THE TRUE SOURCE OF MENTAL FREEDOM

What Future for the Atom?

So...You Are Having Your First Baby!

Strangest Trees on Earth

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

New* lourccs that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “Awoke I” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This Journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it doeq not abuse its freedom. It maintains Integrity to truth.

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

"Awake I" 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 a right* ecus New World.

Get acquainted with "Awake!*¹ Keep awake by reading "Awake!"

CONTENTS

Pleasure Is Their God

More Disclosures on Radiation Dangers 4 Radiation Increases World Death Rate 4 The True Source of Mental Freedom 5

The Modem Town of Sodom

What Future for the Atom?

The Story of “Uncle Sam”

So *.. You Are Having Your First Baby! 13 A Million and a Half Quit Smoking 16 Strangest Trees on Earth

Why Many Stay Away from Church 19

Majorca, Pearl of the Mediterranean 20

The Roman Stoics and Christianity 21 “Your Word Is Truth”

Similarities of Stoicism and

Fusion Religion

Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in AU

the Earth—El Salvador

Do You Know?

Watching the World

IS THEIR COD

(11J ILLIONS of people love pleasure UIIU more than they do God. It has generally been that way throughout history. "Probably no people,” writes historian John Lord, "abandoned themselves to pleasures more universally than the Romans. ... All classes alike pursued them with restless eagerness.” Were those pleasure-mad people without religion? No, they had their gods, dozens of them. But their god first and foremost was pleasure. A like parallel is seen today.

Is not this modem world teeming with vast numbers of lovers of pleasures? True, most of them practice a form of religion, but they show more love for pleasure than they do for God.

Record-breaking numbers of people attend church today, yet where, really, are their thoughts? Not on God. For even the churches, in their effort to hold some influence over a pleasure-seeking society, have turned to popular entertainment to lure their members at least physically into their houses of worship. Church entertainment centers now function with dutiful vigor; coffee is served in the crypt after communion and bingo enlivens cathedrals. Is it love for God that sends myriads of housewives to church, almost night after night, to play bingo, or is it love of pleasure?

This modern world produces lovers of pleasure on an assembly-line basis. And so there are television devotees who escape everyday life by plunging into the video world; to them the failure of an electron tube is a major calamity. Movie habitues dwell in many lands. Japan is producing a record crop. So long do Japanese pleasure seekers sit in theaters that Japan’s welfare ministry not long ago planned a two-and-a-half-hour limit on movies. Overeaters and heavy drinkers are pleasure lovers of another kind: they make their belly a god. The fervor with which pleasure lovers pursue their business of life suggests that they are trying to escape from something. Can it be that they are trying to run away from their own spiritual discontent?

For a certainty it is not just boredom and anxiety that propels people headlong into pleasure. There is indeed something else: an empty hope. Who is to blame? Christendom’s churches. The clergy’s "heaven or hell” preaching has not infused an invigorating, life-guiding hope into the masses. Their hell of eternal torment has offended many thinking people; their concept of heaven has bored others. An empty hope, one that really does not exist, is the result.

DECEMBER 8, 1955

So the people, uncertain of a future world, concentrate more completely on the pleasures of this world.

This devotion to pleasure instead of God is significant. For we are living in the last days of this system of things, at a time when a new world, not of man’s making but of God’s, is due to come in. The multitudes of pleasure lovers only add to the evidence: “Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of .. . pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.”—2 Timothy 3:1-5, New World Trans.

Those with hope of God’s new world stop being “slaves to various desires and pleasures.” For they know that ho “lovers otpleasures rather than lovers of God” will survive Armageddon and enter the perfect new world. Thus the emphatic warning is sounded by the Son of God: “Pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be instantly upon you as a snare. For it will come in upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth. Keep awake, then.”—Titus 3:3; Luke 21:34-36, New World Trans.

IfllEwTAi* freedom is greatly to be Im desired. Not just having a sane mind, but having a really free mind should be the desire of all people today. Yet, though there is vastly expanding education and such modem, rapid means of mass communication as newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the world still suffers a great deal ef mental bondage, confusion and fear. Wars, threats of wars, anxiety, frustrations, religious falsehoods and moral bankruptcy have all added to the mental strain of modern living.

According toColumbia University's department of psychiatry, one out of every ten public school children in the United States today is emotionally disturbed and needs mental guidance. Other figures show that almost half of the 1.5 million hospital beds in the United States are occupied by mental patients, and that each year 2.5 million American men, women and children are treated for some form of mental disorder. And while the strains of modernday living have emotionally upset many minds, there are millions of other persons whose minds, though healthy, are far from free.

Men’s minds have been enslaved by political regimentation in such places as Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Communist Russia and a host of smaller totalitarian lands that exist to this day. They have been enslaved by blind support of false religious traditions—traditions that are not based upon true Christianity, but that

■ i,' | Why are men's mind* in bondage? And how can . f you overcome this to gain true and permanent mental freedom, even in these times? A rrind-fraeing message actually is available. Will you accept it?

have been adopted down through the centuries and are now accepted, without investigation, by a vast number of people. And they are further

held in bondage by faulty worldly education in the fields of evolution, science and the like that keep many people from accepting and believing the one real book of freedom, the Holy Bible.

Liberties that have been taken with the Bible under the false name of enlightenment have not actually freed men’s minds, but have further bound them in sin, slavery and death. Yes, the Bible does show the source of the slavery of men’s minds today. It shows that the first man and woman really had free minds, but that then catastrophe struck! Eve succumbed when tempted with the false promise of greater mental freedom: “Your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” Upon succumbing to that false promise and disobeying the God of freedom, she went into the greatest of slavery.—Genesis 3:5, New World Trans.

The same invisible spirit creature that deceived Eve continues his evil rule down to this day. Thus,, wo are told that our fight is against "wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places,” and that Satan would be found "misleading the entire inhabited earth.” It is his invisible demonic influence that is the major source of mental slavery. And that is not hard to believe or to understand when we look at the inhuman, tyrannical, devilish conditions that Satan, through his human servants, has brought upon the earth even during our own short lifetime!—Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 12:9, New World Trans.

Thus, it becomes evident that mental freedom is not possible through self-effort today—that we cannot get this freedom without outside help. If it were possible through self-effort to overcome mental slavery, then through its wisdom this well-educated twentieth-century world could throw off its mental shackles, throw out its psychiatrists, tear down its mental hospitals, cast aside its fears, pour out its nerve tonic and exercise that freedom which self-effort would be able to bring it. But it cannot do so! Its human guides cannot lead it to its desired destination. This is because those who promise mental freedom are still under the control of the "god of this world,” Satan the Devil. That is one of the most evident facts in the book that they deliberately overlook, the Bible. Thus we are warned of those who, “while they are promising them freedom, , . . themselves are existing as slaves of corruption.”—2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 5:19; 2 Peter 2:19, New World Trans.

Real Freedom Now

But for those who are willing to look to its true source, mental freedom really is available today. Jesus was not wrong when he said: “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Nor was the apostle misinformed when he said under inspiration: "When there is a turning to Jehovah, the veil is taken away. Now Jehovah is the spirit; and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.” The Bible contains the words and spirit of Jehovah and of his Son Christ Jesus. Therefore it is the book of freedom. It frees you from slavery to Satan and frees your mind from the fear of world conditions that so upset mankind today.—John 8:31, 32; 2 Corinthians 3:16,17, New World Trans.

Now, obviously, if you fill your mind with the world’s thoughts, then you will be in bondage to the same things that the world fears. But if you fill your mind with the things God has set out in His Word, your life will change. No longer will you think like the world, nor follow its selfish course, nor fear its fears. But you will, as the apostle long ago instructed: “Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and complete will of God."—Romans 12:2, New World Trans.

You will see how Jehovah’s ways are just and true, loving and right. How he is a God of love, affection, kindness and mercy, and is patient and long-suffering. You will think lovingly of him and want to please him. Thus you begin to live according to God’s mind. You quit being fashioned*after this enslaved system and begin patterning your life according to the new things that you are putting into your mind. You then find that this produces a well-founded mental freedom far beyond anything you have ever imagined!

Yes, those who really want to be free from error, free from fear of man, and free to worship Almighty God in spirit and truth will find that this really is possible even today! This freedom comes through Jehovah’s Son, Christ Jesus, of whom it is prophetically written: "Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send the crushed ones away with a release, to preach Jehovah’s acceptable year.” (Luke 4:18, 19, New World Trans.) He provides a spiritual freedom now; but is that all? No, he will provide a physical freedom as well. He taught his disciples to pray for God’s kingdom and that God’s will should be done on earth “as it is in heaven.” Would it not bring you great mental peace to know that that prayer is in process of fulfillment now, and that soon, not Satan’s will, but God’s will, will be done throughout all the earth as it is in heaven? That will mean the end of greed, jealousy, oppression, fear, war—in fact, the end of all things that cause fear and mental oppression today. How different from the conditions that earth now knows! And the greatest of all news today is that the fulfillment of this prayer that you have no doubt prayed many times actually has started! —Matthew 6:10.

