HARVEST GLEANINGS I [HG494]
SINNER, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD, YET ONLY A CHILD, ELECTROCUTED This article was republished an the Overland Monthly, pages OM127-OM131, entitled, "An Infant 100 Years Old to be Electrocuted."
MISCELLANEOUS COLUMN THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH NOT MERE UNION We have been told a thousand times, what we never needed to be told at all, that the prayer of our Savior, that all His people should be one, does not contemplate the solidarity of one universal ecclesiasticism. We ought all to understand the difference between union and uniq. Union is the joining together, and may exist organically and outwardly where there is no essential oneness of li* and purpose; that is to say, union may be mechanical, like a tree that has been made by nailing branches to a trunk, with twigs tied on with wire. Such a tree lacks essential oneness and can never bear fruit.
But unity means essential oneness, as when a tree grows its own twigs. The unity for which Christ prayed is a unity of aim, of life, of spirit. He prayed that the various parts of His church, even to the individual members of it, might stand so related to each other that they would co-operate with one mind and one spirit in saving men.
Evidently the Apostles so understood His doctrine; for they did not undertake to bind into one ecclesiasticism the various churches which they planted in various regions of the world. These churches were largely self-governing, subject to no instituted, general, governing body, subject only to the authority of the Apostles and their own constituted local authorities.
CLOTHING FOR RESTITUTION TIMES "Wool not the product of sheep is being utilized abroad for the making of men’s clothing. This is known as "limestone wool," and is made in an electric furnace.
Powdered limestone, mixed with certain chemicals, is thrown into the furnace, and, after passing through a furious air blast, it is tossed out as fluffy white wool.
When it comes from the furnace the wool is dyed and made into lengths like cloth. A pair of trousers or a coat made of this material cannot, it is claimed, be burned or damaged by grease, and is as flexible as cloth made of sheep’s wool."
Everyday Life And yet when the occasion arose, as occasion did arise over the question of the circumcision of the Gentiles, every church was ready to hear the decision of a council really to pass on such a question. They were organically separate, as to their ordinary ongoing, and yet they were essentially united; there was no union, but there was unity. This is what Christ contemplated, we are bold to say it was all He contemplated.
Having put this in the clear, we now have a question to ask: What is the attitude of Christ toward an ecclesiastical arrangement which is at war with this purpose of His to preserve unity in His church? Does such an ecclesiastical arrangement align itself obediently under this great prayer of His? Or does it violate the whole purpose and meaning of His prayer?
We have a further question: Is the ecclesiastical situation of American Methodism such as to promote unity, or have we an arrangement that in hundreds of places scandalizes the name of unity? If any one thinks to cut the ground from under the present trend of American Methodism by showing that Christ did not pray for organic union, let that somebody tell us whether we have what Christ did pray for, and tell us whether the present situation is at war with what He prayed for and whether this trend is really in the direction of fulfilling the prayer of the Master.- Western Methodist
INSANITY GREATLY ON INCREASE In 1905 the population of Massachusetts was 3,003,635. In that year there were 11,661 insane patients in the care of the State, including epileptics and inebriates.
October 1, 1909, there were 14,374 insane in State institutions, or one to every 227 of the population, which, according to the last census, was 3,366,416. The increase in population was only 362,779, while the increase in the accumulation of all classes of insane patients was 2,710. Therefore, in the last five years the increase in insanity has been 11.16 per cent greater than the increase in population.
SALVATION OF THE CHURCH AND THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD This article appears in its entirety in Pastor Russell’s Sermons, pages SM42-SM49, under the title of, "Two Distinct Salvations."
CHARACTER OF LOVE REQUIRED OF HEAVENLY ASPIRANTS This article was republished in Reprints R4849-50 -July 1, 1911, entitled, "The Love Required of the New Creation."
THE KEYS OF DEATH AND HELL "O grave [sheol, hades-hell] where is thy victory." 1 Cor. 15:55
Death is spoken of throughout the Bible as an enemy. Merely hymn-book theology presents it as a friend, an angel sent of God. Death is introduced to our attention in the distinct understanding that had Adam not transgressed the Divine commands he need not have died, nor ever have been cast out of his Eden home.
St. Paul emphasizes the fact that death is the penalty of sin and that the resurrection of the dead will come to mankind as the result of the redemptive work of Christ. He says, "Since by man comes death, by man also comes the resurrection of the dead. For as all in Adam die, even so all in Christ shall be made alive; but every man in his own order," band or cohort. 1 Cor. 15:21-23
As Genesis introduces death as a penalty for sin, Revelation concludes the great drama by pointing out Christ’s victory and the destruction of sin and death, the release of all the members of Adam’s family from his sentence and eventually the bringing of all the willing back to fellowship with God and to eternal life.
