morning, until far into the hours of the succeed- ing night, scribe and Pharisee, priest and Levite, believer and unbeliever, were hearing, gathering, and distributing, all that could be learned of this most mysterious event. We say, consequently, that so far is it from being true, that the day of the resurrection is one which should be hallowed, either exactly or substantially as that of the decalogue, the very opposite is the fact; and, if it were to be celebrated at all, every consideration of fitness demands that it should be done by ex- cessive demonstrations of outward and uncon- trolled joy, rather than by quietude and restraint. Passing now to the other branches of the sub- ject, we inquire, finally, W hat was there in the example of Christ and the apostles which in any way affects the question ? If they are to be quoted at all upon this subject, it is but reason- able that their history should be examined with reference both to the seventh and the first day; for, if precedent, and not positive enactment, is to be the rule by which our faith is to be decided, in a point of this significance, it is at least pre- sumable that the historic transactions by which this question is to be determined will be ample in number, and of a nature to meet and explain all the phases of the subject. That is, the Gos- pels and the Acts of the Apostles—covering, as their history does, a period of about thirty years —will afford numerous and conclusive evidences that both Christ and the apostles did actually dishonor the old, and invest with peculiar dignity and authority, the new Sabbath. First, we in- quire then, Is there, in all the New Testament, the record of a single instance in which Jesus or his followers transacted, upon the seventh day of the week, matters incompatible with the notion of its original and continued sanctity ? The answer is, of necessity, in the negative. The most careful and protracted search has failed to produce a single case in which the son of Joseph and Mary departed in this particular from the usages of his nation, or in which his immediate representatives, during the period of their ca- nonical history, failed to follow, in the most scru- pulous manner, the example of Him of whom it is said that, " as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." (Luke 4 : 16.) Nor is this all; it is a remarkable fact, and one well calculated to stag- ger the investigator at the very threshold of his researches into the data for the modern view, that, whereas the Sabbath is mentioned fifty-six times in the New Testament, it is in every in- stance, save one (where it refers to the annual sabbaths of the Jews), applied to the last day of the week. So far, therefore, as the negative ar- gument is concerned, which was based upon the presumption that the claims of the old day were constructively annulled by the appointment of a new one, its force is entirely broken by the rec- ord, which, as we have seen, instead of proving such an abolition, is rather suggestive of the but entered upon the Christian life. To such are addressed the words of the apostle, " As ye have received the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk ye in him." In the storm of opposition, the whirlwind of strife that we are called to meet, it is sometimes hard to maintain the patience and gentleness of Christ, hard to meet the railing accusation with words of Scripture truth. But such must be the Chris- tian's course. God has promised grace for every trial. By patient endurance we may become strong, by failure we may learn success, and through apparent defeat we may conquer. Let not those be discouraged who are sorely tried and tempted, and who feel that they have not strength to cope single-handed with the power of evil. God asks you to become co-laborers with him. You need not wait for great opportunities nor ask for extraordinary talents. Use the ability that you now have. Do not weary yourself with anxiety about the success of your efforts, but qui- etly, faithfully do what you can, leaving the re- sult with God. Though surrounded by the dark- ness of unbelief, you may let your daily life be a light to the world, a living testimony to the power of divine grace. The influence of that testimony will widen and deepen, so long as you are con- nected with the God of wisdom and power. Be assured that your memorial is written above, and in the day of God some at least among the re- deemed will call you blessed. Constitutional Amendment. BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN. ACKNOWLEDGING that the law, as originally given, will not answer the purpose, and that its amendment cannot be made out with sufficient clearness to warrant the taking of a stand upon it, we turn, for the last time, to examine a posi- tion quite generally advanced; namely, that of Sunday observance inaugurated, justified, and enforced, by the. resurrection and example of Christ. Is it true, then, that such is the fact ? Have we, at last, found relief from all our diffi- culties in the life and career of no less a person- age than the divine Son of God ? Let us see. The point of the argument is briefly this:— Our Lord—by rising from the dead, and by his practice of meeting with his disciples on that day—both introduced, and made obligatory upon his followers, the necessity of distinguishing be- tween the first and the remaining days of the week, as we would between the sacred and the profane. Now, if this be a case which can be clearly made out, then we are immediately re- lieved in one particular; that is, we have found authority for the observance of Sunday. But how is it as regards the seventh day ? This, we have seen, was commanded by God the Father. The li gation of that command is still recognized. Now, consequently, if Christ the Son has, upon his own authority, introduced another day immediately following the seventh, and clothed it with divine honors, is it a neces- sary inference that the former is therefore set aside ? To our mind, it is far from being such. if God has a law for the observance of a given day, and Christ has furnished us with an exam- ple for that of another also, then the necessary conclusion is, that the first must be kept out of respect for God the Father, and the last through reverence to Christ the Son. Three facts, there- fore, must be clearly made out, or our situation is indeed one of perplexity. First, it must be shown, authoritatively, that the resurrection effected the change which is urged, and that the practice of Christ was what it is claimed to have been. Second, that that practice was designed to be exemplary; in other words, that what he did in these particulars was of a nature such that we are required to imitate it. Third, it must also be shown that he not only sanctified the first day, but, also, that he secular- ized the seventh day of the week. But can this be done ? Let us see. First, then, we will consider the matter of the resur- rection. Now, that it was an event of surpassing glory, and one ever to be held in grateful re- membrance, there is no room for dispute among Christians. But shall we, therefore, decide that it must of necessity be commemorated by a day of rest? This would be assuming a great deal. It seems to us that it would be better, far better, to leave decisions of such importance as this entirely with the Holy Spirit. Protestants, at perpetuity of the old order of things. Hence, we turn to the positive side of the subject. How do we know that Christ ever designed that his example should produce in our minds the conviction that he had withdrawn his regard from the day of his Father's rest, and placed it upon that of his own resurrection ? Did he in laying the foundation for the new institution— as in the case of the Lord's supper—inaugurate the same by his own action, and then say to his disciples, As oft as ye do this, do it in remem- brance of me ? Did he ever explain to any indi- vidual that his special object in meeting with his followers on the evenings of the first and second Sundays (?) after his return from the dead was designed to inspire in the minds of future believers the conviction that those hours, from that time forward, had been consecrated to a religious use ? If so, the record is very imper- fect, in that it failed to hand down to us a most significant fact. I say significant, because, with- out such a declaration, the minds of common men, such as made up the rank and file of the immediate followers of Christ, were hardly com- petent to the subtile task of drawing unaided, such nice distinctions. How natural, how easy, by a single word, to have put all doubt to rest, and to have given to future ages a foundation, broad and deep, upon which to ground the argu- ment for the change. But this, as we have already seen, was not done! and after the lapse of eighteen hundred years, men—in the stress of a situation which renders it necessary that they should obtain di- vine sanction, in order to the perpetuity of a favored institution—are ringing the changes of an endless variety of conjectures drawn from transactions, which, in the record itself, were mentioned as possessing no peculiar characteris- tics, which should in any way affect the mere time upon which they occurred. Let us, therefore, with a proper sense of the modesty with which we should ever enter upon the task of deciding upon the institutions of the church, when there is no divine precept for the guidance of our judgment, examine for ourselves. As we do this, it will be well, also, to bear in mind the fact that our prejudices will be very likely to lie entirely upon the side of life-long practice and traditionary inheritance. In fact, nearly every consideration, political, financial, and social, will be found, if not guarded with the strictest care, wooing us to a decision which-- though it might dishonor God, and do violence to the principles of a clear, natural logic--would exempt us, individually, from personal sacrifice and pecuniary loss. A COMFORTLESS RELIGION.—Not many weeks since, a friend of ours, a Protestant minister, was providentially thrown into companionship with an intelligent and highly-educated gentleman be- longing to a Roman Catholic family in Canada. A pleasant conversation sprang up between them. It was not long before our friend noticed a smile passing over the countenance of his Roman Cath- olic companion, who soon explained the cause by observing: " Sir, this is the first time I ever had any intercourse with a Protestant minister. My family would believe that I was lost forever, if they knew that I had talked with one." And then, looking earnestly at our friend, he added: "Pardon me, sir, but will you tell me: Is there any consolation in your religion? In ours, there is none." We need not recount the words in which the Protestant minister undertook to bring to this darkened mind the comforting words of the Gos- pel of free salvation by the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord, the glad tidings of a completed work, a sacrifice for sin needing no repetition upon any earthly altar, supplemented by no priestly or saintly intercession, and excluding the very no- tion of any future purgatorial fires. But what a confession of the unsatisfactory character of the faith in which he had been brought up, had this sincere and candid Roman Catholic made!—Se/. " A DOG'S life " means a life of drudgery, and whenever you hear a man say that he or any one else is leading such a life, you know that he con- siders it a very unsatisfactory one. But even in a dog's life there are sometimes brilliant passages. When Mr. Gladstone said to Lord Houghton, " I am leading a dog's life," the n,nswer was, " Yes, the life of a St. Bernard, which ig spent in saving the lives of others." Hidden Things of Darkness. THE second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, is an event of no ordinary magnitude. While it will be joyful to the good, it will be a terrible scene to the unprepared. " Unto them that look for him shall be appear the second time without sin unto salvation."— Ileb. 9: 28. But to those whose works are the "Hidden things of darkness," Christ will come " With his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance." 2 Thess. 1 : 7, 8. But the Apostle says: "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hid- den things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." 1 Cor. 4: 5. Yea, more! Then all deceptions will be uncovered, and the fruits of darkness will be manifest. There are many ungodly men, and many un- converted members of the church, who would desire the coming of Christ, if his second mission was as his first. But when they think of his bringing to light the "hidden things of darkness," and making manifest the counsels of the hearts, then there are efforts of evasion—a vain hoping that God is very merciful. Gladly would they conceal their midnight deeds of darkness, their repeated, covered crimes. There is evidently a manifest unwillingness, that " Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire." 1 Cor. 3 : 13. How astonishingly strange it is, when God has been so good, made our duties so easy, our moral requirements so reasonable, that any one would be unwilling to do right! and take bitter for sweet, evil for good, darkness for light, or hell for heaven. Because their deeds were evil." John 3 : 13. How many such, experience daily, hour by hour, and almost every minute, the significant expres- sion of the apostle. " A certain, fearful looking- for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Heb. 10 : 27. " When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God." 2 Thes. 1 : 7, 8. Then will the " bidden things of dark- ness;" yea, and the "hidden things of dishonesty," the "walking in craftiness," and all " handling the word of God deceitfully," be at an end, " by manifestation of the truth," " to every man's conscience in the sight of God." It is an easy matter to hide our sins, or cover our crimes from mortal eyes. " But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets." Dan. 2: 28. He that loveth darkness more than he does light, God may per- mit strong delusions to be his portion; for Satan works " with all deceivableness of unrighteous- ness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." 2 Thes. 2 : 10. If men prefer darkness to light, God permits them to have their deliberate choice. The Egyp- tians preferred darkness, and it was given them till they could feel it. So it will be with every free moral agent. Provision has been made for the salvation of all, as " God hath from the be- ginning chosen you [all] to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 2 These. 2 : 13. The surroundings of Christ's second coming will be of unusual interest. All will be inter- ested in Christ's next coming to earth. "The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations." Matt. 25 : 31, 32. Hence, the good, the true, the pure, and the holy, will patiently, but anxiously wait " Until the Lord come," and "bring to light the hidden things of darkness."—Rev. L. B. Dennis. MARCH 9, 1882: �T1 FIE SIGN'S O E T 1-1 � 'TT I I-44S � 111 Prayer—A Parable. BY ELD. I. D. VAN HORN. " FOR the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Tim. 4 : 3, 4. Sometime in the Christian age this prophecy is to have a literal fulfillment. It is not hard to determine the time, for the last days are expressly mentioned in the first verse of the previous chap- ter. We are informed that " perilous times shall come " in the last days. But they will not be perilous so much by famine, pestilence, and the sword, as by a departure from the truth, a corrupt character, and the denying of the power of godliness. 2 Tim. 3 : 1-5. This will fully prepare the way for nominal pro- fessors to reject sound doctrine, and make choice of such teachers as will please their ears, rather than reprove their wrongs. They shall heap to themselves teachers,-yet at the same time follow their own lusts. 'These teachers will tickle their itching ears with fancy sketches fabulous ha- rangues and essays full of high-sounding words. God's servants are called upon to " Preach the word;" to reprove and rebuke. But this will not be endured. The ease-loving professor does not want his conscience troubled. He wants to enjoy the world, and be popular, and at the same time belong to the church. So the church becomes popular and pleasing, and the members feel at ease. Now let some servant of God lift up his voice, proclaim the truth, give meat in due season, and the heaps of teachers are ready to turn away the ears of the people that they may not hear. Say they, Don't go to hear them. They are illiterate and ignorant, and you will lower your dignity to hear or in any way countenance them." Thus their ears (not their hearts) are turned away from the truth. Is this not the reason why in our day there are so few willing to hear the precious present truth? Can we expect large congregations ? We must school ourselves to keep up courage and be just as earnest and faithful in preaching to the few as to the many. There were but eight souls saved in the ark. The last days will be as the days of Noah at the flood. There will be many ears open to hear the vanities and follies of earth, but only a few open to hear the truth. Servants of God, go forth and be strong. Rescue the perishing. Save all in your power, even pulling them as brands from the burning. In the Desert With God. IN these days of hurry and bustle, we find our- selves face to face with a terrible danger; and it is this—no time to be alone with God. The world, in these last days, is running fast; we live in what is called " the age of progress;" and " you know we must keep pace with the times." So the world says. But this spirit of the world has not confined itself to the world. It is, alas, to be found among the saints of God. And what is the result? The result is—no time to be alone with God. And what next ? Surely the question does not need an answer. Can there be any condition more deplorable than the condition of a child of God who has no inclination to be alone with his Father ? This " desert life," as many may call it, is of im- portance and cannot be over-valued, and, as if with a trumpet, we would sound it in the ears of brethren. Let us turn to the pages of God's own Book; for we can turn nowhere else if we are seeking light on this or any other subject. On scanning its precious pages, we find that the men of God—God's mighty men—were those who had been in " the school of God," as it has well been called; and his school was simply this: "In the desert alone with himself." Far removed from the din and bustle of the haunts of men—distant alike from human eye and ear—there they met alone with God; there they were equipped for the battle. And when the time came that they stood forth in public service for God, their faces were not ashamed—nay, they had faces as lions, they were bold and fearless, yea, and victorious before God; for the battle had been won already in the desert alone with him.