SEeWATCHTOWER.

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

Officbbs

N. H. Knorb, 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 BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to everlasting, and Is the Maker of heaven and earth and Giver of life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning of his creation and his active agent in creating all other things; and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised the issue of His universal sovereignty;

THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithful Lucifer, or Satan, and 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 men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all power and authority as head of God’s new capital organization;

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 new world; that the faithful anointed followers of Christ Jesus are Zion’s children, members of Jehovah’s organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege it Is to testify to Jehovah’s supremacy and declare his purposes toward mankind as expressed In the Bible;

THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to vindicate His name and establish the "new earth”;

THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only by Jehovah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His next great act is to destroy Satan’s organization and establish righteousness completely in the earth ; and that under the Kingdom the people of good-will surviving Armageddon will carry out the divine mandate to “fill the earth” with righteous offspring, and that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities of life on earth.

ITS MISSION

THIS journal la 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

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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 ?;lad to thus aid the needy, but the written application once each years required by the postal regulations.

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THE CLEVELAND ASSEMBLY

Jehovah’s witnesses world-wide are all interested in what is going to happen in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 4 to 11. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Incorporated, is arranging for an eight-day convention and it will be an all-nations Theocratic assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses because representatives will be coming to Cleveland from all parts of the earth. Many delegates have already arrived in the United States from Europe, Africa, South America and islands of the seas. Many others are on their way from these and other continents. Thousands of students of the Lord’s Word will gather together in the Cleveland Stadium for worship of Almighty God from August 4 to 11. All Watchtower readers are welcome to attend all the sessions, or as many as they can arrange to attend. The Society has set up headquarters in Cleveland to arrange for rooming accommodations. For information in this regard address Watchtower Convention Rooming Committee, 2515 Franklin Boulevard, Cleveland 13, Ohio. Make your plans now and bring with you people of goodwill, those desiring to serve God and anxious to serve the Kingdom of heaven announced world-wide. Detailed information can be obtained from your local company of Jehovah’s witnesses. There is a rich blessing in store for those attending this first all-nations assembly in the postwar period. Come, and “be glad, ye nations, with his people”.

“CREATOR’S REMEMBRANCE” TESTIMONY PERIOD

For a month usually devoted to the recuperation of one’s physical vigor and strength and youthfulness in the Northern hemisphere the above name is very fitting. Not only will school children then enjoying their vacations but also all others of Jehovah’s witnesses will want to remember their Creator by publishing the message of his name and kingdom. During August they will offer to the reading public the combination of four of the Society's booklets on a contribution of 10c, or any ten of the booklets, including “Be Glad, Ye Nations”, on a contribution of 25c. The distribution of booklets has proved a splendid way for many new publishers to get started in the work of giving witness to God among the people, and doubtless many Watchtower readers will be interested to take a part therein and thus show remembrance of their Creator. All that is necessary to be put in touch with those who will give practical instruction and association in the field service is to drop us a brief word. Do so, and we shall give it our earliest attention. At the close of this August Testimony Period we should be delighted to receive field reports of more publishers of the Kingdom message.

"WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of August 4: “Vindicated on the Covenant by Sacrifice,” fl 1-20 inclusive, The Watchtower July 1, 1946.

Week of August 11: “Vindicated on the Covenant by Sacrifice,” fl 21-41 inclusive, The Watchtower July 1, 1946.

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM

Vol. LXVII                               July 1, 1946                                    No. 13

VINDICATED ON THE COVENANT BY SACRIFICE

"Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”—Ps. 50:5.

TEHOVAH has called into court all those who have I relationship with him through the great covenant J by sacrifice. All “Christendom” is interested; she is before the bar of justice, because for many centuries she has loudly claimed to have covenant relationship with God through sacrifice. All Jewry is likewise interested, because this persecuted people, according to their own history, entered once as a nation into a covenant with Jehovah God by sacrifice. Also those persecuted Christians who are known all over the earth as “Jehovah’s witnesses” are interested. Why? Because their very name obligates them to go on the witness stand for the One whose name they bear and to point out the fact as to the covenant here involved. The question up for settlement is, How have all those who profess to have solemnized the covenant with the Lord God by sacrifice lived up to it? What connection has the non-fulfillment of the covenant with the disturbed, disastrous world-conditions today? Who is righteous in the matter? Has God, who is party to the covenant, any grounds for making complaint and seeldng justice against the covenant-breakers ?

• ² For a view of the setting in which this court is conducted we turn to Psalm 50 of the sacred Scriptures. It correctly foretold the situation in this twentieth-century time. It also sets out God’s indictment or legal statement of charges. It shows what is the case with the defendants on trial and what is the only way to take to escape the execution of the sentence against the guilty. The One who is the Judge in this court is the One who at the same time files the charges against those professing to have a covenant relationship. He is Jehovah God. It is his covenant that is concerned. It was originated and drawn up by Him; no one understands it better or can render better judgment concerning it than he can. We want to learn what this Supreme Judge recommends as the sure way to avoid being sentenced with the covenant-breakers and undergoing execution of that sentence in the coming great worlddisaster.

• ³ Psalm 50 is entitled “A Psalm of Asaph”. The original Asaph was a temple servant at Jerusalem, of the tribe of Levi. He was a musician, and King David set him over the service of singing at the house of the Lord God. He became the fatherly head of a house or line of musicians or singers; and it was for this musical house which descended from Asaph that Psalm 50 was written. The evidence appears to be against its having been written for the original Asaph in the days of King David or of King Solomon. Psalm 50 is the first of twelve Asaphite psalms or songs, and all of them are distinguished for making prominent that Jehovah God is the great Judge. —See titles of Psalms 73-83, inclusive.

• ¹ In the opening verse of Psalm 50 we see the summons being issued for all interested persons, particularly those interested in the vindication of the Most High God, to attend the court and be witness to the righteousness of the proceedings and to the vindication of the great Judge. The psalm begins: “The Mighty One, God, Jehovah, hath spoken, and called the’ earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.”—Ps. 50:1, Am. Stan. Ver.

’ It is an unusual Personage that issues the summons; and the emphasized translation of the Bible by the noted J. B. Rotherham shows how He is designated according to the original Hebrew of the Psalms: “El Elohim Yahweh [Jehovah] hath spoken and called the earth, from the rising of the sun unto the going in thereof.” The One calling out the summons is “El Elohim Jehovah”. That designation is a solemn one, and was used on the occasion of making solemn declarations of one’s purpose and one’s obligations. For one historical case of such we quote from Joshua 22:21-23 giving the solemn statement by the Reubenites, the Gadites and the Manassites to the other tribes of the nation of Israel: "Then responded the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, and spake unto the heads of the thousands of Israel: El-Elohim-Yahweh [Jehovah], El-Elohim-Yahweh [Jehovah], he know-eth, and Israel he shall know; if in rebellion or if in

treachery against Yahweh [Jehovah], . . . that we should build for ourselves an altar, to turn back from following Yahweh [Jehovah], or if that we might cause to go up thereon ascending-sacrifice or mealoffering, or if that we might offer thereon peaceofferings, let Yahweh [Jehovah] himself require it.” (Rotherham) And in the Second Commandment of the Ten Commandments the Lord God tells his covenant people why they should not make or worship idols, saying: “For I Jehovah thy God [Elohim] am a jealous God [El].”—Ex. 20:5, Am. Stan. Ver.

“All will notice that, in translating the Hebrew expression “El Elohim Jehovah”, the American Standard Version Bible translated El as “the Mighty One”, and Elohim as “God”. The title El or Mighty One befits Jehovah, because he is really almighty and nothing just and right is impossible for him to do. The title Elohim befits him because he sums up and contains in himself all the powers and pre-eminent quaHties that any and all other mighty ones could have and he surpasses all such others. Elohim is the title marking him as the Maker and Framer of all creation; it is the title applied to him in the opening verse of the Bible: “In the beginning God [Elohim] created the heaven and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1) He deserves the attention of all his intelligent creatures.

^T El Elohim, or “The Mighty One, God”, is what He the Creator is; and his name Jehovah (or Yahweh) is exclusively his name. It designates him as the God of purpose, the One who purposes and whose purposes never can be blocked or broken. "He causes to be” is what this name is understood to mean literally ; and what He causes to come into existence is for a right and good purpose. He especially uses his name Jehovah in connection with his covenants or solemn contracts. It was in this name that he entered into the covenant by sacrifice with his ancient chosen people, the nation of Israel. When sending Moses to the Israelites to bring them into the covenant by sacrifice, He said to his prophet Moses: “I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” And when Moses inaugurated the covenant with the Israelites at Mount Sinai in Arabia, we read—“he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that Jehovah hath spoken will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant,

• 6. Why does the designation befit him?

• 7. What does his name mean, and in what connection was it especially used?

which Jehovah hath made with you concerning all these words.”—Ex. 3:14,15; 24: 7,8; Am. Stan. Ver.

’Hence “El Elohim Jehovah” is the great Judge who sends out the summons and is the One with whom the covenant by sacrifice was made. That makes the matter most serious; and religious prejudice and misrepresentation against the name “Jehovah” should not be permitted to turn anyone away in scorn from considering this matter. If anyone of “Christendom” does so, it simply upholds the truthfulness of the charges made in the divine indictment. Psalm 50 shows that the consequences will be most serious and disastrous for such scornful one. It shows that all on the earth are summoned, from the far east to the far west, “from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof,” or wherever the sun shines.

