The Watchtower — August 1, 1957

Protestantism’s Twin Plight

PROTESTANTISM’S house has twins. Their cries are now being heard. For in the cradle are twin plights—one is in America, the other in Europe. In America the laments of leading churchmen have exposed the religious revival as being hollow. Too many peace-of-mind seekers and materialists, the clergymen say. Dean Liston Pope of Yale Divinity School put it candidly: “There is no great religious revival in America, and probably will not be in the accepted sense. . . . The extension of church membership . . . should not be allowed to obscure the present state of the world.”

Now the other twin has started to cry. The recent publishing of Paul Hutchinson’s book The New Ordeal of Christianity has underscored Protestantism’s plight in Europe. The American, especially, is surprised to read of “the feeling of helplessness and despair which pervades so much of European Protestantism today.” Author Hutchinson faced the facts:

“We now have millions—especially among the industrial workers and the surviving youth—indifferent to the churches when they are not contemptuous of them. A striking but incontrovertible fact about European countries which traditionally have been Protestant strongholds—such countries as England, Scotland, Holland, and the Scandinavian nations—is the almost complete withdrawal of organized labor from the churches and the rapid shrinking in the number of young people who show more than the most passive interest in Protestant church activities.”

The book discusses individual European countries and states that in many of them “the spread of communism since the war has rocked the Protestant churches.”

“The most striking fact about Protestant churches in England today,” says the new book, “is the emptiness of most of them.” The writer points out how shocked Billy Graham was when he discovered empty pews in England. Did Graham’s crusade change the matter? “His meetings in England and Scotland,” wrote Hutchinson, “have not changed it. The situation is even more dismal, if that is possible, in Scotland than in England. And in Scandinavia it is appalling.”

Protestantism’s plight in Scandinavia is: “Not only are the organized workers there out of touch with the churches but most other elements in the Scandinavian populations . . . are likewise out of touch.” The editor of a leading newspaper in Stockholm told the author: “The church is simply a venerable old monument in Sweden. We support it for historical and sentimental reasons. But it no longer plays an important part in Swedish life. If you want to study Swedish religion today, go back to the United States.”

Back in the United States church leaders continued to bemoan their own plight. “Much of our current boom in religion,” declared Presbyterian minister John E. Burkhart, “is nothing more than spiritual aspirin. It doesn’t cost much, doesn’t do much, won’t hurt much, and isn’t worth much.”

Man’s Salvation Secondary to God’s Vindication

The Bible speaks much about the salvation of man, but where does it talk of the vindication of God? Does it teach vindication is more important than salvation?

JEHOVAH’S witnesses stress the vindication of Jehovah’s name. Other religions put the emphasis on the salvation of man: Repent and be saved, confess your sins, be baptized, accept Jesus as your Savior. These are the sentiments harped on by the evangelistic revivalists and crusaders. The Bible teaches these truths and Jehovah’s witnesses embrace them and preach them to others. They are very important. They should never be minimized. But neither should they be magnified so out of proportion that they hide the more important truth of the Bible, the vindication of Jehovah’s name.

God’s name Jehovah was made known in a special way when he delivered the Israelites from Egypt as his chosen nation. He put his name on that people and gave them his law: “And now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then you will certainly become my special property out of all other peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The Israelites agreed to obey and be Jehovah’s special property with his name on them. They were warned: “You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way.”—Ex. 19:5, 6; 20:7, NW.

When this third one of the Ten Commandments says not to take God’s name in vain or in a worthless way, it means much more than not using his name in profanity. It means that those who agree to be God’s people bear his name and must obey the laws and commands and principles his name stands for; otherwise they are taking his name in a worthless way and will not go unpunished. They cannot disgrace his name forever. In his due time Jehovah will take action to vindicate it, even at the cost of human lives, for its vindication is more important.

WHY JEHOVAH SAVED ISRAEL

When leaving Egypt the Israelites rebelled at the Red Sea, but Jehovah saved them in spite of their rebellion. Why? For their sake? No, but because God’s name was on them and the Egyptian pursuers were not to be allowed a victory that would seem to be a triumph over Jehovah. The psalmist says of that time: “Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.”—Ps. 106:8.

In the third month after leaving Egypt Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the law from Jehovah. Later Jehovah told Moses that the people were acting ruinously by worshiping the image of a calf. When Jehovah said he was going to destroy them it was Moses who caused Him to refrain. On what basis? The salvation of the people, their preservation? No, but for the sake of Jehovah’s name, which was on this people. Moses argued: “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out in order to kill them among the mountains and to exterminate them from the surface of the ground’?” Also, “Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, in that you said to them, ‘I shall multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have designated I shall give to your seed, that they may indeed take possession of it to time indefinite.’” So Jehovah withheld destruction, not for Israel’s sake, but to keep the Egyptians from saying Jehovah was unable to take them to the Promised Land and killed them instead, and to keep the promise made in his name to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.—Ex. 32:12, 13; Deut. 9:24-29, NW.

Later, when the spies returned from spying out the land of Canaan and the Israelites rebelled at entering the land, Jehovah berated their lack of respect and faith and was going to destroy them. Again Moses intervened, saying that the nations “have heard that you are Jehovah in among this people” and “were you to put this people to death as one man, then the nations who have heard of your fame would certainly say this, ‘Because of Jehovah’s not being able to bring this people into the land about which he swore to them he proceeded to slaughter them in the wilderness.’” So again the people were spared, not because their salvation was so important, but because it would reflect unfavorably on the name of Jehovah that was associated with this people.—Num. 14:14-16, NW.

After Israel had entered the land of Canaan and been under the rule of judges for centuries, they decided they wanted a human king, as the nations around them had. This was a rejection of Jehovah God, but it was permitted nonetheless. However, Jehovah showed his displeasure by causing thunder and rain in the time of wheat harvest—not the season for such weather at all! The people were greatly frightened at this miraculous display, but after admonishing them to follow Jehovah the prophet Samuel reassured them: “For Jehovah will not desert his people for the sake of his great name, because Jehovah has taken it upon himself to make you his people.” Here again it was for the sake of his name upon those people that he put up with them.—1 Sam. 12:22, NW.

Jehovah was long-suffering with these people for his name’s sake, but the time came when their blasphemy and idolatry became so disgraceful that he cast them out of the land. The debased, obscene demon worship they indulged in while saying they served Jehovah was a taking of his name in a worthless way—a sin not to go unpunished! He allowed the Babylonians to take his faithless people captive. But the nations among whom the Israelites were scattered interpreted the dispersion as evidence of the weakness of the Israelites’ God, Jehovah. To demonstrate the falsity of this reasoning Jehovah said he would restore Israel to the land of Judah. Hence Israel’s restoration was not for the nation’s salvation, but for the vindication of Jehovah’s name. We read about this at Ezekiel 36:19-24 (RS):

“I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries; in accordance with their conduct and their deeds I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that men said of them, ‘These are the people of [Jehovah], and yet they had to go out of his land.’ But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel caused to be profaned among the nations to which they came. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord [Jehovah]: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations will know that I am [Jehovah], says the Lord [Jehovah], when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land.”

NEW NATION REPLACES ISRAEL

Accordingly, seventy years after the start of the desolation of Jerusalem a faithful remnant of Jews returned to Jerusalem and restored true worship of Jehovah. But in a few score years the Jews were despising Jehovah’s name and calling his table contemptible, doing this by offering polluted food, blemished and sickly animals as sacrifices, on his altar. More than four hundred years later Jesus came to the temple in Jerusalem and found those in charge of the sacrifices still corrupt, and he said to them: “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a cave of robbers.” Jesus said to that nation guilty of taking Jehovah’s name in a worthless way: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits.”—Matt. 21:13, 43, NW; Mal. 1:6-8.

To the new nation producing Kingdom fruits the apostle Peter said: “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies’ of the one that called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. For you were once not a people, but are now God’s people.” Do you recognize this language as similar to that spoken to Israel when it was made Jehovah’s special property to bear his name? Peter is quoting the substance of Exodus 19:5, 6 and applies it no longer to natural Israel but to spiritual Israel, whose members include both Jew and Gentile. Now it is the Christian organization, made up of Jews and non-Jews, that becomes the chosen people bearing Jehovah’s name: “Symeon has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name.”—1 Pet. 2:9, 10; Acts 15:14, NW.

This “people for his name” should not take his name in vain or in a worthless way and suffer punishment, as Israel did. They should obey his commands, declare his truths, reflect his praises, produce Kingdom fruits. The Christian nation is not to sacrifice animals as Israel did, but “we will render the bulls of our lips.” This new nation does not offer fruits of the ground as Israel did, but “let us always offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips which make public declaration to his name.” The verbal bulls, the fruits offered by Christian lips, should not be polluted or sickly, which is what they will be unless they are words of truth from the Bible properly used as healthful teaching. Nor should these verbal sacrifices ostensibly offered to God be actually diverted to the praise of false “gods,” such as to men or human schemes or religious organizations.—Hos. 14:2, RS, margin; Heb. 13:15, NW.

NAME NOW NEEDS VINDICATION

Jehovah commands: “And you must not swear in my name to a lie, so that you do profane the name of your God. I am Jehovah.” If religious organizations teach lies in God’s name they are profaning it and putting it in need of vindication. Some say the earth will be destroyed by fire, but the Bible says: “The earth abideth for ever.” Some say you will live either in heaven or hell-fire, but of the earth the Bible says: “He created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.” Some say sinners have immortal souls that will be tortured forever, but the Bible says: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Some say two others are equal to God in a trinity, but the Bible says: “Jehovah is greater than all other gods.” Those who in God’s name teach doctrines contrary to the Bible are teaching lies in his name, are profaning his name.—Lev. 19:12, NW; Eccl. 1:4; Isa. 45:18; Ezek. 18:4; Ex. 18:11, NW.

Some religions have adopted pagan teachings to facilitate yoking pagans and Christians, but the Bible warns: “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers.” Others more modernistically-minded adopt scientific, evolutionary philosophies to attract the intellectuals, but here too the Bible cautions: “Look out: perhaps there may be some man that will carry you off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ.” Most religions of Christendom teach friendship and participation with the world, but the Bible rules that “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one” and that whoever “wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” In these and many other ways false religions of Christendom swear to lies in Jehovah’s name.—2 Cor. 6:14; Col. 2:8; 1 John 5:19; Jas. 4:4, NW.

