Consolation, January 6, 1943
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Contents
The Earth as Man’s Eternal Home
That Too Big Glacier Story
A Still More Incredible Tale
And Now the Other Home
To Ride a Bicycle Safely
Australia, New Zealand, Canada
Busy Women in Australia
4 Gold and Diamonds'Reach Australia
District Attorney Doekweiler’s Statement
Equal Protection Guaranteed
Something New in Mobbings
The New Government
Self-Defense Would Have Been Justified
Comm on-Sense Judge in Mississippi
Mexico, Panama, West Indies, Iceland
The Pistol “Blesser” Released
Where the Asphalt Comes From
Iceland Turns the Cold Shoulder
“Thy Word Is Truth”
Does God Torment in Hell
How to Save Gas and Tires
Religion’s Guilt (Part 2)
Catholic Fifth Column Elsewhere
Presenting “This Gospel of the Kingdom” 27 “Index of Proper Names, Expressions, - and Their Meanings”
New World Theocratic Concordance
A Refugee'Trip Through Siberia
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Notanda
Constitutional Rights Are Rights *
♦ "The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people equally in war and peace; it covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men at all times and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the mind of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy and despotism. But the theory of necessity on which it is based is false, for the government within the Constitution has all :*the powers granted to it which are necessary to preserve its existence?5 So said . the Supreme Court of the United Stsdfe in Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wall. 2 (1866). —Opinion quoted in case of Grace Trent et al. (J. w.), in the U. S. DistrictCourt, Southern District of Indiana,igSdian-apolis Division, Civil No. 349.
Reimbursing the Persecuted
♦ The North Bay (Calif.) Labor Journal things, and with good reason, that when the innocent have been dragged into court, and subjected to inconvenience, loss of income, attorney fees, public humiliation and other setbacks, the least society can do is to reimburse them for inexcusable blunders of court officials. That seems reasonable, but involves the possibility of many more expensive suits, and so is probably impractical.
The New Fluorescent Lamps
♦ The new fluorescent lamps are made by sealing together two flat disks or plates molded in the desired shape. The inside walls of the disks are coated with a fluorescent substance, and before the plates are sealed together a small amount of mercury and a gas are admitted. When the current is turned on, the fluorescent coating glows with a uniform light.
CONSOLATION
“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A. R.V.
Volume XXIV
Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 5, 1943
Number 008
The Earth as Man’s Eternal Home
That “old world”, “the world of the ungodly,” perished, but the earthly globe upon which the ungodly generation of men were corrupting their way remained and was cleansed of that crowd [of evil men at the time of the Flood], “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” (Ecclesiastes 1:4) “The earth which he hath established for ever.” (Psalm 78: 69) The literal earth is the creation of Him whose “work is perfect” and who pronounced the earth good. His divine mandate to fill it with righteous men and women and to beautify it forever as the footstool of his universal domination shall be fulfilled. The time of fulfillment thereof during the new world is so near that persons of good-will living today look forward eagerly to having an obedient part in that blessed privilege.—The New World.
NUMEROUS other scriptures, in full agreement with the above, bear testimony that “the upright shall dwell in the land, arid the perfect shall remain in it” (Proverbs 2:21); that “blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5); and that “thou [Jehovah] hast established the earth, and it abideth”.—Psalm 119: 90.
So it is quite in order to discuss the subject of the earth as man’s eternal home, to wonder why so many interest themselves in anything that seems to point to its eternal destruction, and to ponder somewhat on some of the changes in the earth now under way. And it will be quite in order also to think, just a little^ of another everlasting dwellingplace of some, a few, 144,001, of those only that will forever participate in eternal life elsewhere after having lived for a time on this beautiful planet.
That Too Big Glacier Story
The Alexandria (Va.) Daily Town Talk, January 8, 1942, said with some apparent fright, It has been said that
JANUARY 8, 1943 the level of the oceans would be raised 164 feet if all the world’s ice melted. It is not a pretty thought for citizens of sea coast cities and towns (like Alexandria).’
Don’t you believe a word of it. It isn’t true, and reasoning on the subject will' prove that it could not be true. In the first place, even horse sense suggests that the total glacial area of all the continents could hardly be more than a small fraction of the surface. The surface of the earth consists of 139,440,000 square miles of water and 57,510,000 square miles of land. Total area of the earth, 196,950,000 square miles.
Greenland has 827,000 square miles, said to be covered with ice averaging 1,000 feet thick. This may be doubted, because ice-free mountain peaks emerge here and there. It would be just as easy for a careful man to say that the ice averages 200 feet thick as it would be for a careless man to say that it averages five times that. - Split the difference between the two extremes and call it 600 feet. That ought to be enough.
The continent of Antarctica is 2,500 . miles across one way and 2,400 miles the other. That makes, all together, around 6,000,000 square miles of conditions that are about the same as in Greenland. Add another 173,000 square miles for glaciers elsewhere, and it comes to 7,000,000 square miles that may possibly b$ covered with ice 600 feet thick.
That is only one twTenty-eighth part of the surface of the earth, and when 600 is divided by 28 it is apparent that the total ice coverage of the earth could be only about 21j feet if all the ice the glaciers contain were suddenly to melt.
Considering the surface of the oceans alone, the rise in their waters, if the entire ice-mass were melted, would be at the most thirty feet; but as much of the increased water mass would be taken care of by evaporation resulting from higher temperatures,- even this figure may be greatly reduced.
. As showing how wild are some would-be scientists and would-be writers, take the following from Volume 2 of The Encyclopedia Americana, page 12:
The thickness of the ice near the [south] Pole is .estimated by Croll upon theoretical grounds at from 12 to 14 miles, but off the eoast of Victoria Land the iee-wall is only 10 to 20 feet high.
Probably it never occurred to Mr. Croll that there is much difference between 12 to 14 miles and 10 to 20 feet. If he wanted to pile up some glory for himself he could just as well have made the ice 120 to 140 miles thick, or ten times that. There would have been as much common sense to it.
