THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3489, 25 January 1921, Page 51

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR. No. 387.

By

Duncan Wright, Dunedin.

THE LORD’S DAY. “Sir,” said a man, addressing a minister going home from church one Sabbath afternoon, “did you meet a boy on the road, driving a cart with rakes and pitchforks in it?’’ “I believe I did,” said the preacher; “a boy with a short memory, wasn’t he?” “What made you think he had a short memory, sir?” asked the man, looking quite surprised. “I think ho had, and I also think he must belong to a family that have short memories.” “What in the world makes you think so?” asked the man, who was greatly puzzled. “Because,” said the minister, in a serious tone, “the great God has proclaimed from Mount Sinai, ‘Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,’ and that boy has forgotten all about it.” From his early upbringing and his reading of Scripture the writer of the Garland is quite convinced that from every possible point of view the Day of Rest is God’s gift, and ought to be most jealously watched by all churchgoers and non-churchgoers, by low and high, rich and poor, prince and peasant, inasmuch as it is beyond dispute, as we assert, one of God’s greatest benefactions to the human race. Til is day my Saviour rose, And did enclose this light for his; That as each beast -his manger knows, Man might not of his fodder miss; Christ hath took in this piece of ground, And make a garden there for those "Who want herbs for their wound. —Herbert. One thoughtful writer has gone so far as to say that persons who have loose views on this strictly vital question are likely to have loose lives during the week. What would you say ! ilie sight of thousands of well-dressed men, women, and children flocking along the thoroughfares to the various churches, chapels, and meeting-places in the cities, towns, and villages is sure to give us unless we have hearts of stone. iso sight, on the other hand, is more vexing and disheartening to the wholesouled preacher than that of multitudes in the cities, and at the various sea-side resorts, wandering aimlessly past God’s house, the preacher, and his message. Only thoughtlessness can, in many cases, explain the mystery. But such indifference seems cruel beyond description. Not long ago one pastor, well known to the writer, drove over 10 miles to a preaching station on a hot, blazing Sunday when he was met by a congregation of two persons ! God’s house ! God’s Day 1 God’s message! God’s service! God’s messenger! Heartbreaking it seems to me. To those of us who were bom in the Old Land, as well as to very many colonists, the sunrise of the Sabbath morning seems more golden, its noon-day more bright, and its evening more suggestive. And what music comes with the sound of the Sabbath bell! “Sweet Sabbath ! messenger from God ! Pillow on which to rest my aching head! Day fragrant of all sweet memories ! How I love thee!” Lot these earthly Sabbath’s prove Foretastes of our joys above; While their steps Thy children bend To the rest that knows no end. “Though my hands and my mind have been as full of secular business both before and after I was judge as, it may be any man’s in England, yet I never wanted time in six days to ripen and fit myself for the business and employments I*had to do—though I borrowed not one minute from the Lord’s Day to prepare for it, by study or otherwise. But, on the other hand, if I had at any time borrowed from this day any time for my secular employments, I found it did further me less than if I had let it alone; and therefore, when some years’ experience upon a most attentive and vigilant observation had given me this instruction, I grew peremptorily resolved never in this hind to make a breach upon the Lord’s Dav, which I have now strictly observed for more than thirty years.”—Sir Matthew Hale. Sweet is the clay of sacred' rest, No mortal cares shall seize by breast; Oh, may my heart in tune be found, Like David’s harp of solemn sound. gin, my worst enemy before, Shall vex mine eyes and ears no more; My inward foes shall all be slain, Nor Sa-tan break my peace -again. —Watts. Lord Macaulay wrote: —“If Sunday had not been observed as a Day of Rest during the last three centuries, I have not the smallest doubt that we should have been at this moment poorer and less civilised people than we are.” Wrote Count Montalembert.:—“There is no religion without worship, and no worship without the Sabbath.” Sir William Blackstone, an eminent jurist and judge, wrote : “A corruption of morals usually follows the profanation of the Sabbath!” Adam Smith, the father of the science of political economy, wrote : “The Sabbath as a political institution is of inestimable value, independent of its claim to Divine authority.” “Sunday is a day of account, and a candid account every seventh day is the best preparation for the great day of account.” —Lord Kames. “I can truly declare,” said the famous William Wilberforce, “that to me the Sabbath has been invaluable.”

“I feel as if God had, by giving me the Sabbath, given me 52 springe in the year.’’—Coleridge. Said Isaac Taylor:—“A Sunday given to the soul is the best by all means of refreshment to the mere intellect.” Said Sir Walter Scott: “Give to the world one half of the Sunday, and you will find that religion has no strong hold of the other.” Wrote Richard Hooker: “We are to account the santification of one day in seven a duty which God’s immutable law doth exact for ever.” O day most calm, most bright, The fruit of this, the next world’s bud, Th’ indorsement of eupreme delight, Writ by a friend and with his blood: The couch of time, care's balm and bay, The week were dark, but for Thy light, Thy torch doth show the way. —G. Herbert. Archbishop Leighton’s message:—■ “The very life of religion doth much depend upon the solemn observation of the Sabbath.” Pronouncement by Dr Thomas Chalmers, the great Scottish theologian: “We never, in the whole course of our recollection, met with a Christian friend who bore upon his character every other evidence of the Spirit’s operation, who did not remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.” “The Sabbath must be observed as a day of rest.”—Willards Parker, M.D. “One day in seven, Tjy the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a compensation to perfect by its repose tho animal system.”—R. Farre, M.D. Says J. C. Warren, M.D. :—“I have a firm belief that those who are in the habit of avoiding worldly cares on the Sabbath are able to do more work, and to do it in a better manner in six days than if they worked the whole seven.” “If the Sunday layvs be despised or neglected, the laws of person and property will soon share their late, and be equally disregarded.”—Attorney-General Bates. Thin© earthly Sabbath’s, Lord, we love, But there’s a nobler rest above,To that our labouring souls aspire, With ardent hope and strong desire. —Watts.