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ENCOURAGING WORDS FROM FAITHFUL WORKERS

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—I write you a few lines, knowing that letters from the Lord’s children are never unwelcome.

The work in and near New York seems to be progressing satisfactorily. For myself, I can say that I am encouraged every day to new efforts.

It has been my privilege for about a month past to give Scripture readings every Sunday morning at a Gospel Temperance mission near my home, and some of those who attend have ears to hear the truth; and I hope a few, at least, will before long be led out into the full light.

Our meetings on Sunday afternoon are well attended, and are very profitable to us all. We adopted the suggestion in the TOWER, and changed our Friday evening meeting from a Bible study to a devotional meeting, and are delighted with the results. We feel that it fills a long felt want, and that the Lord has directed his people in this matter, giving them meat in due season.

My attention has been very much attracted of late to the manner in which the world is being prepared for the truth. The people could never accomplish their own liberation from the thraldom of sin and death, but they are being so thoroughly educated by the thousands of methods now at work, that I do not doubt that they will readily accept the new conditions when offered. For instance, the new Populist party is growing so rapidly that its adherents confidently assert that they will elect the President in 1896. One of the fundamental doctrines of this party is nationalism, or government control of, first, such enterprises

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as railroads, telegraphs and banks, and, finally, all the industries, for the benefit of the masses—a refined socialism—which would relieve the people of the burdens imposed upon them by capitalists and monopolists.

Reformers are writing and preaching wholesome truths everywhere to the common people, while above all the true Church is announcing the glad tidings of the Kingdom so near at hand. So we see by the signs of the present that it is high time to awake. The Day Star has already arisen, and soon the Sun of Righteousness in full splendor will shed his rays over all the earth; but the vail is still upon the face of the nations, and it will be a little while yet before it is removed by the rude hand of experience, God’s great teacher. “Be wise, therefore, O ye kings, and be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord. … Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way. … Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”

Yours in Christ, EDWIN C. MOTT.

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DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—This, Thanksgiving Day, seems a fitting time to remember the dear friends and servants of our Lord, who have been so much to us in the past.

I have been something of an invalid the past few weeks by reason of trouble with my eyes—thus precluding the possibility of reading or study. So I have tried to digest some of the impressions received in the past season; and, first, I cease not to give thanks to God for the truth (as shown to me through the DAWN series and WATCH TOWER), which is gradually enabling me to see and understand the signs of the times; for without this light the recent Religious Congress would have seemed altogether different. I should have looked upon the coming together of the representatives of all known religions and creeds upon a common platform (i.e., a universal acknowledgment of a God), as the beginning of the new age or Millennium, and have thought that the gospel, through these representatives, was being preached to all nations, and that peace and righteousness were beginning to fill the earth.

But now the case seems different. These representatives seemed anxious to impart to others supposed light and wisdom, not thinking they stood in need of any themselves; and so they seemed to part as they came: each more firmly than ever convinced that he and his followers alone understood God’s dealings with the children of men—many leaving out our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and nearly all forgetting him as the ransom-price. Verily, they are “blind leaders of the blind.”

The enclosed $50.00 is a gift from Mrs. P. and myself, to be used for the cause of our dear Lord as you may see best.

With earnest prayers for you both, that you may be “kept for the Master’s use,”

Yours in our Redeemer, T. PENFIELD.

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DEAR SIR:—I enjoy the DAWNS and the TOWER greatly. The last number, containing the article on the Religious Parliament, is excellent;—a grand, Christian analysis of that Babel-like gathering. I sent mine, to-day, to one who will thoroughly appreciate it. Do you know, Mr. Russell, many of your warmest “followers” are Episcopalians—born and raised in that great old church—and among the number your sincere friend,

MRS. E. J. BROOKS.

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MY DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—I have just completed the reading of the November TOWER; and the strange doings of the great Religious Parliament, held in the name of Christianity, must convince any candid mind that God has no hand in such strange vagaries, other than a hand for chastisement. It must inevitably further bewilder the unstable, and in its result make the darkness ten-fold more dense.

My heart blesses Him who is the light of the world, that I reached the light of his eternal truth before the doings and sayings of that Congress reached me. Once, in my younger days, I barely escaped confirmed skepticism by contemplating a compound of such strange contradictions; and my heart swells with gratitude to Christ that he is using you and others of his children in defense of the truth and, more, that I also am permitted to do something for its spread. It is little indeed that I can do, but all I can do is done gladly. He has ever held me above the sinking point, just able to swim; but, thanks be to his dear name, he has ever kept me safely amid a cloud of trials and dangers; and now, when the “clouds and darkness” that are round about him are rolling down upon us, my soul rests calmly, sweetly trusting his precious blood to save. How sweet to lift our eyes above the gloomy clouds, and to contemplate the bright morning soon to dispel the gloom!

Your brother in Christ, W. F. EATON.

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— December 15, 1893 —