Religious Bird Fails to Snatch Seed

In his illustration of the sower Jesus told of some seed as falling by the wayside and which the birds of the air picked up, resulting in no increase. On the other hand, the seed that fell in the right kind of soil or heart yielded thirty-, sixty- and a hundredfold. The following experience shows the failure of a “bird” to take away the seed, because it had been planted in the right kind of soil, and of the increase that resulted from this seed.—Luke 8:4-15.

A very devout lady living in a Flanders village went to visit her aunt in France. It so happened that this aunt had become one of Jehovah’s witnesses, and so took advantage of the visit to tell her niece all about God’s kingdom and what the Bible actually taught. The niece returned to her Flanders home with a copy of the Bible and some textbooks to assist her in her study. As she studied her Bible and her knowledge increased she could not help but talk about the good news to the clients of her beauty parlor. It was not long before all this came to the ears of Monsieur le Cure, the parish priest. He had not called on our friend for fifteen years, but suddenly he developed a great interest in her health and called to inquire after it.

It was not long before he got around to the real purpose of his call. He said he had been informed that she was studying the Bible, and then he proceeded to explain why she should surrender to him her personal copy of the Scriptures. Said he: “You wouldn’t think of giving beefsteak to this one-year-old child, would you? Well, I am your spiritual father, I can read the Bible without harm, but it is not good for you, my child.” However, the lady was familiar with Jesus’ words, “Do not call anyone your father on earth,” and also knew that the Bible was just as much for her as for any other God-fearing person on earth. She refused to give up her copy of the Bible, but continued to study it and to talk its contents to others.

This started what we might call a “chain reaction” in this little village, for before long seventeen others had followed her example and were gaining accurate knowledge. Shortly her hairdressing parlor was converted into a meeting place for Jehovah’s witnesses, and at the first public lecture 140 persons heard more of the good news from the Bible, which the parish priest had endeavored to keep from the people. Later on, a well-to-do businessman offered his home for a series of public talks. His friends exclaimed: “Do you realize what you are doing? Why, you may lose your home because of this!” His calm reply was: “Well, if I lose it, I lose it; but this is more important than my home.” Well, he did not lose his home, and now he and his wife and his two sons are active witnesses of Jehovah, along with about forty other people in the little town. The truth has gained a firm foothold here in the battle against ignorance.

Tens of Thousands of Years Wrong!

● From a June 30, 1952, Associated Press report: “The National Capital Parks reported proudly today that there was a blossom on an Indian lotus plant at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens here. It is no ordinary blossom. It bloomed yesterday on a plant grown from seeds that are tens of thousands of years old. The seeds from which the Indian lotus grew were found in geologic deposits in southern Manchuria two years ago by Dr. Seido Endo, paleontologist at Sendai University in Japan. Dr. Endo said the seeds were found under a layer of rocks and were at least tens of thousands of years old.” Presumably the readers believed this fantastic age claim. How were they to know that this claim, which would contradict the Bible, had already been disproved by the radiocarbon clock, which had set the age of these lotus seeds at merely 1,000 years? (See “The Radiocarbon Clock”, Awake! February 22, 1952.) That in itself is quite an age for seeds, and would have made an interesting news item, but the earlier, though false, age estimate was more spectacular. Apparently a few “tens of thousands of years” matters little to a “scientist” talking for publicity, or to the news service that reports his words.