Consolation, January 11, 1939
Download: PDF — Consolation, January 11, 1939
Contents
Is the Roman Catholic Press Trustworthy? 3
A Little on Child Training 6
Don't Be Too Severe 14
Teach the Truth in the Home 15
The New Government 8
"Catholic Europe Predicted" 8
Anecdotes from Belgium 9
New York 11
Anarchy in Brooklyn 11
Mr. Hague Wants a Trip 12
South Africa 13
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford 17
Politics 17
One Million Victims 18
South America 19
Under the Totalitarian Flag 20
State Aid for Religion 20
Surrender to the Pope 21
Knights of Columbus 22
Public Admission of Hypocrisy 23
The Ambushment of the American Republic 24
American Public School System 24
Pastoral Letter on Teaching Democracy 25
Notice the Ineffable Conceit 26
What Is Back of All This? 27
British Comment 28
"Freethinkers" 28
Forestry 31
Published every other Wednesday by
THE GOLDEN AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A.
President Clayton J. Woodworth
Vice-President Nathan H. Knorr
Secretary and Treasurer Charles E. Wagner
Five Cents a Copy
$1 a year in the United States
$1.25 to Canada and all other countries
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS
Remittances: For your own safety, remit by postal or express money order. When coin or currency is lost in the ordinary mails, there is no redress. Remittances from countries other than those named below may be made to the Brooklyn office, but only by international postal money order.
Receipt of a new or renewal subscription will be acknowledged only when requested. Notice of Expiration is sent with the journal one month before subscription expires. Please renew promptly to avoid loss of copies. Send change of address direct to us rather than to the post office. Your request should reach us at least two weeks before the date of issue with which it is to take effect. Send your old as well as the new address. Copies will not be forwarded by the post office to your new address unless extra postage is provided by you.
Published also in Bohemian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hungarian, Ukrainian.
OFFICES FOR OTHER COUNTRIES
England 34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2
Canada 40 Irwin Avenue, Toronto 5, Ontario
Australia 7 Beresford Road, Strathfield, N.S.W.
South Africa 623 Boston House, Cape Town
Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Appetizers
Winning Answer
An enterprising Florida newspaper offered a year's subscription for the best answer to this question, "Why is a woman like a newspaper?" Here are some of the answers:
"Because they are thinner now than they used to be."
"Because they are well worth looking over."
"Because they carry the news wherever they go."
But the one to win the subscription was this:
"Because every man should have one of his own and not run after his neighbor's."—Ex.
Troubles with Wives
A Southern editor said that a man out west got himself into trouble by marrying two wives.
A Western editor replied that a good many men in the South have done the same thing by marrying one.
A Northern editor reports that quite a number of his acquaintances found trouble by merely promising to marry, without going any farther.—Labor.
A Diplomat! A Politician!
Charlie Miller, news editor of the Peru (Ill.) News-Herald, tells of a man who astonished the want-ad clerk of his newspaper recently by placing an ad offering $50 reward for the return of his wife's pet cat.
"Isn't that a high reward for a cat?" asked the ad taker.
"Not in this case," said the man. "I drowned the cat."—American Guardian.
A Problem
"Daddy," said a little girl, "if a doctor doctored another doctor, would the doctor doing the doctoring doctor the other doctor in the way the doctored doctor wanted to be doctored; or would the doctor doing the doctoring doctor the other doctor in his own way?"—Labor.
A Long Wait
Doctor, to patients in reception room: "Well, who has been waiting the longest?"
Man, presenting bill: "I think I have, Doctor. I delivered your suit three years ago."
CONSOLATION
"And in His name shall the nations hope."—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XX Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 11, 1939 Number 504
Is the Roman Catholic Press Trustworthy?
A FACT that is frequently overlooked by honest persons, and one that should never be forgotten, is that the Roman Catholic Church, as a church, condones lying (as well as theft and murder) by the casuistry with which it contravenes the Divine law. The following extract from one of the most honored "saints" in the Roman Church, shows that lying has been reduced to a fine art in that iniquitous organization, which is now trying to subject England to its rule by means of Fascistic subterfuges.
If any, either alone or before others, whether asked or of his own accord, or for the purpose of sport, or for any other object, swears that he has not done something else which he has done, or in a different way from that in which he has done it, or any other truth that is added, he does not really lie, nor is he perjured.—Pope Innocent XI.
Another "saint", whose writings are still studied and followed in the Roman Catholic organization, states:
When a crime has been well concealed, the witness and even the criminal, may, and even must, swear that the crime has never been committed. . . . We may be allowed to conceal the truth, or disguise it under ambiguous or equivocal words or signs, for a just cause, and where there is no necessity to confess the truth.—"Saint" Liguori.
Such being the case, it is easy to see how little confidence can be placed in what is stated in Roman Catholic newspapers or periodicals. The excuse of "a just cause" can be so readily advanced. For instance, the advantage of the church itself is always considered a just cause, and, in any event, the doing of evil that good may come (to the system) is clearly endorsed by such methods as the foregoing quotations not merely suggest, but endorse.
The complete absence of principle or of any stable foundation for an honorable course of action is evident from the quotations presented, which are only a drop in the bucket when compared with the literature that elucidates such rules and is still current in the Roman Catholic Church.
Being thus instructed, it was not strange that the London Catholic Herald should produce an article such as the following, purporting to come from their own correspondent in New York.
CUT OFF!
AMERICA DECLINES TO HEAR "JEHOVAH'S" CHIEF "WITNESS"
From Our Own Correspondent
New York.
The anti-religious tirade delivered by Judge Rutherford at the London (Eng.) Albert Hall, and broadcast to America, was cut short by American radio stations, whose directors then apologised to radio audiences for as much of the speech as had been heard.
Radio spokesmen explained that they had no knowledge of the nature of the speech, but cut it as soon as its anti-religious venom became evident. Complaints against the broadcast have been forwarded to the Federal Communications Commission.
