Awake!, August 8, 1956
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WHAT IS YOUR RELIGION DOING FOR YOU?
True religion’s place in your life
Save Parks from Becoming Slums
Scenic beauty is being sacrificed
What’s Wrong with Our Calendar?
Problems and changes, both past and present
Disunity Within Judaism
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sourcag that ar« able to ke«p you awake to ths vital Issum of our 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 fry political ambitions or obligations j it is unhampered by advertisers whose iocs must not bs troadsn 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 P 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 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!" Keep awake by reading “AwakeI”
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CONTENTS
Discontent Not from God
The Machine Mind
What Is Your Religion Doing for You? 5
Prove Yourselves Christian
If You Lost Your Tail
Save Parks from Becoming Slums
No One Stood Up
What’s Wrong with Our Calendar?
Where Does the Church Stand?
Irradiated Foods Stay Fresh Longer
“Why Should God Intervene?”
Aircraft Anomalies
Disunity Within Judaism
Fresh Hope for Hope Valley
“Your Word Is Truth”
The Bible “A Dangerous Book"?
Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in All
the Earth—Venezuela
Do You Know?
Watching the World
1 DISCONTENT
/ NOUGHTS well expressed often cap-f tivate the ear. But that does not mean that they are true. Thus some poets wax eloquent in the praise of discontent. “The splendid discontent of God with Chaos,” says one, “made the world; and from the discontent of man, the world’s best progress springs.” And says another: "To be discontented with the divine discontent is the . . . first upgrowth of all virtue."
In commenting on the poet’s “divine discontent,” the editor of America’s leading business journal, fortune, December, 1955, stated that in spite of all the scientific progress man could hope to make he will always be unhappy, for “no conceivable Utopia on earth will satisfy man,” Why? Because, according to him, man will ever be plagued with such questions as ‘What is the meaning of life and its purpose?’ and “Who invented this impossible puzzle and how came it to be?”
Does man’s discontent come from God? Is it godlike? Absolutely not! Not discontent with Chaos—there never was a Chaos in the orderly outworking of Jehovah's purposes regarding the universe—but unselfish love and the sheer joy of creating caused God to make the heavens and the earth. He ever was and always will be perfectly contented, self-contained. He is “the happy God."—1 Timothy 1:11, New World Trans.
God’s Word also shows that his Son, Jesus Christ, in his prehuman existence as the Logos, far from being discontented, was daily his Father’s “delight, rejoicing always before him," and that he delighted to do his Father’s will while he was on earth. All the faithful angels likewise were and are without discontent. They delight to serve Jehovah. The record tells us that they “sang together” and “shouted for joy” at the time God “laid the foundations of the earth.”—Proverbs 8:30; Job 38:7, 4.
Nor did the first human pair have any grounds for discontent because of not knowing the meaning of life and its purpose. Appreciating their need of knowledge and their capacity for reasoning, God at the very beginning made known to them his purpose in creating them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection” all the lower animals.—Genesis 1:28, New World Trans.
The Bible shows that God also revealed his purposes regarding man to Enoch, Noah, Abraham -and to the nation of Israel by Moses and other prophets. And in particular has he given the followers of Christ a revelation of his purposes. All this
information has been recorded in God’s Word, so it is our own fault if we discontentedly ask: “Who invented this impossible puzzle and how came it to be?”
Not from Jehovah God but from his adversary does man get his discontent. It was Satan’s consuming ambition to be like his Sovereign that caused discontent to enter the universe in the first place. And discontent entered the earth only when Eve allowed Satan to plant the seeds of ambition in her h«art, to be like God. Discontent caused certain angels to leave their heavenly positions, comedown to earth and marry the daughters of men. The poet may say: “Noble discontent is the path to heaven,” but in their case it was just the opposite, the path from heaven to earth. None of God’s intelligent creatures have any just grounds for discontent. Discontent shows a lack of wisdom, gratitude and love, and reflects upon a beneficent Creator.
God created man in his image, also to be contented and happy, and all persons who appreciate God’s gifts and are acquainted with His purposes are contented even among such sorry conditions as now prevail. That, however, does not mean that they are not looking, working and praying for a better world, God’s new world. They are. But while awaiting God’s due time to usher in this better world they do not discontentedly chafe, grumble, fret, complain and rebel. Realizing that its seeming delay is serving wise divine purposes, and having the necessary things to sustain life, they are content. Theirs is the great gain that comes from "godly devotion along with self-sufficiency.”—1 Timothy 6:6-8, New World Trans.
They know that soon the will of God will be done on earth as in heaven. That will mean a new world in which man will gradually be uplifted to mental, moral and physical perfection. Nor will the discontent of boredom mar that perfect world so free from all strife and mishaps. God gave his intelligent creatures an insatiable curiosity, a hunger and thirst for knowledge. Thus perfect mankind will ever be learning new things, acquiring new skills, thereby having their lives made ever richer and fuller and more beautiful.
The contentment and happiness of those now who understand Jehovah’s purposes and appreciate his gifts are proof that God did not create man with any “divine discontent” and that in his new world so near at hand there will be no "divine discontent,” for all then will be contented with their lot and knowledge, ever a praise to their Creator, Jehovah God.—Psalms 148 and 150.
The Machine Mind
C For some time science has been talking about machines that do what men can do. Now a professor from Harvard University is talking about men who could become machines. Professor B. F. Skinner says the world now is entering the age of chemical control of human behavior. In the not-too-distant future, he says, the emotional conditions of normal daily life probably will be maintained in any desired state through the use of drugs. Dr. Skinner says that mankind always has been under some form of control or influence by other men. But in the future, Dr.
