Consolation, January 22, 1941
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Contents
Testimony Against Them (Part 2) 3
"L'Osservatore Romano" 4
Balbo Probably Bumped Off 10
Aliens in Georgia 11
The New Government
Witnessing in Wartime 12
Report from Paisley, Scotland 12
Marvelous Witnessing in Britain 13
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford
The Only Good News 17
"Cross" or "Tree"? 19
"Religion Vital for Schools" 19
The Fifth Column in France 20
The Devilish Nazi Philosophy 21
Church Bells Rung Three Days 21
Judge Hermes Again 22
Ireland and India 23
Another New Rubber 24
Food Preserved in Latex 24
The Machine and the Man 25
The Five Huge Stone Heads 26
Detroit Police and the Witnesses 27
British Comment
"The Papacy Anti-British" 28
The Great Issue 30
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Notandum
Nine Miles Across Gibraltar
◆ Though it is fifteen miles across the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Ceuta in Spanish Morocco (fortified by Hitler during his "Non-Intervention" in Spain), yet the straits themselves, a little farther west, are only nine miles wide. If it were not for submarines and airplanes one big battleship in the middle of that strait could prevent any other boat or boats from either going in or coming out of the great sea which cradled the Greek and Roman and now the Italian empire. Maybe it was to give Mussolini a chance to think of some of these things that at the end of April, 1940, the British Government ordered all British ships to leave the Mediterranean at once and to return home, not via Gibraltar, but via Suez, i.e., clear around Africa. Mussolini could not help but see that the Suez Canal can be closed to Italian ships instantly, that Ethiopia would be gone before he could think, and that not an Italian vessel could clear for North America, South America, South Africa, Asia, Australia or northern Europe without a fight that would make the Battle of Trafalgar look like a boys' game of marbles.
Germans Overrunning Italy
◆ German militarists, aviation officials and financial and commercial experts have so overrun Italy (50,000 in one day's news) that a favorite joke now among the Italian people is for one to say to another, "Well, what do you think of things now?" and to get the response, "It was better under Mussolini." German secret police have swarmed into the country, ostensibly to help train their Italian colleagues, but actually to send out full reports of internal conditions and make lists of the malcontents for use when the trouble starts. Italy is forced to depend on Germany for her munitions. Thirty percent of the Italian export trade is with Germany.
CONSOLATION
"And in His name shall the nations hope."—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XXII Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 22, 1941 Number 557
Testimony Against Them (In Three Parts—Part 2)
ONE of the regulation uniforms of the Fifth Columnist is the costume of the Roman Catholic priest. It is not a disguise, but their customary attire. The disguise comes from the foolish sanctity with which a gullible populace esteems such agents of the Vatican. The slogan, "A priest can do no wrong," is worth more than all the changes of face in Sherlock Holmes' bag. It is the license to commit crime with impunity. It is used the world over and its effectiveness to deceive the people seems undiminished by repetition. The Converted Catholic, September (1940) issue, recalls its employment in Europe and America:
Parachute troops, vested in cassock and Roman collar, were dropped from the skies into Belgium during the German invasion of last June, according to the New York Times. Not a bad uniform for a Fifth Columnist! It reminds us of a recent warning of Secretary Ickes: "America will tolerate no fifth column. It will not avail to misuse the word 'Christian' as part of its name or even to be led by a man in priestly garb. . . ."
A radiocast also announced that soldiers in the costume of nuns were discovered among the Nazi invaders in the low countries. This is still a good costume. When Rome is backing up Hitler and Mussolini the world over it is impossible for some of these disclosures of methods not to leak out. An even more incriminating bit of evidence against the priesthood was uncovered in the palace of a Franco supporter. This is a photograph (see page 5 of this issue), reproduced in the September issue of The Converted Catholic, showing five skirted priests, each aiming a gun and standing beside a field mortar. The mixed expression of fear and bloodthirstiness is so perfectly recorded by the camera that the authenticity appears undeniable. The picture was not taken in the fight, but of a practice round, and the trepidation on the faces likely arose from nervous alarm over the sound of the gun. In the first few months of the war, according to Van Paassen, these guns were usually fired on peasants armed with pitchforks.
Of course, Franco was begotten by the pope, nourished by Mussolini and Hitler, and knighted by his sire when the shooting was over. Perhaps some readers have forgotten that Franco was honored with the title "Defender of the Faith" by Pope Pius XI. All this the Hierarchy openly brags about. But Pius is still trying to make Americans believe that Hitler and Mussolini are bad boys that he can't make behave. He sheds large, well advertised tears about the "cruel strife" among his children. He is constantly praying for "peace", a piece of everything he can't get all of. When the boys have carved up the earth, it will be time enough to give them the official OK and a ticket to anything they want in the after life that doesn't cost the pope anything. Paying off debts in indulgences is real economy. The quadruplets, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and Stalin won't be able to call the "Papa" on this double deal, but note how he is called on another crisscross by Il Mondo:
(Continued on page 5) " L' OSSERVATORE ROMANO "
GIORNALE QUOTIDIANO POLITICO RELIGIOSO
Città del Vaticano, 19 Novembre 1936.
CITTA DEL VATICANO
REDAZIONE
Illustrissims Senyors:
Hem rebut les fotografies dels infants víctimes dels bombardeigs aeris, els funestos efectes dels quals nosaltres hem deplorat sempre i els deprequem encara; tanmateix vos estariem particularment agraïts si, per tal de completar la vostra documentació, vos dignessiu enviar-nos també les fotografies dels cadàvers dels Sacerdots, religiosos i religioses, conscientment i fredament assassinats pels heroics defensors de la llibertat.
Explanation of Cuts on Pages 4-5
The cuts here shown are evidently a reproduction of a handbill circulated in Spain by the Loyalists to justify their cause. The photograph of the gunners was found, among other incriminating documents, in Madrid, by the Spanish Loyalists in the palace of Count Vallellano, a financier and a backer of Franco's rebels. It was probably taken during the preparations for the Fascist putsch.
