May

The Watchman
Magazine
An Interpreter of the Times
Religion and the Constitution
Avoiding a Moral Blackout
Men
Who Die Not
“Until the Day Break”
Are Panzers Poised for Armageddon?
Should
Civil Authority Enforce Religious Observance?
Will a War Diet Reduce Appendicitis?
*
TEN CENTS
Springtime at the PARTHENON Nashville, Tennessee
Photo by Leon Cantrell
RELIGION AND THE EONSTITUTIDN
PROTESTANT group in America is circulating a petition to Congress asking that the Constitution of the United States be amended to read, “We, the people of the United States, devoutly recognizing the authority and law of Jesus Christ, the Saviour and King of nations,” etc.
All Christians pray and work for the recognition of Christ as Saviour and Lord, and many of us strive daily to the end that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. But a long and painful history of the formal recognition and establishment of religion by the state, has surely taught Protestants that Christ is not thereby exalted, nor does His religion, by any such arrangement, flourish in terms of justice and enlightenment and peace. We cannot legislate Christ into the hearts of men. The Pilgrims, the Puritans, the Methodists, the Huguenots, and many others, have suf-
fered grievous things at the hands of state religions—and, in causing that suffering, religion itself has been degraded by reason of the persecution of dissenters to which it resorted. That is not honoring Christ, though it may be granting to Him a formal kind of recognition which He does not want or need.
At a time when we struggle to preserve religious freedom and our other liberties, the claim of some Protestant Christians for formal state recognition marks the beginning of the long-sought alliance with religion that the Fascist forces in America have desired. Totalitarian society, as distinct from democracy, can be established in a variety of ways. It can be established by the legal recognition of the supremacy of a race, a class, or a religion. And always it finally develops that those who do not belong to the legally recognized group are denied the full rights of membership in that brotherhood which ought certainly to dis-
tinguish a Christian society from all others.
In a democracy like ours, which recognizes the equal rights of all groups and the supremacy of none, what would happen to those believers in Christ who do not agree with the tenets of the dominant group, and to the non-Christians, who compose a large part of our population, if we should adopt the suggestion that we change the Constitution in accordance with the proposal of some Christians? They would lose. They would be reduced to an inferior status. And America would be no longer a land where all have equal rights, but a land where certain classes of Christians would be particularly favored. This is a form of totalitarianism and, as all know who are familiar with the Fascist technique in America, it is the end that they assiduously seek.
Had our forefathers thought that either religion or democracy would have been better subserved by the formal recognition of Christianity, they would have said so. That they did not is enough to make us question the wisdom of those who now come forward with a proposition that Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin rejected.
Darrow Did Not Answer
By the Editor
Oe bent on one knee, recited the Lord’s prayer, and called out, “Clarence Darrow, I am here in fulfillment of the pact that we made with each other. If you can manifest yourself to me, do it now.” So spoke Claude Noble, a magician of Detroit, to the spirit of the great agnostic, Clarence Darrow, in Jack-son Park, Chicago; but there was no response.
“Anything stirring?” a curious reporter bluntly asked.
Mr. Noble could only shake his head, but he quickly added, “No, but I am going to keep trying as long as I live. I believe that some day God will unlock the secret of the beyond. It won’t be in my time, I know; but I’m going to keep trying.”
Mr. Noble admitted that Mr. Darrow was not a believer in Spiritualism, but he said the great lawyer had agreed to try to manifest his spirit after death, if given an opportunity. Mr. Noble made his first
attempt to communicate with Clarence Darrow on March 13, 1939, the anniversary of Darrow’s death, and has continued his efforts each successive anniversary, hence this was the fourth attempt.
#
While we have no faith in the ultimate success of Mr. Noble’s experiment, we are interested to know that the former confident agnostic, Mr. Darrow, as he neared the end of his life, was not nearly so confident that there is no life after death as he had previously stoutly affirmed himself to be. Does not his pact with Mr. Noble suggest that, as Darrow falteringly approached the portals of the tomb, he cherished the secret hope that his had been a mistaken philosophy, that death after all does not end all? Evidently in the great pleader was the same longing, though generally suppressed, for life after death that is inherent in humankind.
But we would not suggest a belief in Spiritualism as the remedy for the longing
inherent in the human heart, for Spiritualism is based on a wrong premise—the conscious survival of man after death; whereas of the dead the Bible says, “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Psalm 146: 4. It is to the day of the literal resurrection of the dead that the word of God points us. The prophet Isaiah announced his faith in the existence of man beyond the grave when he declared: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.” Isaiah 26: 19.
Mr. Noble need not wait for the day when “God will unlock the secret of the beyond.” He already has done so in His word. Christ spoke of man’s condition in death as comparable to sleep. (See John 11:11-14.) The dead enjoy undisturbed repose until awakened by the voice of the Lifegiver. (1 Thessalonians 4: 16, 17.) It was for this reason that the psalmist exclaimed, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.” Psalm 17: 15.
Vol. LI
JAMES EARL SHULTZ, Editor
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MAY, 1942 - No. 5
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Page TWO
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
AVOIDING A MORAL BLACKOUT
By Edward J. Urquhart, Eastern Correspondent
■u moTHis-fos
| HE ancient torchbearer ran fast enough to fan the flame he carried but did not press forward so swiftly that he extinguished the light. Thus the torch race of ancient Greece gives us something to think about today.
The churches, educational institutions, and even the nations of the present are pressing the race dangerously fast. And as interested bystanders whose welfare depends on the race, we shout in agitated earnestness: Don’t put out the light.
That the danger is real few will deny. Many feel that the light of Christianity and even of civilization itself will soon go out, and leave this world in a horrible darkness. Churchmen, educators, and statesmen, beholding the mad race of the present, have all voiced this fear. Several years ago Viscount Grey exclaimed, “Lights are going out all over Europe.”
Thus people everywhere are perplexed. An American business man recently said what applies to more than the business world of which he wrote:
“For the past several weeks I have been traveling almost all the time; and while my contacts were mainly with small business men, I nevertheless talked with men and women from all walks of life, from day laborers to corporation presidents. The result of all these conversations can be summed up in one word—confusion.”— “ Vital Speeches,” Oct. 15, 1941.
Well may we ask, What has created this situation? And then follow that question with another, Is there a remedy? Such
MAY, 1942
¥ Photographed without his knowledge, this penitent kneels on the steps of a church in one of the war-torn countries of Europe. The church bears the marks of the invading forces. It is such spiritual importunity that tends to avoid a moral blackout.
^
questions demand proper and satisfying answers.
Primarily, it may be said, the condemnation for the present crisis rests on the church. The church should be “the light of the world.” And if a considerable portion of the church has run so fast and so far that it has extinguished that light, it has surpassed the divine commission and has become the target of just criticism.
Every repudiation of revealed light, every denial of gospel truth, and every departure from the charted way help to extinguish the light of life and promote confusion and spiritual darkness.
And that the church has in many instances departed from the truths of the gospel and the simple but mighty tenets of faith enunciated by Christ needs not my testimony to substantiate. The church to a large extent has run fast and far since the days of Jesus and the apostles. She has even run far since the days of Luther and Knox, or of Wesley and Moody. And in running fast and far she has largely extinguished her light, and darkness has taken its place.
Then, there was a time when higher institutions of learning were instruments of the church and decided lights for truth and righteousness. Christianity was the foundation of the edifice of learning.
How different it is today when many Christian colleges repudiate the creation and even God by elevating the theory of evolution to the throne of the universe, and by exalting nature above the Trinity. Worldly institutions go farther, they employ teachers who deny the sanctity of marriage and advocate free-love and promiscuity, who deny even the decencies of humanity and much more the finer virtues of true Christianity. I believe that these things account for the flotsam that strews the shores of the troubled seas of thought today, and disclose the undercurrents that have wrought the havoc.
Then well may we ask: Can nations built upon such institutions carry civilization forward unto increased glory and new heights? The answer is decidedly a negative one.
Thus spiritual darkness and political confusion reign almost supreme today. Thus dictators thrive and armies do their work of destruction. Thus fear grips the very souls of men.
Of course this question in its finality, like most religious questions, narrows down to the individual. Thus the lesson to each of us is: Keep the light in your own heart. Hold high the torch of true Christianity right now. As the earth becomes darker, your light will glow the brighter. Don’t put out the light! “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.” Isaiah 60: 1, 2. That is a picture of the present situation and our individual duty to it.
The student of prophecy finds the stirring time in which we live pictured over and over again in the Scriptures. Here are just a few of the many texts referring to this time and its wretchedness; and presenting the cause of it all.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth moumeth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do {Continued on page 18)
Page THREE
MEN WHO DIE NOT
By Jesse C. Stevens
¥ Charred wreckage of what was once a thriving retail business district at the corner of King and McCully streets, Honolulu. Here the bombs destroyed; and here men died. Mr. Stevens speaks of a group who will not die; but let him tell you about that.
^
N THE disciples’ questions, “When shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” two events were blended; namely, the end of the Jewish nation, and the end of the world, as was pointed out in article Number One of this series. For they not only asked, “When shall these things be?” but also, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Jesus, in answering their questions, forged a chain of prophecy, reaching link by link from the generation in which He lived, and in which came the fall of Jerusalem, to the last generation, which would be the active generation at the end of the world.
Having brought the disciples up to the end of the Jewish nation, Jesus then proceeded to answer the second question, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world? ” He spoke of a period of the most terrible tribulation in the history of the world, and then said, “ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24: 29-31.
The dreadful tribulation which was to precede these signs, Christ described in these words: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Matthew 24:21. The casual reader might conclude that Jesus here refers to the tribulation which was connected with the fall of Jerusalem, but that would hardly meet the prophecy’s specifications. That tribulation came upon those who had rejected Christ as the Messiah, and upon a nation in revolt against God, having filled up its cup of iniquity. God’s elect were delivered out of all this; but the great tribulation of which Christ speaks was to be upon the elect, His church.
In centuries later there came a long period of persecution upon those whose only offense was the keeping of “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Christ’s prophetic eye looked down the long period of time covered by the ecclesiastical domination of the papacy, which began in a.d. 538 and ended in 1798, when France dealt the papacy a stroke which was thought to be a death blow; for “all
Page FOUR
Europe believed the papacy was dead.”
