" Behold, 1 come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22 :12. 
VOLUME 9. 
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, FIFTH—DAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1883. 
NUMBER 7. 
Entered at the Post;Office in Oakland, Cal. 
LET ME 1.,E.A.N. HARD. 
LET me lean hard upon the Eternal Breast. 
In all earth's devious ways I sought for rest 
And found it no . 
I will be strong, said I, 
And lean upon myself! I will not cry 
And importune all Heaven with my complaint— 
But now my strength fails, and I fall, I faint. 
Let me lean hard. 
Let me lean hard upon the unfailing Arm. 
I said I will walk on, I fear no harm ; 
The spark divine within my soul will show 
The upward pathway where my feet should go. 
But now the heights to which I most aspire 
Are lost in clouds. I stumble, and I tire. 
Let me lean hard. 
Let me lean harder yet. That swerveless Force 
That speeds the solar systems on their course 
Can take, unfel-' 
 the burden of my woe 
Which bears ma to the dust, and hurts me so. 
I thought my strength enough for any fate, 
But lo! I sink beneath my sorrow's weight. 
Let me lean harder yet. 
Let me lean hard, with that abandonment 
Of self to God that means complete content. 
I said, I do not fear the hosts of sin; 
I will be true to the divine within. 
But lo! I find I am not great enough 
To make my way o'er places that are rough, 
And through strange valleys, dark with shades of 
doubt, 
Unless help comes from some high source without. 
Let me lean hard. 
—Ella Wheeler. 
eneral Articles. 
The Love of Christ. 
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE. 
OH, was there ever suffering and sorrow like 
that endured by the dying Saviour ! It' was the 
sense of his Father's displeasure which made his 
cup so bitter. It was not bodily suffering which 
so quickly ended the life of. Christ upon the cross. 
It was the crushing weight of the sins of the 
world, and a sense of his Father's wrath that 
broke his heart. The Father's glory and sustain-
ing presence had left him, and despair pressed its 
crushing weight of darkness upon him, and 
forced from his pale and quivering lips the an-
guished cry: " My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me ? " 
Jesus had united with the Father in making 
the world. Amid the agonizing sufferings of the 
Son of God, blind and deluded men alone remain 
unfeeling. The chief priests and elders revile 
God's. dear Son while in his expiring agonies. 
Yet inanimate nature groans in sympathy with 
her bleeding, dying Author. The earth trembles. 
The sun refuses to behold the scene. The heavens 
gather blackness. Angels have witnessed the 
scene of suffering until they can look on no 
longer, and hide their faces from the horrid sight. 
Christ is in despair He is dying ! His Father's 
approving smile is removed, and angels are not 
permitted to lighten the gloom of the terrible 
hour. They could only behold in amazement 
their loved Commander suffering the penalty of 
man's transgression of the Father's law. 
Even doubts assailed the dying Son of God. 
Re could not see through the portals of the tomb. 
Bright hope did not present to him his coming 
forth from the tomb a conqueror, and his Father's 
acceptance of his sacrifice. The sin of the world 
with all its terribleness was felt to the utmost by 
the Son of God. The displeasure of the Father 
for sin, and its penalty, which was death, were 
all that he could realize through 'this amazing 
darkness. He was tempted to fear that sin was 
so offensive in the sight of' his Father that he 
could not be reconciled to his Son. The fierce 
temptation 'that his own Father had forever left 
him, caused that piercing cry from the cross " My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " 
Christ felt much as sinners will feel when the 
vials of God's wrath shall be poured out upon 
them. Black despair like the pall of death will 
gather about their guilty souls, and then they 
will realize to the fullest extent the sinfulness of 
sin. Salvation has been purchased for them by 
the suffering and death of the Son of God. It 
might be theirs if they would accept of it will-
ingly, gladly; but none are compelled to yield 
obedience to the law of God. If they refuse the 
heavenly benefit, if they choose the pleasures and 
deceitfulness of sin, they can have their choice, 
and at the end receive their wages, which is the 
wrath of God and eternal death. They will be 
forever separated from the presence of Jesus, 
whose sacrifice they had despised. They will 
have lost a life of happiness, and sacrificed eter-
nal glory for the pleasures of sin for a season. 
Faith and hope trembled in the expiring ago-
nies of Christ, because God had removed the as-
surance he had heretofore given his beloved Son of 
his approbation and acceptance. The Redeemer 
of the world then relied upon the evidences 
which had hitherto strengthened him, that his 
Father accepted his labors and was pleased with 
his work. In his dying agony, as he yields up 
his precious life, he has by faith alone to trust in 
Him whom it has ever been his joy to obey. He 
is not cheered with clear, bright rays of hope on 
the right hand nor on the left. All is enshrouded 
in oppressive gloom. Amid the awful darkness 
which is felt even by sympathizing nature, the 
Redeemer drains the mysterious cup even to its 
dregs. Denied even bright hope and confidence 
in the triumph which will be his in the near 
future, he cries with a loud voice, "Lord into thy 
hands I commit my spirit." He is acquainted 
with- the character of his Father, his justice, his 
mercy, and great love. In submission he drops 
into the hands of his Father. Amid the convul-
sions of nature are heard by the amazed specta-
tors the dying words of the Man of Calvary, " It 
is finished." 
Nature sympathized with the sufferings of its 
Author. The heaving earth, the rent rocks, and 
the terrific darkness, proclaimed that it was the 
Son of God that died. There was a mighty earth-
quakp. The vail of the temple was rent in twain. 
Terror seized the executioners and spectators as 
they beheld the sun vailed in darkness, and felt 
the earth shake beneath them, and saw and heard 
the rending of the rocks. The mocking and jeer- 
ing of the chief priests and elders was hushed as 
Christ commended his spirit into the hands of his 
Father. The astonished throng began to with- 
draw, and grope their way in the darkness to the 
city. They smote upon their breasts as they 
went, and in terror, speaking scarcely above a 
whisper, said among themselves, "It is an inno-
cent person that has been murdered. What if; 
indeed, he is, as he asserted, the Son of God ? 
Jesus did not yield up his life till he had ac-
complished the work which he came to do, and 
exclaimed with his departing breath, "It is fin- 1 
ished ! " Satan was then defeated. He knew 
that his kingdom was lost. Angels rejoiced as 
the words were uttered, "It is finished." The 
great plan of redemption, which was dependent 
on the death of Christ, had been thus far carried t 
out. And there was joy in Heaven that the 
Ely *0 of Ot Eimes. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY, FOR THE 
S. D. A. MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
(For Terms, etc., See Last Page.) 
sons of Adam could, through a life of obedience, 
be finally exalted to the throne of God. Oh, 
what love ! what amazing love ! that brought 
the Son of God to earth to be made sin for us, 
that we might be reconciled to God, and elevated 
to a life with him in his mansions in glory. And 
oh ! what is man that such a price should be paid 
for his redemption ? 
When men and women can more fully compre-
hend the magnitude of the great sacrifice which 
was made by the Majesty of Heaven in dying in 
man's stead, then will the plan of salvation' be 
magnified, and reflections of Calvary will awaken 
sacred and living emotions in the Christian's 
heart. Praises to God and the Lamb will be in 
their hearts and upon their lips. Pride and self-
worship cannot flourish in the hearts that keep 
fresh in memory the scenes of Calvary. This 
word will appear of but little value to those who 
appreciate the great price of man's redemption. 
All the riches of the world are not of sufficient 
value to redeem one perishing soul. Who can 
measure the love Christ felt for a lost world, as he 
hung upon the cross, suffering 'for the sins of 
guilty men ? This love was immeasurable, infinite. 
Christ has shown that his love was stronger 
than death. Even when suffering the most fear-
ful conflicts with the powers of darkness his love 
for perishing sinners increased. He endured the 
hidings of his Father's countenance, until he was 
led to exclaim in the bitterness of his soul, " My 
God, my God, why bast thou forsaken me ? " 
His arm brought salvation. The price was paid 
to purchase the redemption of man, when, in the 
last soul .struggle, the blessed words were uttered, 
which seemed to resound through creation, " It is 
finished." 
Many who profess to be Christians become ex-
cited over worldly enterprises, and their interest 
is awakened for new and exciting amusements, 
while they are cold-hearted, and appear as if 
frozen in the cause of God. But here is a theme, 
poor formalist, which is of sufficient importance 
to excite you. Eternal interests are here in-
volved. The scenes of Calvary call for the deep- 
est emotions. Upon this subject you will be ex- 
cusable if you manifest enthusiasm. That Christ, 
so excellent, so innocent, should suffer such a 
painful death, bearing the weight of the sins of 
the world, our thoughts and imagination can 
never fully reach, so that we can comprehend the 
length, the breadth, the height, and the depth, 
of such amazing love. The contemplation of the 
matchless love of the Saviour, should fill and ab-
sorb the mind, touch and melt the soul, refine and 
elevate the affections, and completely transform 
the whole character. The language of the apostle 
is, "I determined not to know anything among 
you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified." And 
we may look toward Calvary, and also exclaim, 
" God forbid that I should glory save in the cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is 
crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Con-
sidering at what an immense cost our salvation 
has been purchased, what will be the portion of 
those who neglect .so great salvation ? What will 
be the punishment of those who profes,s to be fol-
lowers of Christ yet fail to bow in humble obedi-
ence to the claims' of their Redeemer, and who do 
not take the cross, as humble disciples of Christ ? 
Some have limited views of the atonement. 
They think that Christ suffered only a small 
portion of the penalty of the law of God, and 
that while the wrath of God was felt by his dear 
Son, they suppose that he had, through all his 
painful sufferings, the evidence of his Father's 
ove and acceptance, and that the*w-tals of the 
tomb before him were illuminated With bright 
hope. Here is a great mistake. Christ's keenest 
anguish was a sense of his Father's displeasure. 
His mental agony because of this was of such in-
ensity that man can have but faint conception 
of it. 
 
 
 
1 
 
 
74 �
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. �Vol,. 9, No. 7. 
 
 
 
 
 
�
With many the history of the humiliation and �
The Resurrection Not Progressive. �
lays off its corporeal incumbrance and never puts 
�
sacrifice of our divine Lord does not stir the soul �
it on again. It passes at once to a higher plane 
�
and affect the life any more, nor awaken deeper �
THE theory which especially calls for our atten _ of life, in total separation from all that is material. 
interest than to read of the death of the martyrs tion is that which is sometimes known as the That Which died never lives again, and that which 
of Jesus. Many have suffered death by slow
eralists," �
" continues to live" never dies. Where, then, is 
progressive theory. It is largely favored by "lib- 
�
tortures. Others have suffered death by crucifix- �and indeed by all classes that deny the the resurrection of the dead? There is, in this 
ion. In what does the death of God's dear Son personal coming of our Lord to raise the dead. theory, absolutely no room for the idea of the dead 
�
differ from these ? It is true he died upon the �
living again. There is a " translation "' of the 
We state it briefly, in the language of a distin- 
�
cross a most cruel death; yet others for his dear �
spirit, a separation from the body, which might 
guished writer, in one of the leading periodical 
sake have suffered equally, as f �
organs of Universalism as follows:"The truth is 
�
far as bodily tor- �
be called a promotion, but we see no resurrection. 
, �
, 
�
ture is concerned. Why, then, was the suffering �
No intelligible conception. .of a resurrection can 
that the resurrection is a progressive work. it 
�
of Christ more dreadful than that of other per- �
be formed without the idea of something living_ 
is a translation from the earthly to the spiritual 
�
sons who have yielded their lives for his sake ? �
I �
again which had been dead; but this, radical idea 
life. �
t is simply a release of the spirit of man 
�
If the sufferings of Christ consisted in physical �
, �
o a resurrection is excluded utterly. 
�
to live. The essential element that constitutes �
When 
from -his corporeal surroundings. He continues 
�
pain alone, then his death was no more painful �
Christ arose, he said, "I am he that liveth, and 
'than that of some of the martyrs. . 
�
�
was, dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore." 
man a rational and intelligent entity does not die 
�
But bodily pain was only a small part of the �
His was a, resurrection, a coming back to life! . 
when it lays off its tabernacle of clay, but is given 
�
agony of God's dear Son. The sins of the world �
The resurrection is a miracle. It belongs to no 
greater facility to do its exalted ministry as an 
�
were upon him, and also the sense of' his Father's �
other class of facts than the supernatural. Those 
angel of God." 
wrath as he suffered the penalty of the law. It
who have gotten above or beyond the admission 
This is a "progressive" statement, the first 
�
was these that crushed his divine soul. It was �
of the miraculous have no place for this doctrine, 
sentence being explained by the second, the see- 
�
the hiding of his Father's face, a sense that his �
and no business with it. And being a miracle, it 
and by the third, and so on to the end. The 
�
own dear Father had forsaken him, which brought �
mast be studied in the light of miracles. If it 
"progressive work," according to this theory, is 
despair. The separation that sin makes between
were a natural event, we should study it in the 
not to be construed so as to imply that there is 
�
God and man was fully realized and keenly felt �
light of natural events. We should then want to 
progression in the process of the resurrection, as 
�
by the innocent, suffering Man of Calvary. He �
see something about the laws, the forces, or the 
an individual experience, but that the matter of 
�
was oppressed by the powers of darkness. He �
progressiveagents or causes, that were to bring it to pass. 
passing into the resurrection state is a 
 
bad not one ray of light to brighten the future. work, in opposition 
 
We should look after the obstructions or difficul- 
And
simultaheous resurrection. The translation from 
�
he was struggling with the power of Satan, 
�
to the common idea of a ti.es to be encountered, and scan all the conditions 
�
who was declaring that Christ was in his hands, �
necessary to the production of the contemplated 
the earthly to the spiritual life does not take 
�
and that he was superior in strength to the Son 
�
�
result, and summon to our aid all the light that 
of God, that God had disowned his Son, and that place by degrees, but is accomplished at once as 
to the individual, while it is progressive as to the philosophy and science could bring; but this is all 
race. The idea is, that the soul possesses all the 
�
he was no longer in the favor of God any more �
out of place while studying a miracle. The res- 
�
than himself. If he was indeed still in favor with 
�
does not result from natural laws or 
elements of the spiritual or resurrection body, and 
�
God, why need he die ? God could save him from 
�
�
causes, and therefore the study of these will shed 
that its emergence from the corporeal structure,
death.
light upon the question of its possibility or 
the earthy body, in the event of death, is in itself no 
Christ yielded not in the least degree to the the resurrection. Hence the statement that it probability. In order to determine the possibill 
" 
�
torturing foe, even in his bitterest anguish. Le- �
ity of its occurrence, we 'must study the super- 
is simply a release of the spirit of man from its 
�
gions of evil angels were all about the Son of �
It being " simply" this, natural powers and agencies on which miracles 
corporeal surroundings." 
�
God, yet the holy angels were bidden not to �
depend; and in deciding upon its probability we 
and nothing more, there is no radical difference 
�
break their ranks and engage in conflict with the �
are to look at the moral ends proposed, and see 
and no perceptible distinction in 
between death and the resurrection from the dead, 
�
taunting, reviling foe. Heavenly angels were �
time between whether he who only can accomplish the work 
�
not permitted to minister unto the anguished �
has given his word that he will do it. We are 
the two events, if we can call them two events. 
�
spirit of the Son of God. It was in this terrible �
thus brought back to divine revelation for all 
Death is the resurrection; for death releases the 
hour of darkness, the face of his Father hidden, spirit from its corporeal surroundings, removes light and all hope. It is a subject of revelation 
the "intelligent entity " 
�
legions of evil angels enshrouding him, the sins �
from its " tabernacle of purely, an effect of divine power and wisdom, be- 
of the world upon him, that the words were clay," and translates it from the earthly to the Fond the range of natural agencies. 
wrenched from his lips, " My God, my God, why spiritual life beyond. �
So the Saviour regarded it, and would have 
bast thou forsaken me ? " 
This is no misconception of the doctrine of a others regard it, when he rebuked the Sadducees 
�
We should take larger, broader, and deeper �
for �
t
their unbelief 
on the sub 
lief, and their vi The tried to 
cious methods of 
views of the life, sufferings, and death of God's progressive resurrection. We take it in the lan- 
guage of its friends, and clothe it in the garb they argumentation �
ject. �
y 
dear Son. When the atonement is viewed cor- have prepared for it, and shall deal with it in all carry the laws of earthly life, and the limitations 
rectly, the salvation of souls will be felt to be of honesty. If it does not confound death and the of natural agencies, over into the sphere of the 
�
infinite value. In comparison with the enterprise �
miraculous. [n tills they erred, as do modern 
prebend it. Death does all for the man that this 
resurrection, at least as to time, we fail to com- 
�
of everlasting life every other sinks into insignifi- �
objectors, who disbelieve the doctrine of the res- 
cance. But how have the counsels of this loving theory ascribes to the resurrection; and the two urrection because they are unable to see its pros- 
Saviour been despised by many. The heart'sevents are so related, �
they are not identical esses, or to comprehend the forces necessary to 
, 
�
devotions have been to the world, and selfish �
if 
that one never takes place without the other. �
accomplish it. The Saviour's reply to all such 
interests have closed the door against the Son of 
We object to this theory that it is liable to the objectors was pertinent, and will never cease to be 
God. Hollow hypocrisy and pride, selfishness censure that Paul passed upon ,some heretical appropriate, so long as men strive to obstruct 
and gain, envy, malice, and passion,' have so
faith in the resurrection by alleging difficulties 
theories of the resurrection in his day. He en- 
 the hearts of' many that Christ can have no countered some who affirmed that " the resurrec- arising from their imperfect perception of natural 
room. �
tion was passed already;" and they doubtless laws. " Ye do therefore err, not knowing the 
�
He was eternally rich, " yet for our sakes be- �
Scriptures, neither the power of God." The res- 
came
argued the subject learnedly, and made their 
�
poor, that we through his poverty might �
urrection depends on God's power. If he is able 
�
theory appear plausible; for the apostle assures 
be made rich.". He was clothed with light and �
to raise the
i dead; that is enough. It is illogical. 
us that they had "overtkrown the faith of some." 
