HAVE YOU FAITH? by Roswell Fenner Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 20, 1877

HAVE YOU FAITH?

By Roswell Fenner Cottrell

As the predicted “voice of one crying in the wilderness” was fulfilled by John the Baptist, “preaching in the wilderness of Judea,” so the voice of the “third angel,” foretold 1800 years ago, is being heard in almost all the earth. It is the final warning to prepare for the coming of the Son of man, the closing message of man’s probation. It calls upon “the meek of the earth” to “seek meekness,” and upon the righteous to “seek righteousness.” Zeph. 2: 1–3. This is preparatory to “the day of the Lord’s anger,” the wrath “without mixture,” the seven last plagues which are to follow at the close of this solemn and fearful warning. Those who have fully heeded the voice of God will escape this most terrible of all calamities, while those who have neglected it will miserably perish.

Are these things really so? They are most assuredly, if we can trust God’s word to foretell, and his providence to fulfill his promises. This is all we have to rely on; and is it not enough? It is enough for the believer, but for the doubter and unbeliever nothing is enough to induce belief.

The prophecy of the closing messages (Rev. 14: 6–12), is so plain that no one need mistake its meaning. It must be evident to every careful reader that these messages are to be preached to the inhabitants of the earth as the last warnings of the gospel; and that the third will be followed by the day of wrath and the coming of Christ. Just before the coming of the day of the Lord the message of the third angel—the solemn warning against the worship of the beast and his image, and, on the other hand, the watchword and rallying cry, The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ in their purity and entirety—will constitute the great theme of true believers and furnish the most important topic of discussion for the world. The commandments of the moral law of God will be pressed upon the attention of men, eliciting a more general discussion concerning their perpetuity and unchangeability, and consequently the obligation or non-obligation to keep them as written in the Bible, than has ever been the case since the great apostasy and the dark ages of the papal rule.

Such is truly the case at the present time. These commandments are in agitation and dispute as never before; and men are taking sides for or against. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is being embraced in almost all Christian lands, together with the faith of the soon-coming of Christ; and a people are organized and at work who believe that the time is come for the last message, and that it is their specific work to publish it to the world. These things are the strongest evidences possible to all believers in the fulfillment of prophecy that the time has come and that this most solemn and fearful warning is present truth.

This message must be heard before the coming of Christ, and it must furnish the all-important theme of investigation; and yet there are those who tell us that the Advent is at hand, even at the very door, who know nothing of this warning, only to oppose the faith that it is now being given. The fulfillment of this prophecy must of necessity constitute the most thrilling event in the closing history of the church; and yet, while they profess to believe that Christ is at the door, they can point to nothing under the whole heavens as its fulfillment! Brethren, awake! Ye who love our Lord Jesus Christ and his glorious appearing, know ye that the people who are ready for translation without death at his coming, will be able to trace their experience in the fulfillment of this closing message of the gospel. Those who remain alive to meet the coming King with joy, will be those who answer the given description: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Can this description apply to those who say the ten commandments are abolished and consequently can point to no complete moral code in all the Bible?

Do you believe in the fulfillment of the prophecies which prove that the second coming is at hand, and wonder at and mourn over the unbelief of those who do not admit this most evident and all-important truth? and do you expect to meet that grand and awful event with the joy of the believer, while you ignore this merciful warning, so evidently the last to mankind? Will the Scriptures be broken, and the Lord come without the fulfillment of this promised closing proclamation? Know you that the word of the Lord cannot fail of its fulfillment; therefore if the advent may be looked for immediately, this message is in the world; and if it is in the world, where is it, but with those who have been professedly proclaiming it for more than a quarter of a century?

Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that this promised message is in the world and doing its fearful work. It is separating the precious from the vile and bringing believers into unity of faith and practice in respect to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The leaven is at work in all these States and territories, in the Canadas, the British Isles, and almost every nation in Europe, also in Africa and the Indian and Pacific isles. The questions of the law of God and the second coming of Christ are before the people as never before since the dawn of the Reformation. Is this accidental? or is it the work of God in the fulfillment of his word of promise? Faith says it is the latter. Faith believes God will do what he has promised; and when he fulfills his pledges, it gives him credit by accepting the fulfillment. And when God fulfills his own word in his own way, let all the people say, Amen.

R. F. COTTRELL.