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Contents
The Pope the Savior of Pagan Rome
>. Not Merely a Protestant Reaction
“Thy Word Is Truth”
The Mormon Empire at the Crossroads
Conditions in Canada and Britain
Bright Outlook for Cotton Pickers
Presenting “This Gospel of the Kingdom”
Bible Versions and Manuscripts
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In Brief
Pope Blessed President In Message of Week Ago
It was revealed last night that In a personal message to President Roosevelt, received a week ago, Pope Pius XII had conveyed his blessings and asked that Mr. Roosevelt, be told that “I am praying for him and especially for his health.”
The message was transmitted through Herbert L>. Matthews, Rome correspondent of The New York Times, who received it on March 6 when he had a private audience with the Pontiff, at which Myron C. Taylor, the President’s personal envoy to the Vatican, also was present. The Pope asked Mr. Matthews to deliver the message personally when he got to Washington as he was deeply concerned about the President's well-being. Mr. Matthews was unable to see the President when he arrived in Washington ten days ago but wrote out the message and it was delivered to the President through Jonothan Daniels, his press secretary. A few days ago Mr. Matthews received a not from the President thanking him for delivering the message and saying that he had also had communicated his thanks directly to the Pope.
THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY,. APRIL 13, ftlS.
CONSOLATION
“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A.S. V.
Volume XXVI
Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, May 9, 1945
Number 669
The Pope the Savior of Pagan Rome
TODAY we hear it proclaimed, louder than ever, that Rome is a “holy city”, an “eternal city”. Surely there must be some basis for this claim. Perhaps Rome, since World War I, has had such a glorious history as to completely eclipse and cover up her past record of the Dark Ages. Perhaps herein we' shall find the basis for such proclamation. When we look in this direction, however, our hopes are shattered immediately, for at the very outset we see that the seeds of this present World War were sown in the city of Rorpe itself in the early twenties of this present century. It was Rome that nourished and fed the seeds of Fascism until they brought forth the firstfruits of 1929. The Lateran concordat, which restored to the pope his temporal power, was signed February 11 and W’ent into effect June 7 of that year. Later the larger crop of Nazism ripened on this same Axis tree, and fell to the ground in Germany in 1933. What has happened since then is all too vivid in our minds. As a consequence future generations will add to Rome’s long list of atrocities against humanity one more. This entry on the pages of history books will read, “Rome, the Mother of Fascism and Nazism.”
Notwithstanding all of this infamous history of the past, Pope Pius XII early in World War II laid down the law, “Thou shalt not bomb Rome.” As the African campaign came to an end and the Allied armies moved up the Italian peninsula the sound of guns and planes grew louder in the ears of Romans. The cry was intensified to spare Rome. Once again the pope pleaded that Rome be saved. It is interesting to read the reasons he gives why Rome should not suffer as London had. As reported in the New York World-Telegram, Pius said:
Without recalling to mind the immense historical importance of the ancient city, for us Rome is the Holy City of Catholicism risen and shining with dazzling glory in the name of Christ, rich in marvelous monuments of religion and art, guardian of the most precious documents and relics; Rome, in whose catacombs in the time of fiercest persecutions were the first refuges of the Christian people and of martyrs who rendered sacred the amphitheaters and circuses, to whose burial places people descend to pray today as they did in the very cradle of Christianity; Rome, in whose territory are scattered the various organs of the Roman Curia, numerous institutes and pontifical undertakings, international societies and colleges under our dependence ; so many sanctuaries without mentioning our patriarchal basilicas, so many libraries and works of the most famous artistic geniuses; Rome, to whom people in such large numbers come to learn, not only the faith, but also the ancient wisdom and regard as a lighthouse of civilization founded upon Christian virtue.
Here are five reasons advanced as to why Rome should not be bombed. It is well to consider each one of these arguments individually.
First, “Rome is the Holy City of Catholicism.” From her history we know that there is nothing that warrants calling Rome a “holy city”. Rome, however, is the birthplace of Catholicism. And Catholicism, as we know, is paganism with the label of “Christianity” pinned on it by Constantine, the Great (meaning that he was greater in wickedness than all others by the same name). But why should the pontiff be so concerned over the fact that the mecca of Catholi-'teism might be bombed? Did he not bless {he Italian fliers that bombed the 'holy city1 of London with its “sacred” Westminster Abbey once Roman Catholic!
, Second. “Rome is . . . rich in marvelous monuments of religion and art, guardian of the most precious documents and relics.” Rome has monuments and relics of religion all right. From her very birth she worshiped every god her imagination could create. To these she added even more abominable ones when she extended her empire in the days of the Caesars. There are the remains of the temple of Cybele, or Magna Mater, where an oriental cult practiced in Rome devilish orgiastic rites. Also in Rome are the remains of a subterranean basilica, temple of a Neo-Pythagorean sect, used for secret and mystic rites. The remains of the pagan temple of Saturn, Castor, and Pollux are there to help us remember those devil-worshipers. Also the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, originally built in 535 B.C. The reason it is so sacred, we are told, is that Titus and Vespasian both celebrated their triumphs over the fall 6f Jerusalem in this temple. There is also the Arch of Titus, erected especially to immortalize Titus for destroying Jerusalem. If there is any antique that will tend to cast ridicule and reproach on Jehovah’s name you may be sure of finding it in Rome. The Arch of Constantine, which is said to be the “most striking”, is there. The temple of Divus lulius was built by Augustus in 29 B.C. to deify Julius Caesar, because the God-dishonoring doctrine of the “divine right of kings” was believed away back there, and they do not want us to forget it. Among Rome’s carefully preserved religious relics is the thronechair upon which Pope Leo III sat when he crowned Charlemagne emperor of the “Unholy Roman Empire”. This chair is decorated with the labors of Hercules (a demon god), and the signs of the Zodiac (more demon mysticism). We should not overlook the “magnificent Cloaca Maxima”. Why, do you know, it was built away back in the second century before Christ and was used up until thirty years ago. No doubt this is one of the objects very dear to the pope’s heart. But in case you do not know what this fancy-named object is you may consult Webster. He says it was “the .main sewer of Rome”. Surely it shouldn’t be bombed.
Yes, we can recount Rome’s “marvelous” monuments of religion; but put them all together,, and how many human lives are they worth! Not one! There is not one item among all of Rome’s antiques that magnifies Jehovah God, Christ Jesus, or the Kingdom. They are only the relics of demon religion. They are what the official Catholic Encyclopedia calls “the past splendour of the pagan world”. Therefore Rome, in preserving these relics of demon temples, is today an odious symbol of devil-worship.
Thihd. The pope’s third reason agbinst the bombing of Rome is that Rome has catacombs and amphitheaters rendered sacred by early Christian people and martyrs. The catacombs, we are told, are used as air-raid shelters; so they couldn’t suffer from bombing. The most notable of the amphitheaters is-the Coliseum, so named after a near-by colossal statue of that bloody and wicked emperor, Nero; Nero, who had Christians greased and burned at night as torches to light the sports arena. On this point Smith’s original three-volume Bible Dictionary says concerning the gardens of Nero in the Vatican: “Here Christians wrapped in the skins of beasts were torn to pieces by dogs, or, clothed in inflammable robes, were burnt to serve as torches during the midnight games.” This source then locates the gardens of Nero in the Vatican as “not far from the spot where St. Peter’s now
stands”. To say that these amphitheaters are sacred because of the blood of martyrs' shed therein is not true, no more so than saying that the guillotine is sacred and should be worshiped because it cut off the heads of many innocent people. '
Fourth. “Rome is the very cradle of Christianity.” Such ignorance! Cities like Jerusalem, which was destroyed by Rome, and Antioch were the cradle of Christianity. Rome was the cradle of Catholicism and paganism (look at her monuments).
Fifth. The last argument advanced by Pius XII against the bombing of Rome is that this ancient city has many institutions, societies, sanctuaries, basilicas, libraries, colleges, and universities. Is this a plausible reason why men should be sacrificed to preserve these temporal institutions? If these colleges and universities had been used to educate the people of Italy there would be some logic in the pope’s argument. At least those living under the very shadow of these “educational” institutions of Rome should have received some benefit therefrom. But an impartial examination of the facts discloses a far different picture.
Crime and Ignorance
Let us go back a few years to the time of Napoleon. Following the release of Pius VII from prison and his return to Rome, the Encyclopedia Britannica says,
The, Jesuits, who had proved their indispensability to tyrants . . . were restored; many suppressed monasteries were re-established; and the mortmain laws were repealed. Elementary education was narrowed in its limits, and thrown into the hands of the clergy. Professors suspected of liberal views were expelled from the universities, and the press was placed under the most rigid supervision. At that time the education of the people of Rome and Italy was entrusted to “the hands of the clergy”. Surely if these gentlemen were capable and willing to educate the people there could have been no better or more favorable opportunity for them to do it than at that time. Of course, it takes time to educate people who have been steeped in ignorance for so many generations. In fact, it is not easiest to educate adults; one has to start with children, AU of this we concede. We will give them, therefore, two generations to see what progress they make as sole educators of the masses. They were given the job in 1814. The results, as reported by no less an authority than the Encyclopedia Britannica, are as follows: “As late as the census of 1861 it was found that in a population of 21,777,331 there were no less than 16,999,701 persons absolutely destitute of instruction, absolutely unable to read.” After fifty years, yes, after fifteen hundred years, of papal “education” 77 percent of the population of Italy were on the level of five-year-old children. No wonder, then, that the greatest problem for the civil authorities at that time was the education of the people.
Crime and ignorance are often associated together. However, one would think that if the clergy utterly failed in the education of the Italian people to read and write, they would certainly have raised the moral standard of their pupils. The facts are these:
There is hardly a country of Europe which presents from year to year such appalling tables of criminality. Leaving out of view the question of brigandage . . . crimes of violence are exceptionally frequent, and (to take the statistics of 1875) the number of persons undergoing punishment in a given year is in the ratio of 175.51 for every 100,000 inhabitants- In proportion to population there are four times as many persons condemned to death or penal servitude for life as in France, twice as many to hard labour, five times as many to solitary confinement.—Encyclopedia Britannica.
This was the condition in Italy when the late Kingdom of Italy was formed
after centuries of papal rule. If there has heen any; reduction in crime statistics or improvement in education since 1875, then credit must be given to the civil authorities for the same, and not to those “holy” basilicas, libraries, institu-'■>. tions, colleges and universities that the I pope speaks of as so sacred they should not be bombed. Only an inhuman, cruel, and dictatorial mind could conceive and advance the above five reasons why men’s lives should be sacrificed instead of buildings. And there are many men, both ‘ Catholics and Protestants, that are of this opinion, as we shall see.
