X        VOLUME 3 WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 15. 1922 No. 63

CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE

\                 LABOR AND ECONOMICS

Canning of Workers’ Internationalism

1 Conditions in Georgia

I           Mine* ....................... 310

> ' ■

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

¹        General Manticer* of          Common People

"              S|h.^'..............

-               The Glory and Convention ? 1 Hurrah for the Tylerite.....301

.            The Clergy and Charity.... .*j 1 Coat of Steel Traps

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

The People in Politics_______302 Noncensival Blue Laws

agriculture and husbandry

A Second Apple Crop..........309 Chemically Cleaned S«'il. ..314

HOME AND HEALTH Facts About Vaccination ........— ------—..   ...

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY Deserting the Sinking Ship-----------. . .—

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

"Go to Church. Thou Fnol." Part I . ............. 2 9

The Clergy and Minions --'2 Une More Activity   293 Un Its Last Legs  -J*i

Good : Going’! alone!! I....298

Emmanuelism and Taoism 306

and Swedenborg.......313

Studied in the Harp of God 319

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The same III                        Brooklyn. N. Y., Wednesday, February 15, 1922                       Nawba S3

“Go to Church, Thou Fool”—In Four Parts (Part iv)

THERE is a growing ambition on the part of some of the clergy to take over the management of the social functions of humanity. Reverend Downie, pastor of the Unitarian Church of Detroit, 5fichigan, has organized a Get Acquainted Club which meets in his church on Sunday .evenings. Reverend Downie says of the club:

“AVp have an hour's program at each meeting. The program, comprises recitations. stories and a short Talk on >oni»- non-religious -abjevt. Tlirii there is an hour in which visitors mingle, meet one another, siiiir song* and plav the piano. We even allow ragtime ami jazz music. The club is 'O< ial. tad            hut

I believe it does as much good as a sermon [Probably more—Ed.] ; for it promotes friendship. and that after all, is- the basis of real religion.'*

At Cleveland, Ohio, in October, 1919, Reverend Alexander MeGaffin. pastor of the Euclid Avenue Presbyterian Church, announced that the old-fashioned midweek prayer meeting is a failure and that hereafter the church rooms hitherto devoted to prayer meetings on Wednesday evenings will be used for the activities of a neighborhood debating society. Also, according to the Chicago Tribune :

“Wednesday night prayer meetings have been stricken from the calendar of the First Congregational church of Evanston as weekly devotional services. Instead an address bv a popular speaker will be provided on the first Wednesday of each mouth, a dinner for church men and women on the second, and a mating of the Men’s Club on each third Wednesday. These announcements appeared in the church bulletin distributed at services yesterday and the pastor, Dr. Hugh Elmer Brown, declared that small attendance had prompted the change.”

A somewhat similar idea to that of Reverend McGaffin seems to be in the mind of Reverend Percy Stickney Grant, who belongs to the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church. Dr. Grant wished to use the church parlors for an open forum meeting, which Bishop Burch of the Episcopal diocese of New York refused to sanction. Dr. Grant expressed his indict that the arrogance of the Episcopal bishops is liable to split the church wide open in America, and pointed out that the great Lambeth Conference of Bishops has been wasting precious time in. haggling over divorce questions instead of considering the things which to him seem far more important: un-cm ploy ment, d isarmaineiit, equal rights, for women: and the plagues, pestilences nud famines which cpver the earth;

Dr. Ford Newton, pastor of the London Temple, has been urging that mon and women should be privileged to smoke cigars, cigarettes, and pipes in church while listening to sermons.

But not.all clergymen are prepared to broaden out and he “liberal-minded” about their flock and the management of their church. The Reverend Thomas B. Gregory is quoted by the Rochester. New York. Herald of May 2nd, 1920 as follows:

“A famous preacher of the olden time said: ‘I magnify mine office*; but it begins to look as though there are certain preachers in the land who are doing all they can to belittle and degrade their office. To reduce this statement to the concrete we have but to remember that only la.st summer a New Jersey clergyman invited the men of his congregation to attend the Sunday services in their shirt-sleeves, assuring them that he himself would go into the pulpit and preach to them in the same easy costume. Nor can we forget that other clergyman who notified his flock that he was in no way ⁴opposed to smoking" during the Sunday services and that they 'might feel quite free to bring along their pipes and smoke during the sermon*. Finally, we have the case of the western minister who made arrangements with the business men of the town whereby in return far donations they were to have advertising privileges in his church—so much space on the walls in return for so much cash. Of course, a man sitting in church in his shirt-sleeves, smoking his pipe, cigar or cigarette, looking through clouds of tobacco smoke, now at the business ads on the church walls, and now at the coatless minuter, can hear what the man in the sacred desk has to <ay as well as though he were differently attired and in the midst of a different environment."’

The Reverend Dr. John Thompson, of Chicago,sees another way in which some use may be macle of the church buildings which he. in com-mmi with many other speakers and writers on tlir subject, seems to think are far more numerous than arc needed or desired by the people. In an address to the Council of Cities of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, February 12. 1920, he said.-

“Every city pastor will hear me out in the statement that there are thousands of girls in every metropolitan district who have r.n suitable nlace in which to enter* with their male friends. There is every reason why our churches should set up rooms with cozy corners where there is not too much light, so that city young persons may do. their love-making under favorable circumstances

Sponsors of Marriage

MARRIAGE is a purely civil contract, and is properly regulated by the civil law. While it is of divine ordinance, yet it never was thought of as a sacrament until the Reverends tried to "corner' it. The most godless man and do participate as well as the most godly. But for reasons of sentiment the civil law nf most states provides that marriage may be legally performed by any person who is the recognized pastor of a congregation. But it lias b^en taken fur granted that clergymen performing the olhee of marriage would have the interest of the young couples at heart and would give them such wi>e. kind, loving, fatherly counsel as would help them to pass through the tiSals and difficulties ul life with calm and peaceful hearts, ami thus the state would be saved much later trouble.

A sample of the way in which some clergymen view their "holy” office may be seen in the way

BBOOSX.TV. N. X,

they do things at Cumberland, Maryland, a city on the edge of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The city has been, because of its location, a favorite point for young people to visit who have been contemplating matrimony; and for years it has maintained a regular marriage trust, participated in by ministers and hackmen who have gouged the highest possible fees out of the young people and then divided the loot between themselves.

It is estimated that for the three thousand marriages per year performed in Cumberland the fees exacted total not less than $40,000. In cases where the minister has taken $20 or even more from couples he has made the adroit statement when a kick was registered against the outrageous charges, that the law “provided” (did not prevent) this sum as a fee.

In several cases which were recently brought to light because of the inordinate rascality of the Reverends, it was learned that every dollar possessed by one young couple was taken from them, and in two instances couples were left stranded in the city. Persons who were not in the clergy business provided them with food and shelter and with car fare to get home, which was afterward repaid.

The same thing was done on a smaller scale at Elkton, Maryland, in the eastern part of the state. A Reverend from Montana came all the way to Elkton because he saw how a profitable clergy business could be built up. He had succeeded splendidly with his scheme, and was making $200 to $250 per week marrying runaway couples from Pennsylvania and Delaware, when it leaked out that he was splitting his marriage fees with jitney drivers and hackna-n, and the good people of his church united unai t-mmisly in chasing him out of town.

Reverend E. J. Webster, of Aurora, Illinois, startled his community by announcing that he would accept no more fees for performing marriages or preaching funeral sermons, but his generosity in these directions was offset somewhat by the fact that he used such savage language against the ungenerous and sting}' of his congregation that an attempt was made to oust him from the pastorate.

Reverend J. J. Messier, a Methodist clergyman of Bridgeton, New Jersey, found a way of drawing trade, by giving public notice that “owing to the high cost of living” he would “give a liberal discount of twenty percent to all parties seeking to be joined in the bonds of matrimony, provided the fee justified the giving of such a liberal discount".

. The Clergy and Education _

DURING the dark ages the whole field of edu' U cation was in the hands of the clergy, and that is what made those centuries the dark ages. Victor Hugo summed this up in masterly style, when he addressed the clergy of the only religious system with which he was familiar:

“You wish us to give you the people to instruct. Very well. Let us see your pupil?. Let us see those you have produced. What ha;-e you done for Italy? U’hat have you done for Spain? For centuries you have kept in your hands nt your discretion, at your schools, these two great nations, illustrious anions the illustrious. What have you done for them ? I shall tell you. Thanks to you. Italy, mother of genius and of nations, which has spread over all the universe ail the most brilliant marvels of poetry and the arts. Italy—which has taught _z, mankind to read—now knows not how to read.'¹’

With the advent of the Protestant Reformation the clergy of the Church of Rome were replaced by the clergy of Protestantism in the minds of the people; and in the schools of the Old World (ho clergy always had a prominent place. In America the principle of clerical interference in education has been manifested by the presence of numerous parochial schools and sectarian colleges; but the non-soctarian founders of the American Republic made such a bold stand for free schools under government jurisdiction and for the absolute separation of church and stalo, (hat the clergy in America have not been able to influence the situation much.

Relics of the time when all education was to be found in the hands of the clergy persist in the courses of instruction in some of the schools which, even to this day. point the youth more toward the ministry or to college as his ultimate goal than toward some useful business whore he will be a real asset to the community and a iri-nuinv help to himself and his family. The study <»f the classical languages, Greek and Latin, all tends in this direction.

Aside from standing squarely across the path of religious instruction, discouraging the study of the Bible and of books which explain it, which we will discuss later, the clergy have been equally obtuse and equally perverse as respects progress in other lines. Copernicus was declared by the Reverends to be an atheist and infidel because he proved that the earth revolves around the sun. He was compelled to recant the truth under penalty of death. Galileo also, summoned before the Inquisition of the Reverends, narrowly escaped death on the same grounds.

And to this day the Reverend Wilbur Glenn Voliva, head of the Dowie church, at Zion City, Illinois, is causing a thousand children of that city to be taught that the earth is flat and that the sun revolves around the earth, getting its heat as it passes through a red-hot tunnel in one end of the hell which is alleged by Mr. Voliva to be beneath our feet. Put of education back into the hands of the clergy, and there will be a Voliva in every town in the country.

For many decades one of the principal features of a school event has been a Reverend in uniform—in long black coat, white tie, and collar on backwards—to lend dignity to the occasion. The Reverends some thirty years ago fought their hardest to prevent progress in the schools that was made in spite of them. The fact that pupils do not waste three years on Latin, and as many on Greek, with a year or two lost on religious history and mythology—tlio study of demons and their doings—is not due to the activities of the Reverends; for they put up a memorable fight to keep such trash in the curriculums.

In Germany the grip of the clergy has just been broken. According to the Pittsburgh Press:

‘'The management of the schools in Germany has taken a &tpp that *eems radical over there. luterfcnmcp with the schools by the clergy has been stopped. Under the old system, in villages, the local ruler bossed the parson, and the par«on waa inspector and sub-boss of the village school. Now they are imitating the? oltkr republic. They keep schools and churches separate, and allow the teachers to run the schools?’

The age-long conflict between ecclesiasticism and progress will end only when the Reverends are finally forced to keep to their proper sphere —that of real religion.

The Clergy and Charity

HE commercializing of charity in the name of religion has been a disgrace for so long that it seems like a waste of time to discuss it in the columns of The Golden Age. The care of the poor is properly the concern Of the taxpayers; that is what the taxes are ostensibly collected for and that is what they should be used for. But there have been vast diversions of public funds from these legitimate ends to ends that are not legitimate, and there have been vast funds raised by street solicitation and solicitations from house to house that have failed to reach the supposed beneficiaries.

A Salvation Army worker in Pittsburgh some years ago, when asked why she did not go to work like other girls, replied that she knew, of no way by which she could make four dollars per day easier and quicker than in her present occupation, which was that of soliciting funds ostensibly for the Salvation Army work.

At Detroit, in October, 19'21, Reverend Frank C. Doan, commenting on the commercial spirit of the clergy, told the General Conference of Unitarian and other Christian churches that in many instances the modem preacher:

“Is a .-alt-man and hi?? job is to sell religion to an unwilling and unconvinced public. His study with its filing cases. its card catalogs, its form letters and such things, looks for all the world like the oincc of some up-to-date commercial business. His prrac’ung even is colloquial and businesslike. It must he said for him that he succeeds far oftener than his less progressive brother."                   ,

The records show that the clergy do sometimes do real works ctf charity. Thus, on December, 1919, during the coal strike, thirty-five members of the Wichita, Kansas. Ministerial Alliance cut twelve cords of wood for the poor of the city. This was about one-third of a cord of wood: and at the old price of two dollars per cord for cutting macle for the thirty-live Reverends the day’s total of $24 or about 70 cents per worker. Does this indicate that the value of these men to the community can be assessed at seventy cents per day, if they are put at some useful employment ?

At a session of the General Synod of the Reformed Churches of America, held in Detroit. June 27, 19'20, a resolution was brought up that ministers should abandon the use nf tobacco in order that they might give more liberally to the churches. This was defeated by a vote nf Bl to 20, and is in hue with the clerical attitude during the World War and during the time of our Lord. It will Im* remembered th;d Hypocrites of representatives of that class Lu I Lis My. "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do- not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders: but they themselves will • not move them with one of their fingers."— Matttew 23: 3, 4.

