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afa Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
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in this issue
WHAT ABOUT MODERN-DAY "DIVINE HEALING”?
PUBLIC OPINION
TELEVISION: WHEN?
NEWS NOTES
SHEEP AND GOATS
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every other WEDNESDAY
five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XVI - No. 401
January 30,1935
CONTENTS
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LABOR AND ECONOMICS
A Flaw in the Argument . . . .271 “Atlantic and Pacific”.....271
“Homework Protective League” . 271 Tax Arrangement in Britain . . .275 Capitalism at War with Society . . 276 What $2,000 Can Be Made to Do . 276 Born into Bondage......278
Public Ownership League . . . .279 In the Land of the Free . . . .279
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
“Organized Christianity” .... 230
Trying to Maintain Independence . 284
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
The Biggest Steel Plant . . . .275
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Freight Transportation by Plane . 272
What Frank Hawks Said .... 272
Sleeper Plane to Chicago .... 272
Cooperation of Murderers .... 277
The Soley Armament Company . .279
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
League of Nations Badly in Debt . 279 “The Unholy Alliance” .... 280 Trial by Lynch Law in Quebec . . 283 The Truth About Mexico .... 283
Mueller’s Nazi Church Plans . . . 285
Publicity for Priestcraft .... 286
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Potatoes at 15e a Bushel .... 270
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Radio Direction Finders .... 272
HOME AND HEALTH
Parents Can Forbid Vaccination . 239
Trail of the Aluminum Trust . .239
Utilizing Surplus Foods . . . .270
Fuller’s Earth for Sore Feet . . . 270
When Scalded or Burned . . . .270
Food Adulteration in Britain . . 287
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Items of Interest from Mexico . .
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
What About Modern-Day “Divine Healing”?
Truth Spreading in Egypt . . .275
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The Golden Age
Volume XVI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 30, 1935 Number 401
What About Modern-Day “Divine Healing”?
TO DECEIVE the people, Satan brings forth a false remedy. First he induces men to teach that there is no death. Tempting Eve in Eden he said to her: “Ye shall not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4) Many men have long taught that very false doctrine. Jesus said such doctrine was Satan’s first lie. (John 8:44) In modern times Satan gets up religious organizations and falsely attaches the name of Christ thereto in order to mislead the people. One such organization teaches that there is no death and that ill health or sickness is a mental conclusion, and that men and women can heal and give health to all who exercise faith in the so-called “science of health”. Many persons seeking temporary relief have been inveigled by the Devil into this trap and bodily healed.
It is true that Jesus did some healing of the sick when He was on earth, but He stated that such was done merely as an example to foreshadow the great work He would do in His kingdom. It also served to establish faith in Him as Messiah, the Christ. But as for Satan the Devil, so far as possible he uses his invisible power to cause some healing from sickness, and his very object therein is to turn the people away from God by in fact turning them away from God’s truth. One thing all must admit: that no one who claims to have been healed by the so-called “Christian Science” or by so-called “divine healing” of other religious systems ever stayed healed continually, but in the course of time sickened and died, and even the leaders and practitioners of the said “divine healing” themselves have grown sick and died in like manner and do still die.
Jesus and all the apostles stated repeatedly that death is the result of sin and can be eliminated only by the sacrificial value of the life of Jesus (Romans 5:12; 6: 23); and that only by faith in the shed blood of Christ Jesus can anyone possibly be saved; and that the healing blessings do not come by the operation of men, but come only through Christ Jesus, all which cannot begin until His kingdom is in full operation.—Acts 4:12; 1 Corinthians 15: 25, 26.
To point out here that “divine healing” practiced by religious organizations now for years is by Satan’s power is not meaning to say that in the past God has not worked cures by His true servants and that He will not make the obedient ones of mankind perfectly well under the kingdom of His anointed Son, Christ Jesus. The first Bible mention of sickness concerns Abimelech, king of Gerar, a pagan. Of course, the Bible mentions the deaths of all the patriarchs and others before Abraham’s time; also it must be agreed that aside from old age, accidents, murders and other causes, some of such died from sickness, to which all were now subject due to Adam’s fall from human perfection and its complement, perfect health. But this first specific case of sickness on record, how was it treated? The Great Physician, Jehovah, reports: “So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife,” whom Abimelech had taken from Abraham to be one of his wives. (Genesis 20:17, 18) And Abimelech and his household did not, either, have to become believers in Jehovah God and worshipers of Him in order to be healed or to stay healed. They remained Philistines, even though friendly to Abraham.
And Does Satan Cause Disease?
Thus early is established the fact that, to accomplish His purposes, Jehovah can send illness and plague as well as remove such, and that without human physicians. Other cases are of record where Jehovah sent disease upon those not in a covenant with Him and who were opposing Him: page that plague upon Egypt, when Jehovah smote them with the “boil break-
ing forth with blains upon man, and upon beast”; also the smiting of King Herod for not giving God the glory, so that Herod was eaten of worms. (Exodus 9:8-11; Acts 12:23) This should not be understood as proving that all cases of disease and pestilence among the peoples of the world are afflictions from God for not being in covenant relationship with Him or for opposing Him. Excepting the cases definitely marked by the Scriptures, the cause of all sickness and physical disabilities upon all peoples is set out at Acts 10:38, to wit: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy [spirit] and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." Well, then, the Devil also has power to induce sickness, has he? So other scriptures show.
Concerning the “woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowred together”, and whom Jesus healed, He said: “Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” (Luke 13:16) Concerning that “man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job”, it is written: “And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils, from the sole of his foot unto his crown.” (Job 2: 6, 7) There it was the three false “friends” of Job that proved to be “physicians of no value”, because they argued that Jehovah God had sent disease upon Job because of wickedness and that God was even then exacting less of Job than he deserved to get.—Job 13:4; 8:1-6; 11:1-6.
The Scriptures positively set forth that Jehovah has sent sickness, plague and pest only when His name is involved, and the cleanness and soundness of His organization and its members. This was so respecting the pagan, Abimelech, who was ignorantly about to defile Sarah who God had given His word should bear a seed to His friend, Abraham. (Genesis 17:15-22) For like reasons Jehovah sent disease on those who were in covenant relationship with Him. He smote Moses’ sister, Miriam, with leprosy (Numbers 12: 9,10); also Elisha’s servant, Gehazi (2 Kings 5:25-27); and also presumptuous King Uzziah. (2 Chronicles 26:16-21; see also 21:14, 15, 18, 19) In the terms of the covenant which He made with the Israelites in the land of Moab just before crossing Jordan river, Jehovah warned that chosen people that if they sinfully departed from their covenant He would smite them with “all the diseases of Egypt”, “also every sickness, and every plague.” (Deuteronomy 28: 59-61; 29: 22) The purpose of this was to prove that Jehovah is the only source of life and health, that His is the way of life, and that only by faithfulness and integrity toward Him and by obedience to His Word through His great Mediator can anyone in the covenant get life.—Deuteronomy 18:14-19.
Sickness of Christians: a Punishment?
Many have concluded that sickness or bodily infirmity upon a Christian is a punishment for sins committed, and that if a Christian leads a faithful life he will never be sick: God will see to that. They will quote Matthew 9:2-6: “Behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.... For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” Also the case of the man at the pool of Bethesda, who “had an infirmity thirty and eight years” and whom Jesus cured at a word on the sabbath day: “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”—John 5: 5-14.
That certain sins, as gluttony, drunkenness, uncleanness, etc., may, even to Christians, result in disease of body is not disputed, no, not by the Scriptures. (Proverbs 7:10, 22-27; 9: 13-18; 23:21, 29-35) But if all sin committed by the Christian must be punished with some physical distress, then no Christian would be normally well at any time. Writes the apostle John: “If Ave say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Also what would be the value of asking and receiving forgiveness of sins? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 1: 8, 9; 2:1, 2) To insist bodily affliction must certainly accompany as a result of sin, which sin is confessed to and forgiven of God, lines up with the Roman Catholic doctrine that forgiveness of sins is not sufficient, but that penance must be performed by the forgiven one by self-infliction of bodily pain and torment; all of which would make of no value and power the blood of Christ Jesus, who has “washed us from our sins in his own blood” and who “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”.— Revelation 1:5; Romans 4:25.
That the aforementioned is an incorrect diagnosis as to cause or reason of a Christian’s maladies, occasional or rare, is clear from Scriptures. Against it is the testimony of John 9:1-3: “And as Jesus passed by, he saw7 a man [an Israelite] which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” Lest this record be not enough to prove to sticklers for “divine healing” that servants of God have gotten sick, and may and do get sick, even while continuing faithful, hence not as a punishment from God for sins committed, note the following (Genesis 48:1; 50: 2): “It came to pass, after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father [Jacob] is sick:... And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel [Jacob].” A thousand years later (2 Kings 13:14): “Now Elisha [the prophet] was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, 0 my father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!” Over two hundred years later: “And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days: afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.”—Daniel 8: 27.
Now as to Christians (John 11:1-4): “Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany,... Therefore his sisters sent unto him [Jesus], saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” Had Lazarus’ sickness been punishment from God for sin and unfaithfulness, would Jesus have raised him out of death? Some years later: “Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber.” (Acts 9: 36, 37) Had her fatal sickness been a divine visitation for sin, would the apostle Peter pray God to raise her from the dead? And how about the apostle Paul’s missionary associates? He writes (Philippians 2: 25-27): “Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother, and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.” And to Timothy Paul wrote: “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.” (1 Timothy 5:23) “Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Mileturn sick.” (2 Timothy 4:20) Paul had gifts of healing. If (as some claim) the gifts of healing are to be used on Christians to keep them well or to recover them, why did not Paul heal and recover Trophimus before he left him at Mileturn? or heal Timothy of his “often infirmities” rather than tell him to use alcoholic liquor, wine?
What Means of Treatment, Then?
If it be God that sends bodily afflictions to punish sin, then nothing the Christian does for relief by applying natural remedies or using services of a human doctor could make him well; because, would God then allow a human creature to undo punishment from Him? Likewise one would reason that those who backslide from the church permanently would henceforth never have a well day physically in their lives. But does it work out that way? Can you prove it, from Scripture or from your actual observations? But sickness of Christians, not to speak of those not in covenant relationship with Jehovah God, cannot Scripturally be charged up to God.
What, then, should be the means of cure that would have God’s approval if used? Here “Christian Science” will point to its healing practitioners and will recommend a course of mental treatments. (Strange, the Bible nowhere prescribes a course of mental treatments to heal, by denial to oneself that sickness and injury exist in oneself or at all.) Those strong for a sanctimonious (or even shouting) form of “holiness” will stoutly argue for “divine healing”, and will warn against using natural medicines, herbs, osteopaths, chiropractors, or other human doctors and remedies, as being frowned upon by God and as showing lack of faith in His power to cure.
True, the Bible does at places make out cases against human physicians (2 Chronicles 16:12): “And Asa, in the thirty and ninth year of his reign, was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.” At Jeremiah 8:22: “Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered ?” At Luke 8: 43,44: “And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him [Jesus], and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.” But if always service of a human doctor were contrary to divine arrangement, why did the apostle Paul write: “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.” “Only Luke is with me.” (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11) Besides, Paul had gifts of healing; were not his gifts to be used? Ah, yes, but not upon himself and fellow Christians for personal comfort; but upon those outside the faith, to establish the belief of such non-Christians that the apostles and fellow believers were of God’s organization and ■were His servants and instruments, and that their teachings were the truth, the doctrines of the only true and living God, Jehovah, and which must be believed and obeyed to gain life.
The apostles of Jesus Christ were commissioned to heal by divine power (Matthew 10:1, 8), and gifts of healing were bestowed upon them and their immediate associates. (Acts 4:30; 1 Corinthians 12: 9, 28, 30) But as Jesus refused to follow Satan’s suggestion to use His divinely given power to turn stones into bread to satisfy His forty-day-old hunger (Matthew 4:1-4), even so the apostles with gifts of healing were not to use them for easing of themselves or of others already established in the faith, fellow Christians. Hence, back there and since, informed Christians used what natural means of relief and healing were available in times of sickness, rather than praying and seeking for a miracle of healing from Jehovah God.