—London Christian. " GODLINESS with contentment is great gain." HILLEL had a wise disciple whose name was Maimon. In natural gifts he greatly delighted. But soon Hillel perceived that his youthful friend trusted too much in his own wisdom, and wholly discarded the aid of prayer. The youth said in his heart, " Why should we pray ? Does the Al- mighty need our words in order to aid and bless Its ? Then he is human. Can man's sighs and petitions change the counsels of the eternal? Will not the All-merciful of himself bestow what is good and needful?" Such were the young man's thoughts. But Hillel was grieved in his soul that Maimon considered himself wiser than the divine word, and he determined to reprove him. One day when Maimon went to Hillel, he found him sitting in his garden, leaning his head upon his hand, and he said, "Master, where are thy thoughts ? " Then Hillel raised his head and answered in these words, "I have a friend who lives upon the produce of his lands, which until now he has cultivated with care, and he has been richly rewarded for his pains. But now he has thrown aside plough and mattock, and no more cultivates his field. Thus he will soon come to poverty, and lack the necessaries of life." " Has a spirit of ill-humor seized him or has he become a fool ? " asked the youth. " Neither," answered Hillel; "he is well skilled in all human and sacred wisdom. But he says the Lord is almighty, so that he can easily supply my wants without my bending my head to labor. He is good, so that he will open his kind hand to oless my table. And how can it be contradicted?" "How !" said the youth; " is it not tempting the Lord God ? Hast thou not told him so, mas- ter? " Then Hillel smiled and said, " I will do so now. Thou, my beloved Maimon, art the friend of whom I spake." " 11" said the youth in amazement. " Ay," said the old man; " dost thou not tempt the Lord ? Is prayer less than labor? and are spiritual gifts less than the fruits of the field? And is he who commands thee to labor for earthly goods other than he who bids thee to raise thy heart to heaven to implore heavenly blessings ? 0 my son, be humble and pray! " So spake Hillel, and Maimon went away to pray, and henceforth his life was a godly one. Words " Fitly Spoken." OPPORTUNITIES for doing what may be called great things seldom occur, but opportunities for saying and doing little things present themselves every day. "A word fitly spoken, how good it is!" We will never forget the good class leader who, when we were but a very small boy, put his hand on our head and said, " God bless this boy," and now in return we say,' God bless good Brother M—." We have read of Harlan Page passing round through the Sabbath-school, and, on asking a teacher if he would put down his name as " hav- ing a hope in Christ," the teacher replied, "No." Mr. Page said kindly: "Then I shall put you down as having no hope," and, having closed his little book, left him. But these few words, spoken so lovingly, went to the young teacher's heart, and he found no rest until he found Christ. A devoted minister in Brooklyn met a man of years on the street on New-Year's-day and said to him: " Had not you and I better begin the new year with a new life ?" After they separated the old man began to think of his words, and the result was his conversion. If we would question many of the noble and devoted Christians of to-day, many would tell us that some kind word or words spoken in this way were the means of bringing them to Jesus. A powerful means of influencing the unregenerated is by their seeing, exhibited in our lives, Christian graces and godly, consistent living. " The Christian is the only Bible many of the unconverted look at." Infidels may meet learning with learning, arguments with sophistry, and mere profession with a sneer, but there is something in earnest, consistent, arid sanctified lives which they cannot resist. We may speak to the unconverted, but if our speaking is not illus- trated and enforced by our example, our labor is almost sure to be fruitless. We must be " living epistles," as we are read by many. "Work done for God, it dieth not."—Rev. 1). Rogers, in Meth- odist. "THE meek will He guide in judgment." HAS it never occurred to us, when surrounded by sorrows, that they may be sent to us only for our instruction—as we darken the cages of birds when we wish to teach them to sing ?—Richter. THE Rev. Dr. McCosh of Princeton College, tells the story of a negro who prayed earnestly that be and his colored brethren might be pre- served from their upsettin' sins. "Brudder," said one of his friends at the close of the meet- ing, "you ain't got de hang ob dat ar word. It's besettin', not upsettin'." " Brudder," replied the other, " if dat's so it's so. But I was prayin' de Lord to save us from de sin of 'toxication, an' if dat ain't an upsettin' sin I dunno what am." Ears Turned Away. 112 � THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. �VoL. 8, No. 10. Thoughts on Daniel. � wicked are doomed to everlasting death. No de- following destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman cision can be changed, no reward can be lost, and power; and finally of the destruction of that power BY ELD. IT. SMITH. � no destiny of despair can be averted, beyond that itself; called in the margin, " the desolator." point. � • � CHAPTER IX.—THE SEVENTY WEEKS. � And we have seen (and this is what brings the � Watch! THE query may here arise, how the days can be solemnities of the Judgment to our own door) that extended to the autumn of 1844, if they commence that long prophetic period which was to mark the How startling the word ! and how important 457 B. c., as it requires only 1843 years in addition commencement of this final work in the heavenly and reasonable. The Master foresaw all our to the 457, to make the whole number of 2300. sanctuary, has met its termination in our own dangers—all the snares throughout our pilgrim- Attention to one fact will clear this point of all generation. In 1844 the days ended. For thirty- age. Yea, he went through and overcame them difficulty ' • and that is that it takes 457 full years seven years the final work for man's salvation has all. And now the privilege he grants to us is, before Christ, and 1843 full years after, to make been going forward. This work involves an ex- that we may look unto him when thus exposed. 2300 ; so that if the period commenced with the amination of every man's character ; for it con- He left us " an example that we should follow his very first day of 457, it would not terminate till sists in the remission of the sins of those who shall steps." But we must watch, or discern those the very last day of 1843. Now it will be evident be found worthy to have them remitted, and de- steps, and this may be done by studying his word. to all that whatever part of the year 457 had termines who among the dead shall be raised, and To be well guarded against all the devices of passed away before the 2300 days commenced, who among the living shall be changed, at the Satan, we cannot be too thoroughly acquainted just so much of the year 1844 must pass away be- coming of the Lord, and who, of both dead and with the Bible. It is " a lamp" to the pilgrim's fore they would end. We therefore inquire, At living shall be left to have their part in the fear- feet, and "the entrance" of it into our hearts what point in the year 457 are we to commence ful scenes of the second death. And all can see " giveth light." " Whatsoever maketh manifest to reckon ? From the fact that the first 49 years that such a decision as this must be rendered be- is light ;" the word of God does this—shows us were allotted to the building of the street and wall, fore the Lord appears. Every man's case is to be the nature of our enemy—exposes all the snares we learn that the period is to be dated, not from determined by the deeds done in the body, and laid for our feet, and tells us how we may escape the starting of Ezra from Babylon, but from the each one is to be rewarded according to his works. the corruption that is in the world through lust. actual commencement of the work at Jerusalem ; In the books of remembrance, kept by the If, then, we watch the Saviour's steps with a sub- which it is not probable, could be earlier than the heavenly scribes above, every man's deeds will be missive heart, we shall see and Overcome the evil; seventh month (autumn) of 457, as he did not found recorded ; in the closing sanctuary work, our defense will be prepared, both in answers of arrive at Jerusalem till the fifth month of that these records are examined, and decision is wisdom to the gainsayer, and in the thoughts of year. Ezra 7 : 9. The whole period would there- rendered in accordance therewith. It would be our minds. fore extend to the seventh month, autumn, Jewish most natural to suppose that the work would � With a vigilant eye, decision of character is also time, of 1844• � commence with the first members of the human indispensable. For, though a man may see evil Those who oppose this view of the prophetic race ; that their cases would be first examined, and before him, and be on his guard, yet if' he is not periods, have been wont in years past to meet us decision rendered, and so on with all the dead, fully decided, he will be likely to fall by the hand like this: " The 2300 days have not ended, be- generation by generation, in chronological succes- of his enemy. cause the time has passed, and the. Lord has not sion along the stream of time, till we reach the � We are to look diligently " lest any root of come. Why the time passed in 1844, without the last generation, the generation of the living, with bitterness springing up," we may get into trouble. consummation of our hopes, we acknowledge to be whose cases the work would close. How long it We are to " follow peace with all men," " if it be a mystery ; but the passing of the time is proof will take to examine the cases of all the dead, possible." that the 2300 days have not ended." � how soon the work will reach the cases of the � We are to " take heed" that we are not " over- Time, however, is no respecter of persons nor of living, we do not know. As above remarked, for charged with surfeiting and drunkenness ;" that theories ; and with the formidable scythe which thirty-seven years this work has already been is we are to eat and drink temperately, " with glad- he is represented as carrying, he sometimes de- going forward. The light of the types, and the ness and singleness of heart," " giving thanks to molishes in the most summary manner the gro- very nature of the case, forbid that it should be the Lord." tesque and gossamer theories of men, however dear of long continuance. John, in his sublime views � Also we are to guard against being over- they may be to their authors and defenders. It of heavenly scenes, saw millions of attendants and burdened with riches and " cares of the world." is so here. Heedless of the wild contortions of assistants, engaged with our Lord in his priestly What will a practical watching do to avert this those who would fain compel him to stop and ful- work. Rev. 5. And so the ministration goes for- evil ? To prevent our becoming " very rich," and � 1 fill their darling predictions, he has kept on the ward. It ceases not, it delays not ; and it must having " great possessions," we can, we must, swift but even tenor of his way until—what? soon be forever finished. � we will if we are truly God's children, be "ready every limit is passed to which the 2300 days can � And here we stand ; the last, the greatest, and to distribute " among the poor that we have al- be extended ; and thus he has demonstrated that the most solemn crisis in the history of our ways with us. " Sow bountifully." By thus dis- those days have passed. Let not this point be race immediately impending ; the great plan of posing of God's property, we keep our hearts overlooked. Setting aside for a moment the ar- salvation about finished ; the last precious years warm, and the exercise of doing good keeps us guments by which they are shown to have ended of probation almost ended ; the Lord about to awake. With the eye first on the benevolent in 1844, and letting them date from any point come to save those who are ready and waiting, Jesus, " who for our sakes became poor," and then where there is the least shadow of ground for and to cut asunder the careless and unbelieving ; on our fellow-men in want, seeking to relieve suf- placing them, or from which the wildest dreamer and the world—alas ! what shall we say of them! fering anywhere, everywhere, we shall cheerfully could date them, it is still true that the utmost —deceived with error, crazed with cares and embrace the many opportunities to do good.—AS'e/ limit to which they would extend has gone by. business, delirious with pleasure, and paralyzed � • � They cannot possibly be dated at any point which with vice, they have not a moment to spare in �The Lord Our Strength. would bring their termination so late as the pres- listening to solemn truth, nor a thought to bestow ent time. We therefore say again, with not a upon their eternal interests. Let the people of � THE first lesson of childhood is human weakness. misgiving as to the truth of the assertion, nor a God, with eternity right in view, be careful to es- The earliest cry of the infant betrays it. At the fear of its successful contradiction, Those days cape the corruption that is in the world through other end of life we often see a pitiable dotage— have ended. � lust, and prepare to pass the searching test, when such as I encountered lately in the case of a man The momentous declaration made by the angel their cases shall come up for examination in the who was once a luminary of the American pulpit, to Daniel, " Unto two thousand and three bun- great tribunal above. � but now cannot remember the names of his own Bred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," � To the careful attention of every student of children. But the weakest side of humanity is is now explained. In our search for the meaning prophecy, we commend the subject of the sane- its moral side. Colossal intellect is often found of the sanctuary and its cleansing, and the appli- tuary. In it is seen the ark of God's testament, lodged in the same person with a conscience of cation of the time, we have found not only that containing his holy law, and suggesting a reform mere pulp. For the sake of morality, I rejoice this subject can be easily understood? but lo ! the in our obedience to that great standard of moral- that Madame de Remusat and Metternich have event is now almost accomplished. And here we ity. The opening of this heavenly temple, or the lately been stripping away the glamour that has pause to reflect a brief moment upon the solemn commencement of the service in, its second apart- hung around that stupendous embodiment of position into which we are brought. � ment, marks the commencement of the sounding selfishness, Napoleon I. They show us the intel- We have seen that the sanctuary of this dis- of the seventh angel. Rev. 11 : 15, 19. The work lectual giant continually pushed over with a straw. pensation is the tabernacle of God in Heaven, the performed therein is the foundation of the third The chief lesson of such a career as Napoleon's is house not made with hands, where our Lord min- message of Rev. 14, the last message of mercy to to demonstrate what a contemptible creature man isters in behalf of penitent sinners, the place where a perishing world. This subject explains the is the moment he cuts loose from God. between the great God and his Son Jesus Christ, great disappointment of 1844, by showing that � One of the chief' purposes of our divine religion the " counsel of peace " prevails in the work of we mistook the event to occur at the end of the is to teach man where to find this indispensable salvation for perishing men. Zech. 6 : 13 ; Ps. days. It renders harmonious and clear, past element of strength. The Divine word, coming 85 : 10. We have seen that the cleansing of the prophetic fulfillments, which are otherwise in- from the very Maker of man, who knows us com- sanctuary consists in the removing of the sins volved in impenetrable obscurity. It gives a def- pletely, declares that "he who trusteth in his own from the same, and is the closing act of the min- finite idea of the position and work of our great heart is a fool." We have no spiritual strength istration performed therein ; that the work of High Priest, and brings