Chapter 71—January, 1851

Joseph Bates: The Door of Salvation Is Closed to Sinners and Backsliders, But Not to Children and Honest Adults. 

When the Master of the house (the Lord Jesus) rose up and shut to the door, all honest believers, that had submitted to His will, and children that had not arrived to the years of accountability, were undoubtedly borne in on his breast-plate of judgment which is over his heart. The names of all that fully keep the commandments are retained. Those that do not, will have their names erased before Jesus leaves the Holiest. SDD 48.1

The children, that are taught, and that keep the commandments of God, as they come to the years of accountability, are believers just as fully as adult persons, that are now embracing all of the commandments, in addition to what they believed before. SDD 48.2

It is true, some persons that are ignorant of this message may, and undoubtedly will be saved if they die before Jesus leaves the Holiest. I mean those that were believers before 1844. Sinners and backsliders cannot get their names on the breast-plate of judgment now. God in infinite mercy has borne with our ignorance on this subject until now; and our children have been neglected as they should not have been. Let us then do all that our hands find to do toward their salvation.—The Review and Herald, January 1851, p. 39. SDD 48.3