Published Semimonthly By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY 117 Adams Street -   - Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S A

Officers

N. H. Knobb, President           W. E. Van Ambubgh, Secretary

“And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” - Isaiah 54:13.

THE SCRIPTURES CLEARLY TEACH

THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God and Is from everlasting to everlasting, the Maker of heaven and earth and the Giver of life to his creatures; that the Logos was the beginning of his creation, and his active agent In the creation of all other things, and is now the Lord Jesus Christ In glory, clothed with all power in heaven and earth, as the Chief Executive Officer of Jehovah;

THAT GOD created the earth for man, created perfect man for the earth and placed him upon it; that man willfully disobeyed God’s law and was sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam’s wrong act all men are born sinners and without the right to life;

THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for obedient ones of mankind; that God raised up Jesus divine and exalted him to heaven above every other creature and above every creature’s name and clothed him with all power and authority;

THAT GOD’S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and is the rightful King of the world; that the anointed and faithful followers of Christ Jesus are children of Zion, members of Jehovah's organization, and are his witnesses whose duty and privilege it is to testify to the supremacy of Jehovah, declare his purposes toward mankind as expressed in the Bible, and to bear the fruits of the Kingdom before all who will hear;

THAT THE OLD WORLD ended A.D. 1914, and the Lord Jesus Christ lias been placed by Jehovah upon his throne of authority, has ousted Satan from heaven and is proceeding to the establishment of the “new earth" of the New World;

THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples of earth can come only by and through Jehovah’s kingdom under Christ, which has now begun; that the Lord’s next great act is the destruction of Satan’s organization and the complete establishment of righteousness in the earth, and that under the Kingdom the people of good-will that survive Armageddon shall carry out the divine mandate to “fill the earth" with a righteous race.

“COMMANDER’S” TESTIMONY PERIOD

It is optional with you whether you take part in the “Commander’s” Testimony Period, which occupies the entire month of February. But the command of Jehovah’s “Commander to the peoples”, Christ Jesus, to preach the Kingdom gospel still stands in force, and all who desire to obey such a Commander will be anxious to take part in this Testimony Period. It being the second month of the 1946 Watchtower campaign, the special offer to the public on a contribution of one dollar continues to be a year’s subscription for this magazine, together with the premium of a bound book and a booklet. The campaign goal for this year requires the enlistment and activity of everyone possible in the Commander’s service, despite the northern winter. Veteran publishers stand ready to take into the field with them any volunteers from among our readers who write in to us for references. Your report of work and results should close out the month of testimony for you.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of March 3: “The Publisher of Peace and Salvation,” fl 1-18 inclusive, The Watchtower February 1, 1946.

Week of March 10: “The Publisher’s Good News,” fl 1-19 inclusive, The Watchtower February 1, 1946.

Week of March 17: “The Publisher’s Good News,” fl 20-36 inclusive, The Watchtower February 1, 1946.

ITS MISSION

THIS journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed in the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically designed to aid Jehovah’s witnesses and all people of good-will. It arranges systematic Bible study for its readers and the Society supplies other literature to aid in such studies. It publishes suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means of public instruction in the Scriptures.

It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for Its utterances. It Is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or other worldly organizations. It is wholly and without reservation for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King. It Is not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical examination of its contents In the light of the Scriptures. It does not indulge in controversy, and its columns are not open to personalities.

Yearly Subscription Price

United States, $1.00; all other countries, $1.50, American currency; Great Britain, Australasia, and South Africa, 6s. American remittances should be made by Postal Note or by Postal or Express Money Order or by Bank Draft. British, South African and Australasian remittances should be made direct to the respective branch offices. Remittances from countries other than those mentioned may be made to the Brooklyn office, but by International Postal Money Order only.

Foreign Orness

Australia___.. ..___7 Beresford Rd., Strathfield, N. S. W.

Canada_______..._________________40 Irwin Ave., Toronto 5, Ontario

England.........  34 Craven Terrace, London. W. 2

India_____—_________167 Love Lane, Bombay 27

Newfoundland_____________________________P. O. Box 521. St. John’s

New Zealand 177 Daniell St., Wellington, S 1

Philippine Islands 1219-B Oroquieta St., Manila

South Africa 623 Boston House, Cape Town

Please address the Society in every case.

Translations of this journal appear in several languages.

ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE who by reason of Infirmity, poverty or adversity are unable to pay the subscription price may have The Watchtower free upon written application to the publishers, made once each year, stating the reason for so requesting it. We are glad to thus aid the needy, but the written application once each year Is required by the postal regulations.

Notice to Subscribers: Acknowledgment of a new or a renewal subscription will be sent only when requested Change of address, when requested, may be expected to appear on address latrel within one month A renewal blank (carrying notice of expiration) will be sent with the journal one month before the subscription expires.

Printed in the United States of America

Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Brooklyn, N. Y , under the Act of March 3, ISIS

MEMORIAL CELEBRATION

This year the time for celebrating the Memorial will be after sundown or after 6 p.m., Standard Time, of Tuesday, April 16. At an announced hour, each company should assemble on that night, and the anointed ones of them partake of the Memorial emblems, their companions the “other sheep" being present as witnesses. Before the emblems are partaken of, let some competent brother offer a brief speech extemporaneously or else read paragraphs selected from recent Watchtower articles on the Memorial to those met together. Since the breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine both symbolize the death in which the members of Christ’s body share, the bread and wine should both be served together at partaking. Unleavened bread and red wine should be served, to harmonize with the course of Jesus and his apostles. We expect all companies to notify us concerning their celebration, reporting both the number attending and the number of partakers.

USE RENEWAL SUBSCRIPTION BLANK

The blank sent you one month before expiration of your Watchtower subscription should be filled out and returned to the Brooklyn office or to the Branch office in the country where you reside. Servants in the companies, and individuals, when sending in renewals for The Watchtower, should always use these blanks. By filling in these renewal blanks you are assured of the continuation of your Watchtower from the time of expiration, and without delay. It will also be a great help if you sign your name uniformly, and note any recent change of address, on the renewal slip.

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM

—Isa.

JEHOVAH is the greatest publisher of them all. I The information he issues for publication is the J most important and the best of news today. All persons who search for good, sound reasons to be glad and to rejoice in the midst of this most depressing time of world history will in the long run be obliged to turn to Him, the One Source of good news. The truth of his published Word triumphs over all the error that circulates throughout this earth.

• ² In spite of all the religious and worldly agencies for boycotting, censoring and suppressing the truth that the people ought to know for their peace and salvation, Jehovah’s good news continues to break through. For publicity His news releases do not need and do not find it indispensable to use the motionpicture screen, the great newspapers and magazines, the far-strung radio chains, and the globe-circling news-gathering agencies, all under commercial or government ownership and control and all jealously watched and guarded by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. For spreading his good news Jehovah has his own exclusive means of publication, which is most effective in reaching as many persons as he pleases. He has his own publishing organization and his own set of publishers, the Chief of whom is his own Son, “the faithful and true witness,” Christ Jesus. This One leads. His fellow publishers copy him.

’Who is more welcome than a bearer of good news ? “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sw’eet to the soul, and health to the bones.” “A faithful ambassador is health.” (Prov. 16:24; 13:17) Such is Jehovah’s Chief Messenger. He is pictured in all the beauty of his desirableness and welcomeness in the above-quoted verse from chapter fifty-two of Isaiah. This Chief Publisher is there depicted in the way that he appears to earnest seekers of peace and salvation in this tormented day. Glad they are that Jehovah God has sent him. Never was there a better time for Jehovah to send the good news by him than from and after A.D. 1918. And since that year the news has grown better all the time down to 1946, as the light of truth has increased in brilliancy.

• ⁴ A.D. 1918 saw the close of World War I with an Allied military victory. It also saw the truth crushed and trampled in the dust. But truth has risen again! “What is truth?” is a question as good to ask now as when Pontius Pilate first asked it of Jesus. The truth is the good news that issues forth from the Lord God in spite of enemies who try to distort and garble and to ex-out and kill it. Jesus’ admission to God, “Thy word is truth,” proves that the truth is contained in God’s Holy Scriptures, the Holy Bible. All the truth of the Bible revolves around its greatest doctrine or teaching, namely, that of the kingdom of God by his Son Jesus Christ, since it is by that kingdom that Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and good name will be for ever vindicated. Hence the primary purpose for which Jehovah God sent his Son into the world was to be a publisher of this truth. This fact Pontius Pilate drew out of him when he asked Jesus: “Art thou a king then?” “Certainly,” replied Jesus, “I am a king. This is why I was born, this is why I came into the world, to bear testimony to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37; Moffatt) “Christendom,” with her nations and kingdoms locked in total war during 1914-1918, did not wish to listen to his voice as expressed by his faithful fellow publishers. Hence she gave ear to her religious advisers and crushed the Kingdom truth to the ground in 1918.

