When 1$ God Pleased with Your Worship?

Ecumenical Councils—Milestones in the Development of Catholicism

Do You Take Aspirin?

New World Society Expansion in Drazil

JANUARY 8, 1964

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The Bible translation regilarly used In "Awata!" Is the New World Translation of the Holy Scrlptiree, 1961 edition. When other translations ar* tied, thl* Is dearly nirtai

iir^»iw iw uii^mihi^»ih iii im^»ini^»» n Kir ■

CONTENTS

The Best Defense, an Offense

When Is God Pleased with Your Worship? 5

Ecumenical Councils—Milestones in the

Development of Catholicism

Do You Take Aspirin?

Garden Guests from South

of the Rio Grande

New World Society Expansion in Brazil

Directed to Meetings

“Your Word Is Truth”

Rulers with Christ

Watching the World

THAT the best defense is an offense, or an attack, history has testified time and again; even away back in Bible times. Thus the early inhabitants of Jerusalem felt so secure in their mountain stronghold of Zion that they disdained to go out to meet the attackers but taunted that even the blind and the lame would be able to defend them. However, attack or offense proved stronger, and King David took that stronghold and made it his city. —2 Sam. 5:6-9.

Some five hundred years later ancient Babylon likewise felt supremely secure, surrounded as she was by her massive walls and gates, and with even a river included in her defenses. But fall she did, in 539 B.C., to the Medes and the Persians. Coming to modern times, we learn of the failures of the French Maginot Line, of the German (Nazi) West Wall or Siegfried Line and of the defenses in northern France that the Allies breached on D-Day. Yes, how often have those who have put their chief trust in defense instead of offense come to grief!—Dan. 5:30, 31.

The Communists use the principle that the best defense is an offense, perhaps more so than do their opponents. In spite of the fact—or is it because of the fact ?— that their case is morally bankrupt and they have little more than bondage to offer to the common people, they protect their vulnerable position by taking the initiative, by attacking, by creating “phony” issues, thus putting their opponents on the defensive.

Not that this principle that the best defense is an offense applies only to military warfare or to the cold war of political and economic ideologies. Not at all! In all the realms of life, wherever there is conflict, or wherever security is threatened, it may be confidently stated that offense, or the attack, is better than merely a defense.

Thus this principle can be applied to one’s continuing in right conduct in spite of the opposition of the world, the flesh and the Devil. One of the chief factors contributing to wrongdoing and especially to juvenile delinquency is idleness. Keeping youths busy in honest, gainful work is one of the best safeguards against their becoming involved in crime, according to one veteran juvenile court judge. And while many youths complain of lack of opportunities to work, this judge has found that invariably they could find a job if faced with the alternative of doing so or of going to a reformatory or a prison.

The same principle applies to one’s weaknesses, shortcomings or bad habits. Is your weakness spending money foolishly? Instead of moralizing continually, “I must not spend money foolishly,” take the initiative, the positive approach. Set yourself a goal to save a certain amount of your wages or salary for some very desirable or worthwhile object so that there just is not much left for you to spend foolishly.

Or is your weakness that of wasting time? Try a similar approach. Set for yourself desirable goals that require added time: reading a certain amount of good literature, including the Bible, or branching out in activities that bring honor to God and comfort to your neighbor. Added worthwhile interests will soon keep you so busy that you will no longer be plagued with the problem of how to keep from squandering your time.—Eph. 5:15, 16.

This principle about the best defense being an offense clearly has application to Christianity, which is beset by many foes on every hand. Jesus Christ, its Founder, took the initiative, the offensive. Of him we read: “He went journeying from city to city and from village to village, preaching and declaring the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him.” He sent forth his apostles and disciples to do the same, and just before his ascension he gave all his followers the commission to take the offensive by making disciples of people of all nations.—Luke 8:1; 10:1; Matt. 28:19, 20.

However, the religious organizations of Christendom, though professing to be followers of Jesus Christ, with few exceptions do little more than tell their members how to defend themselves, if they do that much. Rarely do they urge their members to take the initiative, to go on the offensive. No wonder that Jesuit Robert I. Gannon, former .president of Fordham University, complained last June that during 1962 the Roman Catholic Church in the United States had gained but 125,000 converts, at the same time losing 118,000 members. According to him, the lag in growth of his church spells “disaster unless the present trend is reversed.”

Speaking as a Protestant, William Sloan Coffin, chaplain of Yale University, was recently quoted as saying: “We’ve never had attendance so high and influence so low, and maybe the two are not unrelated.” But what else can be expected? How can religious organizations exert a powerful influence for good when they are content with their members being on the defensive?

Jesuit Gannon further stated that “last year it took 340 Catholics 365 days to make one American like their Church well enough to join it. In the same length of time ... nine Jehovah’s witnesses did what it took 340 Catholics to do.” Why? No doubt one reason is that the Witnesses are urged to take the offensive, whereas, with few exceptions Gannon’s coreligionists are content with being on the defensive.

Yes, while Christians are commanded to make a defense to everyone that demands of them a reason for their hope, they are also commanded to let their light shine, so taking the offensive. And Christians who are alert to opportunities to tell others about their beliefs and hope are far less likely to compromise or yield to the fear of man when brought face to face with issues than are those who never bring up the subject of religion.—1 Pet. 3:15; Matt. 5:14-16.

No doubt about it, in whatever sphere of human endeavor we may look, if it involves conflict, the best defense is an offense.

CONSIDER how you would feel if the Almighty God himself said the following to you in response to your acts of worship: *No matter how many prayers you make, I am not listening to you.’ ‘Stop offering to me valueless gifts and sacrifices.’ ‘Your religious celebrations and festivals are detestable in my sight.’ To know that God was not only displeased but even angry because of our worship would be a shock indeed, and yet these words are not merely figments of someone’s imagination but were actually spoken to a very religious people over 2,700 years ago. The principles that applied then still apply to millions of religious people today in Christendom. Although many perform regular deeds of devotion to God, often their hearts are not in harmony with their outward expressions.

‘But how can that be true?’ someone may ask. 'Do you mean that some prayers are rejected even though addressed to God? Is it possible that religious ceremonies performed by a regular devotee for many years may have no value in God’s sight? Does not God willingly accept all offerings made in his name?’ In order to answer these questions we shall need to go back to the eighth century before Christ, when conditions in Judah and Jerusalem were strikingly similar to conditions today. Let us see just what the situation was, as recorded in the first chapter of Isaiah.

True and False

Worship in Judah

Jehovah had long before instructed the Israelites to bring offerings of animals and grain as part of their worship to him. He wanted them to offer these as a true expression of their deep love and gratitude to him. (Leviticus, chapters 1 to 7) The grain offering was, in fact, a sacrifice of thanksgiving in recognition of Jehovah’s bountiful provisions, whereas the whole burnt offering was a fitting symbol of the complete self-dedication of an individual to God. When offered in a clean way from a heart full of gratitude and humility, such offerings imparted a “restful odor” to Jehovah, like the grand sacrifice made by Noah after leaving the ark of salvation after the global flood. (Gen. 8:21) Yet listen to the words of this same God centuries later through the mouth of his prophet Isaiah: “Hear the word of Jehovah, you dictators of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. ‘Of what benefit to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?’ says Jehovah. T have had enough of whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed animals; and in the blood of young bulls and male lambs and he-goats I have taken no delight. When you people keep coming in to see my face, who is it that has required this from your hand, to trample my courtyards? Stop bringing in any more valueless grain offerings.’ ” —Isa. 1:10-13.

Why was God so angry with Judah as to call them “dictators of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah” and reject the very sacrifices he had commanded them to make? Why were these offerings a “restful odor” on one occasion and an abomination on another occasion? Had the offerings themselves changed? No. It was the heart condition of the worshipers that had changed. Their king, Uzziah, though worshiping at the temple of Jehovah, had become haughty of heart and endeavored to offer incense himself, instead of doing it in God's appointed way, through the priests. (2 Chron. 26:16) And Isaiah’s forceful opening message, apparently delivered during the closing years of Uzziah’s life, showed that the people too, while professing to worship Jehovah, were more like “the people of Gomorrah,” that wicked city that God had destroyed. No wonder that Jehovah, who “sees what the heart is,” hated the offerings of these insincere Israelites!—1 Sam. 16:7.

Religious festivals also played an important part in Judah’s worship. Jehovah had commanded that three of these be held each year, two in the early part of the year and one in the fall. These were to be occasions for joy, times to “rejoice before Jehovah your God.” (Lev. 23:40) And so they were, as long as the nation obeyed Jehovah. These yearly feasts were a time for making new acquaintances and renewing old ones and for uniting as a nation in joyous praise to their great Provider Jehovah. However, when they fell away to false worship in their hearts, even though continuing to obey God's law regarding the yearly feasts, Jehovah showed he had no pleasure in them. He said: “New moon and sabbath, the calling of a convention—I cannot put up with the use of uncanny power along with the solemn assembly. Your new moons and your festal seasons my soul has hated. To me they have become a burden; I have become tired of bearing them.”—Isa. 1:13, 14.

Jehovah is pleased when his creatures approach him in prayer, as shown by his favor on King Solomon’s heartfelt petitions at Jerusalem’s temple dedication recorded at 1 Kings 8:22-53. However, he wants the prayers to come from the heart and from a deep love and recognition of the creature’s dependence on Him. He does not want mere words meaninglessly repeated in a religious ceremony. Thus when the hearts of the people of Judah left God, even her prayers became an abomination in his sight. “When you spread out your palms, I hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I am not listening; with bloodshed your very hands have become filled."—Isa. 1:15.

