Contents of the Golden Age

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Social and Educational

Items Sundry and Divers ................8

London’s Low Homicide Record ...... ...... .9

Four Men Equal to One Woman ............. 10

Who Cases fob the Cripples? .............. 15

Political—Domestic and Foreign

Naval Disarmament Upward ............... 8

Reduction of Publie Debt ................ 8

Impending Collapse of World Credit ........... 9

Agriculture and Husbandry

Mussolini as a Farmer ................ 8

Cheap Method of Killing Weeds and Bugs ......... 10

Home and Health

Osteopathy—Pneumonia ................. 3

Doctor Pierces a Dead Heart: Life Returns ......... 8

Arrangement of Kitchens ................ 8

Travel and Miscellany

Sea Serpents In the Pacific ............... 9

Fbusibatino Nati he’s Plans .............. 11

Jew silem’s Water Supply ............... 11

Wild Animals .................... 12

October Has Come (Poem) ............... To

Religion and Philosophy

A WONDERFUL CONTRAST ............... , . 7 $100,000 a Year Not Enough ............... 9 The Day After Tomorrow ............... 10

Bible Student’s Home Dynamited ............ 10

Pbesbytebtan Texts .................. 15

Thk Press of Toronto ................. 16

Bible Questions and Answers .............. 16

Opposition to the Kingdom .................. 17

Utopia (Poem) .................... 22

Where is Abraham? .................. 23

A Reasonable Inference ................ 29

The Saiiob <.:•»' Israel ................. 30 tots Studies for Little People ............. 31

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The Golden Age

Volumo IX                        Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, October 5, 1927                       Number 210

Osteopathy — Pneumonia By Mae Johnson Work, D. 0.

THE osteopath is by education a physician.

We practise a complete natural method. We diagnose a case and treat it. We must know diseases in all their phases and manifestations. We must be skilled anatomises; for we are anatomical engineers, expert body mechanics, and effect relief by scientific adjustment of the structures of the body. Thus it is plain that to speak of osteopathy as “rubbing” is gross carelessness of speech, and to call it “massage” is a confession of ignorance as to its fundamental principles.

When the rraehine of life slips a cog and one is stricken, say with pneumonia, there is neither time nor opportunity to begin investigation into the merits of the mme ancient or the more modern treatments. If in such a crisis a person is going to avail himself of the best aid* modern science has evolved, he must decide in advance just what that treatment is. He must know from the beginning what sort of physician to put in charge of his case; for it is rarely that physicians and systems of treatment are to be exchanged in the midst of any attack of a dangerous nature such as pneumonia or typhoid fever; and even if the right method of treatment is adopted at the eleventh hour, it may be too late to save life.

It becomes a solemn duty, therefore, to learn now what is to be known concerning the best way to combat pneumonia. Your own life or that of any member of your household may depend solely upon your information on this subject. Since to be informed is to be prepared, if you are fully posted as to just what the best treatment is you surely will not put your trust in any other method less reasonable and less efficacious. This then is your opportunity (if you 'do not already know) to learn about the success osteopathy ordinarily has with this disease. Unfortunately for human life too few people, including physicians, know the simple truth as I shall relate it.

Osteopathy is able to prevent pneumonia from developing at the stage of the initial chill, when the forces that make for death are developing within the system.

This fact has been fully demonstrated by the army of more than 6,000 osteopathic physicians whose experience as a profession extends through over thirty years. It has been shown under this system of treatment that the mortality is reduced very much below the customary twenty percent of medical practice. The best osteopathic authorities say that five percent would more correctly represent the fatalities under this treatment. It would seem, therefore that one’s chances under osteopathic care would be about four times as good as if treated in the medical way.

Indeed, in the experience of the individual practitioner this estimate of losses under the osteopathic system has proven much too liberal One practitioner of the new science, who for ten years before studying osteopathy was an M. D. in charge of Iho operators of a steel mill, among whom pneumonia was and still is very common, has reported treating one hundred cases without a single fatality. He has found also that the majority of his cases do not now develop typical pneumonia when he gets them in the early stages, and that the average duration of the disease is briefer than it used to b® when he treated them medically.

So gratifying has osteopathic experience proven in these cases that the practitioners of this system feel a greater degree of confidence in being able to render more real aid to their patients than do the M. D.s, who confess that experience teaches them there is very little their system can do for their pneumonia patients beyond good nursing, whose benefits, of course, are afforded equally by all schools. The osteopath approaches the sick bed, expecting to fiiid 'lesions” (or abnormal conditions) in the spinal tissues of his patients, which osteopathic research has found to be an underlying cause of disease. In this disease the lesion is usually well defined.

I haye never known of an osteopathic physician to report finding one person having pneumonia in whom some such defect was not present. You will see, then, it must be pretty universal among those who come down with this disease. The patient may have this lesion pointed out so that he, too, can recognize its presence, because it feels congested and sore under finger pressure.

Now the osteopathic doctor approaches his patient, feeling in advance that he will pretty surely find this or some other lesion responsible for inducing the disease, feeling sure, too, that if such a lesion exists he can correct it, feeling sure, further, that if he corrects the lesion it will assist nature very materially in curing the sufferer.

But there is another entirely different aspect of this treatment which devotes itself to adjusting the slipped cogs in the machinery of life and to restoring the nerves, blood vessels, bones, cartilages, ligaments, muscles and fascias to their positions, relations, tensions and activities. That is the aspect of giving relief from pain, conserving the patient’s comfort in his trying ordeal. Altogether apart from considerations of relief, the ability of osteopathy to ease pain and promote comfort would justify its employment in such eases were nothing else considered. Yet it does more. It reduces fever, promotes secretion, relieves nervous distress, strengthens tho heart, favors the activity of the bowels and kidneys and promotes sleep; all of which, of course everybody knows, is the very quintessence of corrective measures. It does more than all that, too. It helps nature to overcome the congestion in the lungs which is threatening to suffocate the patient.

There is not time here to go into the reasons why a ‘‘lesion” should cause sickness, but it is all important to the lay person that these tilings are so; that they are matters of everyday experience and proof under osteopathy; and that the victim'of pneumonia has a much better chance for limiting his suffering and making good recovery if he gets his lesions adjusted by an osteopathic physician than if he lets them alone. That is the message I would give you here: Removing lesions, as osteopathy does it, relieves disease.

Now the question is as I stated it at -the outset, If pneumonia strikes you down, or strikes down some other person in your home, shall the lesion be attended to, in the light of this modern knowledge, or will the oldtime treatment, with its death-rate of one in five, satisfy you? The time to make up your mind is now, before there is any apparent need of applying this knowledge.

I should like to tell of a case neither unusual nor difficult from the osteopathic viewpoint, just a simple condition of which the “medic” makes hard work. We might call it “The Story of a Lost Voice”, told by an eastern practitioner. This particular ease after five weeks of whispering, began to talk. It was the same old story of a “cold” which settled in the larynx and bronchi, annoying him during the daytime with voicelessness, and in the night time with continual coughing. During all these weeks he had been forced to write his letters longhand because he could not whisper his dictation, and he had to have a clerk answer his telephone. The medical doctor had called at his home about every evening and had steamed him and doped him until, as the man put it, he seemed ashamed to take any more money. But still the patient whispered through the day and coughed through the night.

After the first osteopathic treatment he was better; after the second he was still better; and after the third his office associates and clerks began to realize that he was well; and when he told them that “three osteopathic treatments had done it”, on every side they were surprised.

Some time ago there was another lost voice ease not unlike the first one, the case of a campaign orator who had been using his voice in the interest of his cause until two days before election the voice disappeared entirely. The M. D. told him to go to bed. Instead, he called an osteopath. There was one more campaign speech to be made and he must make it. The voice returned during the treatment, and he was told that he might be able to speak for fifteen or twenty minutes from the platform.

He said that he must speak an hour, and ha was told he was probably asking for the impossible. But he did speak the full hour through; and one of his audience said that she was surprised to learn that he was so much of an orator, and that his voice rang out like that of a trained platform speaker.

A third ease of this sort recently: A publieschool teacher, after having whispered to her class for about a month, in desperation “tried” osteopathy. With the second treatment she was talking. These are not difficult cases. They are not unusual cases. A prominent osteopathic physician compiled statistics during the recent war which will interest yon. He says:

' The influenza-pneumonia pandemic, including the recrudescence, covered a period of some six or eight months; yes, within that time hardly a family in the world but that some member, immediate or more remote, was stricken. Estimates have been made that 10,000,000 deaths resulted from these two diseases within that short six or eight months. Do you grasp the full meaning of that statement? The World War lasted four and a quarter years, during which time the majority of the people, including the greatest minds of the world, were devoting their whole time and efforts to the destruction of their fellow men. Billions upon billions of dollars were spent for that purpose. The result was over 7,500,000 battle deaths. But as great, as shocking, as horrifying as that is, it does not compare with the destructiveness of this influenza-pneumonia pandemic which, in about as many months as the war lasted years, killed some 10.000.000 human beings; and no one can estimate the destruction and suffering that will result from iffi after effects.

Now, if you had epidemic pneumonia and were being treated by osteopathy, you would, according to the statistics, have had nine chances to one in favor of your recovery; but if living in Chicago and being treated by medicine, your chances would have been only three to one, while in New York there would have been two chances in your favor and three chances against your recovery.

In view of the bitter opposition waged by the American Medical Association against the passage by Congress of the bill making licensed osteopathic physicians eligible to take the regular examination for commissions in the Medical Department of the Army and Navy, I feel that we are justified in taking a pardonable pride in what we were able to do in these pandemics in comparison with what the medical men did.

There were more than 500 licensed osteopathic physicians in the Army and Navy, doing only the work of the prhate. When the epidemics were raging and the boyi were literally dying by the thousands, were not these 500 licensed osteopathic physicians with their professional training ordered to help care for the afflicted? They vore not. Why not? Because their degree was D. O., mds-ad of M. D. When the b<n s at all the great camps in the country and overseas were coming down by the thousands with pneumonia and dying at the rate of 31 out of every JOO, and the Medical staffs were being worked to death, and were wholly inadequate to handle the large number of pneumonia eases, were not those licensed osteopathic physicians called to aid in saving those dying boys? They were not.

If 330 or 340 out of every 1,000 soldiers with pneumonia under medical care died, and only 100 out of every 1,000 cases under osteopathic care died, who is responsible for those additional 240 deaths in every 1,000, the difference between the two records?

Osteopathy is also successful in treatment of asthma. An asthmatic equally dreads an attack of asthma. We frequently hear its victims say they would rather be dead than go through another “spell”, as they call it. Here is a disease that haunts its victims with ceaseless dread.

They cannot hide nor run away from the awful fear of the impending attack. Oue of its victims said: “It is like a roaring lion, crouched, ready to spring upon its victim any moment.” That is a terrifying picture, but it is true. Asthma is temporary and partial suffocation, due to closing of the air passages into the lungs. There is a spasmodic contraction of the smaller bronchial tubes. This must be followed by the characteristic paroxysmal attacks of difficult breathing. The attack usually comes on suddenly. with a feeling of anguish and constriction about the chest. It usually comes on in the early morning flours, but may come any time.

There is no mistaking a well-marked attack of asthma. The breathing is accompanied with loud and prolonged wheezing, the face is flushed and bathed in perspiration, the eyes are staring and protruding, and there is the awful feeling of impending death for want of breath. With such distress is it any wonder that attacks are so terrifying and demoralizing? A. T. Still, M. D., the founder of osteopathy, searched long and patiently for some rational cause for this disease. He discovered the true source of it to be reflex irritations causing spasmodic constrictions of the muscle coats of the bronchioles.

Pressures on the little nerves produce undue stimulation in them, causing a spasmodic contraction of the muscular wall of the tubes.

Scientists have long known that undue pressure on nerves and blood vessels impairs their functions; but not until Dr. Still pointed this out was it realized to be such an important factor in the causation of disease. In his search for the underlying facts of this disease, he discovered that contracted muscles, congested tissues and bony displacements produced pressure on the nerves and blood vessels in close contact with them, and that the pressure was the cause and asthma the resulting effect of the pressure on the bronchial nerves and blood vessels. Having found the cause, he then directed his attention to a means for its removal that nature might effect a correction in the diseased part. His 'work along this line resulted in a system of manipulations designed to remove pressure from the nerves and blood vessels to the tubes. Under his skillful attention, large numbers of eases were relieved; and none, even the worst, failed to show at least some measure of relief. This pressure, whether from congested tissue, contracted muscles or bony displacements, may cause spasmodic contraction of the bronchial tubes, resulting in an attack of asthma.

