Alfred C. Malone
Alfred
Malone, a physician from Palestine, Indiana, though aged, was preaching the
message at least by 1885. He wrote to Russell explaining that he had preached a
series of sermons at Paris, Illinois, and sending a synopsis of their contents
which Russell published in the September 1885, Zion’s Watch Tower.
Malone
was born in Indiana March 20, 1819, and was sixty-six years old in 1885. A
brief biography of Malone says he went to school in Owensville, Indiana, but
was “mainly self-educated.” He was a clerk early in life, then a school
teacher.[1] In
1846, he graduated from Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati and practiced as an
Eclectic physician. He moved to Palestine in 1850, opening a general store and
a drugstore as an adjunct to his medical practice.[2] Shortly
after graduation, he wrote to the editor of The Botanico-Medical Recorder,
addressing a controversy in medical education. His article is slightly
biographical, and we take from it this fragment: “Before I commenced the study
of medicine, but coetaneous with the idea, I commenced pouring over my Latin
Grammar, and Lexicon so that I might, at least, have a smattering of Latin ...
. This idea was so preponderant, that I studied so intensely, and after night
by the dim light of a taper, that I have almost studied out my left eye.”[3] His
biographer said, “In politics, Mr. Malone is neutral; he has not voted since he
helped elect Abraham Lincoln.” He was twice married, his first wife dying in
1861.[4] Malone
was a prolific writer, contributing articles to the Cincinnati, Ohio, Gazette,
and “three other political papers.” He contributed articles to various medical
journals.
We do
not know what his religious affiliation was in the 1840s. But we know something
of his religious views, and they tend toward Literalism. He expressed them in
response to another physician’s suggestion that doctors maintain a certain mysticism
about medicine. Malone rejected this, and compared it to the state of
Christianity:
As in the political, so in the religious world,
mystery is the watch-word. Let us keep the people in ignorance. Thus it was that
the “man of sin – the son of perdition – who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshiped,” usurped the throne of the
King Eternal; and, thus it is, that the leaders of the
belligerent parties of the day, in some measure, now keep up the
divisions which have been made by the same potent enemy of man – mystery. They
teach the people that the word is a mystery; that it must be spiritualized;
and that, until this is done, the common people cannot understand it –
that they are called and qualified to explain it:
but each sectarian establishment explains it differently, hence, so much
division. Mystery is mighty you see, ... to subserve party purposes, and
unduly exalt a certain class at the expense of the Bible. ...
This is all taught to be religion, and the
religion of the Bible. But we know it all to be a farce, and why?
Because it has been stripped of its mysteries by God-loving, God-honoring, and
God-serving ministers, so that we see all its native deformities. “Technicalities”
indeed! They only serve to create a stupid admiration for those who use them.
The glorious gospel of the ever-blessed God was noted for its introduction
among the poor, and its perfect adaptation to their understanding and
condition. “To the poor, the gospel is preached” was one of the Messiah's confirmatory
evidences of his mission. The divine philanthropy of the King Eternal encircled
in the arms of his benevolence the whole human race, by adapting his gospel to
the capacity and condition of the needy as well as the affluent, the
illiterate as well as the learned, the rud& as well as
the 'polite.
As in the religious, so shall it be in the medical
world. Every thing should be plain, and adapted to the capacities and
understandings of all as far as practicable. The same arguments that
will apply to the abolition of mystery and “technicalities” in the religious
world, will apply with equal, if not greater force in the medical world.[5]
So
much of this is Literalist belief that we suspect he had already been exposed
to it. There is a confusing bit of Disciples history that associates the
Malones with that church in the 1850s. In 1858 he and a few others withdrew (a
Disciples history says ‘reorganized’) and formed a separate congregation. We
suspect that the division was on doctrinal grounds, but we cannot prove that.
Malone connected with One Faith believers as associated with The Restitution.