Incidentally, there is good evidence that much of the polar ice is melting, while at the same time, comically enough, the information has been widely spread that the water is disappearing from the earth’s surface at the rate of the thickness of a sheet of writing paper a day.
You can just forget aboutJ being drowned by melted-ice water. Further, you have Jehovah’s own word for it that "neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth”.—Genesis 9:11.
A Still More Incredible Tale
A still more incredible tale, chargeable to the religionists but not in the least chargeable to God’s Word, is that Almighty God purposes to destroy this earth with literal fire. The scriptures already cited prove that this could not possibly be true. Misinterpretation of prophetic and symbolic statements, fully explained in The New World, are the basis for the wild ideas of these religionists.
But it is not denied that strange things are going on in the earth while it is being made ready for man’s everlasting habitation. There is a story from Philadelphia that, a few months ago, between 11:30 and 12:30 on a certain midday huge bumps inside the earth disturbed so many citizens that more than 400 persons called the Electrical Bureau at the city hall to try to ascertain what it meant. The Bureau was as much in the dark as anyone else. There had been no earthquake, yet in 23 minutes there had been 36 huge bumps, 10 of them tremendous, far inside the earth. You figure it out.
It probably was an earthquake that caused a tidal wave on Lake Erie some six months after the foregoing episode. Suddenly, without warning, a black wall of water swept the south shore of the lake, drowning 7 persons and injuring 12 others. Conceivably, the wave could have been caused by a heavy cliff of underwater rock falling off into the deeper bed of the lake. This shows that the earth is still in a restless state. It has not reached the poise that is coming.
It is quite easy to understand why the ocean turned red off the shores of New Jersey, tingeing the coast for twenty miles and extending far out to sea. This was no sign that the world “is coming to an end” (an expression often used by religionists and others who resist using their own brains). This was merely a plant, Rhodophyceae, or red algae, that may have drifted in from the Gulf Stream, or may have risen from the ocean’s bottom because of the detonation of guns off Sandy Hook. The thing has happened before.
There are recurrent changes in the ocean. Thus, the Humboldt current changes direction every ten to thirteen years. It recently switched farther to the west than ever before, with the result that the warm moisture-bearing Panama current is now bringing rains to the desert of Ecuador, Peru, and the Galapagos islands. See how easy it is for the Lord to turn the earth into a paradise!
Changes in Air Currents
There are numerous changes in the air currents also, as is well known to all. Thus the official explanation of the great drought in the eastern part of the United States in the autumn of 1941 is that there was a stagnant air mass which repelled the clouds. This was so serious that for a time the streams supplying the Columbus, Ohio, reservoir emptied only 3,000,000 gallons per day, although the drain on the reservoir at that same time was 50,000,000 gallons per day.
Jehovah definitely used changes in the air currents over Palestine to affect the interests of His covenant people. An instance is where, in the days of Elijah the prophet, there was no rain for three and one-half years. But when Elijah prayed for rain everybody had to run for shelter from the storm. Control of the weather in the interests of the typical Theocracy is but a small picture of what will happen for the true Theocracy after Armageddon.
Studies made over a period of fifty years seem to indicate that when barometric pressures over the East Indies are high in the fall, the chances are good for a warm winter in the northern part of the United States. When there are high pressures over the Pacific in June, July and August, there are usually warm winters east of the Rocky mountains and north of Virginia. High pressures over the Indian Ocean in April, May and June tend to bring warmer winters for all the United States except the Rocky mountain and Pacific coast areas. High pressures in northeastern Canada and west*^n Greenland mean cold weather for the United States west of the Mississippi. Winter pressures over northern Alaska tend to cause low temperatures the following fall in most of the eastern United States. These are some conclusions arrived at in the Weather Bureau at Washington, based upon “a stupendous number of weather observations made over the world in the past fifty years”.
While equable climatic conditions in the earth are certain under Theocratic rule, yet some of the current phenomena which are quite the opposite provide something of the fascination that comes from witnessing or reading of a calamity. On January 27, 1942, a section of Newfoundland had one of the most remarkable “glitter” storms in history. As usual on such occasions, it first snowed; next came a heavy sleet; then a rising wind, and soon ice. was forming everywhere. Electric and telephone wires were enshrouded in ice 5 to 6 inches in diameter. The wind freshened and poles and trees went down with the wires. Whole tracts of trees bent over until their tops touched the ground. Thick bushes and stout trees were flattened to the ground. In places where the telephone poles remained standing, erossarms were stripped off by the weight on the superladen wires. But there is nothing in this fascinating “glitter” storm to frighten anybody into thinking that Jehovah will not carry out His purpose to make this ’ earth a paradise for all who have the sheeplike disposition.
And Naiv the Other Borne
The Scriptures show some, 144,001, have gone or will go to heaven, i. e., their eternal home is somewhere among the
stars; so it is proper to think a little about some of the stars. There is, for instance, Canopus (which can be seen only south of Florida). Its atmosphere, ' it is claimed, is 1/100,000 that of the earth; it boils at a temperature of 10,000 degrees and moves in giant bubbles at 5 speeds of several miles a second. Any-♦ way, that is what the astronomers say.
If you are one of the 144,001, it is entirely possible that you might sometime visit Canopus and thoroughly enjoy every minute of your stay.
In the Milky Way there are known to be about 100,000,000,000 individual stars and suns, many of them much larger than the giant sun which swings the earth about it as one of its planets. And then! Hold your breath 1 It is known that there are now about 100,000,000 “Milky Ways”. That is all that can be seen just now, but more will probably be revealed when they get the new telescope ready at Mount Palomar. But 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 suns is a start. The distance across the known universe is set at about 1,000,000,000 light years. Each light year is the distance light travels, at 186,300 miles per second, 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. That is 5,875,156,800,000 miles in a light year, and the distance across the already known and seen universe is not less than 5,875,156,800,000,000,000,000 miles.
Let each fit himself for his eternal home, earthly, or, if he is one of the 144,001, heavenly, but not get the idea that the Creator cannot get along without him.
