Awake!, December 8, 1957
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Do Today’s “Faith Healers” Measure Up?
Do You Think, or Just Pretend?
Those Amazing Termites!
Bottles or Breasts for Feeding Baby?
JULY 8. 1958
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
Newt sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our timet mutt be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests, "Awake!" hat no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; 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 speok freely to you. But it does nat abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
"Awake!” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents ore 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.
Get acquainted with "Awake!" Keep awake by reading "Awake!”
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CONTENTS
Hope for Those Who Suffer
Do Today's “Faith Healers’’ Measure Up? 4
Heartbeats—Fast and Slow
About War
Value of Right Emotions
Do You Think, or Just Pretend?
Tap Water Upsets Athletes
Those Amazing Termites!
Kittens and Cats
Bottles or Breasts for Feeding Baby? 17
SB
The African Queen
How Creole Became La Mode
Repercussions in Italian Senate Watch Your Possessions “Your Word Is Truth’’
Was Jesus Inferior to God?
Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in All the
Earth—The Philippine Republic
Watching the World
NO ONE wants to spend his life suffering from a sickness or a physical disability; yet multitudes are. Hospitals are filled with them. They spend their lives with the gnawing desire to be healed, and they watch with envy those who come, stay a short while and then leave. But they must stay on because modern medicine cannot cure them.
The person who suffers from a momentary affliction has the hope of recovering, but what hope can the person have who cannot be healed? In spite of a bleak existence on a hospital bed or in a wheel chair, perhaps not even being able to move a limb, there is still reason for him to hope. He can look forward with confidence to being completely healed even though modem science can do nothing for him.
His healing will come from God, not through so-called faith healers, but through God’s kingdom. The One who has been enthroned as King in that kingdom has the power to heal the sick and will use it as soon as the appointed time arrives for him to take over complete control of earth. He demonstrated his power to heal when he was on earth nearly 2,000 years ago. When Christ healed the deaf, the blind and the paralyzed at that time he demonstrated what he would do during the reign of his kingdom.
As a divine physician Christ will use his healing powers to bring health to
obedient mankind. What is described by these words will then literally take place: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.” “And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”—Isa. 35:5, 6, AS; Rev. 21:4.
Here is hope for those who now suffer. They need not despair. By enduring in faith they will experience the healing that is promised to come through God’s kingdom. Let those who suffer look to the future with renewed interest and hope. Let them do as Christ commands the faithful: “Lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.”—Luke 21:28.
DO TODAY’S
“'dTaitft ^eafe/ts"
MEASURE UP?
EE! HEAR!” says an advertisement for a revival telecast. “Actual miracles happening before your eyes. Cancer, tumors, goiters disappear. Crutches, braces, wheelchairs, stretchers discarded. Crossed eyes straightened. Caught by the camera as they occurred in the healing line before thousands of witnesses.” Another ad of a Los Angeles “faith healer” reads: ‘Miracles of Healing Now in Progress Nightly.’ This miracle maker gives away cash prizes to his most devoted followers and “miracle oil" to those generous with “love offerings.”
A “soul saver” in Houston, Texas, promises through Jesus to heal those afflicted with “every known disease, and many unknown except to Jesus.” In the hills of Virginia a cult known as "Holiness Faith Healers” fondle venomous snakes and boast that every kind of ailment can be cured by prayer and anointing oil. In Athens, Greece, people are flocking to the side of Alexandra Magoulas, a fifty-three-year-old widow who claims to be endowed with remarkable healing powers. France reportedly “now has more specialists in miracles than it has doctors.”
Both Roman Catholic and Protestant religions are in the healing business. Shrines in Lourdes, France, and St. Anne de Beaupre and St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, Canada, are but few of many Roman Catholic places where miraculous cures are claimed. The phenomena, however, “which the Catholic Church officially certifies as miracles are relatively few.”
do their '"healing campaigns" mecture up when com' pared with the miraculous cures of the first century?
Some major Protestant religions are just coming around to accept the idea of faith healing, although generally the major Protestant religions maintain that miracles of the first century were “intended to authenticate the credentials of the Apostles as God’s agents in the founding of Christianity,” says an authority. “With the passing of the last Apostle, when the Christian Church had been securely established, the need for miracles no longer existed and they ceased.”
Examining the Record
Despite the discrepancies and doubts being voiced as to the validity of faith cures, there are more “unearthly marvels” said to be taking place inside revival tents today than at any time in history. Are these claims true? Are the cures of today genuine credentials of Christianity? How do today’s cures compare with those of Bible times? Are those “healed” really healed? Is this the power of God at work in the hands of “healers,” or is it a trick?
Most of the valid criticism directed against “faith healers” today usually has to do with their failure to provide any record or documentation for their healings. There is no way of proving what is often claimed. And, too, in hundreds of cases, "faith healers” admit they fail to heal, whereas Jesus, never failed. Why, then, the failures if the healing is performed by the power of the same God? John Kobler, in his article “The Truth About Faith Healers,” says “faith healer” Jack Coe was denounced by the Miami Council of Churches “as a religious quack.” He further says: “Three ministers of the Churches of Christ, a Protestant sect which maintains a standing offer of $1,000 to Oral Roberts [another “faith healer”] for proof of a single cure acceptable to a committee of three doctors, issued the same challenge to Coe, raising the purse to $2,500. Like Roberts, he ignored it.”
If the “cures” performed are genuine, permanent and complete, why not have doctors and people examine them? Why refuse an opportunity to glorify God and prove Him true? Why let the presence of doubters, scoffers and persecutors prevent the marvelous works of God? Did not Jesus do some of his most remarkable healings in the presence of his avowed enemies? Before his accusers he healed a man with a withered hand. In the presence of his persecutors he healed the high priest's slave’s ear after it had been cut off. After • healing a leprous man, did not Jesus say to him: “Go, show yourself to the priest”? Jesus was not backward about having his cures examined or inspected. £nd no one ever doubted the permanency and soundness of his cures either—no, not even his enemies. His works were done in the open, where skeptics and scoffers could see them, so that none would have cause to deny that he was the Christ.—Matt. 8:3, 4; 12: 10; Luke 22:50,51; 17:11-19.