The cuts from which these reproductions were made were kindly loaned to the writer by Leo H. Lehman, editor of The Converted Catholic, 229 West 48th Street, New York City. In his own comment on these cuts Mr. Lehman says:
The Spanish clergy followed the instructions of Pope Leo XIII to the letter, "If the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with the divine law, containing enactments hurtful to the Church, then truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey, a crime."
The translation of the printed matter above the cut on page 5 follows:
The sending of photographs to the Osservatore Romano of children killed in Madrid by explosives of Italians and Germans dropped by German and Italian airplanes, when they deliberately bombarded schools and parks, brought the following letter to the Commissariat of Propaganda of the army headquarters of Catalonia and says:
"L' OSSERVATORE ROMANO, Daily Politico-Religious Newspaper, Vatican City. November 19, 1936. Vatican City, Editorial Department. Distinguished Sirs: We have received the photographs of the child victims of the aerial bombardments, whose sad results we have always deplored.
L’envoi à l’«Osservatore Romano» de photographies d’enfants tués à Madrid par des explosifs italiens et allemands lancés par des avions allemands et italiens, lors des bombardements délibérés d’écoles et de parcs, a valu au Commissariat de Propagande de la Généralité de Catalogne, de la part du journal du Vatican, la lettre reproduite ci-dessus, et qui dit:
«Nous avons reçu les photographies d’enfants victimes des bombardements aériens, dont nous avons toujours déploré les funestes effets; nous vous serions particulièrement obligés, afin de compléter cette documentation, vous veuillez bien nous envoyer aussi les photographies des cadavres des prêtres, religieux et religieuses sciemment et froidement assassinés par les héroïques défenseurs de la liberté.»
Lettre à laquelle le Commissariat de Propagande a répondu en envoyant à l’«Osservatore Romano» la photo ci-dessous, qui montre les activités guerrières des apôtres du catholicisme.
Cette photographie, prise probablement pendant la préparation du putsch fasciste, a été trouvée, entre autres documents accusateurs, lors d’une perquisition, à Madrid, au palais du comte Vallelano, financier, conjuré des rebelles.
We would be particularly grateful to you, if, in order to complete this documentation, you would kindly send us also photographs of the corpses of the priests, of religious men and religious women murdered deliberately and coldbloodedly by the heroic defenders of liberty. [signature] Sacriper Boehm.”
To which letter the Commissariat of Propaganda responded by sending to the Osservatore Romano the photo as above, which shows the belligerent activity of the apostles of Catholicism. This photograph, probably taken during the preparation of the Fascist putsch, was found among other incriminating documents, when searching the Madrid palace of the count of Vallelano, financier, fellow-conspirator of the rebels.
(Continued from page 3)
Pius XII’s Double Game. It is now possible to foresee the reward that Pius XII will get from Mussolini for deceiving the English and French and making them believe that they could count on Italian neutrality. Italy will acquire Palestine, but its administration will be entrusted to the pope.
“While he proceeds hand in glove with Mussolini in Europe, Pius XII manages to create the impression in America that he does nothing from morning to night except pray for peace, and demand the respect of the rights of smaller nations and minorities, and co-operation on an equal footing of all peoples. He is repeating during the present war the same” double game as that which his predecessor Pius XI and he himself as his secretary of state played at the time of the Ethiopian War. In America he dons the garb of a humanitarian pacifist who is slighted in Italy by a bad tyrant, Mussolini, while in Europe he works in the closest co-operation with Mussolini.” Several examples of the Pope’s blessings of the totalitarians are then given. In summary the Vatican’s attitude is explained:
“The truth is that the Pope, like an ancient Sybil, spoke in enigmas. But one point was clear in his nebulous words: the incitement to Italians to remember that their land had been ‘fertilized by the blood of their forefathers’ and that their duty was to pray for that land while it was at war, that is, pray for Mussolini’s victory. The Holy Father has never directed urgings of this kind either to the English or to the French.”
The same Stanley High who lashed Jehovah’s witnesses in his Saturday Evening Post article derisively entitled “Armageddon, Inc.,” quoted from this identical issue of Il Mondo in a previous article which purported to expose ALIEN POISON. Dr. High called this journal an “ably edited anti-Fascist Italian weekly.” But he nowhere mentions the Vatican as the superpoison which emanates from alien Rome. No doubt the reason is stated, on page 4 of this issue of Il Mondo (July, 1940), in regard to Fascism sponsored by Italian Catholic churches:
With the respective parish priests co-operating, it is a sure bet that nobody would dare to interfere, for it is well known that whoever in America tries to question the activities of a parish priest or of a Catholic church is slated for a big dose of disappointment, to say the least! . . . And so Mussolini propaganda marches on!
High envisions no link between the Papacy and Fascism. The “Good Neighbor” party of which he was once the head evidently includes Hitler, Mussolini and the pope, but excludes Jehovah’s witnesses, who have constantly pointed out the collusion between the master and his bloody sons. Doctor High should add an “I” to his name.
Another Vatican pronouncement discloses Papal backing for son Hitler. All have read how the Catholic bishops of Germany, assembled at Fulda, declared their allegiance to Hitler, and asserted that “the Catholic Church of Germany is indebted to German troops for the victorious advance and defense of the German homeland. Without the successful warding off of enemy invasion by German armed forces, German Catholics could not have pursued so undisturbed and quietly their church work and ministerial offices.” (Associated Press dispatch August 28, carried by New York Times, Hudson Dispatch and many other papers) After this document had been published all over the earth, according to the New York Times, September 17, “the Vatican was understood today to have forbidden publication.” This furnishes a rather good example of Vatican diplomacy. Another clue to where the pope’s heart interest lies has been provided by the editor of The Converted Catholic, who is an ex-priest and profound student of the Papacy. He stated that when the bishops met at Fulda they received in highest esteem a dignitary of the pope known as a Legatus a Latere,* which in common parlance means ‘side kick’; that this emissary, who in truth is the pope’s presence, and fully authorized to act for the pope, was likely the dictator of the letter of allegiance to Hitler; and even if not, it was written at the pope’s orders and naturally with his approval.
