September 22

Page Two

Galileo was awed when he looked at the Milky Way through his telescope. Leeuwenhoek was appalled when his microscope revealed a heretofore unseen world teeming with life. Yet their discoveries were as nothing compared with those now revealed by the telescopes and microscopes of modern science. How have these revelations affected your faith in the Bible? Has it been undermined? Or strengthened?

Telescopes and Microscopes​—How Have Their Revelations Affected You? 3

Telescopes and Microscopes​—Advances From Yesterday to Our Day 4

Telescopes and Microscopes​—Have Their Revelations Undermined or Strengthened Your Faith? 8

Telescopes and Microscopes​—How Have Their Revelations Affected You?

TELESCOPES and microscopes. They have revealed hidden wonders: galaxies spanning breathtaking distances, microorganisms so tiny that a quarter of a million of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. And in doing so, these tools have profoundly changed man’s outlook. In ancient times man looked upon the heavens with a sense of religious awe. The stars and planets were perceived as gods exerting a potent influence on men’s lives. Man, however, was confident that he and his planet Earth were the very center of the universe.

This concept of an earth-centered universe provided, according to professor of astronomy Edward R. Harrison, “a secure foundation for [pagan] religion,” and it seemingly “gave meaning and purpose to human life on Earth.” The telescope and its dramatic revelations shattered this comfortable universe. The microscope has taken the mystery out of such things as conception and birth (once thought to be incomprehensible miracles​—but still miracles) and disease (once thought a plague of the gods).

Many thus feel that the questions once answered by religion are now best answered by white-jacketed researchers. But has man really become so adept at observing, measuring and analyzing that he no longer needs a God to give meaning to what he sees? Have the telescope and the microscope eliminated a basis for belief in the foremost book about God, the Bible?

[Box/​Pictures on page 3]

Galileo must have been awed. On that evening in 1609 he had pointed his crude telescope toward that great arc of light that ancient men called a “circle of milk.” With the assistance of his telescope (left) Galileo could see what no human eye had seen before: The Milky Way was “a mass of innumerable stars.”

A little over 70 years later a Dutch businessman named Antoni van Leeuwenhoek also peered through a homemade contraption of glass and metal (below). He, though, had no formal scientific training; grinding and polishing lenses was more or less a hobby. From these lenses, however, he constructed crude versions of an instrument that would grant mankind entry into a universe of another sort: the micro world, where a drop of water or just a tiny spoonful of soil would teem with life.

Telescopes and Microscopes​—Advances From Yesterday to Our Day

OBSERVATORY telescopes today are virtual behemoths compared to Galileo’s 1 3/4-inch-diameter (4.4 cm) models. His primitive devices were refracting telescopes. A large convex lens on one end formed the image and a small concave lens at the other end, later modified to be also convex, magnified the image. Remarkably, his instrument could magnify objects up to 33 times, allowing him to view such distant wonders as Jupiter’s four moons and Venus’ moon-shaped phases.

Today’s reflecting telescopes use immense, bowl-shaped mirrors (up to 236 inches [600 cm] across!) to collect light from faraway heavenly bodies. They are thus able to detect objects ten million times fainter than those that can be seen with the naked eye. Why, it is claimed that one telescope in Australia could detect a candle flame a thousand miles (1,600 km) away!

Interestingly, though, astronomers today still run into the same problem Galileo faced. He noticed that when magnified the stars increased in number but not in size. Galileo reckoned that the stars must be incredibly distant to remain mere points of light under magnification. Though today’s astronomers seemingly know just how far away these celestial objects are, they still, even with their precision lenses and polished mirrors, see stars as pinpricks of light. As The Observer’s Book of Astronomy declares: “The stars are so remote that no telescope yet built will show them as anything except points of light.”

This, though, does not stop scientists from trying to get a closer look at the stars. For example, in 1986, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (U.S.A.) plans to launch a large space telescope that will orbit above the earth’s atmosphere. Scientists believe it will detect objects 50 times fainter than earthbound telescopes can detect.

Fortunately, there are other ways to see the universe. Some time ago it was discovered that certain heavenly bodies emit radio waves. By the time these signals reach earth they can be fainter than one trillionth of a watt. Hence, large radio telescopes have been developed to pull in and amplify these signals. In this way astronomers have been able to see quasars, pulsars and other intriguing phenomena.

Astronomers, therefore, no longer spend hours squinting through a telescope’s eyepiece, as did Galileo. The Encyclopædia Britannica explains: “Almost all astronomical research is done photographically or photoelectrically, rather than visually . . . Objects can be photographed that are many times fainter than can be seen by looking through the eyepiece. One photographic plate may contain a vast amount of information . . . 1,000,000 star images and 100,000 galaxian images on it.”

Scientists can do remarkable things with such photographs. The magazine Sky and Telescope once explained that a technique called speckle interferometry can reveal the disks of some red supergiants, though the rest of the stars​—even the closest ones—​remain mere points of light.

The closest star to our sun, as seen by the naked eye, turns out to be three when viewed through a telescope. One is Proxima Centauri. The other two are a pair of stars that revolve around each other every 80 years and are known as Alpha Centauri. Except for the sun, these three are the nearest of all the stars, and yet they are 4.3 light-years (over 25 trillion miles; 40 trillion kilometers) from earth! Observes the book Astronomy: “If the size of the sun is represented by one of the periods on this page, the sun’s nearest neighbor among the stars, the double star Alpha Centauri, would be shown on this scale by two dots 16 kilometers [9.6 mi] away.”

Crossing the south celestial pole are what appear to be two patches of cloud. In the 15th century, Portuguese navigators called them Clouds of the Cape. Later they were named after the famous explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Telescopes reveal that both are vast external galaxies. The Large Magellanic Cloud alone contains an estimated five thousand million stars.

Man thus comes full circle. Though his telescope has put to rest superstitious notions about the universe, he nevertheless finds himself gazing upward with a renewed sense of awe!

Seeing the Hidden World

The world of the microscopically small is no less fascinating. Driven by insatiable curiosity, Leeuwenhoek used to study just about anything he could fit under his lens. Once he took some saliva from his mouth and examined it under his microscope. To his surprise he saw “many very little living animalcules [little animals], very prettily a-moving.” He then sent a description and drawing of these mouth bacteria to the Royal Society of London in 1683. “What if one should tell,” later exclaimed Leeuwenhoek, “that there are more animals living in the scum on the teeth in a man’s mouth, than there are men in a whole kingdom?” Modern estimates of the number of microorganisms living in the human mouth run into the billions.

Indeed, scientists peering into that hidden world have discovered things that would have astounded even Leeuwenhoek. They can now, for instance, see that a simple drop of blood may contain some 35 million red cells. Each cell, in turn, may contain more than 280 million hemoglobin molecules. “Imagine the task of mapping the 10,000 atoms of just one hemoglobin molecule,” exclaimed Dr. Coppedge in his book Evolution: Possible or Impossible?

Microorganisms​—Good or Bad?

Many of us naturally recoil at the very thought of germs. And it is true that some microorganisms cause sickness and death. However, this appears to be the exception rather than the rule.

For example, do you enjoy a glass of milk? Well, it takes trillions of microorganisms in a cow’s stomach to enable it to digest fodder and produce milk. Benign germs also dwell in a human’s intestines. Says the textbook Elements of Microbiology: “Many intestinal bacteria can synthesize the major B vitamins and vitamins E and K. Vitamins so produced make a significant contribution to the vitamin requirements of the host.”

Tiny microorganisms even act as an efficient sanitation department. “If microbes did not deal with dead and waste matter,” wrote science writer Ludovici, “it would pile up to such an extent that we should die for lack of space. It really is no exaggeration to say our existence depends on microbes, on an invisible world that comes into view with the help of the microscope.”

With improved equipment, biologists can even get a closer look at the microorganisms themselves. These, too, are amazingly complex. Some microorganisms possess a whiplike tail called a flagellum. It is fascinating to look through a microscope and watch them darting about in a mere drop of water! One kind of bacterium (called Spirillum serpens) even has tails that spin like electric propellers. (It has been clocked at 2,400 rpm!) And if this minisubmarine needs to change directions, it simply switches on at the opposite end!

