Sunderlin

John Sunderlin's first wife died in 1899. She made her home in Glens Falls, New York, and was living apart from her husband. Does anyone know why? Sunderlin would travel back and forth between Flemington and Glens Falls, maybe once a year, though I only have a record of two visits in the mid to late 1890's. .... anyone?

Research assistance needed ...

There is a strong, contemporary assertion of the presence of believers in the UK before Food for Thinking Christians was circulated. Other than one statement we have no details. Anyone know anything?

We need more material detailing public reaction to Food for Thinking Christians in the United States, United Kingdom (Including all of Ireland at that time), and Canada. Newspaper comments would be great. Anyone?

We still haven't identified J. J. Bender. We have three good possibilities, but can't connect any of them to Russell. help!

Russell's first preaching tour with Barbour took them from Rochester, New York, to Louisville Kentucky. We need a volunteer in Louisville or in Kentucky somewhere willing to look through microfilms of old newspapers from 1877 to find the advertisement for Russell's lecture in Louisville.

We need a photo of Lizzy A. Allen. Also needed are her obituary. We believe she died in Buchannan, Michigan, but can't prove it and have no details.

How shall I put this politely? Apparently there is no really polite way ... Someone has suggested that Paton took the younger Miss Allen as his mistress. We can't prove that and have no solid indication that it is so. Anyone know? We'd need some solid proof, not mere speculation.

Sunderlin was for a while a Methodist clergyman in New York. There must be a photo out there. Anyone know where?

Several people prominent in what became Church of God General Conference or cognate groups associated with Russell in the 1880s and early 1890s. Anyone know details?

We need early issues of The Millennarian. Issues before 1895 would help.

Our special thanks

Our special thanks go to Ton, who's sent us a flood of documentation including key newspaper articles we had not seen. Among these is one on J. J. Bender that solves part of a puzzle for us. Another concerned the arrest of one of the early evangelists for tracting in front of a church. There are too many to list, all of them helpful. Excellent! and thanks!

William R. Covert

A Church of God minister and pastor of Townsend Street Church of God in Pittsburgh challenged Russell to a debate when Food for Thinking Christians was released.

Memorial 1889

The Second Adventists

Celebrated the Feast of the Pssover in Allegheny Yesterday.

The Feast of the Passover was observed yesterday at a meeting of the Second Adventists held in their hall, at 1010 Federal street, Allegheny. The ceremonies begun at 10 o’clock in the morning and continued through the day, under the guidance of Rev. C. T. Russell. There were about 400 persons present. One of the delegates, or colporteurs, Mr. Webb, said his home was in Canada and that he had traveled 1,700 miles to be in attendance. There were others from New York, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Michigan and West Virginia.

There was no prescribed form of ceremony, the attendants confining their address to experiences in spreading their faith and reporting on their work. This occupied the entire morning and a portion of the afternoon. At noon a luch was served in the hall, and again at 2 and 6 o’clock in the afternoon. Baptismal services were conducted by Mr. Russell at 2 o’clock, when 10 men and 12 women professed the faith of sect and were received into the organization.

In the evening the feast of the Passover was celebrated after Rev. Russell had delivered a short address, and all present ate of unleavened bread, signifying the purity of the flesh, as by faith the spirit is pure.

There was a choir in attendance and hymns were sung, and ta 10 o’clock the ceremony came to a conclusion. These services are observed on Palm Sunday every year.

The Pittsburgh Dispatch, Monday April 15, 1889

Solving a puzzle

The claim is sometimes made in print that Russell exhibited at the Centenial Exhibition in 1876. We looked through every list of exhibitors we could find and came up with a blank. Ton pointed us to May 8, 1892 Pittsburgh Dispatch which says the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Allegheny was on the list of exhibitors at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago that year.

I think the two events have been confused in oral tradition.

Also the name "Old Quaker Store" is slightly in error. A legal notice in the Dispatch of Sept 18, 1892, names it as the Quaker Shirt Store and says its motto was "Truth, Fair Dealing and Low Prices."

Thanks Ton!

Barbour and Russell

Starting in February 1877, Russell and Barbour went on a preaching tour that took them from Rochester, New York, to Louisville, Kentucky. Russell lectured for the first time in Louisville in 1877. We can document this from the November 1891 Herald of the Morning.

We would be happier if we had something from the Louisville newspapers. Anyone?

Pot Calling the Kettle Black ...

"no man ever lived, with any pretensions whatsoever to Biblical knowledge, who could crowd so much absurdity into so small a space"

A comment on Nelson Barbour by the editor of The Flaming Sword, January 20, 1899. The Flaming Sword was the journal of the Koreshanity movement. Among other things they believed in a hollow earth and cellular cosmongony.

Russell and Christian Endeavor Societies

In 1892 Russell tried to engage members of the Christian Endeavor Societies to circulate tracts. He detailed the plan in a short newspaper article published in The, Washington, D. C., National Tribune, December 1, 1892.

Does anyone know if he made a similar offer earlier? Can you document it?

