assembly in Rome at the beautiful auditorium originally intended to glorify Mussolini was a praise to Jehovah’s name and deeply impressed the people of Rome.

Back in Brooklyn my wife and I are happy to have a regular part in the door-to-door, back-call and home Bible study work. We also appreciate the importance of attending the meetings and assemblies provided by Jehovah. Though sometimes tired at meeting time, we always return home greatly refreshed.

Reviewing fifty-four years spent in Jehovah’s service, I can truthfully say these have been the happiest years of my life. Fifty-one of them have been as a member of the Brooklyn Bethel family—a privilege of service I wholeheartedly recommend to any young Christian. To be sure, there have been some trials, but these increased our faith in Jehovah. I have never doubted that he is using the Society to direct the world-wide witness work that Jesus foretold at Matthew 24:14. As Paul said, any tribulations “do not amount to anything in comparison with the glory that is going to be revealed in us.”—Rom. 8:18.

Our great hope is to have part in God’s new world of righteousness, where we can praise and serve him forever. With Jehovah’s help, we shall successfully pursue this blessed purpose in life.

The Great Wheat Harvest

WHEN a farmer sows a field of wheat he does not want a lot of useless weeds. Besides producing no profitable fruit, they take up valuable space and soil nourishment that could better be used by fruitful wheat. But what is he to do when weeds appear in a stand of wheat? This problem, which is so common to agricultural people, was used by Jesus in an illustration of prophetic significance that is of particular interest to us today.

One day while Jesus was sitting by the Sea of Galilee speaking to a crowd of people from that grain-growing region, he said: “The kingdom of the heavens has become like a man that sowed seed of a right kind in his field. While men were sleeping his enemy came and oversowed weeds in among the wheat and left. When the blade sprouted and produced fruit, then the weeds appeared also. So the slaves of the householder came up and said to him: ‘Master, did you not sow seed of a right kind in your field? How, then, does it come to have weeds?’ He said to them: ‘An enemy, a man, did this.’ They said to him: ‘Do you want us, then, to go out and collect them?’ He said: ‘No; that by no chance, while collecting the weeds, you uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the harvest season I will tell the reapers, First collect the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up, then go to gathering the wheat into my storehouse.’”—Matt. 13:24-30.

Curious about the meaning of this illustration, Jesus’ disciples came to him after he had dismissed the crowds and said: “‘Explain to us the illustration of the