February 22

How to Defeat Discouragement

A FIFTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD Brooklyn, New York, woman has for twenty-one years been a bedridden paralytic. Another woman watched her five-year-old daughter weaken and die with dreaded leukemia. Other parents have become discouraged by the increasingly rebellious attitudes of their children. Thousands of persons are being laid off their jobs.

As the pressures of life increase, it seems that the causes for discouragement multiply. Have not all of us at one time or another faced a situation that has discouraged us? What can be done to defeat discouragement?

Look Beyond Yourself

The real answer is to recognize that there is a readily available source of help beyond yourself. Perhaps you have never seriously thought about this, but there is real benefit in considering what the Bible says about the matter. It urges: “Throw your burden upon Jehovah himself, and he himself will sustain you.”​—Ps. 55:22.

Here truly is a source of strength and encouragement! God cares and can provide us help. But we need to avail ourselves of his help. Consider how this might be done.

You may be discouraged because someone has, it seems, in some way slighted you. You could mope, feeling sorry for yourself. But what would be the result? You would probably grow more discouraged. On the other hand, you could ask, What course does God recommend?

The answer will not be provided in some mysterious way. Rather, Jehovah God has inspired his written Word to guide us. And it advises: “Always pursue what is good toward one another and to all others.” (1 Thess. 5:15) So, then, rather than having a negative, self-pitying attitude, positive action is encouraged. But what?

A fundamental principle of God’s Word gives a clue, saying: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” (Acts 20:35) Try that. Instead of centering your thoughts on self, look for things you can do for others. Many who have followed this God-given counsel have been aided to defeat discouragement. They have even found real enjoyment in life despite severe problems with their health. Consider that paralyzed woman mentioned at the outset.

It was in the early 1950’s that an unfortunate operation triggered her paralysis. She could have become embittered by the experience, losing interest in life. But no. She has a real interest in things. She is an avid reader, keeping well informed on world events, and shares what she learns with others. In fact, besides keeping in touch with friends, she makes note of persons who suffer some misfortune and then writes or phones them.

Recently she called the parents of a girl who had been murdered, and they were deeply grateful for her concern. Also, she saw on a television program a terminal-cancer patient. She noted the town in which he lived, and later phoned and cheered him with comforting thoughts about the promised relief from sickness under the righteous rule of God’s Kingdom government.​—Matt. 6:9, 10; Rev. 21:3, 4.

The woman explains: “I am so busy I almost never feel discouraged. There are so many things to read and study, and there is hardly time in the day to share them with the people I want to. I am so thankful to Jehovah God for his sure promise of a new system of things. More than anything, this hope makes living a real joy.”​—2 Pet. 3:13.

If we, too, look to God for help, and take a similar interest in building up others, even members of our own families, discouragement will not plague our life. The mother, whose little five-year-old girl contracted leukemia, shared her hope of life in God’s new order with her daughter. And what a relief and encouragement this later brought! The mother writes:

“She lived only three months after her first sign of illness. She had the bone type. Even though we tried to keep it from her, she was too bright and alert. . . . She said: ‘I know my lying in the grave won’t seem long at all. It will just be like I went to sleep one night and then I will wake up and Jehovah’s new order will be here and I can play with the animals, and all the wicked people will be gone.’

“You cannot imagine the relief this gave us to see such faith. The morning before she died, she said: ‘Don’t cry, Mommy. I will look for you in the New Order.’ . . . How precious life is, and how good and wonderful our Great God is to give us this wonderful hope of the resurrection!”

When Faced with Loss of Employment

Today, especially, loss of employment is a growing source of discouragement. Many family heads fear that they may not even be able to feed and clothe their families. But, if you lose your job, just sitting at home and worrying is not going to improve the situation. If employment agencies offer nothing, do some planning yourself. Consider: Can employment be found in another type of work? Is there perhaps some service that you can supply for people​—whether cleaning, painting, gardening, repair work, or something else? You may get some good suggestions if you talk to friends about possibilities. True, the pay may be less than what you were making, but if you have the necessities of life, is that not what is really important?​—1 Tim. 6:6-8.

Jesus Christ taught his followers to pray: “Give us today our bread for this day.” And he cautioned them: “Never be anxious about the next day.” (Matt. 6:11, 34) Do you apply that in your life? Persons who have learned to be grateful that they have enough for today, instead of worrying about the future, have greater enjoyment in life. Furthermore, the person who has not relied mainly on material things for happiness, but has built his life around a good relationship with God, has reason for confidence; because God says: “I will by no means leave you nor by any means forsake you.”​—Heb. 13:5, 6.

Problems with One’s Children

What can parents do who have become discouraged by rebellious attitudes of their children? In this situation, too, looking to Jehovah for guidance will bring encouragement and hope. God’s Word identifies bad associations as a principal source of wrongdoing. Therefore, to counteract bad influences it urges parents, not simply to ‘lay down the law’ to their children, but to spend time with them, talking to them about Jehovah God and his righteous requirements. Do you?​—1 Cor. 15:33; Deut. 6:1, 4-9.

This requires real effort. It is not simply a matter of ordering them, ‘Do this!’ or, ‘Don’t do that.’ It is beneficial to think over in advance what you are going to tell them, and how you are going to say it. Family communication is improved when parents welcome their children’s expressions instead of promptly criticizing their views. This usually creates a better atmosphere in the home.

But even if, despite your efforts, a child pursues a bad course, take courage. Remember the Bible account of the prodigal son who, after a temporary period of rejecting his father’s guidance, repentantly returned. That has happened many times.​—Luke 15:11-32.

Regardless of the problem that you face, never forget to pray, asking Jehovah God for guidance and help. For it is a truth: “He himself will sustain you. Never will he allow the righteous one to totter.”​—Ps. 55:22.

‘Do Not Follow the Crowd for Evil Ends’

PUBLIC demonstrations and mass protests are the order of the day, particularly in the nations making up what is called “Christendom.” Many who are normally quiet, nonassertive citizens participate, and even clergymen have been active, promoting and engaging in these forms of protest​—pressure by force of numbers.

There is no doubt that there are injustices and that a large percentage of these mass actions present some valid grievance. Often the participants feel that this is the only way to get a hearing ear.

But is it wise for a person to engage in such public demonstrations? Many have started out peaceably enough. But they have ended in violence or riot. Why?

There is a “crowd psychology” that gives individuals a feeling of anonymity. Because their identity does not stand out as sharply in a crowd, persons feel free to do what they might ordinarily never think of doing. But one participating in crowd action shares the blame for whatever the crowd, or individuals in it, may do.

Officials and judges have also been pressured by fear of the crowd to disregard the law and their own consciences. To avoid occurrence of this in ancient Israel, God’s law as now recorded in the Bible, said: “You must not follow after the crowd for evil ends; and you must not testify over a controversy so as to turn aside with the crowd in order to pervert justice.”​—Ex. 23:2.

This command was directed primarily to judges and to witnesses in legal cases, who might be swayed by the crowd to render a perverted judgment or give false testimony. Likewise, it applied to those who would conspire together to put pressure on judges or men in administrative positions.

Results of Following the Crowd

The most flagrant instance of ‘following the crowd for evil ends’ was what took place at the trial of Jesus Christ. The chief priests stirred up a mob and fanned a blazing spirit of hatred among the people toward Jesus. So, before the Jewish High Court, many were ready to testify falsely to pervert justice. Finally, Christ was led before Pilate, who sat as judge with power of life and death.​—Matt. 26:47, 59-61.

Pilate wanted to release Jesus, but the crowd clamored for his death. (John 18:29-32, 38-40) Whereas the Jews generally hated Roman rule, crowd “psychology” made it the popular thing to hail Caesar as king and to cry for Christ’s blood. (John 19:12-16) Pilate should have stood for justice, but because of fear he followed the crowd. But the matter could not be lightly dismissed and forgotten. All involved had to account for their bloodguilt. Just fifty-two days later, because of the national guilt, many “were stabbed to the heart” when the apostle Peter said to them: “Let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled.” (Acts 2:36, 37) The burden of murder lay upon the crowd, collectively and individually!

As for cowardly Pilate, he was later removed from office as Roman governor and died in exile. Jerusalem paid for its bloodguilt when its erstwhile “friendship” with Caesar proved to be false, ending in strife and the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in 70 C.E.

Is There Another, Effective Remedy?

However, there are some entirely different situations, such as where a group is suffering injustice. How, then, aside from group pressure, can its members get a hearing ear? What other remedy is there?

As to the dilemma of an individual, or a group, in many parts of the world there are legal remedies that can be used. But what if the normal legal remedies do not work? Perhaps politicians will not be moved to make the desired changes and judges may not dispense justice because of greed or cowardice. Then a minority group will not receive what they consider to be justice and impartiality.

Well, human reasoning may deem it best to use mass pressure. Due to such pressure a judge or magistrate may feel that it is expedient to go along with the crowd. But such tactics only tend toward further breakdown of the law, generally doing injustice to another segment of society.

Actually, there is no prospect of getting full and complete justice in this present system of things, as has been the case throughout history. When have minority groups been completely happy? Despite mass protests and uprisings, the same old system continues, with oppressions and injustices. That is because the world is fundamentally wicked, corrupt, not of God. (1 John 5:19; Gal. 1:4) Today, when complaints, demonstrations, protests, strikes, riots and violence are at their peak, it is time for God to step in to set matters straight. This he has promised, and soon he will bring it about. In the meantime, what can people do who are interested in true justice and righteousness?

God tells honest, sincere persons: “If possible, as far as it depends upon you, be peaceable with all men.” (Rom. 12:18) His command to Christians is: “Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities.” (Rom. 13:1) If existing authorities misuse their power, it is not the duty of the Christian to try to overthrow them. Nor is it the province of Christians to advocate, promote or engage in demonstrations, mass protests or strikes.

