Awake!, June 22, 1963
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Follow Godly Principles in Child Training
Earth's Sculptor—Ice or Water?
PAGE 8
The Challenge of the Blind
Latin America Worries the Catholic Church
JUNE 22, 1963
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources thot ore 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 toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains Integrity to truth.
“Awake!1' uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal's viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage is as broad os the earth and os high as the heavens.
“Awake!" pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of o delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a.righteous New World.
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CONTENTS
Quantity or Quality—Which?
Sound Sleep
Follow Godly Principles
in Child Training
Earth’s Sculptor—Ice or Water?
The Challenge of the Blind
Something New in Conventions
The Telephone Has Come a Long Way 17
Latin America Worries the
Catholic Church
Conquering Taiwan’s Mighty Giant 25 “Your Word Is Truth”
Jesus* Prophecies on the
Sign of His Presence
Watching the World
Volume XLIV
Brooklyn* N- Y.f Juno 22, 1963
Number 12
OR
WHICH?
Quantity or quality—which impresses you the most? Fallen human nature is prone to be impressed by quantity rather than by quality. Superlatives as to size or number may appeal to the inherent selfishness in man. But quantity is not everything.
While it often appears to be in the interest of some to stress quantity, the wise person knows that more often than not it is not in the fitness of things that the most goes with the best, or even that the most represents the best value. In fact, it might be said that nature has a way of compensating matters as to quantity and quality.
Thus the largest fruits and vegetables are not always the most tasty, nor do they necessarily contain the most vitamins and minerals. A traveler may be struck with the fact that in certain places fruits with which he is acquainted are smaller than those at home, but it may be true that they have a better flavor than fruits of larger size.
To be unduly impressed by quantity without reflecting as to quality is most immature. It calls to mind the young child that prefers three coins of small value to one coin of higher value. So, whenever a
bargain tempts you in food, clothing, furniture or something else, ask yourself, Is the quality such as to make it a bargain? At times, however, quantity must be considered before quality, such as when a father must feed and clothe a large family.
The question of quantity or
quality is by no means limited to the procuring of material things. For one thing, it applies to your work. Do you merely put in time or do you produce? Do you produce merely quantity or are you concerned with quality? The Bible encourages quality, as can be seen by its stress on the “man skillful in his work,” working “whole-souled," doing “hard work" and doing “good work.”—Prov. 22:29; Col. 3:23; Eph. 4:28.
Almost everyone is concerned with living many years. Yet, while long life is a blessing, what really counts is not so much how many years we live as what we do with our years. History records that among the composers of music who died young were Schubert, Mozart, Bizet and Mendelssohn. All died in their thirties. Yet what legacies they left behind in beautiful music for humankind to enjoy! The man who lived longer than any other mortal was Methuselah. His 969 years are, as far as the Bible record shows, his only claim to distinction. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived as a man only 3.5 percent as long, but look at what he accomplished in his thirty-three and a half years!—Gen. 5: 27; Luke 3:23.
The question of quantity or quality is particularly pertinent when it comes to considering the claims of a religious organization. Why? Because here numbers are not proof of true worship. Often they are an evidence of low standards. This is to be expected in view of the fact that “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one,” Satan the Devil. It has been that way from the time of ancient Babylon down to our day.—1 John 5:19; Rev. 12:9.
With good reason Jesus said: “Broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.” Regarding our very day he said: “Because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off.”—Matt. 7: 13,14;24:12.
Jesus said that his true followers would be distinguished, not by their numbers, but by their Christian fruits and brotherly love.—Matt. 7:20; John 13:34, 35.
Appreciating those words of Jesus are the witnesses of Jehovah. It has often been said that theirs is the fastest-growing religion. Whether this continues to be true year after year or not, let it be noted that they put the stress on quality, not on quantity, which they keep high by preaching and enforcing Bible principles among themselves. Among the many examples that might be given are the Witnesses in the Copperbelt of Northern Rhodesia, where the ratio of Witnesses to population is one of the highest in the world—five thousand Witnesses to one quarter million population, or one to fifty. But has this increase been at the cost of quality? Not by any means!
A recent publication entitled “Christians of the Copperbelt” stated that “the Watchtower families we learnt to know seemed to be exceptionally well-adjusted and happy together.” Why? Because the African Witnesses have embraced the Scriptural teachings regarding sex and marriage, and that with good results. And that this emphasis reached even to the children is apparent from what that report further said about them: “A schoolteacher said he could always easily discover children who belonged to the Watchtower when he taught a new class. ‘They are the ones who ask many questions? ” Yes, with the Witnesses Christian quality is of first importance.
The stress on quality is, without doubt, to be preferred in all affairs and aspects of life.
SOUND SLEEP
* According to a recent survey of nearly 2,500 people in the Glasgow and Dundee areas, Great Britain, it was found that women generally have more difficulty sleeping than their husbands do. Women lie awake longer before falling asleep, awaken more often during the night, feel more tired the next day and take more sleeping pills than do menfolk. Other results from the poll indicated that sixty out of every hundred persons sleep seven to eight hours, about twenty slumber nine hours or more and the remaining ones get less than seven hours of rest. After passing the age of sixty-five, many individuals could get along on five hours of sleep or less, due to a reduction in their dally activity.
Follow Godly Principles
—, 4-.
CHILD TRAINING
ANY parents
What principles? ’
How should they be applied?
C/Vi worry about what good will result? their young children and
wonder how they can bring them up to be true Christians and not delinquents. Ilie
Bible’s reasonable answer is that fathers and mothers should copy the example of “our Father in the heavens.” (Matt. 6:9) He is the Originator of the family and for our guidance he has set forth in the Bible sound principles for well-regulated families. Chief of these principles is love.