Osteopathic physicians are daily demonstrating Dr. Stilbs theory of pressure on nerves and blood vessels as the cause of disease, not only of asthma but of most ordinary diseases. Asthma is selected here for detailed explanation merely as a type of disease in general. You should realize, then, that stomach, liver, borvel and kidney diseases, and of the special senses may be explainable in the same way, and that these will weld equally well to the same regulative and adjustive treatment.

Thus it comes about that osteopathic doctors axe conclusive in proving the claim that a perfectly adjusted bodily mechanism needs no 'drugs to relieve its ailments. How futile it is to try to relieve asthma by the administration of cocaine and other poisonous extracts! It is impossible for any extract to dissipate any of the foregoing disturbing factors. The cause must he removed; otherwise the effects will continue unabated.

As an illustration of this, a man forty-five years of age had suffered with frequent attacks for twenty years, finally reaching the point where he had to be propped up in bed in order to get any sleep when the attacks were on. Hi. condition was due to a tissue lesion in the nature of a semi-solid lump in the lower part of the neck on the right side. This lump, which was about the size of the first joint of the thumb, was pressing on the motor-sensory nerves to the bronchial tubes; and when pressed upon by the fingers or through wearing a collar an attack of asthma would immediately follow. This showed conclusively that pressure from the lump was the cause of the asthma: and a further demonstration that it was the cause of the attacks was that when the lump was removed the asthma disappeared entirely. By careful manipiiJativ® adjustment to open up the drainage to the congested aiea, the lump disappeared, and with it the asthma that had hung to him for tveniy years. After a lapse of six veais there had not. been the slightest return of the old trouble.

Another case: A woman of fifty years of age who had suffered untold agonies for a number of years from attacks of asthma, had tried all kinds of remedies to no avail, and as a result was quite skeptical about osteopathy. But through her mother, who had been relieved of a severe attack of lumbago, she was induced to consult an osteopath. She was unconvinced on her first visit, and bluntly stated that she, “did not believe that osteopathy could cure asthma in a hundred years”. On her departure she was handed a copy of a magazine containing a simple article on asthma and acted to read it. She took it home, and in the course of a few days returned to further investigate the nature and claims of osteopathy. She was finally convinced of the wisdom of beginning treatment. Alter examination, the physician told her the cause of her asthma was located between her shoulders at the third and fourth dorsal vertebrae. When told that the disturbance between her shoulders could be removed without using the knife, she joyfully submitted to treatment, and in a short time was completely relieved. She often remarks she is glad her prejudice against osteopathy "was overcome; for now she can go about and breathe like other people and not harbor that awful fear of an impending attack. This was a case of asthma caused by pressure on the vasomotor nerves to the bronchial tubes.

AT THE time of the Dempsey-Sharkey prize fight, Thursday night, July 21, fifty-one radio stations were hooked up the National Broadcasting Company to tran. nit the news of the fight simultaneously all over the United States and Canada. In addition to the rumored disappointment brought by this event to the promoter of the fight, reports from many regions indicate that heavy static prevalent that night practically destroyed the value of the broadcast. Up to that time this was the largest hook-up in the history of radio.

Three days later, on the afternoon of Sunday, July 24, two more stations, fifty-three in all, were hooked up by the National Broadcasting Company to distribute throughout North America the address of Judge J. F. Rutherford. The result was a tremendous success, judging by the overwhelming and unparalleled public response which has come, as we are informed, to the offices of the National Broadcasting Company and to Judge Rutherford. The only station reporting any static interference on that date was the one at Portland. Maine.

It is manifest that Jehovah, who 'makes the sun to shine’ and also ‘raises the stormy wind’, predetermined that this address should be heard by the people, and ordered the elements to that end. In this connection a portion of the brief announcement made by Mr. Graham McNamee at the conclusion of the address is noteworthy. Mr. McNamee said:

Ladies and gentlemen: The address to which we have just listened was delivered by Judge Joseph F. Ruther-ford. At the opening of the Judge’s address it was a very cloudy, rainy, bad day up here in Toronto, Canada, this beauty spot on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Since the beginning of the talk it has become fair and beautiful. . . .

No doubt there will be in due time a still greater use of the radio for some other message that Jehovah has to give to mankind. This seems certain for the reason that advices received from Great Britain, Hawaii, Australia, South Africa and South America indicate that extensive efforts to pick up and rebroadcast Judge Rutherford’s address of July 24 in those parts of the world were unsuccessful.

It is believed that daytime radiation at the point of origin is accountable for this, scientifically speaking. From the larger point of view, it was not Jehovah’s time. That will come soon, however, we feel sure. As it was, the whole of America got the message, perhaps twenty-five million people; and that was enough for this time.

A list of the fifty-three stations that participated in the big hook-up, located in forty-five cities of the United States and Canada, is given below. It will be noticed that five stations in Chicago, and two each in New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Oakland availed themselves of this unusual opportunity to serve their audiences. Inability of the Broadcasting Company to arrange in time for the necessary interconnecting facilities made it impossible to include several additional stations that communicated their “eleventh hour” decision to have a part in the event.

WEAF New York		KSD	St. Louis
WJZ	New York	KYW	Chicago
WCSH Portland, Me.		WMAQ Chicago
WBZA Boston		WEBH	Chicago
WTAG Worcester		WORD	Chicago
WBZ	Springfield	WGES	Chicago
WMAF S. Dartmouth		woe	Davenport
WJAR	Providence	WCCO	Minneapolis
WTIC	Hartford	WOQ	Kansas City
WGY	Schenectady	KVOO	Bristow, Okla,
WLTT	Philadelphia	WFAA Dallas
WRC	Washington	WOAI	San Antonio
WSYR	Syracuse	WHO	Des Moines
WHAM Rochester		WOW	Omaha
WGR	Buffalo	KOA	Denver
WCAE Pittsburgh		KSL	Salt Lake City
KDKA Pittsburgh		KGO	Oakland
WTAM Cleveland		KFWM Oakland
WAIU	Columbus	KGW	Portland, Ore.
WSAI	Cincinnati	KOMO Seattle
WLW	Cincinnati	KHQ	Spokane
WGHP Detroit		CKCX	Toronto, Ont.
WHAS Louisville		CJGC	London, Ont.
WSM	Nashville	CKOC	Hamilton, Ont
WMC	Memphis	CHYC	Montreal, Que,
WJAX	Jacksonville	WBT	Charlotte, N. C.

CFYCVancouver, B. C.

Items Sundry and Divers

Mussolini as a Farmer

MOST versatile of all rulers of our times Premier Mussolini has found time to plow and plant and harvest a little farm where he has been testing out 140 varieties of grains gathered from all parts -of Italy. He entered his farm as one of the regular competitors in the Italian wheat-raising competition promoted by the Minister of National Economy.

Detection Faster than Escape

AWiCO, Texas, bank cashier embezzled $32,000, went to the nearest seaport and took the first boat for New York. As he walked up the gangplank on his arrival he was met by detectives, who showed him his photograph, sent by telephoto process from Waco, and took him in charge. He admitted his identity and his guilt.

Honolulu’s Wonderful Child Musician

HONOLULU has a wonderful child musician, Dorothy Johnson, who is only four years of age. At present she is in Chicago studying music. In a competition with students of mature age Dorothy won one of the prizes. The judges were behind a curtain, and did not know that Dorothy was the one at the piano when they decided in her favor.

Naval Disarmament Upward

AFTER weeks of discussion at Geneva, in which Great Britain flatly refused to accept the United States demand of equal naval strength, the only thing the three countries Britain, America and Japan had been able to agree upon was to increase the standard size of submarines from 1,000 tons and four-inch guns to 1,800 tons and five-inch guns.

Doctor Pierces a Dead Heart: Life Returns

LITTLE Anna Scotto, a twelve-year-old Carteret, N. J., girl was rescued from quicksands blue and apparently lifeless. A doctor rushing to the scene, emptied the girl’s lungs, and then examined her heart for some evidence of heart action; but there was none. He drove a hypodermic needle containing adrenalin directly into her heart; and after a terrible fight for life, she revived and is now out of danger.

Increasing Use of Rayon

RAYON or artificial silk is a weak thread when it becomes wet, but the strength and lustre and inexpensiveness have led to a constantly widening use. Originally made from spruce wood and cotton linters, rayon is now obtained from shells, cornstalks and even garbage. Some rayon thready are stronger than others. There is a great future ahead for rayon fabrics.

Arrangement of Kitchens

SCIENTIFIC study of household duties shows that the right arrangement of the kitchen is ice box, kitchen cabinet, stove, work table to dining room, and on the return journey work table, counter for soiled dishes, sink diain board, china closet. All movements should be arranged from left to right. Work thus arranged saves years in a woman’s life. Small kitchens are better than large ones, and dining alcoves than dining rooms.

Achievements of Augustin F. Mrnsa

BLINDED at nine years of age Augustin F.

Massa paid his way through college by acting as a professional checker player in one of New York’s parks. He offered a gift to anybody who could defeat him; otherwise he retained a small fee. He was able to keep eight checker games going at one time. Now he has finished his course of law training at Columbia University and has been admitted to the bar with full honors. Best wishes to Augustin F. Massa I

Reduction of Public Debt

SINCE August 31st, 1919, when the war debt was at its peak, the net debt of the United States has been reduced from twenty-five and one-half billions of dollars to eighteen and one-half billions. This is an average annual reduction of almost a billion dollars per year, and makes one wonder why the interest-bearing debt of the United States was held steadily at almost one billion dollars per year from 1900 to 1916 inclusive. If the country can now pay every year a billion 'dollars to reduce the debt, why was it necessary during all those years to pay interest on such a vast sum? Who got the interest and why?

Train Operation bp Radio

UNTIL recently there was no effective meth” od of communicating between the engine and caboose of a long freight train. The conductor either had to send a brakeman on the perilous trip over the tops of the cars or else use the emergency valve to stop the train,-thus causing an expensive delay. Radio communication on a low wave length has now been tried and found to work perfectly. There are a receiver and a transmitter at each end of the train.

4 New Flax Which Ooes Not Ran Oat

AFTER some years of experimentation the Department of Agriculture has succeeded in developing a variety of flax, the “Saginaw”, which does not run out; that is to say, growers of the Saginaw will not need to import fresh supplies of seed from Europb every four years, as has hitherto been necessary. Nearly all the fiber flax of the world is grown at present from seed originating in the region of Psokof in Russia.

a Year Not Enough

APART from funds for keeping the abbey in repair it seems that the British government, which means in other words the rank and file of the common people, pays Westminster Abbey $100,0® year. The Very Reverend Fox-ley Norris, the dean of the old wreck, thinks this is not enough, as it only leaves about $40,000 a year to split up between the professional singers who constitute his choir. He has been broadcasting an appeal for more money.

Impending Collapse of World Credit

Sm George Paish, leading British economist, is credited with having recently said at Oxford University that “the United States is creating credit on a scale which cannot last. The view <jf the world’s leading bankers and economic experts is that a great smash must come unless it Aanges its financial policy.” Concerning the effect of such a smash Sir George said, ‘If there i» a break in world credit, as many leading authorities fear, (here would be nothing less than starvation in the world’s great cities. The loss of Iff® might even be greater than that occasioned by the war/

Sea Serpents in the Pacific

SIXTEEN reputable citizens of British Columbia, living in two different places, report having seen in the waters of the Pacific Ocean near their homes two sea serpents, each about thirty feet long. The head is about two .feet broad, with enormous mouth and bulging eyes. The diameter of the body is estimated at thirty inches. Below the lower jaw the skin hangs in the form of a pouch. It is believed that these serpents are responsible for the scarcity of fish in that vicinity this spring.

London?® Low Homicide Record

FOR the year 1926 London reports only seventeen murders. In the same year the murders in Chicago were about five hundred, and Chicago is a much smaller city. Of the seventeen cases in London sixteen were followed by arrests, while only a small proportion of the Chicago murders are ever traced in any manner. Traffic accidents in London are increasing greatly as automobiles become more plentiful There were 1,003 deaths from such accidents in London in 1926.

