twinkling of an eye.” (1 Cor. 15:52) If we are of the other sheep it will be just like going to sleep one second and awaking the next. It will not be to us a long, miserable wait. For death is complete absence of life and consciousness—nothingness. On awaking in the new world one’s first thought would probably be a completion of the thought with which he died. Enoch, who will awake with his vision of the new world still in mind, is an example. (Heb. 11:5) While all of Jehovah’s witnesses desire to live and preach as long as Jehovah wills, they do not fear death.

24. How should Christians look upon death in view of this hope?

²⁴ At the death of their loved ones Christians are not like others. They do not sorrow overmuch. While recognizing death as an enemy, they do not go beyond natural love and affection and permit sadness to affect their integrity-keeping course in Jehovah’s service. Rather, they continue more firmly, knowing that faithful service will assure them of a place in the new world, so they will be able to see their loved ones again in the resurrection.

25. Why should the resurrection hope stir us to greater activity now?

²⁵ What a loving, thoughtful God we serve! His resurrection promise should stir us to greater activity now. The time is steadily drawing closer when it will be a reality, not only to members of the 144,000, resurrected since 1918, but to those who will live on earth. Think of the joy Christ and his heavenly joint heirs will have as their hands lovingly administer the merit of Christ’s ransom sacrifice during Christ’s great kingdom sabbath to lift billions of earth’s dead out of the pit of death. (Luke 14:5; John 5:26; 6:53) Think of the joy of Jehovah’s other sheep in the paradise earth when the notification comes from Jehovah, telling his organization to prepare to receive the resurrected dead. Then they will have superabounding joy arranging for feeding, housing, educating and training the resurrected multitudes to fill their places in the New World society. What a grand convention that will be! Wonderful, heart-cheering to look to the time when Sheol-Haʹdes, “gravedom,” is destroyed by the resurrection and when, finally, perfected human society stands before God at the thousand years’ end and, passing the test, hears God’s expressed approval, justifying them as worthy of permanent life on this beautified globe. The resurrection miracle, multiplied a billionfold, will have brilliantly accomplished God’s purposes in victory over death, never needing repetition in the endless ages to come.

Questions From Readers

● Will persons who committed suicide to preserve the honor of the family name, or for some other reason according to the custom of Japan, come up in the resurrection? Also, will murderers be resurrected?—K. H., Japan.

The Jewish nation was in covenant with Jehovah God, and their law said: “You must take no ransom for the soul of a murderer who is deserving to die, for without fail he should be put to death.” Nor could a Christian commit murder and live: “Everyone who hates his brother is a manslayer, and you know that no manslayer has everlasting life remaining in him.” Inasmuch as suicide is self-murder, the same view may be taken of it as of murder. So if anyone who has dedicated his life to Jehovah God sanely takes his life in suicide, or deliberately murders another person, it is doubtful that Jehovah would remember such a person in the resurrection.—Num. 35:31; 1 John 3:15, NW.

However, in the case of a person that did not know Jehovah’s law and was not a dedicated servant of God it would be different. If he died a suicide or as a murderer he would certainly