We left up a post from 2009 for its research value to others but with a note saying it was dated and to rely instead on the contents of Separate Identity, vol 1. I took the post down today. Too many copy from it and head in the wrong direction. We do not want to foster poor research.
I removed it reluctantly. There was stellar research in that article, and hard to find facts. But after talking to Bruce, I decided to take it down because a few internet articles have relied on it but took the wrong things from it.
If you've been using that 2009 article, I'm sorry. Buy our book. Everything that mattered from the 2009 essay is in it, and you'll find much more detail. The few silly things that were in it are gone along with the rest.
R
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
An update of sorts ...
I've split the chapter Out of Babylon in two. I've turned the section on adherent clergy into its own chapter. Not far enough along to post any of that yet, but if you think you have relevant information about interested clergy 1880-1890, please pass it on.
I miss Ton. Yes, I said that before. He'd stick with the mysteries until solved. Besides he was my friend.
I miss Ton. Yes, I said that before. He'd stick with the mysteries until solved. Besides he was my friend.
Another without a name
Update: I think this is probably the same writer as G. A. Rose, whose letter appears in the July 1883, Watch Tower. Sadly there are so many G. A Roses that I can't add more to this. Can you?
Update to the update: A letter headed Newberg NY in the 8/83 ZWT seems to be from our G. A. Rose.
This letter was printed in the March 1883 issue of Zion's Watch Tower. It doesn't appear in 'reprints.' I've expended too much time trying to put a name to the writer. I must move on, but I'm posting it here, hoping that one of you can do what I can't.
The Letter:
Goshen, N.Y.
DEAR BRO. RUSSELL:--I now send you another week's work-
-lists for the TOWER. The interest of the people here at the
reading of Z.W.T. is great. I feel like going from county to
county the coming year, and scattering "God's truth." As I
cannot afford to buy a horse, which I much need, I have to go on
foot; but I am no better to go thus than the Lord was. I meet with
the best results and the worst together. I have set my face like
flint to the world, and shall keep on until I reach the prize
(immortality). I expect every issue of our county paper to have
some express themselves against the WATCH TOWER; but I
have looked in vain so far. More speak well of it than I expected
would. I am trying to get one hundred yearly subscribers here
soon. I am out of "FOOD," but shall wait until it can be sent me.
Some here are so much interested with the reading matter that
they send word by mail to have me call and explain the blessed
truth more fully. Last night two families met, where they sent
for me, and when I opened my mouth the Lord filled it with the
restitution of all things. Night before last I was at
Bro.__________'s for the first time. He said he was so glad that
God's plan was now so plain; that he wished to make my
acquaintance, and hear from human lips the blessed truths; and
when the time came to part, he said, O, glory to God, we could
talk about this until morning and would not get weary. It is good
news! To-morrow I have three calls to make upon anxious
inquirers for the truth. So, you see, I work both day and night. I
had better tell you how it is with me. I am, or was, a Baptist
preacher. My name still appears on the list of ministers of their
Association. But when I got the "Food," I began to read it, and it
was food; and so I kept on eating, and am never done. My name
will undoubtedly soon be erased from the Association. My
brethren begin to lament my fall; but, glory to God, I rejoice in
my rise. Yes, I am much higher than I ever was. I see God's
love, and not hatred. Above all you do, Brother Russell, "keep
little and humble," and to God be all the praise. I pray for you.
Pray that God will open the way that I can scatter the truth more
abundantly. With much love and prayer, I am
Your brother in Christ,
If we can't find his name, and I really want to find it, rough draft of this is below:
Update to the update: A letter headed Newberg NY in the 8/83 ZWT seems to be from our G. A. Rose.
This letter was printed in the March 1883 issue of Zion's Watch Tower. It doesn't appear in 'reprints.' I've expended too much time trying to put a name to the writer. I must move on, but I'm posting it here, hoping that one of you can do what I can't.
The Letter:
Goshen, N.Y.
DEAR BRO. RUSSELL:--I now send you another week's work-
-lists for the TOWER. The interest of the people here at the
reading of Z.W.T. is great. I feel like going from county to
county the coming year, and scattering "God's truth." As I
cannot afford to buy a horse, which I much need, I have to go on
foot; but I am no better to go thus than the Lord was. I meet with
the best results and the worst together. I have set my face like
flint to the world, and shall keep on until I reach the prize
(immortality). I expect every issue of our county paper to have
some express themselves against the WATCH TOWER; but I
have looked in vain so far. More speak well of it than I expected
would. I am trying to get one hundred yearly subscribers here
soon. I am out of "FOOD," but shall wait until it can be sent me.
