Jerome's new post is up. If you read the invitation only blog, you may want to migrate overthere to see it.
R
Friday, June 27, 2014
Thursday, June 26, 2014
A bit more
We really would like some comments on this. Real feedback, knowlegeable feeback if possible, is helpful.
Out of
The
nature of Russell era congregations is misstated by Biblically illiterate
historians and sociologists. Edward Abrahams asserted that “Russell used the
words ‘alienated,’ ‘isolated,’ and ‘troubled’ to describe his congregations.” We
ask, where?
Between
1879 and the end of 1916, the word alienated appears in fifty-nine
issues of the Watch Tower . Watch
Tower writers and Russell especially use it as commentary on Colossians
1:21-23: “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by
wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If
ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, which ye have heard , and which was preached to every
creature which is under heaven.” This is not a statement of social alienation,
but of the need for reconciliation with God through Jesus.
The
word appears in quotations from other sources, usually as commentary on the
alienation of the young from contemporary churches and the Bible. These are not
a reference to Watch Tower congregations. Russell never uses the word alienated
in the sense meant by a sociologist. The one place where one might presume he
meant it in that sense is found in the January 15, 1912 , Watch Tower . Russell
wrote:
The Church has cried in "the wilderness" in
the sense that she has been alienated and separated from the world. She has
called upon all who would hear to prepare for Messiah's Kingdom. She has told
more fully than did John the Baptist of the effect of Messiah's Kingdom – the
leveling up of the valleys (the lifting up of the poor), the straightening out
of the crooked things and the smoothing of the rough things, that thus all
flesh might see, appreciate, understand, experience the salvation of God. Both
John and the Church declare that this salvation is to be brought through Jesus
and His glorified Bride in Kingdom power. The point we are making is that while
John the Baptist was an antitype of Elijah, and was forerunner or herald of
Jesus, so, only more particularly, the Church in the flesh is a higher antitype
of Elijah, and still more particularly a herald of the Messianic Kingdom.
Did
Russell suggest that the congregations were socially alienated? Not in the way
Abrahams and others suggest, and certainly this one occurrence is not an
example of continual usage. Russell says the Church has no part in the world’s
social upheavals and essential sinfulness. But the Church has an obligation to
the world to uplift, to declare salvation, and to rebuke wrongdoing. Christians
are not to approve of the world’s ways. This is not similar to the social
alienation that led to the Haymarket affair or the Railroad Insurrection. This
is a push for holiness.
But what of Russell’s use of the
word “isolated”? When using it of Watch Tower adherents, especially in the very early days, Russell
meant those who were the lone believer in their area, not that they were
otherwise isolated from their communities. An example is found in the October
1881 Watch Tower . Russell wrote an extensive report on the progress of Watch Tower evangelism “To strengthen and encourage the lonely
and isolated ones.” Reporting Communion
observance in 1884, he touched on the small number of believers, using the word
‘isolated’: “In some places only two or three assembled, in others more, and
some isolated individuals alone, but the general testimony is that the Master
was present at least in spirit; and for aught we know was personally present.”
Does this seem to be a reference to social isolation? Not to us. But, as we
shall explore, their unique beliefs left them separated partly or wholly from
the religious community. Again in 1884, Russell wrote:
It
is comforting to those who stand isolated in their own neighborhood to realize
this. There are many such isolated ones, and all have much the same experience
–
in
the world, tribulation; in Christ, peace. It is also a source of encouragement
to learn that while we realize that the harvest is great the laborers are being
multiplied, and that so far as we can learn, the saints are realizing their
call to make known the glad tidings, and that though their talents be many or
few they are not to be folded away in a napkin. We have learned that there are
as many ways to preach the Gospel as there are talents among the saints.
We
rejoice with all these that we have been so enabled to comprehend the Gospel as
to find that out of the abundance of the heart our mouth must speak; that the
love of Christ and the knowledge of his glorious truth constraineth us.
But
while we thus rejoice together, we can but rejoice with trembling as we realize
the secret, subtle, and persevering efforts of the Prince of this world to
overcome the saints. No artifice or effort is left untried: Opposition,
ridicule, rejection, flattery, false reasoning to disprove the truth, cares of
this world, bribery with the good things of this world, and allurements of
various kinds, are all used as the necessities of the individual cases may
require.
This is within Christian experience.
Early Methodists and Baptists, and First Century Christians all experienced
isolation because of belief. Plymouth Brethren chose it for the sake of pure
belief. The trials Russell described are common to those who live by New
Testament standards. Some sociologists believe this is harmful. Adherents in
this era felt the isolation, but the counter to it was suggested in this
article. Because they were ‘true believers’, they were also evangelists,
expressing their beliefs to others. There is no alienation in this. They were
determined to speak as God would have them speak, to bring the gospel to any
who would hear.
Russell was aware of this dichotomy.
Isolated from “worldly” belief and practice by the desire for holiness and
divine approval, adherents also felt compelled to take the Gospel to others.
Drawn on his experiences with Watch Tower believers, he wrote:
But
where is this faithful Church to be found? – this people so set apart from the
world, so faithful, so loyal and so true? – so ready always to recognize and
accept the Lord's help? Does it gather here or there or yonder? and is God manifestly
in the midst of its congregation as evidenced by its joyous songs and fervent prayers?
