The Watchtower — November 15, 1960

Does It Hurt You to Give?

AT EVERY turn the public is called on to give. By mail, telephone, from door to door and from street solicitors the cry is heard: ‘Give.’ ‘Give to charity.’ ‘Your help is needed.’ Appeals are designed to touch the heartstrings and to untie the purse strings. Pocketbooks and purses are pried open by the pressure of public opinion. It is stressed that giving is a religious duty. As a result, in the United State alone close to $5,000,000,000 annually pours into charities from private pockets and purses.

Although the Bible says, “God loves a cheerful giver,” and Jesus stated, “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving,” the public is told to ‘give till it hurts.’ Under pressure people give, and they often testify that it does hurt. But why is giving such a painful experience to so many people when Jesus said it should bring the greater happiness? Have you found that it hurts you to give?—2 Cor. 9:7; Acts 20:35.

Extracting money from the public in the name of God has become a big business enterprise. It is a source of pain, and brings hurt and not happiness to its targets. On April 3, 1960, the London Sunday Express carried the bold headline “Business Experts to Boost R.C. Church Collections.” The organization, Cathos Ltd., with branches throughout Canada and in the United States, Australia and Britain, specializes exclusively in increasing the revenue of the Roman Catholic Church. The London paper described its goal to be to double the income of the Roman Catholic churches in Britain. This venture has the blessing of Roman Catholic primate Cardinal Godfrey.

Part of Cathos’ program is a house-to-house canvass, contacting all Catholic families in a parish to have them sign a pledge wherein they agree to contribute so much a week to the church. Also included is a large “softening up” banquet. Cathos’ first campaign in Britain began this spring in Potters Bar, Middlesex, with a large banquet for 300 parishioners. The announced goal was to boost the annual parish collection from $4,900 to $10,080. Mr. Harold Brinjes, chairman of Cathos, commented: “The people of Potters Bar will give to an extent that hurts them a little. This is part of the normal adjustment after we take over.”

Yes, it hurts to give when one is high-pressured into it, no matter how worthy the cause may be. When one feels compelled to give, if he gives because it will draw frowns and disapproving glances or even words if he does not, then giving does not bring happiness but it hurts. Thus the religious practice of passing a collection plate so that a poor person is felt compelled to compete with the large contribution of a rich person does not make for happiness. The one who is rich, by ostentatiously making a large contribution, gains an immediate reward—‘the glory of men.’ The poor person, feeling the need of keeping up a front of respectability, ‘gives till it hurts him.’ Neither gains the happiness Jesus spoke about.—Matt. 6:2.

On one occasion members of the Christian congregation in Jerusalem came into a time of material need because of a famine in the land. Paul reports that their Christian brothers in Macedonia, even though poor themselves, “of their own accord kept begging us with strong entreaty for the privilege of kindly giving and for a share in the ministry destined for the holy ones.” He testified that they gave even “beyond their actual ability.” No one coerced or shamed the Macedonian Christians into giving, but they wanted to, they begged for the opportunity to give. It made them happy to do so because they knew those whom they dearly loved would be benefited.—2 Cor. 8:1-4.

How can a person today gain happiness in giving? To gain happiness in giving one must develop a generous disposition; he must obey the two greatest commandments: to love Jehovah God with his whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and his neighbor as himself. Having such love, one gives from the heart; he gives because it makes the one he loves happy. He rejoices at the opportunity of expressing his love by giving; he gains greater happiness, even though the one in need who receives is made very happy also. This was the case when the Macedonian Christians gave to their brothers in Jerusalem.

As a modern-day example, consider the Christian witnesses of Jehovah that emerged from Germany’s concentration camps at the close of World War II. Like the Christians in Jerusalem, they were in need of help. Their Christian brothers the world over rejoiced at the privilege of contributing things their German brothers needed. Now these German Witnesses possess a measure of material things, and they have unselfishly contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars over and above what is needed for advancing the preaching work in their own land. This money has aided their brothers and has financed sending missionaries into many lands throughout the world. Who can say that the German Witnesses have not received greater happiness in giving than they did when receiving from their brothers at the close of World War II?

It is true that not all possess material things to give, but they can still gain the greater happiness of giving. Consider the example of the apostle Peter. Outside the temple door there was a cripple requesting gifts of mercy. “Peter said: ‘Silver and gold I do not possess, but what I do have is what I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!’” The man immediately was healed and leaped up with great rejoicing. What happiness Peter must have felt, being able to give health to that appreciative cripple! It is a truth that we today can give a more valuable gift than health. Jesus said it means everlasting life to take in knowledge of him and his Father Jehovah. So gain this knowledge yourself and give it. How your heart will rejoice with unsurpassed joy as you see eyes light up with understanding and glisten with joy as they envision the new world that you have showed can be their firm hope! This giving will bring you no hurt, but will make you really appreciate what Jesus meant when he said: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.”—Acts 3:6; 20:35; John 17:3.

Upholding the Honorableness of Marriage

“Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.”—Heb 13:4.

1. (a) How should marriage be approached and maintained, if it is to be beneficial? (b) What on the part of the married couple makes for divine blessing and success?

MARRIAGE, entered into, should be maintained with honor as an arrangement set up by God himself. Marriage should also be approached in honor. Marriage is a serious, responsible thing that has presented many problems outside of the Paradise of Eden where it was begun; and an honorable approach to it ought to have a beneficial effect. It ought to help the marriage to be successful. Really, by marriage the man and the wife ought to strive to honor God, the loving heavenly Father who provided for this union which would have been completely blissful had it been continued in Paradise. Rightly, God would be expected to bless the union of such a God-honoring couple. But if his laws and rules for a successful marriage are ignored and violated, God could not be expected to bless but should be expected to execute judgment. Unhappiness and suffering are certain to follow. God made laws governing all the other things of his creation; likewise he made laws governing this privileged arrangement of marriage. Married couples, or those thinking of getting married, honor Him by considering his laws and regulations recorded in his sacred Book, the Bible. This makes for divine blessing and success.

2. Did Jesus Christ marry on earth, and what was his attitude toward marriage among God’s people?

² God’s heavenly Son did not become the man Jesus Christ in order to marry one of the daughters descended from the sinner Adam. That was not God’s will for him. However, Jesus did honor marriage among God’s people. When he accepted the invitation and attended the marriage celebration in Cana of Galilee, he performed his first miracle on earth, that of changing water into wine of the best kind, in order to contribute to the joy and gladness of the occasion. (John 2:1-11) He highly respected this arrangement of God for man’s happiness; and it was he who said: “What God has yoked together let no man put apart.” (Matt. 19:6) He advocated the ideal human marriage, making it the rule for his followers.

3. How did Paul express himself toward marriage, and how did he describe the approach that the Christian congregation makes to its marriage to Christ?

³ The Christian apostle Paul had the same high regard for marriage as did his Master, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Paul said: “Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” (Heb. 13:4) In figurative language Paul referred to the approach that the Christian congregation makes to marriage with the glorified heavenly Jesus Christ as her spiritual Bridegroom. Here are Paul’s words to members of this Christian congregation: “Husbands, continue loving your wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation and delivered up himself for it, that he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the bath of water by means of the word [of God], that he might present the congregation to himself in its splendor, not having a spot or a wrinkle or any of such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:25-27) How honorable the approach must be to that grandest of marriages, that of Jesus Christ and his faithful congregation of 144,000 members!

4. How did Paul express himself in anxiety for the successful marriage of the Christian congregation?

⁴ Showing anxiety for the proper preparation and approach to marriage, the apostle Paul also wrote to the congregation: “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I personally promised you in marriage to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to the Christ. But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its craftiness, your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:2, 3) Also, with more direct reference to personal conduct in this regard, Paul wrote: “This is what God wills, the sanctifying of you, that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you should know how to get possession of his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in covetous sexual appetite such as also those nations have which do not know God.”—1 Thess. 4:3-5.

5. In the physical developing of boys and girls, toward what does the normal course of human life work?

⁵ In the normal, regular course of things, all human life works toward males getting married to females, with a view to being fruitful and producing children in one’s image and likeness. (Gen. 5:1-3) When a boy reaches the age of from thirteen to sixteen years and the girls the age of from eleven to fourteen years, the reproductive organs come to maturity. The boy and girl reach what is called the age of puberty or adulthood, and they can perform their respective parts in bringing children into the world.

6. How are sex organs rightly to be considered, and does anyone have the right to interfere with a child’s finally entering into clean marriage?

⁶ God’s purpose was that each human creature be endowed with ability to produce children in the course of time and thus be able to enjoy married life and to serve its purpose until the filling of the earth with righteous, godlike adult humans had been accomplished. (Gen. 1:26-28) Accordingly, God created man and woman with sex organs for a wonderful purpose in harmony with the divine will. These sex organs are therefore not to be treated as playthings, nor are they to be abused, misused or misapplied. The proper care of sex organs applies both before marriage and after marriage, in order to conduce toward successful, happy marriage. When we take a long-range view of matters, the healthy, helpful preparation of a child for future marriage really begins before that child’s birth. Yes, in that respect a heavy responsibility rests on its parents, who should think not only of their child but also of their grandchild. No one, either the parents or persons not the parents, should want or has the right to mar a child’s opportunity, privilege and natural right to enter into clean, honorable marriage.

7. What will be our proper course if we respect our own right to get married and also the right of another person to do so?

⁷ If we have due respect for our own right and privilege to get married, we will want to get ourselves ready to undertake it in honor. We will also have due respect for the right of another person, a boy or a girl, a man or a woman, to get married in a worthy, honorable way. This means that we would not want to contaminate or corrupt ourselves or others, so as to be in an unclean condition when entering in upon this honorable estate of wedlock.

GOOD MORALS

8. (a) What, therefore, should parents do respecting their inquiring, curious children, and what is the best book of aid in that behalf? (b) For what privilege may parents now help to prepare their children?

