Contents of the Golden Age

Travel and Miscellany

Greece—Past, Present, Future

Social and Educational

From an Old Soldier

No Need to Get Excited

Good Situations Open  . . ........

Canada's “Grand Old Man”  . .

Where They Belonged ......

A

Finance—Commerce—Transportation

Bits of the World’s News

Big Business Robs the Sugar Bowl .

Ocean Television a Fact

Impossibility of the Interest System . .

Political—Domestic and Foreign Events in Canada .......»

Agriculture and Husbandry

Farming May Be Possible Everywhere .......... 425

Might Have Given Him Another Cent or Two ........ 425

Home and Health

How to Avoid Lockjaw

Alkalies are Solvents fob Aluminum ,.....  .  _s . . 427

Religion and Philosophy

A Raffle for Souls

Wkat Makes Us a Christian Nation . . . , ....... . 425

The Way of Reconstruction—Part II.........  .

What about the Heathen? ....

The Letter or the Spirit, Which?

Too Much Like Work

A Very Wise Boy Who Became a Remarkable Man

Bible Questions and Answers . .

The Children’s Own Radio Stoby . r > .........&

Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A., by WOODWORTH, KNORR & MARTIN

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OR a country only the size and population of the state of Ohio, Greece has created

about as much excitement as could well be desired. It would be a fair statement to make of Greece that it is regularly irregular. This is as true of the people as it is of the land itself, and as true of the climate as it is of land and people.

Greece is a peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean sea, with the Ionian sea on the west and the 2Egean sea on the east, a peninsula with a chain of lofty mountains running down its length and with many spurs to east and west, and a peninsula with such jagged edges that in one place a sea-level canal four miles in length actually cuts the country in half.

This sea-level canal, by the way, is an object of interest in itself. Passing near what was once the great commercial city of Corinth it goes between massive walls of solid rock 260 feet in height. The canal is lighted at night by electricity. Iron rings are provided at intervals to which ships may tie for safety, for protection against the hurricanes which at times blow through the cut. The canal was built in 1893.

There are great extremes of heat and cold in Greece. The sirocco blasts from Africa are hard to bear in summer, and in the winter the blasts from the north are equally disagreeable. In ancient times the country was more thickly populated and better cultivated than now, and the climate was better.

The reason for the deterioration of the climate is known to be the removal of the forests which once covered the land. The arftumn and winter rains are excessive, the streams overflow their channels, stagnant pools and marshes are formed and malarial fevers result.

In the summer irrigation is often necessary to insure crops.

The name “Greece” is a nickname applied to inhabitants of the peninsula by Italians because colonists from that country settled in their own province of Magna Grecia in southern Italy. Aristotle adopted the name and applied it to all his countrymen. The country afterward received the name of Hellas; and w’hen conquered by the Romans they called the southern half, or the Peloponnesus, by the name of Achaia and the region to the north by the name of Macedonia.

A Fine Lot of People

npHE Greeks are a fine lot of people, a splendid mixture of the ■ sterling qualities of the West with the lovable, impetuous, soft-spoken characteristics of the East. In America we know them as fruiterers and the proprietors of nearly all candy stores and restaurants, a well-informed lot of men, great readers. They are a little too romantic for their own good, placing too high a valuation on their past history, but this is not to be wondered at. There is considerable Albanian and Slavic blood in the Greeks of today.

Greece is hard on its heroes. Miltiades, victor of Marathon, died in prison. Themistocles, victor of Salamis, was exiled. Pericles, great statesman, was heavily fined and removed from office. Socrates, the thinker, w^Tas condemned to death. Alcibiades was banished because his countrymen wearied of hearing so much said in his praise.

Modern Greece illustrates the same tendencies, for Greece has the distinction among all the countries of the modern world of having had eight different administrations of government in eighteen months. The Western world barely gets so it can spell the name of the new 'dictator or president when a new one enters upon the scene*

Yet with all its changes of government the people of Oreece are a singularly industrious and highly moral people* Confronted with finding homes for 1,350,000 Greek refugees driven from Asia Minor in 1922 it is the universal testimony of all relief workers that the material problems created by the inhuman congestion, promiscuity and animal misery, have not been complicated by any moral problem whatever. A remarkable tribute to a remarkably fine people.

The coming of these refugees has been a wonderful blessing in disguise. They have' brought splendid physiques, new blood, new intelligence, new industries, and all Greece is feeling the impulse of their presence, even though, in spite of all the help afforded by the Western world, thousands of them starved before they could adapt themselves to the new conditions.

Crops and Industries

THE 50,000 square miles of Greece contains about six million acres of cultivated land. While some grain is grown, yet Greece is essentially a fruit-growing country, a land of figs, almonds, olives, oranges, citrons, melons, grapes, and especially of currants. Other important items of export are lead, zinc ore, manganese iron ore, tobacco and sponges. The population of the country is estimated at 6,200,000.

Greece at present is in the midst of what might be called a boom, due to the presence of the refugees hitherto mentioned. They have given Greece a great rug industry, and have made Piraeus, the seaport of Athens, next to Marseilles and Genoa, the principal port of the Mediterranean.

Today Athens is a city of nearly a million people. It has inherited most of the commerce of both Smyrna and Constantinople. Roads are being built and rebuilt. Automobiles swarm everywhere. Houses are rising on all sides. New railroads are being built. Waste lands are being tilled. Swamps are being drained. The great city of Saloniki has been rebuilt.

The Greeks are born traders and their intimate knowledge of the East has enabled them to keep their trade with the lands from which they were expatriated. The last industrial census reports 2,213 factories at Piraeus and elsewhere.

The domestic animals are sheep and goats. The ovens of Greek homes are usually in the courtyards of the homes. The fuel consists of twigs brought in by donkeys, almost the only fuel in the country. The pigs, once famous, have deteriorated since the days of Pericles, and new and better stock has been imported from America* Greece will start in the pig business anew.

A Few Bits of History

A BOUT a thousand years B. C. a people of German or Teutonic origin invaded Greece from the North and made the original inhabitants, the Helots, as they were called, their slaves, while they devoted their attention to the noble process of government and fighting among themselves.

Divided into four parties, JEolians, Dorians, Achaeans and lonians, the Greeks never became a nation in the modern sense of the word, but when a city became overpopulated they just swarmed like bees and established a new and independent city. In this way the Greek civilization spread over the isles of the TEgean sea, the shores of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea.

In 338 B. C., Philip, king of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great, began taking over the control of Greece; and his son finished the task of making these little free and independent states into a single province of his vast empire. In 146 B. C. it became a part of the Roman Empire; and when that empire was divided Greece fell into the eastern half.

From the capture of Constantinople, in 1453, the Greeks were under Mohammedan rule. After several unsuccessful attempts they gained their liberty in 1829, following the annihilation of the Turkish fleet off Navarino, October, 1827, by the combined fleets of Britain, France and Russia. The allied powers placed a Bavarian prince on the throne.

When 1914 came around, the then king of Greece, Constantine, admittedly the most popular monarch in Europe, happened to have the ill fortune to have as his wife a sister of Wilhelm II of Germany. This placed him in ill favor with the Allies, although all he sought

for his country was the privilege of living in peace.

The Allies made Venizelos, Prime Minister, dictator of the country. Venizelos distinguished himself by dismissing outright 9,057 public officials and deporting, banishing or imprisoning everybody who disagreed with him, including the king himself. The Allies ordered him to send a division of Greek troops into Russia in the foolish attempt of the French under Denikin to overthrow the strong Soviet government. Only a remnant of these was left. Venizelos, idolized by the Western press, was unpopular at home.

The Allies Betray Greece

WHEN peace was declared the Allies awarded Greece a mandate for a good part of Asia Minor, but everybody understood that this meant the moral, financial and military backing of France and Britain. Fed by false hopes the Greeks rushed into a part of the world where no other army would have undertaken to go, and deserted by their allies they suffered a terrible defeat. French cannon in the hands of the Turks were their undoing.

On their retreat to the 2Egean shore the Greeks made the great mistake of burning Turkish cities and villages as they went and thereby incurred not only the condemnation of all nations but the merciless fury of the Turks, culminating in their exile from lands where their ancestors had lived for more than two thousand years.

In a revolution in Greece subsequent to their ^; defeat the leaders of the Greek army in Asia Minor were seized in . a cowardly manner and : put to death, along with five of the Royalist Ministers. Greece is now nominally a republic, but actually a military dictatorship.

Illiteracy in Greece itself is still very high, ? being 30 percent in the army recruits. Military f. service is compulsory and almost universal. Al-■ though almost bankrupt as a state, there has < been a lavish expenditure to carry out a useless program of military, aeronautical and ; naval development. The Devil's organization still has Greece by the. throat. Elections are ; less regular and honest than could be desired.

The Paris of the Levant

THE popular name by which Athens is called is “The Paris of the Levant”. For three thousand years it has been a center of

art and education, and even now has two ■l                                                                                                                                                                                          <

universities with an attendance of ten thousand students. Its sculptors were unsurpassed in their own day or since.

Ancient Athens had a population of about 200,000. In 529 A. D. the Emperor Justinian closed its schools and it ceased to be a center

of intellectual activity. The Parthenon was turned into a church of the Virgin Mary. The Parthenon remained almost entire until the

siege of Athens by the Venetians, in 1687, when it was seriously damaged. The word “Parthenon” means the Temple of Athena Par the nos (the virgin).

The Parthenon was 228 feet long, 101 feet -wide and 66 feet high, and was finished in 438 B. C., under the administration of Pericles. It had columns on all sides, eight at either front apd seventeen at each side, counting the corner columns hvice. The columns were six feet in

diameter at the base and thirty-four feet high. Inside the temple stood the statue of Athena (for whom the city is named), a masterpiece by Phidias, 421£ feet high, the unclothed portions of ivory, the drapery of plates of gold.

American engineers are building a new water supply system for Athens and a new port for Piraeus. The city is being laid out all anew. A’ new house of Parliament, new administrative buildings, wide boulevards lined with trees and many fountains will be features of the new city.

Thirty acres of old Athens have been laid aside as an archeological reservation. Forty American universities will cooperate in the most careful excavation ever given any archeological site. A Temple of Youth is an important feature of the new Athens.

Most Greeks and many other people feel that at this time Britain should return to

Greece the Parthenon sculptures, now in the British Museum, carried thither by Lord Elgin in 1802. It is claimed that Lord Elgin stole these and that an institution of the standing of the great British Museum ought not to har-bor stolen goods.

Corinth, Olympia, Thessaloniea

CORINTH, in the days of the Apostle Paul, was a center of the world's commerce, and the acknowledged center of the world's moral depravity, so much so that the nuns or

priestesses of Aphrodite, the goddess of the city, were known far and wide for their beauty, culture and immorality. In Corinth immorality was a religion, as in many other places before and since. This accounts for some things in Paul's epistles to the Corinthians.