In taking this course Christians are not foolish. They simply are not frustrating themselves by trying to do what only God can and will do. They hold to the Bible’s command: “Keep silent before Jehovah and wait longingly for him. Do not show yourself heated up at anyone making his way successful, at the man carrying out his ideas. Let anger alone and leave rage; do not show yourself heated up only to do evil. For evildoers themselves will be cut off, but those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth.”​—Ps. 37:7-9.

It is not a matter of waiting a lifetime, or​—now—​even many long years. Today we see injustice practiced on every hand​—earth wide. This is a sure precursor of action by God, just as King David himself experienced: “I have seen the wicked a tyrant and spreading himself as a luxuriant tree in native soil. And yet he proceeded to pass away, and there he was not; and I kept seeking him, and he was not found.” (Ps. 37:35, 36) So, instead of using worldly tactics, wait upon God.

If we learn of God’s purpose, his ways and requirements, we will be protected from making the mistake of following the crowd, the ends of which turn out, not to the praise of God, but merely to add turmoil and trouble in the critical “last days” of this system of things.​—2 Tim. 3:1-5.

How Real Is the Threat of Famine?

FAMINE may seem remote to you. Throughout history the majority of mankind have managed to get enough to eat. And you may have other problems that are more pressing to you than food shortages.

But why is it that the subject of famine keeps appearing in the news? Why do world authorities on food and nutrition repeatedly employ the term “world famine” or “universal famine”? Are they merely trying to scare people, creating a false sense of alarm?

Or could it be that famine is really a world threat today? Is it possible that food shortage may affect you personally in the near future?

Two years ago Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, known as the “father of the Green Revolution,” said that the world could hold the line in food production for the next thirty years. Does he still feel that way? “No, I am no longer that optimistic,” answers Dr. Borlaug. He explains:

“From 1947 until mid-1972, the world’s consumption of food seemed to be amazingly stable, and the wheat reserves had a cushioning effect on food prices. But then came the disastrous harvest of 1972, with a drought that swept across the Soviet Union, China and Australia. That precipitated the big purchases of grain by Russia and triggered this horrible inflation. The same summer there were also poor monsoon rains across all south Asia, and the rice crop was bad. Food reserves, which we thought were adequate to meet any situation, simply disappeared overnight.”

As a result, now the world has grain reserves sufficient for only about twenty-five days of world consumption, whereas in 1961 there was enough for some ninety-five days. And the reserve margin is steadily decreasing as world grain consumption grows 1.4 million tons a year faster than world grain production.

A staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal cautions against brushing aside too quickly, without adequate consideration, the current reports of food shortage:

“To those who have heard all their lives that people in China or Armenia, or some place else were starving, such dire predictions may seem overdrawn and unnecessarily alarmist. Throughout history there have been famines, . . . and accompanying doomsday prophets; each time, the world recovered somehow. Today, however, agricultural, nutritional and economic experts agree that the current world food situation is substantially more ominous than ever before.”

In an article entitled “The Next Crisis: Universal Famine” the writer explained: “This time the doomsayers aren’t just talking again about squalor in India, but also about shortages, high prices, and maybe even food rationing in the United States.” A report last October by a leading gain exporter, Cargill, Inc., said that reduced food supplies of today “absolutely preclude” consumption levels anywhere close to what they have been during the last twelve months. The report added: “Rationing must occur in both domestic and export consumption.”

A Portent of a World Without Hunger

It ought to be noted here that careful students of the Bible expected world famine to become a threat in this generation. Jesus foretold that his “presence” in Kingdom power, which began in 1914 C.E. according to Bible chronology, would be marked by “food shortages . . . in one place after another.”​—Matt. 24:3, 7; compare Revelation 6:1, 2, 5, 6.a

This should be no cause for despair, however, for Jesus linked up his “presence” with “the conclusion of the [present] system of things.” (Matt. 24:3 ) Soon a new system in which mankind “will hunger no more” will spread earth wide.​—Rev. 7:16; compare Isaiah 49:10.

But in the short remaining time before that promise reaches its grand fulfillment, hunger really stalks the human family. How does it affect people when it strikes?

[Footnotes]

[Pictures on page 8]

[New York Times, October 20, 1974]

32 Nations Close to Starvation

[The National Observer, March 30, 1974]

The Next Crisis: Universal Famine

[Daily Times, Lagos, Nigeria, October 9, 1974]

AFRICA FACES FOOD PROBLEM

[Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1974]

Starving Ethiopians Estimated at 1 Million

[Free Press Journal, India, September 2, 1974]

Asia may face greatest food deficit in history

[New York Times, November 13, 1974]

Bangladesh Fears Thousands May Be Dead as Famine Spreads

What Happens When Famine Strikes

PERSONS who are used to having all the food they want may find it difficult to imagine what happens to people when famine strikes.

Consider as an example conditions in Bangladesh. This country of southern Asia has been ravaged by floods recently, creating the need to set up “gruel” kitchens to feed masses of starving people who flock into cities looking for food. A special report to the New York Times describes one of these:

“At a typical gruel kitchen at Mirpur, a crowded suburb of [Dacca], 1,000 people line up for one piece of roti, or unleavened bread, made of wheat flour. The ration is supplemented by one protein biscuit and three ounces of milk donated by the Red Cross. This food is served only once a day in the afternoon. There is so much scrambling and fighting that the supervisors have used canes to keep order in the crowd, made up mainly of old men, women and children who look shockingly famished.”

Outside this city conditions are even worse, the report says. There “the destitutes begin coming to the feeding center in the early morning for half a piece of roti that will be handed out in the late afternoon. No milk or lentils are supplied.”

Desperate Search for Food

Nigeria’s Daily Times, in its issue of November 28, 1973, reports concerning famine conditions that had developed at that time in the northeastern part of the country: “People . . . are now pulling down ant hills in search of food believed to be stored there by the ants as the onslaught of the drought in the state and devastation of farms by locusts persist.”

India, too, is undergoing extreme famine conditions. State officials say that villagers in isolated areas are living on roots, leaves and grass from parched rice fields.

A foreign relief worker reports on conditions in Calcutta: “By nutritional standards some of these people should be dead. You see some children eating grass, rats, the green scum off tanks.” Bernard Weinraub, writing in the New York Times of September 5, 1974, states: “The most searing scenes are visible. A child watches another eat an ice-cream stick. When the ice cream is finished and the wooden stick tossed in the gutter, the watcher picks it up and sucks it.”

The search for food has sometimes led to tragic consequences. The newspaper West Australian explains:

“Thousands of people are said to have died in Iraq in what is being called the biggest mass poisoning calamity in history. . . .

“The victims are said to have eaten grain treated with a mercury solution and intended to be used only as seed. . . .

“The police had issued strict warnings that the grain must not be used for human consumption, but the grain was stolen during unloading and transportation.

“Some who ate the grain died and others were crippled, blinded or made deaf by brain damage.”

Dismal Side Effects of Famine

Dying by starvation is a drawn-out, agonizing affair. But long before death overtakes a person, lack of nourishment begins to take its toll.

In a recent interview Dr. Nevin S. Scrimshaw, an authority on world malnutrition, explained that where malnutrition is common “laborers often have to be given tasks that take only two or three hours a day. Men and women can’t work longer on the calories their meager diet provides.” He explained that this dilemma is “self-perpetuating,” for one who can work only a few hours a day cannot afford enough food to provide strength for a longer workday.

Even a person who may receive an adequate quantity of food will suffer if it is of poor nutritional quality. Vitamin A deficiency, for example, brings on many serious vision defects. Shortage of iron in one’s diet leads to anemia. A diet deficient in vitamin B₁ results in disease of the nervous system and heart, and lack of iodine in the diet of a pregnant woman can contribute to a physically dwarfed and mentally retarded offspring.

Columnist Martin Walker actually saw such things on a recent visit to West Africa. He relates:

“We walked through the tents, looking at feet that had swollen, like footballs, from protein deficiency, at eyelids chalk-white from anemia, at limbs so like sticks that the knee joints looked gross and deformed.”

Children the Special Victims

Children are the special prey when famine strikes. A seriously malnourished baby becomes apathetic, withdrawing into a bleak, empty world of its own. The columnist quoted above reports what he observed:

“It suddenly occurred to me that there were no children following us. In most villages in Africa, a white man strolling around bears a long train of giggling, thumb-sucking children. But here, not one child had the strength to play or to follow or even to wave away the flies that crawled on his sores.”

Further illustrating the effects of famine upon children are comments in World Health of February-March 1974:

“A typical example of mere survival is a two-year-old South American child from the poorer class who has had six attacks of infection of the eyes, five attacks of diarrhoea, ten infections of the upper respiratory passage, four attacks of bronchitis, measles followed by broncho-pneumonia and an episode of stomatitis. In 24 months, this child has had nearly 30 attacks of illness and has had one infection or another for about a third of his life. His diet has been inadequate.”

Damage to children may even begin before birth. Human brain cells, for instance, multiply most rapidly during the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy. After birth they continue to develop for about eighteen months. If a baby has been deprived of essential protein during this critical period, it may result in brain damage.

Effects on People’s Thinking

Famine indeed causes harm to people physically. But what are its mental effects? If famine were to strike in your area, how would it affect your thinking and conduct?

The way people react to food shortage depends on their attitude toward the distressing circumstances. In some cases famine has driven people to a “me first,” “every man for himself” attitude. This has led to frightful consequences.