In the terrible centuries which preceded 1798, commonly called the Dark Ages, millions went to martyrs’ graves for maintaining their profession of the gospel and opposing what they believed to be the corruptions of an apostate and fallen church.
The prophecies of Daniel to which Christ referred in His discourse foretold this period of papal supremacy of 1260 years, and here Christ plainly follows Daniel’s prophecy. See Daniel 7: 25; 11: 35.
But Christ foretold a shortening of the time of tribulation, showing that should the persecution continue until the end of the years of papal supremacy, the wearing out of the saints in persecution would be complete. The tribulation was shortened for the elect’s sake. The influence of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, the edicts of toleration by Maria Theresa of Austria in 1776, and by Emperor Joseph II of Austria, and the growing sentiment in France of antagonism to religious intolerance, all contributed toward causing the persecution to cease about twenty-five years before the end of papal supremacy in 1798.
Now in beginning to give the signs of His second coming, Jesus said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened,” that is, the signs would begin then. Mark puts it this way: “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened.” Mark 13: 24. So the prophecy points out fairly
definitely the time of the first sign, the darkening of the sun. This event would occur within the period of about twenty-five years before 1798. The Dark Day of May 19, 1780, came at the time appointed, and it was so remarkable a phenomenon that it has gone down in history. Almost one hundred years after this event, Webster’s Dictionary said, “Dark Day, The, May 19, 1780, so called on account of a remarkable darkness on that day. . . . The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known.” Scores of similar testimonies might be cited.
“The moon shall not give her light,” was the next sign. Historians, speaking of the night following the Dark Day, tell us that the moon had the appearance of blood, that the darkness was so dense it was well-nigh impenetrable, that a sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes became equally invisible with the blackest velvet, and that the horses could not be compelled to leave their stables when wanted for service.
Next there came, in fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy, the majestic meteoric shower of November 13, 1833. Various writers have thus described this stupendous phenomenon: “The most remarkable one ever observed”; “the greatest display of celestial fireworks ever seen within the annals covered by history”; “the scene could not be compared more aptly than to a shower of fire”; “their numbers compared to the (Continued on page 17)
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
PEAKING of sin, Noah of all men had the least to fear from a flood, for as yet there had never been a rain, but he made the greatest preparation,—result: salvation. Lesson: preparedness. Joseph was the least of the brethren, but in spite of their sin he brought the greatest blessing to the world in his day. Be a Joseph.
Samson was the strongest man, and he had the weakest character, he was an easy mark for sin. Prize fighters, take warning! David sang his sweetest songs after his most bitter experiences. Put away sin and learn to sing. Solomon was the wisest man, and he lived the most foolish life. He wrote the most proverbs, though he had profited the least by them. Where knowledge is sin, it is wise to be ignorant. The swiftest runner was the slowest man to get the message, and he sinned against his own soul; for Ahimaaz outran Cushi, but he had nothing to tell when he reached the king. Let us get the message before we run, is the message of Cushi. King David’s son was slain on a tree. Jesus will sit upon the throne of His Father David because He was slain upon a tree. Absalom lost the throne of his father David because he was slain on a tree. And all the difference was in the motive; for Absalom lived that others might die, and the tree was the end thereof; while Jesus died that others might live, and the tree was the beginning thereof.
Do not forget to point the world to the old landmark in the great field of time, the old rugged cross, for King David’s Son was slain on a tree. Moses was the meekest man that ever lived, and he committed the most presumptuous sin. Take heed lest you fall. Abraham was raised in the most discouraging circumstances amid the sins of idolatry, but he developed the greatest faith in the true God. So do not be discouraged by your surroundings. King Saul, a sinner, stood head and shoulders above his fellows and lost his head. It was a dwarf who
THE PARADOX DF SIN
(Concluded)
By J. Clyde Stokes
heard the welcome words, “Zacchams, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house.” Luke 19: 5. Let us appear little in our own eyes and not get our heads and shoulders above our fellows, unless it is only to see Jesus; for the most powerful army that was ever mustered in this world had the smallest soldiers,—they were the hornets that went before Israel. You do not have to be large to fight under the Lord’s banner, but you do have to be swift to be in due season.
The coolest men in the Bible were found in the hottest fires that man ever kindled, the fiery furnace, and it froze Nebuchadnezzar with astonishment. “Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Daniel 3: 18), were the courageous words which they spoke. Keep cool, and you will not sin when your fiery trials come. The greatest division between the Lord and the children of Israel was caused by the smallest wedge, as witnessed by the sin of Achan, “a wedge of gold.” Let us keep out of the wedge business.
The smallest offering recorded in the Bible had the greatest influence against the sin of covetousness, because the Lord added His might to the widow’s mites to teach us that no one is too poor to give. John the Baptist wore the humblest apparel and he was the best-clothed man of his day—in the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Let us seek that inward adorning. Mary anointed the Saviour’s body unto His death, and He
anointed her heart with eternal life. Let us break alabaster boxes while our friends are living and get their blessing. Paul had the greatest freedom while he was in bondage, and he saw the greatest light after he became blind. If you are blind, look to Jesus. The most beautiful scenes were given on rocky Patmos, where there was nothing to see. If you would see visions, come away from the world and its sin.
The most powerful Creator became the most helpless creature and was born a babe. God uses smallness to encompass greatness. If you are a babe in Christ, you have all power to overcome sin.
There was once a clean character in the most putrid body, for he had the most boils on his person and the least blemishes on his soul—that was Job. The lily grew out of the mud, and it blossomed in the flowerpot of mortality, and we called it “patience,” we should have called it “Job.”
The Lord Jesus created the heavens and the earth and man, but when Jesus came into contact with sin, He reminded us, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” So together with all their combined power they performed their greatest work of all time, and they used the smallest workshop they could find, the human heart with its two divisions, the right oracle and ventricle, and the left oracle and ventricle. It does not require much room to work where the heart is, for the heart is in the work, and the work is in the heart,— the climax of climaxes, the super paradox, “the palindrome of the gospel.” The heart is in the work, and the work is in the heart.
The ministration in the most holy place of the sanctuary in heaven to put away sin is performed by a Being both human and divine. The Lamb of God can do that. The ministration in the most holy place of the sanctuary of the heart to put away sin is performed by the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; for these three {Continued on page 9)
MAY, 1942
¥ Twenty years ago a Washington matron bought some bulbs in a Chinese curio shop which proved to be water chestnuts. Returning to America, she planted them in her gold fish pond in Washington. Spring floods the following year overflowed the pond, and the chestnut plants drifted into the Potomac River. There are countless acres of the plants that are now interfering with traffic on the Potomac. What good or practical use to make of them is engrossing the attention of the Department of Agriculture. Secretary of Agriculture Wickard, center, is seen examining them. With such rapidity did sin increase. What lessons are to be learned from its baneful growth? Let Mr. Stokes tell you.
Page FIVE
■¥■ One of the tall minarets of the beautiful Taj Mahal, which is known as the architectural gem of India, built by the Emperor Shah Jehan in memory of his faithful wife, who was reputedly the most beautiful woman of her day. Begun in 1630, its construction is believed to have employed twenty thousand workmen for twenty-three years, and all to perpetuate the memory of a loved one.
IT WAS on a sun-drenched afternoon in the South American midsummer that I stood before the entrance of a vast cemetery, located at an important terminal of transportation in a beautiful, metropolitan city. Long rows of booths offered for sale masses of white flowers, interspersed with some of brighter hue, and that the prices were exceedingly reasonable was revealed by the fact that the most shabbily dressed came away almost as lavishly supplied as the more stylish in their luxurious cars.
Making my way through the massive gates, I found myself at once surrounded by the burial places of the wealthy—marble vaults with steepled roofs surmounted in almost every instance by the cross, and reminding one strongly of miniature churches. Marble steps led up to the doors, and unless the view was obstructed by elaborately embroidered curtains, one could clearly see the caskets inside, often covered with hand-wrought linen pieces. Above, on shelves much like old-fashioned mantelpieces, were the candles in their polished brass or bronze holders, the everpresent crucifixes, and often pictures of the deceased or his entire family. Fresh flowers were in evidence in many of the vaults, radiantly beautiful in the soft glow of light from stained-glass windows.
Sidewalks and streets wide enough for the passing of cars led off in every direction, and, following one of them, I soon found the resting places of the common folk—just graves with some sort of stone
Page SIX
or marble markers, some elaborate, some plain, some with miniature photos, but almost all adorned with the crucifix or cross. As far as the eye could see were rows upon rows of markers, and along one side of the cemetery in the distance I noticed an expansive, white, two-story building. Curiously I walked in that direction, and discovered that it contained tier upon tier of niches where caskets might be placed. Each occupied space bore a name and inscription, a number, and urns for flowers, and very few were vacant.
At the end of one of the long corridors, I paused to rest on a conveniently located bench. By this time the siesta hour was past, the cemetery bustled with activity, and as I watched the constantly shifting groups of people passing by, in imagination I pictured many bits of human grief. The young couple with a child toddling by their side—were they carrying these lovely flowers to the grave of another little one, who had left them lonely? The middle-aged man arranging tall, snowy gladioli in a deep urn—was he honoring his departed companion? And then, as I mused, there appeared but a few steps from where I sat a sad-faced, black-garbed matron leading a little boy. Both bore the marks of poverty and unsupplied needs; but the child handed her the clusters of daisies they had brought —were they for his father’s grave?—and as she arranged them, she raised her eyes as she crossed herself and turned away with despair written on her careworn face.
There were the numerous funeral processions—shining, black, elaborately designed hearses, drawn by sleek horses and driven by silk-hatted, dignified men in dark attire, followed by the coaches massed with flowers, special conveyances for the mourners, and long lines of ordinary vehicles bearing the friends.
Busy as it was, this was not Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which once each year is celebrated in memory of the departed. On that day traffic is almost hopelessly congested, and the public conveyances and private cars bear capacity
“UNTIL
loads of people, flower-laden, to this vast “City of the Dead,” to honor, if not actually to worship, their deceased loved ones.
Death, from the time of young Abel’s tragic day, has been a wound too deep for human consolation, and with tear-dimmed eyes we must face it “until the day break, and the shadows flee away.” Yet how much less cruel it seems when it is truly understood, and as I watched that day the throngs of people as they came and went, I thought how much better it would have been had they regarded death as did the Psalmist David. His beloved son had lain for days at the point of death, and during that time David had fasted, lying upon the earth, and refusing the comfort of his servants. When the child breathed no more, they feared to tell the grief-stricken father, thinking that he would be even more persistent in his manifestations of distress. “But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: wherefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, and the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” 2 Samuel 12: 19-23.
