Royal Historical Society

 

Are any of our readers members/fellows of the Royal Historical Society?

George Harold Lancaster, Sr.

 I need basic biography for G. H. Lancaster, vicar of St. Stephen's, Bow, London. I especially need birth and death dates, where he was educated, any printed sermons. I have his book on the war and prophecy. I do not need that.

Anyone?

Russia

 

Cedar Point

 Can you identify any of the people in this photo?

A Visit to the White House

Guest post by Gary.

 

A remarkable piece of Bible Student history, much forgotten about in later times, involved the visit of three members to the White House on late Friday afternoon, 11th January 1918, to receive audience with no lesser person than the 28th President of the United States himself, Woodrow Wilson. 

 

The decision to visit followed multiple attempts made over many months by Joseph Rutherford to bend the ear of various authorities so as to gain leniency for a number of Bible Students who had claimed exemption when they registered for the draft, but had then been treated harshly by both their draft boards and the various army war camps they had been sent to throughout the United States. Up until this time the Bible Students were just one of several religious groups who had been viewed with suspicion due to their unwillingness to fight. But though some religious opponents had already attempted to muddy the waters, The Finished Mystery had not become the focus of criticism by the authorities as would shortly be the case. 

 

Having tried every other reasonable attempt at diplomacy, and in the hope that this impasse could yet be broken, at the annual meeting of the IBSA held in Pittsburgh on 5 January 1918, a resolution was adopted defining the position of the Bible Students concerning combatant service in the war, asking that its members be given the privileges of Section 4 of the Selective Services Act. Perhaps in this we can see the start of the resolutions that were sent to various world leaders and became a feature of later conventions.

 

The resolution started with a conciliatory tone stating early that “we believe our position as a religious organization ... is not fully understood by various officers and representatives of the United States Government” and explained that it was the hope that it this might change. The first point of the resolution even called President Wilson “a great man who is using his power and influence conscientiously and according to his best judgement in the interests of the peoples of the world and particularly of the United States.” 

 

Had the resolution simply pleaded for those Bible Students incarcerated in army camps throughout the United States to have been shown reasonable consideration, as had largely been the case with the traditional peace churches, such as the Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers, the resolution might have been favourably received or, alternatively, easily dismissed. But in keeping with the tradition of the Old Testament prophets, opportunity was also taken to pass comment on the questionable alliance between the governments and prominent religious authorities of the day. Notably the fifth point stated:

 

With charity to all and malice toward none, we feel it our duty humbly to call attention to the fact that the nations are now passing through the great crisis foretold by the prophets of the Lord, and that God is now expressing his displeasure toward the relationship existing between ecclesiastical and civil kingdoms of the earth, particularly as set forth in the following cited Scriptures, to wit: Revelation, chapters 17 and 18; Ezekiel, chapter 34.

 

Rutherford delegated the responsibility to share the resolution to three capable and adept Bible Students: Dr Atwood Smith of Louisville, Kentucky, who acted as Chairman, Ernest Sexton, of Los Angeles, California, and Edward Brenneisen, of New York City.  The resolution was to be taken in person to President Wilson, and then to Secretary of War, Newton Baker, with access gained by appointment made via Joseph P. Tumulty, the President’s Secretary

 

  

President Wilson’s religious background and his diplomatic posture

 

Woodrow Wilson was a highly educated man and by religion a Presbyterian with a strong sense of purpose and vision.  He knew his Bible inside out, being one of only a few men who could have held his own in a discussion on scripture with the three Bible Students, had the conversation gone that way. But in interpretation he was poles apart from his earnest but persistent audience. Wilson had studied Social Gospel under Richard T. Ely at Johns Hopkins in the 1880s, and he represented the sensibility of the mainstream Protestant churches in his approach to reform.  Having a powerful sense of right and wrong, like so many Americans of the time, Wilson considered the development and survival of his country as little less than miraculous. If America did have a manifest destiny to follow, who better to chart its course and lead the world than the President himself?  Post millennial thought was central to Wilson’s crusade to make the world "safe for democracy" through the entry of the United States into the Great War. As premillennialists, Bible Students would not share Wilson’s vision of the Social Gospel, American nationalism and superiority, and, as Zoe Knox has noted, “appeared as opponents not only of the conflict but, ... of the optimism and belief that characterized America in times of both war and peace.” Yet even they recognised its rise in status as Biblically predicted and rejoiced since, as Pastor Russell had stated, they considered that “quite the majority of the New Creation live under the highest forms of civil government to be found in the world to-day, and appreciate this as a divine favor and blessing.”