• ⁸ In view of the general ignorance in which religion has left the mass of humankind, Jehovah’s calling the earth over such a wide extent indicates that he obligates himself to do something. What? To get his message, by which he summons the court attenders, out to all nations, kindreds, peoples and languages. And since he sends his message by means of human servants on earth, as servers of the notice, tills also indicates a tremendous work of publicity by his witnesses to get His message out. Not to speak of their publishing work done before, it can here be reported that since the close of World War I in the year 1918 Jehovah’s witnesses have penetrated to most parts of the earth and have put in circulation nearly a half billion copies of books and booklets explaining the Bible, God’s Word. Add to that other hundreds of millions of free tracts, magazines, announcements and recorded lectures and free Bible lectures delivered at public auditoriums, over radio stations and networks, and in private homes. But even with such an unparalleled publication in eighty-eight different languages by such few witnesses of Jehovah as there are, the end of the 'calling of the earth from east to west’ is not yet.

ZION, THE SEAT OF JUDGMENT

• ¹⁰ One fact of which all should be notified is of where the judgment seat of the great Judge is, from where he sends his enlightening message. Psalm 50 declares: “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God [Elohim] hath shined.” (Ps. 50:2) This fact shows that mankind has moved far along the stream of time, bringing the grand climax of matters therefore now so near. When the typical covenant by sacrifice was made between him and the nation of Israel, God shined forth from Mount Sinai, in 1513 B.C. At that time, as the historian says in address to God, “Thou

8, What, then, makes the matter dealt with in Psalm 50 most serious'’ 9. (a) Calling the earth from sunrising to sunset shows Jehovah obligates himself to do what? (b) To what extent has he done it to date? 10. (a) Where now is the Judge’s seat, and what does this indicate? (b) From where did he shine forth when the typical covenant by sacrifice was made? earnest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant.” And Moses testifies regarding this to the Israelites, saying: “Ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. And Jehovah spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of words, but ye saw no form; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.”—Neh. 9:13,14; Deut. 4:11-13, A.S.V.

• ¹¹ That covenant of law, with the Ten Commandments as its fundamental law, was made with Jehovah over sacrifice or by sacrifice. It also had much to say concerning acceptable sacrifices. The sacrifice upon which this law covenant primarily rested was the passover lamb, slain down in Egypt on Nisan 14 of the year 1513 B.C. The instructions as to the holding of that passover feast were really the beginning of the law covenant; and the death of the passover lamb was the death of the victim over whose sacrificed life the covenant was made. The blood of the passover lamb was sprinkled upon the doorposts and lintels of the Israelite houses; it was the blood which made the law covenant valid or binding and operative upon the chosen people of God. Their march out of Egypt and toward Mount Sinai as Jehovah’s freedmen followed a few hours later. Jehovah speaks of it, therefore, as “the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah”. (Jer. 31:32, Am. Stan. Ver.) That covenant was inaugurated or dedicated at Mount Sinai by a spoken agreement between God and the Israelites, and by God’s giving them his written law through the mediator Moses. This inauguration of the law covenant was made by or over a suitable sacrifice. Concerning this we read as follows:

• ¹² “And Moses came and told the people all the words of Jehovah, and all the ordinances: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which Jehovah hath spoken will we do. And Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the mount, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto Jehovah. And

• 11, 12. (a) Upon what sacrifice did the law covenant primarily rest, and why? (b) Over what sacrifice was that covenant inaugurated, and how? Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that Jehovah hath spoken will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which Jehovah hath made with you concerning all these words.” (Ex. 24:3-8, Am. Stan. Ver.) “For where a testament [covenant] is, there must of necessity be the death of him that made it. For a testament is of force where there hath been death: for it doth never avail while he that made it liveth. Wherefore even the first covenant hath not been dedicated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses unto all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded to you-ward.” (Heb. 9:16-20, Am. Stan. Ver.) In a twofold sense,, then, it was a typical “covenant by sacrifice”.

• ¹³ However, since then the great Covenant-maker and Judge, Jehovah, has moved from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion from which to shine. He there enters into judgment over his covenant with his people. In a typical or pictorial way this occurred after he brought the nation of Israel into the Promised Land and then aided their faithful king, David, to capture and occupy Zion, which was the stronghold in the city of Jerusalem. (2 Sam. 5:6-10) Shortly before dying, at the borders of the Promised Land, Moses spoke of this movement from Mount Sinai toward Mount Zion, saying: “Jehovah came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: at his right hand was a fiery law for them. Yea, he loveth the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.” (Deut. 33:2,3, Am. Stan. Ver.) All along the line of march Jehovah shone forth and revealed his glory.

• ¹⁴ The Zion or Jerusalem to which Jehovah came in the days of King David and on which he later established his temple by King Solomon was just typical or figurative. It was prophetic of the heavenly Zion. This Zion is the capital organization which is exalted over all the universal organization of God, just as the Zion of old was the royal capital of the nation of Israel and had the visible “throne of Jehovah” upon which David and his faithful successors sat. Jehovah’s King in that capital organization is

• 13. Since then, to where has he moved? and what does Moses say regarding this movement?

• 14. What is this Zion from which Jehovah now shines? and what is its foundation?

His beloved Son, Christ Jesus. After Jesus died on the tree as a martyr or witness of Jehovah, God raised him out of death and exalted him to his own right hand, “angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” (1 Pet. 3:22) The exalted Christ Jesus is thus the foundation of God’s capital organization Zion, and as to this God made the declaration of purpose centuries in advance: “Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not be in haste.” (Isa. 28:16, Am. Stan. Ver.) From this true Zion Jehovah now shines forth, for it is “the perfection of beauty”, surpassing all the rest of creation.

• ¹⁵ Showing the difference between ancient Mount Sinai and the true Mount Zion of God’s capital, with the superiority going to Zion, the apostle Paul says to the Christians who have entered into a covenant with Jehovah God by sacrifice: “For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them; for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.”—Heb. 12:18-25, Am. Stan. Ver.

^ie We can now appreciate the prophecy of the coming of “God the Judge of all” to the true Zion, his capital organization of perfect beauty. Psalm 50 warns us of it, saying: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.” (Ps. 50: 3) That coming of God to his capital organization was in the year 1914, for in that year the Almighty took to himself his great power and began to reign by means of his capital organization Zion. He did so by putting His King, Christ Jesus, upon the throne to rule. At that time a prophecy applied which had long stood written in God’s Word: “Jehovah will send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion: Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” (Ps. 110:2, Am. Stan. Ver.) The new king’s first act of 15. How does Paul, nt Hebrews 12:18*25, show the difference between Mount Sinai and the true Mount Zion?

• 16. When was fulfilled the prophecy “Our God shall come”, and how? rulership in the midst of his enemies was the casting of Satan the Devil and all his demon angels out of the heavenly heights. The King’s enthronement A.D. 1914 and the “war in heaven” which he waged thereafter in order to eject the Devil’s invisible organization from their association with the heavenly sons of God was prophetically pictured in a vision described at Revelation 12:1-12. Running parallel with that “war in heaven” was the first world war, of 1914-1918, for the domination of the earth by the nations.

^1T Nineteen centuries ago, it was three and a half years after Jesus’ baptism and anointing with God’s spirit that he rode into Jerusalem, entered the temple and executed a judgment against the religionists that were then defiling the typical house of God. Down here at this end of our common era it was three and a half years after his enthronement as Jehovah’s Anointed King that. Christ Jesus came to the spiritual temple of God, namely, in the spring A.D. 191S, and began judgment at the house of God. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.”—1 Pet. 4:17.

• ¹⁸ From then on Jehovah has not kept silence. When he was keeping silence prior to that coming to the temple of his Messenger and King; the hypocrites in “Christendom” were doing certain criminal things. They persuaded themselves that God’s silence meant his approval of their religious misdeeds. His breaking his silence means that he would send forth his judgment message by means of his Messenger at the temple and by means of the faithful remnant of his anointed witnesses upon the earth. Out of Zion Jehovah has shined forth upon this remnant by illuminating the pages of the Bible for them and revealing to them the glorious message of the establislunent of the Kingdom in 1914 by the conferring of authority upon Christ Jesus as King. Such glory light of Jehovah from Zion his witnesses on earth must reflect to all “men of good will” by preaching the gospel of the Kingdom to all nations of the world. At the same time they must be Jehovah’s mouthpieces to declare his message of judgment against religious “Christendom”, because the time has come for Jehovah God to break his silence against the practicers of religion who take his name but only to bring scorn and reproach upon it. At the time of executing his destructive judgments against them, at the battle of Armageddon, then God will put into play his forces of destruction like a consuming fire, and it will be very stormy about him as he expresses his wrath against the hypocrites. “For our God is a consuming fire.”—Heb. 12: 29; Deut. 4: 24; Ex. 24:17.

• 17. How do we calculate the time of the Klug’s coming to the temple? 18. (a) In what way has God not kept silence since then⁹ (b) When will fire devour before him and it be tempestuous about him?

AFTER THE SUMMONS THE JUDGMENT

• ¹⁹ That which follows Jehovah’s summons is no secret trial, no closed hearing with the public debarred, all newspaper reporters shut out, and a tight official censorship clamped down against all possible leaking out of the news. Jehovah is not afraid of having the matter at issue fully aired to all heaven and earth. Aye, let all the universe get in on the news, for, after all the exposures and frank-discussion and raging of the controversy, the end result will be that Jehovah’s judicial fairness and impartiality will be enhanced and his side of the covenant by sacrifice will be vindicated. Only the religionists are in favor of a censorship, and they clamor for it lest they get their religious sensibilities hurt and their sanctimonious hypocrisy be exposed. Hence Psalm 50 shows the universal publicness of the hearing and trial, saying: “He called to the heavens above, and to the earth, to judge his people. 'Gather to me my saints, who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.’ Then the heavens declared his righteousness, that God was giving judgment. Selah.”—Ps. 50: 4-6, An Amer. Trans.

