July 8

When Jobs Are Scarce​—What Can You Do?

AS JOBS become scarcer world wide, it is ever more difficult to find work. In the United States, the number of jobs decreased by 2,400,000 from just October to April. Many are searching desperately for employment.

Typical is a salesman in Utah who lamented: “I have twelve years of sales experience . . . I have applied with five different employment agencies, which has resulted in nothing. I have watched the paper daily. The help-wanted section has dwindled from about six pages to about half a page in six months.”

When U.S. government statistics for February showed no further increase in unemployment, many felt that the situation had stabilized. However, the New York Times editorial “Vanishing Jobs” said:

“The worsening of the true situation was statistically cloaked by several factors​—most importantly by the withdrawal from the labor force of 580,000 workers. The bulk of these dropouts were almost certainly discouraged, unemployed workers . . . who gave up hope of finding a job.”​—March 8, 1975.

Has it really become hopeless for the millions of unemployed to find a job?

Mental Attitude Important

The situation is not necessarily as bad as some news reports indicate. If you are looking for a job, an adjustment in mental attitude toward employment may be what is needed. To illustrate what we mean:

In a crowded Los Angeles, California, unemployment insurance office a bulletin board listed hundreds of available jobs. Yet hardly anyone was paying attention to them. An unemployed woman was asked why she did not apply for one of the secretarial jobs. She replied: “Why should I take a job that doesn’t interest me?”

Of course, it is not wrong to seek the kind of job you find interesting. But when you cannot find such work, your employment situation is not necessarily hopeless. Other work that you can do is usually available; you may need only to adjust your thinking. The experience of a Cleveland, Ohio, radio engineer shows the fine effect that accepting such work can have.

This man had worked for a local radio station for twenty-four years, and at the time of his dismissal he was assistant radio supervisor. For weeks he tried to find a job in the same field, but without success. Then he faced a reality: If he did find a job as an engineer he would be at the bottom of the pay scale and one of the employees most likely to be laid off again. So he began to look elsewhere for work.

A friend offered him a job in the painting and decorating field, and he accepted. In this job he must pay for his own insurance, vacations, and so forth, but he feels more than compensated. Now he arranges his own work schedule, and has more time to care for other responsibilities that are important in his life. Also, he feels better because of the physical activity involved in his job.

What is this man’s advice to those who face unemployment? Not to hesitate to go into another field of work, even though it is considered menial by the standards of some people.

The inclination of many persons has been to look down on a job if a person gets his hands dirty and wears “work clothes.” A youth in Boise, Idaho, pointing out why certain jobs had gone begging, said: “People just don’t want them. Most of them are hard manual jobs.” But when persons get used to the physical work, it can often contribute to improved health.

Of course, false pride may cause some persons to view certain occupations as beneath their dignity. For example, when a good-paying job as a chauffeur was offered an unemployed film director, his wife made him refuse it. But does a person really benefit himself by allowing pride to keep him from offering legitimate services from which others can benefit? Particularly when jobs are scarce it is wise to analyze what we might be able to offer that others need and will pay for.

Providing Services

Recently unemployment has been severe in parts of Oregon, particularly in the logging industry. An unemployed cutter near Portland, however, has fallen back on his music skills. He gives music lessons, and has earned enough money thereby to keep his family eating until the woods open up again.

Consideration of the needs of local citizens and a measure of initiative are important to getting work. On the desert in southern California a man, who had been looking for a job for months, resolved his unemployment problem in a unique way. Due to the desert heat many homes have sprinkler systems. So he went from house to house offering to clean waterlines and sprinkler heads and to adjust the system. He now has a good list of customers and is making enough money to pay his bills.

In the same area in California is an individual who returned from work in a foreign country because of a health problem. After months of looking for a job, with no results, he bought a small portable steam cleaner. He called on gas stations, offering to steam-clean their rest rooms with disinfectant and then to use a refreshing scent afterward. He has all the work he can handle, and has the advantage of being able to control his working hours.

If you are looking for a job, perhaps some form of cleaning service can provide you with sufficient income. One woman mimeographed leaflets announcing a new cleaning service that, for a fixed amount of money, would dust, scrub and vacuum one’s apartment so that it would seem like new.

The woman explained: “Do you know that most people cleaned up before I got there because they were afraid of what [we] would think of them? Usually I spent only an hour in each apartment.” She made twice as much money as she needed. It has usually been found best to offer to clean a house or an apartment for a certain price, rather than to work by the hour.

Or perhaps providing a janitorial service may be something you can do. Smaller jobs where there is no asphalt tile are best to start with, such as offices of dentists, doctors and lawyers, loan firms, branch banks, beauty parlors and barbershops, auto showrooms, eating places, and so forth. You will need a vacuum cleaner with a carpet attachment, a good mop with bucket and wringer, cloths, squeegee, window brush and five-gallon cans of detergent and wax. This does not involve a great outlay of funds, but the price charged for your jobs must include paying for and maintaining this equipment.

Helping One Another

When jobs are scarce, Christians have opportunity to show love by helping one another to obtain work. One of Jehovah’s witnesses in Banning, California, writes: “My Christian brothers who know the janitorial work helped me to learn what is necessary to do the work. One took me into several stores to show me how to estimate the cost of cleaning and waxing the floor. Another loaned me equipment he wasn’t using until I was able to purchase my own. Still another showed me how to wash windows with a squeegee.”

Also, Witnesses are passing on work to fellow Christians who are unemployed. For instance, a Witness with a gardening business has been taking on additional accounts that ordinarily he would not be able to handle. Then he subcontracts the work, thereby providing unemployed fellow Christians with a job.

In Cleveland, Ohio, where unemployment is great, Witnesses who have lost their jobs have various skills. Word about the work that they can do has been spread around. Thus the services of these unemployed Witnesses are sought by their fellow Christians who may be in need of auto repair work, carpentry, house repairs, house cleaning, and so forth.

It can be a kindness to be thinking of what you can do to provide work for those who are in need of a job. In New York the relative of one of Jehovah’s witnesses suffered a stroke, and the Witness needed someone to stay with her at night. Instead of hiring a nurse’s aide, as he had at first planned, he called a Christian elder in the community where his mother-in-law lived and asked: “Is there anyone needing work in your congregation?” There was, and this Witness was not only grateful for the employment, but provided loving care to an extent that could not have been expected of a person who was only looking for a job but lacked Christian motivation.

Help is also being provided in other ways. A Christian elder in Oregon writes: “The Witnesses are providing their needy brothers with groceries, gas and other items so that they can continue living.” It is indeed heartwarming to see such loving concern among fellow humans.

Time for Adjustments, Reappraisal

If you are one of the millions who have lost their jobs, make adjustments. For instance, do work for yourself that, when employed, you had others do for you, such as perhaps automobile repairs, repairs around the home, and so forth. Cut down your budget immediately; do not assume that you will be back at regular work soon.

Even if you have not been laid off from work, consider: If I were dismissed next week, could I handle my debts? If not, immediately begin to reduce the debts, denying yourself so as to pay off bills while you still have an income.

Finally, reappraise your work habits. Ask yourself: Do I have enthusiasm for my job and do I work at it with diligence? Is my work of good quality? Do I arrive early, and avoid wasting time? By putting forth real effort to be a good worker you may avoid losing your job. But even if you should be laid off, these fine qualities will help you to obtain other employment.

[Chart on page 5]

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OCCUPATIONAL CHANGES THAT SOME HAVE MADE

Former Work New Employment

Bank executive Roadside vegetable-stand owner

Electronics engineer Janitorial work

Engineer of bridge-building firm House painter

Factory worker Radio-television repairman

Magazine writer and reporter Estate caretaker

Newspaper ad salesman School-bus driver

Nuclear engineer School consultant

Teacher Bicycle repair and instruction

[Graph on page 3]

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U.S. UNEMPLOYMENT

9

7

5

3

1

’69

’70

’71

’72

’73

’74

’75

PERCENT UNEMPLOYED

Selling by Smell

“MM-MM-MM, doesn’t that smell good! Let’s buy some.”

How often have you reacted in that way when confronted with a pleasing aroma? This illustrates the powerful effect odor has on people.

The nose is a marvelous gift of God to mankind. Regarding it, the magazine Scientific American states: “To a chemist the ability of the nose to sort out and characterize substances is almost beyond belief. It deals with complex compounds that might take a chemist months to analyze in the laboratory; the nose identifies them instantly, even in an amount so small (as little as a ten-millionth of a gram) that the most sensitive modern laboratory instruments often cannot detect the substance, let alone analyze and label it.”

But watch out! While your nose is designed to benefit and protect you, today it may fool you. Your sense of smell may coax you into purchasing certain items in preference to others that may be of equal value, and possibly less expensive. How so?

Because in recent years researchers have carefully developed the technique of selling by smell.

Selling by Smell Widespread

A glance at the shelves of supermarkets will make it evident that selling by smell has become very popular in recent years. In The National Observer, writer Daniel Henninger noted:

“Splashing and sprouting in the aisles of any large supermarket one may find a shampoo ‘with the essences of 11 herbs,’ a fabric softener that ‘adds the fresh smell of April to clothes,’ bath-oil beads fragranced with ‘twilight mist, garden moonlight, dawn mist, and summer nocturne,’ . . . a bathroom ammonia with a ‘new springtime scent,’ and other scented products.”