SHOWING LOVE
"God is love.” He brought forth children because he loved them. He did not choose to have a large family to gain personal prestige and standing, as is done in some countries. Nor did he decide to restrict his family to one or two for selfish reasons or because it is the fashion. His motive was entirely unselfish; he was concerned with the best interests of the children. Human parents can expect success in child training if their motive in having a family is true love for the young ones,—1 John 4:8.
This love must be enduring. It cannot wear off when the first thrill of parenthood wanes and the hard truth dawns that this is not just fun but hard work. That Jehovah has this enduring love is shown by the words of his first Son, the Logos: “I came to be the one he was specially fond of day by day, I being glad before him all the time." (Prov, 8:30) This constant, daily expression of love forged such a bond that Jehovah could have complete confidence in the obedience of his Son.
What father would not delight to have such a oneness with his son? It can be
done, but it must be built up through many years of close personal friendship, not just a few minutes of casual contact each day. It means being together as much as possible—if possible, at work, certainly in relaxation, in Bible study, prayer and worship, in hard times and good, in joy and sorrow. It calls for the highest personal integrity and example from the father, but this is an expression of love.
This also demands time, something that many parents, otherwise good providers, are reluctant to give freely. Loving means giving our time. What young man ever told his girl friend, “I don’t have time"? A child would hear this as *T don’t have time for you," and no one could blame him for interpreting it as “I don’t love you." A parent’s ungrudgingly giving his time to his child is an assurance of love to the child, and this is upbuilding.—1 Cor. 8:1.
Families founded on love stick together and do things together. This is Jehovah’s way, as shown in his instruction to Israel. (Deut. 6:7) In some countries of Africa and South America parents give away their children to other family members or friends to train and educate, persons who profess to be Christians even giving their children into the care of unbelievers who can give the young ones more material privileges. This is a wrong evaluation of things, as the Bible clearly shows that spiritual needs come first.—Matt. 5:3; 4:4; 6:33.
Nor is mis wrong animae confined to these countries. In some Scandinavian lands some allow their teen-age sons and daughters to leave the parental home in these highly impressionable years to live far away in homes of unbelievers for the purpose of getting training in some trade or profession, sometimes without even checking personally to see what kind of people their children will be living with. Also, in many Western lands parents who want to enjoy the privileges of marriage while retaining some of the freedom of singleness surrender their young children, sometimes several times a week, into the hands of baby-sitters, or allow children still in their teens to leave home and rent flats, either alone or with another youngster, thus exposing them to immoral temptations and shipwreck of their faith. These practices are clearly violations of the Bible requirements of parental love and family togetherness as well as of the principle that “each one will carry his own load?'—Gal. 6:5; 1 Tim. 1:19.
Real love “does not look for its own interests/’ choosing the easy course or what temporarily seems to be more expedient, but always puts the child’s spiritual welfare first. (1 Cor. 13:5) The child, of course, is often too immature to appreciate this view, and it requires the exercise of firmness on the part of the parent. This brings to mind another vital principle.
administering discipline
Why do children need discipline? The Bible answers: “Foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy; the rod of discipline is what will remove it far from him.” (Prov. 22:15) Our sinful tendencies, inherited from our first parents, make it easier for us to go wrong than to go right. Your son may not like discipline, but it is kinder to give it in his childhood, while his mind and heart are receptive, than to let him grow up in a fixed, sinful mold leading him to death. “True, no discipline seems for the present to be joyous, but grievous; yet afterward to those who have been trained by it it yields peaceable fruit, namely, righteousness.”—Heb. 12:11,
Once again we see Jehovah, the great Father, setting the example in this. “My son, do not belittle the discipline from Jehovah, neither give out when you are Corrected by him; for whom Jehovah loves he disciplines.” Yes, administering discipline is a requirement for every parent and is a sign of true love.—Heb. 12:5, 6.
Discipline should always be given according to right principle and not in outbursts caused by annoyance. Heavy-handed punishment of petty irritations is not good discipline. The big things to correct are violations of principles of headship, obedience and love of God and neighbor. Make sure, too, that the child knows just what is expected of him and what will merit punishment and correction. Be consistent. To condone or ignore something today and then punish it tomorrow will exasperate a child and make it downhearted and cause it to lose confidence in its parents.—Col. 3:21
Keep in mind that if discipline is to be profitable it must include instruction as well as punishment. Explain to the child why discipline is being given and what profit comes from obedience. Listen to his side of the matter if he has one. The worst criminal gets a hearing, so why not a mere erring child? Show him where he went wrong and how to correct it, and wherever possible support your counsel from the Bible, as this will teach the child to respect Jehovah’s law.—Heb. 12:10; 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17.
Love requires that parents be slow to anger, because the child will not leam everything the first time anymore than its parents do. Even though the same mistake is made over and over again, love calls for patient correction. (Matt. 18:21, 22) When you get weary, think of Jehovah’s repeated forgiveness of Israel and his patient correcting of them for many years. (Acts 13:18; Ex, 34:6, 7) So discipline should never be administered with rigid justice, but always with an allowance for mercy. Extremes have to be avoided. Harsh, severe discipline accompanied With shouting and a domineering attitude will not teach the child love of Jehovah.
t
COMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE
• On Whit Are You Building?
• Hung Kong Expands.
• North of the Arctic Circle.
• The Disease of "the End of the Road/’
• Speak Persuasively,
But neither will sentimentality, slackness in matters of principle, inconsistency, and failure to give correction, for these show just as much lack of love for the child as the former.—Jas. 2:13; Eph. 4:31; Prov. 23:13.
