Watch Tower Society Board of Directors
In Faith on the March, Macmillan described a private meeting he had with Russell in 1916. According to Macmillan, Russell spoke of his poor health and indicated a desire for Macmillan to take over the affairs of the Allegheny office. Russell died several weeks later, on October 31, 1916. By 1918, The New York Times described Macmillan as "Superintendent of the Bethel Home" and as one of "the leaders of the International Bible Students Association".
After the January 5, 1918 annual meeting of the Watch Tower Society, Macmillan joined the Society's board of director, and Rutherford became a board member and president. That year, Macmillan—along with Rutherford and other Watch Tower Society officials—was arrested, charged with violation of the Sedition Act of 1918 as a result of anti-war sentiments expressed in the book, The Finished Mystery; they were sentenced to federal prison in Atlanta, but were released and exonerated in 1919.
During the 1920s, Macmillan traveled extensively on service tours to Europe and the Middle East, for public speaking engagements and to monitor activities at branch offices around the world. Such assignments included Scotland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, Italy, and Sweden.
Macmillan also traveled throughout the United States and Canada as an appointed "pilgrim", performing twice-yearly visits with local congregations. By the 1930s, Macmillan, based in Brooklyn, was a "traveling representative" speaking at congregations and larger assemblies, encouraging individuals to pursue the full-time ministry. Macmillan also met with local law enforcement and government officials to explain the significance of the dozens of then-recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions which were mostly favorable to Jehovah's Witnesses. Macmillan was permitted by the director of the United States Bureau of Prisons to regularly visit Witnesses in federal prisons in the United States who had been incarcerated for refusing military service during World War II.
Read more about this topic: Alexander Hugh Macmillan
Famous quotes containing the words watch, tower, society and/or board:
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 15:3.
“Culture is a sham if it is only a sort of Gothic front put on an iron building—like Tower Bridge—or a classical front put on a steel frame—like the Daily Telegraph building in Fleet Street. Culture, if it is to be a real thing and a holy thing, must be the product of what we actually do for a living—not something added, like sugar on a pill.”
—Eric Gill (1882–1940)
“Being dismantled before our eyes are not just individual programs that politicians cite as too expensive but the whole idea that society has a stake in the well-being of children down the block and the security of families on the other side of town. Whether or not kids eat well, are nurtured and have a roof over their heads is not just a consequence of how their parents behave. It is also a responsibility of society—but now apparently a diminishing one.”
—Richard B. Stolley (20th century)
“During depression the world disappears. Language itself. One has nothing to say. Nothing. No small talk, no anecdotes. Nothing can be risked on the board of talk. Because the inner voice is so urgent in its own discourse: How shall I live? How shall I manage the future? Why should I go on?”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)