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LETTERS FROM THE HOME FIELD {The following letter, written on return from the Oakland convention to the brother who so kindly entertained the friends, will be very interesting to many of our readers. We publish it with Brother Weber’s permission.—Editor. ] My Dear Brother Weber:—I am glad to write you that I arrived home Tuesday morning. Had a very pleasant and profitably journey, for which I thank and praise my heavenly Father. How much I thank him upon every remembrance of you! He put it into your heart to write to me; then so to arrange that I met you on that memorable day in Baltimore; then in inviting me to this last feast at your home—to meet Brother Russell, your own dear family, and so many of God’s dear children; then to feast at our Father’s table, Oh, how good it tasted’ TI felt 50 hungry for the truth. Although the Lord has richly blessed me since this glorious truth began to dawn upon my soul, I had never met with but two people of the Dawn faith before this. I have written a long letter to the church, where I have been a member for nearly thirty years, asking them to drop my name from their roll of membership, and giving my reason for this. I shall also have to write to several missionary societies and other churches and colleges where I have been a contributor. Of course for the present fiscal year I shall have to contribute according to my pledges, but after that it will close and I shall be able, if the Lord continues to prosper me, to do more for this truth for which I now stand. Well, I will not weary you with too long a letter. I thank the Lord fof you and ask you to extend my sincere thanks to dear Mrs. Weber and the girls for all their work of labor and love, also to the boys that were kept so busy. I know God will bless them. And now whenever you come East remember your oldest (or youngest) boy in Cromwell, Conn. I shall indeed esteem it a favor to have the privilege of having you with us, and any of your family that can conveniently come this way. I am arranging with Brother Russell to have a Pilgrim brother come here and give Chart lectures. Yours in the Master’s service, A. N. Prerson.—Cornnecticut. Dear Brother Russell:—I have not written for a long time; nevertheless my thoughts and prayers are constantly with you and the friends at the “Bible House.” Circumstances forbid my entering the colporteur service, as I had so fondly hoped; but I wish you to know that my zeal JEPHTHAH’S VOW—A In our September first issue we answered a question respecting Jephthah’s daughter. Since then Brother C. J. Peterson calls to our attention the following item from the Appendix of the Emphatic Diaglott: “The original, Judges 11:30, when properly translated, reads: ‘And it shall be that whoever comes forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace, from the children of Ammon, shall surely be Jehovah’s, and I will offer to him a burnt offering.’ The vow contains two parts: (1) That person who would meet him on his return should be Jehovah’s, and be dedicated forever to his service, as Hannah devoted Samuel before he was born. {1 Sam.1:11) (2) That Jephthah himself would offer a burnt offering to Jehovah. “Human sacrifices were prohibited by the Law (Deut. 12:30); and the priests would not offer them. Such a vow would have been impious, and could not have been performed. It may be safely concluded that Jephthah’s daughter was de for the cause is no less fervent than when I was first enlightened. The experience of those days was sweet to me, for then I drank deep diaughts from the fount of knowledge—it was sweet in my mouth, but you are acquainted with the after effects. We can have Christian experience only as we put on Christ; and since it is my daily labor to be transformed by the renewing of the mind into an example of godliness, I can bear witness to the truth of the experiences of the brethren. You may remember how anxious I was in the beginning to spread the truth, how confident that I would be an excellent instructor of the foolish and erring ones. Having read four volumes of Dawn, I felt there was very little more to be known about the Scriptures; but now having advanced further in the knowledge of God’s plan, and having developed further in Christian character, I feel thoroughly unfit to be a teacher of so great truths. The school I had last winter was closed prematurely for lack of students. I have tried in many ways to provide for my temporal necessities more comfortably at home, but they have all failed;—rather they have not materialized as I expected; but perhaps from the Lord’s standpoint they were a success. I know one thing; they have taught me humility and dependence upon God’s loving care. This assurance that I am still in the way I think is due you. The Watch Tower I find an indispensable 1ade mecum, ever full of instruction profitable for all who run for the attainment of the joy set before us. May the Lord ever provide you wisdom, strength and courage, that you may incessantly preach the Word, endure hardness as a good soldier, and be faithful unto death. Yours in the service of our present Lord, JAMES A. BROWNE.—Ceorgia. [The above is from a colored brother; and imeidentally we remark that about 200 colored persons on the Watch Tower lists give good evidence that they are of the “pure in heart,” “aecepted in the Beloved.” Some have thought that we in some measure disdained brethren of color, because we stipulated that the “volunteer” distribution should be done at uhite Protestant churches. But not so: we meant no disparagement of Catholics, nor of blacks; but arranged thus merely because their average standards of intelligence, etc., do not seem to warrant the necessary outlay.—Editor.] BETTER TRANSLATION voted to perpetual virginity; and with this idea agrees the statements that ‘she went to bewail her virginity ;’ that the women went four times in every year to mourn or talk with (not for) her; that Jephthah did according to his vow, and that ‘she knew no man.’ ” We are giad that our attention is called to this evidently better translation, which clears away the difficulty, and shows that the burnt-offering was one thing, and the devotion of the daughter another thing. We are to remember, too, the testimony of the entire Old Testament, to the effect that prior to our Lord’s birth all the women of Israel coveted earnestly the great blessing and privilege of being possibly the mother of Messiah, or amongst his forebears. We are to remember also the exultant language of the Virgin Mary when finally it was announced to her that she had won this long-sought prize: “Henceforth all shall call me blessed’’—all shall recopnize me as the one who has attained this blessed privilege of being the mother of Messiah. Vou. XXIT ALLEGHENY, PA., NOVEMBER 1, 1901 No. 21 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER A NEW ERA FOR THE JEWS lars, most of it from three or four subscribers. We'le not London, September 24.—Israel Zangwill, the novelist, poet and playwright, who has become one of the most prominent of the prophets in the Zionist movement, gave today some significant facts concerning the coming conference of the Zionists at Basle, Switzerland. ‘It is not impossible,” said Mr, Zangwill, “that Dr. Herzl may have a great surprise for the world, to be announced at that convention. Ile has been negotiating in person with the Sultan of Turkey for a charter for Palestine, and it is possible that he has obtained that charter. It seems likely at any rate that the charter may be had before many months. “Once the charter is assured, much larger contributions should be obtained. We have at present about a million dol [2897] going to admit anyone except skied workmen Jews who want to get into Palestine under the new charter will have to come up to a high standard financially, physically and morally in order to be admitted. If we were going to let in those who were looking for food where there was no food except such as the colonists make for themselves, it would lead to a creat disaster.” ‘What sort of government would Palestine have under the charter fiom the Sultan?” asked the reporter. “Well, there’s the Chartered Company in South Afriea. for instance. Perhaps it would be something like that, But you may sav that the leaders of the Zionists have read deeply enough in their histories to know that the pilgrim fathers (333 339)