"Miracle Wheat"

Foes of C. T. Russell used not only his domestic affairs but other "weapons" against him. For instance, his enemies have charged that he sold a great quantity of ordinary wheat seed under the name of "Miracle Wheat" at one dollar per pound, or sixty dollars per bushel. They have held that from this Russell realized an enormous personal profit. However, these charges are absolutely false. What are the facts?

In 1904 Mr. K. B. Stoner noticed an unusual plant growing in his garden in Fincastle, Virginia. It turned out to be wheat of an uncommon kind. The plant had 142 stalks and each bore a head of fully matured wheat. In 1906 he named it "Miracle Wheat." Eventually others obtained and grew it, enjoying extraordinary yields. In fact, Miracle Wheat won prizes at several fairs. C. T. Russell was very interested in anything related to the Biblical predictions that "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose" and "the earth shall yield her increase." (Isa. 35:1; Ezek. 34:27, AV) On November 23, 1907, H. A. Miller, Assistant Agriculturalist of the United States Government, filed in the Department of Agriculture a report commending this wheat grown by Mr. Stoner. Throughout the country the public press took note of the report. C. T. Russell’s attention was drawn to it, and so in Zion’s Watch Tower of March 15, 1908, on page 86, he published some press comments and extracts from the government report. Then, in conclusion, he commented: "If this account be but one-half true it testifies afresh to God’s ability to provide things needful for the ‘times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began.’—Acts 3:19-21."

Mr. Stoner was not a Bible Student or an associate of C. T. Russell, and neither were various other persons who experimented with Miracle Wheat. In 1911, however, Watch Tower readers J. A. Bohnet of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Samuel J. Fleming of Wabash, Indiana, presented to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society the aggregate of about thirty bushels of this wheat, proposing that it be sold for one dollar per pound and that all the proceeds be received by the Society as a donation from them, to be used in its religious work. The wheat was received and sent out by the Society and the gross receipts from it amounted to about $1,800. Russell himself did not get a penny of this money. He merely published a statement in The Watch Tower to the effect that the wheat had been contributed and could be obtained for a dollar a pound. The Society itself made no claim for the wheat on its own knowledge and the money received went as a donation into Christian missionary work. When others criticized this sale, all who had contributed were informed that if they were dissatisfied their money would be returned. In fact, the identical money received for the wheat was held for a year for that purpose. But not one person asked for a refund. The conduct of Brother Russell and the Society in connection with Miracle Wheat was completely open and aboveboard.

Because Charles Taze Russell taught the truth from God’s Word, he was hated and maligned, often by the religious clergy. But then, Christians of modern times expect such treatment, for Jesus and his apostles were dealt with similarly by religious opposers.—Luke 7:34.

- 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, pp. 70-1, WTB&TS
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The Watch Tower, February, 15, 1913, page 62

"AS DECEIVERS AND YET TRUE"

MY SUIT against The Eagle for slanderous defamation of reputation has been decided in its favor. A Jury of twelve men have decided that The Eagle was justified in making its vicious onslaughts upon me, notwithstanding the Judge's Charge that, according to the law, the cartoon, at least, was a slanderous, vicious libel in fact. I am urged by my attorneys and petitioned by friends to take the case to the Court of Appeals.

I quite agree with Justice Kelby, who said, "The case was presented fairly and squarely to the Jury." The rulings of His Honor seem to me equitable. I very highly appreciate the ability and energy of my attorneys, Mr. Sparks and Mr. Rutherford. I have no complaint, nor murmuring against the Divine providences which permitted what I consider to be a very unjust verdict. In appealing our Case to the Court we have followed the example of the Master, who inquired why He was smitten contrary to Law. (John 18:23) Likewise St. Paul appealed for such justice as the Law provided. (Acts 25:10) So I have done; and I, like them, have been refused the Law's protection. I murmur not. I am in good company.

