Introduction of Age to Come into the Midwest and Souith

Introduction of Age to Come into Illinois 1845-60 and the South 1845-post Civil War By Jan Stilson, B Th, MALS, MA biblical studies Presented for the Prophecy Conference, Conway, Arkansas, March 4, 2016 Overview There were many religious journals circulating among the pioneers during the early part of the 19c. Herald of the Gospel Liberty (1808-1817), edited by Elias Smith of the Christian Connection led the way in 1808 as the first religious newspaper, a new genre in American literature. Smith mentioned age-to-come frequently in his paper, possibly following the lead of Joseph Priestley, a British scientist/theologian who fled to America in 1794. Priestley was famous as the scientist who discovered the role of oxygen in the human body. He also was a student of biblical unitarianism and prophecy. In his Notes of the Scriptures, he wrote about age–to-come, but did not have the place of Israel worked out before he died in 1804. So it fell to someone else to figure out the role of the Jews and who would be the subjects in the millennium. Those two questions remained unanswered until 1851. After Priestley’s death in 1804, the next big thing in American church history was the rise of William Miller and the Second Advent movement from 1830-1844. Joseph Marsh had been editing the Christian Palladium which succeeded Smith’s Herald of Gospel Liberty, but when Marsh began writing about the Second Advent in that paper, the editorial board ousted him. Marsh began the Voice of Truth which reflected the Adventist teachings of “Father Miller”. The Adventists were bitterly disappointed when Christ did not return on the date Miller had set October 22, 1844. This disappointment broke some men’s faith, but Marsh carried on by breaking with Miller and charting his own course. In 1847 Marsh changed the title of Voice of Truth to Advent Harbinger to reflect his rejection of the crumbling Millerite movement and his hope in the coming of Christ. During this time Marsh studied the questions of 1.) The Time factor after the resurrection. 2.) Who would be the subjects in the Kingdom of God? 3.) What is the role of the Jewish people in the Kingdom? By 1851, Marsh had matured in his understanding on these questions. He published his book, Age to Come that year. It was revolutionary and controversial. The Adventists criticized him heartily for his stance in favor of the return of the Jews to their homeland during the days of “old” Jerusalem. They called him a “Judaizer”. There were several other divergent details which Joshua Himes compared in an issue of the Advent Herald to which I added Marsh’s view and formed a chart. See page 15. These various factions were not too friendly toward each other. Marsh and the Wilsons did not want to be called Adventists. Even though Christ did not return on the appointed date, believers were hungry for more biblical teaching on the subject. It was during the next decade (1850-1860) that age-to-come evangelists carried the hopeful message of the Second Advent and age-to-come to the frontier. This included those evangelists who followed the papers edited by Joseph Marsh and Benjamin Wilson, and those who adhered to the teachings of Dr. John Thomas (who was first aligned with the Campbellites but was removed from them to eventually form the Christadelphians). In the next decade the old Adventist movement began splintering into various small denominations including the Life and Advent Union, the Advent Christians, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Evangelical Adventists and the Age-to-Come Restitutionists (which became the Church of God). See “River of Adventism” page 16. Other papers, The Advent Herald (J.V Himes, editor, an associate of Wm. Miller), The Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Dr. John Thomas, editor, The Gospel Banner, Benjamin Wilson, editor, promoted a strong message of the future kingdom of God on earth. After the Voice of Truth, Joseph Marsh together with Benj. Wilson promoted consistent age-to-come theology. Together with Dr. John Thomas, these men tied their prophecy teachings into OT teachings of the Abrahamic covenant. Wilson called the congregations, “brethren of One Faith”. Eventually correspondents to the Gospel Banner began referring to Abrahamic faith, while Marsh’s followers referred to the Church of God which Marsh felt was the scriptural name. Not until the followers on the east