Seals—Fascinating and Useful

The Calendar from Early Times

Churches Approve of Violence

SEPTEMBER 22, 1968

THE REASON FOR THIS MAGAZINE

News sources that ore able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “Awake I" has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ties; it is unhampered by traditional creeds. This magazine keeps itself free, that if may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

The viewpoint of ‘'Awake!'¹ is not narrow, but is international. “Awake)” has its own correspondents in scores of nations. Its articles are read in many lands, in many languages, by millions of persons.

in every issue “Awake!'' presents vital topics on which you should be informed. It features penetrating articles on social conditions and offers sound counsel for meeting the problems of everyday life. Current news from every continent passes in quick review. Attention is focused on activities in the fields of government and commerce about which you should know. Straightforward discussions of religious issues alert you to matters of vital concern. Customs and people in many lands, the marvels of creation, practical sciences and points of human interest are all embraced in its coverage. "Awake!” provides wholesome, instructive reading for every member of the family.

“Awake!" pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of God's righteous new order in this generation.

Get acquainted with “Awake!" Keep awake by reading “Awake!"

Tbc Bible tranriat l«i rwriarly «?«d In " Awake J" Js the Now Wc^ld Translation of the Holy Scripture*. 1961 edition. When other translations arc rsed, this 1$ clearly marked.

CONTENTS

Medical science thought it had conquered venereal diseases in the 1950’s, but now these diseases have become a worldwide menace of epidemic proportions. Since 1958 they have been spreading so rapidly that health authorities are gravely concerned.

The American Medical Association now regards venereal diseases as America’s most "urgent communicable disease problem.” More Americans contracted gonorrhea last year, for example, than those who caught the measles. Dr. William Brown, chief of the venereal disease program at the National Communicable Disease Center, said: "Gonorrhea is now out of control.” The rate of infection in some countries of the world exceeds the maximum of the epidemic period of World War n. People of all economic and social levels are involved.

What is particularly disturbing to health authorities is the fact that a high percentage of those being infected each year are teen-agers and young adults, many of whom do not realize how damaging a venereal disease can be. It has been estimated, for example, that 55 percent of the reported cases of gonorrhea in Mexico occur in the age-group between fifteen and twenty-four. In the United States

more than half of the venereal disease infections are in the age-group from ten to twenty-four, and in Australia the group from ages fifteen to twenty-nine represents 24 percent of the reported cases. In Denmark 83 percent of all female patients with gonorrhea during 1961 were under the age of twenty-five. So the story goes in country after country. As serious as these statistics are, they do not present the entire picture.

The number of cases of venereal diseases reported to health authorities is only a fraction of the cases that there are. A survey made in 1962 by the American Medical Association and the American Social Health Association revealed that less than 12 percent of infectious cases of venereal diseases treated by American physicians in private practice were reported to health authorities. It has, therefore, been estimated that there are approximately 300,000 new cases of syphilis and 1,200,000 new cases of gonorrhea annually in the United States. The number of cases that are actually reported are like the visible part of an iceberg. The reported cases give only a partial picture of a very serious epidemic, the greater portion of which is hidden under the surface appearance of things.

The two principal venereal diseases are syphilis and gonorrhea, both persisting only in human bodies. The first is caused by a threadlike, microscopic organism that is twisted into a corkscrew spiral and that is officially called “Treponema pallidum.” The other is caused by a microscopic organism called a gonococcus. It is shaped like a pair of coffee beans. Both are highly infectious and very damaging to the body.

How Syphilis Harms the Body

When a person gets syphilis he does not immediately become conspicuously ill or disabled. Syphilis usually does its damage after a long latent period. During that time there may be no signs of the disease. In some cases a latent period of from ten to twenty-five years may pass, and then suddenly the victim may develop a mental disease or go blind or become crippled or develop any number of other serious ailments.

Over 20 percent of the blindness in the United States is due to syphilis in its late stage. The mental disease caused by syphilis usually develops gradually when it makes its appearance a decade or two after a person is first infected. Little by little the victim’s personality undergoes a radical change, and eventually his mental and physical powers deteriorate to the point where he is physically helpless and completely demented.

Syphilis also attacks the bones, joints, eyes, liver, pancreas, kidneys and many other organs. When it strikes at the throat it may destroy the vocal cords. If it strikes the ears, it may destroy the inner ear or auditory nerve, bringing on total deafness. When it hits the central nervous system or the heart and blood vessels, it is usually fatal.

Syphilis does not affect in the same way everyone it attacks. Among its untreated victims one in fifteen will develop heart trouble, one in twenty-five will become crippled and one in fifty will become insane.

This is the only killing disease that a mother can transmit to her unborn child. The result may be a stillbirth or a living infant with congenital syphilis who dies soon after birth. Sometimes. congenital syphilis does not manifest itself until many years later, perhaps when the child is ten or twelve years old. In the newborn baby the liver is one of the internal organs that syphilis most frequently attacks. The eyes arc also vulnerable, and as the child develops, the surface of his eyes may become cloudy, causing his sight to become partially or totally lost.

Damage Done by Gonorrhea

The damage that gonorrhea can do to a person’s body may also be extensive. There is hardly an organ in the body that it does not attack. It is the most common of the several venereal diseases, being perhaps the most widespread of all diseases that affect mankind.

Because it tends to cause sterility in the female it has been called "The Great Preventer of Life.” By producing inflammatory changes in a woman’s reproductive organs it blocks the channels connecting the ovaries with the uterine receptacle of the ovum, preventing passage of the ovum. This obstruction is usually permanent, making it impossible for the woman to have children. It is not unusual for these inflammatory changes to imperil the life of the woman, necessitating the surgical removal of her reproductive organs. It is also a frequent cause of sterility in men.

But the damage done by the gonococci does not stop with the reproductive organs. As these microscopic organisms migrate to other parts of the body, they leave a path of damaged organs. Among other things they can cause adhesions in the rectum that can result in intestinal obstruction. They can also cause contraction of the channel for passing water.

Although a mother cannot transmit this disease directly to her unborn infant, as in the case of syphilis, the child can pick it up as it is being born. The liquids of the birth canal that contain the gonococci can get into the infant’s eyes, with blindness being the result. The medical practice of putting a solution of silver nitrate into the child’s eyes when it is born can prevent this.

When the gonococci get into the joints they cause gonorrheal arthritis. In many cases this causes deformity and perhaps permanent disability. Eventually they may invade the heart and the brain and in time kill their victim. Like the organisms of syphilis the gonococci can exist in a latent state for many years.

Symptoms

How can a person know if he has a venereal disease? Although there are certain symptoms that might be manifested by the disease, he cannot be certain without going to a physician and submitting to special tests.

What deceives many victims of syphilis is the fact that the initial symptoms usually disappear, and they conclude that they are well until several years or possibly ten or twenty years have elapsed. Then they are hit hard by the very serious, late complications. To prevent these complications it is important to have the disease diagnosed and treated by a. physician as soon as possible.

Usually the first sign of syphilis is a small pimple at the spot where the germ penetrated the body. In most instances it appears on the sex organs. From the time the microscopic organism first enters the body until this symptom appears is an incubation period of three or four weeks. Then in a space of a few days the pimple grows larger and becomes a painless sore called a chancre (pronounced shan-ker), which teems with the corkscrew organisms of syphilis, called spirochetes (pronounced spy-ro-keets). It may be a small sore or one that is as large as two inches in diameter. In some instances the pimple may not appear, and so the sore will be the first evidence of venereal infection. The sore is usually hidden well within the body of an infected woman and so may not be noticed. In about four weeks the sore will disappear, leaving a permanent scar.

During this time the threadlike organisms are busily spreading throughout the body, and about the time the sore heals, skin eruptions may appear that cause no itching or pain. They may last for several weeks before disappearing. At the same time the person may have a fever, splitting headaches, a sore throat and small elevated patches appearing on the mucous membrane of his mouth. These are usually covered with a white or yellowish substance. The patches are very infectious, In some cases the hair of the person will fall out in spots, giving his scalp a moth-eaten appearance.

If a man gets gonorrhea the first symptom is usually very noticeable. He will have a burning pain when he passes water. This comes a few days after he is infected. He may then notice a discharge of pus from the male organ. Ln a woman, however, these symptoms are not as noticeable. In fact, women rarely have a burning sensation when passing water after they have been infected, and any pus often goes unnoticed. As a result many infected women are not aware that they have gonorrhea until it has done serious damage to their body. Lacking a wholly dependable means for testing women for this disease, a physician usually treats every wop an exposed to it

Treatment

Anyone who has reason to suspect that he has been infected with a venereal disease should seek treatment from a physician at once. Early treatment can cure him and prevent severe damage. His cure, however, does not mean he will be immune to reinfection.

Before Doctor John F. Mahoney announced that he had successfully treated syphilis with penicillin in 1943, treatment was a prolonged affair of a great many injections of arsenic and bismuth. But penicillin has been more effective, oftentimes curing a person with a single injection.

Resistance to penicillin by hundreds of strains of gonococcus is now causing great concern. The normal dose that cured gonorrhea following World War II was a single shot of 600,000 units of penicillin. Now a dose several times that amount is necessary. Just this year a college student contracted a case of gonorrhea that resisted a penicillin injection of 4.8 million units. He had to take similar injections for three days in a row to destroy the infection. Resistance is also being manifested to tetracycline and streptomycin, other drugs used in fighting venereal diseases.

How They Spread

A venereal disease is passed from one person to another primarily by sex relations. A person who is promiscuous is almost certain to get such a disease eventually, and then he passes his infection on to others. They, in turn, pass it on to still others. One chain of infection traced by health authorities that spread from one person eventually involved 211 persons, 100 of whom were teen-agers.