TEACHING THE “AUTHORITATIVE ADVICE OF JEHOVAH”
A third vital principle in child training is recorded at Ephesians 6:4: “And you, fathers, do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah.” So parental failure to teach God’s Word is what results in dissatisfied, irritated and unhappy children who are left without a goal in life and clear standards to live by. Even the very best secular education cannot begin to make up for lack of Bible teaching.
But where, today, can a child get a Bible education? Why, the same place Israelite children got it, as shown at Deuteronomy 6:7: “You must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.” Yes, from morning to night, inside the house and outside, the Bible puts the responsibility squarely upon the shoulders of the parents.
Note that this was not just a casual Bible reading. It had to be inculcated in the child. According to Webster’s Dictionary., this means ‘to teach and impress by frequent repetitions, to fix in the mind, to cause to become impressed or instilled with something.’ It indicated a planned schedule of daily Bible study, with regular reviews and repetitions until the young mind was properly impressed and instilled with love and respect for God and his Word. Do you have a family schedule-for Bible study? You must, if you are to fulfill your parental duty and raise a united, happy, Christian family.
This will make great demands on you as a teacher. You will have to develop new skill in instructing and in answering questions. It will be a test of your devotion to Jehovah and your love for your children. And you will have to be so aglow with God’s spirit that teaching will be a delight not only to you but to your children. —2 Tim. 4:2; Rom. 12:11.
Sooner or later your child is going to have to face the trials and temptations of this world alone. He will not always have you around to give him the answer. Without Bible training he will be in trouble. But if you have prepared him to make his own decisions on the basis of God's Word, then he will never bring shame on you or on Jehovah but will make straight paths for his feet.—Prov. 29:15; Heb. 12:13.
True, being a parent is not easy, but by training your children according to godly principles you can raise a fine Christian family and enjoy the approval of “our Father in the heavens.”
F^EW persons pause to question what is widely said about the so-called ice ages.
Were there really ice ages? Was it ice, rivers of ice, that dug deep valleys and canyons in the earth? Is it Scriptural, even reasonable, that slow-moving sheets of ice, vast glaciers, carved out the face of our planet?
Whatever they are called, glacial epochs or ice ages, they are a favorite shaping tool in the hands of many theorists. The last great ice age, it is said, covered about 27 percent of the world’s land area, blanketing Europe and North America with vast continental ice sheets.
Actually the teaching of ice ages rests upon the shaky foundation of speculation and unacceptable theory. How so?
Theories Fail to Inspire Confidence
In a book that teaches the theory of ice ages, 1001 Questions Answered About Earth Science, published in 1962, Richard M. Pearl asks the question as to what could cause ice ages. The answer:-“We do not know. There is a great deal of speculation, there are any number of scientific hypotheses, and there are even a few facts! Changing climate sounds at first like a simple enough explanation—just let the sun's heat decrease for a while, and glaciers should begin to form. But parts of the earth have turned cold without accompanying glaciation.”
What about this speculation that is offered to account for ice ages? How sound is it? The volume Geology, Principles and Processes concludes: “Many hypotheses have been offered to account for the climate which resulted in continental glaciation, but none is generally accepted.” Similarly, W. B. Wright declares in The Quaternary Ice Age:
It must be admitted that among the theories which have been brought forward to account for the phenomena of the Ice Ages, there is not a single one which meets the facts of the case In such a manner as to inspire confidence.
The Problem of Causes
Accounting for the extreme cold required to produce the ice ages is one of the great problems of the theory. Wherever factual evidence is found about the earth's past, it points to the fact that the earth once enjoyed a warm climate from pole to pole. Consider what Dr. F. H. Knowlton wrote in Relations of Paleobotany to Geology: “Relative uniformity, mildness and comparative equability of climate, accompanied by high humidity, have prevailed over the greater part of the Earth, extending to or into polar circles, during the greater part of geologic time since at least the Middle Paleozoic,” and paleozoic rocks are said to contain the earliest forms of life. So how did the change to a climate cold enough to produce ice ages come about? Was it slowly? No. The quick-frozen carcasses of mammoths in Arctic regions point to a climatic change of catastrophic quickness.
Yet no matter how quick or gradual was the formation of ice, the ice-age theorists are faced with the problem of water. From where did such a prodigious quantity of water come to produce vast ice sheets hundreds and thousands of feet thick to cover the land? The oceans are said to be the source. The theory involves evaporation, condensation and snow. The fallen snow is believed to have turned into ice sheets.
The supposition that glaciers were made slowly is not in agreement with the existence of the quick-frozen carcasses already referred to, and arguing that the glaciers were formed quickly from ocean waters provides no remedy either. The faster they were made the greater the heat of the climate needed to step up evaporation, so vital to the snowfall needed to create ice sheets. If we choose to allow twenty years for glacier making, staggering quantities of water would have to be liberated from the oceans into the atmosphere. Why, simple arithmetic shows that such exorbitant evaporation would require oceans to boil! All this, at a time when freezing temperatures are called for by the ice-age theory! And still it would not be fast enough to fit the facts.
Movements—Another Problem
Like causes, movement is a serious problem for the ice-age theory. How could ice sheets thousands of feet thick move over a thousand miles? The theory is that such a colossal ice sheet was not merely coasting but working all the way like a mammoth bulldozer. Do present glaciers operate that way?
Glaciers move only by virtue of the gradient of their mother mountain, down which they slide. The slant provides for movement much as a hill does for the skier. Visualize a tabletop: Imagine pouring a steady stream of sand on it. Pretend that the sand is ice-age snowfall. What happens? It piles into a hill that becomes higher and covers more area at its base as you continue to pour. As it gets higher the sand pours over itself, thus spreading the base wider. Similarly ice could “move’* by such a piling up of ice in the center, causing its base to spread out fanwise.
