sixty-five years of age, and have passed through many sore straits and afflictions. not back; bring my sons from far, and have read them almost all my life. my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, IO how pleasant it has been to me when have formed him; yea, I have made him." low down in the valley of humiliation to -Isaiah xliii. 5-8. Many, says Jesus, read the travels of the dear children of shall come from the east and west, and God in your excellent paper! How often shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac it has strengthened me! Often my mind and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven has been dwelling upon some portion of (gospel church); but the children of the Scripture, and sometimes in the next natural kingdom shall be cast out into SIGNS that comes the same Scripture will outer darkness. The old Jewish nation be explained so nicely, and it will all be (kingdom) have been scattered through-made so plain to me. out the world in darkness (blindness) so I hope the dear editors of our dear that they call darkness light, and light family paper may be spared for a long darkness. But his work of manifestation time to proclaim the blessed gospel to still goes on, "Adding to the church the children of God, as they pass through (kingdom) such as shall be saved," where this vale of sin and sorrow. they are enabled by grace divine to "sit together in heavenly places," rejoicing and singing praise to the eternal and allwise God our Savior, and have no confidence in the flesh. But I must close. I have made this scribble too long already. Do with it as you think best, and all will be right. As ever, yours in hope of a glorious immortality beyond the grave, A. B. LESTER. I remain your sister in Christ, EMMELINE FINDLEY. NEW CASTLE, Indiana, Dec. 24, 1896. DEAR BRETHREN EDITORS:-I am in hearty sympathy in the proposed change to pamphlet form. I cannot see where there can or could be any objections to the change. I will send a half dollar in addition to the regular subscription price to encourage the change. I have been taking it since 1865. Its ring is all right, "Salvation by grace." JOHN REA. EDITORIAL NOTICES. MONROE, W. Va., Dec. 17, 1896. G. BEEBE'S SON-DEAR BROTHER:Inclosed you will find post-office order, for which you will please renew my subscription for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, as MOST EXTRAORDINARY OFFER. my last year's subscription is out, and I FROM now until the first of February, feel that I cannot do without them. The 1897, for every new subscriber sent us by most preaching I get is in the SIGNS. O a paid up old subscriber at the regular how gladly I receive them! They come rate of two dollars for one year, we will as good news from a far country; and send, postage paid, to either the new subwhile you contend for the same glorious scribers or to the one sending in the new truth that the SIGNS has always contend-subscribers, a McCabe's Illustrated U. S. ed for, I will still support them in good History, or a Bunyan's Pilgrim's Profaith. I was one year old when the first gress, or a first or second volume of the number of the SIGNS was printed, so I book of Editorials. EDITORIAL. MIDDLETOWN, N. Y., JANUARY 1, 1897. Entered in the Middletown, N. Y., Post Office as EDITORS: Benton Jenkins, Middletown, N. Y. B. L. Beebe, Middletown, N. Y. All letters for this paper should be addressed, and money orders made payable, to GILBERT BEEBE'S SON, Middletown, Orange Co., N. Y. INTRODUCTORY TO VOLUME LXV. O how great has been the goodness of God to us all! We have been cast upon his bounty from our infancy. We cannot boast that we have served him, but we can boast that he has served us all our lives. He guided us and exercised a providential care over us, even before we were called by his grace; and since that happy hour how great and continued have been his mercies. New covenant mercies abounding through Christ are the richest of all mercies. All others are but temporal, while these endure forever. Our failures have been many. We all must confess to much of unbelief, of pride, of vain glory, of unforgivingness, of worldly mindedness, of selfishness, of censoriousness, and in short of well nigh every evil spirit and every evil work. The seeds of all the ills that grow As we stand upon the threshold of a new year, and are about to send forth this, the initial number of a new volume, we feel like talking in a somewhat personal way with you, brethren, who are subscribers to and readers of the SIGNS. It seems but natural that we all should look back to the varied changes of the past year as we pause for a moment at its close. It seems natural also for us all to look forward in thought as we begin the new year, and to wonder what its secrets contain for us. In many things we may feel sure that the future will be as the past. We shall all have mixtures of joy and sorrow, gain and loss, successes and failures, strength and weak-better reason to praise the mercy of God ness, even as has been the case in all our And multitudes of them have sprung; Ah, Lord, what have we done! We think that in these things we can speak for every heaven-born man and woman when we thus testify. At the end of this old year we can say nothing, any of us, concerning ourselves but “a sinner saved by grace." The past year contains nothing that would change in the least this testimony for our own self, and we believe that you all, brethren, feel the same. Surely not one of you has any than we have for his mercy to ourself. The grace of God has abounded to the chief of sinners. All that any of us has received of comfort of mind, of