Right Heart Motive Important

It is evident from our discussion so far that the people of Judah and Jerusalem had overlooked Jehovah’s basic requirement and that they were not sincerely and exclusively worshiping him “with spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) To Jehovah the act of sacrificing an animal or attending a religious celebration or making a prayer is not the all-important thing. Rather, the motive and heart condition of the individual is the vital thing, as shown by Jesus Christ when he said of Jehovah: “I want mercy, and not sacrifice.” (Matt. 9:13; 12: 7) He condemned those who kept the technical points of the Law but “disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice and mercy and faithfulness,” and he called them “blind guides, who strain out the gnat but gulp down the camel!” —Matt. 23:23, 24.

Jehovah’s prophets had repeatedly stressed this principle, saying: “To obey is better than a sacrifice, to pay attention than the fat of rams.” “For in loving-kindness I have taken delight, and not in sacrifice; and in the knowledge of God rather than in whole burnt offerings." (1 Sam. 15:22; Hos. 6:6) How miserably the kingdom of Judah in Isaiah’s day failed to please Jehovah, relying upon an empty shell of outward formalism to hide their spiritual vacuum!

In our day, many are the offerings made in God’s name for religious causes. Many too are the religious festivals and ceremonies, and many are the prayers, both public and private, that are offered to God. In many lands more people attend churches than before, and religion is considered a “must" for social status. But as we have so strikingly seen, such outward expressions of worship do not have any intrinsic value in themselves. They do not automatically bring God’s approval. In fact, when an outward “form of godly devotion” is not a true reflection of a heart and mind wholly dedicated to God, the ones practicing such are deceiving themselves if they believe that God is pleased with their worship.—2 Tim. 3:5.

The Fruits of Apostasy

When people leave the worship of the true God with their hearts, even though they may render outward acts of devotion, it is not difficult to distinguish them from true, sincere worshipers. When the kingdom of Judah turned their hearts away from Jehovah, they became degraded, immoral and corrupt. Bribery and drunkenness were rampant. God’s true prophets were ignored or persecuted. Yes, when creatures turn away from God, their lives reflect this in ungodly fruits.

What do the fruits of Christendom today reveal? Look around and examine them for yourself. Along with its all-time record of church attendance has come a wave of crime, corruption and violence unequaled in previous generations. Morals are low. Juvenile delinquency is growing alarmingly. Dishonest practices are winked at. Christendom has been the scene of two world wars and is the object of ridicule by non-Christian lands. Its religion has ceased to be a force for good but has become divisive and weak.

Are these the fruits of a happy nation “whose God is Jehovah” or of a modernday counterpart to the Jerusalem that left its God? (Ps. 144:15) With the background material already presented, you are in position to answer this question honestly. We are sure you will admit that Jesus’ words regarding Jerusalem in his day apply equally fittingly to Christendom today when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me.”—Matt. 15:8.

Heart-searching Examination Needed

Does this mean, though, that the prayers and religious devotion of every individual living in Christendom need be futile? By no means! Each individual needs to scrutinize carefully his motives and heart attitude behind his acts of worship. It would be good for him to ask himself a few questions, such as: When I pray, does my prayer come from the heart? Is it a prayer of deep-rooted gratitude and thanksgiving, or do I hurry through my prayer, repeating the same words over and over again unfeelingly? Do I attend religious meetings and celebrations with a full understanding and recognition of their significance or do I view them merely as a duty to be performed, a social function to be attended? Are my offerings of time and money to God rendered out of love and gratitude for God’s provisions, or do I feel coerced or pressured into offering them? Are my acts of religious devotion prompted by a wholesome fear of God or by a desire to please men and gain social prestige in the community? Do I attend a religious service to get solid spiritual food and hear the Word of God or merely to soothe a troubled conscience and seek emotional peace of mind?

If individuals are honest in making such a self-examination, they may find that in their hearts they have strayed very far from God even though they have been paying tribute to him with their lips and actions. Many may feel cut to the heart about this, especially if they have a desire to please God. What can such persons do?

To these humble, honest-hearted ones within Christendom, Jehovah through his prophet Isaiah directs these comforting yet stirring words: "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the badness of your dealings from in front of my eyes; cease to do bad. Learn to do good; search for justice; set right the oppressor; render judgment for the fatherless boy; plead the cause of the widow.” (Isa. 1:16, 17) Yes, there is still time to “search for Jehovah . . . while he may be found.” (Isa. 55:6) It will be necessary to bring heart and mind into full harmony with God’s principles so that your acts of worship truly reflect what is in your heart. That is why the Supreme Sovereign next mercifully extends the invitation: “‘Come, now, you people [who have turned away from God], and let us set matters straight between us,’ says Jehovah. ‘Though the sins of you people should prove to be as scarlet, they will be made white just like snow; though they should be red like crimson cloth, they will become even like wool.’”—Isa. 1:18.

This does not mean that God will change his standards so that we can come to some amicable settlement with him. No; rather, it means that he is inviting us to bring ourselves into line with his unchangeable principles, thus setting matters straight between him and his wayward creatures.

Is not this a reasonable request on the part of the Creator? In contrast with the attitude of many who feel that, unless much money is paid for a ceremony and much pomp and display are exhibited, God will not hear them, listen to his own simple statement to delinquent Jerusalem in Isaiah’s day: “If you people show willingness and do listen, the good of the land you will eat.”—Isa. 1:19.

All that Jehovah asks is that his creatures recognize him as their Creator and render him loving obedience in a willing and wholehearted way. This has always been his desire, whether in the days of the Israelites or in our own day. It can only be done by studying God’s Word the Bible, getting to know God and learning what he loves and what he hates. Then we need to “set matters straight” by conforming our lives to his ways, humbly requesting forgiveness for our past errors.

However, those who persist in their artificial “form of godly devotion" and who refuse to search for God in their hearts will never enjoy real happiness. Jehovah will be as far away from them as they are from him. As he says in Isaiah 1:20: “If you people refuse and are actually rebellious, with a sword you will be eaten up; for the very mouth of Jehovah has spoken it.”

From our consideration of this matter in the light of the Scriptures it can be seen that worship is pleasing to Jehovah only when (1) the worshiper is in heart harmony with his God, (2) the worship is rendered exclusively to Him, and (3) the worshiper’s expressions of devotion truly and unhypocritically reflect his innermost feelings of love and gratitude to God. Any other kind of worship would be an insult to the grand Creator and an abomination in his sight.

Councils*

ON September 29, 1963,speaking before more than 2,000 church dignitaries assembled in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Paul VI formally opened the second session of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council. So despite Pope John’s death in June, after which Cardinal Mon-tini of Milan was elected to the papal throne, the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church continued on toward its objectives. Faced with circumstances calling for internal reform, an ever-growing non-Catholic population and the imminent threat of Communism, it is understandable that the Roman Catholic Church would want to continue efforts toward reform and unification.

Interestingly, Pope Paul’s appeal for reconciliation with non-Catholics was even more conciliatory than that of Pope John when he convened the Council's first session on October 11 of last year. “There can be no doubt about the attitude of the Council with regard to the great numbers of the separated brethren,” Pope Paul said. “The Council aims at complete and universal ecumenicity [worldwide interdenominational fellowship].”

The Roman Catholic Church has been following this conciliatory line for the past several years. The terms “heretics” or “dissidents” have been replaced by “separated brothers,” and some prayers have even

—Milestones in the Development of Catholicism

been changed to eliminate language offensive to Jews and Moslems. Before his death Pope John received calls from such non*Catholic dignitaries as the archbishop of Canterbury, the presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States and the president of the Lutheran World Federation. Even a leading Communist representative, Khrushchev’s own son-in-law, was welcomed in Rome.

It is also noteworthy that the Vatican sent observers to the assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi in 1961, and invited non-Catholics to their present Council in Rome. In fact, a special Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity was recently established, and at the opening of the Council’s second session fifty-two of these observer-delegates sat with the president of this new agency in choice seats almost at the foot of Pope Paul’s throne. The pope warmly welcomed these representatives from non-Catholic Churches.

But what is behind this conciliatory attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward both the Communists as well as the non-Catholic churches? What are her aims? Is she really interested in practicing the pure Christianity introduced by Jesus Christ? In order to be in better position properly to evaluate the motives behind her present conciliatory policy, let us examine the previous ecumenical councils of the Roman Catholic Church.

Ecumenical Councils

The word “ecumenical” comes from the Greek word oikoum^ne, which literally means “inhabited (earth).” An ecumenical council of the Catholic Church is therefore an official assembly where Catholic bishops, prelates and dignitaries are summoned to convene at a given place from the whole inhabited earth. During the past 1,600 years there have been only twenty-one of such councils, including the present one, that are generally recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as being ecumenical.

The expression from which this word “ecumenical” comes is found in the Bible at Luke 4:5, where Jesus rejected Satan’s offer to give him control of “all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth [oikoumene].” Notice from this scripture that Jesus kept separate from the kingdoms of the inhabited earth, turning down any worldly control over them. He fully appreciated that whoever “wants to be a friend of .the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” — ■ Jas. 4:4.

But what about the Catholic Church? Have her ecumenical councils been steppingstones toward conformity with the clean, uncomplicated teachings of the Bible? Have they served to keep the Church “without spot from the world”? (Jas. 1: 27) Or, rather, have Scriptural teachings been sacrificed at these councils, and has the Church sought to increase her worldly power and influence? Let us see.

Their Beginning

The first ecumenical council was held in 325 (A.D.) at the city of Nicaea in Asia Minor. Today the city is called Iznik, and is located in Turkey.