It is eighteen hundred years from the time of the apostles and their personal associates. Gifts of healing have therefore long since ceased to be available and to be conferred and exercised. Many religionists, deceived by the scripture Mark 16:16-18, Authorized Version, but which scripture is omitted by all revised and modern versions as spurious, try to revive such gifts of healing, but cannot; not from the Lord. Gifts of healing, being no longer needed to establish faith in the gospel, have ceased, God’s written Word being complete and sufficient for the man of God. (2 Timothy 3:16,17) As stated in 1 Corinthians (12: 28-30; 13:8): “God hath set some in the church; first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers; after that [fourthly], miracles; then [fifthly] gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? Charity [love] never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” Apostles have now passed out; so have prophets and prophecies; so have teachers, the teachers being now, not men, but Jehovah and Christ Jesus (Isaiah 30:20; 54:13); and so have miracles! And the apostle listed all such as ahead of gifts of healing. As well try to revive the preferred list as to revive gifts of healing. Hence all who take only convenient portions of the Bible or spurious verses thereof and try to practice “divine healing” fall into Satan’s trap, and Satan uses his power through such deceived ones to work apparent miracles, cures and tongues (languages). This explains all the un-Christlike, selfish, commercial use of such latter-day miracles, cures, etc., for financial and material gain.
The case is clearly made out: there is no Scriptural prohibition against use of doctors or natural remedies by Christians or others in hours of physical ailments. If necessary, have a physician, as Paul did; or use a little wine, as did Timothy; or lay a lump of figs on a boil, if that's good, as in King Hezekiah’s ease (2 Kings 20:7); or use some ‘balm of Gilead’ (Jeremiah 8:22; Genesis 37: 25), if you can get it; or pour on some soothing oil (Mark 6:13). But, above all, avoid spiritual sickness; there human physicians and earthly remedies are powerless. (Jeremiah 30:13; 46:11; Ezekiel 30:21; 1 Corinthians 11: 30) In such cases also, as the Bible shows, even the clergy shepherds of “Christendom” and “elective elders” are “all physicians of no value”. (Job 13:4; Ezekiel 34:4,16) Were such latter of any value spiritually, “Christendom” today would not, like Judah and Jerusalem of old, be a “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,... The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”—Isaiah 1: 4-6.
In Spiritual Sickness
This query may now be raised: If the natural Israelites in the law covenant with God were punished of Him with physical afflictions for unfaithfulness, why should not Christians, who are in the new covenant with God? If Christians are not afflicted with bodily troubles for sins, not those due to inheritance from Adam, but sins which are willful and against light of truth and rebellious, do they, then, go scot-free, ■without adverse dealing by the Lord ? Certainly not! But Christians are not known of the Lord “after the flesh” (2 Corinthians 5:16), and they are not, to Him, “in the flesh, but in the spirit.” (Romans 8:9) Hence, when they take a willful course of transgression against the Lord, they become sickly spiritually, and that is far worse and more serious in possible consequences than bodily sickness. The Lord withdraws from Christians who sin with willfulness the light of knowledge and understanding of His Word of truth, and they may at last become totally blind and deaf spiritually, and uselessly lame in God’s service, and go into eternal destruction, “second death.” (Revelation 2:11; 20:6) And the Lord takes away and withholds from them His blessings and privileges of service and the evidences of His favor. "How much sorer punishment”!—Hebrews 10:28-31.
When one is spiritually sick, ah, then is when only the Lord Jehovah, by Christ Jesus, can heal and restore one to spiritual health and strength. Then is when sins and sickness are directly related to each other as cause and effect. Then is when the sick one must turn to the Lord and pray: “Lord, be merciful unto me; heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.” (Psalm 41:4) And the Lord says: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. [And the humble and repentant respond:] Behold, wTe come unto thee [not to priest, preacher, or healing practitioner] ; for thou art the Lord our God.” (Jeremiah 3:22) “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily.” (Isaiah 58:8) Then Jehovah God is One “who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases [spiritually]; who redeemeth thy life from destruction [in Gehenna: second death]”.—Psalm 103: 3, 4.
A professed Christian may lapse into error of thinking and action and become so weak spiritually that he cannot approach the Lord alone. He needs help of the faithful ones, firmly established in God’s truth and service, and who are mature, elders in fact by growth and not made such nominally by election votes of churchgoers. Such elders “make straight paths for [their] feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the -way; but let it rather be healed”. (Hebrews 12:13) Now is when the counsel of James (5:14-16, 19, 20) applies: “Is any sick [spiritually] among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil [of joy of the Lord (Isaiah 61:3)] in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults [under aforementioned conditions] one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Brethren, if any of you [Christians] do err from the truth, and one convert him [help him to discern the error of his course, and the way back to God’s organization], let him know, that he which con-verteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death [second death], and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
It is written (Psalm 107:19, 20): “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble; and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his ■word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Hence the one desiring recovery must turn to the Lord’s Word, which He sends by His faithful servants; and such one must take the course of full devotion to God and of active service of Him, confessing His name publicly, sacrificing the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declaring His works with rejoicing. Then Jehovah will heal him and raise him up, through Christ Jesus, who “died for our sins”.—Verses 21, 22.
As to the mentally, morally and bodily sick world of mankind, permanent healing for all obedient ones is nigh at hand, yea, even the resurrection of their dead. The radiant “Sun of righteousness”, arising, will soon shine forth “with healing in his wings”. (Malachi 4:2) Those who please the Lord and conform to His arrangement will not try to run ahead of the Lord by now trying to do the miracles of healing physically which the Lord has prophesied in His Word that He will perform by the King, Christ Jesus, during His thousand-year rule over earth. Of those coming miracles of healing the miraculous cures by Jesus when here in the flesh nineteen hundred years ago amongst men were but glorious and prophetic foregleams.— Revelation 21: 4; 22: 2.
Public Opinion By Alex. Smith (Queensland)
THE fact that public opinion is formed by the influence exerted by the political press is eloquent. That fact is like a voice crying in the wilderness and needs to be heralded far and near. Let the people understand that they are being led by the nose to think along certain lines, even by that section of the press that is supposed to be raising up a standard of reform for the people.
Some of the people are already conscious that they have been misled and are beginning to think for themselves. Others are so prejudiced by certain schools of thought that they unconsciously put their heads under the yoke; they allow themselves to be used as propagandists to spread the teachings of these greedy parties or cliques. Let each one who reads these lines ask himself: Am I easily led? Does a certain point of view appeal to me? What is the true reason why it appeals to me? Am I looking forward to getting something for nothing? Or am I looking forward to and longing for an opportunity for getting my own back? Am I unsatisfied or Dissatisfied ?—there is a difference. Would I be satisfied to live and let live, if I got the opportunity? Am I afraid of poverty? Am I ambitious to be rich, even though it means hardship and want for others? There is plenty for all; would I be satisfied if I had my share of it?
Seeing that we all take ourselves far too seriously, we need a little self-examination now and again. By the same token, it does not do one any harm to imagine oneself in the other fellow’s place, to decide what one would do or say under similar circumstances. We may be victims of circumstances or environment, but there is no reason for intelligent people to be slaves of prejudice.
About 18,000 do the governing throughout the world today. Part of this governing business is to cultivate prejudice in the minds of the people; and so, to this end, the press of the world is harnessed. It does not matter whether it is the merchant in his office, the engineer in the works, or the laborer on the job; either the daily or the periodical newspaper is read with interest, eagerly devoured or maybe criticized. Prejudice is a ruling element today, and many good people would like to get from under the yoke and look about them with clear mental vision.
It is only by making a great effort that we may succeed in escaping from the evil of prejudice. We can do so only by ridding ourselves of all those things that we have learned to take for granted. Very few people will take the trouble to make such an effort, because a great mental inertia lies over the human race like a heavy wet blanket. The people have got into the habit of allowing others to do their thinking for them. In not thinking for themselves they have allowed their reasoning faculties to become dormant; and so we begin to understand how it is that many people are so dogmatic, in voicing opinions that did not originate in their own minds. They have acquired a mental leaning-post.
Some people are capable of mental gymnastics, and will jump from one conclusion to another without careful thought. These people are undergoing the devastating mental process or condition of mental chaos. Something has happened to demolish the support on which they leaned so comfortably. Something has undermined the false teaching of one or more of the conflicting schools of thought. Take religion, for instance. There are over 430 religions in the world today. Of this number, 213 are so-called “Christian” religions, all teaching differently. Whether it is a “Christian” religion or Mohammedan, Confucianism or Shintoism; whether they worship a little tin god or a large wooden one, a cast-iron god or a gilt-edged god, those at present responsible for any of these 430 religions go through a series of formalities. Such formalities consist of various forms of make-believe ; and, whether it is the Gippo in Cairo or the desert, or the Mohammedan priest in the mosque, bowing to the sun at sunrise and sunset and gabbing his prayers (either of them will steal your eyeteeth the next minute if he gets half a chance), or the sleek, well-fed, sable-gowned divine, “Doctor of Divinity” if you please, in London, Berlin or New York, etc., telling his beads or gabbing prayers for the repose of some poor soul (for which he requires payment in advance), it is all formality, just make-believe: something mysterious, to fool the person most concerned; a cloak, behind which to conduct a business. Of the two here mentioned, the Gippo is the more honest, if such a word can be introduced where everything is founded on dishonesty, robbery and graft. And then again, all this make-believe, formality or ceremony is just sheer hypocrisy.
Of all the religions practiced in the world today, those claiming to be Christian are the greatest hypocrites, because they claim to understand God’s Word and also to teach God’s Word to the people. If their claim to understand and teach God’s Word were a just and truthful one, then there would be just one teaching, and not 213 conflicting teachings, as obtain today. If the teachings of these 213 conflicting sects and creeds were founded on God’s Word, there would have been no Great War, because God’s Word is that the human race of black, white, yellow and red are all brothers, and will eventually live as brothers in God’s appointed time. The appointed time is very close now. It is man’s own fault that they have lived in enmity so far. What we see happening today, in fact since 1914, is just the crumbling of the present oppressive evil system.
It is the conflicting teachings of these “jarring sects and schools, fettering reason with their rules”, that has caused so much hatred, bitterness, suffering and bloodshed throughout the world.
Real Christianity is a form of government, without politics, without commerce, without religion. ‘Do unto others as you would they should do unto you’ is a law, and the one law that man needs to understand. When the appointed time comes, then no nation or league of nations can delay its establishment even for one day; no, not even for one minute. We see, today, a time of transition, a state of change from evil to truth, from hypocrisy to sincerity, from dogmatism and prejudice to sane understanding and cooperation in the widest meaning of the word; in a nutshell, from misery and unreality to REALITY and HAPPINESS.
God’s Word says that when man’s understanding is opened, all the make-believe, formalism, ceremony and hypocrisy will be exposed, and that the people will speak a pure language— truth; and that the people will seek a good government, a righteous government, when ‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and man shall learn war no more’, but each man shall live under conditions of comfort and security, and “none shall make them afraid”.
At that time there will be no such thing as politics, to lead the people by the nose and to breed prejudice and misunderstanding. For the government shall be upon His shoulder, when He comes whose right it is. At that time there will be no such thing as religion, to blind the mental outlook of the people; for He will give to the people a pure language—truth; and they shall all call upon the name of the Lord with one consent. And at that time there will be no such thing as commerce, which, as we see it today, means the exploitation of the people, and the resultant degradation.
Instead of the sordid struggle for existence and of the greedy striving after gain, we shall emerge from this welter of selfishness and darkness into the glorious light of love and truth. At one time, long ago, man stepped aside from that course, allowing Satan, that evil genius, to overreach him, and forgot about his Great Benefactor, Jehovah, the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Becoming more greedy and selfish, the further man got from God’s Highway of Truth, he has at last brought himself to the present sordid, filthy state of society.
These are just a few of the links in the chain of evidence, taken from God’s Word, to show the people who are breaking away from the yoke of prejudice that there is a world of information waiting to be explored by each individual who chooses to do so. Each one has a responsibility to God, concerning one’s own course. Each one has a freedom of choice, and can either choose to explore this evidence or allow prejudice to override one’s reasoning abilities and to go the road of least resistance.
The Great War pricked the gasbag of “organized Christianity”, that filthy image built up by this hypocritical civilization. Many people had been church-goers until the Great War opened their eyes to the hypocrisy of religion. They consequently experienced a condition of mental chaos, and turned from the Bible and everything associated with it, to seek something ‘more substantial’ on which to lean. Since 1914 the daily newspapers and periodicals have provided an ever increasing supply of “scientific” reading matter; devils’ doctrine. To such an extent has this taken place that many people have again been caught by plausible writers. These writers always have their eye on the main chance, money; and so, with copy and matter more or less “scientific”, they endeavor to make their writings interesting. Millions of people have thus been led to think along unsound lines, until now these people find themselves in a deadend of prejudice.
In the press the reports read of conferences here and conferences there, of conversations between leading politicians or so-called “statesmen”, and special reports by certain newspaper associations, are just blither. Good word, blither; it just fits, and fills the bill. In point of fact, all this blither is just the mainstay of the condition of unreality which like a dense fog or mist has spread over humanity since 1914.