* The “Constitution of the Church in the New Code of Canon Law” (by Very Rev. H. A. Ayrinhac, S.S., D.D., D.C.L., who published same with the approval of Patrick Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop of New York, copyright 1925 by H. A. Ayrinhac) defines the Legati a Latere under the heading “Legates of the Roman Pontiff”, Section 71, as follows:
“(a) The Legati a Latere are Cardinals taken from the senate and, as it were, the very side of the Pope, hence their name, and sent on some particularly important or solemn mission. . . .”
This painting on the side of a trolley car (probably in Barcelona) shows the disgust of the Spanish people with the cruelty and hypocrisy of their priests. The translation of the Spanish is: “And with the cross they wanted to dominate the people.” Since then, they financed Franco, Hitler and Mussolini.
Many issues of the above magazine have been quoted to demonstrate the fact that Hitler’s aims and those of the Vatican are the same. They are both moving to the same end, world domination with the pope as spiritual head and Nazi-Fascism as the political head. This is explicitly repeated in the September issue:
What Hitler aims to do is put the clock of Europe back three hundred years, to force the Protestant and liberal nations of Europe to their knees at Westphalia and tear up its famous guarantees of humanity and tolerance which they entered into with the Catholic princes of that time—in spite of, and against the most totally condemnatory of all decrees of a Pope of Rome. If he succeeds he will be carrying out to the letter every word of the decree of Pope Innocent X, who ordered that none of the sworn guarantees of peace and tolerance of the first Peace of Westphalia were to be adhered to, that all of these guarantees must, for all time, be considered as ‘null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, and altogether lacking in force.’
If facts mean anything, and since external protestations of loyalty on the part of suspected Fifth Columnists do not fit in with facts, then no well-meaning American can afford to dissociate the political aims of the Roman Catholic Church from the machinations of Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Catholic leaders throughout America are shouting this fact, but only a few take any heed. The New York Times and the New York Journal-American of September 12 contain dispatches from Rome praising Coughlin's “firm stand against Jewish democratic propaganda in the United States” and quotes Coughlin’s statement in Social Justice that “Mussolini is the world’s best statesman. He made peace with the pope, saved European civilization in Spain, and it must be concluded that Italy is the hope of Christian civilized Europe.” S. R. Herbert, writing in the Protestant Digest, August-September, shows that Coughlin was merely one of many agents of Fascism, that is to say, of the Hierarchy:
In the first article of this series (March, 1940) we showed that Father Coughlin’s anti-Semitic broadcasts began as an integral part of an international campaign of the Roman Catholic Church to bring victory to the Catholic-Fascist forces in Spain. This propaganda work in the United States paralleled the actual military work of Hitler and Mussolini in Spain. We showed that Coughlin’s speeches constituted in reality a blackmail “line”, a threat to the Jews that they would be persecuted if they did not support the Franco forces in Spain. We showed also that the essential core of the Coughlin “line” of those months was repeated by the various members of the pro-Fascist front, or the Franco front, in America, including archbishops and bishops, Congressman Dies, Msgr. Sheen, Father Thorning and others. Thus Coughlin’s “line” was merely an extreme position on the general Catholic “line” of those months. While this “line” was also pro-Nazi, primarily it was the line of the Vatican. . . . Father Coughlin and the Franco Front . . . is basically not Nazi, but Catholic . . . anti-Semiticism in Franco Spain . . . formed part of a Catholic frontal attack on liberalism, democracy, Protestantism, parliamentary government.
In the same issue of the Protestant Digest, Lawrence Farnsworth, himself a Catholic, and correspondent for the New York Times during the Spanish rebellion, quotes a mass of Catholic authorities, proving their universal hate for liberalism, democracy, and Protestantism. The first in a series of articles on “The Catholic Church and America” is entitled “The Heresy of Freedom”. The whole article is recommended as a plain revelation of the avowed hatred of Rome and her prelates for the United States of America. At page 14 the author writes:
Let something of the record of the attacks upon the American principles of liberty briefly be stated, so that it may be seen how this unholy spectre of religious intolerance has been raised in our midst by the men of the [Catholic] Church and how no alternative but to meet it remains. One finds these denunciations of liberty coming from the lips and the pens of bishops and priests in almost any Catholic newspaper one chooses to pick up; they abound in the Catholic journals that lie on the racks and in the vestibules of Catholic churches throughout the land.
Fernsworth cites many examples such as the following:
Turning to the Jesuit press one finds that the American system is “pseudo-democracy . . . Protestant, rationalist and definitely anti-Christian in its inspiration”; and further: “This business of teaching every child indiscriminately how to read and write results in nothing more than mass illiteracy. The indiscriminate ‘education’ applied to all alike under a state system is the result of the heresy of the equality of man.” [The Jesuit journal America; April 13, 1940, and October 31, 1931]
Ever since the days of the Vatican council the Jesuits have set the tone in the attacks upon liberalism. One found it in that day, and one still finds it, in the Jesuit organ published at Rome known as the Civiltà Cattolica, or Catholic Civilization. Its editors have the personal approval of the Pope and at times are appointed by him. As its name implies, its mission is to propagate the interest of Catholic civilization as a substitute for all other forms of civilization, particularly the liberal forms. In that day one found it attacking the “criminal principles of liberty of worship, of the press and of meeting”, and such has been the Jesuit thesis and theme from that day to this.