I remember, on the other hand, that it has been a part of the Divine will throughout this Gospel Age to allow His faithful servants to suffer reproaches and losses. This was so in the Master's case: "Being reviled, He reviled not again." When it pleased the Father to bruise Him and put Him to shame, He declared, "The cup which My Father hath poured for Me, shall I not drink it?" -- "Not My will, but Thine be done." -- I Peter 2:23; John 18:11; Luke 22:42

It was so with the Apostles, who wrote, "As He was, so are we in this world" -- "As deceivers and yet true; as poor, yet making many rich"; "I bear about in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" -- evidences that I am His servant and His follower. As St. Paul said, so we see fulfilled all through the Age, "Whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." The Master said, "Marvel not if the world hate you. Ye know that it hated Me before it hated you; if ye were of the world, the world would love its own." -- I John 4:17; 2 Corinthians 6:8-10; Galatians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:12; John 15:18,19.

THE CASE BRIEFLY REVIEWED

I am interested in everything progressive and tending to prove that we are entering the great Thousand Years of earth's blessings under Messiah. In the columns of THE WATCH TOWER I have noted the coming of Divine blessings in fulfilment of the prediction that "The wilderness shall blossom as the rose," "The earth shall yield her increase," etc. Five years ago we quoted in THE WATCHTOWER columns reports respecting "Miracle Wheat." We gave the name and address (Mr. Stoner) of the farmer who discovered this new wheat and his reports of its remarkable qualities. We published also the report of Mr. Miller, the Government expert, who thoroughly investigated it and pronounced upon its superior qualities.

Some of our readers purchased seed from Mr. Stoner at $1.25 per pound and approved it. In 1910 one of the friends of our Society, who had raised some of this wheat, sold it for seed at $1.00 per pound, and donated the proceeds to our Society. In 1911 the same friend, having raised more seed, asked that THE WATCH TOWER give the benefit of this to its readers at $1.00 a pound post-paid, and appropriate the net results to the furtherance of its work. Another friend, who had some of the same seed, also donated similarly, the total amount being twenty bushels.

For the accommodation of our readers, we allowed this seed-wheat to be put up in pound packages and mailed from THE WATCH TOWER Office, just as the U.S. Government handles such seeds at Washington. We did the business at the request of others and in their interest, and credited them on our books with the results, setting aside to them proportionately voting shares in our Society. We made no claim for the wheat on our own knowledge. We merely gave the report of the Government expert, of the originator, and of our friends who had tried the wheat. We merely acted as intermediary.

Nevertheless, everything that was said respecting the wheat was fully proven at this trial by expert witnesses, interested and disinterested, and their testimony was not shaken. It was also shown that farmer Stoner and his business partner, Mr. Knight, made no sales of this wheat under $1.25 per pound until September, 1911; and that they had a written contract between them that none of the wheat was to be sold at any price until the following year -- 1912. Suddenly in September, 1911, they changed their plans, considering that they had wheat enough accumulated, put the price down to $5.00 per bushel, about the time that THE WATCH TOWER wheat was all sold at a dollar a pound. This The Eagle's attorney claimed was proof of fraud on the part of THE WATCH TOWER -- sufficient excuse for the slanderous assaults of The Eagle upon me.

It was in vain that my attorney sought to show the Jury The Eagle's malice -- that it really was attacking me along religious grounds; that it had set itself as the champion of certain clerical enemies of mine, and was seeking to destroy my influence and, if possible, to drive me from Brooklyn. In the court-room sat about twenty-five of my friends, who had come long distances at their own expense to have an opportunity to speak a word in my behalf. Through some intricacies of the Law respecting evidence, these were unable to be heard in my behalf.

Instead, the Law gave The Eagle's attorney the privilege of saying all manner of evil against me falsely -- for the sake of the Doctrines of Christ, which I hold and teach. He was allowed to picture me, as The Eagle had done in its cartoon -- as a thief and robber, masquerading in the garb of a minister of Christ. He was allowed to ridicule the "Miracle Wheat," although I had nothing whatever to do with it, nor with the naming of it; and notwithstanding the fact that its superiority was proven.

