What was George H. Fisher like?

 

  Elsewhere on this blog is an article about the death of George H. Fisher. We know him as the author of the Ezekiel portion of The Finished Mystery, but do we know anything else? Newspapers help the researcher find some of the cold facts and documented evidence of the individuals under investigation, but what sort of people were they? What kind of person was George H. Fisher? 

The Bible Student Newspaper, The St. Paul Enterprise (later renamed The New Era Enterprise) of the time period helps us round out what sort of person Fisher was through a few short character descriptions in the early 1920s.

The great majority of the documented lectures of Fisher were prophetic in nature, but according to the November 14, 1922 Enterprise he also liked to speak on love as "The Most Important Thing"

The October 9, 1917 St. Paul Enterprise states that George H. Fisher did not claim speaking ability, but he was definitely a teacher who knew what he was talking about, and he was able to hold the audience spellbound.

The New Era Enterprise of July 12, 1921 describes the type of speaker that Fisher was in that he spoke in "terse sentences and didactic style."

The November 20, 1917 Enterprise mentions that when he lectured on Ezekiel's Temple he used a chart that was literally bigger than a barn door. 


The June 28, 1921 New Era Enterprise informs us of Fisher's musical ability by stating that he played a very large organ of 70 pipes.

From the hymn books of the time period we can see that Fisher also wrote hymns. Zion's Glad Songs No. 1, and No. 2 published by Br. McPhail have two hymns which Fisher wrote.


"A Little Talk with Jesus" is a hymn with words by Gertrude W. Seibert and music by G. H. Fisher.



Both authors of The Finished Mystery have a hymn they wrote together. What a Triumph of His Grace has words by Clayton J. Woodworth, and music by George H. Fisher.



Although we cannot hear recordings of Fisher's voice or speaking style, history has been brought alive through a modern recording of one of Fisher's hymns. This hymn probably hasn't been heard in over a century since McPhail sided with the New Covenant splinter group and his hymn books fell out of use rather quickly. Many of the hymns that were in the books he published were not carried forward in other Bible Student Song books.


Enjoy!