Among products sold by smell are laundry detergents, dishwashing liquid, cleaning compounds, hair sprays, shaving cream, disposable diapers and used cars. In the 1950’s scents were added even to newspaper ads to induce people to buy certain products.

But why so much interest in selling by smell?

They Want an “Experience”

“People are looking for products that do something to them, that give them a strong experience,” says chemist and perfumer Dr. J. Stephan Jellinek. Odors have considerable psychological effect. Some researchers believe that smells may influence the moods of people as colors do.

Have you ever noticed that advertisers often highlight the smell of a product as the principal reason to buy it? Consider, for example, an advertisement for a certain shampoo: “It all begins as soon as you open the bottle and breathe in the breathtaking, close-to-the-earth essence of forest herbs and mountain flowers . . . The whole experience does beautiful things inside of your head, too. And it is an experience. The most beautiful shampoo experience on earth.”

Another “experience” that customers crave is that of cleanness and freshness. How do merchants provide it? Once again, by smell. With regard to selling disposable diapers, Dr. Jellinek points out: “A customer can see and touch gentle texture, but can neither see nor feel sterilization; this attribute has to be communicated with package design and odor. The odor, in turn, must be just right​—strong enough to reinforce the product’s image, but not harsh enough to be offensive.”

Selling by smell often centers around odors that people associate with nature. Dr. Jellinek noted, for instance, that teenage girls preferred “‘natural’ tastes and odors​—things they associate with Mother Nature, like lemon, peach, orange, apple blossom, and so on. And you’ll notice, some very successful lines of cosmetics . . . have been built around these ‘natural’ odors and tastes.”

Have you recently purchased disposable diapers or other products because ‘they smell so clean and natural’? Did you know that the smell was added chemically to induce you to buy?

“The Secret Salesman”

Selling by smell has been so effective that “cosmetics, hair sprays, and household products comprise the bulk of the perfuming business,” writes Daniel Henninger. Perfumers refer to fragrance as “the secret salesman.” For example, one store set out two displays of identical women’s stockings, but with a single difference: One display was lightly scented. What happened? Most women chose the scented stockings. “The results of such tests are sometimes quite astounding,” reports Dr. Jellinek. “Women preferring one product over another by 50% or more, just on the basis of odor, are not uncommon.”

The publication Printer’s Ink illustrated the effect of selling by smell with regard to food items: “A White Tower restaurant in Wheeling, W.Va., wanted to increase its sales of chocolate cake. It had been selling only three slices a day.” A machine was installed that emitted a chocolate scent. The result? “Sales increased to 32 slices a day.”

Are You Being Deceived?

Recognizing the effectiveness of selling by smell, perfumers can duplicate just about any scent. One company developed some 100 aromas, including those of roses, pine trees, orange juice, bananas, dill pickles and bourbon.

Dr. Jellinek made an interesting comment about reproducing these fragrances: “The irony is that most of the ‘natural’ odors and tastes are really chemical simulations of the real thing.” The publication Advertising Age explains: “A concentrate made from real lemons, for instance, doesn’t necessarily smell the way people think a fresh lemon should smell. But it is easy to make an artificial concentrate that smells exactly the way people think a lemon should smell.” And simulated smells are less expensive to produce.

Are you, perhaps, being deceived into buying items with “natural” smells that are really not natural at all? Can you think of a recent occasion when you purchased food items or other goods because of enticing aromas wafted throughout a supermarket? While there may be nothing wrong with the items themselves, do you realize how often “the secret salesman” of smell has motivated you to purchase things?

Your realizing the popularity of selling by smell can benefit you in these days of rising prices. When you come upon an item with a pleasing smell, be it food or something else, keep in mind that the fragrance may have been produced in a laboratory just to secure your purchase. Might savings result from buying unscented items?

Is Pollution God’s Fault?

A GROVE of towering redwood trees. A moody rain forest. A vast blue ocean hurling itself against a rocky coastline. A desert in springtime carpeted with color. A range of glistening peaks rising above dark-green forests and shimmering blue lakes. Scenes that once brought forth in hushed awe the exclamation, “God’s country!”

But now a new breed of men look at dirty, brown air, rivers choked with industrial waste, dead lakes and poisoned soil, at the ghettos of the big cities that resemble garbage dumps and say, “God’s country.”

Pollution, they say, is God’s fault. The peg on which they hang their charge is the statement in the Bible at Genesis 1:28, which says: “God blessed them and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.’”

That statement by God was the beginning of pollution, claims British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, in an article in Horizon, Summer ’73, and reprinted later that year in the Readers Digest. It was entitled “The Genesis of Pollution.” But Toynbee is only one of the latest on a long list of similar accusers.

In the magazine Science, March 10, 1967, Lynn White, Jr., said, in the article “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis”: “By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference.” He contended that “Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt” for the “worsening ecologic crisis.”

White’s article was incorporated into The Environmental Handbook, prepared in 1970 by Friends of the Earth. In that same year the Sierra Club released its handbook Ecotactics, and, on pages 82 and 83, said: “Man’s aspirations so far have been guided by the god of Genesis. For the most part, we have been proud of our subjugation of the planet. Now we are finding that our aspirations have been misguided and destructive.”

University of Pennsylvania’s Ian McHarg, in his book Design with Nature, published in 1971, said: “Indeed, if one seeks license for those who would increase radioactivity, create canals and harbors with atomic bombs, employ poisons without restraint, or give consent to the bulldozer mentality, there could be no better injunction than this text (Genesis 1:28). Here can be found sanction and injunction to conquer nature​—the enemy, the threat to Jehovah.” Many others, including some clergymen, join in this cry that pollution is God’s fault.

The crucial question is, When God told the first pair to subdue the earth and have dominion, did he thereby, as Toynbee says, “license Adam and Eve to do what they liked with it”? Was this Jehovah’s purpose? Or was his purpose for man, made in God’s image and likeness, to be earth’s caretaker, its steward for the welfare not only of man but also of plants and animals? Rather than hurl reckless charges to grab attention, a wise person will first learn the facts. As the Bible cautions, “To answer a question before you have heard it out is both stupid and insulting.”​—Prov. 18:13, New English Bible.

Divine Regard for Plants and Animals

When placed in Eden, man was not licensed to do with it as he wished. He was restricted in its use. As the Bible says, he was “to cultivate it and to take care of it.” Plants were not for man’s use only. They were also given as food “to every wild beast of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul.”​—Gen. 2:15-17; 1:30.

The law that God later gave to the nation of Israel showed how man was to “subdue” the earth. He was not to exploit it to exhaustion, but, rather, every seventh year was to be “a sabbath of complete rest for the land.” Whatever grew of itself that year was to be unharvested. It was to be left for poor people as well as “for your domestic animal and for the wild beast that is in your land.”​—Lev. 25:3-7.

Today over eight hundred species and subspecies of life are reported to be near extinction. Is this what God purposed when he told man to have dominion? Other God-given laws to Israel show the Creator’s concern for animal life. For example, the bull that trod out the corn was not to be muzzled, as it had the right to eat some of the grain. A bull and an ass were not to be yoked together on the plow​—it was unfair to the smaller, weaker animal. A neighbor’s beast of burden was to be relieved if in distress even if its owner was one’s enemy, and even if it was the sabbath day.​—Deut. 25:4; 22:10; Ex. 23:4, 5; Luke 14:5.

And when we are told that God clothed the lilies of the field in a beauty and glory surpassing even that of King Solomon, that does not sound like a divine license issued to destroyers, does it? Defoliation and “scorched earth” policies of modern warfare are not carried out with divine approval.​—Matt. 6:28, 29.

So the facts show that the charge of the Bible’s critics that God is to blame for the earth’s pollution is without foundation. Then what about the solution that these same critics offer as a remedy? How sound is it?

Polytheism and Pollution

These individuals who blame God for the pollution all hammer at the same theme, saying that since the cause of the ecological crisis is religious, the remedy also must be a religious one. They say that Judeo-Christian monotheism, that is, the belief in one God, must be replaced with polytheism or animism, the belief that many gods inhabit the hills, streams, trees, birds and animals, and that these many gods must be worshiped.

Lynn White, Jr., says that before the animists cut a tree, mined a mountain, or dammed a brook, they placated the spirits in charge. McHarg tells of the Indian hunter that made a lengthy apology to the bear before killing it, explaining that he needed its skin and its meat. But for all the animists’ worshipful attitude, in the end the tree was cut down, the mountain was mined, the brook was dammed, and the bear was killed​—if it stayed around until the speech making was over.​—Compare Romans 1:20-23.

Today Buddhists, Hindus and Shintoists worship myriads of gods, giving reverence to animals, plants, sun, thunder, wind, rocks, and so forth. Has their polytheistic worship helped to cleanse the earth? Well, consider an example. An article on Hinduism in the 1971 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica says: “All rivers and hills are more or less divine, and the extreme holiness of the Ganges . . . needs no emphasis.” Has that “extreme holiness” kept the Ganges River free of pollution?