“World War I was in itself an uprising of the nations against the kingdom of Almighty God Jehovah, whose kingdom was due to be set up at the end of the “times of the Gentiles” in 1914 and to extend his universal sovereignty to this rebellious earth. For close to forty years before that date Jehovah’s witnesses had freely published the message of the end of the Gentile times in 1914. Yet "Christendom” refused to thank God for taking his rightful power to himself in that year and beginning his sovereign rule by his Son Jesus Christ. Instead, “Christendom’s” nations raged in disregard of that fact by launching off into a total war for domination of the earth. The contrast between thanksgiving and rage which showed up in 1914 was prophetically pictured at Revelation 11:15-18, which reports it in these words: “Then the seventh angel blew; and loud voices followed in heaven, crying, ‘The rule of the world has passed to our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.’ Then the four and twenty Presbyters who are seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, ‘We thank thee, Lord God almighty, who art and wast, that thou hast assumed thy great power and begun to reign; the nations were enraged, but thy wrath has come.”—Moffatt.

• ⁶ Their rage then was like that of Gentile nations in the Promised Land at the time that the rule over the kingdom of Israel passed out of the hands of Saul and his house and David, the shepherd of Bethlehem, became king at Jerusalem as Jehovah’s servant.

’ The citadel of Zion stood in the city of Jerusalem. King David made it to be the place of his throne and footstool. The Philistines feared that Jehovah’s Theocratic sovereignty would be extended over them by his anointed king David. So they raged against him in two grand offensives. Jehovah God laughed at their futile rebellions and brought the Philistines low under his king’s feet by miraculously defeating them. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”—Ps. 2:4-6; 2 Sam. 5:4-25.

• ⁸ Zion, the hill where David as Jehovah’s anointed king reigned three thousand years ago, was a type. It symbolized Jehovah’s capital organization in the heavens, where He enthroned Christ Jesus as acting King in 1914, to rule amid all his enemies. By thus installing his Anointed King in the capital of the universe at the close of the Gentile times in 1914 Jehovah God took up his power over this earth belonging to him and by which power he will rule the new world of righteousness. This is the news which should have made the headlines in all publications in 1914 and thereafter, inasmuch as all other events of world interest are mere by-products of God’s establishment of his Theocratic Government in Zion. This news outweighs and overshadows all other news in importance, because Jehovah’s 'Theocratic rule by Christ Jesus in Zion means that He will remove, in a short time now, all enemies of what is right and good and will bring in on earth everlasting peace and salvation to all “men of good will”. Let all such hail the good news I

OPPOSITION TO THE PUBLISHING

• ⁹ Rather than greet such news with joy and thanksgiving, the warring nations of “Christendom” turned in their wrath upon those who were publishing these glad tidings, namely, Jehovah’s consecrated people, the followers of his reigning King Christ Jesus. These publishers, since the incorporation of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1884, were using this legal corporation as their agent or instrument in publicizing the message of the Kingdom. For this reason Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the earth use the Watchtower publications in proclaiming the Kingdom message. For the same reason “Christendom’s” wrathful nations, during their first total war against Jehovah’s reign by Christ Jesus, banned the Watchtower publications and declared it illegal to distribute them.

• ¹⁰ The nations also gave ear to the religious clergy’s false charges that Jehovah’s publishers of the Kingdom were seditious and interfering with the wartime efforts of the nations. So the nations and the religious clergy co-operated in a willful persecution of the Kingdom publishers. Many, including the leading officials of the Watch Tower Society, were imprisoned under the enemy’s false accusations and by prejudiced judges. Some were killed. In some sections mob violence was worked up, and due protection of the law against such was denied them. Homes were illegally raided and ransacked. Christian assemblies of Jehovah’s people for worship and Bible study were broken up and forbidden. Even Bibles were confiscated. Worse still, some who were associated with them and who professed being God’s consecrated children turned traitor to their brethren and played the part of Judas in betraying their brethren to the persecuting authorities; they also tried to draw away disciples after them and to cause a break-up of the organization.

• ¹¹ Thus Jehovah’s consecrated faithful ones underwent the fulfillment of Jesus’ prediction concerning them at the end of this world, namely: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto 9. Upon whom did “Christendom” then turn in wrath? and why did she ban the Watchtower publications?

• 10, 11. How did the nations and the clergy then co-operate in carrying on persecution? and in fulfillment of wnat prediction by Jesus? the end, the same shall be saved.”—Matt. 24:9-13.

• ¹² The trampling down of the publishers of truth was foretold in the opening verses of Revelation, chapter eleven, where the writer, the apostle John, says: “There was given me a reed like unto a rod: and one said, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. And the court which is without the temple leave without, and measure it not; for it hath been given unto the nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.” (Rev. 11:1, 2, Am. Stan. Ver.) In ancient times the “holy city"’ that had the temple for the worshipers of Jehovah was Jerusalem or Zion. Of course, the heavenly Zion, or “Jerusalem which is above”, is beyond being trodden down by the Gentile nations on earth. Hence the “holy city” that the enemies trod under foot forty and two months, or three and a half years, must refer to the faithful Christians on earth who are the “children” of the heavenly Jerusalem. They are in line for a place in the heavenly Kingdom, and Jehovah God’s spirit dwells in them as in a holy temple. Hence the apostle Paul writes to them, saying: “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” (Gal. 4: 26, 31) Such worshipers of Jehovah were the ones who the history of 1914-1918 shows were persecuted and trodden down by the worldly nations.

• ¹³ This same Gentile treading down upon these earthly representatives of the “Jerusalem which is above” was foretold by Zechariah in these words: “Behold, a day of Jehovah cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue [or remnant] of the people shall not be cut off from the city.”—Zech. 14:1,2, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ¹⁴ The year following the climax of the above assault, the imprisoned officers of the Watch Tower Society were released from their imprisonment, on March 26, 1919, preliminary to being cleared of all false charges by a reversal of the judgment against them in the United States Federal court. On coming forth, they found Jehovah’s devoted witnesses to be in a downtrodden condition indeed, and lying in the dust. There they had been lying, all the while submitting without a real fight against the invasion of their right of worship as worshipers of the Lord God Most High. They were submitting thereto because they accepted the religious interpretation of “Christendom” that the governing authorities of this world are the “higher powers” to whom every Christian soul should be subject for fear of the sword.—See Romans 13:1-4.

• ¹⁵ This subject condition did not befit those on earth who are the representatives of the heavenly Zion and children of Jerusalem which is above. Especially not so after Jehovah God had set up the Kingdom and had exalted his Son Jesus Christ to the active kingship in His capital organization Zion. What is more, the first act of this Theocratic Government was to fight the “war in heaven” against Satan and all his demons and to fling them down to this earth, thus making them the footstool of Jehovah’s reigning King, Christ Jesus. The Scriptures and the facts indicate that this was accomplished by the time that World War I ended in 1918. (Rev. 12:7-14; Ps. 110:1,2) It was therefore no time for the remnant of Christ’s followers to be recognizing worldly authorities of Satan’s organization as being “the higher powers”. It was no time to be subject to their interfering with the publication of Jehovah’s reign, which began A.D. 1914. Therefore, upon the release of the Watch Tower Society’s officers from prison in 1919, Jehovah God by his King at the temple began sending forth the call in fulfillment of the following prophecy, at Isaiah 52:1, 2: “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, 0 Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, 0 Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit on thy throne, 0 Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bonds of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”—Am. Stan. Ver.

