I found this interesting and was wondering who CE Stewart was. I found two mentions of him in the early Zions WT CDRom which I got from a Bible Student group some years ago. One mention that he had taken THE VOW in 1908, and another in Feb 1914 where he wrote a letter to Russell. It is kind of boring, but it gives some info about this brilliant early Bible Student, CE Stewart:
DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:--
Just a little anniversary note: Twelve years ago today, in
Marten's Hall, St. Louis, I met and heard you for the first
time--having since listened to you seventy times.
You discoursed that day on THE RESURRECTION OF THE GOOD
UNTO LIFE, AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE EVIL UNTO DAMNATION.
One of my eyes was opened by the unreasonableness
of a twenty-four hour Judgment Day, as exposed by you--a
sort of a burlesque on my Methodist training. The other eye
was opened by the reasonableness of the Scriptural Thousand-Year
Day of Judgment, which you explained.
I had been reading THE WATCH TOWER about five months,
and had "gathered in" a little of its Message, as indicated by
the notations on their margins; but I think the impression
made on me that day fixed upon me, somehow, a determination
to know God--to study His revealed Word. What it
would lead to, of course, I could not comprehend. But I
thank our dear Heavenly Father for His merciful and patient
leading. I thank Him for the great responsibilities which are
now mine! I am happy to be in the Truth and to know the
Spirit of the Lord; and my earnest prayer is for wisdom to
properly manifest in my daily life the fruits and graces of
that Spirit.
I wish to express to you my gratitude for your helpfulness
all along the way. I love you for it. I pray daily for the all-sufficient
grace to you-ward--for the Heavenly Father to sustain
and cheer you, and to make you the happiest of men.
Your confidence in, and loyalty to, Almighty God has borne
much fruit for others as well as for yourself, and will certainly
meet with a great reward--shortly.
Somehow--I don't know how--I thought I could see a
climax to culminate in the Seventh Volume, and from the
first I have prayed that God might prepare my heart for that
Seventh Volume. This Harvest Message as a whole has included
so much. I feel confident that this great anticipation
for the consummation of the Divine Plan of the Ages, in
narrowing down the rays of prophecy and Present Truth to
the focal-point, "It is Done," has carried me over many
bridges where rails, ties and pillars had been removed.
I am praising God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and our Father, for an appreciation of, and a participation in,
the Precious Blood! With tenderest love to my Pastor, I
remain,
Your fellow-servant in Christ, C. E. STEWART.
