this, the father, the mother and the two daughters joined in the study. The marked improvement in their family life so impressed another family of seven that these too began studying the Bible. The youngest son of the first family succeeded in arousing the interest of one of his schoolteachers, who also consented to study the Bible. Thus, within a year, fifteen persons dedicated their lives to Jehovah God and were baptized. Several of the sons and daughters of these two families are now full-time proclaimers of the Good News.

Or take the case of that professional poker player living in a town at the foot of the Pyrenees, who for ten years spent his nights playing cards in cafés, driving his wife and three daughters to despair. Nothing had been able to deliver him from this vice until he agreed to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Bible knowledge not only freed him from his life of idleness, but also brought back happiness to his family, who discovered the truthfulness of Paul’s statement that “godly devotion is beneficial for all things, as it holds promise of the life now and that which is to come.”​—1 Tim. 4:8.

Do not these true-life examples prove what a powerful force for good the Bible can be in people’s lives, and why the fight against Bible illiteracy is so important?

On April 14, 1976, 123,696 persons were present in the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout France to celebrate the Memorial of Christ’s death. This shows that thousands of people are interested in the hope given by God’s Word, and doubtless many more thousands are yet to be found and taught. Jehovah’s Witnesses will therefore continue to do their utmost to combat Bible illiteracy in France.

What Did the Wise Man Mean?

Possessions Without Enjoyment

In his survey of human affairs, wise King Solomon did not overlook the circumstances that often make it impossible for people to enjoy what they have.

Regarding one situation, he wrote: “There exists a calamity that I have seen under the sun, and it is frequent among mankind: a man to whom the true God gives riches and material possessions and glory and who, for his soul, is in no need of anything that he shows himself longing for, and yet the true God does not enable him to eat from it, although a mere foreigner may eat it. This is vanity and it is a bad sickness.”​—Eccl. 6:1, 2.

The Almighty permits any individual to use his God-given abilities to acquire possessions and to gain recognition or glory among his contemporaries. In that sense Solomon could rightly speak of God as ‘giving’ riches, material possessions and glory to such a man. Sadly, however, though a man may have everything, circumstances may prevent his enjoying those possessions.