Contents

Religious Russia, Orlemanski, and the Vatican 3

The “Little Father"

Patriarch of All Russia

Rome’s Nose Out of Joint

Jesuits Answer the Archbishop

“Within the Church”

Death Comes for the Patriarch

Sauce for the Goose

The Poles and Orle

Stalin Is Interested

The “National Conference” “Interfaith” Front 14

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From the City Where the Great Persecutions of 1940 Started                          15

“Thy Word Is Truth”

Identifying the Messiah (Continued) Gilead College Graduates Its Third Class United States Treasury Responsibilities

What the Vatican Is Working For

Where Was Jesus? < *

Presenting “This Gospel of the Kingdom” Vary Your Sentence Structure!

The World’s Worst Government I

Lucian of Antioch __________ - ⁹ Lucian Was a Poor Boy “The Thoughts of the Wise”

Published every other Wednesday by WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC. 117 Adams St, Brooklyn 1, N. Y., U. S. A.

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Traveling and Shooting Stars

♦ All the stars “go places”, but a new star, or at least a star newly discovered by the astronomer of Indiana University, moves at such a speed that it could go around the earth 530 times in one day. Stated in other phrase, it has a speed of 550,000 miles an hour. There are only a half dozen stars known to exceed this velocity. The speed of stars is measured from photographs taken at different times.

Of the 15,000,000 shooting stars that bombard the earth’s atmosphere every 24 hours, most are entirely consumed before reaching the ground. Friction with earth’s atmosphere causes a heat exceeding 600,000 degrees. Calculating that these little stars, of an average weight of one-fourth of an ounce, fall upon the earth at the rate of 50,000 tons a year (calculated from the residuum left in the polar snows), it would take 800,000,000 years to lay down a film an inch thick over the entire globe. It is well established that shooting stars are parts of comets that have broken up.

Besides the true shooting stars, most of which are instantly burned to nothing when they hit the earth’s atmosphere, there are a very few massive meteoric bodies which sometimes reach the earth’s surface. In Siberia, June 30, 1908, a meteor destroyed forest trees for twenty miles on every side, with their tops pointing away from the place of impact. Of the 250 meteors collected and placed on exhibition only about 20 were seen to fall. Those which are seen frequently split up into hundreds of fragments. There are no known human deaths from falling meteors, though one went through the roof of a house in Scotland December 3, 1917; and also at Brunau, Bohemia, July 14,1847, three children were covered with debris in the bed in which they were sleeping, but were uninjured. *

CONSOLATION

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‘‘And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A.R.V.

Volume XXV                 Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, September 13, 1944                   Number 652

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Religious Russia, Orlemanski, and the Vatican

I A FTER the overthrow of czardom the [ ax religious business in Russia was i investigated and it was found that there j was something definitely rotten about it. | The “bleeding Christ” at Kiev, which had attracted so many pilgrims, had a ! mechanically controlled reservoir of । blood which could be operated at pro-i pitious moments, and the figure on the i crucifix would present an even more r gruesome appearance than usual. When r the machinery was discovered it could 1 not but shake the “faith” of the idolaters, and the business, of course, went bank-i rupt. In other parts of Russia incorrupt!; ible bodies of saints were found to be j made of cotton, stuffed and painted. ! There is something peculiarly uninspir-■, ing about a cotton saint who has been : found out, and religion suffered a * further set-back.

i Russian priests, for the most part, were no more intelligent than priests elsewhere, and when in countless villages they forbade the peasants to use tractors on the supposition that they were '“devil machines”, their getting in the way of progress could have only one result. The people found out that they had been lied to about this, and concluded that they had been lied to on other subjects as well, and the priests, many of them, had to “go peddle fish” or whatever they could find to peddle that would bring better returns than religion.

Yet, error dies hard, and many clung to the delusions that were a substitute for God and His worship. The religious people treasured their icons, plain and fancy pictures in frames, flat or embossed, painted or carved. The “faith” of the peasants was inextricably bound up with the religious objects that appealed to their artistic sense or their ,ove of the mysterious. The icon is the Russian idol, not quite a graven image in the estimation of the priests, but as close to it as they could get, yet avoiding the absolute and bold use of statues characteristic of the heathen. Such was religion in .Orthodox Russia, and its adjuncts. There was, besides, much ritual and cereihony, including processions and liturgy of great length. Religion, while making no great use of the intellect,. must nevertheless keep the mind occupied in some manner. Ceremony was the answer.

The Russian Orthodox Church was the chief religion of czarist Russia. It was a branch of the Orthodox Church of the East, which had its center in Greece. This religious organization entered Russia in 988, at which time Prince Vladimir, of Kiev, ordered the mass baptism of all his subjects, whether they wanted to be baptized or not. The religious shepherds were for a long time appointed by the ruler of the state. The church grew to be an exceedingly powerful institution, and the bishop of Moscow, in 1589, assumed the power of a patriarch. At the beginning of the seventeenth century about eight percent of the population were held under the serfdom of the church, who owned these unfortunates outright and the rest were under its religious domination.

The “Little Father”

Peter the Great felt that the church had too much power, and took steps to remedy the matter. He abolished the patriarchate and instituted in its stead a “holy synod” of ecclesiastics, but these were increasingly under the direction of a layman, who was called the “high procurator”. Besides, all the members of the council or synod were appointed by the ruler, not by the people or the priests. The clergy took this arrangement at first with bad grace, but adjusted themselves to the inevitable, and in time learned to teach that while God was the Great Father, the czar was the “Little Father” and therefore head of the church. The clergy, in the beginning of the present century, co-operated with the secret service of the czar, with the result that thousands of their too trusting 'flock were imprisoned or exiled.

There were some few of the clergy who made public protest against the use of the confessional for spying. One of these was Gregory Petrov, who described the Russian Orthodox Church as follows:

We have today, after nineteen centuries of preaching, individual Christians, separate persons, but no Christianity; there is no Christian legislation, our customs and morals are no longer Christian. There exists no Christian government. It is strange [wrong] to speak of the Christian world. The mutual relations of the various people are altogether contrary to the spirit of the Gospel; . . .

The ruling regular clergy, with its cold, heartless, bony fingers, has stifled the Russian church, killed its creative spirit, chained the gospel itself, and sold the church to the government. There is no outrage, no crime, no perfidy of the state authorities which the monks who rule the church would not cover

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with the mantle of the church, would not bless, would not seal with their own hands.

The Revolution.

In 1905, when the revolution was brewing, the “holy synod” made a proclamation which was revealing in its misapplication of Scripture, saying:

Our enemies wish to shake the foundations of our orthodox faith and autocratic power of the czars. . . . Fear God, honour the czar . .. submit to every power ordained of God . . . to toil according to God’s ordinance in the sweat of the brow.

When the revolution of 1917 took place the church owned about 18,000,000 acres of land and had an income of some 500 million rubles yearly, holding bank deposits of 8,000,000,000 rubles. But it still could not sympathize with the people who were starving and hounded to death by the czarist regime. Those who had any connection with the revolution were addressed by the “holy patriarch”, now newly chosen, as follows:

By the authority which •' is given us from God, we forbid you to approach the sacraments of Christ, we anathematize you, if you still bear Christian names, and even by your birth belong to the Orthodox Church.

We also conjure all you faithful children of the Orthodox Church not to enter into any kind of association with these monsters of the human race; put away from yourselves that wicked person.

The revolution countered by disestablishing and disendowing the church: no more support, whether financial of otherwise, would come from the state. Then, in 1921, came the famine. The churches still had vast treasures. The people had to be fed. Some of the churches’ wealth must be used to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Many of the clergy resisted, with the result that in the bitter struggle 45 of the clergy were executed, and 250 given long terms of imprisonment. There was a revolt in the church against the religious leaders, and a split resulted. The “Old” and the “New” church continued side by side for a time.

Other Religious Bodies

Besides the 4,225 Orthodox churches, with its 5,665 priests, there, are in the Soviet Union (which now includes most of Poland), 1,744 Roman Catholic churches and its 2,309 priests; nine Armenian Gregorian churches; about 1,000

’ societies and groups affiliated with the All-Union Council of Evangelical Chris? tians; 1,011 synagogues, and 1,312 Mohammedan mosques. Before the revolu-t tion Christian sects not of the Orthodox f -                                                                                                                                             ■                                                                                                                          ___________

> church were often persecuted. These [ sects also came into conflict with the authorities after the revolution, and the

: decrees of 1929              '    -'

*

• (1) Ordered the registration of religious societies and religious organizations;

• (2) Forbade religious bodies to organize

p co-operatives and collectives, etc.;

• (3) Forbade special Bible meetings, prayer I meetings, children’s, youth, and women's [meetings;

j , (4) Allowed only those books necessary for the celebration of the cult to be kept in i churched;

[ (5) Confined religious teaching to approved ■ theological courses.

The Soviet claims this is not persecution, but if these stringent and restric-[ tive rules are violated, the result would doubtless be persecution, and they cer-; tainly do not speak well of the kind of liberty accorded individuals to worship i God and serve Him according to the dic-; tates of their conscience. When Bible and ■prayer meetings are forbidden freedom \ of worship is only a form; for where

knowledge is withheld freedom has no i room for growth. It is putting freedom in splints and depriving it of that strength which alone will maintain it.

There is a definite difference between

religion and true worship. But religion has again come into its own in Russia. For a long time indeed it has been lying low and biding its time, making the best of a bad situation and knowing that ‘the god of this world, who blinds the minds of them that believe not’, was still on its side. (2 Corinthians 4:4) True, the religious hierarchy had gotten itself in rather bad by denouncing the revolution and the various measures adopted by the revolutionaries to maintain their power and keep the ship of the Union on an even keel. The Russian Orthodox church weathered many storms, riding more or less alongside the ship of the Union, but keeping aloof too. But finally the war came along; and that is always a good time for religious advancement. The church again was given a patriarch.

Patriarch of All Russia

Sergius, patriarch of all Russia, had no doubt about what should be done now. He exhorted that all good Orthodox Russians fight the invading Nazi hordes to a fare-ye-well finish. It was good. Stalin observed the conversion of Orthodoxy to Communism with satisfaction. After all, * < the people needed religion, he concluded. They seemed to want it, even if they had been told for well over two decides that religion was the opiate of the people. So let them have it. He could even use it in a restrained sort of way to meet the problems that piled up on every hand.

Like all dictators, Stalin had come to see that the people wanted a god, and if one was smart, it was well to get in linn with the god who is ready to give a man parts of all the kingdoms of the world, provided he can get away with it, and also provided that that same man falls down to worship or at least deigns to acknowledge the power and the methods of the said god.—Matthew 4: 8-10.

