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Part 1—Witnesses to the Most Distant Part of the EarthJehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom
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Chapter 22
Part 1—Witnesses to the Most Distant Part of the Earth
This is the first of five parts in a chapter that reports how the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses has reached around the earth. Part 1, which covers the era from the 1870’s through 1914, is on pages 404 to 422. Human society has never recovered from the convulsions caused by World War I, which began in 1914. That was the year that the Bible Students had long identified as marking the end of the Gentile Times.
BEFORE he ascended to heaven, Jesus Christ commissioned his apostles, saying: “You will be witnesses of me . . . to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) He had also foretold that “this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.” (Matt. 24:14) That work was not completed in the first century. A major part of it has been done in modern times. And the record of its accomplishment from the 1870’s to the present is truly thrilling.
Although Charles Taze Russell came to be widely known for his well-advertised discourses on the Bible, his interest was not merely in large audiences but in people. Thus, shortly after he began to publish the Watch Tower in 1879, he undertook extensive traveling to visit small groups of readers of the magazine to discuss the Scriptures with them.
C. T. Russell urged those who believed the precious promises of God’s Word to have a part in sharing them with other people. Those whose hearts were deeply touched by what they were learning showed real zeal in doing just that. To assist in the work, printed material was provided. Early in 1881, a number of tracts appeared. Material from these was then combined with additional information to form the more comprehensive Food for Thinking Christians, and 1,200,000 copies of this were prepared for distribution. But how could the small band of Bible Students (perhaps 100 at that time) put out all of these?
Reaching Church Attenders
Some were given to relatives and friends. A number of newspapers agreed to send a copy to each of their subscribers. (Special emphasis was put on weekly and monthly papers so that Food for Thinking Christians would reach many people who lived in rural areas.) But much of the distribution was accomplished on several consecutive Sundays in front of churches in the United States and Britain. There were not enough Bible Students to do it all personally, so they hired others to help.
Brother Russell dispatched two associates, J. C. Sunderlin and J. J. Bender, to Britain to supervise the distribution of 300,000 copies there. Brother Sunderlin went to London, while Brother Bender traveled north into Scotland and then worked his way south. Principal attention was given to larger cities. By means of newspaper ads, capable men were located, and contracts were made with them to arrange for enough helpers to distribute their allotment of copies. Nearly 500 distributors were recruited in London alone. The work was done quickly, on two consecutive Sundays.
That same year, arrangements were made for Bible Students who could spend half or more of their time exclusively in the Lord’s work to be colporteurs, distributing literature for Bible study. These forerunners of the ones known today as pioneers achieved a truly remarkable distribution of the good news.
During the following decade, Brother Russell prepared a variety of tracts that could easily be used to disseminate some of the outstanding Bible truths that had been learned. He also wrote several volumes of Millennial Dawn (later known as Studies in the Scriptures). Then he began to make personal evangelizing trips to other lands.
Russell Travels Abroad
In 1891 he visited Canada, where enough interest had been generated since 1880 that an assembly attended by 700 could now be held in Toronto. He also traveled to Europe in 1891 to see what could be done to forward the spread of the truth there. This trip took him to Ireland, Scotland, England, many of the countries on the European continent, Russia (the area now known as Moldova), and the Middle East.
What did he conclude from his contacts on that trip? “We saw no opening or readiness for the truth in Russia . . . We saw nothing to encourage us to hope for any harvest in Italy or Turkey or Austria or Germany,” he reported. “But Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and especially England, Ireland and Scotland, are fields ready and waiting to be harvested. These fields seem to be crying out, Come over and help us!” This was an era when the Catholic Church still forbade Bible reading, when many Protestants were forsaking their churches, and when not a few, disillusioned by the churches, were rejecting the Bible altogether.
In order to help those people who were spiritually hungry, after Brother Russell’s trip in 1891 intensified efforts were put forth to translate literature into the languages of Europe. Also, arrangements were made to print and stock literature supplies in London so that these would be more readily available for use in Britain. The British field did, indeed, prove to be ready for harvesting. By 1900, there were already nine congregations and a total of 138 Bible Students—among them some zealous colporteurs. When Brother Russell again visited Britain in 1903, a thousand gathered in Glasgow to hear him speak on “Millennial Hopes and Prospects,” 800 attended in London, and audiences of 500 to 600 in other towns.
In confirmation of Brother Russell’s observations, however, after his visit 17 years passed before the first congregation of Bible Students was formed in Italy, at Pinerolo. And what about Turkey? During the late 1880’s, Basil Stephanoff had preached in Macedonia, in what was then European Turkey. Although some had seemed to show interest, certain ones who professed to be brothers made false reports, leading to his imprisonment. Not until 1909 did a letter from a Greek in Smyrna (now Izmir), Turkey, report that a group there was appreciatively studying the Watch Tower publications. As for Austria, Brother Russell himself returned in 1911 to speak in Vienna, only to have the meeting broken up by a mob. In Germany too, appreciative response was slow in coming. But the Scandinavians showed greater awareness of their spiritual need.
Scandinavians Share With One Another
Many Swedes were living in America. In 1883 a sample copy of the Watch Tower translated into Swedish was made available for distribution among them. These soon found their way by mail to friends and relatives in Sweden. No Norwegian literature had yet been produced. Nevertheless, in 1892, the year after Brother Russell’s trip to Europe, Knud Pederson Hammer, a Norwegian who had learned the truth in America, personally returned to Norway to witness to his relatives.
Then, in 1894, when literature began to be published in Dano-Norwegian, Sophus Winter, a 25-year-old Danish-American, was sent to Denmark with a supply to distribute. By the next spring, he had placed 500 volumes of Millennial Dawn. Within a short time, a few others who read those publications were sharing in the work with him. Sadly, he later lost sight of the value of the precious privilege that was his; but others continued to let the light shine.
Before he abandoned the service, however, Winter did some colporteuring in Sweden. Shortly after that, at the home of a friend on the island of Sturkö, August Lundborg, a young Salvation Army captain, saw two volumes of Millennial Dawn. He borrowed them, read them eagerly, resigned from the church, and started to share with others what he had learned. Another young man, P. J. Johansson, had his eyes opened as a result of reading a tract that he picked up on a park bench.
As the Swedish group began to grow, some went over to Norway to distribute Bible literature. Even before that, literature had arrived in Norway by mail from relatives in America. It was in this way that Rasmus Blindheim got started in Jehovah’s service. Among others in Norway, Theodor Simonsen, a preacher of the Free Mission, received the truth during those early years. He started to refute the hellfire teaching in his speeches at the Free Mission. His audience jumped to their feet in excitement over this wonderful news; but when it was learned that he had been in touch with the “Millennial Dawn,” he was dismissed from the church. Nevertheless, he kept right on talking about the good things that he had learned. Another young man who received some literature was Andreas Øiseth. Once convinced that he had the truth, he left the family farm and undertook colporteur work. Systematically he worked his way north, then south along the fjords, not bypassing any community. In the winter he carried his supplies—food, clothing, and literature—on a kick-sled, and hospitable people provided places for him to sleep. In an eight-year trip, he covered nearly the entire country with the good news.
August Lundborg’s wife, Ebba, went from Sweden into Finland to do colporteur work in 1906. At about the same time, men returning from the United States brought some Watch Tower literature with them and began to share what they were learning. Thus within a few years, Emil Österman, who was looking for something better than what the churches offered, came into possession of The Divine Plan of the Ages. He shared it with his friend Kaarlo Harteva, who was also searching. Recognizing the value of what they had, Harteva translated it into Finnish and, with Österman’s help in financing, arranged for it to be published. Together they set out to distribute it. Displaying a genuine evangelizing spirit, they talked to people in public places, made calls from house to house, and gave discourses in large auditoriums that were packed to capacity. In Helsinki, after exposing Christendom’s false doctrines, Brother Harteva invited the audience to use the Bible to defend belief in immortality of the soul, if they could. All eyes turned toward the clergymen present. No one spoke up; none could answer the clear statement found at Ezekiel 18:4. Some in the audience said they could hardly sleep that night after what they had heard.
Humble Gardener Becomes Evangelizer in Europe
Meanwhile, Adolf Weber, at the encouragement of an elderly Anabaptist friend, left Switzerland for the United States in search of a fuller understanding of the Scriptures. There, in response to an ad, he became a gardener for Brother Russell. With the help of The Divine Plan of the Ages (then available in German) and meetings conducted by Brother Russell, Adolf gained the Bible knowledge that he was seeking, and he was baptized in 1890. The ‘eyes of his heart were enlightened,’ so that he truly appreciated what a grand opportunity had opened up to him. (Eph. 1:18) After witnessing zealously for a time in the United States, he returned to the land of his birth to take up work “in the Lord’s vineyard” there. Thus, by the mid-1890’s, he was back in Switzerland sharing Bible truth with those who had receptive hearts.
Adolf earned his livelihood as a gardener and forester, but his prime interest was evangelizing. He witnessed to those with whom he worked, as well as to people in nearby Swiss towns and villages. He knew several languages, and he used this knowledge to translate the Society’s publications into French. When winter came he would load his knapsack with Bible literature and go on foot into France, and at times he traveled northwest into Belgium and south into Italy.