out the plan of salvation in ourselves. Just as our bodies derive all their salvation now centers in the heavenly sanctuary; in its distinctive and beautiful features. Itreinsus strength from the food we eat, and every oak and when this sanctuary is cleansed, the work is up, as no other subject does, to the realities of the draws its strength from the surrounding earth and done, and the plan is finished I Then the great Judgment, and shows the preparation we need, to air, so our souls obtain all spiritual power from scheme devised at the fall for the salvation of as be able to stand in the coming day. It shows us, a source outside of us. Psalmist David, whose many of the lost race as would avail themselves that we are in the waiting time, and puts us upon native weaknesses were deplorably conspicuous, of its provisions, and carried forward for 6000 our watch ' • for we know not how soon the work was only strong when in alliance with God. His years, is brought to its final termination. Mercy will be finished, and our Lord appear. Watch, lest declaration is: " The Lord is my strength." This no longer pleads, and the great voice is heard coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. �is the only strength which the Bible recognizes. from the throne in the temple of Heaven, saying, � After stating the great events connected with Who are the Bible heroes? Men of genius, wits, It is done. Rev. 16 : 17. And what then ? All our Lord's mission here upon earth, the prophet orators, philosophers ? No. They are the Enoch the righteous are safe for everlasting life ; all the in the last part of verse 27 speaks of the soon- who walked with God, the Joseph who conquered abbath-*cinfri. Bible Study. THERE is a vast difference between reading and studying. A person may read the Bible through a hundred times and still know really nothing about it, and may not be able to quote a single verse correctly. To learn a passage or chapter by heart, even, is not necessarily studying; it may be simply parrot work. To study means to closely examine; to apply the mind to a certain thing; to read and examine for the purpose of learning or understanding. A person may be able to relate, when questioned, everything that is recorded in a certain chapter, withot, having given it any real study. He may learn the bare facts without that close examination that is required to under- stand the lesson which they are designed to convey. A person has learned a thing only when be has made it his own—a part of himself; when he can add it to things which he has previously learned, and see the relation between them; or when he has it fixed in his mind as a nucleus, around which to gather other facts. The, Bible is a book in which the writings of many individuals, covering many hundreds of years, unite to form one har- monious whole. All the different Bible writers have one common object in view; there is a one- ness of purpose seen in all their writings. No one portion of the Bible can be isolated from the rest, and its meaning be fully grasped. It is only when we compare scripture with scripture, that we get the full benefit of Bible study. If the text MARCH 9, 1882. �THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. � 113 sensual temptation because God was with him, the Elijah who stood like a granite pillar against the tides of idolatry, and the Daniel who never quailed at the lion's roar. Daniel gives us the secret of his strength in his three-times-a-day interviews with God. The Lord fed his inner soul as the subterranean springs feed a well and keep it full during summer droughts. God's strength is "made perfect in our weak- ness." This means that the divine power is most conspicuous when our weakness is the most thor- oughly felt. We have got to be emptied first of all self-conceit and self-confidence. A bucket cannot hold air and water at the same time. As the water comes in, the air must go out. The meaning of some hard trials is to get the accursed spirit of self out of our hearts. When we have been emptied of self-trust, we are in the condition to be filled with might in the inner man by the power of the Holy Spirit. When Isaiah felt that he was but a child, and an unclean one at that, he received the touch of celestial fire. Peter had immense confidence in Peter when he boasted of his own strength; but after pride had got its fall, Peter is endued with power from on high, and then the apostle who was frightened by a servant- girl could face a Sanhedrim. A Christian must not only realize his own utter feebleness, but he must give up what worldlings rely on, and admit that " vain is the help of man." The poor woman who had tried all the doctors in her neighborhood, and only grown worse in body and poorer in purse, is a touching illustration of our invalid souls. She despaired of human help, and comes crouching to the feet of the Son of God. One touch of his garments sends a new tide of health through her veins. Contact with Christ brings currents of the divine power into our souls, so that we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. Multitudes have given the triumphant testimony that, under sore pressure, the Lord stood with them and strengthened them. Their testimony has always been: " When I am weak, then am I strong "—i. e., when I get emptied of self-trust, Jesus comes in and strength- ens me. This is the real office of faith. It is simply the linking of our utter weakness to the omnipotence of Christ. We furnish weakness, and he furnishes strength, and that makes the partnership. Alas! how easily we run dry and how con- stantly we need replenishment. Yesterday's breakfast will not feed me to-morrow. The Christian who tries to live on the experiences of last year were as insane as if he attempted to work on the food eaten a month ago. Lord, ever- more give us this bread ! They that wait -on the Lord shall renew their strength; the waste shall be constantly repaired, and the new emergency shall be met with a fresh supply.—Dr. Cuyler. In teaching, therefore, we need not laboriously omit all the hard terms; let us get into the style of children, and they will follow our meaning. At the same time, one of the ways of acquiring their logic and rhetoric is to study their vocabu- lary. In avoiding words above their capacity, we learn also to avoid a style above their capacity. We do not plead for a babyish style of language, which reduces everything to the level of the nurs- ery, but for the language which springs sponta- neously to the lips of a man who is in earnest about God and the salvation of the soul.—Inglis. The Teacher's Manner. NOT only are the character and adaptation of the question of great importance, but the manner and look of the eye and the tone of voice and the manner of receiving the answer. The manner should be kind, gentle, life-like, and winning; the look of the eye should beam with life and interest, while the tone of voice should bespeak great ten- derness and sympathy. A cold, formal tone of voice will repel the answer, even with a good question. It should be sprightly, and respectfully IN order to effective teaching, the language in familiar and natural. Children cannot endure which we express ourselves must be the ordinary coldness nor dullness nor dryness; therefore avoid language of good sense and good feeling. Teach- all long pauses and sluggish manner and heavy ing has been seriously injured by the infusion of voice. The way which you receive the answers such a large number of theological terms. When will determine the question whether your scholars a subject is treated scientifically, we look for sci- will freely answer you or not. Make the most of entific expressions; but when it is treated popu- an answer unless it is absolutely wrong, and if larly, then we expect popular expressions. In a wrong, say, " Will some scholar tell me why that book on chemistry, the words acid, alkali, caloric, answer is wrong ? " Search out for all the points occur as a matter of indispensable necessity; but or hints of truth you can find in the answer of what pedantry in common conversation to speak the child, and unfold it and hold it up in the most of heat as caloric, or of charcoal as carbon. In favorable and gracious light. a book of theology we naturally expect to meet Never snap up a scholar, or neglect or ridicule frequently with the words imputation, covenant his answers, however faulty. Always be candid of works, and federal head; but to what purpose and sincere, and your scholars will soon learn to are they introduced in popular teaching? Why trust themselves with you. A sharp, harsh reply should the religion of childhood especially, be taught will close the lips of a whole class. Enunciate in so stiff a dialect? � every word with clearness. Vary the questions The theological terms most in use are such as with all patience if not answered readily, and the following: atonement, imputation, regenera- never think a child does not know because he tion, justification, adoption, sanctification, right- does not answer the question at once. Be sure eousness, ordinance, vicarious, substitutionary, "never to tell a child what you could make that punitive justice, covenant of works and covenant child tell you." of grace, divine sovereignty, propitiation, office of Let your questions have a regular connection, a priest, attribute, advent, curse of a broken law, so that one will naturally follow another, and in election, surety, and federal head. � fact, glide into the next, and " say as little as you Most of these terms are useful for certain pur- can in questioning and teaching, but so say it as poses, and it is necessary to understand them all; to cause the children to say as much as possible." but they are employed as constantly as if the � Then again be careful to adapt your questions teachers imagined the ideas they express could well. Put the right question to the right scholar, be taught in no other way; that the word was the for it will not do to ask A or B or C a question doctrine; and that a person who did not know which only D in the class can answer, for we are what propitiation or federal head meant, must be not to ask any child any question unless we sup- absolutely ignorant of what Christ has done for pose the answer is in the mind of the child. the world. � It is of particular importance that in the com- Now, we decidedly object to such words form- mencement of a lesson we always start aright. ing the common vehicle of religious instruction. Have some easy, pleasant questions ready, which They are little understood, and still less felt. Why they will be glad to answer. No matter what talk of the " vicarious satisfaction of Christ," when occurs, never manifest impatience or severity, or we might say, "Jesus died in our stead ?" The descend to a witticism or a sneer. A sneering, language of religion should be the language of sarcastic teacher should be left out of the school. common life—as poetical, graceful, and devout Therefore gladly receive and develop, in the as you will, but entirely untechnical. Familiar most charitable manner, the half-uttered, stam- words, at whose voice the door of the affections mering answer of the child at your feet, and your has ,already opened, will most readily find ad- children, in their hearts, will bless you.—Pardee. mission when religion is the theme. We appeal � • � from the practice of the moderns to the example KNOWLEDGE cannot be acquired without pain of Jesus and his apostles. Their uniform practice, and application. It is troublesome, and like deep when addressing individuals, was to speak in the digging for pure waters; but when you once come most direct language. Our Saviour says, "Not to the spring, it rises up to meet you. every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." Can any- thing be plainer than this ? In Peter's first ser- mon he says, " Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ;" and, not to multiply examples, Paul himself, instead of following technical phrases, is pre-eminent for the life and freshness of his language: " Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." Are not the apostle's own words worthy of serious attention ? " Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what was spoken ? for ye shall speak unto the air." "I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." Abbot remarks, with his usual good sense, that " children will unde rstand the language of maturity easily enough if the logic and rhetoric are theirs." of a Sabbath-school lesson is found in a certain chapter, and the pupil confines his attention to that chapter alone, he has not thoroughly studied his lesson. The texts bearing on one subject should be treasured up in the mind, and others added to them, and woven together like the various threads in a fabric, till the whole subject stands out clear and distinct. Then the relation of different subjects should be kept in mind. In this way, a given amount of study will ac- complish vastly more good than the same amount of study without any definite purpose. Of course it will take time to arrive at even a moderate understanding of all the great truths of God's word, and for this very reason the time should be improved to the best advantage. With persever- ing study, however, and the wisdom which is promised to those who pray in faith, even the most unlearned may become acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, which alone are able to make us " wise unto salvation "—" thoroughly furnished unto all good works." � E. J. W. The Teacher's Language. THE YOUTH'S INSTRUCTOR. AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY PAPER FOR YOUTH AND CHILDREN, DEVOTED TO MORAL, MENTAL, AND RELIGIOUS CULTURE. This paper is not devoted to insipid stories and religious fiction, but is filled with a great variety of that kind of reading which tends to the healthful development of the youthful mind. Its pages are made bright by the choicest illustrative pictures, and its columns are always full of useful information. As a Sabbath-school and Lesson paper, it is suited to the wants of scholars and teachers, and is calculated to increase the interest of all who read it, in thorough Bible study. The Sabbath-school Department contains two series of lessons, one for children and one for youth. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, 75 CENTS A YEAR. All new subscribers paying the above price will receive the "Child's Poems " as a premium without extra charge. TERMS TO CLUBS, PAID IN ADVANCE. Price per Copy, Post-paid. 5 to 10 copies � 60 cents a year. 10 copies and upward � .50 cents a year. Subscription for 5 to 10 copies will be taken for six months. Larger clubs may be paid for quarterly. , Address YOUTH'S INSTRUCTOR, Battle Creek, Mich. Or, � SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. Zile igns trf the TEimte. "Can ye not discern the signs of the times ?" J. H. WAGGONER, � EDITOR. J. N. ANDREWS, 1. CORRESPONDING EDITORS. URTA1T SMITH, OAKLAND, CAL., FIFTH-DAY, MARCH 9, 1882. Our School Prospects. IT is with pleasure that we inform our readers that Professor Brownsberger and family arrived in Oakland on the morning of March 4. This opens the way for immediate and decisive steps to be taken toward open- ing our school in Healdsburg. We are aware that some have questioned, Why the past delay? There were sev- eral causes. While there was no defect in the title, there was an error in several of the deeds covering the property. They who are acquainted with such matters know that such errors are not corrected without time and trouble, as so many parties are involved. Fortu- nately this is now near to a satisfactory adjustment. The unavoidable detention of our Professor in Michigan has also caused some delay, as we could do but little toward actually starting the school without consulting with him on some matters. And another difficulty, still bearing upon our actions, is a scarcity of funds. They who promised and expected to furnish means have not been able to obtain money as readily as they calculated; but we hope that this difficulty may soon be removed by those who can obtain money. We shall move for- ward, hoping for the best. But the time has now come for us to speak on other matters, essential to successfully starting the school. 