Also ...

Russell was criticized for his choice of the name "Bible House" and later for using "Brooklyn Tabernacle." I didn't make a note of the criticism when I read it, thinking that it was not important to our current research. It is. .... Anyone know who made the criticism. My faulty brain can't remember.

Henry Warleigh - Thanks to Ton who scanned the photo!

More on A. D. Jones

Thanks to Ton for the research ...

As reported in the January 20, 1889, Pittsburgh Dispatch, Carried M. Jones filed for divorce on the grounds of indifelity. The divorce was granted, and that is reported in the June 25, 1890, issue.

Thanks Ton!

Albert Delmont Jones

Things you haven't seen or don't know ...

Albert Delmont Jones was a principal stock holder in the Knickerbocker Bank of New York, founded in 1889. The bank was short lived. He lost a significant amount of money, apparently, and this seems to have been the motive behind his theft of funds. This two dollar bill was issued by the bank, and you can see Jones' signature as treasurer on the bottom left.

It'd be nice to have one of these, wouldn't it? Make a nice addition to a Watchtower history collection ... but the bill pictured above sold at auction for twenty-four thousand one hundred fifty dollars at Smythe's Spring Currency & Stock and Bond Auction in 2006.

Above is an advertisement for The Day Star from 1885. Notice that he had dropped "Zion's" from the title.

Urgent!

We need immediate help from someone in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. We need a volunteer to go to a university there and photo copy a booklet. Interested? email me at BWSchulz2 @ yahoo.com

New material re Barbour and Adams

Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser. August 29, 1881

A Religious National Convention.

The national convention of the “Church of the Kocklesia,” [sic] members of which believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ, began in the Church of the Strangers yesterday, about seventy-five persons from out of town attending. Three meetings were held yesterday, Dr. N. H. Barbour conducting the services. The sacrament of the Lord ’s Supper was administered in the afternoon, and an address was delivered by William P. Adams of Beverly, Massachusetts, in which he explained the faith of the church. Members of the church calculate that the beginning of the end of the world will commence in October next.

Note: Obviously the reporter was innatentive. For Kocklesia read Ecclesia. He got A. P. Adams' name wrong too. But still interesting.

A. P. Adams - New York Times, Feb 17, 1878

Huntington, NY, Long Islander, Nov 5, 1892

Brother Bergner/Burgner

A brother and sister Burgner/bergner were active in Newark NJ in the 1880's and 1890's. Anyone know anything?

A series of newspaper articles appeard in pittsbugh newspapers in 1881-2 after Food for Thinking Christians was published ... anyone have them?

Food for Thinking Christians

Some time ago I posted about a controversy caused by the circulation of Food for Thinking Christians in Newark, NJ. I asked for help tracing this down.

We ran across this in an article we found in a Chicago newspaper. It lacked details, but we were interested. One person offered to help, then backed out because it required more work than he was able to put into the project.

My writing partner made it her personal project. It was a frustrating one - until today. We now have the full details. They're found in an article in the New York Sun.

We also have artcles from a Buffalo NY newspaper and a Reading PA newspaper. The article in the Reading, PA, Eagle is very brief and much after the fact, but it clearly identifies an individual mentioned only by last name in Zion's Watch Tower. His name is spelled two ways, and we've been unable to trace him down.

Joseph B Keim was an early Watch Tower evangelist, one of the first. Knowing his name is an excellent jumping off point for additional research. If any of our readers knows anything at all about him, please share the information with us.

Help ...

We need someone with more talent than we seem to possess to scan the picture of Henry Smith Warleigh found in Froom's Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers and edit it into usable clarity.

Have any of you researched Russell's "gospel church" doctrine. We're interested in insights into its origins.

We still need to see Bible Students Tracts number two and three.

We have several regular blog readers who live in Florida. Any of you want to check some county records for us? It would be a labour of love. We couldn't reimburse you at all.

Any documented insights into Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society finances in the 1880's would help.

We still need to actually SEE the Warleigh tract that Storrs published. We also need a clear digital scan of its front page.

We need a good digital scan on The Minister's Daughter.

anyone?

Up Date Still very rough draft

Comments, please ...

Day Dawn, while it addressed the need for a clear statement of their theology, did not fill the need for simple direct and brief missionary tracts. Russell received “numerous and urgent calls for Watch Tower Tracts on various topics.” He suspended traveling for part of October 1880 to prepare them. “They will be cheap tracts for gratuitous distribution and will be furnished at a very low price to those agreeing to distribute them, or free to those so desiring them,” he explained.
Day Dawn stated their theology as seen by Paton. The tracts, with the exception of one written by Albert Delmont Jones, presented Russell’s view. There were differences, and they would grow. Ultimately they became the basis for the Watch Tower’s first major doctrinal publication, Food for Thinking Christians.
There was some sort of delay producing the proposed tracts, and Russell expressed his disappointment in a brief announcement in the December 1880 issue. He advised readers to expect them within a month: “They will be free to all who agree to use them wisely. We advise that you make a list of all Christian people whom you may have any hope of interesting, and send them the tracts in rotation, as numbered, so that
they will get hold of the subjects in a connected manner. Make out your lists at once.” When issued they were small thirty-two page tracts.
The first of the tract supplements, entitled Why Will There Be a Second Advent, was duly released with the January 1881 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower.[1] It was a reprint with slight revisions of an earlier Watch Tower article of the same title. Russell outlined his plans for circulation in the announcement:

With this number we send Tract No. 1. We have arranged for quite a number of them, and you may expect one or two a month for several months. They will all be free, on condition that you order no more than you will wisely use.

