We are warned not to say 'What is the cause that the former days were better than these?' (Ecclesiastes 7:10): but when we compare the former days with our own day, we cannot help thinking that there are many things characterizing our day that make it very much more difficult for a true Christian to 'walk with God' now than it used to be. Chief among these is the universal contempt, yea, the almost complete destruction of the Lord's day which we now witness. It is the nature of every believer to seek communion with his God, and, if he is in a healthy spiritual condition, he will use every available means towards this end. We firmly believe that no other means is of more importance, or calculated to confer such great blessing on man as the Lord's day, therefore I would like to address you on How to spend the Lord's day profitably.

The word profit occurs frequently in our everyday speech, but suggests no more to most people than a scoop on the Pools or on Bingo, or two days' pay for one day's work. The Bible, however, uses the word in an entirely different way, as is clear from a statement of our Lord, who used the word in a spiritual sense, 'What shall it profit a man though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?' To Him, not the gaining of a world, but the keeping of one's soul was true profit. This is exactly what God had in mind when, at the Creation, He instituted and gave the Sabbath to man, which would be an incalculable gain to his body and soul. The prohibitions with which He surrounded it were not imposed arbi­trarily — as if merely to assert His sovereignty over man, but to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of all mankind. God appointed this day because He is wise and loving and good. He knew that real, lasting profit is to be found only in fellowship and friendship with Himself, and when we realize this, the strict prohibitions and severe penalties connected with the Sabbath become meaningful.

God loves the fellowship of His own people, and He instituted the Sabbath that He and they might have fellowship one with another.

Hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.Ezekiel 20:20

'That ye may KNOW'; that is not intellectually only, but experimentally also; as if He had said, 'If you do this, you will know by a deep and sweet experience of my love and presence with you that I am the Lord your God'.

It is not too much to say that we owe most, if not all the blessings we enjoy, to the Lord's day. Without it there is no true Christianity, and without Christianity there is no real, lasting spiritual blessing. That we, in our generation, are in danger of losing this day altogether, few serious-minded men or women will dispute. Among the portentous signs of the present time, there is none more appalling to all who love God and venerate His Word than the systematic violation and destruction of the Sabbath. Nothing would be easier than to demolish the feeble sophistries of those who assail Sabbath-keeping as something fanatical or Judaical. Enough has been already written on these points for the conviction of every thoughtful and unprejudiced person. But in our time the Lord's Day is not much argued about any more — people simply ignore it. We are living in perilous times. A mock Christianity, with its vile breed of atheism, modernism and immorality, is the religion of the vast majority of our people. If this mock Christianity continues to advance at its present alarming rate, the time may be near when in Britain the Lord's Day, as a divine institution, will be nothing but a relic of history. Even now literally millions of people turn their backs upon it, and refuse to acknowledge it. Many of these are, as T. S. Eliot describes them, 'decent godless people, their only monument the asphalt road and a thousand lost golf balls'. Tens of thousands of others make a formal recognition of it — not of the whole of it but of 45 or 60 minutes of it, the rest of it they claim as their own.

But when men rob God, when the foundations are destroyed, 'What shall the righteous do?' Let me answer by quoting a passage from the prophecy of Isaiah:

If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable. If thou wilt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.Isaiah 58:13, 14

No better exposition of this passage can be found than the concise statements of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter Catechism.

The Confession says:

This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.Ch. 21

The Shorter Catechism, in answer to the question:

How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? says 'The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy'. As much to the point is its other statement; The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works about our worldly employments or recreations.Answers to Qs. 60 and 61

Admittedly this is a very lofty standard, and it is difficult even for those who profess to be the Lord's people to fulfil these requirements. We cannot help being influenced, to some extent, by the prevailing opinions and practices of our time. For one thing, it would be easier and pleasanter for us to worship God on this day if there was more outward quietness. As it is, wherever we go, or even if we but stay at home, we cannot escape noise of some kind, in many cases quite unbearable. How different it would be if we got a really quiet, peaceful Lord's Day! I cannot help recalling, and I shall cherish the memory of it as long as I live, such a Sabbath in my native Island of Lewis in my boyhood days.

