OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, FIFTH-DAY, OCTOBER 5, 1882. 
VOLUME 8. 
NUMBER 38. 
An11511-14.) 
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"Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give',eery man according as his work shall be." Rev, 22 12. 
"I AM THE 
ART thou the way, Lord? Yet the way is steep, 
And hedged with cruel thorns, and set with briars; 
We Stumble onward, or we pause to weep, 
And still the hard road baffles our desires, 
And still the hot noon beats, the hours delay, 
The end is out of sight—Art thou the way ? 
Art thou the way, Lord? Yet the way-is blind! 
We grope and guess, perplexed with mists and suns; 
We only see the guide-posts left behind, 
Invisible to us the forward ones; 
The chart is hard to read, we wind and stray, 
Beset with ho;Tering doubts—Art thou the way ? 
Art thou the way, Lord? Yet the way is long! 
Year follows year while we are journeying still; 
The limbs arc feeble grown which once were strong; 
Dimmed are the eyes and quenched the ardent will; 
The world is veiled with shadows sad and gray; 
Yet we must travel on—Art thou the way ? 
Art thou the way, Lord ? Then the way is sweet, 
No matter if it puzzle or distress. 
Though winds may scourge, or blinding suns may beat, 
The perfect rest shall round our weariness; 
Cool dews shall heal the fevered pulse of day; 
We shall find home at last through thee, the way. 
—Susan Coolidge. 
6.erteral gtrtirit5, 
Bible Sanctification. 
BY. MRS. E. G. WHITE. 
APPETITES AND PASSIONS. 
"ABSTAIN from fleshly lusts, which war against 
the soul," is the language of the apostle Peter. 
Many regard this text as a warning against licen-
tiousness only; but it has a broader meaning. It 
forbids every injurious gratification of appetite or 
passion. Let none who profess godliness regard 
with indifference the health of the body, and flat-
ter themselves that intemperance is no sin, and 
will not affect their spirituality. A close sym-
pathy exists between the physical and the moral 
nature. Any habit which does not promote 
health degrades the higher and nobler faculties. 
Wrong habits of eating arid drinking lead to 
errors in thought and action. Indulgence of 
appetite strengthens the animal propensities, giv-
ing them the ascendency over the mental and 
spiritual powers. 
It is impossible for any to enjoy the blessing of 
sanctification while they are selfish and glutton-
ous. Many groan under a burden of infirmities 
because of wrong habits of eating and drinking, 
which do violence to the laws of life and health. 
They are enfeebling their digestive organs by 
indulging perverted appetite. The power of the 
human constitution to resist the abuses put upon 
it is wonderful; but persistent wrong habits in 
excessive eating and drinking will enfeeble every 
function of the body. In the gratification of 
perverted appetite and passion, even professed 
Christians cripple nature in her work, and lessen 
physical, mcntal, and moral power. Let these 
feeble ones consider what they might have, been, 
had 'they lived temperately, and promoted health 
instead of abusing it. ' 
When Paul wrote, " And the very God of peace 
sanctify you wholly," he did not exhort his 
brethren to aim at a standard which it was im- 
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they might have blessings which it was not the presenting to others an example of temperance 
will of God to give. He knew that all who would and self-denial. Every depraved appetite be-
be fitted to meet Christ in peace must possess a comes a warring lust. Everything that conflicts 
pure and holy character. "And every man that with natural law creates a diseased condition of 
striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. the soul. The indulgence of appetite produces a 
Now they do it to- obtain a corruptible crown; dyspeptic stomach, a torpid liver, a clouded brain, 
but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not and thus perverts the temper and spirit of the 
as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth man. And these enfeebled powers are offered to 
the air; but I keep my body under, and bring it God, who refused to accept the victims for sacri-
into subjection; lest that by any means, when I fice, unless they were without a blemish! It is 
have preached to others, I myself should be a our' duty to bring our appetites and Our habits 
castaway." " What! know ye not that your of life into conformity to natural law. If the 
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is bodies offered upon Christ's altar were examined 
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not with the close' scrutiny to which the Jewish sac-
your own ? For ye are bought with a price; rifices were subjected, who would be accepted ? 
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your �
With what care should Christians regulate their 
spirit, which are God's." �
habits, that they may preserve the full vigor of 
Again, the apostle writes to the believers, " I every faculty to give to the service of Christ. If 
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies we would be sanctified, in soul, body, and spirit, 
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacri- we must live in conformity to the divine law. 
fice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your rea- The heart cannot preserve consecration to God 
sonable service." Specific directions were given while the appetites and passions are indulged at 
to ancient Israel that no defective or diseased an- the expense of health and life. Those who vio-
imal should be presented as an offering to God. late the laws upon which health depends, must 
Only the most perfect were to be selected fbr this suffer the penalty. They have so limited their 
purpose. The Lord, through the prophet Malachi, abilities in every sense that they cannot properly 
most severely reproved his people for departing discharge their duties to their fellow-men, and 
from these instructions, �
they utterly fail to answer the claims of God., 
" A son honoreth his father, and a servant his When Lord Palmerston, Premier of England, 
master; if then I be a father, where is mine was petitioned by the Scotch clergy to appoint a 
honor? and if I be a master, whe
re is my fear ? day of fasting and prayer to avert the cholera, 
saith the Lord of hosts unto you, 0 priests, that he replied, in effect, " Cleanse and disinfect your 
despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we streets and houses, promote cleanliness and health 
despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon among the poor, and see that they are plentifully 
mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted supplied with good food and raiment, and employ 
right sanitary measures generally, and you will 
thee ? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is 
contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacri- have no occasion to fast and pray. Nor will the 
fice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and Lord hear your prayers, while these, his prevent-
sick, is it not evil ? offer it now unto thy gov- ives, remain unheeded." 
ernor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy �
Says Paul, "Let' us cleanse ourselves from all 
person ? saith the Lord of host& Ye brought filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting boll-
that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; ness in- the fear 9f' God." He presents for our 
thus ye brought an offering; should I accept this encouragement the freedom enjoyed by the truly 
of your band ? saith the Lord." �
sanctified: " There is therefore now no condem- 
Though addressed to ancient Israel, these words nation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who 
contain a lesson for the people of /God to-day. walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
When the apostle appeals to his brethren, to pre- He charges the Galatians," Walk in the Spirit, 
sent their bodies " a living sacrifice, holy, accept- and ye shall not fulfill the us
ts of the flesh." He 
able unto God," he sets forth 'the principles of names some of the forms of fleshly lust,--" idol- 
true sanctification. It is not merely a theory, an atry, drunkenness, and such like." And after 
emotion, or a form of words, but a living, active mentioning the fruits of the Spirit, among which 
principle, entering into the every-day life. It is temperance, he adds, " And they that are 
requires that our habits of eating, drinking, and Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affec-
dressing, be such as to secure the preservation of tions and lusts." 
physical, mental, and moral health, that we may James says that the wisdom which is from 
present to the Lord our bodies—not an offering above is " first purer" If he had seen his breth-
corrupted by•wrong habits, but—" a living sacri- ren using tobacco, would he not have denounced 
fice, holy, acceptable unto God." �
the practice as " earthly, sensual, and devilish ?" 
Peter's admonition to abstain from fleshly lusts In this age of Christian light, how often the lips 
is a most direct and forcible warning against the that take the precious name of Christ are defiled 
use of all such stimulants and narcotics as tea, by tobacco-spittle, and the breath is polluted with 
coffee, tobacco, alcohol, and morphine. These the stench. Surely, the soul that can enjoy such 
indulgences may well be classed among the lusts uncleanness must also be defiled. As I have seen 
that exert a pernicious influence upon moral men who claimed to enjoy the blessing of entire 
character. The earlier these hurtful habits are sanctification, while they were slaves to tobacco, 
formed, the more firmly will they hold their vie-' polluting everything around them, I have thought, 
tim in slavery to lust, and the more certainly will How would-Heaven appear with tobacco-users in 
they lower the standard of spirituality. �it? God's word has plainly declared that," there 
Bible teaching will make but a feeble impres- shall in no wise enter into it anything that de- 
sion upon those whose faculties are benumbed by fileth." How, then, can those who indulge this. 
self-gratification. Thousands will sacrifice not filthy habit hope to find admittance there ? 
only health and life, but their hope of Heaven, �
Men professing godliness offer their bodies upon 
before they will wage war against their own per- Satan's altar, and burn the incense of tobacco to 
verted appetites. One lady who for many years his Satanic majesty. Does this statement seem 
claimed to be sanctified, made the statement that severe ? Certainly, the offering is presented to 
if she must give up her pipe or Heaven she would some deity. As God is pure and holy, and will 
say, "Farewell, Heaven; I cannot overcome my accept nothing defiling in its character,, he must, 
love for my pipe." This idol had been enshrined refuse this expensive, filthy, and unholy sacrifice; 
in the soul, leaving to Jesus a subordinate place. therefore we conclude that Satan is the one who 
Yet this woman claimed to be wholly the Lord's. claims the honor. 
Wherever they may be, those who are truly Jesus died to rescue man from the grasp of 
sanctified will elevate the moral standard by pre- Satan. He came to set us free by the blood of 
possible for them to reach; he did not pray that serving correct physical habits, and, like Daniel, his atoning sacrifice. The man who has become 
 
 
 
 
 
446 �
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. �VoL. 8, No. 38. 
 
 
the property of Jesus Christ, and whose body is things the law saith, it saith to them who are under transgressor of his holy law in every respect. 
the temple of the Holy Ghost, will not be enslaved the law; THAT EVERY MOUTH MAY BE STOPPED, AND That all are by nature the children of wrath, and 
by the pernicious habit of tobacco-using. His ALL THE WORLD MAY BECOME GUILTY BEFORE GOD." have carnal minds, will not be denied; and there- 
powers belong to Christ, who has bought him with �
God is supreme—" his kingdom ruleth over all;" fore all who are not justified by faith and made 
the price of blood. His property is the Lord's. his law is binding on all, and all are amenable to at peace with God through Christ, are in the 
How, then, can he be guiltless in expending every him as the one " Lawgiver." Not only so, but deplorable condition described by the apostle. 
day the Lord's intrusted capital to gratify an ap- all aro transgressors of his law. The Scriptures �
Perhaps none would claim exceptions to gen- 
petite which has no foundation in nature? �
are very plain on this subject, yet it is virtually eral declarations of this kind. Yet should they do 
An enormous sum is yearly squandered for this denied by some to sustain their theories, who so, we find Scripture declarations sufficiently par-
indulgence, while souls are perishing for the word assert that the heathen have not now a sufficient titular to meet every objection. Having noticed 
of life. Professed Christians rob God in tithes opportunity to obtain salvation. And that there the testimony respecting the world of mankind, 
and offerings, while they offer on the altar of is an absolute necessity for a new system of proba- we next hear it said of the classes, " We have 
destroying lust, in the use of tobacco, more tion under more favorable circumstances to be before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they 
than they give to relieve the poor or to supply established in the future, to give them a more are all under sin." Rom. 3: 9. Then of the indi-
the wants of God's cause. Those who are truly reasonable chance for life, and thus to vindicate viduals it is written: " There is none righteous, 
sanctified, will overcome every hurtful lust. Then the justice of God I Monstrous as this appears in no, not one: there is none that undertandeth, 
all these channels of needless expense will be the light of God's revealed plan of salvation, we there is none that seeketh after God. They are 
turned to the Lord's treasury, and Christians have heard it publicly advanced by a teacher of all gone out of the way, they are together become 
will take the lead in self-denial, in self-sacrifice, the Age to Come. A new system of probation is unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, 
and in temperance. Then they will be the light nothing less than "another gospel;" and that is not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with 
of the world. �
precisely what the Age to Come is. �
their tongues they have used deceit; the poison 
Tea and coffee, as well as tobacco, have an in- �
Every one possessed of the spirit of the gospel of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of 
jurious effect upon the system. Tea is intoxica- must entertain feelings of pity for the heathen, cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to 
tine-
b
. Though less in degree, its effect is the same as for all others under the dark and blighting shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their 
in character as that of spirituous liquors. Coffee influences of sin. The apostle felt for them, and ways; and the way of peace have they not known. 
has a greater tendency to becloud the intellect was willing to lay down his life for the privilege There is no fear of God before their eyes." Rom. 
and benumb the energies. It is not so powerful of laying the offer of life before them; but having 3: 10-18. 
as tobacco, but is similar in its effects. The argu- the mind of Christ, he "knew what was in man," �
The following plain statements lead to our con- 
ments brought against tobacco may also be urged and faithfully described his natural state. See elusions on this point:— 
against the use of tea and coffee. �
Rom. 1: 18-32; 3: 9-19. �
" The wages of sin is death." Born. 6:23. 
When those who are in the habit of using tea, �
Missionaries, and all who have dwelt in heathen �
" All have sinned." Chap. 3: 23. 
coffee, tobacco, opium, or spirituous liquors, are lands, and all authentic history, assure us that �
Therefore all are under condemnation to death. 
deprived of the accustomed indulgence, they find wickedness of the most abominable kinds, and to 
it impossible to engage with interest and zeal in an awful extent, prevails and has ever prevailed Verse 19. 
These truths need neither confirmation nor 
the worship of God. Divine grace seems power- among the heathen. Of a truth it is said, "The comment; if any would deny them we have only 
less to enliven or spiritualize their prayers or dark places of the earth are full of the habitations to say, " Who art thou that repliest against God? 
their testimonies. These professed Christians of cruelty." We are informed by those who have But they might as well deny the statements at 
should consider the source of their enjOyment. resided among them, that their ignorance of right once as to deny the conclusions to which they 
Is it from above, or from beneath ? �
is not so great as their hatred of right. Those unavoidably lead. As surely as these Scripture 
To a user of stimulants, everything seems in- who claim another probation for them attribute statements are true, so surely are they fatal to 
sipid without the darling indulgence. This dead- their wickedness to their blindness and ignorance; the position we call in question. They would 
ens the natural sensibilities of both body and whereas the Scriptures attribute their blindness to be a sufficient vindication of thejustice of God 
mind, and renders him less susceptible of the their wickedness. Born. 1: 28. " And even as they should he at this instant destroy them all from 
influence of the Holy Spirit. In the absence of did not like to retain God in their knowledge, the face of the earth. And they must and will be 
the usual stimulant, he has a hungering of body God gave them over to a reprobate mind." See.so destroyed when the just judgments of God fall 
and soul, not for righteousness, not for holiness, also verses 22-26; compare Isa. 29: 13, 14; Rom. 
not for God's presence, but for his cherished idol. 11:7-10, 20; 2 Thess. 2: 11, 12. Of the very best on a guilty world. 
Having thus shown the universality of the law 
In the indulgence of hurtful lusts, professed Chris- of heathen, their sages and philosophers, Illelanc- of God, and the extent of the condemnation rest-
tians are daily enfeebling their powers, making it thon observed, "I admit that there were found ing upon man, we further urge the impossibility 
impossible to glorify God. �
in Socrates, Xenocrates, and Zeno, constancy, of probation in a future age on what is plainly 
temperance, chastity. Those shadows of virtue revealed concerning 
existed in impure minds, and sprang from self- 
No Probation after the Coming of Christ. love; and therefore ought they to be regarded �
THE MEANS AND CONDITIONS OF THE GOSPEL. 
not as genuine virtues, but as vices." Of this The means by which we receive justification, 
WE discover that students of the Bible have expression the celebrated historian D'Aubigne remission of sins, and eternal life, are the death 
arrived at far different conclusions on the same says: " This may seem a harsh judgment, but and mediation of Jesus Christ; and the conditions 
subjects, and we are led to conclude that on one only when Melancthon's meaning is misappre- on which we receive them are "repentance toward 
side or the other there has been a wrong starting hended. No man felt more disposed than be was God," whose law has been transgressed, and "faith 
point—wrong premises have been laid, or an to own that the pagans had virtues worthy of toward our Lord Jesus Christ," who redeems us 
unjust process of reasoning adopted. Thus we human estgem; but he maintained that great from the curse of the law. Acts 20 : 21. His 
see the importance of having something by which truth, that he supreme law given by God to all death was necessary, because "without shedding 
to test the correctness of our views. And if there his creatures is, that they should love him above of blood is no remission." Heb. 9 : 22; Lev. 17: 
were no general principles, plain and well-defined, all things. Now, should man in doing God's 11-14; his mediation is necessary to present that 
no definite facts or declarations on which we can commands, act from love to himself, not from blood to his Father and make intercession for us. 
and must agree, we could scarcely expect to come love to God, could God ever approve of his thus It has been abundantly proved by the Scriptures 
to the " full assurance of faith," any further than daring to substitute himself in the room of his that the mediation of Christ is a unit work; that 
assurance is founded on confidence in our own Infinite Majesty ? And would there not be vice Christ himself is the only offering acceptable to 
imperfect judgments. To silence cavils we do in an act involving express rebellion against the God in the sinner's behalf; that his blood is offered 
not pretend. We feel clear before God when we supreme God? " �
but once; that his intercession is in but one place; 
have presented proofs sufficient to convince those �
It must be confessed that all whose minds have that there is but one Mediator; and that he resigns 
who love God and tremble at his word. �not been renewed by grace through faith (which, his mediatorial office before his coming. The im- 
The principles that are to be considered in their of course, includes the heathen), are considered portant question then arises, What is required of 
relation to each other, and bearing directly on the carnally minded. But "the carnal mind is enmity the sinner, in order that he may have an interest 
point in question, are the bases of all revelation, against God, for it is not subject to the law of in the work of the Saviour, and be able to " stand 
and of all the purposes of God toward man—the God." This justifies the sentence that " to be in the battle in the day of the Lord," and escape 
foundations on which the superstructures of both carnally minded is death." To the same intent, those plagues which are coming on the earth 
testaments are erected. These all-controlling and of the same general application are the words when " the wrath of the Lamb " is manifested 
principles are �
of Paul in Gal. 5 : 19-21. " Now the works of against the ungodly ? A few quotations from the 
" THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL." �
the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, word will show this. 
