Brother Cantwell has a record of 60 years in the full-time service. He and his wife served as missionaries in Colombia, South America for a number of years, despite persecution. You can read about some of Brother and Sister Cantwell's experiences in the Proclaimers book.
Courage is an important quality in our service to Jehovah God. Interestingly enough, Jehovah gives that courage, and you can look back in the records, such as in the Proclaimers book, we can see it. Do not let that book slip by. Read that book, because you'll learn of modern-day examples, as well as ancient examples, of those who had to work up courage in the service. You see, the Bible message that we have is a message of good news! It's also a message of judgment, and that brings ridicule. They think Jehovah's not going to do anything about it. But Matthew 24:39 says: "They took no note, until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of Man will be." That means that we can get out here and be courageous and teach, but many are not going to hear. But we will have faith in Jehovah and his promise of life. Now, we were told that it would be that way, that in the last days there would be ridiculers, saying 'Where is that promised presence of his? Why, since our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things continue exactly as they were!' So, you're often met with apathy and with different opposition. These ones can get very excited about the bad things, but not about preaching the good news of the kingdom. Let's get excited about it, and be courageous.
We need courage to carry on when the world shows that opposition. And honestly, when there used to be persecution here in the United States, the brothers seemed to have more courage. Jehovah gave them that courage. I think we mentioned Tuesday night coming out of the circuit assembly in Connorsville, Indiana, finding every car, and there were hundreds there, every car in the parking lot on fire. And yet, Jehovah's people went right on. He gave them courage.
Interestingly enough, if you look it up in the Insight book, the Hebrew word for 'courage' means 'to be strong'. But, of course, it means more than muscular strength. And the opposite word of 'courage' means to 'lose strength'. Well, let's talk about a few examples of courage, as we remember that Jehovah God gives us the command to be courageous. He says "work up your courage." Jehovah gives courage, just as we can get wisdom from him. Yes, by studying God's Word, we get courage, but Jehovah also gives it to us. It mentioned that in the Watchtower a couple of years ago, "Courage is the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, or withstand anger, fear, or difficulty." There, the Watchtower was quoting from Webster's New World Dictionary.
The very best example we have from the very beginning was Enoch. Do you remember that? Back before Enoch was born, according to the Watchtower, a start was made of calling on the name of Jehovah. Scholars have discussed that expression, and evidently men came to profanely call on Jehovah's name. Well, today, they certainly call profanely upon the title of the name. The say "God", and "Christ", and so forth, in cursing all the time. But, evidently they began to call on Jehovah's name in that way. It may have been, according to this same authority, that they began applying the divine name to humans, or even to idols, or false religions.
Yet, amid all this, Enoch seems to have been alone in walking with God. But while he had the courage, he preached to others about that name of God. That's just what Jehovah's people have done in the last century. Because around the turn of the century, even after World War I, and through the middle of World War II, the name was used by our people, Jehovah's people, but was not used by other religions. Even when they found it in their Bibles, such as in the King James Version, it was found only four times. But if you look in the footnote in the older editions, the translators mention that it was there many more times, they just put in LORD or GOD in its place. People didn't know that. Jehovah's people preached, and we made that name known, so that today, no one can say that they don't know who Jehovah is.
You know, even here in the newspapers, there was a lady who had a religious column, who said that "Christmas was a celebration of Christ when he came to earth in the flesh as Jehovah." Well, she needs to go back and do a little research, but at least she used the name.
