„Cudowna pszenica” i Towarzystwo Strażnica (cz. 2)
„Cudowna pszenica” i Towarzystwo Strażnica (cz. 2)
W części pierwszej tego artykułu omówiliśmy ogólnie kwestię „cudownej pszenicy”. W tej zaś cytujemy oryginalne teksty Towarzystwa Strażnica z lat 1908-1915, gdy organizacja ta zachwalała, reklamowała, sprzedawała to cudowne zboże (także „cudowne żyto”) a także procesowała się w jego sprawie.
Pamiętajmy, że dla C. T. Russella restytucja, czyli odnowienie świata („odnowienie wszystkich rzeczy”), rozpoczęła się w roku 1874 i pojawiająca się „cudowna pszenica” była jej objawem:
„Podwójne świadectwo Zakonu i Proroctwa upewnia nas, że błąd nie mógł zakraść się, i przeto twierdzimy, iż r. 1875 (począwszy od Października, R. P. 1874) jest właściwą datą rozpoczęcia się Restytucyi i obecności naszego Pana, którego niebiosa obejmowały do owego czasu” („Nadszedł Czas” 1919 [ang. 1889] s. 215).
1) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono historię pojawienia się „cudownej pszenicy”, raport rządowy o niej oraz zapytanie, czy nie jest ona „restytucyjną pszenicą”. Na zakończenie napisano:
„Jeżeli jest w tym chociaż połowa prawdy, poświadcza to na nowo, że Bóg potrafi zapewnić środki potrzebne w ‘czasie naprawiania wszystkich rzeczy, co był przepowiedział Bóg przez usta wszystkich świętych swoich proroków od wieków’ (Dzieje 3:19-21)”.
“MIRACLE WHEAT”
The public press is telling of the origin of “Miracle Wheat” in answer to prayer. The description has the earmarks of truth to it, in that it gives the address of the man whose prayers are said to have been answered – “K. B. Stoner, a farmer of Fincastle, Botetourt county, Virginia.” It would appear from the account that the original stalk of wheat appeared in the midst of a crop of the ordinary kind, but with “142 heads of grain.” We quote:
“Mr. Stoner was amazed. It seemed incredible. When a Frenchman, in 1842, announced that he had discovered a species of wheat in the Mediterranean country which produced four heads to the plant, people said he was crazy.”
“But here was a plant with 142 heads!”
“Naturally Mr. Stoner carefully preserved the heads, and the next year sowed the seed, continuing to do this each year, for he realized he had discovered a phenomenal brand of grain. And each year his amazement increased.”
“That first year after discovering the plant he got 2000 grains. In 1906 he got sixteen bushels, and has now raised the crop of wheat, all carefully preserved for seed, to 800 bushels.”
“What is most remarkable about the wheat is this: Whereas there is produced in the wheat sections of that country an average at the best of seventeen bushels to an acre, the average yield of the “miracle wheat” during the last three years has been fifty-six bushels to the acre; and whereas from eight to ten pecks of seed are required to plant an acre in Virginia, Mr. Stoner uses only two pecks, and, in comparison to the yield of ordinary wheat in the neighborhood, which is eight bushels for each bushel of seed, Mr. Stoner gets about seventy-five bushels for one. An ordinary stalk of wheat covers about four inches of space. The miracle wheat covers twelve.
THE GOVERNMENT REPORT
“Last year United States government officials became interested in the remarkable wheat and sent Assistant Agriculturalist H. A. Miller to examine it. In his report he declares:
“'The wheat, which came from an unknown source, has been grown in the nursery every year since that time, and also has been grown under field conditions the last two years, giving excellent results. The yield has been from two to three times the yield of other varieties grown on the farm under the same condition of culture, except the rate of seeding, which was two pecks to the acre, while other varieties were sown at the rate of eight to ten pecks per acre, which is the common practice of farmers in the vicinity.”
“'Milling tests have been made of this wheat, and its quality seems to be as good as, if not superior to, other varieties of winter wheat.'”
“The average height of the wheat, according to the report, is four feet four inches.”
“It is said that the Russian government has secured an option on the wheat, and will buy a consignment of 80,000,000 bushels when that quantity shall have been raised. During the next year the seed will be distributed among farmers in Virginia and North Carolina, who will raise it and preserve the seed, keeping the seed only for planting until the required amount will have been produced. By next fall, it is believed, 30,000 bushels will have been produced.”