The Clergy and Missions

NOT long ago in the State of Mississippi an innocent woman was hung up by the heels and disemboweled by a mob of church members. This shows that we need to send a lot of missionaries to China right away. The more we send the belter it will be for this con: try. To be sure it will bo worse for the Chines*--, but the Chinese are henthmi and deserve no better at the hands of "Christians".

But curious to say. the Chinese don't seem to, think that they need our missionaries. They are wondering what they can do to bring real religion to us instead. Thus, a Chinaman writes to the editor of the New York World and asks if a peace resting on the Ten Commandments, would not be more desirable than that attempted by the fourteen points. A reader of that paper. ‘.-oinmenting on this item, savs:

‘•Suppose that a Chinaman has more vision than we who (.’aim to be a modern nation. Can China b'* brought to Christian as long as we are a scandal to Chris’s teachings? Will the Lord of all nations overlook our sins toward the Chinese and other unchristian nations? V. '■ ■ ’» should have the preference, the Gospel or commerce?"

We are not left in doubt as to ’Much does liavt* the preference in China. The <tory is told by Doctor E. E. Vincent, former pastor of the Central Christian Church of Kansas City. He says there is absolutely no hope for the evangelization of China as it is being undertaken at the present time. He asks the pointed question and gives the answer as follows:

‘‘What can the white race expect to accomplish in China when it hires the Chinese on week days for ten cents a day and proaches to him on Sunday the doctrine of mijc'lfisluiess? European nations must abandon their land-grabbing and their eternal exploitation of Chinese labor if the missionary is to accomplish anything. Ei_d’*v percent of China is now under the control of foreign nations. They have obtained concession after concession, and the end is not in sight. The Chinese see their lands and industries taken from them year hv vpar bv the people who go to them with words of brotherly love. When we extend the olive branch with cue hand they are wondering what is in the other hand. Enough eggs were shipped from China in the course of the famine to have fed the entire population. They were sold in Japan at that time at cents apiece.”

If this country is a Christian nation, as the Supreme Court rules, there seem to be consid-©Table opportunities on our shores for those who have the real missionary spirit. It is with a good deal of shame that^rea^ Americans learn of Armenian girls, fleeing from untold horrors in their own country and turned back by American immigration laws, throwing themselves into the ocean rather than face the fate which awaited them had they returned to their own land. The Armenians of a batch recently sent back by “Christian” America were promptly massacred by the Turks after the women had been raped.

A writer in the Minneapolis Daily News, conwienthig on this fact, says that it is enough to make a person question whether we are a Christian land. The answer is “dead easy”. The United States is not a Christian laud. It is a land of pagans and worse than pagans. A hypocrite who pretends to be a Christian, but is really a pagan at heart, is a ten times worse pagan than a pagan who knows that he is one and confesses himself to be such.

America and the Reverends are a proper field for real missionaries, but a field that is being neglected. A settlement worker writing in the "Yale Review” shows how inevitably the Protestant churches have been drawn to serve most those who need it least and hence have been drawn to serve least those who need it most. The people ot means live in the most attractive suburbs; the churches have followed them there; the Reverends have followed the churches that paid the best salaries; congregations have been measured by their giving power; hence the man with the most generous check-book has Income the most important figure in the church and the one most sought for membership on the various boards that make up the church's activities.

Miss Manik Kosambi, a Hindu girl of Poona, India, and now a student at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, says that Christianity is fighting a losing battle in India: that out of 350^000,000 population there are only 400,000 Christians and 18,000.000 Mohammedans, while all the rest are Buddhists. An East Indian writing in the “Elkhart Review” tells oue reason why this is so. He says that the Christian missionaries that go to India usually build their estates at some distance from the towns and never mix with the people, as did Christ with the lowly orientals among whom He lived, and that their information and contact with the people is thus generally second or third hand and inaccurate and misleading. The same is true in Japan and China.

One Human Activity

LET us see. Is there not something we have omitted! Is there not one more activity of the clergy! Oh, yes! We have it. Besides all the other things they do they are engaged in preaching. But they are not preaching the Bible, for they do not believe in it; and they are not preaching the gospel of the Bible, for it has no place in their philosophy.

The modern clergyman ridicules the simple and truthful stury of the creation of num in the Garden of Eden and his fall from perfection to his present unhappy condition. Proof of this can be obtained on any Sunday in any town in the United States, and in almost any church. So completely has the Anglican church exchanged the Bible for the Darwinian theory of creation that recently when Canon Barnes at the fifty-fifth annual church conference of that church, denied the Biblical story of the fall of man and gave a lengthy address on evolution, it caused no amazement or excitement whatever.

All the clergy are in the same general condition. as respects the Bible story of the fall of man. They simply do not believe it. Thus, the Reverend A. C. Stevens, writing of the work of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Saratoga Springs said:

‘‘No longer will the ritual of the Methodist Episcopal Church hold that ‘men are conceived and born in sin’; for this time-honored and sadly misused declaration is to be obliterated. In its place is to be a clear statement setting forth the faith of the church in the belief that little children are already redeemed, and even when not baptized arc of the kingdom of God.”

Obviously if this teaching is true, and if the other teaching of Methodism is true that when the children grow up most of them will turn into sinners who will not become saints but must fry and cook and stew and parboil and fricas-sen and bake and simmer and stay all ‘‘het up” with real fire and real brimstone through-

SM out eternity, then the only sensible thing 'for Methodists to do is to choke all their children the moment they are born, so that theymay be sure of a glorious and eternal reward for their brief but pious lives.

There being no fall of man and no original sin, it follows that the average clergyman sees no real need of a Savior, since evolution is accomplishing the whole task of lifting up mankind anyway. Thus, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in British Columbia in 1913, officially endorsed and approved a book by Reverend Professor George Jackson, entitled ‘‘The Preacher and the Modern Mind”, in one part of which he makes the statement, “We are not bound to any Chris-tology or to any doctrine of the work of Christ”. This is tantamount to saying, “We are not bound to Christ in any way whatsoever”, which is the hard fact.

Reverend Doctor Appleton Bash, of Pittsburgh, speaking to a graduating class of young Methodist Episcopal clergymen in Clarksburg, West Virginia, November 2. 1919, told the young men to speak in terms that would be understood by the man of the street, saying, “Don’t expect to interest the man outside by using such phrases as being born again or washed in the blood of Jesus”. Without a doubt those young Reverends, anxious to get along in the clergy business, will do just as Doctor Bash has advised, or at least they will do it as far as their congregations will permit them to do.

On April 6, 1920, at the Church of the Glorification, St. Louis, Missouri, the Reverend F. A. Gustafson. made the statement respecting Christ that "His death upon the cross had no more to do with salvation and redemption than my losing my Life in order to save your child would have to do with saving the child”. We do not know the denomination with which the Church of the Glorification is connected; but whatever it is* we say, “Shame to it”.

Occasionally there is a body of Christian men that dares to stand by the Bible. Throe Baptist chnrdios in the state of Washington publicly withdrew Christian fellowship from the Plymouth Congregational Church because the pastor of the latter had made the statement that mo*lorn sAidy of the Bible does away with the idea ol blood sacrifice, which he denounced as u "pagan principle”. All we have to say is that

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if that principle be pagan then the whole Christian religion is a pagan religion and we are all without God and without hope in the world..

There being no fall of man and no Savior it follows obviously that there are no miraeles. The Reverend Elmer L Goshen, of the First Congregational Church, Salt Lake City, Utah, is said to have reached the ‘^positive” conclusion' that so-called miracles have no place in a modern program and that unless the church as a whole shakes off these shackles of superstition it will soon lose its uplift force and die.

We commend this observation to the attention of Reverend Antonio Garriteno, Rector of St Anthony’s Church of Chester, Pennsylvania. That gentleman is reported in the Philadelphia Presx of September 18,1920, as having received from Rome a part of the garment worn by Christ at His crucifixion. The account went on to say that the relic was recognized as genuine by the Vatican and that the seal of the \ atican was upon the document accompanying it from R-.nm*. Surely here is a great miracle. .Surely the preservation of a piece of this garment for so long a time is a Wonderful thing. And the garment itself must have been a wonderful garment; for enough pieces of it have been shown in the last 1900 years to make a good-sized circus lent.

There hung no fall of man, no Christ and no miracles, it follows that Christ never had a prehuman existence, or a miraculous birth of a virgin mother, or a miraculous resurrection from the dead. Just at this writing the city of Huntington, West Virginia, is all stirred up because two Congregational ministers have been expelled from the local ministerial association for expressing their disbelief in the divine con ception of our Lord Jesus Christ. This ministerial association did its duty, did just what it should have done; and it could go much further and expel many more of its members; and the act \vould all be to the advantage of those who are trying to be Christians in the city of Huntington.

There being no fall of man, no savior and no miracles, it also follows that we have ru i.» ed of the Savior’s promised reign on earth, the Golden Age. And any book such as Revelation which plainly tells of this coming era of peace on earth, good will toward men, is therefore a useless and pernicious book. So we are not -

surprised when the Reverend Doctor Shirley J. Case, Professor of Early Church History and New Testament Interpretation of John D. Rockefeller’s great University of Chicago for educating young Baptist Reverends comes out with a book in which he said substantially that John was a failure as a prophet, that Revelation did not come true and will never come true. Doctor Case thinks that most of the trouble in the world is due to people who'believe in the Revelation as a gift from God, saying, in part:

“I think today that part of the unrest over the globe, the inability of millions to settle back into their old orderly pursuits and their seeking after spiritualism and new sources of consolation are due to the recurrence of the old haunting despair of the human soul to which the term premillennialism has been applied. Premil-lennialism is based on the admission that nothing is of any use after all. I believe that if this old bogey [that Christ’s kingdom is actually to come.—Ed.] could be forever laid, if not only ignorant people, but millions of earnest and devout men and women could put this evil dream out of their minds, it would have world-wide quieting etfect/’ [This is just what Satan would like to hase done.—Ed.]

President Harding is a good echoer, a first-class one, and we understand that not !<i:tg since he echoed this sentiment of the Reverend Shirley Case. The idea is bearing fruit; and accordingly we learn that for preaching this doctrine, with which the Bible abounds from cover to cover, the Reverend James Colville, of the V’roo Will Baptist Church, Adrian. Michigan, has been sued by the trustees in an effort to oust him. The htdief was attacked in court as “having no place in the articles of faith of either the regular Baptist or Free Will Baptist Church.”. The complaint did not specify, however. and could not, that the belief has no place in the Bible.

Denying the fall of man, the need of a savior, the authenticity of miracles, and the reality of the long-promised kingdom is loading the Reverends to gradually take their stand in denying the Bible in toto and everything that stands for it or stands by it. Tie’s, the Reverend Clarence S. Gee, pastor of the Park Presbyterian Church, rtt ?uraddr-s< in <’h v»lnml. Ohio. September 21, 1919), made the statement that “creeds [expressions of faith] are splendid monuments to the expressed thought of men. but no one believes a creed”.

We presume it is because of this disbelief in anything and everything that an undertaker in Chicago advertised that he had a unique establishment so arranged that mourning guests might stay there without being conscious that there were any dead about them, or that they might be with their dead if they so desire, a place which has all the facilities of a hotel, and, last but not least, is provided with a Reverend “who has the ability to adapt his remarks to any denomination, creed or philosophy—a sort of all-around man”. Wonderful!

The clergyman in this undertaker’s employ may be a subscriber to the sermon service which issues somewhere in these United States. We do not know the address of the sermon factory, but have learned the titles of five of the sermons, namely, “God’s Masterpiece — Man,” “The Church of Tomorrow/’ “Humanity’s Head-light,’’ "The Man of Galilee,'* and ‘'America, the Queen of Nations”.

There was a "time when Protestants were perfectly fearless in declaring that the papal system is the Mari of Sin, the Antichrist. I u u r tlv new order of things this would never do. There will he no recognition of either Christ or Antichrist. Reverend George W. Coleman, President of the Northern Baptist Convention, writes of his ideas: "My ideal church would be so big and broad that no one would think of having more than one such institution to serve any given community”.

Reverend Andrew Melrose Brodie, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, of Wichita. Kansas, is also in favor of completely casting behind his back the horrible record of the system that fastened the bloody Inquisition upon Europe ami drenched its soil with the blood of seventy million martyrs. At a banquet in honor of the Right Reverend John Joseph Hennosy, Catholic Bishop of Wichita, October 16, 1919, he said:

‘*1 hope to see an American pepo elected. I hey? the tir o may conv» when all strife between ereed- will be set aside and the lUmun Catholic Church will hud all den^minatious into the kingdom.'’

For the encouragement of Reverend Brodie we <-Ml attention to the fact that it is already leading hi some things. Thus the Reverend Leo Kabner,Catholic Chaplain of the Joliet.Illinois, penitentiary, points out that the Catholics of Illinois comprise only 19.4 percent of the population of the state, but that is the Joliet prison they make up 45.1 percent of the prison population. This percentage by which they are leading the Protestants toward the Promised Land would be larger except for the fact that many policemen, most of whom are Catholics, will never arrest one of their own kind except under circumstances which they cannot possibly escape. A Catholic priest in Chicago got drunk and shot and killed an inoffensive station agent and never came to trial because a lying Bishop filled the Chicago papers with swill about what a beautiful character he was and how much he loved flowers. This love of flowers was all imaginary, as was afterward discovered by those who made investigation of the matter. But it did the trick The papers can be depended upon nowadays to accomplish any trick that is laid before them.