But there are many valid reasons why one would doubt the powers of present-day “healers.” Take, for an example, the case of a small-town twelve-year-old girl who was crippled from infancy. Since everyone in town knew Mary there was no chance for a fake. A woman evangelist said she could heal Mary. Before a gathered multitude the evangelist fixed her eyes on the child and said: “Mary, drop your crutches and come to me!” Mary dropped her crutches and walked. The crowd gasped. There was no doubt in their mind that they had witnessed a miracle performed before their very eyes. Three days later, when the emotion had worn off, Mary collapsed on the street and had to be carried home. That was the end to that “miracle.”
For another example, take the case of three-year-old George Clark, Jr., of Hialeah, Florida, who had been stricken with infantile paralysis. His mother took him to “faith healer” Jack Coe. Jack prayed over the boy, then ordered the mother to remove the child’s braces. Coe then cried out with a loud voice: “Lord, I command Thee to heal this child.” Young Clark stood for a moment without his braces and then collapsed to the floor. Coe shouted to Mrs. Clark: “Sister, don’t you put those braces back on that child. Walk him every day. He is healed.” But young Clark was not healed. Despite the suffering and agony of the child, Mrs. Clark for three days did what Coe had commanded her. But it was obvious that her son's legs were getting worse. Mrs. Clark then called her doctor and told him what she had done. She later had Coe brought to court, charging that he was practicing medicine without a license. But Coe was acquitted. Not long after this, Coe himself was struck down by infantile paralysis and died from bulbar polio.
Bible Cures and Their Soundness
Compare these experiences and many others with what Jesus and his apostles accomplished and you cannot help but become righteously indignant at what men today call "cures” and “faith healing.” Near the Sea of Galilee the lame, crippled, blind, dumb, and many otherwise, were virtually thrown at Jesus’ feet, “and he cured them; so that the crowd felt amazement as they saw the dumb speaking and the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel.” You do not see this happening today.—Matt. 15: 29-31.
The cure Jesus performed at the pool of Bethzatha was breath-taking. Jesus did not ask the man about his faith, or to what extent he believed he would be healed. He merely asked the man: “Do you want to become sound in health?” The man said he did, Jesus said to him: “ ‘Get up, pick up your cot and walk.’ With that the'man immediately became sound in health, and he picked up his cot and began to walk.” The man did not even know who Jesus was. It was some time later that he found out that it was Jesus that healed him.—John 5:1-14.
But “healers” today constantly harp on the need for believing and having faith. “Sister, do you believe the Lord can heal you?” asked the preacher. “I do,” said the woman. “Then throw away those crutches, rise and walk.” When she could not rise, though struggling earnestly, the preacher shouted: “You’re not believin’, sister. Yo faith is weak. If yo believin’, yo can walk.” But she was believing; still she could not walk. There were no such terrible disappointments or demonstrations in Jesus’ day. Even those that came to the apostles “would one and all be cured.”—Acts 5: 15,16.
Additionally, such healing as the apostles performed was not for believers themselves. This miraculous power they had was not to be used for their personal convenience or for the relief of devoted Christians in the congregation. Epaphroditus was sick to the point of death. Paul left Trophimus at Miletus sick. Timothy suffered from stomach disorders. But there is not the trace of a suggestion in the Bible to show that Paul performed divine healing on any one of them, even though they were close associates of his. Still Paul, when on the island of Malta, healed many unbelievers. He healed a man who was afflicted with fever and dysentery. “After this occurred, the rest of the people on the island who had sicknesses also began to come to him and be cured.” None of these were Christians. They were a superstitious people. Yet Paul generously healed them, turning none aside because of their lack of faith.—Acts 28:7-9; Phil. 2:25-30; 2 Tim. 4:20; 1 Tim. 5:23.
No Compassion for the Sick
How different were the apostles and Jesus from today’s “faith healers,” who show little or no compassion for the sick! “Faith healer” A. A. Allen first works his audience up into a frenzy by his shouting and preaching. “How many believe God is going to work miracles tonight?” he rasps. Thousands raise their hands in approval. “Well, I know he is,” says Allen, “and 1 want every man here to pull out a $20 bill and bring it to this platform. If you haven’t got a $20, then bring a $10. And I know everybody has at least $5 they can give to Jesus.” Members of his staff then run up and down the aisles with buckets collecting the money.
An observer writes: “Allen’s services last an average of four hours each, but he usually spends only about 30 minutes on the ‘healing,’ the rest taken up by preaching, advertising his products and money pitches. Several nights I was there, he did not even get to the ‘healing,’ Night after night you see the same tragic faces and crippled bodies waiting with child-like faith to touch this man. I did not see any miracles under Allen’s tent.”
Presbyterian pastor Carroll Stegall, Jr., said: “I have never seen a vestige of [physical] change” in the “cures” performed today. And he added: “No healer will come near any really crippled or disabled person if he can possibly avoid it. He will say, ‘Wait until the line is over and I will give you special attention.’ These promises are never kept.”
Kobler says: “Without exception American faith healers have so far refused to submit a single case to medical examination. Of the few testimonials which I myself was able to follow up, I found that a supposedly healed diabetic had never been diagnosed; that a victim of cancer, before joining the healing line, had undergone surgery with a prognosis of complete recovery; that a stammerer, said to have had a cleft palate, was actually a hysteric with no organic defect who, moreover, reverted to stammering after his cure.” In addition, this authority tells of an eighteen-month survey made by the Church of England, after which they reported: “We have seen no evidence that there is any special type of illness cured by ‘spiritual healing’ alone which could not have been cured by medical treatment.”
