p. 16 | Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 13, 1893

Question Corner.

By Editor

“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.” “But avoid foolish questions.”

122. OUR RESPONSIBILITY.

Will you be kind enough to tell us in the SIGNS in what manner and to what extent we are responsible for the acts of servants and strangers within our gates, as referred to in the fourth commandment? And what does within our gates include?

Such questions cannot be answered dogmatically. “Within thy gates” evidently refers to all the land and buildings which a man controls and works. This would not refer to houses or lands rented to others. Servants should not be required to do any unnecessary work on that day, and neither strangers nor servants should be permitted to do public unnecessary work on that day. The matter should be kindly stated before them, and we are sure no worthy servant or stranger sharing our hospitality would desire to offend. Doing work of this kind in the privacy of their own rooms might not be in our power to prevent. In fact we should not care to act the part of a spy or inquisitor upon those even whom we suspected. Acts of a public character it would be our duty to control within our gates. “The inmates of the house are to lay aside their worldly business during the sacred hours.”

123. THE SWEDISH BIBLE AND SUNDAY.

What makes the Swedish Bible say Sunday instead of the seventh day? The Bible I refer to was made in Stockholm.

We have not the Bible at hand, and, not being acquainted with the history of its translation, cannot of course give a decided answer to the above question. But this we may say on general principles, that if the “seventh day” or the word “sabbath” is translated “Sunday,” it is a mistranslation; for the Sacred Record in both Hebrew and Greek contains no such term. Even the Bible term “first day of the week” is not equivalent to our Sunday.

124. ABOUT THE TITHE.

A person who sells goods says: “I may clear about thirty-three and one-third dollars on a hundred dollars worth of goods sold. I want to know how to pay the tithe on that. When I collect $20, ought I to pay the tithe on the $20, or on what profit there is in it?”

The tithe should be paid on the profit, we should say, if we have a correct understanding of the case. If A bought ten dollars worth of goods and sold them for fifteen, his income would be five. The balance of ten dollars would go for the payment of the purchase of the goods. His tithe would be paid, not on the fifteen dollars, nor on the ten, but on the five, and would therefore be fifty cents.