Awake!, August 22, 1962

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The Emancipating Power of Truth

PAGE 55

Hiroshima—Seventeen Years After the “Bomb”

PAGE a

Under Southern Skies

Waging War Against Rust

PAGE

THE MISSION OF THIS J QUIN Al

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CONTENTS

The Wisdom of Forgiveness

The Emancipating Power of Truth

Hiroshima—Seventeen Years

After the “Bomb”

A Violent Civilization

Trees—Deep-rooted in Superstition

Highway Safety

Under Southern Skies

They Don’t Know It All

The Pursuit ol Precious Stones

Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Dictionary 23

Waging War Against Rust

Employee Dishonesty

“Your Word Is Truth"

Incite Jehovah to Jealousy?

Watching the World

Volume XLIM London England, August 22, 1^62 Number 16

SOME people go through life with the attitude of James Edward Oglethorpe, the general who said, “I never forgive.” On the other hand, many agree with the writer named Pope, who said: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Whatever your viewpoint, there is much to be said for the wisdom of forgiveness.

Take the matter of economy. The wise man who extends forgiveness thereby saves the expense of anger, the cost of hate, the price of misery and the waste of time. Is that not a rich return on so small an investment?

Forgiveness is also a practical measuring rod. The generosity with which we use it is a true gauge of our depth of ' understanding of our fellowmen and the circumstances that cause them to err. Our willingness to forgive is a measure of our Christian growth and maturity, particularly in the quality of mercy. Who wants to remain a spiritual babe in such matters? To lack understanding and mercy is to be childish and weak.

The strength to forgive is a tremendous power for good. Its generator is the loving heart. From that Source the power of forgiveness can unite antagonists, promote peace, preserve friendship and heal wounds. Yes, forgiveness is a wonderful medicine. It not only helps to cure the recover, but also benefits the giver by protecting him from the unhealthy spirit of

human revenge, which so often brings grief.—Rom. 12:17-19,

Practicing forgiveness is always judicious, because it prevents us from misjudging our brother. "For with what judgment you are judging, you will be judged; and with the measure that you are measuring out, they will measure out to you.” (Matt. 7:2) Yes, generous forgiving is well worth the risk that a pardoned offender may tend to trespass again. All of us offend many times. (Matt. 18:21, 22) Far better is it to err on the side of love than hate. By forgiving freely you avoid making an enemy of one who may still be God’s friend.

Forgiveness is also a beauty aid to the wise. It brings a smile to the heart and a light to the eyes because of the happiness of giving. That is what fort/wmff means —to give love. When we stop forgiving, we stop loving. What mars beauty quicker than a loveless heart? What is more beautiful than a kind person who reflects God’s ability to “forgive in a large way”? (Isa. 55;7) With each application of mercy the user makes his personality over a little more in the Godlike beauty of holiness. A face that is kind and happy is beautiful to behold. What cosmetic does as much ? Forgiveness is a beauty aid that all can afford.

But most important of all, forgiveness causes God to listen to our prayers. That is why Jesus said;

COMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE

0 Do Yoit Know Your Creator?

# Slaughter in the Woods.

• Reaction to Your Letters About Spanish Oppression.

# You Can Prevent Motion Sickness.

• Superhighways of the Sea.

“When you stand praying, forgive whatever you have against anyone; in order that your Father who is in the heavens may also forgive you your trespasses."—Mark 11:25.

To impress us with the vital need to be forgiving, Jesus painted a picture in words: "The kingdom of the heavens has become like a man, a king, that wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. When he started to settle them, there was brought in a man who owed him ten thousand talents [about $10,200,000], But because he did not have the means to pay it back, his master ordered him and his wife and his children/ and ail the things he had to be sold and payment to be made. Therefore the slave fell down and began to do obeisance to him, saying, ‘Be patient with me and I will pay back everything to you.’ Moved to pity at this, the master of that slave let him off and canceled his debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves that was owing him a hundred denarii [$17]; and, grabbing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back whatever you owe.’ Therefore his fellow slave fell down and began to entreat him, saying, ‘Be patient with me and I will pay you back.’ However, he was not willing, but went off and had him thrown into prison until he should pay back what was owing. When, therefore, his fellow slaves saw the things that had happened, they became very much grieved, and they went and made clear to their master all the things that had happened. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘Wicked slave, I canceled all that debt for you, when you entreated me. Ought you not, in turn, to have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I also had mercy on you?’ With that his master, provoked to wrath, delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay back all that was owing. In like manner my heavenly Father will also deal with you if you do not forgive each one his brother from your hearts."—Matt 18:23-35.

This illustration should remind us that because of our sins God could require us to pay over our lives and every possession. But now that we have entreated God, he has canceled our debt of sin, because of our obeisance and faith in Christ’s ransom. When we consider all the things we have done and for which Jehovah could hold us accountable, what is there that we could demand from our brother for trespassing against us? How can we expect God to forgive us if we do not forgive others?

It is too bad that General Oglethorpe did not recognize the economy of forgiveness, its usefulness as a measuring rod, its power to create peace and happiness, its ability to heal and beautify, to say nothing of the role it plays in winning God’s favor. Had the general recognized that wisdom and possessed it, he might not have said; “I never forgive." Nor would his companion have found it necessary to reply; “Then I hope, sir, you never sin.’’ Who can afford to be caught in such a dilemma? You can avoid it by means of the wisdom of forgiveness.

MORE confining than any barred cell and more restrictive than any slav er’s chains are the superstitious fears, re-

few ing

in my word, and you will

What truth is it that frees? How does it liberate captive minds?

desires, degen-onsuming love the minds of odern world.

people ever succeed in f

ligious falsehoods, immor erating hatreds and the for riches that imprison countless persons in this These are captors from w themselves. Their bodies ma be free, but their minds are in prison. True freedom can be theirs if they will permit the emancipating power of the truth to liberate them.

