The Watchtower — July 15, 1950

Announcements

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of August 13: “Equipping the New World Organization,” ¶1-7 inclusive, also “Organized Testimony to the New World”, ¶1-14 inclusive, The Watchtower July 15, 1950.

Week of August 20: “Organized Testimony to the New World,” ¶15-20 inclusive, also “Postwar Enlargement of the Theocratic Organization”, ¶1-15 inclusive, The Watchtower July 15, 1950.

Week of August 27: “Postwar Enlargement of the Theocratic Organization,” ¶16-20 inclusive, also “Dedication”, ¶1-13 inclusive, The Watchtower July 15, 1950.

“THEOCRACY’S INCREASE” ASSEMBLY OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

All persons loving truth and righteousness are cordially invited to attend the “Theocracy’s Increase” Assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses. The place: Yankee Stadium, New York city. Starting time: July 30, 1950, 9:25 a.m. Ending: Sunday evening, August 6. Try to arrange your trip so you’ll be in New York early Sunday morning. Before the program opens the new 96-page songbook will be available at Yankee Stadium. You will be delighted with it.

At 10 o’clock A. H. Macmillan will address the convention on the subject, “Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please God.” At 10:30 you will hear the address of welcome by the chairman, Grant Suiter. Then at 1:30 p.m. the graduation exercises of the 15th Gilead class will begin. The president of the Society will be one of the speakers addressing the students and the conventioners. In the evening you will hear from the students themselves.

On Monday, July 31, representatives of the Society from Argentina, South Africa, Canada, Mexico, and other places, will report and Brother Covington talks on “Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News”. Monday starts off a series of meetings in various languages: Spanish, Greek, Danish, Portuguese, Swedish, and German. See the program for times and places of meetings There will be meetings in other languages on other days.

Trailer and Tent Camp. It is a pleasure to announce that a camp will be set up at the Butterworth Farm, Old New Brunswick Road, near New Market, N. J. If you are traveling toward New York on U. S. Route 22, near Plainfield you will notice a large sign saying “Turn Right to Dunellen”. Make the right turn and drive through Dunellen to the camp. If you are traveling toward New York on U. S. Route 1, just after you leave New Brunswick turn left at the sign that says “To Camp Kilmer”. After you leave the main highways you will see “J.W. Camp” signs to guide you to the camp.

If you did not receive through your company of Jehovah’s witnesses the special form for requesting camp parking space, you may write to the Watchtower Convention Rooming Committee, 557 West 157th Street, New York 32, N. Y., and request the form. Please use the form when requesting parking space. There will be a small charge to those using this rented land.

To reach Yankee Stadium from the camp, which is about 40 miles away, you should travel by U. S. Route 1 or 22 to either the Holland or the Lincoln Tunnel or the Erie Ferry near the Holland Tunnel. In Manhattan take the West Side Express Highway (no trucks permitted) to 158th Street exit. The bridge at 155th street will take you across the Harlem river to the stadium. There are no parking facilities right at the stadium.

It is hoped talks at Yankee Stadium will be transmitted by telephone lines to the camp for the benefit of those who must be on duty, but to get the real blessing come to Yankee Stadium daily.

Equipping the New World Organization

“If therefore a man keeps himself clear of these latter, he himself will be for specially honourable use, consecrated, fit for the Master’s service, and fully equipped for every good work.”—2 Tim. 2:21, Weymouth.

1, 2. How old is Jehovah’s line of witnesses and why so? In what way are we interested in Jehovah’s witnesses today and why?

“JEHOVAH’S witnesses” was the name adopted at the international assembly of consecrated Christians at Columbus, Ohio, U. S. A., July 26, 1931, and was taken up by congregations of like Christians all over the earth thereafter. Because of this, many people might look upon them as just another religious sect and as of very modern rise. But not so. When humankind was quite young, Jehovah God had one witness reported to be in the earth. That was Abel, who looked forward to the new world ruled by the Seed of God’s woman. (Gen. 3:15) A tool of the great Serpent, Cain, killed Abel, an eventuality which has befallen many of Jehovah’s witnesses ever since, even the Seed Jesus Christ.

² Reckoned from Abel, Jehovah’s visible organization of his witnesses is now almost six thousand years old, hence older than any and every thing in Christendom. Jesus Christ, “the faithful and true witness” (Rev. 3:14), formed and organized his body of spirit-anointed followers almost two thousand years ago. They made up a Christian or spiritual Israel of God, under a new covenant with him by a Mediator greater than Moses, Jesus Christ, and all of them being Jews inwardly whose circumcision was a cleansing of their hearts from the uncleanness of this world. That was long ago, and we can read about it for ourselves in the Bible. What we are concerned about now is those named “Jehovah’s witnesses” in this day. Since they are no part of the sects of Christendom and are not appointed, chosen or recognized by such religious bodies, how did this modern-day group of witnesses get formed?

3, 4. (a) By whom are they chosen? (b) What requirement must they meet to be fit for service as His witnesses?

³ If these Christians had been chosen by the worldly religious systems of Christendom, they would not now be witnesses of the Most High. Jehovah calls his witnesses “my servant whom I have chosen”, and Jesus told his disciples something similar, saying: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” (Isa. 43:10; John 15:16) Suppose, now, that sincere persons, following the instructions of the Bible, dedicate themselves unconditionally to Jehovah God to do his will in imitation of Jesus Christ. If Jehovah chooses to accept them and makes them his witnesses, then no religious system can upset God’s choice or accomplish anything by denying it and fighting against it. The unscriptural religious ceremonies of Christendom’s clergy cannot put anybody into God’s visible organization. As to his requirements for us to be used as his instrument or vessel in his organization, note the text that heads this article: “If therefore a man keeps himself clear of these latter, he himself will be for specially honourable use, consecrated, fit for the Master’s service, and fully equipped for every good work.”—2 Tim. 2:21, Weymouth’s translation.

⁴ To be fit for serving Jehovah the great Master and to be equipped by him for good work of every kind, the apostle Paul says, a man must get clear and keep himself clear of certain ones whom he speaks of as “these latter”. Paul likens men to vessels or articles in a great house and says: “Now in a great house there are not only articles of gold and silver, but also others of wood and of earthenware; and some are for specially honourable, and others for common use.” (2 Tim. 2:20, Weymouth) It is by separating from these latter ones of common use lacking honor that a person proves he is consecrated or set apart for God’s sacred use. That way he is fit for Jehovah’s service, worthy of being equipped for good works as Jehovah’s witness. In chapter 9 of Romans the apostle likens a certain ruler to a vessel for a use to which no honor was attached, namely, haughty Pharaoh of Egypt, who said to Jehovah’s witness, Moses: “Who is Jehovah, to whose voice I am to hearken to let Israel go? I do not know Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go.” (Ex. 5:2, Darby) For his dishonorable service Pharaoh was destroyed with his army after Egypt had suffered ten ruinous plagues from Jehovah God. He proved a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction. The Israelites who followed Jehovah’s great witness Moses were rescued from Egypt and the faithful ones were at length brought into the Promised Land of milk and honey.—Ex. 14:1 to 15:22.

5, 6. (a) Today who are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? (b) Who are the vessels of mercy fit for his use? What is the proof?

