March 2016 Signs of the Times Newsletter

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March 2016 Signs of the Times Newsletter

March 2016 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter The Signs of the Times newsletter is a collection of stories and quotes from past issues ofSigns and These Times. ***************************      The story is told of a beautiful Englishwoman who lived about two centuries ago—Lady Montague. Clever and attractive in her youth, she came to the time in life when her mirror told her of wrinkles, gray hairs, and vanishing charms. In her desperation she had all her mirrors destroyed, and as the story goes, from that day until her death she refused to look into a mirror again. She couldn’t face the facts; she didn’t want to know her true condition. Her beauty was fading, youth was giving place to old age, and she didn’t like to have her mirror tell her the truth. A silly and childish thing to do, of course; but how many of us are big enough to face the facts, to be told the truth about ourselves?      From the windows of his castle a European monarch looked out daily over the burying ground of his ancestors. Daily he was reminded of the frailty of man, and knew full well that he too must someday go “the way of all the earth.” Some day he must yield the scepter to another; someday someone else would ascend his throne. These thoughts troubled him, so he ordered another castle built, with a different outlook. He didn’t want to be reminded daily that he too must “pass through the portals of death.” It wasn’t pleasant for him to think that his reign of authority, luxury, and ease must someday end.      Your mirror and mine tell us that the years have brought changes in our faces and forms. But there is no use destroying the friendly looking-glass. We should face the facts.—By Charles Paddock, Signs of the Times, August 8, 1933.   Quote: “Blessed are the happiness makers; blessed are they who know how to shine on one’s gloom with their cheer.”—By Henry Ward Beecher, Signs of the Times, September 23, 1930. *************************** Don't miss the April 2016 issue of Signs of the Times: To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or ONLINE! ***************************      In the heart of London, only a few blocks from St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Old Bailey, you find two amazing monuments.      The first is the church of St. Bartholomew the Great. Fronting a narrow street opposite the Smithfield market, it stands there heavy with age. As you enter the porch and slowly swing wide the great oak door, the centuries peel away. You go down the steps and in the dimly lighted aisles find yourself among the sleeping saints of an era long departed—the age of faith. St. Bartholomew’s was begun in A.D. 1123.      It is a monument to a remarkable man named Rahere, an easy-living courtier who served King Henry I. He well might have attained fame in his own day for his witting conversations. But a tragedy came to the court: the king’s son and heir was lost in the wreck of the White Ship. In the gloom that fell over the court, Rahere resolved to undertake a pilgrimage. On the way he fell dangerously ill, perhaps from malaria. The courtier had ample time to reflect on the meaning of life as his health slowly returned. Now his past achievements seemed strangely unsatisfying, and with a sudden resolve he determined to build a hospital for the poor of his native city of London, and a church.      Rahere returned to England with fixed purpose, and in March of 1123 began the church building. Like the hospital, he built it just outside the walls of the ancient city of London.      And for more than eight hundred years it has stood as a monument to one man’s quest for meaning in life.      You find the second monument inside the ancient church. As you pass slowly along its aisles, noting the resting places of forgotten men and women, you come upon a marble bust attached to the wall. The inscription identifies it as placed by Edward Cooke, who died in 1652. Strain hard and you can make out these lines beneath his stony head:      Unsluce your briny floods, what can yee keepe      Your eyes from teares, & see the marble weepe      Burst out for shame: or if yee find noe vent      For teares, yet stay, and see the stones relent      This is a monument to a man desperately lonely, a man who felt that he would die without a friend. Though he accumulated much wealth, he knew that no tears would fall after he passed on. So he determined that at least his monument would shed a tear. It is made of hard, impervious marble. In the damp confines of the old church, the moisture slowly condenses on the head of Edward Cooke, runs down his forehead, until at last tears drop from the lifeless eyes. If no mourner was to be found for Edward Cooke, his monument would weep forever.      Two amazing monuments in London: the ancient church, born of personal crisis, and a pathetic cry for affection written in marble.      Rahere and Cooke were alike: they both sought meaning in life. Both wanted the assurance that what they were accomplishing would be of enduring significance.      Both sought life’s meaning. Only one found it. He who sought to chisel an eternal memory in history succeeded only in manifesting the poverty of the life that turns inward for its own gratification. He who submerged himself in working for the poor and the sick discovered that in turning outward from himself he found his true self.      In the heart of London, only a few blocks from St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Old Bailey, you may find two amazing monuments. And when you find them and reflect upon them, suddenly you realize that one of them—but only one—is your life’s monument too.—By William Johnson, These Times, October 1973. Quote: “The highest earthly enjoyments are but a shadow of the joy I find in reading God’s Word.”