Golden Age, December 21, 1932
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vke Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
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in this issue
OF WHAT ARE THE CLERGY OF THE DEVIL AFRAID?
BIRDS EARTH’S FIRST INHABITANTS EVENTS IN CANADA NOW WE GET IT STRAIGHT WORLD EVENTS IN BRIEF RESURRECTION OF JUST AND UNJUST
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every other WEDNESDAY
five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol.XIV - No. 346
December 21, 1932
CO N TEN T S
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Hours of Work for Women . . .179
The Enro Shirt Company . . . 179
11,000,000 Now Jobless
Machines Fined $8 a Week . . . 181
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
Of What Are the Clergy of the Devil Afraid?
Buckshot
An Imperfect Gem from Brisbane . 179
Blaming God for a Tornado . . . 179
Toledo Policeman Got Slapped . . 180
Industrial Undertakings in Palestine 181
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
Breweries Getting Ready to Start . 179
Disuse of Labor-Saving Machinery 179
Machine Overtaking the Man . . . 180
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Earliest Inhabitants of Terra Firma — The Birds (Part 2) 182
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
The Fuel Oil Carburetor . . . 188
HOME AND HEALTH
An Entirely New Housing Proposal.........178
Coast Guard Ambulance Service . 179
American Standard of Farm Living 179
A Doctor’s Little Joke ... . . . 180
Farmers Object to State Medicine . 180
How I Fooled the Surgeon . . . 191
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
The Moratorium in Beaufort . . .179
A British Engineering Feat . . . 180
Costs More to Haul Hard Coal . . 180
An Added Cost to Milk of Poor . . 181
Events in Canada.......173
“You a Big White Boss” .... 181
No Grafting in Russia.....181
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
President Hoover's Speech . . .179
Papal Delegate Ousted from Mexico 179
Encouraged by Mincola Police . . 181
Now We Get It Straight .... 171
What Was the Name of the Church? 181
From Letter to Judge Rutherford 188
Resurrection of Just and Unjust 189
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otie Golden Age
Volume XIV Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, December 21, 1932 Number 346
Of What Are the Clergy of the Devil Afraid?
THE chain broadcast, June 2G, 1932, “Can the American Government Endure?’’ created more widespread interest than any other public lecture Judge Rutherford has ever given over the radio. The interest continues, and has been heightened in places where some powerful halfpage or quarter-page advertisements have been inserted in the public press, with the judge’s friendly face at the top and quotations from the address underneath.
Such an advertisement was recently published in the Atlanta Sunday American. It came to the attention of an Alabama philosopher writing under the nom de plume of Umph Floyd. We publish his observations as they appeared in the Clayton County News and Farmer:
Hairlip Junction, Oct. 27, 1932.
“The clergy, while claiming to represent God, in fact represent the Devil and his organization. In order that the people might hear the truth and determine this matter for themselves, recently I challenged the combined clergy of America to select their best man to debate this question by radio. Charged with misrepresenting God and serving Satan, these gentlemen should either come forward and prove the falsity of the charge or, failing in that, should cease to hold themselves out as teachers of the Word of God.”
The foregoing is a quotation in part of a paragraph from a challenge of Judge Rutherford directed at the clergy of America, taken from a double column advertisement appearing in a recent issue of the Atlanta Sunday American.
I am not bold enough to subscribe myself as entirely partisan with the views of Judge Rutherford, nor do 1 endorse him fully as a teacher of the Bible. However, he is a learned Bible student, and since 1 believe he has some grounds for his assertion, I have quoted his expression on the subject of the clergy as a preface to some of the things I am about to say, and as an indication that I am not alone in my belief that in some respects the modern ministry is weakening as a force in the advancement of Christianity.
Before giving utterance to what I have to say personally on the subject, I wish to ask if it is not rather questionable that the clergy fails to take note of Judge Rutherford’s challenge! As a rule the clergy is rather sensitive to a challenge of any sort, and if it is not a vital question of truth in its relation to the failure of the clergy, will fill columns of the newspapers with the ministerial views to the contrary.
But is it not now noticeable that the Protestant clergy is diligent in overlooking some of the vital and fundamental issues in life, religion and politics, not daring to express themselves openly and forcibly for or against such issues! Of course, such is entirely true and is a matter of question to thinking people who in a measure adhere to principles of life and religion that cannot be changed even by the ravages of time. The clergy, then, must be building for numerical, commercial and social success, which according to my views is not the purpose of God’s church on earth.
The question of companionate marriage is one proof of this contention. Can you name one Protestant member of the clergy, prominent in church councils of the world, who has made in a realistic way the columns of our newspapers in denunciation of this real menace to our social and religious structure! You cannot. It has not been done. True, Bishop Manning of the Episcopal faith achieved through no efforts of his own certain newspaper notoriety, but as a factor in the repudiation of this ‘ ‘ nigger ’ ’ form of marriage, the Episcopal bishop has failed as signally as the bishops of the great Methodist church.
Perhaps it is the view of the Protestant clergy that this question is not of moment in the affairs of life, though to the best of our knowledge and belief the nuptial bans of today are approximately the same as was witnessed by Christ when He converted water into wine, and are representative of the form of marriage union to which we are glad to ascribe our parentage. The question evidently seemed of sufficient importance to the pope of Rome, one great plenipotentiary of the religious world who had less cause of concern than those of our faiths, to raise his voice in denunciation of the evil, and to his everlasting credit his “plaint” earned around the world.
Recently, on a night train operated between Atlanta and Savannah, I was a witness of what I term the repugnant scene of several beautiful young women, sitting in the embrace of an equal number of young men, in the smoking compartment of the car, all of them smoking cigarettes with utter abandon. In all probability all of these young women were members of the best families in the land, and there is hardly any doubt all of them were members of the church in their home communities. I cast no particular reflection on their parents. Perhaps that scene, could the parents of the young women have witnessed it, would have been just as revolting and repugnant to them as it was to me.
