from Egypt and the faithful ones were at length brought into the Promised Land of milk and honey.—Ex. 14:1 to 15:22.

5, 6. (a) Today who are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? (b) Who are the vessels of mercy fit for his use? What is the proof?

⁵ It is the same way now with the spiritual Israelites, who are in this world but are no part of it. The unseen Pharaoh and “god of this world”, Satan the Devil, is a vessel upon whom God’s wrath now rests and who will eventually be destroyed. But the faithful Christians of spiritual Israel are likened to “vessels of mercy”, whom God had aforetime “prepared unto glory”. (Rom. 9:17-24) These have cleared themselves from wicked creatures who are vessels for a common or dishonorable service and who are doomed to eventual destruction as opposers of the true God Jehovah.

⁶ The modern-day Egypt, Satan’s world, is full of vessels on whom divine wrath rests. (Rev. 11:8) They are destined to an early destruction at the oncoming battle of Armageddon. That includes Christendom’s religious leaders and sects that err from Bible truth, like Hymenaeus and Philetus whom the apostle Paul names. Today’s witnesses of Jehovah are a consecrated people because of dedicating themselves to the holy service of God to carry out his will and commandments. Rather than further yield themselves slavishly to service of this doomed modern Egypt, those whom Jehovah has made his witnesses have devoted themselves to His use, considering it an honor to be used by him in any capacity. Only by such separateness are they fit for the great Master’s service, and he shows his acceptance of them by equipping them for works that are good in his sight. All, there is the proof that they are his witnesses who compose his visible organization, namely, his blessing of them and making actual use of them in carrying out his work in the earth. Christendom’s religious systems may deny that these are witnesses of Jehovah and may nickname them with all sorts of opprobrious names and speak and work against them. Yet if they have the evidence that they are the honored vessels of God’s visible organization, the reproach and opposition of worldly religious systems does not matter. They stand unmoved on a solid foundation: “Yet God’s solid foundation stands unmoved, bearing this inscription, ‘The LORD [that is, Jehovah] knows those who really belong to him’. And this also, ‘Let every one who names the Name of the LORD [that is, Jehovah] renounce all wickedness’.”—2 Tim. 2:19, Weymouth; Num. 16:5; Isa. 26:13.

7. What instrumentalities have Jehovah’s witnesses used for over seventy years? How are they equipped today, in evidence of what?

⁷ From the time the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY was founded and The Watchtower was first published, Jehovah’s witnesses have used these instrumentalities in his service, but under continual assault by Christendom. And yet after these more than seventy years, there are now more, many times more, Christians who have confessed the name. And now in this year 1950 the God whom we serve has equipped us more mightily than ever before for still larger accomplishments as his honored vessels. This we shall here briefly describe, for it is evidence that the Universal Sovereign has not failed to have his witnesses in the earth in these perilous last days of the old world. It is also evidence that we are at the gates of the upright New World which his witnesses represent.

Organized Testimony to the New World

1. (a) What is the publication record of The Watchtower? (b) How did its first editor come to be “fit for the Master’s use”?

IN JULY of 1879 the first issue of what is now The Watchtower came off the press and began to be circulated from 101 Fifth St., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. So now this magazine is 71 years old, with a record of never having missed an issue despite the turbulence of those years and the bitter religious “cold war” of Christendom against our magazine. What moved its publication? What divine authority did its promoter and editor have to enter the field of giving Bible instruction and testifying to Jehovah God? Did he meet the requirement of 2 Timothy 2:21, that of clearing himself from vessels that were serving a dishonorable destruction-deserving purpose? Yes. In his teens Charles Taze Russell, the editor, had been a member of the Congregational Church and a strong believer in the doctrine of eternal torture of damned human souls in a hell of literal fire and brimstone. But when trying to reclaim an acquaintance, an infidel, to Christianity, he himself was routed from his sectarian position and driven into skepticism. Hungrily he began investigating the heathen religions in search of the truth on God’s purpose and man’s destiny. Proving all these unsatisfactory and before giving up religious investigation altogether, he took up the search of the Holy Scriptures from a skeptic’s standpoint, now untrammeled by the false religious doctrines of the sectarian systems of Christendom. He had had to clear himself from such religious vessels so as to be an honorable vessel of Jehovah God, consecrated, fit for his Master’s use, and fully equipped for every good work.

