Golden Age, July 20, 1921
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July 20, 1921, Vol 11, No. 4S
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VOLOMB a WEDNESDAY, JOLT 20, 1M1 NVMBZB 48
CONTENTS of the. GOLDEN AGE
. SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
Items from Tlortda____833 Conant Caskets for Dod
Hsrtsdalsfs Caatna Drift of ttoderu Education 837
Cemetery __833 Foollsimess of the Learned 837
POLITICAL-DOMESTIC AND FOREION
Some Prison ExperlsncBA.,613 When wnx the Babble Decelred by tba Erl! One, 616 Barat 7 - , _
Attempts to Coarca—.. ,617 Is Criticism cf Government .
Military Torture_____618 Slander?827
Timber Thtoraa In Irish Question Once Mora.,629
Washington________622 Staking of tba Lusitania
Faying Europe’s Bad Debts 626
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY Modern Cattle Stealing________—
SCIENCE AND INVENTION Self-Sacriflclng Been___________j
HOUSEWIFERY AND HYGIENE Give as Manly Men________624 Business Goes Briskly
Should America Return to Forward
Manly Sports?.__024 Medicine by NaraL-——636
Logical Conclusions___624 Beady Means for
America's Vulnerable Point 625 Medication
Antitoxins and Vaccines
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY A House Divided-__020 Sesame (Poem) 633
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
A Soldier's tNw.hr. , an God Permits EvU
Three Positions.
Permission or Prerention 1 613
Outbn lanced by the Good , 614
What of ths Soldier?
AU Nations of One B’ood_.G2S Notes on Mark 6: 21-23., .633 Profitable “Banking"
Juvenile Bible Study
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Number a
A Soldier’s Doubts
C. B. Csbvkb, Captain of Infantry, U. S. X, died in France of tuberculosis contracted in the trenches. His trunk was sent to his mother in New York State; in it she,found a letter written in France on October 25,1918, between three and four weeks before the signing of the armistice. The captain was an only son, and a * fine young man in every respect. The letter follows:
Sometimes in the strenuous course of events that take place at the present time, certain thoughts spring up in one’s mind—queer thoughts, too, that cause one to ask questions. . , -
These questions ought to be answered by some one. The answer may be hard to. find; but if one believes what he has been taught, the answer exists.
Here is a thought and a question.
Recently a soldier who entertained some doubt as to the existence of a future life, had ample opportunity to witness many a scene on the Western Front This soldier also at times had doubted the orthodox teachings of future rewards and future punishments. At other times he even doubted the existence of a God.
He joined an Infantry Battalion one afternoon, and was finally assigned to duty with it.
That night he ate his mess in one of the small groups, which were fed at intervals. Death and destruction had for some time been constant attendants of this group
• of men. They were a grim, determined, fighting group of American Dougldioys. '
At mess the Doubter heard rough talk, curses, ribald talk, songs, and coarse, low jokes. Later, in the dugout, he watched the men gamble, heard them relate bragging stories of past drinking bouts, of wild women; while he joined in with them listening, the roar of the artillery mingled with the voices within.
The writer, the Doubter, drew aside for a few momenta. He had vividly remembered some teachings <tf bygone years. He looked back and dug from memory the sayings of his teachers in America, when he was at school. He recalled a Bible course that he had taken.
It had taught that the good shall live everlastingly. ' * lie bad shall perish in punishments. The good will
assemble in heaven. The wicked are provided for in helL
ITio good are defined as the men who live temperate lives, who do not taka ths name of God in vain, who think clean thoughts, who respect women.
The wicked are the men who drink to excess, who curse, who think low thoughts, who do not respect women.
3. a. m.
The night passes on; no one sleeps.
Zero hour now.
The enemy resistance is enormous. At this hour the American Doughboys go over the top.
The first line is gone.
The second pierces the first line trench of the enemy.
Still a third wave reinforces the swiftly disappearing fighters.'
The daylight comes with cold mist. The mud is deep, thick and slippery. The Doughboys have been sixty hours in wet clothes without sleep.
The Doubter is one of the men in the third wave. The objective has been reached. The slaughter has been enormous. Stretched among a mass of shattered mi™, the Doubter recognizes one of the man who only the night before laughed and cursed as he told in his way of .some wild days gone by.
There was not much to bury. His limbs were gone* and his body was badly mangled. A blood-stained letter taken from his 0. D. shirt read in scrawling lines: “Mother, I thought of you to the end”.
The Doubter read the mother's address. For her it is a dark picture. He was the only son. He was red-blooded, rough; he cursed as he died; but he fought fiendishly to the last drop, as all Americans fight.
The teachers at home, the Soul-Savers, taught that this soldier has gone to helL He was decidedly wicked, as they say.
The lonely mother back home has given her one son. He fought a glorious fight for liberty. He died in action. He went to hell as hie reward. His punishment is everlasting. .
The Doubter has begun to think queer thoughts. He is forced to ask now questions of the Soul-Savers back homo.
He asks whether the Soul-Savers are not men who
h*ve eyes, and see not, ears that hear not
Do they have any conception of this one of millions of like instances oh the battle field?
Perhaps they do not even comprehend the teachings of the God they protean to worship.
The questions come in a flood.
Can you answer them?
If there is a heaven and a hell, can you, who save •onia, tell the Doubter where the line is drawn?
Which ones among the millions who have fallen in glorious action in France, go to heaven, and which ones go to hell?
If a just God rules, would He not in justice forgive each man who fell in action ?
Bead the lines by Chaplain T. F. Coaklpy:
“Not since Thine own great sacrifice
Upon the Sacred Hill of Calvary,
Has such a flood-tide set toward Paradise, The countless millions slain to make men free. They are the pure in mind, the clean of heart, Unspotted holocausts, who kept Thy law— Our first-born pons who played the victors' part— Thy judgments will find in them no flaw."
Who are the pure in mind, the clean of heart, and who kept the law?
The men who cursed as they died? .
