Deuteronomy 5:12-15 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD your God has commanded you.… About thirty years ago a Girvan shoemaker emigrated to British Columbia, on the Western shores of North America, to try his fortune on the Caribou diggings, then attracting many people. After passing through his own share of hardships, he arrived at the diggings, and wrought hard though unsuccessfully till he had spent his money, and became, in miners' phraseology, "broke." Being a Scotchman, however, he had provided for this eventuality, by bringing with him a few tools with which he resolved to start shoemaking at the diggings. Next day, being Sunday, he was lying in his tent despondent enough, when a tall miner entered with a pair of long boots slung over his shoulder. "Is the shoemaker here?" asked the new arrival. The reply was that he would be hero on Monday. "If I am not mistaken you are the shoemaker yourself." "Well," said our friend, "what though I be?" "Now, look here," said the miner with an oath, "I have travelled five miles to come here, and I won't leave this tent till you mend my boots." The cobbler looked up for a moment, and thought of turning him out by force, but all at once the recollection of the Sabbath day came to him, and so, dropping his eyes, he replied: "You see, sir, I come from Scotland, where the Sabbath is respected; and I have never wrought on the Sabbath yet, and please God I don't mean to begin new." The miner made no answer, and the cobbler looked up, when, to his amazement, he saw the big tears dropping over his cheeks. All at once the man flung the boots on the ground with these words: "God help. Me! I was brought up to respect the Sabbath too, but nobody respects anything in this God-forsaken country. Take the boots, and mend them when you can"; whereupon he left the tent. The shoemaker ultimately started a store in Victoria, British Columbia, called the "Scotch House," where he prospered exceedingly. He is now dead, but the business is still carried on by his son, who was in that district not many years ago. Parallel Verses KJV: Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.WEB: "Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. |
    |