THE YOUTHFUL WORTHIES
(4) He forecast the non-Spirit-begotten but Spirit-enlightened class that we call Youthful Worthies. He told of them first as individuals from 1881 onward for whom no crowns were available, and forecast that later, i.e., in the Epiphany, they would come forth as a class, when all consecrations would be without subsequent Spirit-begettal (see, e.g., F 156, 157; Z 4836, 5761; Question Book, pp. 151, 152, 154, 156-158). He did not use the term Youthful Worthies in describing this class, but spoke of them as consecrating between the Ages, as a class not begotten of the Spirit, who would be given a nature and reward with the Ancient Worthies. Some Spirit-begotten and non-Spirit-begotten ones among Truth people, either through ignorance or self-will, insist that they are of the Little Flock. If they do this in ignorance, they should seek to learn the Truth more thoroughly; if they do it in self-will, they should seek more carefully to do God's will, or they may lose out entirely. Some claim that Bro. Russell never spoke of non-Spirit-begotten consecrated ones here in the end of the Age as a class, but only as individuals. But note, e.g., his statement in Z 5761, col. 2:
"It is our thought that with the closing of the 'door' of this Gospel age there will be no more begetting of the holy Spirit to the spirit nature. Any afterward coming to God through consecration, before the inauguration of the restitution work, will be accepted by him, not to the spirit plane of being, but to the earthly plane. Such would come in under the same conditions as the ancient worthies, who were accepted of God. The ancient worthies came in, no call being opened to them—the high calling not being yet open, and the restitution opportunities not open. But they freely gave themselves up to God without knowing what blessings their consecration would bring, except that they had the intimation that they would, in the future life, have a 'better resurrection' than would the remainder of the world.
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