We will not send more than 25 at one time. You can re-order when they are gone. This is a way in which all can "both labor and suffer reproach," as well as give the "glad tidings" to some who have ears to hear and hearts to appreciate; "The love of God, which passeth all understanding," revealed to us in His word.

We suggest that each tract be carefully read by you before you give it to others.

[insert analysis and sources]
Russell attacked the prevalent idea that Christ wouldn’t return until the world had converted. This was a standard Second Adventist theme[2] but was not unique to them. John C. Ryle, the well-respected Church of Christ commentator, made the same claim and on the same scriptural basis, writing in 1879: “The world will not be converted when Jesus comes again. The earth will not be full of the knowledge of the Lord. The reign of peace will not have been established. The millennium will not have begun. These glorious things will come to pass after the second advent but not before. If words have any meaning the verses before us show that the earth will be found full of wickedness and worldliness in the day of Christ's appealing.”[3]
Supplement number 2 was issued with the February magazine. Russell reminded his readers that they should read it carefully before circulating it. He explained that the tract supplements were “specially designed for thinking Christians, and would be, to the natural man, foolishness.” None of the tracts were designed to convert unbelievers. They believed they were in the Gospel Harvest when the Wheat and Weeds of Jesus’ parable would be separated. They were calling to the wheat-like Christians.
The titles of tracts two and three are unknown to me. An educated guess based on the later content of the small book Food for Thinking Christians leads me to suppose the titles were How Will Christ Come? and The Day of Judgment. These are only articles of correct length, and their subject matter follows logically after tract one.
[insert Wanted 1000 preachers]

Tract Supplement Number 4, Why Evil Was Permitted was mailed with the May 1881 issue of The Watch Tower with the explanation that “It is a subject much thought of by all, and more than one child has asked, "Why did God make the Devil?" It is a subject which should command some attention from all thinking Christians.” It was a reprint, with some revisions, of an article of the same name found in the [date] issue.
Why Evil Was Permitted: A Dialogue, reprinted from the August 1879, Zion’s Watch Tower, was meant as a restatement and elaboration of Russell’s Substitutional Atonement beliefs. He believed the doctrine to be misunderstood and incorrectly taught: “A false idea of substitution has obtained among Christian people from the supposition that it represented God as a vindictive, vengeful tyrant, angry because man had sinned; refusing to show mercy until blood had been had been shed and carrying not whether it was the blood of the innocent or the guilty as long as it was blood.”
The bulk of the tract considers atonement and restitution, issued dividing Watch Tower adherents from their former associates. The article and the tract it became also reveal the roots of Russell’s doctrine of the inevitability of sin and redemption. Russell acquired the doctrine via his association with George Storrs, who had published an identically titled tract in the 1860’s.
The tract published by Storrs was extracted from a larger work by Henry Smith Warleigh, Anglican rector of Ashchurch, Gloucestershire. It is unclear to us when and how the Warleigh material was first published, but the 1873 edition of his book, Twelve Discussion Proving the Extinction of Evil Persons and Things, reprints it all. The tract published by Storrs is found therein as chapter ten, “Why Evil Was Permitted.”
Russell’s tract and the Warleigh tract are both in dialogue format, but the parentage of the one by the other is not shown by this, but by similarity of doctrine. Russell asserted that “if an intelligent creature is to be made at all, he must be made liable to change; and as he was created pure, any change must be from purity to sin.” This thought was derived from Warleigh’s, “man can be but a creature … Unchangeableness is an infinite attribute; and can belong only to the Unchangeable, Uncreated God. … If man be made at all he must be liable to fall, though there may be no innate necessity for it. There must be the capacity, though there need not be the inevitability.”
Both Russell and Warleigh have the dialogue foil ask if God could not have made man incapable of sin. Russell answers: “No. To have done so would have been to make another God. Unchangeableness is an attribute only of an infallible, infinite being – God.” The dialogue respondents in both works ask, “Are not all things possible with god?” Russell’s answer is a paraphrase of Warleigh’s.
Russell believed sin was inevitable and desirable because it furthered God’s plans. Adam, he asserted, “could not … know the meaning of Good unless he had evil to contrast with it. … A knowledge of evil could be obtained in no way except by its introduction, and remember he could not have disobeyed if God had given no commandment. … Therefore, I claim that God not only foresaw man’s fall into sin, but designed it. It was part of his plan. God permitted, nay wanted man to fall. … He saw the result would be to lead man to … see the bitterness and blackness of sin.”
This was an elaboration of Warleigh’s claim that God’s “works of creation had exhibited his wisdom, power and goodness … but there were attributes not yet exhibited; such as pity and mercy; or that pitying love which he tells us he delights to exercise. … But his pity and love cannot be exhibited except by the exercise of them; and they cannot be exercised … except upon an appropriate object. Now the only thing that can call forth the exercise of pity, is a miserable object; and there can be no miserable object, unless there is sin. In other words, unless there is evil in existence.”
Neither Russell nor Warleigh relied on Biblical proof for any of this. Instead they relied on a chain of inferences, some of them quite flawed. Warleigh’s definition of pity was especially flawed, and both Russell and he limited the scope of Adam’s perfect intellect so that they presupposed a need for expirential learning. Apparently neither of them thought Adam or Eve capable of abstract reason.
Russell liked what he read of Warleigh’s work and adapted it uncritically. Warleigh wrote: “Man was the masterpiece of all creation” This viewpoint may be more understandable in him because he was Trinitarian and saw Jesus as uncreated, a part of the ‘godhead.” Still, it is hared to forgive him this bit of nonsense in the light of the Psalm that has man a little less than angels.
Russell borrowed this though wholesale, writing that man was “the masterpiece of God’s workmanship.” At least Russell had the good sense to limit that status to man’s state among earthly creatures. Even then the though implies that the rest of God’s earthly creation was only practice and not as well formed.
This is a history and not a theology text, and I will not discuss the theological merit of these ideas at length. The two most obvious problems were that Warleigh and Russell after him relied on “reason” and not scripture. They denied that their scheme made God the author of sin, but if He saw it as “necessary” so man could be taught “good,” planned for it, made it inevitable – who else was?
This belief undercut his more thought-out view of Atonement and Reconciliation, though it was scant few of his opponents that saw the flaw. Many of them shared his admiration for Warleigh. Most of this doctrine was abandoned by Jehovah’s Witnesses under J. F. Rutherford. Many Bible Students continue to believe it, though without any understanding of its roots.
Supplement number five was a reprint of the earlier article entitled “Narrow Way to Life.”

