Golden Age, May 20, 1936

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The Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

in this issue

THE DECAY

OF PROTESTANTISM

WORLD'S END

ROMAN HIERARCHY CONTROLS

SAN DIEGO EXPOSITION

THE VOMITUS OF

BELCHERTOWN

MAYOR GOLD SEES RED

THE END

OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

every other

WEDNESDAY

five cents a copy

one dollar a year

Canada & Foreign 1.25

Vol. XVII - No. 435

May 20, 1936 CONTENTS

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

50,000 Restless Danish Farmers 532

Codfish Currency in Iceland 532

Items Respecting Finland 532

$2,600 Road Job Costs $50,000 537

Philadelphia Police Non-Partisan 537

Lancaster’s De Luxe Relief 537

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

WORLD’S END 529

ROMAN HIERARCHY CONTROLS SAN DIEGO EXPOSITION 530

Newspapermen Tease Censors 533

THE VOMITUS OF BELCHERTOWN 534

Laughing at Massachusetts 535

“Zeal of Thine (School-) House” 535

Isn’t It Strange? 535

MAYOR GOLD SEES RED 536

Military Training at State College 537

Judge Maxey on the Laws of God 537

Killing a Physician 537

Common Sense Among Cops 537

RESPONSIBILITY OF PEDESTRIANS 538

Fact-Finders or Prosecutors? 538

END OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS 539

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Profits of Big Business Under Nazi Rule 532

Barter Between Mexico and Germany 532

Submarine Travels 25,000 Miles 533

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Struggles for Control of Lithuania 532

German Inquisitors Forbid Listening 532

State Dominance of the Homes 532

Socialization in Iceland 532

Nazis Gain in Czechoslovakia 533

Visitors to Munich Must Salute 533

Fascist Rule in Austria 533

Germany Removes Landmarks 533

Fifteen Liberty-loving Clergymen 535

Representative Tronzo to the D.A.R. 537

No Honor Among Politicians 538

HOME AND HEALTH

Lost 93 Pounds in 3 1/2 Hours 533

Increases in Staple Foods 538

Vaccinated with the Purest Pus 543

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

THE DECAY OF PROTESTANTISM 515

Aspirations for Numbers 516

Federal Council of Churches 517

Silly Topics for Sermons 519

Balaam’s Equus Asinus 520

Anything to Make a Nickel 521

Ignorance of the Bible 522

Ecclesiastical Refreshments 523

The Oxford Movement 524

Apostles of Murder 526

“Men of Corrupt Minds” 528

Demands of “German Christians” 532

Revival of Paganism in Hungary 533

A Jackass in Priestly Petticoats 533

Eden Not a Full-fledged Catholic 543

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The Golden Age

Volume XVII Brooklyn, N.Y., Wednesday, May 20, 1936 Number 435

The Decay of Protestantism

IN HIS latest and best and most important book, Riches (page 228), Judge Rutherford says, "What was at one time known as 'Protestantism' is now dead, and the so-called 'Protestants' are dominated and controlled by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. Protestantism exists only in name, not in fact." Things usually do not decay until after they are dead; and that is the case with Protestantism.

It is the purpose of this article to trace in the current news the abundant evidence that Judge Rutherford is correct, that Protestantism has been weighed in the balance and found wanting, and that the Judge of all the earth has decreed her dissolution.

A year ago, by an "error" on the part of Reverend T. D. Rees, First Baptist church, Cambridge, Ohio, Judge Rutherford addressed Reverend Rees' congregation by radio. A year later it happened again. The dominie turned on the radio, and the report says: "Immediately the great auditorium was filled again with that sweet message of Jehovah's kingdom and of the vengeance of our God. The congregation stirred slightly, in recognition of the familiar voice of Judge Rutherford, but immediately settled back to enjoy a good meal and a real humorous situation. Not until the station announcer thundered out that Judge Rutherford was speaking did the D.D. tumble. Then quickly he dashed to the dial and exclaimed remorsefully, 'You can't blame me this time: it was that blundering radio-man.'" The account continues, "In a recent lecture on the Prodigal Son he made a trip all around the church with the spotlight beaming on him, and then returned to the platform, acting and exploding all the time."

“She findeth not the level path of life: her ways are unstable, and she knoweth it not.”—Proverbs 5: 6, A.R.V.

Jehovah's Faithful Witnesses

The work of Jehovah's faithful witnesses is not in vain. Although the Devil has done all he possibly could to conceal from public view the bitter persecutions of Jehovah's witnesses in Germany, in Northern Rhodesia, in Japan, in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania, in California, in Quebec and in many other parts of the earth, yet Jehovah God has seen to it that some of the clergy of the Protestant church have been made acquainted with the essential facts.

Thus, one is not surprised to find the Reverend Dr. Ralph H. Long, executive director of National Lutheran Council, stating plainly in an address in St. James Lutheran church, New York city, that "even in 1935 there are people who are giving up their lives for their faith", and that it is not fantastic to foresee conditions in America where some might have to die for their faith.

Some of the Lord's sheep have boldly taken their stand, and in the most unexpected places.

Thus, at the Central Baptist church, London, Ont., the minister of the congregation was greatly dishonoring God’s name on the subject of eternal torture. A young girl was heard to groan and sigh. Others were in distress. Suddenly a woman who had but recently obtained some of Judge Rutherford’s books cried aloud, in a voice that could be heard all over the church: “Oh, how we should love God, to know that the wages of sin is death!” A minute’s dead silence followed and the lady walked out.

The witness for the truth is also finding its way into the church papers. Thus, in a church paper in Canada the Rev. E. B. Sexsmith said, in part, and one can almost hear him think:

The writer knew one former United Church Sunday-school teacher, whose contribution to our Missionary and Maintenance Fund was nearly four hundred dollars, and today that man and his family belong to the Jehovah witnesses group. Why the change? He told us that the United Church had never taught what prophecy really meant, nor had she given any consistent instruction on the tenets of the Christian faith. This is only one illustration in point, but the writer could give others to the same effect.