By the time Constantine the Great was declared Pontifex Maximus by the Roman Senate on October 28, 312, there had been a tremendous change in the religious organization that claimed to be Christian. Instead of suffering the persecution of unfriendly rulers, “Christianity” in its form under Constantine was adopted as the State religion.

Although Constantine was admittedly Christian in name only, not even submitting to baptism until the time of his death in 337, he, nevertheless, headed the new national religion and arranged for its first ecumenical council in Nicaea. The Catholic theologian Philip Hughes in his book The Church in Crisis, which carries the Catholic imprimatur and nihil obstat, notes this: “Whoever it was to whom the idea of a council of the Christian universe first occurred, it was Constantine who decided it should be held, and who chose the place and sent out the invitations to the bishops, offering to all free passage in the imperial transportation service.”

The Catholic Encyclopedia also credits Constantine with arranging for the council, and observes concerning its opening: “The emperor waited until all the bishops had taken their seats before making his entry. He was clad in gold and covered with precious stones in the fashion of an Oriental sovereign. A chair of gold had been made ready for him, and when he had taken his place the bishops seated themselves.” Yes, it was Constantine, and not the pope, who presided at this council. In fact, the pope was not even present. After the sessions, The Catholic Encyclopedia notes, Constantine “invited the bishops to a splendid repast, at the end of which each of them received rich presents.”

What a change from first-century Christianity when Christians were “no part of the world”! “This great change brought the Church into subjection to the State,” observed historian John F. Hurst in his History of the Christian Church. “The Church, in every department of its life, was subjected, as a part of the general machinery of the government, to the supremacy of the emperor.”—John 15:19.

While this marriage to the State brought worldly respectability and prestige to the newly organized Catholic Church, it necessitated submission to secular rulers. Thus we find that the first eight ecumenical councils were called by the Roman emperors, and not by the popes. In fact, the popes were not even present at these councils, and did not on all occasions have representatives in attendance. Well, then, how is it that these are honored by the Catholic Church as ecumenical councils? It is because they later received papal approval, even though, at times, that approval did not come until hundreds of years later.

These first eight ecumenical councils were held in the East for the convenience of the emperors who took a leading part in them. It was Constantine who transferred the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome, Italy, to Byzantium, where he built a new capital that he named after himself, calling it Constantinople.

To Restore Peace

But what circumstances developed less than twenty years after the Church received approval by the State that necessitated Constantine’s calling a council of his bishops? It was a doctrinal issue that involved belief concerning Jesus. Toward the close of the second century Theophilus had used the term “trinity” in his ecclesiastical writings, and in the following century it came into general use. While there is no term in the Bible denoting that Jesus is part of a three-persons-in-one god, the trinity idea nevertheless gained widespread popularity. Tremendous conflict resulted. ‘The whole of the east was soon aflame, fighting and rioting in one city after another,” one historian observes.

So, as The Catholic Encyclopedia explains, Constantine “judged no remedy more apt to restore peace in the Church than the convocation of an oecumenical council.” His chief interest was the internal peace of his newly adopted StateAeli-gion. So at Nicaea he listened as the two factions wrangled. The presbyter Arius, along with a minority of supporters, maintained that Christ is the Son of God, and, therefore, could not be equal to God. “Were he in the truest sense a son,” Arius argued, “he must have come after the Father, therefore the time obviously was when he was not, and hence he was a finite being.”¹

But, on the other hand, the young archdeacon Athanasius led the majority in declaring that Jesus was “of the Father’s substance, God of God, Light of light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of the same substance [homousios] as the Father.” Since, as M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia points out, Constantine “had at heart, for the sake of peace, the most nearly unanimous decision which was possible, he gave his voice for the disputed word, and declared that he recognised in the unanimous consent of the bishops the work of God.” So with Constantine’s approval this unscriptural trinitarian phraseology was adopted and was embodied in the famous Nicene Creed.

Dispute Rapes

But the dispute was far from settled. The decision at Nicaea did not alter the beliefs of Arius’ supporters, and after the council these simple and much clearer teachings gained popularity among the populace. The comments of a contemporary observer, reported by Edward Gibbon in his History of Christianity, give evideuce of the zeal of the people in spreading their beliefs. "If you desire a man to change a piece of silver,” this observer explained, you are informed “wherein the Son differs from the Father, if you ask the price of a loaf, you are told, by way of reply, that that Son is inferior to the Father; and if you inquire whether the bath is ready, the answer is, that the Son was made out of nothing.”

The Roman Catholic Cardinal Newman also commented on the popularity of Arius’ teachings among the people at this time, saying: “A religious teaching such as Arianism, which was clear and intelligible, was more acceptable than doctrines which described the Divine Being in language, self-contradictory in its letter, and which exacted a belief in truths which were absolutely above their comprehension.”*

So, for a time, Arianism gained the upper hand in many places, but with the crowning of young Theodosius I as emperor in 379 there was a change of the tide. The following February he issued a decree in favor of the orthodox teaching, saying: “Let us believe the sole deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; under an equal majesty and a pious Trinity. We authorize the followers of this doctrine to assume the title of Catholic Christians; and as we judge that all others are extravagant madmen, we brand them with the infamous name of heretics.”

In order to reaffirm the Catholic faith, Theodosius summoned the second ecumenical council to Constantinople in May of 381. "The Pope was not invited,” observes E. I. Watkin in his book The Church in Council, which carries the Church’s imprimatur and nihil obstat. So, again, it was under the prevailing influence of the emperor that Catholic doctrine was defined. The 'Constantinopolitan Creed strengthened the assertion that there is a Supreme Triad by defining the "Godhead of the Holy Ghost.”

Gibbon explained that Theodosius then enforced heavy penalties “against those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity; and, to deprive them of every hope of escape, he sternly enacted, that if any laws or rescripts should be alleged in their favor, the judges should consider them as the illegal productions either of fraud or forgery.”

misunderstandings Continue

Although Arianism was thus suppressed, the complicated and unscriptural definitions as to the nature and role of Jesus continued to cause unending misunderstandings that led to the convoking of succeeding councils. But at these councils language of even greater ambiguity confused the issue, as Watkin in The Church in Council observes: “The issues decided in the third and fourth general councils ... concerning the incarnation of the Word are not easy to make clear. For their statement involved subtleties and niceties of language easily misunderstood and opponents did not always attach the same meaning to the same word.”

At the third ecumenical council, in Ephesus in 431, it was decided that Mary was indeed the “mother of God,” even though it was strongly argued that she could only be the mother of Jesus. So the arguments continued. In an effort to settle them the council of Chalcedon was called twenty years later by Emperor Marcian. Here it was stated “that Christ was really divine and really human; in his divinity coeternal, and in all points similar to the Father; in his humanity, son of the Virgin Mary, bom like all others, and like unto us in all things except sin; that after his incarnation his person contained two natures unmixed and unaltered, yet at the same time united.”²

However, this definition was unsatisfactory to those known as Monophysites (single nature). They held that, although Jesus was partly human and partly divine, his two natures became by their union only one nature. In an effort to appease the increasing number of Monophysites Emperor Justinian summoned the fifth ecumenical council to Constantinople in 553. Watkin notes that this council was "assembled in spite of the Pope’s opposition,” and that "at Justinian’s demand it condemned and excommunicated the Pope [Vigilius] But the Monophysites were not appeased, even though some theological writings objectionable to them were condemned.

In time Monophysitism led to a new teaching called Monotheletism (single will). The Monotheletes held that Jesus, although possessed of two natures, was yet subject only to one will; the human will being merged in the divine will, or absorbed by it. Even Pope Honorius subscribed to this view. So what was the decision of the sixth ecumenical council on this matter? This council, which was held in Constantinople from November 680 to September 681, ruled against Monotheletism. In its thirteenth session the council decided, according to Watkin, “to expel from the Church of God and anathematise Honorius Pope of the old Rome."

Religious Schism

The next hundred years saw a widening of the rift between Rome and Constantinople, which finally led to the religious schism in 1054 that has yet to be healed. Although the emperor reigning at Constantinople was in theory the ruler of the whole Roman Empire, by the eighth century it was not true in reality. At this time the two Frankish rulers Pepin and, afterward, his son Charlemagne became very powerful in the West, and the popes leaned heavily upon them for support. In fact, in 800 the pope took it upon himself to crown Charlemagne emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Meanwhile, during the eighth century, Moslem aggression in the East advanced to where even Constantinople was threatened, but under the military leadership of Emperor Leo HI it was turned back. Due particularly to Moslem influence the Eastern Catholic Church became quite iconoclastic, destroying their many images. This resulted in a chief bone of contention with the image-worshiping Western church, and, eventually, in the calling of the seventh ecumenical council, in Nicaea in 787. Here, in spite of the plain teachings of the Bible, the council put its stamp of approval on the use of images.

During the next century relations between the Eastern and the Western church were strained further. In 862 Pope Nicholas I anathematized Photios, the new patriarch of Constantinople, and when Pho-tius labored to restore friendly feelings, Nicholas anathematized him anew. Pho-tius retaliated by calling a council that excommunicated the pope and called on the emporor in the West to carry out the sentence and expel the pope from Rome. This led to the convoking of the eighth ecumenical council by Emperor Basil in Constantinople in 869-870. Here Photius was deposed. While this was a victory for the papacy, it resulted in an irreparable breach between the East and the West.

