enemy and brings suffering and persecution upon them. In our Bible-education work and witnessing to God’s provision for salvation we are not seeking merely to hear words of flattery. We are seeking the lost sheep of the Great Shepherd Jehovah, in order to bring them to the fold under his Right Shepherd Jesus Christ. Not the winning of words of praise from flatterers, but the gathering of sheeplike people to God’s refuge of salvation is what means that our work has been a success. The joining of sheeplike lovers of God with us in worshiping and serving him while at the same time suffering with us—this is what gives us real help, though this be little in comparison with what God and Christ and the holy angels give us. To mere flatterers we say, Do not flatter creatures, but give true praise to the Creator. Become his dedicated witnesses. This is what saves!

21, 22. (a) What is it that so wonderfully unites us? (b) In harmony with his expressed will, what is our united prayer?

²¹ Amidst the anarchistic conflict of human wills today, we are exclusively for God’s expressed will. This divine will is what unites us so wonderfully in heart, in mind, in words and in action. Our united prayer to God is, Let his kingdom come in its victorious assault upon the Devil’s entire organization at Armageddon. Yes, let his perfect, righteous and holy will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon this earth, his footstool. Let the wicked opposers of his will be swept out of existence. Let the faithful, loving, obedient doers of his will behold his vindicative victory over all his enemies at Armageddon and let them enter into the new world of righteousness, peace, truth and holiness. Let the entire earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea basins.

²² Let his kingdom bless this earth, that paradise may be restored and beautify his earthly footstool and provide an everlasting happy home for perfect human creatures in his image and likeness. Let his anointed King call out and all those in the memorial tombs hear and come forth in resurrection to the opportunities to be won and enjoyed forever in Paradise by all those who obey his kingdom. Let all the wicked everywhere be annihilated, but let all those loving Jehovah be guarded for life eternal. Let all his works, in all places of his domination, bless Jehovah. Let every breathing thing praise Jehovah, because his will has come to pass.

Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses

GOD’S kingdom rules—throughout the universe! As never before in history it made its presence felt in the earth in the summer of the year 1958, not with any violence, but with a remarkable peaceful demonstration. Never before did it have so many of its ambassadors and envoys assembled together for training and consultation and for a united public testimony and proclamation as then. The world-known Yankee Stadium and the neighboring Polo Grounds, the largest baseball parks in metropolitan New York city, literally overflowed with myriads, yet without disorder of any kind, just as befitted representatives of the great Government of universal order. Daily for eight days in succession more than 145,000 of them came together and deliberated concerning the interests of God’s kingdom; and peace, orderliness and brotherhood reigned among them. The tension, the fierce charges and countercharges, the rivalry and the clash that marked the official gatherings at the United Nations capital a few miles to the south did not disturb or mar a single session of the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Sunday, July 27, to Sunday, August 3. Coming from at least 123 countries and island groups, yet they met together in loyal unity around the now-ruling kingdom of God.

The hostility of the nations of the East and of the West because of endangerment to their divided selfish interests had brought all mankind near to the brink of war—of World War III. The Middle East, a zone of continual ferment and recurring trouble in Bible history, was like a powder keg that a wild spark could blow up. Violent rebellion had overthrown the royal government in the ancient Bible land of Mesopotamia, and Russia and the United Arab Republic of Egypt and Syria had promptly recognized the rebel regime. At the request of the then constitutional president of Lebanon, the United States of America had landed thousands of troops in that coastal land of famous cedar trees; and at the request of the king of Jordan Great Britain had landed troops at its capital Amman. Selfishly concerned nations called these moves “acts of aggression.” The United Nations and its border observation force proved to be unequal to the emergency. The earthly situation was shaping up dangerously. For an international nonpolitical assembly of any size to be held the time seemed to be most inopportune. Especially so when delegates would come from the four quarters of the earth, even areas in the trouble zone, and would be dependent upon the world transportation system.

However, the long-announced international assembly had not been misnamed. It was the “Divine Will” for it to be held, and world conditions had to yield to it. The Most High God of heaven, who rules by means of his enthroned Son Jesus Christ, displayed his power to rule in the midst of his demonic and human enemies. He restrained the forces behind the Eastern and Western blocs of nations in order that the ambassadors and envoys of his heavenly kingdom might assemble in peace according to divine will.

It takes time and organization to gather together any great number of ambassadors, diplomats and official representatives from worldly nations. Expect, then, the coming together at New York city of more than 150,000 ambassadors and envoys of God’s kingdom from more than sixscore lands, and one can at least faintly imagine the amount of time and organization it had to take to arrange to bring together all the dedicated Christian witnesses of Jehovah to the Divine Will International Assembly for eight days.

All those attending had been given nineteen months of advance notice by the announcement that appeared in the issue of December 15, 1956, of the official Kingdom magazine, The Watchtower, Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom, page 763. By that time the contract had been secured for the use of the Yankee Stadium during the announced eight days. However, in view of the growth of the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses since the 1953 international assembly in Yankee Stadium, supplemented by a Trailer City many miles away in the neighboring state of New Jersey, it was evident from the start of the negotiations that more than the one stadium was needed for the vastly greater number of assembly delegates expected. So with intense interest the spiritual governing body of Jehovah’s witnesses watched the developments with regard to the baseball park of the New York Giants, the Polo Grounds, just northwest across the Harlem River from Yankee Stadium. A shift of the National League baseball team, the New York Giants, from New York city to San Francisco, California, was under consideration; and providentially this transfer was approved on August 19, 1957, by the Board of Directors of the corporation operating the team. This shift left the Polo Grounds without regular occupancy and hence available for assembly use. Without delay the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society closed a contract with the owners to use the Polo Grounds simultaneously with Yankee Stadium.

Efforts, begun long in advance, to procure an ample and convenient site for erecting a Trailer City to accommodate tens of thousands of theocratic assemblers failed repeatedly. Finally, near the time for the opening of the international assembly, the monthly service folder, Kingdom Ministry, as of July, 1958, advised definitely that there would be “no trailer city.” It was plainly the divine will that all the theocratic assemblers meet together at one site, in direct contact with one another and in full view of one another, under one administration, for one combined demonstration of Christian love, fellowship and solidarity. Whatever tents were to be pitched were to be those right alongside the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium for cafeteria and for great overflow crowds to sit under cover and listen to the Assembly program by sound equipment.

Moreover, there were other vital meetings to be held with key members of Jehovah’s visible organization that could not conveniently be held inside the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium. For such special meetings, as well as for additional overflow accommodations, the New Rockland Palace was rented, just one city block south of the Polo Grounds. Thus the all-provident King of eternity, Jehovah God, not only called his royal ambassadors and envoys to the great Kingdom assembly but also saw to it that they had ample accommodations for meetings and for transacting their affairs.

LODGINGS AND DEPARTMENTAL SERVICES

Although situated in a so-called Christian land, New York city is in fact a great pagan city, a large percentage of it not professing Christianity or even Judaism and those who do merely “having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.” (2 Tim. 3:5) This great metropolis and its environs, with over eight millions of inhabitants, have many hotels, tourist camps and motels, but not enough rooms