(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)
In his noteworthy volume “Unfinished Tasks” of the Southern Presbyterian Church (1922) — published almost 100 years ago — Homer McMillan, Secretary of the Executive Committee of Home Missions for the Presbyterian Church in the United States, highlighted an important area of concern and focus for the work of Christ’s Church.
The maintenance of the Christian Sabbath lies at the root of all national morality and civil liberty. The Sabbath is the only safeguard of religion, and religion is the surest stay of the State. John Ruskin said that the thirty minutes on Sunday when the man of God stands forth to speak to ignorant and sinful men are the most important thirty minutes known to society and civilization. About one hundred and fifty years ago Voltaire prophesied that before the close of that century Christianity would have disappeared from the face of the earth. He advised his followers that if they would destroy Christianity they must begin with the Christian Sabbath. Christianity and the Sabbath stand or fall together.
''The rule is, where there is no church and no churchgoing there is no Sabbath, and where there is no Sabbath and no Sabbath-keeping there is no religion, and where there is no religion there is no God, and where there is no God there is no conscience, and where there is no conscience there is no respect for the rights of men, and where there is no respect for the rights of men there is no security for life or property. Now take religion, God, conscience, respect for the rights of men, and protection of life and property out of the American republic, and just how much of what is left would be worth having?"*
A reliable authority states that four million people in this country are making merchandise of the Lord's Day, and that twenty times that number spend the day in mere worldly pleasure-seeking. Well may we cry out for America, as Pope Pius said concerning France in his day: "Lose not a day, not even an hour, nor even a moment; go and tell France that if she would be saved she must return to the sanctification of the Lord's Day." When the Sabbath is gone, honesty is gone, justice is gone, and that which has been our nation's glory is gone.
* Dr. David Gregg, ''Makers of the American Republic."
How crucial is the keeping holy of the Lord’s Day, or Christian Sabbath? Of the highest importance, according to Homer McMillan. It is the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue and in some sense a bridge between the first and second tables of the law, having reference both to the honor and worship of God, and to the good of mankind. May McMillan’s words serve to remind us of the great importance of sanctifying the Lord’s holy day.