Because the microscopic organisms that cause venereal diseases die in a few seconds when exposed to the air, there is little likelihood of a person’s getting either syphilis or gonorrhea from toilet seats, door handles, drinking cups or eating utensils. Of course, if a person were to bring an open cut in his hand into contact with a syphilitic sore or with a towel that had fresh gonorrheal pus on it, he could get a venereal disease, as that would give the microscopic organisms direct entry into his body. He might also get it from a blood transfusion or from kissing a woman who has syphilitic sores in her mouth. The typical syphilitic pimple would then most likely make its appearance on one of his lips. Although these are possible ways of getting syphilis, the vast majority of cases are acquired through sex relations.

Since gonorrhea and most syphilitic infections are passed from one person to another by sex relations, the sensual love of an infected person can be regarded, not only as dangerous, but as the embrace of death. The infection passed on to others can eventually kill them.

Consider the damage that a promiscuous boy can do to a young girl by giving her gonorrhea. It is unlikely that she will at that time realize that she has been infected, and it may be that the disease will damage her reproductive organs so severely before she does learn of the infection that she will be deprived of having children. What a penalty for a young girl to pay for a brief moment of sexual love with a promiscuous boy!

On the other hand think what a girl can do to a boy by passing a venereal disease on to him. If he fails to seek treatment he may eventually become blind, crippled or insane. It may even kill him, and she would share the responsibility. It is with good reason, therefore, that the Bible warns a young man to stay away from an immoral woman. If he chases after her, it warns, his liver will be damaged as if struck by an arrow. It goes on to say: “May your heart not turn aside to her ways. Do not wander into her roadways. For many are the ones she has caused to fall down slain, and all those being killed by her are numerous."—Prov. 7:21-27.

Male homosexuals are also dangerous carriers of venereal diseases and can kill others by means of them. Usually being more promiscuous than immoral heterosexuals, they are more active spreaders of these diseases. The best way a young man can protect himself from being infected by the spreaders is to stay away from them.

Why the Epidemic?

There are several reasons why venereal diseases have reached epidemic proportions. Among teen-agers there is a great amount of ignorance about the dangers of these diseases, and among many adults there is indifference to them because of overconfidence in penicillin. Also, people feel they can be sexually freer now that the contraceptive pill removes fear of unwanted pregnancies. The principal reason, however, is the marked change in moral attitudes that has occurred in recent years. Premarital and extramarital sex relations are viewed more tolerantly by the general public. Even homosexuality is losing its former stigma in the world in general and is on the increase.

Commenting on this change, a pamphlet on venereal diseases published by the Public Affairs Committee had this to say about changing morals in the United States: “The revolution in sex attitudes of the past twenty years and the excessive sex emphasis in our mass media have done their share in aggravating the venereal disease problem in our country.’’ Another factor is the failure of religious leaders to take a strong stand for good moral standards. A medical magazine, The Practitioner, of October 1967, had this to say about such poor leadership in England: “The publication of the British Council of Churches’ ‘Sex and Morality’ (1966) was a disappointment to those who had looked to the Churches to give a firm lead against promiscuous behaviour both before and after marriage.”

Pointing out that immoral people receive in themselves the recompense for their loose conduct, the Bible states: “Therefore God, in keeping with the desires of their hearts, gave them up to uncleanness, that their bodies might be dishonored among them, . . . 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. 1:24-27) Venereal diseases can certainly be included in that “full recompense."

The Bible has fine moral laws that can protect a person from venereal diseases if he obeys them. It forbids fornication, adultery and homosexual acts, all of which are responsible for the spread of these frightful diseases. The person who obeys its command to have sexual relations with no one but his or her own marriage mate is in little danger of getting any of them.

—Prov. 5:15-20.

The only sure way of stamping out venereal diseases is to change the thinking of the people from that of indifference to that of obedience to Biblical moral laws. Those individuals who make this change will wisely heed the' Scriptural admonition: “Deaden, therefore, your body members that are upon the earth as respects fornication, uncleanness, sexual appetite, hurtful desire . . . Strip off the old personality with its practices.”—Col. 3:5, 9.

HOW marvelously entertaining to watch the difficult balancing stunts performed by trained seals! What fascinating, playful creatures they are! In other ways, too, they have proved very useful to mankind. What woman, for example, would not thrill to receive a sealskin usefulness of seals is not new.

Did you know that almost 3,500 years ago the Israelites used sealskins to make the outer covering of their tabernacle for worship in the wilderness? (Ex. 26:14) Seals were then common along the Mediterranean and Red Seas. One can appreciate the divine wisdom in directing their use since sealskins are impermeable, durable, beautiful, and lightweight for transportation. The Israelites also used sealskins for footwear.—Ezek. 16:10.

Ruthless Slaughter

In recent times, however, man has ruthlessly and mercilessly slaughtered these animals, and has completely exterminated several species in different parts of the globe. From Mr. Seal’s viewpoint man is “public enemy number one,” the dreaded shark falling far into the background by comparison.

Commercial fur sealing began at the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic about 1784. According to the old accounts, “millions were taken during the next fifteen years.” By 1812 those fur seals were commercially exterminated.

In 1800 seventeen ships took 112,000 skins from the island of South Georgia. By 1823 that seal herd was exterminated, over a million skins having been taken.

The South Shetland Islands were visited in 1820-21 by fifty American and British ships, which took over half a million skins. By 1906 the last of that herd was annihilated. From 1809 to 1824 three million seals were killed off the coast of Chile, which practically eliminated that herd.

As a result of the heartless slaughter, the Uruguayan herd was twice on the brink of extinction. However, after studies of seal habits in the Pribilof Islands of Alaska, the Uruguayan government heeded recommendations to enforce strict controls on killing seals. Quotas are now fixed each year and only the excess males are killed.

Although seallike mammals are greatly reduced in numbers, most of the islands of the South Atlantic still are inhabited by several species, including the southern sea lion, the Uruguayan fur seal, the Weddell seal, the leopard seal, the southern elephant ’seal, and so forth. The Uruguayan fur seal is now particularly populous and useful to man.

A Seal Rookery

Let us visit a Uruguayan rookery, or breeding place. When the sea is calm, one can leave Punta del Este by launch and sail five miles out in the Atlantic Ocean to the Isla de Lobos, a treeless, rocky 100-acre block of granite jutting up out of the sea. It is rimmed with bare rocks and some sandy areas, while on the higher central part of the island there are a few wild plants and shrubs growing in shallow topsoil.

This is "Home Sweet Home’' for an average population of over 150,000 seals. Here the seal population is more dense by surface area than anywhere else in the world. In places the rocks are worn slick and smooth by the uncountable multitudes of seals that have slid over them for centuries.

Both the Uruguayan fur seal and the southern sea lion inhabit the Isla de Lobos, and both are polygamists. While they have much in common, there are differences. The sea lion feeds on fish, and when on land prefers sandy areas. He has one layer of hair, and has a heavy mane, .which accounts for his name. The bull is dark brown and measures almost eight feet and weighs over 650 pounds in December. The fur seal, on the other hand, is somewhat smaller. He prefers the rocks rather than sandy areas, has two layers of hair instead of one, and he feeds on a special diet of tasty shrimp, squid and anchovies.

Fascinating Characteristics

Fur seals like to play. They will slide along the crest of waves surfboard fashion. Or they will float with heads submerged and tail high in the air as. if walking on their hands. Also, they will chase each other in games of tag. On land, the young males try to imitate fights they have witnessed among older bulls. Or they will gallop at a good speed and slide down slippery surfaces toboggan style, using their front flippers like oars to propel and guide themselves. How fascinating they are to watch!

Fur seals also make a lot of noise. A continual uproar is heard, consisting of growls, grunts, bellows, moans, howls, wails, barking, snorting, roaring and crying, which can be heard over a half mile away.

Seals are specially equipped to go "shopping for groceries" in the ocean depths. They possess a contact-lens type of clear protective skin over their eyes, which allows them comfortably to see beneath water. Some species are equipped with special circulatory systems to supply oxygenated blood for deep-sea diving and feeding. Two Weddell seals dived to 1,000 feet and swam under a 19-mile ice pack. Others have been known to go as far as 2,000 feet deep.

Staking Out Territorial Claims

Fur seal bulls begin to arrive at the rookery from the open sea in November to begin staking out their territorial claims. They station themselves near the water where each one selects his own private property. And woe be to anyone that trespasses! Interestingly, there are certain “streets” or “highways” that do not belong to anyone, and on these well-worn paths all seals may travel between sea and dry land without danger of intruding on private property.

Staking out a claim involves many a fierce and savage battle. The seals often are seen with open bleeding wounds on their flippers, and gashes up to twelve inches on the back, neck and head. It is also common to see pieces of fur and flesh ripped out, an eye missing, or other serious battle injury. Fighting consists of alternate aggressive and defensive rapid movements, and slashes with tusklike teeth into the forepart of the opponent's body. During the battle, neighbors frequently become curious spectators.

The single males congregate in the “bachelors’ quarters’¹’ at a respectable distance. The “bachelors” include older battle-scarred males who have lost out as “family men,” and also the young “ineligible” males. The Uruguayan male fur seal is about nine years old when he begins. to take mates, and he lives to about 22 to 24. The female begins to produce young at about three years of age, and lives to about 19 or 20.

With territorial boundaries established by the end of November, the females begin to arrive. As they do, each male begins to seize female seals for his harem, sometimes as many as five, usually two or three, sometimes only one. The largest, fattest bulls with thick necks generally get the largest harems, since they are better equipped to fight off competitors. In the northern hemisphere harems are much larger. The Alaskan seal averages about 40 females and has been known to have up to 120 in his harem.

