CharlesTaze Russell's last words

[Guest Kurt]

Russell's secretary, Menta Sturgeon, was with him when he died and related the events surrounding Russell's death in a talk given at the funeral, found in the December 1916 issue of the Watchtower. See Harvest Truth DataBase V5.0.  It was Sturgeon who wrapped him in the bed sheet, and Russell showed him how to make it look like a Roman toga. Russell did not simply drop suddenly, but his death was a lingering one in which he became progressively ill on his last preaching tour, traveling on the train. He never explained what the Roman toga meant, and both Sturgeon and Rutherford attempted to give explanations. Both agreed that Russell had finished his course victoriously.

So if anyone wants to read Sturgeon's speech, go to the Harvest Truth Database V5.0 and look for the Watchtower of December 1916.

Harvest Truth DataBase V5.0

www.leocuellar.com

[The Librarian]

Here is the Watchtower of 1916:

w1916_E.pdf

I am intrigued by the Roman Toga comment there..... any ideas? 

Was he considering himself ready to go to heaven and prepared in his white robes for his salvation?

@JW Insider might remember the story of A.H. Macmillan standing on the bridge in his white robes ready to be raptured. I forget the details though.

 

Here is the archive list 

 

[The Librarian]

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

About 12 years ago, when it appeared that I was on my "death bed",  and did not have very long to live ... I told my ex-wife how I wanted to be buried, and she flatly refused to do it.

I told her I wanted to be double wrapped in HEFTY yard leaf bag sized trash bags, and put out on the curb.

... Tuesdays, it was the City's problem.

[JW Insider]

1 hour ago, The Librarian said:

Was he considering himself ready to go to heaven and prepared in his white robes for his salvation?

@JW Insider might remember the story of A.H. Macmillan standing on the bridge in his white robes ready to be raptured. I forget the details though.

The robes story may have shown that A.H.MacMillan was a good story-teller, but didn't care so much for research. He says there was a newspaper story about the occasion in Pittsburgh, but was probably confusing this with a story of some non-Russellite Second Adventists in Philadelphia. All the major Pittsburgh and Allegheny newspapers from the time period still exist and nothing like this was reported in Pittsburgh. The other thing is that the original "white robes" or "ascension robes" stories were probably made up out of whole cloth by non-Adventists making fun of Adventists, continuing since the Great Disappointment of 1843 and 1844, and repeated on a smaller scale among "Barbourite" Adventists in 1873 and 1874, with some Barbourite/Russellite Adventists trying again in 1878 and 1881.

But "ascension robes" were not a real, confirmed part of any of these stories. Biblically, it was the "Lord" who was going to give the robes. Boston newspapers made up stories about clothes manufacturers working overtime to create these robes in time, but there was never any evidence. 

By 1916 however these stories of white "ascension robes" had become an accepted part of the supposed culture of Second Adventists, from outsiders, but had become "true" through repetition. So it's possible that Russell believed they were a useful symbol of his true faith in his imminent ascension. And it's possible that MacMillan writing in the 1950's was recalling events through those later "filters." But at the time, Sturgeon and Rutherford made an effort to distance the "toga" from that interpretation. 

I think it was possible that Russell's mind was gone by then. The type of sickness he had was the close equivalent of being poisoned to die slowly until the mind goes, too.

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

Whenever I think "Toga", I think of John Belushi and "Food Fight".