Sure Confidence in the Future

That is correct. Already the first steps in the abolition of earth’s present troubled conditions have begun. Telling of an event that would occur at some future time, Revelation 12:10-12 (New World Trans.) says: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! ... On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” The very woes that have come upon the earth during the past forty years since World War I began in 1914, which woes have upset mankind and added to his confusion and fear, are a direct result of Satan’s anger, because he now knows that his time is short and his destruction is at hand.—Revelation 20:1-3.

But we are not left in doubt about this matter. Jesus described what specific conditions would occur as a result of Satan’s anger. His disciples asked him: “What will be the sign of your presence and of the consummation of the system of things?” His answer, given in Matthew chapter 24, described the very things that have happened since 1914. First “nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom” (an event that had never before occurred on a world scope), there would be widespread famines, an unusual number of earthquakes, rabid persecution of true Christians, earth-wide hatred toward them because they were upholding Christ’s position as the newly enthroned king, increased lawlessness, many forsaking Christianity, earth-wide insecurity and tribulation— in fact, the very things that mark this particular generation as outstanding. Thirty-nine different parts of the great Biblical sign that marks our day as the time of the end of Satan’s wicked rule have been listed. And perhaps the most startling is Jesus’ statement at Matthew 24:34: “Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.” The generation that would see these things begin would see them end! And the fulfillment of that prophecy actually began more than forty years ago! Thus, some people who are more than forty years old today will still be living when the destruction of Satan and his old system occurs. That is a startling statement, but the fact that the fulfillment of the earlier part of the prophecy has already occurred proves unquestionably that it is true!—Matthew 24:3-34, New World Trans.

Such a message should be widely published, so that everyone could know of it. And this mind-freeing message really is being proclaimed earth-wide today. Jesus foretold this, too, as a part of the sign of

the end of Satan’s wicked rule: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matthew 24:14, New World Trans.) Over six hundred thousand of Jehovah's witnesses throughout the earth are publishing this vital message in more than 160 different lands. They are carrying it to all the earth, not just using church buildings but, because it is so important, actually going to the people's homes with this message. Each day they publish nearly a quarter of a million magazines that, like this one, carry this vital message. And that is in addition to a yearly distribution of millions of books, booklets and other literature that provides this same vital Biblical information.

Knowing the reason for present conditions, what their outcome will be, and that their solution is near at hand, obviously frees the mind of the oppressive fears of our day. It removes the anxiety and frustrations that mark our time. The great Book of Freedom gives you confidence in the fact that mankind’s chief enslaver, Satan the Devil, and his whole wicked organization are soon to be destroyed, and that a great crowd of people, described in Revelation 7:9*17, will survive that destruction. It also shows how you can be a survivor. To become a survivor you must study God’s Word, gain from it the knowledge that leads to faith in God’s promises^ and then express that faith in the right works of living a clean life, serving Jehovah God and carrying this good message to others who can likewise become free-minded people.

The result of taking this wise course will be your everlasting release from bondage, sin and death. You will soon see Satan’s world destroyed—as God’s Word specifically promises—and will see all remaining on earth come into full freedom to serve a just and perfect God and to receive his righteous blessings for all eternity. As hundreds of thousands of other people are doing now, you can get this mental freedom by filling your mind with the truths of God’s Word and by taking the course that it outlines. Will you join with such free-minded people and receive these blessings ?

The .Modem Town of Sodom

"Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah. So he went ahead overthrowing these cities, even the entire District and all the inhabitants of the cities and the plants of the ground.*' Thus reads the Bible account at Genesis 19:24, 25 {New World Trans.) concerning God’s destroying ancient Sodom so thoroughly that even the vegetation was wiped out. Recently the modern town of Sodom, recalling the terrible sulphurous and fiery destruction of Biblical times, came into the news. Reporting on modem Sodom (population 1,000), Leroy Pope of United Press radio in New York said:

"A new town of Sodom has arisen at the south tip of the Dead Sea to mine the potash and other minerals—the residue of the fire and brimstone that destroyed the Biblical town. It's an eerie place—the modem town of Sodom. The temperature goes above 100 practically every day yet it is so dry no one perspires. The Dead Sea is so salty there not a fish swims in it. The surrounding land—laden with minerals—is so void of organic matter that it produces not a sprig of vegetation. Naturally, there is no animal life of any kind—not even insects. Not a single bird flies over Sodom.'*

MpL HE atomic '   * revolution

is here. Already atomic power plants are in operation in the United States, in Britain and in the Soviet Union. Larger atomic power plants are now under construction in several countries. But the atomic age is still young. Obviously the atom, if harnessed for peaceful purposes, has a big future. Just what the world's most illustrious scientists envision for the atom’s future was revealed at a historic conference in August, 1955, at Geneva, Switzerland. It was the United Nations International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. The delegates numbered 1,260 from seventy-two nations, and there were 800 other observers. What made this meeting so momentous, so historic, that newspapers reported that nothing like it had ever happened before?

One event alone made thf conference historic. It was the first time that the Soviet Union lifted, at least in part, the curtain on the development of peaceful uses of atomic energy within its borders. The Russians so fully entered into the spirit of the conference that they described in detai 1 their 5,000-kiiowatt power plant that has been successfully generating electricity for over a year, the first in history to do so. : Russia also disclosed ; that it was completing the largest atomsmashing machine in the world. It will be twice as powerful as the one recently completed in the United States and will hurl protons at their targets with the enormous energies of 10,000,000,-OtK) electron volts.

But it was not just Russia’s cooperation that made the conference so outstanding. There was the so-called “atomic fair,” the first the world has seen. Many of the great, marble-crusted spaces in Geneva’s Palace of Nations were crowded with exhibits of the participating governments, exhibits that ranged from tiny Instruments to large-scale models of reactors. Most of the exhibits were eerily silent, with no whining of gears or throb of engines. Yet this quietness seemed appropriate, since radioactivity is both invisible and silent. The most popular exhibit at the “atom fair” turned out to be a United States reactor immersed in a 21-foot-deep pool of crystalclear water. Delegates could see it work. When the reactor was on, the atomic core gave off a soft, blue light. Visitors were fascinated as they looked down with perfect safety and sensed the atom’s power.

The Scientific Revelations

Yet what made the conference so epic was not the fair but the scientific revelations. A discussion of the five most important scientific revelations will prove valuable in grasping an appreciation of the atom’s future and its meaning to mankind.

First, there was the disclosure that the cost of atomic power for many parts of the world will be competitive with other fuels within a very few years. This was welcome news, since the demand for energy is growing so fast that some claim that soon ordinary combustibles cannot meet the need. By 1975 the demand will be acute. So the emphasis at Geneva was on power, power that can he produced by fission.

Just what is fission? It is one of the processes of releasing energy locked up within the nuclei of atoms. It is the splitting of the nuclei of some heavy elements, such as uranium and plutonium into two lighter elements. Fissile fuels, those that can be “burned" in nuclear reactors by the splitting of their atoms, release in the process an energy 3,000,000 times that of coal. This means that one pound of fissile fuel is equal, as an energy source, to 1,500 tons of coal. Yet there has been a major drawback to the wonder of fission energy: the high cost of production.

But at Geneva papers were presented by British, Soviet and United States scientists and economists. These indicated that nuclear-powered electric plants, within a few years, were likely to he cheaper than plants using conventional fuels for regions not specially favored with natural fuels. This includes large parts of the United States. The experts were convinced that, at least in countries where coal is very expensive, uranium is even now a competitive fuel. “Just ten years from now," predicted one American delegate, “no one will ever consider building a non-nuclear power generating plant."

The second major revelation concerned the rapid development of breeder reactors. Regarded as the atomic power plant of the future, the breeder reactor not only regenerates its fuel but actually creates more fuel than it consumes, working on a compound interest basis. Of keen interest to the delegates was news of the development of a British experimental nuclear reactor that produces twice as much atomic fuel as it consumes.

To appreciate the marvel of the breeder reactor it is important to know something about nuclear fuels. There are two kinds: fissile and fertile. The fissile fuels are those that can be “burned" in a nuclear reactor by the splitting or fission of their atoms. The fertile fuels are those that in themselves are not fissionable but can be transmuted or fnade into fissile substances by modern alchemy. In other words, the fissile substances are the “chickens," while fertile substances are the "eggs" that, if properly fertilized, can tie hatched into “chickens."

Nature has been very niggardly with fissile fuels. In fact, it has provided only one of these, the variant or isotope of uranium known as U-235. (Plutonium and U-233 are also fissile fuels but they do not exist in nature.) A ton of natural uranium contains only fourteen pounds of U-235, a fissile fuel, and 1,986 pounds of U-238, a fertile fuel. That is a ratio of one to 140. But in a breeder reactor each pound of fissile U-235, as it is burned, also transmutes at the same time more than a pound of the nonfissile U-238 into an artificial fissile element called “plutonium." And the marvel continues: This plutonium, in turr., as it is burned keeps on converting the nonfissile U-238 into more plutonium, on a compound interest basis, until all the 1,986 pounds of nonfissile U-238 are converted into fissile plutonium, an interest rate of 14,000 per cent!

