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Jehovah Is My Strength and My Song

As told by George S. Douras

THIS year I am completing, by God’s undeserved kindness, forty-five years of dedication and service to the living and true God, Jehovah. Throughout this long period of time, amid favorable and unfavorable circumstances, Jehovah has been my strength and my song, my support and my reason for joy of heart.

I have always wanted to praise my Creator, even as a student of law in Athens, Greece, in 1920, as a youth of twenty-five years of age. I was mainly a litterateur, a poet—and how I enjoyed praising God, the Creator, with my songs! However, at that time I really did not know how to praise God in full harmony with the words of Isaiah 42:10, “Sing to Jehovah a new song, his praise from the extremity of the earth.”

A QUESTION PROMPTS QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE

One day something happened that stirred up my thinking about God. A friend of mine who used to read my poems suddenly asked me: “Well, do you believe in God? Then teach me to believe too.” After thinking a little about that request, I answered: “It’s doubtful whether I even know God. Beyond what I write in my poems to praise him, I can hardly say I know anything about God.” And, indeed, I did not have accurate knowledge about God.

What a milestone that question was for me! I was jarred into realizing that I ought to know about God, about his will and purpose for man. So it was not long before I devoted myself to searching for accurate knowledge. Someone gave me a Gospel account of the life of Jesus Christ, and this helped me to get started on my quest for knowledge.

I must admit that, as I examined the religions of Christendom, the doctrines such as eternal torment and trinity and others were not at all satisfying to me. I began to wonder whether these doctrines might not really be of human origin. But how could I be certain? I needed help in understanding the Bible. About that time a Bible tract came into my hands. It was The Bible Students Monthly. Published by the Watch Tower Society, it was entitled “The Fall of Babylon.” It showed how false religion must soon fall to oblivion. On the back page was a cartoon picturing a wall crumbling, with stones being thrown down, one by one, that were marked, “Eternal torment theory,” “Doctrine of the trinity,” “There is no evil, no pain, no death, no Devil,” “Baptism of infants,” “Purgatory,” and many others. These stones’ being thrown down represented the exposure of the unscripturalness of these doctrines.

After reading that tract, I bought some of the Watch Tower Society’s publications, which I obtained from an Athens bookstore. I began an avid study of the volumes entitled “Studies in the Scriptures.” During my study of the Watch Tower publications, I still had no contact with the publishers or their representatives. However, the president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford, made a visit to Athens, and this was reported by the newspapers. Though I was not able to see or hear him, it spurred me on to find the persons who distributed these wonderful Bible truths. Finally, I found a small congregation of about fifteen persons, who made up the local congregation of the International Bible Students Association, as Jehovah’s witnesses were called. Recognizing that they were teaching the truth from the Bible, I lost no time in associating with them, and began a life of serving God with accurate knowledge.

BIBLE TALK CAMPAIGNS

In 1922 The Watch Tower printed the monumental address by the Society’s president, delivered at the Cedar Point, Ohio, convention, and which concluded with the exhortation: “Advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.” My desire was to have a part in advertising God’s kingdom, and thereafter I was privileged, by the congregation’s appointment, to be the first one of our group to give public Bible talks in the provinces of Greece. It was not long until, in Jehovah’s strength, I was serving as the first “pilgrim” in Greece, that is, a traveling representative of the Watch Tower Society.

I certainly thank Jehovah for the next three years of blessed experiences. How wonderful they were! Jehovah was my strength and my song, bringing me great joy despite the fact that there were many opposers to God’s Kingdom good news, persons who would call the police to hinder our efforts to teach the Bible. Often at the instigation of the religious clergy the police would cancel our public Bible talks. Most of the time, however, the Kingdom message was preached in halls filled with people, warmly receiving God’s truths.

On one of Greece’s islands a public Bible talk was announced, and the crowd filled the theater, waiting for the speaker to begin. But at the last moment the police forbade the talk to be given. The speaker was allowed only to explain briefly from the platform the fact and cause of the talk’s cancellation. This anti-Bible action of the police displeased a certain man in the audience who was connected with the French Consulate, so he got up and loudly declared: “Here we are forbidden; just come along with me to the French Consulate, and we shall be allowed there!” The speaker was the first to start following this man from the French Consulate, and then the whole audience followed suit. What a unique spectacle this was in the streets of Corfu! Shortly afterward the Bible talk was delivered in the hall of the French Consulate, much to the joy of those in attendance! Here the Greek authorities could not prevent our talking about the Bible and God’s kingdom.