To provide a hill steep enough to sustain glacial movement of the alleged spread of the so-called Laurentide ice sheet of North America, let us imagine a high pile-up of ice. Let us say the height of the hill is two and a half miles (13,200 feet), since the ice that forms on it must travel vast distances. Each year great quantities of ice will need to form—so much that ice would creep downward, eventually causing an ice sheet to form three thousand miles in diameter, with its depth averaging 2,000 feet. The ice sheet of the last great ice age is thought to have been that thick or thicker.
Now to attain such an ice sheet in a period of a thousand years we will need to imagine tremendous winter snowfalls enveloping the central area of the ice mountain, say for an area 500 miles in diameter. We would need, mathematically, a yearly ice accumulation of 72 feet. This much ice would require about 720 feet of snow per year, season after season, decade after decade, without missing one such fantastic winter for a thousand years!
Grinding and Carrying Power
Besides the problems of causes and movement, there is this; How could ice grind and carry billions of tons of earth and stone? Says Sir Henry Howorth in The Glacial Nightmare and the Flood:
Ice^ polishes, st nates, and adds the veneer or polish to the surface, but its action as an erosive agent is merely superficial. Like the sandpaper employed by the cabinet-maker, or the burnisher applied by the sculptor, it merely finishes the surface. . . . Ice moving as a solid mass cannot transmit more than a certain pressure without crushing.
Ice, though not completely plastic, will mold itself to the surface upon which it lies, much like sealing wax; so its action certainly furnishes no evidence of glaciers' bulldozing our earth. Existing glaciers display within themselves this plastic quality, as evidenced by stones they have enveloped. Rather than shearing off these stones, the glaciers slide over them, continuing on their great white ways, much as a snail would creep over an obstruction in its path.
Even now glaciers are seen obeying the contour of their bed, not defying gravity and solid stones by climbing over the flanking mountains, much less crushing or moving them. The lake-shaping, valley-creating and mountain-making force attributed to laboring, tortoiselike glaciers is an unconvincing theory.
As far as carrying power, the glacier seems limited to what may fall onto it or be incidentally trapped within its frigid bowels. But piling boulders on one another in fantastic formations, some boulders weighing hundreds of tons, and perching them on the side of a granite hill, is something else. A slow-moving glacier would not throw boulders around like that. How much less would creeping glaciers shape the face of the earth! What is called the “drift”—sand, gravel, boulders—is located all over the globe, requiring a Herculean moving job, a lashing force of prodigious dimensions.
So, then, ice seems to have been only incidental to the shaping of the earth's crust
Power of Water in Violent Motion
Great driving waves of water in violent motion, on the other hand, are the most feasible force of nature that could crush and strew abroad tremendous rock formations. Racing as an uncontrolled flood, water levels cities in moments.
Flooding water at work is terrifying. Mighty waves have hit city walls, carrying pieces from them that weigh eight or ten tons forty or fifty yards. One swollen river developed such power that nine girders weighing eighty tons apiece were washed off their piers, one being carried two miles down river and nearly buried in sand—all in just six hours. Describing a flood in Britain, in July, 1829, R. Hewitt writes in From Earthquake} Fire and Flood:
Nothing could resist the flood. Cottagers fled in panic and stood helplessly by as they watched houses, farms and bridges, great mills and factories, sucked Into the water and demolished. One enormous wave lifted a 65-foot stone arch from a bridge bodily into the air and carried it forward on the flood for quite a distance. . . . The beautiful 340-foot bridge of Spey at Fochabers, with its four great arches, was also carried away by the flood. .. . Great boulders were washed down the valleys.
Such power could explain the widespread phenomenon of the “drift,” and yet these were merely local, small floods of short duration. But the great flood of Noah’s day Is something else; it was a global flood. Concerning that God-sent Flood, the Bible record says: "The waters overwhelmed the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be covered.” (Gen. 7:19) That flood was gathering depth and momentum, not for a few hours, but for forty violent days! Imagine whole continents of water thick with sediment as they surged about angrily, smashing mighty boulders together. What colossal awls and mighty chisels all this would prove to be! Here was a power that could dig deep valleys and canyons.
That Flood was a miraculous act of Jehovah God, of whom it is written: “He has founded the earth upon its established 'places.... The waters were standing above the very mountains. At your rebuke they began to flee; at the sound of your thunder they were sent running in panic— mountains proceeded to ascend, valley plains proceeded to descend—to the place that you have founded for them.'*—Ps. 104:5*8.
Earth's Climate Changes with Flood
What was the source of the vast waters that overwhelmed the earth in Noah’s day? The Bible account indicates that it was a great quantity of water that was suspended above the earth. We read at Genesis 1:7: “God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse.” Those waters that were “above the expanse” were doubtless responsible for a hothouse-like condition existing in the whole earth. They could let light and heat rays in, diffusing them everywhere, and keep the heat from escaping.
But when Almighty God caused this canopy of water to fall at the time of the Noachian flood, earth’s climate changed. It is first after the Flood that the Bible speaks of “cold and heat, and summer and winter.” (Gen. 8:22) So the Flood brought an end to the earthwide, mild climate and a quick change took place from hothouse temperatures to arctic coldness in the far northern and southern parts of the earth. In those areas, the water congealed to form vast icecaps. Many forms of animal life were destroyed and their carcasses were put into the deepfreeze of arctic ice so suddenly that grass they were eating did not have time to digest.
