PASTOR RUSSELL
Who and What Was He ?
THE
WORLD’S
GREATEST
AUTHOR
EDITOR
LECTURER
INSTRUCTOR
PASTOR
EPITOME OF PASTOR
RUSSELL’S LABORS DURING THE FORTY YEARS HARVEST OF THE GOSPEL AGE.
HE WAS BORN IN 1852
AND HIS LABORS ENDED WITH HIS DEATH, OCTOBER 31, 1916.
PUBLICATIONS
Title Date of Publication. Circulation.
Object and
Manner.............. 1878 .................. 50,000
of Our
Lord’s Return
Food for Thinking
Christians... 1881 .................1,400,000
Tabernacle
Shadows............. 1881 .................1,500,000
Divine Plan of the
Ages ....... 1886 ................ 4,817,000
The Time Is at
Hand............ 1889 .................1,657,000
Thy Kingdom
Come............... 1891 .................1,578,000
The Great
Pyramid.............. 1891 .................1,578,000
The Day of
Vengeance........... 1897 ...................464,000
The
Atonement.................... 1899 ...................445,000
The New Creation
.............. 1904 ...................423,000
The Hell
Pamphlet.............. 1896..................3,000,000
The Parousia of Our
Lord ............................... 300,000
Spiritism
Pamphlet...................................... 500,000
Total, ...........................................
18,212,000
EDITOR.
"Watch Tower
and Herald of.....Yearly No Advertising.... 50,000
Christ’s Presence"
"Bible
Students’ Monthly".......... """........... 50,000,000
LECTURER.
From 1878 until the
last hour of his life, October 31, 1916.
Number of miles
traveled .................................... 1,000,000
Number of lectures
given (approximate)......................... 30,000
Field of service
........................................... The World
Died on train
while on lecture tour.
NEWSPAPER WRITER.
Number of papers
which published his sermons.....................4,000
Number of weekly
readers ................................... 15,000,000
INSTRUCTION.
Number of assistant
instructors maintained ........................275
Number of letters
received yearly ............................ 400,000
CONVENTIONS.
Arranged for and
conducted....................... from 5 to 40 each year
Average
attendance................................... from 300 to 5,000
TRANSLATIONS.
Books translated
into..................................... 19 languages
Bible Students’
Monthly translated into...................35 languages
COMMERCIAL.
Entered business
life at the age of 11 years.
Established a line
of stores and started one of the first department stores in the United States.
At the age of 30
years had accumulated a fortune of over $300,000.
HISTORICAL.
In 1876 his
attention was called to the Scriptures, showing our Lord’s return and presence
in 1874, the ending of the Gospel Age in forty years and the great
dispensational change at hand.
In 1877, called a
meeting of all the ministers of Allegheny and Pittsburgh, showed them the
Scriptures which indicated our Lord’s presence and urged them to investigate
and proclaim the message.
RESULT-ALL of the
ministers of the two cities were present.
RESULT-ALL of the
ministers of the two cities refused to believe.
In 1877 he
determined to give up secular work and devote his entire time and fortune to
the work indicated in the Scriptures as incident to the close of the Gospel Age
and change of dispensation impending.
As a means of
determining whether his course was in harmony with the Scriptures and also as a
means of demonstrating his own sincerity, he decided to test the Lord’s
approval as follows:
(1) Devote his life
to the cause.
(2) Invest his
fortune in the promulgation of the work.
(3) Prohibit
collections at all meetings.
(4) Depend on
unsolicited contributions (wholly voluntary) to continue the work after
his fortune was
exhausted.
In 1878, 50,000
copies of "Food for Thinking Christians" were distributed free at the
doors of all the Protestant churches in the United States, Canada and Great
Britain on two consecutive Sundays by A. D. T. messenger boys. The money for
this distribution was
furnished
gratuitously and unsolicited by a gentleman not in any way identified with the
movement.
In 1878 he
predicted the present world-wide war to commence about October, 1914.
Basing his
prediction on the Scriptural teaching that the lease of gentile dominion ended
at that date.
His life work was a
defense of the Bible in the light of its own interpretation and the heralding
of the good tidings of the Lord’s Kingdom as a means of ending the present
distress of the
nations.
He died penniless
Oct. 31, 1916, at the age of 64 years.
His large fortunes and all donations had been used for mankind.