⁸ This calls for us to develop good morals. Parents or guardians of children should teach them the facts of life. This the parents can do in a clean, respectable, upbuilding way. Regardless of whether some medical doctors may think so, the “gutter” or the slum alley is not the place for boys and girls to learn the facts of life, or, rather, the abuse, perversion, degradation and idolatry of sex. For thousands of years the Creator’s own Book, the Holy Bible, has been the best book on earth to teach adults and children the basic facts of life, as to how we got here from Adam and Eve, why there are both males and females, and how we may each choose to perform our parts in a godly way toward the present continuation and extending of the human family. Parents and guardians should be wise and use the Bible in revealing the noble facts of life to the curious, inquiring minds of maturing children. Thereby they can counteract the debasing influence of the “gutter.” In this way they help the children early in making the proper approach to marriage in later life. Now that the prophetic Word of God holds forth the hope of surviving the universal war of Armageddon, how grand a privilege parents today have of possibly preparing their children for marriage as survivors of Armageddon into God’s righteous world, in Paradise restored to earth!

9. What do peace-pursuing Christians need to watch always, and what did Paul prescribe for them amid an immoral world?

⁹ All persons who now pursue peace because of loving a godly life and wanting to see good days forever under God’s kingdom need to watch their morals continually. According to published reports on world conditions, never has mankind been living in a more corrupt world, at least since the immoral preflood world of the days of Noah. Fornication, adultery, sodomy and bestiality are increasingly being indulged in to a shocking degree. Nineteen hundred years ago the apostle Paul commented on the immorality in the pagan world and recommended a safeguard for Christians. He wrote to fellow believers at Corinth, Greece, saying: “Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is well for a man not to have intercourse with a woman; yet, because of prevalence of fornication, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband.” (1 Cor. 7:1, 2) Paul prescribed honorable marriage.

10. Today what question faces one before and after marriage, and what offers to immorality widely present themselves today?

¹⁰ However, in view of “prevalence of fornication” today, it is a question not only of avoiding fornication before marriage but also of abstaining from adultery after marriage. Today multitudes of attractive women are willing to sell or offer their bodies for sale for the illegal satisfying of the sexual passions of immoral men. Today there are multitudes of boys and men who are likewise willing to sell their bodies and become effeminate, “men kept for unnatural purposes,” in order to satisfy the lust of men who prefer to lie carnally with males similar to how a man lies with a woman; which is a “detestable thing.” (1 Cor. 6:9; Rom. 1:27; Lev. 18:22) In a warning, God’s Word shows the fearful consequences of immorality.

11. (a) Is love of neighbor expressed in immorality, or what? (b) Lending oneself to immoral advances by another may end up how?

¹¹ In this connection the apostle Paul explains to us the significance of love, saying: “He that loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. For the law code, ‘You must not commit adultery,’ . . . and whatever other commandment there is, is summed up in this word, namely, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Rom. 13:8, 9) There is no love of neighbor expressed in fornication, adultery or sodomy. It is only the letting of burning passion take control with much harm to follow physically, socially and spiritually, the conscience also being affected. With great frankness God’s Word warns His people against professional prostitutes or any girl or woman who wants to play the harlot for the time being, designedly playing up to the male victim. Lending oneself to become the victim of an immoral person’s wiles is the start of what may end up with death, physical death as well as spiritual death. The very reason why God’s Word has something to say on this matter is this:

12. According to Proverbs 2:16-19, what is the reason that God’s Word says something on this matter?

¹² “To deliver you from the strange woman, from the foreign woman [foreign to God] who has made her own sayings smooth, who is leaving the confidential friend of her youth and who has forgotten the very covenant of her God [if she is dedicated to God and under the new covenant made with God’s people]. For down to death her house does sink and down to those impotent in death her tracks. None of those having relations with her will come back, nor will they regain the paths of those living.”—Prov. 2:16-19.

13, 14. (a) Why is immorality not the way to real living, and of whom should we members of a congregation beware? (b) Like what inexperienced youth should we not be?

¹³ Immorality may be the way to what loose men and women call “sophistication,” the making of a person worldly-wise; but it is not the way to clean, pure wisdom, life-giving wisdom. It is not the way to real living. Those having company with the immoral may never regain the path of those on the way to everlasting life. Sooner or later they may land in the place from which they cannot now come back, the place of no-return, Sheol, the common grave of mankind, or, even worse still, the place of eternal annihilation, Gehenna. This is no matter for the sophisticated to smirk at indifferently, unconcernedly, in this penicillin age. It is something for all, for those growing up and for the grownups, the virgin and single and the married, to ponder over in the light of plainly stated, long-recorded heavenly wisdom. Beware of immoral persons, both those outside the organization of God’s people and those who might hang onto it or might creep into it and outwardly establish themselves in it. Guard against harboring and cultivating immoral desires. Do not be like the inexperienced youth, who lacked a good heart, a moral heart, a good, clean motive, and who therefore put himself in the way of easy approach by a slave of immorality:

¹⁴ “Passing along on the street near her corner, and in the way to her house he marches, in the twilight, in the evening of the day, at the approach of the night and the darkness. And look! there was a woman to meet him, with the garment of a prostitute and cunning of heart. . . . Now she is outdoors, now she is in the public squares, and near every corner she lies in wait. And she has grabbed hold of him and given him a kiss. She has put on a bold face . . . She has misled him by the abundance of her persuasiveness. By the smoothness of her lips she seduces him. All of a sudden he is going after her, like a bull that comes even to the slaughter, and just as if fettered for the discipline of a foolish man, until an arrow cleaves open his liver, just as a bird hastens into the trap, and he has not known that it involves his very soul [or, life].”—Prov. 7:7-23; marginal reading.

15. In harmony with that comparison, how should we picture ourselves when tempted by someone immoral, and so where would we find ourselves for yielding to temptation?

¹⁵ If you are being tempted by someone immoral, imagine yourself like a bull being led along by a thorn through the nose or by a nose ring subduedly to your own slaughter. Is the picture funny? Do you laugh at yourself? The immoral person’s words of inducement, “Stolen waters themselves are sweet” (Prov. 9:17), may for the few minutes be pleasantly fulfilled in sexual satisfaction, but where do you find yourself? In a trap of death like a bird! Alas, to your great pain, an arrow of death cleaves open your liver. Comes sorrow, yes, death-dealing pain thereafter. Also, torment of conscience!

16. How is the Bible shown to be medically correct when speaking of how an arrow cleaves open the liver of the immoral one?

¹⁶ The inspired book of Proverbs was pointedly, yes, specifically correct in saying that a deadly arrow cleaves open the liver of the immoral. The liver is a target for disease organisms. In laboratories it has been found by medical doctors that the tiny corkscrew-like organism associated with the terrible venereal disease called syphilis can frequently be detected in great numbers in the liver cells, although it has been found also in the tissues of the lungs, spleen and heart. In the case of the other terrible disease called gonorrhea, the bacterial gonococcus that causes the disease can be taken up by the body’s blood vessels and be distributed to affect not only the genital organs but almost every organ of the human body, getting into the lining membrane of the liver, the largest gland in man’s body, as well as of the brain, spinal cord, heart and other organs. The Bible is thus medically correct.

17. When one willfully courts immorality, with what is one flirting, and to what is one laying oneself open?

¹⁷ When a passionate person willfully courts immorality, he is flirting with death. When a person lets himself become passionate under improper circumstances and yields to the flattering, inflaming, subtle invitations and urgings to immorality, he little appreciates for the time being the frightful danger into which he is swooning or yielding himself. He is collapsing onto the road of disease, yes, lack of ease and of peace, the road to Sheol, mankind’s common grave. Either he does not care or he forgets or does not know he is laying himself open to the getting of loathsome syphilis, which with alcoholism and tuberculosis is branded as one of the three great plagues afflicting humanity today.

18. Why do third-degree manifestations of syphilis have the greatest significance for our human bodies?

¹⁸ Third-degree manifestations of syphilis, affecting the brain, the eyes, the liver, and so forth, have the greatest significance for the human body. In this case the lesions of the brain and spinal cord rank first in frequency and seriousness. Most of all to be feared are lesions of the nerve centers. These may lead on to locomotor ataxia and general paralysis, to paresis (partial paralysis), or to paralysis to one half lengthwise of the body. Besides, there may be hereditary effects passed to one’s children born thereafter.

19. Why has no disease such a murderous influence upon one’s offspring as syphilis?

¹⁹ It is said that “no disease has such a murderous influence upon the offspring as syphilis.” When both father and mother are syphilitic, the infection of their child is almost unavoidable. First pregnancies may end up in abortions; then there are stillborn children or a child alive at birth but soon dying; then syphilitic children, tainted, having native weakness or inborn incapacity for life, children stunted physically and mentally, often feeble-minded or even idiotic, yes, children that are monstrosities. What a way to prepare one’s child to approach future marriage with honor!

20. Why is a syphilitic person a source of possible danger to others, and, as a social plague, why does it make marriage inadvisable for anyone infected with it?

²⁰ Every syphilitic person is a source of possible danger to a person with whom that one comes in close contact, whether that be a wife or a husband or children. One fears to pick up a newspaper or magazine or wipe on a towel wiped on by a syphilitic person, or swim in his neighborhood. In connection with marriage, The Encyclopedia Americana says: “It is especially, however, in its relation with marriage that the ravages of syphilis as a social plague are of the highest interest and importance. . . . A syphilitic man should not marry so long as he is capable of carrying contagion to his wife or begetting syphilitic children. . . . The syphilitic man may be exposed to dangers, the consequences from his disease, which unfit him for the responsible position of head and support of a family. The possible existence of such disqualifying conditions must always be taken into consideration when the question of marriage is concerned.”—Volume 26, edition of 1929, page 180.

21. To what extent did a nationwide study in the United States published in 1960 show venereal disease to be increasing?

²¹ You parents, yes, you children also, here is some news for you to consider as a sort of barometer of venereal disease throughout the earth. A nationwide study in the United States has disclosed in this year 1960 that venereal disease is increasing in the nation. Teen-agers are becoming more and more implicated in diseases of “sexual love.” Shamelessly, one girl, about thirteen or fourteen years old, named eighty males with whom she had had sexual connections. According to the report, during the two years of 1957 and 1958, the number of children within the age limits of ten to fourteen years having infectious venereal disease rose from 2,443 to 2,793, or 14.3 percent. The number in the fifteen- to nineteen-year age group increased 11.4 percent. By one director of a Social Health Association it is estimated that there were actually 60,000 new cases of syphilis and more than a million new cases of gonorrhea, including an uncounted number that go unreported.—New York Times, February 24, 1960.

