1894 wt extra a conspiracy exposed

7/31/2019 1894 WT Extra a Conspiracy Exposed

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E X T R A E D I T I O KVOX., XV., NO. 8

tion9 l jgA votiDw

APRTL 25, 1894 T. RUSSFU, EDITOR,

" 7%/ ditcif-U it net above his Master, nor the servant above I/* Zjwt/, Itit enough fer the diseijUe that he he at Ait Afaifer t and the servant as hitLard. // they have tailed the Matter cf the house Beelzebub, hoist tttueh imrreshall they call them of his h&tteholdt

"Ftar them not, therefore: for th ere it nothing covered that shall not berevealed; and Aid that shall not be kiurvm.Afatf,. 10:24^26"

TOWER PUBLISHING CO.A L L E G H E N Y , PA .

U. S, A .Em en d u Second Class Mtil Mtter tt t ht P, 0-, Allcjtieny, P a


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"TVb weapon that is formed against thee shallprosper, and every tongue that shall rise againstthee in judgment thou shall condemn.

" T}iis is the heritage of the servants of the Lordand their righteous re-ward from me, saith theLord." Isa. 54:17.

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R C O J l S P l P , A C Y E X P O S E D" Blessed are ye when turn shall revile yon, andpersecute you, an d shall say alt manner of evil aga instyou falsely, for my saA-e." Mall. 5 : //.

L IT TL E d id the Ed i to r th ink , when penn in g words o fcaut ion to w atch and p ray, pr inted in our issue of Apri l1, under the cap t ion , " Lest Ye En te r in to Tem pta t ion , "that they w ere so soon to prove so necessary and t imely asthey have s ince proved.Th e story we here relate is a- sad one ; but it seems du tyto tel l i t in detai l , because those most concerned were int roduced to our readers and f requent ly mentioned in thesecolum ns in warmest terms of brothe r ly regard. I t is propernow , therefore, that you should know of their def lect ion.This painful s tory we have publ ished separate f rom ourregular issues, that if possible only the elder, and it is to beh o p e d steadfast, readers of the WATCH TOWER may knowo f i t , l es t o t h e r s " b a b e s " m i g h t b e " s t u m b l e d . "Those who have been readers of the WATCH TOWER forseveral years , wel l know tha t on the s t rength of the wo rdsof our Lord and the P rophe t s and Apos t l es (D an . 1 2 : 1 0 ;Ps a , 91 :7 ; 1 C or . 3 : 1 3 ; Mat t . 1 3 :41 ) we have l>ec exp e c t i n g " s i f t i n g s " a n d " s t u m b l i n g s " a n d t h e " f a l l in g " o fma ny in this " evi l da y. " Such, therefore, l ike ourselves,will not be-so greatly surprised at the facts, alth oug h likeourselves they may well be surpr ised, each t ime, to knowwh o s tumbles and over what . Unsuspicious hear ts arc always surpr ised; and the bes t and pures t hear ts are generally unsuspicious .


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4 ' A ConspiracyTo prepare the reader for what follows, it is proper tos t a t e tha t the conspiracy of which it is our unpleasant taskto tel l you, and of which the Edi to r wasm a d e the subject ,resembled more the bet r aya l of our dear Master (as someof the f r iends here remarked) than anything else to whichwe can c o m p a r e it. We had no suspicion of it whatever ,unt i l f ive days before, and only s ince have learned that it

had been gradual ly forming for the past two year s ; t ha t ithad been expected to " e x p l o d e " the mat te r l i ke " abomb, andblow [de ar? ] Brother Russel l and t h is w o rk s k y - h i g h " att he Spr ing Meet ing a year ago, and by thus breaking his influence to get free from what they call " b o n d a g e to BrotherR us s e l l , " and force open to their own uses and abuses theco lumns of Z ION'S WATCH TOWER, which they claim a r igh tto command;because it is Zion's W ATCH TOW ER, andt hey are member s of Z i o n .They were g r ea t ly d i s appo in ted , it appears , when thatmeet ing was abandoned in favor of the C hicago C onvent ion later , but declared that the " b o m b " would " explodein l es s than e igh teen mo nths " refer r ing doub t les s to theexpected Mem orial meet ing this Spr ing. But Prov idenceagain foiled the scheme by leading us unwit t ingly to deciden o t to call such a meeting this year . We knew at the t imethat they were great ly disappointed, for they said so ; butwe had no idea that they had such murderous plans andhear t s . W e us e the word " m urde rous " adv i s ed ly , becaus e wees teem that to kill the charac te r and influence of a man isa baser murder than to kil l his body mere ly , and t ha t them u r d e r of the charac te r of one the least of God ' s ch i ld r enis worse in the s ight of God t han the physical murder of aworldly man. (See M a t t . 18:6; i J o h n 3 : 1 5 . ) P e r h ap sfew realize this matter so ; but we submit that it is the correctview, as shown by the foregoing S cr iptures . If all could getthis tru e view of the matter , they would see the importance ofthe Apos t l e ' s words Let all evi l speaking, backbi t ing,s lander , malice, envy, s t r i fe, be put away from you, as be-co ine th s a in t s .Eph . 4: 31; Col. 3 : 8 - 1 0 .About J anuary '93, when they s t i l l expected the SpringMeet ing to be held that year , they began prepar ing for it,by hints and sugges t ions , pr ivately given, that there wassomething gr ievous ly wrong with Brother Russel l ' s bus iness

Exposed 5charac te r and methods . Th i s was expected to underminethe conf idence of the flock here and to prepare them to believe the " bomb, " when exp loded at the t ime of the C o n vent ion, when representat ives of the truth from all over thecountry would be here . Of course this was done with manypro tes t a t ions of deep sorrow for " poor B rother Russel l "nothing being s tated pos i t ively, but everything bad beingh in ted . My f r iends would have brought the matter to mya t t en t ion at once , but of course were diffident about inquir ing into mypersonal affairs and business,especially asthey knew n othi ng def ini tely to inquire about . At last,however , I got some idea that " some ugly rumors " wereafloat, and at once cal led together about for ty of the pr in ciple brethren and sisters of the congregat ion here, including those whose names seemed to be associated w ith the "uglyr u m o r s , " w h i c h w e re so m e of these who, we now find,were even then conspirators . We s tated the case, and reques ted and urged tha t any and every thing known be toldto us all, so t ha t if any mis under s t and ing had occurred itcou ld be set s traight at once ; for I assured them that therecould be no real foundation to any rumors , my businesscareer, like my religious course, being straightforward andbased on principles of jus t ice and t ruth. All den ied anyknowledge of any th ing deroga to ry to my character , andwent away satisfied, except the conspirators , one of w h o m ,(Mrs. Z e c h ) I now learn, while speaking fairly to my faceand seemingly joining with the others , remarked pr ivately,af terward, " / could have turned the entire course of thatmeeting if I had chosen,"referring evidently to the" bomb '' which it had been decided should be kept, to beexp loded at the expec ted Memor ia l C onven t ion of '94.

A t the s a id meet ing at my h o m e , I gave a l i t t le resumeof my business affairs, protesting, however, that I did soonly for their and the t ruth 's sake, and t ha t my businessaffairs had as much r ight to pr ivacy as those of an y one else ;an d so I -here protest again, but, later on, will go into detai ls ,only for the sake of hinder ing God ' s " l i t t l e ones "from being " s tumbled " by llie false statements which havealready been circulated pr ivately, by let ter , and at theChicago Convention las t Summer, and now, within the pastfew days, in print ( the oral " b o m b " project having failed)


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6 A ConspiracyTh e venomous circular recent ly issued by O. von Z ech, E .Bry an, J. B. Adam son and S. D. Rogers is now to be the" bom b " des igned to des troy confidence in Brother Russell(wluim Providence has made to some extent an under-shep-herd to the L ord 's sheep) , and thus to shat ter the work in order that the con spirators m ay gather some of thewreckage ; for already they have a new paper under way.So much for the conspiracy, of which we were in ignorance unt i l a few days ago. Mean while, the conspirators werefair to my face and spoke endearing words, as will be shownlater on in this case by some of their letters to myself andwife, wri t ten dur ing the very t im e they were con coct in gtheir scheme and keeping their " bo m b." Meanw hile, wewere their sincere friends, and all but one of them hasshared the hospi tal i ty of our home w ithin the last threemon ths . Yes , at the very t ime that they were preparingthe circular , des igned to assass inate my character , one ofthem , in the presence of a doze n bre thre n, offered me hishand , as Judas kissed the Master . But by that t im e, althou gh I knew much less than I now do.of his perfidy, Iknew him to be my slandere r and refused his han d, tellin ghim that the right hand of fellowship meant something tome, and that I had no desire to give it to those who stealthi ly and murderous ly s tabbed my character behind my back.But now for the details of the matter : To give a connected view of the things which have t ranspired here lately, we must recall to the TOWER readers theiac t s s ta t ed in our is s ue o f Apr i l i , under the ca p t io n " Th eWork in En gla nd ." (And we assure you that every wordof it is strictly correct; and that the figures given, as showing the funds of the T rac t S ociety supplied in bo oks forBrother Rogers ' expenses , are ne t af ter deduct ing al l moneyreceived from him and all books transferred to other colporteurs in England and al l books now s tored there. Thesefigures, however, include books supplied to Bro. Rogersin the U. S. before he started for En gla nd , from the pro ceedsof which his expenses there were to be paid . It should benote d, too , that we state in the TOWER the amount of moneyBro. Rogers would have received for the books at "retail."We thus par t icular ize because he, in an ambiguous manner ,denies the s tatement . )

Exposed 7W e heard B ro . R oger s ' p ropos ed mendican t p l an in thepresen ce of our office assistan ts (who with ourselv es con s t i tute our household) , unt i l Bro. Rogers said that he hadtold us al l about i t an d "c ou ld think of nothing more toexp lai n." As before s tated, we assured him that we couldnot think of adopting his plan and discarding the success

ful one now in operat ion, but urged him to t ry i t himselfi f he felt sure that i t was the Lo rd 's wil l con cernin g him.H e rep l ied that we were "rejecUng the Lord's message,"etc. (W e learn s ince th at he no longer relies for leadingupon the Word of the Lord and his providences in answerto prayer , but that , in s tead, he s its down and th inks by thehouras he d id dur ing h i s s t ay a t our homea nd be l i evestha t t he Lord thus reveals things to him . Al as! how manyhave been mis led by this and s imilar misapprehens ions , andto the neglect of the Word of God, which is " able to makewise unt o salva t ion," and through which the ma n of G odmay be thoroug hly furnished unto every good w ork, (z Tim .3:1 5-1 7. ) Jus t what bad cond it ion of hear t l ies at thebot tom of such a course we may not be able to discern, buti t seems general ly to be spir i tual vani ty. )This was Monday evening; the next two days he vis i tedcons iderably with Bro. Z ech. We know n ot what passedbetween them except that by Wednesday night their causeswere one ; B ro . Z ech ev iden t ly apprec ia t ing the idea o f"taking tht money f rom the f ish 's m ou th. " I f Bro. Zechthus embra ced B ro. Rog ers ' cause i t was but natural thatBro. Rogers should fall in with Bro. Zec h's " gr iev ance s ,"and they s t rengthened each other 's hands and hear ts in evi l .W e s ince karn tha t on the Sa tu rday even ing p r ev ious oneof Bro . Z ech 's family, Paul K cet i tz, vis i ted Bro. Er lenm yer(whom he had previous ly t r ied to poison agains t me) and

in g reat glee said, W e have Bryan and A damson and nowhere is Roge rs al l the way f rom Eng land . I t seems as if theLor d sent him at this t ime. Th at makes four , and thereare a lot more. Jns t wai t , someth ing ter r ible is going tohapp en. And Bro. and Sister Z ech and Paul Kcet i tz wereat his house a week previous and s tayed unt i l midnighttalking about Bro. Russel l and a com ing catas trophe. The ygave Bro. Russell a black c harac ter , and Bro. Zech said heWHS going to tel l al l to the Con greg at ion , soon. Bro. E.