• ²⁰ As to calling the heavens above to attend the trial, Isaiah the prophet had a vision of Jehovah’s judicial representative seated on the throne at the temple, and writes: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the very vision Isaiah felt himself judged unclean, and he accepted the cleansing promptly tendered to him. (Isa. 6:1-7, Am. Stan. Ver.; John 12:39-41) Thus the seraphim are indicated as being present at the trial and testifying to God’s holiness and righteousness. Furthermore, Christ the King is Jehovah’s judicial appointee to the bench of judgment at the temple; and concerning him the prophecy has declared: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels -with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” (Matt. 25: 31, 32) That prophecy shows that Christ’s attendant angels of heaven would also be present at the trial; and, besides that, it shows that “the earth”, that is to say, all the nations of earth, would be gathered to the trial. They cannot escape being assembled for the grand inquiry and investigation, because Almighty

• 19. What follows God’s summons? and how, according to Psalm 50:4, will it be conducted?

• 20. How do the Scriptures show heaven and earth would be present at the hearing and judgment?

God has called and those who must appear for questioning are located among all nations. Amid such an assemblage God judges “his people”.

• ¹¹ His people! Who are they? They are the same ones as are meant by the expression “my saints”, who are to be gathered to Jehovah God for a hearing and trial because they have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. In the fulfillment of the prophecy in our day it is evident that the designation “his people” embraces not just all those who are by all proofs his covenant people but also those who religiously make claims to being His people in covenant relationship with him. That includes the natural Jews, who maintain that the covenant by sacrifice made through Moses still holds good, leaving them still Jehovah’s chosen people. It also includes the millions of sectarian religionists of “Christendom”, so called, who make their claims to being His covenant people through Christ. That means they are in an implied covenant with God. Since they claim the favored privilege of covenant relationship with Him, and its blessings, then they must be taken at their word and be judged according to the obligations and requirements of that covenant. Who, now, is it that stands the judgment test by God, who is “judge himself”?

COVENANT BY SACRIFICE

• ²² It is necessary to determine what is this “covenant by sacrifice” in order to make sure who are in it and who are “my saints” in a true sense. In the ancient typical circumstances existing in the days when Psalm 50 was written, that which Jehovah God recognized as the “covenant with me by sacrifice” was the law covenant which all the nation of Israel made with him through Moses. Except that Moses undertook individually to make the covenant with Jehovah for the Israelite nation as their mediator, this “covenant by sacrifice” was not made with each and every individual Israelite separately. It was not made with any individual Israelites, but was made with the entire nation through the mediator Moses. No individual Israelite made an individual or personal covenant with Jehovah God by a sacrifice of his personal own self. The nation, through its representative elder men, declared in favor of this agreement with Jehovah God; and there was one passover lamb for each household when making the covenant in Egypt, and one set of sacrifices for the entire nation when dedicating the covenant at Mount Sinai.

• ²³ That ancient covenant by sacrifice continued until the real passover lamb was sacrificed, and then that old law covenant found its counterpart in a new covenant by sacrifice. It is written, at 1 Corinthians

• 21 . Who are “his people” meant in the prophecy, and why?

• 22 . In the ancient typical circumstances what was the “covenant with me by sacrifice”? and was it an individual covenant-arrangement or otherwise?

• 23 What is the counterpart now of that ancient covenant? and who has made it, and over what sacrifice?

5:7: “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us?’ Yes, Christ Jesus is the true passover lamb whose blood makes valid or binding the new covenant upon his faithful followers, the true “Israel of God”. (Gal. 6:16) Christ Jesus is the Mediator of the new and better covenant by sacrifice, and he is the One who makes it with Jehovah God in behalf of the new “holy nation”, the “church of the living God”. Jesus’ human sacrifice is the one and only sacrifice that enters into the making of the covenant and the ratifying of it; as lie himself said when offering his disciples the wine of the Memorial supper: "Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” (Matt. 26: 27, 28; Luke 22: 20) In view of the blood of his sacrifice it is written in God’s Word: “But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second.” “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant.”—Heb. 8: 6, 7 ; 9:14,15; Am. Stan. Ver.

• ²⁴ In times past the expression “covenant with me by sacrifice” has been understood by many Christians as meaning a personal covenant which each one makes at the time he dedicates himself to God through Christ in an agreement to do God’s will henceforth. It was further thought that such personal covenant was specifically made with human sacrifice in mind, with the direct understanding that the covenanter was to be sacrificed with Christ Jesus and thus forego all right to perfect human life in the New World and, instead, inherit immortal life with Christ Jesus in the heavens. Thus each such covenanter was understood to make a separate, personal, individual “’covenant by sacrifice’, that is, his own sacrifice, and distinct from the new covenant. But this is not the Scriptural understanding of the matter. When a believer in God and His Christ dedicates himself to God unreservedly to do God’s will and to have God’s will done toward him, he does not lay down any conditions upon which he thus dedicates himself to God, as, for example, that he be sacrificed with Christ Jesus. Certainly the men of good-will who today are dedicating themselves to God according to His will do not thus do on the condition that they be taken into the church which is the “body of Christ” and be “made conformable

• 24. What has been the understanding of many concerning the “covenant by sacrifice”? and why la it incorrect? unto his death”. Their full dedication of themselves is an unconditional one, and they let the all-wise God decide for himself what disposition to make of them as to their final destiny, whether of eternal life on earth or of life in heaven through being put to death with Christ.

• ²⁵ The “covenant with me by sacrifice” is God’s one covenant made with his Mediator in behalf of all the spiritual “Israel of God”, the church who are members of Christ’s body. In Psalm 50:5 the expression “covenant with me” is in the original Hebrew “my covenant”; for which reason Rotherham’s translation of the verse reads: “Gather yourselves unto me —ye my men of lovingkindness, who have solemnised my covenant over sacrifice.” God originated and proposed the new covenant over Christ Jesus’ perfect sacrifice; and the purpose of this covenant is to ‘take out of the nations a people for Jehovah’s name’, to wit, God’s “holy nation” of spiritual Israel. God has a definite time for taking men into this covenant through the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. It is not for the believer on earth to stipulate, but it is for God to do His own will and determine which ones of those dedicating themselves to him to take into His covenant over Christ’s sacrifice.

“MY SAINTS”

• ²⁶ Those whom Jehovah takes into the new covenant over Christ’s one sacrifice to become members of his “holy nation” or “people for his name” are receivers of God’s unspeakable loving-kindness. Hence they are called by Him “my saints”, or, better translated by Rotherham, “my men of lovingkindness.” What the psalmist calls each of them in his original tongue is “hhaseed”, which name occurs 32 times throughout the old Hebrew Scriptures, and 25 times in the Psalms alone. It is drawn from the root word meaning “mercy or loving-kindness”; and in the Bible, and especially in the Psalms, the mercy or loving-kindness of God to men is more outstanding than is the mercy or loving-kindness of godly men to others. Hence “my saints” undoubtedly means the ones who have received of God’s mercy and loving-kindness through Christ by being taken into the new covenant by Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus is in a chief way God’s saint or holy one or man of loving-kindness, and concerning his resurrection out of death and the grave the scripture says: “For thou wilt not abandon my soul to hades, neither wilt thou suffer thy man of lovingkindness to see corruption.”—Ps. 16:10, Roth.; Acts 2: 27, 31.

• ²⁷ Of all such ones, who taste of God’s loving-kindness and mercy through the new covenant into which

• 25. What, then, is the “covenant with me by sacrifice”'’ and what is its purpose?

• 26. Whom, then, does “my saints” specifically designate, and why? 27. How many are in that ‘covenant by sacrifice’ today and living up to it, as foretold by Isaiah? they are brought, there is only a remnant on earth today. Of all those who profess to be in the new covenant (and all the sects of "Christendom” so profess to be) there is only a remnant who actually are in it and living up to their covenant obligations to be a people for Jehovah’s name, His witnesses. As it is stated, at Isaiah 1: 2, 3, 9: “Hear, 0 heavens, and give ear, 0 earth; for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.”—Am. Stan. Ver.

• ²⁸ The ‘gathering’ of Jehovah’s saints or men of loving-kindness does not necessarily imply that they have been scattered, although the faithful remnant were scattered by malicious religious forces in “Christendom” during World War I. The gathering means that they are assembled together to the trial and judgment which Jehovah sets in motion by his royal Judge at the temple, Christ Jesus, the King. The assembling is brought about by the setting of God’s judgment-message before all those summoned and concerned, by means of His Theocratic organization for publishing his message. Hence not only is the remnant gathered to the grand courtroom for the occasion, but also all those of “Christendom” who make loud claims of being God’s saints in covenant relationship with him by Christ’s sacrifice. Also present at the trial and judgment, as observers, would be the multitudes of persons of good-will, the companions of the faithful remnant, because surely these good-will companions are included in the sweep of “the heavens above and . . . the earth”, to which God calls for their attention to this trial and judgment. Hence since the close of World War I in 1918 the gathering of all those professing to God to be his “saints” has gone forward, for the facts show that the judgment-message as declared in the remainder of Psalm 50 has been set before all the earth, and particularly before “Christendom”, by the agency of Jehovah’s faithful remnant of witnesses.

