sake of the work. Are we given an appointment or an assignment? Then let us give it our best, whether it requires advance study, special training, practice, rehearsing or other preparation.

So let us show appreciation for the gifts we have by cultivating them earnestly, making use of every means the Lord has provided for our training: his Word, the Watchtower Bible helps, congregational and other assemblies, as well as activity in all features of the Christian ministry. As Paul counseled Timothy: “Continue applying yourself to public reading, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not be neglecting the gift . . . Ponder over these things, be absorbed in them, that your advancement may be manifest to all persons. Pay constant attention to yourself and to your teaching. Stay by these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.” (1 Tim. 4:13-16, NW) And, above all, thereby we shall be making glad the heart of our great Benefactor, thus showing our appreciation of his gifts.—Prov. 27:11.

The Gift of Singleness

TO MANY persons the idea of speaking of singleness as a gift seems very strange. They are unable to grasp how the denial of what they consider to be among life’s keenest pleasures (since with a Christian singleness includes chastity or continence) could possibly be termed a gift. Marriage, they reason, yes, but singleness a gift?

For our terming singleness a gift we have no less authority than the wisest and greatest man that ever lived, the Son of God. On one occasion, in discussing the subject with his disciples, he said: “Not all men make room for the saying, but only those who have the gift. For there are eunuchs that were born such from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs that were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs that have made themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of the heavens. Let him that can make room for it make room for it.”—Matt. 19:11, 12, NW.

Why did Jesus call singleness a gift? Because it is something that can be cultivated and used effectively to the advancement of the true worship in the earth and one’s own happiness even as other of God’s endowments can be. That the state of singleness has decided advantages for the Christian minister is apparent from the words of the apostle Paul: “Indeed, I want you to be free from anxiety. The single man is anxious for the things of the Lord, how he may gain the Lord’s approval. But the married man is anxious for the things of the world, how he may gain the approval of his wife, and he is divided. Further, the single woman, and the virgin, is anxious for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in her body and in her spirit. However, the married woman is anxious for the things of the world, how she may gain the approval of her husband. But this I am saying for your personal advantage, not that I may cast a noose upon you, but to move you to that which is becoming and that which means constant attendance upon the Lord without distraction.”—1 Cor. 7:32-35, NW.