1. law, govt and politics

D. WARREN ROYER PHOTO
JULY
COLOR EDITION
How to Be Healthy on a Vacation
Read pages z and 3
PRICE
TEN CENTS
How
to
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IKE a suit of clothes, a vacation should
harmonize with the individual. To
A furnish agreeable, wholesome recreation and change, the type of the vacation
should be suited to the taste and temper of
the vacationist. What would be joy to one
person might be a dismal tedium and boredom to another.
Some would be happiest when enjoying
the aroma of burnt gas and feasting the eyes
on a confused procession of backward-flying
billboards, filling stations, hot-dog shacks,
and similar scenery. Others would like nothing so well as the relaxation and the thrill of
a voyage to Alaska or Honolulu, or some
other trip on sea, lake, or river. Others, preferring a more intimate contact with nature,
would choose a hike with a light, portable
outfit over the trails of a national park or
national forest, or perhaps a canoe trip of
discovery on some river or lake or bay. Still
ealth
others would get most enjoyment in a quiet
camp in one of the lovely masterpieces that
nature has prepared apparently for that purpose, at the seashore, beside some lake or
river, or in the mountains.
To be successful, the vacation should be
suited to the purse and the taste of the
vacationist. The suggestions. made in this
article, while prepared specifically for the
camping vacationist, may to some extent be
applicable to all.
Music? That will depend on the taste of
the vacation party. A small phonograph, a
portable radio, a guitar or other small instrument with singing might be almost a necessity to some vacation parties. Others would
not miss the music; to leave it at home would
be in the interest of simplification. Why not
make this another change from the home
life? In any case, with so large a part of the
twenty-four hours light, it is better to spend
the dark hours in bed, and be
ready to welcome the morning
hours with the birds. If at home
you have turned night into day,
you need not do it on your outing; you will get more good
from your vacation not to do it.
Some campers prefer to see
new places every year, rather
than to visit the same place
more than once. This plan has
an element of novelty, but there
is a decided advantage in finding some camp
where everything is wholesome and sanitary,
where the neighbors are cordial, where there
is opportunity for swimming, boating, or
whatever vacation activities are preferred,
and then making a yearly return to the place.
It is an advantage to have a well-screened
bungalow or cottage, with good water supply
and sanitary arrangements; but floored tents,
screened if necessary for mosquitoes and
flies, with near-by water supply and sanitary
arrangements, is a good second, and seems a
little more like getting back to nature. In
the attempt to simplify, however, one can
not afford to neglect sanitary precautions.
In choosing a camping place, whether for
the night or for a longer stay, avoid a
mosquito-ridden or fly-ridden place, not only
because of the annoyance but because of the
danger of disease.
COMPANIONSHIP
Agreeable companionship is of vital importance to anyone going on a vacation
trip, unless one feels the need of a period
of isolation and solitude. A disagreeable,
thoughtless, selfish person, pining for home
comforts, complaining of camp inconveniences, wanting to be waited on, will do much
to ruin an otherwise well-devised vacation
for the others of the party. In planning a
vacation trip, choose for companions those
who are agreeable, and "good sports." One
who takes a neurasthenic on a vacation—
especially a quarrelsome neurasthenic—in
the hope of restoring health may be heroic;
but, unless he has an excellent fund of patience and diplomacy, he will not get much
vacation, and his patient will not get much
help.
CLOTHING, FOOD, WATER
"In a quiet camp in one of the
lovely masterpieces that nature has prepared."
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Your outfit,—food, clothing, bedding, etc.,
—let it be as simple as possible. Its nature
will depend on the kind of vacation you are
to take—whether by vessel or rail or trolley
or motor car or on foot or in camp—and the
proposed length of the vacation. But in any
case it will pay you to simplify. Many things
that would have been rare luxuries to our
grandparents but are now considered necessities can well be spared on a vacation trip.
Forgo these for the time, and live in the simplicity of a former generation. Vacation
should be a complete change from home life,
and such simplification will be a change.
Why go to the wilds to have what is customary at home?
Be sure the water supply is free from contamination. If you can not be assured of
this, it is safer to boil all drinking water.
No. 25
SIGNS of the TIMES, JUNE 25, 1929
Vol. 56
Printed and published weekly by the Pacific Press Publishing Association, at Mountain 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
On
a
-9
tacation
Do you come back from
your annual vacation
truly rested and ready for
another year's routine, or
are you all fagged out
and have to come home to
recover?
GEORGE H. HEALD, M. D.
Streams in a settled country are nearly always dangerously polluted, and often the
springs are not safe. The summer and autumn victims of typhoid fever in cities are
often persons returned from a vacation in
the country. Sometimes a water supply in
the country is contaminated because the
people who live in the vicinity, or some of
them, are typhoid carriers. Such a condition is not so common as formerly, but it is
better to be cautious in advance than to be
sorry afterwards. In some states the good
water supplies are indicated so that the traveler may know what water is safe.
Another source of typhoid fever danger in
the country is the milk supply. Raw milk
obtained at a farm is not at all safe, and if
used should first be boiled. Those who contemplate traveling for vacation and getting
their milk and water along the road would do
well to have an antityphoid inoculation before vacation time.
If hikes, swimming, and other exercise
cause a demand for more substantial food,
it may be supplied by increasing the bread
allowance and having some "hearty" food
like boiled or baked dry beans once a day.
But, with milk, one should not eat too much
of such food.
FORTUNATE CAMPERS
Fortunate are the campers who have a delivery of good dairy milk, vegetables, and
fruits, or who have access to such supplies.
If the camp is distant from such supplies,
canned milk, canned fruits, and canned
vegetables may be among the supplies
brought from home. Another convenience
that may add to the comfort of the campers
is access to a supply of baker's bread or of
good homemade bread. But for those who
prefer the experience of more primitive
camp life, bread may be made in a Dutch
oven, in the hot ashes of a camp fire.
The reader may think some suggestions in
the last paragraph to be inconsistent with
MAKE MEALS SIMPLE
The food, while adequate, nourishing, and what was previously said in favor of simwholesome, should be simple, and the prepa- plicity. Canned goods! The idea is not to
ration of meals should involve no unneces- simplify just for a change, but to avoid
sary work in preparing a variety of dishes. unnecessary work and to have everything
The reasons are: First, the appetites will be wholesome and germ-free to the extent that
so much more keen that simple foods pre- canned goods do this, they are an advantage.
pared in a simple manner will be relished and However, there should be some fresh fruit
seem fit for a royal repast. Second, such and vegetables every day if
simple food, if adequate and well-balanced, possible, something to eat
will contribute to better health than if the uncooked.
Do not attempt too much
vacation is made an eating bout. Third, the
on
a vacation, trying to "take
vacation should be a period of rest and relaxation for mother as well as for the others. A in" all the sights, and thus
vacation that does not relieve mother or the expending energy faster than
caretaker of burdens is not ideal,—no, not a it is accumulated. Some perfair deal. Even if there is a hired girl to do sons in a party may be able
the work, she needs a vacation as well as the to do much more than others
without fatigue, and the
others.
others should attempt less.
In hot weather, one may live more comThe vacation should give
fortably if the diet contains a minimum of change, relaxation, enjoyprotein, especially of animal protein, for the
ment, rest, and some, but not
proteins are "heating;" that is, during their
digestion and assimilation they "fan the
fires" of the body and produce more body
heat than other foods do. So, to keep cooler
in summer one should eat the smallest quantity of protein consistent with good nutrition. A glass of milk at each meal, together
with the proteins in the vegetables and
cereals, will be ample for an adult. A growing child is better off to have a quart of
milk a day.
It is well, also, to use only enough of the
starchy foods (breads, cakes, pastries, etc.)
to keep the body weight up to normal, and to
live quite largely on the low-calorie foods
(the fruits and vegetables). These foods
supply the salts and vitamins to keep the
body in good condition, without adding unnecessarily to the fuel.
for JUNE 25, 1929
too much, physical exercise if you have not
been accustomed to it at home. Too much
unaccustomed exercise will do more harm
than good.
SUN EXPOSURE AND SUNBURN
Moderate exposure of the skin to sunlight
is a great benefit, the light-and-air bath being more helpful than an excess of water
bathing. But there is always the danger of
overexposure. A good coat of tan is healthful, and desirable, but sunburn, especially if
severe, is not only painful, but injurious to
the body as a whole, as well as to the skin.
The fairer the skin, the more the danger
of sunburn. The more pigment there is in
the skin, the better the protection against the
sun's rays, so that dark-skinned persons do
not sunburn easily. Some persons who burn
easily seem to forget previous sunburns, and
every year have to go through the experience of a blistered skin and several uncomfortable days.