But there are plenty of black sheep in the Protestant ministry, too. One of the most flagrant recent instances of the crookedness of Reverends was the case of the Reverend A. D. Tucker, arrested at Savannah, Georgia, January 27, 1920, and returned to Columbia, S. C., where he was arraigned for stealing $1,500 from a brother minister with whom he was rooming in a Columbia hotel. lie was conducting revival services at the time the theft occurred.

Wc wonder how the other Reverend got the $1, 500 in the first place.

Reverend Percy Jones, Rector of Calvary Church. Bastrop, Texas.'in a letter to the Galveston Ncics tells of a visit which ho recently paid to a fashionable church in the East:

“Every ••(Tort wa- made to supply all except the chief thing for which the church exist*, namely: To pn-acn the gospel. There were polite ush»?rs. fine music, ornate ritual, gorgeous stained gln>x leaflets in the racks at the doors, leaflets in the pew.-. The parish had sewing guilds, boy scouts. camp-fire girls, a swimming pool, and club-rooms. But the sermon was a four or five minute ‘mutation’ on some collect or hymn, squeezed in tight between a long list of announcements, and tearful appeals for money in ‘drives* that were being run ‘at sundry time- and in divers manners*.’*

In a sermon preached at Tabernacle Baptist Church. Raleigh. North Carolina, July 29, 1920. Reverend Victor Oscar Haywood delivered himself of some pretty plain talk as to the present condition of religion in the United States after several generations of the most ardent effort on the part of the clergy to pound the desk, deny the Bible and yell for more money in the most strictly^orthedox way. We collect a few of his choice sentences as follows:

“The church fails because it fails in its conception of its duty to the world, because it has lost sight of the fact that it is in the world and not of the world. By the time we convert Africa, missionary boards along the Congo will be sending missionaries to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Raleigh. There is hardly a church you can go to that doesn’t look like a music hall. The only way you can. tell church members is for them to wear uniforms like the Salvation Army. If you should start out today preaching the gospel that the disciples preached, there is not a denomination on earth that would own you; and if Christ should come to Raleigh and preach tomorrow as he preached nineteen hundred years ago, you would have him in Jail before night.”

On Its Last Legs

THE clergy business is on its last legs. One evidence of this is that of the 108,000,000 people in United States not more than 44,000,000 are counted members of religious denominations, and only twenty percent of the Protestants go to church regularly; there are 3,000,000 less children in the Sunday schools than there were in the year before the war. Moreover, there are now 40.000 pastorless churches in the United States, according to the Federal Council of Churches of Christ: and whereas there are required 5.000 new clergymen each year to take the places of those who drop out. the total output of Reverends of Protestant seminaries for last year was only 1.450.

Of Princeton’s 30S graduates in 1921 only eight were expecting to enter the ministry, and Amherst graduated only one who was anticipating that line of work. The significant fact here is that both Princeton and Amherst were founded with the avowed object of providing schools for the training of young men for the ministry.

As the total attendance at Protestant seminaries is now estimated at only 5,500, it is calculated that in 1922 ten thousand more Protestant pulpits wall be vacated than in 1920. The Literary Digest says of this movement of the youth of the land:

“While the seminaries are failing to check their losses, all other institutions of higher learning have been put to it to accomodate the avalanche of students which descended upon them after the war, which would seem to show tKat men are deliberately shunning the pulpit in favor of other professions”.

’ Dr. Burdette B. Brown, Executive Secretary of the Methodist Child Welfare Society, said of this failure of young men to train for the clergy business:

"It is really creditable to the young manhood of our time that they hesitate to enter the ministry unless they are under a conviction.sufficiently strong to lead them to the work regardless of the compensation received”.

The Doctor then explains how commercial institutions make a practice of visiting colleges and universities regularly each year and offering tempting opportunities to the graduates. He says:

"A similar plan of recruiting students for the ministry should be followed by the commission on recruiting, awarding a lucrative salary, that they too may have the hope of a home and familv”.

The American Board of Applied Christianity and Applied Patriotism with military (L e., machine-gun and poison-gas) ideas incorporated under the laws of New York, with Major General Leonard Wood, LL.D., as Honorary President, has a scheme for enticing young men into the ministry. Tills scheme was started in October, 1921, with an advertisement for 4,500 men to receive free training in practical politics, public speaking, current news, work among boyn. financial management of churches, and religious education. The advertisements state that full information can be obtained from the headquarters of H.r i.iovri.ieet. 70 F'ifth Avvnno. New York, or from the pastors, ushers or leaders in local churches.

Evidently somebody is badly scared and trying to get more of tl?o modern variety of Reverends at all hazards. Cheer up. They will not get them, and it will be a blessing to the country that they fail to ’•nanc men of today want to do something worth while and most of them are convinced in^t the clergy business has had its day. A Congregational minister in the course of a recent tour made the remark, “This is the Ihirty-fifth church I have visited, and not one of them has sent a single man into the ministry in thirty years”.

Bishop Warren A. Candler, of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, (brother to Asa G. Candler* proprietor of the Coca Cola beverage business) writes in the Atlanta Journal, October 26, 1919, lus opinion of the kind of instruction the young men have been receiving in the theological seminaries of these United States:

"Too many American theological leaden and teacher* have been showing young men who coma to them for instruction how to write and preach and live on the least possible belief”.

Bishop Candler puts his hand on the sore spot The men who teach the Reverends have no faith themselves and Are unable to impart to the young what they do not themselves poa* seas. An odd fact is that the denominational seminaries are virtually abandoned, while the seminaries which are centers of infidelity and higher criticism are being well filled. This shows that by some means the young men of today hav$ become convinced that doctrines do not matter, and that the best way to get on in the world is not to have any principles at all.

Evidences of how hard pressed the Protestant denominations^are may be seen in the fact that in July, 1921, the staid old Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, at its conferences in New York and St. Louis decided to use the advertising columns of the daily press for general church advertising as well as evangelistic purposes, and the tyrannically governed Methodist Episcopal church a year previous granted to women the right to preach. At last reports fifteen women Reverends had been licensed to preach.

The Reverend William T. Ellis, writing in the Saturday Evening Post of the reports of ministerial meetings held in various cities, said, March, 1921:

"If one were to judge religion by these gatherings of the city clergy he would be surely justified in assuming that the major interests of the churches are such matters as the use of cigarettes, the length of women’s skirts, fashions in the movies, Sunday baseball, local politics, and the minutiae of ecclesiastical mechanics”.

All this takes place, he says:

"With the whole earth in such agony as it has never before known; with vast spiritual fermentation and unrest a world-wide condition; with the very foundations of Christian civilization imperiled; with a nation steadily loosening its hold upon the elemental^ of faith”.

The New York Post, commenting upon the decrease of young men in the theological seminaries. points out that:         -      •

"The Episcopal, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches have felt the strain most, chiefly because their young men have been thinking independently since the war, and struggling to choose the ri^ht course. Thew churches appeal to a thoughtful constituency which re* fuses to accept doctrine without question. Naturally,

300

so tremendous an event as the great conflict has given rioe-to much questioning. Many of the men have returned frankly baffled.”                        '

Even of those who, while in jeopardy of instant death, turned to religion, the account in the Post goes on concerning the much heralded spiritual uplift which tha Reverends predicted would come of the war:

“The army of men with renewed faith which had assumed such proportions in- the Argonhe and at Belleau Wood diminished visibly at Brest and dwindled to a handful ^fin the practical realism of the port of New York. And instead of gaining substantially, the churches even lost many of those who had intended to cuter the ministry before the war. For the spiritual wave which was so confidently expected to follow in its wake was lost in the greater surge of materialism and sordidness which flooded the world. The churches battled manfully and futilely to stem the tide and prevent the w wkage.”

The Reverend Charles Brent, speaking before the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in October. 1919, said:

•‘There was a time when the Church was a pillar of fire leading the army of Christians. Now it is more like an ambulance following on behind and picking up tin* woundi d.*'            -

The Reverend Paul R. AV right is not so optimistic. He does not think the church is headed in the right direction, to say nothing of following behind and picking up the wounded. In an address before the men’s Bible class of the First Christian Church, Santa Ana, California, he said:

"We are joy-riding in the dark and are going to hell so fast we can't he seen for dust”.

Going! Going!! Gone!!!

IT IS evident that while only the intervention of the strong arm of the state can save the clergy busuiess from complete wreck, it is still true as Benjamin Franklin astutely observed:

v;Whcn religion is good ir will take care ot' itself; ulh-ifSt is nut able to take rare of and God does nul it fit to take care of it. that it has to appeal to the civil power for support it is evidence to my mind that its < a;i>e is a bad one*’.

Wln-n any institution has to come forth and explain why it has gathered to itstdf weaklings and hypocrites it has certainly reached a low obit. Reverend Joseph A. Kyle. Brooklyn, New York, writing in ‘'Unity” as to why there are weaklings and hypocrites in the clergy business says;

“They are not there by nature or by choice, but have spent many lonely and bitter hours before yielding to a pressure greater than they could bear".

Reverend Kyle follows this statement with the observation:

"Every minister in every church yearns to stand upright and speak his mind freely on every subject, but the suffering that it would bring to those dependent upon him holds him in check and gradually dwarfs his soul"

The same gentleman also says:

. “There is no possibility of stating the function of the minister in such a way that it will fit all groups of men and women".

We accept this statement as true, therefore we say : Away with them all, and lot us get back to the simplicity and honesty of the early church. But the Reverend gives us some more:

“The Roman Catholic Church with its celibate priesthood serves a groat mass of people in a way that they need; no other church could do it. There is a certain type of man and woman that is at home only in an Episcopal Church. Another craves the Methodist Church with its warmth of devotion, or the Baptist Church, or the Presbyterian. Still another finds religion, spiritual comfort and uplift only in Christian Science, I am a friend of them all."

Later on in the article Reverend Kyle says: “Better a handful of people serving the Master than a mob believing nothing in particular”. Is that so! Then if a collection of Roman Catholic, Methodist Baptist, Presbyterian, and Christian Science saihts is not “a mob believing nothing in' particular”, win Reverend Kyle not explain how such a mob should be made up!

There are plenty of clergymen who frankly confess that the Reverends have made a colossal failure of their job. At the Methodist Ecumenical (inference. in London. September, 1921. the Rev. Ezra Squier Tipley, Madison, N. J., said:

“The world wants to Im? rid ol poverty, iguorar.ee, lust, greed. violence, ill-will, social injustice, and the warping burden of hatred and war. What help is there for this broken world? Naturally wo would look to the church; but we find it full of imposing ceremonies, thuibiering moralities, rigid decencies, the clatter of rub-. । da tit lido, venerable traditions, infinite cogwheels of organization, vvetything except the spirit of the Galilean peasant who came to plant in tho garden of the world the seed of the love of the Almighty."

Reverend Henry R. Sanborn, pastor of the Episcopal Church, Sparks, Nevada, stated the exact truth, in an address at Detroit, Michigan, in October, 1919, when he said:

"The church is in the Laodicean stage today. The church boasts of its wealth, increases its goods, and apparently needs nothing. As a matter of fact, it/is miserable, poor, blind and naked.”

Reverend Doctor George W. Shelton, preaching at the Alvin Theatre, Pittsburgh, December 21,1919, gives the main reason why the clergy business has been a failure. He says:

"Education has failed us. It has only made a rascal more effective. The most highly trained people in the world became the most diabolical. Science has failed us. Every invention of man has been turned to human destruction. Evolution has failed us. We have returned . to the primal instinct of tooth and claw. Christianity has not failed us. It has never been tried** '

It was tried, with astonishing success for three centuries—but none of the Reverends , seem to know about it.

Newspaper dispatches tell us of a town whore churehianity does nut flourish. They tell us that Walcott, Iowa, the richest town per capita in the state, has been without either a church or a jail for tnore than fifty years. The town is large enough to possess two banks, with combined deposits of over $1,500,000. This brings up the houiely but practical question. If a tiling is absolutely no good, what good is it I The answer is "What's the use?” and there isn’t any. This does not mean that we do not believe in Christianity. The Christianity of Christ and “church-ianity” of the Reverends are as far apart as the East is from the West.

Common People “Catching On”

AN IMPORTANT section of the churchmen

. oi England are of the opinion that the day of the sermon has passed. They hold that the preaching of two ten or fifteen minute sermons each Sunday imposes a great strain upon the clergy, r. strain equally severe on the laity who have to listen to something that usually means absolutely nothing to anybody. They cite the unpopularity of bound volumes of sermons, once in ^reat demand, as an evidence that the people no tdtiger wish to hear them. They are quite right. They have hit the nail on the head. A young woman, writing to the Toronto Star, in August, 1921, said:

“Why have preachers? We are intelligent and all have Bibles to* read. We gather to worship to sing God’s praises, to encourage each other. Does it need a college education of many years to be a leader ? Many in the congregation could read a chapter intelligently. I need to be a church-goer. Now I use Sunday as a day of rest, read my Bible and other good literature, and give my tenth to every good cause, mostly to buy Bibles, English and foreign. I’d rather support a mission in some store than pay any pastor of any church I have found so far here. They are great visitors, great gos-ripen, great eaters, great egotists, and everything else. There are few ideal pastors. Let us all be evangelists to each one we meet, and the millennium will come soon.”