Farther south and west in the Peloponnesus, or Morea, as the part of Greece south of the Corinthian canal is called, was Olympia, not a city at all, but a valley or plain where at one time were as many as three thousand statues of the gods (demons) and of victors in the Olvmnic games. Thousands of fragments of sculptures, bronzes, coins, terra-cottas, etc., have been recovered from Olympia, principally by German archeologists. The originals remain in Greece, but copies are at Berlin.

Saloniki, northernmost of Grecian cities, is the Thessalonica where Paul preached and to the Christians of which he addressed two of his epistles. The present city rises from the sea in triangular, picturesque form, and the surrounding cypresses, the oriental architecture, the mingling of antiquities and modern ’trade and transportation conveniences add much to the striking birdseye view of the place.

Crete and Other Islands V

CRETE is eighty miles south of Greece and two hundred thirty miles north of Africa.

It is 160 miles long and averages twenty miles across. Its highest peak, Psiloriti, 8,060 feet high, is always snow-capped. The air is mild. Agriculture and trade of all kinds is at a low ebb. Most of the harbors are silted up. Education and the amenities of civilized life are almost entirely absent. The population, 344,000, is about, one-fourth what it was two thousand years ago. Greece has not had Crete long.

The Ionian Islands, Corfu, Ithaca, etc., located off the western and southern shores of Greece, often figure in history. They are ex-extremely mountainous and do not contain enough arable land to maintain the population, except as their fruits are exchanged for grains grown elsewhere. The total area of 1,117 square miles supports a population of about 227,000.

The Cyclades, the principal group of islands in the Grecian archipelago to the east are generally mountainous. They produce the usual southern fruits and large quantities of marble, limestone, slate and other building materials. John the apostle was confined on Patmos, a similiar island on the opposite side of the 2Egean sea, one of the so-called Sporades Isles.

Events in Canada By Our Canadian Correspondent

MATTER of much interest to farmers everywhere is a wonderful variety of wheat that has been developed by the staff of the Department of Agriculture of Canada and known as Reward wheat. The Toronto Mail and Empire speaking thereof editorially says:

It was revealed that the sample of wheat with which the Manitoba Agricultural College won a first prize at the Royal Winter Fair here was of the Reward t-

variety. Now Hon. W. R. Motherwell, the Dominion Minister of Agriculture, has disclosed that the sample of hard spring wheat with which Mr. Herman Trelle, of Wembley, Alberta, won a first prize at the international exhibition in Chicago was of the same variety. Mr. Motherwell has announced that a thousand bushels of the grain has been distributed to some four or five hundred farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta to be tested on their farms and also, no doubt, to be multiplied so that larger supplies of it may be available as seed next year. The new wheat has been subjected to certain tests already on experimental farms, on the experimental plots of agricultural colleges, and on the farms of certain seed growers. These tests, Mr. Motherwell has asserted at Regina, have shown that Reward has the strongest straw of possibly any known wheat, that it ripens earlier than Marquis wheat, but not quite so early as Garnet, that it is less liable to rust infection than other varieties, and that it yields a flour “without spot or blemish”.

The production of this wheat is an event of considerable importance to the country. It has demonstrated once more the usefulness of scientific research in a branch of agriculture. Such research, carried on by the late Dr. William Saunders and his sons, brought forth the Marquis wheat. That result of patient experimenting contributed much to the expansion of wheat growing in the prairie region and has been of great financial advantage to the farmers of that part

of Canada and to the Dominion as a whole. The cerealists have- continued their work, and a year or more ago cave Garnet wheat to the western farmers, o o

This grain does not supersede the Marquis, but, since it matures in a shorter period of time than the Marquis, it can be used to advantage in sections of the country where the growing season is short. It was grown during the present year in large quantities in the Peace River district. The newest variety, the Reward wheat, will be welcomed by the farmers if it for immunity from rust. Introduction of a really rust-proof wheat into Western Canada would render harmless a cause of heavy crop losses in the past, and benefit the Dominion at large.

A Raffle for Souls

UNDER the heading “A Raffle for Souls in

Mexico” the Christian Endeavor World publishes a remarkable notice of a raffle for souls in a Roman Catholic church in Mexico, as furnished by Rev. Francis S. Borton, a missionary in that country. It reminds one of John Tetzel’s public sales of papal indulgences in Germany, in 1517, which aroused Luther to post his famous ninety-five theses, or protests, on the doors of the Castle church at Wittenberg. The notice reads as follows:

Yesterday in a Roman Catholic church in Mexico I read the following notice:

‘‘Raffle for souls. At the last Raffle for Souls the following numbers obtained the prize, and the lucky holders may be assured that their loved ones are for ever released from the pains of Purgatory:

“Ticket 841. The soul of the lawyer James Vasquey is released from Purgatory, and ushered into heavenly -joys.

“Ticket 41. The soul of Madame Calderon is made happy for ever.

“Ticket 762. The soul of the aged widow Pfancesca de Parras is for ever released from the flames of Purgatory.

“Another Raffle for Souls will be held at this same blessed church of the Redeemer on January 1st, at which four bleeding and tortured souls will be released from Purgatory.”

Preparing for Reforestation

THE Globe of Toronto, contains the following news item from New Westminster,

B. C.

In order that land in England, Australia and Eastern Canada, now denuded of large trees, might again be covered with forests, an extensive tree seed extrac-y

tion plant has been established here, believed the biggest of its kind in the world.

Today in Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia there are thriving forests of evergreen trees four feet high from the first year’s seeds sent out of here.

The yield of cones for 1926 was the best since the work started. The seed gatherers brought in 2,686 sacks of Douglas fir cones, 1,545 sacks of spruce, 187 sacks of cedar, 767 sacks of long needle pine and 27 sacks of hemlock cones.

Collecting the cones is largely the summer work of women and children, but men agile enough to climb far out on thin limbs bring in the largest loads. The cones are sacked in the forests and later gathered into piles for hauling out on trucks over the abandoned logging roads. In isolated sections, where cones are abundant, the canoes of. Indians are pressed into service.

At the seed barns the cones are spread out on a drying floor made of finely meshed wire-netting some three feet above the board floor. As the drying proceeds the cones open, scattering the seeds through the screen to the floor below. After completely drying out the seeds are run through a fanning mill to get rid of pulp and the filmy tails used in nature to fiy long distances.

In the forests cone pickers receive $1.50 to $2.00 a sack, which is very good money in seasons when cone bearing is heavy.

The Drift Northward

CANADA is only now awakening to the enormous wealth that has been hidden away in its north lands. Speaking thereof under the caption, “The Drift Northward,” the Vancouver Daily Province has the following to say:

From time to time, during the past year or so, The Province has called attention to the drift northward in Canada. This pushing out into the undeveloped regions is one of the most striking facts connected with the present-day development of the Dominion. Every province which has a virgin north is unrolling its map. In Quebec, new cities are growing up in the Lake St. John region, and there is great activity about Rouyn. In Ontario, the northern frontier is being pushed forward toward James Bay. In British Columbia and Alberta interest has revived in the Peace River country. And in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, there are plans afoot for great development about the Plin Pion mine and along the route of the Hudson Bay Railway,

Mostly, in the North, the development has to do with mining property, pulpwood and water power. In the Peace River country, of course, and in the Ontario clay belt, there are farm lands of great extent and fertility, and there are said to be farm lands also in the vicinity of the Hudson Bay line. These, it is understood, are to be opened for homestead entry,

A Traveler in Germany

TRAVELER in Germany reports that cab drivers, hotel employes and policemen are uniformly courteous and reliable, the entire countryside resembles a well-ordered park, the streets are spotlessly clean, the homes within and without are spotlessly clean and orderly, hotel and dining-room service is perfect, tips are not accepted and there are no slums.

Bits of the World’s News

f Big Business Robs the Sugar Bowl

■          Business, i. e., a certain great Wall

i Street bank, has perfected an elegant f scheme for robbing the American people of a \ hundred million dollars a year through in-Ij.

f creased prices for sugar. Cuba controls the sugar business of the world, and Wall Street controls the sugar business of Cuba. In a few months the practical outworkings of the plan by which Cuba will get a hundred million dollars a year more for her sugar and America will pay that amount in addition to what she now pays will be apparent to everybody. It has taken a few years for the bank that pulled off the sugar steal a few years ago to perfect this plan, but the details have now all been arranged through the Cuban legislature and all the American people will have to do hereafter is to pay the bill, as always.

Cuba Under a Dictator

NOMINALLY free Cuba is actually under the control of a dictator, Gerardo Machado, official representative of the one and one-quarter billion dollars which Wall Street interests have invested in the Cuban sugar business. Machado has made a great name for himself by his ruthlessness in terminating strikes, suppressing unions, exploiting lotteries and buying Cuban members of congress. He is now busily engaged in putting through the Cuban congress a series of measures that will keep him in office for two years beyond the time for which he was elected.

How to Avoid Lockjaw

THE United States Health Service, noting that lockjaw occasionally follows vaccination, thinks that it can be avoided by not shielding or dressing the wound, but leaving it open to the air. This sounds likg common sense. In other words, nature has a much better chance to get rid of the filthy pus if the wound is left open. There is still a better way to avoid lockjaw caused by vaccination and that is to avoid the vaccination itself and give nature a fair chance, when it is not necessary. Moreover, vaccination is proven, by thousands of cases, to be no prevention against the taking of smallpox.

Farming May Be Possible Everywhere

John L. Hodgson, Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers of Great Britain, a man with great experience in the deep mines of South Africa, has written a most interesting article for the New York Times indicating two ways by which, in his judgment, shafts may be sunk to a depth of five to thirty miles beneath the earth’s surface, and a continuous supply of heat obtained which would make farming possible in any lands and at any season of the year. In the five-mile shafts the work of shaft sinking would be done by workers in air-cooled suits, and in the deeper shafts wholly by mechanical means.

Might Have Given Him Another Cent or Two

A N IOWA farmer raised chickens, fed them and cared for them until they produced eggs which he sold by the crate at eighteen cents a dozen. The crate was traced to New York, where a Brooklyn grocer paid sixty cents a dozen for the same eggs. One would almost think, if he dared, that the farmer could have been given another two cents, so that he would have received a third of the wholesale price; but not so, not so.

Two Families Control Japan

T) aul Wright, an American newspaper cor-respondent traveling in Japan, declares that practically the whole of Japan is now in the hands of two families, the Mitsui and Mitsubishi groups. All the great industries of the country, and even the government itself, are under the control of either one or the other of these two families. ■|

What Makes Us a Christian Nation

WHEN the Continental Oil Company of Texas loaned the use of their grounds - for an ice-cream supper the West Amarillo Christian Church Auxiliary wrote to them thanking them for their kindness, all of which was proper enough, and then added, “It is through such kindness and courtesy and help that we are known as a Christian nation.” All will be glad to know this, and how easy it is to be a Christian. Even if one is a Jew and lets some church, no matter what church, have . free use of some of his property for some kind of money-raising scheme, that makes the Jew a regular Christian. Does it? Or if it does not make him a Christian it at least makes all the rest of us Christians and therefore sure of our own individual jewsharp and reserved seat on a cloud throughout all eternity. Some system! Eh! What!

