Why Peace Plans Fail

Planning a Budget

You Are Wonderfully Made

Storms over Thailand

FEBRUARY 22, 1963

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

Newt sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "Awake!’¹ has no fetters. It recognizes facts, foces facts, is free to publish facts. It i$ not bound by political ambitions or obligations; if is unhampered by advertisers whose fees must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

"Awake!" uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents ore on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to yau through these columns. This journal's viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of oil ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, socio! conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage is as broad as the earth and os high as the heavens.

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CONTENTS

Are You Easily Annoyed?

Why Peace Plans Fail

Love or Hate

When Success Turns to Failure

Planning a Budget

The Historic Khyber Pass

The Way They Say It in Newfoundland 16

You Are Wonderfully Made

Crocodile or Alligator?

Storms over Thailand           .

The Nutritious Carob Tree

Election Year in the Bahamas

“Your Word Is Truth”

Is Lent a Christian Institution?

Watching the World

THE way to lose friends and to be avoided by other people is to be easily irritated by small things. Who enjoys being around a person who creates embarrassing scenes because a train is late or a plane flight is postponed or someone for whom he is waiting comes a little later than expected? Who enjoys associating with a person who explodes because he is pushed in a crowded store or because things do not go right with something at which he is working? Who enjoys riding in a car with a person who becomes so upset over a foolish mistake by another driver that he shouts insults at the person or mumbles ahout it for a long time afterward? Who wants to be around a person who objects whenever you whistle a tune or do some other small thing that he linds annoying? The company of a person like that can be very unpleasant. He makes the mistake of allowing small things to conquer him. He actually hurts himself.

Your general health can be affected if you allow yourself to become perturbed over small things. You upset your nervous system, and this can cause numerous ailments. Even your heart can be affected adversely. Besides disturbing your health, petty annoyances can create tensions in your relationship with other persons. If you are married, you can ruin the happiness of your marriage, making living with you intolerable. How can your wife be contented if you are so easily irritated by small things that she docs or says that you are constantly speaking harshly to her or making unkind remarks? How can there be happiness in your home if you or your wife is easily annoyed by the playful antics and even slight noises of your children? Would it not be better for all if you were less sensitive?

There are many factors that affect your disposition, such as health, fatigue and your general temperament. A tendency toward being nervous and high strung is more likely to cause you to be easily annoyed by small things than if you were relaxed and easygoing. Nevertheless, ability to ignore small annoyances can be cultivated and certainly should be cultivated.

Self-control is what you need to exercise when you feel annoyed at something petty. Nothing is accomplished by getting upset or angry. Keep your emotions under control and try to look at the annoyance objectively, viewing it as inconsequential

and not worth a dispute. When traveling, , for example, if there is nothing you can do to alter the situation, accept delayed plane flights, late trains or breakdowns in your automobile as necessary travel risks. Rather than getting upset by small things, look upon them as things to talk about when relating your experiences to friends.

When a person has a mannerism or uses a certain expression over and over again, try to ignore it. It becomes an irritation when you allow your mind to dwell upon it. His use of it does you no harm. The same can be said about a mannerism of fussing with things such as papers on a desk or pictures on a wall, adjusting and readjusting them. A person in close association with someone who does that might find his fussiness very annoying. It is better to exercise self-control and learn to ignore it than to make uncomplimentary remarks about it that can only lead to bad feelings.

Some persons are easily annoyed by whistling, the tapping of fingers on a table, the rustling of paper, the playing of a radio, and so forth. These things can be disturbing when you are trying to concentrate, but they do not warrant an angry remark or a display of temper. Of course, love should also move a person to avoid making noises that disturb others. So whether you are the one who feels disturbed or are the one doing the disturbing, fellow feeling should govern your actions. Have consideration for the other person and do not think just of yourself.

Usually the things that annoy people are the small things done by others. Mannerisms, lack of manners, repetitious noises, doing things in a way that appears awkward, inconsistent or different from what you are accustomed to can be sources of irritation if you permit them to be so. Instead of becoming provoked over the

W’ E LIVE in stormy times! C o n-stantly restless and unsettled conditions prevailing earthwide remind one of a violent storm at sea. Listen to the long-range forecast of the problems that now confront mankind, as foreseen and recorded in the Bible by the inspired prophet Isaiah: “Ha for the commotion of many peoples, who are boisterous as with the boisterousness of the seas! And to the noise of national groups, who make a din just like the noise of mighty waters!'¹ (Isa. 17:12) How aptly these words portray this twentieth century with its turbulent winds of change and waves of violence and upheaval that sweep back and forth to buffet humanity! Two shattering world wars, numerous localized conflicts and rumblings of other possible trouble spots continually in the news have kept leaders and people alike in a constant state of uncertainty and agitation. Let another Bible writer, Jeremiah, express the way you have probably felt at times: “There was a hoping for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but, look! terror!’’ (Jer. 8:15) Such has been the expression of those who have depended on the peace plans that have failed.

IF-pos have been raised con’ imially as frosh efforts have been made to settle the issues. Men have tr^;od a number of different ways to overcome the sources of conflict and danger. To this end a whole fleet of peace-plan “ships" have been launched over the years.

One organization after another and innumerable pacts, treaties and agreements have been set in motion, given official approval and publicly acclaimed as “seaworthy” and the answer to the problems, only to end in disappointment. Unforeseen obstacles and extra stresses and strains have heen encountered and the “ships” have foundered and sunk out of sight.

A classic example in modern times Was the League of Nations, launched in January, its high ideals and ambitious plans, it was rendered a total wreck, after struggling along for a few years, by one upsurging wave of Nazi-Fascist aggression that precipitated World War II. Along with it many associate treaties and pacts sank out of sight, forgotten. Twenty-two million lives were lost during the world war when that peace-plan “ship” went down!

The League’s successor, the United Nations, launched in October, 1945, was labeled “the world’s best hope for peace,” among other optimistic titles, and was supposed “to maintain international peace and security.” So far it has managed to weather the stormy years of the postwar era, but there have been many uneasy moments. Former ardent supporters have voiced their lack of confidence in it as a peace-making body. Senator J. W. Fulbright, for example, spokesman for the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated: “The United Nations . . . has fallen far short of the hopes which attended its creation; we must look elsewhere for a system that can unify the forces of freedom effectively.” There is talk of abandoning ship.

In addition to these political efforts to unite the world and guide man’s course to reach a peaceful and secure haven, there have been numerous endeavors to draw the world together religiously, linguistically, racially, economically and educationally by such moves as cultural exchange visits, official missions, trade agreements, conferences and a variety of other programs.

With so many determined efforts made, often by sincere, diligent men and women who devote their time and energy to such a desirable end, why so many failures? Why is the world in fact more divided and stormy than ever? What is faulty about man’s peace plans?

What Is Lacking?

For a ship to survive a stormy transocean voyage it must be fully seaworthy, meeting specific standards as to quality of materials used in its construction and as to structure, its component members being expertly welded or riveted together in a well-designed pattern that will stand the stresses and strains that will be encountered. Vital too is the need for an experienced and courageous crew working under the direction of a capable captain who can navigate wisely and make right decisions under emergency conditions. How do human peace organizations measure up to the requirements for their task?

First, the limitations and imperfections of the human race itseif mean that faulty materials make up the organizations themselves. It becomes increasingly clear with each successive failure that man cannot clear up the problems by his own efforts. He must look to a source of power and hope higher than himself. The Bible has maintained this all along, namely, man’s dependence on his Creator, Jehovah God. Jeremiah was one who did; “I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.’’ (Jer. 10:23) Wise King Solomon, powerful in his day and successful as a peacemaker, observed: “From Jehovah are the steppings of an able-bodied man. As regards earthling man, how can he discern his way?” (Prov. 20:24) Do the political leaders of the nations earnestly seek the guidance of God and stand ready to apply the clear counsel of His Word the Bible in their dealings with one another? Does any one nation do so? Have they' ever done so? Because a large section of the earth is now represented by godless governments this is no sound reason for other nations to ignore the counsels of Almighty God. Here, then, is our first reason for man’s peace plans failing —imperfect man’s reliance on his own strength and wisdom.

Consider now the structures of the organizations that work for peace. Do the individual nations participating weld solidly together in complete accord? No! Far from it! Selfish interests and widespread distrust and prejudices permeate such arrangements. Any unity achieved to date has been accomplished by halfhearted com-promisc and bargaining. Such is never a strong bond of union. The Bible emphasizes the need to stand firm for righteous principles and thus manifest unselfishness and neighbor love in all such settling of differences, for love is “a perfect bond of union.” (Col. 3:14) In addition to the imperfection of the materials, then, this lack of devotion to righteous principles and this seeking of personal interests constitute further reasons why peace plans fail.

The vital need for experienced crews to man the “vessels” that steam across the treacherous waters has already been mentioned. The men at the helm of world peace organizations have accumulated a measure of experience in administrative fields and studies in political science. They have become adept at negotiation and diplomacy. Yet they are still unable to cope with the complex issues that now face mankind and they often seem bewildered and undecided when new crises arise. Threats more hazardous than ever, issues more far-reaching than over contemplated and situations more dangerous than over before cause many a dilemma and deadlock.

Beyond Man's Control

These three reasons for peace plans failing stem from man’s own failings, his own imperfection and inexperience, and lack of devotion to principle on the part of many. To this list the Bible adds another important factor that may not be readily apparent otherwise. It pinpoints the very cause of the stormy situation and much of the blame for man’s failure to succeed with his peace plans as being the powerful spirit creature Satan the Devil. Invisible to human eyes, his existence and his evil intentions are revealed clearly throughout the Bible. Concerning our very generation, the Revelator predicted: “Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.”