And, by the way, what do you think of this idea that any Roman Catholic priest who chooses to do so may order this Creator to- come down here and be sacrificed afresh, as often as the priest pleases? “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.” (Psalm 147:4) Can you not see what an unspeakable blessing it is to receive everlasting life from such a Creator, and on His terms, and not any imaginary terms made for Him by somebody who knows not what he is talking about?
To Ride a Bicycle Safely
THE curtailment of automobiles, tires and gasoline has increased the number of bicycles in use by more than a million since 1940. A poll of forty cities just completed by the council showed bike registrations up 18 percent.
Cleveland, for example, had 44,000 bikes in 1940. Now it has 62,000. Miami, Fla., jumped from 2,000 to 14,000; Oklahoma City, from 3,000 to 10,000.
The national safety council urges every pedal pusher, tyro or veteran, to heed well the following rules:
Obey all traffic laws, signs and signals.
Ride at the extreme right of the street, with traffic—not on the left, facing it. Don’t zigzag.
Ride single file--never two or more abreast.
Keep both hands on the handle bars. Don’t stunt or indulge in horseplay.
Never hitch a ride on another vehicle.
Carry packages in a basket, or attached securely to the bike where they will not interfere with steering, pedaling or vision.
Never ride double or carry a passenger on the handle bars.
Keep your headlamp and rear reflector in good working order if you ride at night. A rear light is better than a reflector. And by all means, have a horn or bell on your bike—and use it.
Use arm signals when you turn.
Dismount ■ and walk across busy corners.
Take it easy, and be even more careful than when driving an automobile. A bike is no match for a car!
Remember, your bike is subject to the same general traffic rules as an automobile. Obey them!—Altoona Mirror.
CONSOLATION
Australia, New Zealand, Canada
Busy Women in Australia
♦ Interesting stories come from Australia as to how busy the women are, now that their men are all in the war. The women do their own washing, and are proud of it. They go to town on foot and push old perambulators along in which they bring back the family eatables and the firewood with which to cook it. They submit to rationing of clothing as quietly as the men. But, indeed, when did the women of any land ever fail to show their courage and to be an inspiration in a time of stress?
Another story from Australia is of a poor little aboriginal woman named Connie. The poor creature was scratching the beach at a place in northwestern Australia, looking for cigarette butts. She came across a tube, dropped from a disabled plane, that contained $50,000 worth of diamonds. It was part of a large consignment from the Java Bank of Commerce, sent out just as the country was falling into the hands of the Japanese. The story did not say what the poor woman received as a reward.
Gold and Diamonds Reach Australia
♦ It is still true that in times of war gold and diamonds are in great demand because they have intrinsic value and can be quickly moved. A submarine took the gold out of Corregidor almost the last thing, and got to Australia with it, A record was made of the American currency, and it was burned, so that if the submarine had been captured the captors would not have profited by it. A few days later $1,000,000 in diamonds was recovered from one of the last planes to get out of Java. The Japanese shot the plane dowm over northern Australia, killing nine passengers. The diamonds had been given up for lost, but were recovered from the wreck six weeks after the crash and are now in the vaults of one of the big Australian banks.
JANUARY 6, 1843
Recognizing the “Higher Powers”
♦ Recognizing Hitler and his cronies as the “higher powers”, and not recognizing Jehovah God and Christ Jesus as the Higher Powers, the Lutheran missionaries in New Guinea not only had radio transmitters with -which to guide the Japanese to their part-of the island, but had on hand hundreds of swastika flags and photographs of Hitler. They were so anxious to boost Hitler that they had even taught the native children of New Guinea to give the Nazi salute.
Men and Women in New Zealand
♦ Reports from New Zealand are that thousands of her young men are with the Royal Air Force in England; others are manning ships; there is a large force of them in Fiji, and a still larger force in the Middle East. Veterans wounded in Greece, Crete and Libya are on the streets, but it is noticeable that there is a shortage of young men. Women run the hotels and tramways, and can do it, too, as well as the men.
Canada Has Too Much Wheat
♦ Canada has a storage capacity for wheat of 600,000,000 bushels. Left over from last year were 400,000,000 bushels. The new harvest added 1,000,000,000 bushels. It was not expected to deliver more than 300,000,000 bushels. That leaves about 500,000,000 bushels -with no place to go, and a fair presumption that much of it would have to stay on the farms and be used as stock feed.
Why Australia Produces So Much Wool ♦ John McArthur imported a few sheep into Australia in 1796, and in ten years his flock had grown to 4,000. The government saw the possibilities of having an independent and almost limitless supply of wool, and encouraged the venture, and within a century there were 100,000,000 sheep grazing “down under”.
District Attorney Dockweiler’s Statement
AS THE result of a number of conferences with District Attorney John F. Dockweiler by representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and of Jehovah’s witnesses, District Attorney John F. Dockweiler [Los Angeles, Calif.] last week issued a public statement condemning vigilantism and mob violence against members of that religious group.
Vigilante Violence
The following evidence was submitted to District Attorney Dockweiler in sworn affidavits:
In one community, on April 25, a mob of local citizens attacked three members of Jehovah’s witnesses on the public streets and in broad daylight, while the latter were peacefully and lawfully distributing their literature—as they had a right to do under the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of this state. Because part of the creed of this religions group includes a belief that flag saluting is a violation of the mandate of Jehovah, as set forth in the Bible—‘Thou shalt not worship false images’—the Witnesses were threatened with being run out of town.
Unafraid of these lawless threats, three members of Jehovah’s witnesses were assaulted and beaten. In one instance, a Witness had his arms pinned back by a mobster, while another stood in front of him and struck him in the face, until the defenseless and helpless victim, bruised and bleeding, was almost unconscious. In another, a vigilante armed with a large braided rope struck a defenseless member of this religious group over the head, severely injuring him.
Lawless Police
This mob violence was as brutal as it was cowardly and criminal. Nonetheless, the local police authorities did nothing to apprehend or prosecute the criminals; instead, they threatened to arrest the innocent victims.
