What Kind of God Is Your God?

PAGE 5

Solving the Protein Problem

PAGE 8

Clergymen Who Approve Homosexuality

12

Have You Declared Everything?

JUNE 22, 1966

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CONTENTS

Those Mysterious Flying Objects

What Kind of God Is Your God?

Solving the Protein Problem

Clergymen Who Approve Homosexuality 12

Shipping by Pipeline

Have You Declared Everything?

An Inquiring Policeman

Pretty but Poisonous

"Your Word Is Truth”

Are There Visions from God Today? 27

Watching the World

"It is already the hour for you to awoke.” —Consul 13;1I

Volume XLVII                       London, England, June 22, 1966                           Number 12

"Mtcftten/iofta           GCjecto

FROM coast to coast, springtime in the United States brought with it a rash of reports concerning strange unidentified flying objects. Hundreds of people, including many in responsible positions, reported seeing them in different parts of the country. Their shapes were variously described as saucers, balloons, cigars or footballs. Some were reported to have pulsating lights of different colors.

Among the most extraordinary observations were those in Michigan. The first sighting came from an area around Ann Arbor, where at least forty persons said they saw a strangely lighted vehicle that appeared to glide through the air and then land. Next, a group of police officers observed strange lights in another nearby area. They stated: “We would not have believed it if we had not seen it with our own eyes. These objects could move at fantastic speeds, make very sharp turns, dive and climb and hover with great maneuverability.”

A few days later another police officer photographed two of the strange lights, using a telephoto lens at a distance of about five miles. At nearly the same time a father iand son approached to within 500 yards of a strange lighted object that had settled in a swamp. They described it as being football-shaped, about as big as an automobile, with pulsating lights and a surface "pitted like coral rock.” On another night eighty-seven Hillsdale College coeds saw similar lights in a swamp near their college.

These sightings and others like them in the spring of 1966 were not the first. For almost twenty years now, hundreds, yes, thousands, of such objects have been reported and investigated in various parts of the world. Many of them have been seen by responsible persons, including persons trained to detect, observe and classify flying objects. Some years ago two airline pilots reported a mysterious object flying near their aircraft. The object was able to reverse direction instantaneously and fly at great speeds. The pilots said it was cigar-shaped, as large as an airliner, with a white glow at the bottom.

In the United States, the government has not publicly admitted producing or experimenting with any "flying saucers.” But if these appearances are not of some military or spacecraft under development, then what are they?

One source of answers to this much-asked question is "Project Blue Book,” the United States Air Force’s investigations that track down reports of unidentified flying objects. Since 1947 the Air Force has checked on 10,147 sightings of these mysterious objects. A report on the findings states: “In 1,240 cases, there was insufficient evidence to complete an investigation. In 646 others, the sightings remain unexplained. In the remaining cases, the UFO’s [unidentified flying objects] were attributed to astronomical causes, to planes, balloons and missiles, to hullucina-tions and psychological reasons. After these thousands- of investigations, the Air Force has concluded: No UFO ‘has ever given any indication of a threat to our national security’; there is no evidence that any object went ‘beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge’; ‘there has been no evidence that sightings categorized as unidentified are extraterrestrial vehicles.’ ”

This report notes that the majority of these sightings can be explained. For example, in one case of “flying saucers” that the Air Force investigated, two mysterious lights on a photographic plate were “without any question” a time exposure of the planet Venus and the rising moon. In another, witnessed by hundreds of residents of Los Angeles, the explanation proved quite simple. Onlookers had reported various colored lights moving at a “fantastic” speed. But the entire affair turned out to be a hoax. Two students at Pasadena’s California Institute of Technology had filled polyethylene balloons with gas and suspended beneath them rotating flares. On four different nights they released the balloons, and in came the flood of “flying saucer” reports.

In the case of the lights that descended in the Michigan swamp, a top Air Force investigator waded out into the area where the object was reported to have been seen. He admitted that the reports were more consistent than other Sightings he had studied. After a thorough investigation, the scientist concluded that the lights “were produced by spring thaws releasing swamp gases, which produced a strange glow—the phenomenon known in folklore as the 'will o’ the wisp,’ and the ‘jack-of lantern.’ ” He added: “A dismal swamp is a most unlikely place for a visit from outer space.”

In some cases the objects have been merely reflected light. Also, in many other instances imaginations have run wild. As Science Digest of June 1965 said: “The greatest flying saucer activity in the U.S. coincided with a great boom in science fiction pulp magazines and science fiction films.”

While balloons, aircraft, missiles, gases, clouds, light reflections, perhaps even ball lightning, and individual imaginations Recount for most of the sightings, in other cases there simply is no satisfactory answer as to what was observed. Some have strongly suggested these objects are from outer space, from other planets, but there is no evidence to substantiate this theory. Others feel the objects and light may be of demon origin. While this is possible; nonetheless, there is no “evidence that could establish the certainty of this at present.

So investigation has proved that the vast number of “flying saucers” have a natural or man-made origin. However, the fact remains that a sfriall proportion are without satisfactory explanation. The course of practical wisdom is not to be unduly concerned, but to await an increase in knowledge that someday may explain those mysterious flying objects.

Oi course, to attribute goodness, faithfulness, truth and love to . God is most fitting. As Jesus Christ, His Son, said, actually, “nobody is good, except one, God.” He truly is “a God of faithfulness,” as Moses sang, “with whom there is'no injustice; righteous and upright is he." He is the God of truth, for “it is impossible for God to lie,” and he is also the perfect embodiment of unselfishness, for “God is love.” —Luke 18:19; Deut. 32:4;

WHAT kind of God is the God that you worship? This is an important question in these days when even among the religious leaders of Christendom and Jewry are to be found atheists; and one repeatedly hears the expression, “God is dead," The strength of your faith in God depends in no small degree upon what kind of God you worship, for if your God is lacking in vital respects, your faith is most vulnerable and might easily be shaken, as is the faith of many.

In discussing this wave of thinking in religious circles the Episcopal bishop of California, James A. Pike, was recently quoted as saying, among other things: “We can sense goodness and integrity and truth and love in the world and think of God in terms of these. There is no need to ascribe all sorts of 'omni’s’ to him— omnipotent, . . . omniscient, and so forth. To do So is to set up the greatest insoluble problem of philosophy—the existence of/ evil.”¹ In other words, Christians are not required to believe that God is omnipotent, that he is almighty, all-powerful, and that God is omniscient, that he is all-knowing, all-wise, for to do so is to raise the question as to why evil exists.

Heb. 6:18; 1 John 4:8,

But is clergyman Pike correct in assuming that it is sufficient to attribute such qualities to God and that to attribute to God omnipotence and omniscience is to raise insoluble problems? By no means! Why, God’s Word, the Bible, opens with the statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and certainly that fact bespeaks infinite wisdom and power. Yes, “the heavens are declaring the glory of God.” (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 19:1) Equally as unequivocally does God’s Word itself attribute these ‘omni’s,’ omnipotence and omniscience, to God in so many words.

It follows, then, that Christians are not presumptuous or foolish in attributing such qualities to God but are merely accepting by faith what God has to say about himself in his Word, the Bible. Only the fact that God the Creator is not only a well-meaning, loving and just God but also an omnipotent and omniscient God can elicit our whole-souled devotion and intelligent worship. And, let it be noted, only such a God could deter us from doing bad, from yielding to temptation, by inculcating in us the fear of Him, even as we read: “The fear of Jehovah means the ha¹ ng of bad.”—Prov. 8:13.

Jehovah God the Omnipotent One

That the God of the Bible, Jehovah the Creator, is all-powerful, almighty, omnipotent, the Scriptures explicitly state. Forty-eight times in the Hebrew Scriptures he is referred to as shaddai, meaning the “Almighty" One, from Genesis 17: 1 to Joel 1:15. And nine times in the Christian Greek Scriptures he is termed the pantokrdtor, meaning the “allpowerful” or “Almighty” One, from 2 Corinthians 6:18 to Revelation 21-.22, Not only that, but we have his almightiness repeatedly spelled out for us, as when God’s angel asked Abraham, “Is anything too extraordinary [hard, RS] for Jehovah?” and as when Jesus assured his disciples, “With God all things are possible.”—Gen. 18:14; Matt. 19:26.

Jehovah’s omnipotence is implied in the very statement that “strength belongs to God." (Ps. 62:11) And it is seen in the fact' that none can prevent his purposes from being carried out: “My word that goes forth from my mouth . . ..will have certain success in that for which I have sent it.” (Isa. 55:11) That God’s power is unlimited is also to be seen from such great acts of his as the flood of Noah’s day, even as he displayed “the mightiness of his strength” by raising Christ “up from the dead.”—Eph. 1:19, 20; Gen. 6:3; 7:17-24.

Why, Jehovah God is so great and powerful that in comparison with him “the nations are as a drop from a bucket; and as the film of dust on the scales.” To use another Scriptural simile, men are to him as but “grasshoppers.” Jehovah God being omnipotent, "he does not tire out or grow weary.” Only to such a God could we look with confidence for help in times of distress: “God is for us a refuge and strength, a help that is readily to be found during distresses."—Isa. 40:15, 22, 28; Ps. 46:1.

Jehovah God the Omniscient One

Equally important, if our faith in God is to be truly strong, unshakable, is our appreciating that he is all-knowing, allwise, omniscient. Why, not a sparrow could fall without his knowing it, if he so chooses. (Matt. 10:29) Of him it is said: “There is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting." Man • can judge merely by outward appearances, but God “sees what the heart is.”—Heb. 4:13; 1 Sam. 16:7.