In some places where meetings had been arranged to hear the broadcast, lessees broke contracts and closed their halls to the free-thinking or atheist audiences. In Pittsburgh, Shriners who had leased their hall to the "Jehovah's Witnesses" (Rutherfordites) explained to the Pittsburgh Catholic that they would not have leased the hall if they had known the purport of the meeting, and added the assurance that precautions would be taken in the future.
COULD NOT USE PUBLIC HALLS
All New Orleans radio stations declined to carry the speech, while stations in Colorado and Oklahoma cut off the speech and apologised to their listeners. In Chicago and New Orleans three-day conventions of the Watch Tower Society, also Rutherfordites, were refused permission to use public halls.
In some places American Legionnaires and other patriotic societies protested against the broadcast because of Rutherford's subversive doctrines on saluting the flag and war service.
The Catholic Press is initiating a protest against the proposal to hold the next Godless Congress in New York City.
Did not the London Catholic Herald realize that intelligent readers would see the contradiction between the first and fourth paragraphs of their story? and were they not aware that there was not the least connection between the story as a whole and the last paragraph, which unquestionably was added to convey the idea, at least to the average uncritical Catholic reader, that Jehovah's witnesses were a Godless group?
Were they so eager to discredit Judge Rutherford and Jehovah's witnesses generally that they failed to realize that it is generally difficult to write convincing fiction, especially when one is heated up over something and trying to get the other fellow in bad? Have not Catholic editors yet learned that, even if only from considerations of policy, it is best to be honest?
Did the Roman Catholic news service that produced this poor piece of propaganda forget that many thousands of persons, intelligent persons, having heard the lecture, or knowing others who had heard it, and millions more who had the books written by Judge Rutherford, would know they were lying?
Also, had the Roman Catholic news service overlooked the fact that while Jehovah's witnesses do not resort to the use of carnal weapons, or of the Devil's tactics of lying and boycott, they do make effective use of every legal and just means within their reach to defend the truth?
Whatever may have been the cause of the deliberate misrepresentation of truth in evidence in the dispatch purporting to represent happenings in another country, the London Catholic Herald stands condemned as an untrustworthy source of news and a prejudiced and biased interpreter of such news.
The Catholic press in general has not impressed the public, not even the professed Roman Catholic public, as being worth while or reliable. It is too obviously an instrument in the hands of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy to further its own interests, and that at the expense of the people and their just rights. The Roman Catholic Press has the right to give a disproportionate amount of space to matters Catholic, but it does not have the right, in the eyes of honest persons, to misrepresent the truth with regard to any matter, regardless of its personal prejudices.
The pope says that the Catholic press is his very own voice; and if that is true, he must have Ananias backed off the boards. Judge Rutherford and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society have been lied about in the Catholic papers in the past until the Hierarchy made the great mistake of jumping to the conclusion that this could go on indefinitely.
The London Catholic Herald, noticing that in past issues of American Catholic papers almost anything against Judge Rutherford and the Society went unpunished, tried the same stunt in London and was promptly sued for $100,000 damages. British courts are not yet as afraid of the Hierarchy as they are in many parts of America, and so the Herald made a front-page apology in its issue of November 25, 1938, and paid the costs and the fees of the London solicitors of the Society. The apology was as follows:
JUDGE RUTHERFORD'S BROADCAST
In our issue of October 14 it was reported that the speech by Judge Rutherford delivered at the Albert Hall, London, on September 11, was cut short by American radio stations, whose directors then apologised to radio audiences for as much of the speech as had been heard. It was also stated in our report that all New Orleans radio stations declined to carry the speech.
As a result of subsequent enquiries we have now ascertained that the speech was treated in this way only by the three circuits, Oklahoma City, Denver and Colorado Springs, whereas 118 stations on other circuits broadcast the speech in its entirety without interruption.
We have also been informed that none of the New Orleans stations were approached, or engaged, to carry the speech, so no question of their declining to do so ever arose.
It has also been represented to us that certain expressions were used in the same report which might appear to convey the imputation that Judge Rutherford is an advocate or preacher of atheistic views. The report was not intended to convey that impression, and we regret any misunderstanding caused by it.
Further details regarding the incident are available in a statement to the British public by the London office of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, under the heading, "Roman Catholics Anxious to Gag Judge Rutherford; Catholic Herald, London, Published Lying Report; Afraid of the Facts!" Every person who believes in publishing the truth on all subjects and punishing those who willfully and maliciously lie, is bound to be interested. The statement follows:
On Sunday, September 11, Judge Rutherford delivered his great speech “FACE THE FACTS” to a vast audience of 10,000 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This lecture was of such importance that it was transmitted at the same time by radio to other audiences in more than 40 cities in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, as well as relayed by direct wire to an aggregate audience of 25,000 assembled in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne and Swansea. Simultaneously it was broadcast by a transcontinental chain of 118 American radio stations. Over this entire world-wide network, which was one of the greatest in history, Judge Rutherford revealed astounding facts which the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is afraid to have the people know. The Catholic Press in America and Britain have openly published falsehoods to further prevent the people from gaining the information given in “Face the Facts”.
In its issue of October 14, the Catholic Herald, London, published a report, which ran into about half a column and was printed in bold type, headed “CUT OFF! AMERICA DECLINES TO HEAR ‘JEHOVAH’S CHIEF WITNESS’ ” and proceeds to state that the speech (described in the said report as an “anti-religious tirade”) was cut short by American radio stations, whose directors then apologised to radio audiences for as much of the speech as had been heard. The report also stated that all New Orleans radio stations declined to carry the speech.
The report clearly implied that all or almost all American radio stations cut off Judge Rutherford’s speech as being of a nature unfit and improper for the public to hear, whereas, in fact, as has been ascertained in New York, 118 radio stations throughout the United States broadcast the entire speech as relayed from the Royal Albert Hall, London, and without interruption, and in New Orleans not a single radio station was approached or engaged for the broadcast, so that the statement that “all New Orleans stations declined to carry this speech” is entirely untrue.
