The Watchtower — February 1, 1981

Page Two

OUR COVER: Tobacco smoke​—does it hurt people physically and spiritually more than most think? The following pages show how the quality of love is also involved

What Smoking Does to the Smoker

The ad image is clean and cool. A sparkling mountain lake is pictured with a pack of cigarettes pointed straight at you, the reader. This type of advertising is quite effective. It associates smoking with pleasant sensations. Each year billions of dollars are spent trying to link smoking with the desirable things in life. But what is behind the image?

FACTS ABOUT SMOKING

In 1979, the Canadian Lung Association sobered many when it flatly stated: “Each year 50,000 Canadians die prematurely from the effects of smoking. Many more live on with crippled lungs and overstrained hearts.”

In 1979, the surgeon general of the United States, Dr. Julius B. Richmond, issued a massive report citing “overwhelming proof” that smoking is dangerous to health. The report estimated that, every year, smoking kills about 350,000 Americans. Also, Britain’s undersecretary of state for health, Sir George Young, recently said that each year smoking causes 50,000 deaths in Britain.

How are these great numbers of deaths calculated? Basically, it is by comparing the death rates of smokers and nonsmokers. Of a comprehensive study involving over a million persons, the Encyclopedia Americana commented: “For every 100 deaths of nonsmokers during a period of observation, 168 deaths occurred among a similar and comparable group of cigarette smokers; that is, there were 68 excess deaths.”

But is such evidence conclusive? Yes, it is. “There is no controversy about the facts,” observes the Canadian Lung Association. “Thousands of careful studies have documented them. No major medical or health agency questions them.” Science 80, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, concurs: “The evidence that cigarettes shorten life is overwhelming; the causal connection is as firmly established as any in medicine.”

Conclusive studies have been made possible by the great number of persons who have smoked most of their lives. “In retrospect,” notes John Cairns, a molecular biologist and expert on cancer, “it is almost as if Western societies had set out to conduct a vast and fairly well controlled experiment in carcinogenesis [the production of cancer], bringing about several million deaths and using their own people as the experimental animals.”

Yes, millions of lives​—many, many millions—​have been cut short by smoking. “Medical studies,” explains The World Book Encyclopedia, “show that the average life expectancy of a smoker is three to four years less than that of a nonsmoker. The life expectancy of a heavy smoker​—a person who smokes two or more packages of cigarettes a day—​may be as much as eight years shorter than that of a nonsmoker.”

In efforts to minimize the dangers, so-called “safer” cigarettes are now marketed. But are they really safe? How is it that smoking harms the smoker?

A SAFE CIGARETTE?

The nicotine and particulate matter of cigarette smoke​—loosely called tar—​are apparently the principal disease-causing agents. So tar and nicotine have been greatly reduced in cigarette smoke. In fact, the tar has been practically eliminated in some brands, something cigarette ads often emphasize. Low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes have sometimes been heralded as “safe.” A typical front-page headline in the Atlanta Constitution proclaimed: “Pack a Day of Some Cigarets May Be Safe.”

But what are the facts? For one thing, low-tar cigarettes have flavorants added. “If there weren’t any flavorants in any of these low-tar and low-nicotine cigarets, you would taste nothing,” explained Peter Micciche, a chief tobacco chemist. Yet what are these flavorants? They are ‘trade secrets’ known only by the tobacco companies and their flavor suppliers. Yet these chemical flavorants could well be dangerous to health, as one analyst said: “You don’t know if some of these things are worse than tar.”

Also, evidence reveals that, when smoking low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes, smokers smoke more cigarettes and hold the smoke in their lungs longer. They do this to satisfy their craving for nicotine, which is a drug that can be more addictive than heroin. Thus, due to such adjusted smoking habits, smokers may obtain from low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes nearly as much of these harmful substances as from other cigarettes.

Furthermore, the most dangerous component of cigarette smoke may be the carbon monoxide rather than the tar or nicotine. And some low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes have even more carbon monoxide emissions than do standard brands!

Two Danish investigators, Professor Poul Astrup and Dr. Knud Kjeldsen, published their findings regarding the effects of carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke. On the basis of a mass of experimental evidence, they concluded that “carbon monoxide, and not nicotine, is the toxic compound of major importance for the increased risk of smokers to develop atherosclerosis and heart disease.” And it should be noted that most smoking-caused deaths evidently occur due to blood vessel and heart disease, and not cancer.

Common sense should indicate that inhaling cigarette smoke would adversely affect a person’s respiratory tract. And evidence proves that it does. The hairlike cilia inside the bronchial tubes are damaged so that they are unable to move back and forth to sweep out germs and dirt. Also, the smoke reduces the ability of the lungs to clear themselves of inhaled impurities. This means that smokers run a greater risk of disease from harmful airborne substances.

Really, it is dishonest to imply that any cigarette is “safe.” As the top health officer in the United States, Dr. Julius Richmond said: “There is no data anywhere in the large body of scientific evidence on the dangers of smoking that holds out any hope that there is such a thing as a safe cigaret or a safe level of smoking.” Dr. Richmond concluded: ‘The only safe cigarette is an unlit cigarette.”

But even if you are not a smoker, are you safe from the ill effects of other people’s smoke?

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HUMANS THEMSELVES HAVE SERVED AS EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS PROVING THAT SMOKING IS DEADLY

Can the Smoking of Others Hurt You?

Millions of persons suffer serious, and often fatal, harm because someone else smoked. For example, if a mother smokes, her unborn baby is often damaged. In fact, it may be killed even before it can be born.

“How can that be?” you may ask. “How can the smoke hurt the child in the protected environment inside its mother?”

HOW THE UNBORN ARE HURT

Almost immediately after inhaling, nicotine from the smoke enters the smoking mother’s bloodstream. This powerful drug constricts the blood vessels and arteries in her uterus, thus depriving the baby of oxygen and nutrients. At the same time, carbon monoxide easily passes through the placenta to the baby. It replaces some of the vital oxygen in the baby’s blood that is needed for normal growth and development.

Of interest in this regard is a study made by English doctors at Oxford University. They said that when its mother smokes, the baby can “be seen to gasp in the womb, . . . almost certainly suffering a temporary oxygen shortage.”

The sad results are well documented. “Smoking during pregnancy can cause congenital malformations so severe that either the fetus dies, or the infant does shortly after birth,” Family Health magazine observes. Babies born of smoking mothers face a third higher risk of dying soon after birth. And they are twice as likely to be smaller than normal at birth.

In addition, the likelihood of “crib death” (sudden infant death syndrome) is increased when mothers smoke​—by 52 percent researchers say. Apparently babies born to mothers who smoke have subtle abnormalities in their brain stem, and this may interfere with breathing and lead to sudden death.

If smoking by its mother can hurt an unborn baby, how is a child affected by the smoke after it is born?

EFFECT ON YOUNG CHILDREN

Actually, parents who smoke are indirectly forcing their children to smoke. “The effect on young children of parental smoking is estimated at about the same as if the child smoked three to five cigarettes a day,” explained lung specialist Dr. Alfred Munzer. And for the sensitive lungs of a young child, that is a lot of poison! Surely, as a parent, you would be very unhappy to learn that someone was making your child smoke five cigarettes a day!

But are children really hurt by the smoke of smoking parents? The Journal of the American Medical Association summarized the medical research on this question, saying:

“Infants whose mothers smoke are more likely to be admitted to hospitals with bronchitis or pneumonia than are infants whose mothers do not smoke. Another study showed that the chances of pneumonia or bronchitis developing in an infant are almost doubled if both parents smoke. . . . Other studies showed that the frequency of respiratory symptoms in children is directly proportional to the amount of tobacco smoke in the child’s environment. Also, children exposed to tobacco smoke have increases in heart rate and blood pressure that are similar to those changes that occur in smokers.”

A smoker may, for the pleasure he feels he derives from smoking, choose to damage his own health. But do you consider it morally right that he also damages the health of his children?

EFFECT ON ADULTS

What if you are a nonsmoking adult? Are you harmed by the smoke of others?

When you sit near a person who is smoking, the effect can be almost the same as though you were smoking. “Studies have shown,” noted Today’s Health, “that since the average smoker actively smokes his cigarette for only a small portion of the time it is lit, a nonsmoker may actually be forced against his will to breathe almost as much carbon monoxide, tar and nicotine as the active smoker sitting next to him.”

Dr. John L. Pool commented regarding the effect of only a slight increase of carbon monoxide in the air. He said that when carbon monoxide levels are “above eight parts per million (clean air has one to four), there is a definite decrease in oxygen reaching heart and lungs.” How much carbon monoxide may there be in the air of a smoke-filled room?

Philip Abelson, as editor of Science, wrote in an editorial of that magazine: “In a poorly ventilated, smoke-filled room, concentrations of carbon monoxide can easily reach several hundred parts per million, thus exposing smokers and nonsmokers present to a toxic hazard.” Such levels of carbon monoxide are far above the legal limits permitted.

Yet can this smoke really harm you? Indeed it can! Perhaps breathing the smoke makes you feel sick. Smokers should not be surprised by this, since, when smoking for the first time, many of them became sick, even vomiting.