Clerical Immorality

In the ninth century, as the popes began to assert their supremacy over the Eastern Catholic Church, their wickedness increased. “The Papacy was entering a tunnel where Popes would for the most part be insignificant and some even positively immoral," Watkin in his Catholic-approved history observes. Philip Hughes, a Catholic theologian, writes: “It is Rome that provides the most spectacular of the horrors, where for a hundred years and more the savage barons of the surrounding countryside intermittently . . . elect, depose, restore, depose again, and murder the popes according to their own political plans. And some of these popes are as wicked as their masters. These are the classic ‘bad popes’ indeed, . . . the story of what they did is truly terrible.”

Such were the conditions that existed between the last Eastern council, called by the emperor in 869-870, and the first Western council, convoked by the pope in 1123. Since the final separation of the Eastern and Western churches had taken place in this interim, only those that acknowledged the pope as their spiritual head assembled for the ninth ecumenical council at the Lateran basilica in Rome. This “inaugurated a series of Councils widely different from the eight hitherto,” Watkin explains. “The councils were summoned not by a lay ruler but by the Pope. They were chiefly concerned not with doctrine but discipline.”

The moral badness within the Church certainly called for discipline. “The two most flagrant, universally visible evils,” theologian Hughes acknowledged, “were simony and clerical immorality.” During the next four ecumenical councils held at the Lateran between the years 1123 and 1215, these and other evils were a chief topic of discussion. But while there was much said about reform, admittedly little was done.

Rebellion and Inquisition

Toward the latter part of the Middle Ages the Catholic Church grew to be a powerful force, supporting its own armies and rivaling kings in political authority. “The spiritual ideal was lost,” John F. Hurst explains in his History of the Christian Church. “The popes emulated the role of kings, and strained every nerve to become arbiters in matters secular.” They were very much a part of this world. —John 17:14.

This was particularly true during the reign of Pope Innocent III at the beginning of the thirteenth century; it being referred to by Catholic historians “as the summit of the papacy’s achievement as a universal power, religious, social, political.” This golden period of Catholicism, however, was a time of gross ignorance and corruptness. In his Church-approved history, Catholic theologian Philip Hughes admits that “the Catholic clergy were ignorant, and their prelates often corrupt. This, and the great wealth of the prelates,” he said, offered heretics their best opening.

At this time the anti-Catholic Albigenses and Waldenses became widespread, and one of the main reasons that Pope Innocent III called the twelfth ecumenical council in 1215 was to consider how to deal with them. He was determined to “exterminate the whole pestilential race.” So the basis was laid for the horrible inquisition that followed.

The following three ecumenical councils were held within the next hundred years, but in France instead of Rome; the first two in Lyons, France, and what proved to be the fifteenth council met in Vienne, France. After the death of Innocent HI, Emperor Frederick II routed the papal armies and threatened Rome. However, Pope Innocent IV fled to France, where he convoked the first council at Lyons in 1245. There the still powerful pope was able to have Frederick deposed, opening the way for the Church again to seize political dominance.

Furious contests for secular power continued to rage between popes and kings. After the second council at Lyons in 1274, where unsuccessful attempts were made at reunion with the Eastern church, the French king, Philip IV, was successful in pressuring Pope Clement V into suppressing the Knights Templars, a strong Catholic military order. This was done at the council held in Vienne in 1311-1312.

Over a hundred years passed before the sixteenth ecumenical council convened in Constance from 1414 to 1418, By this time the so-called Great Schism of the West had rent the Catholic Church, and there were three men claiming to be pope. Strange as it may seem, Pope John XXIII (not the most recent one to bear this designation), who convoked the council, was himself deposed. During this council the writings of John Wycliffe and John Huss were vehemently condemned, and Huss was burned alive before the eyes of the assembled prelates. Orders were also given for Wycliffe’s dead body to be dug up and burned. Following the council the fanatical persecution of the so-called “heretics” raged on, as the Catholic Church fought against the rising tide of rebellion.

After the death of their leader, the Hussites enjoyed striking success, and this encouraged the calling of the next council to Basel, Switzerland, in 1431. After a time this council was transferred to Ferrara, and then to Florence. It lasted twelve years or more, and, besides dealing with the Hussites, it also discussed reunion with the Eastern Church and reform measures.

Reform was also considered at the eighteenth council, held at the Lateran in Rome. This council was convoked in 1512 by Pope Julius H, whom Watkin said “led armies into battle for his temporal sovereignty, an activity diametrically opposed to the function of Christ’s Vicar.” It is apparent that reform was needed, but it failed to materialize. So, just seven months after this council concluded, Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the church

dOOr in              uciiiiaiij¹, un VJVUJUCI

31, 1517, touching off what is popularly called the Protestant Reformation. To cope with this open rebellion, the nineteenth council was convened. It was held in the city of Trent, and stretched over eighteen years, from 1545 to 1563.

Down to the Present Day

But the Catholic Church lost in its battle to suppress the rebellion. The power of the Church was weakened immeasurably, and, in time, the people succeeded in freeing themselves from much of its control. The pope was taken prisoner by Napoleon in 1799, and in 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved. So at the convening of the twentieth ecumenical council at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in 1869, the Catholic Church no longer held the power it once possessed.

Therefore, at this First Vatican Council a bold bid was made to regain a strong religious position. Despite the evidence from history to the contrary and great opposition from many prelates, the council decided that the pope was infallible when defining doctrines of faith and morals. Thus another tremendous barrier was raised between the Catholic Church and those that had separated from her.

At the Second Vatican Council efforts have been made to hurdle these barriers and bring about a reunion, but the record of the ecumenical councils of the past gives no reason to believe that decisions made will be founded on the Word of God or motivated by a desire to maintain Christian separateness from the world. Nevertheless, the churches of Christendom feel the need of union due to the startling advances of communism throughout the world. So it will be interesting to observe their response to the solicitous beckoning to unite within the Catholic fold once again.

O YOU take aspirin? If so, you have plenty of company, for upward of 650 tablets of aspirin are swallowed each second, for a total of some 55 million a day in the United States alone. There more than 23 million pounds are manufactured each year. The people of England use a comparable amount. In fact, aspirin is the world’s most widely used drug.

Concerning aspirin a recent United States consumers’ bulletin stated: “The question that needs to be settled is whether or not it is desirable to take aspirin freely and extensively to relieve pain, whether or not it has ill effects, and what those ill effects are.’’ Yes, what about all this consumption of aspirin? Is it a good thing or is it being overdone?

Aspirin as such is only 110 years old. It was first produced by an Alsatian chemist in 1853, but it seems that for almost fifty years nobody knew what to do with

Then in 1898 a German chemist in the employ of the Bayer chemical company discovered that aspirin was able to relieve pain and reduce fever. He succeeded in convincing his superior of its merits and so for some twenty years aspirin was synonymous with Bayer. At present some sixty companies in the United States are manufacturing aspirin pills or pills containing mostly aspirin.

Since 1899 the use of aspirin has steadily increased, especially in recent years. Thus in the United States there has been a 500-percent increase since 1935 and a 50-percent increase since 1959. Annually the United States spends upward of 8300 million on aspirin or on tablets containing mostly aspirin.

The Versatile Drug

High are the praises that are sung to aspirin. It has been termed “Everybody’s Wonder Drug,’’ “The Original Miracle Drug,” “The Reborn Wonder Drug.” Doctors say it is “the most useful drug ever found,” “the greatest blessing we have.” “If it weren’t for aspirin, the medical profession would be swamped with calls.”

The virtues or uses of aspirin are many. Doubtless it is not only the most widely used drug but also the most versatile one. Its most common use is to stop pain, for which reason it is termed an analgesic (an-al-ge'sic), from analgesia, meaning “absence of sensibility to pain.” It is called “aspirin” because it was originally obtained from the spirea plant. Today, of course, it is produced synthetically.

Second only to its use as an analgesic is its use as an antipyretic, that is, to lower fevers. Most remarkably, it lowers the body’s temperature only if it is too high. Why only when it is too high? It may be due to the fact that—as discovered by one team of medical researchers—aspirin affects one of the body’s most basic and important ductless glands, the pituitary, and causes it to make the adrenals work harder.

Aspirin’s third most widespread use is in reducing inflammation, as for sufferers of rheumatic fever, arthritis and gout For a while it seemed that it would be replaced by the modem “miracle drugs," such as ACTH and cortisone. But now, not only do we read that “aspirin is as effective as ACTH and cortisone in treating rheumatic fever,” and that “there is no evidence that hormone treatment is superior to aspirin," but also that those who had been taking the more modern drugs over long periods of time “had more muscular degeneration and grosser deformities than those who had analgesics of the aspirin type.”

Also among the more common uses to which aspirin is being put is to treat colds, influenza and the grippe. According to some physicians, patients recover more quickly from these ills if given aspirin than if given antibiotics, at the same time enjoying more comfort. And not to be overlooked is the common use of aspirin in conjunction with other forms of treatment. Typical of this is the recommendation of one medical authority to treat bursitis and like ailments “with aspirin along with cold or iced .compresses for the acute phase, followed by heat and physiotherapy."

In addition to the foregoing more common uses to which aspirin is being put, there are not a few others. Most of these, however, are either strongly recommended by only a few physicians or receive only very limited general approval. Thus certain physicians tell of reducing excess cholesterol in the blood by means of aspirin.

Others report getting good results in treating diabetes with aspirin; also, that aspirin steps up the effectiveness of tolbutamide (Orinase), although having no effect on insulin. And, here again, aspirin only lowers the sugar level in the blood if it is too high; it does not affect it if it is normal. In this respect it stands in striking contrast to insulin, which must be taken with the greatest care so that it does not lower the blood sugar level to the point of causing the patient to suffer from insulin shock.

