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An Interview

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 5, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 26.

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An Interview

By H. F. D’Ath

“My friend,” said I, holding up the Bible, “do you believe this book is the Word of God?”
“Certainly,” she replied.
“And,” I continued, “do you know that in His Word God has expressly commanded you to keep holy the seventh-day Sabbath?”
“I do,” said she.
“Then,” I asked, “what excuse can you offer before God for your wilful and continued desecration of His holy day?”
“Well,” she answered, “I have a living to get.”
“Are you, then, prepared to risk eternal life in striving to get that which God expressly guarantees to all His faithful children in this life?” I inquired.
“Well,” responded she, evasively, “I am engaged in Christian rescue work in the city, and I think God will accept that even tho I do not keep the Sabbath.”
“You do, do you?” I rejoined; “and, pray, what do you undertake to rescue these poor, degraded mortals from?”
“From a life of sin and degradation, of course,” she replied.
“What excuse do these poor, fallen individuals usually offer for leading such a life of sin?” I asked further.
“O,” she declared, “most of them say that times are hard, and that they have to get a living somehow. Isn’t it horrible,” she continued, “that so many will sacrifice their souls for the bread that perisheth, while God has distinctly promised to all His faithful and obedient children, ‘Your bread and water shall be sure’?”
“But,” I insisted, gently but firmly, “has it ever occurred to you that those unfortunate sisters of yours make exactly the same excuse for violating the seventh commandment as that which you offer for trampling on the fourth? Both you and they are selling your souls for the bread that perisheth; both of you are selling your birthrights for a mess of pottage; both are offending in one point; therefore, on the authority of this Word which you profess to believe, both you and they are guilty of the whole law, for God is no respecter of persons.”
“O,” she gasped, “I never saw it like that before.”
“Then, my friend,” I concluded, “may the Lord help you to see it as He sees it, and may you, together with those whom you are endeavoring to rescue, heed the injunction of the Master, ‘Go, and sin no more.’”
— H. F. D’Ath, in “Present Truth.”