Raw, unedited. But here it is:
Of
those prominent in the work up to 1881, Paton’s name is conspicuously absent
from the list of those circulating Food
for Thinking Christians. He is mentioned in passing as active in Michigan
and, Russell “presumed,” busy writing for the first issues of Zion’s Day Star. Paton was already
surrendering to Universalism, something that had appealed to him from his
youth, and he was uncomfortable with the lead Russell had taken. This is best
detailed in another chapter.
Samuel
T. Tackabury entered the work in March 1882. He had been “a member until now of
the M.E. Conference.” Tackabury
was a new convert, one of the few ministers convinced by Food for Thinking Christians and other Watch Tower publications. He
forwarded his ministerial credentials along with his resignation from the
Methodist Episcopal ministry and from the M. E. denomination to church
authorities, and it is duly noted in The
Minutes and Official Journal of the New York Conference. He
had been active in the Methodist ministry at least from the mid 1860’s,
resigning his charge in 1877 because of chronic ill health. Early in his
Methodist Episcopal ministry, he supported himself as a “dairyman and farmer.”
He
returned to the ministry later and was, at the time he was introduced to Watch Tower teachings, pastor of the newly-formed Methodist
Episcopal Church in Pierre, South
Dakota, and
serving a congregation in Ohio.
Because of continued fragile health, his missionary activity was short-lived,
and he fulfilled his mission by “preaching the blessed gospel by letter and
otherwise to many of the scattered saints.”
Tackabury died August 5, 1888, of “consumption,” that is tuberculosis.
According to the 1870 Census he was born about 1832. By February 1883,
Tackabury was back in Ohio.
Entering
active Watch Tower evangelism at the same time were two individuals
noted only by their last names: “We may also count among the public preachers
Bro. Graves, who for many years has been not only a ‘commercial traveler,’ but
a railroad train preacher
and tract distributor. He is rejoicing in the shining present truth, and has
done good in preaching it, distributing ‘Food’ during the past six months. Bro.
Boyer will, for the present, remain in Pittsburgh, where he will do some
mission work among his numerous friends and former co-laborers in the
temperance work, meantime giving much time to the study of the Word which is
able to make us wise; preparing himself thus for more public work. While in
good health he held meetings in western parts of New York State.”
William
Boyer, an English immigrant, was born June 30, 1823, in Warrington, Lancashire,
to Samuel and Jane Boyer. A brief biographical note says:
He worked in a
chemical laboratory until he came to the United States in 1846. He located in Dane County, Wis., coming out with what was then known as the “British
Temperance Emigration Society,” which soon broke up. Mr. Boyer purchased a
farm, and has followed this occupation, living in Wisconsin until January 1867, when he came to Iowa, purchasing 245 acres of fine land …. Mr. Boyer and
all his family are members of the M. E. Church, in which he is a local deacon
and supplies the Orchard Circuit. He has held many of the township offices and
is at present one of the Trustees. He votes the republican ticket. He is one of
the substantial and reliable men of Floyd County.
Nothing
is known of his conversion to Watch Tower theology or of any subsequent ministry. He was,
however, involved in organizing believers in the United Kingdom into fellowships, “writing letters of introduction
wherever two or more reside in one town.”
He
is not the same as the “gentleman” who in 1887 ran away with a fifteen year old
girl from Reading, Pennsylvania. While it would make for an interesting story, the
facts do not fit him. Boyer served as a sergeant in Company F of the 15th
Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He was severely wounded in the neck at
Corinth Mills, and this may account for the health issues mentioned by Russell.
There
is circumstantial evidence that “Bro. Graves” was John Temple Graves. If so,
his association with Zion’s Watch Tower was brief. By 1910 he was espousing the cause of the
American Peace Society. An article appearing in the June 11, 1910, New York Times
quoted Graves as saying: “I was a traveling lecturer for many years
between Pittsburg [sic] and Omaha … I dealt in natural gas and carried
my fixtures.” That
John Temple Graves is the “Bro. Graves” of Zion’s
Watch Tower remains speculative, but we think a good indicator is his
connection to N. H. Barbour. In 1903 Graves invited
Barbour to speak at a conference on the “mob spirit in America.” Graves, who became a well known writer and
lecturer, was moderator at that conference.
photo here
John Temple Graves –Library of Congress
Photo.
