I've located a run of von Zech's magazine in the Chicago area. If anyone is interested in helping with photocopies, please contact me at BWSchulz2 @yahoo. com.
I need someone actually in the Chicago area willing to make copies. The volumes are not available on interlibrary loan. They are very rare.
For those who do not know: von Zech became interested in Zion's Watch Tower about 1885 while he was pastor of an Evangelical Lutheran Church. He translated The Plan of the Ages into German and was the first editior of a German language edition of Zion's Watch Tower. He also wrote a small book published by Zion's Watch Tower in 1885. It is not listed in any bibliography and is exceptionally rare. He and his son in law, Joseph Bryant, left off association with Russell in 1894. The booklet Harvest Siftings (1894) deals with this controversy.
Zech eventually was re-ordained by Paton's Larger Hope Association and became an Adventist-leaning Unitarian Unversalist.There is virtually no documentation, beyond two issues of Zion's Watch Tower. Having copies of his German-language magazine would help my research dramatically. Any offers of help?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Updates, Corrections and Notations
As a result of further research I’ve concluded that it is probable that someone other than Barbour sent Russell The Herald of the Morning. Barbour mentions sending “papers” to Paton. In the same discussion he mentions Russell becoming acquainted with what he taught by reading his magazine. It seems likely someone else sent it to Russell.
The above is wrong, of course. The post found herein reminded me of what I already knew. Russell says Barbour sent it to him.
The J. S. White who spoke to the Cooper Institute Adventists is not James White, but an Advent Christian evangelist of similar name. This makes more sense.
I need help identifying Robert Bailey of Howardsville, Michigan. There are at least two good candidates who lived elsewhere at other times. One was a photographer born about 1826 in England. He lived in Jackson, Michigan in 1880. The other was Robert M. Bailey, a grocer. He was born December 12, 1826, in Vermont and settled in Adrien, Michigan.
Bailey was one of the first Watch Tower evangelists. He was converted by Paton about 1880. Any information would be helpful.
The above is wrong, of course. The post found herein reminded me of what I already knew. Russell says Barbour sent it to him.
The J. S. White who spoke to the Cooper Institute Adventists is not James White, but an Advent Christian evangelist of similar name. This makes more sense.
I need help identifying Robert Bailey of Howardsville, Michigan. There are at least two good candidates who lived elsewhere at other times. One was a photographer born about 1826 in England. He lived in Jackson, Michigan in 1880. The other was Robert M. Bailey, a grocer. He was born December 12, 1826, in Vermont and settled in Adrien, Michigan.
Bailey was one of the first Watch Tower evangelists. He was converted by Paton about 1880. Any information would be helpful.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Caleb Davies - An Early Associate of Russell and Paton
Caleb Davies and Family. c. 1895. Davies named one of his sons after Paton. He arranged for Russell's visit to Cleveland in the very early 1880s.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Help With this Bit Needed
I'm seeking comments from the press, religous magazines or other sources on Paton's Day Dawn, first edition only. This far I have this:
Though Russell advertised Day Dawn through the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower, and it was sold by Watch Tower speakers, it did not sell extremely well. Paton still had remainder copies of the first edition in 1890.
Finding any sort of public review is almost impossible. The lone print comment on the book that I have thus far uncovered appears in The Kingdom and The Restoration, an anonymous book published in London in 1882. The author, writing only as “A Student of Prophecy,” believed the two witnesses of Revelation to be individuals. His belief drew forth strictures on the contrary claim made by Paton in Day Dawn and by J. P. Weethee in the March 22, 1882, issue of Restitution:
“But notwithstanding the strong evidence, throughout the account of the wto witnesses, of their individuality, some think it is all figurative. One writer, J. H. Paton, in his work called, ‘The Day Dawn,’ explains the two witnesses to represent the two Testaments, the Old and the New … Now if we are at liberty to interpret the word after this fashion, it seems to us that we may prove any thing we like from the word. Figures and symbols we know are sometimes used, and used very frequently in this book – The Revelation – But they are always used to represent something. And there is always consistency between figures or symbols, and the things they represent, and what is said. But what consistency is there here on the principle of these writers?”