He was allowed to inveigh against the fact as criminal, that I hold the office of President of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, and to claim that I hold the office in some corrupt or unlawful manner, and that I misuse the Society's income in some unexplained way to my own advantage. Meantime, scores present in the courtroom and thousands all over the land, would have been glad to testify that their donations have come to the Society because they have the utmost confidence in my integrity and management of its affairs as its Executive Officer, and that had anybody else been President their donations would have been smaller or none at all.

Presumably because there were seven Catholics on the Jury, The Eagle's attorney was prompted to refer to the Sisters of Charity and their noble work as nurses in the hospitals, without referring to the fact that those nurses are well paid, and that the hospitals in large measure are supported by State taxation.

The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was held up to scorn because it did not have any hospital work nor draw any revenue from taxation, and because the female members of the Society do not visit the workshops of the land weekly or monthly on pay-day, and exact donations to its work. Our society was held up to scorn also because we do not send a wagon around the city collecting groceries and provisions for the up-keep of our work; because we do not take up collections even on Sunday; because we have never solicited a penny or a dollar from anybody; and because we never have fairs, grab-bags, "chances" or "raffles." Our Society was held up to scorn and ridicule because it offers its literature free to the poor, while other similar Societies charge both rich and poor for their tracts and other publications. The Eagle was pictured by its attorney as a dove, a bird of Paradise. For defending it the Protestants on the Jury were led to hope for escape from eternal torment through "the pearly gates" of heaven, welcomed with the words, "Well done!" for giving The Eagle the verdict. Neither I nor my attorneys could offer such inducements conscientiously.

Our home, "Bethel," where some of our Society's workers reside, was held up to scorn--likened to a harem, etc. This surely did cut me deeply to the heart. I am quite willing to suffer, if need be, for my faithfulness to the Lord and His Word; but it gave me great pain that the arrows intended for me did not all center upon myself -- that the more than a hundred saintly, earnest men, women and children, co-laborers with me in the Lord's work, should thus be made to unjustly suffer. I can only urge them to apply to themselves the words of the Apostle, "Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward"; "For ye have need of patience that, after ye have done the will of God, ye shall receive the promise"; "Ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used." -- Hebrews 10:35,36,32,33

NO COMPLAINT AGAINST THE LAW

I have no complaint to make against the Laws of our land, nor against the Jury System, not against the particular twelve men who, in my judgment, gave an unjust verdict. I esteem our Laws to be most wonderfully just. I have often marveled that imperfect, fallen men have succeeded in the erection of such excellent barriers against sin and injustice. I cannot see that a more fair method than our Jury System of trying a case could be arranged by imperfect men. Neither do I believe that the average jury desires to pervert justice. The miscarriage of justice I attribute rather to the imperfection of human knowledge. Suspicion and evil-surmising are weeds which seem to grow prolifically in every mind. They spring spontaneously in the degraded heart. There is such a disposition to judge others by one's self, and such a realization of sinful impulses that the average man naturally enough imputes evil, on every occasion when it is suggested to him.

St. Paul enunciated this principle, saying, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God;... neither can he know [understand] them; for they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14) Our Society and its work, our Lord's work and the work of the Apostles and the regenerate since, are so far beyond the concept of the unregenerate as to be "Foolishness unto them" -- hypocrisies, frauds, impositions. If Jesus and the Apostles and the faithful saints of eighteen centuries have all belonged to this class, I will be of good courage and not be ashamed to belong to the same.

I am the more encouraged because I realize that the great Day of Blessing, the great Thousand-Year Day of Messiah's Kingdom, is near at hand--is dawning now. Soon Satan, the "Prince of Darkness," will be bound for a thousand years, to deceive the nations no more. (Revelation 20:2,3,6) No longer will Darkness be permitted to masquerade as Light, and the Light be slandered as Darkness. All the blind eyes will be opened; all the deaf ears will be unstopped. That glorious period, as the Prophet has declared, shall be "the desire of all nations." (Haggai 2:7) Then not only the Church will see eye to eye, and understand God's providences at the present time, but the whole world will see in the light of that happy time for which we pray, "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as in Heaven."

Sincerely, and undismayed, I remain a servant of God.