True, the Soviet Union had followed a fairly tolerant policy toward all religion for some time, and the “persecutions”, resulting from religious opposition to Communist aims, had abated. The state was indifferent to religion. It had on its hands more pressing problems than ritual, ceremony and religious processions. But it began to see the utility of these things, if only as a means of diversion from grim reality. So, while the “troublesome” sects and Bible studies had to be prohibited, the religious Orthodox arrangement could be given considerable encouragement, even to the extent of permitting the “New Church” which had hitherto had the support of the state to pass out of the picture and bringing all who had supported it into

the Old church again, which became and is now to all intents and purposes the state church. Other communions have a nominal “liberty”, but the Orthodox communion dominates the picture.

Rome's Nose Out of Joint

It may not be exactly felicitous to say that the development of things religious in Russia put Rome’s symbolical nose out of joint, but, in any event, the Vatican had not exactly anticipated this situation. To find the Orthodox church of Russia back in the place of favor was something of a blow to the Vatican, which had been fondly envisaging the return of the erring children of Russia to the Papal fold. Had not “prayers” been offered up for years for the “conversion” of Russia, etc., etc.? And had not the Roman Hierarchy consistently attacked the “godless Communists” who were “persecuting the church”? In the words of “Rev.” Dr. Guy Emory Shipler, editor of The Churchman,

The propaganda against Russia has been done skillfully and continuously by some oi its [the Sloman Catholic church’s] best leaders, among them Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, whose propaganda, along wi^h that of Father Joseph Thorning, against the republic of Spain was so effective in misleading millions of citizens of the United States.

Nor was Russia unaware of the constant attacks of the Vatican and its supporters in the United States and elsewhere.                           /

In 1937 Pius XI said that “Cojnmu-nism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever”.

It was, therefore, not entirely “unmerited” that the Russian patriarch should express himself with respect to the position of the pope, and that his words should be given publicity on, a wide scale, challenging the claim of the pope that he was the vicar of Christ on earth, and no one else. Sergius, metropolitan of Moscow, and patriarch of all

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Russia, referred to scriptures which showed that Christ promised to be pres* ent with His people “even unto the end of the world”, hence no vicar was needed; This was in April of this year.

Archbishop Garbett Qf York (primate of England) heartily agreed with Sergius, remarking that the Church of England is more in agreement with the Russian Orthodox church than with the Catholic Hierarchy.

The archbishop was in New York at the time. He had, the previous autumn, visited Russia and the then newly-elected patriarch Sergius, being present at what the papers called “an impressive religious ceremony”. The Chicago Herald Tribune offered this, in part:

Not in years has Moscow witnessed so exalted a church service as that which took place this morning in the Cathedral of the Epiphany. It was a special service dedicated to prayer for “the gift of victory”. What gave it a particular festiveness and solemnity was the presence at the altar of the Most Rev. Cyril Forster Garbett, archbishop of York. In his robe of blue and gold brocade and a tiara of similar colors he made an impressive appearance. ... In his crown of gold and jewels and his resplendent vestments, the full-bearded and heavy-set patriarch made a stately appearance. So did members of the Holy Synod and the other churchmen, all in gilded vestments and ornate Byzantine headgear. Three deacons with rich vibrant baritone voices took turns reciting and chanting the litany in old and melodious Slavonic. Bright with candlelight and the splendor of clerical garb, the church presented a magnificent spectacle, perhaps as magnificent as any it has ever witnessed.

Henceforth let none say that religion is persecuted in Russia. Certainly not the Orthodox religion, whatever may be the case as to prayer meetings and Bible studies, which are apparently out.

In consequence of what he saw and did in Russia, the primate of England could say that he found Russia religious, and was so reported by the obliging press. “Vast crowds, exceeding 10,000 persons,

CONSOLATION

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( attended the services in which he partie-ipated, crowding around him afterward with cries of ‘English Archbishop, thank you, thank you’,” said the primate. “Their ages Tanged from young to middle age. Reports that the majority of them were old the archbishop dismissed as sheer nonsense.” [It was probably Hierarchy propaganda, also carried in the papers.]

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Jesuits Answer the Archbishop

The Jesuits did not especially like what the patriarch of Russia and the archbishop of York had to say about the pope and his vicarship. They came back with this, via Wilfrid Parsons, of Washington:

It seems to me unfortunate at this time that the Russian patriarch, echoed later in this country by the Anglican archbishop of York, should have raised the question of what they call the “papal claims”.            .

As a purely theological question this has been a matter of dispute between the Catholic church in communion with the pope on one side, and on the other the Russian Greek church and the Anglican church for many centuries. It does not come under the head of news that these two high dignitaries reject the pope.           .                  -

Which may all be very true, but there was probably some reason for mentioning it once again, particularly in view of the papal claim to a seat at the peace table.

“Within the Church”

The archbishop of York made what was called a categorical statement with regard to freedom of religion in Russia in the following words:

But today complete freedom of worship and teaching within the church is granted equally to the Roman Catholics, to the Baptists, and to the other churches which can be found in this vast republic. . . . There is no doubt at all that religious freedom is, now gfanted . . . and more than that, the authorities discourage any kind of scorn or contempt being, poured upon religion.

There are two points in this statement, and they may have been carefully worded, too, that raise the question of the right to teach owtside of the church, as Jesus did, or pouring ‘contempt and scorn upon religion’ as was done by Him and recorded in Matthew 23 and in other parts of the Scripture. It appears that while “religion” is free in Russia, freedom to worship and serve God is wanting.

Death Comes for the Patriarch

Sergius did not continue long as patriarch of all Russia. He died of a brain hemorrhage on May 15, a little more than a month after he made this statement with regard to the pope of Rome and his claims. The papers, somehow, linked his death with his “attack on the pope” in a rather peculiar way. Closely approximating the Catholic proverb, “He who touches the pope dies!” one had this to say:

“Russ patriarch, who challenged pope, dies at 78.”

It would appear, from the papers, that it is still dangerous to ‘challenge the pope’. Sergius was said to have been the spiritual leader of some 100,000,000 Orthodox Russian Christians.

Sergius was buried under the floor of Moscow Cathedral. In evidence of his position in Russia, the Information Bulletin of the embassy of U.S.S.R. made the following statement:

The death of this eminent churchman and patriot was unexpected. On May 14 he performed the divine service and inducted a new bishop, Makar of Mozhaisk. Just before his death he also presided at a meeting of the holy synod. The body of the patriarch lay in state in the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Yelokhovskaya Square in Moscow, reposing on a high pedestal and almost buried under wreaths and flowers. By the testament of the late patriarch, opened after his death, Alexei, metropolitan of Leningrad, has been appointed patriarchal incumbent.

This reverential report further testifies to religion’s position in Russia as reflected in the attitude of the embassy.

Have "Their Own Cfeurcft”

Obviously the Russians have "their own church” (in the language of many who are startled at the presentation of some Scriptural truth). This fact, along with the Catholic Hierarchy’s emphasis on the rights of property, may account for its coolness toward Russia. It does not particularly welcome the competition that a renewed and invigorated Russian Orthodox church may present, in union with a moderated Communism.

This may account for the fact that the bishops of the Roman Hierarchy in the . United States took issue with those who hailed the Moscow conference agreements as a long step in the direction of peace. Their statement read:

No nation has, under God, authority to invade family freedom, abrogate private ownership, or impede, to the detriment of the common good, economic enterprise, co-operative undertakiAgs for mutual welfare, and organized works of charity sponsored by groups of citizens.

That sounds all right, and should apply equally to the Hierarchy. Its activities have, in the past, not always indicated that it was particularly solicitous for the common good. The bishops’ statement was a premeditated effort to put a crimp in the possible success of the aims of the conference. They had an eye on Poland, too.

Since 1933 the Hierarchy has taken advantage of what openings were available to keep itself before the Russian eye. When the mutual recognition agreement between the United States and Russia was signed, the protocol regarding religious freedom gave the Hierarchy an opportunity which it was not slow to grasp. Forthwith a Roman Catholic priest was sent to Moscow, ostensibly to minister to American Catholics in the U.S.S.R., but also, one may be sure, to keep an eye on things. Theoretically other groups would have a similar right to send ministers to Russia, but it is probable that they were not as successful as the Hierarchy (with Roosevelt

backing) in getting their representatives । into the Soviet’s domain.              i ’

The priest sees to it that he regularly ■ holds services for Russians killed in battle.                                  *

Numerically, of course, the Greek Orthodox church is by far the strongest in Russia. The Roman Catholic church cannot claim any comparable status there. But it nevertheless makes its claims and demands. Addressing the Get-Together Club of Hartford, Professor Vladimir D. Kazakevich, of Cornell and Columbia universities, said,

The Greek Church is a proud and self-contained institution. Something that’s not talked of much in this country is the great strength of the Greek Orthodox world. [Guess why !] The two churches [Greek and Roman] have been at odds for 500 years and it will take an awful long time to bring them together. The Russian church lived by the Greek tradition, f p

A Clever Ruse

Consolation is by no means the only instrument that has noted and called attention to the co-operation between the Roman Hierarchy and the dictatorships. Certain it is that this tie-up has not escaped the notice of the Russian people. However, no statement appears to have been made by Moscow that attracted any undue attention until an article in Izvestia raised a furore in the American press. Izvestia is the official Soviet newspaper, and its declaration that the policy of the pope of Rome was pro-Fascist was received with mock-horror by practically the entire press of the United States, together with all its commentators. The joke is on the American people, however, who were not informed that the statement contained in Izvestia was copied from an American source, almost entirely. This source was the Foreign Policy Association of the U.S.A., which , had recently ended an exhaustive review of the foreign policy of the Vatican, conducted in a dispassionate and detached manner. This statement called attention

to the Lateran agreement between the ^j Vatican and Mussolini, followed by ■ decided political activity on the part of Italian priests in support of Fascism.

¹ The pope's attitude on the conquest of Ethiopia was mentioned also by the

' American Association. On Italy’s attack ; on France and the pope’s silence, pro-’ Fascist activity of Italian cardinals, etc., Izvestia merely quoted, practically word for word, the statement of the American Association. Now what happens? The press of the United States, Rome-con-trojled, raises a great furore, although it had formerly passed over the statement almost in silence. The evident object of Rome and its tools was to discredit the statement and the facts it j presents by associating it with a Rus-:* sian source, and charging it to Communistic atheism! The St. Louis Post Dispatch was one of the few papers that indicated the original source of the item. The London Catholic Herald also men-; tioned it. Commenting on an article in

Life magazine it remarked:

It ’ is rather surprising that there should have been such American concentration on the Izvestia article, seeing that its wording, is very similar [rather, identical] to the views put forward in January by the unofficial U.S. Foreign Policy Association, and this fact has not been mentioned in the cable extracts of American comment.