Between these two extremes of Divine Revelation are the assurances of the Prophets and the words of Jesus and His Apostles explaining the processes of redemption and reconciliation. St. Paul summarizes these with the statement, "By one man’s disobedience sin entered into the world, and death as the result of sin, and thus death passed upon all men, because all are sinners . . . As by one man’s disobedience [the] many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall [the] many be made righteous." Rom. 5:12-19
DEATH A RAVENOUS MONSTER In the poetic language of Scripture death is symbolically represented as a great monster which has been swallowing up the human family, never satisfied.
Millions on millions have already been devoured. Mankind in vain has looked for a Deliverer-for one able to vanquish death and to deliver the prisoners from the great prison-house of sheol, hades, the grave. This monster was granted pemmission to devour the race by Him who created us, because we were unworthy of eternal life. Death, therefore, is backed by the mandate of the Almighty, and He cannot overthrow His own decision.
The Divine proposition is that whoever would meet the requirements of Justice against Adam and his race might purchase or ransom them, and have full right to deliver them from the prison-house, the tomb. For four thousand years there were promises looking forward to this great Messianic Deliverer, but only promises-nothing was accomplished. Finally, in due time, God sent forth His Son.
He says that "He came not to condemn the world [not to add to its condemnation, not to add to its sorrow or pain or trouble or hopelessness], but that the world through Him might be saved" from death-have life, perfect and everlasting, deliverance from the jaws of the monster and from his prison-house. But although more than eighteen centuries have since [HG496] elapsed, the race is being swallowed up of this great monster, death, more voraciously than ever-ninety thousand every day. His prison-house, sheol, hades, the tomb, is supposed now to contain twenty thousand millions of Adam’s children. Why the delay? Did God’s plans go awry? Was the Savior insufficient for His work? Was His sacrifice imperfect and unsatisfactory?
The Scriptures assure us that the sacrifice that Jesus offered (Himself) was a satisfaction, "ransom price," for the sins of the whole world. They tell us that the Heavenly Father manifested His approval of the sacrifice when he granted the Pentecostal blessing, and that Jesus is even now at the Father’s right hand waiting (Heb. 10:12, 13) until the time shall come when the heathen and the uttemmost parts of the earth shall be given to Him, that He may establish His reign of righteousness, blessing the world and releasing all the prisoners of Sin and Death.
The delay is not in any sense an indication of weakness, nor of any change in the Divine Program. It merely indicates that there is another feature of the Almighty’s purpose which we did not for a time discern. The work is to be a great one.
Twenty thousand millions are to be delivered from death’s prison-house. And all of them will need instruction, uplifting, chastening, schooling to prepare them for the Divine blessing of life everlasting. The time for instruction and uplifting is declared to be a thousand years. The power for the instruction is the Messianic Kingdom, the Rulers of which will be Messiah and His Bride-joint-heir with Him in His Kingdom. During the past nineteen centuries God, by His Word and providences, has been calling and drawing a "little flock" to Christ to be His Bride.
And not until all of these shall be called, drawn, tested, proven faithful unto death as followers in the Master’s footsteps, will the elect Body be complete and the slaying of the great monsters, Sin and Death, be begun and accomplished. For that day the saints are waiting and praying, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!" And for that day the whole creation is waiting, although not clearly infommed respecting the blessings in store for them-Rom. 8:19, 21.
"THE LAST ENEMY" IS DEATH St. Paul points us to the great Deliverer, the glorified Messiah, at the time when He shall take the Kingdom under the whole heavens and begin the fulfilment of the prayer He taught us, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven." He tells us He must reign until He shall have put all enemies under His feet-" The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15:26). The meaning is clear. Messiah’s Kingdom will address itself promptly to the rectification of every fomm of unrighteousness, financial, political, social, religious. He will rule the world with a rod of iron and every nation and every system or element contrary to the Divine standards of righteousness will be broken to shivers with His "iron rod." Thus will righteousness be established in the earth in the midst of "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation."
But the putting down of sin will be but the beginning of Messiah’s work. Satan being bound, and the reign of sin thus stopped, each transgression will receive a just recompense and each good endeavor a just reward. Gradually mankind will rise out of sin and therefore proportionately come from under the power of death, until all the willing and obedient shall be fully delivered from all danger as respects the monster which has devoured our race for sixty centuries. Not only so, but those twenty thousand millions who have gone into the prison-house of death will be released-not all at once, but gradually, as the Apostle declares, "Every man in his own order," or band.