To reach people that he might not contact personally, he placed ads in newspapers and magazines, drawing attention to literature available for Bible study. Elie Thérond, in central France, responded to one of the ads, recognized the ring of truth in what he read, and soon began spreading the message himself. In Belgium, Jean-Baptiste Tilmant, Sr., also saw one of the ads in 1901 and obtained two volumes of Millennial Dawn. What a thrill for him to see Bible truth presented so clearly! How could he possibly refrain from telling his friends! By the following year, a study group was meeting regularly in his home. Soon afterward the activity of that little group was yielding fruit even in northern France. Brother Weber kept in touch with them, periodically visiting the various groups that developed, building them up spiritually and giving them instructions on how to share the good news with others.
When the Good News Reached Germany
A short time after some of the publications began to appear in German, in the mid-1880’s, German-Americans who appreciated them began to send copies to relatives in the land of their birth. A nurse working at a hospital in Hamburg shared copies of Millennial Dawn with others at the hospital. In 1896, Adolf Weber, in Switzerland, was placing ads in German-language newspapers and mailing tracts to Germany. The following year a literature depot was opened in Germany to facilitate distribution of the German edition of the Watch Tower, but results were slow in coming. However, in 1902, Margarethe Demut, who had learned the truth in Switzerland, moved to Tailfingen, east of the Black Forest. Her zealous personal witnessing helped to lay the foundation for one of the early groups of Bible Students in Germany. Samuel Lauper, from Switzerland, moved to the Bergisches Land, northeast of Cologne, to spread the good news in that area. By 1904, meetings were being held there in Wermelskirchen. Among those present was an 80-year-old man, Gottlieb Paas, who had been looking for the truth. On his deathbed, not long after those meetings began, Paas held up the Watch Tower and said: “This is the truth; hold on to it.”
The number interested in these Bible truths gradually increased. Although it was expensive, arrangements were made to insert free sample copies of the Watch Tower into newspapers in Germany. A report published in 1905 says that more than 1,500,000 copies of these Watch Tower samples had been distributed. That was a great accomplishment for a very small group.
The Bible Students did not all feel that by reaching people close to home they had done what was necessary. As early as 1907, Brother Erler, from Germany, made trips into Bohemia in what was then Austria-Hungary (later part of Czechoslovakia). He distributed literature warning of Armageddon and telling of the blessings that would come to mankind thereafter. By 1912 another Bible Student had distributed Bible literature in the Memel area, in what is now Lithuania. Many responded enthusiastically to the message, and several fairly large groups of Bible Students were quickly formed there. However, when they learned that true Christians must also be witnesses, their numbers began to dwindle. Nevertheless, a few proved themselves to be genuine imitators of Christ, “the faithful and true witness.”—Rev. 3:14.
When Nikolaus von Tornow, a German baron with large estates in Russia, was in Switzerland in about 1907, he was handed one of the Watch Tower Society’s tracts. Two years later he appeared at the Berlin Congregation, in Germany, decked out in his best attire and accompanied by his personal servant. It took a while for him to appreciate why God would entrust priceless truths to such unassuming people, but what he read at 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 helped: “You behold his calling of you, brothers, that not many wise in a fleshly way were called, not many powerful, not many of noble birth . . . , in order that no flesh might boast in the sight of God.” Convinced that he had found the truth, von Tornow sold his estates in Russia and devoted himself and his resources to furthering the interests of pure worship.
In 1911, when a young German couple, the Herkendells, got married, the bride requested of her father, as a dowry, money for an unusual honeymoon. She and her husband had in mind making a strenuous trip that would take many months. Their honeymoon was a preaching trip into Russia to reach German-speaking people there. Thus in many ways people of all sorts were sharing with others what they had learned about God’s loving purpose.
Growth in the British Field
After the intensive distribution of literature in Britain in 1881, some churchgoers saw the need to act on what they had learned. Tom Hart of Islington, London, was one of those impressed by the Watch Tower’s Scriptural counsel, “Get out of her, my people”—that is, get out of Christendom’s Babylonish churches and follow Bible teaching. (Rev. 18:4) He resigned from the chapel in 1884, followed by a number of others.
Many who associated with the study groups developed into effective evangelizers. Some offered Bible literature in the parks of London and other places where people were relaxing. Others concentrated on business houses. The more usual way, however, was to make house-to-house visits.
Sarah Ferrie, a subscriber for the Watch Tower, wrote to Brother Russell saying that she and a few friends in Glasgow would like to volunteer to share in tract distribution. What a surprise when a truck pulled up at her door with 30,000 pamphlets, all to be distributed free! They moved into action. Minnie Greenlees, along with her three young sons, with a “pony and trap” for transportation, pressed the distribution of Bible literature into the Scottish countryside. Later on, Alfred Greenlees and Alexander MacGillivray, traveling on bicycles, distributed tracts throughout much of Scotland. Instead of paying others to distribute the literature, dedicated volunteers were now doing the work themselves.
Their Hearts Impelled Them
In one of his parables, Jesus had said that people who ‘heard the word of God with a fine and good heart’ would bear fruit. Sincere appreciation for God’s loving provisions would move them to share the good news about God’s Kingdom with others. (Luke 8:8, 11, 15) Regardless of their circumstances, they would find some way to do it.
Thus it was from an Italian sailor that an Argentine traveler obtained a portion of the tract Food for Thinking Christians. While in port in Peru, the traveler wrote for more, and with heightened interest he wrote again, from Argentina in 1885, to the editor of the Watch Tower to request literature. That same year a member of the British Navy, who was sent with his battery to Singapore, took the Watch Tower with him. He was delighted with what he learned from the magazine and freely used it there to make known the Bible’s view on topics that were matters of public discussion. In 1910 a ship on which two Christian women were traveling stopped over at the port in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). They seized the opportunity to witness to Mr. Van Twest, the shipping master of the port. They spoke earnestly to him about the good things they had learned from the book The Divine Plan of the Ages. As a result, Mr. Van Twest became a Bible Student, and the preaching of the good news got under way in Sri Lanka.
Even those who could not travel sought ways to share heartwarming Bible truths with people in other countries. As revealed by a letter of appreciation published in 1905, someone in the United States had sent The Divine Plan of the Ages to a man in St. Thomas, in what was then the Danish West Indies. After reading it, the recipient had got down on his knees and expressed his earnest desire to be used by God in the doing of his will. In 1911, Bellona Ferguson in Brazil cited her case as “a positive, living proof that there are none too far away to be reached” by the waters of truth. She had evidently been receiving the Society’s publications by mail since 1899. Sometime before World War I, a German immigrant in Paraguay found one of the Society’s tracts in his mailbox. He ordered more literature and soon broke off his ties with Christendom’s churches. There was no one else in the country to do it, so he and his brother-in-law decided to baptize each other. Indeed, a witness was being given in distant parts of the earth, and it was bearing fruit.
Yet others of the Bible Students felt impelled to travel to the place where they or their parents were born to tell friends and relatives about Jehovah’s wonderful purpose and how they could share in it. Thus, in 1895, Brother Oleszynski returned to Poland with good news about the “ransom, restitution and the high calling”; though, sadly, he did not endure in that service. In 1898 a former professor, a Hungarian, left Canada to spread the Bible’s urgent message in his homeland. In 1905 a man who had become a Bible Student in America returned to Greece to witness. And in 1913 a young man carried seeds of Bible truth from New York back to his family’s hometown, Ramallah, not far from Jerusalem.
Opening Up the Caribbean Area
While the number of evangelizers was growing in the United States, Canada, and Europe, Bible truth was also beginning to take hold in Panama, Costa Rica, Dutch Guiana (now Suriname), and British Guiana (now Guyana). Joseph Brathwaite, who was in British Guiana when he was helped to understand God’s purpose, left for Barbados in 1905 to devote his full time to teaching it to people there. Louis Facey and H. P. Clarke, who heard the good news when working in Costa Rica, returned to Jamaica in 1897 to share their newfound faith among their own people. Those who embraced the truth there were zealous workers. In 1906 alone, the group in Jamaica distributed about 1,200,000 tracts and other pieces of literature. Another migrant worker, who learned the truth in Panama, carried the Bible’s message of hope back to Grenada.
Revolution in Mexico in 1910-11 was another factor in bringing truth-hungry persons the message of God’s Kingdom. Many people fled north into the United States. There some of them came in touch with the Bible Students, learned about Jehovah’s purpose to bring lasting peace to mankind, and sent literature back into Mexico. However, this was not the first time that Mexico had been reached with this message. As early as 1893, the Watch Tower published a letter from F. de P. Stephenson, of Mexico, who had read some of the Watch Tower Society’s publications and wanted to have more to share with his friends both in Mexico and in Europe.
To open more of the Caribbean lands to the preaching of Bible truth and to organize regular meetings for study, Brother Russell sent E. J. Coward to Panama in 1911 and then to the islands. Brother Coward was an emphatic and colorful speaker, and audiences frequently numbering in the hundreds flocked to hear his discourses refuting the doctrines of hellfire and immortality of the human soul, also telling of the glorious future for the earth. He moved from one town to the next, and from one island to another—St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Kitts, Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad—reaching as many people as possible. He also spoke in British Guiana. While in Panama, he met W. R. Brown, a zealous young Jamaican brother, who thereafter served along with Brother Coward on a number of the Caribbean islands. Later on, Brother Brown helped to open up yet other fields.
In 1913, Brother Russell himself spoke in Panama, Cuba, and Jamaica. For a public discourse that he gave in Kingston, Jamaica, two auditoriums were packed, and still some 2,000 persons had to be turned away. When the speaker said nothing about money and when no collection was taken, the press took note.
