1. law, govt and politics

Do You Know
How to
EAT?
you are on the way
I toso,health
and longevF
ity. If not, you are taking
a short cut to the cemetery. Here are some simple
rules on what, when, and
how to eat.
DANIEL H. KRESS, M. D.
/CHEERFULNESS should
be cultivated at
all times, and especially during the
meal hour. A good rule is never to
eat when mad or bad or sad, only when glad.
Contentment and simple foods form a
very happy and agreeable combination. Each
is needed to make possible good digestion.
Eating a large variety at any one meal is
injurious. Animals thrive best on simple
foods and few kinds, so will human beings.
By eating not too great a variety at any one
meal, frequent changes may be made, and
that sameness which leads to disrelish of
the meal may be avoided.
Thoroughly masticate your food, and do
not make a practice of eating freely of soft,
starchy foods. Eat with such foods something that demands mastication.
Regularity of meals is essential. There
should be an interval of at least five hours
between meals, as a rule.
Ordinarily three meals a day are ample.
For brain workers, whose habits are sedejitary, two meals are better than three.
The evening meal should be light, and
composed of foods that are easy of digestion.
When sleeping, the stomach should be empty
and at rest.
Vegetables and fruits do not make the
most desirable combination. They should
not, as a rule, be eaten at the same meal.
Sugar and milk used together, or preparations in which they are combined, favor fermentation, and should not be used freely.
VOL. 55, NO. 40
"Look upon the bright side of life."
Cane sugar and jelly, used freely, tend to
produce catarrh, and should be used sparingly.
Milk is a food, not a drink. Eat some food
requiring chewing with it or else sip it slowly.
If saliva is mingled with it, the formation
of hard curds is prevented.
Acid or subacid fruits should not, as a
rule, be eaten at the beginning of the meal.
They should be reserved to near the close,
so as not to interfere with starch digestion.
Sleep immediately before or immediately
after eating retards digestion, so does hard
mental or physical work. A few minutes of
rest and relaxation before meals, and cheerful, moderate exercise for thirty minutes
after meals, have a beneficial influence on
digestion. Walking is the best of all exercises.
Meat is not a necessity. The proteins of
the nuts, grains, legumes, and cottage cheese
are ample to meet the demands of the body.
Nuts, olives, and cream provide fats in the
best form.
Pepper, mustard, and pickles are irritants,
and should not be indulged in. Extreme irritation and ulceration of the stomach may
frequently be traced to their continuous use.
The use of hot foods or hot drinks should
be avoided. They tend to debilitate the mucous membrane of the throat and stomach.
When a catarrhal condition of the stomach
exists, hot drinks of water may, for a time,
be taken a half hour before meals with great
benefit.
Tea and coffee are not compatible with
the best of health. They should be given up
entirely. Much nervousness and irritability
is caused by their use.
Copious drinking at mealtime or immediately after should not be indulged in, especially by those who subsist largely upon
starchy. foods. A half-glass of water may
with benefit be taken at or near the close of
any meal.
The best time to drink freely of water is
when the stomach is empty,—at night before
retiring or in the morning after rising or a
half hour before meals. Drink at these
periods aids in cleansing the stomach, or
answers the purpose of an internal bath.
Deep breathing, singing, or laughter improves the intra-abdominal circulation of the
blood, and improves the quality of the digestive juices secreted. They are an aid to digestion.
(Continued on page S)
OCTOBER 9, 192 8
PROTESTANTISM and the
CARLYLE B. HAYNES
URNING to the official teaching of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, we find
that great community of Christians
thus upholding the obligation to observe the
law of God:
"Although the law given from God by
Moses as touching ceremonies and rites,
doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil
precepts thereof of necessity be received in
any commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no
Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called
moral."—"Methodist Episcopal Church Doctrines and Discipline," edited by Bishop Andrews, page 23.
The father of Methodism, John Wesley,
had much to say regarding the law of God
and the duty of Christians to observe it'. He
strongly defended it against those who taught
its abolition. We direct particular attention
to the statements that follow, all taken from
his writings:
"The moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets,
He (Christ) did not take away. It was not
the design of His coming to revoke any part
of this. This is a law which never can be
broken, which 'stands fast as the faithful
witness in heaven.' The moral law stands on
an entirely different foundation from the
ceremonial or ritual law. . . . Every part
of this law must remain in force upon all
mankind and in all ages; as not depending
either on time, or place, or any other circumstance liable to change, but on the nature
of God and the nature of man, and their
unchangeable relation to each other."—
"Sermons on Several Occasions," being Sermon XXV , "On the Sermon on the Mount"
(two-volume edition), Vol. 1, pp. 221, 222.
FT
ing His law, and that they are magnifying
His office while they are destroying His doctrine! Yea, they honor Him just as Judas
did, when he said, 'Hail, Master, and kissed
Him.' And He may as justly say to every
one of them, `Betrayest thou the Son of
man with a kiss?' It is no other than betraying Him with a kiss to talk of His blood
and take away His crown; to set light by
any part of 'His law, under pretense of advancing His gospel. Nor indeed can anyone
escape this charge who preaches faith in any
such manner as either directly or indirectly
tends to set aside any branch of obedience;
who preaches Christ so as to disannul, or
weaken in anywise, the least of the commandments of God."
WESLEY UPHOLDS THE LAW
From another of the sermons of Wesley
we take the following:
"It therefore behooves all who desire
either to come to Christ, or to walk in Him
whom they have received, to take heed how
they 'make void the law through faith;' to
secure us effectually against which, let us
inquire first, Which are the most usual ways
of 'making void the law through faith?' and
secondly, How we may follow the apostle,
and by faith establish the law?
"1. Let us first inquire, What are the
most usual ways of making void the law
through faith? Now the way for a preacher
THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST
In the same sermon are these statements:
"In the highest rank of the enemies of
the gospel of Christ, are they who, openly
and explicitly, 'judge the law,' itself, and
`speak evil of the law;' who teach men to
break ("lusai," to dissolve, to loose, to untie
the obligation of) not one only, whether of
the least or of the greatest, but all the commandments at a stroke; who teach, without
any cover, in so many words, 'What did our
Lord do with the law? He abolished it.
There is but one duty, which is that of believing.' . . . This is indeed carrying matters with a high hand; this is withstanding
our Lord to the face, and telling Him that
He understood not how to deliver the message on which He was sent. 0 Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge. Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do !
"The most surprising of all the circumstances that attend this strong delusion is,
that they who are given up to it really believe that they honor Christ by overthrow-
to make it all void at a stroke is, not to
preach it at all. This is just the same thing
as to blot it out of the oracles of God. More
especially, when it is done with design;
when it is made a rule not to preach the law,
and the very phrase, 'a preacher of the law,'
is used as a term of, reproach, as though it
meant little less than an enemy of the gospel.
"2. All this proceeds from the deepest ignorance of the nature, properties, and use of
the law; and proves that those who act thus,
either know not Christ—are utter strangers
to living faith—or at least that they are but
babes in Christ, and as such, 'unskilled in
the word of righteousness.'
"3. Their grand plea is this: that preaching the gospel, that is, according to their
judgment, the speaking of nothing but the
sufferings and merits of Christ, answers all
the ends of the law. But this we utterly
deny. It does not answer the very first end
of the law, namely, the convincing men of
sin, the awakening of those who are still
asleep on the brink of hell. There may have
been here and there an exempt case. One in
a thousand may have been awakened by the
gospel, but this is no general rule. The ordinary method of God is to convict sinners
by the law, and that only. The gospel is not
the means which God hath ordained, or
which our Lord himself used, for this end.
We have no authority in Scripture for applying it thus, nor any ground to think it will
prove effectual. Nor have we any more
ground to expect this from the nature of the
thing. 'They that be whole,' as our Lord
Himself observes, 'need not a physician, but
they that are sick.' It is absurd, therefore,
to offer a physician to them that are whole,
or at least imagine themselves to be. You
are first to convince them that they are sick;
otherwise they will not thank you for your
labor. -It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them whose hearts are whole, having never
yet been broken. It is, in the proper sense,
`casting pearls before swine.' Doubtless 'they
will trample them underfoot;' and it is no
more than you have reason to expect, if they
also 'turn again and rend you.' "—"Sermons," Vol. 1, Sermon 5, pages 216, 217.
ETERNAL AND UNALTERABLE
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said of the Ten Commandments:
"Every part of this law must remain
in force upon all mankind and in all
ages; as not depending either on time,
or place, or any other circumstance
liable to change; but on the nature of
God and the nature of man, and their
unchangeable relation to each other."
Bishop Matthew Simpson of the Methodist Episcopal Church, delivered the Yale
Lectures on Preaching in the year 1878,
which later were published by Eaton and
Mains under the title, "Lectures on Preaching." These were first -published in the New
York Independent. In his fourth lecture, as
reported in the Independent of January 2,
1879, Bishop Simpson said:
"The law of God should be distinctly set
forth. The,congregations should be gathered
N o. 4 0
SIGNS of the TIMES, OCTOBER 9, 1928
Vol. 55
Printed and published weekly by the Pacific Press Publishing Association, at 33 ountain View, California, U. S. A. Entered as second-class matter September
15, 1904, at the Mountain View, California. post office, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage, provided for
in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, and authorized September 18, 1918.
Page Two
SIGNS of the TIMES
TEN COMMANDMENTS
Some Protestants say the Ten Commandments
are not in force to-day. But is such an idea indorsed by leading Protestants ?
as around the base of Sinai, as from the summit is heard the voice of God in those commandments which are eternal and unalterable in their character. . . . There are many
preachers who love to talk of the gospel
alone. . . . They neglect these matters of
the law, and assign them to a place in the
past age, claiming that men now can be best
moved by love alone. They may thus rear
a beautiful structure; but its foundation is
on the sand. No true edifice can be raised
without its foundation's being dug deep by
repentance toward God. The gospel has no
significance, except as it is based on the
positive law, which Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfill. The law without the gospel leads to service; the gospel without the
law leads to antinomianism ; the two combined—charity out of a pure heart and of a
good conscience and of faith unfeigned."
In the "Methodist Episcopal Catechism,"
Numbers 1 and 2, is this catechetical instruction:
"Q.—What does God require of man?
"A.—Obedience to His revealed will.
"Q.—What is the rule of our obedience?
"A.—The moral law.
"Q.—Where is the moral law given?
"A.—In the Ten Commandments.
"Q.—Are all Christians under obligation
to keep the law?
"A.—Yes."—Pages 38 and 43 of No. 2,
and page 18 of No. 1.
Bishop E. 0. Haven, also of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and at one time president
of Michigan University, said:
"This Decalogue can never become obsolete. It was designed for all men, and,
obeyed, would render all men noble and
worthy of immortal blessedness. It is a
kind of consecration of the moral teachings
of the Bible."—"Pillars of Truth," page 235.
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO EAT?
Immediately after arising in the morning,
some moderate exercise, followed by a cool
or cold plunge or hand bath and friction
with a dry towel, is beneficial. If the cold
bath is not enjoyed, a hot bath followed by
a short period of exercise before dressing,
allowing the skin to cool off, may be taken.
Clothing should not be put on while the skin
is hot. A hot, cleansing bath taken at least
twice a week before retiring is desirable.
Air and sunshine should be welcomed into
the living rooms. More people die of air
starvation than of food starvation. The
sleeping room should always be cool. Hot
air is debilitating to the lungs, and paves
the way for tuberculosis.