We also know that many of the Catholic Bibles have God's name. In Spanish, there's a Catholic Bible which translates God's name in Spanish as 'Yahve', all 7000 times. But the name was never used until Jehovah's Witnesses started preaching in Latin countries. In Cali, Colombia, after preaching in one section of town, a priest was all against the use of the Watchtower and Awake. But finally, after a couple of years, he began to use the name 'Jehovah'. When first asked about it, he said that Jehovah was the name of a false prophet in the days of Israel. But after the Watchtower kept coming, and he found out a few things, according to some of his former members, he said to his congregation, "I know you people have been learning a few things from the Watchtower and the Awake, such as the word 'Jehovah', God's name. But you don't need to do that any more, because even in the mass, I use the name Jehovah now. So you don't need to get the Watchtower and Awake any more." Well, it was a little late. When I first arrived there, there was one little congregation in Cali. The last I heard of, there were about 17 congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses today. So, too little, too late. So, Jehovah's people have continued doing the preaching and teaching work.
Not only did Enoch stand up for Jehovah's name, but he also made Jehovah's name known. Because of Enoch's faithfulness, Hebrews 11:5 says that "Jehovah God transferred Enoch so that he did not see death," so he would not be misused by anybody. The only one of his day that served Jehovah, a model for us as Christians.
Now today, when Jehovah's Witnesses and their missionaries start preaching, sometimes it's in places where the name Jehovah is not known, but gets known. There are some interesting things about how Jehovah does this and has improved his people.
There was a schoolteacher here in the middle part of Virginia who was telling me, "I appreciate very much what you're doing, you Jehovah's Witnesses; I've learned a lot from you. But you're requiring a lot more from your children than they can handle. I'm a schoolteacher, and a local family of Jehovah's Witnesses has two boys, one who's about 14. One of them just couldn't handle it. When things come up that his parents didn't want him to do, he would work his way out of it someway, but he just couldn't lay it out. That's too hard on him." So I asked her if all of our young ones were like that. She said, "Oh no! He had a brother, about 6 years old, and that little fella wasn't afraid of anything! For example, around the holidays, like Christmas, he would always express himself. His parents taught him how to speak well. He asked me once, 'Everybody always asks me why I don't take part in that. May I step up front and tell them?' He went up front and said, 'Because I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses! That's why!'" Later, she took a book. What a fine example, that little boy mustered up courage, and impressed that schoolteacher.
Sometimes we have to have courage in other areas. When my wife and I were assigned to work in Colombia, South America, we came under the command of a dictator, and the official church of the state was Catholicism. So we weren't able to preach openly. In fact, I went in as a teacher and taught in a university part-time so we could have a legal standing there, and still keep up in the work, and oftentimes my wife would have to go out, by herself, sometimes with another publisher, preaching. and especially in the older parts of town, the clergy wouldn't want us preaching there. It was necessary to use a little bit of care. For example, since we were not in the country as missionaries, which would give them a reason for doing a certain amount of preaching, why, we weren't supposed to be doing something that wasn't shown on our passport. My wife would be out preaching, and there was this one fella who was always spending his time trying to find Jehovah's Witnesses doing something that he could claim was not legal. Now, that was kind of getting us a little worried. You have to stay out of sight, but you have to preach. Now, this man would follow you if he caught sight of you, without letting you know. Well, the interesting thing about it is that we had a friend at the post office, since we helped them do some of their work for them. We separated the hundreds of rolls of our magazines for them. They were a little slow about it, so we asked them if we could help. So, we were allowed to walk right into the post office as if we were postal employees. So, my wife was working town one day and she was at this one house, and she came up to this narrow little hallway, and at the end of the hallway were two doors, one on this side and one on that. So, she knocked and this big, tall man walked up behind her at the door, and she knew who it was, that he was following her. Well, she was already in the hallway, and couldn't get out. So, she just knocked on the door, and a man came to the door. By that time, the detective was right behind her. Now, the detective just kind of shoved her aside and asked the man, "Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Catholic. Why?" Well, the detective said, "Well, you can't read this woman's material, because that's Protestant. The man looked at him and said, "Sir, I'll read whatever I want to read. Come in, young lady," and slammed the door in his face.
