An Interesting Volume

    

Revised

     The Church of God General Conference is a religious group, primarily based in America, which grew out of loosely related groups that used such terms such as Church of God, Age to Come and Abrahamic Faith in the 19^th century. Going back far enough, they are cousins of the Christadelphians, and in the mid-ninteenth century often associated on a local level wth Advent Christians. Ultimately, as statements of belief were firmed up and became “official” there came to be a parting of the ways. However, as established in Separate Identity, the early group Charles Taze Russell associated with had such a mixture of influences.

     See for example, the earlier article on this blog:

     1874-75: Allegheny-Pittsburgh – Adventist or Age to Come? The case of George Storrs and Elder Owen.

     https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2011/10/1874-75-allegheny-pittsburgh-adventist.html

     The modern Church of God has put certain archives online, and while most relate to the 20^th century and maybe outside our area of interest, they do include one or two from the 19^th century. Their blurb on their archives states:

“This collection of books contains authors who considered themselves part of the Church of God those who pre-date the formation of the Church of God General Conference, and others who held to similar doctrinal positions but were not formally aligned with the Church of God.”

      One such book is of particular interest to us, because it is a copy of Three Worlds, by Barbour and Russell (Barbour as writer and CTR as publisher) and even more interesting, it appears to be one gifted by CTR himself.

     This copy is clean and unmarked apart from pencil on one page only, but without any textual notations.

     The main paper of the Church of God in the second half of the 19^th century was The Restitution and it provides much information on CTR. He sent most of his earlier writings to the paper. Object and Manner was given away as a freebie to all subscribers, and Three Worlds, The Plan of the Ages and later volumes of Millennial Dawn were often reviewed. The reviews veered from polite but condescending to outright hostile as CTR’s ministry took off, and veered away from what became official Church of God doctrine.

     For details of this, see old article Charles Taze Russell and The Restitution.

     https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2012/03/charles-taze-russell-and-restitution.html

     But in 1877, Church of God adherents were an obvious audience for Three Worlds.

     The flyleaf contains an inscription that mentions CTR, and with the marvels of computer programs it can be “raised” from faded away to legible. The inscription reads:

     A transcription reads:

Christine Railsback's Book (?)

Argos, Ind(iana)

A present from Bro.

C.T. Russel of

Pittsburg, PA

June – 1877

     It would be really nice to think that this was personally autographed by CTR, but the misspelling of "Russel" strongly suggests that the inscription was made by the recipient, Christine, to show where the book had come from.

     So CTR sent the volume as a present to Christine Railsback (1841-1897) of Argos, Indiana. Christine (the former Christine Swafford) married John Corbaley Railback (1841-1928) in 1863. When she died, her obituary in The Argos Reflector for May 20, 1897, stated she had been a life long member of the Church of God and her funeral took place in the Argos Church of God.

When her husband died over 30 years later, his obituary in The Argos Reflector for June 7, 1928, made a similar comment about his background. His funeral too was conducted in the Argos Church of God.

      Although no familial connection can be established, John Corbaley Railsback would appear to have been named after John Corbaley. John Corbaley was a well-known Church of God evangelist, who established churches with Benjamin Wilson (of the Diaglot) and also Hugh B Rice, who had a short association with CTR. Rice was listed as a contributor in the first issues of Zion’s Watch Tower, although in fact never did contribute anything.

     For his story and the Corbaley background see old article: H B Rice – An Impecunious Man.

     https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2019/05/h-b-rice-impecunious-man.html

     Perhaps the only unanswered question is why CTR sent the book to Christine rather than John? Ultimately the book ended up in the archive library of the Church of God.

     Copies of Three Worlds are highly collectable. One actually gifted by a young Charles Taze Russell would be even more so.

Friends of this Blog in Australia

I need a scan or photocopy of J. Hunter's Faults in Creation, 1932. A copy is in the Australian National Library. I cannot afford to pay for this. So any help will be a 'labor of love.'

1893 Chicago

 

A key photograph in the history of the Watch Tower Society is that for the 1893 Chicago convention, the first real national convention the Bible Students held. Most readers here will be familiar with the picture below that was published in the 1914 Chicago City Temple brochure. It shows around 76 of the 360 delegates in a group photograph. You may need to click on it to see the picture in full.

It would be nice to have the clearest photograph possible to try and identify the different Bible Students who appeared in the picture.

Does anyone out there have a better copy that could be shared? To illustrate, below is a selective enlargement from the bottom right hand corner of the photograph. Again you may need to click on it to see it in full. However, I think most would agree that the definition is far better.

The story behind the above is that when I was in America as an international delegate in 2014 I visited a home that had a large card-backed photograph of this scene. Using a cheap camera I took a quick snapshot of just this small section. The “original” from which the snap was taken is now apparently buried under glass in an Assembly Hall display. My reason for just taking a selective extract was that all I wanted at the time was a good photograph of a young Ernest Henninges and his wife to be, Rose Ball. They are sitting together on the ground in the front on the right. As a bonus, in this selective enlargement you can see in the “middle row” towards the left of the picture, CTR sitting with his wife Maria. Their inclusion was accidental, but this adds another picture to the Russell family history.

It was only when back home, several thousand miles away, that I realised what a missed opportunity this had been.

So again, does anyone have a nice clear photograph that can improve on the complete group photograph as shown in this post?

