March-May 1999 The Sabbath Sentinel
Humor . . .
Regarding working on the Sabbath:
If you can train an ox, why can't you train people?
It was 1948 when Gulag Irkutsk, a Christian believer in Siberia,
received a 25-year sentence. After refusing to work on Sabbath,
he was ordered to stand in a three-by four-foot cell for 10 days
with only water for nourishment. For a year Irkutsk went through
the same routine, in confinement for 10 days and out for four
days.
After a year a general came to inspect the prison camp, and
found Irkutsk in solitary confinement. When the general inquired
about his confinement, Irkutsk explained about the Sabbath.
"I am a believer in God,"Irkutsk said. "A sign of
my loyalty to Him is to rest on the Sabbath. However, I am
prepared to work twice as much the day before in order to have
the Sabbath off."
Irkutsk was ordered to carry enough water for the 1,000
prisoners -- filling the reservoir by transporting well
water. Prison officials provided Irkutsk with an ox, and for 10
years they followed the same routine of working twice as fast the
day before and resting on Sabbath.
Later Irkutsk was released for his outstanding work record, but
the ox remained and assisted another prisoner as he transported
water. When the first Sabbath came, that ox lay quietly chewing
his cud. Nothing would move the beast -- neither shouting,
pulling, threatening, nor beating. Every Sabbath the same
drama happened. Finally the exasperated jailer told the prisoner,
"You will never change the ox's behavior.
The Sabbath-keeper has made the ox into a Sabbath-keeper. And
Sabbath-keepers are very, very stubborn!"
-- John K. McGhee
Note: any resemblance of the ox to real people today is purely
coincidental!
TSS
March - May 1999 The Sabbath Sentinel
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