“ At the time under consideration, the remnant on earth were of Jehovah’s organization symbolized by Zion and Jerusalem, but they were in the condition like that of the earthly Zion and Jerusalem back in 537 B.C. That was when King Cyrus began his first year of reigning as conqueror of wicked Babylon and as king of the Medo-Persian Empire. In that year Zion, or Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 607 B.C., had fulfilled seventy years of lying desolate and in ruins. What a sight she was! No queenly city was she, in which kings of the tribe of Judah sat on the throne and ruled as Theocratic representatives of Jehovah. She was now a captive city, lying ruined in the dust to which the uncircumcised and unclean Babylonian aggressors had forced her, to the reproach of her God. There she wallowed, stripped of her royal Theocratic beauty, with bands of servitude about her neck. In weakness and helplessness she lay, because 16. Why was that subject condition not befitting to them, and what call to awake did Jehovah therefore send forth?

• 16 . The remnant’s condition then was like what condition of Zion and Jerusalem? and how only could deliverance come? all her children had been dragged away to captivity in Babylon and all the territory over which she had reigned lay desolate, without man or domesticated beast. (Jer. 26: 9; 32:43; 33:10,12; 35:8-13) Solely the power of her God, Jehovah, could deliver her and cause her to rise again. His power did so, at the appointed time, as he had promised. (2 Chron. 36:17-23) Leading up to that, Jehovah expressed his wrath against Jerusalem’s oppressors. He caused the overthrow of the mighty Babylonian empire by the combined hosts of King Darius of Media and his nephew Cyrus of Persia, in 539 B.C.

¹¹ But Jerusalem was still left lying desolate in the dust, inactive as in the sleep of death. In the seventieth year of her desolation, in 537 B.C., Cyrus the Persian succeeded his uncle Darius to the throne of the victorious empire. Then God began bringing to pass his good promises to revive and restore Jerusalem or Zion. Note, please, that this all centered around the worship of Jehovah God at his temple; for he caused King Cyrus to publish a decree for the rebuilding of Jehovah’s temple on the old site 17. When and how did the reviving and restoring of Jerusalem start? at Jerusalem. Cyrus invited the faithful Jews to return to their native land for rebuilding the temple and restoring the worship of Jehovah there. A remnant of faithful worshipers of Jehovah God returned and undertook the restoration of the temple. Thus the restoration of Zion or Jerusalem began with the revival and rebuilding of the worship of her God. —Ezra 1:1-6.

¹⁸ Jehovah God thus returned with favor to Zion and restored her for his own name’s sake and for the vindication of his good word of promise. By divine mercy Zion or Jerusalem rose from her prone condition in the dust. She became the city of which Christ Jesus said: “It is the city of the great King.” (Matt. 5: 35) This restoration of Jehovah’s Theocratic organization became public knowledge throughout the ancient world. The fulfillment of this prophetic event in this twentieth century must likewise be published throughout this modern world, for it is news freighted with the hope of early realization of everlasting peace and salvation.

18. What then became public knowledge throughout the ancient world, and what did this foreshadow?

THE PUBLISHER’S GOOD NEWS

JERUSALEM'S restoration from and after 537 B.C. was a news event of such importance that it was preserved on the pages of secular and sacred history. But that was only a miniature picture of the complete and final fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 52:1. This modern fulfillment does not come by means of the Jewish Zionist movement, nor is it upon the old earthly Jerusalem in Palestine, now under the British mandate and regarded as a sacred city by Mohammedans, Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. The fulfillment is upon the loyal remnant of Jehovah’s worshipers who endured, at the hands of “Christendom” during World War I, the antitype of ancient Jerusalem’s desolation. Jehovah’s remnant are the children of the “Jerusalem which is above” and which is “the mother” of them all. They are the consecrated followers of Jehovah’s King who reigns on the heavenly Mount Zion. (Gal. 4:26; Rev. 14:1-4) Their desolated condition came in 1918, as shown in the preceding article, because they incurred God’s wrath through failing to boldly publish the reign of Zion’s King and to faithfully maintain Jehovah’s worship at His temple throughout World War I.

² In 1918 the King Christ Jesus, who was foreshadowed by King Cyrus, came to Jehovah’s great spiritual temple for the judgment of the “house of God”. He came in order to purge out the unfaithful and unclean ones, leaving a purified remnant. (Mal. 3:1-3) Babylon’s mighty invisible lung, Satan the Devil, had then been toppled from the heavens and made the footstool of the Greater Cyrus, Christ Jesus. Hence it was no longer the right arrangement for the remnant as representatives of Zion’s King to be lying in captivity to the Babylonish organization of religion, commerce and politics. The time was here for the revival and reconstruction of Jehovah’s worship in the earth, at his temple where He had placed his name. So, addressing himself to the faithful remnant on earth held in Babylonish captivity down till A.D. 1919, Jehovah God cried out: “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, 0 Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, 0 Jerusalem, the holy city!” (Isa. 52:1) That irresistible command meant that He had ordained that Jehovah’s visible Theocratic organization on earth should rise again.

⁸ For this to take place it required that Zion’s remnant, the children of “Jerusalem which is above”, must rouse themselves from their deathly inactivity under the heavy heel of Babylon, Satan’s world organization. They must break loose from their captivity and return to organized activity as Jehovah’s Theocratic organization which knows no bondage to Babylon. They must be strong in Him their God. Fear of men, especially fear due to the accepted

3. For this to take place, what was required of the remnant to do? religious untruth that Babylonish worldly authorities are the “higher powers” who rightly command the Christians' subjection, had robbed them of strength to push on in God’s worship as his witnesses. The ensnaring fear of men, and the weakening doctrines and traditions of religion, must all be purged out by re-examining the Bible and learning the “present truth”, which brings freedom. By feeding upon God’s Word of truth, Zion’s remnant would put on strength to do their commissioned work; they would grow strong. “Through knowledge shall the just be delivered.” “A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.”—Prov. 11:9; 24:5.

• ⁴ Jerusalem of old was a holy city when her king ruled in faithfulness to God and no religion was permitted in the kingdom. What gave her beauty like a garment was the identifying herself as being entirely devoted to Jehovah God and as being the city where He had put his name, locating his temple there. This shows how the remnant of the children of “Jerusalem which is above” became a holy organization from and after 1919 and put on beautiful garments. It was by rousing themselves from their inert, disorganized state and seeking to be exclusively an organization of Jehovah’s servants who are unreservedly dedicated to him and who refuse to render slavish service to the Babylonish worldly organization. They must seek to be actively a “people for his name”, Jehovah’s name, and to identify themselves as witnesses of Him and ambassadors for his now-set-up kingdom under Christ. Thus Jerusalem, or her remnant of children on earth, put on her beautiful garments of identification. The official servants of the Watch Tower Society having been released from unjust prison restraints in 1919, the .remnant now diligently engaged in the strengthening study of God’s Word and in the proclamation of that Word to those with hearing ears. They earnestly applied themselves to strengthening their organization for service and to making it more effective for giving the most powerful witness yet to Jehovah’s name and kingdom.

^s That course of action Jerusalem’s children could take with all confidence. Why? Because of Jehovah’s promise, which still stands good in this year 1946: “For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” (Isa. 52:1) That promise shows that the earthly Jerusalem in Palestine cannot be the organization meant; for the invading armies of the uncircumcised and unclean Gentiles did invade that earthly city again and raze her to the ground and trample her in the dust, A.D. 70. The Roman armies under Titus utterly destroyed her, thirty-seven years after she had rejected Jehovah’s greatest Publisher, Christ Jesus, and turned him over to the executioners.—Luke 19:41-46.

’Hence the true and complete fulfillment of the divine promise applies to the Theocratic organization of Jehovah’s remnant. They are his children by His “woman”, and their circumcision is “that of the heart”. (Rom. 2:29) The uncircumcised who are never again, as in 1918, to trample down the organization and render it inactive in God’s work are the Babylonish worldlings of “Christendom”, Catholic and Protestant. The unclean who are no more to have any part with such uncircumcised ones in thus crippling Jehovah’s organization of servants are the Judas class, those who professed consecration to Jehovah God but who turned traitor and became an “evil servant” class and who co-operated with the unclean world in its attacks on Jehovah’s remnant. They acted the part of the Edomites of old, the descendants of Edom or Esau. Esau, although circumcised, showed himself profane and unclean toward God by despising the birthright of the covenant which Jehovah God made with Abraham.