The truths relative to these great fundamental fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, �
John 3: 16. "God so loved the world that he 
principles are stated in plain terms; and there can witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believ-
be but little chance for an issue in regard to either strifes, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, eth in him should not perish." 
premise or.i conclusion. We argue that all the drunkenness, revelings, and such like." These �
Luke 13 : 3. " Except ye repent, ye shall all 
unconverted (all who are not justified by faith) are placed in opposition to the fruits of the Spirit; likewise perish." 
will be cut off at Christ's coming, and the conse- and as surely as the fruits or graces of the Spirit �
Heb. 12: 14. "Follow peace with all men, and 
quent impossibility of subsequent probation from abound where the Spirit dwells, and the Spirit holiness, without which no man shall see the 
THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE LAW. This truth is cannot dwell where these are not, so do those Lord." �
• 
so easy of demonstration, yes, so evident of itself, prevail in all flesh, where the flesh with its affec- �
Rom. 8 : 9. " Now if any man have not the 
that we feel that we have a right to use the words tions and lusts is not crucified, or subdued by the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 
of the apostle to every Bible believer: " We write grace oi God. Not that all have outwardly com- �
1 Cur. 16: 22. " If any man love not the Lord 
no other things unto you than what ye read or mitted all these crimes, but they inhere in the Jesus Christ, let him be an accursed creature." 
acknowledge." The universality of the law we carnal mind, and are very often more restrained �
Gal. 3:22. "The scripture bath concluded all 
urge (1) on the acknowledged supremacy of God; by circumstances than by the will. That which under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ 
and (2) on the authority of plain declarations of is perfectly subject o `he law of God is perfect in might be given to them that believe." 
Scripture. To deny it is to deny both the Script- love, for "love is the 'filling of the law." But �
1 Pet. 4: 18. "And if the righteous scarcely 
ure and God's sovereignty. �
that which is enmity ag„ -1st God, and not subject be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner 
Rom. 3: 19. "Now we know that whatsoever to his law, is complete Ii: hatred to God, and a ai,pear?" 
4 
14, 
AT EASE IN ZION. 
BY. R. P. STUART. 
PooR, careless souls, there soon will be 
No hope, no help, no pardon free. 
The harvest days will soon be past, 
Aqd summer suns with clouds o'ercast. 
Oh, will you idly float along, 
Allured by pleasure's syren song, 
Until the sad lament will be, 
I am not saved--Where shall I flee ? 
Awake, arouse; there is yet room 
To find in Jesus rest and home; 
There yet is time to wash your stains, 
To heal your wounds and ease your pains. 
The fountain opened up for sin 
Invites you still to plunge wit,in, 
And cleanse your garments white as snow 
While wide the healing waters flow. 
Israel's hope and Zion's star 
Still holds the golden gate ajar; 
For you, dear souls, he's waiting yet—
With pitying tears his cheeks are wet; 
Though meeting oft but cold disdain, 
His matchless love pleads yet again; 
His bleeding hands hold wide the gate—
A King, yet condescends to wait. 
Before the throne he pleads his blood. 
Behold, he cries, the crimson flood ! 
Behold my hands, my feet, my brow, 
And let these wounds plead for them now ! 
Spare, yet a little longer spare; 
They yet may heed my dying prayer; 
They yet may with my people rise 
And shake this slumber from their eyes. 
I've sought them in the wilderness, 
And in the mountain fastnesses; 
I've sought them many a long night through, 
Till cold my locks hung wet with dew; 
In woe and shame and agony 
I bore their sins on Calvary. 
My Father, stay the avenging rod, 
Spare yet the purchase of my blood. 
Poor, careless one, oh, can it be 
His great love pleads in vain for thee ? 
His priestly work will soon be done; 
The fiat passed, Let them alone; 
I called them, but they would not hear; 
The world held charms for them too dear. 
Sweet angels wipe your pitying eyes, 
For vengeance now is mine, he cries. 
With drooping mein and saddened eye 
Sweet mercy lays her garments by, 
And as she leaves the close shut gate 
Will you be left to cry, Too late, 
Or will you now, while bright her beams 
Shine over all with lingering gleams, 
Arouse and toil and struggle on 
Until the Master says, Well done. 
0 work and wait ! 0 watch and pray ! 
Improve the fleeting hours of day; 
Renew and keep your broken vows. 
And victor crowns may deck your brows. 
Then, when the heavenly feast is spread, 
And golden streets the ransomed tread, 
And joyful tongues hosannas raise, 
You may help swell the songs of praise. 
Forsake Your Sins, and Keep God's Com-
mandments. 
BY T. E. BROWN. 
OCTOBER 5, 1882. �TIT 
1-14 SIGNS O' TI 
1-41 TIMES. �
447 
" BUT if the wicked will turn from all his sins 
that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, 
and do that which is lawful and right, he shall 
surely live; he shall not die." Eze. 18: 21. 
This is a precious promise. God, through his 
infinite love and mercy, after man has fallen in 
sin, says, " If the wicked will turn from all his 
sins that he hath committed, . . . he shall 
surely live." But if they on the contrary reject 
his mercy, and live and die in their sins, they 
shall die. And the punishment will come upon 
them individually. The life and death here re-
ferred to, are eternal life and the second death. 
Each person, in that day, will have to endure 
the punishment of his own evil deeds, for in the 
20th verse we read: "The soul that sinneth, it 
shall die." The son shall not bear the iniquity 
of the father, neither shall the father bear the 
iniquity of the son," but each shall receive the 
just reward of his doing, " whether it be good, 
or whether it be evil." God is no respecter of 
persons. Are not God's judgments just? Some 
people think not; they murmur because he suffers 
afflictions to come upon them. They think 'he 
does not care for them, whether they are saved 
or lost. But God's word teaches differently. It 
says, " Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." 
And the Lord asks the question, " Have I any 
pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith 
the Lord God; and not that he should return 
The promise is only to those in whose charac-
ters are developed faith, repentance, holiness, 
spiritual mindedness, who are pure in heart and 
righteous, at the coming of Christ. Such will be 
redeemed and have the glorious boon of immor-
tality or eternal life conferred on them " when 
Christ who is our life shall appear." What of 
those who are not holy ? They must surely per-
ish, for they are even now under condemnation 
according to the scriptures we have quoted. And 
there is no middle ground between them that are 
saved and them that perish. Said the Saviour, 
"He that is not with me, is against me; and he 
that gathereth not with me, scattereth, abroad." 
Matt. 12 : 30. There is no neutral ground. It 
is either gathering or scattering; righteous or 
wicked; life or death. Not the bare absence of 
inveterate or openly avowed hatred, but active, 
perfect love is required. Not merely abstinence 
from great out-breaking sins, but holiness of 
heart, and walking in the Spirit. 
I ask all, and entreat them to answer in the 
fear of God, and in humble reverence for his word, 
Is there any medium between those "under the 
law," and those "under grace" ? There cannot 
be; for as " all have sinned," all are originally 
under the law; and none can be brought from 
under the law except by being placed under grace, 
or redeemed from the curse of the law by Christ. 
If they could, the cross of Christ would be of no 
effect. There can be no ground between condem-
nation and justification. All who are not justified 
necessarily remain condemned; and those who are 
not condemned are only freed therefrom by being 
justified. If there will be a class who will escape 
the judgments of God without availing themselves 
of the benefits of the gospel of Christ, then the 
gospel is local and limited in its application. 
To those who yet claim that it is necessary for 
God to place the Jews and heathen on a new 
probation in order to vindicate his justice, I would 
ask, Has not the present generation of Jews and 
heathen as good opportunities to know God's will 
asithe past generations have had? If so (arid 
indeed it has better), has God been unjust to past 
generations ? And if a new probation is neces-
sary for these, would it not be equally necessary 
that those be raised from the dead and put on a 
new probation also ? We should rather think 
that they who thus teach are charging God fool-
ishly. Such vain reasonings and inferences will 
not settle so great a subject. Let them show 
by the Scriptures (1) that future probation is a 
Scripture truth; (2) the means and conditions on 
which it will be based; and (3) the class or classes 
who will then and there be placed on probation. 
There is not a particle of proof in the Bible in 
favor of their theory on any of these points. 
EDITOR. 
Strategic Weasel. 
THE remarkable sagacity of the weasel was 
well illustrated the other day by an incident 
which actually occurred in the suburbs of Santa 
Barbara. A gentleman's barn was infested by 
rats and he was greatly annoyed by their depre-
dations. They have been gradually disappearing, 
however, during the past few weeks. The gen-
tleman finally discovered the cause of their proba-
ble disappearance in a very wide-awake weasel, 
which was engaged at the time in a vigorous 
combat with an unusually large-sized rat. The 
latter proved too much for his adversary and 
finally chased his weaselship out of the barn. A 
few mornings later the gentleman again found the 
same animals engaged in a similar battle. The 
weasel at last ran away as before, and the rat 
followed in hot pursuit. This time, however, the 
-weasel ran into a hole it had burrowed through a 
pile of hardened compost. 
This hole was quite large at the entrance, but 
the outlet was barely large enough to admit the 
passage of the weasel's body. The weasel darted 
into the hole, with the rat at its heels. A moment 
later the weasel emerged from the other side, ran 
quickly around the compost pile and entered the 
hole, this time in the enemy's rear. The gentle-
man, interested in the proceedings, watched the 
place some time, and found the weasel only came 
out. Digging into the compost, he found the rat 
quite dead and partly eaten. The weasel had 
arranged the trap so that the rat could enter, but 
becoming closely wedged in the narrow portion 
of the hole, could be attacked at a disadvantage, 
and easily killed.—Santa Barbara Press. 
from his ways, and live?" Does it not appear 
by this, dear friends, that God designs none of 
us to perish? 
Does this make it necessary that he convert 
and save the whole world, without regard to 
their lives? By no means. None of us could 
wish to be saved in our sins; and if we should, it 
is impossible; nor would it be desirable to be 
immortalized in a state of rebellion against God. 
As we see that in our sins we cannot be saved, 
and that God wishes none to perish, what shall 
the sinner do? We have read the answer: "But 
if the wicked will turn," etc. It seems that they 
are not compelled to turn from their sins; but 
God in love invites them to turn away from them. 
This "all," dear friends, covers all, not a part; 
we cannot cherish our sins that seem dear to us. 
No; but God says all. " And keep all my stat-
utes," or commandments, which means the same. 
This language is very broad. When God says 
"all sins " and 
all his statutes," dear friends, this 
takes self entirely away. Nothing is left of us 
only to do the will of God. After this takes 
place, namely, overcome all our sins and keep all 
his commandments as far as we see them, then 
he requires something of us. In the 32d verse, 
he says: " Wherefore turn yourselves [or others, 
in the margin], and live ye." After we ourselves 
are turned from our wicked ways, then, and not 
till then, we are to help others to see their wicked 
ways. See Matt. 7: 5. Are you, dear reader, 
keeping all of God's commandments? If so, are 
you imparting the light and help you should to 
others? This is an important mission. The com-
mandments of God are exceeding broad, and need 
much of our careful study. May God help us 
to so improve the talents which he gives us, and 
do our work in helping others so well, that at his 
coming we may hear the joyous words, " Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou 
into the jcy of thy Lord." 
Randolph, _N. Y. 
Rejected Manuscript. 
NOT long since a man sent a communication to 
the Lever, with the request that it be returned if 
not desired for publication. The article was re-
turned, whereupon the contributor became angry, 
and stopped his subscription. The Rescue makes 
the following just comments on this circum-
stance:— 
" If all contributors to newspapers were to take 
that action, the papers would soon have hosts of 
enemies. Sometimes an intentionally offensive 
letter may be tossed into the fire without any 
regret, but it is safe to say that to reject or de-
cline any communication, prose or poetry, offered 
in good faith for publication in a respectable 
journal, is one of the most unpleasant duties 
an editor has to encounter. Sometimes a good 
friend sends something which would do neither 
him or the paper any credit, and if it is declined, 
the editor has quite as good a right to get into a 
passion because it was offered, as the writer has 
to get mad because it was declined. But he 
doesn't. 
" It is much more likely that an editor will strain 
a point to publish an article which his judgment 
does not quite approve, rather than offend a con-
tributor whose friendship is a little doubtful, 
than that he will reject one from a feeling of 
prejudice against the writer. No two men would 
always exactly agree as to what is the best to 
publish, but every two men will agree that the 
average editor has sense enough not to run any 
unnecessary chances of making enemies of his 
friends. 
" And it occurs frequently that articles which 
are quite acceptable get crowded out or over-
looked or belated by accident or by the printer's 
carelessness or mistake, and without any inten-
tion. So, after all, when one feels a disposition to 
get grouty on this subject it would be more consist-
ent and manly to consider that if there is one chance 
that there may be cause, there are ten chances 
against it. And it would be a weak and puny 
journalist who would make his personal friend-
ships at all influence his judgment as to the 
quality of matter offered for publication." 
HE who is false to the present duty breaks a 
thread in the loom. and will see the effect when 
the weaving of a life-time is unraveled. 
THE kindness which is bestowed on others is 
never lost. 
448 �
THE SIGNS OF TI-11-1, TIME S. �
VoL. 8, No. 38. 
The Sunday, the Sabbath, and the Change. 
BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN. 
IT is almost universally agreed, that, practically 
speaking, the Sabbath has been changed from the 
seventh to the first day of the week. What is 
remarkable, however, is the fact that the only 
Sabbath law found in the Bible is specific in its 
requirement of the observance of the seventh day. 
Strange as it may appear, also, the binding obli-
gation of that law, as originally embodied in the 
ten commandments, is admitted by nearly all 
orthodox Christians. Again it is universally con-
ceded that from Sinai to the cross, the uniform 
practice of the Hebrew people was such as to 
show that they distinctly understood that it was 
the will and, purpose of God, as expressed in the 
fourth commandment, that the seventh and last 
day of the week should be separated from the 
others of the hebdomadal cycle as the " rest a 
the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." With these 
facts before us it is not a little startling to find 
the friends of the Sunday sabbath admitting, as 
they are compelled to, first, that God has once 
sanctified the seventh day of the week as the 
Sabbath. Secondly, that he has never expressly 
declared that he has removed that sanctification. 
Thirdly, that he has nowhere said that the first 
day of the week is to take,. the place of the sev-
enth, or, in fact, that it differed in any way from 
any other day of the week. Such concessions 
must, it would seem, lead to the inevitable conclu-
sion, that the supposition of the change of day 
must be altogether unfounded. When we con-
sider that God never omits to do anything on 
account of oversight; when 'we remember that 
the Sabbath commandment reads to-day the same 
as it did when given on Mount Sinai, and there- 
fore, must, if binding, enforce the same day which 
it then enfbrced, it would be insulting to the wis- 
dom of Jehovah to conclude that he would hold 
his creatures responsible for not observing a day 
which he had never commanded, and exonerate 
them from keeping a day which he still enforced 
by a statute which is clear in statement, and one 
whose import was rendered certain by the prac-
tice of Christ, as well as that of the good and 
great before him for 1500 years. 
foot for Emmaus, distant from Jerusalem seven 
and a half miles. On their way thither Christ 
united himself to them in the garb of a wayfaring 
man. At Emmaus he made himself known to 
them, having previously made, however, as though 
he would have gone farther. Luke 24 : 13-29. 
