Parakaleo
Puritan Board Sophomore
I came across this quote from D. L. Moody a week or so ago:
I thought of it as an earnest, poignant call to Sabbath-keeping and I used it in a discussion I was having with someone who has a looser view of the Sabbath. His answer came back:
This objection raises a really interesting point that has got me thinking quite a lot. I know it's a far-fetched example, but say there was a man who was fired for refusing to work seven days a week and, despite his best efforts working six days a week, he actually starved to death for lack of provision from his work. Would such a man be a martyr, as Moody says? Or, would he be a fool for not understanding that works of necessity are lawful on the Sabbath?
But someone says: 'Mr. Moody, what are you going to do? I have to work seven days a week or starve.' Then starve! Wouldn't it be a grand thing to have a martyr in the nineteenth century? 'The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.' Someone says the seed is getting very low; it has been a long time since we have had any seed. I would give something to erect a monument to such a martyr for his fidelity to God's law. I would go around the world to attend his funeral.
I thought of it as an earnest, poignant call to Sabbath-keeping and I used it in a discussion I was having with someone who has a looser view of the Sabbath. His answer came back:
On Moody saying we should starve rather than violate the Sabbath, this has been refuted by Jesus Himself when His disciples picked grain and He healed/saved life on the Sabbath.
This objection raises a really interesting point that has got me thinking quite a lot. I know it's a far-fetched example, but say there was a man who was fired for refusing to work seven days a week and, despite his best efforts working six days a week, he actually starved to death for lack of provision from his work. Would such a man be a martyr, as Moody says? Or, would he be a fool for not understanding that works of necessity are lawful on the Sabbath?