Sunday 21 February 2021

The Herald of the Morning


The Herald of the Morning (originally entitled The Midnight Cry and Herald of the Morning) started publication at the end of 1873. Shortly after CTR came across the paper its publication was suspended, after the death of Daniel Cogswell as reported in the February 1876 paper (Volume 4, number 2).


It is known that during 1877, while Barbour, Paton and Russell were preaching in various areas that Barbour’s Three Worlds was sent out in lieu of Herald subscriptions as a part-work. It was once thought that the actual paper was suspended until Volume 7 began in July 1878. Barbour changed the volume number every six months and Volumes 7 and 8 (with CTR as associate editor until May 1878) are readily available from various internet sources.


However, it can now be established that the paper ran as a semi-monthly publication for the second half of 1877 and the first half of 1878.


For 1877 we have the testimony of George N H Peters whose mammoth work The Theocratic Kingdom (1884 and partly sponsored by W H Conley) quotes from the Herald for August 1, 1877 and September 15, 1877. One quote is from an article written by Patton (sic). We must assume this was Volume 5. Some years ago I contacted the repository for Peters’ papers, but alas, there were no Heralds among them.


For 1878 we have one issue for June 15, 1878. (It was found in the archives of Atlanta Bible College over twenty years ago.) It describes how the June 1 issue was not published due to the time Barbour was away at a conference, and so June 15 is Volume 6 number 11. It also announced how the paper would be a smaller sized 16 page monthly from July 1878, making it easier for binding. The fact that the magazine could be bound into volumes ensured the survival of the familiar years down to our day.


The June 15 issue has CTR as main publisher and an assistant editor. There are no articles from CTR’s pen in this particular issue, most of the contents appears to have been written by Barbour and Paton.


Here are a few frames from this paper.


The masthead

 The publisher announcement

And finally, the list of those who had written in over the previous month. Can we see any familiar names here? 

4 comments:

  1. So we still don't know ...
    Is the month of 1877 or 1878 known when CTR became co-editor of Herald of the Morning?

    We know he was co-editor in July 1878. We know that he was supposedly on June 15, 1878, but what was before that?

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  2. Since CTR helped Barbour financially and was behind Barbour's Three Worlds which was sent out to subscribers in the first half of 1877, one might assume that both CTR and John Paton were assistant editors from the restarted periodical in the second half of 1877, as referenced by Peters. This is also suggested in CTR's account "To the readers of Herald of the Morning, July 1, 1879." But unless actual copies come to light we will not know for certain.

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  3. Well, that's mysterious still matters. Once, Bruce wrote about a full collection of Barboura magazines, but it cost a lot of money.

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  4. The copies of Barbour's Herald that Bruce wrote about came from several years after Barbour and CTR parted company, so would not have helped with this query.

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