The Golden Age

Volume IV                        Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, May 9, 1923                         Number 95

of Darkness

by roller towels, causes watering of the eyes and subsequently total blindness. One may have this disease for a time and not know of it. The spread of the epidemic so rapidly in Armenia is due to the lowered resistance of the population. The situation is one of the most serious which has ever confronted a nation. An entire army of doctors would be needed in order to stop the spread of this plague throughout the impoverished areas of western Asia and eastern Europe.

Neonatal Blindness

WHEN one considers the route by which we all come into the world, and the fact that for some little time the eyes of the newly born are exposed to whatever infection may be present in the womb, it is wonderful, in view of the fallen condition of humanity and of the widespread scourges of syphilis and gonorrhea, that half the people in the world were not born blind.

As matters stand it is calculated that in the United States twenty-four percent of all cases of blindness are due to neonatal conditions—the failure of doctors, nurses and midwives to give attention to the child’s eyes immediately after its birth. The modem method requires all doctors to treat the eyes of the newborn with a solution of nitrate of silver. This causes temporary soreness of the eyes of the infant, but is an almost sure preventive of blindness. If it is not done, and the lids become swollen, with a discharge of pus, in a few days the case is hopeless. There are in the United States today something like 25,000 persons who are totally blind because their eyes were neglected during the first few days after birth.

It does not follow that because a child is bora blind either of its parents may have sinned sexually. Physicians state that one-fourth of all persons who contract syphilis do so innocently. It is conveyed by drinking cups and other household utensils. Babies have contract-

ed it from a kiss of an older person. The way in which this disease affects the babies is to cause inflammation of the cornea, the window of the eye, and eventually to destroy it if the disease is not arrested or cured. Data at hand show that, in Scotland, out of every two children in schools for the blind, one is blind as a result of sexual disease inherited from its parents.

Danger to Little Folks "

THERE are plenty of dangers to the little folks, for years to come. Blindness often comes to children as a result of measles or scarlet fever, due to the patient’s room not being sufficiently darkened. The eyes at such a time, and for weeks afterward, should be allowed as nearly absolute rest as possible.

Then there is considerable reason to fear blindness as a result of accidents with forks, scissors, arrows, air rifles, and toy pistols. In not a few instances wild birds and domestic fowls have been known to pick the eyes out of infants and even of children able to run about. No doubt these birds were quite as unconscious of what they were doing as were the children of any danger from being in their vicinity.

Sometimes the little folks have ulcers of the eye, resulting in extreme sensitiveness to the light. The child will do almost anything to protect its eyes from the light. This affection may be due to insufficient ventilation in sleeping quarters, to tea, coffee, poor candy as well as too much candy, cakes, pastry, and bananas.

And then when the little folks get able to attend school they run the danger of conjunctivitis, or pink eye, an inflammation of the inner side of the lids which makes them feel as if there were sand in them. The lids gum together in the morning, and unless medical attention is provided blindness is liable to result. In the early part of the present century the schools in New York city were filled with cases of trachoma, as this disease is called, supposed to have largely come from the great numbers of Russian Jews then coming into the port; but within two years, as a result of close attention by the teachers and medical inspectors, the disease was virtually obliterated.

Another danger to the little folks is crossed eyes. It is a mistaken idea that crossed eyes will correct themselves. The crossed eye finally becomes useless, and is to all intents and purposes blind. Glasses are needed to correct the. error * and, indeed, the eyes should be examined once a year anyway to see whether or not glasses are needed.

Accidents to Adults

MONG the accidents to eyes we shall not mention the bloody and brutal business of

war, although thousands upon thousands lost their sight in the World War, but shall discuss merely the ordinary industrial conflict, the cause of one-eighth of the blindness in the United States. Approximately 15,000 persons in America are totally blind today as the result of accidental injury in industrial occupations.

Mechanics lose their sight from flying sparks* splashing metal, ohippings from castings, unprotected emery wheels, acid burns, chemical explosions, bursting gauges, soiled handkerchiefs, soiled hands, and dirty matches and toothpicks in the hands of fellow workmen who are engaged in rendering first aid.

Three men out of one hundred whose eyes are exposed to intense heat and injurious light rays go blind, and these three are always those who refuse to be bothered with goggles or helmets; yet the use of goggles and helmets may make all the difference between a highly-paid skilled workman and a nearly helpless beggar. In one county in Ohio one eye is lost every eleven days in the year. Is it not supposable that the next man who is to lose his eye would be very careful if he knew what would happen!

We cannot say that we have reached the point yet where all accidents are preventable, but that time will come. During the year 1913 the workmen of the United States sustained 25,000 fatal accidents of all kinds, 300,000 serious injuries and 2,000,000 other injuries. Since that time there has been a reduction of about twenty percent in the figures, due to the greater care on the part of all parties interested. Of the total number of accidents, the accidents to the eyes were 200,000, or about one-tenth.

In one of the large steel plants where, in 1900, there were few attempts made to provide against accidents, there were every year 370 accidents to each one thousand workers. In 1913, after accident prevention plans had been developed and put into effect, the number of accidents per thousand workers per year was only 115, showing a seventy percent reduction.

Care of the Eyes

IN SOME large plants an eye magnet is used for taking steel sEvers out of the eye. These magnets cannot be used for penetrations of copper, brass, lead, and many alloys, which are therefore much more dangerous than iron or steel. Injuries must be looked after at once; and even then the injury to one eye may cause the loss of the other, even as late as forty years after the injury, due to sympathetic inflammation.

A good way to remove sand, small insects, or cinders from the eye is to grasp the eyelashes and hold the eyeEd away from the eye. This will often allow the tears to wash the foreign body away. For a few cents at almost any good drug store an eyestone can be procured which, kept in the eye over night, performs the same service while one sleeps. Most oculists will remove foreign substances from the eye without charge.

Too much light or heat of any kind is bad for the eyes. One of the stewards on the steamship Rotterdam lay on his back on a hatch for two hours, with his face upturned, while the heat was very great; and as a result he went blind. It is supposed that the ultra violet rays of the sun caused this, and it is also beEeved that these same injurious rays are present in the electric light. Indeed, some who have studied the matter say that the electric Eghts are driving us aU blind and that we must go back to candles to save our eyes.

When working by lamplight, shade your lamp so that it will throw the light on your work and not on your eyes; do not work in a flickering light; do not work in mixed dayEght and artificial light; have the light over your left shoulder, if right-handed, and over your right shoulder, if left-handed; keep the lamps and globes clean, and use white, cream or yeUowish wallpaper. And do not buy wood alcohol, for any purpose whatsoever.

Achievements of the Blind

NUMBER of blind young men and women have been graduated from high schools of

New York, Chicago, and other cities; and some of them are students in colleges and universities. One of these, John W. Young, a University of Pennsylvania student, sixteen years of age, has *o trained his memory that he takes in and

remembers an entire lecture accurately. He plays footbaU, locating the ball by its impact upon the ground, and is able to sense variations in atmospheric pressure so accurately as to avoid running into obstacles. He is a musical prodigy, playing a half dozen musical instruments with much skiU.

Instances are common of blind people whose sense of hearing or of air pressure is so keen that they can detect telephone poles six to ten feet away. Paul Donehoo, a blind Atlanta lawyer and musician, is not only able to sense the wafls, posts, and ether obstacles along his path, but can follow the building line along the sidewalk entirely by sound.

In Minneapolis over seventy blind men make their way to work every day. They have adopted the uniform rule of holding the arm straight in front of them when crossing streets, but even then two of them have had nervous breakdowns from the strain of trying to avoid accidents. Most people who cross streets nowadays feel as if they would Eke to have two eyes in front, two in back, two on each side; and even then they would not be sure that an airplane might not fall on them from above or a manhole blow up from underneath.

Rene Leroy, a Paris blind man, once, as a test, walked into a strange barber shop, ordered a shave and haircut, expressed his satisfaction with it, got up and walked straight to the cash desk, which he had located by sound, paid his bill, got his change, stepped to the door and into the street, without any one in the shop knowing that he is blind.

Ben Welch, a well-known New York comedian, though totally blind continues his work on the stage. France has a blind sculptor of note, Bernard Fedot. In Lincoln, Nebraska, there is a young woman grocer, entirely blind, who does all her own work herself, including the operation of a typewriter. She makes change by folding each denomination of bill in a peeuEar way.

In the summer of 1922 a blind lawyer of New York, Benjamin Berinstein, one of three executors of a $400,000 estate, was sued by the other two executors on the ground that as a blind man he was not a fit legal guardian for two children whose interests in the estate he was particularly looking after. When the action came up in court he made a dignified and bril- • liant speech, citing the work of some of the world’s great blind men and women, including the poet Milton, ex-Senator Gore of Oklahoma, Helen Keller, and others, and referring modestly to his own attainments, with the result that the presiding surrogate dismissed the case, stating that it should never have been brought into court.

Employments of the Blind

THE blind have found employment in factories in assembling machine parts, running drill presses on small work, folding mints, packing candy, setting up cartons, wrapping butter blocks, taping coils for armatures and nutting bolts. In one factory a blind man now does all the work formerly done by two girls with perfect vision.

In Henry Ford’s great automobile plant he employs four men that are totally blind. One blind man in a Cleveland factory, always clean shaven, always smiling, and always on time, receives $40 a week. The total number of operations performed by the blind in various Cleveland factories is sixty-nine. There are some concerns that employ blind typists, the dictation being by means of the dictaphone.

There are 150 blind news-dealers in New York. One of these news-dealers made the statement that his patrons steal his papers, steal pennies off the stand, give two cents instead of three, pass bad money, take three or four papers and pay for but one. One man selected four magazines, gave a dollar of stage rqpney in payment and accepted twenty cents change from the blind man he had robbed. Many times men and women thrust a nickel into the hand of the blind news-dealer and then insist that they have given him twenty-five or fifty cents.

Helping the Blind

THERE is every reason why those who are not blind should do everything humanly possible to help those who are. In Austria and Portugal the war-blind travel at the expense of the state; in South Africa the war-blind are allowed fifty percent reduction on tickets; in Norway, at certain seasons, blind students and their guides may travel for a total of one and one-half fares. In Belgium, Holland, and France a blind worker, when undertaking a railway journey necessitated by the exercise of his trade or profession, has the right to make the journey, accompanied by his guide, on purchasing only one ticket, which entitles them both to transportation.

The Federal Government appropriates $50,000 a year for the blind. This sum goes exclusively for textbooks for use in the fifty-six existent schools for the blind. Books for the blind are expensive, about $10 each. Thus the Bible consists of twenty volumes, each thirteen and one-half inches square and three inches thick, and weighing five and one-half pounds. In a branch of the New York public library are twelve thousand volumes for the blind, with six ' thousand raised music scores for the study of blind music readers. During the year 1920 the circulation of the books in this library was 35,807. Radio has proven a godsend to the blind, bringing to them all the news of the day, the concert, and the lecture platform.

Dr. Max Herz, a blind Viennese doctor, has invented a device by which dots and dashes, representing letters of the alphabet, when punched in strips of paper, are transferred to phonograph records, and a complete book can be put on one small record. The system has been learned in a day, whereas the finger touch systems sometimes require a year. Dr. Herz has been assisted in this work by the Austrian and Polish governments.