For the first few days, the exposure of the
skin to the bright sunlight should be brief,
the length of exposure being gradually increased. Whether on the beach or in a boat
or canoe, make judicious use of a sun umbrella or of a protecting garment, remembering that reflection from the water increases
(Continued on page 10)
"The vacation should
give change, relaxation, enjoyment, rest."
Page Three
What
is the
ORLD'S
Worst
Disease?
Not an article on physiology,
sanitation, or medicine
N THE outskirts
of a midwestern city
there is a large building of stone—
the state penitentiary. I visited
the place one day, but was not permitted to
go inside because the warden was absent. All
that was left for me to do was to indulge my
curiosity from the outside.
The office looked like a big cage for wild
animals. A partition of great iron bars separated me from the man with whom I talked.
The door to the office was of heavy iron bars
also. A man with seemingly nothing else to
do stood near by inside with a ring of great
iron. 'keys with which he would open the
doors as officials and employees came in and
went out. When I went out of the building, I
met a man with a gun on his hip, leisurely
pacing back and forth. On top of the high
stone walls were observation stations from
which men with rifles made regular beats
back and forth. The windows, I observed,
were screened with heavy iron bars.
0
WHY SUCH A STRUCTURE?
The whole structure impressed me as a
place of confinement for wild beasts. But I
could hear no lions roar; everything seemed
to be in perfect quietness. What was the
purpose of this peculiar construction? What
was kept inside that the guards on the walls
were scrutinizing so closely?
Men, yes, men and women, human beings like those I had
come in contact with every
day, were imprisoned there ! I
was informed that within those
stone walls, which surrounded
a space about the size of two
city blocks, were over five
hundred men and women,—
men and women held captive
by stone walls, barred windows,
and men with loaded guns.
As I left the place, pondering over what I had seen, my
mind turned to the multitude
of such institutions throughout the land. Not only are
there jails and state prisons—
there are reformatories, state
hospitals, lunatic asylums, and
poorhouses, filled to overflowing with human derelicts.
As this realization of the
world's grief and misery came
before me, my spirit cried out,
"Is this man's end? Is there
Page Four
RODNEY H. DAVIDSON
no hope of check or change for this everwidening sea of crime and misery?" What is
it that has poisoned the wellsprings of human
life? What is this thing that seems to dwell
in men and women, driving them to revolt
and turmoil? I pick up a newspaper, and in it
I read that the attorney who sent a criminal
to the gallows last week is brought before the
court to-day for embezzlement and bribery.
WHENCE THE POISON?
The world is full of penitentiaries, to-day
when legislation is a specialty. Dealing with
crime is a business. Poorhouses abound in
our land of plenty. Insane asylums and hospitals are crowded to the limit in this age
when higher mental efficiency and medical
science are in the limelight. The model home
is almost a question mark. The ideal church
is hard to find.
What is it that has poisoned the wellsprings of human life? What is it that has
wrought this havoc and distortion in the
souls of men? Must it forever continue?
Is there no remedy for it?
Before we attempt to find a remedy, let us
cast about for clues to the source of this insidious malady. In Romans 5:12 we read :
"Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin;
"Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?"
and so death passed unto all men, for that all
sinned." A. R. V. Sin entered ! Sin is transgression, it is treason, it is rebellion against
God. One man, Adam, sinned; sin so affected
him as to become a part of his very nature.
It became a part of his nature to the extent
that it was passed on through him to his posterity. With it was passed its consequences,
—crime, disease, insanity, and death. Adam's
sin precipitated all humanity into the maelstrom. Man partakes of the nature of the
archrebel Satan, in whom rebellion is personalized and personified. Man is a bondservant to sin. "Of whom a man is overcome,
of the same is he also brought into bondage"
(2 Peter 2 :19) ; and "know ye not, that to
whom ye present yourselves as servants unto
obedience, his servants ye are whom ye
obey ?" Romans 6:16.
THE REASON FOR IT
The reason men and women are in bondage in the penitentiary is that they are first
in the bondage of sin. Crime and wickedness
in the world are only the natural fruits of
the inherent nature that is rooted in the
very heart of man. As slaves driven by their
masters, men and women to-day are driven
by sin. That is what the prophet Jeremiah
meant when he said: "I know that the way
of man is not in himself ; it is
not in man that walketh to
direct his steps." Jeremiah
10:23. Man, being enslaved
to that nature, is led by it to
commit sin.
As we study this enigmatical
nature, we learn more about
its subtle character. The most
puzzling part of this nature is
that it can be religious and yet
sinful. It can exist in the very
center of the church. Ancient
Israel was a very religious
people. They brought their
oblations and incense unto
Jehovah. They called assemblies, and observed the Sabbath. In the externals of their
religious worship they were
perfect. But Jehovah, who
"seeth not as man seeth" but
"looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16: 7), passed judgment on
them as being exceedingly corrupt. He declared that their
religious forms were an abomSIGNS of the TIMES
for JUNE 25, 1929
SINNERS BY CHOICE
Young people do not become sinners because they commit some sin. They commit
sin because they are sinners, sinners by
choice, and aliens by birth. Sin is not something, either, that affects only youth and is
outgrown in time. It may be in a more
passive state in some than in others, but nevertheless it works in every man. The same
day that a nineteen-year-old lad went to the
gallows at San Quentin, a man of fifty years
went to the electric chair at the Nebraska
penitentiary.
The malady of the world to-day is sin. It
is the same thing working in mankind to-day
that slew Abel. It is the same nature that
worked in the hearts of the antediluvians and
made the thoughts of their hearts only evil
continually. (Genesis 6:5.) It is the same
nature that gripped the apostle Paul when he
said, "I am carnal, sold under sin." (Romans
7:14.) It possesses every man and woman,
and they are helpless to deliver themselves
from it. Every man is so sold to it that, if he
wills to change, he is overcome and defeated.
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I Will Believe
ERNEST LLOYD
I will believe, I will believe,
Doubt whoever may;
Nothing shall turn my faith from Him
Who loves me night and day.
His ways my reason may confound,
Clouds and darkness may be around;
His truth and justice still abound;
His word shall be my stay.
I will believe, I will believe,
E'en in the evil day,
When truth is fallen in the streets,
And godless men hold sway.
Christ's hour will come; He will arise,
Scattering the refuges of lies;
And nations with admiring eyes
Shall own Him holy, just, and wise,
And humbly seek His way.
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THEY WERE HOGS STILL
May I answer these questions with a crude
illustration? A farmer decided one fall that
he could raise better swine if he kept them
in sanitary quarters. He built pens with concrete floors. He made a concrete pool for
them to bathe in. He built feed troughs that
they could not get their feet in. He did
everything possible to give the animals a
sanitary environment. He kept them in
those pens all winter. They thrived, and in
the spring were the pride of their keeper.
One day in late spring, when the days had
grown warm, the farmer turned his choice
animals out into the pasture. In the morning
the air was cool, the grass sweet and refreshing. The hogs cropped it in perfect contentment. But the morning wore away, and the
sun began to send down its heated rays. The
grass became less sweet, and the grazing less
enjoyable. The farmer came in at noon from
work. Passing close by the pasture, he cast a
look for his prize animals. Down at the farther end of the pasture—in the old pond—
were his hogs rooting and rolling in the slime
and mud, the old ones and the young ones
together!
Why did those animals go into the mud?
The old ones had been in the clean pens all
winter; the young ones had been raised
there, and had never seen mud before. Why
did they go there?—because they were still
swine! The good environment and training
were fruitless as long as they were possessed
of the hog nature. Hog nature is a mudhole
nature; human nature is a sin nature. Good
training and clean environment may keep
human nature cleaned up, even looking holy
on the outside. It may run right if turned
into the pasture of the world while the morning is cool and the field green. But let the
heat of the day begin to burn down upon it
and dry up the pleasant pasture of life, and
the old nature will show its true color every
time.
A personal worker for young people recently said : "I have less faith in my work
than I used to have. I find that so many
folks whom I have felt that I have helped
have fallen again into the old rut. They
seemed steadied for a while after I had labored with them; but, as time has passed,
they have returned to the old life." Why did
they do it? Because of their nature.
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11.0
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ination unto Him, for their "doings" were
evil and their hands "full of blood." They
needed to be washed, they needed to be
cleansed. See Isaiah 1.
Yes, a man may have on religious externals and be apparently well spiritually, yet in
reality be tottering on the brink of chaos
because sin's sarcoma has eaten up the vitality of his soul. The saddest part of this
condition is that a man's own heart may be
deceiving him as to his real condition. "The
heart is deceitful above all things, and it is
exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9.
Why did David, the anointed of Jehovah,
sin? Why did he bring reproach upon his
God? David, himself, made the case clear
when he said, "Behold, I was brought forth
in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm 51:5.