• ⁷ Let us not misunderstand God’s promise to his remnant of Zion and Jerusalem. It is not that these modern uncircumcised and unclean ones shall never again attack and maltreat his witnesses after 1918. They have assaulted and tried to overthrow the organization of his witnesses, during the heyday of Nazi-Fascist-Vatican collaboration in 1933-1945. Hence Jehovah’s promise means that such uncircumcised assailants, with the unclean "evil servant” class conniving, will never again break down and destroy the unity and organization and faithful activity of His witnesses on earth. The remnant, together with their good-will companions, are today not groggy from the heavy persecutions and assaults by the religionists and their allies during the global war just ended. Zion or Jerusalem, as represented by the remnant, stands up, awake, active and strong in God’s work. She wears beautiful garments marking her as God’s visible organization whom he has delivered and preserved for his glory and service.

• ⁸ Further describing the right attitude that his visible organization must maintain on earth, Jehovah says: “Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit on thy throne, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bonds of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.” (Isa. 52:2, Am. Stan. Ver.) The dust pictures the state of being under the feet of the enemy organization that had overthrown the organization of God’s conse-

• 6. Who are the uncircumcised and unclean meant In the promise?

• 7. How should we understand that promise? and what today shows It has not been broken?

• 8. From what did Jehovah command his visible organization to shake Itself? crated people and taken it captive. The dust itself is dry, worthless, thrown upon the head in mourning, and is food fit for only that Old Serpent, the Devil, to bite in defeat. From such dust Jehovah commanded his remnant in 1919 to shake themselves loose. God sent them this command by Iris newly installed King, the Greater Cyrus, Christ Jesus, whom He enthroned in 1914 and sent to the temple in 1918.

• ⁹ Once it was proper for the remnant to repent in sackcloth and ashes over their past failure during World War I. Yet the dust was no place for them to linger any longer, now that the “war in heaven” had been fought and the demon gods of this Babylonish world had been cast down to the dust under Christ’s feet. The tables had been turned upon the enemy. Now the remnant was commanded to recognize its God-given rights and liberty as His “faithful and wise servant” and to shake itself energetically loose from the dry, worthless, unnourishing, mournful things of the Devil’s organization. The remnant should not let that Babylonish organization keep them occupied in such death-dealing things and away from an upright, respectable and free part in Jehovah’s service.

• ¹⁰ “Arise and sit down, 0 Jerusalem,” was Jehovah’s royal command by his Greater Cyrus. This did not mean to rise up and then sit down on the ground again, with legs crossed in Oriental fashion. Jerusalem, that is to say, her remnant of children on earth, must not sit in the low position of the vanquished, but in the high seat of the conqueror, for her God, by his enthroned King, had won the “war in heaven” over the Babylonish enemies. Jehovah’s command to her to sit down, therefore, meant that she was to sit in a lofty seat, and to ascend to it by a footstool.

• ¹¹ The American Standard Version Bible gives the right thought when it translates the Hebrew so as to fully express the idea, by saying: “Arise, sit on thy throne, 0 Jerusalem.” Other modern translators read the Hebrew another way and translate it to say: “Arise, 0 captive Jerusalem,” so as to balance the later expression, "0 captive daughter of Zion.” (An American Translation; Moffatt) But, whatever was the original reading of Isaiah’s prophecy, the command is that Jehovah's visible organization of his "remnant should not lie or sit longer as a captive of this Babylonish world and its religion. It must rise up and rear up its organization on the high place of service which Jehovah had decreed for his remnant. That way it might be like a glorious, free and independent city set upon Zion’s hill and which could not be hid from the eyes of all the world. The world, before its final end at the battle of Armageddon, must know that Jehovah God has a visible organization and that it stands free and fearless as a witness for Him in the earth. His organized remnant, sitting in the lofty seat as approved ambassadors of Jehovah’s kingdom, occupy a seat higher than any that the highest persons in the Devil’s world occupy. They are therefore fitting representatives of Jehovah’s Anointed King who sits on Zion’s throne with all his enemies now made to be his footstool.—Heb. 10:12,13.

• ¹² When seated on high, Jehovah’s remnant of Zion could not look seemly with the bonds of captivity about their neck. Hence the command: “Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, 0 captive daughter of Zion.” (Isa. 52:2) In obedience, the remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses no longer let themselves be led whithersoever the ruling powers of modern Babylon choose to lead them. They do not let their heads, their thoughts, be taken captive by the religion or ideas or propaganda of this world and thereby be held down to the service of this condemned and fleeting world. They no longer bow their necks under the impression that the worldly authorities who fight against God are “the higher powers”. With the freedom of the use of their heads, which the knowledge of God’s truth has brought to them, they own no other headship than that of Jehovah God and his King, the Higher Powers in fact and in truth. The Lord God graciously revealed this truth to his remnant in the columns of The Watchtower in June, 1929. But even before this revelation, they began acting in fulfillment of the prophetic command: “Deliver thyself, 0 Zion, that dwellest [captive] with the daughter of Babylon.” (Zech. 2:7) By obedience thereto, they became the “remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”.—Rev. 12:17.

• ¹³ Realizing they were like Isaiah who was for the time being displeasing to the Lord God at his temple because of unclean lips, the remnant saw that it was necessary to obey God rather than the unclean men of the world, if destruction was to be escaped. And so they offered themselves to be sent forth on Jehovah’s postwar witness work, with a “Here am I; send me!” Going forth on such an errand could not be done by remaining in captive obedience to the Babylonish authorities of this world. Hence, with the courage of Elisha, the remnant marched forth. They challenged the governing powers of the nations to show cause why they were continuing to hold political ruling power on earth in defiance of Jehovah's kingdom by his enthroned Son Christ Jesus and to command the obedience of the peoples. (Isa. 6:1-9) Thus as they went forth testing out their freedom of action in God’s witness work, they discovered with delight that his greater Cyrus had cracked the bands of captivity from their necks. Their newly acquired liberty they owed to Jehovah God and his King, to serve them and not Babylon.

ADVERTISING HIS NAME

• ¹⁴ One fact is certain: Such postwar developments concerning this small remnant were not just accidental or due to a happy chance. They were ordered and guided directly by the Supreme Power, for his name’s sake. Back there the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919 interested itself in Wilson’s fourteen points and in carving up Europe according to the idea of the “self-determination of peoples” politically and culturally. But Jehovah God paid attention to a small group that disregarded all nationalities for unity’s sake, namely, his faithful remnant that had survived the perils and the persecutions of World War I. Justice to his own great name, and also the future advertising of his name before all nations, was connected with the deliverance of this remnant. The Lord God showed that connection by saying: “For thus saith Jehovah, Ye were sold for.nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Assyrian hath oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what do I here, saith Jehovah, seeing that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them do howl, saith Jehovah, and my name continually all the day is blasphemed. Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak; behold, it is I.”—Isa. 52:3-6, Am. Stan. Ver.

“Yes, his question is a very proper one. What profit did Jehovah really have to show for letting the Gentile nations, whose times of uninterrupted domination of the earth ran out A.D. 1914, take his consecrated people captive ? Their defiance and rage against Jehovah and his enthroned King from and after 1914 did not pay in anything valuable to him, to buy the right and authority to oppress the consecrated publishers of his kingdom. Therefore Jehovah’s remnant were under no obligation to buy their way out to freedom, and Jehovah was under no obligation to redeem or deliver Ms people by any money payment or other redemptive price to the Gentile nations. The temporary postwar commercial prosperity of such nations was not due to His blessing on them for letting his people go back free to their service of their God at Ms temple. Rather, a retribution was due to the nations for fighting against God and mistreating the publishers of Ms kingdom which was set up in 1914.

“Accordingly Jehovah God reminds us that, in the days when Ms faithful servant Joseph was the food administrator of Egypt during the world famine, Ms father Jacob and all Ms cMldren and good-will servants moved down into Egypt for a temporary sojourn. But shortly after Joseph’s death Egypt forgot how this man of Jehovah God had saved Egypt from disaster by famine, and she selfishly turned upon Jehovah’s chosen people and oppressed them. TMs brought great contempt and reproach upon Jehovah’s name, who had blessed them with seven years of abundance before the famine. So Jehovah and Ms people owed Egypt no debt for benefits rendered. Neither he nor his people paid her anything when he redeemed or delivered his people. Then, about a thousand years thereafter, the Assyrian took Ms turn at oppressing this same people, “without a cause,” and just to satisfy his ambition for world domination.