Microscopes​—The State of the Art

Leeuwenhoek’s homemade devices could, amazingly enough, magnify objects 250 times or more. Optical microscopes today, however, can magnify objects about a thousand times. “The common housefly magnified to the same extent would appear to be more than 30 ft [9 m] long,” explains the book Elements of Microbiology.

In 1931 the electron microscope was invented. By aiming a stream of electrons at an object, a visual image can be produced in which objects are magnified about a million times. There is one serious drawback: It cannot be used to study living specimens. A new device, however, which combines the optical microscope with television cameras and computer memory, now makes it possible for scientists actually to observe the biological activity of living cells! Reported The New York Times: “Ducts, or microfilaments, only a millionth of an inch in diameter, can be seen transporting such particles as food and waste in opposite directions at the same time.”

Telescopes and microscopes are thus potent tools. They have given man a startling insight into the world​—and universe—​in which he lives. But does this new insight enhance​—or in some way do away with—​the need for faith?

[Blurb on page 4]

An estimated 200 globular clusters are in our Milky Way galaxy, each with thousands to hundreds of thousands of stars

[Picture on page 5]

Telescopes have revealed a universe filled with billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars

[Pictures on page 6]

A small drop of blood contains millions of red cells, each cell contains millions of hemoglobin molecules, each molecule contains 10,000 atoms

A small spoonful of soil may teem with billions of microorganisms

[Picture on page 7]

The flagella of this microscopic bacterium rotate like propellers. Some turn at speeds up to 2,400 rpm

Telescopes and Microscopes​—Have Their Revelations Undermined or Strengthened Your Faith?

PENZIAS and Wilson blamed the pigeons. When their sensitive radio equipment kept picking up a strange hiss, the two scientists checked and discovered a couple of pigeons roosting in their giant antenna. But when the irritating hiss persisted even after evicting the feathered trespassers, it dawned on them that what they heard came from the depths of outer space.

Scientists believe that what Penzias and Wilson thought was mere static was actually the echo of a “big bang”​—a cosmic explosion that gave birth to our universe eons ago. Their discovery, along with a mounting body of corroborative evidence, has led some scientists to consider a startling possibility: The Bible is correct in saying, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”​—Genesis 1:1.

For example, in the June 23, 1983, issue of New Scientist magazine the following headline appeared: “The emergent science of cosmology does not and cannot deny the existence of God.” The writer, a professor of physics, said:

“In the last few years more and more scientists have been struck by what they regard as a string of improbable ‘accidents’ or ‘coincidences’ that are built into the laws of physics to enable the universe to produce the familiar systems we see​—galaxies, stars, atoms and, most significant of all, us . . . The most minute change in the relative strengths of gravitational and electromagnetic forces would turn stars like the Sun into blue giants or red dwarfs. All around us, we seem to see evidence that nature got it just right.”

Obviously the telescope has not eliminated the basis for belief in a Creator. Is it possible, then, that the Bible, the world’s foremost religious book, can also be taken seriously? Yes, for both the telescope and the microscope give compelling reasons for doing so. Consider just a few of them.

“STAR DIFFERS FROM STAR”

Science textbooks are often no sooner printed than they are out of date, so frequently do new discoveries nullify old convictions. Yet, though written centuries before telescopes and microscopes were even conceived of, the Bible often speaks about scientific subjects with remarkable accuracy.

One instance is at 1 Corinthians 15:41 where the apostle Paul says: “The glory of the sun is one sort, and the glory of the moon is another, and the glory of the stars is another; in fact, star differs from star in glory.”

To the casual observer most stars look alike, except perhaps for their difference in brightness. Astronomers nevertheless say that stars also vary in color, from white, bluish-white, yellow, orange, orange-red to red. Pulsars​—believed to be fast-spinning collapsed stars—​have a rather unique “glory.” Like clicking turnstiles, they flash radio signals with split-second regularity. The Crab and Vela pulsars even flash visible light. Stars differ greatly in density. They also vary greatly in size. The supergiant Betelgeuse is, according to conservative estimates, more than 250 million miles (400 million km) in diameter! If it stood in the place of our sun, Betelgeuse would engulf the earth and the rest of our solar system clear out to where Mars orbits!

How could the apostle Paul have written scientific truths when he did not even have an instrument as crude as Galileo’s to inform him? Divine inspiration is the logical answer.

“STATUTES OF THE HEAVENS”

“Can you tie fast the bonds of the Kimah constellation, or can you loosen the very cords of the Kesil constellation?” asked God. “Have you come to know the statutes of the heavens, or could you put its authority in the earth?” (Job 38:31, 33) For centuries, men were unaware that “statutes,” or laws, governed the movements of heavenly bodies. Applying the discoveries of Johannes Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and others, astronomers have come to understand that gravitational forces are the “bonds” holding stellar constellations​—such as “Kimah”—​together.

Astronomers also say that stars are not stationary, but, rather, as one astronomer puts it, ‘rotate around the center, or nucleus, of the galaxy like a giant merry-go-round.’ Our own sun takes an estimated 200 million years to journey around the Milky Way. The Bible is correct in indicating that stars have orbits.

LIFE ONLY FROM LIFE

The microscope, too, gives credibility to the Bible. Consider the biological law stated in Genesis chapter 1: Living things reproduce ‘according to their kind.’ Today’s powerful microscopes have helped scientists better understand reproduction and the genetic boundaries that prove the Bible’s statement scientifically sound.

At Psalm 36:9 the Bible further states concerning God: “With you is the source of life; by light from you we can see light.” For centuries men believed Greek philosopher Aristotle’s theory that life arises spontaneously from nonliving matter. As late as the 17th century, even educated people still believed that mice bred from old rags, weevils from wheat, frogs from mud and eels from dew.

The issue still raged when Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. Many cited the supposed spontaneous generation of bacteria as support of evolution and as an explanation of the origin of life. In the same year French scientist Pouchet “proved” that microorganisms bred from water, air and hay. Another French scientist, Louis Pasteur, however, challenged these claims, showing that bacteria carried in the air on dust particles could have infected Pouchet’s experiments.

Undaunted, Pouchet repeated his experiments, this time in the dust-free air of the Pyrenees Mountains. Further, he boiled his mixture of hay and water to kill any existing bacteria. So when this mixture soon teemed with bacteria, he was sure he had finally proved spontaneous generation. In the 1870’s, however, Irish scientist John Tyndall discovered that hay bacteria form heat-resistant spores that can survive boiling for many hours. Alas for Pouchet! His hay mixture was not properly sterilized. Tyndall’s experiments thus brought a deathblow to the theory of spontaneous generation.

With modern microscopes, scientists can now see just how cells divide and multiply. That life comes only from preexisting life is now an established scientific fact​—a fact the Bible pointed out centuries ago!

“EVEN THE EMBRYO OF ME”

At Psalm 139:16 the Bible says: “Your [God’s] eyes saw even the embryo of me, and in your book all its parts were down in writing.” Note that the Bible claims that ‘all the parts’ of an embryo are “in writing.” By this poetic device the psalmist apparently refers to something scientists have only recently discovered: the DNA, or genetic information, in each cell. The South African magazine Huisgenoot reminds us that “nobody has ever been able to ‘read’” this genetic material, “not even under the most powerful electron microscope. But scientists know that these particles of information are unique in each person and determine his personality and appearance.”

THE BOOK THAT BUILDS FAITH

Professor Merlyn Mehl, a physicist at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, recently said: “It is hard to imagine how anyone schooled in scientific reasoning cannot but be struck by the veracity of the Scriptures. The same unity and harmony apparent in the inanimate physical world is clearly visible in that most awesome of books​—The Bible.” Of course, the Bible is not a scientific textbook. It does, nevertheless, answer the questions that really matter to man. Science makes its revelations about the universe and analyzes the intricate mechanisms of life processes. But of how much value is all of this if we do not know the purpose of life? Only the Bible gives satisfying answers to these questions.

The psalmist David realized this. Like today’s astronomers, he spent much time studying the starry heavens. “The heavens are declaring the glory of God,” he observed. But David realized that marveling at nature was not enough. In the same psalm he continued: “The law of Jehovah is perfect, bringing back the soul. The reminder of Jehovah is trustworthy, making the inexperienced one wise. The orders from Jehovah are upright, causing the heart to rejoice.”​—Psalm 19:1-4, 7, 8.

