The Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

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in this issue

WHAT IS WRONG AT BERGENFIELD?

JEHOVAH’S VICTORY AT WILMINGTON

JAPAN TAKES MANCHURIA

SEEDS IN THE WIND

OBEDIENCE ESSENTIAL TO LIFE

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every other WEDNESDAY L.J—                     ____ ‘“A

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Canada & Foreign 1.25

Vol. XIII No. 326

March 16, 1932

CONTENTS

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

Windowless Factory at Fitchburg 375 No Unemployment in Russia . . 37G

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

What Is Wrong at Bergenfield? 355

Jehovah’s Victory at Wilmington 359

Japan Takes Over Manchuria . 363

Seeds in the Wind . .    . . 374

900 Applicants for One Job . . 374

Finland Disappointed with

Prohibition.......374

European Costs of Living . . . 374

Europe Unanimous Both Ways . 374

Monuments of Emptiness . . . 376

Eulogy Ahead of Time .... 376

Never Again Can Any Nation

Win a War.......377

Britain Mourns Lost Prestige . 377

British Pride Deeply Wounded . 377

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Robbing the Jobless.....377

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

An Interesting Legal Decision . 361

MacDonald Feels the Pressure . 375

Europe’s Fruitless Conferences . 376

Inefficient, Cowardly World Court.........376

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

Brazil Growing Its Own Jute . 374

Bugs and Commission Merchants 377

World’s Biggest Dredge . . . 374 New Uses for Coffee .... 374 Vitamin D Believed Isolated . . 374 New Use for a Balloon . . . .375 Sterilization of Milk by Sound . 375 Crystallized Honey.....376

Court Reporters Must Pass . .376

HOME AND HEALTH

‘‘The More Intelligent of the

Laity”

Encephalitis Following Vaccination

Interesting Admission Regarding Diphtheria

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

Alfonso’s Horses Put to Death 358

Tiberias Now an Airport . . . 374

Great Fortunes in Germany . . 374

Lovers of Murder to the Front . 377

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Winslow Trades Police for Clergy’........361

Dry Weather a Blessing to Jehovah’s witnesses . . . 362

Lifting Gory Hands to Baal . . 375

Priestless Churches in Mexico . 376

Beckoning of the Overalls . . 377

Obedience Essential to life . . 378

The Radio Witness Work . . 383

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The Golden Age

Volume XIII                       Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, March 16, 1932                       Number 326

What Is Wrong at Bergenfield, New Jersey ?

(Broadcast from WBBR

A CASE of incredible bigotry is at this moment being enacted by the civic authorities of Bergenfield, N. J. Under grotesquely ridiculous charges, the misguided administration of the Borough of Bergenfield has locked up behind prison bars four of the finest Christian men in the world and six of the finest Christian women, whose sole offense is that they accept the Holy Scriptures as their guide to life, and are conforming their lives to them by the preaching of the gospel from door to door as was done by Jesus Christ our Savior, by the Apostle Paul and by the other apostles.

These ten noble Christian men and women were charged with ‘distribution of advertising matter without first asking and obtaining permission’. We now give the public the information as to what this literature is which has been falsely described as “advertising matter”. It was and is merely an invitation to the people to listen in to the Watchtower International broadcast which is on the air each week on more than 300 stations.

The speaker on these occasions is Judge Rutherford, whose writings today constitute the greatest stabilizing force in the world, because aside from the Scriptures themselves they are the only writings that give the people any hope or encouragement. We have the proof of this statement in the thousands of letters of appreciation of Judge Rutherford’s speeches which have come in to this single station, WBBR.

Is it possible that in Bergenfield, N. J., or in any other part of America to which Judge Rutherford’s free lectures over the radio extend, he cannot notify the people from door to door where, when and how they can listen to his free lectures over the radio ? Most certainly the administration at Bergenfield is due for a rude awakening.

No doubt in Bergenfield on any Sunday one may purchase for a consideration newspapers, on Night of January 26) cigars, gasoline, and perhaps milk, groceries, drugs, fruit and other commodities; but be that as it may, Bergenfield cannot restrain Judge Rutherford or his friends from going from door to door and distributing a list of the radio stations in America, to say nothing of the stations in Alaska, Australasia, Canada, Cuba, Esthonia, France and Hawaii which every week have his lectures on the air.

Let us notice in particular the contents of this innocent little folder that caused four refined Christian men and six refined Christian women to be arrested in Bergenfield and then locked up behind prison bars in Hackensack.

First is a list by states of the 263 American radio stations over which Judge Rutherford lectures weekly and from not one of which has an appeal or even a hint gone out that anybody is invited to contribute one round red cent for the support of this great service to his fellow men.

Compare this with the so-called “religious” broadcasting of the so-called “religious” organizations and you can see in a moment that Judge Rutherford’s sole objective is to comfort the people in the Scriptures and to warn the unruly of God’s purposes; while the principal objective of most so-called “religious” work is to rake in the shekels and endeavor to maintain the prestige of institutions which have long since lost the respect of their fellow men and have become a stench in the nostrils of the honest and godly.

We now give you some further material from the innocent little program that was distributed from door to door in Bergenfield, N. J., and that caused the misguided men who are conducting Bergenfield’s affairs to lock up these, four Christian men and six Christian women. The program says on its face:

Judge Rutherford says that very few persons on the earth have ever received an opportunity for life. Billions have died in total ignorance of God’s provi-

sion for them. They are not lost, nor in torment, as the clergy have taught the people. They are dead, awaiting the due time to be called forth and receive the truth.

It is quite apparent that the preachers have misled the people by telling them that all good church members go to heaven at death. The clergy have also misled the people concerning those who do not go to heaven. No one goes to eternal torment, because God makes no provision for such a place. Eternal torment is a theory advanced by Satan.

Now we ask you, Is not every word of the foregoing true? And the answer, if you are familiar with God’s Word, is that most certainly every statement made is the truth. Then why would the administration of Bergenfield desire to prevent Judge Rutherford from putting that truth into the hands of the people? The only possible answer must be that the men who have done this thing are blinded to the truth.

We continue to read from this little folder that was passed from door to door in Bergenfield, N. J., and which caused the administration of Bergenfield to resort to the un-American course of locking up these four noble Christian men and six noble Christian women behind prison bars rather than permit them to tell the truth from door to door, to the shame of the clergy and to the blessing of the good people of Bergenfield. The folder continues:

Do you want to know what’s wrong with the world? God has a controversy with the nations. He will give them that are wicked to the sword. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation . . . And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth . . . Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock.” (Jer. 25:31-34) Thus does the Bible declare who the guilty ones are and what will be the punishment for those who are responsible for leading the nations of Christendom to the battle of Armageddon just ahead. But the pasture of these shepherds and their principals will soon be spoiled, promises the great Creator. More and more thinking people are beginning to see that these shepherds or clergymen are just what Jesus called them, ‘blind leaders, hypocrites,’ who have allied themselves with big business and professional politicians in exploiting and oppressing the people. Tune in on any radio lecture by Judge Rutherford and hear the logical, Scriptural explanations he gives of Bible prophecies relating to present conditions. Hear him give conclusive, irresistible proofs that God’s kingdom is the only Hope of the World. Listen to his plain, satisfying, Scriptural answers to important questions that no preacher or priest has ever given an explanation of that you could understand.

Who Is God? It has remained for the lawyer, Judge Rutherford, to clear away from around the Bible the fogs of clerical stupidity, the cobwebs of D. D. ignorance and superstition, the rubbish of creeds and religious fanaticism, and in his writings the Grand Old Book takes its rightful place, the unimpeachable, indisputable Word of Almighty God, the very fountain of reason, logic and light! In his books and weekly radio lectures Judge Rutherford conclusively proves that there is a logical, perfectly reasonable and entirely satisfactory answer to every question that any intelligent person has ever asked or can ask about the Bible or about its great theme, life itself, present and future. Hundreds of men and women are so appreciative of the comfort and benefit they themselves have received from reading these books that they are, without pay or remuneration of any kind, giving their time and labor to the production and distribution of this set of books. That is the reason we are enabled to make the offer of the entire set of ten clothbound books, 368 pages or more each, with many four-color illustrations, delivered postpaid to anyone, anywhere, for only $2.50, the entire set of ten. Or, if you prefer, send for catalog, with full description of each. Or, if any convenience to you, sent C. 0. D. Watch Tower, 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Besides the foregoing, the folder contains a number of interesting questions such as Judge Rutherford, as a student of the Scriptures and as a lawyer, knows so well how to ask and which questions are fully answered in the books of which he is the author. The questions which are asked on the folder that was personally presented to the people at their homes in Bergenfield and which are supposed to have incited the administration of Bergenfield to lock up these four noble Christian men and six noble Christian women are as follows :

Is God or is the Devil the head of present governments of earth?

Will there ever be a righteous government on earth ?

Who is the Devil?

Why does not God kill the Devil?

Whence came the human family?

Why did Jesus call the clergy hypocrites?

Who was Jesus?

What did he mean when he said: ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven’?

Why are there so many creeds and religions? Do heads of governments rule by divine right?

Are the world-wide distress and unemployment signs of the early collapse of Christendom?

What was the original sin?

Where and what is heaven?

What are the angels?

What are evil spirits?

What is a soul?

Can a soul die?

Is hell the grave?

How can all the miracles be explained?

What becomes of murderers and thieves when they die?

Where are the dead?

Will the dead ever come back to earth?

What is the difference between religion and the Bible?

Does the Bible teach divine healing?

Why did God deal specially with the Jews?

What is the resurrection of the dead?

Does the Bible teach eternal torment?

Do good people really go to heaven?

What is wrong with the mental and moral atmosphere of Bergenfield, N. J., that it is afraid to have these important and common-sense questions presented to the attention of the people of that community? What is wrong? Is the administration of Bergenfield afraid that the people of Bergenfield will learn something? Does the administration of Bergenfield feel that it has the omniscient wisdom and omnipotent power that it can decide offhand for the people of Bergenfield what they may hear over the radio or what they may have presented to them from door to door?

This would be ridiculous in the extreme if it were not so serious, but it is a serious thing in America to lock up Christian men and women because they go from door to door helping the people to gain a knowledge of God’s purposes, especially at this time when everything shows that America and everything in it is going to the Devil as fast as it can go, and Judge Rutherford is doing more to prevent it than any other man in the country.

Of the four noble Christian men and six noble Christian women who were locked up by the administration of Bergenfield because they placed in the homes these invitations to listen in on the radio to Judge Rutherford, one of the ten was additionally charged with canvassing and soliciting without permission. It is not true that either the one so charged or any other of the ten was guilty of either canvassing or soliciting. Let us explain the facts:

Judge Rutherford’s books, each of which contains a dozen or more powerful lectures from his pen, are. in circulation to the extent of more than 100 million copies. These books, which are on the most important subjects that can engage the attention of men and women, are placed in the hands of the people who desire them for less than the cost of production and distribution. The following is the exact testimony that was given at Bergenfield and is being given or has been given or will be. given to every home in the United States:

No doubt you have heard Judge Rutherford, who lectures and broadcasts over more than 250 stations each week. As he well says, the people need a righteous government. Centuries ago Jehovah promised that He would provide the people on earth with a righteous government in His due time. That due time has now come, and as one of Jehovah’s witnesses I am here to give you the information. These books cover the entire matter, proving beyond any doubt that the government Jehovah has provided will bring to the peoples of earth lasting peace, prosperity, health, happiness and everlasting life. These books are really a gold mine of information. Other books of this size cost not less than fifteen dollars. We are preaching the gospel or good news of the Kingdom by putting these books in the hands of the people, and money is contributed by those who love the Lord to enable the people to have them so cheaply. If you contribute a dollar for any four, or $2.50 for the entire ten, I shall be pleased to leave these with you and take that amount. I am sure you will be greatly blessed by reading them and by helping some one else to learn about the blessings that are coming.

Is there any law in the United States which prevents or can prevent Judge Rutherford from preaching the gospel over the radio or inviting the people to listen to him over the radio, or that can prevent his friends from going around to the people and offering them his lectures in printed form for less than the cost of production and distribution, provided they so desire to obtain them? Most certainly no.

We still have preserved under glass at Washington or somewhere else an ancient document providing that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press”.*

* This fundamental principle is embodied in unmistakable language in the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. In Article I, Section 3, it is provided that

No person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; . . . nor shall any person be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for . . . the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right, or has deliberately and voluntarily engaged to perform.