“Received Free, Give Free”
After summoning his twelve apostles and giving them authority “over unclean spirits, in order to expel these and to cure every kind of disease and every kind of ailment,” Jesus said: “You received free, give free.” How do present-day “healers” measure up to these words? Well, they do not. According to Kobler, “Coe earned $12,000 a year in salary and whatever remained of the ‘love offerings’ after campaign expenses, roughly another $12,000. Shortly before his death he purchased $18,500 worth of Texas real estate. Roberts receives an annual allotment, known as a ‘discretionary fund,* of $25,000 and out of each healing campaign he retains one evening’s donations, which may run as high as $30,000 a year. From book royalties he has grossed more than $80,000. He owns a 280-acre ranch, where he raises purebred Angus cattle. Jaggers, who once told an associate that a preacher should look prosperous and that he never paid less than $40 for a shirt, is also a ranch owner.” He was once detained for two hours to establish legal ownership to some cash he had with him. The measly sum came to $70,000! How unlike Jesus, who had “nowhere to lay down his head.” And certainly not like Peter, who said: “Silver and gold I do not possess.”—Matt. 10:1-9; 8:20; Acts 3: 1-10.
So we ask: Do today’s “faith healers” measure up to Scriptural standards? In every way they fall short. They fall short as preachers and they fall short as “healers.” They more readily fit Paul’s description of "deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. . . . But their end shall be according to their works.”—2 Cor. 11:13-15.
—S-ost and S^oiv
<L The heart of man beats from sixty-eight to seventy-two times a minute. That of the hummingbird beats a thousand times a minute, that of the mouse about three hundred times a minute. To the other extreme is the heart of the elephant, which beats only from thirty-five to forty times a minute, and that of the whale, which has a heartbeat of only twenty beats, or one in three seconds.—Science Digest, July 1955.
“We Could Have Sold Tiekebf’
■N THE August, 1945, issue of Yank Robert llschwartz described life aboard the plane ■■that atom-bombed Hiroshima: “Back at the right waist window, Sgt. Bob Shumard . . , turned his polaroids to full intensity. . . . When the bomb went off it looked blue through his polaroids, but he noted that the interior of the plane lighted up as though flash bulbs had been set off inside the cabin. He adjusted his polaroids to mild intensity and looked down at Hiroshima. A large white cloud was spreading rapidly over the whole area. . . . Said Lt. Jeppson, ‘If people knew what we were doing we could have sold tickets for 5100,000.’ . . . Back in the tail Caron noted the turbulence and called to the pilot: ‘Colonel, it’s coming toward us fast.’ He got no reply, but the plane changed its course and outdistanced the cloud. They looked after it as long as they could see it, a great ringed cumulus-type shaft rising higher and higher through the clouds. Then they flew on and it was gone. The tail-gunner called to the pilot: 'Colonel, that was worth the 25c ride on the Cyclone at Coney Island.’ ’’
Untroubled Conscience
®-The book Night Raider o/ the Atlantic is the account of U-boat commander Otto Kretschmer, “the most efficient and the most competent U-boat commanding officer that Germany produced,” according to the foreword. A passage from the book follows: “In battle it is doubtful if he ever gave much thought to the horror of the destruction he caused and faced. . . . Kretschmer had never really thought seriously of the people who manned the ships he sank. They were the enemy and, if they were human beings as well, it had not bothered his conscience. But now he felt unaccountably weary of the . . . attack, ending in the blinding flash of the explosion and the flame and smoke which spelled the death and destruction of which he was the architect. . . . For a moment he was tempted to let this steamer go, but the mood passed quickly .. . , cleansing him of thoughts forbidden in a U-boat commander,”
Impatience
<1 In Submarine! a history of the United States submarine service in World War II, Commander Edward L, Beach writes about the days just before the war ended: “My emotions at this period I’ve never completely analyzed: rather than joy at the approaching end of the war, I felt an overwhelming impatience to be back in it before it ended. It was something like the feeling of the hunter who had been held out of the woods as the season draws to a close and finally is given a few fleeting hours to go out and find himself some big game. Certainly thoughts of pity for [the Japanese] . . . and what would happen to them if I had my way, never entered my head. I think Piper and her skipper were as near to a remorseless engine of destruction as you could find.”
The Illusion
C In the introduction to U-Boat 977, Nicholas Monsarrat writes; “There is a current Anglo-American illusion, skillfully fostered during the war, that whereas the Germans used U-boats, which were beastly, we only used submarines, which were quite different, and rather wonderful. (This piece of self-delusion does not persist with those who have ever been at the receiving end of a torpedo.)’’
Value of Right Emotions
®-In his book Cancer Dr. J. E, Hett writes: “The impulses of shock, worry, hatred, anger, jealousy, revenge and ill-will put extra pressure upon the endocrine glands. Through these the functions of the stomach and intestines are inhibited. Poisons are created which do damage to the tissues. These, in turn, interfere with the proper activity of the mind. It becomes a vicious circle. . . .If, on the other hand, love, cheerfulness, gentleness, charity, hope, sympathy, and tenderness produce harmonious thoughts, such thoughts will create health, contentment, and the sunshine of a radiant spirit. Such a life has helpful influences upon all persons.’’
®. Living by God’s commandments is truly the happy way. “Let all malicious bitterness and anger and wrath and screaming and abusive speech be taken away from you along with all injuriousness,” says the Bible. “But become kind to one another, tenderly compassionate.”—Eph, 4:31, 32,
DO YOU THINK ,
iJt HAS been said that people fall into two groups—those who think for them’ selves and those who do not.
