“REMEMBER the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” The Christian Sabbath has been set apart in the Divine purpose as a day to be devoted to spiritual recreation and the Lord’s worship and these exercises which are proper to this day, with the exception of works of necessity and mercy, mark the day out as distinct from the other days of the week. The Lord requires us to use it entirely for His glory, and this command we ignore at our peril.
Sabbath desecration has already assumed many forms in this country; trains and buses offer attractive services on this day particularly, shops and restaurants, especially those under foreign management, claim to do their best business during the hours of the Sabbath, the cinema and theatre trade maintain a relentless agitation for increased Sabbath performances, and to these activities may be added the growing popularity of organised holiday camps which is likely to prove another menace to the Sabbath. Tourist traffic is another matter of serious concern. From an economic point of view this may be all very well for the country, but when tourists trample upon God’s holy law and despise the best religious traditions of our native land, it is far from being an unmixed blessing.
The Electrification Scheme for the Highlands which, its promoters claim, will restore much needed industrial prosperity to the country, also calls for comment. Remembering schemes of a similar nature, the danger is that this scheme too may prove a fruitful channel for increased Sabbath desecration. The working man is slowly being deprived of his heritage of an entire Sabbath of physical and spiritual rest, and today the trend throughout the country in this direction is unmistakable. Unless the Sabbath law is better respected generally than at present, the hopes of material prosperity, which the best laid industrial schemes may offer, will be frustrated. What was said on one occasion to a minister in connection with the proposed alteration of the Confession of Faith—”If they only hold on as they are doing we shall soon have no faith to confess”—may be applicable today.
The Committee feels that the wording of a Deliverance of the Synod about fifty years ago is most appropriate under existing circumstances—”The Synod enjoins upon the members and adherents of the church, and very specially upon the heads and guardians of families, the duty and privilege of a careful and scriptural observation of the Lords’ Day, and in their respective stations of furthering the sanctity of this day to the utmost of our power.”—The Sabbath Observance Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.