how God’s kingdom will come. All nations will be gathered “to the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” “to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon.” Jesus Christ and the heavenly armies with him will carry on war in righteousness. He will smite the nations with a long sharp sword and “will shepherd them with a rod of iron.” After destroying the wicked nations of earth he will hurl his invisible enemies, Satan and his demons, into the abyss of deathlike inactivity to remain there for a thousand years.—Rev. 16:14, 16; 19:11-15; 20:1-3, NW.

The physical facts show that we are living in the days of the fulfillment of these prophecies. God is therefore having the good news of his kingdom preached worldwide so that all men of good will may ‘seek Jehovah, righteousness and mildness,’ and so be spared during the battle of Armageddon even as Noah and his family were spared during the Deluge and came forth from the ark upon a cleansed earth. These will furnish the nucleus of the earthly domain of God’s kingdom. During the 1,000-year reign of Christ the earth will be made a paradise, all those in the memorial tombs will be resurrected and all obedient ones of mankind will be gradually restored to perfection.—Zeph. 2:2, 3.

Then Satan and his demons will be loosed for a final testing and all manifesting selfishness will be destroyed together with Satan and his demons. Thus the kingdom of God will accomplish God’s purpose by causing his will to be done on earth as in heaven and will vindicate him as the rightful Sovereign of the universe.—Rev. 20:7-10.

‘The Rafter in Her Own Eye’

● In the New York Daily News, November 4, 1955, the following dispatch appeared: “Brothels Warm, So Prices Go Up 4 Cents. Rome, Nov. 3, 1955.—Under the law, Italian hotels and apartment houses do not have to turn on central heating until December 1. But brothels must turn on the heat November 1. Because of this year’s unseasonably cold weather, this quirk in the law has made the 800 legalized houses practically the only warm places in the country, and business has boomed. Today the madames boosted their prices 10 per cent throughout the country and in the northern provinces they slapped on a general admission charge of 25 lire (four cents) to discourage those who drop in just to thaw out. The prices are regulated by the government,” and now range from $.33 to $1.65.

● In the United States and other Protestant lands such as Great Britain, the Roman Catholic Church poses as the guardian of public morals and lashes out against planned parenthood, indecent literature and vulgar movies. However, in view of this situation in a country 99.7-percent Roman Catholic for more than a millennium, the words of Jesus are appropriate: “How can you say to your brother: ‘Allow me to extract the straw from your eye’; when, look! a rafter is in your own eye? Hypocrite! first extract the rafter from your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to extract the straw from your brother’s eye.”—Matt. 7:4, 5, NW.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of Jehovah; and on his law doth he meditate day and night. For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the wicked shall perish.—Ps. 1:1, 2, 6, AS.