No. An Indian journalist told a visitor to the “Holy City” of Benares, located on the Ganges: “All you need for Benares is a strong stomach and an open mind.” A recent New York Times article shows how some Indians “wish that along the banks of the Ganges there were more attention paid to simple sanitation than to complex devotions.” It is indeed a polluted river.

Nor have Shintoism and other animistic religions protected modern Japan from flagrant pollution. Says a 1974 United Press International news release: “The Japanese government today is waging what could turn out to be a life-and-death struggle to clean up the environment.” Polytheistic religion has not prevented pollution. Certainly it is not the remedy to the problem.

Cause of Pollution and the Remedy

Essentially, there are two causes for earth’s pollution: ignorance and greed on the part of mankind.

Many men have not willfully polluted the earth. The oceans, for instance, have become virtual dumps simply because people for centuries labored under the incorrect view that these have an inexhaustible capacity for refuse. Says ocean expert Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau: “Each month we now pour so many millions of tons of poisonous waste into the living sea that in perhaps twenty years, perhaps sooner, the oceans will have received their mortal wound and will start to die.” Man’s ignorance is starting to catch up with him.

Of course, greed has played a major part in pollution. People have continued to demand things far beyond their needs, and technology has endeavored to satisfy this demand. This has kept factories running, spilling their effluents into waterways and belching particle-laden smoke into the atmosphere. More automobiles than ever congest the roadways, fouling the air we breathe. Man’s present way of life has converted many things once considered luxuries into “necessities.” So the polluting they cause is not likely to end as long as this system lasts.

To cite Genesis 1:28 and blame God for pollution betrays ignorance of Jehovah’s many admonitions to care for the earth and its plants and animals. To subdue need not mean to oppress. Dominion need not be destructive. Weeds are valuable in many areas, but not in our gardens. Lions and tigers are fine in jungles, but not in our city streets. Can we not subdue weeds and grow lettuce without killing off the birds and the bees? Can we not control and use animal populations without slaughtering them into extinction? Must we deify streams to have pure water, or worship the wind to have clean air, or bow down to mountains to have uncontaminated soil?

The genesis of pollution is not Jehovah’s mandate to man to be earth’s caretaker. Rather, earth’s inhabitants become morally polluted before they pollute their physical environment. It is a moral breakdown, a pollution of ignorant people by greed. It is a case of cause and effect. The cause is polluted people; the effect is a polluted environment. The remedy is an educating and cleansing of people, then the cleansing of the environment will follow. Remove the cause, and the effect also disappears.

As a person sows, so he reaps. But it is stylish today to deny this, to push blame elsewhere, to dodge personal responsibility. Criminals say they are not to blame​—society is. Polluters say they are not to blame​—God is. So the folly goes.

Moreover, in a science-soaked, atheistic society, it has become popular to put the blame on God. And if in the process these godless men can make it sound erudite and have the slanders come from the lips of prominent personalities, so much the better. A few years ago prominent clergymen pronounced God dead. Now they, in effect, resurrect him to be their scapegoat by implying in their opinions that he is to blame for man’s ecological problems. Will it work? Is it justified? Certainly not!

The slums and garbage dumps, the dust bowls, the stinking rivers, the dying lakes, the poisoned oceans, the sick soil, the foul, fume-filled air, and the growing list of endangered species​—all these bespeak man’s ignorance and greed. Face up to all this pollution, see it for what it is, and listen to the proclamation that it makes: “Man’s polluted country!”

But do not lose heart, you lovers of God and all that he has made! The heavens still proclaim the glory of God, and earth’s wonders still speak of his eternal power and majesty. Take heart in what Jehovah says of our time: The “day of retribution has come. Now is the time . . . to destroy those who destroy the earth.” (Rev. 11:18, NE) How heartening to know that God will soon carry out his original purpose and see that the earth is properly ‘subdued’​—to his glory and to the lasting good of all creation!

My Life as a Famous Artist

YOU may have seen a painting of a wistful child with unusually large and sad-looking eyes. Quite likely, it was one I painted. Sad to say, I was as unhappy as the children I painted.

I grew up in the southern part of the United States in the region often referred to as the “Bible Belt.” Perhaps it was this environment, or my Methodist grandmother, that instilled in me a deep respect for the Bible, although I knew very little about it. I grew up believing in God, but with a lot of unanswered questions.

As a sickly child, often alone and very shy, I developed an early talent for drawing. An inquisitive nature led me to wonder about the purpose of life, why we are here, why there are pain, sorrow and death, and if God is good. Always “Why?”

These questions, I believe, were later reflected in the eyes of my paintings of children and, in part, account for their worldwide appeal. The eyes, always the focal point, were often described as “soulful.” They seemed to reflect the spiritual alienation of most people today​—their longing for something beyond what this system offers.

My road to popularity in the art world was a rocky one. There were two wrecked marriages and much mental anguish along the way. Controversies surrounding my private life and the authorship of my paintings resulted in international wire stories, lawsuits, front-page pictures and even headlines. For many years I had allowed my second husband to take credit for my paintings. But one day, unable to continue the deception any longer, I left him and my home in California and moved to Hawaii. After a period of depression and very little painting, I began trying to rebuild my life and later married again.

One turning point came in 1970 when a newspaper reporter arranged a televised “paint-out” between me and my former husband, to be held in San Francisco’s Union Square to establish the authorship of the paintings. I was the only one to show up and accept the challenge. Life magazine covered this event in an article that corrected a previous erroneous story that attributed the paintings to my former husband.

My part in the deception had lasted for twelve years and is one that I will always regret. However, it taught me the value of being truthful and that neither fame, love, money nor anything else is worth a bad conscience.

I still had questions about life and God and they led me to search in strange and dangerous places for answers. I investigated the occult, astrology, palmistry, and even handwriting analysis, looking for answers. My love for art led me to investigate many ancient cultures and their philosophies, which were reflected in their art. I read volumes on Eastern philosophy, and even tried transcendental meditation.

My spiritual hunger led me to look into the various religious beliefs of people who came into my life. On both sides of my family and among my friends I came in contact with various Protestant religions besides that of the Methodists, including those of Christian Scientists, Mormons, Lutherans and Unitarians. When I married my present husband, a Catholic, I seriously investigated that religion. I still found no satisfactory answers​—always there were contradictions—​and always there was something missing.

With this exception (not having answers to life’s important questions), my life had finally started straightening out. I had achieved just about everything I ever wanted. Most of my time was being spent in doing what I loved to do best​—painting children (mostly little girls) with the big eyes. I had a wonderful husband and a fine marriage, a lovely daughter and financial security, and I lived in my favorite spot on earth​—Hawaii. But at times I wondered why I was not completely satisfied, why I smoked so much and occasionally drank too much and why I was so tense. I did not realize how self-centered my life had become in my pursuit of personal happiness.

The Unexpected Change

Jehovah’s witnesses came often, every couple of weeks, to my door, but I rarely took their literature or paid much attention to them. Little did I realize that in due time one knock on my door would drastically change my life. That particular morning two Oriental women, one Chinese and the other Japanese, appeared on my doorstep. Sometime prior to their coming, my daughter had shown me an article about the sabbath being Saturday, not Sunday, and about the importance of observing it. It had made such an impression on both of us that we started attending the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I had even stopped painting on Saturday, thinking it was a sin to do so. So when I asked one of these women at my door which day was the sabbath, I was surprised that she answered “Saturday.” So I asked, “Why don’t you observe it?”

Ironic, wasn’t it, that I, a Caucasian, raised in the “Bible Belt,” should be seeking information from two Orientals who were probably reared in a non-Christian environment?

She opened a well-worn Bible and read directly out of it scriptures that explained why Christians no longer are required to observe the sabbath or the various other features of the Mosaic law, why the sabbath law was given, and about the future Sabbath of 1,000 years.

Her knowledge of the Bible impressed me so deeply that I wanted to look further into the Bible for myself. I gladly accepted the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life, which she said would explain the basic doctrines of the Bible. The next week when the women returned, my daughter and I began studying the Bible regularly. It was one of the most important decisions of my life and led to dramatic changes in the lives of both of us.

In this study of the Bible my first and biggest hurdle was the Trinity. Since I believed that Jesus was God, part of a Trinity, having that belief suddenly challenged was like having a rug pulled out from under my feet. It was frightening. Because my belief could not hold up in the light of what I was reading in the Bible, I suddenly felt a deeper aloneness than I had ever experienced before. I did not know whom to pray to and was besieged with doubts, even about there being a God at all.

Holding Back

Gradually I was convinced from the Bible that the Almighty God is Jehovah, the Father (not the Son), and as I studied I began to rebuild my shattered faith, this time on the true foundation. But as my knowledge and faith began to grow, pressures began to mount. My husband threatened to leave me, and other close family members were extremely upset. As I began to see the requirements of being a true Christian, I looked for a way out because I did not think I could ever witness to strangers or go from door to door to talk to others about God.

