• Part 1—Witnesses to the Most Distant Part of the Earth
    Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom

    • Although Charles Taze Russell came to be widely known for his well-advertised discourses on the Bible, his interest was not merely in large audiences but in people. Thus, shortly after he began to publish the Watch Tower in 1879, he undertook extensive traveling to visit small groups of readers of the magazine to discuss the Scriptures with them.

      C. T. Russell urged those who believed the precious promises of God’s Word to have a part in sharing them with other people. Those whose hearts were deeply touched by what they were learning showed real zeal in doing just that. To assist in the work, printed material was provided. Early in 1881, a number of tracts appeared. Material from these was then combined with additional information to form the more comprehensive Food for Thinking Christians, and 1,200,000 copies of this were prepared for distribution. But how could the small band of Bible Students (perhaps 100 at that time) put out all of these?

      Reaching Church Attenders

      Some were given to relatives and friends. A number of newspapers agreed to send a copy to each of their subscribers. (Special emphasis was put on weekly and monthly papers so that Food for Thinking Christians would reach many people who lived in rural areas.) But much of the distribution was accomplished on several consecutive Sundays in front of churches in the United States and Britain. There were not enough Bible Students to do it all personally, so they hired others to help.

      Brother Russell dispatched two associates, J. C. Sunderlin and J. J. Bender, to Britain to supervise the distribution of 300,000 copies there. Brother Sunderlin went to London, while Brother Bender traveled north into Scotland and then worked his way south. Principal attention was given to larger cities. By means of newspaper ads, capable men were located, and contracts were made with them to arrange for enough helpers to distribute their allotment of copies. Nearly 500 distributors were recruited in London alone. The work was done quickly, on two consecutive Sundays.

      That same year, arrangements were made for Bible Students who could spend half or more of their time exclusively in the Lord’s work to be colporteurs, distributing literature for Bible study. These forerunners of the ones known today as pioneers achieved a truly remarkable distribution of the good news.

      During the following decade, Brother Russell prepared a variety of tracts that could easily be used to disseminate some of the outstanding Bible truths that had been learned. He also wrote several volumes of Millennial Dawn (later known as Studies in the Scriptures). Then he began to make personal evangelizing trips to other lands.

      Russell Travels Abroad

      In 1891 he visited Canada, where enough interest had been generated since 1880 that an assembly attended by 700 could now be held in Toronto. He also traveled to Europe in 1891 to see what could be done to forward the spread of the truth there. This trip took him to Ireland, Scotland, England, many of the countries on the European continent, Russia (the area now known as Moldova), and the Middle East.

      What did he conclude from his contacts on that trip? “We saw no opening or readiness for the truth in Russia . . . We saw nothing to encourage us to hope for any harvest in Italy or Turkey or Austria or Germany,” he reported. “But Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and especially England, Ireland and Scotland, are fields ready and waiting to be harvested. These fields seem to be crying out, Come over and help us!” This was an era when the Catholic Church still forbade Bible reading, when many Protestants were forsaking their churches, and when not a few, disillusioned by the churches, were rejecting the Bible altogether.

      In order to help those people who were spiritually hungry, after Brother Russell’s trip in 1891 intensified efforts were put forth to translate literature into the languages of Europe. Also, arrangements were made to print and stock literature supplies in London so that these would be more readily available for use in Britain. The British field did, indeed, prove to be ready for harvesting. By 1900, there were already nine congregations and a total of 138 Bible Students—among them some zealous colporteurs. When Brother Russell again visited Britain in 1903, a thousand gathered in Glasgow to hear him speak on “Millennial Hopes and Prospects,” 800 attended in London, and audiences of 500 to 600 in other towns.

      In confirmation of Brother Russell’s observations, however, after his visit 17 years passed before the first congregation of Bible Students was formed in Italy, at Pinerolo. And what about Turkey? During the late 1880’s, Basil Stephanoff had preached in Macedonia, in what was then European Turkey. Although some had seemed to show interest, certain ones who professed to be brothers made false reports, leading to his imprisonment. Not until 1909 did a letter from a Greek in Smyrna (now Izmir), Turkey, report that a group there was appreciatively studying the Watch Tower publications. As for Austria, Brother Russell himself returned in 1911 to speak in Vienna, only to have the meeting broken up by a mob. In Germany too, appreciative response was slow in coming. But the Scandinavians showed greater awareness of their spiritual need.