Look upon the bright side of life. Do not
fret or complain. Worry and discontent are
a greater injury to the digestion -than errors
in diet. If inclined to find fault or feel blue,
remember that the trouble probably exists
within, not without.
Strive to make the world happier and better. Be a blessing to the needy. "If you are
feeling blue, something for some one else
go do,"—this is the best remedy for despondency. Talk health, talk hope, and talk
faith.
Thoughts influence, favorably or unfavorably, the digestive proces se s,—theref ore,
"whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, . . . whatsoever things
are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report, . . . think on these things."
A knowledge of right doing is one of the
best remedies for diseased bodies and minds.
(Continued from page 1)
The intestines and other abdominal viscera must be kept in place. Displacement
cripples the organs in the performance of
their function, and encourages pelvic congestion. If the muscles of the abdomen are
flabby, they should be developed by suitable
exercise, since they form the normal support
of these organs. If they are so placed that
they can not be developed, a suitable abdominal support may be worn.
When sitting, the muscles of the trunk
should be energized. When walking, the body
should be kept erect, and elasticity should
be put into the step.
K. •
Crowned with Many Crowns
FRANCIS M. BURG'
The banished seer in vision saw
A conquering rider leading forth
The armies of the sky.
Upon His head were many crowns,
And on His blood-stained vesture writ,
"The King of kings, and Lord of lords." "
A glorious victory He's won .
In conflict sore with potentates
Who would not own His scepter's sway,
Who spurned His sovereign right.
He cleft the waters of the sea;
They stood like walls of granite firm,
Till Pharaoh's armies, rushing on,
By surging waves were overwhelmed.
When once Assyria's haughty prince
A message of defiance sent,—
A challenge to the living God,—
Our conquering Lord His fiat gave,
And turned the trembling monarch back.
To perish by the sword.
for OCTOBER 9, 1928
So kings have fallen one by one,
To join with monarchs gone before,
And welcome to the yawning grave,
To death and dark oblivion's realm,
All who, like them, their Lord denied.
So wrote the psalmist long ago:
In vain do all the heathen rage
And counsel take against the Lord,
And 'gainst the One
Whom His decree declares
Shall rule the world.
He's coming soon, a conquering Lord!
Before His face all kings of earth
And all the great and mighty men
Shall flee, and hide themselves
In dens and rocky clefts.
Then will the sun refuse to shine,
The moon her face will hide,
When Christ shall reign forevermore,
Creation's Lord and King. -
No ONE but Divinity could foresee that
out of Jesus' commands, "Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself," "Love your enemies," etc., would come the wholesale hypocrisy, the bloody murders, the religious intolerance, of the Middle Ages. Yet the Bible
writers did see it, for they plainly warned
Bible readers against it.
I used to inveigh against the Bible and
Christianity by telling any who would listen
how Christians butchered one another by
the millions, and betrayed one another to the
block and the stake, and I innocently thought
that I was proving that the Bible was untrue
and Christianity a failure, when, as a matter
of fact, with each additional story, I was
only multiplying evidence of the truth of
the Bible and of how much Christianity was
needed. Further reading of the bloody pages
of history only reveals in clearer and ever
clearer light that the Bible writers saw human history to the close of time, for they
have given a picture of the past two thousand years and of the present that reads as
if it were written to-day for the first time.
EARLE ROWELL,
Page Three
C6he SCHOOL of LOVE
God could not make us know
His love by telling it; so He
arranged to have us live it.
HE human race does not stand alone
in its method of perpetuating life.
Sex is present and operative in the
lower animal world and in the plant world.
Propagation through the union of two different and complementary elements is the
law of nature in all its species except the
very lowest. The lower the order, the simpler
the means used, but the process is essentially the same in all the bisexual forms. The
flower makes its seed through the union of
the male element, the pollen, with the female
element, the ovule; the fish, the reptile, the
insect, and the bird deposit their eggs, which
are fertile only after impregnation by the
male; the mammals, of which man is the
highest, retain the fertilized ovum within
the body of the mother until it fully develops
into the young individual, when birth occurs. What a wonderful world for the study
of God's laws and processes—one in principle, but multiform in detail—for the continuation of life!
T
THE WHOLE WORLD OF BEAUTY
And within that study lies the whole world
of beauty, of service, and of -culture. The
blooming of the flowers, the nesting of the
birds, the increase of the herds and flocks,—
all the beauty and music and service that appeal to' the finest senses of man and minister
to his needs, are there because of God's great
plan of generation. Year by year the earth
produces its fruits of garden and field and
orchard, to delight the taste and sustain the
life of man and beast, and all by virtue of the
divine fiat that everything created shall bring
forth after its kind. The devotion of the
higher animals to their mates and their offspring, which sets us so many admirable
examples, comes from the impulses of the
twofold nature God established there. The
chivalry, the love, the tender ministries of
humankind, the self-sacrifice, the courage,
the high devotion even unto death, are inextricably bound up with the relations of
man and woman. Sex, as God made it, is not
a sordid, vile, hideous thing; it is a thing of
mysterious beauty, unfathomable science,
boundless service, and illimitable joy. It is
a school to study into the ways of God, an
opportunity to enter into the mysteries of
His love and ministry, and to experience, so
far as mortal may experience, the very nature of God.
ARTHUR W. SPALDING
perience: He gave "His only-begotten Son."
The constant effort of Jesus was to teach
us, by proverb, sermon, and parable, that
highest truth, that God is our heavenly Father.
Now the fact that the devil has seized upon
sex as a means ,for debasing the human race,
until to the majority the subject is one of
shame, is a challenge to the Christian to
restore in the chambers of his mind the presence of God which has been displaced by this
demon of lewdness. It is the Christian's
high privilege, as it is his duty, to gain a
conception of the truth and the beauty and
the holiness of God's great plan of giving
life until, in his own consciousness and in
his own experience, there is only purity in
sex, and there is shame but for the perversions and evils and miseries which the enemy
of all righteousness has brought in through
sex.
- Such an experience will come to the Christian, first, through the regeneration of life
which he receives from Christ in the conversion of his sinful mind into a mind of
righteous impulses. The soul that is truly
converted, cleansed from defilement, and
filled with the purity of Christ, will abhor
obscene and lascivious thought, speech, and
action. "Unto the pure all things are pure:
but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure." Titus 1:15. Purity is
the seeing of things as God sees them, in
their true meaning and right relations; impurity is a distorted vision that twists and
misuses the truth of God.
But to be pure, the mind requires not only
GOD APPEALS TO THIS HUMAN
RELATION
How often in His holy word does God appeal to this human relation as the interpreter
of His relation to us! He speaks to us as the
bridegroom to his bride, as the father to his
child; He is the head of the church, as the
husband is the head of the wife; He is the
superparent who, when our father and our
mother forsake us, will take us up. When
God would make known to us the breadth
and 1-1,p (1,--,11 and the height of His sacrificial love, lie speaks in the terms of our exPage Four
"This acquaintance with the great lesson
book of nature ... is essential to the right
understanding of life . . . and the instruction of the young."
an emotional experience,—a wiping away of
the sense of guilt and an impulse toward
righteousness,—it requires also an infilling
of truth, knowledge, science. This second
phase of his experience the Christian will get
from a study of God's plan and operation in
nature. This includes a study of the plant
world, of birds, insects, and animals, and of
human physiology. In this study other interests are served than that of getting a right
conception of sex; indeed that result may be
said to be incidental, for natural science is
the gateway of understanding and service
in wide fields of human need. But in moral
value, the importance of sex truth can not
be too greatly emphasized, because of the
ravages wrought through impurity and because of the radically different attitude established through true knowledge if vitalized
by divine will.
Acquaintance with nature requires study,
observation, and meditation. No flippant
mind will compass it nor find pleasure in it.
A person addicted to the artificial and highly
exciting amusement of the cheap theater, to
participation in the feverish movements of
crowds, and to the constant reading of emotional and fictional literature, would feel
himself, in the quiet sanctuary of the grove
or the garden or under the starry dome of
the skies, as foreign and as void as a gnome
in the palace of the king. To many the experience will have to come of a complete reconstitution of their tastes, their aspirations,
and their wills before their minds will be
able to assimilate and relish the pure delights
of the creation of God, and to assume that
right attitude and behavior which bespeaks
them the children of God.
THE LESSON BOOK OF NATURE
Yet this acquaintance with the great lesson books of nature—not only the primary
knowledge of its forms and names and classifications, but the further insight into its
processes and purposes, and beyond that the
assimilation of its philosophical and .•spiritual lessons—is essential to the right understanding of life and to the ordering of social
relations and the instruction of the young.
The study of nature, therefore, in both its
scientific and its spiritual aspects, is a vital
part of the education of parents and those
who are to be parents. The best opportunity
for this study is, of course, found in a country environment; and on all counts the ideal
situation for both parents and children is a
home in the country. But whatever one's
environment, a just appreciation of the
values and the demands of virtue will lead
the sincere Christian into the fullest possible
study of God's great textbook of nature,
wherethrough, inwoven as a golden thread,
will be perceived the purpose of God to reveal through fatherhood and motherhood the
lesson of His love.
[While the foregoing article is fresh in
mind, please turn to the advertisement on
page 15, of a book by the same author.—En.]
SIGNS of the TIMES
0
1*
COAL exists abundantly in the polar regions. Of course, we all know that
coal and the rich oils it contains came
from the remains of buried plants and animals. Petroleum also, from which gasoline
and coal oil and many other products are
obtained, was distilled or compounded out
of the fat and the oils in the same buried life
by strong acids and underground heat caused
by decay, slaking lime, and otherwise.
Petroleum is a mixture of minerals and
what are called hydrocarbons; and hydrocarbons are formed, that is, originally compounded, only in living plants and animals.
This knocks out the old theory that petroleum came from the original rocks, the
WITNESS TO
igneous rocks, such as granite, and was disTHE CERTAINTY
tilled out of the minerals in the rocks. The OF NOAH'S FLOOD
' petroleum was and is now forced to circulate
by underground pressure.
The second in the
At Cape Lisburne, one hundred sixty miles
series of scientific
within the arctic circle, is a coal field with
evidences of a uniforty or fifty seams of coal, one hundred
versal deluge.
thirty-seven feet thick. Ten of the beds are
four feet thick, and one is thirty feet thick.
BEN F. ALLEN, A. B., LL. B.
All of the polar explorers, from De Long in
1879 to the present have reported immense
beds of coal on all sides of the pole. Their ican, February, 1926, pages 98, 99.) This
lives have often depended upon the abun- tallies with the some sixteen hundred years
dance of coal. Like the mammoths, it is not before the Flood and the five thousand or
probable that any more was buried there thereabouts since.
than elsewhere, but it is better preserved
CHANGE CAME SUDDENLY
near the surface, and, of course, not hidden
Fifty
or more years ago it was widely
from view by vegetation. Coal is very perishable near the surface in any climate but taught that there is even now a Garden of
frigid. (See the De Long story, American Eden around the north pole, full of tropical
Legion (weekly), October 23, 1925; an early plants and animals and with a tropical cli1925 number for the "Perry Polar Expedi- mate. The De Long Polar Expedition of
tion;" and see both accounts in the records 1872 was undertaken with this in mind. The
of the U. S. War Department; Dr. A. W. fact that the tropical animal and plant reGrabau, "Principles of Stratigraphy," pages mains increased in amount and freshness
493, 494; David White, "Origin of Coal," toward the pole, instead of being taken
page 68; F. H. Knowlton, Bulletin of the merely to mean that the farther north the
Geological Society, Vol. 30, pages 501, 506,
541, 548; Guy E. Mitchell, U. S. G. S., Scientific" American, February, 1926, pages 98, 99 ;
G. C. Simpson, Nineteenth Century Magazine, January, 1926, pages 129-141; J. H.
Jeans, F. R. S., Nineteenth Century Magazine, December, 1925, page 819; Prof. Geo.