The fact is, for persons with heart disease, breathing the air in a smoke-filled room can be dangerous. “It is a definite health hazard.” That was the conclusion reached from a federal study directed by Dr. Wilbert S. Aronow in California.

A more recent study of 2,100 middle-aged men and women reveals that even healthy adults are harmed when they are forced regularly to breathe the smoke of others. These nonsmokers were found to suffer the same kind of damage to small airways deep inside the lungs as do smokers. “This is permanent damage occurring in people who have chosen not to smoke,” explained physiologist James R. White.

Further emphasizing the danger of being forced to breathe tobacco smoke is a study in Erie County, Pennsylvania. According to the New York Times, this study “revealed that the nonsmoking wives of men who smoke die on the average four years younger than women whose husbands are also nonsmokers.”

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS

The evidence is conclusive: If you are a nonsmoker who must breathe the smoke of others, it can hurt you. As time goes on, this is becoming a generally recognized fact. Thus most states in the United States and hundreds of cities have some kind of ban on smoking in public facilities. Also, some companies restrict smoking to designated areas. And due to losses in productivity from smoking, a number of employers have offered employees bonuses of hundreds of dollars if they will quit.

Many lawsuits have been filed by nonsmokers in an effort to seek relief from the pollution caused by smokers. In one case, the judge noted that smoking had been banned in a certain company’s computer room because the equipment malfunctioned when exposed to cigarette smoke. So he ruled that, if smoking could be curtailed for a machine, it could be also for the sake of humans.

Some smokers now feel harassed because of such legislation against their habit. They consider it unjustified. As one said: “Smoking, after all, is not a sin.”

Yet is this really true, that it is not a sin? Can a person smoke and really please God and love his neighbor?

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POPULAR MAGAZINES PUSH TOBACCO USE

Most popular magazines today encourage tobacco use by filling their pages with advertisements that extol the pleasures of smoking. Rather than being exceptions, major women’s magazines are literally loaded with such advertisements.

Consider just one example, “Redbook” magazine of December 1980. Of its 180 pages, it has a total of 14 pages of cigarette advertisements. There are 11 full-page ads for 11 different brands of cigarettes, two half-page ads for another two brands of cigarettes and one double-page spread advertising yet another brand of cigarettes. But this is not unusual. Other women’s magazines devote similar space to pushing deadly tobacco.

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SMOKING DEPRIVES A DEVELOPING BABY OF OXYGEN AND NUTRIENTS NEEDED FOR NORMAL GROWTH

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SMOKING IS DAMAGING TO PEOPLE AS WELL

Can You Love Your Neighbor and Smoke?

Humans who smoke not only foul the air that others must breathe but also damage their own health. They themselves would be healthier if they stopped smoking. And they would also save a lot of money by not polluting​—up to $700 a year or so just for the cost of the cigarettes. So the only reasonable course for a smoker is to stop smoking.

Consider the amount of pollution in the smoke that curls off the burning end of a cigarette. It is much more toxic than the smoke inhaled by the smoker. Sidestream smoke contains twice the amount of tar and nicotine, five times more carbon monoxide and 50 times more ammonia than mainstream smoke, not to mention other poisons.

The burning of 10 cigarettes in a closed automobile will raise the carbon monoxide level to 100 parts per million, far above the exposure permitted by United States federal air-quality standards. “At a typical campus party,” noted the New York Times, “the level of particulates in the air from cigarette smoke is 40 times above the United States air quality standard.” And, as observed above, the harm done to those regularly forced to breathe such smoke has been well established.

CONSISTENT WITH NEIGHBOR LOVE?

The Bible says that to “love your neighbor as yourself” is “the kingly law,” thus emphasizing this law’s importance. (Jas. 2:8) Would it be showing love to your neighbor willfully to throw garbage onto his property or to spit in his face? “Of course not!” you may say. Would doing these things to your neighbor be a sin?

The definition of sin helps to answer this question. “Sin is a breaking of the law”​—God’s law—​the Bible says. (1 John 3:4, Today’s English Version) So willfully to impose on your neighbor something as objectionable as spit in his face or garbage on his property would be a sin. It would be a violation of “the kingly law” that says, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”

But how does this relate to smoking? Dr. Isaac Asimov, in an editorial in Cancer News, very forcefully showed how. “When someone smokes in my presence,” he said, “his vice is not private. His foul emanations find their way into my lungs and bloodstream. His stench becomes my stench and clings to me. And, he raises my chance of heart disease and lung cancer.”

In answer to smokers who may claim the freedom to smoke in the presence of others, Dr. Asimov said: “If he feels he must smoke and that by objecting I am depriving him of his freedom, then would he be willing to bear with me if I feel I must kick him in the groin and that by objecting he would deprive me of my freedom? Let’s put it this way: Your freedom to smoke ends where my lungs begin.”

No question about it, kicking someone in the groin, spitting in his face, or throwing garbage on his property is not consistent with neighbor love. Neither is smoking. It is infringing on the rights of others​—hurting them rather than loving them. Yes, smoking is a sin.

However, a smoker may explain: “I realize that smoking can be harmful. That’s why I never smoke around people.” So, if one only smokes privately, is it sin? No one else is harmed.

SIN TO SMOKE PRIVATELY?

Yet consider: The smoker’s own life is adversely affected. And who really is the source of our lives? “With you [Jehovah God] is the source of life,” the Bible answers. “He himself gives to all persons life and breath.” (Ps. 36:9; Acts 17:25) Yes, our life is really a marvelous gift from God.

How do we show appreciation for God’s gift of life? By doing what can ruin it? Of course not! Willfully doing so obviously would be wrong. In such a context, examine the statement of Joseph Califano, former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare: “Today there can be no doubt that smoking is truly slow-motion suicide.”

Deliberately destroying human life is wrong​—it is a sin. The Bible commands Christians not even to pollute their bodies. “Let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh,” it urges. (2 Cor. 7:1) For a smoker to obey this command, he must rid himself of the tobacco habit, since it is indeed defiling. It defiles the smoker’s fingers, teeth, breath, clothes​—practically everything with which it comes in contact.

But what if a smoker wants to quit, yet is so addicted that he cannot? Will God mercifully understand that, since Jesus Christ said, ‘The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak’?​—Matt. 26:41.

EXCUSED DUE TO WEAKNESS?

No question about it, to quit smoking can be extremely difficult. “It was much easier to quit heroin than cigarettes,” addicts have said. The withdrawal symptoms last much longer with tobacco. “For most, craving persists at least a month,” observes the magazine Science 80, “and for about a fifth it continues five to nine years after they quit.”

This helps explain why many quit smoking for a while, but then start again. Nine out of 10 smokers want to stop. But to stay off tobacco is a continual day-in, day-out battle, sometimes lasting for years. Millions have won the battle. Tens of millions have fought and lost. If a person has tried to quit and has failed, is it wise to assume that God will understand and forgive this shortcoming?

A source of the problem is that a person may enjoy smoking. Yet that does not excuse the practice when God condemns it. The Bible says that, “rather than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin,” Moses wisely chose to serve God. (Heb. 11:24-26) God expects his servants to fight against and, with his help, overcome practices that are contrary to his laws.

Consider fornication as an example. It is a practice that may seem enjoyable for a time. And when practiced, a person’s craving for sex with a variety of partners can be as strong as any urge for a cigarette. Yet fornication is breaking God’s law, and willful, unrepentant practicers of fornication will not be favored with God’s gift of everlasting life. Neither will those who continue to smoke.​—Heb. 13:4; Rom. 6:23.

It takes real effort to be obedient to God’s laws. This was also true for God’s Son, Jesus Christ. He underwent the most extreme suffering, eventually dying a horrible death. Yet he remained faithful to God. For some persons, the agonies experienced in order to quit smoking may seem just as difficult to endure as the sufferings Christ underwent. Yet the tobacco habit can be overcome. How?

How to Stop Smoking

First of all, a smoker must really want to stop. He needs strong motivation. Jacquelyn Rogers, the founder of Smokenders, an organization to help smokers to quit, says that she is in the motivation business. “We make people believe they can stop,” she says. Many smokers fail to quit because of doubt​—they doubt their ability to succeed.

Can the various antismoking programs and chemical preparations aid in quitting? Evidently they have helped some. “I couldn’t have stopped without help,” said one heavy smoker. But as Dr. Neil Solomon, who gave this smoker injections of vitamins, minerals and novocaine, acknowledged regarding the treatment: “There’s nothing magical about it. If you don’t want to stop, it won’t work.”

THE WILL TO STOP

Yes, success depends almost wholly on the smoker’s determination and will to stop. Without this determination, no antismoking remedy will succeed. But with it, a person can quit without paying for some expensive antismoking remedy. Ninety percent of ex-smokers quit without any of such aids. As World Health magazine said: “The major element in success or failure is and will always be the smoker’s willpower. The rest is just trimming.” But how can a person obtain the will to stop?