Skinner said in a lecture at the New York Academy of Science, controls will be more scientific and more sure in their effect. He cites one example. He predicts that pills eventually will be developed that will make fearless heroes of any and all soldiers whether they wish to be heroes or not. He says the drug would eliminate all signs of fear In the individual, sending him into battle as the perfect fighting machine.
IS YOUR
DOING FOR YOU?
Churches are crowded. Yet morals get lower, crimes increase and corruption runs rampant. Does this mean true religion is not a force in the lives of men?
Up ELIGION is gaining ground," f\. said Dr. Henry P. Van Dusen, president of Union Theological seminary. "Morality is losing ground.” "This conflicting condition,” he said, “Is one of the most surprising and overlooked facts in America today.”
Since 1926, church membership has grown twice as fast as the population, while morals have become increasingly weak. From 1950 the population of the United States has increased 5 percent, but crime has jumped 20 percent. Divorce has shot up from one out of six marriages in 1940 to one out of four today. Juvenile delinquency has multiplied. Close to 300,000 children are called into court each year. Persons under twenty-one represent more than 50 percent of the arrests for crimes against property. The arrests of women for serious crimes are increasing at a shocking rate. Racketeering and violence, alcoholism, narcotic addiction and corruption in public affairs are {ill increasing or are widespread. “Religion,” said Dr. Van Dusen, “is, normally, the parent and sustainer of morals, but thus far, the return to religion in our day has produced no corresponding moral fruitage.”
In the heart of the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., churches are full, yet the city is depicted as a moral hot spot, a “Babylon on the Potomac.” In one American city more than a dozen preachers of various religions were arrested as sex deviates in a single police raid. In Montreal, Canada, a Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty to five charges involving traffic in narcotics. He Confessed that he was a key figure in the biggest narcotics ring, ever uncovered in that city.
Roman Catholic chaplain George B. Ford, an authority on social matters, is on record as admitting that more than three fifths of the juvenile delinquents arrested in New York city in the early part of one year were Roman Catholic in faith. This figure becomes more shocking when we learn that only about one fifth of the total population of New York city is Roman Catholic.
Other statistics show
that an abnormally high proportion of prisoners In the nation’s prisons are very religious and devout churchgoers. During a striking two-year period when Clinton and Sing Sing prisons were being flooded with Roman Catholic and Protestant law violators, not one committed in these prisons during this time claimed to be “pagan.” All of them without exception professed being very religious.
What is their religion doing for them? It is evident that church attendance in itself is not an index of religious conviction. As Dr. Charles B. Templeton, full-time revivalist of the National Council of Churches, New York, observed: “There is no revival, no depth of influence being exerted by the churches,"
Therefore, we ask: What is your religion doing for you? Is it developing in you a new personality that is not conformed to this system of things with its crimes, moral decline and corruption? Or do you still find yourself as you always were, up to. your neck in the same worldly ambitions and lusts? Has your religion given you a greater capacity for making and keeping true friends? Has it empowered you with a desire to love, as Christ loved; to be kind, as Christ was kind; to be generous, as Christ was generous? Does your religion help you to do honest business with your fellow man? Or is your religion confined to the church on Sunday and when out of church is religion a case of “out of sight out of mind”? Does your religion help you give your employer an honest day’s work? Does it make your home more harmonious, your life more orderly, your children more loving?
Does your religion make your car safer for those on the highways and for the pedestrians on the streets? Does it open your purse to the needy? Does it make you humble with your opinions? Does it inspire you to do good to others? Does it help you to see the beauty of God’s creation around you? Does it make you passionately eager to want to know God, to serve him, to praise his name, to tell of all his wondrous works? Does it fill you with genuine love for other people, regardless of their race, creed or nationality?
Does your religion give you peace and joy when you practice it? And does it prick your conscience when you fail to do right? Does it give you hope, faith and courage to press ahead? Does it fill your life with understanding and your heart with love for God and man? If it does, your religion is a power to you. You are a power for good and righteousness.
The religion of Christ, the Christian religion, exerts this power.
Transforming One's Life
The apostle Paul, discussing the transforming power of the Christian religion, said that those taking it up die to their former course, but become alive to do the will of God. They say, as did Jesus: “Let, not my will, but yours take place.”—Luke 22:42, New World Trans,
To this end they train their minds on things above, not on the things upon the earth. They deaden their bodies as respects fornication, uncleanness, sexual appetite, hurtful desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. That is the way some formerly behaved, but Christianity has brought a change in them, as Paul says: “In those very things you, too, once walked when you used to live in them. But now really put them all away from you, wrath, anger, injuriousness, abusive speech, and obscene talk out of your mouth. Do not be lying to one another. Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality which through accurate knowledge is being renewed according to the image of the one who creat-
ed it.”—Colossians 3:1-11, New World Trans.
That there must be a complete change of personality from this old world and its fleshly, lustful habits there cannot be the slightest doubt. To the Corinthians Paul wrote: “Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor e?dortioners will inherit God’s kingdom. And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean, but you have been sanctified, but you have been declared righteous in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the spirit of our God.” Only the Christian religion is powerful enough to transform your life to this extent. It will, if you will let it.—1 Corinthians 6:6-11, New World Trans.
Prove Yourselves Christian
If Christendom's religions be Christian, then let them do as Paul says, wash themselves clean of worldly filth and corruption. Let them stop killing one another as they did during World Ware I and II, when Catholic on one side killed brother Catholics on the other .side of the battle lines, and the Protestants bn one side slaughtered those of the same faith on the other side. If the Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, or any other religion of Christendom be truly Christian, let them stop hating one another; let them stop hating Jehovah's witnesses, who preach God’s kingdom; let them love even as Christ loved; let them do good even to those who despise and hate them, as Jesus commanded; let them stop robbing and cheating one another in the business world; let them stop committing adultery and fornication! Stop their hobnobbing with corrupt politicians and greedy commercialists of this world! Stop being conformed to this world’s image! Let them stop lying, cheating and coveting! Let them speak the truth in everything, anywhere and everywhere! Let the force of Christianity be made manifest in deeds and not in words only. Let the daily lives of the churchgoing millions testify whether Christendom’s religions are Christian or not. For said Jesus: “By their fruits you will recognize them.”—Matthew 7:16, New World Trans.