The Big Fellows Know

The big fellows in the various Protestant ecclesiastical organizations cannot in the very nature of the thing be ignorant of the truths so boldly proclaimed by Jehovah’s witnesses in every corner of the earth; and occasionally in their addresses they let fall expressions that indicate some familiarity with the truth and some acceptance of certain features of it which are pressing themselves home more and more upon intelligent people in every walk of life.

By way of illustration, there is this peculiar statement by the Rev. William Temple, archbishop of York, preaching at Boston, Massachusetts. He said, speaking on the subject of the second advent of Christ, “He came in 1914, and the issue of that coming is still in doubt; for we are in the midst of a process of judgment in which He is passing sentence on our world. No doubt it will culminate in the final vindication of His authority.”

No one can read the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society’s literature without coming to a knowledge of the truth that of the human family only 144,000 will ever go to heaven at all. Those that find everlasting life otherwise will get it right here on this earth; the totally unworthy and unfit for life will be destroyed as so much vermin.

Bishop Stewart, Episcopalian, of Chicago, gets some of this. Brisbane quotes him in the New York American as saying: “Only those who have a definite relationship to God through the spiritual life may be eligible for immortality, and other souls cease to exist upon death.” Not so bad, for him; is it?

It is well known that Judge Rutherford and all of Jehovah’s witnesses are firm believers in the existence of a great and powerful and personal Devil, and it is also well known that Protestant theologians have for the most part ceased to either believe in or speak of the evil one who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. It is therefore all the more noteworthy that Rev. Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin, president of Union Theological Seminary, in an address in New York, said:

The apostle of love knew that “the whole world lieth in the evil one”. There is a malignant control over our earth. One can say many true things about earth’s goodness and pleasantness, but its dominant factor, “the prince of this world,” is neither good nor lovely. Not to recognize this is to spend our lives in a fool’s paradise.

Aspirations for Numbers

Forgetting that the Lord’s true people were to be as sheep in the midst of wolves and that, all told, they would be but “a little flock”, to whom it would be the Father’s good pleasure to give the Kingdom, and misled by the thronging millions held in subjection by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, the Protestant clergy have aped the Hierarchy in erecting great buildings and resorting to most extraordinary methods to get as many names as possible on their church roll, no matter what kind of people they have been, nor how obtained.

The New York Cathedral of St. John the Divine has been under construction 43 years, and is 58 percent finished. When completed (at a further expense of $10,000,000) it will be exceeded in size only by St. Peter’s at Rome and the Seville Cathedral at Seville, Spain.

Taking the cue from the Hierarchy the Methodist church is now counting all babies born to Methodist church members as what are called ‘parsonage babies’. Very probably this means that they are counted as “children of the church”, when the annual reports are sent in.

(Jehovah’s witnesses are in every community, in every corner of the earth, repeatedly, and there is little that goes on in any denomination that they do not know something about.)

Rowland Lathrop, of Indiana, tells how they go about it in his vicinity to increase church membership figures:

First they send school busses from house to house all over town, from the Nazarene church, with a picture of Felix the cat on the bus. These busses gather up the children and take them to church and bring them back home. Then the churches offer prizes of beautiful pins and Bibles to children attending so many times. Then if the little tots can’t come every Sunday, just let them send a dime or a nickel or a penny, and they are counted present just the same. And then they go to the insane asylum and get the inmates there, those that they have caused to go there by their devil religion, and by all these and other means they contrive to make a fair show in the flesh, despite the fact that the people as a whole have lost all confidence in them.

C. Bodtcher, California, vouches for the following:

They were holding revival meetings at the Nazarene church, and prizes were offered to the ones who could bring along the most prospective members; so a little girl appeared at Mrs. Van’s door, quite enthused with her request. “Won’t you come to our church tonight, Mrs. Van? They are offering prizes to those who bring the most people there. First prize is a Mickey Mouse wrist watch, and today is double count. I have a Mickey Mouse wrist watch, so I want to try for another prize. And you know the last minister we had, and his wife, went away with sixty-two dollars of the church’s money; so now we have got two lady preachers and they don’t want a cent.” “What are they there for?” inquired Mrs. Van. “To save souls,” came the reply.

The Results to Date

The showing for the United States to date is as follows: The entire population as of July 1, 1934, was estimated at 126,425,000, and the total “churched” on that date was 62,035,688, which is 1,176,812 less than half of all the people in the country. The 62,035,688 that are “churched” are gathered into 207 sects, ranging from a claimed total membership of 15 in the Primitive Friends up into the millions. In 1934 there were 19 kinds of Methodists, 18 kinds of Baptists, 17-plus kinds of Lutherans, 16-plus kinds of Mennonites, 9 kinds of Presbyterians, 7 kinds of Orthodox, 5 kinds of Friends, 3 kinds of United Brethren, 3 kinds of Reformed, 3 kinds of Scandinavian Evangelical, 2 kinds of Evangelical, 2 kinds of Latter-day Saints, and one each of 94 other varieties.

Thank God, Jehovah’s witnesses were not in the list. The president wants all the 207 varieties to get together. It would surely be some Kilkenny party, if they ever did. Suppose, for example, the 36 Freewill Baptists (Bullockites) should start out to tell the Duck River, General Six-Principle, Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian, or any of the 14 other kinds of Baptists just where they had strayed from the strait and narrow way. And what a circus it would be when the Hutterite Mennonites, Stauffer Mennonites, Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites, Weaver Mennonites and Unaffiliated Mennonites would set out on their campaign to disentangle and disintegrate the Krimmer Mennonites, Wisler Mennonites and ten other regular varieties! By the time the case got up to the Supreme Court it would look worse than the Blue Eagle of the defunct NRA.

Federal Council of Churches

All persons of mature years can remember numerous attempts to federate the churches, as, for instance, the Evangelical Alliance, Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations, Christian Endeavor Societies, Parliament of Religions, Men and Religions Forward Movement, Inter-Church World Movement and, more recently, the Federal Council of Churches. The one last named was probably the most ambitious example in the list.

The Federal Council has attracted wide attention because of numerous things it has said. One of the best of these was, “The supreme loyalty of every Christian is to Jesus Christ. If any government sets itself against His principles and so defies His will, even if that government be our own, the loyalty of every Christian belongs to Him and not to it.”

