Your friends may greet you on a new day with the question, “What’s new?” People are always interested in hearing something they have not heard before. This is what makes that which we call news.

Well, what’s new? One answer was obvious to our readers before they opened this magazine. It’s new cover or, to be more precise, the new cover design.

We of TORCH AND TRUMPET’s editorial committee hope you like it. The design is by Jack Brouwer, well-known Grand Rapids artist. The committee greatly appreciates the time and effort that Mr. Brouwer took out of his very busy schedule to prepare this and other suggested designs. The reader will notice that the motif of trumpet and torch has been retained in a pattern that gives an impression of greater simplicity with brightness and clarity of detail.

The design suggests something else, something of considerable importance. We hope that the fresh, airy look of the new design suggests that it is indeed new, up-to-date, contemporary, yes, in some sense modern. But the trumpet and the torch are still there, prominently and deftly so. That is as it should be. Our sincere desire and resolution are that this magazine may continue to emit a clear, unfaltering trumpet sound, the sound of the precious gospel in its setting of the whole counsel of God. Our sincere desire and resolution are that this magazine may always hold aloft the bright flame of that imperishable truth that comes to us as the Reformed faith out of God’s holy Word.

In other words, we want to present the changeless truth to a changing world. We want, with God’s indispensable help and guidance, to be truly contemporaneous. Our new dress is but a symbol, then, of a fresh, renewed determination to articulate the faith of our fathers in these times in which God has placed us.

This is also the heartbeat of our new year’s greeting to you, our readers and friends. We look upon 1963 as another year of opportunity to serve Cod and his kingdom through the special ministry of this publication. We greet you as co-workers in a cause that we believe to be just as urgent and even more so than it was when this magazine had its start in 1951.

Our greeting to you on this threshold of 1963 also carries an earnest plea. Remember this cause in your prayers. It is not easy to be truly faithful to God’s Word and at the same time to be genuinely contemporaneous. Many temptations beset the path of those who sincerely seek to meet both of these demands. A periodical like this may never deteriorate into a crackling voice that suggests a group of crabby old folk who complain that things aren’t as good as they used to be. On the other hand the effort to be up-to-date may never undercut or compromise the abiding and living truth of God’s holy Word. Brethren, pray for us.

Then there is something else that’s new. Only the more observant reader noticed this as he scanned the new cover design. This issue begins the thirteenth volume of the magazine. This issue is marked Volume XIII–No. 1. This change means that our publication year will from now 0n parallel the calendar year. Up to now our publication year began in April, the month our magazine first appeared in 1951. 111is relatively minor adjustment wiD result in certain conveniences for our business office and possibly for others as well. An index for the abbreviated Volume XII is scheduled to appear with the index for Volume XIII at the end of 1963.