peace of heart, of joy in the Holy Ghost, we are past life. We shall all be as dependent upon God for all mercies, temporal and spiritual, and shall be as wholly undeserving of what we shall receive during the coming year as we have ever been. sure and can freely testify has come to Yet we may look forward confidently, sure that the oft repeated word of the psalmist is true, "His mercy endureth forever." "His love in time past forbids us to think That he'll leave us at last in sorrow to sink." us through grace only. Not one humble child of God can say that he has in any wise deserved the least of all the mercies of God. Indeed, they would cease to be mercies did we in any wise deserve them. In connection with the above reflec tions we can but praise God also for the that we have often faltered, and our feet favor which he has extended to us in con- have often stumbled, but yet we have tinuing the publication of the SIGNS an-not, we hope, fallen; and we trust that other year. We have now completed the pages of the SIGNS during the past sixty-four years of its publication. When year have been filled with that which Elder Gilbert Beebe, moved to indignation must ever be the hope and joy of all who at the gross departures of the great body believe, viz: the testimony that sinners of Baptists from the truth, and with are saved by grace. We dare not say earnest desire to testify in all ways pos- that no error has been published, for that sible to the truth taught in the holy would be to claim perfection for all who Scriptures, published the initial number have contributed to its columns, both edof the SIGNS, the prospects for its sup-itors and correspondents. Our brethren port looked very dark indeed. But the have been very forbearing toward us. blessing of God was upon it; and grad- For this we would praise that God who ually, as the scattered children of God holds the hearts of all men in his hands, heard of it, and the outspoken defense of and has made our brethren forbearing new covenant truth which it contained, toward us. Some good and faithful they came to its support. to its support. Soon the brethren have censured us for some SIGNS circulated in nearly all parts of the things, and no doubt we have in many country, and the bond of love and union things deserved their censure; and we in the truth was fostered and strength-can but regard the reproofs of those who ened greatly as the people of God heard love God as a great mercy from him. from each other through its pages. None Brotherly and affectionate reproof and of us may ever know how many of the counsel we hope to be always glad to retried ones of the fold of Christ have been ceive; and we desire, if any reproofs are blessed and comforted in sorrow, and re-administered in an unbrotherly manner, buked in wandering, and strengthened into consider the reproof, and to forget the hope, and built upon their most holy unbrotherly part of it. faith by the gracious words which have We enter now upon volume sixty-five been published in its columns. May we of the SIGNS. Ere its pages close, and not say of the SIGNS as the apostle de- the pages of still a new volume are clared of himself, Having obtained help opened, who can tell what may befall us? of God we continue unto this present It is good to remember the brevity and day, witnessing both to small and great, uncertainty of all here below. No man saying none other things than Moses and can know the future; God knows, this is the prophets did say should come. Dur-enough. We need not know. Since God ing the past year the editors of the SIGNS knows there can be no uncertainty, and have had their trials and conflicts and we may go on in peace, careful for nothdiscouragements in conducting the SIGNS, ing. This only would we desire with but we have also had our mercies. Chief reference to the SIGNS, that during the among them, it seems to us, has been coming year its pages may be filled with this: that God has graciously continued gospel truth, as we believe has been the to fill our hearts with a desire to contend case in the past. Foolish and unlearned for the truth, and to seek after and walk questions we would avoid. We desire to in the old paths. We can but confess turn aside from vain philosophy. We would publish simple Bible truth as tes- dently set forth. We desire not to fill tified to in the word, and realized in per- the columns of the SIGNS with new thesonal experience. We trust that our ories, but with the old gospel. None but brethren will none of them ask us to pub- ourselves can know how earnestly we all lish the records of local troubles, or ac- desire this, and how much we all feel counts of exclusions or personal attacks our dependence upon the divine guidance. upon others, or unkind and hurtful words If the new form shall seem strange to our concerning an opponent if any shall differ old and faithful subscribers and supportabout anything. We do not object to ers, we trust that the contents of each publishing brotherly expressions of dif- page may seem to them unchanged. ferences of opinion; but sharp words will wound, and the trouble is they will wound not only those engaged in the discussion, but also all who read, and especially the young and tender-hearted believer. If something which can be told us from the fathers in Israel do not mind hard words, let them remember that the children do. When we write for publication we do not write for ourselves alone, but for all who read. We trust that we all shall remember this during the coming year. The SIGNS has ever supported the doctrine of experimental godliness. Religion is not a theory reasoned out in the head, but