Awake!, November 8, 1955
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IS THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL GENUINE?
Fashionable faith on a sand foundation!
Let Machines Do the Work
The modern revolution called "automation”
Eucharistic Congress Convenes
Will it bring a spiritual revival?
Basis for Successful Marriage
An appreciation of each partner’s obligations
NOVEMBER 8, 1955 semimonthly
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of cur times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “Awake!” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligation*; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional 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 1” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all 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 Journal’s 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!” 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.
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CONTENTS
What Does the Bible Mean to You?
Strange Words from the Pulpit
Is the Religious Revival Genuine?
Roaming Round About Rangoon
No Twinging of the Conscience
Papuan Tribe Discovers White Man
Reject the Flesh, Accept the Spirit
Perfume Preserves Its Popularity
Let Machines Do the Work
"Your Word Is Truth”
The Voice of Persuasion
Basis for Successful Marriage
Eucharistic Congress Convenes
Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in All
Reaching the Goals?
the Earth—Liberia
Animal Abilities
Do You Know?
Origin of the Church of England
Watching the World
What Does the Bible Mean to You?
PROBABLY your home has a Bible. Most homes do. But just having it is of no value. A person could have a dictionary and yet be a very poor speller; he could have an expensive encyclopedia and yet know little of what is within its pages. In the same way, many people have a Bible and yet have no idea of its importance to their lives. They fail to get any benefit from it, for the only way your Bible will do you any good at all is for you to get it down, open its covers and find out what really has been written there for you.
It is true, however, that interest in the Bible is increasing. As the Associated Press reported last year: “An old book which has been burned, ridiculed, loved, argued about and treasured today is commanding new and wider attention. The book is the Bible.” Dr. Francis Carr Stiller, secretary of the American Bible Society, reported: “There’s an increasing general interest in the Bible and respect for it, both among the churched and the unchurched." Following a period of doubt, belief in the Bible apparently is being reaffirmed.
It may amaze many people to know that a survey made in the United States in 1954 revealed that 83 per cent of the people believe the Bible to be the revealed word of God, and that more than a third of those questioned said they read the Bible at least once a week—one out of eight said they read it every day. In rural areas 90 per cent of the people believed the Bible to be the revealed word of God, and even in cities of over a million population 76 per cent of the people believed this. The Catholic Digest, in publishing these figures, said: “If the survey had been made a century ago, these figures would not have been surprising.... It is often taken for granted that. . , the rise of modem science has been matched by a corresponding decline in biblical authority and belief. The survey certainly does not bear this out.”
In Britain 90 per cent of the people, more than owned a cookbook, dictionary or gardening book, were found to own a Bible. And in East Germany even the vote-seeking Communists have quoted it.
But what do you really know about this Book of books? Even much of its apparent popularity may be shallow. Could you, right now, turn to the Ten Commandments? the Lord's prayer? the account of Jesus' death? the book of Nahum? Could you explain why the Bible is the book of life? What hope it holds out for distressed mankind? and what it teaches about important doctrines? If you cannot do these things, then are you really satisfied with what you know about this genuine life guide?
Did you know, for example, that the Bible contradicts much of what is taught in today’s religions? Many of today’s churches teach that the wicked suffer in an eternal torment of hell-fire. But the Bible plainly says: "The dead know not any thing.” Read it for yourself in Ecclesiastes, chapter 9, verses 5 and 10. In Ecclesiastes 3:19 it says that dead men, like dead animals, are out of existence, not that they are in a place of torment.
Many of today’s churches teach that man has an immortal soul. But the Bible plainly says: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die." You can read that at Ezekiel 18:4, 20, and you can find a similar statement at Acts 3:23. If the soul dies, it could not be immortal. Then where did religious leaders get the idea of an immortal soul? The Jewish Encyclopedia says the Jews got it from the surrounding pagans.
What about the mass? “The mass," says the National Catholic Almanac, “is the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of the Lord upon the cross.” But the Bible says: “Christ was offered once for all time to bear the sins of many.” (Hebrews 9:28, New World Trans.) So repetition of that sacrifice is unnecessary. Do you believe the doctrine of the assumption—that Mary's physical body was taken to heaven? Again the Bible disagrees, saying pointedly: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”—1 Corinthians 15:50.
Now do you wonder why some people may have told you not to read the Bible? Is it that they thought you could not understand it, or that they were afraid you really could understand it? Surely you have enough intelligence to know what the words mean. And what they mean is often different from what you have been taught.
What is the real Christian view of reading and studying the Bible? The Bible itself answers: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) This “word of truth” that the Christian is commanded to be skilled in using is God’s Word, the Sacred Scriptures. But even many people who claim to accept that Word are very choosy about what they believe. They are willing to benefit from the principles of the proverbs and the psalms and from certain words of Jesus that they particularly like, but will never conform to the specific commands that are laid upon them, nor believe that the prophecies refer to our day.
Yet Jehovah does not ask us to pick and choose, selecting the parts of the Bible that we want to believe and rejecting the parts we do not. Rather, he gives us his Word and commandments, and if we wish to benefit from his favor, we must accept and obey them. Long ago it was written about what God said through his prophets, which prophecies were written in the Bible for our benefit: “Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: believe in Jehovah your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” —2 Chronicles 20:20, Am. Stan. Ver.
Thus, we have one of two choices: to despise God’s Word and be cut off, or to hear and accept that Word, to study and believe it and to prosper. Which choice would you prefer? Is your preference strong enough to make you really do something about it? Then examine your Bible, apply yourself diligently to studying it, and see how accepting and believing what it says and conforming your path to the course it outlines really does lead to joy, happiness and permanent life.
1ST
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of religion? There are many
signs that such a thing is under way.
