all come to dwell in the same love, the same joy and peace, the same long-suffering, the same kindness and goodness, the same faith, the same mildness and self-control. There is the place to attain Christian completeness! Right in there in the loving association of the New World society!—Gal. 5:22, 23; Heb. 10:24, 25.

26. How will good study habits help in attaining completeness?

²⁶ Another factor in attaining completeness is diligent and systematic study of Jehovah’s Word. Is not half an hour of personal study daily of more value than a well-earned half hour of rest or sleep? Form the study habit. With the habit of rising each morning combine the habit of considering the morning’s text. With the habit of the noon-hour break combine the habit of some theocratic reading. With the habit of going to bed each night combine the habit of further meditation on God’s Word. Read the Bible daily. Good study habits will help in ‘making over the mind’ for a joyful, zealous share in New World activity as the complete minister of God. How wonderfully worth while, in attaining to Christian maturity!—Josh. 1:6-8.

27. Who are most privileged of all earth’s people today, and what must these do?

²⁷ Who will be content with a minimum of service or of association? Having made the break for freedom, let all hold fast that freedom. (Gal. 5:1) Press on to attain completeness in the New World society. Most privileged of all is the lot of all those who, in complete dedication to Jehovah, continue to ‘present their bodies a sacrifice, living, holy, acceptable to God, a sacred service with their power of reason.’ Let the break from “this present evil world” be complete, lasting, irrevocable! With minds completely made over to New World thinking, and lives completely given over to New World living, let all strive to “be complete, as your heavenly Father is complete.”

“According to Their Wish”

Writing in the Union Bible Companion, S. Austin Allibone says: “Sir Isaac Newton . . . was also eminent as a critic of ancient writings, and examined with great care the Holy Scriptures. What is his verdict on this point? ‘I find,’ says he, ‘more sure marks of authenticity in the New Testament than in any profane history whatever.’ Dr. Johnson says that we have more evidence that Jesus Christ died on Calvary, as stated in the Gospels, than we have that Julius Caesar died in the Capitol. We have, indeed, far more. Ask anyone who professes to doubt the truth of the Gospel history what reason he has for believing that Caesar died in the Capitol, or that the Emperor Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III in 800. . . . How do you know that such a man as Charles I ever lived, and was beheaded, and that Oliver Cromwell became ruler in his stead? . . . Sir Isaac Newton is credited with the discovery of the law of gravitation. . . . We believe all the assertions just made respecting these men; and that because we have historical evidence of their truth. . . . If, on the production of such proof as this, any still refuse to believe, we abandon them as stupidly perverse or hopelessly ignorant. What shall we say, then, of those who, notwithstanding the abundant evidence now produced of the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, profess themselves unconvinced? . . . Surely we have reason to conclude that it is the heart rather than the head which is at fault;—that they do not wish to believe that which humbles their pride, and will force them to lead different lives.”

Concerning those who would ignore such truths as the great flood of Noah’s day, God’s Word says it is “according to their wish.”—2 Pet. 3:5.