Why is it that so many Christian parents
are bewailing the fate of their children who
have drifted out of the church into sin? Why
is it that so many young people who have
been reared in religious homes, who have
been educated in religious schools, who have
themselves in their early days taken an active part in religious things,—why is it, I ask,
that they go out of the church and drift into
sin? I am told that twenty-one young men
reared in Christian homes and graduates of
Christian colleges are serving terms in San
Quentin prison.
Nothing in life, nor yet in death,
Not all satanic might,
No present things, nor things to come,
Not utmost depth or height,
No creature while the ages roll,
Shall separate my trusting soul
From Him whose will doth all control,
Whose life and love have made me whole.
He only dwells in light,—
The King of kings, the Lord of lords,
He reigns by sovereign right.
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Paul continues: "I know that in me, that is,
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to
will is present with me, but to do that which
is good is not. . . . For I delight in the law
of God after the inward man: but I see a
different law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity under the law of sin which is in my
members. Wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me out of the body of this
death?" Romans 7:18-24.
Wretched indeed is man ! The condition
of the world before our eyes is a mighty witness to it. Who shall deliver? That is the
question the needy world, writhing in the
death throes of sin, is asking to-day. Can it
be answered? Yes, it can!
THE EMANCIPATION
Hear the emancipation proclamation heralded to a world bound in sin: "The Spirit of
the Lord is upon Me [that is, Christ], because He anointed Me to preach good tidings
to the poor : He hath sent Me to proclaim
release to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that
are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord. And He closed the book, and
gave it back to the attendant, and sat down :
. . . And He began to say unto them, Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your
ears." Luke 4:18-21.
For seven hundred years these words of
the prophet Isaiah had stood on the side of
promise; but this day, to-day, they are
placed on the side of accomplishment.
0 world, hear that message! Every man,
captive of sin, hear your emancipation decree ! The problem of sin is dealt with. Jesus
was anointed for that very work. That is His
supreme mission. It was announced of Him
before His birth. An angel said to Joseph,
"Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife.
. . . She shall bring forth a son; and thou
shalt call His name JEsus ; for it is He that
shall save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:20, 21. When the angel announced
His birth to the shepherds who were watching their flocks by night, he said, "Behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy which
shall be to all the people: for there is born to
you this day in the city of David a Saviour,
who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2 :10, 11. Behold, a new dispensation is announced !
"Blow the trumpet, trusty watchman,
Blow it loud o'er land and sea ;
God commissions, sound the message
Every captive may be free."
Jesus, the Saviour, has dealt with sin right
where it was. He dealt with it among the
members, in the flesh. "What the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh.
God, sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh." Romans 8:3. Jesus demonstrated in
the flesh the uselessness of committing sin.
He through Himself rendered the committing of sin in the flesh unnecessary.
HE BROKE THE BONDS
Jesus not only demonstrated that a life of
sinlessness could be lived in the flesh; He
banished the prison walls that separated humanity from God. He snapped the chain
that bound man in sin, and reconciled him to
God. "It was the good pleasure of the Father
that in Him should all the fullness dwell; and
(Continued on page 10)
Page Five
EDITORIAL
ASA OSCAR TAIT
ALONZO L. BAKER
"UNDERSTOOD NONE OF THESE THINGS"
T
HE Lord Jesus Christ was the Prince
of teachers, and knew how to make
the most skillful impressions upon minds
and hearts. But toward the close of the
ministry of Jesus, we read these words
concerning one of His experiences with
the twelve apostles who had the very best
opportunities for understanding the Master, for becoming intimately acquainted
with Him, and knowing His message as
no others would know it in all of its
depth and breadth and beauty.
"And He took unto Him the twelve,
and said unto them, Behold, we go up to
Jerusalem, and all the things that are
written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of man. For He
shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles,
and shall be mocked, and shamefully
treated, and spit upon : and they shall
scourge and kill Him: and the third day
He shall rise again. And they understood
none of these things; and this saying was
hid from them, and they perceived not
the things that were said." Luke 18:31-34.
This conversation with the Master was
between Him and the twelve alone. He
had them apart by themselves on that last
eventful journey to Jerusalem. He presented to them, as only the Master could,
"the things that are written through the
prophets." As only the great Master
Himself could present them, these things
were impressed upon the minds and hearts
of His disciples, who were so intimate
with Him, and who loved Him so dearly.
Everything was in their favor, so that
they should have received and known
what He was talking to them about. But
the record says so plainly, "They understood none of these things." And not
only so, but, "This saying was hid from
them ; " and, furthermore, "They perceived not the things that were said."
We marvel that those disciples, so devoted to Jesus, and so in love with Him
and His principles, should be unable to
understand His clear teaching, and we inquire for the reason. And as we study
into the matter, as revealed so clearly in
the record of the New Testament Scriptures, we find that their whole difficulty
lay in the fact that they had imbibed certain false notions that were absolutely
contrary to the Scriptures; and these
false notions so completely darkened their
minds and hearts that the truth could not
enter, no matter how clearly it was presented. Indeed, He was not able to open
their minds, so that they could grasp what
was written concerning Him "in the law
Page Six
of Moses, and the prophets, and the
psalms" until He was with them in that
upper room following His crucifixion and
resurrection. Study the record as revealed in the closing part of the 24th
chapter of Luke.
Preconceived notions contrary to the
word of God, false and groundless theories held tenaciously, keep us from seeing
the plain truth of Scripture. This lesson
so clearly and so forcefully presented in
the experience of the intimate disciples
of Jesus should cause men to take stock
of their religious experiences and their
religious ideas; for while there were a
few prophecies, comparatively, that
pointed to the first advent of Christ, to
His suffering and death, there is a far
greater mass of prophetic evidence concerning the second coming of Jesus.
Daniel, in his prophecy, has foretold
the great nations that would rise between
his time and the second coming of Christ.
The matter is presented so clearly that
there is no occasion for mistake. The
book of Revelation with equal clearness
presents the unmistakable evidence by
which we may know when the second
coming of Jesus is near at hand. The
Master Himself, as recorded in the 24th
of Matthew, the 13th of Mark, and the
21st of Luke, gave the clearest kind of
evidences by which, as He expressed it,
we might "know" when the great day is
Sir James Frazier, England's famous historian
and investigator of antiquity, who believes that
he has discovered the ruins of the Tower of Babel
in the land of ancient Babylon.
near. The Master has inspired prophets
and apostles to fill His word with a great
treasure of evidences that would be particularly clear in the last generation,—
signs by which we might know that the
Master is right at hand.
But now, in the face of all of this evidence, if our minds are filled with false
theories concerning the second coming of
Christ, the great day will come upon us
unawares, just as the crucifixion came
upon the disciples as such a terrible shock
and such an awful discouragement. They
might have followed the Lord step by
step, and been full of sympathy and courage as they stood beside Him in the last
and trying ordeal; but they were so
blinded by the false religious theories of
their own time and of their own church
that they were unable to understand or to
sense what the Master was pressing upon
their minds and hearts from the writings
of the prophets of old.
Many people are resting under the delusion in this time that there is to be a
great millennium of peace, prosperity,
and glory before the second coming of
Christ. But how clearly does the Word
tell us that evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, until the last generation that is to live upon this earth will
be ranked as the very worst that has ever
cursed our unfortunate planet! The Bible
prophecies are unmistakably plain. They
tell their story with absolute clearness;
and we should study what God Himself
has said, so that we may have a realizing
sense of the times in which we live.
Prejudice that leads us to cling without
reason or sense to popular theories, like a
mighty vise, holds us so that we can not
see clearly. We should come to the living
Word, and learn from it the clear lessons
that God by His mighty Spirit will impress upon mind and heart.
Concerning this great day that is so
soon to break upon the world, the Master says: "Take heed to yourselves, lest
haply your hearts be overcharged with
surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of
this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so shall it come upon
all them that dwell on the face of all the
earth. But watch ye at every season,
making supplication, that ye may prevail
to escape all these things that shall come
to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man." Luke 21:34-36.
These words are a warning to us that
we may not be deceived in this time as
were the apostles in that day.
T.
SIGNS of the TIMES
IRACLES
e)Possibl
Evolution and Modernism
say "No;" Christianity
says "YES."
ROBERT HERVIG
He stilled storm-driven Galilee. Could He have been an impostor?
HE fierce winds were lashing to fury the
troubled waters of blue Galilee. Far out
upon its surface, rising and falling with the
billows, rode a frail little boat carrying the
Master and His disciples. The vessel was
rapidly filling with water, and the disciples in
alarm cried out, "Master, carest Thou not
that we perish?"
The story, in Mark 4:35-41, is familiar to
us all, how the Lord arose and commanded
the surging seas to cease their wild raging,
"and the wind ceased, and there was a great
calm." Stupendous power ! Only a miracleworking God could do that, you say. And
yet there are many to-day who scoff at the
idea that Christ ever performed a miracle.
