Make the sabbath a day of religious activity. First of all, of course, is attendance at public worship. “There is a discrepancy,” says John McNeill, “between our creed about the sabbath day and our actual conduct. In many families, at ten o’clock on the sabbath, attendance at church is still an open question. There is no open question on Monday morning—‘John, will you go to work to-day?’” A minister rebuked a farmer for not attending church, and said, “You know John you are never absent from market.” “O,” was the reply, “we must go to market.” Some one has said that without the sabbath the church of Christ could not, as a visible organization, exist on earth. Another has said that “we need to be in the drill of observance as well as in the liberty of faith.” Human nature is so treacherous that we are apt to omit things altogether unless there is some special reason for doing them. A man is not likely to worship at all unless he has regularly appointed times and means for worship. Family and private devotions are almost certain to be omitted altogether unless one gets into the habit, and has a special time set apart daily. |