By the close of the thousand years of Messiah’s reign, His victory over Sin and Death will be complete. Every member of Adam’s race will have been lifted from the prison-house of death. It will be a prisonhouse no longer, for there will be no prisoners in it; mankind will have been lifted out of the clutches of Sin and Death, weakness and depravity, by the processes of restitution, resurrection, uplifting. (Acts 3:19-21)
The victory over sin will be complete, because all who love sin and are willingly its servants after being released from the condemnation of the Adamic death, will be destroyed in the Second Death. Thus Adamic Sin and Death will finally be completely routed and the prison-house of death be broken up. And Adam and his family, not willingly sinners, will all be set at liberty-restored to human perfection, as the earth will be brought to Edenic perfection.
O DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING? Then will be brought to pass the Divine prophecy, "O. death, where is thy sting? O, grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. 15:55
We must notice when this is to be brought to pass. It is not now true. The sting of death is in us all, for as the Apostle explains, Sin is the sting of death. And because all have been stung by sin, all are dying. It will require the entire Messianic Age to fully extract from humanity the virus, the sting, of sin by bringing mankind to perfection. Only as the sting of death is removed will the power of death relax, because it is a [HG497] part of the Divine Law that "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Death now has its sting. But when that which is perfect shall have come, the sting will be gone, the imperfection and weakness will be gone, the cause for sin will also be gone.
Not now, but then, will be brought to pass the saying, "O. hades, where is thy victory?" Hades, sheol, the grave, has been having a victory over Adam’s race for over sixty centuries. And its victory will not be entirely overthrown until the Redeemer shall have delivered from the power of the grave the last member of the human family-for all of whom "He died, the Just for the unjust, to bring us back to God."
Thus, as the Apostle says, with the culmination of Christ’s Kingdom, with the deliverance of all mankind from the power of Sin and Death, death will be swallowed up in victory. The Apostle probably quoted from Hos. 8:14, where we read, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave [sheol]; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues [gradual destruction]; O grave [sheol], I will be thy destruction; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." The Almighty will never change or turn from this decision. Death and the grave, sheol, hades (the Bible hell), are to be destroyed. Every member of Adam’s race is to be delivered by Him who redeems all.
KEYS OF DEATH AND HADES A key is a symbol of authority and symbolizes a legal power to open the prison-house and to release the prisoners. Adamic death has been a legal penalty upon our race-a just penalty. But although all shared the condemnation and weakness, God foresaw that some of the race, if granted the opportunity, would gladly return to loyalty to His laws. He has, therefore, made provision through Jesus for every member of the race, great and small, rich and poor. Worldwide redemption will be provided and world-wide opportunity for the coming to a knowledge of the Truth and for being uplifted or resurrected will be afforded. The right or power to release mankind from the power of death and from the prison-house of the tomb, sheol, hades, the grave, is represented by the key in the hands of Messiah. He gained that key, that rightful authority to set us free from the grave, by the redemption which He accomplished at Calvary.
This figure of the prison-house was used also by the Lord through Isaiah the Prophet. Is it not written that the Lord was anointed to preach a message of good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives of Sin and Death and the opening of the prison-house of death to those that are bound? And did not Jesus apply this very prophecy to Himself? (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18) Surely our Lord opened no earthly prison-doors at His first advent.
But just as surely He foretold that He would open the prison-doors and set all the captives free. His death, "the Just for the unjust," was in order that He might have the authority to release the prisoners-by His death He secured the key.
Eventually this glorious work will be consummated, and in the consummation of it the elect Church of this Gospel Age is invited to have a share. Hence the Church is called out from the world first, under a special Covenant of sacrifice, that she may with her Lord, the Redeemer, become part of the Seed of Abraham on the spirit plane. Gal. 3:29
HADES CAST INTO GEHENNA "And death and hell (hades) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the Second Death." Rev. 20:14
In the symbolic language of Revelation, Messiah’s reign is described as a glorious opportunity for all mankind to come back into harmony with the Almighty and to attain everlasting life through the great Mediatorial Kingdom. The symbolic picture of which this text is a part, describes the establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom, the saints of this Gospel Age being with Him in His throne, in His Kingdom, reigning with Him-a Royal Priesthood. Rev. 20:1-6
The context further describes that period, in which all mankind shall be brought to a knowledge of the Truth, when all shall "stand before the great White Throne," Messiah’s Judgment Throne, to be tried, to be tested, to be proven whether they will accept or refuse the perfection and eternal life which Divine mercy will then make possible for them. During that thousand years of Messiah’s reign, as we have seen, death will be gradually swallowed up in victory. And as the prisoners of the tomb are gradually released, the grave will be destroyed, will be no more.