Words of Wisdom from St. Albans

PF A free for all fight which the British bench of bishops are having over their prayer book, the Bishop of St. Albans, in a reply to Sir William Joynson Hicks, set forth the evidence that the common people of Britain are making progress. He said, to quote the London Daily News, that “people talked as if the whole bench of Bishops were made up of a set of congenital village idiots”. The Britisher, once he awakens, is a discerning individual. The only trouble is that it takes him so many hundred years to awaken.

Standard*® Quarrelsome Babies ■

TWO of the babies of the dissolved Standard

Oil Company are in a quarrel The New York baby has entered into contracts to buy oil from Soviet Russia, while the New Jersey baby is not willing to go into any such unholy alliance. However, this is a case where there are advantages in having two or more babies. The piety of the New Jersey baby upholds the honor of the family, while the perspicacity of the New York baby brings in the coin of the realm. Thus the family is benefited all around, and all the stockholders are made happy. We laugh.

Four Men Equal to One Woman

Y A vote of 229 to 164 the men of Oxford University have decided that the proportion of women to men in the University shall be allowed to become as great as one to four. By what ingenious method of reasoning they make out that four men are equal to one woman, and that if the four club together and hold on to their rights they do not need to be afraid of her, does not appear. The younger men have complained that the presence of women makes them study too hard, as the women have a way of getting their lessons with which the men cannot easily compete.

Soviet Grappling with Bezprizorni

THE Soviet government is reported by the Manchester Guardian as making real progress in its efforts to domesticate and educate the wild boys and girls that a year ago roamed over Russia to the estimated number of 300,000. Raids upon their haunts are made periodically; and the children thus gathered in are taken to homes, where they are kept for part of the time under lock and key and for part of the time are given their liberty. They are taught trades, and are being treated so well that some of the poor outcasts voluntarily present themselves at the homes to take the place of those 'who escaped to return to their old haunts.

Cheap Method of Killing Weeds and Bugs

IT TIAS been known for years that electricity can be used to kill the weeds that take the food from growing plants, that it can be used to kill the myriad forms of insect life that destroy the plants, and that it can be used to enrich the soil by bringing out of the air the nitrogen upon which plants feed. Now a Pittsburgh inventor, Hamilton L. Roe, has invented a two-bladed plow which is connected with the tractor in such a way that it creates a current of 103,000 volts between the two plow blades, accomplishing all three results at one time and at almost no expense. The device is being tried out on the farms of Donald Woodward, near Le Roy, New York; and the tests thus far made indicate that land thus treated is much more productive than adjoining land treated with 900 pounds of fertilizer per acre. The experiment is attracting wide interest and, if completely successful, will revphrtlwiiw agriculture.

The Day After Tomorrow

THE Cosmopolitan Magazine contains an extraordinary article by Sir Philip Gibbs in which he concludes that there are only two ways in which a world catastrophe may be averted: Either by killing off the scientists or by reforming man’s moral and intellectual nature. Wireless pow’er transmission will shake to pieces the whole elaborate structure of civilization based upon human labor. Pictures, translated into sound, will tell their story to the ends of the earth. Men will obtain their food direct from the energy imparted by the sun. Boundaries have already become a joke; for there are no boundaries to the air. Sir Philip says: “The last time I came back from Switzerland I breakfasted in Basle, lunched in Paris, took tea in Croyden, and was home two hours before dinner in a country house seven miles from the railway station. It took me seven hours instead of thirty-six by train and boat. Switzerland is five times nearer my country village.”

Bible Student’s Home Dynamited

NYBODY who has ever met John A. Hitt, of East St. Louis, HL, knows that he is one of the most gentle and lovable of men. .A locomotive engineer interested in the Bible, ho wanted his friends to hear Judge Rutherford's address at Toronto, broadcast on July 24th by the courtesy of the National Broadcasting Company. In an advertisement in a local paper ho stated that a copy of the lecture could be obtained. by addressing him at his home, 712 North 33rd St., in that city. At 2:40 a. in., five days after the lecture was given, while five people, including two women and a child, were in the house, an automobile drove up, planted a dynamite bomb and blew the front of the house off, inflicting $500 damage. No Bible Student is surprised at this. Every Bible Student knows the church affiliations of the one church whose members have assassinated our presidents, and whose members have constituted the principal population of our jails, and knows to a moral certainty who was responsible for this outrage. The police of East St. Louis can give no explanation. They think the bomb was intended for somebody else, but we do not think so. We think it was an attempt to punish free speech and free listening, and there is only one institution in the

United States that really fears free speech and is, earth’s greatest menace to life and hates it Everybody knows what that institution earth’s greatest hat$rj)f the Bible/

Frustrating Nature's Plans

(Reprinted from the Montreal Family Herald, and Weekly Star.)'

VAST multitudes of mice recently swarmed into California, and so numerous were they that they impeded traffic. The rodents travelled across the country like a great moving carpet I They were fought with poison gas.

What is the reason for this plague? It is simply that man for years past has waned against creatures such as hawks and. coyotes, that prey upon mice, leaving the latter free to increase their numbers out of all normal proportions

If a heavy spanner were to be flung into the midst of some delicate machinery it is obvious thet the machine would be throw?' out of gear. No sane man would dream of doing such a thing if he wished the maebi is to continue tunctioning. And yet that is a parallel of man’s behavior tov>a -d, Nature.

Nature has her own very intricate system for keeping a just balance between ths varied forms of life; and when man interferes, the mechanism is upset. But where ®n inanimate machine cannot hit back, Nature can and does most surely get her revenge.

At the present, time the whole world is paying the penalty of upsetting the balance of Nature. In Britain, the rat, owing mainly to the destruction of some of its natural enemies, the owl, the weasel, the kestrel, and so gj, has increased to such an extent that it has become g ww menecc. According to the Inrfduto of Applied Pestology, the progeny of every pair of rats amount in ® year to about one thousand individuals, which destroy produce worth. £1,500, and the annual cost of the rat population is sense £ i’0₅«)00_?00()

Other countries have suffered in like manner through, tinkering with Nature. The mongoose was introduced into Jamaica to dear the sugar fields of rats. It not only accomplished the task set it, but swept away all the poultry and wild birds, and. then accounted for the ground lizards, thus giving full scope for the multiplication of insects. As a result, the Government waa obliged to take strong measures for the extermination of the mongoose.

. . . Nature, indeed, has taken a heavy toll from all civilized peoples for their presumption in interfering with, the working of her laws. Treasure, vast possessions, human lives, all have been exacted mercilessly and without stint

But, appalling as Nature’s revenge has already been, its full intensity has yet to be felt There is still to come an insect war on humanity. This terror is approaching us like & thief in the night, partly because W0 have not allowed for the immense variety and the amazing birth-rate of insects. There are about 750,000 species, some of which have enormous colonies. In a wasps’ nest there may be four thousand individuals, and as. ant-hill sometimes contains millions of inhabitants.

A single female housefly might in one season, Professor Howard calculates, become the ancestress of a family of 4,4.72,286,103,628,713,559,320, and a still greater horde might spring from one greenfly, since its descendants in only the fifth generation might nun> ber 6,000,000,000,000.

Jerusalem’s Water Supply

TERITS AJ^'EM, lying’ as it does 2460 feet above D sea level, on an arid plateau, has always had a difficult problem to solve in obtaining a sufficient supply of water. Hitherto the chief reliance has been upon the rainfall, and its storage in the 6,000 cisterns built for the purpose within the city.

Now that a real-estate boom is on in the Holy ’City steps have had to be taken to greatly increase the water supply and this has been done by putting in a pumping station at the great spring in the Ain Farah Gorge, six miles northeast of the city, where it is said David watered his sheep, and to the neighborhood of which the shepherds of that part of Palestine still resort for the same purpose.

It is interesting to note that the per capita wealth of the United States is placed at $2919.00; Britain $2662.00, and Australia $2585.00; Denmark $1737.00; France $1285.00; while the other nations are far down the list.

Wild Animals W "rife®, Tait

COMPARATIVELY few people have seen the larger wild animals in their natural eon-litiom Fewer still have been able to gain any aequaiiitance with their real disposition. Our knowledge is generally confined to what we have Been in a zoo or a menagerie. There, inside some buildiqg with a nasty fetid atmosphere and behind strong iron bars, we have beheld some of the great beasts. We come away believing that we have seen, for instance, a jungle lion. But that spiritless, eowed, half-dead creature bears little resemblance to the actual king of beasts. Absent is the dignity and regal bearing of the' noblest of all the lower animals in its native haunts.                      -

The only other source of knowledge of wild animals within the reach of most people is that derived from ordinary travel and story books. A few individuals, however, have enjoyed the privilege of hunting expeditions. To the delight and wonderment of their friends they bring home skins and furs, heads and tusks, as trophies of their so-called sport Some write books, describing their thrilling adventares-sand wonderful escapes from the jaws of toe fierce and furious lion or leopard.

Doubtless most of these hunters relate each incident exactly as it occurred. Their victim was fierce, and its fury at being taken was awful to behold. But that is just what we should expect under such conditions. In all creatures the instinct of self-preservation brings out the worst side of their nature. The hunter himself is not at his best when trembling with fear. As a consequence he sees only the baser side of the animal he pursues. They are for toe time being mutual enemies, bent on exterminating each other.

Is it possible under such circumstances to get a true impression of native wild animals! Even toe fiercest of them are among the creatures over which man was originally given dominion (Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8:6-8), but that dominion has been lost through selfishness and cruelty. As originally created, animals of all classes would regard naan as their friend and benefac-tor.*But now, even under the best conditions at present possible, they have good reason to always look on man with suspicion.

Can toe Edenic condition of mutual friendship be restored! Is it possible for man and toe larger and fiercer creatures to get so dose one another tat mutual understanding and aj>* predation may be gained t

These thoughts were prompted by the recent perusal of a book by Wynant D. Hubbard, ®a« titled, “Wild Animals: A White Man’s Conquest of Jungle Beasts.” (D. Appleton & Co., London and New York) Mr. Hubbard spent three years in Bhodesia and East Africa, and was practically all that time in closest contact with wild creatures. His vocation was the securing of living specimens for American zoos. He give# positive assurance that he has put down toe stories related in his book exactly as they oo curred, and they are exciting enough.

To that author animals are much more interesting than human beings. His love for living creatures and his experiences with them changed him from merely a hunter-naturalist into a man who believes that all wild animals reason, communicate, teach and learn, and ate therefor® capable of domestication. Mr. Hubbard’s animal farm at Tara is best described in his own words:                  '

Around our three living hutsjind the kitchen were grouped kraals, wire cages, paddocks, raws of poles with baboons attached, lengths⁷ of wire to which were tied leopards, and cheetahs, without any attempt at system. . . . Near the cattle kraal were the little antelopes which needed warm fresh milk. Opposite this row of paddock# was the carnivorous alley. Near the kitchen tore® leopards had their rtm. Next to them was a little cheetah running on a light chain attached to thirty yards of heavy steel wire. Then five baboons.

Civet eats came next. Long and low, with heavy manes on their yellow spotted eoats, they were the only animals among over five hundred which we were unable to tame. . . . Three hundred yards from the kitchen starting point the alley ended with the pythons’ eage. . . . The dining room was perpetually being commandeered for us as a home for the youngsters that needed constant feeding and looking after. Tame sable antelopa wandered around free, and our three bluejays used the roof tops as their particular home.

In his hunting expeditions Mr. Hubbard had many narrow escapes and startling adventures. His object, of course, was to secure young animals. Usually great risks had to be run and often the older animals had to be slain. With a company of experienced natives and a large group of dogs he penetrated far into the African* jungle. The dogs proved useful in confusing the older animals, by snarling and snapping at their feet and legs, and helped in isolating those young specimens which it was his purpose to secure.

In these excursions much useful knowledge was gained, and unique opportunities ■were ©ffered of studying the mentality of wild animals. Among the residents in the colony were three young elephants. Mary, the smallest, was only three feet high when caught, and had not cut its teeth. It had to be taught to drink from a bottle, and progressed nicely on forty-five bottles of gruel per day. After teething was over Mary was allowed to go out with the two larger elephants, which were under the charge of sixteen natives. About noon they were brought into the camp to have their bath, in a holo near an ant-hill which was filled -with water each day. Into this they rushed with screams of pleasure, kicking the mud in all directions, standing on their heads, and rolling over.

The exciting story of the capture of Jim, the second elephant, is typical of many others related in the book. After the dogs had isolated him from the herd of elephants, he was chased about by a horde of dogs, natives and white men for many hours. .At, last he wms caught and tied up with strong ropes between four trees. There he was left for the night. The vdiole company withdrew", kindled fires, prepared and ate their supper; and all being thoroughly worn out, lay down to rest.

