Consolation, June 12, 1940
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Contents
The Supreme Court on Trial 3
Who Is Supreme? 4
British Comment
War Costs 5
Conscientious Objectors 5
“Holy Water” 6
“After the War Is Over” 7
New Government
An Unusual Clergyman 8
Just Before Christmas 8
Jesus ‘Found Guilty of Sedition’ 9
California Experiences 10
Priest Sticks His Neck Out 10
Under the Totalitarian Flag
In “Care of the Reverend Mother” 12
An Inordinate Love of Money 12
Theocratic Convention 15
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford
Invisible Warrior Protectors 17
Pius XII’s and Stalin’s Comrade 19
“Work More—Eat Less” 20
Low Countries Seized May 10 22
Killing Boys and Girls 24
“Must Be Annihilated!” 26
The March from Chelm 27
Sundry Sorrows of Britain 28
Gardens 29
Plants Have Feelings 30
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Appetizers
Story of Uncertain Age
A man said to his son: “Son, here are a team of horses and one hundred chickens; go through the country and where you find the wife apparently in authority leave a chicken. If, on the other hand, you find the husband ruling, leave a horse.”
After the boy had left his seventy-ninth chicken he came to a place where it seemed that the man was ruling. In answer to his inquiry the man said: “Young fellow, I would have you understand that I am the boss of this ranch.”
“All right,” said the boy, “you get a horse. Which one will you have, the bay or the gray?”
Upon reflection the man said, “I want the gray”; whereupon the wife gently took him aside and whispered a word or two, then he said, “I believe I’ll take the bay.”
“Oh no, Missouri,” said the boy, “you’ll take a chicken.”
Where the Argument Started
“Rastus,” said the judge, “you are accused of disturbing the entire neighborhood on Tuesday night; what have you to say for yourself?”
“Well, suh, it was this here way. Me an’ Lucy had an argument; she call me a lazy lofah and I slap her down flat. Up she hops an’ smash a skillet on mah haid an’ drop me flat. Den I riz up and welt her one wid a chair, and den she done have a hot take-kettle at me which sho’ scald me quite considerable.”
“I see, and then what happened?”
“And den,” said Rastus slowly, “den we gits mad an’ starts to fight.”—Herbalist.
O Michael! Michael!
Hostess: I hope my husband wasn’t rude when he asked you to play?
Foreign pianist: Oh no. ’E just ask me that I not play a certain tune.
Hostess: What did he say?
Pianist: ’E say, “Don’t play for the love of Mike.”—Australian Consolation.
Avoidance of Bad Habits
Host: Will you have a glass of brandy?
Guest: No, thanks; such things can easily become a habit.
Host: Nonsense; I’ve been drinking a glass of brandy every morning and evening for twenty years, and it hasn’t become a habit.
CONSOLATION
“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XXI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, June 12, 1940 Number 541
The Supreme Court on Trial
EVERY true American is interested in the Supreme Court of the United States, because it, not the Congress, not the president, is the government of the country. Congresses and presidents come and go. They legislate and administrate wisely or unwisely, but what they do is not final for the people. Sooner or later their acts come before the Supreme Court, and then that body decides for all the people whether, in that court’s judgment, the laws or administrative acts shall be upheld or set aside.
It was therefore a matter of greatest interest to every true American when the issue of the enforced saluting of the American flag came up, and it was and is a matter of public and profound concern that Jehovah’s witnesses were involved and that Judge Rutherford, president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, and member of the New York Bar, appeared for the little folks and their parents who are in covenant relationship with God and have, in numerous places, been misunderstood and mistreated because thereof.
Judge Rutherford’s address to the Supreme Court is to be found on pages 20-24 of Consolation No. 540. It is usual practice in that court for the justices to interrupt frequently, so that each point may be made clear as the speaker goes along. In this instance this splendid summation was given without a single interruption, excepting only the one remark at the outset, by Mr. Justice McReynolds, that he was hearing with difficulty.
That unintentional miscalculation of the acoustics made necessary the repetition of the statement that Jehovah’s witnesses have been in existence for five thousand years. Some simple hearts, including that of this writer, would be of the opinion that the great Jehovah God and His King, Christ Jesus, are so interested in that fact that they wanted it repeated, so that all might know that Jehovah’s witnesses are not something new.
Did you ever stop to think that Abel, the first one of the human family to pass into death, was one of Jehovah’s witnesses? And it is certain that this was well over five thousand years ago. Notice how it reads in the chapter devoted to brief biographies of the faithful witnesses of long ago, who will be back here in the flesh, and in perfect health, in the very near future:
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh.—Hebrews 11:4.
Cain attempted to decide how Abel might or might not worship God. In whose shoes would you wish to be for the everlasting future, those of Cain, or of Abel?
Limitations of Caesar
Judge Rutherford made it plain as day that Jehovah’s witnesses are necessarily obedient to the Creator; their covenant with God makes that their first object in life. And that makes them the best citizens of any State that has reverence for the Giver of all life. They obey the Creator first and then the State. If the laws are right laws there is no disobedience to either. If the State errs by interposing a law that is contrary to God’s law, then the State is the disobedient one. These things are not stated in legal terminology, but as seen by a spectator.
In the brief, Appendix A, attention was drawn to 12 states (and others) where little folks in covenant relationship with God have been denied the right to attend the public schools and been whipped, choked, threatened, taunted, knocked about, and denied toilet privileges and medical attention because they refused to put the State above God, as is required of all persons in Germany, but persisted in obedience to Exodus 20:3-5, which reads: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
It would seem as if any person with good common sense ought to be able to see that there is something wrong in Germany when every citizen is required to heil Hitler in a set fashion or be in danger of being exterminated. How does it come that in America the manner in which the flag is saluted is almost identical with the manner in which Hitler is heiled? The arguments at Washington were intended to settle this matter. Judge Rutherford, in his argument, quoted the words of Judge Clark, that “the salute in this case is very like that of the Hitler regime”, as well as referred to the fact that in Germany Hitler confiscated the property of Jehovah’s witnesses (because they did not put him ahead of God).
