Contents of the Golden Age

------

Social and Educational

Stas World and Its News ................ 42

A Help to Humanity ................. 42

World Getting Much Smaller .............. 42

Georgia Flogs Women ................. 42

Finance—Commerce—Tkanspobtation

Freight Delivery at Night ............... 48

flow to Send Money .................. 61

Political—Domestic and Foreign

What the World War Cost ............... 44

Wall Street’s War in Nicaragua ............. 44

Whipping-Post Plagues Alabama ............ .45

The End of Sacco and Vanzetti ............. 48

Every Postmaster a Censor ............... 48

Lloyd George and Clemenceau on War ........... 49

Agriculture and Husbandry

Small Profits of Farmers ................ 43

Science and Invention

New Heat-Besisting Steel ................ 43

Germany’s Synthetic Gasoline .............. 45

The Effects of Arsenical Smoke ............. 47

Travel and Miscellany

Diamonds and Other Jewels ................ 33

Two Battles with Whales ................ 43

Flood Sufferers in Hard Luck .............. 47

Religion and Philosophy

In Churchless Mexico .................43

Jews’ Time of Wailing Is Past ...... ........ 48

Tub Pbics: ot Delivkbancb ................ 50

Light and Life .................... 56

Fobgetting God                                                62

JjTTTt® Studies fob Little People                                    63

Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. 8- A., by WOODWORTH, HUDGINGS & MARTIN

Copartners and Proprietors Address: lit Adams Street, Prooklifn, Jt. X._s U.S.A CLAYTON X WOODWORTH . . . Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN . Business Manager WM. F. HUDGINGS . . Sec’y and Treas.

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Entered aS second-class matter at Brooklyn. N. X. under ths Act of March 3. 187®

oA Golden Age

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Volume IX                        Brooklyn, N. Y», Wednesday, October 19, 1927                       Number 211

Diamonds and Other Jewels

BEFORE the Israelites went dowm into Egypt

Judah had a signet ring, which shows that jewelry was in fashion 1800 years before Christ. The Egyptians had plenty of jewels, many of which were taken from them by the Israelites when the latter left for Canaan. Jewels were a part of the dress of the high priest, divinely so arranged.

In the symbolisms of the Song of Songs our Lord is likened to the beryl and the sapphire. Throughout the prophets liberal use is made of various precious stones. The foundations of Zion are to be laid with sapphires, her pinnacles are to be of rubies, and her gates of garnets.

Those that fear the Lord and speak often of Him are to be a royal diadem in the hand of their God in the day when He makes up His jewels. God likens Himself to the jasper and the sardius; and the foundations of the Nev.’ Jerusalem are likened to twelve gems in a passage familiar to all. (Revelation 21:19, 20) As gems are exquisite evidence of the Creator’s wisdom and skill and taste, and will always be pf interest to humanity, we are justified in giving them some attention.

Russia the Jewel Center

THE Russian rulers have always had a passion for precious stones; and as for centuries they were absolute monarchs, and could do as they would in any direction, they accumulated the greatest collection of jewels in the world.

With the overthrow of the Czar’s government his jewels, valued at $250,000,000, became the possession of the people of Russia; and the Soviet has contrived to handle them in such a way as to make them a source of income. They have been on exhibition, admission fees ranging from 25c to $1.

The Russian crown was estimated to be worth about $52,000,000. It was made in 1762 for the coronation of Catherine II and figured subsequently in the crowning of seven monarchs, including the last. It weighs five pounds, is set with 4,936 gems, and took four years to make.

Among the gems in the crown are seventy-five large diamonds. An odd thing about the crown is that the great ruby, large as a pigeon’s egg, when closely examined by Norman C. Weiss," diamond merchant of New York and London, turned out to be a tourmaline, and therefore much less valuable than was supposed. This crown has been broken up, and the gems sold.

When the Soviet government ’was formed, a great effort was made to smuggle gems out of Russia, where they are cheap, to other lands vhere they are expensive. At the customs border gems have been found in bread, milk, potatoes, cabbages, boot heels and many other unlikely places.

Russia has not only been a great place for the collection of gems, but it has also been a great place for their production. It is said that in the voids of Lapland, where the people are still savages, and know noihing about the great governmental changes which have taken place in the Russian domain, children have been found playing with rubies, aquamarines, and diamonds of various tints and surpassing beauty, entirely innocent of the fact that they were playing with fortunes.

Jewels in India and China

OR centuries the Indian Maharajahs have absorbed most of the wealth of the countries that they have ruled, and have converted it into jewelry. When one of these potentates goes abroad, he takes a satchel full of gems to the English bank in his native capital, and deposits them as a fund to draw checks against Some ^even carry the gems with them and sell them one at a time as they need funds.

Once a year in Peking there is a jewel fair which is a matter of great interest to the Chinese. As illustrating the splendid qualities of the Chinese people, the New York Times says of this fair:

A huge crowd jams and pushes. Thousands of persons worm their way among the. stands. Nowhere is there strife, nowhere discourtesy, now here drunken men, in spite of the fact that at this holiday time plenty of alcohol goes down human throats. If there were a row in this crowded place, dozens of stands, with their fortunes in tiny objects, would roll in the dust; but nothing like that ever happens.

It is not until we get to Western lands, where there is an overplus of the common or garden variety of Christianity, that people have to watch out for their jewels with special care. Take the pope, the chief saint of all saints, and let him tell it. He keeps his great collection of gems in the Morgan Ilarjes bank in Paris, where Mussolini cannot get them, in case he should ever go on the warpath.

The farther west you go the worse it is. In Cincinnati they have a jewel show every fall; but the jewels themselves are fastened to curtains and swung ninety feet above the street, and illuminated with forty 18-inch searchlights, so nobody can take them without leave. That keeps them safe.

In New York and elsewhere it is now the custom for a dame who has a house party to have her gems brought from the safety deposit vault in an armored car and. returned there the same night. She never sees them except when some great social event demands them.

Uses of Jewels

EWEL merchants are always glad to spread the impression that jewels are the safest of investments, because they can always be turned into money; and without doubt, if the jewels are large enough and of recent cutting, they do constitute a sort of insurance. But tie holder of a small stone is liable to be disappointed when he comes back to the dealer for an appraisement of his stone by being told that the styles have changed since his diamond or other gem was bought, and that it is of little value.

Jewels do have some industrial value, principally for bearings in watches, but also for scientific and precision instruments, phonograph needles, wire and filament drawing instruments. But the principal reason for their purchase is that people like to look at and have in their possession rare and beautiful things; and it is a reasonable enough desire. A tungsten alloy has been produced in Germany which, is only onetenth of a degree less hard than the diamond, and on account of its metallic nature it holds a cutting edge better than the diamond itself.

An item states that snuff-taking has revived among the society women of London; but that the real object of the revival is not because the women wish the snuff, but because they wish an excuse for carrying around the beautiful little jeweled boxes as articles of adornment. There does not seem to have been any material change in the ladies since Cleopatra made a fool out of Mark Anthony and caused him the loss of the Boman empire

Why Diamonds are Appreciated

HEBE are some other gems that on account of their scarcity are more expensive, weight for weight, than diamonds; but the diamond remains the king of all the gems. It is the hardest substance in nature. It cannot even be scratched except by another diamond. It cannot be dissolved by any known liquid nor melted under any attainable degree of heat. When burned in a flame it consumes without ashes, giving off a brilliant light.

The beauty of the diamond is what is called its fire, the gleams of blue and red that change constantly as the light falls upon it. The more perfectly it is cut the more perfect are these reflections. In its natural state the diamond, uncut and unpolished, is not so brilliant

About six thousand diamonds have been found in Scott County, Arkansas, but none of them were very large. There is a diamond field in British Guiana, along the Mazeruni River; another larger and older field in the state of Minas Geraes, Brazil; and diamonds still come from India. But the diamond business of the world is in the hands of the De Beers syndicate of South Africa, and South Africa is so large a producer of these gems that in considering the subject all other districts may be ignored.

Diamonds are always a volcanic product, consisting of carbon crystallized out of molten rock by enormous heat. In South Africa these are found “in place”, i. e., where they w’ere originally formed. Moreover, they are found in astonishing numbers and of a size far greater than are found elsewhere. There are only six green diamonds knoivn. One of these was discovered in South Africa in 1922.

On the coast of southwest Africa is a stretch of sea beach, 270 miles long, which passes through what was once a diamond field. Most of the gems found here are verv small, but highly polished, and have a total annual value of over $13,000,000.

Histpry of the Diamond

HE first diamonds came from the Golconda mines of India. Slowly they drifted to 1101116

and to the F« East. Today the United States consumes fifty percent more diamonds than all the rest of the world put together, the annual gem business of the country running around $450,000,000.                 '

The first diamond discovered in South Africa was in 1867. It was in the hands of a witch doctor, a spirit medium. A white man stood on the edge of a crowd, in which the black man was chanting and holding in his hands a brilliant pebble. After weeks of bartering the 'white man finally got the pebble, the famous Star of South Africa; and the diamond rush was on.

At the last diamond rush, which took place in March of this year, 25,000 runners ran the three miles from the starting line to the Gras-fontein farm and scattered over it to peg claims. Hundreds of police marshaled the runners in lines two miles long, and at some ponds fourteen d<wp.

The world’s largest diamond is the Cullinan, discovered in 1905, which weighed in rough, 3,024 carats (1.37 lbs.) and measured 4x2x2V> inches. It v^Tas almost flawless and of the coveted blue-white tint. The Transvaal Colony purchased this stone for $750,000 and presented it to King Edward VII of England. It was cut into four pieces, the largest for the British king’s sceptre, the next largest for his crown, and the other two for the queen’s crown.

After the Cullinan, the next in size is the Orloff, which was set in the Czar’s sceptre. But the next in beauty is believed to be the Regent or Pitt diamond, which at one time adorned Napoleon’s sword and which is still kept among the so-called royal jewels of France.

The most famous jewel in the world is the Kohinoor, originally 794 carats, but reduced to 280 carats by an unskilled cutter. This gem is first mentioned in the Memoirs of the Sultan Baber in 1526. In 1739 it was in possession of Shah Mohammed, who kept it under his turban, which he never took off. Shah Nadir wanted the gem; so he came to Shah Mohammed, executed a treaty of eternal friendship with him, and to seal his vow, set his own pearl-studded crown on Mohammed's head, and placed Mohammed’s turban, with its hidden Kohinoor, on his own. Mohammed was too much of a gentleman to mention the dirty trick that had been played on him. When the British overran India they seized the gem. For six weeks it was in the vest pocket of a viceroy, where it narrow lv escaped being sent to the vash. Finally it landed in the British crown.

Diamond Mining and Cutting

IAM0ND deposits are in circular form, inclosed in a ’wall of shale. Near the surface ns the so-called yellow’ ground, but the farther down one goes into the ancient volcano the bluer becomes the ground, and it is this blue ground that contains the diamonds.

After the blue giound is brought to the surface it is spread out and exposed to the action of the air for four months, during which time it gradually crumbles, the mumbling action being assisted by frequent harrowing. It is then washed and screened; and the screenings are passed over sloping, vibrating tables covered with thick grease. The diamonds stick to the grease. Then they are boiled in live steam, the grease runs off to be used over again, and only the diamonds remain.

A young medical student, Van Berquen, a Hollander, discovered in Paris, in 1456, a method of embedding two diamonds in cement and rubbing them together. The resultant powder furnished the first means for cutting and polishing diamonds.

Present-day diamond cutting is substantially the same as in the days of Van Berquen. A groove is cut in the stone, a thin steel blade is placed in the groove, and the stone is cut by a sharp blow on the blade. A single wrong stroke may ruin a stone, causing irreparable loss.

After the cutting the stones are polished. rere are now about a thousand skilled cutters

New York, earning from $125 to $175 and tipward per week; and on account of its being the world’s greatest diamond market New York has come to be the center for diamond cutting. The finest stones, originally cut in Holland, are now frequently brought to New York to be recut, in order to improve their brilliancy.

A first-class lapidary must understand thoroughly the lavs of i eflection and refraction, bo as to get the best results from Ids stone. The very smallest diamonds have eighteen facets, the large ones have fifty-eight. Brilliants have an octagonal face; roses have a flat base surmounted by two rows of triangular facets; table diamonds are thin stones cut with triangular facets.