From among those who do some of their own thinking we see a new class growing all around us. This phenomenon takes shape in a rather new way, socially speaking. Classes of society have long been relegated to their strata by economic, political or historical prestige. In the ‘New Class,’ arrival is come by as a result of emphasis on two things we all share in common— mind and ego. Everything in this set revolves around self-effusion. Its members have one desire in common—to be accepted as thinkers, as intellectuals.
Don’t cdnfuse this new class or its adherents with the real intellectual, however. While every one of us possesses intelligence, in varying degrees, the true intellectual has understanding or mental capacity to a high degree. His enlightened judgment or opinion may cover any special field or many fields. Such a one has intense interest in his subject or subjects, as a student who keeps reaching ahead for greater knowledge. Unfortunately the word “egghead” has been used to describe him and set him apart. Unfortunate, because it carries a mockery of the legitimate use of intelligence, and most often by those whose way of life has been im-proved by “eggheads.”
J Because of the increase of pseudo-B intellectualism there is felt an increasing need to clarify the difference between the real and the simulated. The difference between the two is like the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. But it is not always so easily distinguishable to the untrained observer.
The pseudo-intellectual of the New Class never comes up to the rank he feels he is in. He creates a small world of his own, the better to lift him above those he would like to feel are his inferiors. Perhaps one thing that led to this development was the kind of prosperity in some countries that resulted in the greater influx of students in colleges and universities. Time was when only the wealthy, who could easily afford advanced education, and the persons who really had superior mental capacity plus the fortitude to endure the struggle for it, ended up on the enrollment register of schools of higher learning. With better times, more persons of average (or less than) intelligence hiked off to college because they could, and the prestige that came with it entertained their ego, as well as delayed the process of becoming selfdependent. As this group grew, so also did the New Class.
Once persons of this group are thrown out into the world outside the classroom, into an atmosphere that proves their real caliber to be less than they had envisioned,
the clique movement starts. Though the world does not take kindly to their “genius,” this does not shake them into realism. Instead, their dour ‘world is not worthy of me* attitude carries them to the side of fellow companions of misery, who supply each other with lift, the reassurance that they are someone bigger, better and above it all. This head-in-the-clouds feeling must be maintained. And so it is—by talk.
Deliberately Different
Since the New Classer has not attained any position in the world of real intellectuals, his ego cries for something to set him apart from the normal. Therefore the intentional effort to look, act and live different. But especially does he talk differently. The talk takes a pattern that is recognized by other pseudos and may sound, by its jargon, esoteric to Mr. Joe Average. It is not so much that it is intended only for the initiated New Classer as that by its form it is intended to impress. Its very pattern gives it away. The range of subjects is somewhat apart from that of the population majority—arts, music, literature—and in which he may even be an informed talker. However, his special cup of tea is the psyche.
The study of psychology and the Freudian technique of psychoanalysis has become popular. It is by no means limited to persons intending to pursue that branch of study for professional use. The search of the mind, or psyche, and its relationship to human behavior, conflicts and tensions has attracted a great number of the curious. Books have made it available to any who want the latest finding in the still new and experimental field of psychoanalysis. This has become the great “mind age.” Don’t misunderstand. Information gained by research in this field has done a great deal of good for many people.
On the other hand, a smattering of knowledge on the subject of human behavior has a particular reaction on a person who wants others to believe he is intellectual. It supplies him with some of his jargon, the talk that sets him apart. If he can glibly discuss complexes, relating, identifying, transference, repression, mind-set, compulsions and on and on, ad nauseam, he positively knows he is superior, both in company of those who knew wtbmg and care less about these things (who manage to lead well-adjusted lives) and because by this “operation big talk” he is one of the New Class.
There is no doubt that enlightened research into the complexities of mental states and processes as such determine action and behavior of people has enabled more persons to understand themselves and others better. While bringing to light the cause of conflicts has a certain value, therein does not lie its greatest help. This lies in the conscious effort of a person with a clear view of his shortcomings to follow a course to correct them.
However, this is not the reason for the pseudo-intellectual’s use of whatever knowledge he has of the subject. For surely if it were, those of the New Class would be sterling examples of what we all should be like. Instead, this person uses this information to assure himself that since he knows why he acts in certain unconventional or sometimes immoral ways he is standing on solid ground. Knowing his shortcomings and why he has them, he feels he can now live with them, even cherish them. There is no sight of an effort toward correction. The buildup of introverted interest through the fad of the psyche-search is to have a convenient vehicle for an exaggerated concern with self. The sham intellectual uses the mind to build, not true wisdom from knowledge, but adornment for his ego.
There is another group of thinkers. And one of these any of us can be. While it is only a very small percentage of persons who have a gift of natural intelligence or capacity in especially high degree, there is no limit to the number of persons who can belong to this group. An honest person shuns the hypocritical, egotistic role of a pseudo-intellectual. He can quickly come to see that such a person blindfolds his mind to taking in knowledge for the purpose of building wisdom. The display of knowledge, or the gathering of it for that purpose, only puffs one up. No person who appreciates why man was given a brain can be attracted to such a course.
Use Instead of Lose Your Mental Powers
However, there is an unforgivable lethargy apparent all around us, and perhaps not just around us. It is a willing sluggishness of the use of the mind. Many of us are at times guilty of putting the brakes on our thinking powers. It’s a nice kind of drowsiness, In a lethal sort of way. One’s intellect is never static. There Is either growth or decay. No one can stand still mentally. The excuse that age induces mental stagnation has long been dispelled by actual experience.
Look upon the brain as a muscle. If you keep an arm In a sling for months, even years, you couldn’t expect it to perform naturally when it is released. It requires exercise to strengthen it, to tone its muscles for use. As it is exercised and used gradually it becomes stronger, until at last it can be fully useful as it was created to be. When the brain gets little or no exercise it too can go flabby. But when it gets constant mental exercise it grows more and more capable of performing as you want it to, in fact more efficiently than you ever thought possible.