�
glory, surrounded with hosts of heavenly angels �
to reason on this subject without taking God into 
It is clear, however, that the apostle did not 
awaiting to execute his commands. Yet he put agree with them. Whatever he taught concern- the account. If he possesses power enough and 
on our nature, and came to sojourn among sinful ing the resurrection of the dead, it is certain that wisdom enough, and promises to do it, that ends 
men �
" Behold, what manner of love the Father �
Controversy with Christians. We therefore close 
he favored no theory that would allow it to be 
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called said of those gone before, that their "resurrection this chapter with the remark, that it is absolutely 
the sons of God." Here is love that no languaue is past." This is the very point he denied and impossible for any one to frame an objection to 
can express. Our souls should be enlivened, censured. But if the resurrection occurs at death the resurrection of the dead on natural or philo-
elevated, and enraptured with the theme of the —if it is simply a release of the spirit of man sophical or scientific grounds, that does not im-
love of the Father and the Son. " And every from its corporeal surroundings—how are we to ply a limitation of the power of God, and make 
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, avoid saying of the dead of other generations, that limitation material to its_ statement and its 
even as he is pure." The followers of Christ and even of our friends who have recently died, ultimate reliance.—Second Coming of Christ, by 
should learn here to reflect back in some degree that with them " the resurrection is past already?,, Bishop Merrill. 
that mysterious love preparatory to joining all There is, indeed, no possibility of avoiding this; 
the redeemed in ascribing " Blssings, and honor, and if the theory is correct, Paul might as well BE CAUTIOUS.—Don't judge a man by the 
and glory, and power unto Him that sitteth upon have complained of any who asserted that the clothes he wears. God made one, and the tailor 
the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." death of the dead was past, and charged them the other. 
with " overthrowing the faith," as to complain of Don't 'judge him by his family relations, for 
WHILE the Great Teacher was infinitely above those who affirmed that the dead had already Cain belonged to a good family. 
 
his disciples, he was also one with them. The passed into the resurrection state. �
Don't judge a man by his speech, for a parrot 
Sabbath-school teacher should seek to be as far 
We object to this " progressive " theory, again, talks, but the tongue is but an instrument of 
that• it destroys the very idea of the resurrection sound. 
�
in advance of his pupils as possible in every at �
the dead. It teaches instead the resurrection �
Don't judge a man by his failure in life, for 
tainment of' knowledge, but he should be one of' that which never died. Of the man " trans- many a man fails because he is too honest to 
with them in familiarly and earnestly imparting lated from the earthly to the spiritual life," it, succeed. 
knowledge to them.—Our Bible Teacher. 
says, "He continues to live." How, then, was he �
Don't judge a man by the house he lives in, for 
dead ? Only as to his body—the " tabernacle of the lizard and the rat often inhabit the grandest 
4 SLENDER acquaintance with the world must clay." But does the "tabernacle of clay " ever structures. 
convince every man, that actions, not words, are live again ? Does the body that died have any , When a man dies they who survive him ask 
the true criterion of the, attachments of friends; share whatever in the rising again ? Not accord- what property he has left behind. The angel who 
and that the most liberal professions of good will ing to this theory. Its teaching is, that the spirit bends over the dying man asks what good deeds 
�
are very far from being the surest marks of it. �
is released from its earthly surroundings; that it he has sent before him. 
FEBRUARY 15, 1883. �TI-1 �
 SIGNS Or TIM �
KS. �
75 
4 
Charity—What Is It? 
BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL. 
CHARITY is love, the great duty of man—su-
preme love to God, and equal love to .man. 
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart." " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-
self." 
If we love God we will keep his command-
ments. " For this is the love of God, that we keep 
his commandments ; and his commandments are 
not grievous." If we love men, we shall not only 
not injure them, but seek their good, their high-
est good, even their eternal salvation. 
The Lord has said, " In all that I command 
thee, be circumspect." That is, do exactly what 
I say. Is it charity to our neighbor to tell him 
he need not be very particular in his obedience 
to God ?—that you can have charity for him, a 
charity that encourages him in whatever course 
he chooses to take in his professed service to 
God ? Not at all. " Charity suffereth long and 
is kind ;" but it " rejoiceth not in iniquity, but 
rejoices in the truth." The law of God is the 
truth, and iniquity is its transgression. " T.hy 
law is the truth." Charity rejoices in the law of 
God ; it delights in it. Its language is, " How 
love I thy law!" It cannot encourage its trans-
gression. The law of God is law ; it is not 
license ; it gives no countenance to looseness. 
But the popular charity of the present day 
speaks in this way : " We can fellowship all de-
nominations. It makes no difference what your 
faith and practice is, if you only love God. You 
may serve him as you choose." Says one, " The 
Sabbath question is of very little importance. 
You may keep the seventh day, and I can receive 
you to the church. I would keep it, if I lived 
in a community where they all kept it." 
Is it a matter of little importance whether we 
obey God or not ? whether we do what he has 
said, or something else ? Who has given men 
the right to trifle with his law ? to say to our 
neighbor, " You may do this or that, just which 
you choose, and all will be' well "? Is this char-
ity to our neighbor, to whom God has said, " In 
all that I command thee be circumspect ?" Far 
from it ! Charity to him would teach him to 
obey God, that he might be saved. If God re-
quires a thing of us, he requires it. There are 
no choosing notes in his requirements ; if men in-
troduce them, it makes discord. That man that 
would keep the seventh day, if he lived where 
they all kept it, ought to keep it where he is. 
His own mouth testifies against him ; and the 
marvel is, that he does not know it. 
Men offer a choice between three or four 
" modes of baptism." This is thought to be lib-
eral and charitable. It gives the liberty of 
choice ' • but who has the right to give such 
license? Christian baptism is one. " One Lord, 
one faith, one baptism." Who says there are 
three ? If immersion is baptism, sprinkling is 
not. The best authorities give immersion as the 
meaning of baptism. If they are correct, to be 
baptized by sprinkling is equivalent to being im-
mersed by sprinkling. Immersion and sprink-
ling are two things. There is no record that 
God has given men a choice between them. 
Who has a right to do this ? Is it charitable to 
teach. men that they are at liberty to choose 
between different actions, when God has not 
said so ? He has said, " In all that I command 
thee, be circumspect." Who is it that says the 
contrary—that we need not be circumspect, but 
may choose for 'ourselves ? 
True charity does not consist in countenancing 
every form and shade of error, excusing and en-
couraging men in their departures from the word 
of God, and making no difference between the 
truth and those fables and inventions by which it 
is made of no importance and of none effect. 
But it honors that word, and exhorts all to abide 
by its authority, and warns of the danger of dis-
regarding it. 
But the objector says, " We do not all under-
stand that word alike." 
 
If those who desire to understand it, so that 
they may do its requirements, cannot, of course 
the word is in the fault ; but true charity will not 
take this ground, but will charge the fault to 
men, rather than to the Author of the Bible. 
Let men obey the precepts of Scripture as they 
are given, and these differences will cease to be. 
Charity would have all obey and live. 
" THE end of the commandment is charity." 
A Lesson from Ezra. 
IN the action of Ezra as he was about to go up 
to Jerusalem to rebuild the city, there is a lesson 
for those who at the present time are asking the 
aid of civil authority in favor of Sunday observ-
ance. He had received permission from the king 
to go up to Jerusalem, and had gathered together 
a company of his people for that purpose. But 
the country through which they were to pass was 
hostile, and they were not men of war, and could 
not defend themselves. The king was well-dis-
posed toward them, and would no doubt have 
given them a guard of soldiers if they had de-
sired it. But Ezra would not ask help from the 
king; " for," said he, " I was ashamed to require 
of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen 
to help us against the enemy in the way; because 
we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand 
of our God is upon all them for good that seek 
him; but his power and his wrath is against all 
them that forsake him." Ezra knew that if he 
should ask for assistance, the king would think 
that the Lord was not with them, or else that 
they were afraid to trust him. So he proclaimed 
a fast, that they might afflict themselves before 
God, to seek of him the right way. Ezra 8 : 
And the result is summed up in these words: " So 
we fasted and besought our God for this; and he 
was intreated of us." 
If Ezra had not been convinced that he was 
doing the work of the Lord, he would not have 
trusted in the Lord, but would have asked the 
assistance of the king. In every instance where 
people ask for human protection in matters per-
taining to religion, it is because there is a belief 
in their hearts that the Lord is not with them. 
If there was Bible evidence of the sacredness of 
Sunday, would its friends ask for a human law in 
its favor ? Never. God has intrusted his truth 
to men, for them to disseminate, but he has never 
authorized them to use carnal weapons in its be-
half. The commission is to teach all nations; but 
it is not said that the disciples must force all na 
tions to believe. If anything is really of God, all 
man has to do is to observe it, and teach it, calling 
on the Lord for help, and the Spirit of God will 
convict men of sin. 
If the advocates of Sunday observance really 
believe that it is of God, let them teach it with all 
diligence, asking God to guide them. If it is of 
God, he will not let it suffer, but will vindicate his 
truth. But when they ask the aid of politicians, 
worldly men, these men will help them from 
worldly considerations, and not as a matter of 
religion. They will not believe that God is in the 
movement; but they will identify themselves with 
it, because they will expect to derive personal 
advantage from it. And this is the only consid-
eration that will move politicians and men of the 
world; so that if the movement really were of 
God, it would be dishonored by such advocacy. 
God is able to take care of his own truth and 
people, without the aid of weak and sinful men. 
E. J. W. 
The Sabbath in the New Testament. 
DURING the life of Christ, the Sabbath was 
always observed by him and his followers. He 
corrected the errors and false ideas which were 
held concerning it, but gave no hint that it was 
to be abrogated. 
The book of Acts gives a connected history 
of the recognition and observance of the Sabbath 
by the apostles while they were organizing many 
of the churches spoken of in the New Testament. 
These references extend over a period of eight or 
nine years, the last of them being at least twenty 
years after the resurrection. 
In all the history of the doings and teach-
ings of the apostles there is not the remotest ref-
erence to the abrogation of the Sabbath. 
Had there been any change made or beginning 
to be made, or any authority for the abrogation 
of the Sabbath law, the apostles must have known 
it. �
To claim that there was, is therefore to charge 
them with studiously concealing the truth, and also, 
with recognizing and calling a day the Sabbath 
which was not the Sabbath. 
But some will say, " Christ and his apostles did 
11 this as Jews, simply." If this be true, then 
Christ lived and taught simply as a Jew and not 
as the Saviour of the world. On the contrary, he 
was at war with the false and extravagant no-
tions of Judaism concerning questions of truth 
and duty. If Christ were not a " Christian," but 
a " Jew," what becomes of the system which he 
taught? If his followers who periled all for him 
and sealed their faith with their blood, were only 
Jews, or worse, were dissemblers, doing that 
which Christians ought not to do for sake of pol-
icy, where shall Christians be found? The idea 
dies of its own inconsistency. More than this, 
Bible history repeatedly states that the Greeks 
were taught on the Sabbath the same as the Jews, 
and in those churches where the Greek element 
predominated there is no trace of any different 
teaching or custom on this point. The Jews kept 
up their national institutions, such as circumcision 
and the passover, while all Christians accepted 
the Sabbath as a part of the law of God. Indeed, 
the popular outcry against the Sabbath as "Jew-
ish" savors more of prejudice and ignorance than 
of consistency and charity. Christ was in all 
respects, as regards nationality, a Jew. So were 
all the writers of the Old Testament, and all the 
writers of the New Testament. God has given 
the world no word of inspiration from Gentile pen, 
or Gentile lips. Is the Bible therefore "Jewish ? " 
The Sabbath, if possible, is less Jewish than the 
Bible. It had its beginning long before a Jew 
was born. It is God's day, marked by his own 
example, and sanctified by his blessing, for the 
race of man, beginning when the race began, and 
can end only when the race shall cease to exist. 
Christ recognized it under the gospel as he recog-
nized each of the other eternal laws with which 
it is associated in the decalogue; recognized them 
as the everlasting words of his Father whose law 
he came to magnify and fulfill.—The Outlook. 
"It Makes No Difference !" 
NOT iinfrequently we hear people try to justify 
themselves in keeping Sunday instead of the 
Lord's Sabbath with the plea that it makes no 
difference what men believe or practice if they 
are only sincere in it. If this be true in regard 
to one article of faith or practice, it must hold 
equally true in regard to every othe
r, and hence 
God does not care whether we believe him or the 
devil, if so be we are sincere in believing one or 
the other; for whatever is opposed to God is of 
the devil. And if God does not care which we 
believe, he does not care which we obey; for obe-
dience proceeds from faith. If this be true, why 
did he turn Adam and Eve out of Paradise and 
follow them with penalties because Satan suc-
ceeded in making them believe and obey him in-
stead of God ? Without doubt they were sincere 
in their change of belief, for they knew nothing 
about falsehood and deception then. 
Again, if this plea be true, why did God send 
his Son to die for the redemption of men, if simply 
being honest, in any sort of belief and conduct is 
sufficient to render men acceptable to him ? And 
why did Christ pray that his disciples might be 
sanctified through the truth, if they could be sanc-_ 
tified through a lie as well ? and they certainly 
could, if this argument be correct. He taught 
that whosoever committeth sin is of the devil, and 
Paul taught that sin is the transgression of the 
law. The testimony of Christ and Paul is in di-
rect opposition to this argument, and therefore, 
both cannot be true. One or the other must go 
down. Which shall it be?—/V. W., in Sabbath Re-
corder. 
THE HOUR BEFORE CHURCH.-I have in my eye 
at present the hour before you go to church on 
Sabbath forenoon. I am anxious about it. The 
note struck then is likely to give tone to your 
spirits all day. Redeem it as much as you can 
from family duties; redeem it wholly from plait-
ing and putting on of apparel; redeem it wholly 
from all vain conversation. How very much the 
power of the minister depends upon the prepar-
ing of the hearer's heart! If you once come up 
to church with your mind crowded with trifles, 
what can minister's do? They can do nothing 
but beat the air. What else can they do if there 
be nothing before them but air to beat at ? It 
will make a sound and that is all. I fear that 
many of my dear people spend more time on 
Sabbath morning in putting veils on their faces 
than in taking the veils off their hearts—more 
time in trying to make themselves appear before 
men what they are not than in trying to make 
themselves appear before God what they are.—
W. Arnot. 
WHATEVER makes men good Christians, makes 
them good citizens.—Daniel Webster. 
76 �
THE SIGNS OFTH 
H] �
VoL. 9, No. 7. 
Authenticity of the Old Testament 
Scriptures. 
THE following is from one of a series of articles 
in the Baptist Quarterly Review, entitled " Jesus 
Christ and the Newer School of Criticism," by 
Prof. Howard Osgood, D.D., of Rochester Theo-
logical Seminary. It is a sound and able argu-
ment, and we commend it to the careful perusal 
of our readers:— 
By two great lines of historic criticism, the 
Jewish and the Christian, it is proved that the 
Hebrew Old Testament of to-day was the Old 
Testament of the Saviour's day. Both Kuenen 
and Wellhausen tell us that the Pentateuch we 
have is, barring a few common variants, the same 
Pentateuch Ezra had, B. c. 444. 
That our Lord Jesus was thoroughly conver-
sant with the compass, the text, the history of 
the Old Testament, is shown by the numerous 
instances of his calling upon the moment the most 
appropriate passages in the whole Old Testament 
to meet the case in hand, as the following quota-
tions will prove, if the context is studied. 
Jesus taught that he came to do the will of his 
Father, and to teach the truth. " I can of myself 
do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment 
is righteous; because I seek not my own will, but 
the will of him that sent me." John 5:30; 6: 38-
40; 7:18; 8: 26-29, 38, 40, 46. " To this end have 
I been born, and to this end am I come into 
the world, that I should bear witness unto the 
truth." John 18:37; 12 : 48-50. 