Hungry people have already wreaked havoc in India, Bolivia and Ethiopia, rioting and looting stores of grain. M. P. Tripathi, a legislator from India’s northeastern state of Uttar Pradesh, warned: “There will undoubtedly be thousands of deaths on account of hunger. Crime will increase and riots will break out at several places.”

The pangs of hunger have driven some persons to terrible extremes. Newsweek of October 7, 1974, gives an example:

“In search of food, men are leaving their wives and children to fend for themselves. The Indian press reports cases of families committing suicide together rather than die a lingering death of starvation, and of distraught fathers throwing small children into the rivers to drown.”

The severe famine-producing drought in Africa’s Sahel area produced yet another ill effect in the form of “traumatic psychological shock to the people of the Sahel,” according to one report. “When a peasant loses faith in his land, and when a nomad loses his trust in the fertility of the desert, the effect is a kind of psychological castration.”

Some of the “solutions” suggested reflect the helplessness of mankind in the face of worsening food shortages. Certain authorities have suggested mandatory sterilization. Another seriously considered suggestion is “national triage,” a procedure to minimize deaths by helping only those who can be saved by immediate attention, while others, viewed as beyond help, would be left to die of starvation.

A Different View Possible

Some, though, have taken a surprisingly different course of action under conditions of severe starvation. In the fiendish Nazi concentration camps, for example, thousands of persons slowly starved to death. This plunged many to the depths of degradation and despair, moving some to commit suicide.

One report, however, speaks of certain individuals, “themselves marked for death, [giving] some of their scant bread rations to those having a harder time of it than they were. Often it was just crumbs that they secretly hid under the pillows of those who for some reason or another had not been given anything to eat and who had been forced to stand out in the courtyard in the fierce cold with hardly anything on.”

What caused those persons to act so differently under conditions of extreme starvation? Why did they not follow the selfish course of other prisoners?

It was because of the way they viewed their plight. They were Jehovah’s Christian witnesses who had been imprisoned for their faith. They saw in the oppressive world conditions, which included severe famines in many parts of the earth, the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy concerning the conclusion of the present system of things and, consequently, the incoming of a righteous new order in which famine will be a thing of the past.​—Matt. 24:3, 7; Rev. 7:16.

That promise causes Jehovah’s witnesses to have an entirely different outlook on world conditions. Instead of selfishly rioting, hoarding, or in other ways trying to amass all the food they can get, these Christian people heed the principle: “Let each one keep seeking, not his own advantage, but that of the other person.” (1 Cor. 10:24) They know that, even if they die of starvation, the Bible holds out the comforting promise of a resurrection from the dead into an earth forever freed from the grip of famine.​—Rev. 20:13; 21:3-5.

What happens when famine strikes, therefore, depends upon whether food becomes the most important thing in the lives of the victims. Those with the Bible-based hope of a new order are able to maintain a bright outlook even when famine strikes. For they know that in God’s new order, which, according to Bible prophecy, will begin within the present generation, “there will come to be plenty of grain on the earth; on the top of the mountains there will be an overflow.” (Ps. 72:16; Matt. 24:33, 34) Famine will never strike the human race again.

One in a Million​—My Thirty-Year Battle with Paralysis

THE day was March 30, 1945, a day that would long stay in my memory. I recall thinking how warm it was for so early in the year. The brilliant azure sky was cloudless. The surf on the Florida beach was brisk, the swells of the ocean rising quickly and thundering upon the shore with a loud roar.

Ready to return home and covered with sand, I raced down the beach to rinse off in the surf. Passing through the shallow water at top speed, I spotted a cresting wave and dived into it. I was just sixteen and my young body was well developed by athletics. That physical condition would be a vital factor during the next two minutes. For beneath that wave, unseen by me, was a sandbar. I hit it head on.

Surfacing, I reached out to do the breaststroke. But there was no response from my arms or legs. They dangled in the water, lifeless. My brain literally screamed orders without results. Frantically, I tried turning my face out of the water in order to breathe. I could see the blue sky out of the corner of my eye but there was no way to secure air. I was completely helpless.

The seconds now started ticking away. I held my breath. The pressure mounted; my ears were ringing and blood started flowing from my nose. I knew my situation was hopeless. Reaching the end of my endurance, I offered a prayer to God and decided to suck in water with all my might and end it quickly. At that moment I saw arms under me and I could sense someone lifting me out of the water. I gasped for air.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong with you?” a friend yelled at me. He was holding me against his chest and backing out of the water.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t move.”

Paralyzed from the Neck Down

This was my introduction to paralysis. The impact had broken my neck. The fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae were smashed into the spinal cord, instantaneously stopping all nerve impulse to the body below the neck.

A nurse happened to be on the beach. She ran down and asked me what was wrong and then immediately supervised my handling. I was stretched out on the sand and she packed wet sand around my head to hold it secure. She urged me not to move my head.

Picking up my hand, she asked if I could move my fingers. There was no response. When she dropped my hand, it fell limply to my side and, while looking at it, there was nothing I could do to control it. It was as if the hand were not mine.

The ambulance arrived and we raced to the hospital. Two young men who were instrumental in saving my life and the young nurse accompanied me, comforting and reassuring me. Since it was a holiday weekend, it was difficult to locate a doctor. Hospital admittance was delayed. Why? Well, my parents were out of the city that day and officials wanted to know who was going to be financially responsible for my care. One of the young men with me later became a state senator and introduced legislation requiring emergency treatment at a hospital regardless of circumstances. He told me his action was based on his feelings of frustration that day.

Finally the doctor arrived. He was a qualified physician and surgeon and proved to be a diligent and devoted friend. He was very reassuring and kind. During the crisis period, he stayed by my side constantly and did everything humanly possible for me.

X rays revealed the break in the neck. I remember the excruciating pain when the doctor asked me to open my mouth so the pictures could be taken. I was not even aware that nurses were washing the sand from my body and dressing me.

“What have I done?” I thought to myself.

To Death’s Door and Back Again

I was placed in a neck brace that could be adjusted to take all the pressure off the spinal column. Intravenous feeding was started so my body would receive fluids; medicine was administered to help combat infection. It was now a matter of waiting to see what would happen.

I often think of the effect on my parents when they were told I was critically injured and not expected to live. When they came to me, I could tell by the looks on their faces that the situation was grave. Ironically, I knew nothing about paralysis or the function of the spinal cord. But in the years to come I would learn.

The first two weeks were critical. Paralysis stops all body functions. The kidneys, bladder and bowels fail to act. A catheter is inserted to eliminate urine. Waste matter is pumped out of the body. Obviously, one cannot eat; there is no way to handle the food physically. In the first month my weight dropped from 145 pounds to 80.

My extremely high temperature, coupled with the paralysis, caused my outer skin layer to die. It caked up all over my body. I could not be moved even for bathing. Finally, the vital signs started to fail. My blood pressure dropped and my pulse rate diminished. Breathing became labored. Obviously, I was dying.

Then, thirteen days after the accident, at the most crucial point, a phenomenal thing occurred. I wet the bed! My kidneys and bladder had started functioning. The doctor ordered fluid intake. “Drink anything you want,” he told me. “But just keep drinking.”

My family later told me they had been called to the hospital that night. The doctor had told them the end was near. But now there was new hope.

The Long, Hard Road to Mobility

The days ahead would be very difficult ones. The painfully slow process of returning nerve impulse started and I was about to be introduced to therapy and rehabilitation. My family had consulted with specialists who uniformly agreed that survival itself would be “a miracle.” A break of the fifth cervical vertebra is one thing; the fourth cervical vertebra is another. Then my father asked about the chances of my ever regaining any use of my body. “One chance in a million,” the doctor replied, “one in a million.”

The start of spasm throughout the nervous system created almost unbearable pain. My mother worked day and night applying hot-water bottles and steaming towels, trying to make me more comfortable. Though the cramps subsided, the paralysis remained.

After weeks in the hospital I was allowed to go home. What a wonderful day that was to me. My family gave me constant care, and day by day, week by week, month by month, we could detect tiny new signs of life in my body.

Working with paralyzed muscles is a painful test of patience. Therapy included massage and muscle stretching, exercises, swimming and weight lifting. This was before many modern-day advances in physical therapy. During a recent visit to the New York University Medical Center, Division of Rehabilitative Medicine, I was amazed at the equipment and facilities they now have for treating paraplegics and quadriplegics. My treatment was primitive by comparison.

By late summer I had the sensation I could walk. “Humor him,” the doctor said. “He’ll learn in time it’s hopeless.”

So my father and brother-in-law would drag me over the floor. It was futile, but I kept thinking I could do it. Meanwhile, I started moving my arms at the elbow and exercised them furiously to develop what was available. I was able to type by having a pencil tied to my still-paralyzed hand and striking the keys with the pencil. I thought it was really “something”​—typing letters.

Most important of all, during the entire experience I drew ever closer to my Creator, Jehovah God. I had been raised as one of Jehovah’s witnesses, but I had never spent my time productively in study. Now I began reading the Bible as never before, and it seemed that, being paralyzed, I had better retention. In an era without television or other distractions, I found I could read by the hour and remember what I read. And I feel that during these trying months I learned for the first time in my life the real meaning of patience.

Finally, one day during exercises I felt that I could at least stand even if I could not walk. My father and brother-in-law placed me in a doorway and I braced myself with my arms. They released me. The pressure on feet that had not touched the floor or held my weight for many months hurt tremendously. But I stood in that doorway and I stood alone! What a feeling of victory!

Till now, my brother-in-law had carried me everywhere. He bathed me, dressed me, fed me. He and my sister were and have remained a great source of help and comfort to me over the past thirty years of this ordeal. As fellow witnesses of Jehovah, their spiritual strength and direction were vital to me, especially after my father died in 1950 and my mother some years later.

