February 8

Can You Display More Loving-kindness?

A TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD nurse fell into the waters of Lake Michigan. As she struggled to escape, an elderly man reached out to assist her, but couldn’t make contact. He asked another man to help, but he kept walking by, refusing to help in any way whatsoever. The nurse drowned.

A group of theology students were assigned to tape-record short talks on various subjects. On their way to the taping session, the students encountered a person slumped in a doorway coughing and groaning. Unknown to the students, however, the “victim” was part of an experiment. Result? Sixty percent of the students hurried by to record their talks, some of which dealt with Jesus’ parable of “the Good Samaritan.”​—Luke 10:29-36.

Have you ever been seriously in need of help, only to be ignored by passersby? This experience is becoming ever more common today. According to psychiatrist Daniel X. Freedman, such behavior reflects “the lack of community in our society, the lack of confidence and trust, and the lack of knowing how to behave.”

How refreshing it would be to live in a world where people would view the welfare of their fellowman as more important than their own! But is that possible? Yes, it is. But, first, people must learn “how to behave,’’ to use the words of Dr. Freedman. In this regard, the Bible, which provides the finest counsel on human relations, highlights an important quality. How so?

At Proverbs 19:22, we read: “The desirable thing in earthling man is his loving-kindness.” The quality of loving-kindness is a must for gaining God’s approval.​—Prov. 3:3, 4.

What do the Scriptures mean by loving-kindness? Is this quality practical in a world so filled with hostility?

The Hebrew word translated loving-kindness is hheʹsedh, which means more than simply kindness stemming from love or affection. It is kindness that lovingly attaches itself to persons, becoming evident in continual kind acts. Jewish scholar Samson Raphael Hirsch remarks in his commentary on Genesis: “What [love] is in feelings, hheʹsedh is in deeds, love translated into action.” The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament points out that this word implies a prior relationship between persons. This reference work says as to hheʹsedh:

“It is the attitude which the one expects of the other in this relationship, and to which he is pledged in relation to him. Thus the relationship of mutual hheʹsedh arises between relatives and friends, hosts and guests, masters and subjects, or others in covenant relation. Hheʹsedh is not primarily a disposition but a helpful act corresponding to a relationship of trust.”

A deed of loving-kindness, therefore, is an evidence of loyalty to a previously established relationship. In fact, an alternate rendering of this Hebrew word is “loyal love.” Would you like to improve in displaying this quality? How can you do that? Let us briefly consider some areas where improvements may be made.

Do you have personal habits that you know displease family members or others with whom you regularly associate? If so, what should you do? Do you adopt the viewpoint: “I’ll do what I want. I don’t care what others think”?

Loving-kindness calls for a different attitude. To illustrate: Though indicating that all types of meat and alcoholic beverages in moderation are permissible for Christians, the apostle Paul wrote: “It is well not to eat flesh or to drink wine or do anything over which your brother stumbles.” (Rom. 14:21) Of course, this does not mean to cater to persons who are chronic faultfinders. However, if you become aware that some of your personal habits bother the consciences of others, would not making changes be an act of loving-kindness?

On the other hand, is your problem perhaps being overly sensitive, becoming easily offended? When hurt by someone, do you have the urge to retaliate, or the tendency to ‘clam up,’ refusing to speak to the individual for a considerable length of time? If so, there is need to apply loving-kindness in a particular way. As an aid in this regard, the Bible sets forth the perfect example of God himself, saying: “You are a God of acts of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness.” (Neh. 9:17) If God, who never offends anyone, freely forgives the offensive deeds of others, how much more should imperfect humans do so!

One thing that will help you to be forgiving is realizing how often you yourself have caused offense. Wisely the Word of God counsels: “Do not give your heart to all the words that people may speak, that you may not hear your servant calling down evil upon you. For your own heart well knows even many times that you, even you, have called down evil upon others.”​—Eccl. 7:21, 22.

Loving-kindness involves positive aspects too. For instance, how do you respond when someone is in need? Are you like the priest and the Levite in Jesus’ parable of the friendly Samaritan? Both of them passed by, ignoring the plight of a fellow Jew who had been attacked and beaten into helplessness by robbers. It was a man from a people despised by the Jews, a Samaritan, who aided the unfortunate victim. Regardless of the animosity between the two peoples, this Samaritan obviously felt a relationship with the distressed Jew as a fellow human. The Samaritan gave evidence of this by deeds of loving-kindness. (Luke 10:29-37) How do you react when seeing someone in distress?

Can you be sure that such acts of loving-kindness will not simply invite others to take advantage of you? Sadly, that might happen on occasion. But that is not the way people normally react to kind deeds. For instance, Jesus assured: “Practice giving, and people will give to you. They will pour into your laps a fine measure, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing. For with the measure that you are measuring out, they will measure out to you in return.” (Luke 6:38) Thus, it works out that “a man of loving-kindness is dealing rewardingly with his own soul.” (Prov. 11:17) Millions of Bible believers can testify to the truthfulness of these Scriptural statements.

How can you display more loving-kindness? The first step is to increase your knowledge of Scriptural teachings. In this way you will learn God’s viewpoint as to which deeds are a true expression of loving-kindness. Regular association with persons who apply Bible principles in their lives is also important. Developing this godly quality is worth the effort, for loving-kindness will adorn your life with continual happiness and blessings.

The Olympics​—Where Are They Headed?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Canada

THE next Olympic Games are scheduled to be held in Moscow in the summer of 1980. However, in a different sense, many people wonder where the Games are headed. People are asking whether this sports event can survive in its present form.

Why is this so? For a number of reasons. One has to do with the increased scope of the Games. Over the years many new events have been added. More countries and athletes than ever before are involved. Because of this, more and more facilities are required for holding all the events and accommodating the thousands of participants, reporters and spectators. It is becoming impractical for any but the wealthier nations to hold the Games in their present form.

Another reason has to do with politics. The differences that countries have with one another are reflected in the Olympic Games. When antagonisms are deep enough, some nations even boycott the event.

The animosities caused by extreme nationalism are ever present. Each country tries to win as many medals as possible, at almost any cost to the athlete. Various countries have huge sports programs beginning in childhood, designed to produce ‘super’ athletes primarily for gaining national prestige. Some rivalries take on an almost warlike nature, especially among a number of Communist and Western nations.

Then there are the personal rivalries. Athletes are under intense personal and national pressure to win, and often feel deep antagonism toward other athletes. Some cheat or use drugs to get an advantage.

All these problems, and others, surfaced at the last Games held here in Montreal, Canada, in the summer of 1976. Thus, what is hailed as an event to promote international understanding and goodwill often turns out differently.

History of the Games

It is of interest to review briefly the history of the Olympics to see how they developed to their present form. What eventually happened to the ancient Games may find a parallel in the modern event.

The first recorded Olympic Games were held in the year 776 B.C.E. on the plains of Olympia in western Greece. That was about the same time that the ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah began to prophesy to the nation of Judah. But while Isaiah talked about the living God, the ancient Greeks dedicated their Olympics to the false god Zeus. Since the games honored Zeus, there were sacrifices to him and other mythical gods. There was also the worship of the Olympic Fire.

At that time the Games consisted of just a single event, a footrace. Because there were many contestants from the various city-states of Greece, the runners ran in different “heats,” or races. The winners of those heats then competed against one another. The first man to cross the line in the final race was proclaimed the winner. This method is still used today.

About 708 B.C.E. the Games introduced other contests, such as jumping, throwing and wrestling. Later, boxing and chariot races were added. One of the most highly esteemed new contests was the pentathlon, wherein each entrant competed in five different events: running, jumping, wrestling, and discus and javelin throwing. A changed form of the pentathlon is still held in the modern Olympics​—ten events for men and five for women.

The winners in ancient times were presented with a wreath of wild olive leaves and received great acclaim. Criers announced their names throughout the land. Statues were dedicated to them, and poets wrote poems about them.

All competitors in the ancient Games were required to take an oath declaring that they had spent at least ten months in preparation. They also swore to adhere to the rules and not to resort to any unfair practices.

As time passed, athletes from other countries entered the contests. Gradually, though, the original purpose of glorifying the individual gave way to the glorifying of one’s nation. Selfishness and brutality also became more evident. By 394 C.E. the Games had become so corrupt that they were abolished by Emperor Theodosius, head of the Eastern Roman Empire.

After fifteen centuries, in 1896, they were revived. In that year Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France helped to organize the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Eight nations took part. (The Winter Olympics were not started until 1924.) Since the modern revival, the Games have been held every four years, except during World War I and World War II.

The Dream and the Reality

De Coubertin’s dream was for an international sports festival that would break down barriers of class, race and religion. It would hopefully have a peace-keeping potential, leading to the building of understanding and harmony between nations. Certainly such motives were noble.