Ah, no! it is a scattered flock; so much so that the world does not discover
that there is such a people. The world knows them only as isolated and peculiar
individuals who cannot assimilate even with the masses of those who bear the
name of Christ. There is one in the quiet of country life whose chief interest is
not in the harvest of his earthly crops, and who only plants and reaps thus
that he may be able to devote himself so far as possible to the reaping of
God's harvest. He has glorious tidings for his neighbors far and near, of the
kingdom which is soon to be established in the earth. And there is a farmer's
wife: in the midst of her busy cares the blessed sound of gospel grace has
fallen on her ears. She feels at once like dropping the domestic duties and
going abroad to tell the good news. But no; she remembers the Lord's teaching,
that he that provideth not for his own house is worse than an unbeliever; and
so she says, I will let my light shine here. These little ones around my feet
shall learn to rejoice in the truth; my companion, my neighbors, my farm hands
and all that I can reach through the mail or the press shall know of it; and
all these domestic duties which I realize the Lord would not have me ignore
shall henceforth be done with an eye single to his glory.
Here
is an invalid and there is an aged saint. Their faith in the Word of God,
regardless of the vain philosophies and traditions so commonly accepted, brings
upon them many reproaches which are meekly born for Christ's sake, while they
humbly endeavor to let their light shine upon those about them. And yonder in a
crowded city are a few who dare to be peculiar – to separate themselves from
the customs and habits of social life, to forego the pleasures and present advantages
of former social ties, to speak the new and heavenly language, to sing their songs
of hope and praise and by every agency within their grasp to send forth the
glorious message of the coming kingdom. And then scattered far and near are
some unencumbered with earthly cares and joyfully denying themselves, esteeming
it a privilege to devote all their time and energy to the great harvest work. Yes,
"the Lord knoweth them that are his," and he is in the midst of them.
He knows their loyalty to him and they know his voice and are ever ready to
follow his leading. Thus no harm can overtake them. They will stand and not
fall, and will in the end be crowned as victors. A thousand will fall at their
side and ten thousand at their right hand in this day of trial, but they will
be kept in the very midst of the wildest confusion. They may, as the trial
proceeds and as the faint-hearted and unfaithful fall, be left to stand almost
or entirely alone in their several localities; but then they will realize all
the more the preciousness of being alone with God.
Strict adherence to Bible standards,
no matter what the doctrine, has always produced something like this. It is
hard for us to see Watch Tower adherents in the Russell era as social misfits in the
same sense that those at the extremes of the labor movement and other
disenfranchised groups were. Former slaves and their children, poor farmers,
under paid and abused laborers, shop girls who prostituted themselves because
they were not paid a fair wage suffered from forces outside their control.
Separation form ‘the world’ on a doctrinal and holiness basis was a choice. Put
in Apostolic terms, either one served God or was part of the world.
In 1892, Russell wrote a commentary
on the International Sunday School Lesson on the First Pslam. Russell said that
the righteous man of Psalm One pictured “the man whose heart is perfected in
holiness, the pure in heart.” This was “pre-eminently” a picture of Jesus, but “secondarily
… of those … justified by faith … new creatures, walking in their Master's
footsteps.” They were “sometimes imperfect” through fleshly weakness. The Psalm
delineates “three steps” the righteous avoid: “(1) the ungodly – literally, the
wicked, (2) sinners or transgressors, and (3) scorners or the conceited and
unteachable.” “The proper course is to have no fellowship (sympathy and common
interest) with people of any of these classes,” Russell wrote. He explained
that this “not mean that we are to treat them unkindly or discourteously, nor
that we are never to be seen walking, standing or sitting with such; but it
does imply that our company should, as far as possible, be select, and of those
who reverence our God, and that other fellowships should not be encouraged.”
Of the three types of wrong-doers Russell identified,
he felt most would avoid the unquestionably wicked and common sinners. Most
were “in danger of getting into fellowship with the scorners or unteachable.”
Association with them would lead “to the same spirit, and that leads gradually
to violation of the covenant with God; and that leads to open wickedness and willful
sin.” The safe way is to have was to have “no fellowship with darkness: it is
never profitable.” The principals in the first Psalm affected church
affliation:
In
all the nominal churches there are many who have a form of godliness, but who are
really ungodly – far from being in harmony with God and his plan. In the
nominal churches are also many sinners, living in known violation of their
covenant with God. And there, too, may be found, alas! sometimes even in the
pulpits, those who are of an unteachable, haughty spirit, who even scoff at
God's Word and make it void through their traditions. Come out from among them;
and neither sit, nor stand, nor walk in fellowship with such. (Rev. 18:4; Isa.
52:11.) Stand with God, even if that should seem to imply standing alone. The
Lord knoweth them that are his, and he has yet more than seven thousand who bow
not to the idol of sectarianism.
Obedience to principals of good
fellowship brought happiness rather than isolation:
Some
might suppose that one thus isolated would have an unhappy lot; but no, he is
truly said to have a delightful experience. He delights day and night in
meditating upon God's will and plan. In this he finds a joy and a peace which
the world and a worldly church can neither give nor take away. One thus
consecrated and full of the spirit of the Lord finds that God's laws of
righteousness are not restraints which he would fain be freed from; but, like
the Master, he can say, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: thy law is
engraven in my heart."
…
Such children of God as have reached this degree of development do not wither
away and become dead and barren, but, since the root of their new life is fed
by the river of God's grace and truth, they are always fresh and joyous and
fruitful--adding to faith virtue, brotherly kindness, love, and so are not unfruitful
in either the knowledge or the wisdom which surely comes to all who have
communion and fellowship with God. Whatsoever such do shall prosper. They have
no plans of their own: they desire that God's will shall be done. And since
God's plan shall prosper (Isa. 55:11), their plan shall prosper; for his is
theirs.