It was with regard to such captives that the prophet Isaiah said: “The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me to tell good news to the meek ones. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive and the wide opening of the eyes even to the prisoners.” (Isa. 61:1) The truth is what opens eyes that have been blinded by traditional falsehoods. It brings liberty to people whose minds are in captivity. This was the liberty that Jesus Christ brought when he circulated among the tradition-bound people of his day.

That which Jesus Christ preached was the word of his heavenly Father. It is the truth that brings freedom to those who open their ears to it. On one occasion Jesus prayed to his Father: “Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth.”

(John 17:17) This brought freedom to days of Jesus, and j bring freedom toda#, to be liberated J

is the truth that ptive minds in the

is the truth that can o persons who want said: “If you remain really my disciples,

will s

THE That

the truth, and the truth u free." (John 8:31, 32) h can free a person from erstitious fears.

Fear of the Dead

Traditional misconceptions about the dead have helped to hold people the world dyer captive to superstitious fears. They imagine that the dead are alive as disembodied spirits or ghosts. This view is held by people in socially advanced lands as well as by those in the socially backward lands.

Natives in Netherlands New Guinea live in constant terror of their dead ancestors. To frighten the ghosts away, they keep the skulls of their fathers and mothers as constant companions. They sleep with them, fondle them and hang them about their necks. Their superstitious fear of the dead has imprisoned their minds.

Religious doctrines that teach that the dead are alive in a spirit world contribute to this fear of the dead that makes captives of people all over the world. They lock the minds of people in prison houses of spiritual darkness. By exposing the falsehood of such religious doctrines, God’s Word of truth can emancipate those who will listen to it and act on it in faith.

The truth strips away the dark mystery about the dead by frankly showing that death Is not a doorway to another existence but the doorway to nonexistence. Jesus showed this when he compared death with the unconsciousness of sleep. Speaking about his dead friend Lazarus, he said: “Lazarus our friend has gone to rest, but I am journeying there to awaken him from sleep.” (John 11:11) Here, then, is the hope for the dead: to be awakened from the sleep of death by resurrection. After relating the fatal stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, God’s Word of truth states that “he fell asleep in death." (Acts 7:60) Hiis comparison assures us that the dead one, like a person who is sleeping, is totally unaware of anything that Is going on about him.

Man’s Creator, who knows more about life and death than any man, states in his Word that the dead do not know anything. “For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all." (Eccl. 9:5) The tenth verse goes on to say that there “is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going." Sheol is the Hebrew word for the common grave of mankind. Since there is no knowledge, wisdom and work in the realm of the dead, there cannot be any .thoughts among the dead. This is confirmed by Psalm 146:4, which points out that when a person dies and goes back to the ground “in that day his thoughts do perish.”

By enlightening people with the knowledge that the dead are not alive but are unconscious and unable to do anything good or bad, the truth emancipates them from the fear of the dead. It frees them from the dark prison of religious falsehood and superstitious fear and ushers them into the glorious freedom of spiritual enlightenment It gives the blessed nope that the dead will be brought back to conscious existence by resurrection.

Fear of Men

In backward as well as advanced societies fear of men can get such a grip on the minds of people that they become captives to it. In Africa, for example, there is a mortal fear among the common people of sorcerers. When one places a trail of supposedly magic powder around a hut, the person living in the hut becomes petrified with fear. Some persons have been known to die at the sight of it. The same thing has happened when a supposedly magic bone has been pointed at a person by a sorcerer. Despite this great fear of the sorcerer or juju man, these people can be made free by God’s truth.

Thousands of Africans who were once captive to the fear of juju men are now free because of the emancipating power of the truth. Their trust now is in Jehovah God rather than in charms, amulets and witch doctors. They live their daily lives in complete freedom from the fear of sorcery. This liberation has meant freedom for them from a prison of superstitious darkness.

In more advanced societies, fear of men can crush liberty of expression and of action by compelling people to conform to what is popular opinion in a community. Fear of what the neighbors will think or what the leaders of the community may say or do prevents some persons from standing firm for right principles. Still others refuse, for the same reason, to embrace the Scriptural truths that would emancipate them from the fear of men. “Trembling at men is what lays a snare, but he that is trusting in Jehovah will be protected.” (Prov. 29:25) The person made free by the truth can courageously hold to what ha knows is right despite adverse opinion in the community and opposition from its leaders. He can say as the apostle Peter did: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.’*—Acts 5:29.

Immorality

Scriptural truth is a transforming power that can bring about great changes in the lives of people who have been enslaved by immoral habits. To persons who have become captive to wrong desires, it provides the means by which they can regain selfcontrol and self-respect. It can break the captive chains of immorality, making it possible for a person to put on a new personality. “You should put away the old' personality which conforms to your former course of conduct and which is being corrupted according to his deceptive desires; but. . . you should be made new in the force actuating your mind, and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.”—Eph. 4:22-24.

After making mention of fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, drunkards and thieves, the apostle Paul told the Corinthians: “That is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean.” (1 Cor, 6:11) The truth of God transformed those people, bringing them freedom from the immoral works of the flesh. As it emancipated them, so it can emancipate people today who are willing to permit it to change their lives.

Hatred and Covetousness

God’s truth can emancipate a person even from the hatreds that divide modernday society. Instead of hating people because they are of another race or nationality, the person who permits that truth to transform his mind learns to exercise neighbor love. He follows Jesus' command: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:39) This leaves no room for hatred.

