¹⁴ Now is the time to find one’s place in the New World society and to maintain such place. It is God’s will “that all kinds of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth.” Love of God and love of neighbor impels all of God’s servants to study with the purpose in view of engaging in that great lifesaving work. The time is limited. May “the peace of God that excels all thought . . . guard your hearts and your mental powers by means of Christ Jesus. . . . The things which you learned as well as accepted and heard and saw in connection with me, practice these; and the God of peace will be with you.”—1 Tim. 2:4; Eph. 5:15, 16; Phil. 4:7-9.

A Good Conversation

[This is a translation of an article written by a “Reverend” P. C. Shoonenboom, coeditor of Kerk en olde lantschap, a semimonthly religious paper for the province of Drenthe, Netherlands, dated January 10, 1958.]

“Recently he stood at my door. A blushing, handsome young man of twenty. He was one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Oh! dear reader, you likely know them too. At one time or another they have been at your door. What did you then do? Have you ever invited him in? Or was it restricted to a skirmish with a few Bible texts at the outside door, followed by your declination, just as you tell a vacuum cleaner salesman that you do not need anything? Let it at once be said that most of us know Jehovah’s witnesses only from this aspect. Often we know them as queer and annoying people, who simply knock at your door, and with support of many citations out of the Bible inform you that the end of the world is at hand. Our knowledge goes no further.

“When I saw the young man standing at my door, I could not say I viewed him as being queer. At once I thought to myself: A clean-cut young fellow of twenty who comes to testify for his faith, where do we have such in our church or congregations? I was very much interested. What inspired this young man? What has he found by Jehovah’s witnesses, of which so little or none at all is to be found in the church? What can I learn herefrom for my own faith?

“With these questions in my heart I invited him in. We talked the whole evening and it was a good conversation. Every time I think back, I am still thankful for it. And this I would like to say: You should all do that at one time or another, when there is occasion for it. Let him talk. Listen well. He will naturally declaim against the church and all her shortcomings. They all do that. Jehovah’s witnesses have very strong complaints against the Christian churches. The joke is that you then discover that you yourself in part share these objections and hesitations. And still you will note that your faith will hereby be sharpened and revived. Your love for the church is put to the test. And this can only be good and wholesome.”

Endurance

“The fortitude of the Christian,” once wrote English poet and author John Dryden, “consists in patience, not in enterprises which the poets call heroic and which are commonly the effects of interest, pride, and worldly honor.”

Worth Even More

Patrick Henry, the American Revolutionary leader famous for the words “Give me liberty, or give me death,” once declared: “The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed.”