Perhaps the reason age seems to many to dull the ability to learn and remember is that with age persons become set in their routine of life. Life is no longer new to them, as when they were young and the world was constantly opening wider before their eyes. Their keen powers of observation have been allowed to become dulled by the sameness of experiences and surroundings. They have not kept alert to learning new things or looking for the unusual. When they sit down to take in some new information it becomes a real chore. Things seem to come harder. And perhaps they do for a while. But kept up as a practice, learning grows easier.
Too many people relax their intellect. If they see a person who can give an answer or talk on a subject with apparent ease and considerable adeptness they marvel and mentally settle back with the thought, “I would love to be able to talk or present my views as well, but I can’t; so that’s that, I won’t try.” And they don’t try. TTiey believe it’s excusable because they feel by trying they will never attain anyway. This kind of thinking is a mortal plague to the mind.
Keeping the mind agile means keeping alert every waking hour of the day. Retain a childlike curiosity for knowing reasons why. Practice explaining things to yourself as you would have to do to a critical person. An example of alertness and keenness of observation is the native who lives close to nature, whether it be deep in African jungles, South or North American or Australian wildernesses. These natives neither read nor write. They learn by observing; they remember because it may mean their life to remember. Their foes may be animal or man or climate. They have learned that their sharp interest in things around them is what keeps them alive. Civilization has dulled this kind of keenness in many of us. It has taught us to conform, not to question.
Persons whose business it is to pursue dangerous activities have learned the importance of alert observation. And from observing, the ability to build up reasonable or logical conclusions. Conclusions that guide them in such a way as to preserve them in the midst of adverse conditions, The man who is a professional big game hunter, or who dives deep into the waters under the earth or flies high above the earth, keeps learning, keeps observing, never stops paying attention to everything around him. His life depends upon it. And this is the way we ought to be mentally. Our life may depend upon staying awake.
When a person chooses a vocation or avocation of teaching, he should constantly progress toward being a better teacher, a better speaker, a better student. This can only be done by applying the mind to reaching out for this kind of growth. If it is to instruct, assume the mental image of a person who must be convinced, who knows nothing about the subject and must be taught in such a simple, true and convincing way that the subject will be understood when it is finished. If it is to speak, speak in such a way as to be understood, to instruct, not to exhaust or to impress the listener. And as a student, learn, assimilate and correlate facts, letting the mind have freedom and exercise in connecting ideas, experiences; to learn reason and logic and to attain to real wisdom. A student keeps young because he is always anxious to learn. A student mind is something all of us can have. But it is something that is had only by practice; and by practice we can all come to experience the wonders and the depths possible to the marvelously formed mind of man.
Not to show off its greatness to man, but to reflect the supreme intelligence of its Creator, Jehovah God.—Coritributed.
TAP WATER UPSETS ATHLETES
ECENTLY the American Medical Association was confronted with a resolution that said In part: “There is reason to believe stimulants such as amphetamine, and its derivatives, are widely used to improve the performance of athletes."
C Dr. Mal Stevens, chairman of the state commission’s Medical Advisory Board, discredited the idea that the use of stimulants was widespread among athletes. He added: “A good athlete doesn’t need any medication. He is usually so finely trained—medication would often make him violently ill.”
C Defending his runners Ron Delaney and Don Bowden, coach George pastment said he knew his men and he knew himself, and he called his men “the most straitlaced men who ever lived.” Dr. Smiley Blanton, a top psychiatrist, attributed modem outstanding athletic feats not to pills but to builds. He said: “Our skills, reflexes and horizons are expanding. We know more about nutrition, about scientific training methods. That’s why our boys h are running faster and jumping higher. It's ►} not a pill.”
H However, there are stimulants of various kinds that athletes have taken from time to * time. Brandy-soaked sugar cubes, quartered k lemons, oranges, a sip of hot coffee or tea H with sugar are among the stimulants most frequently used. Swimmers often take oxygen m and boxers antifatigue vitamins, m Noteworthy is Jimmy Powers’ statement Jj about how athletes react to chlorinated mu* h nicipal tap water. He said: “Even the slight-k est taint of chlorination in municipal tap water upsets athletes who are in the pink. The
M result is that the University of Oklahoma foot* m ball team, Notre Dame’s team, leading track teams and boxers like Robinson carry their M own bottled water. It is from natural springs M at Mountain Valley, Arkansas, and, because of its low sodium content and other properties, M it is preferred by Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons for h his thoroughbreds from Nashua on down to
Bold Ruler.”—New York Daily News, June 7, K 1957.
An Amazing Chemical
FEW creatures are as utterly amazing as termites. Their unlikely diet—plain wood—makes them-amazing enough. Their nests are the most remarkable architectural structures found in the insect kingdom. In the way they reproduce they spem to defy the very laws of heredity. And amazing is the word for the chemical warfare soldier termites wage— their glue guns petrify the enemy.
Although they are popularly known as “white ants,’’ termites are not really ants nor are they all white. With some 2,000 species in the world there is variety indeed. Most of this variety is found in the tropics, where termites thrive; but a few manage to make a good living in temperate parts of the earth, as many a householder in Europe and North America has vexatiously discovered.
Most insect pests make their presence known by their appearance or by visible damage. Ah, but the termite is different. One can be experiencing the ravages of termites in his home without seeing or hearing anything until it is too late. This is because of their habit of shunning light and their uncanny ability as engineers. When termites excavate the intenor of a piece of timber they retain the protecting outer shell. Termite-riddled structures are so well excavated that they seldom fall of their own weight. It usually requires some force, such as a storm or an increase in the burden carried, as occurred in one instance when a recently installed piano crashed through a termite-riddled floor.