On the subject of free speech it said, “If one group be suppressed it will be only a question of time until such suppression is extended to all who dare voice opposition to those temporarily in power.”

In one and the same prayer for public and general use occurred the following statements which, separated from their context, make peculiar reading:

O Lord, break thou the spell of the enchantments that make the nations drunk with the lust of battle and draw them on as willing tools of death. Bless our soldiers and sailors for their swift obedience and their willingness to answer to the call of duty. May our young men still rejoice to die for their country with the valor of their fathers.

On the subject of economics it said on Labor Day:

Recent governmental estimates and other authoritative studies have indicated that had our plant been used to capacity in 1929 over $4,000 in goods and services could have been supplied to every American family. Nevertheless, 16,000,000 American families, or nearly two-thirds of our people, actually received in that year less than $2,000. That was six years ago.

The Baptist church is one of the important component parts of the Federal Council. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., a member of that church, and hitherto one of its main supports, served notice that the Baptist church can no longer count on his financial aid.

Mr. Rockefeller is but one of the big business heads that have caused the churches of the Federal Council anxiety in the recent past. S. Wells Utley, president of the Detroit Steel Casting Company, sixty days after the Labor Day statement on economics, said the following in a three-page article in Nation's Business:

In thirty years of business experience I have never heard of a clergyman visiting an industrial enterprise in an effort to acquaint himself with the principles and practices involved in conducting a going business. The clergy has been supported, often at considerable sacrifice, by those who believe that the maintenance of the church as a guide to the spiritual life is worth while, and that training and experience qualify clergymen for this leadership. When they begin to expound economic doctrines, in which, admittedly, they have no training or experience, they shouldn't be surprised if their parishioners begin to lose interest in their teachings and, being unwilling to precipitate a church row, quietly cease to attend service and support the organization with which they can no longer agree.

"They Have Forsaken the Word of the Lord"

The Bible is God's handbook of the Kingdom of God. Jesus preached that kingdom, the apostles preached that kingdom, and Jehovah's witnesses are still preaching it and commissioned to do so. Nobody was ever commissioned to preach the horrible doctrine of eternal torture. That being the case, consider the responsibility resting upon the "evangelist", E. A. Fergerson, for the following:

A lost soul in hell can only be like the hyena which paces up and down its cage and its lair, which it was not made to go in, but man puts it in that unnatural thing and it walks back and forth, yelling and panting, and longing for deliverance. So the lost soul, like the hyena in its cage, will walk and weep and wail in hell forever. There will be no release, no rest, no light, no hope, nothing but gloom, misery and the blackest darkness forever and ever.

Nobody was ever commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to at one and the same time represent Him and abase himself before the kings and princes of this world. Yet when George V, king of England, died, the Rev. T. E. Ruth, pastor of the largest Congregational church in Sydney, Australia, published under his own signature a column article from which the following is an extract:

That his reign had ended seemed not so much as if a period had closed, but as if the clock had stopped. For a moment it was as though time had come to an abrupt end. For a moment. And then, in the twinkling of an eye, the assurance came of his timeless triumph—victorious, happy, and glorious. Assurance not only of the mighty impersonal immortality of history, but of the continued history of his personal immortality.

Think of the folly back of the newspaper statement, "Dean Inge condemns the Old Testament." Do the people realize that in condemning the "Old Testament" he also condemned Jesus, who so often quoted from it and used it for His protection when attacked by the Devil. Dean Inge is not the only man to condemn the whole Bible and thus take his stand wholly on the side of the Devil.

How preposterous it was for Dr. Winnington Ingram, bishop of London, to "preach" that "the miracles of the British Broadcasting Company make the miracles of the Scriptures seem like child's play". The same One who, through Jesus, healed paralytics, cleansed the lepers, gave sight to the blind and raised the dead operated wireless and wordless telephony thousands of years before any member of the British Broadcasting Company was born. Think of the exquisite receptive power that is able over infinite distance to receive the unexpressed adoration and longing of the human heart!—Romans 8:26, 27.

Notice how the apostle expresses this in the passage just cited:

Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

One shrinks from mentioning the title of a sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Porter Drumm, North Reformed church, Newark, N. J. The title of the sermon as given in the public press was, "When God Can Do Nothing." In the sermon the doctor is alleged to have said, "The Father did not take the cup from the Son's lips because he would not, but because he could not." Consider this statement in the light of Jesus' own assertion that the Father at His request would have sent Him 120,000 angels for His protection. Dr. Drumm needs to read Judge Rutherford's works, especially Vindication 1, 2 and 3, and find out just why the Father allowed Satan to go the limit.

Rev. Blowhard looking over his source material for Sunday's sermon

Looking for New Gods

Jesus constantly referred to Jehovah God as His Father, and constantly quoted from His Word. But Elizabeth Cook ("I suffer not a woman to teach"—1 Timothy 2:12), writing in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, pleads Hitler-wise, as follows:

We have not advanced much since the war god Jehovah drove his legions one against the other, to murder to the last man. . . . We must recognize and acknowledge the gods of today who are giving us knowledge to replace ignorance, and courage to blaze new trails in exchange for superstitious fear.

In every generation from Nimrod to the present, men and women have made fools of themselves by idolizing the great and the near-great on their birthdays. Indeed the celebration of Christmas is not the celebration of Jesus' birthday at all, but is the celebration of Nimrod's birthday; for Jesus was born about October 1.

The latest to be idolized is Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose birthday chances to fall on January 30. In the year 1936 President Roosevelt's birthday was observed on the nearest Sunday. On that date, February 2, 1936, at Piqua, Ohio, an M. E. Sunday-school teacher wore out herself and a dozen small children singing so-called "patriotic" songs. She was careful not to teach the youngsters anything about the Bible, but had a complete alibi in that she did not know anything about it herself. When everybody had been sung hoarse she asked the children why they had been making all the excitement, and a youngster in the back seat raised his hand and said it was because it was ground-hog day. The kid should be given a gold medal.

It is easy enough to drift away from the truth. There is no resistance then. But when a body finds that it has been misled, and tries even in the feeblest way to effect a reform, it runs into difficulty. At White Plains, N.Y., the Castle Heights Methodist Episcopal Church Board expressed its disapproval of Easter bunnies, candy eggs, greeting cards and new hats and other duds, only to be rebuked by the Chamber of Commerce, which found the Easter business profitable.