⁵ It is the same way now with the spiritual Israelites, who are in this world but are no part of it. The unseen Pharaoh and “god of this world”, Satan the Devil, is a vessel upon whom God’s wrath now rests and who will eventually be destroyed. But the faithful Christians of spiritual Israel are likened to “vessels of mercy”, whom God had aforetime “prepared unto glory”. (Rom. 9:17-24) These have cleared themselves from wicked creatures who are vessels for a common or dishonorable service and who are doomed to eventual destruction as opposers of the true God Jehovah.

⁶ The modern-day Egypt, Satan’s world, is full of vessels on whom divine wrath rests. (Rev. 11:8) They are destined to an early destruction at the oncoming battle of Armageddon. That includes Christendom’s religious leaders and sects that err from Bible truth, like Hymenaeus and Philetus whom the apostle Paul names. Today’s witnesses of Jehovah are a consecrated people because of dedicating themselves to the holy service of God to carry out his will and commandments. Rather than further yield themselves slavishly to service of this doomed modern Egypt, those whom Jehovah has made his witnesses have devoted themselves to His use, considering it an honor to be used by him in any capacity. Only by such separateness are they fit for the great Master’s service, and he shows his acceptance of them by equipping them for works that are good in his sight. All, there is the proof that they are his witnesses who compose his visible organization, namely, his blessing of them and making actual use of them in carrying out his work in the earth. Christendom’s religious systems may deny that these are witnesses of Jehovah and may nickname them with all sorts of opprobrious names and speak and work against them. Yet if they have the evidence that they are the honored vessels of God’s visible organization, the reproach and opposition of worldly religious systems does not matter. They stand unmoved on a solid foundation: “Yet God’s solid foundation stands unmoved, bearing this inscription, ‘The LORD [that is, Jehovah] knows those who really belong to him’. And this also, ‘Let every one who names the Name of the LORD [that is, Jehovah] renounce all wickedness’.”—2 Tim. 2:19, Weymouth; Num. 16:5; Isa. 26:13.

7. What instrumentalities have Jehovah’s witnesses used for over seventy years? How are they equipped today, in evidence of what?

⁷ From the time the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY was founded and The Watchtower was first published, Jehovah’s witnesses have used these instrumentalities in his service, but under continual assault by Christendom. And yet after these more than seventy years, there are now more, many times more, Christians who have confessed the name. And now in this year 1950 the God whom we serve has equipped us more mightily than ever before for still larger accomplishments as his honored vessels. This we shall here briefly describe, for it is evidence that the Universal Sovereign has not failed to have his witnesses in the earth in these perilous last days of the old world. It is also evidence that we are at the gates of the upright New World which his witnesses represent.

Organized Testimony to the New World

1. (a) What is the publication record of The Watchtower? (b) How did its first editor come to be “fit for the Master’s use”?

IN JULY of 1879 the first issue of what is now The Watchtower came off the press and began to be circulated from 101 Fifth St., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. So now this magazine is 71 years old, with a record of never having missed an issue despite the turbulence of those years and the bitter religious “cold war” of Christendom against our magazine. What moved its publication? What divine authority did its promoter and editor have to enter the field of giving Bible instruction and testifying to Jehovah God? Did he meet the requirement of 2 Timothy 2:21, that of clearing himself from vessels that were serving a dishonorable destruction-deserving purpose? Yes. In his teens Charles Taze Russell, the editor, had been a member of the Congregational Church and a strong believer in the doctrine of eternal torture of damned human souls in a hell of literal fire and brimstone. But when trying to reclaim an acquaintance, an infidel, to Christianity, he himself was routed from his sectarian position and driven into skepticism. Hungrily he began investigating the heathen religions in search of the truth on God’s purpose and man’s destiny. Proving all these unsatisfactory and before giving up religious investigation altogether, he took up the search of the Holy Scriptures from a skeptic’s standpoint, now untrammeled by the false religious doctrines of the sectarian systems of Christendom. He had had to clear himself from such religious vessels so as to be an honorable vessel of Jehovah God, consecrated, fit for his Master’s use, and fully equipped for every good work.

2. How did this independent magazine come to be established?

² The year 1870 found young Russell a member of a private Bible class, organized for the honest prayerful examination of the Holy Scriptures, letting the Bible speak for itself and God be his own interpreter of his written Word. This study class grew into a congregation of students of the Bible to which he preached, and in October of 1876 he was elected the spiritual shepherd or pastor of this class of Bible students, there in Pittsburgh, Pa. The same year he became assistant editor of a 16-page monthly magazine published in Rochester, New York, for which he continued to write until 1878. That year the editor published an article which practically rejected one of the key doctrines on human salvation, namely, the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Assistant editor Russell countered with an article in loyal support of that vital doctrine, attempting to set forth God’s purpose in connection with the ransom sacrifice. This difference arising and worsening in the editorial staff, Brother Russell decided finally it was necessary to establish an independent magazine uncompromisingly loyal to God’s Word and courageously following the advancing light on Bible teaching. Hence the birth of Zion’s Watch Tower in July, 1879, the title of which is today The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. It was published for the purpose of feeding Jehovah’s witnesses with pure, unsectarian Bible truth.

3. From that obscure beginning what kind of movement developed?

³ Humble was that beginning of The Watchtower, with an initial issue of 6,000 copies. But “who hath despised the day of small things?” (Zech. 4:10) Today, after seventy-one years of publication, our Brooklyn presses run off about 750,000 copies of each issue, about a million and a half copies monthly. So in this quite obscure way there began a movement of witnesses of Jehovah which was to shake all Christendom to its false religious foundations; to draw upon itself the hatred, vituperation and malicious persecution from all the religious systems of this old world; to attract the notice of governments of every political shade who have resorted to banning Jehovah’s witnesses and their Bible literature, dissolving their local organizations, committing them to prisons, concentration camps, exile and execution; but, in the face of such world-wide antagonism, a movement to make the name of the living, true God known and famous throughout the earth, advertising his kingdom by Christ, announcing his righteous new world, and drawing together in a oneness of belief and a unity of action Jehovah’s witnesses all over the globe. What does this prove?

4. What proof exists today that this movement was not from man?

⁴ It proves that this united organization of consecrated people is Jehovah’s visible organization; that his blessing is upon it; and that he is using it as his vessel for an honorable purpose. Had this movement been of man, “Russellism,” as enemies reproachfully call it in order to slur it as being man-made, then after these more than seventy years of such world opposition it would have come to nought. But since it is manifestly of God, being founded upon his Word and proceeding solely according to Scripture, the conspiracy of religion, commerce and politics has been unable to overthrow the organization and those worldly conspirators are found to be fighting against God. (Acts 5:38, 39) The concentrated hatred of all religious sects disagreeing with it, the crushing political pressure and rabid persecution brought against it, does not disprove but rather confirms that the divine approval is on it. Said Jesus, “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.—Luke 6:22, 23.

5. How have The Watchtower and its associates shown separateness?

⁵ Neither Jehovah nor Christ Jesus nor the Christian witnesses of Jehovah court the favor of this world and its political, commercial and religious elements. Such worldly elements are opposing the divine purpose and are vessels of divine wrath fitted for destruction at Armageddon. Necessarily persons who want to be vessels of divine mercy, consecrated to God and fit for his use must clear out from such worldly vessels to escape destruction with such vessels of God’s wrath. And this requirement The Watchtower and all associating with it have fulfilled from the start. As The Watchtower (page 2) said in its early issues concerning “This Journal and Its Mission”: “This journal is set for the defense of the only true foundation of the Christian’s hope now being so generally repudiated,—Redemption through the precious blood of ‘the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom [a corresponding price, a substitute] for all.’ (1 Pet. 1:19; 1 Tim. 2:6) . . . It stands free from all parties, sects and creeds of men, while it seeks more and more to bring its every utterance into fullest subjection to the will of God in Christ, as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. It is thus free to declare boldly whatsoever the Lord hath spoken;—according to the divine wisdom granted unto us, to understand.”