Again
we observe that this is not the disenfranchisement that Abrahams and others who
take the same tack envision. It is engagement but on terms set by holiness. If
the world is common and ungodly, it is not association of choice for Christians,
but it is populated by those who need to hear the gospel and to whom Christians
owe courteous behavior. Some historians and more sociologists take this and
similar comments to mean Watch Tower adherents were disenfranchised and disgruntled. They
misunderstand the religious spirit of the age.
Samuel
L. Beiler, a professor at Boston College , a Methodist institution, also wrote a commentary on
this psalm suggesting much the same things as Russell did:
The
scorners are those who make an open scoff at religion, and blaspheme and
ridicule it. These … are as many now as in Psalmist’s day. They still have
their ‘seat’ or assembly and form a deliberate confederacy in wickedness. To ‘sit’
in their ‘seat’ does not necessitate being an open-mouthed blasphemer, but may
only imply a silent member of such a company, who in his own heard … harbors
such feeling. Beware of mocking, ridiculing, scoffing, scorning sacred things.
Such a spirit indicates a heart empty of good and of god, near to destruction. …
The ungodly … will be as the chaff blown away by the wind. … In the great day
of judgment the hearts that are like empty shells will be found wanting …
Those more modern writers who
suggest that Watch Tower believers were especially alienated from the world
are significantly out of touch with the religious spirit of the age. Watch Tower theology – on the issue of holiness and obligations
to fellow men – fits directly into common religious belief. To return to
Abrahams’ suggestions, we should note that the third term he suggested, “troubled,”
does not seem to us to have been used in the sense he suggests. Since he cites
no references, we cannot follow his research trail.
Zion’s Watch Tower and
traveling evangelists served as point of contact from the “twos and threes” and
individuals. Hamilton Lincoln Gillis wrote to Russell from Preston County , West
Virginia , after
the Lord’s Memorial Supper in 1887, noting concern for the small groups.
Russell printed it in the May Watch Tower :
I
have the great pleasure to report a very interesting and profitable meeting, on
the evening of the 7th inst., of a little company, sixteen in number, who “kept
the feast” in remembrance of “our Passover, slain for us.” We remembered the
more isolated ones, who were not so privileged; also the little bands of twos
and threes, and companies like our own, here and there all over the earth. We
prayed also for the dear brothers and sisters in Allegheny; and we doubted not
that we were also remembered, and the assurance gave us courage and
strengthened us in our glorious privilege. We all join in sending our love and
sympathy to you and Sister Russell, and to all the dear household that are
privileged to see you face to face.
[1] E. H. Abrahams: Charles Taze Russell and the Jehovah’s
Witnesses, American Studies, Spring 1977, page 61.
[2] C. T. Russell: Prepare Ye for the Kingdom, The Watch
Tower, January 15, 1912 ,
pages 32-33.
[3] C. T. Russell: In the Vineyard, Zion’s Watch Tower,
October/November 1881, page 5.
[4] C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch
Tower, August 1884, page 1.
[5] C. T. Russell: God is in the Midst of Her, Zion’s
Watch Tower, August 1891, pages 108-109.
[6] C. T. Russell: The King of Zion, Zion’s Watch Tower,
March 15, 1892 , pages
90-91.
[7] Beiler’s commentary if found in: Boston
Homilies: Short Sermons on the International Sunday School Lessons for 1892,
page 113ff.
[8] Letter from H. L. Gillis to Russell, Zion’s Watch
Tower, May 1887, page 8. [Not in reprints.] Gillis was born in Pittsburgh ,
Pennsylvania , June 1836 to Ander and Isabelle Gillis. About 1857 he married
Isabel Crawford. They had four children. During the Civil War he served as a
private in the 6th Regiment, West Virginia Cavelry (Union). Though some online genealogies say he died in
1916, he died in 1906. Gillis traveled to Austraila in the late 1890s to mine
for opals. On his return, they were stolen from him by an Aleck Cramer.
[Swindled by his Friend, San Francisco Call, March 10, 1898] He returned
to West Virginia.
Bible House family - 1906
The date the photograph was taken is written on the back of one collectors' copy.
I had a little difficulty working out rows 1 and 2 until I carefully checked the feet in the photograph.
Most will recognise a few of the people. The photograph also includes Margaret (or Margaretta) Land, who was CTR's sister.
CTR himself is not in the picture. Perhaps he was behind the camera...
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Snip
Mr. Schulz sent me this material today. It is rough draft, still in research, for a chapter entitled Out of Babylon. Comments welcome.
Out of Babylon
The
nature of Russell era congregations is misstated by Biblically illiterate
historians and sociologists. Edward Abrahams asserted that “Russell used the
words ‘alienated,’ ‘isolated,’ and ‘troubled to describe his congregations.”[1] We
ask, where?
Between
1879 and the end of 1916, the word alienated appears in fifty-nine
issues of the Watch Tower . Watch
Tower writers and Russell especially use it as commentary on Colossians 1:21-23:
“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to
present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue
in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel, which ye have heard , and which was preached to every creature which is
under heaven.” This is not a statement of social alienation, but of the need
for reconciliation to God through Jesus.