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r a period of skepticism and doubt, religion is again becoming popular. Re ligious books rate high on the best-seller lists. Religious movies prove highly pop
ular box-office attractions. Religious songs sung by top-name crooners reach great heights in record sales, and draw a merry tinkle of coins in the jukeboxes. Church membership is growing. Faith is fashionable. Religion is well spoken of in the newspapers and is receiving far more general attention than has been bestowed upon it in many years.
But is the religious revival genuine?
Newspaper reports of noted sermons tell that clergymen are warning of “spiritual hunger,” “passive worship,” “jukebox religion,” and that they decry the modem self-centered type of religion that appeals to the individual’s desire for worldly success, that appeals merely to his search for an escape from life’s troubles. Thus, the questions are raised: Is the religious revival merely lip service, or is it a genuine awakening? Is the new interest in religion a sincere desire to change one’s mind and spirit and to conform to a better standard, or is it just a tool that people are using to advance themselves materially and to overcome temporary difficulties? Or, stated
icHM iSilrtlHlt genuine?
FOFUIAR RELIGIOUS SONGS, PEACE OF BUND" CULT, THE N THAT IS ACCB1ED OUT ^PATRIOTISM, OR THE "SHOCK Bn" SBtMONS OF MODERN ANGEUSTS TRUE WORSHIP?
differently, is this modem revival of religion one of the things Paul warned about when he said some would be found with “a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power”?—2 Timothy 3:5, New World Trans.
The most popular of the modem religious books tell little about true worship; instead, they delve into the field of psychology, merely telling you how to get “peace of mind” or “peace of soul.” The religious movies tell little or nothing about pure worship; they just use Bible characters or events to set the scene for super-colossal superspectacular love stories. The popular religious songs not only fail to give spiritual strength, but even distort the true facts, implanting wrong ideas in the minds of millions of people. Frequently even the most popular clergymen also spend their time on the “peace of mind” or “peace of soul” theories instead of on the doctrines of true worship, which would certainly disturb this complacent world. The fact is that rather than turning the world upside down, much of the current popular-type religion has turned pure worship upside down.
Many religious leaders have recognized and are willing to admit it, yet the conditions they decry continue. The president of McCormick Theological Seminary, Dr.
Robert Worth Frank of Chicago, spoke last March of the craving of “so many people” for a "religion of escape,” and he discredited the “jukebox religion with its silly shallow sentimentalities of ‘Are You Friends with the King of Friends?’ or ‘Have You Talked with the Man Upstairs?’ and 'I Believe, I Believe, I Believe.’ ”• The "Man Upstairs” is supposed to be good-natured no matter what course the people take toward his Word and specific instructions. And apparently ‘believing’ is expected to conquer all, no matter what it is that you believe.
Dr. Charles B. Templeton/secretary of the division of evangelism of the Presbyterian church in the United States of America, expressed it this way: “The so-called revival sweeping America isn’t genuine or permanent. Most people seem to want God as you want a hot water bottle in the night—to get you over a temporary discomfort.” Hecontinued: “Oddlyenough, though there is a statistical increase in religious interest, there is also an increase in the number of criminals and the seriousness of their offenses. The statistical columns reveal a nation increasingly Christian. The news columns reveal a nation increasingly pagan. Any genuine revival of religion will have to go beyond a mere concern to have God as a convenience and to come to the point of dedication to Him and to His world.”!
No Twinging of the Conscience
One of the most popular forms of this new revival of religion, of course, is the "peace of mind” or "peace of soul” variety. To a world filled with anxiety it says in effect: “Everything is all right. Just get God on your side, and then you can do the things you have failed to accomplish, you
• New York Times, March 19, 1955.
f Associated Press, May 18, 1955. can have the things you have striven for, you can succeed and be happy.” Thus, religion is offered as a means to an end. Like a college education or a course in psychology, it is justified as being useful in getting the things you want and in adjusting yourself to the world. It is offered, not as something that will help you serve God, or to be a better person, but as an aid in getting your promotion, as a help in selling vacuum cleaners or in smoothing out unpleasant personal situations. There is no twinging of the hearer’s conscience, none of the austerity that makes the difference between an anemic religion and a vigorous one, none of the zeal and determination that marks the distinction between a religion that merely serves as a pain killer and real true worship!
How Jesus would have horrified the peace of mind cult! Far from agreeing that the Christian can adjust smoothly to all the mediocrity and evil of this old world, he said: "Do not think I came to put peace upon the earth; I came to put, not peace, but a sword. For I came to cause division, with a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a young wife against her mother-in-law. Indeed, a man’s enemies will be persons of his own household. He that has greater affection for father or mother'than for me is not worthy of me; and he that has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not accept his torture stake and follow after me is not worthy of me. He that finds his soul will lose it, and he that loses his soul for my sake will find it.”—Matthew 10:34-39, New World Trans.
There is more to that than just gaining peace of mind! Christianity is not just a palliative or pain killer, but is a vigorous way of life. It costs something. A firm and sure understanding of God’s Word is neces-
sary for one to have the spiritual strength to change his course and conform his life to the way God has set out. The true Christian does not ask: “What do I require of God?” but “What does God require of me?” True religion is not simply a way to get selfish peace of mind, or a shield for one’s own way of life, though you would rarely know it from reading today’s popular type of religious books.
Better than an H-Bomb?
Another source of the religious revival is patriotism. Since communism is so obviously in conflict with religion, in noncommunist countries belief in God becomes a proof of patriotism. Religion is offered as the thing that can defeat the enemies. But God is not a super H-bomb that will protect one earthly nation from another. Nor is he a special assistant who aids the political leaders of any particular nation to carry out their international policy without regard to what he has said in his Word. Rather, he is the Judge of all men of all nations. And the judgment has already been stated in his Word that “the whole world [not just half of it] is lying in the power of the wicked one.”—1 John 5:19, New World Trans.