Because their minds can not grasp the
thought of immaterial power, unlimited and
above all the laws of nature, they throw the
word "miracle" entirely out of their vocabulary.
BUILT ON MIRACLES
The Pharisees of old lacked faith. Of them
Christ asked, "Whether is easier, to say, Thy
sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and
walk?" The fact is, the Christian religion is
built upon miracles. The whole life of Christ
was filled with miracles of healing and restoring wherever He went. If this is denied,
then the entire Scriptures become an allegory; and who shall mark the dividing line
between fact and fancy?
From cover to cover the Bible is a revelation of a Being who is all powerful, who is
above all natural law, and who alone is the
source of all life. Take this thought out of
the inspired word, and what is left? A good
code of morals, perhaps; but that is not
what the world needs.
God has always had His standard of right,
and it will never change. "Fear God, and
keep His commandments: for this is the
whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12:13.
The world to-day is not in need of a new
standard, but it is sadly in need of a new life,
—a regenerative power from above that will
change the human heart.
But that is just where modernism fails, for
it is built upon the evolutionary philosophy
of life, which utterly discredits the supernatural and deifies the natural laws of cause
for JUNE 25, 1929
and effect. This form of theistic evolution
completely contradicts and nullifies the fundamentals of the gospel. The two can not
possibly be harmonized.
IS THE FALL ABSURD?
Let us examine this statement a little more
closely. If evolution be true, and if man has
evolved from lower and simpler forms of
life, then it is absurd to speak of a "fall." In
other words, the Biblical origin of sin must
be discarded, and we must look at sin in an
entirely different light. As Le Conte, a leading authority on evolution, puts it: "If evolution be true, and especially if man be indeed
a product of evolution, then what we call evil
is not a unique phenomenon confined to man,
and the result of an accident the 'fall,' but
must be a great fact pervading all nature,
and a part of its very constitution."
Those who tell us that evolution was God's
method of creation thus lay the Creator open
to one of two serious charges : either He was
handicapped with the material with which
He worked or else He deliberately created
life with the inherent tendency to do evil. To
admit the former is to limit the power of God
and to make a farce out of the whole matter
of creation; to accept the latter makes of the
Creator a veritable tyrant, who is directly
responsible for all the evil that is in the world
to-day.
No thinking Christian will accept either
view, for both are alien to the very character
of a loving and merciful Father, who "so
loved the world, that He gave His onlybegotten Son." John 3 :16. One can scarcely
conceive of a more pernicious theory or one
better suited to make infidels. The God of
theistic evolution can never be the God of
Christianity.
WHAT OF THE CROSS?
But this brings us to another of the fundamentals of the gospel. If there has been no
fall, if man has always been evolving into a
higher state, then the sacrifice of the cross
was a tragic mistake, for the Saviour Himself explicitly declared, "The Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which was
lost." Luke 19:10. Now, if the trend of life
has always been upward, if man has ever
been gaining instead of losing, it is evident
that Christ died in vain. Thus at one daring
stroke evolution would cut the very heart
out of the gospel, and make of it a senseless•,
useless, purposeless tragedy,—the very acme
of stupidity.
Still worse, it makes the very Author and
Founder of Christianity the chief of impostors. Such a statement may seem a bit
startling at first, but it is nevertheless true.
Why, you ask, could not Christ be just a
great moral leader, a mighty master of philosophy and ethics? Must He necessarily be
divine in order to be so considered?
WAS HE AN IMPOSTOR?
Let us put the matter to a test. To be a
moral man and a great teacher, Christ would
of necessity have to adhere to His own standard of morality. It would be superfluous to
prove here that the very foundation of His
doctrine is truth. "Thy word is truth," He
declares (John 17:17), in speaking to His
Father; and we find Him announcing to His
followers, "I and My Father are one" ( John
10:30), and when questioned by the Pharisees, He did not hesitate to declare Himself
to be the Son of God. But, if Christ were
only human, as you and I are, then how presumptuous and blasphemous those words become ! By His own claims He would then
stand condemned as the greatest impostor
this world has ever known. Is not this the
only logical conclusion to be drawn from following such a philosophy to its limit?
Sin is an inescapable fact, however we
may account for its origin. The woe, the sorrow, the suffering, that it brings with it are
everywhere visible, and we have all, at one
time or another, in a greater or less degree,
felt its cruel sting. The great need of humanity to-day is the Saviour,—One who can
lift it above the filth and degradation into
which it has fallen, and place it once more on
that plane of perfection it occupied in the
beginning, when "God saw everything that
He had made, and, behold, it was very good."
Genesis 1:31.
The increase of crime and immorality,
which forms so striking a feature of this
present age, should teach us how utterly
(Continued on page 10)
Page Seven
HE
War-Peace
PARADOX
IsN'T it passing strange how the world
talks so much about peace and spends
so much on getting ready for war ?
M. EUGEN E EVANS
0-DAY the signs of the times declare
that we are standing on the threshold
of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation," declares
a prominent author, in writing of presentday conditions. We see diplomats expressing
their desire for the maintenance of peace
among the nations by signing peace treaties,
and then they go and preach "peace-time
preparedness" and practice what they preach
by carrying out "peace-time preparations."
Thus we find the world enacting the paradox
of all ages.
rf
WORKING OF THE PARADOX
Notice in the following facts the working
out of this paradox. Out of the terrible experience of the Great War there arose a cry for
peace that has echoed throughout the world.
Men everywhere rose up and joined in an
international movement to outlaw war.
Scores of great idealists and leaders of many
prominent organizations have fostered this
movement. And, finally, as a crowning victory of all their efforts, came the BriandKellogg Peace Pact. It is a treaty that is a
plain declaration and agreement. The sixty
nations signing it have solemnly "declared in
the names of their respective people that
they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies." This
was a wonderful thing, and the world hailed
it with great rejoicing. Immediately there
went forth the proclamation that war had
been renounced, and we were entering into a
reign of peace. As it seemed, the very air
was filled with the refrain of the victory song.
As the echoes of the peace song fade away,
we hear the bugle call to preparedness. Some
of the very nations that were the original
signers of the Briand-Kellogg Treaty are
now talking about how they may have better
means of self-defense in case of war.
GERMANY TO THE FRONT
Germany was one of the original signers to
the Peace Pact. Now she has announced to
the world that she has just constructed a
"vest-pocket dreadnought," which is a 9,000ton cruiser, driven by internal-combustion
motors of 50,000 horse power. This cruiser
is constructed of special high-grade steel. It
can mount six 11-inch guns, whereas 8-inch
guns are now the biggest on our cruisers. It
is claimed that this vessel is the greatest
fighting ship ever built.
The Washington Star made the comparison that "our cruisers and their British
counterparts are capable of continuous voyage of 10,000 miles at thirteen knots. The
German vessel is built to travel that distance
without refueling at twenty knots." This
journal made the final conclusion that Germany has stolen a march on the United
States and Great Britain, as "well as upon
the other navies of the world."
Another leading journal maintains the
view that "in drafting the treaty of peace
with Germany, the Allies, in a mood of fear
and vindictiveness, sought to make her forever impotent by limiting the size of her
army and navy. By restricting the size of
armored ships to 10,000 tons and light
cruisers to 6,000, it was thought Germany
would be rendered permanently harmless on
the sea. But, in order to seem fair, the Allies
in the covenant of the League of Nations
agreed that they also would disarm.
"That pledge has not been kept in any substantial way. Germany saw standing armies
in Europe reaching the pre-war strength, she
saw nations engaged in building more warships for 'self-defense' and for 'protection of
trade,' and she must have concluded that the
promise of the Allies to disarm was only a
hypocritical pretense. Therefore she resolved to apply all her technical skill and
resources to attain a measure of equality
within the restrictions placed upon her. And
the first important outcome of the oppression is the Ersatz Preussen," a mighty battle
cruiser.
WHAT HER SUCCESS MEANS
Since Germany has made a success of the
building of this first ship, she will continue to
build more like it. And the other nations that
have been taken by surprise at her actions
will now endeavor to build something to surpass even this most modern warship.
The United States is looking out for the
future. Just after this country had ratified
the Briand-Kellogg Pact, the Senate took
definite action to have fifteen more cruisers
built for the navy. In the discussion that
preceded the passing of the cruiser bill, it
was emphasized that these cruisers were
necessary for self-defense and the protection
of trade. It was further emphasized that
with Great Britain constantly adding to her
navy, the United States must have these additional cruisers in order to hold her rights
of freedom on the seas.
Since the Disarmament Conference held
in Washington in 1922, the United States has
Fourteen-inch railway mount gun,
lined with West Point cadets
Page Eight
SIGNS of the TIMES
Members of Battery C anti-aircraft
machine guns, 62d Coast Artillerymen, from Fort Totten, New York
done very little, comparatively speaking, in
the way of adding to the navy. Now she is
determined to come up to her quota and still
keep within the bounds of her agreement
made during this conference. She is letting
no peace treaty or peace propaganda hinder
her in carrying out this program. One Senator expressed the thought when discussing
the cruiser bill, "We promise peace, but prepare for war."