Most wonderful of the helps for the blind is the optaphone, invented by Professor d'Albe, instructor of physics at the University of Birmingham, and c ascribed in Golden Age number 93, page 430. B this device the blind who have been trained to detect the differences in sound of the various letters may read any ordinary printed oook. Passing the instrument over the page converts the visible outlines of the letters into audible sounds.

Recovery of Sight

IT IS rare that one who has been blind recovers sight, but it has sometimes occurred. In the summer of 1922 a girl went blind at Coney Island after a fifteen minute swim; but after she had been taken home, her sight returned in about two hours. A more interesting case was that of Miss Maud Naismith, Joliet, Illinois, blind in one eye for ten years. While going through some gymnastic exercises in her apartments she accidentally bumped her blind eye

'^^on a bar, ’with the extraordinary result that the sight was instantly restored.

More interesting still was the case of a man in Ogdensburg, New York, blind for twenty-five years as a result of a dynamite explosion. He had one eye which was injured and was sightless ; but a local surgeon performed a remarkably successful operation, resulting in the recovery of sight.

A physician in Brooklyn has discovered a serum which has been successfully used in nine cases to strengthen the optic nerve. The injection of the serum was made through the eyeball. The serum arrested atrophy, and so nourished the injured nerves as to give back a close approach to correct vision.

But the best physician of all is the Great Physician, who has promised that in the age that is to come "the eyes of the blind shall be opened.” (Isaiah 35: 5) And as we think of the unfortunates to whom the bright sunlight is darker than the darkest midnight, how our hearts thrill as we read the story of Blind Bartinueusl Nothing can excel the beauty of this story just as it appears on the pages of the Book of books:

“And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimteus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side, begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. And he casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.”— Mark 10:46-52.

The Great Physician

THE Bible contains another thrilling story of a blind man’s experiences with Jesus; and because it points such an excellent pathway to the understanding of those scriptures which explain how it is that “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe ^z not” (2 Corinthians 4:4), we give it, also. Of the two forms of blindness the one that is most to be dreaded is blindness toward the truth. During the Golden Age both forms of blindness will disappear. Not only will all the physically blind eyes be opened, but the Lord will deal so effectively with the mentally '‘blind people that have eyes” that their mental vision will clear, and they will see things as they are. “In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the [spiritually] blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” (Isaiah 29:18) The account follows:

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or uis parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. . . , When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that is nulled Jesus made day, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.

“They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the day, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such mirades? And there was a division among them. They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes ? He said, He is a prophet.

“But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: but by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he ahall speak for himself. These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.

“Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? Will ye also be his disciples? Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not whence he is. The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

"Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are w blinc also?”—John 8:1-3; 6-40.

From.a Blind Subscriber

FROM a blind subscriber to The Golden

Age we have received a letter somewhat along the lines of the last part of the above story. This subscriber, S. Kalil, a Syrian by birth, writes in the allegorical style so much used by oriental writers; and as it is one of the first stories from an oriental to appear in The Golden Age, we believe it will be enjoyed by our readers. Mr. Kalil entitled his letter, or article, “Taking Stock.” It follows:

“There was a young man who inherited from his father a storehouse, full of plenty of clothes to wear and food to eat. The son did not know his father, although he was very proud of his inheritance. Later he found himself to be almost naked, weak and sick; for the clothes he was wearing were ragged and the food was poisonous. Some one advised him to make a change, to buy new food and clothes in the market. This he did.

After he grew a little in knowledge and experience, he found the change to have been from bad to worse. Discouraged and disgusted he thought to get along without them altogether. For a while he traveled about in the world like the Wandering Jew. At last he found a new storehouse, not well patronized by the majority of the people, but nevertheless a place where good wares and wholesome food is obtainable.

“The young man is myself. The new storehouse is the storehouse of truth. It taught me to figure up or to take stock of my inheritance. I found it to be nothing but human creeds, superstition, traditions, serpents, and stones. My father had not been Jehovah God as I had thought, but Satan himself. The change from bad to worse that occurred later in my life was from Catholicism to Protestantism, and led to my becoming like the Wandering Jew, by turning infidel.

“Merchants generally take stock of their goods at the beginning of a new year. If they have been unsuccessful they either change the line of their trade or discontinue it, but if they were successful they continue it. I now desire to give The Golden Age readers a little sample of my stock-taking.

’'Before I knew the truth I was blind, but now I can see. Worldly people would say that I am still blind, not only physically but mentally, also. The truth, however, taught me not to mind them, nor to take stock in what they say, but to mind the Lord and not the opinions of men. When the Lord says in his Word that I have spiritual sight, that in itself is more than sufficient for me. I refuse to exchange the spiritual sight for natural sight and all the wealth of the world. At one time I could not tell the difference between one and three; but now I know the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father.

"In those former dark bygone days I inherited blindness from my earthly father, and he from his fathers aa far back as Adam. (Adam was overreached by Satan, who became blind himself when his heart, full of greed, conspired to be like the Most High.) I was then a son of Satan ; now I am a son of God. I was naked, without faith or religion; now I am clothed with the Lord’s robe of righteousness and protected by His wing. Then I was poor, destitute, because I did not know God; now I am rich, not in pocket, but in faith. And what is more, if I continue in this course I shall inherit something of more value than the entire world’s wealth, something even beyond the human mind’s comprehension.”

• » • • *

The International Bible Students Association is publishing some of its books for the blind, and once per month issues The Watch Tower for the blind. The Golden Age will be pleased to aid any of the blind who are interested in Bible study to avail themselves of the benefit of this literature.

Impressions of Britain—In Ten Parts (Part IX)

IT IS enough honor for any one city to have been the birthplace of such a man as Joseph Chamberlain; but Birmingham, with all the other variety of products it has given the world, gave it also Joseph Priestly, the discoverer of oxygen, one of the founders of modern chemistry. Mr. Priestly sympathized with the Americans during the Revolutionary War and, with his family, moved to Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where he ended his days.

James Watt, a native of Scotland, one time instrument maker for the University of Glasgow, invented the steam engine, moved to Birmingham in 1774, and was the means of building up the most noted engine works in the world. He had much to do with the early development of the city and was a widely read, active, progressive man. The unit of electrical activity is named in his honor.

On the road to Hull, thirty-five miles from Birmingham, the train passes through Repton, once the capital of the kingdom of Mercia. From 1172 until Henry VIII chased them out of England Repton was the seat of a priory of Austin friars. Part of the old priory buildings are incorporated in what is now one of the best known English public schools, Repton Grammar School. Beside the River Trent, near Repton, is Anchor Church, a structure hollowed out in the form of a cave from the adjacent sandstone bluff.

Sheffield is the first stop on the way to Hull. It is the chief center of the heavy steel and cutlery trade of the world. Millions of dollars have been expended in widening and straightening the streets and in erecting modern homes for the workers. The honesty and efficiency with which the parks, water supply, lighting, schools, etc., are managed would be a revelation to the graft-ridden, papacy-oppressed municipalities of America if there were any way that the news could be gotten to its citizens.

Every boy’s heart, and every girl’s heart, has been stirred by Walter Scott’s story, “Ivanhoe”; and at Doncaster, on the road to Hull, are the ruins of Coni sborough Castle, the stronghold of . Athelstan, which castle is made the central picture in the story. Scott was a prolific writer, and there is not a dull line in the fifty-odd volumes of prose and poetry that came from his pen. In his declining years he struggled gamely and successfully to repay a debt of $600,000 incurred by the unwisdom of the publishers with whom he was associated. The reading of fiction from the pen of a good man may instill some good thoughts into the mind; the reading of fiction from the pen of a bad man will certainly instill evil thoughts; the reading of the truth from the pen of a good man is better than either.

Hull, officially Kingston-upon-Hull, is situated in the eastern central portion of England, at the junction of the Hull with the Humber river, twenty-two miles from the North Sea. It is the principal seaport for shipping the manufactures of the great English Midland district to northern Europe, and is a large port for the entry of grain from various countries, timber from Scandinavia, and fish and butter from Denmark. In the museum here is a prehistoric boat dug out of a solid oak trunk, measuring forty-eight and one-half feet long by five feet broad. Hull (place of blessed memories!) was the birthplace of William Wilberforce, who introduced the first bills against slavery into the English Parliament and who lived to see slavery forbidden in every part of the world owning allegiance to the British flag. Wilberforce University, Xenia, Ohio, is named in his honor.

Midlands and Lancashire

FROM Hull the route was west through the Midlands, the heart of industrial England.

With Manchester as the hub and with Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Preston and Liverpool about it in a circle, there lies within an area of forty miles radius probably the greatest center of industry, thrift, culture, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing anywhere to be found. The people who live in this district boldly claim themselves the superiors of those who live elsewhere in England.

The claim is made for the Lancashire mill girls that, knowing their husbands’ earnings in the mills will be too small to support the family, they rise every morning at five, go to the mills and work for several hours, return to the house and prepare breakfast for the little ones, go back to the mill and work all the forenoon, return to the house, prepare a hasty bite for the family, return to the mill and work until six o’clock in the evening. They then go home, and do in the evening hours the multifarious duties that fall to the lot of the housewife, and do these with a cheeriness and good will that are contagious.

The claim is further made that the Lancashire housewives pay cash or go without. When tradesmen from elsewhere establish themselves in the Lancashire district they seek for customers who will buy on credit, but find them not. If these things be so, young man; and if thou wish to marry, hie thee to the Lancashire mill district, and look not to the right or to the left on the way lest some fair dame bewitch thee too soon. "If this be treason make the most of it.”

On the way through the midlands a stop was made at Bradford, the center of the woolen and worsted trade; and another stop, one long to be remembered, at Thelwall, which as the old sign on the public house declares was “A cyty founded in 923 by King Edward the Elder.” It is not much of a "cyty” now, perhaps not over twenty houses all told; but it lies in one of the most beautiful scenes in England. And its inhabitants pro tern not only may claim for themselves the heritage of being Lancashiremen, with all that this implies, but might even find a North American savage ready and willing to concede the claim. The majestic Manchester ship canal passes through Thelwall. The heavily laden vessels passing up and down on their own steam have the singular appearance of immense buildings gliding noiselessly through the fields.

Manchester, the center of the world’s cotton trade, and the distributing center of foodstuffs for the most densely populated part of England, is noted as having the oldest free public library in Europe, a thing itself sufficient to make any city famous. Its town hall is considered one of the most creditable buildings in Europe. As usual with the cities in this part of England, the municipality owns its own lighting plant, street railways, sewage precipitation and filtration works, artisans’ dwellings, markets, parks, public baths, etc. Manchester was one of the stations during the Roman occupation; its cathedral was built in 1422.

Southward Bound

ROCEEDING southward once more, a stop is made at Buxton, famous for its medicinal springs and known to the Romans, who had baths here. The town is situated in a deep valley. Nearby is a gas-lit stalactite cavern a mile long. Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned here while the ease against her was in process of preparation. Sometimes when officials of a government wish to murder a person it takes quite a little time for the proper tools to scrape together enough data to give a semblance of reason for malting the initial attack.

A case in point, observed by the writer, was where a prison guard , shot a negro convict in the back; and it took two hours and fifty minutes to "discover” a broken shear blade alleged to have been thrown from the litter of the dying man while on his way to the hospital. The brave guard was complimented by his superior officers for so promptly and successfully defending himself. No notice was taken of the fact that the holes shot in the prisoner’s clothing were all in the back.