The men who laughed and drank?
The men who found diversion in immoral women ?
The Doubter demands an answer, because he has seen men die like this—because he knows that millions of men have died, and are dying now, who are not classed among the saved by the well-meaning Soul-Savers.
Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? If there is, which among those who have fallen on the field of honor go to heaven and which ones to hell? And if some go to each, who decides, and how ?
And if you cannot answer, what does it avail you to study your theology, your Bible lessons?
I ask this in behalf of the Doubter.
C. B. Carves, Captain of Infantry, U. S. A.
In France, October 25, 1918. God Permits Eoil .
OES God permit evil? Did Almighty God
permit the World War? ,
God is all-powerfuL He is the Almighty. “All things are possible with God.” God could stop anything. The Creator who made the stars, who set them in motion and who maintains them in their courses, would have had no trouble in preventing the World War.
But according to the Apostle Paul, “the HmoR of this ignorance God winked at.” (Acts 17: 30) He manifestly has permitted evil
The first evil act among men was the act of disobedience recorded of the first human pair in their nurity and nerfection in the Garden of a
Eden. Adam and his sweetheart, Eve, were on their honeymoon—in modern phrase—for the first year or two in their perfect home. They loved one another deeply, tenderly, devotedly, as only the perfect can love. They were the human embodiment of Him of whom it is writ- ’ t ten, “God is love”. They exemplified perfect ’4 love. They loved God and every living being. They had sweet intercourse with their Creator, and with other perfect beings. Among these mighty beings Was their friend and benefactor, a mighty angel named “The Morning Star”. - . This great one was their special guardian and protector. They were devotedly attached to “The Morning Star”; they loved him, and trust- ' ed him implicitly.
Concerning “The Morning Star” it was written: “Thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee.....Thou
sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God. Every precious stone [good character quality] was thy covering.......Thou art the
anointed cherub that covereth [defends and protects the human ones]; and I [Jehovah] have set thee so; thqu wast upon the mountain f [dominion] of God; thou hast walked [proceed- 1
ed] up and down in the midst of the stones of \
fire [the shining stars of the universe].” f
But evil entered into the heart of this great ‘ angel, unprevented by God. Shakespeare puts it, *, “Ambition—by this sin fell the angels". The ; Divine Record says: “Thou wast perfect in thy .. ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee... .Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast cor- , rupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness .... Thou hast set .thine heart [to be] as the heart of God [to be a ruler of a dominion like God].”—Ezekiel 28. .
This is the story of how the evil in the universe started, in the determination of a glorious angel to be first among the creation of God.
“The Morning Star” had changed his character, and with the change is given another name, “Satan,” the adversary, “devil,” the slanderer.
This “prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), as “the god of this world, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not”.—2 Corinthians 4:4.
The first one whose mind was blinded was the
woman Eve, who had loved and trusted “The Morning Star”. Not knowing about his change to “Satan” and “Devil”, the woman trustingly was deceived, and committed the act of disobedience.
The divine law had defined the penalty, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. (Genesis 2:17) Adam was not deceived. He knew the penalty that his bride had incurred. He believed that within twenty-four hours she would be dead.
What would any young man, devotedly attached to his bride, do, if he saw her swept from his reach in the waters at the brink of Niagara! Unable to save her in whom his affections were centered, he would join her in the sweep of the cataract. Adam was not deceived; but he did not know that God had in mind a thousand-year day. He was desperate—and joined his bride in an act which would bring in death release from the torture of his heart
“By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all.”— Bomans 5:12.
All this could have been prevented by the Almighty. With the first ambitious thought, “The Morning Star” could have been blotted out. In thunder tones the voice of God might have swept through Eden and warned the woman of her danger. In mightier voice the God of Love could have held back the man from his sin.
But God was silent.
The Almighty permitted the sin.
Three Positions
AT THIS point the reader can take one of three positions:
He can decide, without further consideration, that a God who permits evil is evil Himself;
That God is a myth, like Santa Claus, and belief in Him a superstition, which should be swept into oblivion as unspeakably harmful to the world (This is the position of Robert Blatchford, Colonel Ingersoll, and many of the anarchists) ;
Or that Jehovah is infinite in justice, wisdom, love and power, and that in some way it was and is best to permit evil.
We take the third proposition, that the permission of evil will work out greater good than its prevention.
How can good come from permission of evilf
In the first place the difference must be clearly seen between doing evil that good may come, and permitting evil that good may come.
It is clearly wrong to do evil that good may come from the evil done. In this ease the doer of evil is a benefactor, without dean hands. Such a course is forbidden by laws human and divine. God never does evil. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right!” says God's friend, Abraham, by inspiration.
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust him,** said that greatest poet of all time, the lover of God, Job. Whatever the evil permitted, God will do the right thing. No evil will bo permitted which will not bring an ultimate benefit. "Surely,” says David, “the wrath of man [divinely permitted] shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath [evil too great to result in good] shalt thou restrain.”—Psalm 76:10.
Permission or Prevention ? :
HOW CAN the permission of evil result in good, and be better than its prevention!
A child and a stove—the child is warned that the stove will burn him if he touches it Ultimately he is burned. If the child never learned by experience, he might one day burn himself severely; conceivably he might walk into a flaming fire and be consumed.
Is it better to chain the child, so he can never get near a fire; or to allow him the liberty which will result in his learning to fear the flame!
Boys are warned against a variety of evils— drink, gambling, fast women. Most boys try the evils in spite of the warnings. By experience they learn to avoid evils because they find that the evils are harmful.
Would it be better to lock the boys up in cells under religious keepers and wardens and keep them from evil! or to allow them the liberty which permits experiences so unpleasant that ultimately they will not only avoid them, but loathe them!
God made man a free moral agent He respects the free moral agency. He coerces the will of no intelligent being in heaven or on earth. A free moral agent Himself, He made man in His own mental and moral likeness, a free moral agent.