coast and the believers in the Midwest realized they had a great deal in common, did they meet to form a national conference in 1888. Marsh was already deceased, but Benjamin Wilson helped with this project. The constitution they drafted stated that congregations could be called Church of the Blessed Hope, or Church of God in Christ Jesus. Church of God Abrahamic Faith continued, however, to be the people’s name for it. This conference lasted until 1892. This short overview has provided a foundation prior to the specific work in Illinois and the South. B. Settling the Illinois frontier In its early secular history Illinois was settled from two locations. By 1804, two things of importance happened in the southern portion of the state. The U. S. Bureau of Indian affairs met with the Sauk and Fox at St. Louis to exact a treaty for land by furnishing alcohol to five of their chiefs. The natives sold their land along the Mississippi River from Wisconsin to the mouth of the Rock River at Rock Island. This caused bad feelings among the Sauk and Fox Indians, and resulted in the Black Hawk War of 1830-31. The other thing of consequence in 1804 was the exploration of the western territory by Lewis and Clark from Paducah up the Mississippi to the Missouri and beyond. Both of these events applied to the government’s interest in opening new territory to settlers. In southern Illinois, settlers arrived from the east via the Ohio River, or up the Mississippi from New Orleans, and moved upland in Illinois territory to claim farmland. These populations often brought slaves with them that became a problem as Illinois developed, a typical north/south dispute that Lincoln was well aware of as he ran for office. In the north, settlers from New England arrived via the Great Lakes as well as overland by wagon from the middle seaboard states. The first two capitals of Illinois were in the south (Kaskaskia, Vandalia), and finally, Springfield in 1839. The area in the middle of the state, therefore, was the last to be settled especially while there was still an active presence of Sauk and Fox Indians living in that area. During the Black Hawk War, soldiers saw the rich land of the western tracts west of Peoria, and didn’t need persuading when the government opened the area to settlement. During and after the Black Hawk War, prairie banditti operated a crime syndicate from northern Illinois down the Mississippi into Arkansas and Texas to run counterfeit money, horses, and other property from the north to the south. By mid 1840s law and courts came into northern Illinois simultaneously as the Second Coming teachings. It might be said that hope in the Second Coming and Kingdom of God helped tame the region. Evangelism could not easily be done until the territory came under law. In rural villages there often were no churches, and if one was built, it would house the Campbellites, Methodists, Presbyterians, Adventists, Baptists and Catholics (all having separate services). Therefore, monthly, or better yet, weekly religious newspapers were highly coveted. Consequently, those readers began writing to the editors and looked to them as their pastors. They became known as “editor-bishops” because they were directing the work with their papers as channels of communication. Marsh made a trip through Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin in 1851. It included a southern circuit through Jeffersonville, IN/Louisville, KY, down the Ohio up the Mississippi to St. Louis and on to Galena. Then overland to Beloit, WI. There is no evidence that he made contact with believers at that time who were known to Dr. John Thomas, or with Benjamin Wilson, translator of the Emphatic Diaglott, a NT work comparing English and Greek in side-by-side columns. Marsh preached at conferences of frontier ministers. Such a conference was held in 1851 at Middlebury, Indiana. Benjamin Wilson attended conferences in the north at which he preached and taught. He also was instrumental in organizing an early regional conference, The Northwest Christian Association in 1869, and as mentioned earlier, the 1888 General Conference. By browsing the journals published by Joseph Marsh and Benjamin Wilson, reports of preaching and conferences reveal the location of early congregations and agents. I was looking for letters from Illinois and later from the South. I also looked at lists of donors, letter-writers, and business notes. The Voice of Truth is our earliest