That David had the correct conception of death is clearly indicated by a perusal of
HOW CAN A MORTAL VOICE
By Jessie Wilmore Murton
Jehovah, Lord of heaven and earth,
And all that in them dwell,
How can a mortal voice like mine Thy grace and glory tell!
Thou makest earth to bud and bloom,
The sun and moon to shine,
Thou art the Giver of all good,
And all, by right, are Thine.
Thou art so great! I am so small!
My voice so poor and weak!
Bui Thou hast said Thou couldst be found Of all who truly seek.
Take Thou this weak and worthless clay, And mold a vessel, meet
Thy matchless gift of love to hold,
Pure, unprofaned, complete!
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
By Marjorie Lucile Fields
futiie; but there is a vista bright with promise open to the eye of faith. While the dead lie in unconscious sleep, so deep that regardless of the passing years they are unaware of the flight of time, yet there comes a morning, glorious and not far distant, when “ the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” And the Apostle adds, as if in recognition of the bleeding hearts of those bereft: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessa-lonians 4: 16-18.
No need for looking with despair on the resting places of the dead, for at the call of the Life-giver these will open, permitting those long sleeping to rise in the freshness of the immortality that will then be theirs, for we read: “We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory? ” 1 Corinthians 15: 51-55. And so may we look beyond the sunset of this mortal life to the daybreak when “the shadows flee away.”
the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testaments. The story of creation, in Genesis, while indicating that man was made in the image of God, also tells us that “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2: 7. Nothing here substantiates the belief that man is an immortal being, who lives on after death in some sort of spirit world. Paul, in writing to Timothy, clearly shows that immortality belongs only to God, for he calls Him “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” I Timothy 6: 15, 16.
In his conversation with the patriarch Job, Eliphaz expressed his belief that man is mortal, in the direct question: “Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than His maker?” Job 4: 17.
<§)
After his creation, man received the breath of life, according to the previously mentioned text in Genesis 2:7, and corroborated by Job 27: 3 and 33: 4, where we read: “All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils. . . .
The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” The same was true, not of man alone, but also of the living creatures; for in predicting the Flood, the Lord said: “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.” Gene-pis 6: 17.
That man became a living soul at creation is further shown in 1 Corinthians 15: 45: “The first man Adam was made a living soul.” But the same is true of other creatures. Of the creation of the beasts, God said: “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life [a living soul, margin], I have given every green herb for meat.” Genesis 1: 30. Further: “The second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.” Revelation 16:3. Therefore, it is evident that the state of man in death is not essentially different in
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jf A view of a bombed section of Cannon Street, London, looking towards historic St. Pauls, within whose walls hope has been revived for those beloved but lost awhile. Let us wait with confidence u until the day break.”
any respect from that of the dumb animals, which certainly are not continuing in another existence beyond death.
According to 1 Thessalonians 5: 23 man consists of three parts, body, soul and spirit, for the Apostle Paul says: “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yet even in sound sleep these are unconscious, and likewise man is unconscious in death, so that it is therefore often called a sleep. The teaching of the Bible indicates most forcefully that man is totally unconscious after death, for “his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Psalm 146:4. He is not aware of the actions or even of the existence of his dear ones left behind, for “man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” Job 14: 12.
Surely, then, there is no need to concern ourselves with the safety and comfort of the deceased, and certainly any requests made to them can only fall upon deaf ears; for “the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” Ecclesiastes 9:5.
Any attempt to minimize the sadness caused by death, the pain of parting, the loneliness of those left behind, is, of course,
MAY, 194 2
Page SEVEN
II THE « NEWS • INTERPRETED •
Help far “Polio” Victims
RS. Claus W. Jungeblut and Murray Sanders of Columbia University have conducted experiments on the hypothesis that since poliomyelitis is a virus disease, by passing the virus from one animal to another a vaccine may be obtained which will act as a protective vaccine the same as smallpox vaccine. The medical profession long has known that smallpox virus from an infected cow reacts only as a mild cowpox, hence from time immemorial vaccination for smallpox has been employed by the Chinese and was much later scientifically adopted by the Western medical profession.
Now Drs. Jungeblut and Sanders have found that by infecting monkeys with poliomyelitis, and then, using a virus derived therefrom to infect white rats, they obtain a vaccine which when used upon mice has vastly changed the form of the disease and can be reintroduced into monkeys without fatal results. While no one knows how many strains of poliomyelitis there are, yet it is known that the attenuated mouse virus is effective against three, which may be considered representative.
Though as yet no attempt has been made with human reactors, yet the conservative Journal of the American Medical Association believes that the time has come for a clinical test of that which promises to be one of the most important discoveries thus far made in the control of the dread disease, infantile paralysis. Thus while the efforts of millions of men are bent upon the destruction of human life, there are those who still are engaged in a benevolent work for humanity, for these are the days when are being fulfilled the words of Scripture identifying ours with the closing scenes of this world’s history: at “the time of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
The Army and Decadence
he large increase in diseases of decadence among our soldiers is giving the medical corps of our army concern. The greatest tabloid in America, the New York Daily News, seems to think that nothing can be done about it, but evident it is that something must be done if our army is to be effective. Public sentiment must support the Surgeon General and his corps in their efforts to preserve the health of our young men, and agitation for adequate safeguards cannot be flippantly dismissed with the epithet “puritanical interference.’’
The editor of Catholic America is especially concerned lest the good work which has been done by Thomas Parran and others shall be undone by a lackadaisical
Page EIGHT
attitude on the part of our citizenry. Says ■ America:
“Some men still think it worth while to try to hitch their wagon to a star. They fail, and fail, but keep on trying. For ages, women have been men’s victims, but can even the infinite mercy of an offended God find clemency for those who, when there is question of the further degradation of some pitiful object of man’s lust, rest content with prescribing prophylactics? In God’s
¥ Dr. Syngman Rhee, Korean patriot and revolutionist, who was proclaimed president of a Korean provisional government a decade ago, now heads a mission in Washington which would create an independent Korean government-in-exile, it was disclosed January 16, by delegate Samuel Wilder King, Hawaii's representative in Congress. Mr. King is conferring with high Washington officials on the project.
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dear Name, let us at least try to blast the satanic persuasion that these horrors must always be. And the real horror is not that physical disease may come, but that women are shamed, and in them the image of God is desecrated.”
Fathers and mothers are failing to place a proper emphasis on the value of the homes today. Had the moral safeguards of the home been unimpaired, such situations as exist near our army camps would never have been possible. Often should we read the words of Proverbs 31: 10-31, which are introduced with the declaration: “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.”
One Million Army Testaments
Mm°ng the troops more than a million pocket-size Testaments are being distributed by the Army. We are told that there are three types of Testaments, one for each of the major religious groups. It is to be hoped that the changes made to render them acceptable have not vitiated in any degree the truth taught by the word of God. All types are uniformly bound, and have the words “Army of the United States” inscribed in gold letters on the front cover. When distributing the Testaments, the Army’s chief of chaplains, Brig. Gen. W. R. Arnold, urged the soldiers to make the acquaintance of their chaplain at their first opportunity, assuring them that “his counsel and advice will guide you in avoiding or overcoming many difficulties.”
To our mind one of the most important features in connection with the distribution of this large number of Testaments is a foreword by President Roosevelt in which he commends reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces. He says, “Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel, and inspiration.” Concerning the efficacy of that Word, the President says, “It is a fountain of strength, and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.” Dr. William Lyon Phelps, who is heading the American Bible Society’s campaign to supply the Scriptures through every channel remaining open, says, “American Democracy is rooted deep in the Book. Today it is facing a blackout in many areas of the world, partly by government restrictions, but more generally by serious curtailment of the world’s supply of Scriptures. Yet, only as that book affects the thinking of great masses of people, can it exert its full influence.”
But that it is exerting influence is indicated by the fact that The Society of the Militant Godless testifies that “even the smallest people know the Bible story. Even those who hold the Bible story to be a pious legend do not forget it. Everyone knows about Jesus Christ. His existence is not doubted.” Its influence is shown by this item from a war correspondent’s notebook: “A Sunday morning snapshot— a tin-hatted private of the hard-boiled Fourth Marines resting his head on a machine gun barrel, and carefully reading page after page of the Bible.” Away from home, many for the first time, becoming aware of the possible tragic ending of the struggle in which they are engaged, these young men find this Book can give them comfort, that it contains rules for living with one’s fellow men, and that courage speaks from its pages.
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
• a » THE s» NEWS s» INTERPRETED II
An appreciation of these facts will help all to properly evaluate the splendid counsel of our President. Especially will it be commended by those parents who, with tear-dimmed eyes, have seen the strength of their young manhood march away to the uncertainties of war. If prayers and letters from Christian parents follow them, they will be fortified against many temptations that result from mass concentrations of men.
Goad Friday Observance Popular
he observance of so-called Good Friday is becoming so popular that many Protestant church groups observed it this year with a three-hour cessation -of all business, while many business establishments permitted their employees the day from noon to three in the afternoon, and labor organizations fully co-operated in maintaining its observance. Indeed some
zealots have pointed to the fact that a failure to properly evaluate its importance cost Abraham Lincoln his life, for it was on Good Friday that he was shot; while his apologists awkwardly suggest that, had it taken rank as a holy day seventy-seven years ago as it has today, Abraham Lincoln never would have outraged public sentiment by attending a theater on that day.
MAY, 1942
All of which goes to show that there is a marked departure from the customs and practices of earlier days in these United States. No more definitely shown is this than by recalling the fact that the early colonists not only failed to observe the day, but were so opposed in some sections as to legislate against its observance. That was definitely true of the Massachusetts Colony. The observance of all annual church holy days of the Middle Ages was proscribed by law. Those early colonists who came to America for a refuge from bigotry insisted that only when pageantry had supplanted piety were such days regarded.
But if such days are to be held in esteem, why not make something of the day following Good Friday, which the church that gave us Good Friday still designates as “The Holy Sabbath”? It was on that day that our Lord rested from His work of redemption. (See Luke 23:56.) And by the way, the great Catholic Church still identifies the Lord’s true Sabbath by calling
the day following Good Friday “The Holy Sabbath.” Why not make its observance popular, not alone one week in the year, but every week, as the Lord commanded? For of other days which He has not commanded He speaks when He says, “But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:9.