GOD FORETOLD IT
And the United States is not the only nation that is making preparations. One author
in a leading monthly journal, in summing up
conditions in Europe under the title of "A
Bad Year in Europe" (1928), wrote these
words: "The hope or the illusion that permanent peace was attainable is giving way to
the conviction that war is the inevitable destiny of the unhappy European continent.
And nations and governments are taking
positions with an eye to the future conflict.
Armies are being reorganized, systems of
defense are being developed, preparations
are being made, all with an idea of the
eventual conflict."
When we behold the transpiring of such
events, we can not but believe that God's
word is true. These facts point out the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. The prophet
Joel, in speaking of the last days, foretold
that men would say, "Prepare war; stir up
the mighty men; let all the men of war draw
near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks
into spears: let the weak say, I am strong."
Joel 3 :9,10, A. R. V. And the prophet Isaiah,
also speaking of what would
come to pass in the last days,
describes how many people
from many nations will be
saying, "Nation shall not lift
up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more." Isaiah 2:4. What
further evidence do we need
to show us that the nations are fulfilling the
prophecies right now?
Therefore the paramount events that are
taking place to-day are the peace cry and the
preparations for war. The prophet Ezekiel
gives a reason for these contrasting events
transpiring together: "Destruction cometh;
and they shall seek peace, and there shall be
none." Ezekiel 7:25. And in another scripture the apostle Paul warns us that "when
they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh." 1 Thessalonians
5:3. We are not left ignorant as to what this
destruction is, for John the revelator describes it. In the sixteenth chapter of Revelation he pictures before us a scene of the
gathering of the nations "to the battle of
that great day of God Almighty." The nations are gathering to the last great battle
known as that of Armageddon.
WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMES
is during this last great conflict that the
scenes of this earth's history will close. It is
then that the nations shall "see the Son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven with
It
power and great glory." Another scripture
adds: "When the Son of man shall come in
His glory, and all the holy angels with Him,
then shall He sit upon the throne of His
glory." Matthew 24:30; 25:31. It is when
this event comes that the kingdoms of this
world will be dissolved. And then will come
true the prophecy of Daniel, "And there was
given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages,
should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,
and His kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed." Daniel 7:14.
What better conditions could we wish for
when we are told that in that everlasting
kingdom the inhabitants shall "come to Zion
with songs and everlasting joy upon their
heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away"? And
the promise is, "My people shall dwell in a
peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings,
and in quiet resting places." Isaiah 35:10;
32:18. In that kingdom there will be no
trouble and strife as we see it to-day among
the nations. It is a kingdom that fulfills the
longing of every heart now,—a longing for
everlasting peace.
THE PLEASURE OF THAT DAY
What a pleasure it will be to be a dweller
in that land! It is your privilege and mine to
be there. Christ has provided a way, if we
will only accept it. He came to earth and
died on Calvary that we might have salvation. He has marked to-day's pathway with
signs that show that His second coming is
near. And now that we may have strength
and courage to pass through the closing
events of this earth's history He bids us:
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. Accept this invitation to-day
and find rest for your soul in Christ.
GOD always has an angel of help for those
who are willing to do their duty.—Theodore
L. Cuyler.
The submarine "Orpheus" of the
British navy, said to be the deadliest yet launched. She has six
torpedo tubes, three of which are
shown on the port side of her bow.
11.110r17
•
for JUNE 25. 1929
Page Nine
The World's Worst Disease
(Continued from page 5)
through Him to reconcile all things unto
Himself, having made peace through the
blood of His cross. . . . And you, being in
time past alienated and enemies in your mind
in your evil works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death,
to present you holy and without blemish and
unreprovable before Him." Colossians 1:
19-22.
Dear friends, struggling with sin, do you
grasp the beauty of that language? Upon
Jesus the fullness of God's power was bestowed. By the blood of His cross He made
peace with God for you. In the body of His
flesh He overcame for you the power of that
nature of the flesh. Through His perfect
obedience unto death He delivered you from
"the body of this death." In Him you are
liberated from a nature that compels you to
sin, and are made a partaker of a nature by
which you will do right. Jesus will present
you "unreprovable" before His Father.
If you will accept Jesus, He will give you
a new nature. He will make you a new creature, for "if any man is in Christ, he is a new
creature: the old things are passed away;
behold, they are become new." Not by any
power that you may have, "but all things
are of God, who reconciled us to Himself
through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,
not reckoning unto them their trespasses,
and having committed unto us the word of
reconciliation." 2 Corinthians 5:17-19.
0 friends, let me plead with you! Do not
take chances with sin; it is too deadly to be
tampered with. Do not be satisfied with
following some religious form. Parents, I
plead with you, do not be content with giving
your children a mere knowledge of religious
things; bring them into contact with Jesus.
Young people, I plead with you, do not trust
yourselves with your own strength to resist
sin; give yourselves to Jesus, and let Him
create in you clean hearts.
To every one I say, let us come, and, in
the light of what Jesus has accomplished for
us, let us be saved from sin and be reconciled
to Him. Let us have the wellsprings of our
hearts purified by His grace, our evil tempers
sweetened by His love, that we may live
above sin and in peace with God. If we come
to Jesus as we are, and accept Him as our
Saviour, then, no matter how sinful our lives
may have been, for His sake we are accounted righteous. Our wills and the intents
of our hearts will run in harmony with His
righteous will. "All true obedience comes
from the heart. It was heart work with
Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so
blend our hearts and minds into conformity
to His will, that when obeying Him we shall
be but carrying out our own impulses."
e/ire afiracles Possible?
(Continued from page 7)
helpless man is to stem the tide of evil and
to bring himself again into harmony with
the perfect law of God's universe.
What, then, of modernism? Does it hold
out any real hope to a perplexed and perishing world? Can it offer anything really conPage Ten
structive and helpful in bringing about a
solution of personal problems or difficulties?
Its chief approach seems to be through an
avenue of negatives. It denies the fall of
man, with its consequence of sin, and assumes, instead, that he has been slowly and
painfully climbing the speculative ladder of
the ages, round by round, through his own
efforts. It tells us that every individual is
only an infinitesimal part of the great and
complicated scheme of nature, and that he
can never hope to better himself except as
society in common advances. It denies the
sinner a personal Saviour who is both willing
and able to lift him out of the pit of sin and
despair and to fill his heart with hope and
courage.
Modernism attempts to dispense entirely
with the Scriptural presentation of original
sin, defining it as merely the natural inheritance of a brute ancestry. As a result, people
everywhere are losing their sense of the
awfulness of sin. It is no longer looked upon
as a rebellion against God. That which
caused the Son of God to offer up His life
upon the cross of Calvary is to-day treated
as a very trivial thing. The average person
is much more concerned with getting away
\
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'srmitmcrif
E G. !WHAM!
Ammo
IMMENik
Each One a Sermon on Old Age
The devil has no happy old people.
As soon as you feel too old to do a thing,
do it.
Gray hairs may be a crown of glory or a
fool's cap.
There may be old fogies. But there are
young fogies also.
It is a pitiful thing when all the child is
dead in a man.
It is better to be seventy years young
than forty years old.
Every hobble of an aged Christian is toward the shining gates.
To avoid growing old, learn new wrinkles
faster than old ones appear.
When Time, with iron-clad feet, steps on
the face, the hoof marks remain.
Gray hairs are the silver head marks in
the education of the aged Christian.
The white locks of wicked men are but
the gathered frosts of the second death.
"Crow's-feet" on the face are sometimes
the marks of the black raven of sorrow.
As soon as a man begins his conversation
with, "When I was a boy," he is getting old.
As the paper is nearly filled, we write the
more closely, to get in all we want to say.
A Christian's old age is like Mount Hecla,
which bears snow on its crest, but fire in its
heart.
The grandest things in the world are old :
old mountains, old rivers, old stars, and old
people.
In early life, the Christian reads Genesis;
how the old world was made. In old age, he
reads Revelation ; how the new world will
be made.
with sin than he is with getting away from it.
Having thus abolished sin, modernism
finds itself without any fixed standard of life.
One man's guess is as good as his neighbor's;
and there the matter rests.
WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE?
But if the present is doubtful and uncertain, what of the future? Let us hear what
Conklin, a leading authority on the subject,
has to say: "What the distant future may
hold in store for the human race we can only
guess. It may be that the entire race will
become extinct, and leave the dominance of
the earth to other living things. . . . We can
not see clearly the next scene, we can scarcely
imagine the next act; and the end of the
great Drama of Evolution, if there is to be
an end, is a matter of faith alone."