How can free moral agents be safeguarded against evil! By prevention of evil! or by the restricted permission of evil! Only through an experience with evil or an observation of evil
sufficient to produce a loathing for all evil, can free moral agents be safeguarded in mind and character, su that they will always choose the good and avoid the eviL Thus are produced men who are “as gods**, knowing good and evil, and ever preferring the course which is right. Such have the spirit of God, the disposition to do instinctively as God would do. ‘The hour cometh... when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him... .They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," says Jesus.—John 4:23.
All the human race will ultimately have this spirit.
One free moral agent is not responsible for the acts of another free moral agent. The exception is where one is set as a watchman to warn another; the trackman that lets a train thunder into an abyss without warning is guilty of the blood of the dead.
Says God: “When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him tor their watchman; if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he bloweth the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning: his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the. trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.”—Ezekiel 33:2-6.
A prominent clergyman says: “When they set ns up on soap-boxes to preach war, we ought to have told the truth”. If the clergy—self-styled divine watchmen — had blown the trumpet of truth, they would not be guilty of the blood of the slain of the World War. It -is not too late for them to do their duty.
No one is responsible for the acts of his neighbor. Neither is God to blame for the acts of oilier free moral agents: for God warned humanity, in its earliest days, and for two thousand years through the Bible and such Christianity as there was.
Outbalanced by the Good
TO PERMIT evil is beie ib ial. provided there come afterward blessii:'_’< • hich more than offset the pain and distress ef die < vil. and
which could not otherwise be attained by man.
The time for the offsetting blessings is the Golden Age, just about to dawn, when “millions now living will never die**.
Then humanity will be under a reign of goodness and of blessing such as the loftiest dreams of man have never imagined. “There shall be showers of blessing.** (Ezekiel 34:26) “Drop . down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness,” says the inspired prophet. (Isaiah 45:8) “I will open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”—Malachi 3:10.
The coming blessings and their undeservedness are spoken of again: “Then will I sprinkle clean water [truth] upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you... .And I will call for ' the corn [grain], and will increase it, and lay no ' famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field.. .Then shall ye remember your own evil ways [of the present and the past], and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your dwn sight for your [past] iniquities, and for your [past] abominations. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you.. .1 do not this for your sakes, but for mine holy name’s sake.... And I will sanctify [make sacred] my great name.” (Ezekiel 36) In yet another place it is foretold that men will not be able to contain themselves, but will weep for very joy at the goodness of God—in the Golden Age.
The new and better order of things with its good will be so satisfying that the old — the present evil order of things—will never be desired again. “Behold, I create new heavens [spiritual powers 0 f control, the reigning Christ] and a new earth [social order based on divine love, the golden rule]; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind [as past privations pass out of mind in present joy]” (Isaiah 65:17) Men will never desire the old ways of sin and evil with which they had an average lifetime experience of thirty-three years each. The goodness of the better age will outbalance a thousand times the distress and trouble of the time of the permission of evil.
Any person who would then show a preference for the old ways of selfishness and sin will
be justly regarded as an enemy of mankind, a cumberer of^the ground. “Every soul which will not hear {pbeyjthat Prophet [Christ, then reigning to fil^ss] shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:23) It is to be hoped that there will not be many such.
What of the Soldier ?
BUT what of the man that cursed as he died?
The Golden Age is the time of resurrection of the dead. The good since Christ’s time will be raised to be spirit beings and be with Him in heaven.
Let us picture the future of those who the Soul-Savers say have gone to hell.
Answers to prayer will be prompt and sure in those days. “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear,” declares the prophet—Isaiah 65:24.
Ja answer to prayer the dead will come back to their families. In place of family ties broken by death, there will be a wonderful reknitting together of heart-strings long torn, but never satisfied until the answer comes when “all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth [to resurrection]”.—John 5:28.
.The dead soldier’s mother, perhaps, will raise her voice daily for God to remember His promise and bring back from the field of honor the boy who in 1918 laid down his life.
Some day the answer will come: “The boy is coming back tomorrow; get his room, ready; assemble the friends that he loved; have a feast prepared, music and flowers and light; for tomorrow when the oft-repeated prayer is spoken for the last time, there will stand again in your midst your soldier-boy, never to leave you again, , if he will but conform to the goodness of the
Golden Age."
Back home at last is the soldier who cursed as he died—now to learn the truth about the life that can be his forever, to learn that his return was through the Redeemer, who laid down His human life that all might have one full, fair chance for eternal life. What soldier is there who would not then take the oath of allegiance to the Savior, and keep it as faithfully as he kept the oath to his country!
Boys spend four hard years in an apprenticeship to qualify for ten times four years, to earn a better living than the average. Others go eight years to college and professional school, and think the privations well endured for the opportunity to win a competence for five times eight years. How well worth will be the average thirty-three years lesson in evil, permitted by a wise Father, when the experience with that evil makes it possible for a free moral agent to crystalize his character against evil and have the opportunity to live forever—not merely with slightly better conditions than^those of the period of evil but in the abounding life of perfection ; not for a time but for eternity; not in conditions termed in the Bible the devil’s kingdom, but in an earth transformed by human achievement into a Paradise—“the Paradise of God”!
Thirty-three years of evil for an eternity of good!
Who would not willingly pay the price!
Moreover, if evil had never been permitted, neither angels nor men could have understood the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the love of a God who loves His enemies, who is kind to wrongdoers, who forgives sins and pardons iniquities, who permits evil but overwhelms evil with good—who is Love.
By permission of evil there is made manifest that Jehovah has a character infinite in Justice, Wisdom, Power and Love.
To everlasting ages men will understand a God who will shine in their hearts’ devotion with a radiance hr rliter than the noonday sun.