Some here are so much interested with the reading matter that
they send word by mail to have me call and explain the blessed
truth more fully. Last night two families met, where they sent
for me, and when I opened my mouth the Lord filled it with the
restitution of all things. Night before last I was at
Bro.__________'s for the first time. He said he was so glad that
God's plan was now so plain; that he wished to make my
acquaintance, and hear from human lips the blessed truths; and
when the time came to part, he said, O, glory to God, we could
talk about this until morning and would not get weary. It is good
news! To-morrow I have three calls to make upon anxious
inquirers for the truth. So, you see, I work both day and night. I
had better tell you how it is with me. I am, or was, a Baptist
preacher. My name still appears on the list of ministers of their
Association. But when I got the "Food," I began to read it, and it
was food; and so I kept on eating, and am never done. My name
will undoubtedly soon be erased from the Association. My
brethren begin to lament my fall; but, glory to God, I rejoice in
my rise. Yes, I am much higher than I ever was. I see God's
love, and not hatred. Above all you do, Brother Russell, "keep
little and humble," and to God be all the praise. I pray for you.
Pray that God will open the way that I can scatter the truth more
abundantly. With much love and prayer, I am
Your brother in Christ,
If we can't find his name, and I really want to find it, rough draft of this is below:
A
letter from a Baptist clergyman appeared in the March 1883, Watch Tower.
It is datelined from Goshen, New York, but he seems to have preached in a wider
area. He explained that he was “still on the list” of Baptist ministers, but he
had abandoned that faith for a more Scriptural message. “I have set my face
like flint to the world,” he wrote, “and shall keep on until I reach the prize (immortality).”
Food for Thinking Christians persuaded him to abandon the Baptist belief
system:
When
I got the “Food,” I began to read it, and it was food; and so I kept on eating,
and am never done. My name will undoubtedly soon be erased from the
Association. My brethren begin to lament my fall; but, glory to God, I rejoice
in my rise. Yes, I am much higher than I ever was. I see God's love, and not
hatred. … Pray that God will open the way that I can scatter the truth more abundantly.
He had been in the field for some
time. We see that from his letter’s initial words: “I now send you another
week's work-lists for the tower. The interest of the people here at the reading
of z.w.t. is great.” He believed that he might obtain one hundred names for the
Watch Tower subscription list “soon.” He lamented the lack of a horse. He was
afoot with a wide territory. “As I can’t afford to buy a horse, which I much
need. … But I am no better to go thus than the Lord was.”
He met interest and opposition,
enough opposition that he expected adverse newspaper comment: “I expect every
issue of our county paper to have some express themselves against the watch tower; but I have looked in vain
so far.” Despite persistent opposition, he said, “more speak well of it than I
expected would.” Curiosity led some to write to him, inviting him to visit their
homes and explain the message:
Last
night two families met, where they sent for me, and when I opened my mouth the
Lord filled it with the restitution of all things. Night before last I was at Bro.
______'s for the first time. He said he was so glad that God's plan was now so
plain; that he wished to make my acquaintance, and hear from human lips the
blessed truths; and when the time came to part, he said, O, glory to God, we
could talk about this until morning and would not get weary. It is good news!
To-morrow I have three calls to make upon anxious inquirers for the truth. So, you
see, I work both day and night.
We were unable to put a name to this
letter. As with nearly all letters published in the Watch Tower, it was
published anonymously, and the clues to identity that fill it led us nowhere. The
one additional salient point is that the writer wanted to expand his ministry, traveling
from county to county to spread the message.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
An Introduction to What Never Was
This
material is a slight abridgment of material that originally appeared on Blog
2. It was originally written nearly 25 years ago, as the forward to a
bibliography of the publications of the Watchtower Society. I amassed a wealth
of material, but the project never saw the light of the day. I tend to be a
good starter, but not a good finisher. However, all the research was freely
passed onto others who enquired, so it didn’t get wasted. More recent compilers
like Stan Milosevic in Canada have produced useful works like WATCHTOWER
PUBLICATIONS VALUATIONS GUIDE. I wouldn’t necessarily concur with all the
valuations, but apart from not listing all the Bible Student Monthly tracts
(under their three mastheads) it is quite comprehensive.
It
was hidden away on my hard drive (through various computers) for decades, and
only rediscovered by accident in a long overdue “clear out” of dead files. I
would normally have consigned it to oblivion again, but noted that there are
some snippets of history in it - about strange booklets, Angels and Women,
Rutherford’s Ecclesiastical Heavens booklet, amongst others, and also some
comments on attitudes of the time (largely superseded in modern times I am
pleased to note). So, as filler, I am letting it see the surprising light of
day here. But please note that it was written just after the Society’s 1990
index was produced, but before the Proclaimers book was released in 1993, so is
a time capsule of the early 1990s.
Introduction
to “Watch Tower Publications - A Celebration”
One of the problems with introductions is
that very few people ever bother to read them, preferring to skip straight into
the body of the work, in this case what is to date the most comprehensive
bibliography of the publications of the Watchtower Society.
To understand what follows, and why certain
things are included (or excluded) and the basic purpose of this volume a few
minutes reading what follows will not be wasted.