Alas! Christendom’s religious fruits are bad. Her churches are packed to overflowing, but she has little good to show for it. Dr. Robert J. McCracken charged at New York’s Riverside church that a “large proportion” of the 54,000,000 Protestants in the United States are Christian in name only. He declared that these nominal Christians are “ignorant of what Christianity stands for in some cases, apathetic and indifferent in many more, not making anything like the difference they ought to make, not lifting the level of personal and public behavior, their religion a religion sft secondhand.”
Dr. McCracken described the current revival as “depressing.” “There is a disturbing discrepancy between the strength of the churches and their influence on American life,” he said. "They are not the dynamic force for civic righteousness that they should be but are for the most part a quiet and moderating influence, not the opiate of the people, as Lenin put it, but, equally, they are not much of a stimulant.” He defined secondhand religion as' "an attachment to Christianity that is traditional and conventional and at the moment fashionable, a matter of good form, not a life commitment.”—The New York Times, May 16, 1955.
Paul counsels Christians to keep testing their religion, to keep testing themselves to see whether they are in the faith, “keep proving what you yourselves are.” Test yourself to see whether your religion has
helped you to strip off the old personality with its practices, whether it has helped you to clothe yourself with a new personality that conforms to the pattern laid down by Christ. If it has, there will be a marked change in your personality. You will be clothed with tender affections of compassion, kindness, lowliness of mind, mildness and long-suffering. You will continue to put up with one another and forgive one another freely. You will clothe yourself with love, for it is a perfect bond of union.—2 Corinthians 13:5; Colossians 3:12-17, New World Trans.
An Everyday Religion
Christianity is more than a Sunday religion. It is a religion for everyday living. It is more than a matter of form; it is a life patterned after Christ. It is a religion of action, power and spirit. Before you can mean anything to Christianity, it must first mean something to you. Before Christianity can bless your home, you must first let it bless you. You must let it influence you in the paths patterned after Christ. Otherwise you will not make progress. Unless you let Christian truths transform your life, you cannot prove to yourself the good and acceptable and complete will of God so essential to salvation. Your religion will be all form, a fashion parade, a mockery in the sight of God.
Follow the apostle's advice: “Put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct and which is being corrupted according to his deceptive desires; but that you should be made new in the force actuating your mind, and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loving-kindness.” If you do this, you will find that true religion is still “the parent and sustainer of morals,” and an incomparable stimulant and influence toward right doing, which leads to everlasting life.—Ephesians 4:22-24, New World Trans.
V Not having a tail, you do not worry about such a calamity. But such an event is of concern to the common lizard of Africa, and if you asked him what he would do under the circumstances he would confidently answer: “Why, grow another one, of course.” No, this is no boast. The ability to throw off parts of the body and regrow them is found in animals such as sea stars, crabs and spiders as well as lizards.
The lizard casts off his tail as a result of nervous excitement caused by fear. After being severed, the tall bounds about by itself for a time in a flurry of excitement while the lizard lies quiet or steals away out of sight. So it seems that tail-casting is a maneuver to distract the enemy’s attention while the lizard gets safely away.
The very neat mechanism that allows the lizard to perform this intriguing act of surgery shows the marvelous ingenuity of the Creator of all living things. There is a definite breaking plane. In a lizard that has never cast his tail before this can be seen by a ring round the tail that is free from scales. At this point the vertebra is split nearly across. Thus it is ready to be detached by a quick switch of the tail. The spinal cord at that point narrows almost to a thread and so no damage is done to this essential part. Blood vessels in this region are constricted and when the tall parts they are automatically ligatured, and the muscles here are dovetailed so that there is no tearing of them.
And having shed his tail, then what? Our reptile friend lives up to his boast and grows another!
Service director, Conrad L. Wirth, “that they amount to outdoor slums.” He further stated that under the present park program, where only one cent of each $150 in the Federal budget is devoted to the national parks, it Is Impossible to provide essential services; that “visitor concentration points can’t be kept in sanitary condition. Comfort stations can’t be kept dean and serviced. Water, sewer and electrical systems are taxed to the utmost. Protective services to safeguard the public and preserve park values are far short of requirements. Physical facilities are deteriorating or are inadequate to meet public needs. Some of the
MgAVE” is not too strong a term to use, said a ranger, when we speak about preserving the magnificent wonders of our national parks from vandals and from commercialization. Last year over 50,000,000 people flocked to the park sanctuaries in the United States to find the quiet peace and inspiration that their pioneer ancestors knew. This year an even greater number of visitors are expected. And park authorities foresee some 80,000,000 people yearly stampeding over the country’s 24,000,000 acres of park land by 1966.
To try to accommodate even half that number of visitors in facilities that, in 1932, were designed to care for three and a half million and that have not been materially expanded since is like trying to cram an oversized elephant into a dainty china closet without suffering calamitous consequences. The tragedy of overcrowding has already left its mark on the national parks. “Some of the camping grounds are so crowded,” said the National Park camps are approaching rural slums. We actually get scared when we think of the bad health conditions.”
A multimillion-dollar program to protect, improve and develop the parks is now being considered by Congress. This program contemplates the spending of $786,545,600 in ten years. Park director Wirth called it "a realistic program,” aimed at remedying the deplorable conditions created in many park areas by years of war-imposed economies, followed by an overwhelming postwar increase in visitors.