But so were the motives behind the original Olympic Games in ancient Greece. In time, however, those ancient Games developed a huge gap between motive and reality. Scholars point out that the contenders in various events back then came to be known more for their brutality than for their elegance and sportsmanship. This was especially the case in boxing, wrestling and the free-for-all contest known as the pancratium, where boxing and wrestling were combined.

In modern times the noble motives have also, to a large degree, given way to harsh realities. How so?

Political Problems

The 1976 Games in Montreal began under a cloud. The largest number of countries ever refused to participate on political grounds.

The opening ceremonies were boycotted by twenty African nations. They demanded that New Zealand be excluded from the Olympics because its rugby team had previously made a tour of South Africa. Since South Africa has a policy of separating the races, the African countries objected to New Zealand’s having such sports relations with South Africa. So the Africans walked out, and were joined by supporters such as Guyana and Iraq.

Eventually, a total of thirty countries dropped out. That was a quarter of the 119 countries that had been expected to take part. More than 600 athletes were called back home by their governments without participating.

Among those that were not permitted to participate in the games was Taiwan, for it had insisted on participating under the name “Republic of China.” But Canada maintained that it recognized the mainland regime as the legitimate government of that country.

At the height of the Taiwan controversy, Lord Killanin, president of the International Olympic Committee, said: “I think the world is fed up with politicians interfering in sports.” As a result, some suggested doing away with national anthems for winners, as well as all flags, except the Olympic banner.

However, realists also made their point. They asked how many countries would, without national identity, without national fanfare, provide the essential financial and moral support? And the participants themselves often prefer to compete under a national emblem for patriotic reasons, as well as others, such as gaining fame and perhaps fortune in their home countries.

Politics was evident in another way. It could be seen in the vast security precautions taken. Armed guards patrolled Olympic sites. Helicopters soared overhead. More than 16,000 soldiers stood by. Why such elaborate security measures? They were prepared for any outbreak of terrorism. Vivid in memory was what happened four years earlier at the Munich Olympics. There, in a night of horror, political terrorists murdered Israeli athletes.

Money Problems

Enormous sums of money were required for all the nations to finance their athletes. But Montreal, especially, had a giant financial headache after it awoke from the Games.

The Canadians had hoped that the event would be “self-financing.” But the actual cost rose to about 1.5 billion dollars. That was more than it cost to build the St. Lawrence Seaway two decades ago! The total deficit, after subtracting income, was about one billion dollars.

The many sports complexes, new housing areas and other facilities were very costly. And the impressive array of advanced technology used was also an additional cost factor. For instance, no longer was the javelin or discus throw measured by a simple tape measure. Instead, the millimeters were split by instruments that projected an infrared beam, giving instant readings. For track events a digital clock and computerized cameras split seconds into fractions of one hundred. Also, the starting blocks from which the runners push off were electronically controlled so no runner could start early.

At the Olympic pool each swimmer made contact with an electronic touch pad at the end of a race, immediately stopping the clock for that lane. The difference between a first-place gold medal and a second-place silver one may be just a few one-hundredths of a second, not much more than the difference between having long fingernails or short ones.

At the conclusion of an event, 38,000 light bulbs instantaneously flashed the results, along with the athlete’s picture and standing, on two giant screens, each four stories high. Also, more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of videotape and about 225 miles (360 kilometers) of film represented the most ambitious and the most technically advanced recording of the Games to date​—as well as the most costly. And ninety-two color-television cameras sent programs around the world by satellite.

Winners and Losers

Scores of world and Olympic records were broken. But the losers generally agreed that Baron de Coubertin was wrong when he said: “Winning medals wasn’t the point of the Olympics. It’s the participating that counts.” Today’s athletes feel that winning is all that counts. Many showed it by their approach to the Games.

One performer, related Psychology Today, “sits alone, head down, eyes closed, building aggression and a feeling of hatred for the next opponent.” Others took anabolic steroids (synthetic hormones) to develop muscles. A few resorted to blood ‘doping’ to increase blood oxygen, extracting their own blood and then transfusing it back into their bodies shortly before they competed. A number resorted to various drugs for stamina. The collapse of one athlete was directly attributed to a drug that he had taken.

A fencer was caught cheating. Fencing is scored electronically, every hit on an opponent’s chest shield automatically registering on a scoreboard. But this fencer had an electronic device in the handle of his weapon, so that every time he pressed a button it registered a hit. But he became too flagrant, scoring a hit when he was not close. His weapon was inspected, the device discovered, and he was thrown out of the Games in disgrace.

The reality of what it now takes to win in the Olympics was noted by one coach who said: “A country has to hire professionals if it wants to win in amateur sports.”

Clouded Future

Because of so many growing problems, many observers acknowledged that the future of the Games is in doubt. A Montreal newspaper spoke of “an air of disenchantment and disillusionment” with the event. It noted “the erosion of principles” and a “deterioration of spirit.”

Prince Philip of England said: “I think that once people feel it’s important to the nation that they should have a lot of medals or whatever it is, I think I’d rather shelve the competitions they are pointless.” He termed “deplorable” reports that one government would hold an inquiry because its athletes did not win enough medals.

A disappointed Canadian boxer said: “I wouldn’t compete in the Olympics again for a million dollars. It’s not worth the sacrifices because there is just too much politics. These big countries play games at the athlete’s expense.”

Among the questions asked by those who looked back on the Games were these: “How many more principles can be compromised? How much more flagrant cheating, doping, political squabbling can the Games endure? How much more money must be spent? How much must the event be ‘hyped’ by commercialism to keep it floating on an unrealistic cloud?”

In effect, the questions revolve around this point: Are the Games as they were played here in Montreal dead? The answer will come in Moscow in 1980, if not before.

Freedom of Worship​—When Should It Be Granted?

● Most, if not all, governments claim to grant their citizens freedom of worship. Yet the fact is that some governments restrict or prohibit religions whose teachings they do not approve. Thus Jehovah’s Witnesses are banned in some places because of their Scriptural position of neutrality in political affairs. (John 6:15; 17:16; 18:36; Jas. 4:4) Is this action justified?

Dr. Bryan R. Wilson of Oxford University discussed this matter in a letter to the London Times, printed August 6, 1976. Among other things, he observed:

“It is surely implicit in the concept of religious freedom that men should be free to abstain from involvements that they believe to conflict with their religion, as long as, in doing so, they do not interfere with the rights of others. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that to take part in elections, to sing national hymns, and to salute national flags would be to compromise their religious principles. Ought they not, then, be free to abstain? The Witnesses today are passive and respectful of authority, and their neutrality in politics ought not to be an excuse for intolerance and discrimination in any democratic society. . . .

“There is, indeed, a curious irony in the short-sightedness of some African governments with respect to sects of this kind. Independent observers have indicated that Jehovah’s Witnesses are hard-working and often more conscientious and enterprising than the average among their fellow citizens. They are enjoined by their leaders to pay their taxes promptly, to refrain from violence, and to avoid giving offence. They are orderly, honest and sober. These values were of great importance in the economic and social development of Western society, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that Jehovah’s Witnesses are among the most upright and diligent of the citizenry of African countries. Were the values that they endorse and by which they live so consistently more widely diffused in Africa, some of the worst social problems from which African countries suffer would be considerably mitigated.”

Europe’s “Panama Canal”

By “Awake!” correspondent in West Germany

IF SOMEONE asked you to name the main canals of the world, which ones would come to your mind? Likely you would name the Panama Canal, and, yes, the Suez too. If you lived in northern Europe, however, your reply would include the “Nord-Ostsee-Kanal,” known also as the Kiel Canal.

Have you ever heard of this waterway? Its importance is great. The Nord-Ostsee-Kanal cuts through the Cimbrian Peninsula, a strip of land some 280 miles (450 kilometers) long. From the maritime city of Hamburg, Germany, this isthmus stretches northward to Cape Skagen at the northernmost tip of Denmark. It separates the North Sea from the Baltic Sea.

The Nord-Ostsee-Kanal cuts across this land mass from Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River northeastward to Kiel-Holtenau on the shore of Kieler Förde, which leads to the Baltic. Were it not for this canal, passage from one sea to the other would require ships to make a long detour around Cape Skagen, a distance of about 250 nautical miles (460 kilometers).

We might call this man-made waterway the “Panama Canal” of Europe. But it gets even more use than that better-known canal. Up to 85,000 ships use the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal each year. That is nearly four times as many as pass through the Suez Canal, and five times as many as use the Panama Canal in a year. An official of the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal administration calculated that if the yearly total of vessels using it were placed end to end with the necessary space between them, the result would be a convoy 27,400 miles (44,000 kilometers) long, a little more than once around the earth at the equator. And this figure does not include sportscraft that use this waterway.

