Awake!, August 22, 1958
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♦ Love Practical Among the Nations in Our Time?
Mould You Conform?
plants Are Smarter than You Think
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News source* that are able to keep you awake to the vital Issues 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 by political ambitions or obligations; it Is unhampered by advertisers whose toe* must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
“Awake!" uses the regular news channels, but r* not dependent an 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 ta 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 wanders—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, ta 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.1"
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CONTENTS
The World That Was
Is Love Practical Among the Nations in
Our Time?
Unconvinced
Should You Conform?
Thunderstorms
Infants Are Smarter than You Think 13
Capturing an Anaconda
Complicated Creeds
Talking Animals, Birds and Bees
The Lure of the Amazon Valley
Boundary of Experience
“Your Word Is Truth”
Divine Healing and Its Purpose
Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in All the Earth—Bolivia
I have created off the surface of the ground.’ ” (Gen. 6:5, 7) Ample warning was giv-
_ w THEN morning light Vy filtered through the cloud canopy on the seventeenth day of the second secular month in 2370 B.C. it began a day that would never be forgotten. But for most people living at that time the day began as every other day. They went about their tasks as usual, expecting nothing out of the ordinary. But as the day moved on, a torrential rain commenced falling. Day after day it continued without letup. It flooded their homes, inundated their cities and drove them to the hills. For forty days and nights it fell without a pause. The floodwaters rose to more than twenty-two feet above the highest mountains of that time.
It was no accident, but was deliberate action taken by man’s Creator, Jehovah God. Regarding it the Bible says: “Consequently Jehovah saw that the badness of man had become great in the earth and evei-y inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time. So Jehovah said: ‘I am going to wipe men whom en those people, but they scoffed at it.
There is much evidence that a global deluge did take place. What was stated by the apostle Peter is not legend but historical fact: “For, according to their wish, this fact escapes their notice, that there were heavens in ancient times and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God, and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.”—2 Pet. 3:5, 6.
A former head of Yale’s geology department, Benjamin Silliman, once stated: “Respecting the Deluge, there can be but one opinion: geology fully confirms the Scriptural history of the event. ... Whales, sharks, and other fishes, crocodiles and amphibians, the mammoth and the extinct elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, hyenas, tigers, deer, horses, the various species of the bovine family and a multitude more, are found buried in diluvium at a greater or less depth; and in most instances under circumstances indicating that they were buried by the same catastrophe which destroyed them: namely a sudden and violent deluge.”
Vast deposits of mixed bones from many kinds of animals have been found buried in clay and gratel and often mixed with sea shells. The deposits are in parts of the earth that are far from where these animals now live. Bones of tropical animals are found in abundance in Siberia.
There are even frozen mammoths buried in Siberian soil whose flesh and hair are in an excellent state of preservation. This is evidence of a cataclysm that suddenly killed these creatures and buried them. The torrential downpour of water during the Flood, accompanied by icy winds in the arctic regions, could easily have been that cataclysm.
Regarding the multitudes of animals known to be buried in Siberia the geologist Henry Howarth said: “When nature puts a term to an animal’s life in her normal way, it is exceedingly seldom she does so when the animal is young. Animals do not die naturally in crowds when young, and yet we find remains of quite young animals abounding in all classes from mammoths to mice. How are we to account for this fact, save by summoning an abnormal cause? How again can we account for the fact that the mummied animals found in Siberia seem to have been in robust health, stout and strong? ... If the remains were the silent chronicles of centuries of time and generations of life we should assuredly have found some or a large portion of the bones would have been gnawed, but this is not the case, and it points strongly to their death having been more or less simultaneous.”
As the Bible states, the Flood destroyed not only humans but untold millions of animals. It mixed animals of many kinds with clay, gravel and some sea life. Great numbers of fish also perished by being entombed in sediment stirred up by the powerful currents of the Flood. Fossilized fish have been found that show clear evidence of having been buried alive.
Those same currents smashed great rock formations and scattered huge boulders from those formations over great distances, mixing them with bones, shells and vegetation. They scooped out from the ocean floors, as well as from land surfaces, enormous canyons that remain until this day. .
Only eight humans survived the destruction of the world that was. They had maintained their integrity to man’s Creator while living in a world that had forsaken him. They exercised faith even though the promised destruction of that world was long in coming. “By faith Noah, after being given divine warning of things not yet beheld, showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household, and through this faith he condemned the world.”—Heb. 11:7.
The present world does not have his faith, but manifests the same disregard for Jehovah God as the world before the Flood did. His laws are ignored, his purposes for earth are ridiculed and his written Word is belittled. What happened to the world that was prophetically pictures the destruction due to come upon the present world. This modem generation may scoff at the warning of “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” called Armageddon, but as the Flood came on the day marked for it, so will the battle of Armageddon. On that day Jehovah God will war against this corrupt world and its wicked invisible ruler, bringing the entire system of things to an end. Only obedient ones who heed the warning of Armageddon will survive.
PRACTICAL AMONG THE NATIONS IN OUR TIME?
can love maintain peace and prevent war ?
What example do we have of love's practibility ?
