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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Dec 23, 1862

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 21, No. 4.

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Questions and Answers.

By James White

QUESTION. BRO. WHITE: Will you please to enlighten my mind on the following: What proportion of the world have received a knowledge of the Bible? or in other words, have heard the gospel preached? A minister of the M. E. church in opposing our position in regard to the soon coming of the Saviour, says we err, and quotes Matt. xxiv, 14, and then states that five-sixths of the inhabitants of the globe still remain in darkness.
ANSWER. Matt. xxiv, 14, is used by many as proof that the gospel is yet to be preached to all nations, that every individual of every nation is to hear it, believe it, and be made holy by it, and, what then? The end? No: a thousand years of universal holiness in this mortal state. Our Lord makes no such declaration. Read Matt. xxiv, 14, again with care. "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." There is not a word in the text in reference to the influence of this gospel upon any person's mind. It was to be preached as a witness.
Paul could say in his day that the hope of the gospel "was preached to every creature which is under heaven," Col. i, 23, and that "their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world," yet he nowhere tells us that it made all men holy. God has never proposed to do more with the gospel than to take out of the nations a people for his name. Acts xv, 14. The gospel, like the bright orb of day, arose in the East, is now setting in the West. Nations who once had the gospel have forgotten God. Says David, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Ps. ix, 17. See Brief Exposition of Matt. xxiv.
QUESTIONS. Are all infants saved? or only those of believing parents? Is there any evidence that adult children will be saved through the faith of their parents?
ANSWER. If it were very important that we should know whether all infants would, or would not, be saved, we think the Bible would have been very plain on the point. We have no settled faith on this point; but if we had, we should sin in taking time and space to give our views, to occupy the minds of the readers of the Review with a subject which is in no ways connected with the salvation of those who are accountable. We would rather call the attention of those who are accountable, to the inquiry, "What shall we do" to be saved?
Faith without works is dead anywhere. We believe it possible for holy parents to so train their children in faith, that when they are grown up they will not depart from the Lord.
QUESTIONS. Is it in harmony with the fourth commandment for Sabbath-keepers to go to the post-office on the Sabbath to get the Review, and especially to take out letters and political papers? If they allow their children under their control to do so, will they be free?
ANSWER. Ex. xx, 8-10. "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.
We are fully responsible for the conduct of son, daughter, or hired help, or visitors, who are with us on the Sabbath. We never take our mail from the post-office on the Sabbath. We think there might be some extreme case where it would not be wrong.
QUESTIONS. BRO. WHITE: Is it right and consistent for us who believe with all our hearts in the immediate coming of the Lord, to seek to give our children an education? If so, should we send them to a district or town school, where they learn twice as much evil as good?
ANSWER. The fact that Christ is very soon coming is no reason why the mind should not be improved. A well-disciplined and informed mind can best receive and cherish the sublime truths of the Second Advent.
Again, if children's minds are not elevated and occupied with harmless studies, they may be with things which lead downward to vice. To take children from school, where they would receive some sort of discipline, and let them run in the streets, as some have done, to get a corrupt street education, is but little less than insanity.
The corrupting influences to which children are exposed, when not under the direct influence and proper discipline of godly parents, are deplorable. But children must have discipline or they will go to ruin. If they do not receive discipline at home, they should go where they can receive it, even if they be exposed to the common evils of our schools. Disciplined young minds may resist common evils, while the undisciplined are certain to run to ruin.
No general rule can apply to all children. We must take into the account a variety of circumstances; viz., the character of the schools, embracing both teachers and students, the dispositions of our children, the instructions and government they receive at home, &c., &c. Mothers, if they are what they should be, are the best teachers of small children. But many cruelly send them to school to get them out of the way.
We have not sent our children to public school till the eldest was fifteen. Considering all the circumstances we fully believe we have acted wisely in keeping them from schools which lacked discipline, and then in sending them when a school was established in our part of the city of the highest order of discipline to be found in common schools.