“Some of the brothers from Barcelona, desiring to continue their ‘convention’ joys, as well as to meet the president and brothers from other parts of Spain, accompanied me by plane to Madrid Tuesday morning. That afternoon we had a meeting in Madrid at the home of one of the witnesses, with 26 present. In the evening, at another home, 32 were present.”

As Brother Henschel was speaking to those brothers I was arriving by plane from Algiers. Naturally I found many problems that needed attention. For some years the Iberian Peninsula has been a dark corner of Europe where true freedom of worship does not exist. Since World War II a little handful of Kingdom publishers have boldly continued with pure worship in Spain, where the cult of saints and virgins predominates.

Two separate meetings were held on the afternoon of the following day with a combined attendance of 46, I speaking to one group and Brother Henschel to the other. Later that evening, I made it very plain to fifty brothers and newly interested ones gathered in a private home that their advancement must be made manifest, and pointed out to them the various ways in which they could do this.

PORTUGAL—LAST STOP

From Spain we flew to Portugal and within a few hours of landing we were giving talks to a group of 43 brothers at the central meeting place of Jehovah’s witnesses in Lisbon. That night we crossed the river to Almada and had a similar meeting with 53 attending. It was the beginning of a week of special ministerial activity and the brothers were in high spirits as they engaged in Kingdom service and worship. On Sunday all came together at Almada, and in spite of the rain the count was 73 brothers and persons of good will.

Early Tuesday morning we left Europe, winging our way homeward to New York. We watched the sun come up behind us and could see the light increase each minute until finally the sun broke forth in all its splendor from above the fluffy clouds. It is just that way with the light of truth now, for it is shining brighter each minute through the spiritual darkness of Satan’s system of things on this earth. It had just been our privilege to see expansion on a large scale in Africa and southern Europe, with thousands more ministers of the good news letting their light shine than when we last were there. What an indescribable privilege it is to serve Jehovah!

Pastor Quits for Conscience’ Sake

“The Rev. Edward H. Morgan, pastor for eight years of the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Delaware county, resigned yesterday from the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. . . . Mr. Morgan blamed the trend of modernism for his action, and declared he could no longer continue to compromise his beliefs, . . . [saying] ‘I am leaving the church because I can no longer serve the Lord with a clear conscience and without compromise as a minister of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. . . . Finding myself continually involved in what I believe to be at variance with God’s word, I find the only course for me is to remove myself.’”—Philadelphia Inquirer, January 19.

If the pulpit were a service instead of a profession, such men would not find themselves economically bound to a system they could not honestly support; and if more of them had the strength to give up their life’s work when they found it did not correspond with God’s Word, even though, like Mr. Morgan, they had no idea what they would do in the immediate future, there would be fewer men at war with their consciences, and there might be more true servants of God in the land.