In the 1870s there were numerous small Bible classes loosely affiliated with various papers, some Age to Come, some different strands of Adventism. People obtained papers from all manner of sources, and when ZWT started publication it was initially just one more to add to the list. Eventually, people started to choose which direction they viewed as “the truth,” and the Bible Student movement, with its separate identity, came into being.
However, many attending gatherings that became
“Bible Student” meetings continued to still read widely, even if, as time went by,
it may have been politic to keep quiet about it.
In the first few decades of ZWT’s publication, alternative
magazines were still being read by various Bible Students as well. This might
help us understand certain subject matter in early ZWTs. On occasion CTR would be
responding to the work of others which he knew his readers were receiving. The Tabernacle and its Teachings (later
rewritten into Tabernacle Shadows)
was originally written, at least in part, to combat the writings of Nelson
Barbour.
The
Herald of the Morning
In the 1890s Nelson Barbour’s paper The Herald of the Morning was obviously
still seen by a few. In the follow up to 1894’s Harvest Siftings (special issue
of ZWT for April 25, 1894) defector S D Rogers was accused of visiting ZWT
congregations with bad intent and
in Rochester, NY, introducing the faithful to Nelson Barbour, described as a
“bold and relentless enemy.” (See ZWT for June 11, 1894). There is no
other record of this and Barbour’s paper for this era is not available, but taking
the account at face value, three things can be noted.
First, Rogers knew who Barbour was and where Barbour
was, to go to him for support against CTR. Second, it was reported back to CTR
that this had actually happened. Third, Barbour was still sufficently well-known
to ZWT readers for CTR to mention the event as a warning. CTR’s comment would only
have real meaning if Barbour was still on selected Bible Students’ radar.
This is supported by what happened when a few Bible
Students, including a Watch Tower Society director, Augustus Weimar, left
fellowship and joined the Koreshan Unity in 1895. This was a strange group that
among other things believed the earth was hollow and mankind lived inside it.
In the September 1895 issue of the Koreshan
magazine, The Flaming Sword, they
used one of Barbour’s articles from November 1891 to attack CTR’s theology. It
seems likely that the Koreshans got this from their new intake of ex-ZWT supporters.
However, this means that at least one of those supporters was still reading
Barbour’s Herald into the 1890s.
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-watch-tower-and-koreshan-unity.html
The
World’s Hope
John Paton left fellowship with CTR around 1882 and started his own paper The World’s Hope, promoting Universalist views. Looking at extant copies of this paper, a number of well-known ZWT names were also readers. It was Paton who reported on the death of the first ZWT president, W H Conley, and obviously knew and was in contact with him. The account about Conley’s death in The World’s Hope for August 1, 1897 was supplied by W I Mann, who up to April 1892 had been a ZWT director.
For the history of individuals, Paton’s magazine is
valuable because in keeping with his views on universal salvation he tried to
keep in touch with or at least report on everyone. The interest was not
generally reciprocated. From an historical sense it is a pity that his
paper folded in August 1916. A few more
months and he would have no doubt reported on CTR’s life and death as he saw
it.
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/07/john-patons-farewell.html
The
Spirit of the Word
Another associate, Arthur P Adams, initially
supported Barbour when the split came, but then started a small circulation
paper in 1885 called The Spirit of the
Word.
Adams was a Methodist minister who met CTR in 1877
and became associated with both him and John Paton and Nelson Barbour. As a
result of unrepentantly expounding Age to Come views he was expelled from the
Methodist ministry in 1878. CTR chose to mention Adams in the
first version of Harvest Siftings published in 1890.
It
was after this, while on a tour of the New England States, that I met Mr. A. P.
Adams, then a young Methodist minister, who became deeply interested and
accepted the message heartily during the week that I preached to his
congregation. Subsequently, I introduced him to little gatherings of interested
ones in neighboring towns, and assisted otherwise, as I could, rejoicing in
another one who, with study, would soon be a co-laborer in the harvest field.
It
wasn’t to last. Later in the reprinted Harvest Siftings (1894):
Mr. Adams espoused
the views of Mr. Barbour and likewise forsook the doctrine of the ransom. And,
true to our interpretation of the parable of the wedding garment as given at
the time, Mr. Barbour and Mr. Adams, having cast off the wedding garment of
Christ's righteousness, went out of the light into the outer darkness of the
world on the subjects once so clearly seen.
CTR obviosuly felt it necessary to mention Adams because
some ZWT readers would also know of his ministry. One example of this was
Ophelia Burroughs. Ophelia wrote letters to ZWT, organized a Dawn Circle in the
absence of suitable males to step up to the mark, and wrote hymns and poems which
the Society published throughout the 1890s and into the 1900s. It can be
confusing because she wrote under several names, including Browning (her maiden
name) and Burroughs (the name of her first husband).
But Ophelia knew Adams. Very well. In April 1905 she
went as far as marrying him!