Jesus taught that the whole Old Testament, in all 
its parts, was the word of God, given by God for 
man's salvation. " Jesus answered them, Is it riot 
written in your law, I said, Ye are gods ? If he 
called them gods unto whom the word of God 
came, and the Scripture cannot be broken." John 
10 : 34, 35. Here Jesus uses "law," "word of 
God," " Scripture," as synonymous, and applies 
them to Psalm 82 : 6, a psalm of Asaph. " And 
ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom 
he sent, him ye believe not. Ye search the 
Scriptures." John 5:38, 39. " It is written, man 
shall not live by bread alone but by every word 
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matt. 
4:4. Jesus says that Moses spoke God's " com-
mandment" and " word." Mark 7 : 9-13; Matt. 
15: 4, 5. All parts of the Old Testament quoted 
by the Saviour are treated with the same rev-
erence. He quotes the Pentateuch most fre-
quently, next the Psalms, next the prophets and 
the historical books. " That the Old Testament 
was of divine authority to him needs no proof." 
Rothe, St. u. Krit., 1860, p. 65; Weiss, Bibl. Theol., 
p. 77; Schmid, Bibl. Theol., p. 218. 
Jesus taught that these Scriptures were infallible, 
and that no part of them was to be treated as of 
slight importance. " For verily I say unto you, 
till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one 
tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, 
till all things be accomplished." Matt. 5:18. 
" It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, 
than for one tittle of the law to fall; " where 
" law " is the equivalent of " the law and the 
prophets " of the preceding verse. Luke 16:17. 
See also, John 10 : 35; Matt. 26 : 54, 56; Mark 14: 
49; Luke 24:44, 45; John 13:18; 17:12; 19:28. 
These Scriptures were so thoroughly God's word 
that Jesus appeals to single words for the proof 
of some of his most important teachings. Matt. 
22 : 31, 32; Mark 12 : 26, 27; Luke 20 : 37, 38; 
Matt. 22 : 45; Mark 12 : 37; Luke 20: 44; John 
10 : 34. 
Jesus taught that the Old Testament was from the 
same source and of the same authority as his own 
words, both were from God. Compare in preced-
ing paragraph Matt. 5: 18; Luke 16 : 17, with 
" heaven and earth shall pass away; but my 
words shall not pass away." Matt. 24 : 35; 
Mark 13 : 31; Luke 21 : 33. " For if ye believed 
Moses ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. 
But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye 
believe my words." John 5 : 46, 47. 
Jesus taught that there was a clear distinction 
between the Old Testament, as God's word, and all 
merely human doctrines, traditions, etc. " Why do 
ye transgress the commandment of God because 
of your tradition." " And ye have made void the 
word of God because of your tradition." Matt. 
15 : 3, 6, 9. " Ye leave the commandment of God 
and hold fast the tradition of men." " Full well 
do ye reject the commandment of God that ye 
may keep your tradition." " Making void the 
word of God by your tradition." Mark 7 : 8, 
9, 13. 
Jesus taught that the Old Testament is an organic 
whole. 
All its books had one common moral basis and 
doctrine. "He" (Jesus) " said unto him, Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with 
all thy soul and with all thy mind." Deut. 6 : 5. 
" This is the great and first commandment. And 
a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself." Lev. 19 : 18. " On these 
two commandments hangeth the whole law and 
the prophets." Matt. 22 : 37-40; Mark 12 : 29- 
31. �
" All things, therefore, whatsoever ye would 
that men should do unto you even so do ye also 
unto them; for this is the law and the prophets." 
Matt. 7 : 12. " The weightier matters of the law, 
judgment and mercy and faith," " judgment and 
the love of God." Matt. 22 : 23; Luke 11 : 42. 
The whole Scripture, " Moses, the prophets, and 
the Psalms," had one common prophetic intent, him-
self. " The Scriptures, . . . these are they 
which bear witness of me." John 5 : 39. " All 
things must needs be fulfilled which are written 
in the law of Moses and the prophets and the 
Psalms concerning me." Luke 24 : 25-27, 44; 
Luke 4 : 17-21; Matt. 22: 41-45; Mark 12 : 35-37; 
Luke 20:41-44; John 13: 18; Matt. 26 : 31; Mark 
14 : 27; Luke 22 : 37; John 15 : 25. 
Jesus taught that his purpose in coining to earth 
was to fulfill the words of the Old Testament, but 
this presupposes that the Old Testament is in the 
highest sense God's word, for only God can fore-
tell events. " Think not that I came to destroy 
the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy 
but to fulfill." Matt. 5 : 17. " All things that are 
written by the prophets shall be accomplished 
unto the Son of man." Luke 18 : 31. " The Son 
of man goeth even as it is written of him." 
Matt. 26 : 24; Mark 14 : 21; Luke -22 : 22; John 
19 : 28, 30; Matt. 26 : 55, 56; Mark 14 : 40. " 0 
foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all 
that the prophets have spoken. Behooved it not 
the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into 
his glory ? " " Thus it is written, that the Christ 
should suffer and rise from the dead the third 
day." Luke 24 : 25, 26, 46. 
Jesus proved that all his teaching concerning the 
Old Testament came from his heart, from his deepest 
convictions, by his absolute reliance upon its words in 
the midst of his greatest trials. In the temptation 
at the beginning, Matt. 4 : 4-10, in the crowning 
sorrows at the close of his ministry, Matt. 27 : 46; 
Mark 15 : 34; Luke 23 : 46, Jesus meets the great-
est foe, and comforts his sinking heart with the 
words of the Old Testament. During the last six 
months before his crucifixion, as he enters the 
shadow of the cross, his heart rests on the proph-
ecies and promises of the Old Testament, and 
with these he encourages and teaches his disciples, 
and with these he answers his opponents. See 
Matt. 23 : 23, 35; 24 : 37-39; 19:3-8, 17, 18; Luke 
13 : 28; 16 : 31; 17: 24-32; 18 : 31-33; John 7 and 
8; 10 : 34, 35; Matt. 21 : 12, 13, 16; 22 : 29-46; 
24 : 15; John 13:18; Matt. 26 : 24; Luke 22 : 20; 
Matt. 26 : 31; Luke 22 : 37; John 15 : 25; Matt. 
26 : 53, 54, 56; John 17 : 12; Luke 23 : 30. And 
on the day of his resurrection Jesus meets his 
desponding disciples and gently upbraids them 
because they do not believe " all that the prophets 
have spoken." �
And beginning from Moses and 
all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning himself." Luke 
24:25-27. From all this it is plain that Jesus found 
in the Old Testament the vital air of his soul, its 
thoughts were his thoughts, its principles were 
his principles, its prophecies were the motive and 
support and promise of his life. He dwelt with 
his Father in the holy sanctuary of his word. 
And, lastly, there must be no disguise of the 
fact that Jesus taught that Hoses was the human 
author of the Pentateuch. " Moses commanded " 
the law in Lev. 14 : 2; Matt. 8 : 4; Mark 1 : 44; 
Luke 5 : 14. " Moses commanded " and " wrote " 
the law in Deut. 24 ; Matt. 19 : 7, 8; Mark 10 :3, 
4. �
" The scribes . . . sit on Moses' seat." 
Matt. 23 : 2. " Moses said " the words contained 
in Ex. 20 :12; 21 : 17; and these words are " the 
commandment of God" and "the word of God." 
Mark 7 :9, 10, 13; Matt. 15 : 4. Jesus asserts 
that the Jews then had the book of Moses. 
" Have ye not read in the book of Moses "—i. e. 
Ex. 3 : 6; Mark 12 :26; Luke 20: 37. The writ-
ings of Moses were a constituent part of the Old 
Testament. " Moses and the prophets, . . . 
all the Scriptures." Luke 24 : 27. " The law 
of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms." 
Luke 24 : 44. Moses left writings which the Jews 
then had and read, but did not understand and 
believe. " For if ye believed Moses ye would be-
lieve me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe 
not his writings, how shall ye believe my words." 
John 5 : 46, 47. " If they hear not Moses and 
the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if 
one rose from the dead." Luke 16 :31. Moses 
gave them the law. John 7 : 19. " Moses gave 
you circumcision." John 7 : 22. " The law of 
Moses" was, in the Saviour's time, the law of the 
Jews. John 7 : 23. 
German and French writers, among whom 
Professor H. L. Strack, in Zockler's " Encyclo.," 
p. 139; Professor Vuilleumier, of Lausanne, in 
" Revue de Theol. et de Phil.," p. 18-22, January, 
1882; Siegfried, in " Punjer, Theol. Jahresbericht," 
1882, p. 16, tell us that it is now an axiom of Old 
Testament criticism that Moses was not the 
author of the Pentateuch. Professor Vuilleumier 
assures us that it is certain Jesus believed and 
taught that Moses was the author of the whole 
Pentateuch; and Professor Vuilleumier also de-
clares, and fortifies himself by quoting Pressense, 
that Jesus " shared the opinions common in his 
time and among his people," and, as to every-
thing beyond certain spiritual truths, " Jesus was 
the son of his race and his time." See, also, 
Presbyterian Review, July, 1882, p. 580. That is, 
the higher truths taught by the Saviour are to be 
saved at the cost of his intelligence; or, to put it 
with Rothe and Kuenen, Jesus was no exegete of, 
and was not an authority on, the Old Testament. 
If that conclusion is true, then Jesus was no 
authority in any part of his teaching, for he de-
clares that he came to teach and to fulfill the Old 
Testament; and his representation of the Father 
is involved in that conclusion, for Jesus said, 
" The things which I speak, even as the Father 
hath said unto rue, so I speak." 
Criticism is only a means to an end. The 
criticism of the Old Testament by " the newer 
school " leads it with abundant assurance to stamp 
as fiction and fraud, that which Jesus Christ says 
is " the word of God," " spoken by God," which 
" cannot be broken." There can be no successful 
disguising the direct and colossal contradiction. 
There is no possible compromise. " Intelligent 
Bible readers " must make their choice. 
The Sabbath. 
"REMEMBER the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. 
Exodus 20 : 8, 9. 
This is the law of God for all ages and all men. 
It comes to us on the authority of revelation, the 
constitution of man, and the laws of nature. It 
is irreversible and irresistible in its sphere and 
mode, as are all other laws resting on both a 
moral and natural basis. It may be violated, but 
if violated the penalty follows. Obedience or 
penalty is the alternative.. 
 
This divine Sabbath law, then—" Remember the 
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou 
labor, and do all thy work "—rises as a light from 
God and hangs over all nations. It is the author-
itative, immutable code, framed into the being of 
man and the nature of things. Against this law 
nations may dash themselves; but they will go 
down, and not the law. Against this law. States 
may frame their legislation and affect to despise 
it; but they are the ones to be swept aside by the 
encounter, like the animal that disputed the track 
with the railroad train, while the law holds on its 
course. Against this law political parties, in their 
blindness, prejudice, bigotry, may set themselves; 
but they will disappear like morning fogs which 
darken the sun for a time, but do not put it out; 
and the law will shine out again in all its divine 
brightness. Against this law individuals, in their 
impiety and recklessness, may be in haste to make 
their mark and put themselves on record; but 
they are the ones to be thrown back like spray 
when a storm-wave dashes against the rocks at 
Light-house Point. 
Such is the irreversible, irresistible, divine Sab-
bath law, shining above us, arching all Christian 
nations with its clear light, and overhanging our 
whole civilization. It goes over, without the 
abatement of a hair's breadth, from Judaism to 
Christianity, from the old dispensation to the new, 
from one nation to another, one continent, one 
hemisphere, to another.—The Pacific. 
• 
No SOONER is a temple built to God, but the 
devil builds a chapel hard by.—Herbert. 
FEBRUARY 15, 1883. �TI-I �
SIGNS OF THE TIM 
11,S. �
77 
?he 
The Sure Word. 
" WE have also a more sure word of prophecy; 
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unio 
a light that shineth in a dark place, until ti e 
day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." 
2 Peter 1 : 19. 
The apostle is not comparing one prophecy 
with another, but he is comparing prophecy with 
something else. He does not say that we have 
one word of prophecy that is " more sure " than 
some other word, but that the word of prophecy 
is more sure than some other thing. What that 
other thing is we may learn from the context. 
In verses 16-18 he speaks of the certainty of 
Christ's coming, and the reason why he is so 
certain in regard to it. He says, "For we have 
not followed cunningly devised fables, when we 
made known unto you the power and coming of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of 
his majesty. For he received from God the 
Father honor and glory, when there came such 
a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, and 
this voice which came from heaven we heard, 
when we were with him in the holy mount. The 
idea is this: At the transfiguration the apostles 
saw Christ just as he will appear when he comes 
in his glory. They also heard the voice of God 
from Heaven. So when they declared the com-
ing of Christ, they did it on the evidence of both 
their eyes and their ears. This is accounted the 
best possible evidence; but Peter says that there 
is something that is more sure than this. What 
is it? It is the " sure word of prophecy." It is 
possible that a person's eyes or ears might deceive 
him, but there is no possibilty of doubt in regard 
to the prophecy. And why not ? Because it did 
not come " by the will of man; but holy men of 
God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost.' The prophecy, therefore, is as reliable 
as God himself. There are very few things in 
this life upon which we can depend implicitly; 
how gladly, then, we ought to receive this sure 
word, and how eagerly we ought to search it. 
THE OBJECT OF PROPHECY. 
As noted by Peter, the object of the sure word of 
prophecy is that we may be more certain in 
regard to Christ's coming, for that is the grand 
event to which all prophecy points. Christ's first 
advent was the basis of many prophecies, and it 
was_ the most momentous event since the creation 
of the world. Upon that coming the redemption 
of the whole human race depended; but even that 
with its attendant sacrifice would be lost to us if 
Christ were not to come the second time. Christ 
came and died that man might be redeemed, to 
reign with him forever; but those whom he has 
purchased cannot be with him unless, according 
to his promise, he comes again to redeem them to 
himself. There is no other way by which we can 
go to Heaven. So the redemption of the race 
depends fully as much upon Christ's second com-
ing as upon the first. It is no wonder, then, that 
so much prophecy has been given in regard to so 
important an event. We will examine a little of 
it, and we shall see that the coming of our Lord 
is not so vague and indefinite a matter as some 
would have us believe. 
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM. 
This dream, related in the second chapter of 
Daniel, is familiar to every reader of the Bible. 
The circumstances attending it are such as would 
attract the attention of one who was reading 
flerely for pleasure, for they are highly interest- 
lg. �
But our interest in the narrative is in- 
cr'ased a thousand-fold when we learn the object 
and, interpretation of the dream. The object of 
the $ream is told in few words. Daniel said to 
'the king, " There is a God in Heaven that reveal-
eth Eecrets, and Tnaketh known to the king Neb-
uchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days." Then 
it is for Ub far more than for Nebuchadnezzar. 
The dream was as follows: A great image, 
bright in appearance and terrible in form, ap-
peared to the king. Its head was of fine gold, 
its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs 
of brass, its legs of iron, and• its feet of mingled 
clay and iron. While the king looked upon this 
image, a stone was cut out of the mountain with-
out the aid of human hands. This stone smote 
the image upon the feet, and instantly the whole 
image was reduced to fine powder, and was blown 
away; but the stone immediately became a great 
mountain and filled the whole earth. 
The interpretation of the dream occupies but 
little more space. Daniel, after reminding the 
king that God has given him universal dominion, 
tells him that his kingdom is symbolized by the 
head of gold. The other three divisions of the 
imaGe, the silver, the brass, and the iron, symbol-
ize I hree other universal empires. The last one 
of these is to be divided into ten parts as is indi-
cated by the ten toes of the image, which shall 
be distinct from each other. And now comes the 
closing scene. " And in the days of these kings 
shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, which 
shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall 
not be left to other people, but it shall break in 
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it 
shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou rawest 
that the stone was cut out of the mountain with-
out hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the 
brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great 
God bath made known to the king what shall 
come to pass hereafter; and the dream is certain, 
and the interpretation thereof sure." Dan. 2 :44, 45. 
This dream with its interpretation was not 
given that men might be informed in regard to 
earthly kingdoms, but for the sole purpose of 
pointing out the fifth universal kingdom. Then 
we may know something in regard to the time of 
its setting up. Let us follow the connection. 
Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Per-
sians, B. c. 538. Medo-Persia, then, was the 
empire symbolized by the breast and arms of sil-
ver. The Persian Empire in its turn gave way 
to the Greeks. This took place B. c. 321. Here 
we have three of the four kingdoms; and since 
there were to be but four universal, earthly mon-
archies, the fourth cannot be difficult to locate. 
There is no doubt but that Rome was symbolized 
by the iron part of the image. It was at the 
height of its power at the first advent of Christ, 
having fully completed the conquest of Greece 
half a century before. There is no disputing the 
fact that it was universal in its dominion, and 
Scripture proof of the fact is found in Luke 2 : 1. 