CHARLES T. RUSSELL.

Brooklyn, January 29, 1913.
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DONATION PROCEEDS KEPT A YEAR TO REFUND, BUT NO ONE WISHED MONEY BACK

There was absolutely no testimony in the case showing that Pastor Russell had induced a single person to purchase Miracle Wheat. Not a word tending to show that anyone was defrauded, On the contrary, shortly after the publication of the libel by the Brooklyn Eagle, the WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY published broadcast over the country and sent to each purchaser a notice that if anyone was dissatisfied with his purchase he might have his money returned, and the identical money arising from the sale of said wheat was held for a year for the purpose of refunding. Not a single person asked to have his money refunded.

- A Great Battle in the Ecclesiastical Heavens, by Joseph F. Rutherford, 1915

Biography of George Storrs

Rev. GEORGE STORRS was born in Lebanon, N. H., December 13, 1796. His father, Col. Constant Storrs, was originally from Mansfield, Conn., and served as a wheelwright in the Revolutionary army. After the war closed he married Lucinda Howe; emigrated to New Hampshire; settled at Lebanon, then almost a wilderness, and became a wealthy farmer. George was the youngest of eight children, seven sons and one daughter, and at the age of 19 united with the Congregational church.

At 22 he married, and at 28 was received into the Methodist Episcopal Church, and commenced preaching. He joined the New Hampshire Conference in 1825. His first wife having died, he married her sister, Martha, daughter of Col. Thomas Waterman, a prominent citizen of Lebanon, and the first child born in that town. Mr. Storrs continued in the regular work until 1836, when he became a local preacher, and was three years without an appointment, but during that time he traveled extensively, lecturing on the subject of slavery. He ardently espoused and ably advocated the antislavery cause, and exerted himself to create a strong public sentiment in its behalf. He was prominent in a most critical period, and was environed with perils. His arrest at an anti-slavery meeting in Pittsfield, N. H., while on his knees in prayer, caused great excitement and intensified the feeling against slavery. Mr. Storrs was a delegate to the General Conference of 1836, and one of the leading spirits in pressing the subject on the attention of the Conference. Failing to commit it to the radical views of himself and his associates, he severed his connection with the church in 1840. He had strong convictions on the subject of slavery, and was impatient at the conservative tendency of the church.

After residing at Montpelier, Vt., for a short time, he removed to Albany, N. Y., where he ministered for three years or more at the “House of Prayer” to a large congregation. In 1842 he preached his “six sermons” on “Immortality,” which were subsequently printed and extensively circulated. He soon thereafter became interested in the Second Advent doctrine, and labored with great effectiveness in promulgating his views on that subject in the New England, Middle, and Western states, spending several months in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and vicinity. In 1843 he commenced the publication of the “Bible Examiner,” in which he advocated his theory of “no immortality or endless life, except through Christ alone,” which publication was continued in different forms, either occasionally or regularly, until his death.

He was editor of The Herald of Life and of the Coming Kingdom from October 21, 1863 to August, 1871, during which time the “Bible Examiner” was suspended. He resided at Philadelphia nine years, and preached there mainly; but frequently visited other localities and was constantly occupied in lecturing or issuing his publications. He was a man of irreproachable purity of character, pious, exemplary, zealous, noble, generous, magnanimous, very vigorous and effective as a writer and preacher, conscientious, fearless and untiring in advocating what he considered the truth. His integrity, sincerity, and piety, were unquestioned. Possessing great decision of character and marked characteristics, he was true to his convictions, inflexible in his firmness, and boldly announced his views, whether popular or otherwise. He died at his residence, No. 72 Hicks street, Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 28, 1879, aged 83. His widow, Martha Waterman Storrs, died at the same place March 15, 1882, aged 82. Their only son, George F. Storrs, died at Brooklyn, January 31, 1867, aged 41, leaving a widow, who now resides at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One other child, Harriet, lives in Brooklyn, unmarried. Mr. Storrs, while a member of the New Hampshire Conference, was a strong man, able and influential in its councils, and the beloved pastor of several important churches. He was stationed at Portsmouth in 1831.