The telescope and microscope have shown dramatically that, from macro to micro, the world we live in is awe inspiring and complex. The problems we must grapple with are likewise complex, far too complex for man to handle without divine aid. “I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Jeremiah 10:23) Mountains of scientific data simply cannot save man as he appears to plunge headlong toward self-extinction. Thinking individuals, therefore, look elsewhere for answers. And these answers are found in a book that has withstood the ravages of time​—and now even the scientific scrutiny of the telescope and the microscope.

Fiery Tragedy Strikes Vila Socó

IT WAS 11:00 p.m. on Friday, February 24, 1984. Most of the people were sound asleep, but others were awake, feeling uneasy about the heavy stench of gasoline that hung in the air. Of course, the folks here in this illegal housing project in Vila Socó in Cubatão, Brazil, were used to the odoriferous fumes that wafted up from the swampy waters. Their houses were built on wooden stakes, or piles, two to three feet above the water. And the rough board walkways enabled everyone to get around without walking in the fetid waters below. During the past four months, there had been six gas leaks, but there really seemed to be nothing to worry about.

Suddenly, the quiet night was shattered by the noisy footsteps of policemen running excitedly from house to house. Knocking and banging loudly on the doors, they shouted, “Wake up!” “Get out!” “Do not strike any matches!”

About 40 minutes later a terrifying explosion rocked the area, shooting hot flames of fire across the gasoline-covered swamp waters. So intense was the fire that the heavy downpour of rain at the time did not stop it from engulfing about a thousand homes. The next morning, stubs of burned piles, remains of stoves and bottled-gas containers dominated the smoldering ruins. As many as 500 persons may have died in the tragedy! The Petrobrás oil refinery, whose fuel lines run under Vila Socó, denies that it was that many. It is doubtful the truth will ever be known.

The irony of this tragedy was that six months previously a warning was sounded about the possibility of its occurring. Secretary Paulo Nogueira Neto declared almost prophetically: “I know the whole country from end to end. I am familiar with many cities, but I have seen none like Cubatão. Cubatão is sitting on a bomb; if there is a leak in the pipeline or a mudslide, we will have a tragedy.” And Veja magazine reported that as far back as 1977 the oil refinery had warned the state authorities about the possible danger to the homes built over its pipelines. Some improvements were made to lessen the danger, but alas, the wooden houses and boardwalks remained to feed the tragic fire that broke out that night.

Details are not clear as to what caused the fire. For some reason, a buildup in pressure of gasoline in the lines blew out a piece of pipe. It is estimated that probably 175,000 gallons (662,000 L) of the highly inflammable liquid spurted out over the whole area. All it took was a tiny spark to ignite it into a blazing inferno of death and destruction.

Governor Franco Montoro confessed most sadly, “We are all guilty.” The loss of dear loved ones or the emotional damage to the survivors cannot be estimated. But it is regretable that the published warnings were not acted upon sooner and more effectively. Even worse is the fact that many of the casualties had paid no attention to the frantic cries of the policemen. One survivor summed up their attitude: “I paid no attention nor was I afraid. We are so used to these leaks and the strong smell from the pipes. Besides the Petrobrás men always come soon and fix the leaks.” This time they never came!

A Taste of Paradise Building

“Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for constructing churches in 48 hours. But this weekend they outdid themselves. For the first time, the Jehovah’s Witnesses constructed two Kingdom Hall churches with a connecting apartment in 48 hours.”

STAFF reporter Annette Lopez-Munoz gave this lead to her story in the South Dade News Leader of Monday, February 27. It referred to the weekend that had just ended, February 25 and 26.

Congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Homestead, Florida, area were multiplying so rapidly that a catch-up program was urgent. As Jim Crosley, a traveling overseer in the South Florida area, told the reporter: “There is an added thrust to build these Kingdom Hall churches since our Cuban brothers were cast out in the Mariel boat lift. We also need to build five or six more halls in Miami.”

The twin halls built in the Homestead area serve four congregations​—two Spanish and two English.

The Miami News quoted another Witness who explained the reason for building Kingdom Halls “instantly”: “Our philosophy is to build them as quickly as possible so that we can get to work on more important things.”

The “more important things” center around evangelical activities, preaching and teaching publicly about God’s incoming Kingdom, making disciples, baptizing and training them so they too “may render sacred service to the living God.”​—Hebrews 9:14; Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20.

This calls for educational centers​—Bible educational centers, Kingdom Halls. The halls, continued The Miami News, are practical. “They’re not ornate because we think of them more like school or education centers. They are places of worship, but the worship services are educational in nature.” Each hall has 4,000 square feet (370 sq m), an auditorium seating 250, two classrooms, a lounge, a magazine room and two restrooms.

Two Halls in 48 Hours?

Homestead Witness Beatrice Rogers made a five-acre (2-ha) avocado grove available at a location fairly central to four congregations. It was decided, after a year’s deliberation and planning, to build two halls side by side.

For the past two years Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States and Canada had been building an average of one Kingdom Hall a week by the “instant” construction method. But what about two on one lot? Did past experience indicate it could be done? Was enough volunteer help available? If it was a challenge to manage 200 to 400 workers on a single hall project, what would happen when 400 to 600 were involved? With all those people and all that building material to work with, might not the whole undertaking end up in colossal confusion?

There was a lot of heart-searching pondering over the warning of Jesus: “Who of you that wants to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the expense, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, he might lay its foundation but not be able to finish it, and all the onlookers might start to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man started to build but was not able to finish.’”​—Luke 14:28-30.

But after months of prayerful discussions and counting of costs and studying of designs and procedures, Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Homestead area reached a decision: “With Jehovah’s blessing we can do it!”

Friday evening, February 24, Nelson Crites, a coordinator of Kingdom Hall projects in South Florida, positively assured a meeting of more than 700 enthusiastic volunteers in South Dade High School auditorium: “This is a historic event. It will succeed in Jehovah’s power.”

The volunteers were marshaled into 11 basic departments organized under experienced contractors and craftsmen, many of whom had shared in two-day hall building before. This time crews had to operate in double units, one for each hall​—carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and so on. In addition, all communication had to be translated into both Spanish and English. Outside of contracting two cranes to set the roof trusses early Saturday morning, virtually all labor and services were voluntary.

Starting in the Rain

A lumberjack-style breakfast was served at six o’clock Saturday morning. Then, spread before the work force of men, women and youngsters lay a quarter million dollars’ worth of building materials. Every item had been placed precisely and strategically where needed over the twin concrete foundation pads. Each pad, outlined by steel girders as required by Dade County in Florida’s hurricane zone, measured 4,000 square feet. At seven o’clock work would begin in transforming those stacks and mounds of raw materials into twin Kingdom Halls.

At exactly seven o’clock work did start. It started in the rain. Rain had been falling steadily since about midnight. But not a single work stage halted. Plastic tents and sheds were thrown up to provide shelter for electricians and other workers. Contractors and tradesmen worked out of their trucks and vans. Thousands of box lunches prepared at home were stored under plastic on long tables in the avocado grove. In their field kitchen, under a plastic roof, chefs and cooks manned their steam kettles, ovens and deep vats. The rain was simply ignored.

The harder it rained, the faster the roof trusses seemed to swing into place. In one and a half hours the trusses in both halls were set. Sheathing board went up around the walls in pace with the erecting of the trusses on the roof. In two hours the last truss was swung into place. By nine o’clock the crane operators were out of a job. All around the perimeters scores of hands were lifting up sheathing boards, and before another hour passed, both halls were almost sheathed. Structural shapes were rising and taking definition among palm trees that had been planted by heavy machines a day or two before.

The darker the clouds got, the faster the work went. And instead of people leaving, people kept coming. Out on the street, the policewoman kept saying that the biggest thing she had to do was to stay out of the way. Volunteer traffic directors managed traffic for blocks along 288th Street, at approaching intersections as well as in front of the building site. A neighbor had graciously opened a 15-acre (6-ha) field across the street for parking, free of charge.

The rain was helpful in that it kept the landscaper’s sod soaked and ready for spreading. Plants and shrubs went down into well-watered beds. Rock masons used rainfall to keep their mortar wet.

All the while walls kept going up. As fast as sheathing board covered the rafters, black felt covered the sheathing. Hundreds of workers formed silhouettes against the gray sky. On the ground, shiny air ducts were made to squirm and crawl like giant worms into the attics. Finished paneling was already being nailed around the exteriors. Heavy bundles of roofing shingles were shouldered and distributed over the roofs. Through a camera’s eye, it looked like acres of shingles and acres of workers.

