increasing force: “Praise ye Jehovah. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. . . . Let everything that hath breath praise Jehovah. Praise ye Jehovah.” (Ps. 150:1-6, Am. Stan. Ver.) This is no local call to praise God; it is a universal appeal to all creation to join in singing Jehovah’s praises. All men that know Jehovah must praise him now, so that maximum opportunity is afforded others of goodwill to learn of him and join in the praising. Every available instrument must be pressed into service to sound out Jehovah’s glories. No one must shirk his privilege of joining in the “Hallelujah” chorus, for the only creation that will survive to all eternity will be that which renders unceasing praise to Jehovah in this “day of Jehovah” and forever beyond its terrible climax.

A Visit to Central America

WEDNESDAY, November 30, 1949, was the day that N. H. Knorr, president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, and one of his secretaries, R. E. Morgan, were scheduled to leave New York for a service tour of the Society’s Branch offices and missionary homes in Central America, also taking in three countries on the northern coast of the South American continent and several islands in the Netherlands West Indies. They were to attend conventions and give lectures in the principal cities visited during their trip. Preparations for the journey were interrupted fourteen days prior to the departure date when Brother Knorr was stricken with an acute attack of appendicitis. It was hoped that the inflammation would respond to treatment and subside so as to make an operation unnecessary. However, this was the third attack over a two-year period and the doctors decided that an operation was imperative. So at 10 p.m. on November 16 an appendectomy was performed. This meant, of course, that Brother Knorr would be unable to leave on the journey according to the itinerary sent to all Branch offices of the Watch Tower Society in the area to be visited, even though he was back at his desk and working by November 22, six days after the operation.

Due to the fact that Jehovah’s witnesses in these countries were expecting a visit by representatives from the Society’s headquarters, and because preparations had already been made for conventions and the advertising of public meetings to be addressed by Brother Knorr was being done, he advised Brother Morgan to continue his travel arrangements and plan to make the trip by himself from Mexico through to Nicaragua. Brother Morgan would keep all the speaking appointments and substitute for the president at the public meetings. Brother Knorr decided that, after allowing several weeks for the incision to heal sufficiently, he would leave New York on the 17th of December and spend two days in the first six countries to be visited, finally overtaking Brother Morgan in Costa Rica on December 30. In this way Brother Knorr would be able to handle important matters pertaining to the Kingdom work, check Branch offices, discuss problems of expansion and those confronting missionary homes, and address the local companies that Brother Morgan had already served; and at the same time he would not miss visiting and counseling Gilead graduates in these countries.

Early in the morning of November 30 a group of brethren from Brooklyn Bethel, including Brother Knorr, who was by this time feeling quite well and working every day, accompanied Brother Morgan to the airport at Newark, New Jersey. There was a very heavy smog over the city that morning, and especially over the airfield; but promptly at 9 a.m. the airport loudspeakers announced the departure of Eastern Airline’s Flight 501 to Houston, Texas. The brethren seeing Brother Morgan off wished him the Lord’s blessing upon his journey, and within a few minutes the giant new-type Constellation thundered down the runway and soon disappeared in the haze on its southwesterly flight. With its pressurized cabin it cruised at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet, crossing southeastern United States at better than 300 miles per hour. Riding was smooth for the greater portion of the trip. A few minutes before 2 p.m. the captain called for seat belts to be fastened, and promptly at 2:05 the wheels touched down on the Houston runway. Reservations called for a continuance of the trip to Mexico City via Pan American World Airways at 3:30 p.m. But there was a delay of thirty minutes because of repairs being made on the Pan American DC-4. However, not many minutes after 4 p.m. the “Clipper Archer” was out over the Gulf of Mexico, taking a straight course for the capital city of Old Mexico.

MEXICO

A few minutes after 8 p.m. the lights of Mexico City began to appear in the distance. All was pitch dark in the sky above as we flew over the city and circled to the west, but the brilliance of the multicolored lights below evidenced the fact that Mexico City is a modern city, appearing no different from the sky at night than any large American city might. The plane settled down smoothly on the runway of the Aeropuerto Central on the outskirts of the city. On hand were all the Gilead graduates doing educational work in Mexico City, along with some members of the Mexican Bethel family. They wondered where Brother Knorr was, as the Mexican office had not received the notification that he would come two weeks later, although they knew Brother Knorr had been sick. Some thought that a fellow traveler getting off the plane with Brother Morgan was one of the brethren from Brooklyn Bethel, and they gave that gentleman as royal a reception and shook his hand as vigorously as they did with Brother Morgan. He certainly must have thought well of Mexican hospitality. It was not until a few of the “reception committee” of some thirty or more brethren said, “Wait for the other brother,” that they all learned Brother Morgan was traveling alone.

After all this excitement the group proceeded to the home of the brethren. There everyone gathered around the dining-room tables to look at the latest pictures of the new Brooklyn