Still another modern use to which some physicians are putting aspirin is in the treatment of kidney stones. One reports a 50-percent improvement in his patients upon their taking aspirin regularly, as compared with those who did not. Certain physicians disputed these findings because, in their experiments, aspirin medication did not result in increased calcium in the urine. However, it could well be that aspirin rectifies the cause of kidney stones and that as a result the calcium is assimilated throughout the body and therefore an excess would not appear in the urine, there being no surplus needing to be discharged.

Among other benefits from using aspirin that physicians have reported are stimulating the body’s metabolism where it is too low, so as to bring it back to normal, lowering the quantity of excess fatty acids in the blood, serving as an anticoagulant when the blood is too ready to clot, and its use as a sedative. Truly, aspirin is a versatile drug!

Its Disadvantages

Yes, aspirin, in spite of its widespread and versatile use, also has its disadvantages. As one medical publication, devoted to the exploring of the harmful side effects of drugs, well puts it: “Aspirin, one of the most useful and the most widely used of all drugs, has its share of disadvantages, and many efforts have been made to overcome them.”

Especially have voices been raised against the heavy and prolonged use of aspirin. Thus, in the United States within the past year, the official voice of organized medicine had the following to say: “A widespread educational program must be started to warn against the abusive use of analgesic combinations. All preparations should carry labels recommending no more than six tablets in twenty-four hours and the avoidance of long-continued use. Need for these drugs for periods exceeding ten days is a warning to seek medical advice. Failure to follow these recommendations may lead to serious harmful effects.”

Because aspirin is readily obtained (requiring no doctor’s prescription), is cheap (as little as nine cents a hundred tablets), and brings quick even though often only temporary relief, there is a tendency to use it freely. But let’s face it, aspirin is a drug, and no drug is without side effects. Taking any drug is a calculated risk in which one weighs the good the drug does with the harm it might do. Aspirin is said to be the safest of all drugs, and, while that may be true, it still follows that the less you resort to it the better.

Incidentally, any number of research teams have failed to find any appreciable difference in various aspirins on the basis of their cost, nor have they been able to find any justification for the claims made by highly advertised products containing other drugs in addition to aspirin; at least not as regards dissolving time in the stomach and the effect upon the stomach.

Some minor disadvantages of taking aspirin can be mitigated. For instance, where there is distress resulting from taking aspirin, drinking a glass of water or milk with it or taxing it at mealtimes is recommended. Or a pinch of bicarbonate of soda may help. Soluble calcium aspirin is currently being recommended by many as superior to regular aspirin, but, here again, medical opinion is divided.

Among the more serious disadvantages of taking aspirin is loss of blood. Recent research has shown that continued and heavy use of aspirin results in considerable blood loss through the stool. Normally the body loses a small amount of blood this way daily, but this loss increases .five to ten times and even more with continued and heavy use of aspirin. This increased loss would be especially harmful to a person with low blood pressure or to one who is somewhat anemic.

Then, /again, aspirin, because of its slightly acid nature, may play havoc with the stomach, especially a sensitive one, as can be seen by the large number of patients who develop vomiting after its use. No one who has stomach ulcers or who may be a candidate for a stomach operation should take aspirin. At times the reaction is violent, indicating that the taker is allergic to it. Among such reactions are hives, swelling of the face, tongue, throat and a circulatory collapse similar to shock. Thus a single five-grain tablet almost killed a woman patient because of her sensitivity to it. Asthmatic patients are especially likely to be sensitive to aspirin.

Another sensitive area is the kidneys. About 20 percent of the aspirin is destroyed by the body and the rest is eliminated through the kidneys. The fact that aspirin causes kidney irritation can be seen by its causing albumin and blood products to appear in the urine. Physicians therefore strongly urge that anyone having a kidney ailment should severely restrict his intake of aspirin, if not stopping it altogether.

The toxic nature of aspirin is seen from the fact that people have committed suicide by taking a large number of tablets, although at times a hundred tablets have been swallowed without fatal results.

Taking aspirin for fever is also being discouraged by more and more physicians on the premise that a serious condition may well be masked thereby. In fact, these physicians are urging patients to let a fever take its course, unless it is dangerously high, for fever is one of the body’s ways of ridding itself of poisons and therefore is a process that should not be interfered with.

For Children?

Increasingly, mothers are using aspirin to still their children. This is unwise and that for more than one good reason. When a child cries or whimpers, the wise mother will be concerned with getting at the cause and remedying the situation rather than with merely stilling the child. Especially when a small child has a fever or some toxic condition, repeated doses, even though very small, can present a danger because of the cumulative effect of aspirin.

Not only are mothers increasingly feeding aspirin to their children, but, increasingly, children are being accidentally poisoned because of having emptied the aspirin bottle, thinking it to be candy. Manufacturers have made the situation worse by candy-coating aspirin. Why coax children to take a drug on the pretext that it is candy? Aspirin should be kept out of the reach of children, for at times they have managed to remove even safety tops of bottles with their teeth.

It might also be noted that one should not keep more than a several months’ supply of aspirin on hand. If the bottle smells like vinegar, or the pills are no longer firm but tend to crumble, it is no longer advisable to use them.

In view of the serious side effects that accompany heavy and continued use of as-

pirin, the wise person will keep his use of aspirin at a minimum. And while it may be true that there are always natural ways of relieving distress, circumstances do not always permit resorting to these; besides, often the sufferer does not know just what can bring him relief. Obviously, under such circumstances taking aspirin may be the lesser of two evils.

Why are more and more people taking more and more aspirin ? One reason might be that youths have found that an aspirin in a cup of coffee or a cola drink gives them an unusual sense of well-being. Another reason may be that people are less and less willing to put up with any kind of distress. No doubt another reason is the increase of headaches, colds and other distresses caused by overindulgence in food, liquor or other bodily pleasures. Certainly it is true as never before that men are “lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.” And not to be overlooked are the pressures associated with earning a living and fear of what the future may bring. —2 Tim. 3:4; Luke 21:25, 26.

Of course, to the extent that psychosomatic factors are the cause of one’s ills, the remedy may lie, not so much in putting an aspirin pill in one’s stomach, as in exercising self-control and putting the right kind of knowledge in the mind and cultivating good mental habits. For that there is nothing better than the inspired Word of God, the Bible, and the aids that help one to understand it.—Gal. 5:22, 23; Phil. 4:8.

66TTOW can you pull up your roots,” fl asked many of our less adventuresome friends, as we announced we were moving from North America to South America, “and go so far away?” “And oh, my, all that strange foreign food; how will you get used to it?”

Putting down roots has long been synonymous with staying in one place. But as we shall soon see, many of our rooted plants have been more “adventuresome” and more widely traveled than most of the humans who either admire them as flowers or eat them as fruits and vegetables.

As for those “foreign” foods, North America’s diet has as varied a source as does its people. And the fruits and vegetables eaten in Europe have homes as widely scattered as the routes of her explorers and navigators of bygone centuries. Asia and Africa have both “given” and “received” plants of the far-flung vegetable kingdom. Many of our most “typical,” most “native” foods are really our garden guests from south of the Rio Grande, from the great cornucopia of what we now refer to as Latin America.

At last, one morning we breakfasted on toast, coffee and pineapple juice at the foot of the Andes. Our window framed the familiar sight of morning glories. We thought, “Friends from home!” But no, these flowers, which abound in almost all the gardens of the world, are from Chile.

Our breakfast sounded like a botanical travelogue. Perhaps you are saying, “Oh, yes, we know. Coffee comes from Brazil.” Sorry; it traces its ancestry to Ethiopia. The Brazilian on our table was the pineapple juice. Early explorers of Brazil appreciated the flavor of the pineapple and the ease with which it could be propagated from shoots that withstood the long ocean voyages.

Conditioned to the sterile starkness of supermarkets, we find the native ferias and mercados by contrast exciting and interesting. Ferias are open street markets. Each vendor displays his produce as temptingly as possible. In the large enclosed markets known as mercados each seller has his own stall or place and lustily shouts for the attention of passing shoppers. The variety of fruits and vegetables is amazing, and proves to be a valuable botanical record of indigenous plants. Here in the mercuric is the best place to begin our discovery of the northward odyssey of white potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, lima beans, pumpkins, grapefruit, papaya and avocados. Their travels started from Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and South America, And at least some of them have traveled to the most distant parts of the earth.

Traveled? Yes, let’s use as an example one of our best-loved foods, which, though it did not originate in Latin America, did reach the United States by that route.

From China?

“Do you like Chinese food?”

“Oh,” replied the woman who was asked as she hastily swallowed a piece of the juicy peach into which she had just bitten, “I am sure that Chinese food would be too strange for me.”

Her sincerely pained expression at the thought of eating Oriental food quickly changed to one of surprise when told that what she was eating at the moment was Chinese food. She looked unbelievingly at the succulent fruit in her hand, and then out to the tree in her garden from which she had picked it as though somehow it had deceived her.

Peaches were to be found behind China’s Great Wall, and when ancient trade routes were established with Persia, the peach escaped its walled territory to flourish in Persian gardens. It followed the caravan route of the Fertile Crescent. Eventually it came to grow in Arab gardens. When the Arabs superimposed their lengthy rule over the Spanish, they put their mark on Spanish architecture and on the languages of the Iberian Peninsula. When this rule ended, these two marks were indelibly a part of Spain, and left behind with them were the great Moorish engineering feats, the aqueducts, and the peach trees that these watered. It is thought that the peach made a direct entry to Florida under Spanish rule, and it is known that the peach already flourished in Mexico when it was

introduced from there to California, Ahd with no trouble at all the peach escaped across the Pyrenees to delight the rest of Europe.