We have quoted entirely at random, as we picked up this journal and that. A compendium of even the very recent attacks upon liberalism in America would fill volumes. When one has sifted out their applications and ---
This huge store of money, seventy-two million pesetas, was discovered in the hospital of the Little Sisters of the Poor, in Barcelona. Twenty-five years ago the present pope, then a young priest in Rome, stated to a Catholic nun (who is now rejoicing in the truth) that even then the Papacy had so much money it did not know what to do with it. Since then, it financed Franco, Hitler and Mussolini.
meanings one finds that nothing, absolutely nothing, is left of those principles of liberty and freedom upon which Americans place a very high value. One sadly reaches the conclusion that officially the [Catholic] Church does not believe that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed or that men, being born free and equal, have the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The individual has no right to decide wherein his happiness consists. That is done for him by an ecclesiastical authoritarianism and his liberty consists in the freedom to remain within bounds. The principle of equality of man is a "heresy". It becomes all too evident as the Jesuit speaker in Boston set forth, that,
"Of course liberalism and Catholicism cannot live under the same roof."
This from the organization that professes to teach patriotism by forced flag saluting! Here is a plain fulfillment of the prophecy, "Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant." (Luke 19:22) Their heritage is destruction, and even their memory shall rot. —Proverbs 10:7.—Elton Groves.
The Sugar Maple
◆ Of the seventy varieties of maple trees found in the world, the famous hard or sugar maple, whose beautiful leaf is Canada’s national emblem, is the only one that yields sugar in commercial quantities. The sugar maple is plentiful in New York state and is found to some extent in Pennsylvania also.
Italy
Balbo Probably Bumped Off
◆ Mussolini, like Hitler, would not hesitate to murder his best friend, being utterly without principle. It is well known that he was jealous of his confrere Balbo, inventor of the castor-oil treatment of anti-Fascists, and therefore himself a brute like his master. Well, as the German general von Fritsch was bumped off early in the Polish campaign, so that all the 'glory' might come to Hitler, so Balbo has been finished off. The first reports from Rome were that he had been slain in an air engagement over Tobruk, Libya, and then the British announced that no such air engagement had been fought. None of their planes had been there. It is simple enough. A dictator can finish off any person of whom he is jealous, and Balbo probably got his just as Mussolini's dreams of empire rose to their highest level.
The reason why Marshal Balbo was bumped off by Italy's Head Murderer was that he honestly believed Germany could not win over Britain, and that Italy's chance of becoming a great power was as a friend of Britain rather than of Germany. News of his death came through Berlin, and suggests that Hitler had ordered the job done. The statement that he was killed in an airplane action is known to be false, as there were no such conflicts in northern Africa on the day of his death. Mussolini never forgave him for the glory he obtained by his mass flight to Chicago in 1933.
Water for the Heel of Italy
◆ Apulia, the heel of Italy, home of 2,500,000 inhabitants, and producer of much of Italy's wine and olive oil, will henceforth have a steady flow of water of the average of 158 quarts per day for each person in the area. This land, of limestone formation, and hence exceedingly rich and exceedingly dry, will now be served by a network of pipe lines comprising nearly a thousand miles. The water will come from the western slopes of the Apennines and will serve more than 300 communities.
The country homes of Apulia are unique in that they are ingeniously built in the form of beehives. The walls, sometimes seven feet thick, so as to keep out the cold in winter and the heat in summer, are made of limestone, without cement. This is ingeniously done by making each stone wedge-shaped. These laid circlewise in an ascending and diminishing spiral, the entire structure looks like a beehive. As the family grows a new hive is made adjacent to the original.
Newlyweds on Italian Railroads
◆ Despite occasional family rows, the Italian government and the Vatican get along well together. An instance of their co-operation is that throughout Italy, on all the railroads, a newly married couple may travel for an 80-percent reduction en route to the Vatican, to receive there the pope's "blessing". Wednesday is the day, and on that day, in the course of eight years, Pius XI personally met an army of 300,000 newlyweds. Nearly 700,000 other newlyweds called at the Vatican during those eight years, but were not personally received. Pius XII receives at the rate of 2,000 couples a month.
One Roll at a Time
◆ The Fascist Federation of Merchants issued orders that hereafter each patron is to receive one roll weighing about 1 1/2 ounces and a small quantity of bread sticks. After eating his roll the patron may order as many more as he can eat, but they will be delivered one at a time. The object is to avoid waste, but in the meantime Mussolini and the bishops back of him are completely indifferent to the huge wastage of human life for which they are responsible on Italy's battle fronts.
“In Dixie Land”
Aliens in Georgia
◆ There are not many aliens in Georgia. None the less, Governor Rivers views them with alarm. By a State statute most business and professional men and workingmen of certain sorts must get a license from the state commissioner of revenue to carry on their business, practice their profession or do their work. Governor Rivers instructed the commissioner to revoke the licenses of all aliens, “several hundred” in all. He seems to take pride in a proceeding which, so far as he knows, is the first of the kind ever undertaken by a State.
One hopes that it will be the last. A resident alien is not only under the protection of treaties by which the United States grants him certain privileges and rights. He is “a person” within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment and most other Constitutional protections, in so far as the Government’s right of exclusion or expulsion is not in question. His civil rights are substantially those of a citizen. His disabilities are only in the matter of political privileges. Even when the United States exercises the power of expulsion for cause, it is barred, in time of peace, from any arbitrary conduct in his regard. He must have due notice and occasion to answer.
If he is a domiciled alien, as is the case in Georgia, he must have a reasonable time to dispose of his property and settle his business. Apparently Governor Rivers assumes, without evidence or even investigation, that all aliens in Georgia are dangerous or suspicious persons, engaged in espionage or other unlawful activities. Not on any ground can this wholesale execution of the law be justified legally or morally.—New York Times.
