Awake!, June 22, 1949

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THE FLOOD OF NOAH’S DAY

Widespread evidence that there was a world-wide flood

Spreading Hope with “Hope”

Adventurous ministry of seafaring Christians in Newfoundland

The Digestive System

Perfectly equipped to handle food

Bringing the Outdoors Indoors How modem design and decoration of homes

News sources that tre able to keep you awake to the vital Issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “Awake 1” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, Is free to publish facts, ft Is net bound by political ambitions or obligations; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be tread upon; it is unprejudiced by creeds. This journal keeps itself free that

it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

♦•Awake F uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on ail continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journals viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

••Awake I” pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by.the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a righteous New World.

Get acquainted with "Awake J” Keep awake by reading “Aw^kel”

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The Flood of Noah’s Day

As Told in China and the South Seas Flood Story Found in Western World Flood’s Indelible Mark on Earth’s Face Bible Record Reasonable and Scientific

Spreading Hope with “Hope”

Good Results

Many Roads to Salvation T

Indonesia’s Violent Road, to Freedom

Security Council Commission

Second.“Police Action" and Its Results

The Digestive System

From Mouth to Stomach

The StomachJs Work

The Pancreas, Liver and Intestines

Bringing the Outdoors Indoors

Pushing Out the Walls

Give the Inside That Outside Look

Science and Medicine

“Thy Word Is Truth”

The Way to a Lasting Happy Life

Sup pressing Truth on Undemocratic Greece Watching the World

16 16 17

20 21 23

^"Now it is high time to awake.— Ramans 13:11 9j

* ■ 11 .......... ........... . । ■ । ■ w—i an —’—™

Volume XXX Brooklyn, N. V., Juno 22, 1M2 Number 12

THE FLOOD OF NOAH’S DAY

Of all the calamities and dis-asters that have befallen man iSSlSs none equal in destructiveness hHHM the flood of Noah's day. That catastrophic disaster was so universal and overwhelming that it encircled the globe and literally washed the original world of human society right out of existence. Little wonder, then, that the legends of practically every race of people mention the never-to-be-fotgotten deluge. The face of the earth also carries indelible marks and scars caused by that frightful cataclysm, scars that thousands of years of time have not been able to erase. And while the muddy, refuse-laden waters of the higher critics, skeptics and infidels have washed over and obscured the flood’s evidence from general view, yet the bedrock facts still remain, to be uncovered by digging through the soft deposit of false theories.

Sir James George Frazer, speaking before the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland in 1916, declared: “It has long been known that legends of a great flood, in which almost all men perished, are widely diffused over the world/' Sir James then related a great number of these legendary stories about the flood, beginning with the ancient Babylonian accounts and then proceeding , with traditional tales from Europe, Asia, North and South America and the islands of the sea. Other noted men have confirmed Frazer's exhaustive work.

A historian by the name of Berosus, who lived in the third century before Christ, wrote down the Babylonian version of the flood story, and portions of his account were preserved by other historians like Eusebius. However, up until 1872 conceited critics, in an effort to belittle the Bible, claimed Berosus had only taken his story from the Bible and hence it was of no account What a blow this faultfinding suffered when George Smith in 1872 disclosed that cuneiform tablets containing the “Epic of Gilgamesh” was the original source of Bero-sus* story! These clay tablets that had popped up during excavation in the ruins of Nineveh have been termed “one of the glories of the nineteenth century”. Written for the Royal Library of Nineveh by Sin-liqi-unnini in the seventh century B.C. they told of the building of the ship, the storm, the end of the storm, the sinking of the sea, the grounding of the ship on a mountain, the sending out of a dove and raven, and finally the disembarkation and offering of sacrifices by the survivors.

Some years later other fragments telling of the flood were found in the Mesopotamia valley at Ashur and in Asia Minor at Boghaz Keui, and these findings further shook the world of skeptics. The fragments found at Nippur, written in Sumerian, a non-Semitic language, were much older than the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, and are believed to have been cut in cuneiform about Nimrod's time.

Europe <znd Asia Remember the Flood

Eves as Babylon wove the story of th$ flood into their religious fables* so likewise the ancient Egyptians told various tales of how an overwhelming deluge had purified the earth in the far-distant past. One of their stories related how Osiris, the “Noah” of Egyptian mythology, escaped in an ark. In Greek literature the story is repeated with all the appendages of Greek mythology added to the original facts. Among, the Druids of northwestern Europe there were sacred monuments that are believed to have been a memorial to the ark, and Welsh legend tells of a ship that “con-tained a male and a female of every sort of living creature, so that after the deluge the animals were able to restock the world”, according to Frazer.

About A,D. 1222 Snorri Sturluson, said to be “the greatest name in old Scandinavian literature”, set down the story of the flood as told by the primitive inhabitants of Iceland. A Finnish race of people, the Voguls, that lived on both sides of the Ural mountains, had their version of the greal flood. Dr. H. von Wlislocki, according to Frazer, has shown that the ancestors of the Transylvania Gypsies brought their deluge story from their ancient home in India.

There is no question that Hindu mythology alluded to a universal flood in its ancient writings. In the Satapatha Brak~ mana, written at least 600 years before Christ, the story is found. In Sanskrit literature, as, for example, the Mahabharata, compiled 500 years before Christ, an Indian epic eight times as long as the Iliad and Odyssey combined, tells of the devastating flood. And again the storyds repeated in other Sanskrit writings: Matsyu Purana, Bhagavata Purana and Agni Purana, The Kamars people in India's Raipur district and the Bhils tribe in the wild jungles of central India also have legendary tales about the flood. Cut off from all other people for many ages, the inhabitants of the secluded valleys of Kashmir, the “Paradise of India”, had stories about the flood they had learned from their ancient parents. These are found in their.oldest annals, the Nilamata Parana.