Right worship is not just a means to an end. God is not served to gain some secondary purpose. Rather, true worship is out of a sincere love for God, an appreciation of his goodness, a respect for his majesty and an earnest desire to conform one’s activity to the principles of truth, justice and righteousness that are set out in his Word. Jesus said right worship must be “with spirit and truth.” Nothing less than that is sufficient, and no religion that is taken up for a political purpose, no matter how important that purpose may seem, meets that requirement.—John 4:23, New World Trans.
The Shock Treatment
A third form of the religious revival is based upon what an article in the June Atlantic Monthly termed “the emotional shock treatment.” This method is used by the revivalists who appeal to emotions rather than to reason; to the eye and ear rather than to the mind. They appeal to the people who love show and ballyhoo, spectacularism, shouting, raving and emotionalism. Abandoning thought and ridiculing reason, such proponents of the shock treatment sway vast multitudes with the eloquence of their voice and with continued shouting of unproved but vigorously repeated assertions.
But what are their fruits? While their methods may induce a vigorous, even positive response on the part of some of their hearers, they do not aid the whole person into an intelligent devotion to the higher service of God. Their fruits are shallow. True religion is more than emotionalism. It is based on logic and truth, reasoning and understanding. Its strongest appeal is to the intelligent reasoning of the mind. It is in ignoring this fact that the world’s most widely publicized revivalists fall far short of producing the firm maturity and strength that have always identified true Christianity.
Reject the Flesh, Accept the Spirit
The mere fact that more people are going to church does not mark a revival of true religion. Nor does the sale of religious books, nor the popularity of religious songs. The popularity of these things may show that the people are hungry for something, but often their desire is merely to feel better, rather than to be better. They are seeking a religious sedative rather than a stimulant, and therefore are too often satisfied with a religion of the flesh rather than of the spirit But Paul warned: “For the minding of the flesh means death, but the minding of the spirit means life and peace; because the minding of the flesh means enmity with God, for it is not under subjection to the law of God, nor, in fact, can it be. So those who are in harmony with the flesh cannot please God.’’—Romans 8:6-8, New World Trans.
Thus, the popular revival of religion is not genuine. The watered-down versions of religion not only fail to stir the people into action, but all too often persuade them that no action is necessary. Popular songs like “Have You Talked with the Man Upstairs?" may at first sound fine, since they advise us to take our difficulties to our Creator. But it is impudent, impertinent, disrespectful and irreverently familiar. The song writer did not understand God’s Word. He does not explain that one who wishes his prayers heard must have a proper appreciation of God’s laws and act in obedience to them. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination,” says Proverbs 28:9. The song writer says practically everyone’s prayers will be answered; the Bible disagrees. Thus, the song, through providing false information, will in the long run actually kill faith rather than build it.
Similarly, the “peace of mind,” “peace of soul” variety of religion may sound good, because the Bible does show us how to live happier lives. But this kind of religion falls when it does not tell its adherents what God requires of them and does not stir them into his service, but implies that God is to serve us rather than the other way around. The emotional shock treatment method does say that you should repent and turn around, but beyond that it provides little of the necessary knowledge and understanding of the deep things of God’s Word. It does not make you into “a workman with nothing to be ashamed of, handling the word of the truth aright.” Thus, it too falls short of teaching genuine godly devotion.—2 Timothy 2:15, New World Trans.
The conclusion of the matter? True Christians will recognize that the current revival of religion has lowered its standards in order to increase its popularity. It has little of the zeal, vigor and understanding that mark true Christianity. True worship is not just a salve for tired and troubled minds, nor a magic ritual for getting ahead in the world, nor is it just an uninformed vow made during the heat of an emotional appeal at a revival meeting. Rather, it is a way of life, an informed and intelligent changing of one’s course from the popular way of the world to the right way that God instituted. It really costs something in time and effort, but it provides the rich rewards of untold blessings from the hand of Jehovah, the Almighty. The current revival of religion is too general, too vague and, yes, too selfcentered to be genuine true worship.
But you can join with a group of true Christians who are a happy, zealous and determined people. They are following the one sound, wise and intelligent course that leads to the greatest of joys and to real peace of mind. Remember: “The minding of the flesh means death, but the minding of the spirit means life and peace.” Then, will you study God’s Word, gain a knowledge of his blessings and transform your life, developing the zeal and determination that really do identify sound, true worship, and receiving Jehovah’s blessings of peace, happiness and everlasting life? That is the wise course; no other is practical today. —Romans 8:6, New World Trans.
MACHINES
DO THE WORK
WE ARE not speaking about something in the far-distant future when we say, “Let machines do the work.” We are speaking about a revolution already here! If it has not arrested your attention before this, it soon will. A brand-new era is appearing before mankind, one that will put man in his rightful place as master of the machine and not its slave. This new technological revolution or evolution sweeping the latter half of this twentieth century is being called “automation.”
Automation defined by technical experts is the use of one type of machine to operate other machines; the harnessing of electronic brains to mechanical muscles. Why companies are installing automation was made clear by C. H. Patterson, general manager of the engine and foundry division of the Ford Motor Company. Said he: “The automation we have Installed enables us to get the capacity from the machines which were formerly controlled by manual handling. Automation eliminates much of
the drudgery. It makes for safe operation, and also improves our quality. And, of course,” he added, “we are also very anxious to produce at least cost.”
Once freed by machines from grinding routine jobs, man can use his sensory apparatus and brain power to work on problems requiring a function beyond the capabilities of machines, namely creative thought. This in essence is what Norbert Wiener of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology predicts will take place. Automation, he feels, will someday relieve man so that he will be free to use specifically his human qualities, his ability to think, to analyze, balance and synthesize, to decide and to act purposefully.
Where Machines Replace Man
A common error today is to place applied electronics in the remote category of a trip to the moon. Automation is here! It has been here for some time. And from all visible signs it is here to stay. The National Association of Manufacturers declared plainly: “The automatic factory is not merely coming. It is already here!” CIO’s president, Walter Reuther, re-
echoed those very words last December. Automation is not in the future, said he. It is already here. It is doing a job of liberation from drudgery. In business offices and buildings around the world, television and photoelectric cells are sorting important data, counting items, solving mathematical problems, doing the bookkeeping and filing work, and tirelessly opening and closing doors at our approach.