 

Before we understand what took place that day we should first be aware of an event that had occurred some years earlier involving President Wilson, a large petition rather than a resolution, and a visit of a different minority group who sought Wilson’s assistance. 

 

Though seen as an enlightening place to welcome immigrants with the offer of liberty at the time, America was, of course, still very much a racially divided society. During his earlier years Wilson had seemingly offered to bridge differences between white and black Americans to gain popularity. But, in fact, like many Presidents before and after, his preferences remained strongly white. In one November afternoon during 1914 Wilson was visited by William Monroe Trotter, a black civil rights leader and Boston newspaper editor, who had previously received and been satisfied by vague assurances from Wilson of his wishes to help, but by now Trotter was no longer impressed by words only.  To force a showdown, Trotter defiantly pushed his cause to the point of no return by publicly challenging the President’s policy of segregation.  A heated exchange ensued when, shocked by Trotter’s persistent manner, the President reacted angrily by ordering him and his supporters out of the Oval Office. The resultant bad press earned Wilson no favours. 

 

Afterwards, in defending his actions Wilson acknowledged his error was, unfortunately, not that of racism, but that of public relations:

 

What I ought to have done would have been to (have) listened, restrained my resentment, and, when they had finished, to have said to them that, of course, their petition (would) receive consideration. They would then have withdrawn quietly and no more would have been heard about the matter.        

 

Cynical though it may seem, this diplomatic posture appears to have largely adopted by President Wilson when he received the IBSA delegation in early 1918.

 

 

A positive encounter?

 

An upbeat letter sent to Sister Abbott, hopeful of a positive outcome, appeared in the St. Paul Enterprize, an unofficial Bible Student newspaper, and also The Farmington Times, Missouri, explaining in some detail the nature of the conversation and written by Sexton, one of the three Bible Students delegates to visit.  

 

According to Sexton the three men were welcomed into the White House and cordially treated. The President listened attentively and expressed comments of concern regarding the conscientious objectors involved, implying that it hadn’t been the intention of the Selective Service Act to persecute genuine men holding religious scruples.  The President implied his intention to deal with the matter to alleviate their suffering. Encouraged by the time allowed and the President’s apparent concern the men did more than simply leave the long petition for him to read thereafter, they read it to him word by word.

 

Sexton waxed lyrical in his description of the President:

 

My personal impression of Mr. Wilson is, first of all, that he is a perfect gentleman and receives one with true courtesy.  His manner is quiet - in no way flurried or excited, and he would hardly impress one as having practically the weight of the world on his shoulders; in fact, he would rather give the impression that he had nothing else to do but receive us and thus kill a little time. Another thing very noticeable about this man of prominence is that he is far better looking than any picture would indicate. He has a very pleasant personality, and he is by no means the cold-blooded machine that many believe him to be.

 

The letter recorded that Wilson listened patiently while the resolution was read to him, seemingly noted every point made and, at the conclusion, asked if the IBSA conscientious objectors involved would be prepared to engage in work if a reconstructive nature, such as Red Cross work, or anything that was not decidedly of a war or war preparatory nature. In reply the committee explained that in every case this was an individual matter for each man to decide. Also, that though some might be prepared to do such they feared that in order to do so they would be expected to don the army uniform and take the oath of a soldier, which they would not do.  The committee explained that these young men were not cowards, but were prepared to suffer any indignity, even death itself, rather than to discard their religious scruples. At this point the President seemed too show much feeling, responding quickly that “we have no desire to heap indignities upon these men.”

