November 2010 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter

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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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Adam Thompson of Cincinnati, Ohio, filled the first bathtub in the United States during the year 1842. Doctors predicted rheumatism and inflammation of the lungs from such a new fangled idea. A ban on bathtub exercise was published by Philadelphia from November 1 to March 1. Providence and Hartford set up extra heavy water rates. All these facts are right out of the records. The crowd was wrong!

In 1896 England still had a law prohibiting any power-driven vehicle from traveling over four miles an hour on the public highways. Furthermore, it required that such a vehicle should be preceded by a man bearing a red flag. The crowd was wrong once more!

Samuel Morse had adverse criticism from the press and Congress. But today the click of the telegraph is heard the world over. Wrong was the crowd.

Alexander Bell was called a fool in Philadelphia when he exhibited his telephone at the Centennial Exposition. Today, however, we talk around the world over his invention. Once more the crowd was wrong!

McCormick’s first reaper was derided the country over as a cross between an Astley chariot, a wheelbarrow, and a flying machine. McCormick was right; the crowd was wrong.

When Westinghouse proposed to stop a railroad train with wind (the Westinghouse air brakes), he also was called a fool. The crowd was wrong.

Goodyear was “booed” by everyone but his wife as he worked for eleven years on vulcanizing rubber. Today we use his invention. Again the crowd was wrong.

Jenner, who discovered vaccination, was jeered at. Some serious-minded men went so far as to say that all the animal diseases would be transferred to the human race. Horns had actually grown out of the foreheads of innocent people, some said. Yet Jenner eliminated the smallpox scourge by using his vaccine. The majority was mistaken!

Robert Fulton had only words of discouragement from the crowd as they watched him work on his steamboat. They derided it as “Fulton’s Folly.” But many steamboats have crossed the seas. Mistaken was the majority!

Madame Curie sorted through tons and tons of waste material in search of radium. The crowd laughingly asked, “What is radium?” Today, it is a valuable asset in fighting disease. The crowd was mistaken!

The crowd as a whole is wrong!—By Nathanael Olson, These Times, June 1964.

Quote: “Character is the capacity to conduct one’s self with restraint in times of prosperity and with courage and tenacity when things do not go well.”—Unknown, These Times, January 1964.

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Don't miss the December 2010 issue of Signs of the Times: “Once Saved, Maybe Saved?”, “6 Stupid Things Singles Do”, “God With Us”, “How to Really Be Free”, “When Will Jesus Return?”, “Growing in Christ” and other important articles.

To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at http://www.AdventistBookCenter.com

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You have undoubtedly heard the story about the child who sat down with pencil in hand intently drawing a picture of someone. “What is it going to be?” asked mother.

“I’m drawing a picture of God,” replied the little artist.

“But you can’t do that,” insisted mother, “for no one knows what God looks like.”

With utter self-confidence the child said, “But everyone will when I get through.”—By Niels-Erik Andreasen, These Times, January 1975.

Quote: “The purpose of true prayer is not to tell God of something we would like for Him to do. Rather, it should first of all help us to discover what He would have us to do and to help to make us willing to be obedient to His will.”—By William T. McElroy, These Times, February 1964.

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A certain unit of soldiers in the American Third Army had been actively engaged in a campaign against the enemy in the European theatre. For months they had been in the thick of the battle. By day and by night they had to be on the alert. They had gone without food and without proper rest.

General Patton ordered them to go to a rest camp back miles behind the lines so they might for a little while get away from the noise and danger and fatigue of battle.

When the men returned to the front again one of the boys wrote a letter to the general thanking him for the rest and care he had received back in the rest camp.

In a few days he had a letter back from the general saying that for thirty-five years he had tried to give to his men every comfort and convenience possible, but this was the first letter of thanks he had ever received.

Quote: “Anything which makes religion its second object makes religion no object. God will put up with a great many things in the human heart, but there is one thing He will not put up with in it—a second place. He who offers God only a second place, in reality offers Him no place.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, August 5, 1886.