While
Russell recounted the efforts of others, he did not chronicle his own. Only one
example of his personal evangelism using
Food for Thinking Christians
and
Tabernacle Teachings exists. Russell admired Joseph Cook, a well known
writer and lecturer.
Cook, a Congregationalist clergyman from
Boston,
held views of social issues that paralleled Russell’s, and he supported
“vicarious atonement” beliefs that were similar to Russell’s own. Russell wrote
that Cook was “justly celebrated for his able defense of the Bible and its
author, God, against the attacks of Atheists and Infidels.”
Russell also published an extract from Cook’s
Monday Lectures: Fifth Series
in the September 1880 issue of
Zion’s Watch Tower.
Cook returned from a widely publicized “around the world” tour in November
1882, lecturing in various places. Russell sought him out, probably sometime in
1884, gifting him with the two booklets.
Russell
extracted from another publication a short paragraph suggesting that Cook
accepted some form of “second probation,” republishing the comment in
The Watch
Tower. The
article said: “Rev. Joseph Cook, in one of his lectures, declared that no
living man knows anything about the theory of probation, and expressed an
opinion that the charitable view of the question was, that probation after
death would be granted those who failed to accept the gospel in this life.”
This misrepresented Cook, but it was probably what prompted Russell to seek a
meeting with him. Johnson believed that a strongly worded sermon rejecting the
second probation doctrine of Dr. August Dorner, a German theologian, was really
directed against Russell. Johnson also claimed that Cook prevented Russell from
lecturing at “the conventions of many churches.” A review of Cook’s
Occident
does not reveal any mention of Russell, though Dorner’s theology is in this one
area similar to Russell’s. While we cannot disprove Johnson’s claims, our
research does not sustain them.
P.
S. L. Johnson elaborates an entire conversation between Russell and Cook that
we find difficult to credit. The basic story is that Russell presented Cook
with the booklets and Cook promised to read them. Johnson claimed that Cook had
previously read other material from Russell, and it is very probable that
Russell sent him tracts and sample copies of
Zion’s
Watch Tower.
Cook believed Russell to be under-educated and did not endorse Russell’s
doctrine. All the other matter presented by Johnson seems to be contrived to
fit his hyper-allegorical, prophetic view of
Watch
Tower history.
photo here
Joseph Cook
By
January 1886, Maria Russell could report that “at present there are about three
hundred colporteurs at work in the vineyard earnestly laboring for the good of
their fellow beings and for the ‘well done’ of the Master, disseminating these
publications.” She wondered why more hadn’t taken up the work “We should each
ask himself,” she wrote, “What am I doing to herald the blessed gospel which
did so much for my own heart? How am I manifesting to God my appreciation of
his grace?”
Interviews
Newspaper
reporters sought out Russell for interviews. Many of the articles were short
and of no lasting interest. Some few give us a fair picture of Russell and his
message. The New Philadelphia, Ohio,
Democrat ran an interview with Russell that’s of particular interest.
Russell pointed to growing labor unrest as a sign that the “time of trouble”
was upon them. He mentioned no specific event, but there was no need. 1882 saw
endless unrest in the mine fields of the west and Cumberland. In its May 2, 1884, issue The New York Times
reported on no less than seven strikes, one that included threats of violence;
so there was no need for Russell to pinpoint one specific event. The article, except the last paragraph, was
largely fair:
Rather a new
construction is put upon the signs of the times by Mr. C. T. Russell, of Pittsburgh, who is a leader of what he calls the “Christians,”
and who do not belong to any denomination and are not Second Adventists. He
says we are now in the thirty-seven years that will precede the reign of
universal peace, but that until 1915 disaster and revolution are to be
expected.
“What evidences are
there that we are in these years of trouble that precede the millennium?” he
was asked
“Look at the condition
of affairs all over the world. Labor and capital are massing themselves,
nations are trembling and the whole outlook tends to strengthen our position.