Ice-age theorists who hold that a gradual decrease in the earth’s climatic temperature caused the so-called ice ages, from ordinary winter snows, tend to ignore or play down the significance of such frozen carcasses. But the carcasses cannot be ignored. Too many of them have been found. Dolph Earl Hooker writes in Those Astounding Ice Ages:
In spite of long continued efforts to prove that ice sheets accumulated because climate had deteriorated, little if any actual evidence has been discovered to validate the theory. On the contrary, there is evidence that glacial ice appeared with catastrophic suddenness. There is evidence that at a time when temperate climatic conditions extended even into polar regions, the world, teeming with warmth-loving species of floral and animal life, was overwhelmed by fall of snow, ice and rain, so violent, so sudden, so chilling, that great numbers of creatures were forthwith destroyed; so vast, so violent that it brought to an abrupt end one geologic age and ushered in another.
The ice ages, then, rest upon a foundation of speculation; hence the theory is filled with misconception and exaggeration. The theorists have too much ice for too long a period, ice from the wrong cause and ice doing more earth-shaping than it can do!
Glaciers did develop in parts of the earth, such as the far northern and southern areas, as well as the high mountainous parts of the earth; but this came about after the Flood, after the sudden change in earth’s climate. Ice was only incidental to the shaping of the earth. The ice-age theorists flounder in a sea of speculation. Why so? Because they ignore God’s Word on the matter, and as God's prophet Jeremiah said: “They have rejected the very word of Jehovah, and what wisdom do they have?”—Jer. 8:9.
The Holy Scriptures, gouged canyons, strewn holders and frozen animal carcasses tell of the time when a catastrophic deluge poured down from on high. Raging water in the form of a global flood, not creeping ice, played the prime role as the natural force that was earth’s sculptor.
CC’iyrOT blindness, but the attitude of 11 the seeing to the blind is the hardest burden to bear,” said deaf-blind Helen Keller. It is not the handouts that count, or the sympathy, or the pity, but the fact that one is accepted as a normal human creature that brings the greatest joy to the blind. Sightless Bernice Clifton underscores this truth in her warm and candid autobiography None So Blind. In it she tells of her fiance bumping into her one afternoon. Apologizing, he said: “When I do a thing like that, honey, it's because I forget you can't see.” “That made me feel good,” Bernice said. “He was thinking of me as a normal individual, not as a blind person who needed special treatment.” To be accepted as a normal person and to have one’s reserve faculties developed to compensate for the visual loss is the hope of many blind. The big challenge to the seeing world is to see that such hopes are fulfilled.
Blind persons have the same emotional, physical and spiritual needs as those who can see. They not only have the need to be understood and loved, but they have the need to work and play as well. Responsibility is of an inestimable value to them. It does not give them a chance to bemoan their fate and slip into the snare of accepting an invalid’s life. The blind are often excellent homemakers. They wash dishes, cook, bake and serve food, often with elegant efficiency. Some can readily thread a needle, knit and sew, design and repair their own clothes. The women often wash and set their own hair. They dance and sing, attend theaters, go on picnics,
water-ski. In fact, there is very little that they cannot do.
As a rule blind people have a great love for the outdoors. On their hikes they may stop to pick huckleberries or strawberries. They enjoy the water lilies and the other wild flowers by feels and smells. They get the same sense of excitement as do the sighted. The grandeur of mountain scenery, the oceans in their various moods, the beauty of the desert in bloom, the glory of a setting sun, when described to them, are all unforgettable scenes that they cherish and enjoy most dearly. How they will laud the Maker of the eye when he restores sight to the blind in the kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ!—Prov. 20:12.
Blind children and blind young people behave very much like those with sight. There is the usual horseplay among them. They run and jump, skip rope, swing and swim, climb, tumble and roller-skate. Yes, they even canoe, bowl, play card games, dominoes, checkers and chess. At school they learn everything from reading and writing to trigonometry.
In other words, life for the blind can be as healthy and interesting as for the seeing, if they are properly prepared for work and play compatible with their physi*
take hikes, ride horseback, surf swim and cal condition, aptitudes and abilities.
The Problem and Causes
Despite these facts, the problem of blindness is no small one. To begin with, there is still considerable uncertainty about who can be considered blind. A number of people still think a blind person is one who cannot see at all. This, of course, is not true. In Britain a person is considered blind if he cannot read at a distance of more than three feet a test card that normal sight reads at sixty feet. In the United States a person is considered blind when he can see at twenty feet, with his better eye and with proper correction, only what one with normal vision can see at two hundred feet. There are many places in Europe where a person who is unable to count fingers at a distance of one meter in any circumstances is considered blind. So you see, a person can have limited vision and still be technically blind. He may even avoid the appearance of being blind, as many do.
In the British Commonwealth there are upward of 3,000,000 blind people. Some 600,000 inhabit Britain’s dependent territories; about 80,000 live in Ghana and Malaya. There are approximately 2,300,000 blind people in the Indian subcontinent; yet in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada put together there are only about 145,000. In England and Wales there are approximately 77,390 blind people, of whom 54 percent are over sixty-five years of age. In the United States the number of blind people exceeds 230,000 and nearly two-thirds of this estimated number are over sixty years of age. These facts show that blindness in a peculiar degree is a problem of old age and of the underdeveloped territories.
The causes of blindness in Great Britain, America and elsewhere are not easily determined. The chief specific causes appear to be cataracts, glaucoma and optic nerve atrophy. Tuberculosis, meningitis, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, tumors and cancers, vascular diseases and syphilis may also affect the sight to the extent of total blindness. Wars too have made their fateful contribution to the blind. Approximately 1,200 American military men were blinded in World War II.