For many, constantly reminding themselves that smoking is deadly has provided them the will. As a south Miami physician, who admits she liked to smoke, said: “Fear is the only reason I don’t smoke.” Some antismoking programs cultivate this fear, emphasizing the terrible damage smoking does to the body. Psychologist David M. Fineman described the process of negative imagery that helped him, as well as others, to quit: “I used to inhale a cigarette and picture the instant damage it was doing to my body. I consciously tried to summon up these images.”

Such an approach, however, does not provide sufficient motivation for some to stop. As a New York housewife explained: “If I had gone to a doctor and he told me that I would die from cancer unless I gave up smoking I would not have quit. Smoking was the main thing in my life, more important to me than food. I smoked almost constantly. I would even walk around the house with an ashtray in my hand.” What stronger motivation can help severely addicted smokers to quit?

This New York housewife started to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Yet learning that smoking was against God’s law did not, in itself, provide her sufficient determination to stop. “I wanted to stop,” she said, “but I was so addicted. I just did not have the strength to do so.”

She explained what eventually made her determined to stop. “My husband accepted the Bible truths he was learning, quit smoking and was baptized. I was so grateful! I did not want to do anything to hinder our serving Jehovah God acceptably and gaining life in his new system of things, so I determined to stop also.” And she did!

AIDS IN QUITTING

There are aids available to bolster your will to quit. Most important is the aid that God can give. The New York housewife mentioned earlier explained: “I prayed to Jehovah incessantly and with his help held to my resolve never to smoke again.” Yet some pray but still cannot stop. What is the problem?

It could be the timing of their prayers. One smoker prayed in the morning and at night for strength, and, after weakening and taking a smoke, he would pray to Jehovah in order to tell Him that he was sorry for what he had done. A Christian friend asked him: “Isn’t the time that you really need God’s help the moment that you are reaching for a smoke?” When the man began praying at that moment, he gained the help to stop smoking!

Supportive friends, especially ones who themselves have conquered the smoking habit and can therefore affirm that it can be done, are valuable aids. So seek out such friends. Let them know of your decision to stop smoking, and ask for their support.

What is the best way to stop? Is it by reducing the number of cigarettes consumed each day, thereby gradually quitting? Or is it by setting a day and stopping abruptly on that day?

Contrary to what many think, a comprehensive study of ex-smokers showed that smokers are better able to overcome withdrawal symptoms by stopping suddenly. Researchers Saul M. Shiffman and Murray E. Jarvik of the University of California at Los Angeles explain that cutting down slowly may actually “prolong their [the smokers’] agony by intermittently reinforcing their symptoms and smoking behavior. Typically, this chronic state of withdrawal will lead to relapse and return to baseline rates of smoking.”

The first few days after quitting may be the most difficult. So, as an aid, think about the benefits of not smoking. One is the money saved. It can amount to quite a lot! “I’ve now been putting $2 a day into a coffee can​—the money I would have previously spent on cigarets,” wrote one man. “I figure in the next 12 months it should add up to more than $700, enough to buy my wife a fur coat or something.”

With strong determination, many smokers have quit for a week or so, enduring the initial agony of withdrawal. But, as World Health observes, “a difficult phase begins, usually starting between the first and the third week. The first backslidings occur then.” So the battle needs to continue!

Whenever you feel a need for a cigarette, breathe deeply two or three times. Keep oral substitutes handy. Pop into your mouth things like raisins, nuts and sunflower seeds, or eat carrot and celery sticks, or chew gum. Drink more fluids​—wholesome drinks such as fruit or vegetable juices or just plain water. Also, arrange for a more balanced diet.

Getting more exercise can be a real aid. Perhaps try activities such as jogging, tennis, cycling or swimming. Stretch a lot. Get plenty of rest. Go to bed early so as to avoid nervous fatigue. Concentrate on learning to relax. If you really want to, you can stop smoking!

WHY STOPPING IS WORTH THE EFFORT

The benefits from stopping are many. They include improved health and longer life prospects, but there are many more. One ex-smoker noted: “I have discovered again all the natural and simple pleasures that exist, that of taste, for instance. Walking in the woods, I realize the odours no longer smell all the same​—there’s a whole variety of them; it’s like entering a brand new environment.”

The greatest benefit, however, is in the realization that by quitting you are ridding yourself of a habit that displeases God, as well as many of your neighbors. If you want help to stop smoking because you desire the favor of Jehovah God, write to the publishers of The Watchtower. They will be pleased to send to your home a qualified minister who will be happy to provide you with further Scriptural information and moral support to help you to quit.

Health Dangers of Tobacco Suppressed

In a letter published in “The Journal of the American Medical Association,” Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan wrote: “Because they are so dependent on the income from cigarette advertisements, many popular magazines downplay the impact tobacco has on health. Having reviewed a number of major women’s magazines, I have not found one important story on tobacco and health.”

Dr. Whelan explained that she was asked to write an article entitled “Protect Your Man From Cancer” for a widely read women’s beauty and fashion magazine. “I was paid in full for the piece,” she notes, “but the editor frankly explained to me that they could use only a small part of it because of my frequent mention of tobacco and the fact that they ran three full-page cigarette ads each month. On other occasions, I have been told up front by the editor of a publication, ‘no columns or stories on tobacco.’”​—November 7, 1980, page 2045.

Changes Come to the Islands of Yap

The rugged, mountainous islands of Yap have seen many changes since their discovery by Portuguese explorer Diego DeRocha in 1526. Situated in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific 4,400 miles (7,080 km) west of Hawaii, they are surrounded by coral reefs and peaceful, blue waters.

Yap’s four major islands and several smaller ones have a land area of 39 square miles (101 sq. km) and a population somewhat under 3,000. Yapese, the official language, is spoken nowhere else in the world. Evidently, the islands originally were settled by immigrants from Indonesia.

Basically, the populace of Yap has the ingenuity ‘to live off the land,’ with such foods as coconuts, taro, breadfruit, papaya, bananas, yams and other vegetables in abundant supply. Fish, lobsters and crabs are plentiful, and some persons hunt pigeons and large fruit bats. But the Yapese diet is changing to include many canned foods imported from the United States and Japan.

CHANGES THROUGH THE YEARS

In the past 105 years, Yap has had four major political changes. The Spanish ruled from 1874 until they sold Yap to the Germans in 1899. When World War I began in 1914, the Japanese navy occupied Yap. After that war, the League of Nations mandated the rule of these islands to the Japanese civilian administration. Since 1947, the Yap District has been administered by the United States under a trusteeship agreement with the United Nations.

The traditional dress for Yapese women is simply one or more long grass skirts. While going topless is acceptable, short skirts or shorts are considered improper attire. Men generally wear loin cloths called thu’s. But there have been changes. Although traditional dress is worn on the outer islands, among the younger generation on the main island of Yap it is rapidly being replaced by Western styles.

There have also been changes in the use of money. While United States currency now is primarily used in trade, the Yapese invented and still occasionally utilize stone money. This money is cut to resemble the shape of the full moon. It has a center hole through which a pole can be passed so that the money can be carried on men’s shoulders. Some stone money is 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter, and in 1929 there were said to be 13,281 pieces of it in Yap.

THE “GOOD NEWS” REACHES YAP

Yap was first visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1964, when some Bible literature was placed in the main district center. Then, in August 1968, Jack Watson and his wife arrived as missionaries from Hawaii. Real obstacles confronted them, since none of the Bible had yet been translated into Yapese and practically no language instruction material was available. So they had to learn Yapese through listening, observation and trial and error.

After staying in the hotel for many weeks, the Watsons rented a home in the main district center. As some interest developed, meetings were held next door, in a park-pavilion-type facility. It had no walls, a sharply pitched thatched roof and a dirt “floor”​—all quite appropriate for the tropical heat and humidity. In February 1969, another couple joined them in the missionary work.

Soon intense opposition arose from the local Catholic priest and the German Lutheran minister. They circulated a brochure against Jehovah’s Witnesses, warning their members not to listen to them. The clergy were even successful in getting the missionaries evicted from their home, and in intimidating other homeowners so they would not rent to them.

Literally having been put out into the streets, the missionaries contacted the island’s highest chief, who originally had befriended them. He offered the missionaries a one-room shack. But when their kerosene icebox and beds were moved in, the floor collapsed. Undaunted, the two Witnesses propped it up and lived there, putting their wives in the hotel.

Meetings were held under a big tree where much stone money was kept. These huge pieces of money served as backrests during the meetings. After several months, the missionaries rented a large concrete house that, in addition to providing accommodations for them, furnished a place for meetings.

Bible studies were conducted by using the English edition of The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life and explaining its contents in Yapese. Soon many began to progress spiritually. However, quite a number had moral and marital entanglements to correct before they could participate in house-to-house witnessing or be baptized.

Zakarias Sulog, a public works supervisor, was among the first to have Bible studies with one of the missionaries. Courageously, he and his wife and two daughters withstood religious opposition and community ridicule. Since his baptism in 1973, Brother Sulog has seen his daughters enter the pioneer service as full-time Kingdom proclaimers. His wife also shares in the pioneer work from time to time. He serves as an elder in the Yap Congregation.

Another early Bible study was conducted with John Ralad, the owner of a construction company. Besides religious opposition, he faced pressures from relatives and village chiefs. However, as Ralad continued learning Bible truths, he shared these with his friends and neighbors. Due to his Bible-trained conscience, prior to baptism he refused to complete the building of a certain church. Now he also serves as an elder in the congregation.

