"Six days you shall gather it, but
on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there
shall be none...So the people rested
on the seventh day."
Exodus 16:26,30
Scene from a 19th century English barber shop
"Let the consequences of your obedience be
left up to God."
-Oswald Chambers
"Respect For The Sabbath Rewarded"
Author Unknown
In the city of Bath, not many years since,
lived a barber who made a practice of following
his ordinary occupation on the Lord's day.
As he was on the way to his morning's employment,
he happened to look into some place of worship
just as the minister was giving out his text.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
He listened long enough to be convinced that
he was constantly breaking the laws of God and man
by shaving and dressing his customers on the Lord's day.
He became uneasy, and went with a heavy heart to his Sabbath task.
At length he took courage, and opened his mind to his minister,
who advised him to give up the Sabbath work, and worship God.
He replied that beggary would be the consequence.
He had a flourishing trade, but it would almost all be lost.
At length, after many a sleepless night spent in weeping
and praying, he was determined to cast all his care upon God,
as the more he reflected, the more his duty became apparent.
He discontinued his Sabbath work, went constantly and early
to the public services of religion, and soon enjoyed that satisfaction
of mind which is one of the rewards of doing our duty, and that
peace which the world can neither give or take away.
The consequence he foresaw actually followed.
His genteel customers left him, and he was nicknamed,
"Puritan" or "Methodist". He was obliged to give up
his fashionable shop, and, in the course of years, became
so reduced as to take a cellar under the old market house
and shave the poorer people.
One Saturday evening, between light and dark, a stranger
from one of the coaches, asking for a barber, was directed by
the hostler to the cellar opposite. Coming in hastily, he requested
to be shaved quickly, while they changed horses, as he did not
like to violate the Sabbath.
This was touching the barber on a tender chord. He burst into tears;
asked the stranger to lend him a half-penny to buy a candle,
as it was not light enough to shave him with safety. He did so,
revolving in his mind the extreme poverty to which the
poor man must be reduced.
When shaved, he said, "There must be something extraordinary
in your history, which I have not now time to hear.
Here is a half a crown for you. When I return I will call
and investigate your case. What is your name?"
"William Reed," said the astonished barber.
"William Reed?" echoed the stranger: William Reed?
By your dialect you are from the West."
"Yes, sir, from Kingston near Taunton." (the barber replied).
"William Reed from Kingston near Taunton? What was
your father's name?" (asked the stranger)
"Thomas" (said the barber)
"Had he any brother?" (asked the barber).
"Yes, sir, one, after whom I was named; but he went to
the Indies, and, as we never heard from him,
we supposed him to be dead."
"Come along, follow me," said the stranger, "I am going to
see a person who says his name is William Reed, of Kingston,
near Taunton. Come and confront him. If you prove to be indeed
he who says you are, I have glorious news for you. Your uncle is
dead, and has left an immense fortune, which I will put you in
possession of when all legal doubts are removed."
They went by the coach; saw the pretended William Reed,
and proved him to be an impostor. The stranger, who was a
pious attorney, was soon legally satisfied of the barber's identity,
and told him that he had advertised him in vain.
Providence had now thrown him in his way in a most
extraordinary manner, and he had great pleasure in transferring
a great many thousand pounds to a worthy man, the rightful
heir of the property. Thus was man's extremity God's opportunity.
Had the poor barber possessed one half-penny, or even had credit for
a candle, he might have remained unknown for years; but he
trusted God, who never said, "Seek ye My face." in vain.
Sabbath Song
Zemer Levav
"Respect For The Sabbath Rewarded"
From McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader
Revised Edition
John Wiley and Sons
(1879)
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