This tract we hope will be acceptable to you all. We hope that its general distribution will be productive of good results and that it may be used of the Lord as an eye salve to many to enable them to see "the exceeding riches of His grace in His loving kindness toward us." And for you, brethren, we pray that the viewing of the narrow way to life, may bless you, and that "The Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him (that) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; ye may know, what is the hope of his calling; and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints; and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us." Eph. 1:17.

We have quantities of this tract, and will try to supply all your demands. Order all you can use, and use all that you order.

Tract number five was entitled The Narrow Way to Life, and was with slight revision the same as the article of the same title appearing in the [date] Watch Tower. Russell saw this matter as of primary importance and as a major advance forward in understanding Bible truth. [Develop]
Tract number six was by Albert Delmont Jones. It was entitled A Call to "The Marriage Supper of the Lamb." The Hour of God's Judgment, and Consequent Fall of Babylon, and presented his ideas on the nearness of translation to heavenly life. It exists as a single copy in a university library.
Jones had already expressed positive views that 1881 would see a prophetic crisis, and he was drifting off into areas that Russell and others would see as un-Christian and unstable. Jones tract produced a strongly negative reaction, and Russell felt compelled to offer explanations through Zion’s Watch Tower:

We have a number of inquiries relative to tract No. 6, (written by Bro. A. D. Jones) asking whether the editor's views are in harmony with those expressed in that tract. To which we answer that it is quite possible for different persons to have somewhat different ideas regarding the manner of the unfolding future, though they be entirely agreed with reference to the work of the past, present and future. We are for instance, not much in sympathy with the idea that the "Perihelion of the planets" is to bring "a carnival of death," and for this reason have refrained from mentioning the harrowing details furnished by astrologists as the probable result. It may be that such a dreadful scourging is to come upon the world so soon, but from our understanding of prophecy we expect that the carnival of moral pestilence, spiritual famine, and death will come first, upon the nominal church--the sort of "pestilence" and "arrows" referred to in Psa. 91 from which nothing will shield but the "truth." (vs. 4.)

But while we do not expect such literal plagues, we do not venture to gainsay
the astrologers and their predictions; it is possible that both astrology and scripture may be correct concerning the coming events, but our confidence and sole reliance is on the latter. To compare notes we suggest that Scripture indicates that the nominal church is to be given over to tribulation and be shown no favor from October of this year; and every thing seems ripe for just such a thing: On the other hand the astrologers began as far back as 1871 to predict what would occur in 1880 and 1881. But though the largest planet Jupiter has already reached the point of perihelion (more than nine months ago) and though Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction six months ago, yet there is nothing except unusual rain storms thus far to justify the awful pictures drawn.