(Rev. 12:12) Jehovah God has tolerated this one’s existence for an allotted period from his rebellion, and now the fulfillment of many prophecies indicates his end is near. For this reason his wrath and belligerence have increased. '

Devilish, inhuman and sadistic individual acts of violence and ill-treatment of fellowmen are grim evidences of his influence in the lives of those who become his willing tools. Over and above this, his maintaining of unsettled conditions and wrecking of man’s peace plans are part of his declared intention to embitter and harden people against their God and Creator by causing loss of faith and by sidetracking time and effort away from godly paths. He foments prejudices, misunderstandings and bitter frustrations. His influence may well be described as ‘an ill wind that blows no one any good.’ Ephesians S'. 12 reveals the enmity that exists between man and elements in the spirit world in these words: “We have a fight, not against blood and flesh, but against. . . the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” His aims and attitude are also expressively portrayed at 1 Peter 5:8: “Your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone.”

Considering the combination of reasons for the failure of man’s peace plans to date, it is clear that, no amount of experimentation or persistent efforts to establish a united world will succeed. We must look elsewhere for a solution to the problem.

How Peace Will Be Realized

The Bible is emphatic that Jehovah God, “the God who gives peace,” will accomplish his original purpose for this planet by acting to eliminate the very root causes of the trouble. Read a few of the promises of His Word: “The meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace." “Jehovah ... is making wars to cease to the extremity of the earth.” There will be an “abundance of peace . . . from the River to the ends of the earth." “They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war any more."—Rom, 16:20; Ps. 37:11; 46:8, 9; 72:7, 8; Mic. 4:3, 4.

How will such a permanently peaceful earth be brought about? By God’s heavenly kingdom, empowered as a unified world government under Christ Jesus as king to give mankind the needed direction. This established kingdom will not coexist much longer with any other power, spirit or human. Every troublemaking system, organization and individual will be destroyed in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at “Armageddon.” (Rev. 16:14, 16) This will be the war to end wars, the storm to clear away storms for all time. Concerning the noisy din made by the “national groups,” Isaiah 17:13 states: “He will certainly rebuke it, and it must flee far away and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before a wind and like a thistle whirl before a stormwind.”

- Frankly considering the failings of man’s peace plans emphasizes the need to accept the Bible’s promises as reliable and to apply its counsel day by day so as to gain God’s approval and his protective care through Armageddon’s storm. The psalmist spoke of those who turn to Jehovah God and his kingdom, saying: “They begin crying out to Jehovah in their distress, and out of the stresses upon them he brings them forth. He causes the windstorm to stand at a calm, so that the waves of the sea keep quiet. And they rejoice because these become still, and he leads them to the haven of their delight.”—Ps. 107: 28-30.

The kingdom of God adheres firmly to righteous principles. It is not restricted by human inexperience and imperfection. It stands out in sharp contrast to human peace plans. It is well equipped to produce and maintain earth-wide lasting peace.

RE you a person who finds it difficult to make ends meet financially? Do you tend

to live over your head? Are you often borrowing from others? Do you often give in to'impulse buying and then wonder where your money went? Are you trying to hold down two jobs, to the detriment of your spirifiial life and Christian privileges? Do you express the sentiment of the cartoon caption, “What does Grandpa know about hardships? He only did without things. He never had to pay for them!” If so, you will do well to give thought to planning a budget.-

But the word “budget” is anathema to many persons, especially debtors who prefer to shun reality. “The perennial debtor is a budget-proof individual who mistakenly attributes his fiscal woes to a shortage of funds,” recently commented the New York Times¹ “He has not learned from experience that no matter how much he earns, it is never enough. . . . The reason that the perennial debtor cannot even draw-up a budget, according to the assistant treasurer of a credit union, is: ‘They don’t want to come face-to-face with reality.’ ”

If these “budget-proof” persons would come to face reality, they would discover benefits in a budget. For one thing, they would find that they are likely doing without the things they really want because their money is spent purchasing items they could easily do without.

They would find, too, the complaint, ‘It is too tedious and dreary to live by a budget; it stifles joy in living,’ to be a misconception. The trouble usually lies in the fact that they do not know what a budget is. They think it is mere penny-hunting record keeping. Not at all! Some persons do keep track of every cent they spend, only to find that they still cannot make ends meet. But they are not budgeting. A budget is essentially a matter of planning, not record keeping. It is a plan for distributing income so as to give you and every member of your family the utmost satisfaction from money spent; it is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went; it is a device to help you fit your spending to your life’s goals and purposes. Little wonder a budget has been compared to a dam. A dam holds back the undirected flow of the stream in order to turn the waters into channels that supply power generators, so that electric current may be provided now here, now there, as needs arise.

Since a budget does the.same thing with the flow of income as a dam does with the incoming waters, many families have found budgeting no boring experience. They find it far more interesting than spending money impulsively. They find that concentrating their combined thought power on getting things they need and want most is more interesting than looking at a television program.

A budget, then, should not be a stiffer of joy. It safeguards one from the loss of joy caused by a financial crisis. There tends to be apprehension rather than joy when there is no money for things really needed. Besides providing for one’s individual or family needs, financial planning also may make luxuries attainable without the unpleasant feeling that they cannot be afforded.

Neither Extravagance nor Miserliness

A budget copes with both of these problems. It helps eliminate wasteful spending. It shows you leaks through which too much of your income is draining without significant returns to you. When the leaks of extravagance are identified, one can plug them and divert the stream of cash to something that is truly wanted. If one depended solely on impulse in buying, he might spend so much money extravagantly that he might lack basic necessities. With so much installment buying today one can easily go hopelessly in debt. There is one case of a woman who bought so many things on easy payments that the total of each month’s payments was greater than her husband’s monthly income. A budget enables persons in debt to pay off their debts from regular income and remedy the situation of borrowing money at high interest rates, which in many instances is flagrant extravagance,

A budget, on the other hand, need not make one a miser, a penny-pincher and a self-centered person. No, a budget is designed to take into account and provide for gifts and contributions and for showing hospitality. A budget helps many Christians live up to the Bible counsel; “Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.” (1 Pet. 4:9) A budget should steer one safely between the whirlpool of extravagant spending and the rock of miserly grasping.

Cooperation and Preliminaries

To get the full benefits of a budget, if it is for a family rather than an individual, there must be cooperation. Husband and wife must work together. The wife may be a good financial manager and the husband may turn over to her some responsibility, but the entire load should not rest on one person. Both should share it, and in many instances the children can learn how to cooperate. The budget system eliminates the “give me a dime, please,” way of things, because under it children are usually given an allowance, In harmony with the family income and the child’s needs. The child is told what this allowance is intended to cover and is taught by the parents how to draw up, in turn, a personal budget. Thus the children, by getting financial training early in life, are better able to avoid both miserliness and extravagance.

One easy approach to budgeting is to purchase a budget booklet. These are available in many stores and are often given free of charge by banks and other financial institutions. Sometimes a ready-made book requires more record keeping than is necessary, and many persons have found it better to make up their own budget plan, merely using sample budget books as sources of ideas rather than as final tools to be used from beginning to end. A budget plan can be both effective and simple.

The first major step in planning a budget is to find out what one’s expenses are. Find out what you spent during the previous month under such headings as food, housing, household operation, transportation, clothing, and so forth. For some persons the easiest way of estimating certain classes or expenses sucn as ciotnmg co SIS is to start with expected annual costs and divide by twelve to obtain a monthly figure. One could use receipts and canceled checks to help estimate expenses. If you do not have a fairly accurate idea of where and how money is being spent, then keep a spending record for at least a month or¹ two. With the actual record of your¹ expenditures, you will have the basis for a budget.

It is quite a shock to many persons to learn, after¹ a few weeks of recording expenses, how many dimes go out for coffee, or soft drinks, how many quarters go out for magazines and how many coins end up in coin machines. It is surprising to learn how much is flowing out in small, almost unnoticeable amounts. Of course, there is nothing wrong with small personal expenses, whether it be for coffee, ice cream or snacks, but when you know how much is being diverted to small expenses, you may find that they are running much higher than anticipated. A record of expenses for a month, then, may be very revealing. If one has an auto, he might keep a notebook and pencil in the car to jot down car expenses as paid out.

After one has determined what one’s expenses are likely to be per month, then one can take the second step: Make an estimate of income for a certain period, a month or a year. Be realistic. Do not count any chickens before they are hatched.

Setting Up the Budget Plan

Knowing what your income is for a set period, you can now allot money for your needs and wants in proportion to their importance, First consider your necessities. Basically, these are food, clothing and shelter. It is up to you to determine how much to spend on these. Some budget books list fixed percentages for these needs, but many persons find they do better by fixing tneir own ngures. Budget dooks snow some families spend 25 to 40 percent of their income on food. Depending on what country and in what locality you live, you can adjust the food bill to your own circumstances. If a family finds the food expense is taking 30 percent of their income, they may be able, by more careful shopping, by buying larger quantities at the right time and by less impulse buying, to reduce the food expense to 25 percent, and still provide a well-balanced diet for all the family.