- The Granite Monthly, a New Hampshire Magazine, July 1883, Vol. VI. No. 10, page 315-316.

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Millerite preacher and writer, chief proponent of conditional immortality. Born in New Hampshire, he was first a Congregationalist, then a Methodist. He withdrew from the Methodist ministry in 1840 to lecture against slavery. However, three years earlier Storrs had been led, by a small tract written by Henry Grew, of Philadelphia, to search the Scriptures carefully on the question of the final destiny of human beings and on their state in death. After several years of investigation, conversation, and correspondence with certain ministers, he reached the conclusion that human beings do not possess inherent immortality, but receive it only as a gift through Christ, and that the wicked who refuse the gift will be utterly exterminated through fire at the second death. In 1841 he issued An Enquiry: Are the Souls of the Wicked Immortal? In Three Letters, written originally to a friend and published anonymously.

By 1842 he felt impelled to speak out clearly to his small congregation on his views on the nature of humanity. He gave six sermons, which he revised and published as An Enquiry: Are the Souls of the Wicked Immortal? In Six Sermons (Albany, N.Y., 1842).

Soon afterward, convinced that the Adventist positions were correct, he left his ministry in Albany in 1842 to travel and preach the Adventist message. He did not introduce his personal views on the nature of humanity into these public services but, beset with inquiries, he revised his Six Sermons, and distributed them at his own expense. In 1843 the Six Sermons were also published in England. Charles Fitch accepted the doctrine of conditional immortality in January 1844, becoming Storrs’s first ministerial convert. Other ministers followed. But there was opposition. William Miller himself took Storrs to task, Litch issued a little paper, the Anti-Annihilationist, against Storrs’s position, and I. E. Jones protested in a letter to Miller.

In 1843 Storrs started the Bible Examiner in Albany, which advocated Miller’s view of the coming of Christ in 1843–1844. He wrote a small book, in question-and-answer form, also called the Bible Examiner, a verse-by-verse exposition of the leading chapters of Daniel and of Revelation, together with Isa. 55, Zech. 14, and Matt. 24.

An effective writer and preacher, Storrs was one of the most vigorous advocates of the seventh-month expectation, but, immediately after the great disappointment of 1844 he was one of the first to disclaim the movement, attributing it to “mesmeric influence.” In 1845 he embraced “Judaistic” millennial views, that is, the Literalist interpretation (see Premillennialism), according to which the kingdom prophecies were to be fulfilled literally to the literal Jews during the millennium. The Adventists continued to cite Storrs against Storrs on this subject.

In the next decade he accepted the view, advocated first by his associate editor on the Bible Examiner, that none of the wicked dead would be resurrected at all. He became president of the “Life and Advent Union,” organized in 1863 to propagate this doctrine. He later returned to the view of the resurrection of all the dead.

- IMS Media Online Library

Charles T. Russell and the Bible Examiner

George Storrs, was publisher of the magazine Bible Examiner, in Brooklyn, New York. Storrs, who was born on December 13, 1796, was initially stimulated to examine what the Bible says about the condition of the dead as a result of reading something published (though at the time anonymously) by a careful student of the Bible, Henry Grew, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Storrs became a zealous advocate of what was called conditional immortality—the teaching that the soul is mortal and that immortality is a gift to be attained by faithful Christians. He also reasoned that since the wicked do not have immortality, there is no eternal torment. Storrs traveled extensively, lecturing on the subject of no immortality for the wicked. Among his published works was the Six Sermons, which eventually attained a distribution of 200,000 copies. Without a doubt, Storrs’ strong Bible-based views on the mortality of the soul as well as the atonement and restitution (restoration of what was lost due to Adamic sin; Acts 3:21) had a strong, positive influence on young Charles T. Russell.
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The Bible Examiner
October 1876

GENTILE TIMES: WHEN DO THEY END?

By Chas. T. Russell

“Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” -Luke 21:24.

Doubtless our Lord intended to communicate to His disciples some knowledge, and possibly it was addressed more to the disciples in our day, than to the early church.

