Honesty Honors Jehovah

THE world has a saying that “honesty is the best policy,” but he who is honest only because of policy is neither truly honest nor likely to follow that policy consistently. A far better incentive for Christians to be honest is that “honesty honors Jehovah.” And that it does, for it shows that He can have integrity-keepers in spite of the Devil’s boast that he can turn all men away from God.

Illustrating how honesty does indeed bring honor to Jehovah are the following letter from a New York city teenager and a newspaper clipping:

“On my way home from the public library I noticed a black pocketbook on the sidewalk, which I picked up and took home. Seeing the name and telephone number of the owner I at once phoned her and arranged for her to pick it up at my home. The pocketbook contained a considerable amount of money as well as papers that the owner valued greatly. When she called she thanked me and remarked: ‘I didn’t think there were any honest people left in the world.’ She wanted to reward me and so I took advantage of the opportunity to witness to her and asked her if she would like to receive The Watchtower and Awake! at her home for one year. She said yes and was very pleased with the copies I gave her. She wanted to give me money besides, but I said that her taking the magazines was a fine reward for me.

“She was so impressed that she had an item printed in the local paper, which mentioned that I was one of Jehovah’s witnesses. She told me she knew of Jehovah’s witnesses and their fine work.” The news item referred to, dated February 17, 1957, follows:

“Mrs. L. L. Watkins of 8602 Forest Parkway is happy today that her lost pocketbook was found by an honest 14-year-old Cypress Hills boy, who noting her address in the purse promptly returned it to her. Mrs. Watkins was so grateful that she stopped at the Leader-Observer office and asked that special mention of the boy’s honesty be made in the paper. Out on a shopping trip, Mrs. Watkins had filled her arms with bundles and was carrying a large shopping bag. When she returned home she didn’t realize she had lost her purse until Jeremiah Sciuto, 14, of 62 Hemlock Street phoned. The boy had found the purse on Jamaica Avenue and returned it intact. The lad is a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

The ‘Enlightenment’ of Ancient Rome

● Mark Twain, noted American author, wrote in Volume I, chapter 26, of The Innocents Abroad: “Some seventeen or eighteen centuries ago, the ignorant men of Rome were wont to put Christians in the arena of the Coliseum yonder, and turn the wild beasts in upon them for a show. It was for a lesson as well. It was to teach the people to abhor and fear the new doctrine the followers of Christ were teaching. The beasts tore the victims limb from limb and made poor mangled corpses of them in the twinkling of an eye. But when the Christians came into power, when the holy Mother Church became mistress of the barbarians, she taught them the error of their ways by no such means. No, she put them in this pleasant Inquisition and pointed to the Blessed Redeemer, who was so gentle and so merciful toward all men, and they urged the barbarians to love him; and they did all they could to persuade them to love and honor him—first by twisting their thumbs out of joint with a screw; then by nipping their flesh with pincers—red-hot ones, because they are the most comfortable in cold weather; then by skinning them alive a little, and finally by roasting them in public. They always convinced those barbarians. The true religion, properly administered, as the good Mother Church used to administer it, is very, very soothing. It is wonderfully persuasive, also. There is a great difference between feeding parties to wild beasts and stirring up their finer feelings in an Inquisition. One is the system of degraded barbarians, the other of enlightened, civilized people. It is a great pity the playful Inquisition is no more.”