p. 498 | OUR QUESTION CORNER by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 32.

OUR QUESTION CORNER.

By Editor

[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries on scriptural topics or moral questions as may be sent us. Questions which minister strife to no profit to our readers will not be answered here. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. The questions will be numbered continuously.]

92. THE "SPIRIT" OF ECCL. 12:7.

Does the word "spirit," as found in Eccl. 12:7, apply either to the mind or character of man?

To our mind it means life, just what God gave man in the beginning. It is not a separate entity, intelligent or unintelligent, conscious or unconscious, but a portion of the life which is in God, which God has withdrawn for the time. But this life is never held by us separate from the great Fountain of life. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being."

93. KITTO AND THE LORD'S DAY.

What does Kitto's (Cyclopedia of) Biblical Literature say of the Lord's day?

We have not space to quote what he says. It covers nearly fourteen pages of fine print. But he holds that there is no evidence of a change of day under the commandment. He says that "the penalties and sanctions of the law appear no longer, and are replaced by no others; the observance of the day is not prescribed by express statute at all, but the obligation is left to be gathered, by way of inference, from oblique references, and the early practices of the apostles; it is not made compulsory, as the Jewish Sabbath so expressly was." Vol. 3, p. 717, first col., third edition, Black, Edinburgh. And yet, after saying this, Kitto endeavors to support Sunday observance from appeal to certain texts and the writings of that convenient theological junk shop, "the Fathers." But why ask what Kitto said? Why not ask what God says? Lord's day occurs in Rev. 1:10. Shall we seek the very erring Fathers to know what day is the Lord's day? or shall we seek the infallible word of God? Those who will seek to the former will find them blowing both hot and cold. Those who seek the latter will find that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, the Lord's day. See Ex. 20:10; Isa. 58:13; Mark 2:28. Do we wish more? Find it, then, in a heart consecrated to God's will.