6. In what has this separateness resulted?

⁶ What separateness from all elements of this world, and what dedication to Jehovah God, could be more complete than that here expressed and maintained? Maintaining this attitude, the witnesses associated with this journal have proved to be clean vessels, fit for the Master’s use. So Jehovah has been pleased to use them as his visible organization. No question about that!

BUILDING UP THE WORKING EQUIPMENT

7. What is our fundamental piece of working equipment?

⁷ But human vessels fit for the divine Master’s service need equipment for doing his work. The great Master Jehovah has shown his favor upon his visible organization by blessing it with the equipment needed to accomplish its tremendous work under the modern circumstances of this perilous epoch. The Bible, or a knowledge of what is in it, is, of course, the fundamental piece of equipment. In proof of this the apostle’s words to a man of God are: “Every Scripture inspired by God is useful for teaching, for convincing, for correction of error, and for instruction in right doing; so that the man of God may himself be complete and may be perfectly equipped for every good work.”—2 Tim. 3:16, 17, Weymouth.

8. What instrument is needed in conjunction with the Bible? Why?

⁸ The Bible societies of Christendom have distributed Bibles by the hundreds of millions of copies in more than 1,100 languages and dialects. Yet great ignorance persists as to its teaching. Sectarian confusion is bewildering as to its harmonious teaching. Jehovah’s Word is not of private human interpretation. He is his own Interpreter. He causes light to be shed on one Scripture text by others elsewhere in the Bible bearing on the same subject. He also brings to pass the fulfillment of Bible prophecies by definite events and then he calls the attention of his witnesses to such fulfillments in clarification of prophecy. He has appointed Christ Jesus the Head of his visible organization and his associate interpreter for the organization, “an interpreter, one among a thousand.” (Job 33:23) So Jehovah’s visible organization under Christ is a channel for bringing the divine interpretation of his Word to his devoted people. What then? An organizational instrument must be provided to help all lovers of truth and life to gain a progressive understanding of God’s Word and for freeing themselves from all the confusing, faith-destroying religious doctrines and creeds of Christendom. Such an educational instrument this journal The Watchtower was meant to be and has proved to be. Not fettered by any man-made religious creed, it has been free to advance in the truth as the divine Interpreter has led the way by Jesus Christ.

9. How did the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society develop?

⁹ Besides The Watchtower other spiritual food was provided through the pen of Brother Russell. This was regularly spread to all hungry ones by the then available means of distribution. To keep pace with Jehovah’s blessing upon the work Brother Russell organized the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1881 (The Watchtower, April, 1881), and three years later, in 1884, this was incorporated under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania. This incorporated Society has since served as part of the equipment God provided for his people to do every kind of good work in both American and foreign fields. He has preserved it to this day. It now has its main offices at 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn 2, N. Y., but has its registered office still in Pittsburgh, Pa., where its annual meetings for transacting business and electing the Society’s directors are held as required by Pennsylvania law. It is merely an instrument, a legal and publishing servant, of Jehovah’s visible organization, his consecrated witnesses.

10. Who was its first president? What was its chartered purpose?

¹⁰ This Pennsylvania corporation’s first president was Charles Taze Russell, and he was regularly elected to this office by the contributors to the Society till his death, October 31, 1916. The purpose of this legal corporation was well stated in the charter granted it on December 13, 1884: “The purpose for which the corporation is formed is, the dissemination of Bible truths in various languages by means of the publication of tracts, pamphlets, papers and other religious documents, and by the use of all other lawful means which its Board of Directors, duly constituted, shall deem expedient for the furtherance of the purpose stated.” The Christian purpose of the Society was harmonized more with developments and was stated in greater detail in an amendment adopted in 1944 and which altered the above article.

11. Why is world-wide attention centered on the Brooklyn Society?

¹¹ The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society today is at the heart of a visible organization that has Branches in 63 lands of the earth, besides financing missionary homes and supervising Kingdom-preaching activities in 104 lands. Hence the interest of hundreds of thousands of Bible Christians or witnesses of Jehovah throughout the earth centers upon what is going on at Society Headquarters. They appreciate the spiritual service that the legal Society is rendering them. Their prayers go up daily to the Most High God for his blessing upon it and its work. That is why we here take up a brief account of the Society’s development from its beginning, to show its growth and its use as an instrument of Jehovah God.

12. How was a Bible-study aid series published and pioneering begun?

¹² In 1886 the Society published the first of a series of seven bound books to be aids to Bible study and known as “Studies in the Scriptures”. The sixth of these was published in 1904 by Brother Russell, and the seventh was published in 1917, after his death. For many years, down to April, 1926, those Studies in the Scriptures, translated into many languages and reaching a circulation of millions of copies, served as the textbooks for weekly Bible study by many congregations in all the earth. It was with the first volume of such Scripture Studies that the house-to-house missionary work, first known as “colporteur work” but now called the “pioneer work”, was begun, in 1886. Pioneers now number thousands.

13. How did the Society come into ownership of its first plant?

¹³ For years the literature was published by the Tower Publishing Company, which met all expenses and furnished the books, tracts, etc., to the Society at an agreed price. But in 1898 the ownership of the entire plant at Allegheny (North Pittsburgh), Pa., came into the hands of the Society, this carrying with it The Watch Tower, the Bible House with its complete outfit of office fixtures, type, stock of Bibles, Studies in the Scriptures, booklets, tracts, etc., together with tons of valuable electroplates of various publications in a number of languages. The Bible House there on Arch street was a four-story building built really for the Society’s use. From the first it was intended to be presented to the Society in course of time, and was valued at $34,000. The net equity of all this donation to the Society was appraised at $164,033.65. From here on the Society furnished its own capital, and all colporteur (pioneer) accounts, etc., were owing to it.

14. By what financial method has the work been supported till now?

¹⁴ It sent out traveling representatives who gave public talks and visited the congregations and served them with spiritual admonition, but never did these take up collections, either privately or publicly. The collection plate was absolutely banned from all congregational meetings, and all meetings were advertised under the legend “Seats free, no collection”. “Freely ye have received, freely give,” Jesus told the missionaries he sent out. Since this was Jehovah’s organization and work, it was felt he would provide the money for carrying on his work by his spirit moving upon his devoted people. So support of the work was left to voluntary contributions. In this way Jehovah God, whose is all the silver and the gold, has provided the money to this day, both for the local congregations and for the legal Society. This is another evidence that he is back of this visible organization.