The person who is liberated from peacedestroying hatreds begins living a much happier and more fruitful life. He learns to exercise love, which can generate a responsive feeling of love toward him from others. By the binding tie of love he becomes united with others who have been transformed by the truth of God’s Word, This truth can also liberate him from the grip of covetousness.

By permitting the truth to guide a person’s attitude toward material riches, he will not become ensnared by the greedy love for riches. He comes to realize that life and genuine happiness do not come from material possessions. This was pointed out by Jesus: “Keep your eyes open and guard against every sort of covetousness, because even when a person has an abundance his life does not result from the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15) Those who are held captive by covetousness fall into “a snare and many senseless and hurtful desires, which plunge men into destruction and ruin.” (1 Tim. 6:9, 10) The transforming power of the truth can free a person from the captive chains of covetousness.

There are many ways in which a person’s mind can be taken captive and held in prison. God’s truth can set him free if he will permit it to do so. Hundreds of thousands of people already have been emancipated by it. They give thanks to the great Source of truth for making them a free people.—John 8:36.

For such freedom Christ set us free. Therefore stand fast, and do not let yourselves be confined again in a yoke, of slavery,—Gal. 5:1.

BY “AWAKE! ’ CORRESPONDENT IN JAPAN

August 6, 1962, has brought man seventeen years into the nuclear age. It is an age that had a tragic birth, in the blotting out of a great city. Are the future prospects of the nuclear age any brighter? Does it hold hope of an undreamed-of prosperity, or does it forebode even more frightfi^ devastations? Does it bring promise of the emancipation of humankind, or will it mean man’s annihilation? This age of the atom has wonderful potential, and yet the world's news sources carry the gravest warnings. Even before the seventeen-nation Geneva disarmament talks could get under way, they were declaring in big headlines, “Prospects Gloomy.” Philosophers and elder statesmen are likewise pessimistic, as for example Earl Clement Attlee, former British prime minister, who has been reported as saying that it is “but a matter of time until some trigger-happy person will blow the world to bits."

Is this an enlightened age? Far from it! Rather, it stands out as striking fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that “darkness itself will cover the earth, and thick gloom the national groups.” (Isa. 60:2) Wisely used, nuclear power could bring untold benefits to mankind. Instead, it has become the tool of the maddest arms race in history, with an unchristian Christendom and a ruthless communism heaping up enough nuclear armaments to turn this globe into a vast “Hiroshima” many times over. The implications of this nuclear race, and the one bright hope remaining for man on this earth, may well be considered against the background of the first atom-bombed city, Hiroshima itself.

Hiroshima and Peace

Today Hiroshima is one of the most beautiful cities in the Orient. Fine bridges again span the many streams of the river delta, and ships, large and small, sally forth into the glistening, island-studded waters of Japan’s Inland Sea. The city has wide streets and spacious boulevards, and the army barracks obliterated by the “bomb” have been replaced by a modern baseball stadium. Fine buildings line the streets, and the new bus terminal is said to be one of the busiest in the world. Hiroshima is the hub of the rich Chukoku District, and with a population of more than 450,000 (100,000 more than at the time of the “bomb”), it is now Japan’s tenth-largest city. Its industrious people have wrought a marvel of reconstruction.

It was springtime of 1962 when I last visited Hiroshima. Before the activity of the evening, there was a free hour to visit Hiroshima’s Peace Museum, The ultramodern building that houses the museum is set in a spacious park near one of the arms of the river delta. It is dedicated to peace, and its gruesome exhibits are calculated to make even the most callous person desire peace at all costs. However, not all is gruesome. There is much else of historical and educational interest in the museum.

As we climb the stairs to the second-floor exhibition hall, we are confronted with the inscription in Japanese: “Mankind that has received life in this world should above all be happy. But nature has endowed us, not only with happy tranquillity. There are also typhoons, earthquakes, thunder, fire and others to threaten us.” Then the story of fire is told from man’s first use of it, down to the day when it blasted three-fifths of the city of Hiroshima off the face of the earth. An extensive picture gallery includes the scientific “greats” who contributed to the development of atomic power from the time of Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century down to this twentieth century, and including Japan’s own atomic scientist and Nobel Prize winner, Hideki Yukawa. Pity that this tremendous atomic force had to be used first for the destruction of human flesh!

As the exhibition shows on its other side, the peaceful uses of atomic power are many. It can be used for powering ship and plane, and for producing electric power. It can be adapted for producing isotopes needed in medicine, for unearthing the resources of the soil, for increasing farm production, for better gardening, for pest riddance and for preserving foodstuffs.

However, for most visitors, main interest in the museum is to be found in its grim record of the “bomb.” This is dramatized by a miniature movie-style “show,” set to funereal music. It presents first the beautiful Hiroshima, bathed in sunlight, with its rivers and greenery, on that fateful August morning. The plane had dropped its bomb, to parachute into position, and had flown on. Air-raid sirens sounded the “all-clear,” and the people emerged from their shelters to watch the departing plane. It was the last thing they ever did. There came the blast of annihilation, darkness, a mighty rumble—and desolation-

How grim the record! Air turned to flame, and walls turned to dust. Buildings disappeared, or leaned at crazy angles. At eight hundred feet from the epicenter, a human shadow was imprinted on the stone steps of the Sumitomo Bank. The man himself “evaporated”! Empty shells of streetcars and automobiles lay twisted in ruins, their occupants dissolved by the blast. Churches crumbled, and sandstone images of Buddha melted into grotesque shapes. The western sector of the city was turned into a desert.

