January 8

Are You Learning to Think Clearly?

CLEAR thinking is a major factor in a successful life. It is of immense value in day-by-day living and decision-making, saving a person much time and expense.

However, even more importantly, the person who thinks clearly is helped to avoid deceptions and dangers that otherwise easily mislead the unwary. A clear outlook assists him to cope with otherwise thorny problems and situations in life.

Why Most People Do Not Think Clearly

Many people simply passively prefer to let others do their thinking for them. For most, therefore, the basic pattern of thinking is largely fixed by the community and the world in which they live. They think and act in a way similar to those around them. Even in relatively minor matters of life this is discernible, as advertising and the mass media dictate their viewpoint. And in major areas of life, the way other people do much of their thinking for them may be illustrated by what occurs in wartime.

When their home country publishes propaganda rallying the population to war, do most people carefully analyze all the issues involved in the conflict? Or, do they just accept what they are told to think? In writing about World War I, the late Winston Churchill observed: “Only a signal is needed to transform these multitudes of peaceful peasants and workmen into the mighty hosts which will tear each other to pieces.” He further observed that, told what to do, most people unthinkingly responded. (The World Crisis, Volume VI, page 93) Twenty-five years later another generation let the same kind of thinking lead them into a far greater conflict, World War II.

What has resulted to many persons because they allowed others to do their thinking for them? Millions have died or been maimed, often fighting wars on foreign soil over issues they did not understand. And now we see that the world’s pattern of thinking, and the efforts it has produced, have brought no lasting peace. In fact, the world is armed with far more devastating weapons today than it ever had before.

But are not some turning against the thinking behind such wars? Yes, many of the younger generation are rebelling against the “thinking” of their elders. Yet is the outlook of the youthful rebels really any clearer or more satisfying than that from which they seek to flee? Has their rebellion led them to anything truly better?

The “thinking” of world leaders at one extreme, and that of youthful rebels at the other, combine to show that man’s way of thinking is producing no lastingly desirable results. Perhaps you feel compelled to ask, ‘If that is so, then, how is clear thinking possible?’

A Definite Goal Needed for Clear Thinking

To learn to think clearly demands, first of all, that one have a purpose or goal in life. Why is that so?

Well, journeying through life can be likened to going on a trip; the more certain your destination, the more positive your routing can be. Suppose you live in Madrid (Spain) and you say you are going to Germany. That is a very broad goal and a number of alternate routes present themselves. However, traveling from Madrid to Berlin, Germany, greatly minimizes the number of different roads you might travel; it is a more precise goal. Thus, too, the more definite one’s goal in life, the more stable one’s thinking is likely to be.

Yet, did you know that very few individuals can state simply and clearly just what is their goal in life? A comment by Professor Aaron Levenstein at City College in New York city underscores how purposeless most people’s lives really are:

“People may have a vague understanding of their present position but they cannot make up their minds where they want to go. They live out their lives without a philosophy. They do not succeed in reaching any goal, because they have never set one up.”

While it is true, as Professor Levenstein says, that most people have no goal in life, is this not somewhat understandable? What lasting and satisfying goal does any part of the world really offer a person toward which he might guide his thinking?

On the other hand, a genuine Christian has the essentials for attaining such clear thinking. Why? Because he has a purpose in life, seeking, above all, to please God. Nevertheless, to enjoy the clear thinking that this makes possible, he must put forth a genuine effort. He needs to study the Bible. There he learns about the reward of eternal life in God’s righteous new order. His love of God and his desire to attain to the reward held out by God motivate him to conform to God’s high moral requirements and to quit being “fashioned after this system of things.” Thus he makes moral changes in his life and these often greatly aid his thinking, unburdening his conscience and mind of unnecessary loads brought on by an immoral life.​—Rom. 12:2.

However, some might ask, does not having a single goal in life result in a person’s having a “closed” mind instead of an “open” one? Let us see.

Usually when people speak of an “open” mind they are simply saying that they are tolerant of another’s views. But merely tolerating another’s views does not really require thinking, does it? In fact, a completely “open” mind could be likened to a pipe that lets just anything flow through it, even sewage. No self-respecting person wants a mind contaminated with garbage. So, he needs to be selective, he needs to sift out what he accepts into his mind. In short, he needs to think. However, he does not want to be so narrow or prejudicial that he refuses to consider facts that can improve his thinking.

A balance in his thinking is therefore necessary. As Professor Levenstein put it: “It is necessary to think both narrowly and broadly.” How do we do this?

The Benefit of Right Standards

By having a standard with which to measure new information presented one can achieve balanced thinking. An individual thereby controls what comes into his mind and is not diverted from achieving his goal, yet he does not close out worthwhile new information.

Here again a Christian has a source of great aid. How so? He has the Bible as a sure guide for his thinking. On the one hand, his mind is “open,” that is, receptive to new information from virtually every field of human endeavor, including the arts and sciences. He properly weighs such new information against his Biblical standard and fits it into his pattern of thinking. On the other hand, his mind is “closed” to information entirely inconsistent with his Bible-based goal; it can be rejected as not worthy of further attention.

Every day the clear-thinking person must filter or screen out that which is wrong and to which his mind is properly “closed.” Constant bombardment of propaganda from the public press, newspapers and magazines, as well as by books, television and radio programs, make this more essential now than ever before.

Of course, much that is published today immediately shows itself to be unworthy of one’s attention. Novels, plays, or television programs, for instance, that glorify sexual perversion, immorality or violence are among these. Catering to base desires, their purpose is usually to discourage worthwhile thinking, really numbing the mind in favor of unthinking passion.

But even those books and programs from which one does gain some useful information require the exercise of caution. They often subtly reveal a wrong trend of thinking, perhaps being influenced by unproved theories such as evolution. Thus some publications on child care, history, natural science, archaeology, medicine, psychology, grade-school textbooks and even some so-called Bible reference materials, make allusion to or presuppose evolution to be a “fact” when discussing their varied subjects. Here, particularly, the “open-minded” person must exercise caution when reading if he is to avoid being adversely influenced or, as some first-century proponents of wrong doctrine were described, becoming “mentally diseased.”​—1 Tim. 6:3-11.

Are you learning to think clearly? You have made a fine start if you have a definite goal in life and if you have a standard by which to judge new information brought to your attention. But you might say, ‘I do have a goal in life and a standard. It is not these big things that boggle my thinking. Rather, the multitude of small daily decisions​—these are what confuse me. How can I bestir my thinking faculties to cope with these smaller daily cares in the most efficient manner?’

[Picture on page 4]

RIGHT STANDARDS

GOAL IN LIFE

Thinking Aids for a Balky Brain

DOES your brain seem to balk when it comes to everyday thinking and decision-making? Perhaps you reason that “thinkers” are always scholars or geniuses. Well, that is not true. Most real thinkers are ordinary people who know how to cope with the countless multitude of day-by-day challenges facing them. What can aid you to develop the same ability?

Do You Keep All Your Goals in View?

As explained in the previous article, the basic aid to better thinking is to keep always in mind your overall purpose in life. When your main goal is lost from sight, thinking becomes uncertain.

But also important to prodding your thinking processes are what might be called secondary goals. Some day-by-day problems never get solved because people think only of long-range, principal goals, ignoring smaller yet important goals.

How secondary goals assist thinking can, again, be illustrated by a journey. The person traveling from Madrid, Spain, to Berlin, Germany, knows what is his main goal. However, he might wish to segment the trip into smaller sections, perhaps making stops at Toulouse and Paris, France. The overall trip then seems shorter and he has an immediate goal toward which to direct his thinking.

Similarly, with our lives. A person may know his primary goal in life. Keeping that foremost, he should, after carefully weighing his own circumstances, decide on certain subgoals. Working toward these makes his main goal seem to come easier and more rapidly.

Thus, while a Christian has the main goal of gaining God’s approval to life eternal, he wisely decides upon subgoals in life. A missionary conditions his thinking toward the goal of holding onto his privilege of teaching people in a foreign land. But, he might also set goals of learning his new language or the customs of the people better. Or, a Christian father, though he has the same primary goal as the missionary, may set a goal of building his family spiritually by a regular Bible study arrangement. On the other hand, his goal may be to balance their study program with family recreation.

Thereafter when either of these men considers a decision, he must not only think, ‘How will this affect my main goal in life?’ but also ask, ‘How will this affect any secondary goals I have?’ This helps to keep daily thinking straight, in focus.

In fact, people can greatly aid their thinking by giving each day a goal. Knowing that you would like to accomplish certain tasks within the day often prods you to consider how to do all things in the most efficient way. This, of course, means that each day must be planned.

Some persons find time to plan their day’s work by rising a little earlier in the morning or by staying up a little later the evening before. Others reclaim time otherwise lost to television for use in this way. Some take just a few minutes before leaving their job each day to lay out the next day’s activities.

One busy executive with nine children does much of his planning while on a commuter train. He says: ‘If I didn’t have that privacy each day, I‘d never do important thinking and daily programing.’

Do You Think Systematically?