A private comment made by the poet and writer David Gray to his brother made it into print some few years later with the publication of Letters, Poems and Selected Prose Writings of David Gray. Gray, not the more famous David Gray who died in 1861 but the lesser known writer who died in 1882, had a religious background that included Campbellism, and an association with John Thomas. Ultimately he believed Thomas had “got hold of some technicalities” and was “pushing things far beyond where the spirit of revelation will sustain him.” Sometime in the early half of 1881, his brother sent his a copy of Paton’s book. In a letter to his brother dated May 18, 1881, he wrote: “I have devoted all the few spare hours I have had since you kindly sent me Mr. Patton’s [sic] book to its perusal, and have been greatly interested in it. He certainly has a great deal of truth, some of which is new to me and very valuable. But I fear he goes farther in some things than the Word, fairly read, will sustain him.”
The letter is truncated, and we do not learn the particulars of Gray’s objections, but he continues: “It fact, we must always be entirely ready to stop and unload the most attractive theory when we collide with a plain statement of the Word. Our theories may easily be wrong; but the Word cannot be. Let us hold ourselves perfectly subject to it, even though that leave us to wait in great confusion and ignorance. More light will come, if our hearts be right before God.”
In a follow up letter dated August 24, 1881, Gray wrote: “I have chanced to learn a little, lately, of those people in Pittsburgh (‘Zion’s Watch Tower’) with whom Mr. Patton seems to be in sympathy. I think I saw one of their tracts in your possession. I have read a little of Mr. Russell’s writing, myself – perhaps the same tract I saw you have. It is very significant that, here and there through the country, we are seeing a breaking away of earnest, hungry souls from the corruptions of the professing church. There is a movement of similar kind just now in Chicago … But alas! I find the Pittsburgh Watchmen of Zion do not always seem to be content simply with what is written. They want to know more than is revealed, and draw on their imaginations to make up the deficiency. At least that is what I am bound to think of much of their teaching (and Mr. Patton’s) as to the destiny of the unsaved dead, and various ‘orders’ and classes of saved, and some other subjects. But, with this, they have much of the inspiring truth which has been brought out among our so-called ‘Plymouth’ friends, and this activity of inquiry is surely better than the spiritual death we find inside churches” [1]
Much more widely circulated than Paton’s Day Dawn were individual tracts.
[1] Larned, J. N. (editor): Letters, Poems and Selected Writings of David Gray, The Courier Company, Buffalo, New York, 1888, pages 166-168.
Though Russell advertised Day Dawn through the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower, and it was sold by Watch Tower speakers, it did not sell extremely well. Paton still had remainder copies of the first edition in 1890.
Finding any sort of public review is almost impossible. The lone print comment on the book that I have thus far uncovered appears in The Kingdom and The Restoration, an anonymous book published in London in 1882. The author, writing only as “A Student of Prophecy,” believed the two witnesses of Revelation to be individuals. His belief drew forth strictures on the contrary claim made by Paton in Day Dawn and by J. P. Weethee in the March 22, 1882, issue of Restitution:
“But notwithstanding the strong evidence, throughout the account of the wto witnesses, of their individuality, some think it is all figurative. One writer, J. H. Paton, in his work called, ‘The Day Dawn,’ explains the two witnesses to represent the two Testaments, the Old and the New … Now if we are at liberty to interpret the word after this fashion, it seems to us that we may prove any thing we like from the word. Figures and symbols we know are sometimes used, and used very frequently in this book – The Revelation – But they are always used to represent something. And there is always consistency between figures or symbols, and the things they represent, and what is said. But what consistency is there here on the principle of these writers?”
A private comment made by the poet and writer David Gray to his brother made it into print some few years later with the publication of Letters, Poems and Selected Prose Writings of David Gray. Gray, not the more famous David Gray who died in 1861 but the lesser known writer who died in 1882, had a religious background that included Campbellism, and an association with John Thomas. Ultimately he believed Thomas had “got hold of some technicalities” and was “pushing things far beyond where the spirit of revelation will sustain him.” Sometime in the early half of 1881, his brother sent his a copy of Paton’s book. In a letter to his brother dated May 18, 1881, he wrote: “I have devoted all the few spare hours I have had since you kindly sent me Mr. Patton’s [sic] book to its perusal, and have been greatly interested in it. He certainly has a great deal of truth, some of which is new to me and very valuable. But I fear he goes farther in some things than the Word, fairly read, will sustain him.”
The letter is truncated, and we do not learn the particulars of Gray’s objections, but he continues: “It fact, we must always be entirely ready to stop and unload the most attractive theory when we collide with a plain statement of the Word. Our theories may easily be wrong; but the Word cannot be. Let us hold ourselves perfectly subject to it, even though that leave us to wait in great confusion and ignorance. More light will come, if our hearts be right before God.”