IS IT RESTITUTION WHEAT?
If this account be but one-half true it testifies afresh to God's ability to provide things needful for the “times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began.” - Acts 3:19-21 (ang. Strażnica 15.03 1908 s. 4152-4153 [reprint]).
2) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono nową wysokoodporną, szczególnie na gradobicia, odmianę pszenicy o nazwie „Alaska”. O bardzo wysokiej wydajności. Na koniec wspomniano, że pieczywo z niej wypiekane jest lepsze niż ze zwykłej pszenicy:
MIRACLE WHEAT
NEW VARIETY PRODUCED YIELDING 277 BUSHELS OF GRAIN TO ACRE
Wheat with stalks like sugar cane and yielding 277 bushels of highly nutritious kernels to the acre has been produced as a result of experiments made in Idaho by Allen Adams of Minneapolis.
The new wheat has been named “Alaska” because of its hardiness. It is either spring or winter wheat, just as the farmer desires to sow. It is so sturdy that storms that ruin other stock affect its giant stems but little, and the heads remain upright through ordinary hailstorms.
The yield shows that Adams has been able to obtain an increase of 222 fold. One head of the giant wheat was planted in the fall of 1904. The seeds from that head were planted the next year and seven pounds of seed obtained. This was sown in the spring of 1906, and from the seven pounds were harvested 1,554 pounds that fall. In the fall of the same year he sowed it as winter wheat, but conditions were adverse. Almost all the “blue stem” and “club” were destroyed, and only a third of the crop of experimental wheat came to maturity, yet there was a yield of 50,000 pounds. A heavy hailstorm in July was the cause of the ruined wheat crop, which left scarcely any of the ordinary wheat standing.
Further experiments brought forth a yield of 277 bushels to an acre. The Idaho College of Agriculture has made a laboratory test of the wheat and reports the grain plump and sound and that it should make better bread than the ordinary wheat. -Beloit Free Press (ang. Strażnica 15.07 1908 s. 4205 [reprint]).
3) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono informację o uprawach „cudownej pszenicy” w Wirginii i wspomniano o kłopotach z dystrybucją próbek pszenicy.
W dalszej części podano informację o odkryciu przez W.W. Warda nowej odmiany pszenicy, o wydajności lepszej od normalnej. Ward eksperymentował od 5 lat, aby uzyskać ziarno przynoszące większe plony:
MORE MIRACLE WHEAT
OUR notice of the “Miracle Wheat” grown in Virginia, the grower reports, has caused him lots of trouble answering letters and returning money sent for small samples. He has shown us representative stalks of the wheat and photos of its growing in the field, fully corroborating all that we have published respecting the same. But he refuses to sell any of it until he has secured a fair stock, which will be in a few years hence.
Meantime the matter has brought out the fact that others are also propagating “Miracle Wheat,” as witnessed by the subjoined reports. We advise farmers to begin at once to inspect their wheat before cutting and cull out for seed the choicest, fullest heads or most “stooled.” Our thought is that in this natural way God is preparing for the Millennium, when “the earth shall yield her increase.”
SEVEN-HEADED WHEAT DISCOVERED
W. W. Ward, of Dayton, Washington, has discovered a new variety of wheat that has seven distinct heads united to a common base. And each head is larger than the ordinary wheat. Ward figures that the new variety will yield as high as 280 bushels to the acre, with an average of 200 bushels.
Hundreds of farmers have visited the Ward ranch and are intensely interested in the new wheat. All have asked for a few pounds of the seed, but Ward is figuring upon further experiments and plans to plant all of this year's crop next season, enlarging his present area to about three acres.
Ward has been experimenting for five years to get a wheat that will yield bigger crops, but never expected anything like the seven-headed variety. - Sioux City Tribune.
Neither of the above notes relate to what is termed “Alaska” wheat grown in Idaho, which we understand had been repudiated by Government experts (ang. Strażnica 01.10 1908 s. 4250 [reprint]).
4) W poniższym fragmencie wspomniano o pszenicy z Wirginii, że nie był to przypadek, iż autorzy wierzą, że to Bóg „przywołuje zboża i rozmnaża je”. Poinformowano, że w Rosji wprowadzono nowy sposób uprawy pszenicy, dający obietnicę wysokiej wydajności. Odwołano się, jak widać, do słów z Ez 36:29 („przywołam zboża i rozmnożę je” BG) dodając nawet termin „pszenica” (wheat-corn), którego nie ma w tym fragmencie Biblii!