Immediately upon this revelation they returned 
post baste to Jerusalem. 
Thus it is made to appear that they traveled 
fifteen miles on the first Christian Sabbath so-
called, and that Christ, instead of upbraiding them 
therefor, virtually acquiesced in what they did by 
journeying with them himself. A strange method 
this, of laying the foundation, in example, for the 
new Sabbath or rest day. 
which is left us of that period fails to establish 
the custom, if such an one did really exist. But 
such a finding would utterly demolish the theory 
of our friends, as they will hardly be reckless 
enough to substitute the first-day Sabbath in the 
place of the seventh day on the ground of apostolic 
custom, and then go outside of the Bible to estab-
lish that custom. 
Should it be suggested that in 1 Cor. 16: 1, 2 
there is a direct reference to first day gatherings 
for the purpose of worship, on the part of the 
Galatian and Corinthian churches, we reply that 
the proof must first be put into the text before it 
can be drawn therefrom. In the logic employed 
by our friends in this connection it is manifest that 
" the wish was father to the thought." There 
was a case to be made out, and, taking certain 
things for granted, it was seen that that text 
would make out the case in question. The 
things taken for granted were, first, that laying 
by in store was equivalent to depositing in the 
contribution box, in the church or place of meet-
ing. Secondly, that such a deposit regularly on 
the first day of the week, presumed the regular 
convocation of the people on that day for worship. 
Now the naked fact is, that there is not only an 
entire lack of any reference in the passage under 
consideration to the contribution box and con-
vocations of any nature whatever, but also that 
the phraseology employed is such as to forbid the 
notion that the contribution box was employed 
at all, or that the church was the place where the 
laying by in store was accomplished. 
Through the learned labors of J. W. Morton 
upon this subject, it has been demonstrated be-
yond controversy that the expression, " lay by 
him in store," as used in the original, was equiva-
lent to "laying by him in store at home;" i. e., 
that the idiom of the Greek was such as to in-
dicate that the work in question was to be done 
by each individual at his own house. In support 
of this theory, Mr. M. has introduced eight ver-
sions, all of which recognize the fact that such 
is the case. (See " Vindication of the True Sab-
bath," by J. W. Morton.) Admitting, thercitore, 
only that which the facts compel us to admit, our 
friends will be compelled to yield up 1 Cor. 16: 
1, 2, as insufficient to prove the custom they 
desire to make out. Unfortunately for their 
cause, however, this text cannot be disposed of 
so easily on their part. It is true, that if the 
work under consideration was to be done at home, 
it would not be done at the church, and if not 
done at the church, that it does not prove the 
practice of assembling regularly on the first day 
of the week for worship; nevertheless, it is also 
true that the laying by in store was actually 
accomplished each first day at home, in obedience 
to the apostolic injunction. Such a concession, 
however, is very damaging to the theory under 
discussion, since the laor in question involved 
the performance of work hardly compatible with 
the idea that the day on which it was performed 
was holy time. The collection to which the 
apostle here refers, could not have been that 
which was to be taken up on passing the contri-
bution box through the congregation, as that 
would not have been objectionable from the 
moral stand-point of our friends, provided the 
money had been previously gathered. Neither 
could it have been objected to on the ground of 
delay, since it would have only required a few 
moments of time. The natural conclusion, there-
fore, is, that he meant to instruct them that upon 
each first day they should gather in, from various 
sources, and deposit in a safe place at home, an 
amount commensurate with their ability, to be 
given to him for the poor saints at Jerusalem, 
when he should arrive. Such a gathering in, 
however, could not have been accomplished with-
out the transaction of secular business, since it 
would have involved an examination of financial 
matters, and the collection of outstanding dues 
in some cases. But the transaction of secular 
business on the first day of the week could not 
be reconciled with the idea of its sacredness. 
The text, therefore, instead of making for the 
sanctity of the day, renders it quite certain that 
the apostle did not regard it as in any way holy, 
else he would not have made it a day of collec- 
tions. The force of this argument is increased, 
provided we endorse the position taken by some 
commentators, which is that the contributions 
were not to consist merely of money, but also of 
such articles of food and clothing as the apostle 
could readily transport to Jerusalem. 
( To be Continued.) 
Do you inquire then, What authority is offered 
for the observance of the first day by the masses 
who are now united in its commemoration? I 
answer that, while frankly admitting that they 
have no " Thus saith the Lord" for the change of 
the Sabbath, they nevertheless claim that such a 
change is shadowed forth in the New Testament 
record. Do you again inquire whether there is 
really any force in the argument adducted ? We 
reply frankly that to our mind there is none. In 
the first place, their conclusions are far-fetched 
and are not warranted by the facts. In the 
second place, it is not God's method to enforce 
positive duty by doubtful example. In the third 
place, the examples cited not only fail to prove 
what is desired, but they most emphatically dis-
prove the same. To the thoughtful mind this 
will become apparent at a first glance. It will 
be admitted that when duty is to be inculcated 
by example in the absence of positive precept, 
the example must be clear and invariable. God, 
who knows the end from the beginning, had he 
designed that the authority for the first-day Sab-
bath should be drawn from the practice of the 
early church, would have at least made that 
practice uniform and unmistakable. Were this 
not the case, how could he ever punish men with 
any degree of propriety for failure to observe the 
day ? What, then, we inquire, does the record 
say ? Does it represent the early Christians as 
uniformly hallowing the first day of the week, 
during the period covered by the books of the 
New Testament ? Let us see. 
The Gospels and the book of Acts cover the first 
sixty-three years of this dispensation. Now it is 
not claimed that the first day of the week became 
hallowed time till Christ's resurrection. That 
day, say our friends, was rendered holy by that 
event, and has continued so ever since. Now let 
it be remembered that it is not urged that there 
is any positive declaration for the correctness of 
this theory, but simply that it is taught by the 
uniform practice of the early church. Well, let 
us consider this proposition for a moment. Did 
Christ and the apostles hallow the day on which 
Christ arose? The answer must be in the nega-
tive. In the early morning two of them started on 
That which is true of Christ and the two disci-
ples mentioned, is substantially true of the twelve. 
With them the first Christian Sabbath, so styled, 
was anything but a day of rest. From morning till 
night it was characterized by the most feverish 
excitement, and the most constant activity. Re-
ports were everywhere flying concerning the al-
leged resurrection of Christ, and from day-dawn till 
late at night there was hurrying to and fro, and 
confusion reigned everywhere. All that is said 
in regard to a religious assembly at the close 
of the day, in honor of the resurrection, is the 
merest twaddle. By a comparison of texts it is 
rendered certain that the gathering was not only 
not one of a religious character, but that it was 
merely a coming together to partake of the ordi-
nary evening meal, in an upper chamber which 
was the common dwelling-place of the apostles. 
See John 20: 10; Acts 1 : 12, 13; Mark 16 : 14; 
Luke 24 : 36-43. There they met, behind closed 
doors for fear of the Jews, not even believing, as 
yet, that Christ had arisen. Mark 16 : 9-13. Thus 
much for the first so-called Sabbath of the new 
dispensation. So far as the example of Christ and 
his associates is concerned, it would lead us, were 
it to be followed implicitly, to devote the day to 
an activity so intense as to render its increase 
practically impossible; since with head, and heart, 
and limb, they passed its wheeling hours in a 
manner which would suggest anything but faith 
in its sanctification. 
Leaving the region of the Cross, and descending 
the stream of time until we reach the next first 
day, which is specifically mentioned in the historic 
narrative of the doings of the early church, we 
find them assembled in an upper room lighted by 
burning lamps, and located in the city of Troas. 
Acts 20 : 7-14. Paul is preaching to them and 
breaking bread. With the dawn of the morning 
he starts on a journey of seven hundred miles to 
Jerusalem. Between sun and sun on that day he 
travels on foot nineteen and one-half miles, from 
Troas to Assos. Remembering now that the Jew-
ish day commenced at sunset, and ended at sunset, 
we readily perceive that the only portion of it in 
which lamps could be employed would be that 
portion which lay next to its commencement; i. 
e., between the going down of the sun on Satur-
day night and the rising of the same on Sunday 
morning. But such a conclusion would render it 
certain that Paul spent the Sunday there men-
tioned in performing the journey of nineteen 
and one-half miles spoken of above. A strange 
method, we suggest again, of laying the founda-
tion for the Christian Sabbath. He, the great 
apostle to the Gentiles, surely would, not have des-
ecrated the Sunday by common travel had it been 
his special work to enforce it, by his own example, 
.upon the Gentiles and Jews alike, as a day sacred 
to rest and holy meditation. Furthermore, how 
manifest it now becomes that the record was not 
designed to teach a custom at all. Twenty-eight 
years intervened between the resurrection of 
Christ and the next well authenticated religious 
service on the first day of the week, brought to 
view in the book of Acts. That is (granting our 
friends all they ask), they are able to point to but 
two first-days, out of 1456, on which it is clearly 
stated that the disciples were actually assembled 
together for any purpose whatever. In other 
words, were we to admit that the day of Christ's 
resurrection and the day on which the disciples 
assembled for the breaking of bread at Troas 
were unquestionably devoted to the purposes of 
religious worship, still our friends would only 
come as near to the establishment of a custom in 
this matter as the. number two approximates in 
value to the whole number 1456. That is, their 
inability to show positively that more than two 
Sundays were observed out of the 1456 which in-
tervened between the resurrection and the meet-
ing at Troas renders it certain that the history 
OCTOBER 5, 1882. �
SIGNS OF THE TIM �
1--i]S. �
449 
"Smooth Things." 
To SPEAK " smooth things," is not necessarily 
to preach error. A man may preach truth all his 
days, and dress it up in such a way as to destroy 
its power. He may hand out the truth in homeo-
pathic quantities, when larger portions should be 
given; or he may attempt to do with the penknife 
what can only be accomplished with the scalpel, 
or the "old Jerusalem blade" which cuts right 
and left. The man who keeps everything that is 
disagreeable from his hearers is guilty of speaking 
"smooth things." Under his ministrations the 
covetous is not reproved, the formalist is not 
excited to action, the pleasure seeker not arrested 
in his course. The want of reproof causes them 
to feel and believe that all is well, whereas the 
truth should thunder in their ears continually. 
We may be guilty of preaching smooth things 
by generalizing the truth, addressing ourselves to 
persons outside of the congregation, instead of 
to our auditors. Hence, though you handle a 
sword that is bright, it is without an edge—a 
hammer that falls so lightly or gradually that no 
effect is produced. If by a faithful discharge of 
duty we fail to convince, then the responsibility 
is not ours. We may be misrepresented, but all 
will come out right in the end. There is nothing 
that will justify unfaithfulness in us as to declar-
ing the truth. The charge to one of the prophets 
is as applicable at this time as when spoken, and 
for this reason, human nature has not changed. 
It is as follows: And thou, son of man, be not 
afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, 
though briars and thorns be with thee, and though 
thou dost dwell among scorpions; be not afraid of 
their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, 
though they be a rebellious house. And thou 
shalt speak my words unto them, whether they 
will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they 
are most rebellious." 
An approving conscience is something that none 
can- rob us of. The approving smile of Heaven is, 
an will continue to be, a source of comfort and 
satisfaction to all who declare the truth faithfully 
and refuse to speak smooth things.—Sel. 
Silenced. 
A DANCING professor felt it his duty to try to 
win one of his many associates to Christ. " Oh, 
—," he said, " I long to see you a Christian. 
Do come to Jesus, won't you ? " " For what? " 
was the blunt rejoinder. " Why, for salvation. 
Don't you want to be saved ? " " Yes, I do, but 
what particular sins do you want me to be saved 
from ?" " Why, we are all sinners, you know." 
" Yes, I know, but I do not cheat, steal, lie, swear, 
nor use tobacco. What lack I yet ? " " Do you 
pray ? " " No; do you? " " Yes," said the "Name-
to-live," " I pray for you." " For me ! when, I'd 
like to know? Monday night you were at the 
dance; Tuesday night I met you at the ball, and 
we didn't get home, you know, until four o'clock 
in the morning; Wednesday night I saw you at 
the sociable, and like the rest of us, you carried 
on like sixty;' Thursday night" don't know where 
you were; but if cards could testify, they would 
tell what you and I were up to until two o'clock 
Friday night, and now it is Saturday, and for the 
life of me I can't tell what time you've had for 
prayer this week, or when you could have felt 
like it. Oh, I forget. Your church holds a 
prayer-meeting every Thursday evening, does it 
not ? " " Yes." " And was that where you were 
last Thursday night ? " " Yes, certainly." " Did 
you pray for me there ? " " I tried to," was the 
faint response. " Well, I don't want to hurt 
your feelings; but for conscience's sake don't do 
that again. If you pray for anybody, pray for 
yourself. You claimed when you were converted 
to have had more happiness in one hour than 
you had had in your whole life before, and if 
that had been true, I should have been a Chris-
tian long before now; but as far as I can see, 
you seek your happiness just where I do—in the 
world; and if it is right for you, it can't be wrong 
for me." So saying he departed, leaving his 
friend to ponder upon his ways, and wonder how 
effectual and fervent the prayers of one could be 
who was trying faithfully to serve God and mam-
mon, or how much such prayers would avail in 
the salvation of lost souls,—CAristian Secretary. 
- �
- 
THE fool is busy in everybody's business but his 
own. 
the 
Sabbath-School Review. 
Now that we have a review lesson for October 
14, it may not be uninteresting to call to mind 
the results of the passover week, up to the point 
to which we have come. Six days before the 
passover we find that Jesus came to Bethany, 
where a feast was made for him. It was at this 
time that Mary anointed Jesus. It has been 
supposed by some, from Matt. 26 : 2-13, and Mark 
14 : 1-9, that this feast was only two days before 
the passover; but if we carefully follow the narra-
tive, we shall see that several days intervened 
before the passover. Thus, on the next day after 
the feast, Jesus rode into Jerusalem. John 12 : 
12. After entering the temple and looking 
around, he returned to Bethany. Mark 11 : 11. 
On the next day he again entered Jerusalem, and 
cleansed the temple, having cursed the barren fig-
tree on the way. Mark 11 : 12-17. Following 
this he taught till evening, when he again left the 
city. Mark 11 : 19. The next morning he re-
turned once more, and the disciples called his 
attention to the fig-tree, which had withered. 
Here we have the record of three full days after 
the feast, and we know what events occupied 
Thursday, the day of the feast, leaving us only 
one day unaccounted for, which Jesus probably 
spent in retirement. It is probable that Matthew 
and Mark give the account of the feast in the 
place that they do, after speaking of Christ's be-
trayal, in order to show under what circumstances 
Satan took possession of Judas. 
The last week was filled full of instruction for 
the disciples. But it is of the passover night es-
pecially, that our review has to do. Peter and John 
bad made all the necessary preparations during 
the day, and at the proper hour Jesus came with 
the twelve. As they were sitting down, a strife 
arose among the disciples. They still had in mind 
a temporal kingdom, and were each anxious to 
have the highest rank. According to the ordi-
nary standard, their rank in the kingdom would 
depend on the position they occupied in the prep-
aration for that kingdom; hence each wished the 
highest seat at the table. Jesus then arose from 
the table and gently rebuked this unseemly strife, 
by telling them that in his kingdom he who 
would be greatest must be willing to occupy the 
lowest place, appealing to his own life as an ex-
ample. Although he was their Lord, he bad been 
among them as a servant. At the same time he 
proceeded to wash their feet, giving them a most 
impressive lesson of humility. Havincr
b 
 finished 
this solemn ordinance, Christ resumed his place 
at the table; the disciples were seated with him, 
and the meal was eaten. 
A few brief thoughts in regard to the feet-
washing ceremony. It is very evident that this 
was something extraordinary, something out of 
the usual order of events. Feet-washing as an 
act of hospitality was always performed when 
the guest first, entered, and was not done by the 
host, he simply furnishing the water and utensils. 
See Luke 7 : 44. But in this case they were sit-
ting down to supper, and besides, they had al-
ready bathed. See John 13 : 10. Verse 7 also 
shows conclusively that they did not understand 
Christ's motive in washing their feet at that time; 
but they were perfectly acquainted with feet-
washing as an act of ordinary hospitality. It 
was not till Jesus had taken his garments again, 
and resumed his place at the table, that he ex-
plained the full meaning of his act. 