Incidentally, Life itself remarked that Marshal Stalin and the pope were engaged in a diplomatic duel for the confidence of 350,000,000 tEuropeang.

The New York Times remarked innocently:

Of all the incendiary literary bombs manufactured in Moscow [sic] since the Teheran conference and thrown with such lighthearted recklessness into the unity of the Allied nations, none is likely to 4° greater damage than Izvestia's unjust and intemperate attack upon the Vatican as “pro-Fascist”.

Evidently the Times did consider the “news fit to print” when it was issued by the American Foreign Policy Association. It was worthy of censure when Russia had examined it and republished it as American comment on the subject

Sauce for the Goose

Without seeking to determine which is the goose in this case, although, following Scriptural precedent, the feminine gender should be reserved for “the church”, it is remarked that “attacks” have not been one-sided. The Chicago Sun takes note of this fact, in its column by Frank Smothers:

Most Americans regard Izvestia's attack as unfortunate. . . . But in simple justice it must be said that some anti-Soviet attacks of these past many years, for which the Vatican shares responsibility, have been overdrawn and unfortunate. It must also be said that the Vatican's backing of the Fascist Franco, and its past compromises with Fascism elsewhere, are unhappy facts of established political history; as are the past offensives of the Kremlin upon all religion.... Probably the Kremlin, through Izvestia, was signifying for one thing that the less the Vatican has to say concerning the Polish border and Lithuania, the better it will be appreciated. But I believe the purpose went much further. Certainly the effect, and it must have been intended, was to emphasize that henceforth in all political matters the Kremlin will be in at least as strong a position to denounce the Vatican as the Vatican and those who believe they speak in its support will be to denounce the Soviet.

New York Legislature Slips

It is unfortunate that the New York Legislature had not read the statement of the Foreign Policy Association or the column in the Sun. It might have refrained from going on record as deploring the action of Izvestia in the following words, whose inner content marks them as almost certainly inspired by some tool of the Hierarchy:

And the Legislature regards the Izvestia statement as an unfortunate accusation against and reflection upon the loyalty, patriotism and devotion to freedom and democracy

R of more than 30,000,000 Americans professing the Catholic faith in the United States, and the more than 3,000,000 American Catholics in the state of New York.

This resolution concerning Izvestia's unfortunate quotation from the American Foreign Policy Association’s statement Takes too much upon itself*. It presumes upon the loyalty of some 10,000,000 unborn Catholics. Besides, the number of practicing Catholics in the United States is just about half of the exaggerated figure mentioned in the resolution, or 15,000,000, which is a liberal estimate. And what is more, these do not, to a man (or babe), back the pope’s policies. They don’t have to, and they know it.

Many Catholics in the United States hate Fascism as thoroughly as do the Orthodox Catholics of Russia and their children, for whom a new oath has been introduced in the Soviet pioneer organization. Some 15,000,000 children of from ten to fifteen years of age belong to this organization. The oath says:

With all my heart I hate the Fascist occupants and will fearlessly prepare myself for the defense of the Fatherland. I swear in the name of the warriors who sacrificed their lives for our happiness that I will for ever remember that their blood burns on my pioneer necktie and on our red banner.

This feeling is at least understandable in view of the fact that tens of thousands of Cossack and Circassian youth have been transported to work in Germany.

Walter Lippmann also spoke of the Izvestia article. He remarked naively:

The Vatican, as a temporal power, is a neutral state with which the United States and Britain have friendly relations. ... In so far as the Izvestia article means or implies any intent to cause a deviation from this policy, either by the Soviet government or by inciting popular agitation in Italy, we must reject it firmly, unequivocally and entirely.

Yes, yes, of course, that goes without saying.

Russia Arrogant?

Any questioning of Vatican policy is arrogance, of necessity. So indicates the Tablet, official newspaper of the Roman Catholic diocese of Brooklyn, which probably had not read the Izvestia “blast” before it appeared in its reproduced form.

The Pilo t, official publication of the Catholic archdiocese of Boston, was quoted in advance by the Washington Post, as follows:

The Pilot . . . will say in an editorial tomorrow that Stalin alone is responsibly for the Russian newspaper attack against the Vatican.                            <

Ho-hum. This Seems to indicate that editorials for the Pilot are prepared in Washington, at the N.C.W.C., perhaps., Also, that its files are not as well kept or complete as those of Consolation.

The Christian Century entered the fray with the following:

It was perhaps purely coincidental that the official Moscow Izvestia's ^tinging criticism- of Vatican diplomacy as pro-Fascist was published just one day after Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, spokesman for the American Hierarchy on the- “Catholic Hour”, had delivered over a nation-wide network a withering blast at Russia. But it was scarcely an accident that Monsignor Sheen was the first Roman Catholic representative to release a full-length denial of the Russian charges, accompanied by counter-charges, for he had it practically written in the script of his Sunday afternoon radio speech. In brief, Izvestia recites the facts concerning the Vatican’s tie-up with Italian and 9P^ani^sh Fascism as recently summarized in a report issued by the [American] Foreign Policy Association.

Moscow Not Chastened

Moscow was not chastened by the drubbing which Russia, because of Izvestia’s reprint of an American statement, received. Its “agitation against the Vatican” continued with a quotation from a New York story by Tass which emphasized the following words by a German refugee and industrialist:

It would have been impossible for obscure nobodies, as were Hitler and Mussolini at that time, to mobilize the masses for a bloody crusade against the masses of people and their liberal government unless they were backed by some political force of extraordinary qualities, a force reaching up to the summits of society as well as down to its depths, one exercising a strong influence in the international arena and keeping itself cleverly out of Sight. There is but one force qualified in this extraordinary way, namely, political papacy, centered in the Vatican. «

The Poles and Orlemanski .      %

The London Catholic Herald interpreted Moscow’s publication of the Foreign Policy Association’s report as “possibly connected with the fate of 8,000,000 Polish Catholics and 3,000,000 Lithuanian Catholics who may be annexed to the Soviet Union”.

Comes now Orlemanski, and again a great furore. The known facts are these: Stanislaus Orlemanski is a Polish Catholic priest of Springfield, Mass., who may, perhaps, be best characterized as pro-Commuhist, although he denies' being a Communist himself. On one occasion he delivered himself of the following “well-chosen” words, in an article in Nass Swiat:

At first Russia rid herself of the czar—the historic fool—who, possessing the greatest and richest country in the world, nevertheless permitted the Russian nation to live in poverty and darkness. The Russian revolution brought priceless benefits to the Russian nation, namely: The liberation of the masses and the enlightenment of the masses. These two factors united the Russian nation and brought it about that today she is the mightiest nation in the world. . . . The majority of the Polish clergy condemn Communist Russia from their pulpits and at all times. By this unfounded and destructive propaganda they obscure everything that is of value in Russia.

Speaking in Town Hall, New York city, December 19, 1943, Orlemanski, as reported in the New York Times, said, criticizing the conference of the bishops previously mentioned:

These bishops made a public statement that the Moscow Pact was all right, but that they had a suspicion about Russia. Whenever the bishops gather and preach morality and dogmas of the church, then this teaching and i preaching should be a law with every one of us [Catholics], but when they speak of pacts, treaties, and politics, then they are nothing else but a clique of politicians, and their pronouncements you and I can accept or reject. [This is the stand of enlightened Catholics.]

In an article on “The Path for Poland”, published in the Daily Worker, Orlemanski has this to say: _____________                                                        ii

In answer to the Catholic bishops gathered in Washington and passing judgment on the Moscow Pact, I say to the 5,000,000 Poles of America to ignore this statement and flatly and openly state that we Americans of Polish descent not only have no suspicion about the Moscow Pact, but that we are 100 percent for it.

In conclusion I will say that no conference of bishops, no theologians or philosophers, will decide the fate of Poland this time. This time the Polish nation will decide for itself. We will join hands with Russia to destroy completely Hitlerism and to bring peace and prosperity to the Polish nation for centuries to come.

Stalin Is Interested

Naturally Stalin would be interested in a Catholic priest who displayed such uncommon independence. An invitation came from the Kremlin that Orlemanski pay Stalin a visit, just to sort of talk things over, and the invitation was strengthened and made effective by a request to the White House that Orlemanski be given the necessary passports. The State Department complied with a suggestion from the White House, and Stalin provided a plane which would carry Orlemanski to Moscow and back again, he himself paying his way to and from the point of contact.

Russia was the first to break the news.

and Orlemanski was given wide publicity in Russian papers, the story being quickly taken up by reporters and wired to the United States. And was everybody surprised! Even the Hierarchy, which usually knows things well in advance of their occurrence when they involve some priest, feigned amazement —and indignation. And, for that matter, perhaps they were surprised, at least at the fact that Orlemanski, an obscure priest, had succeeded so well and that Stalin had accorded him so much attention, On this point the Christian Century said:

Disciplined with thanks might well be the verdict on Father Orlemanski. Rapprochement between the Soviet government and the Roman Catholic Church has been definitely advanced and the chances of religious liberty for Catholics in Poland and other regions where Russian influence may hereafter be dominant have been improved.

Stalin, at any rate, gave Orlemanski a signed statement in answer to questions posed by the priest:

• 1. Do you think it admissible for the Soviet government to pursue a policy of persecution and coercion with regard to the Catholic Church?

Stalin: As an advocate of the freedom of conscience and that of worship, I consider such a policy to be inadmissible and precluded.

• 2. Do you think that co-operation with the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, in the matter t>f struggle against coercion and persecution of the Catholic Church is possible ?

Stalin: I think it is possible.

The priest, moreover, brought back with him the conviction that Stalin was very friendlily disposed toward the Catholic church and that future developments would prove this. Stalin favors a strong Poland.

This much he made known, and no more. The rest, if there is more, went to the officials of the "Church”, who first threatened to shut him up in a monastery, prohibited him from serving his people (who are evidently devoted to him), and otherwise made it unpleasant for him, according to accounts. Then¹ they reinstated him. How much of this was merely a game of hide-and-go-seek is not certain, nor does it make any essential difference. The way has apparently been opened for Soviet-Vatican co-operation.

