Where Has All the Worship Gone?

by Wayne Rogers
The Recovery of the
Lords Day
D
. L. Moody, who was not in the Pu-
ritan tradition, said, You show me
a nation that has given up the Sabbath
and I will show you a nation that has got
the seeds of decay.
And to quote an enemy of the
gospel, Voltaire declared, If you want
to kill Christianity you must abolish
Sunday.
Te restoration of Christianity,
which is in decline, will go hand in hand
with the restoration of the Lords Day.
CALL THE SABBATH A
DELIGHT!
Isaiah 58:13-14, If you turn
away your foot from the Sab-
bath, From doing your pleasure
on My holy day, And call the
Sabbath a delight, Te holy
day of the Lord honorable, And
shall honor Him, not doing your
own ways, Nor nding your own
pleasure, Nor speaking your
own words, Ten you shall de-
light yourself in the Lord; And
I will cause you to ride on the
high hills of the earth, And feed
you with the heritage of Jacob
your father. Te mouth of the
Lord has spoken.
We should not think What am
I forbidden to do on the Lords
Day, but what can I do to make
it a delight!
Excerpts from Who Are The Puritans and what do they
Teach? By Erroll Hulse (Evangelical Press)
Erroll & Lyn Hulse wayne rogers
Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2010
18
Where Has All the Worship Gone?
Te essence of this early Puritan view of
the Bibles teaching on the Lords Day,
Patrick Collinson maintains was the
conviction that the fourth command-
ment is a perpetual moral law originat-
ing with creation in Gen. 2, predating
the Mosaic law. Recognition of Sunday
as the Christian Sabbath was reputed to
be of divine and apostolic appointment,
not church tradition.
Observing the Lords Day as a Sab-
bath day entailed the conviction that
the entire day should be set aside for the
public and private exercise of religion,
with no time devoted to labor, idleness,
or recreation.
We may be tempted to think that
observance of the Lords Day in West-
ern society has declined to such an
extent that it will never be recovered
to its former position. Richard Baxter
recalled his childhood experience in
an English village when We could not
on the Lords Day either read a chapter
or pray or sing a psalm, or catechize
or instruct a servant, for the noise of
the piper and tabor, and shouting
in the streets continually in our ears,
and we were the common scorn of all
the rabble in the streets, and we were
called Puritans, precisionists, hypo-
crites because we rather chose on the
Lords Day to read the Scriptures rather
than what they did. A mighty reforma-
tion was wrought by a book written in
1595 by Nicholas Bownde on the 4
th

Commandment. Bownde proclaimed
that the commandment to rest was a
moral and perpetually binding law. To
follow studies, do worldly business, or
engage in recreations, or pleasures such
as shooting, hawking, tennis playing,
fencing and bowling was discouraged.
Men must not come to church with
their bows and arrows.
In 1668 Te Practical Sabbatar-
ian by John Wells of London, based
on an exposition of Isaiah 58:13-14,
contended that sports and recreation
on the Lords Day easily remove the
sweetness of the Word and are the de-
basements of spiritual mercies. Te
very essence of the day, argues Wells, is
apartness, or holiness, from the other
days, and then he stresses the delight of
the Lords Day: Joy suits no person so
much as the saint and no day so well
as the Sabbath. In support he quotes
Psalm 118:24, Tis is the day which the
Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be
glad in it. Between morning and eve-
ning service he advises that we indulge
in luscious, sweet, holy discourse.
Some advice of a typical Lords Day by
Wells would run as follows:
1. Go reasonably to bed so that
you may not be sleepy on the
Lords Day.
2. Public worship is central
on the Lords Day, but it is
not limited to public wor-
ship. Heads of families should
consider how they can receive
maximum spiritual edica-
tion throughout the day.
Pipe and Tabor is a pair of instruments
played by a single player, consisting of a
three-hole pipe played with one hand, and
a portable drum played with the other.
19 Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2010
Where Has All the Worship Gone?
3. Heads of families should
make sure that the sermon ma-
terials are retained. Encourage
lively discussion and repetition
of the main heads of the exposi-
tion at the meal table.
4. Seek to retain the teachings
received and the blessings of
the Lords Day during the week
that has begun.
It is misguided to think that Puritan
teaching on the Lords Day is only nega-
tive. It is negative in the sense that we
must forsake pleasing ourselves and
rather seek the Lords will for the best
use of his day, but the power of Puritan
teaching from the Bible lies in its ex-
pressions of enjoyment of, and zeal for,
the Lords Day. Te advantages of this
day well spent are enormous.
Tomas Watson calls it the mar-
ket-day of the soul and we can see
from the following quotations the zeal
that Watson felt for the Lords Day:
Te Sabbath is the market-day
of the soul, the cream of time.
It is the day of Christs rising
from the grave, and the Holy
Ghosts descending upon the
earth. It is perfumed with the
sweet odor of prayer, which
goes up to heaven as incense.
On this day the manna falls,
that is, angels food. Tis is the
souls festival day, on which
the graces act their part: the
other days of the week are most
employed about earth, this
day about heaven; then you
gather straw, now pearls. Now
Christ takes the soul up into
the mount, and gives it trans-
guring sights of glory. Now he
leads his spouse into the wine-
cellar, and displays the banner
of his love. Now he gives her his
spiced wine, and the juice of the
pomegranate (S. of S. 2:4; 8:2).
Te Lord usually reveals himself more
to the soul on this day. Te apostle John
was in the Spirit on the Lords Day (Rev.
1:10). He was carried up on this day in
divine raptures toward heaven. Tis day
a Christian is in the heights; he walks
with God and takes as it were a turn
with him in heaven (1 John 1:3). On this
day holy aections are quickened; the
stock of grace is improved; corruptions
are weakened; and Satan falls like light-
ning before the majesty of the Word.
Christ wrought most of his mir-
acles upon the Sabbath; so he does
still: dead souls are raised and hearts
of stone are made esh. How highly
should we esteem and reverence this
day! It is more precious than rubies.
God has anointed it with the oil of glad-
ness above its fellows. On the Sabbath
we are doing angels work. Our tongues
are tuned to Gods praises. Te Sabbath
on earth is a shadow and type of the
glorious rest and eternal Sabbath we
hope for in heaven, when God shall be
the temple, and the Lamb shall be the
light of it (Rev. 21:22-23).
So, We should not think What am
I forbidden to do on the Lords Day, but
what can I do to make it a delight