HROUGHOUT human history every positive step toward an ever fuller, purer, richer life has been inspired by love. Love is the very essence of truth, goodness, beauty and freedom. It reaches to the very origin of life. It is the very foundation of the universe, for “God is love.*’ Men who wish to derive the greatest good out of life must love, as the apostle John declared: “If we continue loving one another, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us.”—1 John ,4:16, 12.-
In the centuries before Christ righteous men acknowledged Jehovah God as the Source of genuine love. King David wrote: “How precious your loving-kindness is, O God! And in the shadow of your wings the sons of men themselves take refuge. They drink their fill of the fatness of your house, and of the torrent of your pleasures you cause them to drink. For with you is the source of life; by light from you we can see light." Here we read of the unshakable conviction that God’s love knows and meets every human need and wipes away all anxieties of life. His love does not afflict, restrict or discriminate, but embraces all the universe with constant, tender and loving care. His love brings peace and provides men with the sense of lawful security. As a loving Father he not only provides for them materially but also feeds his people with bread from heaven, clothes them with the garment of holiness and strengthens them with the power of his spirit and the vitality of life.—Ps. 36:7-9.
Recognizing love as a practical motive in life, men of God have looked forward to the time when peoples would respond to God’s judgments and love and “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks," when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” They have taught that men are required “to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly" with their God; that a family, a community or a nation cannot be held together for long unless it loves. —Isa. 2:4; Mic. 6:8, AS.
Jesus Christ more than any other creature taught and demonstrated the practicability of love. He taught that the greatest commandment is: "Love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.” He showed that love would cause his followers to behave differently from the world. They would not resist the wicked. When slapped, they would turn the other cheek. When pressed into service for a mile, they would go two. To everyone asking they would give, and they would not turn away from one that wanted to borrow without interest. They would even love their enemies and pray for those persecuting them.—Matt. 22:37, 38; 5:39-48.
Further, Jesus counseled men to leave their gifts in front of the altar, and first to make their peace with their brothers,
and then, when they have come hack, offer up their gifts. This reconciliation was itself the best prayer: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,” and he will not do so otherwise. In their relationship with men, Jesus urged his followers to imitate God: “You must accordingly be complete, as your heavenly Father is complete.”—Matt. 6:14; 5:48.
Love was also taught by the disciples of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote: “Clothe yourselves with the tender affections of compassion, kindness, lowliness of mind, mildness, and longsuffering. Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely if anyone has a cause for complaint against another. Even as Jehovah freely forgave you, so do you also. But, besides all these things, clothe yourselves with love, for it is a perfect bond of union.” —Col. 3:12-14.
Men have long recommended love as a practical solution to the world’s problems, yet no worldly nation has practiced it. In the face of guided missiles and hydrogen bombs, is love practical among the nations in our time? Can love achieve important social reforms and constructive changes? Can it compete with the social reconstructions inspired by hate and carried on by means of violent struggle of clashing parties? The answer is an unequivocal yes! Love will triumph in every instance where hate and force have failed.
The Power of Love to Transform
Love subdues enmity, aggression and hate. Love influences human behavior. It is the prerequisite of eternal harmony. Love inspires love, as hate begets hate. The sociologists have found in love the answer to juvenile delinquency; the criminologists say it is the answer to crime. The psychiatrists have finally concluded that the cause of mental illness is lovelessness. The political scientists have found love the answer to war. This, however, is not the love we see on the television and movie screens of the world or the type depicted in the best-selling novels of our day; rather, it is the love Jesus spoke about in his sermon on the mount.
Dr. Pitirim A. Sorokin, in his book The Ways and Power of Love, writes: “Unselfish love has enormous creative and therapeutic potentialities, far greater than most people think. Love is a life-giving force, necessary for physical, mental, and moral health.” He further states: “Children deprived of love tend to become vitally, morally, and socially defective. Love is the most powerful antidote against criminal, morbid, and suicidal tendencies; against hate, fear, and psychoneuroses. It is an indispensable condition for deep and lasting happiness.” In light of this we ask, Is love practical today? Of course it is. Love is forever practical. “Love never fails.” —1 Cor. 13:8.
“Being loved by others and loving others seems to be as important a single factor of vitality as any other,” says Sorokin. It is also an important factor in good health and longevity. This authority reports that the “main cause of suicide is psychosocial isolation of the individual, his state of being lonely in the human universe, not loving or caring for anybody and not being loved by anybody.” Love’s curative power “remains indispensable for practically all successful therapeutic treatments of mental disorders,” says Sorokin.
Love Can Stop War
Can love prevent war and maintain the peace? Fear and suspicion give way to love and co-operation. When men will come to express the love of God in all their affairs as Christ did, wars will cease, peace will become an established fact, discord will disappear from the earth.
Today men seek to buy peace and security, but these commodities are not to be purchased with one billion or a hundred billion dollars.' Dr. G. Brock Chisholm, director-general of the World Health Organization of the United Nations, stated: “There is only one thing upon which security does depend to the most important degree: unquestionable, all-embracing, obvious love.” He further declared that the future of the world “depends upon the number of mature individuals we can produce, people capable of love.”
U.S. News £ World Report, June 14, 1957, commented editorially: “The greatest achievement of human love is the will and readiness to understand one another. It is the whole basis of the rule of Reason. World peace depends upon it. Internal peace depends upon it. Human happiness in the home depends upon it.” Add to this Sorokin’s statement regarding love’s power to eradicate war and keep the peace and we have conclusive evidence of love’s practicability.
“Finally,” writes Sorokin, “only the power of unbounded love practiced in regard to all human beings can defeat the forces of interhuman strife, and can prevent the pending extermination of man by man on this planet. Without love, no armament, no war, no diplomatic machinations, no coercive police force, no school education, no economic or political measures, not even hydrogen bombs can prevent the pending catastrophe. Only love can accomplish this miracle, providing, however, we know well the nature of love and the efficient ways of its production, accumulation, and use.”
Love practiced in the lives of men would erase wars, revolutions, anxieties and fears. Crime and corruption would vanish away; and so would adultery, divorce and broken homes. A different world would be ours! Is love practical? It most certainly is!