The dial telephone has done a magnificent job for some time now. Another machine has recently been added, one that registers the time (if a long-distance call is made), computes the cost and writes the amount on the customer’s bill. Electronic brains are doing the paper work in thousands of offices and are efficiently and obediently starting and stopping production lines in a number of factories. Automatized equipment regulates air temperature, controls circulation, switches lights on and off. Machines are made to process raw materials, inspect and assemble the finished product, package and load it into freight cars, and ship it to consumers without the direct use of. the human hand. Not only that, automatized machines are developed to correct their own mistakes and even change their own parts if necessary, that is, if parts wear out or break.
More efficient than man is the robot in the department store elevator, and the apparatus that saves wear and tear on vocal cords when it cheerfully calls out in a sweet and easy-to-listen-to voice: “Fifth floor, ladies’ lingerie, sweaters, hats and misses’ dresses. Thank you.” Raytheon Manufacturing Company has a chassis assembly line that is geared to a thousand radios a day. The whole operation calls for only two employees, whereas assembly under standard methods called for at least two hundred workers for the same production. Admiral reportedly has a machine nicknamed Robot I, which assembles half a television receiver chassis in a matter of seconds. In England, the Sargrove automatic radio-producing machine turns out conventional receiving sets almost without human intervention. In the United States, at Palo Alto, California, a robot hoe thins out plants and weeds faster than twenty farm hands working manually can do. And at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the gaseous diffusion plant is almost completely automatic, using only six workmen per mile of plant.
Man Unsatisfactory “Robot”
Thinking-machine producers declare: “Our machines free the human spirit by relieving it of routine labor. Time is gained in this way for creative intellectual work.” There are already dozens of electronic brains in operation. They go under the names of Univac, Eniac, Reac, Binac, Seac —the “ac” stands for “analog computer.” Remington Rand, Ltd., has an electronic machine called Univac. This machine can do all the work usually done by a payrolloffice clerk, and do it better and in a fraction of the usual time. “Our machine can compute a complicated payroll for 10,000 people in only 40 minutes,” stated Allen N. Seares, vice-president and general manager of the company. “At the lightning rate of 10,000 characters a second, the machine reads two magnetic tapes with numbers coded on them. One tape carried all the data about each employe—his wage rate, pension and tax deductions, and so on; the other tape carries the hours worked by each employe during the pay period. Working from the information on the tapes, Univac calculates the exact amount of each man’s cheque and sends the information to a cheque-writing machine.”
The International Business Machine Corporation installed “Mod*1' 702 Electronic Data Processing Machine” in Monsanto Chemical Company’s St. Louis headquarters. A man at its controls has at his command the computing ability of 25,000 trained mathematicians, A report on the machine says: “On each of its reels of magnetic tape, the brain [the name given it by workers and visitors alike] can remember enough information to fill a 1,836-page Manhattan telephone book— any figure, word, chemical or mathematical symbol—and work the information at the rate of 7,200 unerringly logical operations per second. In its vast computing units (2,500 electronic tubes, three miles of wire) it can multiply a pair of 127-digit numbers and arrive at a 254-digit answer in one third of a second. In a second it can add 4,000 five-digit figures or do 160 equally complicated long divisions. And at the end it can produce its answers in any of four ways—flash them on a TV-like screen, punch them on cards, print them on paper, or store them away on rolls of magnetic tape at the rate of 15,000 characters every second.” In twelve machine hours this one machine will do 1,200 cost reports that normally take 1,800 man-hours; in barely two hours it will complete a financial statement that takes a staff of accountants 320 hours.
The Reeves Instrument Corporation developed an “electronic brain” that solved a mathematical snag in record time. Officials estimated that by using the fastest possible manual methods it would take 2,950 days to iron the problem out, and the cost would be $73,725. Reac, the mechanical brain, went to work and in 109 man-days at a cost of $3,240 had the answer.
A “Cardatype” machine is equipped to do and type as many as five separate accounts simultaneously. A communicating machine is reportedly in use that prints 24,000 letters or numbers a minute; another capable of writing a thousand lines in sixty seconds. There is another computer that can breeze through 150 simultaneous algebraic equations, involving 4,000,000 individual arithmetic operations, in less than four hours. Dr. Henry H. Aiken of Harvard said: “Machines have already proved their mental superiority over man’s brain. A calculator solved a problem relating to uranium fission in 103 hours. The same problem would have taken a flesh and blood worker a hundred years to solve.”
The Automatic Factory
The ideal of automation is a fully automatic factory. Reuther stated that within the coming decade or two, entire plants, offices or departments in much of industry and commerce will be operated by electronic control mechanisms. The only humans around will be a few operators and repairmen to start the machines and keep them going. An oil industry spokesman said that a refinery that employs eight hundred people today without modem instrumentation could do the same job with twelve people if instrumentation were utilized. The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company employs 100 men for 290,000 kilowatt-hours of production, but the company’s new automatic plant employs 28 men for 420,000 kilowatt-hours. A Milwaukee plant’s automatic system decreased its working force 95 per cent. In lard rendering, a new continuous-production technique cuts down processing time from four hours to fifteen seconds. A chocolate producer cut his floor-space requirements by 80 per cent and reduced his working staff from eleven to two by installing automatized equipment.
