THE TRUE
CHRISTIAN
By John Angell James, 1846
HOW TO SPEND A PROFITABLE
SABBATH
(Editor's note. Though I do not believe that New
Covenant Christians are under obligation to keep the Old Covenant Sabbath, I
have found the following article to be filled with practical and profitable
counsel.)
My dear friends,
The design of the present address is to direct you, "How to Spend a
Profitable Sabbath." How rich a boon has celestial mercy bestowed upon
our laboring, toil-worn world in the way of sacred rest. What would we do,
as regards either body or soul, without the Sabbath, to invigorate the
impaired energies of the one, and recruit the weakened piety of the other?
If the man of wealth and leisure, whose time is all his own, to spend it, if
it pleases him so to do, in reading, meditation, and prayer, feels little
need of such a season of repose—not so the tradesman, the servant, and the
laborer. How sweet to them, as Saturday evening is closing upon them, and
all the weariness of six days' labor is pressing them down, is the
reflection, "Tomorrow is the sabbath of the Lord." There is no need to prove
to them by elaborate argumentation, that the sabbath is of perpetual
obligation, for they cannot persuade themselves that He who has loved them
in Christ Jesus, would have left them without such an opportunity as this
affords, in their scene of toil, to dwell upon his love, and enjoy it. And
hence, and often as the season comes round, they meet its very dawn with the
words of Watts—
"Welcome sweet day of rest,
That saw the Lord arise—
Welcome to this reviving breast,
And these rejoicing eyes."
The various mental associations, equally serene and
delightful—the hallowed pleasures—the recollections and anticipations—the
pure immortal hopes—the rapt exercises of devotion, which, like the
day-spring from on high, bless the passing hours of the Sabbath, and render
it the best type of heaven itself, make it a blessing to the child of God,
which he would not part with for ten thousand times the gain he could
acquire by devoting it to business and to wealth—and his heart would claim
it as a privilege to keep holy the Sabbath day, even if his conscience did
not dictate it as a duty.
If, my dear friends, you would keep up the power of
godliness in your souls, if you would live by faith upon the Son of God, if
you would overcome the world and set your affections upon things above—spend
well your sabbaths! These are the days of the soul's gains; her golden
seasons for growing rich, in all that constitutes spiritual prosperity; her
times, not only for the enjoyment of devotion, but for gaining new light to
guide the conscience, and fresh strength to invigorate all her religious and
moral principles. Religion would retire from the world with the sabbath, and
would be feeble and sickly in the church, if, indeed, it could live even
there, without the aids of this holy day.
But how may our Sabbaths be made profitable and pleasant
to us?
1. By a deep impression of their inestimable value,
and a great concern to spend them well.
That which we esteem of no consequence, we shall be at no trouble to
apply to any useful purpose. The first way, then, to spend a profitable
sabbath, is real solicitude to do so. And are you destitute of this? Taken
up as you are with the cares, labors, and anxieties of the world; urged by
incessant demands upon your time; distracted by various claims upon your
attention by objects all around you, and worn down by labor day after day,
until, if you were not too busy, you are too weary to meditate on things
unseen and eternal; ought you not to be anxious about the improvement
of your sabbaths? Ought you not to be full of desire that
these days may be well spent? If they are lost to your soul's interests,
nearly all time is lost, and no portion will be well employed for your
eternal welfare. Professing Christians are not duly impressed, in general,
with the importance of this matter. They complain how much their time and
attention are occupied with this world's business through the week, and yet
are not sufficiently impressed with the necessity and vast importance of
spending well their sabbaths.
2. Endeavor, as much as possible, to keep up through
the days and business of the week, a spiritual frame of mind.