Some money specialists believe that there should be enough categories of expenses in your budget plan to cover main expenses: Food, clothing, shelter, house operation, medical, transportation, recreation, gifts and contributions, insurance, personal care, taxes, and so forth. However, one should guard against too many headings, getting too involved. In fact, one authority on money management suggests just six categories for simplicity, that is, food, clothing, housing, house operation, advancement and savings. Advancement would include gifts and contributions, auto, books, magazines, recreation, health, personal grooming, vacation, travel, and so forth. But a budget should fit your needs and may require more than six headings. Gifts and contributions are often desirable as a heading, allowing one to make provision for his religious interests.

What about the “savings” category? Many money management authorities now recommend that there be two types of savings funds. The first would be for emergencies that arise, those expenses that cannot always be anticipated. There may be a sudden doctor hill, unexpected auto repairs, something you simply must buy but have not provided for. An emergency savings fund need not be allowed to grow too big. Many persons keep it within one to two months’ income.

The other savings fund would be for long-range goals, for specific things you need or would like to have but which you do not have money for now. One might be saving up for a vacation, travel to a convention, needed household furniture, a new refrigerator or for some luxury that could not be obtained without advance planning and which if obtained on credit or installment would put the family in debt and result in high interest payments.

The savings fund, wisely used, can relieve a family of much tension and high-interest expense. Highlighting the benefits of a budgetary savings fund, an editor of Fortune magazine tells about two mythical couples: The Frugals decide to defer all but necessary purchases for enough months to accumulate $500. Then they will have a fund from which they can make cash purchases, and instead of paying out a fixed amount each month in installment loans, they will use these sums to replenish the $500. The Joneses, with precisely the same income, do not put off purchases but instead regularly commit themselves to many installment loans. At the end of ten years, says this editor, the Joneses would have paid out about $800 in interest. The Frugals, by contrast, would have earned interest on their savings fund— $150 or more. Not even counting the extra benefits they would have reaped by buying for cash, they would be, in toto, about a thousand dollars better off—and would be free of ten years’ tension because of being in debt.

When you set up the budget, study the list of needs and wants. The individual or family should make certain the needs are really necessities. Then look over the list of wants and decide on their relative importance. Next apportion your month’s income in such a way as to take care of your needs, using the remainder or discretionary money as seems most important to you.

In a simple form, then, a budget is; (1) An estimate of income; (2) a grouping of all expenditures into a few major classes; (3) a monthly estimate, prepared in advance, of total payments that you expect to make in each of the specified groups and (4) a record of the payments actually made in each of the groups. When budget expenditures run close to income, one must realize there is little room for impulsive buying.

Revising and Planning Ahead

After the budget has been in use a month or more, some questions need to be asked: Does it plan for food spending to protect the health of the family? Or is if too extravagant? Does the plan provide for other health needs? And what about the family’s spiritual health? Have you provided tor Bible-study aids and funds to advance your religious interests ? Have you considered hospitality to others? Is there something for moderate recreation? Is there a straining to save too much? Do not be surprised if your budget requires revision. Revise your estimated expenditures until you arrive at a workable plan. Do not make it too tight; if it is, one might consider a suggestion by one financial institution that recommends a budget category called “Oil," amounting to about 2i percent of the total income: ‘‘That’s oil for the troubled waters, ft will cover mistakes and save personal headaches. It will cover the ... $5 you spend on impulse when the budget makes no allowance for it."

A budget is often thrown out of balance by what some people call ‘‘blockbusters’’ —big expenses that come along once or twice a year, such as insurance payments or real estate taxes. The way to deal with potentially devastating expenses is to plan ahead. If it is a once-a-year insurance payment or tax, divide the total due into twelve payments and start a reserve fund for fixed future payments. Set aside something every month. Likewise with seasonal expenses: In climates with cold winters, the big outlay for heating a house is confined to about six months. If all fuel expenses have to come out of that period’s income, it might be difficult: but if an estimate of annual fuel costs is made and

divided by twelve and then laid aside every month, the situation is in balance.

Simplified Systems

Tailor the budget to your needs or the needs of your family, not someone else’s family. If it is kept simple, it will not be necessary to spend more than a minute or two to make records of expenses. Some persons avoid keeping records of small expenses by making a personal allowance to each member of the family. No accounting for the use of this allowance is called for, though the individual may wish to keep a personal budget.

There are also a number of simplified versions of the budget. One is the envelope system. Each envelope is marked for the purpose it represents, such as ‘Tent,” “food,” “transportation,” and so forth. Every payday the income is transformed into bills and coins. Then it is distributed among the envelopes so that when bills become due the money will be there. As one spends, no record is kept of expenditures. When a small balance is left in the envelope, it may be transferred to a “savings” envelope or it may be retained for next month’s use. If one envelope is consistently exhausted before the end of a period (say the food envelope), you can either

draw from the savings envelope, or if you think food costs have been larger than they should be, you might try to reduce them by more careful shopping.

The envelope system has the advantage of simplicity, but one must firmly resist borrow from another envelope when convenience so urges, upsetting the budget. Some persons find the envelope system good for some categories of expenditures, such as food, classes.

Another simplified system is to put the monthly income in the bank and to use checks to pay all important expenditures. One can later sort the canceled checks out, total each category and see whether he has kept to his budget or not. Also, one might combine features of the envelope system with the checking account system. One might keep only small amounts of money in envelopes and the rest of the money in the bank. The envelopes representing larger expenses might contain only a card on which is recorded how much money is in the bank and allotted to that category of expenditures. Thus one could devise a simplified system that best fits his circumstances.

The simplified, systems, though nut as useful generally as a modest budget book, still go far toward a budgetary goal of freedom from financial tension. Whatever system is used, remember that a budget is mainly a plan for spending, not simply a record of expenses. Planning a budget, telling your money where to go, will enable most people to live more in harmony with their life goals—yes, and to live within the Scriptural injunction; “Do not you people be owing anybody a single thing, except to love one another.”—Rom. 13:8.

THE crossroads of Oriental civilization.

The gateway to Pakistan. The way of merchants with their camel trains, of pilgrims, of exiles. The route of conquering armies, of Alexander the Great, and Genghis Khan. Yes, ail these describe the Khyber Pass, one of the most famous highways of the world.

The pass begins near Jamrud, ten and a half miles west of Peshawar in Pakistan, and winds through hills for about thirty-three miles in a northwesterly direction into Afghanistan. It lies along the bed of a torrent consisting of slate and so is subject to sudden floods. These occur usually during the months of July and August; then once again in December and January. The pass begins in the foothills of the Suleman range and gradually rises to an elevation of 3,500 feet above sea level. The name Khyber is also applied to the range of hills through which the pass runs.

The Khyber Pass is wholly in Pakistan. However, because Afghanistan is a landlocked country she was given the right of unrestricted passage of her goods from the seaport of Karachi to Peshawar by rail, and then by truck from Peshawar to Kabul through the pass. So for many years goods flowed freely through the pass and a flourishing trade passed between the two countries. Fruit, particularly, was exported from Afghanistan to Pakistan, and many Pakistanis enjoyed the luscious green grapes that came.

However, today there are many difficulties between the two countries. One day the country of Afghanistan closed her holders and stopped all trade between the two. For many days goods flowed to the border and then had to be eventually disposed of. Fruit rotted for lack of transport. Travel by tourists was restricted. Today only international tourists are allowed through.

When the shah of Iran visited Pakistan recently he offered to mediate the dispute. However, so far nothing has come of it. It is to. be hoped that someday the trouble will be cleared up and once again trade and tourists will flow freely over the ancient Khyber Pass. Meanwhile, the tribesmen still guard the tribal area between the tw'o countries.

Tribes

There arc three main tribes in the Khyber valley. These are the Afridis, the Shin-waris and the Mullagoris. They are divided into many clans. Some of these clans have fertile land and so can live on their resources the year round. However, many have to migrate to the plains in the winter. This is a sight to behold. In the fall long lines of tribesmen, all their worldly possessions on their camels and with their families at their side, wend their way down to the plains.

Wherever one goes he meets the Afridi Pathans, celebrated in the writings of Kipling. Their land is one of suffocating heat and eroded hills of beauty and discomfort. If one is ever there when a dust storm strikes, he never forgets the swirling, choking dust that covers everything. Yet the people are a happy people. Many have gone to the nearby city of Peshawar. There they can he seen in their colorful clothes, their baggy trousers, talking excitedly in the bazaar's. They are the traditional guardians of the border and can be formidable enemies. However, if you win their friendship they can be fiercely loyal.

The tribes are constantly busy in private wars and feuds. Many times members of one family will be locked in bitter squabbles and hatred. Each fears losing his small piece of land or inheritance, so there is mutual distrust. But let an external danger threaten and all the tribe will unite. Then all personal difficulties are set aside and all fight for the common good.

As one drives through the Khyber area the tribesmen are ever in sight. There are watchtowers on many of the high hills, and the tribesmen are armed. They have their own tribal gun factories just south of Peshawar. Here tribesmen make rifles, pistols and revolvers by hand. They make copies of foreign arms and turn out products that can barely be distinguished from the original. In fact, tourists greatly prize these weapons and buy them in abundance.

Conquerors

Many conquerors have passed through the Khyber Pass seeking land and wealth. Tn 1500 B.C. the Aryans came. In the sixth century B.C. the Persian armies crossed into the Punjab. Also, the Scythians, the Parthians, the Mughals and the Afghans came down through this great northern route to what was then India, And, of course, in the fourth century B.C. the armies of Alexander came.

Alexander defeated the armies of Persia and then turned his attention to India. He moved to Kabul in Afghanistan and then divided his army into two divisions. He sent the main body of his troops along the south bank of the Kabul River. Then he himself took a small column of troops and proceeded through the Kunar Valley and Chitral. Both armies finally met in the Punjab in northern India and defeated its ruler. And so another conqueror came to stay.

