permitted wrong desires to pull you away from the New World society. Because you resisted them you are alive and able to see among those old-world ruins the bones of those who did not resist. By thus mentally transporting yourself into the new world from time to time and taking a retrospective view of the old world, you will build a stronger determination to hold fast and to resist wrong desires. Whatever urge or desire you may have will be measured by whether it will help or deter you from surviving into that righteous world.

22. What was the apostle Paul’s conviction, and how can it help us?

²² You should cultivate such a keen desire for God’s new world that nothing will be able to pull you away from the theocratic organization and its Higher Powers, Jehovah God and his Son. You should build up in your mind the same assurance that the apostle Paul had: “Who will separate us from the love of the Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or hunger or nakedness or danger or sword? For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things here nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35, 38, NW) Certainly if you too are convinced that none of these things can separate you from the love of God and his expression of love as found in Christ and in his creating of the new world, you will hardly allow wrong desires to pull you away. You will recognize how they endanger your future. You will put them away from you before they can get rooted and bring you to grief. You will not make the mistake that others have made by allowing your mind to dwell upon them.

23. (a) How should this counsel be received? (b) How should you examine yourself?

²³ Now, this counsel should not be received as just so many words. It should not be allowed to pass out of your mind after you have laid this issue of The Watchtower aside. Instead, meditate upon it. Examine yourself and see if you are entertaining desires that are leading you in the wrong direction. Be frank in your self-appraisal. It may mean the difference between surviving the battle of Armageddon or not surviving it. Consider what efforts you are making to cultivate right desires. Are you regularly associating with the theocratic organization? Are you feeding upon the spiritual food that Jehovah provides through that organization? Are you taking time for personal study of the Bible and for meditation upon the truths you learn? Are you allowing God’s thoughts to sink down deep into your mind, or is your study only superficial? Are you active in the Kingdom ministry, or do you allow personal desires to pull you away to other interests? Are you making a determined effort to cultivate right desires and to resist wrong ones? So examine yourself. Remember that how you think and what you do in these last days can mean either eternal life or eternal death. For that reason make a determined effort to cultivate right thoughts and right desires.

Told with Candor

◆ Truth usually tells its own story and always inspires confidence. That is what a reader of Faith on the March wrote the author, A. H. Macmillan. He said: “It is going to be fine to pass on your book to many good-will people to give them the inside working of things. A lot of them are going to be greatly impressed, for the note of extreme candor flows through every page.”—H. L. P., Massachusetts.