From the book
THE ENGLISH SUNDAY (1901)
LECTURE IV
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
IN the last lecture we traced the history of the Lord's Day down to the decree of Constantine in 321. We may fairly conclude that the decree is evidence that there was already at that time, some intermission on Sunday of the Business and Labour of the week, on the part of the Christian subjects of the Empire. There must have been some strong tendency, if not some definite custom, which the decree supplemented and took under its protection, and with which the Emperor felt some measure of sympathy. We certainly cannot regard Christian abstinence from work on Sunday as traceable to an arbitrary act of Constantine. Even under despotisms a great change in social life cannot be effected unless there is, in some quarter at least, a popular movement in the same direction as the legislation. What the imperial decree did was to legitimate and give effect to a movement which must for some time have been gathering strength.
[YES NO DOUBT SUNDAY HAD BECOME A SABBATH DAY FOR MOST OF THE CHRISTIANS IN THE EMPIRE; BY THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE TRUE CHRISTIANS WERE IN THE MINORITY, AS THEY WERE WITH OBSERVING PASSOVER AND NOT EASTER, WHICH IS FULLY RECORDED IN CHURCH HISTORY - Keith Hunt]
A historical survey of the centuries which follow would require us to trace the growing strictness of legislation as to Sunday observance, first on the part of Church Councils, and secondly as put into action by the decrees of Emperors. It was during this period, and especially towards the end of the fourth century, that the theology of a divine or apostolic transference to the Sunday of the obligations of the Sabbath, first began to assert itself.
Thus we pass on to the ginning of the middle ages, a period in which as a recent writer has said, "theology was hardly alive," and growth was all in the sphere of ecclesiastical law. The Sunday fell under the conditions of the time, and its development was in this direction. Some excuse for the Judaic narrowness and severity of the restrictions concerning it, which were continuously being enacted in the West, may be found in the necessity for discipline in dealing with the barbaric nations who were at this time being brought en masse into the Church. But whatever excuse may be found, the result was unfortunate.
In the following centuries the restrictions on things to be done on Sunday, and punishments for transgressions became Judic, and the observance of the day in the Catholic Church was definitely based on the fourth commandment.
Then came the Reformation movement.
I will here quote from a sermon by F.D. Maurice which sums up clearly the way in which the leaders of that movement regarded the Sunday——
“The Reformers appealed to the Bible as an authority which prevailed over all ecclesiastical maxims and decrees. The Bible, they said contained a direct message from God, and emancipation from all human fetters. Festivals and fasts seemed to them a part of these fetters, checking the spirit of man in its ascent to God, substituting outward observances for inward faith. Then the question arose, ‘Is not the Sunday one of these festivals?’ They could not answer 'No,' for they could not find any precept for observing it in the New Testament. The old law which fixed another day (the seventh) had, they thought, clearly been abrogated. Therefore for the most part the foreign reformers saw no principle on which they could enjoin the observance of the Lord's day " ("Maurice on the Sabbath," Serm. ii).
[YEP THEY HAD TO ADMIT THERE WAS NOTHING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT TO ENJOIN OBSERVANCE OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, JUST THAT SIMPLE - Keith Hunt]
To this however I must add that though they did not enjoin the Lord’s Day as obligatory, they did observe it, and recommended its observance in their formal documents.
What they denied was:
(1) the relevancy of the fourth commandment to the observance of Sunday
(2) the fable of a translation of the obligations of the Sabbath to Sunday
(3) the power of the Church to institute an observance which would be sinful to break
THEY WOULD OBSERVE THE DAY VOLUNTARILY, so far as not served the peace and order of the Church, and as an institution which met the needs of human nature and provided opportunity for worship.
[IT IS AGAIN MAKING UP YOUR OWN RELIGION AS TO HOW AND WHEN YOU WORSHIP GOD; IT IS AS THE AUTHOR SAID EARLIER, “MAN GIVING TO GOD”—— THAT WAS NOW THE ATTITUDE OF THE MAJORITY POPULAR CHURCH—— THE CHURCH OF ROME - Keith Hunt]
This is the general purport of the teaching on the subject in Luther's larger Catechism and the Augsburg Confession. Calvin's position was similar, but he seems to have felt more strongly the normative character of the Old Testament Sabbath,1 though he distinctly says that the Christian celebration of Sunday has nothing to do with the fourth commandment.
……
1. Calvin's comment on the fourth commandment in his Institutio, Bk. II. c. viii. 28-34. is well worth reading. His view of the relation between the Sabbath and the Lord's day is sound and moderate, and his defence of the observance of the day against the extreme Reformers is earnest and conclusive.
……
It was in spite of Calvin's teaching that Sabbatarian views in the strict sense were developed among his followers.
We can see plainly enough that this low estimate of the value of apostolic example and the custom of the primitive church was sure to lead to a greater relaxation than the Reformers themselves desired. The religious life of Continental Protestantism has undoubtedly suffered in consequence of their attitude towards Sunday and the other festivals of the Church. But we must remember what the ecclesiastical bondage was, which they were endeavouring to break down, with its multitude of holy days, and the legends and ceremonies attached to them.
And we must also remember that they were absolutely right in rejecting the fiction that there had been an authoritative transference of the obligations of the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day.
I am not able to say very distinctly how far the views of Luther and Calvin on this subject prevailed among English reformers; nor whether the lax observance of Sunday in the reign of Elizabeth was attributable to the influence of reformation doctrine, or to the general decline of religious spirit which had prevailed in the mediaeval church before the Reformation began. But at any rate the observance of the day had fallen to a low level at this period. Then came the reaction. Fuller in his "Church History" (Bk. ix. sect. 8) tells us how the Sabbatarian movement which arose, took the whole country by storm. It was indeed an early indication of the Puritanism which was already gathering strength, an early indication of what was to come in the days of Cromwell and the Protectorate.