Who Is Supreme?
In the course of his argument that Jehovah always takes care of His covenant people if they are obedient to Him, and courageous in the doing of His will, Judge Rutherford made some statements that move one mightily. You can afford to read once again three paragraphs on this from page 23 of No. 540:
It was at the time of the Persian empire, when the covenant people of Jehovah had been taken over to that country, that the state made the totalitarian rule that every man should bow to Haman as he passed out the gate. A Jew named Mordecai sat at the gate at the direction of the king. He refused to bow. He was sentenced to death. Because of his faithfulness God delivered Mordecai.
Daniel was another of the Hebrews in a covenant to do the will of Almighty God. The state made a law that no man should present a petition to any body except the king. Therefore Daniel could not pray to his own God. In defiance of that law and in obedience to Jehovah God Daniel knelt at his open window and prayed to God. He was brought to court and found guilty and cast into the lions’ den. Almighty God delivered him, unharmed.
Three other Hebrews, Meshach, Shadrach and Abed-nego, were required by the law of the state, a totalitarian one, if you please, which practiced a totalitarian religion, these men were required that they should bow down at the sound of the music. They refused. They said to the court, “We cannot be obedient to that law; we must obey our God.” They were cast into the fiery furnace. Because of their faithfulness to Almighty God, He delivered them unscathed.
The bitter truths that in Germany today six thousand of Jehovah’s witnesses linger in filthy prisons because they do not heil Hitler, and that in the State of New Jersey it is now illegal for any parent to read Exodus 20:3-5 to his child, must have made a deep impression on the Court, as well as the following from the peroration, which stirs one to the depths:
In the marble above where this honorable Court sits the builders inserted a slab containing ten numbers which I presume represents what is known in the Scriptures as the ten commandments. That is a splendid recognition of the Divine law, and the courts of America should follow it. The founders of the government of the United States and those who wrote the Constitution of the United States likewise recognized Jehovah God and His law as supreme. The writers of the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania also acknowledged the supremacy of Jehovah God and His law. Therefore, those men, as shown by the very language of the Constitution, both of the United States and of Pennsylvania, were witnesses for Jehovah. I may be permitted to call attention to this: that at the opening of every session of this Court the crier announces these words: “God save the United States and this honorable Court.” And now I say, God save this honorable Court from committing an error that will lead this people of the United States into a totalitarian class and destroy all the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.
Judges Clark and Maris
Besides his own analysis of the legal aspects of this issue, and the citation of no less than 73 passages in the oldest and most important lawbook in the world (The Holy Scriptures), Judge Rutherford was able in his brief and oral presentation to cite the following from decisions of eminent judges in Pennsylvania who have had the courage and honesty and statesmanship to stand by America and the Bible in a time when the whole world seems to be going rapidly mad imitating the follies of Hitler and his comrades:
In these days, when religious intolerance is again rearing its ugly head in other parts of the world, it is of the utmost importance that the liberties guaranteed to our citizens by the fundamental law be preserved from all encroachment.—Judge Maris in the Trial court.
Compulsory flag saluting is designed to better secure the state by inculcating in its youthful citizens a love of country that will incline their hearts and minds to its more willing defense. That particular compulsion happens to be abhorrent to the particular love of God of the little girl and boy now seeking our protection. One conception or the other must yield. Which is required by our Constitution? We think the material and not the spiritual. Compulsion rather than protection should be sparingly exercised. Harm usually comes from doing rather than leaving undone, and refraining is generally not sacrifice. We do not find the essential relationship between infant patriotism and the martial spirit.—Judge Clark in the Court of Appeals.
Don’t overlook the fact that history has been making in this country while this issue has been up, and that it is self-evident that whether the decision be one way or the other the Supreme Court of the United States has before it the issue “Is God or the State supreme?” Needless to say, this implies that the Supreme Court itself is on trial before the bar of God, and the decision will be of immense significance in the lives of every man, woman and child in this country.
British Comment
By J. Hemery (London)
War Costs
• The inevitable pressure of the war costs is beginning to be felt. The country waited for the chancellor of the exchequer’s Budget with more of interested curiosity than anxiety; for the fact of very heavy expenditure is accepted and submitted to. It is known that the daily cost of the wartime approximates six million pounds a day, and that it must increase to at least seven million before the year is out. The Budget contemplates raising about thirteen hundred million during the ensuing year by the usual methods of taxation, or about one hundred million more than in the year that ended March 31. The income-tax goes up to 7/6 in the £; beer and whisky are taxed more heavily, and tobacco and matches are included in the increases. Taxes on sales (but not foodstuffs) are to come into operation, and public companies are to be limited in payment of dividends to 4 percent per annum, and coupled with this is a prohibition of issue of bonus shares. Probably the chancellor has an eye on the profits of the great financial and business concerns which “earn” and pay in dividends at present at a much greater rate than 4 percent. Perhaps he will make a raid on these monies as expenditure grows. The tax that is immediately felt most is an increase in postal rates: letters are to cost 2½d. each instead of 1½d., and post cards are increased from 1d. to 2d. Foodstuffs are not included in the increases; on the other hand, the Government is spending one million pounds a week in subsidies in order to keep retail prices low. Generally speaking, about ten percent is added to the taxation of last Budget. In order to obtain the other nearly one thousand million pounds required during the year a push is to be made to get the people to invest in Savings Certificates and Defense Bonds, and, no doubt, other loans to the Treasury will be brought forward. The cost of living figures published by the Government remain fairly level; but, as these are concerned only with foodstuffs, they do not reveal that there is an all-round increase in the householder’s costs. The Government seeks to avoid inflation, but the fact that a £1 note does not purchase as much as it did is one of the things that has to be faced, and is felt most by the majority of the people. There are many other “costs” of war besides those represented in the Budget, whether that of the nation dealt with by the chancellor or that of the humble household. With the outbreak of the war in Scandinavia the cost of life, and the maiming of the fathers, husbands and sons, is having to be revealed. There is no spirit of discontent manifest, but there is a realization that the nation has entered into a conflict which, on the peril of its existence, it must see through.