A writer in the Toronto Globe, signing himself merely with the title “Plain Man” makes a somewhat similar observation and suggestion:

“There are men in the church capable of managing railway systems, governments, newspapers and large industries; and if they express an opinion on theological questions they will apologize for having trodden on sacred ground. The result is the pew is comparatively dead. There is do doubt ecclesiasticism is largely responsible for this state of affairs^ Where is there any room in the prevailing systems for obeying the injunctions of Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 14:31, and numerous other commands of similar import? In the first century every convert who could was supposed to. and did, preach the Word everywhere (Acts 8:4 and 11:19). And they were not college students, nor were they ordained by their fellow men.”

An anonymous Article in the Winnipeg Tribune of May 14, 1921> shows that they are getting their eyes opened in Manitoba, too. It says:

“The priest of today lives in an artificial world, and between him and the mass of men is a great gulf fixed. A celebrated cleric has himself suggested the remedy, though in his case primarily on economic grounds. Let the preacher support himself like other men by a secular vocation, and perform his spiritual duties on Sunday and in intervals of leisure.”

And so say we all. It is quite useless for men to try to tell other men and women how to behave in this sin-cursed world unless they are themselves battling with the very same problems as those to whom they seek to minister.

Deserting the Sinking Ship

WHEN Rabbi Harry R. Richmond, of Paterson, New Jersey, resigned from the rabbinate he gave some reasons which reflect very well the reasons which are forcing thousands of other conscientious men out of the ministry. Of course, if a man had no conscience he can try to stay in the business a little while yet. Rabbi Richmond said:

“The pulpit does not accomplish the good it is supposed to do. It does not stop poverty, lynching, peonage,

war, graft, bribery, and other similar evils. The rabbi or minuter of today can no longer mould human life. Organised religion does not come to uproot things. It sanctions things. It cannot do anything else. It is powerless to do anything else. If it will not sanction the institutions of the day, it will be deserted by the people?’

Some’of those who see that the jig is up, and that the people can- no longer be led about by ‘the nose in this matter of religion as they have beeri in the past, are going into the business for which their training more particularly fits them, that of salesman. Thus, the Reverend H. B. Schultheis, of the Christian Church of. East Palestine. Ohio, left the church to become a salesman for a brokerage firm in Pittsburgh; Reverend Willis. Pastor of the Lutheran Church. Louis Comer. Wisconsin, left to become a travelling salesman: Reverend A. I.. Snow, pastor of Liuisdown Christian Church. East St. Louis, left to become a salesman for the Gohl Grain Milling Company; Rabbi Samuel Sale. Lor thirty-two years the rabbi of Temple Shaarc Emeth. St. Louis, Missouri, left to become a life insurance agent with the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company: and Reverend Doctor T. G. Syles. of Grosse Pointe Protestant ClftTFcli. has resigned to enter tli<* real estate business: while the Reverend W. II. Fresblry. Pastor of the First Evangelical Church. South Bend. Indiana, has become the manager of the local branch store of the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.

Some arc going back to the farm. Reverend II. Shaw. Pastor of the Bethany Christian ('hutch. Evansville, Indiana, has irniip back to a farm: Reverend R. H. Cooper, of Marion. Illinois, has done the same: and the pastor of our *0 the local churches । >i' < '•nuiiivro’. Georgia, is earning $1.50 a day pulling fodder for the farmer. We wish to call attention to this last man. lie is doing the right thing; With his back aching Saturday night after a Lard week's work he is In^far better condition to give a message of comfort to some other poor fellow whose back is also aching from the suiuc kind of work, than he would if he had Iwcii loafing during the week, “working not at all”. (2 Thessalonians 3:11) Reverend Rolwt Rein. Jamaica. Long Island, advertised ifi the Daily Fanner for “any kind of honest work”.

Some are going into mining and manufacturing lines. A Western correspondent of The

The Bishops of Lichfield and of Durham, England, have had to give up their castles for smaller quarters and even the Lord Bishop of London had to give up one of his. Now, isn’t - that The Bishop, Doctor Ingram, evidently fedff sore over his lost prestige and, realizing that the old graft is about played out, made the d ^ statement in a speech, April 10, 1921: “The business men of London are not such fools as to put their sons to such a rotten profession as preaching”. When the Bishop gets down to an honest job, say ditch digging, or coal heaving, \ tavern keeping, or whatever he is adapted to, he will feel better about all this; and it will be a fine thing for London, too.

* Hurrah for the Taylors!

ONESTY, like dishonesty, runs in the blood, and it must he that the Taylor family are

naturally honest. We have three of these Taylors in mind. The first is the Reverend ' Doctor Joseph Judson Taylor, D. D., of Leaks-ville, North Carolina. Writing in the Manufacturer’s Record, August 26, 1920, he said:

“Mun who are today denouncing the wickedness of war, only a few months ago were as eanu^tly proclaini-_r       ing the righteousness of war, the war they wanted.

I        Ministers who, like the writer, have never read a trea

tise on international law in their lives, have felt quite competent to lecture senators on their duties concerning I th? so-called League for Peace: and yet less than two wars ago the same men were preaching war from their pulpits, and in some cases were promising the victims of war salvation from sim and rest in heaven/'

[ . The second Taylor that conies in for our respectful attention is the former pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Rochester, Min-j nesota. lie gave up his ministry to study os-' teopathy, declares that the modern church is a Judas that denies the Lord, and that if the i business houses of the country were run on the same unscrupulous lines as the churches they would all be bankrupt within thirty days.

The ^hir.d Taylor, and perhaps we ought to « call him the Master Taylor, was the Reverend I. Paul Taylor of Highland Park, Michigan. He writes for the magazine “Unity”, explaining why he cannot remain in the ministry and why he is leaving it. We quote sentences here and there from his masterly article. He goes to the foundation of the whole fraud that has been perpetrated upon the common people:

• “"When I say that I cannot be a Christian and a successful minister I mean just that I cannot remain true to the teachings of Jesus, I cannot maintain my interest in the negroes and other oppressed people and rise to be the minister in a large church at the same time. I think I know how to do it, how to agree with the editorials of the subsidised press rather than the Sermon on the Mount, how to bow to the authority of the state at every crisis rather than to hold fast to the leadership of the Carpenter of Nazareth. Yes, I know how to do all this; but I won’t For me to cooperate with them, for me to make my living by being a ‘successful' minister, would be to accept the thirty pieces of silver as did Judas. Trace the history of the world and you will find that it is the history of one conflict after another for the same thing, the suppression of the slaves or peasants in eveiy revolution. Am! where has the church historically stood in the.-o contests? Has she luid a definite set of principles which have been her guiding star? Not since the days of that early apostolic church whose members were persecuted by the Roman Empire as the enemies of the established order. Not since the days when those ancient lowly men followed in the footsteps of Hhn who was put to death because he •'stirreth up the pt'ople’ and ‘is no friend of C:vsn< Because ever since that day we have had not a Christianity which was ‘good now.** (gospel) to the poor and ‘common people who heard him gladly', but we have had state religions whose glory and shame it has been to uphold any old hokns-i>oku3 game winch might be decreed by their King. Cz.ir, Kaiser or President. To them ‘the ruler could do no wrong'. I was brought up to be tactful. J was told in the seminary to follow the admonition of Paul and feed the people with milk when they could not stand meat — for the sake of the organization. I have done it. but never again! I am through with that method. For me the time has come to get off the fence. 1 entered the ministry to promote die Brotherhood of Man, ami i. j.v I am leaving it for the same purpose.*’ Honest man.’

The fact of the business is that the organized system of religion which has spread over the earth calling itself Christianity is not Christianity at all.An article in    Stiht rd'! it

Post correcting those who think that the modern church is a representative of Christianity and an attempt to carry out the personal teachings of Christ says of it:

“It is nothing of th? sort, and no church authority will support that idea. Christianity—more particularly after the ascendancy of the Trinitarian doctrine was established—was and is a theological religion; it is the religion that triumphed over Arianism, Manicheism, Gnosticism, and the like; it is based not on Chrbt but on its creeds; Christ indeed ia not even its symbol; on the contrary, the chosen symbol of Christianity is the cross to which Christ was nailed and on which He died. It was the warrior Theodosius who, more than any other’

single man, imposed it upon Europe. There is no reason, therefore, either in precedent or profession, for expecting any plain lead from the churches in this tremendous task of organizing and making effective the widespread desire of the world far peace. And even were this the Case, it is doubtful if we should find in the divines and dignitaries of the Vatican, of the Russian and British official churches, or of any other of the multitudinous Christian sects* the power and energy, the knowledge and ability, or the good will to negotiate so vast a thing as the creation of a world authority.”

Let us thank God that He has not left Himselfi without a true people in the earth, small in. numbers though they be; and let ug thank Him also that He has provided the great Ruler whose right the kingdom is, who shall bripg in the everlasting peace and righteousness for which all good men, in and out of the clerical business long. When that kingdom has fully come it will indeed be what the Scriptures say of it, “the Desire <jf all Nations”.

The People in Politics

NOT that there is a People’s Party, but that the hitherto inarticulate common people have become vocal through officials chosen by informal nonpartisan methods.

Tn an issue of The Golden Age over a year ago on the coining rise of the fanner and labor element in politics it was predicted that these classes would quietly elect men after their own heart, but chosen nominally as Democrats or Republicans. This would be accomplished by the unnoticed capture of local political machines and the designation of men for office who would properly and adequately represent the common people. In Congress, Cor example, they would nominally be Democrats or Republicans, but when it came to action they would stand by themselves voting and acting for the people who sent them to Congress.

This prediction has been fulfilled to the letter.

Tn the New York Times for November 23, 1921, the emergence of this new force in national affairs was announced under the heading, “Republican Heads Lose Grip on Party. Progressive Farm Block in Congress Takes Control of Tax and Tariff Legislation. Harding’s Appeal Ignored.” It goes on to say that (bracket* ou^s):

‘•Milit<iht.progros>ivism is in control in Congress, and (he Republican Party is without direction in its most important legislative policies, tax and tariff matters. [The Times is Democratic] Eren President Harding in loss than eight months of his Administration has lost the prestige ofcholding in line the large Republican majority in th^ House on the revenue bill, which, in the opinion of Republican leaders, amended as it was in conference, means peril to the party and the country. [Democratic propaganda)

, “When ninety-four Republican members of the House refused last week to adopt the recommendations of President Harding on the surtaxes, they proved that there were enough independent Republican votes to take the reins of legislative control out of the hands of the majority leaders on legislation of distinct party flavor. [Times wants readers to think this way]

“The progressive farm bloc in the Republican Party holds the balance of power in Congress, and, cemented together a< it is. will be powerful enough to dictate the writing of the tariff bill, as it did the revenue bill, sweeping aside the judgment of the recognized leaders.

•‘It developed today that *tho [farm] Senate group which forced the 50 percent surtax [hated by the rich] into the revenue bill had gained six new converts in the fight to raise the duties on farm products, [so as to help the hated farmer] bringing the number to twenty-seven.

• • «

"Such a group can dictate the schedules in the tariff bill and prevent the party leaders framing a bill which will cover the entire subject without regard to giving preference to social interests. [The farmers. Funny, isn’t it. to hear a Wall Street mouthpiece call the farmers "special interests”] In a word, the Republican Party is under the control of the [lilicrty-loving] West, and the bloc holding the balance of power intends to have all legislation writte n with regard to the situation prevailing in that section of the country.

" ‘The attitude of the bloc has destroyed the [Wall Street | Republican Party? said a Republican leader today. ‘The voters will certainly lose confidence in the party which promised to reduce taxes [for the rich] and revise the war revenue laws [so Morgan-feller might pay less taxes]. Nothing has been accomplished in this session except the framing of legislation intended to benefit the farmer. >uch as the temporary tariff, and the extension of the War Finance Corporation to give credits to farmers.’ ’’

The emergence of this farmer-chosen block in Congress is one of the hopeful signs. Hither-

to there has been, and now-is, a Wall Street block powerful enough to dominate all legislation and bent on preventing anything that would help the comtnon people, if it encroached at all on the preserves of Big Business.

Now, as predicted, there is seen the beginning of the complete ousting of the Big Business block. Big Business, headed by PresidenLHard-ing their tool, purposed to eliminate the tax on the excessive profits of corporations and the rich. It was for the very rich that the President pleaded at such length for the reduction of the surtax, a tax which affects only the largest incomes in the country. The President’s “obstructive interference” was declared by Senators to be a violation of the Constitution [political talk by the Democrats]. But anything is justifiable when Big Business is to be defended.

It need not be imagined by the Democratic Party that the revolt from the Republican Party is destined to benefit the Democrats. The latter party lias been a dead issue ever since the 7,000,000 landslide of voters away from Wilsnn.

The revolt now in progress is an uprising of the common people against Big Business, Big Politics, and Big Church.