TRANSFER OF HEADQUARTERS

15. What guided toward the moving of headquarters to Brooklyn?

¹⁵ In 1908 it was decided to transfer headquarters of the Society to Brooklyn, New York, as it was considered a more impressive place from which to carry on the newspaper work by which the weekly sermons of the president of the Society were published in newspapers throughout the land. At that time Brother Russell’s sermons were being published in eleven newspapers. But in course of time the number rose to more than 2,000 newspapers, with a combined circulation to 15,000,000 readers, concurrently publishing his sermons. All together, there were over four thousand newspapers in several lands which at one time or another published these sermons either free or for a charge. So Brother Russell became the greatest syndicate writer of his day. Many came to a knowledge of the truth by means of these published sermons. At the time of transfer Brooklyn was known as “The City of Churches”, and within a radius of a few miles of it there lived a population of seven and a half million of many nationalities. So Brooklyn was chosen as “our most suitable center for the harvest work during the few remaining years”. (The Watch Tower, Dec. 15, 1908) That Jehovah guided in this transfer to a bigger field for larger service is manifest, for it has been out from Brooklyn that the greatest work of the Society has been projected. Yes, from here has been directed the greatest campaign of announcing God’s kingdom by Christ Jesus in all the history of the Christian church. By his protective care and providence we are still here in Brooklyn in 1950, possessing greater equipment now than ever before for what we believe will be the grand climax of the global testimony to the name and word of Jehovah God and his Theocratic Government of the new world of righteousness.

16, 17. What events marked opening the new quarters?

¹⁶ Property was purchased at 17 Hicks street, Brooklyn, New York. This came to be known as the Brooklyn Tabernacle. On its second floor was a large auditorium seating 800, and here public addresses by Brother Russell and other Society representatives were to be delivered and other meetings held. The street floor was fitted up for office purposes, and the basement floor for the literature stock and the shipping department. Into this the Society began moving in January of 1909, and on Sunday, January 31, there was an opening celebration, almost 41 years to a day before a similar event this year which we are about to describe.

¹⁷ The total number attending that Tabernacle opening was about 350 from New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, and other cities as far away as Boston. The following Sunday all the friends present from New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City voted unanimously to be parts of a congregation whose home would be at Brooklyn Tabernacle, and they unanimously elected Brother C. T. Russell to be “pastor” of the same. And so the designation “Pastor Russell”, by which he became known world-wide, was not because of any self-assumed title. Ephesians 4:11, 12 declared that Christ Jesus would give some of his consecrated followers to be “pastors”; and in view of the pastoral work Brother Russell was doing under the Chief Shepherd Christ Jesus the congregations throughout the earth voted him to be their acknowledged pastor. By extensive travels he personally served many of them. It was while on a tour visiting and serving congregations that he died, in great pain from a physical infirmity, on a train moving through the state of Texas, October 31, 1916. At a little Texas town his body was taken off and deposited in a basket on a loading platform of the railroad station, before it was finally taken care of for regular interment at a Pittsburgh cemetery.

18. How was the Brooklyn Bethel established and opened?

¹⁸ At the time of opening the Brooklyn Tabernacle the headquarters family numbered more than thirty. With that number it was felt that they fairly needed a hotel in order to house them. The Tabernacle had no living apartments. Hence property was purchased in the nearby residential section on the heights. This property, which was numbered 124 Columbia Heights, proved to be none other than the residence of a former famous Brooklyn preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, whereas the Tabernacle building had been the “Beecher Bethel”. After extensive repairs the dwelling was made suitable for the headquarters family. As the purpose was for this home to be a house where God dwelt by his spirit, it was called “Bethel”, that name meaning “house of God”. When the Bethel family finally got moved and established in the Brooklyn Tabernacle and Bethel home, the family held a reception for the friends outside, one night in April from 7 to 9 p.m. About 400 came. They were first received over at the Brooklyn Tabernacle and shown the features of this part of the Society’s equipment and then went to the Bethel home, where they were privileged to inspect the place. Before they departed, refreshments were served them in the dining-room in the basement. It was a grand occasion for then! Some time later the adjoining property, 122 Columbia Heights, was purchased and thus the home enlarged.

19. What other corporations were formed, and why?

¹⁹ In order that Jehovah’s consecrated people might hold these properties and carry on all the business connected with their publication work in New York state it became necessary for another corporation to be formed. In February, 1909, under provisions of The Membership Corporation Law of the laws of New York a membership corporation was established known as “Peoples Pulpit Association”, with a board of seven directors and of which Brother Russell was elected president. Thirty years later, by an amendment filed February 6, 1939, the name of this New York corporation was changed to “WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.” The first issue of our magazine The Watchtower to be published as from Brooklyn was that of April 15, 1909. It announced as foreign agencies of the Watch Tower Society three Branches, in London, England, Barmen, Germany, and Melbourne, Australia. In 1914 it was found advisable to organize a British corporation for expediting the gospel-preaching in the British Isles, and thus the International Bible Students Association was formed. Brother Russell was elected president of this British corporation. He served in the capacity of joint president of the Pennsylvania, New York and British corporations till the day he died.

20. How was the Bethel enlarged in 1910-1911? With what features?

²⁰ In 1910 an addition to the rear of the Brooklyn Bethel home began to be constructed. This ran back to Furman street, at the foot of a precipice. So the Bethel addition, completed in 1911, extended down the precipice nine floors to the Furman street level. In this addition the Bethel dining-room was located, where the family ate together, and where study meetings were held; and a tank sunk in the concrete floor served as an immersion pool on occasion.

Postwar Enlargement of the Theocratic Organization

1. What silenced clergy ridicule as to predictions about 1914?

AWAY back in 1880 the columns of The Watchtower had called notice to Bible chronology marking A.D. 1914 as the year for the 2,520-year period to end referred to by Jesus as the “times of the Gentiles” in his prophecy on the world’s end. (Luke 21:24) In harmony with this it was expected that in 1914 the kingdom of God by Christ Jesus in the heavens would be fully established, while this world would be involved in an unprecedented “time of trouble”. The religious leaders and systems of Christendom were all set to laugh at Brother Russell and his fellow witnesses of Jehovah over failure of his announced predictions concerning A.D. 1914. But it was no laughing matter when, at the end of July, World War I broke out and by October it had become global in its scope. Christendom’s religious mouths were silenced at this frightening turn of events, but not Brother Russell’s. October 1, 1914, on taking his place at the breakfast table in the Brooklyn Bethel dining-room, he in a strong voice denoting conviction announced: “The Gentile Times have ended!”

2. What heavenly events marked A.D. 1914?

² Knowing that the world had now reached the time for its dissolution he refused to heed the plea of U. S. President Wilson for all clergymen and preachers to join in nation-wide prayer for peace. At that time it was not appreciated that there was also war up in heaven, between Jehovah’s newly inaugurated King Jesus Christ and the Devil’s hosts, resulting in the Devil’s being ousted from up there and debased to this earth for a short time before his destruction. But the Bible prophecies kept fulfilling. Light upon God’s Word, particularly Revelation, chapter 12, kept brightening. This disclosed that Jehovah’s Kingdom by Christ had been born A.D. 1914 and was fully established in the heavens to rule amid its enemies in heaven and earth. Its first act was to oust Satan from heaven.—See The Watchtower, March 1, 1925.

3. How was the Society’s president accused in 1918 but exonerated?

³ Brother Russell died the last day of October in 1916. By an election held at Pittsburgh’s annual business meeting, January 6, 1917, J. F. Rutherford, the Society’s legal attorney and one of its traveling representatives, was made president of the Pennsylvania corporation, to succeed Brother Russell. He was later elected president of the New York and British corporations. Through regular election by members and directors of the several corporations he continued in the presidency of them till his death, January 8, 1942. Shortly after his election the United States got involved in World War I, on April 6, 1917. The publication of the seventh volume of Studies in the Scriptures July 17, 1917, proved fateful, and troublous times for the Society in the United States took on a disastrous aspect. That Bible-study help, The Finished Mystery, was an exposé of the religious systems of Christendom. So the enemy seized upon it as part of their proof that the Society’s president and other members of the organization closely associated with him were guilty of sedition against the government, and Brother Rutherford and seven others were railroaded off to federal penitentiary in the spring of 1918, under sentences of 80 years in prison, and without benefit of bail for their freedom till appeal to a higher court should be effected. After nine months in the penitentiary bail was granted them on March 21, 1919, and they were released. Later the Appeal Court reversed the judgment against them, and in 1920 the indictment against them was disposed of. Thus they were completely exonerated as innocent of the malicious charges of the enemy.