It is almost impossible to keep termites from getting to their favorite food. Even the hardest of woods succumb to termite attack. In their ceaseless quest for a woody repast termites are not at all reluctant to dine upon fence posts, telephone poles, furniture and houses. When they feel like it,
■ termites will readily extend operations to books, papers, leather and cloth. One scientist, studying tropical termites, set up his camp near the nest. He went to sleep. Upon awakening, he found his shirt had been eaten right off his back!
Laboratory
What intrigues us is how termites get away with such an unlikely menu without suffering from upset stomachs. How can a
termite digest wooar me termite gives no thought to the problem of digestion, since the matter is handled by one-celled animals called protozoans. They live in the termite’s intestines. So thanks to these intestinal inhabitants the termite’s woody means are properly digested.
Mr. Termite is likely to be unimpressed by barriers. If he cannot dig his way through a barrier with his jaws he simply calls upon his chemical laboratory to produce. It does, and presto! a termite acid is available. Termites “distill an acid,” says Frank Lane in Nature Parade, “which eats through the lead capsules of bottles, and manufacture a liquid capable of disintegrating glass. They can spread a juice on metal which rusts it, thus enabling them to bore through it easily.”
When food shortages hit a termite colony the situation is far from serious. The termites simply eat the walls of the termitary! How is this? Because the walls are plastered with termite excrement—something that can be used over again and is a very palatable concoction to the termite tastebuds.
Thus termite food resources are almost inexhaustible. Why, a termite himself is a triple treat. They have the habit of licking one another, “These labial attentions, or lip affections,” says the Smithsonian volume on insects, “are not unrewarded, for it appears that each member of the colony exudes some substance through its skin that is highly agreeable to the other members. Furthermore, the termites all feed one another with food material ejected from the alimentary canal, sometimes from one end, sometimes from the other. Each individual, therefore, is a triple source of nourishment to his fellows.”
Termite Society
Different kinds of termites live in a colony, each kind performing definite duties for the good of all. Termite society is rath er complex, so suffice it to say that then are four distinct castes. The first caste is made up of king and queen and the winged termites that can themselves become kings and queens of new colonies. Workers make up the second caste, soldiers the third. The fourth caste is made up of the nymphs that take over the task of reproduction should the king or queen die.
Workers are toy far the most numerous. As the name implies, the workers do the household chores, digging the nest, chopping the wood, manufacturing food for the king and queen and nursing the young. Workers are small, soft-bodied insects with small rounded heads. Theii* jaws are inconspicuous but effective. The jaws, with saw-toothed edges, easily shave off tiny fragments of wood.
The soldiers have larger heads than the workers, for the soldier’s head, contains his fighting equipment. To defend the colony many species of termite soldiers have scissor-sharp jaws, others have both jaws and a glue gun, and some have only a glue gun. But what a gun!
Protruding from the termite soldier’s snout, the glue gun is effective armament against invaders. Let the ants attack. The soldiers are ready for them, for the guns are loaded with a most potent kind of ammunition. They fire a gluelike liquid that hardens on contact with the air and that virtually petrifies an enemy. So when the ants attack, the soldier termites open fire. The glue gun salvos thoroughly gum up the enemy attack. Describing the effect of termite chemical warfare, Sir J. Arthur Thomson says:
“When the soldier is on the offensive there is a rapid contraction of certain muscles on the sides of the head, and a jet issues from the beak. It consists, of a clear fluid with a smell like cedar oil; it is glutinous and resinous, and difficult to rub off. What the soldier does is to discharge this jet right in the face of an invading ant, and it is extraordinarily efficacious. Hie ants that have received the fatal douche are seen running about as if demented, but often stopping to rub their faces with their fore limbs, or to rub their heads against something. But they cannot get the stuff off, and they usually die.”
The termite chemical warfare is amazing enough, but there is something else about it: the termite soldier in most species is blind! What mysterious sense of direction aims the soldier’s glue gun?
Founding a New Colony
Soldiers and workers are wingless. But one group of termites have long wings. These are the potential kings and queens. On a certain day a message is communicated through the colony. Workers open the doors. The long-winged termites swarm out Off they fly. But alas! most of them never become kings and queens, for they wind up as tasty tidbits on the menu of some bird. A few survive. They pair off, and the male and female begin looking for a home. Not needing wings any longer, they break them off. After a nest is dug and the exit to the outside world sealed off, mating takes place. In due time Mrs. Termite lays a dozen or so eggs. Soon the newly founded home is enlivened with baby termites. But what a surprise! The baby termites, instead of being replicas of their parents, grow up to be an entirely different kind of termite—either a worker or a soldier. And so it is with the second brood and the third. More workers and soldiers! This seems to defy the very laws of heredity, but it is a natural thing in termitedom.
Finally, as the broods keep getting larger, other forms begin to appear, the winged forms. At long last, replicas of the parents! TTiese develop into winged termites like the king and queen when they first flew out of the termitary. Eventually the day arrives for the new colony to have its first swarm. The doors are opened and the winged termites fly out, hoping to found a colony of their own. The cycle begins again.
The king and queen live together peacefully. They are taken care of in a royal way. “The king,” reports the Smithsonian volume, “remains faithful to his spouse; and he, too, may fatten up a little, sufficiently to give him some distinction amongst his multiplying subjects. The termite king is truly a king, in the modern way, for he has renounced all authority and responsibility and leads a carefree life, observing only the decorums of polite society. . .. The queens of nearly all the termites that live in permanent nests attain an enormous size by the growth of the abdomen, the body becoming so huge that the royal female is rendered completely helpless, and must be attended in all her wants by the workers. . . . Her body becomes practically a great bag in which the eggs are produced, and so great is the fertility of these queens that the ripened eggs continually issue from her body. It has been estimated that in one such species the queen lays four thousand eggs a day, and that in another species her daily output may be thirty thousand.”
