work. It hurt to leave our beautiful Kingdom Farm where Gilead School was located. The place and its inhabitants had endeared themselves to us so very much. But we have found Bethel, even more than before, a place that is truly, as some persons have said, “simply out of this world.” One must live and work here to appreciate fully the astoundingly smooth efficiency and the fine cooperative Christian spirit of its organization. No one is driven, overseers are inconspicuous and yet the place is humming with great activity and is amazingly productive.

Thus far in all my many and varied service assignments since 1913 every change has been gratefully seen, in time, as one for the better. Never before did we have it as good as now in our dear Bethel home. Another change for the better, we think, could only be heaven itself.

I am in my seventy-seventh year now and, understandably, I tire easily, but I do not feel at all like retiring now or ever. My spirit has retained freshness and enthusiasm for everything that is true, good, lovable and beautiful. As it is written: “The righteous . . . will blossom forth as a palm tree does . . . They will still keep on thriving during gray-headedness . . . to tell that Jehovah is upright.” (Ps. 92:12-15) I cannot do great things, but I can keep on doing small things devotedly. I am fully aware that I have been merely a “good-for-nothing” slave and that all I have done in the Master’s service is what I ought to have done.​—Luke 17:10.

When surveying my Kingdom service over the years, I realize that it has had its ups and downs, its joys and sorrows, all for my testing and refinement. At times the thrilling ascent on God’s Mountain has been very steep and hazardous. True, I stumbled at times and got hurt, but with the strong help of our merciful Mountain Guide I always got up again, and with renewed courage and carefulness resumed to climb upward. I can truly testify that not one of God’s gracious promises to me has failed. They have all come true. (Josh. 23:14) To play a humble supporting part in the grand universal drama of Jehovah’s vindication, I esteem an inestimable and unspeakable privilege. I realize that, before I began to behold God’s light of truth, I was groping in the darkness of the valley of death and merely existed. Since the time I dedicated my life to our great heavenly Father, through the merit of my Savior and King, I have truly lived a full and joyful life, one worth living. My most ardent desire and my highest hope is not to be great in the kingdom of heaven, but to see God and to be forever close to him and to my Savior. That is why I have given up all I had, which was O so little, in order to gain the crown of life and, above all, Jehovah as my eternal Friend.

Questions From Readers

● Can 2 Corinthians 5:16 be used to establish that Jesus would not return in the flesh?​—C. N., England.

The text in question reads: “Consequently from now on we know no man according to the flesh. Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, certainly we now know him so no more.” The primary meaning of these words can best be understood if we first determine what the apostle Paul was proving in the context.

At 2 Corinthians 5:14 the apostle indicated that Christ had died as a ransom sacrifice for all. His sacrifice did not cover just the Jews or benefit only Gentiles. No, but all who would accept him and exercise faith might