In 1925 the condition of my health obliged me to discontinue the “pilgrim” work; and during the time when my health did not permit me to do as much as I wanted I felt much like the psalmist who said: “When I kept silent my bones wore out through my groaning all day long.” (Ps. 32:3) I hoped in Jehovah for renewed strength, knowing that it is written: “Boys will both tire out and grow weary, . . . but those who are hoping in Jehovah will regain power.”—Isa. 40:30, 31.

ARRESTS AND IMPRISONMENT FOR THE GOOD NEWS

In time I regained my strength and enjoyed many more privileges in Jehovah’s service. When Greece came under a dictatorial regime in 1936, I became a participant in an unusual experience, along with other Witnesses. The authorities closed up our meeting hall in Athens and the Society’s branch office as well. Almost all of Jehovah’s witnesses in Athens were arrested and brought to jail, where they were kept for about one month.

The authorities demanded that we give up our Bible beliefs; but that we would not do. Seeing that they could not intimidate us to give up our faith, they then made arrangements for deporting us to various Greek islands. But this plan to deport us was frustrated at the last moment. Some person who was on friendly terms with the dictator happened to hear the Kingdom good news presented to him by one of Jehovah’s witnesses. This man found the decision to deport Jehovah’s witnesses to be a monstrous one. So he said to the dictator: “These people are not our political opposers. What do they do? They await God’s kingdom. Be it welcome! We, too, await it.” At this comment from his friend, the dictator changed his mind and ordered his minister of public security to cancel the deportation proceedings. The minister then called all of us (about 100 Witnesses) into a large hall in his ministry, where he gave us his admonition and told us he was setting us free.

During the next ten years I had many privileges in serving my brothers. Although open public Bible lectures were forbidden, as a congregation overseer I had occasion to give talks on God’s kingdom to groups in private homes in Athens. On one occasion a person who lived at the home where the Bible talk was to be given called the police. I was arrested, along with other Witnesses. At a court trial I was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

This prison term was rather a new experience in my Christian career, but how valuable it turned out to be! Bodily suffering while in three different prisons, yes, but what gladness of spirit! Though sleep did not always come easy on the cement floor, during the day I often found opportunities to preach. At times I talked to so many inmates that I felt as if I were on a “public-lecture campaign.” Moreover, the “poet” had the occasion to remember that he could praise Jehovah with verses, and he did so during the long idle hours, expressing the pains and joys of a prison term for the sake of Christ. The two-year prison sentence, however, was reduced to six months; thus I was soon back beside my beloved brothers.

It was as if in answer to one of my theocratic supplicatory songs:

Oh, Lord, don’t be away,

Oh, Lord, don’t be late;

Deliver thy servants by thy mighty arm,

And we shall sing a new song to thy name.

Oh, harp, resound, let thy strings beat harmoniously!

As it is marvelous!

The six months in prison also gave me the opportunity to increase my knowledge of the English language, so that, upon release, I was better equipped to serve at the Society’s branch office, in the translation department. This has continued to be my privilege for the past nineteen years. When I look back to how I came to learn God’s truth in 1920, when the believers in Greece were hardly more than fifteen, I rejoice today to see, in Greece, Kingdom publishers to the number of over 11,000! It has been my joy, along with my faithful wife, to be counted among them.

Jehovah has been with his people in Greece. I personally feel thankful to Him and exalt his name for everything He has done for me. Whatever is ahead, I feel certain that for his faithful people Jehovah will continue to be their strength and their song.

(Brother Douras, whose hope was the “prize of the upward call” referred to at Philippians 3:14, remained faithful in the ministry at the Athens Bethel until his death on October 15, 1965, shortly after returning home from a congregation meeting. As with others of those called to the heavenly kingdom and who finish their earthly course faithfully, “the things they did go right with them.”—Rev. 14:13.)