Ja& 4, 1922, Vol. in, No. 60

R9| Published every other W®1 week at 35 Myrtle Avenue, XJ|F Brooklyn, N. Y„ V. 8. 4.

Five Cents a Copy—$1.00 a Year

Canada and Foreign Countries, $140

▼ftLtnta 8 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4. 1922 NuMBBB M

CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE

LABOR AND ECONOMICS British Workers’ Sunday....210 Coming to Armageddon....214

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Drawing a House................197 C osition to Gambling....204

Opposition to Theatres 201 V\ uy Men Go to College....208

Opposition to Dancing

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Erecting Buildings

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

The Raising of Money......199 Not So Bad

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Peace and Solvency...........208 Will the Ruling Factors

Nations in Distress____________214    Heed

Disarmament _________

HOME AND HEALTH Feeding the World......    .......—     

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY Opposition to Fighting......205 Butterfly Facta and Fancies 212

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

"Go to Church, Thou Fool” 195

Church of England Collapsing

Rutherford at the Hippodrome ________________

Interchurch World Move-Bient

Instead (poem)

Desire of All Nations

The Blessings Near

Studies in the Harp of

God .....

The Father’s Lave (poem) 223

Thoughts tor the New Year (poem)--u....„s_233

by WOODWORTH. HUD0ING8 aad MARTIN CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH ... . . » ROBERT J. MARTIN .... Rosiaaw «•» WM. F. HUDGINGS......S»e‘y aad T

Copartners and aroyrieton. Addnaa; 3» M/rtle Av»ue. Brooklyn, N. T7.       ■ U. £>. A.

Five Cents a Cory — $KZX> a Yrab

Foreign offices : British * 34 Craves Terrace. Lancaster Gate. London W. i; Canadian: 270 Dundas St. W-(Toronto. Ontario : Australasian : 4S® _t Collinf St., Melbourne, Australia. Make remittances to The Geldew ’ m               at

<rt«GoldenA§e

' ^g^^a^==^=====. , ' ;■ ■ ■ ,■! r ¹ — ,  , ■ ■ —--r:— -r , . .     , , JW

▼•fame III                       Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 4, 1922                        Number 60

“Go to Church, Thou Fool”—In Four Parts (Pan i)

milE Banner-Herald, of Athens, Georgia, in * its issue of September 21, 1921, contains a half-page advertisement bearing the above caption, indorsed by the announcements of the ten principal churches of the city, all denominations.

What other line of business would seek to draw trade by resorting to such methods of attracting attention ?

What are the rewards which would follow compliance on the part of those who are addressed ?

How do the advertisers know that only fools would be interested in their wares?

All these are the subjects of inquiry of this article.

We propose to make a dispassionate examination of the clergy business in the light of current history. There was no such business in the days of the early church. Our Lord and His apostles gave time and strength to the preaching of the gospel, but their evident motto was “Free Seats and No Collections”, and they did not expect to be compensated in this -world. But the “Twelve Apostles of the Lamb” have few followers and no successors among those interested in the clergy business.

Let us state our own position plainly at the outset. We are for preaching the gospel of Christ and His kingdom. We believe in it, and our lives are devoted to it; but we are persuaded that the motive for that preaching should be love for the truth, love for the Lord, His Word and His people, and that no man is fit to preach to others on Sunday -who does nothing but loaf or meddle in other people’s business during the remainder of the week.

The development of the clergy business occurred several hundred years after the Lord’s crucifixion and exaltation. It has now, among the Protestant representatives of the profession, a number of distinct lines of activity. We shall examine twenty-two of these, to see what is being aimed at and accomplished. The results are heart-rending.

Nothing in this article is intended as a criticism of the man who is honestly preaching the gospel of Jesirs Christ. Our purpose is to awaken those preachers who have departed from their high calling and to enable them to see themselves as others see them.

When we think of all the good that these men could do if they were wholly devoted to the Lord and His people, and were faithful to His Word, and when we think of them as they are, and as this article will prove them to be, we can but think of Hamlet’s soliloquy: “I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy yoimg blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. And each particular hair to stand on end. Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.”

As we examine the evidence we shall see that the activities of these men are wasted and worse than wasted.

We shall see them:

• 1. Straining the last nerve to obtain crowded houses, and using meaningless and silly phrases to attract the curious; but giving those who come no message of either hope or comfort, like lightless lanterns, set up in disregard of God’s Word and God’s ways.

• 2. Putting forth Herculean efforts to raise vast sums of money, which, when raised, accomplish little good purpose, but place these men under obligations to the wealthiest men of their congregations, the ones needing least the consolations of the true gospel.

• 3. Erecting beautiful buildings and running their congregations deeply in debt to build and maintain structures which, when built, are burdens upon the community and in many instances are centers of infidelity as respects the Christian faith.

• 4. Opposing theatres and attendance at the same, yet resorting to the same methods of advertising as theatrical people and in many instances copying theatrical methods of entertaining their audiences, 'with no thought in view except entertainment.

• 5. Objecting to dancing as a pastime inimical to the church and to Christianity, and yet in numerous instances opening and managing dancing schools and giving their support and influence to dances in church parlors for the purposes of raising money.

• 6. Going on record as opposed to gambling, on the principle that it is contrary to Christian faith and practice, and yet operating games of chance ostensibly for the support of the church; but making life itself the greatest of all games of chance, inasmuch as, according to their claims, eternity depends, for every human being, on “belonging” to some one of the two hundred conflicting cults which imagine and claim, each on its own behalf, that it is the one true church, the true exponent of the Christian religion.

• 7. Posing as opposed to prize-fighting as brutal and beastly; yet in many denominations and in many localities, since the war, the pastors are teaching prize-fighting, acting as referees, engaging in fistic encounters themselves, and even encouraging little children to pound each other brutally in prize-rings in the church parlors.

• 8. Standing as a unit in acknowledging that war is in open and utter contradiction to the tenets of the Christian religion; yet being a unit also in aligning themselves with those that are for Avar whenever signs of war appear on the horizon.

• 9. Being so zealous in support of whatever form of government happens to be in power that they offer themselves and are generously employed as government agents to spy upon the liberties of other men, seeming in their acts and words to place man-made rules and regulations on a par with the laws of Almighty God; yet the best of them have no heart in the matter and are ashamed of the activities of their fellows.

• 10. Standing for prohibition of the liquor traffic, and responsible for bringing it about (aided by fabulous contributions from the millionaires that have doped soft drinks for sale); yet with many of them the interest was more

Brooklyn, N. Tt J.

■ A £ apparent than real, as their appetites and their C * control over them are no better than those of gy other men.                                          ^?

• 11. Displaying enthusiasm for the imposition upon all men of the observance of the first g day of the week as a day when men may do nothing but go to church, although there is not a hint in the Scriptures that God ever designed the first day of the week for any such purpose.

• 12. Taking an ever larger place in all manner of political activities so that there is nothing ” in which they are not interfering, contrary to the Word of God and in derogation of the Con- > stitution providing that church and state should be kept separate.

• 13. Posing as a unit in believing that peace is the most desirable thing for the human fam- y ily, and that peace among the nations is a thing . A of all others to be aimed at; yet when peace     j

was in their grasp toward the close of the     A

World War many of these men were advocates of more bloodshed than even the soldiers in the trenches desired — forgetful and neglectful of the peace which the angels declared should be the outcome of the Christian religion among men.

• 14. Having an active part in bringing about the Disarmament Conference in the interests of British big business and imperialism, and praying and working earnestly for it; yet the plan for the conference did not originate with them, but was thrust upon them by a man of war who shamed them into action when they were doing nothing.

• 15. Advocating in an increasing number the rights of labor, encouraging the application of the principle of collective bargaining and giv- i ing publicity to the atrocities committed against laboring men in the name of the law; yet largely -at fault for those same atrocities, because they have preached a false and hateful brand of patriotism, and have been unwilling to see that the governments of this world are part and parcel of Satan’s Empire.

• 16. Large numbers of them openly cooperating with big business in the enslavement of their fellow men, doing what they can to defeat the efforts of the workers to better their condition, and acting as mere tools to further th© selfish interests of those who have more of the world’s riches than heart could wish.

• 17. Aiming to make themselves the centers ' of all the social activities of the people; yet

these activities are the same as those of the .world in general, and often of the most worldly persons.

• 18. Aiming to promote the marriage of young people, a praiseworthy enough thing in itself; yet some of them being human vampires, taking advantage of the newly wed to take their last dollar from them and leave them stranded away from home, with not enough money for a meal of victuals.

• 19. Championing the cause of education, and undertaking the education of the young; yet the world is in its present disastrous condition largely because its educational activities in the past have been in the hands of this class of men.

• 20. Giving attention to the cause of charity; yet many of them being unwilling to make the slightest self-sacrifice in the interest of others, even of those things ■which, like tobacco, are harmful to themselves.

• 21. Advocating missions to the heathen, while the most heathenish people in the world are about them in their own lands; and, just as the Lord forewarned, when the heathen have been reached by them they are brought into worse condition than before.

• 22. Lastly, engaging in preaching, although having no consistency among themselves as to what should be their message; indeed, there is a well-founded opinion among some of them that they should not be expected to preach at all, in addition to all their other activities, a conclusion in which the public is coming more and more to share.

The conclusion of the matter is in plain sight. The clergy business, as a business, has had its day. The common people no longer have confidence in it and are withdrawing their support from it. Young men are no longer attracted to what they discern to be a useless and unprofitable profession and the older members of the fraternity are deserting it by the thousands for more lucrative fields of endeavor. In a little while ecclesiasticism, the clergy business, will be a thing of the past.

We will now consider the subject in the order in which we have outlined it.

Drawing a House

IN THIS theatrical business it is considered that the all-important thing is to draw a full house. This is not because of any interest in the theatre-goers, but because the actors rightly calculate that the more people can be induced to see the show the greater will be the chances of their keeping ahead of the sheriff. Is this the reason why so many people in the preaching business use such strange headlines to announce the subjects upon which they will “preach”?

In the Spring of 1921, the pastor of Elm Park Methodist Episcopal Church, Scranton, Pennsylvania, preached a series of sermons on Mother Goose Rhymes. Two of the topics were: “Ride a Jack-Horse” and “Rub-a-dub-dub; three men in a Tub”.

On June 9, 1921, the pastor of the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, preached on “Fainting Fits and Their Cure” and on the same day, in the same city, the pastor of the First Baptist Church preached on “A Visit to Henry Ford’s Factory”. Neither of the foregoing texts is prominent in any of the copies of the Scriptures to which we have access, nor are any of the following, alphabetically⁷ arranged:

A Big Hug.

A Case of Good Judgment.

A Joke on the Conductor.

A Lunch-Bo.x, Hand Mirror and Bath Tub in One.

A Jian with his Nose out of Joint.

A Wonderful Invention.

Ask Dad, He knows.

Don’t Skid.

Eventually, Why Not Now?                      ■

Halloween Tricks and Pranks.                    ,

Has God Got Your Number? His Master’s Voice.

Lopsided Folks.

My Mother-in-Law.

Psycheometric Readings.

Pulling out a Plum.

Pussy-cat, Pussy-cat, Where Have You Been?

Slip, Slips, and Slippers.

Street Car Ventilation.

Swat the Fly.

The Ass Tied at the Door Without.

The Dollmakers of Nuremburg.

The Flavor Lasts.

The Honeymoon.

The Man in the Moon.

The Sentimental Journey.

The Wild-West Man.

There’s a Reason.

Three White Mice-

Two Looks at Another Man's Wife.

Wobbling.

r. ~

198

ery minister should either preach sensational sermons and create a sensation in his church and town or get out of the business”, it was all the cue the men under him needed to try to do something out of the ordinary, to attract attention.

In other denominations there is more latitude. The Reverend John Roach Straton, pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church of New York City, has declared that he does not like to take orders from anybody what to preach or what not to preach, although this was attempted bhe time, at a meeting of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Straton explained that this meeting was held in the library of one of the trustees arid that those present sat about a table on which were a deck of cards and a game of sports. Dr. Straton could not see what there was in such an atmosphere that would endow anybody with authority to tell another person what to preach or how to preach.

This is the same Dr. Straton who jolted the thinking world in the summer of 1919 by saying, “Only a lingering sense of duty, altruism and service prevents the preachers of America from forming a union, calling a strike and telling the country to go to hell”. The remark was a sort of boomerang for the clergy business; for it led to a taking of stock as to just what would happen in the event of a clergy, strike. It was the general consensus of opinion that it would have the same effect as if they kept mi preaching—none at all.