Diamond Production and Marketing

THE value of the diamonds produced in South

Africa from date of discovery to the present is set at $872,000,000, and at present ninety-eight percent of the world’s output comes from there. The total weight of cut and polished diamonds in the world is set at 46,355,474 karats. This quantity would weigh, ten and one-half tons and would about fill an ordinary-sized bathroom. Of this amount about one-fourth are estimated to be in the United States, and their value is set at $4,000,000,000. The best uncut stones are now sent here to be cut.

Diamonds are weighed on scales so delicate that a part of a hair will disturb the balance. Prices are influenced by weight, shape, color, degree of perfection, brilliancy, proportions, cutting, etc. If imperfect, the nature of the imperfection and its location in the stone play an important part in determining its value. Experts add up these factors in a sum of figures, and by this means arrive at the value of the stone.

Occasionally there is a little unofficial mining of diamonds done. A gentleman in Topeka, Kansas, bought a pair of trousers from an army and navy salvage company. He paid 94c for the trousers and found an $800 diamond in one of the pockets. A lady in Philadelphia was preparing a chicken dinner, and found a diamond pin worth $400 which had been picked up somewhere by the enterprising bird. A woman in New York found a $500 diamond ring in a fish. A diner in the same city was incensed because he found a stone in his salami, but his anger was appeased when he got $100 for his find. A taxi driver in London started to throw away a bit of broken glass which had fallen to the floor of his car. On second thought he kept it, and learned that it was a diamond worth $10,000.

A sad case, reflecting the same features, is that of a little five-year-old child in Zurich, Switzerland. Her father, a gem dealer, was showing the little one a case of diamonds, rubies and >apphires. He was called to the telephone, and on his return found the child choking to death. She had swallowed gems worth $4,000, and died with a diamond in her trachea.

The Origin of Pearls

npliE Lord has endowed the oyster and other mollusks with the power of taking up carbonate of calcium from the water and converting it into a shell, the interior of which is lined vitli a perfectly smooth, lustrous material called nacre, or mother-of-pearl.

Any foreian substance which gets into an oyster shell is covered with this nacre, and thus, bit by bit, a pearl is formed. The usual origin of natural pearls is that a baby flukeworm finds its way into an oyster shell; and the oyster, in the effort to get rid of its enemy, covers it little by little, until it becomes one of the most precious of all gems.

In recent years the Japanese house of Mik-imoto has become famous for its skill in inserting a fair-sized ball of nacre or even lead into the oyster, and thus forcing the production of w^That are really true pearls but are called in the trade cultured pearls. The cultured pearls can be detected from the natural ones only by plunging them into cedar oil which is brilliantly lighted by convergent lights, though some New York dealers claim to be able to detect them instantly by their relatively smaller size and relative lack of warmth.

Besides the Japanese cultured pearls, there are produced in Paris and elsewhere artificial pearls, having as a foundation opaque glass or crushed mother-of-pearl. On the surface of this are blown from three to twenty coatings of fish silver. Poisonous chemicals are used in the manufacture of these artificial pearls, and women engaged in their production have been killed by the fumes. But the gems themselves, when finished, are not known to have done injury to anybody.

The Pearl Fisheries

IT SEEMS as if everything about the pearl business is painful. The natural gems are products of the pain of the oyster in its effort to get rid of intrusions, and the cultured gems are not less so. The production of the artificial gems is injurious to the makers, and the securing of the natural gems from the bed of the ocean is the most painful of all.

The pearl diver, to start with, must he a magnificent specimen of humanity; for only a man of great physique can endure the mere descent into fifty or seventy-five feet of water, and the return to the surface, to say nothing of doing any work while there. When a white man goes down into such depths he always has on a diving suit.

But the native pearl diver goes down, nude, without any protection. Prolonged holding of his breath produces lung disease. Pressure on his ear drums produces diseases of the middle ear. Working with his eyes open in salt water injures his eyes. Pressure on his legs causes in time a paralysis of his legs. During the five months of the season he can eat only one meal a day and that after sunset. Once or twice in the day he may have a slight sip of coffee. His wages are practically nothing.

There is no filthier business in the world than pearl recovery, and nothing more sickening to the sense of smell. Millions of oysters are brought to the surface, allowed to rot in the tropical sun and are then put into troughs and washed until every grain, of sand has been examined. The odor clings for weeks, and persists after repeated hot baths and new garments have been utilized. All this is so that milady may sliine.

The Luster of the Pearl

THE great beauty of a true pearl is in its sub-•*- dued luster, which is said to be somber or bright, according to the moods of the wearer, and to reflect the tint of the wearer's skin. Pearls expand and contract on exposure to heat or cold, and therefore need to be kept in mild, uniform temperatures.

When brought into contact with hot, damp or gaseous atmospheres pearls absorb the impurities, and the brilliancy of the exterior deteriorates. They are affected by exudations of the skin of some wearers, by their diseases, by acids, smoke, knocking or dropping. A pearl may even die, thus losing all its luster. After being worn, pearls should always be carefully wiped with a soft piece of chamois.

A dead pearl can sometimes be restored by an expert by peeling, like an onion, though there is no certainty of the operation’s being successful. The Ceylonese feed dead pearls to chickens. After a few hours they kill the chickens, finding that some of the outer covering has been removed in the light friction to which they are subjected in the crop.

A peifect pearl must have one of the five perfect shapes, globe, pear, drop, egg or button, and must have a perfectly clear skin of white, cream, pink, gray, brown. or black. It must not have a cloud or a blot or a haze, must be absolutely free from cracks, scratches, spots, flaws, indentations, shadowy reflections or blemishes, and must not show any evidences of having been polished. Such a pearl, of large size, is worth $100,000, or about four times the value of a diamond of the same size.

Buddhists greatly admire pink pearls. The Chinese prefer the cream colored, and maintain that they keep their luster longer than any others, on account of the fact that the oysters are allowed to die and putrefy in their shells, the shells opening of themselves on the death of the oyster. In the West black pearls and white pearls are most admired. A lady in Washington has a string of black pearls that cost her hubby $400,000. The string of pearls once owned by Madame Thiers, whose husband was once president of France, was sold for $759,244.

A maid in New York came near choking to death on a giant pearl which she thought was part of a clam. Her mist ress demanded the gem, but lost her maid and the gem, too, the courts holding that what the girl had tried to sw’allow belonged to her, which was quite right, of course.

A pedestrian found a string of dirty beads in front of the Biltmore hotel in New York, tossed them contemptuously to the doorman; and that worthy and another servant, in a day or two, were paid $240 each for finding a $10,000 string of pearls which the owner had lost in getting into a taxi.

The Pearl Button Industry

H1HIRTY thousand people in the United States J- make their living out of the fresh-water pearls that are taken out of the Mississippi River. Almost everybody in America has pearl buttons on some part of his clothing. The shells from which the buttons are made are worth from $3 to $20 a ton. The total yearly crop is worth $15,000,000; and after it is wmrked up into buttons it is, of course, many times greater. Eight thousand women are employed in the pearl button industry. The recovery of this material reaches along the Mississippi, Black and White Rivers. A large center for it is Muscatine, Iowa.

Amber Beads, Once Famous

MBER heads are not so famous as they were a generation ago. The principal source of supply is the Baltic Sea. The time of fishing is in the fall. The amber is found in seaweeds, and comes in lumps of all sizes and shapes. It is usually pale yellow, but may be reddish or brownish, and either transparent or opaque.

It is believed to be a fossilized resin of vegetable origin, probably from the giant pine or fir trees which once lined the Baltic shores. The modern catches do not come up to the great yields of earlier days. Amber emits an agreeable odor when rubbed, and bums with a bright flame and a pleasant smell. It has the power of acquiring an electrical charge by friction. Living organisms, survivals of some ancient epoch, have been found imprisoned in amber, and manifested life and great activity when released from their prison, at least so says a French scientist. When amber is heated in an oil bath, it becomes soft and flexible and is thus rendered workable.

Amethyst—Aquamarine—Carbonada

THE amethyst is a variety of quartz, stained a violet blue or purple by a trace of iron or manganese. It is a very handsome stone, much used for charms, seals and rings. If not found in such large quantities it ■would be much valued as a precious stone.

The aquamarine is a member of the beryl family and is growing in popularity because of its beautiful coloring. It is principally found in North Carolina, but samples of it have been found in three of the New England states.

The carbonada, or black diamond, is a coke-like-looking substance of inconspicuous appearance, found only in Borneo and in the states of Bahia and Minas Geraes, Brazil. It is of almost priceless benefit to humanity, not for jewelry, for which it is unfitted, but as points to the diamond drills that today are doing the heavy end of the world’s excavating.

Coral—Emerald—Jade

ORALS and cameos come from Naples, Italy ; but the Japanese are gradually taking this trade away from the Neapolitans, because corals of the first quality are no longer to be found in the Mediterranean. This trade was at one time out* of the great industries of Naples.

The emerald was the earliest known of the precious stones. Tn a heathen temple at Bangkok, Siam, the biggest emerald in the world, eighteen inches long, is carved into an image of Buddha. Siberia and Colombia, especially the latter country, are the only present sources of supply. Emeralds never are found in gravel, but are always embedded in rock formations.

Jade is newly popular, but to the untutored eye is not specially beautiful. It comes in blue, green, yellow, black and white. It is the popular stone in China, where it is worked by hand exclusively. All Chinese dignitaries are supposed to have jade ornaments on their person.

Jet—Moss Agate—Ruby

ET is a light-weight bituminous mineral, supposedly fossilized wood. It takes a very high polish and is very easy to carve. Queen Victoria was very fond of it, and this fact brought it into great favor during her reign. There are jet mines in England, France and Spain.

Moss agates are a product of India, Montana and Colorado. With exquisite beauty nature has etched the loveliest of tiny plants and flowers upon transparent agate. They are usually found after the heavy spring rains. Only the most expert of craftsmen can grind them property. A little too much pressure, and the pictures which were ages in forming are rained for ever. Many of the most beautiful moss agates are kept in Denver and are not for sale.

Rubies come from Ceylon and Siam. A genuine red ruby of the best color is the most expensive of gems, being from three to ten times in value of diamonds of its own size. Most stones sold as rubies are cheap stones or glass Imitations.

Sapphire® md Opals

THE sapphire is one of the most beautiful of stones. One-half of all the sapphires come from Siam. Burma and Australia produce them, and there are sapphire mines in Fergus County, Montana. The sapphire owes its beauty to its phosphorescence.

Opal is formed by the deposition of silica from water. Its brilliant tints are due to so many minute cracks, reflecting light at different angles from their edges. Softer than most gems, opals must be aged slowly in clay, to permit their water to evaporate. Thieves, not knowing this, once stole a large quantity of these in Nevada, only to have them turn into dross in their hands. The Nevada deposits were formed by the inundation of a petrified forest by a flow of volcanic ash and lava.

Opals are found in black, blue, green, yellow, pink and deep red. They come from Idaho, Nevada, Australia, Hungary, Honduras, and Mexico. At Whitecliffs, New South Wales, tons of opals are brought to the surface every day. Only those having the living flash are preserved.

Tourmaline—Turquoise—Zircon

THE tourmaline, or rubellite, is frequently passed off for the ruby, which it much resembles. It has the electrical property of attracting ashes or straws, and for that reason was credited with all kinds of magical powers.

The turquoise, or Turkey-stone, is found’in some places on the shores of the Mediterranean; hence the name. Other sources are Persia, China, Tibet, Russia, and some American states, notably New Mexico. The hue is a robin’s egg blue or blue-green, which fades on exposure to a bright light. This curious characteristic has caused this stone to be credited with magical powers. The gem, opaque, has a waxy luster.

The zircon is softer than the diamond, but looks so much like it that only an expert can. tell the difference. This stone is found in great abundance in Queensland, Australia, and is frequently passed off for the diamond.

Synthetic Gems and Staining

AS FAR as their practical value is concerned, the synthetic gems which are made today in great quantities are as good as the regular thing. Artificially made rubies and sapphires have been in existence since 1893. Over two and one-half tons of such geana have been turned out at the Heller plant, in Geneva, Switzerland. They are identical with the native gems except for minute bubbles and striae, visible only under the microscope.