It is very evident, also, that, although the strife 
among the disciples furnished the immediate oc-
casion for washing their feet, it was not solely on 
that account that Christ performed that ceremony. 
It was designed as an example for them to follow 
just the same as the Lord's Supper. Thus he 
says, " If I, then, your Lord and Master, have 
washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one an-
other's feet. For 1 have given you an example, 
that ye should do as I have done to you." John 
13 : 14, 15. He did not mean that they should 
do it as often as they got into strife, for if they 
followed him they would never give place to 
strife; but he gave them the ordinance to prevent 
strife, to help them to keep in mind their Lord, 
and to be humble as he was, 
We can rest assured that there was no more 
strife after this lesson; but there was still among 
them a source of disunion, and this was the pres- 
ence of Judas. Christ could not have full and 
free communion with his loyal disciples while this 
traitor was present. So, as they were eating, he 
told his disciples that one present should betray 
him, and by giving Judas the sop showed him that 
his treachery was known. Having received the 
sop, Judas went immediately out. John 13: 18-30. 
As the meal was drawing to a close, Jesus took 
of the unleavened bread on the table, and after 
giving thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples 
as an emblem of his broken body. Then he took 
the cup, pure, unfermented grape juice, " the fruit 
of the vine," and gave it to them, telling them all 
to drink of it, for it was an emblem of his blood. 
Thus the Lord's Supper was instituted. 
While they were still at the table, Christ fore-
told his crucifixion, and their desertion of him, 
and Peter boasted of his firmness. The conver-
sation and instruction recorded in the fourteenth 
chapter of John also took place before they left 
the room. After this talk, " when they had sung 
an hymn, they went out." Matt. 26 : 30; John 
14 : 31. 
It is not definitely known where the discourse 
and prayer recorded in John 15, 16, 17, were 
delivered, whether in the city or outside; nor is 
it material. In these chapters we have lessons 
that might be profitably studied for weeks and 
months. Some of the principal points have been 
touched upon in previous articles, and we will 
not consider them further. The aim has not 
been to be exhaustive, but simply indicate points 
for study. If any person has gained a new idea 
or has received a new impetus in Bible study, the 
object of the lesson notes has been gained. 
E. J. W. 
Object of the Teachers' Meeting. 
THE following from the S. S. Times we can most 
heartily endorse. If each teacher would come to 
the meeting with the determination to contribute 
as well as to receive, there would be marked im-
provement. In mental and spiritual matters, at 
least, it is true that the more we give the more 
we gain. 
" The object of a teachers' meeting is misunder-
stood by too many. It is not to study the lesson, 
though that, in spite of all assertions to the con-
trary, seems to be the prevailing conception. Its 
proper object is to pile together the nuggets that 
all have dug out of the lesson, thus enriching all 
without impoverishing any. That which makes 
the majority of teachers' meetings without attract-
ive power, is the fact that the teachers come 
without having searched beforehand for the bid-
den treasures of the lesson. They have nothing 
to contribute of any value. The empty baskets 
are shaken for a while, but as nothing comes out 
of them worth the having, the teachers go away 
with the idea that teachers' meeting is time 
wasted. A single session where each one brings 
in a gem of thought of his own finding, would 
dissipate that notion forever. There are teach-
ers' meetings of this sort whose members would 
prefer to lose any other weekly gathering than 
to miss a single session of the one that prepares 
them to teach the next lesson. 
THE teachers' meeting is especially beneficial 
in that it gives opportunity for harmonizing the 
teaching, and to a great extent shuts out clashing 
in the school. It unifies the instruction, and be-
gets a better understanding of the work. 
THE YOUTH'S INSTRUCTOR. 
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full of useful information. 
As a Sabbath-school and Lesson paper, it is suited to the wants of 
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who read it, in thorough Bible study. 
The Sabbath-school Department contains two series of lessons, 
one for children and one for youth. 
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TILE SIGNS OF TI-11-1] TIM VS. �
Vol,. 8, No. 38. 
Eijc ,igit5 of Of Eimo. 
" Can ye not discern the signs of the times ?" 
J. H. WAGGONER, �
 EDITOR. 
J. N. ANDREWS, 
CORRESPONDING EDITORS. 
URIAH 6MITH, 
OAKLAND, CAL., FIFTH-DAY, OCTOBER 5, 1882. 
Scriptural Meaning of the Word Soul. 
To THE list of texts given in our last paper in which 
the Hebrew neh-phesh, soul, denotes personality or self-
hood, must be added all those texts in which the term 
is applied to God. 
Lev. 26:11. And I will set my tabernacle among 
you; and my soul shall not abhor you. 
Verse 30. And my soul shall abhor you. 
Judges 10:16. And they . . . served the Lord; 
and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. 
Prov. 6:16. These six things doth the Lord hate; 
yea, seven are an abomination unto him. 
Isa. 1:14. Your appointed feasts my soul hateth. 
Jer. 5:9. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a 
nation as this? 
Verse 29. The same words. 
Jer. 6:8. Be thou ins,ructed, 0 Jerusalem, lest my 
soul depart from thee. 
Jer. 9:9. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a 
nation as this ? 
Jer. 12:7. I have given the dearly beloved of my 
soul into the hand of her enemies. 
Jer. 14:9. Hath thy soul loathed Zion? 
Jer. 15:1. Yet my mind (naph-shee, my soul) could 
not be toward this people. 
Jer. 32:41. I will plant them in this land assuredly 
with my whole heart and with my whole soul. 
Jer. 51:14. The Lord of hosts hath sworn by him-
self, etc. 
Eze. 23:8. Then my mind was alienated from her. 
Amos 6:8. The Lord God bath sworn by himself. 
Zech. 11:8. And my soul loathed them, and their 
soul also abhorred me. • 
In the following texts it is used of Christ in like 
manner:- 
Ps. 16:10. Thou wilt not leave my sou/ in hell, nor 
suffer thine holy one to see corruption. 
Isa. 53:10. When thou shalt make his soul an offer-
ing for sin. 
Verse 11. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and 
be satisfied. 
Verse 12. Because he hath poured out his soul unto 
death. 
Of the meaning of the term in these texts there can 
be no question; they express in full the personality of 
the Being to whom they are applied. And the usage 
or method of use as applied to God, is precisely that 
applied to man, thus: "My soul loathed them, and their 
soul abhorred me." That is, " / loathed them, and they 
abhorred me." 
There is a somewhat remarkable usage in the Script-
ures by which neh-phesh, soul, is applied to a dead 
person. This evidently because a man does not lose 
his personality in dying. Otherwise, no man could be 
identified after death. As the primary meaning of 
soul (neh-phesh) is person or creature, it is strictly cor-
rect to apply it to the dead, as a dead person, or dead 
creature. 
Lev. 19:28. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your 
flesh for the dead. - 
Chap. 21:1. There shall none be defiled for the dead 
among his people. 
Verse 11. Neither shall he go in to any dead body. 
Chap. 22:4. Whoso toucheth anything that is un-
clean by the dead. 
Num. 5: 2. Whosoever is defiled by the dead. 
Chap. 6:6. All the days that he separated himself 
unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body. 
Verse 11. And the priest shall . . . make atone-
ment for him, for that he sinned by the dead. 
Chap. 9 6. And there were certain men who were 
defiled by the dead body of a man. 
Verse 7. And those men said unto him, We are 
defiled by the dead body of a man. 
Verse 10. If any man of you or of your posterity 
shall be unclean by reason of a dead body. 
Chap. 19:13. Whoso toucheth the dead body of any 
man, that is dead. 
Hag. 2:13. If one that is unclean by a dead body 
touch any of these, shall it be unclean ? 
Three of the above texts are peculiar in form, but 
they doubtless fully express the idea of all, the others 
appearing to be elliptical. Lev. 21: 11 says: " Unto all 
souls of the dead he shall not come, for his father or 
for his mother he shall not be defiled." This seems to 
be the exact opposite of Gen. 1: 30, and others. " And to 
every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, 
and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein 
is a soul of life, I have given every green herb for 
meat." This translation is literally correct, but in the 
margin it is given, living soul, and also the same orig-
inal in Gen. 2: 7 is rendered living soul, speaking of 
man. And this is the usual form of expressing it. 
As Adam became a soul of life, or living soul, by 
having the breath of life imparted to his frame, so when 
the breath departs the man is very reasonably called a 
soul of death, or a dead soul. The expression in Lev. 
21:11, is strong and clear. The high priest was not 
permitted to defile himself by contact with, or approach-
ing unto, the souls of the dead. The idea conveyed in 
our version is unquestionably correct: Neither shall 
he go in to any dead body," or dead person; the word 
soul being used to express the person, whether living or 
dead. In justice to the reader of the English the trans-
lators should have given a marginal reading here which 
would have indicated the original, as they did in Gen. 
1:30. 
Num. 6:6, is precisely the same except that neh-
phesh is in the singular. 
Num. 19:13, has a peculiarity of its own, in addi-
tional words to emphasize the condition of the man, or 
soul of the man, as dead. " Whosoever toucheth the 
dead soul of the man that is dead." Some authors 
maintain that in the other texts here quoted, math, to 
die, or death, is understood. The word neh-phesh, soul, 
is alone expressed, but the subject indicates that a soul 
of death, and not a soul of life, is meant. 
We have known people to be wonderfully shocked 
when the idea of a dead soul was presented to them. 
But the idea is not, by any means, unknown to the 
Scriptures. It is only because all their ideas of the 
subject are wrong, that they are shocked with express-
ions given by a literal rendering of the revelation of 
God to man. 
What Will You Do about It? 
WE clip the following from an Oakland paper:- 
" COMMON SENSE.-The San Francisco Occident, the 
organ of the Presbyterians of the Pacific Coast, points 
out to the people that the civil law cannot make Sun-
day holy. It says, and says truly, that the Sunday 
Law is one thing, Sabbath observance quite another. 
The State may give us a Sunday; but if Christian peo-
ple do not make that Sunday a Sabbath, the day of 
rest will become a positive injury-a day of more riot, 
more revelry, and more opportunities for crime than 
any day in the week. When a great party proposes to 
make the Christian Sabbath a day of " rest and rec-
reation," it means to grant a license to those who 
desecrate it. Such is not the Sunday Law that Chris-
tian people can sanction. It is asking them to approve 
what the wicked and profane desire -what is diamet-
rically opposed to a decent respect for, and just observ-
ance of, the Sabbath of the church." 
There is in the above some common sense, and some 
that appears to be extra common. Note its expressions:- 
" The civil law cannot make Sunday holy." 
So we say; no power but that of God can make a 
day holy. God made the seventh day holy; and men 
are vainly trying by civil law to make Sunday holy. 
Civil law can make Sunday a legal holiday, but no 
more. 
"The Sunday Law is one thing, Sabbath observance 
quite another." 
Right again. But the churches are demanding that 
the Sunday Law shall also make Sabbath observance. 
It cannot do it. 
" The State may give us a Sunday; but if Christian 
people do not make that Sunday a Sabbath, the day of 
rest will become a positive injury-a day of more riot, 
more revelry, and more opportunities for crime than 
any day in the week." 
Rather mixed. The State may give a Sunday rest, it 
is true. But Christian people must make it a Sabbath; 
which is true so far as such a thing is possible. But 
the error of the Christian people is that they now 
demand that the State shall make it a Sabbath, and 
enforce it as a holy day, which is beyond the power of 
the State, as it before said. There is danger that it will 
become a day of unusual evil; yes, it always has been. 
And you :can only remedy this by making it a matter 
of conscience, and not of civil law. But, unfortu-
nately, the ministry is now instructing the people that 
no man has any right to set up his conscience against 
civil law. For an instance, see the sermon of " Rev. 
A. J. Nelson," lately published in the San Francisco 
Post. An appeal to conscience can only be made on 
such authority as conscience can recognize. When the 
law of God is ignored, then the conscience is left with-
out just restraint. The grand difficulty in this Sunday 
muddle is that Sunday has no higher authority for its 
enforcement than the civil law. 
" When a great party proposes to make the Sabbath 
a day of rest and recreation, it means to grant a license 
to those who desecrate it." 
Doubtful. We think the party intended to grant the 
demand of the church just as far as it is possible for 
civil power to go. They recognized the truth stated 
by the Occident, that " civil law cannot make Sunday 
holy." Why complain of the Republican party for 
not doing that which you say it cannot do ? 
"Suck is not the Sunday Law that Christian people 
can sanction." 
No; they demand a holy day where there is none, 
and where they acknowledge there is no power to make 
one. They will find no relief until they return to the 
Bible, which they have left, and cease to exalt civil law 
above a conscience which is enlightened by the word of 
God. 
"It is asking them to approve what the wicked and 
profane desire." 
 
Not so. The churches are entirely to blame for their 
present dilemma. They have rejected the law of God 
and the Sabbath which it enjoins, and now complain 
of the State because it has not the power to remedy 
their errors. 
" What is diametrically opposed to a decent respect 
for, and just observance of, the Sabbath of the church." 
What would you call a "just observance of the Sab-
bath of the church," on the part of an infidel ? Please 
explain. Can an atheist render that " just observance 
of the Sabbath of the church ?" Would it not be well 
for the church to observe its own Sabbath, and mare 
greater efforts to convert infidels to the whole truth of 
the Bible, and cease to ask the State to do what civil 
law never can accomplish ? The State makes Sunday 
a legal holiday, thus giving the churches an opportu-
nity to throw their influence over the people on their 
chosen day of worship. What more can they ask ? 
Do they want the State to compel the people to go to 
their churches on Sunday ? If not, what shall the 
civil law do more to help them ? 
Alas for their fall! Rev. 14:8. They have turned so 
far from the truth of God that their power is gone, and 
they are now beseeching the State to compel the people 
to act as Christians, if they will not be Christians. 
And that they call making this a Christian nation! 
Such was the course of " the church" ten centuries ago. 
We are fast drifting, in this country, toward the same 
state of things. 
State Prohibition Convention. 
THE Prohibitionists met in Convention in San Fran-
cisco, Sept. 28. One of the earliest movements was 
that of a Methodist minister, who commenced making 
a speech in favor of the Republican party. He was 
ruled out of order. From this time on, during the 
whole day, the hall was a scene of wild confusion. 
Resolutions, amendments, substitutes, motions, counter. 
motions, with et ceteras to any extent, were poured in 
so fast that the chairman seemed to lose all power to 
control the discordant elements. Some were obstinately 
persistent in constantly presenting motions, and con_ 
tinuously talking about them and about everything 
else. It was claimed that enemies of the cause had 
come in to run the Convention in the interests of the 
political parties, or to break it up. This seemed to 
offer the most reasonable solution to the tumultuous 
scene. 
In the evening, a better state of things prevailed. 
A discussion was raised on the question of the advisa-
bility of putting a separate ticket in the field. This 
brought out some excellent speeches, and it was soon 
apparent that the strength of the Convention was on 
the side of a nomination. As this became a settled 
fact, the party obstructionists changed their tactics, 
and began to threaten to withdraw from the Conven-
tion if a ticket were nominated. About 10 P. M., it 
was voted to put up a ticket. 
Next morning, a Mr. Nelson, a preacher, read a pro- 
OCTOBER 5, 1882. �
THE SIGNS OF TH �
451 
test against the action of the Convention, and with-
drew. He spoke for himself and a number of others. 
Judge Thompson charged him, in emphatic terms and 
manner, of stating that which was not true. 
The platform committee then reported. The plat- 
form was numbered to eleven points, really embracing 
nine subjects. And this was enough to insure more 
division. Prohibition will best be accomplished by 
making it the specialty of a prohibition party. When-
ever that party develops strength enough to make it 
an object for one of the great political parties to adopt 
it, then the success of prohibition is assured. And a 
party will adopt it just as soon as it is shown to be 
necessary to, success. But cumbered with too many 
side issues, it will not receive the same favor. 
The woman's suffrage plank was received with full 
as much enthusiasm as any other. The following brief 
resolution is one of the best in the list:— 
" 6th. We emphatically protest against all State 
subsidies, or other countenances to encourage the busi-
ness of making intoxicating drinks from grapes, and 
against appropriating public funds for horse-racing at 
our State and District fairs." 