Many peoples and religions in the nations claiming to be Christian are actually taking God’s name in a vain and worthless way. By their false teachings and unclean conduct they bring disgrace upon the name of God that they say they bear. Hence Jehovah’s name needs vindicating, and its vindication is more important than their salvation, for it will be cleared at the cost of their lives: “Let them be put to shame, and perish: that men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.”—Ps. 83:18.

This destruction in vindication of Jehovah’s name will come in God’s battle called Armageddon. When this is mentioned in these days scoffers ridicule and say what the Bible said they would say: “Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.” Jehovah may seem slow in acting to some, but “Jehovah is not slow respecting his promise, as some consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.” Jehovah is interested in the salvation of men; he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, he would like for all to come to their senses and repent and be saved. He gives plenty of time for them to do so. But the promised destruction will come.—2 Pet. 3:4, 9, NW.

VINDICATION INCLUDES SALVATION

More is promised, to follow the destruction of this old world: “But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” Then man will have the privilege of beautifying the earth, keeping it looking glorious, overseeing the animal life in it, filling it with his own kind, and many other blessings that defy the imagination. Read this brief description of conditions then: “Look! the tent of God is with humankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”—2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:3, 4, NW.

Jehovah promises this in his name, in his Word, the Bible. He promises a new world of righteousness, that the earth will abide forever, that it will be inhabited forever, that by accepting Jesus as our ransom we can be saved to live in it forever. These promises made in his name he must fulfill, otherwise they would be lies in his name and would profane his name. He forbids those bearing his name to profane it; certainly he would not thus profane it himself. A part of the vindication of his name will be the fulfilling of these promises that scoffers have doubted and ridiculed. Since some of these promises concern human salvation, salvation of obedient men becomes one part of the vindication of Jehovah’s name. Vindication is greater than salvation but it includes salvation, just as it includes the fulfillment of all promises made in Jehovah’s name. His promises will not go unfulfilled: “For, as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, without having watered the earth, and made it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth—it shall not return to me fruitless, without having done the thing that I pleased, and accomplishing the purpose for which I sent it.”—Isa. 55:10, 11, AT.

Hence when Jehovah’s witnesses stress the vindication of Jehovah’s name they are not belittling salvation of men—that is vital to them and all other human creatures. They are merely keeping vindication and salvation in proper perspective, giving each its rightful place, putting Jehovah’s vindication in first place and keeping man’s salvation in its proper secondary place. Oftentimes even men put their good name higher than their life, preferring to die rather than bring dishonor to their name. If man’s name is more important than his life, certainly God’s name is more important than man’s life! Jesus put as the first great commandment the love for God, and in the secondary position he put the love for man. He also put the sacredness of Jehovah’s name first in the model prayer he taught his followers: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified.” When you pray this prayer you also put Jehovah’s name and its sanctification and vindication first. In praying this prayer you too put the human interests secondary to Jehovah’s vindication.—Matt. 6:9; 22:37-39, NW.

Pursuing My Purpose in Life

As told by A. E. Tharp

HAVING finished a quarter of a century in full-time service of Jehovah and his King, I am reflecting on what a pleasant, busy time it has been.

In 1929 my father was a subscriber for The Golden Age. He also had some of the Watch Tower books of those days. “When the World Went Mad,” a Golden Age serial by Daniel Morgan, caught my eye and I enjoyed it. Next summer at a neighbor’s I saw my father’s copy of the book Creation. Then sixteen, and having just finished a course in geology in high school, I carried that book home and read it with mounting interest. On reaching the section about “consecration,” I made my unreserved dedication to Jehovah. The summer after graduating from high school I was baptized in a beaver pond and began going out in the service with the few local brothers, pursuing my purpose in life.

That fall The Watchtower showed we would be visited by two of the Society’s traveling representatives, A. H. Macmillan, accompanied by G. Y. McCormick. During that visit Brother Macmillan asked me, “Why don’t you pioneer?” He assured me that the Society would let me be a pioneer even though still a minor; so a letter was sent posthaste to Brooklyn. Soon the cherished appointment came. January, 1932, saw me walking “over the hill” to my territory about three miles away. Next summer I used my brother’s bicycle; then I was given an old mare and used a buggy until fall, when my brother joined me to pioneer with me until his death, two years later.

In Miles City, Montana, another partner and I awaited our expected assignment as special pioneers. It turned out to be Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There that year (1938) we were using the doorstep setup with the phonograph and placing the book Enemies. Many were our experiences. Outstanding was my getting an audience with the general manager of the Allis Chalmers Corporation and playing the “Resolution” record for him and his office force. Then, too, we saw the beginnings of mob violence that was to flare nationwide two years later. Valuable training also became ours on the way of working with a large congregation. That was also my first training in public speaking, which required considerable rounding out years later at Gilead.

Finally Aarne and I were separated permanently, and I was assigned to do zone servant work, then special pioneering again, followed by servant-to-the-brethren work. During this time, in Kansas and Oklahoma, mobs and arrests were frequent occurrences. These experiences united us more firmly and taught us to obey organization instructions more thoroughly.

Following Brother Rutherford’s death we learned that a building constructed by the Society during his lifetime in upstate New York had become the school of Gilead, where brothers were to be trained for missionary service. Would I go if invited? Would I be willing to relinquish existing ties and friendships for the sake of the ministry in some other country?

The immeasurable value of Gilead training was brought home to me in the fall of 1943 when I met in Danville, Kentucky, a graduate of the first class. He was doing servant-to-the-brethren work. We had known each other years before in Texas. What a noticeable difference in him, some of which at least I attributed to his Gilead training. Our discussion convinced me that Gilead was a serious step, a worthy one to be taken.

Yes, I was invited; and the third class saw me at Gilead along with the rest chosen for that class. How hard we worked! For the first time I got behind in reading The Watchtower and Consolation. The work was pleasant, though, with nearly everyone doing his utmost to meet the requirements. Kindness and patience shown by the instructors impressed us. So much there was to be studied that we wished we could have a year instead of five months. But now July, graduation, assignments and scattering. My assignment was servant-to-the-brethren work, even more enjoyable after Gilead than it had been before.

About February, 1946, a letter from Brother Knorr found me at McMinnville, Oregon. At last I had been assigned to Trinidad, British West Indies. I soon located it on the map as a little island off the coast of Venezuela, about ten degrees north of the equator. Then a few days were spent with the folks to tell them good-by, a week was spent at Bethel in Brooklyn to learn something of office procedure, and then off to Miami and on to Trinidad!

A daybreak landing at the airport in Trinidad revealed a pretty green spot surrounded by lovely mountains and fields of sugar cane—my new home! A brother from my class at Gilead, assigned to a neighboring island, was visiting Trinidad. With two others he had come over for the assembly to be served by Brothers Knorr and Franz. The branch servant was at the airport too, and we were soon acquainted and on our way to town. How different! Oxcarts, palm trees, little huts and dusky-hued people—reminding me much of my days at Laredo, Texas. Brother Knorr purchased the building that was to become the missionary home and branch office. There I stayed alone from May until October, when the rest of the missionaries arrived. Nearly every Sunday the local brothers and I did group witnessing somewhere, often having a public lecture, so easy to arrange in the open air, always well attended then and even to this day. When the others arrived there were nine of us in the home. Much work was to be done; results soon began to appear. There was one congregation (60 publishers) in the Port of Spain area when the home was opened. Now there are about 400 publishers with seven congregations. That was soon realized throughout the branch territory, as many as 3,500 attending assemblies held regularly here as elsewhere.

The branch is well organized and gives evidence of Jehovah’s blessing. Of the original nine some are still here, one of whom became my wife.

To every one of you who, as my younger brothers, are now thinking about pleasing Jehovah, let me say that it is good to remember your Creator in your youth. Be a pioneer; stay a pioneer; you will never regret it. Should you be invited to Gilead, go, but not to turn back. Stick with it. Persecution does not weaken; it strengthens the pure in heart who fear Jehovah. Remember, the New World society is Jehovah’s, and he will do his good pleasure by means of it and correct in it anything he does not like. We need not fret; we need to grow in faith, in patient endurance, and as exclusively devoted servants of Jehovah to keep on pursuing our purpose in life. Doing our part, we can rest assured that Jehovah will do his, always. Now may we all work to succeed by his undeserved kindness, continuing under his approval for the vindication of his name and our endless privileges in his new world.

Please God Through Accurate Knowledge

AS SINCERE, dedicated Christians we desire with all our heart to please Jehovah. We want to do, not what is right in our own eyes, but “what is right in the eyes of Jehovah.” We want to please him because it is right, because we love him and because our everlasting life depends upon it. So we pray: “Teach me thy way, O Jehovah.”—Deut. 13:18, NW; Ps. 27:11, AS.a

But we must do our part, as the apostle shows: “Be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual discernment, in order to walk worthily of Jehovah to the end of fully pleasing him as you go on bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the accurate knowledge of God.”—Col. 1:9, 10, NW.

Accurate knowledge is essential to our ministry. If we would wield “the sword of the spirit” effectively we must be completely equipped for every good work by accurate knowledge. Additionally, accurate knowledge will help us to strip off our old personality with its practices and to clothe ourselves “with the new personality which through accurate knowledge is being renewed according to the image of the one who created it.”—Col. 3:9, 10, NW.

As Christ foretold, Jehovah today has a “faithful and discreet slave” organization that he is using to bring forth spiritual food from his storehouse. That organization aids us in acquiring this accurate knowledge. To do so, however, takes effort on our part. At times we may have to struggle, persevere and make it a matter of prayer, even as Jacob wrestled all night for a blessing. At times it may be necessary to go to a mature brother for help or, as a last resort, to write to the Society.

In our quest for accurate knowledge we should go about it in a systematic way. We should have regular times for study and then not let anything interfere if we can at all prevent it. In fact, we should set aside some time every day for taking in spiritual food, preferably when our minds are alert, as at the beginning of the day or after a brief rest period. Moderation at the table will keep us from getting drowsy when we want to take in accurate knowledge.