The said misrepresentations with their obvious implication as above stated were serious enough, but there were two further sentences in their report which are infinitely more objectionable and constituted a serious libel upon Judge Rutherford and a great reproach upon Jehovah’s witnesses who compose the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. These statements were, “In some places where meetings had been arranged to hear the broadcast, lessees broke contracts and closed their halls to the freethinking or atheist audiences” and “The Catholic Press is initiating a protest against the proposal to hold the next Godless Congress in New York City”. Every honest-minded person knows full well that Judge Rutherford and Jehovah’s witnesses are not freethinkers, atheists, or Godless, but are servants of Almighty God and preachers of the Gospel of Jehovah God’s Kingdom. Thus Judge Rutherford was seriously defamed in his good name and reputation by the suggestion that he is an advocate of atheism and one who holds or is connected with Godless Congresses.
The Catholic Herald were advised by the London solicitors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, that they were prepared to issue proceedings against them for libel unless they should publish a retraction and pay for legal costs incurred. The Catholic Herald, knowing their statements were untrue, have published such retraction and have paid the legal costs as demanded. This open admission is a striking comment on what Judge Rutherford had to say at the Royal Albert Hall.
Judge Rutherford pointed out that in opposition to God’s Kingdom the Devil has brought forth the corporate state or totalitarian government ruled by visible and arbitrary men with the Roman Catholic Hierarchy as its spiritual overlord working hand in glove with such men as Hitler and Mussolini. The ambition of this crowd is to rule the world. There is now a determined effort on the part of this same crowd to grab control of Britain and America and take away all the liberties of the people. The ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY, therefore, is in fact a political institution bent on taking away the liberties of the people and ruling arbitrarily. This operation they are carrying on under the cloak of religion because the people have been led to believe all these years that religion and Christianity are one and the same. In fact the Catholics call theirs the Christian religion and the Catholic Church THE CHURCH. Judge Rutherford has no objection to their calling it what they please; however, the point is this: Putting aside the question of the differences between those who study the Bible, no institution has any right or privilege to operate under the pretext of being the servants of God and use that cloak to destroy the liberties of the people.
A major portion of the public press of Britain and America are aware of the facts herein stated, but they are afraid of the Catholic organization and afraid to tell the truth. The Catholic organization is afraid to come in the open and discuss these matters. Judge Rutherford has openly challenged the Hierarchy for several years to deny what he has stated and do it publicly, and they refuse. And why? Not because they have not many able men to represent them, but they well know that they have not a leg to stand on when it comes to answering the charge that they are in the game for political reasons.
All honest persons should at once investigate these facts together with the prophecies now being revealed in God’s Word, the Bible. To this aid the people Judge Rutherford’s lecture “Face the "Facts" has been recorded on gramophone discs in its entirety as broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall. These lectures are now being reproduced throughout Britain in public halls where a multitude of others who failed to hear the first lecture may now hear it and benefit by its information. Provisions have also been made by Jehovah's witnesses to reproduce this lecture in your own home without any obligation whatsoever to you.
To the foregoing circular was attached a coupon by means of which the public could obtain free literature in further refutation of the Herald's falsehoods.
The Catholic Herald incident has once more brought to the fore the fact that the Roman Catholic Press cannot be depended upon and that any statement made with respect to individuals and organizations that disagree with them is certain to be untruthful.
A Little on Child Training
THERE are some 800,000,000 boys and girls in the world, each one with some 42 traits all in process of development; so that makes around 33,600,000,000 problems for discussion in this brief article. Don't expect too much.
The training of a child begins before it is born. If the parents love God supremely, and love and appreciate each other in large degree, it will show in the child. The mother has much to do in determining what the child will be. As a mother thinketh in her heart, so is her child in fact.
If your child is normal, thank God. It is a miracle for which to be grateful forever to the Giver of all life. But if the child is not normal, it is still yours. It may be partially deaf, able to hear you well only by watching your lips. It may have chorea, involuntary twitching of the muscles. It may have a speech handicap, or any of a score of other blemishes, but still have wrapped up in its little frame tremendous possibilities.
When the child is very young, try to avoid having it kissed. One smack on the lips from an old grandmother that smoked a pipe killed one newborn little one. It did not have enough vitality to overcome the nicotine. Many a girl has gone wrong because her parents did not steer her away from too much kissing.
When the child is very young, do not leave within its reach any small objects that are easy for it to put in its mouth. Many fine children have lost their lives on this score. Dress the child sufficiently, but do not bundle it so completely that it is deprived of air and sunshine, and has too much of perspiration and discomfort.
Don't Make Too Much of Clothing
Don't think it is the clothing they wear that makes your children attractive. It is what they say and do, and the way they say it and do it, that counts. Children are made to enjoy wind and snow and rain. Their clothing need not be expensive. A flour sack can be dyed and made into an attractive garment. Nobody should wear clothing that is too tight.
Your child must have a good body; therefore physical training is all right in its place. But this can be overdone. At present German schools are going to the greatest extremes, because, in the eyes of German officialdom, all children were born to die for Germany.
Children are developed by play. That is a child's business. In play it learns to use its hands, gains balance, learns the meaning of success and failure, learns to concentrate and to use judgment, patience and self-control. In playing together, children involuntarily teach these things to one another.
Chicago children decided to burn their warlike toys. It was a splendid decision. The making of toy pistols and cartridge belts should be stopped. The movies have done much to popularize gun-play. A child destructive of its toys should be given building blocks. A child that hammers furniture should be provided with wood, hammer and nails and shown how to make a box for its toys or some other useful article.
Children should not be jostled, rocked or shaken. They need to be kept quiet and warm. Their toys are their personal property and should be respected as such. They should not be bathed in water too hot or too cold, nor forced into the bath. Floating toys enable them to enjoy what at first they sometimes fear. Cleanliness does not demand powders.
A child of two years should be able to play for two hours at a time all by itself. Children of five years have a sense of touch superior to that of adults, but do not see as well.