And even more pointed is the remarkable provision of the New Jersey Constitution, under which the men who administer the affairs of the Borough of Bergenfield hold their commission as servants (not lords) of the people who reside in that community;

For and Against Liberty of Speech

Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, was of the opinion that “our first object should be to leave open to the people all avenues of truth”.

On the other hand, we are perfectly well aware of the fact that Leo XIII, one of the so-called ‘popes of Rome’, on June 20,1888, made the official statement for the Roman Catholic church that “it is hardly necessary to say that there can be no such right as liberty of speech and liberty of the press”.

Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, said, “As long as our government is administered for the good of the people and is regulated by their will; as long as it assures to us the rights of person and property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.” We are perfectly well aware that one Pius IX, whatever his real name was, stated officially that “as far as the Roman Catholic church is concerned, liberty of speech and press is the liberty of perdition”. He said this on December 8, 1864.

William McKinley, twenty-fifth president of the United States, in 1897 said, “It is consoling and encouraging to realize that free speech, a free press, free thought, free schools, the free and unmolested rights of religious worship, and free and fair elections are dearer and more universally enjoyed today than ever before.”

We are perfectly well aware that the canon law of the Roman Catholic church says on the other hand that “the church has the right to practice the unconditional censure of books”.

Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-sixth president of the United States, said, in 1900, “We exact full religious toleration and the complete separation of church and state.” On the contrary, Pius IX, another so-called “pope”, in his declaration of December 8,1864, took the position that the Roman Catholic church has the right to require that the Catholic religion shall be the only religion of the state, to the exclusion of all others.

Section 5. . . . Every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right. A'o law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.

Clearly and unquestionably it now appears to every fair-minded person that even as the Constitution of the United States provides that ‘ ‘ Congress shall make no law ’ ’ prohibiting the freedom of worship of God in the nation as a whole, so also the Constitution of New Jersey provides that “NO LAW SHALL BE PASSED’’ within the State that restrains or abridges the rights of anyone who resides in New Jersey to serve Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.

We can tell the administration of Bergenfield, N. J., right now that they are endeavoring to combat the march of the truth of Jehovah God and that they will fail. In the first place, they are going to get nothing from the four noble Christian men and the six noble Christian women that they have locked up in their Hackensack jail. Those men and women know what their rights are and they will rot in jail rather than concede that anyone has the right to dictate to them how they shall serve their God.

In the second place, there are thousands of other equally noble Christian men and women who are ready to continue the fight for their rights to serve the Lord God according to the dictates of their consciences at Bergenfield and every other place in the country. As a matter of fact, after the ten were incarcerated, forty other workers covered the entire borough of Bergenfield and placed in every home the invitation to hear Judge Rutherford’s lectures over the radio, which was made the basis for the attack upon the four noble Christian men and six noble Christian women that were put behind prison bars.

Additionally, the people of Bergenfield gladly received from these workers more than 400 of Judge Rutherford’s wonderful books, and the workers distributed these without molestation. The reason why they did this in the face of possible arrest and imprisonment was that they are Jehovah’s witnesses in the earth, and the administration at Bergenfield has no more right to order the arrest of these innocent people while engaged in performing Jehovah’s work than the Roman police would have had to arrest Jesus Christ or the apostles or prophets while they were bearing witness to Israel of God’s purposes regarding the Jewish nation.

Alfonso’s Horses Put to Death

WHEN, in obedience to governmental decree, the property of Alfonso was put up at auction, some of Alfonso’s aristocratic friends bid in his horses and put the steeds to death so that no one else might ever ride them. If you can think of anything more narrow minded than that you will have to go some. Why murder the horses simply because Alfonso got to the end of his rope? The horses only carried Alfonso on their backs, and the whole Spanish people did the same thing.

Jehovah’s Victory at Wilmington By H. L. Rogers (Ohio)

ON SUNDAY, March 8, 1931, a company of about 25 of Jehovah’s witnesses were peaceably calling at the doors of the people at Wilmington, Ohio, telling them of God’s kingdom as the only hope for the world, offering them literature which would explain more fully, and inviting them to listen to the Watchtower radio programs each Sunday for their further encouragement.

Apparently, someone who was interested in keeping this comfort and hope from the people registered a complaint; for soon a police officer arrived on the scene and ordered the work stopped. At his request, those directing the work went with him to the mayor’s office and an explanation of the method used to preach the gospel to the people was given him.

It was pointed out that the witnesses were only making use of their constitutional rights in worshiping God according to the dictates of their own conscience and called upon him as an officer of the city to protect them in their rights. It was also called to his attention that the courts had repeatedly sustained such work as right and proper in similar cases.

The mayor, Chas. Q. Hildebrandt, at one time a member of Congress, a man of some intelligence, apparently wished to favor his ecclesiastical and political friends, refused to listen to reason or precedent, and warned the workers to take out a license, costing one dollar apiece, or to leave the city.

In answer to this, he was told that the workers proposed to continue the work as planned and they would be working on a certain street and that if he wished to make a test case of it he would have the opportunity. Two of the workers were selected to proceed with the work and the remainder awaited developments, not wishing to be required to furnish bond for all in case of arrest.

Shortly the chief of police appeared and found Forrest Grammar talking to a man at his door. Just as he finished, he was placed under arrest and charged with selling books without a city license and of disturbing the peace and quietude of the city. Grammar then turned to the man and asked him if he had disturbed him in any way by so calling on him. The man replied, “No,” and asked him to call again.

In spite of the fact that the United States constitution says that excessive bail shall not be required, the bail was fixed at one hundred dollars, and no amount of persuasion could alter it. Once when in doubt as to what he should do, the mayor phoned a minister of the city for instructions, which indicated the source of the opposition.

The required bail was posted and the hearing set for the following Wednesday. The defense employed an attorney, Mr. Frank Krehbiel, of Dayton, a one-time Socialist who is not afraid to stand for the rights of the under dog and who has had much experience in withstanding the unjust methods of organized politicians. The Society also engaged Edw. C. Wertz, of Cleveland, a personal friend of Judge Rutherford, to take charge of the case. An extension of time was asked for the proper preparation of the case, and this was granted.

Through a misunderstanding over the telephone regarding the date of the hearing, preparations were made and about fifty from Dayton accompanied the attorneys and witnesses to Wilmington for the trial, only to learn upon their arrival that the mayor was not ready and that the date of the trial bad been misunderstood. An attempt was made to persuade the mayor to hear the case at that time, but he refused.

Upon the correct date the hearing was held in the mayor's office. A noble defense was presented by the attorneys, but to no avail. The mayor seemed bent on having his way. No decision was given at that time. After about three weeks, the charge of selling without a license was dismissed, but the charge of disturbing the peace and quietude of the city was sustained, with a fine of fifty dollars and costs.

Sometime later, when a request for a new trial was made, the case was dismissed. The bail was returned with the notice that Wilmington had a “Blue Law” which would be invoked to prevent future Sunday work. Quite evidently, the mayor wished to prolong the case until public interest died, before he dismissed it, and to keep the people of Wilmington in ignorance of the results, as future developments showed.

On Decoration Day, fifty-four witnesses from Dayton returned to Wilmington and resumed the work. Shortly before noon one of the brethren was accosted by the chief of police, who asked him what he was doing. The brother replied that he was preaching the Gospel by printed page and word of mouth. The chief then stated that we had a case pending and were under bond. He was told that that was not the

case; that the same had been dismissed and the money refunded. The chief seemed much surprised and evidently had not been informed of the action. He then ordered those directing the work to see the mayor. Four of the witnesses called upon the mayor at his residence.

When he learned their mission he said he had informed our attorneys that he was dismissing the former case and that the workers should not again return to Wilmington. He wished to know why the order had been violated. He was told that the brethren were acting under orders from the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. At this, the mayor began to speak in an angry voice, declaring that he did not care anything about the Society’s orders and, further, that he did not believe in the work we were doing. He stated that if we persisted in this work, he would arrest each and every one and require a bond and that he was prepared to fight the case as far as we cared to go; that he simply did not want us there and that it seemed our sole purpose was to disobey his orders.

In spite of all the evidence furnished and decisions of higher courts that the license law does not pertain to such work, he insisted that his ordinance would stand.

At this point he was asked if the work could proceed in case each worker took out a city license and paid the fee of one dollar, and if such would be accorded police protection the same as would be due well respected citizens. He replied in the affirmative. This meant, in other words, that for one dollar apiece we could proceed to “disturb the peace and quietude of the city”, hut without the dollar we would be arrested.

While witnessing in various parts of the city on that day, the workers were told by the citizens of Wilmington that they were under the impression that we had been fined $100 and costs and that this had been paid, which leads us to the conclusion that the. mayor probably permitted wrong information to be circulated about the city to deceive the people and that he resented our calling upon the people, which might lead them to believe otherwise.

Not wishing to force an issue at that time, we let the matter rest until October. However, if Jehovah’s witnesses told of the incoming Kingdom only in territory granted by the adversary, not many people would know of it. When Jesus said this gospel of the Kingdom must be preached to all nations, he made no exceptions. Certainly we would wrong the good people, of Wilmington if we told others of this good news and left them in ignorance, just because a few selfish politicians or clergymen desired it.

Accordingly, October 24 was the day appointed to resume the work in Wilmington. As several witnesses from surrounding cities had offered to help with this work, they were notified of the plan of action and the date. To return to Wilmington in the face, of the mayor's threat and warning that he would jail every one who attempted to disobey his orders required no little courage.

Being fully determined that this work should be done regardless of all interference, every effort was put forth to provide for any emergency. No army ever advanced to battle with a more carefully planned campaign, or with a more orderly army. But, would there be enough workers to accomplish the work as planned? It was hoped that a company of one hundred workers could be secured, so as to cover the city in spite of interference.

What would the mayor do ? What would he do with one hundred prisoners? As few of the workers could furnish bail, would he be able to feed and house them, or would they receive any care?

On the appointed day, three divisions of this little army advanced on Wilmington from three different directions. Promptly at 10 a.m. each worker was in his territory ready for action and the work started. Reenforcements were provided to fill the gap in case of arrest or hindrance.

Within two hours, the entire city was covered, including the business section, office buildings, bankers, clergymen, public officials, millionaires and beggars. While every effort was made to be courteous, polite and orderly and to avoid any cause for offense, this attack was certainly enough to “disturb the peace and quietude” of the mayor. A count showed there were 166 workers in the city, and they were courteously treated by the citizens of Wilmington.

While the mayor's house was left to the last, a check-up of the experiences of the workers showed that he came in contact with three different workers. He was in the court house when it was being served. One who called upon him at his residence at the conclusion of the work reported that she. was most kindly treated. She presented to him a copy of Judge Rutherford’s booklet, The Kingdom, The Hope of the World, which he accepted with the request that she convey his kindest personal regards to Judge Rutherford. He also said he hoped we would again return to his city, to which she replied that we most certainly would.

What caused his changed attitude we cannot say. We hope he discovered that lie was on the wrong side of the controversy and had the courage to champion the cause of the Kingdom. While most of the workers had driven from 40 to 90 miles in order to be present for the work, they felt well repaid for this victory which Jehovah gave his people at Wilmington, Ohio.

As the cars formed in procession and approached the city in an orderly way, many observers seemed to think it a funeral procession, but could see no hearse. Indeed, there was no hearse, for this was not a death procession (except for the Devil and his crowd), but it was a part of that great procession which is now forming, which shall lead the people over the King’s highway, away from Satan’s kingdom of darkness and confusion, into God’s everlasting kingdom of joy, peace and contentment.

Winslow Trades

INFLUENCED by something they heard a Philadelphia preacher say over the radio, the selectmen of Winslow, N. J., have dismissed the police force of five men and have called upon the clergymen of the community to get together and implore divine aid in the present emergency in which one out of every five wage earners in the town is idle and many are in need of help to get through the winter.

Several questions intrude themselves. Is the community of Winslow sufficiently chastened by its experiences that it can get an audience with the Almighty? Is there any assurance, even if audience were gained, that the responses would be favorable? But most important question of all, What reason is there to believe that these men, who were a unit for war during the World War, and wanted those slain who were opposed to war, have any means of access into the divine presence ?

And how will it help the unemployment situation in Winslow to fire five officers of the law who hitherto have been able to support their own families? If the town has to support these men and their families anyway, why not let them continue to do the best they can to look for lawbreakers ?