• ²⁹ Christ Jesus is the chief and topmost one of God’s heavens, and he as representative of God’s holy heavens declares Jehovah’s righteousness. He declares God’s faithfulness to His part of the covenant by sacrifice. He declares also God’s impartialness in dealing with the other parties to the covenant, and his strict justice and his adherence to the rules of the divine court. The court is now set, with a full courtroom from heaven and earth; and now a pause occurs, as denoted by the word “Selah”, which ends

28 (a) To what Is the ‘gathering’, and how is it accomplished? (b) Who on earth are present at the grand assemblage?

• 20. How do the heavens declare God’s righteousness? the first division or section of Psalm 50.—Ps. 50: 6.

JEHOVAH’S TESTIMONY

^so Jehovah, beginning the trial, is first to testify, laying his charges against those who profess to be his people, his Israel, but either they are not such or they are not correctly carrying out the terms of the covenant by sacrifice. That covenant had much to say about animal sacrifices, back there in the first or typical covenant, and hence we hear Jehovah God now say: “Hear, 0 my people, and I will speak; 0 Israel, and I will testify unto thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; and thy burnt-offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?”—Ps. 50:7-13, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ³¹ God here describes the formalities of offering outward sacrifice ■without one’s heart being in it in true worship of God. It corresponds with the religious formalism which the prophet Isaiah, likely a contemporary of the writer of Psalm 50, describes. Declaring that God is not pleased but is nauseated at such formal worship by those who do not live up to the covenant, Isaiah says: “Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies,— I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah."—Isa. 1:10-18, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ³² As we listen to Jehovah’s testimony through his

30 Who testifies first? against whom are charges laid, and as respects what ?

31 What does Jehovah God thus describe⁹ and to what like expression of His through Isaiah does it correspond?

32. At such testimony from Jehovah why do our minds turn to “Christendom” and to her condition? psalmist and through the prophet, our minds skip from the ancient time of the Mosaic law covenant by sacrifice to the present time of the new covenant by Christ’s sacrifice. Religious “Christendom” with her hundreds of sects, religiously divided, politically divided, nationally divided, and militarily divided, claims to be in the covenant with God by sacrifice, and she scoffs at the small remnant of His anointed witnesses who are truly in the new covenant over Christ’s sacrifice. “Christendom’s” religion is all an outward formality, and not a heart worship of God “in spirit and in truth”. It brings much reproach upon God’s name. For this reason “Christendom’s” condition spiritually, socially, morally, and physically, is as described by Isaiah: “Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil.”—Isa. 1: 5, 6, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ³³ Hence “Christendom’s” slogan for peace and her international organization for world peace and security will not bring peace or healing or social justice. Her schemes are no part of his covenant by sacrifice, but are against the kingdom of God’s Son, whose sacrifice validates the new covenant. When “Christendom’s” clergy of religion pray heavenward for her and for her worldly institutions, God will not hear. He is not hearing and answering. He says: '“Your hands are full of blood.” And after World War I and World War II, the bloodiest conflicts of all human history, “Christendom’s” hands are full of blood; and that includes the religious clergy, from the pope on down. None of these clergy have done anything within their religious powers to prevent or stop war, but, instead, they have blessed and prayed for both sides of the carnal conflict and have sent their chaplains to give religious morale to both opposing sides and have hurrahed both sides on into the fratricidal slaughter. How, then, can God recognize their religious formalities? Do these things enrich God at all? Do “Christendom’s” money drives for magnificent cathedrals and religious institutions and functions contribute anything to God’s wealth and obligate him morally to them? Not one cent’s worth! for all the world is his and all that is in it.

• ³⁴ What, then, should the people do who want to worship God aright, especially at this troublous time of the end of this old world? Let all those gathered together, Jehovah’s witnesses and all, hear the instructions of “El Elohim Jehovah” (Ps. 50:14,15): “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: and call upon me in the day of 33. Why^ will God not hear and answer “Christendom"? and why is he not obligated to her?

• 34 . What should sincere worshipers sacrifice and pay, according to God’s instructions at Psalm 60: 14? and how? trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” The sacrifice or offering which the acceptable worshipers of Jehovah God must offer instead of religious formalities is thanksgiving to God and payment of their vows or solemn agreements to Him. "Sacrifice to God a thank-offering, and fulfil your vows to the Most High.” (Amer. Trans.) Offering thanks to him as a sacrifice means expressing gratitude to him from the heart by a life of praising Him, and this must be done through Christ Jesus: “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” (Heb. 13:15,16) At this crucial time of the world, with its end in the battle of Armageddon getting ever closer, this giving God the fruit of our lips in continual praise and thanks, and this doing good and communicating, means publishing the facts about Jehovah God and his purpose, and communicating to the suffering bewildered people “this gospel of the kingdom”. When dedicating themselves to God, Jehovah’s witnesses vowed obedience to His will; and now they must pay or fulfill their vows by keeping his commandments through Christ and announcing to all men His kingdom.

• ³⁵ The sincere ones hear God’s reproof and correction and turn from religion and render Him obedience and worship in spirit and in truth. They are the ones whom He invites to call upon him through Christ in this time of trouble. They may do so with full confidence that he will hear them. He will deliver them from the snares of this world and from its destruction by His executioner at Armageddon. For His deliverance of them from the bondage and condemned condition of this world they now glorify him to all their friends and neighbors and associates. In the new world after Armageddon they will forever glorify him in life eternal.

TESTIMONY TO THE WICKED

• ³⁶ It is a grand privilege to be now a witness of Jehovah God, bearing his name and being entrusted with his message for proclamation to distressed humanity. The wicked, hypocritical religionists of “Christendom” are not thus favored. God witliholds this privilege from them, as his next courtroomtestimony declares. “But to the wicked God says: 'What right have you to recount my statutes, and to take my covenant upon your lips? For you hate instruction, and you cast my words behind you! If you see a thief, you are friendly with him; and you make common cause with adulterers. You charge your mouth with evil, and your tongue frames up 35. Who call upon Him In this time of trouble? and what deliverance do they experience?

• 36. Why, and in the face of what testimony against the wicked, is it a privilege to be a witness of Jehovah God? deceit. You sit down and speak against your brother, against the son of your mother you utter slander. These things you have done—and am I to be silent ? You thought that I was just like yourself! I "will correct you and set it forth in your sight.”—Ps. 50:16-21, An Amer. Trans.

• ³⁷ What business or what right have the wicked to pretend to teach God’s Word and to be in his covenant by sacrifice when their conduct is as God’s indictment here describes? “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself ?... Thou that makest thy boast of [having] the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.”—Rom. 2:21-24; 2 Sam. 12:14; Isa. 52: 5.

• ³⁸ The wicked religionists do not accept and apply to themselves the instruction and discipline which they read in the Holy Bible. And when Jehovah God raises up his faithful covenant-keepers to bear witness to his Word, the wicked show no love for the truth. Despite their oily professions with their mouths, they show hate for divine instruction and reproof by tossing God’s Word over their shoulder and turning their back on it and trying to censor and to stifle Jehovah’s witnesses. Although seeing the political and religious leaders and institutions stealing the worship, love and obedience of the people from God, the wicked do not protest against it by divorcing themselves strictly from this world. They pleasantly compromise, and join in praising and applauding the thieves and their political religious schemes. Claiming to be in covenant with God, still they seek this world's respect and keep on friendly terms with it, and their being a part of this world makes them spiritual adulterers. (Jas. 4:4) They speak double talk in order to deceive the simple-minded and to hide their selfish, worldly aims and desires. They sit in conferences and conspiracies and hatch up falsehoods. Then they wrongfully accuse Jehovah’s witnesses and misrepresent and slander them, in order to keep the people from hearing and heeding Jehovah’s message by his witnesses. This is the same as slandering their brother, their own mother’s son, because they profess to be in the same covenant with God as His anointed witnesses are.

• 37. How are the wicked, who undertake to teach God’s law, inconsistent with themselves?

• 3S. What is the conduct of the wicked toward (a) God’s Word, (b) thieves, (cl-adulterers, and (d) their implied brethren?

• ³⁹ The wicked religionists have judged God to be just like themselves. That is, they have set up their own human standards, and then they have painted God as approving of those standards and as using these religionists to be his preachers and representatives. Now that the time of trial and judgment is here of those professing to be in the covenant by sacrifice, shall God any longer keep silence? No; and he has not done so. He has raised up his witnesses who are faithful covenant-people for his name, and by these he has sent his message of judgment. By his message he shows up the wicked as hypocrites, and corrects the wrong impression that they have made respecting God. By his faithful "witnesses he puts the matter forth plainly to the public and in the sight of the -wicked. Thus Jehovah vindicates his side of the covenant and gives proof that he is not party to the wickedness of those not living up to the covenant.

• ⁴⁰ Hear now His warning to the formal worshipers who at heart leave Jehovah God out of consideration : “Understand this, I pray you, ye who are forgetting God, lest I tear, and there is no deliverer. He who is sacrificing praise honoureth Me, as to him who maketh a way, I cause him to look on the salvation of God!” (Ps. 50: 22, 23, Young) “Christendom” will keep on declining to consider the judgment message that Jehovah God sends by his covenant-remnant who are now backed up by the multitude of goodwill companions. These companions have quit “organized religion” during this time of opportunity. At the battle of Armageddon God will tear wicked, hypocritical “Christendom” to pieces by his “Lion of the tribe of Juda”, Christ Jesus his Executioner, and will blot out her religion.