What Parents Wish
Parents wish their children to be dependable. When they make promises, see that they live up to them. Teach them to avoid borrowing. Teach them to speak of the absent as if they were present. Teach them to be silent under injustice. It makes for moral courage. Joseph spared Potiphar, but history did not spare his wife.
Parents wish their children to be something besides manikins. Therefore, they should be early taught to be kind, really kind—not condescending—to those less fortunate than themselves in physical appearance, manners, clothing and education.
Parents wish their children to learn the value of money. The child can be given an allowance, with the distinct understanding that when that is spent there will be no more until the next payday. As the child grows older the budget can be increased, to take in all his personal expenses, as for clothing. He must learn to buy for himself sometime; the sooner, the better.
When a child begins to touch everything, its senses are developing. When it asks hundreds of questions, it is learning rapidly. When it talks like a streak, it is learning the use of language. When a child is reading or engaged in some other definite occupation which, at the moment, to the child, seems important, the parent should avoid breaking the spell suddenly, and thus help the child to learn to concentrate.
Some Things to Discourage
If a parent lies to a child, or in the presence of a child, the child will lie to its parents or to other children. It is lots of fun to tell the truth.
A wise mother broke her child of whining by establishing a crying chair in a corner of the sewing room. There the child could go and cry any time, and nobody would pay any attention to it. It brought good results.
Left-handed children should be allowed to develop according to their nature. Forcing them to be right-handed causes stammering, lying and inferiority complex.
Parents who hire their children to work for them develop selfishness in the little one. The child should be encouraged to do things for the joy of being useful and accomplishing something.
If parents smoke and drink they may expect their little ones to smoke and drink. If they curse, they may expect their children to curse.
Parents should teach their children that policemen, teachers, street cleaners and other servants of the public are their protectors and friends. Nobody should ever frighten a little child, or irritate him.
If a parent bullies a child the child will bully some other child. Nobody likes to be bullied.
If a child obviously is overdoing the question end, the parent may sometimes counter by repeating the question and asking the child to answer it, and oftentimes the result will be intensely interesting.
If there is any show on earth as interesting as a child, name it.
Life Is Activity
The excitement of life consists in doing something. A child of three or four years can dress itself, and should. It can spread a bed at 4, and should. It can brush its own teeth, and should. It can manipulate a washrag, and should. It can wipe the spoons, and should. A little later it can pick up and hang up the things in the sleeping room, open the windows and air the bedding. A boy can learn to cook as well as a girl, and should learn to do it. A boy can wipe up a kitchen floor as well as his mother, and should. These things can be worked into a boy's life without making of him either a sissy or a slave. It is in distributing life's activities that the parent shows her skill.
By the time a boy has wiped up the kitchen floor for his mother a few times, he will be a better boy every way and will have learned to appreciate his parents more than one who has not done so. A parent should never let a child see him do over any task which the child has done and manifestly tried to do right. No children are perfect, even at 70 years of age. A child should not be asked to do things which are beyond his powers or which are of no value to him or to anybody else.
Encourage the children to spend time in the public libraries. It is astonishing how rapidly they learn valuable and useful things there, and they can be encouraged to come home and tell what they learn, and should.
Don't shout at a child, or he will be shouting back. Speak kindly, and he will speak kindly. Be orderly, and he will be orderly.
(Continued on page 11) RIGHTEOUS RULER
THE NEW GOVERNMENT
Peril to Public Safety (?)
◆ Alfred D. Charles, editorial writer for the Baltimore Evening Sun, discussing the exclusion of the Ludke children from the public schools of Oxon Hill, Maryland, because they conscientiously refused to salute the flag, thinks it would be really funny for the Prince Georges County school board to come into court and try to prove that—allowing six children of tender age to attend public school without saluting the flag is a peril to the public safety, health or morals, or threatens the property or personal rights of the Prince Georges County citizenry. That would be something, indeed, for kids 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 16 years old to do.
"Catholic Europe Predicted"
◆ Woodworth Mills, a young Jonadab of Trinidad, British West Indies, sends in a clipping having reference to a front-page scarehead in a Vienna paper entitled "Catholic Europe Predicted". Sure enough! Why not? Mills does not like the idea. He says that the modern Philistines are a "bunch of highwaymen in black nightgowns, will be completely destroyed at Armageddon, and Jehovah's name will be completely vindicated". They have trouble in getting any Consolation down there, on account of the foolish ban on Christian literature. He says, "Do not forget those caricatures; they are always appreciated!"
In Case Your Eyes Are Dim
◆ If old age is creeping slowly over you, and you are not able to read the signs on above building, you will first take note that the sign on the hedge is "East Park Road", the first sign on the building is "Leicester company of Jehovah's witnesses", and the second one reads, "Kingdom Hall Assembly for Bible study of Jehovah's purposes." Leicester, England, one of the most enlightened communities in Britain, was the first city in the English-speaking world to throw off the superstition that inoculation with cowpox is a blessing to humanity. Anybody who wishes to be vaccinated in Leicester may have it done at his own expense, but it is not compulsory for anybody, and the city never has any cases of smallpox. The city is so neat and clean and sanitary that it has no fears of a dirt disease transmitted by bedbug bites.
Leicester, England, Kingdom hall
Witnessing in India
◆ On page 9 is an Indian pioneer witnessing to a group of Catholics—all of them Catholics in a priest-ridden town! The man standing with the books Enemies and Riches in his hand is editor of a local paper whose interest was deepened by a request from some of the local "goats" to publish an attack against the truth, which he declined to do. The one on the extreme right, sitting, is now a reader of Consolation, and each of the others is showing interest in the message of the Kingdom. Pioneer Daniel is seen standing on the right of the group.
Just a Minute for Van
◆ VanderBeek, my companion in the witness work [in India], "laid down his sword" last month just as the testimony campaign was starting; he was game to the last. Our last years' touring and subsequent work proved a strain on his heart, and when he landed up with pneumonia (which afterward became double) and also enteric or typhoid, he was handicapped in fighting the illness. He died on Thursday (April 14) afternoon. I buried him on Friday morning and kept the Memorial [of Christ's death] alone in the evening. It was very poignant. But we do not mourn; for we have the confidence that he was faithful to Jehovah, and "Jehovah preserves the faithful", and whether earthly or heavenly, he will live again. He was a great fighter, steadfast and reliable, and a true companion in the Lord’s work. I mentioned him when writing you from Karachi.—G. B. Garrard, Pioneer.