Incidentally, on this matter of crime, one wonders if the pope forgot what he said back in 1941 when his friend Hitler was mutilating city after city. An AP report of June 30, 1941, from Vatican City said, “Pope Pius XII, for the first time, attributed the war Sunday to the hand of Divine Providence as punishment for the sins of mankind.” If this is true, that wars are the purgings of God, then the pope should welcome a good bombing raid to exterminate these criminal rats of Rome. But no. After two years, when the fortunes of war are reversed, the pope is seized with aestheticism. He remembers Rome’s 446 churches, 217 chapels, 77 oratories, etc.
Monuments or Men?
But why is the pope so suddenly concerned over these fine old treasures and works of art? Did he never read of Hie bombing of London and its treasures of antiquity? Or did he forget about it? J. Edward Murry remembered, and the New York World-Telegram printed it alongside the pope’s story, in the same issue, just to remind him. “Londoners also recalled that St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, sacred to the Church of England, were among the scores of English churches damaged during the German raids on. Britain, in which Italian fliers,' according to Mussolini, were given the ‘privilege’ of participating. Lambeth palace, the residence of the archbishop of Canterbury, also was damaged.” Westbrook Pegler, well-known news commentator, didn’t forget either. He said: “The Italians, be it remembered, took part in the bombing of London, where many fine old treasures were obliterated with obvious intent.” (Cleveland Press) Raymond Clapper even remembered more of the terrible damage done to London and her buildings, as reported in the Kansas City Star:
I remember seeing in London only a few weeks ago that buildings all around St. Paul’s were down (that is the financial section of London). The Germans tried to wipe it out in the big blitz two years ago. Also I saw severe damage to St. Thomas’s hospital on the Thames near Lambeth palace. The latter is the home of the archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church' of England, and it was in the midst of the bombed area. Nearby offices of the London county council were hit, also the Parliament buildings, along with Westminster abbey just across the street. Anybody in London can see the ruins of the exquisite Queen’s Concert hall near the British Broadcasting building. All who walk down Piccadilly can see the ruins of the beautiful Wren church of St. James. The University of London buildings, now occupied by the British ministry of information, have been hit.
And yet the pope, who loves fine old treasures, has never, even to this late date, shed even one tear over this total loss.
Indignant Press Comment
As the battle in Italy dragged on, and reports came in of the number of casualties, it was apparent that military commanders of the Allied armies were determined to respect the pope’s wishes by refraining from the bombing of Rome and other “holy” and “sacred” places. The result was that the free press in America and England was enraged over the matter. Questions like these were asked: “How many lives should we sacrifice to spare aesthetic monuments?” (Minneapolis Sunday Tribune) “Dead men or a monastery ?” “How many American or British or French lives is. a Benedictine monastery worth?” (Milwaukee Journal)
The general public was also infuriated over the fact that human life was counted as nothing when some old religious relic or antique was involved. A prominent citizen, Hendrick William van Loon, wrote the following letter to the New York Herald Tribune, dated July 23, 1943:
I am getting a little bewildered by the dispatches that have appeared in your paper, and perhaps you ean set me straight. This very afternoon the inevitable. Mr, de Valera cabled the pope how sony he felt about the bombing of the Church of St. Lawrence, and a lot of other people (not quite so famous) have been greatly worried about the fate of a Church of St. Lawrence which seems to have suffered some damage, although it was by no means destroyed.
Now there are quite a number of churches dedicated to the memory of that venerable saint, and I do not want to get them mixed up in my mind. Does Mr. de Valera and do his friends who object so strenuously to the bombing of the Church of St. Lawrence refer to the Church of St. Lawrence in Rome or to the Church of St, Lawrence in Rotterdam? Does he and do his friends refer to a church that stood in the midst of the military railroads of the militant capital of a most militant empire, now at war with our country, or are they thinking of a church which stood in a city which had been officially surrendered to the enemy, from which all forces had been withdrawn and which was therefore unable to defend itself against the incendiary bombs of a Nazi air armada which destroyed the helpless town and killed about ten thousand of its inhabitants “to give an example to the rest of Europe”?
Unless I am very much mistaken, at the time of the extermination of that other Church of St. Lawrence Mr. de Valera and his friends did not give any kind of expression of their indignation about this absolutely inexcusable attack upon what was an open city. ■
I realize, of course, that the present indignation of these local and foreign friends of the Fascists and the Nazis is based upon the claim that Rome is a holy city. Is not every city inhabited by peaceful human beings a holy city ?
Someone else wrote the New York Herald Tribune on the same date, and asked this question, “Is a basilica in Rome, Italy, sponsored by San Lorenzo more significant in the histpry of man’s religious strivings than a basilica in Canterbury sponsored by St. Augustine?”
In answer, the pope says what he thinks of his beloved San Lorenzo when it was damaged by a stray bomb during a raid on the rail yards of Rome. In writing to the vicar general of Rome, as reported in the New York World-Telegram, the pope wailed: “And now the very thing we deprecated has happened; the very thing which we feared and foresaw has become sad reality because one of the most noted of Roman basilicas, the San Lorenzo Outside-the-Walls, held sacred by all Catholics for its ancient traditions and for the magnificent tomb of our venerated predecessor, Pius XI, is now almost completely destroyed.”
Innerarity Talks Sense ,
Such silliness over clay, wood, and stone is ridiculous and disgusting when compared with logic and sense. And Mr. Lewis A. R. Innerarity has both the logic and the sense. He wrote to the New York Herald Tribune, in part, as follows :
Did Herr Hitler apologize or seek to justify the bombing of St. Paul’s, or Westminster Abbey or other rare examples of art, culture and antiquity in England? Even the apologists and justifiers confine themselves to expressions of sorrow for the damage done to stone and mortar, and silently accept the killing of hundreds and maiming of thousands of noneombatants as a hazard of war, which calls for no apology or justification. Is the Basilica of San Lorenzo of greater value than the life of one single human being? Why the sentimentality about ivbuilding when human lives are at stake? If the city of Rome is the seat of military operations, no considerations of sentiment, art, culture, religion or antiquities should prevent its obliteration as completely as military necessity may require, and the Jives of American airmen should not be exposed to additional hazard in order io preserve some edifice merely because it has stood for a few hundred years and has historic or sentimental value.
It:is nauseating to read the expressions of eminent prelates to the effect that Rome is a ■sacred city and its soil is holy, and therefore should be immune from attack. Is any soil on earth as holy as human lives? If Christianity can survive the hate, destruction and horror of modern warfare, the wholesale murder and torture of human beings, the premeditated bombing of schools filled with young children, it can certainly survive the destruction of religious edifices used as a screen for military operations. If, however, present-day Christianity is founded on no firmer foundation than superstition and sentiment attached to medieval structures, the frippery of material form and relics of antiquity, it does not deserve to survive.
There is not one church or shrine or bit of architecture or ancient ruin or work of art, or any other material thing, in all of Italy that is worth the life of even one soldier, or the delay of one hour in gaining the immediate military objective. . . . The attack on Rome calls for no apology or justification, and those who condemn it give much comfort to the enemy, and create unfavorable reactions within.
But in exposing Rome to aerial bom-bardihent would not the very foundation of the Catholic church be exposed to damage and probable ruin? Without a doubt, since she is built only on the ruins of pagan temples and traditions. And since Catholicism has such a foundation, to use the words of Mr. Innerar-ity, “it does not deserve to survive.” To which Westbrook Pegler, in the Cleveland Press, adds, “There is no value in any suggestion that Christianity itself can be endangered by any damage thus inadvertently inflicted on any material property of the church. These are all man-made, and, although their loss would be great and irreparable, there is as much religion in a mass in a field or a cave or in a prayer in a human heart as there is in the most stately ceremony.” Mr. Bart L. Stafford 3rd even puts it in plainer words. In writing to the New York Herald Tribune, he said, “If a religion can be irreparably damaged by the ruining of one church building, then it cannot be a very strong religion. Faith is in the hearts and in the souls of every true Christian, and no amount of bombing or persecution can ever harm that faith.”
This heated debate of “Monuments or Men” was not limited to America. Men in England, with clear vision and the noble virtue of expression, were quoted in the famous London Times on this issue. One letter therein published, and reprinted in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, read as follows: “Sir: May 4 inquire if any of the gentlemen so deeply concerned over the ancient monuments of Rome have an only son whom they are prepared to sacrifice on the altar of St. Peter’s? If not, may I then ask them to moderate the enthusiasm with which they propose to substitute mine?”
The obvious conclusipn to be drawn from these newspaper 'clippings is that the public in general does not believe that Rome is as holy and eternal as the pope says it is.
Not Merely a Protestant Reaction
It may be argued, by some, that this expression of indignation on the part of the press and public was merely protestant reaction, to take advantage of the situation. However, this is not true. The American Institute of Public Opinion, George Gallup director, conducted a public poll on this question. The report showed that 74 percent approved of bombing Rome’s religious institutions. And please note, the break-down of the report revealed that 63 percent Catholies voted in favor of sacrificing buildings instead of bodies, and only 2S percent Catholics sided , with their hardhearted Roman "papa” in wanting to destroy men instead of monuments. Some of the reasons given by the 74 percent were, “Lives are more important than a few relics. ... No ancient relic or city is worth one American boy's life. ... A church can be rebuilt, but you can’t rebuild a dead man. ... I do not believe in sacrificing good American blood for an antique.”
The Roman Catholic Hierarchy is agafhst the interests and welfare of the people. This is a well-known fact. It has been proved time and time again. Another evidence of this fact was seen in this issue of Rome. The Catholic Hierarchy, en masse, came out in the public press from coast to coast, on this question of sparing the lives of men. It declared that it was 100 percent for the wholesale slaughter of American and British soldiers rather than the destruction of one stone of “sacred” Rome. Bishop Hurley, of Florida, called Rome a “booby trap” set by the Nazis. He should have added that the primer fuse was Vatican. As reported in the New York Times, Hurley said that if the Allies attacked Rome it “would be a lasting blot on what has been hitherto a glorious history” of this nation. He continued, “Even though the Nazis are holding Rome with military force, we would be blamed before the bar of history if we went in and destroyed the sacred shrines of the city. . . . Far from saving American lives, the destruction of Rome may well cost us the loss of countless thousands of additional lives.” He also said that if we attacked Rome, “we shall destroy our own prestige and thereby make a decent peace almost impossible.” Is this not a threat? Is he not warning the Allies that the Catholic Hierarchy, with headquarters in Vatican City, is their real foe? It is very apparent that Hurley means that even if the Allies did chase the Nazis out of Rome with a firebrand they would later have to fight a more sinister and formidable enemy, the Vatican, and their wo rid-wide Jesuit agents, and that in the end it would , “cost us the loss of countless thousands of additional lives”.