Perhaps our Protestant clergy will excuse the situation by charging it to the spirit of Young America. But you will admit that one indiscretion generally leads to another and others. Is it not a sad thought to some of us that some of the modesty that marked the conduct of our generation, that of our fathers and mothers, is to such a large extent lacking in the conduct of the boys and girls of today! Can you name a member of the clergy of the present day who has made an issue of this trend of morals in the rising generation, preaching and teaching against a laxity in social intercourse that will inevitably lead to—we hardly know what!
Bring the question home to a member of the clergy, if you will! What will be the quick retort! The blame will be laid entirely at the doors of the parents. No doubt in many in-
stances the blame will be correctly placed. But even then, is that an excuse for the clergy I Parents of this day and time are as much in need of example and guidance as are their children. No, the clergy accepts no blame for anything.
Again, it is common for the members of the profession to profess ignorance of the fact of dereliction of individual members of their pastorates, and the members of the church roam the pastures of certain forbidden fields through the week days, and sit in sainted reverence under the noses of their beloved “pastures” on Sunday, never hear a word of condemnation aimed at the evil practices they enjoy outside of the church, and, when they die, are the recipients of funerals of par excellence.
No, I wouldn’t say the “pasture” should be the judge of the destiny of such ones in the church. I would not deny anyone the privilege of union with the church. When a person takes the vows of the church he is then responsible to God for what he does. But I do say that the clergy is remiss in the condemnation of evils that it must be aware are practiced by members of the church. It is no use to plead ignorance. Flagrant violations of the code of churchly ethics are assuredly known to the clergy ever and anon. So long as such conduct is overlooked and condoned by the clergy, so long will moral decrepitude grow. By and by to the casual eye the wool of the goat will be just as long and shaggy as is that of the sheep.
Ignorance is no excuse. Too much ignorance is the plea. It hides a multitude of short-comings and long-goings. As I have said before, I am not sympathetic with the husband whose wife cherishes more sweethearts than she did in the days of her maidenhood, for it is a solemn fact that the husband in such a case cannot be kept constantly in the dark of the moon. He simply condones the practice. Such is true in a relative sense of the clergy and many of the evils of the day.
False doctrines, or deceptive version of facts, contribute to the confusion prevalent today. It is so easy to asciibe an erroneous reason for this and that. It is being done by those high in authority in church circles; anything to draw attention from the core of tho trouble. Too bad when our church leaders resort to subterfuge to make a smoke-screen to hide behind.
Don’t say it isn’t sol It is. One of the bishops of the great Methodist church, speaking recently before a convention of the W.C.T.U., in Bessemer, Alabama, informed his audience that the South had been betrayed by its politicians, meaning by that, as you can sec, that the trend in the political world towards a revocation of the prohibition law was a visitation of evil on our heads, brought at the instance of our politicians.
What a shame to so misrepresent facts! The people, most of whom are church members, are responsible for this trend. Is it not evidenced by the fact that candidates running recently on a dry platform were defeated foi election? Is it possible that only “wet” politicians voted in these elections? If you believe the reverend bishop such will be the only logical conclusion.
This groat bishop of the Methodist church said the dry laws had not been a failure, and that during his early travels, averaging more than thirty thousand miles in various sections of the country, he had seen only two intoxicated persons. Incredible, if true! Impossible to my way of thinking. He must have been blind in one eye and couldn't see out of the other, Seeing those two intoxicated men only in his vivid imagination.
I would like to say to the great divine, and if L ever meet him, I will do so, that if he will go to any leading hotel in any city of impoitanee, on any gala night in the year, such as New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving Eve, Christmas Eve, and even on an occasional Saturday night, hotels given to promotion of formal and informal dances, he’ll see more “drunks” and have to travel considerably less. Yea, and the pity of it is, he’ll see girls and women numbered in the inebriated—something rarely seen in pre-prohibition days, and something against which I don’t believe he has ever raised his voice!
In the olden days, and some of us are old enough to remember back to them, the clergy expected something of us—quite a whole lot. We could not dance and not face the tribunal of the church. We were expected to conform to the standards of perfection prescribed by the ritual of the church in so far as humanly possible. We could not fight and brawl without giving an account of it to our elders, and promising to do better in the future.
The condition should be reversed. In a measure it is. The time has come when we have a right to expect more of the clergy, more of prayer, more of consecrated religion, less of pretense, more of the gospel of Christ. Verily, 1 believe the time has come when we should tell the clergy how to pi each to us—if we would in truth worship the God of our fathers as did our fathers, and not join Aaron and Ills host at the foot of the mountain and worship brazen calves.
Let Them Defend Their Position
The foregoing is pretty good for an honest backwoods philosopher, writing in a country paper, but it does not tell half of the story, and, of course, does not pretend to. The hypocrisy of the Devil’s clergy is the history of the human family from Cain to the present crowd, and from the murder of Abel to the grabbing of Manchuria.
Here they are, backed into a corner by a lawyer that knows who they are and who they represent, and they think to get out of their dilemma by keeping still. But can they do it? Judge Rutherford challenges these preachers to defend their position. He insists that they represent the Devil, while all the time they claim to represent Jehovah God.
What are the judge’s motives? Is he working for the good name and fame of Jehovah God or working for the Devil? If the clergy can prove that the judge is working for the Devil, let them come forth and do so. But they must act; they dare not let a challenge like this go unanswered.