Now we have the four universal empires before 
us. Where shall we look for the setting up of 
the fifth. In the days of Christ ? No; because 
Rome was then undivided. It could not be set 
up until the division of that empire into its ten 
parts, which was completed A. D. 457. The com-
ing of Christ., and the setting up of his everlast-
ing kingdom is the next thing brought to our 
view. And this is in reality the next thing to be 
accomplished. Certain things must be done by 
powers that now exist, but when earthly govern-
ments again fall, their place will be taken by 
Christ's kingdom. Other prophecies corrobora-
tive of this, and more minute in detail, will be 
considered next week. 
Now is not this a sure word of prophecy ? 
Kingdoms have risen and fallen just as predicted 
by the prophet. He said that the ten divisions 
of the Roman Empire would seek to consolidate 
their power, but would be unsuccessful, and so it 
has been. Every attempt to unite the nations of 
Europe has ended in failure. And if the past has 
been fulfilled to the letter, we have the assurance 
that that which yet remains will as surely be ful-
filled. Inspiration did not point out the length of 
time that these earthly kingdoms should exist, 
and it has not told when the heavenly kingdom 
will be set up, but we know it cannot be far dis-
tant. The divided state of the image has contin- 
ued for 1,400 years, much longer than any other 
division. Other prophecies show more definitely 
that the end is very near. We learn from this 
that God's kingdom is as much a reality as any 
earthly kingdom, and that those whose interest is 
in earthly things can have no part in it. Are we 
fitting ourselves for citizenship in that glorious 
everlasting kingdom ? �
E. J. W. 
Stiying Away from Sabbath-School. 
IT is often the case that we hear persons give 
as a reason for not coming to Sabbath-school, "I 
didn't have my lesson." But this answer should 
not be dignified with the title of reason, for it is 
really a very poor excuse. It shows that the 
individual offering it does not realize the object of 
the school. We do not go to Sabbath-school to 
" show-off" our proficiency, as some people go to 
church to exhibit their fine clothes. We go to 
Sabbath-school in order to learn. We are all of 
us ignorant, to a greater or less degree, of the 
truths contained in the Bible; we go to the Sab-
bath-school that we may become enlightened. 
To stay away from the school because we are 
ignorant, is as foolish as it would be to stay away 
from dinner because we are hungry. If we do 
not know the lesson, that is a great reason why 
we should attend the school. If it were possible 
for us to be perfectly familiar with the lesson, so 
that we could learn nothing more. there would be 
no special reason for us to attend, except for the 
sake of our example; we would not lose so much 
personally by staying away, but our absence 
might influence others to stay away also. But 
when we do not understand the lesson, and stay 
away, we have not only our example on the 
wrong side, but we suffer great loss ourselves. 
It may be asked, " If the Sabbath-school is 
simply the place to learn, what is the use of 
studying the lesson at all ? " Just this: The 
more we know of anything, the more we are able 
to learn, and the better able are we to appreciate 
what others have learned. If we have learned 
the lesson as well as we can by ourselves, we 
shall be in the best condition to learn from others; 
we will have an interest in what they say. If we 
know nothing of the lesson, we may learn but 
very little in regard to it during the Sabbath-
school hour; but that little is vastly more than 
we should learn if we did not hear the recitation 
at all. 
Let every Sabbath-school scholar, then, whether 
young or old, resolve that he will attend every 
Sabbath, both for the good which he may do, and 
for that which he may receive. �E. J. W. 
A SPEAKER at a recent meeting of a Massachu-
setts Teachers' Association said very aptly that 
too many of our teachers and pupils seem to en-
tirely lose sight of the true end and aim of all 
study, and instead of teaching and studying to 
know, devote their time and energies to prepar-
ing for recitations and examinations, with little 
thought of anything beyond. 
S MITII'S COMPREHENSIVE DICTIONARY 
OF THE BIBLE. 
NEW EDITION, octavo size, 1,200 pages, with many important addi-
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In this book it is designed to make everything intelligible to those who 
understand only the English language, and to place them as nearly as 
possible on a level with the scholars who are familiar with the original 
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All the words in the vocabulary are pronounced and divided into sylla• 
Wes., and-words or parts of words are respelled whenever this is necessary 
to indicate the pronunciation. 
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No one who desires to study the Scriptures intelligently will be without 
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AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY PAPER DEVOTED TO THE MORAL CULTURE AND 
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78 �
TI—I �
1-i: SIGNS OF TIT 1-1; TIM 
P:S. �
VoL. 9, No. 7. 
Eke �
ign,5 of tiy Finte5. 
" Can ye not discern the signs of the times ?" 
J. H. WAGGONER, �
 EDITOR. 
J. N. ANDREWS, 
CORRESPONDING EDITORS. 
URIAH SMITH, 
OAKLAND, CAL., FIFTH-DAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1883. 
Notes of Travel. 
DURING the last thirty years we have traveled a 
great deal by public conveyance, and have very sel-
dom spoken a word concerning our travels, or the 
means of conveyance to which we resorted. We now 
depart from our custom because we have a 'few things 
which we wish to say. 
Having business in Chicago to detain us a couple of 
days, we took occasion to call on our old-time friend, 
Col. George R. Clarke, whose principal business is the 
care of the "Pacific Garden Mission," in which he is 
doing a good work for the poor and destitute who 
cannot be reached by ordinary church work. He has 
spent considerable money to establish the mission, and 
is spending considerable to keep it in operation; but he 
and his estimable wife have devoted their lives to the 
work, and feel happy in the performance of their duty 
to suffering humanity. We accompanied them to their 
home in Morgan Park, where we had the pleasure of 
calling on Prof. W. R. Harper, who is at the head of 
the " Hebrew Correspondence School," and editor of the 
Hebrew Student. Dr. Harper is doing more than any 
other man in the United States to extend the knowl-
edge of the original of the Old Testament. We are 
pleased to know that his work is proving successful, and 
that many are studying Hebrew who would probably 
never have learned the Hebrew alphabet had it not 
been for his efforts; while many who have studied it, 
are availing themselves of the opportunity offered in 
his school to increase their knowledge of this interesting 
and important branch of Biblical study. 
From the amount of labor he has been performing we 
have feared that he would early break down in health. 
But we found him of strong build, in the prime of 
youthful manhood, and we think he is capable of 
enduring much. We have little fear of his health if 
he will carry out the plan he laid down for himself: 
to take rest whenever he found that he could not eat 
heartily and sleep readily. We commend this rule to 
all mental workers; wish we could carry it out our-
selves ! 
While in Chicago we had the pleasure of making 
acquaintance with " Bishop McNamara," who stands 
at the head of the " Reformed Catholic " movement in 
the United States. The Bishop says he is " Catholic, 
but not Roman." We have before spoken of this 
movement, to which we wish abundant success. These 
people can meet the Catholic people and show them 
the errors of Romanism where Protestants cannot. 
In our frequent journeyings over the " Great West " 
we have traveled over the various lines of railroad, 
but mostly over the " Burlington Route." The " C. B, 
& Q." became a favorite with us some years ago, and 
our " bump of continuity " is so large that we have 
retained it in our favor still. By this line we went to 
Kansas City. Here we find something to blame. So 
many roads have their terminus in the Union Depot in 
Kansas City that we consider it inexcusable that the 
waiting-room should be so destitute of comforts and 
conveniences. It is a fault that should be remedied 
without unnecessary delay. 
Of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad we 
have heard but one opinion; it reoeives the unqualified 
praise of all its patrons as far as we know. The mana-
gers seem to strive to unite their interest with the 
interests of those who travel on it; not inclining to 
take advantage of the circumstance that many are 
obliged to travel on that line. We sincerely hope that 
it will sometime extend as an independent route to the 
Pacific Coast. 
Feeling a just pride in California enterprise we are 
more than willing to extend a good word to our 
Pacific lines wherever the occasion offers. They have 
done much to develop the wonderful resources of this 
State. The improvements they have made are of a 
substantial nature, an honor to those who have pro-
jected and perfected them. But we consider it a duty 
we owe to the public to mention a matter hoping 
thereby to prevent its recurrence. 
For several reasons we chose to take the " Emigrant 
Train " from Kansas City to San Francisco. At Dem-
ing, where we changed to the Southern Pacific road, 
a sick Chinamen was placed in the rear car, which was 
in part occupied with families containing women and 
children. We do not mention this because the sick 
man was a Chinaman, but because the man was very 
sick, and his sickness was of such a nature as to make 
his presence a grievous annoyance to the passengers, 
especially to the families. We were not in that car, 
but formed a pleasant acquaintance with son.te who 
were, among whom we will only mention Mr. Amos 
Hill, who, with his wife and the family of his son, was 
going to join his son in San Juan, Washington Terri-
tory. Mr. Hill was formerly from Rugby, England, 
but lately from Knoxville, Tenn. He was in the 
employ of the well-known " Rugby Colony " in Ten-
nessee as one of the early managers of the farming 
interests there. He is an intelligent Christian gen-
tleman of pleasing manners. He made several effOrts 
to have the passengers relieved from their disagreeable 
surroundings, but in vain. Finally at Indio, where a 
stop was made for supper on Tuesday evening, Feb. 
6, he appealed to the agent. It was evident that the 
sick man could not live many hours, and he asked that 
he might be removed from the car, to die somewhere 
else. Relief was promised; but the promise was not 
made good. About midnight the Chinaman died in 
the car, and there he lay, just where he died, until the 
train reached Los Angeles next morning. And even 
then there seemed to be I. o haste in the work of removal. 
 
We cannot think that justice was done to the passen-
gers in this car; and we chronicle the event that the 
managers of the road may instruct their employees to 
not permit its repetition, or that the public may under-
stand the facts if a repetition is to be expected. 
We arrived in Oakland the morning of Feb. 9. 
Though we felt worn, we stood our journey well, and 
are thankful for good health. A dry, cold winter is 
the best for our health, but of course, we cannot bear 
exposure as we could years ago. This winter we suf-
fered too much exposure to enjoy the cold of the 
East, and we are free to confess that, under the 
circumstances, we longed for the temperature of 
Oakland. But this has been a dry, cold winter 
in California, as almost every appearance indi-
cates. Many leaves have been touched with frost; 
flowers are few; the callas have mostly made futile 
attempts to unclose; there is a lack of the usual deep 
green of this season of the year. The valley of the 
San Joaquin gives little encouragement of a wheat 
crop; and the papers report snow as recently as Feb. 
6 in Petaluma, Napa, Dixon, and four inches of snow 
as far south as Hanford. But our friends in the 
East may form some idea of the difference between 
" cold weather " there and in California from the fact 
that we saw fresh strawberries in the market in Los 
Angeles. 
We find the work prosperously moving in Oakland, 
though some have had to bear too many and too 
heavy burdens in the absence of Bro. White and our-
self. We hope Bro. White may soon return, and we 
trust that, after a few days, we shall recover our 
strength and energy for constant labor in the cause to 
which we have cheerfully, gladly, devoted our life. 
The Sunday Law. 
THE dominant party in California has been true to 
one pledge which it made before the election: it has 
repealed the Sunday Law. So far as the pretended 
" Christian Sabbath " is concerned, it is just what it is 
in law—dies non. 
Final action on the Senate bill for its repeal was 
taken February 6, when the bill passed in the Assembly 
by the decisive vote of 47 to 2J.. For this result the 
people may thank the self-styled Home Protectionists." 
Before either political party had conceived the idea of 
bringing the Sunday question into politics, the Protec-
tionists of Oakland, under the instigation of certain 
ministers, announced their intention to form a third 
party and nominate a third ticket if neither of the old 
parties indorsed the Sunday Law in their conventions. 
They pledged themselves to vote for those candidates 
only who would pledge themselves to enforce the Sun-
day Law. The Democratic Convention met the issue 
squarely, by not only refusing to enforce that law, but 
by demanding its repeal. This decisive course for a 
time astonished all parties, and many of the members of 
that party trembled for the result. They thought their 
Convention had gone too far, and that certain defeat 
awaited them. 
The Republicans were not left to any choice in the 
matter; the situation was such that they were compelled 
to join issue. They made a bid for the " church vote," 
which was supposed to be sufficiently influential to con-
trol the election. Their platform contained a feeble 
endorsement of the law, but it was supposed to be suffi-
cient as a political, or rather policy, movement, and was 
hailed with a show of the wildest delight. But such 
manifestations were of short duration. As the campaign 
progressed, and it was made evident tc the people that 
the law as it stood was unjust, infringing on both civil 
and religious liberty, the party organs weakened in its 
defense, and the majority against the law was unex- 
pectedly large. We say " the majority against the law," 
for this was the only issue in the campaign. 
We were not disappointed in the result. We warned 
the " Protectionists" at the commencement of their 
work that they were endangering the existence of the 
law. Dr. Hemphill, of Calvary Church, in San Fran-
cisco, took the same view of the matter, and predicted 
the repeal of the law if its friends forced it into politics. 
And the Chronicle warned the Republicans that to in-
dorse the law was to court defeat. But the church 
party would not receive the warning. The fact pre-
sented itself before them that Mordecai the Jew, sat at 
the king's gate; while he occupied this place it was not 
enough that they were called to the banquet—that their 
idolized day of the sun sat in the place of honor. They 
demanded that the gallows be erected. Their demand 
was granted, with the same result that followed the 
demand of Haman. 
The San Francisco Chronicle notices the first Sunday 
in that city after the repeal of the law. Its article 
closes as follows:— 
" Fewer arrests were made yesterday for drunkenness 
than for several Sundays preceding, and hardly any 
arrests for any other offense. The repeal was com-
mented on in sermons, both in the forenoon and evening; 
but as the unchained, roaring lion had utterly failed to 
furnish the shocking example that would have given 
the comments point, they fell somewhat flat. Alto-
gether, the result went to indicate that there is a savor 
of barren honor in the ostentatious repeal of a statute 
that has been practically repealed every Sunday since 
its enactment, and that would continue so to be repealed 
even if Republican nausea had not cast the unwashed 
and the unterrified temporarily into Legislative office." 
It would seem that the remark of one of the successful 
party was well made, when he was asked what he 
thought the effect of the repeal would be. He replied: 
" People have heretofore done as they pleased on Sun- 
day, and they would do so if the law were repealed 
There would be no perceptible difference." 
But the agitation of the Sunday question is not ended. 
We have looked for all that has transpired, because the 
" sure word of prophecy " indicated that it would come. 
But the end is not yet reached. We look for more 
exciting times before the controversy comes to its close. 
And we give thanks to the God of Heaven that he has 
not left his waiting people in darkness, but has pointed 
out to them both the dangers and duties of the last days 
Sunday Agitation in Chicago. 
AN effort is now being made to revive and enforce the 
Sunday Law in Chicago. We are glad of it. Every 
effort of this kind is sure to bring the truth of the Sab-
bath of the Lord—the seventh day—to the notice of the 
people. We rejoice in every step, whatever the motive 
may be, which extends the knowledge of God's word in 
regard to his down-trodden commandment. Bro. No 
dyke, of Kankakee, Ill., has sent us an article publislaed 
by the " Chicago Sabbath Association," in the ChWago 
Tribune. It is entitled, " An Argument in Favor of a 
Compulsatory Observance of the First Day of the Week.'' 
The following paragraph on hisiory is interesting:— 
" SUNDAY HISTORY.—In the year 321 Constantine 
established the Sabbath [established the day of the sun] 
by exempting it from being juridicial. In England 
the Sunday Law reaches back to 693, when Ina, king of 
the West Saxons, punished servile work on the Sabbath 
by fine. In the time of Queen Elizabeth persons neg-
lecting church services without excuse, were punished. 
The Statute 28, Charles II., chap. 7, enacted: That no 
tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer, or other person 
whatsoever shall do or exercise any worldly labor, busi-
ness, or work of their ordinary callings upon the Lord's 
day, or any part thereof (works of necessity and charity 
FEBRUARY 15, 1883. �TI-I �
 IA. SIGNS OF THE TI1V11-1:S. �
79 
The Two Covenants. 
But this is not true. These witnesses do not hold us in 
survey. They know nothing of our existence, In 
short, they know nothing at all, because they are dead. 
"Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a 
cloud of witnesses." The position of a small word in a 
sentence may make a great deal of difference. The 
word " also is here out of its proper place. The text 
should read thus: " Wherefore seeing we are compassed 
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also 
lay aside every weight," etc. It is not true, as implied 
in the common version, that those in ancient times 
were compassed about with witnesses. The Bible was 
not written in their day, and they had no precedent for 
their faith. Noah had no example of those who had 
trusted in God before his time, and had been preserved. 
He had simply the word of God. There had been no 
rain on the earth, and if the philosophers of his day 
were like those of the present time, they doubtless said 
that such a thing was contrary.to nature. Nevertheless 
he believed and obeyed the word of the Lord, and by 
so doing he " condemned the world, and became heir of 
the righteousness which is by faith." 