The " Railroad Plank," as in the Republican Con- 
vention, raised the warmest controversy. The Sunday 
resolution was, of course, favorably received. Mr• 
Boren, of whom, we wish to learn more, moved an 
amendment in favor of those who conscientiously keep 
the seventh day. He enforced it with a brief but very 
candid statement of their rights, and of the wrong of 
trying to bind their consciences and to restrain their 
religious convictions. His words evidently made con-
siderable impression, and for a short time we thought 
it possible that the Convention would bring us in to 
work with the Prohibitionists of this State. But he 
was followed by a Mr. Swan, who made one of the most 
remarkable little speeches we ever heard. It consisted 
of three points, the first two of which were simple 
declarations, the third he argued somewhat. The points 
of his speech are as follows:- 
He did not believe that Sunday is a divine day. 
He would not permit any man or any Convention 
to bind his conscience. 
That everybody ought to be compelled to keep 
Sunday! 
For force of logical consecution, for high regard for 
religious principles and the rights of conscience, we 
think this speech stands unequaled! When the vote 
was taken on Mr. Boren's amendment, it received one 
lonesome Aye, with a very emphatic No. 
Dr. R. H. McDonald was nominated for Governor. 
We see it stated in an Oakland paper that he has 
always been a rabid Democrat. But this is a mistake. 
He has been a Republican only. A full ticket was 
nominated. We are not strong in faith that the ticket 
will receive a large vote. 
"We Choose to Believe." 
THE great trouble in the theological world, the great 
cause of such a lamentable diversity of teaching and 
opinion, seems to be the fact that so many choose to 
believe what accords with their own fancy, or corre-
sponds with early instruction, or nurses their prejudices, 
instead of rigidly fashioning their belief according to 
the plain declaration of the Scriptures. 
A case directly in point has just come under our ob-
servation. One of our exchanges, noticing the death of 
a young and very estimable young lady, says, " We 
choose to believe that she did not die, but was not for 
God took her.'" Of only one individual have we the 
record in all the Bible, that he " was not for God took 
him," and that is the faithful and holy Enoch, who 
walked with God three hundred years. But of him it 
is plainly recorded that he " was translated that he 
should not see death." " Heb. 11 : 5. 
Apparently bearing in mind the fact that Enoch was 
said to have been translated, and that it would be man-
ifestly very inappropriate to apply the language used in 
Enoch's case to anything that was not a translation, 
this writer has even the temerity to call this death " the 
translation of this fair young girl." 
But hold ! the Bible speaks of many others besides 
Enoch whose life on this earth has ended. But it says 
of them that they lived a certain number of years, " and 
died." Now does any man, who is governed in the least 
particular by common sense, doubt that the death of 
this young lady corresponded exactly to these last 
named, and that she experienced the same change which 
they experienced when it is said of them that they 
died " ? No one. But there was a difference between 
the cases of these men and the case of Enoch. They 
died ; but he " was not, for God took him;" which Paul 
explains by saying that he " was translated that he 
should not see death." But now a person dies, as all 
the antediluvians, with the exception of Enoch, died, 
and people " choose to believe," in the face of all Script-
ure and reason, that such person has not died, but was 
translated as Enoch was ! What hope is there for a 
sound and uniform religious faith among men while 
they will take such liberties with the only source of 
knowledge on these subjects ? Of what use is the Bible, 
if men are to be allowed to pervert its plainest testi-
mony, and make their own choice the standard of what 
they shall believe ? 
But this is only one point on which, by this means, 
huge errors have been enabled to spread over the world. 
Men " choose to believe " that there is in every person 
a separate being, an independent entity, called the soul 
or spirit, capable of surviving the dissolution of the 
body, and living, in this disembodied condition, an unin-
terrupted and superior life. This has given rise to all 
the vagaries afloat concerning the intermediate state, 
purgatory, masses for the dead, saint worship, Mariola-
try, spiritualism, etc. But the Bible recognizes no such 
entity, and always treats man as a unit, having only 
this state of existence and one in the future, beyond the 
resurrection. 
So men choose to believe that they are by nature 
immortal, whereas the Bible plainly assures them that 
there is no immortality to be secured except through 
Christ. They choose to believe that the first day of the 
week is the Sabbath, whereas the Bible recognizes only 
the seventh day, and teaches the perpetuity of that, not 
only through this dispensation, but even while the new 
earth itself shall endure. Isa. 66 : 22, 23. 
They choose to believe that the world is yet in its 
infancy, and that a temporal millennium is at hand, 
instead of recognizing the facts that it has " waxed old 
as a garment," and everywhere gives tokens of its com-
ing dissolution ; and that the wheat and tares must 
grow together till the harvest, which is the end of the 
world ; and that the monster system of iniquity, the 
papal apostasy, will continue to dominate a great por-
tion of Christendom till consumed by the spirit of 
Christ's mouth and destroyed by the brightness of his 
coming. 2 Thess. 2 : 8. 
They choose to believe that all things continue as 
they were, and that there is no sign of Christ's coming, 
instead of listening to the many voices, in the earth 
beneath and in the heavens above, which herald with 
one accord, that his coming is at the door. And so it 
will be found at last that they have chosen delusion and 
a snare, and that the great day of the Lord, when, alas! 
it is too 'late to escape, has come upon them like a thief 
in the night. 
Let us " choose to believe " what the Bible teaches, 
and act according to its instructions, and all will be 
well. �
U. S. 
Third Angel's Message of Rev. XIV. 
(Concluded.) 
THE third angel makes his proclamation in the period 
of the patience of the saints. As the three messages 
immediately precede the second coming of Christ, this 
period of patience here brought to view must be the 
same as that which in many portions of Scripture is 
located just before the second advent. A few texts 
must suffice:— 
" Cast not away therefore your confidence, which 
hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of 
patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye 
might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and 
he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now 
the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, 
my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not 
of -them who draw back unto perdition; but of them 
that believe to the saving of the soul." Heb. 10 :35-39. 
" Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of 
the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the 
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for 
it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye 
also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of 
the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against 
another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the 
Judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, 
the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, 
for an example of suffering affliction and of patience." 
James 5 : 7-10. 
" Because thou last kept the word-of my patience, I 
also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which 
shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell 
upon the earth. Behold I come quickly; hold that fast 
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Rev. 
3:10, 11. 
" And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; 
we have waited for him and he will save us; this is 
the Lord; we have waited for him; we will be glad and 
rejoice in his salvation." Isa. 25:9. 
The period of the patience of the saints is distin-
guished by the fact that they are keeping the command-
ments of God. As these are distinguished from the 
faith of Jesus which it is said that they also keep, we 
are certain that the commandments of the Father are 
intended. Thus the New Testament brings to view 
God's commandments:— 
" And he said unto him, Why tallest thou me good ? 
there is none good but one, that is God; but if thou wilt 
enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto 
him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder' 
Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, 
Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and 
thy mother; and, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-
self." Matt. 19:17-19. 
" And they returned and prepared spices and oint-
ments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the 
commandment." Luke 23:56. 
" Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or 
the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 
For verily I .say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, 
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, 
till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break 
one of these least commandments, and shall teach men 
so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of 
Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the 
same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven." 
Matt. 5:17-19. 
" Honor thy father and mother, which is the first 
commandment with promise; that it may be well with 
thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." Eph. 6: 
2, 3. 
" But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also 
transgress the commandment of God by your tradition ? 
For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and 
mother; and, he that curseth father or mother, let him 
die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his 
father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou 
mightest be profited by me; and honor not his father or 
his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the 
commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.' 
Matt. 15: 3-6. 
" What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God 
forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law; for 
I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou 
shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the corn_ 
mandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. 
For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive 
without the law once; but when the commandment 
came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, 
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived 
me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy ; 
and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was 
then that which is good made death unto me ? God 
forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working 
death in me by that which is good; that sin by the 
commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we 
know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold 
under sin." Rom. 7:7-14. 
The faith of Jesus must signify the precepts and doc-
trines of our Lord as recorded in the New Testament. 
Thus " the faith of the gospel " (Phil. 1:27) must refer 
to the precepts and doctrines of the gospel. " The 
faith " to which a multitude of the priests were obedient 
(Acts 6:7), which was resisted by Elymas the sorcerer 
(Acts 3:8), which was committed to the apostles for the 
obedience of all nations (Rom. 1:5), which Paul testifies 
that he had kept (2 Tim. 4:7), and which is to be earn - 
estly maintained, as once delivered to the saints (Jude 
3), must refer, we think, to the prece'pts and doctrines 
of the everlasting gospel. That the faith of Jesus is 
used in this sense in Rev. 2:13, we think cannot be 
denied. " Thou holdest fast my name," says Jesus, 
" and hast not denied my faith." That this is the sense 
in which it is used in Rev. 14: 12, is further evident 
from the fact that it is spoken of as kept in the same 
manner that the commandments of God are kept. 
Finally we see the unclean spirits preparing for t h 
great conflict. We see in America the preparation for 
a universal Sunday Law. We see the papal power 
aroused to assert that the pope is infallible, and to 
claim universal dominion over the kingdoms of the 
world. We hear the warning voice of the third angel, 
and we see many thousand commandment-keepers 
arising to obey. These are signs of the times. May the 
reader regard the solemn warning. We occupy the 
most solemn and interesting period in the history of the 
church. The end of all things is at hand; God has 
given us warning concerning the things which are 
coming upon our earth. The conflict with the beast 
and his image hastens. In this conflict the people of 
God will be proved as were the three Hebrew worthies 
when Nebuchadnezzar commanded them to worship the 
image of gold. Read carefully Dan. 3. God saved 
them by direct intervention, but not till after they had 
been brought to a terrible extremity. He has promised 
to interpose for his people, but this will not be till the 
time of trouble, such as never was, shall have come 
upon the earth. 
The conflict with the beast and his image is inevita-, 
ble, but the issue of this conflict is not a matter of 
doubt. God will deliver his people, but it will not be 
till they are brought to such extremity as to cry day 
and night to him for deliverance. Luke 18: 7, 8. 
" And I saw, as it were a sea of glass, mingled with 
fire; and them that have gotten the victory over the 
beast and over his image, and over his mark, and over 
the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, hav-
ing the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses 
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, say-
ing, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God 
Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king of 
saints." Rev. 15:2, 3. God has given this message of 
warning in mercy to mankind. May he give to each of 
us grace to heed the solemn warning. 
Is It a Sin? 
A FEW days ago one of our brethren distributed some 
copies of the "Special Edition" on the local train in 
Oakland. Pretty soon a gentleman who had been read-
ing a copy came and sat down beside the brother, and 
said, " Don't you think you would be doing a good 
deal more good if you wrote and preached against sin, 
instead of saying so much about the Sabbath ? " 
The idea expressed by this man is one that obtains 
quite generally. To be sure there are many who teach 
that Sabbath-breaking is a sin; but the Sabbath whose 
observance they would enjoin is a counterfeit Sabbath, 
and not the true Sabbath of the Bible. But it is true 
that even among those who believe that Sunday is the 
Sabbath, there is a great deal of indifference as to the 
manner in which it is observed. 
In order to ascertain whether Sabbath-breaking is a 
sin or not, we must first determine definitely what sin 
is. There are certain things which very few would 
hesitate to call sin, but we want a general rule that 
will cover all cases; •a, standard that will enable us to 
tell at once if a certain action is wrong, so that we may 
not be left to conjecture. Fortunately we have just 
such a rule—one that is given by the pen of inspiration. 
We find it in 1 John 3:4: "Whosoever committeth sin 
transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression 
of the law." Paul makes the same statement in another 
form: "For where no law is, there is no transgression." 
Rom. 4:15; and " Sin is not imputed when there is no 
law." Rom. 5:13. And this fact is universally recog-
nized. You cannot convince any man that he is doing 
wrong, unless you first show him a law that he is violat-
ing. And whenever a man does anything, knowing, 
that that act has been forbidden by some power having 
the right to enact law, he stands self-condemned. 
Solomon tells us that to fear God and keep his com-
mandments is the whole duty of man. Then it must 
necessarily follow that the law to which John and Paul 
refer, the transgression of which is sin, is none other 
than the law of God—the ten commandments. A few 
texts will suffice to show the importance of observing 
that law. As above quoted, it comprises man's whole 
duty. Eccl. 12:13. It is " perfect, converting the soul." 
Ps. 19:7. The keeping of the law is the test of our love 
to God. 1 John 5:3. It is only by keeping it, in con-
nection with faith in Christ, that we are to inherit 
eternal life in the kingdom of God. Matt. 19:17; Rev. 
22:14. On the other hand we are told that "he that 
turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his 
prayer shall be aboraivatiou," Frov, 428.; 9, Surely 
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now if 
thou commit no adultery, yet if thou break the Sabbath, 
thou art become a transgressor of the law. The same 
may be said of any other precept of the decalogue. 
Sabbath-breaking, then, is a sin, and those who would 
be preachers of righteousness must give the Sabbath its 
proper place in the law of God. We do not teach Sab-
bath observance to the exclusion of the other command-
ments, but we exhort men to obey all the law, for that 
is the standard by which " God shall bring every work 
into judgment." " And it shall be our righteousness, if 
we observe to do all these commandments before God, 
as he hath commanded us." Dent. 6:25. �
E. J. W. 
What They Want. 
THE East Oakland Vidette is one of the best of the 
secular papers that come to our table. Its make-up is 
good, and it is not given to the scandalous personalities 
so common to political papers of both parties. It aims 
to be the exponent of the moral sentiment of the com-
munity, and therefore its utterances on the Sunday 
question are significant. The following paragraph 
shows that we have not been wild in our statement 
that what the people want, and are bound to have, is 
a Sunday Law that will be rigid and uncompromising, 
and will make no exceptions in favor of anybody. 
Further comment is unnecessary; the article speaks for 
itself:— 
" It may be the result of education, or, perhaps, of 
hereditary faith, but, we do not like to work on Sunday. 
 
We therefore want a Sunday Law which will be so 
plainly worded that evasion of it will be impossible. 
A law which will make violaters of it punishable with 
such heavy fine and imprisonment that no one will 
dare to do otherwise than observe it. We want a law 
which will insure to the laborer his needed one day's 
rest in seven; a law which will give one day to the 
poor and dependent, of the enjoyment of which no 
capital or power can deprive them; a law which will 
recognize the civilizing and Christianizing influences 
of the American Sunday, either as a day of recreation 
or religious worship; a law which will compel every 
saloon, and other business house, to close its' doors and 
do no business one day out of seven. In short, we 
want a Sunday Law; not one like the present, but one 
which can and will be enforced—and the more stringent 
it is, the better we shall be suited." 
Zhe 
A Slander Refuted. 
SOME time since a correspondent of the Missouri 
Republican sent to that paper a slanderous account 
of the work and teachings of the Seventh-day 
Adventists in Denton, Texas. This was copied 
in many other papers throughout the country. 
A citizen of California, not a Seventh-day Ad-
ventist, wrote to Denton to ascertain the facts in 
the case. The following is the article, and the 
reply, which we publish with our thanks to the 
friend who furnished it:— 
The Second Adventists have been holding 
monster tent-meetings at Denton for several 
weeks, and are wonderfully worked up on their 
peculiar doctrine. They are engaged in their 
devotions night and day, and claim the second 
coming of Christ is near at hand. A special bed, 
with everything new about its furnishings, has 
been reserved for the Saviour's occupancy, when 
he arrives, ever since the meetings opened. Con-
servative Christian people are mortified, and have 
become wearied of these fanatical performances, 
and talk of having them stopped."—Mo. Rep. 
DENTON, TEXAS, July 6, 1882. 
JOHN TOPE, ANTIOCH, CAL.—Dear Sir: Yours 
respecting the Adventists who are holding meet-
ings, is received. I have attended almost every 
meeting, and am well acquainted with Elds. Kil-
gore and Whitney, who are conducting the meet-
ings. This is the first opportunity I have ever 
had of hearing their views presented. I am not 
an Adventist, but am a member of the M. E. 
Church. But I can say that all that has been 
said or published against them is false, and 
without any foundation whatever. I send you 
inclosed a copy of a reply sent to the Missouri 
Republican, by the leading citizens of Denton; 
and also a copy of a tract which I have obtained 
to send you, which will give you in short what 
452 �
T H P: SIGNS OF TI-I �
Fi] TIMES. �
VoL. 8, No. 38. 
no worse fate could befall any man than that God 
should turn with loathing from his entreaty. And we 
learn that a partial obedience to the law will not suffice 
to bring the promised reward, or avert the penalty, for 
partial obedience is disobedience. " For whosoever shall 
keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is 
guilty of all." James 2:10. It could not be otherwise; 
for since God is the author of the whole law, we dishonor 
him if we do not render obedience to the whole law. If 
we willfully refuse to keep one of the commandments, 
we show that we do not keep the other nine out of any 
special regard to the Lawgiver, but because it is con-
venient or for our self-interest to do so. We do, there-
fore, really dishonor God by violating one of his com-
mandments as truly as though we violated them all. 