Conscientious Objectors
• When the Government got its Military Act passed it made a provision for full freedom from military service for all who, on whatever reason, could show they had a truly conscientious objection to such service. The tribunals which were set up in various parts of the country to try these objections have, without doubt, dealt fairly with the young men who have come before them. They have heard some peculiar reasons advanced, and in very many cases have determined that the provision was being misused, or that it was not conscience, but some other reason that was in the mind of the applicant for freedom. With the exception of the tribunal in Newcastle Jehovah’s Witnesses have had little difficulty in stating and manifesting that their consecration to Jehovah was a real matter of conviction, and they have been retained on the list of conscientious objectors, with the resultant freedom to continue in their service for Jehovah. The chairman of the Newcastle tribunal, Judge Richardson, has allowed himself to manifest a bias, and has made insulting remarks from the chair. His conduct has been such as to cause a member of Parliament to bring it before the notice of the House of Commons, and to ask the Home Secretary to have this man removed from his position.
The position of these conscientious objectors threatens to become very uncomfortable. A cry is being raised that these men, freed from military service, should receive no more in wages than the men in the army are paid. Some workmen refuse to have objectors working with them; but there is no offer from these workmen who are kept at home in what the Government styles “reserved occupations”, and where they get good wages, to say they are willing to take a rate of pay such as they would enforce on the conscientious objector.
At one of the tribunal courts a Methodist “reverend”, appearing in support of a young man's conscience, said, “Our men are now trained in the modern view of the Bible; therefore the question of the Old Testament wars does not bother us at all, because our doctrine of progressive revelation taught by all Methodist scholars and among noble scholars throughout the church relieves us.” No doubt he spoke truly as for Methodists: they, like all other religionists, use the Bible for what they can get out of it. Jesus, whom they profess to follow, will not own them as such. He always showed that the writings these men call the Old Testament were the Word of God, the sacred Scriptures, which foretold His coming and His work, and which were to be fulfilled in every jot and tittle. But these modernists “know more than Jesus knew”, and it suits them, in the interests of their profession to profess to be His disciples while yet they are unbelievers. The parson did not succeed in convincing the tribunal that his young friend was one who should be unconditionally registered as a conscientious objector: he must find an occupation agreeable to the tribunal.
“Holy Water”
● The Occult Review pokes fun at an item of air-raid protection. A Roman Catholic priest giving advice to his flock, if any of them are in the danger of an air raid, tells them to sprinkle the house and furniture with holy water, whenever an air-raid alarm is sounded. “The act,” he says, “is symbolic of your appropriation of the church's prayer that whatever this water touches may be protected.”
Evacuation Difficulties
● Comment has previously been made of the great changes in the domestic life of thousands of town and city dwellers. Not only were the children numbering many hundreds of thousands removed from their homes, but mothers also were sent out into the country. As has been reported, the scheme has proved a failure: at the present time most of the children are back to the streets of the towns, but even yet their regular schooling is not in working order. Undoubtedly the Roman Catholic church is greatly at fault in the failure of the scheme. Many of the business houses are bringing their staffs back to London, though the Government continues its policy of evacuating its London offices. The following from the Economist gives a side light on some of the conditions of business evacuation:
LONDON FIRMS IN THE COUNTRY
“Cases abound when hasty improvisation and needless parsimony have led to the occupation of temporary premises so inconvenient that both the efficiency and the well-being of staffs are gravely impaired,” says the Economist.
“One of the best-known and wealthiest of City firms, for instance, houses a whole department in a garage,—in a house where communication under cover between department and department is impossible and where there is no internal telephone; many members of its staff travel two or three hours a day by bus to and from work.
“Another hardly less important firm is quartered in huts that are not weather-proof. Another is settled in a district where high rents and a housing shortage make it impossible for even well-paid executives to live much nearer than twenty miles away. Another has no office furniture at all.
“These are not arguments against the wisdom of evacuation; most firms have done very much better than this. They are simply proofs that many firms have not planned and carried out their evacuation properly, any more than the Government did in the case of schools.”
Listening for Air-Raiders
● A. M. Low, in his new book Modern Armaments, says,
The safety of millions may depend upon the skill of acoustical engineers . . . for sound detection has become a very important part of defence against air-raids. The sound detectors are really the first line of defence, if we exclude observers of ships at sea, and even they may use sound detectors. An airplane can be heard long before it can be seen . . . with special instruments designed to catch the faintest sounds or to amplify them until they can be distinctly heard. To the skilled observer the sounds indicate not only the direction of the approaching planes, but also their number, probable type and approximate speed—all important information for the other units of defence, the searchlights, gunners, or interceptors. The fact that it is sound which betrays the presence of bombers has led aircraft constructors to seek a silent machine: an ideal very difficult to achieve.