The great obstacle to the profit and pleasure of our sabbaths, is the
intrusion of worldly thoughts and anxieties. These are the obscene birds
which light upon the sacrifice, and which we find it so difficult to keep or
drive away. Why is this? Just because we allow our minds to be so deeply, I
may almost say wholly, occupied by earthly pursuits during the six days of
labor. It is not safe nor proper to shove out our religion from
working-days, and trust entirely for its preservation to the exercises of
the sabbath. We cannot easily make so sudden and entire a transition from
things secular to things sacred—as to be wholly carnal and worldly up to
Saturday night, and then entirely to throw off the world on Sunday morning,
and be wholly spiritual through that one day. The day of devotion and the
days of labor act and react upon each other; they who would keep up their
piety in the week, must be diligent in cultivating it on the sabbath, and
they who would successfully cultivate it on the sabbath, must not let it
down very low during the days of the week. It is a fatal error, and sad
delusion, for a professor to quiet his conscience, when reproaching him for
his backslidings of heart, by the answer, "Sunday is coming, when I shall
fetch up this lost ground."
3. It is desirable, where it can be accomplished, to
end the business of the week early on Saturday evening; and thus secure a
portion of time for reflection and devotional exercises.
Unhappily, the modern habits of trade render this all but impossible with
many, who are kept hard at work until almost, if not quite, sabbath morning,
and then retire to rest so jaded, that they find it difficult to rise early
next day for the worship of God. But where time can be commanded, it ought
to be, and an extra half-hour or hour spent in the closet on the eve of the
sabbath, communing with God, the Bible, and our hearts. It was the custom of
the Christians in America, at one time, to begin the sabbath at sunset on
Saturday evening. This cannot and need not be done, but they who would enjoy
and improve the season of holy rest, should not, if they could help it,
drive business or social festivities to a late hour on Saturday evening.
That evening ought not to be a visiting time, except it be such visits as
would prepare the mind for sabbath occupations. Should a few godly friends
in the same neighborhood determine to meet at that time for prayer and
Christian communion, this would be not only proper in itself, but a useful
method of preparing for the exercises of the sacred day.
4. We must not only abstain from worldly labor on the
sabbath, if we would improve it to any spiritual purpose, but from
worldly THOUGHTS. When the tradesman
closes his shop on Saturday evening, he should lock up in it all his worldly
thoughts and anxieties, plans and purposes—nor allow any of them, if
possible, to escape, to molest him on the Sabbath. An eminently holy friend
of mine who carried on trade in London, and lived in its environs, used to
say, he always left his business on Saturday evening on London bridge, to be
taken up there again on Monday morning. This is a blessed kind of
self-control, and to a considerable extent may be acquired by labor and
prayer. Let the tradesman say, and try to give effect to his saying, "I will
leave my business in my shop on the eve of the Sabbath, and endeavor to
forget on that sacred day that I have a business." Of course it will
require great pains, but if such pains are taken, it may and will be done.
Oh, how many turn the house of God into a house of merchandise, and while
hearing sermons, or professedly joining in prayer, or receiving the
sacramental emblems, are thinking about buying and selling, and reflecting
upon the business of the past week, or making arrangements for that of the
coming one! How sinful is this in the sight of God, what a detriment to
religion, and an injury to the soul!
If you would keep away worldly thoughts, do nothing to
produce them. Never open business letters on the Sabbath, nor even have them
brought to your hands. It is a great reproach for professing Christians to
be seen going to the post office for or with their letters on the sabbath.
Do not converse with others about trade and politics on the day of rest, and
never touch a newspaper. Such practices turn away the mind from spiritual
things, and divert the whole current of its thoughts. There can be no real
communion with God, no steadfast beholding the things that are unseen and
eternal, if we thus keep the world at our elbow, and place its objects
before our eyes.
We must endeavor, as much as possible, to divest
ourselves of a secular frame of mind, and put on a holy, serious, and
devout one. Not that we should be gloomy and sad—no, while every dream of
levity, every trifling disposition, every feeling of unhallowed mirth, is
suppressed, and the mind is resolutely and conscientiously directed toward
religious truth and duty, the Sabbath, seeing it is a feast and not a fast,
and a festival of great and lasting interest, should be a day of cheerful
gratitude, and of joyous thanksgiving, as becomes the auspicious season,
which the great Spirit of the universe has set apart for receiving the
homage of his creatures, and for ratifying his grace to the children of the
dust. "It is not for Israel in the hour of hope, in the prospect, yes, the
possession of redemption, to hang their harps upon the willows, as if
nothing befitted their condition, but silently and in sorrow to listen to
the sullen murmurs of the waters of Babylon." "Rejoice in the Lord. Enter
into his gates with thanksgivings, and into his courts with praise. Be
thankful unto him and bless his name."