Let us then search what times the prophecy, which was in Christ, did signify. Of course, if it beone of the secret things of God, we cannot find out; but if a secret, why should Jesus mention it? If, on the contrary, it is revealed it belongs to us. Shall we guess and suppose? No: let us go to God’s treasure-house; let us search the Scriptures for the key.

Jesus does not foretell its treading under foot of the Gentiles, as Rome had her foot upon themat that time. He does tell us, however, how long it will continue so, even the disciples thought “that it was he which should have DELIVERED Israel.”

We believe that God has given the key. We believe He doeth nothing but he revealeth it unto His servants. Do we not find part of the key in Lev. 26:27, 33? “I, even I will chastise you seven times for your sins: . . . and I will bring your land into desolation . . . and will scatter you among the heathen.” Israel did not hearken unto the Lord, but disobeyed him, and this prophecy is now being fulfilled, and has been since the days of Zedekiah, when God said, “Remove the diadem, take off the crown, . . . I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, . . . until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it unto Him.” Comparing these Scriptures, we learn, that God has scattered Israel for a period of seven times, or until “he comes whose right” the Government is, and puts an end to Gentile rule or government. This gives us a clue at least, as to how long until the Jews are delivered. Further, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the head of gold, is recognized by God asthe representative of the beast, or Gentile Governments. “A king of kings and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, hath God given into hishand.” Dan. 2:38. God had taken the crown off Zedekiah and declared the Image, of which Nebuchadnezzar is the head, ruler of the world until the kingdom of God takes its place (smitingit on its feet); and, as this is the same time at which Israel is to be delivered, (for “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled”), we here get our second clue, viz.: these two events, noted of the Scriptures of truth-“Times of Gentiles,” and “Treading of Jerusalem,” are parallel periods, commencing at the same time and ending at the same time; and, as in the case of Israel, their degradation was to be for seven times, so with the dominion of the Image; it lasts seven times; for, when in his pride the “Head of Gold” ignored“ The God of heaven,” the glory of that kingdom (which God gave him, as a representative of the Image,) departed, and it took on its beastly character, which lasts seven times. Dan 4:23 – and, (prefigured by the personal degradation for seven years, of Nebuchadnazzar, the representative) until the time comes when they shall acknowledge, and “give honor to the Most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.” Dan 4:34: for all the ends of the earth shall remember andturn unto the Lord when He is the Governor among the nations.

Our next question naturally, is, How long are seven times? Does God in his word, furnish usany clue from which to determine the length of that period? Yes, in Revelations we learn that three and one-half times, 42 months, and 1260 prophetic days, literal years, are the same (it has for years been so accepted by the church,) and it was so fulfilled: if three and one-half times are 1260 years, seven times would be twice as much, i.e., 2520 years. At the commencement of our Christian era, 606 years of this time had passed, (70 years captivity, and 536 from Cyrus to Christ) which deducted from 2520, would show that the seven times will end in A.D. 1914; when Jerusalem shall be delivered forever, and the Jew say of the Deliverer, “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him and He will save us.” When Gentile Governments shall have been dashed to pieces; when God shall have poured out of his fury upon the nation, and they acknowledge, him King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But, some one will say, “If the Lord intended that we should know, He would have told usplainly and distinctly how long.” But, no, brethren, He never does so. The Bible is to be a light to God’s children;--to the world, foolishness. Many of its writings are solely for our edification upon whom the ends of the world are come. As well say that God should have put the gold on top instead of in the bowels of the earth it would be too common; it would lose much of its value. So with truth; but, “to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom.

We will ask, but not now answer, another question: If the Gentile Times end in 1914, (and there are many other and clearer evidences pointing to the same time) and we are told that it shall be with fury poured out; at time of trouble such as never was before, nor ever shall be; a day of wrath, etc., how long before does the church escape? as Jesus says, “watch, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape those things coming upon the world.”

Brethren, the taking by Christ of His Bride, is evidently, one of the first acts in the Judgment; for judgment must begin at the house of God.