Toward the close of the eighteenth century, when Captain Samuel Turner penetrated the forbidden stronghold of Tibet high among the lofty peaks of the Himalayas, he was very much surprised to hear them telling about an inundating flood of long centuries past. Also the Santels and aboriginal tribes of Bengal, the Karens of Burma and the natives of the Malay peninsula each have stories they received from their forefathers by oral tradition about a supernatural flood.

As Told in China and the South Seas

The Chinese too, according to H. J, E. Peake, have flood tales that go back to 2200 B.CL, not so long after the great event. The Mongol inhabitants have a tradition that tells how that part of the world was once under water, and the presence of sand, crab and oyster shells far from the sea is proof of it, according to Sir Aurel Stein. Says Sir William Jones: “I may assure you, after full inquiry and consideration, that the Chinese believe the earth to have been wholly covered with water,” (Asiatic Researches, v. 2: Dis, on Chinese; also see Shuckford's Connexions, v. 1, p. 29) The Lolos people that lived in the almost impregnable mountains of Yunnan ii} southwestern v China,z a fierce, warlike people so hostile toward others they even invented their own peculiar way of av ri ting, were not without their legendary tales about the flood.'

Many years ago when the French missionaries first filtrated into Bannavs, a tableland between Cochin China, Laos and Cambodia, they asked what the natives knew of the origin of mankind, and, to the amazement of the missionaries, they were told that the father (really the second father) of the human race was saved from a terrible flood because

AWAKE I

he shut himself up in a large chest. The Bahnars of Cochin China, the Lushais and Singphos, and also the Ahoms of A^sam, a sprout off the Shan race of Indo-China, all have their flood tales.

Go throughout the many islands of the East Indies where people have lived more or less undisturbed for thousands of years and the flood will be found tied to their beliefs concerning the origin of their races. The Andaman islanders in the Bay of Bengal, the Battas or Bataks of Sumatra, the natives on the islands west of Sumatra, Nias and Engano, the Sea Dyaks and Ot-Danoms of Borneo, the natives on the islands ot Celebes, Ceram and Flores, will air tell you about the flood. The natives of Botti, who never heard of the Bible, offer a yearly sacrifice so that another Hood will not destroy them as it did the people in Noah’s day.

Travel farther eastward and other versions can be heard from the natives of New Guinea, the aborigines of Australia, the many tribes on the 7,000 islands in the Philippine group. The wild tribes of Formosa have very elaborate accounts of the flood. Or go hopping from island to island among the Polynesians and Micronesians of the South Seas and one can hear firsthand tales of the flood from the Fijians, Tahitians, Hawaiians, Mangaians, Samoans, Maori-ans and Pelewians.

Flood Story Found in Western World

Tte natives of North, Central and South - America, though far removed from Europeans and Asiatics for thousands of years, still remembered the handed-down account of the flood. ‘Says Dr. Hamilton, in his Friend of Moses, page 322: “Even the Indians of the Choctaw tribe had, it is well known, when they first came into contact with the whites, traditions handed down from their remotest ancestors, of a mighty deluge, from which a small number of persons only escaped on a raft.” Likewise, stories of the flood were common among all the other tribes throughout the Americas. Frazer lists 32' legends told by natives of North America, and 18 others told by the tribes of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, British Guiana, Bolivia and other South American countries. According to Humbolt’s Vues des Cordilleras, ancient Mexican paintings tell about Coxcox, the “Noah” of the Mexican Indians. Herrera’s History of America says that the aborigines of Cuba told the white man “that an old man, knowing the deluge was to come, built a great ship, and went into it, with his family and abundance of animals; that he sent out a crow, which did not return, etc.” And according to this same authority the Incas of Peru have a similar story. “The most barbarous X)f the Brazilians,” says Herrera, “have some knowledge of a general deluge.”

Even in the wastelands of the frigid north the natives have for generations repeated to their children oral traditions about the flood. The polar explorer, Dr. Richardson, tells how tribes of Crees “all spoke of a universal deluge, from which one family alone escaped, with all kinds of birds and beasts, on a huge raft”.

These, then, are some of the 90 different flodd legends and tales of folklore collected from among the heathen races by eminent scholars like B. Andree, H. Usener, M. Winternitz, E. Bbklen, G. Gerland, P. Buttmann, F. Lenormant, H. Howorth, J. Frazer, and others. It is true, though they all tell of some great overflowing cataclysm that took place ages ago, yet these various legends are so twisted and altered from the account given in the Bible there is only a rough similarity in outline between many of them.

Of What Value Are These Legends?

But there is one all-important truth to which these 90-odd legends testify: all of them are founded on the basic truth that in the distant past a universal flood almost destroyed the human race. Only such a remarkable event would cause all these varied and scattered races of people to hand down traditional notice of it from one generation to another. And so we And it.

Only by admitting that the Bible record is authentic is it possible to explain why so many of these traditions of the heathen speak of an overwhelming deluge of water, of a dove and raven being sent out at the close of the flood, and of the appearance of a rainbow. If these stories were not all founded on the facts that are set forth in the Bible, then why, according to Biblical Repository, is an ark a very conspicuous object of worship by so many heathen! Or why does an individual variously called Noas, Noasis, Nusus and Nus occupy a similar role in Oriental mythology as Noah does in the Bible, if there is no truth in the Biblical account? “Admit these traditions to be all founded upon the Noachian deluge and all difficulties vanish/7 says Olmstead, <fbut deny this identity, and we need a miracle, greater than would be required for & universal deluge, to resolve them/7—Noah and His Times, page 128.