A Thorium Boom?

The third major revelation was concerning thorium, a nonfissile element. Thorium is cheaper than uranium and is estimated to be from four to ten times as abundant. When used in a reactor, where chain reaction can be started with plutonium, it is turned into U-233, a fissionable type of uranium found to be more efficient than present fuels as a suitable source of atomic power. It is thorium that makes the breeder reactor a practical proposition. The possible role of thorium in nuclear energy, until recently a top secret in the United States, Britain and other countries, was outlined by Dr. John V. Dunwirth, head of the reactor physics group of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, England. The conference was left with the impression that thorium is likely to become a nuclear fuel more valuable than uranium in the production of large quantities of cheap atomic power. The effect on the big-business men present was immediate. The question they wanted answered was: Is the value of uranium likely to fall off drastically in twenty or forty years, so that all the expensive prospecting now going on would be wasted?

Taming the Hydrogen Bomb

But if speculation over thorium caused a stir among the big-business investors, it was news over the taming of the hydrogen bomb that raised an apprehensive turmoil. This news came in the form of a talk by the president of the conference, Professor Homi Bhabha cf India. Dr. Bhabha made a sensational prediction that electrified his audience; "The historical period we are just entering, in which atomic energy released by the fission process will supply some of the power requirements of the world, may well be regarded one day as the primitive period of the atomic age.” What did Professor Bhabha mean?

He went on to give scientific revelation number four: that man will go on to tame the hydrogen bomb: “It Is well known that atomic energy can also be obtained by a fusion process, as In the hydrogen bomb, and there is no basic scientific knowledge in our possession today to show that it Is impossible for us to obtain this energy from the fusion process in a controlled manner.” Then Dr. Bhabha galvanized his audience by saying: “I venture to predict that a method will be found for liberating fusion energy in a controlled manner within the next two decades.”

Obviously, businessmen responsible for investing millions of dollars in uranium processes and plants wanted to know whether other forms of energy, including : power from the fission of uranium atoms, might suddenly become obsolete.

No one could answer the question for a certainty. But this much was clear: It was the first time that a scientist of the high standing of Dr. Bhabha had ventured to make such a prediction. The fact that other noted scientists from other countries agreed with Dr. Bhabha did not ease the apprehension of the business investors. Indeed, their fears only intensified as Admiral Lewis L. Strauss, chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, revealed that AEC scientists have been working for a considerable length of time on the problem of harnessing fusion energy. Only a “very few years,” Strauss told the delegates, separate the United States from the process of putting fusion explosive power to work. Britain, too, finally admitted that its scientists have been working on control of fusion energy, though with no hint of success. Yet all scientists agreed that the energy of the H-bomb would eventually be harnessed. Some of the more optimistic even expressed the view that the problem would be solved within the next five years.

This brings us to scientific revelation number five: the energy resources of mankind In the atom are practically unlimitedEven now without the fusion process, scientists point out, the potentialities of thorium as a source of fissionable material give man literally millions of years’ supply of energy to court on.

And what will be mankind’s lot when the hydrogen bomb is tamed and fusion energy put to work to do man good instead of evil? “When that happens,” declared Professor Bhabha, “the energy problems of the world will truly have been solved forever, for the fuel will be as plentiful as the heavy hydrogen in the oceans.** (Heavy hydrogen, named deuterium, is found in all waters in a ratio of one part to 5,000 of the light hydrogen.)

Yes, then man will finally have found a fuel supply that will last even as long as the sun itself. But more than that: man will then have the means to move entire mountains, to irrigate entire deserts and to transmute poverty into plenty. Thus it was that Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis L. Strauss made the confident prediction: “It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter; will know of great periodic regional famines In the world only as matters of history; will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speed. * ।. This is the forecast of an age of peace.”

A YOUNG man in-■ “ ’ quired of his father about rearing children: “Son,” said the father, “have three—then throw the first two away.” Puzzled at the reply, the young man turned to his mother with the same question, and she answered him similarly: “If only I could have had my second baby first,” she said. Meaning, of course, that * both fathers and mothers gather precious experience by having and caring for their first child— experience that no amount of books, pamphlets and expert advice on child care can impart. That is why mothers of large families will often say, the more children you have, the easier the job becomes.

But no matter how many children you may have, each one is different; each one is an exciting bundle of joy, a thrilling new experience! Mollie S. Smart describes parenthood as “a tremendous experience. It feels wonderful, horrible, beautiful, frightening, exciting, stifling—all at the same time.” With the coming of the infant, life takes on a brand-new appearance and meaning for mother. And being a mother and a homemaker stands out among the most important and fascinating jobs in the world. And all this because of baby.

Having a baby is one thing, but being a good parent is another. Any undertaking worthwhile has its share of worries and problems, and bringing a miracle into the world is certainly nothing to be winked at The constant awareness of the tremendous responsibility of caring for an infant and his dependence on you for life is both thrilling and frightening. Yet the joy he brings into life overshadows anything and everything anyone may ever think, say or do.

No doubt, the warm, all-rewarding feeling that wells up in new mothers is an instinctive joy placed there in woman for । fulfilling her part. “Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.” Happy, too, is the man whose

Home-Life Influence on Infant

Home is the infant’s first schoolhouse. From the day he is born it will continue to influence his behavior. Some experiences he gathers will continue with him for the rest of his life. The newborn infant begins almost immediately to learn what his father, mother and other people are like. He feels his surroundings before he sees them. He senses their love and affection that they bestow upon him. In their grasp he feels secure. He knows his parents as people who hold him close and play with him. When he is born his mind is extremely sensitive, carefully registering whether you are rough or gentle with him, the care you take when you bathe, dress and feed him. These are his first experiences with humankind, his first lessons in love, co-operation and patience. So do be careful to make these good impressions.

Taking care of baby is a twenty-four-hour job. At times it is exhausting, because of the number of new details that you know nothing about, plus the fact that you are still weak, A new mother regains her strength slowly. In her weak moments she is liable to feel blue and discouraged. Learning to give baby a bath and change his diapers does not take years to learn. What does take time is to know his needs as a person, the love and affection to shed upon him, the way to hold him and give him a sense of security—these things are just as important as his physical care; perhaps more so.

Every new mother should want to do her very best. Sometimes her conscientiousness may tend to magnify her inexperience and lack of ability. She may be prone to feel herself clumsier and more awkward than she actually is. Striving for perfection only leads to frustration. So, do not take your job too seriously. You will make mistakes. All mothers do. Your baby is not exactly fragile. It is amazing how tough he really is! Often new mothers say; “I'm so afraid I’ll hurt him if I don’t handle him right.”

Dr. B. Spock says that is a lot of nonsense. “You don’t have to worry,” he says, “you have a pretty tough baby. There are many ways to hold him. If his head drops backward by mistake it won’t hurt him. The open spot in his skull (the fontanel) is covered by a tough membrane like canvas that isn’t easily injured. The system to control ^iis temperature is working quite well by the time he weighs 7 pounds if he’s covered halfway sensibly. He has a good resistance to most germs. During a family cold epidemic he’s apt to have it the mildest of all. If he gets his head tangled in anything he has a strong instinct to struggle and yell. If he’s not getting enough to eat, he will probably cry for more. If the light is too strong for his eyes, he’ll blink and fuss. (You can take his picture with a flash bulb, even if it does make him jump.) He knows how much sleep he needs and takes it. He can care for himself pretty well for a person who can't say a word, can’t control his arms and legs, and knows nothing about the world.”

First Things to Do

The first thing you can do for your baby is to love him; then hold him closely and warmly. He loves this. And when you feed him, there is no substitute for skin-to-skin closeness. He also enjoys the feeling of firmness and the support that your arms give him. He likes being touched and patted gently and the feeling of being closely wrapped. He does not like sudden moves, sudden changes of temperature. He finds it disturbing and unpleasant, too, to be unnecessarily handled by strangers. Unfamiliar voices and faces irritate him when he wants to sleep. So be kind. Do not force other people on him. Protect him from them. Remember, he is just a little tot, and your companionship and play are about all he can take.

An infant is also easily upset by confusion, hurry, loud voices and other things that nervous people do. His behavior is but a mirror that reflects what goes on

Make up your mind that you will have to take things easy for a while, which means that you will have to close your eyes to some of the household duties, the dusting, cleaning and washing that ordinarily have to be done. This respite is to give your body an opportunity to build up strength. It may be necessary for you to sleep a little during the day when the baby is asleep. This will lift your spirit and make you more cheerful and you will not feel nearly as worn out when the baby keeps you up during the night.

It is wise to get your baby supplies ahead of time. A little job like buying a dozen nipples can appear to be a tremendous task when you are exhausted and do not have an ounce of strength left. If you understand that it is mostly because you are weak that you feel blue, discouraged, and have that let-down look, you will not feel half so bad.