In another community, on May 1, a Witness was threatened that if he should remain in town after dark he would be horsewhipped; once again, not the “citizen” who made the lawless threat, but the innocent victim of the threat was additionally threatened with detention in the local police station.
In a third community in this county, on April 25, a member of this religious group, peacefully offering for sale the publications of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, was assaulted. The person assaulted, not the assaulter, was arrested and prosecuted and charged with unlawful assault.
In the same town, on May 23, a sixteen-year-old boy, standing at respectful attention during a community flag saluting ceremony, was struck and beaten by an overzealous and misguided patriot, who attempted by force to coerce the boy into saluting the flag.
Dist. Attorney’s Statement '
The district attorney’s statement follows:
Because of my official position as district attorney of Los Angeles county, there have come to my attention recently several serious incidents of vigilantism, or cases where citizens assumed to take the law into their own hands, meting out punishment upon their victims as they saw fit, and in most cases very cruelly. I have had called to my attention a number of serious controversies between the Jehovah’s witnesses and groups of citizens, and have had cause to carefully investigate the circumstances surrounding these controversies and these incidents. What I have to say I wish to apply to all citizens, as well as peace officers, in Los Angeles county. I know such persons are good, honest, lawabiding and patriotic, but sometimes it appears that they do not fully understand their duties, and they seem to let their patriotism get the best of their better judgment.
Vigilantism Hit by Wilson
Back in 1918 President Woodrow Wilson condemned outcroppings of vigilantism, when he said:
“No man who loves America, no man who really cares for her fame and honor and character, or who is truly loyal to her institutions, can justify mob action while the courts of justice are open and the governments of the states and the nation are ready and able to do their duty.
“We proudly claim to be the champions of democracy. If we really are, in deed and in truth, let us see to it that we do not discredit our own. I say plainly that every American who takes part in the action of a mob or gives it any sort of countenance is no true son of this democracy, but its betrayer. ...”
Even though we are at war with many enemies, and there are in our midst, according to the attorney general's own statement recently made before the Brooklyn Bar Association the early part of this year, some 1,000,000 enemy aliens, and even though the populace of this country is overstrained because of the tremendous pressure of the needs of civilian defense and the success of the program of the war effort in every respect, we must admit that to date law enforcement has not in any respect broken down or become weakened, either in the townships, cities or the county or the state in which we live.
Equal Protection Guaranteed
I charge you that it is your duty to protect the rights of every citizen, white or black, foreign- or American-born. The Constitution of the United States gives every citizen, regardless of his color or race, regardless of his religion, the same protection. Even though you do not agree with some of the teachings of some of the religions in this country, you must follow the precept of equal protection under the law, because we all believe in a democracy. In the ease of the Jehovah’s witnesses, the Supreme Court has held that this is an accepted and legal religion.
In certain federal districts the situation has grown more intense and the violations of JANUARY 6, IMS constitutional rights have become more frequent than in our own county and community, to such an extent that the attorney general of the United States directed his United States district attorney for the northern and northwestern part of Texas to deliver a scries of radio speeches to the people in his district on the subject of the rights and liberties and protection of religious and racial groupings, with emphasis on the religious group known as Jehovah’s witnesses. So far as the federal government is concerned, it has ample and complete criminal statutory provisions condemning the acts and conduct of vigilantes. So far as the state of California is concerned, we have ample and complete specific provisions to cover violations of the same character, and it is the duty of the chief of the lawenforcing agency, the district attorney’s office, to see to it that persons are prosecuted who violate the provisions of the Penal Code under any circumstances.
What I have said thus far has been more or less general, but, specifically in the case of the Jehovah’s witnesses, I wish to say that they have a right to speak on. the streets of any city in the state of California, on the ' sidewalks, in churches. They have a right to do this unmolested by any chief of police, sheriff, deputy sheriff or any other peace officer, and, it goes without saying, by any citizen or group of citizens. They have a right to pass out their literature unmolested. So long as they conduct themselves according to the laws of this land and the Constitution of the United States they will receive, at the hands of their government, full protection. I know it is not necessary for me to say these things to the chiefs of police, to the peace officers, to the sheriffs or their deputies, or to the members of patriotic organizations, but sometimes wt forget our obligations when our patriotism gets the best of our better judgment.
Assurance has been received by the A.C.L.U. from Mr. Doekweiler that maximum publicity will be given to the statement.-—The Open Forum, Los Angeles, July 4, 1942.
Something New in Mobbings
RECENTLY down Texas way a week of legal battles ensued as a result of the Supreme Court decision of June 8, 1942, upholding as constitutional the license-tax laws voiding the first amendment to the United States constitution, and likened by the chief justice to the odious “Stamp Taxes” of American Revolutionary fame. In the thick of the fight were Jehovah’s witnesses. They desired to preach the gospel in Paris, Texas; they desired not to pay for the privilege of exercising this inalienable right. So they contested the applicability of this sales tax ordinance to Jehovah’s witnesses in their gospel-preaching.
In a futile attempt to prove the ‘commercial’ aspects of the witnesses’ activity the prosecuting attorney drew the following contrast as a basis for protecting the clergy from charge of “selling” while convicting Jehovah’s witnesses, which actually exposed the “bare cupboard” condition of the religious pantry. It was, in substance, this: ‘The people go to church on Sunday; they contribute their money to the parson. And what do they receive in return for their contribution? Nothing, absolutely nothing! That’s not selling! But take the case of these Jehovah’s witnesses, and what do we find? They call upon the people and receive a contribution of 25c. And what do the people get? They get this great big book (holding aloft the bound book)! That’s commercialism! Selling!’
Was the judge impressed? Being a religionist and also a clergyman, he was, and forthwith found the witnesses guilty. It isn’t preaching the gospel, but commercialism, if you tell the people of God’s kingdom and accept voluntary contributions to carry on the work and leave a valuable Bible help in the hands of the contributor. But if a parson has the people come to him, duns them for their last penny, and admittedly gives them ‘absolutely nothing’ in return therefor other than sleep-provoking harangu-ings from his pulpit, that, according to the astute Paris judge, is preaching the gospel. The witnesses appealed from such reasoning.
