Encouraging Letter from Oregon.
By E. W. Tompkins
EDITOR SIGNS: I have been a close reader of your excellent paper for the last year. I must say it is a good religious paper. It has been sent to me through the kindness of one of your brethren. I have studied the word of God to see whether the doctrine that you teach will bear comparison with it, and I have found that it does, or nearly so. I find one point in regard to the soul of man in which I think the Bible differs from you. If I understand your writings aright, you claim that the soul of man is the same as the body of man. Now I think the Bible teaches differently; it teaches that the soul and body are two separate parts. I have believed in the second advent of Christ for a long time. The doctrine hardest for me to give up was the first-day or Sunday-Sabbath. I was convinced of the sin of using tobacco by reading your paper, and gave it up last fall, after using it over twenty years; and now I am convinced that the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord, and have commenced to keep it. I have searched the word of God, and find that it is taught so there; it was a hard cross for me, but I am willing to bear it for Jesus' sake. I am now a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, but I expect I will be turned out for keeping and teaching God's commandments. I wish to know whether the Adventist Church receives members from the Baptist Church without rebaptizing, and please send information in regard to the discipline of the church, and oblige, Yours, &c.,
E. W. TOMPKINS.