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8 A Conspiracysaid , Why not ta lk the matter over with Bro. Russell? Hereplied , I t is no use , he would explain everything aw ay;the congregation ought to know these ro tten th ings.Bro. E. was much distressed and waited in fear for the" b o i l i n g p o t " t o " b o i l o v e r . "To s tar t the m atter , Bro . Roge rs , Bro . and Sis ter Z echand Bro. Paul Kceti tz a t tended one of the s ix Wednesday Evening Prayer and Testimony Meetings, held fornearl y a year in this vicin ity. Th ere , in the absence ofBro. Russell , those meetings were denounced, and Bro.Russell, for h is connec tion with their inst i tu tion , was denounce das a " pop e," e tc . Th e leader of the meeting in vain calledfor order and told them that the meeting was for the purpose of divine worship and praise, and for mutual assistancein spiritual deve lopm ent. Mrs. Russell was present and reproved bo th the in ter ruption and the unkind spir i t manifested. She poin ted out that while the meetings were suggested and recommended by me, the matter was left to thecongregation, nearly all of which had taken up with thesuggestion and voted to have the meetingsnot for doctr inal discussions, etc., but solely an d only for w orship andsp i r i tu a l u p b u i ld in g .She pointed out, a lso , tha t non e were in any sense forcedto a t tend ; and that those who did not care for prayer andconfe rence in harmo ny with the object of the me eting sshould s tay away and give to the o thers who did so desire ,prope r l iberty to worship Go d as they pleased. She pointedo u t , to o , th a t th e re a re man y m ee t in g s a t wh ich d o c t r in a lsu b jec t s , e tc . , a reco n s id e red . S h esh o wed p la in ly th a t wh ileBro . Russell 's course contained nothing l ike a popish d isregard of the wishes of o thers , the course of Bro. Rogers , incoming from England to force h is ideas upon Bro. Russell ,and now the course of a l l these in in terrupting the worshipof o thers , was decide dly popish , if indeed i t were not w orseth an p o p ish . F in a l ly th e d i sco n ten ts wi th d r ew; Bro .Ro g e rs s tay in g th a t n ig h t a t Bro . Z ech ' s .But I was unsuspicious a l l the while and lost themo rni ng of that very day from the L ord 's work ( D A W N ,VOL. iv . ) to collect mo ney to m ake good my check of$7 0 0 , given to Bro. Zech the af ternoon before to keep hisnote from going to protest . Th e next day Bro. Ro gers

Exposed 9re turn ed to our house for another conference (a t whichthe entire family was present and w hich occupied the wholemo rnin g), and remain ed for d inn er . After d inner he sa idhe was goin g to Z ech 's but would be back for te a; b ut wetold h im that as he had been ten days a t our home in te rrupting impo rtant w ork, and as Br o. Ze ch with whom be wasmore in h armo ny had made him welcom e, we would notinvi te h im to s top longer in our home. He then wen t to Bro.Z ech ' s h o u se , wh e re , ev id en t ly , i t was d ec id ed th a t no wwould be the most favorable t ime to explode the " bomb "that had been kept for some eighteen month s. So Bro.Rog ers was sent w est , arrange d w ith Bro. Bry an, who wasto manipulate an assorted lo t of grievances and damagingcharges aga inst Bro . Russell , and g ot Bro. Adam son into l in e ;wh o , i t s eems , h ad so me previous knowledge ofthe consp iracy. Brot her Adam son had a grievance re lat ive to h is trac t , as will be explained further on ; and being one of the o lder colp orteur s , i t was hoped t hat h isnam e would add to the destructive force of the com ing"e x p lo s io n . " Th ey h ad seen Bro . Ru ssel l pa s s th ro u g htrying experiences with " fa lse brethren " before , for Godand tru th were on his s ide; but never before had theyseen such a com binat ion against h im ; and they encouraged themselves that now Bro. Russell would be humbledin the dust , and they would profi t thereby.

THE CONSPIRACY CULMINATES.Acco rd in g ly , th ey Ro g ers , Ad amso n an d Bry an gathe red a t Bro . Z ech 's home , and with h im and his family , sent out , on Wednesday, April 4 , specia l le t ters to theChurch a t Allegheny, invit ing them to gather a t Bro .Z ech 's house the next evening to hear matters of impo rtance, e tc . ,meaning the " bomb " and smaller f ire works.About forty or f if ty of the congregation a ttended, a l lof-whom except one, so far as we are aware , received special invita t ions to be present. As we were not present,we submit th e report of Bro. E. C . He nnin ges , the Secretary of that meeting, well known to many of our readers .I t i s a s


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10 A ConspiracyT H E S E C R E T A R Y ' S R E T O R T .

" I n r e s p o n s e to i nv i t a t ions s en t out, s igned E. B ryan ,S . D. R o g e r s , J. B . Adams on and O, von Z ech , r eques tinga t t e n d a n c e at B ro . Z ech ' s hous e on A p r i l 5, at 7:30 p. M .,to hear ' t h ings concern ing our highes t welfare, ' aboutforty of the C h u r c h at A l l e g h e ny a t t e n d e d . F i n d i n g onarr ival that it wa s to be a congrega t iona l mee t ing at whichs ome k ind of charges were to be preferred agains t Bro.R us s e l l , a C h a i r m a n and Secretary were cal led for byt hos e in a t t endance , t ha t whatever was d o n e m i g h t be' done decen t ly and in ord er ; ' bes ides which , it seemedproper tha t if the C ongrega t ion were to ' h e a r ' the c o m p la in t s , it implied that they were to r ender the i r j udgmentor verd ic t , and all this required proper order and a congrega t iona l head or cha i rman to t he meet ing and an au thor i zed r ecord . And fur ther , som e present who had knowledgeof Bro. Russel l ' s pas t exper ienc es with Bros . Z ech, Bryanand Rogers , foresaw that it would be most unjus t to havethe s e l f - cons t i tu t ed impeach ing commi t t ee appo in t one oft he i r own number to m a n a g e the t r ial , as they ins is ted ondoing , and at the same t ime cal l it a congregational 'meeting.After near ly an hour had been s pen t in t r y ing to get thec o n g r e g a t i o n to sit quiet ly and hear their best friend traduced , wi thou t any power to proper ly inqu i r e in to f ads ,e tc . , the (our complainants were overruled by the congreg a t i o n , and Bro, H. C. W olf was c h o s e n C h a i r m a n , andmyself Secretary, of the meet ing .

" B ro . B rya n was f ir st i n t roduce d , bu t b ecame , under s omei n t e r r u p t i o n , so exc i t ed , d i s o rder ly and r ebe l l ious tha t hegrievous ly insul ted the c o n g r e g a t i o n by s ay ing , ' I refuseto r ecogn ize the au thor i ty of the C h a i r . ' It was prompt ly moved and second ed tha t we hear Bro. Bryan no fu r ther ;bu t an a m e n d m e n t , g i v in g him the a l t e rna t ive of apo logyor dismissal wascar r i ed . On his dec la r a t ion tha t he had' n o t h o u g h t of a p o l o g y , ' he was dropped , a f te r hav ingoccup ied the floor for about f i f teen minutes .* ' Bro. Rogers had the n e x t o p p o r t u n i t y , and spoke fornear ly two hour s . He gave a resume of his plan, whichs evera l of us had heard before at Bro. Russel l ' s house, arepor t of which was given in ZION'S W ATCH TOW ER of

Exposed 1 jA p r i l 1, '94, u n d e r the h e a d i n g , 'The W o r k in E n g l a n d . 'A t Bro. R us s e l l ' s he said he had not yet t r ied his newm e t h o d . At Bro. Z e c h ' s he dec la r ed tha t lie 'hadt r i ed th i s method l a rge ly in L o n d o n , ' and it was ' v e r ysuccessful . ' He s t a t e d , as grievances , four ways in whichhe c l a imed B ro . R us s e l l had injured him. (1) By poin t in g out t ha t the p r i n t e d p a g e is the bes t way to preach theG o s p e l . (2) On a c c o u n t of this he got the feel ing thathe must sel l so m a n y b o o k s per day to pay expens es ,and th i s kep t him f rom t rus t ing the Lord . Thes e twot h ings kep t him in a grea t bondage which he had felt, butt he caus e of w h i c h he had only lately real ized. (3) Byt e l l i n g him t ha t he had ' N O t a l e n t ' for publ i c s peak ing .(4 ) By advis ing him to c h a n g e his L o n d o n m e e t i n g toon e in B ib le - c l as s s ty l e . Th i s l as t he r e g a r d s as an ' ass u m p t i o n of c o n t r o l of my pr iv i l eges . '

" B r o . Z ech s poke at odd t imes agains t Bro. Russel l ingenera l t e rms , to the effect that Bro. Russell had too m u c ha u t h o r i t y and lack of love for the b r e t h r e n ; a l s o 'Bro.Russel l does great sins ; and, if you do not w a n t to hear it,you are p a r t a k e r of hi s s ins . ' Twelve o ' c lock , m idn ig h t ,came wi thou t B ro . Adams on hav ing had his say excep t int he open ing p r ayer , in w h i c h he t h a n k e d God for h a v i n gthe p r iv i l ege of s h a r i n g in " t h i s g r ea t r e fo rm mo vem ent 'for l iber ty and e q u a l i t y a m o n g s t the b r e t h r e n .