The first and most effective book on the Puritan side was published by Dr Nicholas Bownd in 1595. Incidentally it discloses a very great want of reverence in England at the time, not only as regards the Sunday, but as regards public worship. Men came into church "with hawkes upon their fists." He speaks of “the practice of a great many who make this day (Sunday) the only day of reckoning with their servants and of accounts with their labourers and chapmen." He is especially moved by the oppressiveness of employers to their servants, and their in-considerateness for their spiritual welfare. He is no fanatic, as has been sometimes represented, but allows necessities of labour on Sunday and only contends against "imagined necessities" for it.
The tone of the book is so simple and genuine in its earnestness, and so edifying to a reader of the present day that one cannot be surprised at the immediate and wide effect which Fuller attributes to it. It would hardly be possible to find anywhere a better passage on the nature and value of religious meditation than that contained in pp. 203-210 (first ed). But the argumentative element of the book is entirely unsound and uncritical. Dr Bownd makes considerable use of Calvin's commentaries on the Old Testament. No doubt Calvin's authority gave weight to the treatise, but Calvin would have been the first to reject the line of argument which is attempted. Henceforth for a hundred years Sabbatarian controversies prevailed, and they are accurately so described, for it was the Sabbatarian character of the day that was argued for.
The obvious contention that as a Jewish ordinance it had been abolished, was now met by the contention that it was prae-Mosaic, dated from the Creation, and therefore was no mere law for the Hebrews, but universally and eternally binding. As has often happened in other cases the instinct and purpose of the Puritans was better than their arguments. That a serious view of Sunday observance came to impress men who were not Puritans is plain from the poems of George Herbert and Henry Vaughan. Herbert's "Sunday" is almost too well known to quote. The first stanza will be enough to show the spirit of the poem:
"O day most calm, most bright
The fruit of this, the next world's bud,
The indorsement of supreme delight,
Writ by a Friend and with His blood;
The couch of Time,
Care's balm and bay;
The week were dark but for thy light;
Thy torch doth show the way."
Vaughan's poem although given in Palgrave's "Treasury of Sacred Song" is less known, and may well be quoted in full.
SON-DAYS
"Bright shadows of true rest some shoots of bliss;
Heaven once a week;
The next world's gladness prepossest in this;
A day to seek; Eternity in time; the steps by which
We climb above all ages; Lamps that light
Man through his heap of dark days; and the rich
And full redemption of the whole week's flight !
The pulleys unto headlong man; Time's bower;
The narrow way;
Transplanted Paradise; God's walking hour,
The cool o' the day:
The Creature's jubilee; God's parle with dust;
Heaven here; Man on those hills of myrrh and flowers;
Angels descending; the returns of trust;
A gleam of glory after six days' showers."
Even the Jewish mediaeval poets have not gone further in their praises of "the Bride, the Sabbath," than these sober English Churchmen in their train of rich imaginative phrases, each of them full of suggestive beauty, and, one must add, full of implicit admonition to our own time.
Thus on the whole the Puritan view of Sunday won the victory and remained in possession, after Puritanism had been discredited in other respects. It survived the Restoration, was accepted by High Churchmen, and became part and parcel not only of religious life in England but also of national tradition. I will quote some of the concluding words of Abbey and Overton's "The English Church in the Eighteenth Century." The writer is speaking of that century as a whole and of its characteristics. "The strongly marked division of opinion which had prevailed during the reign of Elizabeth and Charles I as to the mode of observing Sunday no longer existed.
Formerly Anglicans and Puritans had taken for the most part thoroughly opposite views, and the question had been controverted with much vehemence and often much bitterness. Happily for England, the Puritan view in all its broader and more general features kept possession of the ground. . . . The Puritan Sunday, in all its principal characteristics remained firmly established, and was as warmly supported by High Churchmen as by any who belonged to an opposite party……
I have tried to show how we have come by our English Sunday. It has come to us not as a complete final ordinance immediately delivered from God or enjoined by Christ on the Apostles, or explicitly provided by a decree of the primitive Church, but as the result of converging and to some degree opposing tendencies.
In ecclesiastical as in political lite, it is the special happiness of England that opposition of opinion instead of resulting in bitter irreconcilable differences has tended to fusion, and to produce something much better than either of the two extremes. It is this English Sunday which is now in danger, and it is only by such a study of its history as has now been attempted that we can understand the proper line of defence, and deal with the difficulties of such a defence.
[MOST SUNDAY CHURCH GOERS TODAY KNOW SUNDAY WAS NEVER MADE HOLY BY GOD OR CHRIST OR THE APOSTLES. MOST HAVE BEEN DECEIVED AND TAUGHT PAUL SAID YOU COULD PICK ANY DAY (Rom. 14) OR IT WAS DONE AWAY WITH BY PAUL (Col.2:16) AND SEM NOT TO REALIZE MINISTERS HAVE PAUL CONTRADICTING HIMSELF, WHICH MAKE THE ATHEISTS LAUGH AT CHRISTIANITY. I EXPOUND THE TRUTH OF THESE SEEMINGLY CONTRADICTORY VERSES ON MY WEBSITE - Keith Hunt]
The Puritan ground of defence, that the Sunday is the Sabbath or the immediate heir of the Sabbath is not tenable.
It is a very simple ground, and as such attractive, BUT IT IS FALSE.
FOR IT IS THE APOSTOLICAL LORD’S DAY AND NOT THE SABBATH WHICH WE OBSERVE.
