Editing Charles Taze Russell (section)

===Publications===
With the formation of the Watch Tower Society, Russell intensified his ministry. His Bible study group had grown to hundreds of local members, with followers throughout [[New England]], the [[The Virginias|Virginias]], [[Ohio]], and elsewhere. They annually re-elected him "Pastor", and commonly referred to him as "Pastor Russell". Congregations that eventually formed in other nations also followed this tradition.<ref name="Pastor Russell 1918, p. 6">''Biography of Pastor Russell, Divine Plan of the Ages'', 1918, p. 6</ref><ref>''Great Battle in the Ecclesiastical Heavens'', 1915</ref>

In 1881, Russell published his first work to gain wide distribution: ''Food for Thinking Christians.'' The 162-page "pamphlet" was published using donated funds amounting to approximately $40,000 (current value ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|40000|1878}}}}).<ref>''Overland Monthly'', January 1917 p. 128</ref> It had a circulation of nearly 1.5&nbsp;million copies over a period of four months distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Great Britain by various channels.<ref>''Watch Tower'', December 1, 1916 p. 357</ref><ref>''Zion's Watch Tower'', September 1881 p. 5</ref> During the same year he published ''Tabernacle and its Teachings'' which was quickly expanded and reissued as ''Tabernacle Shadows of the "Better Sacrifices"'', outlining his interpretation of the various animal sacrifices and tabernacle ceremonies instituted by [[Moses]]. Russell claimed that the distribution of these works and other tracts by the Watch Tower Society during 1881 exceeded by eight times that of the [[American Tract Society]] for the year 1880.<ref>''Zion's Watch Tower'', September 1881 p. 5: "As we were reaching Christians in the cities with the pamphlets, we sent the papers only with weekly and monthly journals, and hope thus to have reached many Christians in country districts. We sent out in this way over 400,000 copies. Thus you see that from an apparently small beginning, the tract work has spread to the immense proportions of 1,200,000 copies, or about 200,000,000 pages in four months, or about eight times as much (in number) as were distributed by the American Tract Society in the last year."</ref>

In 1903, newspapers began publishing his written sermons. These newspaper sermons were syndicated worldwide in as many as 4,000 newspapers, eventually reaching an estimated readership of some 15&nbsp;million in the United States and Canada.<ref name="Pastor Russell 1918, p. 6" />

In 1910, the secular journal ''[[Overland Monthly]]'' calculated that by 1909, Russell's writings had become the most widely distributed, privately produced English-language works in the United States. It said that the entire corpus of his works were the third most circulated on earth, after the Bible and the [[Tung Shing|Chinese Almanac]].<ref>''Overland Monthly'', January 1910 p. 130: "As a writer, Mr. Russell's books have enjoyed a larger circulation than any English work ... Of his work entitled 'Studies in the Scriptures,' the average output is two thousand three hundred copies for each working day. We regret the records of 1909 are not yet complete, but in 1908 seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand, four hundred and seventy-four volumes were sold. Since publication, three million five hundred and thirty-four thousand volumes have been circulated. Last year, in addition to these there were three hundred and eight million pages of his tracts circulated. In all literature the Bible is about the only book that has had a larger circulation ... In the literature of the world, the order would probably be as follows: The Bible, the Chinese Almanac, the 'Studies in the Scriptures,' 'Don Quixote,' 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and Hubbard's 'Message to Garcia.'"</ref> In 1912 ''The Continent'', a Presbyterian journal, stated that in North America Russell's writings had achieved a greater circulation "than the combined circulation of the writings of all the priests and preachers in North America".<ref>''The Continent'', McCormick Publishing Company, vol. 43, no. 40, October 3, 1912 p. 1354</ref>

Russell also had many critics, and he was frequently described as a [[heresy|heretic]] in this period.<ref>''Millennial Dawnism: The Annihilation of Jesus Christ'' by I.M. Haldeman, 1913; ''"Pastor" Russell's Position and Credentials'' by J.H. Burridge; ''Some Facts about the self-styled "Pastor" Charles T. Russell'' by J.J. Ross, 1912</ref>