What happened to the rain? It went away unnoticed. By the time it came back, both roofs had been completed.

Volunteers Kept Coming

A four-room apartment was structured to join the two Kingdom Halls. From the air the joined structures form a giant H.

A Volunteer Service Department in a plastic tent remained open, rain or shine. There were more workers than work to be done. Volunteers reported from as far away as Texas, Ohio, Idaho, England, Canada and Jamaica, not to mention neighboring states and all parts of Florida. The stack of applications numbered 810.

Dawn Brinklow, in charge of landscaping, said her volunteers didn’t know the names of the plants​—a Philodendron selloum from a Malpighia. “So we color coded. Then we would send a crew after them by color​—‘Bring a red, or a blue, or a green.’ Besides all that, every word had to be translated in both languages. There wasn’t a crew that wasn’t mixed with blacks, whites and Hispanos.”

Unity, Love and Jehovah’s Spirit

A gentleman who held a mortgage on the property was asked to come by Saturday and be paid off. He was so astounded to see two 4,000-square-foot buildings looming up on what had been concrete pads the day before that he rushed home to bring his wife.

The News Service Department welcomed and escorted reporters, photographers, TV cameramen and a continual flow of visitors. There were contractors hoping to discover how they could build like Jehovah’s Witnesses. There was a Baptist church educator hoping he could inspire his members like Jehovah’s Witnesses​—“I can’t even get a leak fixed in our church without paying somebody.”

Archie Francis of Hialeah put in a long day Saturday with the Cleaning Department. That night his aunt arrived from the Central American country of Belize. He mentioned that he had been helping build two Kingdom Halls over the weekend.

“I don’t believe it,” she said.

“I can show you some video tapes.”

“No.” She would believe it only if she saw it.

At her insistence they drove 22 miles (35 km) to the building site in the middle of the night. The wall spacklers, who worked all night, were being cheered by a group of sisters singing Kingdom songs in Spanish. Archie’s aunt joined them. “I might become a Jehovah’s Witness,” she decided. “I work Witnesses in my business. They are honest. And I read their magazines all the time.”

Another relative reacted almost in shock, demanding: “How do you do it?”

“By unity. Love. Jehovah’s spirit,” Archie answered.

The South Dade beat of policeman Warren Brundage is a “slaughter ally” of killings, drugs and racial strife. He saw human nature in a different light here. “I think it is fantastic!” he told a reporter. “This many people working together with no quarrels, no fights . . . There are blacks, whites, Latins . . . they have different trades but yet they are all working together for a common cause. Yesterday there was a banker helping with the roof.” He stayed after his five o’clock shift​—no banker’s hours for him!

Early Sunday afternoon, at the request of a photographer, an announcement in English and Spanish brought the workers and visitors to a pause long enough to assemble out front and lift their arms in a victory wave. Four thousand persons responded. That figure is based on the fact that shortly before, the Food Service Department had served 4,000 meals.

A Touch of Paradise, Earthly

What gave the scene an ever-heightening aura of a physical paradise was the landscaping. Two tropical gardens, one in front, one in the rear, took shape in rolling scapes of palm trees, fieldstone and flowers. A caravan of trucks delivered trees and shrubs. One Witness volunteered a gift of palm trees. The landscaper who went out to select the trees spotted a clump of three Phoenix reclinata, rare date palms. The owner did not even know they were growing there. What tender loving care the bulldozer operator exercised in moving them, on learning that the trees were valued at a thousand dollars (U.S.) apiece!

Planted in two days, the gardens covered about an acre and a half (.6 ha). A crew of six would take an estimated three weeks to do the job on a commercial basis, at a cost of $25,000 to $30,000 (U.S.). It was all donated.

A Special Time, a Special Sharing

Reporter Lopez-Munoz returned Sunday with her mother, who speaks only Portuguese. The young journalist had sensed something hard to describe. “What is this drive, this motivation in you people?”

“It’s from the Bible,” she was told.

“I read in the Bible how people were building a great tower when God confused their languages and they never got it finished.”

“That was because they were going against his will.”

“But now he is helping you overcome your language barriers?”

“That’s because we are doing his will.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses, she was told, bear in mind that “the word of God is alive and exerts power.” (Hebrews 4:12) Respond to it and you open yourself up for his spirit to operate in you.

“Part of what you sense is the enjoyment we get from special associations like in Kingdom Hall building,” someone in News Service explained. “The dynamism of Jehovah’s Witnesses is derived mostly from our being an evangelical society. We are united in preaching and teaching about God’s incoming Kingdom. That’s why we need Kingdom Halls as centers of worship and Bible education. In special times like this we can associate on an expanded plane. We can share our special skills and crafts and abilities. Or we can simply show willingness to do anything we can to help others. Each one gives his very best. And each one is appreciated for it. But even in this, our association is guided by Bible principles. Here, for instance, we are mindful of Galatians 5:26: ‘Let us not become egotistical, stirring up competition with one another, envying one another.’ Also, Proverbs 11:14: ‘When there is no skillful direction, the people fall.’”

A Touch of Paradise, Spiritually

Their faith is what makes it possible for Jehovah’s Witnesses to do what others cannot do. They begin by getting rid of the spirit of the world. That includes, as policeman Brundage quickly recognized, getting rid of the world’s spirit of racism, hatred, jealousy, social distinctions, drugs, obsession with sex and the like. He was in a different world, where all malicious bitterness, anger, wrath, screaming and abusive speech were taken away along with badness, and people were actually trying to be “kind to one another, tenderly compassionate, freely forgiving one another just as God also by Christ freely forgave you.”​—Ephesians 4:31, 32.

The spirit of the world, manifest in “the works of the flesh,” is at enmity with God. To get rid of that spirit makes way for the fruitage of God’s spirit, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.”​—Galatians 5:19-23; Romans 8:5-8.

One visitor, a member of the Mormon Church, saw Witness children​—black, brown and white—​playing together. He commented: “We adopted a black child. Our church won’t let their children play with our child.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses, by responding to Bible teaching, find themselves drawn into a unity throughout more countries than belong to the United Nations.

It was mentioned that the two-day Kingdom Hall raising was “a taste of paradise building.” This expressed the firm conviction of Jehovah’s people that soon earth’s Creator will take out of the way all elements that ruin the earth and human society on it, to make way for Paradise building on a global scale.​—Revelation 11:17, 18; 21:3, 4; Isaiah 65:17-25.

[Picture on page 14]

Sheathing and roof trusses went up simultaneously. By nine o’clock the crane had swung the last truss into place

[Picture on page 17]

The backhoe operator brings in three palm trees​—part of the “instant” landscaping

The Rod of Love Led to a Change of Heart

By “Awake!” correspondent in Japan

FROM among some 250 students gathered at the graduation rehearsal, about a dozen boys suddenly separated themselves and moved toward the front of the hall. Forming a line, they turned around to face the rest of the students. Recognizing that these were the school toughs known for their terrorizing and vandalizing, everyone, including the teachers, became apprehensive.

One of the group, a 15-year-old who appeared to be the gang leader, stepped forward, bowed his head and began speaking in a somber tone.

“We apologize for the trouble we have caused everyone,” he said. “We realize now what we have been doing was foolish. From now on we will turn over a new leaf. Our apology also goes to the teachers who did not give up on us but continued to reprimand us even to the end. Please forgive us. We have taken advantage of all of you. . . .”

As he stumbled on awkwardly with his speech, tears came to the eyes of some of the teachers. Then the rest of the toughs came forward one at a time and declared: “I am going to change and lead a straight life.”

A Prevalent Problem

That scene, which took place in a junior high school in Kawasaki, an industrial city south of Tokyo, was dubbed a “Declaration of Penitence” by a leading Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun. Like many other schools in Japan, Tajima Junior High has been hard hit by violence in recent years. Outbursts of violence were daily occurrences. Students would kick in toilet and classroom doors, poke holes in the ceiling with mop handles, set off alarm bells and generally play havoc with school property. One teacher was beaten and hospitalized for two weeks for counseling a student about his hairstyle.