Need for the Canal

The Nord-Ostsee-Kanal can now look back at eighty years of service. It was through the influence of Germany’s Chancellor Otto von Bismarck that the canal project got under way. Bismarck viewed it as a means of diplomacy. Realizing that the German navy needed an efficient waterway for fleet movement between the North and Baltic Seas, Bismarck won the backing of Kaiser Wilhelm II for building the canal.

The project resembled a military operation. At times as many as 8,900 persons worked on it. Construction of the canal with its locks, bridges and harbor facilities required the laborers to move some 107 million cubic yards (82 million cubic meters) of dirt. The workers kept at it from 1888 to 1895. The “Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal,” as it was then called, cost 156 million marks. Official opening took place on June 21, 1895, amidst elaborate festivities.

Later it was necessary to expand and modernize the canal. Today it is 61 miles (98 kilometers) long and 36 feet (11 meters in depth. It is 531 feet (162 meters) wide at water level and narrows to 295 feet (90 meters) at the bottom.

To compensate for the different water levels of the North and the Baltic Seas, the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal has double locks at both ends. It is possible to accommodate ships up to 1,020 feet (310 meters) long. Two control centers operate signal lights and transmit radio communications that aid toward safe and quick passage.

Scenic View en Route

Getting from one end of the canal to the other takes from seven to nine hours, depending upon the type of ship. The journey permits observers to get a glimpse of the scenic countryside of the Federal Republic of Germany’s northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. I recently made this trip on a freighter. Let me describe some of the things seen on the voyage.

During the brief first stage of our journey a specially trained pilot directs the vessel around mines that have been in the North Sea since World War II. Similar mines are still located at the other end of the canal in the Baltic Sea. Ships are not permitted to navigate on courses of their own choice in these areas, but must follow specified routes.

Leaving the North Sea, we travel a short distance up the Elbe River to the port of Brunsbüttel. A green light tells us that we can enter the lock. Powerful hands of waiting dockers grab heavy ropes and secure the ship to the lock bollards.

Now comes a brief waiting period while the captain cares for formalities and the ship takes on water and provisions. Sailors who have been long at sea seize the opportunity to call home or write to loved ones. Some seamen from Europe meet their wives and children here and take them along for the canal trip.

Finally, it is time to proceed. Directed by a pilot, our ship eases its way into the canal. A flat, green marsh dotted with farms stretches out before us. For the first twelve miles (20 kilometers) the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal cuts through deposits cast up by the sea. In some places the land lies ten feet (3 meters) below the canal water level. Because of this, persons walking or driving through the countryside see the strange illusion of a ship gliding over meadows and fields.

Toward the middle of the canal, we note that its banks become higher and are covered with bushes and trees. Hedges planted on small earth mounds surround fields and meadows, serving for protection against ever-present winds. Lilacs among some of these hedges add beauty and sweet fragrance to the atmosphere. The eastern section, however, is of loam soil, which makes for fruitful farmland. In all, the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal cuts through an agricultural belt that exceeds in its overall economic importance any other state of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The last few miles of our canal trip are indeed scenic. Shortly before arriving at the locks we see large estates with manors nestled in parklike surroundings. This is reminiscent of a bygone age when knights and nobles were in possession of this area. Soon, however, brick-paved banks, silos, cranes, oil tanks and bridges tell us that we have reached Kiel-Holtenau, the end of our canal journey.

Hundreds of sailboats greet our eyes, for Kiel is known as the mecca for sailboat enthusiasts. Viewing white sails intermingled with colorful head-wind sails, called spinnakers, serves as a pleasant ending to our trip on Europe’s famous “Panama Canal.”

[Map on page 10]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

DENMARK

Schleswig

Rendsburg

Kiel Bay

NORTH SEA

BALTIC SEA

Kiel

NORD-OSTSEE-KANAL

Brunsbüttelkoog

Lübeck

Elbe River

WEST GERMANY

Hamburg

EAST GERMANY

When Was the Content of the Bible Established?

“THE Catholic Church,” wrote a priest to a woman studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, “settled once and for all the content and interpretation of the word of God.” His statement was in full agreement with the New Catholic Encyclopedia, which states: “According to Catholic doctrine, the proximate criterion of the Biblical canon is the infallible decision of the Church. This decision was not given until rather late in the history of the Church (at the Council of Trent).”​—Vol. 3, p. 29.

The Council of Trent was held in the sixteenth century. Did the settling of the contents of the Bible really have to wait until that late date?

Jesus Christ and his first-century disciples certainly had no problem in determining what books were inspired of God. Like his fellow countrymen, Jesus Christ accepted the three basic divisions of what is today commonly called the “Old Testament”​—the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms—​as the Word of his Father. After his resurrection, for example, he said to two of his disciples: “These are my words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all the things written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms about me must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44) The Christian Greek Scriptures (or, “New Testament”) use such expressions as “the Scriptures,” “the holy Scriptures” and “the holy writings.” (Acts 18:24; Rom. 1:2; 2 Tim. 3:15) These were obviously designations that had a specific meaning for people then living. Just what those “holy Scriptures” were certainly did not remain in question until such time as clergymen claimed to define them in the sixteenth century.

It is noteworthy that the Council of Trent did not go along with Jesus Christ and his early disciples in accepting only the books of the established Hebrew Scripture canon. That council accepted apocryphal books. These were books of which the learned Jerome, translator of the Latin Vulgate, wrote to a certain woman in connection with the education of her daughter: “All apocryphal books should be avoided; but if she ever wishes to read them, . . . she should be told that they are not the works of the authors by whose names they are distinguished, that they contain much that is faulty, and that it is a task requiring great prudence to find gold in the midst of clay.”

In declaring that certain apocryphal or deuterocanonical books formed part of the Bible canon, the Council of Trent also disregarded the words of the apostle Paul: “The Jews are the people to whom God’s message was entrusted.”​—Rom. 3:2, Catholic Jerusalem Bible.

What about the Christian Greek Scriptures? The writings making up this section of the Bible were accepted as inspired from the start. At that time there were Christians who had the miraculous gift of discernment of inspired utterances. (1 Cor. 12:10) The apostle Peter could, therefore, classify the letters of the apostle Paul with the rest of the inspired Scriptures. We read: “Our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given him also wrote you, speaking about these things as he does also in all his letters. In them, however, are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unsteady are twisting, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”​—2 Pet. 3:15, 16.

This early settling of the canon for the Christian Greek Scriptures is also confirmed in listings of the inspired books dating from the second to the fourth centuries C.E.

In the final analysis, then, each book of the Bible was accepted as inspired by believers from the very beginning. When Bible writing ended in the first century C.E. nothing about canonicity remained to be determined centuries later.

A “Melting Pot” of Many Cultures

By “Awake!” correspondent in Australia

HAVE you ever visited Australia? If not, possibly you have heard of the hot, arid deserts of the continent, as well as its extensive brushlands. Does this suggest that Australia is a land populated principally by rugged, frontier-type bushmen?

Granted, this continent does contain huge desert areas. Though Australia is about the same size as the continental United States, Australia’s population is less than 7 percent as great as that of the United States. Nevertheless, Australia can best be described as a nation of city dwellers. More than half of its 13,000,000 inhabitants live in cities.

And they are not primitive ‘frontier-type’ cities. On the contrary, in some you will see the skyscrapers, traffic jams and bustling pedestrians characteristic of New York, London or any other large city of the world. Tourists will find an abundance of hotels and motels to care for their lodging. There are restaurants to satisfy the taste buds of most nationalities.

An unusual fact about Australian society is its rapid growth in recent years. Since 1945, the population has increased by nearly six million. From where did they all come? The administrator of a western iron-mining town said of the town’s inhabitants: “Most are of non-Australian birth​—like me, 17 years in this country but born German. We’re a melting pot and that’s good.” Postwar immigration is responsible for about 40 percent of the residents of this continent.

Why is Australia’s population so much a product of immigration? A brief look at some historical highlights will prove interesting.

Australia’s Early Migrants

The original inhabitants of Australia evidently came from Asia by way of the Indonesian Archipelago. Their descendants today are called “aborigines,” from the Latin phrase ab origine, meaning “from the beginning.” Aborigines have remained largely a nomadic people, building only temporary shelters and growing no crops.

But do not be fooled by the primitive way of life that many of these native Australians choose for themselves. This does not indicate lack of intelligence. As an administrator of an aboriginal settlement remarked, “They simply don’t think as we do.” Indicating the keen mentality of the aborigines, the Encyclopædia Britannica (1976 edition) notes that there are approximately 260 Australian aboriginal languages. “Every tribe speaks at least a distinct dialect, but bilingualism and multilingualism are common in many areas. . . . The Australian languages generally show considerable grammatical complexity.”