In the northern parts of Ghana there are about 30,000 blind people, most of whom suffer from a disease called river blindness, which is caused by the bite of a fly bred in the tributaries of the Volta. A scheme to destroy the fly by insecticide is now in effect. Trachoma, one of the main causes of blindness in the British Commonwealth, is stubbornly yielding to research. Much visual loss in the world, however, is due to substandard living and lack of adequate medical care. A British report says: “There can be little doubt that with present medical knowledge two-thirds of the blindness in the Commonwealth’s less developed territories could be abolished in a comparatively short time, but at present there are only about 30 full-time government eye specialists in Britain’s Dependencies.”
Some say there is no telling what could be achieved for the blind through a proper expenditure of effort and resources by government and charitable agencies throughout the world. Although governments spend riches for making fantastic weapons of destruction, there is a shortage of funds for helping the blind and for efforts to diminish blindness.
Meeting the Challenge
Concern for the blind stretches back to the days of the ancient Hebrew patriarchs. Isaac, the son of Abraham, was cared for by his wife and children in his old age when “his eyes were too dim to see.” That was the way the blind were cared for in those days. (Gen. 27:1-4) Later, the law of Moses commanded: “Before a blind man you must not put an obstacle,” and “cursed is the one who causes the blind to go astray in the way.” (Lev. 19: 14; Dent. 27:18) But it was not until the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that it could be said: “The blind are seeing again.” (Matt 11:5) However, Jesus, who opened many blind eyes, gave no charge concerning them other than that man ‘must love his neighbor as himself.' The hope of the blind as well as of the sighted, Jesus taught, was not in some human scheme but in the kingdom of God.—Matt. 22:39; 6:9,10.
History offers more than enough proof that the blind have been loved little. In the Middle Ages in Europe and Asia opportunities for the blind were extremely limited, leaving them with no occupation or source of income. Many were rejected outright from society. They lived lonely lives. A few emerged as wandering minstrels, playing harps and pipes and singing songs.
If the blind seem not to have bettered their lot in life, the seeing world has only itself to blame. As in the past so today, it is not ready to accept them as fully employable. As a rule the blind worked at home or in isolated workshops sponsored by charitable organizations. In these segregated or “sheltered shops,” as they were sometimes called, they made rope mats, knitted shawls and stockings, weaved baskets or made brushes. As for developing high intellect and scholarly attainment among the blind, this was considered impossible until very recent years. Only the indomitable spirit of a few held open any hope of this possibility.
There was Nicholas Saunderson, blind from infancy, who braved all opposition to become the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a post he held for nearly thirty years. As a professor of physics he filled the position previously occupied by Sir Isaac Newton. Then there was John Metcalf, blind at six, who operated a stagecoach business. He became a road builder and a bridgebuilder. Volumes could be written about Francois Huber, who, although totally blind, undertook the study of bees. His discoveries were profound. The nuptial flight, the bee’s use of antennae, the genesis of swarms and the true meaning of periodic migrations were all his findings. By the time of his death in 1831, he was recognized as- the world's best authority on the life of bees.
Perhaps equally as remarkable were the achievements pf a young blind woman Melanie de Salignac who learned astronomy, algebra and geometry. And no doubt just as astounding were the accomplishments of Elizabeth Waldkirch. Although blind, she learned to speak and write Latin, French and German and kept up a voluminous correspondence in all three languages. She was also an exceptional musician, skilled at playing the violin, the flute and other instruments.
These and others proved beyond all doubt that the blind can master almost any skill, if properly taught. They paved a way for a life of greater opportunity for the blind, so that today blind men are doing research in chemistry, biochemistry and physics. A survey of forty-five blind college instructors shows them teaching classic and modem languages, music, history, economics, speech, philosophy and psychology, political science and government, religion, mathematics, physics, sociology, anthropology, chemistry, clinical medicine, engineering, geology, law and social science. A few of the blind are practicing law, medicine, physiotherapy, osteopathy and even building their own homes. In fact, one employer said: “Every time I think I have hit on some job that a blind man couldn’t conceivably hold, I find a blind man holding it,” Still the sighted world asks, as it did in the past, What can the blind do?
The Biffffest Obstacle
in the path of the sightless is not the job, but the attitude of the sighted world toward them. It continues to deny many of them an opportunity to prove their ability. “Overcoming employer prejudice is one of the major problems in placing blind labor/’ wrote D. H. Dabelstein in his article “Vocational Rehabilitation of the Blind?’ In many cases it is simply impossible to convince employers that the blind can do the work. For example, a blind attorney says: “They [the blind] could undoubtedly learn to do the work adequately but in many cases the training would be wasted as employers are reluctant to employ blind attorneys.” In the teaching profession the story is much the same. An instructor says: “I do not recommend this profession for blind people, but only because of almost universal and insuperable prejudice on the part of those who have the power to employ. The attitude of college students is fine.”
In industry employers argue that the blind worker would create new accident perils, or they say that the blind are happier when working among their own kind in a group situation. Blind people and many who work with them are firm that these objections are not sound. The results of integrated programs in most cases are making the traditional group arrangements distinctly uneconomical. As for accident perils, statistics show that blind employees have a lower accident rate and a higher attendance rate than the sighted. And if placed on the basis of matching ability and job requirements, the records reveal that the blind employee makes an efficient and productive worker. Yet only about 2 or 3 percent of the blind in the United States are holding normal jobs.
Those in the business of helping the blind are convinced that at least twenty times that many could be doing so if they had the chance. On the European continent industrial placement of the blind in factories with the seeing is even much less common than in America.