Abraham was called out from heathen surroundings, 
and " went out, not knowing whither he went." He 
had not before him a long list of persons who had 
tested the promises of God, and found them sure. So far 
as we know he had never been associated with any one 
who worshiped the true God. Still he had evidence 
enough. He had " two immutable things," the prom-
ise and the oath of God. But we have in addition to 
these a great array of men " subject to like passions.as 
we are," who gained glorious victories through faith in 
God. Since they accomplished such great ictories 
through faith, let us be encouraged to do likewise. 
If they, who had so much less light and encouragement 
than we have, persevered thus manfully, what patience 
and faith and zeal ought we not to exhibit ! 
The apostle declares that " whatsoever things were 
written aforetime were written for our learning, 
that we through patience and comfort of the Script-
ures might have hope." Rom. 15 : 4. Now there 
is to us abundant ground of hope in the lives of 
the patriarchs. We seldom take all the encourage-
ment from the record of their lives that we ought. 
We are apt to imagine that those men were com-
posed of different stuff from what men are now, 
that there was something peculiar in their natures 
which gave them favor with God. But this is not so. 
Some sin or weakness appears in the life of nearly 
every one. Human nature was the same in their day 
that it is now. Wherein, then, was their strength ? 
Simply in this: They were able to take God at his 
word. It is written, " Abraham believed God, and it 
was imputed unto him for righteousness." All the 
difference between them and us is that they believed 
implicitly, while we doubt. But it is just as easy for 
us to believe as it was for them; otherwise there would 
be no propriety in giving them as our example. In-
deed it ought to be easier for us, since we have their 
lives as assurance that God is " a rewarder of them 
that diligently seek him." If human nature is the same 
now that it was then, we have the assurance that God 
is the same also, and is just as ready to give us his aid 
in transforming ourselves that we may be made par-
takers of the divine nature. The lives of these worthies, 
and the exhortation of the apostle, were not written for 
nothing. Will we give them the attention that they 
deserve ? �
E. J. W. 
(7o be Continued.) 
" BEHOLD, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will 
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with 
the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that 
I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by 
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which 
my covenant they brake, although I was an husband 
unto them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the covenant 
that I will make with the house of Israel: After those 
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward 
parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, 
and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no 
more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, 
saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from 
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the 
Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remem-
ber their sin no more." Jer. 31 : 31-34. 
The first covenant was made with the people of Israel 
at the time of their departure out of Egypt. This cove-
nant no longer exists. The new covenant long since 
took its place. But a very serious error prevails in the 
minds of many persons respecting ,the points of differ- 
only excepted), and that no person or persons whatso-
ever shall publicly cry, show forth, or expose to sale 
any wares, merchandise, fruit, herbs, goods, or chi ttels 
whatsoever upon the Lord's day or any part thereof.' 
This, somewhat modified by subsequent laws, is the 
present Sunday Law in England, and is the foundation 
of the laws on the subject in the United States. The 
early laws of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia, South 
Carolina, and Virginia, compelled attendance at church, 
the Massachusetts law (1782) providing that such at-
tendance was not obligatory where there was no place 
of worship which the person could conscientiously at-
tend. When the Federal Government was formed and 
the separation of church and State was fully organized, 
the earlier Sunday Laws were modified in conformity 
with this principle." 
Sunday history, as far as Sunday law is concerned, is 
here commenced at the right point—the decree of Con-
stantine. The Tribune properly corrects the statement 
t. �
Constantine established the Sabbath, by inserting 
i.‘ brackets, " established the day of the sun." It will 
)een in these references to history that the enforce-
ment of Sunday was always a usurpation over men's 
consciences, compelling them to observe religious 
tenets in which they did not believe; always an 
essential element in the union of church and State. 
Another quotation is taken from " a number of the 
French Institute," and again the Tribune brackets a 
query, thus:— 
" Whenever a nation fails to keep this commandment 
respecting the Sabbath Christianity ceases to exist. 
[What commandment respecting the first day of the 
week ?] There would then be an end to domestic life, 
to family ties, and civilization would soon be succeeded 
by barbarism." 
Such queries and corrections as the Tribune inserts 
in this article cannot fail to have a telling effect on the 
minds of many readers. 
The keepers of the true Sabbath in Chicago are taking 
steps to publish a paper in that city to advocate the 
claims of the seventh day, and to expose this Sunday-
law sophistry. They are not situated there as we were 
in California; there is an exemption clause in the 
Illinois Sunday Law. But they consider that the 
occasion is a favorable one for letting the light of the 
true Sabbath shine in that city, and in that State, and 
that they have a duty to do both in regard to the truth 
of God, and to their fellow-men. We pray that God 
may guide them, and give them wisdom and discretion 
for their work, and crown their efforts with success. 
Thoughts on the Twelfth Chapter of 
Hebrews. 
" WHEREFORE seeing we also are compassed about 
with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside 
every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset use 
and let us run with patience the race that is set before' 
us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our 
faith." 
The word " witnesses," in this text, conveys to many 
a wrong idea, or rather, many persons give it a mean-
ing which does not belong to it in this place. A wit-
ness is one who testifies in a cause, from personal 
knowledge, and in this sense it is used here. This chap-
ter is a continuation of the argument on faith, and the 
cloud or multitude of witnesses who are here spoken of, 
are the worthies whose deeds are recorded in chapter 
eleven. They are not " witnesses " in the sense that 
they are looking on to see us run the race, for all of 
them except Enoch died. Now of the dead it is said 
that " they know not anything," Eccl. 9 : 5; that in 
the day of their death " their thoughts perish," Ps. 
146 : 4; and that they are not conscious of the elevation 
or disgrace of even their dearest relatives, Job. 14 : 21. 
It is certain, then, that those of whom the apostle 
says that they " all died in faith," are not cognizant 
of anything that is now taking place on this earth. 
How then are they " witnesses " ? They have all run 
the race, and obtained great victories through faith; 
and by means of the sacred record their lives bear 
witness to the power of a firm, abiding faith. Of Abel 
it is said that "he being dead yet speaketh." So 
likewise all these worthies are standing by to cheer us 
on by their testimony as to the possibility of making the 
race a success. 
One stanza of an excellent hymn that is based on 
this passage, is ruined because the writer of the hymn 
mistook the meaning of the word " witnesses." The 
stanza is this:— 
" A cloud of witnesses around, 
Hold thee in full survey; 
Forget the steps already trod, 
And onward urge thy way." 
ence between these two covenants. The old covenant 
was made with the Hebrew people. For this reason, 
whatever entered into it is supposed to be Jewish. Thus 
the law of God is summarily set aside as Jewish; and 
thus might the God of Israel himself be discarded as a 
Jewish God. But the new covenant is held up to our 
admiration, because it_is, as they say, not made with the 
Jeirs, but with the Gentiles. The old covenant belonged 
to the Jews, and with it we have no concern; the new 
covenant is made with the Gentiles, and we, as Gentiles, 
are interested in it. 
How can men thus carelessly read the Scriptures ? 
The language of inspiration is very explicit in stating 
that the new covenant is made with the same people 
that were the subjects of the old covenant. Thus Jer-
emiah, speaking in the name of the Lord, says: " I will 
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and 
with the house of Judah." And he further alludes to 
the fact that the new covenant is made with the Hebrew 
people when he adds: " Not according to the covenant 
that I made with their fathers in the day that I took 
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of 
Egypt." And yet again he identifies the Hebrew peo-
ple when he says: " This shall be the covenant that I 
will make with the house of Israel." And Paul quotes 
at length, in Hebrews 8, this entire statement of Jere-
miah respecting the old and new covenants being sev-
erally made with the Hebrew people. And, as if this 
were not enough, he makes a statement in Rom. 9 : 4, 5, 
that exactly meets the case. Thus he says of the He-
brews: " Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the 
adoption, and the glory, AND THE COVENANTS, and the 
giving of the law, and the service of God, and the prom-
ises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning 
the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for-
ever." Thus it appears that everything valuable God 
has given to the world through the instrumentality, or 
by the means, of the Hebrew people. Those who choose 
to do so can venture to despise the law of God because 
given to the Jews, and to reject Christ because he came 
of the Jews; but one thing they cannot do. They can-
not say, " We accept the new covenant because it per-
tains to the Gentiles, whereas the first covenant, and 
the law, etc., pertained to the Jews." No such distinc-
tion can be drawn. Both the covenants pertain to the 
Hebrew people, according to the explicit statement of 
Paul; and both are said by Jeremiah and Paul, or 
rather by the Spirit of inspiration speaking through 
them, to be made with Judah and Israel. 
The fact being thus clearly established that the two 
covenants are both made with the Hebrews, it becomes 
a matter of interest to inquire into the reason of this 
thing. Why did God thus honor one nation and pass 
by all others ? Undoubtedly there was a sufficient 
reason for this action, and that reason we shall find 
fully laid open to our view in the Bible. The first 
thing which Paul has enumerated as pertaining to the 
Hebrews, is " the adoption ;" and if we can understand 
why God adopted this family, we shall readily under-
stand why all the other things which he has named 
should also pertain to this people. 
Know, then, that God did not adopt the family of 
Abraham as his first action in behalf of mankind. He 
attempted thus to make his own the family of the first 
man, Adam, the common head and father of the human 
race. But at the end of the antediluvian age, only 
eight persons remained upon the earth who feared the 
God of Heaven. There was no alternative with him 
but to witness the extinction of piety in the earth, or 
else, by an awful lesson of judgment, to destroy every 
wicked man from the earth. And for this reason came 
the deluge. And now one family alone remains—the 
family of Noah, who is the second head of the human 
race. And this family, thus instructed in divine truth, 
and thus warned by God's terrible judgments, might all 
have been, if they would, the heritage of the Almighty. 
But when men began again to multiply upon the earth, 
they did not like to nn,ain God in their knowledge. 
They forgot God. They plunged into sin. They united 
under Nimrod to build Babel. As they set God at 
defiance, he placed his curse upon them by confounding 
their language. Gen. 10 and 11. In the fourth century 
after the flood, only a handful of godly persons re-
mained. Abraham, in the midst of this dense moral 
darkness, for even his immediate ancestors were idola-
tors (Josh. 24 :2), was so pre-eminent in virtue that he 
was called the friend of God. James 2 : 23. God said 
that he knew Abraham, that he would command his 
children and his household after him, and that they 
80 �
TI-1 1-1] SIGNS OF TEE �
 TIM �
PAS. �
VoL. 9, No. 7. 
would keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judg-
ment. Gen. 18 : 19. God had pledged himself at the 
time Noah and his family came forth from the ark, 
never again to drown the world. Gen. 9 : 15. 
But he must do something to save this one faithful 
family from ruin, and, by means of them, to preserve in 
the earth some degree of true piety, and to retain among 
men a body of faithful worshipers. To do this, he 
adopts this family of Abraham, his friend, and separates 
them by circumcision and the rites of the ceremonial 
law, from all the rest of mankind. Thus Abraham be-
came the third grandfather of mankind. Not the father 
of the whole race, like Adam and Noah respectively; 
but the father of the people of God. This was the 
adoption. He gave up the rest of mankind to idolatry 
and atheism, not because he was willing that they 
should perish, but because they would not hearken to 
his voice. Yet, though he thus adopted this one fam-
ily, he did not so reject the rest of mankind that he did 
not make provision for any of them to be received 
among the Hebrew people if they would become cir-
cumcised and unite with the Hebrews in his service and 
worship. The adoption was just, and right, and neces-
sary. By means of it, God preserved his knowledge and 
his worship in the earth. 
The Hebrew people being thus adopted, and by means 
of circumcision set apart from the rest of the world, 
found to their great profit that, though they were sepa-
rated from the world, they were united to Him who 
made the heaven and the earth. They had the Lord 
for their God. They had much advantage " every 
way:" the adoption, the glory, the two covenants, the 
giving of the law, the service of God, the promises, the 
fathers and the Messiah. And yet Paul says their chief 
advantage was that the oracles of God were committed 
to them. Rom. 3 : 1, 2. It is not best to scorn the law 
of God because committed to the Hebrews. It is not 
best to despise the new covenant, as Jewish, because, 
like the old covenant, it is made with Israel. Nor is it 
best to reject Jesus as the Messiah because he comes of 
that despised race; and, finally, it is not best to have 
some other god besides the God of Israel. Our God, 
indeed, bears that title; because he was for long ages 
worshiped by the Hebrews only, and by the Gentiles 
almost not at all. Yet that is not his fault, but ours. 
And so of all the sacred things committed to the Israel-
ites. They were not Jewish, or Hebraic, but divine. 
In fact, we must have a part in these precious treasures 
which God gave to this people, for their preservation 
through the long period of Gentile darkness. They are 
of equal value to us, and we must share in them. " Sal-
vation," said our Lord to the woman of Samaria, " is of 
the Jews." John 4 : 22. �
J. N. A. 
( To be Continued.) 
The Obedience of Saul. 
WHEN Saul was sent to execute God's judgment 
against the Amalekites, the command given him was, 
" Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that 
they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and 
woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and 
ass." 1 Sam. 15 : 3. This order was explicit enough cer-
tainly, and could not be misunderstood. All will agree 
that disobedience to such a plain command could pro-
ceed from nothing else but willfulness. Saul set out 
upon his mission, and smote the Amalekites, gaining a 
great victory. He did not, however, follow strictly the 
directions given him, for we read, " But Saul and the 
people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, and of 
the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all 
that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but 
everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed 
utterly." Did Saul obey orders ? There can be but 
one answer: He went directly contrary to them. Should 
a modern officer obey the orders of his superior no bet-
ter than Saul did, he would immediately be court-mar-
tialed and shot. 
But how did Saul excuse himself for such conduct ? 
Did he shrink from meeting the man of God, and say 
that the order could not be executed ? No, he came 
boldly forward and said, " Blessed be thou of the Lord; 
I have performed the word of the Lord." What impu-
dent assurance! No wonder the prophet asked in as-
tonishment, " What meaneth then this bleating of the 
sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which 
I hear ? " Saul had his reply ready, and said, " They 
have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people 
spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice 
unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly 
destroyed." 
From these answers of Saul's it appears that he really 
thought that he had obeyed the Lord. He doubtless 
reasoned thus: " The Lord wants all these sheep and 
oxen destroyed; but the end will be accomplished just 
as well if we offer them in sacrifice, as it would if we 
should slaughter them where they are. By saving them 
for sacrifice we can fulfill the commandment of the 
Lord, and at the same time offer him acceptable worship." 
Now it is very evident that such reasoning is not reason-
ing, but sophistry. If the Lord had desired that those 
animals should be offered in sacrifice, he would have 
said so; and although the Lord delights in sacrifice, he 
cannot accept that which is made at the expense of 
obedience to his commandments. Saul's course shows 
that he was blinded by self-will. 
There is a great deal of obedience at the present time 
of the same nature as this that we have just considered. 
In a conversation which we once had with a lady in 
regard to the Sabbath, she admitted that the seventh 
day is the Sabbath, just as the commaruiment says, and 
that it has never been changed by divine authority; 
"but," said she, " we keep the first day of the week in 
honor of Christ; and the Father has such great love for 
the Son that anything done in his honor will be 
accepted as obedience." Just think of it. The Father 
and the ...Son are one; yet God will overlook disobedience 
to his plainest commandment, if the person declares it 
to be his intention to honor the Son. Has Christ com-
manded the observance of the first day ? No. Has God 
ever given anybody permission to keep it ? Never. 
Has either one ever said that such observance would 
honor Christ? Such a thing was never even intimated. 
Has not God commanded men to keep the seventh day ? 
Yes; and in the same commandment he has told them 
to work on six days. And Christ was one with the 
Father before the worlds were made, and was associated 
with him in that work; hence the commandments of the 
Father are also those of the Son. Then how can any-
body possessing reason imagine that breaking the Sab, 
bath and observing Sunday, is an act of honor either to 
the Father or to the Son ? This question is beyond our 
power to answer. 
Under this same head comes Joseph Cook's reason (?) 
for keeping Sunday. He once wrote an article for the 
Christian Union on " The Sunday Question," which 
begun thus:— 
" If it be asked what is the Biblical authority for the 
observance of Sunday, my reply must be that the ser-
mon on the mount, in my opinion, recognizes the moral 
spirit of the whole decalogue. The sermon on the 
Mount affirms that not one jot or tittle of the law shall 
pass away till all be fulfilled. That does not mean the 
ceremonial law, but the two great tables of the older 
dispensation. No one pretends that the law in the 
decalogue against theft is repealed by the New Testa-
ment, nor that against adultery." 
Truly that is a reason worthy of Saul himself. " We 
keep Sunday, because the law enjoining the observance 
of the seventh day is still in force! " This reasoning 
goes beyond Saul, for he intended to obey the Lord, at 
some future time, and in his own way; but Mr. Cook 
intends to obey the Lord in his own way, which is by 
direct disobedience. 
