i. It is a Gift for every Man.
1. If the Sabbath was made for man, it must have been because man needed it ; not, certainly, as a mere temporary provision for special purposes, but as a permanent blessing. Who shall take from us one of God's first gifts to His creatures — a gift bestowed with a special regard to their physical and spiritual wants, and consecrated by His own example ? Look at the question in this light, test the principle by its application to the facts of daily experience, to the wants of your inner and outer life, and you will dismiss, as matters of exceedingly little importance to the man of common sense, the greater part of the discussions which have filled large volumes of wearisome controversy, and which will remain unsettled so long as men differ in feelings and habits,
1 Canon F. 0. Cook.
I02 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
and in the power of dealing with the accumulated masses of conflicting theories and ill-digested facts. If we know that now in the Lord's Day, its new and most significant designa- tion, we have all that made the Sabbath a boon to man, a season in which the soul, free from earthly trammels, may realise its nearness and affinity to God — what to us can it matter that at a period of struggle and of reaction, good and conscientious, though narrow-minded, men sought to counter- act licentious tendencies by recurrence to enactments which appertained altogether to a dispensation long since passed away ? Wo are surely in a position to maintain the truth, to hold fast the good for which such men contended, without reference to their prejudices, without involving ourselves in their mistakes. Why, in short, should we trouble ourselves with any question but this ? Do I use for my own real benefit, for the benefit of all over whom I have any control, the Sabbath which was made for me, which my Saviour has claimed as His own; of which He is now, as ever, the Lord; which His Spirit, working in and through His Church, has associated for ever witli the crowning fact of His religion, His resurrection from the dead ? These are to my mind the questions which we are bound to consider as Christians, as men who have to work out our own salvation, whose duty it is, so far as may be possible, to communicate our blessings and convictions to our fellow-men.-^
^ Eobertson of Brighton, whose insight into spiritual philo- sophy was as direct and penetrating as his practical surrender to its teaching was complete, says of Sabbath observance : " I am more and more sure by practical experience that the reason for the observance of the Sabbath lies deep in the everlasting neces- sities of human nature, and that as long as man is man the blessedness of keeping it, not as a day of rest only, but as a day of spiritual rest, will never be annulled."
This is the day of light: let there be light to-day;
0 Dayspring, rise upon our night, and chase its gloom
away I This is the day of rest : our failing strength renew, On weary brain and troubled breast shed Thou Thy freshening
dew.
1 Canon F. 0. Cook.
ST. MARK 103
This is the day of peace : Thy peace our spirits fill, Bid Thou the blasts of discord cease, the waves of strife be still. This is the first of days : send forth Thy quickening breath, And wake dead souls to love and praise, 0 Vanquisher of death ! ^
2. All God's children have a right to share in its blessings, poor as well as rich, servants equally with masters and mistresses, employed and employers alike ; for station in life and outward circumstances cannot alter man's needs. Instincts are universal ; they are our common inheritance as human beings.
The first day of the week is, to many Christians, not only the one day of rest but the one day of worship. The majority of men and women in our land, owing to the exacting claims of everyday life on their time and thought in these times of high pressure, have little or no opportunity of meeting together in united worship on any other day. More than that, the question of Sunday observance is fitly linked with that of wonship, because the social aspect of Christianity is forcibly emphasised by both. No Christian who attempts to grasp all that is involved in a right use of Sunday can persuade himself that his individual observance or non-observance of the day is a matter to be decided solely on personal and s&lfish grounds, but must acknowledge that his decision as to whether or how he will keep the day affects not only himself and his own conscience, but also the well-being of others.
Not all that is lawful to do is right for the Christian to do. Even if right in itself, it becomes wrong if it be done at the unnecessary expense of others' time and thought, or at the cost of the health of the body or mind or spirit of others. Sunday cannot be a day well and wisely spent by a man if in wha,t he does, or neglects to do, he thinks only of himself, and is indifferent to what extent others are obliged to work in order that he may rest, or is careless whether recreation, in itself lawful and innocent, means toil to those who ought to have rest.*