• ⁴¹ Those, however, who will see God’s deliverance and salvation to eternal life in the New World will be those who now set their way or life-course according to their covenant obligations. These avoid all forms of wickedness and hypocritical religious formalities. They remember God their Creator continually. They use their vigor, time, means and all to glorify him by daily sacrificing to him the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, declaring his holy name and his glorious kingdom by Christ Jesus.

• 39. How have such wieked ones misjudged God? and how has he vindicated himself on the covenant by sacrifice?

• 40. What warning does Jehovah finally give? and why *ill “Christendom” suffer it, and when?

• 41. How do those who will look on the salvation of God make or order their way?

FROM BRITISH GUIANA

GOING into British Guiana during April, 1946, meant going into a British colony where the privilege of importation is forbidden to all literature published by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. A total ban against importing this educational literature went into effect June, 1944, during the global

TO CENTRAL AMERICA

war. Even copies of the Holy Bible containing no Watch Tower commentary but being simply versions published by other Bible societies were banned, that is, to Jehovah’s witnesses. British Guiana’s government certainly did not put itself in favor with the Lord God when it seized 258 copies of the authorized King James Version Bible and withheld these from sincere Christians and also held up a shipment of Watch Tower literature imported under government license, which license had been issued after careful scrutiny of each item imported. In Trinidad, about 200 miles northwest, the ban there was lifted months ago, but down to preparing this report neither the circulating of a petition by Jehovah’s witnesses nor the public distribution of thousands of copies of a leaflet reporting on the disposal of the petition had spurred the British Guiana government to put itself among the various governments of the British Empire and Commonwealth that had lifted all bans and proscriptions against Jehovah’s witnesses and the Watch Tower publications which these use. Hence a situation faced the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, our brother N. H. Knorr, as he undertook to enter British Guiana and to attend to the Society’s Branch matters in that colony.

The previous day’s flight for a landing at the field of the British West Indies Airways in British Guiana had failed. So Brother Knorr made another attempt on Friday, April 5. Leaving the hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad, at 5 a.m., he and his companion, William Tracy, rode the journey of three-quarters of an hour out to the Piarco airfield. There all the passengers (some picked up yesterday at the island of Barbados) that'had been grounded in Trinidad due to the plane’s motor trouble over British Guiana were on hand. A few minutes after 6 a.m., with all these passengers aboard, the BWIA 8-passenger plane got on its way, bound again for Mackenzie, B.G. This time no stop was made in Barbados, but flight was made direct to Mackenzie. Arrival there was at 8: 30 a.m. Before allowing our travelers entry here the British Guiana department of health officials at the airport checked their physical condition. From Mackenzie there is a shuttle plane which bears passengers to Georgetown at the mouth of the Demerara river. This amphibious plane takes on only six passengers and hence those unable to acquire passage on it must take the boat down the Demerara river to reach the capital city, Georgetown. Our friend Tracy was either fortunate or unfortunate enough to be assigned to this river boat. Thus he got to travel down the river’s winding course, through jungles and past the little palm-thatched-hut villages, an interesting voyage indeed. Brother Knorr, baling obtained passage in the shuttle plane, covered the direct distance of 53 miles in thirty minutes from the plane's take-off at Mackenzie field, thus reaching Georgetown on the Demerara about 10 a.m. Brother Tracy’s river steamer docked at the Georgetown wharf at 3: 30 p.m., or 51 hours later.

The British Guiana Branch servant, F. E. Phillips, met the Society’s president at the airport. The next few hours they spent in discussing with each other the conditions in Georgetown and in British Guiana generally as pertains to Jehovah’s “strange work”. For months now the local brethren, or Jehovah’s witnesses, had had no new Watch Tower publications at all. Literature on hand, and not seized by the government, was available for the brethren’s use in the service of God’s kingdom; but no new supplies had been allowed to enter, no, not even the Holy Bible if consigned to them. Considerable letter-wnting and other efforts by the Society’s Branch servant to have the government ban lifted were without avail, and so it was deemed advisable to circulate the afore-mentioned petition requesting the government to lift its restrictions on free worship to all the inhabitants. Then the petition, signed by thousands, was presented to the Colonial government. Time dragging on during which the government held the petition under advisement, the Watch Tower Branch wanted the British Guianans to know that the petition had been submitted. Hence a leaflet was published by Jehovah’s witnesses setting out the- facts-due to be known. The headlines read: “The Holy Bible Banned in British Guiana—31,000 Persons Sign Petition to the Governor for the restoration of freedom of worship to all inhabitants of the colony, irrespective of creed." This leaflet, issued in response to thousands of inquiries, was widely circulated throughout the colony. Additionally, Branch servant Phillips interviewed the Colonial secretary and arranged for a call on him by the Society’s president sometime during his visit. The time arranged for was the next day after arrival, or April 6, at 9: 30 a.m.

William Tracy reached the city safely by boat, and was very glad to be met at the pier by Brothers Knorr and Phillips. In the past many years Brother Phillips had done excellent work in organizing the native brethren for Kingdom service, but he could not devote his full time to the Branch work and other Kingdom interests in British Guiana due to his other obligations. So it seemed well that the Society send someone here that could give full time to the work and do so with the co-operation of Brother Phillips, This brother, in unselfish concern for the work, rejoiced.

All too quickly Friday evening came. Much to the surprise of all in attendance, 180 brethren and interested persons turned out for an 8 pan. meeting at the Georgetown company’s Kingdom Hall. Brethren were present from many parts of British Guiana, all eager to meet with the Watch Tower president and to receive his counsel as to the work to be done. In speaking, the president devoted an hour and a half to organization details. He also introduced Wm. Tracy to the brethren as being a graduate from the Watchtower Bible College of Gilead and an experienced servant to the brethren, and who had now come down to British Guiana to aid the local Kingdom publishers in their field activities. Brother Knorr also took occasion to point out that in Jesus’ days His followers had no supplies of Bibles and books for carrying on their preaching work. Still, thousands heard the Kingdom truth and joined themselves with those early Christians because they kept on going from door to door and village to village, preaching the gospel. Such, then, must be the method that Jehovah’s witnesses in British Guiana would have to use until such time as the government ban was removed. Brother Tracy was now there to go with the brethren from house to house and, like them, to make back-calls on interested persons and to initiate Bible studies with Watch Tower literature in the private homes.

The appointment for the next day (Saturday) was kept, with the Colonial secretary, W. L. Heape. The Society’s president undertook to explain to Mr. Heape the nature of our Christian work and why he thought the ban should be raised from Watch Tower publications. In other British lands the ban on such had been lifted, and in the case of Australia its government had been proved to be wrong in taking such action against Jehovah’s witnesses, the Supreme Court declaring the government action unjustified. In Canada members of its national Parliament had constantly kept the matter before the House, because they believed it wrong to take away free worship, free speech and free press by taking measures against Jehovah’s witnesses in Canada. However, bans might be placed on visible organizations and legal corporations, but as long as men had freedom to walk about and to talk, just that long the gospel of God’s kingdom would continue to be preached in British Guiana, for God’s consecrated witnesses will faithfully preach, with literature or with none at all. Thus many points came up for discussion with Mr. Heape. At the close of the half-hour interview he was left with a copy of the book “The Truth Shall Make You Free", accompanied by the request to read it carefully. He promised to do so, and stated that the issue involved was now under consideration by the executive committee, composed of nine members. (On June 6, 1946, good news was cabled to Brother Knorr: “Ban Rescinded.” In this we rejoice.)

At 8 p.m., same day, came the public meeting at the Town Hall. The Kingdom publishers had personally invited persons of goodwill. Also a notice appeared in the newspapers notifying the public that the Watch Tower president would address them on the subject “Be Glad, Ye Nations”. To the joy of all, the Town Hall was packed out, some fifty persons hearing the comforting message outside in the courtyard by means of loud-speakers. The total attendance was 653. The lecture was well received, and 26 persons turned in their names and addresses in response to the invitation to have Jehovah’s witnesses call on them at their homes. Announcement was also made that next day (Sunday) at the Kingdom Hall, at 8 p.m., William Tracy would give a public lecture on “Will Man Succeed as a World-Builder T” This follow-up speech would serve to solidify the public interest still more and would promptly introduce the Society’s new Branch servant to the public, with much spiritual benefit to them all.

Sunday’s BWIA plane not departing for Trinidad until 1:30 p.m., Brother Knorr agreed to a 9 a.m. meeting with the brethren at the Kingdom Hall. To his audience then of 160 Brother Knorr gave two hours unstintingly of speech, recounting his European trip of recent date and then answering many questions, on doctrine and on service, that had been agitating the minds of the brethren. Good admonition as to the future course to take was given to all those wanting to follow Christ and to go along with Jehovah’s Theocratic organization under Christ. At the close of the meeting a brother in the audience rose and offered a resolution. This resolution, which was in handwritten form, expressed the brethren’s heartfelt gratitude for the president’s visit and also set forth their determination to advance the Kingdom interests in British Guiana. It was a joyful occasion, and a time never to be forgotten.

Morning meeting being now concluded, it was time to get out to the airport, pass through customs, and arrange for the president’s return trip from Georgetown to Mackenzie by air. While these formalities were in progress, many brethren cycled from the capital city out to the airport, or walked thither, just to give their final good-byes to Brother Knorr. About sixty were present to see him off, including, of course, Brothers Phillips and Tracy. As the shuttle plane, with Brother Knorr aboard, taxied splashingly through the Demerara river and picked up speed to release itself from the bosom of the river, the group ashore waved farewell from the pier." Now the plane glided into the air and circled over the river and hit out for the interior city of Mackenzie. Safely reaching here, it discharged its passengers, and Brother Knorr took the regular BWIA service for flight to Port of Spain, Trinidad. His arrival here about 5: 30 p.m. allowed him good time to make the special Sunday-night meeting at the Princes Building, where brethren and public alike gathered in excited expectation of his return.