Any sympathy Russell had for astrological predictions would disappear. Given his later anti-Spiritualist writings, finding this much sympathy expressed is surprising. Jones was swayed by contemporary astrologers because they reflected his own views of what 1881 would bring. He borrowed heavily from them. It would be a surprise if he did not read C. A. Grimmer’s The Voice of the Stars: or the Coming Perihelia with Attendant Plagues, Storms, and Fires from 1880 to 1887, Supported by Historical Facts, published first in 1879 and reprinted several times in America. Grimmer predicted that the period “from 1880 to 1887 will be one universal carnival of death.” (Page 7 in the edition I consulted.) He may have also read L. D. Broughton’s The Elements of Astrology. Broughton and others suggested that the perihelion of the major planets due near 1880 and extending to 1886 would see major disasters. He predicted “great plagues … in all their intensity.” He foresaw “droughts, epidemics, pestilence and famine” but thought the effects would be less in more civilized countries. The predictions of astrologers fit exactly into Jones’ view of impending events.
Jones wasn’t the only one to grasp at any hint that a major prophetic fulfillment would occur in 1881. Even more main steam clergy such as S. Peacock, the Baptist pastor of Barrowden, Rutland.[4] He used the impending parihelia Jupiter, Neptune, Mars, and Uranus between 1880 and 1882 as proof of impending prophetic fulfillments. “The effect of this perihelia upon our earth has been made known by various professors of astronomy and others,” he wrote. He cited a “professor Grimmer of America” as his principal authority. “Professor” C. A. Grimmer’s title was self-awarded. There is at least some evidence that Professor Grimmer was in fact David Gilbert Dexter, a Congretationalist Deacon and newspaper editor,[5] and that the sensational article by Grimmer that first appeared in the September 24, 1880, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tribune was written by him. The Grimmer material became quite popular, and Dexter published it as a booklet entitled The Coming Catastrophe. It is copyrighted by Dexter, strong but not quite decisive indication that he was the actual author.
For more on this controversy see the chapter entitled “Approach to 1881.”
The last of the Supplements was a Chart of the Ages issued with the
July/August 1881 magazine. It was reproduced the next month in Food for Thinking
Christians.

We present to each of our readers with this issue, a "Chart of the Ages," (unfortunately printed June, instead of July supplement) with the suggestion that you hang it in some convenient place where it will be often in your sight; that its diagram of the narrow way to life, may be a constant and helpful reminder to you of the way our Leader trod; that thereby you may be enabled to make your calling and election sure.

We hope too, that you will so place it, that it will be an object of interest to all who may visit you, and that you will so familiarize yourself with it as to be able to explain its teachings to them; thus each reader will be a preacher of the "narrow way to life" -- to Glory, Honor and Immortality, so soon to close; and also of the plan of God for the world's salvation, which is only just beginning. May God make you able ministers of his word.

The Chart should have your careful attention and study for at least one month: for this reason, and to allow needed time for other parts of the service, this paper and chart supplement will constitute the July and August issue. Therefore you may expect nothing more until September.

Food for Thinking Christians
[develop]
Financing the Work


Russell and others poured their personal fortunes into keeping Zion’s Watch Tower afloat. In late 1881 he attempted to make the paper free to all, something the Postal regulations would disallow. Explaining his reasons, he said, “The subscription price was made so low in endeavoring to make it burdenless upon the majority of our readers who cannot well afford to spend more, that it did not pay expenses. (The paper from the first has only paid about two-thirds of its expenses--not to mention the additional cost of
Supplements during the last six months.)”
A major source of the money was a donation of Florida land that seems to
have come from Russell and his father. A special supplement offering the land
for sale was issued with the November 1884 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. By
December, eight of the plots had been sold. There were forty plots on the list “of ten acres each, on Pinellas Peninsula, Hillsboro Co., Florida, donated to this Society's funds and offered for sale at ten dollars per acre cash; or two years' time to settlers.” The supplement seems not to exist in any library or collection, but some detail is preserved in short announcements. The land seems to have been in the Disston and Pinellas areas.
Additional plots were offered for sale late in 1885:

Some who engaged plots of the land donated to "Z.W.T. Tract Society" at Pinellas
(See Supplement), finding that circumstances do not favor their going, have donated the installments paid to the Fund and returned the land for sale. Besides this, another Brother interested in the truth, has donated to the Society near the other donated lands four ten-acre plots.

Thus it comes that we have about twelve plots now for sale. Of these four have small ponds, and would require some ditching, and can therefore be had at half price.
[1] Controversialists have focused on the article and later tract to speculate on the origins of Russell’s teaching on “the Christ” and its effects on the modern Watchtower belief about Christ as Mediator. The quotation cited by Robert Stewart: The Watchtower and the Doctrine of “The Christ” does not contribute to that discussion, and Steward does not acknowledge the difference in meaning between the Greek word translated “propitiate” and that translated “mediator.” Another controversialist pointed to the free distribution of this and the following tracts as proof a hidden financial backing from a source seeking societal dominance. The research is laughable, but there is always someone who loves a conspiracy theory.
[2] eg: “So you see the world will not be converted for some will be ignorant of God and some disobedient.” - I.C.G.: Behold He Cometh the Clouds, Western Midnight Cry, January 13, 1844, page 36.
[3] John Charles Ryle: Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, St. Luke, Robert Carter, New York, 1879, page 244.
[4] S. Peacock: Is the Close of the Present Age to be about 1890? The Prophetic News and Israel’s Watchman, August 1880, page 240/
[5] Dexter’s obituary is found in the April 9, 1908, issue of The Pacific, a limited circulation religious magazine published in Berkeley and San Francisco, California. It describes him as a deacon of the First Congregational Church of San Francisco. He died at age seventy-five. Dexter was the founder and firstr editor of The Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tribune.