To get the greatest amount of accurate knowledge from our meeting attendance we must prepare in advance; only then can we give and receive to the full. Especially should servants in the congregation be careful to make full use of their privileges in this respect.

In our efforts to acquire accurate knowledge we must concentrate. To do that we must be keenly interested in what we are studying. It will help us to remember what we read if we bring our imagination into play, calling upon our five senses to make what we read come to life. To retain abstract arguments we should endeavor to associate new ideas with one another and with what we have previously learned. Repetition will also aid us in this respect. For example, after reading a paragraph, section or chapter, close the publication and endeavor to reconstruct the main points of what you have just read. Underscoring key thoughts in the publication we are studying, if it is our own, will further aid us to impress them upon our minds as well as make for easy future reference.

In ways such as these we shall acquire accurate knowledge and be able to present ourselves “approved to God, a workman with nothing to be ashamed of, handling the word of the truth aright.”—2 Tim. 2:15, NW.

[Footnotes]

Why Jehovah Empties the Earth

“The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.”—Isa. 24:5, RS.

1, 2 What questions are posed about treatment of religious buildings, and how would you react in such situations?

ARE you a Catholic? What if someone should come into your cathedral, smear paint on the wall, overturn the seats, use a hatchet on the woodwork, break the stained-glass windows and smash the altar? Would you want him thrown out? Or would you shrug it off and let him remain to continue his vandalism and completely disrupt the services? Are you a Protestant? Would you let someone do that to your church building, after you had contributed money to build it? Maybe you are a Jew. Would you allow a man to wreck your synagogue? Or would you throw him out? Whatever your religion, if you have planned a place of worship, given money to build it, maybe even helped put it up with your own hands, then invited others to come worship with you there, and when they came they desecrated it and ruined it, would you be unconcerned and calmly let them continue their vandalism? Or would you take action against them?

² Maybe it is not a church you have built. Maybe it is a museum or a library or a capitol building for your government. It is built for a special purpose. You want to see that purpose fulfilled. Now a crowd comes into the building to deface and mar it. Perhaps they do not wreck it. They may just misuse it, prevent its being used for the intended purpose. Even if they took care of the building, would you want your library turned into a rumpus room, or your church used for a brothel? That is not why you built it. You would rightly oust those who perverted its use. Moreover, you would have no respect for anyone who would let his building be so misused or ruined, would you?

3. What is God’s purpose for the earth, and man’s share in it?

³ So it is with God and the earth. God created the earth. He spent thousands of years preparing it for man’s habitation. He brought in light, purified the atmosphere, divided off sea and dry land, created a great variety of plants and animals, and finally gave man and woman their start in a beautiful paradise garden. They were to “cultivate it and to take care of it” and were to lovingly “have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every creeping animal” and were themselves to “be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it.” By man’s care the created beauties of the earth with its grand variety of plant and animal life were to be kept at their peak, and by man’s reproducing his kind Jehovah’s purpose for making the earth could be accomplished: “Thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else.”—Gen. 2:15; 1:26, 28, NW; Isa 45:18, AS.

4. Who or what is to reflect Jehovah’s praise?

⁴ That was Jehovah’s purpose in creating the earth. He wanted it inhabited by obedient persons, told the first man that when he disobeyed he would die, and clearly and logically implied by this that so long as the man and his wife were obedient they would never die off the earth. The beautiful earth, along with the people on it and the universe around it, was to reflect his praise: “Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise the LORD [Jehovah] from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and maidens together, old men and children!”—Ps. 148:2, 3, 7-12, RS.

5. How can both animate and inanimate things praise Jehovah without speaking?

⁵ But how can the voiceless sun and moon and stars praise Jehovah? In the same way that the fine craftsmanship of an object a man has made bespeaks the skill and wisdom of that man: “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the sky shows forth the work of his hands. Day unto day pours forth speech, and night unto night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes forth through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” And without speaking the earth, with its majestic mountains and green valleys teeming with fascinating birds and animals, proclaims the infinite wisdom and power of the Almighty God who made it. All of the glorious visible creation of God mirrors the majesty of Jehovah: “For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are understood by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship.”—Ps. 19:1-4, AT; Rom. 1:20, NW.

6. Why is it reasonable to expect man to praise God?

⁶ But man, like the angels, was specially privileged. He was given intelligence, the power of speech, and the godly qualities of justice, love, wisdom and power. He was equipped to care for the earth and the animal life on it, to see that everything fully reflected Jehovah’s glory, and with his tongue he could add his verbal praise to swell the chorus ascending heavenward from earth. Could not God reasonably expect man’s praise and gratitude, in view of all he did for man? Is it not natural to show gratitude? Are not men considered rude if they fail to acknowledge courtesies or small favors from others? A normally kind person is unhappy if he is denied opportunity to show appreciation to his benefactors. To give expression to good impulses is pleasant; to smother such expression is a torment and a frustration. And how much more so is it when you have received, not just a minor courtesy or favor, but an earthly home and life itself! So Jehovah does not repress us but invites through the psalmist our expressions of praise: “Let everything that hath breath praise Jehovah.”—Ps. 150:6, AS.

7. What has resulted from the activities of some men, and what will Jehovah logically do?

⁷ But what if many men on earth misused it and its animals? What if they ruined the grasslands and stripped off the forests so that unimpeded erosion carried off the good topsoil and left dustbowls and deserts? These mountains and valleys would no longer reflect Jehovah’s praiseworthy creative powers. And if they slaughtered the animals and birds for selfish gain or merely for sport, these living creatures would vanish and no longer reflect Jehovah’s creative wisdom. Worse, if they wage war, follow scorched-earth policies and soak the soil with human blood, will mankind be a praise to Jehovah their Creator? Would not such activities impair earth’s ability to reflect the invisible, praiseworthy qualities of Jehovah? Would it not be like a man smearing mud on a mirror? Furthermore, would it not be like vandals coming into your church building, desecrating it and disrupting the religious services? If they so abused your invitation to come for worship, you would rightly put them out. By the same logic, should not Jehovah remove from the earth any who damage and desecrate it and spoil it for proper use by those who appreciate it and its Creator? Jehovah will remove such polluters of the earth; they shall not prevent the realization of his expressed purpose regarding the earth as a planet populated by his praisers: “I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.”—Isa. 46:11.

WHY ISRAEL WAS TO DRIVE OUT THE CANAANITES

8. What do some presumptuous critics say, and wherein are they inconsistent?

⁸ Presumptuous critics of Jehovah say that he acted like an unfair bully when he told Israel to drive out the Canaanites from the Promised Land. It does not disturb them that their ancestors drove previous peoples from the land they now occupy, or that remnants of these previous peoples may now be herded onto barren reservations and left to starve. But it upsets them to think that God backed up the ousting of the Canaanites when Israel entered the land. Their ancestors did not own the earth, but they drove others from it. However, Jehovah owns the earth and everyone on it; yet they criticize him for doing as he sees fit with his own: “The earth is Jehovah’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” Moreover, their blasphemy of God is born of their ignorance of his Word, they being blind to the reason for God’s command to oust the Canaanites from the land.—Ps. 24:1, AS.

9. Why did God dispossess the Canaanites from the land of Canaan?

⁹ Did God despise the Canaanites without a cause? Was he showing race prejudice against them, discriminating against them because of nationality? Was it a case of special favoritism, removing them just to give the land to his chosen nation of Israel? To say yes is to say you are ignorant of the facts of the case. Israel was told why God would dispossess the Canaanites: “Do not say in your heart when Jehovah your God pushes them away from before you this, ‘It was for my own righteousness that Jehovah has brought me in to take possession of this land,’ whereas it is for the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah is driving them away from before you.” Here are some of their wickednesses that Israel was warned to avoid: “When you are entered into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you, you must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations. There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable things Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you.”—Deut. 9:4; 18:9-12, NW.

10, 11. By what practices did the Canaanites make the land unclean, and how did the land become cleansed?

¹⁰ After warning the Israelites not to have sex relations with close relatives or the mates of others, or men with men, or men with beasts, or women with beasts, and not to burn their children in fire to Molech, the god of the Ammonites, Jehovah says: “Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, because with all these things the nations whom I am sending out from before you have defiled themselves. Consequently the land is unclean, and I shall bring punishment for its iniquity upon it and the land will vomit its inhabitants out. And you yourselves must keep my statutes and my judicial decisions, and you must not do any of all these detestable things, whether a native or a temporary resident who is residing for a while in your midst. For all these detestable things the men of the land who were before you have done, so that the land is unclean. Then the land will not vomit you out for your defiling it the same way as it will certainly vomit the nations out who were before you.”—Lev. 18:24-28, NW.

¹¹ “With all these things the nations whom I am sending out from before you have defiled themselves.” With all these promiscuous, depraved, perverted, abominable sexual sins these nations defiled themselves. They made sordid sex practices a part of their religion, using their groves and high places for orgies before phallic symbols or images. Concerning their lewd worship Rotherham, on page 259 of his Emphasised Bible translation, says: “Their very worship was grossly sensual and revoltingly cruel. In honour of their deities women surrendered their virtue. Their sacred places were brothels. The generative organs were openly represented by disgusting symbols. The peoples had holy (!) prostitutes, male and female. . . . Lustful gods are cruel, and demand to be worshipped with human blood.” When they burned their children in fire to Molech they committed ritual murder, and the blood of these victims defiled the land: “And you must not pollute the land in which you are, because it is blood that pollutes the land and for the land there may be no atonement respecting the blood that has been spilled upon it except by the blood of the one spilling it.” Using vivid and powerful figure of speech, Jehovah says that such horrible conduct makes the very land itself sick and nauseous and to cleanse and purge and rid itself of the sickening cause “the land will vomit its inhabitants out.”—Num. 35:33, NW.