4. How did Brooklyn Bethel come to be abandoned and then restored?

⁴ Meanwhile the conditions had seemed to dictate the abandonment of the Brooklyn properties and the moving of the Society’s offices back to Pittsburgh, in October, 1918. The Brooklyn Tabernacle was sold, and the Bethel home was put up for sale. No buyer appeared! Was that accidental? No, but providential! It was the hand of Almighty God, who knows his own purposes. He was reserving this site on Columbia Heights for the grander work of his faithful witnesses in postwar years. In view of the release of the Society’s officers from federal detention, and other advantages, the decision was made to move back and restore the headquarters and operating plant to 124 Columbia Heights. This was done about October 1, 1919. The Bethel home was reopened, with Brother Rutherford presiding. Even during his imprisonment the loyalty of the brethren to him and their conviction that he was innocent impelled the voting brethren of the several societies to re-elect him president at their annual business meeting.

5. What events gave stimulus to the postwar work?

⁵ In the summer following their release from unjust imprisonment the first international convention of Jehovah’s people at Cedar Point, Ohio, took place, September 1-8, 1919. Just prior to this The Watchtower published a series of two articles on “Blessed Are the Fearless”, showing from Bible prophecy that a bold work, the greatest of their career, must be performed by God’s devoted people among all nations before the battle of Armageddon. This work was spoken on and emphasized at this Cedar Point Assembly, and plans were announced for enlarging the work, including publishing The Golden Age.

6. What great work then lay ahead? What did this require?

⁶ World War I had disrupted the work in all the earth. Society connections with its Branches had been interfered with or in some cases broken off. Things were in quite a disorganized state. Now was the time to restore connections for bringing God’s faithful ones to a state of unity everywhere, under a Theocratic arrangement in which the great Theocrat Jehovah ruled from the top down through his organization. It was a time for reorganizing and training his people for renewed service. A most critical work lay ahead! It required courage. It called for expansion of the organization to the ends of the earth. In 1918 some 3,868 had been reporting field activity. The remainder of God’s faithful remnant of spirit-begotten heirs of the Kingdom must be gathered to the organization. However, early in 1918 the Lord God had revealed that a great earthly flock, whose number was estimated to run into the millions, would survive Armageddon into the New World, and these must be given the witness and gathered to the Good Shepherd’s fold. The command to preach “this gospel of the kingdom” in all the world for a witness to all nations applied now during all the postwar period down till Armageddon clears the earth for the New World. No time must be lost in organizing for the work. All obstacles must be cleared out from among God’s devoted servants. The work must be done for the vindication of Jehovah’s name and for the salvation of the witnesses themselves and of those accepting their witness. God’s visible organization for the work must be built up, instructed, strengthened and adequately equipped for the colossal work. Christ Jesus at the spiritual temple of God understood the situation and saw to it that all the needs were met.

7. What publishing equipment was provided and what slogan raised?

⁷ Greater work meant more equipment was needed. Jehovah God, whose work it was, provided the equipment for it. A move to do all our own printing in the United States began. A small printing plant was established at 35 Myrtle avenue, Brooklyn, and the Bethel family was increased. This proving too small as operations of Jehovah’s witnesses increased, a larger factory was installed at 18 Concord street, Brooklyn, in March, 1922. The second Cedar Point Convention followed on September 5-13, 1922. Here the King’s presence at Jehovah’s temple for judgment proceedings was announced, and the rousing call to the witness work was shouted by Brother Rutherford to that international gathering of many thousands: “Advertise the King and his kingdom!” The response was instantaneous. The service organization all over the earth was stirred to action and addressed itself to the work as never before.

8. What literature must now be published, and printed by whom? Why?

⁸ The burden of responsibility upon the Society at Brooklyn increased. It must widen its supervision of the work and must supply the needs of the Kingdom advertisers over a vaster area according to their increasing numbers. (Rom. 12:13) Literature setting forth the Kingdom truths was needed in larger volume, in a rising number of languages. The issues of The Watchtower, issues of The Golden Age (now the magazine Awake!), books with the newly revealed truths (no longer the outdated Studies in the Scriptures), booklets, tracts, Bibles, handbill advertisements, etc., all these must be produced to meet the growing demand and at a cost easily within the financial ability of all people to contribute for or to allow free distribution. Production of literature could no longer be left to the unconsecrated hands of worldly commercial printing plants. By God’s grace and provision of the physical equipment, we here at Brooklyn must do the printing and publishing with his own consecrated people as the workers. Branch offices in other lands must be given their share of the work.

9. How were a new factory and new Bethel home provided in 1927?

⁹ Space fails us for detailing how the great Provider bestowed the means of production upon his willing servants. Faced with the prospect of having to leave the Concord Street plant (whose site New York city has since converted into a public park), the Society built its own concrete factory at 117 Adams street, Brooklyn, a half mile from the Bethel home. In February, 1927, we moved in and occupied its eight stories. A larger factory and office force necessitated a larger home to house them. Jehovah provided it. That same year the original Bethel home buildings, together with an adjoining brownstone-front residence (126 Columbia Heights, bought in 1926), were torn down. A new concrete and brick structure was erected, seven stories high above Columbia Heights street, with a 75-foot frontage. This new building was joined with the old addition to the rear that fronted on Furman street and in which the family dining-room and kitchen continued to be located.

FLASHING THE NEWS BY RADIO

10. How did the Society install WBBR and improve its studios?

¹⁰ But are we forgetting the radio broadcasting? No! This, too, offered the opportunity for Jehovah’s visible organization to penetrate the numberless homes of the people with the New World message. In 1923 the Society began erecting its own radio station on the southern heights of Staten island. Finally completed, and licensed by the government, station WBBR began officially broadcasting Sunday night, February 24, 1924, on 500 watts of power, and with Brother Rutherford delivering the message “Radio and Divine Prophecy”. The studio that night was up in the top floor of the administration building, but shortly thereafter it was transferred to fine quarters in the transmitter house nearby. It proved inconvenient, however, to have the studio so far out on Staten island, about 18 miles from the Brooklyn headquarters. So in 1929 a set of studios, a large one equipped with an excellent organ and a small one, were built to the rear of the new Bethel building and extended to Furman street. There we started putting on our radio program Sunday morning, November 13, 1929, with Brother Rutherford speaking over a chain of stations using WBBR as key station. The program was carried by telephone cable to the radio transmitter out on Staten island.