Kolejny fragment opisuje nową metodę uprawy pszenicy, jak zasiewać, sadzić pędy nowej pszenicy. A kiedy nadejdą czasy, kiedy Pan przyjdzie, wezwie do wzrostu ziarna, aby ludzkość odniosła korzyść:
MIRACLE WHEAT - MIRACLE CULTIVATION
A year ago we called attention to the miracle wheat, which was developed in Virginia, seemingly by accident. We know not to what extent it has been sown elsewhere, nor whether any wonderful results have been obtained. However, it gives to the eye of faith a suggestive lesson as to how God could “Call for the wheat-corn and increase it” many fold. Now we learn of some wonderful experiments which have recently been made by the Russian Government, which serve to show that in soil that is at least twenty inches deep a new method of cultivating wheat, gives promise of almost miraculous results. Even if only one-tenth of the results claimed can be obtained the advantage seemingly would be considerable. Even if the method be at present found impracticable for any reason, the suggestion to the eye of faith would be valuable everyway as showing God's people something of the hidden powers Divine, which are held in reservation for man's time of need.
PLANTING WHEAT INSTEAD OF SOWING IT
The new method of cultivating wheat, based upon these experiments, is the making of pits or trenches, twelve to twenty inches deeper than the surface level and forty-two inches wide. One grain of wheat planted at the bottom of each pit or forty-two inches apart in the trenches is covered lightly with two inches of soil. Every three weeks the covering process is repeated about two inches more each time, until ten coverings have been put on. The grain gives forth three shoots with the first covering. With the second covering each of these shoots “bushknots” and gives forth three more shoots, so that with the final covering the total amounts to 59,049 stalks or heads of grain.
The ten coverings will require about thirty weeks or less, according to the climate. It is said that this method of cultivation requires no watering, that the air, having free access to the roots, provides the moisture and gases necessary for the growth of the plant. It is difficult to believe all this-that a single seed could thus produce seventy pounds of grain, and that at the same ratio an acre of land be made to produce forty-five tons of grain. Assuredly, as our text suggests, when the Lord's time shall come he will be well able to call for the increase of the grain for the benefit of the world of mankind, whom he so loved as to redeem and for whom the blessings of restitution are shortly to be made available. – Acts 3:19-21 (ang. Strażnica 15.07 1909 s. 4431-4432 [reprint]).
5) Poniższym fragment przedstawiliśmy w języku polskim w pierwszej części tego artykułu:
Approached from the Bible standpoint, these miracles are most rational, but not from any other standpoint. The power of God, which produces, in the recently discovered “miracle-wheat,” as much as two hundred and fifty grains from one kernel, is surely sufficient to produce many times as much if the necessity occurred (ang. Strażnica 15.05 1910 s. 4617 [reprint]).
6) Poniższym fragment przedstawiliśmy w języku polskim w pierwszej części tego artykułu:
In this parable the good ground varies in its productiveness - thirty, sixty and an hundred fold. The larger the returns, the greater will be the Father's pleasure and the Savior's glory. Nor is the statement an extreme one, as some might suppose. The new “miracle wheat” sometimes produces more than two hundred grains from one (ang. Strażnica 15.06 1910 s. 4635 [reprint]).
7) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono kwestię restytucji oraz zastosowanie tekstu Ez 34:27 („ziemia wyda urodzaj swój” BG) w powiązaniu z „cudowną pszenicą”:
“Referring to the 'times of restitution' of Messiah's reign the Prophet declares, 'The earth shall yield her increase.' (Ezek. 34:27.) Behold preparations for the fulfillment of this promise: About three years ago a Virginia farmer found one abnormal bunch of 120 stalks of wheat from one root - the offspring of one grain of wheat. Under the name of 'miracle wheat' it is now being developed slowly in various parts - the average yield appears to be about 1,200 grains from one kernel. And this very year the same peculiarity in oats has been found - a bunch growing wild by the roadside” (ang. Strażnica 01.09 1910 s. 4674 [reprint]).
8) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono „cudowną pszenicę” i „cudowne żyto” (!) jako „znaki restytucji”:
SIGNS OF RESTITUTION CONTINUE
THE United States Government is experimenting with a new kind of wheat recently found in Palestine by Dr. Aaronsohn. Experiments are being made in the arid districts of the far West, where ordinary wheat failed for lack of moisture. The claim made for the new wheat is that it is really the very oldest of all the various wheats - the original or wild wheat, the parent from which all other wheats have descended. Lost for a long time, it is now coming to the front again. Dr. Aaronsohn declares his belief that not only wheat, but oats, barley and rye originated in Syria and Palestine. He claims for this parent or wild wheat that it endures the most extreme climatic conditions, enduring more cold and more heat than other varieties, and subsisting with almost no moisture. He claims also that it is not subject to the pest which attacks others. What will our evolutionist friends think of this - that the parent wheat is better than any of its children.
Wheat is the great staple of the world, and, used with milk as a diet, it supplies really everything essential to the maintenance of the human system; hence, as the New Dispensation will be ushered in, the matter of wheat will be an important one. Dr. Aaronsohn says, “It seems to me that we are justified in hoping to produce races of wheat better adapted to the semi-arid regions of Algeria, Tunis, Syria, Egypt and Turkestan, as well as to those of America. If we secure races that will enable us to increase the yield by as much as one bushel per acre on these vast areas, the world's total production of wheat will be materially augmented.”
MIRACLE WHEAT AND MIRACLE RYE
Some years ago we made mention of the miracle wheat discovered in Virginia, which originated with the fruitage of one grain found growing by itself. Two grains of this wheat were given to the Editor, who, in turn, handed them to a brother in the Truth, who reported that the two grains produced 1,312, which, planted, produced five pounds - one grain having fifty stools of well-developed stalks or straws. The brother planted the miracle wheat alongside of some ordinary wheat, and reports that the miracle wheat heads are from three to five inches long and from three to five grains to the mesh, whereas with the common wheat the heads are from two to three inches in length.
Another brother obtained some of the miracle wheat and, out of the first crop, presented the Editor a peck of the same. This was entrusted to another brother, a farmer, who has just handed the Editor $100 proceeds therefrom, with the following report: -
As you remember, I secured also a peck of the miracle wheat from a brother in the Truth as a donation to yourself (because he first heard of the miracle wheat through THE WATCH TOWER). This was sowed on half an acre of run-out land. On the adjoining half-acre was sowed a bushel of common wheat for comparison. The sowing was done in the midst of a seven weeks' drouth. During the late fall and the early spring the miracle wheat looked very thin compared with the common wheat. However, in the month of May both plots appeared to be about the same, except that the miracle wheat laid flatter on the ground. Late in June the miracle wheat was much the heavier, and stood nearly a foot higher than the common wheat, and about a week later in point of ripening. Not having threshed, I cannot at this writing report the respective yield, but am satisfied that the miracle wheat will be more than double that of the common.
The grains are in appearance similar to ordinary red wheat. I can with difficulty distinguish a difference. The color of the miracle wheat is a trifle richer. I will send you a photograph of a dozen heads and the largest stool I can find of both the miracle and the common wheat. Brother Kuesthardt advertised the wheat in his paper, and the money sent you is the result of the sales at $1 per pound.
Your brother in Christ, J. A. BOHNET (ang. Strażnica 01.10 1910 s. 4688-4689 [reprint]).
9) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono możliwość zakupu „cudownej pszenicy” w Brooklynie po konkurencyjnej cenie (1$ za funt ziarna), w stosunku do ceny rynkowej (1,25$ za funt ziarna):
A DONATION OF MIRACLE WHEAT
Brother Bohnet writes us that he has gradually accumulated a crop of miracle wheat from the few grains he obtained as a start. He prefers that the first opportunity for obtaining this wheat shall go to THE WATCH TOWER readers. He will sell it for $1 per pound, including postage, and give the entire proceeds to our Society. All orders for this wheat should be addressed, Miracle Wheat Bohnet, 17 Hicks street, Brooklyn, N. Y. This will keep mail on this subject separate from his personal mail and from ours.
Brother Bohnet promises to be ready to ship this wheat by August 1. He says miracle wheat should be sowed one-fourth as thick as common wheat. Ordinarily it should produce from ten to fifteen times as much proportionately to the amount sown. To save keeping account, money should accompany the order. WATCH TOWER readers will have the preference up to August 15, after which orders will be attended to indiscriminately, so long as the supply holds out. This wheat should be sown in the fall (ang. Strażnica 15.06 1911 s. 4844 [reprint]).
10) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono cenę za funt „cudownej pszenicy” i informację, że wpływy zostaną przekazane na fundusz Traktatowy:
MIRACLE WHEAT IN DEMAND
The notice in THE WATCH TOWER of June 15 that Brother Bohnet has “miracle wheat” in abundance now, and that he will sell it at $1 per pound and donate the entire proceeds to our Tract Fund, has brought in many orders. These will be filled between August 15 and September 1. No limit as to supply has been noted. Sent by Express, prepaid, the price will be twenty-two pounds for $20; fifty-five pounds for $50; larger quantities at the latter rate. The merits of this wheat over the common variety have been mentioned in previous issues of THE WATCH TOWER (ang. Strażnica 01.08 1911 s. 4866 [reprint]).
11) Poniższy fragment sławi Edisona i jego wspaniałe wynalazki oraz wspomina o pewnym rolniku z Wirginii, który odkrył nadnaturalny okaz pszenicy, który obecnie pod nazwą „cudownej pszenicy” uprawiany jest w różnych częściach kraju.
Ponadto fragment wspomina, że Opatrzność Boska wspiera chemików w różnych dziedzinach odkrywania ekonomicznych metod wykorzystywania azotu do użyźniania gleby:
Edison has been the instrument of Providence in giving us wonderful electrical devices. Burbank and others have, under Divine guidance, worked miracles in horticulture. What beautiful fruits and flowers have followed as results! It is difficult to imagine anything nearer perfection either in Eden of old or the world-wide Eden to be established! In referring to the “Times of Restitution” the Prophet declares that “the earth shall yield her increase.” (Psa. 67:6.) We behold preparations for the fulfilment of this promise.
A few years ago a Virginia farmer found an abnormal stool of wheat - one hundred and forty-two stalks, each bearing a well-developed head - the offspring of a single grain of wheat! Under the name of “Miracle Wheat” it is now being developed slowly in various parts of the country. The average yield appears to be about twelve hundred grains from one kernel. This very year the same peculiarity in oats has been found, a stool growing wild by the roadside. The same Divine Providence is, additionally, guiding our chemists in economical methods of extracting nitrogen from the atmosphere for feeding the soil, and thus to increase earth's blessings, in fulfillment of God's promise that He will make His footstool glorious (ang. Strażnica 01.07 1912 s. 5058 [reprint]).
12) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono relację i nadzieje czytelnika, że wszystko stopniowo zmierza do wykazania, że wkraczamy w czas tysiąca lat ziemskich błogosławieństw pod władzą Mesjasza. Dalej jest mowa o sprzedaży pszenicy, pewnych zarzutach i atakach na Towarzystwo, że „cudowna pszenica” może być oszustwem. Towarzystwo jednak wybroniło się:
THE CASE BRIEFLY REVIEWED
I am interested in everything progressive and tending to prove that we are entering the great Thousand Years of earth's blessings under Messiah. In the columns of THE WATCH TOWER I have noted the coming of Divine blessings in fulfilment of the prediction that “The wilderness shall blossom as the rose," "The earth shall yield her increase,” etc. Five years ago we quoted in THE WATCH TOWER columns reports respecting “Miracle Wheat.” We gave the name and address (Mr. Stoner) of the farmer who discovered this new wheat and his reports of its remarkable qualities. We published also the report of Mr. Miller, the Government expert, who thoroughly investigated it and pronounced upon its superior qualities.
Some of our readers purchased seed from Mr. Stoner at $1.25 per pound and approved it. In 1910 one of the friends of our Society, who had raised some of this wheat, sold it for seed at $1.00 per pound, and donated the proceeds to our Society. In 1911 the same friend, having raised more seed, asked that THE WATCH TOWER give the benefit of this to its readers at $1.00 a pound post-paid, and appropriate the net results to the furtherance of its work. Another friend, who had some of the same seed, also donated similarly, the total amount being twenty bushels.
For the accommodation of our readers, we allowed this seed-wheat to be put up in pound packages and mailed from THE WATCH TOWER Office, just as the U.S. Government handles such seeds at Washington. We did the business at the request of others and in their interest, and credited them on our books with the results, setting aside to them proportionately voting shares in our Society. We made no claim for the wheat on our own knowledge. We merely gave the report of the Government expert, of the originator, and of our friends who had tried the wheat. We merely acted as intermediary.