Silly Topics for Sermons

A contributor says that Bernard Shaw, reading the title of an inquiry in an American magazine, "Is intelligence a handicap for a politician?" remarked that the inquiry should have read, "Would intelligence be a handicap for a politician?" And with that for a start, the contributor wants to know, "How about intelligence and honesty for a clergyman?"

Zanesville, Ohio, went to church the other day and heard sermons on "Encouraging Ourselves", "All Things Are Against Us," "Christ's Challenge to Our Faith," "The Ugliness of the Swine Trough," "The Blessing of the Clouds," "Heartless Neutrality," "Jesus at His Best," "Loyalty to the World About Us," "Are Sin, Disease and Death Real?" "Being Sensible About Our Friendships," "The Last Stand for Faith," "Goodwill Industry and Character Bankruptcy."

The town of Beckley, Raleigh county, West Virginia, on Sunday, January 26, at the First M. E. church, had the last of a series of sermons on basketball. At the Ebenezer Baptist church the morning sermon was on Joe Louis, the prize fighter, while in the evening it was on Lindbergh's flights. At the A. M. E. church in the evening the sermon "The Wrong Man Was Caught in the Corn Field" may have been based on a Biblical incident.

Somebody thank Rev. W. R. Pettigrew, pastor of the Springfield Baptist church, Springfield, Tennessee, for a copy of his letter to the football team in which he said: "I congratulate each of you upon the fact that you have a team that is worthy to be used as the basis of a sermon." (Ever try taking a sermon out of the Bible, old top?)

A Christ-mass folder of St. Andrews Episcopal church, Astoria, N. Y., revealed a program consisting of 34 items. A study shows that the congregation knelt three times, stood seven times, and sat ten times. Calisthenics are helpful in keeping the audience awake.

Praying and Singing

In the Central Buildings, Westminster, England, there was recently a week of continuous prayer, ten hours a day for six consecutive days, from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Twenty-one of the sixty leaders were "reverends"; there were two doctors, one each of commanders, lieutenant colonels, brigadier generals, squadron leaders, captains, colonels, and professors. There were twenty-five plain Mr.'s, two mistresses and two misses.

Seems a little overloaded on the professional end, but maybe the thought was that the Lord might be impressed with the titles, even if He did turn a deaf ear to their much-speaking. The petitioners gave the Lord His choice of about fifty-five different organizations upon which to bestow His blessings. Every last one of the things they prayed for is booked for destruction in Armageddon.

At St. Petersburg, Florida, the so-called "Church of God" seemed to think God was asleep and they needed to waken Him. Fifty-three neighbors testified that the "hollering, moaning, screaming, stomping and wailing of the congregation" were too much for their nerves; hence a jury declared the praying works were a public nuisance.

"Elijah Prayed for Fire" was the title of a sermon preached in Mt. Zion Baptist church, Youngstown, Ohio. Within four hours the church took fire, in the choir loft, from no known cause, and the structure was saved with difficulty.

The Toronto Star records that at a memorial service of Post 31, Canadian Legion, Mt. Dennis, Ontario, William Canning, a veteran, was commencing the second verse of a solo, "There Is No Death," and had finished the words "I tell you they have not died" (which is a lie, according to the Bible), when he collapsed on the floor in front of the platform and was carried out unconscious. The account says, "The service was brought to a rapid close." Service of whom? Service of what? The words sung were in direct violation of every word of the Bible.

A sign on a big tent read, "Gospel Meeting Tonight. Subject: Hell—Its Exact Location and Exact Nature. Brother Jones, the Sweet-singing Baritone Will Sing, 'Tell Mother I'll Be There!'"

Balaam's Equus Asinus

Balaam could have made good money starting a side show, but overlooked the opportunity. Rev. Dr. Emil Listman, of Miles, Texas, wrote the Texas Centennial Exposition that on account of the effect of the depression on the religious business he had to go nude around his own house, and he would be willing to appear nude at the Exposition in order to get his hands on a little ready money. This idea of putting the preachers and priests on exhibition, preferably in cages, is a new one, but might work. Time will tell.

The Reverend Harris, pastor of Wesley M. E. church, Emma and Mimika avenues, St. Louis, Missouri, explained to one of Jehovah's witnesses that he would not read one of Judge Rutherford's books; his spiritual life was on a higher plane. At hand a dodger of the "Carnival and Circus" held in his "church".

Called on the dodger the "Inky Binky" Circus, it invited the saints to come and see "The wild man of Borneo, a charmer of live snakes, a nifty tap dancer, a two-headed girl, a radio humorist, the world's biggest fat lady, the Chinese giant, and other attractions". They could also take a fling at games "to try your luck", and "all for only five cents".

Oh well, here in Brooklyn there are quite good-looking men that get their living by fishing in the garbage can, and Harris probably thinks the world owes him a living, and even a bum five-cent show is better than diving in the garbage. And then, the can can be used later—if there is not too big a crowd around it by the time Harris realizes the necessities of the case.

During the heated term of 1935 Boston people got to going to the beach and to other shows, so the pastor of the Union Square Baptist church had to put on something special. One Sunday he had two tons of ice packed around the altar; and the next Sunday, had birds flying all over the place. Maybe that is all right, but there is a limit to showmanship.

There is no record that Christ or any of the apostles or prophets ever undertook such shameless attempts to compete with the world as some of the preachers are using these days. Every one of Christ's miracles was definitely purposed to bring honor to His Father's name, and, as a matter of fact, did so.

“The simple believeth every word; but the prudent man looketh well to his going.”—Proverbs 14:15, A.R.V.

Anything to Make a Nickel

Benjamin Boyd sent an advertisement from the Piqua (Ohio) Daily Call. It seems that Dr. Carl T. Hoop, of the "Church of Christ", so the advertisement said, "makes his sermons like a woman's skirt: short enough to be interesting, but just long enough to cover the subject." So much for the dominie's attempt to draw a few nickels and dimes into the collection basket.

