Golden Age, December 25, 1929
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^ke Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND1 COURAGE
loommmmmmmmmmmmismijmmsmsmmmim in this issue CHRISTMAS: ITS ORIGIN z OTHER PAGAN HOLIDAYS INDIANS’ APPEAL CRITICIZES APOSTLES RADIO SERVICE JOB THE PRINCE radio lecture by Judge Rutherford
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Volume XI - No. 268 December 25,19 2 9
Contents
Labor and Economics
Night Sanitariums for Russian Workers . . Inhumanity Toward the Mature .....
Social and Educational "Christmas” the Year Around . . . . . . Caught in the Net..........
Some Holidays and Their Origin......
Flathead Indians ’ Appeal ........
Truth (Poem) ............
Angels Not Entertained .........
"Billy Sunday Unmasked”........
Radio Service .............
Manufacturing and Minin
Legitimate Manganese
The Ohio
Uses of Aluminum in South Dakota
Finance—Commerce—Transportation
Waterway
Political—Domestic and Foreign Conscientious Objectors in Britain .......
Agriculture and Husbandry
China Hard Hit by Famine .........
Vineyard Acreage in Italy .........
Science and Invention
The German Stille System of Sound Recording .
Home and Health
Beef Stew a la Literary Digest.....
Religion and Philosophy Christmas: Its Origin and Purpose.....
The Paganisms of the Season.......
The Teachings of the Druids—Pagans .... St. Nicholas the Highwayman ......
Truth Slowly Rising to the Light.....
Santa Claus Article Appreciated......
Not One Word for Christ .........
Bishop Criticizes Apostles ........
Job the Prince . ............
Bible Questions and Answers.......
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Golden Age
Volume XI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, December 25, 1929 Number 268
Christ nas: Its Origin and Purpose By r.h. Barber
[Reprinted from The Golden Age No. 241, by request]
WITHOUT doubt, very few have ever taken the time to investigate the origin and" purpose of the day which we call Christmas. Nearly everybody takes the easy course, and takes everything for granted without taking the trouble to investigate. As a result nearly everybody is convinced that Christmas is the most notable day in history because they think it celebrates the birth of our Saviour. Until about a year ago, I had never investigated this subject. Like everybody else, I had taken it for granted that it was a religious festival and that the Bible authorized the observance of the same.
I had concluded that it was proper to observe the day for the following reasons: It was claimed that it was associated with the birth of our Savior; it was backed up by many centuries of popularity; it wTas a day of good cheer and festivity ; millions of people seemed to get so much enjoyment out of it; and the giving of gifts at this particular time seemed to emulate the example of our Savior, who has given so many gifts to the children of men, and who said that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
A Proper Subject of Inquiry
The Scriptures, however, tell us to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good”. They also urge the Christian to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you”; and they warn us that a true Christian should not be carried away by every wind of doctrine, but that he should be able to give a “Thus saith the Lord” for what he believes and teaches.
Many others have investigated this subject before I have, and it is to them that I am indebted for such a mass of evidence that it is impossible to doubt its origin and purpose. Both Webster’s and the Standard Dictionary tell us that Christmas day is of pagan origin. So do all the encyclopedias. In its issue of December 26, 1927, the New York World carried a full-page article on Christmas which showed beyond a doubt that the day was observed by various heathen nations for many centuries before the birth of Christ. On the same date, the Chicago Tribune, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the St. Paul Daily News carried shorter articles proving the heathen origin of the day. So did some of the larger magazines of the country. Should any one desire to investigate the subject further, after reading this article, I would recommend a perusal of the following four books: Kitto’s Illustrated Commentary; Wilkinson’s Egyptians; History of Medieval Drama, by Robinson; and The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hyslop, an English clergyman. The last-named book is specially interesting in its revelations, not only on the subject of Christmas, but also on other holidays and feast days now so popular.
Be Not Offended at Truth
I fully realize that what I shall say will not please some. However, I assure you that I have no desire to offend any one, nor to be unkind to any one. I am speaking from no other motive than to help you each and all to be better servants of the Lord. I do not wish to offer destructive criticism, but it is my desire to offer that which will be constructive; something that will help you to understand that Jehovah God has a subtle, wicked and vindictive enemy; and that this enemy is God’s enemy and your enemy and the enemy of all who are trying to do the Lord’s will, and also the enemy of all righteousness.
This enemy has but one purpose, namely, to mock God, to slander His name and to deceive those who are trying to serve God, by hiding the truth from them. To do this, this enemy sets up
false doctrines and deceives the people into believing that these doctrines are taught in the Bible, and thus brings reproach upon God and His Word. Millions of intelligent people despise God, and doubt the reliability of the Scriptures, because they are led to believe that the false doctrines of eternal torment, trinity, immortal soul, the divine right of kings, and the divine right of the clergy are taught therein.
The Fountain of All Error
All false doctrines come from the Devil. The apostle (1 Tim. 4:1) warns us against false doctrines in the last days, our day. I quote: “[This know,] that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”
This enemy also foists upon the people many rites, forms, ceremonies, feast days and holidays, and makes the people believe that these are commanded of the Lord; then he makes these appear attractive by surrounding them with a glamour of piety, sanctity, and sentimentality, in order to further his deceptions and keep the people in bondage to ignorance and superstition, so that he may the better control them.
This enemy will at once be recognized as the Devil. The Bible tells us that the Devil comes as an angel of light; which means that he uses religion as a cover to conceal his deceptions, for it is well known that deceptions put forth in the name of religion have greater influence than any other form of deception. The Devil assumes to be a friend of mankind, when in reality he is man’s worst enemy. He tempted mother Eve in Eden, by professing to be her friend. I want to reveal this enemy in all his hideousness, so that none of my readers will encourage or support his wicked designs in the future.
If I can show that Christmas day is a fraud, and an injury to people in general; that it promotes selfishness, dishonesty and falsehood; that the Devil is its originator, and that his purpose was, and is, to hide some of the most important and beautiful truths of the Bible, then I shall be a blessing to you. If Satan is the author of the day, and his purpose was to deceive, then we should expect that no good thing could be said about it, because Jesus said of the Devil, “There is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”—John 8:44.
