Consolation, September 1, 1943

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Contents

Generation of Vipers

Confessing Their Own Guilt '

A Priest Sees the Day of Reckoning

“Ye Devour Widows’ Houses”

“By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them” 9

Children’s Boarding Homes in Los Angeles 10 i Thrown to the Lions

* Present-Day Persecution of Christians

Not Satisfied with One Victim

Lawless “Officer of the Law”

The Mob Spirit Dangerous to Ail

“The Blood of the Martyrs”

“Thy Word Is Truth”

Soul Death ’

The New Zealand and Beveridge Plans

Liberality and Generosity

Labor Up to Date

Stoney Point and Bowmanville

Some Indian Witnesses for Jehovah

A Glimpse at Some of Africa’s Wonders

Strange African People

California Boy Outstares a Lion

British Items

Gangster-ridden Jersey City

Hague Is Still the Law

Presenting “This Gospel of the Kingdom”

Refutation

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Notanda

Experiments with Window Shades

♦ Careful experiments with window shades show that if two cloth window shades of light color, preferably white, are pulled down over each window during the hours of darkness in winter, it will save about' 10 percent of the fuel bill; also, if the same two shades are pulled down over each window of a room that is exposed to the summer sun, it will reduce the heat intake by about 65 percent.

Soap Made from Petroleum

♦ The new petroleum soaps are so odorless and tasteless that they can be used to wash vegetables and other foods. They impart mothproof and germ-killing qualities to fabrics, and they wash better in hard water than in soft. It is likely that they will come into general use, because cocoanut oil, hitherto so much used in soap-making, is now so difficult to obtain.

No Contortions in Singing

♦ A good singer must contort her face to reach a high note, but-she does not seem to do so in the new talking movies. First she sings for the record and that is recorded. Then the recording is played back and the artist concentrates on her appearance as she goes through the motions of singing, but actually does not make a noise. The result is better music and a better picture.

Fresh Fruits at Any Time of Year

♦ Tn a short time it will be possible to obtain fresh fruits at any time of year. A wax-like material is used to cover citrus fruits, cantaloupes, watermelons, cucumbers and many vegetables which seals the pores and helps to retain the fresh flavors and vitamins hitherto lost by evaporation. The sealing method is not yet successful on the stone fruits, but chemists are working on the problem.

CONSOLATION

“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A.R.V.

Volume XXIV Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, September 1, 1943 Number 62S

Generation of Vipers

WHO are the modern “vipers” Jesus foretold would appear today? For answer look and see who do the deeds which called forth His condemnation in days of yore: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers,, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33) Examination of their modern identity and methods safeguards the road to life, which otherwise is beset with peril. “A word spoken in due season, how good is it!” (Proverbs 15:23) It is those in quest of life who are now bidden, “Give heed.”

A danger, in its degree and extent never equaled in the course of history, now confronts all mankind. That great danger is: Inclusion with God’s enemies in their destruction at Armageddon! From death at the Lord’s hands there is no hope of resurrection. (Deuteronomy 32:39) Religion’s rulers have chosen to oppose God, and therefore may not escape that danger. Like a weight and burden religion has tied the people with foolish restrictions and taboos; and the nations even lie prostrate under religion’s dictators, paralytic in fear of her! The human mind is the bulwark religion has already conquered and shackled with bonds of terror. The freeing of his mind is each victim's only hope.

The truth alone can make men free. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8: 32; Galatians 5:1) Blocking this only avenue of escape to freedom and protection is an active and virulent “generation of vipers”, a brood or progeny of deathdealing serpents, lurking in unsuspected places, posing as friends, yet striking with deadly hatred into the vitals of men seeking refuge. These are the modern “vipers” who follow the ancient Pharisees as example, and of whom the psalmist warned: “Deliver me, 0 Lord, from the evil man:- preserve me from the violent man. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 140:1,3) The apostle Paul quoted this same text to describe the religionists of his day.—Romans 3:13; Psalm 5:9; and the above Psalm 140.

The Pharisees, to whom the term “generation of vipers” was first applied (Matthew 3:7; 23: 33), were the Scripture-quoting hypocrites of Jesus’ day. “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do [because they quoted God’s law, given first to Moses]; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” Thereafter followed the famous scourging of hypocrisy, which account fills Matthew chapter twenty-three. It thus appears that mere quotation of Scripture is nd proof of righteousness, but may often be done to hide wicked purposes. (See The Watchtower January 1,1943, particularly subtitle “The Touchstone”, and paragraph 37; also The Watchtower February 15, 1943, subtitle “Bowing at the Name”.) Most Bible readers will admit this when it is brought to mind that the Devil himself quoted scripture in order to entrap Jesus, who met those temptations blamelessly. (Matthew 4: 6) The Devil quoted Psalm 91:11,12.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1943

Returning now to the modern manifestation of the “generation of vipers’", the counterparts of the Pharisees, it will be observed that much of the talk on the Bible today is not for the purpose of * understanding God’s Word. On the contrary, it is intended to hide the malicious designs of religious falsifiers of God’s Word, Clearly in fulfilment of prophecy also is the confession of guilt, a dead giveaway, proving they now fill the role of the Pharisees, who likewise testified against themselves, (Matthew 23:31) Several astounding examples are now cited.

Confessing Their Own Guilt

■ The religious clergy of the Roman Catholic Church make the boldest claims, both as to authority and right to represent the Lord. They also represent the largest and most influential religious organization upon earth. As expounders of law and wisdom, they fill the modern niche foreshadowed by the Pharisees. Consideration of some of their words and deeds, which are given prominence in press and periodicals, will, it is thought, reveal to the intelligent reader the correspondency to the scribes and Pharisees, streamlined to meet the requirements of a more swiftly moving world. More particularly their use of deception and poisonous words is brought to public attention herein.

