TO CORRESPONDENTS by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 24, 1876

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

By Uriah Smith

Wm. Cottrell: Any practice which would turn the Sabbath into a day of ordinary visiting must certainly be contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the fourth commandment.

G. W. G.: We understand there are but two kinds of death referred to in the Scriptures: first, death denoting a condition of the body, absence of physical life. This is the penalty of the law. Secondly, a death, denoting a spiritual condition; absence of spiritual life, as dead in trespasses and sins. And as from this condition a person may recover himself, and come into spiritual life, another expression is used to denote this condition; namely, dead to sin, dead to the world, &c. Yet it is still a spiritual condition which this death denotes. To your other query we would say, Keep out of the business of peddling patent rights, and do not mix up T. & M. work with that employment.

How do you harmonize Matt. 2:1, which says, “In the days of Herod,” with Luke 2:1, which says, “In the days of Cæsar Augustus?” C. W. O.

ANS. Both are true. Augustus was emperor of Rome, which then ruled the world, and Herod was a subordinate ruler, as king of Judea.

Please explain Ex. 33:20, 23; 1 Tim. 6:16, compared with Gen. 32:30; Ex. 33:11; Num. 14:14; Deut. 5:4; 34:10. C. H. Howe.

ANS. Gen. 32:30, is explained by Hos. 12:4. Speaking with God face to face does not prove that he was seen. Moses says to Israel, God talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire. Yet he says, Deut. 4:12: “Ye saw no similitude, only ye heard a voice.” Num. 14:14 may refer either to the report that went out among the nations respecting God’s presence with Israel, or to the visible appearance of the cloud by day and fire by night.

ANSWERED BY LETTER. D. Downer, A. M. Mann, G. A. Perley, B. F. Terry, D. W. Milk, S. Farmer. U. S.