Ocean Television a Fact

T IS declared that television between London and New York has been actually accomplished, and, although the features were indistinct, faces and hands had been seen across the Atlantic Ocean. It is claimed that the experiments were conducted with absolute secrecy, and this is evidently true because the largest concerns in radio know nothing of the experiments.

Impossibility of the Interest System

HE impossibility of the interest system is strikingly shown in a full-page editorial in the New York Sunday American in which it is figured that six cents, found in a child's bank buried in Carthage twenty-five hundred years ago, if placed at compound interest for that time, would have earned a sum equal to a sphere of solid gold with a diameter five million times greater than the distance from the earth to the sun. All should be able to see from this how absolutely ridiculous and impossible the interest system is and how surely any civilization which is based upon it, as is ours, must perish long before twenty-five hundred years have come and gone. The modern crime of interest is only a few hundred years old. The Bible forbids it.

From an Old Soldier

FEW days ago alady called at my address and left a book of some fifty-nine or sixty pages, entitled Freedom for the Peoples.

I write now as an old soldier who has served in more than one war, or what might be more appropriately named, more than one human slaughter. This inhuman work was carried on under the cloak of patriotism to our nation. After reading the little book I no longer consider myself as being a soldier. My proper and most appropriate title would be that of a hired assassin and a legalized murderer, to satisfy the greed for power and prestige of those at the head of the big interests.

And I might state a truth, as it is written in that little book, that the slaves who were shackled by the preachings of those hypocritical preachers were so imbued with the spirit of a so-called patriotism; and those hypocritical preachers that preached them forth were paid for the work that they were doing. Of course the Volstead and the Ontario (Canada) Temperance acts were not in existence at the time of which I now speak. Therefore there was no prohibition as to the amount of the liquids of patriotism one cared to imbibe.

But after reading Judge Rutherford's little book I have arrived at the conclusion that the book should be better known and read by those who have suffered in the hardships of war.

Therefore, the one that was left at my address I have forwarded to an old chum who had served with me in war. I have asked him to make this little book known throughout every corner of the British Isles. And so I am now without one myself. I will appreciate the favor very much if it is possible to forward to me all of Judge Rutherford's works. I am, dear sir, asking this as a favor. Had I the money I would willingly send on the price of such valuable literature, which to my way of thinking is built on the very foundation of truth.

But of course we slaves that have been of the classes are not supposed to be sane, nor have we the right to voice our feelings, seeing that our only duty is to the representatives of the big interests, to look after their (the big interests') welfare; and to see to it that none of the money-grabbing lords of Wall Street, or other big financial interests (which the so-called human leeches represent), shall ever he in want, or that they shall ever be so humiliated as to have to go forth and fight for themselves. But above all, we slaves must make sure that those rattlesnakes in human shape must live in a fine dwelling and have an up-to-date car to drive in.

The reason I send this, in confidence, is that I am a pensioner of the British Army. And I must be very, very careful in what I say or do.

NENT the communication in The Golden Age, No. 220, page 326, by your correspondent on the use of aluminum. I too have been a constant reader of The Golden Age from the first number to the present, and have always noted that it has for its aim justice and truth for all, without fear or favor, whether friend or foe, and have always felt that I could rely absolutely on what I saw printed therein.

Now first of all in my reply to the communication, I want to make it clear that this letter is not coming from a supporter or beneficiary of the aluminum interests; but I do believe in justice to all.

Any chemist will tell you that soap when put into solution with water undergoes a partial hydrolysis which liberates a portion of the alkali used in the production of the soap; and since alkalies are the natural solvents for aluminum,

J. Starwait (Chemist)

I am not at all surprised at the results your correspondent obtained by using an aluminum vessel for making a soap solution. Her experiences with her hair were the same as she would have had, had she put either alum, lime or sugar of lead into the soap solution, because in either case she would get an insoluble soap, known in chemistry and pharmaceutical circles as a plaster of a very gummy or sticky nature* L

The trouble could have been corrected very easily by washing her hair with lemon juice or a weak vinegar water, which would have removed the undesirable soap and have done no injury to her hair.

Moral: Never let a soap solution stand for any period of time in a metal vessel, or especially a vessel made of aluminum, brass or copper.

II             ¹               ........... ■               I I II                                    l<

h

No Need to Get Excited

N PAGE 43 of the magazine Correct Eating is a nice full-column advertisement of aluminum ware, backed up by a nine-page attack on The Golden Age and on Doctor Betts for daring to publish an article questioning whether aluminum as a plating for one’s insides is all that it ought to be.

Doctor Alsaker, writer of the article, gets quite excited, so much so, in fact, that he uses the personal pronoun “I” a total of eighty-five times in the one article, but there is no need for all this distress of mind. The Golden ’Age has no thought of trying to get any of this advertising aw’ay from Correct Eating. Maybe after a while, we may let Doctor Betts reply to him. We shall see. Meantime it is best to be calm.

One thing is sure, however, and that is that the aluminum people ought to be pretty well pleased with Doctor Alsakeffs efforts, and if they do not come across with several full-page advertisements it will show that they are most ungrateful. Quite a number of other journals have taken up the hue and cry, no doubt with hope of some similar reward. “Verily they have their reward.”

Good Situations Open

4^r'

HE Golden Age has been requested by a large manufacturing institution to recommend good men or women for the following positions: traveling salesmen and city salesmen, head bookkeeper, stenographer and assistant bookkeeper, manager advertising department, collector of accounts. Young men and women in the truth who have to make some money for dependents might find these positions desirable. Saturday afternoons and Sundays could be devoted to canvassing with other members of the class. This is merely to assist some one who needs a place. Write us and we will refer your application to the manufacturer. The situations are in Iowa. Only competent persons who are willing to work will be recommended.

The Way of Reconstruction

Part II

[Broadcast from Station WBBR,

New York, by Judge Rutherford.]

HE ruling factors of this world are exceedingly selfish. Doubtless the majority of mankind are moved by selfish desires. But among the people there are without doubt many men and women of good will possessing an honest and sincere desire not only to see their own condition improved but to see the people generally receiving benefits. The evidence is abundant, and many are familiar with it, that for centuries past there have been organizations of men seeking to better their fellow creatures. Philanthropists have suggested a theory; single-taxers a theory; dieticians a theory; and health specialists a theory; and there are numerous religious systems, each holding out some way that claims to benefit the human race*

'After many centuries of effort and experience the people are convinced that no human theory can accomplish the desired end. Those who think soberly inquire, What is the right way? Is there a sure way whereby we may know that man can be improved and ultimately enjoy the blessings of life, liberty and happi-ness? These questions find answers in the Scriptures. Because these answers come from the Lord they are true and they satisfy the desire of man* Upon them he can confidently rely.

From the beginning God has been working out His great plan majestically and orderly and each part He has caused to be performed in His own due time. The evidence is abundant that the time is at hand when He will begin to reveal to the people in general His way that leads to a reconstruction of the world and to the blessing of the people according to the promise which He made to Abraham four thousand years ago.

The Right Way

THROUGH His holy prophet God tells of His provision to teach the people and lead them in the right way. “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." -—Isaiah 35: 8.

“Highway" means a plain way by which to ger to a place or goal. It means a smooth way to travel, with, nothing to interfere or hinder.

Of course this does not mean a literal road to travel; the word highway is used as a figure of speech, meaning that God has provided a plain way for the people to return to Him, so plain that all may know about it, and that all who will mav avail themselves of its benefits* “A way" is specifically mentioned in this text, and it is designated as “The way of holiness". A “highway" is a plain way that leads to the goal, whereas “the way" means the fixed or appointed rules of action which every one will be required to strictly observe in order to pass over the highway to the end. It is called “The way of holiness" because it is right, pure and holy. If a man faithfully observes the rules he will be aided in making progress on the highway. If he refuses to obey the rules, and therefore refuses to walk according to “the way", he will not be permited to go to the end of the highway. The goal of perfection and blessings is at the end of the highway, and the way to reach it is to do the right thing. No unclean person shall be permitted to go to the end thereof. All who enter upon the highway will be unclean at the time they enter, because imperfect. If these, however, observe the way of holiness, and walk according thereto, they will be cleaned up. As progress is made in the way of righteousness and holiness the one continuing to pass along the highway will continue to progress until he ultimately reaches the end thereof.

The way will be so plain and clear that no one will have a just cause or excuse for not knowing it. Why shall there be no reason for any to err therein? Because, as the scripture answers: “No lion shall be there." (Isaiah 35:9) “Lion" is a figure of speech, here used to represent the Devil. (1 Peter 5:8) Neither Satan nor any other devil will be permitted to be on that highway, or to interfere with any one who goes upon it. No “ravenous beast shall go up thereon". That means that there will be no more devil organizations, composed of profiteers, politicians and pulpiteers, to prey upon the people or to mislead and oppress them. Nothing of that kind will be found there. “Ravenous beast" is used here to symbolize the DeviFs organization. God w^Till clean out all of these things be-

fore restoration begins, and thus give man a clear uninterrupted opportunity to prove whether or not he wants to be blessed.

May we hope that the people will ever be delivered from this sad state and enter into the joys of peace, prosperity, life, liberty and happiness? Now we shall find an answer to this question.

Blindness Removed

T THE present time these words of the prophet are fulfilled: 'Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people? (Isaiah 60:2) The mass of mankind is in complete ignorance of God's provisions for the blessing of the people. Satan the enemy is chiefly responsible for this blindness. (2 Corinthians 4: 3,4) Such is the blindness that caused the Jews to be cast away from God.

Then this same prophet continues: "But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." (Isaiah 60: 2) The apostle declares that their blindness shall be removed when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; which means, when the last member of the kingdom has been selected from the Gentiles and glorified with the Lord. "There shall come out of Sion [God's organization] the Deliverer [Messiah], and shall turn away ungodliness from [the descendants of] Jacob." (Romans 11: 25, 26) At this time there is a vail of darkness over the eyes of the people, which prevents them from seeing God's loving-kindness and provision for their help; but in the kingdom one of the first operations of the Lord will be to remove that vail of blindness, that the people may be able to understand. "And he will destroy in this kingdom the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations."—Isaiah 25: 7.

Jesus declared concerning the Word of God, the Bible: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." (John 17:17) The people must know the truth in order that they might be blessed, and then they must obey the truth before the blessings will be realized. But suppose they do not accept and do not obey the truth, then what will be the result?

The Disobedient

HE Lord will not force any one to accept the truth; but He will compel all to obey

the truth when they hear it, or else suffer the consequences. The only way back to God and happiness will be to travel oyer the highway according to the way of holiness. Those who refuse to hear the instruction of the Lord concerning this way shall suffer punishment, which punishment will consist of everlasting destruction.

