"Please wrap me in a Roman toga"

by Smoldering Wick 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  Smoldering Wick

  Those were Charles Taze Russell's last words according to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh:
  

  Jehovah's Witnesses, Center of Flag Rows, Born in Pittsburgh.
  On a train that rumbled over a Texas prairie on a fall day in 1916 a gray-haired man collapsed of a heart attack.
  To a group that gathered round him, he murmured:
  "Please wrap me in a Roman toga."
  Hurried orders brought a wide-eyed porter with a sheet snatched from a berth and careful hands folded it about the prostrate figure.
  Then death rattled in the stricken man's throat and he was still.
  Thus did Charles Taze Russell join his God in whose name he founded in Pittsburgh a religious sect that now numbers 2,500,000 members in all parts of the world.

  http://www.clpgh.org/CLP/exhibit/neighborhoods/northside/nor_n107.html

  "Almost overnight he rose from store clerk to national prominence as a spiritual leader." Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh regarding Charles Taze Russell.
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  OUTLAW

  TOGA!...TOGA!...TOGA!..(animal house)....LOL...OUTLAW
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  Smoldering Wick

  Find A Grave
  
  
  

  You may leave Virtual Flowers & a note to Charles T. Russell at this website:
  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5591
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  Justin

  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 http://www.agsconsulting.com/htdbnon/r6601.htm . 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.

  And now I'm sure we'll hear from some Russell haters who'll add their two cents.

  Justin
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  Justin

  Well, it looks like my link isn't working. 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.

  Justin
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  cellomould

  Were those his last words or first words?
  Dirty little boy he must have been.

  cellomould

  

  "In other words, your God is the warden of a prison where the only prisoner is your God." Jose Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