it is grace felt in the heart. It is not without, but it is an experience realized in the heart. The knowledge of God and of all divine things must ever be a revelation from God. Not only did holy men of old speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, but there is a personal reveWith this number the SIGNS puts on a lation to each believer in his own soul's new dress, and takes a new form. For a experience. The apostle testifies that number of years we have received inti- "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and mations that to many of our readers a neither has entered the heart of man the change in the form of the SIGNS would things which God has prepared for them be grateful, and at last we have conclud- that love him; but God hath revealed ed to make the venture. Those who can them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit remember the SIGNS from its beginning searcheth all things, yea, the deep things will recall that the first three volumes of God." Thus we are taught that the were published in about the same form as knowledge of these things is by revelathis number. The return to twice a tion, and the revelation is by the Spirit month is simply going back to the custom of God within us searching into these of many years. The form and appear-deep things of God. This is in full harance of this number, we trust, will com-mony with the apostle when he testifies mend the change to our brethren. But again, "For what man what man knoweth the while the outward form has changed, we things of a man, save the spirit of man trust there will be no change in the con- that is in him? even so the things of God tents. We desire to still publish abroad knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” nothing but the gospel of the grace of Thus the religion of our Lord Jesus God. We desire to still set forth Christ! Christ is experimental. It is known by and him only. We hope that of each experience; but we must never forget member it may be true, that as the child of God rises from its perusal he can say, Christ and him crucified has been evi after all that all our experience must finally be tested by the word. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because and multitudes of other societies and there is no light in them." All true light theories. We have ever asked a thus from God in the heart must and will be in harmony with the written word. Our experience leads us into an understand ing of the word, while at the same time the word tests and tries our experience. saith the Lord in plain and unmistakable terms for all things religious. We trust that this may ever be true of us as a people, for thus only shall we find safety, and thus only shall we glorify God. If we honor his word we honor him. In the labors of the coming year we Nothing must be to us more important than the testimony of the written word. If our experience does not fall in with hope to ever have these things in mind, the written word, then it is not Bible ex-and trust that our brethren will bear and perience, and is but a fancy or a figment forbear with us in our weakness, and be of the brain, and is of no value. One patient toward our failures. We desire may have a Bible experience, and yet not for you all peace and unity of mind. know that it is a Bible experience. How May we all strive for the things that important for that soul's peace and make for peace, and the things that shall comfort is it then that Bible experience be to our mutual edification, that the should be held forth! As such Bible tes-name of God may be exalted and glorified timony is presented, those who have been in us all. thus led recognize the waymarks, and are able to say, "Surely I have traveled this IN PAMPHLET FORM. C. road also. This is my experience. If AFTER encountering many difficulties this be christian testimony, then I can we now present the SIGNS OF THE TIMES testify the same.” But after all the Bible to its readers in a thirty-two page pamphis the standard by which all must be let. How does it please you? If you tried. We have ever, as Baptists, in all like its first appearance, we feel certain ages been distinguished by our steadfast it will continue to grow in your favor; adhesion to the truth, that the Bible con- for the greatest advantages of having the tains all that we need to know, both for publication in pamphlet form is in its faith and practice. We have ever re-convenience for handling, its superior jected the control of priests, and the form for preserving, and most of all its visionary imaginings of those who would readiness for binding in volumes. be wise above what is written. We have We have been so hurried, and the work ever claimed that nothing will ever in is all so new to us, we fear this first issue this life be revealed to any man but the may not be all in workmanship we would same things that have already been writ-like to have it; but we hope to continue ten in the Scriptures. Vital experimental improving its appearance until it will religion is true, but there is no vital ex-compare favorably with any of the publiperimental godliness that is not in full cations in the country. harmony with the Scriptures, and that is not limited within the bounds of the Scriptures. It is upon this ground, and to subscribe? We shall print a limited this only, that we have rejected the number of extra copies of the first few Missionary society systems, the Sunday numbers this volume, and as long as they School system, the Theological Seminary, last supply new subscribers with numbers. Show your copy to the brethren and friends, and ask them if they do not wish |