Your ShelfYour Projects

SAYING AND DOING

17%

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 24, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 8.

Read the full edition

SAYING AND DOING.

By R. F. Cottrell

Our Saviour said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven." Matt. 7:21.
The will of the Father is revealed to us in his word, and is all briefly comprehended in the ten commandments; and yet there are multitudes who are saying Lord, Lord, who are unwilling to yield to the revealed will of the Father. Some excuse themselves upon the ground that his will has been changed since it was written; and others declare that it has been totally abolished. And yet both these classes imagine that they enjoy the favor of God. But this cannot be, if their minds have been enlightened by the truth.
I have met with some people of late who parry the force of revealed truth by a professed enjoyment of divine favor. They profess to have a something within which they call "present and full salvation," and one would think, from their conversation, that they imagine that this something within will excuse them from doing such parts of the will of the Father as are unpopular in these days of degeneracy. They acknowledge every jot and tittle of the ten commandments to be binding, but when shown that they change more than a jot or a tittle of the fourth, they appeal from the heavenly statute to that "present and full salvation" which tells them that they are safe.
I would earnestly entreat such to examine more carefully the foundation on which they are building, remembering that they that hear these sayings of Jesus and do them not, have been compared by him to the man that built his house upon the sand. Be assured, dear friends, that neither saying nor feeling, nor both combined, can fulfill that part of the word of God which requires the doing of the Father's will as he has revealed it to us in the commandments which you acknowledge in every jot and tittle. If you would be sure that you have the favor of God I can recommend that you follow the example of the patriarch David. Said he, "I entreated thy favor with my whole heart; be merciful unto me according to thy word. I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments." Ps. 119:58-60.
R. F. COTTRELL.