. One of the most startling revelations written by a Catholic priest appears, in a condensed form, in The Reader's Digest of May, 1937, entitled “A Priest Warns the Church”. The author, who uses the by-line or pen name “Peter Whiffin”, is said to be “a Catholic missionary ; contributor to Commonweal and Catholic World3’. He begins with the arresting statement: “Recently I, and lots of other priests, have begun to sense a subdued hostility to our clerical collars.” Then he. admits what the Catholic Hierarchy were just then bent on suppressing in the United States, the true status of the Spanish War: "For example, in Spain, monarchy and clergy were practically one for hundreds of years. Now the people, rebelling against the Church, are becoming atheists, disgusted with religion entirely, because the priests, who for them symbolized all religion, betrayed them so cruelly. ...”

Turning then to America he asks:

But, in our own country, has wealth made the Church worldly too? Have we priests been ’ casting our lot more with the ruling powers of Big Business and politics? . , . For answer let’s look at a little story of the Church in America. Typical is the career of a priest in Brooklyn. As a young clergyman he bought, through his bishop, a tract of land inhabited mostly by squatters. For a while his church was a tent. Today he has a magnificent church and rectory, a big school and convent, all practically free from debt. And his personal real estate holdings alone enable him to liye as an independently wealthy gentleman, with a flock of curates to take care of his parish affairs. Just as quickly as this did the Church in America mushroom to enormous proportions, And why not? If Mary Baker Eddy, Aimee Semple McPherson and Billy Sunday could make fortunes in religion, why shouldn’t the Catholic clergy make incomparably more, with the vast organization of the Church behind it? .

But the very suddenness of the Church’s growth to wealth was her undoing. Her clergymen, for the most part used' to poverty, all at once found themselves men of money and importance. Business men cultivated their acquaintance, gave them big loans at reduced rates of interest, advised them about investments. Politicians consulted them about appointments and got thefti all sorts of favors. And soon the poor priests forgot that it was the money of the poor which had made them important, forgot. that big business and politics might be smothering the Church with favors only to make it more difficult for her to cry out against them in their exploitation of the masses.

During these years the clergy preached' pale, scholarly sermons about moral principles of justice, but they did not become imprudently specific about concrete cases of injustice. They railed against sins like birth control, without attacking the economic causes of these sins. They preached mealy-mouthed homilies about how blessed are the poor in being chosen to carry the cross of poverty; of such is the kingdom of heaven—while making sure, as a class, that they themselves had plenty of the kingdom of this world.

In the golden years of Coolidge money poured into the Church’s coffers so rapidly that she didn’t know what to do with it. The clergy got the fever of speculation. . . . . Dioceses began vast building projects. Pastors erected grand rectories with all sorts of luxurious furnishings. Not a few, dying, left to relatives huge fortunes which might well have made the poor gasp, “There goes my five cents and your five cents.” Prelates carried many millions of dollars annually to • Rome, buying for themselves and their favor’’ x ites political preferments and dignities. Cardi-\ nal O’Connell in 1928 was the biggest single taxpayer in all Boston, on his own personal holdings. And the famous Red Train rolled majestically into Chicago, carrying cardinals of the Church to the eucharistic congress put on by Cardinal Mundelein with all the lavishness of a Billy Rose spectacle.

Congregations of priests, nuns, and brothers purchased so much property that in New York State Governor Smith warned Cardinal Hayes that unless their buying stopped, a citizenry already overburdened by tax-exempt Church property might revolt. ...

We were powerful enough to make the politicians consult us, at least in local political affairs, wherever the Catholic vote was strong, as, for instance, in New York, where the Cardinal’s residence [Hayes, deceased, superseded by Spellman] has long been known among politicians by the significant name of the Power House. In fine, we priests were growing richer and stronger every day—and the poor had not yet got wise to us.

The crash should have helped us clear our hearts of the fever of getting money and power. [“For a root of all kinds of evil is SEPTEMBER 1, 1943 the love of money.”—1 Timothy 6:10, Dia-glott.] It might have made us get back to making religion a blessed means of living for the poor instead of a commercialized racket of living off the poor. ... There were, of course, a few charity drives, managed mostly by laymen;. some monastery breadlines, oversubsidized by the laity; and a comparatively infinitesimal trickle of money to the poor from ecclesiastical collections. But as a class we priests did not really sacrifice anything for the poor. . . . Priests were measured by their success as money-getters, and a typical, command from one bishop to his pastors was: “If you can’t get money, I’ll put someone in. your place who can.” One especially inglorious method of making money was by means of the new novena devotions to some popular saint, like the Little Flower [Coughlin’s shrine is known as “The Little Flower”], which sprang up suddenly on all sides and in which the piece de resistance [literally, “main dish of a meal,” hence “chief attraction”] was a fragment of dead bone known as a relic. How the faithful flocked to them in droves and left their money behind! . . . [Such as the 4,000 children “blessed” with the “relic of the true crib”, “a piece of wood black with age, taken more than 1,000 years- ago “from the manger in which the Christ child was born’, which was placed on their heads.” (Philadelphia Record, January 2, 1939) Also the Cox Novena of Christmas 1938 in which Priest Cox put “on exhibition a portion of the original crib of the Christ Child”.-—Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post Gazette, December 15, 1938.]

A Priest Sees the Day of Reckoning

The above expose was written by a very truthful priest. He offers no solution, but clearly envisions “breakers ahead”. The concluding paragraph voices anxiety:

It was to help the poor that most of us became priests. And it sickens us to feel that we have lost touch with them or that they look on us as religious racketeers. But what can we do? The organization of the Church must be run more as a business than a charitable institution, more to make money than to give it away. All that we can do is to coast along and hope that the bottom won’t be reached too soon. And I feel sorry for the yonng men who are now preparing for the priesthood. They’re in for trouble.