The heroic seven million stood up against Wrtson and the papal hierarchy, and chose a Big Business party headed by President Harding and Standard Oil, as the lesser of two evils. The common people were fleeing from the savagery of Rome and the Espionage laws, the Sedition laws, the cruel inquisition of the Palmer secret service, the brutality of militaristic domination. the lash of the Federal Reserve Banking system, the scourge of unnecessary hard times. and the obnoxious interference with private affairs of Herbert Hoover and the Protestant ecclesiastics and their “dry” law espionage. These millions fled to the Republican Party only as a temporary port of refuge. They are not Republicans. They are not Democrats. They are rimply plain people—the real 100-percent Ameriahis—in revolt against their tormentors and oppressors, of whatever political party. The Republican leaders were much mistaken if they thought that the 1920 election was a Republican yictory. The Democratic leaders are much more mistaken if they imagine that such elections aS that for the New York City mayorship mean a Democratic “victory”, when the people who had gone two to one for Harding reversed themselves and went two to one for the Democratic candidates. It was simply a mad rush'from the oppressive dominion of Big Business. The New York Administration will do well to heed the warning, regardless of the fact that it resulted so fortunately for them. The only way to continue even for a time what appears like popular approval is for the New York Administration to boldly take the side of the common people^tad to cut loose from all domination and interference by Big Business, or Big Church. Any other course will result in certain loss.

The breaking away of the masses from Big Business political control appeared again in the peculiar result of the election-for mayor of Youngstown. Ohio. There a “stranger within the gates”, who had come in only a few months before.' started a produce market, and through his advertisements talked about the things lie knew the people wanted — humorously put in the IT’or/d as “discontinuance of street-car service, turning the streets over to jitney buses and jailing any citizen who paid a tax under a recent valuation” to say nothing of “permitting spooning in city parks under police protection. dismissing the entire police force if it ‘doesn’t mend its wav’,” and a promise to turn over his entire salary to charity. The result astounding to the two political machines of Youngstown, was the election of Mayor George L. Oles by an overwhelming vote.

This again was the fleeing of the couuinm people, and particularly the women voters, who more keenly than the men suffer from the privations and hardships of the hard times and the evil effects of 'corrupt government, from the oppression and torments inflicted on their victims by Big Business and Big Politics, to say nothing of Big Church, which in the background incites many an act harmful to the people?

In Cleveland the same landslide was seen away from the old parties to a man that held out a little hope to the people. Tin’s time it was a former Chief of Police, who for his attitude in behalf of the common people and against the political bossism, was elected by a handsome majority. When he was dismissed in 1913 on charges of conduct unbecoming an officer, preferred by the Newton D. Baker who later became a cabinet member under the infamous Wilson administration, he said, “Cleveland will some day elect me its Mayor³’. That day has come; and if Mayor Fred Kohler loyally stands as an actual champion of the common people his name will be long remembered with regard. But if he again takes up with Big Business, Big Politics, or Big Church he will surely feel the heavy hand of popular wrath.

This mass movement of the people against corruption among their former leaders is one of the significant signs of the times. It portends ill for corrupt men in high circles. It promises better things for the ordinary man. It is worldwide in extent, is visible in England, in Canada, in far-off Australia, in all parts of Europe.

So vast a movement was not unknown in the prophecies of the Scriptures which in a variety of ways, sometimes by simple utterances, sometime by the deeds of champions against wrong, depicted these things. For this is Jehu in action. Jehu represents the common people revolting against official iniquity. Jehu began his famous ride in America prior to the 1920 election. Jehu —the people — destroyed the Romanist Democratic Party at a blow. Now this heroic figure is inflicting a deadly blow against the nominally* “Protestant*’ Party of Privilege, the Republican Party. Soon the common people will turn their attention to Big Church in politics and will in some manner, not clearly seen as yet, throw down and bring about the utter destruction of the church-state system prophetically termed “Jezebel”. It is a general cleaning-up by the people—part of the cleansing away of the corruption and iniquity which have stained the nations of the world (2 Kings 9.1^1. rnd which must be completed before the Golden Age.

California Oil Workers Strike By Clifton R. Pettit

ent parts of the country, I am goin-x to write a brief resume of the Oil Worker’s Strike in the California oil fields, but particularly in Kern County or the San Joaquin Valley. You may assume that any and all statements are true: for I will omit any that have the nature of he-rsay. It might be well to add that I am not a member cd' any labor orr'n^r,’.ation, and that I am employed in a capacity ■ ’ h enables urn to look at the viewpoints of b«qh the operators and the workers; and I I am writing this solely because 1 road your pv.hlicr thui rcxul'idy and accept its recommendations in 27>od faith.

The Oil Workers went out on strike in support of a principle which they cons:dered worth lighting for: namely, the continuation of the Mediation Board for Oil Workers’ Affairs instituted by the Government during the war. Tiie operators hold that the end of the war brmurht to'n close the necessity for this or any like arbitration committee; and to emphasize their stand they promptly gave out a general notice that all wages would be cut one dollar im r day, tok take effect September 1st, 1921. One or two companies agreed to meet with the Mediation Board, but in the main the operators offered a solid front of resistance to the workers and refused to meet them at alL The workers

The strike, as organized and carried :m. holds a distinctly unique place in the history »»f organized labor struggles; and other strikes in the future will in all probability be organized only after taking into consideration the merits or disadvantages of the unique strike as staged in the California oil fields.

In the first place, the strike-leaders had many hundreds of men deputized, giving them full legal status ns police in the strike area. These men for the most part were ex-soldiers, and they inmirdir.tr-y took up the work of arming them-sdw to the extent of making the necessary embargoes on the “outlaw companies’ ’effective. Motorcycle squadrons for the police of highways were also organized, and took up their stations on the main lines of traffic, in order to stop cars and ascertain whether or not they were carrying strike-breakers into the strike districts. All those police were designated “law and order men”.

On about September 20 the Associated Oil Company attempted to run a train into the area, loaded with strike-breakers, or “guards”, as they afterwards claimed these were. The strikers stopped the train and sent it back In the meantime the motorcycle riders maintained a close watch on the roads, stopping, all ears that they did not recognize.

Soon after the strike became effective certain individuals, who owned interests in the oil fields and who wished to bring unworthy criticism in i the press to bear to their advantage, attempted • to antagonize the road sentries by passing them without stopping. This occasionally brought a * rifle shot at their tires or over their heads to intimidate them. Of course the press im- mediately took this up, and certain Los An-gelcs papers published articles about “Little Bed Russia in the Oil Fields”, stating that the workers had set up a soviet form of government. women were not safe on the streets, etc., all calculated to prepare the public mind for the Government’s sending in machine gunners. To their disappointment the machine guns never developed, although they kept up their exaggerated articles until the close and wrote articles about Taft’s being the center of an I. W. W. uprising. The remarkable thing was that a stranger visiting the town would never have known that a strike condition existed.

The strikers were maintained by the levy on union employes in other fields who were not affected, and by the funds saved up prior to the Strike. Many of the men left the fields for other parts of the country, but for the most part the men carried on in the hope of bringing things to a successful close. However, the smaller companies closed down their production, and the larger ones ran their oil into storage or had it transported to tidewater through the lines of unaffected companies. The lack of demand for oil operated in favor of the companies, and they were able to continue this plan indefinitely.

After appealing to the Government for intervention and receiving no hope of the Govern. meat’s taking any hand in the affair the strikeleaders decided to return to work and called the strike off on November 1st.

AFTERMATH

Whejj the men were ready to return to work, it seems "that the various oil companies had been cooperating to a greater extent than was suspected; for the men were told that their jobs were taken by other men or that they were not needed. Strikers from one company would ap-' ply to another company, and find that that company was informed as to their previous employment and would not accept them. A very careful and elaborate system of checking and blacklisting had been evolved so that only very few well-trained or“ valuable” men did get their jobs back, and the rest were turned loose jobless, moneyless and, in a great many cases, foodless. It was next discovered that the merchants of the towns also were informed as to the names on the Black List in oYder to shut down their credit.

The next step, and probably the lust in this modern strike-drama, was the organization of the One Hundred and One Club. This club is ostensibly for the purpose of protecting the helpless citizens of the town against the ravages of a much-heralded mob of plotters, Bolshevists. Reds, Anarchists and I. W. W., who are supposed to be residing in our midst. Great pains have been taken to spread the whispered word around that “they are planning to blow up the reservoir” this or that night. (The reservoir has been empty for years) The One Hundred and One Club presented the proper opportunity for the merchants of the town to got rid of these jobless strikers. They figured that a jobless man has no dollar-and-ceuts value to their community, and that he should-be rushed out. ■

The chib itself was organized by a hireling whose reputation for selling out his fellow men will follow him to his grave. His salary ami the other incidental expenses of organizing were paid out of a fund provided by the larger of the oil companies affected by the strike.

The achievements of this “brilliant” organization so far have l*een the raid on the home, in the dead of night, of one Moore. Moore, a homesteader on sonic oil-hearing property which one of the companies has been trying buy. They have tried every known way except murder -in order to get him off the property without taking the matter to court, whore it would gain some notoriety. Moore was immediately branded as a Red and an I.W.W., although his friends know him for a gentle, inoffensive human being who simply wants to enjoy the right to live. The gallant One Hundred and One Club masked themselves, after relieving him of his gun the day before, and then stole into his house—with all the upstanding courage exhibited by skunks in killing baby rabbits. Moore was in bed; and when be got out of bed and turned on the light one of their number fired a thirty-eight-caliber bullet through the side of a thin partition into his back. He fell, and the noble One Hundred and One rushed in and arrested him for being disloyal to, the government The papers printed an entirely different story and moved the bullet down about eighteen inches in his anatomy for the sake of decency, stating that some one “unknown” had shot him in the leg during the raid on his home. Of course about five pounds of seditions literature was confiscated during the raid—five pounds being the stock in trade amount that is usually carried by any raiding party into any one’s private

I

TODAY, when probably the majority of people in Christendom either openly subscribe to New Thought opinions or tacitly acknowledge them in principle, it may be pertinent to examine the sources whence this erroneous doctrine is derived. It is our contention that there exists a close relationship between “psychic phenomena’* and Spiritism; and that Theosophy, Christian Science, and Enimannelism are an Occidental adaptation of that ancient esoteric philosophy of the Orient whose fruits in their native soil are a medley of nightmare superstitions and cruel and revolting customs and institutions which have kept the heathen mind under a spell of ignorance, apathy, hopelessness, despair, and fear, for unnumbered centuries.

In a former article I endeavored to show the connection between the various New Thought cults in general and those schools of Hindu thought to which they owe their origin. In this place I will attempt a more specific comparison between Emmanuelism and Taoism, both of which are typical examples—one, of a system of New Thought; the other, of an Oriental religion. The intention is not to infer a direct derivation of one from the other, but to disclose the probable origin of both in the Vedanta school of Hindu Philosophy. The parallel features of Emmanuelism and Taoism are: Spiritism, evolution, spiritual self-mastery (or will-culture), hypnotism, the conception of “starry angels”, the “subconscious mind”, and perhaps psychotherapy. It is probable also that the Taoists regard Shang Ti, the Supreme Being of their Pantheon^ina pantheistical sense.

Emmanuelism originated in Boston in 1906, in the Emmanuel Church; hence its name. Ita home when they do not happen to like him.

The great work goes on. Slowly but surely the jobless strikers are branded as I. W. W„ and then told to leave by these valiant masked assassins of the One Hundred and One Club 'of Big Business.

As you may know the members of the One Hundred and One Club are thesame men who , once put their hands on their chests and said in , a deep patriotic voice: “We are 101 percent Americans”.

By 0. L. Rosenkrans, Jr.

founder was Dr. Elwood Worcester, a thoroughly up-to-date clergyman, who subscribed to all the most recent opinions of the evolutionists, psychicist and higher critics, and who sought to combine them into an essentially modernist interpretation of the Creed of the Apostles. Dr. Worcester had completed his education in the German schools, where he became a disciple of (J. T. Fechner, himself a follower of Buckert, who discovered his alleged “treasures of wisdom” in the Puranas, or sacred books of the Hindus.

Taoism was founded by the sage Lao-Tzi during the reign of Ling Wang (B. C. 571-544) of the Chow dynasty, which exercised a nominal authority over the semi-independent princes of China during the Feudal period. The temporal dominion of the Chows was restricted to their heredity patrimony, their authority over the princes being a pseudo-spiritual one, as the exponents of ancient laws and customs. So the “Hall of Light”, or imperial palace at Loh-yang corresponded somewhat tb a supreme court whose decisions are final; and here Lao-tzi held office as Keeper of the Royal Archives. He was considered a native of Ch’u state; but the Sina-logue Terrien La Couperie, who claims to discover a regular intercourse at this time between the Chinese coast towns and Indian sea-traders, believed him to be a wandering Hindu pilgrim.

The title “Lao-tzi”, or the “Old One”, was a reverential one. probably implying “Old Master”; however, the sage’s biographers advance a more fanciful explanation, relating that Lao-tzi was prenatally conscious that his birth would be fatal to his mother, and so intentionally delayed the same for eighty years, being born

existence as a cycle. The Taoist teaching that soul is a refinement of matter, appears also to be a variation,of the Hindu belief that Purusa, or soul, creates matter through a cycle of evolution whereby the emanations of the soul become constantly more gross until the grossest stage is reached of visible, tangible matter.

