THE REPROACH OF FEET-WASHING.
By Editor
AMONG the things which a contemporary reproaches Seventh-day Adventists with is the adoption of “feet-washing and extreme vegetarian views.” As to the people themselves, we have naught to say. God, not we, is their defense. But we have just a word to say as to the two things named, and the last first. Adventists generally are not extreme vegetarians. Most of those who abstain from flesh meats eat eggs and milk, while extreme vegetarians do neither. But excellent Biblical examples are given in the food which God furnished for forty years, the manna (Exodus 16), and in the pulse and water which Daniel and his fellows fed upon, and upon which they thrived better than all others who fed upon the royal dainties (Dan. 1: 8). As to the feet-washing, we have only the words of our Lord to plead. When He had Himself performed the act, He thus instructed His disciples:— “Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than He that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” John 13: 13-17. In His commission to His disciples He gave this instruction:— “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matt. 28: 19, 20. “If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye.”