Suppose now, for example, the directors of the largest financial institution in the community should conclude it was time to help themselves to what was left in the vaults. Who would arrest the misdemeanants? Or would the clergy who are on the payrolls of these men be used to implore the Almighty to so work on their feelings that they would return the funds wrongfully taken? And would that be sufficient? Suppose they offered to split 50-50?

Police for Clergy

Another suggestion is that since the clergy have now been made caretakers of Winslow they might as well be given the jobs which were vacated when the police were fired. It would give them something to do, which is something they do not now have, and it would make them of some use in the community, which now they conspicuously are not, for nobody outside of the Winslow Township committee is so foolish as to believe that their prayers to Baal will have any result. Baal is probably asleep or on a journey.

An Interesting Legal Decision

THE Court of Appeals of New York state, by -*• a unanimous vote of its nine judges, has just decided, in an altercation as to whether or not one James J. O’Connor, of Schenectady, was or was not guilty of reckless driving of an automobile, that a police officer has no right to arrest a citizen for a misdemeanor unless the police officer personally saw the offense complained of, or unless the complainant had filed a complaint with the Police Court and obtained a warrant. In other words, in New York state, nobody, no matter who he is, can get another person arrested without coming out in the open, like a man, and swearing out a warrant for his arrest. This is as it should be.

In the case in point, O'Connor resisted search by the arresting officer, and the Court of Appeals unanimously decided that as the arrest was illegally made, the officer had no right to search the prisoner, and that the prisoner did not resist an officer in the performance of any duty and therefore no crime was committed.

Dry Weather a Blessing to Jehovah’s witnesses By A. D. Haas (Pioneer)

and there a squirrel, a rabbit, and occasionally a deer; and once we had the pleasure of seeing a bear cross our path. What a joy to serve Jehovah amid such beauty of nature!

Then in the distance we see the little southern home, buried in the. midst of large live oak trees. What a welcome! Chairs are placed on the porch; we are asked to come; then the witness is given. How glad they are to hear it! Next comes the chicken chase; the deal is made; and on we go down narrow lanes, across fields, into the woods again, looking for more homes that can now be reached because it is dry and we need fear no low places or dangerous water holes.

It surely is a joy to be in Jehovah’s service at this time, when many are so hungry for the truth, and every day it seems we have more joyful experiences. Today when we came back to our room we had chickens, eggs, pecans, peanuts, oranges, cane syrup, hickory nuts and money. We sell what we can and eat the rest.

After witnessing at one home today the lady took some of the books and, after thanking us for coming, she said she had lived there five years and we were the first to reach her; and this county was gone over each year. So we do thank the Lord even for the dry weather. Nothing the Devil can do will stop the people from getting the message; and how glad we are that we can have a part in hunting out these people and giving them this witness!

“The More Intelligent of the Laity”

IT MAY have been entirely unintentional, but that was a rather nice compliment that Dr. Theobald Smith of the Massachusetts Board of Health paid to somebody when he wrote in the Annual Report that “there is a widespread fear among the more intelligent of the laity of the dangers of vaccination”.

In the Encyclopedia Britannica Dr. Charles Creighton goes Dr. Smith one. better, when he says: “The anti-vaccinists are those who have found some motive for scrutinizing the evidence, generally the very human motive of vaccinal injuries or fatalities in their own families, or in those of their neighbors. Whatever their motive, they have scrutinized the evidence to some purpose ; they have mastered nearly the whole case; they have knocked the bottom out of a grotesque superstition.”

Japan Takes Over Manchuria (In Two Parts)

Part 2

JAPAN is in an earthquake zone, having 1,500 shocks a year. In Tokyo a shock is felt about once a week; a serious one occurs somewhere in Japan on an average of once in thirty months. In the disaster which occurred September 1, 1923, all railway trains speeding to or from the capital were wrecked en route; the water mains burst; gas tanks and oil tanks split their seams, and poured their liquid fuel over the doomed cities; the clocks all stopped; telephone and telegraph lines were wrecked; for several hours the only communication with the outside world was through a radio station 144 miles north of Tokyo where, by some strange freak, the towers 660 feet high remained standing.

In the narrow streets, usually but eighteen feet wide, the mass of wretched humanity was subjected to 216 distinct shocks on the day of greatest fatalities, with 57 shocks on the day following. In Tokyo, with an estimated population of 2,400,000, and in Yokohama, with a population of 450,000, only six buildings remained standing, although some of them were large modern buildings of steel construction, supposed to be quake-proof.

The known dead in the earthquake numbered 104,619, with as many more missing, some slain by falling buildings, some drowned in the tidal wave, some incinerated in the great conflagration which followed, and some swallowed up in the great fissures which opened in the ground.

Five hundred girls were killed in the crasli of a single factory; seven hundred perished in the University Hospital; the former premier’ and twenty statesmen were killed at a council; the prince regent barely escaped with his life.

All the bridges of Tokyo, densely crowded with refugees from the fire, collapsed, hurling thousands into death in the waters beneath. A tidal wave of extraordinary height was followed by a typhoon which deluged everything with a torrent of wind and rain. The river Sumida, equaling the Hudson in size, changed its course; new islands appeared in the ocean; old islands disappeared.

Part of the Japanese fleet was destroyed; all the government buildings were destroyed; all the banks were destroyed; the fire which raged for two days was visible for two hundred miles, and was so intense that a temperature of 150 degrees was registered in many places. After ten days the steel vaults were still so hot that they could not be touched.

The principal prison opened its doors, and 1,500 prisoners were freed. The w^Tild animals confined in the zoos escaped, and added to the horrors of the street scenes. Before aid could reach the stricken cities, food riots had broken out; and military punishment was visited upon the transgressors.

In the most severe of the shocks the ground rose and dropped four inches. Imagine an entire building, and everything in it, dropped four inches vertically, and this operation repeated many times; and it will be understood why almost no structure was left standing in the stricken area.

Thirty thousand bales of silk, one-tenth of Japan’s output for an entire year, were destroyed, resulting in the closing down of many American factories.

The whole earth trembled with the shocks. By the seismograph, which is an instrument so delicate that it will record the earth tremors caused by starting a street car three miles away, the shocks were detected in San Francisco, London, Brussels, and in Florence, Italy.

The ocean waves caused by the earthquake traversed the six thousand miles from Japan to California in forty hours, or at the rate of one hundred fifty miles an hour. When they reached the California shores, they still retained a height of twenty feet near Los Angeles, the swells breaking completely over a fifteen-foot breakwater and carrying away lumber piled along the shore.

Within two days of the catastrophe American vessels loaded with 1,000,000 pounds of rice, 500,000 pounds of beans, 500,000 soldier rations for one day, medical supplies for 50,000 troops for three months, 400 large tents, and cots and blankets for 20,000 men were rushing to the scene.

This was but a handful, however, to what was needed; and funds were swiftly raised all over America, in response to presidential appeal, so that immense quantities of all kinds of supplies could be dispatched from Pacific Coast, Philippine, and Chinese ports with the least possible delay.

In New York city many physicians and nurses volunteered to go to Japan to give their serv-

ices free. The promptness, generosity, and effectiveness with which America responded seemingly removed completely all friction between the two peoples for the time being.

In the reconstruction of Tokyo wide and well-paved streets, with concrete bridges, take the place of the narrow streets and wooden bridges in use at the time of the earthquake. $369,500,000 was expended in the rebuilding of Tokyo.

The fortitude and untiring zeal of the Japanese people in rebuilding Tokyo and Yokohama with impressive civic improvements within seven years, and in spite of a severe financial depression in the meantime, has aroused the admiration of the entire world. The property damage of the earthquake is set at about two and a half billion dollars.

The fact that the Japanese islands are of volcanic origin and that serious earthquakes are of such frequent occurrence is the explanation of why it does not seem wise to the inhabitants to build their homes with walls which might come crashing in upon them.

The Food Supply

One of the gravest problems confronting Japan is the food supply. On account of the mountainous nature of the country, only oneseventh of the superficial area of Japan is susceptible of cultivation; yet more than 30,000,000 of the people are engaged in farming, and the farms have steadily shrunk until they average less than three acres each.

The number of acres planted in 1930 was 14,277,075, of which 7,300,021 acres were in rice, the principal food of the people. Japan annually produces 300,000,000 bushels of rice. Fish is a staple article of diet.

Seaweed is grown especially for food purposes, being cultivated with as much care as any other crop. After the typhoon season, the women may be seen bearing great loads of young trees which have been stripped of their leaves, though all the small branches are left intact. These are drawn into the weed on the shore, acres of brushy saplings being arranged in long, parallel rows where the tide ebbs over them twice daily. Gradually, the green, fern-like weed collects on the branches, and flourishes there until the farmers harvest it. It is then carefully picked over and dried for future use.

Terracing is employed on an extensive scale. The smallest scrap of barnyard litter or other material is saved and applied to the land. Even the sweepings of the highways are saved with care. The Japanese are probably the world’s most expert gardeners.

The plows in general use are the same as used in Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs.

When the emperor is on a tour his vegetables are sent to him every day in refrigerator cars.

Soils vary greatly, often changing within a mile. As a rule they are not very rich and need to be carefully cultivated and well manured. The farms are so small, averaging only two and one-half acres, and the crops in such constant peril by flood, drought, frost, hail and typhoon that the income of the farmers is not enough to live upon.

In order to make a living they have to engage in sericulture (the raising of silkworms), silk reeling, tea culture, mat making, sugar manufacturing, starch manufacture, weaving ricestraw mats, making strawplait from barley, weaving cotton and silk goods as commercial articles, making baskets from bamboo stem and making wood-shaving plait, etc.

Agricultural education is encouraged. There are more than 7,000 continuation schools for agriculture. Agricultural experiment stations are numerous. The government promotes cooperative societies, including growers’ societies. There is a common saying in Japan, translated from the Chinese, which means that agriculture is the foundation of the country.

As most of the people are Buddhists, the Japanese know little of meat, milk, butter or cheese. Though there are many landlords in Japan, three-fifths of the arable land is cultivated by peasant proprietors. Rents usually run to about one-half, sometimes to two-thirds of the produce. The climate is such that in some places two crops a year’ can he obtained. The landlord receives his entire rent from the first crop.

The silk industry is one of the most important in Japan, being extensively conducted by small farmers who have plenty of labor well suited to it. The silkworms are raised within the house. The eggs of the silkworm are raised by specialists, the art being a very difficult one.

Fowls are extensively kept by small farmers. Bees and sheep have been introduced, but do not do well. In the country, the houses often serve both as dwellings and farm buildings and are always grouped together into villages or built along the roadside. There are no enclosed farms with buildings in the center.

Japanese Industries

In a very brief time Japan has become one of the great manufacturing countries of the world. She has a few very large corporations which combine banking, shipping, mining, manufacturing and continental exploitation in their activities. These, with the army and navy, really constitute the government. Thus Big Business, ■with a few men, operates the government and controls the people.

There are half a dozen large steel works in Japan, the principal one being a government plant employing 15,000 men. This plant produces about 400,000 tons per year, and all other plants together about 600,000 tons more. This is a large output, especially when one considers the shortness of the time that Japan has been engaged in the iron business. The ore for these works is almost all imported from China and Manchuria.

Japan is up to the minute in mining, electrical, photographic and surgical work. She has a wireless station that sends and receives messages direct to and from Germany, and is able to communicate with Buenos Aires.

The war caused Japan to produce at home many things which she formerly imported, thereby greatly stimulating her development. One of her great steamship companies, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japanese Mail Steamship Company) has vessels running to most of the principal ports of the world.

The annual combined exports and imports are more than 100 times what they were sixty years ago. The value of raw silk exported was more than nine times as much in 1928 as it was a quarter of a century earlier. In fifteen years the bank deposits were multiplied by six.

Japanese drummers are in every market of Asia, Africa and Australasia, offering textiles, underwear, umbrellas, matches, lead pencils, collar buttons, toys, rubber boots, earthenware, glassware, and a thousand and one other products of a great manufacturing nation.

Visitors to Japan complain that the old beauty has been marred by the tall chimneys, the smoke, the slag, the noise and other concomitants of an industrial civilization.

In common with all the rest of the world, Japan is suffering much in the present depression. In May, 1930, the unemployed numbered 402,000, which number by now is probably several times that.

The government has been following a policy of sending unemployed workers from the country districts back to their own home communities so that they may receive more assistance from relatives and friends than would be the case if they remained in the industrial centers.

Japan does some things differently than they are done elsewhere in the world. It is the only place in the world where a workman would be willing to apply fifty coats of lacquer before he would consider it a finished job.