But, whatever precaution is taken, the facts show that raiders get through to their objective, and there is no means of stopping the “dare-devil” young men who are set to do their job. It is a terrible thing to consider that battles are fought in the air perhaps 30,000 feet above the earth. These are some of the terrible things brought about by the ingenuity of men using the powers of nature for the destruction of men and their goods; but that greater terrors are to be seen and felt by mankind as a whole is certain from the words of Jesus, who said that in these days into which we are now entered there should be “fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” (Luke 21:11) It seems that nothing but manifestations of the intervention of heaven will convince men that God purposed to set up His kingdom, and that He has witnessed to this, now for many years. The events now shaking the world to its foundations are physical facts fulfilling the great prophecy of Jesus relative to His return and the setting up of the kingdom of heaven; and the message which tells the way of escape from the just anger of God against the nations and the people who stand in the way of the truth is now being told to the ends of the earth.
Church of Scotland
• The church of Scotland, through its treasurer, reports that though its income is lowering it received from all sources during 1939 the amount of £1,327,000. Out of that it spent some money in publishing attacks on Judge Rutherford and Jehovah’s witnesses. It has no answer to the truths which these carry to the people, but it follows such counsel as unscrupulous advocates are said to take when, being unable to answer the facts of a case, they should “abuse their adversary”. Probably they will expend a little more of the money they get out of the people to the same end; for they show their hatred of the truth concerning the present “strange work” which Jehovah is doing in the earth. They, with other religionists, are like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day—they have an inheritance and they intend to keep it. The result in their case will be the same as that which befell the enemies of Jesus in His first advent.
“After the War Is Over”
At the present time all sections of the nation, except a few Communists, are in agreement that the one thing to do is to get success in the prosecution of the war, but there are many diverse opinions about the after conditions. That the tremendous strain on the financial position of the whole land will very materially affect the nation, and will weaken it economically, is apparent to everybody, and it is beginning to be realized that the present war will affect it much more seriously than the great war of 1914-1918 did. The Labor party, now co-operating wholeheartedly with the Government, intend, when the victory, taken for a certainty, is gained, to see to it that in the readjustment the people whom they represent shall get a proper share of the social reforms for which they stand. The money world, whether the business which deal wholly with money, or the big business people, hope that they will be able to carry on again, and recoup their deleted fortunes, or at least to make sufficient to enable them to enjoy their good things of their usual manner of life. The “old nobility”, great land owners, already reduced by changed conditions, and the heavy death duties which now must be paid, know that they will be further impoverished, and that the pushing of the Labor party will compel them to relinquish their holdings of land now given over to deer forests and shooting. (There are millions of acres in Scotland reserved for “sport”, formerly cultivated, and which must again come under the plow.)
Religionists fondly hope that when the war is over they will be able to carry on. They well understand that the dogmas to which they have held will have to be buried, but they are ready now to allow them to go, if only they can keep religion alive, and preserve their “kingdom”. The Roman Catholics, confident that the church which has stood the storms of the centuries will survive, expect that soon their church will prove to be the rallying point, the pope the center to which all the other sections of religion will turn. They expect there will be another League something like the former League of Nations, but with the pope as its head. Not one of these many sections heeds the message of warning that Armageddon is next in turn, and Revelation 11:15 fulfilled.
THE NEW GOVERNMENT
An Unusual Clergyman
◆ The zone servant and other publishers were out in the service and one of the publishers said, “We did not get that house—a clergyman lives there. We saw his name on the plate beside the door.”
“Well, I will call.”
I was met at the door by an old, kind-faced gentleman. I informed him I was doing a Christian work and had a message of importance, that it was free and put him under no obligation. The “Snare and Racket” began to do its part, but it had just started, when the invitation was given to come in with it. A table was cleared and he said to his wife, “Shut off that war news and come here to listen to this message with me.” “I mean it. Shut that bad news off and come and hear something good.” They both gave close attention to the record, “Snare and Racket.” At the close he said, “Young man, Judge Rutherford is telling the truth. You are in a good work. I am 79 years of age, have been teaching, traveling and lecturing for a number of years. My last lecture was on the difference between religion and Christianity.” He pointed out Riches, Enemies, and other publications in his large library. I pointed out Salvation and Government and Peace. No, he had not seen them. “Now, I presume you accept about a 25c contribution for those books?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I will make a proposition,” he said to me. “Now, you give me the 25c. Much hesitation. Then he said, “I’ll give you 50c, then you can give me the books.” He wished me the Lord’s blessings in the service.—Ohio, Zone 5.
Night and Day
◆ The Canadian lady said, “Oh no! I could not read those books. I am a Catholic, and we are as far apart as night and day.” The publisher replied, “That is very true; you are in the dark and I bring you the light.” The lady smiled and took some literature.
Just Before Christmas
◆ Just before Christmas our three children, Carl, aged 12, Pearl, aged 10, and Mary Lue, aged 7, refused to draw names for Christmas and also refused to take any part in the Christmas program. Three members of the board of education made a special visit to see us. They told us our children would have to take part in the program; they must also salute the flag; they had been to see the superintendent; that was the law; if the children did not obey they would be expelled from school.
I sent them back and almost every day the teacher gave them pieces to say, and they refused to learn them. On Wednesday, December 20, all three went to school as usual and the principal made the two small ones get up on the floor, but they refused to sing. Carl’s turn came next. The teacher proceeded to abuse him, knock him around and pull his hair until, Carl said, it seemed as if he was pulling his hair entirely from his head. The teacher failed in his objective and the case went again to the board.
Ere long one of the board came again, but in an altogether different humor, saying, “We are having trouble with your children at school, but we have decided that as they do not want to take part in the program we will release them until Monday a week; then they can start in school and take their regular lessons; we do not want to put them out of school.”
The children all work in the truth, especially the little girl. She takes the phonograph and makes the houses just like the rest. There has been no more trouble, and we are very thankful. We are especially thankful that we can have just a small share in the greatest work on the earth.—Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Williams, Illinois.