A Major Accomplishment: Rising from the Ground

My big awakening as to the dimensions of the lifelong problem facing me came during one visit to the rehabilitation center some months after my accident. The therapist, who had worked with me for months on muscle development and was teaching me to walk again, purposely bumped me and knocked me over on the exercise mat.

“Let’s see you get up,” he said.

“You know I can’t get up,” I said angrily. “Why did you do that?”

“I want you to know how it feels to be helpless,” he said. “You can walk now. It’s not a very pretty gait, but it gets you around, doesn’t it? Now you must devise a way to get up when you fall because you are going to fall many times. And when you fall you must get up and keep going. Do you understand me?”

I was crying. For the first time I felt completely frustrated and I felt that paralysis was going to conquer me, that I was not going to conquer it.

“There is no way, you know that,” I said.

“I don’t know anything of the kind. You’ve come this far and you’re not going to quit. So we’re going to work and work until we develop a way for you to get up. You are operating with about twenty percent of usable muscle strands. You are subject to spasm. That means, one stub of your toe and you’re going to go down, locked tight. The question then is, will you get up?”

It took months, but we mastered it. I rolled onto my stomach, raised up to my knees, lifted one leg as a brace and stood up. It took time, but I could do it. I kept practicing it over and over again.

In 1946, just over a year after the accident, I had opportunity to put this ability to the test. The occasion was an international convention of Jehovah’s witnesses at Cleveland, Ohio. While engaged in securing rooms for delegates to the meeting, I fell down a flight of brick steps. The resulting spasm, shock and injury paralyzed me. I lay there stunned, bleeding from the knees, elbows and face.

“I’ve got to get up,” I thought to myself. “Don’t panic. Take it easy.”

As the pain subsided and response returned, I was able to use the steps as support and get up. How I prayed for help! “We’re going to conquer you, we’re going to conquer you,” I kept saying. It was one of my most difficult days.

This was the first of many falls. Some of these damaged muscles, others tore off skin and left scars, and more recently one fall caused a broken bone in the spine that required me to wear a brace for several weeks until the bone knitted. It still bothers me, however. But none of these incidents were really important. What is important is to learn that when you fall, you get back up. With faith and complete reliance on the Creator, Jehovah, a person can accomplish much more in his life.

A Rich, Full Life

I had now come through the crisis. The first concern was survival. Then therapy and rehabilitation and the necessary mental and emotional adjustments. Some of these things are attainable. Other aspects may be beyond human ability to overcome.

In 1947 I returned to school. This was another test, but I had to get some training if I would ever become self-supporting and cease to be a burden to my family. After much thought I decided to return to high school and graduate. I was sixteen years old and a senior when I was injured. Now, three years and two months after the accident, I graduated in 1948.

I majored in speech and journalism and hoped to become a radio announcer. My first audition was a miserable failure. The manager of the station informed me I needed more training. Now I had something new to work on, something that did not require use of my badly crippled body: Training my voice, which was unimpaired.

During this period I had met my future wife in school. It all started with a casual introduction. But I was seated and she did not know of my condition. She invited me to her home to meet her parents and I accepted. But I was now faced with a tremendous problem. She lived in a second-story apartment, and I had never navigated that many steps before. When I arrived by car, which I had to learn to drive again, she was waiting downstairs. You can never imagine the feeling within me.

When I got out of the car and started walking toward her, the expression on her face never changed. She must have felt shocked, but she never betrayed it. Most appreciated​—she never asked me any questions about my condition. This has been her attitude through twenty-four years of marriage. She understands, she is compassionate, but she does not talk about it.

Our life together has been completely normal and one of purpose. My wife shares my beliefs, my moments of joy, and she has shared my moments of despair and frustration. Though concerned, she is not overly protective. She once said, “The only handicaps of importance are the emotional and spiritual ones,” and I agree.

Then came my second audition in broadcasting. I was seated with three other applicants and felt very insecure. But since I had come this far and worked so hard practicing, I decided I ought to see it through. To my surprise, I got the job! I was now able to work and earn a living. I cried the whole way home.

I worked first as a commercial announcer. Later, I became a play-by-play sports announcer, and in 1956 a television and radio news director. I became a reporter for two national networks. The broadcasting industry was good to me for twenty-two years. But once I had some experience and background in the field, I resolved that I would try to make the business work for me, rather than my working for it. It was a means of livelihood, but it was not going to be my main concern. The events that took place from 1945 on merely strengthened my resolve that my life would center around my service to Jehovah God and service to the interests of his Son’s kingdom.

There have been many people who have richly contributed to my life over the past thirty years. There have been so many instances of kindness and consideration that it would be impossible to list them all. The greatest of these, however, is the interest that Jehovah God himself has shown in me. He has been my constant companion, my strength and support. I am comforted by the words of Psalm 103:1-4, so meaningful to me:

“Bless Jehovah, O my soul, even everything within me, his holy name. Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and do not forget all his doings, him who is forgiving all your error, who is healing all your maladies, who is reclaiming your life from the very pit, who is crowning you with loving-kindness and mercies.”

When on earth, God’s Son demonstrated his ability to heal paralytics. (Matt. 4:24; 9:2-7) By means of God’s spirit, this was a simple task for him. It will be only one aspect of the numerous blessings of God’s kingdom by Jesus Christ, a millennial rule of peace just ahead of us. It will be a great source of happiness and healing to all physically handicapped persons who respond to that rule.

I have found it true that the greatest happiness is in serving God. This makes life genuinely rewarding and meaningful. Being a paralytic has not robbed me of the privileges and blessings of serving the Creator. And if you are handicapped in some way, I sincerely hope that this account will help you to see that you too can enjoy a rich life in God’s service.​—Contributed.

Pope Pius XII and the Nazis​—A Fresh Viewpoint

DID he do the right thing by not speaking out? The controversy over Pius XII’s silence on Nazi atrocities during World War II has raged intermittently for three decades. Critics say that a papal protest to the Nazis might have saved millions of lives. But the present pope, Paul VI, insists that “an attitude of protest and condemnation would have been not only futile but harmful.”

But why bring the matter up again? Is it not just whipping a dead issue? No. The Vatican itself is keeping it alive. Officials have even set aside their fifty-year-delay policy on publishing archive documents. They realize that, unless people do understand, critics have a most powerful argument to illustrate moral failure in the Church.

Many sincere Church members want to know the answer. They know that even Pope Paul VI was very much involved in matters back there as a close aide to Pius. Thus a Jesuit committee has been publishing selected documents from the Vatican archives since 1965. The latest, titled “The Holy See and the War Victims,” came out in April 1974. Does it provide any fresh insights?

A Deeper Issue

News reports give the limelight to documentary evidence that the Vatican had received much information about Nazi atrocities from a very early date. But much more significant is another little-noticed item. It shows that one of Pius XII’s trusted aides raised an issue that probes much deeper than the question of why the pope did not speak out against the Nazis. “Monsignor” Domenico Tardini (later a cardinal) is reported to have asked in exasperation:

“That the Holy See cannot make Hitler behave, everybody understands. But that it cannot keep a priest on the leash​—who can understand this?”

Shallow debate over how much good the voice of Pius XII would have done has all but obscured this far more fundamental issue. Honest Christians are forced to face the question: How could Nazi atrocities even have been committed in the first place if it were not for the cooperation of the people and their spiritual leaders? Ninety-five percent of Germans back there were either Catholic or Protestant. Nearly 32 million, over 40 percent, were Catholic, as was almost the entire population of Germany’s European allies, Austria and Italy. Even among the dreaded S.S., almost a fourth were still Catholic in 1939, despite S.S. leadership pressures to resign.¹

Pius XII himself lays bare this very issue in a recently published private letter to the priest who caused “Msgr.” Tardini’s exasperation. As president, the priest, Jozef Tiso,a ruled the Nazi protectorate of Slovakia throughout the war (1939-45). Pius wrote “Monsignor” Tiso that he had hoped that the Slovak government and people, “Catholic almost entirely, would never proceed with the forcible removal of persons belonging to the Jewish race,” and the fact that “such measures are carried out among a people of great Catholic traditions, by a government which declares it is their follower and custodian,” distressed him greatly.​—April 7, 1943.²

But how could any form of cooperation with the Nazi racial extermination program even be considered among a people who the pope himself said were ‘Catholic almost entirely and of great Catholic traditions’? Surely the moral teachings of the Church would make it unthinkable for “Msgr.” Tiso and his flock to have any part in genocide! History shows whether they did. Honest-hearted church members certainly desire an explanation for such conduct as well as that of the other so-called “Christian” nations involved with the Nazis.

The Vatican’s own Cardinal Eugène Tisserantb supplies one reason with the candor and openness of a private letterc to a friend. After the fall of France in 1940, he wrote complaining to Cardinal Suhard of Paris that “Fascist ideology and Hitlerism have transformed the consciences of the young, and those under thirty-five are willing to commit any crime for any purpose ordered by their leader.” But how could these Church-trained consciences be so easily “transformed”? After all, Hitler had been working on them only about seven years, while the Church had been training its flock for well over a thousand!