Turning to consider this law, upon the observance of 
which our eternal destiny depends, .we find that the 
Sabbath commandment is the most honored of them all. 
The fourth commandment is the one chosen to make 
known to men who the maker of the law is. It is true 
that three other comnlandments contain the word 
" God," but there is nothing in them to designate who 
is referred to. " There be gods many and lords many, 
but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are 
all things." 1 Cor. 8:5, 6. The fourth commandment 
expressly declares that this only true God, the Creator 
of heaven and earth, is its author. 
This law is almost universally recognized as the 
embodiment of all morality, the summary of all law; 
and the open violation of nearly all of them, especially 
the first three, and the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth, 
is considered a flagrant sin. The violation of the fifth 
and tenth is also theoretically considered a sin, although 
practically those two commandments are little regarded. 
But whether men regard the commandments in their 
lives, or not, in theory they are generally ready to 
admit that they are all binding, with the exception of 
the fourth. The only reason of which we can think 
why men should thus lightly regard the fourth com-
mandment, is that its violation is so common. Indeed, 
the custom of the people is often urged with all serious-
ness as a sufficient reason for not keeping the Sabbath. 
The Sabbath commandment is the only one concerning 
which men argue thus. They do not argue that God 
will not punish the thief because there are so many who 
steal; or that false swearing is now pleasing to God 
because it is so common. But in regard to the fourth 
commandment they seem to imagine that they can over-
awe God with numbers, and convert him to their way 
of thinking. But sin is sin, whether practiced by few 
or many. Men become accustomed to sin, so that its 
heinousness is lessened in their estimation; but it is not 
so with God. The multiplication of sin only serves to 
make it more offensive to him. In this age of the world, 
human life is held very cheap, and murders are so fre-
quent that we read of the worst crimes with scarcely a 
second thought; but we are not to suppose that God is 
less moved by a murder now than when Cain killed his 
brother. The fact that a multitude join together to 
commit any sin, does not recommend it to him. He 
says, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil ;" 
and he has expressly declared that "though hand join 
in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished." 
Who can tell which commandment God regards as 
the most sacred ? It is beyond the power of man. 
When Christ was asked, " Which is the great command-
ment in the law ? " he did not specify any one, but 
quoted the two great principles which cover the whole 
law. We have no assurance that God regards Sabbath-
breaking as any less a sin than theft or murder. From 
the place which he has given the fourth commandment 
in his law, as the one to show the badge of his authority, 
his creative power, it would seem that if any distinction 
were made, Sabbath-breaking would be considered as 
the greatest of sins. But even if we were able to dis-
criminate between the commandments, and say that one 
is greater than another, it would not release us from 
keeping the least commandment, for Christ says, " Who-
soever therefore shall break one of these least command-
ments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least 
[i. e., of no account] in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 
5:19. Following the verse in which James says that to 
offend in one point makes a man guilty of all, we read: 
"For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, 
Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if 
thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law," 
James 2:11. The fourth commandment may be gip-
plied in place of the sixth, and we would then read, 
For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, 
Ten Thousand Per Cent. 
MR. JOHNSON dropped into the office of his 
friend Mr. Brown, in a mood decidedly blue, occa- 
sioned by a business investment which had proved 
a failure. It was a little after business hours, but 
Mr. Brown was still in his office and alone. He 
laid down his pen and greeted his friend with a 
familiar nod and a cheerful " How are you, John-
son ? " " Sour as an east wind," was the response, 
as he looked at the beaming countenance of his 
friend, whom he had known for many a year, and 
whose counsel he had sought many a time and 
scarcely ever had been disappointed. 
There appeared to be a little more than the 
usual brightness in. Mr. Brown's face as he wheeled 
his chair around and bade his friend be seated in 
another. Mr. Johnson noticed it, and said:— 
" What are you up to, Brown? Had a streak of 
luck, eh ? " 
" Oh no, Johnson," he replied, nothing unusual 
or new in particular. I was only thinking of a 
little investment I am just about making." 
" I thought so," said Johnson, " and a good one 
I'll be bound." 
" I think so," was the reply. " What would you 
say to ten thousand per cent. ? " 
" Ten thousand per cent.! You are raving." 
" Not a bit of it," said Brown. " And the very 
best of security—a regular royal pledge." 
" Now I know you are crazy. Who ever heard 
of such a thing?" 
" Crazy ? Not a bit of it," said Mr. Brown, 
and he added: " This," wheeling around and lay-
ing his hand upon a paper on his desk, " is a check 
which I have just signed, and intend for a poor 
Western missionary whom I know, and have just 
heard is sick and in much need. The Scriptures 
say that He that giveth to the poor lendeth to 
the Lord,' but I was never awakened to the fact 
of what interest he pays until yesterday, when 
our preacher startled me by saying be had prom-
ised ten thousand per cent. I pricked up my ears 
at the statement, and waited curiously to hear the 
proof ; and there it was sure enough in Matt. 19: 
29:. " ' And every one that hath left houses, or 
brethern, or sisters, or father, or mother, or chil-
dren or lands for my name's sake, shall receive a 
hundr
ed fold and inherit eternal life.' 
" I was struck at the sound of ten thousand per 
cent., but I figured it out, and found it correct. 
The preacher was very much in earnest, as he 
declared the Lord's dividend. He was as enthu-
siastic as a stock-broker, only in an infinitely more 
noble cause. I was very much impressed at the 
time with the thought, and, in fact, have been ever 
since. It was in my mind when you came in. 
Not that I can lay claim for a moment to the 
spirit of self-sacrifice which the text quoted indi-
cates, but my gift to the poor is a loan to the Lord, 
and I am not afraid but that I shall reap a good 
dividend." 
You take a worldly-wise view of the matter ; 
don't you ? " inquired Mr. Johnson. 
"Perhaps I do; but it *ill bear it, although it 
is only one view of--" Here the office door 
opened, and the conversation was at an end ; but 
Mr. Johnson went on his way comparing his own 
unlucky investment with the small one of Mr. 
Brown's, which had yielded so large a return in 
solid pleasure, and who could tell what per cent, 
was laid up for him in the Lord's treasury.--Sel. 
HAND-SHAKING is a power. The politician em-
ploys it with effect to win votes. The Devil's 
recruiting officers make free and constant use of 
it. The church only is chary in its employment. 
In the heartiness of their greetings, the saloons 
try to make it appear that the churches are cold, 
and have no cordial welcome for those who drop 
into their meetings. The result is that the sa-
loons have gained, and the churches lost, many a 
promising, warm-hearted, socially inclined young 
man. A warm grasp of the hand might have 
retained them. The cordial feeling is in the 
churches. There is more real warmth in them 
than in the saloons, but the members have not 
been trained to show it. Let it be manifested. 
Organize a hand-shaking brigade, if necessary, 
of every member of the church. Stop after the 
prayer-meeting a little, for practice. Don't shoot 
for the door as if you were glad to get out of such 
a place. But don't shake hands as a mere for-
mality—put your heart into it.—S. S. Times. 
THE two principal things are wisdom and health. 
OCTOBER 5, 1882. �THE SIGNS OF TIT F TIMES. �
453 
their views are. And as to the means of propa-
gating their views, I have seen nothing but an 
earnest and solicitous appeal to the consciences 
and judgments of their congregations, which are 
made up of our best citizens. And their appeals 
are all from a Thus saith the Lord, and nothing 
else that I am able to discover. 
JOHN B. NICHOLAS, Postmaster. 
DENTON, TEXAS, June 19, 1882. 
EDITOR REPUBLICAN: We take pleasure in stat- 
ing that the above, clipped from the Missouri 
Republican of June 15, having reference to the 
Seventh-day Adventists now holding tent-meet-
ings in our town, respecting the " special bed," 
" fanatical performances," etc., is a base and in-
famous falsehood, manufactured from whole cloth, 
and utterly devoid of even the semblance of truth. 
We further wish to state that it is the boast of 
our citizens that in this place the religious and 
political opinions of every individual are held 
sacred; and we stigmatize the attempt that has 
been so ignominiously made to misrepresent us. 
C. L. HERBERT, Mayor, 
H. H. DAWSON, Hardware merchant. 
JOHN B. NICHOLAS, Postmaster. 
A. GRIFFITH,Hardware merchant. 
RUDDELL & FERGUSON,
F 
�
Attorneys. 
CLEAVELAND BROS., Grocers. 
G. B. COLLINS, Ass't Postmaster. 
Louis E. MOUSSIER. 
I. D. FERGUSON, County Attorney. 
L. L. ZUMAULT, District Clerk, D. C. 
ELIJAH BIGGERSTAFF, County Surveyor. 
BEN. A. KEY, Stoves and hardware. 
E. H. EGAN, Book-keeper. 
DR. CHAS. EVERETT, Attendant and Spiritualist. 
J. B. SCHMITz, Merchant. 
Jos. SCHWORZ, Merchant. 
0 SCHEOVENELL, Watch-maker and jeweler. 
J. L. TOMPKINS. 
S. T. CARROLL. 
R. HARTMAN, Superintendent W. I. Range Co. 
SAMUEL THOMAS, Boot and shoe-maker. 
WILLIAMS & GREENLEE, Dry goods merchants. 
H. J. HOWELL, Jeweler. 
E. C. FAIN, Book-keeper of F. P. and S. 
D. A. ROBINSON, Real estate agent. 
A. GREEN & Co., Grocers. 
W. H. STAPLES, Auctioneer. 
San Juan, California. 
WE closed our meetings in the tent last night, 
as the tent was wanted for the camp-meeting. 
We will hold a few meetings in a hall before leav-
ing. The interest is as good as it has been at 
any time during our stay here. Twenty have 
taken their stand to keep the Sabbath. Others 
are interested, and confess that we have the 
truth, and will, we think, take their stand with 
us. They wish us to return after camp-meeting, 
and have a church organized here. 
We partly organized a Sabbath-school. Last 
Sabbath, there were thirty-five present. We have 
held a children's meeting every Sunday afternoon. 
At the first meeting, there were thirty children 
present. Our tent was near the school-house, 
and we made friends of the children by distrib-
uting Sabbath-school cards among them when 
they came to see us pitch the tent. We hope to 
see many of these children saved in the kingdom 
of God. 
We have had but little opposition. One min-
ister challenged us. for a public discussion. We 
consented, providing the majority of our regular 
congregation would sign a paper endorsing him 
as their representative; and there was nothing 
more said about a discussion. He preached 
against us in a hall, and we reviewed him at 
the tent, with good effect. 
When we took an expression upon the Sab-
bath question, most of the congregation voted 
that the seventh day was the Sabbath. Only 
three voted that Sunday was the Sabbath. One 
of these was a minister; and on being asked to 
give the chapter and verse in the Bible that said 
Sunday was the Sabbath, he replied, in the pres-
ence of the congregation, that he bad none to 
give. 
We have sold some books, and have received 
several subscribers for the SIGNS. Our contri-
bution box has received $14.65. 
It seems as though the work here is just begun. 
The people need to be established in the truth. 
ISAAC MORRISON, 
FRANK T. LAMB. 
Ztniptrantt. 
Doino. Penance. 
BY ELD. G. D. BALLOU. 
A GENTLEMAN who is a strong anti-liquor man 
said to me the other day, " I don't like your 
temperance principles as set forth in the SIGNS OF 
THE TIMES." " What is the matter with our tem-
perance principles ? " I inquired. " Oh, you are 
too radical; you would have a man do penance 
all his life." By further conversation I found 
that he was a user of tobacco, and that tea and 
coffee were his favorite beverages. He was very 
much out of health, in a general way, beside be-
ing afflicted with a painful affection of the eyes. 
This little incident set me to wondering who it is 
that are doing penance, those who conquer their 
depraved appetites, or those who let their appe- 
tites run riot after vile narcotics and stimulants. 
and then suffer with vertigo, dimness of vision, 
sick headache, nervousness, loss of appetite, pal- 
pitation of the heart, and many other ills that 
are directly traceable in thousands of cases to the 
use of these substances. 
I am sure that if the use of tobacco were en-
forced as a penalty in our reform schools and 
houses of correction, there would go up such a 
cry against it as was never before heard in the 
land, and the old veterans of the tobacco-using 
fraternity would shout most lustily against it. 
And why ? Because they know by experienc 
what a loathsome, health-destroying thing to-
bacco is, and they feel sorry to see the youth 
ruined by such a habit. 
And now old, but hitherto vanquished veterans, 
let me ask you to do one of three things. (1) 
Come out and avow to the youth that tobacco- 
using is right and a blessing to the race, and 
invent some manly way of defending it, and thus 
still the voice of conscience that continually warns 
you of your influence in leading the youth astray. 
Or, (2) Do your smoking, chewing, snuffing, and 
dipping, on the sly, so that no one ever will know 
it. Or, (3) Quit the use of the noxious drug 
entirely. We recommend the last. Then your 
words of caution will have weight with the 
young, and you may be the means of saving 
some from a life of slavery and suffering. It 
will not kill you to quit. After a day or two 
you may think you are going to die, but you will 
not. Just lay your business by, stand firm to 
your resolutions, take a few hot baths to draw 
out .the poison, seek help from above, and you 
will come out clean after a few days, or weeks, 
at most. Don't just stop for a week, to see how 
you will feel, but quit for eternity. If you have 
been using a great amount, or if what you have 
used has had a marked effect on your health, 
moderate the quantity one-half for a few days, 
and then drop it entirely. Be consistent and 
determined, and success will crown your effort. 
And let no one be guilty of discouraging any 
person who wants to leave the use of tobacco. 
After all, what a wretched way of doing penance, 
to squander money for the gratification of a use-
less appetite, and thus bring misery and suffering 
upon the race. 
IF you want a man to do a mean thing ply him 
with liquor. If he has been gently reared and is 
sensitive and fastidious, give him a good dinner, 
let his drink be of the finest wines, and gradually 
you will overcome his sensitiveness and bring him 
to look upon woman's virtue as a myth, upon the 
property of another as wrongfully retained from 
him, and upon the life of a man as of little con-
sequence when barring his progress to the grati-
fication of his passions.—Anvil. 
THE manufacture and sale of intoxicating liq-
uors as a beverage, is either right or it is wrong; 
there is no neutral ground that any one can 
occupy touching this matter. If right, it should 
be placed upon an equal footing with every other 
legitimate business; if wrong, no amount of 
license money can ever make it right. 
Is IT any wonder our boys become easy victims 
to the rum demon, when we make bar-rooms our 
lounging place; when we invite the liquor-seller 
and liquor-drinker to our homes, introduce them 
to our boys, make them our boon companions? 
Don't wonder, father, at your boy's ruin. You 
opened the door and pointed the way.—Rechabite. 
Sept. 28, 1882. 
gin fume aparle. 
NOW THAT THE DAY IS DONE. 
THE sun goes down in his regal glory, 
The sun goes down, for the day is done; 
With darkness ends forever the story 
Which first in the rosy morn was begun. 
What if this day were the final one ? 
For good or for evil 'tis written forever—
One page in the book of Time, which never 
Can altered be by human endeavor, 
Now that the day is done! 
In the deepening twilight I sit and ponder 
On all that this vanished day may have brought; 
Has it filled the promise of morn, 1 wonder ? 
Have its hours with pleasure or pain been fraught ? 
Shall we ever regret that its course is run ? 
How many who bravely went forth in the morning, 
All fear of possible danger scorning, 
Lie stark and cold—oh, pitiful warning— 
Now that the day is done! 
How many thousands, in anguish and sorrow, 
Are watching the shadows of night descend, 
For this dying day was once that to-morrow 
On which they counted as on a friend. 
But alas for the friend they leaned upon! 
He has proved the traitor to mock and bereave them— 
His sunshine has been but a cheat to deceive them, 
And naught but the dregs in the cup does he leave them — 
Now that the day is done! 
But in many a home that was filled with gladness 
When the morning broke, there stalks to-night 
A phantom that turns all joy into sadness, 
That casts on all coming time its blight 
(Alas, that the day was ever begun!), 
And little it comforts those hearts in sorrow 
To know that the sun will rise on the morrow— 
His rays can never their old charm borrow, 
Now that the day is done! 
But just one day is the old world older, 
But just one day are we nearer the end. 
Have hearts grown warmer, or have they grown colder ? 