Flood'* Indelible Mark on Earth’s Face

About a hundred years ago skeptics began prying around in the ruins of ancient civilizations of the Mesopotamian valley in an effort to discredit the Bible. But to their shame, every scrap and fragment only corroborated the account as set forth in the<Bible. Archeological findings show that at some distant time in the past there was a great inundating flood that buried whole civilizations. That men and women were living on the earth at that time, to quote Sir Joseph Prest-wich, the noted geologist, is “now a question not necessary to argue", since there is an abundance' of well-known evidence to substantiate the fact

In addition to archeology, geology also vindicates the Bible record. Accord* ing to tradition and the Bible, “the flood was of comparatively short duration, and this statement agrees with the’ geological conditions, in that there is an entire absence of such sedimentary deposits as must have been formed had the waters rested long on the land.” [The Tradition of the Flood, Prestwich, page 4). Some put forth the theory that the flood must have been caused by spring thaws after exceptional heavy snowfall in the moan tains which forced the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to overflow their^banks. Such an “explanation’’ is preposterous! Every spring not only the Euphrates overflows its bank, but also the Nile of Egypt, the Yellow river of China and ''‘Old Man” Mississippi. People in those lands in olden times knew this. Hence, if there had been an exceptionally high rise in the rivers that inundated the land, causing the great flood, those people would have quickly identified it as such.

Pooh-poohing this river idea, the eminent geologist Prestwich points out that the story of the flood “could not have had its origin otherwise than in an event of a very exceptional and extraordinary character—far more so than any that Could have resulted from ordinary river floods." And again he says: “Riverfloods, howsoever devastating, as for example those of the Yellow River, make no lasting impression on a busy and rude population, and are soon forgotten.”

Bible Record Reasonable and Scientific

Not the Bible record, but the opinions of Christendom's clergy contradict and conflict with the facts of archeology and geology. Not the Bible, but the private interpretation of many of the clergy claims the earth was created in six 24-hour days. The Genesis account of creation allows many thousands of years, at least 42,000 years, for the processes of creation to gradually unfold. The Bible record also indicates that during these

thousands of years before man was on earth there were periodic deluges that engulfed the globe, causing further buckling of the earth's surface. For more details see the Watchtower publication entitled "The Truth Shall Make You Free”, chapter 4.

These pre-Edenic deluges and the bucklings that followed explain why there are raised beaches of sand and shells, some places raised 10, 100 or 600 feet or more above present water levels. The vast boulder drifts silently add their testimony to the fact that there were watery deluges of overwhelming size. At Plymouth, England, in southern France, in Italy, along the northern coasts of Africa, and in many other places, there are rent rock formations, gaping fissures in the limestone and great “shell-fish cemeteries”, that give visible evidence to this fact. Debris and the remains of animals were washed into these fissures and ravines by a sudden deluge, for there is an absence of marine sedimentary deposits that would have been present had a long period of time accounted for these formations. No local affair these aqueous rings that gravitated to earth I They were globe-encircling. Says the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge:

It may also be observed that in the regions far remote from the Euphrates and Tigris, viz., Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England, the United States, etc., there are frequently found, in places scores of leagues from the sea, and even on the tops of high mountains, whole trees sunk deep under ground, as also teeth and bones of animals, fishes entire, seashells, ears of com, etc., petrified; which the best naturalists are agreed could never have come there but by the deluge.

Granted, then, that there were diluvial floods that caused these things thousands of years before man was on earth, it calls for no stretch of the imagination to believe that one more such aqueous ring descended on the earth in Noah’s day with appalling consequences to both man and beast. It was such a falling ring of water that caused the icecaps which still ding to the earth's polar regions. With no longer a canopy of water about the earth ta form a hothouse condition at the poles, the falling water quickly froze in those areas. The huge mammoths and mastodons were frozen alive before they could flee, and when recently dug out of the Canadian and Siberian iceboxes their flesh, skin and hair were as well preserved as if they had been kept in a modern deep-freeze refrigerator. These are cold facts that cannot be disputed^ facts that prove the Bible record is true.

Far more important than all this testimony is that given by the greatest Teacher and Prophet that ever lived, namely, Jesus the Messiah. Speaking of the time when this present evil world would end and He would return and establish His Kingdom, Jesus said that one of the visible signs would be this:

For just as it was in the time of Noah, it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For just as in those days before the flood people were eating and drinking, marrying and being married, until the very day Noah entered the ark, and knew nothing about it until the flood came and destroyed them all, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.—Matthew 24:37-39, An Amer. Trans.

It is even so today. "Just as in those days," the great majority of the people mock and scoff at the warning now being given that Jehovah God once again purposes to destroy this wicked Satan-^uled world. But these very scoffers themselves are powerful testimony that we are in the “last days” of this old world, for the apostle Peter says: “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise‘of his coming! for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For . . . they willingly are ignorant [of the fact] that the world that then was [in Noah's day], being overflowed with water, perished-'1—2 Peter 3:3-6.

JUNE 7

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BLACK rocks with jagged profiles jut their twisted contours into the sea along1 the tortuous coast of Newfoundland. Lofty crags spiral skyward and echo the dismal groans of foghorns; their peaks girdled with clinging mists, and crowned with blinking lighthouses? Storm-scarred cliffs rise high and handsome, their faces oddly sculptured by centuries of warfare with the aggressive sea. Numerous islands pierce through the ocean's swelling bosom, and leaping waves continually break into a shower of white to give contrast to the green seascape. Here and there coves have bitten their way into the shore; and beautiful bays, bordered with yellow moss and rich evergreens, have eaten through the coastal escarpments to go winding many miles inland to meet the rivers.

But people live in these places. Wishing villages nestle under the towering cliffs, and perch with uncertainty upon the brinks; others sprawl over the islands, and hamlets hide in almost every nook that affords any shelter from the brutish rigor of the ocean. Logging and small-scale farming help the people who live in the bays, but many coastal settlements depend wholly on the sea for food and a living. Isolated as the people are, their schooners are their trains; their rowboats are their automobiles, and the waterways are their roads from town to town.

Weather, tides and seasons guide their labors; but slashing stdrihs, frequent fogs and whipping winds are unable to curb their toil against the sea. Their lives depend on each year's supply of fish wrought from the ocean. They work in a natural aquatic 200 where denizens of the deep perform, where whopper whales blow and dolphins dive, where swordfish bask and porpoise play. They seine the sporty salmon by the shore and capture silky seals from off the ice. They jig and trap and trawl the lazy cod, and ply the streams in search of tasty trout. With muskets cocked they chase wild ducks and geese, and watch the giant fish hawk bolt down from the sky in a headlong plunge for fish.