Those blotted out by the initial blast of the bomb were in a sense fortunate. They were spared the cruel agony of atomic burning, radioactive gassing, and other aftereffects that spelled out, and continue to spell out, painful and lingering death. One of my friends, who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the bomb, wrote down for me the following account of the bomb’s aftermath. I include it here, as it gives some indication of what the nuclear powers are now preparing for humankind, but on a far greater scale. This is her eyewitness account:

The Havoc of the “Bomb'’

“This was the most fearful experience in my life. . . .

“Due to some urgent business, I had to go to Onomichi, and had just left Hiroshima Station by train. Shortly after our departure there was a terrific shock, and it was as though I had been thrown into the air together with the train. When I looked back toward Hiroshima, I saw a huge mushroom-shaped chimney of smoke, awesome in appearance. I shall never forget it. It filled me with an indescribable feeling of horror. . . .

"The next day I tried to return to Hiroshima by another train, but it stopped about sixteen miles out of the city. Here I happened to meet a friend, who took me by truck to a place about five miles out of Hiroshima. Even here everything was still hot! It was different from ordinary heat, and I felt as though a burning stone was pressed against my whole body. In front of me I saw a procession of old people, children, young men and women with bare feet. Their clothing was torn to pieces. Some of them had covered their bodies with torn mosquito nets or towels. Their eyes were fixed, staring, and they walked in deep silence.

“Then I went on into the city. It is terrifying to me even now when !• recall what I saw there. It was utterly beyond description. Those who were still alive were clearing up some of the debris near the station. I remember they were wearing the white uniforms of the navy. As I walked on in the direction of my home, I saw piles of dead people at the parade ground and in the square. Survivors were busily searching among the bodies, rolling them over with clublike poles. They were trying to find relatives. The corpses were horribly discolored, like black statues, and no one was bothering to cover their faces any more, as all had become accustomed to the sight of so many dead people.

“Shivering with the fear that my family might have been among those dead bodies, I hurried toward the place where my house used to stand. There are many rivers in Hiroshima, and as I came to each of these, I found both banks piled high with dead people who had come searching for water in their death agony. I saw several people lying dead with their heads in the water of large water tanks. Along the roads there were blackened corpses still retaining the poses in which they were working at the time the bomb was dropped.

“My house was situated some distance from the bomb center, but when I reached the place, there was nothing to be seen but smoke rising from the embers. I was at a loss, and did not know what to do. Then someone spoke to me. When I looked round, I saw a face swollen as big as a volley ball, and I could not tell who the person was. However, he told me that my family was safe, and that they had taken refuge in the mountain nearby. This news relieved me a little. Except tor my family, all the people in my neighborhood appeared to have inhaled the gas, and their faces were all swollen up. I could not see anyone with normal features. The sight of this terrible destruction filled me at the time with a bitter hatred.

“Three days later all the family met at my brother's house, some eight miles out of Hiroshima, How glad we all were to be alive! It was like a dream. However, as we could not forget the agony of the others, we returned to Hiroshima. We placed people who still showed signs of life on our handcart, and pulled it slowly all the eight miles to my brother’s home. Every day we made two trips, and tried to nurse these unfortunates. However, we had no medicine. All we could do was to apply red iodine to their wounds, and remove the worms that had hatched on their burns. Yet, these people started dying one after another, and all of them were dead within a week. They died in great agony, and f was terribly sorry for them, as we had no medicine' we could apply to relieve them.

“As a person who actually experienced that sad and cruel destruction, I have

yearned ever since that all humankind would get to loving one another.”

A "I3omb”-leM New World

Now, however, my friend has more than the desire to see mankind loving one another. She has also the firm hope and confidence that this generation of mankind will see the end of all nuclear madness, and the establishing of eternal peace among a human race united in bonds of true love. How has she come to this conviction? Like many other survivors of the Hiroshima bomb, she has welcomed the visits of Jehovah’s witnesses, has studied the Bible with them, and now she herself is a witness of the Creator and God of mankind. The hatred that she felt at the time of the “bomb" has been replaced by a genuine love for men bf goodwill of every nation and race.

On this pleasant spring evening of 1962, we turned our backs on the Peace Museum, with its “chamber of horrors," and crossed the nearby river to the home that this Witness now occupies, newly built almost directly below the point where the atom bomb burst. Here sixty-five persons attended an enthusiastic meeting of the Hiroshima congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses. A number of these were survivors of the "bomb.” However, their minds no longer dwell morbidly on the horrors of that time, nor do they live in terror of a nuclear annihilation of mankind. Their study of the Bible prophecies has brought assurance that soon the Creator of all the universe will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth,” and that the grandest, the most wonderful era of peace lies just ahead for all who learn and obey the will of Jehovah God.—Rev. 11:18.

Let the hypocritical, unchristian Christendom continue in “darkness," vying with international Communism in pursuit of the satanlc purpose of stockpiling destruction for humanity! True Christians will have none of this wickedness, for they have already 'beaten swords into plowshares and spears into pruning shears.' "The very glory of Jehovah has shone forth” upon them, and they rejoice to enlighten others concerning the glorious hope of God’s kingdom by Christ. Shortly, the Kingdom will remove the modern-day nuclear madness and its instigators for all time. What wonders will then come to pass, as all the mighty forces in creation are used for man’s blessing and to the eternal praise of the Creator-God, Jehovah!—Isa. 2:4; SO: 1-3.

<~UioleKt Civilization

<L Alter speaking about the violence ol teen-age delinquents, Sir Herbert ’Read, in an article that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, said: “Such violence of action is no doubt related to the violence of expression that has increasingly become a feature not only of novels, newspapers, films and television but also

of literature universally acclaimed as of great cultural value, America is not unique in this respect; the cynical brutality of William Faulkner’s novels is but an outstanding example of a phenomenon characteristic of our civilization everywhere. . . . Perhaps our reverence for Life has been dulled by mass slaughter, though mass slaughter has not been exceptional in the history of mankind. What la exceptional is the boredom that now alternates with war.”