Latest advices are that the brave guard is now about to be tried for smuggling dope into the prison, with a fair chance of getting five years. The poor negro died in a few days. His real offense was that he kicked at his brutal guard for clubbing him over the head. Then he started to run; and as he ran the angry guard pulled the gun, which, according to law, he had no right to have with him, and shot and murdered the negro.

Lutterworth, famous as the home of Wycliffe, and the scene of his death, was passed on the way south. Wycliffe committed an unpardonable crime against the Roman Catholic church. He translated the Bible into the language of the common people. For doing this, thirty years after his death, the Council of Constance had his bones dug up and burned and thrown into the Avon. A writer of the day said truly:

“The Avon to the Severn rung^ The Severn to the sea;

And Wycliffe’s dust shall spread abroad Wide as the waters be.”

Wycliffe was the "angel of the church of Sardis,” as Pastor Russell was the "angel of the church of Laodicea.” Both were lovers of

the common people; both resisted the unscrip-tural and tyrannical encroachments of the clergy; both turned to the Lord and to the Scriptures as the source of their strength.

Wycliffe served the Lord before the days of the printing press, but his work of rendering the Bible into English was a great service for the cause of truth and was largely used in making the English language a settled tongue. The following was Wycliffe’s translation of Mark 1:7:

“And prechide, seyinge: A strengere than I schal Come aftir me, of whom I knelinge am not worthi for to vndo, or vnbynde, the thwong of his schoon.”

En Route to Liverpool

WEEDON, seventy miles from London, came near being a great place at one time, but missed it. In the days of Napoleon’s ascendancy, when England was supposed to be in imminent danger of invasion, it was proposed that in case of a successful landing by the French, the court should abandon London and settle here, in the center of England. With that end in view immense barracks were constructed in Weedon, and are still in use.

At Rugby, ten miles farther on, is the site of one of the most famous boys schools in the world. The school was founded in 1567, rose to great prominence a century ago, was the school home of some of England’s greatest men, and was popularized the world over by Thomas Hughes’ well-known classic for boys, entitled “Tom Brown at Rugby.”

Tamworth, 110 miles from London, founded in 770 A. D. by Saint Offa "The Terrible,” was for long the residence of the Saxon kings. A castle built in the seventeenth century occupies the great mound where Saint Offa’s fortress once stood.

Liverpool, 192 miles from London and 3,106 miles from New York, was founded in 1207, but 'did not attain any prominence until a century or so ago. It owed its rise to the slave trade, of which it was the world’s acknowledged center. The slavers took out cloths and beads and trinkets to West Africa, exchanged them for slaves, and took the slaves to America and the West Indies, where they were traded for cotton and molasses and hides. There were 185 Liverpool ships in the slave trade in the year 1807, in which year they carried 43,755 slaves from Africa to,America.

One of the remarkable features of Liverpool is the great landing stage, 2,463 feet long by 80 feet wide, which rises and falls from thirteen to thirty feet with the tides. There are eight miles of locked docks at Liverpool; the ships can leave these docks only when the tide permits. In New York there are practically no tides. The greatest ocean liners lie calmly at their piers in all weathers, and can leave for the open sea at any time.

Britain’8 Financial Plight

O ONE pretends to deny the fact that British finances were jeopardized, if not ruined, by the World War. Long before the war was finished, the Government was in desperate financial straits. Mr. Walter H. Page, American ambassador to Great Britain during the war, in a recent book explains that at the end of 1916 Britain was practically hors du combat financially, and was allowed to overdraw her account with J. P. Morgan & Company to the extent of $400,000,000 in anticipation of America’s entrance into the war as soon as Wilson should be reelected. This $400,000,000 was subsequently paid by the United States Government out of the Liberty Loans, which were in effect forced upon the .American people as soon as the New Freedom got’well under way.

Since the war it has been hard sledding, with resort to every plan that seemed to offer hope of postponing the crash. Sir Eric Geddes, one of Britain’s financial overlords, said in November, 1921, that unless the expense of running the British Government could be reduced by at least £150,000 per year, bankruptcy would certainly follow, as trade could not revive until taxation should.be reduced.

By the spring of 1922 the statement was freely made by those engaged in manufacturing enterprises that bankruptcy was at hand; and it appears that by the fall of 1922 these bankruptcies were an accomplished fact, as far as many British industries were concerned. But the facts were withheld from the public, because it was not considered safe to let them be known.

The Children’s Newspaper, London, a really valuable paper for grown-ups, in its issue of August 26, 1922, had an article from a special correspondent connected with one of the great manufacturing enterprises in the north of England in which the statement was made that bankruptcies are occurring every day, but are being hushed up. He said:

^,rWho hushes them up? Tne banks. The banka of this country are carrying some of the greatest businesses in the country. There is a state of almost general bankruptcy. All of us are living on overdrafts at the banks. We pay our wages, our rates, and our crushing taxes by overdrafts. What does it mean when we read in the paper that income tax for the year remains unpaid to the tune of £65,000,000? It means that we are only carrying on business by a fiction. The Government dare not sue for this money. The banks dare not press for repayment of their, loans. If one firm goes, all may go. The real peril of this country, one which may yet involve the whole world in ruin, is not so much a commercial crisis as a financial crisis. This is the truth which has not yet begun to affect statesmanship."

Some Financial Problems

THE population of Great Britain and Ireland in 1914 was 46,089,249; or, since Ireland may as well be eliminated from all calculations on account of prevailing political. conditions, the population of Britain proper is set at 42,767,530. Qf this amount about 5,000,000 is Scotland’s quota. One of the legacies of the war is that in this population there are now 1,720,802 more females than males, and the proper placement of these surplus females is in itself a great problem. They are denied the home life which every normal woman properly craves; the industries are overcrowded; the women must be supported.

Myriads of Britain’s finest youth were killed off in the war or rendered helpless for life. The grand total of British, British Dominion and Colonial troops at home, in colonies, and in all theaters of the war, in November, 1918, including marine contingents, was 5,764,559. Five years were taken out of the life of most of these men, and the best years of their lives at that, the most productive years. During all this time they were engaged in wasting life and property instead of conserving it, and they wasted so much that now it can hardly be recovered.

During the World War Britain’s debt increased from $2,800,000,000 to more than $32,-000,000,000; or, stating it in pounds sterling, the debt is £7,573,000,000, and the current annual expenses are £1,000,000,000, almost six times what they were before the war. Aside from small sums owed to Sweden and Canada, the only foreign debt of Great Britain is that of £969,000,000 to the United States. European countries owe Britain about twice what she owes America. Britain offered to forgive all her European debtors if America would do the same; but America refused.

There is a reason vital to England why she would like to see the whole of Europe rejuvenated financially. She is basically a nation of merchants and manufacturers, living on food imported by sea. Markets are a necessity. If the markets are permanently cut off, about 20,000,000 of the people must find homes elsewhere, or find them in the grave.

When any country is impoverished, Britain feels it at once; for it means a diminished market for her wares. Thus, the Manchester cotton yarn and textile trade is largely dependent upon the India and China demand. As these markets become restricted, we find the government openly advocating migration of large numbers to Australia and other colonies of the empire.

Efforts to Solve Problems

THE British are plucky and are doing everything humanly possible to save the day.

They are the cleverest traders in the world; clever because the goods which they make are always of the same high quality, and clever because their word can at all times be relied upon. They are clever for other reasons, too, and are gradually adopting the American tactics of organizing trusts wherewith to control the earth and all things therein. Thus a group of British capitalists have just effected a combine of all the shipping on the Danube river; and hereafter they will control the trade of that great artery which traverses 1,740 miles of the best business sections of South Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Jugoslavia, Roumania, and Bulgaria.

Some of the colonies, especially those which have large stores of raw materials, are great helps to the mother country at this time. Thus the whole of Nigeria is self-supporting, and its railroads and wharves are being developed with Nigerian money. At Lagos, Nigeria, are 1,800 feet of concrete wharves, and a railway system. 600 miles in length is approaching completion.

There are great possibilities for many "whites in Nigeria, but it would be a hard experience at the outset.

As trading and the carriage of goods by the sea are two of Britain’s principal means of livelihood, so the manufacture of ships is another. And Britain has learned with sorrow that the clause in the peace treaty which requires Germany to turn over to Britain each year up to 200,000 tons of shipping built in German yards has worked out to British disadvantage. Not only has it meant a decreased demand for British ships and British employment, but the effect of it has been to cause an enormous reduction in the prices at which ships could be sold.

The Germans have been making a desperate effort to regain their place in the world. They have been cutting the freight rates to South American points to twenty-five percent below the British level, and have been taking over large supplies of raw wool and the largest stocks of raw furs, with evident expectation of invading markets hitherto largely British controlled.

Wealth and Unemployment

RITAIN manifests the same symptoms of economic disease which we find so common

in the United States—great accumulations of wealth in the hands of some, while others are without the means to earn their daily bread. The Isles are enormously wealthy in raw materials. They produce nearly one million tons of fish per year, 250,000,000 tons of coal, and 15,000,000 tons of iron ore. The output of pig iron is about 9,000,000 tons per year.

The accumulated wealth of the country altogether is £30,000,000,000, and the annual income of the country is approximately £3,000,000,000 in rent, interest, profit, salaries, and wages. This is about £300, or $1,500, per family of five per year; yet eight-ninths of the people receive just a little less than half of this income, ninety-nine percent of the people are without land, and ninety-five percent are without capital.

The members of the House of Lords own one-third of all the land; twelve families own one-quarter of the land of Scotland.. Many of these large estates cannot be sold because the present , holders cannot show any better title to the ■ property thafi that it came into their possession as a result of theft or murder on the part of their ancestors. But others of the large estates have been broken up because rents could not be increased to keep up with the demands for revenue by the government. A large part of the ancestral lands of Scotland changed hands during the war; about twenty of the nobility of England sold their ancestral lands, and a great number of the large town houses passed out of their hereditary owners’ hands.

Conditions in the coal-producing districts are deplorable, and with no chance of improvement that we can see. Not only is the continental demand for coal greatly reduced, but America has been occupying markets hitherto English; and the British navy is turning over to oil fuel, still further reducing the demand.

Soldiers can no longer be depended upon to kill workers who are trying to keep from starvation, as was once possible. During the recent coal strike in South Wales a battalion of the Royal Fleet Reserve, which had been doing guard duty on the edge of the affected district, at Newport, refused to recognize orders; and when questioned informed their superior officers that ninety percent of the men were trades unionists and would lay down arms if called on to use them against their fellow men.

The number of unemployed has been reduced from what it was in 1920, but is still a million and a half, and that is a million and a half too many to augur well for the country. In November 2,000 of these unemployed fought with the police in an effort to force an entrance into the residence of the premier, and were kept out with great difficulty.

The number of new concerns in England in 1921 was only 6,928 as against 11,011 the previous year; and the amount of nominal capital in these organizations was reduced from £593,189,032 to £108,000,000, thus showing the gradual shutting down of avenues for employment.

Repudiation or Communism

THERE is gradually coming into the financial papers a half acknowledgment that partial repudiation or confiscation of some sort may be necessary before long. Discussing England’s predicament the Wall Street magazine of "Commerce and Finance” says:

“The truth is that a general return to the gold standard will in all lands enormously increase the burden of all obligations, public and private, and correspondingly enrich the holders of obligations payable in gold. This would be right for those antedating the war, but not for those born of the war and its inflations. A judicious application of the index number treatment to all obligations might not be a bad thing?'