Some might say it is too good to be true, that such teaching is easier said than done. It may be easier said than done, but it is not too good to be true; because those in the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses are doing it. Their love, first for God and then for their fellow man, has in a practical way in our day enabled them to do away with national, political, racial, traditional and religious barriers and differences. The world over, they live as one family. They do not participate in the worldly bloody wars, but have, in their love for God and neighbor, beaten their swords into plowshares, never to learn war any more.—Mic. 4:3; Ex. 20:13.
Applying the principle of love to their daily living has altered completely their desires, interests, disposition, mental outlook and heart condition. Love has made a change in them for the better. They now look forward to a new world wherein everyone who lives will love. Thus the earth and man upon it will be transformed into a paradise to the glory of God, who is love.—2 Pet. 3:13.
Unconuinted
In the volume The Words of Justice Brandeis are recorded these words of the former associate justice of the United States Supreme Court: "I never read anything on the immortality of the soul, and I admit having read but little on the subject, that convinced me of its truth.” The justice could have read much more but still would have been unconvinced, for the truth on the subject is found in the Bible: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”—Ezek. 18:4, AV.
CONFORMITY good or bad? It depends on what one is conform-. Is nonconformity good or bad? That depends on what one is not conforming to. Learning the places for. conformity and nonconformity is vital.
In a previous issue of Awake! we learned that undue conformity breeds mediocrity and acts as a barrier to improvement. Despite a growing recognition of this there is a reluctance to admit that nonconformity has a place. “It is an amusing contra-dicti^'.of xiUT. time,” says The Atlantic
Monthly, "that we do applaud a sort of copybook ,’nonconform-: ity. Everyone laments the increase in con-
one knows that ton much conformity is bad. ... The deadening
effects^^fbverconformity are well understood. Yet, when it comes to the matter of just what kind of nonconformity shall be encouraged, liberality of view recedes. There seems to be no exact place where nonconformity can be fitted in.”1
Understandably, nonconformity has posed a problem. Making more difficult the situation is the contusion of nonconformity with a selfish individualism, the kind that leads to disunity and chaos. "In some societies individualism has been carried to such extremes as to endanger the society itself,” says the volume The Organization Man, “and there exist today examples of individualism corrupted into a narrow egoism which prevents effective co-operation. This is a danger, there is no question of that. But is it today as pressing a danger as the obverse—a climate which inhibits individual initiative and imagination, and the courage to exercise it against group opinion?”
Contributing Something of Value
Nonconformity should contribute something of value. That is its role; that is its place. The something of value may be a new concept in science or art. It may be something more—a moral decision based on a conscience trained in godly principles. That is something of immeasurable value, of value to the individual and of value to society, even though popular opinion may not think so because of its wearing the blindfold of undue conformity.
In this day of a world-wide moral breakdown mere living according to righteous principles may be nonconformity with the crowd. The stopping of immoderate, immoral works and the replacing of them with moderate, moral ones is a contri-
button of value. That nonconformity is good. But it takes courage to be such a nonconformist in the face of abusive speech. Says the Bible of those who quit following the worldly crowd: “For the time that has passed by Is sufficient for you to have worked out the will of the nations when you proceeded in deeds of loose conduct, lusts, excesses with wine, revelries, drinking matches, and idolatries that are without legal restraint. Because you do not continue running with them in this course
to the same low sink of debauchery, they are puzzled
go on speaking Wd&busively of you.” ‘W Pet. 4:3, 4.
fij Just as making a proper moral decision may involve nonconformity, s o the general improvement in any field of activity may require nonconformity. Writes artist Ben Shahn: “Every great historic change has been based upon nonconformity, has been bought either with the blood or with the reputation of nonconformists. ... To create anything at all in any field, and especially anything of outstanding worth, requires nonconformity, or a want of satisfaction with things as they are.”1
And the book Authority and the Individ ual comments: “Prophets, . . . scientific discoverers, are men whose lives are dominated by a vision. . . . They feel that they cannot obey authority if it runs counter to what they profoundly believe to be good. Although, on this account, they are often persecuted in their own day, they are apt to be, of all men, those to whom posterity pays the highest honor. It is such men who put into the world the things that we most value ... in religion, in art, and in science.”
In science Albert Einstein was a nonconformist. The contributions of his nonconformity were such that he is called “the greatest scientific mind of this and most earlier centuries.”
In religion Christ Jesus was history’s greatest nonconformist. He did not conform to the vain religious doctrines and traditions of his time. He did not retreat from controversiality for fear of men. As one modern clergyman put it, Christ “spent a great deal of time in showing that the greatest religious system the world has ever seen was not bringing the people to God.”2 Christ’s nonconformity exposed falsehood; it. contributed something of great value.
So nonconformity has its place. It should not be practiced for the mere sake of nonconformity. Nonconformity has no virtue in itself. It has virtue when it contributes something of value.
Preserving the Values
Conformity also has its own role—it should preserve something of value. If conformity preserves what is wicked, immoral and immoderate, then that conformity is a snare. Not to preserve corruption but to preserve true values—that is the place for conformity.,
CJ
just as he knew the
place for conformity
role of nonconformity. Always Christ’s j^jonformity resulted the preservation . of true values. The * laws and command-ttilF'' ments of God—how valuable these are! They are vital for happiness, vital for life. What value there is in the
knowledge of Jehovah God! Said Jesus: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ." (John 17:3) Christ preserved the very greatest of values.
Explaining that he knew the place for conformity, Christ said: ‘1 have not spoken out of my own impulse, but the Father himself that sent me has given me a commandment as to what to tell and what to speak. Also I know that his commandment means everlasting life. Therefore the things I speak, just as the Father has told me them, so I speak them.”—John 12: 49,50.