Writing that he was “known as a gentleman and a scholar,” his biographer noted
that Malone contributed to Prophetic Watchman, (Howard, Illinois), The
Gospel Banner, (Geneva, Illinois), The Herald of the Coming Kingdom,
(Chicago), and The Restitution, (Plymouth, Indiana). These are all
Age-to-Come and One Faith journals. He wrote to books as well, Bible
Religion and The Age to Come. W. H. Perrin, the biographer noted above,
described Malone’s books as works of merit. We failed to locate Bible
Religion and cannot comment on it. But we think The Age to Come is a
thoughtful and well-written book.
As
its title suggests, it presents Age-to-Come belief. Malone’s opening words
were: “That the Bible teaches the grand and glorious doctrine of ‘the age to
come,’ embracing ten periods of a hundred years each, otherwise called ‘the age
of ages,’ I think is fully revealed in that Book, and will be thoroughly shown
as we proceed in the investigation.” As cogent as much of Malone’s book is, it
is significantly at odds with Storrs and Russell beliefs about the nature and
scope of salvation. Malone rejected Fair Chance doctrine.[6]
Malone’s Age to Come is an effective statement of where the Allegheny
Bible Study Group was in 1870 or so. To adopt Russellite views, he had to
travel similar paths. Not many One Faith believers were able to do that, but
Malone gives a clue to the impulse that took him to Watch Tower belief. We find
it in his book: “Catering to a theory, is not conversion to Christ. An entire
acceptance of the Divine Word, a child-like study of its teachings, and an
implicit obedience to its commands, not a hunting out of what is pleasing and
peculiar in some points only, is the only safe path.”[7]
We do
not know when he finally accepted Watch Tower doctrine, but he was preaching it
by 1885. He wrote to Russell, sending a précis of lectures he had given in
Paris, Illinois, “hoping that it will not be uninteresting to yourself and the
readers of the tower.”[8]
Finding the detailed content of a Watch Tower worker’s message is a rare event.
Malone reasoned from Scripture that God is the Savior
of all men from the Adamic sin and death. He is first the savior of “very few,
a ‘little flock.’ Then he saves a “great crowd.” Salvation is “builded upon
God’s philanthropy and the eternal fitness of things.” The work of the present
age is to bring the Little Flock to salvation because it is “destined to be
kings and priests with Christ.” The Little flock assists in bringing the many
to salvation. However, God is “not now the Saviour, in fact, of all men, nor
indeed of any as generally taught – a Saviour from famines, pestilences,
earthquakes, cyclones, etc., etc. But he will be ‘the Saviour of all’ from the
effects of the Adamic sin and death.”
“Adam
and Eve wrecked themselves and the race in the loss of innocence, in the loss
of God's image, and in a gain of sin and death,” he said. Animal creation was
affected because perfect human dominion faded. When perfect, Adam and Eve “only
fell a little short of the angels of God.” Using concepts anyone familiar with
current Watchtower doctrine will recognize, he amplified his view of paradise:
And all intelligences were put under contribution to administer
to their necessities and happiness. His sight was flooded with glory; his taste
was satisfied with richest viands, and his ears were thrilled with grandest
melodies, his lungs were filled and bathed in the life-inspiring atmosphere,
and his blood was made to leap and dance with a perfect manhood – God's
inexpressible gifts for the perpetuation of a glorified manhood.
And this perfect state of manhood might have been
continued forever, as the means to this end were placed within their reach. But
with the entrance of sin, Eden was lost, lordship was lost, innocence was lost,
happiness and a glorified humanity were lost, and pain and woe and misery were
gained! ...
Through the disobedience of one man the world was
flooded with sin and woe and death; and these could never have been lifted had not
another perfect and obedient Man Redeemed-Ransomed the race.
This
salvation is universal, and "God will have" it, no matter who may
oppose; for "He works all things after the counsels of his own will."
Malone did not advocate Universal Salvation, and that’s not what he meant here.
He meant that salvation was available to all, through the sacrifice of Christ
who filled Adam’s place. He rejected Universalism. Instead he believed that, “As
all sinned and died in or by Adam, so God being just, after the ransom was
paid, the Redeemer controls all and may restore all to Adamic life and
perfection; and then put them upon trial for themselves, not Adam for them;
they will live for, or in, their own obedience; or die for their own sins.”