Latin Americas Own Contribution

But what about those common vegetables and fruits listed above that did come from Latin America? We’ll touch liglitly on the adventure hidden in each one’s biography.

Here in South America, the white potato is called papa or patata. It is a name given to it centuries ago by Andean Indians who sundried them to preserve them. Peruvians high in the Andes today follow the methods of their Inca predecessors, some even freeze-drying them and grinding them into flour. But it seems that even in ancient times the potato had already traveled. It was the pre-Incas who dipped down into Chile to carry it high to their mountain fastnesses. So the white or Irish potato should more properly be called the Chilean potato.

Remember those morning glories mentioned earlier? The botanical name for morning glory is Ipomoea. Ipomoea batata is our sweet potato, and, like its flower cousin, it migrated from South America to its new homes around the world. In Argentina a very delicious dessert is made from batatas, a gelatinous jam that is sliced and served with cheese.

Picture an Indian village high in the Andes before any Europeans appeared. In fact, if you are picturing it accurately, it will not be so much a village as a city in a highly developed civilization. In this mental picture it is necessary to insert al) the bustling activity of a living community. Do you hear the babble of conversation? Have you added the sharp shrieks of joy of the children at play? There is the rumble of work being done, the sound of birds, the sounds of life. Think of these people not as a mere name in history, but picture them in everyday acts. If you picture them eating you will see them eating many of the things we eat. Perhaps there is even an unfortunate Inca cook who has left her clay cookpot of beans too long on the fire, and is rewarded with a frowning husband looking at her burnt offering. Surely, you will see much evidence of maize, the progenitor of our corn. Can you smell it cooking? You might even find it mixed with lima beans into succotash in some of these Indian homes. For it is from a recipe from the Indians that we learned to combine the two. Corn or maize is believed to find its home in Peru, while the lima bean, though taking its name from Lima, Peru, was found in many parts of South America.

What one ingredient ,do you need whether you are making chutney in India, spaghetti in Italy, chili in Mexico or bouillabaisse in France? Tomatoes. They are perhaps second only to onions as the most generally used ingredient in recipes around the world. Oh, yes, rice and potatoes are more important items of food. But the charm of the tomato is that it makes other things taste good. The Incas thought so too. And so in that imagined Indian city of bygone years you would find the tomato being appreciated long before it set out to titillate the palates of people all over our globe. Perhaps you know that its popularity was not instantaneous in other places, where it was at times viewed as a poisonous plant. Its tempting appearance finally won it friends, and its good flavor unfollowed by ill effects put it on the menus of the world. Appropriately it is thought that the Italians were the first Europeans to brave trying the tomato as food. They put it to good use in their sauces, and those of us who enjoy good spaghetti or good pizza are happier for it!

In the temperate region of the United States and Canada in the fall of the year, the air begins to have a bite to it. Trees exchange their summer verdure for the riotous reds and golds of autumn. It is said that at this time of year “the frost is on the pumpkin.” If it is, then it is only on those left over from the pumpkin-pie making! Pumpkin pie is something that, like the change of leaf color, is characteristic of North America in the brisk days of fall and early winter. It is a dessert made of pumpkin, eggs, milk, sugar, ginger, cinnamon and a whiff of nutmeg prepared in a pastry shell and baked. To come bounding in from a frosty outdoors to a warm kitchen redolent with the aroma of a baking pumpkin pie is a joyous experience. Pumpkins and their relatives, the squashes, are used by most other peoples as vegetables. It is as vegetables that they were originally used by the pre-Columbian Indians of South America who first cultivated them.

Let us come northward now to the country that lies just to the south of the Rio Grande: Mexico. On the plains of the Central Plateau of Mexico in the centuries before Cortez passed through like a scourge, there developed a civilization of exceptional cultural achievement. Mexicans today proudly bypass their links with the Spanish conquistadores; and point with pride to their Indian, their Aztec, heritage. An Aztec gift to all the world is the avocado. The Aztecs showed a very high degree of interest in plants from a botanical point of view. In 1440 Montezuma I ascended the Aztec throne. He established a botanical garden, which his successors maintained until the end of the sixteenth century. Through the tropical and subtropical regions of the world the Aztec avocado has spread until it is a major part of the daily diet. In the Temperate Zones where it cannot grow, and to where it must be shipped, the avocado is regarded more as a delicacy and is used in salads.

Have you ever seen a melon growing on a tree? Really, they never grow on trees; but a melonlike fruit, the papaya, does grow on a treelike plant. Some papayas reach the weight of twenty pounds. We have cut into the golden flesh of a twenty-two-pound papaya. Papayas are little known in the Temperate Zone, Not easily shipped, they usually are eaten only where grown. In the United States, that means chiefly in Florida and California; but these fruits are a valuable source of food in places as far removed from the realm of Montezuma as India, Africa and Hawaii. Papayas, rich in papain (an enzyme similar to the pepsin in our own digestive tracts, used to digest protein), have followed the tropical and subtropical band that swaddles the earth.

Some tropical fruits have traveled north and south as well as circling east and west around the globe. This happens when the fruit has the enduring qualities that make it possible to ship it to distant places beyond its range of growth. Furthermore, not all these delicious gifts to the tables of the world made their journey long ago. A tropical fruit from the Americas that has globe-trotted widely, and done so only recently, is the grapefruit. Today it is grown in every citrus-producing country in the world, and from these it is shipped north and south. Where grapefruit came from is not known exactly. It has been narrowed to the West Indies. John R, Magness, head of the Fruit and Nut Crops Research of the United States Department of Agriculture, makes this suggestion;

“Grapefruit? Five centuries ago there weren’t any. There was, growing in the East Indies, a big, tough fruit, the shaddock. Eventually—sometime in the 1600’s —it was to make a long voyage in a trading ship bound for the West Indies. There, by one of those strange tricks of Nature we call mutations, it would turn info a fruit like the one in our salad bowl."

It is important to note that the grapefruit did not result from the hybridizing of the shaddock with some other citrus. Instead, the shaddock, when planted in the West Indies, produced what is called by gardeners a ‘'sport," A sport, because it springs from a genetic change, can “reproduce after its own kind.” This sport came to be known as grapefruit.

Its name in English, grapefruit, was given it in Jamaica. As a child, it was perplexing to me to look at these enormous yellow fruit, six or seven inches in diameter, and find them named for something so small as a grape. A visit to a producing grove of grapefruit trees explained why. Unlike other citrus fruits, grapefruit grow in clusters.

The grapefruit remained cradled in the Caribbean area, venturing only as far north as Florida, until near the close of the last century. This West Indian gift arrived on our tables, for the most part, within the lifetime of the generation now living.

So, we hope that wherever you live in the world, the next time you pull up your chair to the table to enjoy a tempting meal, you will remember to appreciate those “foreign” guests who long ago literally were “pulled up by their roots” and transplanted from various lands to the distant corners of the earth. Conversely, here in Argentina, where we now live, when we look at what is on the table to be eaten, and then look at one another, we find that we are the only foreigners at our table in this land so far below the Rio Grande.

JEHOVAH’S witnesses have been preaching God’s established kingdom in Brazil during the past forty years. Literally thousands have come to an understanding Of Jehovah’s purposes, and hundreds of congregations have been organized as part of the expansion program of the New World society. How true is the prophecy: “The little one himself will become a thousand, and the small one a mighty nation. I myself, Jehovah, shall speed it up in its own time.”—Isa. 60:22.

It was in the year 1925 that a branch office of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was established in Brazil when a special representative was sent from headquarters to organize the preaching work. Progress was slow in the beginning due to opposition and prejudice. However, when the president of the Society visited this country in 1945, two decades later, there were 35 congregations already formed and 344 active ministers reporting field service. Some had come from other countries to serve where the need was great and after the visit of the president the expansion program was on.

Brazil, with its 45 million inhabitants, was an attractive field for missionaries. The first group

arrived in 1948, and when that year’s report was compiled there was an increase of 66 percent in ministers, 1,319 reporting field service. Literature was placed readily and there was a steady increase in workers and a greater demand for printed material to use in the field. So great was the need that a two-story factory and office building was constructed in 1953. Printing machinery was installed and a well-equipped office to give administration to the 150 congregations scattered about the country. The next ten years proved to be very busy years, full of blessings and wonderful increases. Publishers of God’s kingdom increased from a peak of 6,429 in 1953 to 14,458 in 1958 and to an all-time peak of 30,118 associated with 669 congregations in 1963.

With the expansion in the field organization came also the need to enlarge facilities at the branch office located in a busy suburb of cosmopolitan Rio de Janeiro. It was early in the year 1960, when the president of the Watch Tower Society visited Brazil, that definite plans were made to expand the housing facilities of the Bethel home. Plans were drawn up by a skillful and dedicated brother, and two years later, in 1962, construction began on what would be an annex to the Bethel home and a spacious Kingdom Hall to be used by the local congregation.

Dedication of New Facilities

With much anticipation, the happy Bethel family was able to move into the new living quarters in July. Construction work finally came to a completion and the day arrived for the first official meeting to be held in the new Kingdom Hall. Saturday, August 31, was the day marked for the dedication program. That afternoon, groups of happy-faced people began to pass through the large iron gates leading into the property. New buildings can be seen any day, anywhere. But this was different. They had come to see the modern, expanded facilities that will serve Jehovah’s witnesses and all persons of goodwill throughout Brazil.