My daughter, who was now studying in a nearby town, was progressing much faster. Her progress, in fact, became another obstacle to me. She believed so completely in what she was learning that she wanted to work toward becoming a missionary. Visions of my only child in a far-off country frightened me, and I decided that I must protect her from doing something so drastic. So I began to search for a flaw. I felt that if I could find something this organization was teaching that was not backed up by the Bible I could convince my daughter.

With my knack for details the search was thorough. I ended up acquiring over ten different translations of the Bible, three concordances and many other Bible dictionaries and reference books to supplement books from the library. I received a strange “help” from my husband, who often brought home books and booklets that were derogatory to the Witnesses. I pored over them, carefully weighing everything they said. But I never found the flaw.

Instead, the falsity of the Trinity doctrine, as well as the fact that the Witnesses know and make known the name of the Father, the true God, also their love for one another and their strict adherence to the Scriptures, convinced me that I had found the true religion. I could not help but be deeply impressed by the contrast between Jehovah’s witnesses and the other religions on the matter of finances.

In time, my daughter and I were baptized, together with about forty others, on August 5, 1972, in the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean​—a day I will never forget. She has now moved back home so she can devote her full time to service as a Witness here in Hawaii. My husband is still with us and even marvels at the changes in both of us.

From Sad Eyes to Bright Eyes

Since my dedicating my life to Jehovah, there have been many changes in my life. One of the first was that I stopped smoking. I actually lost the desire and the need. This was a habit of twenty-two years, averaging a pack or more a day. I had tried desperately to break the habit because I knew it was harmful but had found it impossible. As my faith grew, the scripture at 2 Corinthians 7:1 proved to be the more powerful incentive. With the help of Jehovah through prayer and my believing his promise at Malachi 3:10, the habit was finally and completely broken. Amazingly, I had no withdrawal symptoms or any discomfort!

Other changes were deep psychological transformations in my personality. From a very shy, insecure, introverted and self-absorbed person who sought and needed long hours of solitude in which to paint and relax from my tensions, I became a much more gregarious, outgoing person. I now find myself spending many hours doing what I used to hate to do​—talking to people—​and loving every minute of it!

Another change has been that I spend only about a fourth of the time I formerly spent painting, and yet, amazingly, I accomplish almost the same amount of work. Too, sales and comments indicate that the paintings are getting even better. Painting used to be almost an obsession with me. I was driven to paint because it was my therapy, escape and relaxation​—my life completely revolved around it. I still enjoy it immensely, but the addiction to it and dependency on it are gone. Since my growing in knowledge of Jehovah, the Source of all creativity, it is no wonder that the quality of my paintings has increased as the time of execution has decreased.

Now most of my former painting time is spent in God’s service, studying the Bible, teaching others and attending the five Bible study meetings at the Kingdom Hall each week. During the past two and a half years, eighteen people have started studying the Bible with me. Eight of these persons are now actively studying, one is ready to be baptized, and another has been baptized. From among their families and friends, thirteen more started studying with other Witnesses. It has been a great joy and privilege to have a part in helping others to come to know Jehovah.

It was not easy in the beginning to give up any of my cherished solitude, my own routine of life and a lot of my painting time, and put Jehovah’s will first, before anything else. But I was willing to try and, through prayer and relying on Jehovah’s help, I found that every step of the way was made easier and was rewarded. Proof of his approval and help almost overwhelmed me​—not only in spiritual blessings but in many material ones as well.

As I look back on my life, my first oil painting, done when I was about eleven years old, now seems quite significant. It was two versions of the same little girl​—the one in the background was sad, with tears in her eyes; the one in the foreground had bright smiling eyes. In the past, the symbolic large, sad eyes I painted mirrored the puzzling contradictions I saw in the world around me, and which raised in me so many questions. Now I have found in the Bible the reasons for the contradictions about life that once tormented me, as well as the answers to my questions.

After my gaining accurate knowledge of God and his purpose for mankind, it led me to the real security of having God’s approval and the inner peace and happiness that go with it. This is being reflected in my paintings to a degree that others even detect it. The sad, lost look of the large eyes is giving way now to a happier look. My husband even named one of my recent happy big-eyed children “The Eye Witness”!​—Contributed.

When You Have to Pack Up and Move

DO YOU dread the thought of moving? Even under the best of circumstances, a household move can be an ordeal. It can cost more than you expect in time, energy and resources.

Are there ways to lessen the hardships? For instance, what about the expense? During early years of the 1970’s, in the United States alone nearly 40,000,000 individuals moved annually. Most of these moves were due to job requirements and in many cases the expense was borne by employers. But as the economy worsens, costs mount and jobs terminate, you might have to bear the moving expenses alone. In that event, undoubtedly you would want to move as inexpensively as possible. So, at the outset you might wonder, How much of what I have is worth moving?

What About a “Garage Sale”?

Some families sell household possessions along with the house. Others hold a “garage sale.” If you plan on this, however, check to see if there are applicable laws or taxes in your community.

“A good sale is hard to pass up,” says one public service agency. “There is something irresistible about a child’s dress for fifty cents, a sweater for a dollar or a platter for a dime.” Incidentally, visiting antique shops and secondhand stores before your sale may help you to arrive at realistic pricing.

Advertise in advance. You might put an ad in the newspaper. Local supermarkets, barbershops, service stations and the like may let you place signs in their windows. You could contact acquaintances or have your children distribute typed or mimeographed announcements in the neighborhood. Posting a sign on your property is another way to announce the date of your sale.

Before that day arrives, you have work to do. First, you might take a notebook in hand and list every item you would like to sell. Then, except perhaps for such things as bulky furniture, you could assemble all these articles in the garage, basement or other convenient place. Keep shoes together in pairs and put sizes on items of clothing. Group articles that are similar. Place small things on tables or in boxes within easy reach. Hang or fold clothing neatly. Place books in orderly rows, perhaps on a table. Put houseplants together in one area. In short, use the department-store technique. In fact, you might even make a sign for each section. And, of course, price tags should be put on the articles that are for sale.

Let your family help on “garage sale” day. Have plenty of coins on hand for changing bills. After an item has been sold, check it off your list. Toward the end of the sale, if it appears that there will be leftovers, you may wish to reduce prices.

A Choice of Conveyance

If you decide to move the bulk of your household items, shop for the best means of conveyance. If expense is no particular problem, it is easy to call a moving company and have it send out a crew and a van. Within a day or two they will have packed and loaded your belongings. Since expense usually is a problem, however, savings might be realized by renting a trailer, truck or van and moving yourself. Compare what the moving company will charge with the cost of renting a vehicle. Take into account insurance costs, driver availability and how much help you would have if you did the moving personally. But even if you hire movers, you can still cut costs by doing your own packing.

Organize for Packing

If you do the packing, the moving company or the rental agency can help you with advice, printed packing and checking guides, packing materials and moving equipment such as hand trucks and dollies. With these things available, organize for the job.

First, allow yourself plenty of time​—weeks, if possible. Establish a working headquarters, such as a spare room, where you can work as often as you like and for as long as you like. If you wish, a moving company can furnish specially made cartons of various sizes and degrees of sturdiness. You will also need cushioning paper (plain newsprint), white paper, tissue paper, paper toweling, gummed labels and tape. Other essentials include scissors, felt marker, notebook and pencil.

A word of caution: Newspaper is very handy, but ink rubs off and can become imbedded in some delicate article of value. So, it may be wise to use newspaper just for outer wrappings and filler; and wash your hands frequently to prevent ink smudges.

Basic Principles of Packing

Professional packers follow these simple rules: (1) Wrap items individually; (2) provide plenty of cushioning; (3) pack a carton firmly, but allow for the lid to close easily.

Make yourself a checklist to follow. Pack small, fragile articles in several little boxes and place these in one larger box filled in with crushed paper. Keep similar items together. And remember that packing a delicate clock in among cast-iron frying pans can be disastrous!

Keep together all parts or pairs of things. Curtain-rod hangers, mirror bolts and the like can be put in plastic bags and taped or tied to the articles with which they belong. Empty drawers are good places for things that can break, spill or damage other items. Lightweight goods, such as lingerie and sweaters, might be left in drawers, but heavier blankets, quilts, sheets and tablecloths could be used for padding.

Make sure that each carton is sturdy enough for its purpose and that it has a lid that will close securely. Cushion the bottom of the box with two or three inches of crushed paper. Pack the heaviest items on the bottom, the lightest ones on top. Cushion each layer and fill in all empty spaces with crushed paper.

Seal and label each carton on the top and sides, identifying the contents as “cookware,” and so forth. Mark each carton with a delivery destination such as “Kitchen,” “Living Room.” Why move everything from room to room again at your new home?

Packing Some Specific Items

For plates, saucers and flat china, professional movers use an exceptionally sturdy container called a “dish-pack.” You might purchase this type from a mover, if you cannot find equally strong containers elsewhere. At any rate, wrap each plate individually. Then wrap four to six together in a bundle, using a double layer of paper. Place these on edge in the carton. The larger plates and flat china should form the bottom tier.

A second tier might be made up of bowls or odd-shaped articles, each wrapped separately and then bundled. Bowls likewise should be placed on edge. Wrap cups individually and put them in rows on the top tier of the “dish-pack,” with their handles all pointing in the same direction.