The statement, "death and hades were cast into the lake of fire, which is the Second Death," is merely another way of explaining to us that Adamic death, and the grave connected therewith, will be superseded by the Second Death. Any of the race who, by the close of the Mediatorial reign, shall not have come up to perfection and shall not have gotten entirely free from the power of sin and the tomb, will themselves be responsible for their wrong condition, their imperfection. The great Mediator will have done everything right, proper and necessary for all. Whoever then shall come short of eternal life will himself only be to blame. And the trial time over, any not fully delivered, any still held by sin, will be [HG498] willingly held, and all such will be turned over to the Second Death, destruction, symbolized by fire.
Let it be remembered that the valley of Hinnom, outside of Jerusalem the earthly, where only the vile refuse was destroyed, will find its antitype in the Second Death, symbolically represented as a lake of fire outside the New Jerusalem. In it will be consumed utterly, completely, everything out of harmony with the Divine will.
THE WICKED RETURNED TO SHEOL In the New Testament, as we have seen, hades stands for the grave or state of death, which results from Adam’s transgression; while Gehenna represents the Second Death, which will come only upon those who shall first have been delivered from the Adamic sentence, or shall have had at least a full opportunity for deliverance and who will manifest their love for sin more than for righteousness and who, therefore, will be sentenced to the Second Death.
But in the Old Testament there is no distinctive word used to represent the Second Death-the extinction which will be the penalty of personal wilful transgression.
To meet the difficulty the word sheol is used a second time. For instance, we read of some who will be wilfully wicked after enjoying a knowledge of the Truth-not merely inheritors of imperfection and weaknesses which they have not overcome, but intelligently wilful sinners-" The wicked shall be returned to sheol together with all people who forget God." (Psa. 9:17) In our Common Version the prefix re is improperly omitted.
The "wicked" are only those who sin against light, knowledge and opportunity, and only those can be said to forget God who have once known Him-who have been brought to a knowledge of the Truth and turned from it. Truly the Resurrection Hope is the great theme of the Bible.
RANSOM AND SIN ATONEMENT This article was republished in Reprints R4832 -June 1, 1911, entitled, "Ransom-Ransom Price -Sin Atonement."
Volume 3, Number 13 RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC GLEANINGS PULPIT HAS LOST POWER The Rev. Lyman Abbott, of New York, spoke sadly of the decadence of the power of the pulpit, addressing 5,000 University of Wisconsin men and women at a convention at Madison, Wis. It is said the cloth has lost its power-it has, ‘said Dr. Abbott. It is said the pulpit has lost its power-it has. But a man, altruistic in the highest sense and spiritual, will never lose his power.‘ -Press Report.
It was certainly appropriate that Dr. Abbott should make the above statement to college people. Admitting the facts, let us find also their cause. It is because of the inconsistency of its teaching that the pulpit has lost its power with the masses.
The pulpit backs up and endorses the teachings of all the colleges of our day along the lines of Higher Criticism and Evolution. The people are coming to understand that this means that the pulpit is in antagonism to the Bible. If Evolution be true, man never fell and hence needed no Redeemer and no saving from a fallen state, but needed merely to be let alone in his evolutionary progress.
According to Higher Criticism the Bible in general is unreliable. Moses never wrote the books accredited to him, and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and others never wrote the books accredited to them-never were inspired of God to write these books. And if this be true, then Jesus and the Apostles were deceived and could not have been inspired by God when they quoted from these sacred writings of the past and declared them to be the Word of God and vouched for their authorship.
NO WONDER CHURCH ATTENDANCE IS SLIM On the other hand the public notice that the very [HG499] ministers who thus preach Evolution, Higher Criticism, unbelief in the Divine Revelation, keep right along preaching some of the absurdities which our forefathers claimed were in harmony with the Bible. Is it any wonder that the people are coming to see the inconsistency of such a position?
The result is that the masses have less and less confidence in the clergy. The people do not know what the clergy believe even when they hear them speak, for their address may be from the standpoint of the creeds or from the standpoint of Higher Criticism, according to their moods. The result of this uncertain sounding of the trumpet is that the masses are coming to the conclusion that the whole matter of religion is a big guess and that some of the guesses are influenced by temporal considerations.
The unbelief of the people grows and threatens to become agnosticism, or worse, atheism! Those who have brought about this condition of things during the past thirty years are the college professors and the best educated of Christendom. And now they stand astonished at the results, which they should have foreseen. Verily they are fulfilling the Divine prophecies of Isaiah, which, referring to our day, declare, "The wisdom of their wise men shall perish; the understanding of their prudent men shall not be manifest." (Isa. 29:14.) No wonder the civilized world is in trepidation as it sees the onward march of Socialism!
And however honest and well intentioned many Socialists may be, the result of their effort will spell anarchy and a time of trouble such as the world has never yet seen-a time of trouble, however, predicted by Daniel the Prophet, whose prediction was endorsed by Jesus Himself.-Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21.
