crowd” has the same God as the nation of spiritual Israel, namely, Jehovah. The Christian apostle Paul called him “the happy God,” and so why should not his worshipers on earth be happy with Him? (1 Tim. 1:11, NW; Ro; NEB) If they were not happy, Psalms 33:12 and Ps 144:15 would make it doubtful that Jehovah was their God. There is no happiness in blindly worshiping false, demonic gods, but what ground for being happy is one’s having as the object of one’s exclusive worship and devotion the only living and true God! What a privilege to worship him “with spirit and truth”!

13. What added happiness is just ahead for God’s people?

¹³ To his nation of spiritual Israel Jehovah says: “You are my witnesses.” (Isa. 43:10-12) What added reason to be happy is it for the “great crowd” as associates of the nation also to be witnesses of Jehovah! When Babylon the Great, including Christendom, shortly goes into destruction with all her false gods, how happy these witnesses will be that they were privileged to bear testimony to the true and immortal God Jehovah, who will then be triumphant over his longtime enemy, the world empire of false Babylonish religion! Then it will be the time to shout Hallelujah!—Rev. 19:1-3.

14. What has been the good news since the end of the Gentile Times, and what are Jehovah’s witnesses doing about it in spite of persecution?

¹⁴ At the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 the long-promised Messianic kingdom of Jehovah God was brought to birth in the heavens. (Rev. 12:5-9) Since then this world has furnished no good news, but the heavenly Father of the newborn kingdom has provided his nation and associated worshipers with the best news that mankind has ever heard, “this good news of the kingdom,” the newborn kingdom. How happy they are, not alone to have this good news, but also to have the honor and privilege to fulfill Jesus’ prophecy and preach this good news of the Kingdom in all the earth for a witness before the end of this system of things comes at Armageddon! (Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10) What does it matter that this brings international persecution upon them? In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that their being persecuted for this reason is an occasion for us to be happy. (Matt. 5:11, 12) This persecution will soon end with the violent end of all our persecutors!

15. With true appreciation, what can we say with the psalmist?

¹⁵ Most happy, then, are the sure prospects just ahead of us. Yet happy is our earthly estate even now in our spiritual paradise. We know this. We feel this. It is no self-delusion. With true appreciation welling up in our hearts to our God and his reigning King Jesus Christ, we can joyfully join the psalmist in exclaiming: “Happy is the nation whose God is Jehovah.”—Ps. 33:12.

A Drummer Becomes a Happy Witness

● In the Central African Republic a minister of Jehovah’s witnesses regularly passed by the home of a drummer. The drummer had been told by his priest to ignore Jehovah’s witnesses.

After some time, the drummer was reduced to extreme poverty. He even lost his shoes in a gambling game. But there was this same Witness passing by his home with a smile on his face and with shoes on his feet. The drummer began to do some serious thinking. “Why is it that I, a good Catholic, have nothing but problems, and this witness of Jehovah is always so happy?” A few days later he waited for the Witness on the road and asked him, “Why is there such a difference between us?” The minister gladly explained how Bible principles protect one. Now the drummer is a changed man, for he is one of Jehovah’s witnesses. He has cleaned up his life, legalized his marriage and, oh, yes, he is wearing shoes again.