The Restive Turk
he massing of troops in the southern Balkans again raises the question as to whether Germany, with the coming of good weather, will strike through neutral Turkey to obtain possession of the much-coveted and much-needed oil fields of the Near East. Calling to the colors all Bulgarians abroad, and making visible military preparations, Bulgaria either presages a new war of nerves or an actual all-out attack to eliminate once and for all the troublesome Turk. Since the feeble attempt on the life of Germany’s ambassador Franz von Papen occurred, relations between her and Turkey have been definitely strained; and when Ankara, after investigating German claims that the attack was Russian-inspired, dismissed the charge, Berlin refused to consider the incident closed; hence the nervousness of the Turk.
Because of a conviction age old that the possessor of the Dardanelles rules the world, the anticipated Nazi drive into Turkey holds interest for every major military power. Meanwhile the devout Mohammedan still ponders the words of his Koran. In Surah 50: 40 he reads: “One of the signs of the approach of the last day will be: ‘The crier (to prayer) shall cry from a near place’ (that is, a place from which all men shall hear).” Husain says that this “near place” is the temple at Jerusalem.
Of this same nation we read in Daniel 11: 45, “He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” Christians believe that “glorious holy mountain ” is Jerusalem. Hence we have a striking parallel between the conclusions of Bible commentators and devout Mohammedans. Both think that Mohammedanism as typified by the Turk will finally establish his seat at Jerusalem. Mohammedans have taught that Allah will appear in defense of his faith, while Daniel 12: 1 asserts, “At that time shall Michael stand up,” or rule, who shall put an end to every worldly enterprise.
The Paradox of Sin
(Continued from page 5)
are one. The Holy Spirit can do that. The first work was symbolic, the second work is the real atonement. The third work is the re-creation. The first work was instruction, the second work is reconciliation, the third work is fellowship, for Jesus said, “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” and create in each one of us a clean heart.
Page NINE
¥ Somewhere in China. Flat cars of field guns, attached to Chinese troop trains move up to the front most needing their aid, in the Chinese war against the invading Japanese. Latest dispatches indicate a wholesale slaughter of Japanese troops in the region of Changsha, as China makes its aid felt in the United Nations’ lineup against the Axis powers. Further reports indicate a large body of Chinese soldiers and equipment moved on Burma to relieve pressure on the hard-pressed British.
ARE PANZERS POISED FDR ARMAGI
* A ship’s upturned lifeboat brought alongside a patrol. Clinging to the keel in utter exhaustion are four survivors. Only one had sufficient strength to reach for the lines which were thrown by the rescuers. Bui they did not represent all who had been on board, ufor some were doomed to burn and drown.”
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TANKER, oil laden, rolls upon the Caribbean’s salty waves. Her engines are throbbing, her able seamen upon the watch, her captain at the helm. A sudden crash, and then another, blasts her engine room and her sturdy hull, snuffs out the lives of three good men, and sets the vessel on fire.
In the offing hovers a monster submarine, ready with her deck guns to finish off the work of destruction her torpedoes have begun. But there is no need for further blows; already the ship is becoming enveloped in smoke and flames. Already a lifeboat rides the heaving waves, and brave sailors are being rescued, as they flounder in the oil-soaked sea. But not all, for some are doomed to burn and drown.
This is war—cruel, relentless, heartbreaking. The survivors, it is true, will be landed at a friendly port. The burned and injured will be given hospital care. But the submarine will, shark-like, prowl the sea and seek for new and larger prey. And it will find it, for this lone tanker is only one of thousands of ships which, in these days of world-wide struggle, will join the silent armada of the deep.
There are three important areas of the seven seas where ship sinkings seem to have been increasing; namely, the Caribbean Sea; the various waterways, straits, and seas about the Netherlands East Indies, centering at Singapore; and the Mediterranean area. The North Sea and the waters about Great Britain have had their share of marine disasters, as have also the waters of the north Atlantic. But the world’s attention seems to be centered upon the Netherlands East Indies, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean. There the fighting ships of the great nations gather, and the naval battles to take place at these strategic points may yet rival the renowned contest of the first World War, fought between the British and the German navies at Jutland. Hence, it is not without point that the world’s attention is focused upon these trouble-spots.
If you will look at your map, you will see that the reason for this is to be found in the fact that the Strait of Malacca, and the various seas adjoining the Philippines and the Netherlands Indies; the Panama Canal; and the Suez Canal, not to exclude the Strait'of Gibraltar and the Dardanelles and Bosporus, are vitally necessary to the sea highways of the world. They are to the ocean’s : commerce what steel bridges are to our railroads. The sea-borne traffic of
Page TEN
the world passes through these canals and straits. He who controls them, controls the world s commerce. Close these great waterways, and all ships east- and westbound from continent to continent would be compelled to add thousands of miles to every voyage. With these passages closed, it would be necessary to sail around the tip of South America through the Strait of Magellan, around the southern tip of Australia past Melbourne and King George Sound, and around the southernmost point of Africa, past the Cape of Good Hope.
But of all these important points, Suez is paramount, for Suez is the gateway between the Far East and Europe. And this portion of the world is even more vital to world trade because of the fact that the Dardanelles and the Bosporus constitute for Russia her only warm-water outlet to the sea, and that Turkey, Iraq, and Iran (ancient Mesopotamia and Persia) provide the land bridge between Europe and Southern Asia. A railway line from Bremen, Hamburg, and Berlin to Bagdad was the dream of the late Kaiser Wilhelm II, and control of the straits at Constantinople and Gallipoli was the dream of Peter the Great. That famous king became emperor of all Russia in 1688, when he was but sixteen years of age, and enjoyed a prosperous reign for thirty-seven years. He is reputed to have left to his successors a famous “last will and testament,” in Article Nine of which he enjoined the following policy:
“To take every possible means of gaining Constantinople and the Indies (for he who rules there will be the true sovereign of
the world); excite war continually in Turkey and Persia; establish fortresses in the Black Sea, which is a double point, necessary to the realization of our project; accelerate as much as possible the decay of Persia; penetrate to the Persian Gulf; reestablish, if possible, by the way of Syria, the ancient commerce of the Levant; advance to the Indies, which are the great depot of the world. Once there, we can do without the gold of England.”
This, however, is not all, for the Eleventh Article reads: “Interest the House of Austria in the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, and quiet their dissensions at the moment of the conquest of Constantinople (having excited war among the old states of Europe), by giving to Austria a portion of the conquest, which afterward will or can be reclaimed.”
That this policy has not been lost to view is shown by the facts of Russian history.
Peter the Great succeeded in 1696 in wrest- ^ ing the Sea of Azov from the Turks. 9 Catherine the Great next gained the Crimea, and in 1812, by the treaty of Bucharest, Alexander I obtained Moldavia and Bessarabia. The Czar Nicholas won for Russia the right to freely navigate the Black Sea, the Dardanelles, and the Danube, but in the Crimean War he lost the right to navigate the Danube, found himself restricted in the Black Sea, and lost i Moldavia. But Russia awaited her opportunity, and in 1870, when the Western nations were busily watching the Franco-Prussian war, she declared her intention to be no longer bound by the treaty of 1856,
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
DON?
By Frank A. Coffin
which restricted her use of the Black Sea.
Napoleon Bonaparte well understood Russia’s aims, and while a prisoner on the island of St. Helena, in conversing with his governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, he said: “In the course of a few years, Russia will have Constantinople, part of Turkey, and all of Greece. This I hold to be as certain as if it had already taken place. All the cajolery and flattery that Alexander practiced upon me was to gain my consent to effect that object. I would not give it, foreseeing that the equilibrium of Europe would be destroyed. Once mistress of Constantinople, Russia gets all the commerce of the Mediterranean, becomes a naval power, and then God knows what may happen. The object of my invasion of Russia was to prevent this, by the interposition between her and Turkey of a new state, which I meant to call into existence as a barrier to her Eastern encroachments.” The fortunes of war in the past few months have greatly strengthened Russian morale. And as the German and Russian titans turned their gaze toward Turkey, the Turks were filled with grim forebodings. The attempted assassination of the German plenipotentiary, Franz von Papen, made the situation between Germany and Turkey even more acute. In spite of wartime censorship, the Associated Press on
February 16 published a dispatch from London saying that travelers from Turkey reported the assembly by the Germans in Bulgaria, Rumania, Greece, and the occupied Greek islands, of prefabricated pontoon-type invasion barges. At the same time, they were said to be building concrete barges, and gathering fleets of little motor sailboats, rushing airports to completion, and assembling various types of aircraft in increasing numbers.
On February 5 the Associated Press had also reported:
“Moscow newspapers today warned Turkey to ‘keep its eyes open’ because Hitler ‘is up to something in the Balkans/ A Soviet commentator said Hitler planned to seize the Turkish-controlled Dardanelles as a gateway to the oil-rich Caucasus and the eastern Mediterranean, and cited three reasons for the warning to Turkey:
“1. The arrival of Nazi Field Marshal William List at Salonika, Greece;
“2. The return to Berlin of Franz von Papen, German ambassador to Turkey;
“3. The charge by German Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels that Britain has given Russia a free hand in the Dardanelles.”
But Turkey stands in fear not merely of Germany on the one hand and Russia on the other. She is also keenly aware of the successes of Germany’s Axis partner in the Far East. The United Press, on February 12, reported from Ankara, Turkey:
“Turkish opinion was disturbed today by the British setback at Singapore and the prospect of an early Axis offensive against Egypt. The remarks of Sir Stafford Cripps, resigned British ambassador to Moscow, suggesting postwar readjustments of fron-
tiers favorable to Russia also caused concern. The semiofficial newspaper Ulus asked whether ‘ Britain, which claims to be fighting to save Europe from Nazism, will end by abandoning Europe to Communism.’ ”
Other dispatches have told of heavy British reinforcements in the Middle East, and it is well known that Germany would like to cut the Allies’ supply line to Russia which runs northward through Iraq. As long ago as last September, the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner reported increasing “chances for an early flare-up of war in the Middle East on a scale not yet approached, with the British, Russians, and Germans in a wild scramble for control of the Dardanelles, the Suez, and the middle eastern passages of Iraq and Iran.”
