To Correspondents

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 17, 1870

To Correspondents.

J. H. WAGGONER: A request has been received from the church in Holly, Mich., that you visit them. If you can comply, they wish the appointment given in REVIEW.

J. B. INGALLS.—1. So far as we know, the general practice among the Sabbath-keepers is, to expressly stipulate, when buying wood of unbelievers, that none of it shall be delivered on the Sabbath. We think this could very properly be insisted on. 2. We can see no objection to taking a boarder who does not keep the Sabbath, provided he does his business away from his boarding place, and provided his presence causes no more extra labor on the Sabbath than would be necessary for an additional member of the family. 3. In regard to the keeping of hogs to perform their legitimate business, that of scavengers, we have heard brethren who would not tolerate them on their premises, say that they had no trouble in disposing of their kitchen refuse among other animals. 4. We do not know the address of M. S. Clyde.

G. W. SHELDON: We do not understand that the refreshing is to be bestowed in its full power, instantaneously, upon the people of God. The scripture, Hos. 6: 3, which speaks of the Lord’s visiting his people with the former and latter rain, says that his going forth is prepared as the morning. That is, the refreshing will be a gradual work, like the introduction of light at the opening of the day. First, we have the dim traces of the dawn, then the twilight, then the first rays of the sun, oblique, and almost powerless. But it continues to come up, its light growing stronger, as men become accustomed to the change, till it shines upon us in all its meridian splendor. From the darkness of night to the brightness of noonday, would be too great a transition for a moment of time; so a change from our ordinary experience to the full power of the refreshing, would be more than we could bear, if accomplished at once. The close of probation is to be marked, as we understand, by the proclamation of the message in great power. So near are we then to eternal scenes, that we receive the beginning of the refreshing, the commencement of the latter rain, the opening beams of the dawning day, as stated in Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 1, p. 186. And this is not to cease after a time, but to keep on increasing till our translation. See pp. 187, 188. So that the greatest power, and almost the whole period of the great refreshing being after the close of probation and the blotting out of sins, we think it proper to speak of it as a whole as occupying that period of time, as in the article in No. 18, present volume of REVIEW.