The above is not news to everybody, but should open the eyes of some Catholics because coming from a well-known ^clergyman of Catholic faith who could scarcely be accused of misrepresenting the facts. Noting the same commercialism in the Catholic Church just revealed, the Weekly People of December 13,1941, comments upon a statement by Catholic clergyman Hargedon, of Boston, that “our duty ... is to sell Christ and His teachings to our generation”, as follows: “Even when these men speak so-called religiously they use commercial terms, terms of commodities. . . . According to them, Jesus Christ died upon the cross, but they, they are living off it!” Commercialism is offensively prominent in the words of Catholic Monsignor Sheen to Heywood Broun [columnist recently deceased], who had been “converted” to Catholicism two weeks before; “Heywood, you’ve run about a thousand miles now. You’d better come in and let me service you.”—“Catholic Converts,” from The Reader’s Digest, September, 1940.

Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen [“monsignor” means “my lord” in Italian], who “converted” Broun, received a bequest of $68,824 in 1941. The publication PM, issue of January 29; 1941, states that Mrs. Genevieve Brady Macaulay left an estate of $7,559,723, of which she bequeathed $1,705,719 to Catholic organizations, including $68,824 each to “Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, now Pope Pius XII, and Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, of the Catholic University, Washington”.

Monsignor Matthew S. Callan died February 13, 1940, leaving an estate of $39,481. Among the assets were over $20,000 in stocks and bonds of business corporations. In April, 1941, the world read the shocking disclosure that four priests in Montreal, Quebec, testified that they were swindled of $50,000 by promoters of a company ostensibly formed to manufacture "hygenic, unsinkable, modest bathing suits”.

The indecent commercialism of religion in Catholic Quebec is reflected in the disclosure, in June of the same year, that four children out of five in that province were below normal due to insufficient food! Said Doctor J. Ernest Sylvestre, the director of nutrition in the Quebec Ministry of Health, at the final session of the thirtieth annual convention of the Canadian Public Health Association: “The majority of the defects found in these children are the direct or indirect result of insufficient or incomplete diet.” It thus appears that while four priests juggled funds in a brazenly commercial venture the children of their parishioners were starving. (Toronto Globe and Mail, June 12, 1941) It is no wonder that the pope, according to the Catholic Herald (December 19, 1941), in answer to the question, said: “Yes, Charity is the weakness of God.” It is not a “weakness” of the Roman Catholic Church! Compare the pope’s words with Psalms 62:11; 29:4.

“Fe Devour Widows* Houses**

Clearly exemplary of the clergy’s love of money is the case recorded in Newburyport, Mass. Two priests, John C. Fearns and Daniel J. Cotter, together with assisting lawyers, all of whom were described as a “pack of wolves” by the Newburyport Liberator, were successful in breaking the will of Miss Bridget Crowley, an aged domestic who had piled up an estate of $16,000 during her many years of hard work as a chambermaid at Philips Exeter Academy. The facts were these: Being a “very religious person” Miss Crowley, when stricken with paralysis in 1933, made a will leaving her estate to the two priests above mentioned. Thereafter she moved to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Getchell and was gently cared for by Mrs. Getchell until her death, five years later, in 1939, Confined continually to her bed or chair during that .time, Miss Crowley changed

CONSOLATION her mind about leaving her money to the priests. Grateful for the care which Mrs. Getchell had given her she desired to give her money instead to Mrs. Getchell, and had a will drawn up accordingly, this time by a non-Catholic lawyer. The fact that Mrs. Getchell was a parishioner of the priests did not deter them from waging a legal fight, from which Mrs. Getchell finally withdrew, giving the priests the bulk of the estate. The most scandalous part of this disgraceful affair was that during the five years Miss Crowley was bedridden at the house of the Geteliell’s, and although the priests bragged in their church about what was to be done with her bequest, not once did either visit the paralyzed woman! Compare the words of Jesus: “Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses” (Matthew 10:9); and “lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. . . . But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness”. (Matthew 6:19,33) And the words of His apostle James: “For the worship that is pure and holy before God the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and that one keep himself unspotted from the world.”-—James 1:27, Murdock’s (Syriac) Translation.

“Yea, the Dogs Are Greedy”

(Isaiah 56:11, A.H.V.)

The Catholic is the “Church” of the great, the wealthy, and the criminal. It is engaged in the bracelet and brandy business—for money. It “blesses” automobiles, animals, and airplanes—-for money. It bestows honors—for money. It was recently announced that the late J. P. Morgan, whose name is a byword for fabulous riches, was made a Knight of St. Gregory the Great by Pius XI,— undoubtedly for money. Others receiving this token of papal esteem were exJudge Martin T. Manton, recently imprisoned for selling “justice” on the federal bench; and Francisco Franco, SEPTEMBER 1, 1943 present dictator over the butchered remnants of the Spain he drenched with Catholic blood; and both of whom gave money or protection to Rome.

Small and great, criminals flock to the confessionals of the “Church” which claims it can intervene with God, “forgive” sin, and save from everlasting fire in “purgatory”, provided the price is right. Some day soon this alleged partnership between priest and the hereafter will be wiped out, together with the whole fakers’ setup, according to Divine Decree: “And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell [Hebrew, sheol, grave] shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.” (Isaiah 28:18) Meanwhile a big business in "forgiving” flourishes; and see who are some of the chief customers. There is the deceased torch singer, Helen Morgan, involved in murder and scandal in North Carolina a few years ago; there is Al Capone; there is Sabbatino, who “was engrossed today in General Sessions [New York City Court] in meditation and prayer”, while witnesses testified as to how he got drunk and killed his best friend (New York World-Telegram, December 1, 1941); Donald Coster, star thief of 1938, born in Italy; and Philip Musica, who took ten million from the MeKesson-Robbins Drug concern, and who posed as a Methodist but had a medal in his pocket inscribed, “I am a Catholic. In case of accident notify a priest.”