This was not the voice of a lone individual. The most eminent prelates of the Hierarchy of America echoed and re-echoed these seditious statements. Among the .chorus were heard the voices of Mgr. Sheen, professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.; Archbishop Samuel A. Stritch, Chicago; Bishop James H. Ryan, of Omaha; Walter A. Forey, of Syracuse; Archbishop Michael J. Curley, of Baltimore and Washington; Leo Binz, coadjutor, of Winona; J. Francis A. McIntyre, auxiliary bishop of hfew York; Bishop John F. Noll, Fort Wayne, Ind.; H. Em. Cardinal Dennis Dougherty, archbishop of Philadelphia; H. Em. Cardinal AVilliam O’Connell, archbishop of Boston; and Archbishop Spellman, of New York. These are the gentlemen, if you please, who are willing to sacrifice thousands of American lives, if need be, on the altar of Rome, that, perchance, the relics of their pagan-Catholie religion might he preserved. These are the rasping voices thab join with the pope in proclaiming that Rome is holy and eternal. _
De Valera Is Heard
There was also heard another squeaky voice from the other side of the Atlantic. It was from the head of that pro-Nazi government of Ireland. De Valera, as reported in the London Catholic Herald, said that he too was in favor of human slaughter at the gates of Rome.
As head of the government of a state, the vast majority of whose citizens belong to the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church, I consider it my duty to express in their name the deep concern they are feeling, and in which 300,000,000 Catholics throughout the world are sharing, through the danger which now threatens the City of Rome, and because of the lack of any measures by the belligerent Powers to assure its security.
It is evident that should the city be militarily defended by one side and militarily attacked by the other, its destruction would be inevitable.
\ The destruction of this Holy City which for pearly two thousand years has been the seat of the Sovereign Authority of the Catholic Church, and in which the great central temples of Catholic religion, the great seminaries and libraries of Christian faith are situated, would mean a great misfortune for humanity ■and would deprive them for ever of the highest religious memories and cultural inheritance, the root of which is the teaching of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Millions of Catholics would gladly give their lives to save these treasures, ■which are symbols of those eternal things which alone give meaning to human life.
I beg that the voices of millions of people in every country, which implore the belligerent Powers to find a way-through the appropriate intermediaries—by which Rome can be saved, should be heard.
We wonder where De Valera gets his information. Surely not from the Catholic boys in the army. Neither from the thinking Catholies of America. Evidently De Valera never read the Gallup report of how the great majority of Catholics are not in favor of giving “their lives to save these treasures” of Rome. Mr. Lawrence Fernsworth, also a Catholic, took issue with De Valera and the Hierarchy over their threatening to those who would spare human life instead of demon temples. Mr. Fernsworth, as reported in Consolation No. 645, was so enraged over the propaganda published by these pseudo-Ameri-cans, as well as that “neutral” De Valera, that he demanded of them to apologize and retract their statements.
While all this controversy was raging in the press, the responsible officials of both England and America were taking every precaution to preserve Rome. President Roosevelt said that the policy of the Allies was to do as much as possible to protect Rome and the Vatican. And the secretary of state, Cordell Hull, said, “It is my understanding that the Allied military authorities are pursuing & policy of avoiding damage to such shrines and monuments to the extent humanly possible in modern warfare and in the circumstances that face theip.”
These men of affairs know the history of Rome. They know that Rome is a symbol of every crime that is named, and is in no sense "holy”. They know also that Rome is not “eternal”, for it is within their power to unleash on .it a worse destruction than was caused by both the Gallic and Nero fires put together. And if they know all this they also know the power that the Vatican wields. As politicians, therefore, they are determined not to make the same mistake that Frederick II and others made. Instead they have gone on their bellies, so to speak, to avoid the papal wrath. They gave many assurances to the pope and his emissaries that Rome would be spared the terrible affliction of modern warfare. This left the Vatican free to pursue her business as usual, and this in spite of the fact that the German armies occupied Rome.
Nazi Occupation
This occupation of Rome on the part of the Nazis caused some to express fear for the safety of the pope. But such people know nothing of the intimate relationship of totalitarian governments and the Vatican. For the reassurance of the ignorant Catholics, therefore, the Catholic newspaper, The. Register, West Virginia edition, said, “The Vatican radio’s news reports .seemed to be sent without interference or censorship from external sources even after the Nazi seizure of control in Rome.” The New York Daily News carried a similar article under the heading “Vatican Assures World ‘All’s Well’
The Nazis, upon entering Rome, proclaimed that it was for the protection of the Vatican. And they really meant it.
For on November 9, 1943, it is reported that the pope personally gave the orders to re-enforce the Vatican militia. Two thousand recruits were asked for, but 16,000 volunteered. Pius, evidently, wasn’t trusting too much in his own statement that Home was invulnerable and eternal. This recruiting was done with the full approval of the Nazis; for the Gospel Witness of March 2, 1944, says that the Vatican forces were equipped with modern rifles doubtless made in Germany. Some idea as to how thorough the Germans were, in fortifying the Vatican, may be gathered from an article in the June 5, 1944, issue of Time, under the heading “Church Militant”.
The Vatican was ready for the battle of Borne last week. Against possible “foreign aggression” it had:
Bogun the construction of-a hefty steel fence outside the Vatican wall.
Mobilized a “special defense corps” estimated at 2,000 men to guard Vatican property in Borne.
Acquired a fleet of 21 coastal ships to bring food to the “hard-pressed people of Borne and Vatican City”. The ships will operate between Borne and Genoa, hying the Vatican flag.
Other defense measures taken during the past six months: (1) increase of the efficient, well-equipped Swiss Guards from JOO to 600; (2) increase of the Pontifical Military Guard (papal gendarmes, who ordinarily police palace and gardens) from 800 to 3,300 men; (3) quadrupling the Palatine Guard of Honor to 2,000 men. This small army has been equipped with modern weapons. The Vatican walls have been prepared for maehine-gun defense “should the occasion arise”.
"Should the occasion arise” when the Allied armies (referred to insultingly as “foreign aggression”) no longer recognized Home as “the eternal city”, then this force with “made in Germany” equipment would be put to use. Probably this was what the London Daily Express had in mind when, to quote Edward P. Morgan in the Pittsburgh Press, it published a “biting four-column cartoon of Hitler, attired in bishop’s robe, brandishing a pistol and standing behind a German gun crew who have mounted a cannon on the ruins of a cathedral and are firing at the Allies. The caption, quoting Hitler’s recent statement, says: 'The party stands for positive Christianity’.” We wonder if, after reading the above article in Time, it wouldn’t be more in keeping with the facts for the cartoon to have shown Pius’ face instead of Hitler’s.
Nazis Withdraw
As the war progressed the Allied armies moved closer and closer to Home. And no promise had been given that Rome was to be considered an “open city”, since she was harboring German troops. Then, suddenly, the Germans gave up the city and moved out to the north. Rome had been saved. Rome was still an “eternal” city! I But why did the Germans pull out? The report was that it was because they had such profound respect for the great cultural monuments. Some may question this, recalling that a lone German plane flew over and bombed the Vatican during the winter of 1943-44. If such failed to read the explanation for this, attention is called to the New York Times, of July 7, 1944, wherein it was shown that although it was a German plane, yet the pilot was a close friend of an arch anti-cleric of Italy. Herbert L. Mathews in this article continues and says, “The Germans, I was told, were furious about the incident but could not themselves say anything publicly for they had to join in the ■ cry that the Allies had bombed Vatican City.”
Again, someone may question the Nazis’ respect for Rome’s religious institutions and monuments, pointing to the fact that the Nazis had no respect for the religious edifices of Rotterdam and London. But this objection is easily answered. First of all, no German army would have dared to withdraw from so
strategic a position as Borne without Hitler’s personal orders to do so. And, it being a well-known fact that Hitler is a baptized Catholic, in good standing in his church, it can at once be seen why he was as concerned about the saving of s Catholic (Pagan) Rome as the pope was. I It is likewise apparent why Hitler and his henchmen have been so relentless and persistent in blotting out the cathedrals of Protestant England. And Pius has lost no sleep or tears over that either. Further proof that the Nazis, who are - arch persecutors of true Christians, really had a genuine desire to preserve Rome for the Catholic cult is seen in this fact, that since the Allied armies moved into Rome many months ago not one German plane has bombed this city of the pope.
Nazism, Fascism, Shinto, and Catholicism hang together in war or peace, in victory or defeat. So in all four camps there was great satisfaction expressed over the fact that Rome’s demon treasures were spared. Fascism, as represented by its head Mussolini, rejoiced also in the saving of Rome, and his reason was the same as the Nazis’. A report from London, by United Press, says, “Mussolini insisted, however, that the Germans could have defended Rome successfully, but refused to do so out of consideration for the cultural and religious monuments of the city and to spare its inhabitants from further suffering.” And likewise Japan, The same news dispatch said that a Japanese government spokesman “said the German decision to spare Rome met with the greatest sympathy in Japan and that ‘the decency of the German attitude is like a fresh breath in a sticky atmosphere’ ”. Thus we see the close and affectionate love the gangsters of Nazism, Fascism, and Shinto have for Catholicism.
Who Gets the Credit?
Now who gets the credit for saving Rome? Is it Roosevelt? Or Hull? Or Churchill? Or the military commanders who issued the orders not to bomb Rome? Or is it Hitler and the German high command who withdrew their armies from Rome with only the minimum rearguard action? The press is not so much concerned with giving credit where credit is due as it is with magnifying, extolling, and flattering an already overinflated Roman pontiff. And so headlines like the one in the Baltimore Sunday Sun appeared: “Sparing of Rome Now Credited to Personal Courage of Pope.” Another in The Register: “Pope Prays 24 Hours in Chapel; Rome Is Freed.” All credit for the saving of Rome from baptism by fire in this World War II will be given to Pope Pius XII. And, perhaps, this is where the “credit” is due. If so, it proves but one thing, i.e., the pope is not the vicar of Christ. For Christ Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Rome, from its founding in 753 B.C. until now, has been one of the chief cities of this wicked old world. The pope, in preserving it, has thus made himself a part of this old world. Therefore the god who answered the pope’s prayers was Satan the Devil, for it is written in the Great History Book, the Bible, that Satan is the god of this present evil world.—2 Corinthians 4:4.
The saving of Rome has been termed the “Miracle of Rome, Sign to the World”, by the Columbus (Ohio) Evening Dispatch. In the future the Hierarchy will be very arrogant in referring to Rome as an everlasting, unchangeable and eternal city. As a sample of what the world may expect in this regard is an editorial in the devoted Catholic paper, the Brooklyn Tablet;
■ How curious, how significant it is that all of the American newspapers now hail Rome as the “Eternal City”. The president rightfully calls it “the great symbol of Christianity”. He rightfully terms Rome “the symbol of Authority”. He accurately acknowledges that Rome was and is the Catholic Church. He calls it the “Eternal City”.
What a fitting recognition and aeknowledg-meat of its eternal supremacy as the lig'ht of Christendom! What a conclusive and universal corroboration of the unbroken claims of the Papacy to the entire and undivided City! , . .
Rome, no longer the capital city of a captured disintegrated kingdom, emerges as the City of the Popes, the center of Christianity, the symbol of moral authority moving with calm yet majestic dignity down the course of the ages claiming and receiving expressed and tacit world-wide recognition and acknowledgment of its spiritual dominion over mankind.