In the harbors wharves run off the beaches everywhere, and skiffs and dories nudge continually at the piers. Here the vessels land supplies, curious strangers, and mail. Here the men build boats, mend twine, and work at fish, all the time a “yarnin'" and a “cofferin'". Here the women meet on flakes to help in spreading and gathering the Here the children play with no fear of the deep water, little ones hardly as high as dory gunwales are skilled at rowing and sculling through the lops—this is their fun, their youth, their pleasure.

Homes are built in the sheltered places and they are well cared for by the industrious women. No matter how humble their quarters are one feels at home with them because they have a natural hospitality and frankness. Many varieties of fish and sea birds often deck their tables. Vegetables are grown wherever crevices fiold enough soil to plant a bed. The surrounding hills and swamps pour down berries for desserts—partridgeberries, bakeapples; and blueberries grow everywhere. Artificial ways of living have not captured them yet. They cure their fish, store vegetables away for the winters, and drag home many gallons of wild fruit each season. They store in supplies of flour, tea and molasses, salt beef and pork. These are hard-working frugal people who take all the -thrills of their exciting lives for granted.

Orthodox Reliffiong Hopeless

All they need further is the hope of the new world under Christ Jesus; they need spiritual succor and knowledge. Not that there are no churches and schools; indeed, there are more churches than the people can support. Some settlements have as many^as two or three different churches for as * few as three hundred population, and denominational schools exist for the various orthodox religions which many consider burdensome and unnecessary. It is really religion and its' attendant prejudices that make the only marked division among the people, and religion has been unkind and unchristian. Unkind over cemeteries, baptism, schools and money.

Unkind over cemeteries? Yes. Cases are on record of families uniting to establish burial grounds and for many years using their family plots to bury their dead. They have owned their plots too, they paid for them, worked for them and used them; but in due course the cemeteries were consecrated to the churches. Then it has come about that families who have changed their faith have been barred from their own plot where their loved ones lie, and in the sudden emergency they have had to bury in any available place. Christening of infants by the clergy shackles the people, too, for it is generally believed that the unchristened child who dies without a name to be known by in the other .world will run into difficulties.

And money is the key to it all. The church demands its pound of flesh, and if fees are nbt met then people stand in fear of being cut off from decent burials, christenings, and school privileges for their children. However, recently education has become more organized for the help of all children, rather than to suit the denominations. Marriages are religious, none civil. No license is needed.

These religions unchristian? Yes, Some clergy have done witkedly in not allowing parishioners to keep Bibles and books that will help them to understand God's purposes for mankind. They have warned and threatened the people not to have anything to do with ministers of Jehovah God who preach the Scriptures and help the people to learn how to use the Bible for themselves.

“Hope" Spreads Hope

But, regardless of the great fight put up by the religionists to keep the truth from the people in the isolated outports, each summer for many years the little Hope boat has plowed her way to parts of these regions, taking spiritual food to these lonesome settlements. The Hope is small, only 42 feet long. It is our floating missionary home from May month until December,

The ocean seems to tire at night and often sleeps quietly like afpot of bluish ointment until sunrise;

then the winds start striving on its brbw, furrowing and wrinkling its face into massive waves. So we usually sailed with the dawning, before the moody sea began its daily romp with the rugged rocks. Occasionally we would stop over shoals to jig a fish for dinner, or slow down to shout a greeting to fishermen at their trawls and nets. In those early hours the air was crisp and good when it was wot foggy, and the smell of brine, and coffee from the galley, were delightful as the Hope uubbed along with a roll and twist. Little puffs of gray smoke puncturing the gloom of the shadows indicated where villages nestled, and before the towns -were fully awake we would be docked and preparing for our day's work among the people. We had many interesting experiences.

One Saturdaynight we sought shelter from a storm in a small nook where a cluster of houses hid. The people were kind and receptive. They were pleasant tot talk with, and appreciated our visit as we helped them locate Bible truths about the new world. Many were glad to offer a small contribution for Bibles and books. But, alas 1 the next day in church the clergyman preached a tirade against us and instructed the people to have nothing to do with us, and he told them not to keep the Bibles and books, but to bring them back to us again. That night three persons returned their Bibles and literature. That a Protestant minister should command his flock to return Bibles came as a great shock to many good people, and it did not do religion's reputation any good, either. The real results were that we placed much more literature, for the people were thoroughly aroused, and they asked many questions.

At an early hour next morning the fishermen from other near-by settlements were visited. He warned the fishermen, even those who were of different denomination, that they should have nothing to do with those ‘bad’ Jehovah's witnesses. Again results favored us, because the men were curious to have our Bible message explained. Next Sunday we arranged for an Orangeman's hall to give a Bible lecture in another village up the bay. Lo, once more he appeared, and we did not get the hall.

Voice from the Sky

Then for the first time we used the powerful sound equipment of the Hope in this district Denied the hall, we sailed

the boat out to the center of the harbor and, with God's blue sky above and the placid waters beneath, our auditoriun was as large as the horizon and the tall waa heard in all the towns close by. One woman said, When our Savior was born Mary couldn't get into the inn, or a home, so the King of the world was born in a manger. Now men come preaching and teaching the Bible and they are spoken against in the. churches, kept from using the halls, and they have to preach to .us with a voice from out of the sea,-’ The clergyman urged one man who had obtained from us the book "Let God Be True” to burn it immediately. The man answered that he had learned more from that book than he had ever known in his life before.