Fears of the Associated Press
◆ The Associated Press knows all about Jehovah’s witnesses, but one would never suspect it from the stuff they print. They sent out a dispatch from Athens, detailing the arrest of 74 believers in God’s kingdom. The dispatch referred to those arrested as Chiliasts, a clever way of disguising the fact that they are Jehovah’s witnesses. There was the usual piffle about “illegal propaganda”, as if the proclamation of God’s kingdom were either illegal or propaganda. The Associated Press does all it humanly can to poison truth at its source, Jehovah’s Kingdom publishers’ outfits in Saskatchewan; comfortable; practical.
Church Council Dishonors Jehovah
◆ The German Consolation (Trost) reports that in a Bavarian village one of Jehovah’s witnesses died and her husband, though not himself a witness, erected over her grave a stone on which were inscribed the words “Holiness unto the Lord Jehovah.” Thereupon the Nazi leaders, when they came into power, together with the church council, served written notice that the inscription on the tombstone must be removed, as they considered it an insult.
Hungary
◆ The pioneers must be very precautious to avoid arrest. One publisher, for instance, working a community with a goodly number of goat-like inhabitants, put a black kerchief around her shoulders, covered her head likewise, and thus went forth. After having worked a part of the community, she was aware of the fact that one of the goats was in action, and in a short time he came along with two police-soldiers. The publisher took refuge in a by-street, changed her black kerchief for some of another color, and moved quietly on in the direction of the two police-soldiers; these asked her whether she had seen a woman wearing black kerchiefs, to which the publisher replied she had seen one, evidently in a hurry, running in the other direction. The police-soldiers and their spy went off running to find her, and the publisher went quietly home.—1940 Yearbook of Jehovah’s witnesses, page 155.
Jesus ‘Found Guilty of Sedition’
◆ Wartime gives the religionists opportunity to express the murder that is in their hearts and thus it is no surprise that a jury in the Roman Catholic city of Montreal found one of Jehovah’s witnesses guilty of sedition for putting the book Enemies and the booklet Face the Facts in the hands of “truth-hungry” Arthur Tilley could be sentenced to $5,000 fine and five years’ imprisonment for putting these precious truths of God’s Word with his fellow man. Jesus was put to death for the same “offense” and—
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.—Matthew 10: 24-27.
Jehovah’s Kingdom publishers’ outfits in Saskatchewan; comfortable; practical.
--California Experiences
◆ It is indeed gratifying to see how the great multitude are coming to the Greater Joshua for protection. I met a lady who seemed to be interested but was unable to make an appointment at that time. She promised to let me know later when to call; and, sure enough, in a few days I received a card. I made the back-call and played the “Government and Peace” lecture. After the lecture she offered to pay me for my trouble. I told her this is the Lord’s work and it is free. She said she had read some of our books but was confused with other religions. She is so anxious to get an understanding of the truth that she asked if I would come back and help her. She realized that she had such a short time in which to learn of the Lord’s provision. She remarked that she had wasted so many years and had she known the truth she could have helped her children to understand and gain protection. I explained to her how she could still help them. As a result she took the Salvation book, subscribed for The Watchtower, and wishes to attend all the studies.
This shows that there is yet a great work to be done by helping those who come seeking the Lord and that He gives the increase.
I notified the chief of police on Friday that we were going to do some advertising with placard on Saturday night and that if he got any complaints he would know what it was all about. He thanked me for telling him.
We had the march O.K. After the march on the way to the contact point a witness said to me that there had been trouble; so we went to the police station to see about it. One guy got busy in front of the police station and tried to tear the placards off a witness, and did tear up one of the overhead signs. The police came out and jailed him. The policeman who preferred charges against him claims that he knew Judge Rutherford when he was a boy in Missouri and that he has read all his books, which he has been getting from a brother. Also he said that he had been a preacher for thirty years and that he was not in it for any racket and that it was an insult to religious people for anyone to go around with signs saying that religion was a snare and a racket and that it made him hot under the collar and that the signs would have to come off the street. The chief of police came in while we were there and said he thought there would be only two or three, that he did not expect so many, that he did not object to the placards but that the overhead signs would have to come off the street. I told him that I would see him later. I did not want to start any kind of argument until the guy in jail had what was coming to him. I heard Sunday night that he had been fined $10 for his trouble.—California Zone 4.
Photograph witnessing in York Co., Pa., rurals: 1. “Religion is wrong and a snare because it deceives the people. . . .”
2. “Because religion is wrong does not mean that the many people who ignorantly practice religion are bad. . . .”
Priest Sticks His Neck Out
The “Reverend Father” Richard G. Ober stuck his neck out in The Advocate-Tribune of Bloomington, Nebraska, Thursday, March 14, 1940, wherein he tried to make it clear that Jehovah’s witnesses are Communists, cankerworms, virulent poison peddlers, diabolic prophets, always insulting, arrogant, spewing out attacks upon civilized institutions, provoking class hatred, without education, without morals, hydra-headed hypocrites, wearing masks of decency to cover ugly faces and defiled hearts and souls, the spawn of hell to crush Christianity and our Government with the phonograph records which they force upon the ignorant, along with silly books’.
The editor of the Riverton, Nebraska, Review thought that the “Reverend Father” Richard G. Ober was smearing his religion on a little too thick, so in his issue of March 21, 1940, he published the following double-column editorial, calculated to make the “Reverend” Ober adjust his collar and wipe off his chin and vest before he starts the next living illustration of what the Roman Catholic religion can do for a man that surrenders his heart and life and reason to its poison.
THE RELIGIOUS HATRED OF RELIGION
Conventionally it is accepted that the phrase “hatred of religion” refers to irreligion; but we use it to mean the hatred which one brand of religion has for another brand of religion. As it has been said, “Religion is the worst enemy of religion.” Not until religion stops fighting religion need anti-religionists be blamed for exposing it.
A bellicose example of the burning hatred of religion for religion came to our desk last week in one of our exchanges.