“Vital Point of Christianity”

Surely Pope Pius could do something about this Nazi encroachment into traditional Church territory​—the human conscience! But Cardinal Tisserant mourns:

“Since the beginning of November [1939], I have persistently requested the Holy See to issue an encyclical on the duty of the individual to obey the dictates of conscience, because this is the vital point of Christianity.” (Italics added)

However, history reveals no papal statements during the war on this “vital point of Christianity.” In fact, Tisserant went on to make the melancholy forecast: “I fear that history may have reason to reproach the Holy See with having pursued a policy of convenience to itself and very little else. This is sad in the extreme.”³

No doubt the pope’s “policy” of diplomatic care in dealing with the Nazis did ensure the “convenience” of survival for the Vatican and the Church. Pius himself advised the German bishops that “the danger of reprisals and pressures,” or worse, called for “restraint” in their pronouncements “in order to avoid greater evils. This is one of the motives,” he wrote, “for the limitations” he put on his own declarations.​—April 30, 1943.⁴

This explanation helps us to understand why Pius conducted himself as carefully as he did. But it leaves unexplained this: Why ministers, priests and their flocks stood by to witness, cooperated with, or actually committed the Nazi atrocities​—almost to the last person. What happened to their consciences?

Church and Conscience

The answer must lie with the training those consciences received. How was a loyal Catholic, for example, to understand Pius XII’s own December 8, 1939, pastoral letter, Asperis Commoti Anxietatibus, addressed to chaplains in the various armies of the warring nations, of whom over 500 served in Hitler’s army? He urged the chaplains on both sides to have confidence in their respective military bishops, viewing the war as a manifestation of the will of a heavenly Father who always turns evil into good, and “as fighters under the flags of their country to fight also for the Church.”⁵ (Italics added)

This perplexing contradiction is demonstrated again by the pope’s letters to the bishops on both sides. In an August 6, 1940, letter to the German bishops, Pius expressed his admiration for Catholics who “loyal unto death give proof of their willingness to share the sacrifices and sufferings of the other Volksgenossen [fellow Germans].”⁶ Yet just nine months before, the pope had addressed a similar message to the French bishops, counseling them that they had a right to support all measures to defend their country against these very same “loyal” German Catholics!⁷ Italian Church metropolitans received like counsel just before Italy joined the war against the Allies.⁸

Thus when the head of the Church did speak on matters affecting conscience, as did almost all of his clergymen, he applauded the consciences of those who ‘loyally’ served in military forces of any stripe. In fact, when the Vatican’s Berlin correspondent for the official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, once asked Pius XII whether he would protest the extermination of the Jews, the pope told him that he could “not forget that millions of Catholics serve in the German armies. Shall I bring them into conflicts of conscience?”⁹

Were Protestant churchmen any less responsible? Well, note what the Ecclesiastical Council of the German Evangelical (Lutheran) Church, the largest Protestant body, telegrammed personally to Hitler on June 30, 1941:

“May Almighty God assist you and our nation against the double enemy [Britain and Russia]. The victory shall be ours, to gain which must be the main point of our aspirations and actions. . . . in all her prayers [the Church] is with you and with our peerless soldiers who now are about to eliminate the root of this pestilence with heavy blows.”¹⁰

With this kind of direction from their “shepherds,” what else could the flocks do? What they actually did do speaks for itself, does it not?

Was Hitler’s low estimate of the churches away back in 1933 correct? He boasted scornfully that “the parsons . . . will betray their God to us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable little jobs and incomes. . . . Why should we quarrel? They will swallow anything in order to keep their material advantages.”¹¹ (Hitler’s government did continue large state subsidies to the major churches throughout the war.)¹²

To bring home the reality of what Hitler was saying about the churches, a person only needs to ask himself: “If I had been a sincere church member in Germany, Austria, or Italy during that period, what would my spiritual leaders have advised me​—and what would I have done?” Suppose you were to say: “I would not have served Hitler.” What would you have faced, not from the Nazis, but from your own spiritual leaders?

Consciences Face the Church

Search as he would, Catholic scholar and educator Gordon Zahn could find documented evidence of just one among 32 million German Catholics who conscientiously refused to serve in Hitler’s armies. Aside from churchmen prosecuted for political opposition to the Nazis, he found a total of seven persons between Germany and Catholic Austria who conscientiously refused to take the military oath.¹³ You probably wonder why there were so few.

Zahn answers that his extensive interviews with people, who knew these men produced the “flat assurance voiced by almost every informant that any Catholic who decided to refuse military service would have received no support whatsoever from his spiritual leaders.” Ironically, those few who did refuse and stuck to it were actually an embarrassment to their “spiritual leaders.”

For example, in requesting clemency from the Nazi court for a priest who refused, Archbishop Konrad Gröber of Freiburg wrote that the priest was “an idealist who has grown ever more estranged from reality. . . . who wanted to help his Volk and Vaterland but who proceeded from the wrong premises.”¹⁴ Others were denied Communion by prison chaplains for violating their “Christian duty” to take the Nazi military oath.¹⁵

The documented case of an Austrian peasant, Franz Jägerstätter, illustrates what a church member actually faced from his spiritual leaders. Jägerstätter was finally imprisoned for his stand at Linz, Austria, and later beheaded. The Catholic prison chaplain writes that he had “tried to make it clear to him that he must keep his own and his family’s welfare in mind even in following his personal ideals and principles”​—just as Jägerstätter’s village priest had argued long before Jägerstätter was imprisoned. “He seemed to have come around to seeing my point,” says the chaplain, “and promised to follow my recommendation and take the [Nazi military] oath.”¹⁶

Did this advice come from a Nazi? No​—it came from a priest in good standing long after the war! But that was not the only pressure from spiritual leaders. Bishop Fliesser of the same Linz diocese reveals that he, too, had “known Jägerstätter personally,” and argued “to no avail” that Jägerstätter was not responsible “for the actions of the [Nazi] civil authority.” The bishop said that his was “a completely exceptional case, one more to be marveled at than copied.” Bishop Fliesser was writing to a priest after the war in explanation of his refusal to allow publication of Jägerstätter’s story in the Linz diocesan paper. The story might “create confusion and disturb consciences,” he said.

Thus Bishop Fliesser viewed a man who followed his conscience as an “exceptional case”​—not to be copied. “I consider the greater heroes to be those exemplary young Catholic men, seminarians, priests, and heads of families who fought and died in heroic fulfillment of duty,” he continued. Even the Nazi’s court-appointed attorney Feldmann used this argument in an attempt to get Jägerstätter to compromise, noting the millions of Catholics, including clergy, engaged in combat with a “clear” conscience. Finally, Feldmann recalls, he challenged him to cite a single instance in which a bishop in any way discouraged Nazi military service.¹⁷ He knew of none. Do you?

Then, returning to the rejected article titled “Heroic Consistency,” Bishop Fliesser spoke reproachfully of “the Bibelforschers [Jehovah’s witnesses] and Adventists who, in their ‘consistency,’ preferred to die in concentration camps rather than bear arms.” He said they were influenced by an “erroneous conscience,” and that “for the instruction of men, the better models” are the “heroes” who fought, influenced by “a clear and correct conscience.”¹⁸

Hence, even after the war, an Austrian bishop in good standing still viewed as “correct” the consciences of church members who allowed themselves to be herded into Nazi armies to slaughter fellow church members. Those who faced death in the concentration camps rather than serve the Nazis, the bishop implies, were errant cowards. What do you think?

The Church backed Bishop Fliesser’s view of these Christian Bibelforschers with deeds under Hitler’s government. The Passau, Germany, Catholic diocesan gazette of May 6, 1933, reports that the Church accepted an assignment from the Nazis to report any Bavarian Jehovah’s witnesses who still practiced their faith after they were banned the previous month.¹⁹

Significantly, the courageous stand of these particular Christians had some influence on the Catholic Franz Jägerstätter. Gordon Zahn reports that his village pastor noted that “Franz had often spoken with admiration of their faithfulness,” and villagers who knew him made much of the fact that he “spent hours together discussing religion and studying the Bible” with his Bibelforscher cousin, the only non-Catholic in the village.²⁰

Even Nazi defamation programs against the Jews did not cow the Witnesses from their conscientious obligation to express Christian kindness toward anyone. Former editor of the Danzinger Informator, J. Kirschbaum, wrote in the Yiddish New York daily, Der Tog of July 2, 1939, reporting that in Danzig, Poland, “when like an epidemic all kinds of food stores began to post the well-known signs ‘Juden unerẅunscht’ (Jews not wanted),” the Witnesses provided “their Jewish neighbors or mere acquaintances with food or milk without asking any reward for it.”

This Jewish editor also marveled at the German Witness children who, in contrast to their Catholic and Protestant schoolmates, conscientiously “refuse to salute the Swastika and to use the salute ‘Heil Hitler!’ and all the threats against the children . . . are of no avail. The children declare clearly and distinctly, that God alone may be hailed by ‘Heil!’, but no man, since such action is blasphemy.”

Why the Contrast?

In the face of such historical facts, thinking Christians must ask: Why could an organization with all the resources and well over a thousand years to train the consciences of the faithful produce evidence of just one German Catholic among 32 million (.000003 percent) whose conscience would not allow him to fight for the Nazis? Yet among the 19,000 German Jehovah’s witnesses in 1933, “a higher proportion (97 per cent) suffered some form of persecution than any of the other churches,” according to historian J. S. Conway. They are first on the “List of Sects Prohibited Since 1933” circulated by Gestapo headquarters on June 7, 1939.​—The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933-45, pp. 196, 370.

Why were Jehovah’s witnesses so persecuted? In contrast to some churchmen persecuted for anti-Nazi political activity, Conway reports that their resistance “was centred chiefly against any form of collaboration with the Nazis and against service in the army. Basing their case on Biblical commandment, they refused to take up arms even against the nation’s enemies. . . . they were thus all practically brought under sentence of death.” (P. 198; italics added) The Nazis actually did execute 203 of the 253 Witnesses sentenced to death, 635 died in prison and 6,019 received prison sentences totaling over 13,924 years.

