are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all perform powerful works, do they? Not all have gifts of healing, do they? Not all speak in tongues, do they? Not all are translators, are they?”—1 Cor. 12:20-30.

13. When taking the good and wholesome place provided among Jehovah’s witnesses for youth, what responsibilities must they also assume?

¹³ In this globe-encircling New World society there is also plenty of room for our children and youth. You younger ones should therefore know your place and take it. The Bible mentions some children in the past that did this very thing. So follow the good examples set by such boys and girls as Samuel, Jeremiah, Jephthah’s daughter, Timothy and Jesus, to mention a few. Prepare yourselves for greater privileges that will be assigned to you when you prove capable of carrying a heavier load of responsibility. To this end take in knowledge of the Scriptures, both by personal and by organized group study, which knowledge will make you wise for salvation. Study your assignments ahead of time and come prepared to take an active part in the congregational meetings. Grow to maturity in spiritual wisdom and understanding not only by diligent study but also by taking part in the various forms of ministerial activity. Regularly engage in the house-to-house preaching work and in the weekly distribution of the magazines. Learn how to call back properly on interested persons and how to conduct home Bible studies with them. Show proper and due respect for your parents as well as toward the overseers in the organization. “Remember, now, your grand Creator in the days of your young manhood.” This is certainly the place, and it is a good and wholesome place, for the youth among Jehovah’s witnesses. And, praise Jehovah! the wise youths who find and keep this happy place are not numbered among the criminal delinquents of this present wicked system of things.—Eccl. 12:1.

IS YOUR PLACE PIONEERING?

14, 15. (a) Does the New World society make room also for pioneers and missionaries? (b) As a pioneering missionary, what blessings and privileges did the apostle Paul enjoy?

¹⁴ Often there are full-time pioneers and missionary publishers associated with local congregations. They too have a place in this society of Christian ministers. Being free of Scriptural obligations that would prevent them from serving as full-time ministers, they seek first the kingdom of God instead of selfish pursuits and, like the apostle Paul, they count the loss of worldly position and material luxuries as so much refuse or common garbage.—Matt. 6:25-34; Phil. 3:8.

¹⁵ Stop and consider what a privileged man the apostle Paul was. He was the “foremost apostle” to the Gentile nations. He traveled over a considerable expanse of the Roman Empire, visiting many places and establishing many congregations. Paul was further privileged to write more of the Christian Greek Scriptures than anyone else. In Athens he bore witness before the most distinguished philosophers and educated men of his day. He also testified before the Supreme Court of Jerusalem, the Jewish Sanhedrin. He had the privilege of preaching the good news about Christ Jesus, the New World Ruler, before such oldworld rulers as Governors Felix and Festus, King Agrippa, and eventually before the Imperial Court of the Roman emperor Nero. All these and many more privileges and blessings Paul enjoyed when as a pioneer he crossed over the threshold separating the part-time from the full-time ministry.

16. (a) Are all able to enter the pioneer service? (b) How does Jesus’ illustration show the danger of being so preoccupied with personal matters that one misses out on the privilege of pioneering?

¹⁶ That same open door of opportunity is before those of the New World society today. But some feel they are not able to enter the pioneer ranks because they have small children or other dependents, or because they are in a feeble state of health. Others feel they are so heavily burdened down with financial obligations that must be met that it is impossible for them to pioneer. On the other hand, there are a large number of persons associated with Jehovah’s witnesses who profess to be fully dedicated to God’s service and who are free of binding Scriptural obligations, yet, for one excuse or another, they attempt to beg off from assuming the responsibility that goes with pioneering. May it not be said that these persons are out of their proper place in the New World society? Are they not out of orbit, wandering carefree off course, attempting to remain free of the restrictions and routine of full-time pioneer service? This is certainly a foolish and dangerous course to pursue, for it borders on the attitude had by those in Jesus’ illustration who begged off from attending a special banquet simply because they had bought a field or some oxen or because they had married a wife. Now was not the proper place for those invited guests at the banquet table? And were not their excuses extremely small and trivial? No wonder the householder’s anger was kindled against those excuse-makers who were so preoccupied with selfish interests that they passed up an opportunity of a lifetime! True, it would have inconvenienced them somewhat to cancel, postpone or rearrange their personal affairs in order to accept the special invitation. But what surpassing joys and blessings they would have had if only they had made room in their lives for the extraordinary privilege offered them!—Luke 14:16-24.

