The Cause Is One by Roswell Fenner Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 9, 1873

The Cause Is One.

By Roswell Fenner Cottrell

UNITY is a characteristic of the work of the Lord. Among the advocates of error, there is discord and confusion. For one unscriptural practice, as for example, the keeping of the first day of the week instead of the Sabbath, perhaps fifty different and conflicting reasons will be given. But ask any number of those who keep the seventh day why they do so, and you will get substantially the same answer from each. It is the will of Christ that his disciples should be one, even as the Father and the Son are one. John 17:20–22. That they “all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions” among them. 1 Cor. 1:10. This unity is not a characteristic of the professed Christians of the present day. They are wanting in respect to these divine credentials, which should recommend their faith to the world. Not only are they divided into separate churches of conflicting creeds, but the members of the same church are not agreed. This is true of professed Adventists who reject the Sabbath of the Lord and the third angel’s message. They are divided, not only in the reasons why and how Sunday should be regarded, but on many other points of great importance.

“And more confusion is their proper label, Than ever clustered round the tower of Babel.”

But unity characterizes the work in which we are engaged. You listen to a S. D. Adventist in Maine or Minnesota, Colorado or California, and you will hear the same thing, not only on one particular idea, but on all the great and important doctrines of the entire Bible. From every religious denomination, and from every nationality, a people are coming into “unity of faith.” The Lord is one. His work is in harmony with itself, and the fruit of it is unity.

But God works by means; and there is order in his work. The host which the Lord leads to do a specific work must not be an unorganized, undisciplined rabble. (Please read the second and the fourth chapters of Numbers.) Such an army could not be successful against its foes. There is order in Heaven. The “armies of Heaven” “are marshalled under their respective leaders by the “Lord of hosts.” And God has also designed that there should be order in the church on earth. To this end he has set certain gifts and offices in the church. And it must be evident to all that when the Lord intends to do a great and specific work, such as giving the last message to man, the last warning of probation, that he will make choice of certain ones to take the lead. This is in harmony with his doings in the past, as exemplified in his dealings with ancient Israel. And no one is better qualified to choose than God, who knows the hearts and qualifications of all. He will not make an unwise choice. It is evident that he would choose such as, all things considered, are best calculated to lead. We believe that he has done so. And yet it has been the business of unsanctified ones, while they profess to love the truth, to murmur and complain of the means by which God has sent it; and many, like Diotrephes, “who” as the apostle said, “loveth to have the pre-eminence” (3 John. 9), would depose and reject those whom God has chosen, as he of old withdrew fellowship from the beloved disciple and chosen apostle, and cast those out of the church who sympathized with those whom God had chosen.

The cause is one; and it will bring those that adhere to it into unity. God will stand by those he has chosen to lead, till he himself sets them aside. We do not claim infallibility for any man. All are liable to mistakes and errors. But the work of the Lord is sure of a harmonious accomplishment; and from fallen humanity God will make use of those means which are best calculated to fulfill his wise designs. He will use those who are humbly devoted to his work. All the consecrated and faithful will share in the work; but the glory shall be the Lord’s.

Let all who would have a part in the cause of God, humble and devote themselves to the work, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Let us not be like those who thank God for the truth, while they seek a quarrel with those through whom they received it, thus despising the very instrumentality which God has chosen, through which to benefit them. R. F. COTTRELL.