More than that, God’s omniscience is such that he can foresee whatever he wishes to foresee, so that it is impossible for him ever to make a mistake or to be faced with a dilemma. As he says regarding himself: “I am the Divine One and there is no other God, nor anyone like me; the One telling from the beginning the finale, and from long ago the things that have not been done.” (Isa. 46:9, 10) Among the many examples that, might be cited are those relating to the coming of the Messiah and world conditions since 1914. (Matt. 24:1-47) That is why Jehovah God can challenge all others who presume to be gods or mighty ones to do the same and thus prove that they too are gods; but this none of them are able to do. (Isa. 41:21-23) Truly, not without good reason does his Word say regarding him: “For Jehovah himself gives wisdom; out of his mouth there are knowledge and discernment.”—Prov. 2:6.

Yes, both by the testimony that visible creation gives and by the testimony of his own Word, the Creator, Jehovah God, is truly omnipotent, almighty. There is no limit to his power. He is also omniscient, all-knowing, all-wise. He knows the end from the beginning, he is fully cognizant of what goes on in his universe, and he never makes a mistake; he is never in a quandary as to how to proceed in a given situation.

"The Existence of Evil”

But does this understanding of God not raise what clergyman Pike calls the greatest insoluble, philosophical problem, “the existence of evil”? Since God is allpowerful and all-wise, as well as just and loving, why is the earth, which is a part of his creation and domain, filled with evil, with wickedness and violence, even as it was in the days of Noah? (Gen. 6:5,11, 12; Matt. 24:37-39) This does seem to present a paradox, but let all lovers of God and of righteousness be assured that He will make an end to all evil, even as He has promised: “God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”—Rev. 21:3, 4.

True, it takes faith to believe that the evil conditions that have prevailed on this earth for most of the past six thousand years will be ended by God. But that he has both the will and the power to do so, did he not demonstrate in times past, as in the flood of Noah’s day and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? (2 Pet. 2: 9) Then why has he not ended the evil on this earth before this? Because he' has a due time for it, even as ‘there is an appointed time for every affair under heaven.’ (Eccl. 3:1-8) It might seem that that time is long in coming, but not from God’s standpoint, for with him a thousand years are as but one day.—2 Pet. 3:8.

One of the reasons why God has not wiped out evil sooner is to be found in His words to the Pharaoh in Moses’ day: “In fact, for, this cause I have kept you in existence, for the sake of showing you my power and in order to have my name declared in all the earth.” When Pharaoh defied Almighty God, Jehovah could at once have wiped out Pharaoh and his military might, but, instead, he first sent a series of ten plagues by which he made Pharaoh know that he, Jehovah, was indeed the one true, Almighty God. This resulted in Jehovah’s fame being spread far and wide, to be remembered hundreds of years later, even by pagans.—Ebe. 9:16; 1 Sam. 6:5, 6.

Another , reason why Jehovah God has permitted evil is made clear to us from the book of Job. From God’s there point^; ing out Job’s integrity-keeping course to Satan, it is evident that this issue of whether man can keep integrity to God had been raised previously by Satan the Devil. When Satan taunted that Job served God solely from ulterior motives, God simply permitted Satan to put Job to the test so as to prove the base taunt a foul slander. But in spite of all the suffering that Satan was able to bring upon Job, Job did not turn against God but remained firm and true, proving the Devil a iiar. Since the days of Abel there have been such men on earth, witnesses for Jehovah who have kept integrity and so proved God true and Satan a liar.—Job 1:1-2:10; 42:7-9; Heb. 11:1-12:1.

Soon now, Jehovah’s purposes in permitting evil will have been fully served and then God will put an end to it, in his “day of vengeance.” (Isa. 61:2) Until then let all who read these lines keep their faith in God strong, knowing that, not only is God a well-meaning, a good and loving God, but that he is also an omnipotent and omniscient God, a God all-powerful and all-knowing, all-wise.

LACK of protein is basically responsible for the early deaths of untold millions of young children in many underdeveloped areas of the world. How to prevent such deaths by getting more protein foods into the diet of children in these areas has become a problem the solution of which requires the cooperation of parents and local authorities.

Malnutrition is a product of ignorance and poverty, and custom, superstition and taboos, which often limit the foods grown and used, are additional factors. Many mothers who are illiterate do not. know that generous supplies of high-quality protein foods are needed by their young children. Eggs that would give the children needed protein are often sold or traded instead of being fed to them. Also, other foods that are high in protein are often not used for one reason or another.

The growth of an African child generally slows down after it is weaned because its mother, usually through ignorance, fails to feed it protein-rich foods. It becomes a puny creature with hair that is brown instead of black, skin that is paler than normal, skinny arms and legs and possibly an extensive degree of dwarfing. At eighteen months it may not weigh any more than it did at nine months.

In some places in Africa 70 percent of the children are affected by protein malnutrition. This condition can produce mental and physical retardation that is irreversible. Mild or moderate protein deficiency renders infants and young children particularly susceptible to respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. Disease accentuates the need for protein-rich foods, failure to supply which can cause death or the severe protein deficiency known as kwashiorkor, meaning “the disease the deposed baby gets when the next one is born.”

Why Protein Is Important

The very word “protein” means “first,” and that is th* place it holds In our body’s need for nourishment. It provides essential nitrogen and is constantly required for the growth and replacement of body tissues. The body breaks down protein into constituents called amino acids and then reconstructs them into other proteins. Our body can synthesize or make up all but eight of the more than twenty amino acids. The eight that it cannot synthesize are called “essential” amino acids. These must be supplied in the foods we eat. If an essential amino acid is in short supply, it limits how effectively the body uses the rest of the protein in the food.

A good-quality protein supplies all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantities and in proper ratio. Egg protein is regarded by some persons as the bestquality natural protein, with milk, meat and fish also rated high. Among plants, those with the best-quality proteins are found in legumes such as beans, peas, ground peas (peanuts) and nuts. While most plant products lack one or more of the essential amino acids, the deficiency can often be corrected by combining them with other vegetables that supply the lack. For example, adding just a small amount of high-quality protein food to a diet of cassava or plantain will create an aminoacid balance enabling all the protein in the food to be used effectively. To obtain this advantage, however, protein foods must be eaten together. The balance is lost by eating maize one day and beans the next.

Eating a variety of foods together allows for the interaction of all essential nutrients. Protein may actually be in a person’s diet, but the body will not be able to make proper use of it unless energygiving calories or essential vitamins and minerals are adequate. On the other hand, adding much of one nutrient will only exaggerate the deficiency of the others. Thus some malnourished Indonesians that were given high-protein skim milk but not an extra supply of vitamin A were adversely affected in their eyes.

A fully grown adult uses protein only for tissue maintenance and repair. A child, however, needs it for growth. This fact makes it possible for an adult to live on a supply of protein food that is totally inadequate for a child. A child that is four years of age requires the same minimum amount of protein as an adult. Because a child usually eats about half as much as an adult, he needs foods that have twice the concentration of protein as those eaten by an adult.' Too many mothers are unaware of this fact.

The normal flow df breast milk can fully meet the protein and calorie needs of an infant until between the sixth and twelfth months of life. After that, diet supplements are required. This presents a problem in underdeveloped countries. Cow’s milk is either not available or too expensive. The same can be said of other protein-rich foods. Usually the child is fed on “pappy” cereals or starchy roots and fruits until he begins eating the normal family foods.

An expectant mother needs additional protein to meet- the demands of pregnancy, otherwise she may handicap her offspring from birth. Amazing as it may seem, goodquality breast milk is often provided for prolonged periods by undernourished women, but at considerable cost to their own health.

Sources of Cheap Protein

Abundant quantities of cheap protein can be found in foods of vegetable origin, particularly oil-seed meals. The food expert Nevin S. Scrimshaw observed: “Most technically underdeveloped areas could easily provide sufficient protein from either cotton seed or soya to correct their protein deficits.”

Meal can be obtained from ground peas, copra, sesame and sunflower seeds. In Liberia investigations are under way on the advisability of building a plant to crush palm kernels and make palm-oil cakes. The product would contain 80 percent protein. Common varieties of beans and peas can partially correct protein deficiencies, particularly where cassava, yam, taro, sweet potatoes and plantain have replaced cereals as staple foods. Grown on the same amount of ground, such legumes provide even more protein than do cereals.

An enormous potential supply of protein is in fish. They can be processed into stable flour with or without a fish taste or odor. For such to be produced cheaply, however, the whole fish, including viscera, scales and eyes, must be used. For this reason the United States Food and Drug Administration pronounces fish meal or flour unfit for human consumption in that country. But processors insist that they can convert whole fish into a clean and safe product.

At the present time the sanitary measures and precautions necessary in processing fish into meal for human consumption make it more costly than powdered skim milk and oil-seed meals. While research continues to find ways of lowering the cost and increasing its acceptability, a village can obtain fish protein by maintaining a village fish pond. Twenty-six fish ponds have been built in Liberia during the past few years.

Acceptance Problem

There has been a problem in getting people in some underdeveloped areas to accept a food they needed but were unfamiliar with. A formulated cereal that was Successfully sold in Guatemala was not accepted at all by the people in a nearby country. In some places where free dried skim milk was distributed, people did not know what to do with it.