Light of Truth Reaches Africa
Africa too was being penetrated by the light of truth during this period. A letter sent from Liberia in 1884 revealed that a Bible reader there had come into possession of a copy of Food for Thinking Christians and wanted more to share with others. A few years after that, it was reported that a clergyman in Liberia had left his pulpit in order to be free to teach Bible truths that he was learning with the aid of the Watch Tower and that regular meetings were being held there by a group of Bible Students.
A Dutch Reformed minister from Holland took some of the publications of C. T. Russell with him when he was sent to South Africa in 1902. Although he did not lastingly benefit from them, Frans Ebersohn and Stoffel Fourie, who saw the literature in his library, did. A few years later, the ranks in that part of the field were fortified when two zealous Bible Students emigrated from Scotland to Durban, South Africa.
Sadly, among those who obtained literature written by Brother Russell and then taught some of it to others, there were a few, such as Joseph Booth and Elliott Kamwana, who mixed in their own ideas, which were designed to agitate for social change. To some observers in South Africa and Nyasaland (later Malawi), this tended to confuse the identity of the genuine Bible Students. Nevertheless, many were hearing and showing appreciation for the message that directed attention to God’s Kingdom as the solution to mankind’s problems.
As for widespread preaching in Africa, however, this was yet future.
To the Orient and Islands of the Pacific
Shortly after Bible publications prepared by C. T. Russell were first distributed in Britain, they also reached the Orient. In 1883, Miss C. B. Downing, a Presbyterian missionary in Chefoo (Yantai), China, received a copy of the Watch Tower. She appreciated what she learned about restitution and shared the literature with other missionaries, including Horace Randle, associated with the Baptist Mission Board. Later, he had his interest further stimulated by an advertisement for Millennial Dawn that appeared in the London Times, and this was followed up by copies of the book itself—one from Miss Downing and another sent by his mother in England. At first, he was shocked by what he read. But once convinced that the Trinity is not a Bible teaching, he resigned from the Baptist Church and proceeded to share with other missionaries what he had learned. In 1900 he reported that he had sent out 2,324 letters and some 5,000 tracts to missionaries in China, Japan, Korea, and Siam (Thailand). At that time it was mainly to Christendom’s missionaries that the witness was being given in the Orient.
During that same time period, seeds of truth were also sown in Australia and New Zealand. The first of these “seeds” to arrive in Australia may have been taken there in 1884 or shortly there after by a man who was first approached by a Bible Student in a park in England. Other “seeds” came by mail from friends and relatives overseas.
Within a few years after the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901, hundreds of persons there were subscribers for the Watch Tower. As a result of the activity of those who saw the privilege of sharing the truth with others, thousands of tracts were sent to people whose names were on the electoral rolls. More were distributed on the streets, and bundles of them were tossed from train windows to workers and lone cottagers in remote areas along the railroad lines. The people were being notified of the approaching end of the Gentile Times in 1914. Arthur Williams, Sr., talked about this to all the customers in his store in Western Australia and invited interested ones to his home for further discussions.
Who reached New Zealand first with Bible truth is not now known. But by 1898, Andrew Anderson, a resident of New Zealand, had read enough of the Watch Tower publications to be moved to spread the truth there as a colporteur. His efforts were reinforced in 1904 by other colporteurs who came from America and from the Society’s branch office that was established in that same year in Australia. Mrs. Thomas Barry, in Christchurch, accepted six volumes of Studies in the Scriptures from one of the colporteurs. Her son Bill read them in 1909 during a six-week boat trip to England and recognized the truthfulness of what they contained. Years later his son Lloyd became a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Among the zealous workers in those early days was Ed Nelson, who, though not overly endowed with tact, devoted his full time for 50 years to spreading the Kingdom message from the north tip of New Zealand to the south. After a few years, he was joined by Frank Grove, who cultivated his memory to compensate for poor eyesight and who also pioneered for more than 50 years until his death.
A World Tour to Further the Preaching of the Good News
A further major effort was put forth in 1911-12 to help people of the Orient. The International Bible Students Association sent a committee of seven men, headed by C. T. Russell, to examine firsthand the conditions there. Wherever they went they spoke about God’s purpose to bring blessings to mankind by means of the Messianic Kingdom. Sometimes their audience was small, but in the Philippines and in India, there were thousands. They did not endorse the campaign then popular in Christendom to collect funds for world conversion. Their observation was that most of the efforts of Christendom’s missionaries were being expended to promote secular education. But Brother Russell was convinced that what the people needed was “the Gospel of God’s loving provision of Messiah’s coming Kingdom.” Instead of expecting to convert the world, the Bible Students understood from the Scriptures that what was to be done then was to give a witness and that this would serve toward the gathering of “an elect few from all nations, peoples, kindreds and tongues for membership in [Christ’s] Bride class—to sit with Him in His throne during the thousand years, cooperating in the work of uplifting the race as a whole.”a—Rev. 5:9, 10; 14:1-5.
After spending time in Japan, China, the Philippines, and other locations, the members of the committee logged an additional 4,000 miles [6,400 km] of travel in India. Some individuals living in India had read the Society’s literature and had written letters to express their appreciation for it as early as 1887. Active witnessing had also been done among the Tamil-speaking people since 1905 by a young man who, as a student in America, had met Brother Russell and learned the truth. This young man helped to establish some 40 Bible study groups in the south of India. But, after preaching to others, he himself became disapproved by forsaking Christian standards.—Compare 1 Corinthians 9:26, 27.
At about the same time, however, A. J. Joseph, of Travancore (Kerala), in response to an inquiry that he mailed to a prominent Adventist, was sent a volume of Studies in the Scriptures. Here he found satisfying Scriptural answers to his questions about the Trinity. Soon he and other family members were out in the rice paddies and coconut plantations of southern India sharing their newfound beliefs. After Brother Russell’s visit in 1912, Brother Joseph undertook full-time service. By rail, bullock cart, barge, and foot, he traveled to distribute Bible literature. When he gave public discourses, these were often disrupted by the clergy and their followers. At Kundara, when a “Christian” clergyman was using his followers to disrupt such a meeting and to throw dung on Brother Joseph, a Hindu gentleman of influence came to see what the noise was all about. He asked the clergyman: ‘Is that the example set by Christ for Christians to follow, or is what you are doing like the conduct of the Pharisees of Jesus’ time?’ The clergyman retreated.
Before the four-month world tour by the IBSA committee was completed, Brother Russell had arranged for R. R. Hollister to be the Society’s representative in the Orient and to follow through in spreading to peoples there the message of God’s loving provision of the Messianic Kingdom. Special tracts were prepared in ten languages, and millions of these were circulated throughout India, China, Japan, and Korea by native distributors. Then books were translated into four of these languages to provide further spiritual food for those who showed interest. Here was a vast field, and much remained to be done. Yet, what had been accomplished thus far was truly amazing.
An Impressive Witness Was Given
Before the devastation of the first world war was unleashed, an extensive witness had been given worldwide. Brother Russell had made speaking trips to hundreds of cities in the United States and Canada, had undertaken repeated trips to Europe, had spoken in Panama, Jamaica, and Cuba, as well as in principal cities of the Orient. Tens of thousands of persons had personally heard his stirring Bible discourses and had observed as he publicly answered from the Scriptures questions raised by both friends and foes. Much interest was thus aroused, and thousands of newspapers in America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia regularly published Brother Russell’s sermons. Millions of books, as well as hundreds of millions of tracts and other pieces of literature in 35 languages, had been distributed by the Bible Students.
Outstanding though his role was, it was not only Brother Russell who was preaching. Others too, scattered around the globe, were uniting their voices as witnesses of Jehovah and of his Son, Jesus Christ. Those who shared were not all public speakers. They came from all walks of life, and they used every appropriate means at their disposal to spread the good news.
In January 1914, with the end of the Gentile Times less than a year away, yet another intensive witness was launched. This was the “Photo-Drama of Creation,” which emphasized in a fresh manner God’s purpose for the earth. It did this by means of beautifully hand-painted color slides and motion pictures, synchronized with sound. The public press in the United States reported that across the country audiences totaling hundreds of thousands were viewing it weekly. By the end of the first year, total attendance in the United States and Canada had reached nearly eight million. In London, England, there were overflow crowds at the Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall to see this presentation that consisted of four 2-hour parts. Within half a year, over 1,226,000 had attended in 98 cities in the British Isles. Crowds in Germany and Switzerland packed out available halls. It was also seen by large audiences in Scandinavia and the South Pacific.
What a remarkable, intensive, global witness was given during those early decades of the modern-day history of Jehovah’s Witnesses! But, really, the work was just beginning.
Only a few hundred had actively shared in spreading Bible truth during the early 1880’s. By 1914, according to available reports, there were about 5,100 that participated in the work. Others may occasionally have distributed some tracts. The workers were relatively few.
This small band of evangelizers had, in various ways, already spread their proclamation of God’s Kingdom into 68 lands by the latter part of 1914. And their work as preachers and teachers of God’s Word was established on a fairly consistent basis in 30 of these lands.
Millions of books and hundreds of millions of tracts had been distributed before the Gentile Times ended. In addition to that, by 1913 as many as 2,000 newspapers were regularly publishing sermons prepared by C. T. Russell, and in the year 1914 audiences totaling over 9,000,000 persons on three continents saw the “Photo-Drama of Creation.”
Truly, an amazing witness had been given! But there was much more to come.
[Footnote]
a A full report on this world tour appears in The Watch Tower of April 15, 1912.