The first defense of the clergy will be that on account of their divided condition they cannot be held responsible for the acts of one another; but that is not the truth, as we will show. We know, as all may know, that in our day we do have 9 kinds of Presbyterians, 18 kinds of Baptists, 19 kinds of Methodists, and 22 kinds of Lutherans, all together some 213 varieties of the Devil’s religion; but there is a common tie that holds all these together, and that is the loyalty that the clergy of all these denominations have to their father, the Devil, whose they are and whom they serve. Bear with us while we sketch a few, just a few, of the thousands of places where they have touched the pages of history and left their record behind them, so that all who run may read, and all who read may run.
The Devil's Clergy in Old Testament Times
When Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, it is not necessary to believe that they boldly announced that they were the servants of the evil one. Possibly they did not know it, though as a matter of fact they were; but our present point is that they worked together in opposing the servant of Jehovah God and in resisting the truth in the presence of Pharaoh. In this they revealed their likeness to the clergy of the Devil of today.
It was of them that Isaiah prophesied: “His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter.” (Isa. 56:10,11) This scripture shows that, despite all differences, the clergy of the Devil have things in common and can and do work for their common ends.
This unity of the Devil’s clergy is very plainly brought out by the prophet Jeremiah: “From the prophet even unto the priest every one deal-eth falsely. For the pastors are become brutish. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard. My people hath been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray.” (Jer. 6:13; 10: 21; 12:10; 50: 6) In these and many kindred passages we see how clearly evident it is that theological differences do not hinder the clergy of the Devil from acting in accord. All they need is a sufficient incentive.
A conspiracy is a meeting of the minds, and when Ezekiel says of the Devil’s ministers, “There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof . . . ; they have devoured souls. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things” (Ezek. 22:25,26), he shows that they can get along together when they try.
The same prophet carries this picture of unity in the Devil’s priesthood still further when he says: “Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”—Ezek. 34: 3,4.
They Cooperated Beautifully
As we examine the history handed down to us in the writings of Daniel the prophet we are at once struck with the thoroughgoing way in which the Devil’s clergy cooperated in their efforts to get rid of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, and even of Daniel himself. It cannot be charged against them that they did not work together. And that is the immediate point we are ■wishing to establish.
Divisions count for little when one can find such practical unity as that of which the prophet Hosea writes: “As troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent.” (Hos. 6:9) Now if there w’ere differences of opinion among them that stood in the way of their robberies and murder, no doubt Hosea would have indicated this in some manner. People should not be charged with weakness or shortcomings they do not possess.
Zephaniah seems to note the same unity when he says of the Devil’s clergy that “her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law”. (Zeph. 3:4) There is no hint here that these men pursued antagonistic courses. They all seem to have been able to work together in the thing they had in hand.
They Gladly Joined in Killing the Lord
Jesus, our Savior, went much into detail about the work of the clergy. Isn’t it an excellent description where He says of them that they “come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves”? (Matt. 7:15) “They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” “Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” (Matt. 23: 4,13) There is no unseemly friction here indicated. They all seem to get along quite well in the things they do and wish to do.
In due time they got together and killed the Lord. It would be hard to get a priest out of bed at any other time, but when they had fixed it up with Judas to put Him to death, they had no trouble in arranging an illegal Shanghai night court; and all were present. No doubt every one of them was present also a little later when Caiaphas adroitly put it up to Pilate that unless he did something with the prisoner at the bar he was not likely to keep his job. The insinnation “Thou art not Caesar’s friend” was enough to break down Pilate’s weak resistance to the demands of the priests and their friends, “Release unto us Barabbas.” Quite likely all the priests were present at the crucifixion, mocking the One who died “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”.
Unity in the Dark Ages
We do not need to dilate upon the unity of the Devil’s church throughout the long era that is justly designated as the Dark Ages, for it is a matter of common knowledge. It flowered in a natural way in St. Bartholomew’s massacre and in the Spanish Inquisition. It confined its persons to be questioned in dungeons 35 feet under ground and brought them forth for periodical torture by rack and thumbscrew. Some few gained death by deep inhalations of the mephitic gas emanated from their own excrement, while the less fortunate were torn apart with pincers, applied to the most sensitive parts of the body, or had molten lead or excrement poured into the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. There was no discord among the Devil’s clergy; they acted as a unit.
The Devil's clergy of today are the claimed and the actual successors of those who built and still maintain at Rome a palace containing 11,005 rooms, surrounded by every luxury that money can buy, wherein a man, one of whose predecessors raped 300 nuns, allows those who wish to do so to kiss his feet.
He maintains a cash deposit in the Bank of England of 250,000,000 francs, a battalion of 150 picked guards, and 122 batteries of artillery, Gatling guns and munitions, in the name of the Prince of Peace. Thirty-seven witnesses found one of these men, John XXIII, guilty of adultery, incest, sodomy, robbery and murder. Many others were as bad. The Devil’s clergy7 sees no harm in such matters unless discovery takes place, when it is usually necessary to transfer the “father” to some other diocese.
Who will deny’ the unity of the Devil’s church in Mexico? It has done every illicit thing from openly conducting raffles for souls, in which those that won the lottery got the souls of their fathers and mothers out of purgatory (?), to secretly planning and executing the murder of President Obregon.
Unity of the Devil’s Clergy for War
When an opportunity presents itself for the wholesale murder of their fellow men, the Devil’s clergy show a unity of action that is noteworthy; and they are not slow about it either. Thus, as soon as the Big Business crowd had decided to make the world safe for France’s payment of the interest on the bonds held by Morgan, by plunging the United States into war, the Government summoned 300 preachers to Washington to consider how the message of hate could best be spread.
The Massachusetts Clerical Association was one of the first to respond. The way in which they rose to the occasion was wonderful. F. P. Crozier, in his book entitled A Brass Hat in No Man’s Land, said that “the Christian churches are the finest blood-lust creators we have, and of them we made free use”.