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries C.E., when few persons lived in Australia, explorers from Portugal, Spain, Holland and Britain discovered parts of the continent and charted its coast. However, they made no attempt at settling here. In 1770 Captain James Cook claimed the eastern parts of Australia for Britain.

Shortly thereafter immigration began, but in a highly unusual way. How so? During the early part of the eighteenth century Britain was in the habit of sending prisoners to her thirteen American colonies. Loss of these colonies in 1776 spurred Britain to seek a new land suitable for penal settlement. The first of such settlements was established in 1788 at Sydney, New South Wales, in southeastern Australia. Convicted criminals, transported from Britain to Australia, were its initial “migrants.” On completion of prison terms, many of these stayed on in Australia.

The Lure of Natural Resources

As for free persons, few settled in Australia in those early days. In fact, at that time free settlement was discouraged. But something happened to change all of that. What?

During the mid-1800’s gold was discovered in Australia. Overnight it became a lure for adventurous persons throughout the world. Germans, Hungarians, Scandinavians, Poles, Americans and Chinese flocked to the goldfields. This brought an abrupt halt to the transport of convicts.

Besides gold, Australia proved to contain stores of other valuable metals, including nickel, copper, aluminum, zinc and iron. An employee of an iron mine in western Australia recently declared: “This particular ore body is one of the richest in the world. It’s four miles long, 4,000 feet wide, and 500 deep. And when it’s used up, there are others.” Indeed, recent investigations have turned up vast new stores of valuable metals in Australia.

But in spite of its natural resources, by the close of World War II Australia’s population had grown to only 7,491,000, which amounts to about two and a half persons per square mile (or, one per square kilometer). There were serious shortages of housing, schools and hospitals. Coal production and steel production were down; so were transport services. Power blackouts spanning entire cities were common. There was a vital need for manpower. How could it be filled?

The Makings of a “Melting Pot”

In 1945 governmental steps were taken toward planned immigration. This was a favorable time for such an undertaking, since many persons in war-ravaged Europe were eager to exchange their lot for prospects of a new life in Australia.

The first post-World War II trickle of migrants soon became a flood. It is estimated that since that world conflict more than 3,000,000 migrants have flowed into Australia. Among these were persons from Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, West Germany, Yugoslavia, Poland, Austria and, more recently, South America. About 65 percent of the new arrivals got financial assistance from the Australian government. Many took up residence in government-provided hostels. As a result of this massive immigration program, Australia’s population has nearly doubled since 1945.

But was it wise to bring together such diverse people? At first, critics declared that the immigration program would end up in disaster. They recalled that great bitterness had developed previously between the white and the Chinese gold diggers. Too, the importing of cheap labor for sugarcane fields in the tropical north had led to smoldering resentment against migrants of all non-Anglo-Saxon nationalities. Would planned immigration cause old feuds to fester and explode into violence?

At first, the waves of migrants with their strange languages and cultures, as well as different habits of working, living and eating, did cause some resentment. Besides these peculiarities, the “new Australians” (as the migrants came to be called) at times worked more rapidly. This caused resentment among some “old” Australian workers, perhaps due to feeling insecure about keeping their jobs. “They call us foreigners, these Aussies,” remarked a Portuguese farmer who settled at Carnarvon on the westernmost tip of Australia. “The Aussies don’t like us because we work too hard growing vegetables​—tomatoes, green peppers, all kinds. We know how. We like to work. I sent out 1,100 cases of tomatoes this morning.”

Besides these problems, those of a psychological nature afflicted some of the migrants. For many the change in way of life was considerable. Homesickness was common. Also, children learned English more quickly than did their parents. The youngsters had to act as interpreters and undertake other family responsibilities for their non-English-speaking parents. Children found themselves torn between strict south European parental authority and the free ways of Australian society.

Benefiting from Many Cultures

On the whole, however, no really serious difficulties developed. Workmen of different nationalities found that they could learn from one another. In fact, industry would not have developed as it did without migrants. Now, not only English, but various other languages greet the ear in Australian homes, as well as on the streets.

It is common for shops to display signs indicating the number of languages spoken by their staff. The plant newspaper for a steelworks at Wollongong, New South Wales, has sections in four different languages. This meets the needs of some 20,000 employees, about half of whom are migrants of about forty different nationalities.

Older persons from various ethnic groups try to maintain their separate cultures, adding color and variety to the Australian scene. There are Italian sugarcane towns, Greek fishing villages and German vineyards. Even a Chinese joss house is to be found here in “the land down under.” It has such unique architecture as to merit the government protection granted to historical buildings.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are delighted to share Bible truth with their neighbors in this “melting pot.” In many areas they find it necessary to carry Bible literature in several languages when preaching. There are twenty large congregations that care for the needs of Greek-, Italian-, Spanish-, Slavic- and Arabic-speaking persons. Regular meetings are held also in Hungarian, Portuguese and Syrian. Hearing Bible truth in their native languages has caused thousands of migrants to make great changes as they have harmonized their lives with Scriptural principles.

The people of Australia constitute a multicultural society as complex as any on earth. Yet when an Australian extends his hand to a visitor with a hearty, “How are you, mate?”, the newcomer gets the impression of warm simplicity. Won’t you come and visit us soon?

A Look at Hindu Views of Life and Death

MY FATHER, a prominent businessman in Jamnagar, India, was critically ill. For years he had had a heart condition, but then complications developed.

It was in February of 1976 that my older brother, who lives in upstate New York, received the call: ‘Come home as soon as possible; no later than a week.’ He informed me immediately, and two days later we were boarding a plane at New York’s Kennedy Airport.

A number of things had happened since my last visit home eight years before. So as I settled back in the seat for the long flight, many thoughts went through my mind.

Background and Reflections

Father had sent me to college in the United States in the early 1960’s. Although I had grown up as a Hindu, after graduation my religious views began to change when I started studying the Bible. In time father and I corresponded quite a bit about this. Father was deeply religious; in fact, he had a personal guru. As a boy, I can remember him leaving home for several weeks each year to visit his guru in the Himalayas.

So as our jetliner droned through the night, my thoughts were preoccupied with father’s condition. I wondered: What did he think now about life beyond this present existence? How strong would his convictions be in his critically ill condition?

I thought of things father had written me. For instance, he wrote in a letter of August 1973: “The strength derived from the knowledge of Brahman or Supreme Reality is superior to any strength. . . . Real strength is that which does not quail even in the face of death, knowing full well that death is only a change affecting the physical sheath. The self does not die, because it was never born. . . .

“One with this knowledge accepts crucifixion with a smile and prays for his tormentors. When death comes, he will be hard as stone, for he has ‘touched the feet of God.’ . . . Therefore the physical death of a man of knowledge is described as mahat-samadhi, or the ‘great ecstasy.’ in Hindu parlance.”

Father believed, as Hindus do, in the immortality of an ‘inner self.’ or soul. This soul he felt, is simply encased within the physical body, or ‘outer self.’ At death the ‘real self’ is released to “transmigrate” or pass into another body. Father believed that if a person’s conduct has been good and proper, at death he will pass on to a superior existence, but if he has lived badly, the ‘real self’ may even enter a lower animal.

Now that father was facing death, I wondered how his beliefs would sustain and help him. My thoughts also turned to other members of the family, and life back home.

My younger brother and sister had both married since I had last seen them. They had chosen their own marriage mates, a departure from Indian custom. I knew that changes had occurred in social customs, but I was curious now and wanted to see things for myself.

For example, when I grew up in Jamnagar it was not socially acceptable for a man to see the face of his daughter-in-law, or for a woman to speak directly to her father-in-law. Thus my grandfather, who had lived with us, would not look at the face of my mother. And when grandfather would speak to her, mother would never answer directly, not even on the telephone, but would relay the message through someone else. They would never be in the same room alone together.

Also, it was not socially acceptable for unmarried boys and girls to hold hands or even to speak to one another. I never saw any of them do so on the streets of Jamnagar. Nor did I speak to an unmarried woman, outside of my immediate family, while living there. It wasn’t socially acceptable. But what about such customs now?

Reaching Jamnagar

Our plane landed in Bombay, India, the afternoon of February 27. Since somehow there was a failure to book me on the flight to Jamnagar, we had to take a plane to Rajkot, a city about fifty miles (80 kilometers) from home. Then we took a taxi the rest of the way.

As we rode along, many memories came back to me. In the later 1950’s my grandfather was minister of agriculture for Saurashtra State, which is now part of Gujarat State. During my vacations from high school, he often took me along on official visits to villages, some of which we were now passing. In the distance I could see the meeting hall in Dhhrol where grandfather used to speak to the farmers.

