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“OUT OF DARKNESS INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT”

Georgia.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—I write to express my sincere gratitude to you, as an instrument in the dear Lord’s hands, for unfolding the good and precious truths that his Word teaches. I have read three of your books titled MILLENNIAL DAWN. They have been a great deal of help to me. They have inspired my soul with zeal and more love to my dear Savior. The truths they draw from the Word of God seem as refreshing and uplifting to the believers who are bowed down by the teachings of the nominal church as did the dear Savior’s teachings to the poor, lost sheep of Israel at his first advent. The restoration and plan of redemption for all is the only thing that can be harmonized with the Word of God. Oh! how the nominal church is lacking in knowledge. Light, more light! Some might think this true doctrine has a tendency to lead one away from God. But thanks be to him, it is the reverse. It fills us with love beyond what words can express. It draws us up on to a plane where we can behold the beauty and holiness of our God more clearly, where we can drink of his waters more freely and can look up into his tender face and read his countenance of love in a measure as never before.

May the Lord help us all to look to him through clearer eyes, and may our earnest prayer be, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Amen.”

Yours in Christ, C. W. BLAND.

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Utah.

MY DEAR SIRS:—I enclose a check for $10. Please send me Young’s Concordance, twenty copies DAWN, Vol. I., ten copies Vol. II. and eight Vol. III. I assume you will allow me the wholesale price on the above as I wish to circulate them, either selling or giving them away.

I enclose a postal card received from a friend which indicates how he appreciates the truth. I see that others send you words of thanks and encouragement, so I thought perhaps you could find time to read this. It may be of some little interest to you to know how the light came to me. We have a union Bible class once a week; and, some three months ago, every time we met it so happened that before the lesson was finished we would drift into the subject of the Millennium. One evening one of the friends said, I have a book called the “Plan of the Ages,” which a lady gave me, that may give some light on the subject. Have not read it, but will loan to you. Since then there has been a well of rejoicing springing up in my soul which I pray will be unto life everlasting. 1 Cor. 2:9,10 comes to me very forcibly in the light of the Plan of the Ages. Please return the postal.

In the interest of the truth, truly yours,

J. T. HURST.

The card referred to is as follows:

Dear Friend:—Not for ten years of life would I have missed reading Vol. I., MILLENNIAL DAWN. I shall read the others as soon as I can spare moments. How truly wonderful is God’s plan! Human mind cannot grasp its fulness. Your friend, J. A. B__________.

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Virginia.

DEAR SIR:—I am a constant reader of “MILLENNIAL DAWN,” Vols. I., II. and III. My eyes were opened to the light of God’s truth in my “Jubilee” year. (I turned fifty years on the 4th inst.) I feel that I am emancipated from the bondage of creed and tradition.

I have been connected with the Baptist denomination for over thirty-five years. In 1874 I was a theological student at Rochester, N.Y., but my health failed me and I never became a minister. For this I have been thankful, since my enlightenment, knowing that I would have been a messenger of error rather than truth, and less liable to have received “the truth now due.” Yours in fellowship,

DANIEL RHODES.

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Kentucky.

TOWER PUBLISHING COMPANY:—I have just finished reading the first volume of MILLENNIAL DAWN. Am delighted: it settles difficulties, answers questions and illuminates the way wonderfully. I am deeply indebted to you. Am seeking for light; have you more of such publications? If so send me circulars.

Yours Fraternally,
PASTOR M.E. CHURCH.

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Kansas.

DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER RUSSELL:—Oh, if you could only know the joy that the DAWNS have brought to this poor heart of mine! I belonged to the Missionary Baptist sect; but in studying my Bible I saw there was confusion, and I sent to different places and got Disciplines and Articles of Faith, but found none in harmony with the Scriptures. Last fall a dear Brother sold me DAWNS I. and II., and after carefully reading them I found them in perfect accord. Praise the dear Lord that he has raised up expounders of his precious Word, after the counsel of his own heart. Oh, the joy there is

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now in studying the precious Word of God from his standpoint!