God moves by natural means, and this uprising of labor against capital is the
result of the diffusion of knowledge among the masses causing them to rise
against oppression of all kinds, political and social.”
“This thirty-seven
years, then, will be filled with trouble such as the world has never known?”
said a reporter.
“Yes, sir. This
period is the day of the Lord, we think in which society shall be
disintegrated, and kingdoms and governments, as such, pass away.”
He thinks the
Nihilists and Communists are forerunners of the storm, and that Church and
State will go down in the “maelstrom.” His predictions of revolutions he bases
on Scripture reading, as follows:
“Do you consider the
present aspect of affairs between labor and capital indicative of great trouble
in the future?” was asked.
“There will be more
trouble, and there will be eventually a terrible struggle for supremacy with
all the dire results consequent upon such a struggle, and I think the
scriptures predict it. Among other passages read James V. 1-5”
The article quoted James 5:1-5 in
full, but ended with the observation: “And thus the cranks do multiply, and the
people imagine a vain thing, seek, in the supernatural, the explanation of
social disturbances, which arise from purely economic causes.”
To prompt more interest a tract
usually referenced as The Minister’s
Daughter was issued as a supplement to the June 1882 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. It reprinted John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem. On the
reverse was a message entitled “True and Righteous Are Thy Ways, ‘Lord God
Almighty.’”
Analysis
Because
of their much wider circulation the Bible
Students Tracts and Food for Thinking
Christians filled a place that Day
Dawn failed to fill. Paton’s book circulated in very small number, mostly
among those already interested or within the Second Adventist community. The
tracts and later booklet based on them, Food
for Thinking Christians, circulated widely among those not previously
exposed to Watch Tower teaching. It drew interest from outside the Second
Adventist community.
A
few decades later Harris
Franklin Rall, professor of Systematic Theology at Garrett
Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois, presented an analysis of Watch Tower teachings.
Without commenting directly on either Food
or the tracts, he suggested that it was rooted in First Century Christianity or
at least in an attempt to reclaim primitive Christianity. His review was
somewhat critical, because he felt Christianity had evolved beyond its
Chiliastic roots:
A different influence
was that working outside the great churches and appearing in the smaller
separatist groups. These were the modern successors of the more radical circles
of the Reformation period. In the first half of the nineteenth century there
appeared in England the Irvingites and Plymouth Brethren, in this country
the Adventists under Miller. Other movements appeared [including] Millennial
Dawnism … Common to them all is the thought of a millennial kingdom to be
established upon earth in some special manner. Certain other elements
constantly recur, though not always present in any one instance: a verbal theory
of inspiration, a frequent recourse to type and allegory, … and the sharp
criticism of the established churches and opposition to them. The emphasis upon
a biblical and legalistic literalism is often joined with an attempt to
reproduce primitive Christianity. … In
its fundamental point of view as a theology and as a program of salvation,
modern premillennialism represents Jewish apocalypticism. It despairs of this
age and looks to some sudden and unexpected deed of omnipotence to overthrow
the old, and establish a new world. It has the same extreme emphasis upon
divine sovereignty and the same fatalistic conception of world history. …
It is important, as
we turn to a detailed study of modern premillennialism, that we shall not only
recognize how it is connected with the past, but also the peculiar character
which it has to-day. The change that has taken place will appear if we contrast
this modern movement with the chiliastic hopes that were held in many parts of
the church in the first two centuries. The early Christians lived in a hostile
world, governed by forces that were always frankly pagan and sometimes
threatened their very existence. They saw no hope for deliverance except by the
destruction of the whole world-order. They believed that the age was near its
end. In the midst of this darkness they felt that the Lord would speedily
return and deliver them. They had no plans for the future because they did not
expect any future. …
Modern
premillennialism faces a radically changed situation. It has to deal with the
fact that nineteen centuries have passed, that several score generations have
come and gone since that early day. It cannot ignore the fact that there is
such a thing as a long Christian history for which some sort of meaning must be
found. And unless it turns again to discredited calculations and fixing of
dates, it must realize that there may still be long centuries and even
millennia ahead of us here in this earth. The time is past when it can merely
quote a passage and voice a hope. And so modern chiliasm differs radically from
the simple and unreflective hope of that early day. It is no mere expectation
of the speedy second coming of Christ. It is no mere teaching as to the order
of certain events. It has of necessity become an elaborate system of doctrine,
a complete outline of theology. It is an interpretation of Christianity
claiming to give alone its true meaning. In Judaism and early Christianity
these hopes were expressed with a certain freedom, marked with feeling and
imagination, with no suggestion of logic and system. Modern premillennialism
has become scholastic system, with rigid forms of thought and endless
elaboration of doctrine.