Nagasaki is the only place in the world where steamships are coaled by women. The women line up and pass the buckets of coal up by hand in a human chain. They do the work swiftly and cheerfully, and the scene constitutes one of the outstanding sights of a trip around the world.

The pearl farms employ more than a thousand people and have an output of more than a million pearls a year. On these farms scientific methods are followed, causing the oyster to produce pearls which are pronounced to be equal to natural pearls in shape, color and luster.

It is said that the beggars of Tokyo are so perfectly organized that they work in shifts of three hours each and at the close of the day the. total takings are divided equally among the entire number without discrimination as to age or sex.

Ninety percent of all buildings of Japan are equipped with electric lights, and Japan has developed and uses a greater percentage of her natural water power for generating electrical energy than is the case with any other country.

Japanese Labor and Economics

Japanese factories no longer operate continuously by working two shifts of twelve hours each. Hours have been reduced to eight and a half in the cotton mills, the shifts in which are now from 5: 00 a.m. to 2: 00 p.m. and from 2: 00 p.m. to 11: 00 p.m. The custom is still practiced of housing the girl workers in textile mills in dormitories under very close supervision. When strikes occur, the employer locks the strikers in instead of locking them out.

At least two strikes were settled by representatives of the strikers by climbing to the top of the factory chimney and refusing to eat or to descend until the strike was settled. One of these chimney martyrs remained aloft 314 hours. They finally had to let him down in a basket to get him off the stack. When taken down from the top of the chimney this man was so weak that he was unable to either speak or eat and it was necessary to take him at once to a hospital; but he won the strike for himself and his friends.

In another instance 200 men went on a hunger strike as a protest against the discharge of a fellow worker, and after two weeks 140 of them were still locked in a warehouse refusing food.

In a strike in Tokyo, street car employees secured a six-hour day. In that strike, and in others, the strikers reported for work, but operated every machine as slowly and inefficiently as possible until their demands were granted. In some cases they have demanded the right to elect and to discharge foremen.

Some years ago, in a protest against an unwarranted increase in electric light rates, 2,000 indignant citizens raided the residences of the directors of the electric light company. In America, instead of raiding such men, we put their names and their pictures on the front pages of the newspapers and send them to Congress as patriots and savers of the nation.

Wages in Formosa a year ago were 25c daily, but these wages are much below those usually paid in other parts of Japan. Carpenters, the last we knew, received 65c to $1.25 per day; laborers, 50c to 75c. The labor, although cheap in price, is said in American financial papers to be poor in quality. It is claimed that machinery made for Japan has to be virtually “fool-proof”.

Japanese Transportation

The Japanese are doing some migrating, but they are essentially a non-migratory people. The people wish to live and work in Japan and in the warmer islands belonging to her. One large island in the group, Hokkaido, with a climate about the same as that of New England, is quite sparsely populated, owing to the fact that the people do not like to live there during winter.

These conditions make Japan a manufacturing and, of necessity, an importing nation, but though she can make steel, and is making it in large quantities, yet at present it can be purchased more cheaply in America than it can be made at home. Japan has hardly any iron of her own, and the coal is of inferior quality. Her basis of supply for both coal and iron is and must be China and China’s neighbors to the north. This means that the coal and ores must be imported, and they cannot be imported without ships.

Japan has no cotton or wool or hides or oil.

All of these must be imported. In this respect she is in the same position in the Orient that Great Britain is in the Occident, but is without the raw materials that gave Britain a start, and is without other of the things that make for efficient industrial life.

The first railway in Japan w^Tas opened in 1872. The railway mileage was 641 in 1887, 12,000 in 1929. The first Japanese-built steamer was launched in 1898, yet by 1920 Japan’s merchant fleet ranked third among the world powers.

Ten years ago Tokyo had 20,000 jinrikishas; now it has but 5,000, the taxicab having largely taken their place.

There are 590,000 miles of roads and streets in Japan. These are being widened and equipped with stronger bridges as funds are available. Japan employs many motor tricycles, which are useful vehicles in a country whose streets and roads are very narrow and full of turns.

Tokyo is building a subway. The program calls for forty-one miles, of which one section of one and a half miles has been built.

Railroads in Japan provide third-class sleeping cars for the poor patrons.

Ship captains complain that in Japanese ports the officials deliberately delay foreign vessels, while all Japanese ships are promptly handled.

We do not know how true it is, but the Dearborn Independent claimed that the following traffic rules in English were posted in a police station in Tokyo:

“At the rise of the hand policeman stop rapidly. When a passenger of the foot hove in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet at him. Melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, tootle him with vigor and express by word of mouth the warning, ‘ Hi I Hi! ’ Beware the wandering horse that he shall not take fright as you pass him by. Do not explode the exhaust box at him as you pass him by. Go soothingly by. Give big space to the festive dog that shall sport in the roadway. Go soothingly in the grease mud, as there lurks the skid demon.”

Cities

By the census of 1930, Tokyo is shown as having a population of 2,070,913, and in the metropolitan districts of which it is the center the population is 5,400,000. Plans to enlarge the city to an area the size of Chicago will make Tokyo the third largest city in the world.

Osaka has a population of 2,453,573; Nagoya, 907,404; and Kobe, 787,616.

In the year 1927, a village was discovered in the mountains of northern Japan which is said to have been lost to the world for about 700 years. The inhabitants, 150 in number, did not speak modern Japanese; were vegetarians; wore the costumes of a bygone age; and when discovered had never heard of the rest of the world.

Japan and Russia

Ten years ago it looked as if Japan meant to take over all the maritime provinces of Russia, but this plan, if it ever had an existence in the minds of the Japanese General Staff, has evidently been postponed as to its execution. Nominally the two nations, Japan and Russia, get along together all right, but there is no question that Japan knows she can take over the Russian maritime provinces any time she wants them and in taking over the whole of Manchuria she has the key to those provinces in her possession. Russia, of course, knows this, and is reported to be desirous to approach China from the rear through Mongolia and to find an allyear-round port on the Pacific, probably in the vicinity of Tsingtau.

Japan and Korea

Japan first went on the warpath about thirtyeight years ago, just at the time when the belligerent and hypocritical '‘Christian” governments of the world were helping themselves to foreign possessions everywhere. She made a sudden attack upon China, and gained an almost immediate victory, but was deprived of the fruits of it by the '‘Christian” powers’taking for themselves the things that she had expected to seize.

The second adventure was with Russia only a few years later. Russia was pushing railway terminals and troops into Chinese territory contiguous to Japanese possessions. The two nations were in diplomatic discussion of the matter, when, without warning, Japanese warships entered a Russo-Chinese port, blew up and sunk a great man-of-war with hundreds of men aboard, and the war was on.

Immediately opposite Japan, on the mainland, was the little professedly Christian kingdom of Korea, one of the most peaceful, inoffensive countries in the world, with a history four thousand years old.

At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War the Japanese government made an alliance with Korea guaranteeing the independence of the latter country in exchange for the privilege of using the Hermit Kingdom as a road by which to attack the Russian forces in and about Harbin.

As the war went on and Japan became confident of victory, need for keeping Korea even moderately satisfied had gone. The fair wages that the Korean laborers had received was cut down to one-sixth of its former figure, while the cost of all commodities rose to double price. The Koreans were reduced to starvation wages and were compelled, often at the point of the sword, to perform their work. Japanese armed men would invade a village and commandeer all the ablebodied men at the time of harvest when their labor was indispensable for the harvesting of the crops. Enormous areas of the best arable land were seized for the railroad without compensation, and when some of the owners protested they were taken out and shot. Photographs of their crucified and riddled bodies have been preserved.

At the Treaty of Portsmouth, according to his own written statement, President Roosevelt advised the Japanese to seize the power in Korea and take charge of her foreign affairs. The United States was at that time in full treaty relations with Korea. The action at Portsmouth was taken without consultation from Korea, without asking to what extent, if any, such action would be satisfactory and without giving Korea an opportunity to offer arguments to the contrary.

Immediately after annexation, all books and literature dealing vvitli Korean history were confiscated, and a Japanese version of Korean history was put into use instead. The possession of any of the ancient Korean literature is considered sufficient ground for imprisonment. Korean students may not receive higher education in any country other than Japan.

In December, 1918, some of the Koreans made an effort to regain their liberties. Bands of them, cooperating with Chinese, invaded Korea from the Chinese territory which adjoins, but met with a terrible punishment; and this punishment spread to natives throughout the peninsula.

Many innocent Koreans were put to death without trial. Two processions of unarmed men and women pleading for leniency were mowed down by machine guns. Instances are narrated of students whose finger nails were torn out by the roots in order to force them to name their fellow conspirators for the restoration of Korean liberties. Details are given of persons whose heads were screwed under letterpresses to extract confessions, and of women who were subjected to great indignities, such as officers’ spitting in their faces, and exposing them unnecessarily in police examinations.

Japan’s purpose to secure possession of the natural resources of Korea was illustrated in the formation of The Oriental Development Company, whose purpose was the exploitation of Korea and Manchuria. A large part of the stock of this company was held by the imperial family in Japan. Millions of dollars were borrowed from American financiers—money that never would have been loaned, it is to be hoped, if the lenders had known how it was to be used. The best arable land in Korea was wrested from its owners by all sorts of trickery and fraud. In many cases the forms of law were observed, but full advantage was taken of the ignorance of the law on the part of the Korean peasantry. Let us illustrate this by a single case. A Japanese professes friendship for a Korean farmer and offers to lend him money at a low rate of interest for the improvement of his farm. The bond states that if the money is not repaid on a certain day the farm reverts to the Japanese. On the day for payment the Korean brings his money to the office or home of the Japanese in order to settle the account. He has the money in hand. But the Japanese is not there, nor can he be found. The Korean repeats the attempt each day for a week or so without success. At last the Japanese returns and claims the farm on the ground that the money was not paid when due. The court, dominated by the Japanese, gives the decision in favor of the Japanese citizen, and the Korean loses his farm.

How the enlightened Japanese dealt with the strangers in their midst in a time of national catastrophe appears from the account of what happened at the time of the Japanese earthquake, and makes one glad that the Pacific ocean is as wide as it is:

At the time of the earthquake in Japan there were more than ten thousand Koreans in Tokyo and Yokohama. They were students, merchants and ordinary workmen. They had no money, no organization, no power. They were peaceful citizens bent only upon making an honest living.

When that frightful cataclysm struck Japan the government was temporarily paralyzed. Tokyo and Yokohama were a veritable shambles. Among the first acts of the authorities was to send out a statement that the Koreans were looting, that they were poisoning wells, that they were using bombs and that they presented a grave danger to the Japanese populace. People everywhere were advised to kill the Koreans at sight. The evidence of this fact is given by more than one witness, but specifically by an American citizen connected with the dock service in Yokohama. He was on the spot and was conversant with the situation. Of course the accusation was absurd. If we search for a possible explanation for this almost unbelievable outrage it will be found in the fact that there existed in Tokyo and Yokohama a very large number of disaffected Japanese, criminals and blacklegs, whom the government suspected of Bolshevistic tendencies. They were quite capable of taking advantage of the general confusion to engage in plunder. It is believed that the charge against the Koreans was deliberately made in order to direct the felonious energies of these lawless Japanese into a channel that would relieve the pressure upon the Japanese population. In other words, it was a sort of safety valve, a counterpart of the letting loose of that same horde of bandits upon Korea at the time of the Russo-Japanese War.

The result was that the Koreans were hunted down by these ruffians and killed by the thousands. It is estimated that nine thousand Koreans perished in the earthquake, five thousand of whom were massacred. Hundreds of them were roped together, in bunches of five, driven into old barges, sprayed with oil and burned to death. This is no mere rumor. It was witnessed by American citizens in broad daylight. Scores of Koreans made their way into the police headquarters for safety and were there cut down. We have photographs of acres of land covered with their dead bodies, telegraph poles festooned with their bodies, hanging by wires. An American citizen named W. II. Stevens was taking his family and some friends to Nikko by automobile. They were stopped by a band of Japanese and compelled to witness the murder of eight Koreans by bayoneting them through the abdomen. When these men were dead, the Japanese laid the bodies in the road and compelled the American to drive his machine over the corpses! This was done, seemingly, in pure contempt for the well known sympathies of Americans for the Korean people. This happened as late as the year 1923, which shows that the vaunted civilization of Japan has not been purged of its innate savagery.