It was prepared for on Saturday evening. All the household work was finished earlier than usual. Tomorrow's meals, as far as that was possible, were prepared, and by ten p.m. the family gathered together and 'The Book was taken' — an old Highland phrase for 'Family Worship'. However late with their household work some might be on other nights, on a Saturday there would not be one light in a hundred to be seen at 12 o'clock midnight. The Sabbath itself began with family worship (family worship, morning and evening, was the practice in most homes every day of the week). Public worship began usually at 12 noon. Hundreds of people made their way to the House of God. The only way to get there was by walking, yet almost everyone who was able to go attended, although many lived several miles away. Evening worship was at 6 o'clock, and again everyone who could go was there. Particularly im­pressive was the complete silence that prevailed throughout the day. Not a stroke of work was done. There was no noise of car or cart. Between church services no-one was seen outside his own house except those who had to take their cattle to drink. Should anyone be seen going up or down the main road, people would come to their doors to ask one another if they knew who it was, being absolutely certain he was going for medical aid for some ill person or to deliver an urgent message. Inside the house no books were read but the Bible and religious books; all other books were put away on Saturday night. Conversation about worldly things was not allowed. Frequently relatives and friends who had a long distance to walk to the church, came into my parents' home between services, and their conversation was always of a religious kind. As a rule they discussed points made by the preacher in the morning service. This was the way the Lord's Day was observed as I remember it.

That, of course, was in a country place, but I remember one of my College Professors saying that in his youth tramcars in Edinburgh were run on Sabbaths only to take people to and from places of worship. Unhappily it is now impossible to get a quiet Sabbath similar to that which I have described. Wherever we go Sabbath desecration has pene­trated to the most isolated hamlets and homes. Sunday newspapers, Radio, T.V. and pleasure-loving tourists have left no corner, however remote, untouched. Yet, in spite of all this, it is possible for believers to enjoy the blessing of God on His day, and now I shall explain how they can obtain it.

First. There must be a deep and unshakeable conviction of the divine warrant for the keeping of the Lord's Day established in our minds. If this is the case, it then follows — to quote R. L. Dabney — that 'All men who really fear God will begin to sanctify His day. If this conviction is established, little more remains to be done except to invoke the aid of Divine grace for assistance in executing our convictions of duty'.

Second. We must have a deep impression of the tremendous importance of this day for ourselves. This can be seen when we consider that it was the first provision of a sacred kind made for man, and that this provision was made, not after the fall of man, but before it. When God gave the Sabbath to our first parents, there was no sin in the world and there was none in their minds. They were living in a sinless paradise, yet every day was not a Sabbath. Even in that state God gave them a Sabbath, not only their bodies might enjoy rest, but that their souls also might enjoy special communion with their Maker. If it was necessary that sinless souls in a sinless state should have a Sabbath for the development of their spiritual nature, how much more necessary must it be for us, sinful creatures in a sinful world!

The importanceof the Sabbath day can be seen in the fact that when God's covenant people were separated from the rest of the world at the Exodus, it was the first point of religion that was given to them, and soon afterwards it was proclaimed at Sinai and engraven in tables of stone. It is the only commandment in the Moral Law that affirmatively and directly requires duty to God, and the only one which is enforced by the example of God.

Further, the frequent proclamation of the permanency of the Sabbath proves its importance. No other commandment is so often referred to in the Old Testament as the fourth; there are few books in which there is not a direct or an indirect reference to it. The institutions of men have perished one by one, but the Sabbath remains, and will remain, more lasting than the everlasting hills

Third. If we are to get spiritual benefit from the Lord's Day, it must be observed by us as a day of complete rest. A regular interval of rest — one day in seven — is necessary for the welfare of body and mind. This is God's 'tranquiliser' for us. If people kept the day as to the Lord, man-made tablets to induce peace of mind would be in far less demand. Even beasts of burden require this period of rest, and those who should know tell us that the very grass on a golf course or a bowling green is the better for it.

Complete rest is the command. 'In it thou shalt not do any work'. In far too many cases, professing Christians, instead of setting a good example to others, are themselves corrupted by the carelessness and wicked example of others. There is no valid reason for professing Christians to work on the Lord's Day except in cases of necessity or mercy. God does not bless people who deliberately violate His law. The fear of losing one's job, which is really lack of faith in God, is often at the root of such a breach of God's command.

It is incumbent upon us to show as much concern for others as we do for ourselves in the keeping of the Lord's command. When I say this I do not mean to deprive the individual Christian of the liberty of his own conscience. Nevertheless it is hard to see how he can have a blessing on a Sabbath day if he has helped others to break it, even if he has not done any work himself. We grant that a few of us, living by the rule, will not bring about any apparent difference in the present pattern of life, but let us strive to have a conscience void of offence in the sight of God and men.

Fourth. In order to obtain the blessing of God, the Sabbath must be a day of religious improvement. Rest of mind and body is not enough. Some take the Sabbath rest grudgingly and from unworthy motives. Such a rest is carnal and sensual, and is as sinful as unnecessary work.

Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.Cowper

The true Christian does not observe the Sabbath because he is forced to do it, nor merely because of pious parental instruction. John Angell James said that 'The heart of a believer would claim it as a privilege to keep holy the Sabbath day even if his conscience did not dictate it as a duty'. The believer, according to the passage we read in Isaiah, calls the Sabbath 'a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable'. A heart without the grace of God finds the Sabbath irksome and tedious, but the fault is not in the day but in itself. But to the Christian the Lord's day is what the sun is to the day, what the oasis is to the traveller, what the dew is to the grass, what water is to the thirsty and bread to the hungry, what wings are to a bird, what a home is to the orphan, and what rest is to the weary. 'This is the day God made, in it we'll joy triumphantly' (Psalm 118:24) If we would spend the day profitably we must, of course, take part in public worship. The Lord loves the courts of Sion, and all who are His people love them too.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.Psalm 27:4

One day in thy courts is better than a thousand. Psalm 84:10

It was with reference to public worship that Charles Wesley said, 'My heart, it doth dance at the sound of His name'.

But mere bodily attendance in the House of God profits no-one. I can only compare it to the presenting of a dead carcass for the Lord's sacrifice; it would be utterly rejected. They that worship God 'must worship him in spirit and in truth'. How meaningless is the act of worship in which people do not come into the presence of God. Here is the place of conviction of sin, of confession, of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, of prayer, praise, joy and peace. It is the place of enlightenment where the dark mind is illuminated, and where the cold heart is made to burn. It is the place of growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Who would miss it? Certainly no one who seeks to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Let us be careful, also, that we do not lose the blessings of public worship by 'thinking our own thoughts and speaking our own words'. Our minds are easily distracted. Vain imaginations, worldly thoughts, and an anxious mind are 'little foxes', that spoil the vine of our worship. But perhaps the greatest danger of all is the conversation before and after. Some talk of politics and of business, some of family circumstances, some of their cars or houses, some of the weather, and some of their neighbours. Such conversation is sure to bring a blight upon the soul. If we want to profit from public worship, let Christ be our one glorious theme before and after it. Let us talk about Him, even if we do not have much to say, and even if what we say is wrong. The two disciples, on the way to Emmaus talked about Him. What they said was wide of the mark, but He came into their company and 'expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.' 'Oh, I thought', said godly David Brainerd of those who talked of worldly matters on the Lord's Day, 'what a hell it would be to live with such men to eternity'!

But public worship is not the only means at our disposal on the Lord's Day for the culture of our souls. There are others, and if we would have a profitable Lord's Day we shall make use of them too. There is, for example, the duty and privilege of family worship. In a proper Christian home there are morning and evening devotions every day but these have a special meaning on the Lord's Day. There is, as a rule, more time, and the morning worship on that day is followed by public worship, whereas on other days it may have to be done hurriedly and must be followed by our daily work. We should be aware of the necessity of family worship as much as we are of the need of clothing and washing and eating.

Under the law of Moses the daily sacrifice was doubled on the Sabbath. Should we not, therefore, who are not under the law but under grace, double our act of devotion in our own homes on this day. An old Scottish custom was to spend the afternoon teaching the children to learn the Shorter Catechism, and many a boy and girl got the marrow of divinity into the warp and woof of their soul through this most commendable practice. No doubt the sacredness of the day, and the atmosphere it creates will help considerably to deepen the impression made on our minds by this spiritual exercise. The day should end with the evening devotions when thanks are rendered to God for His mercies. If homes follow this pattern, then surely it will be said of them, 'How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel' (Numbers 24:5).

Again, there is religious reading. If there is so little time for reading on other days, all the more reason why as much time as possible should be given to it on the Lord's Day. First in importance, of course, is the reading of the Bible. It is truly astonishing how many professing Christians have never read the whole Bible. Yet, if they read six or seven chapters at three different times on each Sabbath day, they would read the Bible through in one year (1194 chapters, many of which, for example in the Psalms, are short. And this, though the Bible was not read at all on week-days). Let me put it another way. If Christians spent as much time reading the Bible on the Lord's Day as many spend reading Sunday newspapers, how often in a life-time the Bible would have been read, and how profitable that would be! In the reading of the Bible, one hears the voice of God and sees the face of Christ. Here are the 'green pastures' and the 'still waters', where hungry souls are nourished and weary ones find rest. In it there is strength for the weak, comfort for the sorrowing, mercy for the fallen, and numberless blessings. Let us store our minds with the Word on Sabbaths and it shall be to us during the rest of the week what the honey in the hive, gathered in the Summer, is to the bees in Winter.

There are many excellent religious books also available to us which can be read for edification and devotional help.

I would stress also the value of secret prayer. By this I do not mean the privilege which belongs to every Christian of lifting up his heart to God in prayer at any time and any place, but the inestimable privilege of entering into our room in the comparative quiet of the Lord's Day to talk to our Father in heaven in the name of His dear Son, who is our Saviour. Here we have an audience of the King. He brings us into His chamber and into His banqueting house. To those who are thus 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day' will be granted visions, by faith, of the Son of Man.