record of Illinois activity. The first letter from an evangelist to Joseph Marsh came from Benjamin B. Brown (B.B.) of Waukesha, Wi in the April 1, 1846 issue of the Voice of Truth. Brown had chosen to preach at Metropolis, Illinois at the mouth of the Ohio River where it enters the Mississippi River. Brown reported that he had decided to preach in this “desolate field.” It was so desolate he had not received any VOTs, and he was preaching in a barroom. B.B. Brown traveled the river route. He departed from Galena, IL on a riverboat, stopping at St. Louis, Metropolis, IL and Paducah, Ky. A second letter from that same issue was from Mrs. P Neal in Lake County, Illinois. She expressed her faith and commented on an article she had read. By 1847, reports from the Midwest had increased. N. A. Hitchcock reported he was working with D. P. Hall, a former Universalist, in Winnebago County. In subsequent issues the following evangelists are mentioned. Moses Chandler, Milwaukee Mrs. H. A. Parks, A letter from her in the April 1, 1846 VOT was sent from Canada West. : A report of Mrs. Parks’ work was received in a letter from a Mr. St. Johns also from Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Here is a brief part of his testimony regarding her effectiveness. This is from VOT 2/3/1847. Daniel Daniels of Concord, NH relocated to Rock Prairie, WI in 1846. Daniels preached to a small congregation at Buffalo Grove, IL just ½ mile west of Polo, IL in September 1846. (VOT 9/30/1846). He also went south to Springfield, IL in 1847. (VOT 2/3/1847.) M. A. Sears, Lake Zurich, IL Yate Higgins of Indiana passed through Ripley in 1851 and may have worked more in Illinois and Wisconsin than the record shows. See Illinois map, page 17. The circuit these early northern workers followed seemed to originate in Milwaukee, Beloit, Buffalo Grove (early settlement west of Polo), Dixon (was famous during the Black Hawk War and there was a ferry there), Sterling, Springfield, Ripley, and north again, or east through Danville. They also used the River Circuit. Due to the nature of the way Illinois was settled, and the fact that it didn’t have railroads in the early years that spanned from one end to the other, transporting a tent was not possible for revivals. At least that method of evangelism was not mentioned outside of the northeast. States that used tents included New England, Canada West, Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska after the Civil War. Although while B. B. Brown was in Paducah, he wrote to Marsh asking “R. V. Lyon to come and bring his tent.” Near as I know that didn’t happen. The Advent Harbinger and Bible Advocate reported in 1850 that a conference was planned for Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin at Cold Spring Prairie, Illinois (in McHenry Co.). It was still billed as being for “Second Advent believers” featuring Benjamin Carter as one of the preachers. By August 1850, another conference was called at Tyler. By October 1850 these two conferences merged. Here is an early call to conference: N. A. Hitchcock reported on the August Tyler conference. Present were Benjamin B. “B.B.” Brown and Mr. Thayer of Beloit, B. Carter and a Mr. Mansfield of Woodstock, two men from Janesville, Wi, and M.A. Sears of Lake Zurich, Il. The Conference discussed raising money to hire an evangelist and the proper kind of church organization. B.B. Brown preached on “our pathway of prophecy exhibiting the rise and fall of monarchies of Dan. 2, and the subsequent coming of the ever-enduring kingdom of God.” (AH &BA Sept, 1850). The aforementioned Mr. Mansfield engaged in a debate with J. B. Cook, a well-known New York age-to-come supporter. The report of the debate held at Franklin Grove, IL gave the debate to Cook. He reported his friend, Mansfield, “took awful strides to support the old theory,” but came to an understanding of the age-to-come because it was so clear. In November, there were two letters from Illinois, one from Ottawa, and one from Mrs. M. A. Sears. By July 1851, there was a growing congregation at Elizabeth, IL where Marsh had stopped to visit his younger brother. Also in 1851 a Mr. Chapman reported he was preaching around the Springfield area. Chapman wrote later he was preaching everywhere between Springfield and the river. This would include Quincy, Beardstown, Rushville, Ripley, Camp Point and Mt. Sterling. Strong congregations developed at Ripley, and Camp Point. Eventually, Camp