Let us use this reasoning in the case of another com-
mandment. The first commandment says, " Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me." Now why may not 
the heathen who has professed to be converted to Chris- 
tianity, say, " If it be asked why I worship idols, my 
reply must be that the ten commandments are recog- 
nized by the New Testament as of full force. The 
spirit of that law enjoins worship, but since the object 
of worship is not specified, we are at liberty to worship 
what we please." Is there a sin common to mankind 
that may not be justified by such reasoning ? 
Or he might say, The Lord takes great pleasure in 
the things that he has made. When he had finished 
the work of creation, he pronounced it very good; and 
the psalmist says: " The works of the Lord are great; " 
"His work is honorable and glorious; " " He hath made 
his wonderful works to be remembered." Now, reason-
ing as in the first instance, the heathen might say, " It 
is true that the Lord has commanded us to worship 
him; but I worship the sun and moon in honor 
of God's creation; and God thinks so much of his works 
that he will accept sun-worship as obedience to him-
self." Why should the heathen be condemned for 
breaking one commandment, and the Christian be 
justified for breaking another, for the same reason ? 
Do men think that they can deceive the Lord by 
such sophistry, and cause him to think that disobedi-
ence is obedience? Do they imagine that they will 
convert the Lord to their way of thinking? or that he 
will withhold punishment out of respect to their per-
sons ? If they do, let them consider the case of Saul, 
and its consequences, and take warning. �
E. J. W. 
155iintarn, 
Who Are Entitled to Premiums. 
THE work of canvassing is being engaged in 
with interest in many places. A premium is of-
fered with each of our periodicals, and not one 
of them should be neglected. With the Review 
is offered the " Biblical Institute " for $2.50; with 
the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, the " Life and Epistles it 
St. Paul " for $2.25. The " Household Manum 
is offered with Good Health for $1.31; and " 
shine Series " with the Instructor for 85 ets. The 
question is often asked, Can all who renew their 
subscription for these periodicals have the pre-
mium ? Are these offers made only to those not of 
our faith, or are our brethren who are not now sub-
scribers included ? In reply, we would state that 
the premium arrangement has been made for one 
purpose only; namely, to increase the circulation 
of our periodicals. Our brethren are expected to 
use the premiums for this purpose, and not to 
benefit themselves; therefore no one who is an 
old subscriber should expect the premium, neither 
would we consider it right for persons to change 
their subscription to another member of the fam-
ily in order to secure the premium. There may 
be cases where persons have lost their interest in 
the Review or Good Health, and ceased to be sub-
scribers, where the premiums should not be with-
held. Let all act conscientiously in the matter. 
S. N. HASKELL. 
Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. 
I HAVE spent the last eight weeks with the 
churches and scattered brethren and sisters in 
these counties, part of the time in company with 
Eld. M. C. Israel, and part of the time alone. We 
have on all occasions borne a very plain testimony. 
The subjects of " present dangers and duties," 
" conversion," and " growth in grace," have been 
made especially prominent. We have labored to 
instill a spirit of faithfulness and devotion to the 
cause of God into the hearts of all connected with 
the work. The missionary and Sabbath-school 
interests have received a due share of attention. 
We have endeavored to set before the young the 
importance of taking advantage of present school 
privileges, to fit themselves for fields of usefulness 
in connection with the closing messages, and we 
have not failed to urge upon the older brethren 
the importance of encouraging the young in tak-
ing such steps. 
Other interests of the cause have been looked 
after as occasion demanded. Nearly every family 
of Sabbath-keepers, and also the scattered indi-
viduals
' 
 have been visited, and their spiritual in-
terests looked after. 
Many of the brethren were very kind in render-
ing assistance, by going with their teams and tak-
ing us from place to place. We have found plenty 
of work to do everywhere we have been, and have 
seen some very encouraging results. We have 
often realized the truth that " He that watereth 
shall be watered also himself." The blessing of 
the Lord has attended us in all our labors, and 
we feel greatly strengthened to labor on in this 
cause. 
The results of our labors in Fresno City, though 
encouraging in some respects, were not quite as 
full as we hoped for. One hundred and twenty 
dollars was raised to help pay for the special edi-
tion of the SIGNS, and steps were taken toward 
the erection of a good church building; but we did 
not see that deep, anxious heart searching, and 
that earnest desire for a personal experience in 
spiritual things that we expected to see. But 
there are omens for good and some evidences of 
substantial improvement, not only in Fresno City, 
but also in other parts of the county. 
At Temperance Colony the work stands better 
than it did. At Burrough Valley a V. M. Society 
was organized, and a club of fourteen SIGNS or-
dered, making over twenty copies in all for that 
church. At Visalia ten copies were ordered. 
At L3moore the work is progressing well. A 
spirit of courage and good cheer characterized 
the meetings from the first. Some of the seasons 
we had together were especially marked by ear-
nestness and solemnity. Prejudices of long stand-
ing were removed, and new life seemed to mani-
fest itself in every branch of the work. The 
brethren here subscribed $83.50 toward the spe-
cial edition of the SIGNS. I remain here one week 
longer. �
G. D. BALLOU. 
Temperance, Cal., Feb. 6, 1883. 
San Juan, California; 
SINCE camp-meeting I have labored in San Juan 
and vicinity, visiting small neighborhoods in the 
mountains, with tracts and papers, and holding 
meetings as I had opportunity. I have met reg-
ularly on the Sabbath with the little company in 
fan Juan, to encourage them, and instruct them 
in the truth. The brethren have taken up a sub-
scription, and bought the Baptist church, the only 
Protestant church in the place; it cost $2,500 
when built, and sold for $500. It has a bell in its 
steeple, which every Sabbath reminds the people 
of that town and neighborhood "of God's holy day. 
The little company of Sabbath-keepers there hOe 
a Sabbath-school of about twenty-eight members, 
and are of good courage. �
ISAAC MORRISON. 
Healdsburg, Feb. 8, 1883. 
Upper Columbia T. and M. Society. 
REPORT FOR QUARTER ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1882. 
New Subscribers. 
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MRS. G. W. COLCORD, Secretary. 
THE American Churches give for evangelizing 
800,000,000 heathen about $3,000,000 a year. 
The American Churches give for home mission-
work and benevolence, $75,000,000. For a single 
bridal-dress is given $6,000. For ladies' foreign 
dress goods are expended annually $125,000,000. 
New York alone is said to expend for kid gloves 
annually $30,000,000. For intoxicating drinks 
our American people expend annually $900,000,-
000. Let the vital power of the gospel rule in 
Christendom, giving soul-interests their due prom-
inence, and how easy to so divert and direct the 
streams of expenditure and personal effort as 
speedily to evangelize every individual of the 
race.—Christian at Work. 
Totals 
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DUTIES AND CHARMS.—We urge the duties of 
Christianity upon the consciences of men; but 
duties are constraints till they are changed into 
charms by love. The very word duty is a harsh 
one, until the heart grasps it, and then the lowli-
est service and the boldest endeavor are cheerfully 
accepted and welcomed. To win men to the per-
formance of Christian duties, it is necessary to 
win them to the love of Him who requires them, 
and to the love of those for whose benefit they 
are required.---Dean Stanley. 
PEOPLE talk of the' sacrifice I have made in 
spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that 
be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as 
a small part of a great gift owing to our God, 
which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice, 
which brings its own best reward in healthful 
activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace 
of mind, and a glorious destiny hereafter?' Away 
with the word in such a view, and with such a 
thought ! It is emphatically no sacrifice. It is 
a privilege.—Livingstone. 
Increase of Liquor Drinking. 
THE following statistics show that, in spite of 
the vigorous blows struck by temperance reform-
ers, the liquor traffic is not destroyed by any 
means:— 
"The report just issued from the National Bu-
reau of Statistics shows a steady increase during 
the past five years in the consumption of liquors 
in this country. The consumption (not manufact-
ure) of distilled spirits during the years 1878, 
1879, 1880, 1881, and 1882, respectively, were 57,-
111,982, 54,278,475, 63,526,694, 70,607,081, and 
73,556,036 gallons. For the same years the con-
sumption of wines, native and foreign, was 19,-
812,675, 24,532,015, 28,484,428, 24,231,106, and 
25,628,071 gallons. But the chief increase has 
been in malt liquors, which aggregated 310,653,-
253, 345,076,118, 414,771,690, 444,806,373, and 
527,051,236 gallons." 
These figures give the simple facts, and are not 
gotten up in the interest of temperance. But 
they prove one thing beyond the shadow of a 
doubt, and that is that the use of beer and wine 
does not tend to diminish the use of other intoxi-
cating drinks. They show, what temperance peo-
ple have always claimed, that the use of any 
intcxicant only creates- an appetite for intoxicants 
as a class. 
Some will also use these figures to show that 
all this temperance agitation has done no good, 
but it does not strike us in that way. If the liquor 
traffic has increased so rapidly, notwithstanding 
the great amount of temperance work, what would 
it have been had nothing been done to check it? 
INTOXICATION costs the United States annually 
one thousand millons of treasure. It costs one 
hundred thousand lives. It produces seven-eighths 
of the crime and pauperism in the country. It 
causes nine-tenths of the ignorance and illiteracy. 
It is indirectly the cause of nearly all. the care-
lessness which results in accidents destructive of 
life and property. As a consequence life insurance 
companies are refusing to take risks on habitual 
drinkers. Fire companies are declining to insure 
saloons and restaurants as extra hazardous. Rail-
way companies are discharging all conductors, 
engineers, and brakesmen who drink. Steamboat 
owners are requiring their officers to abstain from 
drink when on duty. Why do you not vote as 
these men act? Acts are prayers.—Anvil. 
EVERY person is responsible for all the good 
within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, 
and none can tell whose sphere is the largest. 
FEBRUARY 15, 1883, �
THE SIGNS OF TIM TIMES. �
81 
truly pitiable, and strikingly contrasts with his af-
fluence of a few years ago. His head is white, his 
strong frame is shaken, his credit is ruined, his 
home broken up, and he stands indicted for one 
of the most serious offenses against the Govern-
ment. 
Another case quite as distressing came to my 
notice not many days ago. A man who bad long 
had a monopoly of the liquor business in one of 
the suburbs of this city, was supposed to have 
laid up a competence for himself and family. In 
early life he had seen the ill effects of the traffic 
in his father's family in England, but this did not 
deter him from engaging in the' same business 
when he had reached the age of manhood. He 
made money, and his stout constitution endured 
the strain. Iiy and by his wife died from the tre- 
mens, and he for a time abandoned the business, 
but subsequently re-entered it and added to his 
establishment year by year. The other day he 
was carried to the poor-house, a wreck in the 
prime of life, his strong frame transformed to hid-
eousness. His property has been all dissipated, 
and his little ones have been taken care of by 
families from whom he would a few years ago 
have scorned to receive a favor. 
This seems to be one of the saddest aspects of 
the liquor evil. There is a double loss, an absolute 
wasting of resources. If the money which the 
man takes from his family to spend in drink were 
to be bestowed upon the family of the seller of the 
drink, the tragedy would be less appalling; in a 
certain way good would come out of evil in that 
case, and the produce of a generation's labor would 
be preserved. But this double degradation—the 
ruining of buyer and seller and the families of 
both—with what may we compare it ? It is de-
feat without corresponding victory, loss without 
gain; it is murder and suicide at a single stroke. 
CONCEIT may puff a man up, but never prop him 
up.—Ruskin. 
imptrallfe, 
Why Indians Use Tobacco. 
BY W. N. GLENN. 
DEVIL-WORSHIP is quite common with the 
heathen, in fact with some who claim to be 
more enlightened than the material idol wor-
shipers. One instance is no doubt fresh in the 
minds of many Californians, of a Spiritualist 
" professor" whose prelude to a lecture in San 
Jose was a ,prayer to Satan. The American 
Indians, in their savage state, are no exception 
to this idea of appeasing the wrath of bad spirits 
and soliciting their favor. 
An old missionary among the western tribes, 
who is well acquainted with the Indian customs, 
and has inquired into the reasons for many of 
their habits and ceremonies, informs us that 
tobacco-smoking with them is really a form of 
devil-worship; that they imagine that producing 
tobacco fumes, and teaching the practice to their 
little ones, are very pleasing to the bad spirits. 
This venerable missionary also informs us that 
he has seen many savage Indians converted to 
Christianity by the power of the Holy Spirit, and 
that they invariably threw away their pipes and 
tobacco, without any special instruction on that 
point. 
To this testimony it may be added, that in 
both the form of devil-worship and the dis-
carding of tobacco upon espousing Christianity, 
the Indian idea of the " eternal fitness of things" 
is to be commended. A more convincing evidence 
of true conversion on their part could hardly 
be given, and their example in this respect is 
worthy of imitation by all professing Christians. 
An Unprofitable Trade. 
TAKEN all in all, the liquor traffic isn't profitable 
to either party in the transaction. Now and then 
you hear of a man who has made a comfortable 
little fortune in the trade, but it generally hap-
pens that these men have had sagacious wives 
who held fast to the profits. A large majority of 
those men who have gone into saloon-keeping or 
tavern-keeping to get rich or to make a living by 
easier means than productive labor, have lost 
money. Look at the commercial reports of Dunn 
or Bradstreet; month after month I have noticed 
that the failures in the liquor business have out-
numbered those in any other branch of trade, and 
in some States they have exceeded in number the 
failures in all other branches. Of course, in a 
large measure, this fact is accounted for not by 
the smallness of profits, but by the damaging per-
sonal consequences of the trade upon the dealers. 
The man who makes drunkards, soon or late, be-
comes a drunkard himself, and that means bank 
ruptcy all around. Moreover, the liquor seller 
ruins his health, almost without exception. Here 
is testimony from a reliable source. The general 
life insurance office of Canada has lately issued 
the following order: " In consequence of the ex-
cessive mortality experienced in the case of inn-
keepers whose lives have been assured with the 
company, it is hereby notified that from this date 
the directors will not- undertake these risks on 
any terms.'' Everybody understands the mean-
ing of this statement. 
In every locality may be found conspicuous 
illustrations of the facts here stated. Where 
can you point to a liquor-selling hotel or restau-
rant that has had a quarter of a century of un-
broken prosperity, that has not changed proprie-
tors, settled its obligations at a discount, or been 
sold out under the hammer? 'there are some, of 
course, but they are few. I believe that not a 
dozen liquor dealers of Onondaga County, either 
wholesale or retail, can look back on an unbr
oken 
quarter-century of honest financial success; those 
acquainted with the facts will recognize the general 
truth of this statement without disagreeable spec-
ification, and if the estimate is found to be slightly 
erroneous, they can make their adjustment. I 
might name village after village whose inn-keeper 
has fallen from a position of respectability (as the 
word is commonly applied) down to the level 
of beggary or imbecility, or has gone to jail for 
crime. There is now pending in the United States 
court the case of a man, a hotel keeper, who a 
dozen years ago controlled the politics of the larg-
est town in the county. His present condition is 
82 �
TIC FA] SIGNS OF TT-1K TIM I-14S. �
Vol,. 9, No. 7. 
LET Jesus lead thee: surely he knows best 
Which way is safest for the earnest soul; 
Walk where he leads, and trust him for the rest, 
And he will bring thee to the highest goal. 
Let Jesus help thee: surely he knows best 
What is thy strength, and what thy toil and need; 
Do what thou canst, and leave to him the rest, 
And he will make thy trust thy noblest deed. 
Let Jesus teach thee' surely he knows best 
What lessons thou dost need to make thee wise; 
Receive what he makes plain, and leave the rest 
Till thou shalt see him with immortal eyes. 
Let Jesus keep thee: surely he knows best 
What hidden dangers lie along thy way; 
Go, watch and fight and pray, and leave the rest 
To him who is thy everlasting stay. 
—Selected. 
Rob's "Holt." 
"IT'S my best holt," said Rob Strayhorn to him-
self, as he sat scratching his foot on the edge of 
the bed in the barn-loft. " They ain't anything 
else to hold a candle to it. Talk about keepin' 
one's temper. Sakes alive ! it's gone afore you 
know it, and a feller don't know a thing till it's 
all over with, and he begins to feel kinder foolish. 
But this takin' a little time every day to read an' 
pray, it's—well, it's my best holt. 
" This havin' a Saviour"—here Rob choked and 
lapsed into silence a moment. " Strange how he 
should care for a feller like me. 
" I dunno's Mr. Jones misses the time I take fer 
Him, when I'm at the fodderin'; reckon I don't 
laze around as much's I used to anyhow. 'Pears 
like they's something takes holt o' me and keeps 
me when things git out o' kilter. Yes, it holds 
me and keeps me." 
It was a long soliloquy for a boy who had fol-
lowed the plow all day, and here he tumbled into 
bed and was asleep in five minutes. 
Rob Strayhorn was an overgrown, awkward lad 
of sixteen, with tow-colored hair, sun-burned face, 
light blue eyes, big feet, and freckled hands, and, 
withal, an awkwar consciousness of his personal 
defects that made him more uncouth than he was by 
nature. His best suit was of shoddy, slopwork cot-
ton, a marvel of misfit; while his every-day over-
alls were redolent of their constant association 
with the swill-pail and cow-stable. 