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Place this in your church bulletin or newsletter: Introduce a friend or neighbor to Jesus by sending Signs of the Times® to their home. They will notice your thoughtfulness and appreciate your interest in their lives! Call today. Order from your Adventist Book Center. To order call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at: www.pacificpress.com/signs

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An incident relates the way in which God forgives every day the sins which we commit against His goodness.

A gentleman who had a house surrounded by beautiful grounds was looking from his drawing-room one evening, when he saw a boy come across the lawn, evidently bent on mischief. He was trampling down the flowers, treading over the beds, and pulling down the branches from the trees.

The gentleman went down the steps across the lawn and before the boy had seen his approach he had placed his hand firmly on his shoulder.

The boy struggled vehemently to escape, but his attempts were useless; a strong hand had secured him.

“Now, my boy,” said the gentleman, “answer me one question, which is the best flower in this garden?”

The boy still struggled, but finding there was no escape from the quiet eye and firm grasp of the man he had injured, he looked round, and after a few minutes’ pause, he answered, “That rose is the best,” pointing to a beautiful moss rose just bursting into bloom. The gentleman, still keeping one hand on the boy’s shoulder, reached out his other hand and plucking the rose in all its beauty, gave it to the boy—releasing him as he did it.

“There, take it, my boy,” he said.

The boy was amazed. Looking into the face of his strange benefactor, he asked, “Ain’t you going to have me punished, sir?”

“No,” was the reply. “I am giving you the best flower in my garden. You will never come and trample down my flower beds again, will you?”

“Never, sir, as long as I live!” was the emphatic reply; “but please, sir, ain’t there some little errand I could do for you?”

From that hour he was the willing servant of his friend. And many a time that boy would be seen, cap in hand, standing at the gentleman’s gate, with the loving petition on his lips, “Please, sir, is there any little job I could do for you?” You may be sure the request was not refused.

Have we not as sinners trampled down God’s holy laws, and grieved Him many, many times? And how has He treated us? He sent from the throne of glory, Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, “the Rose of Sharon,” and offers Him today to a sinful world.—Unknown, Signs of the Times, January 28, 1897.

Quote: “Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.”—By Charles G. Bellah, Signs of the Times, July 22, 1930.

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Read articles from previous issues of Signs of the Times: www.pacificpress.com/signs

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The story is told of a little maid whose mother was exceedingly beautiful, except her hands, which were twisted, drawn, distorted, and unlovely. Her daughter, with a delicate instinct of love said nothing about this deformity for a long time after she began to observe it. But at last her curiosity overcame her self-control, and she said, “Mother, I love your beautiful face, your beautiful eyes, your beautiful brow, your beautiful neck; but I do not love your hands, because they are so ugly.”

Then her mother told her the story of her hands. She said, “When you were a little babe in your cradle, one night the cry of fire rang through the house, and I ran to the nursery and found it ablaze; but God led me to the cradle where you were asleep, and I saved you, but my hands have been like this ever since.”

Then there was silence for a moment, and the child said softly, “Mother, I still love your beautiful face, your beautiful eyes, and your beautiful brow; but now I love your hands best of all.”

Such hands are more beautiful than the most delicate and shapely hands. The inner beauty is the real beauty.

The Babe in the manger is beautiful. The Child in the temple is beautiful. The strong Man in the carpenter shop is beautiful. The Holy One kneeling on the cold ground at night, with face turned toward the cold stars, praying to His Father, is beautiful. The smitten One, lying prone in the garden under the olive trees, crying, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me,” is more beautiful still. But the patient Victim of human envy and malice, hanging on the cross, and praying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” and with His dying breath crying, “It is finished,” is most beautiful of all”—From Christian Advocate, Signs of the Times, March 29, 1910.

Quote: “Blessed is the man who has the gift of making friends; for it is one of God’s best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one’s self and seeing and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another man.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, January 11, 1905.

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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