The fiery malevolence for a brother Christian society which may rankle sinfully in the sanctimonious “soul” of a pretentious “man of the cloth” found a raising valve in that paper through which it, like the malignancy in a sick stomach, belched out its godly rancor.
Religious malice, religious bigotry, religious revenge, religious untruths, religious haughtiness, religious hypocrisy, religious uncharity, religious meanness of spirit, were puked on the front of that paper from the spiritually mad soul of this preacher of righteousness.
Below we quote some of the “charitable” names which this clenrunt “man of God” who is commanded, under pain of hell, to “love his enemies”, to “return good for evil”, etc. applied to the sister and brother Christians in his town, with relentless neighborliness. He says, behind the religious mask of poltroonish inference, that his Christian brothers and sisters of the world-wide Watchtower Bible Society are:
3. “Christianity means to follow exactly in the footsteps of Christ Jesus by believing and teaching the Bible, the Word of God . . .”
“Cheap but virulent poison, cankerworms, provokers of class hatred (he knows his class hatred!), haters of decency (he hates civil decency to his brother Christians), know-alls without education or definite morals, sellers of silly tracts (Christian) books, hydra-headed hypocrites, Ku Kluxers wearing a mask of decency to cover an ugly face that reflects a defiled heart and soul (he is an authority on the latter organ!), un-American (the same is said of Romanism) spawn of hell to crush Christianity and our Government.” (Our New Deal government, eh?)
As we have before shown on this page, and we cite this case as merely another example, taken from factuality, such is the common animalistic stuff of which our holier-than-thou religious dispensers of “light and leading” are made.
They remind us of the “great spiritual graces” that issue from the boasted “religious way”! They reveal to us what religious ministers think of each other. They show us that skepticism of religion and an awareness of the racket and the sham that it is are prevalent in religion as well as in the more rational minds outside of it. They show us—the religious ministers themselves—that “religion is a snare and a racket”, as the Christian lecturer, Judge Rutherford, says.
Moreover, they help explain why, after long centuries, half the world is still unconverted to the quarrelsome racket of religion.
Liberty in Jersey City
◆ Why, they even have some liberty in Jersey City! Four of Jehovah’s witnesses were arrested there by Patrolman Richard Murphy (guess his “church”) for doing what every newsboy has a right to do. But when their case came up in court the judge on the bench decided that they were not disorderly persons. And that was that.
4. “Those who practice Christianity worship God in spirit and in truth. . . Christianity is the way to salvation and life everlasting.”
(To be continued) UNDER THE TOTALITARIAN FLAG
In “Care of the Reverend Mother”
At Bristol, England, a nun by the name of Cecilia Quinn, giving her address as “Care of the Reverend Mother General”, bestowed her kind and loving attention on a boy of 15, an orphan in care of the institution for the past thirteen years. First she banged his head against the kitchen door, and made him strip and get into a tub of cold water. There she struck him with a stick, threw five pails of cold water over him, and beat him so savagely that he showed 23 weals on his back, four on his chest, and one on each arm. The only punishment this dame received was to be bound to keep the peace for one year. She was and is very religious.
An Inordinate Love of Money
◆ There are many crimes listed on the calendar that are punishable by law. There are many wicked practices clearly seen by men and condemned as being abhorrent to righteousness-loving creatures. But one of the most reprehensible crimes of all, and which is condemned by the Word of God, is the dishonoring of the name of the Almighty by religious organizations that under the cloak of sanctity allow their inordinate love for material gain to run riot by trafficking in human misery and distress.
Bingo games appear such an innocent form of entertainment, and quite harmless; of course, the Church says so. And the Church should know: it runs plenty of them. Surely there can be nothing wrong in sitting in a bingo game with your numbered card before you, waiting in breathless expectancy for the next number to be called by the droning announcer; it might be the number you want! you might win! And there is the point! You might win a few dollars, a few precious dollars; yes, you might!! but how many do? The one and only winner in this increasingly gigantic racket is the promoter, and the promoter in this case is THE CHURCH (?). What a travesty! Therein lies the wicked dishonoring of God’s holy name by accrediting His church with practices common only to the lowest form of racketeering, yet practiced by extreme religionists, the so-called “Church”.
Jehovah’s witnesses were seeking a place of meeting for one of their assemblies; it required that a rather large hall be secured. One such was located, of suitable seating capacity. However, on the date the hall was needed it was not available. That evening there was to be held a bingo game. There are regular bingo games in this same hall a number of times a week, attended in the daytime mostly by women, who, of course, never forget their cigarettes. Inquiry had to be made of St. Christopher’s Church to see if the hall would be needed on this particular Saturday evening for their bingo game. It is really touching to see the Lord in such dire need of money; His Church (?) must see to it that He has enough money at His Command; it must be gotten by fair means or foul. How can He carry out His purpose without money? Precious money!! It does not seem enough that the Scriptures say, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.” “His church” must add “and all the bingo games as well”.
Inquiry was made in another locality a number of miles away. A hall was found just suitable, large and spacious. When the date was mentioned it was found there was to be a bingo game that evening. St. Christopher’s Church had engaged the hall. It seemed as though “Saint Christopher” was cornering the hall market for his bingo games. At this juncture some pitiable facts were brought out. The statement was made that this is the lowest form of gambling and would not be permitted under any such circumstances except under the sanctified promotion of the Church (?). The odds are so great that only a few can win, and that not very much, while the money squandered, as a whole, goes into the pockets of the promoters, in this case the “Church”. It was said that people come into these bingo games who are on relief. Their faces are haggard and white; they are praying to their “saints” to help them win a bingo so that they can get a few extra dollars to pay their rent. They believe that in some mystical way these “saints” will help them; for is this bingo game not promoted by the Church? It was further added that these unfortunates, whose misfortunes were being made commercial traffic, spent as much as ten to fifteen dollars a month of their relief money in the hope that this “sanctified” bingo game would bring them a little added revenue. The “take” is made only by the promoter.