Moses wrote concerning Jesus, his antitype, and how all the people would have to obey Him during His reign. "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which wilk not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." (Acts 3:22,23) This punishment is declared to be everlasting destruction. (2 Thessalonians 1:9) It is in harmony with the statement of the prophet: "The Lord pre-serveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy." (Psalm 145: 20) Then every man will die for his own iniquity, and no man shall suffer for another's iniquity. (Jeremiah 31:29,30) Then if a man has started to do right, and turns away from it and does wickedly, he shall die. (Ezekiel 18:26) The Lord will give a fair and full opportunity to every one who shows a desire to do the right thing; but those who wilfully refuse to hear and obey the Lord shall be so completely removed that they will be no more a hindrance to themselves nor to any one else.

Requirements

HE laws of Jehovah are unchangeable. His fixed rules apply to all of His intelligent

creatures. He lays down in His Word the general rules that shall govern those who enter upon the highway. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8) This means that man will be required to do justly; that is to say, to do that which is right; and he will be taught that which is right, so that he can not mistake which is the right way to pursue. It means that he must love mercy and practise it. If he sees his fellow creature struggling along the highway, he must have a sincere and honest desire to help him, and be kind and considerate with him. This law means also that he? must walk humbly with God; that is to say, he must be willingly obedient to the laws of God. The new covenant hereinbefore mentioned will set out in detail the fundamental laws and the statutes governing mankind during the period of reconstruction. To walk humbly before the Lord means that each one will be required to acquaint himself with these laws and to obey them strictly.

Now many people have difficulty in knowing always what is right, but then there will be no such difficulty whatsoever. Every one who wants to do right and who tries to do right will be aided in doing the right thing.

Blessings for the Obedient

WHEN the great Creator placed man in Eden He gave him life and the right thereto, which right was to continue eternally, upon the condition that man would be completely obedient to the law of God. All the blessings of the creature depended upon having life. The blessings aside from life are, peace, prosperity, health, liberty and happiness.

Because man disobeyed the law of God the great Creator took away from him life and the right thereto, and the blessings incident to life. In the exercise of His loving-kindness God will now open the way for full restoration, that man may gain all these blessings, provided man meets the divine requirements.

Reconstruction then will mean the bringing of the human race up from sin and degradation, and leading the race over the highway. Restoration will mean that at the end of the highway there will be given back to man the blessings that, he originally enjoyed; to wit, life in its fulness, with all the blessings incident thereto. Such is what God has promised. “And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” —Acts 3: 20, 21.

All the holy prophets of God foretold the coming day of restoration. The ancient worthies who won God’s approval had great faith concerning that day, and for this reason they willingly endured anything that they might have the blessings of God and see their fellow creatures enjoy such blessings in God’s due time.

Peace

WHEN the people begin to learn of the highway and the way of holiness that leads to life they will say to each other: “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain [symbolic of Messiah’s kingdom] of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he [the Lord] will teach us of his ways [the way of holiness, the right way], and we will walk in his paths,” and learn His law. (Isaiah 2:3) The Prince of Peace is one of the titles of the great Messiah. He shall rule in peace and establish peace for ever. (Isaiah 9:6,7) When His judgments are in the earth the inhabitants will learn righteousness. (Isaiah 26:9) They will learn peace and have no more war. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2: 4) Then every one shall dwell in peace, and nobody shall make them afraid. (Micah 4:4) They shall have peace for evermore.

Prosperity

TJOVERTY has been one of the curses resuiting from sin. The land and the houses have been held by the few who possess sharper wits than others. The weaker ones have build-ed houses while the stronger and unscrupulous have owned them. The weaker have been crowded into inadequate and even filthy quarters, and have been pinched by cold and hunger because they could not provide things needful for themselves and their loved ones. It will not be so under the Messianic reign. The land belongs to the Lord. (Leviticus 25:23) He will see to it that it is properly apportioned amongst the people, so that all may have some place to live. Then every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and every man shall build his own house and live in it.—Micah 4:4; Isaiah 65: 21, 22.

One part of the curse upon man was that he should earn his bread in the sweat of his brow. From Eden until now man has had to fight amongst the thorns and thistles and weeds and many other hindrances, while trying to produce food for himself and for his family. The Lord in His own good way will teach man how to eliminate the weeds, briars and thistles, that his crops may grow and yield an abundance, and that without laborious effort.

“Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah 55:13) “I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the <                                                                                                                                              I

myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together.” (Isaiah 41:19) “The wilderness, and the solitary place, shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.” (Isaiah 35:1,2) “Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.”—Psalm 67: 6.

Then the hovels of poverty, vice, and ignorance will quickly disappear, and plenty will be the portion of the people; and they shall rejoice. “And in this kingdom shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast uf wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” (Isaiah 25:6) Pestilence and blight shall be removed, and the land that once lay desolate shall become a place of joy and a delight. “Thus saith the Lord God, In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.”—Ezekiel 36: 33-35.

Health

WHY are the asylums full of the insane and the hospitals overrun with the sick and the infirm? Because of disease of mind and body, the result of sin. The loving heart of Jesus was moved with compassion when the sick and the afflicted came to Him and He healed many of them. (Matthew 9: 35, 36) Jesus was born under the law (Galatians 4:4) and fulfilled the law. (Matthew 5:17) The things of the law foreshadowed better things to come. (Hebrews 10:1) Therefore the healing of the sick, the opening of the eyes of the blind and the giving of strength to the infirm but foreshadowed the greater work that Jesus Christ will do during the Millennial reign.

The Prophet Job described the miserable and unhappy condition of the sick and afflicted human race. (Job 33:18-22) Then the prophet mentions the Messenger, who is the Messiah. The Messenger is the one who interprets God's Word and makes it plain, so that man may know the way and go over the highway in the way of holiness. When suffering humanity receives knowledge from the great Messenger, he (man) is represented as responding: “I have found inv redeemer.”

The prophet then continues: “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness; then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him; and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.”—Job 33:23-26.

The Lord will teach the people how to eat, how to exercise, how to sleep, how to think, and how to learn to obey righteousness; and will heal them and make them well, as it is written; “Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.” (Jeremiah 33:6) “And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.”—Isaiah 33: 24.

Life

LIFE, as here used, means existence, and the right to exist and to enjoy all the blessings incident thereto. Jesus came to earth that the people might have life. (John 10:10) He said: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3) Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection, purchased for man the right to life. As the people progress on the highway, going in the way of holiness, the Lord will gradually reconstruct them; that is to say, He will bless them with peace, prosperity, health and strength. There are billions of people who are wicked, because of the wicked influence of Satan the enemy. This wicked work the Lord will undo for all of those who are willing to have it undone. If these wicked ones turn away from their wickedness and go on up the highway, in the way of holiness and righteousness, they will gradually be reconstructed; and continuing to the end thereof, will be granted the right to live for ever. “When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die/’—Ezekiel 18:27,28.

It will be the obedient ones who will be given the* right to eternal life and who will live, as Jesus stated: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” (John 8:51) Then he that lives and believes on (which means to obey) the Lord shall live and not die. (John 11: 26) The reign of Christ will destroy all of man’s enemies, and “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.”—1 Corinthians 15:26, 27.

The faithful shall live for ever and never die, receiving from the Lord the right to live.

A                               * —J

This blessing is now about to begin, hence it may be properly said that millions now living will never die; because the presumption is that millions, after knowing of the fact of God’s love, will be willing to avail themselves of the opportunity for life.

Destruction of the Devil

URING the entire time of the progress of the human race upon the great highway,

Satan the enemy will be incarcerated in prison so that he can not deceive any one. (Revelation 20:1-3) It is a fixed rule of God’s plan that He will grant eternal life to no one without such an one proving his loyalty and faithfulness under the test. At the end of the highway, which is at the end of the thousand years, Satan is to be turned loose that he may try his hand once more at deceiving the people and turning them away from God. Evidently Jehovah proceeds upon the theory that any one who has received full knowledge of Satan’s

course and the great wickedness and sorrow he has wrought in the earth, and w^Tho has then also learned of God’s loving-kindness; and who, after all this, deliberately turns away from the truth, does not deserve to live.

The Scriptures show that Satan, at the end of the Millennium, will be allowed to go forth to gather together all whom he can induce to follow him. All who then follow Satan shall be everlastingly destroyed, and the Devil himself shall then be destroyed. The Devil’s system, and all of his works, will be for ever a stench in the nostrils of the righteous people who survive; hence it may be properly said that the Devil and his wickedness will be a torment for ever.—Revelation 20:7-10.

Revelation is written in symbolic language. Tn plain phrase the apostle tells us that the Devil shall be for ever destroyed. (Hebrews 2114) The term “second death” means complete destruction. Then, as the scripture shows, shall follow the destruction of death itself; and the destruction of hell, the tomb, the condition of death. (Revelation 20:14) Death will be destroyed by raising up all the obedient ones to life. When the Devil and all of his followers are completely destroyed there will be a clean, pure and holy universe.

Liberty

ESUS declared that those who follow the truth will in due time be free. (John 8: 32)

Liberty does not mean license to do evil. It means freedom from restraint and bondage and sin, sickness, sorrow, crime, evil influence and death. With all of this destroyed the human race will be completely delivered and will enjoy life and happiness for evermore. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write; for these words are true and Taithful.”—Revelation 21:4, 5.

Happiness

ISOBEDIENCE to God’s law and a departure from the path of righteousness was

thT cause of all unhappiness. It follows then that to walk in the way of righteousness and to return fully to the favor of God will result in r April 4, 1928 ■

I complete happiness to man. The Lord Jesus I has proven His complete loyalty to Jehovah, and He is happy for evermore. He declared I that to know and to do God’s will brings happi-; ness. (John 13:17) God’s purpose is to gather together under one head, Christ Jesus,^z all the ! obedient creatures of the universe, as it is j written: “That in the dispensation of the ful-i ness of times he might gather together in one ; all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” (Ephe-I sians 1:10) Then all the redeemed of the human race will come unto the Lord with songs | of gladness upon their lips, and sorrow shall i flee away. That will be a happy time! (Isaiah 35:10) All the people will then be happy be-r cause they will be in harmony with God.

“Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.” —Psalm 144:15.

Happiness is a condition of blessedness. The restored human race will then know that God k

J is love and that He is their true and ever-h"

[ lasting friend. Then the people will dwell to-i gether in contentment in the house (organiza-j tion) of God. Eternal happiness will be their > portion. They will be for ever praising the : great Jehovah God. The prophet utters appropriate speech for the restored ones:

“How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! Aly soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee: in whose heart are the ways of them. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and.glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.”—Psalm 84:1-5, 11, 12.

The Perfect Day

HE prophet of God likens the kingdom on earth to two great mountains, the one on

the north and the other on the south, with a great valley between, known as the valley of blessings, the valley of happiness.—Zechariah 14:4.

It is the spring of the thirtieth century. A thousand years have passed since the nation was born. A day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. (2 Peter 3:8) Come to the mountain that from there we may take a view of the valley of blessing. Observe that the sun shines in that valley from morning until evening. It is always bright in that valley. Look at the indescribable combinations of colors, both of flowers and trees. Evervthing has li Ie. The cherry trees are in bloom, likewise the orange and magnolia; the roses, the hyacinths, the carnations, the honevsuckles and many like beautiful flowers line the valley, sprinkling with smiles its green velvet carpet. The air is laden with sweet perfume, wafted by the soft south wind that sings through the trees. Itis the mating time, and the little birds are vying with each other in singing songs of felicitation.

