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Rutherford’s Ecclesiastical Heavens booklet, amongst others, and also some comments on attitudes of the time (largely superseded in modern times I am pleased to note).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.

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?

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.

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?

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?

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.

Quite a nice little collection...

           

...but alas, I don't have these covers on mine...

An Historic Headline

A little outside the usual era covered by this blog, but interesting nonetheless.

Help ....

An opposition writer made this claim:

He cites no source. We need the exact source. Can you find it?

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:

She felt that she must erect a grand church building with the tallest spire, and that every inch she added to the spire and every dollar added to the cost of building would help draw to her bosom

---

[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.

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,

???

The August 15, 2012, Watchtower says: “In July 1879, the Bible Students published the first issue of … Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. …. Twenty-seven-year-old Charles Taze Russell was chosen to be the editor, with five other mature Bible Students serving as regular contributors.” A similar claim appears in the January 15, 1955, Watchtower: “Having now withdrawn their editorial and financial support from … The Herald of the Morning, the Pittsburgh Bible class decided to embark upon a great project, that of publishing for the first time their own monthly magazine.”

These statements imply that starting Zion’s Watch Tower was a group decision and that Russell was elected editor. I cannot find support for this in contemporary records. Can you point me to an original source that shows a group choice, an election of Russell as editor?

Help!

Update: The articles are in the Feb 14 and Feb. 23, 1882, Dispatch. We're trying desperately to shepherd our research funds. A month subscription to the Dispatch archive is about eight dollars. Any kind soul out there want to buy the Coovert and Russell articles for us?

https://archives.post-gazette.com/search/#query=coovert+russell&dr_year=1879-1884&offset=2

            I’m putting the finishing touches on a chapter entitled “Food for Thinking Christians.” We wrote most of it months ago, but as with all first draft writing it has bumps, pimples and just plain bad writing.

            We need some help from someone living in Pennsylvania. William R. Coovert (also spelled Covert), a Winbrennerite clergyman living in Pittsburgh, challenged Russell to a debate through the pages of The Pittsburgh Dispatch. We do not have the original newspaper article. We need it.  The article would have appeared between August 1881 and December 1882. Can you help?

Here’s that bit of the story as we have it now:

William R. Coovert, [alternately spelled Covert] [1] a clergyman with the Church of God (Winebrennerites), challenged Russell to a debate. Coovert saw himself as an expert debater, and printed copies of several of his debates are available. He was less than stable and was involved in the Harlem Commons Swindle, serving for a while as manager of the syndicate claiming damages from New York City. He issued false claims about the involvement of prominent men, changing his story as every false claim was exposed.[2]

            He eventually went insane. Heavily involved in a controversy among the Order of Solons, a fraternal order, he demonstrated “pugilistic qualities” by slugging “Ex-supreme Secretary [G. A.] Mundorf.” He called in a reporter from The Pittsburgh Press to make a statement, and the reporter found him delusional and rambling:

When a Press representative entered the hotel, he was informed by the clerk that Mr. Covert had a vision during the night and was very much wrought up over something … Mr. Covert was found in an excited state of mind. His hair was disheveled and great drops of sweat were standing on his forehead. He was walking the floor in an excited manner, and papers and manuscripts were scattered in confusion about the floor.[3]

He had a spotty reputation among his own denomination, being admired as a debater but was also seen as a “vehement and disturbing.” A denominational history charitably calls him “a man of indefatigable energy, but of a volatile and flighty fancy.”[4] Why Coovert remained in favor with the Church of God despite his involvement with questionable activities, his pugnacious behavior, and his mental instability is unknown.

            Coovert challenged Russell through the pages of The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dispatch, “to discuss in a public debate the Creed of the Church of God, which is the inspired revelation known as the word of God.”[5]  The History of the Church of God reports that “‘Mr. R failed to come to time,’ so Covert published him in the Pittsburg [sic]’Times’ as having virtually ‘conceded that my position is true.’”[6] Given Coovert’s known instability, it is not surprising that Russell failed to debate him. Coovert was content to declare victory without an actual debate, setting a pattern for others in the general community to which the Church of God belonged. Decades later various Disciples elders would follow suit, declaring victory over J. F. Rutherford without a word of actual debate passing between them.[7]

---

[1]              Covert was born December 17, 1853, in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.  He was married three times. Covert was enrolled at the Edinboro State Normal School, but did not graduate. In 1872 he moved to Wappello, Iowa and was ordained at Harmony, Iowa, in October 1874. He attended Grove City College, but did not graduate. He was pastor of the Townsend Street Church in Pittsburgh from about 1880-1886. He was a member of the Prohibition Party. There is some indication that he spent the first few years of his religious life associated with H. V. Reed and The Restitution and the last few years in association with the SDA church. An article signed “Wm Covert” appearing in the Lake Union Herald, a Seventh-day Adventist Journal, of January 27, 1915, makes this possible. We’re uncertain if this is the same person. Covert spent much time writing about crank science theories. Few accepted them in his lifetime and no-one takes them seriously today. See John M. Gresham: Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, page 576ff.

[2]              Claiming New-York City Lands, The New York Times, August 22, 1885; Harlem Commons, The New York Times, June 17, 1886; The Harlem Commons Heirs: One of them Declares that a Swindle is Being Attempted, The New York Times, June 9, 1886; The Harlem Commons: Roscoe Conklin Said to be Retained, The New York Times, June 17, 1886;

[3]              His Mind Impaired: Rev. Covert Succumbs Under a Mental Strain, The Pittsburgh Press, December 8, 1892. See also Pittsburgh Dispatch, December 31, 1892, page 10; The Rev. W. R. Coovert Seriously Ill, The New York Times, December 9, 1892.

[4]              C. H. Forney: History of the Church of God in the United States, Churches of God, 1914, pages 209, 715.

[5]              Quoted by Forney, History of the Church of God, page 206.

[6]              Forney, page 206.

[7]              For a rather stupid and silly example see O. C. Lambert, Russellism Unveiled, Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1940.  See also the letters from John A. Hudson to J. F. Rutherford as published in the second edition of Russell-White Debate, Old Paths Book Club, no date, appendix.

See previous post

I don't have an answer to the puzzle, but readers without access to Paton materials, who would like to search might like to see the original reference to the mysterious R.O.L. and V.

  

R.O.L. is aged 66 in 1902, is a carpenter by trade, and is deaf. 

Name

Someone signing themselves "R.O.L" from Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, wrote to Paton in February 1902. He/she mentions a sister V. We need to identify both individuals. Can you help?

Temporory Posts

In the past material posted on this blog was taken by others without credit. It was used on controversialist web pages, often distorted from the original material. Hard work, reputation, and money goes into our research. When people use our work for their own profit, they steal from us. We used to post longer bits of research, sometimes entire chapters, to an invitation only blog. Our expectation was that we would generate helpful, knowledgeable comments. That did not happen.

We have deleted that blog, and it will not return. We still hope for informed comments. Our 'compromise' is a temporary post. Probably, we won't get any comments or meaningful questions. But one can always hope.