DECEMBER 1, 1914 which was the cause of our seeing and accepting the truth as our own. We believe that we owe you, and the Ecclesia, which we attend regularly, a debt which we shall never be able to pay. We feel as if the Drama was brought here for us alone. With that feeling in our hearts we can see and truly appreciate our dear heavenly Father’s great love for us. But we cannot see where we are deserving of such great love. We are truly happy now; we were not happy before. We could see too much of one another’s faults. We sought worldly things, but now we count, them ‘‘loss and dross,’’ as the Apostle says. Vou. XXXV THE WATCH TOWER BROOKLYN, N. Y., DECEMBER 15, 1914 (371-372) We have your six volumes of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES. They are a great help. We spend as much time as we can in reading and studying them. We have taken the Vow. We read your Morning Resolve, and the Daily Heavenly Manna every morning. They are a source of comfort to us. There are many things which I have to be thankful for. I won’t try to enumerate them, because my dear heavenly Father has been bountifully blessing me ever since I fully accepted the Lord as my Redeemer. I shall continue to pray for you, dear Brother, and I ask your prayers. Your brother in the Lord, No. 24 1914—ANNUAL WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY For the sake of our many new readers we explain that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, as the parent organization, represents all the activities in Christian work with which THe WatcH Tower and its Editor are associated. All the work done through the International Bible Students Association and Peoples Pulpit Association, directly and indirectly, is the work of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. The Editor of THz WatcH Tower is the President of all three of these Societies. All financial responsibility connected with the work proeceds from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. From it the other Societies and all the branches of the work receive their financial support. There is nothing unusual in this. It serves to keep the different parts of the work separate. Just so our Methodist friends have a Methodist Book Concern, an Epworth League for the young people, and both Home and Foreign Missionary Societies, besides numerous other aid societies, ete., ete. Our division of the work was made necessary by the fact that the parent society Charter by the State of Pennsylvania is not hy law permitted to hold property in New York State; hence the necessity for organizing a subsidiary society to hold any real estate in New York. Similiarly, the laws of Great Britain prevent any foreign society from holding title to real estate there. This necessitated the organization of the International Bible Students Association with a British charter. Thus it comes that we use sometimes the one name and sometimes the other in various parts of our work—yet they all in the end mean the Wateh Tower Bible and Tract Society—to which all donations should be made. 1914 A VERY NOTABLE YEAR For instanee, we have for forty years been looking forward to the present year as the one in which Gentile Times would expire and the one, therefore, in which we might expect some special manifestation of the transfer of earth’s government to its new King, Messiah. We had hoped that the ending of the Gentile Times might have signified the ending also of the ehurch’s times, or years, in the flesh, the ushering of all the Lord’s consecrated people into the kingdom. The latter expectation brought, we are sure, a great blessing to our thousands of readers. It brought them quickening of spiritual interests, and zeal to know and to do the Master’s will. It brought them heart searchings, to see whether or not they were ready for the kingdom. It brought them a condition of peace with God which passeth all human understanding, so that now they are able to rejoice in the will of the Lord, whatever it may be. If the Lord will continue us in his favor, it will matter little to us whether we are on this side of the veil or on the other side—so great are our joys and blessings, and so pronouneed the peace which rules our hearts. In God’s providence the present year has been the most wonderful one in the history of our Socicty. We believe that the Lord has used it mightily in pulling down prejudice, ignorance, superstition and error. It seems as though this year we had the grand climacteric of all previous efforts on the part of God’s consecrated people to show forth the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. In order that the results may be secn in their truly miraculous light, it is proper that we remind our readers that we have no church organization in the ordinary sense of the word, no bondage of any kind, no obligation to pay, either to the parent society or anybody else, either ten per cent. or any other sum. We remind you also that no solicitations for money in any way are authorized by this Society; that every amount, therefore, which has come into our hands, and been used, has been a voluntary donation from a willing heart. We remind you also that it is true of the Lord’s people in general, just as the Scriptures tell, that among them are not many rich, not many wise, not many learned, not many noble, REPORT—1914 but chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom. With this before your minds, keep in memory the fact that last year, the year before and several years back, the brethren, Tne WatcH Tower readers, have been spending generously, according to their ability, both of time and money. Now suddenly, as is evidenced in their growing faith ih the Lord and the truth, in the fact that we are nigh at the door of the new dispensation, everywhere there has been a willingness to give and much rejoicing in the privilege. Let these few words prepare you for the, to us, stupendous results of the year, which show that about One Million Dollars have been spent in the service of present truth this year by the classes for theatres, ete., and by the Soeicty. CREATION PHOTO-DRAMA After two years of preparation, the Photo-Drama was barely ready to give its first exhibition in January last. It did not get properly started with a full swing in America until April. In July we made a start in Great Britain. By September the Drama had begun operations on the Continent of Europe—in Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. By October it had reached Australia and New Zealand. Few ean appreciate the amount of labor involved in preparing each Drama outfit. The arrangement and preparation of the films used is comparatively an easy matter. Our difficulty lay in procuring copies of fine art pictures illustrative of the history of the world from the dawn of ereation to the present time and into the future. We adopted, and adapted, everything we could find already prepared and suitable to our purposes; but this left hundreds of paintings and sketches to be made, from which in turn to make the stereopticon slides. With all this accomplished, a still further difficulty presented itself. We wished to have those beautiful pictures handeolored—really beautiful. To attain our purpose we had some painted in Paris and some in London, while the majority were done in Philadelphia and New York. We required of these artists their very best skill in eoloring. We should not forget to say that, with others, our own Art Room turned out a large share of the work. Although we are not adding to the number of panoramas with painted slides, yet the breakage is so great that cven now we have twenty continually at work on replacements and in photographing and tinting the Eureka Dramas. God kindly veiled our eyes as respects the amount of labor connected with the Drama. Had we foreknown the cost of time and money and patience necessary for the start we would never have begun it. But neither did we know in advanee the great suecess that would attend the Drama, and that through it nearly eight million people in the United States and Canada havo already heard a glorious message from the Word of God (a precious message that they will never forget), also that other hundreds of thousands in other lands are hearing in their own tongues ‘‘wonderful words of life.’’ We had twenty Dramas, which, in four parts, were able to serve eighty eitics each day. The audiences varied from four thousand down to less than a hundred, according to place and cireumstances. The Classes which put on the Dramas in the various cities expericneed great blessings and also great trials. They had precious opportunities for serving, sacrificing time and money. These faithful sacrifices the Lord rewarded, as he always does. The trials of faith and patienee sometimes arose from accidents eausing delays in the reeciving of films; sometimes from misunderstandings between the friends in connection with the service of the Drama; sometimes through misunderstandings along financial lines because of not being experts in the matter of keeping accounts. But, rightly reeeived, all these trials had their good effect, helping to test love, to develop patience and thus to broaden Christian character. It is safe to say that the Drama has done as much for the friends of the truth [5591]
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