Once inside the gate, there is a mosaic stone pathway to the right, flanked by a small garden, leading to the entrance of the Kingdom Hall. The three stories above with five bedrooms and toilet facilities on each floor serve as living quarters for the Bethel family. These rooms are reached by a staircase from the rear, and the door of each room opens on to a tastefully decorated, open-tile terrace. The front of the building, topped by a watchtower that masks a water tank holding 5,284 gallons, is covered with gray-and-fawn-speckled pastilhas,. small pastille-shaped tiles, whose clean appearance enhances considerably the neighborhood. Aluminum awnings help create a cooler atmosphere in tropical weather. The Kingdom Hall itself, painted in a cool pale green and with a floor of colored mosaic flagstone, contributes well to the happy atmosphere of the congregation.

The dedication program began with a four-part symposium that included interviews and experiences. It was thrilling to hear how the truth concerning God’s kingdom had entered Brazil. Brother Ascendino Albuquerque related that in the year 1918, while serving in the Brazilian navy, he and several companions had stopped in front of one of the meeting places of Jehovah’s witnesses in Brooklyn, New York. The Bible chart "From Paradise Lost to the Times of Restitution,” used at that time for Bible lectures, aroused their attention. They obtained some literature in Spanish and attended meetings there over a period of two years while their boat was undergoing repairs. To the interest of the audience, Brother Albuquerque displayed the chart that he brought back with him in 1920. On returning to Brazil they were already zealous Bible students. Thus the preaching work was initiated and the small group of six grew, and already in 1923 eight ministers reported preaching activities. A member of the Bethel family, Brother Pimintel Cabral, also told of contacting the Witnesses in Sao Paulo in 1923, and of the growth of the first congregation.

The oldest member of the Bethel family, Jose Rufino da Silva, who studied with the group who returned from the United States, spoke of the humble two-room office, where, in 1926, just 300 copies of The Watchtower were laboriously printed. The present property was purchased in 1941, and he described how in 1951, with handset type, some eight to nine thousand magazines were printed per month. Due to the increase in circulation, printing of the magazines had been transferred to the factory at Brooklyn, New York, in 1957, and now some three million copies of the magazines in Portuguese are being printed every year. Brother Otto Estelmann, who came to Brazil in 1939 to preach the kingdom of God in the German settlements of the country, pointed out that Jehovah, the happy God, has a happy people doing his will and that it was through united action that the building of the size and maturity of the organization was accomplished,

An interesting and lively description of the construction work was then given by a dedicated minister who was in charge of the building work. Many happy experiences were recounted as well as some of the difficulties encountered. Local authorities were reluctant in issuing a permit to build due to a malicious rumor that the building would not be used for that for which it was purported to be. Photographs of other Bethel homes and branch offices of the Watch Tower Society were then shown the officials of the City Council and explanation was given of the free Bible educational work done by Jehovah’s witnesses worldwide. Immediately the permit to build was granted, and some interesting comments were made extolling the purpose of the building as “being for the common good of all persons and as such, deserving of their support.” Building permit granted, more than a hundred volunteer workers, all dedicated ministers, working at different times, took part in the construction work. The zealous service of these workers aroused the attention of several outside constructors. One said: “If I had these men working for me I would become a millionaire in no time.” Appreciation was expressed by one businessman from whom some building materials were purchased. He commented: “I have three prices, one for those who pay cash, another for time payments, and yet another for Jehovah’s witnesses because they give me no trouble.”

The dedication talk was then given by the branch supervisor, who spoke on the subject "Building for the Future.” After reminding the attentive audience that the new building was not there to be worshiped or idolized, but would be a place where the worship of Jehovah would be taught and promoted, building projects of Jehovah’s worshipers of the ancient past were recounted. "Noah constructed a huge boat and Solomon built a glorious temple. Both were built to fulfill a purpose in harmony with Jehovah’s will,” said the speaker. “This Kingdom Hall is a blessing to this community since this is the only place persons can learn how to worship God in an acceptable and pleasing manner and learn of the way to everlasting life.” He pointed out that the Watch Tower Society has been carrying on a building program for many years, in many lands, building branch offices, Bethel homes, factories, missionary homes, Kingdom Halls and operating farms. “We must never forget,” he continued, “that all this building is really part of a greater building program that is done by bearing public witness concerning Jehovah’s name and kingdom and making disciples of people of all nations. The Watch Tower Society is now one of the largest Bible publishing organizations and its teaching program encourages right worship, fine works and conduct, which bring eternal blessings.”

Jehovah’s witnesses will continue to preach God’s kingdom to the population of Brazil, if Jehovah wills. They know that “the blessing of Jehovah—that is what makes rich, and he adds no pain with it.” —Prov. 10:22.

Rulers with Christ

AGRAND privilege has been extended to a small number of mankind to rule with Jesus Christ in his heavenly kingdom. While on earth Jesus spoke to a representative number of these privileged ones, saying: “Have no fear, little flock, because your Father has approved of giving you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) These conquer this world in its attempts to make them a part of it or to break their integrity to Jehovah God. Confirming his promise while on earth, the resurrected Jesus said: “To the one that conquers I will grant to sit down with me on my throne, even as I conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Rev. 3:21) But this privilege of ruling with Christ on his throne comes only by way of death.

As a seed planted in the soil will send up a plant whose form is entirely different from that of the seed, so the one chosen to rule with Christ is raised from the dead in a different body. The seed withers and dies as it gives up its food reserves to nourish the seedling. As a seed it ceases to exist and therefore can be said to die. Like this seed, the person who has prospects of ruling with Christ must die and lose his identity as a human. As a plant that rises from a seed is a new body, so the resurrected body of this person who is planted in death is entirely different. He is now a new creature with a spirit body but with the same life pattern he had before dying. This makes it possible for him to enter the heavenly realm and take his position with Christ as ah associate ttfler with him.—1 Cor. 15:35-38, 44.

The time for resurrecting these chosen ones was not in the first century after Jesus’ resurrection, but in the time of the end during his second presence. This would mean that as these prospective rulers with Christ died, they would have to sleep in death awaiting the time for them to be resurrected. This is pointed out by Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. In his first letter to the Corinthians he said: “Look! I tell you a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep in death, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Cor. 15:51, 52) Those dying during the invisible second presence of Christ will, as Paul says, be changed or resurrected as spirit creatures immediately. They will not have to sleep in death as those who died before his second presence had to do.

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul gives further information about this resurrecting of Christ’s holy ones at his second presence. “For this is what we tell you by Jehovah’s word, that we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep in death; because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thess. 4:15-17) It is evident from this that some of those chosen to be rulers with Christ would still be living on earth after their spiritual brothers who had been sleeping in death had been resurrected and seated with him on his heavenly throne. Thus the resurrected ones would be ruling with Christ for a period while others of the anointed remnant are still living on earth. In time the living would also have to die in order to rule with Christ. Their being caught away to meet the Lord is realized when they are, before death, separated from this world’s system of things and are united with him in the worship and service of God. This thought is in harmony with Ephesians 2: 6, which says: “He raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus.” This was said regarding Christ’s chosen ones while they were still on earth.

The resurrecting of the sleeping holy ones to spirit life takes place in the last days when a commanding call is going out to all parts of the earth telling people to get out of religious Babylon the Great. (Rev. 18:4) It is when the good news of the established kingdom of God is being proclaimed as if by a loud trumpet This is when Christ separates the people of all nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.—Matt. 25:31-33.

Because the dead members of Christ’s ruling class are resurrected at this time and join Christ on his heavenly throne, we are not to conclude that the millennial reign begins then. That cannot start until the present wicked system of things is destroyed and Satan is confined to the abyss. The imprisonment of Satan is concurrent with the 1,000-year reign of Christ. The period immediately preceding it, called the “last days’’ at 2 Timothy 3:1, is marked by Christ’s enthronement, his casting of Satan out of heaven and his dividing of the nations. He rules during this period while his enemies are still in power. (Ps. 110:1, 2) The same can be said of those who are resurrected and joined with him as co-rulers.

What is written at Revelation 20:4 does not conflict with the fact that some of the chosen would be united with Christ on heavenly thrones during the last days that precede the millennium. The latter part of that scripture says: “They came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years.” This 1,000-year period of reconstruction work during which Satan is in the abyss should not be regarded as the limit to their being kings. We are told at Revelation 22:5 that “they will rule as kings forever and ever.” The thousand years is singled out by Revelation 20:4 because of its importance, being the time when Jehovah’s original purpose for man will be carried to completion. It also is the time when Satan is imprisoned in the abyss. His imprisonment for a thousand years is mentioned in the verses immediately preceding Revelation 20:4, which suggests why a thousand years out of a reign of eternity is singled out.

In view of the fact that the Scriptures show that Christ sits on his throne and rules during the preparatory period before the beginning of the millennium and the imprisoning of Satan, those to be associated with him as rulers could do the same thing. Thus, as his reign is not limited to one thousand years, neither is theirs. Whatever duties they are given now in heaven are part of their overall reign rather than part of the 1,000-year reign during which Satan is in the abyss.—Matt. 25:31,32; Ps. 110:2.

The rulers with Christ are given glorious privileges of service. With him they form a new spirit heavens for mankind that exercises authority now, authority that the nations will be made painfully aware of when this preparatory period before the millennium comes to its conclusion. Thereafter these new heavens will pour blessings upon the earth for the eternal good of mankind.—2 Pet. 3:13.

