Knorr did not have opportunity to speak to them at the airport, so they assembled in the Kingdom Hall for a few minutes and Brother Knorr talked to them in the late afternoon. It was a great pleasure to greet some who had been there on his former visits, and also to see many new faces, and wish them well.

The evening was spent in the missionary home talking over the problems, of which there were many. One of the great problems is that of impressing on the minds of the publishers their responsibilities. Many new publishers want to serve the Lord but they do not appreciate consecration and the necessity of symbolizing it. It takes great patience on the part of missionaries to keep after the new interest. But then the Lord is patient with all of his people in these last days of this old world. And we must be patient, too. In some lands individuals appreciate their privilege of service more quickly than in other places. Then, too, many people are steeped in the habits of this old world and its religious ideas and it is hard for them to change in so short a time. The brethren are not discouraged but they needed counsel and were wondering how missionaries handled the same situation in other lands. Patience and love for the people of the land in which you work is the answer to the problem. We must always recognize that people have their own way of life and have formed habits over centuries of time, and some of the things they do and the way they think are inbred in them. British Hondurans are slow to take on new ideas, and it takes real patience to convince them. However, the brethren have had good results and there are now more people proclaiming the message of the Kingdom than ever before in British Honduras.

In addition to the missionary problems there are other things to contend with. Belize has no running water furnished to the homes by a city water supply. Every home must have its own wooden or concrete tank, and during the rainy season drain water off the roof and store it for later use. But these problems are met, along with the marketing problem and the mode of travel, which are different from what the missionaries were used to in the United States. Accustoming oneself to conditions, as all missionaries must do in their country, is important to successful service and enjoyable living. It was indeed good to see the splendid attendance at the evening meeting. The missionaries invited their people of good-will and, to their surprise, 111 persons came to hear Brother Knorr talk on “Preach the Word”. The responsibility of being a minister here was put squarely up to the congregation assembled. God’s laws apply to all people regardless of land, education or customs. God’s laws never change. All individuals must accommodate themselves to these laws and adjust their lives to be in harmony with Jehovah’s purposes.

It is believed that the visit of the brothers to Belize has helped the publishers and the new interest, as did the visits to other countries. It was a pleasure to be associated with these brethren and it was too bad the visit could not have been longer, but the plane schedule called for leaving early the next morning. By taxi all the missionaries and Brother Knorr went to the airport. He anticipated seeing the Gilead graduates again at San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa on the way to Managua. After saying good-bye to the little group the president of the Society did not experience the same kind of trip as his secretary in the way of rough weather on his way to San Pedro Sula, but like his secretary he missed landing at San Pedro Sula because there were no passengers to get off and none to get on. He was told this by the stewardess on the plane about fifteen minutes after leaving Belize. He was sorry he did not get to see these missionaries again, but he consoled himself in the fact that the group in Tegucigalpa would be at the airport to greet him. But thirty minutes later the stewardess said the plane would not land in Tegucigalpa either because no one would be getting on or off, and that instead it would go on to San Salvador.

The brethren in San Salvador had been told that Brother Knorr would not land there on his way to Managua, but would land at Tegucigalpa; so both the San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa groups and Brother Knorr were disappointed in not seeing each other. Now he was landing at San Salvador at 10 a.m., and so he talked to the El Salvadorean Customs officers, requesting permission to go into town during the three-hour stay. However, he was informed that transit passengers were not allowed to leave the airport. With the aid of a kind Pan American employee, he phoned a taxi company in San Salvador and told them to go to the address of the missionary home and tell the people living there that Mr. Knorr was at the airport and that they should take the selfsame taxi and come out immediately. Six brethren happened to be at home, doing their washing and cleaning. So they hurriedly changed, and a very enjoyable visit was had for two hours, including a dinner together at the airport. The time was well spent. Air travel is a little uncertain. You are not always sure where you are going to land. But you eventually get where you are going.

Shortly before 1 p.m. the plane came in and, after saying good-bye, Brother Knorr was on his way to Tegucigalpa, where all the missionaries were coming out to meet him, believing he would be on that plane. And so the president of the Society had the pleasure of talking to them for fifteen minutes before going on to Managua.

Letters

ABSENCE OF PRAYER AT PUBLIC MEETINGS!