114 � THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. � VoL. 8, No. 10. that the precise moment of deliverance was not well enough defined. But some of our very happy compeers did prove untrue to their vows, and others, if still main- taining the " form of godliness" are, we fear, not deeply enough interested in religion to show a very great amount of faith by their works. Now it is evident that if our judgment is dependent on these experiences we shall be left in hopeless per- plexity. Studying over these matters we have arrived at the conclusion that it is unwise and unsafe to attach much importance to the form and manner of the early experience of a convert. It is at best but the " a, b, c," of Christian life, and may soon become worthless if not sustained "by patient continuance in well doing." Or course the second step is never taken without the first. A scholar would never make any progress who did not learn the alphabet. But if his evidence of progress and scholarship consisted in continued repetitions of the alphabet, and if he had nothing better to offer as years passed by, we should readily decide that he had either been under a poor tutor or was a dull and negligent scholar; and though he had learned the alphabet never so well, if he relied upon this without constant perse- vering study and constantly increasing attainments, he would never be able to graduate at all—he would have no standing in any class. And we have known some who were unable to fix the precise date of their conversion; who, if called upon for their experience, could not assert with any positiveness that they ever had been converted. Yet their brethren and their neighbors have no doubt of their good stand- ing as Christians. Shall we doubt? Shall we decide that they are deceived, that they are not Christ's fol- lowers, because they cannot give the experience which others relate? If we shall, then whose relation or whose experience shall be taken as the standard ? We do like to see a deep conviction of sin in any person who attempts to come to Christ. But what shall be the evidence that the conviction is genuine ? We will relate an incident. . � Once, while we were preaching in Southern Ohio, a gentleman, an entire stranger to us, requested a conversation. His chief desire was to relate some of his marvelous experiences and to secure our opinion as to whether he was under the influence of the Spirit of God, in these manifestations, or of some other spirit. Upon our repeatedly declaring that we could not probably decide by a mere recital, he asked, " Well, how could you tell ? " " To a certainty by living neighbor to you a few months." He did not relate his experience. Were we not right ? We think no one will decide in the negative. Reading the New Testament we find that many of those who manifested the deepest feeling for, and interest in, the work and preaching of the Saviour, never followed him at all, or only for a little while. And taking the Saviour's own words, we find a rule which must be permitted to settle all cases of doubt. It is this: " BY their fruits ye shall know them." A tree which continues to bear good fruit cannot be corrupt; and a tree which bears corrupt fruit cannot be good. We said we should not here argue the possibility of falling from grace. But we must notice one or two points to justify the position that a person may be con- verted and still be finally lost. For Paul himself feared lest, by carelessness or unfaithfulness, he should be cast away, after he had preached to others; and of his con- version there could be no doubt. Jesus said his disciples were branches in him, he being the vine. " Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away." Is an unconverted person. in Christ ? We think not. But as Peter erred after Ills conversion, see Gal. 2 : 11, we cannot decide that a fe!son has not been converted because he errs. And finaey we would suggest a few rules to govern us in perplexing cases :- Exercise the same charity toward others which we would like to have accorded to ourselves under similar circumstances. If one be overtaken in a fault, restore such an one, if it be possible, "in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted." Gal. 6 :1. Do not too soon relax your efforts in a brother's behalf, remembering God's long-suffering toward us. 2 Peter 3 : 9 ; Luke 13 : 6-9. How We Should Handle the Truth. 1. THE truth of God is purer than silver that has been purified seven times in a furnace of earth. Men whose hands are stained with sin, whose hearts are tainted with pride, with selfishness, and with iniquity IT MUST HAVE SCHOLARS. Whence shall we derive our support in this respect? No doubt the answer will come from many points that, at the commencement, the school must be largely sup- ported by the patronage of the Seventh-day Adventists. Very well; but where are the Seventh-day Adventists who are going to feel a deep personal interest in this work, and bear a responsibility in regard to it ? Who, in your church, will take the pains to immediately as- certain if there are any who wish, or who can be in- duced, to attend the school ? On this subject we offer suggestions. Do not get the idea that the school is for the children only, or that they only can be benefited by it who are able to move to and locate in Healdsburg. We want laborers in the cause of God, and our experience in the East has taught us that the very best means of fitting up young men and women for laborers in the gospel, both as ministers and colporters or missionary workers, is to have them attend our school. Of course, the longer time they take for this, within reasonable bounds, th, better; but a single term has often proved of great bene- fit to an enterprising young man who had tact to use that which he had acquired, and a heart to engage in the work of God. We have not the least doubt that there are scores of young people in this State who need the training they could receive in this school, who could attend if they really made up their minds to do so, and who could then be useful as laborers in the cause of truth. If we could see a class formed of such young people as we met on the camp ground in Cornelius, Oregon, last summer, we should thank God and take courage. And why not ? California has them, and they must be sought out, and induced to attend. Every school year will embrace a term of instruction for the special benefit of this class of persons. But this announcement, before made in the SIGNS, must not be suffered to mislead the minds of any. This term will not be the only opportunity offered for their benefit. Every term, from the very beginning, will afford such facilities as:they will require. The experi- ence of Professor Brownsberger in our school in Mich- igan gives us all the assurance we can ask, that students who intend to fit themselves for the gospel work, will find just what they desire in the school under his hands. He is peculiarly qualified to meet their wants. With him will be associated the best help that can be obtained as the requirements of the school may de- mand. We are in earnest in this call. There is no time to lose. The signs of these times are ominous. The work is fast growing on our hands. As it increases in great- ness and power, the time for working is shortening up.. burden of sin was not sufficiently clear and decided; It is time to raise the query in real earnest, " Who is on the Lord's side ? " And who has a desire to help in the good cause ? We shall speak further on this subject. Let parents consider their duty to their children, to train their minds aright, and to bring them under the best influences in a school. No higher considerations can be presented to us. Let us act promptly. Do not wait to know the definite time, which will soon be announced, but make preparatioris without delay. About Conversion. A GOOD brother writes concerning the trials often arising in the churches, and finds a reason in the as- sumed fact that the majority of the members of the churches are not truly converted; and he requests us to give some light on the subject that they may know in what true conversion consists. The task assigned us is not an easy one, for it is, no doubt, expected that we shall describe the process of conversion, so that all may know whether they have really experienced or passed through this process. First, we are not prepared to grant the assumption that a majority of the members of the churches are not converted. We have not sufficient reason to induce us to believe it. That self-deception is prevalent as well as dangerous we fully believe; but that this fact in- volves the consequence assumed by our brother we are not prepared to admit. Secondly, we inquire, What is sufficient evidence that a person has been converted ? Among our earliest ob- servations of church matters was the inevitable " expe- rience" which every candidate for membership, whether on profession or by letter, was required to relate. And we have to record our regret that a person's standing before God was judged almost entirely from this relation. This manner of judgment is based on the supposition that if one is thoroughly converted—if his passage through the process was clear and his experience well defined—he was sure to be saved finally. " Once in grace, always in grace," was the motto, and if truly inducted in the proper manner into this grace, what other or further evidence should or could be desired ? On this point we have altogether outgrown our Baptist theory. It is not our purpose at present, nor suited to our present purpose, to argue this point; but we believe the theory is wrong, the judgment based upon it ill- grounded, and the consequence of trusting in it injuri- ous and often fatal. But if such an " experience" is the test, whose expe- rience shall be taken as the standard, seeing that they differ immensely ? At the time of our conversion or first reception of Christ as a Saviour, several dear friends started with us, and finally with us united with the church. But our experiences differed in many points. Some were led through the darkness into light in a very short time, while we mourned our sins for days and nights; our waking hours were in bitterness, and, as Job, we were " scared with dreams " in our sleep. Some came out " bright," with shouts of joy, and beaming faces, while our burden passed off easily on expressing our determination to persevere even if darkness were to be our lot, and the faithful servant of God recited the promises to the persevering. Judging from the experi- ences of others, our own might have been considered a doubtful one; but ours was a calm, quiet peace, which grew and brightened as weeks and months passed by. But just as we could say that our peace was as a river, and were longing for a righteousness which should be as the waves of the sea, we undertook to read " Edwards on the Affections." This proved too much for even the strength of our joy and peace, and our doubts of the genuineness of our conversion were as distressing as the darkness of our first conviction. What the consequen- ces might have been to our immature judgment in spir- itual things we cannot imagine. But the wisdom, the faithfulness, and the Christian love and sympathy of our teacher were manifested to our permanent relief, and, if ever we find a place in the kingdom of our Sav- iour we expect that one of the happiest of our meetings will be with " Brother Barber." And it may be humili- ating to confess, but it is truth, and the whole truth is very often humiliating, that we came to regard that celebrated work of Dr. Edwards with such dread that we did not—could not—finish the reading of it. And our after experiences have been as different as were our first. If we had "fallen away" it might easily have been reasoned out that our deliverance from the MARCH 9, 1882. �THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. � 115 of any kind, and whose mouths are ready to utter words that ought not to be spoken, have no right to act as the ministers of truth to others. Those who handle the truth of God must first be converted them- selves by it. They must not bear God's truth while they dishonor it by their sinful lives and their unholy examples. The truth of God was never designed to be held in unrighteousness. It was not revealed in the Holy Scriptures to be made the peculiar property of bigots and of partisans. Nor was it given for the purpose of building up selfish, unsanctified sects and parties. God has nothing in common with such classes. And zeal on their part, even for some of the truths of his word, al- ways has such evil elements mingled with it, that it is not accepted in God's sight as devotion to his cause. " Come with me," said Jehu, " and see my zeal for the Lord." 2 Kings 10 : 16. Yet his zeal for the right was principally, if not wholly, inspired by a desire to advance his own interests. The truth of God is, however, of the utmost im- portance. It is as precious as it is pure. But many men make the great mistake of supposing that they have a share in the truth which they merely understand and believe some portions of it, while it has no place in their hearts, and while it fails to govern their daily lives. This is the fatal error of vast multitudes. We shall never be saved by the truth till it has made us like itself, clean without and pure within. Unquestionably, it is the duty of the servants of God to preach his truth. The truth is that which en- lightens the mind; it is that which reveals our duty toward God and man; it is that also which sets us apart from the world, as the servants of Christ. God sends it out to lead men to his holy hill. John 17 :17; Ps. 43 : 3. And when the truths of the Bible are preached, it is necessary that they be declared with plainness, with faithfulness, with zeal, with solemnity, with urg- ent importunity, and with the power of the Spirit of God mingling severity and tenderness in the spirit of him who preaches the words of eternal life to perishing men. Especially should it be the case with those who preach the final message of warning to mankind, that they exhibit in their own lives the excellency of the truths they urge upon others. And when the great- ness of the work to be accomplished by the third angel's message is considered, for it is sent by God to warn mankind of the seven last plagues, we see very plainly that we cannot be too much in earnest in call- ing the attention of our fellow-men to its words of solemn warning, provided that our zeal be tempered with knowledge. But when we have preached God's truth with that faithful, self-sacrificing, earnest, and tender spirit that becomes so sacred and so important a mes- sage from the God of Heaven, we have done our part. It is indeed our business to recommend it by our lives of consecration, and of humble obedience. But even the importance of the truths we preach may cause us to commit a serious error. Let us remember then that judging and con- demning is no part of our work. When we have, with untiring diligence and unselfish and ever-enduring love, warned and instructed our perishing fellow-men, we have done our part of the work. They are indeed to be judged, but this part of the work belongs not to mortal men. It is no part of our business to decide who shall have perdition for their portion. We are too ignorant and short-sighted to do such a work. We know not the peculiar difficulties under which their minds are laboring. We know not the influence of early education which may make it for the time quite impossible for them to see what we may be able to see with great clearness. We know not what may have transpired to create extreme preju- dice in their minds toward our cause, our people, or ourselves. These things are all known to the Searcher of hearts. Leave the decision of men's cases to him. These remarks apply especially to our action toward those who fear God, but who do not see all the truth which we are enabled to see. Such persons are not to come under the censure of that righteous judg- ment which may be judged by us in cases of flagrant wickedness. Yet in the case of these last named, it becomes us to act with fear and trembling, and only that they cannot keep the Sabbath, and for their benefit I propose to consider some of the so-called reasons, which they give. This article is not intended for those who, in order to avoid the acknowledgement that the seventh day is the Sabbath, plead that the world is round, that time has been lost, and other flimsy objections against the Sabbath. It is only for those who acknowledge the truth of the Bible, are fully convinced that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, and know that it is the duty of all men to keep it, but fancy that they are so situated that it would be impossible for them to do so. I say they fancy, for it is not so in fact. No individual was ever yet placed in such a position that he could not do what was certainly his duty to do. He might find it difficult, and perhaps unpleasant, but never impossible. " I would like to keep the Sabbath," says one, " but my business will not let me." Well, if this is really the case, then get some other business that will not hinder. If you saw that your present business was greatly injur- ing your health, and would cause your death in a few months, unless abandoned, you would lose no time in changing your occupation. But by disobeying God you lose his favor, and this will bring eternal death. " But I could not live if I were to keep the Sabbath?' This is of the same stamp as -the reason given above, and is offered alike by those who are in prosperous busi- ness, and those who labor for their daily bread. How do you know that you could not live ? Are there not thousands who are keeping the Sabbath, and do not they live ? Ask those who have tried it, and see what testi- mony they bear. It is true you may not be able to amass quite so much property, but " what is a man pro- fited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?" But let us consider this matter, further. You say you cannot live if you keep the Sabbath. Are you sure that you can if you do not keep it ? Have you any guaran- tee that your life will be continued indefinitely? Do those who violate God's law live any longer on an aver- age than those who keep it ? You certainly know of no one who is not subject to death. The psalmist says: " What man is he that liveth and shall not see death ? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave ?'' Ps. 89 :48. " It is appointed unto men once to die," and this without any distinction in regard to age or belief. Then why do you assume that you will be ex- empt if you do not keep the Sabbath ? " But," our friend will doubtless reply, " I expect, of course, to die sometime in the natural course of events, whether I keep the Sabbath or not; what I mean is, that I shall not be able to earn a living for myself and family.: Well, you profess to believe the Bible; let us see what it says in regard to this matter. " Therefore take no [anxious] thought, saying, What shall we eat ? or, What shall we drink ? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. 