M. Price, "Fundamentals of Geology," pages
195, 230, and "New Geology," pages 428441, 454-470.)
L
C
and
FISH
THE GREAT SURPRISE
But the great surprise is that these arctic
coal beds, and the immense shale beds there
also, contain the remains of exactly the same
kinds of plants and animals as do coal and
shale in all other parts of the world. A still
greater surprise is that, with many other
plants, we find palms, breadfruit, fig trees,
cypress, redwood, banana, and ferns. Most
of these grow in a warm, steady climate only,
at least free from frosts or freezing.
All the buried plant life found imprinted
in coal and shale, all over .the world, shows
to have been of much ranker and larger, and
of more rapid, growth than any known today. God evidently cursed the ground and
rendered it less fertile, not only when sin
appeared, but also by the Flood. It is significant that, though the redwoods grew much
faster then than now, larger trees are found
now alive than those in the rocks. (Prof.
Guy E. Mitchell, U. S. G. S., Scientific Amerfor OCTOBER 9, 1928
colder the climate, and, therefore, the better preserved such remains are, they were
taken as evidences of a tropical region near
at hand. But the De Long Expedition proved
that "the farther north you go the colder it
gets," as one of the few survivors testified
before a Senate investigating committee.
It is well known that, were it not for frosts
and freezing weather, tropical plants could
grow all over the earth, or at least in climates
averaging much colder than the tropics. The
frosts and freezes drove them to the tropics,
and keep them there, not cool weather nor
their need of hot climate. It is not probable
or necessary that the' earth then received
more heat from the sun than now, but it was
more evenly divided and scattered to all
parts. Astronomers say the earth receives
only 15 per cent more heat when it is closest
to the sun than when it is farthest away
from it.
This per cent would make a difference of
less than 5° F. between our Arkansas summers and winters. All the evidence goes to
show that the climate was once almost the
same all over the world, and that the change
was sudden.
The terrible suddenness with which the
ocean and all the bodies of water apparently
once suffered an awful spasm is shown by the
fish entombed. Their bodies are found perfect and entire, even to the soft jellylike
parts, petrified or imprinted before decay
had time to set in. Their scales, which we
know drop off in a day or two in ocean water,
where decay is twenty-five times faster than
in fresh water, are often, and almost generally, found in place when found in the rocks.
Their bodies are found with fins set and tails
bent almost around to the head, a position
fish assume in their struggles for life at any
time, as if overwhelmed in strangling mud
while flopping and striving to clear themselves. They are as though the water had
suddenly become thickened with mud, the
mud then rapidly covered with other heavy
material, and all of it rapidly hardening.
Don't forget this point. It is true of practically all buried plants and animals. Fish
are found in places in many parts of the
world piled many feet upon each other in
the midst of the rock in thick beds covering
as much as ten thousand square miles in
places. Fish are not being buried this way
to-day except where the ocean bottom is
suddenly disturbed by earthquake or volcanic action, and then only on a very small
scale. Under ordinary conditions their bodies
are eaten by other fish or other sea animals
or insects, or decay and fall apart bit by
bit. (Dr. J. M. MacFarlane, "Fishes the
Source of Petroleum," 1923, pages 384, 400;
"Old Red Sandstone," Hugh Miller, pages
48, 221, 222 ; Review and Herald, August 13,
1925; "Phantom of Organic Evolution,"
page 53, Prof. Geo. M. Price.)
MILLIONS OF ENTOMBED FISH
WIDE WORLD PHOTO
Fossilized jaw bone of a giant whale unearthed
near Santa Barbara, California
There is a large slab of shale in the museum at the University of Nebraska in which
there are thousands of jellylike fish in perfect shape. How could these delicate things
be preserved in their perfect shape and form,
even to the very cell structure, except in the
suddenness of a single movement? Not only
(Continued on page 9)
Page Five
The "SIGNS" QUESTION CORNER
Conducted by WILLIAM G. WIRTH, 5447 EL VERANO AVENUE,
EAGLE ROCK, CALIFORNIA
If you have a question regarding Bible doctrine and Christian living, or on other subjects apropos to the field
of the "Signs of the Times," write out your question and send it in, preferably direct to Dr. Wirth. Anonymous questions will not be answered. Do not become impatient if your question is not answered immediately,
for Dr. Wirth has scores of questions in waiting, arid yours will be answered in order.
MARK, SIGN, AND SEAL
James G. Hardie of New York wishes to
know how the words "mark," "sign," and
"seal" can be made out as synonymous.
While the words "mark," "sign," and
"seal" are not ordinarily synonymous, comparing Exodus 31:13, 17; Ezekiel 20:12, 20;
Romans 4:11; Ezekiel 9:4; Revelation 7:
3, 4; 13:16, 17; 14:11 reveals the fact that
Scripture uses them in that sense. It is further significant that, in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, the words "mark"
and "sign" in Ezekiel 9:4; Exodus 31:13, 17;
Ezekiel 20:12, 20 respectively are the same.
In Romans 4:11 the word "sign" is said to
be a "seal," and "sign" here again is the same
Greek word semeion as in Ezekiel 9:4; Exodus 31:13, 17; Ezekiel 20:12, 20. The word
for "seal" in Revelation 7:3, 4 and Romans
4:11 comes from the same Greek word; and
inasmuch as the "mark" of Revelation 13:
16, 17; 14:11, from a careful study of chapters 7, 13, and 14 in the Revelation, is the
counterfeit of God's "seal," the synonymous
character of all these terms is quite well established.
YEARLY FEASTS AND THE WEEKLY
SABBATH
E. F. Hambergh of Kansas wishes to knoiv
about the relation of the yearly feasts and
the weekly seventh-day Sabbath.
The days beginning and closing the Feast
of the Passover, the 15th and the 21st days
of the month (Exodus 12:1-20; Leviticus
23:4-14); the first and last days of the Feast
of Tabernacles (Leviticus : 23:33-43) ; the
day of the Feast of Pentecost (Leviticus 23:
15-21) ; and the krst day of the seventh
month (Leviticus 23:23-25) were not identical with the regular recurring Sabbath of
the Lord, the seventh day of the week.. These
yearly Sabbaths of Leviticus 23 were part
of the ceremonial law of the old dispensation, and passed away with it. (Galatians 4:
9, 10; Colossians 2:16, 17.)
SPIRITS IN PRISON
J. I. Mills of California would like an explanation of 1 Peter 3:19.
The expression in 1 Peter 3 :19 that Christ
"went and preached unto the spirits in
prison," has been interpreted by some to
mean that between Christ's crucifixion and
resurrection He went to Hades and offered
salvation to all the wicked dead. Inasmuch
as this would limit the proferred salvation
to a certain class of sinners, the antediluvians (see twentieth verse), such a view is
untenable, for it bestows divine favor upon
a selected group, which is contrary to the
whole spirit of the gospel. Another view is
that Christ, by this statement of Peter,
merely announced the consummation of the
predicted sacrifice to those who had refused
God's mercy during Old Testament times.
This can not be accepted any more than the
former interpretation; for, as one Bible
Page Six
scholar well says, this "puts Christ in the
position of, so to speak, taunting the irredeemably lost, which is inconceivable. He
might have wept over them; He could never
have exulted over them."
There remains only one possible interpretation, and that is the one that harmonizes
with the context. The "in which" of the
nineteenth Verse refers to the Spirit spoken
of in the eighteenth verse. The "spirits in
prison" represent those who are held in the
dungeon of sin, without the power to save
themselves. It was to free us from this
prison house of sin that Christ came.
(Galatians 3:22; Isaiah 61:1; 42:6, 7.)
Through His Spirit Christ preached to the
antediluvians (twentieth verse) through
Noah (2 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 11:7), with the
result that "eight souls, were saved."
This scripture, then, simply shows how
Christ through the Holy Spirit preached the
gospel through one of His servants in the
Old Testament times, proving that the glad
news of salvation has been in the world since
the beginning. It by no means proves that
the dead live on after death.
[The tract "Where Are the Dead?" published at the SIGNS OF THE TIMES Office, will
give the questioner further help.—Ea]
THE GOD OF THE LIVING
F. W. Cochran of Arizona wishes to see
the harmony of Matthew 22:32 and Romans
14 :9 .
Some one has well said that to use a text
apart from its context is to have only a pretext. We are afraid this is all too true of
any who quote Matthew 22:32, "I am the
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the
dead, but of the living," as proving that the
soul goes to heaven as soon as a man dies.
Our Lord is dealing here with the Sadducees,
who "say that there is no resurrection."
Verse 23. The Sadducees were the aristocratic, political, worldly-minded minority
party of influence among the Jews of Christ's
day, who were well satisfied with this present
world (largely to be explained because they
were wealthy), and so had little religion.
When one understands this correct status of
the Sadducees of Jesus' day, he will realize
why the Master's spiritual criticisms were
very largely directed against the Pharisees,
who, while they were far from being properly
religious, did have religion in their souls,
and therefore were the supreme religious
authorities to whom Christ could appeal. I
am, of course, speaking of the Sadducees as
a class and not as individuals.
True to the spirit which actuated their
lives, the Sadducees denied the resurrection
(Matthew 22:23; Acts 4:1, 2), even life
after death. They maintained eternal annihilation (Acts 23:8). Josephus tells us in
his Antiquities (XVIII :1 :3f.), the Sadducees believed "that souls die with the bodies;" and in his Wars of the Jews (II:8:14)
he affirms they denied future "punishments
and rewards."
It was because they did not believe in the
resurrection of the body or any life after
death that they tried to trap the Saviour on
this occasion. And it was because Jesus desired to register Heaven's disapproval and
condemnation on this iniquitous doctrine of
no future life that He not only answers the
marriage question here but goes further and
shows that God is no God to those (meaning
of course the Sadducees and those like them
who disbelieve in any future life) who have
a "God of the dead" but only to those who
love and obey Him as the God "of the living," of those who will live gloriously in the
future through the resurrection.
The fact that Christ emphasizes the resurrection in this Scripture shows that He does
not hold to a future life to begin immediately
after death; for what use would the resurrection be if the righteous and wicked live
right on after death in either the reward of
heaven or the punishment of hell? There is
no life after death, until the day of resurrection. See Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6; Acts 2:29, 34;
1 Corinthians 15:51ff.
From the above explanation the questioner will have no difficulty in understanding Romans 14:9.
TRAVELING ON THE SABBATH
Frank Toler of New York wishes an opinion concerning traveling on the Sabbath.
It is not right to use the Sabbath as an
ordinary day of travel. It is right, however,
to travel on that day when we are engaged
in religious service or attending religious
services. We must safeguard ourselves
against fanaticism on this point. In 2 Kings
4:8-37 we find the account of Elisha's raising the Shunammite woman's son to life.
When the lad died, she desired to ride to
Mount Carmel to see Elisha for help. The
reply of her husband is most significant:
"Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? it
is neither new moon nor Sabbath." Verse
23. From this statement, we can see that it
was the custom of this Hebrew woman (who
certainly knew the divine laws regarding Sabbath observance) to ride on the Sabbath to
the prophet, evidently for the purpose of
worship. Had it been wrong for her to do
this, we may be sure Elisha would have told
her.
