AS IT WAS by Roswell F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 7, 1879

“AS IT WAS.”

By Roswell F. Cottrell

WHEN man dies, the dust returns “to the earth as it was,” i. e. before man was created. This is true of the righteous and the wicked, and the spirit also returns to its source, “unto God who gave it.” The spirit is then as it was. It is in the hand of God who gave it. If it was a conscious entity before God gave it to our first parents, it doubtless is after it returns. This is true also of all men, whether righteous or wicked, the spirit returns to God who gave it.

A friend says, “The spirit is with God after death.” And again, “The spirit is with God, which must be taken in the same sense of Heaven, God’s visible presence.” He speaks of man without distinction of character, as does the Scripture quoted; and he informs that if the spirit is with God, “an active, conscious being, it would be conscious also.”

Very well; but what does this prove? If it proves the point designed, it proves the salvation of all men at death. The pure in heart shall see God, and without holiness no man shall see him. Matt. 5: 8; Heb. 12: 14; and in God’s “presence is fulness of joy,” and “pleasures for evermore.” Ps. 16: 11.

R. F. COTTRELL.