Synthetic diamonds have been made; but the cost is as yet $200,000 a carat, or about a thousand times the cost of nature’s work along the same lines. The German chemists are working at this problem; and if they conquer it there will be real diamonds in the 5c and 10c stores, because the material out of which the diamond is made is one of the commonest tilings there is, namely, pure carbon. It is said that every hour we breathe out enough carbon to make a $100,000 diamond, if there was any way to collect it.

The fraudulent diamonds are made by treating ugly brown and yellow stones with radium, so that they become snow-white. Then the gems are tinted with the peculiar bluish-white tint of the costliest Cape diamonds, and to all appearance they are the genuine article, but when dipped in nitric acid they become their original dirty brown.

Fraudulent emeralds are built up of three parts, fastened together by invisible cement. The top piece consists of a very thin shaving of a real emerald. Imitation amber beads will stand the old time test of picking up paper, when rubbed on wool. An expert gem-stainer will stain colorless stones so as to represent any desired gem. The Italians are experts in imitating jet.

In Vienna there is now an institute where young men can go and study the differences between real and synthetic and fraudulent gems. These differences are no longer discernible to the naked eye; and since nobody but an expert can tell the difference, and the phony gems make lots of people happy, why -worry about it at all!

The interest of the Christian in this subject is largely centered at this time in the evidence which the Scriptures provide that Almighty God looks upon those of His true people who are still in the world as His jewels. “They shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels.” (Malachi 3:17) That day is this very day in which we now live, the year 1927. The jewels are now being gathered up, soon to shine for ever in God’s glory.

New York Uses Lots of Grapes

TJEFORE prohibition went into effect New York used 300 carloads of grapes annually.

A current news item states that the consumption this year will be 20,000 cars. Somebody must have found that grape juice is refreshing when prepared in the right way.

Millions Wish to Come

AS MANY as 1,501,000 applications for admission to the United States are now on file in the offices of United States consuls in Europe, despite the fact that the deposit of an eight-dollar fee is required with each of the applications. At the present rate of entry it will be ten years before this number will be absorbed.

Alberta’s Great Hail Storm

ON JULY 20th Cochrane, Alberta, was visited by a hail-s1 onn of unprecedented size. The hailstones were of the size of baseballs. One of them measured four indies in diameter. Samples brought into Calgary four hours after the storm were still large enough to injure seriously anybody hit by one of them.

New Heat-Resisting Steel

TEN tons of a new heat-resisting steel have been manufactured at Copenhagen. In tests pieces of the new steel and of ordinary steel were placed in a recarburetor and left for six weeks at a temperature of 1,100 degrees. At the end of the period the ordinary steel had disappeared, but the new steel was uninjured.

A Help io Humanity

A LITTLE consideration of the following item from a German newspaper lends considerable force to the darkens rejoiner to the colored lady who had jilted him: “You don’t weigh no fifteen hundred pounds you don’t stop the world from going round”:

Every human being has two parents, four grandparents, eight greatgrandparent«, sixteen parents in the fonrth) thirty-two in the fifth, and sixty-four in the sixth generation, etc. In the sixteenth generation every one already has 65,532 parents. Sixteen generations cover a period of 500 years. Among the 65,532 parents each human being now living has had back to the fourteenth century, there surely have been persons from •very station or rank of life, rich and poor, great and lowly; and the difference in the origin of men can, therefore, not have been very great.

World Getting Much Smaller

EVERY day the world is getting smaller. The floating university seems now to be an established institution. Young men and women, 500 at a time, under fifty teachers, spend a year in the university ship, visit all the important countries in the world, and round out their educations by contact with representatives of all nations in their home lands.

Deep-Sea Monster

WE HAVE before us a photograph of a deepsea monster caught four hundred miles off the Farallon Islands. This elephant-head fish, as it is called, is approximately triangular in form, an extremely ugly-looking thing. The fish, which lbws deep down in the ocean, exploded on being brought to the surface. It weighed six hundred pounds.

New York's Big Turtle

AT Bayshore, L. I., N. Y., only forty-three miles from New York City, the largest trunk-hack turtle ever found has just been captured. It has a shell seven and a half feet in length and weighs half a ton. Its head was a foot across, and the flippers three feet long. A wound in its neck, caused by a harpoon, caused its death twenty-four hours after capture.

Marriage Hites at Fort Worth.

THE practice of unemployed persons, called preachers, hanging around the court-house at Fort Worth, Texas, has become such a nuisance that these men, who lie in wait for young couples wishing to marry, have been ordered to stand outside. One of these men admitted that he made over fifty dollars a week hanging around the marriage license bureau.

/email Is Winning the Peace

rl Great Britain the number out of work is increasing, while in Germany it is steadily towing less. Relieved of the necessity of spend-Jftg hundreds of millions on armaments Germany is spending her surplus energy in beautifying her cities, and thus is advertising to all She world what fools the militarists really are.

TWlng for Sport

WRITING on the stupidity and wastefulness of those who find pleasure in the destruction of life George Bernard Shaw, said: “Wanton slaughter of birds is caused by indifference to the beauty and interest of bird life and song, and callousness to glazed eyes and blood-bedabbled corpses, combined with a boyish love of shooting.”

Item of Encouragement

THE work of the Birmingham News is begin-J- ning to bear fruit The ringleader in one ©f the flogging outrages has been sentenced to from eight to ten years in the State penitentiary. Six other men will be tried for the same offense. One of these has already been fined $50 for contempt of court in talking about the 'ease after h® was indicted.

The Days of Burglary Ended

THE days of burglary are short now. By a newly devised arrangement of invisible cameras and electric lights burglars may be motion-pictured while at their work, making their subsequent detection practically certain. The devise works at either day or night, and is set in motion when a person or object passes between the camera and the light.

h&ss of the Armour Fortune

IT IS not easy to understand the reputed loss of ths Armour fortune. J. Ogden Armour Sms reputed to be the world’s second richest jnan, but at the time of his death was found to have a very small fortune indeed. By his own admissions he claimed to have lost a million dollars a day for 130 days. One can but wonder how that would have been possible, unless he had contracted far in advance to purchase live Stock at prices away above the market. Perhaps that is the correct explanation.

Food Bad for Animals

IT IS bad for any kind of animals to feed them over-much meat, over-much sugar, over-hot food, over-strong tea or over-much white bread or potatoes, especially if they are inclined to insufficient exercise. To do this means that nine out of ten of the animals, if they chance to be human beings, will die of cancer. Better feed them on vegetables and fruits.

Two Battles with Whales

NEWS dispatches report that it took an

Alaska man five days to kill a forty-foot whale that got caught in his salmon trap. He finally had to use dynamite. In a bay of Japan recently five thousand fishermen and civilians managed, after a twenty-four hour battle, to capture seven of a herd of whales that had invaded the local waters.

An Aged Fisherman’s Discovery

Jeremiah Pratt, seventy-four years of age, one of the crew of a fishing vessel from Gloucester, Mass., is now able to retire from the fishing business. When fifteen miles off Cape May, N. J., he discovered a lump of ambergris weighing twenty-eight pounds two ounces. Perfumery manufacturers offered him $12,500 for the lump. He intends to raise chickens for the rest of the time he has left.

The Break-Up of Big Estates

THE break-up of big estates goes on throughout eastern Europe. Stirred by fear of what happened in Russia Rumania has put eighty-nine percent of its land into the hands of the peasants; 50,000 new farms have been created in Esthonia; in Latvia no farmer can hold more than 125 acres; and in Lithuania the maximum is 35. Poland and Hungary remain slow to read the handwriting on the wall.

In Churchless Mexico

TN CHURCIILESS Mexico, land of supposed J- banditry, ignorance and lawlessness, men carry sacks of money through crowded streets without fear of robbery or violence. But in America the banks have to use armored cars, and all bank messengers and express clerks have to be accompanied by armed guards in order to safeguard their valuables. Why waste sympathy on Mexico 1

What the World IFar Cost

THE property loss of the World War was $29,960,000,000. Its direct cost in money was $186,333,637,097. It resulted in 9,988,771 known dead, 2,991,800 presumed dead, 6,295,512 severely injured and 14,002,512 otherwise wounded. As fast as they can possibly do so, the nations of Europe are getting ready for another war much bigger than the last one.

Saving the INNes

NEW YOKE CITY in 1915 had an infant mortality rate of 99 deaths under one year of age per 1,000 live births. By 1925 this rate had dropped to 64, and actual saving of 4,490 babies. The United States Chamber of Commerce claims that every baby is worth $10,000 to the country. Viewed from the monetary standpoint alone, the saving of $44,900,000 is remarkable evidence of human progress. What a pity to destroy any of these babies in war!

Getting Ready for the Fliers

HpHE United States Chamber of Commerce recommends that in every city the roofs of large factories and office buildings shall bear the name of the place in letters of large visibility, so that as the fliers come along they will be able to tell accurately where they are. This s<-t ms like a very good idea; but it will be spoiled as soon as some bright advertising man hears of it and makes up his mind to catch the eyes of the travelers tip in the blue sky.

Wail Street’s War in Nicaragua

President Coolidge and everybody else in

America knows that Congress alone has the right to deciare war, and that therefore Wall Streets war in Nicaragua is illegal. But it is real war, nevertheless; for there is real money at stake. The Nicaragua bonds that were bought in Wall Street for less than forty-live cents on the dollar are now up to par. The latest dispatch from General Feland of the American Marines gives the details of how five United States bombing planes killed 300 of the Nicaraguans, and says, ‘‘At Ocotal he [the air commander] led the planes to the attack with the highest tactical skill and distinguished courage. He broke the masses of the enemy, destroyed the greater part of them and drove the remainder from the field.”

What’s Wrong With This?

CALLING attention to the fact that one prison contractor produces sixteen million work shirts at a wage cost of less than one-fourth that of other shops, Oscar Berman Avants to know what would be wrong if the prisoners were paid decent wages, one-fourth to go to their families, one-half to' the state and the' balance to be kept as a fund for the prisoner himself on his release. Certainly it would be much better than the present inhuman, lop-sided arrangement.

Chinese Dragon a Reality

T\^T THE island of Komodo. Sunda group, Dutch East Indies, hundreds of specimens of the Chinese dragon still survive, the only place in the world where these are now to be found. Natives claim that some of these reptiles attain to a length of twenty-one feet. White hunters have found and killed specimens nearly ten feet in length. These man-eating crocodiles are much feared by the poor natives of Komodo. The island is used as a penal colony.

Preacher-Ridden Alabama

T TNDEIi this title the Birmingham News contains a contribution from J. P. Edwmrds in which Mr. Edwmrds says: “The same spirit that existed in Geneva, Switzerland, in the days of John Calvin, exists today in Alabama. If they were in a large enough majority here, they would burn heretics and disbelievers at the stake today. Instead of doing this, they take it out in flogging helpless men and women into insensibility.”

Liberty in Alabama

ALABAMA believes in liberty, at least liberty for Hie whites. An aged Negro, Arthur Hitt, as a result- of r> lifetime of industry, had sixty acres of land at Palmer Station which were conservatively estimated as worth $6,000. A mob of white men descended upon his home at midnight, took him seven miles away, flogged him so hard that ugly welts will disfigure his body for the remainder of his life, and compelled him to sell out for $800. The district is famous for the amount of its contributions to missions to the heathen. Authorities who have undertaken an investigation of the rase have been warned by telephone and in person to suspend operations.

Small Profits of Farmers

IN A review of the earnings of farmers as com

pared with other business men Commerce and Finance states that the net earnings available for capital and management as percentages of all capital employed decreased from 5.2 percent to 4.2 percent, whereas comparable percentages earned by all corporations on their total capital investment appear to have been about 13 percent, in 1925, as computed from reports of the United States Treasury Department, and were about the same in 1926. The farming business of the country has never recovered since the Federal Deserve Bank stuck the knife into it in May, 1920. There v ere no mortgaged farms in Oklahoma in 1890, but 80 percent of these farms were under mortgage in 1925.

Whipping-Post Plagues Alabama

IN 1918 in the city of Birmingham, Alabama, whipping-posts were established in the courthouse yard and on the corner of Twenty-eighth Street and Eighth Avenue, to whip those failing to go to work or to go to the war. The first public whipping occurred in the court-house yard. This illegal practice is now recurring in the state to torment the authorities.