How little does the so-called “Church” realize that we are rapidly approaching the time of the expression of Jehovah’s wrath upon all hypocritical organizations, religious, political and financial, and that “neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land”! (Zephaniah 1:18)—M. A. Howlett, New York.
The Virgin of Chestochova
Maybe you have never known of the virgin of Chestochova; but if you have not, then your education has been neglected. The American bishops of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy issued a statement regarding Poland, and in it said, “With our people we suppliantly beg the Virgin of Chestochova to bring peace and succor to the suffering of Poland.” As the situation in Poland is the direct result of the ideals and activities of the Jesuit-trained Adolf Hitler, why bother the virgin of Chestochova? What has this woman to do with it? What does she know about it? And if she is interested, why did she not take up the whole subject with Hitler direct, without American bishops’ having to ask her to do something she should have done in the first place?
Supreme Aid to Heathenism
◆ Cheer up! The pope says he is praying God that He will give His supreme aid to heathenism, as represented by the emperor of Japan. That ought to be worth something, shouldn’t it? Moreover, in his message to the emperor, on the occasion of the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese empire, the pope said he wanted present and future emperors of Japan to perpetually enjoy years of happiness. Eugene is a new pope, and maybe he never ran across those many scriptures that say that Jehovah’s new King, Christ Jesus, shall break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms and that His kingdom shall stand forever. Just how there could be such perpetual happiness for rulers when their kingdoms are broken in pieces remains one of the unsolved mysteries.
Taylor Favors Fascism
◆ “The mistake of President Roosevelt has been aggravated by the character of the man that has been selected as his personal representative to Pius XII. Myron C. Taylor is a great admirer of the Italian Fascist’s regime.” On the 5th of November, 1936, speaking in the presence of the Italian ambassador, Fulvio Suvich, at a dinner party in his honor at the Waldorf Astoria, Taylor said: “All the world has been obliged to admire the success of Premier Mussolini in the discipline of the nation” (The New York Times, November 6, 1936). And in the same issue of that paper it reads, “As master of ceremony of that dinner party for the ‘Italy-American Society’ and for the ‘American Society of the Royal Italian orders’, Mr. Taylor again remarked that ‘those who have had the pleasure of having made frequent visits (to Italy) know of the great progress that has been made’. Without mentioning Ethiopia, he says no one can doubt of the final success of the (enterprise) because ‘today a new Italian Empire faces the future and assumes its responsibilities as guardian and administrator of a foreign people held back, composed of ten million souls.’”—Translated from Il Mondo, Italian magazine.
Going Up to Come Down
◆ At the beginning of the Great War there were 2 ambassadors and 11 ministers accredited to the Holy See. Today there are 13 ambassadors and 23 ministers. A similar notable increase is seen in the comparative totals of nuncios and apostolic delegates in various countries. In 1914 there were 13 diplomatic representatives of the Holy See in foreign countries. Now there are 38. The number of apostolic delegates was 13. Today they number 23.—Vatican City dispatch in The [Roman Catholic] Universe, London.
Says the Inimitable Pegler
◆ No man or woman should be required to stop dead in traffic and repeat the oath for anyone who takes it on himself to go on the prowl for traitors, and the same resentment occurs when, in a public gathering, some loud-mouthed fraud says, “We are now going to sing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, and any dirty traitor who doesn’t get up will get such a going over that he will never get up.”—Westbrook Pegler, in the New York World-Telegram.
The Mean Thing!
While seeing a newsreel with a friend of mine some time ago, he got a tremendous kick out of a part where they showed a scene of India. It showed that some old Voodoo billy-goat chaser, who looked as though he had not had a bath for ages, got up on a high spire and blew a long horn, calling the faithful to prayer. Immediately hundreds ran up in nightshirts and flopped down on the ground with arms outstretched, swaying up and down, saying, “Allah! Allah!” My friend asked me if I had ever seen anything so ridiculous, and my reply was, “Yes, Wally. I went to mass one time.” His attitude immediately changed, and he wanted to know what was so peculiar about mass. My answer was, “It is all in the way you look at it. Rituals are all the same, only mass is more complicated.” Now Wally and I are not friends any more.—Harold B. Wheeler, Illinois.
Priests Dread the Overalls
La Grange
John R. Boland, Jr.
Pastor, P. E. A.
January 16, 1940
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Vasilevich
115 West Avenue
Niles, O.
Dear Sir and Madam:
Reverend Francis Boland, pastor of St. Stanislaus Church, Space Avenue, Sharon, Pennsylvania, has consulted me in reference to difficulties legal action toward the collection of certain dues owing by you to said Church.
According to the records, you owe $45.00 for monthly collection dues and a $4.00 fee for Sunday collection dues, making a total of $49.00 due.
However, in order to give you an opportunity to settle the matter amicably and thereby save the expense of court costs, etc., I shall not proceed toward the collection or the contested sum of $45.00 until March 1, 1940. Therefore, it will be to your advantage to call at my office on or before March 1, and make some arrangement for the payment of this account.
Very truly yours,
J. R. Boland, Jr.
Women Protest to Boneheads
◆ It is not of much use for intelligent women to protest to politicians who have demonstrated that they have nothing above their necks but ivory, but the Bergen County Group of the New Jersey Branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom did that. They sent a resolution of protest to the board of education, Fort Lee, New Jersey, for expelling 12-year-old Roger Morgan because, for conscience’ sake, he refuses to worship any flag. Away over the heads of the politicians, and far beyond their capacity to understand or appreciate the real significance of their remarks, the women said:
While not taking issue with his practice in public schools we feel that no school board has the right to deprive a child of free education on any ground which denies his liberty of conscience.