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C. T. Russell personally gave Bible discourses in over 300 cities (in areas indicated by the dots) in North America and the Caribbean—in many of them 10 or 15 times
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Russell’s preaching tours to Europe, usually by way of England
1891
1903
1908
1909
1910 (twice)
1911 (twice)
1912 (twice)
1913
1914
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When convinced that he had found the truth, Andreas Øiseth zealously distributed Bible literature in nearly every part of Norway
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NORWAY
Arctic Circle
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Adolf Weber, a humble gardener, spread the good news from Switzerland to other countries in Europe
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BELGIUM
GERMANY
SWITZERLAND
ITALY
FRANCE
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Bellona Ferguson, in Brazil—“none too far away to be reached”
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BRAZIL
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ALASKA
CANADA
GREENLAND
ST. PIERRE & MIQUELON
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BERMUDA
BAHAMAS
TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS
CUBA
MEXICO
BELIZE
JAMAICA
HAITI
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
PUERTO RICO
CAYMAN ISLANDS
GUATEMALA
EL SALVADOR
HONDURAS
NICARAGUA
COSTA RICA
PANAMA
VENEZUELA
GUYANA
SURINAME
FRENCH GUIANA
COLOMBIA
ECUADOR
PERU
BRAZIL
BOLIVIA
PARAGUAY
CHILE
ARGENTINA
URUGUAY
FALKLAND ISLANDS
VIRGIN ISLANDS (U.S.)
VIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH)
ANGUILLA
ST. MAARTEN
SABA
ST. EUSTATIUS
ST. KITTS
NEVIS
ANTIGUA
MONTSERRAT
GUADELOUPE
DOMINICA
MARTINIQUE
ST. LUCIA
ST. VINCENT
BARBADOS
GRENADA
TRINIDAD
ARUBA
BONAIRE
CURAÇAO
ATLANTIC OCEAN
CARIBBEAN SEA
PACIFIC OCEAN
[Map on page 416, 417]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
GREENLAND
SWEDEN
ICELAND
NORWAY
FAEROE ISLANDS
FINLAND
RUSSIA
ESTONIA
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
BELARUS
UKRAINE
MOLDOVA
GEORGIA
ARMENIA
AZERBAIJAN
TURKMENISTAN
UZBEKISTAN
KAZAKHSTAN
TAJIKISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN
POLAND
GERMANY
NETHERLANDS
DENMARK
BRITAIN
IRELAND
BELGIUM
LUXEMBOURG
LIECHTENSTEIN
SWITZERLAND
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
AUSTRIA
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
YUGOSLAVIA
SLOVENIA
CROATIA
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
BULGARIA
ALBANIA
ITALY
GIBRALTAR
SPAIN
PORTUGAL
MADEIRA
MOROCCO
WESTERN SAHARA
SENEGAL
ALGERIA
LIBYA
EGYPT
LEBANON
ISRAEL
CYPRUS
SYRIA
TURKEY
IRAQ
IRAN
BAHRAIN
KUWAIT
JORDAN
SAUDI ARABIA
QATAR
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
OMAN
YEMEN
DJIBOUTI
SOMALIA
ETHIOPIA
SUDAN
CHAD
NIGER
MALI
MAURITANIA
GAMBIA
GUINEA-BISSAU
SIERRA LEONE
LIBERIA
CÔTE D’IVOIRE
GHANA
TOGO
BENIN
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
ST. HELENA
GUINEA
BURKINA FASO
NIGERIA
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
CAMEROON
SÃO TOMÉ
CONGO
GABON
ZAIRE
ANGOLA
ZAMBIA
NAMIBIA
BOTSWANA
SOUTH AFRICA
LESOTHO
SWAZILAND
MOZAMBIQUE
MADAGASCAR
RÉUNION
MAURITIUS
RODRIGUES
ZIMBABWE
MAYOTTE
COMOROS
SEYCHELLES
MALAWI
TANZANIA
BURUNDI
RWANDA
UGANDA
FRANCE
PAKISTAN
AFGHANISTAN
NEPAL
BHUTAN
MYANMAR
BANGLADESH
INDIA
SRI LANKA
GREECE
MALTA
TUNISIA
KENYA
ATLANTIC OCEAN
INDIAN OCEAN
ALASKA
MONGOLIA
DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
JAPAN
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
CHINA
MACAO
TAIWAN
HONG KONG
LAOS
THAILAND
VIETNAM
CAMBODIA
PHILIPPINES
BRUNEI
MALAYSIA
SINGAPORE
INDONESIA
SAIPAN
ROTA
GUAM
YAP
BELAU
CHUUK
POHNPEI
KOSRAE
MARSHALL ISLANDS
NAURU
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
AUSTRALIA
NEW ZEALAND
NORFOLK ISLAND
NEW CALEDONIA
WALLIS & FUTUNA ISLANDS
VANUATU
TUVALU
FIJI
KIRIBATI
TOKELAU
HAWAII
WESTERN SAMOA
AMERICAN SAMOA
NIUE
TONGA
COOK ISLANDS
TAHITI
SOLOMON ISLANDS
PACIFIC OCEAN
INDIAN OCEAN
[Map/Picture on page 421]
A. J. Joseph, of India, with his daughter Gracie, who served as a Gilead-trained missionary
[Map]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
INDIA
[Picture on page 411]
Hermann Herkendell, along with his bride, took a honeymoon trip of many months to preach to German-speaking people in Russia
[Pictures on page 412]
Colporteurs in England and Scotland endeavored to give everyone opportunity to receive a witness; even their children helped with the distribution of tracts
[Picture on page 414]
E. J. Coward zealously spread Bible truth in the Caribbean area
[Picture on page 418]
Frank Grove (left) and Ed Nelson (here seen with their wives) each devoted more than 50 years to spreading the Kingdom message full-time throughout New Zealand
[Pictures on page 420]
C. T. Russell and six associates made a trip around the world in 1911-12 to further the preaching of the good news
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Part 2—Witnesses to the Most Distant Part of the EarthJehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom
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Chapter 22
Part 2—Witnesses to the Most Distant Part of the Earth
The work of Kingdom proclamation from 1914 through 1935 is covered on pages 423 to 443. Jehovah’s Witnesses point to 1914 as the time when Jesus Christ was enthroned as heavenly King with authority over the nations. When on earth, Jesus foretold that a global preaching of the Kingdom message in the face of intense persecution would be part of the sign of his presence in Kingdom power. What actually occurred during the years following 1914?
THE first world war quickly engulfed Europe in 1914. Then it reached out to involve countries comprising an estimated 90 percent of the world’s population. How did events associated with that war affect the preaching activity of Jehovah’s servants?
The Dark Years of World War I
During the early years of the war, there was little hindrance except in Germany and France. Tracts were freely distributed in many places, and there was continued use of the “Photo-Drama,” though on a much more limited scale after 1914. As the war fever intensified, the clergy in the British West Indies had it rumored that E. J. Coward, who represented the Watch Tower Society, was a German spy, so he was ordered to leave. When distribution of the book The Finished Mystery got under way in 1917, opposition became widespread.
The public was eager to obtain that book. The Society’s initial order with the printers had to be increased over tenfold in just a few months. But the clergy of Christendom were furious over the exposure of their false doctrines. They seized on wartime hysteria to denounce the Bible Students to government officials. Across the United States, men and women identified with distribution of literature of the Bible Students were mobbed, also tarred and feathered. In Canada, homes were searched, and persons found with certain publications of the International Bible Students Association were subject to a heavy fine or imprisonment. However, Thomas J. Sullivan, who was then in Port Arthur, Ontario, reported that on one occasion, when he was put into jail for a night, the police in that city took home copies of the banned literature for themselves and their friends, thus distributing the entire available stock—some 500 or 600 copies.
The headquarters of the Watch Tower Society itself came under attack, and members of the administrative staff were sentenced to long prison terms. It appeared to their enemies that the Bible Students had been dealt a deathblow. Their witnessing in a manner that attracted widespread public attention virtually came to a stop.
Nevertheless, even Bible Students who were confined in prison found opportunities to talk to fellow prisoners about God’s purpose. When the officers of the Society and their close associates arrived at the prison in Atlanta, Georgia, they were at first forbidden to preach. But they discussed the Bible among themselves, and others were attracted to them by their deportment, their manner of life. After a few months, the deputy warden assigned them to give religious instruction to other prisoners. The number increased until about 90 attended the classes.
Other loyal Christians also found ways to witness during those war years. This at times resulted in spreading the Kingdom message into lands where the good news had not yet been preached. Thus, in 1915 a Bible Student in New York, a Colombian, mailed the Spanish edition of The Divine Plan of the Ages to a man in Bogotá, Colombia. After about six months, a reply arrived from Ramón Salgar. He had studied the book carefully, was delighted with it, and wanted 200 copies to distribute to others. Brother J. L. Mayer, from Brooklyn, New York, also mailed out many copies of the Spanish-language Bible Students Monthly. A considerable number of these went to Spain. And when Alfred Joseph, who was then in Barbados, took a work contract in Sierra Leone, West Africa, he seized opportunities to witness there about the Bible truths he had recently learned.
For the colporteurs, whose ministry involved calling at homes and places of business, it was often more difficult. But several who went into El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala were busy there in 1916 sharing life-giving truths with the people. During this period Fanny Mackenzie, a colporteur of British nationality, made two trips to the Orient by boat, stopping in China, Japan, and Korea to distribute Bible literature, and then she followed up interest by writing letters.