Instead of introducing new and unfamiliar foods, it appears that the people in some underdeveloped lands can be aided best by helping them 'to use local foods that are available to them and with which they are familiar. In Liberia the growing of ground peas or pigeon peas in gardens is encouraged as well as the raising of chickens, rabbits or pigeons. They are admonished to use these protein-rich foods to feed their family instead of selling them.

There are people who are certain to ob? ject that it is not their custom to use certain foods that have a high protein content. Fish and various animals, for example, are taboo to some people. Even eggs are rejected in certain places because of a superstition that they cause a pregnant woman to give birth to a girl and turn growing boys into ‘ ‘sissies.’ ’ School instruction can help overcome these unwise views in the younger generation, but it is difficult to change them in adults.

Discontinuance of the old custom of prolonged breast feeding is having a bad effect upon young children where satisfactory substitutes for it are lacking. Influenced by Western ideas, some mothers mistakenly think that bottle feeding is socially superior to breast feeding. Others think that store milk is more nutritious, but seldom can they purchase enough of it to supply their babies with the nutrition needed. More often than not they feed their baby a highly diluted mixture of condensed milk and rice water or a corn-flour gruel colored with milk that has been sweetened. Such a diet causes malnutrition to set in. If-a mother were to continue breast feeding her child and also give it a food such as soft, rice, it would be in less danger of protein and calorie malnutrition.

Improving Local Foods

The protein value of a maize gruel, such as “koko,” which is used in Ghana, can be improved by adding some pea flour. This is valuable when breast milk fails and there is no money for buying milk. Homemade fish flour can also be added. If at all possible some dried skim milk should be used, because it is rich in riboflavin, which helps the body to make full use of protein. Perhaps it can be obtained free from a public health center. Continued use of milk, eggs or fish flour is advisable because a child of two or three cannot easily eat sufficient corn and peas or beans to satisfy his protein requirements.

Where ettu (steamed mashed plantain) is the favorite weaning food, its nutritional value can be increased by adding some powdered milk or sweet potatoes and red beans. Ground peas or dried fish flour can also be used. This supplement should also be added where manioc or cassava is used as a weaning food. Cereal protein, however, is much superior to that of plantain or cassava and is always preferred in child feeding.

A nourishing baby food can be made of rice, ground peas (peanuts) and sesame seed. First, soak the rice for two hours, drain it and then spread it on a fanner in the sun until partially dried. Pound it in a mortar and then sift.

Parch ground peas and remove the skin. Pound them in a mortar while still warm and then sift. Clean sesame (benni-seed) and parch. Pound them and sift. Mix five parts of both rice and sesame meal to three parts of ground-pea meal. One part of fish flour may be added. Fish flour can be obtained by pounding dried fish thoroughly in a mortar. To one cup of this mixture add four cups of cold water slowly until it is free from lumps. Add one teaspoon of salt. Cook slowly for thirty minutes. If the baby is over eight months, add palm oil or pounded tender greens for vitamin A. The protein content of this mixture, even without the fish, exceeds that of milk.

When there is a lack of time to prepare special baby food, what is in the family pot can be used. A portion of cooked rice can be cooked for about fifteen minutes more with more water so as to make it softer. Add two tablespoons of boned fish and some tender greens. Cook for still another fifteen minutes, and then put it through a' sieve. This pap requires only thirty additional minutes to prepare after cooking for the family, and it can be done with only three pots.

You might think that young children cannot digest eggs, ground-pea flour, beans and peas, but, when these foods are properly prepared, they cap. Experiments have shown that egg protein can be easily fed to persons of all ages. In Dakar, West Africa, ground-pea flour was easily digested by healthy infants from five to twelve months old when it was given to them in amounts that did not exceed 50 to 80 grams daily, but they had difficulty with larger amounts. In Nigeria good results were observed when children of nine months to one year were given 30 grams daily of groundnut flour that contained 15 percent casein plus vitamins and mineral salts.

Bean puree can be made by first soaking the beans overnight. Change the water and boil them with salt until they are soft. Mash the beans and strain out the skins. Continue boiling until the surplus water is gone and a firm puree remains. Puree, palm oil, salt and fish can. be wrapped in banana leaves and steamed to provide a protein-rich baby food.

The problem of protein malnutrition is growing with the steady population increase in underdeveloped areas of the world. The nutritional knowledge of what is needed for these peoples is available, and it can be supplied through government, national and international agencies. Parents and village leaders would be wise to give heed to it. By their applying this knowledge the deaths of millions of children from malnutrition can be avoided.

Clergymen

Who Approv

HOMOSEXUALITY

IN February of 1966 a long-debated bill reforming Britain’s law on homosexual conduct won a dramatic victory in the House of Commons. The legislation would repeal all criminal penalties against homosexual acts committed in private by consenting adults. In effect, it would legalize homosexual activity among Britain’s estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 homosexuals.

Commenting on this, a New York Times report of February 12 stated: “Churches have been in the forefront of the demand for reform. The Church of England and Roman Catholic and Methodist groups have all called for adoption of the [repeal] recommendation.” The Conservative who introduced the bill, after noting that he himself was Roman Catholic, said that among the strongest supporters were “those who have voluntarily undertaken to lead lives of chastity, such as ordained priests and monks.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England, has also urged the legalization of homosexuality. Yet, a principal opponent, Sir Cyril Osborne, said that because of this new liberality toward homosexuals “the tendency will be for the number of homo-sexuals to increase.” Then he added a comment agreed with by many others: “I am rather tired of democracy being made safe for the pimps, the prostitutes, the spivs and the pansies, and now the queers.”

Which attitude is more nearly correct? How should homosexuals be viewed, particularly by the Christian? Is the approving of homosexuality by many clergymen the right way? Indeed, what is God’s mind on this matter?

The Trend

In recent years the trend has been toward a lifting of the stigma of immorality attached to homosexuality. More and more the tendency is to liberalize attitudes toward homosexuals and to try to legalize their relationship, viewing the matter as the personal business of those involved. Another trend is that the number of homosexuals has increased, as well as their influence in many lines of business and the arts.

Some of the most fervent supporters and apologists for the homosexual have been clergymen of many religions in many countries. While many clergymen hold an opposite view, the fact remains that a growing segment of the clergy favor legalization of homosexuality.

The view of clergymen who approve liberalizing attitudes toward homosexuality is much the same as that stated by one homosexual himself. After expressing bitterness at the way they nave oeen treated, ne said: “wny can’t they accept us on our own individual merit? If we’re dishonest or worthless, OK, let people reject us on these grounds, but not just because our sexual nature is different.”—Maclean’s, February 22, 1964,

Agreeing with this was clergyman Robert Wood, a minister of the United Church of Christ in the United States, He said: “The moral onus of homosexuality is no greater than that of being left-handed.” He also added: “Homosexual love may reach a sacramental level and thus become as moral as heterosexual behavior. . , . Homosexuality is moral because it provides an outlet for the expression of the human personality for those who cannot express themselves fully within heterosexuality. ... If a homosexual couple [both of the same sex] came to me and requested a religious marriage ceremony I would not automatically turn them away ... If, after counselling, I felt they were genuinely in love I would then be inclined, God willing, to give them such a blessing in my capacity as an ordained minister of the Gospel.”—Toronto Star, June 15, 1963.

This..clergyman contends that there is nothing immoral about a sincere homosexual relationship. He declares that as a minister of the Gospel he would perform a marriage between two persons of the same sex, “God willing.” His agreeing to perform such a marriage means that he believes God is willing, that God does approve such a union.

In another instance, clergyman David Bolton of All Saint’s Anglican Church of Westboro, Canada, argued for greater tolerance to be shown homosexuals. In connection with classifying homosexuality as sin, he warned: “We must be careful we don’t go overboard making classes of sins.” —Ottawa Citizen, November 1, 1965.

Canon Robert W. Cromey, Episcopalian clergyman who served as an assistant to Bishop James A. Pike, cited the law that homosexual relations between persons over twenty-one are illegal, and stated; “Laws like this are just silly. Certainly, after people are over 21, they should be able to have sexual relations with a lamp, if they want to.” He and some thirty other clergymen and homosexuals have formed a group to “try to re-think a Christian view of sexuality generally,”—San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 1964.

Then, in the Manchester, New Hampshire, Union Leader of February 4, 1965, came the report that “in San Francisco a dozen Protestarit ministers co-sponsored a private benefit ball for some 600 homosexuals and their friends.’’ The story came to the paper’s notice because of the press conference held by the ministers, at which they accused the police of intimidation because they had broken up the ball. The report states: “Unfortunately for the ministers, the police were a little more realistic. They took one look at the many males dressed in eye-dazzling evening gowns, the sale of tickets at the door, and decided that this was something that was not good for the community and took appropriate action.”

The editorial comment of this paper puts in focus the view that conflicts sharply with that of the clergymen. The editorial said: “The question remains for our readers and all of us: WHAT has gotten into some of the clergy that they should be so bereft of common sense as to become involved with any such absurd situation? ... It is quite evident, from the action of these ministers and from the production of a play in Boston, preliminary to its going to New York—a drama dealing with two homosexuals—that there is an attempt being made to make homosexuality respectable and to break down the present attitude of the laws and of respectable people toward homosexuality. . . . Mankind over the years and for centuries has had lapses of moral behavior, but practically never—except, perhaps, in the days of dying Rome—has a society attempted to make respectable, or almost a virtue, of degeneracy and sexual perversion, such as is now apparently being attempted on a national scale.”