Just at present the state is stirred by the flogging of a nineteen-year-old boy, claimed to have been partly intoxicated and to have been armed with a revolver at the time the offense was committed for which he was flogged. The (loggers were hooded and robed, and the license tags on their automobiles were also covered.

Newspaper reports do not disclose whether the young man that was flogged, Jeff Calloway, Oneonta, was flogged to death or not, but seem to intimate that he was. Several days later, while the Alabama government was, according to the papers, “running every available clue to earth,” a tall lean man stood in front of the First National Bank of the town for more than two hours, distributing neatly printed dodgers defending the flogging, and not the slightest effort was made to interfere with him in any way.

It is apparent that Alabama wishes the reputation of being civilized, and of upholding law and order, but lets it go at that If that state really wished to stop illegal whippings it would have to punish what are supposed to be some of the “best” citizens of the state, and no Alabama governor has the courage to undertake the task.

The Vienna Riots

BINGHAMTON, New York, physician who was caught in the area of the riots in Vienna in July says that the fury of the mobs was incredible. Angered because a political prisoner of opposite beliefs had been released, they murdered many policemen, started fires in every room of the Palace of Justice, threw out valuable records, and acted for all the world like so many maniacs.

Germany’s Synthetic Gasoline

IT IS expected that within two years Germany will produce by synthetic methods at least one-fifth of the gasoline she will use. The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey has confirmed the report that they have joined hands with the Germans who are engaged in this enterprise. The basis of this synthetic liquid fuel is the Bergius process of treating coal.

Berlin Talks with Buenos Aires

ERLIN has just been engaged in telephone conversation with Buenos Aires, which is surely a great triumph in radio communication. A cable dispatch from Buenos Aires declared that the radio message was heard clearly. Denes von Mihaly, a Hungarian electricial engineer, now resident in Berlin, claims that by January first he will have television sets for sale in London, that the sets will work with only one valve, and that they will be sold for $100.

Tfe Political Shell Game

THE Associated Press says: “Cardinal Gasparri, who in the name of the Pontiff is the supreme controller of the church’s political affairs throughout the world, declared in his message to the apostolic delegate that the Holy See maintains itself completely extraneous from any interference in the present campaign for the presidential election in the United States, just as the Holy See always keeps itself outside of any international questions of purely political character in any other country of the world.” In other words Gasparri looks after the church’s political affairs, but there are no political affairs to be looked, after. Now you see it and now you do not. What gentleman would like to bet ten dollars that he can tell which shell now covers the pea? (Whichever place you look it is somewhere else.)

Lie Corrected in Three Years

FTER three years the Tory government of England has admitted that it lied when it gave general circulation to the famous Zinovieff letter connecting Premier MacDonald with the Soviet government. It was the circulation of this letter that resulted in the overthrow of the Labor Government in Great Britain. Britishers, like Americans, enjoy being lied to, especially if the people that do the lying are the moneyed men of the country.

An Interesting Letter

YOUNG lady living in Bush, Illinois, writes us a very interesting letter. She says:

I hare all your books; and I understand them, too, I am sixty-four years old, and have been gray-headed; but my hair is now a natural brown. I am now cutting my third set of teeth, seven of which are already in use and others coming through the gums. I have laid aside my false teeth, which are good as ever and which cost me fifty dollars. I am in good health, having had a doctor only once in the last sixteen years.—M. E. H.

Education in Catholic Countries

ALU of the Catholic children in America are being taught in Catholic schools. AIany teachers in the pubbe schools are Catholics. Books and newspapers become more and more Catholic. Mexico shows what happens when all education is in Catholic hands. In four hundred years only thirty percent of the Mexican people were taught to read. Colombia is seventy-nine percent illiterate; Brazil, eighty-five percent.

In a Madrid Contend

HE London ouuday News, August 7th, 1927, tells us that a girl in a Madrid convent witnessed an assault on one of the nuns by a mam It does not say what business the man was in, but it was some man that had access to the convent and felt that he had the right to assault a nun. The girl was warned that she must keep silent on the subject, but she told her mother what she had seen. She returned to the convent, where she also was assaulted. Her father went to see her, but was told she was not there. He obtained permission from the police to make a search, did so, found his daughter, and in his rage opened fire on everybody in sight, killing five nuns and wounding two more. How long, O Lord, how long!

The Drift to the Cities

IN Rhode Island 97.5 percent of the people live in cities of over 2,500 population; in Massachusetts 94.8 percent; in New York 82.7 percent; in New Jersey 78.4 percent; California 68 percent; Illinois 67.9 percent; Pennsylvania 64.3 percent; Ohio 63.8 percent, and the country as a whole 51.4 percent. The cities are the centers of wealth and poverty, education and ignorance, culture and crime.

Up in New York State

P IN New York State, so it is claimed, a certain dominie, disappointed because his choir leader smelled of home brew, tried to rectify the situation. He preached a violent sermon, ending with the declaration that all homo brew should be thrown into the river. As soon as he sat down, the choir leader arose and said, “IVe will sing as our concluding hymn, Shall we Gather at the River?” This story is vouched for by a lady who claims she heard somebody tell the story.

The Profit of Being Great

THE profit of being great does not always go to the great themselves. Thus, when Lindbergh and his mother spent a day or two in New York City as the guests of the city, the hotel bill paid by the city was $1,443.75. Wonder who got the seventy-five cents. The bill for the float was $2,250. Floats come high. Then there were $13,101 for grand stands, $12,324 for tickets and invitations to the chosen ones and $4,820 for the menu cards and official dinner. New York paid the bill.

New York the Printing Center

NE-FOURTII of the printing of the United

States is done in New York, and that means one-twelfth of the printing of the world. An item in the New York Times tells that one New York printing house, invited to make reproductions of some delicate ivory miniatures owned by a Pittsburgh millionaire, spent $6,000 of its own money experimenting, and then reported that the task was impossible for any printer. This service cost the Pittsburgh man nothing, and explains why some jobs come to New York from the ends of the earth. The actual printing® and mailing of magazines is more and mor® drifting -west, nearer to the center of population.

Terror-Ridden Alabama

TTTITH rare courage the Birmingham News VV publishes the facts regarding a terrible outrage in that unhappy state. Raiders carried Off an inoffensive Negro boy and whipped him Into unconsciousness. After three weeks he was still unable to be moved, and at last reports was hovering between life and death, unconscious most of the time. After this horrible deed was done, it was discovered by the lash gang that they had the wrong man." This part of Alabama is strong for eternal torment and plenty of it. Everything is directed by the preachers.

Foreign Newspapers in United States

THE 563 newspapers in foreign languages which are published in the United States have an average circulation of about 13,500 for each issue of each journal. This total of seven and one-half million circulation suggests that about one-third of the citizens of the United States are still interested in the tongue of their fathers. The popular languages, in their order, are German, French, Polish, Italian, Czechoslovak, Yiddish, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, and Hungarian.

Flood Sufferers in Hard Luck

THE Most Reverend Monsignor Fumasoni-Biondi, papal delegate at Washington, waited on President Coolidge and served notice on him that the pope had prayed for the flood sufferers in the Mississippi Valley. Thereupon the president went on his vacation without calling a special session of Congress to look after their interests, and the flood sufferers have been passing through horrible experiences. When the pope starts to pray, it is high time to look for a life preserver, a parachute or a fire extinguisher. Hard luck is sure to follow.

The Effect of Arsenical Smoke

MAJOR C. E. G. Nye in the London Daily Mail, urging that the government immediately render enough cellars gas proof so as to accommodate the whole of London’s seven-millions population, makes the following observations: One part in ten million of air will incapacitate a man completely within a minute; when a cloud of the smoke was passed over a goat pen it killed all the goats except four, and those four were in such agony that they battered their own brains out to bring death; when a brother officer unintentionally walked into a cloud of this dust so thin that he did. not know it was there, he described his sensations as if the mucous membranes had been stripped with a red-hot scalpel and subsequently irrigated with scalding brine; in four days a splendid athlete was reduced to a pitiful, shivering wreck; and death came to end his sufferings only after three months. The major goes on to say that smoke generators for generating arsenical smoke of this nature are inexpensive to make and that in a little while a thousand of them could be pitched over the edge from airplanes, and that would be the end of London.

Faith in Life

TN AN effort to stop the wave of student sui-eides a Boston gentleman has offered $1,000 for the production of the best play which shall hold up faith in life to the youth of America. This attempt is well meant, but starts at the wrong place. If the monkey-v orshipers would cease their prattle and would encourage belief in Almighty God, the student suicides would eease in short order. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of all true wisdom. In most colleges this has been altogether lost, and there is nothing to take its place.

The Way of the Impasse

rPHOUGIITFUL people are wondering what -®- will happen when New York gets to the impasse, and the time is surely coming. Even now, at certain hours of the day, it is virtually impossible for even pedestrians to find their way about, and trucks sometimes have to encircle a block seven times before they can receive or deliver freight. Sydney and Melbourne have forbidden sky-scrapers entirely. Paris and other European cities forbid them. In Chicago the limit of height has been fixed at 265 feet, after which there must be setbacks.

Got the Wrong Department

A LITTLE girl in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, wrote the War Department, wanting a baby brother or sister one or two days old, but would be willing to take one two or three weeks old if the others 'were out of stock. She was sure that the neighbors next door would be interested, as indeed seems reasonable. Reminds us of a little Scranton boy that wanted his mother to get him a little brother, a colored boy, so that he could play with him and yet, at the same time, the family could raise their own ash-man. That is what you might call far-sightedness.

Freight Delivery at Night

IN THE effort to postpone for a little while the time when New York’s streets will become impassable and impossible, the greatest merchants of the city are now considering the question of keeping shipping and receiving departments open all night, including all freight stations and steamship piers. Might as well do it. This will give a breathing spell long enough to build a few hundred more sky-scrapers; and by the time they are built the whole of New York v ill look like Park Row at one o’clock on Saturday afternoon.

The End of Sacco and Vanzetti

LETTER in the Boston Herald expressed the belief that it is better to execute two innocent men than to undermine public confidence in the law. This is the Massachusetts attitude of mind. Ninety-nine witnesses bore testimony that neither Sacco nor Vanzetti could have been at the scene of the crime, for which they w ei e convicted, at the time they must have been there to commit tine crime. For three weeks aft°r the crime they made no attempt to escape or concealment, did not alter their rvay of living, spent no more money and when arrested did not know why they were arrested. No portion of the stolen $15,000 was ever traced to either of them, nor was it shown that either of them was ever in the car in which the mur-•dereis escaped. The state’s star witness, Mary Splaine, glancing from a window sixty feet distant at a man previously unknown to her, in a car traveling at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, had those extraordinary powers so valuable to certain kinds of district attorneys and certain kinds of police, that she was able in a space of three seconds to observe sixteen details of a man, including his weight, the size of his hand, the color of his shirt, his complexion and the length of his hair, and to positively say that it was Sacco one year after the murder, although, interestingly enough, she had failed to identify him six wmeks after the murder. It only remains to add that these men, whose sufferings are now ended, were found guilty by a jury whose foreman had publicly declared before the trial that whether guilty or not they ought to hang anyway. To the everlasting credit of both Sacco and Vanzetti they insisted to the last that they were innocent of the crime for which they were executed and refused absolutely to allow any priest to go through any formulas intended to prepare them in the next world for -what was evidently denied them here.

Jews’ Time of IF ailing Is Past

1TTLE by little the Lord is showing the Jew's that their time of w’ailing is now in the past. As the fifty jubilees came to an end. in the fall of 1925, an incident occurred that temporarily stopped their use of the wmiling place in Jerusalem., wdiere for centuries they have mourned over the loss of their temple and their favor with God.

Now an even more significant event has taken place. The Palestinian earthquake has rendered many of the houses in the neighborhood of the wailing wall unsafe, and access to the wall itself has been forbidden for an indefinite length of time.