Seizure of Manchuria

Manchuria is the key to Asia, and in a few weeks’ time Japan has helped herself to this key and overrun the whole of Manchuria. Chinese troops when they were encountered were referred to in the dispatches as bandits, a name with which Americans have become very familiar in dispatches from Nicaragua in times past. Every time Nicaragua in recent years has raised an army to contest the government of Nicaragua by the Wall Street crowd that controls the customs revenues, they have been inevitably referred to in the dispatches as bandits, not patriots.

As long ago as July, 1920, an international commission of American, French and British representatives stated that the Chinese bandits operating in Manchuria along lines of railway-coveted by the Japanese were found to be armed with Japanese guns "and that a foreign influence is exercised in favor of the bandits for the evident purpose of destroying Chinese authority”. The same report stated that the Japanese neglect no occasion to interfere with the administration of the railroad, its grounds and its buildings.

From the foregoing it appears that Japan has worked this ‘bandit’ idea in two ways. First, she planted her own bandits all ovei’ Manchuria to interfere with the proper operation of the Manchurian government and railways; and, second, when the time came for her to grab the country she denounced as bandits the legitimate Chinese troops.

The overrunning of Manchuria was accomplished without any opposition on the part of China. In the face of protests of the League of Nations and of the United States Government, and in spite of her own repeated claims that she had no intention of seizing Manchuria, Japan went on and seized it and nobody believes that, humanly speaking, she will ever let go. Japan is said to be planning a "Manchurian Free State” dominated by Tokyo rather than by the League of Nations or any other combination of powers.

It is said that there is much anger, surprise and resentment in Japan that the other so-called “civilized nations” of the world should object to her doing in Manchuria what they have done in every other corner of the globe. The Japanese foreign office has announced that a fundamental Japanese policy is that not one Chinese soldier shall be allowed to remain in Manchuria.

The Chinese population of Manchuria is about 25,000,000; while there are only about 190,000 Japanese. What Japan aims at is the economic mastery of the province, and that objective is already gained.

The Japanese military authorities have a keen eye for “bandits”. Within a few days after the Chinese ambassador at Washington, with the concurrence of the Japanese minister of war and the Japanese chief of staff, informed the secretary of state of the United States that there would be no movement of Japanese troops in the direction of Chinchow, Japanese planes flew over the place dropping bombs upon it and in a few more days the Japanese troops seized it, although it was 120 miles away from the South Manchurian railway which the Japanese troops were supposed to be protecting and which constituted their excuse for being in Manchuria.

The Manchurian Railways

The prosperity of Manchuria depends upon its railways. Until recent years the two principal railway systems were the Chinese Eastern Bailway, which runs across northern Manchuria from west to east (this line was built by Russia and constitutes the direct line from Russia and central Siberia to the Asiatic terminus at Vladivostok), and the South Manchurian Railway, connecting the above with the port of Dairen and with a branch into Korea. This latter railway was taken away from the Russians by the Japanese and is now owned and operated by them. The Japanese are making this line one of the most important factors in the building up of the Japanese Empire.

In recent years the Chinese have built throughout Manchuria a series of railroads which come more or less in competition with the foregoing, and it is to secure the absolute control of these Chinese built roads that Japan seized Manchuria. About a third of the Chinese lines were built with Japanese capital.

The total railway mileage in Manchuria is about 3,700. Before the seizure of Manchuria, Japan owned about 700 miles of railroads in the province. Today she practically controls the entire railway mileage. The Japanese care who governs Manchuria, because the ones that govern Manchuria will have a good deal to say about the control of the railways, and it is on the control of these railways that the future of the Japanese Empire largely depends. The freight which the Chinese lines in Manchuria had been expecting to move in a direction to be of benefit to China will now be moved in a direction that will be of benefit to the Japanese.

Manchuria Needed for Raw Materials

It is a very significant fact that up until a generation ago, Manchuria, which is the natural meeting-place of China, Japan and Russia, was practically an empty country. The great Chinese wall was built to keep the Manchus out of China, yet the Manchus got into China, seized the Chinese throne and ruled the country for centuries. They did not allow the Chinese to settle in Manchuria until about the time that the railroad development took place.

With the development of the railroads came the knowledge that Manchuria's soil and climate are such as to insure good crops of the cereals upon which all Orientals exist; but additionally, the land is found to be a storehouse of the very minerals which Japan lacks in the older parts of the empire and which Japan must have in order to keep her factories and commerce in operation.

More than half of all China’s iron ore deposits are to be found in a single province in Manchuria. The port of Dairen under Japanese control has become the second port of China in the value of goods that pass through it. The three principal cities of Manchuria are Dairen, 250,000 population, controlled by the Japanese; Mukden, the ancient capital, 300,000 to 400,000 population, until recently controlled by the Chinese; and Harbin, of perhaps 250,000 population, controlled by the Russians. All of these are now under the control of the Japanese. They are well built, well paved cities, and are said to contain efficient public services of all kinds, alert and enterprising business men, and a vigorous and industrious population.

Manchuria is of the area of Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas combined. The summers are hot; but the winters, very cold. The present population is estimated at 25,000,000 to 30,000,000. The bulk of the population are Chinese farmers, with nearly a million Koreans. The Japanese are only about two hundred thousand all together, while the Russians are still fewer in number. The Manchus still maintain themselves distinct from the Chinese in language and in customs.

Since 1905 Japan has invested about $1,000,000,000 in Manchuria. It is believed that the opportunities for further expansion are enormous and that as this region lies so convenient to Japan, and the latter needs particularly the coal and iron in which Manchuria abounds, the Japanese will resist every effort to restrain them from controlling the province they have seized.

Every year Japan spends about $150,000,000 for mineral products in excess of supplies exported. Another $100,000,000 is spent for imported grains and flours. The soil of Manchuria is fertile and has not been abused by centuries of intensive agriculture. It produces in great quantities the soy bean and wheat, which Japan is using in great quantities, and millet, which the Koreans prefer.

Referring to the Japanese need of Manchuria, Major General Yasunosuke Sato, retired, said in an article in the Japan Times and Mail:

At first, Japan's advancement in Manchuria was a military necessity against Russia; today Manchuria has become necessary for the economic life of the Japanese people as well. Everybody is aware that the Japanese are lacking in natural resources . . . and are suffering from overpopulation. It is generally known that the Americans, the Dutch and the British are disconcerted over the problem of Japanese overpopulation because they fear that it may force Japan to seize their territories, such as the Philippines, the Dutch Indies, or Australia. The development of Manchuria has somewhat reduced the economic hardships of the Japanese, and the fear of these Western nations has accordingly lessened.

The Chinese in Manchuria

Chinese influence in Manchuria rests upon the fact that when the first railways were built through the province they came flocking in by the millions. The Chinese population is now said to be 28,000,000, and to be increasing at the rate of a million a year. The Japanese population is manifestly too small to rule except with the consent of a good proportion of the Chinese residents; and while it is true that after their cities were seized great numbers of the Chinese fled, taking the first trains back to China proper, yet millions have stayed and it is believed are not altogether averse to having a more stable government than has been possible under the Chinese war lords.

It is supposed that one of Japan’s moving reasons for the immediate seizure of Manchuria is the growing Nationalist sentiment of China which makes them want China (including Manchuria) for the Chinese.

It was noted in the clashes in Manchuria that while hundreds of Chinese were killed, there was almost an entire absence of prisoners. The explanation offered is that the Chinese, both regular and bandits, invariably killed their wounded rather than permit them to fall into the hands of the Japanese.

Students of Manchuria’s affairs express the belief that, man for man, the Japanese farmers or merchants are no match for the Chinese. Such are predicting that in the end Manchuria will remain Chinese. They expect that the Japanese will turn over the administration of the country to the Chinese, who alone seem to know how to govern those of their nationality. As a writer on the subject well says:

No one can conquer and hold China. No one has yet succeeded in subjecting the Chinese people to an alien rule. Their very anarchism is their greatest protection. Their use of the economic boycott, their resort to banditry, their very meekness in accepting de facto conditions, weaken their conquerors and make conquest a wearisome and expensive operation. The big men of Japan realize this; that is why they would not take Manchuria as a gift.

For years China has been trying to establish an effective government; and for years Japan has maintained at her capital, under salary, peace disturbers whose duty it has been to see to it that a unified government should not be established. Opposing factions have been multiplied and liberally financed in order to keep the country prostrate while Japan slowly penetrates deeper and deeper into her vitals.

The Chinese have not been entirely asleep all this time. They have remarked the “fortuitous concourse” of affairs by which “Chinese bandits” always make attacks in places the Japanese are anxious to obtain, thus necessitating the garrisoning of those places by Japanese troops. In the effort partially to square the account, there has been a widespread boycotting of Japanese goods by Chinese, similar to that which recently caused the bombardment of Shanghai.

An Unsolvable Problem

Nobody knows what to do with the problem of how to handle the Chinese in China; not even the Chinese themselves know. Before the westerners came among them the Chinese were all poor together, but they did manage to get along somehow; but now everything is upset. Respect for old laws and customs has perished and an awakening is in progress which is stirring China to its depths.

China needs a railroad from Peiping to Canton, but has never been able to build it, because no government China could build has been strong enough to prevent brigands from stealing the ties and rails before the track could be laid.

Today China is seething with anarchy. Troops move from one section to another with the intention of preserving order, but on their way they overrun the countryside and strip it of everything it possesses. The farmers along the route are drafted into the army, and when hostilities are over they do not know where they came from, cannot find their way home, and themselves become bandits of necessity.

A Chinese laborer will maintain himself by eating cheap corn powder kneaded with water* and without salt or sugar, costing him only one or two cents daily. A Japanese laborer, on the other hand, must have at least ten times the wages of a Chinese in order to exist. Employers throughout China as well as Manchuria therefore prefer the Chinese labor, and that not only because it is cheaper, but because it is more efficient.

As troops, the Chinese are probably the worst in the world; and that fact, along with their poverty, makes it easy for the western nations and Japan to impose their will upon them, speaking in a military sense. But, while the Chinese are not militarists, they are past masters in the art of boycott. The present boycott against Japan is said to be the eleventh within the past twenty years.

The Chinese have learned to hate the Japanese even more enthusiastically than they hate the other foreign governments. In numerous instances of late they have suicided out of grief because of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. In Shanghai they have done everything that could be done to irritate the Japanese by posters which put their course in Manchuria in the worst possible light. One shopkeeper delighted his patrons, but got his windows smashed, by displaying a picture of the Japanese emperor upside down, than which there could be no greater offense to a Japanese.

It is believed that the population of China is unabsorbable and indigestible to a conqueror. There are too many of them and the cost of keeping all of them in order would be beyond the financial powers of any government in the world.

The 5,000 American missionaries in China are said to be a force which has had the effect of egging the Chinese on to take a national stand against the encroachments of the Japanese.

As Britain and America both have behind them a history of imperialism, they cannot say very much to Japan. What the Japanese are now doing in Shanghai is exactly what the. British did there in 1927, and for the same reason.

Since the World War there has been a great increase in China’s spirit of nationalism, although repeated boycotts and constant newspaper comments have had much to do with stirring the Japanese to action.

Japan and the League of Nations

At the first session of the League of Nations Assembly, the Japanese had two or three times as many persons present as had any other nation. They took the League very seriously until they found it was a false alarm. Now they do just as they please and plainly give the League and the United States to understand that they will do in China and Manchuria just as they see fit; and, in a way, they cannot be blamed. They are only doing, late in the day, what all the members of the League did previously.

It should be said in Japan's behalf that it has attended every international conference of any importance and has signed every important document for world peace. It must also he admitted that there is a good deal of truth in Japan's claim that she is "as civilized as the foremost countries in Europe and America". She holds a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations and was one of the five principal allied and associated powers at the Conference of Paris at which the League of Nations was brought into existence.

Ill Will Between Japan and America

We have seen in Europe what happens when two or more of the greatest nations in the world whose business interests clash arm themselves to the teeth. In the case of Japan and America, the danger of a clash is intensified by reason of the fact that both of these countries are milita-ristically minded and are of different races.

The traditions of Japan look hack to the time when her warriors were hold in such esteem that when they passed along the road the common people who chanced to be near by were compelled to kneel with uncovered heads, while the window shutters of all the houses along the highway were closed. Anyone who looked down from a roadside window upon such a military procession was liable to immediate execution.

