4. (a) What course did one sixteen-year-old follow in his efforts to maintain integrity? (b) What did his teacher finally do?

⁴ In one country where the church and state work hand in hand, a Christian boy of about sixteen was told that he would be expelled from school if he did not make the sign of the cross and attend the church Mass. He was so near to graduating, but he would lose all his credits if he did not conform. The instructor told him just to go through the motions without believing in what he was doing, but the boy stood firm. The instructor admired the boy’s faith so much that he arranged to have him stand at the rear of the room at prayer time so it would not be noticed that he was not making the sign of the cross. (The teacher was afraid he would get in trouble and that his job would be in jeopardy if he were openly to permit the boy to refrain from this religious practice.) The teacher also assigned him jobs during church Mass so he would have an excuse to be busy and away from the church service. Can we not say, then, that the boy’s integrity-keeping course was rewarded?

6. (a) Why was the matter of blood transfusions brought up to one thirteen-year-old girl? (b) How did she and her mother keep integrity to Jehovah’s laws?

⁶ Another case of integrity-keeping was manifested in recent years when a thirteen-year-old girl in Berlin was found to have leukemia. The doctor explained that transfusions of blood would make the girl more comfortable and stave off the progress of the disease. The mother, being a God-fearing Christian, knew what the Bible says about not eating blood. (Gen. 9:4; Acts 15:28, 29) So she refused to permit transfusions to be given. The girl also refused to permit this, saying, “I would rather die faithful to Jehovah God than to violate his command in order to live a little while longer.” (Matt. 10:39) This girl did die, but she left a letter for her mother to read. The letter was to all the ones the girl knew and it asked that they not find fault with her mother for not permitting transfusions. She said: “It is just as much my firm will to be true and obedient to God’s Word rather than to be a lawbreaker. . . . If the great Life-giver Jehovah considers me worthy he will give me a resurrection​—in honest-to-goodness flesh and blood as a human on a cleansed paradise earth in delight and happiness. So you see, that is why it wasn’t hard for me to die. Can you understand that?”

7. (a) Faith in what makes one able to face death? (b) How do individuals get such faith?

⁷ But why was it not hard for her to die? Because she had faith just as did Abraham of old, who “reckoned that God was able to raise him [his son Isaac] up even from the dead.” (Heb. 11:19) Yes, she had full faith in God’s promised new system of things and the resurrection of those ransomed by the sacrifice of God’s Son. (John 5:28) But where would someone so young get such faith that would aid her to keep integrity, even in the face of death? It was from a study of God’s Word, the Bible.