Exact Title ...

Now this is new!

Bible Student's Tract number six by Albert Delmont Jones:

A call to "The marriage supper of the lamb." the hour of God's judgment, and consequent fall of Babylon

We've located this. NO word on costs yet.

Rough Draft - Extract from our current reseach

This is a fragment of the chapter we're currently writing. I'm posting it in very rough and incomplete draft. It's open for comment and suggestions.

Bible Students’ Tracts and an Expanding Ministry


Day Dawn, while it addressed the need for a clear statement of their theology, did not fill the need for simple direct and brief missionary tracts. Russell received “numerous and urgent calls for Watch Tower Tracts on various topics.” He suspended traveling for part of October 1880 to prepare them. “They will be cheap tracts for gratuitous distribution and will be furnished at a very low price to those agreeing to distribute them, or free to those so desiring them,” he explained.
Day Dawn stated their theology as seen by Paton. The tracts, with the exception of one written by Albert Delmont Jones, presented Russell’s view. There were differences, and they would grow. Ultimately they became the basis for the Watch Tower’s first major doctrinal publication, Food for Thinking Christians.
There was some sort of delay producing the proposed tracts, and Russell expressed his disappointment in a brief announcement in the December 1880 issue. He advised readers to expect them within a month: “They will be free to all who agree to use them wisely. We advise that you make a list of all Christian people whom you may have any hope of interesting, and send them the tracts in rotation, as numbered, so that
they will get hold of the subjects in a connected manner. Make out your lists at once.” When issued they were small thirty-two page tracts.

The first of the tract supplements, entitled Why Will There Be a Second Advent, was duly released with the January 1881 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. It was a reprint with slight revisions of an earlier Watch Tower article of the same title. Russell outlined his plans for circulation in the announcement:

With this number we send Tract No. 1. We have arranged for quite a number of them, and you may expect one or two a month for several months. They will all be free, on condition that you order no more than you will wisely use.

We will not send more than 25 at one time. You can re-order when they are gone. This is a way in which all can "both labor and suffer reproach," as well as give the "glad tidings" to some who have ears to hear and hearts to appreciate; "The love of God, which passeth all understanding," revealed to us in His word.

We suggest that each tract be carefully read by you before you give it to others.


Supplement number 2 was issued with the February magazine. Russell reminded his readers that they should read it carefully before circulating it. He explained that the tract supplements were “specially designed for thinking Christians, and would be, to the natural man, foolishness.” None of the tracts were designed to convert unbelievers. They believed they were in the Gospel Harvest when the Wheat and Weeds of Jesus’ parable would be separated. They were calling to the wheat-like Christians.
The titles of tracts two and three are unknown to me. An educated guess based on the later content of the small book Food for Thinking Christians leads me to suppose the titles were How Will Christ Come? and The Day of Judgment. These are only articles of correct length, and their subject matter follows logically after tract one.
[insert Wanted 1000 preachers]