The Shame of Elba
◆ Elba, Alabama, is shamed by the publication of the hideous facts connected with the flogging of two women by five masked men. One of the women was seventeen years of age. The five “brave” men lashed her until there was not on her body a place the size of a dime that was left unbruised. If they had any information on which the floggings were based, would it not seem that one of them might have had manhood enough to go to the lawful authorities and make the facts known? As matters now stand, the five men have been arrested, and the law may have something to say about the floggings after all. The two women that were flogged left the community. They did not dare to remain. Quite possibly the seventeen-year-old girl had been a bad girl. Quite impossibly no man was involved. What about the man? Don’t ask. He may have been one of the floggers.
Ku Klux Patriotism
◆ After learning that the Ku Klux Klan sold out its Imperial Palace in Atlanta to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy for use as a monastery, and that the chief wizard at that time had had a love-feast with the bishop of Savannah, it comes as no great shock to find that the then wizard, Dr. Hiram W. Evans, has since been charged by the United States Government with mail fraud and conspiracy by which, in a single year the Government was caused to pay $90,000 more for asphalt than it would have cost at open competitive bidding during that period. Experience shows that the loudest-yelling patriots are generally the biggest crooks.
The Best-dressed Man
◆ It just so happens that the best-dressed man in the Kiwanis club, at New Orleans, La., is a man that has now been sightless for 19 years. Carlo F. Cangelosi has been selling more than $200,000 worth of insurance a year for the past fourteen years. A secretary goes along to fill in the necessary papers.
Witnessing in Wartime
◆ You will see by our address (in the east of England) that we are right on the sea front. It is sad to see the beautiful seaside resorts bereft of visitors and all barricaded with barbed wire. As you know, in the event of an invasion this area would be a first line of defense. Consequently, evacuation of residents may take place at any time. War conditions make it very difficult to get about, and I have to be very careful riding my cycle, as I am over 70 years of age. The roads are very busy with military traffic. However, we hope to finish the district before the inhabitants are sent away, for we are having the most wonderful time in the placement of literature that we have ever experienced.
The other day I had rather an agreeable experience just as we were finishing the last small houses in S——. In the morning I had the misfortune to lose my testimony card, so I had to make the best of it, and go without for the rest of the day. I went to a house and introduced the book Salvation. Before I could explain, the person I was addressing called to another woman across the way, “Come and see this book; it’s about the war.” As a matter of fact, I had not mentioned the war.
The other woman came across, took the book from me, and began asking me questions in a very rude manner. At first I answered several of the questions, but when she demanded my name, where did I come from, who paid me, etc., I asked her for her authority for such a cross-examination. She replied she would give me in charge if I did not answer her, and took hold of my arm and tried to pull me along with her. However, I broke from her and she marched off with the book. Ethel and I followed her to see what she would do. She took the book into a place filled with military people.
However, she soon came out again, looking anywhere but at us. An official then followed with the book, which he said he had looked through. He asked very kindly to see our identity cards (every person in Britain must carry one of these) and Ethel showed him also her testimony card. He then said, “This is a good book; carry on with your work.” Accordingly, we finished the entire place and had a good time. And so another effort on the part of Satan to hinder the work was frustrated. Soon he will completely lick the dust. (Isaiah 65:25)—Esther R——, England.
Report from Paisley, Scotland
◆ Owing to the development of the company we secured a new hall about three months ago, and after spending nearly forty pounds on improvements we received notification from the Military that the premises would be required for the purpose of a Military canteen and gave us instructions to enable them to view the premises on a certain date.
Realizing that we had no option but to submit, we decided to be as nice as possible, in the hope that some compensation would be given to us; with the result that, after the provost (mayor) and the chief of police (who were among those to inspect the premises) had agreed that the hall was suitable for their purpose, they turned to us, remarking that we were very kind to them in this matter, and asked what we intended to do in the future. After pointing out that our only course was to endeavor to secure further accommodation, the provost expressed the desire that we inform him of the expense already incurred and of any other accommodation which we might be able to secure, and he promised to see what he could do for us.
Theocracy publishers at Manila, Philippine Islands
We found that there were two adjoining shops to let which could be altered to suit our requirements, and informed the provost accordingly, also submitting a complete list of the expenses incurred. He wrote us in reply and arranged an interview, when he informed us that his committee very much appreciated the work which we, as Jehovah's witnesses, were doing in the town, and that having caused us to vacate the hall they could not see us stranded, and therefore they would give us a cheque for £40, agreeing to let us have the use of the two shops for half of their previous rental.
This has served as a great encouragement to the Paisley company, for they are now in possession of a hall well suited for their needs, as well as being in a prominent business thoroughfare, at a rental of half of what they had been paying previously.
When handing me the cheque, the provost assured me that if ever he could do anything for us in the future, he would be pleased to do so, and expressed once again his great appreciation of the way in which we had acted toward them.
Marvelous Witnessing in Britain
◆ Catholic Action in Britain, taking advantage of the sudden bad turn in the war during May and June, turned on Jehovah's witnesses, stirring up the people in bitter hatred against Jehovah's people, resulting in many assaults and incidents of reproach. They form riots calling the Lord's "locusts" pro-Nazi, fifth columnists, Fascists and Communists, or any name they can think of to get the people to turn on the Lord's servants. In spite of this growing reproach and wicked reviling the publishers are carrying forward calmly and persistently in their service of bringing comfort to those of good-will and there are many of them who are now demonstrating their good-will. Such “sheep”, when they hear the message, break out in tears, actually pulling the brethren indoors for an hour’s draught of the waters of life which they hear from the phonographs and the verbal testimony of the Lord’s servants.
Witnessing in England during these critical days is an experience that was not possible a few months back. The field seems to have been divided between the “sheep” and “goats” very decidedly. The work now is more dangerous in that one is subject to abuse and nasty slander from the goats, but, on the other hand, the sheep that are found realize that during these past few years Jehovah’s people have been telling the truth. These sheep remember the Face the Facts booklet and the strong warning given by Judge Rutherford that the Catholic Fascists were out to get world domination. Such has now about come to pass, vindicating the bold and uncompromising stand Jehovah’s witnesses took against these enemies of the people. The sheep now eagerly, as if almost too late, are reaching out for the message of truth and want to have a share in declaring it to others before it is too late.
