vocabulary used by the apostolic writers. All this has added colorful vividness to the Biblical narratives, and clear-cut understanding of the sayings of Jesus and the arguments employed by the apostles.

This letter expressing our great delight in using the New World Translation would be incomplete without referring to the superb translation of the first chapter of the gospel of John. Not only because it rightly conforms to the Greek in maintaining the difference between the God Jehovah and the Word, Christ Jesus, who “was a god”, but, by properly using the English word “came into existence” in verse 3 to translate fittingly egéneto, the whole account of the prehuman biography of Jesus discloses new vistas of thought. It emphasizes the great universal fact that life comes through Jesus Christ. NW’s rendering reads glowingly, “What has come into existence by means of him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (Joh 1:3, 4) Each time one rereads NW’s translation of John 1:1-18 new delights of spiritual understanding are in store for him.

To us it seems the spiritual gems we are constantly discovering in this new translation are innumerable and unending. Daily as we use this translation we thank Jehovah God our loving Provider for having given us this timely instrument with which we may constantly peer into “the depth of God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge”. (Rom. 11:33) We are grateful that the Watch Tower Society has come into possession of this faithful and illuminating translation. May the Lord Jehovah grant the New World Translation a wide and phenomenal distribution, that large numbers of men of good will toward God may come to a fuller understanding of the inspired Christian Greek Scriptures.

For the many happy residents here at the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead I send you our warm love and greetings.

Your fellow servant,

A. D. SCHROEDER, Registrar

Watchtower Bible School of Gilead

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Freedoms

In Havre de Grace, Maryland, Jehovah’s witnesses applied for a permit to hold a religious meeting in a park. The city council refused the permit, the meeting was held anyway, two speakers, Daniel Niemotko and Neil Kelley, were arrested, tried on disorderly conduct charges, convicted, and fined $25 and costs. Appeals eventually brought the case to the United States Supreme Court. On January 15 this court, in a unanimous decision written by Chief Justice Vinson, reversed the lower courts and censured the city officials. Chief Justice Vinson pointed out that the high court had previously condemned statutes and ordinances requiring permits from local officials on the ground that “a license requirement constituted a prior restraint on freedom of speech, press and religion, and, in the absence of narrowly drawn, reasonable and definite standards for the officials to follow, must be invalid”. It was pointed out that Havre de Grace had no law regulating or prohibiting use of the park, but left all authority in the hands of the park commissioner and city council. On this the chief justice said: “No standards appear anywhere; no narrowly drawn limitations; no circumscribing of this absolute power; no substantial interest of the community to be served.” On this same day the court struck down a New York city ordinance that required police permits for preachers to conduct religious services in the streets. The court is to be commended for these decisions, which are victories for basic freedoms. A detailed account of the witnesses’ case will appear in the March 22 Awake!