Despite the thousands upon thousands of troops slaughtered in Abyssinia, on the steppes and morasses of Russia, upon the mountains of Greece, upon the hot sands of Libya and Syria and Palestine, at Dunkirk, and upon the fields of France and Holland and Belgium following the French collapse, in China, Manchukuo, and Burma, and in Singapore and the Far East—in spite of all these tremendous losses in land operations, to say nothing of those at sea, a writer in the Washington (D. C.) Post remarks that “the war is young yet.” He spoke the truth, for the great issues at stake in this stupendous conflict are no nearer solution today than they were when the war began. They are fundamental. They concern the European and American way of life. They are issues over which the world has writhed and struggled for centuries, and the crux of the problem is to be found in the Roman dictum that all government must be in union with, and subservient to, the church, as opposed to the American principle, enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Under the Roman principle the nations of Europe for centuries fought the battles and wars of the Church, made possible her armed crusades, and dipped their swords in the blood of millions. The American principle provided a haven of refuge for the oppressed of all nations.
The war is young yet, but its feverish speed, its pugnaciousness, its panzer drives and its blitzes, will probably bring an unexpected climax. And the crisis is likely to be precipitated in the Near East. Uppermost in every mind is the question, “What do these things mean?” or in the language of Scripture, “How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” or again, in the words of Christ’s disciples, “What shall be {Continued on page 13)
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* Reputed Japanese tanks in Guam. It is thought that this photograph arrived in London by way of Russia, since that country still maintains diplomatic relations with Nippon. Are these panzers of the East poised for Armageddon?
MAY, 1942
Page ELEVEN
SHOULD CIVIL AUTHORITY ENFORCE
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE?
By H. F. De Ath, London Correspondent
ROUBLE of any kind tends to drive people back to religion; so here in Britain this terrible war seems to be stimulating a revival of religion. Many are taking stock of themselves with a view to finding out wherein their religion has failed them or they have failed it. These are seeking to find their way back to the living fountain of faith, hope, and love.
To such we would give every encouragement, but we cannot refrain from giving warning against a misguided zeal on the part of some that may lead to an un-Christlike intolerance toward others whose faith and practice may differ from their own.
In certain sections of the Christian church, whose very existence is accounted for by the fact that the founders thereof fought and suffered bravely for religious liberty, the “back to religion” movement appears to center around a better observance of Sunday, and is strongly backed by such organizations as the Lord’s Day Observance Society, and the Imperial Sunday Alliance. Through strong representations made to members of Parliament, these organizations claim a large share of the credit for defeating, by a very narrow margin, the Bill which was to have authorized the opening of theaters on Sunday. To this
fcOWJJS GOD says to the sea: “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves " be stayed” (Job 38: 11), so He sets “bounds” for individuals and nations, so that when their cup of iniquity is full they can go “no further.” He “made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him.” Acts 17: 26, 27.
In the Bible the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold God “working out the counsels of His own will.” Through divine inspiration He sets forth His purpose in the creation and distribution of races and nations. “Every nation that has come upon the stage of action has been permitted to occupy its place on the earth, that the fact might be determined whether it would fulfill the purposes of the Watcher and the Holy One.”—“ Prophets and Kings,” p. 585.
Of the Amorites of old the Lord at one time said: “In the fourth generation they [the Israelites] shall come hither again [return from Egypt]: for the iniquity of the
extent the agitators for a better observance of Sunday were victorious; not so much by a moral and spiritual appeal to the indifferent masses, but by political pressure exerted upon the elected representatives of the people.
Now the main objection to the religious observance of Sunday is that it has nothing to do with the unchangeable law of God, which enjoins us to keep holy “the Sabbath of the Lord,” which is “the seventh day,” and not the first day of the week.
If, however, individuals wish to observe Sunday in memory of the resurrection, they are, of course, legally free to do so. But it is certainly not consistent with religious liberty to force its observance upon those who have no such regard for the day. Even if Sunday were the Sabbath of the fourth commandment (which, of course, it is not), it would still be inconsistent with religious freedom to enforce it on others by political or any other secular means.
No observer of the true Sabbath (Satur-
Amorites is not yet full.” Genesis 15: 16 But when their measure of iniquity was full, the Lord cast them out “before the children of Israel.” (1 Kings 21: 26.)
With “unerring accuracy, the Infinite One still keeps an account with all nations,” and when their cup of iniquity is full, He knows it. When the Israelites refused to be obedient, He permitted them to go into captivity for “seventy years.” (Jeremiah 25:8-12.)
In the days of Nebuchadnezzar God revealed some high lights in His prophetic forecast of the nations. Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon at that time, the richest and strongest kingdom of his day. It is symbolized in the book of Daniel by the “head of gold ” and a “lion” with “eagle’s wings.” (See Daniel 2: 36-38; 7: 4, 17, 23.)
But in his instruction to Nebuchadnezzar, the prophet Daniel told him that the God of heaven “ removeth kings, and set-teth up kings,” and that “after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.” (Daniel 2:21, 39.)
God informed Nebuchadnezzar “that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of (Continued on page 18)
day) would wish to use any other than purely spiritual means to secure the sacred recognition of that day by others. The religious or non-religious observance of any day is a purely personal matter, and lies entirely outside the province of Parliament, of Congress, or of any state legislature. And it is certainly outside the province of any religious body to influence and use the secular authority to enforce its own religious observances.
We can well imagine the non-churchgoer who finds himself cut off from attending a theatrical play on Sunday afternoon, asking himself this question: “Why should I be deprived by law of a perfectly legitimate form of recreation, because I have no religious regard for Sunday, which other people think I should have? ”
What an angry storm it would raise in Protestant circles if the Roman Catholic Church were to seek, through political channels, to enforce the observance of one of its feast or fast days! Yet Protestants find no compunction in seeking and using; political power to impose on their unwilling fellow patriots the observance of a purely ecclesiastical institution. As one writer has well said: “The question of religious toleration is always apt to prove a boomerang,” and Protestants “have not always had a white sheet in this respect.”
Those who observe the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday), “according to the commandment,” are called to do so while the business and pleasure of the world surges at full tide around them. They may and do seek by precept and example to urge upon others the sacredness of the day which, from the beginning, the Creator has hallowed and blessed. But they have never sought, nor will they ever seek, through political channels to impose it upon others. Why?—Because they know that true observance of the Sabbath can spring only from a heart that has been so touched and tendered by the Spirit of God that it loves to walk in the way of His commandments.
Moreover, nothing is calculated to antagonize the unbeliever more than that professedly Christian bodies use the secular arm of the law to bring him into outward conformity with a religious institution to which he is utterly indifferent.
By all means, let us return to the purer religion of our forefathers. But in our zeal to promote such a return let us beware that we do not range ourselves on the side of bigotry and intolerance, from which our forefathers fought so hard and sacrificed so much to save us.
WATCHING A WORLD DRAMA
By A. L. Manous
Page TWELVE
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
Panzers Poised
(Continued from page 11)
the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world? ” The Holy Scriptures ought to throw light upon our day, and they do. The great conflagration of war now enveloping the world was foretold by Bible prophets millenniums ago. In Deuteronomy 28: 25 was predicted the age-long dispersion of the Jews, and in Jeremiah 25: 29 a punishment by the sword “upon all the inhabitants of the earth.” Three verses farther on, we are told: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.” Jeremiah 25: 32.
This same chapter throws further light upon the future, revealing that in the midst of the carnage God will take a hand. Daniel eleven is likewise a chapter full of meaning for our day. Verse four tells of the breakup of Alexander’s empire into four parts. It should be noted that while Daniel wrote his prophecy in 534 b.c. it was in the year 301 b.c., that is 233 years later, and following the death of Antigonus that this division was effected. The arrangement gave Ptolemy the countries of Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Ccele-Syria, and Palestine. Cassander had Macedon and Greece; and Lysimachus, Thrace, Bithynia, and others of the provinces beyond the Hellespont and the Bosporus. Seleucus had the rest. (See “Prideaux’s Connections,” Part 1, Book 8, paragraph 87.) As time passed, Seleucus became, from the standpoint of Palestine, the northern king, and Ptolemy the king of the south. This territory to the north—Syria, Macedon, and Thrace—was later overrun by the Saracens, and a large portion of it is now occupied by the Ottoman Turks. Concerning the “king of the north,” which in our day refers to Turkey, verses 44 and 45 of this chapter say:
“Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”
That “the glorious holy mountain” is Jerusalem, lying between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, is made clear in Zechariah 8: 3 and Joel 3: 17. The Turkish government was moved in 1920 from Constantinople to Ankara, and doubtless in the not far distant future will seek in vain to hold the reins of power by moving to Jerusalem.
That move will signal the standing up of Michael (Christ, Daniel 10: 21), the end of human probation, the substitution of justice for mercy in God’s dealings with earth’s inhabitants, the pouring out upon humanity of seven fearful judgments, and trouble such as the world has never seen. In Daniel 12: 1 is found the following:
“And at that time shall Michael stand
up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.”
In the midst of earth’s fearful holocaust of war Christ will come in the clouds of glory, and all His holy angels with Him. Joel 3:11 calls for the gathering of the nations, and adds, “Thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, 0 Lord.” “The heavens and the earth shall shake,” we read in Joel 3: 16, “but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.” Psalm 50:3. “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” Revelation 1:7. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise.” 1 Thessalonians 4: 16. “They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:30, 31.
The purpose of Christ’s second coming will be to gather His people of all ages. “And it shall be said in that day. Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isaiah 25: 9.
In that day Christ shall “see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” “How can I forget thee?” He asks. “I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” God wants to prepare each one for His kingdom of glory. But He never forces the human will. “ Behold, I stand at the door, and knock,” says Jesus. “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3: 20.
God’s mercy waits your answer to the gracious invitation, “Be ye reconciled to God.” To be reconciled is to be obedient to His will. For this Christ died. He paid the price for all your sins. He offers the power to enable you to live in harmony with the will of God as revealed in the Bible. The water of life is offered without money and without price to whomsoever will accept it. You cannot buy God’s favor. It is His free gift to you. Accept it now. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Just as you are, right now, tell God, “Lord, I accept Thy wondrous Gift.”
* A Bedouin sheik and his fleet “steed’’ of the desert shown as a wing commander of the R.A.F. His is a responsibility to help maintain civil authority.