We wish to point out that many of our forefathers came to this country for freedom of conscience and that Washington wrote: “If in my opinion the conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness; it is my wish and desire that the laws may always be as extensively accommodated to them as due regard to the protection and essential interests of the nation may justify and permit.”
We feel that the board of education has lost the opportunity of demonstrating the principles of freedom of conscience upon which our democracy rests. We wish to point out that it is the totalitarian state which places the state above conscience and the democratic state which values and cultivates the conscientious citizen.—In Bergen Evening Record.
Catholic Herald Praises Duke
◆ The London Catholic Herald had words of fulsome praise for the duke of Windsor’s radio address on the subject of peace, and in the same article happened to mention that “it is time that we British Catholics faced up to the fact that we are as profoundly suspected by the average man and woman as we have been ever since the days of the Armada”. To which one may add, “With good reason.” Consider only the Catholic Herald’s misrepresentation of the work of Jehovah’s witnesses, and the manner in which Catholics in England treat those who are engaged in that work. The average man and woman would be the veriest fools not to be “profoundly suspicious” of all of the Hierarchy’s tactics, including its endorsement of the duke of Windsor, through the London Catholic Herald. The duke should make a public statement disclaiming any connection with the Hierarchy or its press.
(To be continued) Theocratic Convention, July 24-28
IT IS estimated that more than a million Americans will read this issue of this magazine. These million readers are face to face with death in the near future. The present world war has already cost millions of lives, and is bound to cost many more before it is ended. It is constantly spreading and taking new nations and new territories into its orbit. It is unleashing fresh terrors daily, and each of these seems worse than those of the day before. Terrible as are the destructions already wrought, they are but a feeble foretaste of what will happen at Armageddon, following soon now.
This is a call to the people of good will toward Jehovah God who desire peace and righteousness and who love the Lord to cast in their lot with Jehovah’s people for the five days, July 24 to 28, when the Theocratic Convention of Jehovah’s people takes place.
This is vacation time, and what vacation could compare in benefit to you with one that may help you definitely to be spared in Armageddon and aid your loved ones to do the same? All of God’s Word is right to the point, including the description of the present generation, that they are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God”. (2 Timothy 3:4) You are familiar with the scripture, and you must have noticed the absence among God’s people of the public games which many persons in “Christendom” seem to consider one of the most important things in life.
The people of God in ages past were instructed to assemble at least twice a year and to have a good time living in booths and learning more about God and His law. How different from the heathen of Rome, who had in the Circus Maximus seating arrangements for 300,000 people, where they could and did see Christians butchered or covered with pitch and burned as torches! In the year 72 (A.D.) the Circus Maximus was filled to capacity every day for 100 consecutive days. If there had been newspapers in those days, they would have had solid pages about what went on at the Circus Maximus. Maybe you have seen solid pages about sports, but you never see any solid pages about God’s Kingdom, The Theocracy, the latest unfoldings of God’s Word, or about the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses, which, nevertheless, constitute the most important activities in the earth today.
Where the Convention Will Be Held
There are many reasons why Columbus, Ohio, near the center of population of the United States, constitutes an excellent location for much of the population of the United States and Canada, and, accordingly, the Ohio State Fair Grounds, in that city, will be the center of the convention activities of Jehovah’s people during the days mentioned. Judge Rutherford, the president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, will open the convention on Wednesday, July 24, will deliver the opening address, and will be the speaker on the topic “Religion as a World Remedy”, at 4 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, July 28, at the convention peak.
Besides the main convention at Columbus, there will be three conventions in New England: Bangor, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; and Burlington, Vermont. The Sunday address by Judge Rutherford will be delivered to these cities by direct wire, and the time for the address in such cities will be 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, or 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Saving Time.
There will be six conventions in Dixie Land: Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama; Tampa, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and Memphis, Tennessee. The first three will have special arrangements for the assembly of the colored, who are, of course, welcome at any convention. The time for Judge Rutherford’s address is 3:00 p.m., Central Standard Time.
In the Southwestern states conventions will be held at the same time at Beaumont, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The time for Judge Rutherford’s address is 3:00 p.m., Central Standard Time.
In the Northwestern states there will be conventions at Des Moines, Iowa; Lincoln, Nebraska; Duluth, Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota; Fargo, North Dakota; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In each of these places the time for Judge Rutherford’s address is 3 p.m., Central Standard Time.
In the Rocky Mountain states there will be conventions at Boise, Idaho; El Paso, Texas; Great Falls, Montana; and Pueblo, Colorado. Judge Rutherford’s address at Columbus, Ohio, will be heard at these places at 2 p.m., Mountain Standard Time.
On the Pacific Coast there will be conventions at Long Beach, California; San Diego, California; San Jose, California; Medford, Oregon; Seattle, Washington, and Spokane, Washington; where the address of July 28 will be heard at 1 p.m., Pacific Standard Time.
The address will be heard at Honolulu, Hawaii, at 10:30 a.m.
Every reader of Consolation magazine is invited to attend one of these conventions and bring his wife and little ones. There he will have opportunity to meet many who have the same hopes as himself. He will have an opportunity to distribute some of the 15,000,000 handbills inviting “other sheep” to attend one of these conventions. He will have a chance to put Jehovah’s Kingdom magazines, The Watchtower and Consolation, into the hands of the truth-hungry. He can have a share in putting out bound books and booklets. He can engage in information marches. He will have opportunity for immersion if he brings his bathing suit. If he plays well on any musical instrument, he may have an opportunity to exercise his talent in that direction. He may address his letter on the subject, Watchtower Convention Committee, 117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y. At every convention there are doctors and nurses to look after the needs of those who at such a time show poor judgment in what they eat. There are nurseries to look after the children.
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