Practical Objections to Christmas
Before giving the Scriptural presentations, I wish to enumerate some practical arguments against the observance of Christmas.
Because of the unusual demands upon the people’s time and purse, at this season, and the unusual amount of work involved in purchasing gifts and arranging the festivities, it is always a time of nervous tension and worry. Thus it has become a real burden to the people, and many times do we hear people say, “I shall be glad when Christmas is over.”
Again, there is no command to observe the ...day to be found in the Bible, but we are commanded to observe the memorial of our Lord’s death. Satan, however, has taught the people to give more prominence to the birth of the babe Jesus than to the death of the man Jesus, in order to hide the importance of the ransom, the chief doctrine in the Christian religion. Satan knows full well that if he can cast a halo about the babe Jesus, and get people to feast and fast and work and worry to celebrate His birth, they will, to a large extent, overlook and forget that it was the death of the man Jesus “which taketh away the sin of the world”, and that without the shedding of the blood of the MAN Jesus, there could be no remission of sins.
With this purpose of keeping the ransom work of Jesus in the background, the Devil has caused the world to be flooded with cards, poems, sermons, and pictures of the babe Jesus and His mother, until they are worshiped and reverenced far more than the risen Lord. Satan does not want the people to know about the value and necessity of the death of the man Jesus and of His resurrection.
Then, too, scholars are agreed that December 25 is not the date of the birth of Jesus. December is a winter month in Palestine, and no shepherds are keeping watch over their flocks at that time of the year, as the flocks are not in the fields then. The true date of our Lord’s birth is about October 1. (See Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 2, pages 54-62.)
Profiteering and Misrepresentation
Then again, everybody is well aware of the fact that the profiteers rob the people during the Christmas season; that the spirit of rivalry and competition enters into the giving of gifts; that the poor people give more than they can afford; that often honest debts are never paid because people spend so much at Christmas time that /hey can not pay their debts; that millions of useless presents are given, which not only waste money, but are just so much junk in the homes, and a few days later find their way into the waste basket. Chief among these are the Christmas cards on which the profiteers make a profit of from 500 to 1000 percent.
Often a gift places the one who receives it under an obligation to the giver, a very unpleasant feeling if one does not have the money to make a gift in return. Ofttimes gifts are given for the selfish purpose of receiving gifts in return. Still again, Christmas trees are laden with expensive gifts for the children of the rich, while the children of the poor go home from the Christmas entertainments with aching hearts, with an orange or five cents’ worth of candy or peanuts as a sort of sop.
One of the worst features in connection with Christmas is the habit which parents have of telling lies to their children about Santa Claus’ coining down the chimney and filling their stockings; and then in later years they wonder why the children tell them lies. These lies may be little fibs at first, but the result is a wicked habit formed by the bad example of the parents. The parents are reaping what they have sown.
No Honor to Jehovah Gad
Still again, every one is aware of the spirit of frivolity, debauchery, drunkenness and revelry so prevalent during the Christmas season, and the propensity to overeat, with the resultant sick-headaches the next day. Surely none of these things honor’ either Jehovah God or His Son, our Lord Jesus. Every one knows that they are a disgrace, and yet the Christmas season is prolific of all these excesses.
These reasons alone are sufficient to condemn all Christmas festivities, but these reasons are secondary. There are other vastly more important reasons found in the Bible.
According to Genesis 3:15, God told the Devil that the seed of the woman would eventually bruise the serpent’s head. In plain words, God said that a future seed of the woman would eventually destroy the Devil.
In Hebrews 2:14 we read an emphatic statement that Jesus is to destroy “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”. The man Jesus who died on the cross, and whom God raised from the dead on the third day, and who now has “all power in heaven and in earth”, is the One who is to destroy the Devil. The babe Jesus will have nothing to do with destroying the Devil.
What Satan Would Like to Do
When God told Satan that a “seed of the woman” 'would destroy him eventually, the words • “seed of the woman” would suggest to the mind of Satan the thought of a mother and a son, and that the son would be the one who would destroy him. Consequently, that son would be the mortal enemy of Satan. Satan, however, at that time, did not know who the seed was to be, nor when the seed would appear, nor when he (Satan) would be destroyed. Paul shows us that the “seed of the woman” who is to destroy Satan, is Christ, the Messiah.
The text already quoted (Heb. 2:14) says that Jesus became a man and died That He might destroy the Devil’. All true Christians know that Jesus had to die and be resurrected to the divine plane of being in order to get “all power in heaven and in earth”, so that He would have both the power and the authority to destroy the Devil. Somehow Satan seemed to grasp the thought that the one who was to be the Messiah must die and be glorified, and so he determined to make a counterfeit Messiah, a counterfeit “seed of the woman” for the purpose of deception, and also in order to confirm that first lie uttered in Eden, when he told mother Eve that she would not surely die. Let us see how he did this.
Nimrod and Semiramis
Shortly after the flood lived Nimrod, a greatgrandson of Noah, and a very wicked and licentious man. He married his own mother, whose name was Semiramis. These two together engaged in hunting and drunken debauchery. Finally Nimrod was slain, and the Devil used the wicked and cunning mother to foist the false messiah on the world. The Devil instigated the plot and used Semiramis as his dupe. She announced that her son and husband had been resurrected, and was now a god, an invisible spirit god, and succeeded in making the people believe this lie. Semiramis was a wicked, shrewd and unscrupulous woman, and wanted some glory for herself; so she boldly put forth the claim that she was the “woman”, and that her resurrected son was the “seed of the woman” mentioned by Jehovah God in Eden, and that the resurrected Nimrod was the one who was to destroy the serpent. Here was the beginning of the “mother and son” idea which has been perpetuated in all the heathen religions of earth, and which has been adopted into the so-called Christian religions of earth, and still exists in our day.