 

Sexton commented that the President “intimated that the courts which had passed sentences upon the brethren had exceeded their authority, rather through ignorance than malice. He promised to give the matter his personal attention, taking a copy of the resolution and putting it with some other papers that were evidently marked due quick action.”

 

Gratified by the response the committee went over to the War Department since the President had arranged an interview with Secretary of War, Newton Baker. Baker also listened to the reading of the resolution and asked pertinent questions while reassuring the men that he and the President were of one mind concerning genuine conscientious objectors, but had difficulty in showing too much leniency in case many others might seek to evade military service who were not.

 

The report from Sexton concluded positively:

 

We have every reason to believe our visit is bearing fruit, and later developments will doubtless demonstrate this to be true. 

 

 

A more cautious approach, reading Revelation chapters 17 and 18 to the Secretary of War, a casual jest by President Wilson and the point of the chapters tragically missed

 

A more cautious approach was adopted by The Watch Tower of the time which reflected that “what effect this resolution may have we cannot of course know.” Rutherford had perhaps read a little too much into a previous casual governmental response which had seemed to imply recognition of the IBSA, and so no longer wanted to raise undue hopes based on vague governmental inferences.

 

A side light to the meeting has been provided in recent times by Mennonite historian Duane Stoltzfus.  In considering the Wilson papers, he records that Baker heard representations from a variety of religious objectors including “Mennonites, Brethren, Amish, and Hutterites, he heard from Seventh Day Adventists; Russellites, later known as Jehovah’s Witnesses; Molokans, members of a small Russian Christian pacifist sect living in the Southwest; and others. At one point Baker joked with the President, the son of a Presbyterian minister, about a religious group that felt compelled to read to him the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Revelation while making its case. Wilson, a Bible reader with his own sense of humor, replied that when he met with the group, there was no reading from Revelation - they figured that the president knew the passage by heart, he intimated, unlike his wayward secretary of war.”

 

Stoltzfus did not locate which religious group was the one in question. But we may hazard a reasonable guess by noting that point 5 of the IBSA resolution included reference to precisely the two chapters of Revelation that Baker mentioned.  Ironically, the amusing jest made by President Wilson may have caused the two men in authority to take too lightly the seriousness of the chapters concerned.

 

In fairness to President Wilson, to a limited degree it may be said he did respond favourably to the visit of the three IBSA men, and indeed to other religious groups who attempted to bend his ear at this time. In March the President belatedly gave a much-needed definition explaining what the term ‘non-combatant’ involved. Since the Selective Service Act had been enacted some 10 months earlier this had remained undefined and caused considerable and unnecessary confusion amongst conscientious objectors and the military authorities alike. It was to the President’s credit that this was now resolved, yet to his debit that he had dallied so long and, in so doing, caused untold suffering to so many. It was not just the COs rotting in army camps who had unnecessarily suffered.  Army officers throughout the US attempting to train men for their military offensive found the existence of COs at best an unneeded inconvenience, and at worst a dissenting and disquieting influence in Camp that they would have preferred to be without. It strapped their resources and pushed their patience to an extreme.

 

 

In the cold light of day

                                          

At the time, the visit of the IBSA committee appeared to be well received and offered hope for a positive outcome. In the cold light of day, however, the attempt achieved little success and was later seen as an abject failure. Indeed, The Golden Age later commented:

 

A committee bearing this resolution called upon President Wilson and personally read and presented it to him. Our troubles began shortly thereafter.

 

Sexton also likely viewed his earlier upbeat letter with embarrassment. By early July 1918 he was arrested in Portland, Oregon, as just one of twenty-six Bible Students charged with circulating copies of The Kingdom News as a protest against the Government’s suppression of The Finished Mystery. Consequently, he was alleged to be in violation of the Espionage Act by authorities who now took exception to the Bible Student message. 