Point closed. In December 1851, two carriage makers from Mt. Sterling wrote to Marsh. They said they would take a six-month subscription to the Advent Harbinger to study the age-to-come. If they found any degrading of other people such as was present in the Advent Herald (J.V. Himes, editor), they would cancel. They wrote back six months later to extend their subscription, confessing they fully believed age-to-come for it was there in the Bible, and they would proclaim it among the Adventists. They fully expected to be put out of their Adventist fellowship because of it. While some people viewed Age-to-come prophecy with skepticism, there were others such as George Turner who expressed it this way. *missing text: Age to come have some ground for it. From Advent Harbinger & Bible Advocate May 3, 1851. By 1859 other churches had emerged. We never hear that M. A. Sears did much around Lake Zurich, but we don’t know that he didn’t. After Benjamin Wilson arrived in Illinois, a congregation was planted at Geneva, and others emerged from the Geneva congregation at East and West Northfield (around Northbrook). H. V. Reed lived and preached from Harvard, IL, up into Wisconsin and down towards Chicago. In fact, after he became established, he lived and worked in Chicago and was on many corporate boards. In northwest Illinois a conference was held at East Plum River which near as I can tell is close to Savannah on the east bank of the River. A report of this conference is in the Prophetic Expositor, Joseph Marsh, editor, April 1, 1859. Robert Chown of Daysville, IL preached. Chown eventually moved to Iowa around the Belle Plaine area. There was no evangelistic work around Oregon, IL until S. J. Lindsay moved there from Adeline which had been a center of Christadelphian activities under Dr. Thomas. Adeline was also visited by Benjamin Wilson. Another age-to-come evangelist lived at Daysville. C.B. Turner moved there to help raise his six grandchildren. He may have lived there less than ten years. J.B. Craton also resided in Daysville, lending truth to the rumor that at one time Daysville was an up and coming village. It is still only a village because the railroad stopped at Oregon and not Daysville. The Civil War had little effect on the State of Illinois. Union men could not have religious exemption from fighting. Nor could a Union minister unless he could pay $300 and find someone to take his place. Dr. John Thomas while in the Adeline area of Ogle County declared a new pacifist denomination in which every member was a minister. He registered the new group with the U.S. War Department as The Nazarenes. The name Christadelphian came later. While Thomas’ strategy did not help northern men, it probably did help his followers across the south because Confederate ministers were exempt from fighting and could preach or teach. The earliest age-to-come preaching in the South I offer the following individuals as possible channels through whom the age-to-come message flowed across the South prior to the Civil War. We don’t have a wealth of material from the journals in the ABC archival collection regarding the southern work. Either there wasn’t much activity, or they didn’t report it to northern journals. However, we will try to build a case for activity based on what we know. The seeds of the first age-to-come preaching across the south were planted much earlier than in the north. Pilgrim Joseph Thomas was a Virginian who preceded the Millerite Movement and the Civil War. He was not related to Dr. John Thomas. He began preaching in 1807 at age 16 before he knew how to preach or what to preach. He had to be helped by other ministers. He found his voice and also realized that his understanding of the Bible was different than most pastors. It was so unique they called him “Crazy Thomas”. In 1807 Elias Smith’s Herald of the Gospel Liberty had not yet been published. Thomas did not know Joseph Marsh. He might have heard of Joseph Priestley, but he was carving his own path without any resources. Eventually he found his way to the Christian Connection where he enjoyed fellowship with ministers of like precious faith, and liberty in Christ. He said he read The Economy of Life and the Bible more than anything. Thomas preached across Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, West Virginia and southern Ohio from 1807-1816. He preached at Brush Creek, Ohio, a church begun by the Curtis family. He authored a book about