Untitled article by Roswell F. Cottrell

Untitled article

Roswell F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, August 27, 1867

“If it [the Sabbath] yet exists, let us observe it according to law. And if it does not exist, let us abandon the mock observance of another day for it. ‘But,’ say some, ‘it was changed from the seventh to the first day.’ Where? when? and by whom? No man can tell. No, it never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation were to be gone through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed!! It is all old wives’ fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio—I think his name is DOCTOR ANTICHRIST.’”—A. Campbell.

The above reasoning is good. But yet, the author held that the Sabbath is abolished. Why could he not have seen the fallacy of this, by the same sort of reasoning? Thus: Where, when, and by whom was the Sabbath abolished? No man can tell. It could not be abolished, unless creation should be abolished; for the reason assigned for its institution must be abolished—the creation must fail, and the creative work be no longer worthy of commemoration—before the observance of its memorial can cease.

Would it not have been much better, in discarding the change made by Dr. Antichrist, to have returned to the original institution, than to renounce the institution of the Creator of the universe, with no more authority than the Man of Sin had for the change?

R. F. COTTRELL.