Theocracy pioneers, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil
Antitypiсal locust leaping over a wall in the channel island of Jersey
Campaigning Inland
◆ Recently three of us carried out an extensive three-month campaign in inland Sumatra, during which period we traveled some six thousand miles and were most successful in spreading the message. At present I have to sail by sampan to and from my territory, the big oilfields at Pladjoe. It is marvelous to realize just how the Kingdom news is spreading in Sumatra. When I first arrived in Pladjoe and started witnessing, numbers of people produced WATCH TOWER literature, both books and booklets. On asking where they came from—being the first publisher ever to set foot in the district—I was informed that some had them sent by friends, or had obtained them while on holiday in more civilized parts of Sumatra.
It has often been found here that Dutch people recently out from Holland, although paying little attention to the books when offered them, have seen fit to bring some all the way out from home and then lend them to others with whom they come in contact. Although it may be said that these people have a share in spreading the message, not many appear desirous of becoming really active in the Kingdom work. However, here in South Sumatra a Bible study has been started with a native schoolmaster, and other interested Batak people are commencing to attend.
The climate is very sultry in this part of Sumatra, up to one hundred degrees, summer and winter. Strangely enough, hardly an evening passes without rain. Because of the heat and humidity it is not possible to work between one and five p.m., all shops and offices being closed and the people asleep.
For a servant to wake any members of a European household during those hours is an unforgivable sin and more than his job is worth. I sometimes wonder who will be blamed for disturbing their rest at Armageddon.—Australian Consolation.
Theocracy publishers in West Africa
Theocracy publishers, witnessing in a jungle town near the border of Siam, ask to note the bangles on the lady’s legs
“Great Plainness of Speech”
◆ A British writer, Walter Wingfield, got too fresh in Britain, repeating the lies told in Catholic papers, and received the following interesting note from one of Jehovah’s witnesses, F. R. Freer, that borders on the field of what the apostle refers to as “great plainness of speech”:
It is true that Judas Iscariot obtained money for betraying Jesus Christ, but what good did it do him? Judas said, “I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood,” and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Be sure that the ill-gotten money you have received 1900 years later for seeking to betray Christ’s followers with your pen, and for disparaging the testimony of Jesus, will be of no greater benefit to you.
Your impudence is colossal. After gaining money in this despicable way, you have the cool cheek to inquire where Judge Rutherford and Jehovah’s witnesses obtain their money. In contradistinction to yourself, they obtain it honestly, and not for telling lies.
I wonder if your mind is too obtuse, or your conscience too seared, to render you incapable of taking Gamaliel’s advice. He said: “Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.”
If that does not give you pause, remember that Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, the man of God. Think it over.
Refugees Before the Storm
◆ A Kingdom publisher in Scotland writes that in his community the refugees are beginning to come in, before the great storm. Among them is a man of 81 who sees marked improvement in his health since he accepted the truth. Another is a German woman whose parents had the truth in her native land. When she saw the horrible persecutions of the witnesses in the Land of Terrors she fled just in time. A Scottish lass states that until she read Enemies she could never understand the Bible, but now it is becoming increasingly plain and she is going on from knowledge to knowledge.
Deliverances from Death
◆ On Friday the 12th July at 1 p.m. an enemy bomber suddenly brought death and destruction to a peaceful town in the northeast of Scotland. The plane approached at a great height and dropped twelve bombs on various parts of the town, resulting in 29 persons being killed, 71 injured, and much damage being done.
In this town, as in almost every other town in Scotland, reside several of Jehovah’s witnesses. These true Christians have no fear of what the Devil’s terrible war machine may do to them, because they have implicit faith in the promise of Jehovah God to protect those who put their trust in Him.
One elderly woman, who has been a faithful witness for many years, had a remarkable escape. A bomb fell on her neighbor’s house, almost entirely demolishing it, while her own flat escaped with only the bedroom windows being smashed, despite the fact that the lower flat of the same house, which is occupied by another family, suffered considerable damage. Another witness, residing in the same town, also old and in bad health, was wonderfully preserved by the fact that a bomb which fell in a garden opposite her home failed to explode.
Don’t Be Shy
◆ I was witnessing in notoriously tough territory one week-end. I called at the first house in the block, and a very pleasant woman said, “Ah! you are one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Don’t be shy. Open up your bag and let me see what you have.” She and her husband wanted to learn something of Nazism and Fascism, and the ultimate fall of the nations. I drew her attention to the necessary publications and she called inside to her husband, who came to the door and shook hands with me and said he was very glad to meet someone representing Judge Rutherford. The man took the Australian edition of Consolation and his “better-half” availed herself of the Government and Peace booklet. Both wanted to know where they could glean more information about the work. I have often made the statement that before long the “great multitude” will rush out and drag us in and kiss us! It certainly seems like that now; these people are prepared by the Lord to receive us.—Australian Consolation.
At Ballymena, Ireland
◆ The two pioneers (sisters) engaged the Town Hall for the lecture, “Government and Peace.” An eight-foot poster outside the hall carried a notice of the lecture for the week. Although sound-cars are prohibited in the town, yet I asked the chief of police for permission to advertise the lecture by means of microphone announcements, and this was granted.
The town has a population of 11,000 and is steeped in religion. However, it was grand to see 90 people present at the lecture. Of these, 80 were strangers. A remarkable point was that 70 of the strangers were men. One man cycled ten miles to the lecture. Two people of good-will joined us in the service for the first time on the Sunday morning. Their eagerness was seen in the fact that they were seen to be running from door to door. Regular meetings will now be held weekly.—Zone servant, Zone 27.
Invasion Rules
◆ Some of the rules made by Britain for use in case of invasion by Hitler are of use for the invasion of the whole world by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, of which his activities are such a prominent part. They are (and Jehovah’s witnesses can do well to remember them), Stay put; do not believe rumors or spread them; keep watch; report treachery to your nearest zone official; do not give any agent of the Hierarchy anything he can use; hide your maps; think before you act, and think of the Lord and His work before you think of yourself.