The
word appears in quotations from other sources, usually as commentary on the
alienation of the young from contemporary churches and the Bible. These are not
a reference to Watch Tower congregations. Russell never uses the word alienated
in the sense meant by a sociologist. The one place where one might presume he
meant it in that sense is found in the January 15, 1912 , Watch Tower . Russell
wrote:
The Church has cried in "the wilderness" in
the sense that she has been alienated and separated from the world. She has
called upon all who would hear to prepare for Messiah's Kingdom. She has told
more fully than did John the Baptist of the effect of Messiah's Kingdom – the
leveling up of the valleys (the lifting up of the poor), the straightening out
of the crooked things and the smoothing of the rough things, that thus all
flesh might see, appreciate, understand, experience the salvation of God. Both
John and the Church declare that this salvation is to be brought through Jesus
and His glorified Bride in Kingdom power. The point we are making is that while
John the Baptist was an antitype of Elijah, and was forerunner or herald of
Jesus, so, only more particularly, the Church in the flesh is a higher antitype
of Elijah, and still more particularly a herald of the Messianic Kingdom.[2]
Did
Russell suggest that the congregations were socially alienated? Not in the way
Abrahams and others suggest, and certainly this one occurrence is not an
example of continual usage. Russell says the Church has no part in the world’s social
upheavals and essential sinfulness. But the Church as an obligation to the
world to uplift, to declare salvation, and to rebuke wrongdoing. Christians are
not to approve of the world’s ways. This is not similar to the social
alienation that led to the Haymarket affair or the Railroad Insurrection. This
is a push for holiness.
But what of Russell’s use of the
word “isolated”? When using it of Watch Tower adherents, especially in the very early days, Russell
meant those who were the lone believer in their area, not that they were
otherwise isolated from their communities. An example is found in the October
1881 Watch Tower . Russell wrote an extensive report on the progress of Watch Tower evangelism “To strengthen and encourage the lonely
and isolated ones.”[3] Reporting Communion
observance in 1884, he touched on the small number of believers, using the word
‘isolated’: “In some places only two or three assembled, in others more, and some
isolated individuals alone, but the general testimony is that the Master was
present at least in spirit; and for aught we know was personally present.” Does
this seem to be a reference to social isolation? Not to us. But, as we shall
explore, their unique beliefs left them separated party or wholly from the
religious community. Again in1884, Russell wrote:
It
is comforting to those who stand isolated in their own neighborhood to realize
this. There are many such isolated ones, and all have much the same experience –
in
the world, tribulation; in Christ, peace. It is also a source of encouragement
to learn that while we realize that the harvest is great the laborers are being
multiplied, and that so far as we can learn, the saints are realizing their
call to make known the glad tidings, and that though their talents be many or
few they are not to be folded away in a napkin. We have learned that there are
as many ways to preach the Gospel as there are talents among the saints.
We
rejoice with all these that we have been so enabled to comprehend the Gospel as
to find that out of the abundance of the heart our mouth must speak; that the
love of Christ and the knowledge of his glorious truth constraineth us.
But
while we thus rejoice together, we can but rejoice with trembling as we realize
the secret, subtle, and persevering efforts of the Prince of this world to
overcome the saints. No artifice or effort is left untried: Opposition,
ridicule, rejection, flattery, false reasoning to disprove the truth, cares of
this world, bribery with the good things of this world, and allurements of
various kinds, are all used as the necessities of the individual cases may
require.[4]
This is within Christian experience.
Early Methodists and Baptists, and First Century Christians all experienced
isolation because of belief. The trials he described are common to those who
live by New Testament standards. Some sociologists believe this is harmful.
Adherents in this era felt the isolation, but the counter to it was suggested
in this article. Because they were ‘true believers’, they were also
evangelists, expressing their beliefs to others. There is no alienation in
this. They were determined to speak as God would have them speak, to bring the
gospel to any who would hear.
Russell was aware of this dichotomy.
Isolated from “worldly” belief and practice by the desire for holiness and
divine approval, adherents also felt compelled to take the Gospel to others.
Drawn on his experiences with Watch Tower believers, he wrote:
But
where is this faithful Church to be found? – this people so set apart from the
world, so faithful, so loyal and so true? – so ready always to recognize and
accept the Lord's help? Does it gather here or there or yonder? and is God manifestly
in the midst of its congregation as evidenced by its joyous songs and fervent prayers?
Ah, no! it is a scattered flock; so much so that the world does not discover
that there is such a people. The world knows them only as isolated and peculiar
individuals who cannot assimilate even with the masses of those who bear the
name of Christ. There is one in the quiet of country life whose chief interest is
not in the harvest of his earthly crops, and who only plants and reaps thus
that he may be able to devote himself so far as possible to the reaping of
God's harvest. He has glorious tidings for his neighbors far and near, of the
kingdom which is soon to be established in the earth. And there is a farmer's
wife: in the midst of her busy cares the blessed sound of gospel grace has
fallen on her ears. She feels at once like dropping the domestic duties and
going abroad to tell the good news. But no; she remembers the Lord's teaching,
that he that provideth not for his own house is worse than an unbeliever; and
so she says, I will let my light shine here. These little ones around my feet
shall learn to rejoice in the truth; my companion, my neighbors, my farm hands
and all that I can reach through the mail or the press shall know of it; and
all these domestic duties which I realize the Lord would not have me ignore
shall henceforth be done with an eye single to his glory.