12. What would happen to Israel if they copied the Canaanites, and how was Israel protected?

¹² “Bad associations,” the Bible says, “spoil useful habits.” To associate with the Canaanites would spoil the Israelites. So Jehovah commanded Israel to stay separate, to be uncontaminated by the filthy Canaanite sex worship. To purge the land the Canaanites were to be driven out, and Israel was to be protected by keeping separate. God gave Israel his law to keep the nation clean so the land would not vomit Israel out also: “Now you people must keep all my statutes and all my judicial decisions and do them, that the land to which I am bringing you to dwell in it may not vomit you out. And you must not walk in the statutes of the nations whom I am sending out from before you, because they have done all these things and I abhor them.”—1 Cor. 15:33; Lev. 20:22, 23, NW.

THE LAND VOMITS OUT ISRAEL

13, 14. What did the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel do, and what did it result in?

¹³ But the Israelites did not drive out the Canaanites, nor did they stick to God’s law and keep separate from these lewd nations. The Israelites walked in the statutes of the heathen and fraternized with them, and how spoiled did Israel become by these bad associations! Listen to how degraded the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel became: “My people ask a piece of wood to guide them, a pole gives them their oracles! For a harlot-spirit has led them astray, they have left their God for a faithless way; they sacrifice on mountain heights, and offer incense on the hills, below the oak, the terebinth, the poplar—so pleasant is their shade. Thus your daughters play the harlot, matrons commit adultery. But I will not punish your daughters for harlotry, nor your matrons for adultery, when the men themselves go off with harlots, and sacrifice with temple-prostitutes. This brings a senseless people to their ruin.”—Hos. 4:12-14, Mo.

¹⁴ It brought these senseless Israelites to their ruin: “They kept setting up for themselves sacred pillars and sacred poles upon every high hill and under every luxuriant tree; and there on all the high places they continued to make sacrificial smoke the same as the nations whom Jehovah had taken into exile because of them and they kept doing bad things to offend Jehovah. And they continued to serve dungy idols, concerning which Jehovah had said to them: ‘You must not do this thing’; and they kept leaving all the commandments of Jehovah their God and proceeded to make for themselves molten statues, two calves, and to make a sacred pole, and they began to bow down to all the army of the heavens and to serve Baal; and they continued to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire and to practice divination and to look for omens, and they kept selling themselves to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, to offend him; Jehovah therefore got very incensed against Israel, so that he removed them from his sight.” How did Jehovah do this? “Israel went off its own soil into exile in Assyria.” Thus did the land vomit out the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel.—2 Ki. 17:10-12, 16-18, 23, NW.

15, 16. What does the historical record show as to the conduct of the two-tribe kingdom of Judah?

¹⁵ This expulsion of Israel from the land should have been a warning to the two-tribe kingdom of Judah to the south, but it effected no reformation. Isaiah lashed out at Judah’s apostate plunge into filthy religious sex orgies: “Are you not apostate children, a faithless brood—you who inflame yourselves with lust among the terebinths, under every spreading tree, who slaughter children in the valley, among the clefts of the crags? With the smooth stones of the valley your lot is cast; they, they are your portion; to them have you poured libations, and offered cereal-offerings; and for these things can I be appeased? On a high and lofty mountain you have set up your bed; and thither have you climbed to offer sacrifice. Behind the door and the side posts you have set up your phallic symbol; and apart from me have you stripped and gone up, you have distended your parts; you have bargained for those whose embraces you love; and with them have you multiplied your harlotries, while gazing on the phallus.”—Isa. 57:4-8, AT.

¹⁶ There is a tradition that says Isaiah was bloodthirstily sawn asunder by wicked King Manasseh, and that it was this vile deed that prompted Paul’s expression, “they were sawn asunder.” However that may be, the above words of Isaiah would perfectly fit the evil reign of Manasseh. He built up the high places, erected altars to Baal, used spirit mediums and professional foretellers of events, put altars for star worship in the courtyards of Jehovah’s temple and even put in the temple one of the A.sheʹrah images, and he made his own son a flaming sacrifice to Molech. Manasseh seduced Judah “to do what was bad more than the nations whom Jehovah had annihilated.” Jehovah said: “He has acted more wickedly than all that the Amorites did that were prior to him and he proceeded to make even Judah sin with his dungy idols.”—Heb. 11:37; 2 Ki. 21:9, 11, NW.

17. What did Jehovah say about Judah’s lot, and what happened?

¹⁷ The land was polluted by its inhabitants, even more than when the Canaanites controlled it. Would Jehovah play favorites and show respect of persons? “Here I am bringing a calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah,” said Jehovah, “of which if any one hears both his ears will tingle.” With a homely illustration Jehovah continues: “I shall simply wipe Jerusalem clean just as one wipes the handleless bowl clean, wiping it clean and turning it upside down. And I shall indeed forsake the remnant of my possession and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they will simply become a spoil and plunder to all their enemies, for the reason that they did what was bad in my eyes and were continually offending me.” The Babylonians invaded the land, conquered it, and emptied it of inhabitants just like a dish is emptied of its contents when it is turned upside down. When the nation of Israel entered the land they were told that the Canaanites were being dispossessed because of their religious depravity, and were warned that if Israel copied these immoral, bloodthirsty religionists the land would again become defiled and polluted and nauseated and would vomit Israel out to cleanse itself. The Israelites ignored the warning; they were vomited out.—2 Ki. 21:12-15, NW.

18. How did Isaiah foretell the desolation of the land and show that God would show no respect of persons?

¹⁸ Isaiah foretold this dumping out of the land’s inhabitants, when he said: “Behold, the LORD [Jehovah] will lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, 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 creditor, so with the debtor. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.” No respect of persons was shown. No exceptions were made because of religious or financial or social position. All classes of people shared guilt for the pollution of the land, and all classes of people suffered for this guilt. They had transgressed God’s laws and violated the statutes given to protect them. They had broken the law covenant given through Moses that was to run until an indefinite, concealed time, until it had safeguarded them to the time of Messiah’s coming. But now their failure to keep it meant their removal from the land, their captivity in Babylon.—Isa. 24:1, 2, 5, 6, RS.

19. How is this a warning for us?

¹⁹ Jehovah did not create the earth to have it polluted by wicked persons. It was to reflect his praise, the living plants and animals on it were to do so, and certainly the specially privileged human creatures with their higher intellectual capacities were to be a praise to their Creator. If they fail to praise God themselves, and prevent others from doing so, and even pollute the earth until it is too soiled to mirror brightly the praise of its Maker, then those persons must be removed. Jehovah is no respecter of persons. He did it to the Canaanites. He did it to the Israelites. He will do it to the polluters of the earth today. These ancient happenings “that were written aforetime were written for our instruction,” and “these things went on befalling them as examples and they were written for a warning to us upon whom the accomplished ends of the systems of things have arrived.” Jehovah does not waver in his principles, nor does he swerve from his purposes: “I, Jehovah, change not.” We have our warning from God about polluting the earth, just as the Israelites had theirs. Let us obey ours, profiting from their failure to heed theirs.—Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11, NW; Mal. 3:6, AS.

Will You Get to Live on Earth Forever?

“The upright will inhabit the land, and men of integrity will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.”—Prov. 2:21, 22, RS.

1. In what ways do men now pollute the earth?

MEN are now defiling the earth. In their greed to get rich quick from its resources they denude the hills of forests and the plains of grasses, and valuable topsoil is washed or blown away. Wild animals and birds are wantonly slain for money or just for the fun of it. The air we breathe is needlessly polluted with factory smoke that many industrialists are too greedy to control. For thousands of years national and international wars have spilled lakes of blood that have defiled the land. Now in their quest for quicker ways to kill more the most powerful nations are poisoning the atmosphere, the vegetation, the land, the sea, the fish—everything—with radioactive elements. Scientists confess that the trend could lead to making the earth uninhabitable. Some parts have already been made so. The San Francisco Chronicle, June 20, 1956, editorializes: “FOREVER MADE UNINHABITABLE. There is a blanket invitation for soul-searching in reports which indicate that the testing of American nuclear weapons has probably made two of the Marshall islands forever uninhabitable and has certainly visited serious radiation sickness upon the people of a third. Not by design, of course, but through the unavoidable consequences of fission and fusion, Bikini and Eniwetok have been sown with radiation that make them taboo as dwelling places for all time; inhabitants of Rongelap were so irradiated from the air, the ground and the very food they ate that they became nauseated, shed their hair, developed skin lesions and showed other symptoms of severe radiation sickness.”

2. How are conditions becoming worse, and this means what?

² Add to this the widespread evidences of moral deterioration and breakdown, and it is apparent that the earth and its inhabitants fall short in mirroring the wisdom and majesty of their Creator and in reflecting his praise, as purposed. And as time wears on the condition worsens: “Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without gratitude, with no loving-kindness, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with self-esteem, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.”—2 Tim. 3:1-5, NW.

3. What must Christians do to be preserved when Jehovah ruins those ruining the earth?

³ “And from these turn away.” Why? For the same reason that Israel was to be separate from the Canaanites. Because “bad associations spoil useful habits,” rotten things corrupt the good, dirty things soil the clean. When groups practice or support or tolerate evils there is a community responsibility for such evils, and to escape coming under this community responsibility individuals must separate themselves, if not physically then mentally and morally and emotionally. Just as Israel was given a law that would have protected them had they kept it, so Christians have commands that will preserve them if they comply. Knowing that Satan is “the ruler of this world,” that he is “the god of this system of things,” that “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one,” Christians appreciate the wisdom of the command not to “be loving either the world or the things in the world” and know that whoever “wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” Not wanting to be in Satan’s power, they separate from the world that is completely under his power. In this way they do not come under the world responsibility for all its wickedness, and they will thereby escape destruction with it at Jehovah’s war of Armageddon. Just as the land vomited out the Canaanites and the backsliding Israelites because they polluted it, at Armageddon evildoers will be disgorged from the land of the living, for that is Jehovah’s time “to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”—John 12:31; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19; 2:15; Jas. 4:4; Rev. 11:18, NW.