Jehovah gave her that courage to go ahead. We may not have that right now, but we have some of it. You know, King David used that attitude when talking to Solomon. This was not about the preaching, but about a building work. Our preaching is a kind of building work. They were talking about building the temple in 1 Chronicles chapter 28, where it says: "Be courageous and be strong and act. Do not be afraid."
So we go out in the preaching and teaching work and we have courage. Now, if it were anything else, we'd be a little bit afraid, a bit skittish. But when you're working for Jehovah, in accordance with his command, he will not desert you or leave you. Do we sometimes forget that? Now, David says to be courageous and act and be strong. Do not be afraid or terrified. He'll not forsake you. Well, some brothers might ask, "Isn't it that we're being 'afraid' or 'terrified' of a lawsuit that we don't go where the houses say 'No Trespassing'? No. That's not the reason. When people put up a sign that says they don't want you there, that's law. And we're willing to accept that. They're the ones saying 'No', we're not. So, be strong, be courageous. Follow Jehovah's instructions. Don't go where it says 'No Trespassing', be it a house, or apartment, or whatever. We have other means by which to reach them.
Do we have the 'stick-to-it-iveness', then, when the situation arises? That's a word that I think Brother Knorr coined, the Society's publications uses it from time to time. Do we have that type of spirit when it comes to a literal building project, like building a Kingdom Hall, or whether it means finishing a territory properly, keeping your not-at-homes. You see, some say, 'We don't need to keep not-at-homes. We go over it so often. We don't need to do that!' Well, yes we do. If you follow the Society's counsel on making not-at-homes, you'll probably find 60 to 80 percent at home. Well, if you just go through once, and forget about keeping not-at-homes, the next time the territory is worked, they'll find the same 5 or 6 at home as you did, and they'll get the same 80 or 90 percent not home. Stick to that job! Have the stick-to-it-iveness to keep at that job until it's done.
Paul and Silas--they got arrested. Now, although they're aren't many arrests today in this part of the world in connection with the preaching work, there were times when there were a lot of arrests in the work.
For example, Paul and Silas were arrested, and they were thrown into prison. And, to quote the Watchtower, it says: "By order of the civil magistrates in the city of Philippi, they were publicly beaten with rods, and put in prison stocks."
Now, probably, you've never had that happen to you, but some brothers have been beaten. One brother, back in the days of the persecution, in the time of World War II; they bought a new rope, and hanged him. But the rope broke. Well, they retied the rope, hanged him again, but the rope broke again. When it broke the third time, they let him go. I don't blame them. They don't know yet what caused that rope to break. It seems that Jehovah was taking care of him like he took care of Enoch. And Jehovah does that.
Also, during World War II, there was a pioneer that had his trailer parked down in a pasture, and a lady that he had known for years called him up one night. When he stepped outside, the lady killed him. Shot him and killed him. He had the courage. Now we wait for him in the resurrection.
So, like the Apostle Paul and Silas, they kept going on. So, it says here, "About the middle of the night, Silas was praying to God in psalms, and suddenly an earthquake shook the prison, loosened their bonds, and threw open the doors." The frightened jailer and his family were given a bold witness, which led to their baptism as Jehovah's servants. Jehovah's promise is that we will not be forgotten. He himself rejoiced greatly, and all his household. Have we seen things like this today?