Americans can look back and remember that only a generation ago triumphal arches were erected over Broadway and Fifth Avenue with the inscription ‘'Dewey Our Idol"; and since then America knows that it was her troops that turned the allied defeat into a victory at Cha-teau-Thierry and Soissons.

Neither the common people of Japan nor of America want war, but the militarists of both countries would welcome it, and the Japanese fully expect it and are planning for it. It is common talk among the schoolboys of Japan that they are studying English in order that they may be able to govern America after they have conquered her. A widely sold Japanese book says in its preface. "Those who do not foresee the future war between Japan and the United States are either blind or imbeciles.”

That the Japanese have grounds for great irritation against the United States cannot be denied. While it is not unusual for a state or nation to prohibit foreigners from owning or leasing land, particularly agricultural land, yet the exclusion of the Japanese from citizenship, and the refusal to permit them to hold land in the state of California or to lease it or hold it for minors eligible to citizenship or to hold it by means of land-owning corporations, has deeply wounded the Japanese.

It is generally expected in Japan that she will sometime wage a war of conquest of America. When Japan has reached her limit in anything, she strikes, and strikes without warning. Meantime the Japanese population of California is rapidly increasing by natural methods, and it is expected that by 1972 half of the babies born in the state of California will be Japanese.

There are not many Japanese in California, but those who are there are so industrious and frugal that the native Americans cannot compete with them.

They are all law-abiding; there are no Bolshevists or communists among them; they have been found so capable as workers in the hot fields of the interior that they are paid $4.50 to $5 per day as workers as compared with $3.50 to $4 per day for white help. They have concentrated in favored spots of seven of the fiftyeight counties to such an extent that they have secured control of the production and marketing of the potatoes, tomatoes, berries and spinach of the state, and in these sections have driven out the whites and displaced the white children in the public schools. They are not assimilable in a white community, and as they grow in years they become less so. The Californians force them to herd by themselves, usually in very cramped quarters.

It is estimated that the Japanese in California arc producing property of the value of $1.00,000,000 each year. When San Francisco burned, the people of Japan sent the city a gift of $250,000, and during the war the Japanese residents of the state of California bought Liberty Bonds to the amount of $2,000,000.

The United States has great interests in China and Manchuria and it is inevitable that the movement of Japanese troops in these lands would promote friction with America.

The attack upon the American consul, Culver B. Chamberlain, at Mukden the first of the year, is an illustration of the acts which commonly lead to war.

The lumber men of the state of Washington complain that as a result of the Japanese Exclusion Act they are losing millions of dollars of lumber orders annually. Japan has always resented the way the Japanese Exclusion Act was railroaded through Congress in 1924.

One of the Japanese patriotic associations recently circulated in Mukden, Manchuria, a circular denouncing the United States as the greatest hypocrite in the world and as a public enemy of Japan attempting to strengthen her own position in China while doing everything possible to restrict Japan.

The Japanese are as familiar with American history as are the Americans themselves. They know the territory of the original thirteen states was about 800,000 square miles and that it is now nearly five times that area. They see America enormously powerful and wealthy, constantly increasing its naval armaments, and they think that increase is aimed at Japan, and no doubt they are right.

The only thing that the United States ever asked for out of the World War was the little island of Yap in the Pacific, which is so small that it does not have any town of importance. The League of Nations gave that island to Japan. The League can always be depended upon to do the wrong thing.

America thus paid $50,000,000,000 for something that of itself is hardly worth one-millionth of that amount. It wanted the island only because the cable to the Philippines touches there. Thus all that America ever received from the World War was a slap in the face by having the thing she asked for turned over to her greatest potential enemy.

Both Countries Would Have All to Lose

In Japan America is considered a warlike, avaricious country, that in a short time has robbed Mexico of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California; has taken Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines away from Spain; Hayti from the Haytians, Nicaragua from the Nicaraguans, Hawaii from the Hawaiians, and Panama from the Colombians, and claims a suzerainty over all the Americas. There is much talk in Japan of restoring some of these possessions to their original owners.

During the Russo-Japanese war all the sympathies of America were with the Japanese people, but it would be hard to explain why; for Russia was always one of America’s truest friends. Americans in Japan are said to be too aggressive to suit the Japanese, as the Japanese are too aggressive to suit the Chinese.

For economic reasons Japan’s best interests are served by remaining at peace with a country that supplies her with so much of her raw cotton, iron, steel, machinery, engines, kerosene oil and chemicals, and that provides such a ready market for her silk, tea, camphor, beans, peas, soy bean oil, peanut oil and hat braid.

Cuba and Canada are the only countries in the world that surpass Japan in the value of imports into this country.

Japan's principal exports are goods such as the United States does not produce. Her output of camphor, which constitutes the bulk of the camphor supply of the world, is largely used in America in the manufacture of the celluloid for which America is famous. Not only is America the chief consumer of Japan’s products, but she is so very far away that, on the heavy goods in which America specializes, the two countries can never be close competitors, on account of the freight charges. Yokohama is 4,536 nautical miles distant from San Francisco, and 9,699 miles distant from New York, via the Panama Canal.

Japan lives on rice and fish. War would put a stop to fishing and endanger the importation of 3,000,000 bushels of rice, without which she cannot exist. An embargo placed by the United States on all exports to and imports from Japan, it is believed, would ruin Japan in short order, even if no other nation acted. Japan is dependent for the success of her economic life upon her trade with China and the United States. Her present course is irritating her two best customers.

Japan could not fight a big war without borrowing heavily, and the United States is almost the only country today that has any money to lend.

Nine Hundred Applicants for One Job

SOME idea of the desperate employment situation of the world may be gathered from the fact that in the city of London recently an opening for a typist brought 900 applicants.

World’s Biggest Dredge

ROUEN, Erance, has the greatest dredge in the world. Built at Lubeck, Germany, in one hour it can dredge up enough material to cover a street forty feet wide and a block long under two feet of dirt.

New Uses for Coffee in Brazil

AFTER dumping tons of coffee into the ocean and burning thousands of other tons, the Brazilian government will hereafter use the surplus coffee as fuel for locomotives and as a material from which to obtain gas for municipal lighting and cooking purposes.

Tiberias Now an Airport

TIBERIAS, on the Sea of Galilee, a town certainly seen by our Lord and probably visited by Him, though no such visit is recorded in the Scriptures, is now an airport for the big British Hying boats on the England-to-India air service. It is located 700 feet below sea level.

Vitamin D Believed Isolated

IT IS believed that Vitamin D, useful in treatment of rickets, has been isolated in the form of a pure white crystalline substance which has been named calciferol. British and German scientists working separately, but along the same lines, made the discovery at the same time.

Encephalitis Following Vaccination

Mary Teresa Tracy, four years old, Derry, Ireland, was “successfully vaccinated” and she is dead of encephalitis which followed. The coroner recorded “encephalitis” as the cause of death, with no mention of vaccination, but admitted that the slaughter of the child was “a regrettable incident”.

Finland Disappointed with Prohibition

FINLAND was so disappointed with its twelve-year experiment with prohibition that in the referendum at the close of 1931 the proportion of votes for continuance of the experiment was only about 30 percent. Sweden went back to the wet column in 1922, with a vote of 52 percent; Norway in 1926, with 55 percent.

Great Fortunes in Germany

T^XPRESSED in marks, Germany has 3,174 A-^ millionaires. There were 49 with fortunes of over ten million marks, 131 with fortunes between five million and ten million marks, 446 with fortunes of between 2% million and five million marks, and 2,548 with fortunes between one million and 2y> million marks.

Leaked Out in 231 Years

fPHE British have just been cleaning the A- stained glass in Merton College chapel, Oxford. Some of it had not been touched for 620 years. On one of the panels which bore the date 1700 A.D. an employee had scratched his opinion of his employer, and it was not a very good one. The truth about him leaked out in 231 years.

Brazil Growing Its Own Jute

"D RAZIL has turned some of its surplus coffee AJ lands over to the growing of jute and will soon be able to produce all the jute, needed for the making of its coffee bags. Hitherto the jute for these bags has come from India and has cost considerably more than the new product of Brazil’s own fields.

European Costs of Living

FOR what one can buy in Detroit for $1.00, in Stockholm he will need $1.04, in Frankfort 93c, in Copenhagen 91c, in Berlin 90c, in Paris 87c, in Cork 85e, in Helsingfors 83c, in Marseilles 81c, in Manchester 74c, in Rotterdam 68c, in Warsaw 67c, in Istanbul and Antwerp 65c, and in Barcelona 58c.

Europe Unanimous Both Ways

DURING the war and afterwards Europe was unanimous for borrowing from America every cent that could be scraped together, and now it is interesting to see that the whole continent, including the British Isles, is for repudiation, all of which helps the American people to see what fools they have been, to go broke themselves lending money to people who have spent it, as the French did, in making fresh armaments in a world already cursed with them. Unlike the unfair and dishonorable stands of the London Evening Standard and London Evening News, the Manchester Guardian says very sensibly : “What, after all, has Europe done, to deserve lenient treatment? She put forward no claims but her poverty, and her poverty is largely her own fault.”

Windowless Factory at Fitchburg

FITCHBURG, Mass., has distinguished itself by the construction of a windowless factory, the first one in the United States, and it ought to be the last one. Just before the slaves of the establishment quit work they will be advised by loud-speakers of any sudden changes in outside temperature. The efficiency man responsible for this invention ought to hang his head in shame.

Interesting Admission Regarding Diphtheria that children treated with toxin-antitoxin are potential carriers of diphtheria to those not thus inoculated, which raises the interesting question of whether anybody has any right under any guise whatever to spread abroad the dangers he is supposed to be trying to prevent.

Sweden Encourages Gambling

SWEDEN has once more, as for 35 years in the past, put its official stamp of approval on gambling, having set aside three million kroner to finance the state lottery. The state expects to make eight million kroner in taxes out of the venture, and six million more in graft which will go to the support of the Royal Theatre and Royal Opera and other so-called cultural groups.

Experiments with Ultra-Violet Rays

EXPERIMENTS with ultra-violet rays at the

University of Cincinnati indicate that with the use of these rays plants can be made to grow four times as fast as is normal, tonic qualities can be imparted to foods, the tastes and odors can be changed, bacteria can be destroyed, and orange juice can be made to retain its flavor almost indefinitely.

MacDonald Feels the Pressure

SOME idea of the pressure which MacDonald feels upon him may be gathered from his remark when informed of the report of the Young Plan committee on reparations at Basle. He said: “The report shows quite plainly that the governments ought to meet without a day’s unnecessary delay. The British government is ready to meet at once. For God’s sake let us meet at once.” This sounds very much like the language of despair, and dovetails with the remark of Sir George Paish on December 9, that unless something drastic were done civilization would be in chaos within sixty days.

Vaults of the Bank of England

THE vaults of the Bank of England have walls of steel and concrete eight feet thick. Each of the doors leading to the vaults weighs 12 tons and can be. opened only by an electrical device. The bank is being reconstructed while business is going on as usual. This reconstruction work has already been in progress seven years, and will not be completed until 1935.

Weather Extremes in South Africa floods in the adjoining province of Cape Colony in which the losses in property damage due to tremendous floods were enormous. Europe’s winter was early, severe and short; America, in the vicinity of New York, had had no winter weather up to February 1.

New Use for a Balloon

A BALLOON was put to new uses in the

Arctic when the Graf Zeppelin cooperated with the Soviet ice breaker Malygin in making maps of some 25,000 square miles in the vicinity of Franz Josef Land. The balloon was covered with mirrors and sent up attached to the ship. Catching the sun’s rays it made an excellent marker for the huge airship, enabling it to always make a quick return to its base.

Sterilization of Milk by Sound

THE discovery has been made that when milk is fed upward through an inverted funnel and a hollow tube, aimed at the funnel just below its large end, is vibrated at high speed, like a tuning fork, the concentrated sound waves kill 90 percent of the bacteria in the milk. This ought to put an end to pasteurization. The discovery was made by Dr. Newton Gaines, of Texas Christian University.

Lifting Gory Hands to Baal

JUST before the British delegation started off for the Armament Conference, there was a special peace service in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in which the Japanese ambassador, the French ambassador, and the representatives of other great and small nations that have spent millions of American money on armaments, knelt and prayed together for the success of the conference. Now wouldn’t it be too bad if Baal was asleep at the time the Japanese and French apostles of peace wanted to get his ear?