A New Generation

Since it is now near the time for giving birth, the females rest for a few days. Only one baby is born each year, and delivery requires about a half hour. Like most newborn babies the pup begins to cry. Sometimes a sea gull acts as obstetrician or midwife, clipping the umbilical cord with its beak. If riot, it soon dries up and falls off. Mama seal nurses her baby like other mammals, producing a thick yellowish milk.

Within a few days Mrs. Seal is again in the mood to conceive. After being fertilized by her polygamous mate, next year’s baby begins forming within her body according to the Creator’s marvelous design. Female seals are unusual among the mammals in that they have two wombs, using them alternately, since gestation requires over eleven and a half months.

Soon after birth, mother takes baby in her teeth by the nape of the neck and carries him to shallow water, where she gives him his first swimming lesson. After a while she takes him back to the nursery to rest, then repeats the process later. As he progresses, mother takes him into deeper water. Finally he graduates to the open sea. When returning to land in a rough sea, mother takes baby in her teeth and tenderly carries him in to prevent the turbulent waves from dashing him against the rocks. But there is a greater danger to watch for—sharks, w'hich place baby seals high on their menu of preferred delicacies!

Soon after mother has conceived her next offspring, papa seal releases her from harem restrictions, and she is free to go and come as she pleases. By January the harem becomes a giant nursery. While Mrs. Seal goes to sea to feed, her mate fulfills the role of baby-sitter. As many as fifty or more babies flock together while their fathers keep watch. When any female returns, all the youngsters set up a howl and follow her to try to snatch a snack, but she instinctively knows her own baby and chases the others away. It is a happy time when mother returns home with a meal for youngster! However, it is sad when a mother fails to come back from the feeding grounds, for it means death by starvation for her young one.

After a while the family breaks up. Mr. Seal goes back to the sea, and Mrs. Seal takes baby with her for months of training in how to get along in the world.

Capturing and Killing

But what about that sealskin coat? First, seals must be captured and killed. And, as already noted, this is now done under strict government control, only excess young males now being taken.

Workers surround the seals from downwind and drive them toward a large circular corral. Here each one is carefully examined, measured and checked to see if it qualifies. Only male fur seals from one to three years of age are taken. This is before they get their furs ruined by participating in fights. In the case of sea lions, only pups from fifteen to thirty days are used. All those that do not qualify are set free.

The chosen few are then hit on the head with a club, bled, and with a sharp knife a worker cuts an incision around the neck, tail and two flippers. Then, with the head and body secured, two other men pull the skin off from the tail, like taking a pillow out of a pillowcase. This baglike skin is then cleaned and prepared for tanning. The bodies of the seals are used principally in making oils and soaps, or as food for animals.

Preparation of Garment

The only sealskin tannery in South America is located in Montevideo, Uruguay. About half of the country’s seal production is processed here, the rest being exported to the United States for tanning and marketing.

Much handwork and skill are required to turn these raw skins into soft velvety furs. The,skins are washed, dried, stretched and softened by various mechanical devices on rounded work benches. They are also agitated by mechanical paddles in large tubs for two days in a special chemical tanning bath.

A particularly complicated and slow process is the dyeing of the fur, which is done entirely by hand and brush. A skilled worker stretches the skin over a screened bench and applies the permanent dye only to the hair. This is dyed, dried, and redyed from twelve to fifteen times to give unusual brilliance, tone color and quality. Stress is given to good quality rather than speed and mass production.

Near the end of the process the skins are placed in large tumbler drums with sawdust, and are allowed to turn at a slow, steady speed to mix thoroughly. The sawdust absorbs all impurities and excess dyes.

When the skins are taken to the furrier, they are stretched to a considerably larger size by nailing them to a board. Next, a mold or pattern is used to cut the skins to the desired size and shape, and these are assembled and carefully sewn. About seven sealskins, or ten to twelve sea lion pup skins, are needed to make a lady’s coat.

When finished, the coats are exported to Spain, France, Germany and other European countries, where they may cost the consumer the equivalent of $2,000 apiece or more. Being from a water animal, seal furs are more waterproof than land-animal furs, and they give longer wear and do not deteriorate so quickly. Sealskins are also used for making ski pants, jackets, gloves, shoes, bags, hats, ornaments and a host of other useful articles.

Truly, seals are not only fascinating animals, but they are very useful as well. Man is wise when he appreciates and cares for them, rather than making himself their worst enemy.

THE CALENDAR

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A CALENDAR today is a common household item throughout most of the world. In fact, so common are calendars that most people take them for granted. Housewives hang them on kitchen and living-room walls. Businessmen have calendar pads on their office desks to keep track of business activities. They also carry small calendars with them in their wallets.

But even the first man on earth had some form of calendar. Almighty God himself provided him a basis for measuring time by creating the sun and moon, which might serve for “seasons and for days and years.” (Gen. 1:14) The day, the year, and the month are thus natural divisions of time, governed respectively by the daily turning of the earth on its axis, by its annual orbit around the sun, and by the monthly phases of the moon in its relation to earth and sun. The division of time into weeks and the division of the day into hours, on the other hand, are arbitrary ones.

Early Calendars

The earliest calendars were based on the cycles of the moon. On the average, each cycle or lunation, from one new moon to the next new moon, takes 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.78 seconds. The months were usually counted as of either 29 or 30 days, but in the Bible record the term “month,” when used generally, means 30 days.—Compare Deuteronomy 21:13; 34:8; also Revelation 11:2, 3.

However, a year of twelve lunar months is about 354^ days, or a little less than 11 days shorter than a solar year, which is 3651 days. (A solar year is the time that the earth takes to make a complete trip around the sun.) Thus, if a year of twelve lunar months began with the vernal equinox on March 21, the next year would begin 11 days before the equinox, or on March 10. And six years later, the year would begin early in January. So if the calendar was to be of use to agricultural people to determine when to plant and harvest their crops, something had to be done to correct this situation.

Calendar Adjustment

Since the solar year determines the return of the seasons, there was need to ' adjust the calendar to this solar year, and this resulted in what are called “lunisolar” or “bound solar” years; that is, years in which the months were lunar but the years were solar. This was done by adding the eleven days to each year, or by the addition of an extra month every few years. This would compensate for the shortness of the year of twelve lunar months.

The Israelites used such a lunisolar or bound solar calendar. This is evident from the fact that Jehovah God established the beginning of their sacred year with the month Abib in the spring and specified the celebration of certain festivals on fixed dates, festivals that were related to harvest seasons. For these dates to have coincided with the particular-harvests, there had to be a calendar arrangement that would synchronize with the seasons by compensating for the difference between the lunar and solar years.—Ex. 12:1-14; 23:15, 16; Lev. 23:4-16.

The Bible does not indicate what method was originally used to determine when additional days, or an additional or intercalary month, should be inserted. It is logical, however, that either the vernal or the autumnal equinox served as a guide to indicate when the seasons were falling behind sufficiently to require calendar adjustment. Though not specifically mentioned in the Bible, a thirteenth month that was added by the Israelites to accomplish this adjustment was called, in postexilic times, Veadar. So the Hebrew calendar keepers apparently added an extra month whenever they found that the grain was not ripening in the proper month.

First Standardized Calendar

In written history we do not find record of a definitely fixed or standardized form of Jewish calendar until about 359 C.E. At that time it was specified that a thirteenth month should be added seven years in every nineteen years. The extra month was added in the 3rd, 6th, Sth, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years.

Such a nineteen-year cycle is commonly called the Metonic cycle, after the Greek mathematician Meton (of the fifth century B.C.E.), although there is also evidence that such a cycle was used before him by the Babylonians. This cycle takes into account that every nineteen years the new and full moons fall again on the same days of the solar year.

The Months of the Year

The Jewish months ran from new moon to new moon. (Isa. 66:23) Thus, one Hebrew word (hho'dhesh), rendered “month” or “new moon,” comes from a root meaning “new,” while the other principal word for month (ye'rahh) is derived from a word meaning “moon.”

Official notification of the new month’s beginning was made by the sounding of trumpets over burnt offerings and communion sacrifices, and in later periods fire signals were used or messengers were dispatched to advise the people throughout the land.—Num. 10:10.

In the Bible the individual months are usually designated simply by numbering according to their position in the year, from the first through the twelfth. Only four months are named prior to the exile in Babylon, namely, Abib, the first month; Ziv, the second; Ethanim, the seventh; and Bui, the eighth. (Ex. 13:4; 1 Ki. 6: 1, 37, 38; 8:2) The meanings of these names are strictly seasonal, thus giving additional proof of a lunisolar year.

In postexilic times, the names of the months used in Babylon were employed by the Israelites and seven of these are mentioned in the Bible. The names of the remaining five months appear in the Jewish Talmud and other works.

The Sacred and a Secular Calendar

At the time of the Jews* exodus from Egypt in 1513 B.C.E. God decreed that the sacred year of his people should start in the spring with the month Abib (or Nisan). (Ex. 12:2; 13:4) However, prior to this the Bible record indicates that the Jews had counted the year as running from fall to fall. God gave recognition to this arrangement so that, in effect, there was a dual system of a sacred calendar and a secular calendar used by his people. (Ex. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 23:34; Deut. 16: 13) In postexilic times, Tishri 1, in the last half of the year, marked the beginning of the secular year and the Jewish New Year, and Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew, “head of the year”) is still celebrated on that date.

In 1908 the only approximation of an ancient written Hebrew calendar was found at the site of Gezer and it is believed to be from the tenth century B.C.E. It is an agricultural calendar and describes agricultural activity beginning with the autumn. In brief, it describes two months each of storage, sowing, and spring growth, followed by one month each of pulling flax, barley harvest, and a general harvest, then two months of pruning the vines, and finally one month of summer fruit.—Lev. 26:5.