The present system, this financial parasite-ridden system, is possible only while politics and religion work hand in hand to exploit the people. When the understanding of the people has been opened, so that all may see this great make-believe, hypocritical system in all its slimy filthiness, then we may look forward to a much better condition; a condition or state of reality, when men will live without any make-believe at all; when each individual’s abilities will be directed along natural lines.
According to the press, war is inevitable. Well, if war is to decide men’s differences, then the strong physically and the robust ones will be destroyed first. Anyway, war with its poison gas and disease germs would undoubtedly let loose such a deadly pestilence that it would sweep through all nations and wipe the human race off the earth altogether. Again, if another great war should come, then some new form of habitation would need to be invented; at least, for those engaged in hostilities. And no scientist can devise such a contrivance. Don’t expect too much from the scientists.
Science is, according to one of its leading spokesmen, merely in its infancy. It is just like a child paddling on the beach. Science is dabbling in the shallows of knowledge. The great potential depths of knowledge are ahead of us. Scientists hope, some day, to plumb those depths of knowledge, and to harness the great unseen forces of the universe for the purpose of doing man’s work.
The present is flooded with unreality or blither. The past has been nothing but unreality in various forms; at least, since man stepped down from his original high estate, when, throwing away his birthright of life, he wallowed in the cesspool of greed and selfishness. Autocracy and feudalism prevailed for a time, and then gave place to democracy in its various forms. Democracy has failed. Then what of the future ?
To be candid, the human race is bushed and has just about completed one great circle since the old feudal system gave way and the era of free competition began. Commerce and profittaking have ever been associated with politics. It is an interesting study to follow the moving picture of history down through the ages, and note the so-called “’progress” under the ever changing forms of government. One thing is apparent to the student of history who refuses to take things for granted; and that is, that, right down through the whole of the sorry spectacle, there have always been unscrupulous men, ever ready to plot and plan to seize the leadership, to gratify either their own or their employer’s ambition. Whether, under the regime of feudalism, when the favorite courtiers of the land were granted private ownership of land that belonged to the people, or monopolies to deal in certain commodities, and were thus enabled to make large profits from which they provided the king with spending money; or, under the system known as constitutional government, when charters were granted to the East India Company, Hudson Bay Company, South African Company, and others; or under the peculiar system known as democracy, when the banking corporations throughout the world dictate to the governments, and politicians run with cap in hand to do the bidding of the plutocrats of finance—yes, money talks, and always has done so. Yes, money talks, either with the smooth, polished speech of the diplomatic toady or by the devastating roar of shot and shell and other deadly forms of .frightfulness.
And yet the scientific writers (save the mark!) have the intestinal fortitude to state, in a very convincing manner, that this record of greed and selfishness is an evolutionary process, and that the more-near perfect or socialistic state will eventually emerge from such a welter of filth. When one views the ever widening slough of despondency into which the human race is being either led or driven or is rushing headlong, one must ponder for a while and wonder at the attitude adopted by these plausible writers toward two of the greatest truths ever brought to the notice of men. First is the diabolical ingenuity of that evil genius Satan, who as bright, intelligent Lucifer, overseer of mankind, rebelled against God and set out to accomplish the evil scheme to ruin mankind in the eyes of Jehovah God the Creator. The second and most important truth is that the great and wonderfully provident purpose of Jehovah deals very effectively with the rebellion of fallen Lucifer and also with the sorry results of that rebellion. God’s purpose has been, right from the beginning of evil, to arrange a way of escape from the trap that the fallen one, Satan, had arranged for fallen man. When God’s holy name has been vindicated, then man will fall no more, hut will put forth all his endeavors to become worthy of the benefits which will be the gift of God to everyone who is of good will and teachable.
The political press does not tell the people that the race for armaments by the nations is the preparation that Satan is making for Armageddon, the last tribulation of mankind. Of course not, because Satan has now blinded the minds of these men; and if they have not the light, how can they give it to others? Satan sees to it that they give something that passes for enlightenment; that is, scientific writings, more or less. God’s Word sums it all up by telling the seeker after truth, ‘Man’s wisdom is foolishness.’ Knowledge is not wisdom. God’s Word says: ‘The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom’; ‘only the wise shall understand.’ Knowledge means information gained from truthful testimony. Understanding means to take hold of and comprehend the true meaning of the testimony received, and to thereby be enabled to know for a certainty what is the right course or road to take. One who pursues such a course is wise, and the final result to him is certain to be good. One may have knowledge of the existence of a thing, but have no understanding of its meaning. The two are necessary to go together that good may result.
The fact that a man is educated and graduated from a theological university is no proof that he has a knowledge and understanding of the Bible. He may be able to repeat from memory every text in the Bible, and yet have no understanding of the meaning thereof. The majority of the educated clergymen of today repudiate the inspiration of the Scriptures, and have set up man’s wisdom as superior to that expressed in the Bible. God’s Word says: “They have eyes, and they see not; they have ears, and they hear not.” Jesus said that they are “blind guides”.
Those people who are of good will, or teachable, have ears to hear the Message of Truth from either radio sets or the transcription machines which are being used where the radio is not available. Those who have eyes to see are reading the literature at present being placed in the homes of the people by Jehovah’s witnesses.
Such books as The Harp of God, Deliverance, Creation, Reconciliation, Government, Life, Prophecy, Light, Vindication, Preservation, Preparation and Jehovah are wonderful books. There are also a number of booklets, such as Who Is God? What Is Truth? Cause of Death, Hereafter, Good Neivs, Liberty, The Final War, What You Need, Health and Life, Home and Happiness, Keys of Heaven, Where Are the Dead? The Kingdom the Hope of the World, The Crisis, Escape to the Kingdom, Dividing the People, Righteous Ruler and Angels. All of these publications are Bible helps, and are issued by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, which is a world-wide organization.
The Bible is no longer a book of mystery. It is like a diamond, in that its pages throw light in many directions. Those people who regard the Bible as God’s Word of Truth find the above publications of great benefit because of the help given to “search the Scriptures”. They are not deceived by plausible writers. They are not deceived by the so-called “scientists”; and they are not deceived by either clergymen or politicians. They desire to live as Christians, with Christ Jesus as their King, when real Christianity brings peace on earth to men of good will.
Television: When? By James M. Robinson (Indiana)
Waiting until we get television.” How often
» ’ have you heard that expression? Few people know that the first system of television, and incidentally the principle of scanning on which the present commercial outfits are based, was patented in 1884, by a German named Paul Nipkow. The feeble attempts to perfect the Nipkow system have failed, primarily, because the number of lines per picture is limited to the number of holes or apertures in the single revolving scanning disc and, secondly, because of restrictions in the use of television; that is to say, advertising and sponsored programs will not be permitted as in radiocasting; and, last but not least, no attempt has been made on the part of station owners to standardize on a certain number of lines per picture, number of pictures per second or the type image, that is, negative or positive.
Television is similar to motion pictures in that both are optical illusions; but television is much more complicated, because each picture must be broken up into small elements according to its color value by means of a scanning system, and each element converted into an electrical impulse which is amplified and transmitted. These transmitted impulses are received in the usual manner, as in radio, amplified and converted into corresponding light variations, which, when passed through a suitable scanning system, operated at the same speed and “in step” with the transmitter, reconstructs the picture just as the televisor at the transmitter saw it.
Some advancement has been made in the cathode ray type of television, but so far the cost involved makes this system prohibitive for the average person. At present a 4- or 5-inch picture is produced with an 18-inch cathode tube, and these tubes cost from $60 to $90 each. In order to produce a picture that would be acceptable to the public, a tube at least 6 feet long would have to be produced, and the cost of such a tube would be several hundred dollars.
The writer is the inventor of a new system of mechanical scanning in which any number of lines per picture can be produced without decreasing the size of the picture and which reproduces the natural colors of the objects scanned. This is accomplished by the use of two circular discs which overlap and which revolve at different speeds. One of the discs carries small rectangular cylindrical lenses radially spaced and revolves at a high speed, while the other disc carries three curved cylindrical lenses, placed elliptically around its periphery, each of which is one of the prime colors, red, blue and green. The two discs are arranged in such a manner that when operating the small lenses intersect the curved lenses at right angles, which in effect produces a perfect spherical lens. The number of lines per picture is determined by the number of small lenses that intersect the curved lenses per picture, while the number of pictures per second is determined by the number of revolutions of the disc carrying the three curved lenses.
No one knows just how soon television will be perfected to such a degree as the radio is today; however, we can be sure that in due time it will be accomplished.
Hitler Shot [At]
THE press report of an attempt upon Hitler’s life was headlined by the statement “Hitler Shot”. Honesty and accuracy require the addition of the “at”, as in our headline. We regret the necessity of making this correction, trusting it will not be necessary a second time.
Parents Can Forbid Vaccination
THE American Medical Liberty League, Inc.,
35 E. Van Buren St., Chicago, Ill., suggests the following notice to school authorities, if parents refuse to have their children vaccinated and are prepared to defend their rights in the courts, if necessary:
To Principal and Teachers of....................................................
School, (address).........................................................................................
You are hereby given legal notice that I refuse to permit the vaccination or medical inspection of my children, (names)................................................................................. at
school, and that I shall hold you legally and financially liable for damages if you allow such trespass upon my right as parent; also if you exclude my children or any one of them from school for failure to be medically examined or vaccinated, you will be held responsible in damages for all loss and injury accruing therefrom.
Your attention is called to the fact that my refusal, as above, invades no right of others and imperils no one. Failure of my children to be vaccinated cannot endanger the vaccinated—all being vaccinated who wish—since, if the vaccinated are not protected by their own vaccination, they would not be protected by the vaccination of others. Any children found at school with contagious disease have already exposed others, so that the claim that medical inspection prevents the spread of contagion is untrue. In sending my children to school I delegate my control over them to you, but only for the purpose of education and necessary school discipline. You cannot delegate even that control to others. Therefore I trust you will refuse any and all orders to commit the trespass referred to and save yourselves troublesome and costly litigation.
Date ...................................................................................................
Name.............................................._..................................................
Address...................................................................................................
The Trail of the Aluminum Trust
TN The Encyclopedia Americana (1927 Edition, Vol. 1, page 453, column 2, paragraph 4) we read :
The healthfulness of foods containing aluminum compounds, and baking powders in particular, have been carefully investigated by the United States government (Bull. No. 103 U. S. Dept, of Ag.). It was found that baking powders containing aluminum compounds were no more unhealthful than any other baking powders. Seventy percent of all the baking powder used in the United States contains an aluminum salt. Large amounts of aluminum salts are also used in purifying water. Aluminum cooking utensils are in common use and the corrosion of these utensils doubtless results in small quantities of aluminum compounds being mixed with the food. Alum is used in the preparation of pickles and of maraschino cherries; the amount of alum left in these usually amounts to less than two-tenths of one percent. No case of injury or ill health has ever been reported due to aluminum compounds ingested from any of the above sources.
But the 1903 edition told the truth, in Vol. 1, as follows:
Alum Poisoning. This poisoning may be acute or chronic, the latter being much more common.
In the acute variety, often the result of accidental swallowing of a gargling solution, symptoms are nausea, vomiting, purging, cold clammy skin, small thready pulse, thirst, muscular tremor, followed by rise in temperature in those who have recovered. Treatment: Wash out stomach and use white of eggs as a chemical antidote.
Alum being much used as a preservative, as a means of clarifying water, and as an adulterant in baking powder (aluminum sulphate), the question of chronic alum poisoning becomes of great importance.
Symptoms most frequently observed are disturbances of digestion and constipation. The question as to its harmful action on the kidneys is not decided yet, but it would seem to be harmful rather than the reverse.
The foregoing.item from the 1903 Americana was sent in by A. L. Wood, Florida, who says, “All cheap baking powders and self-rising flours contain aluminum sulphate; so be warned.”
Not Public Property
Mrs. A. S. Fahl, New York, writes: “Your articles on aluminum touch the spot. And to think we ate out of it for the last twenty-five years! Personally I had come to the point where I couldn’t eat rhubarb, cooked fruit, salty things, etc. Since I put the aluminum all out everything agrees with me. All around me I can cite any number of cases of illness and pain that disappeared when the aluminum pots were discarded.
“I live in a little village; 35 children in the school. When the M.D. came to vaccinate, the other day, only 9 would submit to it. The strongest girl there took sick right away after the injection. I sent a note to the teacher that my boy was not public property, and in case they vaccinated without my consent I would hold the M.D. responsible for any sickness my child would be subject to for six years.”