Torture and Murder

, Among others were Dutch “Cardinal” Schultz, gang murderer, who had the torture technique well mastered before he was “liquidated”; and “Knifey” Sawicky, a Dillinger admirer of 19, who was electrocuted for the murder of four men whom he boasted he had killed in four days, as “easy as eating ice-cream cones”; and only a few hours before his execution he received “Holy Communion” from a Catholic priest. (New

York Daily News, January 17, 1942)

Nor are murderers and torturers lacking among the ranks of priests themselves. In Ashland, Ohio, a priest by the name of Rooney stripped and beat a pretty young girl living in his home. The bald facts are that he dragged the young kvoman from her bed before daylight to the church basement, tied her to a post, gagged her with a towel, and beat her. nude body mercilessly. Her own sworn statement related that the priest “did cruelly torture or torment or punish her with a heavy leather strap, while tied with a rope, and gagged with a towel”. (United Press dispatch carried by the Atlanta Constitution, the Newark Star-Ledger, and other newspapers on March 13,1941; but after the priest’s arraignment appears to have been hushed up.)

Consolation has in the past furnished much evidence of the cruelties and abominations done by the Jesuits, an organization which, boasts more than six thousand members in America, who still receive their orders from Italy, and which has the audacity to publish a magazine entitled “America”. The Tidings, Los Angeles, quotes the Civilta Cattolica, organ of the Jesuits in Rome, to the effect that the organization had in 1941 the number of 26,309 members “divided into 50 provinces and viceprovinces throughout the world”. It is well known that the Jesuits compose Rome’s secret service, her espionage army or “gestapo”. What do they do? They act for the Vatican and report to the Vatican.

No more unsavory history can be found than that of the Jesuits. Richard Baxter discloses some pertinent facts • about them in his book Jesuit Juggling. He refers to the whole order as

that bloody hand, that hath already spilled so many streams of Christian blood.. . . When the sword is in their hand, they will soon answer all [protestant] arguments, with a fagot, a hatehet, or a halter.. .. Their inquisition is a school where they dispute more ad-

vantageously than in academies... Jesuits are men who know no authority save the command or mandate of the pope, who have no motive of action except personal indulgence, and aggrandizement of their craft; and, lastly, have no permanent residence or abode, but shift from country to country like the sands of a windswept wasteland. . . .

Several popes were Jesuits, and of Pope John XXII the condemnation by his Catholic brethren, at the General Council of Constance, which deposed him, stated:

He came to be pope by causing Pope Alexander and his physician Daniel de Sophia to be poisoned; that he committed incest with his brother’s wife, and with nuns, and whoredoms with virgins, adultery with men’s wives, and other crimes of ineontinency.

Pope John XIII was a ravisher of maidens, and was slain in the act of adultery. Baronins, Catholic historian, says of the popes:

What was the fall of the Holy Roman Church? How exceedingly filthy when most potent, and yet sordid whores did rule at Rome! by whose pleasure sees were changed, prelates were given . . . ; and their lovers or mates were thrust into Peter’s chair. . . . And what of the cardinals, priests, and deacons, think you, . . . those monsters did choose, when nothing is so rooted in nature as for every one to beget his like?—Page 63.

“The witchcraft, poisonings, simony, sodomy, adulteries, and incest of [other popes] are recorded by their own historians.” (Page 69) In the'face of this record Bellarmine, famous Catholic authority, repeats (de Eccles. 1,3. c, 5) the Roman rule: “No man, though he would, can be a subject of Christ, that is not subject to the Pope.” In the interests of this same goal of the papacy, world domination, Hitler and the Axis make war. In behalf of the same objective the Jesuits have engaged in every type of occupation, including the Protestant ministry; appeared in all manner of disguise, fomented war and internal strife, such as our own Civil War. They

CONSOLATION now lead in the combat against Jehovah’s witnesses, the foremost lovers of freedom today!

The above is scarcely brief mention of the crimes of the modern “vipers”, which have accumulated throughout the years. Jehovah has set an end to wickedness. “The end shall he at the time appointed.” (Daniel 11:27,45) But meanwhile the serpent’s spawn lurk in the shadows, beside the road, and in pleasant places, set there to beguile men to their death. (Revelation 12: 12; 20: 2) The weapons employed are not always the knife, the war tank, the bomb, now’ taking countless Jives because of Rome’s greed for wrnrld conquest. Hiding their fangs behind a sanctimonious front, more deaths are caused by deceiving men concerning their Creator, Jehovah. “By the sleight [trick] of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in w’ait to deceive,” have the clergy’ led many to err from the way’ of life. (Ephesians 4:14; Romans 16:18) But how can the false be surely discerned as the enemies of God?

“By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them”

The modern “vipers” are marked by their hatred of God’s kingdom, The Theocracy. The announcement that the Lord is setting up a Righteous Government, soon to take charge of earth’s affairs, and bringing in a New’ World of joy and blessedness, stirs the fearful malice of Satan, for long the world’s overlord; and he sends forth his brood to poison men against God and against TIis ambassadors or heralds of the New World. “And the dragon [Serpent, Satan, the Devil, see chapter 20, verse >2] w’as wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, w’hich keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Revelation 12: 17) AU the forces of evil are angry because they see that soon they shall be dispossessed. (Matthew’ 21:43) It is therefore high time that the refugees to God’s kingdom, that is, SEPTEMBER 1, 1B43 those seeking the Lord’s way’ to life, take note of certain acts perpetrated now in defiance of the Lord, and to the hurt of the people.—Matthew7 7: 20.

Observe then that priests of the organization, covered with guilt and blood, now7 undertake to call Jehovah’s witnesses to account. Some lie in wait near the homes visited by Jehovah’s witnesses. A householder, who has previously welcomed His ministers, receives a sinister caller, either a priest or coworker. First he is given a warning of the 'danger’ of befriending “such people”. If a few lies do not suffice to sow prejudice, then the caller threatens dire consequences to “one so foolish as to even associate with Jehovah’s witnesses”. On the next call by God’s witness the results of the poison may be observed. Where before all wms friendliness, now’ is the cold hostility of suspicion. Perhaps the venom has innoculated the victim more deeply, and he abuses the preacher of the gospel; or it may have suffused him .or her altogether, and he resorts to violence against the King’s brother.—Matthew 25: 45.