Generous padding and cushioning should be used for all glassware. After padding a glass, place it diagonally on a sheet of wrapping paper, roll it up and then tuck the paper inward, over the rim. Stand glasses in the carton.

Remove phonograph records from the player or storage cabinet and pack them on edge in cartons. Clocks, as well as small radios and appliances, should be wrapped separately. Place these in a carton cushioned with crushed paper.

Moving companies furnish heavy cardboard wardrobes in which clothing can be hung full length. These are fine for curtains and draperies, too. But if wardrobes are not used, remove garments from hangers, fold them and place them in suitcases or cartons.

Perishables and Combustibles

Before moving, use up as much of your stored food as possible. Seal boxes of dried or powdered foods and tape the holes of shaker-type containers. Gather containers of herbs, spices and the like in a small box that can then be packed in a larger carton.

Remove oil and gasoline from any machinery you may have to pack. Professional movers will advise you to dispose of furniture polish, aerosol cans of any kind, liquids such as bleach that could leak, and perishables that may be affected by extreme heat or cold. If you must pack a liquid​—perhaps some medicine—​it would be wise to fasten the cap securely, tape it, and then place the container in a plastic bag that can be well sealed.

It might be helpful to label a special carton “Last Minute Items.” This can be used for necessities such as toilet articles, soap, towels and facial tissue. In this carton, or another one, you might pack snacks, instant coffee, powdered milk, sugar, cans of soup, a can opener, a small pan, paper plates and cups, plastic eating utensils, a first-aid kit, hammer, screwdriver, light bulb and tape​—things you may need immediately upon arrival.

Some Things Not to Pack

There are some articles that should not be packed with your other items. These include cash, deeds, personal documents, evidence of debt, securities or any negotiable items. Transfer these safely by some other means.

Remember that if you do your own packing, you assume responsibility for the condition and safety of everything packed. A commercial mover doubtless will impress this point upon you. If there is damage, it may be hard to pin responsibility upon him. It is wise, therefore, to cooperate with the mover or the insurance company in every way you can.

So, if you must pack up and move, these are some points that can lighten the task. At least, they should take some of the “dread” out of moving.

Help for the Stutterers

ARE you among those persons who are unhappy because they stutter? According to statistics, seven out of every thousand persons have this speech impediment. And it appears that this is true regardless of where they happen to live, in the United States, Europe or Asia. So it is estimated that, all told, some 25 million persons have this problem. Far more children than adults are plagued with it, and males have it four to six times as frequently as females.

Stuttering, let it be noted for your comfort, has nothing to do with intellect. Some of the greatest intellects in history had this problem. The Bible suggests that Moses, a prophet of Jehovah God, had a speech impediment. While its exact nature is not known, Moses’ attitude toward it is typical of that of stutterers.​—Ex. 6:12.

Nature of the Problem

If you are a stutterer you are handicapped when it comes to speaking fluently you​—keep trying but do not succeed, repeating syllables over and over again before getting out what you want to say. Hesitancy, doubt and fear mark your efforts. Research has established that there rarely is any physical difference in the speech organs of stutterers as compared to those who do not have this problem. In fact, there is not even any difference when it comes to performing rapid movements with the tongue, jaws, lips and breathing muscles. Nor do stutterers seriously differ emotionally from others.

As to the details of the problem,, stutterers as a rule have more difficulty in speaking long words than short words; more difficulty with words that start with a consonant; more with the first three words than with the rest of the sentence; more difficulty in speaking meaningful words, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, than in speaking articles, prepositions and conjunctions, and also more difficulty in speaking meaningful sentences than in speaking nonsense ones. Moreover, stutterers find some people easier to speak to​—apparently those friendly and sympathetic or familiar—​than to others. All of this underscores the important role the mind or the emotions play in stuttering.

Research has also shown that stutterers usually have little difficulty in shouting or whispering, or in singinga or in speaking in chorus with others, even though it be just one other person that speaks or reads with them at the same time. Another interesting characteristic is that, if someone gives a stutterer a pair of earphones and has him hear loud noises while he speaks, he will have no difficulty in speaking.

True, it could be that stutterers have a slight hereditary tendency, in that stuttering among children of stutterers is more common than among children of nonstutterers. But, according to some specialists, this may be due more to inherited mental attitudes than to inherited physical defects.

What May Be the Cause

While no striking differences have been detected in the vocal mechanism of stutterers as compared to nonstutterers, it could well be that the larynxes of stutterers are more sensitive or more readily tensed than those of others. So there would be a slight inherited predisposition to stuttering.

It also appears that, as a rule, children start out well, but around the age of three some begin to hesitate or repeat their words and soon begin to stutter. What brings this about? Research has shown that the home environment and the attitudes of the mother, should she be a perfectionist or overly anxious or excessively concerned about the impression her child makes on others, may be the precipitating factor. Stuttering is not necessarily caused by the child’s having undergone some “trauma,” that is, some harmful experience, such as an accident, great fright or serious illness.

So some conclude that a child “learns” to stutter because of the home environment. It is said by some to be the result of instilled doubt and fear, a doubt that causes the child to expect to stutter and then to try not to stutter because of the fear of stuttering. These very factors cause the child to stutter, because the negative emotion inhibits freeness of speech. Even as it is recognized that thinking and worrying about one’s heart can cause it to act up, and having one’s mind on one’s stomach all the time can cause one to have indigestion, so doubts and fears as to speaking can bring about stuttering.

Various Approaches

In 1951 a speech researcher at the University of Illinois developed a device by which he was able to confuse people and cause nonstutterers to stutter. As a person talked, the device caused him to hear his own voice after a short delay. In 1972 a speech specialist in Roanoke, Virginia, lit upon this as a method of treating stutterers, getting the reverse effect with them, so that they spoke without stuttering. He has been getting some good results from this method.

Another speech specialist who has been able to help many stutterers stresses the fact that one stutters because of what one does, not because of what one is. That is, he stutters because he presses his lips together tightly, or holds his breath by tensing the muscles of his throat, and so forth. He stresses that stutterers can and must help themselves.

It would be well if stutterers or parents of stutterers would read books on the subject; one approach may help this one, another approach may help that one. Researchers found that an extremely small percentage of parents of stuttering children ever bothered to do any reading on the subject. So seek help. “To be helped one must be helpable, to be taught one must be teachable,” is the way Wendell Johnson puts it in his book Stuttering and What You Can Do About It.

Among the helpful hints given by this ex-stutterer are five “nots”: Do not expect to stutter; by expecting trouble you invite it. Do not consider stuttering your effective way of speaking just because you manage to speak somehow. Do not think of stuttering as though you were a victim of it instead of your actually causing it by your own efforts,, which is the actual fact. Do not reconcile yourself to the circumscribed role of a stutterer, adjusting and contenting yourself to talk less and letting it affect the kind of job you accept and your social activities; that is merely the easy way out. And do not take the attitude that you cannot help it, but neither go to the other extreme of refusing to admit you have a problem, which is what some do.

Another authority on the subject, Dr. J. P. Brady, stresses a threefold approach: First is retraining speech habits. In this the stutterer is asked by his therapist to read in a slow, relaxed manner. Whenever the stutterer reverts to his old habits, he is stopped and asked to begin again at an easy part of the reading. Secondly, since most stutterers tend to want to speak hurriedly, he recommends the use of a metronome (such as musicians use), starting out the stutterer with one word per second or sixty per minute. As he gains fluency at this pace the rate is gradually increased until he reaches the normal rate. And thirdly, this speech authority uses what he calls “systematic desensitization.” In this the patient is asked to imagine various speaking scenes, starting with the least trialsome, and, as he overcomes their handicap, proceeding on to those that cause him more difficulty, such as speaking into a telephone.

Much in line with the foregoing is the approach, recently brought to the fore in medical journals, used by Dr. M. F. Schwartz, director of the Temple University Speech Research Laboratory. According to him, there is an inherited predisposition of the larynx to become tense, as well as either an overanxious attitude on the part of the stutterer (or on the part of the parent if the stutterer is a child), or a background of some traumatic experience of the stutterer. This problem often becomes evident at the age of three with the effort to learn to speak larger words. This causes the child unconsciously to tense his larynx or voice box and, once he finds difficulty in speaking, he creates a mental block for himself.

Upon receiving this explanation, one stutterer, who had spent $10,000 on his speech problem, having visited nine different speech specialists, a hypnotizer and even a psychotherapist, from whom he emerged merely poorer but still a “well-adjusted stutterer,” said: “For the first time, I understand why I stutter. That’s been a godsend to me; I feel an enormous weight has been taken off my shoulders.”

Emphasizing the psychosomatic factor, Dr. Schwartz stated: “If a stutterer came in here and I told him to remove his shoe and sock and stick his right foot in a bucket of water while he talked to me, he wouldn’t stutter. He would be distracted, and therefore his larynx would relax.”

Dr. Schwartz and his colleagues first explain to stutterers their tendency unconsciously to tense the larynx, as well as teach them to practice deep, abdominal breathing, which produces a softer and healthier voice. Next the patients are taught to bring their lips softly together instead of pursing them tightly, which a stutterer is unconsciously prone to do because of expecting trouble, and then to speak in a soft, easy voice. This kind of speaking, a “new voice,” as it were, short-circuits the stuttering mechanism by altering the position of the larynx or voice box.