Another method of partial repudiation or confiscation is already in vogue in England. This is a system of death duties ranging from one percent on an estate of.£100 up to forty percent on an estate of £2,000,000. Gifts made by the deceased during his life for public or charitable purposes are charged unless made more than twelve months before his death; other gifts are charged unless made more than three years before his death. These duties may be paid in instalments over a term of eight years, with three percent interest on payments deferred beyond one year.

Mr. H. G. Wells, the writer, has urged a capital levy to wipe out the whole British debt. This is repudiation or confiscation with a vengeance. Mr. Wells was one of the Labor candidates in the recent election. In one of his speeches he called attention to the fact that during the past year the British Government had expended £5,000,000 on housing, £8,000,000 on public health, £51,000,000 on education, £98,000,000 on war pensions, £207,000,000 on war preparations for a war about which nobody knows, and £345,000,000 in interest on the national debt.

Mr. Lloyd George sees the storm coming, and on November 7th in the Liverpool Echo said:

“A short time ago I bought a place down in Surrey— a little cottage, not large, a place in fact so small that when the revolution comes, no revolutionary commissary will think it worth while to confiscate it. So therefore I feel tolerably safe, whatever the case may be; and as I saw there was bad weather coming I thought I would like to have a little shelter somewhere near London, and that is where I am now."

Occasionally there is to be found a person of wealth who does'not wish to retain possession of what he feels he has never done anything to earn. Such persons are rare, but an unusual incident of this kind arose recently. The youngest daughter of one of the founders of the cocoa firm of Cadbury Brothers, Ltd., of Birmingham, asked the men’s and women’s councils in the works to administer the income of 28,000 of her 33,700 shares of stock in the concern for their mutual social, international, and philanthropic purposes. Expressing the belief that the private holding of capital lies at the root of nearly all the social and economic troubles of the world today, she thanked the workers “for the many privileges that the unearned income resulting from your united work, both mental and physical, has enabled me to enjoy”; and after explaining that the shares had come to her by inheritance she said: ‘Tor some years now both my husband and I have felt increasingly uncomfortable as we have thought about this condition of affairs. We therefore now feel it to be our duty voluntarily to surrender the privilege we have enjoyed for such a long time.”

The Religioiu Situation

THE religious situation in England revolves around the League of Nations, which is still professed to be the only panacea for human ills. Here is the way of it:

• (1) Lloyd George says that the only hope of civilization Hes in the League of Nations;

• (2) The Archbishop of Canterbury says that the only hope of the League of Nations is in the churches; and

• (3) The Archbishop of York says that the churches are dead.          '

To which may be added the statement of Bonar Law, the new premier:

• (4) “We don’t know where we are going.”

This is generally true of any corpus that is on the way to its long home. We give the details of the statements of the two archbishops :

At Geneva, Switzerland, September 3rd, 1922, the Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking from Calvin’s old pulpit, eulogized the League of Nations as follows: (Eulogy is the right word; for we eulogize things that have passed away and are merely awaiting the funeral exercises.)

“In enjoining among the peoples of earth the Covenant of the League of Nations, we are simply applying the Christian Faith to international life. Its aims, its possibilities, its resolves, lie compact in the words: ‘The kingdom of God and His righteousness.’ It is nothing less than that. How do we Christians regard the obligation of a state or a group of states towards our Lord’s

Mat 0, 1*93

words, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God’ ? How do the words bear upon the League of Nations? Just thus, I think The League of Nations is now a living body among ns. We want to ensure for it a living soul. For that we must see that it is in touch not only with practical politics, but with the very highest and deepest things.”

As the Archbishop of Canterbury is the most important religious prelate in England, so his confrere, the Archbishop of York, is the next. When there is a royal procession these two archbishops, with the Canterbury man ahead of the York man, precede in honor and in place the British prime minister. Well, the Archbishop of York, the Reverend Cosmo Gordon Lang, has some sense; and in an address before the bishops of the Church of England at Sheffield, October 11, 1922, gave expression to some important truths. He said:

"Men want a true religion as never before; that is their hope. They do not find it in the church; that is their trouble. To put the matter bluntly, religion attracts, the church repels. Let us face the fact honestly. That it is a fact can any one doubt? Who knows what is passing through the minds of the men and women, especially the younger men and women, who eagerly desire a spiritual religion and yet stand apart from the church? To them the church is not a witness to the truth of its Gospels, but it is in its divisions, its dullness, its unreality, an obstacle, a stone of stumbling, an offense. If therefore the church is to preach the eternal Gospel to this generation, not in word but in power, it must evangelize itself.”

The Reverend Guy Rogers, vicar of West Ham, near London, recently made the statement that for most people outside of the Roman communion the hell of Dante is as extinct as the dodo. This also showed some sense. If the preachers had talked this way forty years ago, when Pastor Russell was hammering at them, trying to get them to tell the people the truth on the hell question and kindred subjects, civilization would not now be lying in its box with the candles at its head and its murderous arms folded across its breast.

It has for long been the custom in England to make festival gifts to the parsons, such as apples, grain, berries, flowers, and fruits. But the vicar of a church at Hampstead apparently pines for something different; for he recently • recommended to his flock that appropriate and - acceptable harvest gifts would be wine, spirits, cigarettes, and theater tickets. Give the good man the holy things which his refined and spiritual nature craves!

In South Derbyshire, in the latter part of October, a band of thirteen Salvation Army cadets styled the “Hallelujah Firebrands” were engaged in playing leap-frog and boxing in public in order to hold crowds at their evangelistic entertainments. During the first week 150 "converts” were obtained. The accounts of doings such as these seem to have been omitted from the record in the "Acts of the Apostles.”

The ancient Britons had four gods: Ti, Woden, Thunor, and Frigg, whose names have come down to us in the words Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Later, Britain had a season of real Christianity, when the early evangelists made their way to the corners of the earth. Later still, it had a long experience, nearly a thousand years, of cathedral building, while the Papacy dominated Europe. All the old cathedrals were built by Roman Catholics. They are in the form of a cross, with the priest occupying the most conspicuous part of the cross. More recently Britain has had four centuries of reformation by sects, with a great deal of unfeigned reverence for the Lord in the hearts of many in all these organizations.

The British are more reverential in demeanor than are the Americans. The audiences always rise when they sing, and do so without being asked, and sing the whole hymn while standing. In America there is a lazy custom of sitting. The audience seems not to wish to rise at all or, if at all, merely while the last verse is being sung. The British do not consider the American people musical, not admiring their taste in selections of tunes.

In almost any place where a company of Britons are gathered together for tea the assemblage, if it is a Christian assemblage, is accustomed to invoke a blessing in the following words, sung to the tune of Old Hundred. This is a very pretty custom which might well be imitated elsewhere, as it gives all present a share in the little act of worship:

"Be present at our table, Lord.              '

Be here and everywhere adored.

These mercies bless and grant that we May feast eternally with thee.”            J

Anglo-American Relations

THE political situation between the British

Empire and the United States Government has been greatly helped by the new arrangement proposed by Great Britain, and promptly accepted by the United States Congress, providing for a method of paying the British debt to America. Coming at this time, when Continental Europe is falling into chaos, this has an excellent effect upon British credit, manifest in the upward movement of British exchange. This seems a good time to consider somewhat the governmental relations of the two countries.

The British Government is a government by a governing class. It is not a government by a man or a body of men that have been suddenly catapulted into office in the hope that they might do for the people what they clamorously insisted they surely would do if elected, and what they had no intention whatever of doing at the time they made the promises.

Outside of the British Isles the government in a hundred different places in the world has a hundred different plans for the governing of the natives with just as much principle back of the agreements as the men happened to have who made them. They vary all the way from the absolute control of vast districts of the earth’s surface down to the payment of subsidies to chiefs for maintaining order while trade, the exploitation of the native resources, goes on unmolested. Mr. Winston Churchill, the able Colonial Secretary of the British Government, says:

“We have every form of government, ranging from benevolent autocracies, tempered by Downing Street [where the prime minister Eves] to two-chamber systems, resting upon at least one of the chambers being fully elected.”

When it comes to the British home government it is a life study, a study of customs, a study of traditions. The popular impression has been scattered abroad that the supreme authority of the empire is vested in the Parliament. It is convenient for the real government to have the people as a whole think just that. But the fact of the business is, as was shown during the World War, the king’s privy council, which organization antedated Parliament as a British institution, is in fact the supreme authority.

Some Odd Customs

ONE of the important positions in the British Government is that of Lord High Chancellor of England and Wales. The gentleman who holds this position has to wear a wig and a red or a black kimono, as occasion requires, and must and does still sit on,a wool sack when he presides, in commemoration of the time when wool was the British standard of wealth. This gentleman presides as speaker over the House of Lords, appoints judges, magistrates and church officials, is the keeper of the Great Seal, and is official custodian of the king’s conscience.

The royalty custom persists. Of .course everybody knows that royalty is merely a scheme by which the ruling classes maintain themselves in power. There are three royal dukes. Then there are thirty-one of the common or garden variety of dukes and duchesses, with one of the titles tracing as far back as 1398.

There are forty-two marquises, one with a title dating back to 1551; 236 earls and countesses, one with a title dating back to 1230; 102 viscounts and viscountesses, one with a title dating back to 1478; 503 barons and baronesses, one with a title dating back to 1299; and 1,250 baronets, one with a title dating back to 1611. Most of the royalty, of all classes, have titles that are less than two hundred years old.

Besides the royalty and above and outside of the government proper, which, as in America, consists of the duly elected officers and servants of the people, there are the knights of the various orders: Of the Garter, of the Thistle, of St. Patrick, of Merit, of the Bath, and eleven other orders. Then there are the Knights Commanders of the Bath, the Knights Bachelor, the Companions of the Orders of Knighthood, and just seventeen varieties of medal bearers before we get down as low as the institution called Parliament

Then when a man ambitious to reform the British Empire gets to Parliament he still finds custom enthroned. A man may be a member of Parliament for a Hfetime and never get an opportunity to make a speech. There is on record the case of one man that was a member for fifty years, and in that whole time was never recognized except as to his vote being counted with others when a division was made. In most political bodies old laws and customs greatly hamper individual initiative. •

Attitude toward Foreigners

IT IS an attitude or custom not only of Great Britain, but of most other so-called Christian countries of the world, that its foreign policy is the opposite of Christian policy. It may seem very businesslike to some people, but it is selfish in the extreme and fraught with as much peril and unhappiness to the possessor of the policy as to those against whom it is brought to bear.

Here, for example, is a recent illustration of British statesmanship and finance in the Far East. Think it over and think, if you can, of any more selfish, unchristian, dishonorable course than was pursued against these poor natives:

The syndicate obtained a coal concession in Canton province, China, conveying the right to work the coal in twenty-two districts and to construct all the needed transportation lines. In return for this great concession the Chinese authorities were to receive merely a million silver dollars at interest. Then the capital of the syndicate was fixed at ten million dollars, one-half of which was to go to the directors and draw a straight profit of eight percent, and a royalty of one dollar per ton on all coal produced, before any dividends could be paid on the one-tenth interest set aside for the blessing of the poor Chinese people, whose coal is thus to be taken from them. This deal was put through with the military chiefs of an adjacent province, Kwansei, who were in temporary occupation of Canton province in April, 1920. Everything about this whole deal is as crooked and shameless as it can be, but it fairly illustrates the traditional governmental policy of the British Empire toward the natives of every country with which the British Government has intercourse.