The
basis for the work
The basic starting point for this work is
the Society's own bibliographies - the most detailed of which to date was recently
published in the Publications Index 1985-90. There are a few occasions where
this work will change categories slightly - e.g. the difference between a
booklet or a brochure - but the Society's listing is closely followed
otherwise.
However, the current work is designed to
ADD a lot of detail not available before.
Many tracts for example are not listed at
all in the Society's bibliography, or if they are, just the title of the
series, e.g., Bible Students Monthly.
Yet that was a series of over 100 different four page tracts. This work will list them all. Then when is a tract not a tract but just a
handbill or leaflet? Both are used in
mass-distribution witnessing work. This
work will include many other items that SEEM to qualify as tracts, and this of
course will be a list to which many readers could easily add.
This work proposes to catalogue some of the
ephemera, postcards, public talk handbills and outlines, forms, etc. There is a special section on BEFORE THE
WATCHTOWER, covering some pre-1879 materials that are of interest to many
collectors. There is a section on the
Society's films, with a special section on the PHOTO DRAMA OF CREATION listing
full details of the slides, moving pictures and recordings. Slides presentations and videos are also
catalogued in the audio-visual section
Why
collect?
In the past, some have tended to frown on
collectors. Statements like 'You don't
want to bother with that" or 'You need to keep up-to-date" have
suggested that real collectors have somehow stayed in a time-warp, surrounded
by yellowed Golden Age magazines, rarely sharing in current activities, and
more likely to have studied their Old Theology Quarterly file than modern
literature. It must be stressed of
course that browsing through history is generally NOT what most would term “personal
study”, but is a leisure activity. But
if a collector turns off the TV and rearranges the dust on old materials with
care, then that is their leisure activity, and who should criticize?
Criticisms of collecting have largely
disappeared as the Society has more and more encouraged witnesses to collect in
some shape or form old material. They
did this when they republished the Watchtower volumes back to 1951, and then
the CD-ROM material back to 1950. The
Society's own published indexes will take a researcher back to 1930 - there has
to be an assumption that, while the more recent references will be more used,
once in a while someone really IS going back to the 1930s. Then a book like REVELATION CLIMAX has over
40 pre-1930 references. All these factors make collecting USEFUL, as well as
enjoyable for those who are natural collectors!
And collecting is not just the books and
magazines.
To get an insight into the flavor of the
past, the EPHEMERA of an era has a vital role - throwaway material has a
tremendous value decades on in recreating what it was REALLY like at the time.
The Society has naturally not kept all its
ephemera - the very nature of ephemera is that it is not valued as permanent at
the time. Although the Society is now far
more conscious of preserving history, even in recent times it has had to rely
heavily on private collectors to supply the materials. The value of private collections goes back a
long way. When the reprint volumes were
first proposed, the troubles of 1918 had decimated their library. Those at headquarters did not even have a
complete file of Watchtower magazines and had to rely on private collectors to
lend the missing issues. Private collectors of course did so and so the project
could be realized. Until recently there
were four issues of Old Theology Quarterly for which the Society did not know
the titles. Again private collectors
helped fill the gaps and supplied photocopies.
So if you are a collector you will need no
encouragement to 'save it' - who knows, one day it may prove useful. If of course you are not a collector, then
you will not be reading this anyway.
Previous
attempts
There have been several previous attempts to produce bibliographies of the Society's materials. But
earlier efforts, including the Society's own, starting with the 1930-60 Index,
have contained inaccuracies, and in some cases it appears that writers have
'invented' publications, or at least passed on the errors of others.
A classic example is one bibliography that lists a number of booklets that no-one has ever been able to
find. The problem can be traced back to the bibliography published by H H Stroup
in his work JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES published first in 1945, as an early attempt as
a sociological study. Stroup quoted
extensively from the then more current works of J F Rutherford, but
unfortunately used the titles of the individual treatise rather than the titles
of the booklets. To explain, most
Rutherford booklets contained a series of titles on different subjects, the
first of which became the cover title for the whole booklet. But when Stroup
quoted from a Rutherford treatise, he used the title at the top of the page as
if it were the title of the whole publication - which generally, it wasn’t.
Here are some Stroup examples of this.
Stroup title in his bibliography
Jehovah's Organization (1932)
Hypocrisy (1932)
Prophets Foretell Redemption (1932)
Can American Government Endure (1933)
JWs - Why Persecuted (1933)
America's End (1934)
Justifying War (1934)
Religions (1934)
Marriage (1936)
Why Serve Jehovah (1936 wrong date)
|
Actually a chapter within booklet:
The Final War
Cause of Death
Good News
The Crisis
The Crisis
Supremacy
Beyond the Grave
Beyond the Grave
Home and Happiness
Dividing the People (pub 1933)
|
These mysterious missing booklets sent many
collectors off on a wild goose chase for booklets that don’t exist as such -
and some later “compilers” subsequently repeated Stroup’s error. (It also illustrates the fact that many
collectors don't actually read their collections - if they had done so, the
problem would have quickly been solved).
