Why Will this Cause Succeed ?
By Roswell F. Cottrell
BECAUSE it is the truth of God, founded on his word, which he has magnified above all his name. Heaven and earth shall sooner perish than that one tittle of that word shall fail. Prophecy has promised the very work we now see being done. The remnant of his people—those who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord—will keep the commandments of God. The time has come for this last message. This is why the Sabbath question is interesting the people everywhere, and the agitation is continually increasing. The hand of the Lord is in the work. This is that which was written by the prophet: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God.” The question has been asked among S. D. Baptists why it is that S. D. Adventists are successful in gaining converts to the Sabbath, notwithstanding the fact that they preach it in connection with other very unpopular doctrines. The answer is, These other unpopular doctrines are also true; and when men begin to reform and bear the cross of unpopular truth, they may just as well make a clean sweep of their errors at once. This, honest souls will do when their errors are made manifest by the light of the word of God. The doctrine of the advent of Christ at hand is unpopular; but signs and prophecies fulfilled attest its truth. And when the prophecies of Daniel and John are set before the people, and the fulfillment traced to the present time, the papacy is seen to be the great Antichrist, and the change of the law of God is clearly seen to be the work of Antichrist. Then, when this is clearly seen, the warning message of Rev. 14:9-12, has a force in it to bring honest souls, who desire to have the truth, to the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The Sabbath has been so long trodden under foot by the Christian world that something is needed to arouse the people upon the subject. God foresaw this and promised a special message for this very time; and he is now graciously fulfilling his promise. It is the predicted change of God's law by the papacy, and its restoration by this last message, that gives power to the truth to move the people to action. Therefore the unpopular truth that the coming of the Lord is at hand, and consequently that the time has come for the last warning to be given to the world, is itself the special means which God has provided to arouse honest souls and lead them to see and embrace the Sabbath of the Lord and leave that institution of the papacy which stands in opposition to it, and which is uniformly set forth by Catholic writers as the mark or sign of the power of the Roman church to change the institutions of God and bind the consciences of men. And S. D. Baptists will never be as successful as they might be in turning men to the Sabbath till they preach it in connection with these prophecies, which point out so clearly its change by the papacy and its restoration by the last warning message of probationary time. Ardent lovers of the truth among them have labored earnestly to stir them up by emulation to renewed zeal in the Sabbath cause, and have succeeded in a measure in reviving the spirit of aggressive labor in the cause; but this is only the effect of the work which the Lord is doing in fulfillment of what he promised in prophecy. God lives, and is fulfilling his word. This is the reason of this agitation. And this agitation will bring the matter to a test. They that will be successful must preach the testing message of the word of God. None can do this but Adventists; for none can preach the final message of probation as present truth and not believe that the work of mercy is about to close and the day of wrath is about to open. While we teach the perpetuity and immutability of the moral law and the true Sabbath of the Lord, we warn the people of an “irrepressible conflict” that awaits us, when the image of the beast shall enforce his own worship on pain of death, a prominent part of which will consist in receiving the mark of the first beast, i. e., the papacy—keeping the institution which this changer of times and laws has put in the place of the Sabbath. Rev. 13:11-17. For nearly a quarter of a century we have been teaching that the United States is the two-horned beast, and consequently that here the image will be formed—that ecclesiastical authority would demand, and get the control of the civil law, so as to be able to enforce the keeping of the pago-papal Sunday upon all as the “Christian Sabbath.” Twenty-three years has this exposition of the prophecy been in print in the ADVENT REVIEW AND HERALD OF THE SABBATH; and during this period this view has been believed and taught by the whole body of S. D. Adventists. It was simply faith in the prophecy as the word of God that led us to take this position, and to proclaim it abroad during these past years. But what do we see now? We see demonstrative proof that this position is correct; and consequently that the time has come when the message of warning which we are preaching should be preached, Rev. 14:9-12, showing that this work is of God and not of men. We see the “National Association” pushing forward their scheme and urging their demand for a “religious amendment” of the National Constitution, so that “all Christian institutions, laws, and usages, shall be placed upon an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of our nation.” Prominent among these institutions, laws, and usages, is the observance of what is called “our American Christian Sabbath.” When this amendment is obtained, the image of the beast will be formed with power to enforce the mark. And, aside from the prophecy that assures us that it will be done, their prospect of success is bright and rapidly increasing in splendor. All observant and reasonable men can now see that the “religious amendment” is likely to prove a success. And the success of this movement is demonstrating the truth of our position on prophecy, and consequently proving the advent movement of the present day to be divine—from Heaven and not of men. This constitutes one of the strongest arguments to move the people to action in restoring God’s law and Sabbath. No one can fail to see the force of this argument when fairly presented to the mind. And S. D. Baptists will never be as successful as they might be till they take up this argument and use it; and when they do this, they will inevitably be Adventists. God’s people must be one. We have the evidence of Scripture that those of them who are found alive at the second advent will be united in the last message, keeping the commandments of God. To be a S. D. Baptist is all right as far as it goes. But those who do the work which God designs they should for the restoration of his Sabbath will use the arguments which he has furnished in his prophetic word, and, as an unavoidable consequence, they will be surnamed Adventists. Lord, hasten thy work and save thy people!
R. F. COTTRELL.