WE DON'T SEE IT ALIKE by R. F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 21, 1876

“WE DON'T SEE IT ALIKE.”

By R. F. Cottrell

This was the language of one who had not investigated our claims to Bible truth, uttered as a reason for not hearing on the subject. What is it that we do not see alike? The commandments of God, the moral law. Do not these commandments read alike to all? Is not their testimony clear and harmonious? Where is the fault that we do not see them alike? Or, is it the design of the Lawgiver that we should not see and keep his law alike? Is it better to have different ways of acknowledging the only living and true God, and showing our reverence to him? Is it better to differ in the manner of keeping the commandments that forbid murder, adultery, theft, and false witness? All of us know that there is but just one way of keeping nine of the ten commandments. God has been successful in making nine of them so plain that we all can see them alike. Is it not to be regretted that he failed to make the Sabbath precept as plain as the others? Had he made this precept as plain as the others, his law would have been perfect, as the Holy Spirit has testified, saying, “The law of the Lord is perfect.” Ps. 19:7.

But is the fault in God, in his law, in his word, that we do not understand this most explicit commandment alike? No, my friends, no. The only difficulty is, that a tradition of men has usurped the place, and made void the commandment, of God; and the perversity of depraved human nature will not permit men to acknowledge the fault, break away from custom, and keep the commandment of God as it is, as it ever has been, and as it will be in the world to come. Isa. 66:22, 23. There is no fault in the law. It is as plain and explicit as words can make it. Let the objector make the Sabbath precept more explicit and definite if he can. God did not design that we should differ, but that we should be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” 1 Cor. 1:10. “God is not the author of confusion.” Chap. 14:33. The fault is with men alone. Now let us reason together. Is the fault with those who hold the law as it reads, or with those who hold to a change?

R. F. Cottrell.