Before the four-month world tour by the IBSA committee was completed, Brother Russell had arranged for R. R. Hollister to be the Society’s representative in the Orient and to follow through in spreading to peoples there the message of God’s loving provision of the Messianic Kingdom. Special tracts were prepared in ten languages, and millions of these were circulated throughout India, China, Japan, and Korea by native distributors. Then books were translated into four of these languages to provide further spiritual food for those who showed interest.

To the Orient and Islands of the Pacific

Shortly after Bible publications prepared by C. T. Russell were first distributed in Britain, they also reached the Orient. In 1883, Miss C. B. Downing, a Presbyterian missionary in Chefoo (Yantai), China, received a copy of the Watch Tower. She appreciated what she learned about restitution and shared the literature with other missionaries, including Horace Randle, associated with the Baptist Mission Board. Later, he had his interest further stimulated by an advertisement for Millennial Dawn that appeared in the London Times, and this was followed up by copies of the book itself—one from Miss Downing and another sent by his mother in England. At first, he was shocked by what he read. But once convinced that the Trinity is not a Bible teaching, he resigned from the Baptist Church and proceeded to share with other missionaries what he had learned. In 1900 he reported that he had sent out 2,324 letters and some 5,000 tracts to missionaries in China, Japan, Korea, and Siam (Thailand).

A further major effort was put forth in 1911-12 to help people of the Orient. The International Bible Students Association sent a committee of seven men, headed by C. T. Russell, to examine firsthand the conditions there. Wherever they went they spoke about God’s purpose to bring blessings to mankind by means of the Messianic Kingdom. Sometimes their audience was small, but in the Philippines and in India, there were thousands. They did not endorse the campaign then popular in Christendom to collect funds for world conversion. Their observation was that most of the efforts of Christendom’s missionaries were being expended to promote secular education. But Brother Russell was convinced that what the people needed was “the Gospel of God’s loving provision of Messiah’s coming Kingdom.” Instead of expecting to convert the world, the Bible Students understood from the Scriptures that what was to be done then was to give a witness and that this would serve toward the gathering of “an elect few from all nations, peoples, kindreds and tongues for membership in [Christ’s] Bride class—to sit with Him in His throne during the thousand years, cooperating in the work of uplifting the race as a whole.”a—Rev. 5:9, 10; 14:1-5.

After spending time in Japan, China,