[IT IS NOT THE LORD’S DAY, HE NEVER MADE IT HIS DAY. THE GOSPELS SAYS JESUS WAS LORD OF THE SABBATH DAY, NOT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. IT WAS NOT APOSTOLIC; NO APOSTLE OF THE FIRST CENTURY EVER MADE SUNDAY A HOLY DAY (ONLY GOD CAN MAKE SOMETHING HOLY) OR SAID ONE WORD ABOUT CONGREGATIONAL MEETING ON THAT DAY, AS REGULAR, FOR OBSERVING THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. WHAT THE SO-CALLED “CHURCH FATHERS” DID WAS OF THEIR OWN MIND AND NOT OF ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE TRUE GOD OF HEAVEN - Keith Hunt]
And yet it is for us at any rate something more than is implied in the original institution of the Lord's day, something more than a day on which we meet for public worship, and commemoration of the Resurrection.
[THERE IS NOT ONE WORD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT TO SAY WE ARE TO OBSERVE THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS, BY WORSHIPPING ON SUNDAY, OR HOLDING REGULAR CONGREGATIONAL SERVICES ON THAT DAY, OR TRYING TO KEEP SUNDAY IN ANY WAY AS THE 7TH DAY SABBATH IS TO BE KEPT AND OBSERVED - Keith Hunt]
The fact is this. In England, since the Reformation, the influence of the Old Testament on Christian thought and life has been profoundly great…..
The Sabbath stands before us as a pattern and a guide, though not as an enactment.
[OH YES IT IS AN ENACTMENT BY GOD; IT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENT; WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN “DONE AWAY WITH” AT ANY TIME. THEY HAVE BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING, AND SHALL STAY TILL THERE IS NO MORE FLESH AND BLOOD ON THIS EARTH. THE SABBATH AND THE OTHER NINE COMMANDMENT TELL US WHAT SIN IS! NONE OF THEM CAN BE ABOLISHED, NO MATTER WHAT THE WORDS OF MEN MAY SAY - Keith Hunt]
It is impossible for us to think of our weekly festival without thinking of, and being affected by, the weekly festival of our spiritual ancestors.
Let us then frankly own that our view of the Lord’s Day is coloured by the Sabbath, that it is from that quarter chiefly that we draw our idea of it as a day to be kept holy.
[NOPE—— YOU CAN NOT KEEP A DAY HOLY IF IT WAS NEVER MADE HOLY. SUNDAY WAS NEVER MADE HOLY BY GOD, AND IT MATTERS NOT THAT MEN MAY SAY THAT IT IS, OR THAT SOMEHOW MANKIND BY MEETING ON THAT DAY, MAKING IT THE DAY THAT REPLACES THE 7TH DAY SABBATH, MAKES SUNDAY HOLY—— IT NEVER WAS HOLY AND NEVER WILL BE HOLY, SUCH IS THE PLAIN TRUTH OF THE BIBLE - Keith Hunt]
….. It is mainly from the influence which the Sabbath has (from the earliest times) exerted on the Lord's day, that the latter has got its character of a Day of Rest from labour. It is mainly from the same source that it has got its character of dedication to God, and of partial withdrawal from the world.
[TO TRY TO REPLACE THE WORDS OF THE 4TH COMMANDMENT IS HUMAN DECEPTION AND FUTILITY, FOR SUNDAY HAS NO BEARING ON TRUE CHRISTIANITY; NOTHING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT TELLS US TO OBSERVE SUNDAY WORSHIP TO REPLACE THE CLEAR WORDS OF THE 4TH COMMANDMENT; THE SABBATH COMMANDMENT AS IN THE TEN COMMANDMENT STILL STANDS TODAY IN THE TRUE THEOLOGY THAT GOD HAS GIVEN IN HIS WORD - Keith Hunt]
…..But the business of the Church is and always has been to set forth ideals, to set them forth, but not to impose them.
[YA …. YOU CANNOT IMPOSE SOMETHING THAT GOD HAS NEVER IMPOSED IN THE FIRST PLACE; WHAT GOD HAS SAID NOTHING ON, MAN CANNOT DECREE AS BINDING ON GOD’S CHILDREN - Keith Hunt]
What then is the ideal?
Pardon me if, even in stating it, I fall short of your own desires and your own experience.
(1) A clear space for recollectedness. No one much engaged in business will contend that every day can be equally a day of recollectedness and conscious nearness to God, though we know and believe that He is with us and we in Him, even in our hours of engrossing secular employment.
(2) A day of uplifted heart—and endeavour to look not at things which are seen, but on things which are not seen, an uplifted heart without which the services of the day are vain.
(3) A day of spiritual as well as physical refreshment, in which we approach and draw from all the sources through which He is wont to refresh us. Not only from worship— but from His Word, from profitable books, from lives of good men, from music, from the company of those who can help us.
(4) A day for home life—not excluding society, but making a difference in the society which we seek.
(5) A day for works of mercy and kindness, however small.
It is such a day as this, the result of a combination of the thoughts of the Sabbath and the Lord's Day under the gradual teaching of Holy Scripture, which we possess in the English Sunday…….
…………………………
NO MATTER THE WORDS OF MEN ON HOW TO OBSERVE SUNDAY, IT IS USELESS FOR GOD NEVER MADE SUNDAY A HOLY DAY; HE NEVER SANCTIFIED SUNDAY; HE NEVER GAVE INSTRUCTIONS ON OBSERVING IT, NOT EVEN FOR THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD.