Conformity in itself, then, should never be viewed as anything bad. Conformity has a place, and if we are to preserve true values we must recognize this fact.
But we must also recognize that undue conformity has perils. Too great a satisfaction with the present state may block true improvement We must reckon with “a curious tendency of human nature. It is the temptation to cling to, romanticize, and perpetuate the familiar, and io view with suspicion and disdain whatever is novel or different.”3 Thus if conformity is too rigid in art or science or in any other human endeavor, if conformity’s eyes are closed to .. then growth may
cease. Writing of this, artist Ben Shahn says in The Atlantic Monthly:
“I do not wish to negate the significance of the conformist himself—or perhaps an apter term would be the conservative. In art, the conservative is the vigorous custodian of the artistic treasures of a civilization, of its established values and its tastes —those of the past and even those present ones which have become accepted.... The conservative . . . holds on to the present, gives stability, and preserves established values. The visionary, always able to see the configuration of the future in present things, presses for change, experiment, and venture into new things. A truly creative artist is inevitably of this part of society. There takes place from time to time an imbalance between the stabilizing and the visionary elements in society. Conformity is then pressed upon everyone, and growth and change and art come to a standstill.”1
True Individualism
Conformity, even all conformity, is sometimes viewed as inhibiting to individual expression, bad for individuality. But true conformity is in no way a barrier to that natural, refreshing variety resulting from the normal operation of individuality. True individuality has a wide range but it is not unlimited. Human freedom cannot be absolute. There must be certain restrictions or guidelines, otherwise the very freedom that is sought would be destroyed. The guidelines provide the boundaries for what is right and normal. Says the volume Science and Freedom: “The technical term Freedom [defines] the social conditions in which there are enough normal choices of behavior patterns open to every person to allow for experiment, and change, and diversity, both in the successive experiences of individual persons and also among different persons in the group.”
An individualism that can find no place for conformity is selfish, unco-operative and an enemy to the very freedom it seeks. “The case for individualism,” says The Scientific Monthly, “has suffered considerably because many of its champions have been of too ‘rugged’ a stripe. They have tended to view any measure which restricts personal liberties as an encroachment upon private rights, regardless of its social merits. . . . No one was ever made free by the simple process of removing all external restraints. . . . When action is separated from intelligence, when it ceases to be a culmination of reflection, when it is en-
gaged in apart from a prior consideration of its consequences, when it is based on insufficient knowledge, such action is shackled by habit, or prejudice, or impulse, or ignorance.”3
Such action, then, is far from being fully free. Selfishness itself is a form of bondage. So true individualism is not a license for acting on bizarre, uncouth and wayward impulses or on selfish whims. “True individualism,” writes George B. Leonard, Jr., in Look magazine, “has little to do with wearing a beard or painting a development house black; it is the ability to love and make moral decisions as an individual.”4
For true individualism to make the right kind of moral decisions there must be conformity to guiding principles. These principles must be righteous.
Where do we find these principles? “It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible reading people,” once said American journalist Horace Greeley; “The principles of the Bible are the ground-work of human freedom.”5
Nonconformity to the World
For human freedom, for true individualism to survive there must be conformity to the righteous principles found in God's Word, the Bible. One of these principles, interestingly, involves nonconformity to the ways of this wicked world: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” —Rom. 12:2, RS.
Here we see the perfect balance between conformity and nonconformity—the conformity that preserves true values and the nonconformity that contributes something of value.
To heed the counsel “Do not be conformed to this world” requires discrimination and selectivity. It almost seems that the art of selectivity these days has been lost. “Tolerance has been expanded to make a virtue of accepting without protest the mediocre and even the mildly unethical,” says the volume The Age of Conformity. “We ate so eager to be tolerant in all things that we tolerate vulgarity, shoddy thinking, blatant self-seeking and even intolerance with resigned self-applause. It is doubtful that the modem policy of ‘live and let live’ is quite the same thing as tolerance, as Christ (who drove moneychangers from the temple) preached it. The word discrimination has been narrowed down to mean only racial intolerance; its earlier meaning of selecting the good and rejecting the bad has been forgotten in practice as well as in definition.”
Look at the flood of bad and worthless printed matter these days! We cannot help but see it, for the newsstands overflow with the trite, the lurid and the sensual. Yet among the maze of reading matter there are some good things, just as there may be found something of value on radio or television. We must be selective in what we look at, in what we listen to, in what we work at.
To avoid conformity to the world actually requires discrimination in all things. The early Christians were even discriminating among laws. Adhering to conformity to the laws of God led them sometimes to nonconformity to the laws of men. The early Christians, though, were not total nonconformists. They conformed to the laws of men; but when a human law conflicted with God’s law, they resolved the conflict in conformity in the manner the apostle Peter spoke of: "We must obey God as ruler rather than men.”—Acts 5:29.
Trained Conscience Decides
To make vital decisions regarding conformity and nonconformity requires a conscience that can discriminate good from bad. Speaking of such a conscience trained by Bible principles, the noted American educator Everett Dean Martin wrote in his work Liberty:
“The Christian , . . has an inner criterion. ... He has made the will and purpose of God his own, and in certain situations he must obey God rather than men. Think what that means for the individual! . . . It has meant that the Christian has felt himself perfectly justified in disobedience of law and authority when such have been in conflict with the Christian conscience. . . . Conscience is not to be judged by the law; it judges the law. Both Socrates and Aristotle condemned certain laws of their time as foolish. But Christianity goes further: it makes disobedience of the law under certain circumstances a moral duty. ... It is no argument to a Christian to tell him that he has a moral obligation to obey law simply because it is law. To him there is always something above the law. To him all laws are not equally binding morally. He is under the spiritual necessity of discriminating among laws and this necessity is a primary moral obligation upon even the humblest child of God.”