Nevertheless, everything that was said respecting the wheat was fully proven at this trial by expert witnesses, interested and disinterested, and their testimony was not shaken. It was also shown that farmer Stoner and his business partner, Mr. Knight, made no sales of this wheat under $1.25 per pound until September, 1911; and that they had a written contract between them that none of the wheat was to be sold at any price until the following year - 1912. Suddenly in September, 1911, they changed their plans, considering that they had wheat enough accumulated, put the price down to $5.00 per bushel, about the time that THE WATCH TOWER wheat was all sold at a dollar a pound. This The Eagle's attorney claimed was proof of fraud on the part of THE WATCH TOWER - sufficient excuse for the slanderous assaults of The Eagle upon me.
It was in vain that my attorney sought to show the Jury The Eagle's malice - that it really was attacking me along religious grounds; that it had set itself as the champion of certain clerical enemies of mine, and was seeking to destroy my influence and, if possible, to drive me from Brooklyn. In the court-room sat about twenty-five of my friends, who had come long distances at their own expense to have an opportunity to speak a word in my behalf. Through some intricacies of the Law respecting evidence, these were unable to be heard in my behalf.
Instead, the Law gave The Eagle's attorney the privilege of saying all manner of evil against me falsely - for the sake of the Doctrines of Christ, which I hold and teach. He was allowed to picture me, as The Eagle had done in its cartoon - as a thief and robber, masquerading in the garb of a minister of Christ. He was allowed to ridicule the “Miracle Wheat,” although I had nothing whatever to do with it, nor with the naming of it; and notwithstanding the fact that its superiority was proven.
He was allowed to inveigh against the fact as criminal, that I hold the office of President of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, and to claim that I hold the office in some corrupt or unlawful manner, and that I misuse the Society's income in some unexplained way to my own advantage. Meantime, scores present in the courtroom and thousands all over the land, would have been glad to testify that their donations have come to the Society because they have the utmost confidence in my integrity and management of its affairs as its Executive Officer, and that had anybody else been President their donations would have been smaller or none at all.
Presumably because there were seven Catholics on the Jury, The Eagle's attorney was prompted to refer to the Sisters of Charity and their noble work as nurses in the hospitals, without referring to the fact that those nurses are well paid, and that the hospitals in large measure are supported by State taxation.
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was held up to scorn because it did not have any hospital work nor draw any revenue from taxation, and because the female members of the Society do not visit the workshops of the land weekly or monthly on pay-day, and exact donations to its work. Our society was held up to scorn also because we do not send a wagon around the city collecting groceries and provisions for the up-keep of our work; because we do not take up collections even on Sunday; because we have never solicited a penny or a dollar from anybody; and because we never have fairs, grab-bags, “chances” or “raffles.” Our Society was held up to scorn and ridicule because it offers its literature free to the poor, while other similar Societies charge both rich and poor for their tracts and other publications. The Eagle was pictured by its attorney as a dove, a bird of Paradise. For defending it the Protestants on the Jury were led to hope for escape from eternal torment through “the pearly gates” of heaven, welcomed with the words, “Well done!” for giving The Eagle the verdict. Neither I nor my attorneys could offer such inducements conscientiously.
Our home, “Bethel,” where some of our Society's workers reside, was held up to scorn - likened to a harem, etc. This surely did cut me deeply to the heart. I am quite willing to suffer, if need be, for my faithfulness to the Lord and His Word; but it gave me great pain that the arrows intended for me did not all center upon myself - that the more than a hundred saintly, earnest men, women and children, co-laborers with me in the Lord's work, should thus be made to unjustly suffer. I can only urge them to apply to themselves the words of the Apostle, “Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward”; “For ye have need of patience that, after ye have done the will of God, ye shall receive the promise”; “Ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.” – Heb. 10:35, 36, 32, 33 (ang. Strażnica 15.02 1913 s. 5189-5190 [reprint]).
13) W poniższym fragmencie przedstawiono relacje brata Jarreta i obronę w związku z „cudowną pszenicą”. Stwierdzono, że atak na Towarzystwo ma pobudki religijne i wręcz zarzuca mu się jakieś nadużycia:
MIRACLE WHEAT TAKES PRIZE
GREATEST WHEAT STATE SENDS MIRACLE WHEAT AS ITS BEST PRIZE WHEAT TO THE WORLD'S FAIR.