Another help to budge a balking brain is to learn to think in a systematic way. This calls for trying to see every side of a matter. To learn how to do this, some have suggested approaching problems as though playing the game “Twenty Questions.” In this game a group or panel is given twenty chances to ferret out a subject on the moderator’s mind. The idea is to eliminate as many probabilities as possible with each question, progressively narrowing the field to a logical answer.

The game embodies a model of productive thinking, actually the principles of scientific research, namely, running through a list of questions to eliminate probabilities until one can single out an answer. An engineer reviews mentally whether a given problem can be solved by electric, hydraulic, chemical, mechanical or other means. A doctor making a diagnosis mentally runs through a list of diseases with similar symptoms, endeavoring by process of elimination to arrive at the right conclusion.

This process of ordered thinking can be illustrated with a family who, having decided to move to another location, set down a list of requirements with regard to a new home they must find: For example: (1) Do we want a house or an apartment? (2) A new one or an older one? (3) One or two stories? (4) Price not over what fixed amount? (5) In city or suburb? (6) Maximum distance from employment? (7) From schools? (8) From shopping facilities and other conveniences, and so forth?

Until the habit of approaching all problems systematically becomes ingrained in you, do not be embarrassed about employing a written checklist similar to this. Of course, such thinking can be learned by using it in connection with all your daily tasks, not just the major moves in life.

For instance, are you a thinking housewife? Instead of secretly envying so-called “talented” women, why not use the same thinking processes they must employ in order to do their work? Samm S. Baker in his book Your Key to Creative Thinking (1962) shows ways of doing this:

“A leading professor of psychology stated, ‘The capacity to create . . . is not limited to the highly gifted person, but is the birthright of every person of average talent.’ . . . If you’re a housewife, there are many creative challenges all about you, waiting to be solved for the convenience and enjoyment of your family. Consider something as simple as a clothes closet. You can permit a messy situation to develop, as in so many homes . . . Or, you can plan creatively so that everything has a clean, orderly place in the closet, saving time and temper for everyone in the family, and winning praise for yourself.”​—Pages 1, 17.

The same can be said for your cooking. One noted psychologist said: “To originate a first-rate soup is more creative than daubing a second-rate painting.”

Or, as a parent contemplating a vacation for your family, do you really stop to think the trip through? Do you consider all the possible problems that might arise as to your automobile? Clothing for a different climate? Entertainment for the children while you are driving, and so on?

Or, do you have difficulty in getting along with certain people? Have you thought about what definite steps to take that may possibly resolve the situation?

In every area of life, systematically thinking through whatever confronts you, consistent with your goals in life, is of immeasurable value in jarring a complacent brain.

Do You Balk at Decision-making?

Another aid to stir hesitant thinking is to remember that problems just do not “go away” as a result of putting them off or refusing to make a decision. Not making any decision at all, in effect, is itself to make a decision. Many persons who balk when faced with decisions, find that later on they are more difficult to make. Why do many have that tendency?

Some fear imagined consequences. Others recall past decisions, and, regretting the way things turned out, hesitate to make new ones. But suppose they had decided another way on those past decisions​—who can really say things would have worked out much better?

On the other hand, possibly you have made wrong decisions in the past. Should pride now stymie you from making future ones? No less a thinker than Albert Einstein said regarding his own conclusions from study: “I think and think, for months, for years, ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth I am right.” Fortunately, in personal decisions the average is often much higher than that.

However, as an aid in making proper and prompt decisions, ask yourself, ‘Am I willing to consider other people’s views, especially if they are in any way involved in the decision?’ A wise supervisor or family head appreciates that he is not the only one who knows how to think. Yes, even on the family level, each member may have something to contribute. Rudolph Flesch notes:

“If you want to pool quickly the viewpoints of various ages and sexes, stay right at home. The basis of clear thinking . . . is the realization that we think with our experience. The family . . . is the place to learn this once and for all. . . . Family team-work in thinking is common when it comes to big decisions like buying a new house. This is where husbands, wives and older children get together discussing the problem, weighing the pros and cons of possible solutions, planning with pencil and paper, and surveying the available factual information.”​—The Art of Clear Thinking (1951), pages 160, 163.

Of course, not only in major projects, but even in lesser ones it is a good idea to consult other people. The Biblical principle is true that “in the multitude of counselors there is accomplishment.” (Prov. 15:22) Considering other people’s advice also prevents one from making hasty or “snap” decisions. As another proverb reminds us, “everyone that is hasty surely heads for want.”​—Prov. 21:5.

Another source of information based on experience is reading material. Here one can benefit from the experience of the author, perhaps a person who has spent years in the field covered by his book or article. Nevertheless, if you read to get information before making a decision, be selective. Often only a small part of all that is published on a given subject is of real value to you. Keep clearly in mind the kind of information you want. Avoid tangents. In other words, rather than “speed reading” learn “speed thinking,” keeping your mind on your purpose.

Once you have a reasonable amount of facts gathered from reading and from discussion, and time has been spent on meditation, then make your decision. Finally, unless overpowering evidence to the contrary later presents itself, stick to what you have decided.​—Jas. 1:5-8.

By way of summary, to learn to think clearly requires riveting your mind to your primary goal in life, as well as setting up other, secondary, goals in life. Then as you go about handling daily problems, plan your work, think systematically and make decisions in a way that is consistent with your goals.

My Life as a Gypsy

As told to “Awake!” correspondent in Canada

“WHEN God paints his pictures you had better keep quiet. Look with your eyes, but keep your foolish tongue still!” My Aunt Lila counseled me in this way while I was still a young boy as we stood in awe of a particularly beautiful sunrise. This was typical Gypsy thinking regarding God and his marvelous creative works.

We believed in a Creator and had a sincere respect for him, even though in a simple, childish sort of way. Our philosophy of life was that the satisfying of our daily needs always depended on a Creator, God. Hence, we would never think of ill-treating the lovely creatures inhabiting the forests, streams, lakes and seas. They were his creations, and we were glad to recognize that fact.

A further part of our philosophy and way of life could be summed up in the old adage: “Tomorrow will always take care of itself!” For this reason our life was easygoing and generally peaceable. We would put forth effort to meet only present needs. With these satisfied, we would relax and enjoy life with our families and the closeknit society of our own people. We would use the world to make a living, but beyond that we would not involve ourselves with it. Its political squabbles were not our concern.

Life as a Gypsy Boy

From the East Anglia section of England, where I was born, I traveled with my aunt in a Gypsy group all over the British Isles. I was taught to have real respect for older persons, always addressing older males as “uncle” and older females as “aunt.” Never was I allowed to call them by their first names. In my later years I have always been grateful for the discipline given me whenever I was disrespectful of my aunt’s authority.

Gypsy children are never allowed to run loose, so I was not. My aunt loved me and kept me busy. She took me with her to pick watercress, mushrooms and berries, and the next day we would peddle these from house to house or take them to a nearby market.

Part of our making a living was for my aunt and me to go to farms to buy piles of manure. After putting it in bushel baskets, we would peddle it from door to door among people who had small flower or vegetable gardens.

During my early training, petty thievery was indulged in by my aunt and others in our camp. Hence, I learned dishonesty, including how to make shady deals to benefit myself financially. Once, while a youth, I befriended a lad whose parents were not Gypsies. His mother was dying of tuberculosis, and the family was so poor that they had little food to eat. Desiring to provide her with some strengthening nourishment, I took my friend along to a nearby chicken pen where we appropriated a nice plump hen. I gave it to my friend to take home, but the father made his son return the feathered booty to me upon learning that it had been stolen.

Early Religious Training and Views

My aunt’s simple faith in God always made a strong impression on my mind. At the end of day she would have me kneel beside her as she gave thanks to God as our daily Provider​—even though we may have stolen a rabbit or the mushrooms, watercress and berries from other people’s property!

Most Gypsies with whom I was familiar belonged to a religious denomination, such as the Methodist Church, the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church, but my aunt had no use for organized religion in any form. Her attitude toward the clergy of various denominations was one of disgust for their hypocrisy. This influenced my own religious thinking for many years. To her, some priests were hypocritical “so-and-so’s”; money-grabbing clergymen she viewed as “unclean as a goose’s excrement,” and she did not mind telling them so.

She also instilled in my young mind a strong distaste for violence. Never will I forget the scolding she gave me one day. A lady to whom we were selling goods had asked me what I was going to be when I grew up. Having been attracted by the uniforms on men in the armed services, I told her that I wanted to become a soldier. My aunt told me she never wanted to hear me say such a thing again, and if I ever did appear at her door in a military uniform I had better just keep on traveling! She impressed upon me that no human creature had the right to shed blood in man-made wars.

While growing up I began to observe the hypocrisy of the clergy for myself. World War II was approaching, and it became very evident how they shared in recruiting young men for war. One approached my aunt to ask her to let me join, and she told him off in no uncertain terms.

The more I came into association with so-called religious people, the more I was impressed with the hypocrisy of world religion. Young men would get drunk and indulge in wild revelries on a Saturday evening and then go to Mass on Sunday morning. The fact that they supposedly got their sins forgiven, only to carry on in the same immoral way in the days preceding the next Sunday Mass, disgusted me.