The attendance of 650 packed out the auditorium engaged at the Princes Building. So meeting was opened several minutes before eight o’clock, with songs, and then Brother Knorr came onto the platform to deliver what proved to be a very stirring talk. Briefly he described his above trip to British Guiana, and then turned to Matthew, chapter 5, to discuss the persecutions predicted to come upon Jehovah’s witnesses, and how, despite these, they must be the “salt of the earth” by having continually the savor of God’s kingdom message. All the while they must let the light of this message shine and thereby must serve as reflectors of the “light of the world”. They must keep their eye of vision fixed smgly on the Kingdom and its service, not looking at-the evanescent things of this visible world of Satan but at the eternal thmgs which come with God’s everlasting kingdom of the new world. In illustration of the foregoing, he recited the fidelity particularly of the brethren amidst Nazi Germany and its concentration camps.

Since so many persons newly interested were present to hear Brother Knorr’s speech, his invitation to associate themselves with Jehovah’s people regularly and to rejoice with His people was in good point. So all listened with intense interest to his description of the Watch Tower Society’s purpose and the reason for its establishment of the Watchtower Bible College of Gilead, namely, to train and send forth ably equipped preachers of the kingdom of God so as to promote Bible study and to aid the multitudes of good-will to hear and to call upon Jehovah’s name for salvation by his King Christ Jesus.

Meantime, two girl missionaries graduated from Watchtower College were on their way by PAA plane from Miami, Fla., to missionary stations in Montevideo, Uruguay. Unfortunately, they arrived too late in Port of Spain to attend this final address by Brother Knorr. However, it was very refreshmg for them to be surprised with meeting Brothers Knorr and Franz and some of their classmates and other graduates of the College, there on their night’s stopover in Port of Spain. Early next morning these two missionaries were up and off to the airport, at 5: 30 a.m., to take the plane for the next leg of their flight toward Montevideo. They were in excellent spirits, having a sustaining confidence in the God whom they are serving.

VENEZUELA

Tuesday, April 9, pulled Brothers Knorr and Franz out of bed early, to get moving to their next appointment, in the Spanishspeaking country of Venezuela. About 7 a.m. their plane launches off into the air above Piarco field, and in a few minutes they are crossing the bocas del dragon between Trinidad and Venezuela, above the delta mouths of the Orinoco river, the discharges from which muddy up the sea. The plane now turns inland over Venezuela, and at 7:47 a.m. we are landing at Maturfn’s airport. Here we are advised we are 2.15 hours from La Guaira and 24 hours’ flight from New York. New York sounds like home, but we fly west towards La Guaira. On leaving Marturin we fly over many flaming spouts from the beds of oil in this region. In less than an hour we have reached the airport of Barcelona, on the seacoast. Again in the air, our plane now follows the Venezuelan coastline to La Guaira, the seaport for Caracas. From the airport here we now take the PAA autobus for Caracas, the city of earthly fame as the birthplace of the South American liberator, Simon Bolivar. Its population is 500,000.

By a straight air course it would be only six miles up to Caracas, but by bus it is a tortuous route of 23 miles. From sea level our bus quickly gets onto the upgrade, and then climbs up the winding way, almost continually turning in and out, making many hairpin turns, grazing past descending cars. Ever higher we climb, on the edge of precipitous declivities, to gaze out upon marvelous mountain scenery, and finally passing out of view of the sea to our rear. We get up some 5,000 feet, near where the lofty-flying condors soar and wheel about, and then we descend. In an hour’s time we reach the outskirts of Caracas, about 3,000 feet above sea level. At the PA A office in the center of the city, where our bus unloads, we meet up with a number of brethren. What pleasure is stamped upon the faces of all these brethren in exchanging greetings with us!

Here in Caracas we put back our watches just half an hour, to compensate for the distance we have journeyed westward from Trinidad. The afternoon soon gives way to night, and now we are assembled in the patio of a private home, on a steep mountainside street in the section of San Agustin del Sur. It is the home of a Venezuelan sister, in the truth since 1944, at which time she was reached by a pioneer sister at that time spreading the truth in Venezuela. Through the patio opening the stars and passover moon shine down on us here gathered. About 8 p.m. the meeting opens with prayer by a native believer and Brother Franz speaks on “Jehovah’s witnesses in the Crucible”. Thereafter Brother Knorr took up the theme, his words being interpreted into Spanish by his traveling companion. Needless to say, both are delighted as well as amazed to see as many as 22 assembled here this night. By show of hands 10 expressed the desire to be baptized in water to symbolize their consecration to the Lord God, and hence a baptism was appointed for the next day in their behalf.

Next afternoon the baptism goes off in good order, the baptismal talk being given by Brother Franz at the sister’s home so freely thrown open to us; and eighteen are present to hear this Then we take a special bus for the mountain called “Silla de Caracas”, and its waterfalls known as “Los Chorros”, some distance out of the Federal District of the capital. We climb rough paths up the mountainside and come to the first waterbasin into which a 40-foot waterfall plunges. This is not satisfactory, and we climb up above this waterfall to another and larger waterbasin into which a still higher waterfall pours. Despite a few boys swimming, the sacred event proceeds in obedience to Jesus’ command, and 10 consecrated ones are immersed, of whom one is a local pioneer brother with a record of six years’ activity. It was gratifying to see how seriously all ten took this act of faith in obedience to God’s will.

At 8 p.m. the brethren and interested ones reassemble in the small patio and adjoining rooms of our sister’s home. This time the number of listeners has increased to 25. The brethren are under the impression that this will be their last meeting with the Society’s visiting representatives. Tonight the talk by the Society’s president was principally upon the increase of the Lord’s work both in war-ruined Europe and in the Caribbean sea countries. The brethren were reminded that they must fulfill their consecration to God not only by beginning to undertake his service but by pressing on with constant endurance in his service, displaying the same integrity toward God as Christ Jesus and his prototype Job did. To aid and encourage God’s consecrated ones to do this the Society published the book The New World, containing a detailed explanation of the book of Job in its modern fulfillment. Brother Knorr took delight in announcing to his patio audience that the translation of this into Spanish and the publishing of it in book form had been completed, and in proof of this he held forth to their gaze the first copy off the Society’s presses. They were assured that a supply thereof, besides other literature, would soon be reaching Venezuela.

The brethren rejoiced at this, and also at the company organization which Brother Knorr announced as now due to go into operation in Caracas. He designated a brother as the Society’s appointed company servant, and a faithful and zealous native sister as the assistant company servant, for the time being. The brethren in Venezuela are out of stock of fresh supplies of literature from the Society, but they have not held back from field service on that account. They have gone out from house to house with what books they had and then placed them with interested persons on loan for a week. On returning for the books they have tried to cultivate the readers’ interest further in the truth and to establish regular home book studies. A number of Caracas brethren have been encouraged to sally forth in the Lord’s witness work due to someone experienced taking the lead and having them go with him into the field to observe directly how the work is carried on at the doors and in the homes.

Tonight’s assembly, instead of proving to be a farewell, was the stepping stone to a larger one. To the pleasure of all Brother Knorr announced the holding of a semi-public meeting tomorrow night here in the patio, the speech “Regocijaos, Oh Naciones” to be presented by Brother Franz. He then urged the brethren to bring together for the occasion all those of good-will that they could. Come Thursday night, April 11, the place was crowded with 32 listeners, and fine attention was paid to the public address in Castellano. Then in formal farewell Brother Knorr came forward for a few brief words. At this point a young man, a son who had been accompanying his pioneer father in the field work in another state of Venezuela, rose up and asked leave to read a resolution. He read first in Spanish and then translated it into English:

“We, Jehovah’s witnesses in Venezuela, in one body, declare our deep gratitude to Jehovah and his beloved Son, Christ Jesus, and also declare our sincere appreciation to our president, Brother Knorr, and his traveling companion, Brother Franz, for the stimulation from their refreshing lectures which we have received on this blessed occasion. . . . We desire the Lord to bless them, in this good work of uniting the different countries in the ‘Theocratic education’. With our hearts full of joy we will return to our fields of activity. Brothers Knorr and Franz, we much regret the shortness of the visit, but with one voice and animated by new zeal for activity, we bid you good-bye. ...” Having heard the English translation, Brother Knorr voiced appreciation of the resolution which was unanimously adopted by those present.

COLOMBIA

Next morning, Friday, April 12, before the bus’ departure we enjoy about forty minutes of final association with a number of these brethren at the bus office in Caracas. A couple of young brothers who are active in the service and who are making good progress in speaking English filled out application blanks with a view to entering the Watchtower Bible College after they have fulfilled the necessary field requirements. About 8: 20 a.m. our bus pulls away from these brethren, and in due time we are winding and weaving our way over the scenic road that leads us down to the seacoast at the Maquetia-La Guaira airfield. About 10 a.m. our winged ship soars up into the airy heights, whirring its way westward to Colombia. After an hour we drop down to a regular stop at Coro, near the gulf of Venezuela. Being on our way again, we duly come to famous Lake Maracaibo and cross its outlet and fly past the city of Maracaibo to the airport. We recall that two of the six brethren living at Maracaibo attended our assembly at Caracas. This is our last stop in Venezuela. Now our plane cuts across to the Caribbean sea. We fly past the coastal city of Santa Marta, where the first successful settlement was made by the Spanish invaders in Colombia in 1525. After a dinner above the clouds, we have flown across the mouth of the Magdalena river and land, at 2:10 p.m., at the river city of Barranquilla.