Has civil government the right to legislate on questions of religion?
Let Mr. De’Ath tell you on the previous page.
Page THIRTEEN
MAY, 1942
WILL A WAR DIET REDUCE APPENDICITIS?
(Concluded)
By Daniel H. Kress, M. D.
¥ A British farmer teaches a school hoy the joy of honest toil as a health builder. Dr. Kress points out that not all the so-called hardships of war are destructive of health.
^
MPROPER mastication in civilized countries is another cause of appendicitis. Whenever there exists ulceration of the stomach, mucous colitis, or excessive irritation of the colon, we advise pureed foods. Some time ago a fine-appearing business man came to my office for advice. He told me he was afflicted with an irritable colon and was threatened with a stomach ulcer. He said he had a thorough examination and pureed foods were recommended. He said, “At home I have no difficulty, the foods are pureed for me in the kitchen; but in traveling about I am up against it, since I have difficulty in obtaining pureed foods.” I said to him, “My dear friend, you may have pureed foods, for you carry with you the little apparatus which enables you to puree your food, no matter where you may be. All you need to do is to make use of it and chew your food until it is pureed” Although he was an intelligent business man, this had never occurred to him.
Then he wanted to know what he should eat. I informed him he could eat almost any wholesome food. Among other foods I happened to mention nuts. ilNuts!” he exclaimed. Then, taking his pencil out of his vest pocket, he said, as he exposed about one-fourth inch of it, “When I eat nuts they pass through in pieces as large as that.” I said to him, “If you convert the nuts into a cream in your mouth, you will find they are perfectly adapted for your use. Nut cream can be tolerated by the most sensitive stomach and colon.” So pleased was he with this information that he paid me ten times the fee I asked. The stomach cannot chew, hence the proper thing to do is to chew, chew, chew. This lost art must be resurrected among civilized people.
The basin-like lower end of the colon acts as a catch-all for undigested coarse particles, which being retained longer than in any other portion of the alimentary canal, cause inflammation and putrefaction.
Another source of irritation to the colon, and especially to that portion to which the appendix is attached, is the use of laxatives, mineral waters, and purgatives of all sorts, especially the frequent use of calomel and other mercurial laxatives, since these merely liquefy the digested food, leaving the undigested pieces in the caecum to undergo decay or act as mechanical irritants. The free use of these cathartics is undoubtedly one of the causes of this disease among civilized races.
To guard against appendicitis, it is necessary to regulate the diet in harmony with natural and sensible rules. Overeating as well as too frequent eating should be avoided. Three meals a day are sufficient as a rule, and many would do better on two full meals a day, taking, if necessary, a little fruit or a nutritive drink at night, with nothing but water between meals. In ex-
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ceptional cases it may be necessary to have frequent meals; when this is the case they should be nutritive liquid foods and not solids.
Six hours should, as a rule, elapse between meals when three meals a day are eaten. This affords the stomach time to get rid of one meal before we afflict it with another. The hours I would recommend, would be: 7 a. m., 1 p. m., and 6: 30 p. m.; when eating two meals, 8 a. m., and 3 or 3: 30 p. m. would be suitable hours, supplemented if desired by a nutritive drink in the evening.
Regularity of the bowels should be maintained by the free use of fruits, wholemeal bread, and bulky vegetables, taking pains to thoroughly masticate all foods.
It is well to bear in mind that after one attack of appendicitis, a second attack is almost sure to follow, unless a change is made in the habits of eating. Meats and cane sugar should be used moderately, if at all. Free fats, as butter and fried foods, should be used sparingly. Pepper, mustard, and other irritants should be eschewed. Puddings and pastries should be used sparingly. Ice cream should be shunned, since it is usually taken between meals, and
because the combination of milk and sugar is undesirable, since it is apt to undergo fermentation.
Appendicitis frequently appears in those whose habits are sedentary, who are deprived of physical exercise and out-of-door life. The abdominal muscles of the sedentary person become relaxed, the organs to which they form a natural support drop one upon the other. This crowding together of these abdominal organs interferes with the free circulation of blood through them, and prevents the food residue from being passed normally along the colon for expulsion. Naturally, the colon and appendix are more apt to become diseased. Development of the abdominal muscles by appropriate exercises is important.
Stooping or bending exercises are especially helpful,—some light employment in the garden, as planting seeds, pulling weeds, etc.,—but the body should be bent at the hips, keeping the legs almost straight. A word of advice to sedentary office workers may be of help. When sitting at the desk, practice sitting erect with the abdominal muscles and the muscles of the trunk energized. After the office work, walking 0Continued on page 19)
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
WHEN COMPLICATIONS THREATEN
By Vincent A. Fenn
ANY times during His sojourn here (Jurist ministered to the sick and suffering. By Him sickness was often mentioned as a type of sin. When a miracle of healing was performed, not infrequently He followed it with the admonition, “Go and sin no more.” In one instance, as recorded in John 5: 14, this additional word of warning was given: “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”
In times of slight or critical illness there is always the danger of serious complications. The doctor and the nurse must ever be on the alert for signs which indicate a change in the patient’s condition.
For many types of disease there are specific remedies, specific types of treatment. Fortunate indeed is the individual who, when stricken with a serious illness, finds that there is a specific remedy, a method that has been tried and found to be the practical way of promoting recovery and warding off complications.
There is a great similarity between the physical and the spiritual life in this respect. That there are many forms of soul illness, with attendant serious complications, is a fact well known to the follower of Christ. And many times the real danger is not so much in the primary illness as in the complications that are so liable to develop.
However, the Great Physician has written for us many prescriptions which are specific remedies for the diseases of the soul. Besides the remedies, there are many preventive measures to be taken for any form of soul disease. These are all written in God’s great Prescription Book, and they are all reliable.
In our physical life we are constantly surrounded by germs of all kinds. In our spiritual life we are always exposed to influences of evil. We must continually strive to build up a resistance against soul disease; for the admonition is to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Philippians 2: 12, 13. If we neglect to follow the directions given by the Great Physican, we lower our spiritual resistance, and soon fall victims to some malady which may lead to serious complications.
Some of the diseases common to the Christian are discouragement, envy, worry, hatred, and sorrow, all of which are subject to many serious complications.
To illustrate, take sorrow. First of all there must be a correct diagnosis, otherwise we might suggest the wrong treatment. Sorrow has various forms. Sorrow
for sin is godly sorrow, and leads to repentance. But sometimes a loved one is taken, or we pass through a bitter experience; this causes another kind of sorrow. In such times of stress we should go at once to the Great Physician; He will direct us to a specific remedy. So often we fail to do this, but begin instead to question the justice and love of God, until soon we have developed a serious complication which may result in the death of our spiritual life.
But still there is hope. In His great Prescription Book God has left for our encouragment some experiences of others who have passed through just what we are called upon to endure. There is perhaps no greater sorrow than that which can come through bitter experiences in one’s own family, or through the death of a son or a daughter, father or mother. In 2 Samuel 18:33 and 19: 1-4 we find the expressions of sorrow uttered by David over the death of a wayward son. As we study the life of David, we find that instead of questioning the justice and mercy of God, he accepted his great sorrow, realizing that God in His wisdom knows what is best. In experiences of this character John 14: 1-4, 18 and 2 Samuel 2- 22 are a very good prescription.
Sometimes there is sin in the life as was mentioned in John 5: 14 which brings on a train of complications. In admonishing the man whom He had just healed to go and “sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto” him, the Saviour emphasized the danger of complications even after one has apparently recovered from the disease of virulent sin. Psalm 51 is a very good outline to follow when one recognizes that there is sin which is destroying his spiritual life. In verses 2 and 3 David cries out, “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” Verses 11 and 17 testify to the fact that David had discovered the right remedy, for he says, “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. . . . The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise.”
Paul was aware of this war against evil and the danger of spiritual death. In Romans 8:7 we find the reason for this, and in chapter 7, from verse 14 on, we find that Paul had discovered a law that, when he would do good, evil was present. In verse 24 he cries out, “0 wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Verse 25 is the answer: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Instead of lapsing into a complication brought about by discouragement over the
(Continued on page 18)
The DOCTOR REPLIES to HEALTH QUERIES . ..
Medical and hygienic information of value to the general reader is given here by Owen S. Parrett, M. D. Inquirers may address the doctor in care of this magazine.
Perspiring Feet
What can be done for perspiring feet? C. S.
This condition, which is due to some disturbance of the sympathetic nerves, is more easily handled when affecting the feet than the hands. Try dusting powdered boric acid in the stockings at the foot end, or apply the same to the feet, and at night soak the feet in either one per cent potassium permanganate in water, or a two per cent solution of formalin. See that your general health is built up as much as possible, and that your diet is high in minerals and vitamins, and that your elimination is good.
Colitis
I suffer from colitis. What can be done to cure itf D. E. S.
Colitis is a word which, like paint, covers a multitude of things. However, I take it, you probably have soreness through the bowels and passage of some mucus, with a tendency to constipation. If you take
coarse foods like bran, the pain is increased, and the mucus more in evidence. Colitis is a disease of civilization, caused by devitalized and demineralized foods, together with indoor life and high-pressure living. This then points the way to a cure.
Secure bulkage with high minerals and vitamins in your diet, and do not be ill advised to use all white bread and soft, pappy foods to avoid roughage. Have your foods so prepared or chew them so thoroughly that they will not be too rough; but don’t permit any of the precious vitamins and minerals to be discarded. A little wheat germ or rice polish may be helpful, as well as the taking of extra vitamins, such as the A.B.D.G. Capsules, together with a glass or more of fruit juice daily. Secure elimination by mechanical laxatives or an enema, rather than by cathartics which have a drug action. Try to build your health by walking in the open air daily, and take some sun baths as you find opportunity.
MAY, 1942
Page FIFTEEN
THE MOTHER IN THE HOME
By May Cole Kuhn
IN THE blue mountains of our childhood, toward which we ever turn and look, stand the mothers who marked out to us from thence our life.”
Somehow the years have brought me to the old-fashioned conclusion that a mother’s place is in the home. Unless circumstances are such that she must go out to make the living, she should by all means consider her kingdom close to the fireside until her brood is fledged and able to shift for themselves morally as well as from the viewpoint of economics. They should not be pushed out of the home nest too soon; neither should they idle about while father and mother bear the burdens.