W. Philadelphia.

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The Bible Examiner
February 1877

Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before

By Chas. T. Russell

"See thou make every thing after the pattern," was God's command to Moses; and Paul, by the same Spirit declares that "the law was a shadow of good things to come;" and so, now, we find it: these types and shadows, after lying dormant for ages, awake, and speak to us with double force as we realize the fulfillment of many and mark the speed with which others hasten toward accomplishment.

Christ came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets; yes, but not all of them. He fulfilled that part of them which referred to His first advent but only a small proportion of either law or Prophets referred to that event. The greater are yet unfulfilled; and, that we remember the words of the Master, "not one jot or tittle of the law shall fail, until all be fulfilled:" and, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than that one jot or tittle of the law should fail."

Nor must we look for all of them to be fulfilled before Christ's second coming; many of them reach far into the next age. Let us examine, hastily, the first ordinance under the law, given to the children of Israel, "The Passover." This, by many good people, is considered fulfilled already: but Jesus settles that point, for He tells his disciples (Luke 22:16), "I will no more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Nor could it be; "Christ our Passover (Lamb) is slain," and we since that event have been eating his flesh, appropriating Him to ourselves that we may have Christ formed in us the hope of glory: for "except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, ye have no life in you." As the "fleshly house" of Israel ate the fleshly lamb and sprinkled its blood upon the door posts and lintel, so the spiritual house of Israel eat of the "Lamb of God," and "are made partakers of the Divine nature," and have their "hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. But all Israel were not passed over by the Destroying Angel:-assuredly not; only the first-born of spiritual Israel are on trial now; they are to be unto God "a kind of first fruits of His creatures;" the great mass of the family are not now on trial; many of them doubtless will be tried during the time of trouble coming upon the world, the possible parallel of the forty years in the wilderness; for, many shall come up out of (or, after) great tribulation, having washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb;" yet, there is something which is to Pass-over these first-born of these spiritual Israel. Yes, Jesus knew of it and warned us to "Watch that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things coming upon the world, and stand before the Son of man." "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

Brethren, is this time of trouble near at hand? If so, let us lift up our heads and rejoice. The same signs which show it is near, show our deliverance is near also, "even at the doors." Lift up your heads: your redemption draweth nigh. These things are engaging the minds of God's children everywhere, --I mean the "Jewels." There is no an "Ana" nor a "Simeon" waiting for the consolation of Israel, that will not be watching and looking for Him when He comes for those Jewels; for, "It is unto those who look for Him, he will appear.

As an illustration, I recently came to know of four ladies, who, although uninstructed by any one, had come, through studying the Word, to a knowledge of the second coming of Christ, and met once every week for over a year to pray for that event. These dear Jewels belong to various churches, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc., and are evidently children led by the Spirit of God, which is to guide the flock into all truth.

Let us, brethren be on our watch, lest He come as thief. We are not in darkness that that day should overtake us as a thief. Though He comes in this way to all the world, we "are not of the world."

If the Lord permit, we will, under this same heading, take up various types, shadows and parallels, at a future time and endeavor, by his aid to trace them to their substance.

Pittsburgh, PA

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The Bible Examiner
March 1877

Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before

By Chas. T. Russell

Abraham's Sacrifice, -- The Smitten Rock, --Moses' Vail.
(Continued.)

The light of Divine Revelation, in the providence of God, almost every Bible truth is to cast its shadow: hence, "the Law is a shadow of good things to come;" "there shall not one jot or title of it fail until all be fulfilled." The Gospel (good news) was preached to them (those under the Law) as well as to us;" but they failed to receive it, not mixing with it faith in that to which it pointed. Let us recognize not merely the letter of the Law but that which it teaches also.