22. What did a United States Federal expert say in 1960 regarding the increase of infectious syphilis?

²² On April 5, 1960, a United States Federal expert said that cases of infectious syphilis in the country had showed an increase of 42 percent in the last half of 1959 over the like period of 1958. The increase was pronounced “terribly alarming,” especially in certain large cities.—New York Times, April 6, 1960.

23. Why is the use of penicillin today no offset to the contracting of venereal disease and why is the getting of gonorrhea not conducive to peaceful, happy marriage?

²³ It is foolish for the immorally inclined to depend upon the power of penicillin to offset the venereal diseases and so think that they can take chances. Despite the penicillin at hand today, those diseases named after the pagan goddess of sexual love, Venus, are on the increase. These cannot safely be played with but must be strictly guarded against. No longer is the disease of gonorrhea medically considered to be the innocent, inconsequential disease that it used to be considered. The medical profession now considers gonorrhea as one of the most formidable social plagues of our time. One’s getting this plague through immorality is certainly not conducive to peaceful, successful, happy marriage. Gonorrhea in a parent can result in partial or even complete loss of sight to a child born to such diseased parent. In cases of newborn children it is estimated that from ten to twenty percent of all blindness is due to infection by that microorganism known as the gonococcus.

24. How serious may gonorrhea become in the case of women and so how much of a price does one pay for the immorality that infects one with gonorrhea?

²⁴ Gonorrhea in women may become so serious as to blight absolutely their hope of having children. Gonorrhea is one of the most fruitful causes of female barrenness. Complications can also cause sterility in men. It is believed that gonorrhea in the male partner is accountable for 45 percent of childless marriages. Seventy percent or more of the sterility in women is because of a husband’s communicating gonorrhea to his wife. The report is that every year thousands of young, innocent wives are thus infected, husbands in many cases unknowingly contributing to wrecking the health and lives of their marriage partners. Wives may thus be reduced to semi-invalidism, inability to walk, and suffering in other ways. Finally, they may feel obliged to call in a surgeon for relief and be castrated by knifing out their God-given generative organs. If the responsible disease is traceable to immoral conduct on the part of one marriage mate or of both, it is indeed a heavy price to pay for breaking God’s law, for just a fleeting pleasure.

“BETTER TO MARRY”—WHEN AND WHY THEN?

25. (a) When does one that gives up single life do well? (b) Why does one, even if married, have to be on guard these days?

²⁵ In this world where fornication and adultery abound as never before, according to the apostle Paul’s advice it is not the course of unwisdom to have a marriage mate, so that one marries in order not to sin. Then one that gives up his singleness does well. As respects the single persons, Paul says: “If they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be inflamed with passion.” (1 Cor. 7:2, 8, 9, 38) If one does decide to take steps toward marriage, one should do so with all honorableness, in respect for God’s laws and heavenly wisdom, in this way approaching one’s future mate clean, guiltless as to fornication. If he is a married man, then he should honor his marriage bed and abstain from adultery. Said the famous German physician and author, Max S. Nordau: “No matter how deeply we may be in love with a certain individual, we do not cease to be susceptible to the influence of the entire sex.” One’s observation of some or many marriage couples seems to confirm this doctor’s statement. Doubtless all have to be on guard these days, whether married or not. To the married man or the single man who intends to marry, Proverbs 5:15-23 says:

26. What does Proverbs 5:15-23 say to married men and to single men who intend to marry?

²⁶ “Drink water out of your own cistern, and tricklings out of the midst of your own well [that is, out of your legal marriage mate as a wellspring of sexual happiness and pleasure]. Should your springs [of sexual satisfaction] be scattered out of doors [where the harlots lie in wait], your streams of water [for sexual refreshment] in the public squares themselves [where prostitutes offer themselves for a price]? Let them prove to be for you alone [with your marriage mate], and not for strangers with you. Let your water source [your source of sexual gratification] prove to be blessed [not cursed by God], and rejoice with the wife of your youth, a lovable hind and a charming mountain goat. Let her own breasts [not those of immoral women] intoxicate you at all times. With her love may you be in an ecstasy constantly. So why should you, my son, be in an ecstasy with a strange woman or embrace the bosom of a foreign woman? For the ways of a man are in front of the eyes of Jehovah, and he is contemplating all his tracks. His own errors will catch the wicked one, and in the ropes of his own sin he will be taken hold of. He will be the one to die because there is no discipline [no self-discipline, no taking of discipline], and because in the abundance of his foolishness he goes astray.”

27. (a) With what should a Christian not want to supplement his wife, and why not? (b) How could any sneak errors of a Christian result, to show that such errors have caught up with him?

²⁷ A married Christian is obligated to be satisfied with his one wife. If a dedicated Christian wants to have a woman, he should marry her honorably. A married Christian should not want to supplement his wife by other women inside the Christian congregation or outside it and thereby have cisterns, wells, springs or water streams from which to draw sexual pleasure “out of doors [outside his own home]” and out “in the public squares.” An unfaithful marriage mate may try to do this in secret or under darkness, but let such person remember that the ways of a dedicated Christian are “in front of the eyes of Jehovah” and that Jehovah “is contemplating all his tracks.” Nothing escapes Jehovah as Judge. He warns us that sneak errors of any Christian will catch up with him as a wicked person. He will realize it when, maybe, he finds that he has had a shameful disease burned into his body, or his reproductive powers are killed, or his wife becomes sterile or gives birth to a stillborn child or a blinded child or a deformed or diseased child.

28. Through consequent pain, what may he be brought to realize concerning the woman with whom he committed immorality?

²⁸ He may painfully be brought to realize concerning the immoral woman with whom he became one flesh that “the aftereffect from her is as bitter as wormwood; it is as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet are descending to death. Her very steps take hold on Sheol itself. The path of life she does not contemplate. . . . you have to groan in your future when your flesh and your organism come to an end. And you will have to say: ‘How I have hated discipline and my heart has disrespected even reproof! And I have not listened to the voice of my instructors, and to my teachers I have not inclined my ear. Easily I have come to be in every sort of badness in the midst of the congregation and of the assembly.’”—Prov. 5:3-14.

29. (a) Besides physical pain, what does the immorally erring Christian bring into his married life? (b) Into what way does he bring himself, and to what denunciation does he become subject?

²⁹ Besides the disease and pain that the Christian turning to immorality may bring upon his own flesh, upon his wife who is one flesh with him, and upon his future children, he brings disunity, mistrust and unpeacefulness into his married life. But worse than this, he brings himself into the way of spiritual death. He pays the price of the disapproval of God, whose eyes have been upon his ways and tracks. When this heavenly Judge unfailingly causes the errors of the wicked one to catch him and the binding ropes of his own sin to take hold on him, Jehovah brings him to judgment before his earthly congregation, the Christian assembly. As a disgrace to God and his congregation he is disfellowshiped, cast out of the congregation in dishonor to where the dead world is. Proverbs 22:14 warns: “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit. The one denounced by Jehovah will fall into it.” Knowing whom Jehovah God denounces, do we want to suffer his denunciation by falling into the deep pit of immorality opened up for us by the honey-flowing mouth of an immoral person, woman or man? Do we want to be denounced out of Jehovah’s clean, approved organization?

30. (a) Because of dedication to God, what should we remember when immorality is opened up to us uninvitedly? (b) What does Paul say in this regard to a Christian espoused to Christ?

³⁰ Not of our own wanting, the way of moral uncleanness may be enticingly opened up to us. Then let us remember just who we are because of having dedicated ourselves to Jehovah God. If you are a dedicated Christian whom God has called to form part of the heavenly bride of his Son Jesus Christ and who is thus espoused to Christ, then to you Paul says: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of the Christ away and make them members of a harlot? Never may that happen! What! Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body [with her]? For, ‘The two,’ says he [in the creation account of Genesis 2:24], ‘will be one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee from fornication. Every other sin which a man may commit is outside his body, but he that practices fornication is sinning against his own body.”—1 Cor. 6:15-18.

31. To doing what with members of his spiritual body would Christ not consent, and what death-dealing consequences may there be to sinning immorally against one’s own flesh?

³¹ So if a member of Christ’s spiritual body commits immorality with one of the opposite sex, man or woman, that one is trying to take a member of Christ’s body and make it one flesh with the immoral person in fornication or adultery. Do you think that Christ Jesus will consent to being made one with a harlot or an adulteress? Not for a moment! One cannot be one flesh with a morally unclean person and at the same time “one spirit” with the Lord Jesus Christ. By sexually making oneself one flesh with the morally filthy, one is sinning against one’s own flesh. One’s impure, illegal fleshly union may possibly result in contracting a horrible disease and in other death-dealing consequences to the flesh. This may include the Christian congregation’s handing over the immoral member to Satan “for the destruction of the flesh,” in order that the spirit of the clean congregation may be saved in the day of the Lord. That is what Paul did with an incestuous member of the congregation of Corinth in his day. “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves,” the apostle authoritatively ordered.—1 Cor. 5:4, 13.

32. Similarly, even if one is a dedicated person but not of Christ’s “body,” what should one think of before committing immorality, and what does the New World society become obliged to do toward the immoral?

³² Even if you are not a member of the spiritual “body of Christ” but are dedicated to God in hope of his new world of righteousness, then think of what you are before indulging in immorality. Think of making your flesh, flesh belonging to the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses, “one flesh” with an immoral person! Does the New World society consent to your making it “one flesh” or one unit with the fornicator or adulterous person? Not for a moment! If you have no respect for it and its good name, God’s spirit will not let it have any respect for you in your immorality. It cannot count you one of it, for you bring reproach on it and on the God whose name it bears; and thus you are a stumbling block to others.

33. For whom is this something to think about seriously, and in what way should we not want to learn the consequences of immorality?

³³ This is something for missionary girls to think of seriously in their foreign assignments, when they are ardently pursued by smoothly operating native boys or men who put on a front of interest in the Bible message borne by the missionary girl and then try them out with improper suggestive advances, to soften them up. This is something to think about for dedicated Christian young people who are coming into marriageable years and who may be dreaming of happy, successful marriage under God’s blessing either before or after the battle of Armageddon. This is something for all dedicated members of the New World society to think about in this degraded, immoral world of temptation, in which we are under obligation to keep moral integrity to God. Do not try to learn “the hard way.”

