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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 16, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 44, No. 1.

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To Correspondents.

M. L. M.: We see nothing improper in organizing a Sabbath-school on the Sabbath day.
N. G.: For an explanation of the image of the beast, see No. 17 of last volume of the REVIEW.
“Please give us your thoughts on Eze. 13:10-15, which speaks of building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar.” A LOVER OF TRUTH.
The language applies to the time when the day of the Lord is near. Verse 5. It refers to false teachers in the last days who prophesy peace when the final trouble of the world is coming. By this means they lead the people to disregard the warning of approaching danger. Verse 10; 1 Thess. 5:3. The cry of peace and safety here pointed out, we consider to be more emphatically fulfilled in the modern doctrine of a temporal millennium than in anything else. There is nothing so well calculated as this to lull the people into a feeling of carnal security. This is the wall behind which the multitudes who reject the truth are hiding. Daubing it with untempered mortar is making a great show of arguments in its favor which have no foundation in reason and Scripture. It looks like a strong and substantial structure to the ignorant and unthinking; but there is no strength in it. The hailstones that shall rend it are the hailstones of the seventh and last plague. Rev. 16:21. The same judgments that dispel the fatal illusion of peace and safety, destroy those who have indulged in it. Verse 15. Under the term “prophets of Israel” we think those teachers are pointed out who in these last days are advocating a vain and delusive dream of peace and safety.
“Are we to understand from the following scriptures that repentance precedes faith? Matt. 21:32; Mark 1:15; Acts 3:19.” A. WILSON.
We repent toward God, because it is his law that we have broken. Acts 20:21. But whoever comes to God must believe that he is. Heb. 11:6. This degree of faith must precede repentance. Then we have faith in Christ, because his blood is the only means that can remove our guilt. So Paul, in Acts 20:21, after saying “repentance toward God,” continues, “and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” This faith comes after repentance; for no one can believe on Christ with faith to appropriate the merits of his sacrifice to his own benefit, before repenting of his sins; because these benefits are not to be had without repentance. U. S.
Bro. J. Banks, of Montcalm Co., Mich., desires to express his gratitude for the late visit of Bro. Hutchins to the church in his place, and acknowledge the great good it has done him and others.

Notice

To the church clerks of the Missouri & Kansas Conference.
My present address is Big Springs, Douglas Co., Kan. I hope each church clerk when he makes his report the last day of this month will give his post-office address in plain hand-writing.
SMITH SHARP, Sec. Mo. & Kan. Conf.
The P. O. address of T. J. Butler and L. R. Long who are laboring with the Northern Missouri tent, is Savannah, Andrew Co., Mo.
The post-office address of W. A. Raymond is Battle Creek, Mich.
The famine in India is again on the increase, and nearly three million natives are dependent on the Government for their daily bread.
Cooks and laundresses must have an easy time in Niceros, a little island in the Grecian Archipelago. The inhabitants are suffering from a “constant supply” of boiling water, thrown from a volcanic peak and running in streams down the mountain side. The matter, however, is a very serious affair, many being obliged to leave their homes for fear of being scalded to death.
The Mexicans are as zealous in the matter of putting down witchcraft as ever our New England forefathers were. A man and his wife suspected of it have been cremated alive. Jose Maria Bonenela, and his wife Diega, being accused of having bewitched Silvester Zacarias, were tried and found guilty. Part of the evidence was that the bewitched Zacarias, having been made to swallow three swallows of holy water, vomited such indigestible things as some pieces of a blanket and several bunches of hair. The Alcalde of Jacobo, in the State of Sinaloa, is the magistrate whose zeal against witchcraft resulted in this trial and execution. It is under such specious ignorance and bigotry that unhappy country of Mexico is ruled to-day.