What is the remedy? No remedy can possibly reach the disease! The Bible rightly understood is the balm of Gilead which alone could have helped. But matters have gone so far that comparatively few have sufficient confidence in the Bible to be willing to make a reexamination of it in the light of the Divine Plan of the Ages, which alone shows the harmony of the Word of God, from beginning to end.
PASTOR RUSSELL HEARD FROM Our reporter called on Pastor Russell immediately after his return from his British appointments. He was just ready to start on his World Tour as chairman of the Committee appointed by the International Bible Students Accociation to examine into and report on the Progress of Foreign Missions in the conversion of the world to Christianity. Replying to our reporter’s queries Pastor Russell said: I had a very enjoyable sojourn with the British. Since I left here on October 4th I delivered 55 addresses in 24 cities to approximately 44,000 people: In England, 31 meetings (12 of these in the London Tabernacle); in Scotland, 14 meetings; in Ireland, 6 meetings, and in Wales, 4 meetings; and going and coming on the steamers I had excellent opportunities for literary work.
While abroad did you learn of the further attacks made upon you by the Brooklyn Eagle?
Oh, yes! friends sent me clippings from the Eagle respecting myself; one remarking on the Eagle’s 70th anniversary that the Eagle evidently belonged to the nest mentioned in Rev. 18:2, "A cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Another wrote, "The Filthy Eagle." Another declared its three score and ten past and its decline well under way, remarking, if by reason of (financial) strength it attain four score, yet it will be with labor and sorrow. I am sorry for the poor old thing. Once it had quite a decent reputation.
I can speak for the "Peoples Pulpit Association" and for your many friends in Brooklyn and everywhere, and assure you that the Eagle’s spite toward you is fully realized. We are sure that you have a complete answer to every charge.
These answers your friends do not need, but perhaps you would give the public a few words through the columns of Peoples Pulpit. Our little journal reaches twenty readers to the Eagle’s one in this great city.
Surely, I will be pleased to reply to any queries you may suggest. But you must not expect me to render evil for evil or slander for slander. As a follower of Christ I am under orders to copy the Captain of our salvation, "who when He was reviled, reviled not again," but committed His interests to Divine care. He died for those who cried, "Crucify Jesus and release Barabbas the robber."
The senility of the poor old Eagle is shown by the character of the news it purveys. "Think of a Twentieth Century newspaper dishing up matter dated 1894, in its venomous attacks upon a preacher; and his chief faults are that he has the largest audiences and refuses to allow collections to be taken; and proves to the people that the Bible is true and that the fault is with the creeds of the Dark Ages; and proves also from the Bible that God is love, and that [HG500] He has not provided eternal torture for any of His creatures, but that the Bible hell and punishment for wilful sins are wholly different from what we once supposed.
Neither the Eagle, nor the preachers whom it represents, any longer believe the eternal torture theory, but they want the people to so believe until ready to drop the Bible entirely and join the "Higher Critics" in their new Gospel, viz., "By Evolution are ye saving yourselves and your race; your first parents did not fall; they were Apes; ye need no Redeemer, nor faith in one."
The poor old Eagle miscalculates the mental and moral caliber of its reader, or else I do. It’s intelligent readers should see through its venal attacks, and should not be deceived. Those of its readers who are of filthy mind- "Let them be filthy still." (Rev. 22:11) I do not crave their good will. "Birds of feather flock together!" Those who have charge of advertising my meetings have promised me that they will never again use the Eagle columns.
I have little to add to the interview you published last October. I then explained matters quite fully. I have many Christian friends who know me personally and through my books on Bible study, and through my sermons which reach ten millions of readers weekly.
I remind you briefly of the facts: A most excellent and noble wife became mentally poisoned by "Women’s rights." When I refused to allow such ideas a place in my journal, The Watch Tower, she became my bitterest enemy. First she tried. to coerce me. This failing she since seeks to destroy my influence. Yet never was a wife more kindly treated. Our property by mutual consent was all devoted to the Lord’s cause whilst we were in fullest accord. Provision was made merely for the necessities of life for both of us. When she changed her mind she demanded the money we had devoted to God’s cause. I paid her forty dollars per month. She appealed to the courts for more money. However, that is all settled, for in 1909 during my absence in Europe preaching, five of my friends, all men, made up a purse of $10,000, settled with Mrs. Russell and took her receipts for five-years’ allowances ordered by the court, which they knew I had not means to pay.
What about Rose Ball going to Australia?
Why, of course, she did not stay a child in short dresses all the time. She married and went to Australia with her husband. Remember, this is quite ancient history which the Eagle considers news. Twenty years ago Rose kissed my wife and me every night when she retired. And she did this at my wife’s suggestion. It was at that time that she came crying to me and sat on my knee to tell her troubles-as to a father.