Suddenly there was heard a cracking of twigs; the dogs barked, the men got up and seized their weapons, and the eamp was in great commotion. The herd of elephants had returned to rescue Jim. The men took refuge in the darkness on an ant-hill. The infuriated elephants, trumpeting furiously, tramped out the fires, crashed down small trees, and created general pandemonium. This continued until the day broke, when the elephants took themselves away. Then the hunters came trembling dowm from the ant-hill, and found that, after all, Jim was still there.

Instinctive Fear

ONE of the most interesting chapters in the book is headed, “Do African Animals Think?” Mr. Hubbard has concluded that wild animals are able to “put two or more facts together and act upon a conclusion drawn from the whole”. He doubts whether there is among them such a thing as instinctive fear. Fear is usually the result ox the experience of the young animal itself, or that gained from adult example.

In the farm at Tai a two pythons (large snakes) were kept in a large open-air cage, twenty-five feet long, fifteen feet wide, and six feet high. After a time it became necessary to feed the pythons, and their natural food is small mammals and birds. Three fowls and a goat were put into the eage, but they showed no fear of the snakes. The goat moved about feeding on the gra»s, and oven stepping over the long snake--bodies. The fowls actually stepped right on them. The pythons, strange to say, took no notice of tilthr intended victims, and ultimately had to be forcibly fed.

No very young animal when brought into captivity showed fear of human beings; and among these were leopards, cheetahs, baboons, monkeys, several kinds of cats, antelopes, zebras. etc. A leopard kitten was quite at home among some fifty dogs savage enough to capture elephants and buffaloes alive. Skillum, the full-grown leopard, formed a special friendship with a Great Dane; and no one ever saw either spit or growl at the othev

One of the most interesting illustrations of lack of instinctive fear was Janey, the six-months-old tvarl-hog. It was continually digging itself out of its pen, and immediately it found itself free it came snorting and puffing into the dining room. After being slapped and chased out it would return, over and over again. Quite freely this animal crossed the zone of the tethered leopard, oblivious of the fact that warthogs are the favorite food of the leopard.

The wild wmrt-hog shows considerable foresight. It always browses .near an ant-hill hole, into which it enters backwards when pursued by an enemy. The sable antelope, when pursued by dogs, lies down, drawing itself into a circular body which can be effectively defended by means of its long, curving, sharp horns. When pursued by man its fleetness is its sole defence.

An interesting example of animal reasoning is recorded of a lioness, in a cage with three cubs. One of the little ones, while gambolling, struck the mother on the face with its claws. The lioness immediately caught the careless youngster, gave it & slight shaking, and put it into a corner of the cage with its face to the wall About ten minutes after, the cub, evidently believing its chastisement was over, returned to its play.

Elephants have been observed passing along a dry stream, carefully looking at the ground. When they come to a spot where they evidently detect the scent of water, they scoop away some of the sand or gravel with their forefeet, and after waiting for a short time the water seeps up. In the wild fruit season, if a tree is too firmly rooted to be pulled down by a single elephant, one w^rill often secure the help of another; and by their united strength they may pull the tree down, and secure the fruit they want.

Lions have a clever system of stampeding cattle out of a kraal. Mr. Hubbard says that one evening, before the moon appeared, he heard some commotion among the cattle. While getting his rifle and preparing to go out he hoard a lion give a terrifying roar on the up-vind side of the kraal. Immediately there was a bellowing and cracking of poles as the kraal gave way and some sixty oxen stampeded. When the moon arose it was found that two lionesses had been waiting on the down-wind side about fifty yards away, and had killed one of the oxen.

A Vision of the Future

IN HIS intimate acquaintance with wild animals Mr. Hubbard has come to Hie definite conclusion that (1) any wild animal can be tamed provided it is obtained when very young, and handled by an understanding, sympathetic, patient person; that (2) wild animals on the veldt are grossly misrepresented when pictured as being inherently quarrelsome, vicious, or savage; and that (3) although any ;vild animal can be tamed, only certain ones offer possibilities as future domestic animals. These are the buffalo, the eland, the elephant, the bush pig, the wild dog, the bush cat, the guinea fowl and possibly the zebra.

The greatest difficulty confronting settlers in many parts of Central Africa is the tsetse fly. Ite bite is fatal to all our cattle and horses, and causes sleeping sickness in the human species. No effective means have yet been found for destroying it or checking its depredations. But all native African, animals are immune from the bite of the tsetse fly. Therefore Mr. Hubbard sees the approach, of a new era for that vast and fertile region. Already there are farms where native animals are freely used for domestic purposes. In an ecstasy of enthusiasm the writer declares:

I see a vision. It is a farm on the borders of the tsetse-fly belt in Central Africa. There are many cages and kraals. There are laboratories, aquariums and stables. It is a big experimental station for the study of the psychology of wild animals. Here the possibilities for domestication, latent in all wild animals, are being tried out. I see young elephants walking about under the guidance of natives. Some are being trained to drag and pile logs. Others are running the plow. Still others are learning to carry a howdah. Grazing in a vlei is a mixed herd of buffalo and cattle. There are zebra and pigs and birds of all descriptions. There are domesticated antelopes, and even lions and leopards. Here crossbreeds of all kinds are being developed and experimented with.

Mr. Hubbard, in a blurred way, sees a glimmer of the kingdom of Christ. The picture he gives us here is fine, but how much more enhancing is that vision as seen by the Prophet Isaiah :

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the falling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie doivn together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for tlse earth shall be full of the knowledga of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea/’—■ Isa. 11: 6-9; see also Job 5: 22, 23; Hosea 2:18.

This picture shows what is meant by man having dominion “over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth”. (Genesis 1:26) It is not a selfish dominion. It is a condition in which each appreciates his own relationship the one to the other. It is a mutual understanding, based on a mutual appreciation.

What a wonderful transformation will be seen when man has fully yielded his stubborn, will to the Lord! When God has put His law in their inward parts and written it in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33), the love which man will then feel toward God and toward his neighbor will overflow to the lower animals. Then fear will be eliminated on both sides. There will be no cruelty, no neglect, no injustice—not even the thought of such things.

In those days all men will see clearly how Satan betrayed his trust—how he appropriated to himself both God’s dominion and man’s. His wicked, malevolent influence has been exerted over the whole earth and over all creatures. But his power is being broken. He whose right it is has come and is taking the reins of government. Soon God will take His own dominion again, and man also will have his privileges restored. But God must be first, all and in all.—1 Cor. 15:28.

Who Cares for the Cripples? ByD.E.Pay

[We print the following because there Is a side of this Question that is not often considered, but we knew Intimately a one-anncd man that raised a family of ten child”en, and raised them well. It was a hard fight, however, and would have been for anybody. It was much more so for a one- armed man.—Ed.]

I HAVE just lately become a reader of The

Golden Age. I have found more interesting reading in this little magazine than all the newspapers in the great cities put together; and you are fearless' More power to you.

I am a cripple, having lost an arm. In the past ten years high-salaried beggars have been condemning the cripples and disguising themselves as charitable workers. But the crippled man or woman gets nothing from these organisations. If we did, we would not have to sell pencils on the streets.

I myself have written the best I know how to all the big newspapers, asking them to point out the way for a cripple to earn an honest living, and asking them to stop using the name “Guild for Organized Beggars” as a description of the blind and crippled. I have asked Mr. Arthur Brisbane to write on this subject. He says he does not know what to write. I have written to magazines, talked to some very fine men and women. They say. “Just keep on trying.”

If nobody knows what to do, why do they want to arrest us for selling pencils, and then turn around and give to some high-salaried beggars! I -understand the Salvation Army is worth $30,000,000 in property in the United States alone. Still they are beggars. And all the churches are beggars.

So I am coming to you in the name of the Lord to give us a helping hand. This thing of a cripple or blind man getting $75 or $200 per day is nothing but some so-called Christian organization trying to increase its salary.

It takes me a whole week to make my room rent, $3.25 per week, for a housekeeping room. By cooking my own meals I “get by”.

Here’s hoping you will go deep into this question and give the truth, no matter whom it hurts.

Presbyterian Texts

TN ROCHESTER, New York, June 12th to 1 August 28th, one of Jhe Presbyterian churches had a series of powerful sermons on important texts from the Presbyterian .Bible. The topics as advertised were twelve in number, as follows: Going to School, Children’s Day, Where the Roses Bloom, Making America Beautiful, Annual Lily Slips, Outgoing Ships, Seeing the World at Home, Keeping Cool, Sheltering Trees, The Splendor of the Sun, The Wind is Blowing, and The Summer is Ended.

Rochester is an important religious center. In one of these centers recently one of the “doctabs” who furnish food for the mind has explained to a waiting world that it is not fra® that man descended from the monkey. H® originally came from a plant somewhat like the cabbage. In another center another “doetah” thought that in a little while the chemists would be able to make a synthetic “doetah”, thus proving that man really had no Creator.

Honest now’! Could you blame the Almighty God for wiping the slate completely clean ©£ such walking trash?

The Press of Toronto

IT SEEMS that the newspapers of Toronto are almost completely under the control of the clergy, managed so-to-speak by two-legged people that are not women, and that are not men because they wear skirts and do unmanly things. It is an unmanly thing that some Reverend has done in that journal of limited and feeble circulation published in Toronto which travels under the nom de plume of Saturday Night.

The little sheet is so excited that in referring to Judge Rutherford it uses such unmanly names as heavy-jowled, flannel-mouth, wandering blatherskite, professional liar, lying demagogue, etc., all of which harm nobody but itself; and then, after a defence of the “reputable clergymen,” informs its trusting readerg that “during the World War the 1. B. S. A. sold out to Bernstorff and was caught in the act of distributing proGerman propaganda in Canadian cities and towns”, every word lintrue.

In order to square himself or herself Avitli the class of readers that gather to make up the subscription list to Saturday Night, the Very Most Reverend smooths the ruffles out of his skirt or out of her skirt, or whichever it is, and lets out this gem:

On the night of July 21st reputable fathers of families anxious to listen in on the progress of the Dempsey-Sharkey prize fight were kept out by the high power oratory at the Toronto Coliseum. On Sunday July 24th the religiously inclined were prevented from hearing their favorite message because the leather-lunged Rutherford had the air. Millions now living would rather di® than be compelled to listen very often to his discoursea.

Bible Questions and Answers

Question: Does the Bible say that only the priests of the Catholic Church are able to understand and explain the Bible ?

Answer: No.

Question : Do you believe that one will be able to recognize one’s relatives in the kingdom after they are awakened from the graves?

Answer : Yes. In Luke 13:28 Jesus said that the Jews w^Tould see Ahraham, and Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom. In order that the Jews might see and know these prophets it would be necessary for them to recognize these holy men of old. There will be great joy in the earth when those awakened on this planet will again see many of their loved ones. Out of appreciation for ilie goodness of the Lord the people will rejoice and sing songs of praise and thanksgiving unto the Lord. In Isaiah 35:10 we read: “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return [they will return from the graves], and come to ’Zion [God’s kingdom] with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Question: Did Jesus or any of the apostles encourage the use of candles in conjunction with church services and as a part of the services other than giving the ordinary light to those in the buildings?

Answer: No.

’Question: Did God give man a soul at the time of creation, or did man become a soul as the result of creation?

Answer: Man became a soul as a result of creation. In Genesis 2:7 we read: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” When man dies the reverse process takes place; the breath is expired, the body returns to the earth, and the soul ceases to exist until it is recreated at the time of resurrection. In Psalm 146:4 we read concerning a dying man that “his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish”.

ALL the holy prophets v rote concerning God’s kingdom for the reason that through the kingdom will God bring the blessings to the people. Jehovah always gives due notice of everything He intends to do concerning th^ people’s welfare. Thoughtful Jews were familiar with the prophecies, and therefore looked forward with great interest to the coming of the kingdom. Before that kingdom could be put in operation it was God’s will that He who was to be King must first provide the redemptive price for man, then select His church and begin His reign. Kingdom means both the ruling power and the dominion. The kingdom is given to the “seed of promise”. It will destroy Satan’s organization. Satan and his emissaries have been opposed to every step of the development of God’s kingdom.