SALARIED PREACHERS
Ralph Hulst of Iowa wishes to know if it
is not contrary to Scripture for preachers to
receive a salary.
Considering the time and place, it was not
at all unusual for teachers to send forth their
disciples, as did Christ, with no "permanent
abiding place" and without "salary." Today conditions economically are different,
particularly in Western lands, and gospel
ministers and workers must have a stipulated salary to support themselves. We must
ever keep in mind the historical and social
background of Scriptural events if we would
avoid extreme and unwarranted conclusions
as to the application of these events to our
present-day life.
SIGNS of the TIMES
EDITORIAL
ASA OSCAR TAIT
ALONZO L. BAKER
JESUS CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
HE superficial reader of the Bible often regards
the New Testament as being dominated by Jesus
Christ and expressing wonderfully beautiful
teachings which are utterly at variance with the Old.
But the individual who reads the Bible more thoughtfully and more closely will be increasingly awakened
to the fact that the whole book from Genesis to Revelation is a complete and beautiful story, and that the
wonderful Christ of the New. Testament is the great
character all the way through.
In the Corinthian letter we have these words, "I
would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through
the sea ; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea ; and did all eat the same spiritual food ;
and did all drink the same spiritual drink : for they
drank of a spiritual Rock that followed ["went with,"
King James Version, margin] them: and the Rock was
Christ. Howbeit with most of them God was not well
pleased : for they were overthrown in the wilderness."
1 Corinthians 10 : 1-5.
With what definite clearness does this text announce that Christ Himself, the great character of
the New Testament, "followed," or, as expressed in
the margin of the King James Version, "went with"
Moses as he led the Israelites from Egypt to the land
of Canaan. Nothing could be clearer than the statement of this text.
In the Hebrew letter it is said of Moses that by faith
he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
"choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people
of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than
the treasures of Egypt : for he rooked unto the recompense of reward." Hebrews 11 :25, 26. Thus does the
apostle show that Moses was conscious of the presence
of Jesus Christ with him, and the beauty of the Christ
character so profoundly impressed him that he was
willing to forsake the most glorious earthly throne of
his time so that he might be associated with the Son
of God and. be imbued with and guided by His loving,
tender spirit.
Then again the apostle Peter, in his first letter,
speaks of the great salvation that comes through faith
in Christ, and then pens these words : "Concerning
which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you : searching what time or what manner of time
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto,
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ,
and the glories that should follow them." 1 Peter
1 : 10, 11.
Now, give some thoughtful study to this plain portion of Scripture. Do you not see that the text teaches
that the prophets themselves "searched diligently"
T
for OCTOBER 9, 1928
into the things that were revealed to them, and that
they recognized that it was "the Spirit of Christ which
was in them" ?
The story of sin is introduced almost at the beginning of the Old Testament Scriptures. Its ramifications of evil were a new thing in God's universe. God
could not reveal at the beginning all the depths of His
love for the simple reason.that not only the fallen beings on this earth but the unfallen intelligences of
other worlds could not understand through mere expressions in words the infinite depths of love that were
in the Father's heart. It was only through permitting
His Son to enter human flesh and thus to become "the
Son of man" as well as "the Son of God" that the love
of the infinite Father could be told in a way that
human beings on this earth as well as the creatures
throughout the universe could understand. Consequently, God's dealings with the human family in the
old dispensation could not be understood as they were
afterwards understood when Jesus Christ came to live
the life and reveal the character of God the same as is
expressed all through the Old Testament Scriptures.
God revealed Himself to the prophets of the old dispensation in words. They searched diligently into
their own writings, longing to understand the great
depth and height and breadth of the story they were
telling. But Jesus Christ came in person, the same
Christ who was with Moses and who inspired every
prophet of the old dispensation, to express by a life
what no mere words could ever tell. Now, if we are
troubled about the seeming cruelties that are told in
the Old Testament Scriptures, we must recognize that
we are troubled about some of the acts of Christ Himself, since He was the author of everything that God
directed to be done back there.
The New Testament text reads, "Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday and to-day, yea, and forever."
Hebrews 13 : 8. Then since the Christ is the author of
the Old Testament as well as of the New, and since He
is the same not only "yesterday," but "to-day" and
"forever," if we are having trouble with the Old Testament, the difficulty is with us and not with the
Book itself.
Men are entranced by the expression of Christ, "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." Matthew 7 :12.- But have
you noticed that the Christ who uttered those words
makes the affirmation that "this is the law and the
prophets"? Jesus Christ found this "golden rule" in
the Old Testament. May it not be possible, then, if we
study the Old Testament as we should, that we shall
find there what the Christ Himself said could be
found? Next week we shall continue the subject.
T.
Page Seven
WILL SINNERS BUR
On no phase of Bible truth is there
more misunderstanding than on that
of the punishment of the wicked.
M. LESLIE RICE
of the sin of Adam, temporal
death passed upon all mankind. This
death visits all alike, irrespective of
character. The saint as well as the sinner
falls under its power. This can not be the
final end of man, for it would not be in accordance with justice that our ultimate fate
should depend on a transaction, such as
Adam's sin, one over which we are in no way
responsible. In God's plan every person
must be the arbiter of his own destiny.
In the plan of redemption Christ provides
for all a release from death. This plan makes
it possible for every person's individual acts
to form the record which shall determine his
destiny. What will be the destiny of the
wicked, those who go through life and reject the plan of salvation, and are lost? Fortunate indeed is it that poor lost souls do
not have an immortal soul, an undying spirit,
to suffer throughout eternity. The Bible
plainly says that "the wages of sin is death."
Romans 6:23. Then the destiny of the
sinner must be death, eternal death.
Before we deal with the nature of the
punishment, we may ask, How long is the
duration of this punishment? From the
Scriptures we find that it is "everlasting."
Another expression describing the length of
the punishment is, "eternal." Two unending conditions are held out to men in the
Bible, eternal life and eternal death. In this
life man has the privilege of choosing which
he will take.
ECAUSE
speak of saints as always being redeemed,
but never redeemed, as to speak of sinners
always consuming, but never consumed, or
always dying, but never dead.
On the duration of the punishment spoken
of in the Bible, there can be no question.
Matthew 25:46 says, "These shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." The text says "everlasting punishment." It does not say unending misery; it does not say "everlasting punishing ; " no, "punishment," a completed action.
Is death punishment? This is the wages
of sin. If when death is inflicted there can
be no release, that punishment is eternal and
everlasting.
By our courts, execution is the severest
punishment that can be inflicted. It is not
that execution carries with it the most pain
or suffering. Many kinds of minor punist
ETERNAL AND EVERLASTING
The same Greek word aionios is used in
reference to both classes. This word is used
in several passages in the Bible to denote a
completed action. Hebrews 5:9 is a text in
point, where we read of "eternal salvation."
This is a salvation which is eternal, or everlasting, in its results, not one that is forever going on, but never accomplished. In
Hebrews 6:2 Paul speaks of "eternal judgment," not judgment which is eternally going on, but one which, having been concluded,
is irreversible in its decisions and eternal in
its effects. In Hebrews 9:12 the apostle
speaks of "eternal redemption." He does
not refer to a redemption which we are to
be eternally approaching and yet never able
to reach. He speaks of a redemption that
is full and complete, one that releases us
for all eternity from the power of sin and
death.
. As these terms "eternal" and "everlasting" are applied to both the wicked and
the righteous, it would be just as proper to
Page Eight
"They shall consume; it
THE WAGES OF SIN
Sing On
ROBERT HARE
Sing, heart of mine, yes, sing, sing on;
The Master cares for thee.
The storm may wreck and seas may toss,
And earthly friendships prove but dross,—
His love will faithful be.
Sing, heart of mine, sing evermore,
In darkness or the day;
A Hand so strong can guard thy life
Amid the tempest and the strife,
However strange the way.
Sing, heart of mine, and singing, rest;
Thy burdens He will bear;
When sparrows have their needs supplied,
The children will not be denied
An all-sufficient care.
Sing on, my heart, leave anxious thought ;
The Hand that is divine
Can well supply thy every need,
And hold the weakness that would plead
A frailty such as thine.
ment may inflict greater pain. ,Death is
reckoned the greatest punishment because
it deprives its victim, at once, of all the relations and blessings of life. It has deprived
him of every hour of that life he would have
enjoyed but for this punishment; hence the
punishment is considered as coexistent with
the period of his natural life.
The same reasoning applies to the future
life. By the infliction of the second death,
the sinner is deprived of all the years of
eternity. The loss of every year is a punishment, and as the life of the redeemed is
eternal, so the punishment of the sinner is
eternal also. The original sustains this position. The word for punishment is kolasis,
and is defined as "a curtailing, a pruning."
The idea of cutting off is here implied. The
wicked go into everlasting punishment, or
into an everlasting state in which they are
cut off. But from what are they cut off?
Not only happiness, but life.
The question may be asked, How is it
possible to have degrees of punishment if
all alike will be reduced to a state of death?
The question might be reversed, How would
it be possible to have degrees of punishment
if all the wicked are to suffer eternal misery?
EXAMPLE OF UNQUENCHABLE FIRE
In speaking of the destruction of the
wicked, twice our Lord repeats this solemn
sentence, "Where their worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched." Matthew 9:44, 46.
In using this language, Christ was using
words of the inspired writers of portions
of the Old Testament. By looking at these
original expressions, we may gain some idea
as to their meaning.
In Jeremiah 17:27 we read, "If ye will not
hearken unto Me to hallow the Sabbath day,
and not to bear a burden, even entering in at
the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day;
then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof,
SIGNS of the TIMES
FOREVER?
shall tread down the wicked; for they shall
be ashes under the soles of your feet in the
day that I shall do, this, saith the Lord of
hosts." Malachi 4:3.
The word "hell" in Mark 9 :43 comes from
the Greek word gehenna. Grienfield defines
the word as follows: "Gehenna, the valley
of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid worship of Moloch,
and afterwards polluted with every species
of filth, as well as the carcasses of animals
and dead bodies of malefactors; to consume
which, in order to avert the pestilence which
such a mass of corruption would occasion,
constant fires were left burning."
The fire of Gehenna was not a fire into
which people were cast alive and tortured.
Carcasses of beasts and other refuse matter
were cast in there to be consumed. The fires
did not prey upon living beings, fully conscious of everything, but upon the carcasses.
One great lesson Christ desires to teach in
this is the absolute destruction of the sinner.
Now we may see the consistency of associating the fire and the worm together.
all they consume away."
Whatever portion of the dead body the fire
failed to consume, the worm would soon
and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, seize upon and devour. If a person had been
and it shall not be quenched." From this text condemned to be cast alive into this place,
we may learn the meaning that was attached as the wicked will be cast into their Geto "unquenchable fire." It was fire that could henna, what would have been his, hope of
not be quenched, or put out. The warning of escape? If the fire could have been speedily
the Lord by Jeremiah was fulfilled. "They quenched before it had taken his life, and
burnt the house of God, and brake down the the worms which consumed what the fire
wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces left could have been destroyed, he might
thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly have had some hope of coming out alive; but
if this could not be done, he would know of
vessels thereof." 2 Chronicles 36:19. Why was this done? To fulfill the word of a surety that his life would soon become exthe Lord by Jeremiah as recorded in verse tinct, and then even his lifeless remains
21: "To fulfill the word of the Lord by the would be utterly consumed by these agents
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had en- of destruction.
