with tambourines, many men with harps and lutes, with flutes and pipes.

“The orchestra and choir have taken up a position to the east of the altar, clothed in fine linen with cymbals and stringed instruments, zithers, psalteries, lyres and graceful harps. Supporting them are 120 priests impeccably groomed in their fine raiment, each holding a shining silver trumpet in readiness. Hush! The silver trumpets sound, silence descends on the waiting throng, the cymbals clash as the head musician sounds the opening chord. The mighty orchestra plays the leading refrain. The hundreds of Levite singers raise their voices in one glorious song of praise, ‘and as soon as they lifted up the sound with the trumpets and with the cymbals and with the instruments of song and with praising Jehovah . . . the house itself was filled with . . . the glory of Jehovah.’—2 Chron. 5:13, 14.

GLORIFYING JEHOVAH TODAY

“Jehovah’s witnesses glorify Jehovah today by singing ‘the new song,’ proclaiming from house to house the message of God’s established kingdom. So Jehovah’s witnesses recognize that carrying on pure worship is the all-essential thing and that it comes before trained choirs and music. They shun sanctimoniousness and sectarianism in their praise, keeping to the pure language of the Bible. In their congregation meetings and at larger assemblies they sing joyous songs of praise to Jehovah with enthusiasm and naturalness. At the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, held in New York city’s Yankee Stadium and Polo Grounds in 1958, two orchestras were used, each consisting of more than a hundred professional musicians. Each was complete with strings, brasses, woodwinds and percussion instruments, including tympani and harp.

“Soon Jehovah through his King, Christ Jesus, will perform his act of deliverance in behalf of his people as in former days at the Red Sea. Emerging from the climactic showdown fight of Armageddon, the survivors will sing songs of triumphant praise and gratitude to their almighty Deliverer.”

“Such a vision makes every Christian effort worth while today, Grandma!”

“Doesn’t it! And as we see the name of our great God vindicated, we will shout for joy and sing with the psalmist: ‘Praise him with the blowing of the horn. Praise him with the stringed instrument and the harp. Praise him with the tambourine and the circle dance. Praise him with strings and the flute. Praise him with the cymbals of melodious sound. Praise him with the clashing cymbals. Every breathing thing—let it praise Jah. Praise Jah, you people!’”—Ps. 150:3-6.

A Non-Christian World

“The Christian Church seems to have lost . . . the capacity to speak about its beliefs in a manner which should convey the impression of something real and alive. The language of the theologians seems to have become so artificial, so self-centered and so remote from real life that one can only dream of the times when theology took the lead in the universities and was the most formative influence in the intellectual life of Western nations. . . . We do live, for all practical purposes, in a non-Christian world. . . . The mentality of modern man is colored by an all prevailing atheism, not anti-atheism. There is just no more room for the concept of God and, therefore, none for the Christian faith.”—Hanns Lilje, Lutheran Bishop of Hannover, as quoted in the New York Times.