U.S. President Assassinated

<$■ A sniper hidden in a seven* story building pulled the trigger of a rifle. Shots rang out. The president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, slumped forward. The limousine in which he was riding sped away. Minutes later at the Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, the president was pronounced dead. The doctor who attended the president said that he was struck by two bullets. A third bullet hit Governor John B. Connally, Jr., of Texas who was riding in the same limousine in the motorcade with the president. Governor Connally is recovering satisfactorily. For days following the assassination shock and grief swept the world. The president was given a hero’s burial. The world’s men of title and power took part in the funeral procession. Among the notable figures were President de Gaulle of France, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, King Baudouin of the Belgians, Queen Frederika of the Hellenes, and Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. The final resting-place of the 35th president of the United States was on an open slope among the dead in Arlington National Cemetery, within sight Of the Lincoln Memorial. A gas flame marks the grave site. It is the only such "eternal flame” in Arlington Cemetery. The assassination that took place on November 22 in Dallas, Texas, and subsequent events underscore the fact that these are times of hate and violence.

The Accused Killer

<$■ Twenty-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, self-styled Marxist, was arrested and charged by Dallas police with the murder of President J. F. Kennedy. Police say Oswald was in the building from which the assassin fired. A rifle with a telescopic sight was found in the building with Oswald’s palm print on it. Officer J. D. Tippitt is said to have stopped Oswald. The accused assassin allegedly shot the patrolman dead. Oswald was traced to the Texas Theater, where police arrested him. This took place on November 22. On November 24 while Oswald was being transferred to the county jail, a Dallas nightclub owner lunged at him and shot and killed him. The accused assassin was buried on November 25. Oswald never did admit killing the president. Jack Rubenstein, whose shooting of Oswald was recorded by TV cameras, has been indicted for murder.

The 86th President

<£> Aboard the presidential plane, Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into the highest office of the United States as the 36th president of the nation at 2:38 p.m. on November 22. Judge Sarah T. Hughes administered the oath. The ceremony followed the assassination of President Kennedy. On arrival in Washington, D.C., President Johnson said: “I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help—and God’s.” On November 27 President Johnson spoke to the nation before a joint session of Congress, He called for quick action on tax reduction and virtually every other point of the Kennedy legislative program.

Million Trees a Year

# Mexico has gone all out in its tree distribution campaign. In the state of Campeche alone over a million fruit trees were grafted. This represents half the goal set by the S-month-old Fruit Tree Commission to distribute this year 2,000,000 grafted trees as part of a 10-year plan. This ambitious program is hoped to accelerate until in the final year the distribution will have reached a rhythm of 10,000,000 trees annually. The program reportedly has a threefold purpose: to raise the food level of peasant landholders, to open up unused highland areas unprofitable in other types of cultivation and to provide a revenue source to bolster the national trade balance.

Pope Ultimate Head

<& In an interview on October 21, Bishop John Moorman of Ripon, England, who is the leader of the Anglican Church observer group at the Ecumenical Council in Rome, said that if there is to be a final unity among Christians "there will have to be a central head of the church, and that head will clearly have to be the Bishop of Rome,” that is, the Roman Catholic pope. He said that he believes the Anglican communion as a whole “would be pre-

pared to accept the fact of the papacy.” Although, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, the bishop felt Anglicans "would find great difficulty in recognizing the basis on which ■the primacy rests.”

Sound Teeth

■$> Angoram Is a grass-hut village in northcast New Guinea. Its people wear bird-of-paradise plumes and bones through their noses. They live on a diet of sago, taro root, yams, fish, possums, crocodiles, lizards and snakes. A remarkable fact is that there is not a single tooth cavity among its inhabitants. They have all perfect teeth until they die. Scientists are hopeful that these Angorams may provide a vital clue to the prevention of tooth decay.

Beer Drinkers

The Brewers Society reported last year that consumption of beer in the world in 1962 rose to a new record high—9,308,000,000 gallons, or 3.6 percent more than in 1961. Belgians led the beer-drinking list, with an average intake of 27 gallons per person. West Germans came second, then the New Zealanders, Australians and Britons. The United States rated ninth, at 12.6 gallons per person. The aver-age consumption of beer in Britain was 19.3 gallons per person.

Martiusk Canal dosed

& The first of November saw the 150-year-old Mariinsk Canal system in Russia closed down. The Soviets stated that the Volga-Baltic waterway is being replaced by a new system that will enable Volga River barges to move directly to Leningrad. The construction of the new 224-mile Volga-Baltic Canal system, which is to open next spring, will make it possible for river barges to traverse all European Russia from north to south.

Priesthood Students Drafted <$> Students of four of Poland’s largest Roman Catholic seminaries were ordered by the country’s Communist regime to report for military service, church sources revealed on November 2. Before this seminarians were exempt from military duty. This order was viewed as evidence of a worsening of relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Polish Communist government.

Greek Election

<$> The Center Union party of Premier George Papandreou won a clear but narrow victory in the national Greek election on November 4. Former premier Constantine Caramanlis had ■ been in power for eight years. The returns gave the Papandreou party 42.2 percent of the popular vote and the Caramanlis party 39.4 percent. About 5 million Greeks out of an electorate of 5.6 million voted. A Reuters dispatch stated that Caramanlis an-nounced that he was retiring from politics.

Church Wealth Disturbs

The New York Times for November 3 said that many Britons are disturbed because of the earthly wealth accumulated by the Church of England. The paper says: "The church has obtained property, stocks and bonds totaling more than 300 million pounds ($840 million). Income from these investments has more than doubled in the last 15 years.” The clergy are fearful lest the parishioners get wind of this great acquisition of material wealth and be tempted into being less generous when collection plates are passed.

Life-Span Cut in Smoking

<+> A Harvard University epidemiologist stated that the life expectancy of white American men who are now 50 would be 1.4 years greater if none of them smoked. He pointed out, according to the New York Times, November 12, that such an increase in life expectancy would be comparable to that achieved from all the medical advances of the last 40 years. Athletes were told by the American Medical Association, on September 17, that smoking does definitely affect breathing, despite what the advertisements say.

Somalia Looks Eastward

The tiny African nation of Somalia, independent since July 1960, has spurned Western offers of military assistance. The small country is building an army of 20,000 men. She has turned to the Soviet Union for military aid. Moscow is thought to have offered military equipment and air power. The concern in the West is, What does Somalia, with a population of slightly more than two million, want with a mechanized 20,000-man army? Western observers wonder if this is Moscow’s point of entry into the coveted Africa.

Sex in Colleges

Educators in the United States have expressed alarm over the conduct of the students in some of the nation’s leading colleges. The dean of Harvard college reportedly stated that sex parties in the dormitories are bringing Harvard "closer and closer to outright scandal.” The U.S. News d World Report, November 11, quoted Dean John U. Monro as saying that visits by coeds to the men’s dormitories have "come to be a license to use the college rooms for wild parties and sexual intercourse.” A Harvard psychiatrist, Dr. Graham B. Blaine, Jr., stated that the trend is not confined to Harvard. One report shows that at least half the country’s college girls engage in premarital sex relations. These

figures, though termed "exaggerated” by some, should, at least, put youths on guard.

Koreans Vote

<$> In mid-October 11,000,000 South Koreans went to the polls to elect a president. The political battle was between General Chung Hee Park, 46, and a civilian, ex-President Po-sun Yun, 67. The vote was close. General Park received 4,702,640 votes and Yun got 4,546,614.

Premier Sukarno

<§> President Sukarno revived a post that was abolished in 1959 when he proclaimed himself Premier of Indonesia on November 13. A published Associated Press dispatch stated that this was for the purpose of tightening control of government operations. Sukarno is president for life.

Morocco’s Premier

# In Morocco, on November 13, King Hassan II appointed Ahmed Bahninl premier. The government daily AJchir Saa reportedly stated that “a new era with a constitutional monarchy” was beginning. King Hassan was premier himself after he became king in 1961. By delegating legislative powers to Bahn ini, he relinquished the autocratic rule that Moslem dynasties have wielded in Morocco for more than twelve centuries.

Ballots in Britain

<§> The month of November saw two British elections come and go. The results were not the least surprising. First, Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home won a seat in the House of Commons, However, on that same day his Conservative party took a severe trouncing in another poll. The Labor party, of course, was rather jubilant over the results. A Labor spokesman said that he saw a victory in the making for the Labor party. On the other hand, Prime Minister Home was not the least bit "downhearted.” He said this pattern will not be repeated in the general election, which is expected to be held in May. The election results were as follows: the Conservative percentage of the vote fell to 39.5, compared with 55.1 in 1959, while Labor’s rose to 48, compared with 44.9.

Children’s Rights

<•} A new article on the rights of children was approved by the United Nations Social Committee on November 15. The article says that every child has the right to acquire a nationality and shall be registered immediately after birth and be given a name. This article was included in the draft covenant on civil and political rights. The move is designed to transform the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into binding legal obligations.

(aAt eAaMcef

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Men need

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That it is God’s will for men to be together as one flock of sheep instead of being scattered, having a separate spiritual existence, is clear from the words of God’s Son, who said: “I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep.” Then he added: “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold;

those also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd." Sheep that flock together feed together. And, since this flock is growing by the thousands each year, the Watchtower magazine, their rich spiritual pasturage along with the Bible, is also expanding. Currently, 4,200,000 copies each issue in 66 languages. Join this spiritually well-fed throng.

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32                                          AWAKE!

¹

The Encyclopedia Americana (1929 edition), Vol. 2, page 250.

♦ Causes o/ the .Rise and Successes o/ Xrianim (February 1872), in Tracts^ TheoZofiticaZ and ttcal, page 102,

²

M'Cllntock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia, Vol. 6. page 509.