Anecdotes from Belgium
◆ In the province of Hainaut several people, formerly Catholics, have recently taken their stand for the Lord and His kingdom, according to a pioneer report; and the way they threw themselves into the service shows the zeal peculiar to the Lord’s house. A farmer with a large holding of fertile acres was cranking his car early one morning in preparation for a trip, and just as he got the engine started a woman, one of Jehovah’s witnesses, accosted him with a cheery greeting, and displayed some of the explanations of the Bible by Judge Rutherford. Being a kindly man and impressed with the enthusiasm and sincerity of the woman, and although in a hurry to depart, he leaned from his car window and contributed for several books. Something in one book impressed him, and, without stopping his motor, he began reading. He read on. Then something happened. His motor stopped and he realized his petrol or gasoline had completely burned up while his thoughts had been deep in the book. He had neared the end of the book.
The truth infused him with a fiery energy. He remembered then that he had on two other occasions got books from Jehovah’s witnesses, thinking it a good work, but in each case he had put them in a drawer and never read them. Now he got them out. All the members of a rather large family connection were told of the good news; but all but one brother preferred the “traditions of their fathers”, in this case Catholicism. The farmer and his brother left the place in the midst of harvest season last year to go to the Paris convention. There he received food for the mind and came home refreshed to assist in organizing the service in his little village of La Louvière. The milking and other chores are now changed about to permit of the more important duty of declaring the Lord’s message.
Witnessing to a Catholic group in India—who all subsequently became interested in the truth
In the near-by village of La Buissière a pioneer called at a woman’s door. As soon as she saw a publication she asked if he was from the Watch Tower. When he told that he was, she said, “I have been waiting for you.” The pioneer did not know at first what she meant, as he had never seen the woman before, but she explained that she meant someone from the Watch Tower, and then brought out several worn copies of Watch Tower booklets. She got all the books she could obtain. Since then others have called on her from time to time to assist her in the service, and she has related facts well showing how religionists hate God’s Word of Truth. First, her husband, who is the “principal of the flock”, and largest financial pillar of the Roman Catholic church, forbade her to go out with the books; her mother turned against her and, emphasizing her Catholic conviction, threatened to expel her from the house if she spoke further about the Bible. She attended a convention later, despite all protest. On her returning her husband met her at the door with fists doubled up and smashed her to the floor as soon as she entered. Not defiantly, but firmly, she got up from the floor and departed to the village to spend four hours in house-to-house service with the King’s message. Thus it is seen that a weak woman with God’s power behind her can meet and surmount every obstacle.
One day a man with butcher’s apron on entered the Brussels office of the Watch Tower. He assured himself it was the place he wanted, then he threw upon the branch servant’s desk 700 francs in small coins, requesting some publications. He left without further comment, but returned a week later in the same garb, this time with a cut of meat under his arm. He made the office a gift of the meat and then threw another 700 francs on the desk for more literature. Again he left without further comment. Ten days elapsed and then he came in with 1500 francs, mostly in 5-centime pieces (one of which coin is worth about one-sixth of an American penny) and announced to the now astonished servant: "There are fifteen hundred people in the village I live in, and I intend to see that every one in the place receives a copy of one of your booklets and at my expense." He left with a tremendous package of books, beaming in anticipation of doing such an act of good will.
Interest in Montana
◆ Keith got run out yesterday and today. Both times there were two others who took his side and are now coming to the Model Study. Today he went into a garage and got run out. The garageman was so vicious that Keith felt sure he would get a beating, but the other two men stood up for him and the garageman ran them out. They came out in a hurry, got in their car and drove off; I think they got fired. The people here have the courage to stand up for what they think is right, no matter what others think.
Thurman went to a business house and talked to a young man who appeared to be quite interested. He said he had no money with him, and invited Thurman up to his house. He told Thurman he and his family were Catholics.
When Thurman got to his door his voice and demeanor were completely transformed and he said in a commanding voice, "Stand right here." Thurman stood there and heard shells going into a gun. His first thought was to run, but he decided it would do no good; so he stood and waited. The man came to the door with a thirty-thirty rifle, put it in his ribs and told him to move down the road fast. Thurman turned and walked off with the man shouting he would shoot if he did not hurry. The neighbors wanted to have the man arrested, but Thurman would not consent.*—Ronald E. Pierce, Montana.
*[Thurman should have sworn out a warrant against him immediately.—Ed.]
(To be continued)
‘BE NOT AFRAID: THE BATTLE IS GOD'S’
Judge Rutherford's platform at Sydney, Australia, convention
--New York
Anarchy in Brooklyn
◆ The anarchy in Brooklyn, involving the theft by Police Lieutenant Behan, and eight accessories, of 7,200 police records from the police headquarters, brings prominently to light the names of Geoghan, Bevan, Cassidy and Lynch. After four days of waiting for the spirit to move him, Patrolman Edward J. Lawlor admitted that he knew it was Police Lieutenant Cuthbert J. Behan who stole the records. He said Behan told him he had to make away with the records, for otherwise, if the threatened inspection occurred, they would all be sent to jail.
Young Forests Curb Floods
◆ In the past seventeen years millions of young trees were planted in New York state, and today great numbers of these are ten to twelve feet high. Excellent results are already visible. The shady ground under these young trees is soaking up moisture and feeding it to the streams gradually. Floods are less disastrous. Streams which a few years ago were dry in summer are now running steadily, the water is cooler, the fishing is better, and there are fewer forest fires.
Jobless in New York
◆ In New York city there are more than 400,000 young men and women between the ages of 16 and 24 (almost half the population in that group) that are roaming the streets vainly looking for work. Is it any wonder that there is such a high percentage of delinquency?