Have we raised up the weak or assisted a friend ? 
What if this day were the final one ? 
From the flush of the morn to the sun's last setting 
The world has been toiling and striving and fretting, 
And what has been gained that was worth the getting, 
Now that the day is done ? 
—Vandyke Brown. 
Johnnie's Temptation. 
" On dear! I can't get this example, " and down 
went book and slate in a very impatient way. 
"If you will let me, I think I can help you," 
said a voice near. 
Johnnie looked up in surprise, for he thought 
he was alone, and was more astonished still when 
he saw before him his mother's washer-woman's 
son. They both attended the same school in 
N �
village, and it had been Johnnie's delight 
to tease Willie about his clothes and encourage 
others to do the same. Only that morning John-
nie had hid his hat at play-time, and put a stick 
in his dinner-basket. 
" Did you get it ? " 
" Yes." 
"Are you willing to help me after hiding your 
hat? " Johnnie thought of the stick and deter-
mined to take it out as soon as possible. 
" I found it very easy. What is it you don't 
understand?" and the despised washer-woman's 
son sat down on the grass by the merchant's son, 
and together they soon had the knotty problem 
solved. Without stopping to thank him, Johnnie 
took his book and slate and went into the school- 
house to remove the stick from Willie's basket. 
Willie looked up in surprise at his sudden depart- 
ure, but seeing some boys coming, thought John- 
nie was ashamed to be seen with him. With a 
flushed face he wandered off alone till the bell 
rang. It was near the end of the term. The 
teacher had offered a prize for the best number 
of marks during the term in arithmetic. Johnnie, 
among others, was trying very bard for it. His 
father had promised him a velocipede if he ob-
tained the prize. As the time drew near, the boys 
knew the prize was between Johnnie and Willie, 
but it was hard to tell which would get it. Two 
weeks before the time -the teacher gave out an 
example. The boys were to work it out and bring 
it in on paper, and at the close of school the one 
who got it right was to explain before the com-
pany. Two days after, as Willie was going with 
clothes to Mrs. Brown's house, he stopped to see 
Johnnie rowing his little sister in a small boat, 
which was on a lake near the house. As he stood 
watching, a little black and tan dog came running 
down to the water. As soon as he saw his little 
master in the' boat, he made a spring and landed 
454 �
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. �Vol,. 8, No. 38. 
on the edge, upsetting it and throwing them 
in the water. Willie knew Johnnie could not 
swim, so he jumped into the water. He caught 
Lillie and brought her to the shore and laid 
her down to go for Johnnie. Their cries had 
brought Mrs. Brown and the servants to the spot, 
who cared for Lillie. Willie found it more than 
he could do to keep Johnnie up in the water, for 
he held on to him so he could not swim, and being 
as large as Willie, they both went down together. 
Mrs. Brown's gardener brought a rope, and when 
they saw them come up threw it to them. John- 
nie caught it, but Willie's strength was gone, and 
he sank again. The gardener gave the rope to 
Mrs. Brown and the servants, who attended to 
Johnnie, while he swam out for Willie. He 
brought him to the shore, but it was some time 
before he became conscious. He was placed in 
Johnnie's bed and the doctor and his mother sent 
for. The doctor thought it best not to move 
Willie for a day or two, until he was stronger. 
The day after, Johnnie sat by Willie's bed, wait-
ing for him to wake. Willie finaly opened his 
eyes. 
" Oh, I am so glad you're awake. I want to 
talk to you." 
" Do you? About the example ? " 
" No; you know we were not to ask anyone 
about it. " 
" Yes, I forgot. It seems a week since yester-
day. " 
" You know the day you showed me how to do 
the example ? " 
Yes, Willie did remember it. 
" Do you know I was mean enough to put a 
stick in your dinner that day? " 
" I didn't find any. " 
" No; I went in and took it out. What made 
you so patient when all us boys tried our best to 
torment you? " 
Because I am trying to be a Christian. " 
"Well, you are a strange boy. Do you know 
you almost died trying to save me ? " 
" The Lord died to save us all. " 
"But wasn't you afraid when you thought you 
was going to die ? " 
" Oh no; I am not afraid to die. " 
Just then Johnnie'sNmother came in and told 
them Willie must not talk any more then. The 
next day Willie went home. It was only a week 
now before school closed; the example was in 
everyone's mind. The boys were to give in their 
papers the day before, so the teacher could see 
who were right. Each boy passed up and laid 
his paper on the desk and took his seat again. 
The teacher laid them in his desk and closed it. 
At noon the scholars had an hour for dinner. Most 
of them went home. After they had gone two 
boys entered and looked around. 
" The coast is clear. " 
" What do you want to take it for ? You won't 
get it. " 
" I don't want it. I only want him to be wrong. 
Every one made such a fuss when he saved John-
nie Brown, if he gets the prize he will be too 
proud to come here to school; he'll have to go to 
a private school when his mother gets rich wash-
ing. " 
They went up to the desk, and looking over the 
papers, took out the one with Willie Dean on it, 
and put in another in its place. After fixing 
things as they were, they went out, taking the 
paper with them. As the door closed, a little 
black head peeped from behind a bench, and Sally 
Jones looked as if she meant to do something. 
Taking her basket, she went to the window and 
climbed out, seated herself under a tree, where the 
boys saw her quietly eating her dinner. She 
watched them tear up the paper and hide the 
pieces in a hole in a tree. 
" Go, get us a match, Sally, will you ? We 
want to burn out a hornet's nest that is in here." 
" I can't reach the matches, but here is some 
more paper for you." 
" All right. You go Jim. " 
" No, I won't; you come with me." 
Jim felt guilty, and was afraid. So putting the 
paper Sally gave them on top, they went after the 
matches. As soon as they were gone, Sally pulled 
out the paper, as she knew there were no hornets 
there, and taking out the white papers and hid-
ing them in her basket, she put the other back 
and went off. She ran as fast as she could to 
Johnnie Brown's house and asked to see him. 
Mrs. Brown called Johnnie, but Sally stood look-
ing at both with red cheeks and flashing eyes. 
They both looked at her in wonder. 
" What do you want of me, Sally ? " 
" I want to whisper. I'm afraid some one will 
hear." 
" Don't you want me to hear ? w asked Mrs. 
Brown. 
" No ma'am•
' 
 if you won't be angry. " 
" No;" said Mrs. Brown, smiling, as she walked 
away. 
Sally took Johnnie's band and went out under 
a tree, where she sat down and told Johnnie to. 
Johnnie obeyed, wondering what would happen 
next. Sally emptied the contents of her basket 
in her lap. 
" There, do you see them, Johnnie Brown ? " 
" Yes; what are they ? " 
Well, they are Willie Dean's example. The 
boys went and stole it and tore it up, and was 
going to burn these, only I stole them, too, I did. " 
" Who did, Sally, and how did you know it ?" 
So Sally told him all about it. 
" Never mind, Sally; I'll paste them together 
and put them back. " 
" You won't tell, will you ? because Jim and 
Louis might hurt me if they knew I told. " 
" No, I won't tell. I'll fix it all right. " 
After making him promise again, Sally went 
away. Johnnie sat in a very thoughtful mood. 
Here was a great temptation; if he did not put 
them back, he would likely get the prize, for 
there was another with Willie's name, Sally said, 
and Mr. Forbes would never know. He thought 
for a long time about all Willie had done for him 
in saving his life, and he got up, determined to 
ask his mother's advice, which he did, not forget-
ting to tell her how he had been tempted. His 
mother thought it best to tell Mr. Forbes, who 
looked at the paper, and finding it right, told 
Johnnie he would arrange it, but not to say any-
thing about it. The next day the room was 
crowded with the friends of the children. After 
the exercises were over, Mr. Forbes arose to tell 
who had received the prize. He cleared his 
throat, and looking around, said, " Willie Dean 
is the only one who is right; he may step for-
ward and explain it on the board." 
Willie stepped forward, and after explaining it 
satisfactorily received a handsome book. Mr. 
Forbes then said: " I have now another prize to 
give, which I did not offer, but I think all will 
agree with me that it is well deserved. There 
were two boys whom you all know, who have 
kept very close in their marks all the term; this 
example was to decide which deserved it. Two 
boys in this school, for reasons which I do not 
know, saw fit to try to take the prize from Willie. 
During my absence they took his paper from my 
desk and placed another in its stead. I will not 
say how Johnnie Brown got it, but he did. If he 
had destoyed it, he would likely receive the prize. 
He worked hard for it, and when it was almost in 
his grasp, he manfully came to me and told of the 
deception. I know the boys who did it, and if I 
return next term, it is according to their behavior 
whether they return or not. John Brown may 
now come forward and receive a prize for proving 
himself a boy that will do right in the face of 
temptation. " 
There was loud applause as Johnnie received 
his prize, and one father and mother felt proud of 
their son. He received the promised velocipede, 
and Willie enjoyed a great many rides on it, for 
Johnnie found it was better to be poor and honest, 
than to be rich and dishonest.—Mrs. M. E. Kidder, 
in Christian at Work. 
Seed Amon°. Thorns. 
A WOMAN of the world went to church. After 
dinner her husband asked her, " What was the 
text, wife ? " 
" Oh, something, somewhere in Generations; 
I've forgotten the chapter and verse. Mrs. High 
sat right before me with a Mother Hubbard bon-
net on. How could I hear anything when I 
could not even see the minister? I wouldn't 
have worn such a looking thing to church if I'd 
had to go bare-headed." 
" How did you like the new minister ?" 
" Oh, he is splendid ! And Kate Darlin was 
there in a Spanish lace cape that never cost a 
cent less than $50; and they can't pay their 
butcher's bill, and l'd wear cotton lace or go 
without any, first." 
" Did he say anything about the new mission 
fund ? " 
" No. And the Jones girls were all rigged out 
in their yellow silks made over; you would have 
OCTOBER 5, 1882. �
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. �
45 
died laughing to have seen them. Such taste as 
those girls have ! And the minister gave out 
that th Dorcas Society will meet next week for 
work at Sister Jones's residence—that old pokey 
place." 
"It seems you didn't hear much of the sermon ?" 
" Well. I'm sure it's better to go to church, if 
you don't hear the sermon, than to stay at home 
and read the papers. And oh, Harry ! the new 
minister has a lovely voice; it nearly put me to 
sleep. And did I tell you that the Riches are 
home from Europe, and Mrs. Rich had a real 
camel-hair shawl on, and it didn't look like any-
thing on her." 
A long silence, during which Harry thought of 
several things, and his wife was busy contempla-
ting the sky-view when she suddenly exclaimed: 
" There I I knew I'd forget to tell you something. 
Would you believe it, Harry, the fringe on Mrs. 
Jones's parasol is an inch deeper than mine, and 
twice as heavy. Oh, dear I What a world of 
trouble this is ! "—Set. 
Religious Notes. 
—The following was adopted at the closing meeting 
of the Methodist Conference recently in session in 
Oakland: "Resolved, That we believe the American 
Sabbath, the day of rest incorporated in the organic 
structure of the nation, is a recognition of the doctrine 
of the decalogue and the authority of God; that any 
attempt to abolish or change the day is an attempt to 
destroy the national life; that the civil Sabbath in the 
Repul5lican States depends upon the ballots of the 
citizens; that it is the duty of the Christian citizen to 
cast his vote where it will best promote the highest 
interests of the Christian Sabbath." 
The 'National German Catholic Central Society, in 
session last week in Milwaukee, adopted a resolution in 
regard to prohibition, from which the following are 
extracts: " We believe in being temperate in all things, 
drinking included, and practice and recommend the 
same course; that we consider erroneous and unwise the 
condemnation and prohibition of the gifts which Provi-
dence has bestowed, such as wine and other beverages 
secured from fruits and grain; that we consider the 
present prohibition agitation as a mental epidemic, 
lacking logical and moral educational principles; that 
we especially protest against a prohibitory declaration 
that the poor-houses and jails throughout the country 
are filled through the effects of the license system." 
" We are of the opinion that the attacks of Prohi-
bitionists upon personal liberty endanger the stability 
of our American institutions. Whoever wishes to sup-
port the latter should oppose prohibition." In this 
connection we also note that the California Methodists 
in their recent Conference, protested against any special 
prohibition agitation, believing that the country is not 
ready for it. They don't want a prohibitory law until 
all men are prohibitionists. 
News and Notes. 
News from Pensacola, Florida, state that the yellow 
fever is still on the increase. 
—The coinage at the San Francisco Mint for the 
month of September was $4,000,000. 
—The reduction of the national debt during the 
month of September was about $16,000,000. 
—The Emperor of Austria has contributed 100,000 
florins for the relief of the sufferers by the floods in the 
Tyrol. 
—The immense sugar refinery of Harrison, Havemeyer 
& Co. at Philadelphia, was burned on the 25th ult. Loss, 
$1,000,000. 
—Judge Folger, Secretary of the Treasury, has been 
nominated by the Republicans of New York, for Gov-
ernor of that State. 
—Small-pox is raging at Cape Town, South Africa. 
There have been over 2,000 cases, mostly natives. Of 
these, 600 have proved fatal. 
—There is evidence of cholera in the State of Chiapas, 
Mexico. In Axtla, with a population of 5,000, there 
were twenty-eight deaths in one day. 
—Miss Frances E. Willard, President of the National 
W. C. T. U. has promised to come to California next 
spring, to labor in the temperance cause. 
—The New Orleans Times-Democrat estimates that 
the flood of 1882 costs the Southwest over $26,000,000, 
of which $15,000,000 fell to Louisiana's share. 
—It is estimated that the corn crop of Texas will 
reach 170,000,000 bushels. The value of the State's 
aaTicultural products is placed at $100,000,000. 
—Dr. Norman Kerr, the medical temperance worker, 
estimates the annual morality of the intemperate in 
Great Britain at 40,500, and the indirect mortality re-
sulting from intemperance at double that number. 
—Governor Hawkins, of Tennessee, says that the 
prospects of the South as a manufacturing section are 
very flattering. About $2,000,000 are now invested in 
Tennessee in cotton factories, which are paying large 
profits. 
—The Khedive will shortly issue a decree granting 
amnesty to all officers, from captains downward, en-
gaged in the rebellion, except those who participated 
in the riots or joined the army since the beginning of 
the campaign. 
The Republicans of the Second Congressional Dis-
trict., Louisiana, succeeded in making their nominations 
only after a f ee fight, in which many were knocked 
down, pistols were drawn and fired, and the Sergeant-
at-arms was fatally stabbed. 
Judge Jere Black has espoused the cause of the 
Mormons, and will present to the Secretary of the 
Interior an argument in favor of the removal of Gov-
ernor Murray, of Utah, and also to prove that the Utah 
Commission is unconstitutional. 
—A party of horsemen belonging to the French 
topographical expedition, was recently attacked by 
brigands near Tunis. The French commander was 
killed, and seven of his men disabled. The brigands 
lost thirty killed and fifty wounded. 
—Two men in Virginia recently settled a long-stand-
ing feud under pecuiar circumstances. While service 
was quietly progressing in the Baptist church, the peo-
ple were startled by the sound of fire-arms. A panic 
ensued, in which many persons were injured, Both the 
men were killed. 
—The Porte has addressed a note to the British Am-
bassador, demanding to know what steps are contem-
plated by his Government in regard to the withdrawal 
of the British troops from Egypt, as they are no longer 
needed in that country. It will doubtless be some time 
before the Porte receives an entirely satisfactory answer. 
The saloon-keepers of Union Grove, Wis., were 
greatly incensed against a minister because he stated in 
a prohibition convention that the business men of the 
place favored license. They claimed that such a state-
ment gave their town a bad name. It is a good sign 
when rum-sellers begin to feel that their business is a 
disgrace. 
—The Railroad Commissioners of California, at a 
recent meeting, passed a resolution fixing the maximum 
rate for transportion of passengers on all roads in this 
State at four cents per mile, and that in fixing the rate 
of fare for passengers, the distance shall be estimated 
at the nearest whole number of miles, and the charges 
shall be estimated at the nearest multiple of five cents. 
—The system of selling goods on installments, with 
the proviso that the seller may seize the articles when-
ever a single payment has been neglected, and that 
without refunding anything, has received a blow in an 
English County Court. The Judge described the agree-
ment in common use as most infamous, and ordered a 
nonsuit, declining to hear the plaintff's solicitor or to 
grant a case of appeal. 
—There are sixty Methodist churches in New York 
City. 
—In the United States there is one regularly ordained 
minister to every 700 inhabitants, while in India, China, 
Japan, and Africa, there is only one missionary to every 
2,000,000 people. 