Littleton’s Tribute to La Follette

IN AN address on Radicalism in Washington Hon. Martin W. Littleton said of the late Senator Robert M. La Follette: “Ill in health, broken wfith the labor of years, fighting viciously to the end, living upon what would not support the slenderest invalid, he fought to the last day, to his death, in a fanatical regard for the things ■which he advocated, and -which you must admire and -which amongst us, the conservatives, w^Te ought to admire all the more because -we know' it is true of us that most of us are too corvardly to fight and too fat to run.’’

Every Postmaster a Censor

NDER the existing laws every postmaster in the United States has the right to bar any matter which he regards as uumailable. The postmaster has very wide latitude, and there is nothing to prevent his banning books or advertisements of books which have never been shut out by the department. General information in regard to this fact has only just come to light. It is a preposterous and intolerable law, and should be annulled at once. Very evidently it is plainly opposed to the freedom of speech and of the press upon which the Constitution of the United States is based. This law would enable any Boman Catholic postmaster to exclude every Protestant paper from the mails, and may account for non-delivery of The Golden Age in some localities which are under Boman Catholic domination. If the matter be looked up it will surely be found that this law or rule is of Jesuitical origin. It breathes the Jesuit spirit of intolerance and craftiness.

General Motors: ri Child of Big Business

ENERAL MOTORS was organized by William C. Durant. In a few years the banks got the control of it away from him. After a tremendous effort Durant regained control. The banks went after his scalp again until at last he was ruined and the concern passed permanently into the hands of the du Ponts and Morgans. That is supposed to have stabilized it. After the du Ponts and Morgans have got absolute control of everything in the country, then the whole country will be stabilized and there will thenceforth never be any need for discussion as to whether or not there is a hell. Faith ■will be lost in sight.

Vatican Reverses Itself

WHEN Mr. Hatti, the pope, had an opportunity to do something to help Sacco and Vanzetti get another trial he refused absolutely to do a thing. Now his journal, Osseruatore Romano, seeing that public sentiment is all the other way, hypocritically denounces Governor Fuller for permitting the men to be executed. This is a true picture of the Vatican in every age and in every clime. It stands for truth and justice never, but for Rome always, right or wrong, and generally wrong. It is the most un-prmcipk d institution in the world today.

Indian Uprising in Bolivia

IT MAY be true, as stated in press dispatches, that the uprising of the Indians in Bolivia is due to communist agitation among them; but it is also true, as stated in the same dispatches, that these poor Indians are undernourished, wretchedly garbed, perform the work of beasts of burden and live in an altogether miserable state. Therefore no reasonable person can blame them for jumping at any plan of government that seems likely to improve their condition. Treat these Indians right, take away the miserable fear of eternal torture which has been drilled into them., show them how to work and how to live; and they will never make anybody any trouble. The ancestors of these Indians, the Incas, excelled in agriculture and architecture, their buildings being characterized by simplicity, symmetry and solidity. Under a proper government these Indians would make splendid citizens. AVhat they need is help, not butchery.

Bead Carriers Well Paid

ROM the Rosaiy Bulletin, Volume 19, number 9, published at Somerset, Ohio, September, 1926, we glean the following interesting information : “Partial Indulgences: One hundred and ten years and 350 days daily for merely carrying the Dominican beads. In one and the same recitation both the Crozier and Dominican indulgences can be gained by Rosarians if beads have both blessings. The Dominican indulgence for the recitation of five decades by Rosarians is 409 years and 310 days. The Crozier is 75 years and 125 days. Total, 485 years and 70 days/’ Please notice that these bead carriers are not merely going to get 485 years and 69 days relief from the fires of purgatory kept going by a loving God, hut they get a full 485 years and 70 days, not a day more nor less. Can you imagine anybody believing such tommyrot?

Lloyd George and Clemenceau on War

IF THERE are two men in the world that ought to know the real causes of war they are Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain during the 'World War, and Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France during that same period. Notice what they say about war.

Lloyd George says: Wars are precipitated by motives which the statesmen responsible for them dare not publicly avow. A public discussion would drag these motives in their nudity into the open, where they would die of exposure to the withering contempt of humanity.”

Clemenceau’s ideas are substantially the same. In explaining why he is unwilling to write his memoirs he said: “I have seen too much and know too much. If -I wrote my memoirs not a man rvould go to war even if the security of his country demanded it.”

The Price of Deliverance ■

[Radiocast from Station tVBBR, New York, by Judge Rutherford.]

JHpO THE Corinthians Paul the apostle wrote:

‘Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, which is his.’—1 Corinthians 6:20.

That which is of great value costs much to obtain. That which is of the greatest value to man is life in happiness. That which Adam sold for himself and his offspring was life. Properly defined hfe means existence and the right to exist. When Jesus v as on earth the people at that time for centuries had been under bondage to Satan the oppressor and the evil effects of his wrong doing, which led them into suffering and death. That which the people have wanted always is deliverance from the enemy and to gain life in happiness. Such redemption or deliverance is bought with a great price. The greatest price that perfect man could give is his life.

Last Sunday the subject discussed was Opposition to the Kingdom. It was there developed that Christ is the King, and that Satan has always opposed and yet opposes the King and His kingdom. The opposition to Jesus v hen on earth become so great that it resulted in His arrest, His mock trial and Tlis ignominious death. Who put Jesus to death? It is true that the Romans were then actually in control of Palestine; but Rome yielded to the importunities of big business, professional politicians, and the clergy who resided in Jerusalem. These three elements entered into a conspiracy to crucify the Lord because they feared that He would deprive them of their selfish jobs and make it impossible for them to prey upon the common people.

That which, occurred at that time finds its counterpart today. So far as the people is concerned, certain officers from the president down control the country. But the real power behind the throne is big business. It silently reaches out its wicked hand and turns the thumbscrews that bind with greater security the common people. Their predatory power has now practically control over all the commercial business of the land. Professional politicians yield to big business, while at the same time the hypocritical clergy furnish the smoke screen by loudly proclaiming that this devilish arrangement is the expression of God’s kingdom on earth. The exercise of divine power is necessary for the deliverance of the people now, as it was then.

With the passing of the Jewish nation there came a great tragedy in the death of the Lord Jesus, caused by these wicked men who were controlled by the invisible influence of the Devil. With the present passing of the old world Satan is again preparing for another great tragedy. He is gathering his forces for Armageddon. This time the risen Lord, acting as the Executive Officer of Jehovah God, will destroy Satan’s organization and bring the people the ough and deliver them from the oppressor, and in due time bring blessings of life and happiness to all the obedient ones.

In order that we may appreciate what redemption of the people and the ultimate deliverance cost, and the value of the blessings that flow from it, it is profitable that w^re consider step by step the outworking of God’s great plan.

The death of Jesus ended His earthly ministry. The Righteous One had fallen. He was holy, Larmier, undefiled, and separale ffom sinners. He was the Son of God. He faithfully performed the duties laid upon Him.

In God's due time a test must come to every man as to whether he loves righteousness and will obey God, or whether he prefers wickedness and will follow an evil course. Every intelligent human being must have an opportunity to exercise such free moral agency. The opportunity came to the scribes, Pharisees and others at the crucifixion of Jesus. Some of the Jews who participated in the death of Jesus were ignorant of the fact that He was the Son of God. Some of the rulers were also ignorant. (Acts 3:17) But the scribes, Pharisees and priests were not ignorant. Judas was not ignorant, and of course the Devil was not ignorant. The ignorant ones who sinned against the Lord God and against Christ Jesus will be forgiven. But those who knew that He was Christ sinned against the holy spirit. “And whosoever speak-eth a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the holy spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”—Matthew 12: 32.

There are those at this very day who know that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and who know that there are a few bumble -ones who are giving testimony of these facts to the common people. And yet these selfconstituted wise men assume a sanctimonious air, parade in the name of the Lord Jesus and claim to represent him, but wilfully sin against the light they have and persecute those who are calmly telling of God’s great plan of salvation. The Lord Jesus referred to this selfsame class in the parable of the sheep and the goats.— Matthew 25:31-46.

To sin against the holy spirit does not mean to sin against a being or person, but it means to deliberately go contrary to the light of truth. The holy spirit is the invisible power of God that illuminates the minds of men. Therefore to sin against the holy spirit means a wilful and deliberate course, contrary to one’s knowledge of what is right and wrong. One who sins against the holy spirit is possessed of a malicious heart; which means that such a one has no regard for the law of God, and no consideration for the rights of others, but is fatally bent on doing evil in order to accomplish a selfish purpose, and doing it knowingly.

Why Should Jesu.8 Die?

OULD not God have prevented the death of His beloved Son? Seeing that God is allpowerful it follows that He could have prevented the death of His beloved Son. If Jesus was holy and without sin, then why should He die? When He left the courts of heaven to come to earth and become a man, it was the will of God that He should die as a man in order to provide the great, redemptive price for man. It was necessary for the perfect man to die in order that the human race might have an opportunity for life.

That being true, is Satan any the less reprehensible because he conspired to put Jesus to death and because he incited his emissaries to kill Jesus? No. God had not delegated the authority to Satan to put Jesus to death. Neither had He authorized any one else to conspire to destroy Jesus. Satan maliciously sought His death because he knew that Jesus was the Son of God and because he expected and feared that Jesus would be King over the people and would take away the rulership from, himself.

The scribes, Pharisees and others who knowingly participated in putting Jesus to death did SO selfishly and wickedly, according to their own words, for fear that they would be deprived of their position as office-holders amongst the people. (John 11:47, 48) In fact, Satan had no power to take the life of Jesus had Jesus even called upon His Father to exercise His unlimited power in His behalf. When Peter smote off the ear of the high priest’s servant we read: “Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”—Matt. 26: 52-54.

Jesus was so completely devoted to His Father that He would not do anything contrary to His Father’s will. He said: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (John 6:38) “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. ... As the Father knoweth me, even so know’ I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay dowm my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it dowm of myself. I have power to lay it dowm, and I have pow’er to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”—John 10:11, 15-18.

Knowing it to be the will of His Father that He should die, Jesus willingly wrnnt to death and wmuld not even ask for pow’er to intervene- to prevent it. Certain ones of the Jews crucified the Lord. (Acts 2:36; 7: 52) The moving cause for them so to do, how’ever, was the influence of Satan the enemy. God permitted the death of His Son in this manner in this, that He did not prevent it; and He did not prevent it because it wrns His will that Jesus should die that His plan might be carried out. He could have arranged for His Son’s death in some other manner; but since Satan wrns maliciously bent on killing Him God permitted the Devil to show his utter depravity, and at the same time He put the test upon those w’ho would follow Satan, knowing that thereafter He wmuld raise Jesus out of death.

It is of the greatest importance that man understand the reason why Jesus had to die, because by so understanding man is enabled to see the great love of God that has been and is exhibited toward man.

Redemption First

S WE progress with the examination of the divine plan as revealed and unfolded through the Word of God, it is observed that Jehovah intends to deliver the human race from sin and death and from all the powers of the evil one. Who will deliver man from this bondage? What are the legal requirements? When will it be done and how? These are questions of vital importance, and the death of Jesus is directly related to the proper answer of each of them. Deliverance could not take place until after redemption. Otherwise stated, the rights of man must fir«t be purchased, and then mankind may be delivered. Therefore this is the proper place to examine the question of redemption, and in its examination will appear the reason why the perfect man Jesus must die.

Adam was a perfect man when in Eden. Because of sin he was sentenced to death. God’s announced law required that the violator thereof should die. Justice therefore required the enforcement of the law, which meant the death of Adam. When the judgment of an earthly court of filial jurisdiction is entered there is no pow^Ter that can reverse that judgment. With stronger reasoning can that rule be applied to Jehovah’s court. When He sentenced Adam to death, that judgment was final and must be enforced, God could not consistently reverse His own judgment. God cannot be inconsistent. Therefore it was impossible for the judgment against Adam to be set aside or reversed. It is entirely consistent, however, that a final judgment entered in the ease may be satisfied by a substitution.

To illustrate: Suppose Jones has a judgment against Smith for one thousand dollars, which has been confirmed by the court of last resort. This judgment has been entered in a jurisdiction where imprisonment can be had for failure to pay debt. The debtor is incarcerated in prison because of his failure to pay. Smith has a father who loves his son; and he produces the thousand dollars and hands it over to the judgment creditor Jones, who accepts it in payment of his judgment. The law therefore requires that the judgment shall be satisfied and Smith released. This is a rule of righteousness.