He was alone in the world, and thought him-
self fortunate to have a place at Mr. Jones', where 
he worked in the summer from five in the morn-
ing until eight at night, for eight dollars a month, 
and did chores for his board in the winter while 
he attended the district school. 
Perhaps Miss Clara, of the dainty apparel and 
delicate hands, whose pet pride is in her refined 
tastes, wonders what such a being can have to 
make life desirable. Well, he doesn't have what 
you do. But I think that sometimes God puts 
the precious seed in hearts where the body is 
kept in a mean and toilsome life, as he plants the 
other seed in the unsightly ground. Both will 
grow and bloom. 
Rob had found the Saviour the winter before, 
and to the friendless boy it had been a revelation 
of forgiveness and love that had transformed him. 
He never stopped to think, as Miss Clara might 
have done, of how much he was going to bestow 
on the Lord. He simply took and loved. 
" Say, poys," said Pete Ilcebler to Gus and 
Mike one morning as Rob came in for a half 
bushel of oats, "vat you dinks I see yesterday ? 
I vent into der hay-loft an' dere vas Pob, pig as 
life, on his knees sayin' his prayers." 
"Haw, haw, ho, ho," roared the two men. 
" Sure an' we've got a saint among us," said 
Mike. 
" An' never knowed it," said Gus. 
" Say, Bob, cuddent yeze put oop a few fur 
the like of us poor sinners outside ? That's a 
noice b'y," said Mike. 
Rob would have been more than human, not to 
have felt his temper rising, with the scarlet blood 
that suffused his face. But as he stood before his 
tormentor, the Spirit came to him, with an echo 
from his morning reading, " Whom, having not 
seen, ye love," and a sudden sense of manhood 
stilled his soul. Unconsciously he straightened 
himself as he said: 
" I dunno's I'm ashamed of it. I love the Lord 
I pray to, an' I a'n't a goin' to quit it nuther," 
and walked out with his half bushel on his shoul-
der. 
" Sure, the lad's got spunk," muttered Mike, 
" I'll say that for him." 
The boy did not know he had passed through 
one of those supreme moments of soul growth, 
which shape the whole life sometimes; but so it 
was. He had taken a long step in Christian 
manhood, and he felt that his " holt " was never 
so strong before. 
One hot afternoon, Pete and Mike, after dozing 
on the grass and sauntering over the farm, till 
they were ready for any new amusement, mounted 
to the hay-mow, where they found Rob with his 
Bible and lesson-leaf. 
" Three cheers for the parson," shouted Pete. 
"Whist now, yez'll be brakin' the thrid av his 
discourse," said Mike, as he tumbled down on the 
hay. " Coom, praycher, we're afther wantin' a 
bit av yer salmon. Rade right along an' don't be 
bashful." 
What magnetic current of love guided Rob's 
slow fingers to the story oft' all stories. 
" I'll read if you like," he said, and began 
about the prodigal son. He had prayed for his 
companions that afternoon, and now, through all 
the magical lines, his voice trembled with feeling. 
It was read in a stumbling fashion, but an un-
seen influence pointed each slow sentence with 
fire. Gus gave an angry grunt, as he slid to the 
floor, and went out to lean over the hog-pen; but 
Mike lay with his arm aver his head, and his face 
turned away for a few moments. Then he went 
down, and when he was alone, he rubbed his face 
On his red cotton handkerchief and said to him-
self, "Faix, an' it's the far countbry I'm in now, 
sure." 
That week, Rob and Mike were hoeing the half-
grown corn, in the hot July sun, and their rows 
kept them together. 
"Rob," said Mike, " now I want yez to tell me 
what's got onto ye. Why, ye're not the same 
b'y ye wer' last year, at all. Ye war' the gritti-
est little feller that iver i sawn thin; but I'm 
blissed, if' ye didn't take all Pate's maneness as 
make as a lamb. The dirty spalpeen, to till Mr. 
Jones that the wa'ads he lift war where ye hoed. 
I'd have knocked the head off him." 
The boy's slow speech did not admit of many 
words in his confession of faith, and his feeling 
choked him, but he said, slowly, 
"I've got a holt on Jesus, Mike, an' he's got a 
holt on me." 
He was almost surprised to find himself going 
on, hoeing nervously meanwhile. 
" It's good thing to hey Mike, an' I wish you'd 
ketch a holt too." 
Faix, it's myself that wishes that same, too. 
Ye say, I wasn't always the wild b'y ye've sa'an 
me here; me folks was Prasbyterians in the ould 
counthry, an' they raised me corrict, but I got 
sthrayed aff, like. Ye'll belave me, whin I tell 
ye, that all yer prayers and Bible-radin', an' yer 
straightforrad Christianity, has made me fale 
quare. Rob, tell me, b'y, d'ye think there's ony 
hope for the loike o' me?" and Mike gave a great 
sob. 
Rob could not talk, but he took from his ven-
erable pocket his Testament, and read the chap-
ter which had once thrilled his own soul with the 
promise of forgiveness, the third of John, that 
wondrous epitome of the gospel. When he had 
read the words, "For God so loved the world 
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso-
ever believeth on him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life," he knelt down in the furrow 
and made his first prayer in the presence of an-
other. When he was done, Mike broke out in a 
vehement appeal for mercy, and there under the 
rustling leaves of the corn, a soul was born into 
the kingdom of God. 
Twenty-five years later, two pastors in Kansas 
were comparing their work. 
"I have one man that I lean upon," said one. 
"In any emergency there is always the feeling, 
that I have one on whom I can rely. He is a 
tower of strength in the church, if I may use the 
expression." 
"In what ?" asked the other. 
"In his character and daily life. His children 
are growing up to love his God, and I believe it 
is largely owing to the godly example he sets be-
fore them. No hurry of harvest, nor rush of vis-
itors, keeps him from his family prayers. If the 
President were his guest, he would get down his 
Bibles, hand one to him, and ask him to take his 
turn in reading a verse, and to join in prayer. 
He came here and took up land twenty years 
ago; and I'll venture to say that two-thirds of all 
who have been converted in the community since, 
owe something of their religious life to him. If 
he bas not taught them in Sunday-school, or 
talked to them of Jesus by the way, they may be 
sure that he has plead with God in private for 
their salvation. Quiet, you say ? Yes, quiet and 
slow of speech. He never had brilliant talents, 
and was without early advantages, but I am sur-
prised sometimes, at the simple elegance of his 
few words. I think it is because the Bible has 
been the daily food, both of intellect and soul. 
I wish there were more men like Robert Stray-
horn." 
"Amen," said the other pastor. 
This is what Rob's "holt " did for him.—Chris-
tian Weekly. 
Touching Him. 
WHEN our Lord Jesus put forth his hand and 
touched the leper, it was a representative act. 
In laying his hand on the man who was loath-
some beyond expression, whose body was hide-
ous to the eye, retaining scarce a trace of 
humanity, and who was, ceremonially, unclean 
and vile, our Lord laid his hand on all humanity. 
He declared his sympathy with all born of 
woman, however degraded. 
This sympathy is one of the rarest of qualities. 
Even with the good, even with our nearest 
friends, even with our closest kindred, our fellow-
ship is very imperfect. Like a heap of cannon 
balls, we touch each other only at a single point. 
We are too selfish to feel for each other and with 
each other. 
Even where there is a good deal of charity and 
humanity, it by no means follows that there is 
sympathy. Often we are willing to give to the 
sufferer everything but the one thing for which 
he most hungers—sympathy. It was not hard to 
find men enough who would speak for the Afri-
can, give for him, labor for him, fight for him, die 
for him, but who would not break bread with 
him. Many would plan a home for the incura-
bles, and would deny themselves in order to give 
to it money, time, care, labor, who yet would not 
bend over and kiss the lips of the sufferers. 
This sympathy is peculiarly rare when the bar-
rier that separates persons is one of moral char- 
acter. We shrink with almost unconquerable 
loathing from the vile. The women who would 
found a reformatory for the prostitute, would yet 
draw their garments about them lest the prosti-
tute should touch the hem of their robes. A phi-
losopher, immortalized by Bulwer, has said: "I 
can only pity guilt; but I can sit down by the 
side of misfortune." 
But the man Christ Jesus sat down beside mis-
fortune, ignorance, guilt, vileness. He laid his 
hand not only on the bodily diseased, but on the 
moral lepers. When he became a member of the 
race, he did not draw back; he was a brother of 
man. To-day, he lays his hand on the drunkard, 
on the prostitute, on the profane, on the impure, 
on the convict, on the Pharisee. He would 
cleanse them all, will they but allow him. To 
each of them he says: "I have become your 
brother; will you not in turn become my brother?" 
This is not an affected, unreal sympathy; it is 
actual; it is from the heart. He sympathizes be- 
cause he loves. And it is largely in this loving 
sympathy that his power of doing good to men 
resides. In matter, it is only through the closest 
contact that the tide of magnetism may flow. 
And it is because he enters into such tender sym-
pathy with man, that goodness flows from him 
through the race. The moment that touch, firm 
yet tender, was felt by the leper, that moment the 
blood began to flow free from the dreadful taint 
that had come down from a former generation, 
and that would else have poisoned generations 
to come. If we will but allow him to put his hand 
on us, if we will but exclaim with the leper, "Lord, 
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean," how 
quickly should we, too, be free from the leprosy 
of the soul. 
And is there not here a lesson for every Chris-
tian laborer and every Christian disciple ? If he 
laid his hand on the leper, we must not shrink 
from touching our fellow-sinners, the vilest even. 
After all, in the eye of God, it is likely that the 
difference between us and those we call "vile," is 
less than we think. They may be a shade darker 
than we, but it is only a shade. And the differ- 
Zhe Tow 
I-1E KNOWS BEST. 
FEBRUARY 15, 1883. �
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. �
83 
ence of a shade may be owing to many circum-
stances, may be due to their more overwhelming 
temptations, to their blasting parentage, and their 
debasing education. We must learn to say, " We 
sinners," not " You sinners."—National Baptist. 
News and Notes. 
—Ex-Governor Marshall Jewell of Connecticut, died 
Feb. 10. 
—A stage was lost last week in Montana, and the 
driver and passengers were frozen to death. 
—A secular paper states that although liberalism is 
creeping into all the churches, it has not yet reached 
the contribution boxes. 
—The editor, proprietor, and printer of the Free 
Thinker of London have been committed for trial on a 
charge of blasphemous libel. 
-..t-An earthquake recently occurred in southern Mich-
igan :Ind northern Indiana, that was severe enough to 
kni)ck down stovepipes and crack windows. 
—The California Legislature has passed a bill making 
it a misdemeanor for any person to sell milk adulterated 
by water, salt, chalk, or other foreign substance. 
—Two different companies have applied for charters 
to build a ship-canal across Cape Cod, and are ready to 
deposit $100,000 or $200,000 as a guaranty before com-
mencing operations. 
—At the banquet in honor of General Sherman's 
sixty-third birthday, General Grant said that in fifteen 
months it would be possible to go by rail to Mexico from 
any point in the United States. 
—The estimated value of property in the United 
States in 1880 was $33,805,000,000, against $24,169,-
000,000 in 1860. That is, the gain in twenty years has 
been $1,320,000 a day, or nearly $1,000 a minute. 
—It has been discovered that four men in the office 
of Commissioner of Juries in New York have been 
receiving tribute from two or three thousand business 
men, who paid for being relieved from jury service. 
—German papers urge the establishment of an 
International Court of Appeals to take cognizance of* 
decisions of all maritime courts concerning collisions at 
sea, with the view of establishing international steering 
rules. 
—The Czar of Russia now walks the streets of Russia 
without an armed escort. The police claim to have 
destroyed nihilism. We very much doubt it, however, 
and would not change places with the Czar, and run 
the risk. 
—The Indemnity Commission includes the diplomatic 
agents of England, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, 
Russia, the United States and Greece, and is under the 
Presidency of Abdurrahman Pasha, Arabi's Minister of 
Finance. 
—Gladstone, in a recent conversation, said that the 
curse of Ireland had been centralization. He said: 
We are now trying to make the humblest Irishman 
understand that he is the governing agency, and also 
that the Government will be carried on for him and by 
him." 
—The Chicago Tribune telegrams state as a result of 
a trip through central and southern Illinois, that the 
peach crop of central and western Illinois and part of 
Missouri, is practically wiped out, but that in the. 
southern part of the State the buds of every kind of 
fruit are all in excellent condition. 
—The Ohio River is higher now than was ever known 
before. The towns along the river have suffered im-
mense damage. At Cincinnati the gas-works are flooded, 
leaving the city in darkness; and the suspension-bridge 
can be reached only by boats. Thousands of people 
have been driven from their homes. 
—Woodhouse, the Poor Law Inspector, answering the 
demand for employment from the starving poor who 
had assembled at his hotel in Dublin, admitted that 
there was distress in County Donegal, and advocated 
emigration, when some one in the crowd exclaimed, 
" we would rabher die than emigrate." 
The Guion Line steamer Alaska made the passage 
from New York in 6 days, 20 hours, and 33 minutes, 
being the best trip on record. She accomplished the oft-
talked-of feat, of allowing her passengers to attend 
church in New York one Sunday, and on the follow-
ing Sunday attend service in England. 
Two fights have recently occurred between Mex-
icans and Apaches, in both of which the Mexicans were 
victorious. In the last, at Secora, on the border of 
Sonora and Chihuahua, one hundred Indians were 
killed and sixty taken prisoners. Many horses and a 
large amount of supplies were captured. 
—The highly moral and instructive entertainment fur-
nished in Metropolitan Temple, San Francisco, by the 
pugilists, has about finished the busines4 of that institu-
tion. Kalloch now inclines toward Spiritualism, and it 
is expected that he will soon identify himself with that 
people. He will be a valuable acquisition. 
—The Original Jubilee Singers of Norfolk, Va., were 
arrested in Hartford, Conn., on a recent Sunday evening, 
for singing in violation of the statute of 1876, which 
prohibits concerts, theatrical entertainments, etc., on 
Sunday, under a penalty of not less than $25. Each 
person in the audience is liable to a fine of $4. 
—A solemn warning, printed on fine vellum, has 
reached the Czar and Cabinet, claiming universal suf-
frage, the right of the people to own land, freeom of the-
press, public meetings, etc. If these demands are not 
granted before the coronation of the Czar, the Revolu-
tionary Committee sending the warning threaten vio-
lence. 
—By special from the Cheyenne and Arapahoe 
Agency, Indian Territory, it is learned that Eastern 
capitalists and stock men have purchased from the 
Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians 500,000 acres of grass 
land from each, with the privilege of fencing the same 
and erecting the necessary ranch buildings and improve-
ments. 
—Missouri has, next to Indiana, the largest amount 
of permanent funds devoted to school purposes in the 
Union. They aggregate $9,471,696, not including the 
annual apportionment of State revenue. The State has 
a school population of 741,632, and of this number 488,-
000 are enrolled in the public schools. There are 8,822 
schools in operation, conducted by 10,607 teachers, and 
last year $3,468,738 were expended upon _these schools. 
—Bismarck has no doubt nearly finished his work. 
He says that he is unable to attend the Reich stag this 
session, and probably will never attend again. He says 
that matters progress tolerably well without him, and 
that the empire is a machine that generally works cap-
itally. Nevertheless his death would seriously disar-
range matters, and as the good Emperor William is very 
old, the peace of which Bismarck boasts may not be of 
long continuance. 
—A system of fire-drill has been adopted in all the 
public schools of Oakland, by ordei of the Board of 
Education. There is no fixed hour for these drills; but 
once a week, without any warning, the gong sounds the 
alarm, and instantly the pupils file out of the building, 
the girls first, no one touching another under a severe 
penalty. At a recent drill in one of the schools, all the 
class rooms, containing 475 children, were cleared in 
eighty-one seconds. 
—A special to the Tribune from Washington says: 
The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs to-day decided 
to report a bill to provide for the execution of the pro-
visions of Article 20 of the Supplemental Commercial 
treaty of November 17, 1880, between the United States 
and China, for the repression of the opium traffic. It 
prohibits the importation of opium into the United 
States by Chinese subjects, under penalty of a fine of 
not more than $500, or imprisonment of not more than 
six months and forfeiture of the packages, and provides 
a similar penalty for the importation of opium into any 
open ports of China, or its transportation• frOm one open 
port to another by American citizens. The bill is to 
take effect July 1; 1883. 
Ohiftiar, 
MATTESON.—Died of tuberculosis, Jan. 7, 1883, in 
Christiana, Norway, Tina, daughter of Anna and J. G. 