No one knows better than my wife that there was absolutely nothing impure in any of my dealings with that foster child. I did not get a chance to furnish my testimony in Court because the trial judge discerned that no immorality was charged in my wife’s plea and ordered everything of the kind stricken from the court records.
On what plea then did she get a divorce?
She did not get a divorce at all; the court merely made a decree of separation. A sympathetic jury concluded that we both would be happier legally separated. My wife’s charge contained not a suggestion of immorality. It charged "cruelty." The evidence submitted to her attorneys seemed to them rather slim proofs of cruelty, and two sets of lawyers abandoned her case. The third set of attorneys "cooked" up some so-called evidence including the story about Rose Ball, then married and gone to Australia and who long years before was our foster child. Emily Matthews, the housemaid of twenty years ago, had also married. Hearing of the case she came to Court voluntarily to testify on my behalf. But before I could put her on the witness stand the Court had ruled that portion of my wife’s testimony "out of court" and to be stricken off the Court records.
My wife knew everything and never for one minute doubted my faithfulness as a husband. She merely sought revenge, because I did not accede to her "women’s rights" notions.
So far from claiming immorality on my part, my wife’s bill of complaint charged that I had never cohabited with her in the eighteen years of our married life. And her attorney taunted me with this. They neglected to tell the full truth; that the arrangement was by my wife’s full consent, and changeable at notice by either party. She well knew that I had never indulged in sexual intercourse with any person; and to this moment I have lived an absolutely celibate life.
Did you ever purpose or threaten your wife’s incarceration as a lunatic?
Never! On one occasion I did say to a mutual friend that so great a change-from being a most devoted wife to be so bitter an enemy-seemed so inexplicable that I wondered if it could be the effect of "change of life"-which for a time quite upset one of her relatives, as it does many women. I am still perplexed!
UNITED STATES INVESTMENT CO., LIMITED Asked what he knew about this concern Pastor Russell said: I know all about it. It is a little "Holding Company" of $1000 capital. All business people will understand. It is perfectly legal every way. I was one of the incorporators in the interest of the Bible and Tract [HG501] Society. I have not one dollar invested in it; nor have I been even nominally connected with it for many years.
PHILANTHROPIC CEMETERY SCHEME The Eagle mentions a Cemetery scheme in which you made money, and it implies fraud. Will you throw a little light on that, please, Pastor Russell?
Surely! To denounce that as a fraud is like the charging of Jesus with being Beelzebub! That Cemetery has been a Godsend to many. It is now selling family burying plots for $15, such as the other cemeteries ask $150 for.
Is there anything fraudulent about that? Is it not philanthropic? Would not the people of Brooklyn be delighted to have such a beautiful Cemetery near them and to be able to purchase lots for $15 each? I so believe! How glad we would be if such a philanthropy were inaugurated in every large city! The original thought included the furnishing of caskets, embalming, funeral car (for casket and pall-bearers) and cemetery plot, all for about $50.
I have not now and never did have any money in vested in the enterprise. I merely gave advice. I advised that several ministers be made Directors to hold office for life, and that these represent various denominations not possessing denominational burying grounds. Rev. Witherspoon, Rev. Young, Bishop Whitehead and myself where chosen. If I gave the cemetery more attention and counsel than some others it was probably because it appealed to me more than to them, as helpful to many in their time of distress. If there is anything dishonorable in the matter I fail to see it. Even though I removed from Pittsburgh I did not resign my Directorship, but still keep in touch with the Cemetery. I would be glad to be associated with a local work of the same kind, to the extent that my other duties would permit.
PASTOR EMERITUS AT PITTSBURGH The Eagle says that your work at Pittsburgh never amounted to much and implies that you have no friends or influence there now. How about that?
If that were true it would merely corroborate Jesus’ words, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own city." But I fear that I cannot thus claim to be a great teacher, for I have both friends and honor there. The Bible House Congregation, of which I was Pastor for several years, still holds me as its Pastor Emeritus. And I have a standing invitation to come whenever possible. Any Sunday if word were sent I would have a congregation of 600 to 800. And very few Protestant preachers there have so many any time. And few, after being gone for years, would be much more than "remembered. " But the Eagle is so prejudiced that it sees crowds only when they go to hear its ministerial favorites and then it sees double or treble or quadruple. For instance, when it got hold of an "English Preacher" willing to help it down Pastor Russell, the Eagle showed its great "influence" and "advertising value." It gave lengthy reports and "boomed" the "Reverend" and his "gospel of spite" and reported "large audiences," when there were but 225 and they dwindled to 20. On the other hand, when I have spoken at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to a packed house of 2,300 and many turned away, the Eagle report implied that it was insignificant.