STUDY AND MEDITATION

4. In what ways will study of God’s Word change us?

⁴ How can you keep from being vomited out of the land then? By separating from “those ruining the earth.” Fit into God’s purpose for the cleansed earth by reflecting God’s praise along with the earth. Start doing that now. Do it, not in the way that you think is right, but in the way that God says is right. Learn his way by studying his Word. It is by such study of the Bible that you will “quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and complete will of God.” By this study “you should put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct” and “you should be made new in the force actuating your mind, and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loving-kindness.” Then you will live “no more for the desires of men, but for God’s will. For the time that has passed by is sufficient for you to have worked out the will of the nations when you proceeded in deeds of loose conduct, lusts, excesses with wine, revelries, drinking matches, and idolatries that are without legal restraint. Because you do not continue running with them in this course to the same low sink of debauchery, they are puzzled and go on speaking abusively of you. But these people will render an account to the one ready to judge those living and those dead.” However, your study and changed way of thinking and acting will deliver you from Jehovah’s destructive judgments at Armageddon.—Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:22-24; 1 Pet. 4:2-5, NW.

5. What aspect of study is now neglected, but what does the Bible say about it?

⁵ One aspect of study that is woefully neglected today is meditation. The Bible frequently counsels us to do it. Joshua was told to take the book of the law and “meditate therein day and night,” or, more accurately expressed, “in an undertone read in it day and night.” This reading in an undertone is like talking to yourself, an audible musing, and since it is slower than reading to yourself it keeps the idea on the mind longer to soak in and be absorbed more. Moreover, it enters the mind in two ways, through both the eye and the ear, which impresses it on the mind with greater force. It is said of the happy man: “In the law of Jehovah is his delight, and in his law doth he talk with himself [soliloquise, margin] day and night. So doth he become like a tree planted beside channels of waters, that yieldeth its fruit in its season.” Taking in Jehovah’s waters of truth will enable us to bring forth Christian fruitage. We should copy this psalmist’s example: “I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit.”—Josh. 1:8, NW; Ps. 1:2, 3, RoPss; Ps 77:6, RS.

6. What shows that Jesus valued meditation, and found it difficult to do it at times?

⁶ Before talking to others it is best to talk to ourselves, to soliloquize. This will impress the truths on our own mind for the guidance of our tongue. Such meditation and self-preparation was done by Christ Jesus, the Greater David: “Of the glorious splendor of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works, I will meditate,” or, “soliloquise.” During Jesus’ forty-day fast and isolation in the wilderness after his baptism he meditated, trying to take in the full meaning of the things that the opened heavens had bared to his view. This meditation fortified him for what was ahead. The Bible shows that from time to time Jesus sought solitude for meditation and prayer: “He went up into the mountain by himself,” and, “He continued in retirement in the deserts and praying.” But it was difficult for Jesus to get the solitude he needed for meditation and prayer: “He went out and proceeded to a lonely place. But the crowds began hunting about for him and came out as far as he was,” and, “Early in the morning, while it was still dark, he rose up and went outside and left for a lonely place,” but “those with him hunted him down and found him.” To avoid city crowds “he continued outside in lonely places. Yet they kept coming to him from all sides.”—Ps. 145:5, RS; RoPss; Matt. 14:23; Luke 5:16; 4:42; Mark 1:35, 36, 45, NW.

7. Who makes it hard for us to meditate today, and by what means?

⁷ Though not sought by crowds as Jesus was, his followers today are hard-pressed by modern living to find solitude for meditation. In many places in the world simplicity of living has been replaced by a life of complexity, with waking hours crammed with both important and trivial matters. Moreover, people today are developing an aversion to thinking. They fear being alone with their own thoughts. If other people are not around, they fill the void with television, movies, light reading matter, or if they go to the beach or park the portable radio goes too so they will not have to be with their own thoughts. Their thinking must be channeled for them, ready-made by propagandists. This suits Satan’s purpose. He deluges the mass mind with anything and everything but God’s truth. To keep minds from doing godly thinking Satan keeps them busy with thoughts that are either trivial or ungodly. It is tailor-made thinking, and the tailor of it is the Devil. Minds work, but in the way that a horse is led. Independent thinking is difficult, unpopular and even suspect. Thought conformity is the order of our day. To seek solitude for meditation is frowned upon as antisocial and neurotic.—Rev. 16:13, 14.

8. What conditions are necessary for the best meditation?

⁸ As Jehovah’s servants we must obey his command to meditate. The rush of events sometimes sweeps us along like a chip on the river, with no chance to guide or control our own course unless we put up a struggle against the current and work our way into a side eddy or calm pool for pause and reflection. We are like sparrows in a tornado, whirled in circles, round and round the daily cycles with no chance for repose, unless we can fight our way into the calm eye of the windstorm for regular periods of meditation on spiritual matters. To meditate we must have peace and quiet, must shut out sounds that assault the ear and blind ourselves to sights that distract the eye. The organs of sense must be soothed so they will not be occupying the mind with their messages, thus freeing the mind to think of other things, new things, different things, freeing it to probe within itself instead of being barraged from without. If a room is full more persons cannot enter. If the mind is occupied new thoughts cannot come. We must make room to receive when we meditate. We must open the arms of the mind to new thoughts, and do this by clearing our mind of the everyday thoughts and concerns, by shutting out the daily jumble of complex modern living. It takes time and solitude to thus empty and free the mind of the daily whirling turmoil, but if we do this the mind will graze its way through the green pastures of God’s Word and will be soothed by the restful waters of truth. Meditation will bring you many fresh, delectable, spiritual tidbits; doing it regularly will spiritually revive, renew and replenish you. Then you can say of Jehovah: “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.” Or, “He gives me new life.”—Ps. 23:2, 3, RS; AT.

9. In what ways is meditation compared to a well of water?

⁹ If a well is full some water must be dipped out before more can filter in. If it is dipped out rapidly with no time allowed for refilling the well will go dry. If you never take water out it will become stagnant. If trash is thrown into the well there is less room for water. There is only so much space and the water level is constant. So it is with the mind. It can be a well of wisdom, full of Jehovah’s waters of truth that bring life: “The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life.” Words from the mouth, like water from the well’s opening, can refresh and enliven people. “The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.” If our words are to be a bubbling brook of wisdom instead of a babbling brook of trivialities, we must meditate. We must empty our mind of old thoughts to make room for new ones, then we must give time for the new ones to filter in by meditation. If we do not keep our thoughts moving, changing, they become stagnant and stale. If we let all the worldly trash and satanic propaganda fill our mind there will be no room for godly thinking. So it is with the mind as with the well: if we are always dipping out the well goes dry, if we never dip out it becomes stale. There is a time for dipping out, there is a time for seeping in. There is a time to speak and a time to refrain, a time to meditate and a time to communicate, a time to think and a time to tell what you have thought. To give we must first get. We must take in before we can give out. We must fill before we can empty, and must empty before we can fill again. It is a process of both getting and giving, not just one or the other. Keep the waters of truth running into your mind, through your mind, out of your mouth. Then it will be “a well of living water.”—Prov. 10:11; 18:4, AT; Gen. 26:19, NW, mar.

10. What improves the power to meditate fruitfully?

¹⁰ The power of the mind to meditate is like a muscle: it improves with use. Hebrews 5:14 (NW) says: “Solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.” Just as we cannot eat all the time but must allow time for digestion, so periods of study must be interspersed with meditation to assimilate what we have read. As a grazing animal must later chew its cud, we must chew our mental cud, so to speak, after an intake of spiritual food. We must occasionally bring up to our conscious mind previously learned facts or truths to be ruminated upon meditatively until all the value is extracted. Otherwise so much stays in the recesses of the unconscious mind, unused. Those who fail to meditate really do not know their own mind, what is really buried in it. Deep thoughts are within, and we have to go deep to bring them out. Time and solitude are the pick and shovel for mining them through meditation. You cannot keep your mind on the surface and hope to see to the bottom of deep subjects. After listing good things to think about, Paul advises: “Continue considering these things.” The more you do the more efficient your mind will become.—Phil. 4:8, NW.

MAKE A NAME TO BE REMEMBERED

11. What is the basic reason for meditating on God’s Word, and what scriptures show meditation in connection with this purpose?

¹¹ This meditation is for one purpose, the same one given to Joshua when he was told to meditatively read God’s law in an undertone day and night: “In order that you may take care to do according to all that is written in it.” We are to “always offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips which make public declaration to his name.” We must put our mind to it before our tongue: “The mind of the righteous ponders how to answer.” Paul told Timothy: “Ponder over these things, be absorbed in them, that your advancement may be manifest to all persons. Pay constant attention to yourself and to your teaching,” and, “Give constant thought to what I am saying.” So we must study privately, read the Bible and theocratic Bible helps, meditate on the things read, practice them, attend meetings to be further edified and to incite others to love and right works, and in unity all go forth to praise the name of Jehovah in order to live in God’s new world forever.—Josh. 1:8; Heb. 13:15, NW; Prov. 15:28, RS; 1 Tim. 4:15, 16; 2 Tim. 2:7, NW.

12. How can it be true that the day of death is better than the day of birth?

¹² The name of the wicked rots from God’s memory, but the good name of the obedient God remembers, either to preserve them through Armageddon if they are living then or to resurrect them to life if they have died before then. Hence the statement that may at first strike us as strange is nonetheless true: “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” We might naturally think the start of one’s life is better than its end, but here it means that if one has a good name with God when he dies that is better than his birth, at which time he has no good name with God. All are brought forth in iniquity and conceived in sin, without the right to life and under divine condemnation: “He that exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; he that disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” The inherited sin and condemnation we start life with remains unless we show faith and obedience toward God and Christ. When we start life it is not known how we shall use it, it being unpredestinated. But when we finish life with a good name that has been built up by godly works our future in the new world is secure. If we die with a good name God will resurrect us; if we come to Armageddon with one he will preserve us.—Eccl. 7:1; John 3:36, NW.

13. Why is it more profitable to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting?

¹³ “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart,” Solomon continues. This is no recommendation for sadness over rejoicing. How could it be, when we have a happy God, a joyful Christ, and a commission to make mourners rejoice? It refers to a specific time, to the time when a person has died and the house is in mourning. Go there to console the sad survivors rather than callously forget them and feast and revel. It was a Jewish practice to mourn for seven days after the death of a near relative, and to visit the mourners of the house was considered meritorious. It not only comforted the bereaved but also induced the visitor to remember life’s brevity, to know that the death that has come to this house will come to all soon enough and that those living should keep it in mind. It is while you are still living that you can make a good name, not when you are dying. And a good name is the only thing worthwhile to the dying.—Eccl. 7:2; Gen. 50:10; John 11:31.