Many well-meaning men, not knowing that the clergy business is an entirely unscriptural proposition, feel very kindly toward those whom they suppose to be in some special sense God’s representatives in the world, and at times offer advice which, if listened to, would do good. But it is hard for those who are freely offering their advice on twenty-two different lines of activities to accept advice from a plain newspaper man, and hence we fear that the following item by the conductor of a section of the Los Angeles Times has not received the attention which it merits. The gentleman speaks of his clerical friends in a critical but kindly manner :

“They are taking more and more all the time to preaching on texts that have nothing to do with religion in any way, shape, or form. The preacher who thinks that he can compete with the newspapers^ the magazines, the stump-speakers and the orators in pa

discussion of everyday topics is making a big mistake. Also, the preacher has a field that is infinitely more interesting and important. The greatest book in existence is at his hand from which to choose texts— the most fascinating book that was ever written or that ever will be written. And finally, when you come right down to it, there is in the heart of the average man a hunger for the consolation that only religion can give.”

Among the clergy there is here and there a real child of God, one who instinctively feels that there is something radically wrong with the efforts to draw worldly people into the church. Such a man, Reverend L. N. B. Anderson, writing in the Spokane Spokesman-Review, says:

“Nowhere in the Bible is there a command that even hints that it is the duty of a minister to draw a house. There would never have been an early Christian martyr had the followers of Christ permitted Him to be placed in the Boman pantheon on an equality with the Roman gods. The same is true today.”

Yet so fully has the idea taken root in the minds of many people that there is something obligatory upon all classes of people to crowd into a church edifice on Sunday, that a judge in Denver, in October, 1921, sentenced two gamblers to attend church for six months or to spend six months in jail. The gamblers attended one preaching service, and then lit out for parts unknown. At last accounts the police were looking for them, so that the sentence of the court could be carried out. In Chicago a judge sentenced four girls caught shoplifting to a term in church.

Some unusual means are taken to secure large church attendances. During the sugar panic in the fall of 1919 a pound of sugar was given to every regular member or visitor attending the meeting of the Men’s Bible Class in Holy Trinity Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, Pa. At Claverton, England, since February, 1920, the pastor has been giving free auto rides to and from the church to all who attend his church services. No doubt from a purely worldly point of view this would be a profitable jitney business, as what man or woman carried to and from church at the pastor’s expense would not give in return in the collection basket at least enough to amount to a good jitney fare each way!

The present method of securing new church members is not by conversion, not by the old Scriptural method of a change of heart and life, but in response to “drives”. New York has recently had such a “drive”, bo has Chicago, so has Wichita; and we have no doubt these “drives” have been prearranged and are virtually uniform over the whole country. The “drive” in Wichita took place on September 18, 1921, when 2,000 workers canvassed 23,000 homes, all denominations participating in the work and the results. The Methodist Church, by adding its new “cradle roll” scheme has added thousands to its membership.

The pastor of the Congregational Church, of Montclair, New Jersey, went the limit in January, 1921. Noting that the members of the Young People’s Society preferred skating to listening to him on Sunday evenings during the skating season, he announced that while the skating lasted the weekly Sunday evening meeting would be held on the ice. The “pastor” announced that he would don skates and lead the Society around the lake and that the “meeting” would conclude with hymn singing and the serving of coffee and sandwiches.

The Raising of Money

"VXTE WONDER how many of our readers, ’ ’ at some time in their lives, have heard the thought advanced that the only thing needed to evangelize the world is the obtaining of sufficient funds. It has been a common doctrine. It has been the claim by turns of the Evangelical Alliance, the Men and Religion Forward Movement, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, and lastly it was the claim of the late lamented Interchurch World Movement.

All can remember the pretentious program of the Interchurch World Movement. The sum which it purposed to raise, distributed among the different denominations, ran to some fifteen hundreds of millions of dollars. Over one hundred million dollars of this amount was raised, and used largely in paying the salaries of the men who raised it, together with office rent, clerk hire, and huge travelling expenses. The movement finally collapsed, as all the others have done, because the movers of these enterprises were undertaking something not authorized in God’s plan, not attempted in God’s way.

The idea of raising these millions of dollars was doubtless born of the experiences of the governments of earth in raising money for the prosecution of wars. Those engaged in the der-gy business, not having any regular employment, such as fills the waking moments of most people in this busy world, were available for use, and were very widely used for the securing of the war funds. They supposed, because the people subscribed for war loans, that the same people would subscribe as quickly and as generously to the plan of bringing about some arrangement whereby all the inhabitants of the world could be forced to go to church on Sunday. But they were mistaken, and the big church drive was a failure.

If there is any virtue in compulsory going to church, then the most praiseworthy and virtuous people in the world are the denizens of our jails and prisons; for in those institutions it is the custom to compel every person to attend the Sunday services, whether he wishes to do so or not.

The St. Louis, Mo., Republic, April 6, 1920, had this to say regarding the church of today:

“The Church today is not preaching the gospel of that Christ who drove the money-changers from the Temple. The money-changer is being chased into the Temple amid paeans of joy and escorted by smiling, ingratiating preachers of the Word- He is an ornament of the Church under the new Dollar Divinity. Go out Sunday and hear what he is preaching. You will find carefully rounded sermons dealing with sweet abstractions and so worded as not to offend. You will find interpretations of Christ’s Word that would astound the Savior if he heard them, you will find the Writ perverted so as to disinherit the Meek and to make the passage of the camel through the eye of the needle a matter of great ease and facility . Preaching [perverting] the Word has become a business instead of a mission.”

The following advertisement appears in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for December 12, 1921:

“The seats in the Central Congregational Church, Hancock St., Brooklyn, will be publicly rented for the year 1922 on Monday evening, December 12, commencing at 7: 30 o’clock. No postponement on account of the weather. Possession on January 1. Each pew has a fixed valuation, and the choice of all in the House is offered to the highest bidder. The Church will be opened on the evenings of December 13 and 14 (Tuesday and Wednesday only) to rent such pews and sittings as remain undisposed of. By Order of Trustees.”

What motive prompts Billy Sunday’s evangelistic work? The meetings held in Cincinnati, February, 1920, were insured against failure both financially and by poor attendance, the amount of the policy being $20,000.

The following is taken from the Atlantic City Press of January 7, 1921:

“Binghamton, N. Y., January 6.—Among the contributions to the building fund of the Orthodox Greek Church of Endicott, near here, the fund committee announced a quart of bonded brandy, which sold for $60.”

Suppose the drives for many millions to carry out the Interchurch World Movement program had been successful? Who would thereafter have directed the energies of the Movement? Those who were the largest contributors, most assuredly. The largest contributors would necessarily have been men of great wealth; otherwise the large sums could not have been obtained; and men of large wealth rarely let any money pass completely out of their controL And what possible advantage could accrue to the inhabitants of the earth in having religion more fully commercialized than it is at the present time?

There are a few incumbents of the clerical profession that do not feel altogether easy in their minds about the prominence given to money by the churches of nowadays, especially when they reflect that neither our Lord nor the apostles ever had anything to say on the subject. Canon Peter Green, rector of St. Philip’s, Salford, England, has refused the bishopric of Lincoln because he is opposed to bishops living in costly palaces and receiving big but too-small salaries.

Others are not uneasy about large sums of money being raised in the name of religion, but they are uneasy about some of the methods of raising it. Thus the Bishop of Chelmsford, England, barred money raised from whist drives and dances from a fund of $1,250,000 which the people of Essex were trying to collect for church extension work. His objection was that although these might both be legitimate forms of recreation they were not the methods of the church for raising money, as he had never heard of either of them being opened or closed with prayer.                               ,

Erecting Buildings

ALTHOUGH there is no record that either our Lord or the apostles ever had anything to do with the erection of a church, parish, athletic, and amusement buildings, and although the Scriptures make no mention of th© improvement of church property as religions work, yet much of the most approved activity of the men in the clergy business is along these lines.

A prominent preacher in New York, proclaiming in the public press his ability to produce such results as are supposed to accompany successful effort on the part of one in the clergy business said:

“Calvary church under my leadership has paid out of debt and does not owe a dollar for the first time in ten years. There is no mortgage on our magnificent property, worth at least $1,500,000, nor is there any outstanding obligation against our endowment funds.”

Another pastor of a prominent church in Atlantic City announces that he took the pastorate of a congregation of 39 members and a church property on which there rested a burden of $32,000 indebtedness, and in ten years so increased the membership and so improved the property that at the close of the period the value of the property had increased to more than $100,000, and with only $28,000 indebtedness standing against it.

But why multiply church buildings when the people as a whole do not care to go to church? The Columbus, Ohio, Ledger says they do not, and the Ledger states the truth. It says:

“A majority of the membership of the average church is found in the pews only on the occasion of a fashionable wedding or some other special event in the way of a musicale, etc. And even then they are somewhat miserly when it comes to a contribution. As a rule they will drop a nickle or a quarter in the basket when they will think nothing of paying one to three dollars for a similar musicale at the opera house.”

Writing on the same subject the Florida Times-Union says:

“Churches costing thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars to build, and thousands more to maintain, are provided in every city in the country. They are made architecturally attractive. Capable clergymen are employed. Music that delights and elevates is provided. Services are made as interesting as possible. And yet the fact is that empty churches proclaim the indifference of the people who are not in attendance on those services. Why, in churches provided with accommodations for hundreds of worshipers, should there be empty pews by the score ? Why should clergymen, striving to do the best that is in them, be compelled to speak to vacant space? Why should they be humiliated with the mockery of religion, such as is indicated by vacant sittings ?”

And then the writer of the article seemed to think of something having a relation to the subject in hand. Possibly he remembered seeing some reference to the sermons recently preached in his own city entitled, “Fainting Fits and Their Cure” and “A Trip to Henry Ford’s Fac-, tory”; for he followed his first remarks above quoted with the observation:

“True, these clergymen do not depart from established and orderly forms of worship. Perhaps for that they are neglected, their churches practically vacant. But better so than that preachers should become sensationalists, mountebanks, as in some instances, in order to draw crowds, largely composed of those to whom Christianity is a stranger.”

We see a very simple and practical remedy for this difficulty. When a city already has more hotels than it can fill with guests, it should stop building hotels and build something else. When a city has enough railroad stations it is folly to build any more. The same is true with stores, town halls, factories, office buildings, apartments, homes, and churches. Why go beyond one’s means and beyond one’s necessities to build something that is not needed and that will not be used after it is built? And if more have already been built than can be used to advantage, they can be used for something else. Is it a pious thing—when the whole land is crying for homes for its people— to go on multiplying unnecessary church buildings?

Opposition to Theatres

rpiIF apostle James defines true religion in terms which include the expression that the child of God is “to keep himself unspotted from the world”. It is a pretty well substantiated thought that if one wants to get well spotted mentally and morally the average low playhouse is a good place to go. The play which does not abound with broad, salacious remarks is a rarity: and many of the situations are anything but helpful to those who are trying to keep themselves clean and pure in mind and heart.

For this reason the founders of many of the Christian sects looked askance at the playhouse. The Methodist Church was one of these, but it has strayed far from its moorings. In the Book of Discipline, paragraph 280, ministers are forbidden to attend theatres, indulge in alcohol, dancing, card-playing, or gambling.

The subject came up at a meeting of 150 Methodist ministers in Chicago in the Fall of 1919; and when resolutions were passed asking that paragraph 280 should be abolished, there was not a dissenting vote. The general sentiment of the ministers present was voiced by

twelve spokesmen who argued that the law did not help the church, that it kept people away who might otherwise “belong”, and lastly as ministers they admitted that they appreciated and enjoyed plays — and other things. The “other things” mentioned in the paragraph in question are listed foregoing. It is a wonder that those who enjoyed these “other things” failed to name them openly in their arguments.

Medford, Oregon, comes in for some special attention along this line. It was in this city, on April 12, 1918, that E. P. Taliaferro was mobbed and chased out of town for preaching the gospel, and George R. Maynard was stripped, painted and driven from town for permitting Bible study at his home. Accordingly we look for something special in the religious line at Medford, particularly in view of the fact that it was a crowd of ministers that procured the outrage upon inoffensive Bible students.

In this same town of Medford, in November, 1920, the Reverend J. R. Sasnett, pastor of the First Methodist Church of that city, was conducting evangelistic services. At one of these "services” the Reverend Sasnett, who is something of a magician, balanced a bottle on his head while two silver forks penetrating the sides of a cork were balanced on the point of a needle on the top of the bottle. With the forks thus balanced and revolving like a merry-go-round, the Reverend Sasnett descended to his knees — not for purposes of prayer — crawled across the platform, and rose again to his feet.