However, once he has learned to speak in this manner, the battle is by no means won. The patient must now learn to apply this method of speaking to various situations, for in different situations he will tend to go back to his stuttering kind of voice; such as when talking to members of his family, to those with whom he works or when answering the telephone. Such takes time and effort, and those taking this treatment at a speech clinic are there several hours a day, five days a week. This method by Schwartz is among the most successful ones to date.

Truly, today, more than ever before, there is help for the stutterer​—if he really wants to be helped.

[Footnotes]

Visiting an Active Volcano

By “Awake!” correspondent in Zaïre

“WHAT a sight!” That is about all we could say when we first looked down into the throat of this huge crater and saw fire coming from the very bowels of the earth. The acrid smell of sulphur, the roaring as of a great monster and the sheer size of the crater gave us a very real sense of awe. Personally to see this demonstration of natural power​—this is an experience we will long remember.

There are not many places in the world where one can see a live, breathing volcano, and even fewer where a person can have a closeup view of one in a constant state of activity. The Nyiragongo volcano is one of these limited few, located just a few miles north of the town of Goma, on the extreme eastern border of the Republic of Zaïre. Unlike other volcanoes around the world, Nyiragongo never forms a crust or plug over the orifice, so one can see the fire at any time. For this reason, Nyiragongo does not appear to be dangerous like her sister, Nyamulagira, standing next to her, and which blows its top every so often, with spectacular results.

Climbing to the Rim

My wife and I decided that we must have a look at this phenomenon. Taking just a change of clothing and enough food for a couple of days, we went by the tortuous mountain road from our home in Bukavu at the foot of Lake Kivu, to Goma, sixty miles north. There we spent the night with friends and set off the next morning for the foot of Nyiragongo. Here the great adventure was about to begin.

Having paid the fee and gotten our receipt, along with a sizable group of foreign tourists, we hired a local Zaïrese man as a porter, in the best “safari” tradition, and started the walk. Walk? Yes, and as we progressed, the climb got steeper and steeper. The slopes of Nyiragongo are not hot, and before long it began to rain​—not heavily, but steadily—​and it did so for the next three hours.

As we plunged through the jungle undergrowth of the lower slopes, the black volcanic soil was very slippery. From time to time we saw giant earthworms, over a foot (30 cm.) long, and beautiful, delicate wild flowers. Ahead of the party went a local man as a guide, armed with a gun and blank ammunition​—to scare away any marauding elephants.

As we went higher, the path became more rugged​—now we were walking on crinkly volcanic clinker in place of mud—​and here and there we had to negotiate fallen trees and other obstacles. We were very happy to have hired a porter to carry our food and spare clothes. After climbing for about three hours, we came to a wooden hut where we rested for a little while and had something to eat and drink.

Soon after starting out again, we got our first glimpse of the rim of the crater​—still far above us. Now the vegetation was more scrubby and there were fewer trees. It was getting colder, so we got out our sweaters. The porter, despite his load, was still able to keep ahead of us, although we had by now overtaken some of the tourists who started out earlier but who had not hired porters. One elderly person had to turn back, unable to manage the rigorous climb.

At around half past two in the afternoon we reached the place where we would ultimately spend the night​—two round aluminum huts with conical roofs, containing some rough-hewn beds with foam-rubber mattresses. Since everyone was tired and soaked to the skin, we decided to stop and dry out. With more to eat and an end to the rain, we were ready to undertake the last lap of the climb to the crater itself, still a quarter of a mile above. It was a climb over the roughest kind of terrain we had yet seen. Above the huts there was no longer a path to follow, but our guide knew the way to go. Even so, we clambered over jagged volcanic rocks, and more than one person slipped and sat down uncomfortably. We were climbing almost on all fours, at a forty-five-degree angle.

But the weather was kind to us, for all the mist that had earlier covered the slopes was gone, and we had a superb view back down to the plains we had left seven hours earlier. We also had a bird’s-eye view of Shahera, a small extinct volcano that we had skirted on our climb. Far below and to our left we could see the outline of beautiful Lake Kivu and, to our right and slightly higher, we could see the majestic, snowcapped Karisimbi, now extinct, its almost perfect cone peak standing out against the evening sky.

We felt our excitement mounting as we neared the rim of the crater. Then, all of a sudden, there we were! Standing as if on top of the world, we were, in fact, at an elevation of over 11,000 feet (3,470 meters is the official figure). And what a spectacle! Right before us was the wide-open mouth of Nyiragongo​—an immense pit about half a mile across with steep, almost sheer sides reaching far below—​yes, we were standing on the very rim. At our distance we could not feel the fire, but we could certainly see and hear it. Thick clouds of smoke billowed toward the sky, and the strong, pungent smell of sulphur filled our nostrils.

An Awe-inspiring Spectacle

The rim of the crater itself affords an unparalleled viewing stand. There are no barriers, no railings, ropes or anything to hinder the overcurious from tumbling headlong down over a hundred feet to the bottom of the crater. The floor of the crater is flat, with the exception of a platform or “table” in the center​—a concentric circle of dark-gray material that moves up and down as much as forty feet or more. It is in the center of this circle that we could see the molten lava flowing and heaving up from the bowels of the earth.

The guide showed us a ledge just inside the rim from which we could get some fine photos and also receive a little shelter from the icy wind that was now making itself felt. We stepped down gingerly onto this ledge, taking all precautions not to come too close to the edge. Sitting on a wooden plank just inside the rim of a live volcano with some of the other tourists, we found that, as night fell, the fire seemed to have a strange hypnotic effect.

As the outside world got lost in darkness, we were treated to the most awe-inspiring spectacle of our lives. The volcano’s fire seemed to mount in intensity, and the flames leaped and danced before us​—in reality, several hundred feet away from us, but seemingly very close. We could now see the white-hot lava flowing slowly inside the heart of the fire. We could not but think of our Grand Creator, Almighty God Jehovah, and the stupendous power he has at his disposal. Truly a humbling experience.

We had hiked an estimated five miles​—all uphill. Now, at 7:30 p.m., we began to make our way down to the metal huts. In the pitch-black darkness, it was quite hazardous. But both of us agreed that it had been worth the effort. After a good night’s sleep and a quick last look at the crater in the morning, we started down “mulima ya moto” (“mountain of fire”), as the local people call it in Swahili.

Some still make animal sacrifices to Nyiragongo as their god, but we thank Jehovah the true God for a revealing glimpse of this awe-inspiring work of his hands.

Provisions for Travelers

● Throughout Zaïre, as in other countries of Africa, walking was formerly the primary means of travel. Having to walk long distances required that one travel light, carrying the bare necessities​—water, a mat to sleep on and perhaps something with which to cover oneself. But what about food and lodging? Travelers had no cause for worry, because they knew that once they arrived at a village, the village chief would provide food as well as shelter. It was the custom.

However, if there was no village nearby and the traveler grew hungry, provisions might still be available. How so? Well, in certain regions of the country it was the custom that the row of food cultivated beside the road or path was primarily for travelers. They were welcome to eat as much as they desired, but, if they filled a receptacle to carry food away, then they were stealing and the owner could press charges against them. Such a provision is not unlike that found in the Mosaic law, as, for example, at Deuteronomy 23:24: “In case you go into the vineyard of your fellowman, you must eat only enough grapes for you to satisfy your soul, but you must not put any into a receptacle of yours.”

The Housefly​—Villain Without Virtue?

TO MANY of the human race, members of my family are villains without a speck of virtue. Contact between us often calls for your grabbing a swatter or a can of insecticide. But there are things you should consider before deciding that we are without virtue.

It is true, many writers like to paint us as real menaces. In fact, one of them called my family, formally known as Musca domestica, the “most dangerous animal within the borders of the United States.” This view was expressed because of the common belief that we are lovers of filth and pollution, and provide transportation for a whole army of germs. Germ-laden flies were blamed for a typhoid epidemic that killed ten times as many soldiers during the Spanish-American War in 1898 as did bullets.

Earth’s Custodians

I cannot deny that such incidents have occurred. But as a housefly, I would like to present the other side of the story and explain how we might get involved in sordid affairs like that typhoid epidemic.

It is because of the kind of life we lead. Our place is outdoors where we act as custodians of the earth. We go about the daily job of consuming tons of decaying matter, swarming around an accumulation of debris. The big appetite we houseflies have fits right in with the custodian role for which we have been designed.

True, problems have cropped up over the years, but the main reason for this is the way humans live or how they have changed the environment. People have polluted the earth and created unsanitary conditions in big cities. People throw garbage along highways or onto picnic grounds, and cities use large, open landfill sites for dumping tons of refuse. While flitting about on our custodian duties, we pick up germs festering in this decaying matter. Under such polluted conditions created by humans, it is a fact that we houseflies can become enemies of your health.

Since the germs we carry can harm you, it would be wise for you to store garbage where we cannot get at it. Cans with lids are excellent receptacles for garbage. Also, use screens over windows if possible. If you do not have them, shut your windows before the sun rises and we start stirring. Just as important, do not leave food lying in the open, which can be viewed by us as an invitation to lunch.