There is a paradox about the human conscience: It is free only when it conforms; for, as educator Martin continues: “Conscience is not free in itself, not free by its own nature, nor by human wisdom. ... It is free only when acting in conformity with the law of God. . . . Christian liberty is therefore obedience, submission to the authority of divine revelation.... Thus the Christian, in placing his conscience above the law, does not place all consciences above it, not even his own by natural right or by reason. , , . Conscience is free, but it need enter on no more voyages of discovery, it need only keep the Commandments and fear God, for this is the whole duty of man."
So God gave man a relative freedom; yet it is one large and roomy enough to give us ample room to be ourselves, to express our own personality. Being different for purposes of self-glory, however, is not in harmony with the trained Christian conscience.
There is no place for nonconformity unless it contributes something of value: a nonconformity that contributes disunity, strife and chaos instead of values is out of place. There is no place for conformity unless it preserves something of value: a conformity that preserves the worthless, the evil and the unscriptural practices is out of place.
But how to decide whether nonconformity’s contribution is chaos or value? Again Bible principles determine this; and when there is no specific reference to the contribution, then the principle applies: “Let your reasonableness become known to all men.”—Phil. 4:5.
Conforming to the arrangement set down by God’s Word works for man’s own blessing. That Word sets forth principles for the private and public life of Christians; it sets forth principles for the organizational life of Christians. To these you should conform.
References
t Tfte Atlantic Monthly September, 1957.
* I[. R. L. Sheppard, tf I were Dictator.
a The Monthly, January, 1954.
< Loofc. February 18, 1958.
n The New Dictionary of p. 48.
THlHWR&SWSmS
The world has an annual total of more than 16 million thunderstorms, with 2,000 or more in progress at any time. Every second the sky is lit by a hundred lightning flashes.—Our Astonishing Atmosphere.
infants
ARE SMARTER THAN YOU THINK O
1 NF ANTS can be very adult at times and they are not nearly as helpless as they would have you believe, or as you might think. In fact, a mother generally gets her first big surprise when she comes to realize that her baby has been gently and very cleverly teaching her his daily needs. Of course, he does this instinctively. Nevertheless, there are times when baby actually assumes the role of a teacher and his mother becomes his star pupil.
For example, baby has his likes and dislikes the same as we all have, but how can he get his mother to understand what these are? He does this in a superb fashion. His approach is baby language, which at times is very eloquent indeed. Few mothers fail the test. A yelp from baby ifi enough to bring mother running. His shrill, spinetingling shrieks would make him easy to find in a crowd of a hundred thousand people. Baby’s mild whimpers and his vigorous cries, his fusses and squabbles, are his ways of instructing mother how to und er stand
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Suppose were to feed him a formula that was a little too hot. He would warn you by crying. It is not alwa^B necessary for him to burn his tongue or taste his food to know whether it is able or not. Just a passing sniff is enough to let him know that. Newborn baby’s senses of taste and smell are very keen and the slightest whiff from afar will delight or disappoint him. Therefore, it would be well for mother to learn her baby’s preferences and how to favor them. If you will observe him closely, he will teach you what these are. If he is happy during mealtime, it is a good sign that you have struck upon the right formula. But if baby puckers up and whimpers when it is time to feed, his fussing is a good indication that you have not yet learned what foods he likes best. The little one is capable of instructing you of his needs if you will let him. He will even indicate what size
cup or glass he enjoys drinking out of and a hundred other things that go to make him happy.
Just because baby is tiny do not think that he can be easily deceived, because he cannot. Infants just a few hours old are very sensitive to changes. They know
instantly when you have made a shift on them from one pair of arms to another and whether those arms are strange or not. They can also tell when you have changed their formula. And as far as substitutes are concerned, they can sense them from far off. Often they will let you know that they are aware of the change by crying. It takes some time for an infant to get accustomed to bottles, pacifiers, cow’s or goat’s milk and other substitutes. Many of these items were not made to please baby’s instinctive tastes. So it is reasonable to expect infants to squabble and squirm as they frequently do when you dish out some stand-in food. It takes the little ones some time to get used to these changes. So be patient with them. Remember that their inborn traits and instincts are the workings of an all-wise God who is never deceived. It may be that babies are more tolerant with adults and their schemes than beguiled by them. Whatever the case, they are seldom deceived by what mother may do.
Feedbig by the Clock
There was a time when mother religiously watched the hour hand of grandfather’s clock and when it struck at a given hour baby was swished off to the side and fed. Little thought was given to find out whether he was hungry. The clock said feed and so he was fed. If the hour hand struck while Junior was fast asleep, mother would trot over to his side and sweetly say, “Wake up, dear. It’s time for mommy to feed you.” Out of a deep slumber Junior would be aroused and food would be poured into him as if he were an impersonal machine running low on fuel.
Most of us will agree that such treatment would be enough to provoke even the best of babies to desperation and wrath, and many of them protested vigorously. Yet there were mothers that walked away from their baby’s bedside wondering if there wasn’t something wrong with their son because he drank only half of his formula. “He doesn't have the appetite that he should have,” they would say to themselves. “I wonder if there isn’t something wrong with him. Could he be ill?” Of course there was nothing wrong with him. He simply was not hungry, that is all.