Again, the modern “vipers”, with their black and white markings, go about injecting their fangs into a crowd, poisoning their minds against Jehovah’s witnesses who teach on the streets, even as Jesus did. The venom spreads, and soon a bloodthirsty’ mob smashes Americans exercising their right and privilege of w’orshiping the Lord according to the Bible. Bystanders may be deceived too, and are often heard to say: “Those people must be doing something w7rong, or they wmuld not have trouble.” Such are led to ignore Jesus’ prophecy that His true followers would be persecuted and hated at the instance of modern “vipers”. “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can y7e escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise'men, and scribes: and some of them ya shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city.”—Matthew 23:33,34; 24:9.

The venom spreads like a plague ever seeking new victims. Before assemblies of Christians, priests and their cohorts hatch up conspiracies to thwart the meetings. Their adder tongues spread flying reports, stir up the rabble and * gangsters: then sweeps abroad the uncontrollable fire of hatred, kindled by the priestcraft, upon innocent people, thereby bringing untold pain and suffering on men, women, and children, gathered meekly to learn God’s Word,

Surely the attackers must mark the fact that Jehovah’s witnesses stand as firmly as ever, no matter how many mobs wear themselves out in frenzied assault. After they had battered the faces of women and children and wrecked property, as in Little Rock and Klamath Falls, that did not stop Gbd’s message. But they do bring destruction upon themselves. Men led to attack Christians are led to their death. According to Divine law those acting upon or making false charges are adjudged guilty themselves of the' crime falsely laid to another. (Deuteronomy 19:18,19) The time to settle accounts is here. Inclusion with God’s enemies means destruction with them at Armageddon.—Psalm 145: 20.

Conclusion

Jesus’ words concerning the "vipers” of religion therefore constitute a warning to Kingdom seekers. He further points out that it is the intent and purpose of these vicious-clergy to prevent any man from gaining life in the Kingdom. "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.”—Matthew 23:13.

Forearmed, then, let the upright who desire God’s approval and protection now walk forearmed against the poisonmongers of religion. When the skirted adders would poison your mind against 10

Jehovah’s ordained (servants, request proof of the false charge. Since you may be sure that God’s enemy is not moved by desire to help you; insist on ' a reason for the unwelcome interest in your affairs. 'Rely on the Lord and stand your ground against men or devils, like Americans who remember Valley Forge! It is your life at stake, so do not give it up at the whim of venomous reptiles who deal in deception and death. Brush aside suspicion, remove distrust, and rely on God, the Invincible, to bring forth a world without a flaw.—Revelation 21:5.

Children’s Boarding Homes

in Los Angeles

♦ Some children’s boarding homes in Los Angeles are not all that could be desired, according to the Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1942. In one place the children were "whipped unmercifully”; in another place four or five children were bathed in a single tub at a time, once a week; in another, 17 children slept in one room; another was so filthy that it was nauseating; and in another the children were treated to scenes of young men coming and going to visit the young women in thin clothing that entertained them. State Senator Jesse M. Mayo described this situation as worse than the war; men and women shuddered at the repetitions of testimony showing the horrible conditions, and finally the hearings were suspended as being too sickening for the state senators to endure. This will probably lead to something’s being done for these unfortunate little folks.

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

♦ Don’t take yourself too seriously. It might give you heart disease. The Census Bureau claims that during the last forty years the death rate from heart disease has more than doubled, although the rate of deaths among persons less than 35 years of age attributed to heart disease fell off.

CONSOLATION

Thrown to the Lions

IN PAGAN Rome Christians were hurled to the floor of the lions’ pit to be devoured. In the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave, Christians have been thrown to the “lions”, mobs of beastly men, to be devoured by violence.

It was because of their refusal to break integrity toward Almighty God that followers of Christ in ancient Rome were torn asunder by the lions while the rulers looked on with delight. The fiendish practice was regarded as great sport and entertainment by the popular majorities who, with their religious allies, gathered about the arenas in great crowds to see the roaring beasts tear the Christians limb from limb.

Today in the United States faithful servants of Almighty God, Christians known as Jehovah’s witnesses, have, in numerous instances, been abandoned and turned over by public officials to wild, demonized, violent, beastly crowds. Vicious mobs of tyrannical men have been allowed to roam the nation seeking whom they might devour. Sincere Christians have suffered great injury and damage to person, family and property in thousands of communities of the land. Officials, sworn to protect the people and uphold the law, have looked on, nodding their heads with approval.

The persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses and the injury inflicted upon them is not because of any wrongdoing on their part, but they have in every instance been attacked because they preach the gospel in the way the apostles of Jesus did and because they refuse to discontinue when ordered to do so by the mobsters. The chief excuse used by the attackers is that Jehovah’s witnesses do not salute the American flag, and this excuse is employed in spite of the fact that it is well known that Jehovah’s witnesses respect the flag but are commanded by Jehovah God in His law set forth in the Bible, at Exodus 20: 3-5, not SEPTEMBER 1, 1943

to salute any image or symbol of any thing, man or government, on earth or in heaven. They have a constitutional and God-given right to decline to salute, and should be protected in that right as are the Quakers, who refuse to salute the government by removing the hat in court or in the presence of the king.

Present-Day Persecution of Christiana

Beginning in June, 1940, a nation-wide campaign of newspaper publicity, burning and scorching Jehovah’s witnesses, was launched by their enemies, making many false charges to incite hatred. These misrepresentations inflamed the lawless ones like a match applied to a field of dried grass. Groups of -wild men in many parts of the nation descended upon congregations or assemblies of Christians at worship and studying the Word of God. They attacked and assaulted those in attendance, and, in some instances, burned the halls to the ground, and, in others, wrecked the buildings and destroyed chairs, benches, desks, pictures, and other equipment. The homes of Jehovah’s witnesses were stormed and members of families torn from pleading relatives and dragged through public streets to be hanged. Many have been forcibly and violently taken from homes and carried or deported into other states. They, their friends and attorneys have been mobbed and brutally beaten and severely injured while attending trials of false charges placed against them. . The demonized mobs overran many communities unhindered by the duly elected peace officers. Property w*as destroyed, cars and trucks overturned, telephone lines cut, bonfires of Bible literature made in public streets. Children were stoned, their teeth knocked out and noses broken. Christian women were foully cursed, brutally beaten and then robbed. Ministers of the gospel were feloniously assaulted, clubbed, slugged with blackjacks, knifed and shot, 11 and such victims left lying bleeding and unconscious in blood-soaked clothing. Bruised and beaten bodies of such Christians were cast off the road to lie for hours unattended, indeed left for dead.