2. How did this independent magazine come to be established?

² The year 1870 found young Russell a member of a private Bible class, organized for the honest prayerful examination of the Holy Scriptures, letting the Bible speak for itself and God be his own interpreter of his written Word. This study class grew into a congregation of students of the Bible to which he preached, and in October of 1876 he was elected the spiritual shepherd or pastor of this class of Bible students, there in Pittsburgh, Pa. The same year he became assistant editor of a 16-page monthly magazine published in Rochester, New York, for which he continued to write until 1878. That year the editor published an article which practically rejected one of the key doctrines on human salvation, namely, the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Assistant editor Russell countered with an article in loyal support of that vital doctrine, attempting to set forth God’s purpose in connection with the ransom sacrifice. This difference arising and worsening in the editorial staff, Brother Russell decided finally it was necessary to establish an independent magazine uncompromisingly loyal to God’s Word and courageously following the advancing light on Bible teaching. Hence the birth of Zion’s Watch Tower in July, 1879, the title of which is today The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. It was published for the purpose of feeding Jehovah’s witnesses with pure, unsectarian Bible truth.

3. From that obscure beginning what kind of movement developed?

³ Humble was that beginning of The Watchtower, with an initial issue of 6,000 copies. But “who hath despised the day of small things?” (Zech. 4:10) Today, after seventy-one years of publication, our Brooklyn presses run off about 750,000 copies of each issue, about a million and a half copies monthly. So in this quite obscure way there began a movement of witnesses of Jehovah which was to shake all Christendom to its false religious foundations; to draw upon itself the hatred, vituperation and malicious persecution from all the religious systems of this old world; to attract the notice of governments of every political shade who have resorted to banning Jehovah’s witnesses and their Bible literature, dissolving their local organizations, committing them to prisons, concentration camps, exile and execution; but, in the face of such world-wide antagonism, a movement to make the name of the living, true God known and famous throughout the earth, advertising his kingdom by Christ, announcing his righteous new world, and drawing together in a oneness of belief and a unity of action Jehovah’s witnesses all over the globe. What does this prove?

4. What proof exists today that this movement was not from man?

⁴ It proves that this united organization of consecrated people is Jehovah’s visible organization; that his blessing is upon it; and that he is using it as his vessel for an honorable purpose. Had this movement been of man, “Russellism,” as enemies reproachfully call it in order to slur it as being man-made, then after these more than seventy years of such world opposition it would have come to nought. But since it is manifestly of God, being founded upon his Word and proceeding solely according to Scripture, the conspiracy of religion, commerce and politics has been unable to overthrow the organization and those worldly conspirators are found to be fighting against God. (Acts 5:38, 39) The concentrated hatred of all religious sects disagreeing with it, the crushing political pressure and rabid persecution brought against it, does not disprove but rather confirms that the divine approval is on it. Said Jesus, “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.—Luke 6:22, 23.

5. How have The Watchtower and its associates shown separateness?

⁵ Neither Jehovah nor Christ Jesus nor the Christian witnesses of Jehovah court the favor of this world and its political, commercial and religious elements. Such worldly elements are opposing the divine purpose and are vessels of divine wrath fitted for destruction at Armageddon. Necessarily persons who want to be vessels of divine mercy, consecrated to God and fit for his use must clear out from such worldly vessels to escape destruction with such vessels of God’s wrath. And this requirement The Watchtower and all associating with it have fulfilled from the start. As The Watchtower (page 2) said in its early issues concerning “This Journal and Its Mission”: “This journal is set for the defense of the only true foundation of the Christian’s hope now being so generally repudiated,—Redemption through the precious blood of ‘the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom [a corresponding price, a substitute] for all.’ (1 Pet. 1:19; 1 Tim. 2:6) . . . It stands free from all parties, sects and creeds of men, while it seeks more and more to bring its every utterance into fullest subjection to the will of God in Christ, as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. It is thus free to declare boldly whatsoever the Lord hath spoken;—according to the divine wisdom granted unto us, to understand.”

6. In what has this separateness resulted?

⁶ What separateness from all elements of this world, and what dedication to Jehovah God, could be more complete than that here expressed and maintained? Maintaining this attitude, the witnesses associated with this journal have proved to be clean vessels, fit for the Master’s use. So Jehovah has been pleased to use them as his visible organization. No question about that!

