call, who will get ready for battle?” Who will be attracted to a divided house? How can the unhappy be an encouragement to others to follow Christ?—1 Cor. 14:8.

POLITICS AND THE REAL NEED

What is, perhaps, even more exasperating to the conscientious young man is the extensive use of politics in religion. Moore writes: “The outright bootlicking, backslapping, and ‘apple-polishing’ which go on in the aggressive fight for position, place, and prestige are appalling to any sensitive young minister. The pity is that this is about what is expected. The leading laymen expect it and foster it. The rule in the church is very often ‘whom you know’—not ‘who you are’ and what you have genuinely to offer in preaching, personal example, creativity, intellectual clarity, honesty, and sincerity. It is well known that many bishops in the Methodist Church, for example, actively campaign for office. The same goes for college presidents, board secretaries, and the pastors of many of the larger churches. . . . The means of achieving these offices—often by men of third-and fourth-rate talent—is sometimes enough to make a big city ward-heeler blush.”

What are the conscientious young men and women to think when they see those who throw parties, those who wine and dine and hobnob with the respected senior ministers, laugh at their boring jokes and say “yes” to their every whim, as the ones who are moved ahead? The Christian Herald reports their reaction: “Many students leave seminaries less able and willing to preach than when they came three years before.” Their zeal is dampened. Their spirit for the ministry leaves them. They die spiritually. The will to live for Christ is gone. And who is to blame?

When discipleship displaces church membership, when building faith, hope and love overshadows the building of church edifices, when the saving of human lives becomes more important than saving traditions and conventionality, when serving God becomes more important than satisfying self, then men want to be ministers, but not ministers of religious organizations that fail to teach God’s Word. They want to be ministers of God. And during the years 1957 through 1960, rather than there being a decline in the ministry, in the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses 277,866 persons became such ordained ministers, dedicated public teachers of God’s Word.

Jesus himself said: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few.” Sincere worker ministers are in demand, not because there has been a decline of interest in religion; rather, because the urgency is greater. Mankind stands face to face with God’s Armageddon! God’s established kingdom must be preached as a witness to all nations before Armageddon strikes. That is what makes the demand most urgent at this time. Will you minister for God?—Matt. 9:37, 38; John 4:23, 24; Zeph. 2:3; Rev. 16:16; Matt. 24:14; 1 Tim. 4:16.

Christians Should Preach

The Scriptural obligation for Christians to preach was noted by clergyman P. H. Jøgensen of Kongerslev, Denmark. The priest is, he said, “as are all others in the congregation, apostle, emissary, missionary, but in no way or manner more or less than everyone else in the congregation.” He went on to say that the priest can help, and his theological help “should be such that the congregation becomes much better equipped to go out into the world with its testimony.” In how many churches is that actually done?—Kristeligt Dagblad, September 27, 1960.