According to the Taoists, the soul-essence exists in every object of nature and is the spirit controlling its development. Substantially this soul-essence corresponds to the “subconscious mind” of Enimanuelists and psychicists in general; and its workings are similar. The Taoists believe that the soul-essence subconsciously directs the growth of natural objects; a latent evolutionary principle which urges an upward striving through which, they believe, insects become the spiritual progenitors of birds, birds of animals, and the latter of man—an oriental “evolution”. It is hard to determine their exact application of this idea; for they do not maintain that the conscious entity is immortal, but on the contrary that after death ordinary human souls dissolve into thin air.

The Taoist initiate, however, who has mastered the art of concentrating his spirit, may retain his entity intact at the death-pang and continue his existence (or “pass on”, as Christian Scientists would say) as a spirit being, a. yau-kwei, or genie, one of the exalted beings who reside in stars, or wander at will through space, playing like conjurers with the forces of nature. (This was also Feeliner’s belief, adopted by Dr. Worcester, that the heavenly bodies are heavenly beings, or “starry angels”) The idea that the initiate can develop supernormal powers by a rigid course of moral discipline and meiiThl concentration is equivalent to the acquiring of Pranayama by Ilindmyogis; is the will-culture >of New Thought.

Sometimes souls which have survived the death-pang experience metempsychosis, being reborn in human bodies without losing their supernatural powers. Suoh are the Taoist popes, who claim to exercise sovereignty over the spiritual world as the “Son of Heaven” was formerly believed by all Chinamen to govern the world of mankind by divine right. The first pope was Cliang-tao-hng, whose apotheosis. Yu Hwang, was delegated his authority by Shang Ti. the Supreme Being. When a pope dies, the assembled aspirants cast into a well iron plates

■on which their respective names are inscribed. The true avatar of Chang-tao-ling is determined (so the/inform our credulity) by one floating, and the rest sinking to the bottom!

- ’ Taoism is one element of the San Chiao, or “Triple Religion”, to which in recent times each individual Chinaman subscribed. Though the • three are in some features irreconcilable, each one contrived to minister to some superstitious need of the Sons of Han. Confucianism regn-/ lated his ethical relations with his fellow men.

The doctrine of Fdh, or Buddhism (as adapted by Chinese rationalism) supplied him with a theory of “Rewards and Punishments”, a god - of hell, Ti-tsang-hwang, who ruled over quite a Dantean inferno, and a goddess of mercy, P’u Sa. who incarnated pity in a system of society where the struggle* for existence was so severe that the exercise of pity was equivalent to almost suicidal folly, and mercy became an abstract principle. Taoism equipped the laity to deal with the spirit world.

It is palpable that Taoism is thoroughly entangled with spiritism. The Taoists recognize only two basic human motives; longevity and wealth. The impulse which governs the initiate is to obtain both of these, and also immortality. His instrument is will-culture, whereby he acquires not only supernatural powers, but also command over spirits; as a “Higher Soul” with the power of hsien-jeu, or spirit manifestation. In short, he becomes a spirit medium, and as such performs incredible feats as a magician, juggler, prestigiatcur, and hypnotist. The wi'i-kwei, or genii, are supposed to preside over - every department of nature; over the Five _t Planets and the five terrestrial elements, furnishing gods of fire, medicine, agriculture, the rivers, the kitchen wia res, gods of going to bod and of getting up again in the morning. All these must be propitiated; so , the Taoist priesthood are in great demand and j musVdje consulted whenever a building site is J chosen that the geomantic influences may be i       determined; OF-tuunmoned to a sick-bed to ex-

I’       orcisp the evil spirits. For thes* genii, who once

i were human )>ehigs. are in general of a nialevo-l’ lent disposition. cherishing sentiments inimical j to hnnmn^'olfare. They replete and inflate their occult powers by tapping the ri tai forces of weak and infirm people, and to this end hover around the sick.. But they are repelled by the

Brooklyn, N. Y.

robust, which gives rise to the custom ef healthy people sleeping with the sick for the protection of the latter.                                   ,

Certain of these genii, calledi Sien-jin, preside over the “Weak Water”, or Elixir of Life, which the Taoist magieains pretend to manufacture artificially. Some animals, especially cats are anxious to become Sien-jin, and slyly rub themselves against the legs of people in older to divert the human vital current into themselves. Cats also drink jn this vital current from the moon. Perhaps some people in our own country recall the superstitions belief prevalent in childhood that eats “sacked the breath” of sleeping persons. I mention these nonsensical ideas only to show how dose is the analogy between heathen superstition and some of the reasoning of psychicists.

Dr. Worcester and his followers promulgated the pantheistical error of the “God within us”, that “God's spirit—and man’s spirit are in their essence one”, that “God is in the world as the soul is in the body”. On this assumption they base their claim that by persevering in the cultivation of his will man is able to direct the action of his own subconscious mind and his own spiritual growth. Correctively, as his powers grow, his ability to dominate the subconscious mind of others increases. This is considered a feature of the law of Evolution which directs all growth, and theoretically the will-culturist will use his expanded powers only for the good of others—never to their prejudice! So the Eiumnnuelist clergyman poses as a psycho-therapeutic healer, curine his patients either by semi-hypnotic suggestions or by direct hypnosis.

Wo have shown that the, Taoists also recognize a supposed law of evolution which they apply not only to animate life but also to minerals, each mineral advancing through the successive stages of load, cinnabar, tin, and silver to gold. This is the foundation of their theory of the Transmutation of Gold, it being the ob ject of the alchemist to hasten artificially this evolutionary process. The same law applies to the pursuit of Lien-tan, or the Elixir of Life, which gave rise to experiments in chemistry, during the course of which the Taoist magicians discovered metallurgy, the alloying and inlaying of metals, pigments, gunpowder, alcohol, arsenic, calomel, corrosive sublimate, pyrotechny, sympathetic ink, asphyxiating compounds, aqes-

Publisher, May 18

thetics, etc,—which knowledge eventually filtered out through the Ngoi-loi of the Outlying Lands", to the “Outside Barbarians”.

¹ The “subconscious mind” of Emmanuelists is represented by the “soul essence” of the Taoists, and the professors of each philosophy _r strive to direct its action by self-mastery. The ^A Taoist practice is for the neophyte to retire to some secluded mountain valley and there subject himself to a severe course of training, which consists in prolonged rolling of the eyes, gnashing of the teeth, and cracking of the joints—all of which are conducive to mental concentration. He is specially cautioned to guard against the intrusion of women, chickens, and cats during his exercises! Evidently our ideas of the cause of mental distraction approximate very closely to the Taoist The practice of the psycho-thera-” peutic and that of the Taoist exorcist are . practically identical; for both strive to gain control of the patient’s-will. The former effects his cure by persuading his patient that the .« microbe is innocuous or non-existent; the latter, that the demon has yielded to his persuasions and has departed.

It is evident that both Taoism and Emmanuel-ism are derived from Hindu sources, and especially from the Vedanta school of philosophy. Like the latter, which has a holy triad of Para Brahm, Siva, and Vishnu, Taoism has a trinity of Tao, I, and Wei, the “inscrutable, inexpressible Three, combined into One, without body, form, or image; unseen, unheard, and unfelt”. (Surely quite a mysterious matter!) “ The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; the Three produced all things. ’ ’ What would a false religion amount to without a trinity!

During the period of decadence in the Graeeo-Boman world, Orientalism crept out over the western provinces, finding a congenial field in the corrupt practices and moral rottenness of an effete and degenerate race. Its pernicious influence should have completed the ruin except for the influence of Christianity, which checked and retarded demoralization, effecting a spiritual renovation of Europe (in spite of ecclesi-asticism) in concert with the physical regeneration effected by the Germanic nations. In our degenerate age Orientalism reappears to weave its spell of magic. Fortunately, as before, the authority of Jesus will suffice to redeem the world, in the near future, when the kingdom of our Lord is establish^! over all the earth.

A Second Apple Crop By it H. Barber

REPEATEDLY The Golden Age has reminded its readers of the incoming New Era, and pointed out many proofs of its advent along Biblical, scientific, historical, and prophetical linos, as well as noting “signs of the • times”, and climatic changes indicating the same.

One of the proofs noted in a recent issue of The Golden* Age was the fact that the large ir-e fields of the Arctic regions are rapidly melting, thu’s^empering the climate, resulting in longer season^, milder winters and cooler summers. These changes are quite perceptible if we allow our minds to take in the scope of ten or twenty years. Twenty years ago, we occasionally heard stories a .second crop of red raspberries as far nort£ as the New England States. On several occasions I have seen this second crop, late in October, in years past. In more recent years we have heard occasional reports of apple and cli»*rry trees in full bloom for the second time in a season. This phenomenon was general in 1921 in New York. Michigan. Pennsylvania. Maryland, and Virginia.

We have heard reports of the fruit <in the apple and cherry trees lieing “sot”. But ar Roanoke. Va.. at a public meeting, a farmer handed me an apple fully half matured, and said that it was the second crop and that the tree hung full of them. I am sending you a sample in tubular container. Please note the pleasant aronia which it sheds forth, and which soon fills the room. [The apple was received and enjoyed by several of the office force.—Ed. |

We do not believe that in the incoming age fruit trees will always bear two crops; but these facts are indisputable evidence of the lengthening of the seasons and the advent of the New Age with all its blessings, when frosts and blight will not kill nor insect destroy.

To Nationalize

AT ALMOST the same time, in the same , month of November, 1921, in two cities thousands of miles apart, two bodies of public men were discussing like conclusions upon a certain important matter.

In England it is conceded that the coal industry is in a desperate plight. The reparations and indemnities in coal from Germany to France have flooded Europe with the excess of coal which France cannot use, and consequently sells cheap. This has cut the bottom from the British coal market, closed many mining operations, and thrown thousands of miners ont of work. The British mine owners find it unavoidable to cut the wage item in their cost sheet, but the miners realize that they cannot live on the wage offered. They have taken the wage; but the hard times still increasing in Britain, mount up, and the British industries use ever less coal. No one in England knows what to do without a complete change in the economic system.

In the United States statements are made by reliable authorities of which the following are specimens:

“The bituminous industry is as unorganiz»‘d as the retail grocery business.” This is from C. E. Lesher, editor of the Coal Aye. -

“The unstable condition that now surrounds the industry is costing the country not less than $1 a ton. or $500,000,000 annually.” Thus President Eugene McAuliff, of the Union Collieries Company, indicts the inefficient management of yhe coal mines.

“This industry considered as a whole is one of theworst functioning industries in theUnitcd States. It is equipped with capital, with machinery, plants, and labor for a peak load at least 20 percent above the average necessity.” So asserts Secretary Herbert Hoover of the Dcpartih^it of Commerce and Labor.

It is a profiteering industry, according to President T. H. Watkins, of the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Company, who made the following answers before the La Follette Senate Committee. WheVi asiced as to who caused the increase in prices of coal from $1.55 in 1916 to $2.72 in 1917 — a trifling advance compared with 1920 — Mr. Watkins answered:

Well I should say that it was affected by the market;

the Coal Mines

it was affected by the abnormal demand, which came into the situation caused by the European war orders.⁴ •

“What do you'mean by market conditions?” the chairman asked.                                   .

“Demand,” said Mr. Watkins. ’

“You mean the opportunity to sell at higher prices ?”

^<fYes, the market conditions,” was Mr. Watkins' answer.                                          ■

At the moment of answering these questions thousands of miner boys were suffering the horrors of war in the trenches in France and hundreds were pouring out their life-blood, at the call of their country—at $1 per.

“It is common repute that one West Virginia corporation with a capital of $178,000 made a profit of $478,000 for the first nine months of 1920.” This is from Albert G. Wulson & Co., 198 Broadway, New York, a stock concern.

Later iu 1920 the coal industry was guilty of the unparalleled profiteering suggested in a recent issue of this publication.

A Senate Document—confidential, of course —was distributed in select circles in 1917 entitled “Corporate Earnings and Government Itevenuc”. This disclosed many instances of ' scandalous profits. It is called a breach of ethics to let the American people sec this re-

The. Federal Trade Commission, which big business is trying to shackle, reported on the Pittsburg Coal Company:

"It .-to:tvri with a (•iqiin.lizprirr,' oi‘ $1,000. which v-as afterwards ii.erra.'od ;<i S3o.000.nnO — $l0.0<}O,(;i'i0 pivtVrrt <1 and $20 nao.Oofi uf uiinnMi Ptcck. $2n.er>o,-aoa cf this >to<k v.ii'          f..r‘which nothing

paid.’’ .      .

In the American cord industry the annual fatal “accidents” total 2,500, and the injured total 30.090. or one miner dead for every 262,000 tons of coal. Mining doesn’t pay—for the miner.

The miners are given work for an average of only 215 working days a year—the average for thirty years. During the first half of 1921 the miners were permitted to work only half the time. This in a time when people were crying for coal, and unable to get the money to buy it.