” By the term “Assyrian” is doubtless meant Babylon. It succeeded to Assyria’s place as the dominant world power. It overthrew Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. Uhder King Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon set out on the road to world conquest. Then it was that these uncircumcised Babylonians and their unclean allies overran the kingdom of Judah and destroyed Jerusalem and its temple built by Solomon. The surviving Jews Nebuchadnezzar carried captive to Babylon, leaving Jerusalem as desolate as any bombed-out city in Germany. What did Jehovah have out of that situation? Those that ruled over Ms captive people with a high hand howled at them boastingly, and Jehovah’s name, by which his people had been called, was set at nought and reproached daily. The captive condition of his people, and the wrecked condition of Jerusalem, the city of his temple and of his anointed kings, were in themselves a reproach to the name or fame of Jehovah. The unfaithful Jews may have boasted of their having Jehovah God’s law committed to them, but their brag did not honor God, for they disesteemed their privilege of having Ms law by breaking it. Hence the question: "Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through brealdng the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles [continually] through you, as it is written [at Isaiah 52:5].” —Rom. 2:23,24.

• 16. In this regard, how does God use Egypt’s case as an Illustration? 17. How did the Assyrian oppress Jehovah’s people without cause? and how was his name then blasphemed continually?

¹⁸ The captive state of Jehovah’s consecrated people in 1918 due to their failure to adhere to his law during World War I was not to His honor. It gave the nations, and particularly Catholic and Protestant religionists, something to boast about. So they howled at His oppressed people with threats, misrepresentations, prison sentences, unrighteous decrees, and gloatings over their success in disposing of these worshipers of Jehovah and proclaimers of his Word and kingdom. Not by Jehovah’s captive people, but by their masters, by these howlers, was God’s name blasphemed, reviled and reproached “continually every day” and his reputation was besmirched. If nothing else, this situation required the vindication of his name, particularly since this is “the day of Jehovah”, from and after 1914 and down till the “battle of that great day of God Almighty” at Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14,16) Why, even before his own people his name and fame needed to be magnified, that they might be his convinced witnesses. “Therefore,” Jehovah positively promised, “my people shall know my name, they shall know on that day that it is I who have spoken —see! here I am.”—Isa. 52: 6, .An Amer. Trans.; Leeser; Am. Stan. Ver., margin.

¹⁸ By their deliverance from subjection to the enemy’s power, which began in 1919, the remnant of his people in America as well as in all other lands knew that Jehovah was near. He was present to save and deliver by means of his King, the Greater Cyrus at the temple. Many centuries ago he had spoken of this deliverance and salvation, and, lo, now he had done it. Their eyes of faith beheld Jehovah in his glory and power as their Redeemer and Deliverer.

THE PUBLISHER APPEARS

²⁰ The viewpoint the prophet Isaiah now takes is that of Zion or Jerusalem lying desolate in the dust like a female captive, robbed by the Babylonian despoilers of her sons and daughters. Her temple at which her faithful children worshiped Jehovah as the invisible Theocratic King of Israel is in ruins, robbed of its holy ark of His covenant above which his miraculous shekinah light had shone. Outwardly it seemed as if Zion’s God had ceased to reign over his holy organization and as if Babylon’s god, Satan the Devil, with all his demons, had triumphed and had ascended on high to make himself like the Most High God. The Gentile nations not seeing that Jehovah had temporarily forsaken her on account of his displeasure at her fall away from his worship, they mistook Jerusalem’s destruction for a defeat of Jehovah by Satan the Devil and as the final end of Jehovah’s reign in any part of the earth. Seventy years pass, with Jerusalem lying chained in the dust and wreckage atop her hills.

• ¹¹ Faintly mindful of God’s promise by his prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 25:11,12), Jerusalem or Zion now lifts her lusterless eyes, to the north, whither her children had long ago been dragged by the brutal hordes to Babylon. Look there! On the mountaintop of Jehovah’s territory! That messenger, whose feet bear him swiftly forward! His bright, festal clothing marks him from afar as a herald of good tidings! And he is coming to her, fairly leaping from mountain to mountain! His voice—did music ever sound sweeter!—rings with good cheer, and she hears her name, Zion, Jerusalem, sung out! Spontaneously there well up in the heart of this hitherto captive Holy City the inspired words of God’s prophet, who once said to her:

• ²² ‘‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! The voice of thy watchmen [Jerusalem sees, as it were, her walls and towers rebuilt and her watchers at their posts on high, beholding the beautiful, welcome sight with her]! they lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when Jehovah returneth to Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for Jehovah hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. Jehovah hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”—Isa. 52:7-10, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ²⁸ This, as the prophecy underwent fulfillment from and after 1919, was the beautiful sight and welcome experience that cheered first Jehovah’s remnant and thereafter all those of all nations who have heard the melodious voices of the watchmen of Zion’s visible organization on earth. The messenger whose coming is beauteous is Jehovah’s Chief Messenger and Servant, Christ Jesus. In 1918 he came to Jehovah’s spiritual temple in Zion. He came then as the glorious Victor over the oppressor organization, Babylon, whose god, Satan “the prince of the demons”, Christ Jesus had trounced in the “war in heaven” and had put under his footstool at the earth. This One, now Victor, is the meek and lowly One who had said in the synagogue at Nazareth where he carpentered: “The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to

21, 22. From this viewpoint, what does Zion or Jerusalem behold? and what prophetic words well up In her heart?

23. (a) Whom does this cheer? (b) Who is the messenger, and according to what prophecy was his coming In this capacity fitting? proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that he may be glorified.” (Isa. 61:1-3, Am. Stan. Ver.) Now this Anointed Messenger of Jehovah comes as Comforter and Reconstructor of Zion’s remnant on earth.

²* History records the fact that, in September, 1922, at an international assembly of many thousands of Jehovah’s witnesses at Cedar Point, Ohio, it was disclosed to them from the Bible that Christ Jesus, as God’s reigning King, had come to the temple in 1918 for the judgment of His people. On that occasion, after making this disclosure from the Bible and the facts in fulfillment, the president of the Watch Tower Society concluded his speech ■with these words: “Be faithful and true witnesses for the Lord. Go forward in the fight until every vestige of Babylon lies desolate. Herald the message far and wide. The world must know that Jehovah is God and that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the day of all days. Behold, the King reigns! You are his publicity agents. Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.” (Quoted from The Watchtower, November 1, 1922) After that, as the light of this day of Jehovah became more clear, the remnant discerned more plainly the beauty of his victorious royal Messenger at the temple. By Jehovah’s interpretations of the prophecies of the Bible they heard and understood more distinctly the blessed message borne by His Messenger.—Mal. 3:1-3.

• ²⁵ The Messenger published peace to God’s remnant on earth, now that they had repented from past failure in his service and God’s anger against them had passed. He published peace also to persons out of all nations of the earth who rejoiced at the restoration of Zion’s remnant and who turned with goodwill to Jehovah as God and to Zion as His Theocratic organization; yes, “on earth peace to men of good will.” (Luke 2:14, Douay) The Messenger brought glad tidings of good things due to come henceforth to God’s visible organization of faithful witnesses on earth, in fulfillment of the good promises of His Word. “And there shall be no more curse.” (Rev. 22:3) The Messenger published salvation. That meant victory, Jehovah’s victory in vindication of his universal sovereignty as the Supreme One, and also the saving of his people from all the power of the enemy, even from death itself. That included salvation or rescue from captivity to Satan’s organization Babylon.

• ²⁶ The deduction might be drawn from the captivity of Jehovah’s consecrated people during World War I that Jehovah God was not then reigning. To correct such wrong deduction, the Messenger came to the temple in 1918 and assured Zion’s faithful remnant: “Your God has become king.” “That saith unto Zion, Thy God hath become king.” (Isa. 52:7, An Amer. Trans.; Rotherham) In 1914 Jehovah thus became King, to reign forever over all parts of the universe, including this earth. In expression of his universal sovereignty he seated Christ Jesus as his reigning King-Consort. He empowered him to fight and push the Devil and his demon hosts out of heaven and to keep them under foot at the earth until the tinle comes at Armageddon to crush the Serpent’s head in death. All the signs of the coming of Jehovah’s anointed King into power in the Kingdom began in 1914, the signs beginning with World War I. The rage of the nations at Jehovah’s Theocratic reign thus begun was vented in assaulting and taking captive his devoted people on earth, which, therefore, was no proof that Jehovah had not taken his universal power to reign over this earth. But, if any doubt existed on the matter, the salvation of his servants out of Babylon’s tight grip from and after 1919 proved beyond question that Zion’s God had become King and had begun to reign by his Greater Cyrus, Christ Jesus.