Are the Clergymen Right?

Since the trend among clergymen is to legalize and liberalize homosexuality, the. question must now be asked, Who is right? Are such clergymen right in approving homosexuality?

Since the opinions of men will often vary, one who sincerely wants a right answer in this regard will turn to the one source of absolute truth, the Creator of man and woman. True, many will ignore what God says on the matter. But those who are interested in knowing what is right and doing what is right will want to be guided by what God himself says in his Word.

When God created woman, he brought her to the man he had previously created. Genesis 2:24 says: “That is why a man will leave his father and his mother and he must stick to his wife and they must become one flesh.” The purpose, then, of two sexes was to bring them together in honorable marriage. God did not make another male for the first man, nor did he create another female for the first woman so that those of the same sex could have relations.

That is the standard God set. Man and woman would marry and have sexual relations honorably. But does this exclude homosexual relationships altogether? On this we must again let God answer. In his law to the nation of Israel God stated: “You must not lie down with a male the same as you lie down with a woman. It is a detestable thing.” (Lev, 18;22) How serious was this? Was there to be a clamor for legalization of homosexuality in Israel? Were the religious leaders themselves to take the lead in such campaign for liberalizing attitudes toward homosexuals? God answers: “Where a man lies down with a male the same as one lies down with a woman, both of them have done a detestable thing. They should be put to death without fail. Their own blood is upon them.” (Lev. 20:13) Yes, that is how God viewed the matter of homosexuality! How different from approving clergymen today!

However, some may protest and say that those instructions were issued under the Jewish system of ancient times. Christians, they may contend, are not under that arrangement, so there is room for a different attitude. But here again, let God answer. In the first chapter of the book of Romans, in the Christian Greek Scriptures, this matter comes in for attention. After noting that some men do not glorify God, the Bible states: “They became empty-headed in their reasonings and their unintelligent heart became darkened. Although asserting they were wise, they became foolish and . . , exchanged the truth of God for the lie.” What would be one consequence of this course of action? The Bible continues: “That is why God gave them, up to disgraceful sexual appetites, for both their females changed the natural use of themselves into one contrary to nature; and likewise even the males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males, working what is obscene and receiving in themselves the full recompense, which was due for their error.”—Rom. 1:21-27.

What does God call those who “exchanged the truth of God for the lie” and practiced homosexuality? Note the words, “empty-headed,” “unintelligent heart,” “disgraceful sexual appetites,” “contrary to nature,” “violently inflamed in their lust,” "working what is obscene.”

There can be no doubt about God’s view of homosexuality. It is “contrary to nature,” to the way God created man and woman. It cannot be taken lightly, for God’s Word warns: “Those practicing such things are deserving of death,” (Rom. 1: 32) Also: “Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, rior men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom.” —1 Cor. 6:9, 10.

God’s Word plainly states what is right and what is wrong. Homosexuality is wrong. For one to claim he is a minister of the Gospel and then to say that homosexuality is moral is blasphemy. Any minister who would perform a “marriage” between homosexuals, “God willing,” is debased in his thinking and is in total spiritual darkness. Such men have become, not ministers of God, but “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light. It is therefore nothing great if his ministers also keep transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness. But their end shall be according to their works.”—2 Cor. 11:13-15.

What to Do

Clergymen who approve homosexuality and churches that tolerate such clergymen have already been judged adversely by God. He has already withdrawn his spirit from them. That is why such gross error can be promulgated in the first place, for they do not have God’s spirit and the accurate knowledge that comes with it.

if you now belong to a religious system that tolerates clergymen who approye homosexuality, then you support a system that works in opposition to God. To maintain such support means that you, too, approve of those who break God’s law and cause others to do the same.

But cannot one disapprove of clergymen and churches who do wrong and yet remain in those systems? No, for such systems have been rejected by God. That is why God’s Word strongly declares: “Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4) Soon, at the end of this system of things, God’s anger will be expressed against all that is wrong. Those religious systems and leaders who have supported what is so clearly contrary to God’s will are to be destroyed forever. Do not let your fate be the same by persisting in belonging to what God condemns.

Hopeless for Homosexuals?

Does God’s condemnation of homosexuality mean there is no hope for those practicing it to come into a proper relationship with God? By no means. God is a God of love and "he is patient with you because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.”—2 Pet. 3:9.

6o God’s love extends to all humankind, including those who commit error. But that love must be accepted. It must also be acted upon for one to receive God’s help, favor and blessing. What is necessary? First of all, one who practices a wrong such as homosexuality must repent, feel -sorry, cut to the heart for doing what God so plainly disapproves. Then he must make the effort to change his way of life. Such effort, while it may be difficult, can result in everlasting life for sincere ones.

The Bible shows that conversion from homosexuality is possible. When the apostle Paul wrote under inspiration to the Corinthians, he took note of the many who had practiced various sins, such as fornication and homosexuality. But he also noted that many had now repented, turned around, and had taken the right course, for he stated: “And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean.”—1 Cor. 6:11.

Yes, one can be washed clean in God’s eyes by reforming from a bad habit. That is why God’s Word urges: “Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the'new personality, which through accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of the One who created it.” (Col. 3:9, 10) “Put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct and which is being corrupted according to his deceptive desires; . . . put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness.”—Eph, 4:22-24.

By taking in accurate knowledge from God’s Word, the sincere person will find out what he must do. By asking for God’s help through the medium of prayer, by associating with and receiving assistance from mature Christian ministers, those who have fallen into unclean practices can turn from them to doing what is right. To get God’s approval and everlasting life in his new order, the homosexual must discontinue that bad practice. There is no other way. Homosexuality has never been, is not now, and never will be approved by God.

As those who formerly practiced other vile things can repent and change their ways, so can the homosexual, if he wants to. That the homosexual can change his way, medical studies verify, as the Bible had long ago stated. The findings ot a nine-year study on the Subject by a group of psychoanalysts included this statement: “Every homosexual has the potential of changing to a normal life.”—Toronto Daily Star, May 28, 1962.

This is so because homosexuals are made, not born. It is not an inherited trait. The same publication just quoted stated in connection with the clergyman who said he would marry homosexuals: “The evidence indicates that [clergyman] food's view that homosexuality is inborn -like left-handedness—is wrong. Dr. Evelyn Hooker, one of the foremost researchers in the field, has said that homosexual behavior is always learned, never innate.” Another expert, writing in Science Digest of April 1964, said: “There is no evidence of anything abnormal about the male chromosomes in the homosexuals who have been studied for chromosomal defects.” So there is no doubt that this immoral practice can be abandoned.

Thus, while God’s Word condemns homosexuality, it offers its practicer escape by a remaking of the personality through proper feeding of the mind. God also offers the hope of a marvelous future of life everlasting in His new order. In addition, a reformation will bring the former homosexual self-respect, a clear conscience, the friendship of upright men and women and God’s friendship as well.

But for those who refuse God’s decent ways, and for those clergymen who insist that homosexuality is not immoral, only disaster awaits. They will have no place, or life, in God’s righteous new system of things. Therefore, abandon such religious systems that approve what God disapproves. Flee from them and their representatives as if your life depended on it, because it does.'

USUALLY when we think of pipelines our minds center on the vast network of pipelines running under the streets of our cities and towns, carrying water or gas to our homes. We do not usually class them with railroads as shippers of merchandise. Yet that is precisely what they are becoming. Already a large variety of products are being shipped in this manner, in some instances over great distances.

Recently in the United States a huge pipeline that stretches from Houston, Texas, to New York city, a distance of 1,600 miles, was completed by the ColoniaF Pipeline Company. It is thirty-six inches in diameter for a substantial portion of its distance. Twenty pumping stations keep petroleum products flowing through the pipe at a speed of four or five miles an hour. This is only one of several pipelines that connect the East Coast of the United States with the vast Texas oil fields. Some bring in petroleum products, as this big one does, and others transport natural gas.

As railroad freight cars, each carrying different products, can be switched off the main line along the way and delivered to customers, so a pipeline can carry many products at one time. A petroleum pipeline, for example, may have shipments of crude petroleum, diesel fuel, gasoline, jet fuel, furnace oil and kerosene following one another in the same line. By controlling the pressure on these products they are prevented from mixing.

Any of the products in a petroleum pipeline can be shunted to a branch line and delivered to storage tanks. By checking readings on specific-gravity dials a dispatcher knows when a product he wants to switch to a branch pipeline passes a certain point. Since the specific gravity of the various products differs, he can quickly tell whether crude oil, kerosene or something else is at that point. Sometimes

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radioactive material is injected at the head of a shipment, and by means of a Geiger counter the dispatcher is able to know when that shipment reaches the pipe down which it is supposed to be shunted. By his knowing the speed at which the products are moving through the line, he can calculate how long to leave a valve open for a shipment to move out of the main Une.

The dispatcher does not have to be located at the turnoff point but can be sitting at a control panel hundreds of miles away. Nevertheless, he has complete control of the flow of products in the pipeline system. He can even analyze the products in it with the aid of a computer if he so desires. When there is a high-priority shipment that must be hurried through the line, other shipments already in it can be temporarily shunted into storage pits or pipes until the priority shipment has passed. Thus the operating of a pipeline system is very much like the operating of a railroad.