6 :31-33. Could any promise be plainer than this ? If it does not mean just what it says, it does not mean anything. And God is fully able to fulfill this promise. Just consider what a vast estate he has. Here is a description of it: " For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell thee; for the world is mine and the full- ness thereof." Ps. 50 :10-12. Surely you need have no fear of starving, if you serve such a master as that. Listen to another promise: " Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." Ps. 37 :3. There you have the promise; now listen to the testimony of one who had an opportunity to know, as to how this promise is fulfilled: " I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Verse 25. You can verify this in your own experience, if you choose. Who are they, that form the great army of tramps that wander through the country, begging food? Are they Christians, as a class ? Are they those who have sunk their property in the service of God? I think no one ever saw a tramp that was noted for his piety. An active worker in the Young Men's Christian Association, says that of the hundreds that have applied for charity to the institution with which he is connected, all are irreligious persons, and that he has never known a regular attendant of church to apply for alms. Truly, Our California School. BY PROF. S. BROWNSBERGER. being deceived by the emissaries of Satan; and to relieve the cause of God from reproach. We must indeed contend for the truth. We live in a world where error and moral darkness are pre- dominant. We must face fierce opposition; but let us remember that it is not necessary to be fierce ourselves. Those who have the truth can afford to be candid; rather they cannot afford to be anything else. Con- troversy, to a greater or less extent, is unavoidable; but before we enter into it let us take pains to remove all personal misunderstanding, and, if possible, let us seek the conversion of our opponents with much greater zeal than we seek the discomfiture of their cause. We believe that to all God's humble Christ- like, teachable servants, the time must come before translation, when they shall fully come to the unity of the faith; when self shall be slain; when the love of the truth shall be so strong that party spirit shall cease, and that each shall love God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself, and Christ shall be all in all. We believe that the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are the great standard of prepara- tion for the advent of Christ. And we believe that the gifts placed in the church are an important instru- mentality for the purpose of effecting the unity of the people of God. And, thus believing, we mean so to labor as that we may be found the helpers of all who earnestly endeavor to follow the truth. � .7. N. A. THE intention of establishing a school on the Pacific Coast, for the special benefit of our people, is already well known to the reader. The providence of God has no doubt directed the Trustees in their purchase at Healdsburg. It is certainly providential that building and grounds so well adapted to our needs, could be obtained so cheap in a place where climate and circumstances are so favorable. It does not seem possible that God would move upon his people to undertake this enterprise unless there was a necessity for it. It is certainly not the lack of schools that has created this necessity. Evidently there is something lacking in them which God wants to have supplied. To supply this lack is the object of our proposed school at Healds- burg. We believe that God favors true education, and he wants his people to make special provision for it. The public schools are generally deficient, and this is why God would have us provide schools of our own. If this is not so, then we are making a great mistake in starting the school; but if it is so, then those who do not favor the school with means and students as far as they can, are making a still greater mistake. Our common schools generally lack thoroughness. Very few of them afford genuine mental culture. But this is not really their greatest lack. They pay but little attention to morals and religion. If the views of Adventists are correct, we cannot attach too much im- portance to these views in the instruction of our chil- dren. If the proposed school at Healdsburg is not thorough in its instruction, and if it does not give special attention to Bible truths, then, in my opinion, it is not what God would have it to be. The Trustees and teachers will spare no effort to make its instruction and moral tone of the highest order. If every friend of the cause on the Pacific Coast will do his duty, our school must be a success. The school is yours and with you lies the responsibility of its success or failure. California has a noble record, and will not sacrifice her reputation in this enterprise. Each should take a personal interest in the school, and ask himself, What can I do to advance its interests ? Cannot my children enjoy its advantages ? With this unity of action, the school must prosper, and our children be blest. Can We Keep the Sabbath? THERE are thousands throughout the United States and in Europe, who are ready at once to answer this question in the affirmative, for they know by experience that it is possible. Indeed, the question really admits so far, too, as will be sufficient to put away sin from I � I of only one answer, and that is: " Yes: we can if we " The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he among us; and to save those who are in danger of want to." But there are many persons who imagine addeth no sorrow with it." 116 � THE SIGNS or THE TIMES. � VoL. 8, No 10. Again the Lord says: " But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God; for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth." Deut. 8 :18. No one can doubt the truth of this statement. " He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." We could not keep ourselves alive for a single moment. All men, good and bad alike, are equally dependent on God, for life and its attendant blessings. Now if God has prospered you in• the past, when you were trampling on his law, unwittingly it may be, will he not be more likely to continue his blessing if you obey him ? Will he not have an espeoial care for his servants who cheerfully obey him ? Certainly no per- son who professes faith in God's word, should ever fear to keep his commandments. Do not, however, get the idea that abundant riches is promised to those who obey God. The psalmist saw that the wicked were "not in trouble as other men;" he saw that they had more than heart could wish; and he be- came envious when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. But when he went into the sanctuary of God, and un- derstood their end (Ps. '73 : 17), then his envy ceased. He saw that God does not propose to reward either the good or the bad in this life. The wicked may well have riches in this life, for that is all the enjvment they will ever have; and the righteous can well afford to have but little of this world's goods, and even to suffer affliction and persecution, since for them God has reserved " an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away "—" an exceeding and eternal weight of glory." But there is this difference between the wealthy sinner and the poor servant of God: There is no promise made to the transgressor of God's law. God allows the sun to shine, and the rain to fall alike on the just and unjust, but the transgressor has no assurance that all his riches may not " take to themselves wings and fly away," and he be left a beggar; while the righteous man who may have but a bare living, has the promise that that little will be continued to him. God often permits his ser- vants to be brought into strait places, and in order to try their faith, to be sometimes brought where they can see no opening whatever, still his promises are sure, and cannot fail. Food and clothing are promised, and though these may be scant, yet, " a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked." Ps. 37 : 16. One thought more, If we keep the commandments of God, we are God's servants. If we refuse to obey him, whose servants are we ? We certainly must be the servants of Satan. There is no neutral ground. " To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey." Now suppose you continue in sin, and sin is nothing else but the transgression of the law (1 John 3 :4), what is your prospect for living? Here it is: " For the wages of sin is death." Rom. 6 : 23. � "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Eze. 18 : 20. You say you cannot live if you keep all God's command- ments; God says you cannot live if you do not keep them. If your statement were true, you would only lose this present life, and many men in times past have lost their lives for the truth of God, and we honor them for it; but if you disobey God you will lose eternal life. Jesus says: " For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Matt. 16 :25. Satan may promise well, but lie has nothing but the treasures of this world to offer, and they are all forfeited, so that he has really nothing to offer you. How different is the service of God. The apostle says: " Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 1 Tim. 4 :8. But the promises of life and happiness to those who fear God are almost innumerable. Not a tithe of them has been given. Surely those mentioned are sufficient to enable any one to trust God. Some further obj..c- tions, and Scripture testimonies, may be considered next week. � E. J. W. Religious Persecution. BY ELD S. N. HASKELL. THE cause of God has ever had to contend with diffi- culties, and these have been in proportion to the purity of the work. As it has become popular, and men of worldly interests have connected themselves with it, Christian simplicity has disappeared, and persecution ceased. But the true Christian has always found that " This world is not a friend to grace To help us on to God." It is not strange, therefore, if in the work in which we are engaged, we not only meet with difficulties, but per- secutions. The doctrine of the soon coming of Christ, and the Sabbath reform are the two principal features of our work. Satan is our common foe, and we shall find that as we near the end, perils will increase, and those who occupy prominent positions in the work of God will be a mark at which Satan will hurl his fiery darts. Last year many thousands of people flocked to this country from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and other European nations, some of them to escape the Sunday Law in those countries, where it is almost impossible to observe the Sabbath. Still under these circumstances, the truth prospers, and adherents are gained to it. Men are arrested and imprisoned, still they preach the word with success. A letter just received from Bro. Rosqvist, who is laboring in Sweden. speaks of an encouraging interest in several localities. At one place, Lungbanshyttan, he was permitted to preach in the meeting-house of the Separatists (persons who have dissented from the State church), where three commenced to observe the Sabbath. He also speaks of other places where persons had taken their stand on the truth, and of holding communion services at Grythyttehed, in which fifty- two persons participated. He continues: " While in Grythyttehed we experienced the Spirit of God among us, and toward the last the interest was great. In the latter part of November my trial was brought to a close with the decision that I should pay fifty kroners, because I had been bold enough to preach that we have eternal life through Christ alone, after having been forbidden to do so. But I was not informed of this decision until between Christmas and New Years, at which time a policeman came to inquire when I could pay my fine, (buy me a clean conscience or perhaps satisfy the priests). When I informed him that I could not from conscien- tious scruples pay the fine, he answered: Well, then Mr. Rosqvist will have to go to the lock-up, at Oerebro.' The next day I was instructed to make preparation for the journey; also the same day I was again summoned to appear in court at the next winter and spring session, to stand trial for having preached the truth last October. " The second of January I started for Oerebro and ar- rived there the next day, when I was conducted to the reception room of the jail. The next day I was placed in a cell to remain there eight days and live on bread and water. I was not permitted to wear my own cloth- ing, and those that were given me were insufficient to protect me from the cold air of the cell, so that I suffered very much from the cold. I begged the privilege of retaining my Bible, some writing paper, and a lead pencil, but this was denied me. In my cell, however, I found a New Testament with the Psalms, a Swedish hymn book, and another book containing sermons and prayers for prisoners. Never shall I forget the moments I spent in this small, cold cell, nor the joy I experienced in my solitude. I often felt like following the example of Paul and Silas in the prison at Ppilippi, but a strict prohibition—' prisoners must not sing'—kept me silent until I was released." It will be no marvel if in this country we meet with the same. Men and women will be imprisoned for keep- ing the Sabbath. Persecution of this kind is what we have looked for for more than twenty-five years. As we approach the time of trouble perils will increase, troubles will thicken. Those only will be safe who work while the day lasts, and prepare to meet God by using all their talents of means and usefulness in his service The present movement in this land of liberty to enforce a Sunday Law is only the same dragon's voice which is heard across the ocean. And it is a sure precursor of the great day of deliverance. The prophetic lamp shows where we are and what is coming, and happy are those who discern the signs of this time and prepare for the final conflict. AN Oakland D. D. has a theory that sets the laws of gravitation at defiance. He says that when Adam fell he "fell upward." "It was better that he should eat of the tree," for by so doing " he sinned and suffered and rose in manhood." If it is true that sin makes men better, we must be approaching the millennium with wonderful rapidity. How it must please the devil to see professed ministers of the gospel propagating the lie which he coined in Eden. " EVERY word of God is pure ; he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Prov. 30 : 5, 6. Utz gizzionarp. Seaman's Mission, San Francisco. A SUMMARY of the work done on board ships for the past two months, shows the following re- sults:- 1)—. Four men in the forecastle and two in the cabin much interested; gave extra reading matter for distribution and had prayers on board. There was much interest in this ship. K— C—. The captain, and one man in forecastle are interested. C—. Steward interested. T— C—. Steward much interested. He was out here before, and carried some reading matter to a minister in Wales. He read the SIGNS and tracts with much interest, and wants more. His name was sent to Eld. Loughborough. The men in the forecastle were of a class that showed in- telligence. They promised to investigate and write to me. P— F—. The captain was much interested. So also was an apprentice who had been thinking about what was said one year ago when he was here. His mother received some of our papers and would like some more. The captain said he gave some SIGNS to an individual in the Isle of Man, and that the man wants more of that kind of reading. Several men, officers, and apprentices, are much interested. Had prayers on board. S— of I—. First mate, two apprentices, and some seamen much interested. F—. Captain and wife much interested. G— G—. Mate much interested. Captain interested. Captain B. has read our works and promised to investigate further. He gave our publications to friends at home, who liked them exceedingly. Captain B. was a good listener, and inquired and seemed much impressed. Mate very much interested and seemed anxious for religious reading. We had an ear- nest conversation on present truth. He prom- ised to write. B— G—. Second mate and steward much in- terested. of I—. Captain, first mate, and steward much interested. Quite a number signed the temperance pledge. The first mate was much impressed. He signed the temperance pledge and I gave him extra reading matter. There was unusual attentiveness, and a spirit of earnest inquiry manifested by this ship's officers and crew. A— S—. Steward, second mate, and sailmaker much interested. They heard the truth for the first time. R— L—. The captain believes in the Sabbath, but does not see how he can keep it. The cook was interested, and his wife read the SIGNS, and says its character ought to be known better. I sent the names to Eld. Loughborough. All the names for England are sent to Eld. Loughborough, for he can communicate directly with them, and through these means a channel of interest can be kept up far more directly than has been done heretofore. He was written to, and when he receives any news of interest we shall hear of it in his monthly report. There is much cause for encouragement in the labor of the past two months among the ships in San Francisco Bay. There were ships with in- terested individuals on board, some of whom heard present truth for the first time, and others had heard before. The temperance work is pro- gressing, and great hopes may be bad in this re- spect for it prepares the way for further truth; how precious is present truth; and how good God is to warn the world from the wrath to come! How few will receive it; how many reject it. Those that object to its teachings see that its strength is unassailable. Its impregnable truth is there, and it shines in some hearts, but some lock the door of