In London on November 9, 1921, the Miners’ Executive Committee met in London with Premier Lloyd George.                -

/mujAX IS, 1322

The plans of the British Labor Party to meet the coal situation were as follows:

A representative Mining Council to deal with the present emergency and with reorganization of the industry.

The providing of specially low-cost coal to set the British industrial world in motion.

The taking oyer of the coal mines by the Government and their operation as a public utility without profit.

The drastic reorganization of existing mines, closing some and developing others, with the extension of the use of machinery and the general improvement of equipment.

The payment of full wage to all the miners working in the mines.

The stopping of the enormous wastes of the industry.

The centralization of municipal gas plants.

The establishment of by-product plants to save the A'aste. and build up a British chemical industry.

The reorganization and centralization, at the mines, of the entire electric light and power industry of Great Britain.

With this reorganization effected and the coal handled by the Government, it is believed by the Labor Party that Britain can again compete successfully in the world coal market.

The other gathering was that of the Public Ownership League on November 22 in Chicago. At this meeting it was advanced by President John Bn.phy, of District No. 2, of the United Mine Workers of America:

“Our remedy against the criminal waste of our coal deposit.® and of our human resources is Nationalization of the Mines The miners stand for nationalization and democratic management of the mines:

“Because the mines nationalized will be worked more economically;

“Because nationalization will mean coal to the people at reasonable prices:

“Because only in this way can the coal resources of the nation conserved for the future;

“Because only under nationalization, freed from the profit motive, can the industry call out to the full the skill. the interest and the experience of the mine worker;

⁴‘Because only in this way can the miner feel that he has a share in the industry and that his work is for the service of the people.

“The operators oppose nationalization. In order to discover who is advocating the right remedy, we ask all to cooperate with us in making all the facts available to the public. We ask immediate legislation for centralized, continuous and compulsory fact-finding in the coal industry. If nationalization would be detrimental to the public interest, as the operators maintain, we do not see why they should fear to give the public all the statistics at their command.⁰

Nationalization not merely of the mines but of many other industries, is undoubtedly one of the next steps that will be taken by the people in various countries in their endeavor- to right the affairs of man that are so woefully wrong. This might succeed, if it had the hearty cooperation of all classes, and especially of the more able and clever men who have been drawn for their abilities into the various industries. These men for personal interest, and many of them from a conviction inculcated by environment and training that the nationalization program is utterly subversive of all that is good, will not support or aid the project. Their elever opposition and hindering will wreck the well-meant plans of the worker. Such action will do the wreckers no good, but will accelerate the rush toward chaos, which might be stopped if all hands should in a kindly, brotherly spirit observe the Golden itule in all these affairs, and work for everybody instead of for Number One.

Reorganization of all industries upon the best possible lines will come, but it is reserved for the Golden Age and for men who will find pleasure in devoting themselves to the service of all the people, not for selfish gain, but from a sincere desire for the universal good.

SHADOWS and SUNSHINE

We cannot measure the. heartaches. The sorrows and grief and woe. That sick in the depths of burdened souls In their journeying to and fro. The rankling. cankerous misery Passed down through the empty years, At times bursts forth from bitter hearts In acrid, burning tears.

We may bear our griefs like stoics. Or in just anger rise to fight;

But behind It all Is the age-old call: "Our Qod will make Jr right”.

Yen, in the source of limitless Love. We know that we have a Friend Who records It alL from the start of time On down to the glorious end.

The Joy that will come with the morning, After the sorrows’s blight. Will be ours to stay through that glorious day; for God has made it right.

— Geo. J. Markley

Facts About Vaccination By g. del Pino

WHETHER the theory or theories about vaccination, published in the Golden Age of April 27th, as submitted to you by me are correct or not, remains to be seen. But leaving theories out of consideration for the present. I wish briefly to state some facts in re the matter for the sake of some incredulous readers.

It is a well-known fact that before calf-lymph (vaccine) was discovered smallpox used to claim thousands of victims during epidemics, apart from the endemic and sporadic havoc. Last year in this town of Glasgow there was an epidemic of smallpox. I was careful to notice the statistics as published by the Medical Officer of Health of this city. And although I have not the actual figures with me at the moment, it is a matter of coiinnon knowledge to everyone who read the papers that the disease hardly attacked •the vaccinated, or if attacked the patients recovered comparatively easily; whilst in the ease of the non-vaccina ted who were affected by the trouble they either succumbed to the disease or only recovered with great difficulty. To emphasize those facts I wish to mention a recent ease which I have been treating with detoxicated vaccine. This patient has been a sufferer of chronic g----for about six years. He has been

treated both by other doctors and myself in the ordinary way and has tried all other treatments without much good. I suggested these vaccines and gave him a course of twelve injections wiih-in two mouths, with the result that he feels quite cured and all previous symptoms have vanished. Whether the cure will he permanent or not. I cannot tell. Iu any case, for the time being, he feels quite well. The question arises: Why does he feel so well after the vaccine injections?

It is a well-known fact that thousands of lives have been saved by diphtheria antitoxin serum. If this serum had no curative qualities, how have these lives been saved physically that were about to cease licfore the serum was injected!

The same facts are exhibited in the ease of snake venom. Many people die, or used to die, after being bitten by snakes. Now we have the cobra antitoxin taken from the reptile's teeth, which when injected into a person bitten by the same species of animal at once counteracts the snake's

All these are proofs that the animal organism of man as well as that of the lower animals is highly specialized ; and that in perfect health the organism is capable of forming, almost instantaneously, anti-substances which at once destroy whatever poisons or germs enter the system.

I myself have personally noticed that after an attack of coryza or influenza at the beginning of winter, I seldom am troubled with a second attack the same winter. This is a proof of the ‘ theory’’ that anti-bodies are formed in the system, as the result of the original iugostiou of micro-organisms or their toxins into the system. The body has the power to form these anti-toxins, if' healthy; but if weakened by whatever cause, the opsonic index is lowered, and the body is liable to suffer under the toxic products of the causative agents.

I am not one of those who stick-in-thc-mnd or one who does not favor ⁿlight and truth”, as well as progress in all things. Theories are very good: but facts are better. And if facts attest the reasonableness of theories, then theories become very valuable adjuncts to real progress.

It is a very short-sighted perspective to condemn true science because some have either made mistakes in the preparation of substances, or more probably. failed to take precautions in their administration. Personally, I can truthfully say that as yet I have not had a single case (in ordinary vaccination) complaining of either a sore arm. etc., or any other complication. Carefulness mid cleanliness in administration <»f va<-«-invs seem to be the secret of success.                                      •

Cost of Steel Traps                 J Ttchew

STEEL traps are costing us the conscience and finer feelings of our boys and young mon. While we are represented at a peace parley at Washington, we are, by the use and abuse of steel traps, educating our boys for warriors. Can we afford to continue this awful torture of the lower animals! Often men attend church, while they have animals in their traps in freezing weather writhing with pain. Said a hunter to me: “Why is it that we like to hit and cripple game, though we do not kill it?” “Because.” I replied, “Wo value our marksmanship above our humanity.”

GOLDEN AGE

Multi*Millionaires By a retired Navy Officer

’ TF YOU go on the street and set up the cry X of “Mad dog!’* you will jeopardize the life of ^every dog in sight, though there may be no

* dog at aH. .

■ And so, in this time of “capital vs. labor”, with many votes in sight, a listening ear is lent to the side that is of most interest, even though the contest may not be between labor and capital: for the writer believes it to be a triangular contest, with the commonwealth between the upper and nether mill-stones.

. About the beginning of the Civil War people had found it more profitable to dig wells alongside of Oil Creek, in Pennsylvania, than to skiin the oil off the surface of the creek for sale as medicine. The wells yielded copiously, and soon a fight was set up. It was not a fight between capital and labor, but it was in the criminal gang of adventurers who were exploiting the wells. Murders were of daily occurrence, and "" robberies were occurring hourly. It was then that a young man named Rockefeller appeared. He had a limited amount of money _r but an extensive vision. He corralled these outlaws, formed a company, sank deeper wells, and began refining oil. They all got rich: some were prudent enough to save, hut others were not. Kerosene (from keros, light) was one of the first distillates marketed. We had been paying $1.15 a gallon for kerosene, which was distilled from cannel coal, imported. Soon we were getting kerosene for eight cents a gallon.

The writer then regarded Rockefeller — whom he lias never seen—as a benefactor.

, Now, if we have the courage to be guided by results, by the testimony of facts, we may arrive at something to the advantage of the commonwealth. We have abundant proof that poor boys of the last generation are among the rich men bt.this. The brainy men of this generation were the* poor boys of the last. Take the Congressional Directory, and see what a number of Senators and Members were once poor boys, and are self-made. Is there a reason for this! They were all born equal, in a constitutional sense. Th^rich man’s son has the advantage of early education which gives him a better start But he does not always succeed, even measurably. Whyf

* Well, we are all creatures of habit The rich

boy soon learns to spend; the poor boy is forced to earn, and has no time to spend. The rich man’s son succeeds to the father’s business* always knows more about it than the old man, and soon the chief clerk is one of the firm. Then the chief clerk becomes the owner; and the rich man’s son has the experience, and his money is gone.                            .

Like all of God’s creatures, the very rich man. like Carnegie, must die, and his fortune be divided; it does not take many years for that wealth to vanish. I cannot see that there is any permanent danger in great fortunes.

The framers of the Constitution were unanimous on one subject, and that was “man, vested with great power, for a long time, is bound to abuse that power”. Those wise men did not specify any particular class of “man”, but evidently meant the kind of man that God made.

Congress, in former years, seemed to be on the alert to prevent the creation of a privileged class, and the only pei'sons who apparently had inherited that ambition were the rich fellows, the millionaires. When such a nabob employed a large number of men, he was generally a favorite with political aspirants. But times have changed: and now that the “hands” have federated, the votes may be obtained without reference to the employer, but to the Union Leaders instead.

“Things aint always what they seem;

Skimmed milk masquerades as cream.’’

Under the sobriquet of “Labor”, the fdea is gathered that they are mechanics, the producers of high-class articles of commerce, and are all skilled artisans. The old trades unions were such, but today it is almost impossible to find a good all-around machinist or smith, and hard to find an all-around good mechanic in any trade. The old trades unions protected the trade, the workman, and the employer. Today the soi-dis* ant [self-styled] workman alone is protected. There has never been any provision* since the federation, for scaled wages nor obligation to “tote fair” with the employer. It is said that there are today 50,000 high salaried officers in the federation, and that the chief of that government receives as much salary as a Cabinet officer.                                        *

Ministers of the gospel who have been round-

*B16 ly condemned for espousing, the cause of faddists, such as prohibition, disarmament, suffrage for the girls, eta., say that the pressure s on them to espouse those causes is overwhelming. Many of them have lost caste, many have lost respect, and they have damaged their holy calling. '

It would be a Utopia here, could we divide the world’s wealth equally among us, provided we were all balanced well enough to use the wealth economically, to be able to avoid excess, and all be willing to share in the toil. Each class of men believes its own plan, is the best. and. would fight to the bitter end the innovations of the other class.

The soi-disant labor “unions” believe they have created the wealth, and that it should be theirs. The Soviets in Russia tried this: they . confiscated a factory, put the old hands to work, • and soon were in confusion for want of superintendence. They wen* obliged to search for the Ttu n/cr su|m■ riut<*mlent..and to pay him his salary: and very soon ids old staff was around him and 1 lie factory running much as it had run in the time of the ('/.ar.

The labor “unions’* neVer “shoot up” a strike. While w<* agree that a man has the right to n'fnsc inadequate wages, or even to strike, he has no riudit to prevent another man from taking a job ho has abandoned. Here is the crux of the whole trouble. Men who have been called “strike breakers" have b<»ejrassaulted, maimed, ami mutilated. The union nieii disclaim any hand in that, and the arrests seem to show the “shooters” are merely syni|mthiz<*rs. But it is a long lane that has no turn. The Washington Post M* May 13, 1915, records the court proceedings in a New York court in which it was shown that Mr. Benjamin Fein. alias Poppy Bonny, testified that he, as chief of a gang, was in the employ of a labor union, with a retainer of $15 a day, to keep in readiness a gang of men to “shoot up” at strikes. These an* evidently the “sympatliizers”. Mr. Fein said that there was a prffWor each crime, for each kind of infraction. In short it was a kind of government inside the State Government.

Now if the Federation makes treaties with this sorttof outlawry, it is much worse than the niillionaijje mad dog over could be.           -

The                 Rci'ieic of April, 1918,

says this:

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

“The newspapers have given scant publicity to what we called a conference on democratic financing of the . war, which was held at Washington last January and ‘   "

which is stated to have been called at the request of the labor leaders in labor and farmer organizations. The presiding officer declared that the sentiment of the laboring classes was unequivocally against bond iesue for «* financing the war and in favor of revenue raising by' ' means of various forms of taxation.                        ? J

“Thesd forms of taxation were described by other &• speakers, one of whom advocated taxation at the rate ■ of 100 percent on all incomes in excess of $100,000 a year, while others urged the imposing of taxes of 50 percent or more on such incomes, on excess profits, and on unimproved lands.’’