Here
is an invalid and there is an aged saint. Their faith in the Word of God,
regardless of the vain philosophies and traditions so commonly accepted, brings
upon them many reproaches which are meekly born for Christ's sake, while they
humbly endeavor to let their light shine upon those about them. And yonder in a
crowded city are a few who dare to be peculiar – to separate themselves from
the customs and habits of social life, to forego the pleasures and present advantages
of former social ties, to speak the new and heavenly language, to sing their songs
of hope and praise and by every agency within their grasp to send forth the
glorious message of the coming kingdom. And then scattered far and near are
some unencumbered with earthly cares and joyfully denying themselves, esteeming
it a privilege to devote all their time and energy to the great harvest work. Yes,
"the Lord knoweth them that are his," and he is in the midst of them.
He knows their loyalty to him and they know his voice and are ever ready to
follow his leading. Thus no harm can overtake them. They will stand and not
fall, and will in the end be crowned as victors. A thousand will fall at their
side and ten thousand at their right hand in this day of trial, but they will
be kept in the very midst of the wildest confusion. They may, as the trial proceeds
and as the faint-hearted and unfaithful fall, be left to stand almost or
entirely alone in their several localities; but then they will realize all the
more the preciousness of being alone with God.[5]
Strict adherence to Bible standards,
no matter what the doctrine, has always produced something like this. It is
hard for us to see Watch Tower adherents in the Russell era as social misfits in the
same sense that those at the extremes of the labor movement and other disenfranchised
groups were. Former slaves and their children, poor farmers, under paid and
abused laborers in every field, shop girls who prostituted themselves because they
were not paid a fair wage suffered from forces outside their control.
Separation form ‘the world’ on a doctrinal and holiness basis was a choice. Put
in Apostolic terms, either one served God or was part of the world.
[1] E. H. Abrahams: Charles Taze Russell and the Jehovah’s
Witnesses, American Studies, Spring 1977, page 61.
[2] C. T. Russell: Prepare Ye for the Kingdom, The Watch
Tower, January 15, 1912 ,
pages 32-33.
[3] C. T. Russell: In the Vineyard, Zion’s Watch Tower,
October/November 1881, page 5.
[4] C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch
Tower, August 1884, page 1.
[5] C. T. Russell: God is in the Midst of Her, Zion’s
Watch Tower, August 1891, pages 108-109.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
A snippet from a chapter in progress
Signs
in the Heavens
Pretend and real heavenly events panicked those who looked
for signs in the sun, moon and stars. On September
6, 1881 , the skies over New England ,
Vermont and New
Hampshire – over two hundred thousand square miles –
turned yellow. The cause was uncertain, though probably a forest fire in the
wilds of Northern Canada . This was startling event.
Yellow haze hung in the upper atmosphere undisturbed by a steady breeze. In
some areas the haze reached the ground. Schools were dismissed and workers sent
home or work proceeded under candle light. Chickens roosted, night insects
chirped, birds slept. While some saw it as an interesting phenomenon needing a
good, scientific explanation, many panicked. The Friends Intelligencer
said: “Among those who apprehended that the weird prophecies of the seers of Israel
concerning the earth’s destruction are to find literal fulfillment in our day
there was general apprehension that the last day of the human race had come.”[1]
Abraham
Brown of East
Kingston , New Hampshire , wrote to the Springfield , Massachusetts , Republican,
suggesting that it was a last-days sign:
‘The sky was draped in a kind of fog, a little too
light for smoke, and a little too dark for steam.’ As all our wise men have
failed to give a scientific reply to the question of your correspondent, allow
me to suggest that a ‘fog which is a little too light for smoke, and a little
too dark for steam’ may properly be called a ‘vapour of smoke’ – and whether it
be from a supernatural cause or from unexplained or unknown natural causes – it
looks, and I have no doubt is one of the wonders of the fulfillment of the
prophecy of Joel, as declared by the apostle Peter in Acts 11, 19 and 20: ‘I
will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and
fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon
into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.’[2]
Brown was serious. So were a
multitude of others struck by the similarity between the event and Bible prophecy.
Watch Tower
adherents were not persuaded. They expected other events that year.
As we noted in a previous chapter,
Albert Jones focused on the perihelion of planets on June 19, 1881 , mentioning it in Bible Students
Tract number six. He believed Thomas Wilson’s booklet and other similar
predictions supported his expectations. He was not alone. Many outside the Watch
Tower movement did as well,
including Barbour and his followers. Aged Barton Speak, who billed himself as
“an old Jacksonian Democrat,” wrote:
It is now midnight , and I am just in from the Stars. You know this is the night of the
conjunction of the big stars, that is, the planets, and to-morrow – Sunday – is
to be the end of the world; that is certain so called wise men have said so. I
ope this will prove a blessed Saturday night for you if it is the last one. How
little the beaux that sit in conjunction with their lasses to-night know what
is going on overhead. They don’t know that the big stars of the solar system
move up into a straight line with the sun, to-night. That is so. … If there
isn’t a big disturbance to-morrow, I don’t want to be told … that when the
earth gets out on a dress parade with the sun and other big bodies in the sky
there must of necessity be a big disturbance …. The fact is, I don’t’ believe
that a disturbance will take place.[3]
Speak was right, of course, or we
wouldn’t be writing this and you wouldn’t be reading it. Writers from The
Restitution speculated on the supposed perihelion of planets, taking the
mater seriously. In May 1879, a F. W. Haskell of Lynn ,
Massachusetts , wrote to Barbour asking:
Have
you seen an article in the papers on the conjunction of the four planets with
the sun, which is supposed to explain the pestilence and miasmatic pressure
brought to bear on the earth, and which is to vibrate with convulsions and thus
scatter disease and death to its inhabitants? There was an article in a Boston
paper last week, warning the people to take care of their health, as they will
soon be called upon to face a season of pestilence such as has not visited our
earth since the christian era. [sic] They ignore the ending of the gospel age,
and yet are looking for the very things foretold.[4]
Barbour didn’t append an answer to
Haskell’s letter, but in the next issue recommended the booklet published by
Thomas Wilson which we discussed on chapter [#]. Published under two titles,
the one noted by Barbour was Star Prophecies, or a View of Coming Disasters
on the Earth from1881 to 1885, as Viewed from an Atronomical and Astrological
Standpoint. Its ideas persuaded readers of both magazines. Wilson
also published John Collom’s The Prophetic Numbers of Daniel and the
Revelation which focused on pyramid measurements and planetary perihelia.