Today, however, the pendulum has swung to the opposite direction. Now mothers generally believe that the best clock to watch is the baby’s appetite. “If he is hungry,” they say, “feed him. But if not, let him alone.” But new mothers find this method quite disturbing. “How can you tell when baby is hungry?” they ask. “If you don’t have a schedule it will disrupt the family and it won’t allow room for personal planning or anything. Such an arrangement makes the baby the boss of the house. None of that for me—no sir-ree!” they say.
For a while you will find that baby will be boss of the house with or without a schedule and whether you like it or not. Family routines and planning will all need readjustment. You will find yourself feeding the little one, not at your convenience, but at his. And you will be waking up at all hours of the night to please him. Because if you don't there will be no peace in the family.
The first few weeks of his life baby will be guiding you into understanding his needs. Gradually, over a period of weeks, as you learn his demands, you will then carefully guide and shape them conveniently into your schedule. When you accomplish this, then you will be in charge. Baby will be made to wait for his meal instead of your rushing to his side every . time he whimpers. No longer will you beg him to eat; he will be begging you, which is a good thing if not carried too far, because a little hunger will improve his appetite. A hungry baby will not play with his food. He wastes no time when he eats.
His whole body responds as he goes Into action to make up for lost time.
Do Not Force-feed Your Child
It is not wise to force-feed your baby, that is, make him eat when he does not want to. If he is hungry he will generally cry for his meal. If you are breast-feeding him, he will search for your breasts or tug at them when his “tummy” wants nourishment. Often mothers get worried if their baby is slightly thinner than the one next door. This leads them to forcefeed their child, or to make him overeat, which is very unloving and dangerous. Frequently the baby’s first troubles begin when his parents try to make him eat more than he desires. Often the child's appetite is destroyed altogether. He may even come to despise food and the sight of it, because of your unloving attitude. The more you pamper and fuss over him the more finicky he will become. What should you do if he does not want to eat much? Simply leave him alone. If he is considerably underweight, see a good doctor and follow his advice. Dr. Benjamin Spock, an authority on child care, says: “Don’t look at the bottle to see what’s left; look at the baby and be happy if he is happy.” Just because he is thin is no reason why you should worry. His being healthy and happy is the thing that counts.
Neither is it necessary for you to wait until baby cries before you feed him. Learn his needs and satisfy them, because babies cry for more reasons than one. They may cry because of fear, pain, grief, rage, or even satisfaction. There are times when mothers must branch away from the counsel of books and doctors and lean heavily on their own judgment. In feeding especially, trust yourself. Natural instincts prompt most parents to give their children the loving care they need in routine growth.
Feeding should always be a pleasurable time. No doubt we are aware that there is both a right and a wrong way to feed a child. The right way will please him greatly; the wrong way will distress him terribly. If you make him feel comfortable at mealtime, then the rest of his day will seem wonderful to him. His sleep and his exercise will appear to take care of themselves automatically. But if his meal is an unpleasant experience, then his whole day is spoiled. Nothing seems right.
So before feeding time get yourself in the proper frame of mind, because whether baby will enjoy his meal or not will depend much on your mental attitude. Some mothers say that a happy spirit when feeding is just as important as having the right kind of food. There should be a wholesome and happy atmosphere in the house. And mother should feel relaxed, easygoing and confident, because baby senses all of this and is upbuilt by it. But if you are even the least bit anxious or tense, Junior will be aware of your frustration and be upset because of it.
Crybabies and Sleepyheads
A baby sleeps a good deal of the time the first two weeks of his life. Usually his sleep comes in short snatches instead of in one long stretch. Early in infancy he may awake and appear hungry as many as a dozen times in twenty-four hours. The baby’s stomach is very small; so it empties much faster than we can imagine. A few days after birth an infant’s stomach may not hold more than an ounce or two at most. But as he grows older and eats more his stomach stretches. Consequently, we find him sleeping longer between meals.
Babies cry for reasons other than just being hungry. Some little ones are born crybabies. They cry over everything, even because they are happy, while some cry out of anger and rage. These are usually
born ornery. Dr, D. W. Winnicott, child care expert, said that there is not much that these babies do not know about anger. He asserted that they cry in anger, hoping In their fitful rage that they will change their parents, and it is surprising how many times they succeed. This method is frequently used by many women in an effort to persuade husbands into seeing things their way. Wise parents will not try to satisfy an infant’s every demand. You will make him most unhappy and miserable if you do. He will most likely turn into a tyrant and hate you for it. It has been found that babies that cry loud and often are no worse off than those that seldom cry at all. It is just one of those things— crybabies will be crybabies. The remarkable thing is that they are quite normal.
Whether picking up crybabies and cuddling them spoils them or not is a question that still begs for a good answer. What does spoil them is when instruction is not administered gently, yet firmly. A suggestion given is that “before you beat your child be sure you yourself are not the cause of the offense." Give your baby credit for some intelligence, because you will find that he is much smarter than you think.
Naturalist Gerald Durrell has found that capturing an anaconda snake is far different from the way most books read. Says Durrell in his book The Drunken Forest;
"In nearly every book written about South America the author at some point or other . . . stumbles upon an anaconda. These generally measure anything from forty to a hundred and fifty feet, according to the description, in spite of the fact that the largest anaconda ever officially measured was a mere thirty feet. Inevitably, the monster attacks, and for three or four pages the author wrestles in its mighty coils until either he manages to shoot it with his trusty revolver, or it is speared by one of his trusty Indians. Now, at the risk of being described either as a charlatan or a man of immense modesty, I must describe my own joust with the anaconda.
i *'The reptile struck at me in a very halfhearted manner, to begin with. He was not really interested in giving me good copy for a fight to the death. He merely lunged forward with open mouth, in the faint hope that X would become scared and leave him in peace, so that his digestive juices could resume their work on his chicken. Having made the gesture, and upheld his tribe’s reputation for ferocity and unprovoked attack, he curled up into a tight knot under his bush and lay there, hissing gently and rather plaintively to himself.