Economical Transportation

Shipping petroleum products by pipe has proved to be more economical than any other means of transportation. The recently completed Rhone River Valley pipeline, which connects oil tankers on the Mediterranean Sea with south-central Europe, promises to lessen the cost of gasoline and fuel oil for the area served by it. This thirty-four-inch pipeline, which cost $120 million, spans a distance of 485 miles. It eliminates expensive overland haulage and a 2,000-mile ocean voyage to ports on the North Sea.

Although the initial investment in building a pipeline is high, it makes the transportation of products cheap in the long run. Colonial's 1,600-mile pipeline cost $360 million. In rough terrain laying the pipe can cost as much as $150,000 a mile. Despite this high initial cost, Colonial’s president, R. J. Andress, observed: “If there is enough volume to justify the capital investment a pipeline is the cheapest form of transportation there is.

A number of countries have recognized the value of pipelines and have been willing to invest the large sums necessary to build them. The Soviet Union has one that stretches 1,800 miles from the Urals into eastern' Europe. When its branches are taken into consideration the system totals 3,600 miles. The United States and Canada have extensive pipeline systems that total more than one million miles. Great Britain and the Netherlands are interested in building one from the newly discovered gas fields in the Netherlands to England. There also is interest in constructing a line across the Mediterranean to connect oil-producing Algeria with oil-hungry Europe.

Shipping Solids

Surprising as it may seem, the products shipped by pipeline do not necessarily have to be liquids, such as oil and gasoline, but can be solids. Due to the remarkable progress that has been made in experiments involving the shipping of solids by pipeline, the president of Pipe Line Technologists, Inc., of Houston, Texas, Herbert E. Fisher, remarked:' “There is technically no limit to what can be moved by pipeline. The only limitation lies in the economics.” The laying of a pipeline, the size of it and the size of the pumps needed are big economic factors that limit a wider use of them.

In Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, scientists in the Research Council there have done a lot of research on the problem of transporting solids through pipes, and they have proved it to be feasible. They propose that solid material be sent through a pipeline as large slugs or in plastic containers. Such things as wheat, chemicals, metals and other materials could be transported in this fashion and then easily separated from the liquid carrier at the other end. Powdered coal, sulphur and gypsum can be made into a paste and then pressed into solid slugs that would have a diameter of from three-quarters to nine-tenths that of the pipe. Pressure on the carrying liquid in the seamless pipe would move the slugs swiftly to the other end, and the same would be true if capsules were used.

A number of different solids already are being shipped through pipelines in the form of a slurry. That is, they are mixed with water. This is being done with granulated coal, which is made into a paste. But it must be separated from the water at its destination unless it is used in a furnace that is specifically designed to burn the paste. Slurries of sugarcane, gold, uranium, phosphate, magnetite, iron ore, paper and sardines are also sent through pipelines for varying distances. Tests are being made with sand and gravel, which also could be transported in this manner.

One of the drawbacks to using a slurry is that the particles of suspended solids must be kept moving at a fast pace to prevent them from settling, and this requires more horsepower than that needed for shipping materials through pipes in capsules, which do not have this requirement There is also the power requirement for separating the particles from the liquid carrier at their destination when that is necessary in a production process.

In some instances the slurry can be made part of the processing procedure. Sugarcane, for example, that is sent through a pipeline is partially dissolved by the time it reaches the refinery, and this speeds up the sugar-making process. The same can hold true in paper production. There is a paper company in the United States that has found that it is to its advantage to ship paper pulp through a pipeline. Before the pipeline was installed between its pulp mill and paper mill, seven miles away, it had to remove most of the water from the paper pulp, press the pulp into sheets, transport them by railroad to the paper mill and then mix water again with the sheets of pulp. Now a pipeline carries the pulp in a slurry directly from one mill to the other. The inside of the pipe is glass-smooth, seamless and corrosion resistant so that the paper can move through it without difficulty. This arrangement is saving the company money and is speeding up the paper-making process.

In the sunbaked desert of California there is still another use to which a pipe-, line is being put. This unusual pipeline is one and a half miles long. It is a highly insulated pipe that is used to transport liquid oxygen to test stands of the giant Saturn rocket engines that are being developed for the American space program. The pipe has been called the “world's longest thermos bottle.”

In addition to the liquids, gases and solids already mentioned as being shipped by pipeline, there are also such substances as nitrogen, ethylene, alcohol, brine, molasses, latex, cement and helium that are being transported in this manner over varying distances. Even mail is being sent through pipes. In Hamburg, Germany, a sixty-two-mile system of pipes is under construction for transporting mail in capsuled that are moved by air pressure. A portion of this system is now in operation.

Consideration is even being given to transporting people through giant pipelines in' order to speed up ground transportation. One of the ideas that was proposed when President Johnson authorized the Department of Commerce to push a program of research in high-speed transportation was for a system of underground pipelines through which people could travel at 1,000 and more miles an hour. They would be carried in torpeclo-shaped carriages suspended on a cushion of air. The system would provide rapid transportation between distant cities.

It is very evident that pipelines have great possibilities for improving our facilities for transporting people and commercial materials. Already they have done a magnificent job for the oil and gas industries. What dampens enthusiasm for them is the high cost of construction. Nevertheless, there are at the present time, a number of companies that have built extensive pipeline systems for oil and gas products and are operating them profitably. As further progress is made in developing methods of transporting solids through pipes, we can expect the construction of pipelines that will ship swiftly and cheaply a wide range of products in competition with railroads and trucks. Shipping by pipeline is an actuality that offers great possibilities for modem industry.

'-"W one tries to outwit customs officials by declaring only part of his purchases?

Before answering such questions, it is helpful to understand why customs regulations are in force. The term “custom” is applied to tariff or duty on goods imported or exported. Basically, such taxation is applied to protect home industry from competition and to provide additional income for the government. Customs also serves as a border guard against contraband, such as heroin and narcotics.

Customs Agent versus

The Smuggler

According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, smuggling is defined as importing or exporting “secretly contrary to law.” To avoid smuggling, in the United States you must declare all articles purchased abroad, and any alterations or repairs ■ to such articles. The wearing or use of an article you acquire abroad does not exempt it from duty and it must be declared. Exemption of duty on any article may be lost if you fail to declare it to Customs at the time of your return from the trip on which you acquired it.

Articles that you are bringing home for another person at his request and articles you intend to sell or use in your business must be declared.

A tourist’s chances of successfully “fudging” on the legal requirements of customs are very, very slim. Customs inspectors are trained and

schooled to prevent smuggling and violations of Federal laws governing customs requirements. These men are experts in judging human nature and detecting fraud. Ideal customs agents are said to have the judgment of a pawnbroker, the tact of a diplomat and the eye of a detective. Unusual nervousness or awkward, suspicious movements are easily detected and interpreted by customs men.

Yet many tourists still endeavor to match their amateur ingenuity against the well-trained professional customs officer, often using incredible tactics to avoid customs duty. Some have been caught smuggling items in trunks and bags with false bottoms and sides. Others hide articles in the lining of their garments. Many hide merchandise on various parts of their bodies or in hollowed-out shoe heels and books. Women are often revealed as smugglers when searched and items are found concealed in their undergarments.

It is wise to remember that the customs officials have the authority to search a person at any time when there is reason to believe that someone is endeavoring to evade customs duty. Additionally, United States Coast Guard cutters are empowered to stop and search any vessel within territorial limits, about three miles, of the coast.

Suggestions to Travelers

Are you planning to make purchases in foreign countries? Then prior to traveling go to or write or telephone the nearest Customs Bureau and ask for free literature that contains reliable information. If you have a specific problem or are in doubt as to certain requirements affecting merchandise you desire to purchase, by all means discuss this with the customs before making such purchases. On important matters, it is wise not to rely on the advice of fellow travelers, even though they may mean well.

Since the rates assessed on various items change frequently, get the current rate of duty on items you intend to buy before purchasing them. Be prepared financially to pay this at the time of inspection by customs. Some items are free of duty, others vary from 5 percent of the wholesale value in the' country where purchased to 110 percent on items made in nations not participating in a mutual trade agreement. At the time of this writing, a mean average on foreign purchases brought into the United States would be 25 to 30 percent of value, according to one customs official interviewed. Presently most cameras are subject to 15 percent duty rates and automobiles purchased abroad have a 6| percent duty rate imposed. Incidentally, the wholesale value of an article is determined by the customs officer, although the passenger declares the retail purchase price.

Americans need to guard against buying articles in shops in Hong Kong if they are manufactured in Communist countries, such as Red China or North Korea. At present these items and those made in Cuba are prohibited entry into the United States without a Treasury license. Also, guard against dishonest merchants who will gladly give a falsified certificate of origin, indicating it is not made in prohibited countries when in reality it is. Such certificates are not acceptable to customs, nor will this merchandise be permitted entry into the United States.

At times a merchant may contact customs officials after a purchaser leaves his shop. He telephones someone at customs, informs him of the items purchased and the prices paid for them. Therefore, if the purchaser falsifies the retail value or fails to declare an item purchased, this is detected immediately. Such practices can be rewarding to merchants, because after confiscated merchandise is sold by customs, the informer gets up to 25 percent of the money returned on this. The rest goes into Federal funds.

Do not seek to carry gold coins in or out of the United States. This is illegal without a special license. Remember too that regulations prevent importation of many plants, plant products, fruits, vegetables, meats and animals, including pets. This is done to avoid plant diseases and to protect the livestock industry in the United States against rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease. Millions of dollars would be lost annually should diseases from plants or animals be transferred into another country. To avoid agricultural diseases’ being so transferred, often automobiles driven on foreign soil that harbors injurious insects and diseases are required to be steam-cleaned when imported into another country.