From this position now irrevocably and inextricably rooted in the hearts and minds of men, the Papacy shall never again be displaced. Before it the red threats of world Communistic control vanish into wraiths of mist.
Such outpouring should have been titled “The Victory Song of the Harlot”,
Spiritual Harlotry
Since the Lateran treaty of 1929 the Vatican has expanded its territory and increased its power and influence in all parts of the earth. So there is no government that does not know the political power exercised by the see of Rome. Throughout this war, notwithstanding sporadic outcries to the contrary, Vatican City as a temporal state and sovereignty has been doing business as usual* Throughout this war she has had diplomatic relationship with all the governments, and, in turn, these governments have had their ambassadors at the Vatican. During this war her brothel has been a beehive of international intrigue and diplomacy. From the days of Charlemagne and the “Holy Rome Empire” her closest lovers have been the cruel, ruthless totalitarian despots. And continuing, all through this war, she has had constantly in her bedroom the ambassadors of Germany, Italy, and Japan. And take note of this fact, it was only after Peari Harbor and the loss of the Philippines, only after Japan had proved that she was a brutal and treacherous government, that the Vatican considered Japan qualified to have an ambassador at the Vatican. After Pearl Harbor the Vatican opened diplomatic relations, exchanging ambassadors with Japan, and recognized the Japanese puppet government in the Philippines. Many people were deluded in thinking that the Vatican, located in Fascist Rome, couid do nothing else. Therefore the Allies engaged in what President Roosevelt called a “crusade to liberate Rome, the Vatican and Pope Pius XII”.
After the Allies’ armies occupied Rome and “rescued the pope” it was, therefore, expected that these representatives of the totalitarian gangsters would be asked to leave the Vatican. But what do we find? We find that the Vatican now works a double shift. While still holding the Nazi, Fascist, and Shinto paramours close to her breast with one arm, the Vatican puts out the other arm and fondles the liberal democratic governments—Gen. de Gaulle has a private audience with the pope; Myron C. Taylor, Roosevelt’s special representative, is in constant attendance holding up the pope’s train; and the prime minister of a so-called Protestant country, Church-in, makes a special trip to see Pius. Over this last juicy morsel the Vatican is still licking its chops. A dispatch from United Press reporting on this said (August 23), “Vatican quarters said they believed the conference had served to increase influence of the Church and expressed the deepest satisfaction at its outcome. They emphasized that Mr. Churchill’s visit was not a mere courtesy call.” Thus we see that Rome comes out of World War II, not bomb-scarred and desolate, but as a queen, seated with the victors in the saddle and riding upon a scarlet-colored beast.
Her End
Rome—founded in 753 B.C., twice destroyed by fire, the nest of paganism and cradle of Catholicism, the city of the Caesars and popes, the mother of Fascism—is hailed today as a holy and eternal city. Nothing was ever said that was farther from the truth. Her history in review, and her present activity, both cry out that Rome is an abomination on the earth. She it is “with whom the kings of the earth have committed forniea-tion”. From the fusion of paganism with . lapostate Christianity until now, Rome ,, Jias been consistently and eternally “the ' great whore”, “the mother of harlots.” At the same time she has endeavored to - ' ride atop the imperial powers. She is an ■ adroit rider too, for when one of her - mounts stumbles and falls she quickly changes to another. Even in the middle of this present struggle we have seen Rome change horses. The painted harlot of religion as dominated by the Roman Hierarchy will emerge from this World
War seated upon a terrible beast of many colors, riding at great speed toward the abyss of destruction. And she will be unable this time to get her feet out of the stirrups before she descends into the bottomless pit never to rise again.
The very fact that Rome emerges from this War intact is no evidence of her eternalness, but is the strongest proof that she will shortly be destroyed, even as Sodom and Gomorrah. The great God of the universe, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Destroyer of the wicked world of Noah’s day and of the host of haughty Pharaoh, He whose name alone is Jehovah, will in His own due time, at Armageddon, obliterate Rome completely and eternally.
The Killer Indians of Perija
THE wisdom of living up to the Golden
Rule becomes more manifest every day. Of late the governments of Venezuela and Colombia have had a hard time trying to make good citizens of the killer Indians that live on the borderland of Perija. Probably on account of treasured hates growing out of the cruelties of Cortez and Pizarro, and their conviction, as expressed by Indians in Florida, “White man no good; lie too much,” these people seem to be inaccessible. In one friendly approach a three-year-old child was found. He refused to eat, growled and bit when anybody approached him, and finally succeeded in killing himself by bleeding to death by biting himself.
An article in the United Rubber Worker, telling about working conditions not far from where the Perija Indians live, has this astonishing paragraph:
Under the hiring provisions, the workers are divided into two classes, white and Indian laborers. Indians are paid much Jess than whites. A white laborer receives $2.50 a day; an Indian, only 30c for the same work.
The title of the article in the United Rubber Worker was “Plenty of Rubber in Colombia, but Slave Conditions Halt Flow to U. S.” It went on to say:
The present low salary of the Indian worker, as well as the white, is insufficient to buy adequate drugs and other protection, especially at the high prices charged at local stores run by contractors for the U.S. Rubber Development Corporation. The work lasts five months of the year, from October to March, because in the remaining months torrential tropical rains prevent construction. Thus, the Indian does not receive more than $40 to $50 and must seek other means of earning his livelihood. . . . The Indian worker is also obliged to assume the debts of members of his family who have died in this disease-infested area.
Pear Tree 114 Years Old ♦ Jerseyville, III., boasts of a pear tree known to be at least 114 years old. It has probably had good care. Trees are like animals: they need human attention now and then. The tree blossomed in 1944 and may have borne fruit Anyway, it passed through a severe windstorm.
MAY 9, 1946
Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe
(Antille) R.F.
Votre frtre au service du Roi Jesus Christ,
Rend Sahai
le 11 Fdvrier, 1945 Le Royaume a Guadeloupe
Mes chers Frdres ■
Cette photographie montre le serviteur de la compagnie en train de donner 1c bapteme a six frdres et trois soeurs qui ont accepts la bonne nouvelle.
Illllllllllllllllllllllll
II
[Translation]
Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe (Antille) R.F.
February 11, 1945
The Kingdom in Guadeloupe
Dear Brethren :
This photograph shows the company servant baptizing six brothers and three sisters that accepted the good news.
Your brother in the service of the King Jesus Christ, Rend Sahai
Why Must Armageddon Come ?
TODAY, on an increasing scale, the good news that Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ Jesus has been established, is being proclaimed by His witnesses, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy concerning the end of the world: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matthew 24:14) What shall mark the end or conclusion thereof"? Jesus answers that what will mark it is a tribulation upon. the earth such as man has never before known. (Matthew 24:21,22) That final tribulation is called “the battle of Armageddon”.—Revelation 16:14-16.
But why should there come a great trouble on earth more terrible than man has ever before known? Briefly call to mind what has occurred during the past fifty-nine centuries, Satan the enemy was once Lucifer, who was created perfect, beautiful and glorious. God highly honored him by clothing him with power and authority, appointing him as invisible overlord of perfect man and making him a light-bearer, for such the name “Lucifer” means. He betrayed that trust and confidence, became guilty of treason, the most heinous of all crimes, and since then has been leading the way in all wickedness. During all the centuries Satan has reproached God and mocked Him, that he might turn the minds of men away from their only Benefactor and true Friend. He introduced hypocrisy among the people that they might mock-God. (Genesis 4:26, margin) Teaching the people to ignore and repudiate God, Satan caused them to build a tower of Babel and induced them to believe they could save themselves by that organization. There God gave the people a demonstration of their human helplessness.
Call to mind again that when God’s chosen people were domiciled in Egypt, its king Pharaoh as the Devil’s representative oppressed them. And when God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh of God’s command, he defiantly said: ‘Who is Jehovah, that I should obey, him?’ Then God went down to Egypt, figuratively speaking, to make a name for himself. (2 Samuel 7:23) To this end the Lord slew the Egyptians, and miraculously delivered His own people, carrying them safely through the Red sea. “Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness." —Psalm 106:8,9.
Call to mind further that when the Assyrian monarch, Sennacherib, sent his messengers to Jerusalem to reproach God, blaspheming His holy name, presumptuously assuming to be greater than Jehovah God and defying Him and His people, God sent His angel of destruction and slew the vast majority of the Assyrian army in one night and sent Sennacherib reeling back home.— 2 Kings 19: 35-37.
But the nations of earth have failed to take heed to these things and to learn a bit of instruction therefrom. Their religious teachers not only have failed to teach them the meaning of such Bible examples, but have actually spurned the Bible. Arrogance, haughtiness, contemptuousness, presumptuousness and blasphemy against God have in this present day reached the superlative degree. Hypocrisy has matured and gone to seed. Of all the reproaches that have been brought upon God’s holy name, of all the insolence and vainglory on the part of men and religious systems, of all the presumptuousness of sin committed against Jehovah God by men or organizations, those in times past pale down to a secondary glow when compared with those of the present time.
Modern wickedness is made worse because evildoers perform their wicked deeds in the name of the Lord. One great religious system, steeped in wickedness and crime, is headed by one man; and it is claimed for his office that he is the vicegerent of Christ on earth and that he possesses power equal to that of Jehovah God. The clergy of this system fraudulently represent to the people that their loved ones who have died are now consciously suffering in “purgatory” because of the wrath of God, and these clergy claim to be able to relieve the suffering ones from purgatorial fires by prayers of priests and upon a sufficient consideration. Thus under false pretenses those religious leaders receive money from the people and turn the minds of the credulous people away from the true and living God.
The “Protestant” religious organizations likewise claim to represent God, and yet defame His holy name by teaching that He is tormenting millions of unfortunate souls in a lake of eternal fire and brimstone. The clergy of these religious systems hypocritically call themselves by tlite name of the Lord and pose before the people as God’s representatives, while at the same time they deny the Word of God and repudiate the blood of Jesus Christ given for man’s redemptive price. These religious systems have illicit relationship with the commercial and political powers of.the world; and the Lord God himself gives to such system of “organized religion” the name of “harlot”, or “whore”, meaning it is Satan’s organization.
The shepherds and leaders, speaking for these hypocritical religious systems, presumptuously and insolently say : "I sit a queen, ... I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” (Revelation 18:7; 3:17) And now, when the wicked world which has oppressed the people has come to the “time of the end”, and when God’s Theocratic Government under Christ Jesus is born; yes, now, when Christ Jesus has begun His reign, for which He taught His disciples to pray and which prayer these clergymen have hypocritically repeated while fornicating with politics; and when the evidence clearly proving these facts is brought to their attention, these self-satisfied ecclesiastics not only turn deaf ears thereto, but persecute the humble followers of Jesus who dare call attention to the message of truth. Instead of heeding the words of the Lord and telling the people that His kingdom is their hope, these religionists blatantly, irreverently and presumptuously unite with the profiteers and professional politicians in setting up a League of Nations to keep the people under the control of Satan the enemy, and then blasphemously declare that such a League of Nations is “the political expression of the kingdom of God on earth”. They not only have defamed God’s name, but have pushed Him aside and have set themselves up in His place, and claim that their wisdom is superior to His and is a safe and ample guide for the people to follow in the postwar epoch with its revived League of Nations.