We do not know what part, if any, the Reverend Sasnett had in connection with the assaults on Taliaferro and Maynard, nor what part such stunts have to do with modern “evangelistic services”, but we can see how they would operate to create a certain professional jealousy as between the clergy business and the theatrical business, and some of the opposition of the clergy to the theatres is of that sort.

A town where this jealousy came to light is Tulsa, Oklahoma. At Tulsa, in February, 1919, despite the provision of the United States Constitution that all citizens shall be unmolested in their right of petition, C. M. B. Claus was arrested for the circulation of a petition for the release of Bible students unjustly sent to prison.

In the same city, on March 1,1918, Mrs. Alta Randall’s home was entered by officers and others, who confiscated Bible study textbooks without any warrant, accompanied by abusive, threatening, and violent language. Nine days later, in the same city, O. R. Covey -was arrested, his home and garage entered and searched anil property seized—without warrant; and on the same day, in the same city, Mrs. Elva Thomas’ home was entered by other alleged officers in plain clothes who confiscated Bible stud}' textbooks without warrant. All these acts were violations of the provision of the United States Constitution that citizens shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects.

The clergy of Tulsa were at the bottom of these outrages. It becomes a matter of interest to take note of the present activities of the clergy of Tulsa therefore and to see how they react toward the theatrical profession and other similar institutions which they think, as with the Bible students’ teachings, tend to interfere with the business in which they are engaged.

It seems that the city of Tulsa voted for and arranged municipal band concerts for the Sunday evenings during the past summer; and the concerts were attended by about seven thousand people, largely no doubt because the summer evenings are very pleasant in that climate. While these concerts were on, the preachers were haranguing empty pews, and straightway made an attempt to have the municipal concerts stopped. Thus the Reverend W. 0. Anderson, Pastor of the First Baptist Church and President of the Ministerial Alliance of Tulsa, voiced the complain:

"Our churches have but a few hours out of the one hundred and sixty-eight of the week in which to do their work. If our city sets up counter attractions at those very hours to which the work of the churches ia limited, it evidently speaks in no uncertain way of its disregard of the work done by the churches, and unmistakably forwards a pagan rather than a Christian civilization.”

The Tulsa World thought that the clergy were making a mistake in trying to put an end to the band concerts and that the trouble was one for the churches to regulate within themselves. It admitted that the church membership was sufficient to fill the church auditoriums, but that it preferred the band concert or the automobile. It concluded with the observation that:

“The fault must be in the administration of the churches, or attributable to the impenetrable designs of an omnipotent God. In any event the arm of the government is as powerless to afford relief as it is improper for an appeal to such a source to be made.”

Some of the clergy of Tulsa apparently see ways of upholding the clergy business no matter what the competition. Thus the Reverend Harold G. Cooke, D. D., advertised that on and after June, 1919, the religious hymns would be sung to jazz music in his church and that during the summer months red lemonade would be dispensed to the congregation after service.

At the Tigert Memorial Church in the same city, on a Sunday evening in September last, the “sermon” consisted of advice to young people how to make love to each other, and the hymns for the evening were as follows:

Annie Laurie.

My Old Kentucky Home-

Silver Threads among the Gold.

Way down' upon the Suwanee River.

When You and I Were Young, Maggie.

Tulsa is not alone in peculiar hymns sung to the praise of Almighty God in the temples that are alleged to be set apart to His praise and adoration. Denver, Colorado, is not to be outdone by Tulsa; it has as its Chamber-pf-Com-merce motto, “Denver First in Everything”.

On December 21, 1920, Reverend G. S. Lackland, pastor of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, Denver, installed a negro jazz band in his church. Among other like songs the audience listened to the following religious music:

“Ohl Deacon Johnson was a preachin’ man, The black sky pilot of old Dixie land;

Had never missed a Sunday, rain or shine;

Was always in his pulpit right on time.

One day a dark-skin damsel biow’d in town, Somebody started scandalation ’round;

Next Sunday morn they found the church door locked. This was the only word the deacon left his lonely flock:

chorus:

It takes a Long, Tall. Brown-Skin Gal

To make a preacher lay his Bible down.

For twenty years I’se passed ‘Joy’ by—

. But now I’m goin’ to get mine till I die.

I always thought that preachin’ was my line, But since I met this gal I changed my min’. It takes a Long Brown-Skin Gal to make a preacher lay his Bible down.”

These innovations apparently meet with the favor of Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, ■who is credited with the following utterance:

“We ministers of the gospel must realize that this is an era of the fox trot, jazz band, ultra feminism, and other twentieth century eccentricities; and unless ire keep up with the times religion will be lost in the shuffle. If I knew that by putting a jazz band outside the temple it would bring in thousands of people who never attend the synagogue, I would have no hesitancy in doing so. It makes little difference what forces or agencies we use to get men and women to attend church. All we need worry about is to get them there. Then it is up to the minister to keep them coming.”

The old game of keeping the people coming and keeping them awed was by means of plenty of gilt braid and brass buttons, tassels, lace and other stuff such as one may now get in the five-and-ten-cent stores anywhere. The Episcopal High Church crowd are very strong for that sort of thing. We quote The Nation in a humorous article May 21, 1921, describing briefly a great Episcopal function in New York:

“On May 11 the Rev. Dr. William T. Manning was consecrated tenth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The procession was a most imposing one.”

“Apse, altar, architrave,

Chasuble, rochet, pyx, chimere, Clerestory, n<w,

Throne, mitre, incense, sheer Surplices like snow,

Choir caroling like throstles;

It was not so

Wi/A, Jesus and the twelve apostles.”

It is not just clear what these brethren in the ministry have against the theatres. Aren’t the theatres doing the very same things that they are themselves doing? And if it is religious when done by one set of actors, is it not equally religious when done by another set?

Take that infantile marvel, Frederick Huts-lar, Jr., who led a children’s choir in the Christian church at Palo Alto, California, when he was only three years of age. Have the theatres anything better, or anything worse, than that to show as respects children on the stage?

Then take those colored lights which since October, 1921, are being played upon the worshipers—or perhaps we should say the churchgoers—in St. Mark’s Church-in-the Bouwerie, New York. Yellow lights are used during prayers, changing into soft pink. Throughout the entire service there are ever-changing waves of colored light, like those which play upon the surface of Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies on a day in July. Is this not regular theatrical business? Why, then, should the clergy find fault with their brethren in the theatrical business?

Then there is the Reverend Henry R. Rose, D. D., of the Church of the Redeemer, Newark, N. J. For years he has made his Sunday evening “text” one of the plays current in New York, ill listrating the various scenes with slides. Why should his hearers have to take a rehash of these plays? If they are sufficiently important to be thus reviewed, why not leave out the review and the place where the review is held and go to see the show itself? And that is just what thousands of nominal church-goers do.

This matter of the hostility of the clergy to the theatrical business is getting on the nerves of some actors. In May, 1921, Burr McIntosh, the actor, replying to some aspersions against actors, challenged John Roach Straton, D. D., pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, New York, to a debate on the morality of the stage, and in his challenge said:

“I will at that time prove that at the present time, and for the past fifteen years, for every actor in our prisons there are ten ministers of the gospel”.

Occasionally one of the clergy oversteps the boundaries entirely and invades the camp of his opponents. Thus the Reverend Charles Carver, pastor of Christ Episcopal Church of New Haven, recently acted the leading role in nine performances of “The Divorce Question” at one of the theatres of that city. Surely Doctor Carver does not want the theatre business ended.

Reverend Dr. George Stoves, pastor of the West End Methodist Episcopal Church, of Nashville, Tennessee, frankly admits that his aim is to have the church take over the theatre business bodily. He should be made to understand that combinations of competing lines of business, such as this would imply, are conspiracies in restraint of trade, and are illegal. After saying that if offered a celestial crown he would refuse it, Dr. Stoves said:

“If I had the power I would go out here in this town, and I would build me a church that would seat at least 2,100 people. I would make it the most attractive place in town. I would have plenty of lights in it, and the very best music that we could get. And there would be somthing doing in that church every night; there would be a picture show or something that would draw the crowds; it would be their entertainment.”

We do not think Dr. Stoves need worry about ever being offered a celestial crowm; we do not see how he can ever get the chance to refuse one. The movies which he would use are made by regular actors; and if their use in the church is to make up the entertainment of the people it follows that the only logical result is a union of the theatrical and clerical professions.

As indicating the trespasses of the clergy profession upon the theatrical profession we note in the New York Evening Telegram, for Friday, November 25, 1921, the following advertisement—which we publish, free, as usual for the clergy:

“Motion Pictures. Rev. Clarence J. Harris, recognized expert, criticizes and reconstructs photoplays, stories ; class and private instruction. Interviews by appointment. Apply for terms 45 Pinehurst Avenue.”

Opposition to Dancing

DY THEIR creeds all evangelical churches oppose dancing and lead their parishioners to believe that they should not indulge in dancing. Yet we fmd the clergy encouraging, attending and holding dances.

The Reverend A. E. Cowley, Baptist minister at Columbus, Ohio, has made the statement that the churches should not place a ban on dancing, because men cannot be made good in that way. The Reverend J. J. Phelan, Baptist minister of Toledo, Ohio, has gone a step farther and said that in his opinion all modern churches should be equipped with bowling alleys and provisions for dancing. But when, a year or two ago, the rector of the Episcopalian church at Pontiac, Michigan, rented the biggest dance hall for one night in each week, and organized a community dancing club, the Baptist churches of the city denounced dancing as an improper amusement for Christian young people. Evidently our Baptist friends have not yet come to an agreement as to their dancing program.

The newspapers frequently contain notices of dances and card parties to raise money for the erection of Roman Catholic church buildings. Apparently the Roman Catholic Church has taken no position whatever against dancing. The Los Angeles Express tells of the bazaar at the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in a suburb, where the young people of the congregation are “kept in line” by movies, jazz bands and dancing. All over the United States dances are held in church parlors.

Opposition to Gambling

THE church is opposed to gambling, or is supposed to be, but there is a great deal of gambling done by those who are intimately interested in the church’s welfare. At a meeting of the Camden District of the New Jersey Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,

held in Atlantic City, September 26, 1921, Reverend A. B. Carlin, referring to the almost universal use of gambling devices in the form of wheels at firemen’s fairs said:

“I made a round of these fairs, and every one was being looked after or operated by members of the seven churches of the town. In fact, a member of the official board of one church ran one of the wheels, and one of the Sunday school teachers spent money there.”

Some months ago an advertisement appeared in the Pas, Manitoba, Herald, containing the announcement that there is an opening at Atho-papuskoa for a minister who is also a good poker player. The advertisement stirred up a considerable amount of controversy pro and con among the clergy of Canada: and the job was finally taken by a young minister of Columbus, Ohio, who had the necessary qualifications. In the Canadian discussions it developed that the pastor of St. Stenhen’s Presbyterian church at Winnipeg, Reverend C. W. Gordon, was one of those in favor of a minister being able to play a good game of poker. Why not? They are doing everything else. .

The authorities in the Church of England are not just agreed as to where to draw the line on this gambling question. Dr. Wakefield, of Birmingham, Bishop of the Diocese, at a church congress held in his city urged the church to consider carefully how much bridge playing should be done by the members, and !:oir much racing and dabbling in stock-' and si.'ares, so that they might be able to <ii -tmguisli between a vicious propensity and “the harmless backing of a formed judgment”.

That is pretty rich. If your jud.'nnent is good and vou win your bets, you have shown Hint you have “the harmless backing of a formed judgment”; but if you have not had ecoo'-h exneri-ence to obtain a ni'-oly mon! led judgment respecting the thing"- about vbi-h you gamble, and you try desperately and c.Yp->nsively to get that experience, then you have a “vicious propensity” for gambbng that would make you a fit subject for discipline. The older and more seasoned gamblers would seem to have all the best of it in the Church of England if the Bishop’s program goes through. It ill becomes this sect, however, to comment unfavorable on gambling in view of “Old Trinity”, New York, with her eye on Wall Street.

Baseball is not exactly gambling. It used to .be. considered the cleanest of sports because so many men wore involved in the plays that it was considered impossible for gamblers to control it, until it developed that some of the players were deliberately making misplays in order that their sides might lose and certain gambling friends might win. Under the circumstances one can but wondei- just what force and effect in heaven would follow the prayer of Reverend Frederick McMillin, pastor of Walnut Hills Presbyterian Clmreh, Cincinnati, Ohio, who publicly offered the following prayer for victory for the Cincimulti Reds:

“Grant to our pitch -rs stnmgth and speed, control and d<•(•■•ptive curves, that the opposing batsmen may make few runs. Grant to our noble hitters many hits. May we all cheer and encourage our faithful players until the pennant is assured.”