Some Prison Experiences By h.r. Naish
I CONSECRATED my life to God in June, 1915, and became what is known as a Conscientious Objector, because God’s Word commands that we shall not take life and that we shall love our enemies. I was very patriotic, and in October, 1914, had offered my. services in the army; but heing at that time only 19 years old and not fully developed, I was considered too small
In February, 1916,1 presented to the authorities a sworn statement that in the event of conscription in Canada I would not accept service, as I objected to the war on Christian principles. After fighting the case through three courts or tribunal.®, including Ottawa, I was arn>t»d <>>1 the 18th of January, 1918, together with a friend who was of the same opinion as myself, and taken to the Detention Barracks in Winnipeg. There we were taken before an officer, who requested us to sign the attestation papers. This we both refused to do. That afternoon we were taken to Minto Street Barracks, and immediately brought before certain officers, who gave us much abusive language, in order to frighten us. But on finding that we were firm, they separated us, putting my friend in one Company and me in another. That night we slept on a bench in the basement, because we had refused to sign for blankets.
We spent Saturday and Sunday in this manner, and on Monday morning were ordered to go to work in the kitchen. This we refused to do. You may wonder why this refusal, and I answer: Because the military authorities were so crafty that it was impossible to give them one inch. They would always try to get one to take a step, with the promise that it was all that would be required; and then* as soon as that step was taken, they would try to work one forward another step. Giving way one step made it all the . harder to resist the next time.
By afternoon we were both locked up in the dink We slept on the floor that night; and the next morning the Provost Sergeant, together with two policemen, came for my friend and took him away. He returned in about one-half hour, cold and shivering, his teeth chattering. They had stripped him and placed him under the ice-cold shower bath for several minutes. After dinner they came for him again, and this time brought him back unconscious. They dragged his body across the drill hall, and upon reaching the cell let him drop like a rag. From two o’clock in the afternoon until eight o’clock that night he lay there, without medical aid.
As soon as they brought him in they took me out; and when we reached the shower bath, they ordered me to undress. I refused; and they pulled off my clothes and placed me under the ice-cold water. Outside it was 30 degrees below zero. Soon my teeth began to chatter, and I began to feel as though I would drop to pieces. After a time tliey turned off the water an»i said: 'Will you put the khaki on?” I said: •N(>". Then the water was turned on again. After another spell the same question was asked. and again the same answer. Then the hot water was turned on, and a thick cloud of steam engulfed me; then the cold water again, and in a few minutes I fell on the stone floor exhausted. I was then taken back to the cell, where my friend still lay dead to the world.
The rest of the afternoon I spent rubbing his legs and hands, which were like ice. At night he came to enough to call my name. He then said: “Tell Sergeant----that I forgive him”,
and closed his eyes again. I am sure that he thought that he was dying; for he was without feeling from the waist down. About eight o’clock two officers took him to the hospital, and I did not see him again for two weeks.
DECEIVED BY THE EVIL OXE
The next day the officers did not bother me, but on the following day they ordered me to come down to the quarter-master's store and get fitted up with the cloth. This I refused to do, so was taken with force and fitted up. It made me think, by contrast, of those who outwardly look like Christ’s, but whose hearts are far from Him. I looked like a soldier; but in my heart I felt that if the devilish deeds I.had already witnessed, deeds done in God’s name, really represented His kingdom, then I could wish to be forever far away from it all. The devil has a great way of making people think that the rules and laws of his kingdom are the rules and laws of the kingdom of Christ
The following weeks were spent in serving' terms in the Detention C. B., Punishment Diet, etc., etc., with repeated attempts to make me drill in the hall. During the two terms spent at the Detention Barracks I was used well by the N. C. O.’s and the captain in charge.
My friend in due time returned from the hospital and rejoined me at Minto Barracks. We were court-martialed, and given two years hard labor in Stony Mountain Penitentiary. After we had arrived there, our hair was shaved to the roots. We were fitted with prison garb, with our numbers all over everything. Any one seeing us would Think: “Well, that is the best place for people who look so dangerous”. How unspeakably small-souled it is for governments to try to undermine the self-respect of decent men by dressing them like tramps and purposely arranging to make their rogues-gallery photographs as ugly as possible 1 At night I used to lie watching the great and small cockroaches on the ceiling o£my cell as they went to their midnight banquet; and early in the morning I would see them wending their way home. After three weeks the officers sent for us again, and in five days more we started for England.
On April 10th we were marched down the main street to the station, having been joined by more of our friends; and it was not long before we were placed on the train. The next four days and a half we spent traveling from Winnipeg to Halifax, where on arrival we were immediately placed on a great liner. By accident we were liberated on board, but not for long; and in one hour from the time of going aboard we were all in the clink.
That same evening the guard, acting under orders, took us on deck and ordered us to carry shells to the guns. We refused, and were given fourteen days bread and water, and a sergeant placed in charge of us to “break us in”. For the following week we were taken .on deck twice a day and subjected to indignities. Often there were three hundred to five hundred soldiers standing around the circle in which we were being baited. Sometimes two of us were placed on our backs at opposites of the circle and the others were told to walk around. Two sergeants would stand near the ones lying down, and, as the others passed, would jerk our bodies so qs to make the men step on our faces. We were kicked, pinched, knocked, cursed, called filthy names, and made objects of hate. Despite this, many of the boys were very good to us, and would often bring us little treats, all going to show that the mass are not so evil of mind as were some in authority.
After a week of this treatment we were taken into the dining-room and given the work of washing the floors. On one occasion the head steward gave instructions that we be taken into the kitchen and given afternoon tea, where they left us for half an hour to enjoy the blessing of a clean meal and of fellowship without the presence of guards. Some hearts are lofty and kind; and there were always some of this class around to give the cup of cold water which shall not lose its reward. While on shipboard I was placed in a little cabin all by myself, because of being a dangerous character (so they said). One day a call went around that we were being attacked by a submarine, and the next minute the guns began to fire. We were rushed up on deck and placed in the front end; but the torpedo missed its mark, and after a short battle we passed the danger and went below.