If it was necessary in times past for God to exhibit His power against the Devil’s organization, in order to preserve His name in the minds of the people and to manifest His universal domination and almighty power, the reason for so doing has now increased a thousandfold. The time has come for the arrogance of men before Jehovah God to cease. He will now make a name for himself that those who live in heaven and on earth will never forget. He warns the nations of earth, and particularly the clergy and the “principal of the flock”, now before the battle of Armageddon. Their refusal to heed the warning and their persistence in following in the path of Satan’s organization only serve to accentuate all the more the reason why the battle of Armageddon must come.
The Mormon Empire at the Crossroads
THE Mormon Church has in the last fifty years grown in importance and respectability. Some of its sons have peached positions of considerable conse-duence in the United States. Not so long , ago a Mormon missionary, a calculating z Scot, had more than a little to say about . the spending of the money which the . • ’ government had, would have, or hoped : to have. He was called that "abomination of orthodox bankers, an heretical brother who believes the nation can spend its way into prosperity”. The fact that it did not work does not alter the situation. At any rate, Eccles had the position of Federal Reserve chairman, and some of the reflected glory shone upon the Mormon church.
Another noted son of Mormonism is Reed Smoot, an apostle, sent to the United States Senate by the people of Utah. Still another was Judge H. H. Rolapp, former associate justice of the Utah Supreme Court. There are, of course, many other men of note connected with the Mormon “empire”, of which a few years ago a feature article in the Chicago Sunday Tribune, which entitles itself the “World’s Greatest Newspaper”, could say, “Zeal, Unity, Heber Grant Exalt Mormon Empire.” That the unity at least is not as complete as the article may have indicated is possible.-
Mormonism, which a century ago, and for a half century* thereafter, gained notoriety, first because it introduced a new “Bible”, and then because it sought to introduce polygamy once again into the modern world, has in recent years come into the public eye on other grounds. Five things have figured in this publicity. First among these is the regular Sunday radio program of the Mormon church over one of the great radio systems. Second is the motion picture about Brigham Young which glorified that dictatorial figure of the west some years ago, leaving out of the picture his conscientious efforts to follow out the tenet of “celestial marriage” on a scale worthy of his position in the church. (He had 27 wives and 56 young Youngs.) Next may be mentioned the decision to take Mormons off the dole, which was given wide publicity at the time. Fourth, the new novel and bestseller, “Children of God,” by Vardis Fisher, has brought prominence to the Mormon church, and finally, the polygamy issue’s coming to the fore again and being aired in the courts and papers, though the polygamists themselves are disowned by the church whose revelations uphold polygamy.
Outwardly, at least, the church of Mormon seems to be holding together its 700,000 members. Seceding bodies are small, including the Temple Lot Mormons, the Bickerstonites, the Cutierites, and the Strangites. And then there is the Reorganized Church, which, with its nearly 100,000 members, holds forth mainly in Missouri. It rejects the polygamy revelation and so escapes the major inconsistency of modern Mormonism.
There is much that has contributed to the outward unity of the Mormon empire. Chiefly the fact that it is more than a church plays its part. It has been well said that in Utah the United States has had the only example of a churchstate. While the Mormon empire no longer has the power it once did, much remains of its former affluence. In view of this fact it was all the more remarkable to read, back in 1935, the following paragraph in the press:
Nearly 90,000 Mormons ip the nation as a whole—18 percent of the total Church membership—on relief, county, state or federal; close to 45,000 of them in Utah.
This was quite a reflection on the Mormon organization, and one that was felt by the ones in authority. Something had to be done about it, and while they were at it they might as well make it spectacular; so the remedy was to take all Mormons off the dole forthwith, without outside help I Those on WPA projects, however, were told to hold on to that particular form of relief. One source upon which the Mormons would draw to finance the program of helping their own brethren was to request all good members to give to the church the money they saved in observing the monthly fast-day, on which two meals were passed up. Cast-off clothing and other usable things were to be salvaged by Mormons. There would be work provided for the needy, but no cash remuneration for the work. Instead they were to receive, as it was made available, food and clothing, and other household necessities. Mormons who had work and money were requested to provide money for the scheme. Said Heber J. Grant: "Laziness is contagious and has caught the whole nation. If our people will only keep the Word of Wisdom and pay their tithing honestly we will have enough to care for our people.”
By October, 1936, the claim was made that all of the Mormons had been taken off direct government relief. The "March of Time” put on a newsreel, and the papers gave the matter further publicity. But in 1938 the Mormons constituted 75 percent of the persons on the state rolls for relief, and 50 percent for all forms of relief, including WPA. The Mormons succeeded in removing but one-fifteenth of the total number from the public relief rolls. This fact did not receive such wide publicity. '
Mormon Petitions
Those who accepted church relief wefe not exactly satisfied, and so the foliowing petition was circulated:
To the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve: ’
Undersigned do hereby petition you that the Church relief be raised from $11.36| a year per person as quoted by Reuben J. Clark, while in New York, and printed in the Deseret News for May 29, 1936, to' $20 per month per person, which would require not $1,000,000, but $21,120,000 a year for the 88,000 persons.
However, President Grant, we do not desire Relief . . . but would much rather earn our daily bread by the sweat of our brow as God has told us to do, at a fair rate of pay. We • are willing to work for the same rate of pay as you are receiving . . . etc.
Another petition was more bitter, saying:
You fifteen men who claim to be Apostles of Jesus Christ preach for doctrine that children who die before reaching a certain age are automatically destined for the Kingdom of God, do you not? . . .
Heber J. Grant why do you save men thru ' the slow process of sending men out to preach, why not arm your Missionaries with guns and knives and let them go to work on the Babies, not only will these go home to their Heavenly Father, but you will save them from a lot of earthly miseries and you will save your beloved government a lot of precious money by exterminating the young relief charges, and this goes for your Church relief, too. Then can the Bankers again give their cast-off rags to the Salvation Army instead of to the Mormon Church Relief. ...
That was hardly a way to talk to President Grant or his apostles, but the situation was seemingly such as to provoke the remarks.
Early in 1938, disgruntled Mormons, led by George Otis, who claimed to be a prophet, like Smith, forced their way into the tabernacle to announce another new gospel, accusing Mormon leaders of being false to the fundamental teachings of the church. Though they carried flaming gas (dine torches, the disturbers were overpowered and jailed.
There are doubtless factors in Mormonism that are increasingly onerous to the members, particularly those who use their heads. One such, formerly a "seventy”, sent this office samples of the blank forms used by the Mormon Hier-areby to keep informed on the members and their lives and families, entitled, respectively, One Family Group Record, concerning which the former “seventy” said:
This is the Mormon temple sheet for graft-। ing people out of their money like Catholic < purgatory racket for the dead. I was a Seventy in TIigh Priesthood before accepting the truth.—K----,
The other form is more remarkable, and is called “Baptism and Endowments for - the Bead”, and in the instructions appear the following specifications:
Sealings for the dead should be performed as soon as possible after Endowments. Other blanks are provided for sealings. . . . Every f family should have a properly organized genealogical record and enter therein promptly, all ordinances performed. Records for this special purpose can be procured at the Deseret Book Co.
Across the blank the subscriber writes comment of his own (and adds his signature) as follows:
Was once a sincere believer and worker as a highpriest in this work. Which now I see plainly is the work of the demons, to graft the poor people out of their money, etc.
Having been a “seventy highpriest”, subscriber K. should know what he is talking about. It is hoped that the publication of this statement will not unduly offend honest Mormons. It should, rather, lead them to re-examine the somewhat obscure text upon which the doctrine of liberal baptism for the dead has been based, and to do so in the clear light of the Scriptural testimony as a whole. The demands which an unquestionably erroneous “private interpretation” imposes are surely burden* some. The following paragraph from The Nation will show why:
Let us look at the situation of an average Mormon, says Nils Neilson, a convert emigrant from Sweden. For twenty years Nils has faithfully parted with $100 out of his $1,000 annual wage. He has also contributed freely to the maintenance of his chapel, and has paid a monthly “fast offering” and annual dues to auxiliary church organizations—never to a labor union, for the church frowns on them. He has paid genealogy experts to discover members of his lowly family tree so that he can perform rituals for their salvation in the temples. Every spare penny has gone to support his eldest son, who for three years will be preaching Mormonism abroad, in Czechoslovakia perhaps, or Tahiti. . . . Nils, however, cannot be the only Mormon who is beginning to realize that his heavy contributions have materially lowered his capacity for saving and investing, and for tiding himself over unemployment. The fact that in 1935 there were proportionally 25 percent more Mormons than Gentiles on relief in Salt Lake County is an indication of the serious depletion in personal resources resulting from the church’s exactions from its members, for they cannot truthfully be said to be less thrifty or industrious than are their Gentile neighbors. [Mormons call all others Gentiles.]
Religion in the Schools
The question of religion in the schools by means of “released time” also had its innings in Salt Lake City. Said Newsweek (August 30, 1943):
Led by the Salt Lake Ministerial Association, whose 40 Protestant denominations represented its major strength, the opposition protested loudly at the meeting through Dr. Robert D. Steele, president of Westminister College. The proposal, he argued, “tends to place minority religion at a distinct disadvantage.” Others resented it as an attempt to mix church and state, while one man shouted: “If there is anything left in these United States that is 100 percent democratic, it is our school system. Let’s keep it as it is.” . . . the majority of the [school] board was in favor of released time.
In other parts of Utah released time has been an accepted practice for years.
The Polygamy Trials
Thirty-four so-called “cultists” were brought to trial September 15 for alleged conspiracy to practice polygamy. These trials stirred up a great deal of interest in the city of Brigham Young and in Utah generally. It was, however, but one aspect of the issue, which is always before the mind of the average Mormon. Many of them are children of plural marriages, while all are expected to believe in the “revelation” that not only permits it, but enjoins it upon the most solemn adjurations; Of the 34 originally charged the jury convicted 31. They filed a motion for a new trial. In course of the trial, efforts were made to introduce "Doctrine and Covenants’ of the Mormon Church. It strongly advo-vates polygamy. There seemed to be a studied effort to prevent it as evidence. To do so not only would depreciate its value to the lay members of the church (who generally have not studied its contents), but would also make it less suitable for the making of proselytes.
The Fundamentalists (as this group of Mormons is called) encourage plurality of wives, and the sentences involved fifteen men, who had 55 wives and 283 children. The defense took occasion to mention that there were 886 cases of sexual immorality in Salt Lake City in a single year. Whether this was mentioned by way of commending the practice of polygamy remains in doubt.