IT IS GOD WHO TELLS US HOW AND WHEN TO WORSHIP HIM; IT IS GOD WHO STATES WHICH DAYS ARE HOLY TO HIM, AND THAT WE ARE TO KEEP HOLY BY OUR CONDUCT IN ACTIONS, WORDS, AND THOUGHTS.
MAN WAS NEVER GIVEN THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE UP HIS OWN FEAST DAYS, AS WE SEE FIT, TO GIVE TO HIM. IT IS GOD WHO HAS HIS FEAST DAYS AND HE GIVES TO US.
NO MATTER HOW YOU THINK YOU CAN OBSERVE SUNDAY, IF YOU STILL TRAMPLE ALL OVER GOD’S 7TH DAY SABBATH, YOU ARE LIVING IN AND PRACTICING SIN, AS MUCH AS ANYONE THINKING THEY CAN PRACTICE SEXUAL IMMORALITY AS A WAY OF LIFE AND HAVE GOD’S GRACE. PRACTICING SIN AS A WAY OF LIFE PUTS YOU OUT OF THE GRACE OF GOD.
Keith Hunt
From the book
THE ENGLISH SUNDAY (1901)
LECTURE V
METHODS OF OBSERVANCE
LAST time I endeavoured at the close of my lecture to put before you the aims which we may rightly seek in our observance of Sunday, and to-day we may go on to consider the methods by which they are to be attained. For this purpose we may well begin by considering what these methods have been during the last two centuries. Let us remind ourselves of what some have almost forgotten, the character of a strict English Sunday…….
[OF COURSE IF SUNDAY IS A MAN MADE INSTITUTION, AS IT CERTAINLY IS, THEN MANKIND IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES, CAN OBSERVE IT DIFFERENTLY, IN “A WAY THAT IS RIGHT AND REASONABLE FOR THEM.” ONCE MORE IT IS MAKING UP YOUR OWN WAY AND RELIGION TOWARDS GOD, AS THE AUTHOR HAS PREVIOUSLY SAID, “THE SABBATH IS FROM GOD GIVING TO MAN, THE LORD’S DAY IS FROM MAN GIVING TO GOD.” SO MAN PICKS AND CHOOSES HOW TO GIVE TO GOD ONE DAY IN SEVEN, AND IN A WAY THAT IS RIGHT AND REASONABLE FOR THEM. I THINK NOT—— IT IS GOD THAT TELLS US HOW AND WHEN TO WORSHIP HIM - Keith Hunt]
….. At the same time I must add that the old Puritan tradition of a strict Sunday has in the past been held and valued by some of the best of our labouring classes quite as fully as by ourselves.
[YES AND AS A KID GROWING UP IN ENGLAND, IN THE 1940s AND 1950s, THE TOWN I LIVED IN CLOSED DOWN, IT WAS LIKE A GHOST TOWN, BUSES DID NOT RUN BUT ONLY NOW AND THEN. NO PRO SPORTS DONE. PEOPLE IN THE SUMMER TIME WENT WITH THEIR FAMILIES TO PICNIC IN THE LOVELY FLOWERED PARKS. AND GARDENS. AND I KNOWING WHAT THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT SAID, BELIEVED SUNDAY WAS THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK - Keith Hunt]
Let me then return to what I proposed.
I. It was the day for attending the public services of the Church, not once only but twice so far as possible. The greater frequency of public worship, which of course is a matter of thankfulness, has probably made this characteristic of Sunday less marked, and led to some laxity about the double attendance on Sunday even on the part of thoughtful people. Indeed there has been a deliberate attempt to undervalue Morning and Evening Prayer on Sundays in order to exalt attendance at Holy Communion on that day……
[YES INDEED “CHURCH” WAS MORNING AND EVENING BACK WHEN I WAS GROWING UP. I ATTENDED FAITHFULLY, NEVER MISSED (UNLESS ON HOLIDAY) SUNDAY SCHOOL, AND LATER INTO MY MIDDLE TEENS, THE SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE - Keith Hunt]
….. The history of the beginning of Christianity is the history of men being gathered together.
[TRUE INDEED, ATTENDING SUNDAY SCHOOL THEN LATER THE MORING SERVICE, WAS A PART OF ME AS WAS MY RIGHT ARM. I KNEW IT WAS SOMETHING YOU JUST DID AS A CHRISTIAN - Keith Hunt]
It was a day for cessation of all work so far as ordinary needs permitted. Household duties were kept down to what was absolutely necessary, and food as far as possible was prepared on the previous day. Business was not touched on either by conversation or by letter. Correspondence was only of a family character, and did not extend to social or other engagements.
But it was especially in recreation that the standard was different from that which is now common. Every kind of game or sport, in doors or out of doors, was laid aside. Music was strictly limited to sacred music. The books and periodicals read were all more or less of a religious character; all ordinary secular literature was avoided, and especially novels and newspapers.
[YES I REMEMBER IT WAS ALL LIKE THAT, THINKING THE 4TH COMMANDMENT WAS BEING PRACTICED BY WHAT I SAW AROUND ME, IN KEEPING WHAT I BELIEVED WAS THE 7TH DAY - Keith Hunt]
Social intercourse was limited to relations and intimate friends, and hospitality was only offered or accepted where there seemed to be some special reason for it. What was aimed at was quiet and retirement, and only such society was welcome as did not interfere with that.