14. Why is sorrow better than laughter, and the rebuke of the wise better than the song of fools?

¹⁴ Solomon goes on to say: “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” Laughter is good medicine, but there are times when we must soberly view our life and the way we are living it. If we see we are wasting too much time in frivolous feasting and not making a good name by doing good works, we had better be sorry and change; it will make our heart better. It will help us make a good name so that the day of our death, or the day of Armageddon, will be better for us than the day of our birth. “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.” The wise heart in a house where one has died is attuned to the seriousness that is natural in a house of bereavement and it influences the wise heart to watch how life is lived, but the careless mood in a place of revelry appeals to the foolish heart and causes life to be faced with a shallow, reckless spirit. If you are straying from right paths the rebuke of a wise man will put you back in the way of life by correcting you and enabling you to make a good name for yourself. But to hear the song or psalm or fulsome praise of a fool, how can such empty flattery that conceals faults and confirms us in them be helpful? It would keep us making a bad name, not correcting us into ways leading to a good name with Jehovah.—Eccl. 7:3-5.

15. Why is the burning crackle of thorns under a pot like the laughter of a fool?

¹⁵ “For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,” Solomon next says, “so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.” Thorns are not satisfactory fuel. They flame up quickly, but are just as quickly burned to ashes. They do not last long enough to finish cooking what is in the pot, so they do not accomplish the task for which the fire is lit. Their showy, noisy, blazing crackling is futile and vain. And so are the frivolous gigglings and follies of the fool. They help no one to advance in the serious task of making a good name that God will remember, and thereby ensure that the day of death will be better than the day of birth.—Eccl. 7:6.

16. If this life were all that there is for man, why would it be so unimportant?

¹⁶ We should not waste this life on vanities, but use it to secure entry into the future, real life in the new world. If this life is all there is, there is nothing important. This life is like a ball thrown into the air that soon falls into the dust again. It is a fleeting shadow, a fading flower, a blade of grass to be cut and soon withered. What we do, say or think, or refrain from doing, saying or thinking, does not really matter, if this life is all there is. On the scales of eternity our life span is a negligible speck. In the stream of time it is not even a healthy drop. Certainly the Preacher is right when he reviews life’s many human concerns and activities and pronounces them vanity. We are so soon gone we might as well have never come, one of billions to come and go, with so few ever knowing we were here at all. This view is not cynical or somber or morose or morbid. It is truth, a fact to face, a practical view, if this life is all there is.

17. But since it is not all that is possible for man, what should he do?

¹⁷ But if this is not all, if there is a Creator who gave us life, and who inspired a book to tell us how to keep life, then we had better give heed with every ounce of energy to do what he says is necessary to make this temporary grassblade into an abiding Sequoia tree, to make this fleeting shadow stop in its tracks, to fix the colors in this fading flower. There is no present work, no occupation, no thoughts, no words more important—or even important at all—than those that will make our life permanent, that will make it a permanent swimmer in the stream of time. This is the most practical, the only practical, course in this life that is a mere tick in time. So after showing all the vanity of this life and its futile pursuits by frantic specks of humanity, the Preacher brushes aside all the vain occupations and efforts and foibles of men to put his finger on the one and only thing of any consequence in this momentary existence: “The conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”—Eccl. 12:13.

18. The answers to what questions will determine whether we shall get to live on earth forever or not?

¹⁸ We can look around us with our eyes and see the evidence of the Creator’s existence and power, his wisdom and majesty. We can read his Word, the Bible, and open our mind’s eye to more truth concerning him, his earth, his purpose for the earth, and our possibilities of living on it forever. Will we do the whole duty of man: fear God, study his will, meditate upon it, do it, tell it to others, help them do it? Will we shun this world under Satan, its works, its blasphemies, its ruining of the earth? Will we use the earth in harmony with God’s will, cultivate it, beautify it, care for the wildlife on it, and help it reflect Jehovah’s praise? Or will we wickedly dirty this mirror of God so that it will not brightly reflect his wisdom and power and praise? The way we answer these questions and live up to the answers will determine the answer as to whether we shall get to live on earth forever or not: “The upright will inhabit the land, and men of integrity will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.”—Prov. 2:21, 22, RS.

Part 3—Rounding the World with the Vice-President

FRIDAY, January 11, dawned over the South China Sea, and as our PAA plane, now four hours aloft, neared its destination, we passengers were advised that it was cloudy over Hong Kong and it was drizzling. Losing altitude, our plane flew through clouds for a long time. Finally it dropped down into the clear and we could see rugged islands in the green waters. Here and there were vessels, looking so tiny. One was reminded of the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We are approaching Hong Kong by the southwest passage. From our window we could see a city below to the right of our aircraft. We come lower and seem to scrape the mountaintops. But we make it safely and at 7:53 a.m. we touch the runway of the Kai Tak airport. Meantime, as dawn broke, there were eight interested witnesses of Jehovah crossing by ferry from the City of Victoria on the island of Hong Kong to Kowloon on the Chinese mainland, there to meet twelve others, Watch Tower Society missionaries and local Chinese witnesses, to ride out to Kai Tak airport to meet the eagerly awaited plane. That bleak and cloudy morning the mountains around seemed to hem them in to the dismal atmosphere, and the question bothered them, Would the weather hold up the plane’s landing? It was a relief to them to see how, like a bird that carefully glides and drops into its small nest, the plane approached and came down on Kai Tak airstrip surrounded by mountains and sea, although two hours late. No drizzle then, but overcast!

Not too long in getting through customs and other entrance formalities, the Society’s vice-president, F.W. Franz, was soon heartily shaking hands with the Watch Tower Society’s new Hong Kong branch servant and the other missionary graduates of the Bible School of Gilead and beaming Chinese witnesses. It was a short drive from the airport to the new missionary home on Prince Edward Road in Kowloon. There breakfast was waiting, and twenty-three of us gathered together in the dining room. This dining room is also used as a Kingdom Hall, where the meetings of the Kowloon congregation are held.

The three-day assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Hong Kong was not scheduled to begin until 6:45 that night. Thus the afternoon provided the opportunity for two carloads of us to drive around to see some of the Kowloon peninsula, this British Crown colony at the mouth of the Canton River. In the course of this drive the vice-president was taken to the scene of the terrible Hong Kong rioting that broke out in and around the Shumshuipo area last October during the celebration of the independence of Nationalist China. The former missionary home was situated in this same area. From there Brother Franz saw the spot where missionary Joan Espley passed through her terrifying “ordeal during the Hong Kong riots” on October 10, her own report thereon being published in the December 22 issue of Awake! magazine. No howling, fanatical, murder-bent mob there now!

In the evening we took a ferry that glided across the strait of waters to Hong Kong Island to dock at the wharf where the City of Victoria nestles at the foot of the world-famous Victoria Peak, 1,809 feet high. Then we go up the Caroline Hill Road to the New Method College auditorium. Here all the arrangements have been made for the celebrating of the three-day assembly of the two congregations in the British Crown colony, together with all persons of good will. There are eighty-four of us here for the opening day’s assembly session. On time the assembly opens with songs and enjoyable experiences, conducted by a Chinese brother. During the next hour there were two instructive talks on good overseers for the blessing of Jehovah’s earthly organization and on the relations of servants of a congregation with all the other brothers of the congregation. It came as a surprise, but a pleasant one, when the Society’s branch servant now released the new field-service instruction booklet entitled “Preaching Together in Unity,” published in Chinese.

All this served as a good introduction to the next feature, the vice-president’s talk through a capable, energetically speaking, native Chinese translator. The conventioners were delighted when the speaker displayed to them the new 1957 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, although only in English, and also the new 1957 calendar with its unique illustration under the year’s Bible text. Displaying this, he spoke of the grand progress being made in the expansion of Jehovah’s visible organization and in the magazine-distribution work world-wide, which really had its source in the group of the Watch Tower Society’s factories in Brooklyn, as depicted on the 1957 calendar. Brother Franz appealed to the Hong Kong conventioners for full and wholehearted co-operation in distributing The Watchtower and Awake! The Chinese edition of The Watchtower, the first number of which was dated January 1, 1956, and which was published in Hong Kong, is now printed at the Brooklyn factory group portrayed on the 1957 calendar. This appeal was loyally taken up by the Hong Kong contingent of Jehovah’s witnesses, for they have since reached a new peak in the local circulating of copies of these New World magazines. However, after the evening’s sessions there was a pleasant bit of informal association of conventioners together at the cafeteria located in the rear of the assembly auditorium. It all smacked of the flavor of Old China, exotic.

Saturday, January 12, saw a considerable crowd of us assemble in the other missionary home of the Watch Tower Society, two flights of steps up from the sidewalk of Castle Road, on Hong Kong island itself. Here too a Kingdom Hall is maintained, for the Hong Kong congregation. For many of the brothers from Kowloon on the peninsula it was the first time that they viewed and met in the Kingdom Hall and missionary home. The Hong Kong congregation were made very happy to have their Kowloon brothers there with them. Saturday is Magazine Day with Jehovah’s witnesses world-wide, and the morning session here was like a direct answer to Brother Franz’ appeal last night for greater distribution, because at this service meeting magazines were emphasized fair and squarely and the distribution this morning was to be made in the business section of the Central District. Brother Franz, the former branch servant, the present branch servant and a Cantonese-speaking Chinese sister formed one of the parties setting off into the field service. As one passes the busy and narrow streets, life in the Chinese way can be seen at a close up. It was not long till the vice-president found himself on the third floor, inside a Chinese home, listening to the branch servant witnessing in Chinese to a Cantonese-speaking mother of eight children. She had been a subscriber for the Chinese Watchtower and a local Kingdom publisher had been making return visits upon her. Literature was placed with her by the branch servant. Downstairs on the pavement we encountered Cantonese-speaking Sister Ng So Ching. So Brother Franz seized the opportunity at once to take her with him back up the steps to the home of the lady speaking the same Chinese dialect. She welcomed us in. We sat down, and after Sister Ng gave her an extended witness the lady, although a Roman Catholic religiously, readily subscribed again for The Watchtower in Chinese. Fast action! Rewarding!