However, while various empires conquered the plains, they rarely brought the hill tribes under their domination. The tribes remained free, not subject to any government or any system of taxation. Even today a tribal form of society exists.

The British advanced into the Khyber in 1839. In 1842 they used it as a great military highway when General Pollock marched through with three divisions. Much trouble followed, and finally in 1879 a treaty was signed between the British and Amir Yakub Khan. This agreement stated that the British would take control of the Khyber Pass. In exchange the Afridis received 87,540 rupees (about $18,430.00) per annum. The actual management of the pass was still left with the tribesmen, who, through their local maliks or leaders, guarded and kept the pass open for the British. At this time the forerunner of the famous Khyber Rifles came into existence. These originally consisted of four hundred men responsible for escorting caravans safely through the pass. A few years later these four hundred became two battalions of six hundred each, fifty of them mounted and under British officers.

Transportation

Today, one may comfortably drive through the Khyber Pass on a good hardsurfaced road. However, this has not always bpen the case. In fact, for many centuries the winding, twisting trail through the pass was hard to traverse even by camels or horses. The first real road was built in 1581 and is attributed to the Mughal ruler Akbar. This same Akbar was obsessed with power and in 1579 issued a decree that declared himself the supreme arbiter in al) civil and ecclesiastical cases. This did not go over well with all and finally led to rebellion. In the ensuing war the road was built for vehicular traffic.

If you drive along the road today you must remember to go in daylight hours, as you are not allowed through at night. Also, there is one more thing to keep in mind, Pakistan follows the British system of driving on the left side of the road. On the other hand, Afghanistan follows the American way. Therefore, when you come to the border it is vital to remember to change sides.

There is also a railway line now through the pass, which is considered a real feat of engineering. It runs through the pass and ends at Landi Khana, thirty-two miles from Peshawar. In 1890 the first survey was carried on through the hills, but it was not until 1925, after much difficulty, that the railroad was finally opened. As Sir C. Hindley said at the time, “The great engineering difficulties which have been overcome and the standard to which the railway has been built render it a technical achievement ranking with the greatest engineering works carried out by any of our predecessors,”

Archaeological Sites

The area around the Khyber and the city of Peshawar is rich in archaeological findings. Many pieces of Gandhara sculpture that have been found show that a Buddhist civilization flourished here two thousand years ago. Many of these pieces of stone and stucco sculpture, as well as ancient pottery, coins and old manuscripts, can be seen today in the Peshawar museum.

On the outskirts of Peshawar have been found the remains of a huge stupa or cylindrical mound or tower that was once 550 feet high, and was built in the second century. In 1909 Buddha’s relics enshrined here were discovered. They were given to the Buddhists of Burma, but a replica of the famous casket can be seen today in the Peshawar museum.

Yes, the Khyber has been rich in history. Conquerors have eome and gone. Great civilizations have been there. Yet today the area and its tribesmen are much as they have been for centuries.

JVLANY men marvel at the complex mechanism of a watch, which consists of some 135 to 140 pieces, but there is another timepiece that is infinitely more complicated and absolutely indispensable to life, namely, the human heart. Men are awed at a camera that can take and develop a picture in ten seconds, but what of the eye that instantaneously presents them with a flow of pictures in living color. Men know a great deal about steam, gasoline, electrical, atomic and other types of engines, but they know practically nothing about the most marvelous engine of all—the human body.

It astounds the average person to learn that in twenty-four hours the heart beats 103,689 times or about three thousand million times in an average lifetime: that in twenty-four hours the heart pumps 4,320 gallons of blood through 60,000 to 100,000 miles of blood vessels, a distance of two to four times around the earth, supplying oxygen and nourishment to some 300 thousand million cells. If the distance traveled by each blood cell were recorded, its total mileage in a single day would be very great. On an average, each day a man breathes 23,040 limes, inhales 438 cubic feet of air, eats about 3} pounds of food, drinks some 2.9 quarts of liquids, speaks about 4,800 words, moves over 750 muscles and exercises approximately 7,000,000 brain cells. So wonderfully does the body operate that man is hardly aware of any of this activity.

This most incredible of all known ‘'machines” is composed of some 100 organs, 200 bones, 600 major muscles, thousands of millions of cells and innumerable atoms. It manufactures, improvises and completely overhauls itself at regular intervals. Il has illimitable reserves. It is powered by complex electrical and chemical reactions and is coordinated by the brain through an intricate network of nerves. 11s digestive system accomplishes in two hours what would take over twenty hours to accomplish in a fully equipped laboratory. Yet it requires little care.

The human body is durable. To give you some idea of its ability to absorb punishment and still function, Dr. Peter J. Stein-crohn writes: “The average man can get along without his gall bladder, spleen, tonsils, and appendix. He can dispense with one of his two kidneys, one of his two lungs, I wo out of his four or five quarts of blood, two-fifths of his liver, most of his stomach, four of his twenty-three feet of small intestine, and half of his brain. He can go on despite arm or leg amputations.’’ In fact, so impressed was the late Walter Cannon, Harvard University physiologist, with the body’s durability that he enjoyed making this statement: “When you understand a great deal about the human body and its resources for health, you wonder why anyone is ever sick.”

Almost everything about the human body is a marvel. Take, for example, the Iwo fist-size, reddish-brown organs located on either side of the spine at the level of the lowest ribs. We call them the kidneys, but they are really master chemists. J. D. Ratcliff mentions a few things they do. He says; “They maintain an exact proportion of water in the blood. They keep us in exact mineral balance—a little too much potassium would stop the heart as effectively as an electric chair. They control the acid-alkali balance—a swing too far in either direction is lethal. They dispose of urea which, if permitted to accumulate, would be as deadly as cyanide. In a day’s time the kidneys sweep clean of wastes over a ton of blood. And as a built-in safety feature they have about nine times the capacity needed to maintain health: thus if it is necessary to remove a diseased kidney, the remaining healthy one does double duty with ease." Even a grafted kidney, although its nerves are cut, starts to work at once to give man efficient and unfailing service.

Such marvels inspire praise to man’s Creator. King David of ancient Israel declared; “O Jehovah, you have searched through me, and you know me. For you yourself produced my kidneys; you kept me screened off in the belly of my mother. I shall laud you because in a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, as my soul is very well aware." (Ps. 139:1, 13, 14) Men are stiil impressed and moved to praise then^-Maker when they witness the wonders of the human body.

Your Garment of Scales

Another marvel of the human body is the skin. It is the largest of all organs and can be adapted to more purposes than any other part of the body. Man can feel ft, study it, admire its design and flexibility, thrill at its strength and beauty, and yet with all his ingenuity he cannot reproduce so much as a little bit of it.

What a garment your skin is! It is ranked with the brain, heart and lungs in its importance to life. It is punctured by millions of tiny holes called pores, still it can withstand heat and cold, wet and drought, acid and alkali, microbic invasion and stand up under a hundred years of wear and tear. It is self-sealing, self-cooling and exquisitely sensitive for your protection. It effects its own repairs, eliminates body wastes, regulates body heat and even presents a seasonable protection of pigment against increased sunrays. It has been fittingly called the Jack-of-all-trades.

Your skin is made up of some twenty or more layers of scales, that is, dead cells. As skin cells are made in the lower part of the epidermis the new cells push the old ones upward. On the way up the cell dies and turns into microscopic specks of scale we call skin. By wash and wear invisible amounts of scales are rubbed off and replaced. The average man of seventy sheds about forty-five pounds of skin in his lifetime.

But what prevents the skin from becoming dry and scaly? There are about two and a half million oil glands that secrete oil. These keep the scales from drying out. There are also numerous elastic fibers that draw the skin closely and provide the body with a skintight fit. Your skin has also a built-in protective and repair system. When the skin wears dangerously thin, the body sends a fluid between the outer and inner layers as a protection to the tender tissues beneath. Doctors call this a bulla, but its more familiar name is “blister.” If the skin is allowed to accustom itself slowly to the wcar, the cells will increase their production to a point where dead cells pile upon one another to form a callus to protect the area that is receiving extra wear.

Your skin is a remarkable storehouse too. If you weigh about 150 pounds, within your skin is stored about twenty-five pounds of fats, water, sugars, salts and other materials. When the body needs these materials, the skin releases them to the bloodstream for transportation to depleted cells that have signaled for supplies.

Your skin and blood work together to form a unique cooling system. Hot blood coming from other organs flows through the skin at a rate of fifty to eighty gallons an hour and is cooled. The blood vessels of the skin aid in keeping the temperature of your body normal. When it gets too hot, the vessels expand so that more blood flows to the surface of the skin, where it is cooled. When you get cold, the skin’s blood vessels close up, less blood enters the skin, internal heat is conserved. Your body is kept warmer. Wonderful, wouldn’t you say? You ARE wonderfully made.

Magic Building Blocks

Imagine seeing two bricks in a vacant lot merging together into one brick. Then without instructions from anyone this one brick begins to make other bricks and they, in turn, produce other bricks of varying sizes. Some of these join themselves together to form a foundation, others form walls, still others shape themselves into windows, kitchen, bedrooms, lighting, heating and cooling systems. In a matter of days a complete house appears. What would you think? Fantastic, you say. Isn’t life so? Consider.