In a follow up letter dated August 24, 1881, Gray wrote: “I have chanced to learn a little, lately, of those people in Pittsburgh (‘Zion’s Watch Tower’) with whom Mr. Patton seems to be in sympathy. I think I saw one of their tracts in your possession. I have read a little of Mr. Russell’s writing, myself – perhaps the same tract I saw you have. It is very significant that, here and there through the country, we are seeing a breaking away of earnest, hungry souls from the corruptions of the professing church. There is a movement of similar kind just now in Chicago … But alas! I find the Pittsburgh Watchmen of Zion do not always seem to be content simply with what is written. They want to know more than is revealed, and draw on their imaginations to make up the deficiency. At least that is what I am bound to think of much of their teaching (and Mr. Patton’s) as to the destiny of the unsaved dead, and various ‘orders’ and classes of saved, and some other subjects. But, with this, they have much of the inspiring truth which has been brought out among our so-called ‘Plymouth’ friends, and this activity of inquiry is surely better than the spiritual death we find inside churches” [1]
Much more widely circulated than Paton’s Day Dawn were individual tracts.
[1] Larned, J. N. (editor): Letters, Poems and Selected Writings of David Gray, The Courier Company, Buffalo, New York, 1888, pages 166-168.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Seeking Research Material
I am in need of research material. If you have any of the following, please contact me about providing photocopies:
1. Our Rest and Signs of the Times, published in Chicago. Any issues, especially 1873-1885. Alternate title is Our Rest devoted to the subject of Christ's Second Coming and the Preparation of the Church for That Event.
2. Any booklets by Thomas Wilson, editor of Our Rest and Signs of the Times.
3. This booklet by Nelson H. Barbour: The Manner of Christ’s Coming and Our Gathering Together, Herald of the Morning, 1880.
4. Zion’s Day Star, edited by Albert D. Jones, any issues.
5. The Last Trump, edited by Hugh B. Rice
6. Arthur Prince Adams: Bible Theology, 1883. Any edition.
7. The World’s Hope, issues from 1881-1887
1. Our Rest and Signs of the Times, published in Chicago. Any issues, especially 1873-1885. Alternate title is Our Rest devoted to the subject of Christ's Second Coming and the Preparation of the Church for That Event.
2. Any booklets by Thomas Wilson, editor of Our Rest and Signs of the Times.
3. This booklet by Nelson H. Barbour: The Manner of Christ’s Coming and Our Gathering Together, Herald of the Morning, 1880.
4. Zion’s Day Star, edited by Albert D. Jones, any issues.
5. The Last Trump, edited by Hugh B. Rice
6. Arthur Prince Adams: Bible Theology, 1883. Any edition.
7. The World’s Hope, issues from 1881-1887
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
New Project
I've started a new project while I'm waiting to hear from a literary agent and from a unversity press on the Barbour biography. For now, I'll leave the Barbour material up, though it represents a much older and incomplete version of my research.
My new project traces the history of those associated with Zion's Watch Tower from 1879 to 1887. Almost none of this story has ever been told, at least not in anything like a complete way.
Here is chapter 1 of the new project. Cite this material as: B. W. Schulz: The Development of Ecclesia Among Readers of Zion's Watch Tower: 1878-1887. Retrieved from TruthHistory.Blogspot.com
Post deleted
My new project traces the history of those associated with Zion's Watch Tower from 1879 to 1887. Almost none of this story has ever been told, at least not in anything like a complete way.
Here is chapter 1 of the new project. Cite this material as: B. W. Schulz: The Development of Ecclesia Among Readers of Zion's Watch Tower: 1878-1887. Retrieved from TruthHistory.Blogspot.com
Post deleted
Saturday, January 26, 2008
H. B. Rice
Hugh Brown Rice (1854-1905), publisher of The Last Trump, briefly associated with Russell and Barbour.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
H. L. Hastings - Early Supporter of Storrs' Views
H. L. Hastings wrote many influential tracts and booklets. Some of them specifically supported Conditional Immortality as advocated by Storrs. A tract by Hastings gave its title to Barbour's Three Worlds book.
Storrs' Three Letters Tract
From my personal collection. Off topic for this blog, but here for those who've never seen one before
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Update
I continue to examine original documents. This is a very rare (one known copy) booklet published in support of Barbour's views in 1873.Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Documentation
Pre-press edit has been suspended while unexpected additional research material is examined. I'll keep you updated. While you wait, enjoy this scan of part of the documentation. This is one of the small books by E. P. Woodward, one of the delagates to the Worcester Conference of February 1872. Barbour, L. T. Cunningham and Albert Simpson debated the date for Christ's return.
Woodward's Safeguard and Armory