Urged on by Satan, this wicked woman designed a symbol of all this deception, as follows: The dead Nimrod was pictured by the dead stump of a tree. Semiramis claimed that an evergreen tree grew up out of this dead stump in one night, and that this evergreen tree pictured Nimrod risen and glorified. Semiramis also gave her son the titles “the father of gods” and “the branch”, and adopted the titles “mother of God” and the “queen of heaven” for herself. These titles are found in all heathen religions, and still persist in some of the so-called Christian religions of our day.
Belittling Our Savior
Now notice that a title applied to Jesus, in the Bible, is “the Branch”. Notice, also, that evergreen is a Bible symbol of everlasting life, but that Semiramis used it to teach that Nimrod was the possessor of everlasting life. Nimrod, before his death, founded the Babylonian Empire, and built the Tower of Babel. Oh the stone tablets, recently dug up in the vicinity of ancient Babylon, Nimrod is pictured with a mace crushing a serpent’s head; in other words, he is represented as doing just what Jesus is soon to do, namely, destroy the Devil. Thus Nimrod became a false Messiah, and Satan succeeded in getting the Babylonian Empire to ac! cept his fraudulent and counterfeit Messiah. ; The Scriptures declare of the true Messiah ' that He would give gifts unto men, and the , Scriptures show that these gifts consist of a i resurrection of all the dead, and the further gifts of liberty, peace, happiness and everlast-i ing life for all who will obey and do the will of j the Lord. Now please notice the miserable counterfeit of these gifts which the Devil instituted.
Our present-day Christmas tree had its origin , in that evergreen tree said to have grown up : out of the dead stump. Semiramis claimed that ■ the tree was laden with gifts every year on the t, anniversary of the resurrection of Nimrod, and i; that Nimrod placed these gifts there.
1 And now comes the explanation of the 25th day of December’s being chosen as the birthday of our Lord. The truth is that December 25 was Nimrod’s birthday, and that all through the centuries people have been celebrating this date. Nearly all the heathen religions celebrate this date. Here, then, is where the Christmas tree idea originated. However, the day was not called Christmas, nor the tree a Christmas tree, until the heathen custom was adopted into the Christian religion, some time in the fourth century after Christ.
The Counterfeit Messiah
This false system, the counterfeit Messiah, called in the Scriptures the “mystery of iniquity”, is in direct contrast to the “mystery of God”, the true Messiah. This counterfeit system gradually extended to all other heathen nations by the help of Satan, who has led all the world captive at his will. With hardly an exception, all the nations have had the same “mother and son” idea, with the evergreen tree and the giving of gifts in connection therewith; and nearly all of them adopted a date corresponding with the 25th of December as the date of the birth of the son. Candles were always placed on the trees on these occasions.
In Egypt the “mother and son” were called Isis and Osiris; in India (to this day) they are called Isis and Iswara; in Asia, Cybele and De-oius; in Pagan Rome, Fortuna and the boy Jupiter; in Greece, Ceres with the babe at her breast, or Irene with the boy Plutus in her arms; in China, Ching Moo, the holy mother, with a child in her arms.
In Japan, Scandinavia, Thibet and Mexico, we find the same “mother and son” idea, and also among the North American Indians.
When the children of Israel went into idolatry they served Baal and Ashtaroth, a mother and son, and spurious woman and her seed. (Judg. 2:10-13) No wonder Jehovah God was angry with the Israelites when His own loving arrangements were so miserably counterfeited and misrepresented, and His name thus slandered, and His beloved Son thus mocked. The very word “devil” means slanderer. See Ezekiel 36: 20-23; Judges 8: 33.
Other Idolatries of Mother and Son
Other names given to the son, the false seed of the woman, in different languages, are Bacchus, Saturn, Molech, Adonis, Cupid, Tammuz, Achilles and Teotle; while other names given to the mother are Rhea, Juno, Venus, Minerva and Diana of the Ephesians. The mother is always called “the mother of God” and “the queen of heaven”, while the son is called “the father of gods” and “the branch”. All the heathen religions of earth are based on the miserable counterfeit instituted by Satan through his dupe Semiramis. It is the same general idea, although some of the nations have adopted different customs, feasts and rites with advancing centuries.
In connection with this idolatrous worship of the mother and son in all the heathen countries of earth, there were held numerous feast days and holidays. These were celebrated with the wildest orgies, licentiousness, debauchery and drunkenness. This fact is doubtless the basis for the Scriptural remark in Revelation 17:4,5 which reads: “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a gold-e’ cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
Santa Claus the Devil
In the Bible the true church is called a woman, a virgin; and the false church also is called a woman, but a harlot. This false system of ec-clesiasticism, originated in Nimrod’s day, is also called “the mystery of iniquity”, because it is the most iniquitous thing that ever cursed the earth. It was originated by the great deceiver of the whole world, the slanderer of Jehovah God, namely, the Devil.
To help you get an idea of how successfully Satan has deceived the whole world, I want to call your attention to the fact that the name and title “jolly old St. Nicholas” is a deception, for any unabridged dictionary or encyclopedia tells you that St. Nicholas is the name of the Devil. In the English language we do not use the words St. Nicholas, but use Santa Claus instead, and Santa Claus and St. Nicholas are the same words in different languages.
The Magi and Their Gifts
The Bible also tells the story of how this ■wicked creature called the Devil and Satan tried to kill the real seed of the woman, the real Messiah. In the second chapter of Matthew there is a story of how certain “wise men” from the East (that is, from Persia), came to Jerusalem to locate the babe Jesus. The words “wise men” are a translation of the word “magi”, which means magicians, who are men under the control of demons, and all through the Old Testament, magicians, star-gazers, astrologers, necromancers, and those having familiar spirits are condemned by Jehovah God, and God commanded that they should be killed by stoning.—■ Lev. 20:27.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but Satan set a false light in the sky, which sentimental people call “the star of Bethlehem”, and by using this false light led the magicians to Jerusalem instead, to the palace of the wicked king Herod. Satan knew that Herod would try to kill Jesus, and the record shows that Herod, with devilish fiendishness, caused all the male children under two years of age to be killed so that Jesus could not escape. However, God protected His beloved Son against the machinations of the Devil.