In another junior high school in Tokyo’s Machida district, delinquent students taunted and bullied a teacher whose health was impaired by the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. “That guy was easy to threaten,” said one of the boys, “because he quickly expressed a sense of fright if we pushed him.” After weeks of being chased, hit and beaten by the students, the teacher reacted by stabbing one of the attackers with a knife.

Violence in school has become such a problem throughout the country that Prime Minister Nakasone recently declared it a top domestic issue. And the Education Ministry established a task force to study the problem.

What Is the Cause?

As might be expected, the public was alarmed by such incidents of school violence and delinquent behavior. And the inevitable question is, Why such problems?

According to a survey by Japan’s NPA (National Policy Agency), more than half of those who responded felt that the main cause of the rising tide of violence in schools is none other than the permissive and indulgent parents who do not have firm control of their children.

Similarly, in a letter to the editors of The Daily Yomiuri, a 74-year-old executive from Tokyo suggested that “it is up to parents who were brought up in the postwar period to bear most of the responsibility.” These parents, he explained, were growing up when Japan was struggling to reestablish itself from the ruins of World War II. Hardship, shortages and deprivation were their daily lot. Now that affluence is upon them, they are determined not to let their children experience the same bitterness. They lavish upon them everything they could possibly want. “As a result,” wrote the executive, “they have made their children believe all their demands will be met.”

Others pointed to the education system itself as sharing the blame. “The high-pressure, cramming education is one of the major reasons for school violence,” said Michio Nagai, a former education minister. And students themselves agreed. “I was not surprised,” remarked a 16-year-old about the recent notoriety. “I and many others share a sense of frustration with the system and for teachers.”

In spite of all the finger pointing, however, there appeared to be no quick solution to the problem of juvenile delinquency and school violence. If anything, a survey by the National Association of Middle School Principals revealed that many school officials foresee the problem spreading and the end nowhere in sight.

All of this made what happened at Tajima Junior High School that morning only more intriguing. What was it that made the entire gang at this school come forth and apologize to the student body, while many other schools are turning to the police for protection?

Hitting Back at Violence

After reporting on the surprise “Declaration of Penitence” at Tajima, Yomiuri Shimbun followed up with a detailed account of what evidently led to the gang’s change of heart. It appeared under the headline “The Rod of Love Leads to Reformation of School Toughs.” Under that headline appeared an unidentified quotation: “The one holding back his rod is hating his son.”

“These students did not have a change of heart overnight,” said the report. Two years ago a new teacher, Shingi Shimoyama, was appointed to be the guidance counselor at Tajima. A meeting of the entire staff was called. According to the newspaper account, this is what happened:

“Teacher Shimoyama . . . opened a Bible and read a verse Pr 13:24 that says: ‘The one holding back his rod is hating his son.’” Then he suggested that the teachers should present a united front, and firm discipline should be administered in cases of offense such as glue sniffing, smoking, spitting, destruction of school property, and so on. The other teachers agreed and said: “We should stop condoning wrong in the name of kindness. Let us stop closing our eyes to wrongdoing just to avoid problems and say that we are being kind and merciful.”

It would be good to point out that, although delinquency is on the rise in Japan today, teachers are still generally highly esteemed or even reverenced. In most schools, classes still open and close with students and teachers exchanging bows, and stern discipline, even corporal punishment, is still accepted, even though rarely carried out.

How did the measures affect the students? Did they react in violence, perhaps threatening the teachers or beating them up? To everyone’s surprise, “the thugs took almost no time to acknowledge that Shimoyama was superior to them,” says the report. “‘A special teacher has come,’ they said. ‘Teacher Shimoyama is the only one nobody is to lay a finger on.’”

In addition to firmness, the teachers decided that they would either call or visit the students who were punished to have a personal talk with them. Such visits and individual attention drew the students and teachers together.

All the while, the gang of toughs stayed on the sidelines observing all that was going on. But the team spirit and the apparent satisfaction on the part of the students and teachers began to make them feel a little uneasy. They soon realized that throwing their weight around as if they were important was really childish and foolish, and that eventually led to the “Declaration of Penitence.”

Secret of Success

That undeniably impressive story was well-publicized in Japan. With the unique culture and background there, Shimoyama’s methods turned out to be a success. Whether the same approach would work in other schools and other countries would depend on a great number of factors. Nevertheless, what happened at Tajima Junior High School shows that when discipline is lovingly but firmly administered, young and wayward hearts can be won over.

Teacher Shimoyama, incidentally, is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Bible verse he read to the other teachers was Proverbs 13:24, which says in its entirety: “The one holding back his rod is hating his son, but the one loving him is he that does look for him with discipline.” This scripture, of course, is pointing out the importance of proper discipline in the home​—the “rod” of parental authority. Though teachers and others can help, how much better it would be for parents to take to heart this time-honored Bible principle and apply it in the home.

[Picture on page 18]

The gang leader apologizes to students and teachers

Young People Ask . . .

Why Should I Have Good Manners?

WOMEN rudely pushing ahead of others in mad scrambles for bargains at department stores. Men jamming themselves in ahead of others as they enter an elevator. Young folks virtually shoving aside elderly and infirm ones as they walk down the street. You have probably seen such displays of bad manners.

An article in Newsweek magazine once claimed: “In more and more adults, whatever manners they once possessed have been eroded by the sheer pressures of daily living: crowds, noise, brutality on a massive scale in life, on screen, in print . . . [These] have murdered [manners].” This wholesale murder of good manners is particularly noticeable in large cities. New York City’s subways, for example, have been called a “Tragi-Comedy of No Manners.” Pushing and shoving seem a part of the unwritten law of subway “etiquette.”

Interestingly, though, some youths seem genuinely concerned about this problem. In fact, a popular teen magazine even ran an article by a writer who calls herself “Miss Manners.” Nevertheless, perhaps you have asked yourself if having good manners is worth the bother. ‘How will improving my manners benefit me?’ you may wonder. ‘What’s the point of saying “please” and “thank you”?’

Good Manners​—Why So Important?

There’s a saying, “Little things mean a lot.” Good manners are like elements such as cobalt, molybdenum and boron. Although mere traces of these elements appear in our food, they are absolutely vital to our health. Likewise, your mother may use just tiny amounts of flavoring extract or salt when making your favorite dish. Yet these “little things” are what make her cooking efforts a success. Good manners are like the oil and grease that keep machinery running smoothly.

Manners are thus among the “little things” that make life pleasurable. Think for a moment: Do you not enjoy being with a person who displays good manners? Do you not resent it when someone is rude or inconsiderate? If so, recall the famous golden rule, “All things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must likewise do to them.”​—Matthew 7:12.

But there are other practical benefits to being well mannered. You may, for example, be interested in getting a job. The book Your Working Life: A Guide to Getting and Holding a Job lists several things that will help you make a good impression on an employer. Among them are politeness, good grooming and courtesy. Are you interested in someday finding a suitable marriage mate? In one survey, teenage boys were asked what qualities they found attractive in the opposite sex. Being “considerate of others” rated quite high. In yet another survey, teenage girls were asked to describe the “perfect husband.” Surprisingly, only 30 percent of the girls polled considered looks important. Far more important to them was that a future husband be considerate.

In view of all of this, it is no wonder that Amy Vanderbilt said in her famous book on etiquette: “Only a great fool or a great genius is likely to flout all social grace with impunity, and neither one, doing so, makes the most comfortable companion.”

Developing Manners

How, though, do you develop good manners? By spending hours digesting books on etiquette? By memorizing an endless list of rules? Not necessarily, although books and rules of etiquette admittedly have their place. For the most part, displaying good manners is simply a matter of applying basic Christian principles. The apostle Paul thus exhorted Christians to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” or as the footnote of the New World Translation (1960 edition) renders this verse, “imitate the manners of the Lord.” (Romans 13:14) Christ was considerate of the feelings and needs of others. (Compare Matthew 15:32.) He was appreciative of the efforts of others. (Mark 14:3-9) Because he was “mild-tempered and lowly in heart,” people found association with him a ‘refreshing’ experience.​—Matthew 11:28-30.

You, too, can cultivate a Christlike, unselfish concern for others. How? By reading about and meditating on Christ’s life course. A person who puts Christ’s teachings into action will rarely be criticized for displaying poor manners.

Still, in certain situations you are expected to conform to specific rules of conduct. The apostle Paul, for example, gave the young man Timothy pointed direction so that he would ‘know how he ought to conduct himself in God’s household.’ (1 Timothy 3:15) Your parents can give you similar instructions.