17. What was the pioneer Paul’s attitude toward his ministry?

¹⁷ The same is true with the opportunity of full-time service that is offered today to those free to accept it. It is not easy to pioneer. Cancellations of personal programs, for example, a college education or a specialized career, may be necessary in order to accommodate the full-time pioneer service in one’s life. Many obstacles and much opposition must be overcome. Paul had to surmount similar obstacles in order to cross the threshold and enter the enlarged field of activity as a pioneer. “A large door,” he says, “that leads to activity has been opened to me, but there are many opposers.” Again this full-time servant of the Lord God wrote: “Who will separate us from the love of the Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or hunger or nakedness or danger or sword?” If on earth today Paul might add: ‘Will the materialism and luxuries of this age prevent us from proving our love for God in the full-time service?’ Positively and forcefully he answers all such questions, saying, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things here nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Any other “creation” would include not only animate creatures but also all the inanimate luxuries and unnecessary things of this modern civilization, which things those having the same mental attitude as Paul do not allow to come between them and their proving their love for God to the full extent of their ability.—1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 4:7-11; Rom. 8:35-39.

18. Is it possible for one today to have the same peace of mind and contentment that Paul possessed?

¹⁸ Paul’s peace of mind and contentment and his joy and happiness in life certainly did not suffer because of the privations he experienced. His personal loss of many of the comforts of life did not dampen or quench his fire and zeal. His writings bubble with enthusiasm and optimism as he urges others to follow him in his Christlike way of life. He never complained when it was necessary to work part time at his secular trade in order to keep in the apostolic ministry. You too can partake of similar blessings as Paul and others enjoyed, provided you also enter into the same privileges of service as they did.

19. In making sure we find our proper place in the New World society, how should we question ourselves?

¹⁹ Question yourself whether you have found your proper place of service in the New World society. Do you have family responsibilities that hinder and prevent you from engaging in the pioneer service? If so, the Scriptures say you most certainly must take care of such responsibilities. (1 Tim. 5:8) Or are you free of legitimate Scriptural obligations, free to enter through the large door that leads to activity in the pioneer service? Are you willing and anxious to be a missionary and travel to foreign lands and there serve where the need is great? Perhaps you have the willingness and desire but lack the physical health to go to foreign fields of service. There is a great need for full-time ministers in every country of Christendom. The so-called Christian nations need Christian missionaries as much as the rest of the world. There are many isolated territories among people speaking your own language where there is a crying need for more pioneers. Your home congregation undoubtedly needs more full-time ministers to feed, train and care properly for the “other sheep” that are flocking into the New World society. Now if your proper place in this organization of diversified assignments is that of a full-time pioneer or missionary, then it is certainly wrong and foolish to allow the cares and anxieties of the old-world system of things to prevent you from occupying your rightful place.

20. Why the urgency now to both find and keep one’s place in the constellation of the New World society?

²⁰ Jehovah God has a place for each one of us in his organization, just as he has a place for the two hundred million times two hundred billion stars of space. Under Jehovah and Christ Jesus, for those of the remnant and those of the “other sheep,” for appointed servants and for congregation publishers, for those old and those young in years, for part-time and for full-time ministers—yes, indeed, in this highly organized New World society there is a properly assigned place for each and all. It is therefore most important for every living individual to find his appropriate place quickly in this association. It is not less important either, as the following article shows, that, having found one’s place in the constellation of the New World society, one should faithfully remain in it if one hopes to survive Armageddon and live forever in eternal peace and happiness.

Prefers Bloodless Therapy

Dr. J. D. Thompson, in the Southern Medical Journal, May, 1957, says that the use of oral ferrous sulphate is to be preferred to blood transfusions in building up the hemoglobin level of anemic women patients in preparation for operations for diseases peculiar to their sex. Especially is this so, he states, because of the “unfortunate fatalities from blood transfusions which have occurred.”

He lists five cases of severe anemia that were helped by this type of treatment “to show that even the markedly anemic patient does not always require transfusion for preoperative correction of anemia if sufficient time is available. Of course, many other patients with less severe degrees of anemia have been given iron orally and have thus avoided the dangers of one or more blood transfusions.” As for the disadvantages of oral iron therapy, they are few and mild.