The Devil directed those magicians, but the angel of the Lord announced to the shepherds the birth of the Babe who was to become the true Messiah. -It is interesting to note that the Devil’s messengers bestowed gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, on the babe Jesus, but that the shepherds, God’s representatives, bestowed no gifts, but went out and announced the fact that the Messiah was born, a thing which the Devil’s representatives did not do.
Let Us Live the Truth
There could be no objection to the proper observance of the birthday of our Lord, an observance which would be an honor to His name, and especially if it were held on the anniversary of His birth, and in no way connected with the miserable counterfeit of Satan, an observance which would be befitting to sanctified common sense and which would in no way be a deception, nor be made a source of profit by the profiteers.
When our Lord was on the earth, 1900 years ago, He established the true church. This church continued faithful to the Lord during the lifetime of the apostles; but in his day the Apostle Paul said, “The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” (2 Thess. 2:7) Yes, there had already begun an apostasy from the true faith. This apostasy consisted of an effort on
s
the part of certain godless men to adopt all the heathen customs into the true church, and thus increase their membership by making it easy for the heathen to join the church.
The Bible records this apostasy in Matthew 13:24-28, where it tells us that Jesus sowed good seed, and an enemy came and sowed tares. In verses 37-39 of the same chapter Jesus explained the parable in these words: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man: the field is the world: the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one: the enemy that sowed them is the devil.”
The culmination of this apostasy was reached in the fourth century, when the tares had become so numerous in the true church that they could outvote the true saints, and adopted, in their entirety, all the customs of heathen idolatry and gave to these the name Christian. What a slander upon Jehovah God to have all the Devil’s deceptions and frauds called after the name of His Son, Christian!
Easter a Heathen Festival
The “mother and son” idea was adopted into the so-called Christian church, and now we have “the madonna and her child”. The evergreen tree which symbolized the birth of Nimrod, with its festivities, drunkenness and debauchery, was also brought over into the professing Christian church, but for the first time it was now called the Christmas tree. It is significant, too, that the word “Christmas” means “Christ’s mass”.
The prominent heathen festival of Easter was also brought over and engrafted into the so-called Christian church. “Easter” is derived from the name of the heathen goddess, Astarte, which is only another name for Ashtaroth, the mother of Baal. Easter and its festivals are supposed to be in honor of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But I am at a loss to know how the pomp and pride, the selfishness and vainglory, the extravagance and splendor, the bunny rabbits and the hot cross-buns, the colored eggs and the cheap and poisoned candies displayed at Easter time, can honor the great King of kings and Lord of lords.
Away with Pagan Humbugs
Thus the so-called Christian church has been thoroughly paganized, and has become thoroughly heathen. The Devil has now succeeded in grafting his counterfeit festivals, feast days, fast days and holy days upon the church, and making it pander to all the pride and vanity and selfishness in the human family. Right here I want to quote a witness of highest authority on this point. Cardinal Newman, of the Roman Catholic church, in a book entitled 'Development (pages 359, 360), speaking of the adoption of these heathen customs into the church, says: “These are the very instruments and appendages of demon worship, but they are sanctified by adoption into the church.”
Here, then, is the indisputable evidence that these customs are of the Devil and were adopted into the so-called church, knowingly. The Devil has succeeded in getting the people to adopt all his wicked schemes and to give them the name Christian, in order that thus he might mook the great Jehovah God.
For centuries the people have been humbugged with the worship of images, dead saints, relics, holy candles, holy water, Ash Wednesdays, Christmas trees with their mythological nonsense and falsehoods about Santa Claus and his reindeer; with eternal torment; trinity nonsense; with the immortal soul idea; signs of the zodiac; birth months and birth stars; with beads, crosses, forms, rites and ceremonies, all of which have been and are God-dishonoring, foolish, and childish.
Away with Demon Worship
Cardinal Newman was right when he said that “these are the very instruments and appendages of demon ’worship”, but he was wrong when he said they were “sanctified by adoption into the Christian church”. The very opposite is true; namely, the Christian church was degraded and rapidly became filled with tares, children of the wicked one, so that in our day the church is reaping what it has sown, a church whose membership is made up of bootleggers, thieves, murderers, liars, adulterers, profiteers and grafters. God has been dishonored and blasphemed, and His truth has been trailed in the mud.
How glad we are to know that very soon now all the wicked schemes of the Devil are to be exposed and the Devil himself is to be bound for a thousand years, so that he may deceive the nations no more. After the thousand years he is to be loosed for a little season and then cast into "the lake of fire”, which means his everlasting destruction.
The Bible encourages the giving of gifts, and in most explicit ±anguage tells us whom to make the recipients of our gifts. There are no scriptures warranting us in giving gifts to those wTho do not need them. Let me quote: “Whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion, . . . how dwelleth the love of God in him?”
The Bible further advises that in giving gifts we do not let our right hand know what our left hand does; but the way of so-called Christians is to hang the gift on a tree or publish the name and amount in the newspaper so that everybody will know about it.
“Christmas” the Year Around By Harold W. Kline
NOW that The Golden Age has so dearly and logically presented the truth about Christmas customs, which arrangement is indeed be-, coming a heavy burden and a greater hypocrisy year by year, I offer the following:
Let each one, on his birthday anniversary, bestow upon acquaintances all that his prosperity will allow.
All mankind instinctively desire to be a blessing to their fellow men, but circumstances of lack of knowledge or substance have precluded this pleasure from the majority. However, the invisible King is here and the Kingdom is being shaped and the world is due to witness a multiplicity of radical changes. ’•
By the present method, the donating and receiving takes place once a year. And what a melee! By the plan I suggest, the entire following year is spread before each one as a reception period, and all the memory work necessary is to remember the date of one’s birthday. No more trying to keep track of friends’ birthday dates and remember them with a postal card or gift!
On one’s own birthday anniversary it should be a genuine pleasure to express thankfulness and appreciation for another year of life by overflowing blessings to friends, according to your conception of their needs and your ability.
I can imagine receiving, during the year, a little note from a friend proffering me some coin of the realm; another would send a latest book of elucidation of the Lord’s purposes; another might offer the use of his automobile for so many hours during the year; while another may send me a postal card telling me he is alive and striving to honor the Lord, and that I am still in his memory.
