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Why did Charles Taze Russell reject belief in eternal torment in hell?

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Three Jehovah's Witnesses stand beside literature carts, holding religious magazines, at the Star Ferry Pier under a blue sign for City Hall and MTR Station in Hong Kong. — Jehovah’s Witness Adherents of the Jehovah's Witness movement distributing literature about their faith in Hong Kong, China.

Charles Taze Russell rejected the belief in eternal torment in hell because he could not reconcile that concept with the nature of God’s mercy. By the age of 20, this inability to harmonize the doctrine of eternal punishment with divine compassion led him to leave both Presbyterianism and Congregationalism.1

Following this rejection, Russell became an independent teacher who adopted a theology that denied the existence of a place of eternal torment. Instead of facing such punishment, the movement teaches that those who reject Jehovah will face total extinction.2