their understanding against such unerring evidence, and our heart is sad when we think of one more soul in peril. The honest mind is known by the acknowl- edgment of adduced facts; and as soon as the barrier of error is undermined, how pleasing it is to hear the confession, and this pleasure in- creases when the stand is made for the right. Heaven says one more, and we say may God bless; our hearts are made glad and we unite with *MUCH 9, 1882. �THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. � 117 the heavenly chorus, and say, Give God the praise. Paul says in Gal. 6 : 4: " But let every man prove his own work and he shall have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another." Let us also consider the words of the Psalmist and take it to heart. " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." Ps. 126: 5. Now is the time to bear the precious seed to the world. May we all seek that inner consecration of heart so necessary for the blessing on our efforts. Then there is the grand promise, "He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Ps. 126 : 6. How many of us are looking for sheaves for the harvest? May our dear Master guide the careless and indifferent to prepare for this solemn responsibility. Let us all seek for those not in the ark of safety and use wisdom in guiding them there. Let us pray that the .Spirit may so teach us that the strength of the Captain of our salvation may be in our work, and we be the willing instrument. May God help us to take firmer hold and unite with his infinite wisdom and goodness by perfect submission to his will. Then comes the promise, " So shall my word be that goeth forth of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isa. 55 : 11. By connecting with God we know our labors will be successful, for he works with and for us, and we are co-operators with the Father and the Son. Who can withstand such love and be idle in the vineyard? Our prayer is, Lord be with thy people, bless the efforts put forth at this time; prepare us for the conflict, and save us in thy kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord—Amen. II. C. PALMER. Woodland, California. ELDER VAN HORN commenced meetings at this place February 17. There has been a good inter- est from the first ; seldom less than one hundred present. At the close of a meeting when the Sab- bath question was presented, Elder Van Horn stated that the next evening he would discuss the claims made for the first day of the week, unless some minister in the place would like to do so, when Professor Martin, of the Christian College, made an appointment. He got rid of the Sabbath by the usual theory of abolishing the decalogue, and adopted Sunday from supposed Apostolic ex- ample. Elder Van Horn reviewed him and demol- ished his theory ; but he replied the following evening and went over the same ground as at first, claiming that there was no such distinction as moral and ceremonial laws ; that the yearly pass- over sabbaths came always on the seventh day, consequently the pentecost always came on the first day of the week, and that the sabbaths that were abolished at the cross (Col. 2 : 16), were the Sabbaths of the decalogue. He claimed that the decalogue was imperfect, and did not cover drunkenness, bigamy, and many other sins, and did not touch the heart of morality • that when Christ fulfilled it it was abrogated, it being the old covenant ; that the human heart was the only thing in this dispensation that was holy. Elder Van Horn reviewed him again and showed up the fallacy of his position in such a way that nearly all present were fully convinced. The house was well filled. A temperance meeting was held by the club here,.and well attended. Twenty-three signed the pledge. The Sunday Law tract has been sent to all the officers of the nine counties in this district, and to all the State officers. Several subscribers have been obtained for the Review. We expect Sister E. G. White, the first of the week, to assist in the meetings. They will con- tinue over another Sabbath. We are laboring for a revival in the church, and that some of the in- terested ones may be converted and united with us. Pray for the work here, �M. C. ISRAEL. Woodland, March, 4. How many men have religion enough to pre- vent them riding on a car ticket the second time if the conductor fails to take it up? This is a better test of fitness for admission to the church, than what one believes about the doctrine of election or the perseverance of the saints.—Golden Rule. "RIGHTEOUSNESS exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." Zonvcrance. A Tilt on Prohibition. OUR friend Jimmy Riggs keeps a hotel, as you may know already; but he sells no liquor. To his credit be it spoken. Of course his run of custom is very small. One or two travelers at a time is as much as he looks for. Yesterday, there came along here a dry-goods bummer making his way across the country to Tidiout. The bummer is a thirsty man, and missed his evening beverage. He was out on the shingle-pile after supper, tak- ing part in the chat. He could not forbear grumbling at the narrow. mindedness and intoler- ance of the people in not allowing liquor to be sold. He spoke as if his rights had been infringed upon, whereupon Dea. Thresher, who is ac- quainted with him, in a good-natured, but blunt way, went at him. " Hold on, neighbor, hold on. There are some rights on both sides of this question. People who make liquor and drink liquor are sensitive about their own rights, but are very indifferent to the rights of the people who don't drink. " Now you say you have a perfect right to drink if you want to, and even to get drunk if you want to. Well, considered as theory, no man has a right to commit a crime even against himself. Self-murder is an awful crime, even if no one in the world were affected by your being a drunkard but yourself. " However, as a matter of fact, nobody does interfere with a man's alleged right to drink. People let him drink himself into bestiality, into a prison, or into a madhouse, or into his coffin, and don't interfere with him. So, now, I would not interfere with you in your drinking. " But I have a word to say about other people's rights. Granted, for the sake of argument, that you have a right to harm yourself. You have no right to harm your neighbors while doing so. One man's right is bounded by another man's right. If I should dig a deep pit along-side of your house, even though on ground of my own, and should cause your wall to tumble in, the law would bold me responsible for the damage. I would have to pay it, and couldn't help myself. It wouldn't do for me to say, I had a right to dig a pit where I chose on my own ground.' If I should leave a cellar-door open on a sidewalk, and a passer-by should fall in and break his arm, I would have to pay for that, too. 1 have no right to leave cellar-doors open as a trap for other people. " Now, when you open a saloon, you may say that it is for your own convenience. You say you want a place at which to get your liquor. Well, get your liquor, and make a fool of yourself, if you choose. But, how about the boys and the young men in the neighborhood who haven't learned to drink? Have the fathers and mothers of those boys no right to have their children pro- tected ? When you open your trap-door, you are not the only one who goes in. Others will go in there, who otherwise would never have thought of such a thing. And it will be the ruin of them. Yet you make an outcry if any one complains of you. Parents are expected to see the pride of their homes, and what would be the honor and stay of their old age, turned into tipplers and drunkards, in order that you may have a rum- hole convenient for our own use. What a pity it is that we hadn't some Antonio on the judicial bench, to say to you, as was said to Shylock, Take your pound of flesh, but not one drop of Christian blood.' Take your right to drink, as you call it; but don't debauch one pure-minded youth, at the peril of all you have got. " And, further, I deny your right to tax me, in order that your saloon-keepers may get rich. I am taxed, and every man in the community is taxed, to pay the losses and expenses brought on by rum-selling. We build great almshouses; and you fill them with beggared widows and orphans; and we have to support them. You make crim- inals, and we have to enlarge our jails and build new penitentiaries to hold them all. We have to increase the number of our insane asylums, in order to accommodate the number of poor, crazed men and women that you are making, from year to year. One-half of the criminal expenses of our court are purely and solely on your account. There, for example, was that poor fellow who was hung, not long ago, over in the next county. He was a quiet man, except when he was crazed by drink. He went into a rum-saloon one day, as quiet and peaceable as any man could be. The saloon-keeper soon had him drunk. Ile kept on his drunk a week, and got through with it only by committing murder on a neighbor and friend. Then there was the long trial; and, finally, another one in another county. At last he was hung. The counties had to pay some thousands of dollars; and I had to help my share. While that poor fellow was standing on the scaffold, and the County Treasurer was entering on his book the charges, which we all afterward had to pay, lo, and behold, the saloon-man was sitting quietly behind his counter, enjoying his pipe, without a word of rebuke from judge or court or private citizen. " And so I do object to the heavy bills you men bring upon the county. Talk of the revenue that comes in through the liquor tax. You are always harping on that strain. It's all twaddle. The wonder to me is that so many people are fooled by it. You put in a dime and take out a dollar. That's true of the whole business from Maine to California. If the country would allow a syndic- ate of bankers to tax them the amount of loss and expense known absolutely to have been incurred during the past year by the use of liquor, they could afford every year to pay into the pub- lic treasury every cent of the revenue that comes from the liquor traffic. That being done, they would get rich faster than did the owners of the big bonanza. I will not admit the right of the rum-seller to put his hand into the pocket of the poor inebriate, and filch from him his few re- maining hard-earned dimes; and forever will I protest against his having any right to put his hand into the pockets of the rest of the commu- nity, to pay the damages that come from his drinking-saloon. if I were to pursue a business which inflicted continual losses upon other people, it would be but a little while before I would be before the courts. If I enjoyed setting off fire- works, and burnt down a neighbor's house, I would soon be sought after by a policeman. There is no reason why you men who deal in liquor should not meet the evil consequence of your business; just as other men have to meet the evil consequence of theirs."—National Baptist. Temperance Work in Castroville, Cal. WE held temperance meetings in this place on the evenings of the 20th, 21st, and 22d of Febru- ary. They were quite well attended. As the re- sult of the meetings, twenty names were added to the different pledges. Eight were added to the Anti-Ram and Tobacco Pledge, one to the Anti-Whisky Pledge, and eleven to the Teetotal Pledge. Others are interested and will probably join us soon. Let those in the temperance army take courage, and press on to the front. Victory is certain, for Christ is our captain, and he never lost a battle. � F. T. LAMB, A. D. BENTON, J. G. HURLEY. A Slumbering Demon Aroused. THE following startling account appears in an English journal: A man who had been a drunkard for many years was induced to sign a pledge of total abstinence, which he kept inviolate through all temptation. At length, while superintending some repairs on a hotel, the landlord offered him a glass of beer. Th:s he declined. He was urged to drink, but he still refused. ContiLued urging only made his refusal more peremptory, while he claimed the right to do as ho pleased. But for some reason the landlord chose to tempt him fur- ther, and watching for an opportunity, tipped the glass so that some drops of beer fell upon his lips. This taste was sufficient to rouse the demon of appetite that had so long slumbered. The glass was seized and drained of its contents with an eagerness which startled all who witnessed it. Work was abandoned directly, and a family which had rejoiced over the rescue of a husband and father from a fate worse than death, were pros- trated with grief. Many efforts were afterward made to reclaim him, and often did he promise never again to touch the destroying drink, but these promises were quickly broken. He had lost all power of self-control. He lived to become a miserable vagabond, wandering from place to place, wretched and despairing, dying at last in a public almshouse, and all because of a glass of beer.—Christian Herald. 118 � THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. �VoL. 8, No. 10. Zhz bone Tirete. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. LIFE hath its barren years, When blossoms fall untimely down, When ripened fruitage fails to crown The summer toil, when Nature's frown Looks only on our tears. Life hath its faithless days, The golden promise of the morn, That seemed for light and gladness born, Meant only noontide wreck and scorn, Hushed harp instead of praise. Life hath its valleys too, Where we must walk with vain regret, With mourning clothed, with wild rain wet, Towards sunlight hopes that soon may set, All quenched in pitying dew. Life hath its harvest moons, Its tasselled corn and purple-weighted vine; Its gathered sheaves of grain, the blessed sign Of plenteous reaping bread and pure, rich wine; Full hearts for harvest tunes. Life hath its hopes fulfilled; Its glad fruitions, its blest answered prayer, Sweeter for waiting long, whose holy air, Indrawn to silent souls, breathes forth its rare, Grand speech by joy distilled. Life hath its Tabor heights; Its lofty mounts of heavenly recognition, Whose unveiled glories flash to earth munition Of love and truth and clearer intuition. Hail ! mount of all delights. —Evangelical Magazine. The Fifty Dollar Bill. Mits. DEAN sat alone in her little kitchen. She never used her parlor. There was the extrava- gance of an extra fire, the fact that the best rag carpet, woven by her own hands, must not be worn out recklessly, and the dread possibility of the sunshine fading one of those chair covers. Mrs. Dean was an economist. She believed in making everything last as long as it possibly would. And so she made the kitchen her head- quarters, and sat there knitting, with her feet comfortably balanced on the stone hearth, the saucepan of apples bubbling softly away at the back, and the sound of her husband's axe ring- ing from the back shed as he cut and split the kindling wood piled up there in well-seasoned logs. She was a little wrinkled-faced woman of fifty, with stiff ribbon bows to her cap, hair that seemed dried up instead of silvered, and keen blue eyes that twinkled as if they had discovered the secret of perpetual motion. To save money was her chief end and aim in life. The very mittens she was knitting were to be sold at the village store in exchange for sugar, tea or spices, and all such necessary groceries. " A penny saved is as good as a penny made," was the golden rule by which she shaped her life. " I am glad I took that money out of the sav- ings bank yesterday," said Mrs. Dean to herself, as the bright needles clicked merrily away. " Peo- ple say it isn't quite safe, and one can't be too careful. But then, again, there's the danger of burglars—though to be sure no burglar," she ad- ded, with a complacent, inward chuckle, " would ever think of looking in the folds of that old newspaper in the wall-pocket. It's the bureau- drawers and the trunks and the lock-up chests that they aim for. A fifty dollar bill! A clean, crisp, new fifty dollar bill! And all savings, too, out of the house money." Just then there sounded a knock at the door, and in came old Dr. Bridgman, rubicund with the touch of the March winds, and muffled up in the skins of the animals which from time to time he had shot. " Good-day, Mrs. Dean, good-day!" said he. "No, thank you, I can't sit down. I'm a deal too busy for that. But I heard yesterday that you took fifty dollars out of the bank." " Yes, I did." " We are taking up a subscription to get little lame Dick Bodley a cart and donkey, so that he can go around peddling tinware," said the doctor. " It's pretty hard for one afflicted like he is to get along, and if you can help us a little—" " But I can't," interposed Mrs. Dean, "the money was an investment. I don't propose to cut it up into little bits." " It's a deed of charity," said the good old man, " to help lame Dick." " I dare say," said Mrs. Dean, irritably, " but I never pretended to be a charitable character." The old doctor went away, and the next visitor was Helen Hurst, a rosy girl of eighteen. " Please excuse me for interrupting you Mrs. Dean," she said " but Larry Johnson was at the bank yesterday, and he tells me that you drew out your money." Mrs. Dean wondered if all creation was there, but she said nothing, only knit away until her nee- dles seemed to glance and glitter like points of fire. " I am trying to get a boarding place at Mrs. Swipes," added Helen coloring, " so as to be near the district school, where I am to teach this spring. But Mrs. Swipes requires payment in advance, by the month, and unfortunately we have used up all our slender means in providing my outfit. A teacher, you know, must be dressed decently to command the respect of her