[YES I REMEMBER IT WAS ALL LIKE THAT - Keith Hunt]
Lastly travelling was avoided altogether, and the only exceptions were journeys called for by illness or in pursuit of clerical duties……
[YES FOR RELIGIOUS PEOPLE IT WAS LIKE THAT; AND MOST OF BRITAIN DURING THE 1940s and 1950s WAS RELIGIOUS, AT LEAST BRITISH SOCIETY OUTWARDLY SHOWED THE FACE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION - Keith Hunt]
But in whatever way the time was occupied which was not given to public worship, the tendency of the observance was to foster and promote the religious life of most of those whose rule it was……
[OH INDEED SO IT WAS. I LOVED THE PUTTING AWAY OF “STUFF” OF A BUSY SCHOOL, SPORTS, THIS AND THAT, OF 6 DAYS. I LOVED THE PEACE AND RELAXATION. I LOVED GOING TO CHURCH; HAVING AN AFTERNOON IN THE BEAUTIFUL FLOWERED PARK IN THE WARMTH OF THE SUMMER. I LOVED THE ONCE A WEEK SPECIAL MEAL MOM WOULD COOK, THE SLOW COOKED ROAST, THE PEAS AND CARROTS, THE YORKSHIRE PUDDING AND THE THICK GRAVY; FOR DESERT AN ENGLISH “TRIFLE”— WOW IT WAS ALL TERRIFIC, AS I OBSERVED WHAT I THOUGHT WAS THE 7TH DAY SABBATH OF THE LORD - Keith Hunt]
….. It is historically as you will have seen the apostolical institution of the Lord's Day, largely influenced by the character and aims of the Jewish Sabbath, [SUNDAY WAS NEVER ESTABLISHED BY THE APOSTLES; THERE IS NO VERSE WHERE THE APOSTLES SAY WE ARE TO OBSERVE SUNDAY - Keith Hunt] taken home by the religious heart of the English nation, and developed in a special way, in which our former national characteristics, love of quiet, seriousness, and domesticity can clearly be traced.
[I WELL REMEMBER AT ABOUT AGE 10 OR 11, ONE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIME. BEFORE IT BEGAN WE KIDS TALKED AS OUR TEACHER WAS SETTLING IN FOR THE CLASS. THIS ONE LAD SAID, “MY FATHER TOLD ME SUNDAY IS NOT THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK.” I WAS SHOCKED AT SUCH A SILLY STATEMENT, AND FROM A GROWN MAN. I REPLIED, “THAT JUST CAN’T BE SO, THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT SAYS WE ARE TO KEEP HOLY THE 7TH DAY NOT THE FIRST.” THE OTHER BOY REPLIED, “WELL THE JEWS KEEP SATURDAY.” I THOUGHT TO MYSELF “WHO ARE THE JEWS AND WHY WOULD THEY OBSERVE THE 6TH DAY OF THE WEEK.” THE LAD SAID AGAIN HIS DAD TOLD HIM SUNDAY WAS THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. I AGAIN REPLIED, “THAT JUST CAN’T BE, WE ARE TO KEEP HOLY THE 7TH DAY ACCORDING TO THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.” THE TEACHING BY NOW LOOKED NERVOUS, AND QUICKLY GOT THE CLASS GOING ON OUR LESSON FOR THAT SUNDAY. I PUT THE WHOLE THING OUT OF MY MIND, AND WENT MY MERRY WAY KNOWING, AS I THOUGHT, CHRISTIANITY WAS OBSERVING THE 7TH DAY, AND THIS LAD’S DAD WAS OUT TO LUNCH - NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT AGAIN, TILL I CAME TO CANADA AT AGE 18 AND MY BAPTIST LANDLORD TOLD ME SUNDAY WAS THE 1ST DAY OF THE WEEK; I JUST ABOUT FELL OVER IN UTTER SHOCK - Keith Hunt]
But in our day this model is being largely set aside. Some people ask no questions as to their duty, have smothered their scruples in this matter as in many others, and treat Sunday exactly as any other day so far as society, amusements, and travelling are concerned…….
[MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE COMING TO SEE THE FALSE TEACHING OF TRYING TO MAKE SUNDAY A HOLY DAY. MORE AND MORE ARE SEEING THE SIMPLE TRUTH OF THE 4TH COMMANDMENT. AND INDEED THE NATIONS OF THE WEST ARE EVER MORE EACH YEAR BECOMING MORE SECULAR. BRITAIN HAS ONLY 3% OF PEOPLE ATTENDING CHURCH ON A REGULAR BASIS. THEN TO THE SHOCK OF MANY THERE ARE 20 MILLION PEOPLE ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT WHO OBSERVE THE 7TH DAY, AND ONLY 2 MILLION OF THEM ARE SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISTS, A BOOK WAS WRITTEN ABOUT IT BY AN SDA BLACK MINISTER ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO, A COPY I HAVE - Keith Hunt
Is the result of such a strict Sunday observance as I have described, of serious value for the spiritual life of the individual and the religion of the country at large? ……
But to return—it is in the light of the general idea, that the details of Sunday observance are to be considered and judged, and not in the light of verdicts of conscience, or of Scripture, or of ecclesiastical rule.
[BACK TO ADMITTING, AS WELL THE AUTHOR MUST, THAT THERE IS NO WRITTEN WORD FROM GOD AS HOW TO OBSERVE SUNDAY; NO SCRIPTURE OR ECCLESIASTICAL RULE—— GUESS NOT FOR SUNDAY OBSERVANCE WAS NOT FROM GOD BUT FROM MAN’S IMAGINATION AND DESIRE TO NOT BE CLASSIFIED WITH THE JEWS, BUT TO BE FAR SEPARATED FROM THEM, AS HISTORY CLEARLY SHOWS. TAKE A BIBLE CONCORDANCE (LIKE STRONG’S) AND LOOK UP EVERY PASSAGE WGERE THE WORD “SABBATH” OCCURS. BY SUCH A STUDY YOU WILL GET TO KNOW HOW TO OBSERVE THE SABBATH - Keith Hunt]
If you relax in these respects, they will relax in others…… And I think we cannot find a better standard in the matter than that of the thoughtful God-fearing English middle class of the last two centuries.
