Have We a Message? by Raymond F. Cottrell

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 13, 1879

Have We a Message?

By Raymond F. Cottrell

FAR be it from us to boast, as if we were the especial favorites of Heaven, and were therefore endued with special powers and privileges; but we inquire whether God has in his providence and in the unfolding of his purposes, laid upon us the responsibility of a special message of truth. We know from his word that the advent messages must be given before the second advent of the Lord; and that event being unmistakably near, we look around for the fulfillment of these three messages. We find them exactly fulfilled in the great advent movement of the past and present, and can see their fulfillment in nothing else under the sun. So we are shut up to the conclusion that Adventists have been called of God to proclaim these messages; and, if so, the message on the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, being preached by Seventh-day Adventists, is the actual fulfillment of the third angel's message, which is the last warning to mankind before the great day of God's wrath. If this be so, a tremendous responsibility is laid upon us, but, indeed, is no cause of boasting. A solemn work is ours, and the danger of unfaithfulness is great.

But we can and must have unlimited confidence in the success of the work, and the salvation of those who prove faithful to the end.

There is no room left to doubt that the children of God will be gathered by this message and prepared as one to hail the advent of the Saviour with—"We have waited for him, and he will save us."

Who is sufficient for this work? Evidently no one. But God will give his Spirit to the humble and faithful, and the work will be done. R. F. Cottrell.