Persecution

J ESHS began His ministry by preaching, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:

17) Seeing that nearly 1900 years have passed since He¹ uttered those words and that there is evil yet on the earth, what could Jesus have meant by those words? Kingdom primarily means the governing factors authorized to rule. When God overthrew Zedekiah, the last king of Israel, He said: “I will overturn it . . . until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it him.” (Ezekiel 21:27) Now with the anointing of Jesus at the time of His baptism He received the right to rule. Therefore He had come whose right it is. There was delegated to Him the authority to be King; hence He could say with authority: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The royal One, the King, who in due tune shall exercise His legal authority, was present. It w^Tas not necessary for Him to begin His reign at that time in order to make the statement above quoted true. It was the will of God that He should possess this right for a long period of time before He should actually begin to exercise His authority as King. This right, as the Scriptures show, He began to exercise nearly 1900 years later.

At His first coming Jesus began to instruct the people in the way of righteousness and to teach them to worship Jehovah as the true and living God; to heal the sick and open the eyes of the blind, and to cast out demons. Gracious

1

words fol'! from His lips, and “the common people heard him gladly”. (Mark 12: 37) The many miracles Hat Jesus performed drew the attention of the people to Him. and great multitudes came to hear Him. He fed them upon bread and fish for their bodies, and He also provided food for their minds.

The common people were anxious to know about Jehovah God ami His ways, and how lie would bring about their relief and blessing. At that time the clergy had long had tlio rule over the people. These were made up of Pharisees, scribes and priests. It was their duty to teach the people the Word of God, but this they failed to do. Like their counterpart of the present time, they fed themselves and let the flock of the Lord seek pastures anywhere they could, or else starve. Being austere and assuming great piety, these had repelled the people and caused them to stand in awe of them.

It was so different, with Jesus. He came and walked amongst the common people, and talked with them. He took the mothers’ babes from their arms, caressed their cheeks and spoke words of kindness to them. His words cheered everyone with whom He came in contact. The multitudes were so moved by Ills words of kindness and loving ministration, and by the miracles He did, that they would have taken Him by force and made Him King. (John 6:15) But it was not God’s due time for Him to begin His reign. The plan of God must be carried out as it was made, and Jesus was more than willing to perform His part.

Satan the enemy was ever on the alert to find some means whereby he might put Jesus to death. Iio soon found some ready tools to he used for Iris wicked purpose. The religious leaders of Israel, made up of the scribes, Pharisees and priests, doctors of the law, and the like, were these ready instruments. They were anxious to hold the common people subject to them. They were extremely selfish, even as their counterpart today are extremely selfish. Satan knew that it would be an easy matter to array these religious leaders against Jesus. 'With malicious hatred deeply rooted in their hearts he knew that he would find a way for them to bring Jesus before the financial and political factors of the government, charge Him with disloyalty or treason, and thereby succeed in having Him put to death, and that in an apparently legal manner. Satan set about to carry this scheme into operation. He injected into the minds of the Pharisees evil thoughts against Jesus.

Early in the ministry of Jesus the Pharisees and other members of the clergy began to take issue with Him. They diligently sought to find some way to accuse Him and His disciples of a breach of the law. These Pharisees were sticklers for the letter of the law, but the spirit of it they ignored. -Even so it is today among the clergymen. For instance, they insist upon having a Prohibition Law upon the statute books, yet they avail themselves of the opportunity to take' a drink when the occasion affords; and some of them find a way to stock their cellars with the forbidden stuff. The purpose of calling attention here to this is to show that Satan has ever made inconsistent all those whom he can control. Deception is one of the Devil’s chief methods of operation. He makes one thing appear to be accomplished, while he is really doing the very opposite.

When the Pharisees saw the disciples of Jesus plucking corn on the sabbath day that they might eat, the pious souls who stood for the letter of the law vigorously protested that the acts of the disciples were in violation of the law. Jesus at the time tried to teach them the spirit of the law; that the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath. But they were not willing to hear. When Jesus healed a sick man on the sabbath day the pious Pharisees were greatly angered. They immediately took counsel together as to how they might put Jesus to death. (Matthew 12:14) Malicious murder had been planted in their hearts by the Devil, and now they were v illing to carry it into operation.

Satan was really the one who desired to kill Jesus. He knew that Jesus was the heir of the promise that God had made to Abraham. He was using his invisible power to cause the Pharisees to bring about Jesus’ death. He was now making some progress. But it was not yet God’s due time to permit this to happen. Jesus knew what was in their minds; and that is why He spoke the parable to them about the killing of the heir of God’s vineyard.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Jehovah, and that He came to do Jehovah’s will. This furnished a pretext for offense on the part of the clergy; and they sought for that reason to kill Him.

There was really no excuse for the Pharisees to permit the Devil to overreach them. They knew that God had by precept and by pictures foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah. They knew that the time was due for Him to come. In fact they know that Jesus was the One. But because of selfishness in their own hearts, and ■with a desire to hold power over the people, they were ready tools of the Devil; and he took advantage of them. Of course Jesus knew that Satan was back of it all, and knew that these men were seeking His life. They did not deceive Him for a moment.

On another occasion Jesus said to them: "I know that ye are Abraham’s seed: but ye se»k to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen vith my Father: and ye do that which ye ha\e seen wth your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham, is our father. Jesus said unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father.

“Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me! He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.”—John 8: 37-47.

On this occasion Jesus plainly told these men that the Devil was their father, and he was back of them, that they were carrying out Satan’s purposes, and that they were seeking the life of the Son of God because they were from the Devil.

Jesus was not at all being deceived. He knew that He was carrying out His Father’s pur-

poses, and He knew what would be the result. Straight forward and onward He went with His work. He continued to minister unto the needs of the poor, healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, making the lame walk and raising the dead. The exercise of Jesus’ great power in the raising of Lazarus from the dead furnished the Devil with an opportunity to again stir up the clergy. They were now to the point of frenzy and were anxious to act. Now was the opportune time for the clergy to draw into the conspiracy their allies, the financial and the political factors of the government. This they proceeded to do, under the supervision of their overlord Satan.

They now determined to go to the ruling factors and show them that their country was in danger (?) because of this man Jesus, and that unless something be done they would lose their property and their right to hold office. Where selfishness is the moving cause, others of like selfish interests are easily drawn into a compact. Satan was the god of the world. The financial, political and ecclesiastical factors were his. Now he needed but to hold before their eyes the danger of losing the things that they cherished, in order to induce them to act.

“Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Bomans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself : but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.”—John 11:47-53.

But some may here ask: Why recount all these terrible things that the clergy of that time Bid, and liken them unto the clergy of tho present time ? What good can- be accomplished by that? The answer is that the purpose in so doing is not to injure any man. It is not the purpose to hold men up to ridicule. No real good can come from resorting to such a course. The real purpose is to prove to the reasonable mind that the enemy of God and of Christ, and of the people who desire righteousness and truth, is Satan the Devil; that he is the one who has arranged the wicked schemes and conspired to hold the people in subjection to him through selfish and wicked men; that he is the one who has planted selfishness in the hearts of human beings; and that to accomplish his purposes he has united the commercial, political and ecclesiastical elements in a compact of self-interest that he may carry on a government of the people contrary to God’s way. All the remedies offered by men have failed because they have all been interfered -with by Satan, either directly or indirectly.

Furthermore, it is the purpose here to show that the remedy that will bring about relief to the people is the remedy of God, and none other; and that in due time God’s remedy applied for the benefit of the people will bring complete deliverance and the blessings which the people so much need and desire. When the people see that the elergv are the tools of the Devil, even as the PluuisfOh were when Jesus was on earth, the power of the clergy to deceive the people will be broken; and having the eyes of their understanding opened, the people will be able to see God’s remedy and to put themselves in a proper attitude of mind and heart to receive Qie blessings v>hen these are ministered unto them.

The purpose therefore in stating these things, and in showing the operation of God’s plan and the opposition by the Devil, is for the benefit of mankind; that the people may see who is their real enemy and who is their real friend. A real friend is one who loves you all the time (Proverbs 17:17); and it will be found by studying the operation of Jehovah’s plan that in everything God has manifested His love for the people and upon every occasion. The time has come for God to establish His name in the minds of the people, not for His benefit but for their benefit.

But why should God permit the Devil to persecute His beloved Son and use the religious teachers of that time to aid him in that wicked persecution ? The answer to that is: God knew that Satan would kill Jesus on the very first opportunity unless He should prevent it. He knew that the hypocritical religious leaders of that day, who had already proven unfaithful to Him and unfaithful to their trust, would be the

willing tools of the Devil to accomplish his wicked ends. It was a test that God permitted to come to them. Jesus had plainly told them that the Devil was their father. He was not trying to keep them in the dark. He was trying to help them. They claimed to be the representatives of God. Jesus was telling them: If you were of God my Father, then you would do His works; but since you do the works of the evil one you prove that you are from him.’ God was permitting the religious leaders to have a great test, and under this test they failed. In other words, they failed and refused to follow and obey Jehovah God, but followed and obeyed the Devil.

God could have prevented the persecution of His beloved Son, but His wisdom dictated otherwise. It was necessary for Jesus to learn obedience by the things that He suffered under adverse conditions. He also must have a test; and when the test was laid upon Him He met it in every way.—Heb. 5:8, 9; Philippians 2:5-11.

God arranged to put a test upon Adam as a perfect man before He could grant him everlasting life. Adam failed under that test. God had permitted a test to come to the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, and they failed. Jesus was now a man, and before Him was set the greatest prize in the universe. It was the purpose of God that His Son should also be tested before being granted this great prize. Jesus met the test and won.

God saw it wise to permit Satan and his emissaries to go to the full in wickedness, and then to overrule their wrath to His own glory. “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee.”—Psa. 76:10.

Now it is due time for the people to see and to understand the truth, and particularly to see that all the warfare amongst themselves, the conflicts between religions systems, and the crimes and wickedness that stalk about in the earth, all these unrighteous tilings, originated with Satan, who has used these agencies to turn the minds of the people away from God. The time is here for the peole to see that God is their Friend and Benefactor. Let each one put out of his mind for all time that there is here any attempt or desire to array one class against another. But the truth must be set forth in contrast with the evil one and his evil course, in order that the people may know that Jehovah is God, that His beloved Son Jesus is The Christ, and that the Lord has outlined a way to life and that there is none other.

The time came when Jesus must offer Himself formally to the Jews as their King. This must be done on the tenth day of Nisan, just preceding the Passover, because it was the plan of God that it should be done. In fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah (9:9,12) Jesus seated upon an ass rode into the city of Jerusalem. It was the custom of kings to ride on an ass when coming to be crowned as king. The fame of Jesus had now spread throughout Palestine. Many people believed on Him. Great multitudes gathered ”by the way and laid down their garments in the road, cut dowm boughs from the trees and put them in the way for Jesus to pass over, thus representing their acceptance of Him; and the people cried out unto Hirn: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest ’’’—Matthew 21:1-9; John 12:12.

This great outburst of spontaneous applause from the common people made the blood of the Pharisees boil, and the Devil saw to it that .fuel was added to the flame of anger. Now the- Pharisees quickly called a council of blood. “The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.”—John 12:19.

A few^T days later was the Passover. As one who kept the law perfectly, Jesus celebrated this Passover. While eating it with His disciples great sorrow came upon Him, and He said to them: "One of you shall betray me.” In an undertone Jesus, speaking to the beloved disciple John, said to him in substance: ‘Watch the one to w^rhom I hand the sop when I dip it in the dish; he is the one that ‘will betray me.’ Then Jesus handed the bread to Judas: "And aftor the sop Satan entered into him. Then said J esus unto him, That thou doest, do ouickly.”—John 13:27.

What could be meant by the expression, “After the sop Satan entered into him”? Surely it meant that from that moment Satan had full possession of the mind of Judas, and now Judas was bent on carrying out his wicked purpose. This is positive proof that the Devil was really the one seeking the death of Jesus, because he knew Jesus was the Son of God and he desired to get rid of Him in order that he might keep control of the world.

Then Judas hurried away to meet his coeon-Spirators, into whose hands he had agreed to betray Christ Jesus for the paltry sum of thirty pieces of silver. (Matthew 26:15,16) Of course Judas also knew that Jesus was the Son of God; but he had permitted bitterness to spring up in liie heart, an 1 r-'w he was anxious to carry the conspiracy out and anx’ous to Lave some selfish profit. Ha got his money, and then joined the mob and led them to see Jesus. With that hypocrisy which had its conception and birth with, the Devil, and irs manifestation on a former occasion, Judas now approached the Lord Jesus and kissed Him, and by this sign indicated to the mob that He was the one to be taken. Jesus 'did not resist the mob, but yielding to them was led aw’ay.

