He said: "None will be permitted to have everlasting life who then in the slightest degree fall short of perfection. To fall short of perfection, then, will be to sin willfully against full light and perfect ability. Any who sin willfully against full light and ability, will die the second death... The obedient class are shown to be the more numerous. They enter into everlasting life and the others are remanded to death (extinction), the same sentence as in the first judgment, from which they have been released by the payment of a ransom -by the death of Christ. This will be their second death. No ransom will be given them, and there will be no release or resurrection for them " (Vol. 1, page 44). "This sin hath never forgiveness, and its penalty, the second death, will be everlasting—not everlasting dying—but everlasting death—a death unbroken by a resurrection " (Vol. 1, page 157).
With the denial of eternal punishment we have always held that weak, and vague, and imperfect views of the Gospel will be found accompanying, if not a denial of the Gospel itself.
In this quotation we find the Gospel is perverted and in effect denied. The atoning death of Christ is said to cover only the judgment of the first death, and only secures a second chance where the first has been refused. And as to everlasting life, it is, according to Russell, earned by absolute perfection, for any who fall from perfection in the slightest degree will die the second death -will be annihilated.