Now for the anticlimax of this story. During the week of this battle to preserve one of the “four freedoms” the Watchtower Society’s attorney was assisted by Mr. Tom S. Williams, a stockily-built, red-haired attorney from Sulphur Springs, Texas. The name of Mr. Williams was publicized along with the cases in Paris, and also in Dallas, and before his return to Sulphur Springs the folks back home knew he had been active in the defense of Jehovah’s witnesses. Here’s the reception accorded him, as shown by the following letter he subsequently sent to the Society’s attorney: .
November 16, 1942 Hayden Covington
117 Adams Street
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Dear Hayden:
When things start happening here there seems to be no end to the way it stacks up, The climax came when I returned home from Dallas, to be attacked and assaulted by a gang of Nazi ruffians, who, according to their true, colors, acted the part of a friend up until the first blow was delivered. It all came about in this way:
I arrived in my office about 11: 00 p. m. and spent about thirty minutes reading my mail. I decided to eat before going home and drove around to Bill Chamberlin’s Cafe on Main Street for that purpose. When I entered the caf£ I found that Bill no longer owned it, but had that night sold to Leroy Pogue and Bill Payne, “my friends.”
Leroy was behind the counter" He invited me in, informed me of his purchase and stated he was glad to see me. I ordered my supper and while I was eating he offered me a drink of liquor. I declined. There were four other men in the eaf£ whom I did not know and they and Pogue went into the kitehen. When I finished my meal I paid my bill and started to leave. Pogue called me back. He asked me to come into the kitchen as he wanted to show me some changes he was going to make and wanted to see what I thought about it. So at his request I went into the kitehen with him.
Before I entered the kitchen door I observed that the other four men were following, but I had absolutely no suspicion of their intentions. It developed that the front door was locked and I could not have gotten out had I suspected foul play. By the time I was in the kitchen I was surrounded by the five of them and Pogue faced me and said; “You have been representing these d----Jehovah's
witnesses and you are one of the------yourself and we are going to beat the ............. out
of you.” By the time he had finished this oration he had struck and missed and I contacted him and he fell to the floor, but was on his feet again shortly. In the meantime I had floored one of the others and maneuvered away from the other three, who were trying to rush me from the back. By that time Pogue was advancing upon me again with an ppen knife in his hand and holloing at the top of his voice. That time I really let him have it right on the nose and he floated through the baek screen door, which was also locked. That was the last of him, except for a lot of racket.
After that I was rushed from behind and pulled to the floor, and from then on I do not know what happened until I was standing outside the front door trying to get back into the place. Someone came by and saw what had happened and led me to my car and I went home.
It developed that Pogue and one of the others got a broken nose, and, aside from having to have their noses fixed, they also had to have several stitches over their eyes to keep the eyelids from falling off. To be sure, I did not eome out unsinged. My tail feathers were scorched also, but nothing serious.
I am indeed thankful to Almighty God for the strength He gave me to handle the situation and for delivering me from that pack of demonized wolves. Be sure they received a severe trouncing along with the surprise of their life, and for this wonderful accomplishment all credit goes to the Most High.
Let me hear from you often, and may God’s great blessing be with you always.
Your brother in the battle for the New World, Tom.
This attorney used to have a lucrative practice. Now he has lost that; hut he has gained far more. He is serving the poor, Jehovah’s witnesses, and Jehovah God.
This is not the first time Mr. Williams has been in the spotlight of Sulphur Springs. His little girl refused to salute the flag. A typical small-town stew followed. The school principal threatened to lick the girl; her 18-year-old brother threatened to lick the principal. The little burg buzzed over this.
Shortly thereafter the boy was going to a school banquet with a girl. Upon arrival at her house, her father met him at the door and said that in view of the fact that his father defended the witnesses in court, and that his sister didn’t salute the flag, his daughter couldn’t go to the banquet with him. Mr. Williams fought for that flag, was a private in the World War, fought in Germany in the front lines, and remained with the occupation army some months after the war’s end. This girl’s pop was in some kind of exempt grouping when the war started, and after its ending joined a reserve corps and later became a captain. The boy went to the banquet alone. The next day the girl tried to smooth things over with the boy. He waved it aside as nothing, remarking that her dad was a peacetime captain while his was a wartime private. This boomeranged on the superpatriot and the town buzzed again, at lis expense. •
Now once more, as a result of the mobbing described in the foregoing letter, the town is talking about Tom Williams. And what are they saying? That five men mobbed him? No; but that he mobbed five men! .
A
* Self-Defense Would Have Been Justified
♦ About 4: 30 in the afternoon of February 25, 1942, George Bogue, 44 years of age, and his son William, 21, who live at 348 West Sixth South street, S^alt Lake City, Utah, called at the home of George Watson, 65 years of age, and one of Jehovah’s witnesses, wTho lives at 357 West Fifth South street. The Bogues, who are both big, husky men, were under the influence of liquor.
Young Bogue, who was in the lead, and a total stranger to Watson, walked into the house without the usual formality of knocking, and proceeded to beat up Watson, while his father looked on. When leaving the house the younger was heard to say, “I know a Nazi when I see one.”
As soon as the gangsters had left, Junior Jensen, a young Jonadab, and the only other eyewitness to the dastardly crime, ran a block to the nearest telephone and called the police. In a few moments two officers in their scout ear were at the door. They took Watson, whose face was covered with blood from a number of cuts and bruises (some of his ribs were badly bruised and one fractured) to the emergency hospital, had his wounds dressed and brought him back to his home.
Then they started to hunt for the two outlaws. It was only a few minutes until they found them sitting in a car in front of another man’s house. The older one tried to get away, but was caught. The officers soon had them behind the bars, where they belong. These wretches seem . to have been offended because some of their family had attended meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses. Mr. Watson would have been within his legal rights to have shot and killed them both when they entered his home and attacked him, but the way he chose was the better one and brings less reproach upon the truth.
