THE DISPOSITION of being improperly curious caused me to. enlist in the United States Navy in 1919. The second ship in which I served was the battleship, U. S. S. Wyoming, in which the chaplain was father Brady.
After getting accustomed to ship’s routine I began plying him with questions. First, I wanted to know all about the Catholic Church, because I had been brought up as a Baptist and did not understand his Sunday services, the first portion of which was exclusively Catholic. He gave me an old “dog-eared” Catholic history book and turned me loose on my own. Next, I wanted to know all about Biblical history, because I could not understand it. I also wanted to know what became of the ten-tribal House of Israel—the ten “lost” tribes.
Father Brady admitted he did not know what became of Israel, although he believed the people still existed amidst the Gentiles in similar manner as the Jews, their brethren. I argued, however,that the Jew is readily recognized by his peculiar mental and physical characteristics, and if he is a brother of lost Israel, then, is it not logical to believe the House of Israel would have the same characteristics? If so, where were they?—You cannot conceal a people who Jehovah declared to Abraham would ultimately be as numerous as the stars above and the sand on the sea shore. Father Brady could not answer.
On one occasion when I inquired of him the reason for wars between Christian nations of white men he said: “Sparks, in the first place, it is impossible to understand current events unless one inquires into turmoil of yesteryear which still had its roots in the remote past. Wars do not happen of their own accord or by accident —they are man-made. One must understand the cause of things which seem of no importance or are incomprehensible. One must discover whether or not there are secret strings moving men to action or binding them to inaction during religious, political, financial and economical crisis which burst forth without warning and without any logical reason. One must know whether or not the rulers of nations are the real rulers or merely puppets. Above all, take the attitude of Sir Patrick Manson (1844-1922) who once said:
” ‘Never refuse to see what you do not want to see, or what might go against your own cherished hypothesis or against the views of authorities. These are just the clues to follow up, as is also, and emphatically so, the thing you have never seen or heard before. The thing you cannot get a pigeon hole for is the finger point showing the way to discovery’ .”
Apparently that was meant for a challenge. I accepted it as such, and in 1931 after being transferred to the U. S. Asiatic Fleet, I joined the Masonic Fraternity in quest of more light, and soon advanced to the 32nd degree in the Scottish Rite in which I began studying the Hindu Scriptures and comparing them with our Bible. That study was supplemented with the Divine Revelation in the Great Pyramid of Gizeh at Cairo, Egypt, Oriental and Occidental history in out-of-the-way books, papers, pamphlets and manuscripts which had escaped the censors.
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