A&GUBT SB, 1362 11

By "Amiel "(omspondent in Southern Rhodesia

HAVE you ever walked alone through a grove of tall trees at night when the wind rustled the leaves and the odd dead branch creaked as it swayed back and forth? Almost unconsciously youmayhave suspected hidden eyes watching you, unseen creatures hiding among the boughs. The imaginary sound of a footstep treading the dead leaves behind you would be enough to make you jump. That is the way many people feel around trees, probably due to the direct or indirect influence of superstition.

Tree superstition is rooted in antiquity. The Egyptians firmly believed in a dose affinity between people and trees. To their way of thinking, newborn babies and young trees grew up together. If one suffered or died, they thought the other would too. Ancient mythological gods even were believed to have turned into trees. The oak tree was especially held sacred by the Greeks and Romans, who associated It with their chief gods, Zeus and Jupiter. Daphne the nymph was said to have turned into a laurel tree to escape the advances of Apollo.

The Druids and the pagan Norsemen leaned heavily on their tree superstitions, especially those involving the ash, oak and the mistletoe. The Norsemen felt that they owed their very existence to the ash. According to them, the gods breathed soul into the ash tree and it became man. Rock paintings here in Southern Rhodesia reveal a like belief that man sprang from trees.

It is interesting to note that down through the centuries such superstitions have been preserved, added to and spread. In time, superstitions became almost as numerous as the trees themselves, To almost every kind of tree was attributed at least one special power, be it curing, matchmaking, ensuring fertility or what have you,

Fertility

The mistletoe was fevered as a sacred and wonder-working plant by the Druids and Norsemen. Because of it good luck and fertility were said to come to humans and calving cows. Even the nuts of certain trees have been a symbol of fertility from the days of the Romans until now. That is why they have been given to newlyweds, supposedly ensuring a fruitful union.

Certain trees have been looked to by farmers in hope of a blessing for their crops. In parts of Southern Rhodesia invocations are made to the muchacha tree and the baobab tree (locally called muuyu) for fruitful crops. The muchacha or jakata tree has a reed fence built around its trunk and there invocations are accompanied by gifts of grain and water. This consideration is thought to result in plenty of rain and bumper crops.

In England the apple tree is ceremoniously Invoked for fertile crops in a ritual known as “Apple-Wassailing,” It is carried on in the west of England on Twelfth Night or Old Twelfth Night (January 17). At dusk participants go to the apple orchard armed with guns, kettles, trays and cider. The apples on one tree are picked, the cider is drunk and also poured around the roots of the tree and the lower branches are dipped in the cider. Then the noise begins—to drive away the spirits of bad luck. This ceremony is still carried out, but it is more of an occasion for carousing and revelry than an active superstition.

Strange Cures

There was a time when medical practitioners would have received stiff competition from the healing methods thought to be employed by trees. Suppose you lived in parts of England not so long ago and your child developed a hernia or maybe rickets. Following the superstition of the day, you would take a young unblemished ash sapling and split it. Then at sunrise you would pass your naked child through the split to another person nine times, each time being careful that the child faced the sun. Then the tree (not the child, mind you) must be bound up. Superstition had it that if the tree would heal, the child would too. And if the tree failed to heal, the child would not be cured. Not only that, it was said that if at any time thereafter the tree should die or be cut down, the . child*s ailment would return and cause death. This was just ..

one of such superstitions in England’s not too distant past.

Another one practiced in the last century involved the nettle plant. Did you ever grab hold of one with your bare hand? Stings, does it not? Bu^ what is a sting if a fever can be cured? Well, at least some believed the nettle plant could effect a cure. Superstitious persons said you only had to get someone else to grab a nettle plant, pull it out by the roots and say your name as well as your parents’ at the same time. Result? A stinging hand for him, of course, and—as the story goes—no more fever for you.

In Herefordshire in this very century, an ash tree was plastered with children’s hair for healing purposes. Superstitious mothers placed the hair there with fond hope of curing their children’s doughs!

Omens and Charms

Many and strange indeed are the duties lowly trees have been thought to perform. If, for example, an apple blossom appeared in autumn, it was said to be a sure sign of death in the owner’s family. On the other hand, many a Yorkshire miss depended on an apple pip to tell her if her lover was faithful. If the seed burst open when thrown into the fire, the lover was true and therefore still in her good graces. But woe to him if the seed burned quietly away! The maiden viewed this as proof of his evil deeds.

Trees supposedly had a hand in '"‘x romance in other ways too. Who is the maiden who would not like to meet the man she is going to marry? English girls said this was the way to do it: Take the branch of the hawthorn tree on May eve and hang it on a signpost where four lanes meet. Leave it there all night. Next morning find out into which lane the wind blew it From that direction will come the man of your dreams—according to that ancient superstition. However, they believed that if the wind blew the branch away altogether, one would not marry at all. Another custom was to put the leaf of an ash tree in the left shoe after reciting a poem. Girls believed that the first man they met after that would become their husband. If modern maidens do not believe this, the chances are that their great-grandmothers did when they were girls.

In parts of England the noble birch tree still has its roots in superstition. Each year on May Day a birch pole is put at the stable door, all decorated with streamers. There it remains for the year supposedly serving a twofold purpose: It is said to protect the horses from disease and misfortune, and its presence is thought to keep the witches from riding the horses during the night and tiring them out.

At one time in Europe it was believed that possession of the chicory plant, if gathered at noon or midnight on July 25, could make the possessor invisible. It was thought to be helpful in opening locked boxes and doors. The underworld counted on this help, no doubt.

