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INTERESTING LETTERS

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—Your welcome letter hand. The interest and love which your letters show are a great blessing to me. Praise God for all the lovingkindness he shows me. If I had the ability (and if I were not afraid to weary you and take up your time) I would try to tell you how grateful I feel toward you also.

Concerning the “harvest” work in Sweden: since I first recognized this work, and that the proper time for it is now due, I have, so far as I have been able, been spreading the precious truths with which the Lord through DAWN has honored me, to such as are professedly his people. Have had a number of encouraging experiences in the work, and feel that the Lord is constantly making me more fit for it.

A few days before I started from Stockholm I enjoyed a visit from Bro. Winter. He is helping me greatly by writing me letters, the contents of which gladden my heart. May the Lord bless him! His health is poor, or maybe he would have gone along on this “missionary” trip.

Since I left Stockholm I have sold 89 copies of VOL. I., but only a few copies of the other two; have distributed a good many tracts and have through conversation sought to interest the Lord’s people whenever opportunity afforded. I visit preachers and teachers in “Babylon,” even the priests of the state church. Pray that the Lord may give me wisdom and in all things be my leader.

Have met with some people who have never heard of M. DAWN, but yet discern something of the true state of affairs in the churches, and hold views in considerable harmony with the DAWN teachings. I met a brother who reads the TOWER. He is deeply interested in the truth. Some who have received the DAWN through me have begun to work to help spread it. A lady of some prominence is acting as my “agent” in Stockholm; also another sister is zealously working in this service.

My stock of books is kept by a firm of merchants, both believers, and personal friends of mine. They forward books as I need them. Have stamped their names on the tracts and books, and they fill all orders for books. The opportunities which I have for doing “harvest” work are many, and the knowledge that these opportunities will soon be gone spurs me on to harder work if possible, in the “harvest” field. God grant that I may have the proper wisdom to make the best of these opportunities as they present themselves.

Up to date I have sold 248 copies of VOL. I., 37 copies of VOL. II. and 27 copies of VOL. III.; total, 312 copies. My “helpers,” mentioned above, have sold some, but how many I am not able to say just now.

That you may still continue to be the channel through which blessings upon God’s people may flow, is the constant prayer of,

Yours, gratefully,

AUG. LUNDBORG.—Sweden.

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DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—Brother Weber was with us Saturday and brought an account of the grand feast you all had at St. Louis. I am in communication with the Trunk Line Association regarding a Philadelphia Convention.

We are getting great blessings from VOL. V., and rejoicing in the light thrown on so many Scriptures. May the dear Lord continue to use you in dispensing such food to us all, is my constant prayer. When you said, at the Boston Convention, that you thought in the next few years a great many would come into the truth after seeing the pronounced unscriptural views of the nominal ministry I was somewhat surprised at first, as I had thought the wheat was pretty well sifted from the denominations, but your reasons were very convincing, and since then I have had many opportunities to note its harmony with the Word and the signs of the times. Corroborative evidence is furnished, I think, in the splendid newspaper accounts of some of the Boston and St. Louis meetings. The account of your discourse in Monday’s St. Louis Republican was without a flaw so far as I can recall, and such articles must certainly be intended by the Lord to cause some to search further for the light.

The adversary is also active. The friends in Philadelphia received postals, notifying us that E. C. Mott would speak here. I am so thankful, however, that his erroneous teaching is so well known to the brethren here that it seems most improbable that he could move them from their steadfastness if they heard him. He has for some time been teaching that none are justified but those that are spiritually begotten—basing it upon an erroneous interpretation of 1 John 5:1, and wresting all other Scriptures to suit his theory. It is a terrible thing to be so influenced by a desire to bring out something new that we reject the Old Theology in order to glorify self. I pray for grace and humility that I may not be led away by pride.

As treasurer for the Philadelphia Church I have been instructed by the brethren to send to the WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY an order for $25, which is herein enclosed.

With Christian love to yourself and the dear friends in the TOWER office, I remain,

Yours in the service of the Truth,

BENJAMIN H. BARTON.

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— November 15, 1899 —