The frequent references in the Gospel accounts and the Book of Acts to the various festival seasons show that the Jewish calendar continued to be observed by the Jews during the time of Jesus and the apostles. These festival seasons serve as a guide to locating events on the stream of time in that day.

It should be noted that Christians, under the new covenant, are not governed by the Mosaic Law specifying certain holy days or festivals, a point that is clearly stated by the apostle Paul at Galatians 4:9-11 and Colossians 2:16, 17. The one event that they are required to observe annually is the Lord’s evening meal, and this must occur at Passover time of the Jewish religious calendar.—Matt. 26:2629; 1 Cor. 11:23-26.

The Julian and Gregorian Calendars

The early Romans had difficulty keeping their calendar adjusted to the seasons. In fact, says Science Digest, January 1959, “by the time of Julius Caesar, the Roman calendar was in such a mess that January was occurring in the part of the year normally called October.”

Therefore, in the year 46 B.C.E., the 708th year from the traditional date of the founding of the city of Rome, Julius Caesar issued a decree changing the Roman calendar from a lunar to a solar year. This Julian calendar, based on the calculations of the Greek astronomer Sosigenes, had twelve months of arbitrary length. According to it, a regular year consisted of 365 days. But in order to compensate for the fact that a solar year is actually about 3651 days, the Julian calendar also brought in the use of leap years, providing for the addition of an extra day every four years. Thus the Julian calendar provided for a year of approximately 365J days.

However, there was a significant error in the Julian calendar. For it was a little more than eleven minutes and fourteen seconds longer than the true solar year. Thus, by the sixteenth century a discrepancy of ten full days had accumulated. In other words, by the time Columbus set sail on his voyages of discovery, the Julian calendar was wrong by nearly ten days.

To correct the error of the Julian calendar the Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Actually it only slightly revised the Julian calendar. It retained the leap year every fourth year. And to correct the yearly error of some eleven minutes and fourteen seconds, it provided that those century years with a number divisible by 400, such as 1600 and 2000, should be leap years, with an extra day being added to the month of February; whereas other century years, such as 1700, 1800 and 1900, would not be leap years. Thus, the average Gregorian calendar year is now only twenty-six seconds longer than the solar year. And it will thus take thousands of years for the error to equal one day.

Also, in order to correct the discrepancy of ten full days that had accumulated because of the error of the Julian calendar, ten days were ordered to be omitted in 1582. Thus the day after October 4 became October 15. This seems a simple way to make the correction, but when it was announced, there were riots throughout Europe. Some nations accepted the change immediately. England and her possessions, including the thirteen American Colonies, did not change until 1752. Russia did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1918 and Turkey not until 1927. When the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, eleven days had to be dropped because the old Julian calendar was still in use in Alaska.

Other Calendars

Interestingly,' in the western hemisphere an ancient calendar was developed centuries before our Common Era and used by both the Mayan and Aztec Indians of Mexico and Central America. It was an astronomical calendar and, as regards the length of the solar year, was slightly more accurate than the present Gregorian calendar.

Today, many nations use only the Gregorian calendar, but other countries use two or more calendars. In India many calendars are in use. The Gregorian calendar is issued for official purposes. But as many as 17 different calendars are used for religious purposes.

Whereas Christians today customarily use the calendar in effect in their particular land, they are aware that Jehovah God has his own calendar of events not governed by human systems of reckoning. (Dan. 2:21, 22) However, in his Word he does helpfully relate his actions and purposes to human measurements of time, thereby allowing man to learn where he stands in relation to God's grand calendar of events.

Your Remarkably Designed Stomach

• The lining of your stomach has about 35 million glands, some of which secrete hydrochloric acid and several enzymes for digesting your food. One enzyme curdles milk, another splits certain fats and a third splits the chemical formed by the combination of hydrochloric acid with proteins and also digests the milk curds. This remarkable chemical factory is marvelously designed and it will serve you well as long as you do not mistreat it.

Cleaning Out the Images

ERE is a truly thrilling experience enjoyed by one of Jehovah’s witnesses in her Christian work of teaching Bible truth in New Jersey. She says:

"Not too long ago I was asked to call on a woman who was given the book From, Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained in Italian by her daughter who is studying with Jehovah’s witnesses. When I called I found the woman was seventy-four years old. She was happy to see me, since I could speak her language, and immediately she invited me in. She had carefully read the Paradise book.

“She lived next door to the Catholic church, having moved there for the convenience of attending church, which she did three times every day. Her kitchen table was cluttered with pictures of saints, with flowers in front of them and candles burning. Glancing into the bedroom, I noticed that statues ot saints were all over. I thought, ‘Jehovah, how am I going to cut through all this?’ and I prayed silently for him to show me how I could help this lady, for she was so sincere. The woman spoke freely, saying; ‘This fParadise] book cannot be right in what it says about idols, souls and death because I have read the Bible all my life and I understand it. You must be the false prophets Jesus said would come in the last days, because, if you are not, who is?’

"I simply replied: 'Well, by all this evidence I see that you are an intelligent person. You have understood what you read and you appreciate how paradise was lost and that it is possible to regain it. You even see the hope of the resurrection.’ (She lost a son two months before.) I suggested that I visit her an hour a week and we would go through the book together with the Bible to see what God’s thoughts are on the matter. She would then easily identify who were the false prophets. I guaranteed her that they were not Jehovah’s witnesses. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘who are they?’ I said that in a few months she .would know.

“Every Monday afternoon we had our study. When I found that her Bible consisted of only the Christian Greek Scriptures, I obtained a complete Bible for her. In three weeks she read all the Hebrew Scriptures. Now she was sick at heart, because Israel was condemned for idolatry. ‘How could this be?’ she asked.

I Was idolatry wrong? The Catholic church, then, is wrong; pope, priests and nuns! Oh, no, it cannot be!’ I would always direct her to the words of Jesus and his apostles. She would say: ‘If you are misleading me, I will tell Jehovah. You will lose your life as well as me, and no paradise for either of us!’

J “Her conscience bothered her so that she i attended church only once a day. She tried to J justify it, but I pointed to Revelation 18:4 I and the need to separate oneself. Gradually I she was getting the points, and when she said she was confused, I would tell her to pray to Jehovah through Jesus and help would come.

“She then visited the Kingdom Hall and she was shocked to see no statues, no kneeling idown, and so forth. ‘Oh my,’ she cried, ‘this cannot be right!’ She said she would never, never go there again. I asked her if we should continue studying, ‘Oh, yes,' she answered, ‘you cannot leave me now. I do not expect anything from the Catholic church now. I’ll

| go only on Sundays,'

i “I knew that the Watchtower and Awake! I magazines would help her further to under-| stand God’s will and, sure enough, they 'were I the spiritual medication she needed. One day * when I came, all the pictures of the false religious saints on the table were gone. She asked me if I noticed anything. I said that I noticed all the pictures were gone. She cried and cried, saying, ‘False prophets are all the religions that are not supported by Jehovah’s Word and not following Jesus Christ!. No more sign of the cross for me!’

“She said she was so happy now. Also, she wanted the statues out of her bedroom. I suggested that she throw them away but she said that the landlady would just return them. I asked her if she wanted me to give them away, but she said, No. So I asked her what she wanted done with them. She said, ‘Destroy them.’ I hugged her and said I would do so gladly. Next week I found them all packed, including her most prized religious plaque. She said it had to go too, I took them and destroyed them all.

“Now she attends the public lectures and the Watchtower study on Sunday. She has been reporting preaching activity. Witnesses who live near her have kindly helped her to get to meetings.’’

From coast to coast, Canada has been endowed with bountiful supplies of earth’s most abundant mineral—WATER! Water for every conceivable purpose: for drinking, for irrigation, for hydroelectric developments, for industrial uses and for vacation fun, to name but a few. Yet, for ail its abundance, this resource needs to be husbanded and controlled so that: fullest advantage may be derived from it before it flows at last into the salty seas that wash Canada’s shores.

Strange, is it not, that such a plentiful substance should need to be stored and measured out? Consider the vastness of the supply of fresh water. The mighty Fraser-Thompson and the Columbia River system of British Columbia both rise in the Columbia Ice Fields of the Rockies. The Peace River, formed by the junction of the Parsnip and Finlay Rivers, flows into the Arctic Ocean after its juncture with the Mackenzie River system, with its huge Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes.

Then, there is the North and South Saskatchewan River system that drains into Hudson Bay after passing through Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. Also the gigantic St. Lawrence River, with its Great Lakes, receives the numerous rushing streams of Ontario and Quebec before pouring its tremendous volume into the Atlantic. Canada’s eastern provinces also have their ample share of this vital commodity. Truly, it is a case of “Water, water, everywhere.”

Yet, there are powerful reasons for handling with care this mighty water supply. Foremost, perhaps, is the worsening

water-shortage crisis in the North American continent. It is claimed, for example, that within thirty-five years, according to the way men of the world view matters, 75 percent of the river waters of the United States will be needed for the nation’s industrial and economic activities. Then, also, the northern states of Mexico are feeling the pinch of water shortage. Canada’s own demands for water for hydroelectric development and irrigation are growing prodigiously.

No wonder water is now being viewed more as a continental resource than as a national asset. In fact, a proposal is already under consideration for a colossal undertaking—canals, locks, tunnels, siphons, pumping stations, dams and storage- basins to convey vast quantities of water southward from Canada into the central and Western regions of the United States. If such a project becomes a reality, the- focal point of the system would be British Columbia’s Rocky Mountain Trench, where a 500-mile-long storage reservoir would be formed. The cost would come close to $100,000 million and construction would take thirty years!

Meantime, projects in water control and conservation have gone far beyond the experimental stage. Dams of enormous size and strength are being reared here and there throughout the continent. Even that amazing animal engineer, the beaver, if he had the ability to comprehend it, would be staggered at the thought, for instance, of building a dam large enough to tame the raging Peace River. Yet that is what human engineers have accomplished.