Hark! There comes the sound of tramping multitudes. From every point of the compass great streams of humanity pour into the valley. They are marching in perfect order, but there is a complete absence of the military air. They are bearing neither gun nor sword nor any other instrument of defense or offense. Now such things would be entirely out of place. They are relics of an almost forgotten past. See, there is but one cannon; and the blue birds are nesting in its mouth with no fear of ever being disturbed. Mark with what buoyancy of step the people walk. There are among them no lame, no halt, no blind, no deformed ones. No, there is not even an old man among them. Where are the old folks? These have been restored to the da vs of their vouth, and their flesh has become as fresh as a babe’s.

There are no poor there, no beggars among them, nor by the wayside. No, not now, because all have plenty. There are no sick nor afflicted there; no, because all enjoy health and strength. There are no vicious, nor cold, hard faces amongst them; no, not these, because they have all come over the highway and reached the end thereof and have been fully restored. See, their faces are all wreathed in smiles. On come host upon host. They are bearing numerous banners, and upon each one are inscribed the words: “Holiness unto the Lord.” (Zechariah 14:20) Both men and wo-

men are grace and b'eautv personified. Yes; they are now all of the royal house, because they are children of the King.

It is a perfect day, and everything of creation bears the mark of perfection. Wafted over the valley come the strong, clear, sweet notes of a silver trumpet. At its call the great multitude kneels in silent thanksgiving to God. Another sound of the silver trumpet and there are heard the perfect voices of multitudes, and now in complete harmony they are singing :

“DELIVERANCE IS COMPLETE; PRAISE GODP

What About the Heathen?—Part 6

(A Trialogue in Seven Parts. By C. J. Woodworth. Radiocast from Station WBBR, New York.)

Cast of debaters: John, a good boy, a church member, very conservative. Thomas, a soldier of fortune, widely-traveled and widely-read man. Paul, an up-to-date Bible Student, a cousin of the other two, a visitor.

The scene is located fry a fireside on Staten I stand.

TORN: Good evening, Paul. Glad to see you again. I suppose that tonight you will answer Tom's question.

Paul: What question? He asked a good many questions.

John: Why, his question about the heathen. What has become of them?

Thomas: Yes, Paul. I wish to know what has become of the last generation of them, the one thousand millions who died just before the present like number came on the scene of action. Where are they? If you will tell me what has become of them I can figure out where all the rest of them are and where those now living will *

be a generation hence.

John: No, you can not, Tom. You forget the great strides that are being made in mission work. It is true there has been a little slump in mission funds in recent years, but America is now so prosperous that we need not fear that anv more, and the work can now go on faster than ever.

Thomas: Is it your idea that all that is needed to make the cause of missions a huge success is plenty of money?

John: I know what you are driving at. You always take the gloomy side of the mission question. I know what vou think about it. I want to hear what Paul has to sav.

Thomas: That suits me. Go ahead, Paul.

Paxil: Before I go ahead with the answer to the question as to what has become of the heathen that have most recently died I should like to bring out some further facts about the heathen themselves, those now living. I take it from what Tom has hinted at various times that he does not think that the heathen who have been reached by the missionaries have been as greatly helped by their efforts as we could all have wished.

Thomas: You are putting that too lightly. I think, as a whole, that they have been injured.

John: There, Paul! What did I tell you? Did you ever hear anything like that before? That is what I have to contend with all the time. Tom seems to think our mission work is an absolute failure.

Paul: I hope you will not think too hardly of either Tom or myself when I give you some information on this subject that I have gleaned from the articles and speeches of those who are very familiar with this whole subject. In the main they seem to agree with Tom’s ideas.

Thomas: Go ahead with them, Paul. It will do John a lot of good to get some real facts about this thing.

Paul: First I present the opinion of the Reverend Sydney Smith, a prominent churchman. Mr. Smith says, “The native who bears the name Christian is commonly nothing more than a drunken reprobate, who conceives himself at liberty to eat and drink anything he pleases, and annexes hardly any other meaning to Christianity.

John: I am surprised that any Christian minister would make a statement like that. What could have been his object?

Thomas: His object was to tell the truth. What he said is a fact. On my last trip across the Pacific I lay over at Honolulu for two weeks to size up the situation there. I remember particularly getting into conversation with an intelligent American who had lived in Honolulu for forty-two years. He made the statement to me that in his opinion the Hawaiians are retrograding, are less reliable, less temperate and less moral than they were twenty-five years ago.

John: That is the opinion of only one man. He was prejudiced.

Thomas: I assure you it was the opinion of at least two men, and I am one of them. I know for a fact that the European civilization which the missionaries bring with them has killed out or is killing out all the Polynesian races. I have seen this myself in New Zealand, where the Maoris, possessed originally of remarkable intellectual as well as physical powers, have been retrograding rapidly as a result of their contact with white Christians.

John: Retrograding! I should like to have something definite, instead of general statements filled with big words.

Thomas: Very well. I will give you a definite statement of something that actually occurred while the subjugation of New Zealand was under way. The professed Christians who were stealing the land from the Maoris on one occasion, in one of their campaigns, ran short of provisions. The Maori chieftain upstream, whose possessions they were bent on taking, heard of their predicament and sent down a raft containing a number of milch cows and other provisions, saying that he could see no glory in waging Avar with hungry men. Now I ask you, John, if this heathen chieftain was advantaged bv coming in contact with the white v                        C- J

Christians who deliberately tried to starve not onlv the soldiers but the women and children of their fellow Christians during the World War.

John: I admit that the Maori chief showed the right spirit. In fact he showed the spirit that should actuate a real Christian.

Paid: That shows, John, that your heart is in the right place. You know the Scriptures say, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he thirst, give him drink.'"’ Without any contact with the Bible this poor Maori showed a higher standard-of humanity than many persons do who have been surrounded with Bibles all their lives. But, of course, that is no fault of the Bible. The trouble really is that the teachings of the Bible are not known and not lived up to by the very people that are supposed to follow its teachings.

Thomas: Let me go on with my statement of facts.

Paul: By all means. Pardon my interruption.

John: It was not your fault. He asked a question and we both had a right to answer it.

Thomas: My observations are that European civilization, commonly called Christianity, but actually not Christianity at all, has failed to impress, though it has not killed out, the wild Indian of America, who, in several places where he was partially civilized, has, in his horror of the process, recoiled to barbarism.

John: I admit that there are many horrible things connected with our civilization, but I do not blame the missionaries for them.

Paul: Neither do I, and yet I am sure that the reaction of the heathen toward these things that we ourselves find to be horrible ought not to be overlooked in our consideration of the heathen situation. The Lord said that men should judge Christianity by its fruits, did He not?

John: Yes.

*

Paul: Then we are forced to one out of two opinions. Either these horrible fruits show that they were not produced by Christianity at all or else they show that Christianity does not produce good fruit. Which dilemma do you accept?

John: I am bound to believe that Christianity of itself is all right and that when it is properly practised it will produce the right kind of fruit.

Thomas: That is my contention also, but the thing that has been preached to and has been practised in front of the natives of Mexico and Peru has lowered rather than raised the Mexican and Peruvian civilizations. It has lowered the settled Arab of the Egyptian delta, and I doubt whether it has made the Hindu, the Turk' or the Chinese either an abler or a better mam The Frenchified Pasha is a great deal worse than the old Turk, the educated Chinaman is not better than the Chinaman proper, while the cultured Bengali has lost manv beneficial restraints and gained nothing except a power of expressing European ideas upon which, like the Europeans themselves, he does not seem disposed to act* But aside from its moral features all these natives have been injured by contact with the whites.

John: In what way?

Thomas: Originality seems to die away in the races brought into violent contact with a more robust civilization, and their very arts decline until they can not even repeat their own artistic triumphs, and appear incapable of producing fresh literature of any mark. This has been acknowledged by many among themselves, with deep sadness, and has so impressed experienced observers that many of them have doubted if the whole experiment is not a waste of force.

Paul: I have some things to add to what Thomas has been saying. These things are not of*my own knowledge, like Tom’s, but are gathered from other sources. They have to do with the situation in Africa. It seems that the converts there, which are made at a cost of $300 to $500 each, are not all that could be desired. In a nominally Christian village in Africa a quarrel broke out, and not a few were killed. The victors cooked and ate the bodies of the slain.

John: That is horrible, but surely that does not fairly represent the condition of the native converts to the Christian religion.

Paul: I do not claim that it does, but it certainly shows that at least some of the converts are a long way from being what we would call model Christians. Canon Taylor, of the English church, quotes Sir II. H. Johnson, Special Commissioner for Uganda, as saying: “With a few very rare exceptions, those native African teachers, pastors and catechists whom I have met, have been all, more or less, bad men. They attempted to veil an unbridled immorality with an unblushing hypocrisy, and a profane display of mouth religion, which to an honest mind seemed even more disgusting than the immorality itself.”

Thomas: Who could blame them? After all is said and done is there any worse condition of man than a hypocritical condition? I think that even the Lord himself must despise the hypocrites more than any other class of sinners.

Paid : In looking these matters up I ran across an article from the pen of Sir H. H. Johnson himself. It appeared in The Nineteenth Century some years ago. In it the Special Commissioner said in part:

It is not on the spread of Christianity that African I

missions can at present base their claim to our gratitude, respect or support. In many important districts where they have been at work for twenty years they can scarcely number in honest statistics twenty sincere Christians, that is to say, twenty natives understanding in any degree the doctrines ot dogmas they have been taught and striving to shape their conduct by their new principles.

In another place in the same article he said:

It too often happens that, while the Negro rapidly masters the rules and regulations of the Christian religion, he still continues to be gross, immoral and deceitful. The missionaries may have succeeded in turning their disciples into professing Catholics, Anglicans or Baptists, but the impartial observer is surprised to find that adultery, drunkenness and lying are more apparent among the converts than among their heathen brethren.

In still another place in the same article Sir Johnson said:

In other parts of Africa, principally British possessions, where large numbers of nominal Christians exist, their religion is discredited by numbering among its adherents all the drunkards, liars, rogues and unclean livers of the colony. In the oldest of our West African possessions all the unrepentant Magdalenes of the chief city are professing Christians, and the most notorious one in the place would boast that she never missed going to church on communion Sunday.

Thomas: There, John, what did I tell you?

John : This is all very sad, but surely this does not,represent the condition of the most advanced ones in the Christian life, the native pastors and teachers of whom there are many. Obviously they would be far above the rank and file of the converted heathen, and the people in general will profit by their example and gradually come upward in the scale.

Paul: I also would like to believe that, but it is not the opinion of Sir Johnson in the article in The Nineteenth Century from which I am quoting. In that same article he has something to say on this aspect of the question also, and it is quite shocking. He says:

I regret to say with a few, very rare, exceptions, those native African pastors, teachers and catechists whom I have met have been all, more or less, bad men. They attempted to veil an unbridled immorality with an unblushing hypocrisy and a profane display of mouth religion which, to an honest mind, seemed even more disgusting than the immorality itself.