Crystallized Honey

CRYSTALLIZED honey, preferred by many to other forms of this delicious food, is obtained by heating honey to 160 degrees to destroy yeasts and molds, cooling to 75 degrees, and then adding 5 percent of crystallized honey. The mixture is kept at 57 degrees for 48 hours, within which time the entire mass crystallizes. After that period it can be cut like cake, and, placed in cans or in glass, will keep indefinitely.

Court Reporters Must Pass

THE end of another occupation is in sight, namely, court reporting. In a Manchester police, court, in the last week of 1931, microphones were installed on the bench, in the witness box, in the prisoners’ dock, and on the clerk's table, and the entire proceedings were recorded electromagnetically on a narrow steel tape. At the conclusion the records were, reproduced with extremely satisfactory results.

Europe's Fruitless Conferences

REFERRING- to Europe’s fruitless conferences the Manchester Guardian says:

We have been holding these conferences for the past ten years and nothing has come of them, or perhaps one should say that for every step forward that we take we slip back two. We are in a more dangerous situation now, both politically and economically, than we have ever been since the war—not this country alone, but Europe as a whole.

No Depression at Fordlandia

DESPITE the newly invented synthetic rubber which may in time replace that grown in the tropics, the development of Fordlandia, Brazil, goes cheerily on. A picture of the settlement where Henry Ford is growing rubber in the heart of Brazil conveys the impression of a well laid out, new and prosperous community. The homes have the huge porches so necessary for comfort in the tropics.

The Inefficient, Cowardly World Court

THE World Court is blamed for the financial chaos now spread over all of Europe. Its decision, on purely political lines, that the proposed German-Austrian customs union was illegal, caused the crash of the Credit Anstalt in Austria, and since then one crash has followed another until now the financiers of the world are at their wit’s end. The World Court, by its decision, showed that it is inefficient and cowardly.

No Unemployment in Russia

A CCORDING to a wireless to the New York Times from the International Labor Office at Geneva, Russia is the only country in the world which does not admit having any unemployed at all. The United States is in the worst condition, with Germany a close second in the race. Great Britain conies next, and then France. The total of unemployed workers in the world is put at 25,000,000, of whom about half are in the United States and Germany.

Priestless Churches in Mexico City

HD HOUGH the Catholic church could have operated 24 out of the 200 churches of Mexico city in the usual manner, i.e., with the. priest present, yet when the new^r law went into effect not a priest showed up. The constitutionality of the law is now being litigated. A presidential decree has given thirty days in which to comply with the law, after which the churches will be used for whatever the government sees fit.

The Monuments of Emptiness

IN AN address to the ministers of New York city Rev. Dr. Donald B. Aldrich said: “Why is it that the only place in the night hours that can receive people is the Pennsylvania Station? Every other agency of helpfulness is open when the people need them except our churches. Fifty percent of them are closed during the week, and if you go into them they are cold. There is nothing about them to give assurance that God cares. They are monuments of emptiness.”

Eulogy Ahead of Time

CAPITALISM is about to die; everything indicates it. Even the capitalists themselves are admitting that it is a colossal failure. The world is bursting with good things that nobody can buy because of having nothing wherewith to purchase. At this stage of the game Rev. H. D. Knickerbocker, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Memphis gets into print by saying that ••'neither the world nor God has use. for any person but a capitalist”. It should be explained that the god would have to be understood as the god of this world, the Devil, the one of whom Jesus said that “the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me”. Mr. Knickerbocker is loyal to his god, but he has the wrong god. Jesus was not a capitalist.

Robbing the Jobless

HILADELPHIA has some politicians who are really interested in the jobless. In fact they are so interested that by horning in between the wholesale fruit dealers and the jobless vendors they managed last year to rake off 80 cents a box, or $102,400 during the season. The republican politicians of Philadelphia take great pride in the fact that they are not as corrupt as the democratic politicians of New York, and perhaps they are not.

The Bugs and the Commission Merchants

VERY year the boll weevil eats up over $150,000,000 worth of cotton; the Hessian fly disposes of $50,000,000 worth of wheat; the Colorado potato beetle makes away with $30,-000,000 worth of potatoes, the corn borer’s appetite is satisfied with $100,000,000 worth of corn, the chinch bug disposes of $50,000,000 worth of corn and wheat, and the peach borer, potatoleaf hopper and other bugs are a big help to the commission merchants in working off our surplus products.

Never Again Can Any Nation Win a War

IN AN address at Princeton University Rev.

Raymond B. Fosdick said:

Tell me, do we look, at the present moment, as if we had recently won a war? Here is an army of unemployed far greater than Pershing’s—factories shut —destitution—the whole country facing a winter that may well appall the stoutest heart. There is no way by ■which we can spell victory for ourselves out of that hurricane that ended thirteen years ago. The United States came out of that conflict a defeated nation. The old order has passed. Never again can any nation win a war.

Britain Mourns Her Lost Prestige

EFERRING to the cessation of work on the big ship No. 534, the London News Chronicle quotes a British shipping authority as saying:

“She was one of Britain's chief hopes of recapturing the enormously wealthy tourist traffic between this country and America, which has gradually been going to our continental rivals, and carried by French and German liners. It is no secret that the Europa and Bremen are today the fashionable vessels on tho North Atlantic route. Travellers insist on having the biggest, fastest and most up-to-date liners afloat. The day of the small ship on the Atlantic is finished—it will never return. At this rate Britain looks like becoming a third-rate country as far as shipping is concerned. ’ ’

Robbers Get the Safe of the Holy Ghost!

KNOXVILLE News-Sentinel dispatch tells us that robbers have got hold of ‘the precious safe of the Holy Ghost’. It seems that the safe was in a church of that name, at corner of Central Street and Hinton Avenue. The safe contained, among other things, the wine and wafers supposed to be the actual body and blood of our Savior. When the thieves eat the wafers they will become part of the actual body of Christ, according to Catholic doctrine.

Lovers of Murder to the Front

TT IS to be hoped that neither the militarists of Japan nor of America will succeed in bringing on war between the two countries; but if a war does break out, we fervently hope that the American people will send all the. priests, preachers, newspaper men, bankers, lawyers and politicians to Asia with the first fighting contingent that goes forward. If they do this, it will be a good thing for the country, because it is certain that if they go they will never come back. Men-killers should get what they want.

The Beckoning of the Overalls

rpiIE Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episco-pal church has refused to admit for one year any new ministers on trial. This seems like a good idea and one that will be for the benefit of the people of Ohio. Now, if all the denominations will take this up and, instead of limiting it to a year, make it perpetual, -we shall be getting somewhere, provided, of course, the old fellows will take the hint and resign. The signs of the times are so plain that one can almost hear the overalls flapping in the wind.

British Pride Deeply Wounded

RITISH pride has been deeply wounded by the estoppage of work on the new Cunarder.

Referring to this the London Daily News Chronicle said:

While distressed Germany has built ships which cross the Atlantic faster than any of their predecessors, we are not only unable to meet the challenge effectively: we are unable to meet it at all. We can not even build a ship to accept the challenge. This is felt —surely naturally—to be an admission of defeat which may have very serious consequences. It is one thing to abandon a contest on grounds of economy or even of common sense: and quite another to be forced to abandon it in circumstances which constitute a dramatic announcement of the fact to the whole world.

JESUS mentions some ten different things one must do if he is to enjoy eternal life. He must get a knowledge of the only true God; give God the first place in his heart; obey God’s commandments to the best of his aloility; get a knowledge of Jesus Christ, God's Son; accept Jesus as the bread from heaven; hear and listen to His voice; become one of His sheep; do the work Jesus gives him to do; give earthly possessions a secondary place in his heart; and show love and mercy toward all.

Together we will trace on memory’s tablets one of the numerous illustrations with which the Scriptures abound which help us to see that obedience to God brings His smile of approval. And in His favor is life. In the last analysis none of the disobedient will get what they most desire. When they lose life itself they lose all. The obedient will gain all that the disobedient will lose. They will have life and every good thing that flows from harmony with their Maker.

In the English language we make the word “Fish” do double duty. It designates for us the finny denizens of the deep, and it serves for the proper name of a man, Hamilton Fish, who was secretary of state under President Grant. The Germans have a similar word that also does double duty; they spell it slightly differently, as do also the Swedes and Danes, who spell it Fisk. The Italians follow more closely the original Latin spelling. With them a fish is a pesce and they have Pesce as a proper name. The Spanish have pez for a fish and they have Mr. Pez. The Poles and the Ukrainians call a fish a ryba and they have Ryba as a proper name. So we see that Fish is quite a common name for people as well as for members of the finny tribe. It suits our purpose now to make use of this name.

Our story, therefore, is about a man by the name, of Fish; at least that is what his name really means. Thirty-five centuries and forty-seven years ago he lived in the delta of the River Nile, one of the most fertile and healthful places in the world. Eleven generations, some two hundred and thirty-seven years, previously, one of his ancestors had been sold into Egypt as a slave and by divine providence had come to be the ruler of the country, next in power to Pharaoh.

But despite the great services rendered to Pharaoh, the fact that he had originally come into Egypt as a slave militated against the descendants of Joseph, and when our hero, Mr. Fish, was born, he came forth into captivity, and he. and all his relatives on both sides were in bitter bondage to the Egyptians as the latter had been for many years. So terrible were the conditions that, had his parents done as they were commanded, he would at his birth have been thrown into the Nile.

As it was, his life, as soon as he was able to work, was made bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the fields. But he was a God-fearing man and trusted for deliverance in God’s own due time. He knew of the divine promises to Abraham, and trusted in them.

At the time our story opens, his eldest son, then a man of forty, lived next door. Like his father, bowed in bondage as a slave, Joshua’s only hope of deliverance was in an act of the God in whom he trusted. In the language of his forefathers Nun means fish, so that Joshua the son of Nun was, in our English tongue, Joshua the son of Mr. Fish.

There was great excitement in the ghetto. The word had spread around that Moses, the son of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi, the. one that slew the Egyptian the same year that Joshua was born, had returned, and with Aaron his brother was making demands of Pharaoh in the name of Jehovah God that Israel should be set free.

Great signs were given that their errand was of God and not of man. The rod which Aaron bore turned into a serpent in the presence of Pharaoh and swallowed the serpents conjured up by Pharaoh’s spirit mediums. All Egypt was talking about it.

When all the pools of water, and the water in the vessels, was turned into blood, that was done at Moses’ command. When the frogs overran the land, that was another of the feats which, as Jehovah’s representative, he was commissioned to announce. Plague followed upon plague.

All Egypt was overrun with lice; nobody was exempt. Moses said the lice were going to come, and they did. Up to that point the Israelites fared the same as the Egyptians, but thereafter the plagues were upon Egypt alone. At Moses’ command the flies came upon them in numbers incalculable. Next all the cattle were slain; next came boils upon man and all remaining beasts; then all the crops were ruined by hail; then locusts ate up all that the hail had spared, and then came a terrible darkness, so thick that it could be felt.

Mr. Fish knew of all this, and so did his son Joshua. They had personally experienced the overrunning of the land with frogs and the sand flies or fleas. Nobody could fail to be impressed with their sudden arrival and equally sudden departure, and it was known that in each ease Moses had given the word through his spokesman, Aaron, as to what should take place.

Mr. Fish and Joshua had heard, too, about the swarms of beetles or flies that had swept over all the land except that portion where the Israelites dwelt. They knew about the death of Pharaoh's cattle. They had heard about the boils, the hail, the locusts, and the darkness. They could plainly see that matters were heading up for a climax.

It came unexpectedly, and to their surprise they both had a part in it. Both had been working harder than usual throughout the day, trying, under orders, to undo some of the damage that had been done by the preceding plagues, when a lad, a messenger, came to them in the night and asked them to come to Aaron’s home. Moses would be there; he had something of the greatest importance for them to hear; and there was something they must decide upon and something they must do.

They knew they would be incurring the disfavor of their oppressors if they were to go to the home where Moses was staying, but they went anyway. If he had some message for them it must surely be a good message, a message of hope, in what seemed like an almost hopeless world of impaid toil. So they went. They found a great company of heads of families there, and when order was established, and the blessing of Jehovah God had been invoked, Aaron explained the reason why they had been called together. He said, in substance:

'My brother, Moses, desires me to speak on his behalf. As you know, he is one of us, a full-blooded Israelite, a son of Abraham, though brought up in the royal court as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Forty years ago, taking note of the intolerable oppressions of our people, he took his stand with our people, and circumstances made it necessary for him to flee for his life to the land of Midian, whence he has but recently returned.