The supreme court was already convened, knowing beforehand that the arrest would be made. It was contrary to the law for that court to meet at night; but the priests and Pharisees and the doctors of the law, the rich men and the politicians composing that court, were now ready to ignore the law. The chief priests and the leaders, yea, all the religious leaders of the Jews, were there to aid and to abet the archconspirator. So maliciously bent were they upon the destruction of Jesus that the clergy and their allies sought false witnesses against Jesus in order that they might put Him to death.— Matthew 26:59.

Members of that court, which court was supposed to be an august and righteous body, had now gone mad; because into their hearts the evil one had planted wicked murder of the innocent. Being unable to find witnesses who are willing to testify to any wrongful act against Jesus, members of that devilish court, in utter violation of their own law and the rules of the court itself, compelled the defendant Jesus Himself to give testimony. The high priest then made himself prosecutor and vehemently pro-। pounded this question: “Tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.” (Matthew 26:63) Jesus answered him: “Thou hast said.” Upon this testimony He was adjudged guilty of blasphemy, and the verdict of the court was: “He is guilty of death.”—Matthew 26:63-66.

When will the people learn the statement, long ago made by the inspired witness of God, that Satan is the god of this world and has blinded the minds of men? (2 Corinthians 4: 3, 4) Is it not easy to be seen that when Satan desires even the courts of the land to wickedly do his bidding he can have it done? The Lord God will shortly permit the people to see that Jehovah is God and that iris righteous way will completely deliver H em. Let us proceed with the examination of the outworking of God’® plan, that we may have cause to rejoice.

The defenceless, harmless, righteous On® stood before this court and was adjudged guilty of death; and that without a cause. Now He was led before the high political ruler for a confirmation of the sentence; and although that august ruler and ally of the profiteers and clergy found no wrong in Jesus, yet he had not the moral courage to turn Him loose. Conditions are not different now.

It was the supreme hour for the Devil to act, and he held a tight hand over all of his servants who were then engaged in this wicked work. Yielding to the importunities of the clergy, the political chief formally consented to the sentence of death; and then, that he might free himself from the responsibility thereof, Pilate took water and in the presence of the people washed his hands and exclaimed: “I am iimocent of the blood of this just person!” The Jews willingly took the_eblame upon themselves, and then Jesus was led away to be executed.-—Matthew 271 24,25.

Hypocrisy and mockery proceed from the Devil. No one having the spirit of the Lord would resort to such, methods. Jesus had said: “I am the Son of God.” The enemy Satan, thinking he had Jesus now within his power, purposed to make the name of the Son of God despicable, and to have the mob mock Him as such. The Devil knew that Jesus was the Son of God, and now to have Him mocked would be a reproach to the Father. The enemy therefore induced his earthly representatives to go through many mocking ceremonies. They first put on Jesus a scarlet robe, which is a symbol of royalty ; then they made Him a crown of thorns and put that on His head as a symbol of authority; then they put a reed into His hand, a symbol of right to rule; and then they hypocritically bowed before Him in worshipful attitude, and mockingly said: “Hail, King of the Jews.” Truly here were fulfilled the words of the prophet: “The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” (Psalm 69: 9) The Devil was here reproaching Jehovah. He had been reproaching Him all along, and now these reproaches had reached a climax, and they were heaped upon His beloved Son Jesus.

Not content with this, but with a further exhibition of malicious hatred on the part of Satan the enemy, his emissaries were induced to spit upon the Lord Jesus and to take the reed out of His hand and strike Him with it. After going through these many ceremonies of mockery Jesus was again dressed in His own clothing and prepared by them to be crucified. As a further indignity upon His head, vinegar was provided, mixed with gall, and given to Him to drink. Then he was cruelly nailed to the cross, and thus was subjected to the most ignominous 'death known to man. While he was hanging upon the cross, the chief priests and other members of the clergy further showed their malicious hatred by leading the mob and deriding and mocking the Lord Jesus. We see that God permitted Satan and his emissaries to go to the fullest extent of wickedness; and that then God made it known that He was taking cognizance of what was transpiring and that with Him resides all power.

For three hours gross darkness covered the land. Thus thr Lord Jehovah pictured that with the taking away of His beloved Son darkness would settle down over the world. At the end of that period of darkness Jesus cried with a loud voice and died. At the moment of Jesus’ death Jehovah caused the earth to quake. The mountains shook and the rocks were torn away. In the temple there was a great curtain thirty feet long by thirty feet wide and four inches thick which, at the moment of Jesus’ death, was rent in twain from top to bottom. (Matthew 27:51) Great fear and terror came upon those who were assigned to witness the crucifixion, when they saw this manifestation of Jehovah’s power. They said concerning Jesus: ‘‘Truly this was the Son of God.” Never before and never since was the 'death of a man marked by such a manifestation of power from Jehovah God. Again God was giving the people the lesson that Jehovah is God, and in due time some will benefit therefrom.

For the past nineteen centuries God has been selecting from amongst men a few faithful followers of Jesus, and to these has given the promise that they shall be with Christ Jesus in His kingdom. Satan all through this period has placed deceptions before the people, created and organized bodies of men under the name Christian, and used these organizations to turn the minds of the people away from the true God and from the King.

Now the King has returned. Conditions are preparing for the complete inauguration of the kingdom. The forces aie gathering for the final conilict in which. Satan’s organization will be overthrown. Before this final trouble Jesus declared that this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all 11,0 world as a witness. Everj? true Christian today is trying to tell the people of that good news. Everybody that opposes God's kingdom is under the influence of Satan, whether they know it or not. But all the opposition that Satan may put forth cannot prevent this message from going to the people. God has provided the radio as one of the moans for proclaiming the message. All who recognize this and put forth their best endeavors to see that the radio is used to inform mankind will have ' God’s favor.                                       ?

The kingdom of heaven is here. Soon shall follow Armageddon, which Christ Jesus describes as a time of trouble such as the world has never known and that this will be the last. Then peace and quietude will settle down upon the earth for ever. The Sun of Righteousness will shed forth His beams of healing; and the people will be blessed with life, health, peace and happiness. Let every one who loves the Lord he diligent to tell bis neighbors of this coming blessing. It will lift the burden from the hearts of those that are sorrowful. This is the chief reason that this radio station is making a fight to serve the people with the message of truth.

Utopia Bv J. R. Richardson (England)

la there a heart that longs for things of worth; That spurns the glitter when denied the gold; That feels some tinge of sorrow when the earth Lies shiv’ring in the grip of winter’s cold;

That looks dim-eyed on foul disease and want Flaying with leaden knouts the backs that bear Life’s heavier toil, to reap reward so scant

That death can smile and robes of mercy wear ?

A heart that shrinks from inhumanity

Which man doth give and man return tenfold; That scans for traces of sweet, sanity

’Midst all the tales of madness which are told?

Is there a heart that would Utopia roam?

Then let it pray, 0 God! Thy kingdom come!

Where is Abraham? By C. J. Woodworth

IF IT is God’s purpose to transport immediately to heaven all who are worthy of His confidence and love, and that seems to be the general thought, or lack of thought, on the subject, then it would surely seem that there is no reason for raising this question. But the fact is that the question is a very reasonable one, because Abraham occupies a most important position in the divine plan.

By his birth Abraham was a citizen of no mean city. The ruins of Ur of the Chaldees, where he was born, have been largely uncovered by recent archaeological expeditions in which the University of Pennsyvalia has had a share.

These excavations have disclosed the fact that the citizens of Ur supported a high type of civilization. Not only did they have the usual palatial temples and homes, but they maintained a considerable public library, embracing works on astronomy, mathematics and history.

Outside of the Bible there is some evidence that Abraham was familiar with the contents of this library, now being uncovered by the University of Pennsylvania; for Josephus makes the statement that Abraham was so far advanced in the knowledge of astronomy and mathematics that the Egyptians were glad to avail themselves of his superior learning on these subjects dur ing the time when he was a temporary citizen of that country.

A 31m of Affairs

THAT Abraham was an influential citizen of

Ur of the Chaldees is firoven by the discovery of bricks, made four thousand years ago, vhieh bear his name. That he was rich and powerful even before he left the place of his birth would be fairly well presumed by the evidence that some years afterwards he had as part of his retinue of servants, 318 men, born in his house, representing a population of perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 people. It takes considerable ability to conduct the business affairs of a community of 1,500 to 2,000 persons; and without a question Abraham had such ability.

That Abraham had executive ability of a high order and was not without military knowledge is proven by the surprising use which he made of his 318 servants in the battle of the kings. After Lot and three other chieftains had been captured and their forces scattered, and the five successful chieftains were making off with their booty, Abraham and his forces pursued them, made a surprise attack at night, destroyed th# invaders and recovered all the captives and stolen goods.

It may be this incident which serves as the basis for the Greek legend that Abraham at one time conquered Damascus and for a period served as its ruler. The Scriptures merely say that Abraham pursued the invaders as far m Hobah, which is at the right hand of Damascus; and it was at Hobah that the night attack took place.

Largeness of Heart and Mind

HO HAT Abraham was generous and noble-A minded is proven by many events recorded of him. When his riches had become so great that the land was unable to bear the combined establishments of himself and his nephew Lot, he let Lot make the choice as to which should move on and which remain. Lot chose the well-watered lowlands, and thus allowed Abraham to remain on the hills; and Abraham made no complaint.

We see the same generosity and nobility on Abraham’s return from the slaughter of the invading kings. When the booty was divided among his three confederates Abraham refused to take so much as a shoelatchet or a thread as a reward for the services of himself and his men. lie was content to have done the good deed without any desire for reward.

The same generosity and nobility shine forth again when the angels brought Abraham the message that the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were to be destroyed. There was no glee at the thought that the trouble-makers were to be removed. His whole concern was lest there should be some of the righteous that would suffer with the guilty.

Six times, diffidently, reverently, but courageously, Abraham sought the consent of the Lord to preserve the city if only fifty, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty or finally ten righteous persons might be found in it. Not even the ten were found. But the Lord did spare the one righteous person, Lot, that was in the city, and several more on his account; and in the resurrection it will be found that He will be merciful to all the Sodomites. Our God says so; and the Prophet Ezekiel, 16th chapter, gives us some of the details. See the latter part of the 16th chapter of Ezekiel’s prophecy.

In the story of the purchase of the eave of Machpelah the generosity of Abraham stands in marked contrast to the grasping nature of Ephron, who demanded and received without protest the sum of four hundred shekels, or about the equivalent of eight hundred days of labor of one man for this eave. This seems like an excessive price, amounting to several thousand dollars, as things go now.

^Entertained Angels Unawares”

THAT Abraham was generous and hospitable to an unusual degree is testified to more than once in Holy Writ. Because of his natural hospitality he is the only man that ever had the honor of entertaining the Lord in His prehuman state. At the same time also Abraham entertained two angels. To be sure, these were all in human form, assumed for the occasion.

The account is beautiful in its simplicity, and it has added value when we reflect that at this time Abraham was a man ninety-nine years of age. In his enthusiastic desire to entertain these strangers he showed all the enthusiasm of a lovable boy. The story reads:

’’‘.And the Lord appeared to him in the plains of Mamre, as lie sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked; and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now T have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, 1 pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts: after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. .And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, kneed it and make cakes.... And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man: and he hasted and dressed it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them: and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.”

Thus this man ninety-nine years of age ran to meet his guests, bowed before them, hastened to tell his wife the good news, had her speed up the culinary department, personally selected an extra good piece of veal, and saw to it that one of the servants made a quick job of getting it ready. It is in view of these things that the Apostle Paul says that it is God's wish that His people should be given to hospitality; “for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

“By Faith Abraham * . . Obeged”

ITT it is in respect to Abraham’s faith in the one great eternal God that we find him far above the other men of his time, and far above the mon of any other time. Though he was reared in a highly civilized city, yet the people of that city were idolaters; and even Abraham’s own father, we are told, “served other gods.”

Yet Abraham, although it is customary for one generation to worship the same gods as were worshiped by the generation which has gone before, and although he was surrounded on all sides by idolatry, became convinced, from his reading and Blinking, that there is ready only one God, the supreme Creator and Sustainer of everything, and had drawn away from his fellow citizens even before the call came to him from the Lord to set himself apart to be the founder of the nation which God had in mind, and which we now see was so necessary a part of the divine plan.