As far as having "free time,” time for - yourself, that will be extremely limited for a while. Your personal freedom you have exchanged for the joy of having your baby, watching it grow and being its mother. Use wisely the little free time that you may have. Remember, you are the infant’s mother and baby’s needs will not be met if mother’s needs are forgotten.

Fathers are generally surprised to learn that baby needs them too. Fathers have a tendency to slip away and watch from the sidelines. And it may surprise new mothers to learn that fathers are good at more things than just walking the floor during the middle of the night with baby, or warming the bottle and changing diapers. A new father may be no clumsier than a new mother at giving an infant a bath or holding baby in his arms or lap and giving him the bottle. And baby, too, wants to get acquainted with his father.

Common Sense and Motherly Instincts

Dr SpOck says, “You know more than you think you do” about rearing babies* So “don’t be afraid to trust your own common sense.” “VVc know for a fact/’ he said, “that the natural loving care that kindly parents give to their children is a hundred times more valuable than their knowing how to pin a diaper on just right or making a formula expertly.” “It may surprise you to hear that the more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.” Let parental instincts guide. Whether your newborn baby weighs five or ten pounds, he looks surprisingly complete. From the hair on his head to his tiny toes, some twenty inches or so away, he is ready to take in experience and enjoy living* So remarkable is this miracle that happens tens of thousands of times each day in the world that we unite with King David to praise the One who made this gift possible: “I will give thanks unto thee [Jehovah]; for I am fearfully and wonderfully

made: wonderful are thy works; and that my soul know-eth right well.”—Psalm 139:14, Am, Stan. Ver.

D O YOU like strange things? Then you have but to look up the strangest trees on earth* Oh, there are many trees that whet our appetite for exotic and excitingly different things, some so weird that no human artist, even in his wildest imagination, could conjure up what nature has produced. Among the many candidates for the title of the seven strangest wonders of the tree world are: the cow tree, the shaving brush tree, the shooting tree, the cream-of-tartar tree, the tree that wears a petticoat, the murderous strangler tree and the tree under which 10,000 people can stand.

The cow tree is the tree that your milkman would like to slay with the ax— especially if you were to have one in your backyard. No wonder this tree would make the milk salesmen furious! It is a vegetable milk fountain. All you need is an instrument to pierce the tree’s bark. Then it starts to flow with a highly nutritious milky juice with an agreeable creamy odor and taste recalling that of cow’s milk. So the tree is called cow tree, but people in South America aptly call it drbol de leche (milk tree). At the rising of the sun the cow tree is most abundant, giving freely to those who are thirsty its rich, creamy goodness. Families who live near cow trees are assured of milk for the children. In this day of rising milk prices the cow tree could be used to great advantage in anyone’s backyard!

If the cow tree is strange, the shaving brush tree is stranger. So strange is this tree that one can scarcely believe his eyes

and ears! Belonging to the Bombax family of tropica] American trees, the shaving brush tree shows not the slightest sign of a leaf at the time of its blooming. Every twig ends in a bud that grows out into what reminds one of a fat cigar in a stubby holder. Then, quite suddenly, the cigar explodes. The explosion is a real noise! Persons standing nearby can readily hear the “pop.” After popping, the bud spreads out into a cockade, an eight-inch brush of golden-tipped coral filaments that looks exactly like a shaving brush. In Mexico, Central America and a few places in Florida this incredible tree that literally bursts into bloom may be both seen and heard.

The Shooting Tree

A traveler walking in the depths of the dense forests of the Brazilian Amazon may well find himself under attack. Bang! Pop! A round, shiny missile whizzes by his head. No, this is no attack by savages; it is just the shooting tree doing some target practicing for the benefit of posterity. This tree has sufficient ammunition—its own seeds!

Salvos of them! These seeds belong to the so-called Para rubber tree and come in a mottled-gray three-lobed capsule. When this tree is ready to shoot, the traveler might be surprised by a popping noise and might even be hit by a round, shiny seed.

Three seeds are present in each fruit and are forcibly expelled by the splitting at maturity. If you are standing within 60 feet of the triple-barreled shooting tree, you may feel the fury of a vegetable fusillade!

The baobab or cream-of-tartar tree of Africa makes Its claim as a strange tree for several reasons. First, it is an oddity in “tree-trunk growth; it reaches a girth of nearly a hundred feet! Not only that, but the baobab is a marvel in being bountiful to both animal and man. Monkeys love the fruit of this tree, and men often find it a lifesaver. During the rainy season the tree’s knotted hollows preserve water, which can be found weeks and even months after dry weather has set in. Indeed, for some Africans this tree is the chief source of the precious fluid.

But the baobab is much more than a vegetable canteen; it is almost a grocery store. Its flowers are sometimes crushed with sugar and water to make a refreshing and unusual beverage. Its seeds yield a valuable oil. The rind of the pods can be chopped and mixed with milk or water to make a nourishing biscuit. The pulp surrounding the seeds is crushed and ground into a powder used for flavoring food. So because parts of the baobab are used in flavoring food it has become known as the cream-of-tartar tree.

Strangely enough, this tree has not exhausted its oddities. Sometimes the baobab's multiple trunks weld themselves together to form a tree that looks like a beer bottle. Even the color of the bark is odd. It looks exactly like the color of an elephant’s skin. So, many a hunter, upon emerging suddenly from a dense brush, swings his rifle with deadly intentions at the baobab tree. If he is trigger-happy and blazes away, another oddity is revealed. Though the baobab may be the largest tree as far as girth of trunk is concerned, its soft, spongy wood bffers little resistance to a bullet, which will completely penetrate the largest of them.

Tree That Wears a Petticoat

In the heart of Africa glows the silkcotton tree, also called the kapok or ceiba tree. It is a tree with the freakish appearance of something from the landscape of an artist’s nightmare. But then it is doubtful that an artist, even with his imagination turned loose, could come up with the tree that wears a petticoat, Instead of having a simple trunk like a maple tree, the silk-cotton tree has a trunk that flares out in folds like a gigantic petticoat. These folds often begin as high as 30 or 40 feet above the ground and form a skirt whose hem line could enclose a small house. This wooden petticoat serves a very useful purpose. The tree’s roots are shallow, so were it not for these skirtlike braces the tree might easily be uprooted in a storm.

Just as the python makes its living by coiling around its victim and squeezing it to death, so there are trees that, to get a start in life, strangle other trees to death. New Zealand’s strangler tree, Metrosideros robusta, is commonly called the “rata.” It starts as an epiphyte or air plant. Soon it sends down aerial roots that clasp the host tree’s trunk. Finally they reach the ground and increase in size and number. The rata, kindly assisted by the host tree, grows into a Frankenstein. Soon the rata entwines the host tree in a crushing network of roots that embrace it in a death-dealing stranglehold. The host tree, of course, puts up a fight, but usually it is not strong enough to win.

Interestingly, there are three New Zealand timber trees that defy the strangler. One is a pine called “kauri,” whose bark sheds frequently by scaling, thus preventing the strangler's rootlets from gaining a solid foothold. Two other trees that win

the battle with the strangler are the puriri and the maire, both of which resist the strangler’s embrace because they are sturdy, strong trees with a very hard wood.

The Single-Tree Forest

Can a tree be one tree and yet be a forest? It seems impossible, but not for the Indian fig tree called the “banyan tree.” From its very beginning the banyan tree is an oddity. Since its seeds seldom germinate in the ground it relies on the birds for help. Birds obligingly place the tree’s seeds in the crown of a palm tree. Soon a bird-placed seed sprouts right on top of the palm tree and sends down aerial roots that grip the palm tree in a stranglehold. The palm tree dies and the banyan tree takes its place. This is only the beginning!

Not content to live in the space usually allotted to a single tree, the banyan tree throws out branches. As they grow they put out hanging roots that increase in length till they reach the ground, and there take root and develop into new stems. In this way the tree spreads farther and farther all round the original trunk with an ever-growing number of stems that become as thick as the trunk itself. At last the banyan loses all resemblance to a single tree and takes on the appearance of a miniature forest.

In India some of these single-tree forests cover an unbelievably enormous area. They become the home of hundreds of bats, birds and monkeys. If the center trunk of the tree decays and dies, that is all right. The tree lives on supported by the many root stems it has thrown down and it draws nourishment from the ground by their means. In the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, India, there is a banyan tree with the main trunk over 40 feet in circumference. It has 230 secondary trunks 10 to 60 feet around, and more than 3,000 smaller trunks. Understandably, as a shelter from the hot Eastern sun the banyan tree has no equal. It is the only tree in existence under which almost 10,000 people can stand!

There are many other candidates for the title of strangest trees on earth. Keep your eyes open wherever you are. Learn to appreciate the singularly beautiful and strange features of each kind of tree, just one of the many plants that the Creator, Jehovah, made for the rich enjoyment of man. With some 70,000 different kinds of trees to choose from, you will soon be able to cast your own votes for the strangest trees on earth.

