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the very fruits He has borne through you in His Work adequately
confirm it. You are now two years older than I was when God
started the Work through me on the air and in The PLAIN TRUTH. You
were then almost four. And you can't know the blessed relief God
has given to me with that assurance. If God should allow such an
eventuality to occur, you would need the guidance, direction,
intervention, and the power of God as never before. The whole
Church, as close-knit brethren in Christ, would have to seek and
RELY on God and the Living HEAD of the Church, Jesus Christ, as
never before, standing solidly behind God's chosen."
"Dear Co-Workers With Jesus Christ:
"GREETINGS!
"I know all of you can appreciate the mixed emotions of
soberness, gravity, and near-fright at the awesome responsibilities
God and His servant are placing upon me. I am not 'excited' about
it; not 'elated' or 'happy.'
"Rather, I must honestly say I am sobered, and challenged,
with the greatest burden of my life now lying squarely before me.
I know our God wants His Work to really increase in scope and power
-- to rock this world back on its heels in shock -- to really
become a powerful WITNESS and a WARNING in preaching the Gospel of
the Kingdom of God to all the world.
"I have known for most of my adult life that God wanted to
use me as one of His servants in doing His Work, no matter how
unworthy of His calling I am, or unworthy of His grace and mercy.
The events of recent weeks have, I know, been both a trial and a
tremendous blessing to all of us. I have seen God's hand in quite
a literal way, performing miracle after miracle in guiding and
directing His Work through trials and troubles and bringing us all
into a closer, loving, warm, brotherly harmony; strengthening us
all together to face the challenge of the great job waiting to be
done, and preparing us to endure the persecutions and afflictions
awaiting us in the world.
"I have had many very far-reaching, serious, and enormously
important meetings with my father in recent days and weeks. His
letter to me (excerpts from it) are published, at his personal
request, as a main part of this letter. In sober conversation
during a four-hour meeting on Sunday, July 1 -- a day I shall
always remember -- my father told me: 'Ted, I'm turning over
the reins to you...,' and he repeated this, or similar phrases,
several times throughout that day, and in subsequent days, both
personally and over the telephone.
"He and I have drawn wonderfully close together through
recent days -- and I know he has never failed to illustrate his
deepest personal love toward me.
"In the Bible study in Pasadena, June 30, my father said
he was planning at some future date to make me 'President' and
'Chancellor.' In deep and profound personal conversations, I