• ²⁷ Should such news of universal importance be given free publication throughout all the nations of earth? Should the peoples of all nations be given free access to this news? Yes, and that, too, in spite of all the opposition by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and all other news-censoring agencies of the world. This news is of interest and of life-giving value not only to the small remnant of Zion’s organization but also to all persons in all nations who are feeling after the true God, if haply they might find him. This news, of all news, has to do with the paramount issue of this day and which must be settled conclusively in this atomic age, namely, Who is the Supreme Sovereign, the Life-giver, the Deliverer, and hence the true and only God Almighty? And such news identifies who that one is, namely, Jehovah God. The setting up of his Theocratic Government by Christ Jesus in 1914 means that the decisive fight over the issue, the battle of Armageddon, is near. Hence destruction hangs nigh over the heads of all persons that have not known to take their

• 26. (a) What wrong deduction might be drawn from the captivity in 1918, and how did the Messenger correct this? (b) Why were his words on this true?

• 27. Should such news be given free publication everywhere? and why? immovable stand on Jehovah’s side of the issue as subjects of His sovereignty and kingdom.

• ²⁸ The Kingdom’s establishment betokens also everlasting peace and salvation from all of mankind’s enemies and the restoring of paradise to this earth on a global scale. The salvation of Jehovah’s remnant out of the enemy’s bondage from and after 1919 was just the forerunner of such eternal blessings to men of good-will who would manifest themselves in every nation, if just given the chance to hear the news published by Jehovah’s Messenger of glad tidings. To quote the apostle Paul, at Romans 10:13-15: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord [Jehovah] shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”

• ²⁹ Almighty God was determined to break the tight news censorship of “Christendom’s” religionists and get the vital news through to the people. He was determined to raise up publishers under his Messenger Christ Jesus to report the news to the peoples of all nations. This determination God showed in these next words to Zion in response to the Chief Messenger’s beautiful coming: “All your sentinels are shouting, in a triumph-song, for they see the Eternal [Jehovah] face to face as he returns to Sion. Break into a song of praise, 0 ruins of Jerusalem; the Eternal [Jehovah] has consoled his people, he has freed Jerusalem. All nations have seen the Eternal bare his sacred arm for action, and all ends of the earth shall see how our God gains the victory.”—Isa. 52: 8-10, Moffatt.

• ³⁰ The faithful remnant are the watchmen who caught up the song from Jehovah’s beautiful Messenger. Having these facts revealed to them from God’s Word since 1919, they have not kept silent. As if they saw Jehovah eye to eye (Num. 14:14, A.S. V., margin), they know that he has restored Zion by delivering her earthly, visible part. In response to the divine call to be His witnesses and publicity agents, the Lord God has sent them forth into all the habitable earth to preach the Kingdom gospel and let the people hear.—Matt. 24:14.

• ⁸¹ What was once the waste places and ruins of his visible earthly organization has burst forth into songs of praise to him among all the nations, as His witnesses publish everywhere the good tidings. They have been comforted and made glad by his Chief Messenger and Publisher, Christ Jesus. Clear through the global war of 1939-1945 and till tliis day they have kept up their free and persistent activity as Kingdom publishers in all the nations. This is proof that Almighty God has redeemed and liberated the children of “Jerusalem which is above” and has returned with favor to these representatives of Zion. Their deliverance was an open expression of the power of Jehovah’s mighty arm of salvation. By their bold and fearless activity throughout this opposing world, and by the news-content of their exclusive message, the people of good-will of all nations see Jehovah’s holy arm bared and that it has brought salvation to his faithful people. Such people of good-will, to the ends of the earth where the gospel has been preached thus far, see that nowin this atomic age they must not trust in the fleshly arm of the United Nations Organization nor in any world federation, but solely in the saving arm of Jehovah God for everlasting salvation.

• ⁸² The people of good-will who hear Jehovah’s remnant and who see and trust in the arm of His salvation are also taking up the song of praise which they hear from these watchmen of Zion. They are made glad and rejoice with His people. This they are invited to do by the great Savior and by his Chief Publisher. (Rev. 22:17) In increasing thousands they will do so in this postwar era.

KEEP FREE FOR PUBLICITY WORK

• ⁸³ In view of the tremendous publicity to be given to Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ Jesus in the greatest Christian educational campaign of all time, what shall we do, we who have entered this postwar period with its atomic-energy possibilities? Listen to the words coining through the prophet Isaiah. This time he takes his standpoint as in the very midst of ancient Babylon, symbol of this devilish world, and where the Jewish exiles from the kingdom of Zion and Jerusalem had lain captive, cut off from worshiping Jehovah at the place where he set up his temple and placed his name. Hence the words of Isaiah 52:11,12 are directed to the consecrated remnant from and after 1919, and now also to the thousands of the remnant’s good-will companions in all nations of the world: “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, ye that bear the vessels of Jehovah. For ye shall not go out in haste, neither shall ye go by flight: for Jehovah will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward.”—Am. Stan. Ver.

• 32. How do such good-will persons respond to the song, and why? 33. Where does the prophet Isaiah now take his standpoint, and to whom is the command now directed?

• ³⁴ In the distant past, when King Cyrus entrusted the faithful Jewish remnant with the stolen vessels of Jehovah’s temple to carry them back to the site of Jerusalem and restore them to His rebuilt temple there, that remnant of vessel-bearers were required to be clean. It was required of them to get out of Babylon and not be held back and tied down there by any unclean, selfish, Babylonish things. Otherwise they could never enjoy this rare privilege of bearing those sacred vessels and returning to God’s true worship at the place of his temple and holy name. Back there in the first year of Cyrus’ reign a Jewish remnant cleaned up and undertook this service and its obligations. This foreshadowed that a Christian remnant would undertake like service down here from and after 1919, and that many modern-day Nethinim and other suchlike persons of good-will would return to Jehovah’s service and worship with them. (Ezra 1:1-11; 2:1,43,55-58) And this has come to pass.

• ³⁵ The true vessels of Jehovah for use in his temple worship are the truths of his holy Word and the sacred commission and responsibilities of publishing these Kingdom truths. The consecrated bodies of the remnant, who are part of the temple in which God’s spirit dwells, are also likened to vessels for use in his service. The carrying forth of these vessels to God’s name and honor demands a clean-cut separation of his consecrated witnesses from this world, modern Babylon. To touch its unclean things by taking part 'with this world in its schemes and activities for a United Nations Organization and a better 34. (a) Why, and how, were the remnant back there required to be clean? (b) What did the action of those faithful ones foreshadow? 35. (a) What are the “vessels of the Lord” that must be borne? (b) In what way must God’s consecrated witnesses “touch no unclean thing” and be clean?

and finer world created by men’s hands means to defile ourselves. It unfits us for serving and worshiping Jehovah God at his temple with his holy vessels. We must keep ourselves pure and unspotted from this world down till its destruction at Armageddon. The apostle Paul quoted Isaiah’s prophecy to this effect back there in those apostolic days of nineteen centuries ago. (2 Cor. 6:17) But Isaiah’s pronouncement of God’s command is more urgent and forceful today, when Babylon’s complete destruction is impending and the final warning-witness must be published in order that men of good-will may escape.

” Almighty God has freed us from Babylon’s bondage to politics, commerce and religion. Then let us stay free, under his Greater Cyrus, and not go back to Babylon’s yoke of bondage by touching her unclean, condemned things and becoming “unequally yoked” with her organization. If we want to stand fast in our God-given liberty, then far be it from us ever to let ourselves be chained down by its pleasures and burdens and futile aims. The privilege of being Kingdom publishers of peace and salvation under Jehovah’s Anointed King and Chief Publisher falls to the lot only of the free. Although Satan’s world will oppose us in front and hotly pursue at our rear, there is no need for undue excitement and fear. Jehovah’s all-sufficient power completely surrounds us. He and his angelic hosts serve as our rearguard, barring the enemy’s ever overtaking us before His “strange work” of publication is done. Before us, leading on to glorious success and victory and a new world, marches Jehovah God by his beautiful King Christ Jesus, Jehovah’s “Commander to the peoples”. Forward, then, ye Kingdom publishers! 36. (a) How may we remain free, and with what privilege? (b) Why Is there no need for fear or undue excitement over enemy actions?