…………………………
YOU MAY REMEMBER THE MOVIE “CHARIOTS OF FIRE”—— IN PART IT WAS ABOUT A SCOTTISH MINISTER WHO QUALIFIED FOR THE BRITISH OLYMPIC TEAM IN THE 1920s. ONE SCENE, CHURCH IS OVER AND PEOPLE ARE EXITING; A BOY IS KICKING A FOOTBALL (SOCCER BALL TO NORTH AMERICANS), THE MINISTER SAYS, “JOHNNY (FORGET THE NAME USED IN THE MOVIE) YOU KNOW THE SABBATH IS NOT FOR PLAYING FOOTBALL.”
LATER AS THE BRITISH TEAM HEADS OFF BY BOAT TO EUROPE FOR THE OLYMPICS, THIS SCOT MINISTER IS TOLD HIS “HEAT” FOR THE 100 YEARD DASH WILL BE ON SUNDAY. HE REFUSED TO RUN; THE TOP OFFICIALS AND THE PRINCE OF WALES TRY TO PERSUADE HIM TO RUN. HE FRANKLY TELLS THEM HE WILL NOT BREAK THE SABBATH. IN OUR MODERN WORLD THESE SCENES ARE QUITE SOMETHING FOR SHOWING THE CONVICTION OF SUNDAY KEEPERS, EVEN REFERRING TO IT AS THE SABBATH. IT IS VERY LIKELY MANY CHRISTIANS AFTER SEEING THIS MOVIE STARTED TO OBSERVE SUNDAY IN A STRICTER WAY.
IN THE WINTER OF 1961/62 AFTER ARRIVING IN CANADA IN MAY 1961, I HEARD A MINISTER ON THE RADIO MENTIONING THE SABBATH AND HOW IT IS HOLY TO GOD AND WE NEED TO KEEP IT HOLY IN OUR OBSERVATION. I HAD NO IDEA HE WAS REFERRING TO SATURDAY, I THOUGHT HE WAS REFERRING TO SUNDAY; I WAS CONVICTED THAT I SHOULD OBSERVE SUNDAY IN A STRICTER WAY, SO I PUT ASIDE MY PLEASURE OF GOING TO THE HORSE RANCH AFTER CHURCH, AND HAVING FUN RIDING AND HELPING AS A GUIDE FOR PEOPLE COMING TO TRAIL RIDE. IT WAS ONLY SOME MONTHS LATER THAT MY BAPTIST LANDLORD TOLD ME SUNDAY WAS NOT THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK.
I KNEW IMMEDIATELY IF HE WAS CORRECT, THAT NO MATTER HOW I OBSERVED SUNDAY, IT WAS TO NO AVAIL WHEN I WAS TRAMPLING ALL OVER SATURDAY THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK, FOR I CLEARLY KNEW ALL THE WORDS OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.
Keith Hunt
From the book
THE ENGLISH SUNDAY (1901)
LECTURE VI
WORK AND RECREATION
YOU will perhaps remember that I said that the Sunday of the working classes must be considered separately. What we have to do is (1) to form a clear conception of what the Sunday should be for ourselves, and then (2) how far this standard is desirable, or even possible in their case.…
However in the particular matter which we are considering there are important differences.
First there is the impossibility of the working classes getting relaxation on any other day, while we can get it on other days. And they need relaxation and recreation as well as mere physical rest. Try to put yourself in the position of a man who has no daylight hours which he can call his own on any day except Sunday, and you will see that Sunday must be a very different thing to him from what it is to you.
Secondly, the quiet, seclusion, home interests, enjoyment of nature which are so freely at our command, and are possible even in the country labourer's cottage home, are impossible or nearly so to the dwellers in the crowded alleys and courts of London and other great cities. I do not see how we can press on them as a general rule that the day is to be made exclusively a religious day, on which ordinary recreations should be laid aside, although I believe this is the right aim for ourselves.
If the observance rested on a positive universal command, no differences of condition could be taken into account, but it does not so rest.
[OH HOW CORRECT—— THERE IS NO COMMAND FROM THE LORD REGARDING SUNDAY OBSERVANCE IN A THEOLOGICAL VIEW; INDEED HOW MANY TIMES HAS THE AUTHOR RELATED THAT, A NUMBER OF TIMES. SO IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO THE THIS OR THAT OF HUMAN SPECULATIONS AS TO HOW SUNDAY SHOULD BE OBSERVED - Keith Hunt]
…..But let me point out what appears to me to be a serious danger in the future.
Here is this free day of millions of working people. If you legitimize first by general opinion, and subsequently by law, the provision of amusements of all kinds, then an immense field of pecuniary profit will be open to enterprise. Attractions of every kind will be provided by companies and individuals whose only object is to make money, and the whole face of the English Sunday may be changed in a few months. That is why it seems to me we ought to move with great caution. Our attitude should be, sympathy with those who have no holidays and next to no home; and a sense that they need a different Sunday from ours in many respects. But it cannot be both a day of rest and a day of amusement when you come to deal with the mass of the people, and you have only to cross the Channel to satisfy yourself of this. If they do not see this, we can; and we are bound to act on our knowledge of what is for their temporal good, as well as on higher grounds.
