THERE can be no doubt that as a nation we are getting further and further away from God. A recent report says, “The vast majority of English people need to be converted to Christianity.” They have gone away from Christian truth about God, about Christ, about sin, about salvation and about Christian morals. They have no fear of the true God before their eyes. The moral law of God is thought lightly of. There is little consciousness of the enormity of sin. Transgression of the divine law abounds. Robberies on a large scale seem to be increasing, and the robbers are armed with revolvers, which they are prepared to use if they are opposed in their evil doings. Family life is being broken up, divorces are enormously on the increase. The covetousness which is idolatry is very prevalent. “Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” are very numerous. Sound doctrine, as taught in the inspired Word, is no longer endured by a growing number. Men turn away their ears from the truth and are turned into fables. Immorality in a special sense abounds. Godly ministers and godly people in general must feel that the spiritual condition of our country is deplorable. The old truths are rejected, and the old simplicity in worship is becoming more and more rare. There is a form of godliness without the power thereof. How do we account for this deplorably sad state of affairs? Recently, it has been impressed on our minds that one great reason why many forms of sin abound is because of the sin of Sabbath desecration.* All sin is a transgression of divine law, and many different forms of sin seem clearly to be due largely to an increasing breach of the fourth commandment of the Decalogue. When we read of robbers, thieves, murderers and other open transgressors of the moral law, we do not associate such persons with regular observance of the fourth commandment. As a rule, they have no regard for the sanctity of the Sabbath, and as a practical certain result they are not governed by the other commands of the Decalogue. Disregard for the sanctity of one day in seven leads to the disregard of all the other parts of the moral law. And is not Sabbath desecration on the increase? It is thought that at least ninety per cent of the people of England scarcely ever attend a place where God is worshipped and where His truth is read and proclaimed. Newspapers are published and sold in immense numbers on the Lord’s Day. We remember seeing a clergyman purchasing a paper in the street on the Lord’s Day. The towns and cities where cinemas are open on the Lord’s Day are increasing, and many professed ministers of the Gospel favour this sin. Many politicians address political meetings on the Lord’s Day. It is becoming increasingly common for buses to be run to seaside resorts on the Lord’s Day, and it is notorious that the roads to such places as Brighton are crowded with motor cars on the day that God has commanded to be kept holy. Is it any wonder that as a nation we are becoming practically heathen?
* This is well stated. The Fourth Commandment is the keystone between the two tables of the law—duty to God and duty to our fellow-man, both of which are set forth in the Fourth Commandment. Take away the keystone and the arch is broken.—Editor.
Dr. Charles Hodge, in his Systematic Theology, says, “It is undeniable that the mass of the people are indebted to the services on the Lord’s Day for their religious knowledge. Any community or class of men who ignore the Sabbath and absent themselves from the sanctuary, as a general thing, become heathen. They have little more true religious knowledge than pagans. But without such knowledge morality is impossible. Religion is not only the life-blood of morality, so that without the former the latter cannot be; but God has revealed His purpose that it shall not be. If men refuse to retain Him in their knowledge, He declares that He will give them up to a reprobate mind (Romans i. 28). Men do not know what they are doing, when by their teaching or example they encourage the neglect of profanation of the Lord’s Day. We have in the French Communists an illustration and a warning of what a community without a Sabbath, i.e., without religion, must ultimately and inevitably become.” We would add, is there not great need in these solemn times that even real Christian people should beware of giving encouragement to the growing desecration of the Lord’s Day?—English Churchman, 6th June, 1947.