“Take care of yourself,” wrote an old friend to the frail mother of a boy in his twenties. “That young man Charles needs your advice more now than he ever has needed it.” He knew, in bitterness, the lack of a mother’s restraining infuence. His life would have been much different had his mother been by his side in his hours of temptation and loneliness. For such times of need the mother should conserve her spiritual and physical strength.
Home from day-school a girl ran into the house.
“Mother,” she called, “mother.”
Mother answered, “Yes, dear,” and then remarked to a friend who had dropped in for a chat,
“Virginia always likes to find me here when she comes home, and I try to arrange affairs so that I shall be here. Then she is content.”
That woman was building a foundation for security and real love for home in her daughter’s soul.
The normal home, where the father goes out to face the world and mother solves the house problems is the ideal conditioning for children; but it is not always possible to meet these conditions. Father may have passed away, out of the life of his family; or, as is sometimes the case, he may be ill, and the burden of providing the necessaries of life may fall upon mother. Then hers becomes a double responsibility, which the children should share.
Busy hands seldom find themselves in mischief. Work, study, some hobby, gardening, cooking, duties about the house and yard,—these keep the mind and the fingers occupied.
Under a double burden, the mother encounters troubles which women living under ordinary situations do not have to meet. Perplexing problems, difficulties, obstacles have to be moved out of the way if the family succeeds in continuing.
Normally, the mother, the father, and
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the children compose the home; and the mother’s influence is usually the strongest factor in making it a precious, blessed place to dwell, or a place where nobody wishes to be or stay.
It is mother who eases the hurts and pains, it is she who watches by the bed when the epidemic of children’s diseases comes along; it is she who plans the pleasant surprises and good times for the family; and there should be good times which every member of the family will enjoy.
Her quick eye discerns the moods and attitudes of her children, and she tries to
Mother! Even in later years it is to her that our troubles and perplexities are carried. When grief comes, we go to her for strength and courage, to face life bravely. From her experience she has learned, by trial and success, or trial and failure, what course leads to some desired goal. Since she has been in dilemmas, she can help her children out of hard places. Since she is a Christian, she knows by sure experience that Christ is a present help in trouble, and her faith stimulates faith in her children.
As for father, well, his heart safely trusts in her, for she is the keeper of his fortress, his home. He depends on her for help and comfort. It is often a hard battle out there in the world, and he needs a quiet, calm place where he can find rest and peace, a haven from the storm of life. Mother is the
★
★
★
* “ Take care of yourself. That young man Charles needs your advice now more than he ever has needed it”
alleviate the hurts and to build up hope'and courage, wholesome womanhood and fearless manhood from the material God has given her; and if she fears God, the results are usually satisfactory.
Youth fades, love fails, friendships outgrow themselves, but a mother remains a mother still. When others fail, she does not falter in her loyalty to her son or daughter. In her heart hope for their success abides.
center of the home for him as well as for the children, if she is a true mother.
Of course this is a picture of the ideal home, but it may and often does become a happy realization.
The years pass swiftly, and before we know it, the children are gone. The direction they take, usually depends upon the trend of the home. Has mother imparted to her flock a sure, firm faith in God? Or
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
SOCIAL QUESTIONS ANSWERED
★
By Arthur W. Spalding
do her children go out chartless and without a compass, to be blown hither and thither, derelicts with neither direction nor goal?
Mother! It should be the sweetest name that lingers on human lips after the name of Jesus has been spoken. Her life should carry fragrance and goodness about it, so that the memory of her in years to come, will bring comfort and joy, a restraint from evil, a stimulus to right doing.
In later years, she will realize that no sacrifice has been too costly, no cross too heavy to bear for the success and strength of her home.
Men Who Die Nat
(Continued from page Jf)
flakes in a snowstorm”; “the extent of the shower [of stars] . . . was such as to cover no inconsiderable part of the earth’s surface, from the middle of the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific on the west, and from the northern coast of South America to undefined regions among the British possessions on the north, . . . and everywhere presented nearly the same appearance.”
After presenting these signs, Matthew informs us that Jesus said, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matthew 24: 33, 34.
What is meant by “this generation”? First, it could not have reference to the generation in which Christ lived, and which saw the fall of Jerusalem, because the “all things” included the end of the world, the second coming of Christ with the angels in power and great glory, and the gathering of the saints from all parts of the earth to meet the Lord in the air. No; it plainly means the last generation, which would witness the end of the world. Let it be repeated that Christ, in answering the disciples’ questions, presented a line of prophecy reaching from His generation down through the generations of the gospel age to the last generation, that would witness His second coming and the end of the world.
Attention here should be called to the fact that both Mark (chapter 13) and Luke (chapter 21) record this discourse of Christ as well as Matthew, and for correct exegesis, we must have before us the full discourse. Luke mentions signs additional to those of Matthew', and brings us down a few links farther in the chain of prophecy than the falling of the stars. He records that Jesus said, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Luke 21: 25, 26.
MAY, 1942
Proper Age of Marriage
Is it advisable for a woman to marry a man younger than herself? What is there wrong about such marriages?
If she must marry, and there is no older man to marry, but there is a younger man who will marry her, “let them marry; they do no sin.” Among my friends I number several couples in which the husband is younger than the wife, and apparently the marriages are successful and the partners happy. In most of such cases, it is true, the young woman had come to an age where she began to be dubious about finding a husband, and that, I am told, is a sad state. There is more to the clinging-vine theory than mere poetry; but if among my women readers there are any sturdy oaks, they may pass this by.
It is the social rule among us for the husband to be older than the wife; and I think God suggested the rule when He created Adam before He created Eve. Reasons? First, the man matures later than the woman, though by the time of proper marriage age he is supposed to have caught up with her. But if he is several years younger than his wife, he is quite liable to be a child under the tutelage of a schoolma’am. Second, generally speaking, the woman fades earlier than the man; and despite cosmetic arts a wife older than her husband is liable to be mistaken for his mother, which she does not always receive as a compliment. Third, he is a rare man who can forget that his wife is older, with all the implications of the case, and in consequence younger husbands are prone to resemble the popular cartoon of John Q. Public.
Lady, it may be advisable for you to marry a younger man; but, sir, it is not advisable for you to marry an older lady.
Safeguarding the Girl
My daughter is fifteen years old, an attractive girl, but of course not yet fully developed. She is usually respectful toward her parents’ judgment in social matters, but recently a situation has developed which tests her loyalty and submission. A young man twenty-two years old, having met her at a party, professes to be smitten with her charms, and pursues
The Lord, then, referring to all these signs,—signs in the sun, moon, and stars, on the earth distress of nations with perplexity, and so on,—says, “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. And He spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see
her ardently. Over the ’phone I heard her tell him that she is too young to receive attentions from a man, and she has refused to meet him clandestinely, as he proposed. Yet she is impressed and thrown a little off balance by his ardent wooing. Is this a proper relation? And should I invite the young man to visit my daughter at our home? And shoidd I permit them to walk out together in the evening? Why do young men of his age seek girls of her age?
Why? Because they are social misfits. It will be found in all such cases that the young fellow is unacceptable to young women of his own age, or at least feels himself socially inadequate in their presence; therefore he seeks the easy conquest of an unsophisticated young girl. His vanity, wounded by his lack of success among those of his age, is gratified by the response of the innocent child-woman, and so he builds up his ego. This is the most charitable explanation.
A more sinister suspicion, justified in many cases, is that the fellow has immoral designs upon the girl. If she responds to his blandishments, he takes greater and greater liberties, progressing from lonely night strolls or automobile rides to the intimacies of heavy petting, and, if the girl submits, to the loss of her virtue. The reason such an individual chooses the very young girl is, as stated above, because he is a social weakling, and has no mastery over women of his own age.
Do not allow such a person to come within tainted-air distance of your daughter. I suppose you scrutinize the character of the sponsors of parties which you allow your daughter to attend: if they have any sense of responsibility, they must blame themselves for permitting two such dissimilar characters to meet. You cannot always avoid such unhappy occurrences, but you can keep the man from darkening your door. Tell him plainly why you will not allow him to see your daughter. And tell her. Of course whether or not this is an effective measure depends upon the attitude of your fifteen-year-old. If, as you say, you have so educated her that she is amenable to your discipline and judgment, the matter is settled. If you have not, woe!
and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. . . . Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all [these things] be fulfilled.” Luke 21:28-33. One dependable Bible commentator remarks of the above words thus: “Jesus declares, ‘There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of na-
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tions.’ Those who behold these harbingers of His coming are to ‘ know that it is near, even at the doors.’”—11 The Great Controversy,” pages 37, 38.
No one will deny that during the past twenty-five years, the nations of the earth have experienced the greatest period of distress and perplexity in the entire history of the world.
In the Scriptures there is no fixed time for the length of a generation. Sometimes “generation” is used to convey the idea of a time period without definite limitations. (Isaiah 51: 8; Psalm 102: 24; Colossians 1: 26.) Again, it is used of men living at any given time. (Genesis 6:9; Matthew 24: 34.) At other times it covers the bearing of children, or genealogies. (Genesis 5: 1; Matthew 1:1.) In a genealogical sense, it is used figuratively of the account of creation. (Genesis 2:4.) “Generation” in Matthew 24: 34 and in Luke 21: 32 plainly means men living and active at a given time. The generation,—that warlike generation in which Christ lived and in which the end of the Jewish nation took place,—was a type of the generation which will be alive and active at the end of the world. The body or mass of that generation had not passed away when the end of the Jewish nation came in a.d. 70. If we were standing at a given point and saw an army division of 15,000 men go marching by, no one could reasonably contend that the division had all passed by while some portion of the division was still coming up. Surely not. It should be plain from the words of Jesus that we are now living in the last generation, and that “this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.”
Watching a World Drama
(Continued from page 12)
men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the basest [lowest, R. V.] of men.” Daniel 4: 17, 25, 32.
With unfailing precision God keeps account with the nations, and when they have filled up the measure of their guilt, as did Babylon at the time of Belshazzar’s feast, God permits them to pass off the stage of action, and ofttimes He accomplishes this even by an “inferior” power. Daniel 2: 39; 5: 30, 31.
“In the history of nations the student of God’s word may behold the literal fulfillment of divine prophecy. Babylon, shattered and broken at last, passed away because in prosperity its rulers had regarded themselves as independent of God, and had ascribed the glory of their kingdom to human achievement. ’ ’—‘ ‘Prophets and Kings, ’ ’ pp. 501, 502. Nebuchadnezzar said: “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” Daniel 4: 30.