All these suggestions perhaps could be summed up by saying it is most important that you get reliable information from the Customs Bureau prior to traveling. Take it into consideration in your purchasing, and honestly comply with all governmental requirements.

Penalties for Smuggling

Legal authorities take a very dim view of a person’s failure to declare everything he purchases abroad. Whether one is guilty of smuggling narcotics or is simply a tourist guilty of not declaring an inexpensive piece of jewelry, legally it is still smuggling. While some measure of leniency is extended to first offenders, little is giv^n to offenders found guilty the second time.

Penalties applied in cases of smuggling are sufficiently severe to cause the offender to realize the seriousness of the offense and to cause him to avoid repeating the offense. Maximum penalties include forfeiture of merchandise, a fine equaling the domestic value of the merchandise and prison sentences varying according to the seriousness of the offense.

To illustrate: a tourist purchases a foreign-made jade brooch, appraised domestically at $1,000, and fails to declare such. When apprehended he would have to forfeit the jade brooch, plus pay a fine of $1,000. Then if he desired to repurchase the brooch, an additional $1,000 price would have to be paid to obtain it from the authorities. Hence, the brooch would then cost the tourist $2,000, besides the foreign purchase price, in addition to'the time and trouble involved and a record of lawbreaking. A very high price to pay for failure to declare everything! Whereas, if the same brooch were declared and entered legally into the country, much less would be involved in duty.

Declare Everything

There are at least five basic reasons why you should declare everything when returning home with purchases made abroad:

fl) Because it is a legal governmental requirement.

• (2) Because the government is entitled to the customs revenue imposed. '

• (3) To avoid a great loss of time, trouble, embarrassment and a record of lawbreaking.

• (4) To avoid paying heavy penalties for smuggling.

• (5) Finally, and most important for true Christians, their lives must be guided by Bible principles such as the one at Hebrews 13:18, namely, to ‘conduct themselves honestly in all things.’

So as you return home from that long-awaited vacation and make out the customs declaration of merchandise purchased abroad, DECLARE EVERYTHING!

AN INQUIRING POLICEMAN

MINISTER of Jehovah’s witnesses wrote the following in regard to an experience he had while visiting in Toronto, Canada: "While waiting for another one of Jehovah’s witnesses one evening I was walking back and forth on the sidewalk. Soon a stranger approached me. Not knowing what to expect, I was relieved when he showed me J his police identification. He wanted to see ₍ my identification, as there had been some ₍ trouble in that area and he thought I was < one of the troublemakers. After showing < him my papers, I was able to talk to him ¹ briefly about Jehovah’s witnesses. When the ’ Witness I had been waiting for arrived, the policeman went back to his dark spot to , watch for criminals.                           , <

"Later I took my friend back to his car, and, returning, I noticed the police car still ' parked there in the dark. I decided to go over and say ‘Good night’ to the policeman. When I did, he asked me if I had a minute and invited me to sit in his car. Then the questions started. First of all, ‘Why are you people different from the other religions? Our prisons are full of Catholics and Protestants, but never have I had to arrest one of your people. Tell me, what makes you so different?’ Well, you can imagine what a joy it was to answer such a question! Then he commented: ‘As far as I am concerned all these other religions are failures because I can see and taste their “sour fruits" every day. But at the same time I realize that there must be a divine being ₍ who made all the things around us. Tell me, is God three-in-one as they (Anglican clergy) taught me?’ I told him, No. He could understand the Bible answer as soon as I presented it.                                                                                                     ;

“It was past midnight by then, but he had , 'just a few more questions.’ One was on the । teaching of hellfire. He remarked, ‘I could < never see how a loving God could torture his ¹ creatures as the clergy preach that he does.’ When I showed him from the Bible that was not the case and that the soul is the very Individual, he said, ‘Now the resurrection of the dead makes sense.’

“By then it was past 1:00 a.m. ‘.What actually is the purpose of your ministry?’ he asked. ‘Is it to convert the world? I tell you, it would be a wonderful thing to have all people act like you do. But in the meantime you need «

JTffNJS SS, 1966

the police around to keep the criminals in check.' Understandably, God’s kingdom was the next subject of discussion. He especially enjoyed learning that the kingdom would rule from heaven. ‘We surely need something better than man-made governments. Even-the United Nations seems to be a flop as a peace organization,’ was his comment. ‘How do we know that we are living in the time of the end?’ was the next question. As I told him of the different parts of the sign the Bible foretold, he could recognize the increasing of lawlessness, wars, and so forth, all coming to a climax in our generation. Since it was close to 3:00 a.m., I mentioned, as I had a number of times before, that it was time for me to go.

“ ‘All right,’ he replied, *but one Anal question. Every subject we have discussed has received a straightforward Bible answer. Now I know why you people are so different. For the first time in my life the Bible makes sense. Now tell me honestly, what do I have to do to gain God’s favor and approval? Don't you have anything to guide me since one needs some aid to understand the Bible?’

‘‘Yes, I had something to guide him. I went over to my car and got the book ‘Things in Which It Is Impossible for God to Lie,³ and showed him how to use it. We even went through the first few paragraphs together. ‘That’s what I want!’ he exclaimed. How much would that be—around eight dollars?’ He readily accepted it for the fifty cents contribution, wondering how we were able to distribute It at such a reasonable price. By then it was close to 4:00 a.m., but after such a refreshing experience I didn’t feel tired at all.

“ ‘I am glad that I took down your address he said, ‘even though at the time I thought you might be a criminal, because I will let you know how I am getting along in the book.’ Then we parted.

“I passed the address of the policeman on to the Witnesses in the territory where he lives, and they will be following up the interest he has manifested.- It is wonderful indeed to see how sheeplike people from all walks of life are learning of God’s purposes in the last days of this wicked system of things."

23

THAT attractive house plant sitting on your windowsill or the beautiful flowers and shapely hedge in your front yard may be nice to look at but dangerous to eat. “But who would eat a house plant or a garden flower?” you may ask. Small children are the most likely ones. They are liable to eat a pretty leaf, pop a 'shiny berry into their mouth or suck on a sweettasting blossom. Even some adults are inclined to chew absentmindedly on a leaf or a flower stem. This is a dangerous practice because

a number of these plants that we like to have in our homes and gardens are poisonous.                   _h

Take the yellow or Carolina jasmine, for example. Children are tempted to suck the nectar from its pretty blooms, but the nectar of this flower is very poisonous. It contains alkaloids that are related to strychnine. Even honey made from it can be dangerous. Also worthy of avoidance are lily of the valley, foxglove and larkspur. Larkspur contains toxic alkaloids heavily concentrated in its seeds. Foxglove contains digitalis, which affects the heart.

because -it contains a substance similar to digitalis. Though digitalis can be used beneficially, both of these plants often prove to be poisonous even when consumed in moderate amounts.

The attractive flower called monkshood is closely related to larkspur and, like larkspur, is poisonous. People have died from small amounts of it. Lupines and irises are also pretty but dangerous. They contain irritating subsubstances that can cause severe digestive upsets. In fact, wild lupines have killed a great number of siieep on range land.

The oleander is a popular flower in warm climates, but it is especially dangerous. The sweet aroma from its pretty blossoms is delightful, but the is permeated with poison.

There is danger in eating only a single leaf. Sometimes persons are fatally poisoned by it when a branch is cut to skewer meat at an outdoor picnic, because the poison in the wood penetrates the meat.

Perhaps you find pleasure in the beauty of mountain laurel and such lilies as autumn crocus, garden hyacinth, climbing lily and star-of-Bethlehem. Let your pleasure be limited to just looking at them. Chewing on them is hazardous. In the early history of the United States, the Delaware Indians used mountain laurel for just mentioned there are alkaloids that are poisonous to your body. Children have died because of eating the bulbs of the star-of-Bethlehem. Other children have died from the caustic juice in the popular poinsettia, and severe digestive upsets have occurred in those that ate the pods of the poinciana shrub or bird-of-paradise.

Seeds and Berries

A pretty bean that is often used in jewelry but which is especially deadly is the precatory bean or rosary pea. In Puerto Rico and Mexico these beans with mixed colors of scarlet and black are used in necklaces, bracelets and other jewelry. The danger lies in the fact that children are liable to get ahold of a loose bean from a piece of broken jewelry and swallow it. Just one bean has enough poison in it to kill an adult.

In Hawaii the yellow oleander or be-still tree also produces lethal fruit. Just one or two of its nuts can be fatal. On the island of Oahu this tree is frequently responsible for poisonings. In some countries the native population unwisely use this tree as medicine, often with deadly results.

The castor-oil plant, which is a common sight in some areas, growing readily in vacant lots and occasionally in backyards, has pretty, shiny beans that are an attraction to children. These beans contain an irritant known as ricine, which has proved fatal when children have eaten as few as three to five beans.

Another dangerous plant that grows wild near many homes is the jimsonweed. Because of its showy flowers and interesting seeds children are frequently poisoned by it. They mistake the seeds for nuts or use them in play as “pills.” The plant contains a toxic alkaloid that causes fever, confusion, delirium and convulsions. This dangerous plant, also known as thorn apple and devil’s trumpet, might be growing in a neglected portion of your backyard or in nearby fields. The seeds of certain species of it are thought to have been used in ancient temples so as to contribute to the frenzied ravings of pagan priests. A farmer that grafted a tomato plant on one so as to have a hardier plant poisoned himself and his family when they ate slices from one tomato grown on the graft. After proper treatment in a hospital they recovered from the ordeal, much the wiser.