(To be continued) The Only Good News
WHAT organization of this world do you know that brings genuine good news that satisfies? The religious organizations claim they are “saving souls”. Their claim is utterly false, because, as it is written, “salvation belongeth unto Jehovah.” (Psalm 3:8, Am. Rev. Ver.) No religious institution can provide salvation for mankind, and the claim to that effect is a fraud and snare. The lifeblood of the Son of God, Christ Jesus, which was poured out in death, provides the price for the purchase of all who will believe on and serve the Lord God, and such is the means that God has provided for their salvation, and there is no other way of salvation. (See Acts 4:11, 12.) Now, in this day of world crisis, is the time when Jehovah God declares His purpose to destroy all opposition to His kingdom under Christ, and He sends forth faithful men and women as His witnesses to inform the people of this fact and of His means for their salvation before the destruction takes place at the battle of Armageddon, now near.
Such work was foretold, at Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Hence the mission and work of the witnesses of Jehovah is that of preaching this “gospel” of the Kingdom in obedience to this command of the Lord. Gospel means “good news,” and “this gospel of the kingdom” is, to wit, that the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ has come and that, as soon as the Lord God eliminates the enemy Satan and his oppressive organization, God’s kingdom will bring forth lasting blessings to all who desire peace, prosperity, life and happiness. This is not only good news, but the best news that was ever brought to mankind. All honest and sincere persons are anxious to hear it.
Every person who becomes a true follower of Christ Jesus is commissioned or “ordained” and commanded to preach this gospel of the Kingdom for the aid and comfort of the people. Note Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2. Every one who is a true follower of Christ Jesus must proclaim the truth as contained in God’s written Word, and this gospel of the Kingdom is the truth. Jesus said so, at John 18:36, 37. The Roman Catholic Hierarchy and its press charge that Jehovah’s witnesses carry on a campaign of hate. There is not the slightest justification for such a charge. They are not engaged in a hate of any individuals, but are engaged solely in proclaiming the truth. The truth is not proclaimed for the purpose of holding up others to ridicule, but for the purpose of bringing comfort to oppressed humankind. For many long centuries the human race has been under the dominating influence of Satan and his visible agents, and now the time has come for the people to learn how they may escape that oppression and find the salvation and blessings which Jehovah God has provided for them. About these truths Jehovah’s witnesses must tell the people. The truth when told necessarily exposes Satan and wickedness. The truth is sharp and cutting, and concerning the effect of God’s Word of truth it is written: “For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” — Hebrews 4:12, 13.
It is no wonder, then, that when the truth of God’s Word is told it shocks the religious susceptibilities of men who use religion as a racket and reap great pecuniary profit therefrom. It is not at all surprising that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy howl when the Bible is brought to the people and explained to them. For instance, one of the pet doctrines of the Catholic Hierarchy is that of “purgatory”, whereas the Scriptures plainly show that no one dying goes to “purgatory”; that there is no person in “purgatory” suffering punishment, and that certainly no human creature can do the dead good by uttering prayers, because the dead are dead and will live again only through a resurrection. The “purgatory” doctrine has for a long while been the means of extracting large sums of money from poor and rich who rely upon the word of Catholic priests and have no knowledge of the Word of God; and when the truth is told to the people the clergy howl, and, as Jeremiah 25:33-36 says, their howling is due to the fact that their lucrative religious pastures are being spoiled and their revenue taken away.
The clergy tell the people that they are the representatives of God and Christ and that they can pray for those in “purgatory” and relieve their “suffering”, particularly when money is contributed by the living for the purpose of having such prayers uttered. There is no reason why the clergy should thus deceive the people. The facts clearly show that they are by such means obtaining money under false pretenses, because the clergy do not represent God and Christ in any kind of racket. God and Christ cannot be parties to fleecing the people. The Devil well knows that the clergy, practicing religion, turn the people away from an intelligent worship of God and hence the people, when learning the truth, see they have been deceived by religionists and they flee to God. That makes the Devil and his religious agents very angry. The Devil tries to keep the religious practices alive and a going concern.
Preaching “this gospel of the Kingdom” is not limited to words being spoken by individual creatures. The more effective way is to encourage the people to read the plain truth as it is written, and the explanation of which is published in books and in magazine form. Hence Jehovah’s witnesses employ the printed message by publishing and placing in the hands of millions of persons books and magazines, and at the present time these are going into the hands of the people in more than eighty languages. The witnesses go about from place to place, as Jesus and the apostles did (Luke 8:1), and exhibit such publications to the people and encourage them to study the same in connection with the Bible. Also the spoken message is recorded on phonograph discs, and transcription machines and phonographs carried about are used to reproduce these spoken lectures. During the past year many thousands of such sound-equipment machines have been employed to preach “this gospel of the Kingdom” within the hearing of the people. These lectures reproduced daily by many thousands of played records are bringing the good news of the Kingdom to the attention of millions of sincere persons. The result during the past year is that many millions of honest and sincere Catholics and non-Catholics have heard this gospel message of truth and, learning such, many have immediately fled from the religious institutions doomed to destruction and have found refuge and protection and peace under Christ and God’s Theocratic Government, and they henceforth delight to tell others about these great truths. The more this good news is spoken, the greater is the anger of the Devil and his religious traffickers and the more strenuous and malicious are the efforts put forth by these religionists to persecute the bearers of this good news. By means of persecution the Hierarchy hopes to stop the work of Jehovah’s witnesses. These opponents, however, overlook the fact that this is Jehovah God’s “strange work” and no power can successfully resist the same.—Isaiah 43:13; Acts 5:38, 39.
Education
“Cross” or “Tree”?