" U p o n m o t i o n , the meet ing ad journed , whi l e B ro . B ryan shouted that they would be heard from fully in a fewd a y s t h a t a hal l would be r en ted where they [the four ]cou ld have mat t e r s all t he i r own way, and t ha t it w o u l dn o t be cal led as a c o n g r e g a t i o n a l m e e t i n g and t h a t 'thisthing wil l not d o w n ; we will pr int it and publ i s h it to allt he wor ld , ' etc." R e s p e c t f u l l y s u b m i t t e d , E. C. HENNINGES.Af ter the m e e t i n g had di s mis s ed , a few were invi ted tos t ay longer , and did s tay unt i l four o 'cl ock A. M. T h e nwere de ta i l ed the other mat t e r s , and t h rough s ome whowere there we finally got to k n o w a b o u t the " b o m b s , " etc.W hen as ked if t h e y had g o n e to B rother R us s e l l and askedw h e t h e r he cou ld or would g ive them an exp lana t ion , t heyrep l i ed tha t s ome of t he minor charges had been p r es en ted


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1 2 A Conspiracyan d th a t " h e h ad explained them away;" but they hadn e v er m e n t i o n e d t h e t w o l e a d i n g i te m s ( t h e " b o m b s "wh ich th ey h ad b een k eep in g fo r e ig h teen mo n th s ) .When asked why they had not presented those leadingmat ters to Bro. Russell they replie d , We kne w beforehand tha t Bro . Russell could answer the m, and explainthem all away. "A n d so , " sa id the inquirer , " you thusconfess that you did not want an ex p lan a t io n , b u t wan tedto s lan d e r Bro . Ru sse l l . "

THE CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.The next Sunday afternoon, af ter the d iscourse , s trangers were d ismissed during the s inging of a hymn and theregular cong regati on was requested to tarry . To thosewho re maine d we gave a fu ll h is tory of the m atter , in sub stance as we now present i t below:The conspiracy which reached a head on Thursday evening A pril 5 , a t the reside nce of Bro. and Sis ter Z ech was asurprise to us a l l ; and a lthough we now find that i t had

been form ing for ne arly two years, yet, so far as we canlearn , Bros. Adamson and Rogers had nothing to do withit unti l with in the past few weeks, a l though the formerhad consid erable informatio n respecting it . But theirreadiness to become part ic ipants therein speaks for theirhearts much of the same ." gall of b i t t er ne ss " which hasfor a longer period been the power of Satan working inthe o thers; for we cann ot but believe that Satan has beenth e mo v in g an d in sp i r in g co n sp i ra to rmo v in g to en v y ,jealousy, e tc . , and no w, f inally , to an a ttem pt to assassinatemy character and thus to greatly in jure the cause which,u n d e r Go d ' s p ro v id en ce , I r ep re sen t to a co n s id e rab led e e r e e .When I shall now rela te to you in deta il the chargesbrought against me, you will indeed be surprised that"brethren " could be so confused bv Satan as to becomehis tools and t o a t te mp t to m ake charges a n d "bombs"OUT O F NOTHING. I am not surprised at Satan ; for I wellknow that he has long sought occasion against rre , becauseof my activit y against him an d his works and in the service of the Lo rd. H e lias repe ated ly set for me pitfallsand snares , but by the grace of God I escaped them . I

Exposed 1 3am not surpris ed , therefor e , that af ter b esett ing m e foryears and finding no real charges to bring against me, thegrea t Accu ser ot the Brethre n finally en deavo rs to misconstrue v ir tues and make them appear to be v ices .Born in th is c i ty of Allegheny, which, with the exceptionof about thre e years , has a lways been my home, I shouldb e , and am, well know n here . My relig ious v iews, ofcourse , make me a mark, a target; and on th is account ifan y th i n g were k n o wn d e ro g a to ry to my ch a rac te r , e i th e rin morals or in my business dealings, surely there arethousands of tongues in Pit tsburg and Allegheny thatwould n ot he sita te to m ake abu nda nt use of themto oppose my re lig ious teachi ngs. Can any one dou btthat if such th ings could be produced, Satan would havefound will ing agents to publish them to the world longa g o , to counteract the re l ig ious tru ths I publish , whichthey oppose, yet cannot gainsay nor contradic t ?But what even the godless world would not do , becausetoo honest , Satan now succeeds in gett ing some "brethren " to a t tem pt. We do not c la im that they realize whatthey are doing;no, we trust that they do not fu lly realize the a trocity of their cr ime. For , if they have pursued their course for e ighteen months with a fu ll apprecia t ion of i ts a trocity there would surely be l i t t le hope forthe m. W e trust, therefo re, that of them as of some of oldi t i s t ru e , "th ey k n o w n o t wh a t th ey d o , " th e g o d o fth is world having so thoroughly b linded their moral s ight.Yet while hop ing th at som etime they may get free fromtheir capto r , Satan , we cann ot th ink that they have gotten in to their present dreadful condit ion inadvertently , ormerely by error of judg me nt. If their hearts were r ightGod would not have permitted their poor judgment to getthem into their present p light. W e fear, f rom the bad fru itswhich they,are bearing, that ambition and envy have forso me t ime b een " ro o ts o f b i t t e rn ess "wh ich o n ly recen t lyblossomed, and are quickly y ie ld i ng the fru itage denounc edin Go d 's Word as works of the f lesh and of the devil ,mal ice , h a t red , co n ten t io n s , en v y , s t r i f e , b ack -b i t in g s ,s landers and every evil work.Th o se wh o se h ea r t s co u ld t r ea su re u p su p p o sed " b o m b s ' '


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1 4 A Conspiracyfor eighteen months to explode in the mids t of the Churchand ru in the charac te r o f a b ro ther , who mean t ime d idmore than a brother 's par t to them (as wil l be shown later ) ,and who al l this t ime cal led him " dear Brother Russel l "and wrote him let ters express ive of their love and esteemth es e have a dep th o f wickednes s and dece i t w hichwould shock a nob le-m inde d worldly man not a professing Chris t ian, and igno rant of the great l ight of presentt ruth . Blasphemo us unbel ieve r as .h e is , we bel ieve th atMr. Rober t Ingersol l would have no sympathy with suchungodly works of darkness ;he l ias enough of manhoodto keep him out of such a-snare of the devi l .BROTHER ROGER'S GRIEVANCES.

We wil l exam ine these charge s separa tely. We havealready referred to Satan as the chief conspirator and i t isnot difficult to jud ge of bis mot ives. We have also me nt ioned Bro. Rogers ' gr ievancesthat he was not al lowedto over thro w the present Colpor te ur work and subs t i tutehis new preference.We never forbade Bro. Rog ers or others to preachChris t in any and every way they can. Quite to the contrary, as many can tes t i fy, we have always urged upon al lthe necess i ty for watching for the hear ing ears , and thatwhere such are found they do al l the y can to supplem entthe influence of the DAWNS. But we have advised, and dostill advise, that it is useless to get into a wrangle and dispute and was te t ime at every house. Far bet ter leave themajority of people to fight with DAWN and the BIBLE, thanfor the average colpor teur , or indeed any one, to at tempti t . St i r up the cur ios i ty and in teres t of the purc haser ,so that he wil l surely read, and then endea vor to waterand to harrow before going to the next f ield of labor ,hasbeen our advise to al l colpo r teurs . And on their Repo r t-blanks we have a space left, in which we request that theymention the number of persons with whom they have hadspecial talks , and another blank in which we reques t themto s tate how many they have found who seem to be t ruewheat . Does this look as though we ende avore d merelyto see how many DAWN scould be sold, regardless of a nywork upon the hear t?

Exposed 1 5Furthermore, several of the Brethren who seemed to havesome abi l i ty for publ ic spea king , have been suppl ied without charge with large char ts s imilar to the one in DAWN,VOL. I . (which cos t us eight dol lars each, in quant i t ies ) , toenab le them to p r each when oppor tun i ty o ff er s. B ro . Adam -s on , one of the cons p i r a to r s , has s uch a char t . I nde ed ,abou t two month s ago , we con t r ac ted wi th a pa in te rin Pi t tsburg to prepare one hundred cloth char ts , f ive

feet long , on rol lers , sui table for par lor- me et in gs . Thes ewil l soon be ready and wil l be suppl ied to TOWER r eader sat ab out onethird what they would cos t to get the m ups ingly . Thu s dif ferent l i t t le groups can edify and ins tructeach othe r , as wel l as their neigh bors . Already the re aretwo, and I am now making a r r angem ent s f o r two more ,w h o s e em " a p t t o t e a c h , " t o go f rom place to place andhold meet in gs , publ ic and pr ivate , chiefly the lat ter . Dothese things look l ike object ions on my par t to oral teaching ? Sure ly no t ; an d B ro R oger s knows tha t he mis r epresents me, whatever may be his object , in so doing.W e do l ea rn , however , s ince the pub l i ca t ion o f thea r t i c l e , " T h e w o r k i n E n g l a n d , " t h a t B r o . R o g e rs h a da very poor plan for colp or teu r ing . Brother Utle y, towhom Bro. Rogers gave some lessons , wri tes that he couldnot conscient ious ly adopt the plan, which, while successfulas to sales , real ly did not make any opening for the recept ion of the t r u th . He des cr ibes the method thu s : R og er sr ings be l ls ervan t appear s R oger s s ays , P leas e t e l l t helady that a minis te r wishes to see her . Serva nt leave shim in the hal lway and he pushes on into the par lo r . Th elady en te r s , s omewhat ind ig nan t a t t he in t rus ion , bu t i sawed by the words , " 1 am a min i s t e r o f the gos pe l , " andread i ly cons en t s to her nam e be ing en te r ed fo r the th r eebooks to help on some good work.Sis ter Burroughs wri tes on the subject as fol lows:" A s is ter here asked me if I did not thin k i t would bewell to let Bro . Russel l kno w how muc h harm had beendone here by Mr. Rogers in his very disagreeable mannerof insul t ing those who refused to buy ' DAWN ; ' bu t Ithough t he was in Eng land and beyon d g iv ing fu r theroffense h ere, so we would n ot t r oub le you, but took h im to


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1 6 A Conspiracyt he Lord in p r ayertha t he migh t be humbled and g ivena b e t t e r s p i r i t . "We can assure Bro. Rog ers and others that the t ro ubleis not with the colpor teur work, but with his methods ofdo ing i t . Othe rs are s t i l l great ly blessed in i t , and a re ag rea t b l es s ing to the Lo rd ' s hungry s heep , p r each ing s omuch of the plan as the peo ple have ears to hear an d leaving the books to p r each to them many th ings which theywould no t hear o r a l ly . An oth er gr ievan ce was that when l ie came here f romEngland I d id no t s how h im s pec ia l a t t en t ion more thanto others , by invi t ing him onto the platform, and to speakto the cong rega t ion , and to lead a W ednes day meet in g .Such a compla in t s u rp r i s ed me g rea t ly , bu t gave ev i den ce of a root of pr ide as wel l as of bi t terne ss . I fearthat I have already pushed him forward too much, and tohis injury.R e c o g n i z i n g all of the consecrated as Royal Pr ies ts , i thas been my cus tom to ignore d i s t inc t ions , and when another speaks I myself take a seat with the congregat ion.Our co ngr ega t ion almost every Sunda y has f rom two tof ive ex-m inis ters of var ious den om inat ions w ho at t imeshave addres s ed the congrega t ion , in my abs ence .