This was the scene to which Christ pointed
joyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay
desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill three- His hearers to represent the doom that awaits
score and ten years." Here is a concrete the wicked; in order that, as they gazed upon
case where unquenchable fire, predicted by the work of complete destruction going on in
God to fall upon a city unless the people the valley of Hinnom,—the worms devouring what the flames spared,—they might
turned away from their sins, did come.
learn that in the future Gehenna which
GEHENNA
awaited them no part of their being would
How long did this fire burn? Only till it be exempt from utter and complete destruchad reduced to ashes the gates and palaces tion, one agent of death completing what
upon which it preyed. It is not burning now. another failed to accomplish.
Unquenchable fire is therefore a fire that
WHERE ETERNAL FIRES WENT OUT
can not be quenched and does not cease to
A text often used to prove the eternal conburn until it has entirely consumed that
which supports it. It dies out when there is scious misery of the wicked is Jude 7 ; but
nothing more to burn. The nature of fire is a brief examination of this scripture proves
to consume that upon which it preys. It is exactly the opposite: "Even as Sodom and
a symbol of complete destruction. There is Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like
nothing about fire to preserve and to keep in manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set
existence that committed to its flames.
When the wicked are destroyed by un- forth for an example, suffering the vengeance
quenchable fire, it will entirely devour them. of eternal fire."
Many read this text in the present tense,
"The wicked shall perish, and the enemies
of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: but a glance will show that it is the example
they shall consume; into smoke shall they set forth, and not the suffering that is in the
consume away." Psalm 37:20. When a present tense. Three facts relative to the
thing is consumed, it is gone, done away with. inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are
Another Old Testament prophet, writing of spoken of in this scripture: "Giving themthe complete destruction of the wicked, selves over to fornication," "going after
spoke of their being reduced to ashes. "Ye strange flesh," "suffering the vengeance of
for OCTOBER 9, 1928
eternal fire." If one of these expressions
denotes something that is going on, we may
be safe in concluding that the others-do the
same. But no one will claim that the Sodomites are now doing what is here described,
neither can it be claimed that they are now
suffering the pain of fire.
The people of Sodom, who gave themselves up to their wicked practices, had fire
rained down upon them from heaven, and
their destruction is an example to the ungodly of all ages. Peter refers to this experience as an example to the wicked. "Turning
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes
condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an ensample unto those that after
should live ungodly." 2 Peter 2:6.
The fire did not preserve the people, causing them unceasing torture and misery, but
completely destroyed them, turning them
into ashes. This one experience, unaided by
the many others in the Bible, teaches very
plainly the end of the wicked. Those fires
are not burning now. If you should endeavor
to find the site of those ancient cities, it
would be almost impossible, as the waters
of the Dead Sea now cover the spot where
they once stood. Why, then, is their fire
called eternal? Because its effect is eternal
and everlasting. They will never recover
from this destruction. Just as Sodom was
consumed and stands as a pattern, or example, so we may expect in the punishment
of the wicked that they will be burned up
and that will be their end.
COAL AND FISH
(Continued from page 5)
must the burial have been sudden, but just
the right kind of mineral waters had to set
to work upon them at once, in order to fossilize or petrify them in their natural forms.
Nothing like this is happening to-day.
Millions of shellfishes were buried alive,
for their shells are found empty, and this,
too, is almost never happening to-day. Many
beautiful plants are most wonderfully preserved, as though in a family album with all
their neighbors and friends. They are packed
crisp and fresh, and made their imprint even
before wilt set in, and petrified very rapidly.
They can be examined as minutely under
the magnifying glass to-day as if they were
green. These things are almost never happening to-day, but once they happened almost universally.
There is a general agreement as to these
facts; that is, as to how the fossils look and
how naturally preserved they are, though
some disagree as to when in the earth's history it was done or whether it was done all
at one time. As we go on with this series of
the evidences of the Flood as found in the
rocks, I hope to show many independent evidences that the one great Flood tragedy is dematided. At least I hope to show that there
are no obstacles whatever to an actual faith,
even a reasonable conclusion based on concrete scientific evidence, that the Flood was
an actuality, really indispensable to an explanation of the surface of the earth. I hope
even to show every attentive reader how he
can go and see for himself, and thus, by
his own efforts and observation, grow in the
knowledge of the Flood of the Bible and of
the God of the Bible.
(Continued next week)
Page Nine
SQUANDERING SOULS
THEO G. WEIS
y
OU'RE accusing God, a friend insisted,
of squandering souls. He had reached
this conclusive condemnation after
an attempt to prove logically, convincingly,
and without arousing undue prejudice, that
man was immortal. The expression was not
entirely his own, for Kipling said:
"They will come back, come back again,
As long as the red ball rolls ;
He never wasted a leaf or a tree,
Do you think He would squander souls?"
For an hour I was lost in the beauty of his
thoughts. He was a scientist and a capable
student. There was a sincerity in his words
that had an almost irresistible driving force.
The particular field of his research was an
open book to him. He Had at his command
quotations from the keenest scientific minds
and from the books of the most verbose philosophers. The Bible was mainly the book
of his childhood days.
"I see you are somewhat at loggerheads
with Edison's statement on his eightieth
birthday that 'there exists more evidence
favoring than against the immortality of the
individual human intelligence,' " he began.
And, I confess he had a good opening wedge,
for in a magazine that I handed to him I
had the statement conspicuously questionmarked.
TELESCOPE AND MICROSCOPE REVEAL
HARMONY
The gist of his "chat" was somewhat on
this fashion: Have you ever considered the
greatness and the smallness of things? This
universe is a vast and inconceivable mass of
complexity. Its expanse baffles us. Light
traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles a
second traverses the distance • between the
earth and the sun in approximately eight
minutes. At the same rate light must travel
4.5 years to reach Alpha Centauri, one of
the nearest stars, and 8.4 years to span the
space to Sirius, another well-known firstmagnitude star. This star is coming toward
us at the rate of 100,000,000 miles a year,
yet it is doubtful whether in a thousand
years there will be any noticeable difference
in its brightness. The familiar Arcturus, of
which Job speaks, is a sun 500, times as
bright as our own, and shines at a distance
of 100 light years away from us. The star
Rigel in the constellation Orion is a sun with
at least 10,000 times the power of our own.
In that same constellation is a nebula known
as the nebula in Orion, with a diameter equal
to the distance between our earth and Sirius
—approximately 50,000,000,000,000 miles.
That is an inconceivable body at a distance
equally hard to comprehend. Many things
have been said about this nebula, but little
is really known. Another monarch of the
heavens is the nebula in the constellation
Hercules. It appears as a fuzzy star to us.
The telescope reveals thousands of giant
suns vastly greater than our own planetary
universe. If that Herculean mass of bodies
is constructed like our solar system, with
each sun as the center of a series of planets
—or worlds—thousands of miles in diameter,
what a giant universe in itself that nebula is!
These, he summarized, are only a few of
the wonders of the heavens. There are others
even more spectacular. Yet not one of these
giant: bodies, at almost infinite distance, is
discordant with the rest. There is harmony,
unity, and continuity throughout the vast
abyss of stars, nebulw, and worlds.
While my thoughts were still with the mysterious nebula in Orion and the hundreds of
the enchanting, playful, popularly known
Pleiades, he turned to that inner universe,
the atom and its chain of wonders. The
microscope revealed to him a universe just
as vast and harmonious in structure as the
stellar regions. Neither, did he think, was
continuity lacking in the microscopic world.
IS THE CONTINUITY BROKEN IN MAN?
He stopped, looked at his watch, and
smiled. Somewhere between these two, it
seemed to him, was man groping his way.
He admitted that the continuity between
these two worlds—atom and universe—was
somewhat uncertain, just as the continuity
between matter and spirit is not fully understood. It, however, was hard for him to believe that life's accomplishments were merely
the by-products of a motley array of hydrocarbon molecules. If all possess continuity, he argued, it appears strange indeed that
man should be the only manifestation in the
universe that is completely annihilated after
Cygnus, the Swan. One of the small stars in this group is the nearest to us of all the stars in the
Northern Hemisphere.
Page Ten
a brief seventy years. The soul, or whatever
it be, that produced in Milton a "Paradise
Lost," in Shelley an "Ode to the Skylark,"
in Beethoven a "Moonlight Sonata," can
hardly be an exception to the universe. This
"thing" must possess continuity. In other
words, the soul of man must be immortal.
There is a big gap between the universe of
matter and that of spirit. We lack data in
this field of research. What is more baffling,
we know not where to obtain such data if it
exists at all. The chasm made by death is
unbridgeable unless we take by faith the
guiding hand of God. Honest study and investigation show the universe to be the product of an all-wise mind and controlled by an
omnipotent power,—the power of God. If
God exists, surely He must have revealed
Himself. The Bible is the only book that
makes this claim. "Search the Scriptures; for
in them ye think ye have eternal life: and
they are they which testify of Me." John
5:39.
This Book from the sacred pen claims that
death is a product of sin. Death is a penalty
for the transgression of humanity.
"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law: for sin is the transgression of
the law." 1 John 3:4. "The wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans
6:23. God has no intention of squandering
souls; but when man bartered immortality
for the pleasures of disobedience, he heaped
upon his own head the full penalty for his
lawlessness. The third chapter of Genesis shows this clearly. God cursed the earth with
death. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake;
in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground;
far out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Genesis 3:17-19, A. R. V.
That immortality is a gift to humanity
seems evident also from the very process of
creation. "Jehovah God formed man of the
dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became
a living soul." Genesis 2:7, A. R. V. Paul,
the apostle, speaks of God as Him "who only
hath immortality." 1 Timothy 6:16. If God,
the Creator, "only bath immortality," man,
the creation, does not possess it, unless it
be a case of creation being equal to creator, which it is not.
The Bible proves conclusively beyond the
iota of a doubt that mortal man has no exist-.
ence beyond the grave. Once within casket
walls, man is "as dead as a doornail" to the
happenings in universes terrestrial, celestial,
or spiritual. A few statements on this point
will suffice:
"Shall mortal man be more just than God?
shall a man be more pure than his Maker?"
Job 4:17.
"The living know that they shall die: but
the dead know not anything, neither have
they any more a reward; for the memory
of them is forgotten. As well their love, as
their hatred and their envy, is perished long
ago; neither have they any more a portion
forever in anything that is done under the
sun." "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,
do it with thy might; for there is no work,
(Continued on page 14)
SIGNS of the TIMES
eA Special PEOPLE for a Special TIME
T
HE stage is all set now for the enacting of the final movements in the gospel plan. We have shown in previous
articles that ever since the beginning of the
time of the end in 1798, God has definitely
been preparing the way step by step for the
glorious consummation in our day of the
great plan of salvation. Divinely ordained
developments during this period testify that
the hour has struck for the speedy finishing
of the gospel plan.'
The call of the hour has always been answered by the coming of the man or the
coming forth of a people or a movement for
the appointed task. With the arrival of this
last hour of human,history and the approach
of Jesus' coming, it was necessary that a
movement be set in operation in the reli-
JOHN L. SH ULER
remarkably this people are fulfilling this
prophecy, it will be enlightening to study
some facts relative to the work that they are
doing in the world.