11. As we grew what menacing world developments led up to 1939?

¹¹ For many years all such physical equipment was used to the full. But the steady growth of the work and organization world-wide caused conditions to become more and more crowded at headquarters. In 1938 a four-story addition was built to the Adams Street factory. But now Fascism and Nazism had reared their hideous heads and taken the aggressive in the Western Hemisphere, and Jehovah’s witnesses had been banned in Germany and thrust into prisons and concentration camps, 10,000 strong. Communism was sensitive to the situation and was building up its power. War-clouds were gathering for a global storm. The mob spirit in the United States was rising against Jehovah’s witnesses. Catholic action was increasing strength and making tests of strength. The world peace-organization, the League of Nations, was being flouted as an impotent thing. It had not proved to be the “political expression of the Kingdom of God”, which the Protestant Council of Churches had called it, and it was nearing the brink of the “bottomless pit”. (Rev. 17:8) Come September, 1939—crash! That was the Nazi hordes smashing their way through Poland, in a blitzkrieg. World War II was on, with the atomic bomb due to climax it.

12. What questions arose? How were they resolved, and why?

¹² Had we reached the finis of this world? Would the global war merge into the world catastrophe of Armageddon? Was the end of the Kingdom witness-work here, and had the peak in the expansion of Jehovah’s visible organization this side of Armageddon been reached? Would the organization now succumb to martial conditions and pressures as in 1918 and slack its hand and crumble in disorganization? Not this time, now that Jehovah’s spirit in double portion had been poured out upon his anointed remnant and had been spread to their devoted companions of goodwill, all together some 47,143 world-wide. These had been so well organized and instructed that they knew what to do amid the world upheaval. They had their instructions from Jehovah’s Word and through his Theocratic organization. Let the communications with lands overseas be snapped or made difficult! Invisibly Christ Jesus as Jehovah’s great Liaison Officer acted to keep the visible organization in unity of spirit, purpose, effort and activity. So on they went, preaching God’s Word in season and out of season, but largely out of season. The divine approval upon this course of his witnesses became observable, for he blessed it with increase. The great international convention of Jehovah’s witnesses at St. Louis, Missouri, August 6-10, 1941, the largest on record till then, proved that a great work was yet to be done. Untold thousands of God’s “other sheep” were evidently yet to be gathered to him.

THE WATCHTOWER BIBLE SCHOOL OF GILEAD

13. When and how did preparations for the postwar period begin?

¹³ Sunday, December 7, 1941, found Brooklyn headquarters at last in a nation at war! Thirty-two days later the Society’s president, J. F. Rutherford, died, January 8, 1942, at San Diego, California. The vice-president, N. H. Knorr, was voted to succeed him in office, by the unanimous vote of a joint meeting of the boards of directors of the Pennsylvania and New York corporations at the Brooklyn Bethel. Forward Jehovah’s work went without interruption, with determined efforts toward a bigger future. An “Advanced Course in Theocratic Ministry” was inaugurated at the Brooklyn Bethel in February, 1942, and the following year it was destined to be extended to the companies of Jehovah’s witnesses outside. Despite wartime difficulties a New World Theocratic convention was held that following summer in Cleveland, Ohio, September 18-20, with 26,000 present at the public meeting, where Brother Knorr gave the address “Peace—Can It Last?” which was carried by direct telephone lines to upward of 50 joint conventions in other cities. Over 80 cities on four continents had simultaneous conventions. Backed by divine prophecy, this public address showed a peace period would follow World War II and the international peace-beast which had gone into the bottomless pit by a shove from World War II would come out again. Witness today the United Nations! The coming peace meant that more work, the final work of Jehovah’s witnesses, was yet ahead. Now during the throes of world war was the time to prepare for the peace, to enter well-equipped and organized into the postwar epoch and its vast work. At this Cleveland convention and its subsidiaries, besides the book The New World, the first edition of the King James Version Bible printed on the Society’s own presses at Brooklyn was released. A mighty piece of working equipment this!

14, 15. How did the School of Gilead arise, with what record to date?

¹⁴ If Europe’s being the main theater of the war limited free activity there, the witness work could expand southward into Latin lands, namely, Central and South America and the islands of the Caribbean sea. But the workers sent there deserved to be trained. In the mind of Brother Knorr the idea of a missionary-training school formed. A large 3-story brick building had been erected at Kingdom Farm, South Lansing, New York, in 1940, for emergency purposes. Why let it stand idle? Why not make alterations in it and convert it into missionary-training-school quarters? Just so! The Watch Tower board of directors was enthusiastically in favor of it, and thus what was first called the Watchtower Bible College of Gilead was arranged for. By confidential letter, dated December 14, 1942, invitations were sent out to a number of full-time servants of Jehovah to apply for admission to this college (now called a school) for the free 5-month course. Of the applicants 100 were chosen to constitute the first class of Gilead students. On February 1, 1943, Brother Knorr presiding, the opening ceremonies were conducted in the beautiful school auditorium with the student body, instructors and members of the Kingdom Farm family present. As Latin America was then in view, Spanish was the foreign language taught. Since then, Portuguese, French, Italian and Japanese have also been taught various classes or groups of students. During the seven and a half years of operation since then, this School of Gilead has drawn students from more than thirty different lands on all continents.

¹⁵ Graduating two student classes a year, Gilead has sent over a thousand specially trained full-time publishers into foreign missionary fields. Each graduation is a grand event! The graduation exercises of the fifteenth class, of 120 students from 32 lands, will have a most unique setting, in the Yankee Stadium of New York city. Why there? In order to feature the opening day of the 1950 International Assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses, Sunday, July 30.

MORE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

16. What postwar relief work was undertaken? For what purpose?

¹⁶ With the close of the occidental and oriental phases of World War II in 1945, Jehovah’s visible organization stepped expectantly into the atomic-age postwar period, but with more witnesses than ever and with new foreign Branches and with missionary homes. The entire organization was permeated with the spirit of expansion. At the sectional convention at Cleveland, Ohio, September 29, 30, 1945, Brother Knorr announced relief work would be undertaken, the companies of Jehovah’s witnesses in certain areas to contribute particularly clothing. Shortly great relief works, directed from Brooklyn headquarters, were carried forward to help rehabilitate our brethren for Jehovah’s active service in lands specially hard hit by the global war.

17. How was new construction at headquarters necessitated?

¹⁷ Then came the advices that New York city was projecting a new superhighway connecting Brooklyn with Manhattan; it was to run along Furman street and would encroach upon the ground occupied by the rear of the Bethel property, to a depth of fifty feet. Condemned by the city for proposed highway, this much of Bethel property must go. This would cut off many living-rooms, the kitchen, much of the dining-room and much of the big radio studio, including its organ. Only a new Bethel would solve the problem thrust upon us. Came Thursday, “Publishers Equipment Day,” August 8, at the 1946 Glad Nations Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses at the Cleveland Stadium with about 58,000 present, from 33 nations. That afternoon the new Theocratic Ministry School book entitled “Equipped for Every Good Work” had been released. It is now night. President Brother Knorr is speaking on the subject, “The Problems of Reconstruction and Expansion.” He announces something new, the dividing up of all working territory into circuits with about twenty companies or units to a circuit, and circuit servants to visit each company of a circuit, and circuit assemblies to be held every six months in each circuit. But he tells something more: To cope with the global demand for Kingdom literature the Brooklyn factory has to be enlarged. To house the larger office and factory force needed, a new Bethel home has to be erected. Watchtower radio station, WBBR, must be increased in power and facilities. The money for all this? No, none to be borrowed from commercial banks. Jehovah’s visible organization, his devoted people, would be given the privilege of loaning the needed capital by taking the 2-percent notes which the Watchtower Society would soon issue. The jubilation that followed was the precursor of an oversubscription of the loan by generous hearts.