ADOPTING SCRIPTURAL VIEWS

Traces of the traditional seven-level Yapese caste system remain today. Traditionally, persons of low and high castes could not eat the same food. Also, lowcaste individuals were not allowed to go to certain places, and women were regarded as being lower than men. But among Jehovah’s Witnesses, Bible teachings have resulted in real changes.​—Matt. 23:8; Acts 10:34, 35.

Interested persons coming to the meetings admire the courage of supposedly “lower-caste” individuals who give Biblical instruction from the platform while “highcaste” chiefs sit in the audience and listen with humility. Many people are amazed that Jehovah’s servants enjoy picnics at which those of all different former castes have fellowship and meals together. The Witnesses here speak of “having one pot,” thus alluding to their unity and brotherhood on such occasions.​—Ps. 133:1; John 13:34, 35.

Another adjustment in behavior that individuals have made on becoming Witnesses is in connection with the Yapese custom of chewing betel nut, which produces a narcotic effect. They shun this unclean habit, in obedience to the principle of 2 Corinthians 7:1, which urges Christians to cleanse themselves “of every defilement of flesh and spirit.” Noticing that the teeth of Jehovah’s people are white in contrast with the reddish-orange tooth coloration of the majority who chew betel nuts, people often reproach the Witnesses for having white teeth. But the Witnesses have found joy in the strength Jehovah has given them to overcome unclean habits.

Naturally, many customs are Scripturally acceptable, and so are practiced by Witnesses as well. For example, customarily a marriage is culminated when the families of the bride and groom discuss it, give their approval and exchange stone and shell money as well as food. Both the community and the government recognize this as a legal marriage contract and so does the Christian congregation.

JEHOVAH’S NAME MADE KNOWN

Though poor materially, in 1975 Jehovah’s people in Yap built a fine Kingdom Hall with a seating capacity of up to 200 persons. They have a thriving congregation with a peak of 40 Kingdom publishers. Seven Witnesses are regular pioneers and the congregation has a strong evangelizing spirit.

Thus the name of Jehovah has become well known in Yap. And our prayer is that many more inhabitants of Yap will yet respond to God’s Word and make necessary spiritual changes in their lives.

Sounding the Divine Warning

“For then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.”​—Matt. 24:21, 22.

1, 2. (a) How has the world become one big neighborhood? (b) What are the dangerous consequences of all peoples being close neighbors?

Today all the world is one big neighborhood. By our speediest means of travel we could fly around the globe at its equator or over both the north and the south poles in less than one day. By international telephone lines or by radiophone we could, in a matter of minutes, be speaking with a neighbor in almost any other part of the earth. We can eat so many foreign kinds of foods, and for these we depend upon so many people in distant parts of the earth.

² Because of being so closely knit together, all humanity shares common dangers. Just 66 years ago, that is to say, within this one century, people in all quarters of the earth woke up to the reality of such a catastrophic thing as a world war. Twenty-one years after the worst global conflict ended the world entered into a wartime nightmare far worse. And now, 36 years after coming through that world upheaval, we are menaced with something even far more horrendous. No one can, for a fact, say: ‘Oh, what happens over there, so far away, cannot affect me here!’ To reason and speak in that way is a self-deception. We are now all close neighbors, but our acting so unneighborly is what creates a problem, yes, world danger. Voices are being raised in solemn warning.

3. (a) Why do observant persons believe the world to be in moral danger? (b) What is the attitude of worldly-wise persons about God?

³ Because of the bigness of it all, some doubters may ask, Is the whole world really in mortal danger? To this question observant persons who are by no means calamity howlers answer Yes! Their gloomy answer is based not just on what mankind of itself can do to itself. There is something vastly more serious than that for us to take into account. Is that really possible? Yes. How so? It is because of the Person to whom this earth and all animal and human life upon it belong. True, very few today care to take him into consideration. Worldly-wise persons of this scientifically advanced century think themselves to be too independent in thought as to believe in a Creator or to ask themselves, What does he have in mind? But the Creator is not so hardhearted as not to care about man’s plight. However, they brush him aside as if he did not exist or as being so far away as not to be involved or even interested.

4. (a) As earth’s owner, what concern does Jehovah have for his property? (b) What needs to be done to make the earth a pleasant place in which to live?

⁴ But should not a property owner be concerned about what belongs to him? He should want to keep it in the best state of repair. Especially so if his property is really valuable. That is the way our Creator feels about it. As to a state of repair, there is no denying the fact that the earth is being ruined today and is in danger of being ruined to a horrifying extent. It seems as if the time is already overdue for him to get rid of all those responsible for ruining his originally perfect property. By now the time when he should do this cleansing work ought to be near. He has had a book written about this. According to it, what does he purpose to do?

AN EARLIER SITUATION LIKE TODAY’S

5. When in the past were humans in a situation like that existing today?

⁵ It may surprise many to know that once before all mankind then living was in a like situation as all earth’s population finds itself today. At that time something occurred on a global scale. This was in the days of a man from whom all of us living today trace our descent. This common ancestor of ours was the man named Noah, the son of Lamech. Regarding Noah’s days the Creator’s inspired Book says: “In time Noah became father to three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. And the earth came to be ruined in the sight of the true God and the earth became filled with violence. So God saw the earth and, look! it was ruined, because all flesh had ruined its way on the earth.”​—Gen. 6:10-12.

6, 7. (a) In Noah’s day, what warning was sounded to the world? (b) How was it that the earth again became a peaceful place in which to live?

⁶ What occurred then to make this earth a peaceful, safe location in which to live? Did those violent ruiners of the earth engage in a global war and thus blot one another out? Was the warning that Noah was then commanded to give a warning about a man-made calamity that would be impossible for humanity to outlive? No! Instead, he sounded to mankind a divine warning, one that God had instructed him to give. It put all men on notice as to what God the Creator was about to do for the sake of a calm, safe earth on which decent people could enjoy living. God indicated to Noah that the people were not going to listen to him, and so Noah should build an ark, or floating chest, for himself and his family, eight human souls. On the foretold day of the year 2370 B.C.E., the global flood began. It was an “act of God.” Drowned mankind paid the penalty.

⁷ That ancient “act of God” worked good for all mankind. It gave the human race a fresh start from a righteous, God-fearing family, and this in an earth peaceful and safe for the time being.

A SIMILAR GLOBAL DESTRUCTION NEAR

8. (a) How did Jesus Christ draw a comparison between the days of Noah and today? (b) What event is close at hand, and so what needs to be done about it?

⁸ That was the only occasion previous to our time when all humanity was in danger of extinction. It prefigured our day when a world of billions of people is threatened. That is not our pessimistic human reasoning on matters, an extremist idea. It is no more overdrawn than that of a world-famous figure, a prophet greater than Noah. This was Jesus Christ. Pointing forward to our day, he said: “For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” (Matt. 24:37-39) According to Christ’s own prophecy about world conditions during the time of his unseen presence at the earth, our world situation since the year 1914 is like that of Noah’s day. Correspondingly, a similar “act of God” must be at hand. It is the time for the God-given warning to be sounded out to all imperiled mankind. The personal question is, Who will be like those who entered into the ark with Noah?

9. (a) Why do we have reason to believe that the foretold “great tribulation” is near? (b) Although “great tribulation” came upon Jerusalem in 70 C.E., why must the major fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy about “great tribulation” yet be future?

⁹ Even aside from what the Creator’s inspired Book, the Bible, has to say, we have reason to believe that this system of things is in its “time of the end.” Its last days have about run out. Its full end can be expected to arrive with a time of trouble, a “great tribulation,” surpassing the flood of Noah’s day in its spectacularness and destructiveness. That reference of Jesus to Noah’s day was part of his final prophecy given in the year 33 C.E. It extended his predictions beyond the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 C.E., yes, all the way down into our day. The destruction of that holy city was the climax of a “great tribulation” for the Jews in the Roman province of Judea in the Middle East. Evidently, though, Jesus must have had more in mind than Jerusalem’s destruction back there, when he said: “For then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now [the year 33 C.E.], no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.”​—Matt. 24:21, 22; Mark 13:19, 20.

10, 11. (a) How did the apostle Peter describe a coming global destruction? (b) What is the general attitude nowadays regarding such a global destruction by God?

¹⁰ Jesus’ disciple, the apostle Peter, prophetically coupled the end of the world in Noah’s day with the end of today’s system of things at the climax of this “time of the end.” (Dan. 12:4) In contrast with the downpour of waters in Noah’s day, Peter foretold a “fire” that would envelop not only the symbolic earth but also the symbolic heavens. (2 Pet. 3:5-12) In his comparison Peter did not bring into the picture the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, which occurred shortly after his death as a martyr.

¹¹ Back in Peter’s day the Christians believed in what is generally spoken of as “the end of the world.” (Matt. 24:3, Authorized Version) But how about today, 19 centuries later, particularly so among those who claim to be Christians or who are members of the churches of Christendom? Do they believe in such a thing? Hardly so! We have only to look at the way they act in chasing after the material things of this doomed world.