[HE WAS SAYING THAT EVEN IN 1901 THERE WAS QUITE A DIFFERENCE IN OBSERVING SUNDAY IN BRITAIN THAN HOW THEY DID OR DID NOT, OBSERVE IT IN EUROPE. HE IS TRYING TO HAVE SUNDAY THIS WAY FOR SOME AND THAT WAY FOR OTHERS; YES YOU MAKE UP YOUR OWN RULES TO FIT YOURSELF. AGAIN MAKING RELIGION OUT OF YOUR OWN BRAIN FOR HE’ S ADMITTED THERE IS NO INSTRUCTION IN GOD’S WORD AS TO HOW TO OBSERVE THE 1ST DAY OF THE WEEK. GOD’S WORD ONLY TEACHES HOW TO OBSERVE THE 7TH DAY SABBATH - Keith Hunt]
Hitherto I have been thinking principally of the majority of our working classes which is obscurely but yet truly Christian in character and instincts. But there is a large class among them as there is also in the higher ranks of society, which is practically unchristian. It seems to me that their Sunday is quite another matter. How they keep their Sunday comes out of how they order their life. The former is a manifestation of the latter, and a very plain and painful manifestation……
Besides the question of Sunday recreation, there is another which specially affects the working classes taken widely, and that is the question of Sunday labour.
Some Sunday labour must be granted as necessary. There is the "care of cattle, which our Lord's own words may fairly be held to cover. There is railway labour, which some of the companies honestly do their best to reduce to a minimum, while others do not. There are works of emergency such, for instance, as the rebuilding of a railway bridge, which can only be done on Sunday, or the lading of a vessel which for sufficient reasons must sail at the earliest possible moment……
[SOME OF THE ABOVE COULD BE PUT TO ONE SIDE IF SOCIETY AS A WHOLE WAS SERVING GOD BY OBSERVING HIS TRUE SABBATH (WHICH THE AUTHOR HERE USES FOR SUNDAY) - Keith Hunt]
On the grounds on which we have put Sunday, a Christian workman can frankly accept his duty in such cases.
[AS I’VE STATED IF SOCIETY WAS OBSERVING THE TRUE AND ONLY WEEKLY SABBATH, VERY VERY FEW WOULD NEED TO BE WORKING; HOSPITALS AND EMERGENCY VEHICLES WOULD NEED TO CONTINUE—— I’VE COVERED A LOT OF THIS IN MY STUDIES ON THE SABBATH QUESTION ON MY WEBSITE - Keith Hunt]
…..Now let me come back to our own case, and our own duty.
I want to add a few words on the prevalent love of amusement, and the extent to which that love of amusement is for many people obscuring and hindering a true conception of life—in other words, I want to speak of the relation between amusement and religion……
The reason lies in the encroaching character of the love of amusement, and this in relation to the claim of religion to be master of the soul. It is not that there is an incompatibility between amusement and religion. A bright, joyful life is the mark of the highest and best Christianity. The Christian has, or ought to have, a high power of enjoyment, and this enjoyment will include all natural and reasonable recreation. But there is a disposition to live for amusement, to make it quite seriously the business of life, the thing that must not be interfered with.
And this tendency carries away with it many who are in themselves better disposed, when it is taken as obvious by some of their acquaintance, that of course all young people must have this or that form of amusement, and incur expense in having it, and put other people to inconvenience that they may have it. They accept this ruling without any hesitation, and they never stop to reflect what it means. Is it likely that the rather indefinite and easily evaded habits of the Christian Sunday will be able to hold out against such a tendency, against the new imperative law to which all submit, "we must be amused."
[WELL SUNDAY HAS BECOME LIKE ANY OTHER DAY OF THE WEEK, THE NATIONS ARE GETTING MORE AND MORE SECULAR EACH YEAR. FOR THE TRUE CHRISTIAN OBSERVING THE 4TH COMMANDMENT, SUCH THINGS THAT THE WORLD DOES IS IGNORED, AS THEY OBEY THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM GOD HOW TO OBSERVE HIS WEEKLY SABBATH - Keith Hunt]
Where restrictions are strong, they chafe bitterly against them; where they are weak, they have long ago broken them down. How are we to regard those who devote Sunday to amusement, with perhaps just the exception of a single hour in Church? I do not know that it will be of much good to speak of it as a profanation, for until a man has personally realized Sunday as a holy day, and made it such by his own use of it, there is no question of profanation. Again, I do not know that one can make much impression by speaking of it as a waste of precious opportunities, a loss of blessing and help in the spiritual life, in cases where such life and desire of growth in it are not yet really called out.
[SEE HOW HE LEANS TOWARDS PEOPLE HAVING TO “PERSONALLY REALIZE SUNDAY AS A HOLY DAY.” MANKIND CANNOT MAKE A DAY HOLY; GOD IS ONLY HOLY, AND IT IS HE ALONE THAT MAKES A DAY HOLY; WHAT THE HUMAN MIND DESIRES OR THINKS, MAKES NO DIFFERENCE, THE HUMAN MIND THINKING A DAY IS HOLY DOES NOT MAKE IT SO. I CAN THINK THERE IS A MAN IN THE MOON, BUT IT DOES NOT MAKE IT SO. SOME THOUGHT THEY SAW CANALS ON MARS, SO SOME KIND OF HUMAN LIFE; THINKING IT WAS SO DID NOT MAKE IT SO, AS WE HAVE DISCOVERED WITH MODERN SCIENCE - Keith Hunt]
But it can be plainly put to them that it is selfishness. By making the Sunday a day of amusement, you are helping to bring down the day to the level of the rest of the week, your example is telling (along with that of thousands of others exactly like yourself) in the direction of a secular Sunday for England. You may entirely disclaim any wish to influence the way in which others keep it, but you are influencing it. Nothing that you do can altogether escape observation, and what is observed will exercise an influence. While you play tennis within the walls of your garden, or billiards in the privacy of your house, your action is distantly telling on the character of the English Sunday, and its power in the future for temporal and spiritual blessing to the English nation.