Man comes from a single cell. At the instant of fertilization this single cell begins to multiply until, about nine months later, a child is born with organs, bones, muscles and trillions of working cells. Each cell is made up of three parts: a nucleus, cytoplasm and outer membrane. Each cell nucleus contains about forty-six chromosomes, with two exceptions. The egg and sperm cells have only half that number. So when these combine into the fertilized egg, the normal number of chromosomes is reached. Each chromosome has a number of genes, which are thought to be the seeds of inheritance.

Inside the living cell is another world. According to Professor J. A. V. Butler, the average cell contains over a quarter million protein molecules of all sorts, including all the minerals and metals in the earth. Since each molecule usually has about 20,000 r^oms, this means that an average living cell, independently functioning like a world of its own, carries about five thousand million atoms. Pictures of cells enlarged thousands of times reveal within them a kind of order we find in the universe above.

Glance now inside the nucleus of the cell. There we find an acid made of deoxidized sugar. Chemists call this deoxyribonucleic acid “DNA” for short. Molecules of DNA are long thin strands, constructed like a twisted ladder, with the rungs made of joined chemical compounds. This molecule has a marvelous memory. It has all the information about you. It carries hereditary information, just as sounds are recorded on magnetic tape. In every living cell, and there are trillions of them, whether in your heart, hair or liver, the DNA molecule carries the full history about you. And at the right moment it directs the use and purpose of all cells and synchronizes their operations throughout life.

The first cell at the moment of conception has all the coded directions. Its DNA knows when to start building the heart, the liver, the eyes, the nose, the lungs, the bones and the blood—all of you. In fact, according to DNA authorities, that one cell held advance reservations for all the body functions of the life-span. The number of jobs in man that DNA is estimated to perform are said to be well over seven hundred thousand.

DNA authority George W. Beadle estimates that if the tapes inside the nucleus ot a single human cell were uncoiled and laid end to end they would extend five feet —this packed inside an ultrainicroscopic speck! Dr. Beadle says that if it were possible to put the DNA code of a single human cell into English letters and a typist copied them, they would fill a 1,000-volume encyclopedia! It is also estimated that if all the DNA strands in the human body were placed end to end, the resultant magnetic tape instruction for human life would reach beyond the moon. Surely we do not know all about the human cell, but what little we do know is enough to convince us that we are wonderfully made,

Vo Lazy Bones

There is no such thing as a live lazy bone. Bones are living, growing tissues in the body. Actually they are among the busiest living organs in the body. Ratcliff writes: “They are thriving manufacturing plants which make red and white blood cells 24 hours a day. Every minute about 180 million red cells die. Your bones must replace them with healthy young cells, or you face anemic death. It takes six to eight weeks for the marrow to restore the red blood cells after a pint of blood has been removed.

“Bones have other major responsibilities: they produce the white blood cells which fight off infection, and they act as one of the body’s storehouses for reserve nourishment. In their marrow they husband fats and proteins for time of need. And they contain nearly all the body's vital calcium and phosphorus. Calcium is necessary for the clotting of blood, the beating of the heart, the contraction of muscles and the functioning of the nervous system. By an intricate self-regulating system, calcium from milk drunk today is deposited in the bones, and calcium deposited last week or last year is withdrawn.”

Bones do hot grow simply by adding on. They are continuously being reconstructed. Some cells tear down bone and other cells rebuild it. The finished product is always an excellent piece of architecture and engineering. A bone is practically never absolutely straight. It is curved to fit its work. It has ridges, knobs, rough places for the attachment of ligaments and tendons. It is dense where strength is needed and spongy where weight must be saved. When broken, bones mysteriously mend themselves. The bones are so designed that the muscles and tendons pull in just the right lines of force. Pound for pound bone is stronger than steel. Its construction is comparable to reinforced concrete. To the knowing eye your busy bones are wonderful objects.

What wonders the human body holds! How does the eye see? In what way are sounds differentiated in the brain? Who has taught the nose to smell and the tongue to taste? How is thought born? Dr. Ralph W. Gerard, neurophysiologist at the University of Michigan, has estimated that after seventy years of activity, the brain may contain as many as fifteen trillion separate bits of information. Yet people in general employ only 10 to 15 percent of their brain’s capabilities. Here is a treasure-house whose possibilities are almost beyond human comprehension. The wonderful body reflects the infinite wisdom of the Almighty, Jehovah God, whose creation we are.—Gen. ];27.

October 25, 1962, was the day the whole world was being treated to its greatest performance of political brinkmanship since World War II. That was the day when anxious eyes turned to Cuba and people’s thoughts to nuclear war.

But not so in Thailand’s province of Nakorn Sritamaraj, where the rubber tappers, gardeners and fishermen had something more imtheir attention that day. Right then they had to face the problem of how to survive until the next day. Coping with the problem of a nuclear war within the next week, regardless of how terrible the consequences, would have to wait.

Though nuclear war had often been referred to in their newspapers, such words did not mean as much to them as, say, a London city dweller. Even the word “storm” brought no reactions of anxiety to their minds. Storms, like wars, always seemed to be in some vague far-off place. In any case, the natives of that tropical peninsula were far too easygoing and too well treated by nature to be worried very seriously by anything. Things had always

gone on as they had before and always would—so they thought. That is, until about eight o’clock in the evening of that fateful day. It was then that the blow came. “Hurricane Harriet” was the official name.

This most unusual storm came in from the China Sea screaming and clawing like some gigantic wild beast seeking to prey upon those hundreds of thousands of puny men cowering in their flimsy huts.

In the Hitts

Imagine you were in one of those little wooden houses, say in the house of Mr. Daeng, rubber tapper, with his wife and four little children. The cement roofing tiles on the main roof and the corrugated iron on the kitchen were being ripped out section by section, as the screaming, whirling wind eddied, plucked and eddied again, scattering her plunder like deadly hail on anyone whose shelter proved too thin. Squatting on the floor in a roofless house, all the while being soaked to the skin, would strike you as a poor way of spending an evening, even if it were exciting. Excitement via TV would at least be more comfortable. To the hardy Daeng family, however, discomfort was quite usual and the excitement was something quite acceptable 1o enliven their rather uneventful lives. However, what, had at first been excitement now took on a new note of anxiety.

The sound of Mrs. Daeng's voice could be heard above the screaming of the wind, “Fang si” (Listen). “Dai yin slang nan Mai?” (Did you hear that?) Yes, she had reason to be anxious, for that was the sound of falling trees—tall trees—coconut trees up to eighty feet high with no foliage to cushion their crushing blow. Her house would smash like matchwood, she realized as she beheld one of these giants, lit up by almost continuous flashes of lightning from behind the black and angry clouds. First this way and then that, the tree was strained as the wind swirled and twisted. Then down it came, delivering as it fell the coup de grace to its nearest neighbor already strained to its limit by the clawing wind. Danger often stimulates comprehension. It did then, and they saw it. Those trees clustering round their little home, pillars of safety in normal times, had now taken on a new role—killers. Flee. But where? “Quick, where no trees?” The school! “Come on, hurry, there’s a lull,” she shouted.

So Mr. and Mrs. Daeng and their four near-naked children scurried out of their shambled house, fumbled their way through the mass of tangled brushwood, clambered over the already fallen trees, squelched through the ankle-deep slime flowing down the footpath like the sludge residue flowing down the sluices at the nearby tin mines and finally made it—the comparative safety of the school. The roof had gone, of course, so the rain fell on them, but at least it was not the trees. There they huddled with several other families until daylight. Eight hours passed before the storm began to abate. And in the morning—what? Three-quarters of their coconut trees were down. Their rubber plantation down the road was the same, with the road itself impassable, trees lying across it in all directions. Yes, it had been an exciting night, they all agreed, but the Dill was mgn. Triose trees were their livelihood. They would certainly have something to talk about in the coffee shop for months afterward.

By the Sea

But those that encountered that storm did not all talk about it later. Over a thousand never said a word about it afterward. They couldn’t. They were dead. Down by the sea to the east on a twenty-five-mile-long peninsula poking up toward the north like a horn shielding the mouth of a river, there were, until about midnight that night, two fishing villages. By morning they were gone. Most of the inhabitants of the peninsula were either swept out to sea on the wreckage of their houses, there to die of exposure or thirst, or pounded to death by the huge tidal wave that swept right across this peninsula, some six miles wide at its base.

Imagine the feelings of those fleeing from the waves rolling in from the open sea on the east being met by another wave rolling in from the river mouth side on the west! Trapped! Trees were no refuge; most of them were coconut palms. Can you imagine trying to climb up a bare coconut palm in a storm strong enough to tear down even the tree itself? The wooden houses in which so many took refuge proved to be no fioah’s ark of safety either. Of those that were not swept out to sea, most were smashed to pieces. Some were piled up on one another, forming a mass grave for those that were in them.

Those who were living in the Talumpuk peninsula were not so fortunate as their brothers who were farther inland, who lost only the basis of their livelihood for the next ten years in exchange for a night of excitement. Desperation, stark terror with almost certain death was their lot. And they had lived in what seemed like a perfect paradise only a few days before, when the sky was so blue, the wind so gentle. The day before, over a thousand people were going about their daily business. Mostly they were fishermen of the Moslem religion, the rest being Buddhist. Now they were all dead. Of those that did not die, all were poorer, most were destitute. Their homes, boats, fishing gear, everything had gone. As one caption under a newspaper photo of such a family with the wreckage of their home in the background said, “They hadn’t even a match to light the lire.” There were thousands like them. Such was the havoc wrought by Hurricane Harriet, the greatest storm within living memory in Thailand.

