September 2005 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter

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September 2005 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter

The Signs of the Times newsletter is a collection of stories and quotes from past issues of Signs and These Times.

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A little dog that had followed his young master on a journey was exhausted when they reached their destination. A man said to the boy, “The trip was too much for your dog.”

“It was not the trip that tired my dog, it was the side trips,” answered the boy. So it is with us; the side trips are causing us to fall out by the way exhausted.

The Hebrew children could have made the trip from Egypt to the promised land in eleven days; but they spent almost forty years in side trips, and only two of the men who came our of Egypt ever reached the promised land.—By F. L. Limerick, Signs of the Times, February 26, 1918.

Quote: “It is safer to base your hope of eternal life on one word of God than on all the words of all of the men who have ever lived.”—By R. F. Farley, Signs of the Times, April 16, 1918.

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Don't miss the October 2005 issue of Signs of the Times: “How Jesus Kept the Sabbath”, “Why Doctors Should Prescribe a Day of Rest”, “From Saturday to Sunday”, “Eight Ways to Be Your Child’s Role Model” and other important articles. To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at http://www.AdventistBookCenter.com

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While Spurgeon was still a boy preacher, he was warned about a certain virago, and told that she intended to give him a tongue lashing. “All right,” he replied, “but that’s a game at which two can play.” Not long after, as he passed her gate one morning, she assailed him with a flood of billingsgate.

He smiled and said: “Yes, thank you, I am quite well. I hope you are the same.”

Then came another burst of vituperation, pitched in a still higher key, to which he replied, still smiling: “Yes, it does look rather as if it is going to rain. I think I had better be getting on.”

“Bless the man!” she exclaimed, “He’s as deaf as a post. What’s the use of storming at him?” and so her ravings ceased and were never again attempted.—Exchange, Signs of the Times, November 24, 1898.

Quote: “Life is made up not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness, and small obligations given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.”—By Sir H. Davy, Signs of the Times, October 5, 1948.

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NEW from Pacific Press—It was the phone call of every parent’s worst nightmare. “Matt’s been in a terrible accident!” Then there was the doctor’s grim diagnosis of traumatic brain injury. “Not My Son, Lord” is the story of a father’s desperate plea for healing, pitted against his struggle to let go and leave his son in God’s hands. Could he really say “Thy will be done” and mean it? Discover what this family learned about prayer, themselves, and the mysteries of Providence.

Read the first chapter of this book online at http://www.AdventistBookCenter.com Order online or from your local Adventist Book Center--1-800-765-6955.

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A great ship once crashed on the rocky coast of England. In the gale all were lost but one young lad, who was carried high onto a rocky ledge. All night the winds lashed at him, and the waves tore at his feet. When morning came, those watching saw him clinging to the rock. They hurried to his rescue.

“Weren’t you afraid in the wind and the storm?” they asked as they cared for him. “Didn’t you tremble when the waves tore at your feet?”

“Tremble?” he repeated. “I trembled many times, but that rock didn’t tremble once.” He smiled at his rescuers. “Not once,” he added.

The winds of troubles and fears and worries—how we tremble before them when all we have to do is hide, like Moses, in the cleft of our Rock!—By Inez Brasier, The Watchman Magazine, May 1943.

Quote: “It is a joy to God to give. It is a burden to Him to withhold. It is a grief to him to carry about His gifts when we will not gladden Him by receiving them.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, January 3, 1895.

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NEW from Signs of the Times: A new Pocket Signs has just been released—“Bible Facts About the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week.” For a free sample copy, send your name and mailing address to []becbin@pacificpress.com[/] before September 15.

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The steamship “Central America,” while on a voyage from New York to San Francisco, sprang a leak and was going down. She therefore hoisted a distress signal. A vessel came in answer. Its captain asked through a trumpet, “What is wrong?”

“We are going down; lay by until morning,” was the answer.

The captain on board the rescue ship said, “Let me take your passengers on board now.”

“Lay by until morning,” was the message again.

Once more the captain cried, “You had better let me take your passengers on board now.”