Why Atany Stay Away from Church

Why do 64,000,000 Americans, or 40.5 per cent of the population, stay away from churches? Look magazine, in its issue of March 22, 1955, asked that question. The magazine answered: "Many stay away because of the denominational rivalries and bickering. Some dislike formal, elaborate rituals. And some (though they do not know it) follow the example of the noblest man our land has produced, Abraham Lincoln, who, in a startling and little-known statement of his faith, declared that he had never united himself to any church because he found difficulty in giving his assent, without mental reservations, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine which characterize articles of belief and confessions of faith: 'When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of the substance of both law and Gospel, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself," that church will I join with all my heart.*"

REFORCE, PEARL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

fry “Awak«” corr«»porMi*nt in Spain

SB3f HE Balearic Islands are nestled in the blue | Mediterranean Sea just east ci Valencia, jJ|. Spain. The largest of the isles, Majorca, Is sometimes called “The Isle of Dreams?¹ That Is not exactly a misnomer, either, because here the mellow climate unites its gentleness with the picturesque landscape to create a virtual dreamland paradise for artists and poets.

The high peaks that stretch across Majorca are covered with snow during the winter months. Along toward spring the delicate petals of the almond blossom blanket the lowlands like sheets of white, sparkling dew. In these lower areas flourish apricots, figs and vines. An ingenius system of irrigation ensures a steady water supply to the arid areas. The water is usually drawn into a Concrete tank by a pump driven by a windmill. From the tanks the water supply can be controlled by a sluice. The water is led along artificial cement channels to strategic points on the farm. From there the farmer guides it by suitable furrows to fertile fields.

r Older than the windmill for drawing water is the noria. This ancient system, dating back to about the eighth century, involves a kind of crown wheel and pinion made entirely of wood, and is operated by a mule, generally blindfolded, that walks in circles around the well while harnessed to the beam that extends from the center. A series of pots attached to a long continuous chain hauls the water up and at the surface spills it into a cistern. The Spanish name for these pots, arcaducest confirms the origin of this system as being Moorish.

< The Majorcan believes in manana (tomorrow). Take a pair of shoes to be mended, and if he does not have them ready when you return, there is always manawa. There are factories that manufacture custom-made shoes, but many of these kind and friendly islanders prefer theirs made by the cobbler. They do not mind waiting for them. For them, too, there is always a 'mafiana.

Olive oil is part of the staple diet of the islander and olive harvesting is a seasonal occupation. There are olive trees on the island a thousand years old, and the method of gathering the olives is about the same as the day when these trees were mere saplings. Roast pork, and especially the young sucking pig, is a favorite with the Majorcan. When butchering time arrives, the country folk generally have a family gathering and celebrate the occasion. Rice cooked with all sorts of delicacies, shrimp, shellfish, pulpo, calomar, and parts of chicken, rabbit and other meat make for another tasty dish.

However, the island's own speciality is sopas mallorquinax. This is made in an earthenware pan, starting with onion, tomato and parsley in olive oil, adding water and every kind of vegetable that is available. When all is cooked the vegetables are taken out and a specially prepared bread is added until the remaining liquid is all absorbed. Then the vegetables are placed on top again. Each cook, of course, adds his own technique, which contributes to variety. Majorcans rate this as their number one dish.

Houses on the island are tile-floored and clean. Cooking is usually done over a charcoal fire, while electricity is employed for lighting. Transportation needs vary, from a slow donkey to fast-moving electric trains. Majorca is now linked to the Iberian peninsula and the rest of Europe by daily air services.

Palma, the capital city of the big island, has 150,000 inhabitants. Its narrow streets are giving way to wide avenues and attractive buildings. And in the heart of the city is a section that still retains its primitive character, which has become a special tourist attraction. The artistic mansions of the nobles of the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, with their majestic courtyards leading through stone archways onto streets so narrow that the sun rarely shines on them, are to be found here. Here, too, rises a cathedral that dominates any general view of the city. Roman Catholic superstition has a strong hold over the minds of these peace-loving people.

Just a short walk through the orange groves or over the terraced hills will answer why men have called Majorca "The Isle of Dreams." For, when compared with the rest of the world, it truly is La Isla de la Calma, the tranquil isle, a dream in this world.

speak of such Stoics as Christians. Thus the Roman senator Seneca, who was the most notable and best known of the Roman philosophers, has been termed the “most Christian of the Stoics.”

Seneca was born in Spain about 4 B.C. At an early age his father, a man of learning and wealth, brought him to Rome, where Seneca was taught by the most learned of the Greeks and Romans. Because of his skill in argumentation he became so popular, powerful and wealthy that the emperor Caligula (Gaius) planned to have him assassinated but was dis

suaded by friends of Seneca, who assured the emperor that disease would claim Seneca before long.

Two years later Caligula was assassinated and the new emperor, Claudius, had Seneca banished to the barren island of Corsica. After eight years Seneca was recalled by the empress Agrippina, the widow of Claudius, whom she had poisoned to secure the throne for her son by a

N CERTAIN Romans of the first and second centuries A.D., the Stoic philosophy found its most able spokesmen. Developed by the Greeks some centuries before Christ, Stoicism, with its emphasis on pantheism and ethics, might be said to have been more of a religion than a philosophy. According to it the universe was rational with supreme wisdom in full control. Everything started from fire and would end in being consumed by fire. Stoicism held that those who are wise are completely independent of external circumstances such as riches and poverty and entirely free from bondage to desires, appetites and emotions. It stressed strength of will and resignation based on the insight of reason.

Although Stoicism knows nothing of the Bible, of Jehovah’s name or of Christ’s sacrifice, many biographers and philosophers former marriage, Domitius, later and better known as Nero. She was ambitious not only to have her son become a powerful ruler but also a very wise one, and who could better educate him than Seneca, the wisest of all the Roman philosophers? So Seneca was recalled, not only to be tutor of the 11-year-old Domitius but also to be prime minister and chief administrator (and, likely, intimate of the empress) of the Roman Empire.

When he reached the age of seventeen Agrippina made her son emperor. Because she still tried to dominate her son Nero as regards his private life, Nero had her murdered. Seneca, ostensibly Nero’s moral guide, is credited with having suggested this way out for Nero, he afterward publicly justifying Nero in the murder of his mother. In view of attempts made on his life Nero grew suspicious of Seneca and tried to get one of Seneca’s servants to poison him. This failing, Nero sent an army

officer, commanding that Seneca take his own life, whjch he did by cutting his veins.

Modern philosophers wax eloquent in praise of Seneca’s noble sentiments: "Virtue alone bringeth secure and perpetual joy." "The evil are won by persistent goodness." “Covetousness is the root of all evil." Seneca said that each night he carefully went over the deeds of the day, not sparing himself, but promising himself forgiveness if he would not do a certain misdeed again. Denied the opportunity to bequeath his wealth to his friends, he told them that he was bequeathing them that which was more valuable in his sight than his wealth, namely, the pattern of his life.

The fact is that Seneca was an arch hypocrite. Both his style of writing and method of reasoning were wholly Epicurean, the very opposite of the Stoicism that he claimed to espouse. And there was an even greater difference between his philosophy and his daily life. Says one historian; "It is not to his credit to have accumulated in four years one of the largest fortunes in Rome while serving under such a master.” And that while claiming to be a Stoic!

Another authority tells that Seneca eulogized the cottage life while passing his days in splendid villas and palaces,* he addressed his treatise “On Clemency” to Nero, but disguised, if he did not sanction, the poisoning of Nero’s stepfather Claudius by Agrippina; he justified the murder of Agrippina by Nero and failed to interfere in Nero’s murder of his divorced wife Octavia. Seneca expatiated on the evils of avarice and wrote at great length "On Beneficence,” but he enriched himself by imperial confiscations and ruthless fiscal policies, his estates in Brittany alone being valued at millions of dollars.

More inconsistencies could be pointed out, but the foregoing should suffice to show why it has been said of him "his life was all a lie.” Even Marcus Aurelius, pagan Stoic emperor of a century later, had no use for Seneca, for he knew that “Seneca’s luxurious life, his wealth, his villa, his love of fame, gave the lie to his protestations of being a Stoic.”

In view of such a record is It not the very zenith of hypocrisy for Seneca to say that he bequeathed to his friends that which he valued most, the pattern of his life? Professors of philosophy speak of "a philosophy to live by.” How well did Seneca live by his philosophy? And just one look at the life of Jesus and the apostle Paul should show how preposterous is the statement that Seneca was the “most Christian of the Stoics.”

Epictetus, the Slave

Generally those who have a higher opinion of philosophy than of religion like to credit the Roman Stoics, such as Epictetus, with having influenced Christianity. Others, however, such as The Encyclopedia Americana, indicate that the ideas spread abroad by Christianity, if not consciously and directly, at least unconsciously and indirectly, influenced the later Stoics such as Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.