 

 

Sources:

 

The New Creation,Studies in the Scriptures, volume 6, 1904, 594

 

The Watch Tower, 1 July 1917, [Reprints 6110]

 

The Watch Tower, 15 January 1918, [Reprints 6203]

 

The St. Paul Enterprize, 12 February 1918, 4

 

The Farmington Times, Missouri, 22 February 1918, 3

 

The Los Angeles Herald, 3 July 1918, 8

 

The Oregon Daily Journal, 3 July 1918, 3

 

The Express Tribune, Los Angeles, 6 October 1918

 

The Golden Age, 9 June 1920, 590

 

Secondary Sources:

 

Pacifists in Chains - the Persecution of Hutterites during the Great War, Duane Stoltzfus, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2013, 69-70

 

Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, Kerri Greenidge, Liveright 2019

 

“A Greater Danger than a Division of the German Army”, Zoe Knox, Peace & Change, vol. 44, No.2, April 2019, 234

 

 

Postscript from Jerome:

 

For those who like to know these things, Edward Brenneisen stayed with the Watchtower Society and died as a Jehovah’s Witness in 1956.

Ernest Sexton left fellowship with the IBSA and died in 1932.

Dr Samuel Atwood Smith died in 1930. His religious history after the death of CTR is not known.

                                                                                                                              

You takes your choice...

If you have not already seen it, please look at the post "50th Wedding Anniversary" just below this one. 

     In the 1870s there were numerous small Bible classes loosely affiliated with various papers, some Age to Come, some different strands of Adventism. People obtained papers from all manner of sources, and when ZWT started publication it was initially just one more to add to the list. Eventually, people started to choose which direction they viewed as “the truth,” and the Bible Student movement, with its separate identity, came into being.

     However, many attending gatherings that became “Bible Student” meetings continued to still read widely, even if, as time went by, it may have been politic to keep quiet about it.

     In the first few decades of ZWT’s publication, alternative magazines were still being read by various Bible Students as well. This might help us understand certain subject matter in early ZWTs. On occasion CTR would be responding to the work of others which he knew his readers were receiving. The Tabernacle and its Teachings (later rewritten into Tabernacle Shadows) was originally written, at least in part, to combat the writings of Nelson Barbour.

The Herald of the Morning

     In the 1890s Nelson Barbour’s paper The Herald of the Morning was obviously still seen by a few. In the follow up to 1894’s Harvest Siftings (special issue of ZWT for April 25, 1894) defector S D Rogers was accused of visiting ZWT congregations with bad intent and in Rochester, NY, introducing the faithful to Nelson Barbour, described as a “bold and relentless enemy.” (See ZWT for June 11, 1894). There is no other record of this and Barbour’s paper for this era is not available, but taking the account at face value, three things can be noted.

     First, Rogers knew who Barbour was and where Barbour was, to go to him for support against CTR. Second, it was reported back to CTR that this had actually happened. Third, Barbour was still sufficently well-known to ZWT readers for CTR to mention the event as a warning. CTR’s comment would only have real meaning if Barbour was still on selected Bible Students’ radar.

     This is supported by what happened when a few Bible Students, including a Watch Tower Society director, Augustus Weimar, left fellowship and joined the Koreshan Unity in 1895. This was a strange group that among other things believed the earth was hollow and mankind lived inside it.

     In the September 1895 issue of the Koreshan magazine, The Flaming Sword, they used one of Barbour’s articles from November 1891 to attack CTR’s theology. It seems likely that the Koreshans got this from their new intake of ex-ZWT supporters. However, this means that at least one of those supporters was still reading Barbour’s Herald into the 1890s.

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-watch-tower-and-koreshan-unity.html

 

The World’s Hope

     John Paton left fellowship with CTR around 1882 and started his own paper The World’s Hope, promoting Universalist views. Looking an extant copies of this paper, a number of well-known ZWT names were also readers. It was Paton who reported on the death of the first ZWT president, W H Conley, and obviously knew and was in contact with him. The account about Conley’s death in The World’s Hope for August 1, 1897 was supplied by W I Mann, who up to April 1892 had been a ZWT director.

     For the history of individuals, Paton’s magazine is valuable because in keeping with his views on universal salvation he tried to keep in touch with or at least report on everyone. The interest was not generally reciprocated. From an historical sense one it is a pity that his paper folded in August 1916.  A few more months and he would have no doubt reported on CTR’s life and death as he saw it.