The Portage Mountain Project

Picture in your mind a cube measuring slightly more than 1,150 feet on each edge. This is the volume of gravel, sand and rock that had to be transported and carefully compacted on the dam site. About one-fifth of this quantity went into the watertight core of the structure—a core whose base is as thick as a city block and which tapers off at the crest to 40 feet. At its completion in 1967, this mammoth dam, much larger than the famed Aswan High Dam in Egypt, measured 1| miles in length, 600 feet in height and a half mile thick at the base.

Equipment to speed this project to its finish included a conveyor belt—the world’s largest! A rubber table 3 miles long and 66 inches wide moved at 12.5 miles per hour to carry raw gravel to the processing plant—12,000 tons an hour!. Operators at the plant merely pushed buttons to select any combination of dry or washed sand, stone, silt or even unprocessed gravel to meet the engineering specifications for the various zones of the dam. Conveyors from the plant made it possible to pile 100 tons of fill at the dam every minute of the twenty-four-hour day.

Before the dam could be built the Peace River had to be diverted from its normal channel in Peace River Canyon. First, a diversion channel 800 feet long and 280 feet wide had to be blasted out of the solid rock on the west bank. This led to three tunnels, each having a diameter equivalent to a five-story building—tunnels drilled through half a mile of rock to a point downstream from the dam site. Next, a low cofferdam was constructed to divert the river’s autumn runoff so the site of the dam could be dried out. Then men and machines poured onto the site and construction of a larger cofferdam, immediately behind the first one, got under way. Stretching 1,100 feet across the canyon at a height of 130 feet, this dam would eventually form an integral part of the main structure.

Of course, dammed-up waters have been known to sweep away huge dams and go on disastrous rampages. To guard against this, special precautions were taken at the Portage Mountain Dam. A “nervous system” was built into the structure. Dozens of sensitive instruments that measure the stresses and strains were strategically placed in the bedrock floor and throughout the dam. Also, the rock floor under the core of the dam was sealed with a cement-sand mixture applied under heavy pressure. Then, too, a barrier called a “grout curtain,” was built into the subterranean rock for the purpose of sealing cracks and fissures against seepage.

Finishing touches are now being put on this dam. An immense spillway, 100 feet wide and 2,300 feet long, serves as protection against any exceptionally heavy runoff from the catchment area of 27,000 square miles surrounding the reservoir. The reservoir itself, now in course of filling up, has an area of 640 square miles, and will substitute for the rushing turbulent waters of Peace River Canyon a placid lake with over one thousand miles of shoreline—British Columbia’s largest inland body of water! Recreation facilities are to be built around it, so perhaps one day you will be able to enjoy a vacation there amid scenic grandeur.

The Columbia River Development

Then there is the unpredictable Columbia River, whose highest recorded flow at one location was found to be 99 times its lowest. During its history it has destroyed entire communities, with many lives lost and thousands rendered homeless. It needed to have its wild capers brought under control!

The United States and Canada drew up and ratified the Columbia River Treaty for the joint development of these water resources. As soon thereafter as was feasible construction commenced on three Treaty dams.

The first to become operational was the Duncan Dam, 66 miles north of the city of Nelson, British Columbia. Of earth-fill construction, this barrier extends half a mile, across the Duncan River. Its height of 130 feet will back up the waters in a 29-square-mile reservoir, thus enlarging Duncan Lake.

By April 1969 the second Treaty dam is scheduled for completion at the lower end of the Arrow Lakes, near Castlegar. It is of combined earth-fill and cement construction. Reaching half a mile in length, it towers as high as a 17-story building and will control a 14,000-square-mile drainage area. The resulting reservoir will extend 145 miles north to the city of Revelstoke. This dam is to have a navigation lock 50 feet wide and 290 feet long, to provide for river traffic.

Over a hundred miles north of Arrow Dam, near the confluence of the Columbia, Canoe and Wood Rivers, is where the third and largest Treaty dam is planned for construction. Unlike the others, Mica Dam is to produce electric power. Its halfmile-long crest is to rise 645 feet above the natural riverbed. The storage basin behind this structure is planned to stretch 135 miles in a northwest-southeast direction. It is expected to generate eventually two million kilowatts of power. This project is meant to bring many benefits to a large region of the United States as a result of a constant flow of water, where once the supply was never assured.

The South Saskatchewan Project

“Kisiskatchewan”—the Indians called it—“the river that runs swiftly.” For centuries it has been pouring its billions of gallons into the sea. To the Indians in their birchbark canoes it constituted their highway system in peace and in war. Though the intruding white men often dreamed of harnessing its vast potential, it was not until 1958 that the Federal and Saskatchewan governments signed an agreement to undertake a joint project for better use of these river waters.

Interest in this development focused on a section of the river known as “The Elbow.” Here it makes a right-angle turn to flow north. At the point of the elbow, Aitkow Creek Valley extends east for 11 miles to a height of land 85 feet above the surface of the South Saskatchewan River. Just east of this divide the Qu’Appelle River rises. If a dam were constructed near “The Elbow,” this valley could be made into a storage basin with a control dam topping the divide, to guarantee a constant flow in the Qu’Appelle River— a boon to communities such as Regina and Moose Jaw.

The preliminary survey located a bedrock structure under the riverbed, halfway between the towns of Elbow and Outlook, which would bear the weight of the enormous dam that was planned. Work commenced early in 1959, with the first contracts reducing the river channel to half its normal width. A machine, known as ‘The Mole,’ was brought in to bore five diversion tunnels, each 4,300 feet long. Seven years after the project was begun, the last of the millions of tons of material was placed and compacted at the dam site. Right away the 140-miIe reservoir began to fill. The dam is three miles long, over a mile thick at its base and rises to a height of 210 feet—the continent’s second-largest earth-fill dam, second only to Fort Peck Dam on Montana’s Missouri River.

By the time the entire project, including the Qu’Appelle River Dam, was completed in 1967, the reservoir, nicknamed by opponents “Saskatchewan’s biggest bathtub,” had filled up, providing plenty of water for the irrigation of thousands of acres of dry land and for a powerhouse that will generate 400,000 horsepower of electricity. Millions of trees are to be planted around the 475-mile shoreline of the lake formed by the backed-up waters. Parks are planned for the pleasure of an ever-increasing number of tourists.

Quebec’s Interest in Water

Quebec is the richest of all the provinces in water resources. In fact, it has available more than 40 percent of Canada’s total. Hydroelectric installations in Quebec already produce about 48 percent of the nation’s total of kilowatts. Quebec’s share is 11,190,000. Many new projects are under way.

Interest, at present, centers on the developments along the Manikuagan and Outardes Rivers of northern Quebec. Seven large dams of various types have either gone up or are in course of construction. The largest, ‘Manic 5,’ when finished, is to impound 33.3 cubic miles of Water! With all that water pressure, it can be realized that a very strong dam will be essential. It is expected that its special arch-buttress design will require only some 2,900,000 cubic yards of concrete. An earth-fill dam of the same strength would need ten times that volume of material.

‘Manic 5’ is planned to be one of the highest and most massive dams in the world. Imagine, if you will, its length of 4,300 feet and its height of 703 feet at the highest point! The water behind this mighty barrier is to form a ring-shaped lake in the heart of northern Quebec. Seven generating stations producing a combined total of 5,789,000 kilowatts of power are to utilize the constant flow from this huge reservoir.

Truly, Canada is impounding her waters! “All the winter torrents” continue “going forth to the sea,” but now, from man’s viewpoint, in a more controlled manner all across the land. (Eccl. 1:7) Alberta, too, has built large irrigation dams in its southwest. Manitoba, most richly endowed of the Prairie Provinces, is preparing to make better use of her water supply. Ontario has already developed all her sizable waterpower potential within easy reach of the main centers of population, and continues to look farther afield. Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces are also at work on projects Qf their own.

All of which should point attention to humankind’s complete dependence on the marvelous provisions made by earth’s Creator. He himself reminds us of at least two of our vital needs in these words: “Just as the pouring rain descends, and the snow, from the heavens and does not return to that place, unless it actually saturates the earth and makes it produce and sprout, and seed is actually given to the sower and bread to the eater, so my word that goes forth from my mouth will prove to be.”—Isa. 55:10, 11.

PRESTO COMMUNICATION

Experiments have shown that some messages transmitted over the human nervous system travel at 265 miles per hour.

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' "Ifl; TRAI/FUN6 MINISTER

The episode reminded us of the harrowing experiences of Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul, who, in the first century, were also set upon by angry

mobs prejudiced by false hgious teachings.—Luke 28*30; Acts 14:19.

After settling down a

we decided to go to a nearby village where another person had wanted to be called upon by a minister of Jehovah’s witnesses. We found the man

I AM a traveling minister of Jehovah’s witnesses in Italy. I call on people right in their homes. Thus, I have opportunity to meet them in their own environment, where they feel relaxed and will talk freely. It is an exciting, rewarding life.

What often makes this so is the strong feelings regarding religious matters that exist in many small villages. Once, when my companion and I had left a man’s house, we heard someone.shouting: “They are Protestants. Away with them!” His cries aroused a mob and we soon found ourselves surrounded by at least 200 people. Some women, from the windows, started shouting: “Kill them! Why don’t you kill them?” Tension was high. But we were able to get away safe, although a bit shaken from the experience.

This occurred in a small town just north of famous Venice on the Adriatic Sea. We had come here to speak to a schoolteacher who desired to know more about the Bible, and so had requested a visit by Jehovah’s witnesses. It was upon our leaving his home that the mob formed. we were looking for in the village square. However, no sooner did we introduce ourselves than he went off without saying a word. We though,, that he left because he was not interested. But back he came with at least ten people following him. As he came closer, these called to others who were in their homes. Soon a crowd of abbut 250 people was coming toward us. The whole town! The situation we had experienced earlier appeared about to happen again!