Opposition to Fighting

OF COl'RSE the clergy are opposed to prizefighting: for it is very evident on the surface that this sport has nothing to commend it. In order that he might be able to describe to his congregation just how brutalizing a prize-fight is, the Reverend John Roach Straton, Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, New York, and Regulator of All Thing", obtained a choice seat at the ringside in Jersey City when the Dempsey-Carpentier fight for the championship of the world was recently pulled off there. Dr. Straton described the audience in the following language, which is remarkable for the intimate knowledge it implies of the personnel and of all the devious ways of the under-world:

“It mount not simply th” presence, of one class of our defectives and moral due rerutes, but it gathered all the poison elements of our modern society. The gamblers li-'d the horse-racers and 1b” touts, the ‘lighthouses’, the home negbvt"rs, the baby-killers and the pug-dog nttr-es. the burglars. th - pickpockets and the strong-arm men. th-.- promoters, th” plutocrats and the profiteers, the I,'nnorites, the Anialckites and the painted Amazons. the double-livers, the society divorcees, and the polygon i bt movie stars (whose coming was heralded across the continent), the vaudeville performers, the proprietors of the degraded theatres, and all the other women-exploiters. the Sabbath-breakers, the church-scoruers and the God-defiers-”

Dr. Straton has a facile pen. He pictured the Dempsey-Carpentier fight in language which has made him famous. A part of his description follows:

“When we find multitudes of small boys betting even their pennies on a brutalizing fight; and when we see little girla in short dresses present in the arena taking up a collection for ‘charity’, while two big brutes right before them are pounding each other black and blue, Until one of them, gashed and broken, is finally knocked insensible; and when we see a world-famous society belle and church woman promoting a ‘charity’ prize-fight, attending it herself, and then coming out in the papers and glorifying it all, then, I say, it is full justification for the assertion that we have ‘hit the bottom with a thud’.”

Yes, the clergy business is at the bottom— down and out. However, tin* clergymen of Jersey City made a strenuous effort to prevent the Dempsey-Carpentier fight, but without avail. Charles W. Ervin, writing in the New York Call of the efforts which these men made to prevent the fight said:

“I am not defending the spectacle. I will not be at the ringside. But if 1 had my choice between being seated there with the followers of this sport and being aeated with the churchmen who are trying to stop it, after having supported the horrible game of murder named war, I‘would a thousand times rather be with the followers of the prize-ring. They arc veritable children of the light compared with the hypocrites who pretend a mercy they do not practice, and who are today what the Carpenter of Nazareth said of them two thousand years ago—‘whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but are within full of dead men’s bones’.”

But, marvelous to tell, not all of the clergy are opposed to prize-fighting. Some of them are, as for example the three clergymen of Clinton, Massachusetts, who brought suit for an injunction restraining the selectmen and janitor from renting the town hall for boxing-bouts.

But Bishop MeLaglen, of Claremont, South Africa, is not opposed. How could he be when he had an advertisement inserted in the London All Sports Weekly challenging any bishop to box five rounds for a fund for the lienefit of disabled soldiers?               ,

Father Marnell, of St. Joseph's Church, Paterson, N. J., is not opposed. At one of the smokers recently held in the church-hall of the church with which he is connected he arranged a program calling for the services of sixteen trained pugilists to carry it out.

Dean Charles 1?. Brown, of the School of Religion at Yale University, is not opposed to fighting. In an address at Chicago, in May, 1920, he made the statement, “In every real man there is the instinct to fight. For centuries men have been willing to pay more to see a good prize-fight than any other form of entertainment."’ A Connecticut woman commenting on this remark said: “It must be disappointing to Dean Brown that there is such a meager account of the first fight on record (Genesis 4: 8), and that Jehovah was so unsportsmanlike as to rebuke the winner”.

There are plenty of other “Reverends" that . are not now opposed to fighting. On May 24, 1920, Alfred E. Smith, then Governor of New York State, signed a bill allowing and regulating boxing and sparring matches, and in his reasons tor signing the bill said: “Over a thousand clergymen of all denominations, who might be expected, if this bill did not deal cleanly with a legitimate sport, to oppose it, have written me urging my signature”.

In England the attitude of the clergy toward prize-fighting is so neutral that a speaker at a congress of the Peace Society, held at Westminster, in October, 1921, made the following remark:

“Since the war there have been no clerical protests against prize-fights. I do not wonder. The prize-fight is a clean, scientific thing compared with war. What did the churches do to prevent the war? What have they done to prevent reprisals in Ireland ? They have done nothing.”

In America the clergy seem determined to try to convince the world that they have no different standard of conduct from other men. When, in Columbus, Ohio, in December, 1919, the Reverend Angus Claphan, pastor of St. John’s Episcopal Church, engaged in a wrestling match with a local candy-maker, an Irishman, he explained to those present, before the bout started:

“We have come to the point where we can’t eternally damn the man in the street because he does not go to church. We have got to go chasing him in the street, and this is part of the chasing.”

Reverend James Campbell Ray, pastor of the Church of Christ, Disciples, Danbury, Connecticut, is not opposed. He recently acted as one of the seconds in a prize-fight in his city, having previously trained one of the boxers in a room in the church.

Reverend J. II. Jones, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Rosedale, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., is not opposed. In May, 1920, he conducted a fighting and wrestling match in the basement of his church for the benefit of a building fund. The first event of the evening was a fight between two six-year-old boys, in which one of the little fellows waa

badly hurt and cried—as what baby of six would not under such circumstances. In the next fight an imported pugilist, Tommy Murphy, drew blood from the nose of one of Reverend Jones’ flock. Subsequently the “Reverend” and the Sunday School Superintendent sprawled together on the floor in a wrestling match.

Reverend Earl A. Blackman, pastor of the First Christian Church of Chanute, Kansas, is not opposed. He instructs a class in boxing in the basement of his church, and is altogether what might be called a “live bird”. After refereeing a prize-fight one Saturday night in Wichita, Kansas, he flew back by airplane from Wichita to Chanute early Sunday morning so that he might be on time for the morning preaching service, which he later conducted.

Reverend Blackman is credited with having said that if he had his way half of Chanute’s fifteen church structures would be turned into dance halls, community centers, recreation rooms, gymnasiums, reading rooms, and billiard rooms. Here is a suggestion for the con-Bideration of those anxious to keep church buildings full of some kind of people at all hazards.

Reverend Blackman has also made another interesting remark, which is that if it was proper and legitimate for him to be known as the fighting parson when he was on the battlefield of France, it is equally proper and legitimate for him now to be known as the parson of the prize-ring. Reverend Blackman is quite right. If one is proper so is the other.

This breeding of a new type of “pastor” is bringing results. In Hobart, Oklahoma, a ticket agent was slow in selling a half-rate ticket to the Big-Church Representative that was waiting for it, whereupon the “Reverend” kicked open the door of the ticket-office and beat the agent. He did not make much by the transaction ; the judge fined him $17; the price of his half-rate ticket would have been $4.27.

Life now is not so dull even for the “Reverends” around New York. One of them, Reverend Ernest Whitcomb, pastor of the Evangelical Church of Jesus at North Bergen, N. J., a blind man> was dragged out of the pulpit by his successor, the Reverend Harold M. Ross, assisted by the Reverend A. Thompson and six other brave and strong men.

BREVITIES

Why Men Go to College           By Charles Senior

OUR M. E. minister advertised his subject for Sunday 8.00 P. M. as “Why Men Go to College”. In his remarks he said they go “to get out of work”; and I believe him, at least as far as the M. D.’s go. Take away from the average M. D. his Latin and his power of suggestion and require him to tell the people the truth in plain English, and what would be the result? We would not have many M. D.’s.

Prescriptions are written in Latin, to hide from the people the fact that spiritus frumenti is just plain whisky, aqua is water, adeps is lard, allium is garlic, amylum is starch, capsicum is cayenne pepper, saccharum is sugar, etc. If the M. D.’s did not use Latin a good many of the little papers which we take to the drug stores, and for which the druggist charges 75c to $2, could be filled in our own kitchens for a cent or two.

About the first thing many doctors do when they are called, at $2 to $4 per call, is to try to get the patient into a hospital so as to get from $50 to $200 more. In some respects they are as bad as the preacher class.

Not So Bad

THE recent figures published by Bradstreet’s on the percentage of failures to the total number of concerns in business give the quietus to the superstition started two decades ago and still repeated, that 95 to 97 percent of the people that go into business fail. The facts regarding American business failures are as follows:

Year	No. of	No. in	Percent
	failures	business	failing
1920____	______8,595___	___1,958,042____	____0.44
1919__	______5,515___	___1,843,066____	____0.29
1918____	_____9,331__	___1,824,104____	____0.51
1917___	____13,029____	___1,828,464____	____0.71
1916__	____16,496____	___1,790,776____	____ 0.92
1915____	____19,035____	___1,770,914____	____1.07
1914___	____16,769____	___1,749,101__	____0.95
1913___	____14,551____	____1,718,345___	__0.84

.The average percent of failures for these eight years was 0.72 percent. If business men remain in business an average of ten years, the

percentage of the total that fail in the ten years is 7.2 percent; if twenty years, 14.4 percent; and if thirty years, 21.6 percent The figures also show that the number of concerns in business increases at an average rate of 1.87 percent a year. The rate of population increase is 1.49 percent a year, showing that the number of concerns in business increases 25.5 percent faster than the population. This manifests a drift from such occupations as farming, teaching, the ministry, etc., into lines where a living can be made more easily.

In the 8,595 failures which occurred in 1920, 32.3 percent failed from lack of capital, 32.5 from incompetence, 14.4 percent from specific outside causes, and 7 percent from fraud.

DY PEACE is meant an inability to place in the field millions of men fully prepared to launch at each other devilish and costly lifedestroyers. Enough money might be found for the attiring and arming of the men, but not for their transport and board. The total war debts make a sum which would puzzle good arithmeticians to state in figures: for the sake of themselves and their readers they would rather write it in words, especially if the franc was the coin selected. And for a great portion of this a high interest is being paid and is likely to be paid, unless the one chance for solvency be not tried. This is by general disarmament, which will reduce the expenditure at an early date by hundreds or thousands of millions, according as the pound or the franc is mentioned. European financiers should like to start this soon. Their statesmanship should be equal to the problem.

That Europe is insolvent may be known by what are called its public stocks, which are fully paid. Their grand total would puzzle the composer of an arithmetic book to write, and they are all at a discount. At their present prices they give the investor a large interest on his money, but he has none at present for such an attractive object Consequently the deprect-

ation of these stocks, in whatever form of national money reckoned, amounts to thousands of millions. If this he true, it is very important that the enormous public loans of Europe should be rehabilitated in the only way possible. She must agree to the dismissal of aU armies kept for offensive purposes, and thus restore her exchange with Africa.

Feeding the World               By Luke williams

AS I see the present conditions, we need more _k efficient methods introduced among the famine sufferers across seas. Our missionaries should be practical farmers, who take with them a complete American farming equipment, thereby demonstrating to the miserably equipped agriculturists of the Far East that if an American farmer can prepare a seed-bed along the Rocky Mountains, and produce through “dry farming” methods forty bushels of wheat per acre, the same can be done on the semi-arid plains of Arabia, Siberia, or China.

The arts of old Rome or Greece and modern Europe pale into utter insignificance when compared to our “dry farming’' art. It is the most necessary, the most dignified, the most exalted, if you please, of all the world’s fine arts. Why? Because it produces a surplus of food over and above the actual requirements; it shows increment that can be used to feed others; it prevents starvation.

Feed a nation well, and it will become possible to make a living without stealing and without violating the Golden Rule.

Shall this nation, that possesses the greatest art of all time, stand by and see one-fifth of the old world starve when we have the key of physical life and death in our possession?

Strange to say, the sufferers of these distant lands will put a large acreage to opium rather than to necessary cereals or grain needful to preserve their physical lives. Central Europe will raise a large crop of hops for beverage purposes instead of raising the essentials. So we find the entire old world, from Gibraltar to the eastern terminus of the Chinese wall, in a destitute condition, a veritable “milky way” of want and misery.

While Christ made several statements about “the poor”, perhaps the most important question; mortal man ever asked Him was, “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer that Christ gave the ambitious young man leads the writer to believe that America is absolutely not qualified to “follow the Master” as long as we do not solve the food question for the sleepy Orientals and all other nations that do not possess our agricultural implements and knowledge.