Now, not all youths see it that way. Young Jordy complained: “My parents think I should act the way they act. They say, ‘Behave, behave,’ and I say, ‘I don’t care, I’m acting the way I want.’” But we cannot always do what we want to do. Parents usually recognize this and are thus anxious that you learn good manners. That is why they may make certain demands upon you.

For example, they may require that you keep your room clean. (Sad to say, some parents have just about given up in this regard, like the one who said, “He can have his room any way he wants it, but he has to live in it.”) Concerned parents know that your room is a reflection on you. What would others think of you if you invited them into a room that was dirty or littered with garments? Your parents also realize that one day you might have a place of your own to take care of. What kind of care will you give it? Responding to your parents’ direction in such matters is, therefore, an important step in learning good manners.

Putting Manners Into Practice

Now let’s consider just a few situations. Do you carelessly throw trash on the ground or do you wait until you can deposit it in the proper receptacle? Many feel that a little more trash thrown around will make no real difference. But look at what is happening to the cities, rivers, public parks and picnic grounds! Trash and pollution are everywhere. Ask yourself, ‘Do I find pleasure visiting places that have been ruined by thoughtless, unmannered people?’

At times youths engage in yet another type of pollution​—filling the environment with foul language. Some youths seem to delight in speaking obscenities. And this I-don’t-care spirit can easily rub off if you are not careful. Really, you do not have to permit unmannerly people to influence you. You can instead apply the Bible’s advice: “Let a rotten saying not proceed out of your mouth.”​—Ephesians 4:29.

What about driving? Whether you ride a bicycle or drive the family car, road manners are important. The road hog not only is an irritation to others but is also a safety hazard. Impatiently driving at breakneck speeds is also hazardous. An article in Grit some time ago reminded youths that “car crashes are by far the leading cause of death for persons 15 to 24 years of age.” And what is often the cause of these crashes? Continued the article, “More teenagers are arrested for speeding than for any other moving violation.” So obey the rules of the road and avoid endangering yourself and others.

Mealtimes also present opportunities to display good manners. Some youths start eating before a prayer is said. Others greedily consume more than their fair share of food. And while it is good to talk and share experiences, is it proper to dominate the conversation, especially when adults are present?

These suggestions may prove helpful. True, at times you may unwittingly blunder and say or do something that offends. But you can avoid making a bad situation worse by knowing how to apologize graciously. Remember what really can motivate good manners​—Christian love. Even in an age where everything else seems to have failed, Christian “love never fails.”​—1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

[Picture on page 22]

Good manners include offering help to others

Now I’m Busy Making a Better Name

As told by Indian chief William Jeffrey

THE Museum of Northern British Columbia published in 1982 the booklet Totem Poles of Prince Rupert. Of the 22 totem poles pictured in it, 15 were carved by me. Prince Rupert contains one of the largest collections of standing poles, ranging from 30 to 70 feet (10 to 20 m) in height, and more than 20 of them are my work.

I did not, however, begin carving poles full time until my retirement in 1960, and then I mainly carved poles to replace the original ones lost through weathering and decay. I carved poles for museums around the world and for special displays such as those in Prince Rupert. Whereas many poles could be bought for a thousand dollars, mine sold for $12,000 and more because of their quality. From many entries, one of my poles was selected to be the centennial pole for the 1871-1971 British Columbia Centennial. Another 22-inch pole I carved out of one piece of jade. It took me nine months to carve, is valued at $75,000 and is now on display at Birks in Vancouver.

So I’ve already made a name for myself as a master carver of totem poles. But now I’m busy making a better name.

Let’s start at the beginning​—a beginning that in itself was out of the ordinary. I was born in 1899, just north of the village of Port Simpson in British Columbia. Not only were my parents Indians of the Tsimshian nation but they also were of chieftain lineage. This put me in line to be a hereditary high chief.

I was raised by my grandparents​—while hunting, my father had died in a fall from a cliff. I remember that when I was still little my grandfather put a cutting tool in my hand, gave me some wood and started me carving. He gave me some instruction in carving totem poles. I showed an aptitude for it, but the serious carving mentioned above was to wait many years.

After my grandparents died, I attended a boarding school for orphans, and later an Indian residential school from 1914-17. I wanted to go on to college and be a solicitor, but if Indians went to college they had to study to be preachers. You see, by this time the Indians had been put in reservations, and these reservations were dealt out like playing cards to the different churches​—one to the Methodists, another to the United Church, another to the Salvation Army, another to the Catholics, and so on. Mine was turned over to the Methodists. Each reservation had its own parochial school. The teachers were not really qualified, the teaching was of poor quality, and at that time Indians were not allowed to attend the public schools.

I wanted to see these restrictions removed. With this in view, in 1930 three other Indians and I created the Indian Native Brotherhood of British Columbia. As a representative of this brotherhood I started negotiating Indian problems in the parliament at Ottawa. Before going, I collected facts about the condition of the Indians in British Columbia​—facts about the Indians in the hospitals, conditions in the schools, what the churches were doing for them, the work available for them, the need of suitable pensions for the elderly, the hereditary land rights of the Indians, even the discrimination against the Indians in securing hunting and fishing licenses.

The Honourable Crerar was Minister of Indian Affairs in 1940 when I appeared in the House of Commons. Religious denominations in Canada had submitted a report claiming that Indians could not learn.

I gave examples of Indians who had achieved prominence through their accomplishments in many fields and continued: “Without any consultation with us, you took away our land and put us on reservations. You gave us religion, and its clergymen burned our totem poles, saying we worshiped them. This was not so, for they were our memorials and our landmarks. You have removed them and stolen our land. You gave us the Bible​—there is nothing wrong with the Bible—​but you misused it and did not follow it yourselves.”

Soon things began to change. Indian children all across Canada were allowed to go to the public schools and to continue on in the colleges. Other rights for the Indians followed​—hunting and fishing licenses, power to negotiate prices for their fish, better working conditions in canneries, job-training programs, and others.

My last negotiations were concerning the land, a settlement for the Indians who had been deprived of their land and herded onto reservations. Down to the present time, no concrete agreement on this issue has been reached between Ottawa and the native Indians.

For the past several years I had been hearing about another government that would bring peace and justice to peoples of all races, nationalities, creeds and colors.

I was first introduced to this message in 1930. I was living in Kispiox and was just leaving my house, briefcase in hand, on my way to represent the Brotherhood and fight for Indian rights. Frank Franske met me and said: “Do you want to know the truth that will make you free?” He started witnessing to me. He was a traveling representative of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Ten years later I lived in Port Edward, and a Witness named Leonard Seiman had a weekly Bible study with my family. He had to walk 12 miles (19 km) one way, 24 miles (38 km) round trip, but he never missed a week! Eventually my wife became a Witness, and several of my sons and daughters did also. I supplied boats and food for the traveling overseers to witness up and down the coast.

For some 30 years now I had been doing all kinds of work​—hunting, fishing, trapping, mining, logging, working in a sawmill, as a building contractor and doing other jobs—​to support my family of a wife, six sons and four daughters. This, along with my work with the Brotherhood, had swallowed up my time. But now, finally, in 1953, I was baptized. That year I attended an international assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York’s Yankee Stadium. For the first time I saw real brotherhood​—all races meeting peacefully, no prejudice because of skin color, a true unity.

From that time on, it was full steam ahead for me. I preached to all who would listen, especially to my native people. By boat I took my family to isolated Indian villages along the coast of Prince Rupert, preaching the good news of God’s Kingdom. The next few years were not without problems. At one village my wife, Elsie, had a stroke, and I flew her to a hospital in Prince Rupert. While witnessing in North Vancouver, I was attacked by a Doberman pinscher and was blinded in my left eye. In a car accident, my son George pulled me from the car just before it exploded​—both my legs and my collarbone were broken. Those injuries limited my house-to-house witnessing.

After Elsie died I married my present wife, Juana. We now do street witnessing every morning. In the afternoons I write letters and mail out 192 magazines every month. This activity, plus what door-to-door witnessing I am able to do, amounts to 60 to 100 hours a month.