The Christian, always cheerful, should let his joy not
only be felt internally, but seen on the sabbath. If he is the head
of a family, he should illumine his dwelling on that day especially, with
the light of his countenance, and present to his children and his servants,
who then have a nearer and better opportunity of observing what kind of man
he is, the type of happiness and holiness; the gladsome spectacle of one
who, in the passing hours of an earthly sabbath, realizes the emblem and the
pledge of "the rest remaining for the people of God."
5. If we would spend a profitable sabbath, we must not
waste "the sweet hours of morning" in slothful indulgence upon our bed.
They who sleep away the morning until they have scarcely time to get
ready for public worship, can expect no benefit, for they seek none, from
the ordinances of God's house. Early rising is essential to a devotional
spirit. If we secure no portion of time for private prayer before breakfast,
we can rarely get any through the day. The sabbath is the last day we should
allow to be abridged by lengthened slumbers. If, then, you would spend well
this holy season, say, as did the Psalmist, "My heart is fixed, O God, my
heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory; awake,
psaltery and harp; I myself will awake early." Awake to prayer, reading the
Scriptures, and meditation. Arise to seek the favor of God. "His morning
smiles bless all the day." Be found at his footstool wrestling for his grace
to come upon your souls in the ordinances of religion. Can he who goes
prayerless to the sanctuary expect to be blessed in it? What right or what
reason has he to look for favor from the Lord, who will not sacrifice half
an hour's sleep to seek it by prayer? The slothful Christian can no
more expect to prosper, than the slothful tradesman. On the other
hand, what a rich communication of light, and love, and joy, might he not
look for, who rises early to obtain it by supplication, and who always goes
from the closet to the sanctuary.
6. If we would gain benefit by the word, we must make
our PROFITING the specific object of hearing it preached.
By profiting I mean our growth in religious knowledge, affection,
and practice; in other words, the increase of our holiness, spirituality,
and heavenly-mindedness. In nothing, I believe, are professing Christians
more deficient, than in their manner of, and motives for
attending the public means of grace. It is painful and humiliating to think
how extensively the gratifications of taste, and the pleasure produced by
eloquence and oratory, are substituted for the cultivation of the mind in
scriptural truth, and the improvement of the heart in Christian excellence.
To be pleased—and not to be profited—is the object of the
multitude. Hence the question, so often asked of those who have been
listening to the solemn truths of salvation and eternity, "Well, how have
you been pleased today?" And hence also, the common answer to such an
inquiry, "O greatly delighted. It was a most eloquent sermon." Pleased we
may and ought to seek to be, but only as we are profited. Eloquence we may
covet and admire; but then it should be the eloquence of truth, and not of
mere rhetoric; the eloquence which makes us hate sin, love God, and mortify
our corruptions; the eloquence which leaves us neither time nor disposition
to praise, or scarcely think of the preacher, but absorbs us in the subject;
the eloquence which burns into the very heart and consumes our lusts, and
stimulates and strengthens our virtues; the eloquence of the Bible, and not
of the schoolbook.
What sabbaths we would spend, if before we left our
habitations to take our seats in the house of God, we entered our closet,
and, as in the presence of God, solemnly placed such questions as these to
our souls, "What is, or should be my object in going to the house of God
today? Am I going to be pleased or profited? Is it my wish to hear merely
the preacher—or his Master? Is it the manner in which the truth is to
he stated, or the matter of the truth itself, that I am anxious to
hear? And what is now the state of my soul, and what are my wishes in
reference to it? Do I want my lukewarmness to be kindled into the glow of
holy love? Do I desire my corruptions to be mortified, and my languishing
graces to be revived? Do I seek the conquest and eradication of some
besetting sin, and am I prepared to be pleased with any sermon, though
destitute of all the attractions of eloquence, that will accomplish this
object?"