A Different Kind of Religion

By 1942 I was married. One day I came home and my wife told me that two women had called and talked to her about the Bible and its promises for a better future. Being inclined to ridicule anything that smacked of religion, I showed no desire to discuss the matter. Later, in northern Scotland, a man called at our camp and played a Gramophone record for my wife while I was away. It really impressed her that the man had the courage to play a record exposing world religion as a snare and a racket. My wife gave the man a meal before he went on his way.

Later, when we were around Newcastle in England again, my wife suggested we try to find these people because she felt they had spoken the truth. But shortly afterward we moved to Canada, where I thought it might be possible to make a better living.

Rearing Children

Meanwhile, I was raising my family. I took my son along with me in my business, which was then buying and selling scrap metal. When enough scrap metal was collected to sell to a dealer, I would give my boy a pile of his own and let him deal it off, but under my supervision to make sure he did not get gypped. Thus he was trained to make his way in life.

My wife provided our daughter typical Gypsy training, teaching her to cook, wash clothes, mend and care for a baby so that she would eventually make a good wife for a Gypsy husband. My wife also trained her in peddling linens. She would take her to the warehouses when making purchases so she could observe how this business was transacted. In addition, an uncle taught our daughter how to become adept at making flowers out of wood. Thus when accompanying her mother from house to house, if the linens were not accepted, she would offer her “flowers,” making a little money for herself.

Life in North America

While living in North America, I traveled with other Gypsies all over Canada, the United States and Mexico. We schemed up a way to make some “easy money” for ourselves. What we did was not a common practice among Gypsies in general, because, as a rule, they do not go in for such blatantly fraudulent practices.

We professed to be selling “smuggled” Oriental carpets. Going into a town, we would head straight for someone we knew had lots of cash​—the local priest! I would suggest that perhaps he might have friends who would also be interested, and, if so, he could get a carpet at an even lower price. Usually he referred us to the local doctor or funeral director. No priest we approached ever refused to buy our “smuggled” carpets, even when we told him they were “hot” merchandise. This further sickened me as far as having anything to do with so-called Christian religions.

A New Way of Life Opens Up

A few years went by until one day we were camped near Sarnia, Ontario. I was at home when a young woman called at our tent. The earnest way in which she talked and the things she spoke about roused my interest. A new system of things where people would live together in peace and unity and according to righteous principles was almost unbelievable! Upon leaving she promised to send a couple of men to speak to me further. Hence I told my wife that, if the men came, she was to hold them there should I be away. The young woman kept her word, and the day they called I was at home. Our discussion lasted for about five hours. When they left, my wife and I were convinced we had at last found “the truth.”

After that first long visit we saw the need to live by Bible principles. I turned to my wife and said: “What are we going to do with what we have buried under the floor of our tent?” My wife suggested: “Maybe we should throw it into the river.” My thought was that we should return the stolen goods to their rightful owner. That would be no easy job! Much danger and difficulty would be involved in returning two tons of lead ingots. Nevertheless, I think it must have been with Jehovah’s help that the task was finally done.

With regular visits from the two Witnesses we progressed in knowledge of God’s truth. Soon we could see that more was involved than just knowing the truth of God’s Word. Other big changes in our lives would have to come. One of these was to share in proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom, and at this point I could not see myself doing this. So I began to find fault with the things I was learning and to plague the Witnesses with unreasonable questions. However, the kindly answers that they gave me from the Bible left no way out. It was I who had to change, not the truth of the Bible!

Our children were not left out of our discussions. It was a family study from the beginning, and we moved along together to the point where my wife and I symbolized our dedication to Jehovah in 1954. In 1960 our children were baptized after making their own decision to serve their Creator in the days of their youth.

Later, my son married a Gypsy girl from Mexico named Paulina, who had originally learned God’s truth in Argentina. (See Awake!, December 8, 1962, page 23.) She has shared with her husband from time to time in preaching the good news of God’s kingdom full time. Our daughter has been a full-time proclaimer of God’s kingdom for about five years. She is now serving with a Cuban Spanish congregation in southern Florida.

A Time of Testing

Some years ago a time of testing came on us as a family. I had an experience in which I was severely disappointed in my Christian brothers. Perhaps I should have realized that they have shortcomings just as I do, but, instead, I allowed these to make me draw back from the service of my Creator, with whom I really had no reason to find fault. As a result, we left God’s truth for about four years.

Nevertheless, we often thought about the things we had learned from God’s Word and would freely talk about them. It seemed that the truth had touched us, and we could never again be the same kind of people we had been in the past. Even though we disassociated ourselves from God’s organization and told ourselves we were free once more to enjoy the Gypsy way of life, our consciences told us we had a responsibility to our Creator, Jehovah, and in some way we must try to repay him for providing us with his truth.

Our not adhering to God’s truth bothered us. Eventually we realized that there is only one way of true freedom and that is within the safe confines of Jehovah’s visible organization on earth. Only here could we have true Christian brothers and sisters, whom we needed and who needed us. The small congregation at Melville, Saskatchewan, was where we started associating again at the Kingdom Hall. The loving-kindness of our Christian brothers there in getting us started again in Jehovah’s precious service will never be forgotten. Since that time, and due to Jehovah’s goodness, we have never turned back or stopped trying to make our advancement manifest.

Superior to Gypsy Life

Even though we can never go back to Gypsy “freedom,” yet we have a high regard for them as a people. Though many still live according to quite good principles, yet a sizable number are now infected with the materialistic ideas of the Western world. No longer content with simple things, they want flashy cars and trailers and will even cheat and steal to get them. As a result, much of the carefree spirit of the Gypsies of yesteryear has been lost, and that to their own hurt.

No longer is it our desire to steal from our neighbors, but we sincerely try to help them know that “the blessing of Jehovah​—that is what makes rich, and he adds no pain with it.”​—Prov. 10:22.

How much we owe to the great God of truth for the Bible, which we now heartily accept, “not as the word of men [as the clergy of Christendom do], but, just as it truthfully is, as the word of God.”​—1 Thess. 2:13.

For this reason it is our earnest prayer that still others who now follow the Gypsy way of life may yet turn to the truth that will really set them free and thereby enjoy a superior way of life. (John 8:32) Also, it is my personal hope that one day soon I will see my dear Aunt Lila again, resurrected to life in God’s righteous new order. There I feel confident that her appreciation of Jehovah’s goodness and the beauties of his creation will continue increasing with each successive sunrise in a world without end.

Aqueducts​—Great Engineering Feats!

By “Awake!” correspondent in Portugal

DO YOU have usable water at your disposal in the amount you desire? Many a housewife still uses her daily supply sparingly, since it must be drawn from nearby streams, springs or a distant well. Others, perhaps, never give the matter a second thought because modern advancement has made water so accessible. But it has not always been that way. Do you know how many city folks got their water centuries ago?

Aqueducts are the answer. Ancient aqueducts were usually long, narrow, completely closed-in tunnels that provided an aboveground channel for water to flow freely from a natural spring to a city. The flow of water was gravitational, the aqueduct having a gradual slant of one or two feet per mile. Where valleys existed, it was necessary to build a structure, in bridge-type form, that would carry the water on the same downhill slant. When the watercourse encountered hills or mountains, this required boring a hole right through the mountain.

Clearly, good engineering plans were necessary. The Bible relates that Hezekiah, king of Judah (745-716 B.C.E.), directed the building of an outstanding aqueduct cut through solid rock. He did this by using two teams of men working toward each other from opposite ends until they met in the middle. And this was no small tunnel, its average height being six feet and its length some 1,749 feet, or about a third of a mile!

Roman Aqueducts

The Romans later perfected the design of aqueducts and built scores of these in all parts of their vast empire. Long stretches of arches still stand as monuments to Rome’s engineering ability. Anyone who visits Europe can see them. One ancient aqueduct is at Pont du Gard, Nîmes, France. At Segovia, Spain, a magnificent 2,700-foot-long aqueduct built under Emperor Trajan (98-117 C.E.) is still in working order.

The amount of water transported by these aqueducts was tremendous. In 97 C.E. the nine aqueducts feeding Rome are said to have provided the city with a daily supply of some 38,000,000 U.S.A. gallons within its walls and another 20,000,000 gallons outside the walls! In those days water was a free gift to the community, no one having to pay for it. As for the building and maintenance expenses, these were generally paid from the spoils of war, the imperial treasury or by some wealthy benefactors. So it was that ancient Rome became famous for its public fountains, taps and baths.

Portugal’s Aqueducts

Some of Portugal’s many aqueducts were built by the Romans, such as those at Beja and Conimbriga. Most, however, have been constructed since the fifteenth century. A truly remarkable structure is the Vila do Conde aqueduct, which was built in 1350 C.E. and had a total of 999 elegantly designed arches. Another imposing sight is the Elvas aqueduct, consisting of no less than four tiers of arches spanning a deep ravine.

The city of Lisbon is gifted with the country’s most famous aqueduct, still operational, with tourists and local citizens alike appreciating the remarkable sight it affords. In 1731 C.E., a decree was issued by King D. João to build this aqueduct. It was really needed, for obtaining water at that time was indeed a daily challenge.

Imagine yourself in Lisbon some 250 years ago. Almost everyone is required to go to the central city tap to obtain a daily supply. Private consumers with their own wells are relatively few and highly privileged. So with two clay jugs in hand we walk to the city public water tap. What a large crowd is already gathered!