his experiences, The Life of a Pilgrim in 1817. This book was widely read. His is the earliest record we have of work in that area. During his evangelistic travels he resided with the Boyers near Kernstown, VA and after studying with Mr. Boyer, Pilgrim Thomas began preaching about the gospel of the kingdom and New Jerusalem. We claim him as an early voice for the age-to-come. The Boyers founded the Church of God in the Shenandoah Valley. Northern evangelism helped spread the word on the southeastern seaboard. Newell Bond and his wife from Cleveland were instrumental in starting the Church of God in that city, and wintered in the south. Bond knew Marsh, attended age-to-come conferences hosted by Marsh, and believed the message. Generally the Bonds went through Washington City to visit Alan Magruder, eventually settling near Hendersonville, NC. Eventually his teachings reached the ears of Enoch Anderson who began preaching in South Carolina and Robert Huggins from the same state who eventually became pastor at Cleveland. Another young man, D.M. Hudler from that area headed west across the south after the Civil War. Hudler settled in Iowa, but took winter preaching trips across the south. He was cruelly beaten by a mob who disagreed with his teaching in Harriman, Tennessee, and died from his wounds several days later. We consider him the first Church of God martyr. Dr. John Thomas came to age-to-come understanding through careful bible study. He withdrew from his association with Alexander Campbell around 1847 and was re-baptized. He began corresponding with Marsh and Wilson. He was the southern editorial counterpart to their northern papers. After several disagreements with Thomas, the two northern editors parted company with him. Dr. Thomas settled in Virginia and briefly in Illinois. He published the Herald of the Coming Kingdom and Age to Come. He also was known to travel across the south, and these two things, the journal and the travel may have helped advance age-to-come interest. Peter Hemingray points out that Alan Magruder, an attorney from Virginia (not to be mistaken with the Senator by the same name), arranged for Thomas to have safe travel during the Civil War through the auspices of his brother who was an officer of the Confederate Army. But this is a few years after the time span of this paper. So beside Thomas, who were the first southern readers to gravitate toward the northern papers of Marsh and Wilson? On October 5, 1850 the name of three men were listed as new agents for the Advent Harbinger. They were E.G. Napes from Alabama, James Battersby for St. Louis and T.C. Everts in Texas. In the January 25, 1851 issue G. St. John was listed as agent for the first time from Sacramento, California. Agents received copies of the paper and distributed them to interested students. Perhaps through this method, individuals came to understand Second Coming/ Millennial teaching. For example, one man who wrote to Joseph Marsh in 1857 was D.F. Salley. He was an early minister in Arkansas. Not much is known of him, except he wrote a letter to Joseph Marsh in the Prophetic Expositor, 1857, identifying himself as a minister of the gospel, and reporting his preaching appointments. When he died, his son reported his obituary to the Restitution. Other early workers in Arkansas were J. R. Ham who may have taught bible in Alabama or Mississippi to Dr. Leonides Muncrief. Muncrief moved to Arkansas to take up doctoring, but found he liked preaching better. In April 1851, a Mr. John Yeats from St. Louis wrote inviting Marsh to visit, and offering to find him halls to speak in. He said they were few in numbers, but eager to learn. He had been a professor of religion for another denomination, but since coming to understand conditional immortality had withdrawn from the fellowship. When Marsh visited St. Louis, he preached three sermons in great halls in St. Louis. He said while there were no congregations there, “a great interest had been stirred.” In May 1858, W. Chapman wrote to Joseph Marsh in the Prophetic Expositor from Potosi, Mo that he was sharing extra copies of the PE to his friends and neighbors. He was excited that several had gladly received the papers. It is thought this is a different Chapman than the one who preached a circuit in 1851 around Springfield, Illinois mentioned earlier, but it certainly could be the same. In October 1858 a Mr. J. Jones wrote from St. Louis reporting there were 10 or 12 