Second Letter from Bro. Cottrell.
By R. F. Cottrell
In the Recorder of Dec. 6, Bro. Cottrell made the following response to the foregoing letter from Eld. Lewis:— Dear Brother,—I thank you for your prompt and kind reply to the letter I addressed to you through the Recorder. I am truly glad that we are so well agreed upon “the situation” and future prospects of the Sabbath controversy. Your hopefulness as to the future triumph of the truth, I find, corresponds with my own. May we yet come to a perfect unity of faith. And we shall. As the battle grows warmer, all the faithful to the law of God will rally under one banner. That banner will be “The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” or, in other words, it will be the present specific fulfillment of the prophetic message of Rev. xiv, 9–12. The wrath, which you foresee is coming upon the “lawless one” and his adherents, will not come till this warning message is made conspicuous—until it is proclaimed with a “loud voice.” When this specific work is done, the wine-press of the wrath of God will be trodden—the seven last vials will be poured out “upon the men which have the mark of the beast, and upon them which worship his image.” I can discover no difference between your views and mine, only that I hold more definite views in regard to prophecy than you. Yours to see the end of the conflict, and to share in the triumph.
R. F. COTTRELL.
Ridgeway, N. Y., Nov. 29, 1866. In relation to this subject, as presented by Bro. Cottrell, B. Clark, in the Recorder of Dec. 13, wrote as follows:— “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Isa. lxvi, 23. Here we see a prophecy that must and will be fulfilled, that not only monthly meetings, but Sabbath meetings for worship, will be universal. And the “Lord of the Sabbath-day,” that said, “The Sabbath was made for man,” said also that “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up;” and that it is “vain worship to lay aside the commandments of God, and teach for doctrine the commandments of men,” which are all to perish with their using. He that was “born king” said, after he arose from the dead, (Matt. xxviii, 17,) “All power is given unto me, in Heaven and in earth.” This agrees with Dan. vii, 14, “And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him,” &c. Please compare Matt. xvi, 28; Eph. i, 20, 21; 1 Pet. iii, 22; Rev. xvii, 14, with 1 Tim. vi, 15. Now, I would kindly ask my dear brother R. F. Cottrell if his article in the Recorder of Nov. 22, is not rather more discouraging than otherwise, to those who labor for the true Sabbath (like those who went to spy out the land). And further, when it shall be seen that “the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ,” (Rev. xi, 15,) “and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions (rulers, in the margin,) shall serve and obey him,” (Dan. vii, 27,) whether the government and people of this nation will not then keep the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord. To the foregoing, in Recorder of Dec. 20, Bro. Cottrell replied as follows:— To the Editor of the Sabbath Recorder: Permit me to say to Bro. B. Clark, that I have no doubt the time will come when “all flesh” will keep the Sabbath, and there will be no sin of any kind. The text he quotes from Isaiah locates it in the “new heavens and the new earth.” Bro. Lewis and myself were not looking quite so far into the future. We were speaking of the Sabbath in the present world, and we are agreed that the tares will grow with the wheat till the harvest, which is the end of the world. After the harvest there will be no tares among the wheat. The government of the United States will pass into oblivion at the end of this world; but the people that are saved from this nation will doubtless be a Sabbath-keeping people in the world to come. I do not think it “discouraging” that we shall have to bear the cross here, since so great a reward awaits us there. In this world our Saviour promised us “tribulation;” but in the world to come, life everlasting.