RECONSTRUCTIVE AND RELIEF WORK IN EUROPE

DURING 1939-1945 the Watch Tower Society’s branch office at Berne, Switzerland, stood unmolested as upon a solitary island in the midst of a raging sea of total war. Seven years had passed before any personal contact could be had with the witnesses of Jehovah in Switzerland by someone from the Society’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Hence during this time many things had accumulated down till the eighteenth of November, the day of arrival in Switzerland on the part of the Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, and his secretary, M. G. Henschel. These urgent things had to be discussed there on the ground, and the Swiss brethren were very much interested in hearing something from Brother Knorr about America and the rest of the world as regards the Kingdom-witness work.

These liberty-loving brethren have not been lax in their care for the Kingdom interests. Since 1930, in this little republic of Switzerland, where four million people live, Jehovah’s witnesses have distributed more than nine million Watchtower publications, such as books, booklets, and magazines. But these publishers for God’s kingdom fully appreciate that there is still much “fishing” and “hunting” to be done for the scattered “other sheep” of the Lord God. The one place in the branches of activity where improvement seemed most pressing was the full-time pioneer service. Only four such pioneers were on the Berne office’s list. But the Swiss brethren have always responded readily to any call in the interests of God’s service; so it was hoped with confidence that soon many more pioneers would be at work in Switzerland. The Berne office ■will help them in every way possible.

A majority of the Swiss people are sober, and often very cautious in examining questions pertaining to the Bible, but, as in many other countries, there is the hard resistance to be broken down that comes from the religionists’ side and from the very religious people. There are many problems to handle, especially in the Catholic sections of this beautiful country, for there are not the freedoms of expression and distribution of printed information in Switzerland to the extent that they exist in the United States. The Society’s president, showing keen interest in the welfare of the brethren and the progress of the Lord’s work in their country, gave some suggestions for the improvement of these conditions, and perhaps something can be done to gain more latitude for the work. The president’s visit was a powerful stimulus to the Kingdom publishers to press on with the work of making disciples of those from among the Swiss nation. On the occasion of three assemblies, which were hurriedly organized due to Brother Knorr’s notifying the Swiss office of his arrival only one day in advance, Jehovah’s witnesses and many of their newly interested associates received much encouragement.

On Wednesday, November 21, the first meeting took place, in Berne itself, where almost 500 brethren, with friends, assembled. From all corners of the canton they came to Berne. Brother Knorr spoke to them about the duties of youth toward the Creator, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the duties that parents must fulfill toward their children. This was an unexpected theme; but hardly a better subject could have been chosen, now when it is to be seen also in Switzerland that many young persons are interested in the truth and are wending their way up to Jehovah’s Theocratic organization. However, the brethren that have been walking in the Christian way for many years also received great comfort and encouragement by the treatment of this subject. The speaker could notice how the faces of the aged brethren and sisters visibly lightened up and revealed their desire to express gratitude to Brother Knorr for those words which he had so fitly chosen. In this it is seen how the Lord is gracious, compassionate, and just, “for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.’’—Heb. 6:10.

Thereafter the president’s secretary, Brother Henschel, expressed some very necessary thoughts as regards making the back-calls upon the newly interested persons and the starting of book studies. If the Berne company had accomplished a good work in these respects in the past, and which can be seen from the statistics, yet there is no doubt that the possibilities have not been exhausted to the limit of expanding this feature of the Kingdom-proclamation work.

Brother Knorr concluded the meeting, giving a brief survey of the work in South America, which had been visited early in 1945, and also stated facts concerning the field report for that year.

Two other assemblies were arranged for, one for Saturday evening, November 24, in Basel, and the other on the following Sunday afternoon, November 25, in Zurich. The same program carried on at Berne was arranged for Basel. About 450 attended the Saturday assembly. The Basel company is the largest in Switzerland. Through all the spiritual storm caused by the falling away of some brethren and their subsequent activities, this company has continued straight on and only a very few have allowed themselves to be turned away. Basel has the largest number of publishers of all Swiss companies, namely, 284 reporting regularly out of 339 associated ones. The brethren in Basel, for a short period of time near the end of the total war, lived under a rain of terror, for through the air above passed thousands of artillery shells from France into Germany and for hours at a time the droning of heavy bombers could be heard as they passed from France into Germany right near the Swiss border. Basel is on the border. Now, however, things are peaceful, assemblies are again in order, and a very enjoyable Saturday evening was spent together there, reviewing the good things of the Lord God from His Word.

On Sunday morning Brothers Knorr and Henschel were on their way to Zurich from Basel, there to visit the 1,200 enthusiastic brethren that filled the spacious hall of the Volkshaus. Zurich has ever been a convenient point of meeting for God’s people in Switzerland, in that the greater part of the companies are situated in eastern and central Switzerland. After a proper introduction by the presiding brother, Brother Knorr addressed the audience, expressing his joy for this opportunity graciously given of the Lord to be able to get together with the brethren in Switzerland. Here the special theme spoken on by Brother Knorr was “Jehovah’s witnesses in the Crucible”. With tense interest and attention the assembled multitude listened to the explanations of the developing situation, disclosing the background from which there issued forth the persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses in every land. The Swiss brethren were stirred with sympathy to hear how also their associates in the United States had been flooded with waves of persecution. Our courageous brethren in Germany were also remembered. Concerning these it was pointed out that brethren, some of whom spent twelve years in concentration camps, came forth therefrom to resume immediately the preaching of the gospel from house to house. The Lord’s protection over His people during these terrible years of war and persecutions was presented to view, and it brought the brethren real comfort. The Swiss brethren, too, had suffered some hardships.

Following this, Brother Henschel spoke on the subject of youth, condensing the material thereon previously given at Berne and Basel. Here it is well to add that the brethren at all three assemblies in Switzerland appreciate the love and greetings sent them from all parts of the world and all of them reciprocated by requesting that their joy in the Lord and love for their brethren be conveyed to their faithful companions world-wide.

After these assemblies arrangements were made to meet with a sister from Italy who has been doing very good work in helping the witnesses of Jehovah to reorganize and press on with His service in that land. Already one of the Watchtower booklets has been printed in Italy and is being distributed. Preparations are under way for the printing of two more booklets. The faithful servants in Italy are delighted with the blessings they have now of going ahead preaching with some freedom after the years of Fascist rule, during which time many of them spent years in jail because of being Jehovah’s witnesses. Some needful supplies in the way of clothing are also being shipped to our Italian brethren, who are quite impoverished. Plans for reorganizing the work and establishing a branch office were started, and it is the hope of God’s consecrated ones in Italy that soon a branch office of the Society will be opened. Arrangements are also under way for a brother in Switzerland to travel to Italy to visit each of the companies and to better organize them for the field service of publishing Jehovah’s name and kingdom.

RUSSIA PENETRATED

For many years it has been a problem of how the witness might be carried into the vast land of Russia. While at Berne the president learned through the Polish office at Lodz that the work is now going on well in Poland and that more than a thousand publishers who formerly preached in the Ukrainian language in the eastern part of Poland have now been transferred into the depths of Russia. These brethren have been scattered into all parts of the country, even on both sides of the Ural mountains, which partially divide Asiatic Russia from European Russia. They have already delivered a good witness, and a lively Theocratic activity has been developed. Many people have been reached who show good-will, and these are now associating with Jehovah’s witnesses in the study of the Kingdom truths. Reports have been received that brethren are located now far beyond the Ural mountains, which means in Siberia, and these brethren are standing steadfast, even as one man, wholeheartedly serving The Theocracy.

Other reports have been received showing that in one German concentration camp, Ravensbruck, 300 young Russian women in contact there with Jehovah’s witnesses consecrated their lives to serving Jehovah God, and these, along with other Russians learning the truth in concentration camp, have since been returned to Russia after having thus spent many years under good teaching by Jehovah’s witnesses in Ravensbruck. Then, too, hundreds of brethren who lived in Bessarabia, formerly a part of Rumania, are now inhabitants of Russia and continuing with their work of discipling all nations. Thus it can be seen how, in the Lord’s providence, he can raise up witnesses in any land, there to hold high the banner of truth and make known the name of Jehovah. According to all authentic reports, then, more than 1,600 of Jehovah’s witnesses are now representing the Kingdom in Russia. What the results will be we do not know; but if Jehovah by the use of the Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus, has “other sheep” in that land to be gathered, there are now hundreds of human representatives there to find these “sheep” and to lead them in the way of righteousness and of life.