The Society's own bibliography first
appeared in 1960 in their 1930-1960 index.
It was a start. There were many omissions,
and some anomalies such as the date 1873 for OBJECT AND MANNER OF OUR LORD'S
RETURN. But as noted above, the current
index is still limited. For example, what
are all the titles for Peoples Pulpit, Everybody’s Paper and Bible Students
Monthly?
There are other problems to address as
well. What is an official publication
and what isn't? Theoretically, the obvious answer is when it has the name Watchtower,
or IBSA, or People’s Pulpit on the flyleaf.
But it is not that simple. A number of Bible Students and witnesses have
published their own material, which has been actively circulated by the Society
or at least been given tacit approval at the time. There have also been occasions where Society
material has been published under a different imprint. So we get publications like ANGELOPHONE HYMNS
from 1916. This is so obviously a
Society publication from references in the Watchtowers of the times, but was
published from a different address. Then
what about ANGELS AND WOMEN? This is a
republication of a Victorian novel that the Society endorsed in 1924, but
published by the A.B. ABAC Company. More
crucially, what about GREAT BATTLE IN ECCLESIASTICAL HEAVENS? This famous
booklet by J F Rutherford defending C T Russell is NOT listed as a Watchtower
publication in the latest index because the American edition was published privately
by J F Rutherford - although still available on the official society's cost
list. (Just to add to the confusion however, the British edition WAS published
by the Society). In this latter instance we have included it as
a Society publication, whereas Rutherford's earlier work PLAN OF SALVATION AS
SEEN FROM A LAWYERS VIEWPOINT is not included as official. More recent cases in point are works by
Marley Cole and A H MacMillan. In these
cases we have made a personal decision whether to include them or not. On most occasions we have followed the
Society's decision and omitted them from the main listing, but have included
them in a special section called FRINGE ITEMS. Such a list has to be the personal
choice of this compiler, so obviously will appear incomplete to some.
Finally, the title of this work is to
stress the expression A CELEBRATION. It
is the firm belief of this compiler that ALL the publications of the Society
have done a work in their time and all tell part of the story. For those who wish to collect the story it is
hoped this descriptive bibliography and its illustrations will be helpful.
Friday, November 20, 2015
We need ...
We need to establish the identity of a J. W. B. from Pierce City, Missouri. He was resident there in the 1880s, and he was Sunday (Sabbath) School superintendent in the Baptist church. He worked for the Pierce City Baptist College.
Usually, given this much information, we can come up with a name. Not this time. Can you help?
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Posts
I post our work here so you can see where our research is heading and to allow blog readers to give us feedback. It is frustrating when I post what I believe to be significant work but get no comments. I'm no longer posting long sections of research. No-one is interested.
While we will finish volume 2 of Separate Identity (We're too far along to not finish it.), we will not write the third book we had projected. There is insufficient interest. When volume 2 is published our work will end.
Zydeck's book, which is crap history, has drawn many reviews. Ours few. People do not want solid history; they want ear-tickling mythology. We devoted years of our life to this project. I believe there is nothing better out there. But what sells is polemic, myth and junk.
I'm terribly disappointed. I expected reader participation through this blog. It has not been forthcoming.
While we will finish volume 2 of Separate Identity (We're too far along to not finish it.), we will not write the third book we had projected. There is insufficient interest. When volume 2 is published our work will end.
Zydeck's book, which is crap history, has drawn many reviews. Ours few. People do not want solid history; they want ear-tickling mythology. We devoted years of our life to this project. I believe there is nothing better out there. But what sells is polemic, myth and junk.
I'm terribly disappointed. I expected reader participation through this blog. It has not been forthcoming.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
One of those things ...
I have a brain like a sieve. Back in the day - when I was researching my master's thesis - I found a statement telling how many former clergymen associated with the Allegheny congregation. As I recall it was something like 127 or 125 or in that neighborhood. I didn't make a note of it, but remembered it. Now I need the exact quotation. I can't remember where I read it. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Know where I read this?
Thursday, November 12, 2015
C. A. Russell
While turning pages in one of our research folders I ran across a post card sent by a C. A. Russell of Marion, Ohio to the Lawrence Manthey family in Toledo. Russell invited the Manthey's to stay with them during C. T. Russell's visit:
"Dear Little Friend and also your Papa, I thank you for your card you sent us. We will have Pastor Russell with us Sept 28th. We will be glad to have you with us if you can come. His lecture will be in the evening 7:45 pm. Come for the day. We invite you also to our home, we are every yours in the service - Bro. and Sis C. A. Russell"
We need a clear identification of this C. A. Russell. Can you help?
"Dear Little Friend and also your Papa, I thank you for your card you sent us. We will have Pastor Russell with us Sept 28th. We will be glad to have you with us if you can come. His lecture will be in the evening 7:45 pm. Come for the day. We invite you also to our home, we are every yours in the service - Bro. and Sis C. A. Russell"
We need a clear identification of this C. A. Russell. Can you help?