Benjamin, in the same note that enclosed the advertisement, said that in Fort Wayne, in a Y.M.C.A., he saw "reason No. 6" as to why one should go to church, that "I am inspired to believe that this is God's world", while reason No. 8 was, "I am inspired to help make this a better world." Then Benjamin wants to know, if No. 6 is true, why No. 8 is necessary; but he knows the answer (2 Corinthians 4:4), and so do you.

Rev. W. M. Tidwell, of the First Nazarene church, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, had it all figured out that in the New Jerusalem, 12,000 furlongs in cubical dimensions, there would be room for 297,000,000,000 apartments of 100 rooms each. This is all interesting and exciting, but think of what an elevator service they would need to have to bring those 297,000,000,000 families all down to the dining room at one time! And what cables they would need for elevators that would have to cover 1500 miles each way every time they made a round trip from the basement to the top floor!

Rev. A. Clark, 3230 North 16th street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, writing to one who had begun to get his eyes opened, said: "There is nothing to be gained by believing there is no eternal punishment, but a great deal to be lost if there is such a thing. If a person does the will of God in this life he will escape the eternal burnings, but if, after death, he finds that there are no eternal burnings, he will not have lost anything by believing that there were."

This is the squawk of a man who is caught, and is trying to make himself and others think that one may blaspheme God all he pleases and be just as acceptable in the end as one who has known and accepted and preached the truth, regardless of all results to himself or to anybody else.

A friend in the same city sent a program of the Kynett Methodist Episcopal church Halloween party. It seems that the pastor, Rev. A. Wallace Copper, dressed as the Devil, won the first prize. What is wrong about that?

Ignorance of the Bible

The object of the religious business is to prevent the people from learning the vital truths of the Bible, and it succeeds well in its objective. Thus, in a Presbyterian men's Bible class one member, asked how far it is from Dan to Beersheba, said, "Do I understand that Dan and Beersheba are the names of places?" Being assured that such is the case, he continued, "That is one on me. I always thought they were husband and wife, like Sodom and Gomorrah."

At Harrow, Middlesex, England, one of Jehovah's witnesses encountered a lady who filled him full of the activities of her husband and her son in church work. Getting a word in edgewise the witness ventured the hope that her son's heart is right with God. Back came the astonishing reply, "Oh yes, he is engaged to the vicar's daughter."

Bishop Edwin Mouzon, of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, stated that a questionnaire answered by 18,434 Virginia high-school students showed that 16,000 could not name three of the prophets, 12,000 could not name the four gospels, and 10,000 could not name three of Christ's disciples.

The Knoxville (Tennessee) restaurateurs have put it up to the churches that the practice of soliciting and selling meal tickets is injuring their legitimate business; that they are taxpayers and licensed and do not think they should be made the victims of unscrupulous schemes and high-pressure unethical advertising salesmanship in contravention of the Golden Rule. They thereby push the dominies and the priests one step nearer the wheelbarrow, and the dung fork.

Baptist Clergymen

When Southern Baptist clergymen disagree they studiously avoid personalities, and so everybody breathed easily when Rev. Theodore G. Bilbo, Baptist clergyman and senator from Mississippi, got a little peeved with Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith, his brother clergyman, who is trying to fit into the shoes of Huey Long, but finds the shoes not a close fit.

However, Rev. Bilbo is reported by the papers as saying of Rev. Smith that "he is a contemptible, dirty, vicious, pusillanimous, with-malice-aforethought, damnable, self-made liar". While this would not be considered personal between Southern Baptist clergymen, one is inclined to wonder just a little what Bilbo might have said about Smith had he been sufficiently provoked to forget that he should not be personal.

But remembering the words, "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" he did not permit himself to lose his temper. He merely suggested that Smith get back into his pulpit, evidently feeling that the pulpit was the right place for the kind of man he thought Smith to be.—Psalm 133.

The Baptist minister at Niles, Ohio, not having access to a convent, was in court on the charge of attacking his eleven-year-old niece. The "reverend" would be benefited by some kind of honest employment, and so would the community of which he is a member.

Niles, by the way, is a city where the chief of police indulged in the hallucination that he could control the liberty of the people to have the gospel preached to them in the way they like best. As a consequence a delegation of 1800 of Jehovah's witnesses called on him one Sunday, and when he saw the pages and pages of names of workers he almost fell over. There was no trouble. Niles had had enough Baptist dominies and those of other stripe to last it till Armageddon.

Mosely, of Alabama, says of a Primitive Baptist preacher, whose name and address he gave, that he is engaged in moonshine disbursements on the side. If one of the flock wants comfort for the interior of his neck he wipes his face, pulling slightly under his eye as if opening. If the "reverend" has a supply on hand he responds by wiping his forehead upward. The supply is kept at the home of Sister Miller, who lives across the street. Everything was working all right, and the entire church was in good spirits, when revenue officers found a five-gallon jug in the dominie's barn, and he did a vanishing act until he could get things fixed up.

Mt. Vernon (Illinois) Park Avenue Baptist church found a way to keep up the attendance. One lady, 34 years of age, married, argued with her 17-year-old sister that she should go to church Sunday evening. The younger lady demurred, and the middle-aged one socked her with an axe, breaking her skull, and partially paralyzing her. Some Baptists do not approve this method of keeping up church attendance.

Other Varieties of Clergymen

Rev. Ross Wilhide, Clifton M. E. church, Cincinnati, Ohio, thinks evolution should be taught in the public schools; also that Jehovah God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was merely a tribal deity of the Jews; also that there is "ample evidence that man is descended from the ape". As one of the leading lights in the Methodist Episcopal church, Rev. Wilhide should be made bishop of the church in his part of the world, so that all may know that the M. E. church has ceased to exist and is now only a society of unbelievers in God and in His Word.

When the Rev. W. J. Wright was re-elected pastor of the Central Avenue Christian church, Topeka, Kansas, it took four cops to keep the Wrighters and the non-Wrighters from wrecking one another's physiognomies.

Rev. Charles Francis Potter, of New York, wants to save the taxpayers $30,000,000 a year by executing the imbeciles now in asylums. He did not suggest, but some might think of it, that it might also be a good idea to execute those who teach that an infinitely loving God will torment almost all men throughout eternity. Rev. Potter should check up and see that his insurance policies are all in good shape.