Nevertheless, progress is being made, however modest. Many activities that used to be closed to the sightless are now opening up to them. At rural training centers blind men have been successfully taught to grow crops and tend cattle and poultry. Many of these trainees are now farming their own strips of land and raising their own poultry. In Greece blind homeworkers compete with seeing home handworkers rather than with organized factory machine workers. In England and Wales a few new industries have been introduced to the blind, such as engineering, soapmaking, plastics, machine carpentry and upholstery. The number of blind factory workers and the range of clerical and professional employments for the blind remain narrow despite prolonged efforts to change the situation. W. M. Eagar in his work entitled “Blindness in Great Britain” says: “In Britain, as in other countries, we have far to go before blind people with more than manual ability have the choice of occupations they deserve.”
Will that day ever come? Will it arrive before that time when even in a physical way will come to pass the blessing of which the psalmist was inspired to write, namely: “Jehovah is opening the eyes of the blind ones; Jehovah is raising up the ones bowed down”? If the past is any indication of what the future holds for the blind, then there is a strong inclination to think not. God is still their only hope. —Ps. 146:8.
SOMETHING NEW IN CONVENTIONS
CONVENTION that travels to many cities, going around the world in a relatively short time—this is something new. Yes, never before has there been a convention like the Around-the-World Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is actually one assembly that stops at twenty-four different cities, as it moves around the world in just ten weeks!
What makes this assembly singular also is that not only do some of the main speakers travel with the assembly around the world but so also do a large body of delegates! Almost six hundred in number, they will also share in the assembly activities, as they circle the globe.
Known as the "Everlasting Good News” Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, this international convention begins in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (June 30-July 7), and then moves to New York city’s Yankee Stadium (July 7-14). As the assembly travels to London’s Rugby Union Ground, Twickenham (July 14-21), about a dozen regular-flight airplanes will carry some five hundred convention delegates on world tour to Europe. At the various cities in Europe where the assembly stops, such as London, Stockholm and Munich, more than eighty other delegates will join the group traveling with the assembly around the world.
Then as the assembly moves to other cities, the group of around-the-world-assembly delegates will travel by regular flights in jet airliners, sometimes by Boeing jets, at other times by DC-8’s, Comets or Caravelles. These jettraveling delegates will represent many countries at the assembly. They will be from Mexico, Canada, the United States, England, France, Denmark, Sweden, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, the Caribbean Islands and South America.
From city to city, the assembly will be thrill-ingly different in international flavor. At Delhi, India, for instance, there will be people of many different language groups, with many from outside India and others from places such as Ceylon and Mauritius,
The group of delegates on world tour will travel and stay together as much as possible. In fact, at Delhi, India, one hotel will house the large group of delegates. Likewise one hotel in Seoul, Korea, will provide rooms for about 450 delegates.
Another singular aspect of this assembly is that the delegates who go with it around the world will call on the homes of the local people to tell them about the good news of God's kingdom. They will also take educational tours In the various countries, which will help the delegates leant about local customs and religious practices. A high point of the tour will be a stop in Palestine, where the delegatesjwill see Jerusalem and the land where Jesus Christ himself preached the Kingdom good news.
Still another unusual aspect of this global assembly is the dual route it takes after reaching Bangkok, Thailand. One group of delegates, about 450, will go with the assembly to Hong Kong, then to the Philippines, Taiwan, on to Japan and then to Korea. Moving this large number of delegates within two days from Manila to Taiwan and from Japan to Korea will require special flight arrangements.
About 125 of the delegates will go with the assembly via the southern route, when the assembly stops at Singapore; Djakarta, Indonesia; Melbourne, Australia (August 16-20); Auckland, New Zealand (August 21-25), and Suva, Fiji; then on to Hawaii, where the two groups of delegates converge for the assembly, August 28-September 1, at the Waikiki Shell, Kapiolani Park, in Honolulu. Joining the assembly in Hawaii will also be delegates from the United States mainland, carried by seven chartered planes. There will also be many other Witnesses who are making their own travel arrangements to Hawaii, From Hawaii the assembly moves to the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, California, where the Around-the-World Assembly concludes September 1-8.
How can you participate in this singular assembly and benefit yourself spiritually? You may be able to attend the assembly as it comes to or near your locality. Wherever it Is held, there will be the feature lecture on the climactic day, a talk entitled "When God Is King over All the Earth.’’ Even though you may have to travel some distance to a convention city, it will be worth It for the spiritual benefits you will reap. Yes, do not miss the Around-the-World Assembly, something memorable and something new in conventions.
TyglUEPtffyN/z has come
rf AUGUST of 1960 a tremendous step was made in telephone communications.
A human voice in the form of radio energy was beamed at the new satellite Echo I and was picked up some 3,000 miles away in California. At the same time the voice' of a scientist in California was reflected. from the satellite and received in New Jersey. This marked the first telephone conversation via man-made satellite. The success of experiments like this prompted the vice-president of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company to predict that in 1964 telephone communications by satellite would be in commercial use.
It is anticipated that soon a system of orbiting satellites will handle the ever-increasing number of overseas phone calls, which are predicted to reach nearly 300,-000 a day by 1980. Already the present worldwide network of telephone wires is crowded with hundreds of millions of conversations daily. The world total of telephones has surpassed 150,000,000, and in the United States they are installed at the rate of 230,000 per month.
Its Beginning
It is almost unbelievable that just eighty-nine years ago the telephone was only an idea in the mind of a young twenty-eight-year-old teacher of deaf mutes. Alexander Graham Bell had the idea that if a current of electricity could be made to vary in intensity precisely as the air varies in density during the pro-
sound, human voice could be transmitted over wires. The sound waves produced by the human voice would be converted at one end of the wire into electrical oscillations, and they would speed along the wire to the other end, where they would be reconverted to sound waves. This was a new and revolutionary idea!
