p. 594 | IMAGINING DIFFICULTIES by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 38.

IMAGINING DIFFICULTIES.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

"O, I CAN'T sleep at night, I can't sleep!"

"Poor fellow, you must cease your overwork, and at once make use of soothing remedies!"

"O, that will do no good; the trouble is not with me; I could sleep very well if I had an opportunity, but there is no time in which to sleep; I can never sleep any more!"

"Why not? How can that be?"

"I have just learned that the earth is round, and that it isn't night at all places on the earth at the same time, and that therefore it is impossible for people to sleep."

"Foolish fellow! Who has been telling you that?"

"Nobody; but my pastor, who is a learned man, has told me that it is impossible to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, because it is not the seventh day all over the world at one time; and I have sense enough to see that if we can't rest on the seventh day, then we can't sleep on the seventh night; and if we can't sleep on the seventh night, we can't sleep on any other night. What shall I do?"

"Do! why, go to bed to-night, when the night comes to you, and sleep where you are, instead of thinking you must sleep where you are not. Didn't you sleep well last night?"

"First-rate; never slept better in my life; but then you see I had not heard the parson's theory."

"Well, don't let a theory run away with the fact. The fact is, you can and do sleep every night when it comes to you; when the night is on the other side of the earth, you do not need to sleep. So with the Sabbath—the seventh day—which God made for man—for all men—to keep. Keep it when it comes to you; when it is not present with you, then you are not required to rest on it. Let your soul rest in the assurance that God has never given a commandment that it is not possible for all men everywhere to obey." E. J. W.