God's Sabbath

T HE S ABBATH B LESSING

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learn all there was to learn about shoe-shining in the first day. After that, it was simply a matter of applying the polish and col lecting the money. One day, a stranger whom the boy had never seen before, asked to have his shoes shone. The lad recognized at once that the shoes were made of a poor quality of leather and doubted if he could do much with them. Nonetheless, he worked hard, but finally admitting defeat, he briefly explained to the man the na ture of the leather, its origin and quality, and the manufacturing process through which it had passed. Because of these factors, he explained that he could not give the shoes a good shine, and suggested to his customer how he could identify a better quality leather the next time he bought shoes. The man thanked him and went on his way. The next custom er, who had overheard the conversation as he waited his turn, stepped up and began to ply the lad with questions. He listened in astonishment to his answers about shoes and leather. He had never met a shoeshine boy like this before. He was much im pressed with the fund of knowledge the boy had accumulated. As it happened, this man owned a large shoe factory and saw in the boy a valuable worker for his plant. The job he promptly offered the lad was as quickly accepted. It was not long before the shoe shine boy became the chief buyer of leather for the entire facto ry and eventually occupied the position of manager. This boy brought out the best in himself because he worked at it. He did everything he could to improve his knowledge and abilities. That principle holds true for all who have risen above the lower lev els where the majority are quite content to remain. While the rest have spent their time in useless amusements or wasteful idleness, these few have applied themselves to learning and practice until they have far outdistanced those who might have run with them.

Keeping Sabbath

The same is true with Sabbath-keeping. When we begin to keep the Sabbath, our experience may be similar to the novice with the new keyboard. All the blessings, all the wonderful potential is there, but it is impossible for the new believer to realize these