BROTHER ADAMSON'S GRIEVANCES.B ro . Adams on ' s g r i evances may be s ummed up as fo l lows : H e has for some four years held some views uponsome of the parables , which I cons ider incorrect and misl ead ing expos i t ions . Thes e he b rough t f o rward a t t heSpr ing C o nven t ion o f 1892 , in connec t ion wi th a l i t t l etalk to the colp or teurs af ter the close of the mee t ing p rope r .See ing that those who heard him had not general ly caug htthe dr if t of his thou ghts , my rem arks fol lowing his werefew, because I had no des ire to hold up his views to r idiculefor some of them were too chi ldish to t reat in anyo ther man ner . I mere ly r emarked tha t B ro . A ' s v i ews o fthese parable s , they would no t ice , differed a l i t t le f rommy own view, which I s tated in a few words . But , saidI , s ince the Lord expo und ed only a few of his parables ,and s ince we know tha t t hey do not mean what they say,

Exposed 17but a re f igurat ive, i t w ould n ot be in order for any oneto be dogm atic in inte rpre t ing them : i t is wel l also to remember tha t no doc t r ines s hou ld be bu i l t upon parab les ;at most they may be used to i l lus trate doctr ines made plainby non- s ymbol i c s c r ip tu r es . Thus , k ind ly , d id 1 pus has ide, rather than crush, what then seemed to me harmless ,nonessent ial dif ferences .

But , alas ! how great a f lame a l i t t le spark may kindle.Had I real ized, then, how an ins ignif icant dif ference maybe used by the Adversary for ev i l , how gladly 1 would havespent several hours in point ing out what seemed to me tobe Bro. A' s er rors of inte rpre tat io n. But I was busy, andsaid to myself-^" In none s s en t i a l s char i ty and l iber ty . 'I now l earn tha t B ro ther A dams on , l i ke many o ther s ,has been und er the in f luence o f the Al l egheny cons p i r a to r sfor more than a year . I not iced a chan ge in his let tersand ma nn er , an d in his zeal for the work, but could n otacc oun t for i t , unt i l I learn ed of the " bom bs " conspir acy, a few days ago.About a month ago s evera l b r e th r en wro te to me s ay ingtha t B ro . Adam s on was p r epar ing and in t end ing to publ ish a t ract , that he was wri t ing to them for money topublish i t , and that he had reques ted that the matter bekept secret from me , which reques t they fel t i t a du ty tothe Lord and his t ru th to dis reg ard. In some of thesele t t e r s B ro . A. exp la ined tha t t h e com ing t r ac t would contain som e of his views on some of the parable s , and atleas t on e or tw o parab les as t reated by Bro. Russel l , ands ome o ther ex t r ac t s f r om B ro . R us s e l l ' s wr i t ings .B ro . We be r received o ne of Bro . A's appe als for aid .H e answered i t kindly saying tha t he hoped to see hims oon . Shor t ly a f t e r , he came f rom Mary land to Al l eghenyat Bro. Bryan's reques t to meet him on very important business, which business he found after his arrival was to sit injudgm ent upon and condemn B ro . R us s e l l. Af t e r th i s i n terview, seeing the evi l dispos i t ion manifes ted by Bro.B ryan , and h i s th r ea ten ing a t t i t ude (which wi l l be exp la ined l a t e r ) , and knowing tha t i n s ome way he wasalready inf luencing Bro. Adamson, and that he was aboutto vis i t Bro. A. , Bro. Weber thought i t would be well i f


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1 8 A Conspiracyhe and I should vis i t Bro. Adamson at once, and i f poss ible shield him from the subt le and now evi l influence i .fBro. B ryan , who had s t a t ed h i s in t en t ion o f leav ing theci ty for C hica go th e next day to see Bro. A. We therefore s tar ted th at even ing.Our talk with Brother a nd Sis ter A. was a kind ly one ,in which I pointed out what I cons ider to be his er rors ofinterpretat ion of some of the parables , par t icular ly one ofthem (M at t . 5 :25 , 26) , which s eemed to convey the idea tha tthe wor ld dur ing the Mi l l enn ia l age would each man paythe pena l ty o f h i s own s ins to the " u t t e rmos t f a r th ing " ;and I showed th at with such a view in m ind some m ightd raw the conc lus ion , even if no t me an t , t ha t t he dea th o fCh ris t was no t necessa ry as a ransom p r ice for al l . Wethen to ld h im of the unhappy change tha t had come overBro. B ryan and o f h i s s t r ange and unwar r an tab le a t t i t udetoward myself and the work in general , that he mightknow s ometh ing o f the s p i r i t which was p rompt ing a newtrial of his faith.

But Bro. A's ma nne r was not as formerly, and prem on i t ions o f h i s p r es en t co nd i t ion o f hear t and mind w eredis t inc t ly felt . I fur ther s tated that his propo s i t ion toplace his t radt in the hands of the DAWN Colpor teurs forsale (of which he had not informed me, but which I learnedth rough o ther s ) would be con t r a ry to our a r r angemen t s wi ththemthat thos e who hand le DAWN should do so to the exclus ion of eve ryth ing else. Th is is a general rule am ongthose who employ agents in any bus iness , the object beingto con cen t r a t e the en t i r e e ffor t on the one th in g " Thi sone thing I d o ." And i t is largely due to this regulat iontha t the work has been so successful thus far. The refo reI had to assure Bro. A. that we could not in s t i tute any precedent in favor of his t ractBro. A. makes a g r ea t m is t ake in s ay ing , " B ro . R us sel l ' s spokesm an offered m e twenty dol lars not to p r intthe t r a c t . " Hi s r e f e r ence ev iden t ly i s t o B ro . W eber ,who was no t my s pokes man . W ha tever B ro . W . s a id hesaid for h imself ent i re ly, and he says that wha t he d idwas to offer tw enty do l lars to cove r cer tain expenses alread yincur r ed i f B ro . A. des i r ed to d i s con t inue the p r epara t ion

Exposed 1 9of the t ract , and give his energies as formerly in the direct ion o f h i s s pec ia l t a l en tthe C olpor t eur work .B ro ther A ' s g r i evances a r e tw o: ( 1 ) W e were in fo rmedabo u t h i s t r a i l be fo re he go t i t ou t . ( ? ) W e found tha the had on the face of his t rac t the words OLD THEOLOGYTRACTS a n d Tower Bible and Trail Society, Bible House,Allegheny, which dec ep t io ns we would no t perm i t . Al t e rtwo no t i f i ca t ions th a t we cons idere d thos e r e fe r ences unjus t and decep t ive , and tha t he had no l ega l o r mora l r igh tto so misuse our names to gain credence for his t ract , hes t i ll pe r s i s t ed , and had ma ny of them pr in ted thus , B ro .__Z ech upho ld ing h im in i t and do ing the work . F ina l ly ,however , t h r ea te ned B ro . Z ech ' s par tner (who a l thoughno t in t e r es t ed in the t r u th , s eemed to have be t t e r i deas o fmora l hones ty ) wi th damages i f t hey l e t t he t r ac t s go ou tin that form, a nd the y thus were forced t o r emove thedecep t ive t i t l e pages .

See ing h im thus ou t o f a l l ha rm ony wi th the T rac t Soc ie ty , and as he had go t t en in to deb t to the TOWER PUBLISHING C o. (no t to the T rac t Soc ie ty ) $218 . 00 , dur ing thet ime he spe nt in prepar ing his t rac t , we offered to cred i ton his TOWER PUB. C o. accoun t a l l t ha t he ever dona ted toth e Trad Fund$139 if he so des ir ed and would res ignthe Di r ec to r s h ip in the T rac t Soc ie ty , to which , be ingcon t inua l ly abs en t f rom the c i ty , he cou ld no t and d id no tg ive the l eas t a t t en t ion . Th i s he r e fus ed to d o ; and , f r omwhat he says , he inte nds to owe the TOWER PUB. Co. i ts$218 . 00 ba lance as long as he l ives .

He s t a t es tha t he s pen t hundre ds o f do l l a r s and t r ave leda b o u t without salary, c i r c u l a t i n g p a m p h l e t s a t C a m p -me et ing s , e t c . I t i s t r ue tha t t he Track Fund paid himno s t a t ed s a l a ry , bu t t he way in which he s t a t es the mat t e ris calc ulate d to give a false imp ress ion . Th e fadt is , thatmoney was fu rn i s hed h im fo r all his expenses; and so faras we haye any knowledge, he used i t for al l his expenses .Of the $218 now owing to the T O W E R PU B. CO . (no t to theTrac t Soc ie ty ) $35 was s en t h im in cas h abou t one monthago to he lp h im make a payment due on s ome r ea l es t a t ein C hicago , purchas ed l as t year .

Bro. Ada ms on t r i es h i s han d a t ev i l s u rmis ings and s ays ,


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to A Conspiracy" I believe th at much mo re than I owe was expended inattempting to thwart Bro. Rogers ' work in En gland ."I reply, Aside from my time and stationary, I spent onlytwenty cents for four stamps, and this was not charged tothe Tract F und . Two of these stamps carried to Bro.Rogers the kindly put suggestions that his talent lay notin the direction ot public speaking, as mention ed in theart icle "The Work in England J the third stamp carried a reply to M r. Elliot Stock, of Lon don , who had complaine d tha t Bro. Rogers was collecting money under falsereprese ntations , from people who supposed that they weredonating funds to the British and Foreign Bible Society,but who were finding out, from the tracts left them, thatthey were mistaken. I replied , that surely some mistakehad occured, for I knew that Bro. Rogers would make nomisrepresentations, and that none of our colporteurs wereauthorized to solicit money, directly or indirectly, andthat I would request Bro. Rogers to call personally andexplain. The fourth stamp was used to advise Bro. Rogersof this, and to cau tion him that he be very careful thatthe truth be not evil spoken of, and to ask him to see Mr.Stock and explain matters, as I felt sure he could do; forhis letters had sta ted that h e represented himself as theagent of ou r Society.This is a dispassionate statement of the injury Bro. A.lias received at my han ds. For all this he and the othersreach the conclusion that Bro. Russell can only be completely overwhelmed by calling him," The Man of Sin."Now we come to the consideration of the grievances Mthe chief conspiratorsBro. and Sister Z ech whom we shalltreat as one, including their h ousehold, and Bro. Bryan.