34. Hence what prayer of the psalmist do we feel moved to offer?

³⁴ As we reflect on the seriousness of the matter, we feel moved to offer the prayer offered by the psalmist after he had committed a grievous moral mistake: “Create in me even a pure heart, O God, and put within me a new spirit, a steadfast one.”—Ps. 51:10.

Marrying in Honor

1. What question has recently been raised as to the arranging of marriage, and in view of what marital facts?

THE question has recently been raised, Are better results gained in marriage when the parents of the couple arrange for the marriage of their children, as in India today and as in Israel anciently, than when sons and daughters pick their own mates? For instance, in India divorce is almost unknown. In the United States of America in which the boyish little “Cupid,” the son of Venus, is said to arrange marriages, one fourth of all marriages end in legal divorce, not to mention separations legal or otherwise.

2. As to imposing marriage arrangements of one land upon Christians in other lands, what must be said in the light of Scriptural examples?

² What may we say regarding dedicated Christians? We cannot say that the standards for marriage arrangements that obtain in the United States and European lands must be imposed on dedicated Christians in other lands where different marriage customs prevail. Nothing in the Christian Greek Scriptures breaks up or forbids the customs of the Jews, from whom Jesus Christ and the first Christians came, for parents to arrange for marrying off their minor children. Why, Isaac was actually forty years old when his father Abraham, with whom Isaac kept living, procured a God-fearing bride for Isaac. Jacob, the son of Isaac, was seventy-seven years old when his blind father told him where to go and get his wife; whereas Jacob’s twin brother, Esau, at forty years of age, made his own marriage arrangements and undertook bigamy with heathen wives. Obedient Jacob, however, got the Abrahamic blessing through Isaac.

3. As regards parents, what did Paul not advise children, and what right did he not deny to Christian parents regarding marriage?

³ In giving marriage advice, the apostle Paul did not tell children to disregard parents. He did say: “Now I say to the single persons and the widows, it is well for them that they remain even as I am. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry.” (1 Cor. 7:8, 9) Remember, widows were independent persons as regards marriage arrangements. For their sake Paul added: “It is better to marry than to be inflamed with passion” and plunge into fornication. Hence, concerning the “younger widows” in the Christian congregation he said: “When their sexual impulses have come between them and the Christ, they want to marry, having a judgment because they have disregarded their first expression of faith [by letting sexual impulses control and get between them and Christ]. At the same time they also learn to be unoccupied, gadding about to the houses, yes, not only unoccupied, but also gossipers and meddlers in other people’s affairs, talking of things they ought not. Therefore I desire the younger widows to marry, to bear children, to manage a household, to give no inducement to the opposer to revile. Already, in fact, some have been turned aside to follow Satan.” (1 Tim. 5:11-15) Apart from that case of widows who were not under parental law, Paul did not say that as Christians the parents, Jewish or Greek, no longer had the right to make the marriage choice and arrangements for their minor children.

4. However, while exercising their right, yet by what principles should Christian parents be controlled, in order to safeguard what?

⁴ Nevertheless, in exercising their right according to local custom and law to select marriage mates for sons and daughters, parents who are dedicated to God through Christ should be controlled by Christian principles. Bow to God’s rule, like Abraham. He safeguarded the spiritual welfare of his son as heir of the Abrahamic promise by picking a worshiper of Jehovah God as a wife for Isaac. Thus he did not burden Isaac with an unequal yoke.

5. (a) In insisting upon his father’s arranging a Philistine marriage for him, why did Samson not violate God’s marriage rules? (b) How through improper exercise of his right may a Christian father prove himself unqualified for the congregation oversight?

⁵ In turn, Isaac warned his God-fearing son Jacob against marrying an unbelieving heatheness and sent him to grandfather Bethuel’s home for a bride. Strong man Samson insisted that his objecting father Manoah marry him to a heathenish Philistine woman because Samson wanted to get right on the inside of the Philistine organization in order to execute divine vengeance upon these oppressors; so that “that was from Jehovah.” (Judg. 14:1-4) Hence it was not sex that controlled Samson, but God’s stated purpose that “he it is who will take the lead in saving Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” (Judg. 13:5) Christian parents, who adhere to their local, native right to arrange marriages, are therefore obligated to marry their children only to dedicated Christians within Jehovah’s theocratic organization, thus putting these under an equal yoke, a theocratic marital yoke. In what other way could fathers keep from irritating their children and keep “bringing them up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah”? (Eph. 6:4) Certainly a Christian father who unequally yokes his believing son or daughter to an undedicated unbeliever would be showing himself very immature in Christian principles, a man seeking some selfish, materialistic gain, a poor presider over his own household and a man unsuitable to be entrusted with oversight over a Christian congregation.—1 Tim. 3:2-5; 2 Cor. 6:14-16; 7:1.

6. How may this parental right impose a serious problem for a dedicated child, and how in this connection could a dedicated child suffer persecution from a divided household?

⁶ The exercise of the parental right of arranging marriages may impose a serious problem for some children. This is in the case of where the father or legal guardian is not a dedicated witness of Jehovah, whereas the son or daughter is dedicated to Jehovah. If the father or guardian did not respect the child’s dedication to Jehovah and purposed to marry the child off to one who is not a dedicated member of the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses, then the dedicated son or daughter could offer objections. Explanation could be offered that it is contrary to the law and will of Jehovah God for a dedicated witness of Jehovah to marry an undedicated unbeliever. At least, the respectful child could earnestly request for the parent to find the marriage mate among the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. If the child conscientiously refused to be married to an undedicated unbeliever, persecution might arise from the family. But the faithful Christian would be suffering such persecution from a divided household for the sake of conscience.—Matt. 10:34-37; 1 Pet. 2:19.

7. Where freedom to pick a mate is granted a Christian child, how much of a freedom is it, and how does it become a safe freedom?

⁷ Where the selection of a mate is allowed to a son or daughter by the parents, then the dedicated Christian son or daughter is under apostolic instructions to marry the mate wanted, but “only in the Lord,” that is, only someone in union with the Lord, like oneself. (1 Cor. 7:39; marginal reading) Thus the freedom to pick a mate for a dedicated witness of Jehovah is a relative freedom. This is a safe freedom; it makes for peace and happiness, as it makes for equality religiously between the couple in the marriage yoke.

8. By marrying “only in the Lord,” what does a child show for Christian parents, and thus what does he avoid causing?

⁸ If the parents themselves are dedicated Christians, then a child would be following the apostle’s instruction to honor one’s father and mother who are in union with the Lord, by respecting their theocratic desire for their children to marry only in the Lord, inside of what is approved by the Lord. (Eph. 6:1-3) In this way the child marrying in the Lord causes no “bitterness of spirit” or “disgust” with family connections, such as Esau caused to his parents Isaac and Rebekah, because he profanely did not ‘appreciate sacred things.’—Gen. 26:34, 35; 27:46; 28:1; Heb. 12:16, 17.

9. If marriage is honorable among Christians, what inward reaction should a married one not have, and where should notation of marriage properly be filed?

⁹ Writing to Hebrew Christians, the apostle Paul said: “Let marriage be honorable among all.” (Heb. 13:4) If one’s marriage is honorable among Hebrew Christians and among all other dedicated witnesses of Jehovah, how can there be anything to be ashamed of for being married? There cannot be; there should not be. One’s marriage state should therefore be noted down and the notation of it should be kept in the official files of the congregation with which the married person is associated as a member.

10. (a) What is consensual marriage, and in lands where it is widely practiced can it be registered in the congregation files as a legal living together? (b) What does the Bible name it?

¹⁰ Can all couples who are living together as a legal husband and wife do, have their living together in this way recorded as marriage in the files of the congregation? No; they cannot, if they are living together in what is not legal Christian wedlock. In some lands a man and a woman will consent to live together in the closest intimacy like a man and wife, but without legal authorization or registration. This is what is locally called “consensual marriage.” While this is tolerated locally and may gain neighborhood recognition, yet God’s Word frankly names it fornication, or adultery if either one of this type of union is already married and not divorced on proper grounds.

11. Why is so-called common-law marriage not the correct status for a Christian to be in?

¹¹ In other lands there is carried on what is called “common-law marriage.” It is a marriage that is entered into by agreement by a couple without official marriage ceremony by an authorized servant of the State, but which marriage is provable by the writings, statements or known conduct of the couple. In some states or provinces of a land such common-law marriage is legal; in other states of the same land it may not be legal. If a couple moved from one state in which it is legal to another state in which it is not legal, some there might view them as guilty of fornication or of adultery, even if visiting temporarily at a convention. Thus in all places of the same land the couple might not have the same respectability and recognition. Legal troubles may arise over willing property to children by common-law marriage, and so forth. Surely that is not the irreproachable status for a Christian to be in.

THE NEED FOR LEGALIZING MARRIAGE

12. Why cannot the Christian congregation admit those living in consensual and common-law marriage, and before those living in such a marriage can be admitted to water baptism, what is required?

¹² Since God’s Word condemns fornication and adultery, his congregation of dedicated people on earth cannot recognize couples living in consensual marriage. It cannot admit them as members in good standing and as representatives of the congregation. As for common-law marriage, this has such an uncertain position because it is not universally recognized and approved, so that the New World society cannot consider common-law marriage couples as persons acceptable for baptism in symbol of a true, valid dedication to God through Christ. Before they could be considered as acceptably dedicated to God and worthy of being baptized in water, it is required that those living together in common-law marriage legalize it by an official marriage ceremony performed by some licensed or authorized representative of the State, before the necessary witnesses. For those living in consensual marriage the same requirement of legality becomes necessary, if they are to come out of their state of fornication or of adultery from the standpoint of God’s Word. The provisions set out on page 573, paragraph 20, of the September 15, 1956, Watchtower are a merciful concession, and we still allow that arrangement.

13. By legal marriage what do those formerly living in consensual and in common-law marriage accomplish for the general good, and where may their marriage be put on record?

¹³ By legal marriage, before witnesses, the couple solemnly express their vows to each other and take upon themselves all binding obligations of marriage. They also provide their children with a proper standing and with legal privileges and rights according to God’s law and the law of the State. Having thus given an honorable position to their union as man and wife and cleaned up morally, they can dedicate to God and procure a standing in his New World society in which marriage must be held in honor and the marriage bed be without defilement, inasmuch as “God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” Under such honorable circumstances their marriage can be put on record with the State and also be put on record in the files of the congregation with which they meet and preach.

