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Saying Lord, Lord

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 21, 1865

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 25, No. 16.

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Saying Lord, Lord.

By R. F. Cottrell

The article in Review No. 11, present volume, from the Earnest Christian, is deeply interesting. The text declares some truths of vast importance, which all would do well to take home to the heart and consider with the most solemn and prayerful attention. "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. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. vii, 21-23.
Alas! how many will be disappointed in that day! Think, O my soul! shall I be one of that number?
One fruitful cause of that dreadful disappointment, will be the absurd and criminal mistake, that the gospel of the Son has superseded and abolished the law of the Father—that a professed faith in Christ, calling him Lord, Lord, releases us from our obligation of doing the will of his Father, i. e., keeping the commandments of his law. The language of Christ when coming into the world was, "Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God! yea, thy law is within my heart." Ps. xl, 7. And it was his object to put the same law, which he loved, in the hearts of his people. The ten commandments then as God gave them from Sinai, is the law which ought to be in every Christian's heart, and should be practiced in his life.
Another idea is naturally suggested by the disappointment of the "many," spoken of in the text, that are to be disappointed "in that day," i. e., the day of judgment. "Think of the disappointment!" says the writer in the Christian. "Here are souls that will go right up to the gate of Heaven, expecting to enter, and saying, Lord, here we come; we have been prophesying in thy name, been doing wonderful works for thee, open the gate, Lord, let us enter, that we may receive our reward." But instead of opening the gate, the Lord will say, 'I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.' O, my soul! art thou to meet with such a disappointment as that, in the day of God," &c. The idea I refer to is this: If souls have been in hell torments from the day of their death, some for hundreds, others for thousands of years, how is it that they do not, in all that time, learn their doom, but come up in the day of the Lord, saying, Lord, Lord, with the expectation that their good works will be their passport into Heaven? Have they not, rather, been asleep from their death to the resurrection?
R. F. Cottrell.