Lastly, the Sabbath is given to us for the exercise of holy meditation. Meditation is an exercise of the mind, and is by no means easy. It is far easier to get the body away from work than to divorce from the mind the businesses and responsibilities, the cares and distractions of week-days. The transition from the secular to the sacred is not easy for the best of men. Meditation is like climbing a high mountain: it takes time and effort to get to the top, but how rewarding when we get there! As a cure for tired eyes, opticians recommend the gazing on far-away scenes. From the top of Pisgah Moses saw the promised land, North and South, East and West. So, from the mountain-top of holy meditation the believer will see the panorama of Scripture truth. He can see as far back as the Creation, 'In the beginning, God...' The Sabbath recalls to our minds the Word of God and His rest from all His works. We love to think on the wonderful works of God, 'for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen ... even his eternal power and Godhead' (Romans 1:20). In this age when man is able to explore the universe in a way thought almost impossible even a few years ago, the Christian is afforded new matter for praise to His God whose works are great beyond all our conceptions. He numbers the stars, and names them every one, as Isaiah tells us (40:26).

Sabbath meditation will dwell most of all on the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ — its glory, its completion and its certainty. Here we see 'God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. For the incarnate God, our Saviour, this meant ignominy, pain, death and burial. But there is more, for the Lord's Day commemorates the most joyful event that ever was — 'The Lord is risen indeed'. His resurrection is the glorious seal and ratification of the entire scheme of redeeming grace.

Thinking of the fact of his Lord's glorious resurrection, the believer will turn to its effect upon himself.

As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God the Father ... likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.Romans 6:11

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.Colossians 3:1

The Christian will meditate on the resurrection of Christ as the proof and pledge of his own resurrection. He cannot escape death, for that comes to all, but his death is not any more certain than his triumphant resurrection, made certain by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, on the day when 'mortality shall be swallowed up of life'. The believer dies in Christ, and in and by Christ he shall be made alive. The risen Lord has on His girdle the keys of death and of the unseen world. He said, 'I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live' (John 11:25). 'Because I live, ye shall live also' (John 14:19).

These are profitable themes for meditation, but let me mention one other which surpasses all the rest and sums them all up. It is Christ Himself — His glorious Person. He is God of very God and man of very man. He is the Lamb of God, by whose precious blood His people are redeemed. He is the Good Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep. He loved His own to the end. Now he is exalted to the right hand of God to be a Prince and a Saviour. He is coming again in His glory to receive them unto Himself, that where He is, there they may be also.

Do we love Him? If we do we shall think of Him often. Love never found it difficult to meditate delightfully on its supreme object. Because David loved Him he said, 'My meditation of Him shall be sweet' (Psalm 104:34). If we love Him we shall welcome the Lord's Day as affording a special and sacred opportunity to think of Him without the interruptions of week-day duties.

So then, friends, we see that to the true Christian the Lord's Day is neither tedious nor gloomy. To him it is always a serious and a solemn day, but never a dull day: there is a big difference between being serious and being gloomy. It is the day he loves best of all. It is the Sabbath of the Lord his God ('The Sabbath of the Lord thy God', Deuteronomy 5:14). God is his, and the holy day of his God, with its glories and gains and holy joys, is his too. The godly R. M. M'Cheyne once asked,

Did you ever meet with a lively believer in any country under heaven — one who loved Christ, and lived a holy life — who did not delight in keeping holy to God the entire Lord's Day?

In conclusion let me say that it is the glory of the Lord's Day, when well spent, that it prepares for a glorious consummation, for the inheriting of blessings far transcending even its own joys and privileges. A happy Lord's Day prepares for heaven, and is an earnest of heaven's glory and joy. In that place there is one endless Sabbath, where the glory of God ever shines, where holy service never ends, where an idle thought will never distract. There will be no desecration of that Sabbath, for nothing will enter in that defiles. There the perfectly holy desires of God's redeemed will be fully met and satisfied. Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man to know the coming glory, yet we have a foretaste of it when we call the Sabbath a delight. For the joy of uniting in worship with Christ's people in this world and the elevating power of Christian communion, are preparations for what shall be, in fulness, in the world to come.

How I wish I could speak with convicting power to all Sabbath-breakers in our land, and tell them that the day is coming when they shall meet the Lord of this Sabbath which they now despise, and shall be judged according to their works. I would tell them that they can ignore every summons to God's House, but that they cannot disobey the voice of the trumpet that will summon them to his judgment seat. I would show them with all the powers of my soul that if one holy day a week is so wearisome to them in this world, how unspeakably dreadful will be an eternity of misery! Time without a Sabbath! God be thanked, we know not what that is; may we never know! But Eternity without a Sabbath, who in his senses, can bear the thought of it?