BUILDING UP THE WORKING EQUIPMENT

7. What is our fundamental piece of working equipment?

⁷ But human vessels fit for the divine Master’s service need equipment for doing his work. The great Master Jehovah has shown his favor upon his visible organization by blessing it with the equipment needed to accomplish its tremendous work under the modern circumstances of this perilous epoch. The Bible, or a knowledge of what is in it, is, of course, the fundamental piece of equipment. In proof of this the apostle’s words to a man of God are: “Every Scripture inspired by God is useful for teaching, for convincing, for correction of error, and for instruction in right doing; so that the man of God may himself be complete and may be perfectly equipped for every good work.”—2 Tim. 3:16, 17, Weymouth.

8. What instrument is needed in conjunction with the Bible? Why?

⁸ The Bible societies of Christendom have distributed Bibles by the hundreds of millions of copies in more than 1,100 languages and dialects. Yet great ignorance persists as to its teaching. Sectarian confusion is bewildering as to its harmonious teaching. Jehovah’s Word is not of private human interpretation. He is his own Interpreter. He causes light to be shed on one Scripture text by others elsewhere in the Bible bearing on the same subject. He also brings to pass the fulfillment of Bible prophecies by definite events and then he calls the attention of his witnesses to such fulfillments in clarification of prophecy. He has appointed Christ Jesus the Head of his visible organization and his associate interpreter for the organization, “an interpreter, one among a thousand.” (Job 33:23) So Jehovah’s visible organization under Christ is a channel for bringing the divine interpretation of his Word to his devoted people. What then? An organizational instrument must be provided to help all lovers of truth and life to gain a progressive understanding of God’s Word and for freeing themselves from all the confusing, faith-destroying religious doctrines and creeds of Christendom. Such an educational instrument this journal The Watchtower was meant to be and has proved to be. Not fettered by any man-made religious creed, it has been free to advance in the truth as the divine Interpreter has led the way by Jesus Christ.

9. How did the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society develop?

⁹ Besides The Watchtower other spiritual food was provided through the pen of Brother Russell. This was regularly spread to all hungry ones by the then available means of distribution. To keep pace with Jehovah’s blessing upon the work Brother Russell organized the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1881 (The Watchtower, April, 1881), and three years later, in 1884, this was incorporated under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania. This incorporated Society has since served as part of the equipment God provided for his people to do every kind of good work in both American and foreign fields. He has preserved it to this day. It now has its main offices at 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn 2, N. Y., but has its registered office still in Pittsburgh, Pa., where its annual meetings for transacting business and electing the Society’s directors are held as required by Pennsylvania law. It is merely an instrument, a legal and publishing servant, of Jehovah’s visible organization, his consecrated witnesses.

10. Who was its first president? What was its chartered purpose?

¹⁰ This Pennsylvania corporation’s first president was Charles Taze Russell, and he was regularly elected to this office by the contributors to the Society till his death, October 31, 1916. The purpose of this legal corporation was well stated in the charter granted it on December 13, 1884: “The purpose for which the corporation is formed is, the dissemination of Bible truths in various languages by means of the publication of tracts, pamphlets, papers and other religious documents, and by the use of all other lawful means which its Board of Directors, duly constituted, shall deem expedient for the furtherance of the purpose stated.” The Christian purpose of the Society was harmonized more with developments and was stated in greater detail in an amendment adopted in 1944 and which altered the above article.

11. Why is world-wide attention centered on the Brooklyn Society?

¹¹ The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society today is at the heart of a visible organization that has Branches in 63 lands of the earth, besides financing missionary homes and supervising Kingdom-preaching activities in 104 lands. Hence the interest of hundreds of thousands of Bible Christians or witnesses of Jehovah throughout the earth centers upon what is going on at Society Headquarters. They appreciate the spiritual service that the legal Society is rendering them. Their prayers go up daily to the Most High God for his blessing upon it and its work. That is why we here take up a brief account of the Society’s development from its beginning, to show its growth and its use as an instrument of Jehovah God.

12. How was a Bible-study aid series published and pioneering begun?

¹² In 1886 the Society published the first of a series of seven bound books to be aids to Bible study and known as “Studies in the Scriptures”. The sixth of these was published in 1904 by Brother Russell, and the seventh was published in 1917, after his death. For many years, down to April, 1926, those Studies in the Scriptures, translated into many languages and reaching a circulation of millions of copies, served as the textbooks for weekly Bible study by many congregations in all the earth. It was with the first volume of such Scripture Studies that the house-to-house missionary work, first known as “colporteur work” but now called the “pioneer work”, was begun, in 1886. Pioneers now number thousands.