From time to time I go into the reservations throughout southern, central and northern British Columbia, witnessing to the Indians and leaving hundreds of books and magazines that tell about God’s Kingdom as their only hope for righteousness and everlasting life in a paradise earth. Generally, Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot get into these reservations to preach. The churches assigned to the reservations refuse to let them in. But they cannot keep me out. Not only am I a native Indian but I am also the head chief. In 1982 my daughter and I covered 2,000 miles (3,200 km) witnessing in the reservations. In 1983, and again this year, I went in, taking along three members of my family.

In the past I made a name carving totem poles. Now I am endeavoring to make a name with Jehovah God, a good name that he will remember, one that will bring with it the reward of everlasting life in a new paradise earth wherein millions from “all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues” will unite in praising Jehovah God and Christ Jesus forever.​—Revelation 7:9, 10; Ecclesiastes 7:1.

Making a name with this world is of little value. Making a good name with God is lifesaving.

[Blurb on page 25]

You gave us religion, and its clergymen burned our totem poles, saying we worshiped them. Not so!

[Blurb on page 26]

Making a name with this world is of little value. Making a good name with God is lifesaving

[Box on page 24]

Many forms of totemism exist around the world, ranging from mere tribal emblems to worship of the totem animals.​—“Totemism,” in The New Encyclopædia Britannica Macropædia, 1976, volume 18, pages 529-33.

But concerning the totem poles of the Northwest Coast Indians The New Encyclopædia Britannica Micropædia, 1976, says: “The word totem is a misnomer, for neither the pole nor the animals depicted on it are worshipped.”​—Volume X, page 62. See also page 27 of this story.

[Box on page 27]

Significance of the Totem Poles of British Columbia

“The content of totemism and its function differ greatly around the world . . . One of the outstanding characteristics of this area [coast of British Columbia] is the abundance of carved posts, called totem poles . . . representing the heraldic crest of the clan or lineage. The heraldic designs often embody the family history.”​—Encyclopedia Americana, 1977, volume 26, page 872.

“A totem figure will be better understood if it is looked upon as the equivalent of a European coat of arms; it is respected but never worshipped, having, like an emblem of heraldry, meaning but no religious significance.”​—Haida Totems in Wood and Argillite, 1967, by S. W. A. Gunn, page 5.

“Poles signified an individual’s move upward in rank, the building of a house, the death of a prominent person, or on rare occasions the commemoration of a highly significant event. Standing poles also served to explain the rank and status of those living in a village to strangers, indicating which houses belonged to the members of his or her own clan or phratry.”​—Totem Poles of Prince Rupert, 1982, by Dawn Hassett and F. W. M. Drew, page 6.

“Specifically, we must remember that the symbols on totem poles were the aboriginal substitutes for the printed word. The totem pole was the signboard, the genealogical record, the memorial, and the classified advertisement of the region. It was the publicity campaign of the man of distinction and, through personal crests, identified him and his family, his clan, and occasionally his tribe, and told of important events in the factual and mythological past.”​—The Totem Pole Indians, 1964, by Joseph H. Wherry, page 90.

Pertaining to the Indians of the Pacific Northwest, the Encyclopædia Britannica Micropædia, 1976, volume 10, page 62, says: “The word totem is a misnomer, for neither the pole nor the animals depicted on it are worshipped. The significance of the real or mythological animal carved on a totem pole is its identification with the lineage of the head of the household. The animal is displayed as a type of family crest, much as an Englishman might have a lion on his crest or a rancher, a bull on his brand.”

Nevertheless, the early missionaries of Christendom moved in to save the “savages” and proceeded on this false assumption: “Many missionaries assumed the poles were graven images or idols. Part of the effort to convert Indians included the dismantling and burning of totem poles. Many poles were actually burned, many were also knocked down, cut up, or removed in other ways.”​—Totem Poles of Prince Rupert, page 12.

[Picture on page 27]

Carved by William Jeffrey

From Our Readers

Why Worry About Grades?

Thank you for the practical and realistic counsel in the article “Young People Ask . . . Why Worry About Grades?” (March 22, 1984) From my own experience I know how truthful the statements are. In school I was among those receiving the best grades. Why? I listened attentively when the teacher was speaking, and I freely took part in class discussions and asked questions.

R. V., Italy

Your article about grades was very helpful. My anxiety about exams was reduced by at least 50 percent. I used to be very worried about exams, although there was really no reason for it, since I do well at school.

M. M., Federal Republic of Germany

Romance Novels

At this moment I am getting rid of 90 romance novels, which is a very big step for me. It was after reading your article “Are Romance Novels Harmless Reading?” (November 8, 1983) that I had the needed stimulus to get rid of them.

E. R., Brazil

The Bishops and the Bomb

Your article “The Bishops and the Bomb” (March 22, 1984) questions the position and timing of the statements of the Catholic bishops and others. Religion at this stage of history and our efforts in our short stay on earth would best be directed toward unity, not divisiveness. To deal with secular matters (i.e. militarism) in a way complying with God’s directives is an OK activity and is needed now more than before considering the magnitude of the weapons, fine. But anti-Catholic rhetoric and criticism of the same Christianity and attempts to serve the same God doesn’t make it.

J. T., California

We do not criticize the Catholic and Protestant religious leaders for speaking out against war. What we find reprehensible is that Catholic and Protestant clergy have, down through the centuries, supported wars fought with swords, spears, guns, bombs, and even nuclear bombs when these first were used, without showing proper concern for the sorrow, suffering and death brought upon countless millions of people, and for the destruction wreaked upon cultures and civilizations. We feel that it is only fair to ask: “Is their stand at this late date taken only because it is obvious that nuclear proliferation is so extensive that a nuclear war threatens their own existence? Is conventional war acceptable because the amount of death and destruction is somewhat less than that caused by nuclear war? We think the statement of nuclear physicist Harold M. Agnew bears repeating: “I think they are hypocrites in that they seem to be accepting that conventional war is O.K. and nuclear war isn’t. For the first time in history, because of the power of nuclear weapons, those who make the decisions to get involved in war are equally at risk with the young people who traditionally are sent off to execute the elders’ decisions. So the churches and all the other decision-makers’ wine cellars, material wealth and other holdings are no longer immune in the event of a nuclear war. We’re all in it together.”​—ED.

Watching the World

To End World Hunger

● “It is terrible, absolutely mindless,” said George Ignatieff, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and NATO. “Hundreds of children die every minute. But instead of giving them the basics of life we spend more than a million dollars a minute on arms. And all we buy is more and more insecurity, more and more instability.” According to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the 1985 estimate for military spending around the world is $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000). Of that trillion, 10 to 15 percent could end world hunger, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Ten-Cent Miracle

● The discovery was hailed as “potentially the greatest medical advance of this century” by The Lancet of Britain. What was it? The cure for diarrhea, which takes the lives of five million children a year in Third World countries. The treatment, called ORT (oral rehydration therapy), consists of feeding a stricken child a mixture of salt, sugar, baking soda and potassium dissolved in water. Recovery is rapid. But very few Third World parents use ORT, even though a premeasured ORT packet costs only a dime. “We’ve discovered that without education, none of it works at all,” says Gail Smith, deputy executive director at UNICEF Canada in Toronto. “The governments involved have to commit themselves to do a massive promotional campaign, to sell the idea of ORT just the way we would sell a new soft drink. You need billboards, movie stars and catchy jingles on the radio. That’s what seems to work best.”

Spreading Deserts

● In 1977 a special United Nations conference mandated a program to halt the spread of deserts by the year 2000. But after six years, little progress has been made. “Only a few countries have managed to develop national plans,” and many schemes have failed “because they lacked community participation and support,” says a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Adding to the problem is the fact that “emphasis has been placed on measures to increase production, rather than on arresting desertification processes.” Meanwhile, spreading deserts threaten 35 percent of the earth’s land surface and a fifth of its people. The amount of farmland that is degraded annually​—now about 21 million hectares (52 million a.)​—rises each year. The worst areas affect 135 million people in Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South America.

