Keeping the Sabbath Despite Hardship
ONE of the most common objections against keeping the Sabbath of the Lord is this: “If I should keep the seventh day of the week I couldn't make a living.” Well, what of it? Is this short life of so much more importance than obedience to the commandments of God? When a man deliberately decides that it is, from that moment his life is not worth the living, since the glorifying of God is all that makes this life of any value. But suppose keeping the commandment of God should involve the loss of life; thousands of men and women have found that they couldn't “make a living” if they obeyed God, yet they chose death at the stake rather than disobedience to God. People honor the martyrs, and think that they too would have stood up boldly for the faith, and then refuse to do a simple duty for fear they may suffer some inconvenience. The same people will often suffer ten times the inconvenience from having their own way, with the prospect before them of losing the only life that is worthy of the name—eternal life. “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing.” 1 Peter 3:17.