Utilizing Surplus Foods
Elsie Smith (New York) offers the following suggestion: “Due to the fact that prices on foodstuffs keep advancing, I am trying to utilize everything along this line. Sometimes one has an oversupply of a certain fruit or vegetable or meat on hand. This is what I do: Cook it in a granite or good enamel kettle until tender, and season or add sugar. Then have a good jar and cover (not chipped) thoroughly sterilized in another kettle or pan of boiling water. Drop the jar rubber into the boiling water for a few seconds. Fill jar quickly and seal and stand it upside down for a couple of hours to see if it is air-tight. If there is any leakage, contents should be reboiled for a few minutes, jar again sterilized and a new rubber put on jar, proceeding as before. (It is always best to use new rubbers.) Berries should be washed thoroughly, and boiled a few minutes only, leaving them almost whole. Cook other fruits until tender; chicken, meats and vegetables, the same way.”
Fuller’s Earth for Sore Feet
"1\Trs. M. M. Campbell, Texas, writes: “Here
is a sure cure for athletic foot or sore, raw feet: Wash your feet in warm water and With a mild soap. Dry with a soft cloth and apply fuller's earth in all the cracks and crevices between the toes. Many have spent a great deal of money to heal athletic foot, when with one dime one can perfect a cure by means of a few applications. Most drug stores keep fuller’s earth. It comes in bulk [or in cans] and is more easily applied if put in an old powder can or salt shaker. It is also fine for infants when sore and chafed and when nothing else helps. It soothes and heals rapidly.’’
Potatoes at 15c a Bushel
TN OCTOBER, in Wyoming county, New
York, farmers were marketing their potatoes at 15c a bushel and some farmers were letting them rot in the ground rather than dig them and handle them at such an infamous price. Now that it is up to the taxpayers to feed the hungry of the whole country, it would seem as if attention should be given to the potato producers, as well as the producers of cotton, corn and wheat, and that this food should be saved. What is more delectable than a baked potato, buttered, salted, and eaten jacket and all ?
When Scalded or Burned
THE usual dressing for burns, of wet boracic acid compresses, has been replaced by a dressing made of clean cloth or sterilized bandages placed over the burned or scalded area and then sprayed with a five-percent solution of tannic acid. A supply of the tannic-acid powder should be on hand in every medicine cabinet for such emergencies, but if, for any reason, it is not at hand a good strong brew of tea, made fresh and cooled, can be applied through the bandages. The tea contains enough tannic acid to make a good covering. This will form a brown covering over the burned or scalded surface, which will turn black and finally peel off. This treatment of burns is of inestimable value if resorted to at once, particularly if it is impossible to get a doctor quickly. The tannic-acid solution is made by adding six teaspoonfuls of the powder to a tumbler of water. The cloths must be kept soaked with this solution until the burned skin turns a deep brown and pain is gone.
White Bread for Rheumatism (?)
Dr. Luella Starkly, of Oklahoma, writes:
“If you want to publish something about white bread that will be a help to the readers of The Golden Age, tell all that are suffering with rheumatism this: Go on a strict bread-and-butter diet for ten days, eating nothing but bread and butter—I mean white bread, with a lot of butter (cow's butter). The white bread to be white 'baker’s bread’, white ‘homemade light bread’ or white common homemade biscuits (just so they do not contain hog’s fat [lard]). You do not need to tell them what to do next, after the ten days on white bread with butter have expired. They will have the secret by that time, and there will be no more argument.” (This may be true—but—?—Ed.)
Discriminating Pets
Janet Horne, of New York, writes: “I read with interest, in a recent issue of The Golden Age, that if one desired to put one’s dog out of existence a good way would be to feed it white bread for a time. I wish to inform you that this method would not work in all eases, because neither our dog nor either of our two cats, which are habitually fed homemade whole-wheat bread, will touch a bit of white bread; in fact, they will go hungry rather than eat it.”
THE American Federation of Labor proposes a thirty-hour work week for all industries, and figures it would work out about as follows: As the average length of the work week is now forty hours, a reduction of ten hours would mean that there would be work for 25 percent more workers than are at present employed, or one-fourth of nearly 40,000,000. Instead of 40,000,000 workers, there would be 50,000,000, and these would receive as much for the thirtyhour week as was formerly paid for the fortyhour week. Employers would thus be paying out 25 percent more for labor, but it is argued that the increased income of these millions would result in the sale of more merchandise. So far so good, but the increased demand for merchandise would require more workers, and these also would want more goods, and, of course, they would all be taken off relief rolls. It sounds as if the thirty-hour work week would be worth trying, but meanwhile it is well to continue to keep in mind that the kingdom of God is the only hope for the world. Big business will not consent to paying their servants 25 percent more for the same amount of work.
Country Housing Condemned
Mr. A. Conley, president of the British Trades Union Congress, made the surprising statement, ‘’The country cottage with roses around the door, with a majestic elm waving above its roof, looking so charming in sun and shadow amidst the fields and hedgerows, is often an unspeakable habitation.” “The fact that they are picturesquely situated somewhat hides their wretchedness and squalor, but were they suddenly transported to our towns and cities there would be an immediate outcry about them.”
The “Hunger March” on Albany
A GENTLEMAN who claims to know the facts states that the so-called “Hunger March” on Albany was a gang of hoodlums sent by political opponents of the party in power; that they had clubs, stones, acid and other weapons on the trucks that transported them, and also brought along two trained nurses for the casualties which they expected and which they received. This information from a subscriber is probably correct.
THE A. & P. does the largest grocery business in the world, has several bakeries, and controls other enterprises. The business was started as a small tea store, in New York, in 1859, by Geo. H. Hartford, father of the present heads of the business. The stock is owned almost entirely by the Hartford family. The firm sells ten percent of the groceries bought in the United States. It has 15,500 stores, located in all sections of the country, and employs nearly a hundred thousand persons. The gross business done by the concern exceeds a billion dollars a year, and profits have increased from $1,821,000 in 1916 to $29,793,000 in 1932. The A. & P. received much unfavorable publicity in its recent controversy with its Cleveland employees, at which time all the Cleveland A. & P. stores were closed to discourage the unionizing activities of the workers, and remained closed for a week. An agreement was finally reached through intervention of the National Labor Relations Board.
See Their Finish
IN A RECENT release the American Federation of Labor says: “Scored on every hand for operating industry solely for the maximum profit which can be wrung from the people, regardless of the social consequences, the reactionary industrial bourbons refuse to read the handwriting on the wall and reorganize industry on the basis of social service. Perhaps the rugged individualists of American industry are not far from what may be their economic Armageddon.” While the term “Armageddon” is incorrectly used, it is evident that the finish of the ‘Lings” who have ruled and ruined the earth is foreseen.
“Homework Protective League”
GET around NRA codes and decent wages wealthy homework profiteers in Connecticut finance a “Homework Protective League”, which conducts a continual fight against banishment of the sweatshop disgrace. Its paid lawyers and its principal representative appear constantly in the courts and at NRA hearings. They defend the rights of women to work at home for an average monthly wage of $6.95, and average earnings per person of less than eight cents an hour. Even when the entire family take a hand in the homework they are unable to support themselves on the earnings.
Transportation
Freight Transportation by Plane
WHERE formerly 7,300 mules would have labored for weeks to transport the 735 tons of mine machinery from Cuzco to the Huanacopampa minehead, the work was done by planes making 421 round trips, the total flying time being 425 hours. The heaviest piece of machinery weighed 4,362 pounds, and there were 26 pieces weighing about a hundred pounds less. Cuzco is situated 10,900 feet above sealevel, and the planes had to fly across the Andean Divide at 16,000 feet. The Huanacopampa minehead was 12,675 feet above sea level. The line of flight was over dangerous jungles and ravines. Radio kept the planes in touch with Cuzco and the minehead.
Some Things Done by the Zephyr
THE fuel cost of the Zephyr, which made the 1,015 miles from Denver to Chicago in 13 hours 5 minutes, was only $15. The fuel cost of steam locomotives for the same trip is $255. Some wondered what the Zephyr would do if it ran into anything. On its way from Buffalo to Detroit it struck a Chevrolet truck stalled on the track. The truck was completely demolished. The man who was cranking it suddenly found himself with only the crank in his hand. He had an impression that a silver streak of lightning had passed him by. The only damage to the Zephyr was a dent in the stainless steel cowcatcher.
What Frank Hawks Said
Frank Hawks, a speed flier, told the Federal Aviation Commission: “I can fly from Tokyo to New York in 48 hours. If we were to have enemies in either the Orient or Soviet Russia the same performance could be duplicated. The Japanese would not care if they ever returned or not. There are plenty of young Japanese warriors who would willingly sacrifice their lives for the chance to destroy our New York skyscrapers.” (An airplane has now been developed which can carry a load over three thousand miles non-stop.)
Radio Direction Finders
AIRPLANES can now be equipped with radio direction finders which make the finding of a small island in a wide ocean a simple matter instead of a dangerous undertaking.
Patents Earn Millions for Inventors
THERE are in the United States 50 patents earning a million dollars a year, 300 earning five hundred thousand dollars, and over 2,000 earning at least a hundred thousand yearly. The “Kiddie Kar”, the collar button with the turndown clip to hold the tie, the barbed-wire fence, and the cap for beer bottles have made their inventors millionaires. Many inventors do not get their share of the profits from their inventions, due to inexperience in obtaining a patent.
Transoceanic Mail and Passenger Service
ARRANGEMENTS for transoceanic mail and passenger service are being given serious consideration and plans are under way for making them a matter of regular, everyday occurrence. Passengers and mails can now be carried profitably by both planes and airships. Ships that will carry a hundred passengers and several tons of mail and express of high value are sure to make their appearance soon.
Record of the Graf Zeppelin
THE Graf Zeppelin, considered out of date for commercial service before it was ever flown, has made over sixty transatlantic flights and has sailed to the tropics and the arctic and has functioned perfectly under all kinds of conditions. On the other hand, the United States, with all its boasted superiority, seems to have been unable to build a dirigible that will go from Ohio to New Jersey without being wrecked.
Balloon Rips Ten Miles Up
IMAGINE the feelings of three men up ten miles from the earth when their balloon ripped. This was over North Platte, Nebr. The men waited until the balloon was within 5,000 feet of the earth; then, one after another, they leaped, and, with their parachutes, all landed safely.
Sleeper Plane to Chicago
NEW YORK now has a nightly sleeper plane to Chicago, leaving by American Airlines at 12: 35 a. m. There are 12 berths, each 6 feet 2 inches long, equipped with fine linen, soft, warm blankets, comfortable mattresses and downy pillows. Two experienced pilots and a stewardess are aboard each plane.
THE EIGHTEENTH
The eighteenth in the series of short Bible treatises by Judge Rutherford is presented herewith. The subject, “Sheep and Goats,” is an appropriate one for the conclusion of the series, as it deals with the final judgment of the nations. This parable, and the explanation given herewith, call forcefully to our attention what course of action will have the Lord’s approval and what course He disapproves. A proper appreciation of Jesus’ words is of vital importance. Those who turn a deaf ear to the warning sounded by the parable will be found among the “goats”. Those who give heed to the instruction therein will be included with the “sheep”.
Sheep and Goats
JESUS spoke a prophecy concerning the dividing of the people which He said would be fulfilled at His coming for judgment, and which prophecy is recorded at Matthew 25. He stated that He would divide the people into two classes, one represented as “sheep”, and the other class as “goats”. The “sheep” take the side of the Lord, and the “goats” take the side of the Devil. Jesus Christ is now at His temple for judgment, judgment is in progress, and the prophetic parable concerning “the sheep and the goats” is now being fulfilled. By the Scriptures and the facts you may intelligently decide which side you are on.
There are some persons on earth who are wholly devoted to God and His kingdom and, as followers of Christ Jesus, are the witnesses for Jehovah. There are a large number of persons who are members of some so-called “church” organization and who, under the leadership of the clergy, indulge in cruel persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses. For example: In New Jersey the clergy have caused the police to repeatedly arrest and imprison faithful men and women for no offense save that of preaching the gospel of God’s kingdom. In prison they have often been hungry and sick and their persecutors have continued to cause them to suffer. Jesus foreknew that the cruel clergy and their allies, whom He called “goats”, would persecute His faithful followers, and concerning this “goat” class He said (Matthew 25: 42, 43): “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.” Those of the goat class then asked the Lord when they did such cruel things: “Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”
The persons of good will and kind heart form the company represented as “sheep”. They see men and women faithfully trying to help others by bringing to them the message of God’s kingdom. Recognizing these faithful ones as the followers of Christ Jesus they seek to do good unto them because they are the brethren of Jesus. They are glad to give these witnesses of the Lord a cup of cold water, some food, and speak kind words to them, and when they find them in prison they not only sympathize with the imprisoned witnesses of the Lord but do what they can to relieve their suffering. The words of Jesus to the people of good will called “sheep” are these (Matthew 25:35, 36): “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” These people of good will say to Jesus: “When did we do these good deeds unto you, Lord?’ “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” —Verse 40.