At the airport here, we transfer from the PAA plane, which is bound for Panama, and board a plane of the National Airways of Colombia (Avianca) bound for Bogota, Colombia, which lies about 600 miles to the south. About 2:45 p.m. our plane glides into the air. We cross the Magdalena river to its east bank and start following it southward or upward toward its source. How many lakes there are here in the region of the river! Notice the many islands in the river, some so large that the river bulges out to flow around them. We cross numerous of the tributaries that empty into the Magdalena. How this mighty river bends this way and that in its irresistible flow northward toward the sea 1 At a big bend we cross over to its west hank and follow the river, always southward toward its headwaters. After an hour we cross again to its east bank. We feel as if on a voyage of discovery of the Magdalena river, not like the Spanish explorer Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, whose men toiled up this river to found the city of Santa Fe de Bogota in 1538; no, not like him, but to discover the company of Jehovah’s witnesses at Bogotd having the Santa fe of the Sacred Bible. Now we strike farther east, and soon the river in its valley is lost to view behind the mountains which now line its eastern side. We fly over rough terrain. Then getting below cloud level we come out over a great plateau with cultivated fields. It is the great plateau on which Bogota, the capital of the “Land of El Dorado”, lies at an altitude of 8,505 feet above sea level.

At 5: 26 pun. we land at the airport, to be greeted by a happy band of eleven College graduates, all known to us, and an equally glad group of Colombian brethren. We are just 4° 35' 56" north of the equator, but at Bogota’s high altitude a topcoat feels comfortable at this eventide. Bogota has an average temperature of 55.4° Fahrenheit (or 13° C.). We move our watchhands back a half hour, putting them at what is New York time or Eastern Standard tune.

At BogotA we are privileged to be given lodging at the missionary home of the eleven Watchtower College graduates, in a nice section of this handsome capital city. The Kingdom Hall of the company of Jehovah’s witnesses is also located here, in the front room on the first floor of this missionary home. We are glad that the Society’s missionaries are comfortably situated here, and our rooming here affords us regular association with them at meals and at other times. During our stay Brother Knorr presided at the meal table. At the morning Bethel service, which precedes the breakfast, he started the family of eleven missionaries off on conducting it in Spanish, each one giving his or her comment on the day’s Bible text in Spanish. Necessarily Brother Knorr gave his own extended comment in English. It pleased him to see how much progress these missionaries, given a few months of basic trammg in Spanish at the Society’s College, had made in the fluent speaking of that language. Those longest there in Colombia had been there only since October of 1945, when this missionary home was established. Up to then there was no company of Jehovah’s witnesses in Bogota, but soon thereafter one sprang up including native Colombia brethren.

The public meeting of Sunday, April 14, brought to light the extent of local interest in the Kingdom message which these missionaries and their active Colombian brethren had cultivated in Bogota. The advertising of this public lecture, “Be Glad, Ye Nations,” was done solely by invitations verbally given by missionaries and company publishers to interested ones of good-will. Although it was “Christendom’s” so-called “Palm Sunday”, and there was some rain during the meeting, this three o’clock afternoon meeting brought out an attendance of 87, the largest till then at the Kingdom Hall. Thirty of these came to the Hall for the first time. The best of attention was given to Brother Knorr’s address, end warm appreciation was voiced by many for being helped to see the truth as never before. Great joy abounded on all sides, both for the large turnout to the lecture and also for the stimulating and heart-warming truths presented therein. Incidentally, by use of a few songslips and some typewritten copies, singing of King-dom songs was introduced to the Bogota Kingdom Hall at this meeting, both before and after the lecture. This happy day was finished off by two night meetings at the Kingdom Hall, the study of La Atalaya {The Watchtower) at 7:30 p.m., conducted by D. Lauderdale, at which 19 were in attendance; and then, immediately after, at 8:30 p.m., the study of “La Verdad Os Bara Libres” (“The Truth Shall Make You Free”), conducted by F. Brodeur, at which 20 attended. It was a good day of getting acquainted with one another.

Monday morning, after the seven o’clock Bethel service in Spanish and a good breakfast, we all continued at the table while Brother Knorr proceeded with a discussion of matters, apprising all these missionaries of the arrangements that had been under consideration for the past several days. The missionaries rejoiced quite audibly to hear that a Branch office of the Society was to begin functioning there in Bogota on May 1, and that John A. Green had been appointed as Branch servant and F. Brodeur as the servant of the missionary home. They took in all seriousness Brother Knorr’s exhortation to be steadfastly faithful in their foreign service and also to live purely, walking before all the Colombians in paths of righteousness as loyal servants of Jehovah God, strictly attending upon His service.

The Colombians have already marked that these Christian missionaries are different from the worldly Americans who had established themselves in Colombia, and the only reason they can see to account for the difference is that Jehovah’s witnesses have “the truth” and seek to live up to it. The absence of snobbishness, and, too, the unaffected friendliness and affableness, and the genuine interest shown by the missionaries in the spiritual well-being of these South Americans, takes well with the Colombians. The missionaries are building up much good-will. At first, because of inability to speak Castellano fluently, they began their house-to-house activities in the poorest section of the city, in what they called “Indian village” on the mountainside. They thought that these poor people would be more receptive and more forbearing with them while trying to master the language. But this was not generally the case. Furthermore, the Spanish that the missionaries would pick up here would be of the baser quality. Hence the missionaries emboldened themselves to shift working to the better section, the residential section, where the purer grade of Spanish is spoken with an appreciation of culture. Here the missionaries were pleasantly surprised to find a more gracious and sympathetic reception, and they have improved in the art of speaking as well as starting many home studies in the Bible. This fact is reflected in the class of people that, for the most part, attend the meetings at Kingdom Hall.

At sundown, Tuesday, April 16, began the day for celebrating the Memorial of Christ’s death in vindication of the name and universal sovereignty of Jehovah God. According to the Bible calendar, this day, Nisan 14, was the 1913th anniversary of the institution of the Memorial by Jesus A.D. 33. At Bogota Kingdom Hall the brethren met at the appointed hour for the Memorial, according to Jehovah’s command by Christ Jesus. At 7: 25 p.m. there was an appropriate song, and then prayer, and then followed the Memorial talk, extemporaneously in Castellano, by Brother Franz. When the Memorial emblems were served together at the close of the talk, those in attendance showed an understanding of who were Scripturally authorized to partake of the emblems, because just 4 of the 29 in attendance partook of the unleavened bread and red wine. Of these partakers there was just one native Colombian brother, and just one missionary. Then, agreeable to Jesus’ own example after instituting the Memorial, Brother Knorr came to the front and addressed the brethren on Kingdom matters as applying there in Colombia particularly. He disclosed to them the Society's establishment of a Branch, and also the appointments of various brethren to fill all the organization posts of the Bogota company of Jehovah’s witnesses. The Society’s publishing of El Nuevo Mundo was also made known. And thus about 9:15 p.m. this blessed meeting came to its close. Two native brethren expressed their high hopes of getting to the Cleveland all-nations convention in August. But as for the missionaries, they being so new on the ground and not desiring to cause any interruption to the good progress of the work in Colombia, they decided to forego this convention and stay at their newly undertaken posts of duty.

PANAMA

At 4 a.m.j Wednesday, April 17, things began to stir at the Bogota missionary home, for the Society's traveling representatives must get on their way on the early plane for Panama. A halfhour delay at the Techo airport allowed for longer visiting with the missionaries there, and then, at 7: 08 a.m., our plane took to the air, gaining an altitude of 10,600 feet, to clear the mountains which lay beyond the plateau. Northwestward we flew to cross the Magdalena river and passed over Medellin, the most Catholic city in all Colombia. We grounded at its airport at 8: 02 a.m. Here we had a layover of 2 hours 40 minutes, and transferred to a Uraba, Medellin & Central Airways (DMCA) plane. Again taking to the air, we cross the Cauca river, amidst mountainous terrain, and shortly after 12 noon we reach the airport of Turbo, Colombia, on a gulf which opens out upon the Caribbean sea. From here it is not long before we are winging across the isthmus of Panama, and then out across the Gulf of Panama and its islands. This year the military requirements do not call for the plane windows to be covered over as we approach the Panama Canal area, and we see below the city of Panama and the eastern approaches of the famous canal. About 1:45 p.m. we land at the Balboa airfield. Eleven College graduates, on missionary service in the republic of Panama, arc on hand to welcome us. Five have come across the isthmus, from Colon, especially to meet us. In due time we are having supper with them at the missionary home established in Panama city.

Thursday noon, April 18, saw us on our way by the Panama Railroad train westward across the isthmus to Colon. For a considerable part our train runs close to the northern side of the Canal, allowing us to see many of its features. In little more than an hour and a half we reach Colon and are entertained at the missionary home there. Then at 7 p.m. a meeting with all the local brethren takes place at the Silver Club hall in the Canal Zone, it being presided over by the missionary Donald Kjorlien. The attendance of 94 was a fine commentary on the good witnessing work that has been done in this part of the isthmus during the past year. First Brother Franz addressed the gathering, emphasizing both organization and assignments of territory for witnessing work by companies as well as by individuals. Then Brother Knorr spoke more in detail on organization and on the progress of the work. We got away in time to catch the 9 p.m. bus for the trip back eastward to Panama city. At Colon 60 were reported as having attended the Memorial celebration two nights previously, at which 9 partook of the emblems; and at Panama city 146 attended, of whom 26 took of the bread and wine.

