take it up and they join the anointed remnant in heralding it to still others. To Jehovah their lives are precious and he will protect them from his executional forces at Armageddon and will confer upon them life and its sweet privileges in the new world. They are real treasures to Him, comparable to his faithful witnesses of ancient times.

HOW FILLED?

35. How have they shown they appreciate Jehovah’s claim on the silver and the gold, and how has Jehovah filled “this house with glory”?a

³⁵ Right on into the temple Jehovah brings them, that they may worship in pure, undefiled religion beside the anointed remnant there, for there is where their hearts are. They appreciate the divine statement: “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith Jehovah of hosts.” (Hag. 2:8, AS; Da) So when coming into his house of worship they come bringing their treasures of silver and gold, for they include all such treasures when they dedicate themselves and all they have to God through Christ. They gladly expend themselves financially and otherwise in order to carry on world-wide Kingdom-preaching until the world’s end comes at Armageddon. Thus with the coming in of the desirable things of all the nations the promise of Jehovah to his remnant of anointed temple workers has been fulfilled: “And I will fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah.” (Hag. 2:7, AS) Back there in 1919 it was the day of small things for the temple workers, things apparently so small as to be despised by the proud nations. But Jehovah’s prophecy guaranteed big results to that temple work, that resumption of his worship at his clean house: “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of hosts.” (Hag. 2:9, AS) “The future splendor of this house shall be greater than the past.”—AT.

36. How has Jehovah already fulfilled his word that the latter glory of this house should be greater than the former?

³⁶ How true that is already today! Through the incoming of the desirable ones with their treasures of loving devotion and of theocratic service “day and night in his temple” the house of Jehovah’s worship has been filled with a glory that eclipses not only what occurred with Solomon’s temple but also what has occurred during all the nineteen centuries that Jehovah has been preparing the “living stones” for the erection of a complete temple, “a spiritual house.” Never has there been anything like this to adorn and magnify the house of Jehovah’s worship. The number of the spiritual remnant will get smaller year by year as Jehovah removes some of them from this earthly quarry of preparation and places them as “living stones” in the heavenly temple. But oh the throngs of hundreds of thousands of the choicest class of people out of all the nations that now crowd the house of Jehovah’s worship, and these being added to by the thousands from year to year! What glory, what impressive weight, this gives to Jehovah’s house, a glory never lessening but ever increasing as time marches on to Armageddon! Truly all nations must now know that Jehovah has a house of worship and that it is teeming with worshipers. His worship is a reality that cannot be stamped out any more than men could stamp out his “spiritual house,” his temple of “living stones.”

PEACE

37. What assurance does Haggai’s prophecy give us that the dissension and combat of the nations outside will not invade this house?

³⁷ The controversy, dissension and combat of the worldly nations outside will never invade the sacred precincts of Jehovah’s house of worship. Internal discord and fights will never break up the worship of the anointed remnant and their desirable companions of good will, and thus rob his house of its all-surpassing glory. “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts.” (Hag. 2:9, AS; Da) Not the United Nations, but Jehovah’s house of worship, is the only place of peace on earth today, and the nations of this world cannot take it away. It is the gift of Jehovah God to us.

38. In fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, 10 how has Jehovah cut off chariot, horse and battle bow from Ephraim and Jerusalem?

³⁸ When he foretold how his King Jesus Christ would come and be laid in heavenly Zion as the tried and tested foundation of the new world, Jehovah declared: “And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle-bow shall be cut off. And he shall speak peace unto the nations; and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river [Euphrates, once controlled by Babylon] to the ends of the earth.” (Zech. 9:9, 10, Da) Chariots, horses and the battle-bow were all ancient symbols of carnal warfare. At times the Israelites, divided under the kingdom headed by Ephraim and the kingdom headed by Jerusalem, used these implements of war in fratricidal combat against each other. But eventually Jehovah united Ephraim and Jerusalem as one people and cut off the war weapons from use against each other. Likewise with the remnant of his spiritual Israelites: No matter of what religious or political professions and loyalties they formerly were, Jehovah by his King unites them as one nation and he helps them by his holy spirit to worship and serve him in peace. The spiritual Israelites unitedly support Jehovah’s King.