The most complex series of automatic machining operations today is probably the
one conceived by the Ford Motor Company in Cleveland, Ohio. This installation requires only 250 men, and it turns out twice the work formerly produced by 2,500 men. Rough engine blocks are transported automatically into and out of twenty-odd different machines that perform a grand total of 532 operations and emerge finished —untouched by human hands.. Where it once took 39 men working 29 machines just to drill the necessary oil holes in a crankshaft, only 9 men are needed for that job at the new Ford plant. It once took nine hours to complete a block; now through automatic methods it takes fifteen minutes. The Ford manager said rather proudly: “Ours is the only foundry in the world where the molding sand used to make castings is never touched by human hands, except maybe out of curiosity.”
Fears of Unemployment
So the big gain from automation is reduced floor space, greater efficiency and lower costs. A recent Ph.D. thesis by David G. Osborn in the University of Chicago's department of geography shows floor space or acreage was reduced about 58 per cent. The reduction in the number of employees was about 64.4 per cent. The big question, however, is whether automation will bring about a serious unemployment problem to the nation’s largest manufacturing industries. Experts point out that in offices automation made its greatest strides so far. Yet the number of office workers has actually risen from 5,100,000 to 8,100,000 in the last ten years.
Ford Motor Company executives state that in their automatic plant a number of men had to be shifted to other jobs, but no one has lost a job because of automation. The company says that automation cuts down the need for unskilled workers but it greatly increases the need for electricians, mechanics, pipe fitters, toolmakers and others skilled enough to do maintenance work on the robots.
Automation opens up vistas of unparalleled prosperity and comfort and at the same time stirs frustrations and fears. Some see price reductions and increased enjoyment of leisure and a thirty-hour week very probable; others see the woe that followed the first industrial revolution. President Eisenhower asserts that he sees nothing but good stemming from automation. Robert L. Henry of the ceramic project in Arlington, Virginia, says: “There is a fear that technical people plan some mass envelopment of the population. That’s inconceivable. There is a vast chasm between what can be done and what will be done in automation. The reason we have automation at all, or don’t, is economic. Nobody is doing it for curiosity or patriotic reasons. Automation isn’t an end in itself. It doesn’t necessarily mean reduced cost or a better process. Generally the objective is to increase the productivity of human labor.”
All this excitement about automation, and it is just beginning to emerge from its self-di apering state of infancy. What will tomorrow bring?
ne Voice Of Persuasion
‘Jg At Chicago, Illinois, two burglars broke into an electronics firm. They were greeted with a booming voice that said: "Good evening, gentlemen. We remind you that this place is electronically guarded. We suggest that you turn around and disappear.” They did!
By “Awake!” correspondent In Brazil
NEVER before in all the brilliant his* tory of Rio de Janeiro had there been such preparations as those made for the thirty-sixth International Eucharistic Congress that took place July 17-24, 1955. High Catholic officials have repeatedly claimed that Brazil is the “greatest Catholic country in the world,” and the Vatican had been pleased to grant the request of Cardinal Camara that the congress be held in this city.
The first such congress was held in Lille, France, in June of 1881. It was attended by 3,000 people and lasted three days. No processions were allowed to be held in the streets. The French Parliament had just passed a law prohibiting religious teaching in the schools. Of the thirty-five congresses held over the years since then, five have been in America, but this one in Rio de Janeiro, the second in South America, outdid them all for splendor; for organization and apparently for orderly handling of vast multitudes of people.
Preparing the Place
Where would the congress be held? Rio de Janeiro had no adequate place for such a huge outdoor ceremony, so when the Catholic Church decided to hold the con-put into action a plan they had long been considering, that of tearing down St. Anthony Hill, in the heart of the city, and dumping its granite and red earth into Guanabara Bay. This feat, when finished, will provide two new beaches, nine miles of bay-side avenue and 130 acres of valuable building space near the civic center. About a third of the project was completed for the congress. In seventeen months of arduous work of ‘casting the mountain into the sea,’ more than two and a half million cubic yards of earth and rock had been poured into the bay to form nearly a hundred acres of dry land, of which the Praga do Congresso occupied about sixty acres. Cost to the federal government: 14 million cruzeiros; to the municipal government: 10 million cruzeiros—a total of more than $700,000,
On the site was constructed a shipshaped altar, 360 feet from prow to poop. There was a fifty-foot-high cross made of Brazilwood. On a 125-foot mast was hoisted a sail made of 650 square yards of cloth, resembling those of Cabral’s sailing ships on the voyage of discovery of Brazil. There were seventy miles of wooden benches, 26,000 in all, with a seating capacity for 210,000. Modem sanitary equipment was installed.
The Day Arrives
All was in readiness! The Laranjeiras Palace, used by the government for state guests, was made ready for the Vatican's legate, Cardinal-Masella. The other fifteen cardinals were guests of wealthy Brazilian families who for weeks beforehand had received special coaching in the protocol due a cardinal. The president of the Republic met the apostolic legate at the pier, greeted him with all the honors that would be given to the highest representative of any earthly government, and rode with him in an open car through admiring throngs to the palace that would be his residence during his stay in Rio de Janeiro.
About eighty items were on the program, including receptions, masses, communions, study sessions in various languages, conferences, expositions, theatrical pieces, choruses and musicals, besides the regular sessions in the Praca. The processions were impressive, especially the maritime prpcession on Tuesday night, July 19, when the “host” was conducted across Guanabara Bay from Niter6i to the docks in Rio de Janeiro with an accompanying fleet of a hundred vessels, including a squadron of Brazilian war vessels, all brilliantly illuminated with electric lights.
What was lacking in attendance of pilgrims was made up for in zeal and ardor of those who attended. More than 400,000 were expected from abroad; 50,000 came. The attendance from the Brazilian states was far below the number planned for, but the cariocas accompanied with intense interest the whole affair, whether Catholics or not. Visitors found the expositions fascinating.