Need for Emphasizing Intangible Values
However, money alone will not save the parks from becoming slums. Unless there is developed a proper public concept of the real meaning of the national parks and how they should be used, it is very possible that much of their natural, unspoiled beauty wall ultimately be destroyed, regardless of the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into them for their improvement.
Warning against the disastrous consequences of overstressing the physical attractions of the parks without properly emphasizing their higher, inspirational intangible values, is the National Parks Association president, Sigurd F. Olson. He said: “Half a century of travel advertising has stressed the physical attractions of the parks without emphasizing their spiritual and Intangible values. As a result many people have come to regard the national parks as playgrounds. Awe-inspiring spectacles are often seen merely as curiosities. With this attitude, vandalism and carelessness have become major evils and refuse disposal a major problem.”
Unless the American people develop a more appreciative regard for the parks’ spiritual and inspirational value the determination to preserve these wonders unspoiled will not be present. Visitors will come to regard the national parks as they do their big city parks, merely as amusement and recreation centers. The demand for more movie houses, dance halls, golf links, tennis courts and cocktail lounges will increase. “After all,” the people will say, “aren’t we out here to have a good time?”
The Orif/inal Concept Lost
Originally, the national park lands were set aside to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein ... by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations,” according to the National Park Service Act of 1916. Unless there is an immediate rededication to this original purpose, there will be little left for future generations to see, because there is a continuous commercial undermining of this original concept.
For example: In the heart of all natural wonders, Yosemite National Park itself, once precious for its inspirational mood, is now advertised as “California’s All-Year Playland," where you can play tennis, swim in tiled pools, dance to live music and have real city fun. “This spot,” says an authority, “which Theodore Roosevelt once called the most beautiful in all the world, now boasts three acres of burning dump and smog. Lovely meadows, once favored by artists, have been paved with eleven acres of macadam to provide parking space. Warehouses and stores obstruct famous views.” Tank trucks sprinkle water in vain to keep down the dust. Campers line up twenty deep for the toilets. Bright white lights at night transform the valley into a city festering with ugly commercialism. Souvenir stands and refreshment centers carry on full blast. Swarms of people move restlessly about. Dance pavilions throb with hot rhythms. The whole concessionaire area takes on a carnival spirit. “It’s like Coney Island,” said a Department of the Interior investigator, “so crowded you don’t even feel you’re outdoors."
The prevailing attitude, principally among the younger generation that visits the parks, is so completely foreign to the original concepts that it makes one wonder why they bother to come to the parks at all. For example: At the glorious Glacier National Park a visitor who found no place to dance asked: “What are you supposed to do—look at the scenery’^’ To behold the awesome, massive beauty of hundreds of waterfalls hurling themselves downward from a dozen white glaciers glistening in the sun was not enough to rivet the attention of this pleasure seeker, A dance floor was lacking.
In the presence of the breath-taking giant sequoia trees, a group of young mothers inquired: “Where are the merrygo-rounds for the kiddies?” At the Grand Tetons a couple in a flashy car told a ranger: “The devil with the scenery. Aren’t there any good shows around
here?” Another party, in the presence of Mt. Rainier, yelled out to a park officer: “Hey there! We’ve come all the way from Chicago, what’s there to see here?"
Erosion Resulting from
Improper Emphasis
With this unappreciative attitude, vandalism and carelessness have become major evils and refuse disposal a serious problem. In Yellowstone National Park, where the earth lets off steam, stood a big fat man gazing at crystal-clear Morning Glory pool, most beautiful of pools. “Pretty, isn’t it?” he said as he tossed his filthy cigar stub into it. Suppose the 16,435 people that saw the pool that day threw a cigar stub or a beer can into it, or into any of the pools; how long would they remain as treasured beauty spots?
But cigar stubs and beer cans are mild, to compare with some of the things thoughtless people toss about the camp. It costs the park over $300 a day to pick up the trash. “People must think these pools are garbage cans," said a park official. Below the ledges, many pools, which were once white and clean beneath blue water, are now covered with a scab of dirty brown pennies, befouled with beer cans, pop bottles, sodden cracker boxes and other garbage. “If you’ll pardon me for saying so,” said a ranger, “some of these pools look like unflushed toilets."
Others must scribble their names on everything or walk away with souvenirs. There are those who dig up plants and trees. Some come armed with shovels; others dig with tire-changing tools, screw drivers and knives. One woman even used her knitting needles to loosen the dirt around a tempting plant. Professional criminals are growing in proportion to the crowds, evidently figuring the park areas to be easy pickings. One park authority made the statement that on some days he thought the parks were “overrun either by Ignoramuses" or by “kleptomaniacs keeping in practice while on vacation.” It was hard to tell which.
As crowds increase the job of policing the grounds becomes more difficult. Yet Yellowstone National Park, with six times as many visitors last summer as in 1931, had 20 fewer rangers on hand to handle the traffic, prevent thievery and vandalism and protect against forest fires. Twice as many visitors swarmed into the Yosemite valley last year as in 1941; still there were fewer rangers on hand to handle them. At one park a visitor spent three days on a trail without seeing a ranger. More rangers and naturalists are urgently needed.
Hom to A ppreciate the Parks
Today the problems peculiar to one park are like those of almost all other national parks. There are far too many people with too few facilities and personnel to handle them. To prevent the parks from being stampeded to death by millions who have no regard for them, an entirely new concept of their higher inspirational and spiritual values must be emphasized. This means restating constantly that travelers bent on recreation and amusement, who are seeking diversion in the form of swimming, golf, dancing, movies, tennis, etc., can find them amply provided in places other than national parks developed primarily as places for inspirational and educational purposes.