Early in 1918 a convention of clergymen was held at Philadelphia, at which a resolution was passed calling upon Congress to provide that alleged violations of the Espionage Law should be tried by court-martial, and death inflicted as a penalty. General Bell, of the United States army, made the statement that the purpose and intention of this proposed law was to punish the president (J. F. Rutherford) of the International Bible Students Association by putting him to death.
The discord was so little as to be unworthy of mention. Thus, a clergyman, writing in The Nation of March 6, 1920, said:
The record of the war activities of the churches, while very7 ample, is simple. Practically every pulpit in the land was a source of patriotic inspiration. Every clergyman labored day and night fostering the morale of the army and the people. At home the clergy preached atrocities, and in the camps they fired the soldiers with a holy zeal to attack and kill the enemy. Briefly, the record shows that both here and abroad each of the ordained spokesmen of Christianity justified and consecrated the action of his own people in resorting to arms. [Pages of this, if necessary.]
Lloyd George’s words were: “The churches were to blame for the last war; not monarchs, rulers, militarists, but the churches. Had all the churches cried halt, this awful murder could not have gone on.”
If another World War should emerge, the Devil’s clergy would be right there with their loyalty to their father and master, as they have ever been. The news dispatches show the Italian cardinals blessing the Italian fleet, and the British bishops blessing British battleships. Within the week in which this was written, one of the Roman Catholic vice-presidents of the Anti-Saloon League wrote and telegraphed President Hoover urging that he plunge the United States into a war with Japan. Experience has taught him that in a world war the clergy make good money; the times are hard now, collections are slow, and he misses the big pile he raked off in 1917-1919.
Unity of the Devil’s Clergy for Peace
Somebody will compare this headline with the last one and say, “There must be some mistake here: the clergy could not be a unit for war and also a unit for peace.” But that is where you are wrong, good friend. The facts are that in time of war the Devil’s clergy are for war and in time of peace they are for peace. They wish at all times to do their father’s will.—John 8:44.
In January, 1919, the Federal Council of Churches said: “The time has come to organize the world for truth, justice, and humanity. To this end as Christians we urge the establishment of a League of Free Nations at the coming Peace Conference. Such a League is not merely a peace expedient, it is rather the political expression of the kingdom of God on earth. The League of Nations is rooted in the gospel. Like the gospel, its objective is ‘peace on earth, good will toward men’. Like the gospel, its appeal is universal. The heroic dead will have died in vain unless out of victory shall come ‘a new heaven and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness’. (2 Pet. 3:13) The church can give a spirit of good will without which no League of Nations can endure.”
While the League of Nations treaty was up before the Senate for discussion a memorial was presented to that body, signed by 13,583 clergymen scattered among the different denominations as follows:
Methodist
3,808
Lutheran
Presbyterian
2,409
Episcopal
Baptist
1,784
Roman Catholic
Congregational
1,399
Universalist
Christian
1,163
Unitarian
Miscellaneous
1,162
Jewish
The memorial reads as follows: “We, the undersigned clergymen, urge the Senate of the United States to ratify the Paris peace treaty embodying the League of Nations covenant at the earliest possible date, without amendment or such reservations as would require resubmission of the treaty to the peace conference and Germany.”
Since that time the Federal Council of Churches, which has an annual budget of about $1,000,000, has insisted that it has 20,000,000 church members that are demanding entrance of the United States into the League of Nations. It is claimed for this Federal Council that its final objective is a United States church with power to deal with all political and economic questions, even to the tariff.
As many as 180,182 persons appended their names to a petition that the Kellogg Peace Pact be promptly ratified by the Senate. The petition was handed to President Coolidge by Bishop McConnell and two doctors of divinity in behalf of the Federal Council of Churches.
The big councils are made up of little councils. Thus it happens that the Kansas City Council of Churches, all the officers of which were for war when the country was at war, is out with a proclamation that ever since the governments of the world united in signing the Paris Peace Pact peacemakers are patriotic. In other words, when Big Business is for war it is patriotic to be for war; when it is for peace, it is patriotic to be for peace.
Unity of the Devil’s Clergy for “Prohibition”
Jesus’ first miracle was to turn water into wine. If He did that in the United States today they would lock Him up. If you ask ■who would lock Him up, the answer would be, The same class that accused Him of being a wine-bibber, though they themselves really enjoy making use on their own tables or in their own cellars of what is left over from the communion wine, and usually some more besides.
It is not denied that the Anti-Saloon League has collected $67,565,313 for political purposes, nor that 1,360 persons have been slain in a vain attempt to enforce prohibition. Nor is it denied that the president of the League is a bishop; four of the vice-presidents are bishops; the chairman of the national executive committee is a D.D.; and there are bishops or “reverends” in 11 of the 15 districts into which the country is divided. The national board of directors has clergymen as directors in 40 of the 48 states of the Union; and 31 of the state superintendents are clergymen.
When Brooklyn was considered unduly damp it was the Devil’s clergy of the city who sent a request to Washington that the number of the dry agents in the city be increased from 12 to 100. Bishop James Cannon, noted for his high standing in the League, and his extraordinary bucket shop operations with trust funds, stands so high that he flatly refused to answer questions put to him by the Senate investigating committee. Harry Sinclair, multimillionaire, was locked up for similar disobedience, but the Devil’s governments stand more or less in awe of the Devil’s clergy and Cannon was but gently reprimanded.
Political Unity of the Devil’s Clergy
There is splendid political unity among the Devil’s clergy; not absolute, of course, but practical. Thus, on a recent occasion, the Federal Council of churches appealed “to the churches of the United States to join with men of prayer in this and other lands in united intercession to God on the Sabbath day preceding the opening of what may, under His blessing, be an epoch-making conference”. (The Armament Conference, which spent six months accomplishing exactly nothing at all.)