Though Rall is critical, he saw
“Millennial Dawnism” as an attempt to return to Christian (and Jewish) roots.
He accurately describes the Watch Tower movement as a rejection of the world in favor of a
clearly defined relationship to God and as a protest against the laxity and
deflection of contemporary churches.
The
claim to “truth” disturbed Rall and others for several reasons. Any claim to
advanced understanding of “truth” calls into question those who do not hold the
same views. No one likes to be questioned, though probing beliefs is an
essential to solid faith. Finding themselves defined as lacking led many to an
uncritical rejection of Watch Tower theology. It was a rare critique that addressed Watch Tower belief in a solidly Biblical way. The few criticisms
that did address issues in that way probably number less than a dozen. Of those
critical of Food for Thinking Christians,
none address its doctrines with a clearly presented Biblical refutation.
Also,
the claim to advanced light turned into a cudgel in the hands of the unkind and
stupid and led to severe and un-analytic rejection of Watch Tower teachings. The two most dramatic examples come from
the years immediately following those we’re considering. Briefly told, a number
of pugnacious Watch Tower evangelists caused harm to the movement by their
aggressive behavior. One got himself arrested for a disturbance outside a Pittsburgh church and another disrupted a religious assembly to
hand out protest tracts not produced by the Watch Tower.
One
Twentieth Century writer suggests that Food
for Thinking Christians is Russell’s most important book. In that it was
the first wide-spread dissemination of Watch Tower teachings, this is true. Criticisms such are Rall’s
and those of more modern anti-sect writers ignore or diminish the significance
of the long history of Historicist interpretation of prophecy. A more thorough
going Biblical discussion would have benefited all parties. It simply did not
occur in any meaningful way.
What
did occur was an increase of resignations from former church affiliation on the
part of newly converted Watch Tower adherents. Russell printed one such letter in the
December 1881, Watch Tower. Written by a woman to her congregation of sixteen
years, it was a plain statement of the essentials of Watch Tower teaching:
Believing that we are in the harvest of the Gospel Age
as spoken of in Matt. 13:30, when the reapers are separating the wheat from the
tares, which the Lord has permitted to grow together during the age, and also
that the nominal church of all denominations is represented by the wheat and
tares in the field-- in which both have been growing, and that its mixed
condition of worldly-mindedness and lukewarm Christianity is displeasing in the
sight of our Lord, I have … concluded to sell all that I once found dear--my
reputation and my friends if need be--my time, my talents, my means, my all.
This mixed condition of truth and error, worldliness
and lukewarmness, etc., I believe to be the Babylon described in Rev. 18, in which are still some of the
Lord’s dear children. To all such he says, (vs. 4) “Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of
her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
In obedience to this command, I ask to have my name
taken off the list of membership of the nominal church. It is written in the
Lamb’s book of life and that is enough.
In withdrawing my name I do not withdraw my affections
from you, but would if I could have you all “as ripened wheat,” gathered into
the barn – condition of safety, rather than bound with the bundles of tares for
the burning – with the “fire of God’s jealousy.”
Let me urge you each to a deeper consecration and a
more thorough searching of the Scriptures.
Others
separated from their pervious church affiliation forming de facto congregations
in cities where more than one shared similar beliefs. The congregation in Albany,
New York, dated its formation to 1881 and by implication the
publication of Food for Thinking
Christians. They called themselves “Believers in the Restitution,”
one of many names used by congregations of Watch Tower adherents.
H. F. Rall: Modern Premillennialism and the Christian
Hope, Abingdon Press, 1920, pages 101-103.