It can be authoritatively stated that, since 1940, the public records of the t Department of Justice reflect a contin* uous record of similar acts of violence and persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses. This ugly picture cannot be presented in every horrifying detail, because that would require volumes. However, a few of the more recent instances of misconduct of police officers and mobsters can be given here.

The United States Department of Justice has found that these numerous assaults upon Jehovah’s witnesses in widely separated parts of the land are planned and prosecuted on a nation-wide scale. It is now well established that the un-American members of the American Legion and the local representatives of the foreign Roman Catholic Hierarchy with headquarters in Vatican City, Fascist Italy, have been instrumental in the perpetration of thesp dastardly and criminal acts. It is plain to Jehovah’s witnesses that these assaults originate with the unseen demons and Satan the Devil, who is invisible to human eyes, the god of this evil world that controls such debased human agencies. Witness the assaults against the September, 1942, assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Arkansas, Oregon and Illinois at the same time. This is further proved by the fact that within a two-week period of December, 1942, in three widely separated places, to wit, Little Rock, Ark., Redondo Beach, Calif., and Winnsboro, Texas, similar assaults were made against Jehovah’s witnesses.

The mob violence against Jehovah’s witnesses broke out in 1940 in Del Rio, Texas, and quickly swept the nation. The fires of violence against God’s faithful servants have continued to burn in that state ever since. In December, 1942, at Winnsboro, Texas, the agents of Satan 12 tried apparently to wipe out all Christian ministers of that city. An attempt was made upon the lives of Robert Coffer, the company servant, local representative of Jehovah’s witnesses, and Oscar L. Pillars, a traveling minister supervising the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses in that area.

One C. C. Phillips, a local clergyman of a recognized religious denomination, seeing his pastures spoiled by the truth preached by Christians such as Pillars and Coffer and other of Jehovah’s witnesses, falsely represented to the ’men of a baser sort’ in the community (Acts 17:5) that Coffer and Pillars were against the flag and the government. A violent, turbulent mob was planned and gathered speedily. Coffer was hunted down and clubbed on the head because he would not quit preaching in the town. He escaped death only through the miraculous protection of the Lord.

Not Satisfied with One Victim

■ The mob was not satisfied with the blood drawn from the body of this victim. While Coffer was being drawn and torn asunder, “Reverend” C. C. Phillips arranged with the captain of the Civilian Defense, the city marshal and the Wood county constable to arrest and hold Oscar L. Pillars until the mob could finish its job with Coffer and arrive at the jail to take care of Pillars.

- Outside the city hall the mob waited. The city marshal, acting in conspiracy with the mob, promised protection and deliverance if Pillars would agree to violate his conscience by saluting the flag and break his covenant with God by promising not to preach the gospel. When this faithful servant of Jehovah, guilty of no crime or wrongdoing, refused to comply with the marshal’s request and advised him that he would not break his faith with his Creator, Jehovah God, by saluting the flag, the “peace” officer immediately turned him over to the angry mob in waiting.

Pillars was beaten and stomped by the

CONSOLATION mob, then .dragged unconscious to a water hydrant and revived with cold water. When he regained consciousness he was beaten again and, with a rope tied around his neck, violently dragged through the streets of the town back to the city hall and hanged to a post. While hanging by neck the rope broke and he lay unconscious on the ground. After lying in jail six hours in a dazed and helpless state, he was taken by the county attorney to a hospital at Pittsburg, Texas. He was later released without charge being laid against him and spent many weeks recuperating from the almost deadly injuries inflicted.

Concerning this experience Mr. Pillars wrote: “Might I say that Jehovah’s hand certainly is not short and that His protection was so manifested in this case that no one could even doubt His presence. I thank Him that I have had the privilege of suffering some for His name’s sake.”

Another Instance of Beastly Persecution

About December 1, 1942, Clarence Bradley, colored, an ordained minister of Jehovah God, preaching in the apostolic way from house to house in North Little Rock, Ark., was picked up by the local police and held “for investigation”. The “investigation” proceeded in Nazi fashion, the officials using the. gestapo methods in keeping with the reputation of the city which has gained the alias “Little Reich”. The police desk sergeant sneered at Bradley: “One of these guys that won’t salute the flag”; to which one of the arresting officers “bravely” added: “Yes, but he is going to salute this flag' before he leaves here.” Then the officers proceeded to administer a vicious beating because of his refusal to salute. The officers jumped violently upon this Christian minister and struck him over the head with blackjacks until he lay motionless and unconscious on the floor of the police station. He was then thrown bodily into the “bull pen" of the local jail.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1943

About midnight the witness regained consciousness. Immediately he was brought again before the desk sergeant and ordered again to salute the flag. Refusing, he was clubbed back into unconsciousness. He was denied much-needed and requested medical attention. He was suffering from hemorrhages of blood into his mouth and with blood flowing from the wounds received about his head. He was denied the right to use the telephone to communicate with friends or relatives.