13. How did the Society come into ownership of its first plant?

¹³ For years the literature was published by the Tower Publishing Company, which met all expenses and furnished the books, tracts, etc., to the Society at an agreed price. But in 1898 the ownership of the entire plant at Allegheny (North Pittsburgh), Pa., came into the hands of the Society, this carrying with it The Watch Tower, the Bible House with its complete outfit of office fixtures, type, stock of Bibles, Studies in the Scriptures, booklets, tracts, etc., together with tons of valuable electroplates of various publications in a number of languages. The Bible House there on Arch street was a four-story building built really for the Society’s use. From the first it was intended to be presented to the Society in course of time, and was valued at $34,000. The net equity of all this donation to the Society was appraised at $164,033.65. From here on the Society furnished its own capital, and all colporteur (pioneer) accounts, etc., were owing to it.

14. By what financial method has the work been supported till now?

¹⁴ It sent out traveling representatives who gave public talks and visited the congregations and served them with spiritual admonition, but never did these take up collections, either privately or publicly. The collection plate was absolutely banned from all congregational meetings, and all meetings were advertised under the legend “Seats free, no collection”. “Freely ye have received, freely give,” Jesus told the missionaries he sent out. Since this was Jehovah’s organization and work, it was felt he would provide the money for carrying on his work by his spirit moving upon his devoted people. So support of the work was left to voluntary contributions. In this way Jehovah God, whose is all the silver and the gold, has provided the money to this day, both for the local congregations and for the legal Society. This is another evidence that he is back of this visible organization.

TRANSFER OF HEADQUARTERS

15. What guided toward the moving of headquarters to Brooklyn?

¹⁵ In 1908 it was decided to transfer headquarters of the Society to Brooklyn, New York, as it was considered a more impressive place from which to carry on the newspaper work by which the weekly sermons of the president of the Society were published in newspapers throughout the land. At that time Brother Russell’s sermons were being published in eleven newspapers. But in course of time the number rose to more than 2,000 newspapers, with a combined circulation to 15,000,000 readers, concurrently publishing his sermons. All together, there were over four thousand newspapers in several lands which at one time or another published these sermons either free or for a charge. So Brother Russell became the greatest syndicate writer of his day. Many came to a knowledge of the truth by means of these published sermons. At the time of transfer Brooklyn was known as “The City of Churches”, and within a radius of a few miles of it there lived a population of seven and a half million of many nationalities. So Brooklyn was chosen as “our most suitable center for the harvest work during the few remaining years”. (The Watch Tower, Dec. 15, 1908) That Jehovah guided in this transfer to a bigger field for larger service is manifest, for it has been out from Brooklyn that the greatest work of the Society has been projected. Yes, from here has been directed the greatest campaign of announcing God’s kingdom by Christ Jesus in all the history of the Christian church. By his protective care and providence we are still here in Brooklyn in 1950, possessing greater equipment now than ever before for what we believe will be the grand climax of the global testimony to the name and word of Jehovah God and his Theocratic Government of the new world of righteousness.

16, 17. What events marked opening the new quarters?

¹⁶ Property was purchased at 17 Hicks street, Brooklyn, New York. This came to be known as the Brooklyn Tabernacle. On its second floor was a large auditorium seating 800, and here public addresses by Brother Russell and other Society representatives were to be delivered and other meetings held. The street floor was fitted up for office purposes, and the basement floor for the literature stock and the shipping department. Into this the Society began moving in January of 1909, and on Sunday, January 31, there was an opening celebration, almost 41 years to a day before a similar event this year which we are about to describe.

¹⁷ The total number attending that Tabernacle opening was about 350 from New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, and other cities as far away as Boston. The following Sunday all the friends present from New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City voted unanimously to be parts of a congregation whose home would be at Brooklyn Tabernacle, and they unanimously elected Brother C. T. Russell to be “pastor” of the same. And so the designation “Pastor Russell”, by which he became known world-wide, was not because of any self-assumed title. Ephesians 4:11, 12 declared that Christ Jesus would give some of his consecrated followers to be “pastors”; and in view of the pastoral work Brother Russell was doing under the Chief Shepherd Christ Jesus the congregations throughout the earth voted him to be their acknowledged pastor. By extensive travels he personally served many of them. It was while on a tour visiting and serving congregations that he died, in great pain from a physical infirmity, on a train moving through the state of Texas, October 31, 1916. At a little Texas town his body was taken off and deposited in a basket on a loading platform of the railroad station, before it was finally taken care of for regular interment at a Pittsburgh cemetery.