I will not intrude more on your valuable time. God bless you abundantly in your labor of love.

JOSEPH HUBBARD.

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New Hampshire.

DEAR FRIENDS:—I have just finished reading Vol. III. of MILLENNIAL DAWN; and the language of my heart is, How wonderful are thy works, O Lord God of Hosts: just and right are all thy ways. I have been greatly blessed in reading the books, and want to confess that I believe they are truth, notwithstanding I have had to give up my former views that I held dear; but with the bright light shining on the Word, I can hold them no longer. I do feel to thank the dear Lord and his servants for the light. How wise and beautiful are all his plans, and how well they correspond with the declaration that “God is Love.” O, who would not love and serve him! The “Time of Trouble” is now just in the future, but the true child of God feels that he has a shelter under his mighty arm.

Enclosed find $2.00 for the WATCH TOWER, and copies of PLAN OF THE AGES in paper covers. I want all to read them that will, for truly “we are living in a grand and awful time,” and I want to do what little I can to help spread the truth. Yours truly, R. S. LEEDS.

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New York.

TOWER PUBLISHING COMPANY:—Enclosed please find pay for the TOWER and THE PLAN OF THE AGES. Permit me to add, this volume, which was loaned to me and which I have read, is wonderful in its clearness—logical throughout—and a most wonderful Key to the Holy Scriptures. Truly the author must have been divinely directed in his researches of the Bible. Be pleased to hand these lines of thanks to him and his helper, for their patient and loving work. It has drawn me nearer to God than ever before, and I have professed to be near him for fifty-two years. Please also send me a price list of your books. I must have more of them. Yours, MRS. S. J. BROWN.

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Florida.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—Ever since reading Vol. I. of MILLENNIAL DAWN, last winter, I have been wanting to write to you, but feared your time was too much occupied to answer me. My whole life has been changed by the reading of the DAWN series, the first volume of which I came across accidentally, or providentially, and read only because I had nothing else to read. There are some questions, however, that are not yet clearly settled in my mind, and on which I wish to receive light.

I have tried to do something towards giving light to others since I found it myself, and I hope that my efforts have not been in vain; for it is my greatest desire to do the work of my Father acceptably. I would like to go into the colporteur work, but, being in debt, I think it my first duty to pay up. Any advice you can give me will be gratefully received, for I have no one to consult when in doubt, and all is not yet clear. Thank God for the light that has come, and may it shine brighter and brighter.

Truly yours in Christ, J. A. AUSTIN.

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Wisconsin.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—Since reading the MILLENNIAL DAWNS, the Tracts and the WATCH TOWER, I cannot do less than write and tell you that my heart is so full of the love of God through the better knowledge of the truth advocated in the above expositions, that I desire to thank you, and wish you many a “God bless you.” I am growing in grace and the knowledge of the truth daily, and verily I have songs in the night. Truly, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,” and he will show them his covenant. I see nothing in the DAWNS to take exceptions to: they are all built upon a “Thus saith the Lord,” and a rightly dividing the Word of truth—a harmonious whole. The prophetic periods are very convincing to me, and I am glad that the thousand years are made so plain to be yet future; for some of the leading Adventists are trying to put them in the past.

I thank God that I have kept aloof from man-made creeds, and I can accept truths, hitherto not made known, but now in the due time revealed to the little flock. May the dear Lord still bless us, and keep us humble at the cross, “trusting in the precious blood,” is the prayer of your brother in the faith,

T. W. RICHARDS.

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Kansas.

MY DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—I have learned that you have another volume of DAWN now out, and I would like to read it.

It would now be impossible for me to preach my old sermons over again. Even the ordinary language of “Orthodox” prayer is distasteful to me, and some of the usual forms of expression absolutely shocking to my new feelings. God is blessing your work and many are coming out of the darkness. Yours in the bonds of the “Glad Tidings,” J. D. GEHRING.

[God is blessing us, dear Brother, and we rejoice in every evidence of the spread of his truth. No; DAWN Vol. IV. is not out, and will not be ready for some time.—EDITOR.]

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— September 1, 1892 —