This concept, however, in no way interferes with those who desire to flee congested cities to the parks for relaxation. Rather, it emphasizes the need of preserving the pristine grandeur of the national parks for this and future generations, for those who derive refreshment In the quietude of unspoiled natural spaces.
Among these prize natural wonders it
is the little things, the sights, the sounds and the smells, that often create the lasting impressions. City visitors must allow some time for the city to wear off and time for the body to absorb the natural surroundings. Those who flitter from park to park, trying to see so many places in a limited time, return hdme confused, not understanding or appreciating all they have seen. It is better to select only one or two parks, at most, for a vacation. Upon arrival, get out of the car, get away from the main roads as far as you can, several hundred yards at least. Spend some time on the trails. This will result in a whole new concept of the parks.
Take your time as you move about the park. Hurried visitors often miss the best the parks have to offer. Full inspiration comes to those who have a more lingering contact with nature. Listen to the symphony of the outdoors, to the songs of birds, to the rustle of the leaves; smell the scented trails; thrill in seeing the carpets of blue lupines, the fields of white phlox, the rolling hills of yellow buttercups and the plumes of bear grass sprinkling the deep green meadows; study the graceful swan on a glimmering lake, or watch the nimble bighorn sheep up among the massive peaks; delight in the dozens of crystal rivulets cascading downward to splash in sparkling diffusion; feel the power in the thunder of a waterfall; gaze up through the giant timbers at an eagle soaring high in a sea of blue; sense how silently billowy clouds slip by.
Here is quietude away from the turbulent world of civilization, where wonders that measure into the thousands of years cause the pressures of modem life to fall away. Wrote John Muir: “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings; nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and storms their energy—while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
Here in nature’s wonderland, alone with God, contact is made with immensity and space, where serenity and equilibrium are regained. Here is peace. Here is a solitude that is soothing, that is deeply enriching and everlasting. Here are literature, music and art in their highest forms—rare, magnificent treasures, precious masterpieces, superlative gems, contributions all to the highest thoughts of man—the inspirational, the spiritual.
It would be a pity to permit these sanctuaries to deteriorate into carnival side shows. Preserve them for their crowning value. Save them to inspire thoughts and praise of the God who made them: “O Jehovah, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.”—Psalm 104:24, Am. Stan. Ver.
NO ONE STOOD UP
There is a story circulating throughout Moscow. Moscow diplomats believe it to be fictional but especially apt. Reported the New York Times of March 26, 1956: "'During Communist Party Secretary Nikita S. Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin at the Twentieth Party Congress last month he is said to have received an anonymous note reading: 'What were you doing when Stalin was alive?’ Mr. Khrushchev read the note to the Congress and said: 'There is no signature on this note. Will the author please stand up?' No one stood up, 'I will count to three/ Mr, Khrushchev said. 'Then let the author rise/ Mr. Khrushchev counted to three. No one stood up. 'All right, comrades/ Mr. Khrushchev said, 'Now you know what I was doing when Stalin was alive. I didn't stand up either/ “
Perhaps you have never stopped to give it much thought, but the calendar is not the same as it used to be, nor is it the same as it probably will be in year? to come. Everyone uses it. Many persons carry a small one in their wallet; others have one or a dozen hung on the walls of their homes. But do you know why
WITH OURtjf calendar?
to mark time, sets off periods that neither divide evenly into the tropical] year nor can be divided evenly by the number of solar days in a month, and you will have a view of the principal problems that confront calendar makers.
As has been noted, calendars are nothing new. They have been used since earliest times, even
it is the way it is and why there is now discussion about changing it? AsC. R. Decker, editor of the Journal of Calendar Reform, said: “The calendar, one of the earliest of man’s inventions, has been subject to change after change and still is not satisfactory.” Why so much difficulty?
The natural unit of time measure is the day, fixed by the rotation of the earth on its axis, and surely no one would attempt to establish an arrangement that ignored that fact. Another natural unit of time to which our calendars endeavor to conform is the tropical year, governed by earth’s revolution about the sun. If this were not so, the seasons would -come at varying times on our calendar each year. Rut a problem arises in that the day, which is twenty-four hours long, cannot be equally divided into the tropical year of 385 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45.51 seconds. Add to this the fact that the moon, the other outstanding heavenly body commonly used since the days of Adam. The prerequisites to a calendar are writing, the knowledge of an astronomical period and its value in timekeeping, and a fixed date for a starting point.
Adam had these. He knew the art of writing, himself composing a historical record. (Genesis 5:1) He surely knew the value of the heavenly luminaries for timekeeping, for he evidently recorded Jehovah’s statement: "Let luminaries ... make a division between the day and the night, and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years.” (Genesis 1:14, New World Trans.) As for a starting date, what could serve better than the very start of human life, the time of Adam’s creation? So we are not surprised to note in the account in Genesis chapters 7 and 8 that Noah used a very definite calendar arrangement, marking off his time into seven-day periods and thirty-day months, which, instead of being named, were numbered.
It has long been a practice to mark time by outstanding events that regularly recur. For example, those who live close to nature often use the times of seed-sowing and harvest, the spring rains, blackberry month, calving time, or the full moon to mark time, just as you might use the name of a month for the same purpose. However, it is even more prominent in historical records that events were often dated according |o the life of an outstanding individual of the time. The Flood, we are told, came “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life.’’ (Genesis 7:11) In the “first year of Cyrus king of Persia, . .. Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus” to make a proclamation concerning the restoration of the Jewish remnant to their homeland and the rebuilding of the temple there. (Ezra 1:1, Am. Stan. Ver.) And "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea” John the Baptist began his ministry in the wilderness by the Jordan. (Luke 3:1, New World Trans.) This type of calendar, as indicated by the references given, was apparently carried over from the preflood world.