Martins Ferry Benevolent Police
♦ It is a great thing for a town to have a police force that is opposed to truth and righteousness but is kindly and benevolent toward evildoers. Martins Ferry, Ohio, shines and desires to shine in the latter class. The papers tell about it. Jehovah’s witnesses came there to preach the gospel by offering Kingdom literature to those that might possibly want a place in the Kingdom. A “big crowd”, “quite angry,” had considerable “trouble as they were trying to drive the party away”, and so the police were called. “Police gave the party several opportunities to leave town without getting themselves in trouble, but they refused.” They did this because “the crowd was threatening”. Brave (?), courageous (?), benevolent (?) custodians of public order in Martins Ferry. The name of the inciting priest is unknown. The net result was that “a 15-year-old girl who refused to give her name was placed in the women’s department over night”. “She is a cripple with braces on both legs.” Seven others were arrested. The magistrate dismissed all cases. It was not this occasion that made monkeys out of the Martins Ferry police. They were that already.
“Mustn’t Make Tots Jehovah Witnesses” ♦ That’s the headline, the way it appeared in the Vancouver (B.C.) Sun, May 27, 1942. How does that match up with Jehovah’s own statement to His own people, “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, that I am God”? A “learned judge” of Vancouver was considering the taking of two children away from their mother and giving them to their father, and said he would do so immediately if he learned that the children were being taught any of the tenets of Jehovah’s witnesses.
"Out here in Hollywood, Calif., center of the world movie industry, where one can wear bright-red polka-dot pajamas or a skin-tight sun suit at any public place without suffering humiliation or reproach; where one can walk down Hollywood Boulevard leading a pet bear; Jehovah’s witnesses quietly and in an orderly manner present the gospel of the Kingdom to whosoever will hear; and we find some hearing ears, too, as in the ease of the lady in the white coat.”
Common-Sense Judge in Mississippi
♦ Jolin W. Crisler, circuit court judge in Mississippi, had before him A. J. Powell, indicted for circulating God and the State, (End of Axis Powers) Comfort AU That Mourn, and Conspiracy Against Democracy, which some wild-eyed, halfbaked fanatics with no education, no common sense and no brains had said were seditious. Judge Crisler examined them with care and his opinion was:
These several pamphlets, consisting in all
January a, 1943 of several hundred pages, discuss various subtopics, such as heaven, truth, immortality, resurrection, salvation, and hell. Out of these hundreds of pages not a word, line or paragraph is pointed out in the indictment as being seditious. Nor is the substantial meaning, which might give a cue to the nature of the charge, alleged in the indictment. The indictment simply charges that the pamphlets are seditious. The court, not alone the defendant, is left wholly in the dan-k as to what the state will rely on to convict the defendant.
(To be continued)
Mexico, Panama, West Indies, Iceland
The Pistol “Blesser” Released
♦ Before he shot and killed presidentelect of Mexico Alvaro Obregon, Jose de Leon Toral went to the “Reverend । Father” Jose Aurelio Jimenez and got i his pistol “blessed”. The priest received a 20-year sentence for being an accessory before the fact, but the “Church’s” influence in Mexico is rising again and he has now been released, on the ground that in Mexico it is so customary to “bless” firearms that, being a priest, he was not guilty after all. Obregon remains dead, however.
160,000 Acres of Ramie
♦ There seems not much doubt that ramie is the coming fabric. Suits made from it show no wear after six years of constant use. A single plantation in the state of Tabasco, Mexico, now has 160,000 acres planted to this famous Egyptian textile growth. Quantity production is anticipated in the near future, and inasmuch as new and greatly improved methods have been discovered for freeing the fibers from waste, it appears that the long-anticipated day of ramie is about to dawn.
More Locks for Panama
♦ With the knowledge that World War II, if it continues, will be a titanic fight for the control of the Panama Canal, as one of the major objectives, the United States Government is building an additional set of locks, so that if bombs put one set out of commission the ships can still get through.
The new Gatun locks at Panama will be one and a half miles long, will consume more than 125,000,000 pounds of metal, 2,800,000 barrels of cement, and 4,500,000 tons of sand and gravel, and construction will cost $4,570,500. The new locks will pass larger ships than those now in use, and are to be completed within three years.
Suez and Panama Canals
♦ The tolls for passing through Suez Canal are about twice as high as for passing through Panama, yet the former is much cheaper to operate, as it is a sea level canal, and its cost of construction was only a fraction of that of Panama. In peacetimes Suez Canal paid eighty percent dividends, much of which went to the two hundred families that are the curse of France.
Where the Asphalt Comes From
♦ Marveling at the thousands of miles of asphalt paves, the inquirer into the subject learns that four-fifths of it is obtained from crude oil or petroleum. There are deposits in Switzerland, France, Italy, Texas, Kentucky, and Utah, a big deposit in Lake Bermudez, in Venezuela, and a great lake of it in Trinidad which, it is estimated, still contains 6,000,000 tons of this material.
Over Pitch Lake, Trinidad, one may drive a wagon if he keeps on driving, but if left in one place the outfit will gradually sink out of sight. Men may walk on it, too, but the risk is ever present. When chunks are cut out, to be taken away, the holes gradually refill from the “pitch springs” below the hard surface. Maybe the roof of your house is made of asphalt shingles. They are good shingles, too. So far as known, they never wear out. And they may be had in gay colors. The Lord must like gay colors: He made so many flowers.
Eleven Months Finding a Home
♦ Eighty-six Jewish refugees left France for America in January, 1941. At Bakar, Africa, they were imprisoned until their Argentinian visas had expired; an act of pure cussedness. When they got to Argentina they were not received. Paraguay offered to receive them and Argentina objected; some more pure eussed-ness. Uruguay refused to receive them.
Brazil did the same. At last a Jewish Congressman got them into Curacao, one of the Dutch West Indies, and there they are. They were eleven months making the trip, persecuted at every step because they are Jews.
