In the Question Chair

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1901

In the Question Chair.

[Designed for the consideration of such questions as will be of interest and profit to the general reader. All correspondents should give their names and correct post-office address, that queries not replied to here may be answered by mail.]

823.— IN A HURRY. DISAPPOINTED.

A CORRESPONDENT writes that as soon as the Question Chair was opened, he sent a query to be answered in the REVIEW; but though several weeks have elapsed, and he has watched every paper, nothing has yet appeared in response to his question, and he is quite disappointed that it has not yet been noticed. This gives occasion for a remark or two.

When one has a question pressing upon his mind, to which he desires an answer, and has sent in a request for the same, it is very natural to desire to receive returns by the first mail. All this is taken into account; but there are some counter-considerations:—

1. It is not always convenient to answer a question on the spur of the moment. More thought and study upon it may be needed.

2. The immediate time may be demanded for other matters.

3. The Question Chair does not guarantee an answer to every question that may be sent in. Some, according to the old adage, would “puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer;” and some cannot be answered at all, as they lie beyond the range of human wisdom.

4. Some are so comprehensive that they would require an exposition of half the Bible to dispose of them.

5. So many questions are often asked at one time that it would take too much time to look up testimony, and too much space in the department to answer them all at one time.

6. A question is sometimes asked, on the answer to which the questioner is at the same time well satisfied, and thinks there is good evidence to sustain his position. Then it is our turn to ask a question. In such a case, why propound a question to the REVIEW? If a person is well satisfied on any question, that is sufficient so far as we are concerned. We would not disturb one on any such question, unless it involved moral principle and the development of character.

7. When the question department was resumed, it was expressly stated that it was not designed to raise puzzles nor to gratify curiosity, but to consider questions on which a desire really existed for further light, for the purpose of instruction and profit. It is the design of the department to answer all consistent or possible queries, and in as short a time as possible.

With these remarks we venture a further word of exhortation:—

1. Ask questions with a legitimate purpose and design.

2. Be brief and to the point.

3. Do not multiply queries in the same communication.

4. If you have, on any stirring, important subject, what you deem new and instructive evidence, which will be for the good of the people, give it to us, not in the form of a query to draw others out, but as a short, spicy article for the benefit of all the readers of the paper.