39. Why is it not to the worldly nations that Jehovah’s King speaks peace today, and what are Jehovah’s witnesses therefore restrained from doing?

³⁹ His King, the “Prince of Peace,” will not confine his reign of peace to a united, peace-keeping spiritual Israel. Jehovah says: “He shall speak peace unto the nations.” How can that be, since Jesus Christ does not speak peace today to the nations of this world? He wields the iron scepter to smash all the nations to pieces like mere potter’s vessels at Armageddon. He defies all nations to fight him there, in accord with Jehovah’s proclamation to the nations: “Prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together.” (Joel 3:9-11, Da) Under command to make this war proclamation to all the nations, Jehovah’s witnesses can not and will not join in with any pacifist organization in urging the national governments to cease from war in the name of Christianity. Jehovah’s witnesses will not lend any support to the Disarmament Resolution passed on April 8 this year by the General Assembly of the United Nations under the delusion of working for lasting peace among the worldly nations. To do such a thing would, for one thing, be useless. For another thing, and that the more important, it would be contrary to Jehovah’s command to his witnesses.

40. In seeking the answer to our question on the King’s speaking peace to the nations, what particular prophecy of Isaiah are we called to listen to?

⁴⁰ What, then, does the King’s speaking peace to the nations mean? When does it apply? Listen, and, as you listen, think of the coming in of the desirable things of all nations to Jehovah’s house of worship: “And it shall come to pass in the end of days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and Jehovah’s word from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall reprove many peoples; and they shall forge their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-knives: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”—Isa. 2:2-4, Da; AS.

41. When shall we have total and permanent disarmament of the worldly nations? Why?

⁴¹ The nations of this world are not the ones that pay attention to Jehovah’s judgments or that heed his reproof. Their disarmament conferences and resolutions are not for total disarmament but for mere limitation of armaments, and these have never led and will never this side of Armageddon lead the nations to forge swords into plowshares and spears into pruning knives and to lay down the sword and quit teaching war. When the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” strikes them, they will be fully armed with all the improved weapons of modern science, of many of which we now have no knowledge. But when Armageddon is finished, Jehovah’s King will have dashed all those anti-Kingdom nations to bits. Then first we shall have total disarmament of those nations and permanently so.

42. Who, then, of the nations is it that now heed Jehovah’s judgments and reproof, and how will they do so even at Armageddon? Why?

⁴² Hence it is the “great crowd” of desirable ones out of all such nations and peoples that now heed Jehovah’s judgments and reproof and now walk in the paths he teaches them from Zion and its temple. These now practice total disarmament, converting to peaceful, productive uses what was formerly devoted to mortal combat, laying down the sword that they literally used to raise against one another and learning such carnal warfare no more. When Armageddon strikes and Jehovah confounds his enemies, those enemies will turn every man his hand against his brother. Not so this “great crowd” that have come out of all nations to the highly-lifted “mountain of Jehovah”! They will lend every man a helping hand to his brother, that they may all stand united in the “peace of God that excels all thought.” This will be because they have all flowed together to the house of Jehovah, “the God of Jacob,” and there He enforces his purpose: “In this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts.”—Hag. 2:9, AS.

43. In witnessing what sight, how are we blessed, and how shall we be further blessed in this connection?

⁴³ Behold, then, his house of worship today filled with glory, gifted with divine peace. Blessed are we to live to witness this sight in vindication of Jehovah’s word. Blessed shall we be to abide in his house worshiping him purely, “in holy array,” and tirelessly working for the filling of his house with yet greater glory by helping all the remaining desirable ones of all the nations to come in.

Which Papers Do You Read?

“We are convinced that Catholics are the most tolerant of all people. They never hear another organization attacked from their pulpit, while they are taught that they must love every individual, friend or enemy.”—Our Sunday Visitor, January 25, 1953.

“The Evangelical Confederation of Colombia has listed 23 new cases of alleged persecution of Protestants in this predominantly Catholic country, including the murder of a Protestant lay preacher and the dynamiting of a Presbyterian chapel. . . . In another serious incident, the report said, a parish priest: with a revolver led the mayor and police of La Plata, in the Huila Department, in a shooting attack on a building where Protestant services were being held.”—Cincinnati (Ohio) Times Star, January 29, 1953.

Is that tolerance?