Not to be overlooked among tree superstitions is the use of the evergreen at Christmas. Under the heading "Christmas Greenery” we find this in the Encyclopaedia of Superstitions: "The decoration of houses at Christmas with evergreens, the symbols of enduring and renewed life, is a direct descendant of a very ancient preChristian, luck-bringing custom.”

Spirits

It is amazing now widespread some of these tree superstitions have become. The belief that the souls of ancestors live in trees has reached such farflung places as Africa, India, the Philippine Islands, British Columbia and parts of the United States. In Africa offerings are made to the trees in return for favors from the souls of ancestors. In India, where the tree is greatly venerated, many sacrifices, including humans, have been made in an attempt to appease the spirits.

Canada, Ireland, Africa and India all have had—and some still have—special ceremonies when a tree is cut down. In parts of Southern Rhodesia before a large tree is felled the master of the forest is called on to offer a sacrifice to the spirits of his ancestors. Apologies are made to the tree for cutting it down. In India a formal eviction notice is given to the tree to enable the spirits to move elsewhere. Purification ceremonies are also employed. Right up until this century the Indians of British Columbia used to offer a little poem to the sunflower plant before cutting it for food. The hawthorn tree in Ireland could not be cut down without first receiving permission from the "fairies.” In the western United States certain Indians refuse to cut down the cottonwoods because of the protection they supposedly offer. In the Philippines, trees said to be inhabited by ancestral spirits were not, and still are not, cut down. The same applies to certain trees in Africa and elsewhere.

Livinff Superstitions

While many of these superstitions died out by the end of the last century, that is by no means true of all of them. According to Vernon Brelsford’s Superstitious Survivals (1958): “The rowan, or mountain ash, Is stiil popularly supposed by the Irish peasants to have a special virtue against the attacks of fairies, witches or malign influences?' This same writer informs us that “in some parts of England the eider-tree is still regarded as a charm against witchcraft’’ and a protection against lightning, fire, and so forth. Beer is still offered'to the baobab tree and other trees in Africa, Healings are still sought In the shade of such trees, after which the trees are not allowed to be cut down. Mischievous spirits are still thought to leave the baobab tree to inhabit humans and make them sick, necessitating ejection by a sorcerer. In India great and mysterious powers are still attributed to trees. Obviously tree superstitions are not dead.

It has been said that there are more superstitions involving the tree than almost any other handiwork of God. This may be due in part to the close tie between trees and man’s existence. From creation onward trees haw tea wsepasaJcAy \w\ked with man’s comfort and well-being. Besides furnishing food and materials for tools and shelter, green trees serve the important purpose of absorbing carbon from the air and replacing it with vital oxygen. From trees come a long list of useful products, such as quinine, cork, rubber, turpentine and many other valuable things. The benefits to man, the towering size of trees as well as their longevity may have Induced superstitious minds to venerate the creation rather than the Creator. But how logical are these superstitions?

If trees really had powerful spirits in them, it is unthinkable that lowly man, nature and even pests would lay the trees low. As it is, majestic trees succumb to disease, they are uprooted by storm and flood, destroyed by fire, shriveled by drought, pounded by hail, weighted down, and broken by snow and ice and humbled by the woodman’s ax.

The rules of war that God gave his army of people marching into the Promised Land indicated that trees are simply useful things, not creatures with personality: “In case you lay siege to a city many days by fighting against it so as to capture it, you must not ruin its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you should eat from them, and you must not cut them down, tor is the tree ot the held a man to be "besieged by you?”—Deut. 20:19.

No, a tree is not a man, or a spirit of a dead man. It is a gift to man, something to be appreciated and enjoyed free from superstition. Walk through the woods or forest. See, smell and touch these handsome treasures. Let them fill you with awe and gratitude that God has provided them for you.

^igfiuiay Safety

• It is obvious that the more exacting the tests for automobile driver’s license the safer the highways are. How Russia insures highway safety can be seen from the requirements it sets for gaining an automobile driver’s license. One must be an amateur auto and engine mechanic, having received fifty hours of instruction, written and oral, and one hour in driving trucks. He must be at least seventeen and a half years old, have had tenth-grade education, be gainfully employed and pass a medical examination. If the applicant fails he may try again after ten days. If he falls the second time he has to take the fifty hours of instruction over again.

—Police, September, October, 1960.

By "AwakeI" correspondent in Australia

DO YOU enjoy window-shopping? The plate glass window separating you from those interesting articles is no barrier to looking, only to touching. Notice how clear and polished the window is kept, A dirty window would merit only a passing glance, no matter how well arranged the goods behind it.

In order to enjoy the greatest display of all, one laid out personally by your own Creator, look upward at the starry heavens. The window leading to this magnificent sight is our atmosphere, the air we breathe. How is the window where you live? Clean or dirty? The chances are that if you live in or near a big city, the display is marred by a dirty window, an atmosphere loaded with dust and fumes. The resulting haze not only reduces and distorts the light received from the stars, but it makes viewing more difficult by reflecting the street lights back into your eyes. This is evident in the glow of the night sky around large cities.

Do you give only a passing glance at the

starry heavens? Most of us do just this itself to the as we hurry about our business. But wait! faint star-This majestic procession wheeling unceas- light com-

Ingly by is there for a purpose. It is a silent witness to God’s glory. As a writer of ancient times was moved to exclaim, “The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling. There is no speech, and there are no words; no voice on their part is being heard.”—Ps, 19:1, 3.

