Your ShelfYour Projects

To Correspondents

9%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 6, 1871

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 37, No. 25.

Read the full edition

To Correspondents.

By Uriah Smith

R. F. COTTRELL: We have seen none of the books sold by C. K. Whipple, but would be pleased to.
J. T. L.: A person believing and practicing present truth, becomes a member of a church on a unanimous vote of the members of that church, to receive him.
H. W. DECKER: We think the word “judge” in Rom. 2:27, means to condemn.
W. H. KYNETT: We have heard it suggested that Isa. 3:12, has reference to the headstrong and domineering course of children in these days, which is so marked as to constitute a sign of the times. Whether the allusion to women in this verse, and in chapter 4:1, are meeting any fulfillment in the “Woman’s Rights” movements of these days, we are not able to say. We understand Matt. 11:12 to be a declaration that it is perfectly proper to be apparently violent, that is, to manifest great earnestness and zeal, in the matter of our salvation. The kingdom of Heaven, meaning in this case the work of grace in the gospel, suffers, or permits, a person to press his claims for the forgiveness of sin and the blessings of the gospel, with all that vehemence that he would manifest if he were taking a place by storm. We understand the kingdom spoken of in verses 11 and 12 to be the same, and that the word “least” in verse 11, which is in the original in the comparative degree, and should be translated “lesser,” introduces a comparison between Christ and John the Baptist. John, at first took the lead in the proclamation of the gospel, going before the Lord to prepare the way for him. But when the Lord appeared, John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John did not decrease only as the Lord rose above him in his greater manifestations as the Son of God. John was the greatest of any born of women, up to his day; but when John was in the zenith of his work, there was One coming upon the stage of action, who, though apparently less at that time, was nevertheless greater than he.
A. S. H.: An explanation of Rom. 5:14, showing how Adam can, since the fall, be taken as a figure of Christ, but could not before, may be found in REVIEW, Vol. 31, p. 120.
W. C. BROLLEAR: You will find an explanation of Matt. 24-28 in “Answers to Objections against the Visions,” pp. 57-68.
J. MATTESON: Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, Luke that of Mary; the father of Mary being called the father of Joseph, because Joseph was the husband of Mary. More names are found in the line of Mary than in that of Joseph. This accounts for the difference in the number of the generations, as given by Matthew and Luke. See a diagram of the generations from Adam to Christ, on the one side according to Chronicles and Matthew, through Joseph, and on the other according to Luke, through Mary, in the Religious Encyclopedia, p. 904.
MARY J. STEWARD: An exposition of 2 Cor. 5:1–9, will appear in the REVIEW soon.
E. L. B.: The articles which we publish from time to time concerning the violence and corruption that is in the world at this time, are not published for political or partisan purposes. If they pertained to the republican party, we should give them all the same. It is the facts we are after, which show the fulfillment of the predictions that just such things should occur in the last days.
J. M. ADAMS: The Pharisees were to receive, as we understand Luke 20:47, greater damnation, or more severe punishment, on account of their great show of piety. Their pompous outward forms of religion, so far from rendering them more acceptable to God, only made them more abominable in his sight; for he abhors hypocrisy; and so far from securing them a place in Heaven, they would only sink them deeper in perdition. We do not remember whether the article on the Sabbath question was received or not. We presume, however, it was, as a great many articles are set aside as not suitable for publication, and then pass from the mind. A person just commencing to write would be far less likely to succeed on a subject so largely treated of as the Sabbath has been, than upon some subject which is fresher, and better adapted to a few short and spirited thoughts. U. S.