The same rule with stronger effect operates in Jehovah’s court. God could consistently arrange for the satisfaction of the judgment against Adam, by substitution. But this must be done in a legal manner; that is to say, in a manner in conformity to the divine law. What then did the law require? The answer is: 'A life for a life.⁵ (Deuteronomy 19: 21)- A perfect man Adam had been sentenced to death. The law required therefore a perfect human life. The price for redemption, the satisfaction of the judgment by substitution looking to the release of Adam, must be a life exactly equal to that life which Adam lost by reason of the judgment.” Otherwise stated, nothing short of a perfect human being willing to go into death could meet the requirements of the divine law.

All the human race descended from Adam; therefoie all were born in sin and shapen in iniquity. (Romans 5:12; Psalm 51:5) It therefore follows that there lived on earth no human being capable of fulfilling the divine requirements with reference to the satisfaction by substitution of the judgment against Adam. This must not be understood as meaning the satisfaction of justice. Justice was satisfied with Adam’s death; and that judgment, which means the legal determination, would hold Adam for ever in death unless some substitute is provided equal to Adam that could be given instead of Adam to satisfy the judgment and let Adam go free. The substitute must be the life of a perfect man.

Could not an angel or a divine being be used to satisfy the judgment against Adam, and release him from the death sentence? The answer is: No, because the law of God could receive nothing more and nothing less than the judgment required; otherwise God would be inconsistent, and He cannot be inconsistent. Here again Satan has employed his cunning devices to blind men to the true philosophy of the great ransom sacrifice. He has induced his representatives on earth, who have paraded in the name of the Lord, to teach the people that Jesus Christ when He was on earth was divine and not a man; and that He died as a divine being. Any reasonable mind can see that if God would require such, God would be unrighteous. This false reasoning has turned away many men from the Lord and from His Word.

Seeing then that the law required the life of a perfect human being, and that all the offspring of Adam were and are imperfect, the race appears to be and was in a helpless condition. It is stated by God's prophet thus: “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him ” (Psalm 49:7) Would God provide for redemption? The Word answers : “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: 0 death, I will be thy plagues; 0 grave, I will be thy destruction.’^-—Hosea 13:14.

Here is the positive word of Jehovah that lie would provide redemption for the human race. Of an absolute certainty th’s will be carried out: “I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:11) “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing w’hefeto I sent it.”—Isaiah 55:11.

For thus reason “the Logos was made flesh," and dwelt among us”. (John 1:14) Seeing that the Logos w^Tas on the spirit plane writh Ilis Father, hotv could He be made flesh I With God nothing is impossible. With the consent of the Loens the Father transferred His Son’s life from the spirit to the human plane. He was begotten in the womb of Mary the virgin, by the power of the holy spirit, which means the invisible power of Jehovah. (Matthew 1 :18) In due time He was born of this human mother. (Luke 2:9-11) “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” (Galatians 4:4) None of the imperfect blood of the imperfect Adam was in the veins of Jⁿsus, because His life was begotten or begun by the power of Jehovah. When He became a man, therefore, He was holy, harmless, undofiled, and separate from sinners. (Hebrews 7:26) As a iiiaii He exactly corresponded to what the perfect man Adam was before he sinned. Therefore the man Jesus -was capable of becoming the Redeemer of Adam, and his race.

But could the perfect man Jesus provide redemption for Adam and all of the human race?

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But one may ask: “Why should God send th« posterity of Adam into death? They were not on trial.” Note the words of the apostle. He does not say that all men were sentenced to death. He does say that all men are condemned to death. Where there is a sentence of death there of necessity must be a trial preceding. Condemnation means disapproval.

A bridge is maintained across a stream until the bridge becomes unsafe; then it is condemned, because it is unsafe. It is no fault of the bridge. The fault lies in the material out of which it is made.

' No man made himself. No child brought itself into the world. God gave Adam and Eve the power to propagate the race. They being imperfect when this power was exercised, their children were brought forth imperfect. God cannot approve an imperfect thing. It was not the fault of the child. It is the fault of the material out of which it is made. Being disapproved it is condemned, but this condemnation and disapproval are the result of Adam’s sin. Therefore all came under condemnation; and God has provided that through the righteousness of His beloved Son the free gift of life shall come to all men, giving to them an opportunity to obey Him and live.

Now we find Jesus on earth at thirty years of age, a perfect man and at the legal age required. Why had He come to earth? God had promised to ransom the human race. (Hosea 13: 14) The law required a perfect man’s life to provide the ransom. Jesus said that He came to give His life a ransom.—Matthew⁷ 20: 28.

Ransom means, literally, something to loosen with; a redemptive price. Stated in other phrase, it means the price or value which can be used in loosening or releasing something that is in bondage, restraint or imprisonment. Necessarily the ransom price must be equivalent to, or exactly corresponding with, that w^rhich justice requires of the thing or being in bondage.

The right to live as a human being Avas required by the judgment against Adam. This judgment took away Adam’s right to live. That which "would provide a ransom price must be the right of another perfect human being to live. The perfect man Jesus possessed exactly that thing; namely, the right to live on earth as a man.

The redemption of man from death and its _Rr q deliverance therefrom, is the expressed will of God. (1 Timothy 2:4) Jesus came to do the will of God, as it was written of Him: “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book ft is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”— Psalm 40:7, 8.

God having promised to ransom man, now He had provided a way to carry out His promise by His Son willingly becoming a man. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death ©f the cross.” (Philippians 2:8) Jesus willingly submitted to death, because it was the will ©f God to thereby provide the ransom price.

Now the question, Why must Jesus die? is answered briefly. The perfect man Jesus, while He remained alive, could not provide a ransom price. He must now convert His perfect human life into an asset of value, which asset would be sufficient to release man from judgment and from the condemnation resulting from that judgment. He must lay down His human life that the value thereof might be presented to divine justice instead or in place of that which Adam had forfeited, to the end that Adam and his race might have an opportunity to live. Otherwise stated, Jesus must make His human life and the right thereto a legal tender for the payment of Adam’s debt.

Legal tender means currency, money, measure of value, which the law requires and receives in Satisfaction of debts or obligations.

Merit means value gained. By the merit of Christ Jesus we mean the perfect humanity of Jesus and all the rights incident thereto converted into value or an asset, which is legal tender for the payment of man’s debt.

To illustrate this point: Take a man, whom we win call John for convenience, who is languishing in prison to satisfy a fine of a hundred dollars, because of his inability to pay that fine. John’s brother Charles is willing to pay the fine, but he has no money with which to pay. Charles is strong and vigorous, has time to work and is willing to work; but his strength and time and willingness will not pay the debt for his brother John. Smith desires some one to work for him, and has the money with vhich to pay. Charles engages himself to work for Smith, and earns a hundred dollars in cash and receives it. Thereby Charles has reduced his time, strength and vigor into a money value, which has purchasing power, and which is legal tender for the purpose of the payment of John’s obligations. This money may be properly called merit, because of its purchasing value or redemptive value. Charles then appears before the court which entered the judgment against his brother, and offers to pay the hundred dollars which the law demands of John. The court accepts the hundred dollars and releases John. John is thereby judicially released from the judgment; and his brother Charles has become his ransomer, or redeemer.

Adam was a son of God. It was judicially determined by Jehovah that Adam should forfeit * his life in death, which judgment would mean , the eternal death of Adam and all of his off- ‘ spring unless he and they should bo redeemed. ^! As Adam possessed the power to beget chil- _s dren before this judicial determination, all of Adam’s offspring came under the effects of the judgment. He is now held in death to meet the ’ requirements of the law. The entire human race , is in a similar condition, resulting from the original sin of Adam.

Jesus, the perfect man, the Son of God, was designated by the Lord as “the Son of the man”; tiffs title implying that he, being the only perfect man that has lived on earth since Adam, was entitled to everything that belongs to Adam, life and all the blessings incident thereto. Jesus had the power to produce a perfect race of people, and was in every respect the exact equal of Adam before Adam sinned. It was the will of God that Jesus should redeem Adam and his posterity. Jesus was willing to pay Adam’s debt and redeem him; but the perfect, righteous human being Jesus could not accomplish that purpose while living in the flesh, for the same rea- , son that Charles could not use his strength, time and energy to pay the debt of his brother John, but must first reduce these to a purchasing value.

Jesus must reduce His perfect humanity to _: a measure of value (which measure of value we > call merit), which value or merit constitutes legal tender for the payment of the debt of Adam and his offspring, furnishing the price sufficient to judicially release them all. To provide this ransom price Jesus must die. But to present the value of it before Jehovah He must be aliv© and have access to the court of Jehovah. -

At the Jordan the perfect man Jesus presented Himself in consecration to do the will of Jehovah; and it was God’s will that Jesus should there lay down His life in death, but that He should not forfeit the legal right to life as a man. It was the will of God that Christ Jesus should arise out of death a divine creature, and as such should take up that merit or right or value of His perfect human life and use it as an asset or legal tender in harmony with the divine will; namely, to judicially release mankind and to provide life for the human race. Why not use the term "legally release”? The Lord could not provide for an illegal release of the human race, because he must be just. We here use the term “judicially release” because that means that the release is done in a judicial capacity or manner, by the one having authority to release.

This argument is in harmony with the statement of Jesus: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they [the people, the human race] might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd give th his life for the sheep. ... As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. . . . Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man take th it from me, but I lay it down of myself [willingly]. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of mv Father.”—John 10:10, 11, 15, 17, 18.           '

Satan has done much to becloud the minds of earnest searchers for the truth concerning the philosophy of the ransom. He has made some believe that it was provided for the benefit of only a few, and that all others are predestinated to be lost. lie has made others believe that it has no value whatsoever.

Fox* whom did Jesus die! This question must be answered from the Scriptures. Everyone should desire to know the truth. “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) It would seem strange that God would provide for His blessing to extend to a few, and not grant a similar privilege to all. The Scriptures answer: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” —-John 3:16,17.

The Apostle Paul discusses this matter; and writing (as we know’) under inspiration, he declared it to be the will of God that by virtue of the ransom price all. men should be redeemed from death and that then each one must be given a knowledge of God’s arrangement, to the end that each one may have the opportunity to exercise his free moral agency and accept or reject the offer of life that comes through the ransom sacrifice. His argument is this: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who wall have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” —1 Timothy 2:3-6.

The same apostle again proves that Jesus was a perfect man and not a spirit being, and that He was made perfect in order that He might redeem the human race. His argument reads: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour: that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” —Hebrews 2: 9.

But how could a man, even though perfect, redeem the human race by merely dying? If he remained dead he could not carry out the redemption and deliverance, because a dead man can do nothing. The great court entering the judgment against man, and the place at which the ransom price must be presented, is the court of Jehovah. Of course Jehovah could have appointed somebody else to present to Him the value of the sacrifice of the perfect man Jesus, but it did not please Him to do this. It was His purpose that Jesus should be both the Hansomer and the Deliverer of the human race; and He could not be the Deliverer if He remained dead. It was therefore necessary for Jesus to be resurrected.

The question may be asked: If Jesus was put to death as a man, and the value of His sacrifice as a man must be presented in heaven, how could a man appear in heaven and present that ransom price? The answer is: He could not, for the reason that no man has access to the spiritual realm. A human being is confined to earth. Jesus died as a man, but His Father Jehovah raised Him out of death a spirit being. About this the apostle plainly says: “Because'

Christ also suffered for sins onee, the righteous God; being put to death in the flesh, but quicfcen-for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to ed in the spirit.”—! Peter 3:18, R. V.

Light and Life

[Radiocast from WBBR, New York, by W. L. Pel’©.]

ANIMAL and plant life is dependent upon a certain amount of light for its normal existence. The tiny seed planted in the soil may sprout; but sooner or later it must push its little green blade above the ground, where it can enjoy and drink in the sunlight, air, and other provisions of the Almighty Creator.

In fact, practically all the higher forms of life have their beginning in the darkness, human life included. But life cannot always exist in that environment. After a certain stage of development, it must needs have the fresh air and sunshine to assist in its further growth to maturity. Life and light are inseparably connected. There would, be no light if there were no life, and life cannot progress without the light.