New Drug Alarm

● “Smoking coca paste (the first product of the extraction from the coca bush leaf) is now endemic in Peru and Bolivia and spreading across the continent,” says a report in The Journal of Toronto, Canada. Experts fear large-scale importers will soon include North America. “People in the United States and Canada must understand that cocaine sulphate (coca paste) is far more dangerous and far more addictive than cocaine hydrochloride [the purified white powder],” says Bolivian cocaine expert Dr. Nils Noya. Citing cases of people he knew who seemed to be able to limit their intake of cocaine hydrochloride, Noya warned: “With coca paste, such control does not exist. As soon as you become addicted, there is no possibility of your giving it up​—ever—​unless you have a really special personality.” Addiction takes two weeks, sometimes only four or five days. Addicts young and old​—with little desire to eat—​look like cadavers. Furthermore, says the report, “coca paste is laughably cheap; enough for one smoke costs 20c.”

Men Beat Machines

● After ten years of field experience, road-building experts concluded that labor gangs in the Third World can construct rural roads made of gravel just as well as fleets of bulldozers, graders and compactors can, reports New Scientist. Furthermore, labor-based methods are economically sound “wherever wages are below $4 a day, which probably covers over 80 per cent of the developing world,” explained Dr. Geoff Edmonds of the ILO (International Labour Office) at a seminar held in London. Though many engineers regard the use of manual labor as technologically backward, he says the pick-and-shovel approach would create employment, reduce import bills and give greater self-reliance for developing countries.

Computers Fizzle

● Sales of home computers priced under $1,000 have dipped 20 to 30 percent below last year’s level, say many manufacturers and retailers. “The bloom is off the rose in the computer field,” concludes analyst Harry Edelson. Why the drop in an industry that was formerly doubling and tripling in sales each year? According to The New York Times, manufacturers now figure that marketing didn’t sufficiently emphasize the practical value of these computers and that “gadget fans” made up many of the early buyers. “People have discovered that you can balance a checkbook by hand much faster than you can enter all that information in a computer,” adds an official of a large chain store. But while sales of inexpensive computers has dipped, more expensive and powerful computers are selling well. Says the chairman of a large computer company, “The buyer is becoming more sophisticated and wants a more meaningful machine.”

Sick Sea

● Nearly a quarter of Mediterranean beaches are unsafe for bathing, according to a United Nations survey of 700 beaches in 14 countries. Also, shellfish were unsafe to eat in 48 out of 50 areas that were sampled in four countries. Another UN study warned that pregnant women should not eat too much tuna fish from the Mediterranean. Why all these problems? There is too much pollution entering the Mediterranean Sea, either as sewage or as industrial waste.

Poor Mates

● The type of people who decide to live together prior to marriage do not attend church services as frequently as do others, do not have as strong a belief in traditional marital roles and are less committed to marital permanence. That is what sociologists Alfred DeMaris of Auburn University and Gerald Leslie of the University of Florida found after interviewing 544 recently married couples. Psychology Today summarizes the conclusions of these two researchers by saying that “those who cohabit [prior to marriage] are probably the least likely to conform to traditional marriage conventions and, therefore, the most likely to be dissatisfied with their marriages.”

Kiddie-Vitamin Alert

● Vitamins for children come in many shapes, sizes and colors. But these products are coming under increasing scrutiny in the United States. Over 130,000 children under age five were reportedly treated in emergency rooms last year because of ingesting vitamins that look like candy, and 14 percent of them had to be hospitalized. Newspaper writer Joe Graedon emphasizes the need for parents to keep these vitamins out of the reach of children, adding: “It won’t hurt to start teaching youngsters that vitamins are not candy.”

Jump-Starting Your Car

● Charging a dead battery with a jumper cable running from a healthy battery is a common experience for some car owners. But watch out! “About 20,000 people in the United States were treated in hospitals last year for injuries related to car battery accidents,” reports The Globe and Mail of Toronto. Obviously, people should stand clear of the batteries. But what is the best way to connect the jumper cables? “For most cars, which have negative grounds,” says the report, “first connect the positive terminals of the two batteries, then the negative terminal of the healthy battery. Make the final connection on the engine block of the disabled car​—NOT the negative battery pole.”

Space Junk

● Some 3,800 pieces of man-made junk are now circling the earth, according to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). Two thirds of this space-age garbage​—nonfunctioning space probes and satellites, discarded rocket boosters, oxygen cylinders, broken solar panels, and so forth—​will circle indefinitely 22,300 miles (36,000 km) above the earth. The other third, 120 to 300 miles (200 to 500 km) from the earth, will circle until they are pulled down by the earth’s gravity and burn up in the atmosphere. The number that survive and hit the earth is unknown. Says Time magazine: “The probability of space rubble hitting a person is so small that Lloyds of London considers the odds impossible to calculate.” Yet five crewmen on a Japanese freighter are said to have been struck and seriously injured by wreckage from a Soviet spacecraft in 1969. Scientists are now considering methods to collect the debris and tow it to special junkyards in space, lest it damage functioning satellites and spacecraft.

Giant Bee Found

● Long thought to be extinct, the giant bee of Indonesia, Chalicodoma pluto, has been found alive and thriving. Several colonies of the inch-and-a-half (4-cm) long bees​—15 times larger than the common honeybee—​were recently discovered living in termite nests on three Indonesian islands. Further distinguishing the bees are their huge beetlelike jaws​—used to punch holes in the strong termite nests and gather materials to build protective nests inside. The giant bee had not been seen since 1859 when specimens were found.

Too Much to Read

● How much scientific information is published annually? The SCI (Science Citation Index) of the Institute of Scientific Information lists 540,000 scientific articles, reviews, and so forth, for the year 1982. If each was five pages long on the average, the yearly information would require 2.7 million pages. However, the SCI registers only the most important scientific material. If it included only a fifth of the information produced worldwide, 13.5 million pages would have been produced​—corresponding to almost a thousand meters (over half a mile) of shelves full of literature. States the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat: “If you start today to read through all the scientific information published last year, and you read 20 pages an hour, day and night, your task will be finished in the year 2050.”

Wrong Numbers

● People are often a bit dismayed when they receive their phone bills, but none have probably been more shocked than customers whose monthly bills this year exceeded $100,000. The bill for a woman in New York State totaled $109,505 and was so bulky that it had to be delivered by truck in five bundles. A Washington, D.C., man was billed $194,657 for over 15,000 long-distance calls​—1,500 of which were made on one day! And a Michigan group, whose monthly bill is usually only a few hundred dollars, received a 3,000-page bill of almost $321,000! Fortunately, no one had to pay those amounts​—the result of cheaters fraudulently making long-distance credit-card calls. Just how the thieves got and distributed the victims’ credit cards and telephone numbers was unknown. Aside from lost or stolen cards, numbers can be overheard or found scribbled on walls of phone booths. As reported in U.S.News & World Report, credit-card holders are now being asked to stipulate how many calls they will make a month and will be notified when that number is exceeded.

Better Health and Longer Life​—How?

That question is answered in an authoritative way in the book Happiness​—How to Find It. “Where Can You Find Guidance?” “Money Problems​—What Help?” and “Sex​—Which Advice Really Works?” are other chapters that can direct you to a healthier, happier life now and in the future. Order today. Only $1, postpaid.

Please send, postpaid, the hardcover, 192-page book Happiness​—How to Find It. I enclose $1 (U.S.). (For price in other countries, please contact local Watch Tower Society office.)

Teach Children With Tape Recordings

The minds of children are like sponges. They absorb what they hear, and they repeat what they hear. How fine it is when they want to listen to what is wholesome and beneficial! Parents who have obtained the cassette tapes of My Book of Bible Stories are now enjoying this experience. The tapes of this marvelous publication really hold young ones’ attention, as a mother from New York State explains:

“My 17-month-old son loves to listen to them. When the reading stops at the end of the tape, he will start complaining and pointing to the tape recorder for more.

“My daughter, who has just turned three, has benefited greatly from them. She can tell the experience of David and Goliath; she even gruffs up her voice when Goliath is supposed to be speaking, just as the speaker on the tape does. And she can tell me so many more of the stories, which surprises me each day.

“Now when I read My Book of Bible Stories to them, my 17-month-old son will listen, and my three-year-old daughter will say many of the sentences with me. All because she remembers from My Book of Bible Stories tapes.”

Since the tapes of the 116 Bible accounts of My Book of Bible Stories give the listener an idea of what the Bible is all about, what a truly marvelous way this is to teach young ones! The album with the four cassettes is only $8.

Please send, postpaid, the brown vinyl album with the four cassette tapes of My Book of Bible Stories. I enclose $8 (U.S.). (For price in other countries, please contact local Watch Tower Society office.)