12. (a) What world catastrophe do responsible persons today now fear? (b) How do men propose to prevent a world holocaust?

¹² Yet, there are responsible persons today who do not base their predictions on the Bible at all but who are foretelling what amounts to the “end of the world.” They are warning us of its likelihood. This has been the case since the explosion of two atomic bombs at the close of World War II in 1945. Today there are nuclear bombs in the hands of nations called “the nuclear powers,” and these in such quantity that there could be an overkill of all creature life on earth a number of times, if that were possible for them. Even radiological bombs are mentioned in subdued voice. These would kill off all humans but would leave their lifeless material properties standing. But what purpose do still-standing buildings serve if there are no living people to occupy them? They would make up merely a “ghost city” or a “ghost world.” And who relishes the thought of such a thing? The danger is very real. The United Nations, now having 153 members, is looked to for preventing such a holocaust. But the United Nations, which includes all the Nuclear Powers, is a vain hope for staving off the human race’s annihilation by its own means.

13. (a) What life-and-death question needs to be answered? (b) Why do nonreligious persons have no satisfying answer, and is there one?

¹³ Who really can save mankind from self-destruction, suicide? Men who are by no means religious are now obliged to give serious consideration to that question. Because of disbelief in the Bible they can come up with no satisfying answer. They cannot point us to any savior. Does this mean that there is none? Happily, No!

ONLY SOURCE OF TRUE HOPE

14. Why is it reasonable to believe that the Creator has a purpose for the earth?

¹⁴ Scientists cannot prove that our earth and mankind upon it made themselves. There had to be a Creator. So how about him? As early as the 16th century before our Common Era he inspired the man of integrity named Job to state the scientific truth that He has hung our earth upon nothing in space, and so did He hang it there for nothing? (Job 26:7) Is it accidental that we find ourselves by the billions upon it? Was this a mistake or without purpose on his part? By now he has let this earth fairly brim with living creatures. Did he have in mind that all of today’s billions of human creatures should kill themselves off and leave our earth floating around in space like a dead planet? We cannot assign such foolishness to him in view of what he tells us.

15. (a) What is God’s purpose regarding the earth? (b) So what can we be confident that God will do soon?

¹⁵ He inspired the wise man Solomon, the son of King David, to write down in the Bible: “A generation [of mankind] is going, and a generation is coming; but the earth is standing even to time indefinite.” (Eccl. 1:4) He also inspired Isaiah to write: “This is what Jehovah has said, . . . the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, . . . who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to be inhabited: ‘I am Jehovah, and there is no one else.’” (Isa. 45:18) Hence, he promises never to leave the earth uninhabited by man. So the thing that he will completely erase from the earth’s surface is this system of things that violent men have set up on God’s property. For this we can take up the words of thanksgiving written down in the last book of the Bible: “We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, . . . because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king. But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time . . . to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”​—Rev. 11:17, 18.

16. (a) What highly developed plans do the nations now have, and, in this regard, what warnings are being sounded? (b) To what warning, however, will we all wisely take heed?

¹⁶ For the sake of military advantage the nations have plans already highly developed for “ruining the earth” to the greatest extent and in the worst way imaginable. Germs, chemicals, as well as terrifying explosives are being held in readiness for instant use in the most strategic way against any enemy. No secret is being made of this. Here and there weak warnings are being sounded about the threat to human existence. Timely and justified though such warnings are, they do not have the backing of earth’s Creator, Jehovah God. His warning written down in the Bible is about his own action to “bring to ruin those ruining the earth,” his own creation. His action will be controlled. It will leave approved survivors. Lovers of life, especially eternal life in Paradise, want to be such.

The Time for a Watchman like Ezekiel

1. (a) Since when has God had his “watchman” class sounding the warning, and for what purpose? (b) Rather than sounding the warning, what has Christendom done?

More than 30 years before atomic bombs were exploded in the Far East Jehovah had mercifully posted his watchman to sound the warning of what is evidently now near, inside this generation. Even before World War I broke out in 1914 he had his “watchman” class posted to sound out the warning. This was done not only to warn those who wanted to know how to survive but also to put Jehovah’s willful enemies on notice. Thus such enemies will know from what source the destruction comes. No faultfinders will have any basis for complaining that He gave them no advance warning. Christendom, which has the Holy Bible in more than a thousand languages, should have been the agency to sound the warning, because of what she claims to be. But she has not served as such. Instead, she has joined in the two world wars and other wars of this century, which have measurably ruined the earth. Who, then, is the composite “watchman”?

2, 3. (a) Whom did God choose to sound the warning of the coming global flood, and whom has he used to sound a similar warning today? (b) Why can Jehovah not be blamed for any loss of life?

² In Noah’s day he not only preached but also built a huge ark in confirmation of his verbal message. So Noah was then Jehovah’s outstanding witness and watchman. His family of seven members joined Noah in duties of a watchman. Hebrews 11:1-7 tells us that Noah had witness borne to him that God was pleased with him. He was an approved witness of Jehovah God. He was “a preacher of righteousness.” (2 Pet. 2:5) Today we are faced with an “act of God” just as global as the flood of Noah’s day. Whom do the records show him as using to serve notice of this upon the whole world? Devoted Christians, everywhere known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Consequently, Jehovah’s slate is clean till now. He has not failed to sound the divine warning by millions of his witnesses!

³ So the responsibility for the loss of human life worldwide during the coming end of the system of things will not rest upon Jehovah. It will rest squarely upon all who have failed to act upon the divine notification. Christendom herself has failed to heed the warning sounded by witnesses of Jehovah. What if she had joined Jehovah’s Witnesses in sounding the God-given warning? What a difference this would have made in human affairs!

WATCHMAN TO ANCIENT ISRAEL

4. (a) Whom did Jehovah raise up to be a prophet to his own people Israel, and whom did this prophet prefigure? (b) What commission was Ezekiel given?

⁴ By his divine powers Jehovah knew beforehand that even Christendom would need to have his final warning served upon her. He knew what the history of his chosen people of pre-Christian times indicated, or foreshadowed. In the year 613 B.C.E., he raised up a Jew named Ezekiel to be a prophet to his own people. So even though he was then an exile in the land of Babylon, Ezekiel was Jehovah’s watchman to Israel. His prophesyings were carried southwest to Jerusalem in the land of Judah. What Jehovah said to Ezekiel back there is of interest to us today, for he pictured Jehovah’s anointed witnesses of today. This anointed class has acted on what Jehovah said to Ezekiel with these words: “Son of man, a watchman is what I have made you to the house of Israel, and you must hear from my mouth speech and you must warn them from me. When I say to someone wicked, ‘You will positively die,’ and you do not actually warn him and speak in order to warn the wicked one from his wicked way to preserve him alive, he being wicked, in his error he will die, but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand.”​—Ezek. 3:17, 18.

5, 6. (a) In what time period was Ezekiel living? (b) Why could God not be accused of forcing a difficult commission on Ezekiel?

⁵ Why did Jehovah talk so seriously to this Jew Ezekiel? Because in that year 613 B.C.E. Ezekiel was living in the last days of the doomed kingdom of Judah with its capital at Jerusalem. His people down there in that kingdom had been brought into a national covenant with Jehovah by means of His mediator, the prophet Moses, and so as a member of that people Ezekiel was under lifelong obligation to Jehovah. He was also a priest, who should have been serving Jehovah in his temple at Jerusalem. So naturally he owed something to God. Hence, God could not be accused of improperly forcing a difficult mission upon Ezekiel, who had been born under the national covenant and under the duties of the Aaronic priesthood, then headed by high priest Seraiah.​—2 Ki. 25:18.

⁶ Ezekiel’s people were the ones to whom Jehovah had earlier said by his prophet Isaiah: “‘You are my witnesses,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘even my servant whom I have chosen.’” (Isa. 43:10-12) So Ezekiel pictured the organized body of Jehovah’s spirit-anointed witnesses at the present time, the spiritual Israelites. These anointed witnesses live in a time far more meaningful than Ezekiel’s day.

7. (a) What government was in peril in Ezekiel’s day, but what about today? (b) How long did Ezekiel sound the warning before the foretold destruction came?

⁷ Back there it was just the one government, the small kingdom of Judah, that was in peril. Today it is what that ancient kingdom pictured, namely, Christendom, that is imperiled, along with all her worldly associates. In fact, the entire system of things worldwide is on judgment, just as in Noah’s day it was the world that was doomed to destruction. There was more urgent need for God’s warning by Ezekiel, for Ezekiel began to sound the warning just four years before the Babylonian army invaded his homeland, or six years before they destroyed the besieged city of Jerusalem and its temple. Many inhabitants of beleaguered Jerusalem died of famine, pestilence and the sword of war. Many of the survivors were dragged off into exile to die in distant Babylon. So Ezekiel’s own generation was in danger of that calamity.

8. (a) What impending first-century destruction helps us to determine the timing of the coming world destruction by God? (b) Who sounded God’s warning then, and how important was their warning work?