Our first meeting with the Panama city friends was Friday night, April 19, in Sojourners Hall, on the third floor. This being over a motion-picture theater, the continuous noise from below provided much interference against which to speak and hear. About 7 p.m. the meeting got under way, and it was grand, this year, to see 113 present. Brother Franz spoke on the matter of back-calls (or return visits) and on book studies with the interested persons as being a Scriptural thing of long practice. Thereafter Brother Knorr took up an hour to tell the brethren about his 1945-1946 European trip. He also encouraged the brethren to undertake the full-time pioneer work, and roused applause by extending an invitation to the Cleveland convention. The brethren also rejoiced to learn that a Branch was being set up in the Republic of Panama and that Roy W. Harvey, one of the missionaries, was appointed to be servant thereof. They expressed themselves as certain that it meant speedier growth for the work in all Panama.

Today in Panama city the advertising went forward of a public meeting to be held the following Sunday, to consider the subject “Be Glad, Ye Nations”. By persistence and proper approach to the officials, the brethren have obtained the free use of facilities at the Institute Nacional in Panama city, its stately Aula Maxima being granted for the speech in Spanish and its gymnasium for the speech simultaneously in English. Courtesy to the Panamanians and their national language dictated the assignment of the more dignified quarters to the Spanish meeting. In view of the bilingual nature of the event, the advertising handbills, 20,000 of them, and the placards, 100 of them, were in both Spanish and English. Forty placards were reserved for use of twenty information marchers on the streets, and the other placards were placed in show windows. Also, 1,000 postcards were printed, some in Spanish and some in English, and mailed as invitations to those on file as interested persons. Radio announcements were broadcast, free. The handbill supply all exhausted on Saturday, 5,000 more were printed for use on the next morning in the field.

Sunday morning, April 21, at eight o’clock, the brethren gathered at the Sojourners Hall for the baptism talk. While Brother Kjorlien addressed the English-speaking brethren in one part of the hall Brother Franz addressed those preferring Spanish in another part. English and Spanish together, there were ten candidates for immersion. These were immersed in the waters of the Gulf of Panama at Bella Vista beach.

Today was “Christendom’s” “Easter Sunday”, with so many of the population taking trips into the interior. Despite this, the public meeting at 4 p.m. at the National Institute turned out very well. In the Gymnasium, to hear Brother Knorr’s speech in the English, 289 were present. The new booklet “Be Glad, Te Nations” was released here and distributed free after the meeting. In the Aula Maxima 92 were present to hear the identical speech in Castellano by Brother Franz, and the booklet “The Meek Inherit the Earth”, in Spanish, was distributed gratis. Thus the total attendance was 381. This was quite satisfactory, because a large part of the “strangers” present were those of good-will with whom the brethren have kept in touch by back-calls and book studies in the homes.

The Sunday evening Watchtower studies were held at the Sojourners Hall, and were well attended. At 6 p.m. the Spanish study in this magazine was conducted by a Panamanian brother, and at 7: 30 p.m. the English study was conducted by Brother Knorr. At close of the study he gave a farewell address to the brethren, expressing the hope to see them again, but with the organization and work there grown larger and still more advanced.

COSTA RICA

Monday morning, April 22, we are again up at four o’clock, for an early flight to Costa Rica, Panama’s northern neighbor country. All eleven missionaries show up at the airfield in Balboa to see us off. Several minutes before 6 a.m. our PAA plane makes a successful take-off, and we get above the clouds before the sun appears above them to silver up their tops. Our plane crosses the isthmus and gets out to sea, but follows the Caribbean coastline. About 7: 30 a.m. we turn inland, at a point south of Port Limon, Costa Rica. As we pass it, to our right, we think of the successful convention and public meeting we held there a year ago. Our airplane pilot is feeling in good spirits notwithstanding the early rising from bed, and so he goes out of his way to give us a treat. Flying us in an arc, instead of over a straight course, he steers us past Turrialba volcano. As we peer down into it it looks dead, burnt out. But in a few minutes we are upon its neighbor, Irazu volcano. Three times our plane circles around it, right over its rim, and the third time our pilot dips the left wing away over, so as to permit looking right down into the crater. It is cracked and pocketed, and in what seems its deepest pocket it is filled with water that gleams like a lake of blue-green water. Then we fly out over the beautiful central plateau of Costa Rica, and in about twenty minutes land at San Jose’s airport, at 8:15 a.m. Here we must move back our watches an hour, which puts them on Central Standard time (American).

To give us a hearty welcome at the airport seven missionaries are waiting, which means three more missionaries in Costa Rica than we met there last year. Branch servant T. H. Siebenlist has good news for us. It is that during the past month, March, a new peak of publishers was reached by both the San Jose company and Costa Rica as a whole. The company attained to 125 publishers, and the country to 324 publishers. At the Memorial supper just a few days ago 141 attended the meeting in San Jose. But not one partook of the emblems, indicating that all confessed themselves to be of the Good Shepherd’s “other sheep”. These sheep are doing a fine work of witnessing, and the Watchtower subscription campaign since January 1 has progressed favorably. Down until our visit the Branch servant’s wife had secured 100 subscriptions, and in one particular day, at Quepos, she secured 17 subscriptions. It was a keen pleasure to meet with these missionaries at their new home- and to go over the various matters.

Only one day of assembly with all the Costa Rican brethren was arranged for, namely, on Wednesday, April 24. For the morning and afternoon meetings the fine America Theater on Avenida Central was engaged. At 9: 30 a.m. chairman Siebenlist called the assembly to order. After song and prayer, there were two demonstrations on “how to address people at the door”. Woodrow Blackburn, a missionary here since last August, demonstrated the form of approach using the portable phonograph with recorded lecture, and then the Branch servant’s wife demonstrated with the printed testimony card. Both of them illustrated the special offer of the

Watchtower subscription campaign, speaking first in Spanish and then themselves translating it into English for our mixed English-speaking and Spanish-speaking audience. The entire assembly was a bilingual event of this sort, even the songs being sung simultaneously to the one musical tune, but in Spanish and English words.

“Jehovah’s witnesses in the Crucible” was the next feature on the program, being given by T. H. Siebenlist in English and by Chas. Palmer in Spanish. Then Brother Knorr spoke on the theme “Experiences of Our Brethren in Europe”. This led logically on to the matter of integrity, which presented the opening for Brother Knorr to thrill the Spanish-speaking brethren with the display of the copy of the new book El Nuevo Mundo. They applauded, too, the announcement of the Cleveland convention, to which all were invited. The information that the Branch servant and his wife, after two and a half years’ service there, would be brought to the convention as Society representatives awakened further applauding; and the inquiry put to the Costa Ricans as to whether the Society should return them to Costa Rica drew out loud and insistent affirmative cries. They rejoiced still more to learn that on the return of these two, conventions would be held, a Spanishspeaking one in San Jose and an English one in Port Limon, at which the two convention delegates would report verbally to the fullest extent on the Cleveland convention.

After dinner the sessions resumed at the Teatro America. The new missionaries Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Hardin, arrived just April 9, were presented to the assembly by way of introduction, after which each individually gave a personal demonstration on presenting the Kingdom message at the doors. Chairman Siebenlist offered a commentary, in Spanish, on each one respectively. Now followed a demonstration of how to conduct a book study. This was presented by the missionaries, Sisters Palmer (as conductor) and Siebenlist and Hardin, with W. Blackburn acting as the casual caller who dropped in and tried to sidetrack the study from the lesson material in “La Verdad Os Hara Libres”.

Then, because of its suitableness for God’s consecrated ones as well as the public, Brother Knorr gave his address “Be Glad, Ye Nations”. At this speech the day’s attendance reached 218. At the end of the speech Brother C. Palmer, out in the audience, rose and offered a Resolution, in Spanish and English, expressing the appreciation of the Costa Rican brethren for the visit and service of the Society’s representatives. This was adopted by loud cries of Si and Test After this meeting, many brethren had to depart.

The evening session was announced to be held at the San Jose company’s Kingdom Hall. Though meant to be for Brother Knorr’s special address to pioneers, all caring to come were invited to this special meeting. They did so, and the 150 who filled the small hall made up the biggest crowd there yet. The Society’s president then counseled them on how to approach the people with the gospel message in the most effective manner. To illustrate his suggestions he had missionaries T. H. Siebenlist, Lora Palmer, and Chas. Palmer, successively, to give demonstrations, first in Spanish and then in English. Thereafter Brother Knorr commented upon all three, calling notice to the good points of each one’s method and recommending such points to al] his hearers. This he followed up with urging as many as possible, even encumbered persons and housewives as well as children on vacation from school, to take up pioneering. He suggested how they could arrange matters so as to undertake this great privilege of service He explained the requirements for pioneers to enter the Society’s Bible College in the United States, at the Society’s expense, and hoped to have Costa Ricans enter. Telling of his good hopes to see them all again sometime in the future and also his hopes for further good work in Costa Rica, he brought the meeting to a close. Numerous brethren came forward and discussed with him the possibilities for pioneer work, and several applications were filled out with the College in view. The gathering was slow in dispersing, but the brethren went home rejoicing, feeling that the fullness of the day’s blessings made up for the shortness of assembly.

More than thirty of the brethren were out to the airport next morning to give us a loving fraternal send-off. Loaded down with their love and greetings to the other brethren along our way, we boarded plane, and at 7: 30 a.m. our PAA plane was off the ground and headed north for our next stop, Managua, capital of Nicaragua. But further about this in the next issue of The Watchtower.