A British historian, Lingard, the author of a ten-volume history narrating the rise to power of Great Britain, says that besides the spirit of commercial enterprise there is another cause:

"The other cause may be discovered in the system ef foreign policy adopted by the ministers, a policy, indeed, which it may be difficult to reconcile with honesty and good faith but which in the result proved eminently successful. They were perpetually on the watch to sow the seeds of dissension, to foment the spirit of resistance, and to aid the spirit of rebellion In neighboring nations,"

Thomas Jefferson denounced the British Government as:

"Totally without morality, insolent beyond bearing, inflated with vanity and ambition, aiming at the exclusive dominion of the seas, lost in corruption and deep-rooted hatred toward us, hostile to liberty wherever it endeavors to show its head, and the eternal disturber of the peace of the world.”

The late Senator Thomas Watson, of Georgia, was another person Who greatly disliked the British Government’s traditional policy toward the peoples and governments of other lands. In one of the latest things from his pen before his death he said:

"England holds Egypt under a dummy king: she holds India with its native population of nearly 200,000,000: she holds the huge island of Ceylon: she holds Gibraltar, which commands Spain and Portugal: she holds Canada, which is larger than our Union: she holds Australia and New Zealand, which command the South Pacific Ocean: she holds a strategic position at vast importance in Central America: she holds Mesopotamia, the land of ancient empires, whose wheat and cotton will soon drive ours from the markets of Europe: she holds Singapore, which controls the China Sea; she is the ally of Japan, which shares with her the dominion of Asia: she owns an empire in Africa; she virtually owns Belgium and Portugal; die has her infamous Herbert Hoover in Harding's Cabinet, continually draining off American money to finance England's schemes under the pretext of feeding those who have been beggared by England's insatiable greed. Sha now grabs Constantinople, whose possession in strong hands would mean the domination of the East and the West. Were I in the White House, I would put into the fight every ship and every man able to bear arms before sho should have it I"

Mr. Watson, had a savage way of stating things, but there is truth in what he said. One would have to be a most credulous person who would insist that all this had come to Britain because of its piety, because of its doing to others as it would like to be done by.

In June, 1921, the British Government’s old Australian convict ship “Success” was shown in New York Harbor. Aboard her, in their original estate, were shown all the airless dungeons, the whipping-post, the manacles, the branding irons, the punishment balls, the leaden-tipped cat-o-nine tails, the coffin bath, and other fiendish inventions of man’s brutality toward his fellow man. This was one of the dreadful fleet of convict ships which the British Empire had Bailing the seven seas in 1790. What intelligent person could reasonably adhere to the proposition that these paraphernalia were parts of the gracious arrangements by which Christs kingdom was being gradually spread to the ends of the earth!

A Mistaken Policy

BECAUSE a policy succeeds in ninety-nine places it is a mistake to infer that it must succeed in the hundredth; and in dealing with the United States many British statesmen have made the fatal mistake of imagining that principles and policies which have been adopted toward other nations and peoples would be all right when applied to their own flesh and blood inhabiting this great continent.

From its very inception the United States Government has pursued the characteristically American method of dealing in the open, saying at the outset what it believed to be right and just, with no wish or expectation whatever of entrapping or outwitting anybody in anything. Hence it has followed that the policies of the two governments respecting secret treaties— the one abhorring them, and the other always making them—has had the bad effect of making the American people distrust the British Government.

British laws have been framed to do some very unjust things. Thus when American interests had to go to Britain for capital, British laws were passed requiring the employment of British accountants. This led to these accountants coining to America in large numbers, and has resulted in the strange situation that the American Institute of Accountants is at this day held to be controlled by accountants of English birth.

Then it happens that British officials are adepts in influencing or controlling the legislation of other countries in such a way as to outwit the peoples of those lands. Whether this is done by bribery or by undue influence the effect is all the same, pernicious and provocative.

For example, the Panama Canal was designed, built, and paid for by American enterprise; and the people of the United States understood that United States vessels plying between United States ports would pass through the canal duty free. But after the canal was completed and paid for, the late pro-British president who "kept us out of the war” announced that the American Government was party to a treaty, which he and other pro-Britishers construed to mean, in a clause of one of its sentences respecting “discrimination,” that no such reasonable and proper favors might be extended to America’s own ships when engaged in her own internal American commerce.

This little clause, brought forward by British diplomats after the canal was finished, was the first inkling our American “statesmen” had that such an unjust scheme would even be tolerated by a friendly power, to say nothing of being insisted upon. It was wholly unjust; but America yielded in response to the president's personal plea that he was placed in a position of great danger where he did not know what to do unless Congress bowed before that dishonest and unprincipled clause that had been inserted into the treaty.

The American people were thoroughly angered by the incident, and millions of them are insisting that a new canal be dug through Nicaragua which shall be forever free for American ships.. Is there any real wisdom back of a brand of statesmanship that angers millions of honest people! We fail to see it. We consider it blundering incompetence, no matter how clever the diplomats who, by careful phrasing, obtained the advantage-

Other Unjust Interferences

THEBE came a time when the United States, with its vast internal commerce well developed, wished to revive its merchant marine by, reviving laws which it had in effect for fifty years (from 1800 to 1850) providing for a ten-percent extra duty on imports not brought into the country in American ships. Laws were passed reviving those ancient laws; but at the proper time British diplomats came forward, proving that in the meantime they had succeeded in inserting in treaties now in force clauses which forbade our Government to do again what it had done without question for half a century.

Another similar difficulty came to light when the American Congress passed a Ship Subsidy bill, one of the requirements of which was that fifty percent of American immigration must be brought in American ships. Thus the Amarinaw people find themselves hedged in on every side when they undertake to exercise on the high seas the same rights that Great Britain enjoys and has always enjoyed. Another criticism often heard is that Britain charged an abnormally high rate of fare for the transport of American soldiers to the theater of the World War—a war into which America. was inveigled by British propaganda.

A thing that has helped Britain to get away with these intrusions upon the rights of America is that America has a change of administration every four or eight years, breaking up the whole government machine from the top down. But Britain takes the best possible care of her public officials, especially those that are helping British trade. They are retained in their posts indefinitely, no matter what the political changes at London.

Then the British Government has shown the same unsympathetic attitude toward the Amer-ican Government’s efforts to maintain law and order that the American Government showed toward Britain in the organization of the Irish Republic on American soil, while the two countries were at peace.

The Bahamas, which are a British possession and which lie only a short distance off the coast of Florida, have been converted, deliberately and intentionally, into a vast liquor depot, with the end in view of doing all possible to prevent the enforcement of the prohibition laws of the United States. Warehouses and even private dwellings have been stacked with liquor; and a fleet of small steamers and motor launches steals away every night to some American creek, where a bootlegger awaits the arrival of the cargo of whiskey. In one year, out of this illicit traffic the Bahama government has wiped out a debt of £170,000 and is planning a port which will enable whiskey liners, direct from Scotland, to discharge their cargoes at dock instead of by lighter. In addition to this the American shores are infested with rum runners; and all British liners which come into American ports carry liquors in violation of the known wishes of the people and government of the United States.

Not Always Unfriendly

BUT there have always been liberty-loving hearts in England, as there are at this day.

When the American colonists in the Revolution were in rebellion against George HI they had the sympathy of the British people. Many of the troops that fought the colonists were Hessians, hired to supply the place of British troops, who would not fight their kin. (The father of the imbecile George HI was a German, and could not even speak the English language.)

At the dawn of the nineteenth century Napoleon Bonaparte planned to occupy with a large army the great territory in America afterward purchased from the French by the American Government and known as the Louisiana Purchase. The real reason for the sale was that Napoleon was willing to sell what he knew he could not hold, the British Government having notified the American Government that in case of the expected war between America and France the British fleet would be used to protect American interests.

Later, in the days of the so-called Holy Alliance, when the emperors of Russia, Austria, and Prussia had signed a document agreeing to prevent the spread of democracy throughout the earth, and were about to accept the invitation of the king of Spain to undertake the reconquest of the countries in Central and South America which had but lately thrown off the Spanish yoke, the Duke of Wellington, every inch a man, wrecked the conference by walking out of it and refusing to have anything more to do with it.

Thereupon George Canning, the British premier, wrote to President Monroe, proposing that America and Britain cooperate to defeat the European plans to make America a land of despotisms. In a brief time President Monroe, after consultation with ex-President Thomas Jefferson, brought forward the Monroe Doctrine. This was the origin of that famous document.

Again, in the days of the Spanish-American war, Germany secretly asked Britain to join her and France in putting their fleets between Cuba and the American fleet. This request was promptly refused; and when at Manila Bay Von Diederich, the German admiral, inquired of Admiral Chichester, the British commander, what he would do if the German fleet attacked the American fleet the Briton responded: "That is a secret known only to Admiral Dewey and myself.” The next morning Von Diederich got the right idea through his thick head, when he found that during the night the British fleet had changed its position and was lying squarely between the American and German fleets ready for any eventualities.

American Growth Disconcerting

A CENTURY ago nobody realized the possibilities of the American continent. Had they done so, the history of the world would have been different Uncle Sam has grown and grown, and is now in about the same relation to the rest of the world that Gulliver was to the Lilliputians. He is so big that he makes an awkward problem. In whichever way he starts he is likely to block the traffic, and hence cause hard feelings.

Thus the exigencies of the war made Uncle Sam feel the need of a fleet; so he put upon the ocean in a hurry ten million tons of shipping more than is needed to carry the world’s trade. The extra ships have been used to provide freight service to China at rates with which British vessels could not compete, and they enabled American coal exporters to undersell all competitors in European and South American markets.

The building of those ships not only knocked the bottom out of the shipping business, but knocked it out of the ship-building business too, so that where the possible yearly output of British shipyards is three million tons the orders during the first six months of 1922 did not total ninety thousand tons. And when shipbuilding is obstructed in Great Britain, it is bad in the steel business, too, as two-fifths of the British steel output is normally used in the shipyards. So three great British industries have been hit a hard blow by just the one spasmodic spurt in ship-building in which the United States engaged in 1918-1919.

Then the Supreme Court decision that the humane and sensible laws against child labor are unconstitutional is diverting the manufacture of cotton goods from Manchester by putting more of it upon the backs of the child slaves of North Carolina and South Carolina, making a fourth large British industry that has been hard hit by recent American moves.

Under present conditions a certain amount of friction between governments seems unavoidable; but the intelligent and liberal spirits in either country have nothing to fear or to doubt in those of like spirit in the other. English liberalism holds views which are in striking accord with American liberalism, views at complete variance with imperial policies.

British Liberalism

THE British people are sick unto death of war. They look with no toleration upon a war with Turkey, which at one time they would have undertaken without hesitation. The Labor party has announced over and over that it ia opposed to war, and that it will not consent to enter a war.

Great Britain is about the last of the strongholds of royalty; and royalty persists in Britain only because of English conservatism, the dislike to make a change, and the feeling that somewhere in the realm there should be somebody to whom the people can look up.