Matteson, aged eighteen yt,ars, six months, and two days, 
after an illness of about nine months. She was con-
fined to her bed about five weeks. She did not suffer 
very much, but wasted away gradually. Tina labored 
for three ,years with great diligence and faithfulness in 
the printing-oice, and confined herself too closely to 
the work. After she left the office, she still continued 
to write as her strength would permit. Her last work 
was copying a sermon (The Apostles of Christ) which 
she had taken down in short-hand for Biblical Sermons. 
She appeared too weak for the work, but succeeded, 
nevertheless, in finishing it. We often advised her not 
to write any more, but she felt unhappy without em-
ployment, and it grieved her to think that she should 
be unable to support herself. When she could not 
write, she would knit different things to sell. This she 
continued to do until her strength failed. She bade us 
all farewell on the morning of her last day; stating that 
she enjoyed peace in Christ, and hoped to meet us when 
Jesus should come. Although we do not sorrow 'with-
out hope, yet we miss Tina much. This is the second 
child we have laid away since we left our quiet home 
in America. With subdued yet painful hearts we say, 
Thy will, 0 God, be done. 
A. AND J. G. MATTESON. 
LIFE SKETCHES. 
THE EARLY LIFE, CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE, AND EXTENSIVE 
LABORS OF • 
ELDER JAMES WHITE, 
AND MS WIPE, 
MRS. ELLEN G. WHITE. 
Tus production of this book was the last literary labor performed by 
Elder White. As nearly the whole of his active labor was performed in 
connection with the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, which he was 
largely instrumental in founding, the work is necessarily quite.. a com-
plete history of that people. 
The book abounds in interesting incidents, personal sketches, and 
religious experiences, some of which are quite remarkable, and altogether 
it forms a volume at once 'nstructive and interesting. 
416 pp. Price, $1.25. 
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. 
• 
HEALDSBURG COLLEGE. 
A MODEL INSTITUTION. 
Instruction given in Ancient and Modern Languages and the Physical 
Sciences. 
Common Branches Thoroughly Taught. Special 
Training for Teachers. 
GREAT SUCCESS. 
This Institution has met with almost Unparalleled Success in 
the short time since its incorporation. 
WHY DOESIT PROSPER ? 
The Instruction is very Thorough and Practical. 
The Discipline is Rigid yet Parental. 
The Strong Moral and Religious Influence finds its equal in_no other 
Institution of the kind. 
The Expenses of Students for Board, Tuition, etc., come within the 
ability of all. 
The Methods employed in the class-room, and the Professional 
Instruction, afford special advantages to those desiring to teach. 
While its courses embrace all the higher Collegiate Branches, 
which are taught in the most thorough manner, especial attention is given 
to the Common Branches. 
DISCIPLINE. 
One of the prominent features of Healdsburg College is the effort to 
impress upon its students the claims and benefits of morals and religion. 
Any one of known evil habits, who is exerting a pernicious influence upon 
his fellow-students, is not tolerated in the school. 
EXPENSES. 
The tuition ranges from $2.25 to $6.00 per month. Board in private 
families and in the college boarding-house ranges from $3.00 to $3.50 per 
week, with room completely furnished. 
ADVANTAGES TO TEACHERS. 
Besides the regular class drills in the different branches, there is given 
occasional instruction concerning methods and genera. school manage-
ment. 
A PRIMARY DEPARTMENT 
Is connected with the College to accommodate those children whose par-
ents desire to place them under the instruction and moral influence of the 
school. 
CALENDAR. 
The Spring Term begins January 3, 1883, ana closes May 29, 1883 
After a vacation the Fall Term opens July 25, 1883. 
Address, �
S. BROWNSBERGER, A. M., President, 
Healdsburg, Cal. 
RURAL HEALTH RETREAT. 
CRYSTAL SPRINGS. 
Tins beautiful resort is well known to hundreds of Californians, who 
have made it their home during a portion of the year for several years. 
It has lately been refitted, and valuable improvements have been made. 
With a full corps of competent physicians and helpers, it presents attrac-
tions to invalids that are found in no other Sanitarium in California. 
Every variety of bath can be given. It is most beautifully situated an 
the mountain-side, two and one-half miles from St. Helena. The little 
valley which it overlooks is a gem, and the surrounding Mountain scenery 
is such as can only be found in California,. Experienced tourists affirm 
that there is no finer place in the State. The water is pure, and the 
climate mild. 
Address, �
H. H. CHASE, M. D., St. Helena, CaL 
WHO CHAN GED TUE SABBATH? 
Tins question very naturally arises when the evidence is presented 
that Sunday is not the original Sabbath of the Lord; and a complete and 
satisfactory answer to it is given in the tract with the above title. The 
following is the plan of the argument : 1. Scripture evidence is intro-
duced to show that God regards his law as unchangeable. 2. The 
prophecy is quoted which clearly points out the Papacy as the power 
that should make the change. 3. Standard Catholic books are quoted 
from to show that the prophecy has been fulfilled. Every one who 
desires to know the truth in regard to the Sabbath should read this tract. 
16 pp. Price, postpaid, 3 cents; $2.25 per hundred. 
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, CaL 
A MINE OF INFORMATION. 
HISTORY OF THE SABBATH AND FIRST 
DAY OF THE WEEK. 
BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS. 
THE Bible record of the Sabbath ; the secular history concerning it ; the 
successive steps by which the change to the first day was made, and the 
work of restoration, are given in detail. 
EVERY TEXT OF SCRIPTURE concerning the Sabbath is commented 
an at length ; and the COMPLETE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS in 
regard to the Sabbath and first clay is given. The comparative merits of 
the seventh and the first-day Sabbaths are fullyikshown. A copious Index 
sables the reader to find any text, or the statement of any historian. 
Should be read by everybody. 528 pp. Price, $1.25. 
Address. SIGNS OF THE TIMES. Oakland. Cal. 
REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, 
Michigan. 
MRS. ELIZA PALMER, Sec. N. E. Tract 
Society, South Lancaster, Mass. 
ELD. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, RAVENS. 
wood, Shirley Road, Southamp. 
ton, England. 
MRS. C. L. BOYD, Salem, Oregon. 
84 �
THE SIGNS OF THE TIM-ES. �VoL. 9, No. 7. 
Eke �
igits of tije Eime5. 
OAKLAND, CAL., FIFTH-DAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1883. 
" Doubtless." 
WEBSTER says that doubtless means, " Without doubt 
or question." A querist or objector in Iowa says that 
the first day of the week " was doubtless kept in com-
' memoration " of the resurrection of Christ, by the apos-
tles and the early church. How is it placed beyond a 
question ? Is it so plainly stated that there can be no 
doubt in the case ? If so, why not point out the state-
ment ? When that is done we will doubt no longer. 
Until that is done we claim the right to doubt and 
question; and he who says it is beyond doubt or question. 
assumes too much. The word of God should not be so 
treated. 
People can easily believe what they wish to believe. 
When we commenced keeping the Sabbath we had a 
conversation with a prominent member of the Metho-
dist Church in the village in which we lived, in which 
he said:— 
" I have no doubt that Christ and his apostles changed 
the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day; but I 
have always wondered why they said nothing about it." 
Inasmuch as they said nothing about it there is plenty 
of room for doubt. Yes, more than doubt; we may 
very safely affirm with confidence that they did not 
change it. Had they done so there must have been 
some mention of an event so important. 
No Improvement. 
THE editor of the Christian at Work says:— 
" Socrates was a heathen philosopher. He lived and 
died nearly twenty-three hundred years ago. And yet 
his reasoning about the future life has scarcely been 
improved upon by those who have followed him." 
We are sorry that this statement is true. By far the 
larger portion of Christian professors are following 
Socrates and Plato, in what is one of the principal doc-
trines of the church. Is it not a humiliating confession ? 
The apostle John, speaking of Christ, said, " In him was 
life;" Socrates said that in every man there is life, in-
dependent of any other being; and men calling them-
selves Christians accept the saying of the heathen phi- 
losopher, and reject that of inspiration. Do Christ's 
words, " Ye will not come unto me that ye might have 
life," apply only to the Jews ? Are they not as appli-
cable now as then ? 
There is another thing in which the Christian world 
of to-day have not improved on heathenism. More than 
fifteen hundred years ago, Constantine, a heathen ruler, 
issued an edict commanding rest on " the venerable day 
of the sun." This was the first recognition of the Sun- 
day; but the church soon adopted this heathen practice 
'also. So then we find that Christians are indebted to 
heathenism for their two most highly cherished doc-
trines. 
The early disciples were called Christians because 
they were followers of Christ. But the later disciples 
are followers of heathen philosophers and rulers. By 
what name ought they to be called ? Christ taught 
neither of these things. " He that saith he abideth in 
Him, ought himself so to walk, even as He walked." 
" A Novel Party." 
" IN Colusa last week a novel method was taken to 
raise money for the church. A basket party was held 
in a hall, and the ladies each made up a basket or box 
of good things to eat. The donor's name was inside the 
basket, and all were auctioned off to the male members 
of the audience. One of the conditions was that each 
purchaser should invite the lady whose name was found 
inside the package to eat with him. It was amusing to 
perambulate the hall after the sales closed and see here 
an old married man dining with some beautiful young 
lady. He would be eating very leisurely, while, per-
haps, his wife across the way was bound under the law 
to lunch with some horrid old back or benedict whose 
beauty had long since flown. She would cast a few 
glances at the partner of her bosom, and then gulp hers 
down rapidly. And then you would see some young 
fellow couched over a lunch with a girl not of his choice, 
while a short distance, perhaps, the darling of his life 
was feasting on cranberry sauce with the fellow of whom 
he had always been slightly jealous. So it went; but 
all ended well, and the crowd went home appal ently 
happy." 
Is this the work of the church of Christ ? Does it 
come under' " the great commission ? " Is it missionary 
work, attracting the world to the purity of the gospel as 
the only means of salvation, or is it "feeding the flock," 
building it up in the most holy faith ? Perhaps some 
of the religious papers which commend as a " working 
church," that church which holds the most successful 
festival, may be able to place the above somewhere in 
the work of the Christian church; we cannot. 
There is a double shame connected with this thing. 
It is a shame that any church calling itself by the sacred 
name of Christ, should be guilty of such folly. And it 
is a shame that a body which will resort to such prac-
tices should be recognized as a church of Christ. By 
such things as this the cause of Christianity is brought 
into contempt before the world. We shall lose no op-
portunity to enter our protest against such wickedness 
in the church whereby the name and cause of Christ are 
dishonored. 
Circumscribed Fame. 
THIS from the Christian at Work:— 
" Charles Sorber, who made himself famous during 
the Miller excitement by giving away all his property 
and sitting on the roof of his house in Camden, dressed 
in a white gown, waiting to go to Heaven in a golden 
chariot, died last Sunday in Brooklyn." 
This man may have been famous, and for the object 
specified, but his fame had not reached so far west as 
California. None of the Cyclopedias contain his name, 
and it is not found in Webster's " Biographical Dic-
tionary," or the "Noted Names of Fiction." We have 
been trying for years to find the man who sat on the 
house-top clothed with an ascension robe, but he was 
always in the next State, or farther. Nobody had ever 
exactly seen him. Now if there is any body who saw 
Charles Sorber do this thing, and can give us all the 
particulars, we shall esteem it a personal favor; and 
we think we know men of means who will make it 
pecuniarily profitable for the giver of such information. 
We are strongly inclined to believe that he (or at least 
his marvelous exploit) originated in the editorial sanc-
tum of the Christian at Work. 
Blasphemy Rebuked. 
THE Jewish temple, " Gates of Hope," was recently 
dedicated in New York, and in the dedicatory sermon, 
Dr. Browne, the rabbi, used the following language:— 
" This congregation has taken a house that has been 
used by the Methodist Episcopal worshipers, and there-
fore, in business parlance, this is simply a re-opening. 
The old firm consisted of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
The Son and the Holy Ghost have stepped down and 
out, but the business will still be conducted by the Fa-
ther—the old head of the firm ; One you always have 
trusted. The same goods will be offered for sale. We 
shall continue to deal in charity, brotherly love, and all 
the virtues, and we appeal to all our old customers to 
continue their trade." �
° 
This has been widely quoted by the secular press, with 
the evident thought that it was a witty speech. We are 
therefore the more pleased to see the following manly 
protest from the San Francisco Jewish Times:— 
"We submit if this were merely meant for wit, it was 
entirely out of place and out of taste. If it may be 
called wit, it is of a very coarse and vulgar character. It 
seems to us to be an attempt at sensation at the cost of 
decency and propriety. Surely it is not practicing 
charity, brotherly love, and all the virtues,' to scorn 
and ridicule those things held most sacred by our neigh-
bors and fellow-citizens. Sensation in the pulpit is 
greatly to be condemned, but how much worse is it 
when connected with what some might call brutality. 
No man has a right to injure his neighbor's feelings any 
more than he has a right to injure his property. We 
feel it our duty to express our in arty condemnation of 
these words of Dr. Browne. Such a speech on such an 
occasion, and in such a place, with such solemn sur-
roundings, will find no approval among right thinking 
men. Its tone is bad, and its tendency worse. His re-
marks will have little effect in composing the asperities 
that now exist in tit?, community where they were ut-
tered, or in any other." 
WE have before us " Vick's Floral Guide " for 1883. 
No higher praise can be given it than to say that it is 
equal in every respect to those of former years. We 
think that no one ever was displeased with anything 
that Mr. Vick did in the floral line; and in his 
business transactions he was more than just, always 
doing better than he advertised. His sons have been 
brought up in the business, and the present "Guide " 
indicates that they will carry it forward in the same 
straight-forward manner. Price of the "Guide," ten 
cents, which will be allowed on the first order sent. 
Literary Note. 
JOHN W. LOVELL Co., have arranged with the Rev. 
R. Heber Newton, to publish in their popular " Lovell's 
Library," the sermons now in the course of delivery, on 
" The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible." The whole 
series of sermons, seven in all, will be issued in one vol-
ume, printed from large type in neat 12mo form, paper 
covers, for 20 cents. 
AND now, while we are reading daily of the starving 
condition of the people in Ireland, an item comes to our 
notice, stating that eighty million bushels of grain are 
annually destroyed by the brewers and distillers of 
Great Britain. This would feed a great many persons. 
Can anybody see any connection between this waste and 
the hard times ? 
EARLY WRITINGS OF MRS. WHITE... 
Comprising " Experience and Views " and " Spiritual Gifts Volum, 
One," bound in one volume. This makes a neat and attractive boot of 
nearly 200 pages, and should be read by old and young. The matter and 
the style in which it is presented are so interesting that no one who has 
read one chapter will forego the pleasure and profit of reading the remain-
der. Price, 75 cents. 
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. 
BIBLE SANCTIFICATION: 
A CONTRAST OF 
TRUE AND FALSE THEORIES. 
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE. 
Tins is a pamphlet of only 84 pages, but its value is not to be judged 
by its size. It is just what its title indicates: a faithful presentation of 
Bible truth on this important subject, and an exposure of the false theo-
ries prevailing in regard to it. Every believer in Bible truth should read 
it. �
Buy it, read it, and lend it to your neighbor. Price 10 cts. 
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. 
rrllE NATURE AND TENDENCY OP 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 
BY ELD. J. H. WAGGONER. 
Tins is a thorough expose of the system of spiritualism. The author 
has carefully studied the subject, and has given such copious extracts 
from a large library of spiritualist publications, as to fully condemn them 
in their teachings and in their practices, by their own testimony. 
It is also shown from the prophetic scriptures that spiritualism is one 
of the most impressive signs of the times. 184 pp. Price, 20 cents. 
dy,5.,c, SIGNS OF THE TIMES. Oakland, Cal. 
MAGNIFICENT PREMIUM OFFER 
WITH THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES 
Fox, 1883. 
THE Publishers desire to add several thousand new subscribers to their 
lists during the next six months, and to that end, make the following 
LIBERAL OFFER 
To each New Subscriber we will furnish THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES one 
year with a copy of Conybeare and Howson's 
LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL, FOR $2.25. 
This magnificent book offered as a premium is wiue,., �^ work 
of profound learning and extensive research. It is clearly written and 
intensely interesting. 
Ours is a new and popular edition printed from new plates upon tinted 
paper. It is substantially and elegantly bound, and sells for One Dollar 
We have been largely influenced in our decision to use the Life of St. 
Paul as a premium for 1883, by the fact that the Sabbath-school lessons for 
the comming year will be principally upon the subjects treated so ably in 
this work. Thus making it a most useful book for every Sabbath-school 
scholar and teacher. 
On account of the value and expense of this book, this is the best pre-
mium offer we have ever made. 
TO OUR OLD SUBSCRIBERS. 
To each one of our old patrons who will renew his subscription before 
March 1, 1883, and send us four new subscribers, we will also send free, 
by mail, a copy of the premium book. 
CHOICE OF PREMIUMS. 
If any one prefers a copy of " Geikie's Life of Christ" or " The revised 
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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 the 
Prophecies, Signs of the Times, Second Coming of Christ, Harmony of the 
Law and Gospel, with Departments devoted to Temperance, The Home 
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