In the late 1950’s most of the people in the villages lived in one-room huts made of mud mixed with cow dung. The floor was of the same material. It is like hardened dirt. The women carried water from the village well in large jars balanced on their heads. From what I could see, conditions hadn’t changed much.

At the Hospital

When we arrived, father was in a local hospital. He recognized us and was happy we were there, but he was so weak that communication was virtually impossible. Hospitals in India are much different from those in the United States. The patient’s family provides the food and most nursing care. It was my pleasure to serve father in this way for the next nine days.

In the afternoon I would go to the hospital and spend the night with father. He was fed intravenously, but at times we also spoon-fed him nourishment. When he would indicate discomfort, we would turn him to a more comfortable position. I hoped that he would gain strength so that we might talk, but he never did.

While sitting near father, I would use my time reading the Bible and the publication Aid to Bible Understanding. My sister-in-law would see me, and was curious. When she married my younger brother about three years ago, she moved into my family’s very large home, and I could see that she had come to love my father very much.

There was much uncertainty as to what to do for father, and yet no matter what was done he was expected to die. One evening my sister-in-law and I were alone at the hospital, and she asked: “Do you feel confused and bewildered as others seem to?”

At first I thought she had reference to my father’s future, so I said: “Not really.” She wanted to know why not. I suggested that it was because of this book, the Bible, which helps one to understand our Creator’s purposes. She told me that when I had left my Bible at the hospital she had picked it up and read parts of Genesis, but hadn’t understood it. She asked: “Who is the Creator?”

We both knew that, according to Hindu religion, there are many gods, and some are creators and others are destroyers. So I opened the Bible to Psalm 83:18 and asked her to read it. Her pronunciation of English was quite good: “That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth.”

However, the name Jehovah was new to her; she did not know how to pronounce it. But she was able to see that the God of the Bible has a name. It impressed her that the Bible teaches that there is one supreme God named Jehovah who created all things, and that he is without either a beginning or an end of existence.​—Rev. 4:11; Ps. 90:1, 2.

My family already knew that I had become a Christian. I had written them about my full-time preaching activities as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. So during these days of great concern over my father, many discussions developed regarding death and the prospect of life after death.

The Soul and God’s Love

Like my father, the other relatives held to the Hindu belief that the soul is immortal​—that the ‘inner self,’ or ‘real self,’ goes on existing in another form after death. But my sister-in-law, who is a medical doctor, was somewhat of an exception in that she didn’t fully accept the Hindu view. So she was quite open to what the Bible says.

I explained to her that, according to the Bible, the human soul is YOU​—the entire person—​and that there is no separate, invisible soul that lives on after death. “The soul that is sinning​—it itself will die,” the Bible says. And the Bible also teaches: “As for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ezek. 18:4, 20; Eccl. 9:5) These were new thoughts to her, but they fitted better with what she had seen, so she seemed to accept them.

One day I had opportunity to ask my brother-in-law, who also is a medical doctor: “What is it that determines whether a soul’s transmigration will be to a better life or to a poorer one? There must be some outside agency,” I noted, “that is responsible for determining whether the soul will have either a superior or an inferior life existence.”

He answered that we could view “God” as having a giant computer, explaining: “He keeps records of one’s karma, or deeds. If his good deeds exceed his bad deeds, then his rebirth will be in a favorable condition. But if the bad deeds exceed the good deeds, then the rebirth will be under unfavorable conditions.”

Thus, as it was explained, what a person does throughout all his life determines whether he will have a favorable or an unfavorable rebirth. I asked: “How can we tell, then, if my father will have a favorable or an unfavorable rebirth?”

He said that we could not know, because we had not known my father throughout all his life. Then I turned attention to the Bible’s teaching, saying: “Jehovah God is not a God who keeps track of all our life course. We may have done many bad things, but if we repent and reform, then our past course is forgotten; it is forgiven. And it is what we do from that point on that is important to Jehovah God.”

This is how the Bible explains Jehovah’s dealings with his people: “As far off as the sunrise is from the sunset, so far off from us he has put our transgressions. As a father shows mercy to his sons, Jehovah has shown mercy to those fearing him.” (Ps. 103:12, 13) This loving way of dealing with humankind was very appealing to my brother-in-law, for he had never thought of God like that.

My sister-in-law especially was curious as to what the Bible teaches. She wanted to know what God’s purpose is for the earth and mankind. I showed her Jehovah’s promise to establish “a new earth,” which would be made up of people who do God’s will. (2 Pet. 3:13) As the Bible says: “The meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”​—Ps. 37:11.

Conditions on earth among people will then be entirely different, I noted, reading to her Revelation 21:3, 4: “God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” Such Bible promises amazed her. She really became interested and wanted to learn more.

Change in Customs

After a few days at home the change in social customs became strikingly apparent. My sister-in-law, for example, treated people much like women do in the Western world. She spoke to father and me face-to-face. Since I am an older brother-in-law, if it had been twenty years ago she would probably have turned her head or hidden her face in her sari when speaking to me. And she probably would never have been alone with me in a room.

Obviously young single men and women now talk to one another, since it has become not uncommon for them to select their own marriage mates. In fact, I learned that students go on picnics together, something unheard of when I was in school. On the other hand, I observed that my mother and other older women still held to the former customs.

Fathers Death

In the meantime, father’s condition was deteriorating rapidly, and so he was moved back home to die. During the early morning of Sunday March 7 the end seemed near. As our family gathered around father’s bed, he let out a deep breath​—failing to draw another.

My brother-in-law asked me to pass him a stethoscope. He put it on my father’s chest and, with a sad face, pulled the sheet over his head. It was 3:30 a.m. Father was dead​—at only fifty-eight years of age. Mother immediately burst into tears, and so did others of the women present.

In the procedure that followed, the deep influence of religious belief was striking. Before her tears had even dried, my sister-in-law went outside and returned with fresh cow manure, making a straight line with it across the floor about five-and-a-half feet (1.7 meters) in length. She then sprinkled on the floor some water brought from the Ganges River. Then a white sheet was placed over this area and father’s body laid upon it.

Everything from the cow is considered holy, including its manure. Also, the Ganges River is viewed as sacred. So this area of floor was supposed to be purified by the treatment with manure and water. Sweet-smelling incense was burned in front of the body. This is thought to create a pure atmosphere, inviting clean spirits to the vicinity.

Almost immediately the chanting of a Hindu prayer began, my brother-in-law taking the lead and others joining him at will. The phrase “Shri Rama Jay Rama Jay Jay Rama” was constantly repeated, with a distinct melody. Rama is the name of a Hindu god, and the chanting means “May Rama be victorious.” This chanting is supposed to calm the mourners, and to help them to concentrate on God. It seemed to serve, at least, as a substitute for crying.

As this was going on, a couple of messengers went out to inform friends and relatives concerning the death. A friend spread the news by telephone. The funeral procession was arranged for 7:30 a.m., just four hours after father died.

Preparation of the Body

My older brother spread ground sandalwood mixed with water on father’s forehead. Then he put a red powderlike material called kanku across his forehead and sprinkled Ganges water on his face. Next he went around father’s body five times, a procedure known as prudikchana. Finally, he shouted three times into father’s ear, “Hari ohm Tatsat,” which, since Hari is another Hindu god, means “Praise God.” This phrase suggests that the soul must leave the body and go on praising God. Others present followed the same procedure.

After this, everyone left the room except a few of us. The body was stripped of its clothing and washed, and kanku was spread all over it. As this was being done, certain ones kept uttering mantras (prayers) in Sanskrit. A prayer was also said in my native Gujarati language, to the effect: “O Lord! Please take the soul of this man and may his soul rest in peace.” Then the entire body, except for the face, was covered with a white cloth and some bright-red silk material. After that it was placed on a bamboo cot.

The cot was constructed right there in the room. Two men, who regularly do this work, finished it in a half hour. The cot was made of two bamboo poles about ten feet (3 meters) long, and there were about twelve bamboo crosspieces, all connected together by a rope. The body was placed on the cot and tied to it with a piece of string. Many flowers then were placed around my father’s neck.

The Funeral Procession

My two brothers, one of my cousins and I carried father’s flower-bedecked body outside the house. As we did so, there was a loud cry from among the women. This was the last time they would see his body, since women are not part of the funeral procession.

Men dressed in white or pale clothing were waiting outside the house with towels around their necks. As the body was carried along the streets, they followed in an orderly fashion. Since my father was a prominent businessman, there must have been some 500 men participating in the procession, including doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen, farmers and philosophers.

After a forty-five-minute walk, the procession came to the entrance of Smashan (the place for cremation), where it stopped. Up to this point my father’s body was carried head forward, suggesting that he was looking back at all he had done in this world. Now, as we entered the Smashan, he was carried with his feet first, suggesting that he must now look ahead to whatever was coming.