BROTHER ZECH'S GRIEVANCES.Here, as it relates to this case, it is necessary to give alittle resume of my business history from '81 onw ard. Iwas then engaged in mercantile business and had a largestore on the principal street of P ittsburg , and three branchstores. These were chiefly controlled by clerks and merely had my supervision ; the most of my time being occupied in the publishing of the WATCH TOWER, Food for

Exposed 2 1Thinking Christians, etc., which we circulated in largequa ntities . As the literary work increased it became necessary to dispose of these stores; and as I found it mucheasier to spend money than to earn it, I concluded thatthe capital formerly invested in the stores should not allbe lavishly spent even in the good work of circulating thetidings of great joy: that th e Lord would be better servedif it were invested so that my time could go to his service,than if all were spent a t o nce in his service and I the nwere obliged to give my entire time to business; for mydetermination has always been that I would never beg,either for ourselves or for the Lord's cause; but that thesame Lord who blessed Peter's fishing and Paul's tent-making(Mat t . 17 : 2 7 ; Act s i 8 : 3J 1 Thes. 3:9; 2Thes. 3:8)could bless, according to his wisdom, my business talents.My mon ey-capital being limited, I saw that it wouldnever do to invest the funds in mortgages or in a bank,because the interest on the sum would be inadequate tothe demands of ourselves and the work. Und er whatseemed to be a providential leading, I decided to investwith others in some oil property oil wells. I chose thisbusiness because it seemed to be profitable, and becauseit would require little or no time and personal attention ;for others, interested in looking out for their own interests, necessarily looked out for mine also. And this judgment has, on the whole, proved correctseveral coinshaving been taken from this fish's mouth for our supportand for the Lord's cause.Matt. 17:27.When Bro. Z ech received the truth and left the Lu theran church, he owned a good property which, aside frombeing a home free of rent, paid his taxes and left him ane t income of about ten dollars per mon th. Full of zealfor the new ly-found truth, he engaged with me to translate articles from the WATCH TOWER into German, whichI published in great quantities. He also proposed totranslate M. DAWN, VOL. I . , and to do the type-sett ingon same if I would pay for the electro-plates, supply thepaper, printing and bindin g, and that we be share-ownersin the work when completed.We agreed to this, and it was begun . But watching the


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2 2 A Conspiracy52 re sul ts of the circula t ion of the Germ an TOWERS, and s eeing th em to be very mea ger , I foresaw tha t the publ ica-& t i on o f the German t r ans l a t ion o f DAWN would be veryunprof i t ab le , and so po in ted ou t to B ro . Z ech , u rg ingtha t his inco me and the need s of his family wou ld n otjus t i fy him in doing al l that his zeal had prompted him topropos e . At tha t t ime he had tr ans l a t ed abou t two hun

dred and f i fty pages and had set in type abo ut one hun dred pages , and my s ugges tion was : No w, B ro . Z ech , s uppose we reck on th at the t im e already spe nt by you on thisvo lume r epres en t s the translation 0/ the whole of it and suppose that this be your donat ion to the German cause, andI wil l proceed with the publ ishing, paying al l of the expenseswhat I shal l pay you for your t ime in t rans lat ingthe remainder of the volume being reckoned as pay forthe type - s e t t ing a l r eady done by you . Th i s was mutua l -" ly agree d to.Meanwhi l e , my ear ly s ugges t ion , t ha t B ro . Z ech ge t a ts ome s o r t o f " f i s h i ng " o r " t en t -m ak ing , " fo r ced i ts e lf

upon h i s a t t en t ion . Var ious occupa t ions were though t o f,bu t n one s eemed s o f avorab le to h im as type - s e t t in g , andhe r eques ted tha t he be permi t t ed to l ea rn Eng l i s h types e t t ing and have the job o f p r epar ing the WATCH TOWERevery mo nth , I foresaw difficulties from his lack of aknowledge of the t rade, as wel l as f rom his lack of knowledge of English, and urged that he choose something else.But , as nothing else so favorable offered, and, as he urgedthat he w ould see tha t his blun ders should cos t me nothing that the work should cos t m e no mo re than I was__ then pay ing to a P i t t s burg f irmI cons e n ted . Un derthes e a r r angemen t s I pa id h im th i r ty - f ive do l l a r s a mon thfor a t i m e; af terward when he became m ore exp er t , andn when we began to set up M . DAWN,JVOL. I I . , I i nc r eas ed-" the pay to for ty dol lars per month, and later , when he reques ted that he be paid by measure for the typ e-se t t in g,and to ld me th at he thou ght he could earn more mo neythat way because he was get t ing more expe r t and wouldwork loncer hour s , I con s en ted ; bu t ins t ead o f pay ingh im the Un ion r a t es , I pa id h im mo re ; namely , f o rtycents per thousand ems,because he was a Bro ther .

Exposed 23Later , when B ro . Z ech had inhe r i t ed s ometh ing l ikef if teen to eighteen thousand dol lars , f rom his father 's es t a t e in G erm any , he tho ugh t tha t he would l ike to bu ilds omewhere near our hom e; and know ing tha t I ownedsome lots oppos i te i t he inquired whether I would sel lto him . I assured him that I would b e pleased to hav ehim for a ne igh bor , and ga ve him a pr ice on eigh t smalllots . I told him that I thou ght them wo rth four thousan ddo l l a r s a t t he r a t e o ther lo t s i n th a t ne igh borh ood-w eres e l l ingfor h im to inqu i r e and thorough ly in fo rm h ims e l fb ut tha t as a b ro ther in C hr i s t I would g ive h im a d i s cou n t of 1 000 . So he bough t the e igh t lo t s and pa id m e$3000. But he has s ince " wh ispered " tha t he was che ated .~ Seek ing an inves tme nt f o r s ome o f h i s mo ney , andknowing that I had some interes ts in the oi l bus iness , heas ked my adv ice as to inves t ing in th a t bus ines s . J udg ing tha t he would be one great ly af fected by ei ther a lossor a gain I advised him n ot to enga ge in the oi l bus iness .My book-keeper and genera l bus ines s r ep res en ta t ive a ttha t t im e , B ro . Geo . R indfus s , was very in t imate wi th B ro .

Z ech. Bro . Rindfu ss i t seems advised Bro . Z ech differen t ly , r es pec t ing the o i l bus ines s , and B ro . Z ech s eemedto mis und er s t and me and to im ag ine tha t f r om jea lous yI had advised him agains t his bes t interes ts , les t he shouldpros per g r ea t ly ; but no th in g cou ld have been f a r therf rom my though t s .Abo ut th i s t ime B ro . R indfus s , as my bus ines s r e p re s en ta t ive , ca ll ed a t t en t ion to the f a f r t h a t I would s oonneed cons iderab le money and s ugges ted tha t he t r y an ds e l l an e ig h th in t e r es t i n s ome o i l p roper ty fo r which no tlong befo re I had pa id J 3 500 . I cons en ted . I n a f ewdays he r epor t ed tha t he cou ld ge t $3300 , and u rged tha tI accep t i t a s i t was for a f r i end , B rothe r Z ech . I obj ec t ed th a t B ro . Z ech was unus ed to bus ines s , and i f anything should go wrong he might ref lect upon me for having he lped h im in to i t . Th e r ep ly was tha t t he p ro b i t ywas as safe as could be found , a nd that Br o. Z ech was nota ch i ld and knew what he was do in g ; and th a t bes idesBro. Z ech had been to s ee the p roper ty , whi l e I hadnever s een i t , hav ing bou gh t i t on the exp lana t ion o f B ro .


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4 -A ConspiracyRindfuss and othe rs , witho ut takin g t im e to vis i t i t . So Icon s en ted , and as a f avor to B ro . Z ech so ld h im a one-eigh th interes t in the prop er ty for $200 less than i t cos tme and less than Bro. Rindfuss paid for a s imilar interes tpurchas ed f rom ano the r par ty . I s t i l l , however , ownedan e igh th in t e r es t .To the com ple te s u rp r i s e o f a l l concern ed , t he p rop er ty s udden ly dec l ined in o i l p roduc t ion , and hence a l s oin value, unt i l what I had paid $3500 for was not worthJ70 0. As we had feared, Bco. Z ech 's feel ings sufferedseverely by the fal l f rom great expectat ions to such reali za t i ons ; and , a l though wi thou t caus e , he p roc la imed__that I was respo ns ible for his loss . I the n felt that i twould be to the br oth er ' s benef i t spir i tua l ly an d to th eLo rd 's praise, and at the sa me t im e to the ass is tance ofthe German work, that I should help him out of his dif f i cu l ty . Acco rd ing ly , I adv i s ed h im to have no th ing moreto do with the oi l bus iness , and I ma nage d to purch aseback the said interes t , wor th at the t ime $^oo, a n d a n - .other small interes t purchased of Bro. Rindfuss , and worthat the t ime J300, and so pay him for these their net cost( add ing expens es and deduc t ing o i l r ece ived by h im) ,which amo unted to $3386 . Th i s s um by a r r angeme ntwas pa id h im wi th my no tes bear ing s ix per c en t , i n t e r es tand runn ing fo r s ome t ime . The y have s ince been pa idin full with interes t #2386 and interes t mo re than weknew the p roper t i es were wor th , an d they never werewor th more a f t e rward .Me an t im e B ro . Z ech had u rged tha t I go in to thepr in t in g bus iness wi th h im, as a par tne r ; bu t I r e fus ed ,an d advised him that i t was a t roublesom e bus iness . Inever advised him to inves t t ime or money in the bus iness .On the con t r a ry , I adv i s ed h im aga ins t i t . Howev er , whenhe af terward found a par tner and des ired to do our workI promised him a preference over othe rs , pr ices and w ork being eq ua l ; and this preference he has always had . Mea nt im e, also, he had des ired to have the ful l con trol of theGer man work and we sold him the plate s , etc. , of the Germa n DAWN, VOL. I . , at cos t ,giving him pr ivi lege also totrans late and publ ish the ser ies , a condi t ion being that he

