THERE IS A DEVIL by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1862

THERE IS A DEVIL.

By R. F. Cottrell

THE Bible clearly reveals this fact, though many who profess faith in the Bible dispute it; and others who admit it, fancy that the Devil has no direct influence on them.

But though we may have admitted the truth of this proposition always, yet the evidences of it increase so much in these days that we cannot help realizing it more and more. This truth has been repeatedly impressed upon my mind of late. When I see people that say they esteem all days of the week alike—each one just as good and holy as any other, and yet find them fretting because we choose to observe the seventh and not the first, I say within myself, There is a Devil!

Says A. N. Seymour, in his recent effort against the Sabbath, "Then let us with the sword of truth, which is the word of God, at once strike a death-blow to seventh-day Sabbath-keeping." He takes the broad ground that the fourth commandment is abolished. He says, "All Protestant denominations are Sabbath-breakers if the fourth precept is binding." But these Protestant denominations profess to keep this precept; and, if they are honest, they really believe that they are keeping it, and consequently are just as wicked as though they kept it. If they are not honest, will Seymour claim that their prospect for salvation is fair? And if they are, is there not as much danger of their being "lost eternally" as though they really kept the precept which they profess to keep?

Why this partiality? Why strike a death-blow to seventh-day Sabbath-keeping, while first-day Sabbath-keeping escapes unhurt? Why so much holy zeal to save a handful of deluded seventh-day Sabbath-keepers from being lost eternally, and at the same time let the multitude of first-day Sabbath-keepers go down to eternal perdition unwarned? Or if they are not in danger, why is it that keeping the fourth commandment on Sunday is so much better than keeping it on the day specified in the commandment?

I can account for these things only on the supposition that there is a Devil, and that he hates whatever God has instituted, and is well pleased when men substitute their own inventions for the commandments of God. But if he is as short-sighted and illogical as some of his most devoted servants, it is a wonder how he can deceive so many. Sin must have perverted man's reasoning powers, so that he is led captive by Satan at his will, and yet the poor chained captive can say, as Mr. Seymour does, that he never knew his father to lie! Jno. viii, 44. R. F. COTTRELL.