But were not the Catholics and Protestants who served Hitler under the same “Biblical commandment”? Yes, they were, just as the spiritual leaders in Jesus’ day knew God’s law. Yet Jesus marveled: “How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition!”​—Mark 7:9, Catholic Jerusalem Bible.

You can observe for yourself “how ingeniously” today’s religious leaders “get round the commandment of God,” by turning to the New Catholic Encyclopedia under the heading “Pacifism.” There, among other things, this encyclopedia asserts: “Nor is there any intrinsic contradiction between a just war and Christ’s command that we love our enemies. A just war expresses hatred of the evil deed rather than of the evildoer. . . . Catholics are certainly free to form their own opinion whether the conditions required for justification are likely to be fulfilled in any future war . . .”​—1967 ed., Vol. 10, p. 856; see also “War, Morality of.”

How does this ‘ingenious’ reasoning work out in practice? Well, how many wars can you find in history involving Catholic or Protestant populations​—for any cause—​that failed to meet the “conditions required for justification,” so that the flock refused to fight for their political masters? If the churches faced the same circumstances today as they did under the Nazis, do you honestly believe they would perform differently? Can European and American Catholics, for example, feel secure in the belief that the millions of Polish, Hungarian and Czech Catholics would not attack their brothers in the faith, should there be an East-West confrontation? Or is the more realistic view that expressed in the Catholic magazine, St. Anthony Messenger, that priests and ministers “often convey the impression that they will bless any war or adventure the leaders of the state decide to launch”?​—May 1973, p. 21.

Yet Christ Jesus, whose disciples they say they are, gave this rule of Christian discipleship: “By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” He also told a disciple seeking to defend him by force​—certainly a “just” cause: “Put back thy sword into its place; for all those who take the sword will perish by the sword.”​—John 13:35; Matt. 26:52, Catholic Confraternity Version, 1941 Edition.

Thus if you were asked to identify those who are truly worthy to bear the name “Christian” today, using the guidelines established by Jesus himself, could you honestly select any of Christendom’s churches? Who have, in actual practice, displayed the identifying mark of real love set out by Christ himself? Who do “not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and in truth”? (1 John 3:18, Catholic Confraternity Version) The historical evidence speaks for itself. Honest persons will think it over. Many are now taking advantage of the help that Jehovah’s witnesses freely offer to develop a Bible-trained Christian conscience that will not fail under test.

REFERENCES

1. Internal S.S. report, National Archives, Washington, T-580, roll 42, file 245.

2. The Vatican in the Age of the Dictators, Anthony Rhodes, 1973, p. 347.

3. Tisserant to Suhard, June 11, 1940 (stored in the Bundesarchiv at Koblenz, R 43 II/​1440a).

4. Documentation Catholique, Paris, Feb. 2, 1964.

5. Published in Seelsorge und kirchliche Verwaltung im Krieg, Konrad Hoffmann, editor, 1940, p. 144.

6. Pius XII to the German bishops, copy in the Diocesan Archives at Regensburg.

7. Quoted in Was sagen die Weltkirchen zu diesem Krieg? Zeugnisse und Urteile, Matthes Ziegler, 1940, pp. 109-112.

8. Message of April 24, 1940, quoted in Der Vatikan und der Krieg, Alberto Giovannetti, 1961, p. 300.

9. Statement on March 11, 1963, in Berlin, published in Summa iniuria oder Durfte der Papst schweigen?, Fritz J. Raddatz, editor, 1963, p. 223.

10. Kirchliches Jahrbuch für die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland 1933-1944 (Gütersloh, 1948), pp. 478-9.

11. The Voice of Destruction, Hermann Rauschning, 1940, pp. 50, 53.

12. Article 17 of the Concordat Between Germany and the Holy See, July 20, 1933, Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series D, Vol. VIII, pp. 896f.

13. German Catholics and Hitler’s Wars, Gordon Zahn, 1962, pp. 54, 55.

14. Copy in files of the Freiburg Archdiocesan chancery.

15. Franz Reinisch: Ein Martyrer unserer Zeit, Heinrich Kreuzberg, 1953, p. 86.

16. In Solitary Witness, Gordon Zahn, 1964, p. 75.

17. Ibid., p. 86.

18. Letter of February 27, 1946, in St. Radegund, Austria, parish “Jägerstätter file.”

19. Oberhirtliches Verordnungsblatt für die Diözese Passau, No. 10, May 6, 1933, pp. 50-51.

20. In Solitary Witness, Gordon Zahn, 1964, pp. 108-110.

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 18]

How is it possible that men with church-trained consciences were willing to commit any crime ordered by their leaders?

[Pictures on page 19]

Who was responsible?

[Picture on page 20]

[New York Post, August 27, 1940, Blue Final Edition, p. 15]

Nazi Army Praised

German Catholic Bishops Loyal

[New York Times, December 7, 1941, Late City Edition, p. 33]

‘WAR PRAYER’ FOR REICH

Catholic Bishops at Fulda Ask Blessing and Victory

[New York Times, September 25, 1939, Late City Edition, p.6]

The Witkars of Amsterdam​—Born of Necessity

By “Awake!” correspondent in the Netherlands

IT WAS the first day of spring 1974 and, as usual, springtime brought new sights and sounds. But few residents of colorful Amsterdam were ready for anything so unusual. Dutch humor was honed to its sharpest trying to describe what appeared that day: “A mobile love seat,” “A high hat on wheels,” “A riding cheese cover.”

Just what were they watching?

A Witkar!

One look at the unusual, battery-powered vehicle and you easily understand everyone’s surprise. This little car​—with its cozy double seat inside, its round chassis, standing, as it seems, much too high on its small wheels, and with glass all around—​certainly did fill the picture of the jesting Amsterdamers. Where did such a peculiar idea come from?

It was born largely of necessity. You see, Amsterdam’s attractive downtown area is daily marred by 35,000 cars, parked in every available nook and cranny. This, along with hazardous driving in the narrow streets and the noise and pollution, annoys pedestrians. Yet, actually, only 1,500 of the 35,000 autos are in use at any one time. This fact spawned the idea for a traffic system designed to keep more vehicles occupied and not to be just idly parked.

In 1966 youthful radicals in Amsterdam organized themselves into a group called the Provos. Their aim was not violence but provocation against situations that irritated the public. One such condition was downtown traffic congestion and pollution. The passenger-car volume in the country has grown from 100,000 in 1949 to its present 2,500,000. This is quite a load for a country measuring only 15,000 square miles. The Provos came along with some very unorthodox and radical plans for solving this knotty traffic problem.

First, Luud Schimmelpennink, one of the organization’s leading figures, proposed special use of bicycles in the downtown area; but Amsterdam did not take to this suggestion. Then came his idea for the Witkar, to be employed exclusively for downtown travel. In 1967 Schimmelpennink discussed Witkars with a group of interested people. Most of those in the audience, many of whom were prominent citizens, said that they would never ride in such a “contraption.” But they were willing to contribute money for Schimmelpennink to build a working model of the car. In 1968 the model was ready.

The Idea Grows

With this model as a backdrop, Schimmelpennink then proceeded to unfold the Witkar plan in detail. First, the speed would be boosted to eighteen miles per hour. When completed, the Witkar plan would include 105 stations evenly scattered throughout the downtown area and totaling about 1,200 Witkars. This would mean that no station would be more than 500 yards from another.

The principle would be that Witkars would travel only between stations of one’s choice, these stations providing parking space for the cars and maintenance, including the recharging of batteries. Use of the Witkar would be limited to members of a foundation set up to manage the project. One joins the foundation for ten dollars; another ten dollars buys a key needed to drive the car.

A member who is downtown must first determine which station is nearest to him. Arriving at the station, where a car is available, he pushes his key into a slot in the selection panel. Each station is to house seven or more Witkars. The selection panel of each station is connected by wire to a computer at the main control room. The computer registers the number on the key, which corresponds with the number of the account at the City Clearance Bank. When the traveler dials the number of the station he wants, the computer ascertains if parking space is available at that station, and, if not, it selects another station near the one originally preferred.

On arriving at the other end of his journey, the driver parks the Witkar behind the last car in the row of other Witkars. A device on the roof of the car automatically connects with a railing to recharge the battery. Within minutes the power used in traveling between stations will be replenished.

The Experimental Period

From the time of the first appearance of the Witkar in Amsterdam in 1968, negotiations with city officials began. There was some reluctance on the part of officials; the police were the most skeptical, arguing that the eighteen-mile-per-hour vehicle would hold up faster traffic. However, the Witkar promoters came up with loggings to show that the average movement of traffic downtown was slower than eighteen miles per hour.

Hundreds of individuals became paying members of the foundation, including city councilmen. Large companies pledged help. Finally, permission was granted by the city to have just one experimental station with three Witkars. March 21, 1974, was the big day; the experiment began. It lasted for three months.

This three-month period was valuable for the initiators of the project. Many persons, including prominent citizens, took short round-trip rides on the Witkar, thereby advertising the project. At the conclusion of the experimental period, two Witkars rode a marathon lasting twenty-four hours. These cars covered a total of 276 miles at a cost of less than five dollars in electricity. The average automobile would have burned about eighteen gallons of gasoline while covering this distance in city driving.

The Witkar reduces noise pollution to a minimum when compared to gasoline-powered automobiles. Yet the Witkar is not entirely void of pollution. The amount of fuel oil needed to produce electrical current for the 276-mile marathon of the Witkar was (in volume) about half the gasoline needed for an average car. Overall, it appears that the total pollution from Witkars is less than that caused by gasoline-driven autos.