John: You read that before.

Thomas: So you did, Paul.

Paid: Yes, that is true. But that is not all that Sir Johnson said about these native pastors and teachers. He goes on to say:

While it was apparent that not one particle of true religion had made its way into their gross minds, it was also evident that the spirit of sturdy manliness, which was present in their savage forefathers, found no place in their false, cowardly natures.

John: After all, that is the opinion of only one man, Sir H. H. Johnson, and he may not be right. He may have been prejudiced, and probably was.

Thomas: I do not think so. I think he told the truth.

I John: Oh, of course yon would think he told I the truth. Anything that puts a damper on our I work just suits you. If everybody were like you | we would never get the heathen converted.

| Thomas: No. I think he told the truth, be-f cause of what I have seen with my own eyes in ^Africa, Asia and throughout the islands of the

Pacific.

| Paul: I have something from another source, I which backs up what Sir Johnson said.

I John: Well, let's have it. We might as well I have all the bad news at once. Both of you fel-I lows seem to be confirmed pessimists.

| Thomas: I admit that I am, or at least I must I say that I do not see the way out of this thing, | but you can not fairly say that of Paul, for he I seems to see some solution of it. Go ahead, Paul.

I What was your other authority? John is sore f because his ideas are being upset, but for my I part I wish to know the truth and I do not care j. at all where the chips fly.

Paul: The British foreign office has made the t following statement regarding Protestant mis-■ sionaries in China. The statement says:

: There is good reason to suppose that the animosity which has lately been more intensely shown toward missionaries on the part of the ruling authorities in China is in a great measure to be attributed to the injudicious conduct of the native converts to Christianity. There seems sufficient reason to believe that converts assume and have acted on the assumption that by embracing Christianity they released themselves from the obligations of obedience to the local authorities and from the discharge of their duties as citizens, and acquired a right to be protected by the European power whose religious tenets they have adopted.

Besides these authorities that I have quoted, I have some ideas of my own on the subject that I feel it would be all right for me to express at this time.

John: Go ahead. Don't stop on my account.

Thomas: I say go ahead, too. Don't stop on . anybody's account. Anybody that is afraid of truth on any subject ought to be afraid of light, air, pure water and pure food. They are all in the same class.

Patil: What I was going to say is this: The up-to-date missionary, like the up-to-date preacher, is today expected to preach the repudiation of the Bible, classing it with Dickens and far below Shakespeare. He is expected to teach that instead of man falling from the image of God downward into sin and degradation, he

has been climbing qpward; that their fathers were monkeys, and that they themselves are not much advanced over that condition, and that they should copy the Christians, and learn how to make dreadnaughts, rapid-fire guns, liquid fire, poison gas, modern clothing and millinery, airplanes and automobiles, and increase their national exports and imports. The next thing will be to send them a flock of Billy Sundays to tell them how to use slang and abuse everybody and everything and to tell them to their faces that their conversion has made them a set of rascals.

As to whether the Western version or perversion of Christianity is doing well or ill for the heathen is at least an open question. The fact that we, born and reared under Western civilization, would be miserable if compelled to live along the lines of Eastern civilization, proves little; for so far as we can discern, the people of China and India prefer their own methods, customs, etc.

A canary bird, reared in captivity, may greatly enjoy its gilt cage, with its swing, bath, etc., so as to feel lost indeed if deprived of them, but would the bird, reared under other conditions, be happier in such a cage? We know that it would not. And may it not be so with different races of men, accustomed to different ideals and methods ?

Will the Chinaman be happier in a European cut of coat, shoes, shirt, collar and tie? Are we certain that the women of China are happier in American shoes, corsets and Paris gowns?

John: Ah! It is not these alone we would take from them. We would supplant their Joss houses with churches; and their weird musical instruments with our organs, and we w^Tould give them Jesus instead of Brahm and Buddha.

Thomas: And the Almighty Dollar instead of their Chinese Cash.

Paid: Even so, John, are we quite sure that the things you named would increase their happiness? Are there not millions in Europe and America, who have these very blessings, and who are among the most discontented and unhappy people in the world ?

Are these foreign heathen any better or any worse in God's sight than many in so-called Christian lands who attend church regularly, wear fashionable clothing, etc., of whom the Lord says, “This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, hut have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” (Isaiah 29:13) Let us not forget the Lord's words to some very zealous for mission work in His day, “Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte: and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of gehenna than yourselves.”

John: You have painted a pretty black picture of the mission situation tonight, Paul, you and Thomas together. You have given me a lot of serious things to think about. I mean to turn this whole subject over in my mind and see if I can get a better angle to it.

Thomas: And now, Paul, what about my question?

Paul: Which question is that?

Thomas: The one I have been asking all along. What has become of the one thousand million heathen of the last generation, those who have most recently died?

Paul: That is true. I have not answered it yet, but it is easy of answer. You will find the key to the problem in Judge Rutherford's little book on Where are the Dead? Or if you wish to look into the subject at greater length get The Harp of God or The Divine Plan of the Ages, or all three of them; and when you have read these you will understand the matter thoroughly. Goodbye, I must be going.

John: When will you be down again?

Thomas: I may get the books you named, but I would like to hear your own answer to my question. Will you be here two weeks from tonight ?

Paul: Yes, you can expect me two weeks hence. Good night.

John and Thomas: Good night, Paul.

The Letter or the Spirit, Which?

[Radiocast from Station WBBR,

New York, by T. J. Sullivan.]

UR discussion tonight is going to be along the lines of God's law, which, because of man’s fallen condition, has been divided into two general divisions in the Bible, the letter and,the spirit. The Apostle Paul, discussing this matter, tells us that “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”—2 Corinthians 3: 6.

At first consideration we are inclined to wonder what is meant by the expression, “the letter killeth.” Is it possible that the great Jehovah God designed His law for the purpose of destroying some of His creatures'? Or is God’s law in conflict with itself to such an extent, that one portion of it gives life, while another destroys? These, and similiar questions, are due to man’s ignorance of the purposes of God relating to His intelligent creatures upon this earth.

These words of the apostle could not apply to perfect creatures, because God creates His creatures fully capable of keeping any laws that He would put them under. They could keep the letter as well as the spirit, consequently in such cases both the letter and the spirit would, if obeyed, result in life to His creatures.

But the apostle is not talking about God’s dealing with perfect creatures, but with the fallen human race, in their sin-sick and dying condition, with whom Jehovah purposed to make two covenants in His own due time and way for their ultimate good.

These covenants are referred to in the Bible as the law covenant (which was made with the nation of Israel through Moses their mediator in Egypt, and afterward confirmed at Mount Sinai) and the new covenant, which the Lord proposes to make with the world in general through its Mediator, our Lord Jesus, the head, and His church or body members who will be with Him in the kingdom at that time.

The New Covenant Already Made

N FACT, tM Scriptures assure us that this new covenant has already been made between our Lord Jesus, as man’s representative, and Jehovah. It was made at the time of our Lord’s first advent. Jesus, referring to it, tells us that His blood is the blood of the new testament or covenant (Matthew 26:28,29), and the Apostle Paul said that our Lord is the Mediator of the new covenant, when he was speaking some eighteen centuries or more ago.

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(Hebrews 12:24) It follows therefore that this new covenant must have been already made at that time, although it was not to go into effect until the second advent of Jesus.

Some years after our Lord's death and resurrection Jehovah, speaking through His inspired apostle, tells us: “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts 17:31) Here the apostle tells us that all that had taken place up to the time when he was speaking was that God had appointed a day in which He was going to do this blessing of all mankind, and that the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus was the solemn guarantee that this event would take place in due time.

Object of the Law Covenant

HESE are the two covenants that the apostle is referring to and contrasting. The

first, which was the law covenant, outlined the letter of God's requirements for those who would receive the blessings it offered. Every jot and tittle had to be fulfilled. The transgression of any part of it meant the violation of the covenant entered into, and consequently a loss of the blessings it offered.

When the Lord through Moses presented the terms of this covenant to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai God said: If ye do these things ye shall live in them.’ (Leviticus 18: 5) The nation of Israel said: 'All these things will we do.' In this covenant both sides obligated themselves to fulfil their part. Jehovah on His side obligated Himself to grant the children of Israel life, blessing, and happiness, if they kept the law. On the other hand, the children of Israel obligated themselves to keep every jot. and tittle of the law.

For over fifteen hundred years the nation of Israel individually, and collectively, tried to keep that law, and not one of them was able to come up to its perfect requirements. Therefore, instead of its being an agency to bring them life, it made manifest to all that they could not come up to the perfect standard which God had set for those who will receive life. Therefore, instead of bringing life it brought death by convicting them in the sight of all as being unworthy of life.

Why Israel Could Not Keep the Law

N ORDER to appreciate why Israel could not keep the law, we must understand the position of the human family in God's sight at that time. He had created our first parents perfect mentally, morally and physically. Tn his own image created he them; male and female created he them.' Man was the crowning result of God's earthly creation, and was perfect; for we read (Deuteronomy 32:4), 'All God's works are perfect.'

This perfect creature, created in the image of God, revolted against the divine authority, rebelled against the divine law. Adam, by the course he followed, broke- both the letter and the spirit of God’s law. He broke the letter of the law when he deliberately took a course of action contrary to the divine will, by doing what he was commanded not to do. *

He violated the spirit of the law in this: The very essence of God’s dealings with Adam had been an exhibition of love and care in providing every conceivable blessing for His creatures. This should have been sufficient evidence to Adam that this new test was only another exhibition of divine love, and he should have joyfully cooperated in it, knowing from past experiences that the very spirit of all God’s actions was blessed. That evidence of his senses, as well as the many manifestations of divine love, should have induced Adam to love, honor, and serve his Creator at any cost. Therefore Adam transgressed in both letter and spirit of the law.

Foreknowledge, Foreordination

T IS not necessary to conclude that God foreknew, and foreordained, that man should

sin. As the human mind reasons, had God foreordained and foreknown that man would sin, then man was not a free moral agent to take whatsoever course he might choose. God invites us through His Word to reason with Him (Isaiah 1:18), and we understand the reasoning employed must be such as man is capable of doing. Within the scope of human reasoning the following conclusion seems to be right.

The Almighty God possessed the power to foreknow, and to foreordain, and predestinate, everything pertaining to man. The fact that He could know what course man would take also leads to the conclusion that God possess-

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es the power to withhold from Himself knowledge of what man would do under certain conditions; and, therefore, instead of foreordaining and foreknowing that man would take a certain course, God made His plan in the alternative, so that He could meet either emergency.

This method of operation is not limited to the divine plane by any means. Business men today take out accident insurance, fire insurance and automobile insurance. The fact that they do this does not mean that they foreknow and foreordain that they are going to get hurt, or that their business is going to burn down or that they are going to have their automobile stolen. But any of these things might happen; therefore they insure themselves against loss if they do happen. They make their plans in the alternative.