Shortly after the Orlemanski saga N. S. Timasheff, professor of sociology at Fordham University (Catholic), predicted that an eventual rapprochement between the Vatican and the Soviet government was possible. He stipulated, however, that the Catholic church must be given the same rights by Russia that are now held by the Russian Orthodox church! No doubt that would please Pacelli right well. True, he, with his confreres, had hoped for a more complete victory over the Orthodox church and the Soviet, envisaging the collapse of both and the triumphant entry of the Hierarchy into Russia. That was not to be, although the Hierarchy is. reluctant about giving up the idea, and still plays with the plan of building up a chain of Catholic states around Russia, linked to others in South America, with Spain as a hub.

On the other hand the Vatican would not overlook the possibilities of a Poland included as one of the ‘autonomous’ Soviet Socialist Republics. Stalin would doubtless permit each new addition to the Union to retain its independence within the Russian orbit, and it would be an independence that would recognize the religious liberty of its people. The addition of a number of strongly Roman Catholic Soviet Republics to the Russian union would make its contribution - 1 ■ ■                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ■■

toward an ultimate Romanization of the whole. At least, such a hope is as plausible as the hope to “make America Catholic”. No tricks are overlooked by the clever politician in the Vatican. He must consider every angle. And even an insignificant Polish priest will fit into the picture.          '

It is not to be forgotten that the doings of some 300,000,000 Orthodox in Russia are not only of great interest to the millions of Orthodox in eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, but of interest also to Protestants in all parts of the world. As previously indicated in the remarks of the bishop of York, there is much that ■ these have in common, a fact which Stalin is not overlooking and of which Pacelli is not ignorant either.

Roman Catholic statistical figures are habitually exaggerated, but in the rough it may be taken that there are about as many Orthodox and Protestants (taken together) as there are Roman Catholics, or about 300,000,000 in each of the two groups, a total of 600,000,000 nominal Christian believers. Doubtless among all these there are* a vast number of persons of good-will who are “hungering and thirsting after righteousness’ while ‘sighihg and crying for the abominations’ of nominal religious Christianity. They need the truth of God’s Word, a knowl-^: edge of His gracious purpose with respect to all who love righteousness. Neither Stalin nor Pacelli encourages the search for Bible truth, although Stalin backs at least a measurable degree [ of liberty of worship in his pronounce-‘ ments. The head of Vatican City makes no such concession. It is no part of the Hierarchical program to grant such liberty tex anyone. This has been too frequently stated to require proof. There is, therefore, a fundamental conflict between these dictators and the immense numbers under their more or less thorough control.

The International Digest, commenting on the influence of a religious Russia, declares:

Should Russia become, strongly religious again, this new turn in her modern history will naturally be of deep political significance. From Switzerland comes a report that the patriarch, Sergius [now deceased], has been broadcasting to the Greek Orthodox Balkans, encouraging them in their fight against “a common enemy”, and stressing the Christian character of the war against Nazism. At the time of Nazi propaganda to Europe, and America, that Godless Communists would overrun the world, it was given a blow not only by the Russian successes at the front, but by the timely world-disseminated news that Russia again worshiped in her churches.

Without calculating how far the future will run, it is not improper to anticipate that Russia and its measurably Com-rnunized Greek Orthodoxy will have a larger influence in Asia than either Catholicism or Protestantism has succeeded in exercising, and that although efforts will be made to suppress actual freedom of worship for any but “recognized” institutions, yet free inquiry into the Scriptures will not cease to grow. Russia’s present limitations upon such endeavors must give way to the progress of genuine liberty under the protection of Him who is “King of kings and Lord of lords”.,

Alas, Poor Levi!

ALAS, poor Levi! He is a Pennsylvania Amish boy of 19. He likes swing bands, and made the mistake of swiping a radio from a neighbor and listening to the strains that came from a worldly possession that he would not . be permitted to have even if he came by it honestly. The clouds of trouble gathered. He was “pinched”, i.e., arrested, i.e., dragged into court. He wanted to go to jail, but no such luck for Levi. He was turned over to his father, after he had explained that, according to church custom, he would have to stand before the other worshipers at all services, be forced to eat in the woodshed, and would not be permitted to use his bedroom. Poor Levi 1

The “National Conference” “Interfaith” Front

t

HE Hierarchy having completely destroyed the Spanish Republic, the United States of America is next on the list. The Converted Catholic magazine, in explaining the skillful manner by which the Hierarchy maintains its false front, says:

No one knows better than Roman Catholic strategists the value of a “false front” in a struggle for power. The ideal “false front’* in the campaign to make America Catholic would be one that is not even Catholic in name, but, headed by Protestant ministers and supported by wealthy Jewish interests. It would command full support from all quarters in its campaign to convince America that the Catholic church hates Fascism, fights intolerance, and loves to co-operate with liberal Protestants and Jews. Unbelievable as it sounds, this ideal propaganda organization actually exists. It is the much-publicized National Conference of Christians and_: Jews, of which Carlton Hayes, friend of Franco, is one of the three trustees. Rev. Everett R. Clinchy and Rev. Willard Johnson, Protestant ministers, are its well-paid president and vice-president, who specialize in holding interfaith meetings where priests are given the opportunity of presenting to the non-Catholic public liberal views and opinions that are directly contrary to Roman Catholic doctrine and policy. All this is made possible by the lavish donations of the wealthy and reactionary American Jewish Committee.

In an interview in the Louisville Courier-Journal John Henry Cowles, sovereign grand commander of thfe supreme _t council of the 33rd degree Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, Mason, made the truthful statement that “the pope has been pro-Nazi and proFascist since he was elected, and is as thick as three in a bed with Hitler and Mussolini”. The statement could have been improved by inserting the word “always” between the words “has” and “been” and by omitting the entirely needless qualification “since he was elected”. Hitler would not be in his present job today but for Eugene Pacelli.

Nurseries of Un-Americanism

How is it that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, though it knows full well that, of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, only one was a Catholic ; that at the time of the Revolution

*                                                                                                         I

there were next to no priests in the entire country, and no need for any; and that even today only 15 percent of the population are tolerant of pope-worship; how is it that in view of these things the Hierarchy expects to put over its political racket and “make America Catholic”?         *

It expects to do it by the very same methods by which Hitler grabbed Europe, i.e., by “education” in un-Ameri-canism. The proof that this is true may be found in every community. In the public schools the little folks of the 256 sects get along together very well, but let a parochial school get under way and the very Protestant children that have played with the Catholic children of their own neighborhood, and gotten along with them splendidly, thereafter are often assaulted and misused by those very same .children. How does it come? Merely because Vatican-controlled schools teach that which is the opposite of Americanism. In New York city, students of the appalling problem of juvenile delinquency have been astonished that such an extremely large percentage of the offenders against public law and order and decency were trained, not in the American public schools of the' metropolis, but in its parochial schools.

However, due to bargainings of conscienceless politicians, the public schools _                                                                                                  L

of the metropolis are rapidly getting into control of the Hierarchy. The natural result of this bargaining will be

an increase in juvenile offenses, and the hypocritical “Interfaith” front will have to work overtime to do the'washing and ironing for the Hierarchy, and put the smut on the real Americans that wish to save the American public schools, and America itself, from destruction.

What happened in Louisville was that the “Interfaith” front (so says the Louisville Courier-Journal, and backed it up with a sympathetic editorial) “delivered an indirect reprimand to a high-ranking Mason for criticizing publicly the motives of the highest-ranking Catholic”. It must indeed have been "indirect” to get a double-column spread in the Courier-Journal blaring out before the public a carefully prepared resolution passed “at a meeting of the executive committee of the conference” (of Christians and Jews) and roasting Mr. , Cowles for labeling Eugene Pacelli as ' pro-Nazi and pro-Fascist; which he is.

The so-called “Conference of Christians and Jews" is a pain in the neck. Its sole object is to whitewash the destroyers oi Americanism and put the smear on lovers of truth and liberty and justice.

One reason, and perhaps the main one, why Mr. Cowles was singled out for the wallop is that the Kentucky Court of Appeals has just decided that Kentucky public school buses are for students in Kentucky public schools and not for private schools maintained by such of the 256 sects as desire to indoctrinate their children with Vatican or other unAmerican ideas. The hope manifestly is that some of the public will get the ridiculous idea that the Hierarchy is being persecuted. Does it think that America should maintain 256 kinds of schools for children, so that each may act as a nursery for some kind of racket that in the end would destroy -the American republic altogether?

From the City Where the Great Persecutions of 1940 Started

INGDOM greetings. Enclosed herewith is a good-will offering of five : dollars contributed to the Kingdom work ; by Mr. Pilar Garza.

\ This contribution was received in the ? following manner: Mr. Garza had given me two pieces of plate glass for our i trailer windows. To show my apprecia-' tion I gave him a number of books and booklets and a Watchtower Bible. After

explaining each book, Mr. Garza asked, “How much are these books?” “I am

t giving them to you to show my apprecia-' tion for the plate glass you let me have.” Mr. Garza would not have it that Way, and so insisted that I take five dollars. This I refused. Then Mr. Garza said, “Our people [meaning the Mexicans] are in great need of the Kingdom message; the racketeers [pointing to the Catholic church across the street] have kept the people in ignorance of the Bible. If this small donation will help only one person to learn about the Kingdom message, I want you to accept it, and let it be used for that purpose. You people, Jehovah’s witnesses, are so different from these preachers and priests who not only accept donations,but tell you how much they must have.”

Mr. Garza told me, when he first got married the firm for which he worked gave him a Bible. Being a good Catholic he showed it to the priest, who in turn said, “Son, take that Bible and burn it.” No wonder Mr. Garza called them racketeers.

We have many interesting experiences among these people who are so anxious to learn about the Lord and His kingdom. Although up in years, we can truly see how these people are only “babes” in understanding of God’s Word; and what a pleasure it is to feed them the “milk of God’s Word” and “the bread of life”. Your fellow publisher in the “glorious treasure of service”.—T. E. Klein, Del Rio, Texas.

Identifying the Messiah (Continued from last issue) HEBE we continue examining prophecies and facts in fulfillment to fix conclusively who is the foretold Messiah. The prophecy of Micah 5: 2 foretold that the child that would turn out to be the Redeemer and Ruler of faithful humankind would be born at Bethlehem of Judah. Matthew 2:4, 5 and Luke 2:9-11 record that Jesus was born at Bethlehem, exactly as foretold by Micah.

Jacob foretold that the Messiah must be of the tribe of Judah. (Genesis 49 :10) Mary, the mother of the babe Jesus, was of the tribe of Judah; also her husband Joseph, the foster father of the babe, was of the same tribe of Judah.—Luke 3:23-38.

Isaiah 9:6, 7 foretold that the One born to be the Messiah would be the Prince of Peace, who would bring peace to men of good-will on earth. At the time of the birth of Jesus the angelic hosts of heaven sang with relation to Him: “Glory to God in the highest; and. on earth peace to men of good will.”—Luke 2:14, Douay.