Although most people patiently wait their turn, some are rowdy and try to push and shove their way past others. Fights and brawls are almost a daily occurrence, and some people have been killed! Finally reaching the tap, we anxiously fill our jugs and quickly leave the crowd. Reflecting for a moment on the man in charge of the tap, we readily admit he has quite a job. Gladly we head home, thankful to have our daily supply​—only eight quarts for all our needs!

No wonder work on the aqueduct was hailed as most welcome news to Lisboners. Building costs were met by applying a special tax on the purchase of such basic local items as salt, olive oil, wine, meat and straw. When finally completed some twenty years later, fresh water flowed to the city in quantity from the springs at Caneças, a distance of eleven miles.

The water is presently conveyed through hills by subterranean tunnels and across many ravines and valleys. The aqueduct system has been enlarged to bring water from thirty-six miles of tributaries, using a total of 127 arches in all. How majestic are the thirty-five high arches spanning the Alcântara valley in Lisbon, the largest central span being an arch 108 feet wide and 226 feet high, or equal in height to a twenty-two-story building! What a contrast today to see this old Lisbon aqueduct well lighted at night, stretching across the edge of the city, with modern highways passing under its arches. Appropriately, it is called the “Āguas Livres Aqueduct,” which means “Free Waters Aqueduct,” depicting the unobstructed flow of water to the citizenry.

Come with us to have a look inside this aqueduct. We are taken on top of the high arches covering the Alcântara valley and are surprised to learn that the aqueduct also served as a walkway for pedestrian traffic across the valley. Both sides of the water channel have a parapet wall protecting pedestrians from falling over the edge.

As yet we see no water, though, since the watercourse is completely covered. At regular intervals we observe small square towers on the aqueduct, each having a door that gives access to the water itself. Peeking inside one of these doors, we see the fresh water flowing down the channel​—and how fast it flows! To our surprise we can enter the covered area and find ourselves actually inside the aqueduct.

Imagine, the tunnel is thirteen feet high! Parallel to the water a small walkway has been built. This is used by workmen for repairing any damages. A small notch in the wall contains a little clay mug, and we are offered a sample of this water. Oh, how refreshing and good it tastes! The flowing water is not too deep, only about seven inches, and the watercourse itself is no more than a yard wide. The aqueduct finally terminates in the heart of the city in a reservoir. Of course, this aqueduct is no longer Lisbon’s only source of water, since modern systems have long replaced gravitational methods.

Another indication of water distribution in bygone days is the many public water taps still functioning in Lisbon. As water supplies became more abundant and the population grew, many fine public taps were constructed. Interestingly, Lisbon city hall documents reveal much about the methods used to distribute water in the eighteenth century.

Each public water tap had a number of licensed men who would distribute drinkable water to householders by carrying an eight-gallon wooden barrel on their backs. Nondrinkable water was also sold on a house-to-house basis, but the water sellers attempting to sell such water as being drinkable were subject to heavy fines. Thus began the practice of paying for water delivered to one’s home. In Lisbon, even to this day some public wash tanks function where those not privileged to have running water in their home may go to care for the family laundry. Many also still use public baths.

Modern Aqueducts

In comparison with ancient aqueducts built mostly from masonry, wooden pipes or even bamboo material, modern aqueducts are colossal engineering undertakings, and may include canals, pipelines and tunnels. With urban growth and development producing sprawling cities having a population numbering into millions, man’s capacity to furnish an adequate water supply has been challenged. Outstanding accomplishments can be seen in the states of New York and California.

New York city produced the gigantic Catskill aqueduct to bring 500,000,000 gallons a day to that city. A commission was organized to guarantee the water supply of some fourteen cities in Southern California. The result was the notable Colorado River aqueduct, which brings water by pressure some 240 miles over several mountain ranges. This project involved the construction of three concrete dams, and five large pumping plants to lift water a total of 1,617 feet. Now a California State Water Project is being built that will dwarf any civil engineering job ever undertaken to transport water.

Without doubt, everyone appreciates that water is essential. Do you know, however, that there is more than one kind of “water”?

To a Samaritan woman who came to draw her daily water supply from a well, Jesus Christ said: “Everyone drinking from this water will get thirsty again. Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty at all, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water bubbling up to impart everlasting life.”​—John 4:13, 14.

This “water” is God’s provisions for gaining eternal life through Jesus Christ. Many have found such symbolic “water,” to their everlasting joy. We hope you too will have the curiosity to look for and to find this “water of life.”​—Rev. 22:1.

How Christendom Became Trinitarian

EVER since the Vatican II Ecumenical Council, a division is becoming more and more manifest within the Roman Catholic Church. On the one side are those who do not want any changes to be made, and on the other side are those who are impatient because more changes are not taking place. As one Jesuit publication put it: “For some Catholics, the changes are going too far and too fast, and look as if they will go farther and faster. For others, the changes are too little and too late, and there is no hope of stepping up the tempo.”

The very first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church was held in Nicaea in 325 C.E., and it also started a great controversy within the Catholic Church. What was that controversy all about? The issue then was the Trinity doctrine.

Regarding that situation, a modern historian writes: “Two groups of theologians were of such wide influence that practically they split Christianity into two camps, which were theological and political rivals for two centuries [and more!]. These were the ‘orthodox’ group led by Athanasius, an archdeacon of the church in Alexandria, and the Arians, so called from Arius, a deacon in the same church. . . . The Athanasians were doctrinally trinitarians; the Arians, unitarians.” The Latin West, with its headquarters in Rome, was almost wholly Athanasian, whereas the Hellenized or Grecianized Eastern part of the Roman Empire was largely Arian, with its headquarters eventually at Constantinople.

What did the Arians believe? They held to “the doctrine that Christ the Son is subordinate to God the Father, and of different substance, because Christ was created by God and so came into being after God.”a

And what did the Trinitarians believe? Their doctrine is defined today as “the threefold personality of the one Divine Being,” in which ‘God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost’ are said to be of the same substance, coequal, and alike uncreated and omnipotent.

However, it is generally admitted that the Trinity teaching was a gradual development. Thus Cardinal Newman wrote that the creeds before Constantine’s time did not make any mention of it. “They make mention indeed of a Three; but that there is any mystery in the doctrine, that the Three are One, that They are coequal, coeternal, all increate, all omnipotent, all incomprehensible, is not stated, and never could be gathered from them.”​—The Development of Christian Doctrine, page 15.

A modern leading Roman Catholic authority testifies in a similar vein: “It is difficult, in the second half of the 20th century, to offer a clear, objective, and straightforward account of the revelation, doctrinal evolution, and theological elaboration of the mystery of the Trinity. . . . One should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification. . . . When one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century.”​—The New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967), Vol. XIV, page 295.

Constantine and Nicaea

Constantine professed to be converted to so-called Christianity, doubtless as much due to political factors as religious ones. It therefore was very disturbing to him to see this doctrinal division, he viewing it as a threat to the unity of his empire. So as Pontifex Maximus, that is, Chief Religious Ruler, he summoned the first Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 C.E. Although he had not as yet been baptized as a Christian, he presided over this council to which only some 318 bishops came; with their attendants the gathering may have numbered between 1,500 and 2,000.

For about two months the Trinitarians and the Arians wrangled, the Trinitarians often resorting to extremely intolerant tactics. Constantine, noting that the Trinitarians were in the majority, decided in their favor. He “crushed the opposition among the bishops and demanded the signature of all present under the penalty of banishment. Only two bishops of Libya refused; together with Arius and the priests who remained faithful to him, they were exiled to Illyricum,” a territory corresponding to western Yugoslavia today. Arius’ writings were seized, burned, and, upon the penalty of death, all were warned against possessing any of them.

But the triumph of Athanasius and his Trinitarians was short-lived. Constantine, having decided in favor of the Trinitarians, most likely for political reasons, was just as ready to change when the political climate seemed to shift. And thus it occurred when Constantine, just a few years later, moved his capital to Byzantium and built the city bearing his name, Constantinople. Here Arianism was strong, the bishops from this area having signed the Nicene statement only because of fear.

The leading bishop in Constantinople, Eusebius of Nicomedia, was an Arian, and he succeeded in causing Constantine to change doctrinal horses, so to speak. Now it was the Trinitarians that were banned. In 335 Constantine banished Athanasius to Treves, in Gaul (France). Shortly thereafter, and just before he died, Constantine was baptized by Arian bishop Eusebius.

Constantine left the empire to his heirs, some nephews and his three sons, Constantine II, Constantius and Constans. The sons at once got rid of the other heirs and then fought it out among themselves. The one finally to win out was Constantius, a convinced Arian who gradually gained control of the entire empire, East and West, upon the death of his Trinitarian brothers. Out to advance Arianism, he ordered Trinitarian bishops to be replaced with Arian bishops, which changes caused a pagan historian of the times to mock that “the highways were covered with galloping bishops.”

The Trinitarians Finally Win

This Arian domination, however, lasted only until the death of Constantius, for the Trinitarians were still in the majority. This should not seem surprising since, with Satan as the “god of this system of things,” error is generally more popular than truth. (2 Cor. 4:4) Also accounting for the Arians losing out was the fact that they themselves were not unified. They did not endorse a common statement or creed as expressing their beliefs nor did they have a governing body to which to appeal. So they were divided, and how can ‘a house divided against itself stand’?​—Matt. 12:25.