====''Studies in the Scriptures''====
Russell devoted nearly a tenth of his fortune, along with contributed funds, in publishing and distributing ''Food for Thinking Christians'' in 1881. That year he also published ''The Tabernacle and its Teachings'' and ''Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices''. In 1886, after reportedly not making back most of the money spent publishing these three titles, he began publication of what was intended to be a seven-volume series. The volumes were collectively called ''Millennial Dawn'', later renamed ''[[Studies in the Scriptures]]'' to clarify that they were not novels. Russell published six volumes in the series:{{Citation needed|date=December 2012}}
* ''The Plan of the Ages''&nbsp;– later renamed ''The Divine Plan of the Ages'' (1886)
* ''The Time is at Hand'' (1889)
* ''Thy Kingdom Come'' (1891)
* ''The Day of Vengeance''&nbsp;– later renamed ''The Battle of Armageddon'' (1897)
* ''The At-one-ment Between God and Men'' (1899)
* ''The New Creation'' (1904)

The delayed publication of the seventh volume became a source of great anticipation and mystery among Bible Students. Following Russell's death in 1916, a seventh volume titled ''The Finished Mystery'' was published in 1917; this was advertised as his "posthumous work". This seventh volume was a detailed interpretation of the [[Book of Revelation]], but also included interpretations of [[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]] and the [[Song of Songs|Song of Solomon]]. Controversy quickly surrounded both its publication and content. It soon became known that much of the contents were written and compiled by two of Russell's associates, Clayton J. Woodworth and [[George H. Fisher]], and edited by [[Joseph Franklin Rutherford|Joseph Rutherford]], by then the new president of the Watch Tower Society.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Franz | first = Raymond | author-link = Raymond Franz | title = Crisis of Conscience | publisher = Commentary Press | year = 2004 | location = Atlanta, Georgia | pages = [https://archive.org/details/crisisofconscien00raym/page/61 61–62, 206–211] | isbn = 0-914675-23-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/crisisofconscien00raym/page/61 }}</ref>

====''Photo Drama of Creation''====
{{Main|The Photo-Drama of Creation}}
Russell directed the production of a worldwide roadshow presentation titled ''[[The Photo-Drama of Creation]]'', an innovative eight-hour religious film in four parts. It was the first major screenplay to incorporate synchronized sound, moving film, and color slides.<ref name=filmsite>American Movie Classics, [http://www.filmsite.org/1914-filmhistory.html "Timeline of Greatest Film History Milestones'..."1914"]. Retrieved 15 April 2009</ref> Production began as early as 1912, and the ''Drama'' was introduced in 1914 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162536/trivia IMDB article "Photo-Drama of Creation (1914), Retrieved 15 April 2009]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.filmsite.org/milestones1910s_2.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100110133622/http://www.filmsite.org/milestones1910s_2.html|url-status=dead|title="Timeline of Influential Milestones...1910s", American Movie Classics, retrieved 15 April 2009|archivedate=January 10, 2010}}</ref> A book by the same name was also published. The project's expenses put the organization under some financial pressures; the full cost was estimated at US$300,000 (current value ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|300000|1914|r=-4}}}}).<ref>"Society Uses Many Means to Expand Preaching", ''Centennial of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania 1884–1984'', p. 24, "The Photo-Drama presented the explanation of Bible truth from the time of creation, the fall into sin, the promises of God to redeem man and His dealings through history until the millennial restitution. It is believed to have been viewed by more than 9,000,000 people throughout North America and Europe, as well as many others in places around the world. It took two years and $300,000 to complete the project, many of the scenes being hand colored. Yet admission was free and no collections were taken."</ref><ref>"United States of America", ''1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses'', p. 59</ref><ref>The Warning Work (1909–1914)", ''The Watchtower'', March 1, 1955, p. 143</ref>