The Depressed Christians of Travancore, India, memorialized the British parliament that they are still treated by the so-called "high-class" Christians as untouchable, and in some instances distance-pollution is enforced, even on the public roads. At the Lord's supper they must sit on the back seats; the bread is put in their hands (they may not reach for it), and the wine is served to them with a spoon after the others are served. This is the case after 130 years of missionary activity. The Depressed Christians in their memorial say: "We are treated in a worse manner by the Christians than even by the Hindus."

H. G. Hides, assistant resident magistrate of the British section of the island of Papua, recently returned from exploration of a section inhabited by natives of a light color, cannibals, who live amidst large gold deposits and have a highly developed plan of agriculture. Mr. Hides pleaded that the civilizing of this particular race be not begun by missionaries. He wished to stand by the cannibals.

When Samuel McCracken, Morrisville, Pennsylvania (across the river from Trenton, N. J.), died, he requested that the epitaph on his tombstone should read, "If clergymen and politicians go to heaven, put me off at the first stop"; and it so reads.

The Swan Song

Ecclesiastical Refreshments

The dominies are eager to do anything and everything except honest work. It comes perfectly natural to clergymen to live off the earnings of others, preferably off the taxpayers, but, once they get on the pay roll, they are interested in the common people not the least little bit. The Right Reverend Lord William Gascoyne-Cecil, bishop of Exeter, England, ought, with all those titles, to be very much like Christ, a lover of the people, and interested in their liberties, too. But, arguing against democracy, in an address in the House of Lords, he said: "Mussolini has said, and I believe it, that democracy is essentially immoral because appeal is made to the personal motive, to man's self interest."

To round this out, it should be explained that the salary of the bishop of Exeter, aside from house rent, is $14,000 a year, and that the return in benefits to the taxpayers is a net loss of the whole amount, and a huge deficit besides.

Rev. John Brett Langstaff, rector of St. Edmund’s Protestant Episcopal church, New York city, made the following proposition: “Let the government definitely offer part-time employment to the ministers of all denominations in the vitally important administration of the works program. In the same way that a government deems it wise to offer part-time stipends to secure chaplains for their prisons, so let it make use of the clergy in dealing with old-age pensions and crippled children.”

Now that is an idea, but here is a still better one. Accepting it as a fact, and one which cannot be denied, that the clergy have totally failed to teach the people the Word of God, and do not themselves believe it or even know what it teaches, why not put them all, the whole bunch, at some useful occupation where they will not interfere with the efforts of the honest-hearted to learn and obey the truth?

As the matter now stands they are entirely useless to God and man alike. Maybe some of them would be useful, at least to some small degree, if given a job herding literal sheep, or as gooseherds, goatherds or swineherds. It should be some occupation rather remote from their fellow men, where their false ideas of life and death would have less likelihood of working injury than at present.

To put ministers and priests on jobs having to do with the administration of the works program would enable them to favor those who at least outwardly conform to their opinions and wishes. It is exceedingly difficult for an ecclesiastic to be impartial and tolerant. His training warps his sense of proportion.

The Money Comes Hard

Per capita church contributions in the banner year of 1928 were $23.30. In 1935 this had dropped to $12.10, or slightly over $1 a month.

In the olden days the fire insurance business of offering to land people in heaven instead of a place of terribly high temperature was considered a good opening for any man who could holler and weep and talk freely by the hour of something about which he knew nothing.

A dispatch from Belding, Michigan, says that the pastor of the Congregational church there has resigned to take up the business of oil promotion. He will also run a funeral parlor. Business will probably be good in both of these lines in the near future, especially in the latter.

A South Dakota pastor wrote to the chief of police of Minneapolis, asking for a job. Almost anything that would take a man out of the job of dishonoring God’s name would be a promotion, and the dominie is to be congratulated that he has sense enough to see that the church business is all done. A police official has frequent opportunities to do some good in the world; it would be a promotion, surely.

Ohio has a prize, a young man who studied for the ministry, but was willing to give $25 to anybody who would find him an honest job. The advertisement appeared in the Ohio State Journal. The young man admits that the reason why he wants honest work is that he is hard up.

The Church of England is being handicapped by the fact that many young men who go into the ministry, supposing it to be for the honor of God and the good of their fellow men, when they find out the truth about the business, go straight and leave the back-end-to collars and other junk and make an honest living any way they can.

Last year seventy of these young men disappeared from the ministry, some peddling from door to door, some shipping as sailors, and some living off the earnings of fallen women, thus coming to their professional level.

The Oxford Movement

An invitation to attend “A House-Party of the Oxford Group”, held some time back, at The Mission Inn, Riverside, California, reads, “The Oxford Group is the only movement discernible today that seems capable of giving our generation that spiritual awakening which alone can save civilization.” On the inside of the folder it says, “The House-Party at Riverside has been planned under the guidance of God.”

With interest one turns to the back page, where he may collect some additional data: “Since the movement of the House-Party is cumulative it is of the utmost importance that sufficient time be given to enter into its life. It will begin with dinner at 7 p.m. on Thursday and continue through breakfast on Tuesday. An early reply will greatly assist us in making arrangements. The cost will be four dollars per day, American plan, with registration fee of two dollars, payable on arrival.”

This is what might be called salvation de luxe, for those who had the price of the round-trip fare to Riverside, and the necessary $20 for the board and room, not forgetting the $2 for putting their name in a book. If the hotel was at all grateful, in these hard times, it should have allowed a rake-off of at least $1 per day, for bringing in the crowd to get "saved"; and if 200 came, that would be $1,000 for five days' work, which is not bad. The $400 registration fees would fully cover all clerical expense.

How strange that Jesus and the apostles missed this easy and comfortable way of making $7 apiece off the flock! Now, let's see. That time when He fed the 5,000 men (besides women and children), if He had had the Oxford Group idea He might just as well have cleared $35,000 as not. But maybe that would have been too much for Judas to carry. He was the one who carried the bag, you know, and it would not have been fair to overload him.

A big get-together meeting of Protestants, Catholics and Jews at Washington, D.C., had five speakers among the sixteen priests, preachers, and rabbis on the platform. One of these, Rev. Albert J. McCartney, said the purpose of the meeting was to dramatize three things: first, that the people no longer go to church; second, that the churches are open to receive the people, particularly Government workers; and, third, that the dominies who are all teaching different things are really all one in fact.