Well, in modern times, yes. For example, in 1937 and 1938, if you were witnessing in Connecticut, when you went out in the preaching work, you didn't know when you left your house each morning if you'd return home that evening. You had to be prepared, sometimes carrying an extra toothbrush or washcloth, because you might end up in prison for the night. Of course, gradually, by going to court, Jehovah's people won. But here are a few thoughts about it:
One day they arrested me when they were working the whole town, because we were having a convention there. And they arrested about 40 people and threw them into the little prison cell there. But some of us were underage. So, we who were in our mid teens were left outside in the office part, by the reception desk. We were sitting out there, and talking. Now, inside there were about 40 of our brothers and sisters, some in one side of the jail, some in the other. What had happened was a pioneer brother thought he had overheard the voice of an older brother, who he thought had been out that day, too. So he called out, "Henry, are your here?" Henry said, "Yes!" The other brother said, "Let's sing! Let's sing song number so-and-so." Well, all of a sudden all of them, all 40 of them started singing this song from memory, one of the Society's songs. When that began, it was just like in the Bible with Paul and Silas. When the jailer heard it, he went back to see what was going on. When he passed us in the waiting room, we told him, "Don't worry. They're just singing." He went back, and he saw that nothing had happened. Something else happened, though, showing the courage that was needed. While we teenagers were sitting there, we kept hearing this telephone ring, and the police captain there would answer it. Now, it was interesting, we could only hear his side of the conversation, and it often went something like this: "Yes, Father, we're bringing them in as fast as we can." "Yes, Father, we've got about 30 or 40 of them in now." "Yes, we have them arrested. Yes, Father." Well, we jotted these comments down as fast as we could hear them, and we gave them to the brothers who were in charge of the work there in the congregation, and they sent those notes to Brooklyn. And, about 3 or 4 weeks later, the entire circuit came up again and worked the same town, with a little tract that was entitled, "Shall the Priests Rule Connecticut?" That teaches us a lesson. We don't want to get arrested, we just want them to know about the message. So we were instructed to leave a tract at each house in that town. Now, during that tract work, six got arrested, but we won all those cases.
But the interesting thing is that Jehovah used us. He worked up the courage of his people, and they got the message out, that the priests will not rule Connecticut when it comes to going against Jehovah's will.
It's proper fear, or respect, of Jehovah that makes us serve God. Proverbs 29:25 says that trembling at man is what lays a snare, but he that is trusting in Jehovah will be protected. And that's true. Jehovah has shown protection to his people.
In Medillin, Colombia, in the mid 1950's, before the drug lords came there, it was the second largest city in Colombia, a beautiful town, but they were extremely fanatical. When the first group of Witnesses went there, we'd take one house and then disappear, go to the other side of town. You see, the priests would turn loose some of the young kids, and have them throw rocks at us. So we had to get out of the way. But we mustered up the courage, as Paul said, and got the preaching work done. Do you know that in about 1 to 2 years, that they offered us free use of TV for programs and free use of a stadium for a national convention? Jehovah caused them to see the difference between us and others, but we had to muster up that courage, knowing that we might be arrested.
One family of four was taken to the police station by a priest. Now, that wasn't anything unusual. He just came up to them and said, "Come on! I'm taking you to the police station!" So he took them to the station. The priest told the police chief, "I want these people arrested! They're bad, they're preaching against the Church, which we will not allow." Well, the priest turned around and left, leaving the family with the policemen. Now, after the priest left, the police chief turned and said to the family, "I'm sorry you people were bothered. Your bookbags are over there by the door. You can pick them up on your way out. That priest is a bad man. He has some power right now, He has some people in the government in control, so we can't really do anything about him. We have to listen to him, but we've got him marked. If you see him coming, just go to a different part of town." So he cooperated. But only because Jehovah's people mustered up courage. We knew we didn't have much chance of winning court cases down there. But, with Jehovah's help, he brought us through. But that's one thing that we need to remember, that Jehovah does help us.
Another thing about the preaching work, business territory. The Society is encouraging us to reach out to the businesses. Now, maybe you haven't worked businesses very much. There was a sister, about 80 years old, who was working in Orlando, Florida, who loved working business territory. Now she was up in years, but Jehovah gave her the courage to work in this type of territory. She went into this building that was about 10 stories high. She asked the receptionist if the boss was in. She told the sister, "Yes. Go ahead and take the elevator on up." That was unusual. Usually, they call the manager, to see if it's okay. They ask you for your name, what you want, and so forth. But she didn't ask for that. She was told just to take the elevator on up to the top floor, and just go right on in. She went up with two magazines in her hand, and told the man at the top, "I was stopping by these magazines, the Watchtower and Awake. I just wanted to show them to you." He said, "I think that's the one I want. Can I have that copy?" She said yes. He said, "Come back Monday. If it's the one I think it is, I'll take a subscription." So, she went away and came back Monday. At the reception desk, the man had left a check. In those days, we offered the subscription for the cost of one dollar a year. It was a check for 65 dollars, along with the names and addresses of all the people who worked in that building. That courage paid off, didn't it?