One of the defendants said that he was a member of the fourth generation of polygamists and was proud of it. He admitted having six wives and 26 children, saying, “It’s easier to live with a half dozen wives than one, since they compete for the attention of their husband.” .
The lawyer referred to the defendants as “these churchless” people, for many of them were excommunicated from the Mormon church. He said they taught the Mormon doctrines, “no more, no less,” and that “this is but a conflict between two groups in the one church”.
The Fundamental nature of the conflict seems to indicate that the Mormon empire is indeed at the crossroads, a situation which is not helped by the existing world conditions. True, apparently not many Mormons are directly involved in the controversy, but if the ax is laid at the root of a tree it doesn’t matter much whether the branches are cut off or not.
Are You Afraid of Rats?
WHY, no, of course not I Who would be afraid of a little creature ten inches long, even if his tail is another seven inches! Well, if you are not afraid of rats, then you are not connected with the rat-exterminating companies (300 of them in New York city), all the personnel of which admit that they never see them without a certain amount of terror. Did you know that if you strike at a rat with a cane or mopstick he may run right up the stick and tear the thumbnail off your hand almost before you know it?
Did you know that a pair of rats will empty a case of eggs in a few minutes, and without breaking one of them? A young rat clutches an egg with his four paws; then he rolls over on his back; the rest is easy. The older rat grabs him by the tail and drags him to the hole in the baseboard leading to the nest. Then they go back for another egg.
Did you know that 200 rats will enter a meat-storage room and take away a quarter of beef that none of them can reach? They form a pyramid of rats with their bodies. Then a chosen one jumps to the beef, runs up it, cuts the cord that holds it, and the feast is on. This was witnessed by a rat-exterminator, who also saw the egg removal above.
Did you know that city rats consider traps a joke, kick them around until they snap, and then eat the bait? Did you know that they can tell poisons a yard away, and that the only way to keep rats out of a building is to so design it that there are no places where they can lurk? And furthermore, did you know that a building may be entirely cleared of rats one day and in two days ft will be thick with them again?
I Did yon know that a rat can jump two -s feet two inches vertically? And that they are greatly feared by firemen 1 And . that they bite babies severely; also ; sleeping adults? Also, that they7 can run fleetly on a wire or on a rope, using the tail as a balance? Or climb a pipe?
Did y7ou know that rats are earth’s greatest vandals? That in a night one will ruin all the apples and pears in a grocery, gnawing on a few and methodically cutting all the others to get at the seeds; that it will destroy great quantities of garments, rugs, upholstery, and books, and that in a few hours a herd will rip holes in hundreds of sacks of flour, grain, coffee, and other foodstuffs?
Did you know that there are as many rats in New York city as there are humans; that they7 are fond of eating the heads of matches; that they often build their nests of oily rags, and that hence they7 are often the cause of conflagration? ' .
Did ymu know that houses and meat markets, produce houses, stables, tenements, garages, warehouses, and buildings near the water front, unless designed to be ratproof (which can readily be done), may get into such condition that nothing can be done with them but tear them down?
Did you know that one pair of rats can have seven litters in seven months, with 5 to 22 at a litter, and that the children grow rapidly and are able to breed when four months old? And did you know that they7 are banner spreaders of bubonic plague and other diseases? And that dirt floors are rat heavens^ And that city rats are on the move in the streets around 2:30 to 4:30 a.m., when they may7 sometimes be seen slinking in the gutters, looking for some choice garbage or other tidbits such as they enjoy?
In the article in The New Yorker from which these facts are taken, a ratexterminator is quoted as saying:
We swear by the glucboard. It’s simply a composition shingle smeared on one side with a thick, strong, black glue. . . . The shingle is pliable. It can be laid flat on the floor or bent, around a pipe. We place them on rat runs; . . . you have to be an expert to locate [these]. We lay bait around the boards. If any part of the animal touches a board, he’s done for. When he tries to pull away, he gets himself firmly7 eaught in the glue. . . . Next morning the rat, glueboard and all, is picked up with tongs and burned.
John and Mary
< < TOHN, you always have a sweet
V smile when you come home at night, hut, somehow, it looks a little sweeter tonight than usual. What’s up?”
“Lots of things. A salesman dropped in at the office today; and when I say that he dropped in, that tells it just as it is. He came down by7 helicopter in the vacant lot next door to the office. I noticed that he had the new Justi nonskid, sound-proof, crystal-clear false teeth we are reading about. I say 1 noticed it, but it was he that mentioned it,
Keep Up to Date
after I had remarked that his helicopter had a plastic body. He said, ‘Why, they are making almost everything of plasties nowadays; even my false teeth are plastics’ ; and then he told me about this Philadelphia invention.”
“Yes, but you don’t have to have false teeth, John. I keep plenty of minerals going down your heck, and you don’t have much soft food, so your teeth have plenty of exercise, and I’ll bet you won’t need false teeth yet for another 25 years. What was it he came to see you about?”
“Ha-ha! Same old feminine trait of curiosity. Oh, he just dropped in to show me the new Avery calculator, the most versatile and compact thing you can imagine. On the keyboard there are but the nine digits and the naught key, but with the eight operating buttons you can add, subtract, divide or multiply to your heart’s content, and when the appropriate keys are pressed, your answer appears automatically in the accumulator at the top of the machine. I think this Californian has all the old calculator-patenters beat a mile.”
“Well, of course, being an ex-Califor-nian, you would, like all the rest of them that come east, naturally think that anything one of them indented would beat the rest of the inventions in the same line. But I don’t hold that against you. It’s merely what we easterners call a California idiosyncrasy. It’s the climate. It affects the children when they are little, and they never get over it. And when they get old they still babble about it."
“S-sh! Now, Mary, that wasn’t all. Three other salesmen came in, and they all had remarkably interesting things to talk about.”
“Ha-ha! All right'; I suppose they were all from California. Go ahead with your confession. You are granted absolution in advance.”
“All right, I had the first laugh and you had the second one; so we are even. The first salesman was telling about the new Panama City, Panama, hydraulic jack. This built-in mechanism for automobiles and trucks is wonderful. All a driver has to do to change a tire is to push a button ; a jack drops down at the proper wheel; and the engine Of the car operates the pump which works the jack. Bing go the puncture worries. Anybody can change a tire with the use of this device. The second salesman was boosting the new Illinois invention of refrigeration by spraying dry ice on the inside of freight cars and trucks: this is as far ahead of the old system of ice refrigeration as a modern airplane is ahead of a packhorse. The third salesman was telling me about the Ottawa, Ontario, invention which geophonetical-ly protects hard-rock miners by enabling them to read the peculiar murmurings that precede a rockburst. All of these inventions are outstanding; they are from Panama, Illinois and Canada.”
Of Special Interest to Women
“AU right, John, I am interested in these new inventions, too. I have been reading about the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Duncan, Jr., Chicago. As you know, the house is of glass; it uses the sun’s rays as an auxiliary to the gas-fired hot-water floor radiant heating system. The Public Service Company of Northern Illinois had calculated that it would cost $180 to heat the house; the use of sunshine cut the bill to $120. No artificial heat was required on any day when the sun came out from behind the clouds. On the coldest day of the year, when the thermometer dropped to 17 below outside, it was 95 during the middle of the afternoon and the furnace had been off since morning. What’s more, at no time was artificial light needed in any part of the house during daylight hours; so there was a saving in the light bills also. And, as you know, I am for saving money wherever it can be saved. And I would rather have the sunlight than electric lights, any time.”
“Now, Mary, the next thing, you will be wanting me to buy a glass house. Maybe it would be a good thing. Girls that live in glass houses won’t dare throw stones at ex-Californians. Didn’t I hear something like that, somewhere?’’ Mary responds:
. “And, talking about inventions, how about that new device for wrapping eggs in a sheet of rubber ? The. eggs are sealed, and will keep almost indefinitely if kept in a reasonably cool place; they can be sold and handled in chain form; and the film tends to keep the eggs from breaking. This opens up a brand-new
field for the handling of eggs. I heard about that only this morning. That’s an ■ Ohio invention. In the same general field of thought is the patent of a Seattle man who. protects fruit, first with a rubber coating and then a hard-drying resin. A projecting tab enables one to peel the jfruit almost instantaneously, but it stays
•z fresh until the peeling takes place. But of greatest interest to me, personally, is that New Jersey invention of a needle threader. An arm comes out, sticks through the eye of the needle a tiny hook, which grabs the thread and yanks it back through the aperture quicker than you can say ‘Jack Robinson’, But I think a great deal also of the new form of phonograph record which is substantially a cord of any length which, as it is played, is unwound from one spool and rewound on another. What a wonderful world this is getting to be; isn’t it ?”
Juvenile Delinquency
THE Federal Bureau, of Investigation in the two years after Pearl Harbor was frankly worried over the fact that there was an increase of 130.4 percent in the number of girls below 21 years of age that were arrested; in the case of the boys there was a 7.6 percent decline, though the number of the boys was about four times that of the girls. In New York city, during school hours, New York police questioned 240 girls that had skipped school for the movies. The mayor thought the best cure for them was an old-fashioned spanking; and he may have been right at that. While the New York authorities were grappling with this problem, a noted sociologist, Mrs. Lee Steiner, M.D., made this statement, as illustrating the present conditions:
This has been my experience. A 17-year-old girl comes and says: “Dr. Steiner, I want you to try to persuade my parents to take a more reasonable attitude. They don’t want me tQ pass my week-ends at an Army camp with my boy friend.” So I warn her of venereal diseases. But she says the boy has no venereal disease. Then I warn her of the danger of pregnancy. But it turns out the boy has learned all about preventing pregnancy from his pals in the Army. Then I warn her of the danger of detection, and ask her what she’d do if there should be an accident. The girl says: “Well, I like kids, anyhow!”
Discussing this same general subject, the New York Times had this, to say of an address in New York city by J. Edgar
Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation:
As Mr. Hoover told a DAR audience in this city this week:
Thirteen percent of all murderers arrested last year were under 21 years of age, as were 59 percent of all robbers, 55 percent of all burglars, S'? percent of all thieves, 32 percent of all rapists, and 65 percent of all car thieves. More boys 17 years of age and more girls 18 years of age were arrested than in any other age group.
These statistics are disheartening only as they show an increase in youthful and juvenile crime. Some of this increase is no doubt due to war conditions. The same phenomenon was noted in England during the first two years of the present war. We may as well face the truth that war always tends to upset private notions of right and wrong, and so to encourage crime; and we may add this to our general indictment of the warmakers.
The Need of Education
Mr. Hoover seems to realize that what the young need is education, true education, a knowledge of God; because in a separate article in the Times he goes on to say:
Any consideration of youthful misbehavior must take into account youth’s natural desire for excitement. Most of us experienced in our youth an overwhelming desire to be “grown up” all at once—to plunge into the independence, excitement and adventure of adult life. This normal urge of imaginative youth needs sympathy, direction and supervision if trouble is to lie avoided in later years.