And so, throughout the year, I would find myself the recipient of gifts of various kinds, some of which I may not cash in during the year; but then again, I might have the toothache and find it a real blessing to cash in on my dentist friend’s gift of professional work up to the amount of ten dollars, or cash in on another friend’s gift to supply me with any of the Truth books that may be published during the coming year or use my "automobile hours” gift to spread the message of the Kingdom in territory which I could not reach otherwise. And so forth, and so on. As space will not permit enumerating other examples, just day dream a couple of pages of gifts you would like to receive during the year and see if you don’t get a kick out of it.
And then, some gifts might seem odd to offer, yet I am sure if I should, on my birthday, send a note to a widow who lives nearby and whose health is none too good, saying I pledge as a "birthday gift” to keep her sidewalk clear of snow all winter and will put her ashes out every week, it would be very much appreciated and would only afford me exercise.
If I were rich in gold, perhaps I might scatter many coins or bank notes, but then my gift to read s'o many hours during the year to an elderly neighbor whose sight is failing, might be more appreciated than gold. So again, dear reader, to conserve space, day dream a couple of pages of what you would like to do for your friends when your birthday anniversary rolls around.
Order, economy, and real help are, of course, pleasing to the Lord, and this arrangement seems to me ideal, for it would contain the elements of surprise, thoughtfulness, unselfishness and variety which are the charms that have held the Christmas idea together as long as it has in this day of increasing light. How is it by you? ??
The Paganisms of the Season (Contributed)
HAVE just finished reading “Christmas, Its Origin and Purpose”, by R. H. Barber, in December, 1928, issue.
At last some one has come forward and said just what has been rankling in many persons’ minds. Long before I ever knew anything of Pastor Russell’s books, I perceived that Christmas as celebrated in our “civilized” countries was a hideous curse, with its paganisms, its shameless profiteering in which merchants made mints of money while clerks who were paid the scantiest wages went home about midnight only to spend a Christmas day in bed, trying to recuperate lost strength of a previous two weeks of crazy buying on the part of the public, known as the “Christmas rush”. When I dared to raise my voice against it I was roundly criticized as a Christ-hater. The more I thought of Christmas, as now practised, the worse it looked. No wonder many people are glad when Christmas is over. It is a wonder they are allowed to say it, though.
This article gives mighty good thought upon the subject. It is plainer than ever why Christmas is what it has become.
When the Kingdom shall have fully arrived no doubt we shall see many changes. Many lovers of the old order won’t know the New World, with all their old paganisms gone. Its vigorous and righteous rule will be galling indeed to the lovers of fables. It is easy to see how all this will be a fiery torment to them;
I have heard many discussions as to whether it is right to tell the children that there is a Santa Claus. It seems too silly to discuss such a thing. Of course, the only answer is to tell the children the truth. If we do not do so we need not expect them to be truthful either. It would be a shock to some fathers to hear what a*Scotch child said to his little girl neighbor: “I used to believe in Santa Claus, but now I know it’s only me faither, and I am beginning to think that the Devil is me faither too.”
The Teachings of the Druids-—Pagans By Harry Powell
RH. Barber’s article makes it plain that the
• Devil is the author of Christmas. A fellow Bible Student and I have made a study of it for some time. We looked up some of the oldest English history, and it shows that the doctrines of trinity, torment, god of war, etc., were part of the teachings of the Druids, which were in existence long before Catholicism, and, as the writer says, these are perpetuated to. this day. Clearly then, churchianity is pagan. We have not observed Christmas for several years, but, on the contrary, have denounced it to all who conversed with us on that subject.
I would suggest to you the following scriptures, which give a clear picture of a Christmas tree, even to the hammer and nails. These trees were used in the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth, the Israelites having left the worship of Jehovah. The prophet shows the contrast between the god they worshiped, represented in the tree (and which had to be carried), and Jehovah, Maker of heaven and earth. (Jer. 10:1-11) Hosea 4:13 shows that Baal worship was associated with groves on the high places.
St. Nicholas the Highwayman By Dr. W. G. Wright
I DID a little investigating on my own part of this venerable old St. Nicholas and find that he was the patron saint of thieves and highwaymen. These no doubt include some of the merchants who ply their trade so energetically at this joyful season.
The venerable Bede (De temp, rat., Chap. 13) relates that “the ancient people of the Angli began the year on the 25th of December, when we now celebrate the birthday of the Lord; and the very night that is now so holy to us, they called
in their tongue modranecht (modra nicht), that is, the mother’s night, by reason of the ceremonies which in that night-long vigil they performed”. .
The 25th of December was a feast of Mithra-ism, a religion that invaded the West at the same time as Christianity, but, unlike Christianity, Mithraism died of its own inanition. The Mithrais feast wTas called the natalis invicti solis, or birthday of the unconquered sun.
Truth Slowly Rising to the Light By W. N. Lundquist
ZA NE clergyman was given a copy of The Golden Age of December 12, 1928, and was advised to read the first article, “Christmas, Its Origin and Purpose.” Later he was asked what he thought of it. He replied: “I knew that both Christmas and Easter were heathen holidays, and therefore say just as little as possible about them.”
Another man who is affiliated with organized Christianity, after having read the same article was asked his opinion of it. He said that it was good except for one thing. Upon being questioned concerning that one thing, he replied: “They are a little too hard on the Devil.”
I also want to tell you of an incident that occurred in one of the public schools. The teacher asked the pupils this question: “Who are dependent upon others for support?” They were told to write the answer. When examining the papers the teacher found one little girl had written her answer thus: “The clergy.” The teacher told the little girl that this was not right. What do you think about it?
Santa Claus Article Appreciated
UUDER the title “Modern Heretics” the Richmond Christian Advocate seems to intimate th it seme people are getting a little light on the Santa Claus question, anyway. The Advocate says:
The heretics have no conscience at all. They have even now launched a campaign against our good old friend, Santa Claus, and are giving themselves to the task of making young hopefuls renounce their beautiful faith in the old friend who gladdens the years of childhood. They were working on a youngster recently with the following results: “Why, Willie!” exclaimed the Sunday-school teacher in astonishment. “I’m surprised to hear you say that there is no devil!” “All bunk; just like Santa Claus,” returned the sophisticated child. “It’s your father.”