people who met weekly to study and break bread. Perhaps these meager inquiries and efforts were the result of the seed Marsh had sown, and/or the work of Chapman. There is a possible clue of post-War work in Arkansas and Texas. Robert Warren was born in Arkansas in 1858. After the Civil War his folks moved into Texas when Robert was a teenager. Warren began working for the Church of God in Texas. We surmise for we have no records that he learned at the feet of Dr. Muncrief in Arkansas. He taught A.S. Bradley and Wm Gibbs about age-to-come and “materialism”, a word of the time referring to conditional immortality. He served in several capacities within the developing work in Texas, including writing for The Gospel Trumpet, and making notes on history in the Texas Church of God that I used in compiling Texas entries in the Biographical Encyclopedia. After the Civil War men such as A.S. Bradley came out of other denominations to preach age-to-come. Bradley became unpopular with his former colleagues because of his new position on the “material” question. Wm Gibbs, the editor of The Word and Work, also was under fire. His paper previously had represented another denomination, but when Gibbs came over into the Church of God in Texas, he brought the paper with him. He was the subject of much taunting in competing religious papers. However, to heal the hurt feelings, we cooperated with a Disciples scholar (Michael Casey) recently who had never seen the 1905 issue of Word and Work. He visited ABC Archives and studied it. After the War, another man, Dr. John Haupt married a Church of God girl from Aurora, Illinois, and moved to Louisiana. He became President of the Natchitoches Normal School in Lake Charles. He was the first person we’ve found who wrote a definitive paper on Michael Servetus which was published in the Restitution. So while the pathways across the south cannot be easily traced, we have more information from the latter part of the 19c than we’ve previously had. After the Civil War the Restitution was begun (1870-1925) alongside the Word and Work (1896-1908), and the Restitution Herald (1910-the present). Other papers on the Great Plains such as the Present Truth (1898-1915), reported news from members, children’s stories, bible lessons and more. We may summarize this section by saying that the work in the south started earlier, but was interrupted by at least five to ten years because of the Civil War, although John Thomas made an effort to travel during the War. Also, there was pre-war contact with Joseph Marsh, but it seems to be meager. Still, the Word was spread somehow, no doubt by men and women we may never discover who studied themselves into age-to-come. One thing to consider and worth further research is the possible southern influence of Barton Stone (unitarian) who was partnered with Alexander Campbell. Stone was a premillennialist. In his paper, “Millennialism in the Restoration Movement,” Edward Fudge has written: ”According to his writings in the Christian Messenger, Stone apparently began as a postmillennialist, but soon adopted premillennial views. He believed the millennium would be 365,000 years (a thousand years is to the Lord as one day). During it no wicked person would be alive on earth, Satan would be bound, and the resurrected righteous would enjoy with the living saints the bodily presence of the Lord.” This deserves more study. The importance of George N.H. Peters from southern Ohio The Age-to-Come Prophecy Movement did not happen in a vacuum. Theologians of other persuasions were aware of the prophecy system even if they did not agree with it. To illustrate, I offer the examples of Peters and West. It was interesting to discover at a recent History Conference in Ohio that George N.H. Peters who authored Theocratic Kingdom 3 vols. (1884), was married to a Church of God girl. Peters was a Lutheran minister from Springfield, Ohio. In Nathaniel West’s book The Thousand Year Reign of Christ Wilbur Smith said in the Introduction that Peters and West were two of the five greatest prophecy scholars in America. I am convinced that both authors understood and appreciated the age-to-come aspect of millennial prophecy. Peters was certainly forward looking and literal in interpretation. Because of his interest in prophecy, he was invited to participate in the Niagara Prophecy Conference around 1885. In Appendix 25 in the Biographical Encyclopedia I have a quote by James Brooks