Sunday morning, April 28th, we came on deck, and first saw Liverpool The Liverpool docks were seething with khaki and filled with American ships, the decks of which were lined with soldiers. Everything was there to turn one's reason and to make a man act on emotion instead of reason. Several men on board who were returning from Canada to France seemed able to understand in. some measure that we were sincere, even though they did think ua mistaken; and they treated us kindly, in so far as they were able.
About noon we were landed and were marched to a railroad station; where we boarded a train for Seaford Camp»:WW£ south of England. One of the guards passed some remark to the captain in charge of our party, about our trying to escape; but the captain said: "Oh, you need not worry about those men! They will be all right” At midnight we passed through London, and about 12:30 reached the station, two miles from camp. Here we were lined up in the darkness of a lane, and the roll-call was read. We refused to answer our names when read as Private, etc., but the officer in charge ticked us off as.the names were called. We started for the camp, with a band in thelead. The town was in darkness, on account of the air-raids; rain was falling; and everything seemed forsaken. When we reached the camp we were placed in a tent, and slept on the wet ground.
ATTEMPT TO COEBCB
When morning came we were ordered out to drill; and we promptly refused. Then we were lined up on the parade ground with a guard on either side. After much shunting up and down we were ordered out of the line, taken back to camp, and placed in the guard tent. The next day the same thing happened again, with the same results. After a few days we were taken to the 11th Reserve, and divided off into different Companies. Ou Saturday night I found myself placed in a hut "with some thirty men who soon found out that I was an objector: but although some used threats, no one laid hands on me.
On Sunday morning I was ordered to church parade, and replied that I would not go. At this, two corporals fastened a belt anti a baym.et
on rue, put on the puttees, and pushed me into the Lines, where I found one of my friends with
' handcuffs on. The band started to play, and to church we went. “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” says the Apostle. But we
1 were in handcuffs, dragged there by force to do outward homage, ostensibly jto a God who “seek-eth such to worship him as worship in spirit and in truth”, but really to “the god of this [present evil] world” — the devil On getting back to camp we were liberated again.
, The following day proved, to be an eventful
one; for right after breakfast we were ordered for physical training. I was made ready and marched up the hill to the training ground, lined
* up by force with the rest of the Company. Then I had the pleasure of hearing a short address by the captain. He said: “Boys, these are the
1 men who would let the Germans come over and violate your women folk," etc., etc., and other
' statements of like nature. He then ordered two.
( men to take charge of me. The field was marked
with ditches, wire entanglements (not barbed 4 wire), walls of sandbags and, lastly, a sevenfoot wooden wall The soldiers were made to run.
1 at these, and either, jump them or climb over t them as. best they could. When we came to the wall, they hoisted me up and were just about to r let me drop when the captain called: “Don’t let him drop!” I was then rushed down the hill to ’ an armory, and there saw one of my friends
. being clubbed by a sergeant who had placed
boxing gloves on himself and his quarry. Among
• them were gathered several lieutenants and'
other men who were off duty. As I came along
■ they rushed him away and started on me. First
, the gloves were placed on my hands; then I was
placed before the sergeant, who said: “Now when I say, Guard, put your hands to your face, so”. The next minute he struck me a hard blow ’ in the face, hard enough to knock me semi-con
scious. Then he quickly pulled me to my feet and struck me again, this time on the nose, from
> which the blood flowed freely. Once again he
pul!<«<i me t<> my feet, and administered another blow on iny face.
At this juncture one of the officers standing by said: “Let that man alone; that's not fair play”. But Captain----said: “If you don’t
like to watch it, then get away”. The sergeant caught a handful of my flesh, and pushed and pulled me forward and backward for several
minutes, then turned me over to the guards, who took me back to camp, where I stayed for the rest of the day.
At the end of that week I was placed in the clink, where I remained for five weeks, with the other members of our party, and then was sentenced to one year in Wandsworth Military Prison, London. When we arrived, the man who met us at the door said to us: “You have heard about hell Well, here you are.” They had two mottoes, “We tame lions”, and “We make or break you”. But they had forgotten that they could not transform a lamb into a lion. Truly the Master said of some of His little ones: "They shall cast some of you into prison, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my sake", but “he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved”. They knew not the power that held us up to endure their rovilings and taunts.
We were promptly taken into the alley-way and lined up, told all the things that would befall us if we were going to aot still like fools and cowards, etc., etc. Then we were rushed to our cells. Everything was done on the double-quick at this prison.
' MTr.TTARY TOBTTTM -
The cell was made of stone, with a large iron-studded door, and was absolutely void of furniture except for a tin gallon-pail of water on a stone shelf. At night they gave me a board, two blankets, a sheet and a pillow. Needless to say,, I did not sleep much that night- On the following morning the N. C. 0. ordered me to get my marching order ready. This consisted of full pack. But I did not obey; so as soon as breakfast was over, two N. C. O.’s came and put it on me, and then gave me a rifle to hold. At my refusal they became angry and, after several punches and kicking my ankles, they rushed me before the Commandant, who warned me of the result of trying to hold out. That worthy gave mo three days solitary confinement, with three days bread and water and twenty-one days No. 1 punishment diet. Then I was rushed back to my cell.
That day and every day for the first week the N. C. O.’s would come to my cell, strike me in the face, throw me down and kick mo, talk the vilest language, and seem to delight in pulling me opt before the other prisoners. Some of them,'however, hated the work they were bebcg made to do, and once in a while would say a
word of cheer when no one ^l*as around to overhear. I Buffered greatly during the first two weeks from hunger, as at first I was unable to eat the porridge provided in a dirty can every fourth day for dinner. Sometimes there were lumps as big as eggs in the porridge. I have found cabbage slugs in the soup, bacon rind in the bread, etc., etc. The potatoes were cooked with the jackets on, dirt and all, just as they . came up out of the ground.