Jeremiah 31:15 foretold that there would be an attempt to slay the future Messiah, and that to accomplish this other babes would be slain. This prophecy was fulfilled shortly after Jesus’ birth, when King Herod ordered all the children of Bethlehem two years old and younger to be.killed—Matthew 2:16-18.

Hosea 11:1 foretold that the parents of the One who should be the great Messiah would flee with the child into Egypt, and that the Son of God should be called out of Egypt. The Scripture record shows this was fulfilled at the time the child Jesus was taken into ?

C-¹ Egypt and brought back after Herod’s j death.—Matthew 2:15.

It was spoken of by an unnamed ^; prophet that the Messianic Deliverer would be called a Nazarene. Jesus’ parents were from Nazareth and took Him as a babe to Nazareth to grow up. —Matthew 2: 22, 23.

The prophet David wrote concerning the Messiah that He would come to do God’s will. (Psalm 40: 7, 8) The apostle Paul, at Hebrews 10:7, testifies that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy.

Again, David wrote concerning the Messiah: “Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” (Psalm 69:7-9) Satan had been reproaching Jehovah God at all times, and the testimony shows that the same reproaches fell upon Jesus when He came, as testified to at John 2:17 and Romans 15: 3.

Again, Isaiah 53:1 prophesied concerning the Messiah, saying: “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” And John 12’: 37,38 records that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy specifically, being disbelieved and rejected by the Jews. Isaiah 53: 3 further prophe'sied concerning the Messiah: “He is despised and rejected of men.” And John 1:11 testifies concerning Jesus: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” This is only a small part of the abundance of evidence concerning how the Jews disowned Jesus and despised Him.

Additionally, Isaiah 53:7-9 predicted that the'Messiah would be wounded for our transgressions: “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living : for the transgression of my people was. he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.” All this Jesus fulfilled. When He was brought before the supreme court of Israel, and then before Pilate, He made no defense; He. was impaled between two criminals; and He was buried in the tomb of the rich Joseph of Arimathaea. (John, chapters 18 and 19) Isaiah 53:10 also foretold: “Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” And indeed Jesus was made a great sin-offering for humankind.

The prophet David wrote: “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” (Psalm 22:18) And Matthew 27:35 testifies to a literal fulfillment of this prophecy when, at the impaling of Jesus, lots were cast for His garments and they were divided among the¹ soldiers there watching Him die.

The Messiah must be the real Pass-over Lamb. Numbers 9:12 provided that the paschal lamb should not have a bone of it broken. Psalm 34: 20 also testifies: “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” This also should be true of the reality. When Jesus was nailed to the tree they broke none of His bones; and the comment of John 19: 33-36 is that this was so to fulfill the prophecy.

The resurrection of the Messiah who should thus be slain and who is the antitype of King David was foretold at Psalm 16:10,11: “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” This prophecy was fulfilled in every respect: Jesus was raised and His body did not see corruption.—Acts 2 : 31.

The foregoing were prophetic testimonies made years in advance of the

birth of Jesus, and every portion of them was fulfilled by Jesus to the letter. This should be sufficient to convince any reasonable mind that Jesus was the Son of God, the great Redeemer of mankind, the Anointed One or Messiah, and the Heir to the kingdom of God, However, we are not left to this circumstantial evidence. There is direct and positive testimony, given by men who wrote urider the inspiration of the holy spirit of Jehovah God.

The apostle Paul plainly states that when God made the promise to Abraham, that in his seed all the families of r                     -                              .                                             ₊                                                                           ___

the earth should be blessed, this seed of promise through whom the blessing must come is Jesus, the Christ or Messiah. •—Galatians 3: 8-16.

Testifying under inspiration on the day of Pentecost of A.D. 33, the apostle Peter told the Jews that the one whom they had wickedly put to death and who was afterward raised from the dead is this Jesus, who is verily the Christ. —Acts 2:23-36.          ’

From the time of the conception of Jesus, yes, even before His birth, and until He hung upon the tree, Satan the Devil used every possible means to destroy Him because He is The Christ. God permitted the adversary to go to the full extent of his power; but never ’ at any time did God let him succeed, even as he can never succeed against God. God'foreordained that death should not hold down His beloved Son, and when Jesus was raised from the dead it was the start of the fulfillment of the prophecy: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15: 54) Jesus it is who once was dead and now is alive for evermore and holds the keys to hell (the tomb) and death. (Revelation 1:18) He is clothed with all power and authority and is able to save and deliver the believing and obedient ones to the uttermost and to bring to such all the blessings that God has in reservation for them that love Him.

Left to right:. Front row: Fox, E._r Callahan, N., Alexander, Mary, Rhode, D., Holien, J., Kammerud, L., Burton, 8., Sutton, E., Stubbs, F., Berry, Ek, Hogan, T., Goolsby, C., Peterson, H., Hoffman, C., Hollins, E.  Second row: Pluimer, H.,  Stahl, E., Mueller, A., Duncan,  E., Giza, C.,  Cantwell, N., McDaniel, G., Jones, M., Green,  M., Batko,  M., Stubbs,  L., Bays,

McCann, T., Mikkelsen, D., Reeves, P. Third row: Klukowski, A., Brodeur, D., Jackson, B., Harper, J., Weatherbee, G., Brown, W., Kudwa, M., Alexander, Mattie, Leffler, M., Baxter, E._f Dusenbery, J., McLamb, L., Payne, S., Buntain, L.  G., Lauderdale, A.,  Shellenberger,  H., Walther,  L. Fourth  row: Bachman,  R., Duncan, H.,  Burt, D.,  Pate, F.,  Behannan,  H.,

Lauderdale, Q., Hoffman,  H., CaH, W., Odham,  J., Richardson, G.,  Truman, I.,  Holien, M., Fitzpatrick, C., Moore, E., Holms, R., Fredette,  R. Fifth row: Wright, H., Green,  J.,

Michalec, E., Morris, H.,  Kammenid, G., Leistikow, R., Tharp, A., Harper/ H., Ducas,  M., Brodeur,  F. Sixth  row: Sieradski,  C., Donley,  C., Reeves, A.,  McDaniel, E., Gauntt,  C.»

Errlchetti, J., Renye, C., Dill, D., Franz, R., Weatherbee, E., Paschall, A., Baxter, J., Clemons, C., Tracy, W., Lindau, A., Regers, L.         THIRD GRADUATING CLASS.

Gilead College Graduates Its Third Class

THE' portals of Gilead, the Watchtower Bible College of Gilead, no longer familiar to .just a few, have become endeared to a third class. On Mhrch 6, 1944, the third class was matriculated. Of the 100 ordained ministers invited to attend, 95 registered for the advanced college training offered at Gilead. As did previous classes, the students entered Gilead with great expectation, concern and anxiety that they might meet the requirements and complete the concentrated five-month course. I                                                                                 ■’                                                                            -                        •

Days and weeks rolled by. Eighty-nine students were able to meet the high standards and completed the course. This third college term witnessed many improvements in the various courses, in methods of instruction, and in equipment. The college library has been continually enlarged with authoritative works, until now it has catalogued 2,800 volumes, in contrast to the 700 collected for the opening of the college eighteen months ago.

The third class completed the course of study on July 21, and thereafter followed a strenuous week of final examinations in the subjects composing the college curriculum: Bible research, Bible themes, Theocratic ministry, Spanish, English, college arithmetic, supreme law, missionary service, all „ were the subjects of searching examinations that kept the prospective graduates industriously occupied during the final week of their college career.

Amidst beautiful surroundings, the recently completed landscaping of the college campus displaying to advantage the large flower beds and the emeraldgreen lawns and the tumbling brooks and the whispering trees, all backgrounded •by the browned fields of Kingdom Farm harvests, amidst these surroundings graduation of the third class occurred. ' The day set was July 31. The sun shone brilliantly out of an azure-blue sky as

the many friends and relatives of the graduating students arrived. Promptly at 9:30 a.m. the program opened before a packed-out auditorium, the attendants ' numbering 323.

The college president, N. H. Knorr, started the graduation exercises by calling for a song, which was followed by prayer. Each of the college instructors addressed a few words of appreciation and well-wishing to the graduates. When the Spanish instructor rose to make his comments he broke off speaking in English and talked thenceforth in Spanish, and wished them well in their further efforts to use the Spanish tongue and thereby put across to the Spanishspeaking people the Kingdom message. He seized this last opportunity to warn his ~ charges against . speaking with grunidos (gruntings). The instructors were followed by the Farm servant, who added his expressions of appreciation for the co-operation' and fellowship of this third student body.

Mr. Knorr then called the director of the Society who was present, F. W. Franz, to speak as a representative- of the Watchtower. He remarked that the Watchtower college was p wartime college, founded in 1943, and prepared its students for the war upon religion or demonism, and was also dedicated to peace eternal, .training its students to go forth with “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” to “men of good-will” that these might come into-peaceable relations with Jehovah God through Christ. Though receiving what the world would call a “free scholarship” at college, yet they were not the objects of any human charity, but were responsible receivers of the loving-kindness of God. Therefore the text of 2 Corinthians 6:1 applied' very appropriately to them; namely, not to receive the grace of God in vain, that is* not to receive the favor of God and then waste it. They *

were going forth, not as representatives of this Watchtower College at Gilead, but as representatives of Jehovah and His Kingdom, and should rely upon these to back them up in service. Their acquired or improved ability to study they should increase to their further advancement; they should keep abreast of all progress, advancing with the light of truth and the forward movement of God’s organization; they should hold everything that they have acquired, and then add to it. Their fathers and mothers among the 323 present had good right to be joyful at their children’s graduation to God’s larger service, just as Hannah rejoiced when turning oyer her weaned son Samuel to high priest Eli and then breaking out into that inspired song or psalm of 1 Samuel 2:1-10 in praise to Jehovah and His anointed King. So these parents should praise God, and should aid their 'children in the course for which they were trained and graduated. The future career of graduates of worldly colleges was very uncertain, but it was certain what would be the course of service of these Watchtower College graduates, namely, to preach the gospel of the Kingdom, the same as all of Jeho-vah’s witnesses. By faithfully pursuing this line of service, and not missing their calling, they would never have to refer to their college training or diplomas apologetically, because of no longer being engaged in the special service of God for which they were particularly trained.

This director was followed by the president, who delivered an hour-long talk on “Go, Disciple All the Nations”. —Matthew 28:19, Emph_t Diag.

