THE hearts of many of God’s people are, in these days, made sad by what appears to be a growing coldness and indifference on the part of professing Christians in regard to the sanctity of the Lord’s Day. It is greatly to be deplored that the enemies of true religion have been enabled to do so much of late to lower the tone of public feeling in regard to this matter. Even in Scotland, where the Sabbath Day was wont to be observed, at least, with an outward show of reverence, a change is perceptible. Many people do things now on Sabbath which they would have hesitated to do twenty years ago. Hundreds of shops are kept open on Sabbath in all our large cities. But many who call themselves the friends of the people would fain have not only open shops, but open places of amusement and many other evils. It is quite common now to see on Sabbaths, in the summer time, excursion parties, or young men on bicycles and tricycles passing through the streets, and to hear lively music sounding out through open windows, reminding one of Sabbaths on the Continent. In some towns there are postal deliveries; and not long ago it was reported that Volunteers marched to worship on a Sabbath Day to the strains of martial music!
This tract contains some sound advice for Christians in regard to the observance of the Lord’s Day. Since it was written extraordinary strides have been made in the desecration of God’s day in Scotland.—Editor.
Such things are sad enough; but can anything else be expected from those who have no fear of God before their eyes? It is the indifference of professing Christians to the holiness of God’s day which is the saddest thing of all—to be wounded in the house of one’s friends. It is truly lamentable that among many of those who profess to be Christians there should be so little true appreciation of God’s purpose in giving the Sabbath Day, and so little delight in doing His will upon that day. How much unnecessary Sabbath visiting, travelling, walking, idle and worldly conversation, and reading of semi-religious papers, writing and posting of letters, etc., goes on in these days. How much time is filled up by playing, or practising, of what is called “sacred” music, which many persuade themselves is an allowable, although too often merely a mechanical, exercise. How many there are who habitually rise later or go to bed earlier, and who evidently consider time less valuable on Sabbath than on other days. If any doctoring is required which necessitates confinement to the house, how often Sabbath is chosen for that; and how unusually anxious many feel about their sick friends on that day. Is it not too often the case that they are simply doing their own pleasure instead of God’s will, and taking the time for such things from God’s one day, which, perhaps, they grudge to take from their own six days? It is robbing God (Mal. iii. 8).
Alas! these and other things show how little of a delight God’s day is, and how much a weariness it is felt to be by many, even by professing Christians. How few Christians, comparatively, seem to make an earnest endeavour to reduce their domestic and household work to a minimum. How many insist upon their hot dinners, and so much, if not more, cooking than usual. How few afford their servants every facility for attending public worship, and see that they rightly employ the opportunities—a very different thing from simply giving servants that liberty on Sabbath which they grudge to give them out of the other days of the week. Another evil which prevails to a very large extent, is Sabbath letter-writing. Many professing Christians not only seem to see nothing wrong in writing a letter on a Sabbath Day, but actually make the Sabbath their regular writing day. Other Christian people have been known purposely to send letters by post in order that their friends may receive them on Sabbath! Surely no one who has any true conception of what the Sabbath Day is meant to be can justify such conduct.
Another great, and it is to be feared, increasing evil is Sabbath travelling. It would be well if Christian ministers would set a good example in this respect, and would resolve that it is not necessary that they should appear in such-and-such pulpits, if their appearance involves their travelling on Sabbath Day. The question of necessity is too often applied to personal comfort or convenience, instead of, in the first place, to obedience to God’s commands.
Can those expect a blessing on their labours who travel in railways and public conveyances on Sabbath to their sphere of labour? It is not their sphere if, to reach it, they must themselves break the Fourth Commandment and cause others to do so, too, as well as set an evil example before many. A necessity is not a real necessity if it is merely the outcome of an arrangement which man chooses to make. The first and great necessity is to keep God’s law; and if that were always kept in view there would be fewer appointments made, involving travelling of any kind on the Lord’s Day. “Surely it is time for Christians to awake to the fact that, by using public conveyances on Sabbath they are depriving thousands of men of the day which God has ordained for their rest; they are taking the father from the family on the one day when surely he should be found in its midst; and, above all, they are ruining thousands of souls, by keeping them from attending the means of grace.”
The same remarks apply to the indefensible use of cabs in our large cities by ministers and professing Christian people. Many appeals on behalf of the cabmen have been made by missionaries and others who know the terrible wrong that is thus being done, both to their bodies and souls. But it seems to have little effect. The minister must have his cab! He has arranged to preach at a certain place, and, being unable or unwilling to walk, he has manufactured a necessity which sets at rest any scruples he may have. Then the poor, old lady. She can’t walk, and she can only worship God acceptably within a certain church! Oh! when will “this strange anomaly of Sabbath-breaking in the name of Sabbath-keeping” cease? Are there not plenty of week-day services for those who must drive? . . . Or would it not be infinitely more acceptable to God to be worshipped in the solitude of the chamber, than to have His professing people selfishly enjoying their privileges by robbing a hard-worked man of his Sabbath rest, and, it may be, depriving him of opportunities of hearing the Gospel, and contributing to the influences which may ruin his immortal soul ?
Closely allied to this, and yet excused on account of the accompanying solemnity, which gives an appearance of appropriateness, is the prevalence of Sabbath funerals. Rare cases do occur where it is absolutely necessary that the dead be buried on the Sabbath Day; but that is no justification for that day being regularly selected by so many for the burial of their dead. The amount of labour it causes is very great, and there are grave-diggers who can testify that for years they have not known what it was to have a Sabbath to themselves. The remedy for this lies very much in the hands of Christian people, and especially Christian ministers. If they would set their faces against it, as some have done, and let it be known that they do so on principle, the practice or custom (for it is really that) would probably soon die out. The plea of some who say it is the only time they have for such duties can generally be shown to be a mere excuse. Our working-men scarcely live under such oppression as all that.
This custom, now so common in the South, fortunately has not yet become common in the North.
It is not enough, of course, merely to “cease to do evil” on the Sabbath Day. We must “learn to do well.” It is a day of rest undoubtedly; but to rest merely “is to keep the Sabbath of the brute creation, and no more.” We must consecrate the day to the spiritual edification of ourselves and others. Dr Charles Brown used to say, “Prize your Sabbaths, as the miser his gold, for converse with God, eternity, heaven. Give your Sabbaths wholly to these ends, excepting so much as you may occupy in seeking the welfare of others.” The Sabbath should be to us, if rightly understood and used, a day of holy gladness and of happy service for God—a foretaste of the eternal Sabbath in Heaven above.
If ever there was need for meditation and prayer on the Sabbath Day it is in this busy, bustling age; but, alas ! too many of us feel as the good man did who confessed that he found it easier “to go six miles to hear a sermon than to spend one quarter of an hour in meditating and praying over it in secret,” as he should, when he came home. It is to be feared there is little true meditation nowadays. There is too much rushing about to hear this man and that man; criticising and gossiping; skimming over any quantity of books, good, bad, and indifferent; but little feeding on the Word of God, little true waiting upon God in prayer and holy meditation.
How much need we have to ask ourselves, with Francis Quarles, each Sabbath Day:—”Oh, my soul, see to it, hast thou profaned this day thy God hath sanctified? Hast thou encroached on that which heaven hath set apart? If thy impatience cannot rest a Sabbath twelve hours, what happiness canst thou expect in a perpetual Sabbath? Is six days too little for thyself, and one too much for thy God?”