Very well, very well, not to quarrel with anybody, but why pick on the Government workers? Of course, they have steady incomes, a slice of which it would be good to have, and some of the politicians on the Government pay roll need salvation mighty badly. But Uncle Sam should keep out of this salvation business; he has troubles enough.

New Cumberland, West Virginia, learned something in this connection. At one of the "churches" a deal was made with an evangelistic gang to come down and touch off the fireworks and the proceeds would be split fifty-fifty. As soon as the show was over the "evangelists" put all the money in a sack and left town.

The "church" where the big "touch" was made was expecting to make repairs, etc., and, being much disappointed, made contact with the gang that had cleaned them out. They were promised a "report" on the collection, which is just like receiving an application for a money order instead of the money order itself. Finally the "report" came, and with it a letter asking for $20 more and the account would be square.

Salvation at $4 per day

Reverend C. R. Shirar, in a letter to his flock, reveals the inspiration back of the desire for "attendance". He has a "church" at Temple, Texas, and, in his letter, says, "There is but one way out! Let each member begin with Sunday, March 1, to come to Sunday school and the other services, and catch up with any balance due on his or her pledge."

Just to help out Reverend Shirar, there is another way out, but it involves alarm clocks and overalls and calluses; but it is better now than later, when the rush takes place. Cheer up, Reverend, honest labor, as tent-making and such, is a pleasure when one gets used to it.

In the sight of the haymow, the ministers of the Detroit Methodist Episcopal conference are considering a plan to pool 200 salaries in the area and to share and share alike. The bishop pledged himself to go in on the same basis with the others. Now, when this reform gets to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy it will be evident to all that summer is nigh, even at the doors'. Seems too good to be true, doesn't it?

Apostles of Murder

Common people, and especially the armless and legless veterans, can still remember the blood-lust creators, dispensers of war propaganda and salesmen of war bonds of the period of the World War; and some of the preachers can remember, too.

Rev. Donald McGuire, of Montgomery, Alabama, addressing fellow Presbyterian ministers at Mobile, declared truthfully that "war is a moral issue, not political", and backed it up by saying: "Any day now we'll be propagandized into preaching hatred from the pulpit as we did in the last war." And yet his brethren dismissed the state synod, where he had delivered this prophecy, without having the nerve or Christianity to pass the resolution against war, which was the subject of debate.

Bishop William T. Manning, born in England in 1866, but now making his living peddling religion in the United States, issued a prayer for peace, but when the archbishop of York had convinced him that Britain's chestnuts are in the fire, he made it clear that his prayer was only to be taken as a joke. He said:

No one of us wishes to see our country drawn into the war anywhere, but America has some duty and responsibility in this world beyond playing the part of an unofficial observer. We must not talk as though the use of force is always unmoral or as though there is no difference between those who engage in police action for the preservation of peace and those who wage deliberate and aggressive war.

There is an opening for a few Baptist South, Methodist Episcopal, Missouri Synod (Lutheran) and United Brethren clergymen to get jobs as chaplains, in the grade of first lieutenants. They must have had a four-year college course, followed by a three-year course in a theological seminary.

The Prayers of the Hypocrites

Six months after Mussolini had expressed his unchangeable intention of making war upon Ethiopia 5,000 clergymen, with 4,000,000 communicants, prayed that he would not do what he had determined to do, but they hedged by taking up collections for gas masks and ambulance litters for the Ethiopian Red Cross. Apparently they suspected that no one would hear or answer their prayers. Their praying was like that of a small boy praying he would not get a licking, and then putting a board in his pants as a matter of precaution.

Everybody knows now that the pope backed Mussolini with his 'moral' support, provided him with the financial sinews of war, and even had the church bells rung to start the campaign. This latter was a little too much for some of his 'separated' brethren, and Dr. Frederick Brown Harris, pastor of the Foundry Methodist church, Washington, D.C., said:

I cannot help but wonder what Christ thinks today of the mass brutality worse than anything the barbaric Middle Ages ever knew. What does he think of the cruel savagery of a so-called crusade for a civilization tagged with his name? What did he think of those church bells sounding the signal for massacre, ringing out for another denial of Him, another betrayal, another crucifixion? What does He think of the silence in such an hour of those who call themselves His vicars?

Frightened by the prospect of another world war, the archbishops of Canterbury and York made a statement broadcast at least once, and read in many churches, that international treaties, pacts and covenants are not enough to ensure peace, and that it can come about only by a supernatural power, "the incoming of the Kingdom of God, God's Rule of Righteousness, truth, honor, justice, brotherhood among men."

For once the archbishops told the truth. Now if they will admit that all earthly governments, including the British government, are governments of the Devil, and will, at some personal risk of their jobs, so teach the people, they will be taking a long stride ahead—which they are in no immediate danger of taking.

Confessing to the President

A year ago Governor La Follette, of Wisconsin, circularized the preachers of his state, feeding them political taffy about their high calling, their intimate daily contact with their parishioners and with the people in general, and then he asked for their counsel and advice on the ground that no group could give more accurate or unbiased views.

Farley, or some other nitwit, got President Roosevelt to send almost an identical letter to clergymen all over the country. The clergymen were consulted because they have no regular useful occupations. Roosevelt had the edge on La Follette because he did not have to pay postage, but this was offset by the fact that La Follette’s letter arrived five months ahead of Roosevelt’s.

In answer to the president’s request Rev. John R. Stevenson, of Daly City, California, made a general confession for Protestantism that “our pulpit utterances are filled with politics of which we know little” and “concerning the things we ought to talk about, we know less”. “Pulpit utterances are filled with ill-considered philosophy, unchristian doctrines and high-sounding phrases. . . . The voice of Protestantism is today lacking in conviction. We are failing the nation in her hour of need. . . . In view of the above confession I make for our beloved Protestant church, how can I hope to say anything which could command your respect?”