At the present time the Lord is bringing the truth to the attention of the people, and thereby giving each an opportunity to place himself on the side of the Lord or against the Lord. When you see clergymen and others persecuting faithful men and women because they are preaching the message of God’s kingdom from house to house you may know that such persecutors have placed themselves on the side of the Devil, and to such “goats” Jesus says: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” Such is their fate.
Those who love righteousness and who do good unto the Lord’s witnesses because they
are preaching the gospel thereby show their love for the Lord. Thus taking their stand on the side of the Lord they refuse to have any part with the persecutors. To this “sheep” class the words of Jesus are: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” The Kingdom is for those who love and who do righteousness.
The division of the people into two general classes is now in progress, and will continue until the great battle of Armageddon, at which time Jehovah will destroy all who are on the side of the Devil, and will extend His blessings of the Kingdom to all who love and serve Him. It is of the greatest importance to you that you now take your stand on the side of the Lord and His kingdom and fully acquaint yourself with His truth.
[The series of eighteen brief Bible talks, of which the foregoing is the last, may be obtained in the form of phonograph records. Such important subjects are discussed as “Redemption”, “Life,” “Soul,” “The Dead,” “Resurrection,” “Purgatory,” “Whose Servant?” “Trinity,” “Keys,” etc. There are nine records in all, two talks on each one. They may be run on an ordinary phonograph. This unusual set of records is distributed by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, Brooklyn, N. Y. The demand for the records indicates wide interest in the themes they discuss. Inquiries should be addressed to the Society; not to us.]
Jehovah’s witnesses
A Jonadab in Austria
THE Polish Bulletin says: “A certain Jonadab J- in Austria, who recently received a knowledge of the truth, has removed the ‘Chaplet with Madonna’ which he had built in front of his house to express his zeal when a Catholic. Instead, he got a painter to make a large sign on the wall of his house, quoting Isaiah 42:17, ‘They shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images’; and at the bottom of the sign quoted Matthew 23:9, ‘And call no man your father upon the earth.’ People from all over the country have come, even in automobiles, to see the sign on the wall. Best of all, the Catholic priest had to pass the sign almost every day and had the man pulled into court for treason, but the court decided in favor of the sign.”
Jehovah Has Witnesses Everywhere
SAYS Charles F. Condart, one of Jehovah’s witnesses in the great San Quentin prison: '‘During the Kingdom Praise Period [September 29-October 7, 1934] there were eight workers, 175 testimonies, 132 placements, 12 books, 120 booklets, Golden Ages loaned to many. "We are never idle nor unfruitful in the work given us to do. My work as a first-class painter, decorator, glazier, etc., takes me all over the prison reservation, and even off the reservation. Yet I have lots of time to witness and loan the books and booklets out. So, since Satan has caused my imprisonment, he has only served to help in witnessing where it could not be given very well in any other way. Glad that soon the trafficking and merchandising in human life will come to an end, when the poor and helpless of the earth will at least have a chance for their life. Now they have no chance whatever; how well I know it!”
Spiritual Hybrids for Ever Debarred
CORRESPONDENT wishes to know why no illegitimate child, even to the tenth generation, could enter into the congregation of Jehovah (Deuteronomy 23:2). The answer is that, while this forbade acceptance into the congregation of fleshly Israel of those born out of wedlock (so that God’s laws would be held in due regard by all Israel), the true meaning is, as we now see, that none will ever, at any time, get into the congregation of Jehovah God unless they become wholly His children, unless they get to love Him with all their heart, mind, soul and strength, and stay that way. Those who are expecting to gain eternal life by outward formalistic piety, while at heart they do not love Jehovah God, and do not love their fellow men, will get what they deserve, destruction. And that will be a great blessing to everybody else.
In Every Clime
Truth Spreading in Egypt
THE Greek magazine Christopoliteia does not intend to say anything favorable about Jehovah’s witnesses, but amuses them mightily with the following:
After Alexandria, behold Cairo also and the interior of Egypt have the honor to be visited by Chili-asts [persons who believe in the Millennium]. This does not surprise us; they found in Greece a very wide field to take advantage of, and having accomplished in our unguarded fold what wolves could accomplish, they have now come into the fold of the Alexandrian church with the hope that they will find this one too unguarded, and to a great degree they so find it. Our chief shepherds are fraught with various service matters and their voice is heard only on Sundays for half an hour and no more. The under shepherds are inadequately furnished, being busy in providing their daily bread, and for this reason cannot guard the flock from the wolves; besides, they have not the arms.
Sundry British Items
IT IS said that English manors are rapidly breaking up, due to duties, taxes and the demands for country estates. This is in line with common sense. Crops in Britain in 1934 were good despite the drought. The London Daily Express claims that there are now 10,000 racketeers in the country, known to the police, but not disturbed by them. They can be hired to ‘■'attend” to anybody considered obnoxious and to keep “order” in public meetings. There is now hardly a city or town in the country without its band of hooligans organized for terrorist purposes. They always stop short of taking life. They got their start in Britain levying toll on bookmakers at racecourses, on the ground of furnishing them “protection”.
The Biggest Steel Plant
THE biggest steel plant in the world, when completed, will be in Russia. The foundries in this plant are scheduled to produce 60,000 tons of castings yearly, twice the output of the Krupps. It is expected to produce annually sixteen rolling mills for the steel industry.
Russia’s Plant Wizard
RUSSIA’S plant wizard, Michurin, has developed a fruit which is a cross of the apple and the cherry, an apricot which grows almost to the arctic circle, and a hardy grape which grows as far north as Moscow and the Urals.
The Hard-Pressed Vicar of Walkhampton
THE vicar of Walkhampton, Devonshire, England, has resigned. He had a house of eighteen rooms, six acres of land, a large garden and other buildings to keep up, and complained that the living provided by the taxpayers amounted to only £316 net. It does seem that an income of only about $1,600 is little enough for keeping up a big place like that, for a humble follower of ‘One who had not where to lay His head’. Still, when it is reflected that the vicar had nothing to do, absolutely nothing, except to draw his breath, and go through certain religious motions once a week, he was paid plenty.
Curious Tax Arrangement in Britain
IT WILL be news to most American readers that in Britain no taxes are levied on unoccupied property. Some owners of properties worth millions purposely hold them at such high rentals in hard times that they remain unoccupied. In that way they dodge everything except repairs, and insurance.
On the Shores of the Dead Sea
ON THE shores of the Dead sea there are now gardens where beans are raised that have pods two feet long, there are radishes eighteen inches long, and oranges sometimes weigh two pounds. The treasures of the Dead sea are being rapidly converted into potash and other chemical finds.
Trinidad Has the Staggers
TRINIDAD, famous for its asphalt deposits, surprised its inhabitants by something new.
Inland the earth crumpled up in furrows, with trees tipping and leaning at odd angles like drunken men, and on the south shore 300 feet was added to the beach.
The Biggest Dam in India
THE biggest dam in India, and claimed to be one of the largest in the world, has just been opened at Mettur, across the Cauvery river. The dam is a little more than a mile long and has an average height of 215 feet.
West Australia Claims Unfair Treatment
WEST AUSTRALIA claims unfair treatment financially, and has sent a deputation to England to plead that they be separated from the Australian Commonwealth.
Big Business and His Babies
Capitalism at War with Society
SAYS New America: Its Goal and Program:
The cause of their [the American people’s] confusion and impotence is also the cause of their increasing misery—the traditional profit economy which is without plan or purpose except to put the ultimate direction of society into the hands of the most successful money makers. The American people have had their heritage taken away from them, and they are now being denied their future, by the profit system. Through its increasing waste of both our natural and human resources, its gradual destruction of its foreign trade and investment, this system has nearly exhausted the possible purchasing power upon which it depends for profit. Hence, the period of imperialist expansion being almost ended, the profit economy now turns in upon itself in economic nationalism. It now requires limitation and destruction of production. Thus the system is at war with the needs of the society it is supposed to support. This is a situation which cannot be tolerated. When the economic process which is supposed to increase production begins to limit and destroy it, then revolutionary changes in the whole social structure must ensue. The first of these is already in process. Without any definite mandate from the American people, without any clear understanding of what is involved even by those who are directing the process, this nation has passed from the era of private capitalism into a period of state capitalism. The profit system, unable any longer to operate on its own power, is now being kept going only by state subsidy. This is the economic essence of Fascism. Here, as in Italy and Germany, the vast powers of the state are being used in the attempt to revive a dying profit system. The inevitable outcome is a greater concentration of ownership, increased power to the inner circle of financiers, a lessening of the resistance of labor, a lower standard of living for most of the population. The course which this nation is now pursuing leads to a long period of extended undernourishment and almost universal underdevelopment, either under the present political control, or if that breaks down, under a more rigid and repressive form of Fascism controlled by the reactionaries and directed more completely in their interest.
What $2,000 Can Be Made to Do
IN Popular Mechanics for September, 1934, L. R. Smith, president of the A. O. Smith Corporation, alleges:
“A five-room house equipped with every article of furniture, rugs, linens, kitchen utensils, in a word, everything, together with a garage and a lot, with all improvements such as sewers, pavements, sidewalks, lawns, trees, can be sold to the workingman for two thousand dollars, allowing adequate profit to the manufacturer, adequate time financing cost and every other similar type of expense.”
Throwing Money Away in a Cemetery
A GENTLEMAN who has previously thrown money away in a cemetery tells of his will that when he dies he is to be buried in a plain, rough box, and taken to the cemetery as cheaply as possible. Further, he also says: “Fourteen years ago I placed in ‘Hell’ (the cemetery) a stone for which I paid $350. The other day I realized $100 back, after having left a good substantial mark at each of two graves in the form of a granite slab which cost me $35. The memorial man said he had replaced small stones with larger ones, but not large ones with small ones. This gave me a good opportunity to give him a witness, which I did. Possibly this might be the means of others to realize a little ready cash.”
Cremating the Dead
CREMATION as a means of disposing of the dead is a custom which has been observed down through the ages. It was the method used by the entire ancient world except Egypt, Judea, and China. The first cremation in England took place in 1855. There are now nearly 3,000 cremations annually in England, and 17,000 in the United States. Germany leads, with 40,000 annual cremations, while Italy shows an average of 18,000. Approximately 85 percent of all cremations in the United States take place in southern California. This is ascribed to the fact that the population is largely transient. It takes a heat of from 1,800° to 2,000° Fahrenheit to disintegrate the larger bones of the body.
Wuxta! Wuxta! “Too Many Churches”
Right Reverend Philip Cook, bishop of Delaware and second presiding bishop of the Episcopal diocese of America, must have been reading The Golden Age. On his arrival by Panama Pacific liner in San Diego, Calif., from New York, he is alleged to have said that the United States has too many churches; and, anyway, that is the truth, even if he hasn’t read The Golden Age, and even if he is a bishop.
The Shirts of Mussolini and Hitler
THE mail shirts of Mussolini and Hitler, made in the United States, are said to have cost $700 each, and not to be very uncomfortable except on hot days. The day Dollfuss was killed the weather was very hot and he left his mail shirt at home.
Wonderful Cooperation of Murderers
INTERNATIONAL MURDERERS, LIMIT
ED, otherwise called the Munitions Trust, cooperate with one another wonderfully. Ameringer, in The American Guardian, defines them as “flag wavers and saber rattlers, aiming at coining profit from empty eye sockets, cork legs, widows, orphans, corpses and shattered brains”. The American state department of 1928 stands convicted of helping these people unload their devilish wares in Spain and Poland and playing both ends against the middle when the Peruvians and Colombians were so near war over Leticia. When these two countries were on the brink of war the American Arms Company, during an armistice, sold to Colombia rather than to Peru, because Colombia had more money. Ameringer goes on: “This is the outfit that stands behind every preparedness parade, war scare and red hunt. These are the patriots who drive teachers and college professors out of class rooms for exposing the criminal imbecility of war; break up pacifist meetings and persecute students who protest against swapping education for goose-stepping.These are the buzzards who bought up generals, admirals, inmates of the Department of State, and selected peace delegates to disarmament confabs, and picked the nation’s bones camouflaged by Old Glory. These are the 'red, white and blue’ boys who spill the red blood of others, wave the white feathers from swivel chairs in time of Avar, and create the blues that follow.” The World War was egged on by the Krupp murderers in Germany, linked with the Schneider murderers in France; and as a net result there were ten million murdered fathers, sons and brothers, three times that many widows and orphans, twenty millions carried away by the flu, typhoid and pest, an untold number of gutted cities and towns, thousands of square miles of devastated farms, and with the able cooperation of our great bankers the murderers piled up money to beat the band—and still have it.