Why not choose a clear night, preferably moonless, and, if you live in a city, take a short trip into the country, just a few miles out to escape the lights and haze. Choose an open paddock or hilltop as an observation point, then gaze upward. It may be that you will not recognize the sky as the same one you have been used to seeing from your own backyard.

If you already live in the country you are more fortunate. You have not so far to travel—only a few yards away from your television set. In any case, it is well worth the effort.

Turn off all incidental lights, car lights, torches, and so on. This gives the eye a chance to adjust above* Notice that you appear to be standing at the center of a vast hemispherical dome on the surface of which the stars twinkle like tiny lamps. How many stars can you see ? Countless, you say? But are they really countless? The stars visible to the unaided eye have been counted by several astronomers who report that they number about 6,000. Now, you can see only a half of the star sphere at one time, because the earth be?creath your feet blocks out the other half. This fact, together with the haze in the atmosphere near the horizon preventing the faint stars there from being seen, reduces the number to no more than 2,000, according to Canadian astronomer C. A. Chant, The eye is a wonderful optical instrument, and we can increase its power by using a good pair of binoculars, say about 7 x 50. These figures indicate a magnification of 7, and front lenses 50 millimeters in diameter, Such an inexpensive instrument will enable you to see at least 100,000 stars.

ing from

Beauty Unlimited

Do you notice a faint luminous band running across the sky? This is the Milky Way. Choose a bright portion of the Milky Way and look at it through your field glasses. Perhaps you will agree that, using mere words, it is not possible to describe and do justice to the beauty and glory of some of the star clusters you can see. Notice the different-colored stars, some yellow, others orange, some bluish-white and others brilliant white. Known to the ancients by such names as the Winter Street (Swedish), the Ashen Path (Eskimo) and the Silver River (Chinese), it was generally accepted as a glittering road leading to the courts of heaven.

The mystery of the nature of the Milky Way was eventually solved by the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei. With the invention of the telescope tty a Dutch optician early in the seventeenth century, Galileo, having effected some improvements, directed his instrument to the Milky Way. It was resolved into a multitude of small stars.

A small refracting telescope with a Si-inch objective lens is a source of continuous pleasure when directed toward the Milky Way. The huge number of stars rendered vrsfdie are, \n tact, suns similar to our own, and all brought into existence by the Creator. Using a little imagination and appreciating a few scientific facts, it is possible to sense the power and infinite wisdom of the great Architect of the heavens.

Viewed edge-on from the outside, the Milky Way, our galaxy, looks like a flattened disc with a pronounced central bulge. At right angles to this view it would appear like a giant Catherine wheel with, spiral masses of stars radiating out from the center. It is composed of an estimated 100,000,000,000 stars, one of which is our sun lying well out from the center of the disc. Now, using your opera glasses, take a look at the starry heavens and try to picture 1,000,000 stars in the place of each and every tiny point of light that you can see. This may help to give you some picture of the incredible number of stars in our galaxy—100,000,000,000!

One part of the Tffftky Way that is not clearly visible from Britain and most of the United States is that which passes through the southern constellations of Argo, Crux and Centaurus. Our galaxy is particularly striking in this area and especially around the constellation of Argo, where it comes to a climax of beauty. To an observer at, say the latitude of Melbourne, Australia, this part of the celestial sphere is a rich field for observation, particularly when it is high in the night sky.

Let us look at just a tiny portion near the Southern Crass. An unusually beautiful cluster Is the group N.G.C.3532. While in the field glasses it appears as a lovely starry doud with one orange star near the border, in the telescope it expands into a literal swarm of stars, reminding one of minute rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds on a background of jet-black velvet. “The most brilliant cluster I have ever seen,” said Sir John Herschel, who was one of the first to describe it, over a century ago. In order to absorb and appreciate even a small portion of the heavens such as this cluster, it is necessary to keep on looking at it through the telescope for some minutes. This allows the eye to adjust itself properly and it is really a case of “the longer you look the more you see.” The faintest of stars suddenly become visible and the scene takes on a beauty previously unknown as you forget earthly matters and concentrate solely on this part of the universe billions of miles from where you are standing. Truly you marvel, “When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers, . . . the stars that you have prepared, what is mortal man that you keep him in mind?”—Ps. 8:3, 4.

An outstanding constellation, the Southern Cross can always be seen on any clear night from a point more than 34 degrees south of the equator. Many world travelers are disappointed on first sighting the Southern Cross—low on the horizon and partly obscured by haze. But later it becomes clear and bright when high in the sky. It is best seen from a latitude as far south as Melbourne.

On Wings of Light

In this spectacular region of the sky, two bright stars called the “Pointers” act as direction finders for the Southern Cross. The “Pointer” farthest from the “Cross,” Alpha Centauri was, until recently, the nearest known star to our sun. In order to grasp some idea of the great distance of this star, let us imagine we can travel at the speed of light. Moving away from the earth, it takes just over one second to reach the moon, almost a quarter of a million miles away. In the time it takes you to eat breakfast, say eight minutes, we reach the sun. Imagine that, just eight minutes to travel 93 million miles! Leaving the sun and heading out into space, a journey of no more than seven hours would take us clear of the nine planets making up our solar system.

Now begins a four-year journey into the empty silent reaches of outer space. No matter which direction we choose there is utter loneliness, and yet we are rushing forward at a speed of over 11 million miles every minute, or 186,000 miles each second. Picture yourself traveling at this rate for over four years in order to reach our nearest neighbor, the faint star Proxima Centauri near to Alpha Centauri. In conventional terms Alpha Centauri is about 25,000,000,000,000 miles away.

