Book Description

From the introductory. In this leaflet I am to tell you something about the so-called "Pastor" C. T. Russell, the founder and chief executive of "Millennial Dawnism." Though the name of Russell is quite familiar, very little is known about the man himself. Nothing is known of his parentage nor of his early boyhood. We first hear of him selling shirts in Alleghany, Pa., having inherited this business from his father. He lectured on religious subjects from time to time, in various halls and churches, becoming known as the crank preacher. He got a considerable following of the common people, and sold out the five men's furnishing stores which he owned, thenceforth devoting all his time to teaching and preaching his peculiar religious doctrines and giving out that he himself "was some great one." He never attended the higher schools of learning, knows comparatively nothing of philosophy, systematic or historical theology, and is totally ignorant of the dead languages, and yet he is successful in making his disciples believe that the most difficult passages in the Old Testament and the book of Revelation are as simple as a sunbeam to him. "Pastor" Russell was never ordained and has no church affiliation. He would not be given a place in the pulpit of any evangelical church on the American continent or any other country where he and his religious views are known. By thousands he is believed to be a religious fakir of the worst type, who goes about like the Magus of Samaria enriching himself at the expense of the ignorant. Years ago he gave himself the title of "Pastor" and from this many have inferred that he was a properly approved minister of the gospel. In 1879, he married Miss Marie F. Ackley, who divorced him a few years ago on the ground of cruelty and of having wrong relations with other women. In court, she proved improprieties between her husband and one Rose Ball. Mrs. Russell is now living at Avalon, Pa.