14. In this relation, why did Jesus not have to be ashamed of his earthly parents and of his ancestors, and why could the angels not be ashamed to testify of his birth?

¹⁴ The marriage of Jesus’ earthly parents and of his ancestors was recorded in the village office of records. That is why we know that, according to the flesh, Jesus was really the Messiah, the son of Abraham and the son of King David; and that he was thus legally entitled to be their heir of the promise that Jehovah God made with Abraham and also the heir of the covenant of everlasting kingship that God made with King David. This was true both indirectly through his foster father Joseph and directly through his earthly mother Mary. That is how the apostle Matthew could get the genealogical record of Joseph’s family tree, and Luke could get the record of Mary’s family tree. The marriages of Jesus’ earthly ancestors were honorable and were made a matter of public record and legal confirmation. Jesus had nothing to be ashamed of in this regard. Angels of heaven were not ashamed to testify of his birth in Bethlehem. We, as followers and imitators of Jesus Christ, and as associates of the congregation of which he is the Head, should be just as honorable in marriage as were his ancestors.

15. What must be said as to Joseph’s sexual relations with Mary? and what for a time did he think her guilty of, deserving putting her away?

¹⁵ Mary was promised in marriage to the carpenter Joseph, who was to become the foster father of her son. But during the time of their being affianced or engaged to marry, Joseph had no sexual relations with his betrothed Mary. He did not even have them after he obeyed the angel’s orders and took the pregnant Mary. He waited till she gave birth to Jesus. (Matt. 1:18-25) Because Mary’s pregnancy was miraculous, Joseph at first thought she had violated the honor of their marriage engagement. So he “intended to divorce her secretly,” because he “did not want to make her a public spectacle” through a stoning to death for moral unfaithfulness.

16. How did Jacob and Rachel make an honorable approach to marriage?

¹⁶ Joseph’s ancestor, the patriarch Jacob, had been betrothed to lovely Rachel for seven years. Yet during all this time in which he was working off his bride price, he had no sexual relations with her. Only at the end of the betrothal time did he ask her father Laban for her, that they might be formally married and he might honorably have relations with her. Thus Jacob and Rachel made an honorable approach to their marriage.—Gen. 29:20-30.

17. What does a couple’s having sexual relations during the engagement to marry constitute Scripturally, and how may a congregation penalize them for this?

¹⁷ Today when Jehovah’s dedicated witnesses get engaged to marry, they may have no sexual intercourse with each other before they are formally married before witnesses and properly registered as married. If they do not exercise self-control but excite themselves when alone, unobserved, and yield to passion and have sexual union, they commit fornication. Their being engaged to marry does not excuse the act or lift it out of the realm of immorality, fornication. For such uncleanness they can be expelled from the Christian congregation. A Christian minister is within his conscientious right in refusing to marry them, leaving them to be married by a civil servant of the State if they choose to go ahead and get married after they have been disfellowshiped and before they are reinstated in the congregation.

18. Before marriage and to make it a happy one, what should couples straightforwardly inform themselves about with respect to each other?

¹⁸ To insure a happy marriage, couples should learn to know each other well. Each one should learn whether the other is Scripturally free to marry, or to remarry. Each should know, too, whether the other is physically fit to marry and to pay the marriage dues without danger but with pleasure and with certain desired results. If the parents of the couple do not make the marriage arrangements or do the proper investigating, then the engaged couple will have to do it themselves, frankly, without shame, seriously. It is only proper to submit to blood tests and other medical examination required before marriage and the obtaining of the marriage license.

19. Why should couples learn the facts the one about the other before determining to marry, and what true life example shows the urgency of this course?

¹⁹ Take nothing for granted. Learn the facts. Then there will be no horror, instead of ecstasy, on the marriage night or afterward, as when a Latin-American girl, dedicated to God, married under the encouragement of a knowing friend of the bridegroom. Too late she was shocked to find she had married an unreported leper. The leprous man did not show Christian love in concealing his loathsome disease. The friend of the bridegroom did not show brotherly love in conniving at the marriage and leaving the innocent girl ignorant. When the matter was referred to the Watch Tower Society in behalf of the unhappily married girl, there was nothing the Society could do to relieve her of the terrible consequences of her failing to investigate first before marriage and then to make an intelligent decision. Quite unfortunate this, since sickness and disease are not Scriptural grounds for a divorce that frees one to remarry without incurring adultery! Such a blind, ignorant approach to marriage makes for no peace in marriage.

20. Under what circumstances does entering into marriage have its rewarding blessings, and what is the best guidebook for married couples?

²⁰ When a Christian approaches marriage properly informed and with honorable conduct and then enters into it honorably, the marriage has its rewarding joys, privileges and blessings. It honors God, the heavenly Founder of marriage. But more discussion on this and on the weighty, dignified responsibilities of honorable marriage, we leave for succeeding articles to offer according to the Bible, the best guidebook for married persons.

The Sea of Galilee

FIGURING prominently in the earthly ministry of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was the beautiful sea of Galilee. It was also known as the “sea of Tiberias” because Herod Antipas had built his capital by that name, in honor of Caesar Tiberias, on its shores. In the time of Moses it was called the “sea of Chinnereth.” The Maccabees changed its name to the “sea of Gennesareth” after the exceedingly fruitful adjoining plain by that name. The learned and much-traveled physician Luke never refers to it in his writings as a sea but merely as a lake, which is what it was, the “lake of Gennesaret.”—Matt. 4:12, 13; John 6:1; Num. 34:11; Luke 5:1.

The sea of Galilee is a pear-shaped oval, some twelve to fourteen miles long and about eight miles wide. The province of Galilee lay to the west and north of it and Perea to the east, across the Jordan, and to the south of it. Its surface lies some seven hundred feet below that of the Mediterranean Sea and it has a depth between 150 and 200 feet. The Jordan River flows through it from the Lebanon mountains on the north to its destination, the Dead Sea. Due to the hills on the east and west sides of the sea of Galilee, great winds from the mountains in the north sweep down upon it, causing violent storms.

Just as many a beautiful island is a gem of green in a setting of blue, so the sea of Galilee is an aquamarine gem in a setting of verdant green. Well is it termed the “Lake of Blue.” The Jews of Jesus’ day called it “the entrance to Paradise,” while the Talmud refers to it as the “crown of Galilee.” The climate of its coasts left nothing to be desired; spring came early and frost was unknown. It was a favorite summer resort for the Romans.

In Jesus’ day the sea of Galilee supported a prolific fishing industry, remarkable for both the quantity and the quality of its fish. These were distinctive in appearance and taste, according to Josephus the historian, who was governor of Galilee after the death of Jesus Christ. The sea also supported a shipping industry—230 vessels of various sizes.

A goodly number of cities dotted its coastlands, including Galilee’s largest and Jesus’ home town after he began his ministry, Capernaum; Chorazin, a health resort; Tiberias, the capital; Magdala, the home of Mary Magdalene; and Bethsaida, the name of which means “house of fishing.”—Matt. 11:20-24; John 6:23; Matt. 15:39.

It was on the shores of this sea of Galilee that Jesus began his ministry and recruited his first four disciples. On at least two occasions Jesus calmed the violent storms that blew up upon its waters. It was into it that a herd of swine hurtled after a legion of demons entered into them. Upon it Jesus also taught from a boat, because of the press of crowds; at the time giving, among other things, his illustration of the sower.—Matt. 4:18-22; 8:24-27; 13:1-8.

It was also upon the surface of this sea of Galilee that Jesus once walked to rejoin his disciples when a storm arose in the middle of the night; and upon which Peter took a few timid steps, only to begin to sink because of his lack of faith. It was also in this sea that Peter, at Jesus’ command, caught a fish in whose mouth Peter found a silver coin with which to pay the temple tax. And finally, it was here after his resurrection that Jesus met his disciples and gave Peter his threefold commission to feed his sheep.—Matt. 14:24-31; 15:29; 17:27; John 21:1-17.

Truly the sea of Galilee was unique in beauty and wealth and particularly in its associations with Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Pursuing My Purpose in Life

As told by W. B. Akin

AT THE turn of the century Daniel Roy Akin, colporteur for the Watch Tower Society, called at the post office in Key West, Florida, for his mail, and a pleasant young lady waited on him. Shortly thereafter she became Daniel Akin’s wife, and together as dedicated Christians they traveled throughout the State of Florida distributing the Watch Tower publications and establishing Bible classes in various cities, one of which was Tampa. There was plenty of work to do here, and the Akins stayed until the group was more firmly established. Their first child was born in Tampa in 1905, and two years later, while the family was taking care of an assignment in Knoxville, Tennessee, I was born.

My father died when I was nine, but I can still remember his Scriptural counsel to us children, and without doubt this early training and example of dedicated parents during my formative years had much to do with my deciding on pursuing a purpose in life that would please Jehovah. When I was thirteen my mother sent me to live on the farm of Marie Newsom, a faithful and devoted sister, and there I received more good discipline and training in work and the Bible. At a very tender age I used to revel in the accounts of David, Moses, Abraham and other faithful men of old, and to me these valiant fighters for truth seemed to be much more worth emulating than political figures who were always looking for personal glory and praise from their subjects.

1928, A MILESTONE

In 1923, at the age of sixteen, I attended a convention of the International Bible Students in Jacksonville, Florida, and it was during that convention I decided to dedicate my life to Jehovah and his service. The talk by Brother Rutherford on “The Pounds and the Talents,” which later was published in The Watchtower, made me see clearly my duty to my Creator. I was baptized shortly after the convention and began to make plans right away to enter the colporteur work, as the pioneer work was called then. Although I had to postpone this for five years due to family obligations, on March 1, 1928, I sent for my pioneer application blank, and was able to start later that year to pursue my purpose in life as a full-time pioneer minister.

The big convention of 1928 was to be held in Detroit, and I planned to go from there to my territory immediately afterward. I was very fortunate to have been invited by a faithful pioneer couple, F. F. and Carrie Green, to join them in the work in Augusta, Georgia. What a wonderful feeling it was to wake up in the morning and realize that at long last I actually had only one thing to do—preach the good news of Jehovah’s kingdom! My dream had come true!