⁸ How short a time we today may yet have, we can only infer from what has been happening on earth according to Bible prophecy. In Jesus’ prophecy, as recorded in Matthew, chapters 24 and 25, he warned those disciples of his who were to make up the first part of the “faithful and discreet slave” class about the destruction that was to befall Jerusalem inside their own generation. In that way he made his disciples aware of their responsibility toward the Jewish inhabitants of the province of Judea. They were in such grave danger due to the impending national calamity. If, at the critical time, the Christian “slave” class back there did not warn and urge the affected Jews to get out of the danger zone as fast as possible, then they would share in the responsibility for the loss of life and of liberty on the part of the unwarned Jews.

9. How was Ezekiel an excellent example for God’s anointed “slave” today?

⁹ What if Ezekiel long ago had failed to discharge his assigned task of warning from a distance his endangered countrymen? He would not have survived the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., for Jehovah would have held him accountable for their blood. That Ezekiel faithfully discharged his divine commission as long as communication with doomed Jerusalem was possible is evident, for Jehovah was pleased to let him live on. Jehovah was pleased to use him to utter a prophecy in the 27th year of his exile in Babylon. That was 16 years after the horrible bloodbath at Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. (Ezek. 29:17; 40:1) In this respect he was an excellent example for the anointed “slave” class in our perilous times. True, if any individuals in the “slave” class withdraw from further sounding the warning and putting the wicked people on notice, such individuals will have to settle accounts with Jehovah. But, for the most part, the “slave” class will prove to be like Ezekiel. No bloodguilt will be able to be charged to them.

10. (a) How important is the position of watchman? (b) How does God show his concern for both those needing warning and his watchman?

¹⁰ Very plainly, the position of a watchman is a highly responsible one. In wartime, if a soldier goes to sleep at his sentry post he is put to death, because the lives of others were put at stake with also the risk of suffering defeat. (Judg. 7:19) So God is concerned, not only about the lives of those needing to be warned, but also about the life of his watchman. This is shown in his further words to Ezekiel: “But as for you, in case you have warned someone wicked and he does not actually turn back from his wickedness and from his wicked way, he himself for his error will die; but as for you, you will have delivered your own soul. And when someone righteous turns back from his righteousness and actually does injustice and I must put a stumbling block before him, he himself will die because you did not warn him. For his sin he will die, and his righteous acts that he did will not be remembered, but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand. And as for you, in case you have warned someone righteous that the righteous one should not sin, and he himself does not actually sin, he will without fail keep on living because he had been warned, and you yourself will have delivered your own soul.”​—Ezek. 3:19-21; 33:2-9.

11. How is the work of the “faithful and discreet slave” like that of a watchman?

¹¹ Psalm 127:1 says: “Unless Jehovah himself guards the city, it is to no avail that the guard has kept awake.” Still, a watchman on a wall of a city has entrusted to him the safeguarding of the lives of the people living in it. He is under obligation to warn the citizens of any endangerment to their lives and liberty. Rightly, he should not want their blood to be charged to him. For his keeping awake and watching he is to be credited with safeguarding the lives of other human souls. That is the situation of the “faithful and discreet slave” class in this time when the old system of things is about to end. Jehovah has appointed the “slave” class as his “watchman” to guard the eternal interests of all those who profess to be His people, as in Ezekiel’s case.

WARNINGS BY MODERN WATCHMAN

12, 13. (a) In having the warning sounded, what response does God desire to see? (b) What does sounding the warning make possible, but what about those who do not heed it?

¹² However, is it only those who claim to be Christian who are facing the threat of destruction at the end of this system of things? No, but all other religionists are, also those who refuse to join any part of organized religion. Earth’s Creator, Jehovah God, knows this. He would rather not destroy the world of mankind. His prime desire is that as many of them as possible should be saved from eternal destruction and should prove worthy of life in his righteous new system of things. In that behalf he has had his warning sounded out far and wide.

¹³ Mercifully he notified first the “slave” class, as pictured by Ezekiel. Thus he made this class his composite “watchman.” This “watchman” class is especially charged with sounding the divine warning. Because of their timely warning more and more people are being enabled to hear and to act upon what they hear, with hope of being spared clear through the old world’s end. As for those refusing to heed the God-given warning, their blood will be upon their own heads.

14, 15. (a) Who have unsuccessfully tried to silence those sounding the warning, but who have listened and responded? (b) When the period of “goodwill on the part of Jehovah” ends, what will it mean?

¹⁴ Jehovah’s “watchman” class has become known worldwide. Their enemies would like to silence their voice of warning. They view the warning as subversive to their system of things. But all in vain! The warning has been dinned into their ears, especially since 1919, the year when the world began trying to recover from the wounds inflicted upon it by World War I. The period of time from then on has been part of what Isaiah 61:2 calls “the year of goodwill on the part of Jehovah.” This means that his wrath has not yet been poured out upon the God-defying system of things. What purpose has this served? It has allowed for Jesus’ prophecy to be carried out till now: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.” (Matt. 24:14) In consequence of this, many today who make up part of the remnant of heirs of that kingdom have responded to the Kingdom message. Thus they have taken advantage of the “goodwill on the part of Jehovah.” They have been made part of the “watchman” class. They have joined in sounding the divine warning.

¹⁵ The symbolic “year” that is allotted for “goodwill on the part of Jehovah” is a limited time. All present-day indications are that it is about to end. Its ending will mean not a “Happy New Year!” but the time for a change from Jehovah’s “goodwill” to his wrath. That means the arrival of “the day of vengeance on the part of our God.” (Isa. 61:1, 2) It will be the darkest day that this world of mankind will ever have experienced.

16. What is accomplished by the “watchman” class in sounding the warning?

¹⁶ This makes it urgent for the “watchman” class to sound the warning that the “year” of Jehovah’s goodwill is about to end and his “day of vengeance” is about to break. Their obediently sounding the divine warning will not save this patched-up old system of things and its devoted supporters from being destroyed in the coming “great tribulation.” But this fact is not disheartening to the “watchman” class. They are assured that if they turn back wicked persons from their wicked way to righteousness these will be saved from annihilation with this old world. Thus the “watchman” class will be spared from bloodguilt in the case of those who have been warned away from their deadly wickedness. The “watchman” class also has the assurance that by persistently keeping up their warning they will dissuade many righteous persons from going bad and joining the wicked world and thus dooming themselves to perishing with it in the “great tribulation.” This is something most gratifying to the “watchman” class. Their service is not to be in vain!

17. (a) What reward has the “watchman” class realized? (b) Who have now joined in sounding the warning?

¹⁷ Not yet has the “watchman” class worn out its voice in crying out the warning about the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.” Nor has it lowered its voice, and it is determined not to do so. In reward, what a spectacle glorifying to Jehovah greets their peering eyes! An unnumbered “great crowd” of responsive hearers of the warning looms up before the “watchman” class. (Rev. 7:9) The eyes of that “great crowd” have been opened to see the “sword” of Jehovah’s executional officer that is about to slash down the wicked opposers of his Messianic kingdom. Four years before World War II broke out this “great crowd” began to take definite form and to align itself with the “watchman” class. Mercifully World War II did not culminate in the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.” Nor did World War II and its aftermath stop or slow down the thronging of those of the “great crowd” to the side of the “watchman” class amid worldwide persecution. By this they have come under the obligation to join in with the “watchman” class in blaring out the divine warning fearlessly. They have not shunned to undertake this responsibility. In this way they want not only to express their loving obedience to Jehovah God but also to express their love for their neighbor, their fellowman.

18, 19. (a) For what activity now is there the greatest need, in keeping with the words of Isaiah 52:8? (b) What should motivate us to share in sounding the divine warning?

¹⁸ At this late date, in the closing days of Christendom and all the rest of this doomed system of things, there is the greatest need for united action. Long ago the prophet Ezekiel and the contemporary prophet Jeremiah, though many hundreds of miles apart, united their voices in warning their wayward nation of the “day of vengeance” that was about to break upon them. Now, in our century, since the end of World War I, the words of Isaiah 52:8 have applied to Jehovah’s dedicated people: “Listen! Your own watchmen have raised their voice. In unison they keep crying out joyfully; for it will be eye into eye that they will see when Jehovah gathers back Zion.” All of those who were regathered under the ‘heavenly Zion’ saw the same vision in the light of then fulfilling Bible prophecy; together they saw Jehovah’s hand in action in their favor. They raised up a united message to the whole world. Today, more than 60 years later, they must keep up their united witness, only now including the urgent warning about Jehovah’s “day of vengeance.” The “great crowd” from many nations and from many languages must blend their voices with those of the “watchman.”

¹⁹ Forward, then, unitedly with the warning of “the day of vengeance on the part of our God”! Let us keep ourselves free from bloodguilt. This is because we want to be spared during that “day of vengeance.” Many of our neighbors would like to enjoy the same salvation. May our supreme love for Jehovah and Christ and our humane love for our neighbor, our fellowman, move us irresistibly to sound the lifesaving warning. Tremendous joy will result to us! Best of all, Jehovah will be vindicated as having lovingly cared!

[Picture on page 23]

As Ezekiel had warned, the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and carried off many of the survivors into exile

[Picture on page 25]

Like Ezekiel, the modern-day “watchman” class sounds the warning​—assisted now by the “great crowd” of fellow workers

Lovers of God Resolve . . .