However, as the man we had come to visit approached, he spoke reassuringly to us. All these people just wanted to know what we had to tell them from the Bible! Behind us was an abandoned Catholic church building, so we used the steps that led to its entrance as a platform from which to address the crowd. For two hours we explained the Creator’s marvelous purpose to usher in a righteous new system of things wherein obedient humans will enjoy eternal life in perfect peace, happiness and health. (Rev. 21:3, 4; Ps. 37: 9-11, 29) What a joy it was to bring this comforting message to spiritually hungry people!

So, as you can see, the experiences of a traveling minister here are varied and exciting. One does not know what to expect next.

Religious Ignorance and Superstition

In calling on people in their homes, I often find persons of honest and sincere heart, but who have become victims of religious ignorance and superstition. For example, I remember once talking to a kind lady who, upon my asking whether she had faith in God, answered: “Of course! I often travel from Bolzano to the Sanctuary of St. Anthony of Padua to strengthen my religious faith.”

I asked her if it was true that on February 15 the tongue of St. Anthony was venerated by uttering a series of prayers (triduo) in his honor.

“Oh, yes!” she proudly replied. “For my having made an offering in money to the priest, he sent me back a piece of St. Anthony’s tongue.”

Noticing that I was, I must say, dumbfounded, she quickly added: “Oh, I understand that it cannot be a piece of the original tongue, otherwise you can imagine how long it must have been!”

Such persons, who have been blinded by unscriptural religious teachings, are often amazed and, yet, very happy to learn what God says in his Word regarding these matters.

Visit to Congregations

A principal part of my work is to visit congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses to offer Scriptural encouragement, which, in turn, I also receive from the faithful Christians I visit. (Rom. 1:11, 12) So the visits are both spiritually rewarding and often extremely exciting.

There is the time I visited a small congregation in a village in the Dolomite mountains. To get there I had to go over a very narrow, winding mountain road. I shall never forget it. I had the rock wall on my right, and a deep precipice on my left, with no protecting railing. Moreover, the road was covered with a thick layer of ice! What a relief to reach the top safely!

Here I found one of the oldest Italian congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses. Because of their faithfulness to Christian principles, some of them were sentenced to eight years of imprisonment during the second world war. Two-year sentences each were given for alleged crimes against the king, Mussolini, the pope and Adolf Hitler. Interestingly, now, the Roman Catholic bishop of Trento has attempted to convince this small group of Witnesses to accept his visit so that they can all pray together for the union of the faiths.

Visiting Northern Cities

One of the really rewarding features of my work is the opportunity to be with fellow Christians, frequently staying right in their homes during my visit. Since so many Italians have settled in the large cities of northern Italy, due to the better living conditions and labor conditions there, I often wonder as I go to the home of the family where I will be staying: “Who is waiting for me? Somebody from Piedmont or Tuscany or from Naples? What will they be like?”

When I arrive at the address, which, this time, proves to be a large, modern ten-story apartment house, I announce my arrival through the phone downstairs. My host immediately comes down to greet me, and we take the elevator upstairs. The Italians will do everything in their power to make the stay of a guest in their home a pleasant thing to be remembered.

The couple very hospitably give me their own bedroom with its double bed. The bedroom is also furnished with a wardrobe with several doors, and a chest of drawers crowned by a large mirror. I note, with interest, a Bible verse written on a chinaware piece above the bed, where the religious image would have gone in another home.

The rest of' the apartment has a small kitchen, drawing room, a modern bathroom and the entrance hall. I notice that the drawing room can be quickly transformed into a supplementary bedroom. It has a sofa that will open up to become a bed. To keep up an apartment of this type, which will rent for at least 30,000 Italian liras ($50) a month, both husband and wife work, as a rule, in some factory or office.

Preaching in the South

Conditions are much different in other places in Italy. For example, on the mountain ridges of the Greater Sila, away down at the very tip of the Italian boot. This is one of the least accessible regions of Italy. Our destination is a small town there of not more than 1,000 inhabitants.

On our journey we come to a fountain pouring out streams of water. We stop, thinking it might be a good idea to wash the car. Just then an old man comes along with his mule, to get water. On the mule’s back there are two barrels, one on each side. With a piece of rubber tubing he starts filling the barrels with the water that will be used for domestic purposes.

“This water is really good!” we tell him. “Quite true!” he replies.

“Of course, it would be better if it could make us live forever,” we continue.

“But,” answers the man, “we can’t live forever.”

To this we reply: “Yet, Jesus, speaking to a woman that was drawing water from a well, said that there was water that would give eternal life.”—John 4:14.

“Would that it were so,” says the man. “Have you read the Bible?” we ask. “I don’t know how to read,” he answers, "but I’ve heard of it.” Since he has a daughter who reads, he accepts the Bible literature and says that he will have his daughter read it. After thanking us and saying good-bye, he goes off.

We, too, have finished our job and start again on our journey with the car bright and clean. We get to our destination, a village about 2,400 feet above sea level. Our Christian brothers welcome us, while the neighbors look outside to see the newcomers. It has been arranged that we sleep in an abandoned house.

During our week’s stay we spread the good news of the Kingdom in the surrounding territory, starting out early in the morning and coming back home in the evening. Several home Bible studies are established. Arrangements also are made to show the Watch Tower Society’s film “God Cannot Lie” in a new garage. We visit the families of the village to invite them to come, and get very good reception. When the evening for the showing arrives, what a joy it is to find 225 persons'present!

The life of a traveling minister is indeed a happy, exciting one. It helps a person to appreciate the truth of Jesus’ words: “Truly I say to you men, No one has left house or brothers . . . for the sake of the good news who will not get a hundredfold now in this period of time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions, and in the coming system of things everlasting life,”—Mark 10:29, 30.—Contributed.

AN INSTRUCTOR in public speaking once told his students that a fine talk could be likened to a satisfying meal. It must have three golden essentials. What are they? First, he said, a line talk, like a fine meal, should be nourishing, full of facts. Secondly, it should be easily digested, easily understood, easy io follow. And thirdly, a fine talk should be tasty; it should give pleasure to the hearers. All of this certainly does apply to the preparing of a satisfying meal. However, to these three might be added a fourth golden essential, economy, since the cost of food always needs to be considered by the prudent housewife.

What does it take for meals to be well balanced and nourishing? For meals to be well balanced and nourishing it is essential that they contain proteins, carbohydrates (sugars and starches), fats, such as butter and oil, vitamins and minerals, the latter two being obtained largely from fruits and vegetables. Not that every meal need have all these but that in the course of a day all these should be included.

The carbohydrates and fats usually get more than their share of attention and so the wise cook will see to it that her meals are not lacking in proteins, such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts and the more economical legumes. At the same time she will make certain that sufficient vegetables are included for the essential vitamins and minerals, if not also fruit.

Next to the need for food to be nourishing is the golden essential of its being easily digested. It is common knowledge that fried and greasy food is not as easily digested as food that is broiled or baked. The wise cook will therefore give preference to baked potatoes over, say, French-fried potatoes; and she will prefer to roast chicken instead of frying it. In fact, more often than not, the more simply the food is prepared, the more easily it is digested. Also, day-old or toasted bread is to be preferred. For those with robust physiques, having good hearts, and doing hard physical labor, it may not make so much difference, but for most others, especially those engaged in sedentary occupations, having food that is more easily digested is a course of wisdom.

Important also is the golden essential of taste. Appetizing meals are more easily digested, as they appear to cause the digestive juices to flow more readily anfi they give more pleasure and satisfaction to the eaters. The resourceful cook can do much to make tasty the foods that she knows her family should eat. Salads can be made more appealing by various dressings and by using finely chopped onions, nuts or a bit of garlic. String beans can be made more appetizing by adding a seasoning such as marjoram. A number of leafy vegetables, including sauerkraut, can be made more tasty by adding a thickening of browned flour and finely chopped browned onions. Make baked beans a treat by adding molasses. Whole wheat bread can be made a favorite by adding honey or molasses and raisins. Economy meat dishes can be made more appealing by use of tomato sauce and such spices as oregano.

And then there is the golden essential of economy. Since the average housewife has a limited budget for food, preparing meals that are nourishing, well balanced, easily digested and tasty represents a real challenge to her. For her efforts to be appreciated, however, her family must understand and not expect her to perform miracles. Ground meat is cheaper than fancy steaks. Nourishing, tasty and easily digested are such dishes as souffles made with cheese, fish or even mashed navy or kidney beans. In the interest of economy, vitamin C can be supplied from such vegetables as cabbage, collards, green peppers, spinach and turnip greens. These are very high in this vitamin and generally are grown locally. If prepared in salads these contain about twice as much vitamin C as when they are cooked. And it is better to get vitamins this way than by pills.

It requires resourcefulness for the family’ cook to balance the four golden essentials, to have food nourishing, easily digested, tasty and economical, not unduly sacrificing the one for the other, but giving each essential its due. But what satisfaction in meeting that challenge!

MILLIONS of persons now suffer greatly under oppressive rule in many places throughout the earth. They long for a better system of things. How can their desire for relief be realized? Is the answer revolution, violent overthrow of existing governments? Is this the Christian way? Should churches put their stamp of approval on such use of violence?

Many religious leaders now think that they should. Reports the Chicago Daily News, April 27, 1968: “A cult of Christian violence—violence as a cleansing force to purge society of the past and violence as the only possible means of destroying the old order—has been growing in the last three years.” And observes the Miami Herald of June 26,1968: “We have ministers and priests in America who advocate violence and breaking the laws of which they disapprove.”