How We Spread Germs

We have no jaws for chewing, so we take in all our food in liquid form. We simply dissolve our food in fluid that we expel and then suck up again. This fluid is either our own saliva or previously swallowed liquid that we regurgitate. However, there may be germs in the residue of fluid that we leave behind.

We can also leave germs behind wherever we walk. At the bottom of our six legs are sticky pads, fine for walking up the side of walls, or upside down on ceilings. But when we put down a foot, germs on our feet may be deposited. Yet having our feet on the ground is vital to us, since it is by means of taste organs on the tip of our feet that we tell what food meets our fancy.

Unlikely Start to Life

Some of your race may think we have few virtues simply due to the way we spend our childhood​—in a pile of cow droppings or horse manure. Mrs. Housefly chooses this unlikely birthplace for us by laying her minute eggs in the warm manure. Since the eggs are small, you can find hundreds of housefly larvae, called maggots, sharing the same accommodations.

Maggots are legless, footless, and almost headless. They are hungry from the start of life. After hatching, they immediately begin devouring their home. After only six days of life, when their growth is complete, they have become 800 times their weight at birth! The carnivorous habits of maggots have attracted your medical doctors, who have deliberately placed them in wounds so the little creatures could clean wounds by eating the dead or dying tissue.

The maggot, or larva, period of a housefly may last only about a week. During this period it sheds its skin in several molts, reaching a length of half an inch. It then migrates to the surface of the pile, where it is transformed into a pupa. After another three days, the pupa slits, and out crawls a new housefly, complete with all the equipment for flying and eating.

Remarkably Well Equipped

From head to tail our bodies measure a quarter of an inch. You can recognize Mr. Housefly by a brownish yellow tint on the body. Mrs. Housefly, in contrast, has a reddish tint. The most remarkable organs of our bodies are our eyes, which cover most of our heads. Marvelously constructed, they are like small telescopes packed closely together. They allow us to look in every direction at the same time, and this, by the way, explains why humans have such a hard time catching us.

Within our bodies are motor muscles that drive our wings to give us aerial maneuverability ranking with the best of insectdom’s fliers. My kinfolk can fly backward and forward, hover in one spot, or zoom along upside down. Our strong wings, beating at a rate of over 300 times a second, enable us to fly long distances in a single flight.

Great Progenitors

Besides being good fliers, Mr. and Mrs. Housefly can lay claim to being among insectdom’s greatest progenitors. Mrs. Housefly is less than sixty hours old when she deposits her first eggs. According to scientific estimates, under ideal conditions one housefly couple beginning to reproduce in April could, by August, if all the flies lived, cover the earth with a layer of their offspring more than three stories high!

But this, of course, could never happen. For one thing, in summer houseflies live only about thirty days. Furthermore, enemies kill off huge numbers of us.

Nevertheless, many of us survive to the autumn, or later in temperate zones. We may continue to breed right through the winter, though less rapidly. Our being able to weather severe climates assures that from year to year there will be new generations of us. This means that you need constantly to be aware to protect your home and food to prevent us from spreading disease to you.

Of course, if there were no environmental pollution and slum-ridden cities, you probably would not have to worry about our presence. Then we could more fully work for your benefit as custodians of the earth.

What Is the Bible’s View?

Should You “Take a Chance” on the Lottery?

LOTTERIES have become quite common in many lands. This form of gambling generally consists of selling chances for a small sum of money. At a drawing, the possessor of a winning lottery ticket receives some prize, often money in a far greater amount than what he spent in buying the ticket.

Perhaps you have thought about “taking a chance” on the lottery. But there are various factors to take into account.

Since a lottery appeals to the hope of getting much for little, it can be a great lure, especially for poor people. Yet, it actually has made many of them poorer. To buy lottery tickets, some spend money that they really need for food, clothing and other necessities. In India, for instance, some people have spent a whole month’s wages and others have borrowed money at high interest rates so that they could participate in lotteries.

But, suppose a person wins the lottery. Would that not be fine? Not necessarily. One winner of $1,000,000 received letters from all over the world asking that he donate money to aid those writing to him. “I couldn’t distinguish between legitimate requests and fakery,” he said.

While noting such factors, however, a person desiring to please God is concerned principally with what His Word, the Bible, indicates. Likely, that is your chief concern, too. And happily the Scriptures provide the information needed to decide intelligently whether to “take a chance” on the lottery.

Probably you will acknowledge readily that legality of lotteries in one’s community is not the main factor to consider. A state might legalize various things that a godly person would not do. If prostitution were legalized, for example, surely a Christian would have nothing to do with it, for loose morals do not befit persons who have reverence for God, and individuals who are incorrigibly immoral will not inherit His kingdom. (Lev. 19:29; 1 Cor. 6:9, 10) So, we need to look at other aspects of this matter of taking a chance on the lottery.

As you probably realize, a person could be enticed by the lottery to begin trusting in luck. Does God’s Word say anything about that? Yes, it does. At Isaiah 65:11, 12 it is written: “But you, you that leave Jehovah, you that forget my sacred mountain, you that set a table for Lady Luck [or, “the god of Good Luck,” New World Translation] and fill mixed bowls for Destiny, I will destine you to the sword and you shall all stoop for slaughtering.” (The Bible in Living English, Byington) It is very obvious, is it not, that God does not approve of trusting in luck?

Lotteries can encourage something else that is undesirable​—laziness. Many who participate in the lottery and other forms of gambling want to win such a large sum of money that they can ‘take life easy.’ But the Bible speaks very unfavorably of the lazy person.​—Prov. 6:6-11.

There is, of course, no Scriptural objection to properly motivated giving and receiving of gifts. Jehovah God himself is the greatest Gift-Giver and he is represented as receiving good-hearted gifts from his worshipers. (Jas. 1:17; Ex. 35:21) Surely, however, one cannot say that lotteries involve unselfish, generous gift giving. Furthermore, the principal way that godly persons acquire funds and valuables is by working for them. “If anyone does not want to work,” remarked the apostle Paul, “neither let him eat.”​—2 Thess. 3:10.

We should also think about others. True, people willingly participate in lotteries. Yet, winners take the money of other people without giving them anything in return. Is this a way to show love for fellow humans? No. It really is unloving and runs counter to the Scriptures. These say: “You must love your fellow as yourself.” “Do not you people be owing anybody a single thing, except to love one another . . . Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor.” (Lev. 19:18; Rom. 13:8-10) Godly persons show love, which is unselfish and “does not look for its own interests.” Moreover, the apostle Paul urged fellow Christians: “Let each one keep seeking, not his own advantage, but that of the other person. (1 Cor. 13:4, 5; 10:24) An individual is not really fulfilling these requirements when participating in the lottery, is he?

Another point to consider is that lotteries can engender a love of money in the hearts of participants. But this love is inappropriate for godly persons, as the apostle Paul showed in saying: “Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap and many stupid and harmful desires which sink men into destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all things bad; hankering for it, some have strayed away from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.”​—1 Tim. 6:9, 10, Byington.

Participating in lotteries can also cause greed to develop in a person’s heart. Yet, the apostle Paul admonished fellow believers: “Let unchastity and any sort of uncleanness or grasping greed not be even named among you,” as this would not befit God’s people. Moreover, the apostle wrote: “Know this well, that any unchaste or unclean person or greedy grasper, which is the same as to say idolater, does not have an inheritance coming to him in the reign of Christ and God,” or “in the kingdom of the Christ and of God.”​—Eph. 5:3-5, Byington; compare New World Translation.

As it is, though, for advertising purposes a business place may have a “drawing” that is supposed to be an impartial way of selecting customers to whom prizes are to be given. The purpose may be to encourage people to come into the store or to stimulate interest in a certain product. Gambling is not necessarily involved, as no one pays out money or other valuable consideration to obtain the ticket. Neither does acceptance of the ticket imply that the god of ‘Chance’ or ‘Good Luck’ is being invoked. Yet an individual trying to decide whether to participate could well ask: Might my participation stumble someone? In the final analysis, the responsible adult must make a personal decision, being aware that “each of us will render an account for himself to God.” (Rom. 14:12) Of course, if a person participates, wins and only then finds out that the gift is a lottery ticket, he is under no obligation to accept it.

So, there are good reasons why individuals desiring to abide by the counsel of God’s Word do not “take a chance” on the lottery. They do not trust in luck. They are on guard against laziness and unloving acts. They recognize that the love of money is spiritually ruinous and they do not want to be overtaken by the greed that gambling can produce in one’s heart. Instead, they acquire funds and valuable things by upright means that befit those who love God.

Watching the World

Business Morals

◆ The month of May gave the world a sharper look into the morals of many businessmen.

(1) The “routine” practice of giant U.S. corporations making large bribes to foreign officials to get contracts and ‘stay in business’ became a public scandal.

(2) Federal authorities revealed a massive real-estate fraud that cheated up to 80,000 Americans out of as much as $1 billion. It involved a long list of “respectable” bankers, attorneys, brokers, appraisers and as many as fifty-six different corporations. “This is not going to stop by putting the officers of these corporations in jail,” said a Florida assistant attorney general. “We’re going to have to put everybody in jail.”