One chilly morning in late September when the orange and cardinal colors of autumn were touching the berry branches and spreading upward to the tips of birches and maples, we sailed up a long bay to work a settlement. Arrangements were made to give a Bible lecture in the Orange hall at 8:30 on Sunday night, and the people looked forward to it. But Saturday the local preacher began warning people against ns and all day Sunday the air of the place was electrified with excitement. We decided to attend church that night to hear his denunciation of us. It was just that, but in making remarks about us the preacher was surprised to see several parishioners get up and walk out,

Well, we did not get the hall after that, but, ironically enough, the sexton of the church offered us his big dwelling house in which to give our talk. The place was crowded—upstairs, steps, kitchen, parlor and porch. In a later visit we were able to engage the Orange hall, and this time we had no trouble except threats and wild rumors.

In places where halls were shut to us, and when the weather was good, we would use our sound equipment for lecturing. In this way many heard the mes

awake i sage of God’s kingdom, but first along it caused quite a stir. On a clear evening this public-address system can amplify sound to reach four to five miles away. Probably it is the high terrain that echoes the words and music so far. Not having heard such strong open-air lecturing before, people in settlements that we had not yet visited were startled to hear hymns and music descending from the gorges and mountain crests. It was as though heavenly hosts were singing a hallelujah chorus from the sky.

And when the words of Scripture and a call to serve the Almighty God Jehovah came to the people’s hearing, they afterward told us that they were greatly moved and even frightened. It was not hard for them to imagine that Gabriel’s horn had blown, and to those who look for a visible return of Christ could easily come the fear or hope that a white horse would soon break forth from the clouds. They told us the situation was all the more frightening when sometimes the words seemed to come from an old abandoned church, and sometimes from the graveyard, other times from a parsing cloud. When the people got used to the Hope and the loud-speaker programs they often heard the sound in the distance and smiled with understanding— somewhere Jehovah’s witnesses were lecturing tonight

Good Results

We made many fine and noble friends along these weather-beaten shores, and after a frhile it got so that whenever we arrived in a port the children came aboard and visited us with joy to see us back; the people enjoyed more open-air talks on the Bible. Although the religious leaders opposed us, and told the parents to keep the children from visiting the “awful crowd7’ on the Hope, little heed has been given, and so we look forward to each season’s work among these humble people. Despite the way the clergymen acted in these places described, in

JEW# 1949

the 1948 season, we were able to leave 2,877 Bibles and books, 5,000 magazines and booklets, 400 new subscriptions; and we had the pleasure of making 1,600 back-calls, giving 50 Bible lectures besides all the sound work with the boat equipment, and 26 home Bible studies were started.

Some may think, from the description of life in an “oatport” where we spoke of fishing, hunting and picking wild berries for food, that Newfoundland is the ideal place. The truth is that it is only when the fish and birds strike in in great quantities that there is a guarantee of winter’s diet, and the berry growth has good and bad seasons. Costs of equipment with which to fish is gradually spiraling to burdensome heights, so, although our coast is endowed with what sounds like good fishing and hunting, yet there are many poor people who find it hard to keep the wolf from the door. Some seasons have been complete failures. So the people here, like all the rest of the world, are in need of the blessings of the “new earth” after Armageddon's storm has passed.

As for the Hope, she will continue to ply the coast each summer from the time when navigation opens in spring, through the summer months when capelin, squid and cod are fished, when the silvery salmon leap the falls, and on into the fall when fish-filled schooners beat their lazy way homeward from distant Labrador. She will anchor in the quiet coves throughout the nights and make back-calls on meek people in the days. And when the barometer drops, and the sea quakes and roughens, coils and strikes in long green lashes on the rocky ramparts, the Hope will not give up. When the evil song of the northern winds soughs in gleeful storm, we will trust in Jehovah, who “is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea”.—Awoke! correspondent in N ewf oundland.

Many Roads to Salvation?

<L Are the hundreds of religious sects and cults merely different roads leading to the same place of salvation? Many say yes; but it has been generally believed that the Catholic Church maintained “No salvation outside the Church”, meaning their organization. On April 13 three Catholic teachers at Boston College and one at Boston High School (both Catholic institutions) were fired by Jesuit Wm. L. Keleher, president of Boston College. The four professors had accused Jesuit Keleher of heresy for teaching: (1) There may be salvation outside the Catholic Church; (2) a man may be saved though he says the Roman Church may not be supreme among churches; (3) a man may be saved without submission to the pope. <L Many Catholic people had always understood as did the professors; so they picketed six Catholic Churches in the Boston area because of the ouster of the men, and carried placards that read; “No salvation outside the Church.,f Vatican sources said jurisdiction over the controversy would be in the hands of Boston’s Archbishop Cushing. On April 17 Jesuit “Father” Feeney of the St. Benedict Center said he was unable to understand why the men were fired for expounding “the three basic premises of Catholic life”. The next day Archbishop Cushing announced that he had “silenced” Feeney and deprived him of all priestly functions.

The April 22 issue of the New York Times reported “Catechism Revised for Modern World”, the first major revision in sixty years. It is the Baltimore “penny” text used in America for seventy years, and the new 426-page book is titled “A Catechism of Christian Doctrine”. On the subject of the true church it says: “What do we mean when we say, 'Outside the Church there is no salvation*? When we say, 'Outside the Church there is no salvation/ we mean that those who through their own grave fault do not know that the Catholic Church is the true Church or, knowing it, refuse to join it, cannot be saved. 'Outside the Church there is no salvation’ does not mean that everyone who is not a Catholic will be condemned. It does mean that no one can be saved unless he belongs in some manner to the Catholic Church, either actually or in desire, for the means of grace are not given without some relation to the divine institution established by Christ.”