“I realized that a stick of some sort would have been very useful, but the nearest clump of bushes was some distance away, and I did not dare leave him, I flipped my sack at him several times, in the hope that he would bite at it and get his teeth caught in the cloth, a method which I have found useful on more than one occasion. However, he merely ducked his head under his coils and hissed a bit louder. / “I decided that I would have to have some assistance to distract the beast’s attention, so, turning round, I waved frantically to our guide, ... I turned round and was Just tn time to see the tail of the vicious, awe-inspiring and deadly anaconda disappearing hurriedly among the grass-stalks. There was only one thing to do. I stepped forward, grabbed the end of his tail and hauled him back into the open again.
"Now what the anaconda should have done was to immediately envelop me in coil after coil of his muscular body. What he actually did was to curl up into a knot again and give a faint, frustrated hiss. I dropped the sack over his head quickly and then grabbed him behind the neck. And that, really, was that."
a steam engine for lifting
water. At the time such machines were urgently needed
BY "AWAREl" CORRESPOHD&JT fN AUSTRIA
for draining purposes in mines. These machines were
crude and simple, but they worked.
In the early
eighteenth century ano the r Englishman, Thomas New
comen, an operator of a Savery engine,
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£ ELECTRIC lights, radios and televisions are things of our daily life.
So are electric domestic appliances, such as boilers, refrigerators and the like. All of
these electric devices are operated by elec
improved some of its details. His engines were giving greater and more reliable power than ever before, and their fuel consumption was appreciably lower than that of the Savery engine. However, the paramount figure in
tive development of steam engines is the
trie current. And we know that electric
Englishman James Watt His first steam
current is generated by rotating generators in electric power stations, sometimes miles away. Motorcars and aircraft are driven by high-speed engines or turbines. From where does the rotating or reciprocating motion of generators, turbines or engines come? The somewhat striking answer is: from heat. Thus heat can be converted into motion, and we call engines converting heat (energy) into (energy of) motion “heat engines.”
About two thousand years ago a Greek scientist named Hero of Alexandria devised a machine that proved heat could produce a continuous motion. For practical purposes, however, it was quite useless. More than sixteen hundred years later
engine for lifting water, a rather simple design, was improved in many respects so that his last design shows many features of present layouts. In any case the steam engine was large and often clumsy.
Internal Combustion Engine
In the nineteenth century another kind of heat engine was invented—the internal combustion engine. The first gas engine, devised by Nikolaus August Otto, a German, led to the gasoline (petrol) engine, and many years later to the diesel engine.
All these machines do the same thing: they convert heat into motion. But how do they do this? When water is .heated, steam is generated. Steam expands, mov-
men turned again to heat as a source of power. In the seventeenth century an Englishman named Thomas Savery designed
ing the piston in the cylinder. In a similar way all heat machines convert heat into motion. With steam turbines, steam is gen-
AUGUST 22, 1958
erated at high temperatures in high-pressure boilers. Then it continuously expands through nozzles and rushes onto the blades, turning the blade wheel, and thus creating motion. After having passed the blade wheel, the steam gives up its remaining heat at a much lower temperature to cooling water and eventually to the surrounding atmosphere.
In the internal combustion engine the source of heat is the burnt fuel within the cylinder. In the Otto engine a compressed mixture of petrol and air is ignited by an electric spark and burned, whereas in the diesel engine the injected fuel is ignited by the high temperature of the highly compressed air and burned. The burnt fuel develops combustion gases of high temperature. The gases convert part of their heat into motion and they give up their remaining heat to the atmosphere at a much lower temperature.
So all heat engines need the same three things: a source of heat with a high temperature; an agency, such as steam or gas, which can take in heat and convert a part of it into motion; and, finally, something colder than the source of heat to which the agency can give up the remaining heat at a lower temperature, as, for example, the engine’s surroundings.
Thermal Efficiency
Do heat engines work efficiently? Heat comes from burning fuel, and fuel costs money. To work economically it is important for any heat engine to gain as much motion or work as possible from the fuel, that is, from its combustion heat. The percentage of useful work obtained from a certain quantity of heat is called “thermal efficiency.”
The first practical steam engine had a very low efficiency. The Newcomen engine had less than 1 percent. James Watt’s engines raised the figure to about 1 percent. Modem express steam locomotives reach about 8 percent, whereas the corresponding figure for large stationary steam engines is 17 percent. The thermal efficiency of an Otto motorcar engine is 22 percent, that of a modem steam turbine up to 28 percent and that of a diesel engine 35 percent. Consequently, even the most efficient heat engines can convert only about one third of the consumed heat into useful work. Why? That has something to do with a characteristic feature of the heat.
Heat always flows from hot to cold, and the working principle of a heat engine depends on this flow of heat from hot to cold. The heat flows through the engine, which can intercept part of the heat and convert it into motion or useful work. The rest of the heat must continue its downward flow and, at lower temperature, must be given up to the engine’s surroundings. This heat as given up to the engine’s surroundings still is a high percentage of the heat taken in and this is the reason why heat engines have such low thermal efficiencies.
What can be done to increase them? Heat engines depend on the flow of heat from hot to cold. The longer this flow of heat the greater the chance to convert heat into motion or work. And the flow of heat is longer if there is a greater temperature difference in the engine. Consequently, the thermal efficiency can be increased by taking in the heat at a higher temperature and giving up the heat at a lower temperature. What can be done to decrease the lower temperature and to increase the higher temperature? First, let us deal with the lower temperature.
