THE CHURCH VISIBLE

Te Puke Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 64, 22 August 1939, Page 2

THE CHURCH VISIBLE

SUNDAY ‘This is the day which the Lord hath made.” (contributed) Sunday is the day specially set apart for public worship of Got?. It is the One day of the week we are given the opportunity to unite together in. a Christian fellowship for the purpose of worshipping God in praise and thanksgiving and yet how many of our people fail to take this opportunity , and privilege extended to them. There is only one Sunday in each week and opportunity is not,. given (for united worship on any other day—many people seem to forget that. And many of these occasional at tenders that go to the House of God, 'just, as they say, "to put in an appearance,” forget that there is not only one or two Sundays in a year hut fifty-two. . -‘How shall I spend my Sunday? This is the oft-repeated question. People ask what is right and what is wrong to do on a Sunday, but. the truth is that no one can lay down rules for another. H we worship God on the day specially appointed for the purpose, the answer to all questions as how to spend the Sunday will ibe found along the oft-repeated lines of Carlyle : ‘Do the duty that: lies nearest thee, which thou kno west to be a duty, the second duty will also become clear.” Let our duty to God have the first place before we. set about following our own inclinations to do other things, and our own God-enlightened conscience .will guide us safely as to spending the remainder of the Sunday. lie sincere and in downright .earnest about your worship and then you shall occupy your time on the Sunday as God intended you to. Sunday is, and ought to be, the most joyful of all days, and if we first scantily it by a glad worship of the Risen Christ we shall never go far astray in our way of spending the. remaining hours. By using our liberty on Sunday so as not to interfere: with the liberty of others we shall have “a conscience void of offence towards God and man.” A word about those people who spend all Sunday and every Sunday in mere selfish pleasure. 'Unless the lessons of the past have no warning, it is certain that for those who spend Sunday in such a way, tliero is bitter reckoning in store. ‘‘Who follows pleasure, pleasure slays.” It is God’s law and it never fails. The habit of all-day motoring on Sunday becomes a wearisome business and people soon tire of it. But there is something that many who indulge in this practice forget. They, forget about their children. Parents' who perhaps have .been occasional church-goers have fallen into the way of spending all Sunday in motoring, or in some other way, and they take, their children with them, Wliaf, do the children, think? They

think of Sunday as a day for pleasurehunting. Dr Montessori well says that at the last Judgement one of the questions to parents will be ‘‘What have you done with the children entrusted to you?” ;

We all realise that the desecration of the Lord’s Day continues unchecked. There is. no need to remind my readers of that as it is so evidenced wherever one may go on a Sunday. Organised sport, Sunday excursions, concerts and pictures occupy the major portion of the people’s time. Some would suggest that all these activities be prohibited on the grounds that people are thereby kept from attending Church, but such a. suggestion if carried out, would- be of no great value. Possibly there are few who, if they did ndt go touring, or spending Sunday some other way, might come to Church; but what kind of people are they? \ They are not the people who think of Church-going as the fulfilment of a sacred and welcome duty. They are not true worshippers. If they were, then Sunday excursions and suchlike would not attract them, but they would be. in the House of God at the appointed tuije. Let motoring and Sunday excursions be a hundred times more attractive than they are at present, they will never allure from the worship of God those who really love God and those . whose worship is pleasing and acceptable to Him.

Let us try to regain the Christian way of using the Sunday as a day of gladness and refreshment of soul. Let there be an end to this Pharisaical frowning upon innocent enjoyment and let our attitude be —“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice an.l he glad in it,” but let bur rejoicing be that of tin.se who know that they inuyi give account to God Himself.