This is hardly even a graceful loophole for the Hierarchy in a Protestant country. How do Protestants belong “in some manner” to the Catholic Church, which the above revised catechism claims is the only channel of saving grace? A vague and confusing play with words, that catechism answer. While quibbling about salvation through “an act of perfect charity”, undefined, the Catholic Encyclopedia} volume III, page 752, says: “Only by entering the Church can we participate in the redemption wrought for us by Christ. . . . Outside the Church these gifts cannot be obtained. From all this there is but one conclusion: Union with the Church is not merely one out of various means by which salvation may be obtained: it is the only means.” The papal bull Unam Sanctam} issued by Pope Boniface VIII in 1302, declared that “for every human creature it is necessary for salvation to be subject to the authority of the Roman Pon* tiff”. But now, in liberal America, at least, where the Catholic Church is a minority, she would like to pose as broadminded, admitting that there might be other means of salvation. C. Many roads to saltation? No; but if there were the Catholic Church could claim to have embraced them all in her broad trail through the past centuries. She reached out and took in teachings of pagan religions rnunci’ about, in violation of the Bible principle of 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. Their way is h broad way, even allowing room for pagans to travel thereon and feel at home. Jesus spoke of the way of salvation as 'strait and narrow’. (Matthew 7:13,14) The Bible tells of one Mediator to bring God’s graces to men, namely Christ, and not a church, or a priest, or a woman named Mary, (1 Timothy 2:5) Many toads to salvation? Ephesians 4; 5 answers: “One faith.” That right road is marked out in God’s Word, the Bible.

AFTER the Japanese surrender in August, 1945, the Indonesians under leadership of Dr. Soekarno, proclaimed the independence of Indonesia on August 17; 1945. Shortly thereafter, by means of proclamations, on the walls of many buildings, at the corners of the streets, on the sides of electrical tram-wagons, the independence of Indonesia was declared. Mottoes as “Once free, forever free”, “Freedom, the glory of every nation,” “We don’t want the Dutch,” “Away with colonization,” could be read everywhere at Batavia. Caricatures appeared on the walls of buildings.

In September, 1945, the first Allied forces, small in number, landed at Tg. Priok, the harbor of Batavia. Soon thereafter the Japanese forces were disarmed and interned. Some of the Japanese fled into the country. The Indonesians, seeing the English were not able to maintain order and law, and instigated by the various radio propagandas, started various murders on the Dutch. Among them were innocent men, women and children, as it always happened during a revolution. Many fights occurred between the Allied and the Indonesians. Killing, murders, robberies and kidnaping were done on a large scale, even in the occupied cities, such as Batavia.

In the beginning of , the revolution the Chinese people were let alone, because of the sympathetic attitude of the Chinese government toward the Indonesian quest for freedom. However, this did not go on very long. Accusations were made on the side of the Indonesians that the Chinese people sympathized with the Dutch. Hatred toward the Chinese increased, and this gave rise to various murders, robberies and fires on the Chinese, their goods and chattels. All those crimes were committed by irresponsible JUNE 22, 1949

TMDOF

eArr rom

elements, all of them calling themselves “nationalists”.

Allied occupied cities were gradually restored to the Dutch, while the Allied troops went farther inland to occupy more territories. As lohg as the British were present, the Dutch could not have a free hand in settling the matter in their own way* The British some times were, forced to send out punitive.expeditions, such as happened at Bekasi, a village a few miles eastward from Batavia. An accident took place near Bekasi; a Dakota airplane with British and Indian troops was crashed to the ground, and the survivors were massacred by the mob. The British immediately took revenge by sending out an expedition to punish the guilty ones; but, alas, the latter took to their heels before the expedition reached the village. However, almost the whole village was razed to the ground.

After the revenge of the British, the Chinese again were blamed for betraying the Indonesians to their enemies. This was enough reason for the irresponsible Indonesian elements to plunder the Chinese houses, and to kill Chinese people, including women and children. This also happened at Tangerang, a village westward from Batavia, in May, 1946. The Dutch made “cleansing operations” in the neighborhood of Batavia. They marched to Tangerang, after cannonading it from Batavia. While the Dutch were on the way to Tangerang, the fanatic Indonesian people in the neighborhood of that village arrested the Chinese population, and "evacuated them to safer places, in order to defend them against the cruelties of the Dutch". Many of them were killed on the way. This Chinese murder filled the hearts of honest people with indignation. The Republican radio from Jogjakarta (Republican headquarters) broadcast that the Republican authorities would surely punish those irresponsible elements as they deserved.

Negotiations and More Bloodshed

The British, who have been playing the role of arbiter, tried to reconcile the Dutch with the Indonesians. Their efforts led to the Lihggadjati Agreement on November 15, 1946. (Linggadjati is a place in West Java.) According to the agreement, both the parties shpuld cooperate to form as soon as possible a sovereign democratic federation, namely the United States of Indonesia.

As both the parties suspect each other, it is no wonder that the agreement had little or no effect. Soon they accused each other of trespassing the truce. Both the Indonesians and the Dutch newspapers were summing up the numerous transgressions of the other. At last, Dr. Van Mook, determined to make an end to the trouble, by bringing "order and peace* in Indonesia, by the expansion of the Dutch territories, .according to Dr. Van Mook's own words, 40 that the people could breathe more freely. The first police action, as the Dutch called it, took place on July 21, 1947. The operations of the Dutch troops under General Spoor made much progress,' and soon many towns and villages of Java and Sumatra fell into Dutch hands. The Republican troops, which are not in possession of bombers, could offer little resistance.

According to the Republican comments, their withdrawal did not mean loss, but that they would be able to organize the guerrillas. Before their withdrawal they burnt many buildings and houses/as at Soekaboenrd and Malang. The tragedy of evacuating Chinese people to other - places, where ^they would be defended against the Dutch”, repeated itself. They fell victims to fanatic, irresponsible elements, who call themselves “nationalists’’. Many of them are organized in gangs, whose only desire is robbing and killing, and have not the slightest idea of what freedom for the country means, in fact. In their rage they even burned alive innocent children and women, as at Malang, a place south of Sourabaya. The Republic appealed to the Security Council for intervention, and this indeed took place. America suggested that both the fighting parties pease firing, and the Dutch, fearing to displease powerful America, stopped their operations on August 5,1947.