18. How was the Brooklyn Bethel established and opened?

¹⁸ At the time of opening the Brooklyn Tabernacle the headquarters family numbered more than thirty. With that number it was felt that they fairly needed a hotel in order to house them. The Tabernacle had no living apartments. Hence property was purchased in the nearby residential section on the heights. This property, which was numbered 124 Columbia Heights, proved to be none other than the residence of a former famous Brooklyn preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, whereas the Tabernacle building had been the “Beecher Bethel”. After extensive repairs the dwelling was made suitable for the headquarters family. As the purpose was for this home to be a house where God dwelt by his spirit, it was called “Bethel”, that name meaning “house of God”. When the Bethel family finally got moved and established in the Brooklyn Tabernacle and Bethel home, the family held a reception for the friends outside, one night in April from 7 to 9 p.m. About 400 came. They were first received over at the Brooklyn Tabernacle and shown the features of this part of the Society’s equipment and then went to the Bethel home, where they were privileged to inspect the place. Before they departed, refreshments were served them in the dining-room in the basement. It was a grand occasion for then! Some time later the adjoining property, 122 Columbia Heights, was purchased and thus the home enlarged.

19. What other corporations were formed, and why?

¹⁹ In order that Jehovah’s consecrated people might hold these properties and carry on all the business connected with their publication work in New York state it became necessary for another corporation to be formed. In February, 1909, under provisions of The Membership Corporation Law of the laws of New York a membership corporation was established known as “Peoples Pulpit Association”, with a board of seven directors and of which Brother Russell was elected president. Thirty years later, by an amendment filed February 6, 1939, the name of this New York corporation was changed to “WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.” The first issue of our magazine The Watchtower to be published as from Brooklyn was that of April 15, 1909. It announced as foreign agencies of the Watch Tower Society three Branches, in London, England, Barmen, Germany, and Melbourne, Australia. In 1914 it was found advisable to organize a British corporation for expediting the gospel-preaching in the British Isles, and thus the International Bible Students Association was formed. Brother Russell was elected president of this British corporation. He served in the capacity of joint president of the Pennsylvania, New York and British corporations till the day he died.

20. How was the Bethel enlarged in 1910-1911? With what features?

²⁰ In 1910 an addition to the rear of the Brooklyn Bethel home began to be constructed. This ran back to Furman street, at the foot of a precipice. So the Bethel addition, completed in 1911, extended down the precipice nine floors to the Furman street level. In this addition the Bethel dining-room was located, where the family ate together, and where study meetings were held; and a tank sunk in the concrete floor served as an immersion pool on occasion.

Postwar Enlargement of the Theocratic Organization

1. What silenced clergy ridicule as to predictions about 1914?

AWAY back in 1880 the columns of The Watchtower had called notice to Bible chronology marking A.D. 1914 as the year for the 2,520-year period to end referred to by Jesus as the “times of the Gentiles” in his prophecy on the world’s end. (Luke 21:24) In harmony with this it was expected that in 1914 the kingdom of God by Christ Jesus in the heavens would be fully established, while this world would be involved in an unprecedented “time of trouble”. The religious leaders and systems of Christendom were all set to laugh at Brother Russell and his fellow witnesses of Jehovah over failure of his announced predictions concerning A.D. 1914. But it was no laughing matter when, at the end of July, World War I broke out and by October it had become global in its scope. Christendom’s religious mouths were silenced at this frightening turn of events, but not Brother Russell’s. October 1, 1914, on taking his place at the breakfast table in the Brooklyn Bethel dining-room, he in a strong voice denoting conviction announced: “The Gentile Times have ended!”

2. What heavenly events marked A.D. 1914?

² Knowing that the world had now reached the time for its dissolution he refused to heed the plea of U. S. President Wilson for all clergymen and preachers to join in nation-wide prayer for peace. At that time it was not appreciated that there was also war up in heaven, between Jehovah’s newly inaugurated King Jesus Christ and the Devil’s hosts, resulting in the Devil’s being ousted from up there and debased to this earth for a short time before his destruction. But the Bible prophecies kept fulfilling. Light upon God’s Word, particularly Revelation, chapter 12, kept brightening. This disclosed that Jehovah’s Kingdom by Christ had been born A.D. 1914 and was fully established in the heavens to rule amid its enemies in heaven and earth. Its first act was to oust Satan from heaven.—See The Watchtower, March 1, 1925.