Closing Sessions
Comes Sunday, July 24, the last day of the congress and one of great activity. At 9:30 the papal legate, followed by 900 members of his court, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and seminarists, enters the Praga and ascends the altar. Then the people enter in great multitudes: the president of the Republic, his wife, the president of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies, of the Supreme Court, all the members of the Cabinet, the mayor of the federal district and high authorities of the armed forces. The papal legate reads for the second time the papal bull empowering him as the representative of Pius XH, conducts pontifical high mass, and gives the papal blessing to the Brazilian people. He grants plenary indulgence, that is, the remission of penalty for all sins, 'to those who, during the concourse, penitent and having confessed, received the communion and visited any church or public chapel in the place and there directed to God prayers for the concord of Christian governments, extirpation of heresies, the conversion of sinners and the exaltation of the church, and who had ‘attended the closing procession and received the apostolic blessing given in the name of His Holiness.’
The president of the Senate speaks, and high civil and military authorities go up the altar stairs and ratify the “consecration of Brazil to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” This public consecration of the nation to the “Sacred Heart of Jesus” is a regular part of the program of Eucharistic Congresses. In Brazil, however, it had met with public and formal protest. It was pointed out by the Evangelical Confederation of Brazil, a national Protestant organization, that inasmuch as the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is characteristic of and exclusive to the Roman Catholic Church, such consecration would offend the other religious faiths, and also that it would violate the Brazilian constitution, which guarantees complete separation of church and state.
By four o’clock, when the final procession was to start from Candelaria Cathedral for the mile-and-a-half march to the Praga, it seemed as if half of Rio de Janeiro’s populace was in the streets, both the devout and the curious. In front of the float bearing the “Most Holy Sacrament" with the "Blessed Eucharist” came the marine guards; then the archbishops and bishops with their attendants. Behind the float marched all the cardinals with their retinue, then civil and military authorities. There were national and pontifical flags and their guards of honor, and foreign representatives with their respective flags. Then came the lay religious organizations and finally national and foreign representatives of the clergy. The procession lasted an hour and a half.
At exactly six o’clock Pope Pius XU spoke in Portuguese from the Vatican. His speech was retransmitted by all the national radio stations and carried by loudspeaker to the throngs in the streets and to the multitude inside the Praca.
Reaching the Goals?
Thus ended what many have called "the most fantastic spectacle” that Brazil has ever witnessed. But will this congress bring to Brazil a great spiritual revival? No; no more than did the ten that have been held in France ever bring a spiritual revival to that land in which the idea was born. Today France is tom by communism, atheism and many other "isms” both political and religious that the International Eucharistic Congresses have not been able to cure. The same worship of images and infiltration of pagan practices that led to the downfall of the nation of Israel will also lead to the downfall of Christendom, Israel’s modem counterpart, of which the powerful Church of Rome is an integral part.
But those within Christendom who ‘sigh and cry because of the abominations that are being committed* in the name of Christianity have the assurance from God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures, that Jehovah God has placed His King on His holy hill of Zion, saying to him: ‘Rule in the midst of your enemies.’ (Ezekiel 9:4; Psalm 110:2) It is through the leadership of that reigning King, Christ Jesus, that true spiritual revival comes. He was not, as these congresses are, identified with the armies of the world. Such armies do not hear him today. They do not look to his triumphant kingdom to crush out all wickedness and false "isms” in the coming battle of Armageddon.
But many meek of the earth, through examining the Scriptures, really are finding the true source of spiritual revival, the one thing of greatest splendor. Will you be one of them, or will you be satisfied with mere pomp and spectacle to please the eye? Will you really learn to know and to do God’s will, and receive preservation through the purifying destruction to come? or will you decide that merely conforming to a certain ritual should free you from the penalty of all sin?
These are serious matters. They affect your everlasting destiny. The Holy Scriptures say one thing about them, while the sponsors of Eucharistic congresses say something else. Which will you believe? Will you be satisfied with the pomp and ceremony and with the false mingling of Christian worship with governmental and political activity? or will you examine the Scriptures, see the importance of the time in which we are now living, learn what God has said we must do, and do it? The decision is yours. But you should make it carefully and wisely, for nothing you have ever decided will have such a far-reaching effect upon your eternal destiny.
Cat of the
Open Road
Some pussy cats seem to have a kind of built-in compass. Just how it works man does not know, but the fact remains that without reading road signs or inquiring of strangers cats often find their way home from far-off places. At Grafton, Illinois, there is a cat that has been on the open road for months. Mrs. Cora Lofton says she gave her eight-year-old cat to relatives in Roseau, Minnesota. Eight months passed. The cat turned up at Grafton, 750 miles away from its new home. Mrs. Lofton says she had tried to give the cat away before. It never worked that time either.
How Good Are a Cat’s Eyes?
Almost everyone knows that in semidarkness a cat can respond to lights too dim to be visible to a man. Yet not many know how good a cat's eyes are when it comes to visual acuity—the ability to distinguish fine detail. According to the Institute of Ophthalmology, London, the human eye is far superior in visual acuity, the cat’s eyes being only about one sixth as good as ours.
Using Eyes to Stoy Alive
Have you observed that there is a difference between the eyes of animals that hunt and those that are hunted? The hunting animals, such as the wolf and the fox, nearly all have an overlap of their visual fields In front; but the hunted animals tend to have lateral eyes (at the side of the head instead of at the front), giving a maximum total field but little or no overlap. The reason is obvious: the hunting animals, not usually being in danger themselves, can do without the knowledge of what is going on behind them. Not so with the hunted animals. Their lives depend on their ability to spot danger coming from any direction. How fortunate for the rabbit that its eyes can see all around its head!
Gorilla Warfare
The gorilla section at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is a wildly noisy place. There is one giant ape that finds the greatest delight in keeping in shape by throwing a football-style body block against his cell door—time after time. He shambles a little distance away, turns, runs at the door, and wham! You can be certain the imaginary foe gives ground. This goes on all day, every day. The gorilla does not mind. And neither does director Marlin Perkins. After all, the doors are one-quarter-inch-thick steel. But they take quite a beating. Says Perkins: "We have to install new doors every now and then, but we keep the same old gorillas.1'
Two Crack Shots
Police officer M. N. Alexander of Highland Park, California, is a crack shot, so it was no problem at all when he found himself face to face with a skunk. Officer Alexander drew his service revolver and dispatched the skunk in short order. Trouble was, the skunk got In his parting shot before the bullet ended his career —and the skunk turned out to be just as crack a shot as the officer. They refused to let Alexan-tier into the police station afterward to make his report.
