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NOTE TO BRO. FOOTE

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 24, 1862

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 20, No. 4.

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NOTE TO BRO. FOOTE.

By Editor

Not knowing the points of difference on the subject of the duties of local elders among you, we choose not to take up the subject at present. We give below a paragraph from the Conference Address, Review Vol. xviii, No. 20. If you, or your brethren, differ with it, please give your scriptural grounds of difference, then we shall know how to take up the subject.
"We give it as the result of our examination of this subject, that in the organization of a church, officers are to be supplied according to the necessities of the case. We understand the duties of a deacon to be confined exclusively to the temporal matters of the church; such, for instance, as taking charge of its finances, making preparation for the celebration of the ordinances, &c.; while it is the duty of the elder to take the lead and oversight of the church in spiritual things. This elder need not necessarily be a preacher, but may conduct the meetings of the church, and administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper in the absence of any higher officer. If an apostle or evangelist should be present, all these duties would be left with him."