3. How was the Society’s president accused in 1918 but exonerated?

³ Brother Russell died the last day of October in 1916. By an election held at Pittsburgh’s annual business meeting, January 6, 1917, J. F. Rutherford, the Society’s legal attorney and one of its traveling representatives, was made president of the Pennsylvania corporation, to succeed Brother Russell. He was later elected president of the New York and British corporations. Through regular election by members and directors of the several corporations he continued in the presidency of them till his death, January 8, 1942. Shortly after his election the United States got involved in World War I, on April 6, 1917. The publication of the seventh volume of Studies in the Scriptures July 17, 1917, proved fateful, and troublous times for the Society in the United States took on a disastrous aspect. That Bible-study help, The Finished Mystery, was an exposé of the religious systems of Christendom. So the enemy seized upon it as part of their proof that the Society’s president and other members of the organization closely associated with him were guilty of sedition against the government, and Brother Rutherford and seven others were railroaded off to federal penitentiary in the spring of 1918, under sentences of 80 years in prison, and without benefit of bail for their freedom till appeal to a higher court should be effected. After nine months in the penitentiary bail was granted them on March 21, 1919, and they were released. Later the Appeal Court reversed the judgment against them, and in 1920 the indictment against them was disposed of. Thus they were completely exonerated as innocent of the malicious charges of the enemy.

4. How did Brooklyn Bethel come to be abandoned and then restored?

⁴ Meanwhile the conditions had seemed to dictate the abandonment of the Brooklyn properties and the moving of the Society’s offices back to Pittsburgh, in October, 1918. The Brooklyn Tabernacle was sold, and the Bethel home was put up for sale. No buyer appeared! Was that accidental? No, but providential! It was the hand of Almighty God, who knows his own purposes. He was reserving this site on Columbia Heights for the grander work of his faithful witnesses in postwar years. In view of the release of the Society’s officers from federal detention, and other advantages, the decision was made to move back and restore the headquarters and operating plant to 124 Columbia Heights. This was done about October 1, 1919. The Bethel home was reopened, with Brother Rutherford presiding. Even during his imprisonment the loyalty of the brethren to him and their conviction that he was innocent impelled the voting brethren of the several societies to re-elect him president at their annual business meeting.

5. What events gave stimulus to the postwar work?

⁵ In the summer following their release from unjust imprisonment the first international convention of Jehovah’s people at Cedar Point, Ohio, took place, September 1-8, 1919. Just prior to this The Watchtower published a series of two articles on “Blessed Are the Fearless”, showing from Bible prophecy that a bold work, the greatest of their career, must be performed by God’s devoted people among all nations before the battle of Armageddon. This work was spoken on and emphasized at this Cedar Point Assembly, and plans were announced for enlarging the work, including publishing The Golden Age.

6. What great work then lay ahead? What did this require?

⁶ World War I had disrupted the work in all the earth. Society connections with its Branches had been interfered with or in some cases broken off. Things were in quite a disorganized state. Now was the time to restore connections for bringing God’s faithful ones to a state of unity everywhere, under a Theocratic arrangement in which the great Theocrat Jehovah ruled from the top down through his organization. It was a time for reorganizing and training his people for renewed service. A most critical work lay ahead! It required courage. It called for expansion of the organization to the ends of the earth. In 1918 some 3,868 had been reporting field activity. The remainder of God’s faithful remnant of spirit-begotten heirs of the Kingdom must be gathered to the organization. However, early in 1918 the Lord God had revealed that a great earthly flock, whose number was estimated to run into the millions, would survive Armageddon into the New World, and these must be given the witness and gathered to the Good Shepherd’s fold. The command to preach “this gospel of the kingdom” in all the world for a witness to all nations applied now during all the postwar period down till Armageddon clears the earth for the New World. No time must be lost in organizing for the work. All obstacles must be cleared out from among God’s devoted servants. The work must be done for the vindication of Jehovah’s name and for the salvation of the witnesses themselves and of those accepting their witness. God’s visible organization for the work must be built up, instructed, strengthened and adequately equipped for the colossal work. Christ Jesus at the spiritual temple of God understood the situation and saw to it that all the needs were met.

7. What publishing equipment was provided and what slogan raised?

⁷ Greater work meant more equipment was needed. Jehovah God, whose work it was, provided the equipment for it. A move to do all our own printing in the United States began. A small printing plant was