At midnight two days later he was released and driven into the dark streets of the town with the warning never to set foot in the city again and to stop preaching from house to house. He slowly walked home in blood-soaked clothes. He attempted to obtain medical attention, but a doctor refused even to examine him because of fear of the demonized “officers of the law”. Finally he was admitted to a clinic for an examination and was told that he had a severe brain and head injury of a permanent nature. Blood continued to drain from his head and hemorrhages were constant. This is the price that was required to be paid to these criminal officials of that Nazi-inspired city by a* Christian following in the footsteps of the apostles who advised similar officials : “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

It is plain that demon-controlled men are not the rulers of their own minds although they may be conferred legal authority to rule over the people. They are directly controlled by the evil angels that have allied themselves with the Devil. The statement of Police Sergeant Charles Ellis of Redondo Beach, Calif., proves the above statement. He explained his inhuman treatment of one of Jehovah’s witnesses by saying, “I simply lost my head,” but this excuse did not save him from paying the penalty for his assault and' mistreatment of' August Schmidt, one of Jehovah’s witnesses, on December 5, 1942.

Lawless “Officer of the Law”

On the day before, August Schmidt and wife had been preaching the gospel publicly in the city. of Redondo Beach _ by public distribution of the Watchtower ' and Consolation magazines. While thus engaged several mobsters attempted to assault him upon his refusal to discon-1 tinue preaching as demanded. His wife called the police. The police took the mobsters as well as the minister and wife to the police station. There Sergeant Ellis and the chief of police expressed their hatred of Jehovah’s witnesses and of the preaching work done by Schmidt. The officers refused to arrest the mobsters; and attempted to hold Schmidt and wife in custody, but, finding no law with which to charge them, they were forced to release them.

While calling from house to house on December 5, 1942, ministering to the spiritual needs of people of good-will toward Almighty God, Schmidt learned that he was in the neighborhood where Sergeant Ellis lived. Knowing that Ellis hated the truth and the gospel message, Schmidt attempted to learn the location of the Ellis house so that he could avoid it. Unfortunately he unintentionally called at the home. of Ellis. When he learned that Ellis lived at the place he politely excused himself and withdrew. There was no offense and nothing improper was said at the Ellis home. The "crime” was in accidentally calling at the Ellis home.

Sergeant Ellis became enraged, and his anger increased throughout the day until he was impelled to do something about it. Ellis learned where Schmidt lived and called at the Schmidt home. Schmidt answered the door and officer Ellis immediately seized hold of him and pulled him violently from the porch of his home, dragging him to his private car and making him enter at the point of a gun. The “brave officer” threatened to shoot the wife or any member of the family or friend if anyone tried to interfere with his unlawful conduct.

In the car the officer immediately began beating Schmidt, inflicting hard, deadly blowrs with a blackjack. Finally the tortured and beaten man was brought to the police station. Injured to the point of incapacity, he could not w’alk fast enough to satisfy the officer as they went from the car to the station. Officer Ellis pushed and kicked him, yelling “Faster I Faster!” and continued to strike him over the head with the blackjack. When Schmidt got inside the police station before the desk sergeant, Ellis continued to brutally assault and beat Schmidt with the blackjack. So terrible was the assault that the desk sergeant remonstrated with Ellis and said, “Why don’t you quit? You’ve done enough.” This only infuriated Ellis to intensification of the assault.

Finally Mrs. Schmidt arrived at the station. She discovered her husband with a gash over the left eye and with blood streaming down his swollen and bruised face. His shirt and trousers were soaked with blood from his body. The doctor was called to administer first-aid treatment. Other police officers who saw the victim later were amazed and astonished at the terrible injuries inflicted upon him.

Here Justice Finally Triumphed

When he saw that he was unable to knock Schmidt down or render him unconscious, officer Ellis threw his badge and gun on the counter and yelled as he left, “Tell the chief that if he doesn’t like what I did, he can get another man!” For this cruel and inhuman conduct the officer was not discharged nor condemned, though he had flagrantly violated the penal statutes of the state. On or about December 10, 1942, the chief of police showed his approval of Ellis by declaring him to be “one of his most capable and efficient police officers”. (According to the South Bay Daily Breese, Redondo Beach newspaper, of December 10, 1942.)

The Los Angeles County grand jury did not share the view of the chief of police. Ellis was indicted on two felony counts. Agents of some foreign power in favor of moh action threw their resources into the defense of the criminal. High-powered and high-priced attorneys were employed, who defended the ease, appealing to religious and political prejudice. A Catholic priest attending the trial and giving strong “moral” sup-. port to the defense of Ellis was overheard to say in broken English with an Italian accent, “Ellis will easily win an acquittal.”

The deputy district attorney, George H. Johnson, overcame the “patriotic” arguments of defense counsel by winding up his argument thus: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a coward.” The jury returned a prompt verdict of “guilty” against Ellis, thus condemning his unAmerican conduct, vindicating the name of Schmidt, one of Jehovah’s witnesses, as an American citizen. The case furnished good local color in the setting for the delivery by the president of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society before thousands assembled at Los Angeles of the inspiring speech “Fighting for Liberty on the Home Front”.

To mob a criminal guilty of heinous crime is bad, but to subject an innocent person to such treatment is a worse crime. It is the worst of all crimes to mob or condone the mobbing of a Christian minister because he declines to stop exercising his God-given constitutional right of preaching the gospel. Mob violence as a means of punishment has ever been condemned in an ordered society where there are laws to enforce the doing of that which is right and the prohibiting of that which is wrong. A nation in which mob violence is permitted to overrule the laws and constitution is brought into disgrace. Officials and nations that allow mob rule are an abomination in the sight of Almighty God.'

SEPTEMBER 1, 1»+3

The Mob Spirit Dangerous to All

The ordered administration of justice free of fear and equal to all men regardless of station in life, creed or color is an essential supporting pillar of the democratic system of government. When the administration of the judicial functions of the government are turned over to wild, demonized, beastly men of violence, a breakdown of the system of government begins to take place. The very foundation of government is impaired. The people lose respect for the governors and government that permit such crimes or allows them to go unpunished.

To allow mobsters to assault Jehovah’s witnesses because they are an unpopular minority does not strengthen the confidence of the people. If such injustice can be committed against a small minority, then it can be perpetrated against anyone and the safety of all will become imperiled. All beginnings of encroachments on minority rights should be resisted. To permit it to exist without prosecution or interference because carried on by influential groups imperils the government itself. Allowance of such conditions is an invitation to anarchy and the overthrow of the government itself at the hands of mobs.