/

Church of England Collapsing   '

WHILE England is dying from unemployment, the bishops of the Church of England at the Church Conference fiddle away their time with discussions on the need of a revised Prayer Book, “not a new one,” the bishops are careful to explain of that ancient fetich. “The marriage service,” said Rev. R. J. Campbell, “contains expressions which are offensive to modern delicacy of feeling; they could be removed without detriment. The burial service ought to be entirely rewritten. [Cries of “No!”] It strikes an almost painful note of mournfulness and gloom."

According to the Daily Herald (London) some of the bishops think that “we have too much in the way of prayers for the King and the Royal Family [words capitalized], and that in this democratic age the emphasis in our petitions for national benefits should be differently placed. What is wanted in this department is addition. We ought to have authorized forms of prayer [for the Episcopalian clergyman is not permitted to pray for anything except what is in the printed prayers] for all Ministers of State, all makers of public opinions [the newspapers— they need some prayers], all who have the training of the young [prayers should be made for higher salaries for teachers], and all who exercise leadership [Big Business evidently feels some need of prayers].”

The attitude of the ex-service men to this effete church came in for attention. Mr. Clifton Kelway, secretary of the Church Reform League, commented on varying forms of service— for the Episcopalian never deviates an hairbreadth from the printed form. Not long ago convalescent soldiers attended a church wherein the service was of an “advanced” character, “with incense”—presumably for delicate nostrils.

Asked what happened, one seemed a bit hazy, but said: “I do not quite know; but first of all, they had a route march around the church, and then they gassed us”. (Laughter)

Blind leaders of still blinder people seem unable to appreciate the state of collapse into which their system is entering. Dealing with another aspect of Church activity, the Bishop of Chichester said:

“At the present time the elergy are dying and retiring twice as fast as they are being ordained. The situation is at its worst in the northern industrial areas, which are sinking into practical Godlessness.”

With a failing clergy and innumerable empty churches the evidence accumulates that the nominal church system has run its course. Like other institutions which have served a divinely permitted purpose it is one of the things of which it is said: “They shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed”. (Psalm 102: 26) The existing churches are to pass away, to be succeeded by institutions better suited to the needs of the age.

The British Worker’s Sunday By a. j. Keen

ISING at some time before noon on a Sunday, how shall the British worker spend his day or, rather, the remaining portion u* day? Since about two o’clock Saturday afternoon he has probably⁷ been his own master. Perhaps he has had his breakfast in bed, or it maybe that he will have it when the children are at Sunday School. Before or after breakfast his Sunday newspapers will have been secured; and these, with an occasional glance at the daily papers during the week, will stand for his reading and all the literature with which he is. acquainted. This is all that fifty years of ‘■'board-schooling” has to show. It is resolved that a boy shall read, at his parents’ expense if they can afford it, at the country’s if they are too poor.

Here, then, on Sunday the adult worker rests, prepared to use his public-school attainments on learning his luck in his guesses on the results of public game competitions; or, it may be, he will want to know how his favorite pugilist has fared, facially as well as a whole, in his last encounter. These exhausted, the police and the divorce cases of the week will perhaps interest him, the police courts often dealing with the poorest, the divorce courts with the richest of the population.

After this, it might be thought that the man-

Bbookmv. Ji. X« -

./.-.I ual worker had some taste for a literary maga- : * < zine. He has not; for his skill in reading is net sufficient to enable him to follow intelligently A the phrasing of an author. He would not even appreciate an allusion to Dickens; for that writer is unknown at least to men below fifty. Shakespeare they know well ^gpough to declare that he was English-born, b^r their knowfedgte of him ends there. If they had ever content-plated an excursion into the classic literature of their own country, an unfortunate betting or guessing competition will have diverted their unusual thinking, or perhaps the missing of a certain tobacco brand has left them unequal to ; the intellectual strain. But the worker can turd his mind to shaving, as it is now noon; and as   <

this has not been done since Friday he needs it.   ,

Meantime the anxious wife toils at the cooking of a good dinner, which is to follow a good breakfast. This meal is perhaps the only one of the week partaken of by all'the family ■with time for its comfortable enjoyment. It would be a good opportunity for the seniors to start some bright conversation to amuse as well as to instruct. But the opportunity must be passed'; for the father has not during the week provided himself intellectually. He therefore sits in silence or, if he is heard, he may complain of the meat or of the behavior of a child. So the _: -meal silently proceeds till finished. Soon again the children are made ready for Sunday School, and while the wife attends to the clearing of the dinner table the husband sleeps again.

Tea appears on the table about five o’clock; and when that is gone, the worker of the week considers seriously his engagements for the Sunday evening. He will probably lay upon himself some infrequent clothing, and take his first walk of the week, it may be by himself, if his wife wishes to attend a service ; or what is less likely, he may even accompany her. But this will most likely be to something that is called “attractive”. For a limited time in the evening the saloon, better known as the publie-house, is largely patronized by customers whose imps-euniosity ill fits the prices of ninepence for thn pint and a shilling for the ounce. His evening at home later on will be accompanied by supper of some sort, with or without the same dettr alcohol; and thus the British worker brings* hib ' Sunday to a finish.                                 -

Butterfly Facts and Fancies h. e. Coffey

WHO at all observant of nature and her bounties has failed to note the butterflies of variegated hues as they come and go ? These fascinating lepidoptera have a complex life history, the intricacies of which have served to puzzle the minds of naturalists and entomological experts down to our day. While these talented men have by the microscope and careful observation solved many of the details, they have as yet failed to analyze the laws governing insect metamorphosis—the change from larva to adult. At first the butterfly larva emerges from the egg deposited by the female butterfly, as a mere worm, small or insignificant in size. This worm grows into the caterpillar with which most ail are familiar. The caterpillar, as a rule, feeds upon green foliage until a certain age has been reached, when it ceases activity and pupates. The various pupae into which caterpillars form differ in shape and color. After a time there emerges from the pupa an adult butterfly, richly arrayed in colored splendor. It is this wonderful change from ugly worm to a thing of beauty, the butterfly, which remains as yet an unsolved phenomenon of natural science. The vast majority of worms never undergo a change, but live and die as such.

Hence it is that the student of Bible science likes well to compare this unusual event of nature to a picture which would in a way represent the resurrection change, mentioned by the Apostle (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52), a change which he terms a "mystery”. Only a few experience this change—only the class which is elsewhere referred to as a “little flock”. (Luke 12: 32) The vast majority, through these, are to be blessed on the earth.—Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:16, 29.

Entering upon its new-found life and freedom the butterfly no longer feeds, as when a worm, upon foliage of plants, but flits about sipping through its proboscis of the essence and sweetness of the flowers. Thus it subsists from day to day, admired and loved. Children wander forth to fields of clover, and they find it there.

The barefoot boy as he treads the meadows at eve notes it flitting from flower to flower. Hence this flirtatious characteristic has given rise to the term “butterfly fancies”, applied to youthful imagination. But it is the day-dreams of youth which are oftenest hewed and transformed into stupendous realities. “They won-Her how you did it.” Alexander, when a youth, conceived of an empire of world dominion, and in after years he grasped it as his own. Rockefeller, it seems, as a poor boy possessed an insatiable longing for wealth, and now he is numbered chief among the multi-millionaires. Beyond the grasp of earthly fancy and imagination lies a spiritual reality—the gift of God. God so loved the world that He gave on their behalf His only begotten Son (John 3:16); and of this gift few are conscious. This is the mystery: “Christ in you the hope of glory”. (Colossians 1:27) Those able to appreciate that gift may now claim it as their own; and Christ becomes to them a robe of righteousness. Thus the covered ones are enabled to maintain a relation of sonship to God. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God.”

To the world these favored ones appear to be not greatly different from others. But these are conscious of their divine begetting and of the fact that this begetting necessitates a birth. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but . . . when he shall appear we shall be like him.” (1 John 3:2) Those to whom such hopes (or what some would term butterfly fancies) have no appeal should not attempt to grasp them as their own. God created the earth for man’s habitation (Isaiah 45:18), as a place where he might live forever in happiness; and the yearning of the human heart for perfect conditions is rational and real and sure of fulfillment. Those who have witnessed the many phenomena of natural science and history, as the change of caterpillar into butterfly, are soon to witness quite as remarkable changes in human history and government. The t ransition is now going on, and the pupal stage is nearing its finis. The shaking of the nations in progress since 1914 is signal to the fact that the mighty and invisible empire of Christ is rising to exercise universal sway. (Daniel 2:44) Behold even now, the message heralding the birth of a new order goes forth: “The Golden Age is here; millions now living will never die”. As we

NEW YORK CITY has had another tremendous witness to the incoming of Messiah’s kingdom. Announcement was made that Judge Rutherford, President of the International Bible Students Association, would deliver his world-famous led ure,‘‘Millions NbwLiving Will Never Die,” Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock, Uecember 11. Long before the time for the lecture to begin New York’s great Hippodrome, the place of the meeting, was packed out, while a multitude in the streets surged about the doors, eager to gain admittance. An extra force of police was employed to keep the crowd back. Six hundred extra seats had been placed on the stage, these and all other seats and all available standing room being occupied, until 7,000 souls, the majority of whom were men, filled this magnificent auditorium.

At the appointed hour, without introduction, Judge Rutherford began his address. For a time the great audience sat in silence, carefully following every word; but as the speaker warmed up to his subject the audience did likewise, and greeted the telling points with round after round of applause.

This was Judge Rutherford’s second appearance at the Hippodrome, having addressed a

212 packed house there last year. On that occasion reporters for the press turned in to their respective papers a lengthy report, but not a word was published. Bor this last meeting two of tho New York papers refused to make announcement. The speaker explained to the audience that the major portion of the metropolitan press is owned, controlled, or subsidized by big busi-; ness and its allies, and that these had given orders that not one word of the speech should be published. T'his furnished an excuse for him to publish the lecture in book form, and more than

three million of these have gone into the hands of the people. This statement w’as greeted with much applause. It is quite evident that the peo-

want every one who believes that such a course was wrong to stand up.” Practically every person in the house immediately stood up, the exceptions being a few clergymen.

Mr. F. H. Robison presided at the meeting, and Mr. W. P. Mockridge conducted the music. Sacred hymns were sung, in which the audience joined heartily.

The speaker in part said:

“Since the expulsion of man from Eden he has desired restoration to perfect human life on earth.

“For ages orthodox Jews have expected the coming of their Messiah to establish a kingdom, to bless them, and through them all the nations. Their hopes are based upon God’s promises made to the faithful prophets of old.

“For nearly nineteen centuries Christians have expected and hoped for the coming of the Messiah, to be followed_by the blessing of mankind. In addition to the inspired prophets, they have based their hopes upon the teachings of Jesus and His apostles.

“Jews and Gentiles, Catholic and Protestant, have believed and taught this expected blessing would come at the end of the world.

“Jesus was born a Jew. He lived, taught and died in Jerusalem, and was a great teacher; and these facts should make His words acceptable testimony to Jews. To Christians His word imports absolute verity, because they believe that He is the Son of God, the Savior of man. He taught His followers to pray: ‘Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven’. Christians have continued to pray this prayer with the expectancy of its fulfillment.

“The question of the restoration of man to human perfection, the giving to him of life, liberty and happiness on earth, is the most stupendous question before the world. If the restoration of man is not true, then Christianity must fail, and the hope of the Jews must perish.

“I propose to prove from fulfilled prophecy that the hopes of Jews will not perish and that Christianity will prevail; that we are at the time for the opening of the way that leads man to a realization of his desires.

“Man was perfect when in Eden. Because of sin he lost that perfection. By inheritance imperfection and death resulted to all. Hence all were born sinners.— Psalm 51:5; Romans 5 : 12.

“God promised to redeem man from death, saying: H will ransom them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death’.—Hosea 13:14.

“To Abraham Jehovah made the promise: ‘In thy seed *11 the families of the earth shall be blessed’. (Genesis 12:3) To Moses Jehovah declared that He would raise up a mighty one who would be the deliverer of mankind and that all the people should hear and obey Him.— Acts 3:22.

“To the prophet Isaiah He declared that a Mighty One should rule the earth, that ‘the government shall be upon his shoulder’, and that He would give, life to the people, with endless peace.—Isaiah 9: 6.

“These prophecies must be fulfilled, because God has-declared that His word shall not return to Him void, but shall accomplish that, purpose to which He utters it. (Isaiah 55:11) But the question is, When will these blessings come?

“When Jesus stood before Pilate He said: ‘My kingdom is not of this world’. By the word world is meant organized society on earth. Clearly, then, Jesus showed that His kingdom was future- On another occasion He said that Satan the devil is the prince (ruler) of this world. It follows, then, that Satan’s rule must be destroyed and succeeded by the great Messianic kingdom. Everybody recognizes the hand of Satan in the affairs of earth in the wicked things that are in progress. Satan is not yet dethroned, but will be shortly.