Nevertheless, according to available records, the number of Bible Students reported as having some share in preaching the good news to others during 1918 decreased by 20 percent worldwide when compared with the report for 1914. After the harsh treatment meted out to them during the war years, would they persist in their ministry?
Infused With Renewed Life
On March 26, 1919, the president of the Watch Tower Society and his associates were released from their unjust imprisonment. Plans quickly took shape to push ahead with worldwide proclamation of the good news of God’s Kingdom.
At a general convention at Cedar Point, Ohio, in September of that year, J. F. Rutherford, then president of the Society, gave a discourse that highlighted the announcing of the glorious incoming of God’s Messianic Kingdom as the truly important work for Jehovah’s servants.
The actual number who were then sharing in that work, however, was small. Some who had fearfully held back during 1918 became active again, and a few more joined their ranks. But the records that are available show that in 1919 there were only some 5,700 who were actively witnessing, in 43 lands. Yet Jesus had foretold: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.” (Matt. 24:14) How could that be accomplished? They did not know, nor did they know how long the witnessing would continue. Nevertheless, those who were loyal servants of God were willing and eager to get on with the work. They had confidence that Jehovah would direct matters in harmony with his will.
Infused with zeal for what they saw laid out in God’s Word, they went to work. Within three years the number having a part in publicly proclaiming God’s Kingdom nearly tripled, according to available reports, and during 1922 they were busy preaching in 15 lands more than in 1919.
An Intriguing Subject
What an exciting message they proclaimed—“Millions now living will never die!” Brother Rutherford had given a discourse on this subject in 1918. It was also the title of a 128-page booklet published in 1920. From 1920 through 1925, that same subject was featured again and again around the world in public meetings in all areas where speakers were available and in upwards of 30 languages. Instead of saying, as Christendom does, that all good people would go to heaven, this discourse focused attention on the Bible-based hope of eternal life on a paradise earth for obedient mankind. (Isa. 45:18; Rev. 21:1-5) And it expressed the conviction that the time for the realization of that hope was very near.
Newspaper notices and billboards were used to advertise the lectures. The subject was intriguing. On February 26, 1922, upwards of 70,000 attended at 121 locations in Germany alone. It was not unusual for a single audience to number into the thousands. In Cape Town, South Africa, for example, 2,000 were present when the lecture was given at the Opera House. At the university auditorium in the capital city of Norway, not only was every seat filled but so many were turned away that the program had to be repeated an hour and a half later—again to a packed house.
In Klagenfurt, Austria, Richard Heide told his father: “I am going to hear that talk whatever anyone might say. I want to know whether this is just bluff or if there is any truth in it!” He was deeply moved by what he heard, and soon he and his sister, as well as their parents, were telling others about it.
But the Bible’s message was not just for people who would attend a public lecture. Others too needed to be made aware of it. Not only the public at large but also political and religious leaders needed to hear it. How would that be accomplished?
Distribution of Powerful Declarations
The printed page was used to reach millions of people who previously had only hearsay acquaintance with the Bible Students and the message that they proclaimed. From 1922 through 1928, an effective witness was given by means of seven powerful declarations, resolutions adopted at the annual conventions of the Bible Students. The number of printed copies of most of the individual resolutions distributed following those conventions totaled 45 to 50 million—a truly amazing accomplishment for the small band of Kingdom proclaimers then serving!
The 1922 resolution was entitled “A Challenge to World Leaders”—yes, a challenge to justify their claim that they could establish peace, prosperity, and happiness for humankind or, failing that, to acknowledge that only God’s Kingdom by his Messiah can accomplish these things. In Germany, that resolution was sent by registered mail to the exiled German kaiser, to the president, and to all the members of the Imperial Diet; and some four and a half million copies went to the public. In South Africa, Edwin Scott, carrying the literature in a bag on his back and with a stick in one hand to ward off fierce dogs, covered 64 towns, personally distributing 50,000 copies. Thereafter, when the Dutch clergy in South Africa called at the homes of parishioners to take up collections, many of the parishioners shook the resolution in their clergyman’s face and said: “You ought to read this and you would not come around again to get money from us.”
In 1924 the resolution entitled “Ecclesiastics Indicted” laid bare the unscriptural teachings and practices of the clergy, exposed their role during the world war, and urged people to study the Bible to learn for themselves about the marvelous provisions made by God for the blessing of humankind. In Italy at that time, printers were required to put their name on anything they printed, and they were held responsible for the contents. The Bible Student supervising the work in Italy submitted a copy of the resolution to the government authorities, who inspected it and readily gave permission to have it printed and distributed. The printers too agreed to publish it. The brothers in Italy distributed 100,000 copies. They particularly saw to it that the pope and other high officials of the Vatican each received a copy.
In France, distribution of this resolution brought a vehement and often violent reaction from the clergy. In desperation a clergyman in Pomerania, Germany, filed legal charges against the Society and its manager, but the clergyman lost the case when the court heard the contents of the entire resolution. In order to avoid interference with their work on the part of those who did not want people to know the truth, the Bible Students in the province of Quebec, in Canada, left resolutions at homes during the early morning hours, starting at 3:00 a.m. Those were exciting times!
Showing Gratitude for Satisfying Answers
During World War I, many Armenians were ruthlessly driven from their homes and the land of their birth. Only two decades earlier, hundreds of thousands of Armenians had been slaughtered, and others had fled for their lives. A few of these people had read the Watch Tower Society’s publications in their homeland. But far more of them were given a witness in the lands to which they traveled as refugees.
After the harsh experiences that they had endured, many had serious questions as to why God permitted evil. How long would it continue? When would it end? Some of them were grateful to learn the satisfying answers found in the Bible. Groups of Armenian Bible Students quickly developed in various cities in the Middle East. Their zeal for Bible truth touched the lives of others. In Ethiopia, Argentina, and the United States, fellow Armenians embraced the good news and gladly accepted the responsibility of sharing it with others. One of such was Krikor Hatzakortzian, who as a lone pioneer spread the Kingdom message in Ethiopia in the mid-1930’s. On one occasion, when falsely charged by opposers, he even had opportunity to witness to the emperor, Haile Selassie.
Taking Precious Truths Back to Their Native Lands
A burning desire to share vital Bible truths impelled many people to return to the land of their birth to engage in evangelizing. Their response was similar to that of the people from many lands who were in Jerusalem in 33 C.E. and who became believers when holy spirit moved the apostles and their associates to speak in many tongues “about the magnificent things of God.” (Acts 2:1-11) Just as those first-century believers carried the truth back to their homelands, so did these modern-day disciples.
Both men and women who had learned the truth abroad returned to Italy. They came from America, Belgium, and France and zealously proclaimed the Kingdom message where they settled. Colporteurs from the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino also moved into Italy to carry on their work. Although their numbers were few, as a result of their united activity they soon reached nearly all the principal cities and many of the villages of Italy. They were not counting the hours that they spent in this work. Convinced that they were preaching truths that God wanted people to know, they often worked from morning till night to reach as many people as possible.
Greeks who had become Bible Students in nearby Albania and as far away as America also gave attention to their homeland. They were thrilled when they learned that worship of icons is unscriptural (Ex. 20:4, 5; 1 John 5:21), that sinners are not roasted in hellfire (Eccl. 9:5, 10; Ezek. 18:4; Rev. 21:8), and that God’s Kingdom is mankind’s real and only hope (Dan. 2:44; Matt. 6:9, 10). They were eager to share these truths with their fellow countrymen—personally or by mail. As a result, groups of Jehovah’s Witnesses began to develop in Greece and on the Greek isles.
Following World War I, thousands of people from Poland moved into France to work in the coal mines. The French congregations did not pass them by because they spoke a different tongue. They found ways to share Bible truths with these miners and their families, and the number who responded favorably soon outnumbered the French Witnesses. When, as a result of a government deportation order, 280 had to return to Poland in 1935, this only served to reinforce the spread of the Kingdom message there. Thus, in 1935, there were 1,090 Kingdom proclaimers who shared in giving a witness in Poland.
Others responded to invitations to leave their homeland to take up service in foreign fields.
Zealous European Evangelizers Help in Foreign Fields
With international cooperation, the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) heard the heartwarming truths about God’s Kingdom. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, zealous brothers and sisters from Denmark, England, Finland, and Germany did extensive witnessing in this area. Much literature was placed, and thousands heard the Bible discourses that were given. From Estonia regular radio broadcasts of Bible programs in several languages reached even into what was then the Soviet Union.
From Germany willing workers during the 1920’s and 1930’s took up assignments in such places as Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Yugoslavia. Willy Unglaube was among them. After serving for a time at the Magdeburg Bethel, in Germany, he went on to care for assignments as a full-time evangelizer in France, Algeria, Spain, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
When a call went out from France for help during the 1930’s, colporteurs from Britain gave evidence that they were aware that the Christian commission to preach required evangelizing not only in their own land but also in other parts of the earth. (Mark 13:10) John Cooke was one of the zealous workers who answered the Macedonian call. (Compare Acts 16:9, 10.) During the next six decades, he cared for service assignments in France, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa. His brother Eric left his job at Barclay’s Bank and joined John in the full-time ministry in France; thereafter, he too served in Spain and Ireland and shared in missionary work in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa.