When the storm was over and news leaked out to the outside, aid was rushed to the stricken area. Prime Minister Sarit and his party alone took 10,000 sheets of corrugated iron as. well as rice, clothes, money; and much help was sent from other government as well as private sources. Over a thousand boats had been lost, and the total loss was estimated at seventeen million dollars.

As if in recompense for her little frolic, nature now seemed to smile down benevolently from sunny skies, something quite unusual for that monsoon period.

Soliloquy and Awakening

For Mr. Saman, fisherman, another hat'd day has passed as he reconstructed his home. “The roof is back, the home almost normal, except our table and chair; we never did find them. No fish again today. Must do something about a boat.” Such were his thoughts that evening two weeks after the storm as he lay down comfortably, musing and thinking over the past week’s experiences. “Nothing seems so permanent and sure after a night like that,” he thought. He had seen death and destruction very close. Most of his friends and neighbors were gone, nearly a thousand from that little area. But he was young, resilient and strong. That is why he had survived, plus the good fortune that he and his young wife were just returning to the stricken area from a visit to the town of Nakorn Sritamaraj and were caught on the fringe of the gigantic water trap and swept clear, instead of into that maelstrom. My, but how those waves pursued them.’ Three hours they struggled, often up to their waists in water before they reached that upturned house securely anchored by a toppled tree. What a terrible night!

However, these were not the thoughts occupying his mind as he lay digesting his evening meal. Poor, and relatively uneducated as he was in a formal way, he had always been a serious and sensible man and quite a thinker. The intense interest in lotteries or the trading of gossip had never got the same hold on him as with the others. After that terrible experience his mind seemed to be hungering for something satisfying, more serious. Naturally he thought about the storm and his future, but in an objective way. “Could any of the dire results of that storm have been avoided?” he wondered. “It now seemed so obvious,” he mused, “if people made their home on ground only a few feet above sea level running gently down to a mighty ocean they must expect an inundation from time to time.”

That night Mr. Saman was interested in why they had all been caught napping. After no little deliberation he had to admit that he had been too complacent, even though reason seemed to be pointing the other way. He recalled how, some time before, he had seen a news film of a similar storm on a certain island. He had to agree that that film had alerted him at the time due to the similarity of setting. He remembered wondering at that time why the sea never came over his land like that. Urgent matters in connection with the ordinary business of living had cropped up and he had forgotten the matter until then. Pursuing the course of introspection a little farther, he concluded that his boat too could have been saved with a little forethought.

The Other Storm

Then he went to the corner of his hut and pulled out a sheet of newspaper tucked under the palm leaves of his newly restored roof. That single sheet of dirty crumpled paper was the beginning of his new library. That piece had come as the wrapping around the first charcoal he had bought after the storm. Of necessity all his reading matter had been acquired by similar economical ways. Straightening out the sheet, Mr. Saman spread it out on the floor under the light of his kerosene lamp.

Finding what he sought, Mr. Saman began to read about what was called the Cuban crisis. He had read it before, but then the response was weak and vague. “Greatest threat since World War II.... thermonuclear war ... all dead in a week ..." His always keen and now newly sensitized mind took in the implications of all these words. “Did this mean that man was actually preparing a war thousands of times more destructive than that storm?” He looked at the date. So there had been a far greater danger facing him that night and he had not even thought about it.

His sense of security already severely shaken by his recent experiences now took another jolt. This war, he saw, would be a far more difficult storm to weather. That colossal power to destroy had intelligence behind it, the combined thinking resources of mankind. What a storm! A near miss from just one of those monstrous man-made storms might do more damage than these natural storms—and they were not designed to miss. What kind of preparation could he, just a fisherman, make against that? Dig a hole? Save his life—but for what? Probably to die later, of cancer, or sooner of radiation sickness, like those in Japan. Comfortable as he felt right then bodily, as he lay there gazing up at the cloudless tropical star-filled sky, the armchair theory that there were bound to be some healthy survivors was not able to drug away those recent realities of terror. The desire to be one of those lucky few no more fooled him into thinking he Would be one than the alluring, glittery lottery prizes were ever able to deceive him in the past into wishful wastefulness. As this musing hurricane survivor passed from drowsiness to sleep, he did not even crawl into his mosquito net for the night. That, too, had gone in the storm.

In reading this account of Hurricane Harriet, you may be reminded of precautionary measures you could take, if in a vulnerable place in the event of a severe storm. You may also be reminded of the people who, from time to time, call at your home, with Bible in hand, preaching God’s kingdom as man’s hope and pointing out the way to survive a coming storm, one greater than nuclear war, one of divine origin: “Look! A calamity is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest itself will be roused up from the remotest parts of the earth.” (Jer. 25:32) This tempest, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty," will embrace every country under the sun and will bring to ruin both the grossly wicked and those who fail to obey the commandments of God. As people everywhere tend to become engrossed in the affairs of life, it is well to be reminded that Jesus Christ foretold an attitude of careless complacency before the outbreak of the Armageddon tempest.—Hev. 16:14; Luke 17:26-30.

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seaward slopes and in the valleys. In Greece you will find them along the boulevards of big cities. Likewise, in South Africa, Mexico, Australia or the United States you may also come across this tree that has proved so useful to men and animals.

However, the carob pods sold in vegetable and fruit markets in some parts of the world have the appearance and taste of the pods from ungrafted carob trees. They are very poor in sugar, thin and dry. Perhaps that was the caroh Jesus had in mind in his illustration of the prodigal son who "used to desire to be filled with the carob pods which the swine were eating.”—Luke 15:16.

It is not correct, however, to suppose that carobs were the food of John the Baptist, for which reason they have been called “Saint-John’s-bread.” It was thought by some translators that the Greek word afcria (used in the Bible to describe what John the Baptist ate along with honey) meant the carob. That is a misunderstanding based on tradition. The word akria refers to the insect locust, a clean food that John was permitted to eat under the Mosaic law.—Matt. 3:4.

Good-quality carobs, on the other hand, are full of organic sugar and a liquid that very much resembles honey. These carobs are rather hard, but very tasty and good for your teeth. During World War H carob flour was used in Greece and other lands to make nourishing bread. A juice was also extracted from the carob for use in confectionery. Many people will be surprised to learn that the caroh is more nutritious than oats and just as nourishing as wheat.

Nowadays in England, Germany, Russia and

Scandinavia the carob is ground and used as food for animals. In fact, the British turn carobs into flour, which is then mixed with ground hroadbeans and thinly sliced hay. This makes a very nutritious cake called “patent cattle food.”

In Cyprus we enjoy the carob as a dry fruit. We also extract a delicious black syrup from it. This goes well with bread in the winter, while in summertime we like to mix it with cool water for a refreshing drink.

The light-yellow wood of the carob tree is made into costly furniture, agricultural implements and hubs of cartwheels. But the most valuable part of the versatile carob tree is the glossy reddish beans, whose protein-rich “germ” is used in soups and also to fortify animal fodder. From these beans we also extract a gum that is valuable for embossing textiles, as an ingredient in cosmetics and as a thickener in ice cream and canned foods.

In ancient times the carob bean was a unit of weight for precious stones such as diamonds and pearls, and our modern word "carat” comes from the word “keration,” which is the Greek name of both the carob pod and its bean.—Luke 15:16.                                  -

Those who visit the Mediterranean area in August see caroh buds making their appearance at the same time that ripened carob pods are being harvested. Carob harvest in Cyprus calls for a general exodus of all people in those areas where the tree is cultivated. For a week or two the villagers cook their meals under the shade of the caroh trees and enjoy the fresh air scented by the blossoming thyme and the fragrant rush. From early morning until dusk the valleys resound with the rhythmical beating of sticks and the happy voices and songs of men, women and children. Skillfully the sticks are used to knock the pods to the ground without damaging the young branches and the new buds. Women and children gather the pods into baskets, which, in turn, are emptied into sacks and taken to the village on donkey hacks or by oxcarts.

The carob buds, resembling reddish nails from one to three inches long, blossom in September and October. In Cyprus, by the following August, another thirty to forty thousand tons of carohs will be ready for harvest.

That, in brief, is the story of the nutritious carob. Its usefulness was well expressed by the Greek poet who said, 'Although it is always heaten, the carob gives men honey in return,’

Election Year

By ‘ Awoke I" eorrejpondent in the Bahamas

NIQUE in the history of the Bahamas was the 1962 election. It was the first time that the property vote and the company

vote were abandoned. Since all Bahamians over twenty-one years of age were allowed to vote, it. was the first time that women had the franchise in the British colony of the Bahamas. Also given the right to vote were all British citizens who had Jived in the Bahamas for at least six months prior to registration day.

In 1961 less than 10,000 persons were registered, but in November, 1962, a few more than 44,000 persons registered to cast their ballot. Yet 71,225 votes were cast. How could this be? Because voters were allowed to cast a second ballot in another district if they owned property there.

Property in the Bahamas includes a dozen major islands and hundreds of small cays (pronounced keys) stretching southward from the coast of Florida for about 500 miles. This chain of islands has one of the few surviving colonial governments in the world. Dating from 1729, the Bahamian constitution provides a form of government similar to that in the North American Colonies before the Revolution. Indeed, many of the inhabitants of these islands are descendants of loyalists who migrated here from the eastern United States at the time of the Revolutionary War, rather than leave the British Crown rule. Executive power lies in a governor appointed by the Crown. He is advised by a Crown-do min a ted executive council of nine members.