Security Council Commission

The Security Council decided to send a commission to Indonesia to investigate the situation. This commission is called the Commission of Good Services, composed of three members, namely America, Australia and Belgium. This commission is called by the. Malayspeaking people Kommisi Tiga Neg&ri (K.T.N.), or Commission, of Three Countries. At last the parties, came to an agreement, namely the Renville Agreement,. which was signed on board the Renville, an American ship.

According to this agreement signed January 17, 1948, there will be held free elections by the Indonesian people io determine for themselves the position of their states with respect to the United States of Indonesia in the future. According-to the "six additional articles of the Commission of Good Services", the sovereignty, formerly belonging to the Dutch government, will be transferred to the IL S. I. after a certain period. Before the ending of that period, certain responsibilities are to be transferred to a preliminary federal government. The position of the Republic of

Indonesia will be a state within the U. S, I.

The stumbling-block for both parties is the pending question about the participation of the Republic in the U. S. I. The Republic cannot believe that the U. S. L will be in fact a free and sovereign state. Numerous accusations of trespassing the truce by both parties were repeated, and in November,1 1948, the lieutenant governor general, Dr. Van Mook, tendered his resignation. Dr. Beel came in his place. But negotiations came to a deadlock.

Second "Police Action* and Its Results

Then for the second time the Dutch decided to take up arms. The second so-called “police action” started on December 19, 1948. The Dutch used their paratroops to land at Magoewo, the Republican aerodrome near Jogjakarta. Before the landing the environs of that aerodrome had been machine-gunned by Dutch fighters, so that the paratroops could land safely. General Spoor himself attended the air raids from above. The paratroops marched to Jogjakarta and arrested the Republican president, Dr. Soekarno, the vice-president, Moh. Hatta, General Sudirman, and other high Indonesian officials. Soon thereafter the whole city of Jogjakarta fell into Dutch hands. The Dutch troops made their attacks at several places in Java and Sumatra at the same time, and in a few days occupied almost all Republican territories.

However, this did not mean that order and peace were brought in Indonesia, and certainly not freedom. On the.contrary, the Indonesian guerrillas continued their fight for freedom, though their leaders were taken captive. The newspapers day by day made, mention of guerrilla activities, which caused damage amounting to millions of guilders and loss of many lives. Many were the reports about Indonesian raids at the occupied cities. The situation for the Dutch planters in Java is very critical.

The Republican leaders, whose abode had at first been kept secret, were held on the isle of Banka. On arrival in Banka, Dr. Soekarno was welcomed by the population of that island. He even was carried on the shoulders of the enthusiastic people. Discussions were held between the Republican leaders and the delegation of the B. F. 0. (Byzonder Federaal Overleg). This is a commission composed of the representatives of states, which will form the federation of the U. S. I. Again the Republic was invited to become a part of the U. S. I. The Republic required the immediate release of all Republican political prisoners and the restitution of the Republican power at Jogjakarta, this being in accordance with the decisions of the Security Council. The B. F. O. affirmed Republican requirements in its resolution of March 3, 1949.

On May 7 the United Nations Commission for Indonesia announced that the Dutch and the Republic had agreed to halt the five months of jungle fighting, and the Dutch will free the political prisoners taken last December and the Republic will once again become a functioning government, with its cabinet in Jogjakarta. The Republic will take part in a round-table talk at The Hague on the Indonesian problem, but insists on the holding of the full-dress debate bn Indonesia that is on the United Nations

General Assembly agenda, though the Netherlands objects thereto.

The real tragedy is that while the political leaders look for what they call 4 "satisfying agreement”, while the Security Council again and again assembles to discuss the Indonesian problem, the

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ion people, especially in the Dutch

recently occupied territories, suffer by famine and disease, and sharp fightings. Truly, the freedom quest is far from rose-colored, though it is frequently blood red.—A wake 1 correspondent in Indonesia.

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Perfectly Equipped to Handle 1

THROUGHOUT the ages that sin and death have tortured and slain men without exception, many cures and many culprits have successively been held up for popular acceptance. Perhaps no other panacea has been tried in such vast varieties and combinations as food and drink. Men sought to attain the strength of the lion by eating its meat, or capture the vigor of the slain enemy by drinking his blood. Intense desire to win the affections of the opposite sex or of a cherished member induced man and maid alike to drink copious quantities of “love potions"’. Besides incantation, aild because of its more material appeal to the credulous victim, the magician customarily also prescribed a ‘‘witch’s brew” to eat or drink. From the bubbling cauldron, the foul odors of the sorcerer’s concoctions filled the patient’s nostrils with nausea, but hope. Confidently the practitioner promised to cure any distress from ugliness to sterility in wives, any illness from weakness to wanderlust in husbands.

Later all this was thrown overboard by the more educated. Or did it merely appear in different style, with brand-new nomenclature? Even the “intelligentsia” of Jesus’ day were so concerned about their diet and eating habits‘that Jesus was impelled to undeceive the common people. “And he called the people to him and said to them, Listen to this, and grasp it I It is not what goes into a man’s mouth that pollutes him,’” As the disciples failed to understand, Jesus elucidated : “ fHave even you no understanding yet? Can you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and then is disposed of? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they pollute a man. For out of the heart come wicked de-

j ness, impious speech. It is

these things that pollute a man, but not eating with unwashed hands 1* ”—Matthew 15:10,11, 16-20, An Amer. Trans.

This article will consider the versatile and competent action of the human digestive system, its ability to “take it or leave it”.

While “digestion” is sometimes defined in a limited maimer as the “conversion of food by the action of the gastric juices into soluble products so that it can be assimilated by the blood” (Webster’s), it is not a simple stomach process its this might imply. Most of us remember from our hygiene hooks that the main digestion takes place in the intestines. But what part is performed by the liver? and why does the pancreas discharge its juice through the same duct that carries the bile? Suggestions on some of these points are all that can be offered.