The earliest calendars dated from the fall of the year. Not until their exodus from Egypt did the Israelites change to another time for the beginning of their year. But then Jehovah God himself instructed concerning the spring month Abib: “This month will be the start of the months for you. It will be the first of the months of the year for you.” (Exodus 12:2, New World Trans.) Later on, when the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity in 537B.C., they were again dating from the fall, using the spring month only to mark the beginning of the sacred year for religious purposes, and the beginning of the regnal year of their kings. The Jews recognized the problems to be met in calendar-making, so, while they marked the beginning of each month by actual observation of the appearance of the new moon, they sought to compensate for the difference between this and the tropical year by adding, or intercalating, the extra month Ve-Adar seven times in each nine-teen-year period.
Let us briefly turn our attention to some of the other peoples of the world and observe the varied calendars that they employed. The Egyptians, for example, among the earliest in this field, set the beginning of the year by the heliacal (pertaining to the sun) rising of the star Sothis, which occurred about the time the Nile overflowed its banks. However, Sothis, or Sirius, rose the accumulated total of one day late every four years. The educated ones in Egypt came to know this, but they did not make any adjustment; so in 1,460 years, which is called a Sothic period, the beginning of their year went the entire round of the calendar, coming back at last to its starting point. That put their calendar just one year ahead of what it would have been if properly regulated.
The Mayans devised a marvelously accurate table of astronomical information that served their civilization in Guatemala and Yucatan. It is said that by means of their calendar any day in 65 million years could be identified. It called for eighteen twenty-day months in the year, with five extra days being added at the end to adjust the difference between the solar year and their calendar.
The Greeks, using their date for the origin of the Olympic games (776 B.C.) as a starting point, divided up the 30-day month into decades or 10-day periods. Later they alternated between 29- and 30-day months and finally, in the fifth century B.C., began to employ intercalary months on the basis of the 19-year cycle. This carried over to the Roman rule. But when Julius Caesar took hold of the problem of
calendar reform the situation was deplorable. The year consisted of just ten months, running from March through December. The time corresponding to January and February was ignored. It was wintertime, there was virtually no activity, so it had been felt that there was no need for a calendar. And by now the vernal equinox was falling about two months late.
Julian and Gregorian Calendars
The Greek astronomer Sosigenes accepted Caesar’s invitation to endeavor to adjust the calendar. What the Egyptians had observed to be true he confirmed, namely, that the year ran about 3651 days, but now he proposed that an extra day be added to the calendar every fourth year to compensate for that fraction of a day. Thus the Julian calendar brought in the use of leap years. While it was an improvement, still it left errors that would call for further adjustment in the future. The Julian calendar came into use in the year 46 B.C., which is supposed to be the 708th year from the founding of Rome. Later, along in the sixth century, a monk calculated what he considered to be the Christian era, and thereafter the dates of the calendar were changed to count from the date when Christ was thought to have been born.
There was no outstanding complaint against the Julian calendar until the sixteenth century. But by then the discrepancy in the Julian calendar that accumulated at the rate of one day every 128 years had moved the vernal equinox back from March 21 to March 10. Lilius, a physician of Verona, took hold of the situation and worked out a suggested alteration. Although he died, his brother presented the calendar to Pope Gregory XIII, whose name is now attached to it. In 1582 it was put into effect by papal proclamation, which suppressed ten days in October of that year. So the day after October 4 became October 15, thus restoring the equinox to its former position. The Gregorian calendar follows the same principle as the Julian except that an extra day, making a leap year, is added only to the years whose number can be divided by 4, and century years are common unless divisible by 400. That made the calendar quite accurate, allowing for an error of only one day in over 3,300 years.
However, should you Want a more precise system, you might consider the rule adopted in Russia in 1918: “Century years shall be leap years only in case their numbers when divided by nine give a remainder of two or six." This reduces the difference between the year as marked by our calendar and that marked off by the sun to one day in 29,000 years. Or there is the suggestion by Professor T. A. Bickerstaff, of the University of Mississippi: “Every year divisible by four shall be a leap year excepting years divisible by 27.” By this method there would be a difference of only one day in 90,000 years. For all practical purposes it hardly seems that any more precise rule is needed.
The World Calendar
Now once again there is a movement, in the U.N., toward calendar reform. This time, though, the effort is not to change the basic calendar arrangement. It is designed, rather, to eliminate the problems in our present calendar by making the same dates fall on the same days each year, making more nearly consistent the number of days in the months, and equalizing the number of working days in each quarter of the year. While there is particular advantage in the change for businessmen, the effect might be good elsewhere too. In India it is reported that there are now about thirty different calendars in use. The confusion is so great that even
from one village to the next a change in calendar is found. This has resulted in riots, because the people could not agree on what day a feast should be celebrated. How would the world calendar correct the situation? It would institute a uniform system that could be employed by the people of all nations.
So by means of the World Calendar it is proposed that, beginning in 1961, the first day of each year fall on Sunday. The first month of each quarter, that is January, April, July and October, would have 31 days and all the other months would have 30 days, with an extra day called “Worlds-day" added after December 30. The years that require it would have Leapyear Day, another "Worldsday/* added to the end of June. By thus not calling the two added days by one of the regular names of the days of the week, days and dates would correspond each year.
It might seem that it would be simple to put the new calendar into operation, but objections arise. It is not merely a problem of mathematical adjustment. The calendar has become a social institution, and such cannot be changed overnight. Some orthodox religious groups object to having the sequence of the seven-day week broken by “Worldsday,” With others it is a matter of apathy. But Mr. Decker nicely states the matter this way: “It is not a radical innovation; it is simply a refinement of the existing Gregorian calendar; it retains all the progress that has been achieved by calendar-makers in the past; it clears away the absurdities, and it makes much simpler the whole business and economic life of our country."
