The speaker said: “Sheep represent all the peoples of the nations, not spirit-begotten but disposed toward righteousness, who mentally acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Lord and who are looking for and hoping for a better time under his reign.”f The climax of this assembly was Judge Rutherford’s public lecture on Sunday, attended by some 30,000, packing out the Coliseum. The convention also passed a historic resolution which led to the second outpouring of God’s anger against Christendom.g This resolution was printed in another tract called “Proclamation,” which subsequently was distributed to the amount of 45,000,000 copies in this country and Europe.h It heralded “A Warning to All Christians—World’s Impending Crisis—The Cause—Duty of Christians—The Result.” Bitter and hostile was Christendom’s reaction to this trumpet blast of God’s judgments against her for her apostasy.

The third significant international assembly was held at Columbus, Ohio, July 20-28, 1924, attended daily by about 20,000 witnesses with 35,000 attending the public meeting in the Ohio State University Stadium on the final Sunday. Radio broadcasting and electrical speech amplification were used in connection with this convention. Field service was also featured at this assembly as at its two predecessors. In the principal talk by the Society’s president it was pointed out that Satan is still unbound and that the clergy and their allies have become the tools of the Devil. A historic indictment was enthusiastically adopted by the entire audience, rising in full support. This was incorporated as part of a new tract entitled “Ecclesiastics Indicted,” which spoke out in headlines, “Civilization Doomed—Reason for World Crisis—Blessing of the People to Follow—The Seed of Promise versus The Seed of the Serpent.” Once again Christendom was shaken by the distribution of millions of copies of this true indictment.i

The year 1925 was one of particular expectancy, as many of the anointed thought that the remaining members of the body of Christ were then due to be changed to heavenly glory.j But, as it proved to be, there was yet much work for them to do on earth to aid those who were still to be gathered out. Nevertheless, 1925 turned out to be a marked year in that a flood of new spiritual truths came to Jehovah’s people. It was in this year that The Watch Tower brought them the sublime revelations that the name of Jehovah must have its proper place; that the birth of the man-child Kingdom organization occurred in 1914; that Satan had been cast out of heaven and now must confine his operations to the earth; that Jehovah purposes to make a great and lasting name for himself at the battle of Armageddon; that such battle is not a fight between capital and labor, conservatives and radicals, or by any human parties and nations, but is God’s fight against the entire Devil’s organization, invisible and visible; and finally, that Jehovah’s servant class on earth have no part in that fight, but must only warn of its coming.k

This year of great change-over in thinking was highlighted by the general convention at Indianapolis, Indiana, August 24-31, 1925, attended by 10,000. At the conclusion of J. F. Rutherford’s public lecture entitled “A Call to Action,” a loving resolution was passed, addressed “To All People of Good Will.” This was incorporated in a tract called “Message of Hope” headed “World Reconstruction—A Standard to Guide the Peoples.” About 50,000,000 copies were circulated in Christendom as the months passed by.l The hands of the witnesses continued to be kept busy during this crucial year of 1925. For this year a peak of 90,434 was recorded as the attendance at the spring Memorial celebration.a

(To be continued)

Preaching to the Falkland Islanders

IT WAS a hot, sweltering summer afternoon in the middle of January in Uruguay as two missionaries of the Watch Tower Society waved good-by to about a dozen of their missionary companions, after having climbed down into a launch that was to take them aboard a Dutch freighter headed for the Falkland Islands, a thousand miles away in the South Atlantic.

During the journey a good witness was given to all the crew members and the passengers, among the latter being a group of weathermen on their way to their posts in the Antarctic regions, who not only procured literature for themselves but also for their companions stationed in the Antarctic. Finally, after five days of much rolling and tossing the treeless islands of the Falkland group came into view. The brightly painted houses of the capital, Port Stanley, with their painted roofs were indeed a welcome sight for our sea-weary travelers. The grayish rolling land was covered with sagebrush, and, as was afterward learned, there are only eight miles of roads in the entire island group. Soon the 2,280 inhabitants of these islands were to hear about the good news of Jehovah’s kingdom for the first time. How would they respond?

After locating rooming quarters, procuring some food and then getting a good night’s rest the missionaries rose early in the morning to begin their preaching from house to house. Were they surprised to hear at the very first house that the news of their arrival had preceded them, in fact, had spread like wildfire! Everyone knew that two missionaries had arrived the day before and the missionaries found a ready welcome awaiting them. Spiritually starved in spite of the three churches and five clergymen in the village, the people in the first four homes listened to the missionaries for three hours. In five days they had placed more than one hundred Bible study aids and hundreds of booklets and magazines dealing with Bible subjects. Arrangements were made to revisit most of the homes called upon.

This activity, however, upset the tranquillity of the village. It was the topic of almost every conversation. While many persons eagerly listened and asked Bible questions, all this very much disturbed and troubled the clergymen, who suddenly became active in visiting their flocks and denouncing the work of the missionaries. One Protestant clergyman, who had not visited some of his people in more than two years, suddenly found time to visit them twice a month. And just as changeable as the wind proved to be the attitude of the people. Due to clerical propaganda, rumors were sweeping town: the missionaries have a different Bible, are spies, etc.

The missionaries began holding public lectures, both in homes and in a hall that they rented and where the average attendance for the series was about thirty. People were surprised to learn that the name Jehovah was in their Bibles, as well as to learn other doctrinal subjects. Within a month every home in the capital was visited and Bible studies were being conducted in fourteen different homes. Since about half of the population of the islands was scattered in the surrounding islands and at outposts and camps, inaccessible to the missionaries at the time, they arranged to mail Bible literature to each family. Thus, after about two months of work in the Falkland Islands, every single family there received the Kingdom witness, either by a personal visit or through the mail.

Since the missionaries returned to Uruguay they have received letters from persons of good will telling that they are continuing their study of the Bible and now have taken up the preaching work among their fellow countrymen. Clearly the time and effort spent in bringing the good news of the Kingdom to the Falkland Islanders were not in vain. Without doubt, among them will be some who will survive the battle of Armageddon to enjoy Jehovah’s blessings in the new world of righteousness.