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The Difficulties

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1872

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 40, No. 25.

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The Difficulties.

By R. F. Cottrell

The difficulties in the way of the spread of the truth are not few nor small. The world, the flesh, and the devil, are against it. The want of a living, acting conscience, and a realization of responsibility, are in the way of people’s moving. One is a Christian, a member of a church, and acknowledges the whole truth on the commandments, but hopes, for some unknown and indefinable reason, to be excused, and does not keep them. Another sees the inconsistency of this position, and says, If I were convinced, I should keep them; and this with all the evidence that the other has, and knowing that there is no Bible evidence on the opposite side. Not seeing the evidence is the excuse. A third says, It is all right, if the Bible is true. Unbelief is the refuge.
And so it goes on to any extent. To awaken a dormant conscience, to make men believe that it is God that commands—that the Bible is his word—and that he means what he says, and that they will be held responsible, is a much greater task than to show them what the Bible teaches.
How dark the human mind! Who can be saved out of this darkness? It is a work that demands more than human energy. But, thank God, some will believe, obey, and be saved.
R. F. Cottrell.