After I had been there for two weeks, the N. C. O.’s took me out on a certain morning and, placing two of the other prisoners at either side, started to drag me around the courtyard, the guard all the time giving instructions. Then we went around to a lane between two buildings; and for half an hour I was dragged up and down, with a man at each side and one at my back, pushing and pulling, back and forward, as though possessed by the very devil. The man at my right beat me incessantly on my face with his fist; and the man behind me kicked me on the legs as fast as he could do so and keep running. This seemed to satisfy them for the time being; and so with a promise of more the next day, they took me back to my cell and locked me up again. For the next three days I was in great pain, as my throat and jaws were badly swollen and my back teeth were locked together. After the third day I was able to put bread crumbs between my lips and, with a painful effort, swallow them. It was ten days before I was able to eat or drink without pain.
I was never again violently treated after this, except for an occasional blow from one of the guards while in a fit of temper. But the punishment diet was continued for three and a half months longer. Sometimes I grew almost frantic with hunger, and never knew what it was to feel warm, on account of the poor condition of my blood. It was a common thing for me to walk the cell for hours to keep warm, until too tired to continue.
On one occasion I awoke and glanced around the damp stone cell, with its cold tile floor. Perhaps I lay there some ten minutes, looking at the big solid door sunk into the four-foot wall, then wearily at the bare cell'again with not even a piece of furniture in it save the hard wooden bed-board upon which I lay. ily meditations were interrupted by the "fall in” whistle of the prison-guard, and in a few minutes the sergeant rapped on the door, at which signal we were expected to sing out in a lusty voice, "All's well-, sergeant”. But it is an effort to say such things when one has felt the pangs of hunger for two months steady, tossing around all night with sore bones, caused by the wooden bed and lack of fat over the bones.
Usually I was able to appreciate the privilege of witnessing for Christ against the powers of darkness; but this day seemed different. My mind was full of unhappy fears, doubts and distress, even to the point of doubting God’s care and love. I arose hastily and was soon pacings the floor in great distress of mind, asking myself the question, Can it be that I have been wrong! What if the whole plan of the ages as brought forth in those wonderful books, “Studies in the Scriptures,” is all wrong? But reason would not permit such conclusions.
About this juncture the famous Wandsworth Prison breakfast was served at the door. It consisted of a square of black bread about 4x 3x3 inches, and for quick delivery was deposited on the bare floor at the door. At a given signal your sergeant or other N. C. -O. on duty opened the door, at which moment with a.loving and tender grip you picked up the daily manna provided, taking care not to lose so much as a crumb, and your gratitude was expected to abound all day, from early morning until 5:15 p. m., at which time another similar loaf was provided. Every fourth week a quarter-ration was served for one week, to revive strength for the following three weeks bread and water.
After the breakfast the conflict of mind started once again, and so I resolved to tell the Lord my troubles and ask for assurance. Strange to say, the greatest doubts, of all the many in my mind seemed to be concerning the Seventh Volume of Scripture Studies, “The Finished Mystery,” which I had time to read only once before my arrest in January, 1918. Three questions I prayed God to answer, if it was His will so to do:
(1) Is the plan all right, especially the Seventh Volume?
(2) Was the Lord pleased -with my determination to have nothing to do with the support of the war?
(3) If I faithfully served Him to the best of my ability, would He grant me the reward promised in His Word to them that overcome?
A)x>ut ten o'dock a. m., as "nearly as I could judge, footsteps were heard in the corridor out-, side, and then followed a moment of. breathless waiting to hear whether they woultkstop at my door. We were always interested at .tho ap-■ proach of steps to our cell door^j because of repeated visits from the guards foirthe purpose of abuse. Then the big key clicked* jift-the lock, and a Roman- Catholic corporal entered. He asked my name and, upon being.-.told, said: “This is for you", and handed me ia;little book about x 5 inches, the vest pocket or war edition of the “Finished Mystery”. We talked a few minutes relative to my views; then he left.
This was the first piece of paper in any shape or form that I. had received since entering the prison, June 11. I sat down upon a, stone slab and opened the first page. On it was written a few words of brotherly love from a friend at Kamsack, Saskatchewan. I turned again with an eager hand to read “The Revelation”, as the war edition of the Seventh Volume was called. Previously I had not known of its existence. A strange little book this seemed, yet after all no different from the original version;, and so I read on for some two or three minutes and then, as if guided by some unseen force, threw back, some hundred pages.
I shall never forget what met my gaze — a picture representing the great apostate church, as viewed by John the Revelatory. Quickly. I threw back two or more pages, as ^though my eyes would not believe what they saw; and thus I read: “And we have the same inspired authority for the statement that only those.'who refuse to render worship to those powerful, influential religious systems (symbolized by the beast and his image) will be counted by the Lord as ‘overeomers’ and l>e made His joint heirs as members of His elect church".
Then it all dawned upon me like a flash of light that here was the answer to my prayers! Yes; surely the truth as I knew it was all right, especially the Seventh Volume; and surely the Lord did approve of the course we had taken. All my questions were answered by that little “Pocket Revelation”.
I cannot describe the joy and peace received for many a weary day afterward, but true to His covenant God never forsook me. And although there were during that strange year experiences which I can never put into words now, yet looking back I can truly praise the Lord for all the way that He led me. And above all my memories ranks high that little book's visit to Wandsworth Prison.
After four months at Wandsworth a guard came to take us out and back to Camp Seaford. He was very good to us and on the way back to camp gave us opportunity for a meal of good food. But not one of us was able to retain the food on our stomachs, on account of the weakness of our digestive organs. After a few days, during which we had opportunity to tell many of the boys the good news of Christ’s coming kingdom, We were reshipped to Canada. On the return voyage certain passengers refused to eat with us, and certain returning soldiers threatened to throw us overboard, but were unable to carry out their designs. After a few more weeks in prison at Quebec and Winnipeg, we were ordered to go home. This we did with hearts thankful to the Lord for the privileges He had given us of witnessing to His truth and of suffering for His name.
A House Divided By Norman J. Veeder
Herewith, dear Editor, my child Into your keeping I entrust:
Grant it the milk of mercy mild Nor reconsign It to the dust.
See how It prattles and it smiles To win its way into your heart.