“God’s chosen people on the earth were the Jews- All other nations were under the control of Satan. God established with the Jews the true religion, commanding them to worship Him as the only true God. Satan, the mimic god, established with the other nations the false religion. God commanded the Jews to have nothing to do with the nations round about and their religion. The Jews disobeyed Him time and again, until in His provocation Jehovah declared through His prophet to the last king of Israel: ‘Remove the diadem, take off the erowm; ... I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, . . . until he shall come whose right it is [to rule] and I will give it to him’.— Ezekiel 21:86,27.

“There Jehovah withdrew from the stage of action relative to the nation of Israel, permitted the gentiles to establish a universal empire; and there, as stated by St. Paul, Satan became the god of this world. From that time forward, by fraud and deception he has blinded the people and has striven to turn their minds away from God and His plan for blessing them. Allied with Satan as ruler of this world has been and is a host of demons, who misrepresent the dead and communicate with the living through willing mediums.

“I shall now prove that Satan’s empire is at an end; and that this is the day of God’s vengeance upon his empire, visible and invisible; that the kingdom of Messiah is here; hence millions of people now on earth will never die, but will be restored to perfect manhood and live on earth forever.

“Israel’s last king was overthrown and the gentile dominion universal established in 606 B. C. God’s Word provided that the gentiles should continue in power for 2,520 years, which necessarily ends the gentile dominion in 1914. This also marks the end of Satan’s empire and the beginning of its destruction. For this reason Bible Students for more than forty years past have called attention to the fact that 1914 would mark the beginning of great trouble and distress in the earth. The physical

facts, well known to all now, prove the Bible Students were right. God’s prophet had written concerning that time: ‘The nations were angry and thy wrath is come’.

“When Jesus sat upon the Mount of Olives, His Jewish brethren and disciples propounded to Him the question : ‘Tell us what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world’. (Matthew 24: 3) They asked this question because the mind of every devout Jew was upon the promises God had made to establish the Messianic kingdom. The gentiles were then in power, and the Jews knew that the end of the world would mark the beginning of the blessing of the people.

“Jesus answered the question: ‘Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom’. The great World War came on time, fulfilling this prophecy.

“Continuing, Jesus answered: ‘And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes [social upheavals] in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.’(Matthew 24: 7, 8) Since 1914 millions have starved in China, in Austria, and other parts of central Europe; and now 25,000,000 in Russia alone are facing starvation. The pestilence has swept the earth. Social upheavals have already taken place and are taking place in other parts of the earth. These prophecies are fulfilled.

“Jesus then told the Jews that they would be taken away captive and be trodden down by the gentiles until the gentile times should end, clearly indicating that God’s favor would return to them at that time. In this He was corroborated by the prophets Jeremiah, Zechariah, and others.

“Bible chronology shows that the favor would begin to return to the Jews in 1878 and would reach a climax forty years thereafter. Exactly on time the Berlin Congress in 1878 opened for Jews rights in Palestine they had not enjoyed for more than eighteen centuries; and exactly forty years later, to wit, in 1918, the Jews under the direction of the British empire began to build their government in their homeland. Palestine. The Jews have returned, and this prophecy is ralfilled. When a prophecy is fulfilled, that should be sufficient proof that the prophets were right in their prediction and that we have reached the time foretold by them.

NATIONS IN DISTRESS

“What man is he whose vision is so dull that he can not see that all the nations of earth are today in distress and perplexity? The war(has bankrupted the world. Business everywhere is demoralized and chaotic. Financiers are fearful of losing their holdings. Labor is fearful that it will not be able to exist. Statesmen, politicians, and rulers fear radicalism or Bolshevism. In fact, every one whose mind is not stayed upon the Lord is in a state of fear and distress. (Isaiah 26: 3) Why this distress and perplexity and fear ? Jesus answers that when we reach the end of the world there will be ‘upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth’.

“Amidst the din of confusion, distress and perplexity, the people everywhere are longing and praying for peace, liberty, happiness, and life.

REMEDIES PROPOSED

“Men and organizations propose divers and numerous remedies to save the world from chaos. All of these will fail because Satan is the god of this world, who influences the proposed human remedies and blinds the minds of the people to the true one.

“Financiers, statesmen and ecclesiastics in turn offer their remedies. Each one has failed. Now they unite their forces and offer other remedies. Let us consider some of these.

“God foreknowing what would transpire symbolically pictures earth’s ruling organizations under the word? ‘wild beasts’, in contrast with the peaceable Messianic kingdom. This symbolic expression ‘wild beast’ represents government of men by violence: (1) by doing violence to the conscience of men; and (2) using violence and force to comped compliance with rules. This ‘beast’ or governing factor is made up of three, elements, to wit: Commercialism, commonly called big business; Statesmen, commonly called professional politicians'; and Ecclesiastics, commonly called apostate clergy.

“Satan, doubtless without the knowledge of many men, operates this combine with the pretext of bringing relief to mankind; yet with the real purpose of turning man’s mind away from the Messianic kingdom. The combine or alliance is in fact the last desperate effort of Satan to control the world. It must and will fail before the brightness of the Prince of Peace.

“What is really feared by the ruling factors ia radicalism or Bolshevism. Bible Students, who are Christians, are unalterably opposed to any unrighteousness practised by any one class upon another. They are neither radical nor speaking for the opposite alliance. They believe that the nation that will be blessed must recognize Jehovah as God and Messiah as the Lord and King. They believe in doing good unto all and evil to none. While speaking for neither contending faction, Bible Students are striving to point all to God’s remedy.

INTERCHURCH WORLD MOVEMENT

“Recently there was formed the Interchurch World Movement, with the announced purpose of saving the world. The first thing done was to ask the people for $336,777,500.00 with which to convert the world. While the great clergymen of the land have ostensibly been at the head, the professional politicians have been acting as spell-binders; yet it has been demonstrated that the Interchurch World Movement was begotten, born and operated for a while for a selfish purpose by big business.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

“There assembled at Paris the representatives of til®

ruling factors of the world to stop war and bring peace, prosperity and happiness. To that conference came the rulers, the nobles and mighty men of earth. It was the beginning of the antitypical feast of Belshazzar. The assembly brought forth a document known as the League of Nations. It is conspicuous in that the names of God and Jesus are ignored. Yet it is held up to the people as a means of salvation.

“Big business said to the world: ‘You must take the League of Nations or finances will go to pieces’. Big politicians, of which Woodrow Wilson was one of the leading ones, with great crocodile tears flowing down his cheeks, said: ‘Take the League of Nations or civilization will disintegrate’. The big clergy, with great piety, exclaimed: “Take the League of Nations; it is the political expression of God’s kingdom on earth’. And thus with one accord the unholy alliance cried unto the people: "The League of Nations is your salvation’.

“The common people of Europe had no opportunity to repudiate it; but the American yeoman at the polls by a majority of 7,000,000 did repudiate it. Nothwith-standing this, the United States is now in the League of Nations for all intents and purposes.

DI3ABMAMENT

“The common people through one of its earnest representatives began an agitation for the disarmament of the nations. The sentiment grew to an alarming degree. The super-government of earth, acting through his agencies, seized upon this as a remedy to divert the people’s minds from the true one. The ruling factors again assemble, and this time at Washington. No one who thinks seriously expects anything good to come of that conference. It is conspicuous that the only man who made a great public fight for disarmament was ignored when the United States members of the commission were appointed. It was well known that if Senator Borah were on that commission the people would known what was going on inside. Again come to the conference the rulers, the nobles, and the mighty ones of earth. The feast of Belshazzar continues. As to those who compose that assembly, the Hon. Lloyd George is quoted as saying: ‘It is the same old gang’.

“The real purpose of this conference is to draw more closely the United States into a league of nations or similar compact under some other name, which arrangement God has denounced as an ‘image of the beast’.

■ “The greater portion of the public press is owned by or subsidized by big business. It speaks as it is commanded. Big business, big politicians, and big clergy, through this mouthpiece, with one accord have recently freely proclaimed to the people: ‘Unless the disarmament conference brings forth an arrangement establishing lasting peace on earth, civilization will be plunged into chaos’. Out of their own mouths shall they be judged. To this date the conference has accomplished noth-

ing. It will accomplish nothing unless the divine reme- , ““ dy is followed.                                                   -

“Concerning this and all other phases of Satan’s em- " pire, the hand of God has written upon Belshazzar’s -wall: ‘Weighed in the balances and found wanting’. This . alliance of big business, big politicians, and big clergy is unholy in the sight of God, because the clergy have abandoned the Lord and joined hands with the forces of Satan’s empire. Speaking through His holy prophet to those who would form such a federation for the controlling of man, Jehovah foretelling its destruction says:       d

‘Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken ^r in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird ^T yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves and ye shall be broken in pieces’. (Isaiah 8:9) The first girding of the ruling factors was at Paris. The > second is at Washington.

COMIHQ TO ARMAGEDDON

“The forces of earth are marshaling for Armageddon. Thero is but one way to prevent the plunging of civili- ’< zation into chaos, as predicted. This was foreshadowed by the Lord through His prophet Jeremiah. If big business would cease profiteering, cease exploiting the people through its subsidized means of propaganda, permit full employment and an opportunity for every man to earn his food and to exercise his God-given privileges ; if big politics would cease representing the selfish interests and honestly legislate in the interest of the whole people; and if big clergy would divorce themselves from big business and politics, honestly and faithfully represent the Lord and preach the message of His kingdom as commanded; and if the people would heed such sound advice and refrain from violence, the great battle of Armageddon would be averted and Messiah’s kingdom established without great Suffering.

“Behold the army gathers from many quarters. Bible Students, truly consecrated Christians, are taking neither side. They stand aloof and cry out the words of warning, pointing especially to the divine remedy. Six months ago big business declared that it would close the shops and put 5,000,000 men out of employment on the theory that idle men are obedient men. Today the threat has been carried out, and five and one-half million men are without means of support. The Manufacturers' News, an organ of big business, recently published: ‘The people of the United States are tired of labor unionism and trimming by persons in authority. We are almost to the open shop, and when it comes it is going to oome with a big rush. But it may not come until after bloodshed, suffering and starvation have been forced upon our unfortunate people.’

“Roger W. Babson, accredited confidential spokesman for big business, says: ‘Labor is beaten. ... It fears capital. Now if we have anything to sell to the American people, we know how to sell it We have the schools. We have the pulpit. ’Hie employing class owns the press. There is practically no important paper in

:Sfea

the United States but is theirs.’ This is why certain newspapers refuse to publish the truth, especially when stated by Bible Students.

“Labor says: ‘We will not yield to the employing class. Our wives and children are hungry. We have produced the wealth of the world and are entitled now to a reasonable subsistence. If you will not give us work to earn our bread, we will not get in the bread line, but we will go and take the bread.’

“These two mighty forces are moving in opposite directions with grim determination. The result is inevitable. They are gathering to Armageddon.

“The farmer finds himself discriminated against by the ruling factors, and his disposition is becoming anything but sweet. The retail merchant, who depends upon the common people for his living, is likewise becoming more discontented.

“Added to these is a great army of unemployed exsoldiers in America. When the World War came the preachers of the unholy alliance, in utter disregard of the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, whom they claimed to represent, preached the boys into war. They said: ‘Go to war, and if you die upon the battlefield, you will be a part of the vicarious sacrifice of the Savior’—well knowing when they said it that they were lying. When some layman Christians, with real zeal for the Lord and His teachings, expressed an opposition to shedding of human blood, these same preachers helped to prosecute and send the layman Christians to prison.

“Many of the American boys who went to war now sleep in the dust of France. Others have returned-When they went to war big business said to them: ‘Your jobs will be waiting for you when you return’. But when they returned their jobs were gone, and many of these boys are now compelled to sleep in parks and in jails and to beg for a crust of bread.

“The political wing of the alliance made laws to compel the soldier boys to go to war. When they returned and asked these same lawmakers to pass a law granting each soldier a small bonus, big business first replied: ‘The business of the country will not permit of a bonus to soldiers’. Politicians answered: ‘The financial condition of the country is such that we cannot give a bonus to the soldiers; besides, we should not make such a precedent for future times’.

“The preachers say to the boys: ‘Servants, obey your masters; and remember your patriotism’. These boys ask for bread and receive a stone. They cry for meat and receive a serpent.

“When the war was on the clergy prayed to their God, addressing him as Commander-in-Chief of the armies of murderous destruction. But to what god did they pray? Satan is the “god of this world”. It was this god whose organizations were warring and to this same one the preachers prayed, and not to Jehovah.