Said Reverend Robert Cummins in the Cincinnati Enquirer, and there can be no doubt he wrote out of a full heart:
Let us not underestimate the influence of the Christian church in the United States. Its influence upon governmental policies is equal to the power of European Catholicism of an earlier day, though it is the power of influence and not of authority. In the final determination of the problem of another war, the voice of the United States is supreme. The Christian church can control the voice of the United States.
At Philadelphia, on October 10, 1932, 100 members of the Presbyterian Ministers’ Social Union applauded Judge Harry S. McDevitt when he proposed that a whipping post be set up in the center of the city hall courtyard as a cure for crime. The sympathies of the Devil’s clergy are with torturers, always. They believe in torture, preach it when they dare, and would love to practice it.
The Methodist Episcopal Church State Department Building at Washington cost $750,000. The duties of those at headquarters are to communicate regularly with the 20,000 Methodist ministers, and tell them when to put the screws on the politicians.
Industrial Unity of the Devil’s Clergy
The Federal Council of Churches in its public proclamation of a day of prayer for the week beginning October 2,1932, sets forth the general principles that have actuated and do actuate the Devil’s clergy, and the principals of their flock, in the following admission:
We have worshiped at the shrines of false gods— the false god of mammon, money, things; the false god of production, bigness; the false god of nationalism, individualism, social injustices; the false god of pleasure, amusement, disregard for things and times sacred; the false god of success, high living, careless thinking; the false god of magic, reaping where we had not sowed, profiting where we had not toiled.
There is no record that just before he was hanged Haman admitted his guilt, nevertheless all must acknowledge that it would have been the decent thing for him to do.
By those that know, and even by some of their own number, it is freely admitted that the clergy have had and to some little extent still do have their place in industrial affairs. Their business is to say nothing, and to say it pleasantly. Their job is evasion, through platitudes and generalities, of the essentials of truth, and to line their congregations up on the side of things as they are, instead of as they ought to be.
At Gastonia, N. C., in the recent struggle of the poor cotton workers for a living wage, it was found impossible to get a minister to preach a burial sermon for murdered strikers. It is freely admitted in North Carolina that the mill owners pay the clergy wages and that they are their “moral police”.
The Detroit YMCA withdrew an invitation to the president of the American Federation of Labor, to speak, openly admitting fear that unless they did so their $5,000,000 building program would be jeopardized. As an annex to the clergy business, they know on which side their bread is buttered, and where the butter comes from, and how it is to be used.
The Church and Drama Association, financed by the big film companies, and with Bishop Manning and Cardinal S. Parkes Cadman as its overstaffed prophets, was a big success until the film men got tired of coughing up, when it suddenly became an international laughing stock.
Multifarious Unity of the Devil’s Clergy
Time would fail to tell of the multifarious ways in which the Devil’s clergy have shown their ability to get together, especially when they saw anything in it for themselves, either directly or indirectly. Thus, after the Queens clergy had met in the chamber of commerce building and resolved not to conduct any more Sunday funerals, because it interfered with their regular business, it was not long before ministerial associations all over the country were engaged in a similar campaign.
The Cleveland Methodist Ministerial Association wanted the sheriff of the county removed from office because he used the Sunday collections of the race track, amounting to $9,347, for the relief of the unemployed.
In November, 1931, the Chattanooga Pastor’s Association met to consider the formation of a domestic loan company, which planned to charge an interest rate of 8 percent, or, in other words, usury, and extortionate usury at that, though in Tennessee permitted by law.
A group of 102 American clergymen sent a message to Ramsay MacDonald telling him how to run India; a similar group scolded the American Legion because Christ is not mentioned in the Legion’s written prayers; the Episcopalians have solemnly considered how many children a man may have, i.e., birth control, and the Universal Christian Council for Life and Work, Geneva, Switzerland, which is a sort of religious annex of the League of Nations, and which has the archbishop of Canterbury for its British president, and S. Parkes Cadman for its American president, has undertaken to make over our calendar for us.
Religious Unity of the Devil’s Clergy
No! It is not a mistake. In spite of all their differences, there is an essential unity in the ranks of the Devil’s clergy, and we shall show something of what this unity is. One may see it in practical form in the quarterly Prayer Bulletin of the World Dominion Movement, wherein it is revealed that requests for prayer for success of the movement should arrive not later than the 15th of February, May, August and November of each year.
A partial list of the societies with which this World Dominion Movement is working cooperatively includes the China Inland Mission, Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, Baptist Missionary Society, Primitive Methodist Missionary Society, Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society, Church Missionary Society, British and Foreign Bible Society, Religious Tract Society, Japan Evangelistic Band, Central Japan Pioneer Mission, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Chinese Foreign Missionary Union, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Episcopal Church of America, Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Poona and Indian Village Mission, Ceylon and India General Mission, Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, Northeast India General Mission, Central Asian Mission, Eastern Himalayan Mission, Church of Scotland, Southern Morocco Mission, Kansas Gospel Mission, North Africa Mission, South Africa General Mission, Zambesi Industrial Mission, Sudan Interior Mission, West Africa Mission of the Presbyterian Church, Sudan United Mission, Evangelical Movement of Russian Youths, Spanish Gospel Mission, Salvation Army, Church Mission to Jews, Mildmay Mission to Jews, Inland South America Missionary Union, Irish Baptist Foreign Mission, South American Missionary Society, Moravians, Colonial and Continental Church Society, American Bible Society, Loudon Missionary Society, Association for Free Distribution of the Scriptures, Irish Presbyterian Mission, Egypt General Mission, Algiers Mission Band, Dutch Reformed Church, Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, United Lutheran Church, Africa Inland Mission, National Bible Society of Scotland, International Hebrew Christian Alliance, Evangelical Union of South America, Scripture Gift Mission, Methodist Episcopal Church.