Tract Supplement Number 4, Why Evil Was Permitted was mailed with the May 1881 issue of The Watch Tower with the explanation that “It is a subject much thought of by all, and more than one child has asked, "Why did God make the Devil?" It is a subject which should command some attention from all thinking Christians.” It was a reprint, with some revisions, of an article of the same name found in the [date] issue.
Why Evil Was Permitted: A Dialogue, reprinted from the August 1879, Zion’s Watch Tower, was meant as a restatement and elaboration of Russell’s Substitutional Atonement beliefs. He believed the doctrine to be misunderstood and incorrectly taught: “A false idea of substitution has obtained among Christian people from the supposition that it represented God as a vindictive, vengeful tyrant, angry because man had sinned; refusing to show mercy until blood had been had been shed and carrying not whether it was the blood of the innocent or the guilty as long as it was blood.”
The bulk of the tract considers atonement and restitution, issued dividing Watch Tower adherents from their former associates. The article and the tract it became also reveal the roots of Russell’s doctrine of the inevitability of sin and redemption. Russell acquired the doctrine via his association with George Storrs, who had published an identically titled tract in the 1860’s.
The tract published by Storrs was extracted from a larger work by Henry Smith Warleigh, Anglican rector of Ashchurch, Gloucestershire. It is unclear to us when and how the Warleigh material was first published, but the 1873 edition of his book, Twelve Discussion Proving the Extinction of Evil Persons and Things, reprints it all. The tract published by Storrs is found therein as chapter ten, “Why Evil Was Permitted.”
Russell’s tract and the Warleigh tract are both in dialogue format, but the parentage of the one by the other is not shown by this, but by similarity of doctrine. Russell asserted that “if an intelligent creature is to be made at all, he must be made liable to change; and as he was created pure, any change must be from purity to sin.” This thought was derived from Warleigh’s, “man can be but a creature … Unchangeableness is an infinite attribute; and can belong only to the Unchangeable, Uncreated God. … If man be made at all he must be liable to fall, though there may be no innate necessity for it. There must be the capacity, though there need not be the inevitability.”
Both Russell and Warleigh have the dialogue foil ask if God could not have made man incapable of sin. Russell answers: “No. To have done so would have been to make another God. Unchangeableness is an attribute only of an infallible, infinite being – God.” The dialogue respondents in both works ask, “Are not all things possible with god?” Russell’s answer is a paraphrase of Warleigh’s.
Russell believed sin was inevitable and desirable because it furthered God’s plans. Adam, he asserted, “could not … know the meaning of Good unless he had evil to contrast with it. … A knowledge of evil could be obtained in no way except by its introduction, and remember he could not have disobeyed if God had given no commandment. … Therefore, I claim that God not only foresaw man’s fall into sin, but designed it. It was part of his plan. God permitted, nay wanted man to fall. … He saw the result would be to lead man to … see the bitterness and blackness of sin.”
This was an elaboration of Warleigh’s claim that God’s “works of creation had exhibited his wisdom, power and goodness … but there were attributes not yet exhibited; such as pity and mercy; or that pitying love which he tells us he delights to exercise. … But his pity and love cannot be exhibited except by the exercise of them; and they cannot be exercised … except upon an appropriate object. Now the only thing that can call forth the exercise of pity, is a miserable object; and there can be no miserable object, unless there is sin. In other words, unless there is evil in existence.”
Neither Russell nor Warleigh relied on Biblical proof for any of this. Instead they relied on a chain of inferences, some of them quite flawed. Warleigh’s definition of pity was especially flawed, and both Russell and he limited the scope of Adam’s perfect intellect so that they presupposed a need for expirential learning. Apparently neither of them thought Adam or Eve capable of abstract reason.
Russell liked what he read of Warleigh’s work and adapted it uncritically. Warleigh wrote: “Man was the masterpiece of all creation” This viewpoint may be more understandable in him because he was Trinitarian and saw Jesus as uncreated, a part of the ‘godhead.” Still, it is hared to forgive him this bit of nonsense in the light of the Psalm that has man a little less than angels.
Russell borrowed this though wholesale, writing that man was “the masterpiece of God’s workmanship.” At least Russell had the good sense to limit that status to man’s state among earthly creatures. Even then the though implies that the rest of God’s earthly creation was only practice and not as well formed.
This is a history and not a theology text, and I will not discuss the theological merit of these ideas at length. The two most obvious problems were that Warleigh and Russell after him relied on “reason” and not scripture. They denied that their scheme made God the author of sin, but if He saw it as “necessary” so man could be taught “good,” planned for it, made it inevitable – who else was?
This belief undercut his more thought-out view of Atonement and Reconciliation, though it was scant few of his opponents that saw the flaw. Many of them shared his admiration for Warleigh. Most of this doctrine was abandoned by Jehovah’s Witnesses under J. F. Rutherford. Many Bible Students continue to believe it, though without any understanding of its roots.
Supplement number five was a reprint of the earlier article entitled “Narrow Way to Life.”

This tract we hope will be acceptable to you all. We hope that its general distribution will be productive of good results and that it may be used of the Lord as an eye salve to many to enable them to see "the exceeding riches of His grace in His loving kindness toward us." And for you, brethren, we pray that the viewing of the narrow way to life, may bless you, and that "The Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him (that) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; ye may know, what is the hope of his calling; and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints; and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us." Eph. 1:17.

We have quantities of this tract, and will try to supply all your demands. Order all you can use, and use all that you order.

This tract was a reprint of the article of the same title appearing in the August 1879 Watch Tower.

Tract number five was entitled The Narrow Way to Life, and was with slight revision the same as the article of the same title appearing in the [date] Watch Tower. Russell saw this matter as of primary importance and as a major advance forward in understanding Bible truth. [Develop]

Tract number six was by Albert Delmont Jones. Its title has been lost, but a record of controversy that followed its publication persists. Jones had already expressed positive views that 1881 would see a prophetic crisis, and he was drifting off into areas that Russell and others would see as un-Christian and unstable. Jones tract produced a strongly negative reaction, and Russell felt compelled to offer explanations through Zion’s Watch Tower:

We have a number of inquiries relative to tract No. 6, (written by Bro. A. D. Jones) asking whether the editor's views are in harmony with those expressed in that tract. To which we answer that it is quite possible for different persons to have somewhat different ideas regarding the manner of the unfolding future, though they be entirely agreed with reference to the work of the past, present and future. We are for instance, not much in sympathy with the idea that the "Perihelion of the planets" is to bring "a carnival of death," and for this reason have refrained from mentioning the harrowing details furnished by astrologists as the probable result. It may be that such a dreadful scourging is to come upon the world so soon, but from our understanding of prophecy we expect that the carnival of moral pestilence, spiritual famine, and death will come first, upon the nominal church--the sort of "pestilence" and "arrows" referred to in Psa. 91 from which nothing will shield but the "truth." (vs. 4.)