Employing only baby guiles, All innocent of other art.
But if It prove perverse and rude (As often orphaned children do) Cheer up; for I’ve an endless brood: I’U straight another send to you I
“I guess I will take a walk," I said once upon a time to myself, and myself replied by putting on my little green hat and starting down town.
Now it seems that all the members of my body had on this very day decided to mutiny against what they had long considered the intolerable tyranny of myself. My eyes had often accused myself of compelling them to scan long rows of print that were not in the least pretty to look upon, and all for the pleasure of myself alone. My ears had complained that they were compelled to pay attention to long, monotonous discourses that were not in the least melodious and soothing to listen to, and all to satisfy the ca-
pricioua whin|a of myself. (My nose likewise made concerning stuffy
rooms; my 'w$gt»raved about tasteless diets; and my legsgrumbled about hard pavements . over which they were constantly required to jolt on hard leather heels. And all my other members had their little complaints and grievances which they had long suffered; but myself being omnipotent, had paid but scant attention to them or had merely laughed scornfully and continued to subject them to its autocratic wilt
Therefore as I now started to walk to town, I suddenly perceived that things were not as they should be. When I started to turn toward the library, my legs did not turn but continued right on; my eyes refused to look at anything .but grassy plots, flower-gardens and pretty girls; and my nose began sniffing down at a rose in my coat-lapel which made me feel most ridiculous, though I was powerless to do anything but think terrible words.
Meanwhile my legs kept plodding along, running hither and thither at every whim of my ears, eyes, and nose, continuing to do all the work and getting ho pleasure at all from the trip, though all the time my eyes were rolling in every direction enjoying the beauties of scenery, while my ears placidly received the sounds of cafS player-pianos and whistled tunes and my nose went sniffing along, now and then repaid by a fragrant whiff from a restaurant or fruit stand or, at times, becoming aware of the proximity of a garbage-can, asking my legs to continue on with increasing celerity. At last my legs grew weary and became angry at this manifest unfairness; and when my eyes next spied a shop-window across the street with a beautiful painting in it, my legs flatly refused to carry them thither but kept right on going.
*T want to see that painting in beautiful colors!” cried my eyes to my legs. "Take me back at once!”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” replied my legs. "'What do I care for colors and paintings! I have pampered you long enough. If you want to go back and see anything, go ahead: but as for myself, I shall continue right on to a h:«nch I know in a grocery store, where I intend to stop and sit down.”
And they gave a similar answer to my ears when these heard a band playing several blocks away and urged my legs to run in that direction.
My nose fared no better when it vehemently desired my legs to turn aside after a passing peanut-wagon from which was issuing a most celestial aroma. And so my eyes, ears, and nose became excessively angry at my legs, but were powerless to do anything, and had to follow wherever my legs took a notion to go. ■
Meantime my legs went prancing along, determined to do just as they pleased from now on. Suddenly it occurred to them that they didn’t remember where the grocery bench was; so they called up to my eyes: “Hey there, wake up! Where’s Persimmon’s grocery store?”
But my eyes replied: “We don’t know and care less—there’s nothing pretty to be seen there. Take us back to the picture-shop at once. We will close up for the day until you do.” Then my eyes slily winked at eadi other and clapped tight shut.
"Nose,” screamed my legs m a rage, “smell out the grocery-bench at once! I wish to sit down.”
But my nose only turned up and replied: “What, that musty smelling store? I should say not!” Then it sniffed its disgust, and said: “Why did you stop near a dead cat? Take me back to the popcorn wagon at once—it smells so much nicer.”
“I smell no dead cat,” said my legs stiffly. “It is your foolish imagination, and I shall stay right here until I know where the bench is. Ears, listen for a sound like a wooden bench, will you, and tell me what direction it comes from.”
“I will listen to nothing but the brass band,” said my ears, waxing very angry. Then they said, “I hear an automobile coming, and I should advise you to move with the utmost alacrity.”
“Which way, which way!” cried my legs, becoming frightened.
“I am uncertain—you had better ask eyes,” said my ears. But my eyes refused to budge a lid. Then my legs began to run about every which way; and all of a sudden there was a tremendous crash, a nd myself was hurled-through the atmosphere and landed on the sidewalk. a complete wreck. My legs groaned: “I am broken in two places”; my eyes wept: "I am black and blue”; my nose snuffled: “Take me away fom this gas—I am bleeding and suffocating”; and my ears drummed: “'What an awful noise—I’m sure I’m burst”. Likewise all my other members set up a tremendous wail in sr.
And so it came about that while I lay recuperating in the hospital, as soon as they were able all the mutinous members held a consultation, which resulted in their making overtures of peace to myself on terms which myself was only too glad to accept without reservations; and in accordance with which from thence forward, myself has always taken great pains to satisfy within reasonable bounds the desires and inclinations for recreation of all the various members of my body, who in turn render to myself with . utmost goodwill their services whenever required, so that we now live all together, a happy and a contented family.
Timber Thieves in Washington By h. c. Pierce
WE CAME West in 1908 to get us a home.
We found we were five or six years too late to get homestead laud that, was worth taking; but about that time those that were proving up on their claims were selling them, as is usual with the first settlers in a new country. Proved-up land was selling for from fourteen hundred to two thousand a quarter, according to the location and the amount of saw timber on it
My son-in-law bought a claim for sixteen hundred from an old bachelor that had just proved up. He paid a few hundred down, and had five years to pay the balance in at eight percent interest We were told that the sawtimber on the land during the five years would sell for enough on the stump to pay for the place. Two or three lumber companies were operating in that section and had bought some state timbered lands and were buying some small tracts.
About that time, 1909 and 1910, the lumber business took a backset, and not much lumber was being sawed to ship. The lumber companies conceived the idea that instead of buying the timber of the settlers and having to remove it in a given time, most of those settlers would sell out to them sooner or later.