Jehovah God is the Creator of the universe and the Fountain or Source of all life. It is likewise true that He is the Source of the light. God uses the symbol of light to represent Himself. He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto. The apostle calls Jehovah the “Father of lights”. (James 1:17) His presence •was represented to the Israelites in the “she-kinah glory’. In their wilderness journey from Egypt to Canaan He was represented to them as a fiery pillar by night. His judgments ar® pictured by fire.

Light and Life in Cveutim

ET us for a moment notice the relation of light and life as illustrated in the very beginning. The Genesis account does not tell us of the formation of the earth itself. It says, “In the beginning . . . the earth was” That is, it was shapeless, empty. There were neither mountains nor valleys, neither trees nor shrubs, nor rivers nor oceans; but the earth was. How long before that time it had been created is not stated.

The account of the days or epochs of creation in Genesis relates not to the construction of our globe, but to the ordering of it for human habitation. Additionally we learn, “And darkness was upon the face of the great deep.” There was no light to begin with. Then "the spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters”.

We understand in this expression that the holy spirit or power of God began to operate to energize or fecundate the waters. There was an energy of life started in them. But the Lifegiver knew that this life could not exist for ever in the darkness, and so we hear Him giving the command: "Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that is was good.” This light was not bright as we have it today, but was very dim compared to its later developments. God did not permit the light to shine forth all of a sudden in a blinding flash. But we may assume that the measure of light caused to shine on the first day was sufficient.

Nevertheless, during the succeeding five days of creation, as the rings of mineral matter and water were precipitated to the earth’s surface, the light grew brighter; and as it increased, higher forms of life made their appearance. First there were the grass and the herb, and later the fruit trees.

But where did these come from? It was on the first day, you will remember, that this life energy was started; and now on the third day plant life had developed. But the light was not sufficient for animal life; and so we read, "And God caused to shine [margin] two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.” The sun and the moon were created long before the fourth day or epoch, but it was not until that time that their rays of light pierced the carbon-laden atmosphere and reached the earth’s surface.

When this was so, then higher forms of life could exist; and therefore God said to the prolific waters, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his'kind: and God saw that it was good.”—Genesis 1:20,21.

The Sixth Day

THE ever increasing light and lighter atmosphere on the sixth day made it possible for animal life, including man; and so we read, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth, the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have 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. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”—Genesis 1: 24-27.

Thus God finished His creation and provided them with every thing necessary to maintain their existence. Furthermore, they dwelt in the light of God’s favor. Not only is natural light necessary to lasting life, but also the light of God’s favor. In Psalm 30:5 we read, ‘Tn his favor is life.” Our first parents were started off with both these blessings. They had perfect life, ■which also implies fellowship with God. But the prince of darkness appeared and began his mischief.

Because of this Adam transgressed the divine law. He committed the act, being surrounded by the gloom of despair; for he reasoned that his beautiful companion would be taken from him because of her deed. There the dark night of sin began, and there the death sentence commenced its long reign. The sunlight of God’s favor was withdrawn; and the only light man had was the natural light, which was insufficient. Since then man’s existence has been like the sprouting of a seed, or of a potato, for instance, in a dark cellar.

Probably you have noticed, if you have a potato bin in your cellar, that once in a while a potato or two will take a notion to sprout. Since it does so under improper conditions, the result is abnormal growth, and no production results. All that happens is that a long ugly stem is sent out, and about every ten or twelve inches there are two dwarf-like leaves which never grow. The strength of the potato is spent in producing this stem and no seed results. The trouble is that there has been no sunlight, and the proper environment has been lacking. It must be planted, watered, and its sprouts shone upon by the sun, to produce seed after its own kind.

Humanity is Now Dwarfed

T IKE WISE with humanity. While mankind has increased in numbers, the race has been dwarfed. It lias not produced. The earth is filled with violence. It goes on in darkness, and the tyrant of death holds full sway. "Weeping has endured for this night, or as the Psalmist pointedly describes it: “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”—Psalm 104:29.

But God purposed not to allow this condition to go on eternally. He could not permit darkness and evil to persist for ever. He has permitted these things temporarily for the education of the human race. When this has been accomplished, he will remove everything opposed to the light, in spite of the fact that the Devil ■would have us believe otherwise.

The Scriptures tell us that the Logos, who later became Jesus, was associated with His Father in the ordering of the earth for human habitation. He was the first-born of all creation. God purposed to have a new creation, a race of divine beings on the same plane of existence as Himself. Jesus was not divine in His prehuman existence. Had He been thus, He could not have been man’s Redeemer.

He could not have died; for a divine being, such as God is and. such as Jesus is now, cannot be killed. Death is an impossibility for them. The beloved Son of God was to have the preeminence in all things, and so to Him was offered the privilege of becoming man’s Redeemer. In order to do so however, He must be made flesh. He must give up the spirit nature, and become a man. He agreed to all this.

The Joy of the Angels

THE holy angels were not acquainted with all the details of God’s plan of redemption, and so after a time they must have missed from the heavenly courts the beloved Son of God. Where had He gone? Mystery must have surrounded them until one of their number was commissioned to go to Mary and say to her, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called . the Son of God.” And later, when at the time that babe was born, the heavenly host sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” ah! the secret was out! God’s Son had been made flesh to become man’s ransomer, and to reclaim him from the night of disfavor.

But in order to do this, that beloved Son must go into the darkness of death Himself. He expressed the principle thus, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth foi th much fruit.” (John 12: 24) He was that grain of wheat which was to die on behalf of mankind. His humanity was to he planted for ever in death in order that Adam and his race might come forth from the darkness of death and live.

Since Jehovah God is represented as light; and since, as David says of Him, “Thou . . . coverest thyself with, light as with a garment” (Psalm 104: 2), we must think of Jesus also as being represented by a light. And so in many instances He is spoken of thus in the Scriptures. Notice in the following passages how⁷ closely life and light are associated with each other. In John 1:1-5, 9 we read as follows: “Tn the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos vas a god. The same was in the beginning with the God. AH things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of rnen. And the light shineth in darkness: and the darkness comprehended it not. . . . That was the true Light which light-eth every man that coineth into the world.”

Again it was prophesied of him, “And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people . . . through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to gi ve light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1: 76-79) Jesus Himself said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” —John 8:12.

The New Creature Begins in Darkness

T THE Jordan our Lord was begotten by the power of God, the holy spirit, to a new nature, the-divine nature. As life on earth was begun at the first in the darkness, so also the life of the new creature was started in the darkness of this evil world and amid its confusion. It must progress for a while in that condition; but the time came for it to be brought out fully into the light, and that could be only in resurrection glory.

It is true, however, that Jesus had the light of TRUTH and also the light of God’s favor shining upon Him. And since He had the light, He must reflect it for the benefit of others. Jesus came not only to redeem the race of mankind, but to bear witness to the light, the TRUTH. On one occasion Jesus said: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10); and again, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” (John 18:37) A light . is of no avail unless it sheds its rays for the benefit of others, and such our Lord did. He witnessed for the TRUTH, and also began to reveal a great secret: that The Christ was to be a class, not just one individual. This, the Apostle Paul said, was the great mystery which had been hidden for ages.

But in order to provide the ransom price, in order that life for humanity might be restored, Jesus must die. His humanity must be planted j in death. The corn of wheat fell into the ground at Calvary, but it has borne much fruit. Our Lord was raised from the dead not a human being, but a glorious divine being of the same nature as the Almighty. Jesus has become the First, the Head, of the new creation and ha« been endowed with all po-wer in heaven and iffi earth. He also has the authority to give life to the human race, and for that reason He is spoken of not only as the “everlasting Father”, but also “the Sun of righteousness”, with healing in His beams.

The Christ Not one Member But Many

S already stated, The Christ consists of mor® titan one individual, viz., Jesus, the Head, and the church as members of His body. They, too, must follow the same course as did their Head. The life of all the members of the new creation has begun and developed to some extent in the darkness and confusion of this present evil world, the Devil’s empire. But it shall not always continue thus; for God has promised a change when a certain purpose is served.

Like our Lord, the members of His church are begotten as new creatures; and they are in this world as such in order to bear witness of the light, the truth. Jesus said to His disciples, *^rYe are the light of the world.” Since both God and our Lord Jesus are represented as lights, it would be reasonable to suppose that the members of Christ's body would be likewise represented as lights. They do not actually shine in a physical sense, but the light of God’s TRUTH is manifest in their activity.

Satan’s Counterfeit Christ

THE Devil has even attempted to counterfeit and misrepresent this small feature of the divine plan. Possibly you have seen what are purported to be pictures of our Lord and what is called the holy family, or even some of the so-called saints. They have been represented as having luminous faces and a halo above their heads. This is supposed to illustrate their holiness.

Satan has made use of this to make up his system of “Christian idolatry”, if I might use that term, although the spirit of true Christianity is far from idolatry. Nevertheless, the Demi has used false ideas to turn the minds of many well-meaning people away from -the worship of Jehovah, where it properly belongs.

The Christian is urged to let his light shine. In Isaiah 60:1, 2 we are told, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall ©over the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” Again, the Apostle Paul suggests, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure [that is, the light] In. earthen vessels, that the excellency of the jsower might be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4: 6, 7); and again, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings; that ye may lb® blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life.” —Philippians 2:14-16.

How can this be done! Notice that the apostle connects up the shining with holding forth the word of life. Of course, the Devil has tried to put out or measurably dim the light, so that the real effect is lost. It is the church’s privilege to let the light shine out; but it is quite manifest that the professed church of God has been overreached and captured by the Evil One.

Satan has some believing that the way to serve God is to withdraw to some monastery or nunnery, put on a peculiar black garb, go about with a sanctimonious and pious face, and have people look up to them in reverence. Others have the idea that to serve God means to engage in humanitarian work, relieve suffering and distress, etc., among the poor and ignorant. This is a good work, it is true; but is it the Lord’s work? Can the Christian let the light of life shine in this manner?

How Should the Christian Lei His Light Shine?

PEAKING of this very thing our Lord said to His disciples on one occasion, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you”; that is, I never approved of your works.—Matthew 7: 21-23.

Building hospitals, slum work, mission work, education of the ignorant and helpless, etc., are all good works; but by them only temporary relief can be accomplished. That is. not the Lord’s work now. When His kingdom is fully set up, all these relief works will he speedily accomplished, and permanently, too. Furthermore, the Lord will stop people from dying and even bring the dead back from the grave; and that is something which no humanitarian work can accomplish at present.

But what is the Christian to do to let his light shine! As heretofore shown, the light is the TRUTH of God’s plan. It is found in the Bible; and to know and appreciate the light, one must study his Bible. If the light is shining out from you, you will be telling the glorious news to others, that the Lord’s kingdom has been established and that its power and influence are gradually increasing and will continue to do so until it covers the whole earth. You will be telling others of God’s glorious plan of salvation for the relief of mankind from the suffering of sin and death. Furthermore, you will find yourself opposed to the Devil's organization which attempts to keep the people in ignorance and oppression.

Ours is a day of enlightenment. The TRUTH must be made known, and it is being made known. There are probably some listening to me this morning who have been warned against reading certain books and literature. Think of h ! People of the twentieth century v ho are not supposed to read certain things for fear they might learn something! Friends, God will not permii any honest heart who wants to know⁷ the TRUTH to be misled. It is the Devil’s agent who advises against the search for TRUTH.

What Is a True Christian?

MANY honest persons have inquired, There are so many different churches in the earth now. How may I know which is the right one? Hove may 1 know if 1 am a member of the TRUE ciraieh? The answer to these questions is found in the Scriptures. First of all, do you pray the Lord's prayer? If you reply in the affirmative, then you are praying, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will he done on eaith as in heaven.” In other words you are praying for the Lord's will to be done on the earth.

How many churches in Christendom teach that, ClmstA kingdom will be established on earth? Not one! Some of them claim that it has been established on earth for centuries; but if that be true, how much is God’s will being done? The facts are to the contrary.

The Bible gives us many signs or indications as to when Christ's kingdom would be set up, evidences both of a prophetic and a chronological nature. These signs are so sure that there can be no doubt about them. Now then, when we pray for the Lord’s kingdom to be set up, when we have the evidences of it, and when we see these evidences before our very eyes, what is the only conclusion to come to ? How many churches in Christendom do you hear preaching the message of the Lord's kingdom?