This illustrates God’s dealing with the man, Adam. In substance God said, ‘All these things you may have and do. Certain other things you must not have and you must not do. If you take one course you shall be always in harmony with me and live. If you take the other course you shall die.’ Man then was free to choose either course. Of his own volition man chose the evil way. Consistent with His law, God put him to death.

Had man chosen the right course and done that which was pleasing to God, he would have filled the earth with a race of perfect and happy people, all to the glory of God. In that event it would not have been necessary for the Lord to provide for the redemption and to carry out the plan of redemption. Having chosen the evil course, Adam and his offspring must perish unless God should do something in man's behalf. The plan of God therefore must have been that in the event man took the evil s^tMttBge^PQvision for his recovery would be put into operation.

Man took the evil- course, and God’s provision for his recovery was the divine plan of the ages, part of which contained the two covenants which the Apostle Paul mentioned. The Scriptures'' tell us that “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death /                                                      7

passed upon all men”. (Romans 5:12) “In Adam all die.” Thus the inheritance that the human family received from father Adam was sickness, dying, death. None could deliver himself, nor give to God a ransom for his brother.

Why Death Reigned From Adam to Moses

HE apostle continues his argument in the fifth chapter of Romans, and after estab

lishing that death came upon the human family because of Adam's transgression, he says (verse 13): “For until the law [meaning the law covenant] sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.”

The argument is this, that from Adam to Moses God had not expressed any definite law that the human family was to follow; therefore the people had not violated any law or commandments, because they were not bound by any. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even upon those who did not violate God's law as Adam had done.

Why should this be? Simply because while God did not give the race any specific commands to keep, He had, however, set up a certain standard of righteousness, which every creature must live up to in order to have life on earth permanently. None of the human family could come up to this divine standard; therefore even though they violated no commandments of God's they had to die because of their inability to do those things necessary to receive life.

But when God sent Moses to the children of Israel, while they were in Egyptian bondage, to deliver them, and they accepted him as the mediator between themselves and God, and accepted the terms of the law covenant with its statutes, they were then subject to the law, and any infraction of it meant a violation of the law of God, a transgression of the commandments that they obligated themselves to keep. Therefore their sin that existed all the time from Adam down, was now made manifest and imputed to the children of Israel in the sense that they were held responsible for transgressing the commandments of the Lord.

Humanity’s Pitiable Condition

WHAT hope, then, is there for the human family, if before the law when sin was not imputed to them they died because ^hey could not come up to the divine standard, and after the law was given and the divine standard made plain, they could not keep its re-

quirements, and were therefore manifestly condemned as being unworthy of life.

As far as human efforts are concerned, there is no hope; and as far as the letter of the law is concerned, it is unwavering in its decision that those who are to receive life through it, must do the things required by it, or else stand condemned as unworthy of life. Right here human reasoning would stop, considering the matter hopeless.

But not so with God's ways. He assures us: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Then He proceeds to show us His ways and thoughts, saying, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”—Isaiah 55: 8, 9; 1:18.

In the Likeness of Sinful Flesh

THE inspired Apostle Paul is again His in-strument in telling us how Jehovah is going to accomplish this great thing. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.”—Romans 8:1-4.

This is the great bridge, which bridges over what seems to man to be an impossibility, and makes an absolute certainty of it. The apostle first makes the statement: “There is now no *

condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Then he explains why: They “walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit”. This the apostle says is the great secret.

But how do you get into that condition where you can walk after the spirit? This the apostle proceeds to explain, saying, “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.

The law promised life to the Jews but never gave it to them, because they could not keep its perfect requirements; therefore the apostle’s argument is that the law could not give life because it was weak through the flesh. To overcome this handicap God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin. Jehovah sent His own Son in the likenes.;, of sinful flesh; but you will note, not sinful flesh —simply in the likeness of it; that is, a human being, but holy, harmless and undefiled, perfect; not as most of our modern theologians would have us believe, part God and part man, but a man like Adam the first perfect man.

The apostle’s testimony in Hebrews 2:6-9 in this connection, is irrefutable. First he describes Adam’s inheritance, as recorded in the eighth Psalm and the first chapter of Genesis ; and then he tells us that in the same manner Jesus was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.

Jesus, when He presented himself at Jordan to carry out the purposes of His Father, was the exact equivalent of Adam when .he was perfect in the garden before transgression. At that time He presented himself to Jehovah for the express purpose of accomplishing for the human family that which the law could not do, namely, to give them life.

Jesus Fulfilled the Law

THE first step in the program was to fulfil the law in its every requirement. This Jesus did by keeping every requirement of the law, thus proving that ‘the law and the commandments were holy, just and good’ (Romans 7:12), and that they could be kept by any perfect creature who was devoted to the purposes of Jehovah.

By doing this Jesus demonstrated that He was perfect and had every right to all the blessings that the law had to offer. He demonstrated that He was the exact equivalent of the perfect man Adam before transgression, and could, if necessary, be a ransom for Adam.

Jesus by keeping the law also was entitled to be free and live, and follow His own inclinations as long as He did not violate any of the law’s requirements. He might have elected to remain on earth for ever as a man and to fill the earth with a race of perfect people, and to do this in harmony with the divine law. But

He was not willing to do selfish.

Instead of choosing a selfish course He said to Jehovah in substance; 'I will not go away from thee and thy house: I delight to do thy will; thy law is written in my heart/—Psalm 40:8; Hebrews 10: 7.

When Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized He signified that He was surrendering Himself to God to do whatever might be God’s will.

God’s will was that Jesus should redeem the human race from the condemnation brought upon it through father Adam’s disobedience. This He foretold in His Word, saying, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.” (Hosea 13:14) In full accord with this divine requirement, Jesus says: “The son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”—Matthew 20: 28.

The Free Gift of Life

THREE and a half years after Jesus presented Himself, for the purpose of carrying out the divine will, He died on Calvary’s brow. There He died as the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. There He provided the great ransom price for the redemption of Adam and the race condemned through him.

The Apostle Paul, reasoning on this, tells us, “Therefore as by the offence of one [Adam] judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the Tree gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”—Romans 5: 18,19.                                            •

By the disobedient course of Adam death came upon the human family. Now by the righteous course of Jesus, and obedience unto death, He redeemed Adam and the race from the condemnation of death, and provided them ■with an opportunity of life, or, as the text says, He provides them -with the free gift, which is justification to life.

At His first advent Jesus gave His own people, the Jewish people, the"first opportunity to avail themselves of this free gift. “He came unto His own, and his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:11,12) The actual invitation is recorded in Matthew 11:28-30. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and. lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The Jews Under the Law

OUR Lord was here addressing the Jews.

He did not preach to the Gentiles, because the time for favors to the Gentiles had not yet come. He was not sent, He declared, “save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The Israelites were under the yoke of the nation of Rome; but that was not the yoke that our Lord promised to deliver them from. They were under a more severe yoke, the yoke of the law. '

A yoke signifies servitude. One who bears a yoke is a servant. All the obligations of the law covenant were to be borne by the nation of Israel. They had agreed to become the servants of God under the terms of the law covenant. But they found themselves unbalanced and weak, as a result of sin. They could not bear the burdens of the law. No Jew could draw the law covenant load. None could keep the obligations of God’s perfect law.

Our Lord did not come to do away with the law. Ojti the contrary, He magnified the law, . and made it honorable. He showed that its requirements were neither unreasonable nor unjust, although by reason of their imperfection none of the Israelites had been able to keep it.

Now He was inviting those Jews who really wanted to be right with God, to take a different yoke upon them, a yoke of servitude to Him. He had a new message; the gospel, the message of good tidings, which spoke of release from the obligations of the law covenant, which they were unable to bear. Lie told them how^t they might have part in the wonderful new arrangement then opening up, of which He was the head.

This arrangement was, that He had been set forth by Jehovah to be the Deliverer of mankind. He had by his death provided the necessary price to satisfy the claims of justice

against the human family. ’The merit of the sacrificial life given was sufficient to cover the deficiencies of all who wanted to come to God through Him.

He assures us that “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”. (John 6:37) And .again He said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the father, but by me.” (John 14:6) This was quite a blow to the Pharisees, scribes and doctors of the law. They had taught the people of Israel that they and they alone had the keys of salvation, and none could come to God except through them.

But the Lord had clearly demonstrated that instead of really helping the people they placed added burdens upon them; that they were hypocrites, devourers of widow's’ houses, and in fact the most reprehensible creatures on earth. Jesus w⁷as delivering the people from the yoke of servitude to this hypocritical class, as well as from the law⁷.

Jesus' Merit Suffices

WITH the merit of Jesus’ sacrifice to cover their shortcomings, the honest-hearted ones could come back to Jehovah. The transaction might be described as follow^?s: The crea-_x ture coming to Jehovah and presenting himself through Christ is saying in substance, If these shortcomings were removed, and I could serve according to my heart intentions, I w'ould love to do your wdll. The very spirit of my being is to do your will.

Jehovah tfren says, If that is so, the merit of my Son’s sacrifice is sufficient to justify you. From now^T on I am going to judge not according to your imperfect works, but according to your heart intentions, w'hich wall of course be manifested in w⁷orks to the extent of your ability; but it is not the w^Torks that will justify, but your heart intentions.

On this basis the heavenly father accepts the creature coming through Christ and assures him that "being justified by faith, he has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’. (Romans 5:1) And again: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them w'hich are in Christ Jesus, w^Tho walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.”—Romans 8:1.

The argument is that there is now no condemnation on those who w⁷alk not after the flesh, that is, those w-ho do not try to justify

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themselves by deeds of the flesh, like keeping the law⁷, but who w’alk after the spirit, those whose heart is right toward God, and w⁷ho recognize that their sufficiency is of Christ.

That is why Jesus could say that all the law and the prophets hang upon the first two commandments: “Love the Lord thy God w⁷ith all thy strength, heart, soul and mind” and ""love thy neighbor as thyself”. That w⁷as the spirit of the law, supreme love for the Lord and a joyful acquiescence in His w’ilh

Gentiles Also Under the Yoke

TN DUE time the Lord visited the Gentiles.

He also invited them to take His yoke upon them. The Gentiles of course w⁷ere not under the yoke of the law covenant, but they were under the yoke of servitude to Satan, sin and death, and every conceivable misery.

Just as the Pharisees of old placed burdens upon the people so the ecclesiastical teachers of Christendom have placed burdens upon the people by telling them that they have to join in the support of some one of their man-made creeds before they can have the Lord’s ravor, or by teaching the people that they must have masses said for their dead friends, at so much a mass, before God w^Till release them from purgatory.

The Lord never placed such burdens upon the people. There is not a denomination or creed or sect in the world today, or at any other time, in position to claim a monopoly on the invitations of the Lord recorded in Matthew⁷ 11: 28-30. He did not say, "Come unto me through the Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian or Baptist church, and I w'ill give you rest.’ He did not say, "Those w⁷ho come unto Me through these avenues, I will in no w^rise cast out.’ He did not say, "There is now no condemnation on you, because you are a Catholic or a Protestant.’ No, my friends, these are all man-made burdens placed upon the people by our modern Pharisees; andw'ere Jesus addressing them today, He w’ould not be any more lenient tow⁷ard them than He w⁷as at His first advent.