A little over fifty years ago the Seventhday Adventists started out to give this threefold message to all the world. In 1874 they
sent their first missionary to Europe; in 1884
they sent their first missionary to heathen
lands, or non-Christian countries ; and their
efforts have been greatly blessed of God.
This work has grown so rapidly that by
the close of 1927 they were conducting their
work in 126 countries, and preaching the
mission work as the per capita contribution
of these three largest Protestant bodies.
The movement is gaining new adherents
at the rate of 25,000 per year. The annual
gain in membership now is equal to the total
members gathered in the first twenty-four
years of its organized existence, from 18631887. The gain in membership every four
years is now equal to the total membership
of the denomination in 1912, when, after
fifty years of growth from its organization
in 1863, the membership stood at over ninety
thousand.
When we consider these figures in their
true setting, what a ,mighty 'testimony they
present in behalf of the speedy finishing of
the work of human salvation! This last gospel message of Revelation 14:6-12 is actually finding its way to every part of the world.
A people are being gathered from all the
nations and tongues of the earth, to keep
"the commandments of God, and the faith
of Jesus," who will be ready to welcome
their Saviour and able to stand in His presence at His appearing. Thus this prophecy
of Revelation 14 is this day being fulfilled
before your eyes.
As the rise and progress of the apostolic
church in the first century of the Christian
era was an evidence of the consummation,
in the message of a risen Saviour, of the purpose of the first advent, so the rise and
progress of Seventh-day Adventists in connection with the message of a soon-coming
Saviour stands as a positive sign of the fast
approach of the glorious consummation of
the second advent.
GOD'S HAND IS SHOWN
Pastor Stahl, a Seventh-day Adventist medical missionary among the Inca Indians of South America
gious world, to make ready a people prepared
for His appearing. As God had His John
the Baptist with a special message to make
ready a people for the Lord at His first advent, so in the last days He will have His
chosen instruments through whom He can
prepare a people for our Lord at His second
coming.
GOING TO ALL THE WORLD
In Revelation 14:6-14 God has made it
plain, through the employment of prophetic
symbols, that between 1844 and the end of
time there will be carried to every nation,
tongue, and people a special threefold gospel message of preparation which will ripen
earth's harvest for the coming of His Son
as reaper. It is well that we should now
consider what is necessarily involved in the
matter of human instruments through whom
this prophecy will be fulfilled.
Before such a message can be taken to all
the world, a people commissioned to do this
must be raised up. They must be brought
under profound conviction that they are instruments of God to do this very work.
Since 1845 a people have come into existence
who are profoundly convinced that they are
commissioned of God to do this very work
set forth in Revelation 14:6-12.
This people is known as Seventh-day Adventists. In order that we might realize how
for OCTOBER 9, 1928
threefold message in 256 languages and dialects, and publishing literature bearing on this
message in 131 different languages in the
55 publishing houses and branches in different parts of the world. The sale of this
message-filled literature amounted to $4,638,127.17 for the year 1927. They have 148
advanced educational institutions. The denomination employs 17,946 workers, of
whom 9,516 are engaged in evangelistic
work and 8,430 in institutional work, or one
•
worker for every fifteen members.
Nine hundred sixty-four missionaries (not
including children) have been sent out during the past six years by the Seventh-day
Adventist Mission Board—an average of
160 a year. There has hardly been a moment
of this time when a Seventh-day Adventist
herald has not been tossing on the high seas,
bound for a land where he was to hold aloft
the torch of the threefold message.
CONCLUSIVE TESTIMONY
This people are spending nearly $11,500,000 every year for evangelistic work. They
are operating more mission fields, conducting work in more countries and languages,
and sending out more missionaries than
three of the largest Protestant mission boards
in North America, whose constituency outnumbers them 72 to 1. They are giving nineteen times as much per member for foreign
The phenomenal growth of the Seventhday Adventist denomination from a small,
mere handful of earnest men and women,—
less than a dozen believers,—in an obscure
corner of New England, back in the year
1845, into a mighty missionary evangelical
movement that now fills the world, is beyond
comprehension, unless we view it in the light
of God's efforts to prepare the, world for the
second advent of Jesus. It is the hand of
God put forth the second time (Isaiah 11:
11, 16) to recover His remnant from the
four corners of the earth. It is earth's answer
by the agency of the Holy Spirit to Heaven's
call, Prepare ye the way of the Lord for His
second coming. It is a repetition at the close
of the gospel age of the mighty workings of
that same divine power, which, at the beginning of the gospel era, sent forth that
• little handful of Galilean disciples to evangelize the known world in the space of a
single generation. It is the going forth of the
angels of God with the last gospel message
in response to the prophecy of Revelation
14:6-14.
When this judgment-hour message came
due, in 1844, a new people came into existence at that very time, through whom the
message was to be given to every nation and
people. Rising in extreme weakness, poverty,
and obscurity, it has in a single generation
encompassed the whole world. As we view
this marvel of modern missions, we may well
exclaim with the psalmist: "This is the
(Continued on page 15)
Page Eleven
DIABETES
"What is the best method of treatment of
diabetes? What can you say regarding the
insulin treatment?"
Diabetes is not a disease for home treatment, unless your patient has been well instructed and is under the supervision of a
doctor who can watch the progress of the
case. No modern doctor thinks of treating
diabetes without insulin.
If the patient is treating himself, even
under the supervision of a doctor, he can Cooperate much better and much more intelligently if he has special instruction, and might
profit greatly by having a little book issued
by one of our doctors, "A Book for Us Diabetics and Our Doctors." It is for sale by
E. E. Miles, Publisher, South Lancaster,
Massachusetts. The price is $1.50.
TUBERCULOSIS
(A patient with lingering tuberculosis
writes a long, pathetic letter, and asks a number of questions I can not answer; also wants
to know about the operation collapsing a
lung, and about a powder for indigestion.)
I appreciate very much the wonderful
faith you have in me, but those doctors who
handle tuberculosis know much better what
to do for a tuberculosis patient than I do,
especially when they know all about the patient and I do not.
Collapse of the lung gives very good results in many cases. Probably the doctors
always select patients on whom the operation
is most likely to prove successful.
No powder can make your stomach well.
It may relieve present symptoms, may possibly prevent some damage, and may help
the stomach back to its work. As I do not
know what this powder is you inquire about,
I can not give more definite answer.
_.4—.
SCIATICA
(An inquirer wants to know the cause and
cure for sciatica, and whether there is danger
of its becoming chronic. She also inquires
whether certain of the patient's habits are
objectionable.)
Sciatica is difficult to handle. I do not
know that we can say definitely what is the
cause; and the cure is often a problem. It
certainly tends to a chronic course.
Your patient had better let candy and
sweets alone. She will probably do better on
an alkalizing diet, and using bread that is
not, too fresh.
CONSTIPATION
"Can I relieve constipation of five years'
standing by using the alkalizing diet? I
drink four or five quarts of water daily, and
take frequent enemas."
Some cases of constipation are relieved
by the use of an alkalizing diet. Whether or
not it would relieve yours, I can not say.
Why drink so much water? Three quarts
Page Twelve
Readers of the "Signs of the Times" who
send questions regarding health, with two
cents return postage, to Dr. Heald will receive prompt reply by mail. But, remember,
he can not diagnose or treat disease by mail.
Persons who are sick need an examination
and the personal attention of a physician.
No questions will be answered direct
through this column. The answers which appear here are selected from the doctor's correspondence.
Send questions, with a two-cent stamp, to
Dr. G. H. Heald, 140 Eastern Avenue,
Takoma Park, D. C.
should be ample. And I would not advise
frequent enemas.
It might be advantageous for you to use
quite freely of olive oil, and perhaps of
cream and dairy butter, for these will help
add to your weight, and will also help to relieve your constipation. If the diet and the
free use of oil and cream and butter do not
relieve your constipation, try mineral oil.
where fish and other animal protein food is
scarce, these beans are very extensively used,
for they are unusually rich in protein and
fat—a sort of vegetable meat. But their
flavor is not usually relished by Americans.
GOITER
"Is
"Is goiter contagious?"
Never. One might imagine from the frequency of goiter in certain localities that it
is contagious, but the frequency of goiters
in these regions is due to another cause.
Wherever goiter is unusually prevalent, there
is found to be a lack of iodine in food and
drink. It is now the custom in such localities to make up for the lack of iodine by adminiitering iodine in one form or another.
Perhaps the most usual way is to have the
members of the community use iodized table
salt, that is, salt containing an exceedingly
minute amount of iodine. It is always advisable for one who has a growth on the
neck to consult a doctor, for some of these
growths later become dangerous.
CAPILLARY PULSATION
"When I straighten a finger so that the
nail is part white and part pink, I notice that
the pink part gets larger and smaller with
each pulse, so that I can easily count my
pulse by watching the finger nail. Is this
normal?"
Capillary pulsation is seen in exophthalmic
goiter, and in aortic regurgitation, two undesirable conditions. In one case the cause is
an overacting heart; in the other, a leakage
back into the heart. The condition may also
be present in arteriosclerosis, in tuberculosis, and in neurasthenia. A medical examination should disclose what is causing the pulsation in your case.
—4.—
APPENDICITIS
"Could the appendix be diseased and still
not cause attacks of appendicitis? Would a
diseased appendix cause one to have a weak
back and pimples?"
The appendix is probably diseased for
some time before there is an "attack" of appendicitis; and, in fact, when an appendix
is removed, there is likely to be evidence
that it has been diseased for some time. I
do not know that a diseased appendix would
cause weak back or pimples.
_4—
EXOPHTHALMIC GOITER
"What causes exophthalmic goiter?"
It is said never to occur except in cases
where there is a predisposition. The members of certain families are much more likely
to have this condition than others. Yet those
who are so predisposed may go through life
without an attack, and, in fact, will not have
an attack unless it is brought on. If to one
predisposed there comes some severe mental
shock, such as an automobile accident with
harrowing details, or some overwhelming
worry, the disease develops.
The name is not very apt, for some cases
have neither the exophthalmos (bulging
eyes) nor the goiter, and a good many lack
one or the other of these symptoms.
RHEUMATISM
"What can be done for rheumatism in a
man seventy-four years old?"
At your age rheumatic difficulties may be
difficult to relieve. Tonsil infection, even if
it does not cause sore throat or noticeable
distress, may be the cause. Or high blood
pressure may cause it.
SOY BEANS
NEGLECTED GOITER
"Why is the soy bean particularly mentioned among the alkalizing foods? Where is
it raised? What are some of its properties?"
"My daughter, eighteen, has had a goiter
five years. Our doctor thought it would pass
away before this time. She is very pale and
thin, and hungry nearly all the time. What
diet would you prescribe?"
The soy bean is one of the most strongly
alkalizing foods we know of. For this reason
soy bean flour is added to wheat flour to
make a soy bean bread, which, instead of
being acidifying like ordinary bread, is alkalizing.
Soy beans are raised in California, where
some soy bean flour is being manufactured.
The beans were introduced into this country
from Japan. In parts of Japan and China
She should be examined by a doctor who
is expert in goiter treatment. If it is a toxic
goiter, she should be operated on promptly.
Many goiters are much better not operated
on; but the patient requires treatment, and
the treatment must be prescribed by a doctor who has studied the case. The same with
the diet.
