Churchgoers Astonished

 

The New York Herald for 15 August 1881 carried a column on page one, entitled CHURCHGOERS ASTONISHED.

(Transcription)

CHURCHGOERS ASTONISHED.

Fifty-four Thousand Copies of a Remarkable Pamphlet Distributed Among Them.

  One week ago yesterday an attempt was made by persons then unknown to have several thousand copies of a pamphlet entitled “Food for Thinking Christians: Why Evil was Permitted, and Kindred Topics,” distributed at the doors of all the large churches in Newark. Men in carriages left packages containing 100 copies or more at the churches, with the request that they be given out to the people. At some churches they were distributed, but in most instances the sextons showed them to the ministers, and were told by the latter to keep them, which they did. At the Park Presbyterian Church the pamphlets were left on the stoop, and were then taken to the Second Precinct police station. No clergyman could find out from whom the pamphlets came.

  Yesterday morning messenger boys appeared at all the churches where the books had been left, and said they were directed to obtain them and give them out to the people. The Rev. H. Goodwin of the House of Prayer (Episcopal) sent back word by the messenger that he would not give them up until ownership was proved. Mr. Goodwin had intended to burn the books but concluded he had no right to do so, and still holds them. From the pulpit yesterday morning he referred to the matter, and said that he admired the zeal of the owners of the books, and thought their impudence was grand.

  The messenger boys reported that they were able to distribute only a few of the pamphlets. At several churches they were told that there were no books there, and when they undertook to give them out at other churches they were hustled away, or “booted off,” as some of them expressed it.

  It was learned yesterday that the pamphlets at the police station had been claimed and taken away by some one signing his name as A. M. Bergner. Mr. Bergner was found at his house in Newark. He frankly said he had been engaged in circulating the pamphlets, and was willing to talk on the subject. Being ushered into the dining room, the reporter observed that a religious meeting was in progress in the parlor. Mr. Bergner is about 40 years old, with a fair face and light hair and beard. He is of medium height, and has clearly cut and rather handsome features.

  “I belong,” he said, “to a company of Christians who have no common name. We are not Second Adventists, as has been inferred from the pamphlet, and we are not the ‘Holiness’ or ‘Higher Life’ sect. We have members all over America, England, Australia, I think, and probably in Germany. We commenced our meetings in Newark about nine months ago, and hold them every Sunday and during the week here and at Mr. Sturtevant’s house in Jenkins street. The meetings are for devotional and Bible study. We are opposed to the teachings of the churches on several points. What they teach about hell and immortality is nonsense. There is no hell. There will be eternal life for those who serve God; the wicked will also be resurrected and have a second probation during the millennium. But you can’t understand our doctrines unless you read the pamphlet about which so much fuss is made. It was written by C. T. Russell of Pittsburgh, and 500,000 copies are to be distributed in this country at an expense of $30,000. Six thousand copies were sent out here last Sunday, and only 20,000 copies are to be given out at church doors in New York. The ministers will say, ‘Burn them!’ and will be like the Romans who used to burn the Bible. This fuss caused an inquiry for the book. To-day I went to the Park Presbyterian Church and the Belleville Avenue Congregational with 120 copies, and the people eagerly took every one. I went to the Park Presbyterian because of the minister’s audacity in putting them out on the stoop last Sunday without first reading one. I can’t tell you how many books reached the people last Sunday. I am told that in the Sunday school of the Fifth Baptist Church the superintendent wrote on the blackboard: ‘Food for thinking Christians. Take one,’ and the children received them.”

  Mr. C. T. Russell, a medium-sized, well-built, and shrewd-looking person dropped in upon the officers of the American District Telegraph Company in this city on Wednesday afternoon. He was turned over to Superintendent Jackson, of the Circuit Department. Mr. Russell said that he desired to have distributed 100,000 copies of the pamphlet. Mr. Russell said that he was going to different cities to engage people to distribute the pamphlets.

  Yesterday morning 54,000 copies of the pamphlet were distributed among the different branch offices of the American District Telegraph Co. below Twenty-third street. Four boys, each carrying a heavy package and dressed in the uniform of the Messenger Company, stopped at the front gates of each of the churches below Twenty-third street and proceeded to tear off its coverings. It made no difference whether the church was opened for services or not, they stayed and distributed the pamphlet. Every churchgoer got one if he or she would take it. Every pedestrian was given two or three. Persons in carriages got a larger number. The boys cheered as they passed that their boss wasn’t mean. If they wanted more copies, all they had to do was write to him. No attempt was made to stop the distribution by the police officials.

Footnote on A M Bergner from Separate Identity volume 2 page 398.

Agustus M. Bergner was born in Stockholm about 1839, according to the 1880 Census. He is listed as a “cutlery dealer” in the census and in a 1900 Newark City Directory. He was briefly president of the Women’s and Children’s Mutual Benefit Association, which offered inexpensive life insurance. It failed to meet New Jersey State requirements and was closed by order of the New Jersey Secretary of State. (City and Suburban News, The New York Times, May 20, 1884.) He seems not to be mentioned in Zion’s Watch Tower, but his wife Jennie Bergner is. [See the article “Out of Darkness and into His Marvelous Light,” Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1, 1893, page 238.] Bergner served in the Navy during the Civil War, as Mate on the Natasuket. The name Agustus M. Bergner appears in a list of “soldiers and sailors” whose address was sought. The last known address for him in the list was Brooklyn, New York. (See The Washington, D. C., National Tribune, March 30, April 6, 13, 20, 27, 1899.) He was a mate on the American Navy’s screw frigate USS Wampanoag during its first sea trials. – Naval Intelligence, New York Herald, April 18, 1868. He died January 22, 1890, in New Jersey.