Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses - Watchtower Archive

Yearbook 163
ministry school has played a big part in preparing
the brethren to speak at public meetings, and the
public meetings, in turn, have played an excellent
part in aiding the people of good will to take their
stand for the Kingdom. Considerable opposition has
been demonstrated by the clergy, but undoubtedly
Jehovah only laughs at their efforts to retard the
work, for he has them in derision. Nothing can stop
Christ Jesus, thc reigning King appointed by Jehovah
God, from gathering his "other sheep", and he
is using his people in the earth to take carc of the
assembling work. Some experiences of interest have
occurred in the Saar, and they are recorded by the
branch servant at Paris.
'l'he increase in the companies has been mainly the resnit
of increased back-calling and more home Bible studies.
Back-calls have increased from 30,601 to 42,836, and home
Bible studies from 141 to 259. Publishers are appreciating
more and more how vital these features of service are in
helping people of good will. It is by this means that new
"sheep" are fed and strengthened until they are strong
enough to attend the meetings of God's people themselves
without fearing the derisive looks of their neighbors, or the
curse of their erstwhile spit·itual shepherds.
This does not suit the clergy at all, seeing the sheep flee
from them and consecrating their time and their substance
to the service of the true God. So by means of lies and
slander they seek to put Jehovah's witnesses in a bad light.
'l'hey preach against them in the pulpits and write derogatory
articles about them in their parish magazines. They
stir up school children and parents against them so that
when the witnesses arrive in a village to preach about
God's kingdom the people throw stones at them. And if a
person of good will does renounce his aSSOCiation with the
church in order to serve the true God, then his name, date
of birth and family tree are read out publicly from the
pulpit and he is denounced as a false prophet, the entire
village being warned that he has sided with Jehovah's
witnesses. A system of spying has been set up whereby the
Catholic teachers in the schools show the children the literature
of Jehovah's witnesses, telling them to go home and
see if any such books are in the house, and if so to bring
them to school to be burned as heretical books. But just
as the Hierarchy's religious system is old and rotten, so
are the methods she uses to fight the truth.