Today, as well as in the past, those whose hearts are right toward God, and who come to God through Christ, taking up their cross and following Him, wdio wulk not after the flesh but after the spirit, having the very spirit of

God’s law in their heart, are accepted in the Beloved, whether they are connected with any church on earth or not.

Tn fact, they are much better off to be entirely separate from these organizations, which deny the virgin birth of our Lord, His kingdom as the hope of suffering humanity, and who have joined hands with the profiteers and politicians to perpetuate the DeviFs organization on the earth.

Those who continue faithful to the Lord are promised that they will be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ in the kingdom of God for which Christians have been praying for Ilie last nineteen centuries. Then Satan the arch-enemy of God will be bound for a thou-*■

sand years that he might blind the nations no more. Armageddon will have swept the earth, destroying every vestige of Satarfs organiza-f • ’i 1                                                                    C_ J

tion and those who persisted in perpetuating it, just as literally as the evil arrangement that existed at the time of the flood was destroyed, with those who were perpetuating it.

Deliverance is Coming

rpHEN the new’ covenant will be put into effect. All w’ho are in their graves will come forth (John 5:28) in the kingdom of Christ, where nothing shall hurt or destroy. The Christ, Head and body, Avill be the great King in that kingdom, and also the Mediator, who will mediate between the world and Jehovah.

When the people come forth from the grave they will be imperfect, but the Mediator will take them in hand and gradually instruct them in the ways of righteousness. All who have the . spirit of obedience and honesty toward the

Lord will be gradually restored to perfection, until they will be perfect mentally, physically, and morally, just as Adam was before he transgressed.

Then they will be restored, not by keeping the letter of the law, but because the spirit of the law is in their hearts and it is accepted by God through Christ for righteousness.

Canada’s “Grand Old Man”

/CANADA’S “grand old man” is not some great general that was a conspicuous success in taking the lives of his fellow men, nor some financier that took to himself and his cronies their means of a better life, nor some politician that lifted himself into prominence by promises he never meant to keep, but is Air. .E. B. Fink, who started work as a telegraph operator in 1867 and after sixty years of continuous service at the kev, most of the

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time as a train dispatcher, has now retired to get a little well-earned rest. The last day that Air. Fink was on the job he sent 246 messages over the wire, which is a little better than one dispatch every two minutes all day long.

Where They Belonged By a Former Methodist Minister

STB A NG ER arrived in town to study

church architecture. He asked for the lo

cation of all the local churches.

“Just where they ought to be,” local man.

“Why, what do you mean?” st ranger.

“Well, you will find the Methodist church by the gas-works; the Baptist by the reservoir; the Presbyterian by the starch factory; the Anglican by the brewery; the Christian Scientist by the hospital; the Jewish by the bank; and the Roman Catholic by the city hall.”

Too Much Like Work

EVEN clergymen of Queens, City of New

York, solemnly met in the offices of the Queensboro Chamber of Commerce and with long and pious faces adopted a resolution to prevent funeral services on Sundays. The real

reason for this is because it interferes with business, their business, the preaching business. These resolutions should be engraved and a copy forwarded to heaven protesting against any

. deaths hereafter on Thursday or Friday.

A Very Wise Boy Who Became a Remarkable Man

[A juvenile Bible story radiocast from Station WORD, Chicago, by C. D. Nicholson.]

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, located in the land of Shinar, took control of the land of Palestine and instructed one of the professors in his schools to bring a certain number of King Jehoiakim’s sons and kinsmen to put them through a course of training, after which they would be given positions in the service of his government.

A number of boys were selected, and of them four stood out prominently above all the others. The Scripture record is that God gave h to these four Hebrew children knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom and to Daniel understanding in all visions and dreams. In * those days Jehovah often gave instructions and taught lessons through dreams and visions.

In due time King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which exceedingly troubled him. He called in all his wise men and astrologers, asking them to explain the dream which he had had. The king had forgotten what his dream was, and this troubled him all the more. Of. course the wise men could not interpret the dream unless they knew what it was.

This made the king furiously angry and he commanded that all the wise men should be killed. Word was brought to Daniel and his fellows that they were to be slain with all the other wise men of Babylon. The four young men lifted their hearts to God in prayer, and that night the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision.

Then Daniel went before the king and explained to him that the magicians, astrologers and wise men were not able to explain the king’s dream and its interpretation.

said he, “there is a God in heaven that reveal-eth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days." He first told the king what his dream was, and then he interpreted it for him.

The king was greatly pleased with Daniel’s wisdom and with the interpretation which had been given of his dream. He declared to Daniel: “Of a truth your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets." Thereupon the king made Daniel his chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon and put Daniel’s three companions under him as overseers of the whole government.

Finally King Nebuchadnezzar died and his son, Belshazzar, became king over Babylon. He was a wicked worshiper of idols. A few months after his inauguration in office he made a great feast in honor of the false gods to a thousand of his lords. With this the course of this nation came to its full and Jehovah caused a hand like that of a man to appear and write with its finger oil the walls of Belshazzar's palace four words, the meaning of which Belshazzar could not understand, neither could any of the wise men. Finally Daniel was sent for. He read for the king the handwriting: “God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting."

That very night was the kingdom of Babylon overthrown by the Medes and Persians. A new government came into power with Darius as its ruler. Darius had evidently heard of Daniel and felt that he was the wisest and most capable man in all the world, so he set him over one hundred and twenty princes, second only to Darius the king.

As usual, the princes and governors were jealous of Daniel and desired to get rid of him. They said, “We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning his God." They appealed to the vanity of King Darius and had him issue a decree that no one in his empire should pray to any one but himself for a period of thirty days. Then they set watchers to spy upon Daniel. Of course Daniel was determined to be true to the God of his fathers.

The decree issued by King Darius was that any one found praying to any God other than himself should be thrown into a den of lions. Conditions were different in those days from what they are now; for the king himself could not change a decree which he had issued. Darius did everything he could think of to save Daniel when word was brought to the king that Daniel was the first to break his decree, but without success. So Daniel was let down into the lions’ den and a great stone rolled over the mouth of it to prevent any possible escape.

Very early the next morning Darius ran to the lions’ den and cried out with a choking voice, “0 Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest able to deliver thee from the lions?" Then the most joyful

news the king had ever heard reached his ears. It was the voice of Daniel saying, “0 King, my God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lions’ mouths that they have not hurt me.”                                             ,

The king then knew that he had been tricked by these governors and princes because they were jealous of Daniel and desired his destruction. He therefore commanded that those who had accused Daniel be cast into the den of lions and his decree was immediately carried out. Then Darius made another decree commanding all peoples to fear and worship the living God of Daniel.

Bible Questions and Answers

UESTION: You Bible Students say that the works of Mrs. Alary Baker Eddy teach doctrines which arc contrary to the Bible. Would it not be necessary to read all of Airs. Eddy’s books before reaching that conclusion?

Answer: No; it would not be necessary to read all of Mrs. Eddy’s books to come to that conclusion. One needs to read but very little of those books to note that Mrs. Eddy emphasizes the immortality of the soul, that there is no death, and that God is not a person. All of these doctrines are absolutely opposed to the harmonious teaching of the Bible. For instance, in Ezekiel 18: 4 we read, “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” In Romans 6:23 we read, “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” After reading a few pages and finding that a book is repeatedly teaching doctrines contrary to the Bible, it would be foolish for the truthseeker to read volumes of such literature. If I saw a box on the shelf marked “Poison” it would not be necessary for me to take the whole box to find it out.

Question: Is God a principle, or is God an invisible spirit being?

Answer: God is an invisible spirit being. The Bible says so. In John 4: 24 we read, “God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” In 1 Timothy 1:17 Jehovah is called “the King eternal, immortal, invisible; the onlv wise God”. Christ is /                           Z                      f

called “the image of the invisible God,” in Colos-sians 1:15. We would not believe that Christ is a principle, but a spirit being like unto the Father. An image is a copy of something else, or of another person. In Hebrews 1: 3 we read that Christ is the express image of the Father’s person. A personage in normal capacity is capable of seeing, hearing, speaking, and other things which a principle is not capable of doing. Now in Genesis 1:12 we read that God sees. In Genesis 1:14 we read that God speaks. In Genesis 1:16 we read that God makes things. According to Exodus 22: 23, God hears. In Genesis 1: 27 we are told that man is the image of God. This does not mean the copy of a principle, but the copy of God in the capacity to exercise wisdom, justice, love and power. The Scriptural statement that God is love does not prove that God is a principle, but it means that everything that God does is prompted by love, and that God expresses love in His works. The Bible clearly tells us that there are invisible spirit beings having spirit bodies that can not be discerned by human eyes. In 1 Corinthians 15:40-44 we read, “There are celestial bodies [meaning bodies that inhabit the heavens] and bodies terrestrial [bodies that inhabit the earth] : but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. ... So also is the resurrection of the dead: ... it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.” Since God is a spirit being capable of exercising the senses and of doing things, we must conclude that He is a powerful and invisible personage. To think that He is a principle is nonsense.

Question: When making an oath to God, or a promise, is it necessary to place the hand upon a rosary or upon a Bible, and does this make the oath more binding?

Ansiver: No. A man should make his vows and promises to God in simplicity, letting his yea be yea and his nay, nay. In James 5:12 we read, “But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.”

The Children’s Own Radio Story

Story Two

GOOD evening, all! I am going to tell you some more wonderful things about The Word, the Son of God. Before we come to the actual story of His life on the earth as a man, we have several things to learn which will show us in what a wonderful way Jehovah God prepared mankind for the coming of Jesus.

Most of us know what a herald is. In olden days a herald rode ahead of a king’s retinue, blowing a horn and crying to bystanders to clear the way for the passage of the king. In a similar manner, Jehovah provided a herald for Jesus, who went about proclaiming the arrival of the Lord to all who would listen.

There was a great difference, however, between this herald of whom I speak and the heralds we have read about in books. Kings and queens, who are simply ordinary people after all, have always required a great show and noise, in order to impress their subjects and make them afraid. So they dressed their heralds up richly and sent them tearing through the country on fine horses, and making a terrible fuss about the approach of the ruler, whoever he or she happened to be at the time.

But not so with Almighty God, the heavenly Father. His power is far, far above that of all the kings and queens who have ever reigned, put together. So the herald whom Jehovah raised up for Jesus was John. He is called John the Baptist. A quiet young man, but six months older than Jesus, John was the son of Zacharias, who was a priest in the temple of the Lord.

Zacharias was an old man who had lived all his life in ways pleasing to God, and one day ■when he was performing his usual duties before the altar in the temple, an angel appeared unto him and said: “Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard: thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord. . • . And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, ... to make ready a people prepared for the Lord/’

When the angel said, “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,” he meant that John would go before, or forerun, Jesus, telling those who loved God that the Savior, the