Abraham, as a type, represents God: Isaac, Christ. As Abraham offered up, Isaac, his only begotten son, (Heb. 11:17) the head of the promised seed, so God freely gave His only begotten Son to die, "who is the head of the Church" ­ His body. Isaac was under condemnation to death three days during the journey to the mount of sacrifice. Jesus was under the dominion of death three days. God raised him up from the dead. ­Abraham received Isaac from the dead in a figure. Heb. 11:19. Again, Abraham chose a wife for Isaac. God is choosing the Bride of Christ. He has visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name; they are called and chosen and faithful; and Jesus testified, "no man can come unto me, except the Father, which sent me draw him." Abraham sent his servant for the Bride of Isaac. God has sent His servants, the apostles, and prophets, etc., to call the Bride of Christ. Paul says, "I have espoused you as chaste virgins unto one husband, even Christ." (2 Cor. 11:2.) And oh! How sweet the thought, to those who love his appearing, that this people taken out for His Name are soon to receive it. (Rev. 2:17.) "Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory; to God for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife hath made herself ready." (Rev. 14:7.) Even this union of Christ, the second Adam, and his bride, seems shadowed forth in the first Adam and his wife." Eve was made of Adam's rib; bone of his bone. We, the Bride of Christ, are formed of God in Christ a new creature. We are made partakers of the divine nature; for if we have not the spirit of Christ, we are none of his. Adam, the first, created in the flesh. Christ, the beginning of the new creation of God, the spiritual. Adam the father of all earthy; Christ "shall be called the Everlasting Father" of the spiritual family. Eve was "the mother of all living:" the Lamb's wife, the "New Jerusalem," is to be the mother of all who shall enter the spiritual life; and none of the children can enter life until the Bride is united to Christ: then "the Spirit and the Bride will say, come, and whosoever will may come and the water of life if free." (Rev. 22:17.)

A type of the unpardonable sin is found, I think, in Num. 20:11, where Moses smote the rock with the rod twice. St. Paul said that rock was Christ. (1 Cor. 10:4.) The prophet said they should smite the shepherd of Israel on the cheek; and we find it was literally fulfilled but only once. Some, according to St. Paul, crucify Christ afresh and put him to an open shame. (Heb. 6:6,) therefore committing the sin unto death," they cannot enter the Heavenly Canaan. Moses did this, in type, and on that account was not allowed to enter the goodly land. Another thought which this suggests is, the sanctity in God's sight of types. Moses' sin was in spoiling a type. If baptism is a type of our burial and resurrection, it makes the form of more consequence than many have supposed it to be. Instance: Christ was not buried and raised three times; hence trine- immersion, to the writer, would appear to spoil the type.

THE VAIL OF MOSES.

Moses exercised the offices of prophet, priest, and chief ruler, and was, as such, a type of Christ: "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like me." When Moses came down from the Mount, from the presence of the Lord, his face shone, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold him; and by divine command he put on a vail, so that he could communicate with them.

We understand that Moses typified the glorified body of Christ, (the church of the first-born) in their intercourse with the nations in the flesh during the Restitution Age. "If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory." (2 Cor. 3:9.) Notice how beautiful he type appears to fit. Many Scriptures plainly inform us that the saints are to be kings and priests and reign on the earth, over the nations in the flesh: Yet we know that if a glorified spiritual body, such as John saw Christ to be, (and "we shall be fashioned like unto His glorious body,") at whose feet he falls as a dead man, (Rev. 1:17,) or such an one as Daniel the prophet saw, of which he says, "Straightway there was no strength left in me," before whom he falls as dead; or like our Lord as seen by Saul of Tarsus, shining above the brightness of the sun at noon-day, so glorious as to blind him; I say, if such beings were to appear to the natural man, the very object would be defeated-he could not receive instruction from such a being; and yet that is as certainly to be our appearance as that "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall bear the image of the heavenly," and be like unto the angels of God." But we shall appear to mortals, of the next age, as angels did in past ages, i.e., under the vail, that is to say, the flesh. (Heb. 10:20.) In this way the Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham as common men; and so Jesus, after His resurrection, appeared to His disciples; and so I understand the saints, (as did Moses in the type,) when in communication with mortals, appear under the vail. When not so engaged they can enter into that within or beyond the vail-the presence of God their spiritual condition.

Pittsburgh, PA
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Additional Reading: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/11/george-storrs.html

Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/02/biography-of-george-storrs.html