summarizing Peter’s presentation. In Theocratic Kingdom Peters referred to age-to-come pastors as “One faith believers”, the terminology used by Benjamin Wilson to describe individual congregations. In volume one Peters lists all the Chiliasts in America, page 354. Among them he includes HL Hastings, ORL Cozier, B Wilson, HV Reed, Rbt Chown, RV Lyon, JB Cook, JO Woodruff, N Mead Catlin, Mark Allen, CC Ramsey, JW Niles, AN Seymour, E Burnham, SA Chaplin (Ed. The Restitution), HA Chittendon, DS Dwiggins, JM Stephenson, JP Weethee, Wiley Jones, GM Meyers, AB Magruder, E Hoyt, and Thomas Wilson. He may have known these men personally, having met them at Church of God meetings and conferences. He cited several of them in his book. See Excursus 1 page 14 for a short index. Peters may have neglected to include Joseph Marsh because Marsh had been dead since 1863, whereas the men in the list were still living. All to a man were One Faith evangelists, writers or professors who believed age-to-come passed down to them from the early works of Joseph Marsh. All these men have entries in the Biographical Encyclopedia. The early evangelists also inspired young men and women to take up the challenge to preach the gospel of the kingdom, thereby birthing a second generation of evangelists in the north such as AJ Eychaner, JM Stephenson, JS Hatch, GM Myers, WH Wilson and many more. In the south, RA Humphreys, AS Bradley, TJ Daniels, Dr. Haupt, and D.S. Salley, (D.F.’s son), preached the gospel of the kingdom to be established in the age to come. And after them many more. It is certain there are many more evangelists, readers and members whose names we don’t know because their names never made it into any of the published journals. God knows them and we will meet them some day. Bibliography: Amenhotep IV, Pharaoh of Egypt, is credited with writing The Economy of Life. 1360 BCE. This was cited by Pilgrim Joseph Thomas. Available at http://www.ardue.org.uk/library/book7.html Froom, Leroy. The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers. Vol. 4. Adve This writer has something to say about early Millenarians and Joseph Marsh in particular. Fudge, Edward. “Millennialism in the Restoration Movement”. Available at: http://www.wordsfitlyspoken.org/gospel_guardian/v21/v21n12p5b-9a.html Hemingray, Peter. Biography of John Thomas. Self-published. 2007. Hewitt, Clyde. The Midnight and Morning. Charlotte, NC. Venture Books. 1983. Marsh, Joseph. The Age to Come. Rochester, NY. 1851 Available full text online at: http://www.timberlandbiblechurch.org/AgeToCome/ ---------------------Voice of Truth. Rochester, NY 1844-47 -------------------- Advent Harbinger and Bible Advocate. Rochester, NY 1847-1852 -------------------- Prophetic Expositor and Bible Advocate. Rochester, NY 1853-1859. Peters, George N.H. The Theocratic Kingdom. Funk and Wagnalls, 1884. Reprinted by Kregel, Gr Rapids. 1952, 1972. Available on Google Books for purchase or full text. Stilson, J. Art and Beauty in the Heartland. AuthorHouse. Bloomington, IN 2006. Details the Black Hawk War of 1830-31. ------------------- Biographical Encyclopedia: Chronicling the History of the Church of God Abrahamic Faith. Word Edge. Stillman Valley, IL 2011. Available from Author or Church of God General Conference. Thomas, Joseph. Life of a Pilgrim. 1817. Full text may be found at https://archive.org/stream/thelifeofthepilg00thom#page/32/mode/2up/search/world+to+come West, Nathaniel. Studies in Eschatology. 1899. Reprinted as The Thousand Year Reign of Christ. Kregel. Gr Rapids, 1993. Available in full text at http://www.themillennialkingdom.org.uk/TheThousandYears.html Wilson, Benjamin. Emphatic Diaglott. Geneva, IL. 1864. Available full text at: https://archive.org/stream/emphaticdiaglott00wils#page/n7/mode/2up ------------------------ Gospel Banner. Geneva, IL 1854-1869. Vol. 13 1867 is available at: http://www.christadelphianresearch.com/gospel%20banner_13.pdf Note: A copy of B. Wilson’s hymnal The Sacred Melodist, Geneva, IL 1860, has been scanned by Union Theological Seminary. Thanks to the GC Archival fund for paying for this unique piece. Excursus 1 Partial Index of One Faith names cited in Peters’ Theocratic Kingdom. “One faith people” I, 536, II 269 The Restitutionists II, 269 HV Reed II, 36 RV Lyon II, 36, 43 JM Stephenson III, 50, 106 JK Speer II, 274 John Wilson (wrote Our Israelitish Origins) II, 66 Diaglott II, 326 *List of one faith/age-to-come evangelists 1, 354 10