Exposed *5

B?

s hou ld s upp ly the books at the same prices that we hadbeen s upp ly ing them to the pub l i c and to co lpor t eur s , andthe p romis e made tha t i f a t any t ime B ro . Z ech cou ldnot or wo uld not sup ply the boo ks at the same pr ices , thepr ivi lege of publ ishing them should rever t to the TOWERP U B . C O . Th e r es t r i c t ion as to p r i ce was a f t e rward mod i f ied as respects Vo ls . 11. and 111., and they are now sold ata higher pr ice, yet only about cos t , because fewer aresold . An d to meet Bro. Z ech's views I agreed to payhim the full retai l pr ices on al l GERMAN DAWNS I haveoccas ion to purchase f rom him.J udg e o f my s u rpri s e when , in J anua ry , 1 893 , B ro .Z ech to ld m e and o ther s tha t I had t r ea t ed h im s hamefu l ly ,etc. I said to myself, I f t h i s be bad t r ea tment , whatwould be cons idered good t r ea tm ent? A num ber o f thechurch fr i ends o f a l l conc erned were ca l l ed toge th er - tohear the mat t e r and adv i s e .Broth er and Sis ter Zec h and family urged th at I shouldpay more to B ro . Z ech ' s f irm for the p r in t ing and b in ding of the DAWNS than respons ible f i rms would chargefor the s ame work . H e compla in ed , t oo , abou t be ingl imited in the sel l ing pr ice of DAWN, VOL. 1 . ; and decla redtha t I had almo st s tarved them at f i rs t on J35 and J40per mon th , e t c . I exp la ined our dea l ings as above tothe f r i ends p r es en t and tha t we were pay ing our b ro th erabou t twice as much as he cou ld have go t t en e l s ewhereif he could have got ten an y oppor tun i ty o r pay when newat the bus iness . I exp lain ed, as I do now, tha t i t was nomore my du ty to pay a b ro ther more than a worldly f i rmwould ch arg e, than i t was his duty as a broth er to do th ework for less. Business should be do ne on the l ines ofjustice: char i ty and love can f ind exercise in other waysas, for ins tan ce, in our deal in g with Bro. Z . in th e oi lt r ans ac t ion , i n which we made h im and the German worka c l ean p r es en t o f $2386 wi th in t e r es t . B ro . Z ech complained tnat we gave one lot of DAWNS to another f i rm topr in t and b ind . I s howed the f r iends tha t B ro . Z ech ' sf irm was con t inua l ly comp la in ing tha t t hey were losingmoney on the DAWN work , whi l e o ther s were b idd inglower , and were anx ious to ge t t he work . B ro . Z ech ' s

7 3


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20 A Conspiracyfirm being full of work we finally gave one lot to a n o t h e rfirm at a saving of $130 on twen ty thous and books .And then I gave abou t one hundred do l l a r s of that savin g to the German caus e , by d o n a t i n g the cos t of theele


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28 A Conspiracyprayer mee t ing had been a fa ilure , because the fr iendshere are widely scat tered , we conceived the p lan of having meet ings in various parts of these two c i t ies , not forl i ib le s tud y, but for prayer and test im ony, for the cul t i -vat ion of the fru i t s of the sp i ri t and the b inding togetherof the body of Chris t in love and Chris t ian fe l lowship .I suggested to the Church the advisabi l i ty of such mee t ings,urg ing that whi le doc t rine s are necessar y , the cul t ivat ionof the fruits of the spiri t is the real objedl of all do ct rin e.I asked those who favored the p lan to s igni fy i t by ri s ing;and a lm ost a l l arose , Bro . Z ech and family bein g consp i cu o u s a s v o t i n g ag a i n s t t h e m ee t i n g s ,w h i ch t h ey h ada ful l r ight to do . I was no t surprised a t the mat te r , however, as I knew that Sister Zech had frequent ly expressedhersel f as having no confidence in prayer .Next we asked for houses to b e volu nteere d in whichthe m eet ings could be held , and sev eral were prom pt lyoffered , the object of the meet ings being c learly understood by all as not doclrinal, b u t social m ee t i n g s .I t h en ap p o i n t ed l ead e rs o f t h o se m ee t i n g sask i n gBro. Z ech fi rs t , whethe r he would serve. He decl ine d .Lat er he s tarted a Germa n mee t ing a t h is house for doct r inal d isp utat ions , whi ch , of course , was a l l r ig ht ; fort h e ap p o i n t m e n t o f t h e so c i al m ee t i n g s d i d n o t h i n d e rany wh pleased from holdin g or a t te ndi ng o ther meetings. But because I urged that these meet in gs, appoint ed for socia l worship , should be held s t r ic t ly to thei r object , B ro . Z ech and wife com plaine d that I was a pope ,and private ly , we now learn , endeavored to ra ise a sp i ri tof opposi t ion in o ther s , but w i thout success, as the congrega t ion apprecia tes the mee t ings gre at ly . Br o . and SisterZ ech, after t ry in g for s ix m onths to d iscourage the meeti n g s , b eg an t o a t t en d t h e m ; an d w e w ere g rea t l y en co u r aged for two mo nths, espec ial ly when at a general churc hmee t ing (De c. '93 ) Sister Z . test i f ied before a l l , of the benefi t she had derived from those me et ings . Th is sym pathyand in terest ceased , and they a t once changed thei r p lans,when i t was kn ow n that there would be no general C onv en t i o n h e re t h i s Sp r i n g .T h e c h ar g e of " b o n d a g e " a n d " u n d e r m y t h u m b , " e t c.

Expose a 29which now they make p ublic , I find has been a part ott h e i r "w h i sp e r i n g s " lo r t h e p as t fou r y ea rs . T h eydid what they could to prejudice the minds of the TOWERoffice helpers: s landerous fa lsehoods, cal led "revela t ions"were made to them, to unde rmin e thei r confidence andpoison thei r mind s against me ; so that when the t ime for" e x p l o d i n g " t h e " b o m b s " s h ou ld c o m e , I s h ou l d h a veno friends. Thre e years ago Sister Bal l was invi ted overto thei r home to spend the evening and then advised ,confident ia l ly , that she was imposed upon by us, e tc . , e tc . ,e t c . Sister Russel l and mysel t then v isi ted them, showedthe erro r of th is course and they apolog ized . But wi thin a year i t now seems that they began a gai n : Bro .H en n i n g es w as " t a l k ed t o " ab o u t b e i n g i n b o n d ag e t oBro . Ru ssel l ; and i t was in t im ated th at he was a fool fors t ay i n g h e re . B ro . Cam p b e l l w as m ad e a "c o n f i d an t "before he had been here a mo nth , every endeavor beingmade to prejudice h im against me. Bro . Ab bot t was s imi larly app roa che d; and when quest ioned as to h is sa lary ,replie d : " I am no t sure that Br o. Russell would wa nt hisprivate affairs discussed, but I will tell you this much : heis paying me more than I asked for." An at tem pt waseven made to a l ienate my wife , and to make her my enemy;""" but praise God it d id not succeed. I can now heart i lythank the L ord that I have such faithful, prove d ones soclosely asso ciated with me in the work. It is stran ge howbl ind I must have been, not to have not iced what o thersall arou nd seem to have seen and hear d. But I placed toohigh an est imate upon those who bear the , to me, sacredn am e o f " b re t h ren . "

Since Bro . Z ech has a l luded to the events of Chris tm aseven ing 1 892, I mus t give the facts. Sister Russell and Iinvi ted Br o . and S ister Z ech and a few other fr iends to asix o 'c loc k Chris tmas d inner. After d inn er, whi le in theparlor, Sis ter R. in terrupted me in some t r iv ia l mat ter ,and then catching hersel f asked me to proce ed. I rep l ied ," N o; you te l l i tyou are the head of the ho use ." ThisI admit was sarcast ic ; and seeing that i t hurt Sister Russel l ' s feelings and that she a t once d iscla imed a ny wron gintent , I excused i t , and said that I d id not mean i t l i t -


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3 A Conspiracyeral ly, that indee d Sis ter Russel l is a very model wife, etc. ,and thus the matter ended.But Br o. Bryan (who we will see pres en t ly is a mostP ecul iar p erson, who fancies himself able, as he is everwil l ing, to give everybody ins truct ion, and whose idiosyn-cracies I had put up with for several yea rs, as a mem ber of ou rfamily and one of the office helpers), fancied that the. . above incident gave him a c h a n c e to m e d d l e ; a n d so thenex t morn ing at breakfas t he took occas ion to insul t me.His remarks were ten t imes as s t rong as m i n e of t he evening before, an d wholly inexcu sable. Sis ter Russel l re mo nstrate d, that his rema rks were out of order , and I atonce to ld h im tha t I had bo rne h i s ins o lence and meddles ome bus y-b ody d i s posi t ion en t i r e ly too lo ng ; an d no wto go at once f rom the home whose head he had not respected and to whos e every member he had made h ims e l fa dis turber .

