The Anchor that Holds by Roswell F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 5, 1873

The Anchor that Holds.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

I did not unite with the little handful of S. D. Adventists twenty-two years ago, because I thought they were the “rightest” of any church I knew of, nor because I thought them to be infallibly right in every thing; but because I was fully convinced that they were the prophetic people of the last generation, described in holy vision by the exiled seer upon lonely Patmos, eighteen hundred years ago, as the saints or holy ones who, in the time of their patience, keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. I believed that that predicted people were being manifested. My faith was led to give credence to this from such reasons as the following:—

“There are no agencies adequate to give birth to predicted events, save such as God employs; consequently when they occur, we may know without a doubt, not only that they are a fulfillment, but also that God has done it. . . . When a predicted event does occur, we may know that it is a fulfillment of the prediction, and that God’s providence has interposed for its fulfillment. To such events there are no seconds, any more than a second birth, or baptism, or burial of Messiah. The chariot of Providence rolls by. The event looms up with God’s seal impressed upon it. It never recurs. . . . God in his word specifies each event. His people drink in the Spirit by believing the word—they yield themselves up to his guidance, and the providence of God concurs, then the event transpires. There will be nothing in all time like it. . . . There are no agencies which can counterfeit or derange the progressive fulfillment of the prophetic word. When the time arrives, each predicted event appears; and God’s providence must be recognized in it, or we be convicted as, so far, infidels.”

“All the evidence which God grants is given, when history testifies to the truth of prophecy; consequently, if that be denied, Christ is denied, and ‘wrath to the uttermost’ will come on those who had till then, been his acknowledged people. By how much the Christian church has had greater light than the Jewish, by so much is their guilt greater, and their revealed damnation more dreadful. Matt. 24:5; 1 Thess. 5:3; 2 Thess. 2:10–12. Professing Adventists have no dispensation in their favor, but must see their flagrant folly, if they recognize prophetic fulfillment up to a certain point in our history, and then deny it in those events which are most manifestly, in time, order of sequence, and manner of occurrence, just what Jesus predicted.”

The simple fact that I saw the predictions of Jesus, prophets, and apostles verified in the history of our own times—signs of the Advent near fulfilled in the heavens, and being fulfilled on the earth, and especially the prophetic history of the advent movement, as given in Rev. 14:6–12, being so exactly fulfilled in the actual movement now taking place in the Christian church—led me to believe that the time had come, and that the last message was being given, a message which would bring together the remnant of the church, a people distinguished as those “who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” And have I swerved from this faith since adopting it? Not for a moment. I see no reason to falter. I simply give credence to the word of God and his providence in fulfilling it. His word and providence are the anchor, and faith, the cable, takes firm hold of it. What if the winds do blow and the hurricane roar? Here is good anchorage; and our cable need not be broken.

Brother, sister, have you this faith? If you have not, review the evidences. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, by the word of the Lord. There is no good reason for your want of faith. However dark it may be around you, set to your seal that God is true. His word cannot fail; neither will his providence deceive you and lead you astray. Trust in God. If you have this faith, corresponding actions will show it. If these fail, faith will die. Therefore be diligent to make your calling and election sure. R. F. COTTRELL.