19. Why do we readers have reason to rejoice over God’s patience?

¹⁹ By far the majority of those who are reading this page have reason to rejoice over God’s patience. Justice would have been satisfied had the war which Christ instituted against the Devil in casting him out of the heavens been continued to the removal of all the wicked from the earth. (Rev. 12:7-13) But God’s love and patience worked to our benefit. As Jesus pointed out: “If those days had not been cut short, nobody would have escaped, but for the sake of God’s people those days will be cut short.” (Matt. 24:22, An Amer. Trans.) We are now living in the intervening period between the beginning of the overthrow of the wicked world and its final accomplishment, which period of grace was made possible by God’s cutting short “those days”. God’s people do not fret but rejoice at his patience.

20. Since the remaining time has been so long, is God slow? Why?

²⁰ The fact that the remaining time has continued as long as it has does not mean that God is slow or has forgotten the date he set for the final end. “The Lord is not slow about his promise, in the sense that some men think; he is really showing his patience with you, because he does not want any to perish, but wishes all men to be brought to repentance. The Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on it the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will burn up and be destroyed, and the earth and all its works will melt away. If all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what holy and pious lives you ought to lead, while you await and hasten the coming of the Day of God.”—2 Pet. 3:9-12, An Amer. Trans.

21. How can we hasten the coming of the Day of God?

²¹ No, God, ‘with whom a thousand years is as one day,’ is not slow in allowing these few intervening years to be used for the profitable purpose of gospel-preaching. With him it is as but a few moments; and the remaining days can go by rapidly for you too. You can ‘hasten the coming of the Day of God’ by having a share in the purpose for which these days have been set aside. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then [and not before] shall the end come.” If the remaining days are occupied in profitable service they will not drag for you; they will fly by as though on wings.

22. What is the most profitable immediate use of time by new hearers of the message?

²² Should you be one of the persons of good-will toward God who has not previously heard of the blessings of the Kingdom, the most profitable immediate use for you to make of your time is to study and learn about it now while the patience of the Lord is still holding destruction in abeyance. Do not allow this world’s false sense of security to lull you to sleep and think that God’s patience will continue forever. Even though the majority of humankind may scoff at the possibility of a change of such sweeping magnitude or scorn those who use the remaining time to preach such a message, the majority can be wrong.

23. What illustrates how a majority can be wrong, misusing time?

²³ It was the majority who had no time to hear what Noah was telling them, much less turn from their willfulness and join with him in what they considered a gross waste of time—building a great boat and preaching that generation’s doom. Whose time was most profitably spent, you can judge. Again a generation is ‘too busy’ to stop using its remaining time in the manner in which it is accustomed. Many will pay a high price to learn that they wasted their remaining days when their lives are snuffed out by the righteous wrath of God.

24. How are ministers now using the time, never to regret it?

²⁴ Each day makes the “appointed time” shorter. Each day presents opportunities to proclaim God’s name and purpose that will never be repeated. And each day faithful ministers are buying up their opportunities, with the result that a growing throng is halting from the headlong plunge that the nations are taking toward destruction. As they halt and hear and learn they joyfully consecrate their lives to the service of Jehovah and share in the most profitable activity ever presented to man. To them the remaining time does not seem too long; rather, it is extremely short in which to accomplish the work which must yet be done. “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few.” (Luke 10:2) But though the time is short Jehovah promises, “The little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I, Jehovah, will hasten it in its time.” (Isa. 60:22, A.S.V.) A yet unnumbered multitude will heed the warning message and join their voices in praising Jehovah’s name, and it can be your happy lot to help them to learn the truth. In the thousands of years ahead in which you may enjoy the blessings which Jehovah has in store for those who serve him, you will never have cause to regret that you were among those who ‘did not act thoughtlessly, but, like sensible men, made the most of your opportunities in these evil, shortly-to-end times’.

District Assemblies of 1949 in Many Lands

PRECEDING issues of The Watchtower have reported on district assemblies held by Jehovah’s witnesses in South America, the West Indies, Canada, Germany and the United States of America. In this issue is presented a closing report on some of the other district assemblies that were conducted in other lands during the past year.

Five such assemblies were held under the oversight of the British Branch office, at Blackpool, Brighton, Dundee,