ENCOURAGING WORDS FROM FAITHFUL WORKERS.
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DEAR TRACT SOCIETY:--Enclosed please find $5.00, which is to be applied on my "Good Hopes." It is more than I thought I would be able to send, and I am truly glad of it. I only wish it were many times more. I have thoroughly tested all the Tract Society publications, and never feared to place them in any one's hands; for they stand on the true foundation, and besides are easily comprehended. I have been an advocate of these publications for nearly thirteen years, and I like Brother R's method. He has never yet bewildered or mystified my mind, and I feel satisfied with his exegesis on Bible subjects. I believe MILLENNIAL DAWN and ZION'S WATCH TOWER to be God's agents for disseminating the truth; and may the Father's blessing go with both the Editors and the publications. Yours in love of the truth, MRS. B. F. MILLER.
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DEAR SIR:--I send you a brief sketch of the life of Mrs. Lucretia Mead, who was an earnest Christian, a great reader and a deep thinker. She died last August at the ripe age of ninety. All her life she studied to find justice combined with mercy in the old orthodox theologies, but failed utterly. And consequently she was unhappy. About ten or twelve years ago a copy of the TOWER was sent to the postoffice of which my father was postmaster. He took the liberty to send the paper to her. She read and reread it, and then sent for the paper for a year; and we have taken it ever since.
If you could have seen her study your books and papers, and compare them with the Bible, and heard her exclaim, "It is truth! It is truth;" and then, raising her eyes to heaven, as it were, praise God for sending her those truths, as I have seen and heard her do, you would praise God, too, for being the means of so much happiness. Then to see and hear that aged mother teach her children (gray-headed men and women) and grand-children and great-grand-children was a sight or rather an experience few families have witnessed. She used to wonder why God let her live so long. I told her I firmly believed God intended her to live in order that four generations at least should be made acquainted with these truths through her.
And so she died, every faculty clear to the last; and we all bless God for your teachings, through Christ, brought to us through grandmother.
Yours sincerely, MRS. E. M. YOUNG.
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DEAR FRIEND AND BROTHER:--Again I intrude on your valuable time, not to ask questions or to make complaints, but to tell you the joy I feel, and the hope that daily grows stronger within me. I have at last been able to do something for Him, in his blessed cause. I have been the means in his hands of supplying "meat" to some truth-hungry souls, and feel that I have His approval in so doing. True it is, that I have accomplished little; but that little gives me great encouragement and stimulates me to press onward in the good work.
Until lately, I have been more or less in darkness; that is, trying to see through the gloom in which I was enveloped, knowing that something better lay beyond, yet failing continually. Now I am commencing to see more clearly. I was an idle laborer in the vineyard; now I trust I am becoming a worker. True, my work is small, but who knows, but our dear Lord, how far it may extend. If one can bring the Truth to four, what may those four do. As to myself, I am daily putting the old self under. The work is slow, but is progressive, evil is continually with me and sometimes gets the better of me, but it is dying slowly and surely. What used to be severe trials are now almost nothings. I look to Him and put my trust in Him, knowing he is working all things together for good. All I regret is lack of opportunity to do more in His service. The time, I know, is short; hence my impatience. With love to all your workers and yourself and helpmate, I remain, Yours in hope, W. F. POTTER.
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DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:--The last TOWER has reached me, and oh! it is fine! My heart goes out to you and yours in the work you are doing in spreading real good news, and when I think of the multitudinous vexations which must continually harass you.
In reference to your appointment of a committee to examine MS. sent in for publication, for my own part I hope it will soon have to be dispensed with because of lack of work. In reference to others publishing, I always feel if the same means, time and energy were put forth in circulating already published articles from the TOWER office (which are certainly published at a much lower rate), how much more good would be done! This is still my feeling; and I do not feel one whit able to write (much less publish and circulate) anything to exceed what comes out from time to time. Accept much love.
Yours in our Lord, F. B. UTLEY.