Smoke Screen Saved the Ship
♦ In the Caribbean a submarine fired a torpedo into the hull of a United States merchantman, cutting its speed to 3J knots an hour. The skipper ordered a lot of oil thrown into the fires, so that the ship was hidden by a black pall of smoke. He then skillfully maneuvered the ship in an area studded with reefs, and finally got away from the submarine in safety, after having been chased by it for an hour?
Fascism in Puerto Rico
♦ Friday magazine claims that in Puerto Rico, where tens of thousands earn only about $200 a year, constitutional democracy does not exist. The governor is a dictator. Washington is 1,500 miles away, and the actual power is in the hands of “a ruthless and pro-Fascist chief of police”. If that be true, it would seem that it might readily be possible to get a new head to the police department, or a better governor.
Tin Can Saved 18 at Sea
♦ Eighteen survivors of two merchantmen torpedoed in the Caribbean finally arrived in New York and explained that they had been saved by a tin can. They had lived for 19 days on two rafts lashed together, on a diet of raw potatoes, raw onions and raw fish. An American merchantman appeared on the horizon. A tin can was hoisted on an oar and flashed in the sun, and the ship came to the rescue.
Iceland Turns the Cold Shoulder
♦ General Marston, of the United States Marines, back from Iceland after eight months, says the Icelanders are independent, and don’t wish Iceland prte tected or invaded by either British or American troops, and least of all by the Germans. He also says that when they have a gale in Iceland it is a real one. On one occasion the men were forced to crawl from their huts to the mess hall in a wind blowing, so it was said, 125 miles an hour.
Some reporter on that story must have stretched something. Wind forces are calculated as follows: Miles per hour: light air, 10; light breeze, 15; gentle breeze, 20; moderate breeze, 25; fresh breeze, 30; strong breeze, 36; moderate gale, 44; fresh gale, 52; strong gale,. 60; whole gale, 69; storm, 80; and hurricane, over 80. At 80 miles an hour a wind exerts a pressure of 19.2 pounds per square foot and would be almost if not quite sufficient to lift a 200-pound man off the ground.
Major House’s Shoes
♦ Major William House, Springfield, Mass., and for the present residing in Iceland, as part of Uncle Sam’s forces, has feet that take the big size 13, not the little size 13. He wanted some shoes, so he sent an order to a mail-order house in New York. After an interval of approximately four months he received, via Bermuda and London, a pair of ladies’ shoes, size 8. Such language is awful 1 Stop it I .
Uncle Sam Gets Stung
♦ In “Washington Merry-Go-Round” Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen furnished the more or less cheerful information that an agent of Germany, George Sylvester Vierick, under the pen name of James Burr Hamilton, wrote a speech for Senator Ernest Lundeen, had copies of it sent free through the mails, and then had it issued in book form under the title “Lord Lothian vs. Lord Lothian”, and published by a company registered as a German agent.
'Thy WORD is Truth—
“John 17:17
i
Does God Torment in Hell?
SINCE the Dark Ages religious men of “Christendom” have taught that the punishment for the wicked, those who disobey God Almighty, is everlasting torment or torture in a hell burning with unquenchable fire and brimstone. Because of this religious doctrine myriads have been frightened away from studying the sacred Bible. Because of it reasoning men have refused to believe in God and the Lord Jesus, not knowing it is a doctrine of the fiendish Satan, the Devil, used to blind the people and turn them away from the just and loving God. That doctrine of eternal torment in hell can not be true, for at least four separate and distinct reasons: (1) because it is unreasonable; (2) because it is repugnant to justice; (3) because it is contrary to the principle of love; and (4) because it is entirely unscriptural.
It seems strange that men with reasoning faculties should ever reach the conclusion that the all-wise Creator would eternally torment any of His creatures. What could be the purpose of such torment? Could it accomplish any good? Would it result to God’s glory?
There could be no eternal torment of any of God’s creatures except by His will. A reasonable, loving God could not torment any of His creatures, because He cannot deny His own attributes. A Creator that would put in operation a system of endless torment would be a fiend, and not a reasonable God. Man is not perfect, yet man has some love. God is perfect,, and He is love. (1 John 4:16) A man or a child of sound mind would not torture his horse, his dog, or his eat. Suppose we have a dog that becomes mad and tries to bite everyone in the neighborhood^ It must be killed; but we would not torment the poor brute by putting it into a slow fire. We would kill it in the easiest way, so that it would not suffer much pain. Why would a sane person do this? Because his sense of justice and love would deter him from doing anything else. Man has not as much love as God. Everything that God does for man He does for the good of obedient and faithful man.
The torment doctrine is unreasonable, because no one could be eternally tormented unless that one were eternally conscious. The Bible texts quoted in the previous issue of this magazine showed that the dead are not conscious. Furthermore, there could be no eternal torment of the human soul unless that soul "were immortal, indestructible. And those Bible texts showed that man is not im-rnortal. Those and all other scriptures bearing upon the subject show that none from among men are granted immortality except those who undergo a change from human to spirit in the resurrection and who receive immortality as a reward for right-doing and who are made jointheirs with Christ Jesus in His glorious kingdom. (1 Corinthians 15: 42-54) It is easy to see, then, that torment after death is a doctrine of Satan; and the two religious doctrines of human inherent immortality and eternal torture must stand or fall together. Since they are both false, they must both fall.
The doctrine of eternal torture is unjust, because God is just. Justice is the foundation of His throne. God plainly told the first man on earth that if he sinned he would die. (Genesis 2:17) If after telling this penalty God put man into eternal torment, then God increased the penalty after man had violated the law, and this ex post facto procedure is contrary to every principle of justice. All of fallen Adam’s children were born imperfect, so that Psalm 14:3 says: “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Every child is born imperfect. It would be very unjust for Jehovah God to permit such a one to be born, under conditions over which he had no control, and then, because he could not obey perfectly, to put him into eternal torture. Man’s sense of justice is shocked at the thought of the torture of any creature, unless his sense is numbed by religion. The justice that man possesses is a Godgiven quality. The more Godlike a man is the more just he is. We should all know, then, that God deals justly with all creatures.
