The Sabbath at HomeAndrews, Silas M. (Silas Milton)
Religion
The Sabbath at Home
Andrews, Silas M. (Silas Milton)
Sabbath; Sunday
Do we find it difficult to rise as early on that day as during the
week, that with the morning we may commence our duties? Let conscience
speak, and we shall wake early. Let our love to God, and his service,
only be as strong as our attachment to the things of the world, and no
more of the Sabbath will be wasted in slumber, than of Monday morning.
Men who labour through the week, contend for this indulgence; that they
are wearied and need rest: besides, that the Sabbath is given for rest.
But, no reader of the Bible can say, that it is the rest of indolence
and spiritual inactivity. The worship of God does not commonly demand
the labours and exercise of the body; the mind only is called into
healthful action; and this is also refreshing to the body. In answer to
the plea, that being worn down with the cares of the week, and its
toils, we may, consistently with duty, lie later on Sabbath morning
than any other, it may be asked, Have we a right to expend our strength
during the week, so as to unfit us for the duties of the Sabbath when
they arrive? If we found ourselves disinclined early to seek the Lord,
last Sabbath, are we not bound to guard against such languor, when this
holy day shall again dawn? Is not duty plain, that we ought to relax
our labours on Saturday, that we may not lose the most precious hours
of the Lord's day? Were we _our own_, we might exercise our pleasure.
But we are not. Man's chief end is, to glorify God, and enjoy him, in
this world, as well as hereafter. Suppose you hire a man, to labour for
you--you have a right to all his time; but you give him five days in
the week for his own employment on condition that he will devote
himself wholly to your work on the sixth. Has this man a right, so to
arrange his business, and expend his strength, during the five days he
labours for himself, that when the sixth day arrives, he cannot rise
until late, nor commence his work until the morning be nearly past?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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