Monday, November 9, 2015
Rough Draft, partial from Out of Babylon
I'm not formatting this; take it as is. I'm posting this for some sort of feedback. This is only an extract. It will be rewritten. I want comments on content, not grammar faults.
Fellowships and Congregations
The
formation of new congregations and fellowships usually followed one of two
patterns. Sometimes newly interested were referred to others nearby who had
also expressed pleasure in Watch Tower publications. [food, England here] After
a traveling ministry was established, evangelists who found interest would
remain long enough to collect people into a Bible study fellowship. This was
especially so after the publication of The Plan of the Ages in 1886.
Examples with the most detaile come from some few years after 1886, but we
think they represent an establish process.
The
seeds of growth among the Scranton,
Pennsylvania, beliverss were sown “about the first of December” 1894 when Watch
Tower evangelists found interest there. Amelia Erlenmeyer, probably working
with another female evangelist, contacted Emma and Clayton Woodworth.[1] Amelia
impressed the Woodworths, and they considered her “one of the Lord’s dear
saints.” The Woodworths were “deeply interested in the subject of our Savior’s
return,” and she had “little difficulty” persuading them to take The Plan of
the Ages. Erlenmyer promised to return as soon as they had time to read
it. And read it they did. “In two or
three weeks” they “were interested to such an extent that although nearly
everything else was mixed up” that they “scarcely knew what” they believed.
Clayton explained:
We
did see clearly that there certainly is some special prize, some exceptional
opportunity, for which the humble, sacrificing members of Christ's flock are
invited to strive. We felt that there was only about one plank in the old
platform left for the Christian worker to stand upon, and that was the one in
which we have always been most interested, “Go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature.” We have always been expecting to fall into some
trap unless we clung close to our Savior, and at the time of which we speak
were by no means sure that your interpretations of the Scriptures, despite
their apparent harmony with them, were not the well-meant views of another
class of those unfortunates who unwittingly go about “deceiving and being
deceived.”
“About a week later,” Amelia Erlenmyer
returned “about a week later,” renewing their interest and leaving the next two
volumes of Millennial Dawn. “We saw the old landmarks of orthodoxy
topple and fall on every side,” Woodworth wrote to Russell. Between Erlenmyer’s
visits they had engaged to support a missionary. This was now an issue. They no
longer believed Methodist doctrine.[2]
Could they conscientiously support a missionary teaching doctrine they no
longer accepted? The woman missionary was unable to accept an assignment
because of eye disease, and in this way, though saddened by their friend’s
illness, the Woodworths were relieved of the conflict. Tragic as this was for
their friend, the Woodworths saw in it a divine answer to prayer: “We asked our
Father in Heaven to show us the truth or falsity of your teachings by sending
our friend as we had planned, or preventing her from going.”
By June 1895, they were fully
committed believers:
Now
we have proved the Lord, and he has answered us, and we mean to obey the call.
With fear and trembling, but with confidence in our mighty King, we enter at
the eleventh hour to run the race for crowns which others have flung aside. The
thought that others have had them and lost them almost unnerves us. Oh! may he
grant to strengthen our weak hands and confirm our feeble knees, that we be not
castaways after having once entered the Holy Place and feasted on the wonderful
truths so providentially placed in our way, is the heartfelt prayer of Your
loving brother and sister in Christ.[3]
The Woodworths were young, both
eager to serve Christ before they met and married. They withdrew from their
pervious church and took up the Watch Tower message. They found significant
interest. Among those who found Watch Tower theology convincing was Hayden
Samson, who would become a traveling evangelist for a period. They were not
alone. At least one other represented pre-existing interest in Scranton.
We know little about Daniel Milburn
Hessler. He was a prominent citizen, owning a laundry business in Scranton with
branches in Indian, New Jersey and Wyoming, Pennsylvania. He appears once in
the Watch Tower through a letter to Russell. The letter’s date
establishes him as preexisting interest. Commenting on a new cover design for Zion’s
Watch Tower in February 1891, we find him expressing his strongly held
belief:
I
received January number last night and quickly noticed the new suit in which
the tower is clothed. I feel sure
that the improvement will be greatly appreciated by its readers. The emblem of
the cross and crown is an appropriate and beautiful design to be worn by the tower. Its presence should ever
encourage, sustain and comfort the household of faith. It should also be a
warning or reminder; for as the cross and crown are inseparable in the design,
so the two are to be inseparably associated in the experience of the
overcomers. If we would wear the crown we must bear the cross.[4]
Newspaper
Photo
Hessler drops out of the record with
this letter. We do not know if he maintained his interest or how active he was
within the Scranton congregation. By
July 1895, meetings were held in George W. Hessler’s home at 728 Green
Ridge Street. Erlenmyer would have directed the Woodworths to this meeting. The
one notice of it appears in the July 13, 1895, Scranton, Pennsylvania,
Tribune:
The
Watch Tower Bible class will meet at the residence of G. W. Hessler, 728 Green
Ridge street, [sic] Sunday, July 14, at 10 a. m. The subject will be “Restitution
of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since
the world began,” Acts, iii 21. The leader will also explain from the “Chart of
the Ages” the special call of this gospel age, “The straight gate and narrow
way to life, and the few there be that find it.” Matt. Vii, 14.