The Christians who take this view of the end of
preaching; who go to hear God's truth and not mere eloquence; who, while
hearing, consider that it is God speaking to them by and through his
minister; who pray while they hear, and whose prayer it is, that they might
be profited; these are the people who spend not only pleasant but improving
sabbaths.
7. Much of the improvement of our sabbaths depends on
the state of our minds during what may be called the DEVOTIONAL
exercises—the prayers and the singing.
If we consider these, as too many do consider them, only supplemental and
inferior parts of the service, in which we have little interest, and which
require but little attention, we shall not derive much spiritual advantage
from the ordinances of God's house, and the occupations of the day of rest.
It is to be feared, that a sinful vagrancy of thought, which they take no
pains to check, characterizes the frame of many people during the season of
prayer; and that at the very time the cloud of incense is rising before the
throne of heaven, their mind is wandering to the very ends of the earth, and
instead of communing with God upon the mercy seat, they are conversing with
the most trifling—or perhaps, with sinful objects. The prayers, if
they are such as should be presented, simple, fervent, devout; and the
singing, if it be such as alone ought to be conducted in the house of
God, congregational, plain, solemn—have a peculiar adaptation to give
intensity to the devout feelings of the heart, and to promote our personal
piety; and those people will profit most, who endeavor to enter deeply into
all the sentiments and emotions of these parts of the worship of God.
8. In order to spend a profitable sabbath, great care
ought to be taken to improve well, the time of travel to and from public
worship. It should be our aim, where the
matter is within our choice, not to live at too great a distance from the
sanctuary; much time is lost, much distraction of mind is produced, much
weariness of mind is brought on, by not attending to this, and the mind is
prevented by fatigue from enjoying its ordinances, when it reaches the house
of God; and by the same cause, from profitable reflection on returning home.
We should not allow the impressions produced by public worship, to be
effaced by general conversation on our way back to our own homes, or around
our own table. On reaching our place of abode we should seek the retirement
of the closet, to recall what we have heard; to perpetuate by reflection and
meditation, our feelings, convictions, and purposes; and to sanctify all by
prayer.
Instead of wishing to indulge our appetite by a warm and
plentiful dinner, in the preparation of which we have deprived our servants
of their day of rest, we should be content with simple and cold fare,
and consider the sabbath as a day rather to feast the mind, than the
body. The afternoon should not be spent in lounging over the table
and the wine, but partly in meditation and private prayer; partly in
catechizing the children; and partly, where it can be enjoyed, in domestic
psalmody and thanksgiving. Every family should be a choir, where there is a
capacity for vocal music, and, in order to this, it would be desirable that
singing should be more cultivated than it is. If, instead of our sons and
our daughters being trained to music—merely as a drawing-room
accomplishment, and for the purpose of having their simplicity corrupted,
and their vanity flattered by showing them off before company—they
were trained for domestic harmony in song—to what a holy and happy account
might their musical talent and acquirements be turned! What harmony is
sweeter—if that of the great congregation be grander—than the
dulcet sounds which gladden the habitation of a godly family on the
Christian sabbath, when parents and children blend their vocal and
instrumental music in the praise of Almighty God, and the Lord Jesus Christ!
9. Before the day quite departs, and sleep drowns in
oblivion, or only keeps alive in dreams, the solemn engagements and topics
which have filled its fleeting hours—we should
be found again in our closets,
reviewing the whole, and pouring over all the silent and dewy influence of
prayer—this being done, then taking care, as
the last duty of the day, as we lay our head upon our pillow, and resign
ourselves to slumber, to fall asleep with the petition, "Seal this
instruction upon my heart, O God!"
10. One more step should be taken, and that is, to secure
a portion of time on the Monday morning before we re-plunge into the
business, and labors, and anxieties of the world,
to look back on the day that is past,
for the double purpose, first, of recalling the views, emotions, and
purposes, that were suggested by the services of the sanctuary, and the
sabbath; and then, of settling with ourselves a plan for reducing them all
to action.