The nests of these tropical termites are truly amazing. They come in all sizes and shapes and are built below the ground, above the ground and in the trees. The nests above ground may be in the form of a pyramid, an obelisk, a tower. They come in all heights, from a few inches to twenty feet. One of the strangest nests of all resembles a gargantuan mushroom; it
may reach sixteen inches in height, Some African termites build a pinnacled nest that may soar nearly twenty-five feet high' Such nests have been described as “fantastic cathedrals with buttressed walls and tapering spires/*
These nests above ground are remarkable for their hardness. The termite chemical laboratory produces such a fine grade of cement that a nest may bear the weight of several men. Elven with a pick and shovel tribespeople have a difficult time getting the termite cement—a prized item for building their own mud huts.
Yes, the termite is amazing. Pernaps the most amazing thing about them is this: their habit that gives man so much trouble—their greed for wood—is, ironically enough, beneficial to man! Termites seem specially designed to turn dead and decaying wood back to the soil and atmosphere whence it came. Wood is not easily converted into fertilizer; but after treatment in the termite's chemical laboratory, it is returned to the earth as an important aid in soil fertility. Thus the amazing termite occupies a unique place in the natural cycle of nature.
KITTENS AND CATS
intruder
The Milwaukee Journal of July 18, 1957, reported on a happening in Oakville, Ontario, saying: “Warehouse worker Bob McCue made hla customary visit Wednesday night to a corner of the warehouse being used as a nur* sery by an alley cat and her five new kittens. The cat lay complacently feeding her young ones. She apparently didn’t know a tiny field mouse was at the dinner table/'
handle with Care
Several years ago a cat living in a factory in Detroit, Michigan, went^looking for a place to have her kittens. She decided upon a crate that had been loaded with a diesel engine. Workers nailed up the crate without knowledge of its living contents. The crate was shipped to Cairo, a Journey that took forty-one days. Workmen opened the crate and found, with no small amazement, a cat and four new kittens. How did the animals manage to live? The kittens seemed to have had enough milk, and the mother cat licked up grease from the machine’s parts.
'Right to Unescorted 'Roaming
When a law was under consideration to restrict the free roaming of pussycats, former governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson explained his view: “I cannot agree that a cat visiting a neighbor's yard or crossing the highway is a public nuisance, It is the nature of cats to f do a certain amount of unescorted roaming, a To escort a cat abroad on a leash is against g the nature of the cat, and to permit it to = venture forth for exercise unattended into a fright of new dangers is against the nature of = the owner."
|| 'Prepossessing 'Pussies
= The following classified advertisement ap-s peared in the Sacramento (California) Subur-§ ban News Shopper: “Free! Persian-style home § accessories in black fur or smart gray stripes. B Perfect hearth decorations! Male and female = models come equipped with automatic purr s and built'in washing attachment.”
§ Call of the TcJiid
Upon the death of a Wisconsin railroad E engineer in 1943, a cat named Casey Jones ing herited some $42,000. This fat legacy made Casey Jones a cat of easy circumstances. Be-S sides all the cream it could lap .up, all the § liver it could consume, Casey Jones had the E helpful assistance of two housekeepers and g a lawyer and the freedom to roam a ten-room § house. Few cats could enjoy such gracious liv-5 ing. But alas! a cat with money is still a cat. s Casey Jones wandered into the night to re-§ turn no more. What fate overtook this feline E with a fortune? Was it just the call of the j wild? It remains a mystery. The cat’s aban-§ doned fortune? His master’s relatives, ignored E in the will, claimed Case/s estate.
BOTTLES OR .
BREASTS*or baby
:le was upsetting to
iti.j
ABIES are born knowing how to suck. _ fact, some of t hTm - s u c k their thumbs before they are born. But thumbsucking is merely a convenient substitute for breast-sucking. It is good practice for baby, but it is nowhere near as satisfying.
what? How baby be fed, There are what, when
From the time baby is born to the time mother’s milk begins to come there is a lapse of three to five days. New mothers especially wonder if the infant should be fed during this time. If yes, then with soon after birth should the and how often? they ask.
about as many opinions on and how to feed babies as
there are babies born. (Statistics show that there are approximately 5,000 babies born into the world every hour.) Years ago it was believed that the newborn child should be given his first meal about twelve hours after delivery, then be fed regularly thereafter until the mother was ready to breast-feed him. But it was found that switching the baby from the bottle to the breast after he became attached to the him. He would refuse to nurse when put to the breasts. Mothers who wanted their babies breastfed became disturbed.
So naturally the practice changed. Now the baby is fed irregularly during this three- to five-day period with nothing but water. He is also allowed to suck his mother’s breasts during this time to keep in practice and to hasten the milk supply. The long wait does not harm the child. To the contrary, it does him good. It encourages him to make a vigorous bid for his food, which action is healthful for both baby and his mother. Often the amount of milk he gets depends largely on how strongly and persistently he sucks. So do not assist him to develop a lazy habit at mealtime by bottle-feeding him with milk beforehand. Make him work and beg a little for his food. He will enjoy his meal so much more that way: And, too, hungry babies switch from a water bottle to a breast filled with milk without any fuss whatsoever.
frequently motners ask if there are any advantages in breast-feeding a child. The decision, of course, is for mothers to make. And it should be made far in advance, because there are bottles and nipples to get, formulas to learn, schedules to chart, if you decide to bottle-feed him. But if you plan on breast-feeding your baby, most of those problems are eliminated. Nevertheless, there are things to think about.
Breast-feeding calls for a great deal of understanding on the part of the mother. She must eat well if she expects to have a good supply of rich, nourishing milk. She cannot expect to starve herself and worry about her figure and build a healthy strong baby at the same time. Her breasts are nursing bottles. If she were bottle-feeding her baby she would certainly be careful to see that he got the right formula. Then she should take no less care even though she is breast-feeding by making sure die eats plenty of the right kinds of food.