We do not know who the class
“leader” was, but we do know something of George Hessler. [died May 1913] He
was a cabinet maker, “well known in building circles,” and a member of the
Improved Order of Heptasophs, a fraternal organization. Hessler was an
inventor, holding patents for a ‘book holder’ and a toilet chair.[5] A
German immigrant, he became a citizen in February 1909.[6]
Later in life he was swindled, investing in a gold mine in Cuba.[7] As
with Daniel Hessler, we do not know if he maintained his interest. When his
daughter Hazel was married in 1905, it was by the Reverent Stahl.[8]
This cannot be taken as evidence, because in this era adherents still turned to
clergy for weddings. There were few Watch Tower evangelists who were recognized
by state or county officials to perform marriages.
The Scranton congregation drew Watch
Tower traveling evangelists. Frank Draper, a well-traveled and well-known Watch
Tower representative visited nearby Peckville in May, 1896, holding two
meetings in the Grand Army of the Republic Hall. A newspaper announcement read:
“A cordial invitation is extended to all, especially the interested readers of
Millennial Dawn. Bring your Bibles and come rain or shine.” It is likely that the
meeting was sponsored by Hayden Samson who was then living in Peckville.[9]
Russell visited the congregation in
May 1897. In this era this wasn’t unusual. He continued to travel extensively,
visiting small groups until a few years after his sermons were syndicated. The
newspaper article that announced his speech was prepared by the Watch Tower. It
said that “Scranton readers and students of the “Millennial Dawn,” series of
Bible helps, and all others who are interested in the subject of the
pre-millennial advent of the Lord have a rare treat in store for next Wednesday
evening. C. T. Russell, the author … has consented to come to Scranton and
deliver an address on “Why Christians Should Take a Lively Interest in the
Second Coming of the Lord.” His talk was held in the Green Ridge Tabernacle, a
Methodist church, on Jefferson Avenue.
Most of the article was an
advertisement for Russell and his books. The Watch Tower press release said:
Mr.
Russell stands free from all creeds and sects of men and is therefore able to
give an unbiased view of every phase of Scripture truth and it is believed that
all classes of honest thinkers who read his works will be enabled to realize
the Bible as indeed God’s word and to recognize his plan therein revealed as
one sublime exhibition of justice, wisdom, love and power. This is borne out by
the fact that “Millennial Dawn” has been the direct means of conversion of
hundreds of life infidels.[10]
Frank Draper followed Russell,
delivering two lectures on “the signs of the times” and “kindred topics” at
Raub’s Hall, October 17, 1897. The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Tribune
carried an announcement:
Mr.
Draper is not an alarmist, but with very many excellent Christian people of
today, he believes that “important events cast their shadow before,” when
viewed in the light of prophecy, and that we are well into the time when “many
were to run to and fro and knowledge be increased.” Hence the importance of
attending these meetings.[11]
We did not locate post-event reports
for either Russell or Draper’s lectures. The announcements seem to convey the
content well. Watch Tower press releases in Scranton were typical of the age.
The speaker if prominent was praised. Russell was presented as a free Bible
student, able to discern the divine message where others had failed. Many
others believed as did the speaker. If you were a thinking person, you would
too.
Russell and the Woodworths were
close friends. Emma died in April 1899, and Russell traveled to Scranton to
preach the funeral discourse. Clayton became seriously ill during the winter of
1898-1899, and Emma took on family responsibilities and her husband’s care
while ill herself. She collapsed at his bedside, dying of heart failure. The
funeral was held at the Woodworth residence.
The small Scranton congregation,
really not more than a fellowship, placed a notice in The Tribune
separate from the funeral notice: “Charles T. Russell, author of the
“Millennial Dawn Series,” will be in the city Sunday to conduct the funeral
services of Mrs. C. J. Woodworth. He will also address the Bible class which
meets at Gurney’s hall. … All are invited to hear the most wonderful Bible
scholar of the age.”[12]
One is taken aback by the lavish
praise heaped on Russell, but it is within the context of the era not spectacular.
However, when set against the modesty attributed to Russell by himself and
others, it comes across as crass advertising. If his friends and associates saw
the praise as deserved, many more of his contemporaries did not.