Since those who were to be discipled must be baptized, he treated in detail the significance of baptizing them “into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy spirit”, incidentally proving that the holy spirit was not a third person but was God’s active force which was to back up the baptized one in the service of God.           ~

The command to “go, disciple all the -nations” transcended all human authorities, and no judicial or legislative bodies could countermand such command of the Most High God through His Son Jesus Christ. Only the holy spirit from God • and through Christ could therefore debar the seiit-forth gospel preachers • from entering any territory at a certain time, and it would direct their course of active duty therefore. But for dictators and other national authorities on earth to oppose the entry of the gospel preachers was fighting against God.

The command, “Go, disciple all the nations,” was an ordination to be am-r                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ¹

bassadors for the Lord, but not to enter as such into diplomatic relations with worldly governments. They must go straight to the people of “all the nations” of earth, trusting not in earthly means of protection, but in' God’s care and provision, and strictly to preach the gospel, apart from all politics. They are building no sect or religious institution under the headship of any “pope”; their Head and Leader is Christ Jesus in heaven.

They, in the course of their work and because of the adversaries, were sure to come before kings and worldly authorities. And when brought thither they should avail themselves of the opportunity to bear testimony to Jehovah’s Theocracy by Christ Jesus, and' thereby to disarm all false accusers of them and the motive and intent of their educational work.

The Scriptures foretold that God’s faithful remnant of witnesses would prophesy again after the almost disastrous experiences of World War I; and the facts show they have so prophesied concerning rulers and nations and languages. In fulfillment of Jehovah’s prophecy opened to their understanding concerning the great multitude (Revelation 7:9-17), the Lord’s “other sheep” are coming forward and following Christ Jesus as His disciples, but only with prospects of earthly life under

the Kingdom. These are bearing their proportionate share of the witness work with the faithful remnant. Together, both these companies of disciples of the Lord Jesus are going forth to preach and make disciples among all nations, despite the total war. In this work Jehovah God is with them, and He will continue to be with them and to accomplish His work through them until its finish, in vindication of His holy name.

At the conclusion of this inspiring talk the president extemporized for a few minutes, and thereafter passed out the diplomas to those who had completed the course with merit. Of the 89 who graduated, 86 did so with merit. This is the highest number of diplomas granted to any student body so far at Gilead and attests well to the abilities, training and devotion of this third class. Great rejoicing marked the distribution, and the audience enthusiastically applauded each graduate as he received his certificate. When the last diploma had been presented a graduate rose and asked to present a resolution. Permission being granted, he came to the platform and read, as follows:

Resolution

Whereas Jehovah, the Great Theocrat, in these last days of Satan’s rale has caused His Son, Christ Jesus, to begin His reign, and Christ Jesus has begun His reign in the midst of His enemies and shall shortly destroy them at Armageddon; and              '

Whereas these Higher Powers have commanded the good news of the New World to be announced to the nations before the end, and They have used and commissioned the Society to direct and perform this service; and

Whereas the Society, in carrying out this educational work of instructing persons of good-will, has founded this College of Gilead, and this has been done to prepare willing ministers for educating men in true freedom in many -lands, those who receive this training, having received more at Jehovah’s hand, will bear greater responsibility; and

Whereas we, the third class of Gilead, have been called here and received this training, we are grateful to Jehovah and His earthly servant for this privilege, and realize our increased responsibility; and, in order to show such appreciation and realization, therefore be it

Resolved, That we will make greater efforts throughout the future to increase our knowledge and understanding of Jehovah and His purposes; that we will strive to maintain standards of living both publicly and privately that will reflect favorably on this training, Gilead, and the Society; that we will willingly accept any responsibility or assignment the Lord may now give us, and render service as unto Him; and that we will joyfully strive to educate all those of good-will for freedom and life in the New World.

Moved and seconded, the resolution was endorsed by the students by lusty, unanimous acclamation. A song of thankfulness and gratitude, ‘We Thank Thee, Lord, for Using Us,” followed, then the college president closed with fervent prayer, and the meeting was dismissed.

The privilege of attending Gilead means much to the servant of Jehovah God. It increases the capacities of the devoted creature for serving his Creator, and as the graduates of Gilead take their leave of the campus, the Farm family, the instructors, and their fellow students, fond and poignant memories take possession of their minds. In retrospect they view the happy and joyful days of the fleeting five months past. The same emotions are common to all. The reminiscences of one will disclose the musings passing through the minds of all. Listen:

Graduation day is almost over now. It put the finishing touches on the most wonderful gift any servant, of Jehovah ever received: a Gilead education. He alone knows how to give gifts that are good and perfect, and to us this gift bespeaks far more marvelous gifts to come in the yeal-s yet ahead. «

When we came here, five months ago, we began a blessed association we will never forget. We were strangers at first; but we

were brethren; and so our slight stiffness developed into friendship, and our friendship developed into a love akin to that of David and Jonathan.

Then our studies began. We soaked up information till it seemed we must have reached the saturation point. Looking at the calendar, however, we saw we were only one-fourth through/ The first five-weeks’ review came. What; appeared to be a tremendously high hurdle turned out to be studies. We now recognize these reviews as a valuable means of impressing these points more firmly on our minds.

Time flew by. Each day the sun seemed to spring from the east, clear the sky in a matter of .seconds, and disappear in the west, there to rest for a few minutes preparing for its next jump. The school days went so fast that Saturday seemed to be the day after Sunday. Truly twenty weeks is as one day with a Gilead student.

Today we graduated. Today we sat together, and together listened to wise counsel, and our hearts ached, thrilled, and were strengthened together, and doubtless all of us silently resolved in our hearts to h^ed the appeal “not to accept the favor of God and then waste it”. (2 Cor. 6:1, Goodspeed') Our prayer is that this wonderful favor which has been shown us may spur us to increased zeal and activity in the carrying out of the command to “go and make disciples of all nations”.

Yes, this morning we graduated. Already noW, because we have willingly agreed to be guided by Jehovah’s invisible spirit, which is like the wind, our family is scattering north, south, east, and west. But it will take more than distance to break up the love which has I.

developed and grown strong over a period of five months. Besides including our fellow students, our instructors, the Farm family, and the directors of the Society, that love includes the love of God which we had before we came here but which ;has been, greatly strengthened during our college course. And we realized that it is Jehovah and His Son who are our greatest friends and that They

are the ones from whom we shall never be] isolated. We pray that they will comfort and| strengthen us wherever they may send us | on this earthly globe.                        j

So another class closes its college career at Gilead, and another group of 1 specially trained ordained ministers turn their faces to fields of service in preach-1 them to the four corners of this country,;

and farther. One group of eight minis-; ters were detailed to service in far-off!

* >

Alaska. The whole earth spreads before Gilead graduates as the vast vineyard of the Lord wherein Kingdom service is to be performed. But, no matter where they are, they will be under the guidance of the “Father of spirits” and moved by His active force, as they diligently heed the ringing command of their King and Leader: “Go, disciple all the nations!”

About Murders and Suicides

♦ The safest place to live, in the United States, according to the Uniform Crime Reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is in New England, where, in the first half of 1941, there were but 7 murders to each 1,000,000 inhabitants. The next-safest place is in New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania, next the Pacific coast, and then all the rest of the country above the Mason and Dixon’s line. It is eight times as dangerous to live in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas or Louisiana as in New England, 11 times as dangerous to live in the South Atlantic states, and 13 times as dangerous to live in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee or Kentucky.

Every year, in the United States, about 62,000 women attempt suicide and 5,000 of them succeed. About 56,000 men try it and about 13,000 succeed. Almost three-fourths of the women use poisoning, which is the most painful and least effective method. Suicide is self-murder, and no one has the right to murder.

L

United States Treasury Responsibilities

THE treasury has to pay the bills. One of its jobs is to make the paper money in general use. After the stock now on hand has been used up there will be no more Japanese silk in your paper money. Uncle Sam has decided to use nylon fibers instead. The treasury tries to save money wherever it can do so. To save steel, and to get desks in a hurry, it ordered more than $48,000,000 worth of wooden furniture, and showed good judgment in doing it. The president is said to have been back of the order, one of his objectives being to find work for the cabinetmakers.

Some of the bills that come through are a headache to Congress as well as to the treasury. For example, in French New Caledonia it was necessary to cut down some trees to build a base for operations against the Japanese, but the French charged the United States $18 each for those trees. Under a similar condition in Samoa, the British charged $8 each. Congressmen are getting bald scratching their heads to try to figure out why your neighbor should want to charge you for climbing over his fence when you came over only to help him ' put out a fire that threatened to burn down his house.

Almost always, when Uncle Sam pays a bill, he pays just what is due, but a funny thing happened when fie tried to pay $15.25 to Andrew Paananen, of Massachusetts, for sanding a cranberry bog. These are days of 'the making of big chfecks, and in this case the operator, the proofreader and the inspector overlooked the fact that the check was actually made out for $1,000,015.25. Andrew didn’t cash the check; he returned it.

Anybody may ask questions, but not always get answers to them. The question at the moment is, who - were the artists that, in the Latin tongue, placed the words “A new world order” on each American one-dollar bill (under the pyramid), thus preannouncing Hitler and the pope’s so-called “new order”? Also, who were the artists that placed the Fascist emblem of Italy on the back of every American dime ? Also, who were the artists that placed Japan’s rising sun emblem on every 50-cent piece ? d

Gold Is Still Being Bought

Uncle Sam no.w has more gold than he knows what to do with, and, as American miners were needed for other wbrk, he shut down his own gold mines. But he continues to buy gold from South Africa, from Canada, and from Russia, because discontinuing its purchase from those lands would produce difficult and embarrassing conditions. Thus, Russia can pay only jn gold for her imports from the United States, and it is not desired to make payments impossible. >■ The following is a statement of the expenditures of the United States for all purposes for the years stated:

1915                   $760,586,802

1925                   3,529,643,446

1935                   7,375,825,166

1940                   9,665,085,539

1941                  12,774,890,324

1942                  32,491,307,398

1943                  78,182,348,641

A little comparison of the expenditures for 1915 and 1943 shquld be of interest. The latter is almost 103 times that of the former year. Some here and abroad seem to think this can go on indefinitely. It can not. In the year 1939 the gold reserves of the central banks and governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Canada, Argentina, Japan and India amounted collectively to $25,702,000,000. This is less than one-third of what the United States expended in the year 1943.

In 1938 the federal deficit was $1,400,000,000; in 1939 it was $3,500,000,000; in'

1940 it was $3,600,000,000; in 1941 it was $5,100,000,000; in 1942 it was $19,900,.000,000; and in 1943 it was expected to be $56,200,000,000, or considerably more than twice the gold reserves of all the money in the world.