To look at the delicate beauty of morning-glory blossoms, you would never think that the seeds of this flower are poisonous, but they are. They contain a chemical that is related to the drug LSD-25 and can cause hallucinations as that drug does. In recent years morning-glory seeds have joined the list of narcotic drugs that some college students are foolishly using in their mad search for thrills.

Before we leave the subject of dangerous seeds in and around your garden, it would be well to give warning about the seeds of peaches, cherries, plums, pears, apricots and even apples. These .seeds contain varying amounts of hydrocyanic (prussic) acid and can be dangerous. Although one is ilot likely to be in danger because of eating the few seeds in an occasional apple core, a quantity of them could be deadly. There is the case of a man who liked apple seeds, and so one time he saved up a whole cupful and then sat down and ate the cupful at one sitting. The amount of cyanide in that number of seeds killed him.

Hedges

Many of the common hedges surrounding attractive gardens are dangerous to eat. For example, such hedges as the yew, box, privet and hydrangea are all poisonous. The box hedge is especially so, because even a small quantity of its leaves can kill animals. Idly chewing on its leaves is not a safe practice. Perhaps in addition to various hedges your garden includes the ornamental shrub known as daphne. It produces berries that are an attraction to children. Those berries contain such a strong irritant that only a few of them can cause ulceration of the digestive tract. Death can result from eating them.

Even rhubarb leaves can be deadly. Although rhubarb stalks are safe to eat, the leaves contain oxalic acid, which causes the formation of calcium oxalate crystals in the kidneys when the leaves are eaten. By accumulating there, the crystals plug the excreting tubule^ of the kidneys, causing death by uremic poisoning. Also dangerous because they contain crystals of calcium oxalate are such house plants as dumb cane, some philodendron and elephant’s ear.

Avoid Eating Strange Plants

It is not possible to list here all the dangerous plants that often grow in and around the average home. Rather than attempt to learn them all and avoid growing them, the practical thing to do is to have a policy of not eating decorative plants or any other plant that is not normally recognized as good for food. As with mushrooms, the safe course is to eat only those plants you positively can identify as being safe, such as dandelions and nasturtiums.

In view of the tendency of young children to put almost everything into their mouth, they should be taught, as soon as they are able to understand, not to eat strange seeds and berries and not to put any part of a house plant, garden flower, hedge or weed into their mouth. As they grow older they can be taught to distinguish safe plants from dangerous ones. It would also be good to warn them against eating vegetables, fruits and eatable berries that grow alongside a heavily traveled automobile road. The exhaust gases, from the passing traffic cause such plants and fruits to contain fifty times more lead than is considered to be safe in foods.

What to Do in Case of Poisoning

If a child or an adult becomes sick from eating a plant, the first thing to do is call a physician, and do it quickly. Give him the name of the plant involved. If this is not known, get a sample of it for him to examine. If he does not know how to treat that particular case of poisoning, he knows where he can get the information. He can call the nearest poison control center or some other public health agency that handles such problems.

Purposely induced vomiting is usually the quickest way to get rid of the poisonous substance, but when the plant eaten contains a poison that is very corrosive this could be dangerous. It could cause the walls of the digestive tract that have been weakened by the substance to rupture. Calling the'physician quickly is the best way to determine what treatment is best to give the person.

Because many house and garden plants are poisonous there is no need to become excited and destroy your pretty flowers and ruin your garden. Poisoning from them is not a common thing because people do not usually nibble on the leaves of the various plants around their home. Children, however, can be a problem if they have not learned the importance of keeping plants and berries out of their mouths. If there is reason to believe that the children in a home have not learned this vital lesson, it would be wise to get rid of dangerous plants the berries or seeds of which are liable to be an attraction to them. So, as you enjoy the beauty of your various garden plants and flowers, keep in mind that beautiful things do not necessarily indicate safety, nor do ugly things necessarily indicate danger. In the world of plants what is pretty can also be poisonous.

MAY 13,1917, was a bright, clear Sunday in Fatima, Portugal. On a rocky hillside near the city, three peasant children were busy tending .sheep. Suddenly, It is said, there was a flash of light. Fearful that a storm was brewing, they ran to gather the sheep into a shelter. There was another flash. The children then beheld a "lady" standing atop a small oak tree. She wore a white garment decked with gold and she held rosary beads, a cross and a chain of shining pearls. According to the children, this was the first of several visions they had of the "Virgin Mary."

Many years earlier, on February 11, 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubi-rous of Lourdes, France, beheld a “young girl in white" at the Grotto of Massa-bieille. In this vision the “Virgin Mary" told her to make known the miraculous healing powers she would impart to the waters there. In all, Bernadette is said to have had eighteen visions of Mary from February to July 1858.

About thirty-three years ago, on November 29, 1932, five children in the small Belgian town of Beaiiralng are said to have witnessed an appearance of the “Blessed Virgin,” the first of thirty-three such apparitions between November 29, 1932, and January 3,1933. A nine-year-old Bronx, New York, lad said he saw the “Virgin Mary” in a vacant lot in 1945. And so it goes. Many believe they have seen the “Virgin Mary,” or even Christ, or actually think that they have had special divine revelations by means of visions. But, are there really visions from God in our day?

The Bible records various visions that were unquestionably from God. Such visions were always in harmony with truth and in accord with God’s will. For example, the apostle Peter’s vision at Joppa in 36 C.E. resulted in the outworking of Jehovah’s purpose to open the door of Kingdom opportunity to Gentiles, or nonJews. (Acts, chap. 10) But any visions that reflect false religious views, that contradict the Bible or that conflict with Jehovah God’s will, could not be from God. He does not approve of false worship; nor does he lie, contradict his Word or deny himself.—John 4:23, 24; Heb. 6:18; 1 Cor. 14:33; Isa. 55:11.

On the other hand, Satan the Devil is the source of false religion. Also, Jesus Christ said of the Devil: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof." (John 8:44, Douay Version) Yet Satan’s wicked designs are not always readily apparent. The apostle Paul declared: “Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light." (2 Cor. 11:14, Douay Version) So there is reason for caution in religious matters. Noteworthy are the words of the apostle John, who wrote: “Not all prophetic spirits, brethren, deserve your credence; you must put them to the test, to see whether they come from God." (1 John 4:1, Knox) Such testing must be done in the light of God’s Word of truth, the Bible.—John 17:17.

While places like Fatima and Lourdes have drawn much attention, many seriously question the visions that have brought fame to such sites. Even the Roman Catholic parish priest of Fatima told one of the children of the Fatima episode that her story was “the invention of the devil.”

After a detailed study of various visions and visionaries of Lourdes, Roman Catholic writer L. J. M. Cros, a Jesuit, stated: “In June 1878, we were able to unearth, at Lourdes, the names and histories of more than thirty of these visionaries, of both sexes and all ages.” One of the accounts he related was that of the gamekeeper Callet, who reported: “One day I followed the visionary Barraou, as far as the mill. He went into a bedroom and started climbing up the curtains of the bed, with hideous grimaces: he was grinding or gnashing his teeth, and his eyes had a wild look.”

Such a ghastly incident gives Bible readers reason to pause and think. The Scriptures tell of cases of fearsome, violent and convulsive actions. However, such things resulted from demon possession! —Luke 8:26-39; Matt. 17:14-18.

When Bernadette had her visions of 1858 and the three Portuguese children thought they beheld the “Virgin Mary” in 1917, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was dead in the common grave of mankind and had no conscious existence anywhere. (Eccl. 9:5, 10) Mary doubtless died as a faithful follower of Christ, with a heavenly resurrection awaiting her. (Rev. 2:10; 2 Tim. 1:9,10; 1 Cor. 15:42-44) Like other spirit-begotten Christians of her day, she would sleep in death until the second presence of Jesus Christ, when she would be resurrected to heavenly life. (1 Cor. 15:50-53; 1 Thess. 4:13-17) Bible study indicates that the resurrection of such Christians occurred in 1918 C.E., when Jehovah came to his spiritual temple accompanied by Christ, his Messenger of the covenant. (Mal. 3:1)² Because of the time element alone, Christians could not accept the Lourdes and Fatima appearances as , visions from God. Then, too, the Bible gives us no reason to expect Mary to appear in vision at any time.

While the Bible contains accounts of visions from God, it also acknowledges the existence of false visions. For example, Jehovah directed his prophet Ezekiel to prophesy woe for the “foolish prophets” of Israel, who followed their own spirit and really saw nothing. (Ezek. 13:1-3, Douay Version) Because they had seen “a vain vision” God would come against them. His hand would be “upon the prophets that see vain things, and that divine lies.” —Ezek. 13:7-9, Douay Version.

Visions recorded in the Bible are the ones meriting consideration by Christians. Among them is the vision in which the prophet Daniel saw “one like the son of man” receive “power, and glory, and a kingdom” from the Ancient of days. (Dan. 7:13, 14, Douay Version) Daniel thus had a foreview of Jesus Christ’s receiving authority from his Father, Jehovah God, to rule in an everlasting kingdom. This grand event has taken place in our day. Significant, too, are the visions of the apostle John, recorded in the Apocalypse, or Revelation. They disclose how the present wicked system of things under Satan’s control will end, being replaced by a “new heaven” and a “new earth” of'blessing from God. —Rev. 21:1-5.