But perhaps as much as anything that caused Trinitarians to win out over Arians was that the former were ever ready to resort to violence and force to gain their ends. When Arius got up to speak at the Nicaean Council, we are told, a certain Nicholas of Myra hit him in the face, and, while Arius was speaking, many of the Trinitarian bishops stuck their fingers in their ears and ran out as if horrified at his heresies. Also typical of the intolerance of the Trinitarians was the sit-down strike that Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, maneuvered so as to prevent even one church building in his city from being turned over to the Arians, as ordered by Emperor Valentinian. Ambrose had his flock remain in the building day and night, singing songs, for two weeks, until the emperor finally yielded to his demand.

Bearing similar testimony to the violent intolerance of the Trinitarians as an effective weapon against the Arians are the contrasting statements made by two of the most noted of Germanic ‘barbarian’ rulers. Clovis, king of the Franks, who embraced Roman Catholic orthodoxy and therefore Trinitarianism, proceeded against the Arian Visigoths in Gaul, saying: “It grieves me that these Arians should hold part of Gaul. Let us march, with the help of God, and reduce them to subjection.” And reduce them to subjection he did. Concerning the harvest that followed this sowing of intolerance, we read that it “is a tale of cruelty, avarice, and treachery, of debauched kings and vindictive queens, for whom [pope] Gregory sought excuses because of their defense of Catholic orthodoxy.”

In striking contrast to the intolerance of orthodox Clovis stood Arian Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. Zeno, the Roman emperor in the East, commissioned him to take the Italian peninsula, it being held at the time by a king who did not recognize Zeno as ruling over both the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire. Theodoric conquered Italy, but, as regards religion, his policy was: “Religion is a thing which the king cannot command, because no man can be compelled to believe against his will.”

Another factor that worked in favor of the Trinitarians was that of monasticism, that is, having men lead celibate lives in monasteries. Athanasius was the first prominent Roman Catholic theologian to promote monasticism. Monks not only were a stronghold of Trinitarianism but were ever ready to resort to violence in their zeal for their Trinitarian beliefs.

The fact that the Germanic warriors who invaded the Roman Empire, both its eastern and its western parts, were Arians also worked in favor of the Trinitarians. How did it come about that these ‘barbarians’ were Arians? Because they had been converted by an Arian bishop, Ulfilas. So to espouse Arianism was construed as sympathizing with these invaders.

Perhaps the severest blow against the Arians was delivered by Emperor Theodosius. By means of the official decrees of 391-392 C.E., he imposed Roman Catholic orthodoxy upon all “Christians” and deprived the Arians, as well as all pagans, of their houses of worship. Says a historian: “The legal triumph of the church over heresy [Arianism] and paganism and its evolution from a persecuted sect to a persecuting state church were complete.”

The Arian ‘Barbarians’

From the fifth century on, there were no longer any Arian Roman emperors. However, this did not mark the end of Arianism as a national religion. Far from it! After the death of Theodosius, Rome again became the prey of Arian German invaders who swooped down from the north. Says a Roman Catholic authority: “Despite some persecution, Christianity in this [Arian] form spread with remarkable vigor from the Goths to the neighboring tribes. . . . When they invaded the West and established the various Germanic kingdoms, most of the tribes professed [Arianism] as their national religion and in some instances persecuted those among the Roman population who professed Catholic orthodoxy. . . . But gradually the [Roman] Catholic Church succeeded in eliminating Arianism. In some instances this was achieved by military action that all but wiped out the Germanic element.” This took place during the reign of Emperor Justinian, whose ambition it was to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory and who was notorious for his persecution, not only of the Arians, but also of the Jews and the Samaritans. He even forbade the Jews to read their Scriptures in Hebrew!

But Justinian did not make an end of Arianism. Rome was to have still more to do with the Germanic barbarians, for a few years after Justinian’s death the Lombards, said to have been one of the fiercest of all the Germanic tribes, invaded Italy. Before long they had the greater part of the Italian peninsula under their control. Then in the middle of the seventh century, for one reason or another, the Lombards gradually became Trinitarian Roman Catholics, and so, while they kept on making trouble for the papacy, it was on political or territorial grounds, not religious ones.

Concerning this period we read: “In the ensuing debacle, fortunes alternated, more often as a consequence of political shifts and civil patronage than theological argument.” And as another authority puts it, Arianism “maintained itself for two centuries longer, though more as a matter of accident than choice and conviction.” Incidentally, all such political and military activity on the part of the Arians refutes the charge of some that the nonpolitical, peace-loving Christian witnesses of Jehovah are Arians.

As we note what history has to say about the political activities of the Trinitarians and of the Arians, we cannot help but be impressed with how accurately both Jesus and his apostles foretold what would happen to the Christian congregation. As Jesus put it in one of his parables: “While men were sleeping, his enemy came and oversowed weeds in among the wheat.” And so it was that the field that was originally a wheat field became a weed patch. (Matt. 13:25) And, considering what greed and violence these displayed, one appreciates how accurately the apostle Paul foretold these events: “I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness.” Included among those packs of wolves were both Trinitarians and Arians, the former being the fiercer of the two!​—Acts 20:29.

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 17]

Symbol of the Trinity, as it appears in the Catholic church of Tagnon, France

Snail Fever​—Slow Death for Millions

By “Awake!” correspondent in Liberia

IF A vicious enemy came to your home to kill you off inch by inch, would you let him in? Unwittingly millions around the world do just that when they expose themselves to the disease known as schistosomiasis or snail fever.

In parts of Africa, the Orient and Latin America, an estimated two to three hundred million people are infected. More get infected or are reinfected every day because of carelessness or ignorance. What is the cause of this debilitating disease?

The enemy in this case is three species of microscopic worms called schistosomes, from which the disease gets it name, schistosomiasis. These multiply by the hundreds inside several species of freshwater snails. The Oriental variety is attracted to almost any mammal. The other two types depend almost exclusively on man for survival. Within two days of leaving the snail these small fork-tailed worms or flukes must find suitable flesh in which to burrow, or they die. But how do they get inside the human body?

These tiny “arrows” secrete an enzyme or chemical that, in effect, digests a hole through the skin of a person who has been wading in infected waters. This brings on itching and blisters. Then they sink into the flesh until they reach the bloodstream and eventually the liver.

Within several months they are sexually mature, measuring from one fourth of an inch to one inch long. During this incubation period the person infected is essentially symptom free. Now, however, this dreaded enemy is ready to kill his victim slowly. How does this occur?

Effect of the Worms on the Body

After copulation the worms travel from the liver through the portal veins to the smaller blood vessels of the abdominal organs. Here the female produces from 300 to 3,500 eggs a day, and this for as many as 10 to 30 years, unless killed by medication. Feeding on the nutrients of the blood and living in the bloodstream, they are in a constant supply of food.

When egg production starts, the one infected goes into the acute stage of the disease, which is four to six weeks after being invaded by “schisto.” Severe headache, general weakness, high fever and diarrhea are experienced, along with blood in the urine. While some eggs are excreted in the feces, the majority of them are carried by the bloodstream to the liver, spleen, bladder and sometimes the brain.

The accumulating eggs, along with the live and dead worms, mass together in these organs and blood vessels and bring on the chronic stages of the illness. The defensive mechanism of the body fights a losing battle against the invasion as the bloodstream gets more and more polluted. Slow and agonizing death processes have, now set in. Life may be prolonged for several decades, depending upon the worm load and treatments received, but the victim’s resistance and strength are so weakened that premature death is usually just a matter of time.

But what of those eggs that are passed from the body when the one infected goes to the toilet? Very often they are excreted in waters where the host snails live. The eggs soon hatch and the released larvae quickly seek out a snail and burrow themselves into its soft flesh to keep alive, starting the cycle anew.

Efforts to Control the Disease

The answer to the problem would seem to be educating people on what they can do to protect themselves from this disease and to prevent its spread. But the efforts of doctors and health officials are often met with indifference. So many are infected in endemic areas that it is considered normal for everyone to have the chronic troubles associated with the disease. As a World Health Organization (WHO) report admitted: “It is hard to change people’s habits.”

However, if a person really cares for himself and his fellowman, he will be motivated to comply with common-sense protection measures. The same WHO report pointed out: “If human wastes are kept away from water then the snail cannot become infected. Bilharziasis [another name for the disease] would soon disappear if everybody used latrines (communal toilets).”

Efforts are being put forth to control the disease by developing poisons that kill the snails. But this is difficult, since other animal and plant life is often affected by the same chemicals. A measure of success has been had by introducing predators that eat up the snails in the streams. A few countries are making progress in stabilizing the spread of the disease. But some authorities feel that schistosomiasis may pass malaria as the world’s number one parasitic health problem. The opening of many new irrigation ditches and huge man-made lakes in recent years concerns health officials.

But where communities are slow to take action to stop snail fever, what can a person do to protect himself?