pupils. Could you kindly lend me ten dollars?" " I never lend," said Mrs. Dean, curtly. " I will be sure to pay it up when I receive my first quarter's salary," pleaded Helen, " and I don't know any one else to go to." " It's altogether against my principles," said Mrs. Dean, with her face as hard as if it had been carved out of hickory. Helen went home feeling humiliated and dis- appointed beyond expression. Mrs. Dean chuckled at her own shrewdness, but she hardy had time to stir up the apples in the saucepan before Mrs. Graham entered with a little memorandum book and pencil in her hand. " I am looking for the charitable people, Mrs. Dean," said the squire's wife with a laugh. " Ten you have come to the wrong place," said Mrs. Dean, frigidly. " Poor Patrick O'Harra was killed to-day in the machinery of the rolling-mill," said Mrs. Graham, ignoring her neighbor's response. " He has left a wife and eight children destitute." " And whose fault is that ?" said Mrs. Dean. " Will you not contribute something toward relieving their condition ?" urged Mrs. Graham holding her pencil for use. " Certainly not! I have no money to spare." " But I was told—" " Oh, yes; about that money I drawed out of the savings bank," said Mrs. Dean. " But I in- tend to keep that money for myself." " He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord," softly whispered Mrs. Graham. " Yes, yes; I know," said Mrs. Dean, " but no one interprets the Bible literally nowadays." Mrs. Graham took her departure, acknowledg- ing within herself that her errand had been a failure, and Mrs. Dean, left to herself at last, indulged in a nap, with her knitting work in her lap—a nap wherein she dreamed that the fifty dollars had taken to itse!f legs and was running away from a crowd of pursuers, herself among the number. When she woke up, roused by the noise of coal being poured into the stove, a candle was burning and Mr. Dean was laughing at her. " Why, Betsy," said he, " I thought you were never going to wake again! Here you sat, with the fire dead out, and I've had to kindle it up again." " Bless me!" said Mrs. Dean. " I must have been asleep quite a while. But—as she started up she saw that the old wall pocket opposite was empty—where is that old number of the Clink- erville Clarion?" "It was last week's paper," said Mr. Dean, calmly. " We had both read it, so I just took it to kindle the fire." " You burned it up ?" " Yes," said Mr. Dean, " I burned it up. Why shouldn't I?" For half an hour Mrs. Dean sat silent and never spoke a word; and her first utterance was:— " It's the Lord's judgment upon me!" Mrs. Dean was a resolute woman, full of char- acter. She went to her table drawer, took out a sheet of writing paper, and wrote to Dr. Bridg- man, inclosing a dollar toward lame Dick Bodley's cart and horse; she sent another dollar to Mrs. Graham for the poor little O'Harras, and prom- ised to donate a barrel of russets, a bushel of po- tatoes, and some of her husband's cast-off clothes to cut over for the children. And she sent for Helen Hurst to come and see her. "I can't lend you ten dollars, my dear," said she, " because I haven't got it. But I'll tell you what I will do. � let you make your home here as long as. you please. We've a nice spare room, and it's an eighth of a mile nearer than Mrs. Swipes' to the district school." " Oh, how very good you are!" said Helen, her eyes swimming with grateful tears. " Good!" cried Mrs. Dean. " I'm just beginning tolsee what a selfish, greedy creature I have been all my life. But you are welcome, my dear, and your board and lodging shan't cost you a cent." She opened her parlor, shook out her curtains, and built a fire in the air-tight wood stove. " Dean likes the parlor," said she, " because it has such nice south windows, and I on 't see why we shouldn't enjoy it." She baked a fresh batch of gingerbread, and sent a loaf to old Mrs. Mudge; she took out a basket of hickory nuts to poor little Harry Jones, who was trying to crack dried-up pignuts on the stone by the roadside; she renewed her subscrip- tion to the church charities. " I can't be very liberal, but I am determined to do what I can." " That's right my dear—that's right," said her husband. " We shall be prosperous, never fear. I'm awfully sorry about burning up your fifty dollar bill, but if its going to open your heart like this, it's the best thing that could have happened to us." Mrs. Dean was sweeping out the kitchen. She looked around with a smile as she moved the wide-leaved table which always stood under the wall pocket, and took down the pocket itself, a rude structure of splints, lined with red cambric and tied with cord and tassels of red worsted, to dust it out. " Yes," she said, " I am afraid I was getting to be a little miserly, and—why, what's this?" Mr. Dean stooped and picked up a slip of dark green paper, which had fallen out from the wall pocket as his wife turned it upside down and tapped her finger against it to remove all possible dust. "It's the fifty dollar bill!" said he, with mouth and eyes open in unison. " It must have slipped down from the folds of the newspaper and lodged here. " The Lord has sent it back to us," said Mr. Dean, after a moment or two of silence. " There's a lesson in almost everything he does, if we did but know it." And all the theologians in the world could not have improved upon the faith of this simple, un- lettered old farmer. THERE is a mighty power in silence, and silence is frequently an evidence of power. There are many men so weak that they cannot hold their tongues, or keep their mouths shut. The man who offends not in word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body. He who can control his tongue can control his higher nature. Hence silence is a token of power, of reserved force. He who knows how to keep silence knows how to speak ; and often his silence is more impressive than his speech. " Brillant flashes of silence " is by no means a senseless expression. How often have we seen the babble of the foolish hushed by the silent glance of an earnest soul ; how often the ribald jest or scurrilous word has died upon the lips when an indignant silence was the only reply it could evoke. That man or that woman who can stand silent amid reproaches and accusa- tions and sneers and scoffs shows 'a degree of strength and power which falls not to the lot of every one.—Wm. Al. Taylor. BISHOP HAIL tells of a certain nobleman who kept a fool, to whom he one day gave a staff, with a charge to keep it till he should meet with a greater fool than himself. Not many years after the nobleman fell sick, even unto death. The fool came to see him. His sick lord said to him : " I must shortly leave you." " And whither are you going ?" said the fool. " Into another world," re- plied his lordship. " And when will you return, within a month ?" " No." " Within a year ?" "No." " When, then ?" " Never." "Never !" said the fool. " And what provision halt thou made for thy entertainment there whither thou goest ?" " None at all." " No !" said the fool ; none at all 1 Here, then, take my staff, for with all my folly I am not guilty of any such folly as this.—Sel. " THE darkest day in any man's career is that in which he fancies there is some easier way of getting a dollar than by squarely earning it." BELIEVE, and if thy faith be right, that insight which gradually transmutes faith into knowledge will be the reward of thy belief.—Coleridge. M.kRCH 9, 1882. THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. � 119 Religious Notes. -A Scotch Baptist Church has been organized in Patagonia. -The Lutherans in this country built 141 churches last year, and 505 in the last four years. The average length of the pastorate in Congrega- tional Churches in London, is nine and a half years. -An apostate from the Greek Church in Strumnitza, Turkey, is to be tried for cursing the hat and beard of a Bishop. -The leading Universalist paper asks, " From what source did St. Paul derive his Universalism ? " We give it up.-Examiner. -A preacher in New York announced as his subject on a recent Sunday, " How the Unknowable is Known to be Unknowable." -Count Campello, who was recently converted from Romanism, is about to start a paper in Rome, in the in- terest of Protestantism. -Eight members of the present Senior Class in the Princeton Theological Seminary have announced their purpose to enter the foreign mission field. -Mrs. Cooper, who recently left the Calvary Presby- terian Church, San Francisco, has joined the First Con- gregationalist Church, and will conduct a Bible class there. -Professor Revel, of Florence, Italy, has published a new Italian version of the New Testament, in the prep- aration of which he has been engaged for ten years. The version now in use is about 200 years old. -The International Sabbath [Sunday] Association has called a Conference to meet in Pittsburg, Pa., March 28, to continue three days. The best methods to adopt to secure the observance of Sunday will be discussed. The Roman Catholic Church of Rapperschwyl, in the canton of St. Gall, one of the most ancient ecclesi- astical edifices in Switzerland, built by Rudolph of Hapsburg in the thirteenth century, has been burned down. Rev. Dr. Howard Osgood has resigned his place on the Committee on Versions, of the American Bible So- ciety, because the Society refuses to circulate Dr. Jud- son's Burmese Version of the Bible. Their only objec- tion to this version is that the Greek word baptizo is translated by a Burmese word meaning " immerse." -The Christian Union concludes that skepticism is on the wane, because the Scriptures are more eagerly read now than ever before. But of what use is it to read the Bible and then declare that it is insufficient to convert men and thoroughly furnish them unto all good works, and that a civil law must accomplish what the Bible cannot. -According to Rev. Mr. Miln, the church of the fu- ture will be a think-as-you-please and do-as-you-please club, to which nobody is expected.to belong,-a sort of cask without hoops or staves, bottom or top, and full of nothing in particular. A church that is all outside would be a destitution rather than an institution.- Christian at Work. -In its issue of February 25, the Methodist reports 4,855 conversions in the Methodist Churches making the total number of conversions reported by it since the 1st of January, 23,398. And this from only a portion of the churches holding revivals. We hope that proper care will be taken in these revivals to have the names of the converted ones recorded, so that they may be known as such a year hence. -The Unity Church in Chicago having informed Dr. Miln that his connection as pastor would cease when contract expires, which will be in three months, the Examiner pertinently asks what he will find to preach about during these three months, since he does not be- lieve in the existence of God nor a future life. The Examiner must know that many ministers have the faculty of preaching about nothing. -A secular paper, commenting on Mr. Miln's denial of the existence of a personal God, asks the following pertinent questions: "Does the man Miln believe in himself as an organized personality ? If so, could he, an effect, come from anything less than an organized personality as a cause ? If there is no personal God, can there be a personal man ? Can an effect be greater than its cause ? " There are others besides Mr. Miln, who might consider these questions with profit. -A Baptist Church in Missouri is divided on the sub- ject of whether or not they shall have an organ. Some of the members think that " instrumental music" has no place in the service of a Christian Church. The Ex- aminer has been asked what it thinks about it, and says: " It would of course be better to have no organ than to have a divided and alienated church, but in this part of the world organs and melodeons are about as common as choristers; and of the two the organ is the more harmless. It never frets, nor scolds, nor giggles, nor whispers to anybody around it, but is always sedate and well-behaved. How any reasonable man or woman should be opposed on principle to a church organ is be- yond our comprehension. Nevertheless it is better to have no organ than to have a church-fight about it." -The following paragraph we find going the rounds of the religious press, and recommended as having a moral. Those to whom it applies, please take notice: " Colloquy : • Have you had a revival in your church ?' No; our minister does not believe in them. We have not had a conversion in ten or twelve years.' Well, what are you doing ? " 0, we are having the grandest fair you ever saw; the seats are all taken up in the church; we have a promenade concert every night, and a shooting gallery, and a grab bag, and a post-office, and the ladies dress up in all sorts of old-fashioned costumes. We expect to clear $1,200.' What is to be done with it ? " It is to fit up a church parlor.' And so they wrap it up.' (Micah 7 : 3.) 'And what will ye do in the end thereof ? ' The above is not a supposed, but a real case." A Methodist paper on this coast quotes this approvingly, and in the same column an- nounces that the ladies of a certain M. E. Church will give in the church parlors, an Oriental Tea Party, to raise money for a pipe organ, and puffs a " bon-bon so- cial " that was held in another church. " Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he al- loweth." News and Notes. -The widow of Daniel Webster died at New Rochelle, N. Y., last week. -The number of paper mills in the United States is set down at 960. -The coinage at the Mints during the month of Feb- ruary was $9,049,870. -During sixteen and one-half years, the public debt has been reduced $833,000,000. -By the burning of an old building in East St. Louis, Feb. 26, a library worth $120,000 was destroyed. Mississippi floods still continue and the river is ris- ing. Many people are on the verge of starvation. -President Vidal of Buenos Ayers has resigned his position, and Senater Santos has been elected as his suc- cessor. -In the Parliamentary election, March 2, Bradlaugh was re-elected to the seat from which he was recently ejected. -One hundred and fifty persons are reported to have been killed by an explosion in a coal mine at Leoben, Styria. -February 28, a car containing twenty-five sea-lions. was shipped from San Francisco to a firm in. New York. for transportation to Europe. -It is calculated that the drink bill in Philadelphia last year amounted to $23,220,000, or more by $1,000,- 000 than the entire rental of the city. -Ten of the nihilist prisoners, including one woman, have been sentenced to death. The remainder were sentenced to various terms of penal servitude. -In skirmishes with the insurgents in Herzegovina, during the last twelve days of February, the Austrians lost 116 killed and wounded, including ten officers. Conkling and Sargent have both been confirmed by the Senate as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Minister to Germany respectively. -On the 2d inst. Queen Victoria was shot at as she was entering her carriage at Windsor. No one was iujured, and the would-be assassin was immediately arrested. -It has been decided that mutilated coin should be considered as bullion, and that refilling with silver or gold does not make the coin fit for circulation as legal currency. Advices from London, March 2, state that a ferry- boat while crossing a lagoon in West Africa, capsized, and forty-seven of the sixty persons on board were drowned. -The Iowa State Senate has agreed to the constitu- tional amendment prohibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. The measure will DOW be submitted to the people. -A Judge in Japan has been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for having accepted a bribe of $300. If he had not been of exalted rank he would have been sentenced to imprisonment for life. -A dispatch from Constantinople says: The mobil- ization of 150,000 troops is projected, in view of the probable complications is Bulgaria, which make neces- sary the occupation of the Balkans. -A passenger train on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road was thrown from the track, near Parkersburg, W. Va., by a stone. The engine ran into a store, setting fire to it, and the whole train, with the exception of one sleeper, was burned. The engineer and fireman were instantly killed. -A party of men in a Texas town, lynched a man recently, and the Sheriff was compelled to arrest the ringleader, in order to prevent him from being lynched by the friends of the man who had been hung. Lynch- ing will probably be the order of the day in that town or else it will stop entirely. Forty tons of blue gum timber have been shipped to the State Prison at San Quentin, Cal., there to be experimented upon to see if it is suitable for the manu- facture of furniture. Should the experiment prove successful, the raising of blue gum will be profitable business, on account of its rapid growth. -The Baptist Church at San Jose was burned on the night of the 26th ult. It was the work of an incendiary. Two attempts had been made before to burn the same building, and one week before an attempt was made to burn the Methodist Church. Six months ago the Jewish Synagogue was nearly destroyed in the same way. -A special delegate of the Jewish alliance has returned to Vienna from Broody, whither he went to assist 1,300 Jews to return to Russia. He was not suc- cessful, as it was learned that if sent back they would be exposed to certain death. One thousand florins will be devoted toward the expense of their emigration to America. -Saturday March 4, was declared a legal holiday by the Governor of California, to allow the people of the State to give expression to their anti-Chinese sentiments. Business was largely suspended, and mass-meetings were held in all principal towns. Resolutions were adopted, begging Congress to speedily take measures to stop Chinese immigration. -According to Mr. Comstock, the President of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, half the criminals arraigned in the courts of New York are twenty-one years old or under, and one-fourth are sixteen years or uncle'. He attributes this state of things to the " half- dime periodicals and novels, which fill the minds of the boys with criminal fancies." bituarp. McFEELEY.