“Great corporations contracted with the government for war material. When the war ended, they said: ‘We have fo™ material on hand and must have our money for it’. The government agreed and paid the money. When the soldier boys contracted their all and paid it and those returning asked for some small bonus to keep the wolf from the door, they are pushed aside with the remark: ‘Remember your patriotism; surely you do not expect pay for that’.

“The Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech. When it is invoked to protect the liberties and lives oi citizens who honestly desire to follow the teachings of Jesus and therefore refuse to shed human blood, the Constitution is ignored and nullified. When the exservice man asks for a bonus on which to feed himself and children until he can get himself a job, the Constitution is invoked to prevent it. The soldiers are asking why.

“The war produced 23,000 new millionaires and 600,000 pauper soldiers who fought for their country. The soldiers are asking why.

“The tide of unrest rises higher and higher. The unholy alliance, alarmed, concludes that something must be done. To keep the minds of the people from their troubles they stage a celebration in honor of some unknown dead. They select the body of some dead person. No one knows who it is. For all the people know, he may have died with a bullet in his back or a rope about his neck. That makes no difference. The least known of him the easier it will be to get away with the ceremony. The unholy alliance parades with tinsel, muffled drums, and flowers. The spell-binder politician harangues the people and the preacher joins in. Tha one-armed ex-soldier on the curb, without a job, is asking, and that with forcefulness: ‘Why this farce over the unknown dead who knows nothing about it himself; and why spend millions in this meaningless ceremony while we who survived the shock of the war are starving to death?’

WILL THE RULING FACTORS HEED ?

“When Jeremiah warned the rulers of Israel to take certain steps to avert the attack of the Assyrians they refused to take heed. Those experiences foreshadowed the experiences upon ‘Christendom’ today. The Scriptures indicate that the ruling factors of ‘Christendom’ will not heed the warning from God’s Word. Then what ? Jehovah answers: ‘Come near, ye nations, to hear; and harken, ye people; . . . for the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations. . . . For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance.’—Isaiah 34:1, 2, 8.

“Jesus foreknew and foretold the conditions of this day, and seeing the forces gathering for Armageddon, following the war, famine and pestilence, he added: ‘Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be’. He refers to the words of the prophet Daniel, who speaking of the same time as a mouthpiece of the Lord, said: ‘And at that time shall Michael Ithe Messiah] stand up, the great prince which standeth for the

£       ⁴’ ¹⁸²²                 The GOLDEN AGE                        ²¹⁷

g -    children of thy people: and there shall be a time of

£     trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even

•    to that same time’. (Daniel 12: 1) That great trouble

&     is now impending and immediately about to fall. We

>      San take consolation in the fact, however, that Jesus

Lz    declares it will be the last. There will never be another

’, like it.

I .

DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS

'         “The desire of the peoples of all nations is for peace,

prosperity, happiness and life. These are the things ..     Messiah’s kingdom will bring. Hence the Messiah is

?       the desire of all nations. Referring to this time, Jeho-

; vah through His prophet said: ‘I will shake all nations, .      and then the desire of all nations shall come’. (Haggai

t     ^2:7) The prophet Zechariah plainly states that one

part of the billions of people on the earth will be brought through this trouble, will be saved and refined ■, and blessed, and will call upon the name of the Lord ; and the Lord will hear them and establish them and give them peace, prosperity and life.

. “The right to live on earth forever, lost by Adam’s " disobedience, Jesus purchased by His sacrifice. Therefore during His reign all mankind must have an op-■; - portunity to be restored to perfect human life.—He-brews 2:9; Romans 5:18; 1 Timothy 2: 3-6; 1 Cor

; inthians 15:25, 26.

“The apostle Peter looking to this time prophetically Bays: ‘Times of refreshing shall come from the presence

- of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must retain until the times of restitution [restoration] of all things which God hath spoken by the month of all his holy prophets since the world began’. (Acts 3: 19-24) The prophet Ezekiel declared that during this reign of Messiah ‘the wicked man who turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doeth that which ■ is lawful and right, shall save his soul alive and shall surely live; he shall not die’.—Ezekiel 18: 27, 28.

“This is the same time referred to by the Lord Jesus when He said: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying he shall never see death’. And again: ‘Whosoever liveth and believeth' on me shall never die’, —John 8:51; 11:26.

THE BLESSINGS NEAR

“Why is there such a great army of unemployed? Why is there so much distress and perplexity amongst the nations and peoples of the earth? Why is there such a degeneracy of the clergy? Why is there a famine in the land for the hearing of the Word of God? The answer from the word of Jehovah’s prophets written long ago, pointing to this time, is: ‘The old world has ended; the kingdom of Messiah is at hand’. Why will not men heed these words and cease following the fallacies of would-be human philosophers?

“The Jewish people were a typical people. By and through the experiences of that people the Bible fixes 1914 as an important date. By and through the experiences of the same people another important date is fixed. The jubilee system of the Jews, ordained by Jehovah, foreshadowed the Millennial reign of Christ. Israel entered Palestine in 1575 B. C.; was commanded to keep every fiftieth year thereafter as a jubilee; and was commanded to keep these jubilees for seventy periods. 70 x 50 is 3,500. The period must end in 1925. The type ending, the antitype must begin; and therefore 1925 is definitely fixed in the Scriptures.

“Every thinking person can see that a great climax is at hand. The Scriptures clearly indicate that that climax is the fall of Satan’s empire and the full establishment of theAfcssianic kingdom. This climax being V reached by J925, and that marking the beginning of jjic^ftilfillment of the long-promised blessings of life to .'(the people, millions now living on earth wiU.bg.living,... . then and those who obey the righteous laws of the new arrangement will live forever. Therefore it can . be confidently said at this time that Millions now LIVING WILL NEVER DIE.”

“INSTEAD”

R. W. CowderyjIn London “Cnristian”

Instead of the thorn there shall come up the flr tree, Instead of the brier the myrtle shall spring,

Back to its primeval freshness and beauty, God Will creation triumphantly bring.

Streams in the desert shall heal the parched places,

The rose In the wilderness fragrance shall shed,

The mountains and hills shall break forth in praises— Wonderful word of Jehovah—“Instead”.

Behold, on the altar a victim is lying, Upraised is the knife in the patriarch’s hand;

The child of the covenant promise is dying, An offering made at Jehovah’s command;

When lo! At the word of the angel from heaven

The son Is restored as “alive from the dead”.

The Lord for Himself hath a sacrifice given, The ram In the thicket Is offered instead.

Alone in the garden, while others are sleeping, The sinless Redeemer a suppliant kneels;

His earnest entreaty, TIis blood-drops, His weeping, To the heart of the Father His anguish reveals.

Though bitter the cup that Surety has taken, Though heavy the stroke that must fall on His head, He goes to the cross to be cursed and forsaken, To give us the cup of salvation instead.

Believer, rejoice! for the glad day Is nearing

For which all creation still travails in pain,

When Christ our Bedeemer, In glory appearing,

Shall take to Himself His great power and reign;

When Satan the evil usurper expelling.

To earth’s farthest limits Ills kingdom shall spread. And peace and prosperity sweetly be telling

That Jesus Emmanuel ruleth instead.

STUDIES IN THE “HARP OF GOD” ( ^JUD<LATEST^HBOOK^{<D S} )

ITT*T| With this issue, Number 60, we begin running Judge Rutherfords’ new book, rr-j “The Harp of God”, with accompanying questions, taking the place of both Advanced and Juvenile Bible Studies which hake been hitherto published. «•»

THE harp is a musical instrument invented many centuries ago. When properly strung and played upon it yields sweet music, making glad the heart. The first mention of the harp made in the Bible is in Genesis 4:21, and the inventor’s name was Jubal. He was therefore called “the father of all such as handle the harp and organ”.

²It was 1812 years before the coming of Jesus in the flesh that God organized the twelve tribes of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, into a nation, which nation thereafter was known as the nation of Israel. It was the only nation with which God made a covenant, and He did not recognize any other nation in the same way. (Amos 3:2) The nation of Israel was used to make living pictures or types, foreshadowing better things to come; and those who study the Scriptural account of Israel’s experiences are able to approximate closely future events which will be good for mankind.—1 Corinthians 10: 1-13; Hebrews 10:1.

’With the nation of Israel the harp was an instrument consecrated to joy and exaltation. David, who for forty years was king of Israel, was an expert player on the harp; and it will be noted that in the Psalms often the harp is used to symbolize or teach some great truth. The Jews used this instrument on occasions of joy, such as jubilees and festivals.

‘Josephus, a writer of Jewish history, is authority for the statement that the harp usually had ten strings, but that at times it was smaller and had only eight strings. The number ten is used in the Scriptures to symbolize that which is complete or perfect as pertaining to man. We would understand, then, that the harp with ten strings pictures the great fundamental truths concerning the divine plan. When two of these strings were absent, there being only eight, the indication is apparently given that there would be a time when two important features of the divine plan would not be seen by men. God promised that greater light should come upon His Word at the end of the age, or end of the world, which means the social order of things. Since we have reached that time, we confidently look for more light and thus find it.

’The book of Revelation is written largely in symbols. In Revelation 14: 2, 3 and 15:2, 3 we find a brief description of a class of glorious beings who are playing upon their harps, and these are described as the ‘harps of God’. The harp here is used as a sign or symbol of some great truth, or feature of the divine program; in fact, a great deal of the Bible is written in symbolic phrase. The Lord uses objects which we know to illustrate great unseen things which we do not know; and the harp is so used.

who is GOD?

‘Before we can know God and understand His great plan it is first necessary for us to believe that He exists and that He rewards all ■who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) But how can we believe? We must first have some knowledge. But how can we know that there is a great God? Let us look at some of the simpler things about us and reason upon the matter.

’Look at the flowers in your garden. Out from the same soil grow the many varieties of dif-ferent hues and colors. Likewise from the same soil spring the divers kinds of trees, bringing forth fruits at different seasons of the year. Some wisdom superior to man’s must have arranged these things. Observe the broad fields, the lofty mountains, the mighty rivers; and then behold the ocean, exhibiting unlimited power, upon the waves of which majestically ride the great ships. Are we not compelled to conclude that there was a wise One, who created these things, greater than anything we see?

‘Now gaze into the silent heavens above you; and there number, if you can, the stars and planets which noiselessly move through space. Many of these are far greater than the earth, and yet each one hangs in its place and moves noiselessly about in its orbit. Surely they could not have come there by chance, but the reasonable mind must say that a Creator greater than the planets put them there. When King David looked at these wonders of creation he was so impressed with the greatness of their Creator that he wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of

God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”— Psalm 19:1-4.

'Consider man. What a wonderful piece of mechanism is his body! The framework is there; the muscles that hold each part in place; the nerves, like a great electrical system by which messages are conveyed from the brain to all parts of the body. He has power to reason and to plan and carry out these plans. Truly no machine can be compared to man for intricacy of construction and harmony of action. Who, then, is the Creator of this wonderful thing? We must conclude that there was a great First Cause who made and put into action all things visible in the universe, as well as things to us invisible. And who is he? Jehovah is His name; the great God of the universe.—Psalm 83:18; Genesis 17:1; Exodus 6:3; 20:2-5.

’“The name Jehovah means self-existing one. He was without beginning and without end, and of Him Moses wrote: "From everlasting to everlasting thou art God”. (Psalm 90: 2; Isaiah 26:4) He is the great Almighty Jehovah God and there is none other besides Him, and His honor and dignity none other possesses. (Isaiah 42:8) He is the great all-wise Creator of all things that are made. (Isaiah 40:28; Genesis 1:1) The four great and eternal attributes of Jehovah are justice, power, love, and wisdom. (Ezekiel 1: 5, 6) These attributes work together in exact harmony at all times; and in various times and ways He makes manifest these attributes. At certain times He has specially manifested such attributes.

“His justice was made manifest by inflicting punishment for the violation of His law. Power was particularly manifested in the great flood that destroyed all things on the earth. His love was especially exhibited in the sacrifice of the dearest treasure of His heart, His beloved Son, that mankind might have an opportunity for life. His wisdom is particularly manifested in His great plan, which He gradually unfolds and permits man to see. His attributes have no limitations. He is so wise that He knew the end from the beginning and outlined all of His great plan to the very minutest detail.—Acts 15:18.

HIS REVELATION

“It is conceded by all that man is the very highest type of all living creatures on the earth. His intelligence is far superior to that of any other earthly being. Truly man is fearfully and wonderfully made. Is it not reasonable for him to expect that the Almighty God would reveal to man something of the divine greatness and plans and purposes? Yes.; and such revelation is found in that wonderful book, the holy Bible.

