me that urge now that I must quickly get busy.

“Of course, first I have a lot of studying to do. I have all the books to read right back to the book Paradise. I know that I can’t read much as I travel around, but I’m going back to England and after I have met my parents for the first time in nineteen and a half years, I shall then get busy studying.”

FINE COUNSEL FOR ALL

“I hope that what I have said has not in any way filled you with apprehension, feeling that, if these things came upon you, you would not be able to survive. When I was in Hong Kong a newspaper reporter said: ‘Why, I could never endure to be alone. If I had to be alone for seven years I would be climbing up the walls.’ But Jehovah’s witnesses are not that way, because we have something to think about. We have some spiritual food inside us that feeds us, and we can stand firm in faith. Of course, we have to study first. We have no inner strength if we don’t study. So the best thing is to keep studying your Bible, attending your meetings and building yourself up. And then when trouble comes, if it does come on you, you will be able to ‘stand firm.’

“You know my case as I have explained it to you. There is nothing spectacular, nothing heroic. It was just a case of ‘endure; keep faith in God.’ And that, I’m sure, is what you would do.

“In Honolulu a sister came up to me quietly and said: ‘Don’t be offended by my question, but there is something I feel that I want to ask you. Were you ever depressed and sad during those seven years?’ I told her: ‘Yes, I was!’ There were times when I felt the boredom, the utter uselessness of the situation, the waste of time. The mind will work and study and a person can enjoy study for a long time; he can think on things with profit. But after a time the mind wants a rest. Then there is the problem of how to occupy the mind. A person can become depressed by the situation.

“But under such conditions I never felt that I wanted to find a different way out. I never felt that I wanted to change my course of action and compromise. I knew there would be relief. And so it is, after a time, that the mind suddenly finds that it can feed on something else. I got happy again and busy once again. If I did become a little tired and stale in my mind, I knew that I would overcome it and feel better and revive again.

“So I would say: We are human. We have human feelings, human weaknesses. It’s no fault if we feel down sometimes, because even when we feel down it does not affect our feeling for the truth. We still have the same hopes. We just simply endure it, and God revives us and we feel good again.

“Some brothers have asked me about my impressions since I have been free. What do I think about the changes in this Western world? What about the contrast with the life in China?

“There is a tremendous contrast. In China today people are asked to make sacrifices in order that the new China may be built; so life is rather austere, drab, and very much controlled. Now I come into a freer world, find people nicely dressed, full of color. There is life, energy, free action, with every indication of prosperity. It is like going from one world into another. I begin to think to myself: These beautiful motorcars—wouldn’t it be nice to have one? Lovely homes—they also would be nice and the good clothes, fine television, fine fidelity music from radio and suchlike. So I notice all this material prosperity and I can see that these things could be a snare.

“I notice plainly that worldly people get their happiness from these possessions, all these material things they have. If these things were suddenly swept away, their happiness would go with them, and they just couldn’t live on.

“But, of course, we must not be like that. It’s not wrong to have a nice car and those good things of life. They can be had and enjoyed and be perfectly harmless, provided that we never make them the main source of our happiness and pleasure. And I know we will not do that if we put the spiritual things in their right place, that is, in the front.

“So that’s my impression on my coming into a different world, to see that there is prosperity, but there is also the need for care that that prosperity does not become a stumbling stone and cause us to fall.”

Hearty applause from the tens of thousands present showed that they appreciated this timely advice and agreed with it. They were also happy to receive the expressions of warm love and greetings that Brother Jones brought them from the brothers in Hong Kong, Japan and Honolulu, but they were especially moved by his concluding words as he said:

“Finally, I feel this, that if those few brothers still there in China knew that I was here talking to you today, they too would want me to express their love and good wishes to you all.”

The two-hour meeting drew to its close as sustained applause swept through the stadium. Following a song and prayer the crowd began to disperse and head for their homes in many places. They had learned much, and surely prayers would go up from thousands of lips and hearts on behalf of their brothers and sisters still in Communist China who are endeavoring to remain firm in faith.

Questions From Readers

● What did the apostle Peter mean when he said that “no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation”?—E. M., U.S.A.

The apostle Peter wrote in reference to prophecy: “You know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”—2 Pet. 1:20, 21.

The writer was not considering the application, meaning or interpretation of previously written prophecies. The context shows that he was discussing the surety of the prophetic word, why Christians can depend upon it. (2 Pet. 1:16-19) He then pointed out that they can have confidence in the prophecies recorded in the Scriptures because their source was not men’s imagination but Jehovah God himself.

For example, humans could of themselves observe the political or social conditions in some country and, on the basis of their own interpretation of the data, make some prediction for the future. Such a private interpretation and the subsequent prophecy would not be inspired of God. This occurred with four hundred false prophets during the reign of King Ahab of Israel. When asked whether Ahab and Jehoshaphat should fight against Ramoth-gilead, the professional prophets prophesied success for the two kings. (2 Chron. 18:4-11) That prophecy was the result of their personal interpretation of the situation.

In contrast, Jehovah’s prophet Micaiah foretold that Ahab would not return in peace. Was that a prophecy springing from his personal