18. What adjustments at Bethel were made to allow for this?

¹⁸ To make way for the demolition work soon to begin, the following October 12 the radio offices and broadcasting studio were transferred from Bethel back to WBBR on Staten island. The dining-room was transferred to the Bethel parlor and library-room on the basement floor. Here the Bethel family ate their meals in two shifts for lack of table space, in cafeteria style. The aforetime morning Bethel service at the breakfast table, a feature carried over from the original Bible House in Allegheny (North Pittsburgh), Pa., had to be discontinued. The new Bethel building was planned to extend along Columbia Heights from the existing Bethel southward to the end of the block at Pineapple street. To purchase the property standing thereon it took considerable time and abnormal expense. Thereafter to get the tenants out of these residences posed another problem, which caused long delays in getting onto the new construction work. Meantime building construction costs soared. For those Bethel family members who had been forced out of their living quarters by demolition of the fifty-feet-deep rear section of Bethel, houses were bought at 111, 113, and 151 Columbia Heights, in addition to using the house at 34 Orange street. This scattered the family to the least extent. The family’s Monday night Watchtower study and Theocratic Ministry School meeting had to be transferred to the Fulton street Kingdom Hall of the Brooklyn Center unit of Jehovah’s witnesses.

19. How was WBBR improved and the new equipment put on the air?

¹⁹ Much difficulty, causing vexatious delay, was met with in securing all the properties and sites adjacent to the factory. Finally the way was cleared for erecting a factory addition as planned and blueprinted. But before this, WBBR had expanded. New transmitter equipment was installed and three new steel towers, 411 feet high above grade, were erected at WBBR, Staten island. Tuesday night, May 25, 1948, at 7 p.m., the old radio equipment was signed off the air, and the new equipment, with power increased from 1,000 to 5,000 watts, was switched on, to send the program in a directional beam from the three steel towers across the hitherto impenetrable populous metropolitan area of Greater New York city. At its old studio in the transmitter house Brother Knorr officially inaugurated WBBR on its new equipment and power by a radio speech telling of the expansion of God’s visible organization. By then 233,578 Kingdom publishers over all the earth were reporting field activity monthly. The Watchtower Bible School of Gilead had already graduated a thousand students, and 534 of them were located in 68 lands and in 85 different missionary homes. Prospects for further expansion were bright.

20. What buildings now crown the construction work at headquarters?

²⁰ An unusually mild winter of 1948-1949 furnished most favorable weather for construction work to begin on the new Bethel. The construction work on the new factory began in January, 1949. At long last the time for occupying the new structures arrived. Behold, there stands the new Bethel home, a strong imposing structure ten stories high above Columbia Heights and surmounted by a rectangular watchtower. Up above the city’s new cantilever highway of two levels for motor vehicles and a promenade Bethel rears itself in a commanding position, occupying now the complete block from Pineapple to Orange street and increasing the living quarters to accommodations for more than 450 persons, two in a room. A half mile away stands the factory with its new addition, a structure of concrete nine stories high, and the whole factory now extending from Adams to Pearl street and with its floor space almost doubled. Page space here does not allow for description of these fine buildings which Jehovah God has provided for equipping his visible organization to be richer than ever in good works. Let the pictures herewith describe them to you.

[Picture on page 221]

BETHEL AND THE NEW HIGHWAY Showing, front center, what is left of the 1910 structure; on left, the 1927 building; to the right and rear, the 1950 twelve story edifice.

Dedication

1, 2. When and with what exercises was the new Bethel dedicated?

MONDAY, January 30, 1950, was set for dedication of the new Bethel to the consecrated service of the Most High God. That night the first meeting was held in the incomparable Kingdom Hall in the basement of the new home, the hall having entrances both from within the home and from the street at 136 Columbia Heights. Present are the regular Bethel family and brethren from WBBR, Staten island, and about 80 brethren recently arrived from foreign shores to enter the 15th class of Gilead, the entire gathering numbering about 400. All faces are aglow. All hearts are swelling with the joy of Jehovah. At 8 p.m. the dedication exercises open as chairman Brother Knorr announces a Kingdom song for all to sing. All heads and hearts then bowed in prayer while Brother Knorr thanked Jehovah God for His gift of the new Bethel and expressed the dedication of it wholly to the loving service into which He has called us through Jesus Christ. Brother Knorr’s dedication speech now followed. It portrayed how, in fulfillment of Jehovah’s prophecies at Isaiah chapters 54 and 60, expansion was due to come, even as it has come, and his visible organization was to be beautified, improved and better regulated for the marvelous work of bearing witness to his name and kingdom. Various features of the expansion from early times were described as detailed in our preceding pages, and Brother Knorr envisioned our spreading out within but a few years to even beyond the present home and factory when these had reached their capacity. His appeal to the brethren was to be loyal to Jehovah’s Theocratic organization and to cleave to it. He urged or invited the members of the family to make the enlarged Bethel their real home and to enjoy and use it as such to God’s glory and in furtherance of their own part in his blessed service.

² The directors of both corporations were present in full number. So Brother Knorr then called to the platform for brief speeches the Society’s vice-president, its secretary-treasurer and his assistant, then three members of the board of directors of the New York corporation who included the factory servant and the Bethel home servant, and finally the other three members of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania corporation. All voiced warm appreciation for God’s provision of the new home and its modern appointments and facilities. With earnestness they exhorted the brethren to greater love of His organization and to stick to its work here at headquarters. Concluding the speeches, Brother Knorr pointed to the advantages that the home and its family life offered, and encouraged all to be wise and take full advantage of them. A closing song by the assembly, a final prayer by the vice-president, and then the assembly adjourned to enjoy some ice-cream and cake and informal companionship together.

3. To what use was the Kingdom Hall put immediately thereafter?

³ This inaugurated regular use of the Kingdom Hall. The subsequent Thursday night the new Brooklyn Heights unit of the Greater New York company of Jehovah’s witnesses held its first weekly Theocratic Ministry school and service meeting there. The next night the Brooklyn Center unit, which had just been forced out of its Fulton Street meeting-place, held like meetings. On Sunday the weekly study of The Watchtower and public lectures were held by each of these units at its assigned time for use of Kingdom Hall. The following Monday night the Bethel family met there for its advance study of The Watchtower and its Theocratic Ministry school. After the review questions and the instructor’s talk to all the school in the Kingdom Hall the family divided up into five groups, one group staying in the hall for its three student talks and counsel, the other groups going to four other locations.

4. Where and how did WBBR open up its new studios?

⁴ In March the radio office force and studio personnel moved from Staten island into Bethel, where it has its offices and elegant studios of floating type, a large and a small one, with the control room in between. The large windows permit visitors in the observation room to clearly view all going on in the studios while they listen in on the loud-speaker. Kingdom Hall itself will be used as the largest of WBBR’s studios, the console of a new and larger organ being located westward of the speaker’s platform. The broad grill-work in front of the organ pipes is just behind and over the platform. Full-scale educational and musical programs carried on by the Bethel family will be radiocast direct from Kingdom Hall. On Sunday, March 12, at 8 a.m., WBBR initiated its broadcasting from its new Bethel studios, the Society’s president fittingly presenting the day’s text and after a musical interlude the Watchtower’s extended comment thereon, as the opening feature of the day.

5, 6. When and how was the new Bethel dining-room inaugurated?

