2123.-What Is Duty? by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 19, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 25.

2123.—What Is Duty?

By Editor

A works for C, who is a farmer. Has C any right to ask A, who observes the Sabbath, to do chores and other work on the Sabbath? C says he takes care of the cattle on Sunday. L. L.

It seems to us that this would depend on whether the man is hired by the day or by the month. If he is hired by the day he would help only on those days in which he was employed, the six days. If he were working by the month on the premises of the man, it would be proper to do necessary chores. By this we do not mean what humanity might call necessary but what would be actually necessary for the life and welfare of the people and stock. Cows have to be fed and milked, horses have to be fed and watered, chickens and fowls of various kinds the same. Such chores as these, reduced always of course to a practical, merciful minimum, must be performed on the Sabbath the same as on any day. So the prophet Amos, the herdsman, must have cared for his flocks, so must also David, Abraham, and Jacob.