An Interesting Volume

The Church of God General Conference is a religious group, primarily based in America, which grew out of loosely related groups that used such terms such as Church of God, Age to Come and Abrahamic Faith in the 19^th century. Going back far enough, they are cousins of the Christadelphians, and in the mid-nineteenth century often associated on a local level with Advent Christians. Ultimately, as statements of belief were firmed up and became “official” there came to be a parting of the ways. However, as established in Separate Identity, the early group Charles Taze Russell associated with had such a mixture of influences.

See for example, an earlier article on this blog:

1874-75: Allegheny-Pittsburgh – Adventist or Age to Come? The case of George Storrs and Elder Owen.

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/01/1874-75-allegheny-pittsburgh-adventist.html

The modern Church of God has put certain archives online, and while most relate to the 20^th century and maybe outside our area of interest, they do include one or two from the 19^th century. Their blurb on their archives states:

“This collection of books contains authors who considered themselves part of the Church of God those who pre-date the formation of the Church of God General Conference, and others who held to similar doctrinal positions but were not formally aligned with the Church of God.”

One such book is of particular interest to us, because it is a copy of Three Worlds, by Barbour and Russell (Barbour as writer and CTR as publisher) and even more interesting, it appears to have been gifted by CTR himself.

This copy is clean and unmarked apart from pencil on one page only, but without any textual notations.

The main paper of the Church of God in the second half of the 19^th century was The Restitution and it provides much information on CTR. He sent most of his earlier writings to the paper. Object and Manner was given away as a freebie to all susbscribers, and Three Worlds, The Plan of the Ages and later volumes of Millennial Dawn were often reviewed. The reviews veered from polite but condescending to outright hostile as CTR’s ministry took off, and veered away from what became official Church of God doctrine.

For details of this, see old article Charles Taze Russell and The Restitution.

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/01/charles-taze-russell-and-restitution_31.html

But in 1877, Church of God adherents were an obvious audience for Three Worlds.

The flyleaf contains an inscription that mentions CTR, and with the marvels of computer programs it can be “raised” from faded away to legible. The inscription reads:

     A transcription reads:

Christina Railsback’s book

Argos, Ind(iana)

A present from Bro.

C.T. Russel of

Pittsburg, PA

June – 1877 

It would be REALLY nice to think that this was personally autographed by CTR, but the misspelling of “Russel” strongly suggests that the inscription was made by the recipient, Christine, to show where the book had come from. 

So CTR sent the volume as a present to Christine (or Christina) Railsback (1841-1897) of Argos, Indiana. Christine (the former Christine Swafford) married John Corbaley Railsback (1841-1928) in 1863. When she died her obituary in The Argos Reflector for May 20, 1897 stated she had been a life long member of the Church of God and her funeral took place in the Argos Church of God.

When her husband died over 30 years later, his obituary in The Argos Reflector for June 7, 1928, made a similar comment about his background. His funeral too was conducted in the Argos Church of God.

Although no familial connection can be established, John Corbaley Railsback would appear to have been named after John Corbaley. John Corbaley was a well-known Church of God evangelist, who established churches with Benjamin Wilson (of the Diaglot) and also Hugh B Rice, who had a short association with CTR. Rice was listed as a contributor in the first issues of Zion’s Watch Tower, although in fact never did contribute anything.

For his story and the Corbaley background see old article: H B Rice – An Impecunious Man.

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/05/h-b-rice-impecunious-man.html

Perhaps the only unanswered question is why CTR sent the book to Christine rather than John? Ultimately the book ended up in the archive library of the Church of God.

Copies of Three Worlds are highly collectable. One actually gifted by a young Charles Taze Russell would be even more so.