Typical is the case of a little girl of 14 who lived with her parents and fourteen brothers and sisters in Illinois, To assist in her family’s finances, she occasionally did housework in the homes of other people, where she learned of luxuries which her father and mother had not been able to afford. As she went about her tasks, she drew dream pictures of the day when she would have the nice things she wanted.
One day, acting on impulse, she took more than $1,000 from the home of a wealthy woman by whom she was employed. Fortified with a contingent of five other youngsters she quickly collected, Ruth went on a spending orgy such as she had never known. The girls toured their home city,- buying gallons of milk shakes, having permanent waves, decorating their nails a scarlet hue and .buying $30 roller skates. Ruth even remembered her hard-working mother with an orchid corsage and a new model gas stove. Her Cinderella trail led her directly to the juvenile court. In search of excitement, she simply went the way of least resistance. Under supervision of juvenile authorities she will begin again to live a better life. -
The war’s influence can be seen in the case of a boy whom we will call Jack. Working in a shoe factory in his Indiana home town, Jack thought life was pretty, tame in comparison with that of some of his older friends in the armed services. Jack was too young to enlist, but he was smart enough to purchase a uniform from an ex-Navy man. Thus togged out, he made his way among strangers each night talking glibly of his exciting life at the Great Lakes Naval Rase. Interviewed by special agents of the FBI after he had been reported by several persons who doubted his truthfulness, Jack frankly admitted that he had worn the uniform for the thrill it gave him and, in his own words, £<1 thought this would impress the girls, as a uniform usually does.”
. . , Our wandering girls, boy saboteurs and thrill-seekers are all children of the war, crying for intelligent adult attention. . . , What can be done? The answer is neither mysterious nor difficult. Juvenile delinquency must be met in the home and in the community. All persons who bear the blessed title of “parent” have the personal responsibility to see that their children are growing up fully appreciative of the rights of God and their fellow men.
The Cure of Tantrums
In the Chicago Daily News Angelo Patri tells how to deal with a three-year-old boy who starts out to boss the home. She writes well. She proposes . three calm treatments; the first is to remove the animal to a quiet room and leave him there with the door shut, and without a kind word; the second is to wash his face gently and put him to bed, without a word of explanation; the third is, if all else fails, to douse him thoroughly with cold water, then rub him down, with no remarks, and no kind words, and put him to bed. She says it works; and it seems as if it would.
One wonders how George Seldes, editor of In Fact, succeeded in his attempt to rid the American Legipn of tantrums. Jie mentioned (March 22, 1943) that the Legion was founded t by corporation funds; most of its commanders were corporation men; several commanders endorsed Fascism; the Legion was much used for strikebreaking; it has never denounced Fascism; year after year it has been listed as No. 1 enemy of civil liberties (and is therefore properly treated only in an article on juvenile delinquency) ; that it is controlled by a handful of politicians and corporation lawyers; that when one Legion post published an article in favor of real Americanism the I-egion moved to suppress it; and that only one-fourth of the men entitled to belong were ever members. Seldes’ plan * was that the real soldiers, not merely the arm-swingers and loud-talkers, should join the Legion and take over the management, and thus make it an American instead of an un-American organization.
Conditions in Canada and Britain
Juvenile delinquency rose in Canada
from 238 cases per 100,000 in 1911 to 726 eases in 1942, and during the war period conviction^ in the Canadian Juvenile Court rose from 67 per 100,000 in 1939 to 101 in 1942. In Britain in the latter ^year there were 19,000 convictions of ^children between the ages of 8 and 16, Svhich was an increase of 25 percent over the previous year. The rate has been mounting steadily since the war began. The number of child delinquencies has risen during the war from three or four ' per thousand to eight or nine per thousand. The number of girls between 14 and 16 who appeared in courts, throughout the country in 1942 was 125 percent above the figure for the previous year.
Commenting on this subject the British paper Cavalcade said:
A concomitant phenomenon has been an increase of 70 percent in venereal diseases in the country at large. Among girls between 13 and 16 the spread of venereal disease has been described as appalling, and is proportionally larger than in any other section of the community. The main causes of the situation are obvious. Fathers are in uniform, mothers are on war work, and the children, left to shift for themselves, are drifting easily into bad company and crime.
Among boys, the craving for excitement, induced partly by premature, monotonous war work and by relatively high earnings, finds outlet in petty crimes against property, in rowdyism and vandalism.
Bright Outlook for Cotton Pickers
THE following, taken from the January (1945) Monthly Bank Letter of the National City Bank of New York, tells what is ahead for the cotton pickers ; not the flesh-and-blood1 cotton pickers ; mercy no! They can sit on the fence and watch the machines go by. They can wish that they owned the machines, if that will do them any good. The new pickers won’t have to worry about rent, taxes, coal bills, ice bills, milk bills, grocery bills, clothing bills, shoe bills, furniture bills, doctor bills, dentist bills, optical bills, funeral bills, toy bills, or education bills. And they won’t need to invest any money in imaginary “purgatory’’ or “hell-fire”, for the old pickers will be in the real thing; that is, they will be unemployed. But see:
For many years the vision of mechanical cotton pickers, especially, has attracted pioneers and inventors, and their work is now bearing fruit to an extent which the general public has not yet realized. During the past season, cotton has been produced successfully on the 2,000-acre Hopson plantation, at Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the flat Delta region, on a completely mechanized basis, employing no hand labor, and using improved mechanical pickers. Not only was the soil preparation and planting performed mechanically, but insecticides and chemicals for defoliation were applied from airplanes, and cultivation done by flame throwers.
The development of chemical defoliation, a process which destroys most of the leaves on the cotton plant just prior to harvest, is almost as important a contribution to mechanical picking as the perfection of the harvester itself; for a major obstacle to successful picking by machine has been the tendency of the barbed revolving spindles to pick the leaves as well as the cotton. The flame cultivator is an ingenious device which throws an oil flame under compression along the rows and kills grass and weeds without injury to the cotton plant. On this plantation the chopping operation, which, next to harvesting, is the greatest consumer of man-hours in cotton growing, is entirely eliminated. ,
The mechanical cotton harvester picks in a day as much cotton as 60 hand operators usually pick. On the Hopson plantation, where accurate records have been kept, the cost for machine-picking a bale of cotton in 1943 was $5.26, compared with a cost of $39,41 per bale for hand-picking on the same plantation. After deducting for the lower grade of the
machine-picked cotton, the saving was $24.82 per bale as against the hand-picked cotton. Thus, on the harvesting operation alone mechanization has reduced cot ton-growing costs by 5c a pound, which is nearly 25 percent of its present selling price.
Just a
NOTHING on earth can smile but man.
Gems may reflect light; but what is a diamond flash compared to an eye flash and a mirth flash? Flowers cannot smile; this is a charm that even they cannot claim. It is the prerogative of man; it is the color that love wears, a cheerfulness and joy; these three. It is the light in the
Smile
windows of the face by which the heart signifies that it is at home waiting. A face that cannot smile is like a bud that cannot blossom and dries up on the stalk. Laughter is day, and sobriety is night, A smile is the twilight that hovers jointly between both, more bewitching than either.-—Henry Ward Beecher.
Peter of Bruys—Protestant
PETER of Bruys seems to have been the first of thorough-going Protestants against the pretensions and deceptions of the Hierarchical setup of Rome. He laid his ax at the root of the tree, and for two hundred years the truths he proclaimed were held by numerous Christians in the south of France, where in 1104 Peter began his work of reform.
Peter of Bruys was a priest and had opportunity to become thoroughly acquainted with the things which in later life he loathed as aids to deception. He resigned his priesthood. The Catholic Encyclopedia says it Was taken from him.- But that can be understood. Peter certainly wanted none of it and made his convictions known in clear terms. In the case of Peter of Bruys, as in that of other faithful and honest men, we have to go to the writings of his enemies to get what little information we now can get about him. The encyclopedias that give mention of him draw their information, therefore, principally from what an abbot in the south of Fitmee wrote about him; for Peter must have given the abbot considerable food for thought. His followers were called Petrobrusians (less correctly, Petrobusians). Under that head the McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia says: -
At first the preaching of Peter seems to have been confined to the inculcation of a system of general morality; but time and impunity so favored him that he attacked the seeds of dogmatic errors. The capital charges upon which he is arraigned are: (1) He rejected infant baptism, alleging that no miraculous gifts were possible in that ceremony, which he declared to be wholly void when performed on the person of an irresponsible infant. (2) He denied that any special sanctity resided in consecrated buildings; forbidding the erection of churches, and directing that such churches as did exist should be pulled down. (3) In particular he objected to the worship of the cross, alleging that the accursed tree should be held in horror by all Christians as the instrument of the torture and death of the Redeemer. (4) He denied all sort of real presence in the Eucharist [bread and wine]. Whether or not he retained the office of the communion as a memorial rite is not known. (5) He was bitterly opposed to prayers, oblations, alms, and other good deeds done on behalf of the dead.
After twenty years of zealous activity, so-called “Christians” who set great store by crosses and other sacred junk threw’ Peter into the flames; but that did not stop the noble work he had begun. Other faithful men and women continued to preach the simple truths of God’s Word, rejecting all aids to deception.
Among such was Henry of Lausanne who, like Peter, believed that one could pray to God quite as acceptably in a stable as in “church”. In another issue something will be said of Inm.
The Catholic Encyclopedia1s article the Petrobrusians gives some infor-rtiation, more or less confirming the fore-v going, but adding some characteristic touches. It mentions that Peter’s con-. tempt for the church was extended to the clergy. It was probably the other way about; for Peter had opportunity to learn all about the clergy before he concluded that the church that used them was not worthy of serious consideration. The Catholic Encyclopedia says:
In his system baptism is indeed a necessary condition for salvation, but it is baptism preceded by personal faith, so that its administration to infants is worthless. The Mass and the Eucharist are rejected because Jesus Christ gave His flesh and blood but once to his disci-pies, and repetition is impossible. All external forms of worship, ceremonies and chant, are condemned. As the church consists not in walls but in the community of the faithful, church buildings should be destroyed, for we may pray to God in a barn as well as in a church, and be heard, if worthy, in a stable as well as before an altar. No good works of the living can profit the dead. Crosses as the instrument of the death of Christ, cannot deserve veneration; hence they were for the Petrobrusians objects of desecration and were destroyed in bonfires.
The Americana has an item on the Petrobrusians also. It calls them extremists, and spells the “Real Presence” with capital letters, but admits that believers in the “Real Presence” of Christ in the bread and wine formed a mob and burned Peter to death at Saint Gilles, near Nimes, in 1124,
The Britannica ignores Peter and the Petrobrusians altogether.
HO! ALL YE MEEK
“Good tidings unto the MEEK.”—Isaiah 61:1.