The legislative branch of the government consists of an eleven-member, Crown-appointed legislative council. This council is compa rable to the English House of Lords, except that it has more powers, as it can kill legislation that may have already passed the thirty-three-member House of Assembly. If it vetoes a bill passed in the '‘House,’' the bill is dead and cannot be passed over its veto. The House of Assembly, similar to the English House of Commons, is the only elected body in the Bahamian government.

Elections were not scheduled until 1963, but with the decrease of construction and the rise of unemployment, the government decided to dissolve the House of Assembly and call

in the Bahamas

I the general elections for November of 1962.

Election issues thus centered largely around the Bahamian economy, which is based first on tourism and second on foreign investment. There is no income tax and only very small death duties levied on estates; this, with the near-ideal climate, has attracted many wealthy people to the colony. Revenue is chiefly derived from duty on imports, which adds about 25 to 30 percent to the cost of imported goods. Since there is almost no industry in the colony, many during the elections said that this worked a hardship on the poor. On the other hand, investments keep up employment, so the very thing that provides the wages also works to increase the cost of Jiving. Which parly seemed most likely to keep on attract-& iog both tourists and foreign investment was y the question in the back of many minds. Could 4* any party encourage industry and agriculture y more? AU, of course, promised to do so. The X United Bahamian Party had the slogan “The A wheel of progress rolls with the U.B.P.,” and A it appealed to the electorate to leave the (i government io their hands.

V By 6 p.m. Monday, November 26, 1962, the X voting was over. The results showed a victory x for the United Bahamian Party. They had X gained 19 of the 33 scats in the more than 3 two-hundred-year-old House of Assembly. The £ Labor Party gained one seat, five seats went « to independents, and eight seats went to the X) second-strongest group, the Progressive Lib T oral Party. Racial issues, never very deep in 3 the Bahamas, were emphasized by the Pro-X gressive Liberal Party, which called itself » 'champion of the colored people.’ Eighty-five y percent of the population of the colony is X Negro or of Negro extraction; but many ob A servers felt that the racial issue may have k) backfired, as the party actually lost seats rather than gaining more.

x “Our victory is a vote for common sense, X for decency, for racial harmony, for progress (5 and prosperity,'’ said the chairman of the victorious party within hours after the results x were declared. ‘'We face the future with a X solid determination to go on bringing a better U life to all the people of this country.” Cer-V tainly the people of the Bahamas hope this N- will prove to be so.

WHAT is Lent? Lent is a pre-Easter springtime fast of forty days. However, it begins forty-six days before Easter with what is known as Ash Wed:ies-day, but because it does not incl .de Sundays it reaches up to Easter. The word Lent, itself, conies from the German Lenz, meaning “spring.” This year Lent begins February 27.

Of just what does this fast consist ? Regulations for it, in the United States, are as follows:

“The law of fasting permits the eating of one full meal. Two other meatless meals, sufficient to maintain strength, may be taken according to one’s needs; but, together, they should not equal a full meal. Meat may be taken at the principal meal on a day of fast except on Fridays, Ash Wednesday, and the vigils of the Assumption and Christmas. Eating between meals is not permitted; but liquids, including milk and fruit juices, are allowed. . . . The law of fasting binds everyone over 21 and under 59 years of age. When health or ability to work would be seriously impaired, the law does not oblige. . . . While on active service, all members of the Armed Forces are dispensed from the Church law of fast and abstinence² except on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, the forenoon of Holy Saturday and the vigil of Christmas. The dispensation is personal and applies to the individual wherever he may be. It also applies to his wife, children, parents and servants if he is habitually with them, whether on or off the post.” —The National Catholic Almanac.

From the foregoing it appears that the Lenten fast is a rather flexible institution. This is further indicated by the fact that in 1949 Pope Pius XII gave bishops the right to dispense with the Lenten fast. Thus the New York Times, March 8, 1960, told of Bishop Gorman of the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, diocese dispensing with the Lenten fast that year for his 118,000 Catholics. On the other hand, Cardinal Godfrey, Archbishop of Westminster, London, in 1961 recommended that household pets should also be made to observe the Lenten fast.

In addition to cutting down on food, observers of Lent frequently are urged to dispense with petty luxuries, such as sweets, cigarettes, movies and watching TV. And at times a positive side is stressed, such as the giving of alms, especially the giving of that which one has saved by practicing Lenten self-denials.

What is the origin of Lent? There is some evidence that ancient pagan peoples celebrated a forty-day springtime fast. However, the Bible has nothing to say about Lent. It appears to have developed gradually as pagan ideas and formalism crept into the church. First there was only a one- or two-day fast; then a forty-hour fast based on the time that Jesus was supposed to have been in the tomb. At the earliest, the forty-day Lenten fast goes back to the early seventh century A.D.

Lent is pictured as a stepping up of the warfare of the army of the church against the world, the flesh and the Devil. Fasting is supposed to aid one in this warfare, and the forty days are said to be based on Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness.

Further, the forty-day Lenten fast is considered as doing so much penance. Penance is said to consist of two things: contrition of the soul and mortification of the body. During Lent good Roman Catholics think over past sins and bewail them with bitter grief, accompanying this by some kind of mortification of the flesh. Lenten fasting is therefore said to be “the arduous work of atonement for lone's I sins.’’ Both are considered essential for the forgiveness of sins, for, according to the Council of Trent, “whoever shall affirm that the entire³ punishment is always remitted by God, together with the fault and therefore that penitents need no other satisfaction than faith, whereby they apprehend Christ who has made satisfaction for them, let him be accursed.”

Is Lent a Christian institution? No, it is not, for not only are the Scriptures silent on Lent but they condemn and contradict the things Lent consists of and stands for. Why the very observance of seasons such as Lent is condemned in the Scriptures: “Now that you have come . . . to be known of God, how is it that you are turning back again to the weak and beggarly elementary things and want 1o slave for them over again? You are scrupulously observing days and months and seasons and years.”—Gal. 4:9, 10.

Then again, nowhere in the Scriptures do we read that sin can he atoned for by self-mortification. True, in certain Roman Catholic versions, such as the Down/, penance is mentioned, as at Matthew 4:17: “Jesus began Io preach and to say: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at. hand.” However, the Greek word metanoeo simply means “lepent,” and is so uniformly translated by other versions and even by modern Roman Catholic ones, including Knox: and Catholic Confraternity.^

Far from atoning for sins, "a severe treatment of the body,” according to the apostle Paul, is not even of any “Value in combating the satisfying of the flesh.” The Scriptures plainly state that Christians are “declared righteous as a result of fqii/t.” “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” True, one’s works must be consistent with one’s profession of faith, but nowhere do the Scriptures require that one afflict oneself to atone for one’s sins. —Col. 2:23; Rom, 5:1: 1 John 1:7.

Nor may we overlook its fruits in considering whether Lent is a Christian institution or not. One of these is the carnival season. The very word “carnival” means “farewell to flesh.” In some lands the carnival season begins January 6 and may last as much as two months. So they carouse from thirty to sixty days to make up for the hardships of the forty-day Lenten fast! But regardless of its length, it is almost invariably marked by loose conduct of every kind, even as were pagan “Lents,” to make up for Lent’s privations.

If one purposely indulges oneself beforehand, how can one claim any virtue for the self-denials? Lent is described as a spiritual spring housecieaning, but what shall we say about the w^Tel)-nigh universal custom of first deliberately soiling oneself morally to compensate for having to clean up? Does that make sense?

Not that individual fasting at times is not proper. It is. On occasion the early Christians offered “prayer with fastings.” But did not Jesus condemn fasting that was made public?—Acts .14:23; Matt. 6: 16-18.

Since Lent is of pagan origin, has no support in the Scriptures, does not atone for sins and brings forth bad fruit, it clearly cannot be a Christian institution. Christians whose rule is the Word of God will therefore refuse to have anything to do with it.

"Miserable Performance’'

■$> In South Vietnam's strange war. Communist guerrillas recently developed tactics that turned the helicopter into a “silting duck.” In one operation in January, fourteen helicopters were riddled with bullets, five of them being knocked out. of commission. "Everything we did went wrong," said a U.S. adviser. He called it a "miserable perl or in a nee.” Washington was shocked. Ways to give the helicopter better protection were being studied.

A Thaw in Spain ?

& Ever since Generalissimo Francisco Franco installed Manuel Fraga Iribarne in office as Information Minister, there have been increases in news broadcasts, from four to eighteen, also considerably less censorship, and other signs of a softening up. The "intellectuals" that denounced Franco last year have been pardoned. Uniformed police appear less obvious. In a New Year’s message, Franco said to Spanish workers: "My government cannot longer contemplate the existence of minimum salaries which are intolerable and which social justice will not permit.” The minimum wage, boosted to a dollar a day, almost doubles the former rate. Pay and the “fringes” at the bottom of the scale now will equal about $1.66 a day.

U.S, Postal Kates Up

4»> On January 7 new U.S. postal rates became effective. The new rates ant: For first-class mail, 5 cents; postcards, 4 cents; domestic airmail, 8 cents an ounce; air postcards, 6 cents. Rates to other countries, other than Canada and Mexico, which are the same as domestic rates, remain unchanged.

U.S. Economy Predictions

# What will the U.S. economy he like in the future? The National Planning Association has come up with those predictions: The U.S., by 1973, will be turning out some $300,000,000,000 more in goods and services annually than it is producing at present, or a whopping $860,000,000,000 worth. The average U.S. citizen will have about $500 more to spend a year. The work week is expected to drop to ,371 hours. Employment figures are expected to rise to the 85,000,000 mark. The country’s population is to soar to some 222,000,000.

