a cell used for a mad person. But as soon as I was back, I again had Bible literature and shared it with others.

“In 1954, all women were transferred to Halle. Prison officials classified me as being especially dangerous, because, as one woman guard said, I spoke about the Bible all day long. So I was put in a basement cell along with other Witnesses who were not allowed to work. Here we really did talk about the Bible all day long and also about the Watchtower articles that we still had in mind. Then on November 1, 1960, I was freed​—after ten years in prison.”

Three years after my wife’s release I was released from prison and allowed to join my wife in West Berlin. As soon as I recuperated somewhat from my very poor health, I again entered the full-time preaching work, and, thanks to the undeserved kindness of Jehovah, my wife and I are still serving in this capacity.

One thing is certain: I had no idea back there in 1922 when I learned God’s truth that my second wife and I would spend over forty years in concentration camps and prisons. But, with the apostle Paul, we can say that “in prison . . . , in blows to an excess, in near-deaths often . . . in labor and toil,” we are determined to be steadfast as “ministers of Christ.”​—2 Cor. 11:23-27.

Watch Out for Spiritual Uncleanness

OF HIS disciples, Jesus Christ said: “They are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.” (John 17:14) Does this mean that true Christians are to be recluses, or to avoid having anything to do with people? No, for if that were the case they would have to get out of the world. (1 Cor. 5:10) They are “no part of the world” in that they do not join the world in its search for power, riches, unrestrained pleasures and wrong practices. (Matt. 6:31, 32; 1 Pet. 4:3) They have, for the most part, the same kind of jobs, wear similar clothing and enjoy many similar ways of relaxation. But they do not participate in the world’s strife and its political and religious schemes to perpetuate the failing system of things with its disappointing hopes.

If Christians should engage in the immoral, deceptive, self-seeking ways of the world, they would be unclean, contaminated in God’s eyes. They would be unusable in pure worship as ‘vessels’ for Jehovah’s use.​—2 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 2:21, 22.

Similarly, a Christian cannot “hang around the fringes” of the world’s ways, walking on the border line of Christian living, and remain clean. Such a person is double-minded, not wholly devoted to God. He will become increasingly negligent toward spiritual things and unsteady in devotion.​—Jas. 1:6-8.

A BIBLE HISTORICAL EXAMPLE

Even close association with such neglectful persons can adversely affect the