Alexander Hugh Macmillan

Alexander Hugh Macmillan (June 2 1877-August 26, 1966), also referred to as A. H. Macmillan, was an important member of the Bible Students, later known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. In his book "Faith on the March", published in 1957, he retraces the history of the religious movement. He became a close friend of the movement’s founder Charles Taze Russell, and was an early board member of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, joining that body in 1918.

Early life

MacMillan was born in Canada on July 2 , 1877. From an early age he had a deep interest in serving God. He said: “When I reached the age of sixteen I decided to be a preacher. I went away to school some distance from home, preparatory to attending a theological seminary. For some reason not clear to me now I suffered a nervous breakdown and had to quit. I came home discouraged and almost brokenhearted, not knowing what to do.”

He decided to journey to America, saying: “…my father was very considerate and kind and did not reprimand me in any way but offered to do anything he could for me. I obtained some money from him and went away to Boston, Massachusetts. Alone in that large city, I was uncertain indeed as to the future. But I intended to look around to see what I could find in the way of a religious life.”

It was shortly thereafter that he first came into contact with the Bible Student movement. Before the age of 20, or about the year 1897, he obtained a copy of the book, The "Plan of the Ages", the first in the six volume "Millennial Dawn" or "Studies in the Scriptures" series, written by C. T. Russell and published in 1886. He later obtained the second volume in the series, "The Time Is At Hand", which had been published in 1889, and referred to the end of the Gentile Times as occurring in 1914. He felt that he had finally found biblical truth and would later use these books as a basis for his theory that he and others would be 'taken home' to heaven in 1914.

Beginning His Ministry

It was at the turn of the century that he first met Pastor Russell. In June of 1900 he traveled to Philadelphia to a convention sponsored by the Watch Tower Society. In September of that year, he was baptized in Boston. The following year he realized his dream of becoming a missionary and full time minister in Massachusetts.

In September of 1901 he traveled to Cleveland to attend a Watch Tower Society convention there. He said of that occasion: "The convention at Cleveland ended Sunday night and Russell invited me to make my home at the Watch Tower Society's headquarters in Allegheny, though I was not a member of the staff. When I went there to the Bible House (where the headquarters "family" lived and worked) I was in my early twenties. C. T. Russell was very kind to me. I had no home, both my parents having died; so he took me under his wing and made me feel at home with the headquarters family."

He traveled extensively with Russell: "In 1905 I made a nation-wide convention tour with Russell. It was on this trip that I met J. F. Rutherford, whom I baptized in 1906 and who became the second president of the Society."

Additional insight into his steadfast loyalty to the Watch Tower organization, in spite of its numerous doctrinal shifts, can be found in one of his later observations: "I learned that we should admit our mistakes and continue searching God's Word for more enlightenment. No matter what adjustments we would have to make from time to time in our views, that would not change the gracious provision of the ransom and God's promise of eternal life."

Macmilan's Proclamation of 1914

Many members of the Watchtower society including Macmillan were convinced that they would be sent to heaven in the year 1914. Literature from the Watchtower society quotes Macmillan as saying at a convention in Saratoga Springs, New York September 27-30 1914 "This is probably the last public address I shall ever deliver because we shall be going home [to heaven] soon."cite book | editor=Watchtower | title=Jehovah's Witnesses Proclaimers of God's Kingdom | publisher=Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. | location=Brooklyn, New York | year=1993] When Macmillan did not ascend into heaven as he thought he would he would later state "A few of us seriously thought we were going to heaven during that first week in October." [cite book | title=Faith On The March | year=1957 |publisher=Prentice-Hall, Inc. | location=New Jersey] Macmillan remained a committed member of the Watchtower Societey despite incorrectly concluding that he and many other members were to arise into heaven in October 1914.

After the January 5, 1918 annual meeting of the Watchtower Society he joined the Society's board as a director, while Rutherford also became a board member and President. That same year, he was arrested and tried along with Rutherford and other Watch Tower Society officials, and sentenced to federal prison in Atlanta. They were condemned for publishing and distributing the book "The Finished Mystery", which contained material considered in violation of the Sedition Act of 1918, which had succeeded the Espionage Act of 1917. They stood accused, among other things, of urging members to avoid both combatant and non-combatant participation in war efforts. They were released and exonerated in 1919.

Quote

Nathan H. Knorr on Macmillan's "Faith On The March":

"Toward the end of 1955 Mr. Macmillan asked permission to use the Society's files to write an account of his experiences in the ministry. Since he is a trusted member of the headquarters staff, he was granted permission. A few months ago he informed me the work was finished, and at his request I agreed to read the manuscript for technical accuracy. I soon found myself engrossed in the story which the account of his life and association with Jehovah's witnesses had produced."

References

External links

Full text of "Faith On The March"
* [http://www.quotedstatements.com/FOTM.pdf PDF version]
* [http://reactor-core.org/faith-on-the-march.html HTML version]

Full text of J.F. Rutherford's "Harvest Siftings", and associated resolution:
* [http://www.biblestudents.net/history/harvest_siftings_1917.htm "Bible Students Online: Bible Student History"] HELLO

ee also

* Organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses
* International Bible Students Association
* Jehovah's Witnesses literature
* List of Jehovah's Witnesses literature