The homesteaders had not cleared much land during their five years of homesteading and so could not raise a living; and, being quite poor, they had to go out to work to support their families. In many instances they had run behind through sickness or some other cause; and when they got their patents from the Government they often had to mortgage to some moneyed shark or local bank, paying the limit of twelve percent. They could borrow from eight to twelve hundred on their land.
All the time the settler was in hopes to sell his timber to pay off the mortage; but the lumber companies were buying no timber, knowing that sooner or later the settler would have to sell out. They had their "cruisers" (timber viewers) out estimating the timber ip the whole country, so that when the settlers had to sell as their mortgages became due the mills knew to a dollar what their timber wds worth in the tree. They would offer you for the land from eighty cents to one dollar a thousand <m its value (land and all). In that way they got pretty nearly the whole country.
Those settlers that hung on and would not sell for a long time were finally obliged to. sell; for so many had moved away that in many communities there were not children enough to keep up the schools and the parents were not able to send theirs off to school. In .war times in some localities the lumber kings started to saw that . timber, but would not buy a five-foot stick from a settler.
Now where they have slashed the timber off, and where' the old dry slashings are a menace to the country on accoun| of fires, they offer those lands and advertise very extensively how they will sell those lands bad: to the settlers for the same price or a little more and give ten years' time to pay for them. Why not? They got two or three times what the lands cost them out of the timber and to have six percent coming in on the land is a fine thing.
And pray tell me how the poor fellow that has three or four hundred to pay down is going to make his payments, with no timber to sell to help while he is clearing those slashings and getting a start?
Many a man, after spending eight or ten years of the best of his life there in the woods, has come out with less money than he left the East with, and all the time the kept press are holding out inducements to people in the East to come and get a home; it is so easy.* My sonin-law went out into the prairie and worked by
the year topay up on his place; and the hard work and Worry caused the death of his wife, just as the test payment was to be made. She left two little boys. It took three or four years for him to recuperate from that loss with the expense of his boys. He could not sell his place today for what it cost him......
'The Spokane Daily Chronicle of recent date, shows the reduction in the priee of building material Their claim all the time has been that the short hours, high wages, and high freight rates, shoved lumber to the unprecedented high prices. But now with hard times coming on and millions of that lumber on hand that was gotten out with high-priced labor (that they were so* cocksure the world was going to need, and the world does need it, but cannot buy it), the companies are dropping (you will see) in price. But don't think for a minute that they are selling below cost; for they are not.
Just a word about pulp wood for paper: I see a great deal of talk about >a scarcity of
Yours in the hope of a.better life, and praying that your work of uplifting will continue.
Modem Cattle Stealing By G.D. Fairbank*-'?
IT LOOKS very much as though the financial interests of America, if not of the world, are pulling off the biggest steal in history.
Our recent terrible and sudden drop in prices was no natural economic event, but a well-laid plan; and we shall be badly fooled if we expect prices to rise again. The United States issued billions of dollars in bonds when prices were high and money cheap. These bonds had been gradually gravitating into the hands of the financial interests, but not quickly enough to suit their purpose, when came the order to retrench.
The banks called in their loans; and in order to pay them, people had to sacrifice their bonds and property for what they could get on a glutted market. Result, the interests got hold of the bonds at a big discount and at the same time cut prices to a low level, from -which they will never recover to any material extent. We may be sure that the interests will see to it that prices do not recover, because it is necessary to their scheme to hold prices down and thus enhance the value of the dollar. Prices being now approximately one-half of war prices, the bonds, which were issued during high prices, timber for that All over northern Idaho and eastern Washington are millions of cords of suitable timber for paper,-such as spruce, white fir, Jack or black pine, and other timber going to waste. This the settlers would be glad to cut and sell, but there are only two or three paper mills in the whole country. I know of one section in the Clearwater country in Idaho—a strip eight or ten miles long with.a stream running through the middle of it, where with very little expense it could be floated to the railroad.
I am not entering a complaint; for we people that discern the signs of the times’ expect it and rejoice in the fact thafciVis only a forerunner of the incoming kingdom of jour Lord.
Hoping that this will-be. of some benefit to you, I ask you to excuse my writing with a pencil; but as I apa an old num, all crippled up with rheumatism, my Hinds all drawn out of shape, I can write only*with& pencil are now worth in actual property twice as much as when they were issued.
Suppose a farmer sold a cow for $100 during the war and bought a bond. He became pinched by the sudden fall in prices and sold his bond to the bank at a discount, in order to get currency to run his farm. It is plain that the bond represents the worth of one cow minus the discount charged by the bank. Years pass, the bond becomes due, but the value of cows has dropped to $50 each; and it will take two cows to pay off that bond, not counting the interest. Of course the Government pays the bond off in money, but this money has to come from the people in taxes, and our farmer will have to part with -two cows in order to pay his share of the taxes which in turn pays off the bond. The holder of the bond loans the Government the value of one cow and gets in return the value of two cows.
The example of the cow can be applied to every other commodity, which means that the final owners of the bonds will force the American people to pay them double the amount of actual value that was loaned during the period of high prices by the simple trick of restricting the amount of circulating medium (money) and forcing down prices.
- Give Us Manly Men ■ ' 3 ' .
MR. Editor: I am a constant reader of your wonderful little paper and look for it with greater interest than all my other papers, combined, and I take no less than twenty-five. I herewith submit an article for publication in your paper if it meets with your approval: prompted really by hearing a Bible student explain that the gentiles were eventually to succumb through being debauched by the Jews.* The fact that the Jews control the clothing business and are furnishing us with sissy clothing now worn by our men, and the demoralizing effect of the present-day picture-shows, makes it seem that this man knew what he was talking about. x
SHOULD AMERICA RETURN TO MANLY SPORTS?
Quite frequently, of late, in the daily press there crops out a revival of antagonism to the art of self-defense, as evinced in the attempt to prevent the fistic encounter between Dempsey and Carpentier; while at the same time those self-same people condone and in fact encourage the most brutal game ever conceived by mortal mind—namely, foot-balL
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