At the time Abraham was born his father, Terah, was one hundred and thirty years of age. It often happens that children born when their fathers are elderly are more thoughtful than are those born when their fathers are younger; and this seems to have been the ease with Abraham. Although he was sixty years younger than his oldest brother, Haran, yet Abraham was the prominent one of the family; and when the list of children is given, his name comes first in the list.

Incidentally, this has misled some into thinking there is an error in the Bible chronology which establishes the fact that Abraham was born in the year 2120 B. C.; but. such is not the case. The chronology as contained in the Studies in the Scriptures is correct. All efforts to find a flaw in it have failed, and will continue to fail.

When Abraham was seventy-live years old God began to reveal His purposes to him, perhaps speaking to him clairaudiently, after the manner imitated by the demons who thus suggest or impose their falsehoods upon those who some under thoir controls their clairvoyants, necromancers, etc.

Since we now have the Bible, such methods of communication between spirit beings and human beings are no longer allowable. The Scriptures tell us that now the Word of God is sufficient, that the man of God may he perfect, thoroughly furnished for every good work.

A Bold Pioneer

BRAHAM was instructed to withdraw from his home city and to go several hundred miles across the sands to a country that God would show to him. By faith he went out, not knowing whither he went. We can well imagine how the neighbors in the city of Ur talked about the matter over their back fences.

One of them said to another: “Have you heard what has happened to poor old Abraham, the son of Teraht No? Well! He has gone crazy on the subject of religion. They say that he has become one of the International Bible Students, and is going off to serve the Lord away from us. He was bora in this city, has lived here all his fife, and has become very prosperous and influential; and now at seventy-five years of age he is losing his mind. Isn’t it terrible? It must he awful on his poor wife.” But God views matters of this kind differently from the neighbors, and it is a good thing that He does.

Abraham passed at once into the land of Canaan, where he was the repeated recipient of & series of remarkable promises at the mouth of the Almighty God. He was promised that he should become the founder of a great nation and that in his seed all the nations, kindreds and families of the earth should be blessed. See these promises in the 12th to the 1.5th chapters of Genesis.

They are dedared to be the Gospel, i. e., the Soods news of Messiah’s kingdom, by the apostle i Galatians 3:8, wherein, he says: “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” This seed that is to bless all the nations of the earth, we are told in the same chapter, is our Lord Jesus.

It is obvious that before Abraham could become the founder of a great nation, or even of & small one, he must have children; and at this time he was an old man and had none. Here his Mth was put to a great test. No child made its appearance; and after ten years Abraham and Sarah his wife concluded that it was the divin,® intent that Hagar should be the mother of Abraham’s promised child, and in due time Ishmael was born. But this was not the divine purpose, and it was bo made known to Abraham.

Another period of thirteen years elapsed, twenty-four in all. since Abraham had entered the land, when the promise was repeated that Abraham should become the father of a great multitude; and at length, when Abraham was one hundred years of age, Isaac was bora.

^Stron® in F^ith”

GAIN, Abraham’s faith was tried to the utmost. Isaac grew to be a man. According to Josephus, he had reached the age of twenty-five years, when the same voice of the Almighty which Abraham had come to trust so implicitly unexpectedly laid upon him the heaviest of all possible burdens in asking him to proceed at once to offer up his son Isaac as a burnt offering.

With prompt obedience all arrangements were made to comply with the command. How Abra- ' ham must have suffered as he led his son to the place of slaughter none but a loving father may know. His faith was rewarded. The knife was stayed in its downward course. A ram was provided to take Isaac’s place; and the promises of future blessings that had already been made to Abraham several times were renewed, and sworn to by the greatest oath at Jehovah’s command.

The apostle says that because God could swear by no greater He swore by Himself that in Abraham and in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. It was at this point that Abraham saw Christ’s day coming; and when he saw it, he was glad.

Because of his implicit faith and obedience Abraham became known as the friend of God. One delights to give his confidence to his friends. This was true of God’s relationship with Abraham; so much so, that when He was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah He said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and Ms household after him, and they shall keep the way ofi the Lord.”

Played a Stella? Role

IN ADDITION to all this, God so overruled the life of Abraham that the Scriptures declare that in its most important outlines it was an allegory of the divine plan. We can see the outlines of this allegory: Abraham represented the heavenly Father; Sarah represented the oath bound covenant; Isaac represented Christ Jesus; Eliezer represented the holy spirit; his camels upon which he went to seek a bride for Isaac represented the Word of God; Rebecca represented the bride of Christ, the true church; her damsels represented the great company that follow the bride class into the kingdom; Hagar represented the law covenant; Ishmael represented fleshly Israel; Keturah represented the nev covenant; and her six sons represented the vhole world of mankind that will receive blessings of an earthly kind during the Millennium.

This whole allegory revolves around Abraham as the central figure. He was very rich, repiwseriing the fathomless riches of God. AU that he had rvas left to Isaac to distribute, even as all of God’s riches are available to mankind through Chi 1st Jesus.

Is Abraham in Heaven?

ROM v,hat has been said it is apparent that if there is a person in history who was worthy of being taken to heaven at his death, if that were God’s plan, Abraham was worthy of that honor; and most theologians would say that without question there is where he is and has been for centuries. This, however, is untrue. We will give their arguments, and answer them, and then give the proof as to where he is.

It is argued that Christ taught that Abraham is in heaven when He said to the scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites and Doctors of Divinity of His day, “Ye shall see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sit down in the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust out.”

We answer that those scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites and Doctors of Divinity will never get within several billion miles of heaven. They will indeed see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom which is from heaven, i. e., will see them seated in positions of power and influence in the earthly phase of that kingdom.

‘Princes, Ruling in Judgment’

THE Scriptures promise that these men and all the other faithful ones of the dispensation prior to Christ will be made princes in all the earth. Abraham may be made the ruler of New York for aught we know; and if he is as successful in getting back stolen goods in the future as he was in the past, New York would be a fine place in which to exercise his talents.

Isaac may be made the ruler of Chicago for aught we know. He is known as Isaac the Peaceful; and it seems as if he might make a very desirable ruler for the crime center of the world, the city of two murders a day, the recent so-called temporary Holy City of the Roman Catholic church.

Perhaps Jacob 'will be put in London. His father-in-law, Laban, was a diplomat, which is a high-toned name for a thief; but despite the fact that he tried ten times to get the best of Jacob, the latter managed to make a living anyway. We nominate Jacob for the rulership of London, the center of the world’s diplomacy.

These men, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were the progenitors or. in Scriptural parlance, the fathers, of Christ Jesus, the Messiah. Addressing Him in the 45th Psalm the heavenly Father says. “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.”

Contrary Arguments Answered

IT IS argued that Abraham is in heaven because, in answering His critics, the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, Christ said, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God, but that the dead are [to be] raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he ealleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living : for all live unto him.”

This scripture contains its own answer to this argument. Christ was not arguing that there is no need of a resurrection. He was arguing to the contrary. He was showing that because God lives, and because He remembers his friends₉ the future lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are certain. They are not hopelessly extinct God remembers them and will bring them back from death: They live unto Him, i. e., in His memory.

It is argued that Abraham is in heaven because Christ said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my, day, and he saw it and was glad.” We have already referred to this. He saw Christ’s day coining. He saw it by the eye of faith, when th*

knife was stayed as he was about to slay Isaac. There, in the ram caught in the thicket, which took Isaac’s place in death, he saw, in pantomime, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” It may be added, too, that this is the opinion of the best Bible commentators as to the meaning of this text.

It is argued, also, that Abraham is in heaven because of the statement that he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But the answer of this argument is that the city for which Abraham looked is the New Jerusalem, of which the Revelator says not that it remains in heaven, but that it cometh down from God out of heaven.

A Pictorial City

’ CT ['ALLY, this city of solid gold. uLich John saw. and which v. as 12.000 furlongs, that is to say fifo-en hundred miles lo.ig, and fifteen hundred miles wide and fifteen hundred miles high, is not a literal eify at all. but i* a symbolical picture of the kingdom of God.

AV hoever is looking for God to eaieftilly set down upon the earth at some time a literal city of such stupendous dimensions is looking for something he will never see. That God could do this act of placing so large a city on a globe whirling like a top at the rate of over one thousand miles an hour we do not question, but it would surely upset the top.

That God could place it on the earth despite f: “ fact that the earth Is whirling 68,000 miles an hour on its orbit around the sub we do not question, but it would surely slow the earth down a little to add such an enormous extra weight. Moreover, the city would have to be nicely curved if it were to fit the surface of our ball; and there are not many places whore a city fifteen hundred miles square could be placed without its edges being over the water.

Furthen none, all the top floors above five miles Mould be for ever uninhabitable by human beings, and it is hard to see of vhai earthly use the upper 1495 miles would he.

Additionally, it would seem that a wall fifteen hundred miles high on each side of the city would make the atmosphere within the city un-'duly oppressive, and would obstruct the view of all the other interesting things which God , has placed on and about the earth for the bless' iag and entertainment of man.

And any engineer who knows of the crushing strains of a high wall of any kind can readily prove that solid gold would melt long before it was piled five miles in height, to say nothing of fifteen hundred. Of course God could prevent it from melting, by interfering with His own laws; but why interfere with them to no purpose?

The Devil has had in the earth an evil, iniquitous, crooked government, to which the Scriptures give the name “Babylon, that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth”. The Lord is establishing a new, righteous government which, by contrast with the other, is solid gold. Occasionally the expression is used regarding a man or a woman that such is solid gold, but no one has the thought that the person thus described is made of the yellow metal used in filling teeth

A Much Abused Parable

JYALLY, the argument is advanced that Abraham, must be in heaven because in the parable of Dives and Lazarus when the poor beggar died he was carried to Abraham’s bosom. The expression merely means that the Gentiles, once out of divine favor, were received into that favor when the Jewish nation, once the special recipients of God’s favors, lost them in the change of dispensations from the law dispensation to the gospel dispensation. All can see that since the Jews as a people lost the special favor of God at the time of the crucifixion of Christ, they have been in trouble, while-the Gentiles, previously miserable, have been blessed.

If Abraham’s bosom instead of being an expression used to mean the place of divine favor really means Abraham’s literal bosom, one would be naturally led to wonder why he must be the recipient of this dirty beggar that was full of sores.

Besides it must be remembered that Abraham was very rich and probably had plenty of good clothes, and all that is charged against Dives is that he was rich, so that the whole thing seems inconsistent when it is viewed as a narrative of actual fact, instead of being, as it is, a picture of the relative experiences of the Jewish and Gentile peoples. We thus see that there is not a shred of evidence in connection with the name of Abraham to show that he is in heaven.

^affear Ye the Word”

ASIDE from Abraham himself there is plenty of collateral evidence that he did not go to heaven. True, he was the friend of God; tat David was also a man after God’s own heart; and Peter, speaking under the inspiration of the holy spirit on the day of Pentecost, said plainly to all who will read, “David is not ascended into the heavens.”—Acts 2: 34.

Then there is John the Baptist, concerning whom our Lord said, “There is not a greater among those that are born of women, and yet he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”; and at the time Jesus said this John the Baptist was dead, and therefore not in heaven.

Then there is Job, specially mentioned in the Scriptures as a righteous man. Job had no ideas of ever getting to heaven, but did express his desire for death and expected to be aw⁷akened out of it. His cry was, “0 that thou wonkiest hide me in sheol [the Bible hell, the tomb], until the time of thy wrath be past! O that thou wouldest appoint a set time and remember me! Thou shaft call and I will answer thee.” Job expressed his confidence that in the latter times he would reappear on the earth, and it is so. From his own expressions we may fairly judge that Job is not in heaven, and there is no evidence that he is.

Then there is Daniel. His righteousness is also specially mentioned in Holy Writ. Daniel said concerning the dead, “Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” (Daniel 12: 2) Daniel knew that the dead were asleep; for the Lord had also said to him personally that he should himself rest, and rise for his portion along with the others in God’s own due time. “Go thy way till the end be: for thou sb alt rest, and "shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”—Daniel 12:13.

When Daniel said that the dead were asleep in the dust he did not think they were asleep in heaven. It is not a place of such disorder and discomfort: nor so far as we know is there any need for sleep there.