Protecting Yourself Against Infection

Check with health officers in your area to see if local waters are infested with harmful parasites. In Africa, relatively few stream are free from schistosomes. For home use, well water is best. If it is necessary to take water from a stream, a fast-moving one is safer, since the delicate flukes are easily killed in a rapid current. Boil drinking water for at least fifteen minutes. Storing water in tubs for forty-eight hours will destroy any schistosomes therein. But care should be exercised in fetching the water. If exposed to the parasite, quickly drying off briskly with a towel will help to prevent infection.

Unless one is certain that “schisto” is not present, do not bathe or wash in a stream. This is a factor to consider, too, in selecting baptism sites. The parasite does not survive in salt water, thus the ocean is free of this pest. Steps should be taken to keep one’s rice fields or canals from contamination. Wear rubber boots when fishing or otherwise wading in strange waters. Use care, however, in removing them.

If a person suspects that he has contracted “schisto,” it is wise to consult a doctor. It is easier to treat, and less damage is done to the body, if treated soon. The standard treatment for years has been the giving of antimonial drugs by injections over a period of days, a painful and somewhat dangerous process. All the more reason to avoid this disease. Some significant advancements have been made in improved methods of eliminating the worms from the body, but very little can be done to repair the serious damage done to the body organs in the chronic stage. Moreover, it does little good to divest the body of worms if the victim goes right back into infested waters to become infected with “schisto” again.

So for your own good keep this lethal enemy​—snail fever—​from taking up residence in your body. This will spare you much pain and help you to enjoy longer life.

[Diagram on page 21]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Man infects the snail; the snail infects man. Man has the power to break the cycle and eliminate snail fever

EGG

SNAIL

FLUKES

MAN

Bamboo​—Asia’s Towering Grass

By “Awake!” correspondent in Taiwan

BEHIND my house the grass is a respectable one and a half inches high. At the side it towers twenty feet and more! Yet that twenty-foot grass is only a fraction of the height of some grass of this kind. Some varieties may stand as high as 120 feet and have stems a foot in diameter. And there is a climbing variety that grows to two hundred feet!

My house hugs the edge of a bamboo thicket, and bamboo is the tallest member of the grass family. From the upper story of my house I look out above this feathery forest of grass. Butterflies dance across these “treetops.” Birds seldom leave the muted light and shade beneath. Only their calls and songs divulge that they are there.

Bamboo is most abundant in Asia. China alone grows more than 160 varieties. But bamboo also grows in the western hemisphere, from the southern United States to northern Chile and Argentina.

On the coastal range of North Carolina beef cattle graze on bamboo. Their digestive processes destroy the poison that must be driven off by cooking if humans are to eat this grass safely. Still, in India, cows sometimes die from eating too greedily of shoots of the local varieties.

Many Uses

Bamboo serves for much more than food for man and animals. Its uses are so many that it has been said that the lives of Far Eastern peoples would be totally altered if bamboo did not exist.

You may have seen pictures of hundreds of Chinese towing junks through the roiling rapids of China’s mighty Yangtze River. The rope they use is bamboo. The stress it withstands is in excess of 10,000 pounds per square inch. It is nearly as strong as steel! In fact, bamboo makes an excellent reinforcement for concrete.

An Oriental may go fishing in a bamboo boat. He catches fish with a bamboo pole, puts his fish into a bamboo creel and may shade himself with an umbrella with bamboo ribs.

Back home, his fish may be prepared in bamboo containers and eaten with bamboo chopsticks. Part of his meal may be tender young bamboo sprouts. For a drink he may dip water with a bamboo dipper; the water perhaps being carried to the house through a bamboo conduit. After eating, he may pick his teeth with a bamboo toothpick, and cool off with a bamboo fan.

The man’s house may itself be made of bamboo, including the floors, walls and roof. His furniture may be bamboo, and not only the chair in which he sits, but also the vases that hold flowers from his garden. Perhaps the broom used for cleaning the house and his garden rake are also of bamboo, while bamboo grass hedges his property.

Chinese housewives commonly use bamboo leaves to wrap rice, cashew nuts and pork, or other dishes, much as a Chilean housewife uses corn husks, a Greek woman uses grape leaves and other housewives stuff various foods in cabbage leaves. Also, dry, mature bamboo leaves are used to deodorize fish oils.

There is seemingly no end to the uses of bamboo. Liquid diesel fuel may be prepared from bamboo by distillation. Pharmaceutical firms use substances from bamboo in making hormones and drugs. And the culture medium used to nurture germs taken from a patient may have had its origin in an Oriental bamboo forest!

The “Voice” of Bamboo

Bamboo is reputed to have a “voice,” having the ability to say its name in some languages. If the word for bamboo in your language has the same derivation as does the English word, then you may hear this grass speak. How so?

Well, the English word “bamboo” is imitative of the sound that it makes when burned. It bursts with a loud “BAM! BOO!” The thirteenth-century traveler Marco Polo long ago reported on the use of bamboo’s “voice.” Travelers of his day would bind green bamboo together in bundles and suspend it over a fire at night, and the loud “BAM! BOO!” was intended to ward off marauders.

Bamboo also speaks with the voice that men have given it. Bamboo is widely used in making Oriental musical woodwinds, such as the flute. In both Tokyo and Manila there are organs with bamboo pipes. In a church in a Manila suburb, Las Piñas Rizal, there is a 150-year-old organ with bamboo pipes.

Growth

Bamboo has a life-span of as long as 120 years. That is almost 44,000 days. Yet most bamboo completes its growth in its first sixty days!

Just as the blue whale is the largest living animal ever to have inhabited earth, so bamboo is noted as the fastest growing of present-day plants. It can be heard growing and it can be seen to grow. Reports have been made of four feet of growth in a single day! A bamboo forest literally crackles with vitality.

The stalk or culm never grows after that initial spurt skyward. It may then stand there, never changing size for almost the next century and a quarter.

When the sprout reaches less than a foot above the ground, it visibly contains within it all the joints that the full-grown culm will possess. One can slice the bamboo sprout, and there see compressed inside all the segments of what would have grown to be a 120-foot-high giant! It is similar with a tulip bulb. Cut it in half and you will find the complete embryonic tulip flower that would have bloomed in spring had this surgery not been performed.

Although its remarkable spurt skyward is completed in a few weeks, the bamboo still grows underground. Even if the tall jointed bamboo stalk is cut down, as often happens, this underground growth continues. There, unseen to the eye, a marvelous replacement process goes on. Each year from 200 to 1,500 new shoots per acre will be produced either in clumps or in underground runners. These form an ever-increasing kindergarten of progeny.

When the new sprouts nose their way through the soil in the spring, all energy of the growing bamboo is directed to lofting the new crop into the air. Underground growth temporarily ceases during this upward growth.

Death

It is interesting that each succeeding year’s bamboo sprouts have one less year of potential life than their predecessors. Thus, whether they are over a hundred years old, fifty, twenty-five, five, or are only last year’s crop, all these bamboo plants die at about the same time.

As its culms bloom, the forest dies over a period of a year or two. Thus the forest flowers once in about a century and then dies. Even plants transplanted to other countries will bloom and die in the same year or two that the mother forest dies. The forest and all its transplanted offspring, though scattered the world over, respond much as salmon scattered through the seas respond to an inner clock.

Recently, for example, madake bamboo bloomed in Japan. Since three fourths of Japan’s bamboo is of this kind, Japan has entered upon a decade of great loss, since it takes some ten years for a bamboo forest to return in force.

When a bamboo forest dies, how does it return?

Rebirth

In some varieties it is by the seed that is produced by the fruit from the blooms. But there is another way, which is unique.

As already noted, when the bamboo forest flowers, the plants die within two years. This is not just a surface death; the underground rhizomes also die. These are the fleshy, food-storing underground stems or roots. Well, then, what is the source of the new forest?

It is the result of the underground growth of new rhizomes. In a remarkable way life is transferred over a three-year period from the old forest of bamboo to these tiny new rhizomes. It then takes another seven years for the web of rhizomes to proliferate, and for this glade to be a forest.

And so, in my backyard, I sometimes delightedly run my bare toes through the dew-drenched grass that is not bamboo, at the same time looking up in awe at the towering grass that is. My grateful heart reaches yet higher to the Grand Creator of all things​—common grass, mankind and bamboo—​and marvels at the ways in which His wisdom is displayed.

Let’s Shake Hands

By “Awake!” correspondent in West Germany

TO THE observer it seems that some persons simply thrive on shaking hands. They do it when first meeting in the day, even with old acquaintances, and then again when parting. This procedure may even be repeated several times a day if these acquaintances should often cross one another’s path. In countries where this is customary it could be taken as an insult if this manual greeting were overlooked either in coming or in going.

But not everyone is enthusiastic about it. Some say: “Such stiff formality!” “Why can’t a person just be natural?” “How impractical!” “Besides, I think it must be unsanitary spreading all those germs with such close contact!”

Attitudes and customs do differ, don’t they? There are other folks who would prefer kissing or hugging or rubbing noses, or just a simple bow. As long as these greeting customs do not overstep your principles of conscience, why not be adaptable when in another’s country, not ignoring his way of life and expecting him to change to yours? Whatever the form of greeting, it warms us inside when we sense that it is heartfelt and sincere!

