In the scheme of things the Ross libel trial was a very small footnote. But it is hoped that this work will clear up some of the questions raised by those events of 1913, even if in so doing, it might raise a few more.
Ross’s attack on CTR (Pastor Russell) was all personal. It wasn’t even based on personal observation or experience, but rather upon unfriendly sources that he accepted with a less than critical eye. He saw Russell as a theological enemy when he came to Hamilton to preach, and he used the lowest form of argument to try and warn his flock. Honest members of his congregation may well have been moved to quietly investigate the Bible Student message for themselves. Ross could have written a scriptural refutation of Watch Tower teachings as he saw it, but he chose not to do so. Supporters of Watch Tower belief at that time would read into this that he did not because he could not.
For reasonable people, people who want evidence based conclusions, ad hominem attacks are always an own goal.
Following this last
chapter are two appendices detailing how CTR dealt with the main criticisms in
the Ross tract, and how J F Rutherford summed up the case as he (a lawyer) saw
it.
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