In Latin America, in particular, Catholic revolutionaries are active. Protestants, too, are turning to violence to achieve their goals. Dr. Ruben Alves, a Brazilian Protestant theologian at Princeton, noted: “The conclusion that many Christians and non-Christians are arriving at is that it is impossible to bring about humanizing social change without a certain amount of violence.”

But is this the official position of the churches?

Catholic Church Approves

Rather than condemning violence, the Roman Catholic Church has officially approved it—under certain circumstances. In March of 1967 the pope issued an encyclical known as “Development of Peoples,” which discusses violence and revolution. According to its section 31, approval is given to “revolutionary uprising . . . where there is manifest long-standing tyranny which would do great damage to fundamental personal rights and dangerous harm to the common good of the country.”

Thus the Catholic Church approves of violent revolution in order to overthrow “tyranny.” But who is to determine when ‘there is manifest long-standing tyranny that is dangerous to the common good’? Apparently that is left up to each individual to decide.

Should it be surprising, then, that Catholic revolutionaries accept the church’s justification of violence as approval of their efforts to overthrow governments considered tyrannical? Regarding this, Joseph Michenfelder, a Maryknoll priest who directs the Catholic Information Service in Peru, explains: “The Catholic revolutionaries are basing their efforts on the Popes’ encyclicals, especially the recent ‘Development of Peoples,’ which says that in places where peaceful change has failed, violent revolution may be the final necessity.”

So active have these Catholic revolutionaries become in some Latin American countries that Cuba’s Premier Fidel Castro was moved to say: "The United States should not worry about the Soviets in Latin America, because they are no longer revolutionary, but they should worry about the Catholic revolutionaries, because they are.”—Chicago Daily News, April 26, 1968,

Is such violence what Jesus Christ advocated? Did he teach that, where there is "long-standing tyranny,” “revolutionary uprising” is justified? Of course not! Jesus made clear that it is not the busi-

ness of Christians to meddle in politics, explicitly telling them: “You are no part of the world.” (John 15:19) Rather, he pointed them to the kingdom of God to usher in righteous conditions on earth.

Protestant Churches Also Approve

But what of the Protestant churches? Are they adhering to Jesus’ teachings? Many of them are even more outspoken in their approval of violence and revolution.

For example, during the keynote address at the recent Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala, Sweden, the speaker, Samuel L. Parmar, asserted: “Our task is to imbue the revolutionary movements of our time with creativity.” And he added: “I would not condemn those who resort to violent action in order to bring about justice in society because the existing order may be allowing a good deal of violence and injustice.”

Eugene Carson Blake, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, expressed himself similarly. In an NBC television interview in June 1968, shortly before the Council assembled, he stated flatly: “There gets to be a point when revolution, although this is a scary word to all of us who are in establishments, is probably the only way that one can act responsibly.”

Yes, leading figures in the Protestant world put their stamp of approval on violence. And this is not merely their individual opinion; they have official backing for such statements. At the Conference on Church and Society held under the auspices of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, in July 1966, an official document was issued that stated:

“The question often emerges today whether the violence which sheds blood in planned revolutions may not be a lesser evil than the violence which, though bloodless, condemns whole populations to perennial despair. ... It cannot be said that the only possible position for the Christian is one of absolute non-violence. There are situations where Christians may become involved in violence.”—From “The Nature and Function of the State in a Revolutionary Age," sections 84 and 85.

Also, the Conference document “Structures of International Cooperation: Living Together in Peace in a Pluralistic World Society,” section 90, approvingly said of violence:

"Wherever small elites rule at the expense of the welfare of the majority, political change towards achieving a more just order as quickly as possible, should he actively promoted and supported by Christians. . . . In cases where such changes are needed, the use by Christians of revolutionary methods —by which is meant violent overthrow of an existing political order—cannot be excluded a priori. For in such cases, it may very well be that the use of violent methods is the only recourse of those whi wish to avoid prolongation of the vast covert violence which the existing order involves."

Do you agree with that? Do you believe that Christians should participate in violent overthrow of governments? Is this the way to solve the problems of mankind?

It definitely is not the Christian way! Such actions show that these churches really do not have faith in God’s kingdom. Jesus Christ always pointed to God’s kingdom as the means to bring peace to the earth and condemned the use of violence by his followers. Therefore, religious organizations that reject the teachings of Christ and approve^of violence are in reality leading the people away from God.

Do you desire to be identified with an organization that advocates what Christ condemns? If not, then by your course of action you must prove that to God. How? By separating yourself from those who reject his Word and regularly associating with his own faithful Witnesses, who really teach and apply the counsel of his Word, the Bible.

AT THE time of his death, the patriarch Jacob had a total of sixty-seven sons, grandsons and great-grandsons, assuming that during his seventeen-year residence in Egypt none of these died and no other boys were born. (Genesis chapter 46) Actually, there were probably more male offspring by that time. About two centuries later, according to an actual census, Jacob’s descendants, not including the Levites, had become a nation with 603,550 fighting men from twenty years old upward. (Num. 1:45, 46; 2:32, 33) “Impossible! There must be a mistake,” say skeptics. But is the Scriptural record in error?

First of all, it is important to remember that Israel’s population growth was phenomenal. The Bible reports; “The sons of Israel became fruitful and began to swarm; and they kept on multiplying and growing mightier at a very extraordinary rate/’ (Ex. 1:7) So rapid was their rate of increase that Pharaoh spoke of the Israelites as being more numerous and mightier than the Egyptians and therefore felt it necessary to undertake steps to curb their growth lest they become a threat to his nation’s security in time of war.—Ex. 1:9, 10.

A number of factors contributed to this extraordinary population increase. Some of the Israelites married Egyptian women, and polygamy, with concubinage, was practiced. Women of that time very much wanted to have children, particularly sons. (Gen. 30:1, 23) Most importantly, the Israelites had Jehovah’s blessing.

Judging from the number of males listed for each of Jacob’s sons at Genesis chapter 46, an average family may have had four sons. This would represent a fourfold increase in the number of males in just one generation. Of course, some of the families may have been much larger. In fact, compared with several Israelite families of a later period, Jacob’s family was not exceptionally large. Gideon, for example, had seventy sons (Judg. 8:30); Jair had thirty (Judg. 10:4), and Ibzan had thirty sons and thirty daughters. —Judg. 12:8, 9.

It is therefore not unreasonable, for illustrative purposes, to consider that, after Jacob’s death, Israel’s male population tripled every twenty years. (Even today, with no special blessing from Jehovah, if the present rate of growth continues, the world’s population will double in just thirty-five years.) In calculating this increase, we might start with fifty family heads, deleting the twelve sons of Jacob and two other males who may have had no children, as well as the three sons of Levi whose descendants were numbered separately. The male population would have increased as follows:

Years after Jacob’s death 20

40 60

80 100 120 140 160 180

Since the Israelites left Egypt about 198 years after Jacob’s death, this would mean that, according to the above computation, there were well over a million males, hence far more than 600,000 ablebodied men.

Of course, this does not take into consideration the number of boys killed during the time that Pharaoh’s decree to destroy all the males at birth continued in force. However, this decree seems to have been rather ineffective. The Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah, who probably were the heads of the profession, apparently did not instruct the midwives under them as ordered by the king. So the Israelites continued to become more numerous. Pharaoh then commanded the Egyptians to throw every newborn Israelite son into the Nile. (Ex. 1:15-22) But it does not seem that the Egyptians in general hated the Hebrews this much, for Pharaoh’s own daughter rescued Moses. Also Pharaoh may have soon come to realize that he would lose valuable slaves if his decree continued to be kept in effect.

Still, for a time, undoubtedly just a few years, Israelite baby boys were being killed. Pharaoh’s decree was in force when Moses was born toward the end of the sixth twenty-year period of our computation, that is, about 118 years after Jacob’s death. However, at the time of Aaron’s birth three years earlier, this decree apparently was not in effect. (Ex. 7:7) Hence, for our calculation, we might consider the time of the decree as extending from the time of Moses’ birth into the next twenty-year period. To be conservative, we might delete somewhat more than a sixth (6,450) of the males born from the sixth twenty-year period and a third (30,000) of the newborn males (according to this already reduced calculation) from the next twenty-year period.

With the population tripling every twenty years, the result would be as follows:

Years            Number

after Jacob’s death      of males born

120           30,000 (36,450 - 6,450)

140          60,000 (90,000 - 30,000)

160         180,000

180         540,000

Even with these great reductions the round number of 600,000 men 198 years after Jacob’s death is well within reason.

But someone might object: “Abraham’s descendants were to return to the Promised Land in the fourth generation, but the above calculation lists more than four generations.” This is true, and these “four generations” can be calculated in two ways, in but the tribe of Levi, thus: (1) Levi, (2) Jochebed the daughter of Levi, (3) Aaron and (4) Eleazar, who entered the Promised Land, or by (1) Levi, (2) Ko-hath, (3) Amram and (4) Moses. (Ex. 6:16, 18, 20, 23) However, while there were only four generations from Levi to Eleazar or from Levi to Moses, when viewed from the standpoint of the life-span of these persons, each of them could have seen several generations or sets of children born during his lifetime. Even at the present time, a man sixty or seventy years of age often has grandchildren and may even have great-grandchildren (thus four generations living contemporaneously).

The foregoing clearly shows that, at the time of the Exodus and hence also during the wilderness wanderings, Israel was a nation. As such the Israelites ‘covered the earth as far as the eye could see’; their number frightened the Moabites. (Num. 22:3, 11) Hardly could this have been said concerning a mere few thousand people or a small nomadic group.