Handshaking in Early Times

There are some interesting facets to the matter of handshaking. It is mentioned even in the Bible as being known to the Israelites, although not as a form of greeting. The considerably less inhibited peoples of the Middle East have much more emotional ways of expressing their joys of meeting and pains of parting than by the rather conservative handshake. In Bible times, handshaking or striking of the palms of the hands were gestures employed to express agreement, ratification or confirmation of a contract or bargain. (Ezra 10:19) This gesture is not unknown even at present, it still having had legal value in our great-great-grandfather’s day. The old Germanic peoples also employed it in making agreements. The Bible warns against handshaking in guaranteeing security of a loan for another person.​—Prov. 6:1-3; 22:26.

While some say the Romans first began using the handshake as a greeting, evidently it was during the Middle Ages that the handshake became a common custom in Europe. Presenting the hand in a certain predetermined manner also served as a token of identification to indicate belonging to some particular group or guild. Such a distinctive marking of membership in a group or of sharing a particular way of thinking remains in use even today.

Typical Handshakers

And now, would you like to meet a few typical handshakers of our day? Each has his distinguishing grip. The first one we meet will eagerly embrace your gently extended hand with a crunch. You are afraid to move your hand now for fear all the bones are broken and if you are wearing a ring you will nurse bruises for several days.

But not everyone is so full of vitality. For instance, our next friend here. The coolness and dampness you feel when his hand limply and lustlessly dangles in your grip make you gape to see if it is not rather a fish you may have caught. Our third friend is heartier, and his shake, or “pump,” is designed to last awhile.

Of course, there are others who employ the hit-and-miss system. You just never seem to get a proper grip on them, as you discover their hand slipping past your thumb and running up your arm. And perhaps you have met the “I-couldn’t-careless” type who, while holding out his hand to you, has his head busily turned away looking at something else so that as the hands meet there is no meeting of the eyes.

Last is the greatest upholder of the handshaking tradition of them all. If he finds his hands too full or occupied to do it properly, then he will offer you a little finger or an elbow for tradition’s sake.

What was your impression of those just introduced? Some show a definite awareness of the impression they are making by the precise and deliberate way they press their hand into yours. They try to show firmness with graciousness and give an extra little twist as proof of a warm strong personality. Yes, a handshake does tell a lot about a person’s characteristics. But a natural person who does not take himself too seriously is always appreciated.

Being Balanced in Handshaking

Although not being rule-bound, here are a few situations where reason should rule. Perhaps the unaccustomed handshaker is justified in feeling that the habit is impractical when, after entering a room at a gathering, he must undergo the ritual of palm pressing once again each time someone enters anew. And if late to a meeting, or discussion that is already under way, it would be a considerate thing usually to take a seat quietly without feeling the necessity to interrupt to shake everyone’s hand. One might feel it to be rude to overlook someone with this formal greeting of the handshake, but it may be more respectful and considerate to wait for the natural and convenient moment to express one’s joy at seeing one’s friends. And have you ever considered how unappetizing it might seem to some if they are forced to grip one or more unwashed hands during a meal?

If you are a time-saver you may have been annoyed only by the frequency of this social act rather than by the act itself. Take, as an example, the Germans, whose custom of handshaking is held in utmost esteem, but who are now beginning to wonder whether greeting the same person a dozen times a day by shaking his hand may not be going a little too far.

Time magazine (February 17, 1967) made this observation: “Some German personnel managers figure that their employees spend a minimum of 20 minutes a day on the job shaking hands.” Germany’s Expert Committee for Good Manners has expressed itself like this: “Exaggerated handshaking is unappreciated and in fact often makes personal contact more difficult to achieve. It is sufficient to shake hands the first time you meet.”

So, now, trying to be reasonable about using the normal handshake, the simplest suggestion to remember would be: Show heartfelt warmth while using discernment. Then we will have no trouble being natural, instead of blindly following tradition.

Now it is time to say good-bye. But do you say you do not want to do it with a pat on the back or with a kiss or a hug? All right, then, let’s shake hands!

“Your Word Is Truth”

Not Everything Called “Christian” Is Approved by God

MANY persons claim to be Christians. But even though accompanied by apparent prophesying and performing of powerful works, that claim of itself does not give one an approved standing before God. Jesus Christ acknowledges as his disciples only persons who are doing the will of his Father. He said: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you!”​—Matt. 7:21-23.

Jesus’ words emphasize the need for one seeking divine approval to conform to God’s way in matters of worship. Not man, but God, determines what is acceptable sacred service. “God is a Spirit,” said Jesus, “and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) A true worshiper of God does not depend upon the presence or use of visible things and geographical locations. He worships, not by means of things he can see or touch, but “with spirit.” His worship is in agreement with God’s truth.

However, there are many persons calling themselves Christian who use images as visible aids in worship. They claim that what they worship is not the image, but the one represented by the image. They maintain that such worship is indirect, “relative,” and so is not idolatry. But is this worship acceptable to God?

God’s ancient covenant people, the Israelites, were commanded: “You must take good care of your souls, because you did not see any form on the day of Jehovah’s speaking to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, that you may not act ruinously and may not really make for yourselves a carved image, the form of any symbol, the representation of male or female.” (Deut. 4:15, 16) Thus the Israelites were expressly forbidden to make an image of God. Actually, any image made would inevitably misrepresent the Creator, for no man had ever seen him.

The establishment of the Christian church or congregation did not change this. In no period of human history have people had any better idea about what God looks like than did the Israelites. Despite this fact, images depicting God as a man have frequently been made for religious buildings in Christendom. But how could God approve of such image making when he forbade the Israelites to do this?

Of course, it may be argued one could make images of Jesus and Mary because they lived as ‘humans on earth. But people today do not know what Jesus or Mary looked like. Therefore no images made of them could ever be proper representations. Images of Mary or of Jesus, for example, show tremendous variation in facial features. At times these features resemble those of the people of the particular land where the images are made. The worshiper of the image believes that it represents Mary or Jesus simply because he has been told this.

Thus it can be seen that a certain sanctity is attached to an image merely by virtue of its supposedly representing a certain person. But the matter does not end with that. There are often many images of the same person, yet not all are viewed in the same way. Pilgrimages are made to certain images, and it is even claimed that miracles have occurred in connection with these particular images. It is believed, for instance, that one praying before a certain image of Mary will get a better response than if he were praying before another image of Mary. Why should this be the case if Mary and not the image is being venerated? Does this not show that more than relative worship is involved, that actual power is attributed to the images themselves?

How could Jehovah God approve of such image worship? Even if it were just a matter of relative worship, would that make it right? The Bible shows that we should worship God alone. No Scriptural basis exists for the belief that there are various degrees of adoration. Jesus Christ, in resisting the Devil’s temptation, stated: “It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.” (Matt. 4:10) When the apostle John fell down to worship before the angel who had been instrumental in giving the revelation to him, the angel told him: “Be careful! Do not do that! . . . Worship God.”​—Rev. 19:10.

If a lower form of adoration could have been given to angels, there would have been no reason for the angel to caution John about his act. Since it was improper for John to fall down before an angel to worship, obviously it would also be wrong for a person to bow to an image of an angel or of anyone else. All image worship runs counter to what the Bible says about true worship. The apostle Paul wrote: “We are walking by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7) Persons who use images are definitely walking “by sight.” They are using a crutch. By insisting on the use of images in their worship, they manifest a lack of faith. Why, then, should God look with approval upon them when they kiss, bow to and burn incense before images? The Bible declares: “Without faith it is impossible to please [God] well.”​—Heb. 11:6.

Not only is Christendom’s manufacture and use of images disapproved by God, but even her most sacred days are linked with customs that are rooted in false religion. Easter, for example, though supposedly commemorating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, betrays its non-Christian origin in its very name. Says The Catholic Encyclopedia for School and Home: “The word ‘Easter’ comes from Eostre or Ostara, the name ancient Germanic tribes gave to the time of year when the rising spring sun broke the death of winter, when nature was reborn. The word came to mean the springtime ‘feast of life’ for the pagan Germans.” Both the egg and the rabbit so prominently associated with the Easter celebration are known to have been ancient fertility symbols. Many in Christendom decorate ‘Easter eggs,’ just as sun-worshipers did centuries ago.

Regarding the choice of December 25 as the date for celebrating Christmas, the above-quoted encyclopedia says: “This was the day which had been dedicated in pagan Rome to the feast of the sun god and had been called Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.” In connection with Christmas customs, we read: “Gift-giving, the Yule log, and mistletoe, are Christianized versions of ancient Roman, Germanic, and Celtic lore.” They are rooted in paganism.

How could God approve of practices that are adaptations of things associated with false worship? His Word the Bible shows that he does not do so. Christians are asked: “What fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness?”​—2 Cor. 6:14.2

Watching the World

Malawi’s Purge Continues

◆ Schoolchildren in the African country of Malawi are now required to carry membership cards for the ruling Malawi Congress Party. Students rushed home to get money for the cards when the surprise order was made known. Failure to comply meant no further schooling. Until now only children over age ten were required to hold cards. This is the latest action in a purge of nonparty members. With regard to previous actions of the Malawi Congress Party, The Rhodesia Herald reports: “People to suffer most have been members of the banned Jehovah’s Witnesses religious sect. They have refused to join the Party on the grounds of their religious beliefs.” About 20,000 Witnesses have been forced to flee into neighboring Zambia and Mozambique.