"Help Us! Help Us!”

<§> The cry for help came from six men, twelve women and fourteen children -thirty-two shabbily dressed peasants who entered the U.S. embassy in Moscow. These were religious people of the Protestant Pentecostal evangelists sect. They pleaded with American diplomats to get them out of Russia. They had come from the Siberian town of Chernogorsk, near I he Mongolian border 2,100 miles to the cast. They said that the Russians took away several of their children and were threatening to shoot them. Russian officials were notified. A Soviet bus arrived to take them away. As they were boarding the bus, one peasant cried out; “I don’t want to go back. They’ll shoot me! We ask all brothers and sisters who believe in Christ and God: Help us! Help us!” That was the last that was heard from them.

‘A Very Sick Society’

<$• Dr. R. G. E. Richmond of British Columbia has studied social ills for thirty years. He says that the social sickness of today can he likened to that which preceded the fall of the Roman Empire. Judging by the amount of mental illness, crime, alcoholics and narcotic addicts, by the number of divorces, suicides and sex deviates, “our society is very sick indeed,” he said. Along this same line Scottish clergyman George F. MacLeod asserted that “we are not living in an industrial society. We are living in a bestial society.” Professional statistician Gwilym Rhys Williams, 52, reported that in Britain, between 1946 and 1961, convictions of girls from 14 to 16 years of age for drinking offenses increased 20 times. For every 10 boys under 16 convicted of crime with violence in 1955, 21 were convicted in 1961. Violent crime among girls in the 16-20 age-group doubled in the five years from 1955 to 1960. Suicide among teen-age girls has trebled since the end of World War II. The same suicidal increase was noted among boys over 16. Harold R. McKinnon, police commissioner and attorney in San Francisco, said the crime rate in the United States nearly doubled between 1950 and 1960. and is growing five times faster than the population. He said that nearly half of all major crimes today are committed by boys and girls under 18. All of this points to a very sick society indeed.

Church Membership Drops

<$> The new Yearbook of Amer-lean Churches showed that for the first time in nearly a century church membership gains have fallen below the rate of population growth. The decrease was slight, from 63.6 percent in 1960 to 63.4 percent in 1961. Protestants have dropped from 35.4 percent to 35.2 percent of the population total. Roman Catholics have dropped from 23.6 percent to 234 percent. Of the 116,109,929 total membership, 64,434,966 were Protestants; 42,876,665 Roman Catholics; 5,365,000 Jewish; 2,800,401 Eastern Orthodox and the rest in smaller churches. Protestant Sundayschool enrollment was down 3.1 percent. The Gallup Poll, through a nationwide survey, indicates church attendance is holding steady. In a typical week of 1962, about 46 percent of the U.S. adult population went to church. In the preceding three years the church attendance level was at 47 percent. These figures mean that there were about 49,500,000 persons in church in a typical week during 1962. The comparable figure for 1961 was 50,000,000 persons. Figures released by the Catholic Bureau of Information show the world's Roman Catholic population increased by about 8,000,000 in 1962 to an estimated 550,000,000, but it declined by a fraction, from 18.3 to 18.2 percent of the total world population.

Europe’s Fierce Storm

Arctic winds and warm moist breezes from the Mediterranean united to swamp Europe with its worst winter storm in a century. Cities as far south as Barcelona and Marseille were draped in a blanket of snow. Trains were blown off the tracks. Roads were turned into rivers of icc. In France one could skate a hundred miles on highways without difficulty. In the Netherlands people turned out in droves to skate on rivers and canals. Over fifty drowned in one day. Eight-foot snowdrifts buried portions of the British Isles.

The “Silent Deep”?

<& For con Juries men have thought the ocean depths were silent, primarily because man's ears were not and arc not adapted to hearing underwater sounds. But Dr. R. I. Tait of the naval research laboratories at. Devon port, Australia, told his listeners last fall that the ocean abounds with sounds and that fish hear them well through their bodies. Dolphins, porpoises and sperm whales, he said, use sound for echoranging. Humpbacked whales are just one of about 50 species of marine life that produce noises, and more are be ing found all the time. Tait said the humpbacked whale moos, neighs, grunts, growls and howls like a wolf. He said that they often snund more like barnyard animals than creatures of the sea. But tthaf these sounds mean man has yet to discover.

Wanted; New Highways!

New nations especially voice the need for more and better highways to cope with the rapid-growing vehicle population, There arc approximately 135,000, DOO vehicles in the world. This represents a growth of 115 percent since 1950. The predicted number of vehicles by 1970 is 230,000,000. The growth in automobiles in recent years has resulted in serious traffic jams. To contend with this problem Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas are launching the greatest highway program ever. In 1961, 59,200,000,000 was invested in roads outside the U.S. and the Soviet Union. That was nearly a 50-percent increase from 1956. Soon car drivers will be able to travel from Paris to Saigon or from Alaska to Argentina without serious road problems. Even the African elephant has turned to the superhighways as a means of saving time from one feeding ground to another. A traffic jam in the bush country may mean allowing the elephant the right of way.

Chiang's ComniBiidos Strike

■$- For years Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek has been plan ning a return to the China mainland from his Formosa stronghold. Recent reports of increased difficulties in Red China apparently made Chiang feel that the time to strike was ripe. A large contingent of his raiders fanned out over the mainland’s Kwang tung Province. Thore were reports of sabotage up and rf'Wn the coast. At least one railroad, a shipyard and a gold mine were destroyed, but the main-landers did not rally to the side of Chiaog’s forces. Chiang's commandos were reportedly wiped out, but not without a struggle.

Man-made Ruin

The Interior Department of the U.S. government reported that it made it rain last August in South Dakota. There wore two clouds parallel to each other. The one seeded with crystals of silver iodide rained soon after the crystals hit it. The other cloud did not rain at all. There are radar records and photographs to hack up the report.

Bones and the Weather

<$> When grandfather predicted that it would rain because be could feel it In his bones, many were his scoffers. But recent tests by doctors have established that weather changes can affect arthritic patients. In 29 out of 40 trials arthritic patients felt worse under climate changes; especially when the humidity rose and the barometric pressure dropped did the patients complain to researchers.

Transmitting Data at Top Speed <$■ Science 'Jews Letter for January 5, 1963, stated that "computer data was flashed over a high-quality television channel at a rate of 20 million bits of information per second (33 million words per min-ute).” The report said that up to now “most ‘long distance' communication of data in business systems today is by common carrier telegraph (up to 75 bits per second) and telephone lines (up to 2400 bits per second).” The new system represents quite a speed-up.

Problems of Old Age

Old people do get sick, but "there are no diseases that occur because of the passage of a certain number of years.” That conclusion was reached after a seven-year study by a committee of the American Medical Association. In addition the committee has found that most old-age illness is “environmentally dependent,” therefore can be modified "by changing and controlling the environment.” The special problem facing old people to-day was said to be "compulsory retirement,” which is recognized as a tragic waste of human experience.

Is Cancer Catching?

Dr. Walter C. Alvarez of Mayo Clinic stated in midNovember that he has known “hundreds of men and women with a cancer who for years slept in the same bed or the same room with a spouse, and they never passed on their cancer.” Surgeons, he said, operate almost daily to remove one or more cancers without catching the disease. Even when cancer tissue was planted under the skin of some hundred prisoners, who volunteered for this experiment^ it would not grow.

Doctors’ Mistakes

The British registrar-general’s statistical review reports that doctors' mistakes have cost the lives of 676 patients in 1960. There were 117 deaths caused by overdose of drugs, 150 died of adverse reaction to drugs or therapy, another 344 deaths were connected with the giving of anesthetics and 59 more died of "accidents in medical technique.”

|HE course of wisdom is one proved by its results. Would you not trust such a ___course? Would you not be moved by the course of thousands of Christian ministers whose faith has enabled them to survive persecution much like that of the first-century Christians and whose zeal has carried them to the remotest parts of the world to find persons earnestly seeking peace through God’s kingdom? Read Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose and learn what inspires such faith and prompts such zeal. Send 7/- (for Australia, 8/10; for South Africa, 70e).

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Nothing will promote close harmony within the family like mutual love and understanding. Man was made in God’s image, with the capacity for wisdom, justice, love and power. But, to use these attributes of his properly, man needs a guide, for “it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.’’ (Jer. 10:23) That guide is not instinct, as with the lower animals, but is Jehovah's inspired Word, the Bible.

Are you a lover of righteousness? Would you like to gain God's approval and blessing for yourself and your family? Then heed the divine counsel: “Seek Jehovah , . . Seek righteousness, seek meekness.’'—Zeph. 2:3.

To help you make the Bible a guide and a force for righteousness, you need The Watchtower. It sees things Scripturally. When it observes this generation afflicted with greed, delinquency, hypocrisy, atheism, war, famine, pestilence, perplexity and fear, and persecution of unpopular minorities, it does not parrot the old fable about history repeating itself. Informed by Bible prophecy, it sees in these things the sign of the world’s time of the end. But with bright hope it also sees opening up for us just beyond these woes the portals of a new world.. Keep your family closely united and work together for a place in that new world.

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32

¹

Issue of November 5, 1962.

²

“The law of abstinence forbids the eating of meat and soup, gravy or sauces made from meat,” and "binds everyone over 7 years of age.”—frf.

³

Though not. mentioned in the Scriptures TW. (‘hiholic                  l American I devotes seventeen

to penance, more than to such subjects as “God,¹¹ “Jfcsus” and