God
accomplishes this through the selection of “a little flock” who are made rulers
in the Kingdom of God, administrators of divine blessings. Malone described
them as a “race immortal rulers.” This “is an election by grace for kingship
and priesthood in the kingdom. This salvation is only for "the little flock,"
for the Bride of Christ, for members of his Body; and here there can be only so
many. Christ's Body is not to be a monstrosity, but perfect and complete.” This
‘truth’ has been “lost sight of” by the many. Instead:
Now it is popular, honorable, and leads to wealth and
fame to belong to some so-called orthodox church, but in Paul's day, it meant
the loss of caste, of riches and honor, and even life itself to be a member of
the true Church. Pure Christianity is unchanged; now, as then, "they that
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." And, if we are not
partakers of this persecution, of this dishonor, we "are bastards and not
sons." That is, many claim to be children of God, to belong to "the
little flock," to the consecrating ones, whereas they only have "a
name to live while they are dead" to this life of toil and labor and
entire obedience to God!
True
members of the Little Flock must live as Christ lived, suffer the insults and
persecution he suffered, and accept rejection for the sake of faith. Christ
also saves a great crowd. The Little Flock exists for the blessing of the bulk
of humanity, including those who fell short of grasping the “crown.” “These,
though losing the crown, may be ‘saved in the day of Christ.’” Most of
Christendom believed that the world is on trial now. This is not Scriptural.
Malone said so:
The world is not now on trial, nor has it ever yet
been. Adam was tried and failed, and all men in him. The new trial of the world
cannot take place until the Head and Body of Christ are prepared to offer it.
The Head of the Christ has been tried and triumphed. "The little
flock" is now on trial, and when it shall have triumphed and been joined
to the Head, then the trial of the world shall commence. When the King and
Queen – the Christ and his Bride – shall have been married, then, and not until
then, shall "the times of restitution" bear their perfected fruits.
The "little flock" are not to be restored; they are to stand out as
bright stars, and shine as the sun over a restored earth. The restored earth
and its restored lord- mankind-will be indeed grand, but the "little
flock," the Body of
Christ, his Bride with the Head is the grandest of
all! far above angels as well as men.
The pure wife is the glory of a pure husband; the
redeemed, glorified Bride is the glory of Christ, and Christ is the glory of
God! Everything in its own proper place and time; but "God over all blessed
forever”!
Malone
was an old man when he entered the Watch Tower ministry. In the spring of 1888
he met General Benjamin Harrison. A record of their meeting describes him as “an
elderly physician of Palestine, Illinois.” Malone told Harrison, “I have wanted
to meet you, as I am firmly convinced that you will be the nominee for the
Presidency by the Republican National Convention ... and that you will be
elected next November. I am an old man and do not expect to live to cast a vote
in another Presidential election after this year, but it will be a source of
great satisfaction during the remainder of my life to know that
I have met the next President of the United States and
to have cast my last vote for him.” Alfred Malone died July 28, 1892. Benjamin Harrison
served as President of the United States from 1889 to 1893.
[1] The store that Alfred clerked for in Owensville was
Hall & Warrick.
[2] We read several of his medical journal articles. Only
one of them contribute to this history, but, for the record, we found articles
by him in the August 1872, Chicago Medical Times; the October 1856, American
Medical Journal; the January 1861, Eclectic Medical Journal;
[3] A. C. Malone: The Physician’s Character, The
Botanico-Medical Recorder, October 23, 1847, pages 337-339.
[4] W. H. Perrin: History of Crawford and Clark Counties,
Illinois, Part III, Biographical Sketches, 1883.
[5] A. C. Malone: The Physician’s Character, The
Botanico-Medico Recorder, Pages 337-338.
[6] see pages 48-50.
[7] page 105.
[8] A. C. Malone: Fruits of the Ransom, Zion’s Watch
Tower, September 1885, page 4.
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