them to do. When Jehovah’s executioners, under the direction of his Field Marshal Christ Jesus, go into action against Christendom the marking work will have been finished.

Not that they will stop preaching then. No, it seems that they will keep on bearing witness after Armageddon begins as a testimony against the godless elements, even though no more marking work will be possible, until the “cities lie waste, without inhabitant, and houses without man”, yes, until all of Satan’s wicked organization on earth has been wiped out.—Isa. 6:11, AT.

Timothy, the Youthful Minister

“TRAIN up a child in the way he should go; and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Prov. 22:6, AT) Among the many good examples of the validity of that Scriptural rule is Timothy, the very young minister who lived in apostolic times. Termed by the apostle Paul as his child in the faith, his fellow worker and God’s minister, Timothy also served as a traveling representative and agent of the governing body of the early Christian congregation.—Rom. 16:21; 1 Thess. 3:2; 1 Tim. 1:2, NW.

Timothy received his sound Scriptural training, not from his father, who was an unbelieving Greek, but from his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois, both of whom had real faith in Jehovah God. As a result of such training Timothy from infancy knew the holy writings which are able to make one wise for salvation through faith in connection with Christ Jesus.—Acts 16:1; 2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15, NW.

The apostle Paul met Timothy’s mother and grandmother at Lystra in Asia Minor on his first missionary tour, and as a result of his preaching both of them became Christians. And doubtless, just as they had taught young Timothy what they understood of the Hebrew Scriptures according to the law of Moses, they now instructed him regarding the promised Messiah who had come. Incidentally, these two women, instead of rebelling at their restricted sphere of activity in the Christian congregation, applied themselves diligently to the privileges that were theirs, and the Lord blessed their efforts.

Regarding the first reported meeting of Paul and Timothy at Lystra about A.D. 49 we read: “And, look! a certain disciple was there by the name of Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman but of a Greek father, and he was well reported on by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium. Paul expressed the desire for this man to go out with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews that were in those places, for one and all knew that his father was a Greek.”—Acts 16:1-3, NW.

It may seem a little strange to some for Paul to have Timothy circumcised, particularly in view of the fact that the two were about to go on a tour in which they would advise the Christian congregations about what the governing body at Jerusalem had concluded about circumcision’s not being necessary and just what they should observe. (Acts 15:19-21; 16:4) However, there was no inconsistency here on the part of Paul. He merely had Timothy circumcised so as to avoid arousing