Sir Walter Scott on the Sabbath

Today brought a rainstorm, the rainstorm brought a leak in the roof, and the leak in the roof brought about moving a bunch of books to prevent water damage. Out of that comes the Episcopal Recorder, a newspaper from the 1840s. Soon to be for sale, I have been flipping through it and realized that it has pieces written by men I admire and respect. These include John Newton, William Jay, Thomas Chalmers, among others. What caught my eye, however, was this small bit by Sir Walter Scott on the Sabbath. I doubt that most people who read Scott would know that this was his opinion on the matter.

Sir Walter Scott on the Sabbath
from The Episcopal Recorder, Philadelphia, Saturday morning, May 15, 1847. Vol. XXV.-- No.9. Rev. G W Ridgely, Editor. Stavely & McCalla., No. 12 Pear Street, Publishers.

It may not be without its use, the submitting to our readers the following opinion on the Sabbath question, of one whom none could certainly accuse of bigotry, viz: Sit Walter Scott. It is taken from the Quarterly Review of 1828: "If we believe in the Divine origin of the commandment, the Sabbath is instituted for the express purposes of religion. The time set apart is the Sabbath of our Lord--a day on which we are not to work our own works or think our own thoughts. The precept is positive, and the purpose clear. To our eternal benefit a certain space of every week is appointed, which, sacred from all other avocations save those imposed by necessity and mercy, is to be employed in religious duties. The Roman Church, which lays so much force on the observances merely ritual, may consistently suppose that the time claimed is more than sufficient for the occasion, and dismiss the peasants, when mass is over, to any game or gambol which fancy may dictate, leaving it with the priests to do on behalf of the congregation what further is necessary for the working out of their salvation. But this is not Protestant doctrine, though it may be imitated by Protestant Churches. The religious part of a Sunday's exercise is not to be considered as a bitter medicine, the taste of which is as soon as possible to be removed by a bit of sugar. On the contrary, our demeanor though the rest of the day ought to be not sullen, certainly, but serious, tending to instruction. Give to the world one-half of the Sunday, and you will find that religion has no strong hold of the other. Pass the morning at church, and the evening according to your taste or rank, in the cricket field, or at the opera, and you will soon find thought of the evening hazards and bets intrude themselves on the sermon, and that recollections of the popular melodies interfere with the psalms. Religion is thus treated like Lear, to whom his ungrateful daughters first denied one-half of his stipulated attendance, and then made it a question whether they should grant him any share of what remained. --- Glasgow Courier.

Physical Benefit of Sunday

The Presbyterian Magazine, October 1855.

Physical Benefit of Sunday.

The Sabbath is God's special present to the working man, and one of its chief objects is to prolong his life, and preserve efficient his working tone. In the vital system it acts like a compensation pool; it replenishes the spirits, the elasticity, and vigour, which the six have drained away, and supplies the force which is to fill the six days succeeding; and in the economy of existence, it answers the same purpose as, in the economy of income, is answered by a savings bank.

The prudent man who puts aside a pound today, and another pound next month, and who, in a quiet way, is always putting by his stated pound, from time to time, when he grows old and frail, gets not only the same pounds back again, but a good many more beside. And the conscientious man who husbands one day of existence every week, who, instead of allowing the Sabbath to be trampled on, and torn, in the hurry and scramble of life, treasures it devoutly up--the Lord of the Sabbath keeps it for him, and length of days and a hale old age give it back with usury. The Savings Bank of human existence is the weekly Sabbath.--- North British Review.

Sleeping in Church

the
Presbyterian Magazine
February, 1854.
edited by Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D.
Philadelphia, C. Sherman, printer.

“On Sleeping in Church,” p62.

1. Do not sleep too long and late Sabbath mornings. Nothing is gained by it but additional drowsiness. The Scripture holds good emphatically here, as it respects extra sleep, “to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance,” even in church.
2. Spend a few moments, before going to church, in serious meditation on the case of Eutychus, mentioned in Acts 20.9, and remember if any accident should occur to you, you have not Paul for your minister to remedy it.
3. Bear in mind that if you fall asleep, the preacher may treat you merely as the furniture of the pew, much as an old minister in Norwich, Conn., did his sleeping hearers, many years ago. “I come now,” said he, “to the third head of my discourse, to which I ask the serious and candid attention of all who are not asleep,” giving a marked and peculiar emphasis to the last word.
4. Remember, if the sermon is peculiarly dull, that you meet with a double loss.
   “If all want sense,
   God takes a text and preaches patience.”
5. Bethink yourself that it may be the last time in this world that you will have the opportunity of struggling against drowsiness under a sermon.
6. Last of all, resolve that when you make your pew your lodgings, you will pay for the privilege of the nap, and put into the plate or into the Lord’s treasury its cash value at the best hotels.—N.Y. Evangelist.

**I can't say which of them I appreciate the most, but it's probably either comparing myself to Eutycus or paying to the church a rate set by an 1854 NY hotel!