The World Dominion Movement seems to be a sort of successor of the Interchurch World Movement, which purposed to raise $1,500,000,000 to convert the whole world to something or other in a single generation. Over $100,000,000 of this amount was raised, and used largely in paying the salaries of the men who raised it, together with office rent, clerk hire and huge traveling expenses.
The Federal Council of Churches of America and the Greater New York Federation of Churches are, in a general way, supposed to do for the United States, and for Greater New York, what the World Dominion Movement does for the rest of the world. It has been granted radio facilities estimated as worth $1,000,000 a year, all free.
The Sunday School Association is a worldwide thing, as are also the YMCA, Salvation Army, etc. In July, 1932, 1,500 Sunday school officials from 50 countries met in Brazil (and the country has been in the throes of revolution ever since).
Unity of the Devil’s Clergy Against the Truth
Having never had any real interest in the Scriptures, except as a convenient means of making themselves appear wiser than others, by claiming to be the only ones on earth who can understand them, the Devil’s clergy have always manifested marked antagonism toward those that have tried to understand the Bible themselves or to teach their understanding to others.
In an earlier day this carried Huss, Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley to the stake; in 1918 there occurred in the United States more than 100 instances of killings or attempted killings of men and women whose only offense was that they believed the Scriptures and sought to help others to do so. In most of these cases the mobs were started by the clergy; as usual, they used or sought to use the police to do their dirty work for them. For full details see The Golden Age No. 27.
In the same year the clergy, first of Canada, and then of the United States, united to put Judge Rutherford and his friends in prison. They hoped and expected we would die there.
These men consider Dean Inge, of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, one of themselves, worthy of their highest honors. He recently said: “The fits of divine inspiration in which the Apostle Paul received revelations from above were nothing more than epileptic fits.”
But because Judge Rutherford believes the Bible, and has helped millions of others to do likewise, these men have done all possible to interfere with the work which God has given to him to do, because of his faithfulness, and which God will not permit them to do, because of their unfaithfulness to anybody except their father, the Devil.—John 8: 44.
Some years ago the Roman Catholic church in Canada had enough Protestant church backing to close the I.B.S.A. radio stations there, despite the fact that 458,026 persons sent to Ottawa a protest against closing the same; 82,468 of which protesters were owners of radio sets at the time of protest.
July 22, 1927, 26,000 licensed holders resident in Scotland petitioned the British Broadcasting Company for permission to hear Judge Rutherford’s lecture at Toronto, but the Northern Area Religious Advisory Council of the clergy of the Devil, composed of officials of the Church of Scotland, the United Free Church in Scotland, and the Episcopal Church in Scotland, succeeded in keeping the address off the air in Scotland on the day of delivery in Toronto.
The Roman Catholics were right behind their Protestant confreres; behind in both senses. On August 24,1927, the National Council of Catholic Men, Washington, D. C., ordered by telegraph two copies of the foregoing address, intended for scrutiny at a convention of Catholic societies held in Detroit four days later. They hoped to find something they could use to stop the promulgation of the truth.
Always the Same, Everywhere
Wherever we go with Judge Rutherford’s books we meet the opposition of the clergy of the Devil. To start with, we find the people listening to his lectures, and enjoying them. We place many books. The clergy of the Devil become aroused; they start all kinds of lies, doing everything possible to prevent the truth from coming to the attention of the people.
It is a common thing for them to have Jehovah's witnesses arrested, in places where they have the influence to do so. Scores of such instances have been mentioned in The Golden Age: Bergenfield, South Amboy, Asbury Park, Westfield, Summit, Rockville, Bethlehem, Glassport, recently. Book-burnings have been arranged where that was possible, as at Turkey Neck Bend, Ky.
In the latter state, in the fall of 1931, when a lady approached a Baptist clergyman in a pleasant and respectful manner, and sought to present him with a free copy of Judge Rutherford’s book The Kingdom, the Hope of the World, he grabbed it from her hand and threw it violently into her face. We do not mention this conduct as anything especially unusual; we find these clergy the least kind, the least noble, the least manly of any persons we meet.
In numerous instances the clergy of the Devil, as at Neapolis, Greece, have organized comitad-jis, or associations of assassins, to destroy Jehovah’s witnesses. In America it is the custom to do such work by such police as are under their control, and some police are thus controlled.
Now What Do These Men Fear?
Now we have shown clearly, we believe, the great powrer and the essential unity of the clergy of the Devil. We have traced their history from the days of their opposition to Moses down through Old Testament and New Testament days to their murder of the Lord himself. We have seen how they stood man to man, or devil to devil, at the time of the Inquisition. We have noted their essential unity for war in time of war and for peace in time of peace. We have observed their work for “prohibition”, and have seen their political unity, their industrial unity, and unity along many other lines, including their religious unity. And finally we have observed their unity against the truth. They have no particular trouble in getting together for any objective they have in view.
Now here is the crux of the matter. There are in the United States many millions of people who would like to hear a debate between Judge Rutherford and the best man the combined clergy of the Devil of America or of the world can select, as to whether or not these men, while claiming to represent God, in fact represent the Devil and his organization. Thousands of our readers have written in requesting and even demanding such a debate. The judge is ready, and waiting. Now what is holding up the other side? Are they afraid? And the answer is that they are.
Of what are they afraid?
And the answer is that they are afraid of THE TRUTH. '
For, in their hearts, the clergy of the Devil know full well that they are just what the judge will prove them to be, if they give him the chance.
But it is not at all likely they will give him the chance.
“The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women.” '—Jer. ol: 30.