—By Lady Jane Grey, These Times, January 1973. *************************** NEW from Pacific Press—Daring to Ask for More by Melody Mason. Daring to Ask for More will challenge you to recognize the unlimited possibilities that are within your grasp if you will only pray in faith. If you will put into practice the principles outlined in this book—seeking for more of Christ, and moving forward in faith, no matter the circumstances—your life will change and your faith will grow. CLICK to read the first chapter of this book online. ORDER online or from your local Adventist Book Center--1-800-765-6955. ***************************      By way of illustrating the power of the cross, we venture to reprint an oft-told story of the lamented Dr. Charles A. Berry’s experience (of Wolverhampton), as he told it to his friend J. H. Jowett, of Birmingham, England:      One night there came to me a Lancashire girl, with her shawl over her head and with clogs on her feet.      “Are you the minister?” she asked.      “Yes.”      “Then I want you to come and get my mother in.”      Thinking it was some drunken brawl, I said, “You must get a policeman.”       “Oh, no,” said the girl, “my mother’s dying, and I want you to get her into salvation.”      “Where do you live?”      “I live so-and-so, a mile and a half from here.”      “Well,” said I, “is there no minister nearer than I?”      “Oh, yes; but I want you, and you have got to come.”      I was in my slippers, and I soliloquized and wondered what the people of the church would think if they saw their pastor walking late at night with a girl with a shawl over her head.      I did all I could to get out of it, but it was of no use. That girl was determined, and I had to dress and go.      I found the place was a house of ill-fame. In the lower rooms they were drinking and telling lewd stories, and upstairs I found the poor woman dying. I sat down and talked about Jesus as the beautiful example and extolled Him as a leader and teacher.       She looked at me out of her eyes of death, and said, “Mister, that’s no good for the likes of me. I don’t want an example—I’m a sinner.”      There I was face to face with a poor soul dying, and had nothing to tell her. I had no gospel, and I thought of what my mother had taught me, and I told her the old story of God’s love in Christ’s dying for sinful men, whether I believed it or not.      “Now you are getting at it,” said the woman. “That’s what I want. That’s the story for me.” And so I got her in, and I got in myself!      From that night, I have always had a full gospel of salvation for lost sinners.—By Dr. Charles A. Berry, Signs of the Times, November 10, 1909. Quote: “Life is fragile—Handle with prayer!”—Unknown, These Times, September 1966. *************************** Place this in your church bulletin or newsletter: Want to connect with your neighbor? Maybe a loved one far away? Why not send Signs of the Times? Each monthly issue offers a colorful and interesting presentation of the full gospel message. The result is changed lives! Send a subscription today. Order from your Adventist Book Center. To order call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at: http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/signs-of-the-times-magazine-yearly-us-subscription.html ***************************      One of the best loved of the 600 hymns written by one of the greatest British hymn writers, Isaac Watts is entitled When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Charles Wesley said of it that he would gladly exchange all the 6,500 hymns he had written for this one hymn by Isaac Watts.      Written in 1707, it was based on Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”—By Gordon M. Hyde, These Times, March 1979. Quote: “Deny that God can answer prayer, and He is degraded into a being less than His universe, a prisoner of His own creation.”—By G. Campbell Morgan, These Times, December 1966. ***************************      Evangeline Booth said of her father, General Booth the founder of the Salvation Army, that he seemed to have “a new sort of eyes,” different from those in any other man she had known. He had eyes, she declared, that enabled him to see a possible loveliness even in the worst of bums and thieves and harlots of London; and because he had eyes like that, he was able to lift up thousands out of iniquity.—By Paul Seibert Leinbach, These Times, November 1961. Quote: “We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.”—By Edwin Markham, These Times, October 1966. *************************** Looking for inspiring stories for use in family worship? Or for school worships? The third book in Dr. Joe Wheeler’s series—“My Favorite. . . “ has just been released. My Favorite Prayer Stories is filled with faith-building stories.   CLICK to read one of the stories for FREE online! ORDER online or call your Adventist Book Center at 1-800-765-6955. ***************************      If a little child should come up to its father and commence addressing him thus: “O father, I acknowledge thee to be my parent—very strong, exceedingly wise, wondrously good; thou ownest all this house and rulest thy family with equity; thou has brought me up from infancy, furnished my food and clothing,” etc.; and, finally, after going on thus, telling his father what he was and what he had done, could do and would do, to the extent of about ten minutes or more, would end by asking for a penny—that child would be very likely to have its ears boxed. And it can be nothing but the infinite grace and long suffering of our Father in Heaven that saves some of the long-winded, pompous, theological propounders of prayer, that are frequently heard from pulpit and pew, from receiving merited rebuke and chastisement from him. It can be nothing else.      Therefore, when you pray, do not air your theology, do not display your oratory, do not do anything else than pray.—By Moravian, Signs of the Times, July 19, 1883 Quote: “Worry knocks the life out of a person a long time before they are dead.”—By Charles G. Bellah, Signs of the Times, April 15, 1930. *************************** Compiled by Dale Galusha. Please pass this newsletter on to others.

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