SUGNS of the TIMES
Spontaneous Generation
and the SABBATH
I
T IS quite impossible for us in modern
times to place ourselves in the attitude of
mind from which such people as the ancient
Greeks and the Romans looked out upon the
things of nature. The world was very wonderful to them; but their heathen mythology
gave them such a perverted view of the supernatural powers of heaven that they had
no proper conception of creation. Plato and
some of the more careful thinkers believed
in a sort of evolution downward. They held
that the animals were originally men who
had failed to live up to their high privileges,
and had degenerated. This view extended
to many of the larger animals around them;
but, as for the smaller creatures, they gave
no thought to their origin at all.
Aristotle was by all odds the most scientific of the men of the ancient world. sHe
knew fully as much about animals and plants
and minerals and about the earth in general
as the best of the university men of Europe
knew at the time of Columbus or at the beginning of the Reformation. And his attitude in studying nature was in many respects
much more sensible than that of the men
of the Middle Ages. But Aristotle believed
fully in spontaneous generation. That is, he
believed that fleas and flies and all the
smaller creatures, including toads and frogs
and even mice and the smaller mammals,
grew up spontaneously from the moist earth.
Such creatures he and all others of the Romans and Greeks considered to be derived
naturally by the ordinary forces of nature
from the earth and water. They were without
father and without mother. But the wonder
of their origin never entered the heads of
even the wisest of the ancients. Their pagan
attitude of mind permitted them in a vague
way to believe in many gods; and the more
intelligent of them believed in one supreme
god over all the others. But they had no
proper concept of. the meaning of creation.
They believed also in the eternity of matter. They had no conception of the beginning of the world in any proper
sense of the term. The creation of
matter out of nothing was not only
inconceivable to them, but they did
not think enough about the subject
to consider why it was inconceivable. Matter had always existed,
according to their view. Most of
them thought that the stuff of the
universe had in it something wrong
or disagreeable or wicked,—something
tending toward unhappiness and misery. 'Matter had in it something that
the gods needed to overcome. Thus
the gods were represented as in many
ways struggling against the restraining
and evil influence of surrounding nature. In
this respect also they could have no proper
conception of the true meaning of creation.
But Aristotle was a writer of school textbooks. It-will be remembered that he was
for OCTOBER 9, 1928
GEORGE MC CREADY
PRICE
for many years the tutor of young Alexander, afterwards called the Great. And he
always looked at the study of plants and
animals, as well as human physiology and
anatomy, from the point of viewof a teacher.
His elaborate treatises on various scientific
subjects became the recognized authorities
for the students of subsequent generations.
For nearly two thousand years his leadership as the greatest teacher of the ancient
world was practically unquestioned. His
views were already the dominant ideas'
among the learned in the time of St. Augustine and the earlier church fathers. In all
matters relating to nature and its study these
church fathers depended more upon Aristotle than they did upon their Bible. The
result was that the Catholic Church brought
over bodily the whole outfit of nature
teaching which had been formulated by him
who was called "the master of those who
know."
MOLDED BY ARISTOTLE
It was not as if they had merely taken
Aristotle for a general guide and had tried
to improve on his methods or his observations. They did nothing of the kind. As it
was presumptuous to think of any doctrine
in theology which had not been formulated
by the fathers in the church, so the people
of the Middle Ages considered it gross presumption to question anything they read
from Aristotle or to seek to go beyond what
he had recorded concerning the skies above
or the earth beneath or the animals and
plants of the surrounding world. For a thousand years or more men milled around over
"Omne vivum ex ovo."
the same dreary track, quite unaware that
the Creator had meant for man to find out
things for himself from the great book of
nature placed open before him.
Many things about nature were correctly
stated in Aristotle's writings. But the blind
obedience to his authority with which the
scholastics of the Middle. Ages treated his
writings made it impossible for them to discriminate between the good and the bad.
Thus they brought over from the ancient
pagan world this concept of spontaneous
generation. And down until well past the
age of printing and the revival of learning
men still believed that such creatures'as frogs
and snakes and eels are produced naturally
from the mud. As we shall see presently,
this idea of the spontaneous origin of living
things was not effectually refuted and was
not banished even from scientific circles
until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, under the work of Louis Pasteur.
Another idea brought over from Aristotle
was that of a ladderlike series of creatures
from the minuter forms up to man, each of
the higher forms being in a certain sense
regarded as the modified image of the ones
below. In a very crude and uncritical way
many of the Greeks had believed in a vague
sort of organic evolution. Thus not all of
the animals and plants in the world have descended from ancestors exactly like themselves. Some of them, it was taught, were
the greatly modified descendants of forms
which were very different. This loose form
of a sort of evolution doctrine also came
over with Aristotle through the Middle Ages
into the thought of the Western world. And
it was one of those ideas with which the beginnings of modern science had to contend
when, about three hundred years ago, men
began to study nature again with an open
mind in that same independent way in which
they were beginning to study the Bible. For
the Renaissance, or Revival of Learning, was
as much a revival of the study of nature
directly from nature itself, and without the
intervention of Aristotle, as it was a revival
of interest in the ancient classical languages.
But when modern science arose, it had many
false ideas to shake off, which, like the
fabled old man of the sea, clung to the rising sciences of botany, zoology, and astronomy, and hindered greatly their natural development.
A REAL CREATION
Side by side with these two ideas of spontaneous generation and an indefinite changing of one type into another, there was, of
course, the quite different doctrine of a real
creation.. The church has always taught the
creation of man as a distinct being. But it
also held to these two ideas at the same
time. Few if any persons seem to have realized that these ideas are quite inconsistent
with each other. They held them all three
together in a vague and uncritical fashion,
Page Thirteen
to be sure; but yet it may be said that all
three ideas existed among intelligent people
down until quite modern times. Indeed, it
is certain that the carelessness of thinking
indulged in by the average man supposed to
be intelligent has been one of the chief reasons why such utterly inconsistent ideas
could be entertained in the same mind. And
this carelessness of thinking which took
spontaneous generation for granted even
well along past the middle of the nineteenth
century, also permitted millions of people to
see nothing very strange or incongruous in
the thought that species might become transformed into other kinds with little or no
trouble. It is this uncritical attitude of mind
which has served as the fertile soil in which
such an idea as that of Darwinism has arisen.
When this idea of a change of kind was once
taken up and advocated by the leaders of
natural science, it received a wide acceptance with little or no trouble. It is only as
the methods of biologists have become more
critical, and as they have attempted by experiment to test out the theory, that the
facts have come to light which tend to put
a very large question mark after this view
that plants and animals can change so completely as to become transformed into distinctly other kinds. And this scientific refutation of evolutionism is only now in process of attracting the attention of the world.
Harvey. Galileo (1564-1642), the founder we can see only under the highest powers of
of modern experimental science, was then the microscope. We have learned that these,
living in Italy. A countryman of his, Fran- too, breed only each "after its kind." It is
cisco Redi (1626-1697), was the first to also because of our enlarged knowledge in
question the truthfulness of the common this respect that we can appreciate far betbelief inherited from Aristotle that all the ter than any other people who have ever
small things of life spring up spontaneously lived the meaning of that Sabbath institufrom putrefying and decaying substances. tion which God has given mankind as a meLike Galileo, he undertook to test the mat- morial of a creation finished at a definite
ter out, to see for himself. He experimented period in the past and not now continuously
with more than a dozen different kinds of going on, as was formerly almost universally
foodstuffs, and proved conclusively that believed.
when protected from flies and other insects
Thus we see that the work of Louis Pasno maggots or other visible forms of life teur and his fellow workers helped very
are generated in them. These experiments much to make the Sabbath a timely truth for
seem to have been performed about the our day. And the Sabbath reform of our
year 1668, after which Redi succeeded in day has evidently been timed and planned
convincing the teachers of his time that by Divine Providence for just such a period
Aristotle must be wrong.
of scientific discovery when we can appreFrom this period onward most people took ciate its meaning.
it for granted that life only from life holds
In a subsequent article we shall consider
true for all of the larger forms at least. But other phases of this very interesting subject.
shortly after this, bacteria were discovered,
and then for over another hundred years
SQUANDERING SOULS
there was much dispute as to whether or not
(Continued from page 10)
this principle holds true for all forms of life. hor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
Not until the time of Louis Pasteur (1822- Sheol [grave] whither thou goest." Eccle1895) was it settled for all time that life can siastes 9:5, 6, 10, A. R. V.
come only from preexisting life of the same
"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the
kind. Pasteur fought a terrific battle to son of man, in whom there is no help. His
prove this point; for by this time the modern breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;
form of the evolution theory had become in that very day his thoughts perish." Psalm
widely accepted, and some method of sponTHE INCONSISTENCY NOT DISCERNED
146:3,4. •
taneous generation in the long ago is abso"So man lieth down and riseth not: till
But when even intelligent people saw lutely essential to any thoroughgoing and
nothing absurd or unscientific in the theory logical system of evolution. But Pasteur, the heavens be no more, they shall not awake,
of spontaneous generation, what proper con- with his wonderful experiments, won the nor be roused out of their sleep." "His sons
ception could they have of the Sabbath as day. Almost immediately this great truth of come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and
a memorial of a completed creation? They life only from life was put to a very practi- they are brought low, but he perceiveth it
professed to believe in the creation of man; cal use by Joseph Lister (1827-1912), who not of them." Job 14:12, 21, A. R. V.
"That which befalleth the sons of men
but they had no proper conception of the applied this principle to the treatment of
creation of that whole world in which we live wounds and surgical work. The wonders of befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth
and of which we form a part. Thus they modern surgery are possible to-day only be- them: . . . yea, they have all one breath;
could not have any proper appreciation of cause of our belief in this great doctrine of so that a man hath no preeminence above a
the Sabbath as a memorial of a creation com- life only from preceding life. It is because beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one
pleted at a definite time in the long ago and of faith in this great, truth that we can seal place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust
again." Ecclesiastes 3 :19, 20.
not in any sense now going' on.
up milk and various kinds of foods with the
Either the authors of these words engage
William Harvey (1578-1657) , the cele- confident expectation that they will not debrated physician who lived in the time of the cay. It is also through our confidence in this in childish prattle and absurd foolishness, or
early Stuarts, and who discovered the circu- principle that we have succeeded in avoiding else, by divine guidance, they are speaking
lation of the blood, and other noteworthy so many of the most dreaded diseases, such the undeniable truth. The major part, if
facts of physiology, was the first to formu- as typhoid fever, malaria, and yellow fever. not all evidence, points to the latter. Truth
is in their favor. Man, like the beast, falls
late in scientific language that life can come
"AFTER ITS KIND"
into the dusty grave a wasted rag unless some
only from antecedent life. He expressed it
In all these hundreds of ways we in modern external force exerts itself in his behalf. Unby the well-known formula: "Omne vivum
ex ovo," all life comes from an egg, or a times can appreciate the meaning of an orig- less God restores the original state, man has
germ. Almost all intelligent people of that inal creation which brought into existence no hope of immortality.
Life is the sweetest, the most clung-to
time accepted Harvey's statement, in a gen- not only the larger kinds of living things,
eral way, for all the more familiar forms of but also even those minute creatures which gift that man possesses. There is no price
life which they could observe around them.
The microscope was even then opening up
a wholly new world, yet a world just as real
and just as completely subject to law and
order as the world of larger forms. But this
idea of life only from preceding life had to
7928
be fully investigated and confirmed by obTo "Signs of,the Times,"
servation and experiment among the forms
Mountain View, California.
revealed under the microscope. And this
took over three hundred years more.
For the inclosed remittance, please enter my name for "Signs" subCOPERNICUS AND GALILEO
scription as checked below.