Cremation

Here in Smashan is an area about eight feet by ten feet (2.4 by 3 meters) where the actual cremating is done. As the body was brought here, four men started to prepare the fire. They first made a layer of dried cow manure, approximately four feet (1.2 meters) wide, six feet (1.8 meters) long and four inches (10 centimeters) high. (In addition to being considered holy, cow manure is highly flammable.) On this they placed layer upon layer of logs, and finally my father’s body was placed on top.

The body was then stripped of all clothing and flowers, and rubbed with ghee, a fatty, butterlike extract from milk. Ghee is considered holy, and also is highly flammable. Then logs were placed on top of and on the sides of the body. Finally the fire was started.

For the first hour, as we all watched, mantras in Sanskrit were constantly uttered. At the end of each, the men uttering the mantras called out “Swaha,” meaning “So be it.” Also to show agreement, at each “Swaha,” my younger brother poured into the fire more ghee, and my older brother poured some samagri, a sweet-smelling, flammable mixture. These mantras were for the supposed benefit of the soul. For example, one states: “May the soul that never dies continue in its efforts to approach God.”

In two hours the body was consumed. A portion of the ashes was collected in a clay jar to be deposited later by my brother in the Ganges River. All present then bathed at the facilities provided at the Smashan.

A Basis for True Comfort and Hope

In the Smashan there are many statues that depict various teachings of the Hindu religion. For example, I particularly noted the one entitled “Circles of Life.” On a huge circular monument there are seven scenes. The first shows the birth of a child. The second, a child going to school. The third, a couple getting married. The fourth, a scene of family life. The fifth, sickness and old age. The sixth, the death of the person. And the seventh, the carrying of the person to the place for cremation of the body.

This circle of life is depicted in Hindu religion as being normal, as the way things are meant to be. Sickness and death, according to this cycle, will always be. But does such teaching provide real comfort and hope for mourning ones?

After bathing, we returned home. That evening as everyone was busy doing other things, I noticed my sister-in-law by herself crying softly. So I asked: “What is the problem?” She replied that she was going to miss my father, and already missed him.

So once again we spoke about Jehovah God, and I asked her: “Have the things you’ve learned about Jehovah made you happy?” She said, “Yes, if all these things come true, there are certainly reasons to rejoice.”

We hadn’t talked about the resurrection up to this point, so I asked: “How would you feel if you were able to see my father again with the same personality as when you knew him? Would you like that?” The answer was, of course, “Yes!”

At that I opened my Bible and we read Acts 24:15, which says: “I have hope toward God, which hope these men themselves also entertain, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” This word “resurrection” was new to her; it was a new thought. I explained that resurrection is not a rebirth or reincarnation, but is an actual coming back to life of one who has been completely unconscious in death. Most persons who have lived, I told her, will be restored to life on earth when better conditions exist.

She was able to grasp this Bible teaching, for she was really interested in learning what the Bible taught. And she was able to compare it with the Hindu idea of reincarnation. According to Hindu teaching, a person comes back to life on earth also, but as a different personality, since the soul supposedly enters a womb to be reborn as someone else. As a result, she would never be able to recognize my father in his rebirth. So the Bible teaching of the resurrection appealed to her because she missed my father and longed to see him again as she had known him.

Furthermore, I pointed out that, according to reincarnation, one returns in this system, under these conditions where people grow sick and die. But the resurrection will take place after Jehovah God, by means of his Kingdom government, will bring an end to this corrupt system. (Matt. 6:9, 10; Dan. 2:44) Then, in God’s new system of things, the conditions that we earlier had read about in Revelation 21:3, 4 will be enjoyed. Sickness, mourning and even death will be things of the past!

Need of Help

By now the tears of my sister-in-law had dried, and she felt much better. But in a few days I would be leaving, and her concern was, ‘Who is going to teach me? How am I going to learn these things from the Bible?’

I gave her a Bible and a number of Bible study aids. Particularly did I draw her attention to the booklet There Is Much More to Life! And I showed her how to use it in studying the Bible. In recent correspondence we have used the booklet as a basis for discussion of Bible topics.

There are no Jehovah’s Witnesses in Jamnagar or in that part of India. But on this visit I was happy to find that especially young people are searching and, if given the needed help, may well respond to the truths in God’s Word. If it is God’s will, my hope is that I may eventually be instrumental in helping some of them there to learn the truth about the living God Jehovah, which truth leads to eternal life. (John 17:3)​—Contributed.

[Blurb on page 19]

“I asked: ‘How can we tell, then, if my father will have a favorable or an unfavorable rebirth?”’

[Blurb on page 21]

“In two hours the body was consumed.”

[Blurb on page 23]

“The Bible teaching of the resurrection appealed to her.”

[Picture on page 17]

My sister and my sister-in-law

[Picture on page 20]

“Everything from the cow is considered holy, including its manure”

[Picture on page 22]

The monument entitled “Circles of Life”

Saving My ‘Doomed’ House

‘WHY buy a house that everyone knows is doomed’? That seems to have been the view of my neighbors. And I suppose they did find it strange, as the house is perched on a bluff right at the edge of Lake Michigan.

You see, the water in Lake Michigan, as with her “sister” Great Lakes, has been rising for several years. This has resulted in a number of homes being “undermined” by water erosion and their sliding down the bank to their destruction. My new home was considered a prime candidate for just such a plunge.

What do most of the homeowners here do to try to stop the erosion? They begin a ‘war with the waves,’ which is often a very frustrating and expensive battle. The usual defense is a seawall either right at the water’s edge or a few feet out into the water. Some of my neighbors have spent thousands of dollars on these, only to have them demolished by the waves.

Types of Seawall

I had studied the various types of seawall. They are usually made of wood, sheets of steel or steel-reinforced concrete. I soon discovered that each had its disadvantages. A wooden wall is cheaper and easier to install, but eventually will need replacing, as it cannot withstand the violent storms common on the Great Lakes.

To install steel sheeting you need a crane to lift the sheets into position while they are being driven into the sand. Sometimes if the equipment cannot be taken down the bank to the location, it must be brought in on a barge. You can imagine the cost of all of this!

The third type, a solid wall of reinforced concrete, seems the least desirable. The waves pound these to pieces more rapidly than the wood or steel barriers, apparently because the concrete has no “give.” I quickly came to appreciate the tremendous force that a “mere” wave can exert!

A Different Design

Why do waves deposit sand on one shore, actually building beach, and yet claw it away from another? Obviously there are many factors. But by studying the waves I started thinking about the design I eventually used.

As waves splash up on a gentle beach, you can see part of the water sinking into the sand, reducing the amount of water returning over the surface of the beach. Thus, too, each wave deposits some sand, building up the beach. Could some barrier be made to imitate God’s creation, a natural beach? I reasoned that a wall that waves could wash up into and that would slow down the returning water should help actually to build beach.

Further, standing at the edge of Lake Michigan, one can feel the ground “vibrate,” because the waves come in with great force. We cannot abruptly stop such a force, I thought. So I eventually concluded that the design flaw of most seawalls was their angle to the incoming wave. They are generally vertical. The wave is thus required to come to a “dead halt.” It is the old story of the irresistible force soon weakening the not-so-immovable object!

You might think that the solution would be to make a wall so strong that there would be no weak spots. But there is another problem fundamental to a vertical wall.

Sand naturally builds up behind the wall as the waves wash over, carrying sand with them. And as the waves smash against the face of the wall there is a vibration of soil behind the wall causing the soil to settle. This soil will pack tighter and tighter, forcing the wall to lean forward toward the lake.

Once a seawall leans forward you have real trouble. The new angle causes a greater down turbulence of the striking water, which rapidly eats the sand away on the lake side of the wall. Thus, you have more and more pressure behind the wall and less and less support in front. Soon the wall tumbles into the ditch the waves have made in front of it.

With all these drawbacks to a vertical wall, and my observations regarding a natural beach, I concluded that whatever I installed should lean “backward”​—toward the bank. The waves would be stopped gradually. Ice and debris could ride up the structure instead of battering against it.

But how could an economical barrier be made that would lean toward the bank and also allow the waves to wash up into it?

Constructing My “Home Saver”

I eventually decided upon a seawall made up of unlinked concrete panels or slabs. If each panel is free standing, one panel can move or give a little without straining others. Of course, the size of such panels would depend on the need, but I made forms to cast a panel about ten inches (25 centimeters) thick, eighteen inches (45 centimeters) wide and eight feet (2.5 meters) long. I reinforced each panel with three steel rods running its length.

Then I used a centrifugal pump that is designed for a high volume of water (about one hundred gallons [380 liters] per minute) to wash a large enough hole in the sand to accommodate a panel. They were set deep with only about eighteen inches (45 centimeters) of the concrete above the sand level. Each panel was tilted shoreward about thirty-five degrees from vertical.