New York Keeps Quite Well
◆ New York keeps quite well. It ought to. Last year it ate 196,448 carloads of fruit and vegetables, 20,000 pounds to the carload. That figures up to 3,928,960,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables eaten in New York city in one year; and if that would not keep them well, what would?
One-Fifth Under 17
◆ More than 22 percent of the 941,789 arrests by the New York Police Department during 1937 were of boys 17 years old or younger. The majority of the boys were first offenders. The arrests were 50 a year for every officer on duty.
Cure of Child Wanderlust
◆ Thirty times in less than a year Ruth Wheeler, four years of age, of Buffalo, New York, has run away from home, stowed herself away in buses and wound up in various cities and towns in Canada and western New York. Spankings are as ineffective as coaxing, and the parents and the police admit being stumped by her wanderlust. Last summer the Interborough Rapid Transit Company supplied 145,516 free rides to children from the tenement districts of Manhattan and Bronx to enable them to visit various city parks.
Would You Believe It?
◆ A widow who lives in Brooklyn on a $30-a-month federal pension has received two letters from the government recently; one informing her that a warship would be named after her husband, Lieutenant Mons Monsson, the other notifying her that her home would be sold at auction because of a mortgage made by the Home Owners Loan Corporation.—The Arbitrator.
Warned Against Lowering Shades
◆ The Albany, N. Y., chief of police warns vacationists against pulling shades all the way down when they leave on their trips, and thus inviting burglars to come in and make themselves at home. Also, says Chief Smurl, stop deliveries of milk, papers and ice. He did not say how one could put a stop to the delivery of A & P price lists and other similar exhibits.
Poisoning the Minds of Children
◆ In testimony before the House Committee on un-American activities in Washington, Girolamo Valenti, chairman of the Italian Anti-Fascist Committee, produced books marked “Property of the New York Board of Education”, used in parochial schools in New York city, containing pro-Fascist propaganda.
New Varieties of Fruit
◆ Seven new varieties of apple, four new kinds of grape, and one new kind each of pear, cherry and strawberry, have been named recently by the Fruit Testing Association, Geneva, New York. The Jonadabs are going to have a good time in the world that is coming around the corner, and don’t you doubt it.
New Jersey
Mr. Hague Wants a Trip
Unwittingly, Mayor Hague of Jersey City has recommended that he be sent by the people of the United States to a concentration camp which he proposes to have established somewhere in Alaska. [Maybe the mayor did not know how to pronounce Alcatraz.—Ed.] To be sure, His Honor did not mean to nominate himself for an excursion to the Far North, but if he insists upon the Federal Government's following a course of procedure which he recommends, he will be ensnared by it.
On the witness stand in the United States District Court at Jersey City last week, Mayor Hague declared:
I believe that anyone who comes here and is discovered unpleased with the methods of our country and our government and feel it is necessary to set themselves up as objectors to the form of government that we enjoy here and that this country is apparently not pleasing to them should be driven back—not go back—be driven back.
Asked what should be done with native citizens of this country who object to the methods of our government under certain conditions, Mr. Hague blandly replied:
I think that we ought to establish a camp in Alaska and house them there and keep them away from the American people, if they don't believe in our form of government. I think there should be a remedy for that. — Fort Wayne News Sentinel.
Day Dream No. 174,693
The welcoming committee meets the mayor
Haters of Liberty
◆ Mayor Hague, ignorant and candid in his stupidity, brutal and proud of it, the typical poolroom Nazi, is America's first flower of what may become a national pest—the denial of civil liberties and constitutional rights. Hague is for free speech, all right, but not for free speech about things he dislikes. When he dislikes anything, it is Communism, which he thinks everybody else dislikes. Thus, he becomes judge and jury and prosecutor all in one, the perfect Nazi storm trooper.
At the other end of the pole is Franklin Roosevelt: erudite, sophisticated, amiable; gracious and felicitously, suavely but deeply intolerant of opposition. He is doing to the senator who opposed him in his court fight what Hague is doing to the Communists. The president is not beating up the senators; he's not giving them the bum's rush to the Jersey City ferry, not pelting them with eggs. He is merely trying to deprive them of their jobs because they spoke their minds. He feels toward the recalcitrant senators as Hague feels toward the Communists. — William Allen White, in Emporia Gazette.
Grand Jury Convicts Itself
◆ An Essex, New Jersey, grand jury convicted itself of incompetence when, in one breath, it found no cause for indictment of the five ex-convicts and others who rotten-egged Norman Thomas at Newark and pulled his platform from under him while eleven policemen stood helpless. One reason why the grand jury did nothing but feebly "uphold" free speech was that the plot to prevent Thomas from speaking was known by it to have been formed in the office of Assistant State Attorney William J. Egan, and it did not wish to offend Mr. Egan or others who, though paid to uphold law and order, are really against both.
The harm that the officials of New Jersey have done to the cause of liberty in the earth is almost beyond calculation and is a cause of shame to every true American.
South Africa
Erosion from Overstocking
◆ The "bad lands" are on the march in South Africa. Men still in their prime recall how arid wastes and deep-cut dongas have taken the place of waving crops. They see a steady shrinking of the area left for agriculture and pasturage.
One of the primary causes of erosion in South Africa is the general tendency to take too much out of the land. Too many head of stock are grazed on limited areas, with the result that the grass becomes thinner and thinner until desert conditions begin to develop.
This is shown simply in a series of experiments carried out by a research department of the University of the Witwatersrand at Frankenwald, outside Johannesburg. In the same stretch of veld, carrying identical grasses, there are half a dozen paddocks. The first has been closely grazed for one year, the second for two years, and so on to the sixth. The results are striking.
The plots grazed only for a year or two show little deterioration. In the plots grazed for five or six years there are great bald patches where the grass has given up the unequal struggle and the "desert" is starting. This is the result of overgrazing or overstocking.—London Sunday Times.