The alimentary or digestive tract comprises the mouth, pharynx (throat), esophagus (gullet), stomach and intestines. The processes tal^ng place within the alimentary tract whereby food is prepared for absorption into the blood stream are all included under the term digestion. Its appendages include the lips, the teeth, the tongue, the salivary glands, the gastric and intestinal glands, the pancreas and the liver. The whole is a marvel of organizetion, functioning with perfect timing and efficiency. Its action is partly physical and partly chemical.'*

/from Mouth to Stomach

Even in the process of chewing, the first digestive action, which appears so simple that we are seldom conscious of the motion, there are many muscles and nerves in perfect co-ordination permitting the mandible or lower jaw to move forward and backward, up and down or laterally, the lips and tongue to retain and move the food, while the teeth eat and grind and the saliva mixes. Other nerves tell us of its texture, taste, smell and temperature. The system does not need any advance notice as to what kind of food it will be required to handle. The three pairs of salivary glands, the parotid, sublingual and submaxillary, are stimulated by the sight and odor of food, and also by chewing. Two pairs lie below the tongue, and the parotid, below the ears. In structure they resemble a bunch of grapes, the main stem representing the chief excretory duct. For this reason the salivary glands as well as the pancreas are called ^racemose” (Lat. racemus, “a cluster,” as of grapes).

The enjoyment of the sight and smell of food, by stimulating the flow of Saliva and also of the gastric juices of the stomach, thus serves a physiological purpose, as do most of the natural pleasures. About a quart and a half of saliva is secreted normally in 24 hours. Saliva has a twofold action: chemical and physical. Chemically it converts starch into sugar (dextrins, maltose). If a small portion of boiled starch, or a piece of bread, is retained in the mouth a few minutes the sweet taste is noticeable. Physically, saliva softens and moistens the food, and through its mucin, which is viscid or adhesive, the mass is prepared for swallowing. The liquid from the three types of glands each have slightly different composition, and the amount each sends forth will be determined by the properties of the food. Thus, without conscious effort on the part of man, a more fluid saliva is secreted for dry food, a more adhesive for meat, etc. Saliva also cleanses the mouth, moistens it for speech, probably produces thirsf.

Now the process of swallowing is simple to perform, but it is accomplished by the perfect co-ordination by many nerves and muscles, and provision is normally made so that the nasal passages and larynx are closed to prevent food passage. Breathing is suspended just preceding and during the act of deglutition (swallowing). When the body is upright, swallowed food that is liquid passes through the esophagus and reaches the stomach in about two seconds. When the subject's head is below the stomach, the liquid, as do solids, will pass down slowly by peristalsis, a rhythmic, waveltke movement, a very important action which characterizes the function of stomach and intestines as well.

The Stomach’» Work

It has been observed that starches, during the act of mastication, are at least partially transformed into sugar. This is produced by the action of an enzyme or ferment called ptyalin. The yeast bacteria is one type of ferment. Thus as yeast breaks down grain into alcohol and carbon dioxide, so the other enzymes reduce other foods into simpler coifipounds, which are eventually rendered acceptable for absorption. Thus 'the enzyme pepsin of the gastric juice of ► the stomach acts on proteins to form peptones, the’trypsin of the pancreatic Juice forms peptids of proteins. A small quantity of these leavens will convert a large quantity, even as Paul said, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” (Galatians 5:9) Apparently these enzymes are not used up in the process; hence they are compared to chemical catalysts, which induce or accelerate reactions between substances, but are not themselves changed.

Continuing the narrative^ of the food's journey, it has

now stimulated the opening of a valve, controlled by the cardiac sphincter, ana through it entered the stomach. There are other sphincter muscles, such as the pyloric sphincter at the other end of the stomach, which act together to close the stomach during the process of digestion. (A sphincter is a circular band of muscle which, acting like a purse string, serves to narrow the entrance to or outlet from certain hollow organs. Another, called the ileo-colic, apparently controls the ileo-cecal valve between the small and the large intestine; and still another controls the anus.

The stomach is a highly specialized organ of the thirty-five feet of digestive tract. On the average it is about twelve inches long, conical in shape, and its capacity varies between a quart and a half and a quart and three quarters. Its position is almost vertical, and when not distended by food its walls are contracted, partly in contact, and the whole organ is drawn up into the upper part of the abdominal cavity. It adapts itself to the varying amounts of food, hence varies in size. It is covered by a thin transparent membrane similar to -the peritoneum, beneath which are three layers of muscles. The inner surface is a velvety mucous membrane which, toward the pyloric (or lower) end is continuous with the mucous membrane of the intestine.

The food and saliva mixture, or bolus as it is now called, is shortly subjected to both physical and chemical actions. A peristaltic movement starts near the center or cardiac region of the stomach, making the organ look like a chain of progressive sausages or “hot dogs”. (When empty recurring peristaltic movements produce the feeling of hunger.) This wave both churns and pulverizes the food liquid or semi-liquid as it has now become, mixes it with the digestive or gastric juice, and also when it is ready for discharge ejects it into

we duodenum, or rmx or we small mtea* tine which connects with the stomach.

On the mucous lining of the stomach are more than 5,000,000 ducts leading from around 35,000,000 glands. Their chief secretion is mucus, enzymes of th<= gastric juice, and hydrochloric acid. The ferments or enzymes are pepsin, rennin, and lipase. Since the percentage of hydrochloric acid runs as high as 0.6 percent in the gastric juice and since the pepsin is the chief enzyme in the reduction of protein, a question has ariser which no one has satisfactorily an swered: Why does not the stomach digest itself f

The length of time the food remains in the stomach depends upon its composition, Usually two to four hours. The chief action of the stomach is upon proteins and milk. Sugar and starches (carbohydrates) while remaining in the upper part of the stomach continue to digest with the alkaline saliva, but when coming in contact with the acid gastric juice this ceases. Meat and milk and vegetable proteins are broken down by the action of the enzymes and hydrochloric acid. Digestion is much interfered with by anger, fear, anxiety; hence it is especially important at mealtimes to be in a peaceful state of mind.

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