Now something was immediately needed on the shore side of these panels. It had to be heavy enough to withstand continually washing water and yet let water seep through. I found granite stone to be the best because of its great weight for its size. So I removed the sand to a depth of about three and a half feet (about one meter) below the top of the concrete panels and dropped in small stones.

As you can see from the diagram, the technique is to graduate from small stones at the base to larger rocks at the top of the panels. The heavy stones on top are not moved by stormy waters, and the smaller stones beneath prevent spray and heavy rains from washing the soil out through the stone. It is also wise to put a layer of gravel over the sand on up the existing bank.

A Severe Test

Not long after I had completed construction, a violent storm whipped across the Great Lakes. In fact, this storm sank one of the larger ships on the Lakes, the 729-foot (222-meter) Edmund Fitzgerald. All through the tempest I wondered whether my barricade would hold. Afterward, I was delighted to find no serious damage to the entire length of the wall.

Today I have about 150 feet (45 meters) of seawall and, so far, it is working well. I have learned that this approach does build beach as hoped. It is apparently especially effective if the waves come at the shore ‘straight on.’

Whether there will be long-range problems, it is too early, after only two years, to say. But our “dike” has demonstrated its durability and so my family now resides in safety. We no longer live in a doomed house! Contributed.

[Diagram on page 25]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

REINFORCED PRECAST CONCRETE PANELS

Lake Bottom

18ʺ

Gravel

Granite stone graduating down to 1/4ʺ stones

“The Old Is Nice”

● Jesus Christ on one occasion was asked why his disciples did not fast as did the disciples of John the Baptizer and those of the Pharisees. Part of his answer was: “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; but if he does, then the new wine will burst the wineskins, and it will be spilled out and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins. No one that has drunk old wine wants new; for he says, ‘The old is nice.’”​—Luke 5:37-39.

In thus replying, Jesus Christ was evidently pointing out that his teaching was too powerful and energetic to be confined to the old system of Judaism, which, like old wineskins, lacked vitality and elasticity. As for those who had a taste for the traditional wine or teaching of Judaism, they found Jesus Christ’s teaching objectionable. They turned it down as if it were new wine, preferring the old traditional ways. To them, ‘The old was nice.’

What Is the Bible’s View?

What Do Christians Owe the Government?

ANSWERING a catch question about the payment of tax, Jesus Christ stated the principle: ‘Pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.’ (Matt. 22:21) The Christian, therefore, has a certain obligation toward the ruling authority. However, Jesus Christ’s bringing “God’s things” into the picture indicates that discernment is required to determine just what Christians owe the government and why.

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul wrote the following about a Christian’s obligations toward the ruling authorities: “Render to all their dues, to him who calls for the tax, the tax; to him who calls for the tribute, the tribute; to him who calls for fear, such fear; to him who calls for honor, such honor.”​—Rom. 13:7.

Since the ruling authorities render vital services to ensure the safety, security and welfare of their subjects, they are entitled to compensation. Christians are to regard payment of taxes and tribute as the payment of a debt. Just how the ruling authorities will thereafter use the monies received is not the responsibility of the Christian. Misuse of tax or tribute receipts on the part of rulers does not entitle the Christian to refuse paying his debt. Under the present arrangement of things, the Christian cannot get along without governmental services and, hence, should, in good conscience, pay what is required. When it comes to paying off a debt to an individual, that person’s misuse of monies would not cancel one’s debt. Similarly, regardless of what the ruling authority may do, the Christian is not relieved of his responsibility to pay taxes and tribute.

There is also good reason to show a wholesome fear for the governmental authority. The apostle Paul stated: “Those ruling are an object of fear, not to the good deed, but to the bad. Do you, then, want to have no fear of the authority? . . . it is not without purpose that it bears the sword; for it is God’s minister, an avenger to express wrath upon the one practicing what is bad.” (Rom. 13:3, 4) So a Christian should conduct himself in a way that would not get him into trouble with the law. He needs to be careful not to ignore the authority over life and death that rests with the governmental authority.

The giving of honor or respect to rulers and lesser officials is also right and proper. Yet someone may ask, How can a person honor or respect someone who may be morally corrupt? The point at issue is not the moral standing of the ruler or official, what he is as a person. It is, rather, the position that he occupies. The honor or respect shown should be commensurate with the office held by the individual.

The manner in which the apostle Paul dealt with Roman officials well illustrates that what rulers are as persons has no bearing on the type of honor shown. Roman procurator Felix was described by the ancient historian Tacitus as one who “thought that he could do any evil act with impunity,” and who, “indulging in every kind of barbarity and lust, exercised the power of a king in the spirit of a slave.” Nevertheless, out of regard for the position Felix occupied, Paul respectfully opened his defense with the words: “Knowing well that this nation has had you as judge for many years, I readily speak in my defense the things about myself.” (Acts 24:10) Similarly, the apostle Paul treated incestuous King Herod Agrippa II with respect, saying: “I count myself happy that it is before you I am to make my defense this day, especially as you are expert on all the customs as well as the controversies among Jews.” (Acts 26:2, 3) Furthermore, Paul addressed idol-worshiping Governor Festus as “Your Excellency.”​—Acts 26:25.

There may, however, be times when governments make demands upon a Christian that, if met, would mean failing to give “God’s things to God.” (Mark 12:17) What then?

The Hebrew prophet Daniel faced such a situation during the rule of Darius the Mede. Darius signed a law that decreed the death penalty for anyone who would make “a petition to any god or man for thirty days” other than to the king himself. (Dan. 6:7) For Daniel to comply with this statute would have meant ceasing to pray for thirty days. What did Daniel do? He disregarded the law that stood in opposition to proper worship of God and thereafter experienced a miraculous deliverance.

Likewise the apostles did not bend to the demands of the Jewish supreme court, the Sanhedrin, to stop all declaring of the “good news” concerning Christ. The apostles replied: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.”​—Acts 5:29.

Still this does not mean that Christians have a right to involve themselves in revolutionary activity or to defy laws that, though restrictive, do not prevent them from carrying out the requirements of pure worship. The words of Ecclesiastes 8:6, 7 provide helpful guidance in this regard. We read: “There exists a time and judgment even for every affair, because the calamity of mankind is abundant upon them. For there is no one knowing what will come to be, because who can tell him just how it will come to be?”

The discerning person appreciates that for “every affair” there is a proper time and judgment or manner of dealing. This prevents him from acting defiantly. Life already is filled with enough “calamity” without adding to the problems through rash action. Furthermore, no one can be certain as to what the future will bring. Even the rule of a tyrant cannot continue indefinitely. Keeping in mind that the future is uncertain and that tremendous changes can take place quickly helps one to be patient in putting up with an unpleasant situation.

The person who realizes the importance of acting at an opportune time and with good judgment will heed the sound advice of the Bible proverb: “With those who are for a change, do not intermeddle. For their disaster will arise so suddenly, that who is aware of the extinction of those who are for a change?” (Prov. 24:21, 22) Yes, why bring disaster to oneself in behalf of a cause that can provide no guarantee of a secure future, as can God’s kingdom by Christ?

In harmony with the Scriptures and the example of first-century Christians, God’s servants today are under obligation to pay all taxes imposed upon them as well as to grant rulers and officials the fear and honor that their position deserves. This includes addressing them by their titles of honor and in no way obstructing the performance of their duties. However, should the demands of the ruling authorities infringe upon true worship, the Christian will obey “God as ruler rather than men.”​—Acts 5:29.

Watching the World

Russia’s “Liberated” Women

◆ According to an Associated Press dispatch from Moscow, the weekly journal Literary Gazette says that irate men by the dozens are complaining that Soviet liberated women are losing femininity. One man from Leningrad said: “Every man would like to see in his house an atmosphere of softness, warmth, and, if you will, of purity.” Instead, he stated that women today are trying to act like men, “smoking, drinking, cursing and engaging in free love.” Another man, from the town of Volzhskiy, wrote: “Every man dreams of a woman who’s soft, loving, expressive, affectionate, modest and shy, of a feminine woman. But they’re getting harder and harder to find. Men are getting fed up with crude women who have the manners of cowboys. Their bossy shouts around the house, their shabby way of dressing and their swaggering way of drinking bottoms-up like a man turns the home into a crude barracks.”

“Antiquity-Thieves”

◆ A news report from Athens reveals that police have been searching for what is described as “a large band of burglars and antiquity-thieves.” The criminals have been breaking into churches and monasteries in the Greek provinces. They have stolen icons by the score, and many of these items of notable antique value have been sold abroad. In the home of one man arrested, the police discovered 39 pilfered Byzantine icons.

