While on my sabbatical I came across a fun Redwood Snippet or should I call it an Ellen Snippet . I found this during my personal studies regarding personal duties.
Folks ... this is just for fun. I need to preface this and say that I have been an Adventist and have enjoyed reading Ellen White all my life. Between my wife and I ... we have a HUGE collection of Ellen White. And I read her.

I don't have any intentions to cause the insult, hurt. or discouragement of anyone. I don't mean to offend. This snippet is just fun. I shared it with my wife and we both just laughed and laughed. Please. We are not laughing at Ellen White. We are just laughing at the cultural wording of this message.

If we can't laugh at ourselves ... then we are sorely missing something. Just know that I share this with the upmost respect for Ellen White. I believe she is our prophet.

That being said .... Here is the gem. Hope I haven't built it up too much .... But I found this funny :

Message for the Day ...





Please be sure to place a timer over the toilet so you can guard the time you are doing your duties there. You would not want the intellect to lie in WASTE. Nor would you want to waste your intellect. Either way.

Okay resume your regular duties ....

Back to the serious debates and solving of the world's problems. Although I see that Robert has still not made any progress in changing the peoples' minds on this forum.
Robert ... I need to fire you and take over in your place. Just not enough fruit is in evidence here.

Toilet:
2 [in sing. ] the process of washing oneself, dressing, and attending to one's appearance : her toilet completed, she finally went back downstairs.
• [as adj. ] denoting articles used in this process : a bathroom cabinet stocked with toilet articles.
• the cleansing of part of a person's body as a medical procedure.

John317 ... please don't spoil the fun with seriousness.

these day when used with the definitions John gave it is usually spelled in the French manner, toilette.

It is an example of an euphemism losing its euphemistic coating. Much like the word 'gay' which used to be a useful word until it became euphemisitc. The 1890's are still known as the 'gay' 90's in the old meaning of the word.



/dAb

I've had to explain that same kind of thing before when I got "toilet water" for my daughters or for some friends. It sounds absolutely awful.

From this I would gather that the 'toilet' was a social gathering place? Wow. Hard to imagine. I just don't find the toilet that attractive. The flushing part is kind of musical though.

I have had dogs that have a great appreciation for toilet water. So from the initial post I guess these dogs slurping from the toilet bowl must be dumb dogs having wasted their intelect...

The point is the length of time. Did you time your dogs to see if they became dumb or not?

Please, no more detail!! I can scarcely bare it.

The cumulative time of their frequent visits had to have laid waste their doggy brains. Of course my view was that anyone or anything taking a drink from there had to be really dumb... As to cause and effect maybe it's not so clear...

Tom. Ellen White is very clear if you read her. She is talking about time spent OVER the toilet ... not IN it.

I'm going to have that quote framed, together with a suitably solemn and stern-looking photo of Mrs White, and hang 2 copies in the rest-rooms at church - one for the ladies, and one for the men.

(checking calendar to see when it is my family's turn next on the church cleaning roster).

aldona

Great Idea Aldona. I love it ....

And some more thoughts...

If you read a book, does it still count as "leaving the intellect to lie waste"?

On Judgement Day, are we going to be confronted by an angel with an entry in a Book somewhere, outlining how many hours, minutes and seconds we spent "over the toilet"?

aldona

Aldona ... to be fair to EGW ... I don't think they read books 'over the toilet' in her days. So, perhaps she would make an exception for this activity. We have to consider culture of toileting when reading her writings.

Yes, I remember when I was a kid and got a small bottle of toilet water in my stocking.

Not wanting to waste any intellect-

At work I posted some book covers in the stalls in the (women's) toilets. Another one of our staff did the men's.

It wasn't long before the covers in the women's stalls were returned to us. As far as I know, the covers in the men's remains to this day.

Gail. Are you saying that the women believed more in Ellen White than did the men?

I'm not sure what to make of it...