Government Strikes at Music Trust
THE Government has struck at the American
Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, alleging that the 97 publishers and 969 composers and authors composing this corporation control ‘practically all the musical compositions demanded by the public’. Members of the society assign to it the right to the public performance of their work, and the society then sells licenses to radio stations, theaters and others. Anyone presenting publicly for profit any of the numbers of its members must obtain a blanket license to present the work of all its members, thereby making it impossible to obtain permission for just one or two songs. This confirms Judge Rutherford’s statement, Vindication, Book Two, page 165: “Big Business dominates everything on the land.” (Then follows a wonderful list, and in it) “Big Business owns and controls the majority of the colleges and the universities, and even the public or common schools. It owns the radio and controls the music that goes on the air, and the musicians that play.”
Opposition to Progress
ELECTRIC light and power profiteers are exerting themselves to block the extension of Tennessee Valley Authority development, which purposes to bring electric light and power in to the towns and country districts throughout the vast territory within transmission distance of the great dams under the control of the directors. Under the policies of the TVA a demonstration fertilizer plant is nearly completed at Muscle Shoals, two large hydroelectric power dams are practically finished, electric current at unheard-of cheap prices is being supplied to small towns and rural regions, a $7,000,000 transmission line is rapidly nearing completion, remedies for soil erosion are under way, and land planning and reforestation are in progress. The TVA is considered to be a sort of laboratory Avhere the federal government can ascertain how to generate and sell electric power efficiently at rates so low as to make its broad use possible.
Roger Babson's Idea
PROPOSING to employ everyone in the United States under 30, Roger Babson said, “I would take the unemployed below a certain age and definitely quota them to the business interests of their community. We business men must support these people either directly or indirectly, and it is far better to support them by giving them jobs than it is by giving them doles or even government jobs.” Just how Roger figures that the business men, exclusive of all other classes, support the unemployed, is difficult to explain. It is just an indication of the conceit which afflicts big business.
Political Items
To a California Subscriber
WE DESIRE to manifest the fullest kindness and courtesy to all our friends, but cannot always bend to their ideas, and think they should not expect it. No doubt you are familiar with the Wickersham report on the Mooney case. If not, you should familiarize yourself with it before making any further expression in regard to it. This committee of the most eminent jurists in the United States has expressed such keen regret at the way this case was handled in California and is still being handled there that the United States supreme court is now considering a laying of this scandal. They would not even consider this, were it not for the widespread indignation over the methods taken in your state to keep an innocent man in prison merely because he is offensive to the powerful street railway system of San Francisco.
We cannot take the time to write you again regarding this matter, but feel that your assumption that you know more about this case than the judge who tried it and who has denounced the trial as a gross injustice; and that you know more about it than the jurors who sat in the case and who also denounced it as a gross injustice; and that you know more about the case than the witnesses who have admitted that their testimony against Mooney was perjured; and that you know more about the case than the photographs which prove that he could not possibly have been at the place of the crime at the time it was committed—all leaves us hopeless that we could say anything whatever to you that would change your mind.
Born into Bondage
By B. O. Sanderson (Minnesota)
NINETY-EIGHT out of every hundred children born in this land of plenty come into the world with millstones of debt around their necks.
In the case of the city of New York, the public indebtedness, federal, state, city and local, amounts to $610.00 for every man, woman and child.
What a birthday present this is for 98 out of every 100 newborn babes! The other two come into the world with an inheritance of millions of dollars in property and a mortgage for $60,000.00 against the unfortunate ninetyeight.
No wonder birth control is resorted to under conditions like this! No wonder criminals are reared! Confronted with a debt, not of their own making, and an environment of hunger and want in the midst of plenty, what else can you expect ?
Instead of being born into a life of servitude, every child should be endowed with a sufficient income to enable its parents to bring it up under a decent standard of living and education.
With the inexhaustible natural resources of the nation, and its tremendous mass-production facilities and man power, together with the elimination of interest on the public debt, in other words, the issuance of currency instead of bonds, this could easily be accomplished.
$322,593,356.25
This huge sum is the amount of tribute the United States Treasury Department has obligated the men and women who toil to pay to the money-lenders under the guise of interest on the government bonds and notes amounting to $1,892,946,500.00 issued December 15, 1934.
Since June 30, 1917, this form of tribute to the money-lenders has cost the men and women who toil the staggering sum of $13,314,519,-710.88.
This amount of money changed into twentydollar gold coins would load 629 freight cars with thirty-two tons each, and still leave a small matter of $1,055,390.88 for pocket change. However, there is not that much monetary gold in the world.
This tremendous amount of money could all have been saved, and this depression and its consequent misery and despair averted, had the government obeyed the constitution and issued currency instead of bonds.
Only 65 Percent?
Freling Foster, in Collier’s, says: “More than 1,300,000,000 persons, or 65 percent of the entire population of the world, live today in countries whose newspapers and magazines are not only heavily censored but whose editors are given daily ‘instructions’ by dictators or government press bureaus. Thus news published in these countries is colored or distorted to an unbelievable extent, undoubtedly a great menace to the peace of the world.”
Public Ownership League
THE Public Ownership League of America, located at 127 North Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill., has for more than twenty years advocated and furthered the public ownership of utilities. Numerous cities and towns have prospered phenomenally as a result of installing their own power plants, and tax-free municipalities are by no means few. The Public Ownership League is to be credited for much of this progress. In one of its circular letters we read, “On November 6 Sacramento, California, voted nearly 3 to 1 for a $12,000,000 bond issue for a district public power system; Memphis, Tennessee, voted the same day nearly 18 to 1 for a bond issue for a municipally owned distribution system, so they could buy current from the TVA. Great projects like Muscle Shoals, Boulder Dam, Fort Peck, Casper-Alcova, the Grand Coulee, are under way and many more coming. Public ownership is here.” The Ninth Biennial Conference of The Public Ownership League will be held at the Willard Hotel, Washington, D. C., February 21-24.
Big Business Not Eager to Help
THE attitude of big business toward efforts to help the unemployed is shown in the following extract from a pamphlet distributed by Associated Industries of Missouri:
Your business will be directly and vitally affected by many dangerous bills which will be introduced— or reintroduced—at the coming session.
Costly unemployment insurance legislation may be forced upon the states by Federal coercion. In the last Congress, this scheme was represented by the administration-supported Wagner 5% payroll tax with its rebate to employers taxed under state unemployment insurance laws.
This bill would cost you $5,000 annually per $100,000 of payroll. It is estimated (on the basis of this year’s low payrolls) that it would have cost Missouri employers an annual toll of $20,000,000.
Such a bill would force Missouri to embark on an extremely costly unemployment insurance program.
Britain’s Doctors Want Right to Kill
TN PRUSSIA, if the consent of the patient is obtained, together with a certificate signed by three doctors, it is legal to kill humans if incurable. This right certain British physicians now wish to be extended to Britain, and a bill has been introduced in Parliament to that effect.
In the Land of the Free
"Calmer G. Stark, Connecticut, writes: “Here is something to promulgate, though not unusual. I was rejected from the Civilian Conservation Corps, August 2, 1934, replacement center at Fort H. G. Wright, New York, for refusing an inoculation. I think it was for the prevention of typhoid fever; they did not tell us. You just take it. Everyone has to take three inoculations. I regret to say I submitted to one injection.
“On top of my application memorandum paper is printed 'Administrative Discharge. Unwilling to abide with C. C. C. Rules and Regulations.—G. G. Greenleaf, Capt. C. A. Res., Commanding.’
“I am told that my parents cannot receive any help or relief from the city or government if we need any in the future. Is there any difference between guinea pigs and humans?”
The Soley Armament Company
THE Soley Armament Company and the British Government are not the same concern, certainly not. The Soley Company is merely that corporation through which the British Government disposes of its surplus and cast-off arms. It freely admits that it resorts to bribery: it freely admits that the stocks which it controls are of such magnitude that the sale of a big block of them could alter the balance of power of small states. The conscience of the British Government is officially in the keeping of the Episcopal church.
Three Million Unemployed in Prosperity
EVEN if America could go back to the unemployment level of 1929, the last year of the period of prosperity, there would still be 3,000,000 persons without jobs. It would mean that every factory, store and farm would be employing the same number of workers as in 1929, which is beyond the bounds of possibility under present conditions.
League of Nations Badly in Debt
THE League of Nations is in debt £2,000,000 and is in such a jam financially that it overbudgets itself in order to keep going at all. It is afraid to sharpen up on nations in arrears for fear they will quit altogether. Only 12 of the 57 nations in the League are paid up in their dues.
Gas Bomb Department
Salvation and Gas Bombs
Bishop Laid Hands on the Colors
IT IS only recently that it came out that there is a relation between gas bombs and salvation. It was in a letter from the “Reverend” Paul Young, missionary in Ecuador for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. “Reverend” Young’s brother is in the gas-bomb business, in Pittsburgh. The “Reverend” writes a good letter; it is interesting; he writes to his brother in one paragraph about praying for a job lot of Indians who had been pulled down by sin, and in the next paragraph told of the efforts he had made to get the chief of police of Quito, and other officials, to lay in a stock of gas bombs. The idea is that a missionary cannot be in one place all the time, to pray a bunch of bad Indians into line, so if they get pulled down by sin, and the missionary is in some other place pulling up somebody else who has been pulled down by sin elsewhere, why, the best way to do with the first bunch pulled down by sin is to give them the gas bombs and have it over with. Why have people around who are pulled down by sin when with a good order for gas bombs you can have Christianity spreading like wildfire, and nobody pulled down, but everybody pulled up, except those that strangle on the fumes?
Saints in Texas Disagree
ERIOUS disagreement is reported from saints in Texas. Baptists and Apostolics got into an argument over whose benches were whose. Knives, clubs and fists were used to support the arguments. One gentleman of 70 had his skull fractured; one was stabbed in the abdomen; at least eight were sent to hospitals. Several women were knocked out, and others fainted. A good time was had by all. The man with the fractured skull died.
People Not Interested in Their Line
IN AN address at Hartwick Lutheran Theological Seminary, Brooklyn, Rev. Dr. O. H. Pannkoke tried to prepare the budding young dominies for the pick-and-shovel method of earning a living when he disclosed to them that “we have an overproduction of pastors; we have all the evils of a glutted labor market in our ministry; our missionary policy has degenerated into nothing more than a plan for job insurance”.
MAKING it clear that in his mind the Union Jack is to all intents and purposes the same as the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day that led the Israelites, Bishop Richardson of the Anglican church, at St. John, N. B., laid his hands on the flag, “blessed” it “in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost”, prayed that the soldiers and their officers would never do anything naughty (like getting drunk, or swearing like a trooper, or chasing around with wild women, frinstance), and that “they may all so faithfully serve Thee in this life, that they fail not finally to obtain an entrance into Thy heavenly kingdom, through the merits of Thy Blessed Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”. (This person last mentioned is the One who had so much to say about hypocrites.)
"Organized Christianity”
SAYS Dr. Leonhardt Ragaz, for thirty years professor of theology at the University of Zurich:
“I refuse to get excited about the so-called organized godless movement. The action of the godless society, sponsored by the Communists, is not a fight against Christ, but it is a protest and a judgment of the manner in which the cause of Christ has been represented in our time. The godless movement in Russia and elsewhere among the working-class is a purely theoretical movement, whereas the godlessness of the modern states, with their constant use of violence, their trampling of man’s most sacred rights, the denial of freedom, their huge armament programs, with a view to killing human creatures, that is practical godlessness. That is real godlessness. Yes, it is far worse that evil is done in the name of God. God is something entirely different from religion.”
“The Unholy Alliance”
AYS the Reverend B. R. Wylie, M. A., B. D., as reported in The Spectator, Melbourne,
Victoria, August 15, 1934:
“From the time of Constantine to the present day there has been almost uninterrupted cooperation between church and state. It is, therefore, not difficult to understand the church’s attitude in 1914-1918. We failed simply because we had accepted this unholy alliance without question. We had no definite ideas about the moral nature of God as revealed in Christ and were caught unprepared. The church established itself on the side of authority and supported the war as an accepted Christian institution, and as a result lost the moral leadership of the world.”
