"In the matter of _kneeling_ also, prayer is subject to diversity of observance, through the act of some few who abstain from kneeling on the Sabbath; and since this dissension is particularly on its trial before the churches, the Lord will give his grace that the dissentients may either yield, or else indulge their opinion without offense to others. We, however (just as we have received), only on the day of the Lord's resurrection ought to guard not only against kneeling, but every posture and office of solicitude; deferring even our businesses, lest we give any place to the devil. Similarly, too, in the period of Pentecost; which period we distinguish by the same solemnity of exultation. But who would hesitate _every_ day to prostrate himself before God, at least in the first prayer with which we enter on the daylight."--_On Prayer_, chap. xxiii. A more literal translation of this passage would expressly connect the term Lord's day with the day of Christ's resurrection, the original being "die Dominico resurrexionis." The special weekly honor which Tertullian would have men confer solely upon Sunday was to pray on that day in a _standing_ posture. And somewhat to his annoyance, "some few" would thus act with reference to the Sabbath. There is, however, some reference to the deferral of business on Sunday. And this is worthy of notice, for it is the first sentence we have discovered that looks like abstinence from labor on Sunday, and we shall not find another before the time of Constantine's famous Sunday law, A. D. 321. But this passage is far from asserting that labor on Sunday was sinful. It speaks of "deferring even our businesses;" but this does not necessarily imply anything beyond its postponement during the hours devoted to religious services. And we shall find nothing in Tertullian, nor in his cotemporaries, that will go beyond this, while we shall find much to restrict us to the interpretation of his words here given. Tertullian could not say that Sabbaths were strange to him and his brethren if they religiously refrained from labor on each Sunday. But let us hear him again concerning the observance of Sunday and kindred practices:--