Caught in the Net
One in Fifty a Twin
EXPERIENCE in New York hospitals indicates that one person in every fifty, or, to be more accurate, one person in every forty-nine, is a twin. About one person in every thirty-three hundred is a triplet.
London Junk Maintains Orphanage
THE junk collected by a London dealer, the rubbish thrown away in the world’s greatest city, maintains an orphanage of more than a thousand children. Rags, bottles, and old newspapers constitute most of the valuable finds.
Night Sanitariums for Russian Workers
THE Soviet government has a system of night sanitariums for workers whose physical standard is below par. Such workers are ordered to the sanitariums and usually kept there for ten weeks, full wages being paid to them in the meanwhile. There are thirty such sanitariums in Moscow alone.
The Leaven and the Scouts
Doctor Downey, Roman Catholic archbishop of Liverpool, in a recent address in London made the following interesting observations: “In a century we have leavened the whole of society. It is no exaggeration to say that half the Boy Scouts of the world are Catholic.”
Sun Bathing near Berlin
TWENTY miles out of Berlin there is a beach on a riverside where, during the hot season, seventy thousand persons will be found taking sun baths at one time. These baths have become so popular that the beach will be extended two miles farther next season.
Arbitration in Australia
TN AUSTRALIA the cause of arbitration of labor disputes has received a great impetus through the recent election. The Australian labor party scored a sweeping victory, giving them a majority in the House of Representatives over all other parties put together.
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The Ohio Waterway
LTHOUGH'the Ohio waterway improvements cost only $125,000,000, as against one
THE GOLDEN AGE
billion dollars for the Panama Canal, and although the depth is only nine feet, yet the Ohio carries twice the amount of tonnage that finds its way through the Panama.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Thirty-five Guides at Ford Plant
TT REQUIRES the services of thirty-five J- guides to handle the visitors at the Ford automobile plant at River Rouge, Michigan. The guides work from eight-thirty in the morning until late in the afternoon. As many as eight thousand people have visited the plant in a single day.
The Pied Piper in Baltimore
TN BALTIMORE a minister who knows how to play a drum follows the Salvation Army < method of going out in the streets and literally Si drumming up trade. The youngsters follow him back to the Sunday school, and thus a failing enterprise is stimulated to renewed vitality.
A Primary Cause of Injustice
IN AN address to schoolboys in England,
Rudyard Kipling said: “Most injustice is not inflicted deliberately, but because people do not take the trouble to think things out. Thinking gives them headaches, and if persisted in may cause them to change their opinions. So it simply isn’t done.”
“Auld Lang Syne”
WHEN British troops evacuated Koenigstein on the Rhine the German populace stood out in the rain and sang “Auld Lang Syne”, while the British troops showed their interest and enthusiasm by pulling off mid waving their jackets. This was a parting of friends, not enemies.
A Diminutive Stowaway
PERHAPS carried away by stories of other stowaways aboard airplanes and zeppelins, a little three-year-old Michigan boy crept under his father’s seat in a railway train and stayed there until he was fifty miles away from home. He wanted to go with his father to Minneapolis, and he went.
Bamberger Gives Away a Million
T ouis Bamberger, famous Newark merchant, recently called before him 235 of his employees who had been with him fifteen years or more and divided one million dollars among them. It was said that some of the veterans in his employ received as much as ten thousand 'dollars. The list was not made public.
Eleven Days to Buenos Aires
MAIL from New York to Buenos Aires now takes eleven days by air, cutting off six days from the ship and rail time. The route is via Miami, Panama, and the west coast of South America. The first mail from Buenos Aires came through exactly on time. The mails leave once a week.
The Smallest Book
THE smallest book in the Brooklyn public library is % inch wide by % of an inch high. It contains 140 pages, 10 lines on a page, and is printed on Japanese linen and bound in red leather. The whole book, which is about the size of a thimble, was printed at Kingsport, Tennessee.
Henderson on Disarmament
Arthur Henderson, foreign minister of Britain, in an address on the objectives of the Labor government recently, said: ifWe are out to end the waste and folly of that competitive system of armaments which has cost so much .and which the nations still maintain, and which besmirches the name of our civilization.” .
Legitimate Uses of Aluminum
ALUMINUM is legitimately and profitably used in the construction of airplanes, railway passenger coaches, buses, trolley cars, cables, radio work, automobiles, furniture, paint, shingles, roofs, towers and cupolas. It will also likely be used for lift bridges and traveling cranes.
Trials of a Balkan Newspaper
A BALKAN newspaper has urged postmasters, when they have finished reading publications intended for subscribers, to please be so good as to send them on direct to the subscribers instead of first loaning them around to their friends and relatives. Seems like a reasonable request, when you come to think of it.
An Effort to Suppress Crime
IN AN effort to suppress crime at its source the authorities of St. Gall, Switzerland, have enacted a law forbidding all children under sixteen years of age to attend movies, even if accompanied by adults. The little folks will ’be shown only such educational and other films as have passed rigid c usorship.
The Cosmopolitan Negro
ETWEEN 1910 and 1920 the Negro population of Philadelphia increased 60 percent, of New York 66 percent, of Chicago 148 percent, of Cleveland 308 percent, and of Detroit 611 percent. This addition comes from the cotton fields of the South, and means a great change in the Negro.outlook on life.
National Sunday School Union Bible
HE National Sunday School Union of Britain has published a new Bible from which have been omitted The Song of Solomon, most of the book of Genesis, and occasional chapters here and there from other books. By the time they'get through, the rest of us will be in luck if they leave the covers and the title page.
The Marion Massacre
HE massacre at Marion, North Carolina, in which six members of the American Federation of Labor lost their lives, has the interesting feature that four of the six heads of families that were killed were shot in the back. The shooters claim that they fired in self-defense. If they did their bullets must have traveled a course in the form of a circle.