Now We Get It Straight
[From the Albuquerque
T LAST it is being dished out straight from the shoulder. Big Business, we are told, controls the two major parties and names and elects the man who will best do its bidding. Big Business controls the army, the navy and the police. All
this is announced by a gentleman, who calls himself a judge. Who he is or what he is or where he is, his big display advertisement doesn’t tell, but lie has everything down to a fine point.
As he sees things, Big Business is Satan’s own deputy on earth and has brought things to such a pass that the world is about to go up in flame and smoke. The American government is going to be swept aside like a house of cards. Big Business got us into the World War and then seized all the world’s wealth and brought on the depression. None of tho clergy is any better than he ought to be, in fact, says the judge, none of them is quite as good as he ought to be.
ONE of the tasks of the Christian is in meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves. There is always a chance that they are honest and sincere, and therefore their arguments should be met with honesty and sincerity, and as much of courtesy as is possible under the circumstances. It is for this reason that we notice the above. We do not know that it was written or inspired by some preacher, but we believe it to have so been. Few editors are as discourteous as this when writing of their own volition, and the concluding sentences indicate that the clergy probably had a hand. But, in any event, we handle it on its merits.
Surely Jehovah God could not be charged with all the wickedness in the earth. Is it, for example, His fault that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation is cruelly overloaded with
(N. Mex.) ■Journal']
This sort of stuff will make a great appeal to a lot of folks. It is a pity that there is no way to prevent a man spouting in that fashion. Of course, intelligent, educated folk know better and look upon the mouthings of this judge as twaddle. But maybe it is better to let him get it off Iris chest than undertake to suppress him. If you try to restrain him, he will declare that you are one of the devil’s own minions and thus make more of a fuss than ever.
It is too bad, however, that such stuff should be sent forth right at this time when there is more of a demand than ever for sound thinking and calm judgment. This raving, raging and frothing judge can upset the minds of many people. Of course, tire American government is not going to collapse. Of course, Big Business did not get us into the war nor seize all the wealth. Of course, the elergy is not as this judge says they are. lie knows better but he wouldn’t get a hearing without saying something that would shock the feeble-minded.
high-salaried men whose business it is to loan the people’s money, and that these men loaned $80,000,000 to the one bank of Charles G. Dawes, of Chicago, and refused to loan $10,000,000 to the great state of Pennsylvania in which tens of thousands of families are now living on $2 a week or less?
Is it His fault that, as late as October 1, and possibly even yet, hundreds of men were sleeping in the open in Pittsburgh, in doorways, and on the river bank, with nothing under them but newspapers, and nothing over them but newspapers, in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, a city in which America’s leading distiller, and one time secretary of the treasury, but now ambassador to the Court of St. James, was at the time erecting a $3,000,000 church in honor of the Nazarene that had not where to lay His head? The editor saw these men with his own eyes; you have to see a thing like this to really appreciate it.
Is it God’s fault that the Big Business crowd have ruined thousands of small banks all over the United States by loading them up with worthless European and South American bonds, and that now we have in America 11,000,000 unemployed, and in one state, Mississippi, onefourth of all the farm lands have been sold to meet unpaid taxes?
Is it God’s fault that cotton, wheat and other staples are selling far below the cost of production, or that engineers who have studied the application of machinery to human labor have declared that in another two years 45,000,000 people in this country will inevitably he receiving public relief because there can be no jobs for the family breadwinners?
Surely Mr. Pickrell, the editor of the Albuquerque Journal, would not hold that Jehovah God is responsible for all the church denominations and the things they teach. Notice what the Federal Churches of America have to say on this subject. Where such admissions as these are publicly and truthfully made, there is nothing to be gained by denying the facts:
We have worshiped at the shrines of false gods: the false god of mammon, money, things; the false god of production, bigness; the false god of nationalism, individualism, social injustices; the false god of pleasure, amusement, disregard for things and times sacred; the false god of success, high living, careless thinking; the false god of magic, reaping where we had not sowed, profiting where we had not toiled.
Perhaps Mr. Pickrell is a Lutheran. If so, let him note what Rev. Dr. Frederick II. Knubel, president of the United Lutheran church in America, has to say of conditions in the ecclesiastical organization over which he presides. Surely God is not to blame for this condition, any more than He is for the fact that since 1900 30,000 Protestant churches have closed their doors and thousands more are more nearly dead than alive. Said Dr. Knubel:
The United Lutheran church in America was born amid the frenzy of Armistice Day in 1918. Since then the world has lived constantly7 in some form of feverish excitement. The world has not sobered in the least, for its frenzy is now revealed in dazed bewilderment. Riches have flown and financiers have been found as fools. The bigness of material things and the bigness of man continue to control even in the depression. Has the world thought of God? It is more than a century since such a flood of atheism as is seen today has swept all nations. In all this the church has mimicked the world, in excitement, in huge undertakings for quick advance, in calls for great leaders, and, above all, in neglect of God.
A Louisiana clergyman speaking recently over radio station KWKH is reported to have said:
If there ever was a time for us to preach the truth ■without fear of hell, it is now. The life of our people is at stake. Our Sunday school teachers are starving. Our little children have empty stomachs. Our business men are losing their homes. Our lawyers and doctors face actual distress. Our farmers have no seed.
Since there are but the two masters, Jehovah God and the Devil, and since neither Mr. Pickrell nor even the church people themselves can or do subscribe to such conditions as we have above mentioned, who is it that the present disorder represents? Manifestly, it must be the one that took Jesus up into a mountain and showed Him all the governments of the world in a moment of time and claimed control over them, and of whom it is written that “the whole world lieth in the wicked one”.
There cannot be the least doubt that the world is promised a righteous government. “He mak-eth wars to cease unto the end of the earth.” (Ps. 46: 9) “O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.” (Ps. 67:4) “AH kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him.” (Ps. 72:11) “He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” (Ps. 96:13) “With righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with, equity.” (Ps. 98:9) “He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isa. 2:4) “The government shall be upon his shoulder.” (Isa. 9: 6) “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”—Dan. 2: 44.