In May 1926, George Wright and Edwin Skinner, in England, accepted an invitation to help to broaden out the Kingdom work in India. Their assignment was huge! It included all of Afghanistan, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, and Persia (now Iran). On arrival in Bombay, they were greeted by the monsoon rains. However, not being overly concerned about personal comfort or convenience, they were soon traveling to the far corners of the country to locate known Bible Students to encourage them. They also placed large quantities of literature to stimulate interest among others. The work was done with intensity. Thus, during 1928 the 54 Kingdom proclaimers in Travancore (Kerala), in southern India, arranged for 550 public meetings attended by about 40,000 persons. In 1929 four more pioneers from the British field moved to India to help with the work. And in 1931 another three from England arrived in Bombay. Again and again they reached out to various parts of this vast country, distributing literature not only in English but also in the Indian tongues.
Meanwhile, what was happening in Eastern Europe?
A Spiritual Harvest
Before the first world war, seeds of Bible truth had been scattered in Eastern Europe, and some had taken root. In 1908, Andrásné Benedek, a humble Hungarian woman, had returned to Austria-Hungary to share with others the good things that she had learned. Two years later, Károly Szabó and József Kiss had also come back to that land and were spreading Bible truth especially in areas that later came to be known as Romania and Czechoslovakia. Despite violent opposition by irate clergy, study groups were formed, and extensive witnessing was done. Others joined them in making public declaration of their faith, and by 1935 the ranks of Kingdom proclaimers in Hungary had grown to 348.
Romania nearly doubled its size when the map of Europe was reshaped by the victors following World War I. It was reported that within this enlarged country, in 1920, there were about 150 groups of Bible Students, with which 1,700 persons were associated. The following year, at the celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal, nearly 2,000 partook of the Memorial emblems, indicating that they professed to be spirit-anointed brothers of Christ. That number increased dramatically during the next four years. In 1925, there were 4,185 in attendance at the Memorial, and as was customary then, most of them undoubtedly partook of the emblems. However, the faith of all of these would be put to the test. Would they prove to be genuine “wheat” or only an imitation? (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43) Would they really do the work of witnessing that Jesus had assigned to his followers? Would they persevere in it in the face of intense opposition? Would they be faithful even when others displayed a spirit like that of Judas Iscariot?
The report for 1935 indicates that not all had the sort of faith that enabled them to endure. In that year, there were just 1,188 who had some share in giving a witness in Romania, though more than twice that number were at that time partaking of the Memorial emblems. Nevertheless, the faithful ones kept busy in the Master’s service. They shared with other humble people the Bible truths that brought such joy to their own hearts. One outstanding way that they did this was by literature distribution. Between 1924 and 1935, they had already placed with interested ones upwards of 800,000 books and booklets, in addition to tracts.
What about Czechoslovakia, which had become a nation in 1918 after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? Here an even more intense witness was contributing to the spiritual harvest. Earlier preaching had been done in Hungarian, Russian, Romanian, and German. Then, in 1922, several Bible Students returned from America to direct attention to the Slovak-speaking population, and the following year a couple from Germany began to concentrate on the Czech territory. Regular assemblies, though small, helped to encourage and unify the brothers. After the congregations became better organized for house-to-house evangelizing in 1927, growth became more evident. In 1932 a powerful stimulus to the work was given by an international convention in Prague, attended by about 1,500 from Czechoslovakia and neighboring countries. In addition to this, large crowds viewed a four-hour version of the “Photo-Drama of Creation” that was shown from one end of the country to the other. In a period of just a decade, upwards of 2,700,000 pieces of Bible literature were distributed to the various language groups in this land. All this spiritual planting, cultivating, and watering contributed to a harvest in which 1,198 Kingdom proclaimers shared in the year 1935.
Yugoslavia (known first as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) had come into existence as a result of the reshaping of the map of Europe following the first world war. As early as 1923, it was reported that a group of Bible Students were witnessing in Belgrade. Later the “Photo-Drama of Creation” was shown to large crowds throughout the country. When Jehovah’s Witnesses came under severe persecution in Germany, the ranks in Yugoslavia were fortified with German pioneers. Without concern for personal comfort, they reached out into the most remote parts of this mountainous country to preach. Others of those pioneers went into Bulgaria. Efforts were also being made to preach the good news in Albania. In all these places, seeds of Kingdom truth were sown. Some of the seeds bore fruit. But it would not be until later years that there would be a larger harvest in these places.
Farther south, on the continent of Africa, the good news was also being spread by those who deeply appreciated the privilege of being witnesses for the Most High.
Spiritual Light Shines in West Africa
About seven years after a Bible Student from Barbados first went to West Africa under a work contract, he wrote to the Watch Tower Society’s office in New York to inform them that quite a few people were showing interest in the Bible. A few months later, on April 14, 1923, at Brother Rutherford’s invitation, W. R. Brown, who had been serving in Trinidad, arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with his family.
Promptly, arrangements were made for Brother Brown to give a discourse in the Wilberforce Memorial Hall. On April 19, there was an audience of some 500 in attendance, including most of the clergy of Freetown. The following Sunday he spoke again. His subject was one that C. T. Russell had often used—“To Hell and Back. Who Are There?” Brother Brown’s discourses were regularly punctuated with Scripture quotations made visible to the audience by means of lantern slides. As he spoke, he would repeatedly say: “Not Brown says, but the Bible says.” Because of this, he came to be known as “Bible Brown.” And as a result of his logical, Scriptural presentation, some prominent church members resigned and took up Jehovah’s service.
He traveled extensively to get the Kingdom work started in additional areas. To that end he delivered numerous Bible lectures and distributed large amounts of literature, and he encouraged others to do the same. His evangelizing took him into Gold Coast (now Ghana), Liberia, The Gambia, and Nigeria. From Nigeria others carried the Kingdom message into Benin (then known as Dahomey) and Cameroon. Brother Brown knew that the public had little regard for what they called “the white man’s religion,” so at the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos, he spoke on the failure of Christendom’s religion. After the meeting the enthusiastic audience obtained 3,900 books to read and to share with others.
When Brother Brown first went to West Africa, only a handful of persons there had heard the Kingdom message. When he left 27 years later, well over 11,000 were active Witnesses of Jehovah in that area. Religious falsehoods were being laid bare; true worship had taken root and was spreading rapidly.
Up the East Coast of Africa
Quite early in the 20th century, some of the publications of C. T. Russell had been circulated in the southeast part of Africa by individuals who had adopted a few of the ideas set out in those books but had then mixed them with their own philosophy. The result was a number of so-called Watchtower movements that had no connection whatever with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some of them were politically oriented, stirring up unrest among the native Africans. For many years the bad reputation made by those groups presented obstacles to the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Nevertheless, a number of Africans discerned the difference between the true and the false. Itinerant workers carried the good news of God’s Kingdom to nearby lands and shared it with people who spoke the African languages. The English-speaking population in southeast Africa received the message, for the most part, by means of contacts with South Africa. In some countries, however, strong official opposition, fueled by Christendom’s clergy, hindered preaching on the part of European Witnesses among the African-language groups. Nevertheless, the truth spread, though many people who showed interest in the Bible’s message needed more help to make sound practical application of what they were learning.
Some fair-minded government officials did not accept without question the vicious charges made against the Witnesses by Christendom’s clergy. That was true of a police commissioner in Nyasaland (now Malawi) who disguised himself and went to the meetings of the native Witnesses to find out for himself what sort of people they were. He was favorably impressed. When approval was given by the government to have a resident European representative, Bert McLuckie and later his brother Bill were sent there in the mid-1930’s. They kept in touch with the police and the district commissioners so that these officials would have a clear understanding of their activity and would not confuse Jehovah’s Witnesses with any movements falsely called Watchtower. At the same time, they worked patiently, along with Gresham Kwazizirah, a mature local Witness, to help the hundreds who wanted to associate with the congregations to appreciate that sexual immorality, abuse of alcoholic drinks, and superstition could have no place in the lives of Jehovah’s Witnesses.—1 Cor. 5:9-13; 2 Cor. 7:1; Rev. 22:15.
In 1930, there were only about a hundred of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the whole of southern Africa. Yet, they had an assignment that included, roughly, all of Africa south of the equator and some territories that extended north of that. Covering such a vast expanse of territory with the Kingdom message called for real pioneers. Frank and Gray Smith were of that sort.
They sailed 3,000 miles [4,800 km] east and north from Cape Town and then continued for four days over rough roads by automobile to reach Nairobi, Kenya (in British East Africa). In less than a month, they placed 40 cartons of Bible literature. But, sadly, on the return trip, Frank died of malaria. Despite this, a short while later, Robert Nisbet and David Norman started out—this time with 200 cartons of literature—to preach in Kenya and Uganda, also Tanganyika and Zanzibar (both now Tanzania), reaching as many people as possible. Other similar expeditions spread the Kingdom message to the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and to St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean. Seeds of truth were sown, but they did not immediately sprout and grow everywhere.
From South Africa the preaching of the good news also spread into Basutoland (now Lesotho), Bechuanaland (now Botswana), and Swaziland, as early as 1925. About eight years later, when pioneers were again preaching in Swaziland, King Sobhuza II gave them a royal welcome. He assembled his personal bodyguard of a hundred warriors, listened to a thorough witness, and then obtained all the publications of the Society that the brothers had with them.
Gradually the number of Jehovah’s Witnesses grew in this part of the world field. Others joined with the few who had pioneered the work in Africa early in this 20th century, and by 1935 there were 1,407 on the continent of Africa who reported having a share in the work of witnessing about God’s Kingdom. Substantial numbers of these were in South Africa and Nigeria. Other large groups that identified themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses were located in Nyasaland (now Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
During this same period, attention was being directed also to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking lands.