Advantages in Breast-feeding
There are a number of advantages in breast-feeding. First, mothers never have to worry about the temperature of the milk. The milk is there, it is always ready and it is always right. Nor do mothers have to concern themselves about the ingredients that go into the milk as long as they have a well-balanced diet. The body automatically makes the adjustment to satisfy the baby’s needs. Another thing, mother’s milk is always good and most satisfying to baby. There is never a chance for a mistake in the formula or a chance for exposure to certain infections. The milk is easily digested and is tops for body building. Breast-fed babies are almost never constipated, which is a great blessing in itself.
When mothers breast-feed they have no formulas to worry about, no long lines of bottles to wash and sterilize, no spongy nipples to scrub and clean. Further, mother’s breasts secrete a small amount of colostrum the first few days after delivery. This early milk possesses a constituent that acts as a mild laxative that cleanses the child’s alimentary canal. It is also believed that it contains elements that foster Immunity to child diseases.
Usually mothers feed their baby one breast at a time. When the breast is completely empty, then she is advised to switch to the other, but not before. Why? Because feeding this way stimulates the milk production. However, if the baby does not get enough to eat at one breast, then switch to the next but divide the feeding time between each breast equally. Years ago they held to twenty minutes a breast, but today the practice is to be flexible. (More about breast-feeding can be found in the June 22, 1954, issue of Awake!)
Bottle-fed Babies
Babies that are bottle-fed should be given greater care. Be alert to sterilize all bottles and other equipment used in feeding. The more attention you give this matter to begin with the less trouble you will experience with your baby later on. Immediately after a nipple is used it should be scrubbed with soap and hot water. Just a casual rinse is not enough. Some particles of milk are liable to remain and be the cause of trouble.
Mothers should see to it that the child’s formula is adjusted from time to time, in keeping with his age and demand. It is well to feed the baby, not by ounces, but until he is satisfied. When he has had enough he will push the bottle away from him, or he will let the milk dribble out of his mouth. No doubt new mothers will feel more comfortable if they see a doctor periodically, especially during the first year of the child’s growth. The doctor can advise as to the child’s health and strength, whether his digestion and progress is good, if the formula needs changing, and other points.
If you are not able to afford a doctor or professional advice, you might be able to get a good book and read up on the subject. If a good book is out of your reach, certainly good sense isn’t. Then use it. That is all most good doctors use anyway.
Caufs Milk and Solid Foods
Mothers often ask whether cow’s milk is good for a baby. Cow’s milk is not the same as mother’s milk, nor is it as good for the child. But, nevertheless, it is an excellent food. Cow’s milk, however, must be handled very carefully from the time it leaves the cow until baby gets it or else it can cause trouble. It should be boiled or pasteurized before used, because germs flourish in milk. Raw milk is quite hard for babies to digest, but boiling and diluting it with water helps digestion. However, children have no problem with powdered milk, or with evaporated and homogenized milk. These digest quite easily.
There comes a time in a baby’s life that he must learn to eat solid foods. But when to begin is the question. Fifty years ago infants got their first taste of solid foods after their first birthday. Less than twenty-five years ago mothers broke away from the practice and began feeding their little ones solids when they were about six months old. Nowadays doctors advise that baby should get his first taste of solids between the second and the third month after birth. Dr. Benjamin Spock says: “It has been found that babies profit from reason-ably early solids, take to them readily, and are usually not upset by them.”
Start him off veby slowly. A baby three months old is very young and sensitive and can be upset very easily. Since he has been used to feeding on milk, give him his milk first and then introduce the solid piece. If you don’t follow this order you are liable to have an angry child on your hands. Remember, all a baby three months old knows is how to suck. So the first piece of solid food may cause him to squirm and pucker up. His sucking motion may push the piece out of his mouth. Gently swab off his chin and let him start over again. Close your eyes to the mess he makes. He will succeed eventually.
Many parents like to start children off with cereals, but cereals often seem flat to a baby’s taste. Begin with a little piece of a ripe banana instead. After he becomes acquainted with the mechanics of chewing and swallowing, then feed him the cereal. Follow up the cereal with fruits, vegetables and other kinds of food. After he is six months old or older, feed him meat, but grind it first so that he will not have any trouble swallowing it. When the child is a year old he should be able to take his place at the family table. As far as manners are concerned “children have more need of models than of critics,” and “before you beat a child, be sure you yourself are not the cause of the offense.”
But to thrive, children need more than milk and solid foods. They need “T.L.C.” “This is so important,” says an authority, “that doctors in hospitals often prescribe ‘T.L.C.’ for babies who are not doing well. It means that the nurses are to see that they get an extra amount of ‘tender, loving care.’ ” If your baby is not doing so well, perhaps you might try giving him a little more of T.L.C. It often, succeeds where milk and solid foods fail.
$
By "AwakeI” carreipcndtnt In Northern Rhodeda lice Lenshina, an African woman about I thirty years of age, from Northern Rho-_ desia, claims she has received authority from God to be a queen. The assertion is made that she died, went to heaven and there God commissioned her to spread the gospel on earth. A couple of heavenly escorts brought her back to earth and here the Bantu female “messiah” made her Rhodesian appearance October, 1953.
(L Lenshina’s followers look upon her as the "Queen of the East?’ Their leaders command them: "Look east! Where the place is of the one who rules over the world.” In a few short years she has gained an amazing fol lowing of some 70,000 members.
C The "queen’s” religious doctrines are still somewhat vague. So far none of them have been put into writing. She claims she has an angel and to touch her could mean death. Further, she asserts that two angels provided her with two books, one for the Africans and the other for the Europeans. (Incidentally, ■ these books have never been seen by any of her followers.) She claims that all her commands come directly from God, that her followers are free not to believe the Bible, since it was not written by Africans, that she alone can free from the spell of witchcraft, and that she has the power to bless persons and property. For any favor bestowed, baptism performed or admission to the "church,” a minimum contribution of one penny (one cent) is required.
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