November 17, 1949

Dear Brother:

Answering your query of the 9th instant regarding the absence of prayer in opening and closing our public meetings:

It is certain that the public does not come to our public lectures in our Kingdom Hall or elsewhere to hear us pray, but do come to hear the advertised subject spoken upon by the speaker announced as competent to handle it. Our Exemplar Jesus held many public lectures, but there is no record that he opened or closed any of them with prayer. There is no Bible record that he opened up the sermon on the mount with prayer, or those open-air lectures after which he fed the multitude, first the 5,000 and then the 4,000. But there is a record that when he thus fed the multitudes he did offer prayer of thanksgiving to God before breaking the bread and fish and distributing the pieces to the hungry crowds. And these lectures, mind you, were public gatherings of practically all Jews who already believed in Jehovah God. But in our case today we advertise our public lectures as open to all peoples, whether nominally Catholic, Protestant, Jew, skeptic, atheist, or of the many pagan religions. Surely those of the public who are not of the Christian faith do not turn out to our meetings in order to join with us in prayer to our God, but solely to hear the speech which is the drawing feature. So we give them that and do not think to impose upon them by attaching something else to the lecture which might offend or stumble them before they hear the speech they came for. The apostle Paul, at 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, says Christians should offer prayer at their own meetings in a language to be understood in order that the hearers might be able to say Amen! at its close. But we should not expect any non-Christian public to join in any prayer if offered at a public meeting and then say Amen! with us at the close. Our brethren are offering public lectures in many pagan lands, and if it would be imposing upon the pagan public to offer our prayers before we let them hear our public message, then the same rule ought to apply even in Christendom. Because the message is for the public to tune in on, prayer is likewise not offered over the Society’s radio station WBBR. But this does not mean prayer is never offered in behalf of all such public meetings. It is, privately, by those promoting and supporting the public lecture campaign. That suffices.

Yours faithfully in serving The Theocracy,

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY

ATTENDING FUNERALS AND MARRIAGES—WHERE?

November 17, 1949

Dear Brother:

Your card of the 10th instant refers to our letter in the November 15 issue of The Watchtower on “Weddings and Funerals” and asks whether you are to understand thereby that we “advocate the friends’ attending weddings and funerals when officiated by religious clergy or in their buildings”.

Why, certainly we do not “advocate” it, and the letter in the above Watchtower that answered the inquirer was not commenting on attending weddings and funerals at religious buildings where the clergy hold forth. Our letter mentioned sending out our own representatives to serve at such functions.

However, whether a brother or sister is free to attend such a function under clergy management and in their establishment is another question. Certainly a marriage performed by a religious clergyman is just as valid with the law of the land as one performed by any of our brothers who applies for and gets a license. And when any of our brethren do not have any of our own brothers to perform but go to a municipal building and have the ceremony performed by a justice of the peace or some other duly constituted public official, they do not ask first whether that official is a Catholic, Protestant, Jew, or other kind of religionist. The main thing is, Does he represent the law of the land and is he empowered to give legal authority and recognition to the marriage? All other matters are incidental and unimportant and without bearing.

A father or mother, who for reasons beyond their control feel obliged to go to a religious building to see their child married or buried, goes there to see the marriage or the funeral and for no religious reason, if they are in the truth. It is the same as in the apostle’s day in the case of a man who went into an idol’s temple for something to eat. He goes in there to get a meal, but not to worship. (1 Corinthians 8:7-10, American Standard Version) Some other brother’s conscience would not be strong enough to permit him to do this, and his weak conscience would take offense if he saw his Christian brother in such a place for just a meal. So while we do not “advocate” it, we are not within our province to criticize or condemn, but will let God judge our brother who according to his conscience may feel obligated to attend functions under clergy officiation.

Faithfully yours in Theocratic service,

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY

Field Experience

WBBR ENLIGHTENS A NUN

“Many years ago a young woman who was born in Germany and who was a devout Protestant and a student of the Bible believed she could serve the poor and needy better if she were to embrace the Roman Catholic belief and become a nun. This she did. She took the veil in the order of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, of which ‘Mother’ Cabrini was the mother general. This sister became the traveling companion of Cabrini and was later elevated to the position of a mother superior. Her duties took her to Rome and Vatican City, and one day while in the Vatican with Cabrini she noted some magnificent paintings upon the wall, one of which was a picture of Dante’s Inferno. She saw the poor victims portrayed as in frightful torments. Shortly she met a cardinal with whom she spoke in German, saying: ‘If I believed Almighty God was doing that (pointing to the picture) to the poor unfortunates just because they were not Catholics, I’d lose all my faith in God.’ The cardinal smiled and said: ‘My child, don’t take it too seriously. We have to frighten the people to make them good.’ The sister never forgot that. She came to America and she and her secretary, another nun, opened a home for orphans just outside of New York city. She was crying for God to show her the truth. She bought a small radio and began to tune in various religious programs. One day she tuned in WBBR, listened, and a great flood of light came into her heart and mind. She had found the truth! She sent for literature and began to witness to her neighbors in her nun’s garb. Her secretary also got the truth and began to witness. It was not long before off came the garments of ritualistic religion and on went the garments of praise to the great Jehovah!”—Watchtower radio station WBBR.