Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-03-20
THE 3 LAW,
How Can We Keep a Sabbath Holy n
Yet Make 1t u Delight.

ITO" San we heep u SADOAtl 11O1y anu
Yet Make 1t u Delight.
Our Saviour did not abrogate the
| Sabbath law. He only relieved it from
the traditions of the elders, and restored
it to its original place and power as
q law of liberty-as made for man.
The observance of n day in seven for
rest and worship has been identified with
the history OF the Christian church as it
was with that of the Jewish church.
Whenever and wherever its observance
has been lax, the church has become
cold and formal, or corrupt. And the
world has come to appreciate, to some
extent, the bcnificent influence of this
periodical rest. 1t will accept our Sab
bath if We make it q day of worldly
pleasure and carnal delight. But if to
| conciliate the world we regard Sunday
as a holiday, instead of a holy day, we
do not keep the law of the Lord, and he
will not bless and prosper us. The es-
sence of the Sabbath observance is
sanctification. 1t is not our day, to be
spent as we please, but Gods day, to be
spent in His worship and the study of
His word.
The question, then, that presses upon
the thoughtful Christian is: How can
we keep the Sabbath holy and yet make
it a delight? Men do not take pleasure.
naturally, in spiritual things. The taste
for them and the capacity to enjoy them
must be cultivated. This is the work of
the Holy Spirit. But we can and should
cooperate with Him in that work. We
ought to make Sabbath observances at
home and in the church Us attractive as
possible and then bring all that we can
within their influences. To accomplish
prohibition which God has built, We
have no right to do that. They are. the
safeguard Of the delight which we are
to enjoy. Our business is to plant flow
ers within those walls, the richest and
the rarest flowers of holiness that we
can gather. and then to invite every
body, and especially the young to enter.
Carnal pleasure, that which the Sab
bath breaker seeks, is short lived, and
followed by a reaction. Solomon says:
Given in laughter the heart is sorrowful
and the end of that mirth is heaviness."
How many find this true as they return
to labor on Monday after their Sunday
dissipation! But the man who has
learned to delight himself in the Lord
goes to his weekday work refreshed in
body and in mind. To him the holy
day has been a threefold blessing-it
has rested his body, it has q~uickened
his intellect, and it has strengthened
his heart.
Take two boys one day in the week
into a castle in which there, is q con-
servatory of rare plants, a laboratory,
an astronomical observatory and a
library. Tell them that they are free to.
enjoy whatever is in the castle, but that
they must stay there all day. One Of
the boys is a student. The plants, the
apparatus and the books interested
him. He enjoys that day. 1t is all too
short for him. The other boy is u saw
age. unable to read, whose only pleas
ure is in the chase. The castle is Il
prison to him. The hours go by as on
leaden wings, He is glad enough when
the. day is over and he can be free.
As with these boys so with all boys.
and with those who are older. They
can learn THAT there are higher pleas
ures than those Of sense. And that is
the training they need to enjoy the Sab
n''H "ilHouI deSecfallnS III. was not
the Sabbath a delight to John when he
was in the spirit on the isle of Patmos:?
Has it not been " the pearl of days to
millions of holy men and women since:o
Are there not homes all over Scotland
and America where, though strictly
kept. it is the gladdest day OF the week?
Our efforts to meet the world half
way in this matter of Sabbath observ-
ance will fail. We will lose the true
charm and sweetness of our holy day,
and yet will not win men to even the
fragment OF a Sabbath which we try to
keep. There can be no compromise be-
tween the spiritual and the carnal. We
must make the spiritual attractive by
bringing out more fully its own intrinsic
beauty, and not by covering it with the
fading garlands of the sensual. Just
how this is to be done in every home
and IN every sanctuary must be left to
the sound discretion of parents, minis
tiers and elders. If we shall succeed in
calling their attention to the possibility
ana the Importance Of keeping the Sab
bath holy and yet making it a delight,
our present purpose will have been Sc
Chicago Interior.
CHOICE GEL co-,@n,e