"Please wrap me in a Roman Toga" - Russell's Last Words? (page 4)

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"Then he said, "Where IS my toga. Fetch it at once!"

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To a group that gathered round him, he murmured: "I hope that 89 years from now, people aren't making jokes about my last words."

Nathan Natas

From Zion's Watch Tower - December 1, 1916

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PREPARATIONS FOR DEATH

Toward morning he had me make a robe for convenience sake by pinning a sheet inside of a blanket, wrapping him in it like a robe and fastening it under his chin. He stood up on the floor for this purpose, and then lay down on the couch instead of returning to his berth. I therefore sat on his bed while he lay before me. After several hours his robe proved to be rather inconvenient, because the sheet and blanket could not be kept together. It was then that he stood again and said, "Please make me a Roman toga."

I did not understand what he meant, but did not like to have him repeat, because he was so weak. His voice had become so weak that he had to repeat nearly everything he said. I had said to him at several times, "Dear Brother Russell, I do not like to ask you to repeat anything (It had always been my custom to listen to him so closely in all his dictation as not to require any repetition); but your voice is so weak that one can scarcely hear you." He would always repeat until at last the repetition would do no good, after which he made signs. Finally the signs failed.

I said, "Brother Russell, I do not understand what you mean." He said, "I will show you." He had me take a clean sheet and turn it down twelve inches from the top; and then a second one the same. Placing his left hand on his right shoulder, he said, "Fasten them together here." Having in my pocket a paper of safety-pins which I had recently purchased, it was easy for me to hold the sheets together on his right shoulder and at the same time reach into my pocket and get a safety-pin. The sheets being fastened with the pin, as he had directed, he said, "Now fasten them together on the other shoulder." This I did. There he stood, one sheet extending from his neck to his feet in front and the other in the back, fastened together on his two shoulders, and folded together at the edges. He stood erect before me for a moment without saying a word, then lay down on the couch on his back, closed his eyes, and lay there before me as in a shroud, a perfect picture of death.

I sat on the side of the bed watching him, beholding him, and the thought of death went through my mind. It was difficult for me to get the thought into my head that Brother Russell was going to die. I could not exactly believe it, even now. It all seemed so foreign to what we had expected. However, I know now that the Lord was gradually teaching us both from the time we had left San Antonio until now that Brother Russell's end was drawing on apace. How much Brother Russell may have understood or meant by these movements we may not surely know. They were at least the wisest things that could be done in his case; but to us they mean far more, and we believe that the Lord so arranged. The toga was worn by Roman officials and sometimes by priests, and sometimes symbolized victory and peace, and at other times that the one wearing it had fulfilled his vows. To the writer's mind all these things are meant. He had fulfilled his vows! he had gained the victory! he was at peace! Thenceforth there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness, which the Lord would shortly place upon his noble brow.
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The date? October 31, 1916 -

Halloween!

O sweet irony!