The reign of Aristotle as the ultimate
Check
RATES
Name
here
source of scientific knowledge may be said
$1.50
D
Single
subscription,
1
year
to have come to an end with the publication '
0 "Creation—Not Evolution" and
Address
of the work of Copernicus in 1543, dealing
2.50
"Signs" 1 year
with the revolutions of the planets, or more
0 "Without Excuse" and "Signs" 1 yr 2.50
particularly with the publication of Newton's.
(If in Canada or other country requiring extra postage, add 50 cents to above prices.)
"Principia" in 1687, the latter event being
just thirty years after the death of William
Sign Here for the "SIGNS"
Page Fourteen
SIGNS of the TIMES
in the form of pain, skill, silver, or gold that
he will not pay for a few hours of life prolonged from death. Within the breast of
every human being is the unquenchable desire to live on. The icy grip of death is mankind's most, dreaded calamity. Perhaps this
very dread is proof that the portals of death
do not hold the keys to an immortality beyond. Certainly death does not satisfy this
longing. God spurs man to immortality. "To
them who by patient continuance in welldoing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life." Romans 2:7. This is the
"holy grail" of human quest,—immortality,
eternal life. Desperately our hopes cling to it.
DIVINE ASSURANCE
God has not left us without assurance.
Jesus died and rose again. He paid the
penalty for our transgression and restored
immortality as a possible gift. The apostle
Paul cheers us with the words: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed. For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must
put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then
shall come to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death,
where is thy victory? 0 death, where is thy
sting?" 1 Corinthians 15:52-55, A. R. V.
Then, He who sees the sparrow fall, who
decks the field with the beauty of the lily,
and tints the sunset's hues, does He "squander souls"? No ! He will restore what man
has lost:, But it will take more on man's part
than studying into the possibility. It will
take more than my friend's condemnation.
It will take a sincere and unwavering faith.
It will take more earnest prayer than massing together of scientific data to bring man
to Eden and immortality.
•
A SPECIAL PEOPLE FOR A
SPECIAL TIME
(Continued from page 11)
THE WORLD'S PROPHETIC WEEKLY
Advocating a return to the simple
gospel of Christ, and a preparation
for His imminent second appearing
A. O. TAIT, A. L. BAKER, Editors
J. R. FERREN, Circulation Manager
Vol. 55, No. 40
October 9, 1928
Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
Mountain View, California
This is the day which thd Lord hath made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
118:23, 24. "Blessed be he that cometh in In United States:
$1.50
Single copy, one year
the name of the. Lord: we have blessed you
Clubs of five or more to one address, each
1.25
out-of the house- of- the - Lord.:'--Verse- 26.- —To Canada and other countries taking extra postage:
$2.00
Single
copy,
one
year
"This gate of the Lord, into which the rightClubs of five or more to one address, each
1.50
eous shall enter." Verse 20.
Please make all checks and money orders payable
A divine hand has expressly prepared the to "Signs of the Times," Mountain View, California.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS
world for this very hour. Just as surely as
Expiration. All issues for the month named on
the heralds of this last message have gone
the top line of your address label are included in
out to every nook and corner of the globe;
your subscription. Unless renewed in advance, the
just as surely as the farthest corners of the paper stops at expiration date.
Change of address. Please give both old and
earth under the marvelous mechanical inven- new
address.
papers are sent except on paid subscriptions,
tions of this day are becoming our next-door so No
persons receiving the "Signs of the Times' withneighbors, bringing all the people of the earth out having subscribed may feel perfectly free to
accept it.
into touch with one another; just as surely
as Bibles by the millions are being distributed in every principal tongue; just as dared that when this gospel of the kingdom
surely as the spoken message can now be has been given to all nations, "then shall the
sent through the air with the speed of light- end come." Matthew 24:14.
ning to millions scattered far and wide; just
It means that we have arrived at the last
as surely as God's messengers and the printed stage of our journey, and a few more steps
message of countless pages can now be sent will suffice to bring us' home. It means,
from place to place as if on the wings of the "Come; for all things are now ready." It
wind; so surely is the final work of the gos- means, Delay not to accept this gospel of the
pel being quickly finished. And just so surely Lord's preparation while there is opportuis Christ coming soon; for He Himself de- nity to-day.
cio, MAKERS of the HOME
is written for the instruction and inspiration of parents and
parents-to-be. It may well be studied by young men and
young women approaching the age of courtship and marriage, as well as by young married people and by parents.
The form of the book—twelve sections, containing four
chapters each—readily lends itself to systematic study for
every month in the year, at home' or in parents', organizations.
W
E believe that training for parenthood should begin before marriage,
and that, indeed, every person who has or
may have anything at all to do with the
training of children should become a student of the parent's responsibilities, powers, and methods. We therefore counsel
young men and women who are approaching the age of marriage to study the subject. We counsel teachers, actual or prospective, to make a part of their training
a thorough study of the arts, not only of
the classroom but also of the home; for
that school will be most successful which
takes the home as its model. And since
the success of the church is dependent upon
home influences, we counsel every minister
of the gospel and every officer and worker
in the church to make the home, its needs
and its ministrations, a chief part of their
study and training."
"The Christian home is God's insurance
of righteousness in the earth. The home
can never be completely abolished without
the race's slipping into promiscuity of sex
relations, disintegration of government,
and spiritual slavery. These are the conditions found among the most degraded
for OCTOBER 9, 1928
peoples upon the earth. To the extent that
the ideal home is deprived Of its rightful
place and powers, to that extent will civilization descend. On the other hand, the
more the home is built up to its original
plan and purpose, and the better parents
and prospective parents are fitted for their
duties, the more virtuous, competent, and,
stable will be both state and society."-"Makers of the Home," pages 8, 29.
A book of 280 pages divided into 12 sections under the following headings:
THE HOME FIRST
MODERN CONDITIONS AFFECTING
THE HOME
THE BASIS OF HOME
LOVE
PREPARATION FOR MARRIAGE
PREPARATION FOR PARENTHOOD
COURTSHIP
MARRIAGE
THE PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF THE
HOME
THE HOME A SCHOOL
THE HOME AND THE COMMUNITY
CLOTH
BOUND
Postpaid
.50
PRICES HIGHER IN CANADA
Order of our nearest representative or
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, Mountain View, California
Page Fifteen
We WORLD OUTLOOK
44skill in repairing damaged bodies; but
our chemists have achieved even greater
HEN the question is asked, "Is the
skill in destroying them, so that in war
world getting . better?" there are time we see all the resources of civilizasuperficial thinkers and twentieth-century tion devoted to patching up broken bodies
enthusiasts who immediately reply, "Cer- in order that all the resources of civilizatainly the world is getting better! Just tion may proceed to blow them to bits
look at our airplanes, radios, skyscrapers, again. We have invented rapid means of
factories, and what not! We are miles transit to bring us in and out of our cities,
ahead of our grandfathers; and, so far as yet allowed them to grow to such dimenthe ancients are concerned, they are clear sions that not all the tubes and railways
out of the running when compared with in the world can take their workers out
our wonderful era!"
of them, with the result that we live no
In other words, our generation offers nearer to the country than we did before,
the results of its inventive genius and its while a new race of nomads engaged in
material accomplishments as proof that perpetual transit between workshop and
it is better than former generations. Its dormitory knows neither the solace of
thesis seems to be that, because our solitude nor the sense of community.
grandfathers traveled six miles an hour
"The trouble here is obvious. Man's
and we go sixty, therefore we are ten skill has enormously outstripped his abiltimes better than they.
ity to use it; in other words, his technical
But some of the world's thinkers are efficiency is greater than his social wisbeginning to realize the tragic fallacy of dom. . . . Men of genius by the dozen,
such an argument, and to sense that, after men of talent by the hundred have laall, where morals and wisdom are con- bored that wireless might be; they sucsidered, we may be immeasurably worse ceeded, and the tittle-tattle of the divorce
off than our slow-moving ancestors.
courts is broadcast to the ends of the
One of England's brilliant thinkers and earth, while the remoter ether vibrates to
writers, C. E. M. Joad, writing in the negroid music.
September issue of Harper's Magazine
"Science has not altered man's desires ;
on "The Future of Man," says:
it has merely made it easier for him to
"In the last century and a half man has carry them into effect. If our desires are
enormously increased his command over. good, this added power of gratifying them
nature. Sixty miles an hour in an express is a good; if they are evil, it is a corretrain has replaced four miles an hour on sponding evil. Most of men's desires that
foot, and two hundred miles an hour in have hitherto found social expression have
an airplane has replaced sixty miles an been harmful. Hence the principal effect
hour in an express train. Productivity has of the increase in human power and
increased enormously, and one man can' knowledge has either been an improveutilize machines to do the work which
formerly employed the labor of a hundred. In power and skill, in ability to tap
the resources of nature and harness them
to our use, we are to the men of the eighteenth century like giants to babies. Our
powers might, so at least it was hoped,
have been used to improve human life,
to make it more leisurely and spacious,
to diminish its toil, and to increase its
beauty. This hope has, however, been
shown' to be illusory. It would be interesting to take one by one the major scientific discoveries of the last hundred years,
and to show how the potential benefits
which they might have conferred upon
the human race have been in each instance
frustrated. We have more power over
nature, it is true, yet the only way we can
escape from the dirt and squalor, the
foul air and the overcrowding which
power over nature involves is to escape
into the country, where nature is still in
HERBERT PHOTO
The "Albert," a giant motorless airship. Glider
more or less undisputed pOwer over man.
meets are now numbered among Germany's
Our doctors have achieved unprecedented
major national sports.
Are We Any Better?
w
ment in methods of destroying human
life or an accentuation of economic
inequality, with the result that our states
are founded on force, dominated by
money power, and armed through fear,
while rich and poor tend increasingly to
differentiate into two different species.
Our civilization is in fact only skin-deep;
fundamentally man is still the same foolish, credulous, vain, impulsive, and intolerant animal that he was in the Stone
Age. Fire the first bullet, and the savage
appears.
"Mind, I am not maintaining that mankind is worse than it ever was; merely
that it has a need to be better. For science
has taken this primitive savage posturing
as civilized man, and presented him with
powers fit for the gods. Give a boy an air
gun, and he may kill a sparrow or break
a window or two ; give him a modern Lee
Metford rifle, and he becomes a public
danger. Politically and socially man is
still a baby, with the acquisitive and destructive instincts of a baby; science has
given the baby a box of matches. Can he
survive the gift?"
We believe that these paragraphs contain matter for serious reflection on the
part of those who pin their hope for the
future on the glowing material accomplishments of the present..
Hurricaned to Their Knees
this morning, we were
O talkingtrain
with a salesman who makes
N THE
a trip into the tropics each year. Speaking of the devastation wrought by a hurricane such as has recently swept across
the Caribbean and the southeastern corner of the United States, he said :
"When you see one of those things
coming your way, it doesn't matter if
you haven't been to church for twenty
years, you get down on your knees in a
hurry, to ask God to spare you just once
more."
Of course God is not to be blamed for
the tornadoes and hurricanes which of
recent weeks have been dealing death
and destruction over such large areas.
Apollyon, the old destroyer, is the fiend
behind such things. But God, in His allwise providence, uses these as agencies
to turn the minds of men and women
toward Him. Isaiah declares : "When Thy
judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Isaiah 26:9. The increasing frequency of the visitations of the destructive forces of nature is one of the means
God uses to call man back to obedience
B.
to Him before it is too late.