'While he was in the land of Midian the God of our fathers appeared to him in a bush that burned with fire, but was not consumed, and said to him, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.”

‘God then commanded him, “Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” My brother did not feel equal to the task that was before him, but he finally gave himself over to the doing of God’s will, and the rest of the story you know.

'You have been witnesses to all the plagues that have come upon Egypt, the waters turned to blood, the frogs, the lice, the flies, the cattle pest, the boils, the hail, the locusts, and the terrible darkness. Now the final act in the great drama is about to be played, and it will be a tragedy, the like of which never before happened in this world.

'This day Jehovah God spoke to us and told us that the day is so important that with us all, henceforth, this month is to be the beginning of months, because it marks the vindication of His name in Egypt and the deliverance of His people, according to His word and covenant.

'On the tenth day hereafter, counting this day as the first one of the ten, let every family in Israel, or every group of families, according to their appetites, select for itself a lamb that is without blemish, a male of the first year. It may be taken from either the sheep or the goats, but you must make sure that it is a perfect creature.

'This lamb you are to keep with care until the fourteenth day, when all the lambs thus selected are to be slain at one time, in the presence of all Israel, about sundown. The head of each family or group of families is then to take of the blood of this lamb and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the house wherein it is to be eaten. All the flesh of the lamb is to be eaten that night.

'The lamb is to be roasted, with head and legs complete, all in one piece; not a bone of it is to be broken. It is to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Nothing is to be left over. That which remains until the morning light is to be burned with fire.

When you eat the lamb you are to eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and it must be eaten with haste, for the great act of God, His act of vengeance against Pharaoh and against Egypt, will take place at midnight of that night, and that will be the hour of our deliverance.

‘At that hour Jehovah God’s angel of death will pass through the land, and the only homes that will be spared are those homes where the blood of the lamb is upon the lintels and the door posts. In every other home in the entire land the first-born will die at the midnight hour.

‘When that hour comes there will be sorrow, pain and anguish in the home of Pharaoh, and in every home throughout the land, except in the homes of the faithful people of God. A great cry will go up and the Egyptians with one accord will cry out that we must be sent out of the land.

‘Then will come your opportunity to receive some payment for your unrequited toil. Call upon your Egyptian neighbors, on the right hand and on the left, and ask for their gold and jewels, nothing doubting, and they will give to you freely of their treasures, and Jehovah God will grant His people a great deliverance.

‘And now, can we depend upon you to carry out this program faithfully, not swerving from it in the minutest detail? Will you do as Jehovah God has requested, thus showing Him that you are in deed and in truth the children of faithful Abraham, and not his descendants in name only? What do you say?’

We can imagine that there was a moment’s delay, while the full import of the most important message of their lives was finding lodgment in their minds. The representatives of a cowed and oppressed people, they were not quick to give expression to their thoughts, but at length Mr. Fish found his voice and we can imagine about what he said:

‘Moses and Aaron, servants of the most high God, how can we do otherwise than be obedient to the command that has come to us through you, as His mouthpieces? Is it not for this very opportunity that our people, have been waiting in this land of darkness for now more than two hundred years?

‘Well do I remember the tales that my good father and mother have told me of the faithfulness of the great God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They knew that He would sometime remember His people and bring them out of this land.

‘They told me of the happy days in Eden before sin entered; they told me of the assurance that some day “the seed of the woman” should “bruise the serpent’s head” and thus humanity would be delivered from the curse; I knew of the kindly interest that was shown in Cain even after he had committed that greatest sin of slaying his brother.

Tn my father’s home we children knew when hypocrisy began, in the days of Enos, in which days men began hypocritically to call themselves by the name of the Lord. But we knew that there were some faithful ones, Enoch who walked with God, and Noah who built an ark to the saving of his house, whose house are we this day.

‘My father and mother told us children about the evil angels and their children that were in the earth in the days of Noah and of how the entire earth was cleansed of their presence by the great flood of waters. And we knew of the everlasting covenant that it should never be again.

‘My brothers and sisters and I knew of the call which our God made to our father Abraham and of his noble response to that call. We know how his faith was tested right here in Egypt when Sarah was seized, how he had to wait for his heir and then to offer him on Mount Moriah, only to have God’s faithfulness clearly shown in every instance.

‘We knew of the deliverance that came to Lot, both when he was rescued from captivity and when he was spared in the overthrow of Sodom, and we know that it was the God of Abraham and of Melchisedek that brought the victory in each case. We knew of the marvelous way in which Rebecca was selected to be the bride of our father Isaac, and of how God blessed our father Jacob because of his faith, and saved him out of all his peculiarly trying experiences.

‘And what Israelite is there here present that does not know the story of Joseph the father of Ephraim, and how we came to be in this land? I count it a great honor to speak for the house of Ephraim, of which I am the oldest living representative.

‘You can depend upon it that we of the house of Ephraim will obey the voice of God to the letter. I covenant with you and with Moses and with the Lord my God, whom I love and fear, that not a thing will remain undone of all that you have said. We will obey in every particular.’

And so said all the elders, the oldest responsible representative of each of the tribes of Israel. And hence we find the historical fact tucked away in one verse and part of another, “And the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they/’—Ex. 12: 27, 28.

Can you imagine the suppressed excitement of the next ten days, while fathers and mothers in that great throng of two million people were discussing which of all their yearling lambs would best answer the description of the one that must be selected, and how, finally, when the selection had been made, the first-born in each home came, trembling, and said, '0 father and mother, are you sure there is no blemish? Are you sure? For you know that if there is any blemish in the lamb, then the first-born in that home must die, and, oh, I do not wish to die! I wish to live. Are you sure? Are you sure?’ And they said, ‘Yes, my son, we are sure.’

Do you know what that all pictured? It all went to show that our salvation is centered in the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Had He been imperfect in any degree all our hopes would be vain.

The only ones in danger back there were the first-born of Israel and the first-born of Egypt. The rank and file of the Israelites and of the Egyptians were not involved until later. The first responsibility for accepting God’s way of salvation, His King and His kingdom, lies with the ‘church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven’, and with those who claim to be such whether they are or not. These cannot evade. They cannot put upon others the burden which is properly theirs. They must accept God's way or perish.

The account is plain as to what happened:

And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go serve the Lord, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.—Ex. 12: 29-33.

Let us now go over the matter a little more in detail and see what was pictured by the different things that were specified as part of the requirements of the elders of Israel on this occasion and which, as we have seen, received their full, unquestioning and implicit obedience.

The lamb which was to be selected for each house represented Jesus Christ, the Savior of men, the One who was offered on Calvary, not only for the church’s sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. John the Baptist, pointing to Jesus, said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” Peter referred to Him as “a lamb without blemish and without spot”.

The selection of the lamb on the tenth day of the month Nisan was a forevision by the heavenly Father that on that very day, 1,G48 years later, Jesus would ride into Jerusalem seated upon a colt, the foal of an ass, and be selected by the whole congregation of Israel as their chosen one. They strewed their garments in the way and waved palm branches, shouting, “Hosanna to the. Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest ! ” Israel then and there selected its paschal lamb.

The lamb was kept until the fourteenth day, and so, although Judas and others had marked Jesus for death, His life could not be taken until God's appointed time had come. That time was the fourteenth of Nisan, when the moon would be at its full. In fulfillment of the law of God, Jesus’ life was offered up as a ransom price at just the right time; and just then the fickle multitude cried, “Crucify him, crucify him.”

Many people do not know that Christ’s death was just at the turning point of two equal periods of Jewish history, but it is so. It was 1845 years from the death of Jacob, which was the founding of the nation of Israel, to the death of Jesus, and it was 1845 years later, in the spring of 1878, that Israel's first steps of national restoration were taken by the Berlin Congress of Nations, presided over by a Jew, and guaranteeing to the Jews certain rights as citizens which hitherto had been denied them.

The sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb back there on the door posts and on the lintels represents, for the Christian, the sprinkling of the heart, the removal of a consciousness of evil, or the establishment of one’s integrity before God. This cannot be done by the individual unaided. It can be done only through recognition of the atoning blood of Christ. None can justify himself. We are brought nigh through the blood of Jesus, who took Adam’s place in death and thus gave himself a ransom for Adam and all who lost life in him. But for that blood (shed) there would be no life for any. There is no other name given under heaven or amongst men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus only.

The lamb was to be eaten every bit; none of it was to be left over. Thus our appropriation of Christ to be our Savior must be perfect and complete. Whoever is trying to obtain salvation by works or piety or in any other way than God’s way is trying to find another way into the sheepfold. Christ is the door, and the only door; He. is the way, and the only way. All the zeal and all the morality in the world are of no avail if Christ is left out of it.

The lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Leaven is a symbol of corruption, and the corrupting influences of human theories, ambitions and selfishness. God’s King and God’s kingdom must be taken in simplicity and in sincerity and truth as His way and the only way.

The bitter herbs represent what has come in all past ages and until now to those who have accepted God’s way of salvation. Bitter experiences are theirs, but those bitter experiences only make them the more appreciative of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The more the Israelites ate of the bitter herbs, the more they would partake of the lamb; and it is so in the antitype. The more active one is in the doing of God’s will, the more certain he is to draw the wrath of the adversary in his direction; but it will only mean for him a closer walk with God and a keener appreciation of God’s King and God’s kingdom.

The Israelites were to partake of the paschal lamb with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet and their staffs in their hands. All of this means, symbolically, that when it comes to the doing of God’s will His people do not argue, do not debate, do not delay, but proceed promptly and energetically to do the thing God expects them to do.

We have spent quite a little time discussing a single act of obedience, namely, the obedience of the elders of Israel when they were called before Moses and Aaron and told of the divine purposes, but the time has been well spent. That act of obedience meant the deliverance of a great nation, and the inauguration of God’s typical kingdom on earth, and it illustrated the greater deliverance of the whole world, which is just at the door.

Midnight came on the 430th anniversary of God’s covenant with Abraham, and on the selfsame day, according to the divine record, the angel of death went through the land of Egypt and slew the first-born of all the enemies of God. Israel was ready, strong with the. trained muscles of hard service, well fed on an abundant meal of roast lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread, loins girded, ready for a long hike, shoes on their feet, to help them over the rough places, and staffs in their hands to enable them to press along.

How do you suppose our friend Mr. Fish and Joshua his son and all their relatives and friends, and all the. other Israelite elders and their relatives and friends, and, indeed, all Israel, big and little, felt when they heard that great cry that went up from the wounded hearts of Egypt? No such bitter cry of anguish ever ascended before or since in the world. There was not a home in which there was not one dead.

But it had to be. It was the only way Pharaoh would let the people go, and the people must go, for God had promised that they should. And they did. And they did not go out empty-handed, either. They went out laden with spoil that was justly theirs. They had worked without wages and Egypt was full of trinkets bought with their labor. God would give them their back pay, and He did.

As a matter of fact we do not know that Mr. Nun, or as we have preferred to call him, Mr. Fish, the father of Joshua, was actually still alive at the time of the Exodus, but we think that he was, for there, is reason to believe that Joshua himself was but forty years of age at that time. If he was alive we have sketched a not improbable event of his life, and what huge satisfaction he must hav6 realized a few years later when his son became the honored personal servant and bodyguard of Moses the man of God, and his chief captain in the first of Israel’s military experiences.

Perhaps he lived to see the time when, of all the men sent up to spy out the land of Israel, only his own son and one other man had the courage to tell the truth that they were well able to go up and possess the land. And even though he himself fell in the wilderness, yet what will be his satisfaction in the golden age when he awakens from the sleep of death to find Joshua standing almost alone in history as one who

wholly followed the Lord, and is then able to trace, as we now do, that he himself was once instrumental in saving the life of this his firstborn by his prompt obedience in doing the will of God as disclosed by Moses and Aaron respecting the paschal lamb.

How do you feel about it yourself ? Do you not think that the elders of Israel had a grand opportunity of accepting God’s way of life for themselves and their first-born ? They could get deliverance only if the angel of death should pass through the land. The first-born would be in danger, but if fully obedient to the divine regulations all would be well with them all.

The cry of pain of the antitypical Pharaoh as he sees his kingdom in ruins one can almost hear. But Satan will have something greater than present woes to grieve over before the account with him is settled. Nothing of his great organization will be left intact, and even he himself will be slain. When his whole scheme of things is broken in pieces and for ever discarded the ones that will be happy will be the obedient. The most happy of all will be the 'church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven’, but others will be happy, too: Israel, living and dead, and all the people of good will the world over.

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