Other books and pamphlets, almost without number, did as well.
[1] Yellow Day: Friends Intelligencer, September 17, 1881 , page 489.
[2] Quoted in Historic Magazine and Notes and Querries¸
October/November 1882, page 66.
[3] Letter from an Old Jacksonian Democrat, Mifflintown ,
Pennsylvania , Sentinel and
Republican, June 22, 1881 .
[4] F. W. Haskell to Barbour in the May 1879 Herald of
the Morning, page 56.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Just a taste ...
We started a new chapter. Mostly it's just notes, but some of it exists in rough draft. This chapter focuses on their expectations for 1881. Here is a small bit:
Both the Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of the
Morning continued to point to 1881 as a significant date. As with most of
this era, Watch Tower
belief about 1881 is seldom presented in context or with any sort of accuracy.
Most of those who discuss Watch Tower
expectations divorce them from contemporary history, present them inaccurately,
usually purposefully so. Watch
Tower readers expected a
variety of events, some of them conflicting. They were a small, hardly noticed
detail in a larger picture. A contemporary newspaper noted:
It
would be difficult to describe all the sinister predictions that have, as by
common consent, been concentrated upon the coming year. The soothsayers,
divines, oracle makers, astrologers, and wizards seem to have combined to cast
their spell upon it. Superstitious people of every sort, and some who are not
willing to admit that they are superstitious, regard the year 1881 with more or
less anxious expectation and dread. …
Timid
persons first began to look forward with some alarm to the year that is about
to open, when, several years ago, the key to the so-called prophetic symbolism
of the Great Pyramid of Egypt was made public, backed by the name and
reputation of the British astronomer, Piazzi Smyth. Others using Mr. Smyth’s
observations and measurements, have gone much further than he did in drawing
startling inferences; but no one can read his book without perceiving how
powerfully it must affect those who have the slightest leaning toward
superstition or credulity. …. So the belief, or at least the suspicion, spread
that the secret chambers of the Great Pyramid, under Divine guidance by the
most mystical character in all history, Melchisedek, King of Salem, foretell …
that the Christian era will end in 1881.[1]
[1] The Terrible Year at Hand, The Sliver Creek, New
York , Local¸ January 14, 1881 . The same article appeared in many other
newspapers. Author’s name is not given.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Our First Amazon Review
5.0 out of 5
stars THE FIRST
IN-DEPTH HISTORY OF THE ORGINS OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, June 4,
2014
By
E. Jones
Verified Purchase
This
review is from: A Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among
Readers of Zion's Watch Tower: 1870-1887 (Paperback)
This is the first thoroughly researched and comprehensive
history of the Jehovah's Witnesses early years. Other histories of the early
days of the Jehovah's Witnesses spend just a few paragraphs or pages on the
years 1870 - 1879, which are the years covered (in 380 pages!) in this volume
one of a planned two volume work. And those histories are all mostly based on a
single Watch Tower article of May 1890 (reprinted in 1894 and 1906) and maybe
some thoughts from A. H. Macmillan's book Faith on the March. Neither of which
were meant to be in-depth works. But there is much more to that history and this
book goes a long way in filling the historical gaps that exist because of
reliance on those two earlier works.
The authors of this work, Schulz and de Vienne, have done a remarkable job in producing the first history of this period based on original research made to fit an academic standard. They not only tell what they know but how they know it by means of a 189,000 word text with 1,700 footnotes and 102 photos and illustrations. So their work is verifiable. As the authors point out the problem with other histories of this period is that they present much that is not verifiable or ignore others who played a significant role during this period and concentrate on Charles Taze Russell to the exclusion of the numerous others who had a share in Jehovah's Witnesses history and the evolution of Watch Tower readers into a distinct religion.
The authors acknowledge Russell as a prime mover in the movement that developed. But while Russell did influence others he was also influenced by others. So while C. T. Russell is a focus of this history he is not the only focus. You will find here numerous biographies of those who Russell interacted with, showing exactly how they influenced his beliefs, that you will not find in any other Witness history. There are also biographical bits of information about Russell and others that had been scattered throughout Watch Tower and Bible Student publications that have been brought together here, in one place, for the first time. Also, as part of the authors original research you will find information obtained from letters, articles, and newspaper interviews that Russell and others wrote and gave, some before the Watch Tower magazine even came into existence. Joseph Lytle Russell, Ann Eliza Russell, Age-to-Come/One faith believers, Y.M.C.A., George Darby Clowes, George Washington Stetson, George Storrs, William Henry Conley, Margaret (Russell) Land, Henry Dunn, and Joseph Seiss are just some of names that are given the full treatment instead of just being barely or not at all mentioned in other Witness histories. In particular if you thought you knew who George Stetson and George Storrs were and the full impact they had on Russell from other Witness histories you will find out you were wrong. Four chapters are devoted to the relationship between C. T. Russell, Nelson Horatio Barbour, and John Henry Paton. What they did, who they spoke to, what they believed and preached and what others wrote and said about them from their meeting in 1876 till the breakup in 1879.