There are federal statutes in the United States Code which provide for penal punishment of mobsters and of public officials who conspire together to deprive persons of rights through mob violence. Out of the many thousands of cases of violations of these statutes by mobsters who have assaulted Jehovah’s witnesses in recent years the Department of Justice has found courage enough to prosecute and convict but one. The conviction was speedy. The judgment was promptly affirmed on appeal. This should be a token to the Department to take similar action in hundreds of other cases in every state where mob violence has prevailed, so that the confidence of the people in the government and its justice can be restored.

The failure to prosecute such offenders does not imperil Jehovah’s witnesses. Their work will be done. But to allow such intolerable conditions in America -imperils the sovereign people of the United States for the protection of whom the government of the United - States was established under the Con-* stitution. Jehovah’s witnesses have, by the grace and strength of Almighty God and His Son Christ Jesus, remained and stood firm in their work of preaching the gospel through the flood of mob violence. “Jehovah will give strength unto his people.” (Psalm 29: 11, A.R. V.) Jehovah’s witnesses push on in the fight rejoicing in this counsel to them from Jehovah God: “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither he thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” (Joshua 1:9) He promises that He will be for “strength to them that turn the battle to the gate”, and He is. (Isaiah 28:6) His faithful servants have not been awed or overcome by sight of the overwhelming odds of the majority power exercised by the cowardly mobs. They have continued preaching the gospel in spite of the bluffs and violence of such beastly crowds, and Jehovah has given the victory and turned the tables on the enemy, who now flees in defeat.

“The Blood of the Martyrs”

The pitching of Daniel to the lions did not stop his mouth from praying to and praising Almighty God. But the mouths of the lions in the den where such faithful servant was thrown were closed by Jehovah. (Daniel 6:16-23) The faith and confidence of Daniel saved him; so also has it saved Jehovah’s witnesses today. (Hebrews 11: 33) God has granted them liberty of action. Those who have refused to take affirmative action to preach the gospel against all odds are quickly losing all liberty.

The opposers of Jehovah’s witnesses should learn that killing creatures serv-16 ing the Lord does not stop the preaching of the gospel. Christ Jesus was hung on a tree. That did not stop the preaching of the Kingdom, but greatly increased the activity of TTis apostles. His apostles were persecuted, stoned, mobbed, arrested and murdered because they preached the truth from house to house, but that did not interfere with the increase of those of good-will who followed in their ■ footsteps. From time immemorial the true servants of Almighty God have been mobbed by vicious agents of Satan. Christ forewarned that the witnesses for Jehovah’s kingdom would be hated of all nations, but He also declared that the message of the Kingdom would nevertheless be preached in all the ■world as a witness unto all nations. The persecution in all nations is strong evidence that the gospel is being preached in all nations by the victims. The religionists are not persecuted in any nation and do not preach the Kingdom gospel at all in any nation.

The unlimited course of vicious and unrestrained brutality finds its counterpart in the days of Noah when the gigantic organization of bullies [nephilim] ‘filled the earth with violence’. (Genesis 6:4-7; Matthew 24:37-39) Satan knows that his time is short. He is attempting to drive all mankind into his camp and turn all against Jehovah God so that all will die with him at Armageddon to cast blasphemy upon the name of Jehovah God. Christ Jesus warned that when these conditions are seen in the earth it should be taken by all men of good-will toward God as certain evidence that they should flge to God’s kingdom, described in the Bible as the New World Government. Christ Jesus is the King of .this new world and is described as the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9 : 6, 7) “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” (Psalm 72:3,7,8) That kingdom shall rule upon the earth and bring everlasting life and happiness to all who are of good-will toward Almighty God.

CONSOLATION

StTsyWORJ) ■ isTruth”

- John 17; 17

Soul Death

WHAT becomes of the soul at death?

Can it detach itself from the fleshly body and continue to exist in a spirit world? God’s Word says: “Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, the same shall die. And when the wicked turneth himself away from his wickedness, which he hath wrought, and doeth judgment, and justice: he shall save his soul alive.” (Ezechiel 18:4,27, Bouay Version) At the pouring out of God’s wrath, it is written prophetically, “every living soul died in the sea.” (Revelation 16: 3) “He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence.” (Psalm 78:50) “None can keep alive his own soul.”—Psalm 22:29.

When Samson was about to pull down the temple of religion upon the Philistines, he did not pray to God to take his soul to heaven; the record at Judges 16:30 reads: “And Samson said, Let my soul die with the Philistines” (marginal reading; also Rotherham’s translation).

In the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly ' before Ills betrayal by Judas, Jesus said to His disciples: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” (Matthew’ 26: 38) The prophet Isaiah foretold Jesus’ death between two thieves, saying: “He hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”—Isaiah 53:12. .

Further supporting the truth that the human soul is subject to death, Psalm 33: 19 reads: “To deliver their soul from September 1,1943 death, and to keep them alive in famine.” Also Psalm 56:13: “For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?" Psalm 66: 9 speaks of God: “Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.” Psalm 116: 8: “For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” That the human soul dies unless sustained by God’s provision is further proved, at Psalm 119:175: “Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.” Isaiah 55:3: “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live.” Jeremiah 38: 16,17:’ “As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, ... If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live.”

That the human soul can be destroyed is proved in the record at Joshua 10:28-39: “The king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein ...”

That it is an insult to Jehovah God for religionists to say that Almighty God, w’ith whom “nothing shall be impossible”, cannot destroy and annihilate the human soul, is proved by Jesus.’ authoritative words, at Matthew 10: 28: “And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Am. Rev, Ver., margin) Men may kill the body of God’s faithful servants and stop their present activities in the flesh, but such wicked men cannot destroy the right of such servants to eternal life through Christ Jesus nor their entrance into such life by a resurrection from the dead. But God can both kill the present life in the body and also cancel the right to future life and therefore withhold from the unfaithful and wicked any resurrection from the dead for all time.

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