Rattlesnakes and Whiskey
Old-time westerners used to prescribe whiskey, but wrongly so, as the best treatment for snakebite. Apparently whiskey is good for snakes, though. A San Francisco man named Chin Toy recently tried to mix up a batch of Chinese liniment; the recipe __
called for one rattlesnake soaked in a jug of whiskey. Chin Toy got his rattler, popped it into a > jug of whiskey and let it soak.
Thirty minutes later he opened the jug, and the snake, still very much alive, bit him. Chin Toy had to go to the hospital, but the rattlesnake felt just fine.
pr deliberate act with that end in view. Rather a complex set of circumstances, unconnected in themselves, worked together to produce the result almost naturally. The main factors were: (1) the Renaissance, (2) the king and (3) the Continental Reformation.
An upsurge of artistic and cultural expression, new zeal for learning, restoration of the Greek Scriptures, colleges founded—this was the Renaissance, a vague transitional period between the Dark Ages and the age of enlightenment that followed. Tyndale published his New Testament in English, though the church disapproved and burned
BY "A W AK S I" CORRESPONDENT IN ENGLAND the book. And, UO
OME suppose that Jesus himself came over and started the Church of England. Some believe the apostles or their immediate associates founded it. Some contend that it resulted from a general religious awakening to the iniquities of the Roman Catholic Church. Many say that Henry Vin established it so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. The Church of England, with an estimated nominal membership of about twenty-five million, is an integral part of national life and governance. Just how this vast organization came into being is worth finding out. G. K. A. Bell, bishop of Chichester, says that A.D. 597 St. Augustine came to Britain and after baptizing Ethelbert, king of Kent, was himself consecrated on November 16 as archbishop of the English. “It was thus/’ writes Bishop Bell, “that the foundation was laid of ., . the Church of the whole English race/’—The English Churchy page 8.
As a structure more or less separate from Rome, though, the Church of England began to emerge in the sixteenth century. Its emergence seems to be due to no single
doubt arising in part from this awakening and in part from the Reformation moves on the Continent, came a vague dissatisfaction with the Roman Catholic Church, its corruption, its superstition and the ignorance of its priests (with some notable exceptions). Feelings of revolt against papal statecraft began to grow.
Only a leader was lacking. And this need was met in Thomas Wolsey, cardinal, arch-, bishop of York, Lord Chancellor and, next to the king, the highest and most influential man in the land. Of strung character and a favorite with the king, his aim was to use the new learning to reform the church from within and thus satisfy the needs of the new age. He encouraged the teaching of Greek and helped finance the education of clergy with funds derived from suppressed, effete monasteries. AH of this he did as a servant of the king.
King Henry VIII Seeks Divorce
Dominant figure in this pregnant situation was Henry VHI—young, handsome,
rich, full of love for the new learning, liberal-minded but headstrong. His marriage in 1509 to Katharine of Aragon, widow of his brother, and arranged when Henry was a boy, called for a special dispensation from Pope Julius n owing to the close kinship created by Katharine’s former alliance.
In the early years of Henry’s reign Martin Luther came to the fore in Germany and in 1520, emboldened by previous successes, published a treatise “The Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” an attack on the sacraments. Henry, himself a theological student, dedicated to Pope Leo X a widely circulated answer to Luther, which so delighted the pope that he conferred on Henry the title Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith).
By 1527, however, Henry began to cast eyes on Anne Boleyn. In order to make her his queen he sought a declaration of nullity (not, strictly speaking, a divorce as it is now popularly styled) of his marriage with Katharine on the grounds that there was a flaw in the dispensation. He was in high standing with Rome. The pope (now Clement VH) had recently divorced Henry’s sister Margaret, queen of Scotland, on less adequate grounds. Other popes had released other kings. Henry expected success.
But Clement was virtually a prisoner of Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, king of Spain, and Katharine’s nephew and protector. Clement feared to displease Charles by nullifying Katharine’s marriage. Clement’s objection was thus political, not religious. Henry, failing to get satisfaction from Clement, pushed his suit in the court of the archbishop of Canterbury and the marriage was declared invalid by Archbishop Cranmer. Then, by a similar process, Cranmer declared valid the secret marriage of Henry to Anne Boleyn in time for her coronation in 1533.
In the meantime the medieval church on the Continent, out of touch with the spirit of the age, found itself with a revolt on its hands. Public opinion in England, so far without direction, now had a lead. The impetus, however, appears to have come from the king rather than from the people. The Reformation Parliament of 1529-36, facing the results of the fractured relations between Henry and pope, ended by throwing off all papal jurisprudence. The 1532 Act for the Submission of the Clergy called for the clergy to be obedient to the king. No new canons (church laws) were to be enacted without Henry VO's consent and he must approve existing ones.
The Act of Firstfruits cut off large revenues from Rome. The 1533 Act in Restraint of Appeals brought all ecclesiastical matters under the jurisdiction of church courts in England. The Act for the Selection of Bishops came in 1534 under which episcopal hierarchy were to be appointed by the king. Then came the Act of Supremacy that made the king “accepted and reputed the only Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England." It should be noted, however, that the Church of England was still part of the Catholic Church headed by Rome, though separately organized.
Bills for the suppression of monasteries, first the small, then the large, followed in 1536-38. With the revenues derived from them new nobilities were created by Henry. With the loss of the monasteries the pope lost his best advocates in England. The new nobilities, financed as they were, naturally supported the new regime, a double blow for the Roman Church. In 1538 the Great Bible was published and ordered to be placed in all churches. But Henry, though secretly favoring reform, shrunk from open alliance with the reformers, still believing evidently that salvation came through the old Roman Church.