In the United States the people have the Supreme Court to look up to. By the way, the Supreme Court has, in effect, nullified the expressed wishes of the American people in respect to the income tax; it has declared unconstitutional the child labor law, which was designed to protect the interests of the little folks against the golf laborers; it has declared unconstitutional the minimum wage law for women, which was designed to protect women from selling their souls in order to keep alive their bodies. President Harding recently followed the example of President Taft in appointing a Knight of Columbus, a sworn subject of a foreign monarch, to a place on this high tribunal. Ex-President Taft is now the head of the Supreme Court; and the country at present is greatly disturbed over the discovery that he is or was receiving $10,000 a year from the Carnegie Foundation — sums furnished from the proceeds of Steel Trust bonds. We have the highest respect for the Supreme Court as it waB designed to be, but we do not think well of the arrogation to itself of powers which were never entrusted to it by the Constitution. It was never designed to become a means by which the will of the people could be so frequently and so effectively frustrated as has been the case in recent years. What a law-abiding but libertyloving people can do when its highest tribunal shows more and more leanings toward the fore-ing of the will of a few men upon all the people, is

> and contrary to the interests of the people as a . whole, this become a great problem.

But in spite of all backward moves the spirit of government of the people, by the people, and for the people persists and grows. When the twentieth century opened, France and Switzerland were the only republics in Europe (not counting San Marino and Andorra); but today there are Germany, Russia, Austria (the three countries whose monarchs a hundred years ago were banded together to stop all democratic movements in the earth), Czechoslovakia, Po-’ land, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Portugal, Ukrainia, Albania, and Finland. These republics occupy two-thirds of the soil of Europe, and have a population of 283,759,000. How soon will Britain be in the list!

A thing which the people of Britain resent as much as the Americans resent similar acts of anarchy on the part of their servants is the fact that some of these servants act as if they were absolute monarchs with power to do what they will with whatever of the people’s interests are in their hands. One reason for the fall of Mr. Lloyd George’s government is that when pressed financially it suddenly repealed an Agricultural Act guaranteeing minimum prices for wheat and oats which the Minister of Agriculture less than a year before had insisted was absolutely necessary for the welfare of the ' farmers, and that under no circumstances would the guarantee be withdrawn without four years notice. Of what value are promises or guaranties which are not fulfilled, and made by people who should be but cannot be trusted?

It has transpired that Mr. Lloyd George’s government gave away £2,000,000 in stores to Poland at the time that Poland was getting up a war with Russia; and it gave away another £17,828,000 to "Russia,” by which is meant the forces that were in insurrection against the de facto government of Russia; and it also gave away fifty aeroplanes to the Greek government. The consent of Parliament was not asked for any of these munificent gifts of things that belonged to the British people, although they took place long after the armistice.            .

What the world needs, in America and in England and everywhere else, is a truly reliable ruler, one who will at all times rule in the interests of the plain people, never deceiving them, never plotting and planning against them in the interests of big business, as we find so often is the case. Such a ruler is at the door. Ere long He will come into that which is His own, and the Desire of all nations will have come. This rulership will bring a full end to all the problems that have kept apart the finest and most courageous and trustworthy peoples in the world. It will bring an end to selfishness, and will inaugurate in its place an era of everlasting peace on earth and good will to men.

Reports from Foreign Correspondents

From England

THERE is little change in the general situation in Britain, nor are there any indications of immediate changes. Business is moderate with here and there some slight improvements; but the unemployment figures remain about the same.

There are signs that a heaviness is coming over the people. Those to whom the people used to look for guidance are now held in but light esteem. The great politician is now seen to be but a man of clay; and the parson and the great priests who have claimed and received reverence, and whose persons as well as their office have been held sacrosanct, are seen to be just as clayey.

But the hopelessness of the situation is making many men and women think that there may be something worth paying attention to in the message of the L B. S. A. that all this trouble is the necessary breaking down of things preparatory to the rebuilding of a better order under the rule of the Prince of Peace; and many are listening with intense interest. It is a great thing to be able to say with knowledge that the Golden Age is so near and so sure.

The writer respectfully questions the wisdom of the admission into the Golden Age journal of the statements relative to England in the article by A. D. Butman, page 324, under the caption "Unde Sam Should Not Step In.” Such statements so gratuitously introduced are those which tend to disputes among men and to put back the Golden Age. Mr. Butman may have

very definite opinions about the general trend of British policy; but would it not be better to have him express his opinions in party journals where men expect to find one-sided views rather than in the Golden Age, where its British friends as well as others expect truth given as impartially as possible) If an English party politician were to reply to Mr. Butman's article he would probably have some strong opinions to express about the American people staying out of a world trouble until it was almost too late to be of service to humanity; and he would almost certainly as assuredly deny that America saved England, as Mr. Bulman is sure she did. Probably even in the medley of the world’s political confusion it will be agreed that Britain in declining to agree to the French policy has acted more humanely to her fallen foes and less vindictively than she would have done had she acted so as to retain the confidence of France.

The House of Commons is now a much more virile assembly than at any time during the days of the last Parliament. The Labor party, “His Majesty’s opposition,” are keeping things humming or, more exactly stavd, are making things noisy. There is a bad temper being shown between the Glasgow Socialist members and the crusted Tories of the Conservative party. The jeers of the latter are very trying ■ to the less educated but often more intelligent and more thoughtful and purpose! ul men of the Labor party. These men know the pinch of trouble by bitter experience; the others often only by hearsay. The Labor party will not be laughed down, and there is but little question that the jeers with which their statements and their somewhat unconventional method of speech in Parliament are greeted will tend only to strengthen them and their position.

The Westminster Gazette, quoting official records, says: “1,300,000 persons in search of work.” The figures are official, and may be taken as correct if these are considered as unemployed; but probably not nearly all of the unemployed are in search of work. Many are content to get the dole and live in idleness— and poverty. There are many who say that this state of things must not be allowed to continue; but no one has a solution. Of course, the trouble is too complex to be altered by anything save a general movement among the people themselves. If they could be persuaded to drop their pleasures and alcoholic liquors, if only for a time, there could easily be found so much demand for home-produced goods as would start the mills and works going for a time and so to some extent lessen the unemployment trouble. But we know that nothing will stop the downward course; for the Most High, who rules among the children of men, has left the world to its own devices in order that it may prove to itself its inability to arrange its affairs for the interests of humanity.

The dreadful war statistics have now been officially published. They are pitiable reading. Of men enrolled in the United Kingdom — 6,211,247—there were killed 743,702; wounded 1,693,262. Besides these there were more than 3,000,000 enrolled from the dominions and colonies and India, with proportionate numbers of killed and wounded. The exchequer expenditures between April 1st, 1914, and March 31st, 1919, were £9,590,000,000; and to meet this besides taxation the country has borrowed at home and abroad £6,860,000,000. The burden of taxation is very heavy:

Direct        Indirect

£ ad

United Kingdom       10  10  0     6   2  0

France                  3   2  6     2  10

United States           2  18  7     2  14

The wonder is that the country has been able to take so heavy a blow and still “keep on its feet.”

Some few days ago there was a census taken of homeless persons in London. Only four persons (women) were found sheltering under arches or on staircases. In the streets 126 men and eleven women were found, compared with eighty-one men and twenty-three women on the night of the census in 1922. The men included some homeless young men not of the type ordinarily found.

The dissatisfaction caused through the continued high cost of living, although that now is considerably reduced from what it was two years ago, is bringing considerable trouble in ths labor world. At present there are farm labor* ers on the Norfolk and Suffolk farms on strike^ The miners seem as if they were about to enter into another time of trouble. Although houses are badly wanted, and although work is equally badly wanted, there was on a recent vote a large majority of men in the building trade who voted against acceptance of the employers’ terms, and the electrical power engineers threaten to strike. Other disputes are threatening. Indeed, although there is so much need for employment, it seems impossible on the one hand to get trade that will bring work and, when work can be done, to allow it to be done, because of the dispute how the labor shall be paid. There is no peace, nor is there any prospect. There are plenty of pleasures, and outwardly the country seems to be “carrying on," but it is easily seen that there may be a sudden collapse to the whole social structure.

From Poland

CONDITIONS in Poland are continually growing worse. Some laborers earn as much as 2,000,000 marks a month, and others only 200,000 marks. A pound of bread costs 1,200 marks; bacon, 8,000 marks; meat, from 3,500 to 4,800 marks. Clothes soar up into the millions. Many are without employment. Many eat no meat, and many cannot even get bread. The spirit of Bolshevism and hatred is developing. Profiteering prevails. There has never been such raising of prices as at the present time. We now figure in millions where we used to figure in hundreds; and there is no remedy.

Is the Radio

HAVE you heard of "radio religion”! It is a new brand—not a new brand on the "sending” end, but new from the receiver’s point of view. We are not so sure but that it is a pretty good brand, too. For a few dollars a radio receiving station may be installed in the home. The family has the happy privilege of being together enjoying their own companionship in the quiet of their own home and listening in to the sermons broadcasted; they may hear the music, every word the preacher says, and not be bothered with the collection box. If the music is third-class or the sermon stale and uninteresting, they are not compelled to sit through the listless performance and be bored for a half-hour or so; they may tune in with another station and may get something better. As there are all kinds of music, lectures, sermons, and entertainments over the wireless the family may “listen in" to several of them in one evening. And, then, they are not compelled to remain in one city: they may tune in with New York, Pittsburgh, Savannah, Kansas City, or San Francisco.

Well, friends, “radio religion” has been condemned, but not doomed. The Rev. Dr. Theodore Shuey, of Pittsburgh, says: "Radio religion is the damnation of the age.” He intimates that we have become lazy and want an easy way to worship; that the morals of the country are at a very low ebb, and the radio will send them still lower; that the radio Christian sits in the bleachers away from the dust of battle,

Personalities of the Demons

IN A recent issue of The Golden Age we answered the question, “Is There a Personal Devil?” bringing forth such evidence from the Scriptures as, we trust, satisfied all who read the article that if the Scriptures are true there can be no question but that there is a very real and personal being whose name, Lucifer, changed to Satan because of his fall from righteousness, has since been designated as Beelzebub, the prince of the deyils. This latter title shows not only that he is a devil, but that on account of his prominent position he is properly designated as The Devil; and so the Scriptures refer to him. We now purpose to prove, Scripturally, that the demons, the little devils, of whom The Devil is chief, are just as real personages as Satan himself.

An impression has been widely spread, and has gained a large measure of acceptance, that the frequent references in the Scriptures to the casting out of demons are to be understood as concessions by the Lord to the ignorant people of His times, who had the thought that insanity, sickness, etc., were the work of evil spirits, but that actually there are no such things. A correlated thought is that every person has a demon, constantly associated with him and really a part of him—his worse self, in other words. Neither of these thoughts is correct.

Not Everybody Has a Demon

A LITTLE reflection would show that if our

Lord gave His apostles the power to cast out demons, and that if they exercised that power, as they did, and that if our Lord also exercised that power, obviously those out of whom the demons were cast were without demons at the end of that experience, anyway.

But we have the most positive evidence that Christ Jesus, who while on earth was a man, a perfect man, a perfect substitute for father Adam, not only did not have a demon, but indignantly resented as unwarranted and untrue the suggestion that He did have a demon.