China Hard Hit by Famine
HE drought of 1929, one of the most extensive and persistent in history, turned into a desert a part of China which is usually regarded as one of the most fertile sections. As a result whole villages have been depopulated. The cheapest grain has gone to $12 a bushel. In many villages the people are tearing down their homes and selling them for enough to maintain their lives for a few days only. In one city twelve concentration camps and nineteen relief stations are operating day and night, and bread lines are so long that it takes two days for the line of the hungry to pass by the station once and receive one ration.
Character and Spirituality Not Affected
HE Methodist bishop -who got caught in a Wall Street gambling transaction and was pinched to the tune of $91,000 before the firm failed now testifies that these business transactions did not in any way affect his character or spirituality, to which may be added the words of the Apostle Paul to the erring Corinthian brethren Avhen he said, “And I partly believe it.-”
Conscientious Objectors in Britain
BEAT BRITAIN has removed the bar that since 1918 prevented conscientious objectors from entering the Civil Service, and has also removed the bar to their promotion in the Civil Service and restored the positions and salaries and pensions that they would have held had it not been for the period during which their service was suspended.
Uncle Sam’s Industries .
NCLE Sam operates in Alaska a railroad longer than from New York to Buffalo, and is sole owner and manager of a barge line on the Mississippi River. He builds roads, owns and operates canals, transports and handles mails, lights airways, and altogether operates some thirty or forty agencies covering every form of transportation.
Brisbane Tells the Truth
OMMENTING on the suggestion of a doctor of divinity that teaching the fear of hell would make suicides hesitate, Arthur Brisbane says very aptly and truthfully: “It might, but a raise of wages would do more than the fear of hell. A man who believes that life itself is hell will scarcely hesitate to try another kind. Diminish his unhappiness and he’ll stay.”
The Chairman Ought to Know
Ruvesend T. Rhondda Williams, chairman
of the Congregational Union, delivered an address at the annual assembly in London in which he said: “It is the misfortune of the church that the creeds which still hold a formal place in most of them are for the greater part impossible of belief to educated and intellectual men and women. The pulpit is suspected of trimming and prevarication and of something very near to, if not quite, intellectual dishonesty.” Well, the chairman ought to know.
Defenses of the Porcupine
IT IS a mistaken idea that the porcupine can throw his quills, but he is so cleverly designed that he can run backwards and jab the quills into any antagonist. Once a quill enters the flesh it has the curious quality of going deeper and deeper until it reaches a vital spot. Many a dog has lost his life from getting too close to a porcupine.
Censorship Aids Tyranny
A NEWSPAPER man in Venezuela writes
that the reason General Gomez has been able to keep his tight grip upon Venezuela for twenty-one years is that he maintains the strictest kind of a censorship on all news in and out of Venezuela. Nothing that would put the government in an unfavorable light is ever permitted to see the light of day.
Professor Rogers’ Advice
Professor Rogers, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has gained considerable publicity through his advice to the young engineers that if they wish to attain success they must become snobs. But how much better it is not to attain success than to become that kind of man. Success is not happiness; but modest, patient, industrious usefulness is happiness.
New York’s Poultry Racketeers
CHICAGO is not the only city that can boast of racketeers. New York is now investigating its poultry racketeer industry, which levies one cent a pound on every item of poultry sold in New York or Brooklyn. Independent dealers from other cities are threatened with violence; local dealers must buy in one place and pay the racketeer price, or trouble is threatened.
Virginia Methodists on War Path for Tobacco A LITTLE while ago the Church of the Brethren agreed that henceforth none of their pastors should chew the cud. At some previous time a wave of enthusiasm in the same direction must have swept over the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, located in Virginia. Anyway, the Methodist brethren have tired of the notobacco program, and by a vote of 170 to 132 have petitioned the General Conference that they be permitted to smoke and chew tobacco and to take snuff.
Manganese in South Dakota
DISCOVERY of manganese ore in South
Dakota is almost sure to change conditions of life in Brazil, Africa, Russia, and India, the sources from which American steel makers now get their manganese ore. It is estimated that the newly discovered deposits will almost surely make America independent of its foreign sources of supply.
The Ford Rubber Project
T T IS well known that Henry Ford believes in * high wages for the workers. But for some unexplained reason it is charged that in the Ford rubber plantation project in the Brazilian province of Para the wages paid the workers are only about 36 cents, plus food and housing, and the workers are on the go twelve hours out of every twenty-four.
The Bible in Ten New Languages
WHILE the National Sunday School Union
is trying to improve upon the wisdom of Almighty God by getting up an abbreviated Bible, the circulation of the unexpurgated edition continues greater than ever. Parts of it were translated in ten new languages this past year, the total number of translations now standing at 618.
The German Stille System of Sound Recording T)Y THE German Stille system of sound re-cording, a permanent record of speech or other sound is made on a thin steel wire or on a piece of steel tape. Perfect reproduction from the wire or tape is said to be achieved. The inventors are now putting the entire Bible on these wires, with the result that the owner may at any time have any part of the Bible spoken to him, without his being to the trouble of having to do any reading.
Naturalization Versus Christianity
Dr. Robert Clarke, vice president of Geneva
College, Beaver Falls, Pa., made application for United States citizenship provided he might amend his oath of allegiance so as to read that he would support the constitution “as long as it does not interfere with loyalty to Jesus”. His application was refused. America is officially a Christian country and it officially takes the position that in this Christian country no one may place Christ first.
Latvian Prisoners Paid Wages
LATVIA has the honor of having perhaps the most humane prison system in the world.
The prisoners are paid decent wages for their work, so that while incarcerated their families need not suffer. In the United States, when a man is put in prison his wife and babies not infrequently suffer much worse than the man himself. In Italy, when a man escapes they imprison his family. ■
Expelled from University for Thinking fT'IIINKING about the outrage of justice in the Mooney and Billings case led a student at the Univcysjty of Pittsburgh into a demonstration in fA.'or of the release of these two innocent men. He Was dismissed from the university and has asked the Common Pleas court to reinstate him. University students will take note from this that they must not do any independent thinking. It will not be tolerated.