In June, 1944, the United States national debt limit was raised from $210,000,000,000 to $260,000,000,000, or about ten times all the gold reserves of <dl the central banks and governments of the world. To help its readers understand what this means, the New York Daily News explains that if these promises to pay were all printed on $1 bills, and the bills were laid end to end along the equator, they would go around the earth about 1,000 times.

How long would it take Uncle Sam to pay a debt of $260,000,000,000 if he paid at the rate of a dollar a second? That’s easy. In an astronomical year there are 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46.15 seconds; so the time from one vernal equinox to another is 31,556,926.15 seconds. The answer is that it would take a little more than 8,239 years, and by that time the last term of the politicians now in power would have expired, and they would not need to be worried about debts.

In the year 1866, after the Civil War, the national debt of the United States was $2,755,763,000. In the year 1919, after World War I, it was $25,482,034,000, or less than 10 percent of Uncle Sam’s present debt limit. R

What the Vatican Is Working For

Hitler and Pacelli know that they have failed in the Jesuit plan to grab the world by force of arms, but they figure that they can still control the peace, and so gain by craft what they were unable to achieve by assault. President Roosevelt has said again and again and again that the only peace he will accept is one of “Unconditional surrender”, but the .                                                                                                                                                                                                             '                                  r                          *           J*

pope does not believe that when he says a thing again and again and again he means what he says; and so the pope continues to call for a negotiated peace, with the hope, always, that, when that time comes, the desires of Hitler and others of similar inclinations will have their expectations gratified.

On July 15, 1944, the Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano, had an article, one of many, on this subject, which Reuter’s describes as * '

written in a guarded style, evidently seeks to sound a call for Combined political action by Catholics of all nations to give to the peace settlement an explicitly Christian and Catholic character.

Noticing that the United Nations are having a lot of constituent assemblies to discuss financial and other affairs, the Vatican, with infinite conceit, and total disregard of the feelings of Americans who have paid and must pay most of the bills, and anticipating the top seat on the bandwagon, said:

It is not only the peoples making ready for new regimes who have need of constituent assemblies. The world itself looks to have a constituent assembly, whereby we mean not merely an assembly of nations charged with laying the foundations for a new order but an entity with the task of fixing supreme principles in a covenant of supreme laws and a proclamation of spiritual values, justice and collaboration between nations.

Then, after giving “a detailed account of how during the last century Catholics of all European countries, including Germany, were banded together in proclaiming common ideals” (and which was the direct cause of the present holocaust), the article continues:

Then thirty years of nationalist fever contributed to impede the general expression of Catholic solidarity. Now the moment has come to give practical concrete effect to this aspiration.

This program is just what the Nazi-Fascists want—a negotiated peace, with the pope in the saddle as the major-domo to tell everybody in the world what he must do and how he must do it.

And Uncle Sam may pay the bills, most of them—if he can. ‘

CONSOLATION

Where Was Jesus?

THE fourth verse from the end of the . Holy Scriptures reads:

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.—Kovel ation 22:18.

Another scripture to the same effect, that God’s Word is a complete and satisfactory record, is the apostle Paul’s congratulation to Timothy             •

that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. AH scripture is. given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.—2 Timothy 3:15-17.

Probably the gentleman in Chicago who advertises that “the Bible omits 18 absent years of Jesus Christ” and wants you to send him $1.00, so that he can send you a book that tells all about it, never noticed either of the foregoing sacred scriptures. Anyway, the Bible is not silent on the subject of what Jesus was doing between the ages of 12 and 30; nor are they silent as to where he was. Quite evidently, He was in the carpenter business at Nazareth, and during at least a part of that time He may have been a main support of His mother and younger brothers and sisters. Some of the testimony on the subject follows:

Says Matthew, at chapter 13, verses 54-56:

And when he was come into Iris own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works ? Is not this the carpenter’s son ? is not ■ his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?

The account in the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 6, verses 1-3, gives a little more information:

And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teaeh in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands ? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they w'ere offended at him.

And the story as given in Luke 2: 42-52 and Luke 4:16-22 gives all the additional . information needed:

And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. ... And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. . . . And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The spirit of the Lord is upon me ... to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. AncJ he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. . . . And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

Presenting “This Gospel of the Kingdom

Vary Your Sentence Structure!

VERY Theocratic minister desires to present the vital Kingdom truths in the best manner possible. He wants it to be clear and enlightening, and pleasing to the ears of “men of good-will”. Since the use of a varied sentence structure will aid the minister in thus delivering God’s message, it is worth while to. consider ways of attaining it.

Grammatically speaking, sentences may be divided into tour classes: simple, complex, compound, and compoundcomplex. The classification is determined by the number and nature of the clauses that make up the sentences. A clause is simply a part of a sentence, a group of related words containing a subject and a predicate. If the clause can stand alone, and expresses a complete thought, it is termed a principal or independent clause. If the clause does not express a complete thought, but is dependent upon further material for its full meaning, it is spoken of as a subordinate or dependent clause.

The simple sentence consists of one independent clause.

The complex sentence consists of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. The dependent clause displays its subordinate position in the sentence in being attached to the main clause by a subordinating conjunction, such as when, if, after, etc.

The compound sentence is composed of two or more independent clauses, generally joined together by a coordinating conjunction, such as and or but.                               ■

The compound-complex sentence is composed of two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Jehovah’s witnesses have often made the assertion, “Religion will be destroyed.” This emphatic statement is complete. It contains a subject and a predicate, comprising one independent clause; hence it is a simple sentence. If, however, one states, “When Christ Jesus executes judgment religion will be destroyed,” .the sentence ceases to be simple. The clause “when Christ Jesus executes judgment” does not express a complete thought, and is therefore a dependent clause. Its presence results in the formation of a complex sentence.

Information with respect to what will occur after religion’s destruction might be incorporated into the sentence as a separate, independent clause: “Religion will be destroyed, and the pure worship of Jehovah will.prevail throughout the earth.” By means of the co-ordinating conjunction “and” two principal clauses, clauses equal in importance, are united to form a compound sentence. In many instances the co-ordinating conjunction joining two principal clauses is omitted. If this is done the conjunction is usually replaced by a semicolon, which indicates a close relationship between the clauses.

Embodying all of the foregoing thoughts into one unit, we might construct the sentence to read, “When Christ Jesus executes judgment religion will be destroyed, and the pure worship of Jehovah will prevail throughout the earth.” The rules governing sentence structure show this, to be a compoundcomplex sentence, containing two independent clauses and one dependent clause.

Attaining variety in sentence structure necessitates the use of all of these types of sentences. Not only the structure, however, but also the length of sentences must be varied, for effectiveness in speaking. Some persons have acquired the habit of using all short, simple sentences. Others are inclined to convey their thoughts in a series Of long, drawn-out sentences, expressing in fifty or sixty words what might be stated with greater clarity in half as many.

The effect on the mind of the listener of a steady stream of short, Staccatotype sentences, or of long, rambling

sentences, even though they be grammatically perfect, might be compared to the effect that the striking of the same key of a piano over and over again would doubtless have on one unfortunate enough to be within hearing distance. How tiresome and displeasing this would become! The irksome monotony produced by the sameness of sound, with no variations, would probably drive one away from the source of the sound. If there were¹ no place to flee the listener might gradually become accustomed to the sound and forget its existence, by busying his mind with something else. The audience may do the same thing if the speaker fails to vary the length of sentences.                      -

The wise speaker avoids overuse of long or short sentences by including a variety of both in his talk. Short, well-constructed sentences are especially effective for injecting vigor and sparkle into a talk, or for flashing out suddenly an important thought that the speaker desires to impress on the listener’s mind. They may be used advantageously at the beginning of a talk, or in the conclusion, where, in a crisp, persuasive style, the speaker summarizes the material presented in the body, and moves the audience to action. In the lecture “Fighting for Liberty on the Home Front” the speaker, by use of concise statements, brings forcefully to the attention of the audience the consequence to Christians of Hitler’s deal with the Vatican in 1933: “Immediately thereafter [Hitler] proceeded to wipe out Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany. He dissolved their meetings and offices. They were even arrested for celebrating the Lord’s supper together. Off with them to the prisons and concentration camps! To the beheading block! Up against a wall before the firing squad! Said the Nazi concordat signer: T will not tolerate that Jehovah’s witnesses should besmirch the Roman Catholic Church.’ ” Each of the sentences in this quoted statement is considered short, for, according to many grammarians, short sentences are composed of 20 words or less. The average English sentence is made up of approximately 30 words, while long sentences consist of 50 or more word's.

Long sentences lend weight and momentum to the flow of thought, and are valuable where detail or pleasing rhythm is desired. Numerous examples of long and short sentences used correctly may be found throughout the Scriptures and the Society’s publications. For effective speech alternate long and short sentences. This will aid measurably in overcoming monotony, and in making your composition impressive and smooth-flowing.

Special emphasis and clearness of thought may be gained by skillful repetition of important words or phrases in a sentence, or by repetition of the same form of sentence. This is aptly illustrated in Revelation 22:17, where the word “come” is repeated three times; also in Matthew 5:3-11, where the key word “blessed” is emphasized by its appearing as the first word of each sentence- in nine consecutive verses.

In belief that repetition of an important word may result in monotony some substitute synonyms in its place. By-this practice a word or sentence that should be outstanding becomes commonplace, and means no more to the listener than any other -word or sentence in the composition. Suppose the apostle Paul had used this device in writing the scripture in 1 Corinthians 13: 11. His words might read, “When I was a child, I spake as an infant, I understood as a youngster, I thought as one not mature, but when I became a man, I put away simple things.” As rendered in the Authorized Bible, the verse reads, “When I was a child; 1 spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Repetition of the principal word “child” is not monotonous, but proves very effective.

Emphasis may be further attained by placing the most striking words at the beginning or the end of a sentence. These are the most prominent positions; hence words appearing at the beginning and the end are certain to be more firmly imbedded in the hearer’s mind.

Attention can be drawn to a particular word or phrase by taking it out of its natural setting in a sentence, and putting it elsewhere. This is known as „ transposition, or inversion. In English sentences the subject generally precedes the predicate, an adjective precedes the noun it modifies, while phrases and clauses are placed immediately after the word or Words to which they relate. In these natural positions none of the words or phrases attract special attention. Transpose, change the setting of the , words by moving them out of their natural position, and attention is instantly directed thereto. The words of Jesus in Matthew 7:14 illustrate the effective use of transposition: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Normally the sentence would read, “The gate is strait, and the way is narrow, and there be few that find it.” Strait, narrow and few are the most important words, but their significance is not readily apparent when they appear in their natural word order. By transposition the sentence is made emphatic, and the key words create a lasting impression. Examples of forcefulness gained by. transposition of phrases and clauses i may be found in Romans 10:10 and ₍ Proverbs 29: 2, respectively.

