Plan and Dare to Do Right.
By D. T. Bourdeau
An old proverb says, “If you would rest well at night, you must previously prepare your resting-place.” This proverb contains a principle that applies in religion, as well as to natural rest. There is a rest that the soul enjoys in faithfully serving God, which is sweet, recuperative, and passeth all understanding. This is the rest that those enjoy who are at peace with God. We prepare to enjoy this rest by meekly bowing to God’s requirements, and accepting Christ as our sacrifice and great burden-bearer. But this rest may be broken by a careless neglect of duty and a guilty conscience. One common way in which this is done is to heedlessly break the Sabbath. Some may do this in laboring for themselves or for others half an hour or longer, after the sun sets Friday night. We do not see why it is not as bad to work the first half hour of the Sabbath, as it is to work thirty minutes Saturday in broad day light; for God sanctified the entire seventh day. If we are laboring for ourselves, we can arrange our affairs so as to commence the Sabbath on time; and so if we labor for others. We should let them understand, as we hire out to them, that we cannot infringe on the Sabbath; and then there will be no after-clap, no disturbance, no guilty conscience, and no bad example set before those who may be watching us to see if we carry out our profession. In serving God we must have moral stamina, and courage to say, No, to temptation; be men and women of God, and never yield a hair of our faith to keep friendly with others, and for fear that we may lose financially. It is dear friendship that is obtained by displeasing God. And if we yield on one point to please others, they will labor the harder to have us yield on other points; and there is no stopping place. We lose our manhood and our influence for right. But if we are inflexible, and dare to do right, our consistency and moral courage will be respected by those whose friendship is worth having; and we shall let our light shine, and get along better in our worldly matters than we would if we were creatures of dough, yielding to every impression.