[IT IS TRUE YOU SET AN EXAMPLE TO OTHERS WHEN YOU MAY HAVE TO TELL THEM YOU CANNOT DO THIS AND THAT, BECAUSE YOU OBSERVE THE 7TH DAY SABBATH - Keith Hunt]
Sunday has maintained itself, it will maintain itself, for it is of God, …..
[NOPE IT IS NOT OF GOD, NEVER WAS AND NEVER WILL BE - Keith Hunt]
But you cannot manufacture or impose these effects independently of their cause. They come out of hearts at peace with God, resting on his promises, living in his love. The question of Sunday observance runs back into the primary question of a living soul or a dead one. Where there is life, Sunday will be kept in a way pleasing to God, profitable for the individual, gainful for the Church. One verse deeply understood will give all the guidance that we need. "This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."
…………………………
NO THIS SUNDAY IS NOT THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE. HE SAID, JESUS SAID, HE WAS LORD OF THE SABBATH; THAT IS FROM THE WHOLE THEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE, THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK, NOT THE 1ST DAY.
THE OVERALL IS THIS. THE WORD OF GOD IS TRUTH, NOT THE IDEAS OF MEN OR THE CUSTOMS THAT MEN BRING INTO THE RELIGION OF THE FATHER AND CHRIST. UNTIL YOU KNOW TRUTH YOU SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW IT, AND YOU CAN BE SINCERE IN YOUR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON TRUTH. WITH SUCH PEOPLE GOD CAN ANSWER THEIR PRAYERS, HAVE ANGELS TO WATCH OVER THEM, KEEP THEM SAFE AND A MYRIAD OF OTHER THINGS. I KNEW NOT THE TRUE SABBATH OF GOD GROWING UP; I WAS SINCERE THAT IT WAS SUNDAY, THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK; I’M SURE THE LORD WAS WITH ME IN MY SINCERE IGNORANCE; I’M SURE HE HELPED AND KEPT ME SAFE FROM HARM MANY TIMES.
IT WAS NOT TILL I WAS 19 AND IN CANADA, THAT GOD THROUGH MY BAPTIST LANDLORD REVEALED TO ME THAT SUNDAY WAS THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK AND NOT THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK.
THEN I HAD TO MAKE SURE WHAT HE WAS TELLING ME WAS CORRECT. AND THEN FURTHER AFTER SOME STUDY, I HAD A DECISION TO MAKE, WAS I GOING TO FOLLOW GOD’S TRUTH, OR CAVE IN TO MY PERSONAL DESIRES IN LIFE, AND FOLLOW THE WAY OF THE CROWD IN THIS THEOLOGICAL STIPULATION.
TODAY THE SABBATH QUESTION IN SUNDAY CHURCHES IS JUST ABOUT NEVER BROUGHT UP.
SOME MINISTERS TODAY DO NOT BELIEVE THE APOSTLE PAUL WROTE 13 (AND FOR ME 14) BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ONE BOOK I HAVE BY A ROMAN CATHOLIC MINISTER CLAIMS A GOOD PORTION OF “CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS” TODAY ONLY ACCEPT PAUL WROTE 7 BOOKS OR EPISTLES, AND SO ONLY USES THEM TO WRITE A WHOLE BOOK CALLED “WHAT PAUL MEANT.”
THEN YOU’VE HAD IN THE PAST, LITTLE “TRACTS” — I SAW AND READ IN THE 1960s, THAT USED ROMANS 14 TO SAY YOU CAN PICK ANY DAY AS THE SABBATH, AND THEN ALSO USED COL. 2:16 TO SAY THE SABBATH WAS ABOLISHED COMPLETELY. THEY DID NOT EVEN SEEM TO REALIZE THEY WERE USING PAUL TO CONTRADICT HIMSELF. HENCE SOME DO NOT PUT MUCH TRUST IN PAUL AND HIS WRITINGS. NOW TODAY THE SUNDAY MINISTERS SEEM TO HAVE SEEN THE FOLLY OF THAT ARGUMENT. SO NOTHING IS SAID ABOUT THERE STILL BEING A WEEKLY SABBATH THAT SHOULD BE OBSERVED AS GIVEN IN EXODUS 20 AND THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.
SO THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT: PEOPLE MEET ON SUNDAY BECAUSE IT IS TRADITION TO DO SO, AND FOR MOST PEOPLE THE BEST CONVENIENCE STILL; NOTHING IS PREACHED ABOUT THE SABBATH AND CHURCH PEOPLE COULD CARE LESS WHAT OTHERS DO ON THAT DAY, BEFORE AND AFTER “CHURCH SERVICES.”
NOW AS YOU READ THE GOSPELS, PRESUMING YOU DO, OR WILL DO, YOU’LL SEE WHY JESUS WAS SO AGAINST THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES FOR REPLACING THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD WITH THEIR TRADITIONS.
YOU ARE NOW IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT; IF YOU’VE READ THIS YOU NOW HAVE A DECISION TO MAKE! WILL YOU OBEY THE WORDS OF THE 4TH COMMANDMENT, AND STUDY ALL VERSES GIVEN ABOUT OBSERVING THE 4TH COMMANDMENT, OR WILL YOU FOLLOW THE CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS OF A FALSE CHRISTIANITY, THAT HAS BEEN STAMPED ON THE WORLD BY ROMAN CATHOLICISM OVER THE LAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?
Keith Hunt
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