DEPRAVITY OF INTELLECT by R. F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 5, 1881

DEPRAVITY OF INTELLECT.

By R. F. Cottrell

BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.

THE Sabbath was appointed at creation before sin entered, Gen. 2:2, 3; was kept by Israel before the giving of the law at Sinai, Ex. 16:3; was confirmed by the voice of God and placed by his own hand in the midst of the other nine primary laws on the tables of stone; was honored by Christ during his life, Luke 4:16; kept by his disciples according to the commandment, after his death, Luke 23:56; was recognized and used by the apostles during their ministry, Acts 13:14, 27, 44; 15:21; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4; and was prophesied of as existing in the world to come, Isa. 66:23; and yet men excuse themselves from keeping, it because the commandment is not reiterated in the writings of the apostles.

But the same men keep another day; a day that was never appointed by the word of God, either in the Old Testament or in the New; a day concerning which there is no implied record of its observance by God, Christ, apostles, or men :—this day they observe without any apostolic requirement. Did it ever enter their minds that they have equally as good reasons for rejecting the observance of this new institution so silently introduced? They reject the Lord's Sabbath, because the apostles did not repeat the commandment; but they keep another day without any commandment at all. Can they not see that their reasoning powers are perverted so that they prefer tradition to truth?