'The Pope Isn’t God’

<§> When Pope Paul VI in his recent encyclical banned the use of contraceptive pills and other mechanical and chemical means of birth control, reaction among liberal Catholics revealed that they do not regard their head as “god.” The Washington Post for July 31 quoted the reactions of several Catholic women. One said: “The Pope is bucking the majority. People aren’t afraid to speak out against him anymore. He’s just a mortal-” Another said: “It’s time we modernized the whole infallibility bit.” Another woman declared: ‘The pope isn’t God.’ A mother of three stated: “I think it’s kind of funny. This old man who’s never been married sitting away off in Rome, telling me to have a lot of babies. It doesn’t make sense. I choose to ignore him ” And, no doubt, so will a lot of Catholics. Thus, although the Catholic Ecclesiastical Vlctif>n-ary says that the pope is “not simply a man but, as it were, God,” it is obvious that many do not regard the man in Rome as a god anymore.

Flood in India

$> Surat, India, was submerged under ten-foot floodwaters from the swollen Tapti River early in August. More than a thousand lives were said to be lost during a week. Eighty thousand head of cattle were reported to have perished. Damage to property was heavy. Threats of an epidemic were in the making as carcasses rotted on streets and the residents were forced to drink muddy water. Communications by road and rail between Surat and Bombay were cut. Food grains were airdropped.

Famine in the 1970’8

<$> The words of Jesus Christ that “there will be food shortages” at the end of this system of things are again confirmed by an article entitled “The Coming Famine,” which appeared in Natural History, After discussing two books, Famine—1975.’ and Bom to Hunger, the article comments: “Everyone admits that more than half of the world is undernourished, with many starving. . . . Mankind may be facing its final crisis. No action that we can take at this late date can prevent a great dea] of future misery from starvation and environmental deterioration. The dimensions of the programs that must be mounted if we are to survive are awe inspiring.”

Toll of Drunken Driving

The use of alcohol by drivers and pedestrians leads to some 25,000 deaths and at least 800,000 crashes in the United States each year, according to a report to Congress on alcohol and highway safety. The report stated: “Especially tragic is the fact that much loss of life, limb and property damage involves completely innocent parties.” During the past thirty-five years, sur veys made in every area of the country have found alcohol to be the largest single factor leading to fatal crashes. Since the drinking of alcohol is predominantly a late afternoon, evening and nighttime activity, it is not surprising that most fatal ciashes in which alcohol is a factor occur during the same periods, especially on weekends.

Sophisticated Antennas

<.♦> Moths have electronic detectors that, in their sophistication and efficiency, rival anything that engineers have been able to produce. For man to construct such detectors would be, it is acknowledged, most difficult. They are only twenty-six ten-th ous and ths of an inch long and one-tenth as wide. The moth’s antennas, designed by God the Creator, are so microscopically tiny that they respond to light waves. When exposed to light, these insects drop to the ground and seek darkness as a defense against predators. Dr. Philip S. Callahan, the researcher who discovered this action, also revealed that this is the first discovery of such detectors small enough for sensitivity to light waves.

Clerics and Castro

Prime Minister Fidel Castro of Cuba appeared at a reception in the Havana nunciature (the church’s embassy! to congratulate papal nuncio Msgr. Cesar Zacchi on his appointment as bishop, reports the San Antonio News. A few months later Bishop Zacchi said publicly that Castro is “ethically a Christian,” if not ideologically. And the bishop encouraged Catholics to take part in the Communist revolution in Cuba. To many, the growing rapprochement b etween the Communists and the Roman Catholic Church represents perhaps the most dramatic event in Latin America in the past fifty years.

Condemn Marijuana

<$> There have been conflicting medical and scientific opinions on the dangers of marijuana. However, the committees of the American Medical Association and the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, have issued a joint report that calls marijuana “a dangerous drug.” The report is one of the strongest condemnations yet made by such agencies on the use of the drug, stating that making marijuana generally available would create a problem comparable to the problems of alcoholism.

Women as Priests

■$> A few years ago the ordination of women was regarded by most Anglicans as the concern only of a few eccentrics. But the situation has changed, partly because fewer men want to be priests. During the latter part of. July at the first plenary session of the Lambeth Conference of 460 Anglican bishops, Dr. Coggan, Archbishop of York, strongly urged the ordination of women as priests. In England, only 8 of the 43 diocesan bishops have declared firmly against the principle of ordaining women.

Pope's Visit Questioned

<$> Some 200 young Roman Catholic priests and laymen seized the cathedral in Santiago, Chile, on August 11, to protest what they called their church's alliance with the rich and its wasteful spending on the proposed visit to South America by Pope Paul VI. A priest said that they were not against the pope or his visit, but the way the visit was being planned. ''The church must realize that it must be for all men, poor as well as rich," a student said. Scuffling and fistfights broke out between Catholic protestors and Catholic hecklers.

$100,000 Suits

The suits that the U.S. astronaut is to wear when he makes his trip to the moon will each cost the American taxpayer $100,000, and there are a dozen on order. The suit will be made to protect the astronaut from the deadly extremes of temperature (from 250° above zero to 250° below), also from tiny particles known as micrometeoroids and a complete lack of oxygen and atmospheric pressure. In other words, the $100,000 suit will mean his life.

Urged to End Nudity Ban

<$> The national Catholic weekly America has urged the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures to end its ban against nudity in films. America commented in its editorial that nudity in films has increased despite the NCOMP ban and, secondly, many worthwhile films have been condemned. “While some of (the) nudity is designed for aphrodisiac effect,” the weekly argued, “much of it is restrained, artistically integrated or at least—in the judgment of many mature and prudent observers—not corrupting.” It appears that the Catholic policy now urged is: If you can't beat them, join them.

Farm Assets in America

•$> Agriculture’s assets in the United States total $281,000,000,000, equal to two-thirds of the value of current assets of all corporations in the United States. Farming employs 5,000,000 workers, more than the combined employment in the steel and automobile industries, the transportation and public utilities. Three of every ten jobs in private industry are related to agriculture. Because of agriculture’s unparalleled efficiency, steps are taken to avoid the ever-present threat of overproduction. Government now pays farmers more than $3,000,000,000 a year in cash subsidies to reduce production and sustain income. Under this national policy between 50,000,000 and 60,000,000 acres have been withheld from production of food and fiber in recent years. At the same time, millions of people are desperately in need of food in other parts of the world.

Undersea Bonanza

Oceanographers have discovered what they believe to be the world's richest deposit of precious ores at the bottom of the Red Sea. They calculate the value of the gold, silver, copper and zinc at one location alone to be $1,500,000,000 or more. Interestingly, some scholars suggest that Biblical Ophir, once renown for its rich gold resources, was situated along the southern shores of the Red Sea.—1 Ki. 9:26-28; 10:11.

Uncertain About Hell

<$■ When some 3,000 New Zealanders were asked their views about the doctrine of heli, six out of ten said they believed it to be a state of mind. When they were asked whether they believed hell to be a place, 62 percent answered No. Some 48 percent of the theologians questioned expressed an opinion that there is no life after this one; 40 percent said Yes; and 12 percent had no opinion at all. However, the Bible says that hell is the grave. How true the words recorded at Amos 8:11: "‘Look! There are days coming,’ is the utterance of the Lord Jehovah, ‘and I will send a famine into the land, a famine, not for bread, and a thirst, not for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah.'’’ Those days have arrived!

Astrologers’ Business Booming

Since the Vietcong’s Lunar New Year offensive in January, astrologers, palmists, fortunetellers and soothsayers have conducted a dawn-to-dusk business for worried Vietnamese housewives, government officials, generals and some Americans in Saigon. "So many people are worried,” said a Vietnamese astrologer. “They are worried about their safety, about their business, about their relatives; no one is happy.” Some of the highest officials in the South Vietnamese government reportedly are seeking the advice of astrologers, soothsayers, palmists and the like. While some shrug off with embarrassment the role of astrologers, many concede privately that the predictions of fortune-tellers and astrologers are taken quite seriously. Said a blind astrologer: "Many come to us now because the future—it is very frightening to think about.” It will also be frightening for the assorted soothsayers of the world when Jehovah deals with them at the end of this system of things.

Holidays Eliminated

<$> Three Roman Catholic religious holidays have been eliminated from the calendar in Chile this year in an effort to speed up the national economy. The first holiday affected by law was the movable date of Corpus Christi. In view of the State's action Pope Paul freed the Chilean people from hearing mass that day. The next holiday eliminated was that of St. Peter and St. Paul, which normally falls on June 29. Men bearing those names generally receive gifts and have special dinners in their honor on that day. On that day also Catholic fishermen, up and down the coast of Chile, parade statues of their patron saint Peter. Ascension Day was another holiday that was eliminated. It was celebrated for the last time on May 23,

Protective Lenses

<$> More than 94,000,000 Americans wear eyeglasses and nearly 500,000 suffer eye injuries each year when their glasses break. Eleven percent of persons in automobile accidents suffer injuries to their eyes or eyelids. Many of these injuries no doubt would not have occurred if these persons had been wearing protective lenses. Protective lenses can be made of plastic or of heat-tempered glass. Dr. Arthur Keeney, ophthalmologist i n chief of the world's largest eye-treatment center, said: “Heat treating of the lens creates a tough outer layer of glass that makes an impactresistant lens for a dollar more than the ordinary glass.” He dropped his own trifocals six feet to the concrete floor in demonstration.

Can Governmental Reform Bring Relief?

Without disrespect to any national government it may be truthfully said that all mankind today groans under human rule. They have hoped against hope that in the long run their man-made governments will get on top of the worsening world situation and somehow save the human family from permanent disaster. But they are continually being disappointed. It is high time to be looking in another direction from man’s rule. The publishers of this magazine are happy to point in the only right direction for mankind’s relief and lasting salvation. The change for the better is at hand! Read this booklet

Man's Rule About to Give Way to God’s Rule

and rejoice.

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