Epictetus was a Greek slave who lived from A.D. 50 to 60 to about 125. His master was captain of Nero’s royal guard who accompanied Nero when he fled Rome, and later aided Nero in his suicide. Because of this he was put to death by Nero’s successor Galba, who reigned only a few months, was murdered and was succeeded by Vespasian. These circumstances played a role in Epictetus’ getting his freedom, after which he devoted himself to teaching philosophy. Aside from the foregoing and the fact that he opened a school for philosophy near Nicopolis after having been banished together with other philosophers by the

Roman emperor Domitian A.D. 90, little is known about Epictetus.

What is known about the philosophy of Epictetus has come down by means of his pupils, he leaving behind no writings. Even as is the case with other Stoic philosophers, the philosophy of Epictetus abounds with inconsistencies and contradictions. On the one hand, he states that death cannot be terrible since Socrates did not consider it so, etc. And on the other hand he advises to keep death and exile and suchlike before one’s eyes every day and “you will never think a low thought, nor will you covet anything.” If death and suchlike are no evils, how can the thought of them have a salutary effect on one’s conduct?

Oriental fatalism is apparent in his observation that God is the great Manager that selects the roles and it is not for us to complain but merely to concern ourselves with playing our roles well. However, he fails to state why God gives differing roles, if he does give them. Like the Oriental philosopher he holds that the body is so evil that there is no difference between king and slave, every man is a soul carrying about a big corpse, but, on the other hand, he insists that life in itself is not miserable, unless we try to live it out of harmony with divine reason.

He says that “when a difficulty confronts you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man/’ Sounds good, but he fails to add weight to his illustration by telling us why. Wrestlers train to win wealth and fame, but Epictetus, in common with the rest of the Stoic philosophers, gives no incentive except to satisfy one’s pride.

He tells us that the remedy for mankind’s ills is philosophy. But whose? And how can people be made to appreciate the right philosophy and made to apply it in their own lives? ‘Steer your course by the star of wisdom/ Again a noble sentiment. But what is the course of wisdom? Epicureanism or Stoicism, or some other philosophy?

’Nothing in all literature is so depressing as the “Dissertations” of this slave unless it be the “Meditations” of another Stoic, the emperor Marcus Aurelius/ says one of the foremost living philosophers. Christ Jesus and his apostles came with good news, glad tidings. While Epictetus expressed many noble thoughts about putting the praise of God before all else, his theme and mood was that of pessimism and he severely condemned Christians as fanatics. In view of all the foregoing facts one wonders how far the early “Christian” organization must have strayed by the time it adopted the Handbook of Epictetus as a manual for the church, as though God’s Word were not sufficient!

Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor

Marcus Aurelius has been termed “the noblest of pagan emperors,” and, according to the historian Gibbons, his reign and that of his,predecessor mark the happiest period in mankind’s history. But what are the facts? Was this Stoic emperor truly so noble and his reign truly so happy?

Marcus was born in Rome A.D. 121. Orphaned at an early age he was adopted by his grandfather and then, together with another Roman youth, was made joint heir of the emperor. From early childhood Marcus was extremely devoted to pagan religion. A statue shows him at the age of eight offering sacrifice, at which time he already was a priest of Mars. At the age of twelve he began practicing Stoic asceticism to the extent of injuring his health.

He had the best of tutors and not long after his becoming coemperor his “partner” died leaving him as sole ruler. He established a firm foundation for civil law; founded schools, homes and orphanages for the education and care of poor children; put in a just system of taxation, and eased many other inequitable features of Roman law.

As a Stoic he is best known for his Med-itationSj which he wrote as a diary, solely for his own benefit, and which he based on the sayings of Epictetus, his “Bible.” In his writings he respectively credits his various tutors for his various virtues, of which he seems to have been very well aware. Throughout the Meditations one notices the contradiction of fatalism and individual responsibility. He repeatedly lectures himself regarding his responsibility but excuses others on the basis of fate. The sum and substance of his ethics seems to be: Tt is foolish to be bad, because the result is that you are bad; if bad, you cannot be proud of being good’ ’ And, “If there be a God, all is well [you will be rewarded], but if all is random, act not at random thou.” Why, he does not say.

But in spite of all his noble sentiments Marcus Aurelius came far short on four counts. First, he not only put down rebellions but waged “wars of aggressive Roman conquest,” his reign being one war after another, worshiping at the altar of the symbolic Mars even as he^Jdid as a child before the altar of the god Mars. Second, his wife Faustina, an emperor's daughter, although bearing him many children, had a private life marked with scandal. Yet upon her death Marcus had her deified In a most ostentatious manner.

Third, Marcus appointed his son as his heir, and so Commodus became emperor at the age of nineteen, Marcus dying A.D. 180 at the age of 59. Commodus was an “execrable monster,” who amused himself by literally carving up his enemies, cutting off their noses, ears, etc. He demanded to be worshiped as Hercules Romanus and made great display of his physical strength. After twelve years of such rule Rome could not stand it any longer and conspirators strangled him. That Marcus would raise such a monster and then make him heir apparent does not indicate much wisdom on his part.

Marcus’ worst blot, however, was his persecution of Christians. Much has been written trying to gloss over this feature of his rule, but it simply cannot be harmonized with his high-sounding philosophy and indicates that he was first of all a fanatical pagan emperor and only second a Stoic philosopher. Says The Encyclopedia Americana: “The heathen beliefs of his ancestors . . . actuated him to the severe and bloody measures he took to root out a dangerous rival. He regarded Christianity as a ‘pernicious sect,’ a ’secret conspiracy’ against the empire, an ‘immoral superstition?

“In this signal instance he is as bloody and heartless as a Domitian, a Nero or a Caligula. His first edict against the Christians was published in 177. Multitudes perished in the fierce persecutions which followed.” Since the writer of Meditations could not do better than to engage in aggressive wars of Roman conquest, deify an unfaithful wife, fasten an execrable monster on the Roman empire as its ruler and engage in wholesale murder of Christians, what folly for any, and especially those claiming to be Christians, to waste any time perusing his philosophy!

In view of all the foregoing facts regarding Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, why is it that so many see a similarity between their philosophy and Christianity? For the answer to that question we refer the reader to the article appearing on page 25 of this issue, “Similarities of Stoicism and Fusion Religion.”

_ Similarities of Stoicism and Fusion Religion

TRUE Christianity puts first the name of Jehovah God. It recognizes as its authority the Bible. It is based on the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Since these are its chief characteristics it follows that Stoicism is no more like Christianity than is Epicureanism, as neither knows anything about these three prime essentials. However, Stoicism is similar in many respects to fusion religion. Fusion religion?

Yes, the Bible shows that, even while the apostles were alive, an apostasy was beginning to form and that only their presence with their divine authority and powers kept it from taking over. After they fell asleep in death the apostasy soon did take over. To gain numbers and power it watered down Christianity, added pagan religious practices and adopted pagan philosophy such as that of Plato and Zeno’s Stoicism. It is therefore not surprising that such a fusion religion, consisting of apostate Christianity, pagan religion and Greek philosophy, should resemble Stoicism and that it should adopt the Handbook of Epictetus as a manual.—Acts 20:29, 30.

Stoicism, and particularly as taught by the later Roman Stoics, makes much of the fact that all men are the children of God. ‘Why should one feel proud that he is the son of the emperor when all are sons of God?’ It knew nothing, however, of the Bible teaching that only through the offices of Christ Jesus can we become God’s sons.

In this respect fusion religion is like Stoicism. Typical of the attitude that Christendom takes in regard to this is the editorial that appeared in Life, April 11, 1955, and that said in part: “Christ taught sacrifice as the road to spiritual riches. But what door did he show? T am the way,’ He said: ‘the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.'

“That is surely a simple statement, yet few words present more difficulties for the modern mind. Does it mean that one church only, or one faith only, is the way to God? Taken literally, it would damn all those saintly men who have reached God through other religions—the way of Tao, of Hinduism, of Gautama or Mohammed. A God so parochial as to exclude alien saints from His kingdom does not sound like the God of mercy whom Christ preached . . . Christianity is not the only framework of a truly spiritual life.”

But Jesus not only said, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” but his very next words were, "No one comes to the Father except through me.” Yes, true Christianity says there is only one way, Stoicism and fusion religion hold that there are many ways.—John 14:6, New World Trans.

Both Stoicism and fusion religion put the emphasis on the individual, his welfare, and that by the development of a “beautiful character.” There is nothing wrong in trying to lead a good, upright life, in endeavoring to overcome one’s weaknesses. But that is not the chief purpose of existence. Man’s chief duty is to bring honor to God’s name. In his model prayer Jesus put his Father’s name first: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified.” And regarding Jesus’ work on earth, he said at its conclusion: “I have glorified you [Jehovah] on the earth, having finished the work you have given me to do.”—Matthew 6:9; John 17:4, New World Trans.

Stoicism and fusion religion are also similar in that they both advocate asceticism, the severe treatment of the body, as though suffering for its own sake were meritorious. The mother of young Marcus Aurelius had to beg him to sleep on skins and not just bare planks, as she noted that his asceticism was injuring his health. Likewise there are certain Roman Catholic orders where its members sleep on corrugated boards, deny themselves necessary food, etc.