But while we do not expect such literal plagues, we do not venture to gainsay
the astrologers and their predictions; it is possible that both astrology and scripture may be correct concerning the coming events, but our confidence and sole reliance is on the latter. To compare notes we suggest that Scripture indicates that the nominal church is to be given over to tribulation and be shown no favor from October of this year; and every thing seems ripe for just such a thing: On the other hand the astrologers began as far back as 1871 to predict what would occur in 1880 and 1881. But though the largest planet Jupiter has already reached the point of perihelion (more than nine months ago) and though Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction six months ago, yet there is nothing except unusual rain storms thus far to justify the awful pictures drawn.

Any sympathy Russell had for astrological predictions would disappear. Given his later anti-Spiritualist writings, finding this much sympathy expressed is surprising. Jones was swayed by contemporary astrologers because they reflected his own views of what 1881 would bring. He borrowed heavily from them. It would be a surprise if he did not read C. A. Grimmer’s The Voice of the Stars: or the Coming Perihelia with Attendant Plagues, Storms, and Fires from 1880 to 1887, Supported by Historical Facts, published first in 1879 and reprinted several times in America. Grimmer predicted that the period “from 1880 to 1887 will be one universal carnival of death.” (Page 7 in the edition I consulted.) He may have also read L. D. Broughton’s The Elements of Astrology. Broughton and others suggested that the perihelion of the major planets due near 1880 and extending to 1886 would see major disasters. He predicted “great plagues … in all their intensity.” He foresaw “droughts, epidemics, pestilence and famine” but thought the effects would be less in more civilized countries. The predictions of astrologers fit exactly into Jones’ view of impending events.
The last of the Supplements was a Chart of the Ages issued with the
July/August 1881 magazine. It was reproduced the next month in Food for Thinking
Christians.

We present to each of our readers with this issue, a "Chart of the Ages," (unfortunately printed June, instead of July supplement) with the suggestion that you hang it in some convenient place where it will be often in your sight; that its diagram of the narrow way to life, may be a constant and helpful reminder to you of the way our Leader trod; that thereby you may be enabled to make your calling and election sure.

We hope too, that you will so place it, that it will be an object of interest to all who may visit you, and that you will so familiarize yourself with it as to be able to explain its teachings to them; thus each reader will be a preacher of the "narrow way to life" -- to Glory, Honor and Immortality, so soon to close; and also of the plan of God for the world's salvation, which is only just beginning. May God make you able ministers of his word.

The Chart should have your careful attention and study for at least one month: for this reason, and to allow needed time for other parts of the service, this paper and chart supplement will constitute the July and August issue. Therefore you may expect nothing more until September.

Food for Thinking Christians
[develop]
Financing the Work


Russell and others poured their personal fortunes into keeping Zion’s Watch Tower afloat. In late 1881 he attempted to make the paper free to all, something the Postal regulations would disallow. Explaining his reasons, he said, “The subscription price was made so low in endeavoring to make it burdenless upon the majority of our readers who cannot well afford to spend more, that it did not pay expenses. (The paper from the first has only paid about two-thirds of its expenses--not to mention the additional cost of
Supplements during the last six months.)”
A major source of the money was a donation of Florida land that seems to
have come from Russell and his father. A special supplement offering the land
for sale was issued with the November 1884 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. By
December, eight of the plots had been sold. There were forty plots on the list “of ten acres each, on Pinellas Peninsula, Hillsboro Co., Florida, donated to this Society's funds and offered for sale at ten dollars per acre cash; or two years' time to settlers.” The supplement seems not to exist in any library or collection, but some detail is preserved in short announcements. The land seems to have been in the Disston and Pinellas areas.
Additional plots were offered for sale late in 1885:

Some who engaged plots of the land donated to "Z.W.T. Tract Society" at Pinellas
(See Supplement), finding that circumstances do not favor their going, have donated the installments paid to the Fund and returned the land for sale. Besides this, another Brother interested in the truth, has donated to the Society near the other donated lands four ten-acre plots.

Thus it comes that we have about twelve plots now for sale. Of these four have small ponds, and would require some ditching, and can therefore be had at half price.

We need a clear photocopy of this ...

Henry Smith Warleigh: Why Evil Was Permitted: A dialogue, published by George Storrs, 1863.
We can use any edition. Anyone?

Update!

We also need clear photocopies of How Will Christ Come? and The Day of Judgment. Both were printed in the early 1880's. We need a photocopy of the front only. A clear digital scan would be better.

Yes, we realize this is asking for the moon. As far as I know, no copies still exist. But it doesn't hurt to ask, does it?