--Died in St. Helena, Cal., Feb. 24, 1882, Sr. Martha. McFeeley, aged 31 years, 8 months, and 22 days. Her disease was pleuro-pneumonia, and the immediate cause of her death was the rupture of abscesses in her lungs. She was born in Scotland, Co., Missouri. United with the Disciple Church, but connected herself with the Seventh-day Adventists about seven years ago. She was entirely willing to fall asleep, except for her family's sake. She left a husband and four children who, with the church of St. Helena, mourn their loss. TEACHERS' BIBLES-OXFORD EDITION. ACKNOWLEDGED to be the best in the market, and celebrated for CLEARNESS OF TYPE, EXCELLENCE OF BINDING, COMPACTNESS, FULLNESS AND COMPREHENSIVENESS OF NOTES AND TABLES, And prices which place them within the reach of all. They contain in addition to the authorized text, with References, all that is essential in the study of the Bible. Furnished with one of these Bibles, no teacher would be at a loss anywhere, or at any time, in the preparation of his lesson. With the notes and tables are embodied the results of the most recent and authentic research of Biblical scholars, and it is believed that nothing has been omitted that can be desired in a TEACHER'S BIBLE. The following list is a careful selection of the best styles : NOB. � PEARL 16 mo. (Size 4 x � x 11 inches.) � 500.. French Morocco, boards $1.50 501. French Morocco, circuit � 1.70 � 505. Persian Morocco, limp 2.10 Turkey Morocco, boards � , 2.75 Turkey Morocco, limp � . 2.75 515. Levant Morocco, Divinity circuit, kid-lined and band, silk � sewed, flexible back 4.60 RUBY 16 mo. (Size 4 x x 1 inches.) 550. French Morocco,. boards � 2.25 Turkey Morocco, boards 3.15 Turkey Morocco, limp 3.15 563. Imitation Levant, Divinity circuit, leather-lined, silk sewed and band � 4.00 565. Levant, Divinity circuit, kid-lined, silk sewed, and band � 5.75 NONPAREIL 16 mo. (Size 4 x 6 x 11.) 600. French Morocco, gilt edges, stiff covers, silk book-mark � 2.35 605. Persian Morocco, gilt edges, flexible covers, silk book-mark... 2.75 Turkey Morocco, gilt edges, stiff covers � 3.25 Turkey Morocco, gilt edges, flexible covers � 3.25 615, Levant Morocco, Divinity circuit, kid-lined, and band, silk sewed, flexible back, red under gold edges � 5.75 NONPAREIL 8 vo. (Size x 7 x li.) Turkey Morocco, boards 4.50 Turkey Morocco, limp 4.50 665. Levant, Divinity circuit, kid-lined, silk sewed, flexible back, � and band 6.75 MINION 8 vo. (Size 5 x 7 xli :riches.) 705. Persian Morocco, limp � 4.60 Turkey Morocco, boards 5.50 Turkey Morocco, limp � 5..50 715. Levant, Divinity circuit, kid-lined, silk sewed, flexible back, and band � 8.00 � 7154 As No 715, with round covers 8.50 By mail, Post-paid. Address, �PACIFIC PB.ESS, Oakland, Cal. OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE FORETOLD, THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY. BY ELD. U. SMITH. in prophecy, and the part it has to act in the closing scenes of time. T HIS is a full exposition of a portion of prophecy which applies to our own Government, showing the position the United States holds THE SUNDAY MOVEMENT, Which is now attracting such general attention, is thoroughly canvassed; and abundant testimony is given to prove that in a few years this will be the � ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION In this country. Facts and statistics are largely presented, showing in the most conclusive manner that this government is the one pointed out in the prophecy quoted. 200 pages. Bound, 40 cents. Paper covers, 20 cents. Address, � SKINS OF THB TIMES, Oakland, Cal. COMPANION TO THE REVISED NEW TESTAMENT. Explaining the Reasons for the Changes made in the Revised Edition, with Explanations to the Appendix of the Revised New Testament, Which contains the Changes Suggested by the American Committee but were not assented to by the English Committee. Paper covers, 8vo., 25 cents. Cloth. l6mo., VS cents. Address, �PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal. REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Michigan. Miss Emu, THAYER, Sec. N. E. Tract Society, South Lancaster, Mass. ELD. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, Ra%ena wood, Shirley Road, Southamp- ton, England. W. L. Raymond, Gaston, Oregon. THE SIGNS OF TH � u4: TIMES. �VoL. 8. No. lg. .,ht signs of tltt OAKLAND, CAL., FIFTH-DAY, MARCH 9, 1882. THE Post-office address of Mrs. E. G. White is Healds- burg, Sonoma Co., Cal. THE first edition of the Sunday Law tract is ex- hausted, but we shall print another immediately, and shall be ready to fill all orders within a week. WHILE we would not unduly raise the expectations of any, we are looking with strong hope for a tent-meeting in San Francisco the coming season. We invite the brethren and sisters in that city to " Work, watch, and pray." ELDER ISRAEL reports a good interest in the meetings which Elder Van Horn and himself are holding in Woodland. It is a hopeful feature of the times, that the truth is taking a deeper hold upon our own people and all who attend the meetings now being held among our churches. The New Sunday Tract. THERE is nothing we have ever published upon the Sabbath question so well adapted to secure the candid consideration of business men, as Eld. Waggoner's new tract upon the Sunday Law. It is doing good work wherever circulated. We know that our brethren in the Eastern States want it. We therefore offer it by mail, post-paid, for $2.50 per hundred. � W C. WHITE. • Oakland. LAST Sabbath was another good day for this church. Sister White arrived in Oakland on Friday on her way to assist in the meetings in Woodland. But Sab- bath morning found her prostrated with sickness, and suffering much pain. She had passed a restless night. We were surprised as well as pleased with her expressed determination to speak that day, for, to human sight, it appeared to be an impossibility. But the Lord blessed in prayer, and she came at the hour of meeting, though very weak and showing plainly the evidences of her affliction. But soon all this passed away; her strength returned, and she was enabled to give a timely and powerful discourse. Her subject was the fifth chapter of James. Not only the clear and strong presentation of the truth, but the manifest blessing of God in raising her above her infirmities, made this meeting a great blessing to the church. The weak were strengthened, and all were revived. Such opportunities increase the responsibilities of this people. The Lord does not bless us in vain, or for our own gratification, but for his own glory and the ad- vancement of his cause. Let us gird on the armor anew, and work while the day lasts, for " Soon will the Master come." The Opening. THE Trustees desire that the school should be opened right away, but as there can be no school without schol- ars, they will not venture any appointment for the opening, without first ascertaining the number that can come very soon. The time, then, of opening our school depends upon the readiness of our brethren to send their children. To determine this, it has been decided to issue blanks to send to the various churches and scattered families whose addresses we can obtain. The teachers are ready for their work, and the school might begin the 1st of April, if a sufficient number could be in attendance to warrant the opening so soon. The blanks will no doubt reach you in a few days, and we trust all will report promptly. We want to hear from all; whether you can come very soon or not. Please report your coming, whether you receive a blank or not. � S. BROWNSBERGER. A Frank Admission. THE California Christian Advocate, the organ of the M. E. Church on the Pacific Coast, and one of the most ably-conducted of Methodist journals, has an- nounced the true status of the Sunday. We quote a paragraph from its issue of March 1. The italics are ours-- "There is but one ground the Christian citizens of the State can occupy in reference to the Sabbath: They must keep it holy. But when we plead for a law for it as a day of rest, we can justify that only on the ground that it is according to the law of nature, and necessary to men. Unless it is legalized, we cannot have it, for heartless greed will compel perpetual toil. The Govern- ment of Japan enforces a Sunday law: that is, they close government offices, and stop work. The State of Indiana has a Sabbath law, and the saloonatics ' tried to break it down, but the Supreme Court of the State has recently decided the law to be constitutional, and it stands, the friend of the poor man and of all. We cannot sustain it before the people, if we claim its sanctity as a religious institution. It is necessary to the life and health of the people." Men will always use the strongest arguments they have, and we expect soon to see all the religious teach- ers abandon the attempt to prop up the Sunday insti- tution by Scripture testimony, and resort to the civil law. When they do this, many honest souls who have been blinded by their sophistries, will step out into the clear light of God's truth. But what a humiliating position for a religious journal to occupy, to plead for a civil enactment to enforce a religious custom which it is forced to confess cannot be supported by the Bible. In the next paragraph, the same writer says that " the great and imperative need is personal and entire conse- cration to God, on the part of ministers and laymen." This taken in connection with the above statement, seems like mockery. " Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth." Mistaken, Very Much. THE Alameda Encinal, in a notice of our tract on the " Sunday Law," says:— " In his introduction the editor of the tract says that the agitation of the Sunday Law question will eventu- ally result in a religious amendment to the Constitution of the United States, declaring the seventh day the uni- versal day of rest. Perhaps so; but that does not seem likely to occur during this day and generation." We should be surprised to find this in any paper, and more so to find it in the Encinal, the editor of which is one of California's best. How he has fallen into this mistake we cannot imagine. We have never once thought of any law, national or State, for the enforce- ment of the seventh day. Those who keep the seventh day have never once thought of asking for such a law. But it is well known that there is a popular move- ment, of commanding influence, to procure such an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as shall enable its friends to enforce Sunday as the "Chris- tian Sabbath." To this and to this only our tract refers. The civil law of California, or that of any other State, will never accomplish the design of the advocates of the " day of the sun." There are too many exceptions in it, and too many impossibilities connected with it. The great corporations are too extensive and too power- ful to be controlled by the State. A general law, based on the Constitution of the United States, is their only hope. This was foreseen and acknowledged almost a score of years ago when the " Amendment Party " or Association was formed. This is a National Association, and is growing in influence in the Eastern States. When the people of California become convinced of the inefficiency of their law, or it is nullified or repealed, they will unite with that Association for an amendment to the National Constitution. We expect that this will give an impetus to that movement and hasten the union of church and State in America. Will the Encinal please state our position on the question ? The Leaven Working. WE are glad to learn that people are beginning to see that there is another side to the Sunday question, than that maintained by those who would enforce its observance. The writer of the following article, which we clip from the Oakland Evening Tribune, shows that he has fully grasped the facts in the case, and we are encouraged to think that many others appreciate the situation as well. The Sunday Law advocates have a hard task set before them,—that of proving to the sat- isfaction of the people that the Sunday has any founda- tion in the Bible. Now is an excellent opportunity for them to come to the front and stop all controversy by an overwhelming array of Scripture argument. Silence at this time will tell against their cause. But we appre" hend that the time for moral arguments in favor of Sun- day is nearly past. If any existed, a civil law would not be so eagerly clamored for. The question will have to be decided before long, and people must -be able to decide one way or the other intelligently. They must either do right understandingly, or do wrong willfully. Therefore we are glad to see the question agitated. " EDITOR TRIBUNE: While looking over your paper of the 21st inst., I read an article headed, How Shall We Vote ? '—a very important question to all who have the good of society at heart, and one that demands the attention of all good citizens. While agreeing with the writer that all candidates for office should have the proper intellectual and moral qualifications to insure a wise and just enforcement of the laws, and that all their acts should be regulated by the moral law of God, and, furthermore, that the voters are in a great measure re- sponsible for the acts of their rulers; still, I cannot see the propriety of voting for one who has pledged to en- force the Sunday Law, on the ground of its being a di- vine institution, or a part of the moral law of God. "If � Lex ' had taken pains to inform himself, he would have ascertained that society is divided upon the question whether Sunday keeping is a part of the moral law of God, or not; and that many intelligent and thinking men are taking the position that the sanctity of the Sabbath of the Lord never was transferred to Sunday, and that the law of God does not require that the first day of the week should be kept holy, and, so far as Bible truth is concerned, they seem to have the best possible grounds for their belief, in the fact that the Sabbath commandment, as it reads, declares that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. " Now, cannot Lex ' see that by bringing this ques- tion into the election there will be but one effect, and that is to array one class of Christians against another, and when that is done, there will not be wanting those who will promise anything to secure the largest num: ber of votes to promote them to power? Then comes religious intolerance, and we have not far to look back in the history of the world to see what that means. Do we want such a state of things here ? It would seem that all right-minded men would do all in their power to avert an issue of this kind. It would seem that the wisest course to pursue is to leave it where it belongs— between men's consciences and their God. "So far as temperance is concerned, all Christian men and women should unite together to advance the cause, and to prevent the spread of intemperance by all lawful means, but the Sunday Law and the temperance question are not in any way connected—they are entirely sepa- rate issues. I fail to see how it is any worse to sell liquor on Sunday than it is on Monday, or any other day of the week. The fact is apparent to all who will take the time and thought to examine the matter that the Sunday Law is a sectarian measure, and that it is separate and distinct from any other question. If any one doubts this statement, he has only to attend the meetings of those who are taking the lead in this matter, and he will be convinced of the truth of the assertion. " Oakland, February 24. � JUSTICE." A•ppointments. Oakland and San Francisco. OAKLAND.—Church N. E. corner Clay and 13th Streets. Meeting every Sabbath (Saturday) at 11 A. at. Preaching every second and fourth Sunday evening of each month. Prayer-meeting every Tuesday evening. Eld. J. H. Wag- goner, Pastor. Sabbath-school at 9:30 A. at. W. C. White, Superintendent. Seats always free. SAN FRANCISCO.—Church on Laguna Street, between Mc- Allister and Tyler Streets. Meeting every Sabbath (Satur- day) at 11 A. M. Prayer-meeting Wednesday evening. M. C. Israel, Elder. No regular preaching. Sabbath-school at 9:45 A. M. E. A. Stockton, Superintendent. Street-cars of the Hayes Valley Line, and Central and Lone Mountain Line, pass close to the meeting-house. THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, PUBLISHED WEEKLY, Al OAKLAND, CAL., FOR THE Missionary Society of Seventh-day Adventists. A twelve-page Religious Family Paper, devoted to a discussion of the Prophecies, Signs of the Times, Second Coming of Christ, Harmony of the Law and Gospel, with Departments devoted to Temperance, The Home Circle, The Missionary Work, and the Sabbath-school. � Price Per Year, � ----- � - � - � - In Clubs of five or more copies to one address, to be used in Mis- � sionary Work, � - � - � - � - � - � - � • � • � • � 1.50 Address, �SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. —OR— Our Publications in England. ANY of the books, pamphlets, and tracts issued at this Office may be obtained of Eld. J. N. Loughborough, Ravens- wood, Shirley Road, Southampton, England, who will fur- nish Catalogues, and give prices in English money. He will also receive subscriptions for our periodicals, $2.00