Yes, 1928 was a very happy year for me, as I was not only able to start out to fulfill my purpose in life as a pioneer minister, but I also found a life partner. The girl of my choice also entered the pioneer service the same year, and we were married in December. So Christine and I have shared the same happy experiences for these thirty-two years—years filled with theocratic activity and happiness. Would you like to follow us on some of our travels and share our experiences?

EARLY PIONEER SERVICE

From 1928 until 1937 we worked our territory by counties, which meant visiting all the homes in the towns and cities as well as the last house at the end of the country trail. During this nine-year period, along with other pioneers, we worked about forty counties in Georgia, South Carolina and western North Carolina, leaving thousands of books and Bibles in the homes of the people. The work was not organized as it is today; it consisted principally of leaving literature with those of good will and then moving on to new territory. However, some back-calling was done and it was gratifying to learn of a new congregation springing up here and there.

Our lives were full of privileges and blessings before 1937, but we were in for some agreeable surprises beginning with that year. We had often spoken of the crying need for more workers in the field to take care of the great crowd of goodwill people who took the books but were left without anyone to teach them. How would all these thousands be taken care of? Jehovah must have heard the prayers of his people, and he faithfully began to answer them. Beginning in the fall of 1937 hundreds of pioneers were given special assignments to work in densely populated areas. Our assignment was Trenton, New Jersey. What a change from placing books and moving on! Now we could call back on all interested persons. The real ingathering work was under way!

THE ZONE WORK

The next step forward was strengthening the congregations through the zone work, and Jehovah graciously gave us part in this activity also. Our first assignment was Zone No. 1 in New Jersey. It was gratifying to see the publishers respond to organization instructions and increase their activity and efficiency as preachers of the good news. Visiting and living with so many devoted servants of Jehovah during this work was a pleasure never to be forgotten. There was never a dull moment either, because of the opposition to the work. Arrests, court trials, children being expelled from school because of the flag-salute issue—all were the order of the day in the territory of Jersey City’s “I am the law” Mayor Hague. But Jehovah gave us the victory, and the truth was only given wider publicity because of the opposition.

Now came 1939 and World War II. We heard the news over the radio in our trailer in Newark, New Jersey. How would this world-shaking event affect the ingathering work? Would it be slowed down? Jehovah’s answer was rather to step up the pace, as the report for these war years shows.

Does it pay to encourage the brothers to increase their service privileges by entering the full-time pioneer service? Consider this experience: While visiting a small congregation in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, we stayed with the congregation servant, Oscar Suess, who was doing well financially, living in a very comfortable two-bathroom house, but he had very little time for Kingdom preaching. The suggestion was made that probably the Society’s pioneer letter was meant for him also. What? Try to pioneer with a family—a wife and two young boys? Within a few months the Suess family was happily located in their pioneer assignment with us, and from there the brother’s service privileges increased to being a traveling representative of the Society. Now, nineteen years later, he is still going strong. At every convention after that when they would see us, he and his wife would throw their arms around us and thank us for giving them the necessary boost into the pioneer work just when we did.

The zone work ended in 1941, and we were assigned to Bristol, Pennsylvania, as special pioneers; then, later, on to Rahway, New Jersey. There I placed a book with the mother of a family, but after a couple of return visits I stopped calling because of lack of interest. Eight years later I received a letter from a young married sister living in Washington, D.C., then a pioneer, asking if I remembered the circumstances of that back-call in Rahway and a teen-age girl who listened to my Bible sermons. She was the girl! Can you imagine my joy on receiving this letter?

GILEAD TRAINING

The spring of 1943. Our invitation to attend the second class of Gilead! What a privilege we had for five and a half months associating with so many of our devoted brothers, studying together and being trained for the real expansion work to be done in other lands! This edifying period was over only too soon, but thousands of hungry ones were waiting to be fed with the same rich food we had received at the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. Our assignment was Peru, South America, with six others, but it was not possible to enter the country right away.

In the meantime, an assignment to Woonsocket, Rhode Island. We were informed that this was hard territory, but earlier work had apparently done much to open the hearts of the people. We have never seen so many couples, yes, entire families come into the truth and become active in such a short while as when we were in Woonsocket. They have continued strong, and now have their own lovely Kingdom Hall.

Washington, D.C., was next. The war was finally coming to a close in 1945, and the Society already had its plans far advanced for helping the disillusioned peoples in Europe and other lands. This meant contacting the representatives of various governments in Washington to make arrangements for Watch Tower missionaries to enter their countries to organize the all-important work of giving spiritual aid and comfort to these mourning ones. Besides this, there were very pleasant overseer’s duties to be taken care of in the local congregation; so Washington was a most happy and interesting assignment.

ON TO PERU

Then came the big news! In the late summer of 1946 instructions came from Brooklyn for the eight of us to proceed to Miami, Florida, to board the plane leaving at midnight October 19 headed south for Peru. I am sure this was the biggest thrill of our lives—to be actually on our way to our foreign assignment! Peru is not such a big country, but there were only eight missionaries for eight million people. It looked like a tremendous responsibility for eight of us to feed all that multitude of humanity, but with faith that Jehovah would direct our efforts, we started to work. Can you think of anything more thrilling than having part in opening up the work in such a country?

It did not take long to get used to the language. We made a lot of mistakes at first, but the people were very kind and the sheep started coming in right away.

As depot servant it was a joy for me to send in those first small reports and then watch the steady growth, month by month, until the Branch was set up in 1949. The second congregation was formed the following year. During Brother Knorr’s visit in 1949, I asked when we could open up the work in outlying towns of the country, and the answer was, “Wait until we are stronger in the capital.” Wise counsel. In a few years a goodly number of the Peruvian brothers had reached sufficient maturity to be sent out as special pioneers; and these local brothers were, in great part, responsible for the 31-percent increase in number of publishers in Peru during 1959.

EXPERIENCES IN THE FIELD

We could really fill a book with the wonderful experiences we have enjoyed, but there is not one that thrills us more than the very first day’s work in this country. We started out with Bibles and books from door to door, using a printed card to present the message. At one door Christine met a lady who was very nice and who tried to tell her to go see her husband in his tailor shop, half a block away. Not being able to make Christine understand, she took her by the arm and led her to the tailor shop where her husband and four others were working. One took the book; the others were friendly but skeptical of “Protestants.” Another family met in the same block took the books. When the back-calls were made, studies were started with both families, and in a short time these two studies produced eleven publishers of the Kingdom. Three of them became pioneers, and one is now a special pioneer up in the Andes mountains. All of this grew from the first day’s work! The mother of the second family mentioned, Ana la Torre, could not read, but she became one of the most diligent publishers and was very efficient in citing and quoting scriptures in the door-to-door work. Her sincerity was contagious. Whenever she found real interest, she would ask me to make the back-call with her, and in this way she was instrumental in bringing many to the light of the truth. She died faithful, witnessing to the last.

When the exodus of the missionaries and other pioneers from the capital to the provinces began, we were sent to Chorrillos, another beautiful assignment right on the blue Pacific, very close to Lima. More sheep, more shepherding work, more joyful experiences! In three years a healthy congregation of twenty-five publishers had grown to some degree of maturity, and we were ready to be on the march again.

But before leaving Chorrillos I must tell you of another experience. My wife contacted a lady in door-to-door work who took the book “Let God Be True.” When she called back the following week, the door opened just a little and the lady told her very nervously that she could not let her in. She had taken the book to the priest to bless it, and he had taken it away from her, telling her that the missionary was bad, that she was infiltrating communism into the homes by means of the Bible, and that she should be thrown out of the house. Christine laughed and said, “But you can’t throw me out as long as I’m outside. Open up the door and let me in, and then you can do as the priest said and throw me out.” The door opened up, in walked the Witness and she stayed an hour. During the week the mother of the lady had died, and she listened attentively to the message about the dead. Finally she said, “Well, I’m back in the same place I was last week. I still want that book, but I don’t have the money now. But, wait! I’ve just thought of something.” She left the room and came back with some small envelopes with black borders. The priest had told her that she should tell her friends not to spend money on flowers for her dead mother, but to put that money into envelopes for him, and he would pray for the repose of her soul, and this would be a great comfort for the daughter. She took enough money out of one of the envelopes to pay for the book, saying, “I’m sure this book will bring me more comfort than the prayers of the priest.” She proved to be truly one of the Lord’s sheep, and today she is a happy and diligent publisher of the good news to others who are mourning.

April, 1957—on the move again! This time to a large fertile valley of Cañete, a hundred miles south of Lima. The whole coast of Peru is a desert, but wherever streams come down from the mountains to irrigate the rich soil it produces abundantly. On the extensive cotton farms thousands of peons work, earning on an average only 50 or 60 cents a day (U.S.), and on many of these farms if the worker changes his religion he is immediately booted out. The priests have almost complete control. Living in this atmosphere of fear and poverty, very few have the courage to take a stand for the truth, but we found many people of good will who in time will, no doubt, become strong enough to make the break for liberty and associate with the New World society. Before we left, a congregation of six publishers including three baptized brothers was formed, and we are confident that Jehovah will continue to bless their diligent efforts to find the “sheep.”

When we left Cañete in October, 1959, two Peruvian sisters, special pioneers, were assigned there to carry on where we left off. Christine had studied with one of these sisters, and I had found the other one eleven years before in Lima. They had advanced from congregation publishers to efficient pioneers, and now were given their first assignment as special pioneers to help the newly formed congregation at Cañete. Do you wonder that we enjoy our assignment here in Peru so much!

Now in 1960 our assignment is Tacna, a pretty little city on the Peruvian border, with Chile only a thirty-minute ride from us on the Pan-American highway. Looking to the northeast, we can see the rugged Andes mountains—the highest peaks covered with snow at this time of the year. The climate is very mild, with warm days and cool nights, and storms are unknown. The people are very pleasant to work with, kind, and unusually attentive to the Kingdom message. Already we have found a number who are favorably inclined toward righteousness and are making good progress in their studies.

