others wish to listen or not, whenever the name of Jehovah is mentioned, people automatically think of a people who go from house to house preaching of everlasting life on a paradise earth, the last days, Jehovah’s destruction of the wicked at Armageddon, the end of the appointed times of the nations and the second presence of Jesus Christ beginning in 1914. They think of a people who hold fast to the Bible’s moral standards with regards to marriage and divorce, family life and business; a people who maintain neutrality in the political and military affairs of this world; a people who practice Christian love worldwide; a people who strive to maintain clean, pure worship and hold fast to their religion at the risk of their freedom or their very lives; a people who hold fast to God’s requirements as to the use of blood. This proves that the conduct as well as the preaching of Jehovah’s witnesses makes men responsible for knowing the will of God. It is just as it was with Noah, whose godly conduct and works of faith and preaching “condemned the world.”—Heb. 11:7.

But people today are constantly bombarded with propaganda of all sorts, political, commercial and otherwise. If Jehovah’s name were not constantly held before them they would soon forget it in favor of the names of well-known personalities in the political, sports or entertainment fields. If the preaching were to stop, the message of God’s kingdom would soon be forgotten by people subjected to wave after wave of propaganda, ranging from empty political generalities to banal drama and toothpaste commercials. But let the preaching continue, and whenever there is an unexpected knock at the door, people will think it may be Jehovah’s witnesses. When they think of Jehovah’s name they think of his purpose and coming judgments, even if only to ridicule.

A part of Jehovah’s merciful provision for salvation is the maintaining of a continued preaching campaign. Even those who do not believe must be told of the impending execution of divine judgment. And it is the privilege of Jehovah’s witnesses to do this preaching. Yes, that is why Jehovah’s witnesses must continue to preach until Jehovah himself brings about the termination of this work at Armageddon. “How long, O Jehovah?” As stated in Isaiah 6:11, 12: “Until the cities actually crash in ruins, to be without inhabitant, and the houses be without earthling man, and the ground itself is ruined into a desolation.”

Value of Funeral Talks

● The value of funeral talks is highlighted by the experience of a Witness in Saskatchewan, Canada: “I was a vacation pioneer last summer and worked in unassigned territory. I called at a house where the lady said they had never talked with Jehovah’s witnesses at all. Then she said, ‘Will you come in for a drink of water? It is so hot outside.’ As I went into the kitchen her husband called from the other room, ‘Who is it?’ She said, ‘One of those Jehovah’s witness’ girls.’ So he said, ‘Tell her to come in.’ I went into the living room and they told me there had been a funeral of a Witness, who had lived in this isolated territory, a couple of weeks before. A brother from Saskatoon had given the funeral talk. The man said the talk presented real hope. Some of the scriptures he had never heard before. He said, ‘You folks call yourselves preachers, don’t you? Well, you sit down and give us a sermon.’ So I went through the sermon and then the backcall sermon. I took out the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained and placed it with them. I explained why these books were printed and then we studied part of the first chapter. Before we left they commented that in all their years of going to church they had never read the scriptures about God’s new order of righteousness. This call has been turned over to Witnesses in a nearby congregation.”