Nazis in South-West Africa
Ludwig Lore, in the New York Post, publishes a letter from a correspondent in South-West Africa, where, so it seems, the decent people have about given up all hope, and expect nothing else than a Nazi triumph there shortly. A paragraph from the letter gives one some idea of what the triumph would bring:
"What goes on here among German racial comrades—as they like to call themselves—is unspeakable. It is a boundless disgrace when one considers the colored native population. During the past seven days our British court had to sit in judgment in the following cases: An employee of the firm of Th. & Co., Leipzig (Germany), acknowledged agents for the Nazi Party, stabs and kills his wife because after a dance she took a walk with another man. The twenty-four-year-old daughter of the Nazi leader, K., impairs the morals of six Kaffir boys. A sixty-year-old farmer, former German captain, violates little Negro children. Another German farmer forces his native farmhands to use a British flag in the outhouse. And while the court is about to find a verdict in the above-mentioned case trucks are parading around plastered with Nazi flags and slogans.
Just imagine: This place has a population of 400 white people. Every child knows everything about everyone, and the Nazi papers which write so much about racial superiority would find ample material here. And we, the decent element, must stand for all this. It is like having mud thrown at you all the time and being unable to do anything about it.
Wages of Native Workers
◆ The native has become poor to desperation; the price of everything he buys—blankets, shoes, and clothing—has been driven up nearly 50 percent, while during the same period his wages, in spite of South Africa's spectacular prosperity, have not increased by a penny piece. Mr. Donald Molteno, M.P., has just returned from a tour in his constituency. (Incidentally British Liberals will be cheered by the spectacle of the nephew of Percy Molteno giving a great lead to Liberalism in South Africa.)
During his tour Mr. Molteno found that agricultural workers on a 60-hour week were getting ½d. [one cent] an hour and a few mealies, no land for cultivation, no rations of meat (only "a bit occasionally"). This ½d. an hour also gives the master the right to call in the labor of wife and children. That ½d. an hour is £6 [$29.20] a year, out of which the wretched worker has to pay £1 a year poll tax!
The pass laws superimposed upon mass poverty have accentuated native discontent; thousands of natives are being hustled into prison for pass law offenses which have not the remotest connection either with crime or even with any desire to commit an offense. At the same time the revenue benefits to the tune of £500,000 per annum.—Sir John Harris, in Manchester Guardian.
Lightning Underground
◆ If you were down nearly a mile underground you would think yourself quite safe from the effects of a thunderstorm on the surface, would you not? Yet, at a Rand mine, Johannesburg, South Africa, lightning struck a wire on the surface of the ground, and went down into the mine and detonated a quantity of dynamite, resulting in the death of eight miners and the injury of two more.
(Continued from page 7)
Don't talk and talk and talk and talk and talk to a child. The child's brain gets weary, and the effect is merely chatter.
If a child shows a penchant for pets, let him have them, feed them, wash them and look after them. The result is excellent for the child and for the pet. If a child wants a camera, try to provide him with one and take an interest in what he does with it. A stamp collection is an interesting thing and need cost nothing but a little work. A garden is a delight. At the right age a bicycle is a gold mine. Tens of thousands of youth travel all over Europe on bicycle, at little cost to their parents, and with great benefit to the riders and to all who ever meet with them then or later.
Don't Be Too Severe
Don't be too severe with children. Don't scold them. Scolding is one of earth's greatest cruelties. Children are annoying. Maybe you were once, yourself. A questionnaire shows that children have 2,214 ways of annoying their parents. Nobody asked you to be a parent. Take your medicine like a man.
Mothers should not try to pass the buck by crying, flying into tantrums or frightening little ones by heart attacks, real or simulated. Your own mother did not do it. She stood by her guns. Do it yourself. Don't magnify faults: you may have a few yet, yourself.
Parents who wish their children to quarrel among themselves should quarrel with each other in front of them. Don't snub a child. Don't complain that they bother you. Don't be cruel in punishment. Feeble-minded children are rarely ill-treated by their parents. This speaks well for parents. It shows that in many instances they do not realize their severity. Little folks have to learn, and their long-suffering parents are their natural teachers.
Don't issue military commands. Nobody likes to be bossed. Don't watch children critically while they are trying to do something. It takes time to train the hand and eye to do unusual things. Don't expect little ones to jump at the sound of your voice. Don't teach your children to hate you.
Don't get a divorce. Your life partner may be as unfitted for society as you are yourself. Why shove off on somebody else a job you undertook? The children that come from broken homes are less truthful, less courteous, less qualified for leadership than other children. A child with a good home feels that he is connected with a victorious fighting unit that will see its way through to the finish.
Don't show ingratitude to God and then wonder that your child shows ingratitude to you. Don't lie to your child and expect him to tell you the truth. Don't let the children think that they can get one parent on their side and thus gain a victory over the other.
Don't be crooked and expect your child to be straight.
"Be Ye Perfect"
The Lord's advice is, "Be ye perfect." It is good advice. The only way anybody will ever arrive is to love the Creator with all the heart, mind, soul and strength, and the neighbor as oneself. So be perfect; but if you cannot be perfect, be as nearly perfect as you can. Live so that when your child is grown to maturity he will know you did the best you could to do right.
Sometimes a child will unintentionally break something. Maybe the best thing to do at such a time is to do nothing. The child is already punished. Why add to the child's agony? If your child wants to know something and you do not know the answer, tell him so and then help him find the answer. If the Lord has been patient with you in your shortcomings, you can afford to be patient with the little folks that owe their lives to you. You can be reasonable and you can be gentle.
Don't go too high in the air when a child disobeys you, until you find the reason for it. Maybe the reason was adequate. A good mother once made a mistake when she tried to make a child confess he had opened a letter he did not open. She wore out five whips all to no purpose, finally made a critical investigation through the postmaster, found she was wrong, and apologized, and she was forgiven. Reasonable punishment is accepted in a right spirit by reasonable children and actually does them good. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."