The Christian Union thinks that Moody's career 
as a special itinerating evangelist is fast drawing to a 
close, and that in a few years his name and work will 
be a pleasant memory, and nothing more. 
—At the Franklin Baptist Association held at Mc-
Leansboro recently, strong resolutions were adopted on 
the Sunday question, asking for not only a strict dis-
cipline in the churches, but for an enforcement of State 
laws. 
The California correspondent of the Christian 
Statesman, in a recent communication to that paper, 
made the following statement: " Politics and the politi-
cal and secular press do much to mould the sentiment 
of the pulpit." 
—A " captain " in the Salvation Army, in England, 
accepted a gold watch as a testimonial of respect from 
the people of the district where he had been laboring, 
and was discharged from the army in consequence. 
Two " lieutenants," who had accepted similar gifts, 
were also discharged, but were restored to their position 
on returning the presents. 
—The 8. S. Times, says: " The New Testament Re-
vision took off the head of at least 10,000 sermons, 
more or less. And 10,000 more sermons—and not less—
would have their heads taken off if the Bible facts or 
Bible figures on which they are based were examined 
more critically. The Bible text is inspired; but ser-
mons f. oin Bible texts are commonly not inspired." 
—The Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago 
has sent invitations to the ministers of the northwest 
for a Convention to be held in that city on the 11th, 
12th, and 13th inst., to consider the question of revival 
work during the coming winter. Over 450 ministers 
have signified their intention to be present. Several 
eminent clergymen from Europe and America will 
deliver addresses. 
—The parishioners of a clergyman in Scotland, in 
expressing to him their aversion to the use of manu-
script sermons, asked: " What gars ye take up your 
bit papers to the pulpit?" H replied that it was 
best, for, really, he could not remember a sermon, and 
must have his paper. " Weel, wee], minister," they 
retaliated, " if ye canna remember the sermon, then 
dinna expect that we can." 
—The Iroquois County Times, published at Watseka, 
Ill., gives an account of the S. D. Adventists' camp- 
meeting recently held there, and speaks very highly of 
the order on the ground, and of the principles taught 
and practiced by our people. It says, in closing: " We 
should be glad to welcome back the Seventh-day Ad-
ventists another year, and in this we but echo the 
unanimous sentiment of the people of Watseka." 
—We hardly know how to characterize the action of 
the Methodist Conference in adopting a " telegram of 
brotherly sympathy to S. A. Redding, who lingers just 
on this side the river, and ever expects to pass over 
into the good land beyond." There seems to be just a 
little doubt as to the goodness of the land to which he 
is immediately going, or else their action was a farce. 
The Conference meant well, but it is hard for the best 
of men to reconcile a false doctrine with common sense. 
—There is said to be a young preacher in Richmond, 
Va., who uses in his sermons such language as this: 
" Uncommeasurable eternities," "redemption-condi-
tioned creation," " internal self-determination impaled 
upon the sharp retribution of an overmastering om-
nipotence," " the ethical activity of inert masses," " the 
interior divinity flashing forth in transfiguring splendor 
and revealing the separateness of the Son of God," etc. 
All of the preceding was taken from one of his pub-
lished sermons. That man could study the sermon on 
the mount with great profit. 
—Dr. R. H. Mc Donald, President of the Pacific Bank, 
San Francisco, was nominated for Governor of Califor-
nia, by the newly-organized Prohibition Home Protec-
tion Party. 
—Earthquakes have continued in Panama since the 
7th ult. The losses at Panama amount to $250,000; at 
Aspinwall they amount to $1,000,000. There have been 
four deaths. 
The boys of the Somerville Glass Works, Boston, 
struck for higher wages; but the Chief of Police threat-
ened to make them go to school, and they at once re-
sumed work. 
A law just passed in Denmark provides that all 
drunken persons shall be taken home in carriages at the 
expense of the landlord who sold them the last glass. 
Now, that is civilization. 
—Eight of the princip'e lecturers of the Women's 
Suffrage Association are to lecture in Nebraska until 
the election. At that time a vote is to be taken on the 
Womon's Suffrage Ammendment. 
One of the severest storms ever known in that place 
occurred at Red Bluff, Cal., October 1. Both the hail-
storm and the heavy rain which followed, were accom-
panied by heavy thunder and lightning. 
—Tn an interview between Said Pasha, the Turkish 
Prime Minister, and the Greek Minister, at Constan-
tinople, the latter declared that Greece would not re-
nounce an inch of territory ceded to her by the Porte. 
—The Pennsylvania Railway Company is placing 
upon the engine of each of its trains a tin box contain-
ing.bandages, lint, liniments, etc., which will be accessi-
ble to conductors and other train hands in case of acci-
dent. 
—One of the speakers in the economical section of the 
British Association, which recently met at Southamton, 
England, claimed that the stature of the various popula-
tions in the British Islands had been sensibly diminished 
by the use of tobacco. In the same section a warm dis-
cussion took place on the question of liquor licensing, 
and Professor Bourne claimed that an increase of the 
duty on spirituous liquors was necessary, seeing that the 
greater part of the revenue derived from this source 
was expended directly in preventing, punishing, and 
repairing the evils which result from the liquor traffic. 
—S. S. Times. 
—The Monitor (Catholic), on the " End of the Egyp-
tian Struggle," says: "Gladstone's oft-repeated promises, 
if they are fulfilled, will not satisfy the people of Eng-
land, who have no desire to be taxed to carry on a fracus 
against a section of the Egyptian people for the mere 
glory of marching up the hill and down again. In the 
meantime, Russia is rapidly getting her munitions of 
war in handy places for ready use; France and Italy 
are burnishing up their armor, and, if the gams of the 
times' point, to anything, they designate a determina-
tion among the European powers to prepare for a terrible 
conflict at no distant day, a war that will change the 
boundaries of some European countries, and make Eng-
land sorry that she ever entered upon the Egyptian 
imbroglio. " 
—An interesting case is under advisement by a San 
Francisco Court. The law makes it a crime to admit or 
permit a child under sixteen to enter or remain in a 
saloon or any place of entertainment where liquors are 
sold,'exchanged, or given away. Three girls, from eight 
to twelve years of age, were sent to a saloon by their 
parents for beer, and were admitted and the beer sold to 
them. The defense is that the law does not apply to 
children sent by their parents on an errand. How the 
defendant manages to squeeze such an idea from the 
cold and dry letter of the law, or its evident spirit and 
purpose, either, is more than ordinary mortals can di-
vine. It is difficult to see how parents can give permis-
sion for the violation of the law. It is a law for pa 
regulation in society, and not for parents merely, who 
may or refuse to consent to its avoidance.—Record-
Union. 
456 �
TI-11-1, SIGNS OF T T-I 
Fil �
VoL. 8 No. 88. 
To R. F. E.—We have no copy of it. 
SOMEBODY sends an order for the Special Edition of 
the SIGNS, but gives no name or address. The envelope 
bears the postmark of Dublin, Neb. Who is it ? 
No paper Next week. 
THE date of this paper is the time of the commence-
ment of the camp-meeting at Healdsburgh. Next week, 
Oct. 12, there will be no paper published, as we wish all 
the hands to have the opportunity of attending the 
meeting. 
Dr. Harper, who is undisputed authority on such ques 
tions, and received the following answer:— 
ELDER URIAH SMITH: 
Dear Brother,— 
The article referred to has already 
been called to my attention several times. I can only 
say in reference to it; 1. That subsequent numbers of 
the Popular Science Monthly contained replies to this 
article, and that it would only be fair if those papers 
which published the article would also publish the 
reply. 2. That no more false conception of Hebrew 
syntax could be penned than that which lies at the 
foundation of the article. The writer shows himself to 
be lamentably ignorant of the most common principles 
of the language. A more brazen, unreliable, unschol-
arly statement could not well be imagined. It is so 
absurd as to be unworthy of a reply. 
Yours truly, �
W. R. HARPER, 
Baptist Union Theological Seminary, Chicago, Ill. 
Newspaper Change. 
ceive the warning. And shall we see the command-
ment of God assailed, despised, subordinated to human 
policy and to party politics, and sit still and say noth-
ing ? God forbid. Our prayer is that we may be yet 
more faithful, and give the warning with yet greater 
zeal for the honor of God and his truth. 
THOUGHTS ON REVELATION, 
CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL, 
BY ELDER U. SMITH. 
THIS work presents every verse in the hook of Revelation with such 
remarks as serve to illuarate or explain the meaning of the text. It is 
a new and harmonious exposition of that important book, and is designed 
to create an interest in its study. 416 pp. *4.25. 
Address, �
SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. 
Or, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich. 
THOUGHTS ON BAPTISM. 
,ign5 of Of F into. 
OAKLAND, CAL., FIFTH-DAY, OCTOBER 5, 1882. 
Prospects for Camp-Meeting. 
MR. J. B. IRISH, late of Iowa, has purchased a half 
interest in the Oakland Times, and taken editorial con-
trol of the paper. Mr. Irish comes to this city with a 
well-established reputation as a journalist and a poli-
tician. In his hands the Times becomes a Democratic 
paper. Each party has now a representative paper in 
Oakland. 
Sunday in California. 
MANY of the secular papers and politicians fail to see 
why we should take so much interest in the political 
campaign in this State, seeing that our paper has been 
kept entirely aloof from politics heretofore. They look 
at the matter with the eyes of politicians, and yet they 
know that we are conscientious observers of the seventh 
day of the week, which is the Sabbath of the Lord, and 
that political editors and speakers are demanding a 
Sunday Law so rigorous, enforced by penalties so heavy, 
that no one will dare to transact any business on Sun-
day. This is a direct infringement on our rights as 
citizens and Christians. These editors and speakers 
largely admit that it is not a matter of conscience with 
them, and ministers, as A. J. Nelson for instance, openly 
declare that conscience must be subordinated to civil 
law! Others advocate the Sunday Law professedly on 
"sanitary" grounds alone, and preach stirring sermons 
on "police regulations." We do not object to their tak-
ing such a questionable course, ie they see fit to act so 
inconsistently with the true position of ministers and 
Christians; we recognize their "free agency," and let 
their: take their own course. But we do object to their 
efforts to subordinate our consciences to matters of 
worldly policy. We do object to any party, for the 
sake of gaining votes, announcing its intention to re-
strain us in the exercise of our constitutional rights in 
matters of religion. Ministers, acting as politicians, 
may subordinate their consciences as much as they 
please. We will give them the credit of knowing how 
little their consciences are worth, but will not admit 
that ours are equally valueless. We shall make known 
our principles and our rights as far as we possibly can. 
Another important point they entirely overlook. This 
religio-political campaign is in the direct interest of a 
counterfeit Sabbath, an illegitimate substitute for the 
Sabbath—the rest day—of the Creator of the heavens 
and the earth. We love the Bible, and its Author, and 
its institutions. God has never acted without a reason. 
His institutions are not the result of chance or caprice. 
He gave his Sabbath as a memorial of creation, that 
people might know that he is God, the Creator of all. 
Eze. 20:11, 12, 19, 20; Acts 17:22-29; Rev. 14:6, 7, 
and others. This memorial is set aside without a par- 
ticle of Scripture proof or warrant, and a relic of super- 
stition exalted in its place, and a great party in Cali-
fornia stands pledged to make all men bow to the act 
of usurpation. And then politicians, whose vision has 
no wider range than to take in votes, rise up in wonder 
that we should take any interest in the matter! Of all 
people we should' be most deeply interested. Who was 
more deeply interested in the law of Persia than Daniel, 
seeing that the law struck directly against his worship 
of the true God ? 
We have an important truth for these last days. See 
Rev. 14: 9-14. But we have not received it for our-
selves alone. We owe a duty to God and to the world. 
The commandments of God, fourth commandment in-
cluded, and the faith of Jesus, are the "present trilth," 
and must be proclaimed to the world. Great events 
are near to come, and all nations and people must re- 
ELDER ISRAEL sends us (Oct. 2,) very cheering news 
from Healdsburgh. Preparations for the meeting were 
well under way. The rain had laid the dust nicely and 
the weather conies off warm and pleasant, as it always 
does in California after a rain. Everybody is looking 
for a good meeting, and we believe they will not be dis-
appointed. 
EtIrly Rains in California. 
THE rainfall Sept. 16 was quite heavy in some places, 
and the area covered by th rain was quite large. Early 
on the morning of the 30th it commenced to rain again, 
and during that day and Oct. 1 the fall was consider-
able, especially for this season of the year. This is the 
first time within our knowledge of California that it 
rained twice in September. •Of course this is no proof 
that we shall not have a pleasant fall. We had two 
weeks of splendid weather since the other rain. 
The papers state that the Indians in Butte County 
are predicting a wet winter, and are already making 
preparations to guard against the heavy floods. We 
never knew Californians to frown at the idea of a wet 
winter. 
Guide to Correct Language. 
WE have before noticed this work, by Prof. G. H. 
Bell, late of Battle Creek College. The author has the 
publication and sale of the book in his own hands now. 
His address is South Lancaster, Mass. We are sending 
for a quantity for the benefit of our apprentices and 
others in this office. No printing-office should be with 
out it. 
The Bliss of Ignorance. • 
WHEN Bishop Ames was once holding Conference in 
Illinois, a preacher, who looked with disdain upon edu-
cated ministers, made a speech against such; and thanked 
God that he had never been to college. " Do I under-
stand," said the Bishop, "that the brother is thankful 
for his ignorance ?" " You might consider it in that 
light," he replied. " Then," added the Bishop, "I think 
he has much for which to be thankful." 
It is not alone in the Methodist Church, nor in "the 
rural districts," that we find professed teachers who feel 
complacent in their ignorance; who boast that they do 
not understand the words which the Holy Spirit has 
given to us for light and instruction (See 2 Peter 1: 
19-21, and 2 Tim. 3:15-17), and look with disdain upon 
those who will not rest content with the same degree of 
ignorance which they so justly claim. And yet, in the 
words of Solomon, they are wiser in their own conceits 
than seven men who can render a reason. From all 
such, we pray, Deliver us. 
Quackery in Hebrew Exposed. 
SOME time since, there was sent to us an article first 
published in the Popular Science Monthly, in which 
the writer attempted to prove that our translation of 
Genesis, in which is giien the age of the patriarchs, is 
incorrect; that the true reading of the. Hebrew Makes 
Adam's age 139 years instead of 930. We were well 
aware that it was incorrect, and laid it aside for exam-
ination, but before we found time to attend to it, the 
editor of the Review and Herald had referred it to 
BY ELD. J. H. WAGGONER. 
Being an examination of its ACTION, SUBJECTS, and 
RELATIONS. 
Also, a brief consideration of the 
Historical Evidences of Trine Immersion. 
Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 
Price, postpaid, Paper Covers, 25c.; Flexible Cloth, 35e. 
Address, �
SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. 
BIBLE SANCTIFICATION: 
A CONTRAST OF 
TRUE AND FALSE THEORIES. 
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE. 
THIS is a pamphlet of only 84 pages, but its value is not 
to be judged by its size. �
It is just what its title indi- 
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SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. 
NEW MUSIC! 
THE LAST IS THE. BEST! 
TUST published by GEO. D. RUSSELL, 126 Tremont St., Bos-
ton, a new book of music, 160 pages, entitled 
PEARLY PORTALS, 
BY, D. S. HAKES, 
The music and words of this book are mostly entirely new, 
and well adapted to the Sabbath-school and social circle. It 
is receiving the most unqualified praise from all who have ex-
amined it, The music is of a high order throughout and yet 
not at all difficult. Per copy, 35 cents ; $3,60 per dozen, 
Biund, 50 cents ; $5,00 per dozen. 
Address, �SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. 
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY, AT OAKLAND, CAL., FOR THE 
Missionary Society of Seventh-day Adventists. 
A twelve-page Religious Family Paper, devoted to a discussion of alb 
Prophecies, Signs ot toe 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, �
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-OR- 
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Eta J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, Ravens- 
ton, England. 
wood, Shirley Road, Southamp- 
SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 
SPECIAL EDITION. 
THIS Edition of four pages will be printed ten weeks, 
commencing September 7, 1882, Its object •is to get before 
the people the position of Seventh-clay Adventists on the 
Sunday question, and to present the claims of the true Sab-
bath of the Bible—the Seventh day. 
Terms: One copy ten weeks, 25 cents. Six copies to one 
address, $1.00. $10,00 per. hundred. Two and three-cent 
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Address, SIGNS DF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. 
OUR PUBLICATIONS IN ENGLAND. 
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