◆ The term “cross”, carrying its modern-day significance, is not found in the original Scriptures. Where it appears in our English Bibles it is a translation of the Greek term “stauros”, which means a stake, whereas “crucify” translates “stauroo”—to impale, that is, to hang upon a pole or stake.
In the Latin translations of the original Greek manuscripts the word “crux” is used to translate “stauros”. But even this word does not mean a “cross” in the present-day sense of that term. “Crux” referred to suffering or torture, often inflicted by impaling, and both “crux” and “stauros” refer to a stake, pale or pointed post, driven into the ground. The word “stauros” has no implication of a cross-bar or cross-piece affixed to the post. Jesus was undoubtedly hung upon a straight stake or “tree”, probably roughly hewn. See illustrations appearing in the books Deliverance (page 169), Enemies (page 125), and What Is Truth? (page 56), Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, publishers.
The fact that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy has made so much of the sign of the cross, and the further fact that the sign of the cross was prominent in heathen religious ceremonies and practices, tends to confirm the fact that this was brought into the practice of the “Christian religion”, so called, at an early date. The early Christians never employed the sign. They did sometimes use the combination of the letters X, P and I, the first three letters of the Greek word “Χριστός” or Christ, the “P” corresponding to our “R”. As “Christian religion” became more a matter of form, the use of this sign upon tombs and memorials became more frequent. The cross did not become the symbol of the “Christian religion” until four centuries after the death of Christ. When Constantine saw the cross in the sky and imagined the words, “By this sign conquer,” the cross was the sign, not of the “Christian religion”, but of sun-worship. He did not become even a nominal Christian until twenty-five years thereafter, and from about that time the cross, formerly a symbol of sun-worship, began to be used as a symbol of the “Christian religion”, as it was called.
Deuteronomy 21: 23, Acts 5: 30; 10: 39; 13: 29, Galatians 3: 13, and 1 Peter 2: 24 show that Christ was hung on a “tree”. The term “cross” used in Matthew 27: 32 and similar passages means “stake”. The “tree” upon which the Lord was hung was a “xylon”, or dead tree, as distinguished from a “dendron”, or living tree.
“Religion Vital for Schools”
◆ In an address at Grand Rapids, Michigan, Secretary of Labor Perkins said that she and President Roosevelt were in accord that what the children of America need is more religion. This address was delivered in the same month in which the children who, for reasons of conscience, refuse to worship a flag, were thrown to the wolves of mob violence. Just what did Secretary Perkins mean? Manifestly, she could not wish to see other little children beaten, kicked, choked, and denied toilet privileges and medical attention, so she must have meant just what she said. Religion makes people hypocritical and willing to do anything they are ordered to do, regardless of whether it is in the line of obedience to the will of the Creator as expressed in His Word. Secretary Perkins wanted more public prayer. But why would anybody pray for a little tot he intended to choke or kick or beat because the child refused to worship anybody but God? Would God hear such a prayer? The answer is a thousand times No. Many teachers that have beaten Jehovah’s faithful little witnesses will shortly scream for the mercy that Armageddon will refuse.
The Fifth Column in France
ON THE night of May 21, 1940, the Imperial Hotel in Boulogne, in which Allied staff officers were quartered, was hit with three bombs by a dive bomber, which picked out one building in scores of thousands and bombed it. I marveled at the time it was done, but it was so simple. The British intelligence learned from a watcher on a hilltop that just before the bomber went into its dive a strange thing happened. Two lines of lights suddenly appeared in houses near the Imperial Hotel. Their meeting-place was the hotel, so the bomber had no trouble in finding his target.
A French artillery battery was hauled into a town a good distance from the line. A battery of heavy French guns rolled into a tiny hamlet 20 miles behind the line. Its orders had come suddenly. None of the men knew his errand. They had their battery in a copse and awaited their officers. At midday a gnarled old Frenchman strolled out. He lived, he said, in a farmhouse near there. He would sell them some wine. They bought eagerly.
A short while later a private told the captain he had seen the Frenchman drive away in a car bearing a French license. The captain was puzzled, but he thought no more of it until 25 Heinkels appeared and blew up his guns and killed three-quarters of his men. You ask the French how the Germans knew they were there. You are informed that “they” told them.
I walked along a road leading to the front with a British major. A French captain appeared and declared that the order to advance had been countermanded. The British officer said it was impossible. He demanded the order in writing and the Frenchman left. The order was never received.
An R.A.F. officer was forced down behind the German lines and hid in the loft of a barn when the Germans entered a French town near the border. As he watched, a German intelligence major walked up to a French civilian and patted him on the shoulder. “Well done,” he said.
These isolated instances, which would seem to have been plucked from a spy melodrama, are only a tiny part of the aid that ran through France’s defenses. There were rumors; refugees appeared in the midst of French troops and begged a supper. In payment they declared that they had heard “that a hundred thousand Germans had broken through”.
Workers in aircraft factories let their fellows know that the “dirty Boche has this place picked out for bombing. We will all be killed if we don’t get out. To hell with making aeroplanes”.
Who told French troops that an armistice had been signed the morning after the Germans took Brussels? Who buoyed up civilians with false hopes so that their feelings against the Government would be more bitter when the full truth was learnt? Who told the French the British were deserting them on the very morning when British troops drove forward into Belgium? Who told the credulous and scared that M. Reynaud had shot himself? That M. Daladier had appeared in Berlin? And that France’s fleet had been sunk? Who?—“they.”
Headquarters after headquarters were bombed. Troops moving silently and by night were machine-gunned. Columns of refugees suddenly appeared on military roads. They had been directed there by “French” officers from side roads allotted to them.
“They” did their work well. The means were there and the Germans took advantage of them. The result is a terrible warning to Britain and any other nation resisting aggression of the enemy on its doorstep.—Manchester Guardian.
[The Guardian, one of the best-posted journals in the world, has merely scratched the surface of the greatest conspiracy of all time—the Devil’s totalitarian scheme.—Ed.] Germany
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