With all these blessings, does it leave anything to be desired? Well, now, maybe there is just one thing. We cannot reach all the people here to take care of them as we would like to, and if some of you dear readers, dedicated to Jehovah, would come here with your families to help out where the need is great, our joy would be complete. We already have several devoted families here doing a very good work. They provide stability to the newly formed congregations and permit the pioneers to go out to more outlying districts. But more help is needed. There are about a thousand publishers now, but eight million people need to be taught the good news.

During this short visit, I have been able to sketch briefly only some of the high lights in our happy life as full-time servants of our God Jehovah. I could say much more of Jehovah’s loving protection and care in time of danger; his timely provision of necessary things along the way; the many friends we have made; the places we have seen; the blessed service privileges during assemblies and conventions—Toronto, Detroit, Columbus, Madison Square Garden, St. Louis, Yankee Stadium, and others. These sweet memories spur us on as we “follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” And we feel that the best is yet to come. The victory scene is much closer than when we started. Would not you too like to enjoy pioneer service privileges while the door is still open? You can!

Distinguishing Between God’s Congregation and His Kingdom

WHAT is God’s congregation? What is God’s kingdom? In what ways does the Bible distinguish between the two? For our answers let us go, not to the many conflicting opinions of theologians, Catholic and Protestant, but to God’s own Word, heeding the apostle’s advice: “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.”—Rom. 3:4.

When referring to God’s congregation, the Christian Greek Scripture writers employed the word ekklesía, from which comes our English word “ecclesia.” It, in turn, is derived from two Greek roots, ek, “out,” and kaleín, “to call.” It has the meaning of a group of persons, an assembly or a congregation, called out or called together, officially or unofficially.

Regarding ekklesía, the Imperial Bible Dictionary states: “The word ekklesía never, in the New Testament, signifies the actual building in which Christians assembled for public worship; the first mention of regular structures of that kind occurs long after the apostolic age.” This being so, it is better to render it “congregation” or “assembly,” as does the New World Translation, than “church,” as do most other English versions. To most persons “church” suggests a building for religious worship rather than the congregation engaging in worship.

The word ekklesía itself does not have a religious denotation, although it has come to have religious associations. The use of it for a secular assembly is found at Acts 19:29-41, where we read of an assembly of Ephesians called out or gathered together to protest the effect that the preaching of the apostle Paul and his companions had on shrine making.

It might be said that Noah and his family were God’s first ecclesia or congregation, for they certainly were called out or separated from their contemporaries, the wicked antediluvians, both by their pure worship of God and by their work in building the ark.

The first ones, however, to be specifically named an ecclesia or congregation in the Scriptures were the sons of Israel. Repeatedly the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures employs the term ekklesía to refer to this congregation, from the time of Moses onward. (Deut. 9:10) Thus also the psalmist David wrote: “In the middle of the congregation I shall praise you.” Luke used this same word in quoting Stephen’s reference to the nation of Israel in the wilderness: “This is he [Moses] that came to be among the congregation in the wilderness.”—Ps. 22:22; Acts 7:38.

Certainly the nation of Israel was an ekklesía, or congregation, for God, through Moses, did call them out of Egypt, even as he later said through his prophet: “When Israel was a boy, then I proceeded to love him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” In the Septuagint the word for “called” here comes from the same root as does ecclesia.—Hos. 11:1.

THE CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION OF GOD

The nation of Israel continued to be God’s assembly, ecclesia or congregation only until Pentecost, A.D. 33; thereafter God began to call out another congregation, the Christian congregation. The first ones to comprise it were called out from the rejected Jewish congregation, rejected because of its unfaithfulness in rejecting God’s Son and their Messiah. Beginning with Cornelius, members of this Christian congregation were also called out from the Gentile nations. Properly it is called the Christian congregation, for Jesus Christ spoke of it as “my congregation.” And fittingly he did so, for “Christ also loved the congregation and delivered up himself for it.” But, even more, it is “the congregation of God,” for it includes both Jesus and his body of footstep followers.—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 5:25; Acts 20:28; Gal. 1:13.

While the term ekklesía or congregation is never applied to a building, the Christian Greek Scripture writers used it in at least four different ways. First of all, the term is used to apply to the entire “congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens,” and which other scriptures show to be limited to 144,000. The term is also applied to all the called-out ones living at a certain time. Thus Paul admonishes Christians to “keep from becoming causes for stumbling to Jews as well as Greeks,” that is, outsiders, and “to the congregation of God.”—Heb. 12:23; 1 Cor. 10:32; Rev. 7:4; 14:1, 3.

All those called out or congregated as Christians in a certain geographical location are likewise referred to as a congregation: “the congregation which was in Jerusalem,” ‘the congregation that is in Corinth,’ the ‘congregation in Ephesus, in Smyrna, in Pergamum, in Thyatira, in Sardis, in Philadelphia and in Laodicea,’ and so forth. (Acts 8:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; Rev. 1:11) Not that these acted at all independently of one another. They all recognized the authority of the governing body at Jerusalem, which consisted of the apostles and other older men there. In the days of the apostles there were no rival sees or bishoprics such as later developed, with the pope of Rome at last winning out over the others.—Acts 15:22-41; 16:4, 5.

And finally, the term ekklesía is used to name a group of called-out ones that happened to meet regularly in a certain home. These too were termed a congregation: “Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, . . . and greet the congregation that is in their house.” Paul’s letter to Philemon is addressed, among others, “to the congregation that is in your house.”—Rom. 16:3-5; Philem. 2.

Today there is but a small remnant, some 13,000, of those that profess to belong to the “congregation of God.” These are scattered among 20,000 congregations in 176 different lands, being associated with some 800,000 active Christians who make no profession to being of those “who have been enrolled in the heavens.” These were termed by Jesus as his “other sheep” that are not of his heavenly fold and are described as “a great crowd, which no man was able to number, . . . standing before the throne [of God] and before the Lamb.” Since these manifest the same faith and works as do those belonging to the heavenly fold, these have come to be associated with the present “Christian congregation” on earth.—John 10:16; Rev. 7:9.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

What is the kingdom of God? According to popular Protestant theologians, it is “the organization of humanity through love.” These religious leaders claim that it is the duty of the Christian congregation to influence legislation in the interest of the laboring man and the oppressed races. They preach what they call “a social gospel,” and would in this way bring about the kingdom of God in the minds and hearts of men. However, such religious leaders err both as to what is the purpose or commission of the Christian congregation and what is the kingdom of God.

God’s commission to the Christian congregation ever since Pentecost is not to bring about the kingdom of God but is, first of all, to “bear witness to the truth” as did Jesus Christ. Why did God turn “his attention to the nations”? “To take out of them a people for his name.” Yes, these are ‘called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light for the express purpose of declaring abroad the excellencies of God.’ And secondly, God’s purpose for them is their sanctification, their preparing themselves for a place in the heavenly kingdom by faithfulness to their preaching commission and by following an upright course, thus conquering the world under Satan’s control. Jesus said: “To the one that conquers I will grant to sit down with me in my throne, even as I conquered and sat down with my Father in his throne.”—John 18:37; Acts 15:14; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 3:21.

As for the kingdom of God, it is a real government. Basileía is the word invariably rendered “kingdom” in the Christian Greek Scriptures. It is defined as “a kingdom, realm, the region or country governed by a king; kingly power, authority, dominion, reign; royal dignity, the title and honor of king.”

True, Jesus said: “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21, AV) However, he was here speaking to the Pharisees, whom he described as hypocrites and of their father the Devil. Surely God’s kingdom could not be in them. A better rendering reads: “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” He could say this because basileía also applies to the king of a kingdom, the “royal dignity.”—Luke 17:21; see also RS, AV, margin.

Jesus Christ commanded his followers to pray for God’s kingdom to come and coupled that petition with the one for God’s will to be done on earth. If the coming of God’s kingdom depends upon the professedly Christian congregations’ succeeding in causing God’s will to be done on earth it will never come, for there is more violation of God’s will on earth today than there ever was. The powers of wickedness are too strongly entrenched and selfishness is too strongly ingrained in the hearts of men for imperfect humans ever to succeed in bringing about God’s kingdom.

Concerning the wicked and oppressive nations of earth God says to his Son: “You will break them with an iron scepter, as though a potter’s vessel you will dash them to pieces.” God’s kingdom will “crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” Once the earth has been rid of wickedness all remaining inhabitants will learn righteousness, including those to be born and those raised from the dead. More than that, God’s kingdom will transform the entire earth into a paradise, and Christ will keep on reigning until all his enemies, including death itself, are destroyed. Then there will be no more tears, for “death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”—Ps. 2:9; Dan. 2:44; Rev. 21:4.

DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE TWO

While the Scriptures at times appear to use the expressions “congregation” and “kingdom” interchangeably, there are a number of distinctions between the two that we do well to note. Thus the Christian congregation is termed the offspring or “the sons of the kingdom,” but never is it spoken of as the sons of the congregation. “Kingdom” therefore is a far more inclusive term than is “congregation.” In fact, Jehovah God himself is the Source of the Kingdom, since he is also said to ‘give the kingdom.’ Besides, a kingdom has not only a royal family but also subjects and a domain.—Matt. 13:38; Rev. 11:17; Dan. 4:17, 25.

Then again, while the congregation of God began at Pentecost, fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that the kingdom of God began in 1914, after Jesus, likened to “a certain man of noble birth,” received his kingdom and returned. For nineteen centuries, therefore, the Christian congregation, present all along upon earth, has been praying for the coming of God’s kingdom. Those who have become impatient and have wanted to rule before God’s due time have seriously erred and lost out on the heavenly hope. There were such in Paul’s day, at Corinth, and they were severely reprimanded by that apostle. When we read that God has “transplanted us [those of the Christian congregation] into the kingdom of the Son of his love,” it therefore can only mean that their allegiance has been transferred, not that they are to rule while on earth.—Luke 19:12; 1 Cor. 4:8; Col. 1:13.

Further, we have noted that there were many congregations of Christians in early times, even as there are now, but there is ever only one Kingdom. At any time since Pentecost those called out to be members of the body of Christ were the Christian congregation, but these could not be spoken of as a kingdom. Also, the Christian congregation or ekklesía are called-out ones from the earth and in relation to the earth and are therefore primarily the Christian congregation while on earth. The Kingdom, however, is primarily a heavenly one and will be ruling from the heavens although extending its blessings to the earth.

