“Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.”
THE Free Presbyterian people are like the Jews in Babylon—in the midst of great apostacy from the Word of God, His Law, precepts, and morality in general. No Free Presbyterian should read the “Sunday newspapers” on the Lord’s Day or buy it on Friday or Saturday. The telephone should never be used on the Lord’s Day except in the case of necessity and mercy—never for secular use and worldly use such as making appointments and transacting business and discussing the affairs of the week on the Lord’s Day. No letters should be written or posted on Sabbath. Those who write and mail letters on the Lord’s Day engage postmen and others in the Post Office on Sabbath, which shows that those who indulge in that evil work have no love to their fellows. They are no Christians! They hate God and man! You should never travel on the Lord’s Day by trains, buses, pleasure steamers, by planes from one city to another; and if on holiday on the Continent never travel on the Sabbath and arrange beforehand that if travelling with tourists that you are not involved in Sabbath sightseeing and going from one hostel to another (or from one camp to another) on the Lord’s Day. You must be very careful that you make proper and careful arrangements beforehand. The Tourist Boards and private companies have no regard whatever for the Sabbath. They would mock at your conscientious objections as regards the Lord’s Day. Another thing that is common on the Continent is that shops and playhouses and all kind of amusements are open on the Sabbath. In fact, they have no Sabbath hardly anywhere on the Continent from Moscow to Paris!
The Lord’s Day is like any other day in Continental Europe, as well as Asia! If you have the fear of God in your heart let me warn you that probably with the exception of some isolated places in the Netherlands, there is no Sabbath Day observed in Western Europe, no more than in Eastern Europe. If you have to go for health reasons, or legitimate business, be sure and arrange beforehand where you are to reside on the Lord’s Day. Our Highlands are extensively advertised for tourists. Here our people have a great difficulty in making proper arrangements to lodge the visitors who may reside “within their gates” on Sabbath. If they are from the industrial centres of Scotland, England, France, Canada, United States, and so on, our people must beforehand assure themselves and their visitors that the Lord’s Day must be respected, honoured, and carefully observed according to the claims of the Fourth Commandment. That the visitor “within thy gates” (for whom you are responsible before God while he or she resides in your house) must not travel, receive “Sunday newspapers” on Sabbath, or mail letters. In most places in the Highlands the hotel bars are open on Sabbath and some under plausible pretences will go out from a house to the hotel to get drink.
If you entertain visitors you must be gentle and firm. That is to say, if you value your soul, love God, and His holy law. We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and you know that He is a most impartial Judge. Any money you gain or make on the Lord’s Day in a mercenary way will have the divine curse upon it. “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but He blesseth the habitation of the just” (Pro. iii. 33). Now, those who have no regard to the Lord, His day, and their own soul are surely counted wicked! What is, then, the value of money made on the Lord’s Day by transgressing the Fourth Commandment? It is simply wicked, and the curse of God is in the house of the wicked. Let our dear Free Presbyterians watch their steps. You live in an age that fears not God. That you are poor and must do “something” to earn your living is no excuse to dishonour the God of the Sabbath. See Hab. ii. 9; Matt. xvi. 26; Mark viii. 36; Luke ix. 25.
The sound radio and television are powerful instruments on Satan’s side for breaking down and banishing altogether any respect for the Lord’s Day in the minds of millions in homes throughout the land. These modern instruments should be completely closed down on the Sabbath, not only because of the worldly and vain and harmful programmes, with a mixture of religious items, but because of the tremendous “behind the scenes” activities on God’s Day throughout the B.B.C. organisation to keep things going. No necessity here!
You hear and read what ignorant men call “the dictates of my own conscience” and what “my conscience tells me.” What folly, yea, what popery if the conscience is not purged from dead works in the blood of Christ. We know a good deal about “conscience” under two distinct governments. We know what kind of conscience we had serving the devil, the flesh, and the world. If your conscience is not enlightened by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, and divinely instructed daily in the fear of God, you are only like a parrot trying to repeat words which you do not understand. It is to the Word of God you have to look, and not to your own dead, guilty conscience! We found out last year that some railway officials were sounding some local men in the Island of Skye whether there would be any active or strong opposition against running the Kyle Ferry on Sabbath. Our Skye friends must watch, pray, and quit themselves like men against this attack on the Sabbath, for the so-called Tourist Board have no regard for the sanctity of the Sabbath Day, and the British Railway officials none whatever. We hope that none of our people in the Outer Isles will ever travel on the Lord’s Day by the aeroplane that leaves Stornoway on Sabbath.
How do we Free Presbyterians regard works of necessity and mercy that must be done on the Lord’s Day as on any other day of the week? The simple answer to that question is—according to the Word of God. It is in the light of God’s Word that we understand the difference between the works of necessity and mercy and what can never be classified on Scriptural grounds to be works of necessity on the Lord’s Day. The doctor and nurse must attend to their patients night and day, Sabbath Day, and all the year round. The farmer must water, feed and milk his cows on Sabbath. The shepherd must attend to the sheep, and at special seasons be about his flock on the Lord’s Day. God is merciful to man and to beast. It is not necessary for the farmer to go out to plough his field on Sabbath or gather it on Sabbath during harvest time. Many scores of thousands of acres lie rotten on the fields of Britain this year. Where is the gain made in past years when a large number of our farmers were out sowing and gathering to their barns on the Lord’s Day? We poor ratepayers have to subsidise them this year for their great loss. They could not take the produce of the field home on Sabbath or Thursday! Farmers should remember that God is not mocked! The farmer can plough and sow but God can blast it before his eyes. The God-fearing farmer will take good care that he will not do or cause his servants do on the Lord’s Day but what is absolutely necessary, and what must be done according to God’s Word.
It is not necessary for fishermen to fish on the Lord’s Day. It is, indeed, wicked. That will be punished either here or hereafter. Big money and great success will not protect the criminal from the justice of God. We do not believe that any of our people would bow to such temptation who are engaged in the honourable art of fishing. Let our people consider first of all that the eye of God is upon them, and that they are on their way to eternity. The Lord can provide, shield, guide, and lead us all in the path of truth and righteousness. Pay no attention to those who will mock, jeer, and sneer at you and call you a Bigot, Narrow-minded, Ignorant, Hypocrite, and “Do you think no one will get to heaven but you!” You know Satan is very “broad-minded” because he hates God. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecc. xii. 13).—J. M.