The doctrine of eternal torment is devoid of the attribute of love. Every good father loves his children and children love their father. The mother loves the children and the children love the mother. When the children are disobedient, it becomes necessary for the father or the mother to discipline them; and sometimes by using the rod. But no loving parent would for a moment think of torturing, his or her child. Just punishment is always for the purpose of doing ultimate good, and where the parents are compelled to punish or discipline their children they do it because they love them. The apostle Paul, discussing the discipline by earthly parents and that by God, said: “We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.” (Hebrews 12:9,10) How could eternal torment produce holiness in the unfortunate creature thus dealt with ? Only a wicked fiend would want to torment anybody, because loving darkness and wicked things.
Our great God Jehovah is love. (1 John 4:8) “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) Everything that He does is good. The doctrine of eternal torment is a libel upon the great and loving name of God, and Satan is responsible for it. But in
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God’s due time He will make it clear to all that He is love, and that all His dealings are for good of obedient creatures.
The eternal torment teaching is not supported by any text in the Bible. There are some texts that are written in symbolic phrase, in parables, such as that of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus, and in dark sayings; yet these were written to illustrate other great truths, but with no reference to the eternal punishment of the human race. Our space does not permit us to consider such texts here and now. Hell in the King James Version Bible does not mean torment. “The wicked' shall be turned into hell” as a punishment (Psalm 9:17), but punishment does not mean torment after death.
There is a wide distinction between everlasting punishment and everlasting torment. Everlasting punishment is a punishment that lasts. Everlasting torment would be a torment that never ends, but one would be consciously suffering all the time. The laws of the land punish the wicked w’bo violate the law, and the duration of the punishment is short or long in proportion to the enormity of the crime committed. One who takes his neighbor’s life deliberately is punished by the full penalty of the law, and his punishment is lasting. Death is the highest penalty inflicted by the law. It is also the greatest punishment inflicted by Jehovah. Therefore eternal or everlasting death, with no hope of a resurrection, would be an everlasting punishment. But it would not be an everlasting conscious torment. God plainly declares “The wages of sin is death”, not eternal torture.—Romans 6: 23.
Nothing more grotesque could possibly be believed in an insane, asylum or in a home for the feeble-minded than that an infinitely loving God deliberately purposed thousands of years ago to roast practically the entire human family in the strangling fumes of burning sulphur throughout all eternity for something that somebody else did 6,000 years ago.
Motoring
How to Save Gas and Tires
♦ With the present need of the govern* ment for rubber and gasoline it would be
well for Jehovah’s witnesses to learn how / to save on these things so necessary for । the witness work. .
4 Recently, my brother and I traveled
about three thousand miles from Akron, Ohio, to the state of Washington in the pioneer work, and we tried some of the things we had learned from here and there to see if they would help preserve the life of Our tires, and if the ear would use any less gas. They certainly did help a lot, so 1 am passing them on to you for the benefit of the Lord’s people who are doing Ris work in the earth at this time. ■
Have the motor in your car “tuned” at least every five thousand miles. If your carburetor is not properly adjusted your gasoline mixture will be too rich or too lean, and this can result in a ten-percent waste alone.
Set the spark two degrees below the motor’s weak knocking-point. There will be a very slight loss of power, but a gallon of gas will stretch a mile farther.
Clean and adjust the spark plugs frequently, at least every thousand miles. This will cut your fuel bill ten percent, and the Lord’s people can use this extra money to reach the “other sheep”.
Don’t start your car moving as though it were a race horse, and avoid racing pickups in second gear. The engine is not able to burn all the gasoline it’s getting. Also, rushing madly up to stop lines, then slamming on the brakes, is a waste of gasoline.
Keep your tires properly inflated by checking them every day about noon. By. checking them at this time you will allow for contracting and expansion, in the hot sun and the cool of the night. This will make your tires last longer, too, as a tire improperly filled is subject to a lot of extra scuffing, and wear.
Park in the shade. Gasoline vaporizes easily, and a surprising amount of gasoline will evaporate through the tiny air hole of the gas cap during hot weather.
Keep the battery well charged for quick starts. The fuel pump is pumping gasoline away during those long, grinding starts before the engine fires. Also, avoid unnecessary choking.
Clean the air filter often. When it is ■ dirty and clogged the carburetor may not get enough air, the gasoline mixture gets too rich, and mileage falls.
Finally, drive at moderate speeds at all times. Not only is it safer, but it takes a fourth less gasoline to go a mile at 40 miles per hour than at 60. And even less at thirty. However, gas consumption goes up if you go slower than this.
Concerning tires: Every time a car driver fails to inflate his tires properly, takes curves too fast, drives for a long time at high speeds, spins his tires in quick starts or skids them to a sudden stop, he is destroying rubber and wearing out his tires before their time.
Change the tires to different wheels every five thousand miles, to insure even wear. Do not take corners at high speeds, because all four tires are scraped sidewise and scuffed.
Have the wheel alignments checked regularly, both front and rear w’heels. Do not bump into curbs, because no tire can stand much of this abuse. Don’t drive too fast on hot dry roads. This heats up the tires and causes them to deteriorate quicker.
When the tires are not properly inflated according to the required pressure they go through the same thing as a rope that is being hit with a hammer on concrete.
Each motorist would do well to make it a habit to cheek the tires on his car each day, shift the tires on the wheels several times a year, and have the wheels aligned at the same time.
Following these rules will give the car owner rich dividends in the form of tire
and gasoline savings and put these things to the use for which the Creator made them.—Paul Walter Arnold, Washington.
Comment by the Owner of a Dozen Cars ♦ Reply to your letter of the 22d, I certainly must agree that the advice given in Paul W. Arnold’s letter which I read as requested, if carried out, will give the readers who operate ears many dollars, as well as headaches and inconveniences that always accompany the spending of such dollars. The information therein, if practiced by the American motoring public, would save them several hundred million dollars each year, not to speak of the lives.
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