Purgatory, a “Gold Mine”

ANIEL did not think the dead were in pur-, gatory; for none of the prophets nor apostles nor the Lord himself ever mentioned such a place. It was discovered six hundred years after Christ’s death by somebody that was “prospecting”, trying to figure out a good scheme for collecting money from the people after they are dead; and as a money maker the scheme of selling masses at so much per is certainly a peach. Of course every cent thus obtained is money gained under false pretense. It is the biggest fraud in the world.

And when Daniel said that the dead wer® asleep in the dust he surely did not think they were in eternal torture. Daniel had too good sense to imagine that a God of infinite wisdom would ever plan any such place, or that a God of infinite justice would deal so unjustly with anyone, or that a God of infinite love wrnuld manifest such a diabolical spirit toward the helpless and unfortunate.

Furthermore, Daniel knew⁷ that nobody could go to sleep in a place like that; and if anybody could go to sleep, rvhy on earth would you want to w⁷ake him? No! Daniel believed the dead were asleep in the dust of the earth and said so. And^another of the prophets has written, "Awake and sing, ye that dtvell in the dust of the earth,” looking forward to the time when those notv resting in the bosom of the earth shall be restored to life.

Where are the Dead?

OUR Lord Jesus said plainly (John 3:13), “No man hath ascended into heaven”; and that takes care of the whole situation, as does also His further statement that the dead are in their graves. It will be remembered that He said, “All that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth.” If the Lord Jesus does not know⁷ w'here the dead are. then it is hopeless to carry the quest further.

Now⁷ let us notice some of the specific tilings said about Abraham. The Bible tells us plainly that “Abraham gave up his breath, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years: and was gathered to his people”; and those people, as we have previously seen, w^rere idolaters, heathen.

Let us notice, too, the promises that Were made to Abraham. He vms told to walk up and down through the length and breath of Palestine and then -was told, specifically, that all th.® land w’hich he saw⁷ should be his owm for an everlasting possession.—See Genesis 13:14, 15.

Concerning this promise made to Abraham, Stephen, in the address which brought his martyrdom, said: “And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him. for a possession.” This shows that Stephen understood that Abraham would be awakened from the sleep of death and get .that land in the future for his own possession.

Notice also that the Apostle Paul, greatest of logicians, next to our Lord, stated in Bomans 4:13 that Abraham was made the heir of the world not through the law covenant but through the promise of God. Certainly that promise has not yet been made effective.

In the eleventh chapter of Hebrew’s the apostle gives a list of some of the faithful ones of long ago. After mentioning Abel, Enoch and Noah he then devotes thirteen, verses as a tribute to Abraham and Sarah and in the thirteenth verse of the chapter says, “These all died in. faith, not having received the promises/’ What he means is, not that they had not been promised many things, for they surely had. but that they had not received the fulfilment of those promises, and that is certainly true also.

He refers to the same subject again after mentioning many other faithful ones of the past, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Barak, Samson, Jephthse, David, Samuel, and the prophets, and repeats the thought, for emphasis, saying, “These all, having obtained, a good report through faith, received not the promise [1. e., the things promised] God having provided some better thing for us [the gospel church], that they without us should not be made perfect.”—< Hebrews 11: 39, 40.

Abr&kam Among the Dead

WE HAVE now examined all the important evidence bearing upon this question. Every text that might reasonably be brought forward to show that Abraham is in heaven has been examined; and we have found that not one of them supports that thought.

On the other hand we have examined a number of texts referring to others of Abraham’s own times, and later, and earlier, and have found them all uniformly supporting the Bible statements that the dead are dead, awaiting a resurrection, and that their only hope is that they will be awakened from their sleep in the tomb, where they now are.

Finally we have examined direct evidence which proves conclusively that when Abraham died there w’as no exception made in his case; but that he, too, was gathered to his fathers, where they sleep in the tomb.

We have seen that the promises made to Abraham, and oft repeated, were earthly promises, and that the very word of God Himself is bound to see to it that Abraham shall yet have Palestine for his own possession.

And at the conclusion of our study we have seen the twice repeated statement that the promises that were made to Abraham have not yet been fulfilled, that he is not yet perfect, and that his perfecting awaits the completion of the gospel church.

It is plain that Abraham is not in heaven, but. that on the contrary’ he is in the tomb, the Bible hell, the grave, the death state, asleep, unconscious, awaiting the voice of the Son of God, who has promised to call him forth to the grand inheritance which the Almighty Jehovah. Himself has sworn shall be his portion.

Shortly, we believe, Abraham will come forth from the tomb and will then be able to supply to the misguided theologians who have placed him in heaven, and to all other men, the incontrovertible evidence that he is the same man who came forth out of Ur of the Chaldees 3,970 years ago last fall in response to the call of Jehovah, and that he is here now to claim the possessions which God promised to him in the land of Palestine.

A Reasonable Inference

MG. Pbieto, acting consul-general of Mex-

• ico, in New York City, makes the reasonable suggestion that if the higher prelates of the Roman Catholic Church, who have recently been, expelled from that country for the good of ths country, had sufficient power to keep their lower dergy from ministering to the Mexican people by ordering them not to register as priests, then it would certainly seem that they had the power to keep them from indulging in the train massacre in which they played so prominent a part. Jezebel seems to be losing some of her curl-papers.

Mr. Prieto calls attention to the fact that one of the passengers on the train was Mr. Mestre, a prominent lawyer and well-knowm Catholic, who last year tried to bring about a reconciliation between the Mexican Government and the Catholic Hierarchy. Mr. Mestre was horrified that priests should have taken part in a massacre which would have disgraced cannibals.

[A

qpHE word Joshua means Savior or Deliverer, We were first made acquainted with this good man in our study of the life of Moses. After forty long years of trouble and bitter experiences, the Lord’s chosen people were to inherit that which God had promised to their forefather Abraham more than five hundred years before, the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.

Of course you remember the story of the Israelites, crossing the mighty, muddy, swollen River Jordan. A short distance above the camp of the Israelites was a chain of mountains or high hills lying on either side of the river; and it is thought by those who have investigated the subject that the Lord caused a portion of one of these mountains to slide down into the river, thereby stopping its flow for a sufficient length of time to permit the Israelites to cross over on dry land.

The land which God had promised to Abraham, now known as the land of Palestine, was inhabited by about thirty-five different nations, each of which had a king or ruler of its own. While the Lord had promised all this land to His chosen people, yet it va« necessary for them to take possession of it by force, because the people living there would not willingly give up their possessions.

When the Israelites crossed the Jordan they were at the very doors of the city of Jericho. The inhabitants of this city knew about God's promise to the Israelites and had heard that they were coming to take possession of the land. In order to protect themselves from the Israelites and neighboring nations, the inhabitants of Jericho built a high wall around the entire city; and when the Israelites approached, they simply closed the doors in these great wmlls and felt themselves perfectly safe and secure.

Just at the proper time, God sent a messenger or angel to Joshua to explain how the Lord, wanted those Avails torn down, and his instructions were followed to the letter. All the men who were old enough to fight, with seven priests or trumpeters, blowing on trumpets at the head of the procession, marched around the walls of the city once each day for six days, and on the seventh day they marched around seven times. At the end of the seventh circle around the city on the seventh day, the trumpeters blew long blasts on their trumpets, and with the last long blast all the people shouted with a mighty shout j and the walls came tumbling to the ground.

After the fall of Jericho, the kings or rulers of other small nations began to join together for the purpose of destroying the Israelites. In one instance the Lord fought for them by causing a mighty hail storm, sending down hailstones of enormous size such as had never been seen before. The hailstones were so large that thousands of the enemy were killed by them but not one of Joshua’s army was hurt by the storm,

The day was cloudy and dark. Late in the afternoon the battle was not yet finished, and Joshua commanded the sun to stand still or stay hidden by the clouds, and before the time came for the sun to go down, the clouds began to disappear in the east and the full moon appeared, which sent forth fully as much light as the sun had while obscured by the clouds. Many people think of Joshua’s long day as a mighty miracA which stopped the operation of all tlm laws of nature; but when properly under stood, we find this was not the case.

After subduing thirty-one nations, the children of Israel had possession of iho greater portion of the promised land: and Jornnra divided it among the twelve different tribes as directed by Jehovah. Xot a single criticism of Joshua is found anywhere in the Scriptures. This is*, a distinction know by very few Biblical characters. As the savior and deliverer of Israel, ha was a fitting picture or type of Christ Jesus, the great Savior of all mankind.

Joshua vas now an old man; and his work was drawing to a close. So he called all Israel together and made a covenant with them requiring them to be faithful and obedient to the Lord, to keep His law and to obey His voice; and the people said, “The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.” At last that good and wonderful servant of the Lord died, being one hundred and ten years old; and he was buried in the border of his inheritance.

Joshua has been sleeping, lo, these many centuries; but when the kingdom of the great Prince of Peace is established on the earth, he will be one of the earthly princes associated with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in ruling the earth and scattering blessings everywhere under the leadership of the great Messiah.

Little Studies for Little People

(Study Twenty-Four)

• 181. Our school books do not tell us of any such terrible war in all history as that one which began in 1914, and it really is not over yet.

• 182. So by means of these true signs which God’s wisdom has placed in the Bible for us to follow, we see that the time has arrived for the second coming of the Lord. When we look s. little closer into His Word and study it carefully, we find that it points to a date a good many years ago as being the actual time when Jesus returned to the earth.

• 183. Now if this is true, it is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to the world; for it means that Christ is here to set up His kingdom, the beautiful kingdom that will bring peace and health and happiness to you and me and everyone.

• 184. And the best part of it all is that what we have said is really true. C’hrist. the Lord, who died that you and I and all of ms might "have a, chance to live for ever, is here! Remember that.

• 185. That is the most wonderful thing you ever heard in your life. Jesus, the Logos, who made the earth and everything in it, is here to look after His people and to stop all the wickedness and evil in the world.

• 186. As nearly as we know it at present, the Lord’s return took place between forty-five and fifty years ago; and all the upset times the world has had since are simply signs that Christ is getting ready to destroy all the bad and wicked works of the Devil, who has kept mankind in trouble for so inanj” thousand years.

The Teachers Who Have Nightmares

• 187. Now we know about when the Lord returned to earth to set up His glorious kingdom. Let us see how He did it. Let us not get any nightmares about this.

• 188. When we go about among people we are likely to hear some of them talking about the Day of Judgment, and acting very much scared about it. These are the people who have been taught by the teachers who have nightmares; and of course, these mistaught people do not know that the Lord is here.

• 189. But we do not feel so sorry for the teachers, because we know that they are grownup people who should have sense enough to read the Bible and study it well, but who instead simply look at certain parts of it and, a* we noticed in the case of the other teachers, take the picture parts and put strange meanings to them. And their meanings are not God’s mean* ings.

• 190. So we do not feel much pity for these teachers who have nightmares, and we think they would be very much better off if they did not go about telling everyone their silly dreams.

• 191. This is what is taught by the teachers who have nightmares: They tell folks that some clay there will be a great sort of holiday, when everybody will slop whatever they are doing, and look for the coming of the Lord. Then suddenly the Lord, looking like a big angel or something, with fiery wings and swords and making an awful noise that will wake even the dead people, will come flying out of a thunder 'cloud in the sky.

(Questions on Study Twenty-Four)

• 181. What vas the date of the beginning of the most terrible war m all history? Did it really settle any great problem ?

• 182. Besides the outward signs, what else must wa study diligently if we are to know such important thing® as the time of Christ’s return?

• 183. If Christ is here is that a very important thing or not? How important is it? What has He come to bring about?

• 184. Is it really true? Is Christ really here? How do we know for sure that this is good news and not bad news ?

• 185. How do we know that Jesus will be able to stop all the wickedness and evil in the world? Is there any chance that He will fail?              '

• 186. As near as we know it, when did the Lord’s return take place? What is the meaning of the troublesome times that have happened since then?

• 187. Is there any danger of getting a nightmare about this subject of the Lord’s return? Is it important to know how He returns ?

• 188. Have you ever heard anybody talk about the Day of Judgment as if they were very much scared about it? How did they get their fright?

• 189. Is it a miotake to study one part of the Bible and neglect the rest? How did the mixed-up teachers get their nightmares about, the Lord’s return ?

• 190. Whom do you pity the more, the poor people who have been seared or the teachers who got the nightmare® and peddled them around? Why?

• 191. In what way do ths teachers with nigirtanwe* mem to think the Lord will come the second time ? WW? good would it do to come that way ?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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