Whatever changes may be made, the real problem still remains the problem of agreement. No improvement of the calendar can be regarded as entirely successful unless it is generally accepted throughout the earth.
WHERE DOES THE CHURCH STAND ?
By “Await*!" correjpondent in Nonray +
<£ Bishop Johannes Smemo tried to give an | answer to that question in a discourse at the I joint sitting of the diocese council in Novem- | ber, 1955. He concluded that it does not stand | where it should. j
<£ As to why it does not, he said: "It was be- = cause those who should be the procl aimers I of God's law did not preach and live it so | forcibly as to strike our conscience as God’s I law. Maybe they did not dare to proclaim it | uncompromisingly as it is. Doing so always J brings opposition. Probably it also cohered | to the fact that the Christians themselves 1 were defiled by the trend of relativity. ... j For the greatest part we stuck to the well- I trodden paths and followed the course where | there was least opposition. We had no courage | to and did not want to start dealing with । unknown and difficult problems. We arranged impressive assemblies in our own J halls and even experimented on a few show- | windows. But mostly we sat and waited for the public to come instead of going out like advertising agents and canvassers. I use metaphors which I know seem to be in bad taste. However, this is not a time for fine taste or high ideals, but of getting things done/that mean salvation to people."
Quite a sizable admission! But more is required than merely admitting failures. One must meet the consequences. And since the church has not changed from the course Bishop Smemo describes, what should the people do? Revelation 18:4 (New World Trans.) instructs: "Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues." Join with a people who do not follow the course of least resistance, who uncompromisingly proclaim Bible truths, and who, since Jesus and the apostles were "advertising agents and canvassers" for faith, do not consider following in their steps to be m any kind of poor taste!
pleasant temperatures for indefinite periods of time without the dread of their growing old, staling, molding or spoiling. They will stay as fresh as ever. With cheap, plentiful radiation on hand from atomic wastes, preservation of food by cold sterilization is predicted to outmode canning and freezing methods now used.
However, if you now own an icebox, freezer or a refrigerator, you had better hang on to it, because irradiated foods have still a long way to go before entering the commercial field. According to Dr. C. M. McCay of Cornell laboratories, it will be at least another two years before radiated foods will appear for commercial use—“first for grains and potatoes and then eventually for meats in about five years.” He said: “Radiation will definitely not entirely replace refrigeration.”
Atomic food preservation the-
IRRADIATED FOODS organic matter, food contains « growing microorganisms that
■ | Hr M ft Ji M sP°il it- These germs are either 0 killed or restrained in their
O_ _ ——— growth by canning or freezing.
MGERHowever, some few bacteria may survive and these begin to mul-
HOUSEWIVES, farmers, meat packers and food distributors are all talking about a new proc
ess that might revolutionize the canning and refrigeration industries and permit room-temperature storage and shipment of fresh vegetables and meat to all parts of the world without the need of refrigeration or the danger of spoiling. That new process of food sterilization is by atomic radiation. Food is exposed to electrons given off by a radioactive isotope until it becomes sterilized.
The experts say that soon now housewives will be ordering irradiated packages of such things as chops and steaks, carrots and cream puffs, Brussels sprouts and fresh asparagus, chicken and codfish cakes, etc., and stack them on pantry shelves in
tiply and eventually increase to a point where the food spoils. But when food Is exposed to atomic radiation, the rays penetrate the meat and kill all food-spoiling bacteria. When all bacteria are killed, the food is sterile and may keep for longer periods, if protected from the atmosphere in sealed packages or cans.
If food is irradiated in an airtight container, which will not allow other bacteria to enter, there is no reason why the contents cannot remain fresh indefinitely. Fresh meats, fruits and vegetables could be prepackaged and then sterilized. This would allow them to have a long shelf-life without need for refrigeration. It has been found possible to sterilize foods in every known type of container—metal, fiber, plastic or glass. However, under radiation ordinary glass turns a brownish shade.
Foods exposed to radiation are not made radioactive; therefore, they have no germkilling power. If left exposed on a shelf, irradiated foods will absorb germs from the air and spoil Since the food is not made radioactive, it is not harmful. It is safe to eat. “More than 1,000 experimenters already have munched radiated chow” without any noticeable ill effects. In experiments rats were fed a diet consisting entirely of nine irradiated foods for nine months. fJeports show that “growth, reproduction and performance of these animals was 'quite satisfactory.’ ”
The chief objection against irradiated foods has been the. production of off flavors, odors and discoloration. Especially is this true in meats and dairy products. Professor L. E. Brownell, supervisor of the University of Michigan laboratory, shuddered when he sniffed a highly radiated hamburger. “Sterilized meat smells like a dog when it comes in after a rain,” he said. “And it tastes about like it smells.”
Dr. Lloyd L. Kempe, associate professor in the University of Michigan Medical School, called the odor of certain irradiated foods “putrid." Dr. H. W. Schultz, food technologist at Oregon State College, listed milk, cheese, bananas, orange juice and some cured meat products as “notorious" examples of undesirable flavors when irradiated. Milk exposed to stiff doses of radiation smells and tastes something like garlic. And butter tastes rancid and looks like lard. However, Dr. Schultz said that a taste panel gave asparagus, bacon, green beans, beef liver, broccoli and some other foods a taste rating of “good.” Scores of research organizations are trying to solve the bad-odor and -taste problem, but so far without much success.