This Resolution was enthusiastically adopted this past summer by hundreds of thousands in attendance at the “Divine Love” District Conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

1. What warning are Jehovah’s Witnesses sounding, and why?

For more than 100 years Jehovah God through his witnesses has been serving warning notice that this world or system of things cannot last. Out of consideration for our neighbors of whatever nation, tribe, people or tongue, we are motivated by divine love to point individuals to God’s way as the only solution to mankind’s problems.

2. What things have gone wrong with the world?

² With the entry of the 1980’s, what do we observe as a consequence of individuals and nations ignoring or defying God’s way and pursuing their own course of self-rule and independent living? Responsible persons everywhere are voicing grave concern over the world’s drifting and confused state of affairs. And no wonder​—so many things have gone wrong. In the fields of transportation, communication, medicine, science and technology, various things once acclaimed as a hope or blessing have all too often turned out to be disappointments and even death-dealing. Human society today is overwhelmed with endless problems​—crime, corruption, wicked perversions, social disorders, acts of terrorism and other menacing dangers. Truly, mankind’s present world scene is bewildering. From a purely human point of view, the continued existence of the present world order is now being seriously questioned. Yet how many persons today soberly consider the significance of these unparalleled conditions in the light of God’s Word, the Bible?

3. The fulfillment of what Bible prophecies convince Jehovah’s Witnesses that the end of this system is near? What do these prophecies say?

³ Jesus Christ gave a detailed composite sign concerning the conclusion of this system of things and the time for him to begin exercising his Kingdom power over the world of mankind. His prophetic commentary on our times is set out in the record at Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Luke chapter 21 and Mark chapter 13. In concert with his great prophecy, inspired descriptions of these last days are found at 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Revelation chapter 6 and related prophetic portions in the Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures. Keen Bible students among us have witnessed the fulfillment of most of these prophecies during this century.

4. What striking evidence is there ‘that all creation is now in pain’?

⁴ In every walk of life and at every level of society, there is striking evidence “that all creation keeps on groaning together and being in pain together until now.” (Rom. 8:22) We see individuals plagued with a host of physical, mental and emotional ailments and breakdowns despite widely acclaimed medical advancements. Marital bonds are disintegrating. Separations and divorce equal or surpass the number of marriages in many countries. Family life is in disarray, causing many to wonder whether this basic unit of society can survive much longer. Cities are under crushing financial burdens and are facing collapse. Nations are in anguish, torn within by divisive factions and threatened without by unfriendly and aggressive neighbors. The world at large agonizes over the economic and money crises, energy shortages, pollution and health hazards, overpopulation and starvation in many places. On top of all of this hangs the specter of an arms race that threatens to unleash incalculable misery and nuclear destruction upon mankind. Truly, men’s hearts are failing them for fear of what they see coming upon the inhabited earth.

5. (a) In the midst of the present turmoil, what are most of humankind doing? (b) By doing what can persons survive the approaching great tribulation, and what patterns for survival are there?

⁵ In the midst of such turmoil, many remain apathetic. Others drift with the degrading current and spirit of what is popular at the time. There are also those who are enemies of God, actually taking a stand against his righteous principles and universal sovereignty. As the world sows, it now reaps​—rotten fruitage. God’s appointed time draws near for its abrupt and violent destruction. Righteously inclined persons who sense the danger of mankind’s selfish, materialistic, pleasure-mad and heedless course are urged to heed the divine warning before it is too late. By so doing, they may, in keeping with God’s past dealings, be among those who have the prospect of surviving the approaching great tribulation. Forty-three centuries ago God spared Noah and his family from a global flood. Centuries later He delivered Lot and his two daughters when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. This provides a pattern of how God may deal with those who act in faith and respond to the everlasting good news which has been declared throughout this century.

6. (a) Why has there been so much world woe since 1914? (Rev. 12:7-12) (b) At the “great tribulation,” what will happen to false religion and then to worldly nations? (Rev. 18:9, 10, 21-24; 19:11-16)

⁶ Modern historians have recognized that 1914 was a turning point. Since that significant year, mankind has been living in a turbulent period of stupendous changes. What many do not realize is the fact that Bible prophecy shows it to be a period of woe for mankind “because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Rev. 12:7-12) A day of reckoning is fast approaching. It will break out upon this generation in what Jesus described as a “great tribulation” that will see the execution of God’s judgment upon Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion of which Christendom is the principal part. Thereafter, all the nations in opposition to God’s kingdom, his incoming world government, will become involved in the war of the great day of God the Almighty, Biblically called Armageddon, where they will suffer everlasting defeat.​—Rev. 16:14-16.

7. (a) After Armageddon, what will happen to the Devil and his spirit forces? (Rev. 20:1-3) (b) What future will humankind then enjoy, as indicated by Bible prophecies? (Rev. 21:3, 4; Ps. 37:9-11, 29; Isa. 11:6-9; 33:24; 65:21-24)

⁷ Finally, the Devil and his wicked spirit forces will be plunged into the symbolic abyss of immobility, this paving the way for the unhindered, earth-wide rule of God’s kingdom of a thousand years. (Rev. 20:1-3; 21:3, 4) How thankful we are for coming to a knowledge of God’s way of removing wickedness from the earthly scene! Do we not await such divine intervention with keen expectation? Yes, and joyfully we hail the governmental new heavens and a cleansed new earth society that he has promised!​—2 Pet. 3:13.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT

8. As loyal subjects of God’s kingdom, what course are we resolved to follow in imitation of Jesus Christ? (Mark 1:38; Luke 4:43; John 6:15; 15:19; 17:16; 18:36)

⁸ We, Jehovah’s Witnesses, intensify our efforts to proclaim zealously the good news of the Kingdom as well as boldly declare God’s judgment message within the time divinely allowed. We will continue to give our whole-souled allegiance to God’s kingdom and strive to be loyal subjects of it. This we are determined to do by following the faithful course of Jesus Christ, maintaining separateness from the world, avoiding its entanglements, refusing to become involved in its controversies and allowing no room for compromise. Even though this makes us unpopular and incurs the world’s hatred we are determined to be guided by the Scriptural principle that whoever wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.​—Jas. 4:4.

9. (a) What Scriptural warning are we resolved to press on in giving? (b) What is involved in abiding by our decision to produce the fruits of the Kingdom and the fruits of God’s spirit? (Mark 13:10; John 13:34, 35; Gal. 5:22, 23; Col. 3:12-14)

⁹ Having ourselves come out of Babylon the Great, we will press forward in giving the Scriptural warning: “Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4) In the spirit of self-sacrifice we are determined to go on aiding those multitudes of people who may yet take their stand on the side of the truth before divine judgment overtakes the world empire of false religion. Whereas Christendom’s reprehensible course has brought reproach upon God’s name, our decision is to prove ourselves genuine disciples of Jesus Christ by producing the fruits of the Kingdom as well as the fruitage of God’s spirit and thus glorify our heavenly Father, Jehovah.​—John 15:8.

10. (a) We are resolved to render to God sacred service by presenting the truth in what way? (Col 4:6; 1 Pet. 3:15) (b) What kind of example in boldness and courage, as well as respect for authority, did the apostles set that we are determined to follow?

¹⁰ Regardless of our individual circumstances and location, we will delight in rendering God sacred service, day and night. Without letup we will take advantage of all opportunities to give a thorough witness to God’s name and purpose, presenting the truth in an appealing way, ‘letting our utterance be always with graciousness, seasoned with salt.’ (Col. 4:6) At the same time, we will seek to be courageous, speaking the Word of God with all boldness, especially in the face of threats, persecution or other forms of opposition. Like the apostles “we cannot stop speaking about the things we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19, 20) While giving due respect to the superior authorities, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, yet, when issues arise involving our worship and service to God, we will imitate the apostles by ‘obeying God as ruler rather than men.’​—Acts 5:29.

11. (a) Our resolve is to complete what work? (Matt. 24:14) (b) To whom do we look for guidance, and is there real basis for expecting his support? (Phil. 4:13)

¹¹ By putting spiritual things first in our lives our resolve is to complete the work of proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and sounding the divine warning from God’s Word. To this end we will trust in Jehovah with all our hearts, always relying upon his direction and care and further manifestations of his love. In our earnest prayers we will ask our heavenly Father that this course of ours will be pleasing and acceptable in his sight, the One ‘who can do more than superabundantly beyond all the things we ask or conceive.’ (Eph. 3:20) May his will be done, resulting in unbounded joys and blessings to us and all other lovers of God, both now and forevermore.

Insight on the News

Promiscuity Risky

● The head of Canada’s British Columbia Cancer Control Agency, Dr. David Boyes, feels that cancer of the cervix ought to be termed a venereal disease. Why? Because of its rapid increase among young women who are sexually active. This proves it is sexually transmitted, he says. “At high risk are those sexually active from an early age and those who have many partners. If a girl becomes sexually active at, say 15 years of age, she has the same risk as if she were a prostitute,” he explained. The press report also showed that cervical cancer is not as threatening to those who are not promiscuous.