The way to make this idea workable dashed into Bell’s mind while conducting some unusual experiments during the summer of 1874. He had been experimenting with a human ear and part of a skull that he had obtained from a doctor friend. He noted that the ear drum, although small and thin, would send vibrations through heavy bones. This made him reason that if this tiny disc could vibrate a bone, then an iron disc could vibrate an iron rod, or at least an iron wire. So the picture formed in his mind of two iron discs, modeled after ear drums, set far apart and connected by an electric wire. Vibrations of sound at one end would be caught and reproduced at the other.
Once on the right track Bell devoted all his energies to developing this revolutionary idea. His efforts were rewarded on a hot, sultry afternoon the following June when the full twang of a clock spring was carried by electric current over a wire and reproduced at the other end. The telephone was born! But it had a long way to go. For forty long, exasperating weeks Bell and his assistant Thomas A. Watson toiled over their new invention, but it would only gasp and utter inarticulate noises. It could not convey speech; but finally, on March 10, 1876, it unexpectedly did: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.”
Rapid Development
As a new baby rapidly increases in its ability to speak after uttering its first words, so the telephone quickly improved in its ability to transmit speech. A few months later it was brought to the attention of the scientific world at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where it was hailed as an achievement of ‘'transcendent scientific interest?’ But the general concensus was that the telephone was merely a scientific toy with no practical value. The following year, when it was decided to sell Bell’s patents to Western Union for $100,000, President Orton refused the offer: “What use,” he asked pleasantly, “could this company make of an electrical toy?” That was, perhaps, one of the most regrettable mistakes a company ever has made. .
Soon the telephone’s potential began to be realized. By January of 1878 the first commercial switchboard was installed in New Haven, Connecticut, making it possible for the few telephone owners to ring an operator who would connect them with the person they wanted. In a short time many other cities had telephone service, and in 1884 the first long-distance telephone line was constructed, between New York and Boston, a distance of some two hundred miles. Six years later New York and Chicago were linked together, and on January 25, 1915, the epoc-making first transcontinental telephone call between New York and San Francisco was made by Watson and Bell. In 1927 the first commercial overseas telephone service, between New York and London, was opened for public use, and in 1935 the first around-the-world telephone call was made.
Although telephones were eventually installed in other countries, the telephone has enjoyed its greatest success in America. Even today the United States has 52 percent of the world’s total, with New York city having nearly as many as the entire country of Russia. Soon after the turn of the century their rapid increase in number made it necessary for New York city to employ more than 5,000 girls to operate the switchboards. One telephone spokesman explained that if the automatic dial system had not been put into use the telephone company would now “need to employ every girl graduate of every high school in New York city just to keep creaking along.”
Automatic Dial System
To solve the problem of increasing volume in calls, the first completely automatic dial system was installed in 1921, making it possible for telephone users to lift their receivers and dial their number without the aid of an operator. Today nearly all the telephones in the United States are on the dial system, but the changeover has not been made without opposition. When dial phones were installed in the Capitol in 1930 one senator tried unsuccessfully to push through a resolution to ban them. Said he: “I object to being transformed into one of the employees of the telephone company without compensation.”
But how is it that by dialing a number you can almost immediately contact the person in the city with whom you want to speak? It can be appreciated how in the old days an operator could make the connection by taking a plug attached to your line and inserting it into a socket on her switchboard, thereby connecting you with the number you wanted. But how is this done automatically?
The operation of modern electrical switching equipment is truly a marvel of ingenuity. When you pick up the receiver your call is automatically connected to a piece of equipment called a ‘‘sender,” which produces the dial tone. As you spin the dial, the sender, which is the heart, brains and memory of the system, records pulses generated by the turning dial. After registering the Information, it contacts an electrical scout, called a “marker*1 or “decoder,” which quickly analyzes the information and lets the sender know which route through the maze of electrical equipment the call can take to reach the desired number. The sender then triggers the operation of many electrically operated switches called “relays.” These relays serve the same purpose as a switchboard operator, automatically connecting you with the desired person.
Lifesaving Instrument
Many people look upon the telephone as an indispensable, lifesaving instrument, and not without good reason. Within seconds one can contact a doctor, the fire department or the police. In fact, help of practically any kind is at one’s very fingertips, which is especially comforting to invalids and older persons. But, then, even little babies have been known to save the lives of others by using the telephone.
For instance, not long ago a mother inadvertently locked herself in a closet. From behind the locked door she was able to coax her small child to take the phone off the hook and dial “O.” “Mamma/* the baby said, and the operator knew something was wrong. Help was sent, and soon mother was released. Every year some 30,-000 persons in the United States dial the operator for help.
Again it is the marvelous design of the telephone equipment that allows babies, or someone incoherent because of fright, to summon help. When one dials “O” the sender records ten pulses and passes the information to the decoder. The decoder understands that an operator is wanted and so finds a pathway to a switchboard. The sender and decoder then drop out of circuit to serve other calls, but the operator now has a permanent link with the caller. Even if the caller hangs up without giving her sufficient information, she can have a technician check the relays, and within minutes the name and address of the caller can be ascertained and help sent.
Direct Distance Dialing and
All Numbers Calling
Until recent years dialing was limited to local calls. If one wanted long distance, he had to call the operator. But now the majority of the telephones in the United States are equipped for long-distance dialing, and it is anticipated that in another couple of years virtually every phone will be in dial contact with every other phone. Even direct distance dialing to Europe and other continents is expected in the not too distant future.
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