‘Catholicism Ending’

◆ A recent article in America, a Catholic magazine, entitled “The End of American Catholicism?” is based on a poll. Over one third of the Catholic population under the age of thirty who were questioned say that premarital sexual intercourse is not wrong. Most Catholics polled say abortion is sometimes proper. The clergy, America says, are incapable of handling the real issues of life; many are quitting. The article observes: “Whatever the end result, it can hardly be denied that there is evidence of a coming apart of the traditional, tightly knit organization of the Church. . . . The remarkable thing is that no outside foe destroyed us; we destroyed ourselves. . . . To paraphrase a remark of our good friend, the distinguished Mariologist Gregory Baum, if the Blessed Mother expects us American Catholics to survive this mess, she had better send us leaders and prophets . . . soon.

Rock Music at Jewish Services

◆ Jewish cantors recently meeting in Toronto, Canada, discussed the use of rock music to attract young people to their services. Cantor Howard Stahl, a graduate of New York’s Hebrew Union College, acknowledged that the idea is just “a gimmick,” but added: “It’s a holding pattern to get them into the synagogues​—then you‘ve got a fighting chance.”

Competition and Cheating

◆ A recent symposium in the U.S. on ‘Sport and Ethics’ centered on the growing problem of cheating. Cheating, delegates agreed, is due to competitive pressures. Professor J. Keating of George Williams College in Chicago said: “Most of the moral problems posed by athletics can be traced to one single source​—its highly competitive nature.” He added: “Deceit, lying, and hypocrisy all too often do follow in the wake of an intense competitive spirit.” According to W. Sadler of New Jersey’s Bloomfield College, adverse results of competition do not end on the playing field. He observed: “Competition is corrupting our nation. They say sports prepare us for life. I say, ‘What kind of life? The highly competitive and ruthless kind?’”

Vasectomy Dangers

◆ An article in Medical World News, “Vasectomy Complications Aplenty,” warns that “this so-called very simple little procedure” is fraught with dangers. It enumerates cases of postoperative complications. A Los Angeles urologist, Arthur Schapiro, fastens blame on irresponsible doctors: “I have been amazed how many doctors don’t know much about the procedure, in fact don’t know enough to do a good job . . . We have got to stop people who are doing vasectomies for their own profiteering motive.” Other specialists are concerned with reported side effects: Men who had been in good health suddenly suffer blood clotting, prolonged fevers, enlarged lymph nodes and skin disorders. Psychological problems of a sexual nature have also been associated with the operation.

What’s Your Hurry?

◆ Little time is gained by taking risks on the highway, according to the Minnesota Safety Council. Recently two experimental drivers traveled the same 1,000-mile route. The fast driver passed 2,000 cars and braked 1,339 times. He made the trip in 20 hours and 12 minutes. The slow driver flowed with traffic, passing only 13 cars and braking just 652 times. It took him 20 hours and 43 minutes. The needless risks and accompanying nervous tension saved the fast driver only thirty-one minutes! Oh, yes, he also used ten gallons more gas than the slower car.

Evolutionary Guesswork Goes On

◆ Evolutionist Richard Leakey says their picture of man’s immediate ancestry may have to be changed again! The latest find comes from near Africa’s Lake Rudolph. Hundreds of fragments were pieced together into a skull that, Leakey is quoted as saying, “does not fit into any of the presently held theories of human evolution.” Does this skull differ from modern man? He observes: “The whole shape of the brain case is remarkably reminiscent of modern man, lacking the heavy and protruding eyebrow ridges and thick bone that are characteristic of Homo Erectus.” Leg specimens also found at the site, he admitted, “have astounded anatomists and other scientists because they are practically indistinguishable from the same bones of modern men.” Nevertheless, he claims the skull is over 2.5 million years old!

Stock Market Surge

◆ The major U.S. stock exchange indicators reached all-time highs in November. Most noted of these, the Dow Jones industrials, stayed past 1000 for the first time in its seventy-six-year history. The Dow Jones average is based on thirty major industrial stocks. The market rise is attributed to current peace efforts, President Nixon’s reelection, booming corporate profits and declining fears about inflation and taxes.

“Dirty Politics”

◆ Recent United States’ elections were apparently marked by many unfair tactics. S. J. Archibald says his Fair Campaign Practices Committee received 25 percent more complaints in 1972 than in 1968. Archibald claims that a record number of candidates tried to “distort the facts, to falsify political rhetoric, to misinterpret the facts.”

Crime in Harlem

◆ Crime rates in Harlem, an area inhabited primarily by blacks in New York city, continues to mount. Reported during six months of 1972 were 8,600 robberies, 9,000 burglaries, 3,300 acts of criminal assault and 200 homicides. Many crimes go unreported. Black writer Orde Coombs says, in New York magazine, that most crimes against blacks are perpetrated by other blacks. He refers to a Harlem black woman politician as saying that, next to one political opponent, “the person I fear most in the world is the ghetto black teenager.” Drug addiction is behind much of the crime. Coombs says: “The addicts of Harlem now control more turf than they did ten years ago in spite of the millions of dollars spent for rehabilitative programs.” He observes: “Harlem​—our community—​has become one of the most dangerous places in the world.”

Pastor Aids Communists

◆ In Kentucky the presbytery of Louisville-Union endorsed the right of a pastor to help the Communist party by serving as an elector. T. H. Davis of the Grace-Hope Presbyterian Church claims he is not a Communist. He defended his stand by saying: “I believe that all political points of view and parties have a right to be heard and debated in the marketplace of ideas, and to put forth a candidate for public office.”

Religion in the Sixties

◆ Why, suddenly, have U.S. churches reached what many call a state of despair? Yale University historian S. E. Ahlstrom’s new book A Religious History of the American People shows that radical changes occurred in the 1960’s. What happened? A Catholic president was elected and murdered. Pope John introduced changes to his church, but conservative Pope Paul has not followed through. Protestants were shocked by Supreme Court decisions on religious ceremonies in schools. Civil rights movements and war in Southeast Asia forced most churches to take sides. The “death of God” movement accompanied a “great moral revolution.” Long developing industrial and urban problems came to a head, altering people’s old loyalties. Says Ahlstrom: “The decade of the sixties was a time, in short, when the old foundations . . . were awash.”

Homemade Nuclear Bombs

◆ Greater control of nuclear materials is necessary, the American Nuclear Society has been told. Otherwise, warns the University of Virginia’s Professor M. Willrich, small nations, gangsters and even mentally disturbed individuals will build their own atomic bombs. He says know-how to build an A-bomb is no longer secret. “Most experts consider the design and manufacture of a crude nuclear explosive device without previous access to classified data to be no longer an extremely difficult task technically.” Willrich therefore argues that plutonium and uranium 235, which are increasingly available, world wide, come under tighter restrictions.

Worldwide “Crime Crisis”

◆ Secretary-general Waldheim has asked the UN General Assembly to cope with a world “crime crisis of growing proportions.” He refers to “the ever-rising tide of known homicides, robberies, burglaries and sex offenses which plague so many areas of the world.” His report cites figures from Canada, Poland, Uganda, Japan and other countries. Wealthy countries are the most plagued. Waldheim calls for new approaches to crime control.

Keeping Your Balance

◆ A current report referred to in Ski magazine observes that cold weather often affects balance. In experiments the inner ear, man’s primary balance sensing device, was paralyzed when cold water was placed in the outer ear. Therefore, outdoorsmen recommend wearing earmuffs to improve cold-weather balance.

Amazon River Water

◆ Amazon River waters, a recent U.S. Geological Survey says, are purer than “most of the tap water in the United States.” The survey claims that at some places Amazon waters have “a chemical purity nearly equivalent to that of distilled water.” The Amazon’s flow at Óbidos, Brazil, has been measured at four billion gallons per minute. Average flow is four times as great as Africa’s Congo River and ten times that of the United States’ Mississippi River. Amazon water is said to account for 15 percent of the fresh water discharged into the oceans by all the world’s rivers.

Snowmobile Fatalities

◆ Last winter snowmobiles, the National Safety Council says, were responsible for at least 164 deaths in the United States.

What Are Americans Drinking?

◆ American taste seems to be shifting from hot drinks to cold. Per capita coffee consumption dropped from 15.8 pounds in 1960 to 13.2 pounds in 1971; soft-drink consumption soared 80 percent in this same period. All kinds of wine drinking increased 50 percent in the last five years. Effervescent wine, including champagne and inexpensive carbonated fruit wines, became a favorite during this time, rising 168 percent.

Russian Smoking

◆ Russians are smoking more cigarettes than ever. Last year Soviet smokers spent 3 billion rubles (equal to about $3.6 billion), twice the amount spent a. decade ago. Few Russians have dropped their cigarette habit in spite of intensive publicity against it by the government. Communist party leader Leonid I. Brezhnev has a special cigarette case that opens only once every 45 minutes. “Yesterday,” he observed recently, “using this system I was able to smoke only 17 cigarettes.”

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