But there is not a word in all the Scriptures commanding asceticism. The fact is that some of Jesus’ enemies were ascetics and so they accused him of being a winebibber and a glutton, merely because he was not one. Paul warns against asceticism, describing it as “an appearance of wisdom in a self-imposed form of worship and mock humility, a severe treatment of the body,” but of “no value in combating the satisfying of the flesh.” The Christian does not court pain but avoids it if he can; not, however, at the cost of his integrity toward God, for he knows that “all those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus will also be persecuted.” —Colossians 2:21-23; 2 Timothy 3:12, New World Trans.

Stoicism is also similar to fusion religion in that it knows nothing about original sin estranging man from God and man’s need of a Redeemer. Like the Stoics, many leaders of Christendom refuse to recognize any merit in the sacrifice of Christ but state that all the good he did was in preaching right principles and setting a good example. True Christianity, however, shows that Christ is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, which came because of the sin of one man, Adam, and that “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.” —1 Timothy 2:5, 6, New World Trans.

Stoicism is further similar to fusion religion in that both hold that fiery destruction is the destiny of this earth, Christendom taking literally Peter’s words that “the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” However, from the context of Peter’s words it is clear that he is not referring to the literal earth and heavens, for he speaks of a previous world that perished by the Flood. Besides, God’s Word tells us that God created the earth, not in vain, but to be inhabited, and that “the earth remains for ever.”—2 Peter 3:7, New World Trans.; Ecclesiastes 1:4, Rev, Stan. Ver.

Stoicism is also similar to fusion religion in that both attract men of worldly learning and rank. But as regards genuine Christianity the words of Paul have ever been true: “For you behold his calling of you, brothers, that not many wise in a fleshly way were called, not many powerful, not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put the wise men to shame, and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put the strong things to shame; and God chose the ignoble things of the world and the things looked down upon, the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, in order that no flesh might boast in the sight of God.” —1 Corinthians 1:26-29, New World Trans.

Stoicism is boastful of its accomplishments even as is fusion religion, and no doubt Stoicism did have a part in the development of fusion religion, a religion composed of apostate Christianity, pagan religion and Greek philosophy, but it had nothing to do in bringing forth true Christianity. On the contrary, it appears that the later Roman Stoics borrowed from Christianity.

El Salvador

COZILY nestled within the tropics, El Salvador is a country of mountains, hills and upland plains. The heat is modified by the altitude; rarely does the temperature rise above 80 degrees, and there are times when the mercury will go as low as 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

The religion of El Salvador is Catholic and the language is Spanish. Salvadorans love their country and are doing everything within their limited budget to improve it. They are not a lazy people. The average citizen here is free from political jitters, but there is an ever-present dread of earthquakes.

In 1945 when four Watch Tower missionaries arrived in El Salvador, the people here knew practically nothing of Jehovah’s witnesses. So these missionaries quite naturally wondered how they would be received. Would the Catholic people of El Salvador accept the Kingdom message? Now they know. Today there are upward of 323 witnesses of Jehovah in the land, all of them busy talking about the new world. This number includes smoothcheeked Indians, bearded Spaniards, valley dwellers and hill people, rich and poor, educated and illiterate. ¹

Everyone in El Salvador is expected to have a religion. “Atheist” is a bad word here. So, many scoffed, thinking that Jehovah's witnesses would not make headway with a people already proselyted by an amazing diversity of Protestant religions. But Jehovah’s witnesses made progress. Today Salvadorans know of the Kingdom and they are aware that Jehovah is God and that he has witnesses in the earth. Even Protestant leaders are making use of the name Jehovah in their lectures.

Image worship has taken over to a great extent the Catholic population here. For example: In the town of San Vicente it is customary during the month of December each year to remove the image of Saint Vincent from the church and parade it through the streets in a long succession of religious rites. Much money is spent during these festive days. Rockets are fired by the hundreds, there is dancing in the markets, and drinking and tamale eating head the festive agenda. However, during the 1953 season the bishop of San Vicente offered a change in tradition. He suggested that the money they spent on food and merrymaking be contributed to the church. The people were unco-operative. The bishop then refused to release the image to them, at which action the people became enraged, stormed the church and removed the image by force. Thereafter followed a wilder series of reveling. The bishop obviously lost all control of his parishioners. He resorted to threats, various church sanctions and even the newspaper to gain possession of the image. It was only after the wild reveling had spent itself that the people were willing to return the image, but the church would not have it. So "Saint Vincent” was taken to the town hall and placed in care of the mayor.

While the people in El Salvador are apparently Catholic, they are at one and the same time anticlerical. They make a distinction between the Roman Catholic religion and the El Salvadoran priesthood that administers the religion. This condition is the fruit of priests’ not practicing what they preach. Therefore we find devout Catholics loyal to their religion, but not loyal to the priests.

Another peculiar situation here with respect to Catholicism: A loyal Catholic may be devout in worship to the image of “the virgin,” but see no need whatsoever to be loyal or devoted to Catholic doctrine. Doctrine and Bible knowledge have become divorced from the Catholic mind. This condition makes it possible for thousands of Catholics to attend Protestant religious meetings, to become members of the Masonic lodge and even to practice spiritism and at the same time be Catholics. The general Catholic in El Salvador, in fact, no longer believes in purgatory, the hell-fire doctrine or infant baptism.

Yet this is not to be understood to mean that the vast Catholic population of El Salvador is in danger of changing its religion. Rather, it simply means that by some strange evolutionary process a new religion has been formed with the same Catholic name and adopted by the people. The “new” religion is based primarily on two main doctrines: the worship of Mary as the “Most Holy Virgin,” and the zealous worship of “Holy Saints,” represented in the form of plaster and wood images of varied sizes and dress.

These are some of the things that Jehovah’s witnesses have to contend with while preaching the good news of God’s kingdom from door to door in this land. Progress is admittedly slow in lands steeped in superstition and tradition. But the truth of God’s Word is boring its way deeper and deeper into isolated places. Spiritual seeds are being planted and in many cases these have taken root and have grown into flourishing congregations. In one instance, a grandfather of a large family called his household together to consider the religion of Jehovah’s witnesses. After they thoroughly discussed the matter it was decided that they would become Jehovah’s witnesses. Thirteen were immersed a few weeks later; nine more followed. The grandfather, whose name is Abraham, is in his eighties. He led the way to baptism and to tossing away their $120 image. With such response, who will deny progress in El Salvador?

• How churches are responsible for the current plunge into pleasure seeking? P. 3, 115, • What percentage of today’s school children are fn need of mental guidance? P. 5, 1?2.

• • Where real freedom can be found’ P. 6, 115.

• • How widespread the proclamation of the one truly mind-freeing message is today? P. 7, U3.

• • Where the first “atomic fair" was held, and what was displayed there? P. 9, !|3.

• • Whether it is believed that the hydrogen bomb can be harnessed for industrial power? P. 11, 113.

• How its home life will influence a newborn infant? P. 13, f4.

• • What the first things to keep in mind in caring for your baby are? P. 14, 114.

• • What one tree can become a whole miniature foresi? P. 19, fiz.

• What proves the Stoic philosopher Seneca was an arch hypocrite living a lie? P. 22, H2.

• How the philosophy of Epictetus abounded with inconsistencies and contradictions?

P. 23, fit.

• Why merely leading a good life and overcoming one's weaknesses is not the chief purpose of existence? P. 25, f(7.

• How and why religious doctrine in El Salvador is all mixed up? P. 27, 1'6.

To Chock Moscow’s Expansion & Moscow seems always to be pushing outward along some segment of its frontier; it usually chooses the softest segment. Thus the West began a great project with the North Atlantic Alliance in 1949: the forging of an interlocking series of military alliances around the Communist cluster of nations. In October the last link in the vast project was bolted into place by Iran’s announcement that it would join the Baghdad pact linking Britain, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and now Iran, in a "northern tier” defense chain across the Middle East. Now the Soviet bloc is checked on its western borders by NATO, on the east by the U.S. alliances with Japan, Korea and Formosa, on the southeast by SEATO and on the south by this newly completed association of Moslem states reaching from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Bengal.

The Kremlin’s Trojan Horse

<$> The desire for arms today is almost a mania with many peoples. The Kremlin, capitalizing on this, has been able to come up with a new Trojan horse. This Trojan horse was recently exposed by Allen Dulles, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence. What is it? It is Russia’s mounting mountain of obsolescent military equip. ment, which, when sold to noncommunist lands, often makes possible the introduction of Red technicians. By peddling arms outside the iron curtain, Moscow in effect cracks the containment belt that the West has built up around the Soviet bloc. The arms sale makes it possible for Red technicians to enter a country, and the arms themselves provide seed for stirring up little wars to weaken the noncommunist world, divide it and make it ripe for Communist plucking. That Moscow hopes to do some plucking in the Middle East has become apparent. With the sale of arms to Egypt, Russia also announced in October that it would be glad to send in “technicians.” It was bad enough for the West to contemplate the inflow of Red technicians in the Middle East, but it was worse yet to face the prospect of Communist missions. In Cairo Soviet ambassador Daniel Solod told reporters: “We will send economic missions, scientific missions, agricultural missions, meteorological missions and any other kind of mission you can imagine that will help these countries.” Though he spoke those words laughingly, it was no joke to the West: the Kremlin was using its new Trojan horse.

