the mild spirit grows with them and becomes part of their Christian personality.

28. What are the results of mildness?

²⁸ Instructing with mildness, then, is God’s way. It gets the best results when preaching to those outside the Christian congregation, when teaching and counseling those inside the congregation, and when instructing and correcting within the family circle. It makes for great peace and happiness individually and collectively. What a pleasure it is to be among an entire society of people who produce the fruitage of God’s spirit, who work, live and instruct with mildness! That God blesses such ones Jesus made plain when he said: “Happy are the mild-tempered ones, since they will inherit the earth.”​—Matt. 5:5.

Do You Give ‘Just as You Have Resolved in Your Heart’?

HE WAS only a nine-year-old lad, but he had gotten the spirit of the good news of God’s kingdom. This was apparent from the letter he wrote the branch office of the Watch Tower Society at Athens: “My parents told me that if I succeed in the annual school examinations by obtaining a perfect mark, they would give me as a present 500 drachmas [about $17.00 in value]. In fact, I succeeded in the examinations, and my parents gave me this promised gift money, telling me to use it at my own discretion. After having reflected, I came to the decision to use this money for expanding the publication of the good news, and I remit it to you through our overseer.”a

Remarkable? Yes, but not altogether unique, for that the good news of God’s kingdom has this effect on children is also seen from what a five-year-old Rhodesian child wrote the Watch Tower Society’s branch office at Salisbury: “Dear Brothers, Here is my donation to the Society for 1/​- [one shilling; value, 14 cents] that my Daddy gave me for sweets. Instead of buying sweets my mind decided to send it to the Society because it will help a lot more than to buy sweets.”b

Yes, remarkable it is that young children should manifest such an unselfish spirit, but perhaps even more remarkable is the mature way these two young children expressed themselves: “After having reflected, I came to the decision,” wrote the nine-year-old; and “my mind decided to send it to the Society,” is the way the five-year-old put it.

Both of these youngsters appear first to have given the matter some thought, then resolved in their little hearts to give expression to an unselfish impulse and then acted upon that resolve. In doing so they were acting in keeping with the apostle