DEAR FRIENDS AND BRETHREN: -
A copy of the Chicago Daily Tribune recently came to my notice containing articles, the object of which was an attack upon the Association and especially upon Pastor Russell. Among other points of attack was Miracle Wheat, and thinking that some information on the subject might be of value to you in meeting this attack, I enclose herewith picture and data relative to a field of Miracle Wheat I grew last year. This picture, among thousands of others of the best fields raised in the State, was sent to the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, J. C. Mohler. From this collection was to be chosen the one which would represent the State at the World's Fair, which convenes February 20th.
Now the judges in this matter did not know that this was Miracle Wheat, hence they had nothing to bias their decision. So Miracle Wheat received the award.
I grew 70 acres of this wheat and planted and cared for it in the regular, ordinary way, and had no trouble in disposing of it to my neighbor wheat-growers last fall for seed, at $2 per bushel.
In this section of the country we have to sow more to the acre than in some localities, hence we could not follow the 20 lb. to the acre rate of seeding, but some we seeded at the rate of 1/2 bu. and some at the rate of 3/4 bu. per acre, and we found the three pecks to be the better. If we were going to sow again we would sow rather more than this.
My field yielded 49 bu. to the acre - more than twice the average yield of wheat in this vicinity and in many instances more than three times as much. If this information is of any value to you or any of the friends who may have charge of the matter of setting these things straight before the public, I am thankful for the opportunity to furnish the same. With Christian love and best regards, I am
Your brother and fellow-servant, W. A. JARRETT (ang. Strażnica 01.03 1915 s. 5648 [reprint]).
14) Poniższy fragment przedstawiliśmy w języku polskim w pierwszej części tego artykułu, na podstawie książki pt. „Co kaznodzieja Russell odpowiadał na zadawane jemu liczne pytania” 1947 [ang. 1917] s. 347:
Once we put into THE WATCH TOWER a notice about Miracle Wheat. Many of you saw it. We believe we did right in putting that notice in. We also put in a notice about some kind of beans and one about some special cotton. Some of the friends were benefited by each of these notices. We also put in a notice recently about a cure for cancer. We have had hundreds of letters come in from Truth friends, and hundreds from others; and a great many have reported good results. To some extent this has helped forward the Truth. People saw that we were not trying to get their money, saw that we were trying to do them good, and became interested (ang. Strażnica 15.07 1915 s. 5729 [reprint]).
15) Obszerny fragment o „cudownej pszenicy” przedstawiliśmy w języku polskim w pierwszej części tego artykułu, na podstawie broszury wydanej przez J. F. Rutherforda pt. A Great Battle in the Ecclesiastical Heavens (1915).
Trudno by było tu cytować treść całej tej publikacji, gdyż omawia ona sprawę pszenicy na wielu stronach (s. 20-30, 45-46). Dlatego jedynie odsyłamy zainteresowanych do wspomnianej broszury. Nie wnosi ona jednak nic nowego, ponad treści powyżej przedstawione, gdyż ta publikacja jest tylko obroną C. T. Russella, której dokonał prawnik J. F. Rutherford, wobec pojawiających się, także w prasie, ataków na prezesa Towarzystwa Strażnica i tą organizację.
Widzimy z powyższego, że „cudowna pszenica” była dla Towarzystwa Strażnica ‘znakiem’ nadejścia restytucji, gdyż łączono ją z tekstami biblijnymi (Ez 34:27, 36:29, Iz 35:1, Dz 3:19-21). Była ona zachwalana, reklamowana i sprzedawana przez tą organizację. Dopiero proces sądowy z jednym z czasopism w pewien sposób zakończył zajmowanie się zbożem przez Towarzystwo Strażnica.
Na zakończenie składam podziękowanie za pomoc w tworzeniu tego tekstu J. Romanowskiemu z Warszawy oraz innej życzliwej mi osobie.
Tłumaczenie niektórych powyższych tekstów (zamieszczono je w roku 2013) zainteresowany znajdzie na poniższej stronie badaczy Pisma Świętego:
http://wydawnictwostraz.org/rok-2013/nr-12013/385-cudowna-pszenica.html