Listen now to the seer of Patmos as in
vision he beholds the consummation of the
Christian's hope: "I saw a new heaven and a
new earth : for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away; and there was no
more sea. . . . And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain : for the
former things are passed away." Revelation 21:1-4.
Which picture is the brighter? Which
brings hope and courage into the heart and
makes life worth living? There is no need to
answer; the contrast is too vivid to admit of
a moment's hesitation. But which will you
choose?
How to Be Healthy on a
Vacation
(Continued from page 8)
the tendency to burn. If you are lightskinned, do not think you can run the risks
that your darker-skinned friend can.
Sanitation is as important in a vacation
camp as in the city. If the camp is in a locality where there is no garbage collection,
the garbage should be buried, or, preferably,
burned. A good way is to dig a hole large
enough to last for several days, perhaps for
the entire time, and each day throw in the
day's garbage and cover with sufficient soil
to protect it from the flies, and then completely fill the hole before leaving camp.
Papers and all combustible waste should
be burned, and cans should either be buried,
or sunk into deep water. It is important that
campers leave the camping place clean.
Those who fail to do this make enemies, and
cast reproach on all campers.
Too many vacations end with the vacationist less fitted for his work than before
his outing, all because of failure to observe
some of the simple suggestions here given.
TRUE Christians are one throughout;
they reveal one spirit, obey one law, are
dominated by one master passion, contemplate one end. The fountain may be turbid
sometimes, there may be sour clusters on
the tree, but if we are Christ's in sincere and
full consecration, even in our faults and
failures, the reality of our goodness will
make itself felt. We shall not excuse our
failures, but strive not to repeat them.—
W. L. Watkinson.
SIGNS of the TIMES
OULS
hriveled
WHAT IS THE
REMEDY?
Lauretta
Wilcox
T
HEIR souls are shriveling." And one
educator of this country accredits this
alarming condition of the American
people to the lack of prayer.
Why have many people ceased to pray?
Some think they are too busy. Hurrying—
they are always hurrying through life—hurrying, only the Lord knows where; nevertheless hurrying any place but to God. There is
no time for morning worship—a business
engagement is pressing; no time for evening
communion with the Lord—the dance, the
ball, and the theater crowd the mind. Every
one and everything are considered except the
Creator. In the rush of life's daily activities
man has forgotten his dependence on the
God of heaven. He has forgotten the Giver
of his strength, health, and life; and he
hurries on.
GOD DOES ANSWER
Others have ceased praying because they
believe their prayers have not been answered.
The Lord is a prayer-hearing God, for He
has promised, "If ye abide in Me, and My
words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7) ;
"and all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in
prayer, believing, ye shall receive" (Matthew 21 :22) ; but there are conditions necessary to the fulfillment of these promises.
The texts quoted show that one must abide
in Christ and have His teachings in the heart.
All heaven rejoices when a sinner cries to the
Lord for forgiveness; but those who pray
while cherishing known sin have no assurance that they will be heard, for "if I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me." Psalm 66:18.
Then, too, the petitioner must have faith
to believe that the Lord will answer. He may
have this assurance if he will keep the words
of the Lord, and ask according to God's will,
"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do
those things that are pleasing in His sight."
1 John 3 :22. "And this is the confidence that
we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us." John
5:14. God, who is all-wise, knows when it is
best for a petition to be granted. It may be
His will to answer "No."
THIS MOTHER SUBMITTED
A mother sat by the bedside of her dying
daughter. For five long days her mother
heart had been torn with grief as she helplessly watched her little girl in the terrible
struggle with death. For five long days she
had constantly prayed, "Lord, heal my child
if it be Thy will." But the last moment had
come. She held the little hand, and, while the
last signs of life were leaving the body, wept
for JUNE 2 5, 1929
Many people pray, but in name only. Men
and women "having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof" (2 Timothy
3:5), utter mechanical petitions to the Lord,
which have as much power as the numerous
prayers of the Buddhists printed on strips of
paper that uncoil hour after hour as the
prayer wheels rotate, and thus supposedly
ascend to heaven. Such prayers are an
abomination to God. When on earth the
Lord said, "When ye pray, use not vain repetitions." Matthew 6:7. A prayer should be
sincere, not the mere saying of words.
CHRIST'S EXAMPLE OF PRAYER
-7=-7
The proud Pharisee makes a meaningless,
formal prayer ; but the poor publican, with
bowed head, prays in sincerity, and is
heard. See Luke 18:9-14.
softly as she said, "The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name
of the Lord."
Had God heard the pleadings of that
heart-broken mother when she cried to Him
in her trouble? Certainly. But she had so
submitted her will to His that, when He saw
best to take the little one away, she was able
to say, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Just so, all who pray should ask in the spirit
of, "Not my will, but Thine, be done."
THIS MOTHER REBELLED
Another mother, when hope for her daughter's recovery was gone, prayed so earnestly
to the Lord and became so desperate for the
girl's life that she said to the Lord, "I cannot
give her up."
God granted her request, and healed her
loved one. In a few years this young woman
had lost all interest in religion and God, and
was following the path of sin that leads to
everlasting death. How often that poor
mother repented of her stubborn will ! How
often she wished she had submitted in that
dark hour, and prayed, "Thy will be done,"
for she always felt that God would then have
taken the girl when she was a Christian. Is it
not surprising that human beings say, "The
Lord does not hear my prayers," because
they do not get just what they desire?
Sometimes the answer is only delayed.
The story of the mother whose prayers for
the conversion of her wayward son were answered twenty years after her death should
encourage one to persevere in prayer. Because God created man a free moral agent
with the right of choice, He can not force a
sinner to change his life; but He can send
His Holy Spirit to plead with the hardened
soul to surrender. Whether or not a man
regards this voice of conscience is his own
responsibility.
The soul of America is shriveling for lack
of prayer that nourishes it as food strengthens the physical body. Prayer is the power
of religion, religion underlies the home, and
the home is the backbone of civilization.
Of the Founder of Christianity it is often
recorded that He withdrew into the wilderness or on to a mountain to pray. His
strength to resist temptation was received
from communion with His Father. Never
was a day so full of toil that prayer was
crowded out. What a lesson for those who
profess to follow Christ's example! Without
daily prayer, religion dies. This can not be
prevented, for the source of spiritual life
itself is cut off, and the soul, being separated
from this nourishment, shrivels and dies.
Religion underlies the home. Many parents would not be careless of their religious
lives if they could only see the effect on their
children. In many professed Christian homes
to-day the family altar is unknown. Children
grow to manhood and womanhood without
ever hearing the voice of father or mother in
prayer. If, instead of attending the party
and theater, parents would spend more time
in prayer, many who are waking up to the
startling realization that their children are
gone and it is too late to reach them, would
be saved this sad experience.
INFLUENCES OF PRAYER
Few things can be a greater incentive to
right living than the memory of childhood
prayers at mother's knee. It will spur one on
to a purer, truer life, and give him courage
to live the religion of his mother. Is it any
wonder, then, that the "wild parties" with
their degradation and sin are on the increase?
Young people have lost the incentive that
leads to higher living, for they have seen
little or no religion in their homes. They
lose faith in Christianity, and follow after
atheism and infidelity.
Thus the homes of the future generation
are threatened. Atheism undermines the
lives of its believers, and leads them to com(Continued on page 14)
Page Eleven
Has the
CLOCK
ISSED A TICK?
hold the opinion that portions of time have
been lost during the six thousand years man has been
upon this planet. But if you want to learn how impossible such a thing is, by all means read this article.
SOME
PAUL CARDEY
r1
-IHE harbor ferry churned its way from
the dock out into the busy traffic in
the harbor of America's largest city.
There was a shrill blast of the whistle. The
ferry slowed up as a vessel cleared its bow.
With a slight lurch, the engines bent again to
their tasks, and with increasing momentum
plowed through the trough left by the receding vessel. The sea was beaten and tossed
under this ship, which left in its wake a
white foam that danced on the waves.
As I stood in the stern of the ferry, my
eye instinctively followed this path of foam
down the river. Like a silver ribbon it glistened in the sunlight. Here and there it had
been somewhat obscured where other vessels
had crossed it. But far beyond these it made
a gentle bend and pointed in toward Pier 45.
Although I did not see the boat pull out from
the pier, yet this tell-tale trail told me of a
certainty that this was the place whence it
had come.
Following, then, this line from its origin to
the boat and beyond, one could mentally
mark out the route the ship must follow if it
continued in its present course. In the same
way I followed the path our ferry was making, and predicted exactly its destination.
I pondered long as I peered into the turbulent waves. The water boiled and swirled,
eddying here and there as it left the ponderous paddle wheels on each side of the boat. I
watched the foaming eddies as they mounted
the swell and then sank into the trough,
finally to be lost in the distance as they became a part of the white way. The gentle
lapping of the water on the sides of the boat
caused this picture to fade gradually from
my mind.
have if it is not the weekly memorial of the
day on which Christ was raised? Or if Saturday is not the true seventh-day memorial of
creation, as taught in the Bible, then of what
use is the present calendar?