In 1547 Henry died. His personality, despite the religious and political turmoil of his reign, had maintained a measure of unity in the land. Knowledge of the Scriptures was spreading. Faith in the old religion was shaken. The new nobility, a powerful element, favored a change. But the average man, uncertain now of his childhood beliefs, was none the less distrustful of change. With the death of Henry, England was religiously stranded. She had no pope and no reform.
The New Reign
The reign of the young King Edward VI and Protector Somerset was marked by the publication of the Injunctions, addressed to all the king’s subjects, clergy and laity. The tendency of the Injunctions was to maintain preaching against the bishop of Rome’s jurisdiction, to destroy images and pictures and monuments of superstition and to devote money to the poor instead of doing things that God bad not commanded regarding pardons, pilgrimages, trentals, decking of images, offering of candles and other blind devotions. At the same time the people were ordered to remember that the priestly office was appointed of God and to treat priests with due respect.
The First Book of Homilies followed. It consisted of twelve discourses cm doctrine published to check extravagances of ignorant preachers. Neither the Injunctions nor the Homilies, however, had the authority of parliament, for even the Injunctions had no validity in law. None the less, all images in St. Paul's and other London parish churches were removed. The churches were whitewashed and the Ten Commandments written on the walls.
The New Book of Common Prayer, after a stormy passage through parliament, was finally authorized in the 1549 First Act of Uniformity. Then for the first time Archbishop Cranmer’s disbelief in transubstan-tiation (the doctrine that the eucharistic bread and wine changes into the body and blood of Christ) was revealed.
The forty-two articles of religion (later reduced to the familiar thirty-nine) were signed by Edward on June 12,1553, after considerable criticism and discussion. With the death of Edward and the accession of Mary that year, the Church of England faced a period of increased trouble.
Bloody Queen Mary
Mary became the spearhead of the counterreformation. She was the daughter of Henry VUI and Katharine of Aragon. The archbishop of Canterbury, by invalidating her mother’s marriage, had bastardized Mary, though the people generally did not look upon her as such. Apart from her Roman Catholic convictions, her mother’s honor was bound up with papal supremacy.
Mary’s marriage in 1554 to Philip of Spain, son of the Emperor Charles V, linked her with the counterreformation in its most extreme form. Papal control was quickly restored and parliament gave its support (except for the restitution of monastery lands). Heresy laws were revived. Secret services were organized at which the prayer was used, “God turn the heart of Queen Mary from idolatry, or else shorten her days.”
Mass was reinstituted at St. Paul's Cathedral. But six days later a dead cat dressed in priest’s garb swung from a gallows in Cheapside, London. It had a shaven crown and held in its forepaws a round piece of paper to represent the wafer. Next month a number of men and women had their ears nailed to the pillory in Cheapside for speaking against the queen and council. A priest, while celebrating mass in St. Margaret’s Westminster, was struck on the head with a woodknife, his blood splashing over the cup and wafer. His attacker was sentenced to have his hand struck oft and then be burned in St Margaret's churchyard. Irreverences and disorders increased.
Leaders in the Reformation were put to the flames and when on March 21,1556, Cranmer was burned at Oxford, Mary felt that at last her mother’s honor was vindicated. But in fighting against the new religion Mary did for it something that neither Henry VIII nor Edward VI could do. She made the new religion popular. The nation, hitherto apathetic, decided that Roman Catholicism meant Spanish influence and persecution. It found a new sympathy for a faith for which martyrs could die.
Elizabeth—the Virgin Queen
Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, inherited her father’s statesmanship and her mother’s vanity. She was a ruler who knew how to keep her people’s support. The religious settlement made during her reign has ever since been the basis of the Church of England. Headship, in modified form, was restored; the second Prayer-book of Edward VI and the Thirty-nine Articles were enjoined by statute.
Philip of Spain, however, still worked with Mary of Scotland (a Roman Catholic and Elizabeth’s heir to the English throne) to restore England to the old faith. Plots to put Mary on the English throne failed. In 1570 the pope excommunicated Elizabeth and decreed her deposed, thus making loyalty to the sovereign incompatible with loyalty to the Church of Rome. Jesuits poured over from Douai in 1579 eager for the conversion of England, but their secret intrigues only added to the unpopularity of Rome. Reckless plots to assassinate Elizabeth and put Mary of Scotland on the English throne brought about the execution of Mary in 1587.
Rome thus lost its leader in England. In 1588 Philip of Spain, in a supreme attempt to bring England into subjection, sent his “Invincible Armada.” It was destroyed. The threat of Spain and the Roman Catholic Church ended, even if Rome’s efforts to accomplish its aim have continued to the present day.
Elizabeth died in 1603. She brought the Church of England through the troubles of the sixteenth century, laid the foundations for its future development and left England the leading Protestant state in Europe;
dfrangr Moriis from ifye
From the pulpit of Britain’s Canterbury Cathedral recently came strange words. Their source was the cathedral’s “Red Dean” known ecclesiastically as “Very Rev.” Dr. Hewlett Johnson. Appointed by the crown in 1931, cleric Johnson cannot be removed from his post as long as he does not infringe on the laws of church or state and fulfills ecclesiastical duties. In fulfilling his duties cleric Johnson recently spoke on “Christianity and Communism.” Said the betitled cleric: "I am convinced that a synthesis of the two faiths is possible and will eventually bring blessings to the entire human race. ... Is [Communism! Christian? I say ‘yes,’ as I did 50 years ago. Russia . . . has, in spite of all her faults, founded her economy on a Christian theory.” But the Bible shows that communism is part of this old wicked system of things that is headed for destruction at Armageddon—when true Christianity triumphs.
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