The Baptists and the World
HERE is a bookmark put out by the Northern
Baptist Convention Board of Missionary Cooperation. It says in part: “This is a time for facing the requirement of Jesus that Christianity make itself a world force. Such a time lays upon our churches a special obligation to recognize themselves as world institutions and upon our church members to recognize themselves as world citizens.” Wondering just what it was that Jesus said about His people’s ‘recognizing themselves as worldly institutions’ we looked it up, and finally found it in John 15:19: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
What the Church Offers
SOME have wondered, in these days, what the “church” now has to offer, but just read the following announcement sent in from De Soto, Ill.:
“Carnival Saturday, September 29, 7 P.M., Lutheran Church Basement. Admission: Adults 10c, grade school children 5c. Everybody Come. See the boxing match between Virgil Wheatley and Lloyd Ebersohl, the animal show, the floating match, and many other interesting side-shows. Hear the big broadcast, better radio program than you could get on your own radio. Don’t miss it. Feed the elephant peanuts, a very dangerous elephant but carefully and skillfully trained by our well known Craig twins. Fortune: have our famous palmist read your future. Eats: hot dog and hamburger sandwiches, homemade candy and pop corn. ’ ’
Taking Out the Profit Motive
THE Congregational and Christian ministers at Oberlin denounced the capitalist system because it “creates industrial and civic strife and international war, precipitates periods of unemployment and perpetuates insecurity, curtails cultural opportunities, and destroys human Values, moral and spiritual”. The Potomac Synod of the Lutheran Church said that the profit motive must be for ever taken out of industry so that only holy love can prevail. Yet in the face of both of these pronouncements, when Jehovah’s witnesses have honestly tried to take the profit motive out of the religious business they have been misrepresented and in some cases even locked up.
Communion at a Dollar a Plate
THE Second Lutheran church, Selma Road at Linden Avenue, Springfield, Ohio, believes in communion. Yes, siree! Here is a card reading: “A call to the table of our Lord; Holy Communion Service, Sunday July 1st, 1934, 10: 30 A. M. Jesus invites you; the Church welcomes you; the Lord’s Supper awaits you. R.S.V.P. Why not make this Holy Communion Sunday a generous ‘Dollar Day’ for the Lord’s work? Kindly bring the most liberal offering possible. Thank you. C. Ray Byerman, S. S. Supt.; Dr. E. H. Dornblaser, Pastor Emeritus; Dr. C. A. Sundberg, Pastor.” The words “Dollar Day” were put in capitals on the postal card, for reasons which will be apparent to all. The only one who made any money at the first communion was Judas; he seemed to be the only one of the apostles who had an eye to business, but we couldn’t truthfully say that he tried to sell places at the Lord’s table to the other apostles at so much a plate. These Kiwanis and Lions’ and Elks’ and Rotary meetings have got the preachers all confused. They get so used to the dollar-a-plate idea that they think it goes everywhere. It really doesn’t seem as if we ought to have to call their attention to the fact that the Lord’s supper is not a blue-plate affair. If we didn’t do something to stop them, the next thing we know they would be circulating invitations marked “Music and Dancing—No Cover Charge”. Meantime, we do our duty, even if we get disliked for it.
Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity
THE Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge University, England, teacher of young clergymen, in an address to a conference of churchmen at Birmingham, said: “Although in the past the church has treated all the New Testament as literally true, we cannot do so today. It is religious literature, and its value is to be found in the religious ideas it suggests to us.” How is that for “high”?
Time He Retired
THE Very Reverend William R. Inge, dean of St. Paul’s, London, made the statement that there is an Oriental ferocity about many of the Psalms which makes them quite unfit for use in public worship: he also said that the Song of Solomon is not a religious book, but a collection of love songs. Then he resigned; and it was time he did.
Melbourne Sees Prince Henry at Church
THE Sydney Daily Telegraph of October 22, 1934, tells us:
It was simply a tall, rather diffident young man who walked down the great length of the nave at St. Paul’s cathedral this morning and stood rather nervously in the front pew and looked up into the towering arches of the roof.
The cathedral was packed, and the doors carried the unusual placard, ‘ ‘ Cathedral full. ’ ’
Although the prince listened with rapt attention to the service, it was noticed that he did not sing at all, nor speak.
A problem arose when the collection was taken. In the Melbourne cathedral the plates are covered with a sort of wire cage, through which the money is dropped. The church officer nearest the prince looked at him and hesitated, not knowing whether to approach or not.
The prince settled the doubt by plunging his hand deep into his pocket, where his contribution to the offertory was already neatly folded. It was a note.
The subscriber who sends us this bit, which the newspaper describes as a revealing study of Prince Henry as churchgoer, wonders why St. Paul’s cathedral does not trust anyone who comes there to worship. We ourselves wonder why the cage-carrier had to add insult to injury by his obvious hesitancy in approaching the prince. The plate was covered with a grid, and that should be sufficient precaution even though the prince’s obvious discomfort in church was misconstrued. It was probably due to his dim realization that he was not being trusted.
It may be that we have drawn from the story a moral different from the one intended by the clergy who arranged for this publicity stunt. Probably the emphasis should be placed upon the fact that the prince was there in spite of the fact that he didn’t enjoy being there, and the further fact that he managed to get a note through the grid. Probably the thing to do is to enter the church rather nervously, look up at the tall arches, ‘listen with rapt attention,” regardless of the content of the sermon, and then, when the plates are passed, drop in a note, even though you are prevented by the cage from getting any change.
Dedicating the Shrine
By A. L. Philpott (Australia)
I QUOTE you from the Sydney Sun, one of the famous “newspapers” of this land. The paper is dated Sunday, November 11,1934, and in column 7, page 2, the following article occurs:
Tomorrow the prince’s last and perhaps most important and poignant ceremony in connection with the Centenary—the dedication of the Shrine of Remembrance—will be attended by at least 300,000 people.
The Shrine has been so constructed that by natural lighting on the eleventh hour a beam of light strikes through an aperture on the shrine illuminating the sacred scroll of remembrance, which can only be observed by the public in an attitude of reverence requiring the observers to kneel to witness it.
That is the article, and in case you are a bit hazy as to the names of these things, permit me to enlighten you a little.
The so-called “shrine of remembrance” is an edifice of stone, not like Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image; but what is the difference, as long as the Devil can entice the people that the thing he rears up is better than JEHOVAH? This image of stone is erected in one of the finest city parks of Melbourne, and is supposed to be something by means of which the people can remember the war, and incidentally, the manner in which the clergy “helped God” to win that war for the allies. This stone image was “dedicated” (excuse the word) by the prince of the British empire who is at present visiting these shores and making a great splash among the people who delight to have limelight. This article was printed in this paper on Saturday, but what was there printed happened, because every wireless station in Sydney, and all Australia too, I suppose, broadcast the ceremony, and believe me, the fat, sleek, and hypocritical humbug clergy were there in all their glory, throwing the smoke screen as they usually do.
The Way You Look at It
ONE of our subscribers sends us a program of the Bethany Evangelical church of Buffalo for December. First they had a business man talk on “Our Preparation for Christmas as a Layman Looks at It”. That ought to be good. Then, the following Sunday they planned to have a bishop of the Polish National Catholic church tell how a bishop looked at it, which should be still better, if the truth were told. Then, the following Sunday the preacher tells how he looks at it, and that ought to be overwhelming. And finally, the fourth Sunday, the “White Gift Christmas Service with Christmas Pageant”. Motion pictures with each service.
Wholesale Fish Market
Trial by Lynch Law in Quebec
REFERRING to certain prosecutions for blasphemy in the province of Quebec, Bishop John C. Farthing, of Montreal, of the
Church of England in Canada, indicates that he is not in favor of legalized lynch law. He says, in part, in a letter to Premier Taschereau:
“In neither case has the accused spoken a word against God or His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the case of the one condemned I understand that criticism was made against certain occupants of the papal see. These cases are being conducted by the crown prosecutor, and I presume, therefore, with the full sanction of the attorney-general of the province. The government of the province, therefore, assumes the role of prosecutor of anyone who reflects upon the character or official action of any pope of the Roman church either in the present or past and regards such reflection as blasphemy against Almighty God. Mr. Justice Charles A. Wilson is reported to have said that the interpretation of law differs, and depends on the mentality of the people, that what would be blasphemy in one place, say in Toronto, would not be blasphemy in Quebec, and vice versa. If this interpretation of the criminal law is as stated, with regard to the subject of blasphemy, then it is equally so for other offenses. It is only a step from this point to legalized lynch law. Are we to understand that from henceforth anyone in this province who criticizes adversely the action of ecclesiastics in the past or present is subject to imprisonment? How can we teach history if that be so?”
Hand on Humanity's Purse
SUBSCRIBER sends us a clipping about the return from Italy of Bishop Byrne, of
Galveston, and the welcome given him by the people. The bishop praised the government of Italy, which indicates where his sympathies lie. Among those who spoke at the gathering which was held in honor of the bishop’s return was Rabbi Cohen, who praised Bishop Byrne and, referring to the pope, said the audience should listen carefully to the messages the bishop brought back, as they came from a man who had “his hand on the pulse of humanity”. Our subscriber thinks the “I” in the word “pulse” should have been an “r”, as do some other Texans whom he happens to know. The clipping further says “Rabbi Cohen praised the bishop”, and “Congressman Thompson commended Bishop Byrne”, and “Senator Holbrook praised the bishop”. “Father” O’Connell also praised the bishop. The clipping does not say anything about any of them that he praised Jehovah God.
The Truth About Mexico
TN A COPYRIGHTED article for the New
York Post Anita Brenner shows that the to-do about “religious persecution in Mexico” raised by the Catholic hierarchy is all a myth. The situation there is almost purely political, and if the Hierarchy only limited itself to “religious” activities there would be no “religious persecution”. She says, “If the church has its way, the present government, its laws, its constitution, and the social beliefs it voices, will all go down in a great revolutionary wave supported by Americans, either underground or openly.... If you and I went from house to house in Mexico today, asking 'How do you feel about the churchgovernment conflict?’ we would make a discovery that would amaze you, because the answers we would get would seldom touch on the religious issue at all.” She states that in such a canvass we should find that many devout Catholics do not support the church side, while many Protestants and Jews take a pro-church stand. The matter is really summed up in the following words: “The reason is a political axiom true of Mexico and of every Catholic country —the religious question never appears alone. Material as well as religious issues are always at stake.”
How the Blessing Got Through
EFORE the days of the radio the apostle
Paul wrote to various companies of God’s people and repeatedly terminated them by such expressions as we find at 2 Corinthians 13:14, where he says: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the holy [spirit], be with you all.” But now we have the radio, and just see the improvement. The pope sent the benediction of the “Omnipotent God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost” to his folks at Buenos Aires, but explained that he did it by the intercession of eight different persons, whom he named, from the virgin Mary down to Gonzalez, Rodriguez, and Castillo. At that rate, after a few centuries, the string of intercessors would be so long that by the time it got to the ones that were going to bestow the blessing everybody would have forgotten their names or what it was all about. The intercessors would have the front seat, and the others would be so far in the rear that it would not matter whether they got to them or not.
"An Investment Is Made for Eternity”
IN HAND some advertising matter of Sulpi-cian Seminary, 3218 Seventh St. N.E., Washington, D. C. It is willing that people should turn their cash over to them while they are still alive. This is a nice arrangement, for it “makes it possible for people to so arrange their financial affairs during their lifetime as to be absolutely sure of being beneficiaries after death of the spiritual returns merited by deeds of charity”. It seems that “the necessity is eliminated of the precarious alternative of eventually making a will, for the breaking of which by others so many ways are found”. There is the further information that “five hundred dollars or more may be invested in this way with us; and an investment can be increased at any time through additional payments”. The advertising literature also says, “An investment is made for eternity.” Without a doubt that is the truth: you part with your money, and you part with it for ever.
Trying to Maintain Its Independence
A SPECIAL correspondent of the Baltimore Sun compared the ruthlessness and brutality of Loyola and that of Hitler. The Jesuits got into action. The Sun printed several of their complaints about the statement. The archbishop took a hand and virtually insisted that the affront was intentional and that the editor must submit to impossible terms of surrender of independence, which were rejected. Though domiciled in a Catholic city, the Sun had the courage to tell the whole story in a two-column article and to conclude with the assurance that it “must be careful to maintain its complete independence and that it cannot accept suggestions, under duress, as to the conduct of its affairs”.
Roman Catholic Wing of American Navy
THE Roman Catholic wing of the American navy made quite a hit with the pope when 400 midshipmen gave their college yell followed by three “holy fathers” in the pope’s audience chambers at the Vatican. The account says of these ardent Roman Catholics that “they were led by their officers and Admiral Hayne Ellis, in charge of the cruise ships Wyoming and Arkansas”. It seems that Admiral Ellis had a fifteen-minute private audience with the pope prior to the yell.