Swiss Workweek

◆ In early December, Switzerland’s voters rejected the idea of shortening their normal workweek from 48 to 40 hours. Participating in the voting were about 44 percent of the country’s eligible voters, and they were 4 to 1 against the cut in hours. The Socialist and Communist proposal was rejected by 1.3 million persons, whereas approximately 370,000 were in favor of it.

Teen-Age “Status Symbol”?

◆ Betty Schwartz, a social welfare executive from the U.S., recently told an Ontario, Canada, conference on family planning that for many girls a baby born out of wedlock becomes “living proof that you have made it sexually; therefore you have made it as a human being.” According to the New York Post, she said that having such babies was becoming a “status symbol” for girls in their teens. Miss Schwartz reportedly said that communities need to “unsell babies as a status symbol for young adolescents.” Of course, no such “status symbol” exists among true Christian youths, for they realize that godly persons must “keep abstaining . . . from fornication.”​—Acts 15:28, 29.

“Desecration of the Sabbath”

◆ By a narrow margin of 55 to 48 votes, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s coalition government survived a no-confidence motion on December 14. His government had been accused of “desecration of the sabbath” because of a welcoming ceremony on Friday, December 10, for three American-made fighter planes. The ceremony ended just 17 minutes before the beginning of the Jewish sabbath and many could not drive their cars home before it began. Driving on the sabbath is not permissible for religious Jews.

Coffee and Caffeine

◆ Three tests recently conducted by Lynn T. Kozlowski of Connecticut’s Wesleyan University indicated that the subjects drank more coffee when it contained less caffeine. Test participants were to rate the coffee as to taste and how it made the drinkers feel. During a three-day study, 12 regular coffee drinkers consumed coffee containing varying amounts of caffeine. Though noting no caffeine-associated difference in taste, they drank more coffee when the amount of caffeine was small. In the other two tests with 12 and 25 participants (for 3 and 4 weeks respectively) drinking from an institutional pot, again it was found that the lower the caffeine content, the more coffee they drank. Increased consumption apparently was linked with achieving a feeling of well-being that is produced by caffeine.

Alcohol and Oral Contraceptives

◆ University of Oklahoma researchers have found that alcohol remains longer in the blood of women using oral contraceptives than it does in that of other women. According to Parade magazine, psychologist Ben Morgan Jones says that tests indicate that alcohol is not absorbed as quickly by a woman’s body “when it contains substances found in oral contraceptives.”

Suicide Statistics

◆ Partial statistics furnished by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveal that West Berlin and Hungary have the highest rates of suicide in the world. To illustrate: During 1970, 67.5 men in 100,000 and 33.8 women per 100,000 committed suicide in West Berlin. WHO says that comparisons on an international scale are of “questionable value” due to varying methods of reporting by different nations. However, it reports that in Europe suicide rates consistently are high in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, East Germany, Finland, Hungary and Sweden.

Radioactive Dentures

◆ It is reported that some 100 million residents of the United States wear dentures of some sort. Half of these dentures are made of porcelain, the other half of plastic. The plastic type are “nonradiating,” writes Patrick Ryan in Smithsonian magazine, “but the porcelains have to be laced with minute traces of uranium to simulate the fluorescence of natural teeth.” If this was not done, the porcelain dentures would appear black, brown or green under various artificial lights. But Ryan comments: “The degree of beta radiation emitted from the porcelain, I hasten to add, is quite harmless to the wearer and may, in any case, soon be further reduced under new FDA [Food and Drug Administration] recommendations.”

Japanese Honeymooners

◆ During the three-month period ending in mid-December 1976, about 270,000 Japanese marriages were expected to take place. Almost one fifth of the couples were planning to spend their honeymoons abroad. Some 55 percent were headed for Hawaii. For the previous year, only 10 percent of the autumn honeymoons were taken abroad. Greater affluence and the business recovery in Japan are said to be behind the upsurge in autumn honeymoons outside the country.

Self-Service Stations

◆ One out of five gasoline stations in West Germany is a self-service establishment. Reportedly, however, they sell over half the gasoline. And the popularity of these stations is growing there, just as it is in the United States.

“Unauthorized Borrowing”

◆ Theft, or what might be called “unauthorized borrowing,” of books from libraries in the United States is costing the nation’s taxpayers over a quarter of a billion dollars yearly, according to a published estimate. For instance, each year materials worth $13.5 million are stolen from New York City public libraries, and these losses include 880,000 books. Annual loss is over $1 million in Los Angeles, California. As another example, a “conservative estimate” is that 600 books are lost yearly at the East campus library of the Lake Forest, Illinois, high school, the losses reportedly being “about the same” on the West campus. Guards have been hired by some libraries, whereas others have installed detection systems that trigger alarms when a publication containing sensitized material has not been “desensitized” during check-out but is taken through an exit that is electronically scanned.

Australians and Religion

◆ About three out of four Australians believe in God as the Creator and Ruler of the universe. A Gallup poll involving 2,004 persons 16 years of age and over revealed that 76 percent held such views. Seventy-two percent believed that Jesus Christ is mankind’s Savior. However, few attend church often. Aside from weddings and similar special events, half the populace had not been to church in over a year.

End of the Orient Express?

◆ In May 1977, the famed Orient Express will end its Paris-to-Istanbul run. It began operating in 1883 and rose to prominence not long after the turn of the century. A conference of twenty-six European rail companies decided to leave the Orient Express off the international 1977-78 railway schedule. However, new express trains will be introduced. One will be the Moscow-to-Belgrade Pushkin Express. The other will run from northern Europe to Mediterranean port cities. But regarding the Orient Express itself, Parade magazine says: “It’s started up again​—only not from Paris. The train will be made up in Zurich by Swiss state railways and will run from Zurich to Istanbul in five days.” The cost of the one-way train trip and a return by jet plane was given as about $700.

Working Soviet Women

◆ In Russia the workload increasingly is being shared by women. They now constitute approximately 52 percent of the workers on collective farms. In factories they make up 48 percent of the work force. According to other statistics cited by the Associated Press, “women continue to run Soviet homes and raise children, adding another four to five hours to each workday.”

Threat to the Elephant

◆ The Hong Kong Department of Statistics has reported that during 1975 over 500,000 kilograms (1,100,000 pounds) of ivory from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaïre passed through Hong Kong. This points to the slaughter of no fewer than 20,000 elephants. Within the first six months of 1976, over 350,000 kilograms (770,000 pounds) of ivory came into the hands of dealers in Hong Kong. That indicates a 30-percent increase and means that 14,000 elephants were killed in just a half year. Conservationists are fearful that so much ivory is being taken that extinction of the elephant is possible in Central and East Africa.

Not Endangered

◆ Though the list of endangered species is quite long, three wild animals definitely are not on it. And they seem to prefer life in close proximity to man. The three are the armadillo, the coyote and the raccoon. “There are, supposedly, more coyotes running loose in the streets of Los Angeles than there are dogs,” says Sports Illustrated. Also, there are said to be “more raccoons per acre” in Memphis, Tennessee, “than there are in any forestland in the South. Also, armadillos reportedly “are found in relative abundance on the outskirts of towns and cities in many parts of the Sunbelt” of the United States.

Jordan Drying Up?

◆ Menahem Kantor of the National Water Commission in Israel has estimated that the Jordan River now “is only a third or a quarter the size it was 10 years ago.” On an increasing scale, there has been damming of its tributaries and use of the water for agricultural purposes. “About 10 or 15 small tributaries have been dammed up so far,” Kantor said. Half of the Jordan’s water comes from the Yarmuk River, on which the Jordanians now plan to build a new dam. “I don’t think the Jordan will ever completely dry up,” remarked Kantor. “But in another 10 years, during the dry seasons it could be reduced to a mere trickle.” Pollution also threatens the Jordan because increasing amounts of sewage are being produced by the town of Tiberias and nitrate fertilizers are getting into the river’s principal reservoir, Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee).

Alcoholic Brain Damage

◆ Two studies undertaken at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, revealed that brain tissue destruction is prevalent among persons who are chronic alcoholics. The two groups of patients studied ranged in age from 31 to 69 and 34 to 74. The Medical Center reported that both groups manifested “brain atrophy, a possible irreversible loss of brain tissue often associated with old age.”

A Turning Point

The events that have occurred since 1914 were foretold thousands of years ago. What is their significance?

You can find out by reading the hardbound book True Peace and Security​—From What Source? Receive it, postpaid, along with the new 192-page book Holy Spirit​—The Force Behind the Coming New Order! by sending only 50 cents (U.S.).

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How Dangerous Is Marijuana?

Millions today are marijuana smokers. Are they doing themselves serious harm? Read the chapter “Drugs Key to Real Living?” in the new book Your Youth​—Getting the Best out of It. Other chapters include, “Does Sexual Morality Make Sense?” and “Dating and Courtship.”

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