Two children in Lowell, Massachusetts, unscrewed the valve caps of parked cars. They were taken to the police station, given five deflated tires and some little hand pumps and instructed to inflate. At five in the afternoon they had four tires in pretty good shape and were let off. They learned something.
A girl got to coming home later, as she grew older. This was reasonable, but an hour was fixed before which she had to be in. An alarm clock was set, and each night, when she comes in, the girl unsets the alarm. The arrangement works fine. The parents retire at their usual hour.
Children brought up by nursemaids lack the courage to marry. They have been treated so painfully nice that they have been ruined for life. This often happens. No child can stand too much pampering.
Gifts from children should be appreciated and suitably acknowledged. Dates with children should be kept punctiliously. Children’s mistakes should be kept from other members of the family, as far as possible, but they should be commended for good deeds, and this may properly be done in the presence of others when occasion arises. Eternal, constant hammering is of no benefit to any.
A child should know that his parents are his truest and best friends, and should feel that there is nothing in life, no matter how shameful or confidential, that cannot be safely talked over with father and mother, with the certainty that they will do the best they know to help.
Teach the Truth in the Home
Teach the truth in the home, because it is the truth, and because the honor of God’s name, and the proclamation of its coming vindication, is the greatest theme that can engage the attention of man.
Live the truth in the home, and outside the home. Let the children see for themselves that the service of the Most High God is the greatest honor that can come to any. If they wish to go out with you in the work, let them go, and have a share, but let it be on their own initiative, and because they wish to honor God’s name, and not because of what others may say or may do.
The pith of this article is in its second paragraph and in the two paragraphs next above this one. What is there set forth is clinched by the three contributed articles which follow:
Home Bible Study
About ten years ago the writer visited a lady on a ranch, many miles from town, who was bemoaning the fact that she was unable to send her four children, ranging in age from six to twelve years, to a Sunday school. We advised her to purchase The Harp of God and use it as a textbook, and to buy four cheap Bibles at the ten-cent store, so that each child would have a Bible. These are sold at 20c to 40c in all dime stores.
Then we advised her to read to the children a page or two daily from The Harp, and have them find the scriptures quoted. In this way they would become well acquainted with their Bible, and this would suggest to them questions for the mother to answer.
This turned out so satisfactorily in this instance, where The Harp was read through three times, and was so highly pleasing to the mother, that I have advised this system of home Bible study to many others. I know of no better way to get the children interested in the Bible, and I find that they soon learn the location of all the books and where to find every passage, and appear to be delighted to have a part in such a study.—D. M. Gillies, Montana.
True Story of an Honest Girl
Her parents had a knowledge of the truth for years, witnessed to their friends and almost everyone else they met, yet they sent their little girl to three different Sunday schools, as they thought she ought to go somewhere else to get spiritual training, thinking their own training not sufficient, as they do not profess consecration to the Lord.
At first the little girl went to a Baptist Sunday school, being seven years of age at the time. After a few Sundays she would not go any more, saying they did not tell the truth as her mother and daddy believed and talked. So the parents switched her over to the Congregational church Sunday school.
She did not stay there long either; she did not like their teaching, that when people die, whether they are children or adults, if they belong to some church, they go straight to heaven. She told the teacher, “No, the Bible doesn’t say that; only Jesus and the ‘little flock’ go to heaven, and all the rest of the people stay on the earth, if they love the Lord; the earth abideth for ever, and God will make it a beautiful place for us to live on, just like the garden of Eden, where Adam lived.” The teacher opened her eyes wide and said, “Where did you hear all that, Elva?” and Elva told her it is all in the Bible and her mother taught it to her. The teacher got nervous and said, “Well, children, we will get back to the lesson.” This made Elva peeved, and when she got home she said to her mother, “She wouldn’t talk any more about it, Mother, and I don’t think she believed what I said, and it is true, and I don’t want to go there any more,” and she did not.
For the third time, she was sent to still another church, and did not like that one at all, because all they talked about was money, taking up collections for this and that, and the teacher did not like her because she disagreed about the soul. The teacher told the class that when one dies the soul goes right to heaven, and Elva could not let it pass without correction. She said, “Oh no, the Bible does not say that; we do not have souls; each of us is a soul, and ‘the soul that sinneth, it shall die’.” The teacher said, "That will do, Elva; I am teaching this class, and you will get them all mixed up." When Elva got home this time she said to her mother, "I don't want to go to any more churches; for they don't teach the Bible"; and she did not go any more.
Now Elva is in high school, goes out regularly in the service, no matter what the weather, and has taken her stand regarding the flag saluting. When asked by her teacher, and by the principal, why she refused to salute the flag, she said, "I cannot serve two gods," and asked them to read Loyalty, which she gave them for the purpose. Now she and another Jonadab, by arrangement with the principal, leave the room quietly, one at a time, just before the flag saluting. When she goes out in the campaigns and in field service her mother is very uneasy until she returns, as she has been arrested twice with others, but she always says, "Don't be alarmed, Mother, for God has promised to protect us if we faithfully serve Him."—Cornelia Brady.
Child Witnesses in Canal Zone
I have six little children. The eldest is thirteen and the youngest not yet two. I have always prayed to Jehovah to teach me how to instruct them in the right way. My prayers are heard. I always take the second and third child with me when going out witnessing, and leave the eldest at home to take care of the three smaller ones. Recently the third child said, "Mother, may I go out to do some witness work?" I replied with the query, "Will you go alone?" She said, "Yes!" but before the conversation was finished the second said, "I will go with her." Within a few minutes they were ready for service, the boy with the phonograph and the girl with the discs and literature. They spent two hours in the service that day, leaving some literature with the people. Now for some five months they have continued in the service with great pleasure, spending many hours in it and leaving much literature with the people. The second is a fifth grade scholar in school, and crowded for time, but manages to get in considerable time in the work and is on the job right now. The eldest also joins us in the glorious work when opportunity affords her, and the fourth one, who is now seven, desires to take up the witness work also. The stand that these children have taken has brought great joy and comfort to my heart.—Mrs. Eldred M. Coke, Canal Zone.
…