Professor Brownell stated: “At first we may have to be satisfied with low-level-radiation pasteurization of food rather than sterilization by means of heavy doses.” While lower doses of radiation seem to kill or slow down many of the food-spoiling bacteria, they do not appear to change the natural taste and smell of the food. Yet lower doses seem to lengthen many times the shelf-life of refrigerated and prepackaged fresh foods. Small doses of radiation do not kill all the bacteria. So the food is not fully sterilized, but only pasteurized. Spoiling is, therefore, not prevented, but merely postponed.
Eliminating Trichinosis
Irradiating pork with gamma rays definitely eliminates any danger of its transmitting trichinosis. Trichinosis, a parasitic infection contracted from eating contaminated and improperly cooked pork, now affects 16 percent of all Americans. One of the top authorities on trichinosis, Dr. S. E. Gould, declared that the disease may be completely wiped out by irradiating all hog carcasses in the packing house. Radiation “definitely kills trichini in pork,” stated Dr. McCay.
Despite the charge of radiation, experimenters say that “no radioactivity is induced in the pork and no harm results from ingestion of the pork.” And what is more, the flavor is not affected and the treatment is relatively cheap. A group of researchers at the University of Michigan has now calculated that this treatment should add only about two-tenths of a cent per pound to the meat.
A mild radiation dose will also kill all known insects that attack cereal grains. Dr. Bernard E. Proctor, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's department of food technology, said that “such treatment can be accomplished by passing the grain in a thin layer on a moving belt under an electron beam. The speed of the belt can be regulated so that the grain
will receive the proper dose to kill adult insects, eggs, larvae or pupal forms. Doses are below those that would adversely affect the germinating ability of the grains if planted.”
Dr. McCay asserts: “With very modest radiation insects are'definitely destroyed without damaging foodstuffs. Radiation does prolong life of root crops, especially potatoes for storage. Present storage of potatoes can be prolonged from 8 months to*ll years by means of radiation.” Usually potatoes sprout or rot after six months. At the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island irradiated potatoes two years' old are still as good as new. The irradiated potatoes have a slightly different taste, but some who tasted them preferred them.
Fears of Irradiated Foods
Some fear that irradiated foods may produce undesirable effects in later years. W. B. Rankin of the Federal Food and Drug Administration declared: “Data are needed on .. . the possibility of the irradiated products being toxic (for example, capable of producing cancer over a long period).” Commenting on this the New York Times, July 24,1955, said: “The possibility that radiation may incite cancer in living animals cannot be dismissed. Experiments made in the United States and other countries with mice fed on irradiated food have not borne out this possibility, but they have shown that growth is retarded and that there Is a loss in activity and an increase in the death rate. The cause is not the formation of harmful products but the destruction of vitamins and other constituents of food.”
That atomic radiation partly destroys necessary vitamins besides killing harmful bacteria is a fact well known. Some authorities state that the loss in nutritive quality is “severe." For example, Science Digest for July, 1953, reported that “in the Columbia tests, 70 percent of the vitamin A in raw whole milk was destroyed by a six-hour exposure to the gamma radiation. During this period, 37 percent of the riboflavin (vitamin B-2) was destroyed, as was all the reduced ascorbic acid, a relatively unstable form of vitamin C.”
Professor McCay says that “two-thirds of the thiamine is destroyed in meat. This is about twice the destruction from cooking. Some of the other vitamins such as pyridoxine and riboflavin are also partly destroyed. Irradiated fats in meat tend to produce peroxide compounds which in turn destroy the vitamin E and part of the A.”
The results of the experiments conducted by laboratories both in the United States and in Britain over a period of years are promising, but by no means conclusive. Studies are expected to continue for at least another two years before any conclusive report will be forthcoming.
“Why Should Qod Intervene?"
<L “If America has an economic collapse, communism will overrun the earth unless God intervenes/’ Those words were spoken at a labor meeting in Tampa, Florida, by former United States Senator Claude Pepper, The Dania (Florida) PressRecord of November 11, 1955, in its column “Bays Cather’s Random Thoughts/’ commented on Senator Pepper’s statement: “ ‘Why should God intervene?’ I wish to ask. Do the powers that be in present governments consult God about how to govern the people? My experience is that they do like the people in Noah’s day, and like the Pharisees did Jesus of Nazareth. When you mention following the course laid out in the Bible, God's Word, they try to laugh you to scorn/’
Dropping in for Directions
Chief Warrant Officer Willie Windham broke up a tennis game in Washington, but all he wanted to do was ask for directions. Windham got lost in Washington recently while looking-for the Walter Reed Hospital. He thought he would ask for directions. Nothing unusual about this—except that Windham was flying a helicopter at the time. So he dropped in on a tennis court. With eyes bulging, the players gave directions. Then Windham whirled away as suddenly as he had come, leaving the players too flustered to continue the game.
.. t; On the Homa of a Dilemma
British glider pilot Jim Helder recently had an agon-% izing choice to make. Should he crack up in a cornfield ’, or land his bright-red glider in a smooth pasture occu-£ pied by two bulls? Jie chose the pasture. Jumping W from the glider he waved a big unfolded map at the X bulls. One retreated. But the other was unimpressed, and, like any self-respecting bull that sees red, charged full force at the delicate, 50-toot aircraft. After re-during the glider to splinters, the bull turned his at: ' tention on an auto that rushed into the pasture to <■ save the airman. The driver honked his horn to scare ;■? the bull. But the bull had a horn or two himself. Ue ‘■! aimed them and charged, smashing a hole in a trailer , behind the auto before the men got away. If there is any moraf to the story, it must be: never get caught on the horns of a dilemma—or a bull.
3J Not Speeding, Ju»t Flying Low
On the New York State Thruway a state police car was chasing a speeder. As the speeder was almost within the arms of the police, something struck the aerial of the police caret all things, an airplane! Though not exactly speeding, the pilot was flying too low. In court the pilot pleaded guilty and was fined $25. The motorist? He got away.
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