TO CORRESPONDENTS by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 13, 1879

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

By Editor

E. HADLEY: You will find all the points mentioned in the sermon on the Sabbath to which you refer, fully examined in the different works on the Sabbath published at this Office. If you want the whole thing in a tolerably good-sized nutshell, we refer you to the History of the Sabbath, by Eld. Andrews.

N. J. BOWERS: We consider a farm, team, etc., when rented, the same as temporarily sold; and to any person to whom it would be right to sell, it would be equally right to rent. A thing rented for a certain length of time, as we view it, is the same as sold for that length of time, and out of our control, and outside of our responsibility.

Is there any proof in the Bible, either by precept or example, for family or public prayer? G. D.

ANS. Abundance. See back volumes of the REVIEW. If brief reference to particular texts is inquired for, see those scriptures which state that Noah, Abraham, Jacob, etc., built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon him. Here was family prayer. See also Jer. 10:25, where God is called upon to pour out his fury upon the families that call not upon his name. See 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chron. 6:12, 13. Here is public prayer. See Acts 20:36 and 21:5. Here is public prayer again. See 1 Tim. 2:8. Here is an injunction applying to all kinds of prayer, but referring especially to public and family prayer.

J. R. WRIGHT: For an explanation of Rom. 14:5 and Colossians 2:16, see the History of the Sabbath, published at this Office.

F. WINCHESTER: The Waldenses were never put to death for observing Sunday. Instead of this, they kept the seventh day. A full account of their origin, views, and worship is given in Eld. Andrews' History of the Sabbath, pp. 403–415.

In a recent number of the Journal and Messenger, in an article on the Sabbath, the editor says: “In the original Hebrew the word rendered seventh, in Gen. 2:3, is not that meaning seventh, but that meaning Sabbath or rest.” “And the same is true in Ex. 20:11.” Of course this does not affect our position one way or the other, but I would like to ask if this assertion is true. E. H. GATES.

ANS. The word rendered seventh, is, according to the Englishman's Hebrew Concordance, sh'veegee. This is the word rendered “seventh” in Gen. 2:3. It occurs in the Old Testament 96 times, and is in every instance rendered seventh, never Sabbath. It is the word used in the fourth commandment where the word seventh occurs in our version. On the other hand, the word for Sabbath is shabbathth. It occurs in the O. T. 108 times, and is always rendered Sabbath, never seventh. We have never yet seen an honest criticism from ministers or laymen, on either the Hebrew or Greek in opposition to the Sabbath.

Card from Carson, Mich. No name, hence ruled out.

Is it a fact that the hare does not chew the cud, as stated by eminent naturalists? If so, how shall we understand Lev. 11:6? G. D. B.

ANS. McClintock and Strong, in their Cyclopedia, say that the original in this passage “should be understood as merely implying a second mastication more or less complete, and not necessarily that faculty of true ruminants which derives its name from a power to draw up aliment after deglutition, when worked into a ball, from the first stomach into the mouth, and there to submit it to a second grinding process.” This latter the hare does not do, the former it does.