In the eighth chapter of St. John’s Gospel our Lord had been presenting to the Jews the evidence that He came from heaven. In the forty-fourth verse He told them something of Satan—that he was a man-killer from the beginning of human history, that he is a liar, and the father of "it,” the father of the original lie of all lies, that a dead person is not really dead, that “ye shall not surely die.” (Genesis 3:1-5) He told these Jews who refused to believe our Lord’s truthful- message that He came forth from God, that they were showing Satan’s characteristics, that they had murder in their hearts toward Himself, and that they, too, preferred a lie to the truth. (So many people do to this very day.)

“Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honor my Father, and ye do dishonor me.” (John 8:48,49) This would be sufficient testimony, but there is other and stronger evidence.                       *

Earlier in our Lord’s ministry there was another somewhat similar experience, at Capernaum ; the one just narrated having happened at Jerusalem only six months before His crucifixion. In the incident at Capernaum our Lord had but just begun His ministry. The fame of His wonderful works had spread; and the scribes of the Jewish religion had come down from Jerusalem to see what could be done to destroy Jesus’ influence. Noting that He was casting out demons, they explained to the people that He was doing this because He was under the control of Beelzebub, the prince of devils.

Jesus called these wicked men to Him and explained to them in great kindness, and with great plainness of speech, that they were standing on the threshold of the second death because they were telling the people what they must have known was not true, in accusing Him of being obsessed by an evil spirit, when they must have known that His works were good works and that therefore His claims that this strange power working through Him was the holy spirit of Jehovah God were correct. His statement was:

“Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies -wherewith soever they shall blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the holy spirit [maliciously attributing to an evil source what could not be denied as a good work, free from sin, selfishness or ambition] hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: because [says Mark] they said, He hath an unclean spirit”— Mark 3: 28-30.

' Matthew’s account goes more into detail, showing that the scribes were not to think that the reason they were in danger of the second death was because they had said something against Jesus. Our Lord even tells them that they might speak against the Son of man and have it forgiven, but that their act of accusing Him of having an evil spirit when they knew such was not the case was an act of such malice as to make it questionable whether they could ever be recovered to a right spirit. In this incident we have the proof of what constitutes the sin unto death; it is malice, a bitter heart so filled with its own devices that it resists the holy spirit and even imputes evil to it.

Demons Dwell in the Mind

ALTHOUGH the demons can and do exist outside of human minds, yet in some way they have learned how to insert themselves into or impinge themselves upon the minds of certain persons, generally persons of nervous temperament or those who because of some physical or mental shock, such for example as shell shock, have come into a condition where their powers of mental discernment or mental resistance have for the time become lessened. Occasionally, but rarely, the demons have been permitted to have access for a time to some of the Lord’s true people, to teach them needed lessons.

The Lord gives a very lucid explanation of conditions in the spirit world, such as might come about where a mind freed from demon control or oppression neglected to become filled with the holy spirit, with the good things which would have made it sound and well. He said:

^<fWhen the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places [not necessarily hot places; there is no mention of brimstone here], seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” —Matthew 12:43-45.

It is easy enough to see how the last state of such a man would be worse than the first. It would be bad enough to act as landlord for one demon at any time; but to have eight demons, each struggling or bidding for a chance to use a man’s mind, while he himself was still trying to hang on to it and use it for his own purposes, could result only in an insanity which would be hopeless except for the relief which the Great Physician alone could provide.

There is an instance in the Scriptures where one poor woman had seven of these demons in her mind—Mary of Magdala, a good woman, too. She was one of the noble band of women which included Susanna and Joanna (Luke 8: 2,3), the wife of Herod’s steward, who followed our Lord from city to city, ministering unto Him of their substance, providing food, doing washing and mending, and arranging home comforts and necessities for the King of kings and Lord of lords. What an opportunity! Mary was one of the faithful ones that followed Jesus even to Calvary itself (Matthew 27: 56,57), was at His tomb "when it was yet dark" (John 20:1), and may have been the first one to whom Jesus revealed Himself.

Perform Acts of Mental Malice

IT SEEMS difficult to believe that any being in the universe could be so malicious as to wish to deprive another of the powers of speech and of sight, especially when that person had not injured the transgressor in any way, but had himself been the injured person. But the Scriptures credit just that degree of malice to these evil spirits.

Thus we read in Luke 11:14 of an instance in which the Lord “was casting out a devil, and it [the obsessed man] was dumb [the demon being unwilling to speak itself or to allow the organism which it had seized to do so]. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered." It is small wonder that they wondered.

Two similar instances are recorded in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The one recorded in Matthew 9: 32-34 is probably the same incident as that just narrated; but the case cited in Matthew 12:22 is a still more aggravated one, where sight was withheld as well as speech. “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw."

A different instance is that of the ‘daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman, the account of which we find in Mark 7:24-30. There we are not told what were the particular acts of uncleanness which the demon performed, but are merely informed that this “young daughter had an unclean spirit.” The uncleanness may have manifested itself in causing the girl to wear unclean clothing, or to be unclean in person or unclean in language. Quite likely the uncleanness was manifested in all of these ways.

How the Demons Came to be Unclean

GOD has created every creature with certain rights, certain privileges, and corresponding responsibilities. To mankind He has granted the privilege of reproducing their kind, with all the joys and all the responsibilities that come with parenthood. The angels were not created with any such end in view as that of multiplying and peopling the planet.

The angels have their own proper place in God’s plan, however. Their work is that of God’s messengers, heavenly servants, with organisms so wonderfully designed that in their flight from star to star they outstrip the passage of the beams of light by as much as light exceeds the flight of the bird.

The demons were not always demons. They were once angels of God; they were present “when the morning stars [the early bright shining ones of creation] sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” (Job 38: 7) Without a doubt they considered it an honor to have anything to do with the preparation of the Garden of Eden to be the home of man.

Their test came after Satan’s deflection. To the surprise of some of them they saw that he was not put to death. Perhaps they got the thought that God could not or would not put to death such a glorious being. They saw the human family beginning,to die. They felt in themselves the vigor which had enabled them to perform such feats of flight and of labor among the suns and planets as had been necessary thus far in the work of creation. They had the power to appear in human form. The Scriptures show that they have' many times exercised that privilege. As illustrations consider the appearances to Abraham and to Lot, recorded in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of Genesis; the appearance to Manoah and his wife, recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Judges; and the appearance of the "young man” sitting within the sepulchre who was seen of Mary Magdalene and two others on the morning of the resurrection.—Mark 16:1-8.

Then who started the physical materialization we do not know, probably Satan; but the idea came into the minds of some of these angels to leave “their own habitation." (Jude 6) They "saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose" (Genesis 6:2); and when these daughters of men “bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”—Genesis 6:4.

It was in this manner that certain of the holy angels sinned. (2 Peter 2:4) Their sin was not in the taking upon themselves of human forms; for that was permitted. Their sin is defined in the Scriptures as a “giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh." (Jude 7) No doubt some of these angels had a benevolent thought of wishing to help the dying human race by the admixture of a superior vitality, but probably the majority of them became engulfed in passion. At any rate, the influence of these unclean spirits is always in the direction of sexual depravity.

This is the true, the Scriptural, explanation of how some of the angels “were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah.” (1 Peter 3:20) The flood in Noah’s day was sent in mercy, to wipe out their mixed progeny from the face of the earth. Now these demons, no longer permitted to appear in human form, can and do find means to make some use of, or some expression through, the bodies of unfortunate humans who come within their power.

Demons Hear and Understand

TN LUKE’S Gospel (Luke 10:17-21) we have the story of how the seventy returned to the Lord with joy, announcing that through the use of His name even the devils were subject unto them. This is still the most effective weapon that can be used against them. A Christian man reports that though troubled by the demons more or less all his life he is always able to get relief by going and kneeling before the Lord in prayer and then saying in a firm tone of voice to these evil angels, “I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to depart.” On such occasions they always depart. Both of these items show that the demons can hear.

The preceding chapter (Luke 9:37-42) narrates an incident of how a man cried out to the Lord, calling His attention to the fact that a

But 8, 1823

demon had been in the habit of imposing himself upon his child, bruising and tearing him, and causing him to foam at the mouth; and even as he was yet speaking “the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.” The Lord addressed Himself not to the child, but to the demon that was in the child.

The account in Mark 7:24-30, where Jesus caused the devil to depart from the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman without ever seeing the daughter, shows either that the demon must have had such acute powers of hearing as to understand Jesus’ words from a distance, as is now done by the radio apparatus; or else that the message must have been carried to the demon by some unseen messenger who had heard Jesus’ statement to the poor mother, that because of her faith "the devil is gone out of thy daughter.”

Demons See and Speak

ABLY in our Lord’s ministry He removed to Capernaum and, as was His custom, went into the synagogue and taught the people. An incident occurred there which illustrates the ability of the demons to see and hear and reason. We quote the passage yvith a few explanatory words thrown in:

“And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he [the demon, not the man, though he no doubt used the man’s vocal organs] cried out, Baying, Let us [demons] alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jem of Nazareth? are thou come to destroy us? I [the spokesman for myself and other demons] know thee who thou art [I knew you for centuries in the courts of heaven while I was still a holy angel], the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him [the demon, not the man], saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him [his victim], and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.”—Mark 1: 23-26.

Farther down in the same chapter (verse 34) appears the statement that our Lord “cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.” He was not willing to accept any testimony from such a source. This power granted to Jesus by the heavenly Father that, though He was human, He yet had power over these spirit beings, and that they dared not and perhaps could not disobey Him, is a most remarkable thing. But they were manifestly obedient only for a time; for a little later we read that "unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. And he straitly charged that they should not make him known.” (Mark 3:11,12) It may be that these were different demons than those addressed in the preceding chapter. Probably so.

We know that there were several incidents of this kind; for Luke in his account (Luke 4:41) explains that "devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art the Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them, suffered them not to say that they knew him to be Christ.” (See marginal reading.)

One of the most instructive cases of our Lord’s contact with the demons is the account of the poor man of Gadara, in Luke 8:26-40 and Mark 5:1-20. This man had been troubled with demons for a long time; and though bound with chains, he had broken all his fetters and escaped to the mountains, where he ran about naked, cutting himself with stones and crying aloud.

When Jesus came in sight, the demons within this man “saw Jesus afar off” and “ran and worshiped him,” begging Him not to cast them out into the "deep” (the same word rendered “bottomless pit” elsewhere in Scripture). Our Lord asked: "What is thy name!” Baek came the answer, “My name is Legion: for we [the number of demons in this poor man] are many." Then our Lord, at the request of these demons, permitted them to enter a great herd of about two thousand swine. They did so; and the swine became insane and perished in the waters of Galilee. (According to their law the Jews had no right to keep pigs.) Observe that these demons were completely under the Master’s control, and that they could not invade even swine without His consent Manifestly they could see and speak. The poor man who had been obsessed by this legion of demons became sane immediately upon their leaving him, and became the Lord’s ambassador throughout all that country.

St. Paul had experiences with the demons somewhat similar to our Lord’s. For many days he was followed by a certain damsel possessed of demons. These demons persisted in calling out, “These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17) St. Paul rebuked the spirit

or spirits, commanding them to come out other, in the name of the Lord Jesus. For this act of mercy he and Silas were imprisoned; and perhaps this was the end which the demon had in view.

