It Is Too Bad by Roswell F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 2, 1871

It Is Too Bad.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

It is bad to make a common debt with a neighbor and fail to pay it on time. It is worse to contract a debt with a person at a distance, as a publisher, and fail to be prompt in paying. To take a secular paper and not pay for it, is dishonorable. To take a religious paper indicates a religious interest, and makes a failure in pay look worse on that account. But to take an interest in the last message of probation and receive the paper that bears this message, and calls for a preparation to pass the test of the Judgment, and neglect to pay for it, when able, is too bad to be thought of or mentioned. It certainly should not be mentioned as becoming to saints.

The poor should have the REVIEW free. But some may excuse themselves on the ground of poverty, who are able to labor; and therefore with industry may have the means to pay. Again, if there is no lack of industry, there may be a lack of Christian economy. Some earn enough, but spend it in hurtful indulgences or pride in dress. Retrenchment and reform would make them abundantly able to pay for the papers that advocate the reforms that are so much needed at the present time to prepare a people for translation at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is too bad to be behind in this work of the Lord. Let all who love the Lord and his truth, act as though they loved them. R. F. COTTRELL.