1955 yearbook - Watchtower Archive

Yearbook 209
mined to do Jehovah's will and to comfort those
who mourn. The branch servant sets out a very
interesting report, and a few of the experiences
are related here. These show that the great
division work is going on.
Religious opposition to the work in the Catholic south
of the Netherlands has continued to flare up during
1954. Since circuit assemblies stir up so much interest
in the Kingdom message and are the source of much
publicity, religious opposers have singled these out for
their attacks against Jehovah's people. But the net reo
sult of their opposition has been a circuit assembly as
successful as any and more pUblicity than ever. Awake!
of July 22, 1954, carried an article on one of these
incidents.
As soon as this incident was over, another similar
one was in the making. In the fall of 1953 a contract
was signed for a hall in Geleen, in the province of
Limburg. The contract plainly stated that it was for
the purpose of holding a Christian assembly by Jehovah's
witnesses. The owner of the hall seemed to be
very happy to rent the hall and, likely, he was genuinely
happy at the time. As preparations for the circuit
assembly gained momentum during the few weeks
remaining before the dates, foul rain began to fall out
of what till then seemed to be clear, blue skies.
Under religious pressure the owner of the hall fe·
verishly sought ways and means of rendering the contract
null and void. But the terms of the contract were
unequivocal, the case was airtight. Then one day the
the circuit servant was presented with a summons to
appear in court under charge of "deception." What could
that be? The charge was to the effect that, as the hall
was obtained for the holding of a Christian assembly
and since it could be proved that Jehovah's witnesses
are not Christians, it follows that Jehovah's witnesses
obtained a contract under false pretenses. The case was
to be brought before court the day before the circuit
assembly was due to begin.
The case was a laugh! Weakly, counsel for the hall
owner presented his case and then presented evidence
in the form of booklets written against us by certain
clergymen, which evidence the judge laid aside as being
incompetent after a brother from the branch office presented
our side of the matter. The judge did not render
his decision then, but made it clear that the contract
was valid until the decision, which was to come 14 days
later. In other words, he gave us the go-ahead sign.