Some Demons Have Some Honesty

WHILE the demons as a whole are called “lying spirits” because nothing they maw say is to be believed; yet the Scriptures say of some of them that “the devils also believe, and tremble.” (James 2:19) There seems to be some Scriptural ground for hope that some of these demons may at length be saved when “in the 'dispensation of the fulness of times,” in the Millennium, Christ shall gather together in one all who are willing to accept the proffered salvation “both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him.” (Ephesians 1:10) There would seem to be no object in making known “unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places” through the church “the manifold wisdom of God," unless that wisdom was to be used in some way for the salvation of those of them who are worth saving.—Ephesians 3:10.

There is a hint of honesty on the part of one of these demons that is refreshing, when we compare it with the hypocritical way in which these disbelievers in the Bible, these haters of saints, these murderers of boys in khaki, these blasphemers of God, these long-faced, whining, begging individuals clothed with the soft garments of the clerical profession, face the truths the Bible contains. We cannot do better than to give this incident in the words of the Scriptures themselves:

“Then certain of the vagabond Jews [at Corinth], exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We [unconverted sinners] adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded."—Acts 19:13-16.

The Scriptures show that the demons have a table and a cup, the counterfeit of the table and cup of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 10:21) The table is the wafer which, in the sacrifice of the mass, represents Christ. The cup is the cup

which the priests drink, but which they do not share with the laity. The Apostle explains in the preceding verse that much which passes for worship is really offered to demons and is accepted in sacrifice by the demons as offered to them.

The demons also have their own special doo-trines. (1 Timothy 4:1) Prominent among these is the original lie that when a man dies he is not dead but more alive than ever. Joined to this is the doctrine of eternal’ torment, its necessary corollary. If a person cannot die but must live on forever, then of course the wicked must continue in some unhappy state somewhere. But if they can and do die, as the Scriptures scores of times declare is the case, then all the religions that have been based upon the lie are false; and by that test almost all the church organizations in Christendom are false and are the devil's churches instead of God’s. Search the truthfar out, and you will find that this is so.

We trust that after reading the evidence now before us no person who accepts the Bible as the Word of God will question but that there are many devils besides Satan, their chief; and that they are’ one and all very real, very personal beings.

Vienna and Pastor Russell

From Hearst’s International World Business and Trade Magazine, February, 1923

NOT long ago in Vienna, on a morning of workmen’s protest processions and small riots, a tourist got a new slant on an Austrian's reaction to daily occurrences. Talking to a chauffeur, while waiting for luggage to be loaded into a taxi, the stranger asked the reason for this particular demonstration. He was answered, with conviction, that it was all part of the mad rush of events carrying humanity on to the end of the world, as prophesied by Pastor Russell While bands of hungry workmen carrying red flags passed in rapid file, the taxi-man took from the front seat of his car a copy of Pastor Russell's book and calmly pointed out sentences that, according to his interpretation, referred to just these prevailing conditions. This might have happened in Russia in 1917, but it was a revelation of the Austrian mind in 1922.

Men and Monkeys By H. D. McIntyre and H. Anthony

ATBIBE of monkeys met one day

To settle some disputes That they had had among themselves Concerning men and brutes.

And as I chanced to pass that way,

I felt an inclination

To hear what they might have to say;

And had an invitation

To take a seat among the rest, And make myself at home Among my own relations—apes That in the forest roam.

Said I to one: “There’s some mistake;

Explain it, if you can. Do you me for a monkey take, Or call yourself a man?”

Said he: “My friend, there’s no mistake, So far as we’re concerned.

This question rose among you men, And men that you called learned.

"And this is why we’ve met today To air this weighty matter;

So hear what we will have to say, And listen to our chatter."

It seems these monkeys all have heard Of Darwin’s famous plan,

That from their ancient sires had sprung The present race of man.

They sent a delegation out

To learn more of this race;

They found a slight resemblance, But only in the face.

One monkey rose and told the rest What he had learned of man;

And if my friends all think it best, I’ll tell it o’er again.

Said he: "I’ve traveled far and wide;

I’ve seen wise men and fools;

I’ve seen them in the churches pray;

I’ve seen them in the schools. .

“I’ve seen men swear and drink and fight And tear their brothers’ eyes;

I’ve heard them tell as solemn truth

The most blasphemous lies.

“I’ve heard them say a thousand things Too foolish to be told;

But yet they claim to be as wise As Solomon of old.

"A king, though he be born a fool Or stupid as an ass,

Will find his most obedient tool

Among the working class.

"The working man will pass resolves , To put oppression down,

Yet crawl and cringe before a king Because he wears a crown.

"They work and sweat from morn ’til night, Until they fill their graves,

To feed a pack of titled thrones Who use them as their slaves.”

Another monkey took the floor, And thus addressed the crowd:

"If Darwin’s story be correct, You need not feel so proud

"To learn that men were monkeys once,

And act like willing asses,

To carry burdens all their lives, As do the working classes.

“Disgusted with the rule of kings, And with their cringing tool,

I came to free America,            ;

Where boasted freemen rule;

“Where Yankee Doodles fought and bled,

To free themselves from kings, But there I found that weakling sons Were ruled by thieves and rings.

"When kings and knaves get up a war To settle their disputes,

The working men will rush pellmell, And play the human brutes.

“The knaves will then divide the gold, The fools divide the lead;

And then they shoot each other down, ’Til half the fools are dead.

"The other half will then go home And work like willing slaves, And help to pay the war debt off, And then fill pauper graves.

“When working men were in the field, And fighting brave and bold,

The Wall-Street thieves, like fiends of hell, Were reveling in gold.

"Men boast of their religion, Men boast of their free schools;

But if we monkeys acted so, They'd say that we were fools.

“And I would say the same myself, In fact, I’d hide my face;

If we should ever act like man, I’d cease to own my race.

“I feel ashamed to tell you how The common people act, I scarcely would believe myself, Until I proved the fact

“They spin and weave and make fine things For lazy drones to wear.

They plow and sow and reap and mow, And get the smallest share.

“And when they fill the land with wealth, With scarcely room for more, The drones will take and pile it up, And keep it all in store.

"The workmen stand around and gasp, And raise the silly cry,

'Because we have produced so much, We have to starve and die.’

“But those who never toil and spin Have plenty, and to spare.

They seem to claim a lawful right To other people’s share.

"Where’er I went, the working men Ne’er stood compact together,

But, ruled by knaves and party droves, Made faces at each other.

“When Providence is kind to apes

And gives abundant fruits,

We don’t go ’round and cry ‘Hard Times,’ As do the human brutes.

"We go to work as monkeys should,

An gather in our store,

And each one gets just what he’s earned, And does not ask for more.

“But man has quite reversed our plan:

They plunder one another;

Each one is stealing all he can, And brother robbing brother.

"And then they go to church and pray

For God to give them grace;

If not, our Lord can give us gold, We’ll take it in its place’.”

• • • •

I found that I was out of place

In such a crowd as that,

But, knowing that they told the truth, Felt quite a little flat.

And now, my friends, the story ends.

This moral fits the case:

Let working men unite with Christ

And free the human race.

Cooperation leads the way,

The only way to Freedom, The way to rid the world of thrones—

The world no longer needs them.

Shake off the chain that binds you down, And stand erect like men;

And if you stumble by the way,

You’ll soon get up again.

And if we all cooperate

For labor’s own salvation, The joyful sound will then resound, “The free and happy nation!”

And what is best may stand the test

Of God’s own operations—

To bring to pass the Golden Age

Through Christ, the King of Nations!

STUDIES IN THE “HARP OF GOD” (^IUD^ra&^Riys) With Issue Number M we began running Judge Rutberford’s new book, AT I “The Harp of God”, with accompanying questions, taking the place of both Advanced and Juvenile Bible Studies which have been hitherto published.

““Satan induced mother Eve to believe that God was keeping back something from them and, therefore deceiving Eve, induced her to violate the law. There was no real wrong in the fruit which Eve ate. The wrong was in disobeying the Lord. When Adam found that she had violated God’s law, knowing that she must die he preferred to be with her in death rather than to be separated from her; so he became a party to the transgression also by voluntarily and willingly violating the law of God. Jehovah, in the exercise of His perfect justice, sentenced man to death. This sentence deprived Adam and Eve of the right to life. They were driven out of Eden and in due time they lost life itself. For nine hundred and thirty years they were compelled to go about in the earth and earn their bread by digging in the soil and partaking of such food as they produced, which was imperfect and poisonous. In this manner they were put to death.

“’This sentence of death passed upon Adam had an indirect effect upon his offspring. Before he was driven from Eden he and Eve had not exercised the authority given to them by Jehovah to beget and bring forth children on the earth. This they did exercise after being driven from Eden. Being now under the sentence of death and undergoing that death penalty, it was impossible for their children, born under such conditions, to come into existence perfect. It would follow, then, that when the children were born, while they would have a measure of life and the rights incident to that measure of life (and these we call “life rights” as distinguished from right to live), they would have no right to life; for Adam, having no right to life, could not bring children into the world who would have greater right than he had.

^18!Any human being that is living possesses the right to food, air, light and certain privileges in society; and these are called life rights; that is to say, they are incident to animation, privileges belonging to creatures that live in any measure. The right to live, then, means a just right of existence which canriot be properly taken away.

“’Because the parents possessed no right to life, every child born into the world from then until noW has been born imperfect, unrighteous, a sinner, disapproved in God’s sight, under condemnation, and therefore with no right to life. The life that any of us has lived has been merely by permission; and all who have died have died justly; for nothing but a perfect creature is entitled to life. For this reason the Prophet wrote: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:5) St. Paul, writing under inspiration, expressed the same thing, saying, “ W here-fore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”—Romans 5:12.

QUESTIONS ON “THE HARP OF GOD”

Was there any real wrong in eating the fruit? and if not, wherein was the wrong done by man? fl 180.

What was the effect of the sentence pronounced against man ? fl 180.

What was the effect of the execution of that sentence? fl 180.

In what manner was the sentence executed? fl 180.

When did Adam and Eve first exercise the power of producing their offspring? fl 181.

Was it possible for them to have perfect children? and if not, why not? fl 181.

Their children were born and lived, but did they have a right to life? and if not, why not? fl 181.

What is the difference between right to life and life rights? fl 182.

What Scriptural proof is there that all were born imperfect? fl 183.

What does the Future Hold?

“Ye are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief"—St. Paul, i Thessalonians 5:4.        '

St. Paul knew what the prophets wrote; he had read it in their writings.

*

And since it was a matter of record, Paul knew that you, too, would read their prophecies of world conditions—                     .

World conditions that would mark the time of blessing for which man has been longing.

And the perplexity in the world today is more confusing to the majority of people than a world literally burning up as pictured by the creeds.

A world literally on fire could be well comprehended by all, but a world filled with the distress and perplexity and sorrow of today is understood only from the Bible viewpoint.

The Harp Bible Study Course tells you exactly the same things that St. Paul saw in prophecy; it enables you to see the certain future, the future prophesied.

The Harp Bible Study Course, with textbook, reading assignments, and self-quiz cards complete, 48 cents.

“A sixty-minute reading Sunday»"         . .         ■

L B. S. A., Brooklyn, New York

Gentlemen; Please enroll me as one of your Harp Bible Study Course Students. Enclosed find 48 cents, payment In full