The experiment so impressed the authorities that the city of Amsterdam granted permission for two more stations to be completed in October and another two in December, making a total of five. In the meantime, the Ministry of Health and Environmental Hygiene granted a subsidy of $130,000, and other sizable donations came in from private sources. In this way the financing of the first phase of the project, five stations and thirty-five Witkars, is complete.

Amsterdam’s unusual project to combat automobile congestion and pollution is now in operation.

Swahili​—International Language of Africa

By “Awake!” correspondent in Zaire

DO YOU know any Swahili? You have probably heard the word “safari.” Did you realize that it is the Swahili word for “travel”?

Many Africans find the Swahili language appealing because it is not a tribal tongue. There is no Swahili tribe. So the language has a neutral quality. Thus in Africa, where tribalism is a divisive factor, the use of Swahili serves to unite people.

Many Africans know Swahili in addition to their tribal tongue. Also, many Europeans, Asians and others have learned it because of its wide usage. Even some American and European universities have begun to teach it. The language is spoken all over central and eastern Africa, in an area populated by some 50 million people.

One can start in southwest Zaire, right on the Angola border, and use Swahili to talk with people of the Lunda tribe. Then going east, one can communicate with the Baluba, another large African tribe. Continuing east, a person will find that knowledge of Swahili permits him to speak with the Watusi in Ruanda, the Masai in Tanzania and other tribes in Kenya, Uganda and Burundi. Even as far north as Somalia, and over a thousand miles south into Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, one encounters Swahili-speaking peoples.

In Tanzania and Kenya knowledge of the language is considered indispensable for civil servants, settlers, missionaries and businessmen. In fact, Swahili is the official language of Tanzania, and may soon enjoy that distinction in Kenya.

In southern Zaire Africans from many tribes have found work in the mines, and they live together in the big cities, such as Lubumbashi. Knowledge of Swahili has provided them a common language, which has helped to unite them. Now most of their children learn Swahili as their mother tongue.

Particularly has Swahili played an important role in trade, permitting diverse peoples to carry on business with one another. For example, Greek and Asian merchants, who do not speak the official language​—English in parts of East Africa and French in most of Central Africa—​often depend on Swahili for their work.

The Swahili language developed among the descendants of Arabs who settled along the eastern coast of Africa. Their earliest known settlement is believed to date to 689 C.E. The Arabs married African women, principally those of the Bantu tribe. Thus Swahili has its basis in the Bantu languages, but is greatly influenced by the language of the Arabs and Indians. The name Swahili comes from the Arabic word “swahil,” meaning “coasts,” which identifies the place of origin of the tongue.

As a result of its use in trade, however, the vocabulary has been derived from many sources. The English will feel at home when they encounter words such as “bulangeti” for blanket, “kabati” for cupboard and “bulosho” for brush. The Portuguese will recognize “mesa” (table) and “manteka” (butter). Words also are derived from French and German.

Swahili has a logically developed grammar and a vocabulary of over 5,000 words. Many words give shades of meaning, certain ones corresponding with “patience,” “forbearance,” “perseverance,” and so forth. Also single words can express a great deal. For example, “hajaiwapa” would be translated, “He has not yet given it to them.”

Yet Swahili is not difficult to learn. Words are easy to pronounce, as well as to spell. There are such helpful simplifications as “water of fruits” for “juice,” and “ship of bird” for “airplane.” A vocabulary of 200 words is sufficient for most everyday conversations.

Due to the large area over which it is spoken and the many people who speak it, Swahili is by no means uniform. But there have been efforts at standardization.

Fine literature, principally the Bible, is available in Swahili. However, there are also available a number of publications of Jehovah’s witnesses, including the Bible-study aid The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. Thus Swahili is now being used extensively to spread the good news of God’s kingdom among many tribes of Africa.

What Is the Bible’s View?

Would Yoga Benefit You?

YOGA has become very popular among people in many walks of life. For instance, one actress employed it throughout her half-century career and credited yoga with keeping her fit. A group of Roman Catholic nuns at Round Lake, New York, combine meditation and yoga with their morning and evening prayers.

Practicers of yoga recommend it highly. They may tell you that it keeps them in good physical condition, cures illnesses or relieves hypertension. “I was very ill, restless and lonely in spite of having a loving family and many wonderful friends,” wrote one woman. “The study and practice of Yoga helped me to regain my physical health and to acquire peace of mind.”

Well, then, would yoga benefit you? And does the Bible say anything that has a bearing on the practice of yoga?

From the standpoint of Hindu religious philosophy, yoga is “a system of ascetic practice, abstract meditation, and mental concentration, used as a method of attaining union with the supreme spirit.” The term also is applied to a system of physical exercises for achieving well-being and serenity. There are about ten different types of yoga. Among these is Hatha Yoga, widely advocated for health benefits and described as “a system of mental and physical training with prescribed postures, breathing exercises, meditation and relaxation.”

Actually, Hatha Yoga is a stepping-stone to Raja Yoga, a higher form. Yoga has been defined as “the suppression through progressive discipline (as raja-yoga) of all activity of body, mind, and individual will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation from all pain and suffering.” So, ‘the suppression of individual will’ is an ultimate objective of the yogi or practicer of yoga.

Another objective of the yogi is the development of extrasensory perception. A certain head-standing posture is specified as the one “for those who wish to develop suprasensory powers like telepathic communication and clairvoyance.” According to yoga teaching, Kundalini, the serpent power, lies at the base of the spine. Once aroused, it is made to ascend the spine through six stations, or chakras, to the residence of the deity Vishnu in the brain. When this “serpent power” reaches each chakra, the yogi is said to experience new kinds of psychic powers. Finally, after years of effort, at the “union of Kundalini with Vishnu,” the persistent yogi attains the goal of samadhi, the state of complete illumination or superconsciousness.

Associated with the many yoga postures is an elaborate system of breathing exercises. Concerning yoga breath control, we are told: “Its significance has been acknowledged even by the well-known [spirit] medium Eileen Garrett . . . ‘Control of breathing,’ she says, ‘plays an important part in all my supernormal work.’”​—Forever Young Forever Healthy, by Indra Devi.

Concentration and meditation come next. The student may concentrate on the tip of a burning candle, gazing at the flame till tears come into his eyes. Then, with them closed, he holds the image as long as possible. Why? Ultimately to make the mind a total blank. Next comes prolonged meditation on one idea, which leads to self-induced hypnosis.

Manifestations of the “serpent power” are numerous. They include: “Knowledge of past and future. . . . Knowledge of others’ minds . . . Knowledge of minutely small, concealed and distant things . . . clairvoyance . . . Levitation. . . . Clairaudience.”​—Yoga Dictionary, by Ernest Wood.

As we have noted, one of yoga’s objectives is ‘the suppression of individual will.’ Yet the Bible encourages, not the suppression, but the exercise of a person’s own will in harmony with God’s will. Jesus Christ said: “I seek, not my own will, but the will of him [God] that sent me.” “I have come down from heaven to do, not my will, but the will of him that sent me.” (John 5:30; 6:37, 38) Jesus still had ‘his own will,’ but he exercised that will in doing the will of God.

In this, Christ set an example for his followers. Also, rather than implying that individual will should be suppressed, the Christian apostle Paul told fellow believers that “God . . . is acting within you in order for you both to will and to act.” (Phil. 2:13) This does not sound like the yoga concept, does it?

What about concentration that makes the mind a total blank? And what of meditation that leads to self-induced hypnosis? Nowhere does the Holy Bible associate Christian thought and meditation with such practices. The apostle Paul did urge Timothy: “Ponder over these things; be absorbed in them.” (1 Tim. 4:15) But Paul was advising the young man to ponder over, or meditate on, his personal teaching, conduct and ministry. The apostle was not recommending any kind of trance-inducing fixation of thought on a single idea or object. Nor was Timothy being told to make his mind a total blank.

In fact, there is great danger in making the mind totally blank. Jesus Christ indicated this in saying that when an unclean spirit comes out of a man and later finds that “house” swept clean and adorned, “it goes its way and takes along seven different spirits more wicked than itself, and, after getting inside, they dwell there; and the final circumstances of that man become worse than the first.” (Luke 11:24-26) Yes, a blank mind makes a person easy prey for the demons. But the Christian, through proper meditation on Bible truths, can resist these wicked spirit creatures.​—Eph. 6:11-13.

What about the yogi’s development of extrasensory perception and such manifestations of “serpent power” as knowledge of the future, clairvoyance, levitation and clairaudience? A Biblical incident enables us to identify the source of these things. At Philippi, “a certain servant girl with a spirit, a demon of divination,” met Paul and his companions. “She used to furnish her masters with much gain by practicing the art of prediction,” says the account. But in the name of Jesus Christ the apostle Paul ordered the demon to come out of her, “and it came out that very hour.” With what result? No longer was she able to predict the future. (Acts 16:16-19) A demon had been responsible for her uncanny power.

The unvarnished truth is that yoga’s “serpent power” is spiritism, which is condemned in the Bible. (Rev. 21:8) Chiefly behind such occult power is “the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Rev. 12:9) Guard against deception by the Devil and his demons. Draw aid from God’s Word, the Bible. Yoga in any form definitely cannot benefit you. It can only do you harm.

Watching the World

“Holy Year” Misgivings

◆ Do Romans wholeheartedly favor Pope Paul’s recently declared “Holy Year”? A Rome correspondent reports in the New York Post that “there are printed signs and handwritten graffiti railing against it all over this city.” Why? He answers that “some political forces . . . felt that the worldwide economic condition made it insensitive to suggest to poor people that they ought to travel to holy places.”