“Lay by until morning,” the reply came back. An hour and a half later the “Central America” and all on board had gone down.

“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Hebrews 2:3—By Stanley Combridge, Present Truth, Vol. 26, No. 23.

Quote: “Consecration is going out into the world where God Almighty is, and using every power for His glory.”—By Henry Ward Beecher, Signs of the Times, September 18, 1907.

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NEW from Pacific Press—We’re living longer, retiring earlier, and wanting more out of these years that hold the promise of new opportunities for growth. The stereotypical image of older people who are feeble, frail, unhealthy, lonely, and depressed has got to go! Learn to plan ahead for the golden years, or to enjoy your retirement to the fullest now. “Prime Time Living” blows away the myths about aging and shows how the retirement years can be healthy and productive, how to make an impact on your community, how to learn new skills, and how to focus on relationships.

Read the first chapter of this book online at http://www.AdventistBookCenter.com Order online or from your local Adventist Book Center--1-800-765-6955.

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If I may judge sermons by the good they do me and the length of time I can remember them, then the best sermon I ever heard was preached by an old jungle farmer, standing up to his knees in mud in the middle of an extensive rice field, and it illustrated Hebrews 12:1, 2 perfectly.

It was the monsoon season in Burma. Day by day the sky had emptied itself onto the thirsty land. The Salween River was swollen to overflowing. Every available man and woman was transplanting rice. I was taking supplies to Peter at our outstation in Naung Ka Ring. I had a pack on my back, huge rubber boots on my feet, and an umbrella over my head, but the journey was exceedingly unpleasant.

In the dry season it was only three miles across the fields, but now with the rice terraces planted or ready for planting, all filled with water and mud, the path zigzagged to six miles in, out, around, and on top of the little mud walls which bordered the tiny fields. I slipped frequently. It’s no fun to sit down and pour mud and water out of your boots; it’s no fun to itch all over with prickly heat; and I was feeling “gloriously miserable” as I sighed “Oh, there’ll be joy when the work is done.”

It was just at this time that I approached a group of about 12 people planting one tiny field. Their backs were bent. Their lips were blue. Their skin was goosefleshed. What clothes they had were stuck to their bodies because of the rain. I paused. My heart went out to them in sympathy, and I said to the poor old man nearest to me, “Uncle, I’m so sorry for you.”

He looked up and said, “Ugh?”

“I’m sorry for you, because you must be so tired,” I repeated.

The old man looked puzzled and again said, “Ugh?”

“Why, look at your skin! Your lips!” I cried. “”How tired must your back be! And that mud! Look, you are up to your knees in soft, oozy mud! And I’m sorry for you.”

A smile lit up his face. He turned to his companions and pointing to me with his thumb over his shoulder, he said: “Poor man! He doesn’t understand! He doesn’t understand!” Then he turned his radiant face toward me and added: “Thara, you don’t understand. This is the best mud in the river valley. Look how soft it is! How easy to poke in the young plants! We started very early this morning, and there is a little bit of a moon tonight; we will keep planting till we can’t see another stalk of rice. Oh, Thara, this is a good mud! We get 40 bushels of rice to the acre in mud like this!”

He bent again to his task. I murmured some good wishes, and turned to my journey. But something had happened. What a vision that dear old man had! The mud and the weariness were there, but he was not looking at them, he was looking at the 40 bushels of rice at the end of the harvest time, and the vision of that reward made him rejoice in his mud! Good mud!

Suddenly I found myself saying after him, “Good mud! Forty bushels of rice to the acre in mud like this!” And my weariness was gone, my feet weren’t sore any more. My prickly heat didn’t itch. I was thinking of the souls Peter and I were going to have at the harvest time, and I shouted again, “Good mud!”—By Eric B. Hare, Our Times, January 1947.

Quote: “Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action for all eternity.”—By Lavater, Our Times, July 1950.

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Compiled by Dale Galusha. Please pass this newsletter on to others. If this FREE newsletter was forwarded to you by a friend, and you would like to receive it directly on a monthly basis, email: []join-signsnews@lyra.pacificpress.com[/]

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