We could multiply these quotations indefinitely. To Judge Rutherford, and to all others who love the Scriptures, these texts mean what they say. Plainly, an unrighteous government under the Devil could not exist when Jehovah’s gov-eminent is in complete control; therefore all unrighteous governments must perish from the earth, and every honest person desires to see this very thing come to pass, and was taught to pray for it by the Redeemer himself.
We conclude by helping Editor Pickrell a little respecting Judge Rutherford, so he will know him better, when this thing comes up again. The Lord is using the judge. We know this because more than 130,000,000 of his books are in circulation. The population of Albuquerque is 26,570; we do not know, at the moment, how many of the judge’s books are in the homes of these people, but we do know that the first visiting of Wayne county, Pennsylvania, population 27,435, resulted in placing 11,646, or certainly more than two in every home, and if anything like 11,000 of Judge Rutherford’s books are in circulation in Albuquerque, then Editor Pickrell is most unwise to have written as he did.
We add another word. The judge’s radio lectures are now broadcast regularly on upward of 350 stations a week, not overlooking KGGM in Editor Pickrell’s home town, Albuquerque, where they may be heard every Sunday at 12: 45 p.m., and every Thursday at 8:15 p.m. Tune in, Fellow Scribe, and get in touch with the most optimistic and uplifting work now in progress in the world.
Don’t be downcast because Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, says that “no government can endure with 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 of its citizens out of employment to take care of themselves and their families”. He and Judge Rutherford might be right and you and some Albuquerque preacher might be wrong, and it is better to be right when the right course brings only happiness and the wrong course brings only sorrow and disappointment. The government Jesus told you to pray for is the one you really want, but you don’t yet realize how much you need it.
Events in Canada By Our Canadian Correspondent
JESUS CHRIST, because of faithfulness to
Jehovah God, His heavenly Father, and because He stated the priests who claimed to represent and serve God in His day were ‘blind guides! serpents! fools! vipers! hypocrites, whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones’, was charged with sedition and murdered at the instigation of the same clergy. He told the truth; therefore the priests murdered Him. History repeats itself even as the Scriptures foretold, ‘If ye live godly in Christ Jesus ye shall suffer persecution.’ Today the Catholic priesthood is the counterpart of the priesthood of Israel and manifests the same spirit in its opposition to truth. In the province of Quebec the Roman Catholic priests are extremely bitter towards Jehovah’s witnesses as they go from door to door with the glad tidings of God’s kingdom for the blessing of mankind. Time and again they have stirred up the civil authorities to arrest them and throw them into jail on one false charge or another. Recently in Hull, Quebec, one of Jehovah’s witnesses, Emerie St. Amour, called one of the little priests a hypocrite, even as Jesus called them in His day, and for this the local magistrate, the tool of the priest, sentenced him to one month in jail. This witness, with two others, has also been maliciously charged with distributing seditious literature and committed for trial. Millions upon millions of Canadians have in their libraries the very same literature, and all know how false the charge is; so, of course, the action of the priest is bound to act as a boomerang in due course.
Mouse and Snail Juice
Under the caption “A Snail in a Bottle”, the following item of interest appeared in the Vancouver Province:
In Vancouver, a short time ago, a judge and jury at the spring assize occupied themselves for a day or two with the ease of a mouse in a bottle. A Vancouver citizen had purchased some root beer. He and a friend had drunk of it and both had become ill. They blamed their illness on a dead mouse found in the bottle and sued the manufacturer for damages. They were awarded contemptuous damages: $1.00 each. The jury said in its verdict, quite plainly, that, in its opinion, the action should not have been brought.
In London, about the same time, five law lords were hearing an appeal from a Scottish court involving a snail in a bottle. The case was much the same as the one which was argued in Vancouver. A Glasgow woman had purchased some ginger beer and become ill after drinking it. A snail was found in the bottle.
The woman sued the manufacturer for £500. The Scottish court dismissed the action and the woman appealed to the House of Lords. There the court divided. Three of the learned judges decided the woman had a case and gave her the damages she sought. The other two dissented.
It may be thought that the spectacle of five great jurists deliberating solemnly over a snail in a bottle is more ridiculous than edifying. But, in giving judgment, Lord Atkin stated that he did not think a more important problem had occupied their lordships in their judicial capacity. The question, he said, was whether the manufacturer of an article of drink sold by him to a distributor in circumstances which prevented the distributor or the ultimate purchaser or consumer from discovering by inspection any defect, was under any legal duty to the ultimate purchaser or consumer to take reasonable care that the article was free from defect likely to cause injury to health. His judgment was that the manufacturer was under such legal duty.
The law is proverbially said to take no notice of small things. But the law decides when things are small and when they are great, and in the case of the snail in the bottle, a great principle was involved, that the manufacturer of foods owes a duty to the consumer of those foods. He must exercise care that the foods are not injurious. It is an important decision in these days, when almost everything is bought in packages, and the manufacturer’s warranty must be taken.
Siamese Twins Railway Fares
A short time ago the Canadian National Railway had quite a problem on its hands, according to the following news item from Winnipeg which appeared in the Star-Phoenix of Saskatoon:
Siamese twins, always an attraction at fairs and exhibitions, have now attracted the attention of the railway companies as to the number of tickets required for their transportation.
Today, the Canadian National was required to submit its views on the subject to various passenger associates, with headquarters in Chicago who point out that there are conflicting legal opinions by American lines. One railway, through its law department, says Siamese twins, although two persons and possessing individual faculties, are one inseparable entity. They are so pinned together, competent medical authorities have ruled, that when one dies, the other must die. Wherever one goes, the other must go.
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