The Medo-Persian kingdom is symbolized in the book of Daniel by “silver,” and also by “a bear” with parts of a devoured victim “between th§ teeth of it,”
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and by a “ram” with “two horns.” (See Daniel 2: 32, 39; 5: 30, 31; 7: 5, 17; 8: 20.)
During the reign of Cyrus, and later Darius Hystaspes, the people of God were treated with respect and kindness. But after their day a change came over the nation. Under the reign of Xerxes—the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther,—the wicked Haman, who stood next to the king, plotted “to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.” Esther 3:6.
Having gone on record as a deathdealing, persecuting power, violating the law of God and human rights, the Medo-Persian kingdom was filling up her measure of iniquity and reaching the limits of her “bounds.” Later “the Medo-Persian realm was visited by the wrath of Heaven because in it God’s law had been trampled underfoot. The fear of the Lord had found no place in the hearts of the vast majority of the people. Wickedness, blasphemy, and corruption prevailed.”— “Prophets and Kings,” p. 502.
And God allowed Medo-Persia to be conquered by the Grecians under Alexander the Great in 331 b.c., though the Medo-Persian army is said to have numbered twenty to Alexander’s one. They had reached “the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,” and God permitted them no longer to assume the chief rule of the entire world. (See Acts 17:26, 27; Daniel 2:39; 8:20, 21.)
The Grecian kingdom is symbolized in the book of Daniel by “brass,” by “a leopard” with “four wings of a fowl” upon its back, and by a “rough goat” with a “great horn” “between his eyes,” of whom it was predicted that he should “ bear rule over all the earth.” (See Daniel 2: 39; 7: 6; 8:21.)
God has permitted every nation that has come upon the stage of action to occupy its place, that it might prove whether it would fulfill His purpose or not. But like many other nations, the Greeks later refused to accept God’s principles of righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:22), and were permitted to fall into the hands of the “iron” kingdom of Rome about 161 b.c. (See Daniel 5: 28; 2: 40; Acts 17: 26, 27.).
The “fourth kingdom” mentioned in prophecy was symbolized by “legs of iron,” a head and mouth with “great iron teeth,” and “ten horns”; and in the book of Revelation by “a great red dragon.” (See Daniel 2:33, 40; 7:7, 17, 23, 24; Revelation 12:3.)
About 161 b.c., the great “ iron monarchy of Rome” “seized the scepter and ruled the world.” She ruled in her undivided state from 161 b.c. to about 351 a.d., when her disintegration began and extended to about 476 a.d.
This “iron monarchy of Rome” was ruled by the Caesars in the days when Jesus was born and crucified. Many Christians were also put to death under her cruel reign. (See Luke 2:1; Matthew 27: 62-66; Acts 8: 1-3; 12: 1-4.)
From the days of old, “prophecy has traced the rise and progress of the world’s great empires,—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. With each of these, as with nations of less power, history has repeated itself. Each has had its period of test; each has failed, its glory faded, its power departed.”
“To understand these things,—to understand that ‘righteousness exalteth a nation’ [Proverbs 14: 34]; that ‘the throne is established by righteousness ’ [Proverbs 16: 12] and ‘upholden by mercy ’ [Proverbs 20:28]; to recognize the outworking of these principles in the manifestation of His power who ‘ removeth kings, and setteth up kings,’—this is to understand the philosophy of history.”—“Prophets and Kings,” p. 502.
When Complications Threaten
(Continued from page 15)
tendency of his carnal mind toward evil, Paul found a specific, sure treatment to overcome his weakness, a way in which he could build up a resistance against evil, thereby promoting a healthy Christian experience. We read: “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Corinthians 9: 27.
Avoiding a Moral Blackout
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languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.” Isaiah 24: 1-6.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. . . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3: 3, 4, 10.
To the second question, Is there a solution to the problem? I answer, Yes, emphatically so. But that solution is not in national unity, nor international confederacies, strong though such things are. The remedy, as we have already hinted, is not primarily for nations but for individuals. The secret of the remedy is with God. And the remedy itself is the second coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. That fact is set forth in the scriptures quoted, and in many others that might be presented.
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
<S> SCRIPTURE PRORLEMS SOLVED . . .
This is a service department where questions on religion, ethics, and Bible interpretation will be answered. Send questions to the editor.
To be answered, questions must be accompan;ed by full name and address of the questioner. In publication only initials will be used.
Rich Man and Lazarus
Cannot Luke 16: 19-31 be taken literallyf J.C.
Concerning Christ’s method of teaching, the disciples asked: “Why speakest Thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” Matthew 13:10-13.
Then He showed that in their hardheartedness and perversity, the words of Esaias were fulfilled: “By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” Verses 14, 15.
Further, Christ announced other lessons; and Matthew tells us, “And without a parable spake He not unto them.” Verse 34. Mark 4:2 tells us that “He taught them many things by parables.”
It is interesting to observe that while you attempt to interpret this parable of Luke 16 literally, you do say, “There is nothing difficult about the name given to the place where Abraham and Lazarus were; it is merely a figurative name for an actual place.” Figurative name! Then there is something figurative about the chapter, but that is parabolic; and the
moment that you introduce a parable, Albert Barnes says you cannot make it walk on all fours, and you admit it by introducing a “figurative name.”
The Kingdom of God
Please explain Mark 9: 1:11 There be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.” Mrs. B. E. V.
This prophecy of our Lord was fulfilled about a week later, when Christ was transfigured before them. (See Luke 9: 27, 28.) The transfiguration of Christ was a miniature representation of His coming and kingdom. When our Lord comes, first will be seen His glorious person, then those who are “caught up to meet” Him, some immortalized after their resurrection from the dead; others changed to immortality without experiencing death. (See 1 Corinthians 15: 15-54; 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17.)
These were all represented at the transfiguration of Christ. Our Lord was there as King, “transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.” Matthew 17:2. We read that “there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory.” Luke 9:30, 31. Moses represented those who have died, or will die, and yet who through faith in God will be raised from the dead to be immortalized at Christ’s second coming. Moses died and was buried, but was raised by Michael or Christ, the Son of God. (See Jude 9.) It is the voice of Christ, the Archangel, that raises the dead. (See 1 Thessalonians 4: 16; John 5:28, 29.) Elijah represented those who will be translated without seeing death. (See 2 Kings 2: 1, 11, 12.)
The Apostle Peter, in speaking of this experience at a much later time,
Man has demonstrated his inability to save himself or the world. The demonstration is indisputably sufficient to warrant such a conclusion. Only God can bring permanent peace out of the warlike propensities of man. And only He can bring beauty and security out of chaos. And He has from the days of eternity decided to do this through the second coming of Jesus to establish a kingdom of righteousness upon the ruined empires of a ruined world. That day draws on apace. He Himself said: “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:28.
Of that kingdom we read:11 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall
MAY, 1942
be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” Daniel 7: 27.
Appendicitis?
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exercise is excellent. Energy should be thrown into the walk, the head should be kept erect, the shoulders back, the abdominal muscles drawn in to keep the abdominal organs in position. Five minutes spent in a simple exercise at night before going to bed is helpful.
These exercises improve the intraabdominal circulation of blood. The importance of this will be seen when it is recognized that the large blood vessels of
described the manifestation as “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and said, “We were eye witnesses of His majesty.” (See 2 Peter 1: 16-18.) There are three Gospel writers who mention the transfiguration: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Each one mentions it in connection with the promise of Jesus that they should not die until they should see the kingdom of God come with power.
The Papacy
Please explain the seventeenth chapter of Revelation. M. V. Z.
I personally understand that the seventeenth chapter of Revelation refers to the papacy, as exemplified in the Catholic Church. The beast upon which it was riding, having seven heads and ten horns, is the beast of Rome, or the Roman Empire in its divided estate, represented by the ten horns.
The seven heads of the seventeenth chapter of Revelation, verses 9-11, may represent the seven forms of government in Rome, pagan and papal; namely, kingly, consular, decemvirate, triumvirate, dictatorial, imperial, Exarch of Ravenna, and the papal. It would seem that the seventeenth verse indicates a loss of power and respect by the papacy just before the close of time, but, according to Revelation 19: 20, the beast will live on until the coming of Christ.
Why the Prevalence of Evil?
Why is it that things that are not good for us are put before us, such as tobacco, cosmetics, drinks, gin, coffee, tea, cards, gambling, motion pictures, etc. J. G. J.
You will notice that the Lord does not put these before us. They are supplied by men. Concerning ordinary playing cards, these were were first devised for Charles IX of France, who was responsible for the slaughter of Saint Bartholomew’s night. He became mentally deranged as the enormity of his guilt pressed upon him. To keep him from raging, one of his courtiers prepared a set of handpainted cards. From them came the ordinary playing cards with which men gamble today.
the abdomen and the smaller vessels of the viscera are capable of holding about two thirds of the blood of the entire body. That which prevents the blood from stagnating is the intra-abdominal pressure exerted by the abdominal muscles. When these are flabby through sedentary habits the intro-abdominal pressure is removed, and abdominal visceral congestion and constipation take place—a condition which is almost universal in civilized countries. All of this may be prevented by exercising care as to what, when, and how we eat. Someone has well said, “No man dies a triumphant death who dies of a disease below the diaphragm.” Such diseases may be avoided. Government restrictions of the use of sugar, meats, and butter are blessings in disguise.
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NEWS • PICTURES
I. Lieut. Gen. A. E. Percival, who was British Commander in Malaya. 2. Inspecting 75-millimeter howitzers at the General Electric, Erie, Pennsylvania. These are rated with the highest striking power for their weight of all the Army’s guns. They will hurl a 14-pound projectile 9,500 feet. 3. Brain trusters appointed as advisers by Donald M. Nelson, Chairman of the War Production Board. Left to right they are Thomas C. Blaisdell, Assistant
Director of the National Resources Planning Board; Fred Searles, Consultant Ordnance Ammunition Division, U. S. Army; and Robert R. Nathan, Assistant Director of Progress Reports of the W. P. B. 4. The Duke of Kent inspects one of the ambulances sent by America and presented by American Ambassador John G. Winant. 5. Private Rushworth, Britain’s smallest soldier, is four feet three. On either side are military police.