How about street work? We don't have a lot of problems with this. The first time I did street work in Brooklyn was about 1939. A group of us went out on Kings Highway. And the children in the neighborhood were curious, so they'd gather around and ask questions about who we were, and so forth. But none of them would take the magazines, because they couldn't get through. But we mustered up courage. This fine brother named Jack Pierce said, "Here's what we'll do. One of us will wear plain clothes. That one would go into the crowd and ask a question. Then they'd say, "That sounds good. Give me one of those magazines!" And, eventually, other people would come up, and they'd take the magazines. It was Jehovah that did it, not us.
One day when we were out there, one of the brothers offering the magazines was a 180 pound football player, a pretty big guy. Every so often, some one would come along and say, "Why aren't you in the war?" or something like that. One time a guy, about 6 foot, 4, came up and stopped the brother, cornered him, and said, "You look pretty healthy to me. Why aren't you in the war?" Well, he mustered up courage and answered. How would you answer? This guy wasn't about to listen to a scripture. Our brother was a quick thinker. He said to the man, "You look a lot bigger and tougher than I am. Why aren't you in the war?" Some others around said, "Yes, why aren't you in the war?" Are we ready with a response?
More recently, one group went to the park to place books. Whenever they found someone eating, sitting on benches, picknicking, walking, they would offer a book. In one hour's time, would you believe that they placed an entire box of books?
Well, we could tell many more stories, about working apartments and such. Here's just one. There was a major insurance company that owned a large apartment building in Manhattan. This company issued 10 identification cards to the Witnesses after they had been working with them for about a year. The Witnesses followed the rules. They talked to the desk clerk, the manager, and did things by the book for a year. Finally, the brothers were called, and the manager said, "Here are 10 ID's. When any of your people want to work in this building, just put on these ID's. They don't even have to stop at the desk when they walk through." This was after a year of obeying the rules that they set, before they went in. If they had just insisted on going in there, we probably wouldn't have gotten much cooperation. But Jehovah gives us that courage and wisdom, and we get the work done, as we use discretion.
How about college campuses? Do you know how to work colleges? Over in Blacksburg, Virginia, at one of the community colleges, the brothers who were sent in as pioneers there, they didn't know what to do. So, some of the college-aged brothers went in with a couple of tracts and booklets, nothing else, and went into the dormitory. You see, if they had taken a bookbag in there, the fella who runs the place would have stopped them. So they'd go in, knock on the first door they came to, and whoever came to the door, they'd say something like, "There's a group of us getting together, about 6, 7 o'clock, to discuss something about the Bible, because we don't hear much about it here in college. Would you like to join us?" If the man said no, they they'd give him a tract or something, and leave. But about half the time, you'd be surprised, they say "yes, I wouldn't mind. Where at?" "Well, how about your apartment, right here?" So, they'd go in there, and start a Bible study.
Well, the time for our discussion this evening is about over. But the time for our preaching work is not. So, keep us this work. You never know, you may be the first one to go to a city and preach, as my wife and I had the privilege of doing. But even if we aren't, we'll find people that have never talked to before, right here in your own territory. We have the privilege of following these suggestions from the Society, and engaging in these different ways of preaching. So, be courageous and preach! Act, because we won't be done with our territory until Jehovah says the time is up. Be courageous and bold, and let's try to reach it all, so we can rejoice when Jehovah does bring this grand preaching work to a finale.