It was a thrill for our traveling brethren to learn of these things and to observe the marvelous way in which Jehovah God works. Surely it can be said that Christ Jesus, His “Commander to the peoples”, is the appointed Leader to Jehovah’s people.

BACK THROUGH FRANCE INTO BELGIUM

Brother Knorr’s ten days in Switzerland were much too short, and it would have been good to stay longer, but there was other territory that needed attention. So on November 27 he and his secretary said good-bye to the Bethel family at Berne and then later some of them came to the Berne railroad station. It was hard to say farewell, for our two travelers had become very much attached to these beloved brethren. Upon leaving Berne, they took with them one of the Berne brethren, Alfred Rutimann, who is able to speak French, German and English fluently. He was to act as interpreter for his American brethren in the countries yet to be visited on the Continent. This taking of one member of the family with them made it somewhat easier to leave the Bethel group at Berne.

As the train pulled away from the Berne station it was as if a wonderful picture had been quickly painted on the horizon, for there, standing out in the sunlight like giant mounds of pure white sugar, were the distant Bernese Alps in all their majesty and glory. All the scenery throughout Switzerland on the way to the French border was beautiful. Fogs had been present during most of the ten days, but this seemed to be a special day, and our travelers had a chance to take in something else by which to remember Switzerland. The route taken was the same as used when entering Switzerland, passing through the watch-manufacturing city of Biel on the way and the Jura mountains that stretch in a chain along the western edge of Switzerland. As night fell and darkness settled over the surrounding countryside, the Berne-to-Paris train pulled into the station at Delle, France, and the usual routine inspections were made, passports examined, and then approval given for the train to move. Our travelers had brought along some food for the journey, on advice of the travel agent at Berne, who said he had paid as much as 2,000 francs for a meal in Paris. Some of the food supply was used that evening.

At 6: 45 o’clock of the morning of November 28 the train pulled into the station, Gare de 1’Est, where Henri Geiger and his son were waiting for the incoming brethren. It had been decided that the visit to Paris should be very brief because of conditions relative to the work in France and because of the fact that all three visitors were traveling on transit visas. Their first stop was at the apartment used as the headquarters for the brethren, and there various problems regarding the work were discussed briefly until it was thought well to leave for a visit to the American Embassy, the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris, and then a good lawyer, to see what could be done to have the Society recognized in order that the work in France might be carried on without legal troubles. Let us be reminded that in October, 1939, the work was prohibited in France by order of the minister of the interior; but since that time Jehovah’s witnesses have continued to preach the gospel and many people of good-will have taken their stand for the Kingdom. Today the officials of the French government are more or less indifferent toward this activity. They make no efforts to stop the work and at the same time will not give any guarantee that its purpose to go ahead will be recognized. So this matter must be handled through legal channels to get a final decision as to the Society’s standing in France.

During the past seven years the French witnesses under the prohibition and then under Nazi occupation have been supplied with the “food convenient” and quite recently some publications have been printed in France for the use of the brethren. These are very acceptable to the people, and many studies are being conducted. There are now 2,003 witnesses who are preaching the gospel in France each month, according to the October report; and there are many others associated in the home Bible studies. The thing to be accomplished in France now is to get legal recognition in order that larger quantities of literature may be shipped into the country and used in discipling work. Inspection of the Society’s property there was also made by our visitors. The decree of the government is to liquidate this property; but there seems to be no hurry in this matter so far as the government is concerned.

It was impossible to hold a general meeting in Paris, because, under present conditions, it is quite difficult to get a hall and it would not be discreet to force such an arrangement now. However, in the evening many of the servants from various units throughout Paris and the members of the Paris Bethel family came together and Brother Knorr was able to speak to them through an interpreter for an hour and three quarters. Twenty-one French brethren were in attendance. AU were very enthusiastic and expressed their joy in what privileges of service they have. They are determined to press on, always doing the good work which has been committed into their care. Being representative of all of France, they sent their love and greetings to the brethren throughout the world, and they appreciate the interest of their fellow witnesses everywhere in them. Some efforts were immediately made to have clothing sent to them, and proper arrangements were brought about for this during the following month of December, and the clothing supplies have since reached them for use during the winter.

The night was spent with the brethren, accommodations being provided in the Society’s property. Until traintime the next morning further questions were discussed and plans were laid for future service. At 12:30 o’clock our three travelers were on their way from Paris to Brussels. En route to Belgium they were able to see some of the havoc wrought by war on the towns and villages, railroads, bridges, and industrial establishments. It was not long until the train reached the border, where all occupants were made to go into the station for customs and immigration inspections and the showing of money. This work was done quite speedily, and soon the train was on its way to Brussels. It was a joy to meet the brethren and to make plans immediately for the work in the days to follow.

During the difficult years of war the work in Belgium progressed very well. When the Germans invaded the land, the brethren maintained their integrity, and because of faithfulness many were taken away to concentration camps. Many of these have now returned, to take up the work with even greater zeal than ever before. Last year 400 were engaging in field service, but now there are 853 reporting activity, and 21 of these are pioneers. They have been able to obtain paper for printing some quantities of literature sufficient to keep the brethren supplied for the regular witness work. The prices paid for paper have been exorbitant. Now, however, the government is controlling the situation and definite allotments of paper will soon be given to the Society at the regular fixed prices.

In Belgium the languages spoken are French and Flemish. The population being about evenly divided by these two languages, therefore everything that is printed in French must also be translated into Flemish, in order that the witness may be given throughout all the country. The workers in the Branch office have striven diligently to get the translations done, organizing the companies arid distributing the literature. While Brother Knorr visited the brethren in Belgium arrangements were started for the purchase of a building that would provide a place for the offices and living quarters for the staff and to centralize the work. Financial assistance was also given to the Belgian office by the Brooklyn headquarters office, so that now greater progress can be made in the way of printing and distributing the literature, as well as taking proper care of the brethren working in the office. Special pioneer work was introduced and, from brethren now serving as pioneers, a selecting of the special pioneers has been made. For the work to be properly organized in Belgium a Belgian Association was formed under the name of Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, a non-lucrative society. This has been a great aid in forwarding the work in Belgium. The brethren are in good repute because of their continued activity under cover during the German occupation, and their regular publication of literature during that time.

As for the meeting, the brethren throughout Belgium, both the Flemish and the French, were given only a few days’ notice, and it was very gratifying to observe that the hall engaged for Sunday afternoon, December 2, was filled, 900 being present. There were thirteen brethren from Luxembourg in attendance. The program began at 1:30 pm. and continued until 5:40 p.m., there being a brief intermission of fifteen minutes. A few opening remarks were made by the Branch servant, Frederic Hartstang, and then Brother Knorr addressed the assembly through two interpreters. What he said in English was repeated in French and then Flemish. The love and greetings of all the brethren abroad were extended to them and were much appreciated. Concluding his discourse on the responsibilities of the brethren to 'go and make disciples of all the nations’, Brother Knorr introduced Brother Henschel, who talked on the pioneer work and the possibilities in Belgium for its increase. Then Brother Knorr again took the platform and explained how the brethren must be stronghearted in this postwar period. From the Scriptures he explained how the heart must be properly fed with the right food, and this food is obtained through the Scriptures and properly applied in the daily life. A resumS of the work world-wide was then covered, and service matters were discussed as pertain to Belgium. Announcement was made of the coming to Belgium soon of a graduate of the Watchtower Bible College of Gilead to look after the work and to bring the Belgian organization more into line with Theocratic arrangement. (This College graduate has since arrived and undertaken his duties.) The Belgian brethren were complimented on their good service record, special note being made of the 100-percent increase in the number of Kingdom publishers during the past year. Much discipling work remains to be done among the nine million people living in the land.

At the close of the meeting the Belgians expressed their desire to have love and greetings sent to their faithful associates in all the world. Brother Knorr then met with the pioneers who were in attendance at the assembly and discussed pioneer problems, and also mentioned the opportunity of Belgian pioneers’ entering the College at some future date. Interviews with brethren from Belgium and Luxembourg concluded a pleasant day of service.

The Lord’s "strange work” in Belgium will undoubtedly move ahead at a rapid pace in this postwar period. Jehovah’s witnesses in Belgium and Luxembourg are zealous to preach "this gospel of the kingdom” in order that the ‘nations may be glad with Jehovah’s people’.—Rom. 15:10.