(3) The federal authorities also exposed a huge scandal involving at least 100 international grain-dealer employees and grain inspectors. Short-weighing, theft and bribery involved so many people that one source said: “Because of the sheer volume, they can’t indict all of the people involved in everything. The court just couldn’t handle all of them.”

(4) Just isolated cases? Business Horizons magazine recently reported that a Georgia University professor’s survey of hundreds of businessmen revealed that almost 60 percent of young managers would follow the lead of their bosses even if lies and deception resulted. About two thirds of all managers felt pressure to compromise personal standards for company goals.

Few Remember World War I

◆ “If one assumes that you must be 10 years old for events to make a lasting impression,” observed U.S. News & World Report recently, “only 9 per cent of the U.S. population today recalls World War I.” Students of Bible prophecy note that Jesus Christ predicted that the “generation” that saw such a global conflict and what followed “will by no means pass away until” God’s Kingdom rule asserts itself fully over mankind.​—Matt. 24:7-14, 30-34.

Peace?

◆ When the shooting wars in Cambodia and Vietnam recently ended, it became the “first time the world has known complete peace since 1931,” observed the Los Angeles Times. Yet, paradoxically, “not a single major international negotiation is going well or promises any early results.” And the Associated Press notes that the nations “still don’t need outside enemies to find excuses for organized killing. The map is spattered with conflicts wherein citizens of individual nations murder one another over the question, always, of: Who will rule whom?”

True “Rehabilitation”

◆ “The American criminal justice system,” declares Science magazine, is in the midst of a “‘massive retreat’ from rehabilitation.” Why? The article notes that, though a prisoner may appear to cooperate with a program so as to get out of prison, “the likelihood of his abandoning his antisocial ways” is small.

On the other hand, a Massachusetts psychologist describes a different kind of rehabilitation in the case of a prisoner, at Walpole State Prison, who was sentenced to fourteen years for armed robbery. He says his patient shifted from being an “amoral, destructive person, to one with a conscience. . . . There’s absolutely no way this guy could have carried himself this far through therapy.” What was it, then, that changed this person? “I attribute this solely to his experience with [Jehovah’s] Witnesses . . . They’ve been responsible for a social re-education of tremendous power and impact.” But will it last? The psychologist “is quite sure this is a permanent change for [the prisoner],” notes the report in The South Middlesex News.

Steepest Slump

◆ Just how deep has been the economic recession in the Western world? The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.) estimates that, for its twenty-four member nations, the total output of goods and services suffered the sharpest drop ever observed by the organization. Imports for these nations decreased the most since World War II. “This slowdown of world trade,” noted one O.E.C.D. official, “is a new thing in the world economy.”

Parents Learn Too

◆ Parents usually view themselves as teachers of their children, but few realize that taking the time to listen and to respond to their children increases their own knowledge. “Your child, in fact, can lead you to perceive the truly profound fundamentals,” Parents’ Magazine observes, “because in seeing the world through a child’s eyes you are experiencing the very origins of knowledge.” It is further pointed out that learning with a child “can be a truly stimulating intellectual adventure” because “it is rooted in everyday, all-day life” rather than school books, and “it adds a wonderful extra dimension to parenthood.”

Moral “Leaders”?

◆ How much responsibility must Germany’s religious leaders bear for World War II? In the recently published book The German Church Struggle and the Holocaust, Wayne State University history professor William Sheridan Allen says of church leadership: “The most ironic statistic of the Third Reich on this was that more Catholic priests and Protestant ministers died in the German army than were put into concentration camps . . . the official acquiescence of the churches was a vital factor sustaining the Third Reich and permitting it to work its wickedness freely.”

Professional Example

◆ “Of the thousands of Americans who have been infected with serum hepatitis in the last ten years,” observes a recent New York magazine article, “it is not likely that many of them were doctors or nurses or lab technicians or pharmacists or employees of drug companies. These medical professionals and paraprofessionals know better than anyone else the risks involved in submitting to commercial plasma transfusions; and they usually insist, when they or their loved ones are hospitalized for surgery, on a [saline] plasma expander. . . . Hospitals do not usually volunteer to offer incoming patients the choice of a plasma expander. But you may demand it, before you sign your admittance contract, as most medical professionals and paraprofessionals demand it before they sign theirs.”

Just like Grown-Ups!

◆ Using a stolen rifle, a fourteen-year-old Canadian boy recently held ninety schoolmates and three teachers hostage for half an hour. After firing a shot to prove he meant business, the boy had everyone lie face down on the floor. Then he demanded that a friend be brought from another school to join him in twenty-nine minutes or he would shoot one hostage every ten minutes. Toronto police persuaded the would-be terrorist to give up.

Military Myth

◆ Is the boast that military spending improves the national economy fact or fiction? A detailed statistical analysis made at Yale University indicates that twenty-six states, with 60 percent of the U.S. population, lost more jobs than they gained as a result of defense spending. “The belief that spending by [the military] has been good for the economy has been a myth,” says the study. “It is not supported by the facts.”

What Is a Jew?

◆ The Israeli government recently recognized members of the black Ethiopian Falasha sect as Jews. The controversial decision allows immigrating Falashas immediate citizenship under a 1950 statute applicable to all returning Jews. The true origin of the Ethiopian sect is disputed.

Musical Delivery

◆ A Japanese gynecologist found that recorded sounds from inside a mother’s womb were effective in lulling newborn infants to sleep. (See Awake! 5/22/75, p. 30.) Now the chief of the women’s clinic at Sweden’s Halmstad Hospital says that musical recordings assist mothers in natural childbirth. For months expectant mothers practice relaxation exercises accompanied by a Mozart piano concerto. When birth contractions begin, the hospital delivery room becomes a concert hall, making births less painful and safer, with a much lower infant mortality rate than other hospitals, they say.

“Fornication Funding”

◆ A new federal health program that requires making free contraceptives available to “sexually active” youths from twelve to twenty-one years old was recently opposed in New York as too costly. “This federal fornication funding is one more example of how ultra-sophisticated we have become,” complained a state senator. “Instead of a program that encourages sexual abstinence among adolescents, the government of the United States would equip little boys with contraceptives before they are old enough to shave.”

Travel Etiquette

◆Travelers’ actions in strange countries often give them a bad name. Now a Korean regulation requires that each time citizens apply for a passport, they must take a crash course in etiquette. No course, no passport. “A heavy dosage of what-to-do and what-not-to-do for polished manners” is given in the six hours of lectures, says Japan’s Daily Yomiuri. It tells of a businessman from Seoul who somewhat reluctantly attended the course, but then admitted: “I decided such a lecture would really be a must for a traveler going overseas for the first time​—from almost any country.”

Recession and Dogs

◆ The number of large dogs being turned in to animal shelters nearly doubled last year, according to an American Humane Association survey. Why? Says one shelter official: “We’ve never had so many Saint Bernards and German shepherds in the shelter. People flat out tell us they can’t afford them.” About 360 human babies are born hourly in the U.S., compared to about 3,000 puppies and kittens.

Spirits at the Top

◆ A remarkable preoccupation with spiritism was revealed recently with the publication of former Canadian Prime Minister William Mackenzie King’s personal diaries for 1932-1944. According to Time magazine, during his twenty-two years as prime minister the diaries reveal that “spiritual communications often buoyed his own moods, or catered to his vanity.” King described séances, visions and superstitions with frankness. Of his pet dog, he wrote: “I feel more and more he is a little spirit dog revealing dear mother’s continued presence to me.”

Debt City

◆ What brought on the grim budget crisis for what is said to be the richest city in the world​—New York? One factor may be that New York spends nearly five times as much per resident for city operations and for interest on debts as does the country’s next largest city, Chicago​—$1,233.68, compared to $267.29. Concerning other U.S. cities only Washington, D.C., spends more.

Costly Dollars

◆ Visions of government presses running off masses of paper money at negligible cost are losing validity. The price of printing one thousand bills of any denomination has risen nearly a third​—to $11—​in three years. U.S. officials are considering revival of the $2 bill to save an estimated $4 million in annual printing costs.

World Illiteracy Grows

◆ The number of illiterates in the world has grown by about 100 million since 1950, to about 800 million now. Most are in developing countries. A recent report by the Population Reference Bureau reveals that, out of every thousand adults in the U.S. and Canada, only 15 cannot read and write, whereas 737 African, 468 Asian and 236 Latin-American adults of each thousand are illiterate.

Can You Read the Bible in Greek?

Here is a part of a page from The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. Even if you do not read Greek, this word-for-word translation of the Greek text helps you better to get the sense of the Bible in its original language.

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[Picture on page 31]

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures

Does God Plan a Person’s Life Before He Is Born?

Some persons believe that He does. They say that it was according to God’s plan for Esau to sell his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. What are the facts? Why is this account in the Bible?

This is just one of a number of incidents connected with the outworking of God’s purpose that is discussed in God’s “Eternal Purpose” Now Triumphing for Man’s Good. Send only 25 cents and receive this 192-page, hard-covered book, postpaid.

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