Cultivating Spanish and Portuguese Fields
While World War I was still in progress, The Watch Tower was first published in Spanish. It bore the address of an office in Los Angeles, California, which had been set up to give special attention to the Spanish-speaking field. Brothers from that office gave much personal help to interested ones both in the United States and in lands to the south.
Juan Muñiz, who had become one of Jehovah’s servants in 1917, was encouraged by Brother Rutherford in 1920 to leave the United States and return to Spain, his native land, to get the Kingdom-preaching work organized there. The results were limited, however, not because of any lack of zeal on his part, but because he was constantly followed by the police; so after a few years, he was transferred to Argentina.
In Brazil a few worshipers of Jehovah were already preaching. Eight humble sailors had learned the truth while on leave from their ship in New York. Back in Brazil early in 1920, they were busy sharing the Bible’s message with others.
George Young, a Canadian, was sent to Brazil in 1923. He certainly helped to stimulate the work. Delivering numerous public lectures through interpreters, he showed what the Bible says about the condition of the dead, exposed spiritism as demonism, and explained God’s purpose for the blessing of all the families of the earth. His lectures were all the more persuasive because at times he showed on a screen the Bible texts being discussed so that the audience could see these in their own language. While he was in Brazil, Bellona Ferguson, of São Paulo, was finally able to get baptized, along with four of her children. She had waited 25 years for this opportunity. Among those who embraced the truth were some who then made themselves available to help with translation of literature into Portuguese. Soon there was a good supply of publications in that language.
From Brazil, Brother Young went on to Argentina in 1924 and arranged for free distribution of 300,000 pieces of literature in Spanish in 25 of the principal towns and cities. That same year he also personally traveled to Chile, Peru, and Bolivia to distribute tracts.
George Young was soon on his way to care for a new assignment. This time it was Spain and Portugal. After being introduced by the British ambassador to local government officials, he was able to arrange for Brother Rutherford to speak to audiences in Barcelona and Madrid, as well as in the capital of Portugal. Following these discourses, a total of more than 2,350 persons turned in their names and addresses with requests for further information. Thereafter, the speech was published in one of Spain’s large newspapers, and in tract form it was sent by mail to people throughout the country. It also appeared in the Portuguese press.
By these means the message reached far beyond the borders of Spain and Portugal. By the end of 1925, the good news had penetrated into the Cape Verde Islands (now Republic of Cape Verde), Madeira, Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), Portuguese West Africa (now Angola), and islands in the Indian Ocean.
The following year arrangements were made to print the powerful resolution “A Testimony to the Rulers of the World” in the Spanish paper La Libertad. Radio broadcasts and the distribution of books, booklets, and tracts, as well as showings of the “Photo-Drama of Creation,” helped to intensify the witness. In 1932 several English pioneers responded to the invitation to help out in this field, and they systematically covered large sections of the country with Bible literature until the Spanish Civil War made it necessary for them to leave.
Meanwhile, upon arriving in Argentina, Brother Muñiz had quickly started preaching, while supporting himself by repairing clocks. In addition to his work in Argentina, he gave attention to Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. At his request some brothers came from Europe to witness to the German-speaking population. Many years later Carlos Ott related that they began their day’s service at 4:00 a.m. by leaving tracts under every door in a territory. Later in the day, they would call to give a further witness and to offer more Bible literature to interested householders. From Buenos Aires those who shared in the full-time ministry spread throughout the country, first following the railroad lines that radiated for hundreds of miles from the capital like spread fingers on your hand, then using every other means of transport they could find. They had very little materially and endured much hardship, but they were rich spiritually.
One of those zealous workers in Argentina was Nicolás Argyrós, a Greek. Early in 1930, when he obtained some literature published by the Watch Tower Society, he was especially impressed by a booklet entitled Hell, with subtitles that asked “What Is It? Who Are There? Can They Get Out?” He was amazed to find that this booklet did not depict sinners as roasting on a grill. What a surprise when he realized that hellfire was a religious lie invented to frighten people, just as it had frightened him! He promptly set out to share the truth—first with Greeks; then, as his Spanish improved, with others. Each month he devoted between 200 and 300 hours to sharing the good news with others. Using his feet and any other available means of transport, he spread Bible truths into 14 of the 22 provinces of Argentina. As he moved from place to place, he slept in beds when these were offered by hospitable folks, often out in the open, and even in a barn with a burro for an alarm clock!
Another who had the spirit of a real pioneer was Richard Traub, who had learned the truth in Buenos Aires. He was eager to share the good news with people across the Andes, in Chile. In 1930, five years after he was baptized, he arrived in Chile—the only Witness in a country of 4,000,000 people. At first, he had only the Bible with which to work, but he began to call from house to house. There were no congregation meetings that he could attend, so on Sundays, at the usual meeting time, he would walk to Mount San Cristóbal, sit in the shade of a tree, and immerse himself in personal study and prayer. After he rented an apartment, he began to invite people to meetings there. The only other person to turn up for the first meeting was Juan Flores, who asked: “And the others, when will they come?” Brother Traub simply replied: “They will come.” And they did. In less than a year, 13 became baptized servants of Jehovah.
Four years later, two Witnesses who had never met before teamed up to preach the good news in Colombia. After a productive year there, Hilma Sjoberg had to return to the United States. But Kathe Palm boarded a ship to Chile, using the 17 days at sea to witness to both crew and passengers. During the next decade, she worked from Chile’s northernmost seaport, Arica, to its southernmost possession, Tierra del Fuego. She called at business houses and witnessed to government officials. Using a saddlebag across her shoulders to carry literature, and toting such necessities as a blanket in which to sleep, she reached the most distant mining camps and sheep ranches. It was the life of a true pioneer. And there were others who shared that same spirit—some single, some married, young and old.
During the year 1932, a special effort was made to spread the Kingdom message in Latin American lands where little preaching had yet been done. In that year the booklet The Kingdom, the Hope of the World was given a remarkable distribution. This booklet contained a discourse that had already been heard on an international radio broadcast. Now some 40,000 copies of the speech in printed form were distributed in Chile, 25,000 copies in Bolivia, 25,000 in Peru, 15,000 in Ecuador, 20,000 in Colombia, 10,000 in Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic), and another 10,000 in Puerto Rico. Indeed, the Kingdom message was being proclaimed, and with great intensity.
By 1935, there were in South America itself just 247 who had joined their voices to proclaim that only God’s Kingdom will bring true happiness to humankind. But what a witness they were giving!
Reaching People Even in More Remote Areas
Jehovah’s Witnesses were by no means taking the view that their responsibility before God was fulfilled if they simply talked to a few who happened to be their neighbors. They endeavored to reach everyone with the good news.
People who lived in places to which the Witnesses could not then travel personally could be reached in other ways. Thus, in the late 1920’s, the Witnesses in Cape Town, South Africa, mailed out 50,000 booklets to all farmers, lighthouse keepers, forest rangers, and others living off the beaten track. An up-to-date postal directory was also obtained for all of South-West Africa (now known as Namibia), and a copy of the booklet The Peoples Friend was mailed to everyone whose name appeared in that directory.
In 1929, F. J. Franske was put in charge of the Watch Tower Society’s schooner Morton and was assigned, along with Jimmy James, to reach people in Labrador and all the outports of Newfoundland. In the winter Brother Franske traveled the coast with a dog team. To cover the cost of the Bible literature he left with them, the Eskimos and Newfoundlanders gave him such items as leather goods and fish. A few years later, he sought out the miners, loggers, trappers, ranchers, and Indians in the rough Cariboo country of British Columbia. As he traveled, he hunted in order to have meat, picked wild berries, and baked his bread in a frying pan over an open campfire. Then, at another time, he and a partner used a salmon-trolling boat for transport as they carried the Kingdom message to every island, inlet, logging camp, lighthouse, and settlement along the west coast of Canada. He was only one of many who were putting forth special efforts to reach people living in remote areas of the earth.
Starting in the late 1920’s, Frank Day worked his way north through the villages of Alaska, preaching, placing literature, and selling eyeglasses in order to care for his physical needs. Though hobbling on an artificial leg, he covered an area that stretched from Ketchikan to Nome, a distance of about 1,200 miles [1,900 km]. As early as 1897, a gold miner had obtained copies of Millennial Dawn and the Watch Tower while in California and was making plans to take these back to Alaska with him. And in 1910, Captain Beams, the skipper of a whaling ship, had placed literature at his Alaskan ports of call. But the preaching activity began to widen out as Brother Day made his summertime trips into Alaska again and again for more than 12 years.
Two other Witnesses, using a 40-foot [12 m] motorboat named Esther, worked their way up the Norwegian coast far into the Arctic. They witnessed on the islands, at lighthouses, in the coastal villages, and in isolated places far back in the mountains. Many people welcomed them, and in a year’s time, they were able to place 10,000 to 15,000 books and booklets explaining God’s purpose for humankind.
The Islands Hear Jehovah’s Praises
It was not only those islands that were close to mainland shores that were given a witness. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, in the early 1930’s, Sydney Shepherd spent two years traveling by boat to preach in the Cook Islands and Tahiti. Farther west, George Winton was visiting the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) with the good news.
At about the same time, Joseph Dos Santos, a Portuguese-American, also set out to reach untouched territory. First he witnessed on the outer islands of Hawaii; then he undertook an around-the-globe preaching tour. When he reached the Philippines, however, he received a letter from Brother Rutherford asking him to stay there to build up and organize the Kingdom-preaching activity. He did, for 15 years.
