R. F. COTTERILL by R. F. COTTERILL.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 16, 1869

R. F. COTTERILL

By R. F. COTTERILL.

SACRED NOTIONS. NO. 3.

Various are the notions that fill the minds of individuals which darken their mental vision, warp their judgment, becloud their reasoning faculties, and keep them from the light of the clearest revealed truths.

Some have peculiar views of sanctification. They have at some time been sanctified, made holy, by exercises of the mind, impressions, impulses, dreams, and ecstasies, and these things stand right in the way of their receiving and obeying the sanctifying truths of the word of God. All things must be tested by their experience. They have been perfectly holy so long that there seems to be no chance for improvement. Like a chronic disease which will hardly yield to the best treatment, is a chronic holiness, obtained by thinking and not by doing the will of God by keeping his commandments. And their impressions stand in the way of their submission and obedience. According to their views, the Saviour should say to them in the end, Well thought, Well imagined, Well felt, or, Well said, instead of “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

They have become so firm in their way of thinking, so filled with wild fancies and imaginations calculated to exalt themselves, and have taken so decided a stand, not on the doctrine of Bible holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, but upon my holiness, that to say I was wrong, and have learned better, is like “the giving up of the ghost,” the surrender of life itself. And the Scriptures to them mean just what they will have them, to agree with their imaginations. If to maintain their own perfect holiness, and to be like the sinless angels, it becomes necessary for them to be the “children of the resurrection,” they will profess to have attained to the first resurrection and eternal life.

If they think of humbling themselves by confessing wherein they have been wrong, Satan stands ready to tell them that that would be denying the Holy Spirit in the work it had done for them. He makes them think it is their fear of committing the awful sin against the Holy Spirit, and not their own spiritual pride that stands in the way of their frankly saying, I was wrong. If they could only see that while they were seeking God and the holiness he requires, Satan pushed them over the line that divides between lifeless formality and wild fanaticism, causing them to profess attainment to perfection which they had not reached, and putting themselves in a position of self-glorification, instead of glorifying God by their humility, then they could see that to confess their wrong would glorify God by humbling themselves, instead of being a sin against the Spirit.

You have learned something more of the way of holiness since you professed its attainment; and it will honor God instead of being a sin against him, to confess it. It will not kill you; it will do you good. Try it. To crucify self is not a sin. It does not spoil our enjoyment, but brings peace. Please read again the short article in REVIEW of Dec. 22, under the general heading of Practical Thoughts on Bible Subjects, and under the particular head of Humility and False Humility.