We should not overlook the fact that membership in the Christian congregation precedes membership in God’s kingdom. One becomes a member of the congregation of God by taking certain steps, the steps of knowledge, faith, repentance, conversion and dedication and by God’s then consecrating such a one, begetting such a one with his holy spirit to a heavenly hope. But membership in the kingdom of God comes only after having proved faithful: “We must enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations.” And, finally, some day the Christian congregation on earth will end, when its last members have died and been raised in the first resurrection. The kingdom of God, however, will never end.—Acts 14:22; Isa. 9:7; Luke 1:33.

Thus we have had clearly brought to our attention what is God’s congregation, ekklesía or called-out ones, what is God’s kingdom, the basileía, and that, while these two involve each other, there are many respects in which we must distinguish between the two.

Dedication at Brooklyn Bethel

“THIS is the time to expand!” These were the thrilling words of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, on Monday evening, October 10, 1960, at the dedication of the new Bethel building in Brooklyn, New York. “This new twelve-story building,” said Brother Knorr, “is an indication of Jehovah’s blessing on his organization.”

Assembled in the beautiful Kingdom Hall of the new building were 630 persons, the Brooklyn Bethel family, together with other brothers who had worked on the new structure. “The beauty of this building is because of your hands,” said Brother Knorr; for while a construction company had been hired to do much of the work, these brothers had done the cleaning, painting, tile laying and other work to make the building truly a marvel of beauty. Yes, they had had a large share in the work, thereby saving considerable expense and ensuring a better-quality building.

“This organization is growing,” Brother Knorr emphatically stated, and the new building is really necessary. In 1950 there were just 355 members of the Bethel family; in 1955 there were 445; now in 1960 there are 607 members of the headquarters family, and the housing facilities have been overcrowded.

CONSTRUCTION FEATURES

Relating some facts about the new building, Brother Knorr told how demolition of the buildings on the site began December 8, 1958, and was completed by April 8, 1959. On May 21, 1959, the first concrete was poured—12,658 tons of it being used, reinforced by 472 tons of steel, and some 230,000 bricks were used on the outside of the building. One of the unusual features of the building is the tunnel connecting the new building with the Bethel home at 124 Columbia Heights.

The new building is in the shape of an L, the long part of the L running from Columbia Heights along Orange Street to Willow Street. The short side of the L runs along Willow Street. The first two floors of the building are enclosed in marble and glass, and it is this area that will be used for offices and school facilities.

Discussing a delightful feature of the new building, Brother Knorr told about the yard and gardens. Facing Columbia Heights and flanking two wrought-iron gates are two entrance piers made of brick, the piers supporting on the outside a wrought-iron fence. To enter the building one walks past the entrance piers down a blue flagstone path. In the center of the yard, which is 125 feet long and 44 feet wide, is a pool made of blue ceramic tile. The yard “will become a beautiful garden, a miniature forest,” said Brother Knorr. Besides numerous flower beds there will be trees of many kinds, such as white birch, spruce, sugar maple and a Korean cherry tree.

SCHOOL FACILITIES

The new building will house the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, which, Brother Knorr explained, is being transferred to Bethel. Located on the second floor of the new building, along Willow Street, are four beautiful classrooms. On the same floor, facing the yard, is a spacious lecture room, where the entire student body may assemble. Immediately above this on the third floor is the school’s library of six sections with a lounge. On the third, fourth and fifth floors are rooms for the students.

Starting October 17, the Society’s president explained, circuit and district servants from the United States and Canada are being called to the school here in Brooklyn so that all of them can be given the Kingdom Ministry School course, which is now being given congregation servants at the Kingdom Ministry School in South Lansing. Then about January 1, 1961, students will begin coming from the ends of the earth, about one hundred of them every year, for a new school course at the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. Though they will stay about a year at Bethel, the actual Gilead School course will take ten months. They will be so trained that any of them can step into one of the Society’s Branches and do whatever work is needed. Besides the regular classroom courses, there will be practical training in the Society’s offices and factory and home.

One of the things the Bethel family had wondered about is where this rapidly expanding family would eat, the present dining room being overcrowded. Brother Knorr explained that the Kingdom Hall located at 136 Columbia Heights would be transformed into another dining room.

Brother Knorr’s talk about the new building and the expanding New World society was most encouraging to all present. “We are very grateful to Jehovah God for this building,” said the Society’s president in closing; and in prayer he thanked Jehovah God for the building and blessings experienced this day. The Bethel family was especially appreciative of the arrangements made by the Society for this occasion, including a tour of the factory and the new home and a special meal for those working at Bethel.

SYMPOSIUM OF SPEAKERS

Before Brother Knorr’s dedication address, it was the pleasure of all in attendance to hear a symposium of three speakers from the Bethel family. First to mount the platform, after song and prayer, was A. H. Macmillan, who has been associated with the Society since 1900. Brother Macmillan related that fifty-one years ago the Society had moved from Allegheny, Pennsylvania, to Brooklyn when there were only thirty members in the headquarters family. What a contrast with now! Brother Macmillan stressed the training that Jehovah God is now giving his people. The new building, he said, has been put up for a training work, training that will be carried on into the new world. Referring to his many years as a special representative of the Society, Brother Macmillan said in appreciation of his privileges: “If I had my sixty years of service to do over again, I would work harder, more diligently.”

The Society’s secretary-treasurer, Grant Suiter, followed Brother Macmillan. Brother Suiter spoke on the subject of financing the Society’s buildings over the years. He stressed the fact that the Society’s buildings have always been financed within the New World society. He explained that worldly banks and institutions had offered loans to the Society, but such loans have never been necessary because the brothers have responded so well with gifts and loans. The financing of the Society’s buildings has always been done by Jehovah’s witnesses.

The Society’s vice-president, F. W. Franz, spoke next. “Isn’t this a curious contrast?” he opened. “Here we are on Willow Street and we just sang one of the songs of Zion. Thank God, however, we are not beside the rivers of Babylon and that we have not hung up our harps on the willows there! We are on Willow Street, but we have begun to sing the songs of Zion as a free people, testifying to the loving-kindness of Jehovah God.”—Ps. 137:1-4, AV.

Referring to the expansion of Jehovah’s organization, Brother Franz said: “This place is a symbol of the whole world-wide situation,” one of expansion and glory. The new building, Brother Franz said, is “gloriously beautiful,” reminding us of the psalmist’s words: that everyone in Jehovah’s temple would speak his glory. The new Kingdom Hall, with a capacity of about 750 persons, has a cheerful atmosphere, befitting the New World society. The hall’s richness is enhanced by walnut veneer on all sides and a platform at the north end in the shape of a semicircle that is decorated with two places for live plants.

Referring to the two Bethel buildings, Brother Franz said: “They are not just dormitories; they are working buildings dedicated to the purpose of education. This is the grandest educational institution in all the earth.”

The Society’s president followed with the main dedication address, the entire program taking two hours and a half. After Brother Knorr’s closing prayer, there was an intermission of ten minutes; and then at 10:25 p.m. the Bethel family inaugurated the regular use of the Kingdom Hall by means of their usual Monday evening Watchtower study. It was a most happy day for the Brooklyn Bethel family, and the dedication at Brooklyn Bethel underscores Brother Knorr’s words that “this is the time to expand!”

Questions From Readers

● What stand should children of dedicated Christian parents take in regard to their school’s holiday art activities? What about the Christmas program with its singing of Christmas songs? What about schoolroom birthday celebrations?—M. C., United States.

During a holiday season all students in a school classroom may be required to color or draw pictures relating to that particular holiday. It is part of a classroom assignment, and by simply drawing or coloring the pictures the young student is not indicating that he is commemorating the holiday or is viewing it as of any importance. He is only fulfilling a school assignment, and his skill is being tested and trained. So, since it is a matter of skill and a classroom assignment, the child of dedicated parents may fulfill such an assignment.

However, taking part in holiday parties or celebrations, which are not educational but primarily recreational, is something else. Such holidays as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day and Easter have their roots in paganism. The Christian Greek Scripture writers do not mention any of such celebrations. Regarding them the words of the apostle Paul apply: “I say that the things which the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers with the demons. You cannot be drinking the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons; you cannot be partaking of ‘the table of Jehovah’ and the table of demons. Or ‘are we inciting Jehovah to jealousy’? We are not stronger than he is, are we?” “What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever? And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols?”—1 Cor. 10:20-22; 2 Cor. 6:15, 16.

As for birthday celebrations. It is indeed singular, to say the least, that although we have record of birthdays being celebrated as far back as ancient Egypt, we do not know the birthday of Jesus or of any of his apostles. Clearly, the implication is that Jehovah God does not want us to celebrate any of these birthdays, or he would have had them recorded. In his Word only two birthday celebrations are mentioned, both of godless kings, and in each instance an execution was involved: of Pharaoh’s chief baker and of John the Baptist. (Gen. 40:20-22; Matt. 14:6-10) Even the Jews in those days “regarded birthday celebrations as part of idolatrous worship,” and this, no doubt, “on account of the idolatrous rites with which they were observed in honor of those who were regarded as the patron gods of the day on which the party was born.”—McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopœdia.

Children of dedicated Christian parents should therefore not take part in celebrating such holidays or birthdays. This would include nationalistic holidays as well as those partly or wholly of pagan origin. The children themselves can present these facts to their schoolteachers; by their thus witnessing they show that they have firm Christian convictions though young in years. But if the children are unable to do so properly, then, by all means, one of their parents should arrange to have them excused on the principle of conscience and freedom of worship.—Ps. 8:2; Prov. 22:6.

Announcements

1961 YEARBOOK AND CALENDAR

The new 1961 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses is now available. It contains the president’s report of Jehovah’s witnesses’ activity for the year 1960. Obtain your copy for 50c. Also available is the 1961 calendar for 25c. Order now.

FIELD MINISTRY

Exercising practical wisdom in a doomed world calls for separateness from old-world aims and activities, and wholehearted devotion to New World activities. Throughout November such New World activities will include offering the Bible-study aids From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained and “Let God Be True,” along with two booklets, for $1.25.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

December 18: Upholding the Honorableness of Marriage, ¶1-26. Page 677.

December 25: Upholding the Honorableness of Marriage, ¶27-34, and Marrying in Honor. Page 683.