Waiapu Church Gazette SEPTEMBER, 1940. THE LORD'S DAY

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 31, Issue 7, 1 September 1940, Page 4

Waiapu Church Gazette SEPTEMBER, 1940. THE LORD'S DAY

Is not that the best name for it? Sunday is harmless enough, but it conveys no idea, and is- heathen m its origin, as the Quakers discovered nearly three hundred years ago. Day of Rest is not bad*, but' does not emphasise, the most important aspect of it, and. while to call it the first day of the week is Scriptural and calls to mind how m Apostolic times the disciples on the first day of the week "came together to break bread"; surely the Lord's Day is a better name still. To call the Christian Lord's Day the Sabbath is all wrong.; It is not the Sabbath any more than Sunday is Saturday. It is a weekly holy day, m some respects very like, m other respects quite different, with a different origin and ji different meaning. There are traces of a weekly holy day m Babylonia long before the time, of Moses. "Day of the heart's rest' it was called. As far as one can see it was simply a "tapu" day* a day when things must not be done. Then the day was incorporated into the Ten Commandments and given a meaning, or rather two meanings. It was to remind people of God's goodness m creation, and also m the, deliverance from Egyptian slavery. It is instructive to compare the versions of the Commandments m Exodus XX. and Deuteronomy V. After the giving of the law there is _: very little trace of the keeping of the Sabbath till the captivity. But it is much more m evidence after 7 wards. It became, what it had not been before, a day of worship, that is m the synagogues, and the rest was enforced so rigorously and hedged about with so" many fancy restrictions that it became a burden, and a nuisance as it was m our Lord's time. The Jewish Sabbath was first a day of rest and a iong way afterwards a day of worship. Then came the Christian Church. And from the very beginning we can trace the observance of the first day of the week as a day of meeting for worship and especially for the cele-

bration of the Holy Communion or the breaking of bread. No trace of any attempt or desire to make Jit a -day /of rest. It was a day of worship and of thanksgiving for the two great gifts of God given on that day, the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Ghost. The Apostles and other of the first Christians,, being Jews, naturally went on attending the Temple and keeping the Sabbath, but they did not try to force Jewish observances on Gentile converts. That question was settled at the Council of Jerusalem. See Acts, chapter "Is. And St. Paul emphatically writes to the Colossians, "Let no man judge you m respect of . . .the Sabbath days." Not till the fourth century, when the Roman Government became more or less nominally Christian, was the Lord's Day made a general holiday, and so it has continued ever since with occasional exceptions. This not only gave men a weekly rest, which was much needed^ bu 7 ; also made easier the high Christian duty of the- worship of God on the weekly festival of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. gut less than four hundred years ago there came m Great Britain, and not elsewhere* an important change. Puritans began to teach that the Sunday was the Sabbath, which it is not, and to insist that all the restrictions laid upon Jews about the one day were binding on Christians about the other. The beginning of it seems to be the publication of a book by a Dr. Bound teaching that all ordinary "employments should be discontinued, all feasts prohibited, all games and sports refrained from. We are told that Puritan teachers laid down that to do any work, or to throw a bowl, or to ring' more bells than one on the Lord's day was as great a sin as murder. These were extreme extremists, of course, but the nett result was the rigorous strictness of the English Sunday as some old people still remember it.

This strictness was further enforced m the eighteenth century by the Lord's Day Observance Act, for which William Wilberforce was largely responsible. It is curious that the * man who was responsible for taking literal chains off thousands of black men was also responsible for , putting metaphorical chains on thousands of white men. ; But where are we to-day? Largely m a state of muddle. The oldfashioned English Sunday has gone or is going. And while this is largely gain, it is unfair and untrue to say there is no loss about it.' The Puritan Sunday, m spite of its Judaic strictness, did give time and opportunity for the worship of God and the sober thought of God. All that has gone but of many people's lives. Arid there are, thousands : m this country; who never say a prayer on Sunday, but would be very much hurt if they were told they were not Christians. The v Lord's Day was given us as a memorial of the Lord's Resurrection and especially by the Lord's service. Its observance is made easier by the general suspension -of work on that day. The question of what is or is riot lawful on Sunday is really a very simple one. Put worship as your 'chief obligation on Sunday and you will find other things fair into place. But if we go on ignoring the. worship of God we shall probably find sooner; or later that we have lost tHe day of rest, and— serve us right.