The Chinese are an amazing people when it comes to utilizing space. Thousands of refugees have streamed into Hong Kong from Communist China, and they constitute quite a problem for the Crown Colony government. Quite to be expected, in the afternoon we passed by a small squatter area on a hillside. The homes were merely tiny huts, six feet by seven feet, made of patched sackcloth and tarpaulin. A family of six would be found dwelling in this matchbox home on a vacant demolished site. Water must be carried from a water main where hundreds of people would be lining up taking each one his turn in getting water supplies. There is no sanitation, just a dirt ditch. It was a relief to move along from here and see the colorful, busy market streets teeming with people selling their wares.

Supper we ate at the assembly auditorium, all of us seated together like a big family at four tables, refreshing ourselves on Chinese dishes and eating with chopsticks. In the experience meeting that featured the opening of the evening’s assembly sessions a Chinese special pioneer related her experience in the native tongue, followed by a missionary sister using an interpreter. All the missionaries are tackling the difficult task of mastering the official Chinese language. The two talks that followed in the succeeding hour were based on the year’s text, “From day to day tell the good news of salvation by him.” (Ps. 96:2, NW) They were delivered by former branch servant Carnie and his successor, C. W. Charles. The vice-president rounded off the program for the day by a talk on loyalty to the Society that the Most High God has been powerfully using in the earth in this closing century of his sixth millennium of the seventh creative day. Brother Franz exhorted the eighty-two of his audience to continue rendering heart-given loyalty to Jehovah’s instrument.

Sunday, January 13, came, with all its reason for expectancy but with the somewhat saddening realization that this was the last day of a warmth-giving assembly here in this isolated corner of the earth. The weather certainly did not seem to want to give up its cloudiness and bleakness. Field activities in the witness work distinguished this final morning of the assembly. In the course of the morning the vice-president was delighted to view picturesque City of Victoria with its ten-mile water front and Kowloon across the strait, from the peak-top 1,800 feet above sea level. From here one could appreciate why the place was called Hong Kong, which in English means “Fragrant Harbor.”

The name Kowloon, meaning “Nine Dragons,” referred to the small range of hilltops, originally near the present Kai Tak airfield but now demolished. A million of the estimated total population of 2,500,000 live on the island of Hong Kong. Descending from peak-top to the other side of the island one comes upon Aberdeen, a small Chinese fishing port crammed with Chinese fishing junks laden with fish of all kinds. It is here that the famous Hong Kong “floating restaurants” can be seen. From sightseeing this part of the witnessing territory of the Hong Kong publishers one returns to the assembly auditorium in time to accompany a special pioneer Chinese sister in house-to-house witnessing in a poor section of the City of Victoria. The crammed conditions of these homes of poverty well emphasized the need for the inhabitants to hear the message then being so intensely advertised and to be given that afternoon in the public address, “New World Peace in Our Time—Why?” However poor these people may be materially, they are never stingy, though, with their hospitality.

After dinner at the assembly auditorium a baptism service was held for those who desired to give a public seal to their dedication of themselves to Jehovah God to walk in the footsteps of his Son Jesus Christ. There were seven that responded with Yes to the speaker’s two questions for ascertaining their worthiness. These were immersed in the bathroom of the not-distant Hong Kong Kingdom Hall, for in mid-January it was cold by the seashore.

As the announced hour of 3:30 p.m. drew near there was a drizzle that filled the air. Nonetheless the newspaper publicity giving excellent write-ups, the photograph of a group of Jehovah’s witnesses and another of the Society’s vice-president, the handbills, the placards and much advertising by word of mouth paved the way for many of the preoccupied public to come to the New Method College auditorium for the attractively titled talk. Despite the cheerless weather 167 made their way to the place. For this land of Buddhism and idolatry the attention given the visiting speaker was rapt. People of good will in attendance were very much impressed with what they heard through the Chinese interpreter. At the close of the public talk thirty-seven copies of the Chinese booklet “This Good News of the Kingdom” and seventeen copies of the English booklet World Conquest Soon—by God’s Kingdom were placed free with those eager for more information in print, and seven signed slips were handed in requesting a call at the home by one of Jehovah’s witnesses.

There were seventy-five that remained for the evening’s sessions with which the assembly concluded. The talk by branch servant Charles on the theme “Where Your Treasure Is There Your Heart Will Be” made it clear that the world can influence those taking up the Christian course and that the effective counterbalance is God’s kingdom. The soon-departing vice-president was given the final place on the program. Sensing the dangerousness of the times he focused his parting words on the need to stick close to the organization of Jehovah’s people that we might be kept in the lifesaving truth. No sooner was this talk finished than branch servant Charles stepped forward and read a resolution voicing recognition of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society as the instrument used by Jehovah to direct his people now on earth before Armageddon and pledging continued loyalty and support to it. Former branch servant Carnie, himself a certificated member of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, seconded Charles’ motion to adopt this resolution. The unanimous Aye! that arose in adoption of the resolution was full of conviction and determination. So the Hong Kong assembly ended on a splendid note indeed.

Next day, Monday, in the two hours before noon some of the Hong Kong brothers were reminded of Paul’s farewell to the brothers down at the beach on the stopover at the port of Tyre. (Acts 21:2-6) On the sands near Repulse Bay Hotel nineteen missionaries and special pioneers held a service meeting near the waters of this well-known bay. Brother Franz considered their field-service problems and gave them stimulating exhortation. A sumptuous material meal with them all followed in the Golden City Restaurant on Queens Road Center in the City of Victoria. Now we must retrace our steps to the Kai Tak airport outside of Kowloon. Precious last moments of contact and conversation with Hong Kong brothers are enjoyed there before the vice-president is called to board the flying Orient Star. A political congressman is among the passengers, and so all our baggage goes aboard this bimotored plane without inspection, out of courtesy to him. At about 4:36 p.m. our plane takes its final bounce off the runway and soon we are soaring out over the waters and islands of that area.

MANILA, PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC

After affording its passengers a beautiful view of Manila’s night lights from the air, our bimotored plane Orient Star made contact with terra firma at the P.A.L. airport about 7:35 p.m. As the arriving vice-president walked to the customs building a delegation of quite a number of expectant witnesses of Jehovah let out a shout. With the aid of a customs broker, a Philippine witness, it was quick work in getting through customs and coming in direct touch with the welcoming brothers. The Watch Tower Society’s branch in Quezon City extended its hospitality to the visiting official by assigning him a room and all the comforts of Brooklyn headquarters home for the next four days. But before retirement for the night the pleasure was seized of talking to a large gathering of branch family members, missionaries and native Philippine brothers till very late, and so getting better acquainted.

The visit of Brother Franz was made the occasion of a national assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the many islands of the Philippines for three days, January 15-17, 1957. For this the same stadium that was used the previous spring when the Society’s president and his secretary visited the Philippines was engaged, the beautiful Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. In spite of the shortness of time in notifying the scattered brothers, it was gratifying to observe that those who came to attend were from all over the Philippines. The missionary graduate of Gilead who was appointed as assembly servant did a good job in its behalf. The kickoff meeting that he arranged a couple of months before the actual event nicely geared the assembly organization for the big undertaking ahead. A successful assembly resulted.

The program of events offered all the conventioners a sumptuous spiritual repast for morning, afternoon and night. The speeches were to be presented in the two leading dialects of the Islands, Ilocano and Tagalog, as well as in English. An attractive platform featuring watchtowers and adorned with the 1957 yeartext on banners in the eight principal languages of the Philippines was erected on the grassy field, centered in front of the long-roofed grandstand that is flanked by the bleachers that extend all around the oval track of the great stadium. A novel feature was the displacing of a musical orchestra by a mixed chorus of voices accompanied by merely a piano. Under the musical direction of a Gilead graduate the chorus gave the assembly an introduction to each song selected by singing the first verse, after which the entire assembly took up the song and swelled it loudly. This functioned very well.

The public relations servant arranged for newsmaking interviews. So, on the morning of the assembly’s opening day, Tuesday, January 15, Brother Franz, accompanied by this servant, went to two radio stations for engagements. The first one, DZFM (The People’s Station), is owned by the Philippine government. The program director was very friendly. Despite not feeling too well he graciously kept his appointment for the interview. He even canceled a thirty-minute paid program over the radio in order to accommodate the vice-president of the Watch Tower Society. The half-hour interview was “right off the cuff” and was broadcast direct from the studio. The program director was pleased with the information of public interest that Brother Franz gave in replies to many questions, especially the stand of Jehovah’s witnesses toward godless communism. The Philippine Islands have no diplomatic relations with the Soviet government of Russia.

Immediately after the first interview it was necessary to proceed to CBN (Chronicle Broadcasting Network), a commercial station, to keep an appointment. There a fifteen-minute interview was recorded. This was broadcast the following day, and the sound department at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium was able to record it from the air and to replay it in the evening during an intermission of the assembly.

Meanwhile the Society’s branch servant, who was also the assembly chairman, was holding a two-hour session in the stadium grandstand with the district, circuit and congregation servants. The most of the other conventioners utilized the morning in field service. As the official assembly opening in the afternoon drew on, the sky was overcast and there were some showers. Nevertheless on this, the first day, the grandstand was full and some of the conventioners were sitting in the bleachers. The branch servant, as assembly chairman, gave the official address of welcome to this fine turnout of brothers, and thereafter the seven spiritual goals of Jehovah’s witnesses for 1957 were ably discussed by seven brothers.

For the evening’s features the crowd increased appreciably, from 5,768 in the afternoon to 6,353 now. The vice-president’s talk to them on backing up Jehovah’s visible organization proved to be most timely as well as giving them a viewpoint many had not had previously. This gave them a basis for better understanding and more fully appreciating the climactic feature that followed, the presentation of the special resolution, which, since early last summer, had been undergoing adoption by assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses around the globe. The matter, presented first in English, was translated simultaneously by interpreters to the speaker’s right and left into Ilocano and Tagalog. When the speaker raised his hand for the vote to be expressed upon the motion before the assembled 6,353, there was enthusiastic applause with the viva voce adoption of this courageous, forthright resolution against Communist persecution, in English, Ilocano and Tagalog. Incidentally, the simultaneous translating of the talks from the English by the translators, each equipped with earphones that were wired in with the central microphone, into Ilocano and Tagalog saved much time, and each language group in its own assigned place in the grandstand heard distinctly without confusion of sound. The arrangement worked excellently, and many were the expressions of appreciation by the conventioners for this great improvement over the translation method at last year’s national assembly at this same place.