True Christians, members of the true church, are commissioned to give the light of the kingdom to others. It is a message of life because that kingdom is God’s means of giving life to mankind once more. Nominal Christendom has lost the light of TRUTH because they "went into league with the Devil’s empire. They succumbed to the Devil's temptation, and as a result he has given them prominence and power in the kingdoms of this world. Jesus was promised the same reward if he would only fall down and worship the Devil. This He refused to do.

Nominal Christendom does not worship Jehovah God, but their worship is that of Satan in one form or other. The time is not far hence when the last great struggle between the forces of righteousness and the forces of evil will take place. Then it will be apparent to all that the Lord’s kingdom has been set up.

The Sun. of Righteousness

HRIST in kingdom glory is represented as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in

His beams. His reign is pictured as the daytime, in contrast to the night of sin, sorrow, and ignorance. His reign is the day when (he light of truth will shine forth for the’benefit of all, and when the opportunity for life will be extended to everyone. The position of the true Christian now is beautifully illustrated in Psalm 110: 3, where it says (a revised version), “Your forces are ready today; your army in holy array, more than dewdrops that come from the breast of the dawn.”

You have probably been out in the early morning just as the sun was coming up, and when the grass was still wet with dew. Probably you noticed that a part of the meadow seemed as though covered with countless diamonds and jewels. This was the refraction of the sunlight through the dewdrops which acted as glass prisms. The light did not come from the dewdrops. It came From the sun. The Christian o£ today is just like the little dewdrop. He is making known the fact that the Sun of Righteousness has arisen, and that soon all those asleep in death will awaken to enjoy it also.

David, on his death-bed, was thinking of the glorious reign of Christ, the One who w⁷as to sit upon His throne for ever. His words are recorded for us in 2 Samuel 23:1-4: “Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth overmen must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining [of the sun] after rain.”

Life-Giving Effects of Sunlight

rpilE sunlight produces a life-giving effect.

Just so, even now, a new energy of life seems to be at work in the earth. Even the sick seem to improve and grow more cheerful as morning approaches. Cloudy days are days of ill humor, when many seem to be “out of sorts”. But a bright ’sunshiny day of the springtime will make even the sourest grouch feel like smiling.

During the past six thousand years the clouds of God’s disfavor have hidden the Creator from the human race, and they have been troubled. “Thou hidest thy face and they are troubled.” But now the glorious day of sunshine is about to break upon the world. What a happy time that will be I

Christ and His church, then glorified, will send their healing rays to all mankind. The light of truth will come to all. The Apostle Paul tells us, “God . , . will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2: 4) One cannot get life unless he has the light, and one cannot be on trial for life until he has received the necessary information. Christ’s millennial reign will brhfg the knowledge of salvation to all the world and then their point of responsibility will be reached. The Lord’s kingdom will heal the sick, educate the ignorant, abolish the slums, convert the heathen, destroy disease of all kinds, and raise the dead; and it will be a permanent and successful work, too. It will be worth while.

When the knowledge of life has been made available for all, then the Lord will permit a test to come to determine who is worthy of life« God will give everlasting life to no one who does not demonstrate his loyalty to righteousness. Satan and his deceptive influences will again be loosed; and when the disloyal and wicked have been manifested, they together with Satan and his angels will be destroyed. They will go into the blackness of darkness for ever. They will be as though they had not been. How beautiful are the symbols the Bible uses: The light of life and the darkness of death!

In His Favor Is Life

HE righteous will then be given life everlasting on a perfected earth, restored and resplendent in Edenic beauty. The sunshine of God’s love will be upon them. “Tn his favor is life,” says the Psalmist. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Thank God that the morning is here! and that the night of v/eeping is about over.

Are you a Christian? I moan a real Christian, and not just merely a church-goer; for there is a vast difference between the two. If you are a Christian, you will not only be glad to tell out these glad tidings, but (like Jeremiah of old) you will find an influence within impelling you to do so. Jesus said, “The words that I speak, . . . they are spirit [power], and they are life.” He was a -witness for the truth.

Jesus’ disciples walk in His steps. They are holding forth the word of life; they are bright and shining lights. One does not need a theological education to preach the truth, nor does he have to wear a different kind of garb from other folks. “God looketh on the heart.” What God requires is an honest heart and a loving devotion to do his will. To such He gives His holy spirit and a commission to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom, the gospel of light and of life.

How to Send Money

HP IME and again we have called the attention «*• of our readers not to remit currency in unregistered envelopes. It is a temptation to men to steal. A man who has been in the postal service forty-two years has been arrested and will ’doubtless go to prison because he opened our mail and was caught at it by flue officials. Not only is it a temptation to weak men, but you lose your money and then cannot understand why you do not hear from us. Please observe what we have said time and again: Remit by post office money order or New York draft. Do not send personal checks on any bank outside of New York.

TT IS indeed strange that any one could really know God, the kind of character He is, what He has done for the whole world of mankind and what He does for those w^Tho honor, love and worship Him, and then could forget Him. It is still more strange that any nation of people could know God as well as the Israelites did and then forget Him repeatedly. Yet this is exactly what these people did. The people of Canaan had two special gods. One was a male god whose name was Baal, and the other was a female god whom they called Ashtaroth. The Hebrew people began to mix and intermarry with the people of the land, the Canaanites, and to worship their idols.

At the end of about 250 years after the death of Joshua, the Hebrew people had been overrun by the Midianites and had served Midian for sevmi years. In their distress, they cried to the Lord because of the Midianites, so He sent a prophet 'who told them that all this had happened because of their failure to obey the Lord. The Israelites were sorry for what they had done, and were ready to again serve and worship the true God, Jehovah.

At this time there wms a young Israelite whose name was Gideon. The Lord saw’ that Gideon had. the proper qualities of character to make a suitable leader fur the people; so He sent an angel to deliver a message to Gideon, saying that he might deliver the people of Israel from the Midianites. When the angel appeared and stated his mission, Gideon said, “Oh my Lord, v herewith shall I save Israel ? behold, my family is poor. . . . and I am the least in my father’s house.” The Lord replied to him through the angel, “Surely I will be with thee, and thou shaft smite the Midianites as one man.”

Now the Midianites numbered many thousands and had pitched their camp some miles away in'a valley surrounded by high hills. Gideon summoned all the men of war among the Israelites and found that there were 32,000 of them. The Lord told Gideon, however, that this number was too great, even though the Midianites had nearly four times as many men. Therefore He told Gideon that he should bid all the Israelites who were afraid to meet the Midianites in battle to return home; and 22,000 returned home, leaving only 10,000 men. But strange as it may seem, the Lord told Gideon that

,                                                    J

he had still too many and that he should bring them down to the river for a test, although the soldiers did not know what the test was to be. When all the army had been tested, it was found that those who leisurely lay down to drink made a far larger group than those who drank hastily as though they had something else to do. The smaller company numbered only 300 men, and the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men . . . will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand.’’

He gave them the most peculiar weapons of warfare that anyone has ever heard of. Each man carried a trumpet or bugle in one hand, and a pitcher with a fire brand or torch in the other. They quickly surrounded the camp of the Midianites; Gideon blew his trumpet; and all the soldiers blew their trumpets. Then they broke their pitchers, which contained the torch; and holding it high in the air they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” And what do you suppose happened? The host of Midian became so badly frightened that they began to slay one another as fast as they could, while those who were not slain fled as fast as their legs would carry them. When the battle wrns completely ended, Gideon had not lost a single man; but the soldiers of the Midianites had been slain to the number of 120,000 men.

When Gideon returned to the camp of the Israelites, the people asked him to be their ruler or king because he had delivered them from the hand of Midian. But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you.” Nevertheless, Gideon served as one of their judges, and the country was in quietness for forty years. '

The Apostle Paul tells about a class of people living in the world today who desire to forget God in the same manner as the Israelites did. They willingly do not care to retain the memory or knowledge of God in their minds. Surely non® of us want to get into a condition of that kind. Of those who learn to know God and then forget Him, the Scriptures say, “The latter end of that man is worse than the first.” Paul tells us, “It is better never to have known the way of life than to turn away after having known it.” Th® Bible states in another place, that “if the light which is in thee become darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Little Studies for Little People (Study Twenty-five)

192. Some seem to think that God will gather all the good people up in a basket or elevator and lift them right up into heaven, while the bad people will be pushed clear off the earth, with a big broom, and dropped into a place where they will be on fire for ever, but never burn up 1

198. Then these teachers go on to say that the Lord will take the earth, and break it up into little pieces and burn them to a cinder. After that, He will roll up the sky like a window shade, and put it away, and fly back to heaven; and that will be the end of everything!

• 194. Now just imagine that! If the teachers told the people such nightmares just for fun, or admitted that they were simply the teachers’ own notions, it would not be so bad. But what 3o you think? These teachers who have nightmares are very wicked. They say that all this nonsense is in the Bible! Is it not terrible! You see, it is all because they do not and will not understand what is written there.

• 195. We know of course that the great, loving, wise and wonderful Jehovah God and His dear Son, our Redeemer, .never had any such plans. Christ does not intend to destroy the earth, but instead to make it the most beautiful place that ever was.

• 196. “I will make the place of my feet [the earth] glorious, saith the Lord.”

• 197. It is very, very wicked to say or teach that God is going to have the earth destroyed, or that He will burn the wicked people for ever. [We shall soon learn what will happen to the wicked people as well as to the good people.

• 198. The Lord tells us the way in which He would come: “Behold, I come as a thief” in the night. “No man knoweth the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”

• 199. When we remember how the Lord was raised up after He had given His life for us, this matter is all very easy to understand. How many of us remember the manner in which Jesus was made alive again! “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to -God: being put to death flesh, but quickened [made alive] spirit.”

• 200. Now it is all plain and clear. We can understand just how it is that Jesus is here, and yet we cannot see Him. He is a spirit being, and

  it is impossible for us to see Him or any otfier spirit being with our natural eyes.           .

  • 201. But He can see us, and knows just what we are thinking about always; and when, our minds and hearts are in the right state of love and obedience towards our heavenly Father, it pleases Him very much.

  • 202. It is not the way of the Lord to do anything with a big noise and rush. Silently, steadily, His plan progresses. Nothing can change it; nothing can stop it.

  • 203. We can see on every hand many signs of the presence of the Lord. He is now breaking up all the wicked old things that Satan has made in the world, and is beginning to establish Ilia righteous and glorious kingdom on earth.

  Questions on Study Twenty-Five

  • 192. What, do the teachers with nightmares think ths Lord will do to good and bad when He comes? Can anything be on fire for ever and not bum up ?

  • 193. What do the teachers with nightmares think will happen to the beautiful green earth? And funniest of all, what do they think will happen to the sky?

  • 194. Where do the teachers with nightmares imagine that all this nonsense is to be found? Is that not too bad? What is the reason for this?

  • 195. Have the teachers with nightmares the right idea of the plan of God? What does Christ intend to do with the earth ?

  • 196. When God says He will do a certain thing what is sure to follow? What does God say He will do with His footstool? What is His footstool?

  • 197. Will it make God’s footstool glorious to turn it into an ash-heap? Is it wicked to teach what contradicts God? Will God bum anybody for ever?

  • 198. In what way did the Lord say He would come? Does a thief come with terrible noise, fireworks and commotion? How does a thief come?

  • 199. What kind of body did Jesus have when He was put to death? What kind of body did He have when He was awakened out of death ?

  • 200. Is it possible for us to see a spirit, being with our natural eyes, without a miracle being performed? Could Jesus be present and unseen?

  • 201. If Jesus is here, can He see us ? Can He read our minds and hearts? What does He wish to see in our minds and hearts? Does that please Him?

  • 202. Is it the Lord’s way to do things with a big noise and rush? How are His works usually performed? Can anything alter His plan?

  • 203. What signs do we see about us of the presence of the Lord? What happens to Satan’s kingdom when. Christ’s kingdom is fully set up in the earth?

  
  
  
  
  

To Summer Readers qf Deliverance

In following the Lecture Course and weekly readings of Delivebance you have about completed the book.

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This new knowledge will widen your viewpoint, and a breadth of vision will see more significance in times and events than before.

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