He wen t at once to B ro . Z ech ' s where he was m a d ewarmly welcome as a co-cons p i r a to r aga ins t B ro . R us se l l ,But their cause would suffer if he left the TOWER office beforet he " e x p l o s i o n ; " so t hey go t up a l e t t e r an d with one"a r g u m e n t or a n o t h e r got those who had been present onC hr i s tmas even ing to sign it . T h a t is the let ter whichBro. Z ech drags into his s tatem ent of his grievances. But" their r


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3 2 A Conspiracy" W e w i t h o t h e r s o f t h e C h u r c h o f C h r i s t h e r e h a dp r e p a r e d s o m e N e w Y e a r p r e s e n t s fo r y o u a n d S i s t e rR u s s e l l , a n d B r o . Z e c h h a d b e e n a p p o i n t e d t o m a k ethe p r es e n ta t i on s peec h and h ad p ro f f e r ed h i s hom ef or t h e p r e s e n t a t i o n , b e c a u s e s o n e a r t o y o u r o w n t h a tt h e t h i n g s w e p r o p o s e d t o p r e s e n t c o u l d b e r e a d i l y t r a n s --/ \ f e r r ed , a f t e r t he s u rp r i s e o f N ew Ye ar s ' n igh t , 1893 ." W h e n B r y a n l e ft y o u r h o u s e a n d w e n t t o Z e c h ' st h e y c o m m e n d e d h i s c o n d u c t , c l a i m e d t h a t a g r e a tw r o n g h a d b e e n d o n e h i m , a n d p r e p a r e d t h e l e t t e r i nq u e s t i o n . T h e s i g n a t u r e s w e r e o b t a i n e d i n t h i s w a y :M r . Z e c h w i t h t h e l e t t e r i n h a n d c a l le d u p o n e a c h o n ea n d i n a n e x c i t e d m a n n e r r e p r e s e n t e d t h a t a g r e a t i n j u s t i c e h a d b e e n d o n e B r o . B r y a n t h a t h e h a d b e e nrude ly th rus t ou t o f h i s p l ace in th e T O W E R office andB r o . R u s s e l l ' s h o u s e , t h r o u g h t h e t y r a n n y o f B r o .R us s e l l . H e then add ed tha t B ro . R us s e l l had toom u c h p o w e r a n d o u g h t t o b e t a u g h t a l e s s o n ; a n dt h a t a l t h o u g h t h e p r e s e n t s w e r e a t h i s h o u s e a n d t h ec o n g r e g a t i o n w e r e i n v i t e d t o a s s e m b l e t h e r e , h e c o u l dn o t m a k e t h e p r e s e n t a t i o n s p e e c h w i t h g o o d g r a c eun les s th i s ma t t e r o f B r ya n ' s were s e t t l ed and he r e -tu r ne d to h i s f o rmer p os i t ion . N ow , s a id he , i f yo ua d d y o u r s i g n a t u r e s t o t h i s l e t t e r , r e q u e s t i n g a m e e t -ing o f us a l l wi th B ro . R us s e l l , we can have th i s mat -t e r s e t t l e d a n d t h e n w e w i l l c a r r y o u t t h e p r e v i o u sa r r a n g e m e n t s ." B y s u c h t a l k h e o b t a i n e d o u r s i g n a t u r e s , b u t n o tf o r t h e o b je c t a p p a r e n t i n t h e l e t t e r , t h e l a n g u a g e o ft h e l e t t e r p a s s i n g c o m p a r a t i v e l y u n n o t i c e d , b e c a u s eo u r a t t e n t i o n w a s s p e c i a l l y d r a w n t o Z e c h ' s e x c i t e dw o r d s w i t h r e f e r e n c e t o B r o . B r y a n . I t w o u l d n o w

a p p e a r t h a t t h i s w a s i n t e n t i o n a l o n h i s p a r t , a n d t h a the kep t a cop y o f the l e t t e r f o r ' i t s r ece n t mal i c iousu se ; a n d o n t h e e v e n i n g a p p o i n t e d , a l t h o u g h B r y a na n d Z e c h s c o n t i n u a l l y p e r s i s t e d i n d r a g g i n g u p t h e_^ l i t t l e ma t t e r abo u t S i s t e r R us s e l l , bo th s he and wep r o t e s t e d t h a t t h a t w a s u n n e c e s s a r y a n d t h a t t h a tw a s e n t i r e l y s e t t l e d b e t w e e n y o u a n d h e r .

Exposed 33" Al though f ee l ing the mat t e r was none o f our bus i n e s s , w e a d d e d o u r s i g n a t u r e s b e c a u s e w e w e r e s oa n x i o u s t o h a v e e v e r y t h i n g s m o o t h a n d p l e a s a n t b e fo r e the even ing o f the p r es en ta t ion , t hen s o c los e a thand , and f ear ing tha t if we d id no t ther e wou ld bes o m e u n p l e a s a n t n e s s w i t h B r o . Z e c h b e f o r e t h e c o n greg a t ion w hich w as to as s emb le for a purpo s e s o dif

f e r en t . Th e l e t t e r conc luded as fo l lows : " M ayo u r d e a r L o r d g u i d e a n d d i r e c t y o u r j u d g m e n t o ro u r s , t ha t i f may a l l be to h i s g lo ry . Yo ur s int h e R e d e e m e r . [ S i g n e d . ] " T h e s i g n a t u re s w e r eob ta ined on ly wi th th i s ob jec t i n v i ew , and onc o n d i t i o n t h a t t h e m a t t e r s h o u l d n e v e r b e m e n t i o n e d o u t s i d e o f t h e n u m b e r p r e s e n t t h a t e v e n i n g ;Th i s p rom is e they hav e en t i r e ly f a i led to kee p , andever s ince hav e t a lked o f it i n p r iva te ; and no w,jud ge o f our s u rp r i s e and c hag r in on f ind ing a por t ion o f tha t conf iden t i a l l e t t e r i n p r i n t and our nam eshera lde d as bu s y-b od ies in the a ff a ir s o f one wh om w elove and es t eem as a t r i ed and f a i th fu l s e rva n t o f ourd e a r R e d e e m e r a n d L o r d a n d in w h o s e i n t e g r i t y a s aC hr i s t i an b ro th er we have ful l conf idence ; and as h aving pa r t i n the p r es e n t in f amous cons p i r acy to over th row h im f rom the p lac e w hich he ho lds , and tha tr igh t ly , in the hea r t s o f ma ny o f the Lord ' s peop le . I ti s a n u n w a r r a n t a b l e misn-se of our na mes , aga ins twh ich we ( as the s ign er s ) m os t ea rnes t ly p ro tes t ." A t th e m e e t i n g w h i c h re s u l t e d , a l l ( i n c l u d i n g Z e c h s )a d m i t t e d t h e j u s t i c e o f y o u r c o u rs e t o w a r d B r o . B r y a n ,whom we and they u rged to apo log ize fo r h i s misjudg-ment (w e d id no t at t he t ime dou b t h i s good in t en t io n) ;and he d id so in our p r es e nce . Th us the ma t t e r end ed ,a n d a p l e a s a n t N e w Y e a r ' s e v e n i n g f o l l o w e d ." O t t o v o n Z e c h ' s c o n d u c t a n d l i b e l o u s c i r c u l a r r e mind us o f Ko rah , t he " r ing le ader " o f the rebe l l iona g a i n s t M o s e s a n d A a r o n ( N u m . 1 6 a n d 2 6 : 9 - 1 1 ) ,w h o , w i t h D a t h a n , A b i r a m a n d O n , w a s n o t c o n t e n tv / i th h i s hono rab le pos t , bu t " s o u g h t" the o f fi ce o fMos es . F ro m th e above r e f e r ence we d i s cern tha t


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34 A ConspiracyK o r a h w i t h t h e o t h e r t h r e e c h a r g e d M o s e s ( w i t h o u te a u s e ) w i t h t h e v e r y sin w h i c h h e a n d h i s a s s o c i a t e st h e m s e l v e s c o m m i t t e d . W e fi nd t h e s a m e a m b i t i o n ,j e a l o u s y a n d p r i d e i n t h e c o n d u c t o f A h i t h o p h e l , w h o ,b e i n g K i n g D a v i d ' s c o u n s e l l o r a n d f r ie n d , b e c a m e ,t h r o u g h t h i s s a m e l e a v e n o f s i n , t h e m o s t t r e a c h e r o u se n e m y o f t h e s e r v a n t o f G o d ; b u t D a v i d ' s h e a r t r e ma ined loya l , and h i s p r a ye r to the Lo rd " tu rn ed "A h i t h o p h e l ' s b a d - i n t e n d e d t c o u r s e i n t o w h a t h i s n a m esignif ies , foolishness; f o r, s a id D a v i d , " O L o r d , Ip r a y t h e e , t u r n t h e [ t r e a c h e r o u s ] c o u n s e l o f A h i t h o -p h e l i n t o foolishness." (2 Sa m . 1 5 : 31 . ) A l ike cons p i r a c y w e fi nd a g a i n s t t h e A p o s t l e P a u l , w h e n t h e yb a n d e d t h e m s e l v e s t o g e t h e r t o " k i l l h i m . " ( A c t s 3 3 :1 2 . ) A n d a l i k e c o n s p i r a c y w a s k i n d l e d a g a i n s t o u rdear R ed ee me r by cer t a in on es o f h i s t im e; f o r they" c o n s u l t e d t h a t t h e y m i g h t t a k e J e s u s b y subtlety, a n dk i l l h i m . ( M a t t . 2 6 : 4 , 5 . } A n d a g a i n , i t i s w r i t t e n ," T h e y h a t e d h im w i t h o u t a c a u s e . " ( J o h n 1 5 : 2 5 .)M a y t h e d e a r L o r d s t r e n g t h e n y o u r m i n d a n d h e a r t ,s o t h a t t h r o u g h y o u , d e a r B r o t h e r , t h e p r o c l a m a t i o no f t h e g o s p e l c a u s e m a y b e f u l l y e s t a b l i s h e d .

" H o p i n g t h a t t h i s e x p l a n a t i o n w i l l f u l l y c l e a r u s i ny o u r e y e s f r o m a n y c o n n e c t i o n w i t h t h e l i b e lo u s c i rc u l a r , a n d d e s i r i n g t h a t , i f o p p o r t u n i t y p r e s e n t itself,y o u w i l l m a k e t h i s k n o w n t o a n y w h o m a y h a v e s e e nt h e p r e s e n t s t a t e m e n t o f t h e c o n s p i r a t o r s ,W e r e m a i n , y o u r s i n l o v e a n d s e r v i c e o f t h e t r u t h ,J . A . W E I M A R , E L I Z A B E T H K . W E I M A R ,J O H N C R O M I E , L A U R A J . R A Y N O R ,H . C . W O L F , R O S E J . B A L L ." P . S . B r o t h e r s O h l s s o n a n d W i n t e r a re n o t n o wi n t h e c i t y , a n d h e n c e t h e i r s i g n a t u r e s h a v e n o t b e e no b t a i n e d ; b u t b e s i d e s t h e m t h e o n l y o t h e r s i g n e r s ,e x c l u s i v e o f o u r s e l v e s , a r e t h e _ c o n s p i r a t o r s . "Le t me here r emark , i nc iden ta l ly , t ha t i f t her e a r e anyof God ' s mar r i ed ch i ld r en whos e in t e r es t s a r e moiethoroughly one, and whose es teem for each other is greaterthan that which exis ts between Sis ter Russel l and myself,

Exposed 35we wou ld be glad for them to hav e i t so; b ut we haveno pres ent reason for so bel iev ing. Ou rs , we feel , is indeed a un ion in the Lord , which we be l i eve tha t evendeath wil l not sever .I s i t any wond er tha t , when I came to kno w the dep thof the ir perf idy, I refused to al low Bro . Z ech to preach inthe ch ape l the use of which for years I have furnishedfree of charg e to the Ger man f r iends? Could I , in jus t ice,do l ess than in fo rm thos e German b re th r en and s i s t e r s( abou t twelve per s on s ) , t ha t whi l e they were as welco me asever to us e the chape l every Sunday mo rn ing , B ro . Z echhad p roved h ims e l f whol ly unwo r thy o f my conf idence ,and tha t I felt tha t i t would be wrong- to supply him theopp or tun i ty to a t t em pt a f u r ther def amat ion o f my char ac te r , by mis r epres en ta t ions s lobbered over wi th p ro tes t a t ions of broth er ly love ? Ind eed , I am of the opi nion thatno t one man in a thou sand , professor or no n-pro fessor ,would have had so l i t t le shame as to have at tem pted fur therabuse of my gene ros i ty, af ter h aving publ icly do ne al l heknew how to def ame me. He c l a ims to have been " u nderbo nd ag e" to me . So I a t once for ced h im to become a f reeman by refus ing him longer the pr ivi lege hi ther to enjoyedof spea king to the Ge rma n f riends in the chap el . But eventhis enforcem ent of l iber ty is one of his charge s agains t me .

