Short Interviews with Correspondents.
By Editor
Attending Meeting on the Sabbath.—A friend writes that there is in some places a difference of opinion in regard to the propriety of harnessing a team and traveling for six to ten miles to meeting on the Sabbath, and asks for light on the subject. For the argument's sake let us for a while suppose it to be wrong. If it is wrong to go six miles, it is wrong to go three, two or one. But if it is wrong for a person to drive his horse a mile, or half a mile, it must be wrong for the person to go that distance himself on foot; for more labor would be involved in this than in the other. But if it is wrong for him to go half a mile, it is equally wrong for him to go half that distance, or a rod, or a foot. In short, he must stay stock still in his house. This is the legitimate result of this theory; and hence it cannot be based upon correct principles. The Bible commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together; and it designates the Sabbath as an especial time for holy convocations. It is therefore proper to go any reasonable distance to attend them; as this is not our work, which is alone forbidden by the commandment, but work performed in the service of the Lord. The Prophetic Periods.—J. B. P. of Lodi, Wis.: You base your argument that the prophetic periods extend to 1873, on the assumed ground, 1. That deliverance is promised to God's people, at the end of the days, hence, as deliverance has not yet come, that the days have not yet ended, and 2. That the 1290 and 1335 days commence with the 1260 in 538. We consider these premises altogether erroneous. 1. The Bible nowhere declares that deliverance comes to the people of God at the end of the prophetic periods. Two things were predicted to take place at that time; namely, that the sanctuary should be cleansed, and that Daniel should stand in his lot. The lot in which Daniel stands, is not the "lot" of his inheritance; for the word here used does not have that meaning; but it denotes chance or decision; as, to cast lots for anything. When the sanctuary is cleansed, Daniel, a righteous man, stands, or is acquitted, in the decisions of the judgment. David says, "The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment." Ps. i, 5. Thus all is harmony here. 2. The 1290 days, Dan. xii, 11, are said to commence "from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up." It will be noticed that the word sacrifice is in italics, denoting that it is a supplied word. Good critics tell us that it should read, "From the time that the daily abomination shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up." The margin reads, To set up the abomination, &c. That is, from the time the daily desolation, or paganism, was taken away to prepare the way for the setting up of the abomination of desolation, or papacy, there should be 1290 days. The setting up of the papacy was not the work of a moment. Paganism had first to be removed as the national belief, and time given for transition to the new religion. When was this accomplished? It is probably as clearly established a historical fact that paganism was taken away in 508, thus opening the way for the setting up of the papacy, as that the papacy itself was fully established in 538. Now it is manifestly wrong to date the 1290 days from the setting up of the papacy, when the prophecy says they are to date from the taking away of paganism, which was thirty years previous. We therefore date the 1290 days from the year 508; and as the 1335 days are spoken of in connection with these, no possible reason can be given why they do not commence at the same point. The 1290 and 1260 end together in 1798. The Sabbath the World Over.—How can the Greenlander, the Asiatic, and the American, keep the Sabbath according to the commandment? Such is a question proposed for information, by J. V. W., of Tabor, Iowa. The supposed difficulty arises from the difference in time east and west, and from a difference in length, of the periods of daylight and darkness, north and south. We answer that the Sabbath law does not require, from people in different parts of the world, the observance of the same identical hours. Days are marked off by the revolution of the earth; hence all that can be required is that we keep the Sabbath as it is brought to us by these means. That this is so is evident from the New Testament record: Thus, the Sabbath was kept in Palestine; it was also kept at the same time in Corinth, Acts xviii, 1-4, which was so far west as to make a difference in time of about one hour. But if the Sabbath could be kept in Corinth, when it would commence one hour later than in Palestine, it could be kept in places still further west where it would commence ten or even twelve hours later. Hence, in the cases of the Asiatic and the American, there is no difficulty. But how is it with the Greenlander? or, in other words, how can the Sabbath be kept in those high northern latitudes, where there are six months of continual day, and a like period of uninterrupted night? Answer. Just as easily as it can here. There is a fact which we would that every Sabbath-keeper would lay carefully away in some corner of his mind for ready reference, whenever this subject is up. That fact is this: That there is no spot on this globe, east, west, north or south, habitable or uninhabitable, in summer or winter, daylight or darkness, where the revolutions of this earth, and the consequent succession of days, cannot be marked with the utmost accuracy! Thus, at the north when the sun is continually above the horizon, his position in the heavens accurately marks each revolution of the earth; and when the sun is below the horizon, this is no less accurately determined by other heavenly bodies which are constantly in view. Thus may we rest assured that when God gave the Sabbath to all, mankind through their representative, Adam, he did not adopt arrangements in nature, which would render it impossible for some of them to keep it. U. S.