“The MEEK will he teach his way.”—Psalm 25: 9, “The MEEK shall eat and be satisfied,”—Psalm 22: 26.
“He will beautify the MEEK with salvation.”—Psalm 149:4.
“The MEEK also shall increase their joy.”—Isaiah 29:19.
“Blessed are the MEEK: for they shall inherit the earth.”—Matthew 5:5.
Some of these blessings you may realize at once, and others you may look forward to with keen joy after reading the new 32-page Watchtower publication
‘The Meek Inherit the Earth*
As yon read your copy you will find yourself more and more desirous of being one of those meek ones who will indeed inherit the earth. Single copies of this booklet are available now upon a contribution of 5c. Watch for later announcement of how you may obtain more copies for distribution to your friends.
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WATCHTOWER 117 Adams St. Brooklyn 1, N. Y.
Please send me a single copy of the new Watchtower publication ‘The Meek Inherit the Earth'.
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Presenting “This Gospel of the Kingdom”
Bible Versions and Manuscripts
EHOVAH’S living Word stirs to action now, even as during six millenniums that Word—first spoken, later written—enlivened a long line of others of His witnesses who faithfully served Him at His footstool.
Under control of the irresistibly powerful spirit of the Eternal One marvelous things were written by “Moses and all the prophets”, including- writers who lived and worked with the Prophet, the Greater Moses.
Within three centuries before Jesus’ day, world domination by Persia had given way to that of Greece. Then it was that Greek had become the common lan-■ guage of dwellers around ’tile eastern end of the Mediterranean, Then, too, it was that the Septuagint (LXX), most famous Greek translation or version of the Hebrew Scriptures, came into existence, at Alexandria, Egypt. As to the time and method of its translation, the Septuagint is distinguishable among many others in this, that it is a primary version. Versions are either primary, made directly from the original text, or secondary, made from a version or translation of the original text. Scholars regard the Septuagint as valuable because translated into Greek from Hebrew manuscripts much older than any Hebrew manuscripts now existing. The Old Testament portions of the Sinaitic, Vatican and Alexandrine manuscripts are the Septuagint version. It was the version in use in the days of Jesus and His apostles, and their quotations are made from it.
The “Old Testament” in its Greek dress appealed to the non-Jewish world and became a valued weapon in the armory of the followers of “the Lion of the tribe of Juda”. It was not, however, on account of any literary charm of this Greek version. Educated readers were offended by its poor style, but this very poverty sometimes attracted. For example, in the second century A.D. Tatian, concerning the S eptuagint, wrote: “When I was giving my most earnest attention to discover the truth, I happened to meet w'ith certain barbaric writings, too old to be compared with the opinions of the Greeks, and too divine to be compared with their errors, and I was led to put faith in these by the unpretending cast of the language, the inartificial character of the writers, the foreknowledge displayed of future events, the excellent quality of the precepts and the declaration of the government of the Universe as centered in one Being.”
In the Septuagint the Creator’s name Jehovah is not found. Instead, its translators used the Greek -words ho kyrios, meaning “the Lord”, thus making their contribution toward obscuring the glorious name revealed first by the Eternal One to Moses and w'hich name is found over six thousand times in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Syriac, an Aramaic dialect, was very nearly the language used by the people in the territory in which our Father had assigned Jesus to announce the Kingdom at hand while He looked for the ‘lost sheep of Israel’. Until about the second century followers »of Jesus used the Greek Septuagint version. About the same time, Syrian Christians produced . the Syriac version. Syriac has the same 22 letters as Hebrew. Their forms were ultimately derived from the Old Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets. Peshito (Pe-shitta or Peschilta), meaning “simple”, “faithful,” is the name given to the authorized Syriac Version of the “Old” and the greater part of the “New Testament”. The Syriac Version of the “Old Testament” also was made directly from the Hebrew7. It is extremely faithful. Some of its portions are claimed to have been prepared in the days of Solomon
and Hiram. Other interesting details about this version can be found in the “Introduction” for Murdock’s English translation of the Syriac “New Testament”. In that English rendering of James 1:26,27, we find that fatally effec-\tive stab to religion: “And if any one ithinketh that he worshippeth God, and doth not restrain his tongue, but his heart deceiveth him; his worship is vain. For the worship that is pure and holy before God the Father is this: to visit . the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and that one keep himself unspotted from the world.”
During the fourth century after Christ, while the pagan Roman empire that had supplanted Greece still dominated the world, an outstanding Latin version of the Bible appeared. With it are linked the arduous labors of Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus, commonly known as Jerome, a native of Dalmatia, which today is western Hungary. He went to Rome, and there studied Latin and Greek; then to Antioch in Syria, where he studied Hebrew; and later to Constantinople, for more study of Greek. For many years he lived at Bethlehem in Palestine. While at Rome he served as literary secretary of Rome’s bishop or caretaker who, after dying, and without his previous knowledge, came to be called Pope Damasus I, and also “Saint Damasus”. That pope, say the Hierarchy’s preseift-day historical accounts, ordered Jerome to make that Latin translation. More accurately, however, it can be said that A.D. 382 Damasus invited Jerome to come back to Rome and asked him to make a better Latin version of the Bible. Acting on that invitation, Jerome first revised the Old Latin version then in lise and, after Damasus’ death, made the complete new Latin version, to this day known as the Vulgate. More details regarding Jerome and his work are given in Consolation magazine for February 28, 1945.
The Christians were the first ones to specialize in manuscripts put up in book form with pages and lids, and not in rolls. Such a manuscript book is called a codex. In the latter half of the fourth century A.D. such a codex was written and which is known today as Vatican Manuscript No. 1209. This is the most ancient of all, so far as can be judged. The evidence is that it was written in Egypt. In course.of time it found its way into the Vatican library at Rome, where for the first time it appears in the library’s catalogue of books of 1481. It originally contained, in Greek, not in Latin, the whole Bible, but has lost parts thereof, including the last book, The Revelation, or The Apocalypse. It never included the spurious books of the Maccabees. It has three columns to the page.
The Vatican long begrudged to Bible researchers, such as Count Tischen-dorf, a brief sight of this Vatican MS. No. 1209. Finally, in 1868, the papal authorities issued an edition of the so-called “New Testament” part of the MS., which was followed in successive years by volumes containing the so-called “Old Testament”. In 1889-1890 all previous publications thereof were backed up by a photographic facsimile copy of the whole original manuscript. The Emphatic Diaglott, published exclusively by the Watchtower Society, makes use of a great portion of this manuscript.
Second to Vatican MS. No. 1209 in rank is the Sinaitic, also written in the fourth century. It was found in the Greek Catholic monastery at Mount Sinai in Arabia, by Count Tischendorf, in 1859, and is now at the British Museum in London since 1933. It is in Greek, and originally contained the whole Bible, of which the “New Testament” part of it is practically complete, including The Revelation, or The Apocalypse, four columns to a page.
The next manuscript in rank is the. Alexandrine MS., written in the fifth century, in Egypt. By the Greek Catholic patriarch Cyril Lucar, who brought
it from Alexandria to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1621, it was presented to King James I of England, the monarch who caused the King James Version of the English Bible to be produced. The manuscript was actually received by King Charles I in '1627, King James having died before the gift took effect. It is in the British Museum. It once contained the whole Bible in Greek.
An Answer to the Question—
“TN WHAT way may Jehovah’s wit-J- nesses, as Americans, be said to be doing their part in the preservation of the American Way of living?”
The Supreme Court has declared the Witnesses a “legal religion” with the right to practice their faith in the manner necessary by conscience to it. The acknowledgment by the Supreme Court that the beliefs of the Witnesses are “legal” and within the Constitution makes their faith then in keeping with American ideals. To put God Almighty first is the old-fashioned American way of doing; and that is what the Witnesses do.
The Witnesses are law-abiding. When their work is interrupted by mischiefmakers, by mobs who seek to harm them, the Witnesses appeal to the police and to the courts for protection and for a plain statement of fact: that their work is legal and has been so acknowledged by the Supreme Court.
Mob action is unlawful action. The Witnesses, by their continued work in face of trouble and persecution, disclose for the agents of justice and for all fair-minded citizens the identity of those individuals who go to make up the law. less element in their community. This is helpful work and American work; and it is also dangerous work for the Witnesses.
The literature published by the Witnesses is the kind that all true Americans should rejoice to read. All Americans who believe that Almighty God is alone the Author of our salvation, and that the Bible is His Word, would do well to diligently study these helps to Bible understanding published by the Watchtower. All true Americans interested in present-world events as foretold in Bible prophecy should read and profit by the books and magazines. . . . they will gain a clearer understanding of what freedom of worship really means. . . . they will read of men imprisoned for years now in German concentration camps, tortured above all other prisoners, day in, week out, month after month, because of their unwavering allegiance to Almighty God, Jehovah. . . . perhaps these readers will ask themselves a question, “Do I love Almighty God enough to suffer as these Witnesses are suffering? What other group of men, caught by the dread Gestapo, can stand unquailing before him and his unleashed animal fury? What other group in Germany cannot be forced to heil Hitler? Does this not represent courage of the highest kind? Is it not perhaps the same kind of courage that faced and conquered the “insurmountable obstacles” at Valley Forge ?
Some day soon, please God, the light that His people hold in His name will burst across the eternal heavens, the unquenchable and unconquerable light of the spirit shining'like a meteor for the people of all the oppressed countries of this tortured world, that they may be enlightened and acknowledge Him whose name alone is Jehovah and that they may be comforted in the certain promise that He will overthrow the totalitarian forces of evil. The pure worship of the Almighty wdll be restored. Men will walk humbly before their God; as American men once walked and prospered, a long time ago.—A.S., Florida.
The gladsome cry
v “The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand”
was stilled at the death of the King, and, search as you may, there is no record that any such announcement was made after the year 33 A.D. But now, once again, after a silence nineteen hundred years long, the message “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” is going forth in the greatest publicity campaign of all human history. Religionists of “Christendom” challenge that message. How, then, are we to know that the message is true and properly timed? Only by comparing the message with the events foretold in God’s own timepiece, the Bible, and presented in grand summation in the new Watchtower publication of 384 pages “THE KINGDOM 18 AT HAND”. Emblazoned on a handsome wine-red cloth cover in bold golden characters its title throws back the challenge to man’s religionized postwar world—
“THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND”
Your personal copy of this book is available by sending in your contribution of 25c to aid in this ‘greatest publicity campaign’. A copy will be forwarded by return mail, along with a companion publication, One World, One Government, a timely, up-to-the-minute 32-page commentary on the crucial world conditions of our day. ,
WATCHTOWER, 117 Adams St., Brooklyn 1, N.Y.
Enclosed is my contribution of 25c to aid in advertising the Kingdom. Please send me by return mail a copy of the book “The Kingdom Is at Hand” and the booklet One World, One Government.
Name
City ............
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................ Postal Unit No........... State
32
CONSOLATION