Inhumanity Toward the Mature
"IMPROVED sanitation has increased the ratio of men 65 years old and over to the total population from 3.9 percent to 5 percent, in the last fifty years. Vet the percentage of men 65 years of age and over who are gainfully employed grows constantly less and less. Many firms refuse work to men over forty, figuring that such men will work more slowly and will be getting pensions sooner. Moreover, insurance companies are driving older men to the wall by offering lower rates to employers who do not hire persons over forty.
Power Trust Finance
PERHAPS you wonder how one man could in ten years get in his own name eight hundred million dollars' worth of public utility stocks, and all with a minimum investment of actual cash. The whole scheme of holding companies, share corporations, and investment trusts rests upon the fact that it costs less than % of a cent a kilowatt hour to make electric current which is sold to the public at often well over ten times that amount. It is absolutely the most perfect form of theft known, being perfectly safe and perfectly legal. The only losers are the poor man who pays ten times what he should pay for his electric current, and the country as a whole, which is thus held back from what would otherwise be a normal development.
How the South Got Its Name “Dixie”
THE South got its name “Dixie” from ten-dollar bank notes printed in New Orleans about a hundred years ago. These notes were printed in English on one side and in French on the other. The French word for ten is dix, and the notes soon came to be known as “Dixies”, and the country from which they came was soon popularly called “Dixie’s Land”. The name has stuck.
As to Prayers for Success in War
Reverend Williams, president of the Congregational Union of Great Britain, recently said in London: “To pray for victory means asking God to bless our use of poison gas, boiling oil and incendiary bombs, and treachery, and lying and bayonets.” It would be interesting to know what stand Reverend Williams took in the World War. Anybody and everybody is for peace now.
Vineyard Acreage in Italy
"ITALY devotes 8,500,000 acres of land to vine's- yards, which is more than half of all the vineyard acreage of Europe. In the effort to turn these vineyards into wheat fields, and thus to make Italy self-sustaining, Mussolini claims to have closed 27,000 saloons and declares that if given time he will close them all. Italy is using a cancelation stamp on letters which says in effect that ‘alcoholism leads to tuberculosis and is opposed to the good of the individual, the family and the race’. Switzerland is marking letters similarly.
Lyster Acquitted, as Expected
WJ. Lyster, Pennsylvania state Cossack, ® who with a poker beat to death a prisoner, a miner named John Barkoski, has been acquitted, as expected. This hint to the Pennsylvania coal and iron police that they can murder anybody any time they wish, and that without any fear of punishment, is something that many of them will appreciate. It gives them a free hand to do as they please. To the credit of the judge be it said that he discharged the jurymen with a reprimand for their incompetence in not finding Lyster guilty. It is suspected that the jury was fixed. The Pennsylvania Coal Company has given Mrs. Barkoski twelve thousand dollars. Give it one decent tally.
Some Holidays and Their Origins
ST. VALENTINE’S DAY has nothing very-saintly to commend it as to its origin. The whole month of February was given over by the Romans to a period of almost unbridled licen-
Gifis in Season—
tiousness. One of the common practices was for a group of young men and young women to meet together. The names of the young women were placed in a box and the young men drew them as chance directed and they became partners for a day subsequently known as St. Valentine’s Day. The young woman’s gift for the day was a man.
The gift the young woman drew might be more or less bad, mostly bad; and therefore the gifts passed out on St. Valentine’s Day are often bad ones. It will be noticed that St. Valentine is supposed to be the god of love, or at least that cupids represent him. The dragging of the word “saint” into this thing is only a scheme of the Devil to make real saintliness seem like what it is not, licentiousness.
Lady Day, sometimes called the Feast of the Annunciation, was celebrated in Pagan Rome two hundred and fifty years before Christ was born. This day, March 25, was celebrated as the day when Cybele, mother of the Babylonian Messiah, became pregnant, the birth of the sungod, Decius, taking place nine months thereafter. December 25.
Lady Day became the origin of Mollier’s Day in this wise. On Lady Day, during the Dark Ages, the faithful were supposed to visit the churches in which they were baptized, bearing with them their gifts. In 1910 this custom was modified by Protestants, so-called, and adopted to fit the present practice. Good children need not to be reminded to be appreciative of their mothers once a year; but it boosts business for a day, and that is the real reason the newspapers have so much to say about it.
April Fool’s Day refers to that part of Christ’s agonies where lie was sent from Annas to Caiaphas and from Caiaphas to Pilate and from Pilate to Herod and from lierod back to Pilate on the bootless errands which finally terminated in His death. The Devil’s reason for perpetuating buffoonery and mischief on this day is to give him and his comrades occasion to sneer at the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows. The Hindu Feast of Huli ends on March 31 with the usual April Fool practices common in Europe and America.
Good Friday was celebrated with hot cross-buns in Chaldea fifteen hundred years before Christ was born in Bethlehem; and the buns are mentioned, too, by that identical name. They were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess of spring. At land, the fishermen and their children spend Good Friday skipping the rope, a custom handed down from father to son since pagan times, a relic of demon worship.
Easter is merely another name for the Teuton Estera, Ostera or Eostre, the Assyrian Ishtar, Egyptian Isis, Phoenician Astarte or Ashtoreth, Hindu Iswara, and the Greek and Roman Rhea, Aphrodite, Irene, Ceres, and Venus, mother of the gods. Satan has tried to turn the minds of men away from the sacrifice of the Son of God and toward the worship of a woman.
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The Astarte egg (Easter egg) was one of the symbols of the goddess of heaven; and, accordingly, in Cyprus, one of the chosen seats of , worship of Astarte, or Venus, the egg of won-
j drous size was represented on a grand scale.
The Astarte egg is traced in the religious observances of pagan Egypt, Assyria, and Baby-o Ion.
Lent, a period of forty days, in the spring of the year, is st‘11 celebrated by the Yezidis, or pagan devil-worshipers, of Koordistan, who inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a lent of forty days, and at the same time of the year, was observed by the ancient dfevil worshipers of Mexico, and also by the Egyptian worshipers of Osiris, Horus, and Isis.
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