This is history written to an academic standard which means that it is verifiable and it sticks to the facts. So the authors don't try to prove that Russell and those associated with him were led by God, as Russell's friends believe, or that he was a religious apostate, as his enemies believe. This is not a book about the truthfulness of Witness theology. It's history without religious commentary. Since this is the first of its kind history the authors, also, when appropriate point out significant inaccuracies or unverifiable statements in other Witness histories. This is a book about the history of a group of certain individuals, who they were, what they did, what they said, and what they believed according to available records and how this all led to the formation of a distinct religious group.
The authors of this work, Schulz and de Vienne, have done a remarkable job in producing the first history of this period based on original research made to fit an academic standard. They not only tell what they know but how they know it by means of a 189,000 word text with 1,700 footnotes and 102 photos and illustrations. So their work is verifiable. As the authors point out the problem with other histories of this period is that they present much that is not verifiable or ignore others who played a significant role during this period and concentrate on Charles Taze Russell to the exclusion of the numerous others who had a share in Jehovah's Witnesses history and the evolution of Watch Tower readers into a distinct religion.
The authors acknowledge Russell as a prime mover in the movement that developed. But while Russell did influence others he was also influenced by others. So while C. T. Russell is a focus of this history he is not the only focus. You will find here numerous biographies of those who Russell interacted with, showing exactly how they influenced his beliefs, that you will not find in any other Witness history. There are also biographical bits of information about Russell and others that had been scattered throughout Watch Tower and Bible Student publications that have been brought together here, in one place, for the first time. Also, as part of the authors original research you will find information obtained from letters, articles, and newspaper interviews that Russell and others wrote and gave, some before the Watch Tower magazine even came into existence. Joseph Lytle Russell, Ann Eliza Russell, Age-to-Come/One faith believers, Y.M.C.A., George Darby Clowes, George Washington Stetson, George Storrs, William Henry Conley, Margaret (Russell) Land, Henry Dunn, and Joseph Seiss are just some of names that are given the full treatment instead of just being barely or not at all mentioned in other Witness histories. In particular if you thought you knew who George Stetson and George Storrs were and the full impact they had on Russell from other Witness histories you will find out you were wrong. Four chapters are devoted to the relationship between C. T. Russell, Nelson Horatio Barbour, and John Henry Paton. What they did, who they spoke to, what they believed and preached and what others wrote and said about them from their meeting in 1876 till the breakup in 1879.
This is history written to an academic standard which means that it is verifiable and it sticks to the facts. So the authors don't try to prove that Russell and those associated with him were led by God, as Russell's friends believe, or that he was a religious apostate, as his enemies believe. This is not a book about the truthfulness of Witness theology. It's history without religious commentary. Since this is the first of its kind history the authors, also, when appropriate point out significant inaccuracies or unverifiable statements in other Witness histories. This is a book about the history of a group of certain individuals, who they were, what they did, what they said, and what they believed according to available records and how this all led to the formation of a distinct religious group.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Can you help with this?
We think a man named William Carlton Irish was associated with Barbour and and maybe Russell. Can we you find his name in Herald of the Morning or Zion's Wach Tower?
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Update
An update to our current research is on the private blog. If you subscribe to it, you may want to visit the blog and read what will be chapter two in volume two. A few paragraphs remain to be written.
R
R
Saturday, June 14, 2014
John Newton Fox
Taken from a family history web page
John Newton
Fox was born June 4, 1839 ,
according to his death certificate or January
9, 1839 , according to his obituary. He was born in St. Clair
Township, Butler County , Ohio .
He was the son of Levi Fox and Eliza Yerkes. He was a farmer for most of his
life.
He married Sarah Jane Ricketts in 1863
when he was about 24 years old in Wayne County, Iowa. Their children and life
together are described in detail in the section on John and Sarah Fox.
The same year he married, John's
father, Levi, sold him sixty acres of land for $50. The deed to John Newton
Fox, both dated and recorded on March 11,
1863 , is found in Lucas County Land Record Book G, p. 569. The
description is the NW¼ of the SE¼ and the W½ of the NE¼ of the SE¼ of Section 34.
This is the 60 acres along the New York
road labeled "Phoebe Gookin" on the 1895 plat.
John was left a widower in
November, 1885 when his wife Sarah died. He married Isabelle Solinger on April 9, 1893 and became a stepfather
to her children. Below is a transcription of a letter that John wrote to
Leonard Shelton. His grandson, Richard Fox, said "grandpa Fox had
beautiful handwriting."
December the 14 1910
hellow lenard this evning we are all wel mother and Earl are
both at work so will try to answer some of the questions that yo sent but thare
is hundreds of qustions in the bibel that I cant answer and yo are too far away
from me and it is hard for me to read your hand riting then again it is
discuriging to rite answers if yo let the children destroy them befor yo
investigate themfirst i think that solaman was david sun
Second i think thar was synagogs and heason worship long
before Christ time but non of them perfect but Christ was building up what will
be the true church that will be the bride the lams wife will have part in the
first reserection they will be maid immortal they are the only ons that will be.