“Who wrote the Bible? What is known as the Old Testament was written by holy men of old who were moved upon by the invisible power of Jehovah to write it. (2 Peter 1:21; 2 Samuel 23: 2; Luke 1: 70) The New Testament consists of the spoken words of Jesus, the Son of God, who spake as never man spake, and whose words were recorded by those who heard Him and witnessed His acts; and in addition thereto, the written testimony of His disciples, who wrote under inspiration from God.

¹⁴The holy spirit means the invisible power or influence of Jehovah — holy because He is holy. This power of Jehovah operated upon the minds of honest men who loved and who were devoted to righteousness, directing them in the writing of the Bible. The spirit of God, i. e., His invisible power and influence, moved upon the waters and thereby He created. (Genesis 1:2) In like manner His invisible power and influence operated upon the minds of men and directed them what to write. Thus did Moses write the first five books of the Bible. The invisible power or influence of God, which is the holy spirit, operating upon Moses’ mind enabled him to make a record of the chief events that had occurred and to write the law of God, as given to I i is people through Moses. In no other way could the true history of creation have been written. These facts and truths were, therefore, written by inspiration of God. (2 Timothy 3: 16; Job 32: 8) There are twenty-four prophetic writers of the Old Testament, who foretold the great events that were to transpire in the earth. Their accounts were written at different times and under widely different conditions; yet their testimonies agree. Their testimony foreshadowed future events.                          ■

“History, when written, is a recorded statement of facts and events, arranged in a chronological order.

“Prophecy, which is true, is a statement of facts and events foretold to take place at some

future time. Otherwise stated, prophecy is history written before it transpires.

^1TNo human mind could actually foretell facts or events to happen in the future. Only the divine mind could do that. If, then, we find that the Bible foretold certain facts and events to happen and the record of the same was made centuries before these facts and events did happen, and these events and facts are now definitely established as having taken place, such would be the strongest proof that the persons recording such facts and events were directed in se doing by the divine mind; hence that such writing was under divine inspiration.

¹⁸As an illustration of this point: Wireless telegraphy and airships are modern discoveries ; yet since they have been discovered we find that God, through His holy prophets, foretold centuries ago the use of such inventions. (Job 38:35; Isaiah 60:8) The railway train has been in use less than a hundred years; and yet the prophet of God many centuries ago gave a clear and particular description of the railway train and the manner of its operation, and prophesied that the same would be in vogue at the time of the end, at the time the Lord is making preparation for the establishment of His kingdom. (Nahum 2:3-6) And he also foretold that at that time there would be a great running to and fro by other means of transportation, such as automobiles, electric cars, etc. (Daniel 12:4) There is no one living in modern times who is wiser than Solomon; yet during the past 125 years there have been a great development in invention and a marvelous increase of knowledge; because it is due time, and because the prophets of God centuries ago foretold that such would come to pass.

"Through His holy prophets God foretold that at a time future there would come into the world a mighty man; that He would be born a Jew (Deuteronomy 18:15), specifying the place where He would be born (Micah 5:2); that He would come to His own people and they would not receive Him; that He would be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:1-3); that He would ride into Jerusalem upon an ass, the foal of a like animal, and offer Himself as king to the Jews (Zechariah 9:9); that He would be rejected by the Jews (Isaiah 53:3); that He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12); that He would die, but not for

Himself (Daniel 9:26); that there would be no * just cause for His death (Isaiah 53:8,9,11); that nevertheless He would be numbered among . y the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12); that He would die a violent death, yet not a bone of His body should be broken (Psalm 34: 20); that His flesh would not corrupt, and that He would arise ' ■ from the dead (Psalm 16:10)—all of which and many more similar prophecies were completely fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth, the great Teacher who lived about and died at Jerusalem. Later we will examine the Scriptures proving a further fulfillment of all these prophecies.

“All of the foregoing facts show that the Bible was written, as it is claimed, by holy men of old, who were directed in writing it by the power of Jehovah, and that it is a record which God caused to be kept and has given to man for his guidance in righteousness, and which foretells the course and final destiny of man.

-’The prophets who made record of the divine arrangement did not understand what they wrote. They knew they were writing something that would take place in the future, but just how and when they did not know. They inquired and searched diligently all sources of information open to them as to what these prophecies meant and when they would be fulfilled and in what manner of time. Particularly with reference to < the coming of Jesus, His suffering, death and resurrection they prophesied and did not understand, although they attempted to understand. (1 Peter 1:10, 12) Even the angels of heaven knew that the prophets were thus writing, but they did not understand, although they desired to, look into these things. God revealed , ' His great plan only in His own due time, and until that time He kept it all to Himself.

“The divine plan means the arrangement made by Jehovah for the creation of everything that has been created and for carrying out His purposes with reference to His creatures. The first one to understand the divine plan was Jesus, was prior to coming to earth was known as the Logos, which means one who speaks and acts for Jehovah. In Revelation, chapter 5, a wonderful picture is given in symbolic language. Jehovah is pictured as seated upon His throne, holding in His right hand a record or scroll of His great plan. The hand is a symbol of power and holding it in His hand foreshadowed the : fact that Jehovah held it exclusively in His own power and keeping. The picture then shows a

strong angel or messenger speaking with a loud voice and asking the question: “Who i« worthy to open the book and to loose the seals ' ^!-weof ?” In heaven there was a host of holy kenigs or angels. No one of them was able to open the book or scroll, neither to look on it. No one in earth was able to look upon it nor to open it.

²³0ne of the titles given to Jesus is “Lion of the tribe of Judah”. This great and mighty One, the beloved Son of God, afterward designated Jesus, was granted the privilege of opening the book and of loosing the seals that kept it secret, thus picturing how Jehovah made known His plan to to His beloved Son. The picture describes Him thus: “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne . . . stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, and he came and took the book out of the right hand of him [Jehovah] that sat upon the throne”.

Seven is a symbol of perfection; horn a symbol of power; and eyes are a symbol of wisdom. Therefore this One is pictured as having perfect power and perfect wisdom to perform this wonderful privilege and duty. This is the first time that the great mystery of Jehovah, His great plan or program, was made known to any one; and since then, from time to time, He has been pleased to reveal portions of His plan to 'men who have honestly and faithfully sought to understand it. He has promised to reward those that diligently seek Him and who seek a knowledge of Him. Therefore we can come to the study of His plan, confidently expecting that He will grant us from time to time such a vision and understanding of it as pleases Him and as would be for our good and happiness.

²⁶The harp is used to symbolize the grandeur and beauty, the exquisite harmony and majestic sweetness of the divine arrangement or plan. The record of this great program or plan is found in the Old and the New Testaments. This record reveals the purpose of God concerning man, gives an account of his fall, a prophetic vision of his redemption and deliverance, and ultimately the blessing of all obedient ones of mankind with life everlasting. The great fundamental doctrines or truths stated in the Bible and which constitute the fundamentals of His plan concerning man would, therefore, constitute the strings upon the harp of God. These fundamental truths were spoken by Jehovah through the prophets, through Jesus, and through His disciples. God’s law is His expressed will. Law means a rule of action, directing that which is right and prohibiting that which is wrong. The Bible contains the law of Jehovah for the governing of mankind.

^: The name David means beloved one. The beloved One of Jehovah is His Son, Jesus, the Christ. David was therefore used by Jehovah to picture or to make a type of Christ, including Jesus and His faithful followers. David used the harp of ten strings and was an expert performer upon it. This would seem to picture how that the antitype of David, Jesus and the members of His body, His faithful followers, would have an understanding of this harp of God, and that God would use them to make it plain to others who would want to understand it. The ten strings of the harp, therefore, very fitly represent the great fundamental truths or doctrines of the divine plan. These ten fundamental doctrines appear in the order named, as follows:

• (1) CREATION

• (2) JUSTICE MANIFESTED

• (3) ABRAHAMIC PROMISE

• (4) BIRTH OF JESUS

• (5) RANSOM

• (6) RESURRECTION

• (7) MYSTERY REVEALED

• (8) THE LORD'S PRESENCE

• (9) GLORIFICATION

• (10) RESTORATION

• ²⁷ When one understands these ten fundamental truths and can appreciate the beauty and harmony by them expressed, he is thereby enabled to use the harp of God, and the use of it brings joy to his heart and fills his soul with swciit music. Without doubt the great plan of God pictured by the harp was all made and arranged at one time, but v>e will here consider each one of these fundamental truths, represented by a siring, separately and in the order above named.                              .

QUESTIONS ON THE FOREGOING TEXTUAL MATTER FROM “THE HARP OF GOD”

What is the harp? and when was it invented? fl 1.

Who invented the harp? and where is mention made of it in the Bible? fl 1.

When did God organize the twelve tribes of Israel into a nation? fl 2.

What arrangement did God make with the nation ef

Israel? fl 2-

For what purpose was that nation used by Jehovah?

12.

To what did the nation of Israel consecrate the harp ?

13.

What king of Israel was skilled in the use of the harp? fl 3.                             "

Where in the Scriptures is the harp used symbolically? fl 3.                                               ’

On what occasions did the Jews use the harp? fl 3.

IIow many strings were there on Israel’s harp? and what did these symbolize? fl 4.

Did the harp at any time have a less number of strings? and if so, what did that picture? fl 4.

In what phrase or language is the book of Revelation written? fl 5.

Where in the book of Revelation is the harp mentioned? and what kind of beings are pictured as using it? fl 5.

What is the first essential to an understanding of God’s plan? fl 0.

Name some visible proof of the existence of a Supreme Being or Creator, fl 7.

How was David impressed with what he observed of creation? fl 8.

How does man’s organism prove the existence of a Supreme Being? fl 9.

Who is the Supreme Being or Creator? and what docs His name signify? fl 10.

Give some Scriptural proof of the existence of Jehovah. fl 10.

Name the four primary divine attributes, fl 10.

How was divine justice manifested? fl 11.

IIow was divine power manifested? fl 11.

How was divine love manifested? fl 11.

How was divine wisdom manifested? fl 11.

Is there proof that God foreknew the end from the beginning? fl 11.

Why should man expect some revelation of the divine plan? fl 12.

Has man found a revelation of God’s plan? and if so, where? fl 12.

By whom was the Bible written? and what are the two general divisions of it? fl 13.

IVhat is meant by the holy spirit? fl 14.

What relationship does the holy spirit bear to the Bible and. its preparation? fl 14.

Who wrete the first five books of the Bible? and under what influence ? fl 14.

Was the Bible written under inspiration? fl 14.

IIow many prophetic writers contributed to the Old Testament? and does their testimony agree? fl 14.

Define history, fl 15.

Define prophecy, fl 16.

Can a human mind accurately foretell future events ? fl 17.

What is one of the strongest proofs that the Bible was written under inspiration? fl 17-

What relationship do wireless telegraphy and airships bear to fulfilled prophecy? fl 18.

Were railway trains foretold by the prophets? and if so, where? fl 18.

What other means of rapid transit did the prophets foretell? fl 18.

Why did not Solomon give the world great inventions such as we now have? fl 18.

Did the prophets point to the coming of any special one to earth? fl 19.

What prophecy, if any, did the coming of Jesus of Nazareth tend to fulfill? fl 19.

How did the coming of Jesus tend to confirm the authenticity of the Scriptures? fl 20.

Did the prophets understand the meaning of what they wrote concerning the happening of future events? fl 21.                    “

What effort did they make to understand? fl 2L

Did tin- angels in heaven understand what the prophets were writing? fl 21.

What is meant by the term “the divine plan” ? fl 22.

Who was the first one to understand the divine plan? fl 22.

What was the name of Jesus before He became a man ? and what is the significance of His prehuman title? fl 22.

What is pictured by the fifth chapter of Revelation?

Give the details of the picture, fl 22.

Who is the “Lion of the tribe of Judah”? fl 23.

What is the symbolic meaning of the words “seven”, “horns,” and “eyes”? and what do these words signify as used in Revelation 5? fl 24.

Is there reason to expect that God would grant certain ones from time to time an increased understanding of His plan? and if so, why? fl 24.

IVhat docs the harp symbolize? fl 25.

Where is the record of the divine plan found? fl 25.

What does this record reveal concerning man? fl25-

By whom has God spoken His fundamental truths? fl 25-

What is the law of God? fl 25.

Define law. fl 25.

Where is the law of God found? fl 25.

What is the meaning of the word David ? fl 26.

Whom did David picture or typify? fl 26.

What did David’s use of the harp typify or picture? fl 26.

What is pictured or symbolized by the ten strings of David’s harp? fl 26.

Name the ten fundamental truths represented by the strings on the harp, fl 26.

How can one learn to use the harp of God? fl 27.

What effect is produced upon one who skillfully uses the harp? fl 27.