⁵ Saturday night, April 1, marked the first celebration of the Memorial of Christ’s death held in the Kingdom Hall, first by the Brooklyn Center unit and then by the Brooklyn Heights unit, Brother Knorr conducting the latter. The following Monday, April 3, marked another step in utilizing God’s equipment for his people. For about three and a half years now the Bethel family had eaten cafeteria-style in shifts, without the former table-discussion privileges. But this morning the spacious new Bethel dining-room in the subbasement was opened up. At 7 a.m. the family were all seated, in full number, in groups of ten about each table. Forty such tables are available, besides large serving tables at the western side. Brother Knorr at the head of table No. 7, with the microphone at his place, sat at the eastern end with the entire dining-room well in view. Announcing the restoration of the morning Bethel service, he explained how it would be conducted henceforth, and then demonstrated it. He called for the reading of the day’s text in the 1950 Yearbook by a brother at his table, near the microphone. Questions on the text were called for. On each question Brother Knorr asked several members of the family, brothers and sisters, for their comment and then threw each question open for any voluntary comments. He closed the discussion by giving his own extended comment upon the text as a whole, after which he had the brother read the Yearbook comment. The morning prayer followed, which Brother Knorr offered, thanking God for his loving-kindness and asking his blessing on the day’s activities by his people everywhere and also acknowledging his provision of the morning meal. Only he stood as the one offering prayer, his voice carrying well through all the dining-room without benefit of the microphone; all the rest of the family remained seated.

⁶ The prayer being finished, the family proceeded to eat their breakfast, the food being efficiently served by the waiters from quietly rolling carriages with six tiers for dishes of food. The kitchen adjoins the dining-room on the north, and when the partitions are rolled up it can be viewed beyond the counter and warming units for keeping trays and pots of food heated.

7. What breakfast-table service do we recommend for households?

⁷ The family greatly appreciated the resuming of the morning Bethel service. They confess to receiving many blessings from it. It provides spiritual food, our most necessary portion, the first thing in the day for the assembled family. We recommend that all Christian families or households carry on such a morning breakfast-table service, using the daily text and comment published in the current Yearbook or in foreign-language issues of The Watchtower. This helps to start off the day aright for everyone participating. At the close of the meal the Bethel family rose at their places and Brother Knorr offered a short prayer of dismissal. Before each meal a brother is called upon to ask the blessing upon the food. Dismissal at close of the meal is by prayer.

8. What also was opened up that day? What inspection tours followed?

⁸ The same eventful Monday the new factory was opened up and the office and factory force expanded into it. Overcrowded conditions were at last gone. That night at seven o’clock the members of the family, according to Brother Knorr’s announcement, began a tour of inspection of the new Bethel home and its appointments and operating equipment. From top to bottom they toured, inspecting offices of the president and this staff, the legal and financial departments, the beautiful new library, the sewing-room and laundry which were put in regular operation for exhibition purposes, and the kitchen replete with all its shiny modern equipment. The factory next came in for inspection. All its nine floors were put in full operation. All those inspecting rejoiced at the increased space now available for convenient handling of the work. They marveled at all the machines and apparatus for discharging the tremendous amount of work that the office and factory force must daily turn out. Of special interest and attraction was our new quarter-million-dollar rotary printing press newly installed on the press floor, the sixth floor. It is capable of running off up to 29,000 copies an hour of a magazine like Awake!

9. What spiritual exhortation closed this eventful day?

⁹ Touring over, the family returned and took their assigned seats in the Bethel dining-room for some ice-cream and cake, shortly after 10 p.m. While all were enjoying their refreshments, Brother Knorr called on eight brothers (none Society directors) who had been members of the family for quite a number of years to come to the microphone and each offer some remarks. We were all glad to hear their words of appreciation and encouragement to be true and faithful in serving God together with his visible organization. Brother Knorr offered the final remarks, exhorting the family members to be regular in attending the morning Bethel service and to partake of all the spiritual food which is the peculiar privilege of the Bethel family. He dismissed them now with prayer. It was past 11 p.m. So off to bed!

PRECONVENTION ACTIVITY

10, 11. (a) What pre-convention rooming work had to be done, and by whom? (b) What meeting and program prepared them for this?

¹⁰ The family’s tour was a forerunner of the mammoth-scale tour expected to follow the 1950 International Assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses at Yankee Stadium, New York, July 30 to August 6. In its announcements the Society has been inviting all conventioners to make the tour. The New York company of Jehovah’s witnesses is to play host to them all. Besides thousands of hotel accommodations, it was estimated the conventioners will need 50,000 accommodations in private homes of New York city. House-to-house canvassing for such rooms by workers from companies within a 25-mile radius of Times Square was scheduled to begin Sunday, May 14, preceded by a meeting of all these in the St. Nicholas Arena, Manhattan, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 13.

¹¹ The arena and hall downstairs were packed with 4,837 witnesses and persons of good-will. Brother Knorr was first to address them, officially announcing the place of the assembly and also the subject of his public address there, “Can You Live Forever in Happiness on Earth?” He showed them the magnitude of the coming assembly, the need of rooms in private homes, and the grand opportunity this offered for penetrating thousands of homes with living witnesses of the Most High God to give an intimate testimony to the Kingdom. His people in this metropolitan area would themselves see to securing the needed rooms; a limited number of days remained for doing it. Talks by the convention servant and his assistants were next presented, also demonstrations on how to apply for rooms tactfully and effectively. Closing the two-hour program Brother Knorr returned to the stage and invited all there to visit the factory and Bethel home the following Tuesday and Wednesday nights, May 16 and 17. The factory would receive them from 7 to 8:00 p.m. and thereafter the Bethel home.

12. How was the invitation responded to and the tour conducted?

¹² The tour at the factory started on the ground floor, from an entrance on Prospect street, and moved up floor by floor to the ninth and last. Descending direct to the first floor after nearly a mile of walking through the building, the party proceeded over to the Bethel home. Entering through the stately reception room and passing through our beautiful lounge room, they were guided to the new radio studios, the sewing-room, laundry, kitchen, dining-room and Kingdom Hall. Tuesday night 1,315 friends from many companies toured the factory, 1,260 of whom then visited the Bethel home. Wednesday night, despite rain, 1,165 toured the factory and about a hundred less of these the home. It was about 10 p.m. before they all cleared the home. All were delighted and blessed.

13. For all this provision whom do we thank? We ask what prayers?

¹³ Now we await the mass visit of the conventioners, from more than 70 lands of the earth. They are keenly interested in seeing all the equipment which our all-provident heavenly Father has given his visible organization to deliver the great Kingdom witness ahead. They will be filled with wonderment and with praise of Him at what they see. As we meditate on His goodness to his organized witnesses, we give him thanks. We ask the prayers of all persons of goodwill that we may faithfully, wisely and efficiently use all these his gifts, as long as he privileges us to do so, to advancing the interests of his righteous new world and to vindicating his holy name and universal sovereignty.

[Picture on page 221]

The opening of the new Bethel

[Picture on page 222]

Kingdom Hall and WBBR Studio

[Pictures on page 223]

The Watchtower Printing Plant

Our new press prints 29,000 magazines an hour

Invitation

The International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses invites you to hear the public address CAN YOU LIVE FOREVER IN HAPPINESS ON EARTH? by N.H. KNORR President of Watchtower Society. Sunday Aug. 6 3 PM. YANKEE STADIUM. Admission Free. No Collections.

All persons are invited to attend the International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses. July 30 to August 6, 1950. Yankee Stadium, New York.