This picture of confusion crowded into my
mind, and in order to quiet it I recounted
the evidences of science and astronomy to
show that it is impossible to lose even minutes, much less days, from our reckoning of
time.
How like this ferry, I reasoned, is our
planet, the earth. For a brief period of time
it has been cruising on eternity's uncharted
sea. And just as surely as this boat left its
course on the foamy deep, just so surely has
every revolution of the earth and of the
moon left behind its own particular wake.
By this we can know that in all the ages of
the past they performed their revolutions,
making them in an unbroken chain the same
as they do to-day.
THEIR CONSTANCY MAKES IT SURE
If we knew a boat was going in a certain
line and at a certain speed, both of which
were constant, it would be very easy to figure out just where that boat would be at any
particular time in the future and just where
it had been at any given moment in the past.
This is precisely the problem in our simple
analogy of the earth and the moon: Both are
THE CLERGYMAN'S QUEER STATEMENT
That was such a queer statement for a
clergyman to make, I mused as the water
rolled on and on. Why should he say that we
had lost track of the days and that our calendar was wrong? My mind was staggered as
I thought of the almost endless march of
days that have come and gone since creation.
I pondered again. Since we live in so few of
them, is it really safe to assume that we know
the past? Surely the weekly cycle has come
down to us intact, binding to it all history
and chronology and giving us an unbroken
measure of time. To answer this negatively
filled my mind with thoughts of apprehension, for this would throw our whole chronology out. What real significance does Sunday
Page Twelve
traveling at given rates and in given orbits.
Science has stated that the variation in the
rate of movement of the earth around the
sun is less than one second in 103,000 years.
What better timekeeper could we ask for
than this?
So in fancy stand in the stern of this ship
of time and scan the retreating band of foam
to discover there the markers as we pass
them, and be convinced that time is eternal
and inviolable; for who can turn the stars
from their courses?
Laplace, the great mathematician, says
that "motion is the proper measure of time,
because a body can not be in several places
at the same time. If it moves regularly, it
will measure the time employed." If we find
some way to prove that the motion of the
earth has been continuous and regular, then
we have disposed of the question of the variation or loss of time.
We have the monotonous unchanging
march of days and of seasons and years going
on century after century, with nothing particularly to distinguish this day or year from
one in the last century. There are certain
phenomena, however, that occur at stated
intervals and serve to distinguish one year
from another. They are eclipses, those impressive, beautiful demonstrations of nature.
Like buoy markers in the channel, they serve
to check our measurement of time.
AT STATED INTERVALS
"My eye followed this path of foam down the river."
A close study of the motions of the moon
reveals that it takes 18 years and 1073 days
of solar time for the moon to make a cycle,
that is, to start from any given position in
relation to the earth or sun and to return
again to this position. The natural starting
point is when the solar and lunar years begin
at the same time. This produces two very
beautiful solar eclipses, one of which occurs
on the first day of the 4th lunar month, and
the other one on the first day of the 10th
lunar month, thus putting them in the middle
of the year with an equal number of months
SIGNS of the TIMES
on each side. This relationship will not occur
again for 18 years, or till the moon has completed its cycle. Then there will be a recurrence of these eclipses, and another cycle
will begin.
However, the second cycle of eclipses will
not occur on the same dates of the month
because the cycle is 10 or 11 days over 18
years. Therefore, they move through the
year in stages of 10 days. After 36 repetitions of the original eclipse cycle, they have
progressed completely through the year.
This makes a total of 648 years, and the one
year that is gained in the progression makes
in all 649 years. Then the original eclipse
returns to the same date of the month. All
eclipses of the 650th year fall on the same
date of the month as the first year. Thus the
new cycle begins; and, without a variation,
these cycles run throughout all eternity.
OBJECTION: The Sabbath was simply a memorial of the deliver-
ance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, and therefore has no
meaning to us Gentile Christians.
FRANCIS D. NICHOL
THE NATURAL STARTING PLACE
The natural and scientific starting place of
the year is at the autumnal equinox rather
than December 31, which has no fact in nature to hold it there. So, if we take a time
when the solar and lunar years start together
at the autumnal equinox in September, then
the eclipses will fall on the first of the 4th
and 10th months as before stated, and never
again will this phenomenon occur until the
649 years are ended and a new cycle begins.
All time, then, is just like this, and can be
measured exactly by these cycles, as they are
constant. There is just one difference in
these periods. The eclipses of one cycle,
though falling on the same day of the month
as those of the preceding cycle, will be one
day in the week earlier. That is, they will be
on a different day of the week even though
on the same date of the month. Therefore,
if half a day were lost or one day or two days
or whatever time at all, when the 649 years
were up our calendar would be just that
much time out with all the eclipses of the
next 649 years. This is not so, and never has
been so, for all eclipses predicted so far have
occurred as predicted on scheduled time with
this eclipse cycle.
This could be illustrated very well by the
paddle wheels of the ferry. If one should
stop for a time while the other one went on
turning, it would immediately be evident
both in the wake of the boat and in its
changed course. The same thing would happen if one went faster than the other. Thus
it is in the relationship of the planets. Any
variation in one of them would be noticed
immediately in two or three ways.
NO LOST TIME
But to return to our cycles, it must be evident that if any time whatsoever had been
lost or dropped out of the calendar, then this
phenomenon of the solar and lunar years beginning together at the autumnal equinox
with the ensuing eclipses would never occur
again. This, then, is the wake left behind by
the earth and the moon as they travel
through space.
There are other evidences of which we can
not speak here, which just as effectually determine the course we have come as did the
foam on the waves after the boat had gone
by. The fact that each cycle starts one day
in the week earlier than the succeeding cycle
anchors the whole system of time, eclipses,
text upon which this statement is
1 based is found in Deuteronomy 5 :15, and
reads as follows:
"And remember that thou wast a servant
in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy
God brought thee out thence through a
mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm:
therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee
to keep the Sabbath day."
First of all, let us note the setting of this
text. The fifth chapter of Deuteronomy consists of a summing up by Moses, with appropriate comments, of the great event at Sinai
forty years before, when God spoke the Ten
Commandments. That Moses was not attempting to repeat verbatim the commandments, but rather to urge the keeping of
these well-known precepts, is shown by verse
twelve, where he says: "Keep the Sabbath
day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath
commanded thee."
PTHE
A LOOK AT THE CONTEXT
Therefore the first point to note is that
this recital of the commandments in Deuteronomy can not be taken as a substitute for
the form of the commandments found in
Exodus the twentieth chapter. In Exodus we
find the record of the commands as God
spoke them, and to this record Moses specifically referred Israel when he urged them,
"Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the
Lord thy God hath commanded thee." And
whatever reasons or appeals are presented
by Moses must be considered as an addition
to, and not as a substitute for, the reasons
given by God when He originally spoke the
commandments.
God declared that the seventh day is the
Sabbath on which all should rest, because "in
six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
. . . and rested the seventh day." And He
added, "Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:11.
Let us lbok again at the context. Moses
proceeds with his paraphrase of the Sabbath
command, and closes the fourteenth verse—
which describes how servants as well as masters were to rest—by adding: "That thy
manservant and thy maidservant may rest as
well as thou." Then follows immediately the
verse we quoted at the beginning of this
article, which reminds the Israelites of how
they were servants in Egypt, etc. What is
the natural conclusion, then, to reach? Why,
simply this, that Moses was giving an added
reason for the keeping of the Sabbath commandment, especially that feature of it
which had to do with the servants' resting.
This, we say, is the natural conclusion to
reach. It becomes the inevitable conclusion
when certain parallel passages are quoted.
PREPOSTEROUS AND UNBELIEVABLE
A little further on Moses gives instruction
as to the treatment of a servant and of how,
after he had served six years, he should be
released in the seventh and sent away with
liberal provisions from the flocks and herds
of the master. "And," added Moses, "thou
shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in
the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee : therefore I command thee this
thing to-day." Deuteronomy 15:15. Shall
we therefore conclude that liberality and
love toward servants is a command originating at the Exodus, and that all who lived
before that time might deal grudgingly with
their servants without incurring God's displeasure? Preposterous!
Again, let us read a more detailed command: "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in
judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in
measure. Just balances, just weights, a just
ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the
Lord your God, which brought you out of
the land of Egypt. Therefore shall ye observe all My statutes, and all My judgments,
and do them : I am the Lord." Leviticus 19 :
35-37. Shall we take this verse by itself and
build up the argument that the command to
deal justly in the various affairs of life originated with the Exodus, and that previous to
that a man might "short change" his neighbor with impunity? Unbelievable!