At this time the Society’s branch in Australia was directing attention to the work in and around the South Pacific. Two pioneers sent out from there gave an extensive witness in Fiji in 1930-31. Samoa received a witness in 1931. New Caledonia was reached in 1932. A pioneer couple from Australia even took up service in China in 1933 and witnessed in 13 of its principal cities during the next few years.
The brothers in Australia realized that more could be accomplished if they had a boat at their disposal. In time they outfitted a 52-foot [16 m] ketch that they called Lightbearer and, starting early in 1935, used it as a base of operations for several years for a group of zealous brothers as they witnessed in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), Singapore, and Malaya. Arrival of the boat always attracted much attention, and this often opened the way for the brothers to preach and place much literature.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the earth, two pioneer sisters from Denmark decided to make a vacation trip to the Faeroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1935. But they had in mind more than a scenic trip. They went equipped with thousands of pieces of literature, and they used them well. Defying wind and rain and the hostility of the clergy, they covered as much of the inhabited islands as they could during their stay.
Farther to the west, Georg Lindal, an Icelandic-Canadian, undertook an assignment that lasted much longer. At the suggestion of Brother Rutherford, he moved to Iceland to pioneer in 1929. What endurance he showed! For most of the next 18 years, he served there alone. He visited the towns and villages again and again. Tens of thousands of pieces of literature were placed, but at that time no Icelanders joined him in Jehovah’s service. With the exception of just one year, there were no Witnesses with whom he could associate in Iceland until 1947, when two Gilead-trained missionaries arrived.
When Men Forbid What God Commands
While sharing in their public ministry, it was not at all unusual, especially from the 1920’s through the 1940’s, for the Witnesses to encounter opposition, usually stirred up by local clergymen and sometimes by government officials.
In a rural area north of Vienna, Austria, the Witnesses found themselves confronted by a hostile crowd of villagers agitated by the local priest, who was backed by the constabulary. The priests were determined that there would be no preaching by Jehovah’s Witnesses in their villages. But the Witnesses, determined to carry out their God-given assignment, changed their approach and returned another day, entering the villages in roundabout ways.
Regardless of threats and demands on the part of men, Jehovah’s Witnesses realized that they had an obligation to God to proclaim his Kingdom. They chose to obey God as ruler rather than men. (Acts 5:29) Where local officials tried to deny religious freedom to Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Witnesses simply brought in reinforcements.
After repeated arrests in one section of Bavaria, in Germany, in 1929, they hired two special trains—one to start in Berlin and the other in Dresden. These were joined together at Reichenbach, and at 2:00 a.m. the one train entered the Regensburg area with 1,200 passengers that were eager to have a part in giving a witness. Travel was expensive, and everyone had paid his own fare. At each railroad station, some were dropped off. A number of them had brought bicycles so that they could reach out into the countryside. The entire district was covered in a single day. As they saw the results of their united efforts, they could not help but call to mind God’s promise to his servants: “Any weapon whatever that will be formed against you will have no success.”—Isa. 54:17.
So zealous were the Witnesses in Germany that between 1919 and 1933, they distributed, it is estimated, at least 125,000,000 books, booklets, and magazines, as well as millions of tracts. Yet, there were only about 15,000,000 families in Germany at that time. During that period Germany received a witness as thorough as that given in any country on earth. In that part of the earth was found one of the largest concentrations of persons who professed to be spirit-anointed followers of Christ. But during the following years, they also experienced some of the most grueling tests of integrity.—Rev. 14:12.
In the year 1933, official opposition to the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany greatly intensified. The homes of Witnesses and the Society’s branch office were searched repeatedly by the Gestapo. Bans were imposed on the activity of the Witnesses in most of the German states, and some were arrested. Many tons of their Bibles and Bible literature were publicly burned. On April 1, 1935, a national law was passed banning the Ernste Bibelforscher (the Earnest Bible Students, or Jehovah’s Witnesses), and systematic efforts were made to deprive them of their livelihood. In turn, the Witnesses shifted all their meetings to small groups, arranged to reproduce their material for Bible study in forms that the Gestapo would not readily recognize, and adopted preaching methods that were not so conspicuous.
Even before this, since 1925, the brothers in Italy had been living under a Fascist dictatorship, and in 1929 a concordat had been signed between the Catholic Church and the Fascist State. True Christians were hunted down without mercy. Some met in barns and haylofts in order to avoid being arrested. Jehovah’s Witnesses in Italy at that time were very few in number; however, their efforts to spread the Kingdom message were reinforced in 1932 when 20 Witnesses from Switzerland crossed into Italy and carried out a lightning distribution of 300,000 copies of the booklet The Kingdom, the Hope of the World.
In the Far East too, pressure was building up. There were arrests of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan. Large quantities of their Bible literature were destroyed by officials in Seoul (in what is now the Republic of Korea) and Pyongyang (in what is now the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).
In the midst of this mounting pressure, in 1935, Jehovah’s Witnesses gained a clear understanding from the Bible of the identity of the “great multitude,” or “great crowd,” of Revelation 7:9-17. (KJ, NW) This understanding opened up to them an awareness of an unanticipated and urgent work. (Isa. 55:5) No longer did they hold the view that all who were not of the “little flock” of heirs of the heavenly Kingdom would at some future time have opportunity to bring their lives into line with Jehovah’s requirements. (Luke 12:32) They realized that the time had come to make disciples of such people now with a view to their survival into God’s new world. How long the gathering of this great crowd out of all nations would continue they did not know, though they felt that the end of the wicked system must be very near. Exactly how the work would be accomplished in the face of persecution that was spreading and becoming more vicious, they were not sure. However, of this they were confident—since ‘the hand of Jehovah is not too short,’ he would open the way for them to carry out his will.—Isa. 59:1.
In the year 1935, Jehovah’s Witnesses were relatively few in number—just 56,153 worldwide.
They were preaching in 115 lands during that year; but in nearly one half of those lands, there were fewer than ten Witnesses. Only two countries had 10,000 or more active Witnesses of Jehovah (the United States, with 23,808; Germany, with an estimated 10,000 out of the 19,268 who had been able to report two years earlier). Seven other lands (Australia, Britain, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Poland, and Romania) each reported more than 1,000 but fewer than 6,000 Witnesses. The record of activity in 21 other countries shows between 100 and 1,000 Witnesses each. Yet, during that one year, this zealous band of Witnesses worldwide devoted 8,161,424 hours to proclaiming God’s Kingdom as mankind’s only hope.
In addition to the lands in which they were busy during 1935, they had already spread the good news to other places, so that 149 lands and island groups had thus far been reached with the Kingdom message.
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Though confined in prison, they found opportunities to preach
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Willing and eager to get on with the work!
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They defied wind, rain, and the hostility of the clergy
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A witness of extraordinary proportions was given in Germany before the “Ernste Bibelforscher” were banned there
[Map/Pictures on page 423]
While the world was embroiled in war, R. R. Hollister and Fanny Mackenzie were busy taking a message of peace to the people of China, Japan, and Korea
[Map]
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KOREA
JAPAN
CHINA
PACIFIC OCEAN
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When emigrants from the countries named on this map learned about God’s marvelous purpose to bless humankind, they felt impelled to take that news back to their homelands
THE AMERICAS
↓ ↓
AUSTRIA
BULGARIA
CYPRUS
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
DENMARK
FINLAND
GERMANY
GREECE
HUNGARY
ITALY
NETHERLANDS
NORWAY
POLAND
PORTUGAL
ROMANIA
SPAIN
SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND
TURKEY
YUGOSLAVIA
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During the 1920’s and 1930’s, evangelizers moved out from Germany to many lands to give a witness
GERMANY
↓ ↓
SOUTH AMERICA
NORTH AFRICA
ASIA
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Zealous pioneers such as Frank Smith and his brother Gray (shown in the upper picture) spread the good news up the east coast of Africa
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UGANDA
KENYA
TANZANIA
SOUTH AFRICA
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Throughout South-West Africa (now Namibia) people received this booklet by mail in 1928
[Map]
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NAMIBIA
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Aboard the “Lightbearer,” zealous pioneers spread the Kingdom message in Southeast Asia
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MALAYA
BORNEO
CELEBES
SUMATRA
JAVA
TIMOR
NEW GUINEA
AUSTRALIA
PACIFIC OCEAN
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In many lands the lecture “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” attracted large audiences
[Pictures on page 427]
Edwin Scott, in South Africa, personally distributed 50,000 copies of “A Challenge to World Leaders”
[Picture on page 429]
Responding to the call for evangelizers, Willy Unglaube served in Europe, Africa, and the Orient
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By 1992, Eric Cooke and his brother John (seated) had each been in full-time service for over 60 years, enjoying thrilling experiences in Europe and Africa
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When he went to India in 1926, Edwin Skinner had an assignment that included five countries; faithfully he kept on preaching there for 64 years
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Alfred and Frieda Tuček, equipped with necessities of life and literature for witnessing, served as pioneers in Old Yugoslavia
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Throughout West Africa, “Bible Brown” vigorously shared in exposing false worship
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George Young shared in widespread proclamation of God’s Kingdom in South America, Spain, and Portugal
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Juan Muñiz (left), who had been preaching in South America since 1924, was on hand to welcome N. H. Knorr when he first visited Argentina over 20 years later
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Nicolás Argyrós spread the Bible’s liberating truth into 14 of Argentina’s provinces
[Pictures on page 439]
F. J. Franske, traveling on land and by boat, sought to reach remote settlements with Bible truth
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