In order to avoid the use of so many zeros in expressing distance, astronomers use a unit of length called the parsec. The parsec measures 19,182,645,000,000 miles, and our sun is about 8,000 parsecs from the center of the galaxy or, if you prefer it, 150,000,000,000,000,000 miles. That is about two-thirds of the distance between the center and the outer edge of the galaxy.

These distances are so enormous that it is difficult to grasp their significance. Maybe you have seen a piece of finest spider’s thread, not the heavier web the spider weaves as an insect trap, but the fine material used in spinning the cocoon to protect the young. It has been calculated that just one pound of this thread would span 25,000 miles, once around the world. Can you guess how much would be needed to stretch the distance from the sun to our close neighbor star, Alpha Centauri? 500,000 tons! And yet this star Is really quite close, astronomically speaking, slightly over one parsec away. As the psalmist truthfully said to the Creator, “Where can I go from your spirit, and where can I run away from your face? If I should ascend to heaven, there you would be . . . Were I to take the wings of the dawn, , . . your right hand would lay hold of me.”—Ps. 139:7-10.

An aptly named part of the Milky Way is the Coalsack. This strange, apparently vacant abyss lies between the Pointers and the Southern Cross. On a fine clear night when the Milky Way is brilliant and the “Cross” high in the heavens, it looks just like a dark hole in the sky, as if the old woman of the nursery rhyme who went to sweep the cobwebs out of the sky cleaned only this one spot. The Coalsack is not a gap in the Milky Way. It is due to great clouds of nonluminous opaque matter, probably dust, placed between us and the shining background of the stars.

If you draw a line from the head to the foot of the Southern Cross and continue it on about seven times as far, you will reach a point near to the star Achernar, easily found because it is the only bright star in this area. The south celestial pole is near the middle of this line and is the point on the celestial sphere around which the southern stars appear to circle on their daily journey.

Island Universes

Two of the most wonderful objects in the visible universe lie on either side of this imaginary line and roughly make an equilateral triangle with the south celestial pole. Best seen on a clear moonless night, they look like two small clouds in the sky. The earliest navigators could see them from the Cape of Good Hope, so they were called the Cape Clouds. Later, when the famous explorer Magellan more fully described them, they became known as the Magellanic Clouds. Exactly what are these clouds? When viewed through a powerful telescope they are seen to be composed of myriads of faint stars and today are recognized as objects outside our galaxy. Known as “island universes,” they are the nearest neighbors to the Milky Way.

Up till the twentieth century our galaxy, the Milky Way, was thought to be isolated in space with nothing at all outside it, in fact it was THE UNIVERSE. Now It is accepted that it is only one of hundreds of millions of similar galaxies stretching away into the depths of space. What were thought to be faint stars or nebulosities on the outskirts of our galaxy are now found to be island universes, each containing billions of stars. Remembering that the nearest star is a distance of somewhat over one parsec away, we find the distance of the Magellanic Clouds in the order of 50.00C parsecs. Some galaxies are detected up to the ultimate distance available with the 200-inch Hale reflecting telescope, a distance of 1,000 million parsecs.

If by some miracle we could transport ourselves this distance into space and then, using the 200-inch Hale or 48-inch Schmidt telescope, take a photograph of our galaxy with its 100,000 million stars, what would it look like? A faint fuzzy object on our photographic plate. Photographs taken from the earth using these giant telescopes indicate the existence, apart from the stars in our galaxy, of over 100 million of these faint fuzzy objects.

It was established by the famous astronomer E. P. Hubble that these were galaxies, huge independent star systems lying at enormous distances from us. Hubble also showed that they stretch farther and farther into space until they are lost to the view of even that sensitive and eiKjmws searching eye, the Hale telescope. It is amazing to realize that some galaxies are so far distant that, even though they may each contain 100,000 million stars, they nevertheless appear fainter than single stars within our own galaxy.

Olbers' Paradox

Now that it has been established that the universe is not confined to the Milky Way, but that it stretches out to unprecedented distances and contains innumerable stars, a simple question arises, first propounded by H. Olbers in 1826. Why is the sky dark after the sun disappears well under the horizon? After all, the sun is not a very bright star compared with the billions around us, but holds its place of prominence simply because of its nearness. Other stars give off as much light and heat as the sun, and while they are farther away, there are infinitely more of them. If the universe is uniformly and regularly populated with galaxies and stars, then any pinpoint in the star sphere, as seen from the earth, should be occupied by a star. It is just a matter of traveling far enough away in any one direction and we must strike a star. In fact, we should reach the stage where one star blocks out the light of another. If this were the case, the whole night sky everywhere would be as bright as the disc of the sun, if we take the sun as a typical star.

According to Cambridge astronomer F. Hoyle, the energy pouring in on the earth would then be 6,000 million times greater than that of full sunlight. Obviously we do not receive this amount of light and heat, otherwise we woqld be burned to a crisp. Why not? Because the universe is expanding!

This expansion is on the large scale, not a local one. It does not apply to our galaxy or even to the local group of galaxies surrounding us. But once we consider galaxies at distances involving half a million or more parsecs the situation is somewhat different. The farther away the galaxy, the greater is its speed of movement away from us. The most distant galaxies seen by man are moving away at over 200 million miles an hour. The speeds of these distant objects are so great that the light received here is considerably weakened, and it has been calculated that no light emitted from stars farther than 2,000 million parsecs will ever reach us. We will never see these stars, because they are ^moving away from us faster than the speed of light. So the sky is dark (or dim) at night because the universe expands. Had the universe been created static as far as intergalactic distances are concerned, life would have been impossible. ,

The universe expands for our good; in i fact, it is curious how everyday common- : place things are so closely related to large-scale aspects of the universe. The darkness of the sky at night and the gentleness of starlight are just two examples of the foresight of our loving and all-wise Creator.

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