BROTHER BRYAN'S GRIEVANCES.Bro. Brya n served the cause in the TOWER office forseveral yearswell in man y respe cts . But by hered i ty hehas a very v io len t t emper , a v ind ic t iv e d i s pos i t ion a nd ape nc han t for mi nd ing othe r peo ples ' affairs . I t is withdeep r egre t t ha t I t hus wr i t e , and now on ly becaus e i ts eems a neces s ary exp lan a t ion o f what f o llows . W h en I

s ay he ev iden t ly inher i t ed thes e unga in ly t r a i t s I cons idertha t I am mak ing an apo logy fo r h im. T im e and aga inhave I help ed to set t le dif ferences betw een him and theoth er off ice helpe rs , in wh ich he was uniform ly to blam e genera l ly t r y ing to mind s ome one e l s e ' s bus ines s ; andt ime a nd aga in has he r epen ted and l amented h i s cour s eand prom ised to turn over a new leaf. But his difficultys eemed to g row upon h im. He go t wor se and wor s e ,


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3 A ConspiracyHe at least six times during the last three years of his stayurged that he should leave the office for the relief of others;and each time I persuaded him to try to do better: yet,when at last I concluded to let him go, he seemed determined to stay. I could not then judge why, but can nowsee that it was because he had become one of the conspirators and was waiting for the time to explode the bombs.It was after his conduct finally became unbearable, that Iwrote him the following letters.

Allegheny, Pa., Mar. 2, '93." DEAR BROTHER BRYAN :Your note, which I requestedlast evening, saying, if there are other matters " thatyou say would still be difficulties, even if you could determine not to meddle with and annoy Sister Ba ll ," isbefore me. In reply I must tell you that this note manifests still more of the same wrong spirit of which I complain on behalf of Sister Ball." It shows that you not only want to annoy and manageher and her work, but that you also want to do the samefor me and my business, and that of the entire office andhom e. I have assured you repeatedly of my Christianlove and my care for your every concern, and my desirethat you enjoy every comfort and pleasure which ourhome and office afford, but you seem to think that everything should be run according to your ideas, which isneither possible nor reasonable." F o r over two weeks (I migh t almost say three years)you have been worrying the office and home circles,and th at without any justification. You should be conscientious enough to admit that you have no right,human or divine , to interfere with Sister Bal l'srights or business, nor with mine, nor with those ofoth ers. If, therefore, this matter can be fixed only byyour leaving the TOWER office, do not persuade yourselfto a false view, in supposing that you will be going forthfor righteousness' sake, or for conscience' sake; for, onthe contrary, it will be because you are a persistent busy-body in other people's affairsand an intentional one,since instead of acknowledging the fault you attemptto excuse it, and even argue by the hour that you have a

Exposed 37right to judge the conduct and even the consciences ofothers, and to give them tongue chastisements and otherincivilities until they adopt your conscience as instead oftheir own and repent to you, etc. I should tell you alsothat Sister Ball is not the only one who has men tionedyour interferences." A month or so ago Bro. Henninges said to me:' Bro. Russell, cannot I do some of the work of the composing room, or in some way shift so as not to be somuch of an annoyance to Brother Bry an?' I repliedthat I thought I had a plan for dividing the work whichwould harmonize the difficulties peacefully, and to waitand see." W ithin a week Bro. Page said , ' Bro. Russell, I feelthat I am the seat of Bro. Bryan's trouble, and while Icame here, as I believe, under the Lord's leading, do notlet me stand in the way of the smooth run ning of theLord 's work. At the same time I scarcely think tha tyou do your duty toward Bro. Bryan and the others, andthe work, to permit him to interfere with and snap thehead off everybo dy and every thing . In a worldly officesuch conduct would not be endured five minutes.'" I explained how I believed the trouble to be in part aheredity and that I was trying to have you take the rightview of it, and tha t if you could see it fully and clearlyI had confidence that you would ^diff ere ntly . But whyyou canno t or will not see so plain a matter I canno t u nderstand."Y ou know better than any one else, dear brother, how,with great patience, prompted by loving interest for youand for the work, I have tried to have you see the errorof being a busybodyespecially so when you knew thatthose you interfered with are fully as conscientious asyourself,a nd full more so on the su bject of respe ctingthe rights and liberties of others." I have exhausted every proper meansat my command tohave you see rightz.n.& DO RIGHT. But you all the more assume aself-righteous air and insist that you have aright to bethe judge of the rights, libsrtiesa nd consciences of others."T hi s I can no longer permit . I t becomes my duty,


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38 A Conspiracyt her e fo re , dear b ro ther , to say, S t o p t h i s w r o n g - d o i n ga n d u n c h a r i t a b l e j u d g i n g ! and if you will not s top ityou must cease to occupy the place you have occup iedfor so l ong in the office." N e v e r t h e l e s s , d e a r b r o t h e r, it will be in s or row and noti n anger tha t we will par t with you. You h a v e m a n y exce l l en t t r a i t s to which I cheerful ly bear witness , and Ishall always feel a deep in t e r es t in your welfare, an dshould oppor tuni ty ever offer I will be glad to prove th i s" in s ome more s ubs tan t i a l way. But if di s pos ed to seeyour e r ro r and to manifes t a reform of your cour s e , noto n l y I, but all the " f a m i l y " I am sure will be g l a d , notonly to have you s t ay wi th us in the work , but to ass is tyo u and baar with you. Please let me have your dec i s ion th i s even ing , on the l i nes l a id down in this let ter ." W i th deep b ro ther ly love and unceas ing in t e r es t inyour present and future welfare, I r emain your s e rvan t inthe Lord, C. T. RUSSELL.

M arch j , 'pj." D E A R B R O T H E R B R Y A N :My letter of yesterday was

very plain. Wnile assur ing you of my love and i n t e r e s t ,i t s t a t ed the necess i ty and l a id down the c o n d i t i o n s u p o nwhich you shoald have acted pro or conat o n c e . M i t t e r shave run a l o n g now for near ly two weeks in a very unsati s f ac to ry minner and one v e r y d i s a d v a n t a g e o u s to theLord ' s work . Other s are idle while you have and holdon to more than you can do.' ' Fo rbearance longer would not b e a vi r tue . Your l e t te r or n o t e in r ep ly to m i n e of yes te rday is not a r ep lymere ly a d e l a y . W h a t can be your objedl ? I mus t in s is t , dea r brot her , ei the r tha t you ful ly consent to all ther eas onab le r equ i r ement s of my l e t t e r of yes te rday , andi nd ica te th i s in no uncer t a in words , or else that youhand over your keys and place , t ha t s ome one cons c ien t ious enough to r ecogn ize and r es pec t the r igh t s o f o ther smay, with those who love and m a k e for peace and r i g h t ,occupy in your s t ead ." Af te r r ea d ing th i s l e t t e r and com mun ing wi th the Lord ,r emem ber ing tha t my cour se is t heone o f du ty a nd tha t I s t i l labound wi th love for you, save me fu r ther annoyance by

Exposed 39ailing at o n c e . Yoi had bes t re- read my l e t t e r of yest e rday . Miy the Lord gu ide you, has b e e n my earnes tp r ayer for several days , but a conc lus ion mus t be r e a c h e dn o w ." W i t h c o n t i n u e d b r o t h e r l y l o v e and i n t e r es t , and thehope tha t you may gain the victory over self -wil l andother foes , and humble your s e l f to be and do w h a t youse e to be the r i g h t , I r e m a i n ,

Your lov ing s e rvan t in C h r i s t ,C. T. R U S S E L L ." P. S.If you dec ide to qui t the w o r k a n d n e e d m o n e yle t me k n o w how m u c h . "Bro. Bryan f inal ly concluded to go i n t o the c o l p o r t e u rw o r k , and we par t ed s eeming ly warm f r i ends , as the following extracts f rom a l e t t e r r ece ived l a t e r s hows ; the" b o m b " p l o t s e s m i n g l y h a v i n g b e e n a b a n d o n e d for a t i m e .Richmond, Va., March 15, '93." D E A R B R O T H E R R U S S E L L : I feel like giving youa l i t t l e r e p o r t of m y s e l f and d o i n g s , in a d d i t i o n tow h a t I w r o t e on r e c e n t p o s t a l s ." The w h o l e s i t u a t i o n h e r e s e e m s as f a v o r a b l e as anyt h a t c o u l d h a v e b e e n c h o s e n . To be w i t h y o u r f a t h e r ' sf ami ly ha s b e e n m o s t h e l p f u l . T h e n I h a v e m a d e al i t t l e b e g i n n i n g in c a n v a s s i n g t h a t is not d i s c o u r a g i n g ,t h o u g h no t n e a r l y so g o o d as I w i s h it w e r e . T h e n ,t h r o u g h a d v i c e f ro m you, t h r e e b r e t h r e n v i s i t e d usl a s t S u n d a y . I was very favorably i m p r e s s e d by thea p p e a r a n c e of . If I am no t m i s t a k e n , he isq u i t e a b l e to be a l o c a l t e a c h e r an d l e a d e r . And heseems to h a v e a b e a u t i f u l s p i r i t . S o m e b r e t h r e n h e r eh a d b e e n m e e t i n g w i t h a l i t t l e g r o u p of A d v e n t i s t s ;b u t q u i t e l a t e l y the l a t t e r w i t h d r e w to a n o t h e r r o o m .

T o our g r e a t p l e a s u r e , t h e s e b r e t h r e n s a i d t h e y hada l r e a d y s e c u r e d a r o o m and a r r a n g e d to h a v e a r e g u l a rS u n d a y m e e t i n g . T h e y w i s h e d t h e y had k n o w ne a r l i e r of the p r e

1894 wt extra a conspiracy exposed

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