The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

The best way to overcome your enemies is to be kindto them. Very few enemies can withstand persistentkindness, if your love for them is unfeigned. The fruitof love implies love for God, love for righteousness, lovefor the brethren, love for mankind in general, love forenemies, love for everything except evil. It is love in theall comprehensive sense of the term. When we havereached that stage, we have reached the mark of perfectlove.This does not mean, however, that there is now nomore room for development. At first the fruit is small,hard, green, wrinkled, and of unpleasant odour and bittertaste. When eaten, it is apt to be rejected. That representsthe quality of our love at the first. In due time, ifall goes well, the unripe fruit gives place to the ripe fruit,large, soft, and velvety to the touch. It is pleasant tothe eyes, the odour is fragrant, and when eaten it isdelicious and good for food. That is how our love is whenit is ripe.If the fruit is left on the tree, insects attack it just asthey attacked the blossoms, and by and by it falls to theground and withers away. But there is something left:there are seeds inside, which, when sown, produce othertrees. So it is with the man of God. Trials come uponhim to the end ; and then, when he falls in death he willin due time be associated with Christ in bringing forthother trees of righteousness. That is how it was withJesus, as he said : " Except a corn of wheat fall into theground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringethforth much fruit" (John 12 : 24). It has been estimatedthat the proportion of the dead to be raised will be 144,000to each of the members of Christ's body.Before closing, there are two further points to which Idesire to draw your attention. (1) When a seed is sown,the root does not grow and spread out in every directionand become very large before the stem begins to grow,31