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2013/07/john-patons-farewell.html

 

The Spirit of the Word

     Another associate, Arthur P Adams, initially supported Barbour when the split came, but then started a small circulation paper in 1885 called The Spirit of the Word.

     Adams was a Methodist minister who met CTR in 1877 and became associated with both him and John Paton and Nelson Barbour. As a result of unrepentantly expounding Age to Come views he was expelled from the Methodist ministry in 1878. CTR chose to mention Adams in the first version of Harvest Siftings published in 1890.

     It was after this, while on a tour of the New England States, that I met Mr. A. P. Adams, then a young Methodist minister, who became deeply interested and accepted the message heartily during the week that I preached to his congregation. Subsequently, I introduced him to little gatherings of interested ones in neighboring towns, and assisted otherwise, as I could, rejoicing in another one who, with study, would soon be a co-laborer in the harvest field.

     It wasn’t to last. Later in the reprinted Harvest Siftings (1894):

     Mr. Adams espoused the views of Mr. Barbour and likewise forsook the doctrine of the ransom. And, true to our interpretation of the parable of the wedding garment as given at the time, Mr. Barbour and Mr. Adams, having cast off the wedding garment of Christ's righteousness, went out of the light into the outer darkness of the world on the subjects once so clearly seen.

     CTR obviosuly felt it necessary to mention Adams because some ZWT readers would also know of his ministry. One example of this was Ophelia Burroughs. Ophelia wrote letters to ZWT, organized a Dawn Circle in the absence of suitable males to step up to the mark, and wrote hymns and poems which the Society published throughout the 1890s and into the 1900s. It can be confusing because she wrote under several names, including Browning (her maiden name) and Burroughs (the name of her first husband).

     But Ophelia knew Adams. Very well. In April 1905 she went as far as marrying him!

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2015/01/ophelia.html

50th Wedding Anniversary

 

The One That Got Away

Please read post “Update to the Update” below this one.

    Below is a “new” photograph of the Allegheny Bible House family from 1907.

     This article is captioned “The one that got away” because this photograph was not included in the book The Bible House that was published back in the autumn.

     To read or re-read a review of that book, please check this older blog post.

     https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-review.html

     The new photograph has only come to light since the book’s publication and will now be included in future editions.

     There is a famous photograph of the workers at Bible House, in the street outside the entrance, which dates from 1907. This interior shot was taken around the same time because it includes most of the same people. Missing from the photograph are CTR, his sister Margaret Land and also J A Bohnet. The photograph includes Francis Winter who died on 11 January 1908. This helps to narrow down the time the picture was taken.

     It was taken in the Bible House parlor. Below is a colorized photograph of the parlor.

     Below again is the newly discovered group photograph in the parlor, now colorized and with the names of the people, where known, added below. (You may have to click on the photograph to enlarge it to see all the  details).

     With grateful thanks to Bernhard who supplied all the photographs and information for this article.

Update to the Update

 Issues with my health are slowly being resolved. Some time this month I will be in Spokane for a procedure they cannot do here. This is diagnostic. I do not know why my Doctor wants this additional procedure, but insurance covers it, and if it gives him more confidence so much the better.

The surgery is laparoscopic. It takes about 45 minutes if there are no complications. The cancer is localized and has not spread. Recovery time varies, but I should be able to return to my part-time job in a week or so. There is a - what they think is benign tumor on my right kidney. They may remove that at the same time. That's also a laparoscopic procedure. Growing old is not for sissies, someone once said. I agree. 

I'm taking a break from intensive research to focus on doctor visits and pills and easier writing projects. Thanks to everyone who expressed sympathy. 

I have a second surgery over another issue. That's in July. It is same day surgery with a very limited recovery time. 

Submissions to this blog are open. Same standards as always. Anyone have a well researched article about the Russell v. Russell trials? How about the 1912 world missionary tour? Anyone?

One hundred years ago...

 Please read post "Update" below this one.

Images in this post from Tom, with grateful thanks.