they will be maid spirt being they with thir lord will gug
the world and gug angels all so thar will be 144000 thousand of them the bible
ses fear not litel flock it is your fathers good pleasure to give yo the
cingdon they are on trile to day but the world at larg is not on trile to day
but will be on trile during the gugment day witch will be athousand year
then i think that al sin and pain misre and distress and
anquish and deth itself all springs from that one penalty prenounced on adam
when that is all settled then if we sin we will die for our own sin and not for
adams transgressions
well i cant give you the bible referenc on this yo are too
far awa but if you study it well yo will finde it to be the case
well if you can send me brother rusels surman i will be glad
or even his text read this carful
from John N. Fox
John's grandson, Richard Fox wrote
that when John N. Fox was a young man, the story was told me, he suffered
extreme frostbite in his feet and lower extremities. As he aged the circulation
to the feet and legs dried up and his legs turned black with gangrene. (I hope
you are not squeamish as some of the family's history is a little gruesome.) His
limbs were actually decaying beneath him. I don't know why they didn't amputate
them but operations were extremely dangerous and expensive in those days. My
mother told me that the rotting flesh would get maggots in it and that Isabelle
would pour boiling water over his legs to kill them. He could not feel the hot
water but he imagined he could feel the maggots. The maggots probably would
have rid him of the putrefied flesh but he wouldn't have known that. One
doesn't have to imagine the agony the poor man went through before he died.
John died at age 74 on January 2, 1914 in Chariton ,
Lucas County, Iowa of "sapremia gangrene of the feet" and was buried
in Salem Cemetery
with his wife, Isabelle and son Earl.
Mr. John N. Fox passed away at his
home on East Armory Avenue
in Chariton on Sunday morning, January 4th, 1914 , at the age of seventy-four
years, eleven months and twenty-six days, after an illness of several years'
duration with gangrene of the foot and a complication of troubles. Funeral
services, conducted by M. C. Lorimor, were held at the family home on Monday
afternoon at 2 o'clock , after which
the remains were laid to rest in the Salem
cemetery.
John N. Fox was born in Ohio
on January 9th, 1839 . On January 6th,1863 , he was united in
marriage to Sarah Jane Rickey (sic), who died several years later. To this
union seven children were born, six of whom are living. They are Mrs. Eliza
Smith of Oklahoma ; Mrs. Clara
Woods, of Fairmont , Neb. ;
Mrs. Mae McKelvey, of Des Moines ;
Etta and Orpha, of Chariton , and Boney, of Oklahoma .
Mr. Fox was again married on April 9th, 1893 , to Mrs. Isabella
Shelton, who survives him. To them one son, Earl, of this city, was born. Mr. Fox
was a good, Christian man, and bore his intense sufferings with a patience and
fortitude that were remarkable. He had resided in Lucas county for many years,
and was esteemed by all who knew him for his many excellent qualities. His
demise will be mourned by a host of friends who will extend sincere sympathy to
the surviving relatives.
Postcard John wrote to his grandson, John Elmer Smith when
his first daughter, Hazel was born in 1910.
John N. Fox
passed away at his home, Sunday morning, Jan.
4, 1914 , after an extended illness of about twelve years. The
greater part of this time he suffered intensely with blood poison. His feet
became infected, and he had not been able to take a step for more than ten
years, losing one foot entirely a short time since. He was taken to the
Methodist hospital in Des Moines ,
several years ago, hoping to be benefited but it baffled the skill of the
physicians there and seemed nothing could be done to alleviate his sufferings.
Obituary:
The deceased was born in the state
of Indiana , Jan. 9th, 1839 , and had he lived five days longer
would have reached the age of 75 years. He came to Iowa ,
when young and was united in marriage to Sarah Jane Rickets, January 6, 1863 .
To this union were born seven
children, Mrs. Eliza Smith of Wright, Minn., Mrs. Clara Woods of Fairmont, Nebr.,
Mae McKelvy (sic) of Des Moines, Etta O'Day of Davenport, Bomie Fox of Bush
Head, Oklahoma; Orpha of Chariton, and Merritt, who died in 1908. His wife died
Nov. 18, 1885 . He was
again married April 9, 1893 ,
to Mrs. Isabella Shleton. To this union one son was born, Earl, who remained at
home. Mr. Fox came to this state in an early day and was one of the pioneers of
this county.
He was a good Christian man, and
had his fellowship in the church of the Millennial Dawn. Funeral services were
held from the home Monday afternoon, conducted by M. C. Lorimor, and the
remains interred in the Salem
cemetery. Mrs. Mae McKelvey (sic) of Des Moines
and Mrs. Clara Woods of Fairmont , Nebr. ,
were the only children from a distance able to be present. (obituary found by
Frank Myers in an old family scrapbook)
Will of John N. Fox
I, John N. Fox, of the town of Chariton and state of Iowa of
the age of sixty-five years and being of sound mind and disposing memory to
make declare and publish this my last will and testament and hereby revoke all
former wills by me made in the manner following.
To - Wit: I desire that all my just debts and funeral
expenses be first paid. I devise and bequeath to my wife Issabelle Fox all my
property both personal and real, of whatever kind that I may own at the time of
my death, in addition to what she may be entitled to by law, to have and to
hold for her own use during the term of her natural life. On the death of my
said wife Issabelle Fox, I desire that the property both personal and real go
to my son, Earl Fox, to have in fee simple as his own property.
In witness whereof I have hereto attached my signature this
sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and four.
signed John N. Fox
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Sometimes all we have to do is wait
One of the already completed chapters for volume 2 is entitled Advertising the Message. We discuss a special edition of Plan of the Ages published in 1891. We put some considerable effort into finding a copy of the title page, abandoning that over a library fee of twenty-five dollars and six dollars postage. Herewith is the book ....