No great newspaper could afford to be so careless of the truth; its managers would know that the public would sooner or later learn the facts.
Not prejudices, but facts, are what the public expect of newspapers. Nor then do they specially care for facts of 20 years ago to be misrepresented. President Lincoln truly said, "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time." We commend that to the Eagle as sound advice, good to be taken in large doses if it hopes ever to recover from its present bilious spell.
The Eagle publishes letters showing that it is not your only enemy. I presume you knew you have more?
Oh, yes, "Whosoever will live godly will suffer persecution." Yet I have the consolation of knowing that "they hated me without a cause." No human being can truthfully say that I ever did him injury by act or word. One casts a stone claiming that I say I discovered new truths in the Bible while they say I have not.
Another casts a stone saying that I claim to be teaching the old truths of the Bible, while they say I am preaching a new gospel of my own making. Others are angry because I get crowded houses while they get but few; and that I can get along without lifting collections or making solicitations while they are pinched for money while using every means of getting it. Crucifixion and burning are no longer sanctioned by law; therefore the stone and mud-throwing instead.
The position of the Eagle people is hard to understand. They are championing ministers whose "Creeds" consign every Eagle man to a hell of torture eternal-except he be a saint, which none of its force would claim to be. It is fighting the one preacher of Brooklyn who is showing that the Creeds of a darker day misinterpreted the Bible on this point. In other words they are fighting their well-wisher. Or do they hold that eternal torture is only for their enemies and [HG502] not for themselves and their friends and their ministers and their congregations.
Well, Pastor Russell, what is your vengeance upon these your enemies, clerical and lay?
Oh, none! They are blinded, some by envy, some by malice, some by creeds and some by greed. I am waiting and praying for Messiah’s glorious Kingdom to scatter present darkness-to open all the blind eyes, as God has promised.
What then?
Oh, then they’ll be ashamed! Do you remember how it reads, "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out, said, The Lord be glorified [i. e. we cast you out for the good of the Lord’s cause]; but He shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed." (Isa. 66:5) My revenge will come in then-in helping them up out of their meanness and hardness of heart to the blessings then to be free to all the willing and obedient.
HIS CO-WORKERS AND WORK Will you give our readers a brief statement of the work you are carrying on and of your co-laborers in it?
With pleasure! Our Association is charted as philanthropic, for the promotion of Christian knowledge by printed page and orally. It is Biblical, but unsectarian.
Everything found in God’s Book is its creed. Thirty-four ministers are members of the Association at present. Some of these are traveling constantly, addressing Classes of Bible Students, teaching them how to study the Bible most helpfully.
Others go out for Sunday meetings in the cities adjacent to New York to instruct similarly. And these latter during the week labor at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, where we conduct a Religious Correspondence School. Letters pour in upon us from all parts of the world, in various languages, asking help in the proper understanding of the Holy Scriptures. We have more than twenty typewriters in constant use.
We also have branches in Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, India, Greece and Switzerland where other laborers are similarly engaged. We have free literature in 18 languages explanatory of the Bible. We also handle Bibles and Bible Study helps in various languages, which we supply at wholesale rates.
These ministers, their wives and children and office helpers live together as one large family of about 100 persons in a comfortable Home. In it each family has its own quarters, but all meet in a large Dining Room for morning worship and at meal times. Frequently visitors drop in for a meal (the Dining Hall is large enough to accommodate 200), and they are made very welcome.
At meal times a leader conducts impromptu Bible Studies on whatever Bible subjects may be submitted. Thus we have a continual Bible School with lessons three times daily. All except children are required before admission to the family to profess a full consecration to the will of God as found in the Bible; and additionally to have taken the following:
VOW UNTO THE LORD 1. Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. May Thy rule come into my heart more and more, and Thy will be done in my mortal body. Relying on the assistance of Thy promised grace to help in every time of need, through Jesus Christ our Lord, I register this Vow.
2. Daily will I remember at the Throne of Heavenly Grace the general interests of the harvest work, and particularly the share which I myself am privileged to enjoy in that work, and the dear co-laborers at the Brooklyn Tabernacle and Bethel, and everywhere.
3. I vow to still more carefully, if possible, scrutinize my thoughts and words and doings, to the intent that I may be the better enabled to serve Thee and Thy dear flock.
4. I Vow to Thee that I will be on the alert to resist everything akin to Spiritism and Occultism, and that, remembering that there are but the two masters, I shall resist these snares in all reasonable ways, as being of the Adversary.
5. I further Vow, that, with the exceptions below, I will at all times, and in all places, conduct myself toward those of the opposite sex in private exactly as I would do with them in public-in the presence of a congregation of the Lord’s people.