SfaffJe-Cffiineter Steam Engine
The steam comes with, say, 160 degrees Centigrade from the boiler into the cylinder. It expands and pushes the piston to supply useful work. It thereby cools down
from 160 degrees to 110 degrees and gives up its remaining heat to the surrounding air. Since the air is much colder, the existing temperature difference can be utilized for some additional work. So a second cylinder is added. In this compound steam engine steam can be utilized down to 85 degrees, and the thermal efficiency of the compound engine is about 10 percent. If a third cylinder is added, the total temperature drop in these three cylinders is higher, steam can be utilized down to 60 degrees, and the thermal efficiency is increased to 15 percent.
The Steam Turbine
works much better. Each blade wheel is like a cylinder and the steam expands within each of them, thereby cooling down. With several blade wheels it is possible to cool the steam down to 45 degrees, and the thermal efficiency is much higher, namely, up to 28 percent. And so the thermal efficiency is increased by utilizing steam down to lower and lower temperatures. The thermal efficiency can also be increased by raising the upper temperature. The much better thermal efficiency of steam turbines results also from the fact that the steam enters at a much higher temperature (500 degrees) than in the steam engine (160 degrees).
Internal Combustion Engines
are more efficient than steam engines because their upper temperature (2000 degrees) is far higher than that of steam engines. Such a high temperature may exist, and actually does exist, only during a very small fraction of the piston stroke, otherwise the whole engine would melt. In the latest engine, the gas turbine, the metal is in continuous contact with temperatures of 600 to 700 degrees. So the development of the gas turbine depended on finding metals that could rotate very fast, without distortion, at temperatures of 600 to 700 degrees.
It was not earlier than 1940 that new metallic alloys were developed that could stand these continuous stresses at high temperatures. These alloys made it possible to make the first gas turbines. Meanwhile gas turbines work as prime movers to drive electric generators in electric power stations, as power units in motorcars and motor coaches. They revolutionized the way we fly, because only the gas turbine is light enough and efficient enough for the high-speed aircraft of today with airscrew or jet propulsion.
No doubt research will do its utmost to provide for still higher gas temperatures, and this will mean still more efficient gas turbines for industry and traffic. This means saving fuel and money.
Present-day heat engines determine the grade of our civilization, and those engines all depend on the simple fact that heat flows from hot to cold.
Complicated Creeds
C In Henry Bascom Rankin’s book Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln (1916) the author tells how one day his mother asked the president a question about religion. This is the answer she received: “I cannot without mental reservations assent to long and complicated creeds and catechisms. If the church would ask simply for assent to the Saviour’s statement of the substance of the law: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself,’—that church would I gladly unite with.”
Talking Animals, Birds and Bees
IAN may think himself unique among I the earthly forms of life, and he is. Yet ___it is amazing to see how many similar traits he shares with the lower orders. Take the gift of speech and communication for an example. The tiny busy bee was buzzing messages to his kind for millenniums before man made his appearance; perhaps not in a way suitable to man, but very effective in beedom nonetheless.
'E According to R. PJatt, author of The River of Life, “recent translation of bee talk has been a great surprise. Nothing like it has ever been discovered among insects, birds, fishes, or animals.” He says that the bees have an elaborate system of communication. First a scout is sent out to spy out the land and find the luscious pick for the day. When he returns to the hive he goes into a dance, buzzing in circles and semicircles. This bee jig is bee talk. In loud buzzing tones the scout tells the other bees what he has found, the exact location and distance, the kind of flower, the abundance of nectar or polien that awaits them on that particular day, He even informs them of the direction of the wind and its velocity. The other bees carefully take in all this information, because they must know exactly where to go and the amount of fuel to take for the round-trip journey. The scout does his job perfectly; and to prove that the bees listen to what is said, not one of them ever gets lost or runs out of fuel.
As soon as the scout stops dancing his jig the other bees take off for the promised-land of pollen and nectar, and seldom if ever are they disappointed. In proportion to the bee’s size, a two-mile trip Would be comparable to a man’s taking a journey on foot from New York city to Richmond, Virginia. Now imagine yourself traveling for the first time that distance across pathless countryside with a load on your back and only your senses to guide you. Do you think you could do it, that is, go to the designate^ spot and return with a load equal your weight to the exact starting point the same day? The little bee does it.
In tact, many times bees travel twice that distance and back against head winds, over unmapped territory, without road signs, radar or radio to guide them. You cannot help but admire those tiny creatures and their magnificent system of communication.
What about some of the other loiter creatures of the earth; do they converse with each other? yes, they do—in their way, that is. A dog, for example, could almost be said to have a speaking body and a "talking” tail. Just by watching his tail, the way he wags ft, you are told whether he is happy or sad. If he perks up his ears, you know he has heard something. His barks tell if a friend or a foe is approaching. And his growls need no explanation, they speak for themselves.
A kitten’s mew or purr, a horse’s neigh, a cow’s moo are ways in which these animals communicate their desires. A rattlesnake’s rattle in action warns you that you have gone far enough. A skunk has merely to raise his tail to advise you to keep your distance or else! A rhinoceros uses a sign language to keep other rhinos off his domain. He piles up dung as signposts or no-t respas sing signs, and woe be to the rhino that violates those signs. Crows warn other crows by squawking harshly. If a crow has found a sumptuous meal It calls out to other crows in an inviting tone. As proof that they understand, they flock in from every direction for the feast.
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