An extract from a Catholic anti-sect book from 1925

Translation Help Please!

In derselben art wird bei dieser sekte durch vortrage in riesenversammlungen gearbeitet. Da hier auf Erden vielfach gerade das allereinfaltingste, wenn es mit der notigen dreistigkeit voretragen wird, die meisten glaubigen findet, so ist kaum zu verwundern, das die vortrage diser "Ernsten Bibelforscher" uberullt und ihre schriften uberall machtig verbreitet sind. Alles zeigt uns die gemeingefahrlichkeit disser sekte. 

What I have:

In the same way, this sect works through mass meeting lectures. Since here on earth often the simplest idea (?), when presented with the necessary audacity, finds many adherents, it is hardly surprising that the lectures and meetings of the "Bibelforschers" and their writings are energetically circulated everywhere. Everything reveals the common danger of this sect. 

Can you improve this?

On ebay

 The book by Meffert noted a few posts down as "more translation help" is for sale on ebay. Remember this is an anti-Witness book written by a Catholic priest. It is, however, a useful historical document. The example on ebay is soft covered and an extra from my research library.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225527684171

I need a clear, flatbed scan of this

 Petition card from the Rutherford era.

The Russell's Store

 Sent by Raymond who regularly provides me with his research finds. These are from the Pittsburgh Commercial of April 5 and 28, 1877.

This is from The Monongahela Valley Republican of August 14, 1879.

A Correction to Separate Identity, Volume One

 As most of my readers know, I'm committed to accuracy, and I've noted on this blog a few points needing correction or elaboration. Robert M. Bowman Jr. recently emailed me to correct a comment and footnote on page 79. I attributed something to him that is the work of another, and my comments were quite critical. In fairness to myself the book I cited attributed the material to Bowman, but in fact the editor was responsible. Bowman was not.

Bowman's email says:

It has come to my attention that on page 79 of your book A Separate Identity, you criticize Alan Gomes and me for referring to Jonas Wendell's influence on Charles Taze Russell as that of Seventh-day Adventism. To be honest, I had no idea this statement had been made. The book you quoted was Truth and Error, by Alan Gomes; I was not its author. What you were quoting was Gomes's summary of my book in the series, entitled Jehovah's Witnesses, and in this instance Gomes inaccurately summarized what I had written. In my book, I never called Wendell a Seventh-day Adventist. I associated him with the Advent Christian Church (p. 10), not with the SDA Church. I noted some similarities between SDA and Russell, but I never attributed any of Russell's beliefs to SDA influence.

I plan to bring the matter to Gomes's and Zondervan's attention, but since the publication is 25 years old and has never been revised I doubt Zondervan will be willing to edit the statement. The error is regrettable. Your caustic comment about the authors and publishers does not fairly apply to me. I make every effort to be accurate in what I write and am quite dismayed by this mistake, even though I am not the one who made it, since unfortunately my name is attached to the mistake. I will note, on the other hand, that had you consulted the book Gomes said he was summarizing you would have discovered for yourself that I did not make that mistake.

In Christ's service,

Robert M. Bowman Jr.

President, Institute for Religious Research

When the revisions to volume one are complete - sometime after vol. 3 sees print - I will correct this. In the meantime I correct it here with my apologies to Mr. Bowman.

Again, I express my apologies.

B. W. Schulz, FRHistS

More Translation Help, Please.

I scanned one of the pages I'm trying to read. I get the drift, but need a good translation which is beyond my ability. I've done this reluctantly because the book is very fragile. If you can translate this page, starting from where we left off in the previous post, please do so. 

The author is Dr. Franz Meffert. The title is "Bibelforscher" un Bibelforschung under das Weltende. This was one of the first Anti-Watch Tower tracts/books published in Germany. My intent is to quote parts of this in the last chapter of Separate Identity vol 3.

Click the image to see it in its entirety. 

Translation help?

 I read German at the most elementary level. Here is what I have and how I would translate it. Can you improve this?

wird er kaufmann und Gerät in die sekte advenisten, durch die er mit der phantasien uber das bald kommende weltende bekannt wird.

He became a merchant and active in the Adventist sect, through which he became acquainted with their fantasies about the near ending of the world.  

nun beginnt er, ohne jemals mit wissenschafitich-theologisschen forschungun die leiseste fuhlung genommen zu haben, auf eigene faust als bibelerklarer aufzutreten.

At this point, without any knowledge of scientific theological research, he presented himself as a Bible teacher. 

A Review of The Plan of the Ages

Editorial Review of Plan of the Ages by The Churchman, an Episcopalian magazine, November 13, 1886. 

Millennial Dawn, Vol. 1. Plan of the Ages. [Pittsburgh, Pa.: Zion’s Watch Tower.]

             This volume belongs to the order of “religious-crank literature,” and we do not care to criticize it at length. It is entirely in vain to try to persuade the originators of such matter that their speculations are not the height of importance and that there can be the smallest doubt of their truth. We can only say that the Church has always rejected the Millenarian idea. As for other theological speculations in this book – They are much of them nonsense – or patent heresy. What is said of our Lord’s nature appears like an ingenious blending of all the errors condemned by the Church in all the great councils.

            It is a pity such books should be published, but they need not be read, and we can safely assure our friends that they will not lose anything by letting this work, and others like it, severely alone.