One of those who addressed the conference is reported to have said:

“We have within our grasp actual democracy—democracy that means something in the life of the farmer of Kansas and the hog-sticker of Chicago. And the • workers are determined that they shall not be deprived of this new democracy. The only sure way is for labor to demand. >t<^kp by step, that wealth shall be taken as men are taken for the common good in the common fight.                    ■                       -    ——

“They are determined that they will not die while those whose object is the amassing of great profits remain to hoard new power, through enormously increased wealth. But in plain simple words this means that wealth must be taken: it is a great step forward ; but ’ more and vet more must be taken.”

Something for the New Earth By Loren M. Lumers (Tr           by Umwn)

REFERRING to the prospect of a renewed.

cleansed, and highly productive soil for man's needs in the Golden Age, it is particularly interesting to look at the experiments of the late Electoral Print-’* Carl von Eckhartshausen, of Munich. Bavaria. This gentleman succeeded in isolating the corrupting dements from the soil.

(I) A flower pot was filled with earth which had hem cleansed according to his prescription; then a single grain of wheat was laid in the pot and The whole was placed in the open.

There were much quicker signs of life in the seed and a more rapid growth than is the case in ordinary earth; and one hundred heads of wheat sprouted from this single grain, which exceeded in thickness, size, and beauty the kernels of all known varieties of wheat. The individual kernels had such a self-contained and beautiful golden color that one would have sworn them to be overlaid with the finest of gold

The taste of the grains was sweeter and more pleasant than that ofordinary wheat, and they lacked that gummy and pasty consistency, which wheat flour generally leaves on the tongue. Chemical analysis showed that the mucilaginous quality, gluten, was missing. This quality it is that causes fermentation and putrefaction of • flour.

*     (2) A hen was fed for nearly two months

exclusively on pellets made from this flour and on water, and then killed. An examination of the blood showed no trace of fibrinogen (blood gluten), which is the cause of rapid putrefaction.

’ Moreover, the blood did not coagulate, but remained liquid and fresh.

(3) Likewise, quite noteworthy experiences were had with flaxseed and its products. Flax grown in this soil was of hitherto unknown beauty and strength, and it would not burn with the readiness of that grown in other soil.

This soil, virgin in every respect, had several other very wonderful qualities.

.      (4) Worms and insects brought into contact

with it crawled away with all the speed at their *“ command.

(5) The observation was also made that when two parts of cleansed earth were mixed with one ^r‘ part of common earth and the whole saturated with water, the uncleansed third underwent a change and became clean, the non-conformable elements disappearing by vaporization.

These experiments demonstrate the possibility of a chemical improvement of the soil.

Nonsensical Blue Laws

IN Rochelle Park, New Jersey, twenty-five men were brought into court last winter for failure to remove the snow from their sidewalks. It was on a Sunday, and when the cases came up they were dismissed because it appeared from the statutes that it was illegal_}to hear theiV^ses on that day.

Mayor Charles P. Gillen, of Newark, N. J., speaking of the efforts to reestablish the blue laws in his city said:          _

"I believe Sunday movies are a great thing — the only form tof recreation within the reach of the poor on their day of rest. What would these so-called reformers have them ao—remain in-doors all day Sunday looking out on fire-escapes and family washes hanging on the clothes-line? The rich can ride in their limousines on Sunday, play golf, and indulge in other pleasures that only they can afford. But I don't intend that the poor shall be deprived of their little pleasures, no matter what these Blue Law reformers think about it"

Reverend Doctor Charles Townsend, Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, Philadelphia, is another sensible man. In a sermon July 10, 1921, he said:

“It is not the purpose of religion to act as a moral policeman. It is not the purpose of religion to lay down a set of rules to be followed by the people, to say what people must do and what they must not do. When religion is made an excuse for trying to force human ideas of morality or laws upon the people it loses its power, and the great need of the world ia real religion and not moral regulation."

Reverend Samuel Eliot, D. D., LL. D., of Boston, is of the same opinion as Doctor Townsend. He says of American Christianity:

“It is not an infant industry. It does not have to be sheltered behind repressive ordinances or promoted by petty inquisitions. A healthy church does not ask the aid of title police authorities to dose up rival attractions and give it a monopoly of Sunday. It is grotesque to assume that the restriction of Sunday recreations and the closing of places of amusement will direct people into the churches.^v

Conditions in Georgia          By o. w. Waidnp

IN OUR little city of about 35,000 people the residents, most of whom are shop and cottonmill workers, are working for wages almost as low as before the war; but they are still paying war rents and war prices for many of the necessities of life, and those who are charging such rents and prices are men who belong to the different denominations. The poor are the real sufferers and have to foot the bills. Hundreds here have to buy coal by the tub and the bucket, being unable to buy more at one time. How glad I am to know that such conditions will not have to exist much longer* for now is the time of God’s vengeance, the time when He is pouring out His wrath on the nations: and soon the Golden Age will bring in peace and everlasting justice to all.

Row sweet the assurance to hearts that are weary!

What hope It awahens, what strength doth convey!

Sunshine shall follow the days that are dreary.

Sorrow nad Mgtxlng shall vanish away;

Symbol and type and the gospel's glad story

Say to the fainting one: “Lift up your head.

Soon shall this sad earth be filled with God's dory, He, for the curse, will give blessing uucead".

STUDIES IN THE “HARP OF GOD” (^JUD^™r^HSS5i?^D^ )

With Iffiue Number 60 began running Judge Rutherford's new book, IT] ■jjsg **The Hnrp of God" wlrh accompany Ing questions, taking the piece of both §4PS Advanced and Juvenile Bible Studies which have been hitherto published.

*’AU dominion rightly belongs to Jehovah. He had given man dominion over the things of earth. Lucifer observed Adam and Eve, the perfect ones, in Edon: and knowing that they were endowed with authority from Jehovah to multiply and fill the earth, he conceived the thought in his own heart or mind that he should have a dominion of his own, and that he could have this.by separating man from God and by inducing him to come under his (Satan's) dominion. The prophet Isaiah gives us some light upon this subject when he says: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning I how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine Heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the cloud>; 1 will he like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.’’—Isaiah 14: 12-15.

⁴“Thus we see that Satan had an ambitious desire to be like the Most High. God manifested Ills justice toward Lucifer by expelling him from Flis presence and has decreed that he shall be ultimately destroyed. (Ezekiel 28:14-13: Hebrews 2:14) When Lucifer was expelled from the presence of Jehovah because of His wickedness, he thereafter was and is known by the names of dragon, that old serpent, the devil, and Satan. (Revelation 12:9) Tn Genesis 3 he is snoken of as the serpent. The name dragon means devourer; Satan means adversary; devil means slanderer: while serpent means deceiver: and all these names indicate the characteristics of Satan, the evil one.

“According io the Genesis account, the old serpent, the devil, deceived Eve in this' manner: As we have heretofore observed, Jehovah had told Adam and Eve that they must not eat of a certain tree in Eden, known as the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Appearing to mother Eve in the' capacity of a serpent, a deceiver, the devil said to her in effect: 'Hath God said that ye shall not eat of every tree in EdenT’ To this question Eve responded: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the xnidst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die'*. The old serpent, the devil, replied: A’e shall not surely die: for God doth know’ that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil". In oilier words, he told Eve that Jehovah was trying to keep her and her husband in ignorance ami thus take advantage of them. Doubtless the devil himself ate of the fruit in the presence of Eve and then deliberately lied to her by saying: “Ye shall not surely die’*—God knows that you will not die. And by this moans lie induced mother Eve to eat of the fruit— which wtis a violation of God's law. We know that Saran is a liar, bi Hinse Jesus said of him: “He was a uiiirdvrer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.*'’ —John S:44.

⁴⁵The fact that Eve was deceived and thereby induced to violate- the law of God in no wise changed the law or affected its enforcement. Adam dr)ilioratcly ate of the fruit and he was also in the transgression.—L Timothy 2:14.

“After they had violated Jehovah's law, Adam and Eve hid amongst the trees in Eden. Jehovah-spoke to Adam and asked: ‘’Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not oat?” Adam responded that Eve had given him the fruit to eat; and Eve said that the serpent had deceived her. they lx>rh stood before Jehovah and confessed their guilt. The majesty of the law of Jehovah must be upheld.His law being unchangeable( Hebrews 6:18). there remained nothing to do but to enforce that law. Then Jehovah pronounced His judgment against them, the record of which reads: ‘'Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire -hall be to thy husband, and he shall rule

FEBRUARY 13, 1922

over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is lli-’ ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou tat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."—Genesis 3:16-19.

'•’Thus the perfect man forfeit' d his life. He had been endowed with perfection of home, liberty, peace, happiness, and life everlasting on earth. Now he must die and return to the dust from whence he was taken. God did not put him to death immediately, but permitted him to have 930 years of experience that he might learn the han<4*til effects of sin. Eden contained perfect food that would have sustained the perfect man and he would not have died had he remained in Eden, unless Jehovah had put Aim to death in some direct manner. But God drove him out of Eden, tuok him away from the perfect food, caused him to gather his food from among the thorns and thistles and from other imperfect elements of the earth that were found outside of Eden: and in this condition he continued to sicken and to die until at the end of the period of 930 years he was dead.

**A kind and loving parent sometimes inflicts punishment upon a child because the child has violated a rule. The parent punishes the child not because he loves to seo the child suffer, but for the good of the child, in order that it might be disciplined and might learn the proper lessons. If the child always did good and never did evil it would not merit nor receive any punishment from a loving parent. Ono of the chief purposes of Jehovah in dealing with mankind in the manner He docs deal with them is that mankind might be disciplined and learn the lesson of good and the effect of doing wrong, and thus learn to appreciate the love of the heavenly Father.

"When God sentenced-our first parents to death and drove them out of Eden, He had in mind ana had already planned for their future blessing, "Ms we will see upon a further examination of His plan. Hence it was love that prompted His action in sentencing Adam to die. Every act of Jehovah is prompted by love; for God is love. He always acts that good may result. The manifestation of His strict justice was essential that the dignity and greatness of Jehovah might be maintained. At the same time, in so doing, love was the motive that prompted His action. It must have brought sorrow to the heart of Jehovah to he compelled thus to pun* ish His creatures, because God takes no pleasure in evil things: yet haring in mind the ultimate blessing and restoration of them, there would be pleasure in thus manifesting justice that ultimate good might result.

QUESTIONS ON **TH£ HARP OF GOD"

To whom does all dominion rightfully belong? fl 43.

What dominion did God give to man? fl 42.

Why did Lucifer induce Eve to sin? fl 42.

What did Lucifer meditate in his heart? fl 42.

What was the cause of Lucifer’s fall? fl 43.

How was divine justice manifested against Lucifer? fl 43.

By what names is Lucifer known since his fall? Give the meaning of each of the names, fl 43.

Desvrihv how the devil induced Eve to violate God's law. fl 44.

What n ply did five make to the devil's suggestion that she \ iolaie God's law? fl 44.

Who toi»l the truth, God or Satan, relative to the result of Eve's act? fl 44.

The fa<-t that Eve was deceived by Satan, could that in any wi— vhanu'’‘ the penalty of the law? fl 45.

What did Adam and Eve do after they had violated the divine hiw? ’’ 46.

What a-Jion did Jehovah take toward them, and why? fl 46.

Giv> the ('(‘tails of the judgment or sentence pro-nonneod by Jehovah against Adam and Eve. fl 46.

VVhut wa< the result of the judgment pronounced against man? fl 47.

How long did Adam live after he was sentenced to die? fl 47.                            *

How did God enforce the sentence against man? fl47.

Would Adam have died if he had. remained in Eden? fl 47.

Why does a parent puni>h his child? fl 48.

If the child always obeyed. would punishment be necessary? fl 48.

What is one of the chief reasons for God permitting man to .-uffer the effects of wrong-doing? fl 48.

Why did God enforce His judgment against man?

What was His purpose? fl 49.

What motive prompts all the acts of Jehovah? fl 49.

You Have Heard —             ’ *

“millions now living will never die”

prove it to your own satisfaction

YOU may live forever on earth, but not by taking a spoonful of some new-found “elixir of life”;

On the contrary life forever on earth is promised to you and all of your friends; life for all, not merely for the few elect—saved ones.

To understand why this is so now will give you a now hold on life. '      .

Understanding, you will not permit forebodings of disaster to take the edge from off your present joys and experiences in life.

The Bible sets these matter* forth. You will profit by knowing what the Bible guarantees you. Further, you need not fear being'Tefornivd'’ or puritamzed.

The Bible was given to all. It was intended to be understood by all. JI was never intended for the exclusive Use of the pious.

There is a thorough, short. yet (’"inpn-hensive means of understanding what the Bible assures you provided in THE HAllP BIBLE STUDY cor use.

It is a study that will point to the worth while things in life. It is a stiidv that is no mere preuvhiwnt.

THE HARP BIBLE STUDY COURSE complete in< 1 tides : tvxt-hunk ’’The Harp of of God*’: roading alignments: 41-• ।uiz .uiidotii i la"* -.

The Harp Bible study Course each, no further cost h;; ul.*.

T B. S ,v

It: -...k I yn. X. Y.

I enclose herewith. Enroll nic for the Harp Bible Study Course,

< It !•« iHi<|4>r«t*wM| that there nre no further charge or obligation.)

International Bible Students Association, Brooklyn, N. Y., U.S.A.