How this high price for promiscuity argues for the wisdom of the Bible’s counsel to exercise self-control and ‘abstain from fornication’! Though girls and women pay a physical price, the Scriptures warn that boys and men also should ‘abstain from fornication’ so as not to “go to the point of harming and encroach upon the rights” of another, because “Jehovah is one who exacts punishment for all these things.”​—1 Thess. 4:3-7; Acts 15:20.

Galileo’s “Heresy”

● The Vatican has announced that it is going to review the heresy conviction of the 17th-century astronomer Galileo. What was his “heresy”? He supported the belief of Copernicus that the earth was not the center of the universe, but that it, together with the other planets, revolved around the sun as a center. Observations through the newly invented telescope convinced Galileo that this position was correct. However, Pope Paul V admonished Galileo not to “hold, teach or defend” the doctrine. Later, Galileo felt obliged to publish a work defending the Copernican system. Thereafter, the Inquisition convicted him of heresy, and Galileo recanted his view. He was forced to live the rest of his life under house arrest. Now, after 347 years, a spokesman for the Vatican’s Secretariat for Nonbelievers, as the former Holy Office or Inquisition is called today, said: “According to the wishes of the Pope, research has begun on the case of Galileo.”

The “New Catholic Encyclopedia” concluded from its research on the case: “The theologians’ treatment of Galileo was an unfortunate error; and, however it might be explained, it cannot be defended.” Such an error could have been avoided if the pope had adhered to the principle followed by Christ in steering clear of matters that were of no real concern to him.​—Compare Luke 12:13, 14.

Secular Jobs for Clergy?

● Skyrocketing operational costs in churches moved an Anglican bishop in Canada to suggest that clergymen may be ‘forced to seek secular jobs as lawyers, nurses or factory and construction workers, giving their time to the churches on weekends.’ Addressing a synod meeting, Anglican Bishop David B. Ragg noted that the apostle Paul supported himself by making tents. According to a Toronto “Star” report, he said that “priests may all have to resort to a ‘tent-making’ style of ministry.”

The religious editor for the “Star” interviewed some clergymen for their reaction. A Baptist minister said: “St. Paul worked at making tents and, for the first 300 years, the early church spread by informal missionaries. Secular jobs would bring clergy out of isolation and into greater contact with their flocks.” An Anglican rector observed that it “would put the parson in touch with reality.”

Such admissions are ironic in the light of decades of criticism of Jehovah’s Witnesses by many clerics because the Witnesses have no separate, salaried clergy. For the most part, the Witnesses work at secular jobs to support themselves and their families, while dedicating weekends and other available time to neighborhood evangelism. Does it work? The record of the early Christians and the growth of Jehovah’s Witnesses in modern times affirm that it does.

Her Hope Is Real

Earlier this year a high school girl in New Jersey prepared an essay for school. The assignment was: “If you traveled to the future, how far would you wish to go? Name the year. Describe how the world would look. Describe how the people would look. Describe their lifestyles; what they do for a living; what they eat; etc.” This 15-year-old​—one of Jehovah’s Witnesses—​wrote:

“With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: ‘Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And 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.’ And the One seated on the throne said: ‘Look! I am making all things new.’ Also, he says: “Write, because these words are faithful and true.’”

“For many years I’ve studied the Bible, and this particular passage has fascinated me. I’ve gone over every word of this scripture and have always wondered if these conditions could really be on the earth in the future. So, like no other human, I built a time machine and traveled into the future.

“The ride was smooth. I traveled at the speed of 10 years per minute. As I remained stationary, the world around me changed greatly. I saw horrid things happen: earthquakes, wars, famine, lawlessness, just as described in Matthew 24:6-8 in the Bible. But these things flashed before my eyes. Next, I saw a total destruction of everything around me. People were being destroyed by something, not their own war devices, but by extreme forces of nature used by someone far greater than man.

“I tried to move in time slower so I could see all these fantastic things happen. Next, I saw people working hard, cleaning, building and remodeling everything. They were obviously spared from the destruction and therefore were cleaning up the ruins. They were working all together, in harmony. As this passed, I saw many more men and women on the earth. I didn’t know where they were coming from. I watched until I saw a man that resembled my grandfather​—in fact, it was my grandfather. He had passed away in 1972. I checked all my equipment to make sure that I wasn’t going backward. I was not. I was actually moving forward, yet seeing people who had died. Then, I recalled the text in the Bible at Acts 24:15: ‘There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.’ I was actually seeing the resurrection.

“I traveled at a greater speed now so that color and light were only a blur. I decided to stop. The place in which I stopped was, of course, the same place as I took off from, just in the future. . . .

“In the distance I could see a young boy playing with a large animal. . . . he was actually playing with a . . . LION! I wanted to run to warn him of the danger he was in, but something stopped me. The lion was tame, acting like a pussycat in the child’s arms. As I traveled on by foot, I saw more of this peace between man and animals, and between animals themselves. But the most fascinating harmony was that between mankind. All races of people were speaking the same tongue and getting along as if brothers and sisters. . . . I saw that these people had no flaws. They had no maladies, no diseases. They were perfect in form. Then something came as a shock to me. They were the same people I saw 400 years earlier in my travels, but they looked the same age. No one was sick, old or dying. . . .

“I really enjoyed myself in this wonderful time in the future. Now, I’m home, back in my own time. I cannot convince anyone of what I saw. At least everything I read in the Bible is now firm in my mind. I really would like to go back again and live there forever with those people. But then I thought of a passage in the Bible which assured me that I may get to see it, and soon. It’s at Psalm 37:10, 11: ‘And just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; and you will certainly give attention to his place, and he will not be. But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.’”

Questions From Readers

● Are Jesus’ words at Matthew 18:18-20 to be understood to mean that heaven is bound by decisions made by men on earth?

These verses read: “Truly I say to you men, Whatever things you may bind on earth will be things bound in heaven, and whatever things you may loose on earth will be things loosed in heaven. Again I truly say to you, If two of you on earth agree concerning anything of importance that they should request, it will take place for them due to my Father in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.”

As the New World Translation (here quoted) and some other translations show, the things that are ‘bound’ or ‘loosed’ on earth are things that have already been ‘bound’ or ‘loosed’ in heaven. The Greek words here used literally mean “having been bound” or “having been loosed,” which are in the perfect tense, passive voice. In other words, the tense suggests that the action had already been decided upon in heaven and is merely reflected in what is subsequently decided upon on earth by those who wish to reflect “wisdom from above.” (Jas. 3:17, 18) “Bound” would refer to being found guilty for punishment; “loosed” would refer to being found innocent.

These words of Jesus follow his discussion of the procedure that should be followed if a servant of God has a major “fault” to take up with his brother. (Mt 18 Verses 15-17) This could lead to the charge being taken up by the “congregation” in that the matter would come before the responsible brothers in the congregation for review and judgment. If the charge was proved true and sufficiently gross, with the individual showing no repentance, the result would be that this one would be considered as “a man of the nations and as a tax collector.” He would be disfellowshiped. All of this, of course, would require deliberations. And these deliberations are what Jesus had reference to in Mt 18 verses 18 to 20.

Since holy spirit would come to Jesus’ disciples through Jesus from and after Pentecost 33 C.E., it could be said that “where there are two or three gathered together in my [Jesus’] name, there I am in their midst.” All gathered to review the matter would need to be alert to the leadings of Jehovah’s spirit. Particularly would they need to weigh matters carefully in the light of his Word, including the instructions and teachings of Jesus, to see what Jehovah’s mind would be on the alleged conduct and what should be done if the evidence proves the charge as being true and the individual does not repent. Of course, those weighing matters impartially might find the accused innocent, or there may be insufficient evidence.

In the first century, Christians had miraculous operations of Jehovah’s holy spirit in some matters of judgment, such as in the judgment of Ananias and Sapphira. (Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 12:4-11) After miraculous gifts of the spirit ceased with the death of the apostles, Christians have not expected direct miraculous indications from heaven as to how a matter should be decided. (1 Cor. 13:8-13) Nevertheless, we still have what Jehovah’s Word says about proper conduct and how matters should be decided. We can, in effect, determine what has already been decided on a matter in the heavens. Admittedly, due to human imperfections, mistakes in judgment are made at times, but this only emphasizes even more the need to adhere closely to the instructions in Jehovah’s Word in handling matters so as to be assured that what is decided is what has already been decided in heaven.

It Helped Them Stop Smoking

A young student in Belgium stopped smoking. When the opportunity arose, he explained to his schoolmates the reason why. He showed them what was said on the matter in Your Youth​—Getting the Best out of It, placing copies of the book with them.

One of the students stopped smoking after reading the book. The mother of another student read the book, and forbade her son to continue to smoke. Another mother requested more literature. The director of the school was impressed by what was happening, and also became interested in the literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses. All together 30 books were distributed.

Besides discussing smoking, this book covers the use of drugs and alcohol, and many other matters that affect youths, including sports, music, dancing, dating and courtship. Receive a copy by filling in and mailing the coupon.

Please send, postpaid, the hardbound, 192-page book “Your Youth​—Getting the Best out of It.” I enclose 60 cents (U.S.).