Resolution of First Canadian French Circuit Assembly

The following letter of resolution was drawn up by a committee of elder brethren of the Quebec circuit who have witnessed the growth in numbers of Jehovah’s praisers from about 5 publishers twenty years ago to well over 500 now. It was presented at the final session of the circuit assembly, Sunday, January 15, 1950, and enthusiastically adopted.

“Jehovah’s witnesses of Quebec, Circuit No. 1, and their friends, united in assembly in the number of 800, desire to express to all their brethren, and to all their friends, as well as to all persons who may be reached by this present, their firm resolution to remain unshakably in the service of our heavenly Father, the Great God of the universe, Jehovah, who made himself known to us through his organization, while we in Quebec were still held captives, in ignorance of the Word of God, the Bible.

“Our resolution signifies our determination to continue in the way blazed for us by Jesus Christ and the apostles, in spite of the fact that systematic opposition and intense persecution are unleashed against us. We have not forgotten the words pronounced only a few years ago by persons in high honour in this province, declaring that ‘the handful of Jehovah’s witnesses will soon be forced to evacuate this province’, dominated almost entirely by Catholicism. In fact, far from having left the province, by the grace of Jehovah, who has abundantly blessed and protected us, His witnesses are now in greater numbers than ever before, spread out in more than 32 different localities of the province.

“The persecutions and restrictions of which we have been the target since the start of our preaching of the Bible under the direction of the Theocratic organization will not at all impair our resolution to march ever forward in the way that we have followed to now, and which we would follow even to death, whatever be the persecutions and the machinations that the Devil may raise by his agents or organizations.

“We know that there are yet many ‘prisoners’ in this province, but the fact of being united here, in our first French circuit assembly, in such large numbers, is for us the proof that we are carrying out the will of God.

“It is therefore with absolute confidence in Jehovah and with gratitude toward Him, and love for our neighbor, that we are resolved, being fortified by ‘food in due season’ received from Jehovah through his faithful and wise servant, to seek in our turn all those in our circuit who hunger and thirst after righteousness; to bring them the same spiritual food which will deliver them from their condition of captivity and cause them, with us, to ‘praise Jehovah more and more’ in preaching His Word.

“With much love for our brethren of Bethel, of Gilead, and of the Toronto Bethel, we are,

United with you to the end of the fight,

YOUR BRETHREN OF QUEBEC CIRCUIT No. 1.”