In the light of these passages, and others
that might be given, how evident it is that
the fact of their Egyptian bondage, when
they were treated unkindly and unjustly, was
cited by Moses simply as an added reason
why they, now that the Lord had graciously
delivered them from such conditions, should
deal justly and lovingly with others! The
law of just dealings with others, especially
with those in unfortunate conditions, has
been binding on men from the beginning
of the world, but it took on added force and
obligation when applied to those who had
been so lately compelled to work unceasingly
as slaves in Egypt.
Instead of weakening the Sabbath command, the text quoted by the objector
simply serves to show how exceeding broad
is the command and how God intended the
Sabbath to prove a source of refreshment
and blessing even to servants.
(Continued on page 14)
for JUNE 2 5, 1 929
Page Thirteen
Shriveled Souls
(Continued from page 11)
mit the most atrocious crimes. Mechanical
Christianity is form rather than power, and
its professors are too busy to pray, to teach
their children to pray and to love God.
Such a condition will in time threaten the
nation itself, for an important unit of any
country is its homes. Their duty is to educate and to train better citizens. How much
more effective this will be if at the same
time they teach the children the moral code
of a sincere Christian—honest labor, fairness, unselfishness, and love to God and man !
In the name of religion, of the home, and
of this great nation, may the people of
America realize their need of communion
with God, and, through earnest prayer, let
Him change their shriveling souls into those
of vitality and life, and make them fit subjects for citizenship in heaven.
astronomer, "The heavens thunder out the
existence of the week."
Onward rushes our world. We are not allowed to stand in the bow so as to discern
the future, but we stand in the stern viewing
only what has already come to pass. It is for
us, then, to understand the workings of God
and our obligation to Him rather than to
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(Continued from page 13)
THE MOST CONSPICUOUS THING
Of course the most conspicuous thing in
this stream of time has been the Sabbath.
For just as surely as the week has come down
intact, just so surely has the Sabbath been
brought down intact. For was it not the Sabbath that marked the first week? And ever
since then the Sabbath has marked each succeeding week. The weeks in turn are held in
place by the stars and planets.
It was the Almighty who commanded
mankind to remember the seventh-day Sabbath. This institution was made as the
memorial of God's creative power and was
one of His greatest creations. It is therefore
unthinkable to believe that God would allow
this institution to be lost through the ages.
Let us heed His command and reverence
Him on His holy day. Surely with heaven
and nature and God Himself witnessing to
the true seventh-day Sabbath as an unbroken
institution of time, it should not be difficult
for us to believe that the true Sabbath has
been preserved intact through the ages.
It is with awe that we look up into the
heavens, and are forced to exclaim with the
Page Fourteen
A. 0. TAIT, A. L. BAKER, Editors
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Has the Clock Missed a Tick?
and calendars. Therefore, if any government or people should drop out a day, it
would immediately be evident in the discrepancy that would occur between the calendar
and the eclipses as they are predicted in the
almanac.
Not only does this relationship between
the sun, moon, and earth check our calendar,
but both in turn are checked by the relationships that exist between us and all the other
planets. For there are certain transits of
Mercury and Venus that always occur on the
same day of the week. This will forever hold
the week in place. Thus it can readily be
seen that to lose time the whole solar system
would have to be stopped at the same time.
Like the boat, the paddle wheels, the rudder,
and the engines must all work together in
order to keep the ship on an even course.
Thus with celestial time one planet serves as
a check on another. Each leaves its mark
behind till these marks become like the foam
on the waves, a discernible, unerring band,
pointing backward to creation and forward
to the new creation.
Advocating a return to the simple
gospel of Christ, and a preparation
for His imminent second appearing
Life's Song of Hope
ROBERT HARE
17
Life's brightest suns may hasten down,
Its sweetest hours all hurry by,
Its perfumed blossoms bloom to fade.
As stars that leave the morning sky;
But life is sweet, and shaded hours
May all be filled with Love's bright flowers.
The toiling hand may find its rest,
The anxious head, its pillowed stone,
And wearied feet that walk the sod
May know they never walk alone;
The "Presence Angel" day by day
Walks with the pilgrim on his way!
The kindly deed, the word of cheer,
The happy smile, in hope expressed,
May lift some heart above its pain,
And charm away the wrong confessed,
For God is love, and, by His will,
We walk beside the needy still!
Go labor on, in sweet content.
Make all life's passing moments bright.
Some sorrowing spirit needs the song
That you may sing, to cheer its night,
Then sing in hope, and life may be
The morning of eternity!
—............--
—
allow our vision to be obscured by the mists
of doubt.
Out of the haze of the past the cross of
Christ stands out clearly as a lighthouse on
the stream of time. And as the Creator
rested on the Sabbath after completing His
work, so the Redeemer as He closed His
earthly life, rested in the tomb over the Sabbath day. And now to every heart, like the
murmur of the lapping of the waves on the
boat, comes the promise of Christ sweet and
clear, "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the
tree of life, and may enter in through the
gates into the city."
•
Our Marching Orders
THERE are some things that the passing
years do not change. The Son of God, who
is the Captain of our salvation, gave to His
church the following marching orders: "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature." The gospel is the good
news of God's love for a world in sin, the
good news of God's sacrifice for a world in
sin, and the good news of God's plan for
the salvation of a world in sin. The history
of Christianity has abundantly proved the
efficiency of the gospel. . . . There is wonder-working power in the blood of Jesus
Christ. Anywhere and everywhere it will
conquer sin and break the chains that bind
the sinner. The history of Christianity has
abundantly proved the sufficiency of the
gospel. Jesus Christ said, "I, if I be lifted
up, will draw all men unto Me." Christ
thus solved in advance the problem of winning men to Him. There is infinite power
in the transcendent sacrifice of the world's
Redeemer.—Watchman-Examiner.
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1929
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SIGNS of the TIMES
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The POPE KING AGAIN
This new book by Alonzo L. Baker, Junior Editor of the
"Signs of the Times," presents in a most vivid way the
Vatican question, including an exposition of the prophecies of Daniel 7, 2 Thessalonians 2, etc.
NO ISSUE MORE VITAL
10-
Not in centuries has a more vital issue come before the world than
that of the restoration of the temporal power of the Pope. Men and
women everywhere are asking, What does it mean?
Full Proof Given
The Contents
The book does not merely assert; it
gives full proof for all its positions
from accurate sources, many of the quotations being taken from Catholic books
themselves, and only such works as the
Church recognizes as authority. The
author has brought together a wealth
of information you can not get from
any other source. You certainly can not
afford to be without it.
The book contains twelve chapters:
1. Roman Catholicism in the Spotlight
2. Mussolini and the Pope Solve the
Roman Question
3. Does Roman Catholicism Believe in
a Union of Church and State?
4. The Papacy and Modern Principles
of Democracy and Freedom
5. In the Borderland of Education
6. In the Twilight Zone of Marriage,
Property Rights, Politics, etc.
7. The Papal Apostasy as Foreseen by
Paul
8. Daniel's Prophetic Picture of the
Papacy
9. Rome Counterfeits Calvary
10. The "Deadly Wound" Healing
11. An Appeal to Protestants
12. An Appeal to Catholics
Well illustrated,
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3 colors.
Order of our representative
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A
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JUNE 25, 1 9 2 9
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Page Fifteen
The strike of the National Textile Workers Union had some very pathetic
incidents connected with it in Gastonia, North Carolina. The above shows
fourteen-year-old Henry Tetherow, the sole support of his three little sisters
beside him. His face carries the expression of a careworn man; and no marvel, for while Henry was attending a meeting of the striking union his baby
sisters were set out into the street by police deputies who had orders from
the owners of the Loray Cotton Mills to evict all strikers occupying any
company-owned houses. How could hearts be found so hardened as to treat
children in such a cruel manner? A just God affirms in His word, "At the
time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith Jehovah." Jeremiah
6: 15. The textile industry in the South is facing critical times in the relation of employee and employer, and more trouble is brewing.
Arthur Brisbane (above)
is perhaps the most widely
read editorial writer in the
United States to-day. He
is the author of the "ToDay" column on the front
page of all the Hearst newspapers. It is estimated that
twelve or fifteen million people read his column each
day. Of recent months, in
common with other Hearst
writers, Brisbane has set
himself to break down respect for the Eighteenth
Amendment. In his railing against Prohibition the
"facts" he attempts to give
are most woefully distorted
and colored.
faMINIIImecoNS1401MMt
The above shows the representatives of all the nations at Geneva, Switzerland, who were seeking a
plan to curtail the war-maddened drive toward
naval preparedness and supremacy. The picture
of such a large group of influential men working
upon that problem is a striking illustration of how
the world regards the danger of being plunged
into a war that beggars description.
Left: Faculty and students of the college at Lahore, India, where only the scions of nobility are
allowed to attend.