The Saar Votes “No”

■$> Though the Saar enjoys internal autonomy, it is within the French customs and monetary zones, and France is ne-sponsible for its defense and foreign relations. At issue in October was the question of “yes” or "no” to an agreement between France and West Germany to “Europeanize” the Saarland, under the administration of the Western European Union. Dr. Adenauer urged Germans of the Saar to vote for the Saar statute. But pro-German parties campaigned against the statute, seeing its defeat as a necessary first step toward eventual reunion with the fatherland. The voters surged to the polls. By a vote of more than two to one they said “no." The statute's defeat means that the Saar territory remains under its present status until a peace treaty with Germany is signed, at which time the question of its future status will again be submitted to a vote.

Ballot Box Revolution

Never before had South Vietnam ever taken a national vote. The question that went to the voters in October was: Who would be chief of state? A ballot had two pictures; voters could tear off and deposit the picture of the man they favored. One picture was a sullen-looking chief of state, Bao Dai; the other picture was of smiling Premier Ngo Dlnn Diem. Premier Diem, a Roman Catholic, had an advantage; he was in South Vietnam. But Buddhist Bao Dai, the exemperor of Assam who was installed by France as the Vietnamese chief of state In 1949, was away, living in a selfimposed “exile” on the Riviera, gambling, trapshooting, sun bathing. Bao Dai recently “dismissed” Diem, but the premier continued anyway with plans for the national vote. When the votes were counted, Premier Diem won an overwhelming victory; and in a ballot box revolution replaced Bao Dal as chief of state. Diem now has “the task of organizing a republic.¹’

The Friendly Russian People

<$■ It has been more than ten years since the people of Leningrad last saw a Western naval squadron. When Britain decided to send a squadron of six ships to Leningrad in October on a courtesy visit, the navy wondered what the reception would be. As they went ashore the sailors found out. Huge crowds swarmed through the streets following them. "I have never seen anything like this before,” said a British officer as the crowd swirled around him. “It is as if we were men from Mars.” Said a stoker from an aircraft carrier, as he was being besieged by some fifty autograph seekers: “These people here are really friendly.” Many Leningraders expressed friendly feelings for Britain and the British people; several told reporters that they hoped a U.S. squadron would visit the city.

PerOn'a Wealth Disclosed

& After the revolt that led to the downfall of Juan PerOn as dictator of Argentina and to his internment in central Paraguay, investigators dug into Perdn’s affairs. They came up with disclosures of shocking riches: stacks of Argentine currency worth millions of dollars, glittering diamonds and emeralds, decorative ivory objects, boxes filled with gold money and table ware, gold medallions and choice Oriental rugs, a wardro.be of several hundred suits and garages full of motorcycles and automobiles. In October some of the wealth was put on public display, such 'as -400 dresses,' 600 hats and a vast number of purses and shoes said to have belonged to Perdn’s late wife. Investigators valued Per&n’s discovered wealth at more than $6,500,000. That is not all. They are convinced he has large bank accounts in the U.S. and other countries.

A New Map of India

<$■ India has an enormous problem: the nation has 14 major languages, each of them spoken by millions of people, and hundreds of dialects. "Students,” complained Prime Minister Nehru, “do not know what language they should learn and so become ignorant of every language.” Despite the forces of Babel, India is trying to unify the country; it hopes to do this by recognizing its diversity. For two years Prime Minister Nehru has had a commission working to redraw India’s map. The reason: the 29 states that make up India have boundaries that bear little relation to the language of their peoples. In October India made public tentative plans to reduce 29 States to 16, all of them with a full measure of local government. All but two of the 14 language groups would have states of their own. For the future Nehru would like to see Hindi become the national language of education, with each school teaching the local language and English on the side.

The Jet Age

<$> Until October no commercial airline had made an outright purchase of U.S. jet airliners. The problem was which airliner to buy: the Boeing 707 or the Douglas DC-8. Pan American World Airways solved the problem and became the first to buy U.S. jet airliners. It signed a $269,000,000 contract for 20 Boeing 707’s and 25 Douglas DC-8’s. By splitting the order between the two manufacturers, Pan American squeezed out competitors and will get the first jet airliners into service. Delivery begins December, 1958. The anticipated jet schedule from New York to London—3,535 miles—is 6 hours, 15 minutes. Because of the jet’s 575-mile-an-hour speed and its 125-pas-senger seating capacity, the 45-plane purchase will double the capacity of Pan American’s fleet. Just one jet airliner will cany 50,000 passengers a year across the Atlantic—almost matching the 67,577 carried across the ocean last year by the superliner United States.

The New Atom Particle

& Scientists know of some twenty so-'called “fundamental particles” of which everything is made. In October there was news of a new one, the negative proton. Scientists had long postulated its existence, since the electron, which is negative, is offset by the positron. So they reasoned: why should not a negative proton offset the positive proton ? The new atomic particle was created artificially in man's most powerful “atom machine” at the University of California. Its discovery was called a “milestone on the road to a whole new realm of discoveries in high energy physics in the days and years ahead.”

For Explaining Enzymes

<$> Enzymes in living organisms promote chemical reactions—digestion, for example —without being changed by them. For years scientists tried unsuccessfully to divide an enzyme into its main constituent parts. One of those scientists who have spent several decades studying enzymes is Dr. Hugo Theorell, a Swedish biochemist. Twenty years ago Dr. Theorell succeeded in separating the first of several known yellow enzymes into its two protein parts. Since then, using an apparatus he invented himself, Dr. Theorell has isolated a whole series of other enzymes and shown how they function. In October Dr. Theorell heard good news: the Nobel Prize Committee, calling him "the undisputable master in this field,” awarded him the prize in medicine. The cash prize is the largest yet made available—$36,720.

2,000-Year-Old Tomb Found

<$■ The existence of mound graves in the high Asian Altai Mountains has been known for half a century. In October news of a recent discovery came to light. Russian archaeologists have made a discovery of a 2,000-year-old tomb in the bed of an old glacier, at a height of about 5,000 feet, in the region lying between southern Siberia and Outer Mongolia. They chipped out of a solid block of ice the frozen bodies of a Scythian warrior prince and a woman. The “princess” had European features, but the prince was of Mongol type. He apparently died in battle and was scalped before he was recovered by his own people and entombed with a false scalp. Since parts of both bodies were missing, it was presumed they were devoured rltualistically during funeral rites. The discovery throws new light on the complex cultures of central Asia.

Mob Murder in Uganda

Buganda is one of the provinces in Uganda, a British protectorate in East Africa. In October, after two years of exile in London, the king of Buganda, Mutesa H, returned to rule the province. Arriving in Kampala, Uganda, the king was greeted by cheering crowds. When the king went to a royal pavilion, thousands of tribesmen gathered outside, kneeling in homage. Just then an African on a bicycle rode by. Someone shouted to him to dismount and kneel with the crowd. But the cyclist continued riding, whereupon several men rushed him and knocked him from his bicycle. Women also began to beat the fallen man, who soon lost consciousness. Minutes later he staggered to his feet and tried to escape from the frenzied, blood-mad crowd. But the mob raced after him; men and women clubbed him, kicked him and stoned him. Not until every sign of life was beaten from the disfigured body was the mob satisfied.

Pope Urges Return to Sport

Sport contests in St Peter's Square, Rome, are unknown In modem times; that is, they were unknown until October. On the tenth anniversary of the church-affiliated Italian Sports Center, thousands of youths performed before Pope Pius XII in St. Peter’s Square. The pope told the athletes: “What place is more suitable for receiving Catholic and sporting youth than this magnificent piazza?” He described “pure” sport as an important feature of modem society and said the Roman Catholic Church favored it. The pope also blessed the cornerstone for an “Olympic stadium” to be built at the beginning of the ancient Appian Way.

Of What Value Is a Drop in the Bucket?

—or one hour of preaching activity?

Yet millions of hours in preaching the good news of the Kingdom in 1955 add up to the grandest report yet of theocratic activity. As you consider the works of praise of zealous fighters for pure worship as recorded in the 1956 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses you will be encouraged to add your own contribution to the growing tide of Kingdom truths being proclaimed world-wide. Read your copy throughout the coming year for only 50c. The 1956 calendar will give daily inspiration too, with its colorful, dramatic illustration of the year’s Bible text. It may be had for 25c each, or 20c each for five or more to one address.

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Volume II of the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures contains the canonical books of God’s Word from First Samuel to Esther inclusive. In it you can read in modem English many of the types and prophecies that hold out hope of God’s protection in the coming crisis. It will help you realize that the Bible is a living book for our times and vital to our daily welfare.

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