Who Accepts the Praise?
By R. F. Cottrell
"I see by the last Expositor that Bro. J. M. Stevenson, of Wisconsin, has fully renounced the seventh-day Sabbath. Well, praise the Lord. My soul fully responds, Amen and amen. I was anticipating this, though not quite so soon. I do rejoice in the redemption of another worthy minister of Christ from the bondage of Sabbatarianism, and may God bless him abundantly, and may he be successful in opening the eyes of dear brethren and sisters who have honestly been led astray from the path of duty and truth, by the bewitching and bewildering influence of the Review and Herald."—A. N. Seymour, in Expositor, 1858. What is the cause of this rejoicing and praise? A person who had been compelled, by the force of Bible testimony, to embrace the Sabbath, had given it up. The writer holds that there is no Sabbath for the present time. Of course, all days being alike with him, he would equally rejoice at the renunciation of the first-day Sabbath. No, no! it is the "seventh-day Sabbath" that has been "fully renounced." They all observe the Sunday, sometimes, giving it, like Sylvester of Rome, "the more imposing title of Lord's day." We never hear their rejoicings at any one's giving up the Sunday. Thus while they make all days alike theoretically, they still make a marked distinction—despiring most heartily the observance of the seventh day. You may keep the first or any other, or none at all; but you must not keep the seventh. Why this partiality? why this hatred to the seventh day? No other reason can they give, than that God blessed and sanctified it, giving it to man for rest and worship, and as a memorial of himself—his mighty work and his rest upon the seventh day. The "bondage of Sabbatarianism" consists altogether in keeping the seventh day; there is no bondage to them in keeping the first. A day of rest and worship is all well enough, if you do not choose the day that God has set apart; nay, it is necessary to have such a day; though this was strangely overlooked when the institution was abolished, leaving man without a Sabbath who before enjoyed one. But if you choose the seventh day, you are in bondage. Now I submit that this is Satan's logic. He hates God, and hates the memorial of his choosing—the seventh day. And since no possible reason can be given against keeping the seventh day more than against keeping the first, but that it is an institution of Jehovah's, I conclude that when one praises the Lord because another has renounced this holy institution, the praise is acceptable only to the great adversary of the Almighty. He, and he only, will accept such praise.
R. F. Cottrell.