By 1897 the Scranton group was small
be well-established. A report of annual communion attendance said twenty
attended in Scranton, eight more than the previous year. By 1899 the number had
increased by one. A report from 1900 said that the Scranton group was one of
those “leading in the volunteer work,” the circulation of Watch Tower tracts
outside public places. Thirteen of their number were regular participants.[13]
Russell and other Watch Tower
evangelists continued to support the fledgling group. Russell returned to
Scranton in late July 1902, speaking to the congregation in Guernsey Hall. His
address resulted in a lengthy newspaper article, and this time Russell was
introduced only as an editor and author; all the hyperbole had disappeared.[14]
To follow up interest generated by Russell’s talk, Hayden Samson returned to
Scranton in September 1902. An announcement said: “All people … who are
interested in ways and means for the betterment of social, economic and
religious conditions, as all in this valley must be in such times of unrest as
the present, will be doubly interested in the subject for discussion, ‘God’s
Agency for the Blessing of the World.’”[15]
Advertisement:
Scranton Tribune¸ July 26, 1902.
As the congregation grew, so did
opposition. Clergy in Scranton supervised the burning of Russell’s books.[16] The
pattern found here was repeated elsewhere, and was by the 1890s not a new one.
We can find similar events in places such as Richmond, Virginia; Huston, Texas;
and Washington, D. C. Colporteurs and locals testified to their neighbors,
telling “the truth of the Bible as they saw it.” Residents were introduced to Millennial
Dawn and other Watch Tower literature. Lectures were presented. Local
interest was gathered by letter or by personal invitation. Before the press of
fame limited Russell’s visits to larger gatherings, he accepted invitations to
speak which were advertised in newspapers. Forming new congregations was a
group effort, not the work of one man.
[1] If there was one, we don’t know the name of the other
evangelist. In 1892 she was working in concert with “sisters” Peck and Clark.
In 1900 she was working with a Lenora Thompson, a single woman born in 1871.
Amelia Erlenmyer was born in Germany in February 1852 to Otto Erlenmyer and
died in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 1932. She never married, but devoted
her life to the ministry. Her death date is uncertain, but she was still alive
in 1900, a resident of Harrisburg, PA. She boarded with Anna Mackey, an elderly
widow. The 1900 census lists her as “a colporteur tract.”
[2] We conclude that the Woodworths were Methodists on two
grounds: Members of the family were Methodist; [Scranton Tribune¸ July
10, 1901, page 2.] and a letter from Woodworth to a friend preserved in Proclaimers
details his pervious beliefs, and that detail fits Methodist Episcopal Church
doctrine.
[3] Woodworths to Russells, “Out of Darkness into his
Wonderful Light,” Zion’s Watch Tower, June 15, 1895, pages 147-148.
[4] Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower,
February 1891, page 29.
[5] U.S. Patents numbers 263,290 and 752,551.
[6] Scranton Wochenblatt, February 25, 1909.
[7] The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Truth, January 12,
1911.
[8] The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Truth¸ June 7, 1905.
[9] Peckville, The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Tribune,
December 24, 1900.
[10] Author of Millennial Dawn, C. T. Russell to Speak in
Scranton, The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Tribune, May 1, 1897.
[11] The Signs of the Times, The Scranton, Pennsylvania,
Tribune, October 14, 1897. The “important events” quotation comes from a
poem of the same name by the British poet Thomas Campbell [1777-1844].
[12] Both announcements appear in The Scranton Tribune
of April 22, 1899.
[13] See ZWT May 1, 1897, page 134; April 15, 1899, page
94; July 1, 1900, page 198.
[14] Hopes for the Millennium, The Scranton, Pennsylvania,
Tribune, July 28, 1902. Text of his address is found in the booklet Millennial
Hopes and Prospects.
[15] Free Bible Lecture, The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Tribune,
September 27, 1902.
[16] Jehovah’s Witnesses: Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom,
page 642.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Monday, November 2, 2015
Help ....
An opposition writer made this claim:
He cites no source. We need the exact source. Can you find it?
He cites no source. We need the exact source. Can you find it?
Monday, October 26, 2015
A taste. Chapter introduction as it now is:
Out of Babylon
There
is almost no record of the internal structure of the earliest congregations or
of the nature of their meetings. A standard meeting format wasn’t introduced
until the 1890s, and nature of meetings varied by place. To understand them we
must rely on comments made in later decades.
While
some of his observations were appropriate to later years, the anonymous author
of the Watchtower series “The Modern History of Jehovah’s Witnesses”
accurately describes affiliated congregations in the period before 1900:
These early congregations were called by the name in
the Greek Scriptures, “ecclesias,” and sometimes “classes.” They were organized
on the congregational and presbyterian style of church government. All members
democratically voted on certain matters of business and also elected a board of
seven or more “elders” (presbyters) who directed the general governmental
interests of the congregation. … These ecclesias were loosely tied together
merely by accepting the leadership and pattern of activity of the Pittsburgh
congregation where Russell and other Watch Tower writers were elders.[1]
The
groups that most closely identified with Watch Tower doctrine followed the
Allegheny congregation’s twice a week meeting schedule. They tended to read Watch
Tower tracts and the magazine closely, discussing the topics raised. Some,
perhaps most, had an open discussion period, an Adult Bible Class that was
free-wheeling and sometimes fraught with controversy. Doctrinal unity did not
exist in this period. Some of their number had been Second Adventists and
others Literalist, Age-to-Come believers. Many of the Allegheny congregation hd
been Methodists. These brought into the movement a huge diversity of belief.
