p. 144 | To Correspondents

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 2, 1878

To Correspondents.

Should such as use tea, coffee, pork and tobacco, be retained in the church? B. H.

Ans. If a church is properly organized, such will not come in at first, and no trouble can then arise on the question of retaining them. The use of tobacco, however, is the only practice of those named above which is made a test of fellowship.

Should we use leavened or unleavened bread at the sacrament? E. G. D.

Ans. As the Lord’s supper is not the anti-type of the passover, we see no reason why we should confine ourselves to unleavened bread. Such has not been the practice of our people, so far as we know.

Would it be well to change our clock dials, so that midday would be marked by the figure 6, according to the Bible method of reckoning the hours of the day? E. A. L. and Q. M. W.

Ans. By no means. That would be drawing it out altogether too fine. The same may be said of some who contend that we should adopt the Hebrew names and reckoning of the months. We have before us a publication containing the following nonsensical effort to adopt a Bible date: “10th day of the thirteenth month, ve-adar, 1877,” and then knowing that this would be utterly unintelligible to the common reader, they go on to explain that it is “March 19, 1878.” This is a sufficient acknowledgment of the folly of any such effort at the present time.