Correspondent Confuses Conditions
A CUMBERLAND (Wis.) correspondent sends two items, which seem to be 10.00 each: one is dated Sept. 4, 1934, St. Joachim’s Congregation, beer license, 10.00, and the other is dated St. Joachim’s Church, Sunday, October 14, High mass at 10 a.m. This idea of adding together 10.00 for a beer license and 10.00 for a high mass does not seem just right, somehow. Maybe the idea is that at the mass they get 20.00, the same being twice as much as was spent for the beer in September; but if 20.00, why is it advertised as 10.00, and what have masses to do with beer? The thing is twisted. Of course, it might be that before 10.00 one might imbibe beer to the amount of 10.00, but in that case would there be anything left for the mass 10.00? It seems doubtful. Certainly there would not be 20.00, so why mix the two 10.00 s as if they referred to the same thing? The correspondent is confused.
Bible Alone Not Safe?
IN ITS issue of November 25, 1934, Our Sunday Visitor tries to defend the Catholic church’s attitude toward the Bible and contends that Catholics are not forbidden to read it, and all that has been said about Catholic ignorance of the Scriptures is untrue. The fact remains, however, that in entirely Catholic countries knowledge of the Word of God is the exception, and not the rule. The Bible may have been the most widely circulated book in the Middle Ages, but that was because so few other books were circulated. The distribution of Catholic Bibles as compared with the distribution of Bibles by Protestant Bible Societies tells the story, and needs no further comment.
The Family Prayer
AN ANONYMOUS post card from Newark, New Jersey, reads as follows [sic]: “Your last discourse was interrupted by a painful cough.* Our family prayer -whilst listening was, ‘Hell, that you might choke.’ Why, do you engage in such Damnable work? Everybody knows there is nothing without blemish, not even you. Give up your dirty rotten work. Show by your every-day behaviour that you are worthy of emulation. The Priests & Rome will live in perpetuity, whilst you ‘should you not change’ will be Roasting in Hell or some worse place.— One of the ignorant Catholics you despise.” [•Only slight, and temporary.—Ed.]
"Blessed Are the Peacemakers"
THE West Virginian, Fairmont, has a page entitled “Go to Church Sunday, Your Church, any Church, But Go”. Apparently all the churches in town are behind the page, in the center of which, set out in large type, there appears among other things the following: “When the war was on our government turned to the church as one great agency to reach the people. Never lief ore had the government taken the church so fully into its plans. And the church stood up to the job and did its work faithfully. The war was won not by American material as much as by the American spirit. And the church sustained that spirit.” Makes you think of a horse with a head and front legs at each end of its body: you can put a halter on either end, and the horse will go as readily in one direction as it will in another. The only trouble is that it has a double appetite and no eliminative apparatus, and when you speak to it you never know which end of the horse will obey your instructions.
Doctor Mueller’s Nazi Church Plans
THE London News Chronicle says of Dr.
Mueller’s Nazi church plans that they constitute a definite defiance of the Vatican and that Catholics are to be made to join with Protestants in his national church: if they do not they are to be dealt with along typically Nazist lines. The News Chronicle notes the difficulty of making the Vatican followers do anything whatever without the pope’s consent, and also notes that the Pastors’ Emergency League is beginning to see that the Protestants must take a stand or perish, and is Avondering what will be the outcome of this “strange mixture of the odious and the merely ridiculous”. When it comes to sticking their foot into it the Germans are certainly entitled to the grand leather medal.
Another Stab for Peace in the Chaco
THE pope’s secretary of state, on a trip with 200 other Catholic prelates to see what can be done to stop morbid and sensual practices in convents in Argentina, will make another stab at peace between Paraguay and Bolivia over peace in the Chaco, and may succeed, as all the parties to the strife are Roman Catholics. In 1932 the pope arranged a twenty-four-hour truce, which the warring countries themselves prolonged to forty-eight.
Demonism in Jamaica
Reverend Joseph J. Williams, S. J., in an address in London, tells of demonism in Jamaica. The Reverend M. E. P., a Catholic priest, was giving extreme unction to a dying woman when an arm, with no body attached, reached around him and struck the poor woman on the side of the head with such force that her head was dislodged from the pillow. He tried it a second time: the arm reached around him and this time dragged the woman from her bed and threw her dead at his feet. We confidently expect things of this kind to come closer and closer to those swallowed up in Catholicism until the victims would rather be dead than to live.
Items of Interest from Mexico
MEXICO city has a new palace of art, which was thirty years in building and cost $7,000,000. Of late Mexico has had many earthquakes, one of which, in the state of Jalisco, caused 50 deaths and 400 injured. In the state of Hidalgo the state legislation now permits one priest for every 5,000 people; in the state of Yucatan only three priests are allowed for the whole state, and for reasons best known to the men of Yucatan those three priests must be married men. In the city of Puebla, where Catholics had seized a government school, they were dispersed by tear-gas bombs thrown by soldiers and police officials.
"O Baal, Hear Us"
SAYS Mrs. S. W. Austin, of Idaho: Last Saturday, October 22, I tuned in on the radio and got a football game, on a field at Eugene, Oreg., between the Gonzaga College, a Catholic organization at Spokane, Wash., and a team in Oregon. Just as the game was to start, the announcer was very careful to say the Gonzaga men had dropped to their knees in prayer. They were beaten 13 to 0, and finished the game in a pouring rain.”
"Leave It to the Clergy"
IN THE September (1934) issue of Hunting and Fishing, published in Boston, Mass., is an item headed “Guns”, and reading:
“Leave it to the clergy! The first successful patent for the application of fulminate for igniting the charge of powder in a gun was obtained in 1807 by a Scottish minister, Rev. A. J. Forsyth.”
Sending Out Purgatory Certificates in Advance
THE “Holy Trinity Missionary Cenacle, House of Studies, Holy Trinity Heights, Silver Springs, Md., Reverend Theophane Mulroy, M.S.SS.T.” has put out a new idea in the merchandising of “Purgatory Certificates” that seems to have some merit. Instead of waiting until you can get $10 to send and get one of these certificates the certificate is or was sent first. The letter explains: “This enrollment of your beloved dead is free; but we do invite you to join the ‘League of Friends of the Holy Souls’ and to promise if possible your own prayers, holy communions and good works for our Spiritual Treasury. Life membership in the League is $10 which may be paid at your convenience.” It is not explained just what luck the “poor souls” in “purgatory” will have if the one who gets the certificate fails to come across with the $10; but who would want his mother cooked to a cinder when he has a certificate that she is getting every reasonable attention from the “purgatory” jail keepers, and when he ought to know that if he doesn’t let go of his $10 she will get the double cross?
Cardinal to the Rescue
Cardinal Mundelein gave character testimony for one of the defendants in the Insull mail fraud trial. He described as “splendid” the reputation of Harold L. Stuart, La Salle Street investment banker, who was accused, along with Samuel Insull and fifteen others, of swindling investors of a hundred million dollars. “On my petition and recommendation Mr. Stuart received one of the highest orders the Catholic church can confer,” said the cardinal. “That was the order of Pope Pius the Ninth.” Insull and codefendants were found “not guilty”.
Plenty of Publicity for Priestcraft
JUDGING from the amount of space the priestly crowd get in the papers, as well as the many positions of prominence they manage to crowd into, one would judge that they are far more numerous and important than the facts warrant. Archbishop Edw. J. Hanna, of San Francisco, has been appointed as a member of the National Arbitration Board; and while we do not question the bishop’s ability, we wonder how he interprets the apostle’s counsel to Christians, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.”
The Association of the Miraculous Medal
SOMEONE has kindly sent us the advertising literature of “The Association of the Miraculous Medal, Reverend Joseph A. Finney, C.M., Director, St. Mary’s Seminary, Perryville, Missouri”. We can understand the offer of an annual membership for 25c, a five-year membership for $1, a life membership for $5, an individual perpetual membership (in “purgatory” and out) for $10, and the family perpetual membership for $50; we even understand about the beautiful engraved certificate which some get for their $5 or $10 or $50; they should have something, and as the certificate costs not more than 1c or so it still leaves a good margin for doing business. Moreover, we can also understand the special offer, fifteen times repeated, of premiums for sending in names of members in batches of six. Six is a Bible number: as in 666, and otherwise; so we can see why there are special arrangements to reward those who send in 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, 60, 66, 72 and 78 members; but we can’t just understand why, when in all these cases the receivers of the cash were satisfied with 25c a member, yet when somebody got out and hustled around and sent in names of 84 members they have to send in an extra 50c for the lot. Now just why is this? Is this on the level? If we send in, say $19.50 for 78 members (25c a member) or $22.50 for 90 members (also 25c a member), why should we be compelled to send in $21.50 for 84 members (which is at the rate of over 25.595238c a member) ?
The Champion Silver Buyer
A PARTY who signs himself “Sucker who paid” says:
“It’s too bad ‘Father’ Coughlin doesn’t practice what he preaches. As one who had implicit faith in him, I was amazed to read of his gambling in the purchase of 500,000 ounces of silver on a 20-percent margin, and with the funds he receives from his radio audience. Hereafter, my money will go to a charity that I am sure of, as this seems to be the greatest racket of them all.’’
Mayor of Pittsburgh Got Permission
BY DINT of much effort the mayor of Pittsburgh got permission of the pope to put “Father” James R. Cox of that city on the board of assessors at a salary of $4,500 a year. It is thought he had an awful time getting the consent ?).
“The Kingdom of God on Earth”
SINCE 1922 Jehovah’s witnesses, then more generally known as “Bible Students”, have been “advertising the King and His kingdom”. Satan has sought to obscure the issue by various misconceptions of the subject. First of all, he had ready his League of Nations, which the reprobate clergy of the Protestant classification hailed as “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth”. Catholics have pushed their own ideas of the Kingdom, hailing a piece of bread as “our Eucharistic King”, and since this “Eucharistic King” can be “created” only by the hands of the Catholic priestly tribe, it is evident that they, and not the “Eucharistic King”, are the big thing. Now another misconception of the kingdom of God is brought to the fore, and news dispatches describe it as follows:
It all centers around Thomas R. Wallace, Alexandria, Va., architect, who is establishing a ‘nation within a nation’—to be known as ‘The Kingdom of God on Earth.’ On a square mile of farm land near Herndon, Va., Wallace plans to abolish the use of currency and embark upon a community venture of deliberate overproduction. The only money is the original contribution by the veterans-—from $500 to $1,000 each—and whatever income the citizens of ‘The Kingdom of God on Earth’ may receive in monthly disability checks. As the Colony flourishes, each veteran, will be given his own mansion, Wallace explained, to carry out the familiar Biblical description of heaven.
Assuming that the newspapers have represented the matter honestly, we would say that the foregoing effort, whatever may be its merits, is presumptuous in styling itself “The Kingdom of God on Earth”.
Food Adulteration in Britain
FOOD inspectors in Britain found fruit drinks without fruit; arsenic in yeast; copper in cider; potted meat that was largely starch; chicken and ham paste containing lead; spiced beef and tongue containing tin; sausages deficient in meat; ice cream alleged to contain cream and eggs but that contained little cream and no eggs; lime juice that was a solution of citric acid and glycerine; ground cinnamon that ■was adulterated with sand; delightfully flavored ripe fruit juice consisting of corn starch; aerated water mislabeled as soda water; custard powder that contained no egg; canned fish that contained tin and lead. It represented capitalism at its best.
Do You Read the Watchtower Magazine?
IF NOT, you will be interested to know that with the January 1 issue a most interesting series of articles was started on “JEHOVAH’S BATTLE”. The text on which the article is based is taken from Judges 7: 8 (A.R.V.), "For Jehovah and for Gideon.”
The Watchtower is published for the purpose of enabling the people to know Jehovah God and His purposes as expressed in the Bible. It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority. It is entirely free and separate from all parties, sects or other worldly organizations. It is wholly and without reservation for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ Jesus. It is not dogmatic, but invites careful and critical examination of its contents in the light of the Scriptures. Readers of The Golden Age will enjoy The Watchtower. Subscribe now and begin with the January 1 (1935) issue.
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GOOD PERSONS have long wondered why God has permitted so much wickedness on the earth. Why He sent the great plagues upon ancient Egypt, and what relation they have to the people of this day. Why the Lord’s supper celebrates His death instead of His birth. Why God promised to establish a righteous government on earth, and when that promise will be fulfilled. This book bears the name JEHOVAH, and that name JEHOVAH means Almighty God's purpose toward His creatures. It answers all the foregoing questions, and many more, and proves that the answers are correct. The information it contains is of greatest value to you. Why not read it carefully? Your contribution of twenty-five cents will enable the publisher to put in the hand of some other truth-hungry person this message of comfort and hope.
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