In creating emphasis by any unusual i arrangement, whether it be by transposition or repetition or by another means, one should keep in mind that these devices are valuable only if used in moderation. Too much repetition or transposition will have the same effect as too many long or short sentences. Monotony will ensue, and interest will be deadened. Hold attention by avoiding pveruse of any one type of sentence.

Become interested in sentences and

“Zte IRingbom of (Bob Us IRtgb”

The words of a true Prophet, and not our own words, form the ' title of this new 32-page booklet, "TRE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NIGR’\ Is now the time for His words to apply?

What do the facts show?

You will never know unless you examine them Scripturally. Religion has blinded men to the meaning of well-known and observed facts. Now, with this booklet, look at those facts in the Bible light, without /          religious discoloration, and then experience a joy you never knew

till now.

This new publication is available at a contribution of 5c per copy.

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Please send me a copy of the new booklet "The Kingdom of God Is Nigh", for which I enclose 5e contribution.

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CONSOLATION

their structure. Analyze those in an article that especially appeal to you. Take them apart and see what makes them impressive. Make an understanding of good sentence structure and its usage a part of your education in Theocratic ministry. Then practically apply the knowledge thus obtained by using it with telling effect in your presentation of “this gospel of the Kingdom”.

The World’s Worst Government

IN THE days when it was considered tity of the home was constantly liable to be to be no disgrace to a man to have violated, as the Papal police could enter any brains and to use them, Horace Bushnell, house at any hour of the day or of the night, the man who did most to make a note- Any one was liable to be arrested at the nod

worthy city out of Hartford, Connecticut, visited Italy. On his return to civilization he wrote Gregory XVI an open letter (published in full in Consolation No. 495, September 7, 1938), in which he said:

You assume to be the head of the Christian church, and a large part of the world have so little knowledge of any other form of religion as really to suppose that you are the veritable representation of Christianity itself. And yet you have the credit, everywhere, of presiding over the worst government in Christendom!

J

Bushnell went into detail about the poverty, unhappiness, bribery, priestdomination, illiteracy and general wretchedness that was everywhere evident in the Papal States in 1845. The letter was widely distributed in Italy and created a profound impression on those willing to think.

Sixty years passed, and in the year 1905 Alexander Robertson, D.D., much of whose life was passed in Venice, wrote a 280-page book entitled The Roman Catholic Church in Italy, published in London by Morgan and Scott, in which he gave some further details of the methods employed to destroy freedom:

Most men were on the police lists of suspects, and many were under police surveillance, which obliged them not to quit their town or village, to be indoors from sunset to sunrise, to go to confession once a month, and to go for a certain number days “into retreat” every year in a monastery. The sanc-

SEPTEMBER 13, 1944

of a priest, without warrant and without warning, and to be thrown into prison. . . . No sick or dying person was permitted to

see a physician until he had first seen a priest and taken the sacrament. All wills were invalidated which did not contain legacies to the Church, and once a good fat legacy was secured, the priest, so the Italians tell me, often took care ‘the sick person should not recover to rescind it. In administering the Viaticum, it is said, the priest would accidentally rest his elbow too heavily on the patient’s breast, or press his thumbs on the patient’s throat. ...

Instruments of torture, the lash, and prison hardships and privations of all kinds, were used to extort confessions. Men were dosed with belladonna so that they might betray themselves unwittingly. .... Condemnation was invariably the outcome of a trial, when many were executed, many sent to the galleys, and many were doomed to imprisonment, with their bodies weighted with iron, their ■ legs -chained together, or they themselves chained up to the walls of their cells, for life. Gavazzi, who was the first to enter the dungeons of the Inquisition in the Castle of St. Angelo, in 1870, after the taking of Rome, and many others who entered afterwards, such as Pianciani, Gaiani, and Spada, have left their testimony that they saw there all kinds of

instruments of torture and of death—irons, hooks, chafing-pans, ropes, quicklime, trapdoors over caverns and shafts (one described by Gavazzi being seventy feet deep) ; whilst the remains of the human victims themselves, of all ages and of both sexes, consisting of hair, bones, skulls, and skeletons, were seen in dungeon, eellar, and shaft.

Lucian of Antioch

T SO happens that there are two famous Lucians, and that they were both born in the city of Samosata, in Syria, on the Euphrates, the city whence came Paul of Samosata. The first of these noted Lucians was a famous professional orator who toured Greece, Italy, Spain, and Gaul, in the second century, boldly attacking imposture, demonism and superstition. Christianity, of which he knew little, was also an object of his attacks. In his day he was another Robert Green Ingersoll. He is considered the wittiest of ancient writers, and, as might be expected, most of what he wrote has been preserved. The encyclopedias have much about him.

The other Lucian that was born in Samosata was a very different type of man. To distinguish him from the other, he is sometimes called “Saint Lucian”; his fame rests with God and with those who love God’s Word. It is hard for Christians today to realize how much they owe to the church at Antioch (where the disciples were first called Christians) and of which Syrian congregation the Lucian of this story was a useful and honored servant ana martyr.

Palestine was a polyglot community. Doubtless the Lord often spoke in Greek, but it is certain that He also was conversant with the Syriac dialect of He-, brew. One writer puts it thus:

He used the Syrian language as if He were perfectly familiar with it. He opened the lips of the dumb with a Syrian word, “Ephphatha.” He waked the ruler’s daughter from her death sleep with the Syriac call, “Talitha cumi.” He gave to one of His disciples the Syriac name “Cephas”. He taught His followers that they could not serve God and “Mammon”, which was the Syrian word for wealth. He rebuked the Jews for accepting the service which children owed to their parents, and thus robbing them of their rights, by the use of the Syriac word “corban”. He warned His disciples, against applying to a brother the contemptuous Syrian word “raca”. In the garden He addressed His Father by the Syrian word “Abba”. When in His last agony on the [stake, stauros], He spoke the Syrian words, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.” His early church had as their watch-word the Syrian words “Maran atha”, “the Lord eometh”; and Luke tells us of an early disciple raised from the dead whose Syriac name was “Tabitha”.

Lucian Was a Poor Boy

Lucian was a poor boy; so he got away to a good start. If the poor ever get anywhere, or amount to anything, they must have the gumption and industry of the boy, born in a manger, that at twelve years of age wanted to be about His Father’s business. Lucian’s father and mother were Christians, probably real ones; they died when he was twelve years of age. Paul of Samosata was at this time a man of about 50 years of age, and as Lucian was born in the same i city, and had the same faith, and subsequently was a company servant of the same church at Antioch, and entertained and taught the same Scriptural doctrines, and as both were hated and vilified by the same crowd, and had their writings obliterated by them, there is no doubt whatever that Lucian was a pupil of that much-hated and much-slandered teacher, Paul of Samosata.

Baptized at twelve years of age, Lucian was so determined to have hjs life count for something to God’s praise that in his own time some copies of the Scriptures were known by the name Lucian. [His] revision of the [Greek translation] Septua-gint version of the Old Testament was generally used in the churches, from Constantinople to Antioch. He also made a revision of the New Testament. Eusebius calls him a “person of unblemished character throughout his whole life”.

McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopedia, from whic^i the above was taken, did not know just what to do with this

I

man. Being themselves trinitarians and believers in Lucifer’s doctrine of the inherent immortality of man, they could not just figure it out that:

There has been considerable dispute among critics respecting Lucian’s belief in the Trinity. It was from Lucian’s school at Antioch that the great teacher of Arianism, Arius of Alexandria, came. According to some, though rather questionable authorities, they even denied the immortality of the soul.

“The Thoughts of the Wise”

Poor McClintock and poor Strong! They were rich in ecclesiastical lore, but they never stopped to consider that God "only hath inimortality” (1 Timothy fl: 16) and that the relatively few that “'seek for glory, and honour and immortality” (Romans 2: 6, 7) certainly do not have it before they start to seek it. Both pieces of Satanic foolishness fall to the ground with the simple declarations of God’s Word that the foundation of the Christian’s belief is “that Christ died [literally, actually, completely] for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3) and that Satan himself does not have, and never did have, and never will have an immortal soul, but is booked for complete, total, eternal annihilation, soul and all. See Hebrews 2:14; Ezekiel 28:13-19; Isaiah 14:12-19,

Can anybody be named that is any more wicked than the Devil? Is he sure of any place at all, anywhere? No!

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shall diligently consider Ms place, and it shall not be.—Psalm 37: 10.

So, even if there were such a place as the everlasting cooking department advertised by the 256 sects that misrepresent the Scriptures, Satan would not he there, and it would be necessary to break in a new fire chief or head cook.

The Catholic Encyclopedia has just as much right to be mixed up as either Dr. McClintock or Dr. Strong. It says of Lucian:

He has the unenviable reputation of being the real author of the opinions which afterwards found expression in the heresy of Arius. In his Christologieal. system . . . the Word, though himself the Creator of all subsequent [creatures], was a ereaturc, though superior to all other created things by the wide gulf between Creator and creature. The great, leaders in the Arian movement . . . received their training under him ... as their master and the founder of their system.

Despite his heterodoxy, Lucian was a man of the most unexceptionable virtue; at the height of the Arian controversy his fame for sanctity was not less than his reputation as a scholar. During the persecution of Maxi minus Daza he was arrested at Antioch and sent to Nicomedia, where he endured many tortures and, alter delivering a long oration in defence of his faith, was finally put to death. The most enduring memorial of the life of Lucian, next to Christologieal controversy which his teachings aroused, was bis influence on Biblical study. ... He laid stress on the need of textual accuracy and himself undertook to revise the Septuagint on the original Hebrew.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica gives some further details of this useful man’s life and of his witnbss ’to the name of the Most High God:

He is regarded as the founder of the theological school of Antioch. He is represented as the connecting link between Paul of Sam os ata and Arius. Indeed, on the [repudiation of Paul of Samosata] he was excluded from . . . fellowship by three successive bishops of Antioch, while Arius seems to have been among his pupils. He was, however, restored before the outbreak of persecution, and the reputation won by his high character and learning was confirmed by his courageous martyrdom. Lucian was carried to Nicomedia before Maximin Daza, and, persisting in his faith, perished on January 7, 312, under torture and hunger, which he refused to satisfy with food offered to idols. . . . Lucian’s most important literary labor was his edition of the Greek Old Testament corrected by the Hebrew text, which was in current use from Constantinople to Antioch.

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