apostles and go “from house to house,” looking for those who are “conscious of their spiritual need.” Finding such ones, they make return visits, endeavoring to start a weekly home Bible study. If successful, they continue this study, not only until the student dedicates himself to do God’s will, but until he no longer needs such aid. All ministers are either being trained or training others. There is no clergy-laity distinction, nor are honorary titles bestowed upon any. All keep progressing from students to ministers who can assist others.—Acts 20:20; Matt. 5:3; 23:8.

Under the direction of the Watch Tower Society these ministers also “preach the word” on busy street corners and at shopping centers. They give Bible lectures at their Kingdom Halls, in auditoriums, in parks and other public places. The Society also encourages the use of all other lawful and effective means that are available, such as the public press, radio and television. And in particular does it sponsor assemblies: circuit, district, national and international. The latest and largest of these was just held July 27 to August 3 in New York city, to which Christian ministers came from more than a hundred different lands.

In all such ways the Watch Tower Society is serving God’s purpose as an efficient legal instrument of his dedicated and anointed servants who are the true channel of communication of Jehovah God today. As a result of such activity great numbers of sheeplike men and women have taken their stand for Jehovah God and for his King and kingdom. Proof of this is seen in the 1958 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which showed that during 1957 a peak of 716,901 Christian ministers and witnesses of Jehovah had shared in preaching the good news of the Kingdom and that, all told, more than 100 million hours were devoted to such activity.

Where the Watch Tower Society is banned the witnesses of Jehovah carry on underground. Even such, however, the Society manages to provide with spiritual food and instruction in most remarkable ways. But whether above ground or underground, these Christian ministers fulfill their commission to preach. It is being done, “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah.” With the help of that spirit they will continue until their preaching work is completed, “until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man.”—Zech. 4:6; Isa. 6:11, AS.

No Explosion

In the book Like a Mighty Army Halford E. Luccock writes of Christendom’s churches: “Did you happen to notice in the public prints not long ago that there was a violent explosion in a church in New York state—unfortunately not in the pulpit but in the boiler room? . . . The New Testament explodes all over the place. Here are a few . . . words which the Apostle Paul used to people who were blocking the path of the gospel: ‘You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, you whitewashed wall.’ Definitely not the language recommended by Robert’s Rules of Order. Perhaps that is what is the matter with us. Could it be that we are taking our cue from the wrong textbook? It would be a shock in many places to displace Robert’s Rules of Order by the New Testament, but it might be exciting . . . Think of explosion in pew and pulpit over muddled thinking, over mouselike trepidation before Caesar and Mammon, over festoons of ecclesiastical red tape.”