When Watch Tower writers’ belief in the preexistence of Christ became an issue
in mid 1880, Paton wrote:
That we meet with some whom we believe to be
Christians, and in some respects seem to be well advanced, who do not
believe in the conscious or personal pre-existence of Christ, is true. Though
never having doubted this great truth for a single moment, even when reading
the arguments offered against it, yet we have never been disposed to make our
opinions on this subject a test of fellowship. We rejoice that it has been our
privilege to convince some of the truth of our position. We have often said that
the statements of the Bible are on the side of the pre-existence, but
the opposite view has been sustained in many minds by unanswered questions
as to how this or that could be.[2]
Paton defined Christians
loosely, often pointing to behavior rather than doctrine. Russell believed that
atonement by shed blood was a defining doctrine, but also tended to see
behavior as a key determiner. Pointing to 2 Corinthians 11:2, Russell said the
faithful church was a “chaste virgin” committed to Christ. The First Century
church defined Christianity. It maintained its purity for a period, but
“gradually became enamored of the world and the prospects it offered and
finally united with it, constitution the system of Papacy.”[3]
Russell said that church-state alliances were a mark of corruption. Union with
the world marked the abomination, the harlot church.
The Harlot Church compromised
with ‘worldly’ practice. “She claims to be desirous of knowing and doing what
would please the Lord, but actually studies and does what will please the
world. She has a form of Godliness but really is far from God-like-ness.” The
false church attracts and then admits into fellowship the unrepentant and
unreformed of the world. Russell’s description of the apostate church is drawn
from his own experience. (Our readers may want to return to volume one of this
work and review chapter one.) Russell’s experience with church fairs and
raffles found a place in his description of the Babylonish church:
[1] Watchtower Writer: Modern History of Jehovah’s Witnessed
- Part 2 – Small Beginnings (1879-1889),
The Watchtower, January 15, 1955, page
47.
[2] J. H. Paton: Pre-existence of Christ, Zion’s Watch
Tower, June 1880, page 3.
[3] C. T. Russell: Babylon is Fallen, Zion’s Watch Tower,
November 1879, page 1.
Monday, October 19, 2015
This is fairly urgent ...
This letter appeared in the June 1886 issue of Zion's Watch Tower. I need help identifying the writer.
California, June 3, 1886.
DEAR FRIENDS:--I hope your list of workers in the
vineyard have reported success so frequently that mine has not been missed. I have
been working as all must every day and hour, wherever they are, but not in the
wide field I would choose if it were mine to make choice. As I am not mine own,
I accept all as the ordering of my never erring--Master. My dear parents are
becoming feeble with age, and have been sick, lingering along and gaining
strength slowly, till now they are able to go around, but cannot be left alone long.
I am losing none of my interest, but watch the opportunities, and have used
with care the precious "FOODS." I am intending to gather them in, to
use again as soon as possible. Most of them were given to persons I met at
different times, who seemed to be ready for the feast and were going to various
parts. With this explanation, you will understand why my apparent success is
small, and yet I am needing a fresh
supply. I found a Swede who is a constant student of the Word. He comes around
once a week with fish. The first time he came I gave him a Swedish TOWER, and
next time he said he found it taught Bible doctrines all through, and I gave
him a FOOD and some English TOWERS.
Yesterday a physician's wife came here for the first
time, and she said at once, and boldly, she had come to see what there was in
the strange doctrine we taught, and she left with the promise to come often,
and said she thought she was ready for the truth as never before, and would
make it her study. She took my very last FOOD and two TOWERS.
As soon as I can leave home I want to go to Sacramento
to work as you have suggested. So please send me what is necessary, that I may
be prepared to improve time on short notice, and I shall be grateful.
I have no better way to give you an idea of how little
time I've had than to say it took me three days to read the last precious
TOWER, when usually I "literally devour" it almost without stopping,
after which I leisurely re-read and turn to all the references.
I had hoped that by examining the subjects carefully
with my parents, they would be ready to "keep the feast" as commanded
with me, but they could not see that it was an anniversary, and I
kept it again alone, and yet not alone. One fully
consecrated need never feel lonely. I knew the ones and twos would be
remembered by the loved ones in congregated capacity.
I am so anxious to contribute to the Tract Fund, but
strange to say I have not a half-dollar, nor have I purchased an article of
that value for six months. Yet I am perfectly contented--yes, so happy. God bless
you. Good-bye.
I am trying to hold myself in readiness to go
especially with German TOWERS to San Francisco when the way is clear. I should have
no other business only to "to do good and communicate," and would not
be able to do much in short time without FOODS, TOWERS, etc. It only costs one
dollar to go to San Francisco, over one hundred miles. Opposition steamer on
now. I can rent a room and take meals at a restaurant cheap. May the Lord bless
you is my constant prayer. Your sister,