Happily, today we have God’s Word in complete form. No miraculous visions are to be added to it or put on a level with it by imperfect men, women or children of our time. (Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:5, 6; Rev. 22:18, 19) Biblical visions, like those beheld by Daniel and the apostle John, are the only visions that now merit the careful consideration and study of all persons who desire to please and walk with God. —Mic. 6:8; Isa. 30:21.

Award to "Awake!”

At a convention of the New York State Chiropractic Association at Liberty, New York, on May 21, an award was presented. It was, as their spokesman said, ‘not to an individual, but to an international organization of people who are keenly interested in their fellowmen.’ The award plaque, handed to one of Jehovah’s witnesses who was present as a representative of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, reads: “Presented to Awake Magazine in recognition pi its altruistic and unbiased journalism dedicated to righteousness and justice and in giving primacy to the human and spiritual rather than material values of life.”

Police Beat Priests

& Barcelona, Spain, was the location of an unusual sight on May 11. For more than a quarter of a century Roman Catholic priests have enjoyed favor and a certain immunity from the law in the Roman Catholic stronghold of Spain. But on May 11 a large number of Roman Catholic priests in a protest march were violently dispersed by the police in Barcelona. The police waded in with clubs, beating and kicking at least 130 frocked priests and monks. Many priests were of the opinion that the beatings resulted from the split in the Spanish Catholic church. The younger, more liberal clergy are being met head on by the conservative hierarchy. In fact, some felt that the police may have been instructed by the conservative Catholic hierarchy to do their dirty work. On May 14 a delegation of Roman Catholic priests warned Barcelona’s archbishop that unless he publicly condemned the police beatings, priests and their parishioners could no longer have confidence in ecclesiastic authority. The archbishop, who earlier refused to meet with any priests’ delegation to discuss the beatings, later agreed to meet with them when scores of priests converged at his palace.

LSD Traffic

<$> The hallucinatory drug LSD is easily obtainable in and around a high school in New York city. This charge was made by a father whose 15-year-old daughter was hospitalized from an overdose of the drug. The father said that, after talking to other parents and children, he was convinced that “at least 100 kids are buying and selling LSD and marijuana, and they can get it easily in the neighborhood of the school.” Complaints of a similar nature were under investigation in at least three city colleges and

13 high schools and a grammar .school in Brooklyn.

Space Broadcasting

<$■ Propaganda from communications satellites was called a peril early in May by Richard N. Gardner, professor of law and international relations. Several nations have already urged internationalbodies to outlaw general broadcasting from space. At present space television broadcasts are beamed from a satellite to a ground station and then distributed to the home. In the future, satellites are expected to be able to broadcast directly to home radio and television receivers. A nation then could make propaganda broadcasts to anyone with a receiver.

Religious Merger

& On May 5 Protestants of eight major denominations agreed on a set of principles for their proposed merger into a 24,000,000-member church. The Consultation on Church Union included the Protestant Episcopal Church, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., the Presbyterian Chupch in the U.S., the Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Leaders of the Consultation regard the agreement as a big step toward Protestant Church unity. However, they estimate that it would take four to ten years to negotiate a detailed plan and one to three years for the churches to ratify it, or as long as thirteen years before the planned merger would be realized.

Sun’s X Rays

■$> A satellite circling the earth has observed a sharp rise in solar X-ray activity during recent months. This hai led some scientists to believe that the coming sunspot maximum may be the most intense on record at the time when the first astronaut landings on the moon are scheduled. It is feared that protons, the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, may pierce a space suit and endanger the life of an astronaut. In most cases the spacecraft would provide spacemen with ample protection from sun rays. However, there is Increased apprehension in light of recent satellite reports. The Solrad satellites have been monitoring solar X rays almost continuously since 1960.

Smoking Increases

Despite Hazards

It has been about two years since Americans were told by their Surgeon General that cigarettes are harmful to the human body. Yet Americans are smoking more now than ever before. The United States Drug Administration anticipates a continuing Increase of smoking for 1966 to an alltime record. Children’s Bureau, Department of Health, estimates that every day of the year another 4,500 youngsters between 12 and 17 years of age take up the smoking habit. In February of 1965, the British government banned all cigarette advertisements on television. The head of the cancer research center at Roswell Park, New York, urged the United States to do the same, that is, ban television cigarette commercials. This request was denied. On March 1 the National Cancer Institute released findings that blamed the cigarette for much lung cancer, emphysema and an increasing incidence of cancer of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus, more bronchitis, asthma, stomach ulcers, duodenal ulcers and other internal difficulties. Though Modern Medicine Magazine surveyed 60,000 physicians and found that 94.8 percent of them now agree that “smoking is a health hazard,” some people choose to smoke anyway.

“Anything Goes”

<$> Saskatchewan educator Dr. Samuel R. Laybock told a group of health educators that youngsters in Canada are producing dramatic changes hr Canadian society. He said that teen-agers who conform to a sex code of “anything goes” think they are rebels, but the truth is they are “really conformists of the very deepest dye.” “Teen-agers—especially girls—are merely following the crowd, conforming to a code of no rules at all,” Dr. Laycock said. Bpt as you sow so shall you reap. That is the divine principle that is unyielding. The "new morality” is bringing about a crop of teen-age marriages, unwanted pregnancies and broken homes. Statistics .show that marriages of people 20 years old or younger are four times as likely to end in divorce as marriages of those over 21. Almost half the cases of venereal disease treated last year in Canada were in youngsters of 18 years or younger. Dr. Laycock blamed the social changes on the breakdown of the family unit.

Air Pollution

<^> Of all the major cities in the United States New York city reportedly has the most polluted air. And a 10-member Task Force on Air Pollution in a report to the mayor of the city asserted that the city government, with its incinerators and buses, is “the worst violator of its own laws against air pollution.” “New York City,” said the report, “pumps more poisons per square mile into its air than any major city in the United States. The main .reason this condition has not produced wide-spread disaster in the past is that New York has open topographical surroundings and therefore enjoys the cleansing effects of the prevailing winds. Given the same sheltered topography as Los Angeles, New York City would be uninhabitable—taking into account New York's greater pollution output. . . . The average New Yorker has to contend with more than five times his weight each year in noxious and obnoxious airborne materials”—730 pounds a person, the report said.

Soli Pollution

On May 9 soil scientist Dr. Harold L. Barrows cautioned that soil pollution could eventually render the soil unfit for food production. Soil pollution Is caused by adding industrial and agricultural wastes to the soil faster than the wastes decompose. Improper uses of agricultural chemicals, such as pesticides, can also contribute to soil pollution. Barrows also warned that “air pollutants —such as automobile exhaust, industrial smoke and radioactive fallout—ultimately become soil pollutants." “Large quantities of such pollutants are toxic to plants," he said.

50 Billion Dollars

■$> Every year the United States government spends in excess of $50,000,000,000 on activities not specified by the Constitution, says Freedom Magazine for March-April, 1966. The taxpayer has become so accustomed to hearing the word “billion" that he has little or no idea what that figure means; In miles, for example, an object traveling at the speed of light, or 186,000 miles a second, would take 74 hours and 40 minutes before it would cover 50,000.000,000 miles. If 50,000,000,000 one-dollar bills were laid flat end to end the line would circle the equator 189 times. In weight 50,000.000,000 one-dollar bills would be about 97,650 tons! That much money would pay the wages of ten million men working a full year at $5,000 each. The money would buy ten million automobiles at $5,000 apiece. The sum would pay for 5 million $10,000 homes. Each American pays some $250 a year in taxes to make up for all of this extra spending. In a family of four this averages $1,000 annually.

Blindness on the Rise

<$> The Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind said the number of blind persons in Africa may rise to 3,000,000 by the end of this century unless adequate preventive measures are taken immediately. The society reported that there are at present about one and a half million blind persons in tropical and equatorial Africa —including 100,000 children.

Hungry People

Director of the Food for Peace program Richard W. Reuter stated that neither birth control nor aid from affluent nations can prevent a substantial segment of humanity from being underfed during the next decade. “The people who will be hungry tomorrow are already born,” he said. In India, there are 12,500,000 children under 14 in states already beset by famine. There are also 2,200,000 expectant mothers.

Too Much Medicine

•$> Recently a large group of doctors discussed disease that can be caused by their own medical practices. The doctors called it “iatrogenic illness,” from the Greek word, intros —meaning physician. Many cases of iatrogenic illness have been cited. New drugs used by doctors can cause unsought and damaging side effects. Surgical miracles can save lives but leave weakened patients exposed to other hazards. Dr. Perry S. McNeal of the University of Pennsylvania warned doctors to approach all medical procedures, whether drugs or surgery, with extreme caution. He told the story of a patient who was given penicillin for a simple runny nose. He developed a severe allergic reaction from the antibiotic, and was given steroid hormones to fight the reaction. The hormones led to a near-fatal Intestinal hemorrhage that demanded surgery, and massive blood transfusions were administered. The transfusions led to jaundice; the jaundice to cirrhosis of the liver; the cirrhosis to acute malnutrition, coma and death. "The common cold,” Dr. McNeal said, "has a death rate in the hands of some physicians.”

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¹

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²

See Chapter VI of Kou Jtfay Survive Xrmagedckm into God's New        published In 1955 by the Watch

Tower Bible and Tract Society,