Light and Heat by Roswell F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 19, 1871

Light and Heat.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

IN the rays of the sun, light and heat are combined. The rays of light, falling upon the earth, are reflected back toward their source, and by the friction of falling and returning rays, heat, it is supposed, is produced. Whether this is the true theory or not, all know, from experience, that light and heat are combined in the rays of the natural sun.

So it should be in religion. Knowledge is light and zeal is heat. The rays of divine truth from the Sun of Righteousness should warm our hearts with a corresponding zeal. We should not be like dark bodies which absorb the rays and reflect none. A true theory is essential; but if the truth be held in unrighteousness, if it is not responded to in our hearts and reflected in our lives, it is of no value to us. A man may be frozen, and have a tendency to freeze all that he touches, with the best theory in the world. Like the polar regions, turned away from the sun, and receiving his rays obliquely, such a one does not return the rays directly, but glances them off in another direction, and remains an iceberg still.

On the other hand, there may be a “zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” One may have an ardent zeal, yet, lacking knowledge, walk in the dark. This is dangerous; for the faster one rushes on in the dark, the greater his peril. And as warmth alone cannot develop healthy plants, but only pale and feeble ones, so zeal, unenlightened by divine truth, cannot develop a sound and healthy Christian. Such a one must be enlightened gradually; for he cannot bear the full light of revealed truth at once, more than a plant that has been reared in a cellar can at once endure the blazing light of the noon-day sun.

Where light and heat, truth and zeal, are combined, the flame is steady and constant. But unenlightened zeal blazes for a moment, and the next moment it is expired, like a fire made of fine shavings. During the season of the year of least active worldly business, these fires will be seen blazing up in almost every direction; but the busy season returns, and these lights have gone out.

Yet men love darkness and reject the light. One minister declares he would not go the smallest distance to hear on the prophecies of the

word of God—the precious promises of the God of Heaven. Another would welcome any one to preach in his neighborhood who is laboring for the salvation of souls; as though enlightening men with the word of God and teaching the way of truth and duty had no tendency in that direction. Such prefer to walk in darkness. They talk of being sanctified and saved “through and through;” and while they speak of this, their voices swell, their forms are raised to the highest altitude, their chests expand; all giving evidence that they are filled and inflated with spiritual pride well-nigh to bursting. The language of inspiration to these is as follows: “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” Isa. 50: 11.

Brethren, let us cherish the light; let us love the precious truth of God. And let us walk in the light—obey the truth—and thus manifest a zeal according to knowledge. A true theory without a commensurate zeal will freeze you to death; while a blind zeal will lead you into the ditch. Let us have knowledge and zeal, light and truth, combined. If we are the most enlightened, we should be the most zealous people in the world; and our zeal should burn with constancy; not like the flickering light of the expiring lamps of the foolish virgins in the parable. R. F. COTTRELL.