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“OUT OF DARKNESS INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT”

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—I find DAWN VOL. V. a grand spiritual feast. I have read it and studied it and sent it away to a friend, and oh, how many good things we get from the TOWER office! I had thought, years ago, that we had all we needed to help us on to God, but it keeps coming, more and better. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, for his goodness and his wonderful works to the children of men.” And bless his holy name that he ever stooped to the low estate of his handmaid, to give insignificant me the privilege of reading the MILLENNIAL DAWN publications and learning the plan of the ages and of his will concerning us! “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” And you, dear Brother Russell, the Lord has made you a dispenser of his present truth. May his grace continue with you as it ever has done!

How many times I have had a vague idea of something and could not form it into words or thoughts intelligently, and the next WATCH TOWER would explain that very thing so nicely, that, even tho unlearned, I could understand it. Last fall I was thinking, Well, I believe Brother Russell is inspired, and his writings are equal to the Bible; but the next paper we got said that all matter, whether oral or printed, from any quarter, should be considered quite secondary to the Bible. Oh Lord, help us to resist the devil successfully and pity our helplessness!

You remark that we should not judge too harshly those who make us trouble, because Peter, even after denying the Lord, became one of his most ardent followers. What courage and patience this thought gives us. Such words are as Solomon says, “Like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” Bless the Lord! Oh, my dear brother, how much comfort I get from your counsel.

The Scripture Index for the WATCH TOWER, prepared by the dear sisters, has done me a world of good. Lord bless them, indeed. Surely if prayers will bring blessings we shall all live in a rainshower of blessings night and day, for we are all praying for each other.

I get great encouragement from some of the letters you print in your papers, especially Sister Sencerbeaux’s, for I too had been feeling much discouraged on the account of my failings and blunders. Oh, the richness of the spiritual food we get from God through the TOWER! Can the Marriage Supper be much better? Yours in the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

MRS. H. K. TOWNSEND,—Wisconsin.

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DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—About one year ago your book, called THE PLAN OF THE AGES, fell into my hands. It came like the day-star arising in my soul, flooding my mind with new thoughts and conceptions as to the great plan of redeeming this old, lost world. Since 1897 I have been out evangelizing, preaching “Christ and Him crucified,” to men throughout the States, but my “advanced” views soon gave dissatisfaction among the orthodox preachers, especially among the set to whom I belonged, the Methodist Episcopal Church Society. It was then that I began to read in earnest every thing I could find along the line of prophetic truth. I have read and re-read with great pleasure and profit the first five volumes of MILLENNIAL DAWN, and am only awaiting now further issue of Volume VI. I can not express to you my indebtedness to you for the light I have received from the perusal of the WATCH TOWER publications.

May God continue to bless you with light, that you may be the means in his hands of leading many more pilgrims into the glorious light of the liberty of the gospel of Christ. Since seeing the fulness of God’s truth, I have withdrawn from the M.E. Church and ministry. Pray for me that I may continue “to walk in the light as he is in the light.”

Yours in the Light,

R. K. RICHARDSON,—Alabama.

[To the Lord be all the praise for the light now “in due time” shining upon his Word and revealing to us his gracious character. I am glad to hope that withdrawal from human institutions and their service means a fuller appreciation and closer membership in “the Church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven” and a more zealous and more wise participation in its ministry of the truth.—EDITOR.]

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— July 15, 1900 —