There are one or two classes of Christians, who perhaps
may feel that the foregoing remarks are not so applicable to them as to some
others, and to whom, therefore, I would now suggest a few hints. Many SUNDAY
SCHOOL TEACHERS happily know by experience the value of the sabbath, but are
in danger of losing something of its enjoyment, and even of its improvement,
by the bustle and labors of their office. It is, I am aware, an act of
self-denial, and no small sacrifice, to surrender the calm repose of the
closet and the sanctuary, for the active, and sometimes harassing duties of
the schoolroom and the class. You, my young friends, need great care, lest
you lose the profit of the sabbath for yourselves, while you are seeking to
render it profitable to others. Rise early in the morning for meditation and
prayer, before you go to the scene of your labors. Endeavor to discharge
your duties to the children in a spirit of seriousness and prayer. Avoid all
trifling conversation with your fellow-teachers. Let the intervals of
worship be well employed in retirement, and try as much as possible to keep
your attention fixed on the sermon and the prayers in the house of God, even
when seated amid your youthful charge. Endeavor, in humble dependence upon
the Spirit of God, to be useful—and then, "in watering others, you
shall yourselves be watered."
The POORER MEMBERS of the church demand a little special
attention. Be, my dear friends, peculiarly thankful for this short, sweet
respite from the curse denounced on fallen man, "In the sweat of your brow
shall you eat bread until you return unto the ground." Enter into God's
merciful provision for your comfort, and do everything to enjoy and improve
the season of rest. Let everything necessary to be done for the order,
comfort, and cleanliness of the family—be finished on the Saturday evening,
and even have the food prepared for the sabbath's meal. Let not the husband
deprive the wife of her day of repose by requiring her to give up her
attendance upon public worship, or if detained at home by young children, to
endure the additional privation of losing her opportunities of private and
solitary devotion, in order to gratify his palate by a warm dinner.
Nor should the husband refuse to take his turn in looking
after the house and the young family at home, that his wife may have an
opportunity to enjoy the refreshing influence of public worship, and "the
communion of saints." Few people are more to be pitied than the poor mothers
of young families, who are united to husbands, who have not tenderness
enough to give their wives a share of the sabbatical privilege. Let such
women, amid all their privations, keep up the expectation of "the rest that
remains for the people of God."
Yes, heaven is an eternal sabbath. There the wicked cease
from troubling, and the weary are at rest. No domestic cares shall follow
you there. No family labors or duties shall there detain you from the
assembly of the saints. No ungenerous husband shall there hinder you from
going to the sanctuary of God. No infirm body shall obstruct your enjoyment,
or be a clog upon the spirit that would otherwise mount on the wing of
devotion to God its supreme good. Eternity shall roll on, and its repose
shall never be broken in upon, by a single sorrow, sin, or labor—your soul
shall end its weary pilgrimage, and lie down to rest forever in the presence
of God, where there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand where there
are pleasures forevermore!
In such manner, my dear friends, we may spend our
sabbaths upon earth both pleasantly and profitably—and spend them in the
prospect and hope of a heavenly and eternal one, and in preparation for its
exalted services, and its complete felicity. The sun of that day shall never
set; its holy convocation shall never break up; and its services never know
a termination, an interruption, or intermission. "Remember therefore the
sabbath day to keep it holy." "Let its high and sacred character be ever
present to your minds, persuaded that it was appointed for no trivial
purposes—that if there are benefits of a subordinate nature to be derived
from it, such as the respite afforded by it, from the labors of the week,
these are not its most noble distinctions; but that it is an institution
founded by a mandate of the Deity to secure from oblivion the most momentous
facts, and to exist throughout all generations, a memento of the creation of
the world by the power of God, and the salvation of man by the death of
Christ. Let the day, therefore, which testifies to the world that God is
righteous, powerful, and good—and that man is redeemed, and immortal—be
spent in a manner correspondent with these stupendous facts!"
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