Wednesday, January 16, after the consideration of the day’s Bible text at the stadium there was again joyful, united field service. Also in the grandstand during the progress of the morning meetings were conducted in the various dialects—Cebu-Visayan, Hiligaynon-Visayan, Bicolano and Pampango—for the benefit of the conventioners that did not understand the three main languages used. The summary of the previous day’s program, especially the special resolution against communism, was presented at those dialect meetings. At the same time, in the cafeteria on grounds almost directly across the street from the football stadium, the branch servant conducted an exclusive meeting with the district and circuit servants for the Philippine Islands. In this way spiritual food as well as material food was dispensed at this New World Peace Assembly cafeteria, with its kitchen and its serving lines and many eating tables, all under sheltering roofs, ingeniously constructed by the witnesses of Jehovah themselves.

Some news reporters were smart enough to concern themselves with the biggest thing then taking place in the national capital. Shortly after 10 a.m. four of them sat facing Brother Franz in a room in the administration building and plied him with questions. The reporter from the second-largest newspaper turned out to be the most enthusiastic. His paper, the Manila Chronicle, published the interview on its front page, with the heading, “‘Witnesses’ Head Says They Will Stay Neutral in Case of War,” and under the vice-president’s picture appeared the words “ . . . no meddling in politics.” The write-up was very good. The newspapermen, having got enough information, left, but in trooped twenty-five missionary graduates of Gilead yet in the full-time service there in the Philippine Islands. Their questions, of a different kind, extracted valuable counsel concerning local problems faced by missionaries. These devoted hunters and gatherers of the Good Shepherd’s sheep were exhorted to be optimistic and to forge ahead in their lifesaving activities and hold fast to their invaluable assignment, not forsaking their post of duty.

In the afternoon, on the assembly platform, two symposia were conducted by speakers from the Society’s Philippine branch and the traveling circuit servants. The first symposium dealt with “Congregation Organization” and the second with “Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom with Magazines.” Also at 2:10 p.m. this afternoon Brother Franz was interviewed on the floating stage of Studio K of radio station DZRH at the Manila Broadcasting Company building, for fifteen minutes. However, when the “big wheels” heard the recording of the interview, they were loath to put it on the air. Evening came on and, under a clear sky and a full moon, Brother Franz addressed the assembly on “Keeping Within the Bounds of the New World Society.” The 6,919 in attendance showed rapt attention and broke out in applauses. They appreciated the point of one’s demonstrating unbreakable faithfulness within Jehovah’s favored organization.

Inexorably, as with all assemblies, the final day of the Manila assembly arrived. A crowded day it was. Baptism was scheduled as the first thing in the morning. The questions directed to the candidates for baptism to determine their worthiness for it were asked in as many dialects as were spoken by the candidates, besides in English—in Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebu-Visayan, Hiligaynon-Visayan, Bicolano, Samareno, Pangasinan, Pampango, Zambel and Ibanag. In spite of the difference of language all were alike in being dedicated to the same God Jehovah and in understanding his kingdom truth. Accordingly, 279 were favored with baptism in the YMCA swimming pool, not far from the Rizal Stadium, where 6,572 had heard them answer the decisive questions affirmatively.

In view of the fact that the close of the day was to be devoted to the public meeting, the afternoon speakers on the platform were the ones to give parting admonitions to the brothers themselves. They were aware that during the past year the Philippine witnessing organization had suffered a considerable loss in the number of active, publishing ministers. So they encouraged the conventioners to strive to recover from the past losses and to keep pace with the rest of the New World society in ministerial expansion. Appropriately the Philippine branch servant, Earl K. Stewart, delivered the closing talk of the afternoon and spurred them on to greater efficiency as New World ministers. The 7,652 listeners took the matter to heart.

A forty-five-minute intermission, and then in the cool of early evening the public meeting crowd that overflowed the grandstand into the bleachers gave ear to the presentation, in English, Ilocano and Tagalog, of “New World Peace in Our Time—Why?” This, the largest attendance at the assembly, 9,463 by count, was very responsive. They applauded the fact that the speaker, Brother Franz, appeared before them in formal Philippine attire, wearing a barong Tagalog, the handsome gift to him of appreciative Philippine brothers, and they vigorously applauded the soul-stirring points of his talk so unhesitatingly and animatedly rendered by the translators at his right and left. They heard, they understood, they felt! Their appreciation of the New World message was further displayed by their accepting at the close thousands of free copies of the booklet “This Good News of the Kingdom”. This public lecture and all the field activities that had been carried on prior thereto by the thousands of visiting witnesses in the city left the foundation for a tremendous amount of follow-up work to be shouldered by the congregations in the capital city.

As a whole the assembly showed much spiritual growth over previous ones. An improvement in the behavior of the conventioners was to be noted, the different assembly departments were better organized and showed more efficiency, especially the New World Peace Assembly cafeteria and the vital sound department. The publicity department sent out news releases eight different days, to six English dailies, two Tagalog, three Chinese, and to six weeklies and fourteen provincial papers. There were at least 346 column inches of news releases, especially to the widely circulated daily newspapers. At the time of this report one weekly magazine came out with a feature article based on the information from the publicity department, in English, on February 2, and another weekly, in Tagalog, on February 10.

Inasmuch as the Philippine Republic does not maintain diplomatic relations with the Soviet government at Moscow, what was to be done with the first carbon copy of the special resolution that had been adopted and officially signed on the assembly platform before 6,353 conventioners the first night? There had to be an intermediary to get it to the proper Russian diplomatic channels. Timelily, the last thing before his departure from the national capital on Friday, January 18, Brother Franz, accompanied by the branch servant and our customs broker, proceeded to the Department of Justice building in the hour before noon. There we were ushered into the office of the then vice-president of the Philippine Republic, Mr. Carlos García, who was also acting as secretary of Foreign Affairs. It was especially in this latter capacity that this high official was approached. The honorable Mr. García proved to be very affable and considerate. He sat down with the Society’s vice-president on a settee and talked particularly with him very conversationally. He seemed to become oblivious to time. So, before the interview closed because the Society’s vice-president had to get away to the airport, the Philippine vice-president had granted forty minutes of his valuable time. Democratically and in support of constitutional freedom to worship God according to the dictates of one’s conscience he accepted from Brother Franz’ hands the signed copy of the special resolution and said he would forward it to the proper Russian official through the American government. Due appreciation was sincerely expressed to Vice-president García for his kindness. Two months later, on March 18, he was sworn in at Manila to succeed in office the air-crash victim, President Ramón Magsaysay.

At the Manila international airport a number of brothers, Filipinos and missionaries, gathered to see Brother Franz off. Eventually, about 2:30 p.m., the former Flying Tiger soared into the air and out over Manila Bay, bound for Brother Franz’ next stop.

(To be continued)

[Picture on page 473]

Hong Kong

Questions From Readers

● Enclosed is an article, “Zealous Vandal,” from Nature magazine, issue of December, 1956. Is this a proper way to witness to the truth?—C. T., United States.

The magazine article has photographs of two rocks in Washington state’s Olympic National Park. On one is written in white letters two feet high: “Exodus 6:3, Almighty God’s name is JEHOVAH.” On the other is painted: “PSALM 83:18, That men may know that Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over the earth.” The article comments: “It is extremely doubtful that responsible officials in the religious denomination to which this offender belongs would sanction the practice of using national parks for such purposes.” It adds this observation as to the effect of the signs: “They startle some viewers and disgust most.”

No, this is not a proper way to witness, and no mature witness of Jehovah would use such methods that deface public places and stir animosity instead of good will. Both the Bible and the Society stress preaching by means of house-to-house calls, street witnessing and home Bible studies, where the publisher of truth uses the Bible and Bible literature and words from his own lips. In their own way the heavens and earth bear witness to Jehovah the Creator, reflecting his majesty and power and grandeur, as the Bible tells us. (Ps. 19:1-6; Rom. 1:20) Human creatures have ways of reflecting Jehovah’s praise also, and these ways are set forth in the Bible. Defacing the outdoors and cheapening the message in the eyes of others is not one of those Biblically approved ways.

Incidentally, the Society’s magazine Awake! published an article in its August 8, 1956, issue, entitled “Save Parks from Becoming Slums,” which lamented the lack of appreciation for the national parks.

Check Your Memory

After reading this issue of “The Watchtower,” do you remember—

✔ What the most striking fact about Protestant churches in England is? P. 451, ¶5.

✔ What it means not to take God’s name in a worthless way? P. 452, ¶4.

✔ Why God did not destroy Israel at Mt. Sinai for worshiping a golden calf? P. 453, ¶2.

✔ Why God restored Israel to the land of Judah after seventy years of captivity? P. 454, ¶1.

✔ What will help a person to gain a new personality? P. 459, ¶3.

✔ How the voiceless sun praises God? P. 461, ¶5.

✔ Why God commanded Israel to drive the Canaanites from the Promised Land? P. 462, ¶9.

✔ What people looked to a piece of wood as a guide? P. 464, ¶13.

✔ What king made a flaming sacrifice of his son to an idol? P. 465, ¶16.

✔ Why a person should talk to himself? P. 468, ¶6.

✔ How a person chews a mental cud? P. 470, ¶10.

✔ How the day of one’s death can be better than the day of one’s birth? P. 471, ¶12.

✔ Why the laughter of fools is like burning thorns under a pot? P. 472, ¶15.

✔ Where families live in homes six feet by seven feet? P. 474, ¶4.

✔ Where a baptism talk was given one morning in eleven languages? P. 478, ¶2.

Announcements

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

September 1: Why Jehovah Empties the Earth. Page 460.

September 8: Will You Get to Live on Earth Forever? Page 466.

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