6. And, so far as reasonably possible, I will avoid being in the same room with any of the opposite sex alone, unless the door to the room stand wide open.
7. Exceptions in the case of Brethren-wife, children, mother, and natural sisters.
In the case of Sisters-husband, children, father, and natural brothers.
Needless to say our large Home is one of the holiest and happiest on earth. We cannot imagine a happier home amongst people not yet perfected by the First Resurrection. The aim is to provide just a sufficiency of money for the reasonable comfort of each. And as the Eagle truly says the amount is small. But it is sufficient, and helps to insure that none will ever join the family and profess consecration "for filthy lucre’s sake." Our food and home arrangements are simple and satisfactory though quite inexpensive in comparison with what the same would cost if each family [HG503] lived apart even more plainly. Our family illustrates the declaration of the Bible: "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to live together in unity." Psa. 133:1
WHY DO SOME OPPOSE? With everything so philanthropic and so pure, so sensible and so Scriptural, why do ministers and the Eagle and others hate you and persecute you? And does this extend to all of the family?
Yes, it extends to all, but to me more particularly. I suppose because I am the most conspicuous figure at the front. The reason is the same that led to the persecution of the Apostles and the early church and even put to death the Redeemer. Jesus explains that it is the natural hatred or opposition of Darkness to Light. The purer the Gospel ray the fiercer the opposition! Ignorance, Superstition and Selfishness are behind the persecution.
Still it is hard to understand the lack of rhyme or reason in it all. No minister of any prominent denomination would profess to believe his own Church Creed or to defend it. All fiercely denounce sectarianism and call for Christian union. Yet because I show up the errors which they no longer believe they are angry with me.
Knowing their doctrinal weakness they dare not contradict me fairly, but content themselves with saying, Pastor Russell is a heretic; he is emptying our churches, and causing a falling off of our revenues. Then they use the cowardly weapons of slander, misrepresentation, etc.
"THEY ARE QUITE MISTAKEN" They are quite mistaken regarding the source of their troubles. The falling off of church attendance and their financial stringency has been progressing for thirty years. Their own preaching has done it. Their colleges and seminaries have been teaching Evolution and their Higher Criticism has been undermining all faith in the Bible, until now these things are in the Sunday School Lessons as well as in the Public School Books.
Thus many of the Preachers and their people have lost all confidence in the Bible as God’s Message. The people find no spiritual nourishment in the story that Adam and Eve had monkey parents-that they never were in God’s Image, never fell from it, and never needed to be redeemed. The people, more honest than the preachers, are too honest to pretend a religion which they do not feel and therefore carry their pickles and dimes to the Moving Picture Theatres and feel that they are spending them more honestly.
Alas! Our wealthy and learned men are destroying the very faith necessary to the preservation of Society; and Anarchy is threatening the whole civilized world. A Socialism without the Bible will soon mean a Godless Socialism and that means Anarchy. Surely the wisdom of the wise seems to have perished as the Bible foretold. Isa. 29:13, 14
ARE YOU SELF-CONCEITED? This was our reporter’s final query. Pastor Russell replied frankly: The Eagle and all the preachers who are my enemies say that I am. And I must concede that they have some excuse for so concluding. I presume they judge me by themselves. If they were in my place they feel sure they would be proud and conceited if they had invitations from all over the world-if they had written books which in twelve languages are in nearly four million homes-if their weekly sermons were being regularly published in twelve hundred Newspapers in America and Great Britain.
But no one realizes more than do I my unworthiness of such success and popularity. God’s providence has favored my humble efforts! I am as much astonished as my enemies" It is the Message and not the Messenger that is great.
It is God’s Message, not mine. As foretold it is "Good tidings of great joy for all people."
As for publicity; A Newspaper Syndicate handles my sermons which I supply to them free-glad to have their assistance in reaching twelve million readers weekly.
They see to it that I am well advertised and boomed. I merely submit for the sake of the cause.
PASTOR RUSSELL’S WORLD TOUR As is generally known Pastor Russell was chosen as a member of the Committee for the investigation of Foreign Missions. The other members of the Committee are Dr. L. W. Jones, of Chicago; General Hall, of the U. S. Army; Mr. Pyles, of Washington, D. C.; Mr. Kuchn, of Toledo, O.; Prof. Robison, of New York, and Mr. Maxwell, of Mansfield, O.
The Committee met at the Waldorf Hotel, New York, in September last and outlined its work and elected Pastor Russell its Chairman. Pastor Russell started on the tour December 3rd and was joined by other members of the Committee at Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Dallas, Texas. Pastor Russell has promised to be back March 31st next-however long the others of the Committee may prolong their stay. It is understood that arrangements are under way for a mass meeting at the Hippodrome on Sunday afternoon, March 31st, to hear a report of the Committee.