THE KING’S BUSINESS
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The church is not under the law, but under grace. There is no commandment for the first day of the week,, which is the New Testament day for the Sabbath. There is admonition and - exhortation. There is the law of precedent. Jesus interprets the law of the Sabbath for the Jews in the words “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath Day.” We- have a day—the first day of the week; a day of gladness. No set rules here ; no forms;; no ceremonies ; a happy day; a day for worship and service; a day for the gathering of the saints to pay their devotions to the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; a day of rejoicing; a day for psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It is the day after the Sabbath ; the day that speaks of His resurrectiôn from the grave,- to which fact we witness with our assemblies to give God thanks; a glad day' for communion with our Lord and His people; a day for thé breaking of bread and taking the cup, and of remembering Him with whom we are raised and seated in the heavenlies. It is a day for service also ; a day to go I T is needless to attempt to prove that our present Sabbath is being desecrated. One only needs to look at the wide-open saloons, theaters, movies, pleasure resorts, candy stores, gambling joints, tobacco stores, etc., etc., to see the need of speaking a strong word in behalf of Sunday observ ance. The French people, in the^ days of the Revolution, tried to do away with the one day of rest in seven, and found it would not work. Man is built physically on a seven day plan and his nature needs, one day of rest in seven. It is noticeable that every town where Sabbath observance is loose, the morals are loose also. In such communities real.
about doing good, as He did; a day to minister to those in need; a day to preach . and teach the Word and win souls for our risen Lord. What a blessing this day may become to those who see the truth, and whose hearts are in touch 'with His heart; who recog nize the day as a gift from God and use it for His glory! “This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad.” PRACTICAL POINTS (1) The Sabbath was given to be a bless ing, not a bufden. (2) Many are never right because they have never read the Scriptures aright. (3) He is Lord of the Sabbath, and Lord f' over all. ' (4) The hostility o f the Pharisees was due to the hardness of their hearts. (5) Men are more, than moulds yand insti- tutions. ( 6 ) Mercy is more than sacrifice. (7) It is not lawful for the Christian to turn a “holy-day” into a “holiday.” ( 8 ) Truth will free you from Pharisaical forms. piety and true religion are wanting. This is one of our National sins,, eating at the vitals of our Republic. Last year while traveling some ten thousand miles' in fifteen different States I observed that men worked in their fields on Sunday, and every department of life had representatives working on the Lord’s Day. Many of our large corporations, be it to their shame, insist on their men working on Sunday. Sabbpth Work .—Think of the Christian people, so called, who demand that their domçstics get up a large Sunday dinner for them. Many a chauffeur is forced to take his employer off to some resort on Sunday. A woman said, in the early days of west-
PERTINENT ILLUSTRATIONS
B y W . H. Pike.
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