Rev. Dr. P. W. Dierberger, pastor of the First Congregational church of Great Falls, Montana, is quoted in the Tribune of that city as saying:

We overemphasize the scaffolding of religion while we neglect its inner structure. We wear the clothes of religion and we deny its life-giving spirit. We have a form of godliness and we deny the power thereof. We have religious profession without spiritual possession. We have the skin of religion without a sacrificial heart. We have the cross without the Savior. We have an altar but not the open heavens. We emphasize the little things of religion and omit the weightier matters of the law.

‘‘They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, so that men cannot touch their garments.” — Lamentations 4:14, A.R.V.

The Last Confession of All

The last confession of all is that of the 29 dominies of the High Episcopal flock; who desire reunion with Rome, and recently issued a public statement in New York city, saying, “Let us arise and go to our father’s house, and say: Father [John 8:44], I have sinned and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” One of the 29 got cold feet and backed out later.

These 29 dominies admitted that Protestantism is dead. They said, “Protestantism is bankrupt, ethically, culturally, morally and religiously. Its driving force, negative at best, has exhausted itself.” They wanted to know how they could get back into the “church” of the Inquisition.

The official title of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America is just that, but looking forward eagerly to the time when they would be let in on the Roman Catholic racket, the officers at the church headquarters, 281 Fourth ave., New York city, have of late been omitting the word “Protestant” on many of the publications issued from that office.

So eager are the Protestant clergy to participate in the Roman Catholic racket that in an address in Fort Worth, Texas, Dr. S. Parkes Cadman said: “Sometimes, men and women, in the enthusiasm of ignorance, speak of the Dark Ages. There were no Dark Ages. The darkest age of which I know began in 1914.” Cadman was introduced by a rabbi, and the benediction on his sermon was given by a priest.

Cadman’s mind is a strange workshop. In an address before 2600 Protestant teachers, who plainly see Roman Catholic Fascism coming, he said, “The sin where the human mind is taught to goose-step is about the vilest I know. We are witnessing an attempt to impose Fascist methods in teaching.” He professes to object to the arming of children and to the Hitlerization of the United States, yet he is a party to the conspiracy to do that very thing.

Let Cadman and every other professed Protestant lift up their eyes and see the funds of United States taxpayers being poured out like water in the construction of parochial schools and of public schools which will shortly be under the full control of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy; and when education goes, everything goes.

Cadman describes Roman Catholicism and Judaism as the "two sister faiths" of Protestantism. The former openly threatens to destroy Cadman and all other Protestants as soon as strong enough; the other repudiates the Savior altogether. Cadman says, "Our planet is the lunatic of the solar system." He is quite right.

A dispatch from Sandusky, Ohio, represents Reverend Thomas Hughes, Methodist minister there, as predicting the end of Protestant churches in the United States within the next quarter of a century unless there is a change. Reverend Hughes is anxious about the condition of a corpus delicti now in about the condition Lazarus was in after he had been dead four days. The thing to do is to forsake her; for her sins have reached to heaven, and there is absolutely no hope of her recovery. Why postpone the funeral?

Papa, to the prodigal son: "The question is, Can you kiss the big toe with the utter abandon and sloppy technique ‘his holiness’ is accustomed to?”

Protestant Clergy: “Can I! Why, if you will let me in on your racket and kill the fatted calf, why, I ’ll—I ’ll kiss anything —idols, rosaries, toes, jowls, rings—I’ll be the most constant and thorough shoe polisher in your whole parish. I ’ll take good care of the nuns and beg money for your orphans, and I’ll never, never let on it’s all a bunch of cheap hokum.”

"Men of Corrupt Minds"

It is probably not generally true that the clergy of the Protestant churches are men of corrupt morals. The Scriptures lay the emphasis on the fact that they are "men of corrupt minds."—1 Timothy 6:5.

In what condition is the mind of a man or a body of men knowing the doctrine of eternal torture is without foundation in the Bible and yet never taking one step to clear the name of Jehovah God from the foul stain which this doctrine has placed upon it?

How could anybody have any confidence in a man or a body of men claiming to represent Jehovah the true and living God, and Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, and turning their backs upon the Scriptures, hating and causing the imprisonment of those that carry the water of life to the people, and doing all possible to prevent the people from learning the truth?

The Literary Digest, issue of May 2, 1936, admits, page 17, that neither preachers nor people now have any use at all for "the old hell-fire-and-damnation upon which they turned their backs more than a generation ago". Why, then, do they not come out and tell the people the truth, that when they die they are as dead as a dead cat or a dead dog, and unless Jehovah God, through Christ Jesus, awakens them from death they will remain dead for ever?

On the same page The Digest tells that these men, in lieu of the Bible, "discuss social economy, capitalism, and labor," and that "many have built bowling alleys, billiard rooms, athletic fields, little theatres, social centers, dance halls". Cannot everybody see that these "have forsaken the Word of the Lord"? And can they not hear the words of the prophet inquiring as to "what wisdom is in them"?

On the next page The Digest goes out of its way to lie about Jehovah's witnesses, when it describes them as "20,000 fanatical members of an odd American-born religious sect" "refusing to permit their children to salute the Stars and Stripes, to them a 'devil's banner'." The numbers are wrong, the alleged fanaticism is wrong, the allegation that Jehovah's people are a religious sect is wrong, and so is the statement that they refuse to permit the salute of the flag.

World's End

A five-minute talk by Judge Rutherford

HIS faithful disciples propounded to Jesus this question: What shall be the proof of the end of the world? The question did not refer to the end of the earth, because those disciples knew that the Scriptures say that the earth abides for ever, and will never end. World means the peoples of earth that are under the rule of an invisible overlord. Jesus had taught those disciples of His that the invisible ruler of the world was and is Satan the Devil. It was in the year 606 B.C. that God withdrew His favor from Israel, because of the unfaithfulness of that nation, and then and there the Devil became the invisible ruler of the whole world. God declared that Israel should be trodden down for 2,520 years, or seven symbolic times. During that period of time God did not interrupt or interfere with the rule of the Devil. The question concerning the end of the world propounded to Jesus therefore means, When would the time arrive when God would interrupt the Devil's rule, and what would be the proof of the beginning of that time. We know the answer of Jesus is correct, because He always speaks with authority. The question and answer are recorded in Matthew, the twenty-fourth chapter.

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