Bricklayer Insists on Preaching

In Northeastern Finland, where religious bigotry rules, much intolerance and prejudice have been shown against Jehovah’s witnesses. The public schools have become the very strongholds of false religion, and Jehovah’s witnesses have not been able to rent the school auditoriums for the purpose of holding their public Bible lectures. Recently one of Jehovah’s witnesses, who is a pioneer minister, solved the problem at least as far as one of these schools was concerned.

Even as the apostle Paul made tents so as not to be a burden to others, so this minister lays brick. He was offered a job at a school that had repeatedly turned down the request of Jehovah’s witnesses to rent their auditorium. The bricklaying minister replied that he would be glad to lay the brick provided they would let him give a Bible lecture in the school auditorium. The school board met and discussed the matter and finally decided that if the bricklayer wanted to preach the Word of God, then honoring their religious traditions required them to give him permission to do so and he could choose his own subject for his sermon. Two weeks later the auditorium, with a seating capacity of 200, was packed out by the townspeople, who listened to the pioneer minister speak on the subject “Is the Bible Practical for Our Day?” When the lecture was concluded some of the visitors were heard to respectfully remark: “And to think that this young preacher is at the same time our school bricklayer!”