Resolute Quake Victims

◆ When the recent Pakistan earthquake brought death and injury to thousands, victims both helped and hindered relief efforts. A religious custom created problems for the doctors. One badly injured woman’s husband angrily said that he would rather let her die than be attended by a man. “Many injured women, following Moslem custom, refused to be treated by male physicians,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

Famine Update

◆ The Paddock brothers’ now-famous 1967 book Famine​—1975! pointed forward to the current food and population problem. What do the authors say now that 1975 is with us? “Everything is so much worse than when we wrote that book,” says William Paddock. “You have a couple of hundred million more people to worry about, you’ve got the energy crisis, you’ve got inflation.” The report in the New York Times Magazine concludes that “people like the Paddocks . . . seem more convinced of their pessimistic premises than ever.”

Religion in Spain

◆ The conservative Protestant journal Christianity Today, noting Spain’s growing religious freedom, asserts that the country’s “largest [Protestant] denominational groups” are branches of the Plymouth Brethren (“nearly 10,000 members”) and Southern Baptists (“6,000 to 7,000 members”). Each has about 100 “meeting places.” The article notes in passing that “Jehovah’s Witnesses claim exceptional growth.” The fact is that there are almost as many active Witnesses in Spain as all “Protestant” groups combined​—about 29,000 are distributed in more than 400 congregations throughout the country. Many more persons are obviously interested in their work, as is indicated by the 60,022 who attended the annual observance of the Lord’s Evening Meal at meeting places of Jehovah’s witnesses in Spain last April.

Entering 1975

Now that 1974 is far enough behind us, many prominent observers feel safe in reflecting on its meaning and what 1975 will bring:

• “What a year 1974 was!” marvels Professor Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in The Wall Street Journal. “All these extraordinary events, besides being extremely disconcerting and disagreeable, had one other feature in common: that is, no one foresaw them. . . . History has a remarkable capacity to outwit our best theories and to elude our most considered predictions.”

• “Indeed, 1974 will surely prove to have been the easy year” for feeling the impact of oil price increases, warn five international economists in Foreign Affairs. “The danger that one or more importing nations will simply not be able to pay for oil is immediate, within a matter of months.” They add: “Underlying economic tensions have . . . been inexorably moving toward crisis.”

• “We are witnessing a fundamental turning in the experience of the Western World which closes a 500-year span of economic history,” declares economist John E. Sawyer in the New York Times. He asserts that previous assumptions of a boundless human future “have now been fundamentally altered,” and that “new and unaccustomed constraints are henceforth a persisting condition of life on this earth.”

• Science magazine editor Philip H. Abelson laments, “heaven only knows when this country will emerge from the years of travail and discontent that it is now entering.”

• And a National Observer European correspondent, viewing the prevailing mood in Paris and London, writes of “this, the winter before Armageddon.”

Ocean “Popcorn”

◆ French scientists dredging up rocks from the Atlantic’s mid-ocean ridge were surprised when some pebbles exploded “with a sound like popping corn.” The small, glassy pebbles continued to pop, one or two at a time, for about three days. Scientists think that gases trapped in them at high pressure caused the “popping.” The pebbles were brought to the surface from over a mile and a half deep, where the pressure is 300 times as great.

How Many People?

◆ Are generally accepted world population figures accurate? The Environmental Fund says not. Their study, noted in Science News, alleges that world population was already more than four billion last year and is growing at 90 million per year, not 75 million or so. The study asserts, for example, that official U.S. Census figures do not include over seven million illegal immigrants or the 5.3 million admittedly not counted in the 1970 census. The Fund also claims that China’s actual population is at least 917 million, far more than the popularly reported 800 million.

Gossip Record

◆ Where do people hold the longest telephone conversations? The head of Greece’s telecommunications organization claimed that distinction for Greece. When complaining that Greeks do “extensive gossiping over the phone,” he asserted that it “exceeds in time not only the average in Europe and America but of the entire world.” He urged a shortening of conversations to improve telephone service.

Hemophilia Treatment Hazard

◆ Certain clotting “factors” derived from blood are now in wide use for the treatment of hemophilia, a disorder causing uncontrollable bleeding. However, those given this treatment face another deadly hazard: the Swiss medical weekly Schweizer Med Wochenschrift reports that almost 40 percent of 113 hemophiliacs studied had cases of hepatitis. “All these patients had received whole blood, plasma, or blood derivatives containing [the factors],” notes the report. Of course, true Christians do not use this potentially dangerous treatment, heeding the Bible’s command to ‘abstain from blood.’​—Acts 15:20, 28, 29.

Is It Legal?

◆ Is a homosexual “marriage” really a marriage? When the Manitoba, Canada, provincial vital-statistics recorder refused to register their Unitarian-Church-blessed homosexual “marriage,” the men took it to court. The verdict? “I view it as self-evident that the ceremony performed . . . was not a marriage,” ruled Winnipeg’s chief County Court Judge Alan Philp; “it was a nullity.” The Bible agrees.

Textbook Dilemmas

◆ While fundamentalists in the southern U.S. challenge public school authorities about too-secular textbooks, some Quebec parochial school authorities have a different textbook problem. Many Montreal Catholic high school students want to take “more relevant” courses than religious instruction. The chairman of religious studies at one school says that the problem is irrelevant textbooks: “We are trying to change the book, but it is hard to get two theologians to agree to anything about such things as divorce, abortion, drugs and many other things students often talk about.”

Reading Myth

◆ “Don’t move your lips when you read” is familiar advice​—but is it valid? No, says a report in the International Journal of Linguistics. Researchers’ experiments showed that movements of the lips, tongue and vocal cords aid reading comprehension not only of poor readers, but also of good readers amid distractions.​—Compare the Bible, at Joshua 1:8; Acts 8:30.

Drugs Defeated?

◆ From 1971 to 1973, U.S. authorities thought they had ‘turned the corner’ on drug abuse, with drug-related deaths falling from 1,726 to 1,017. But their elation was short-lived. Almost 700 died from drugs in the first half of 1974 alone, and July to September showed a two-thirds rise in deaths over that period the previous year. Now “we can no longer talk about turning the corner on heroin anywhere,” says the director of the President’s Drug Abuse Prevention Office, Dr. Robert DuPont.

Fending Off Rape

◆ What is the best way to handle a rapist? Should a woman submit quickly to avoid harm? Talk calmly? Or scream? “Resist loudly, firmly​—and early,” urges the director of the Center for the Study of Violence at Denver (Colorado) General Hospital. He writes in Psychology Today that rapists are usually insecure persons who will ‘test the victim’s docility’ by first trying to frighten her into submission. “It is important that a woman resist at the very beginning,” he says, while it is still “easier for him to look for a more cooperative victim.” He also cites a California police official’s advice: “Scream bloody murder. It will alarm the rapist and hopefully the surrounding community.”

Slowing Down

◆ Heart-attack deaths among older persons who shovel snow, says a consultant for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, “are the product of a lifetime of not doing things like shoveling snow and running.” In a recent lecture, he asserts that most aging persons mistakenly slow down their activity, thinking that physical exertion harms people their age. The result, he says, is bodily deterioration or “avoidable atrophy . . . a contributing factor in the death of older persons” under sudden stress.

Do Ears Tell On Heart?

◆ Mayo Clinic researchers recently presented evidence that a fold in one’s earlobe(s) may indicate coronary artery disease (CAD). The Mayo study found that 90 percent of their patients with creased lobes also had CAD, while about the same percentage of those without folds had normal arteries. Though not considered conclusive, in their opinion, creased earlobes “should probably be regarded as a physical diagnostic sign of CAD in conjunction with other clinical evidence.”

“Which Comes First”?

◆ “Although economic historians may not agree on which comes first, a severe decline in a society’s honesty and morality or a severe inflationary spiral, the two do seem to go together,” says the president of American Viewpoint, Inc. To combat widespread dishonesty, his organization launched a campaign to popularize the idea that “it is not stupid or nuts to be honest.” He says: “We wish to make honesty socially and culturally ‘all right,’ the smart thing, maybe even fairly fashionable.”

“Growing Pains”

◆ Although Nigeria does not have nearly as much automobile traffic as do industrial nations, nevertheless, it reports almost 4,000 fatalities on its expanding road network between January and October 1974. Concerned officials embarked “upon a nationwide accident prevention public enlightenment campaign,” and a crackdown on violators, reports the Lagos Daily Times. The crackdown quickly swamped the traffic court system, so that mobile highway courts had to be set up.

Why No Fresh Apples?

◆ A high level of carbon dioxide gas in the air of apple storerooms slows spoilage. But this “has also led to the deplorable custom of almost never selling a fresh apple,” writes Yale biology professor Arthur W. Galston in Natural History. “The older, stored fruit is sold first, while the newly harvested fruit is placed in high carbon dioxide storage. . . . the stored product, while not rotten, lacks the distinctive flavor and aroma of the fresh fruit.”

A Mysterious Beast of Revelation

Do you know the significance of this grotesque beast and of its number 666?

Find out by reading the fascinating hardbound book “Then Is Finished the Mystery of God.” In 384 pages it presents a verse-by-verse consideration of the first thirteen chapters of the Bible book of Revelation. Only 50 cents, postpaid.

Please send “Then Is Finished the Mystery of God” and the gift booklet “This Good News of the Kingdom.” I enclose 50c.

The Secret to Happy Family Life

Do you know what it is? Millions now are learning it, and you can too.

How?

The Watchtower and Awake! magazines regularly reveal this secret. They help readers to understand the counsel of the Creator of the family, Almighty God. See how the application of His advice, preserved in the Holy Bible, can also help your family life.

Have The Watchtower and Awake! come into your home. Send only $3 and you will receive both magazines (four copies a month) for one year.

Please send a year’s subscription for The Watchtower and Awake!; I enclose $3. For mailing this coupon I am to receive six free booklets.