I had read a few books on the history of "Sunday" in Western culture, and they were good, but the information was becoming redundant. I finally got around to reading yet another, a Christmas present, The Peculiar Life Of Sundays by Stephen Miller, Harvard University Press and was pleasantly surprised. Miller has walked his readers through the history of England and America through the eyes of literary figures using their writings and letters.
The overall complaint by these many people was the "gloominess" of the day when Sabbatarians were in power. There was a distinct correlation between those that either rejected Christianity, doubted its legitimacy or were outright pagans and their desire to experience the wonders of nature and the joys of recreation on the day. The second correlation was the general health of the nation when it respected the Lord's Day and the disarray and general decline when it rejected God's commandment. In both cases, the church declined as its honoring of the Lord's Day did. According to Miller, William Wilberforce had two goals in life, to rid England of slavery and to see the improvement of manners which Miller said included a return to honoring the Lord's Day.
Time and time again, over the years, the issue would come to a head. Miller describes the situation in 1858; "The sabbatarians did not get what they wanted. Their clamor for change provoked a backlash. Twice in June and July 1858 more than 150,000 people demonstrated in London against a bill that would curtail Sunday trade and further restrict the hours that pubs could be open on Sunday. Karl Marx, who was present at the first demonstration, was ecstatic. The "English Revolution" had begun, he said."
As a sign of the times, in 1932 the English were finally given the right to play soccer on Sunday. Adolph Hitler came to power a year later. Our NFL football moved to Sunday play in 1933. My elementary and high school education was filled with glorifying accomplished writers from American history that discredited Christianity in their writings and certainly were opposed to the Christian concept of the Lord's Day. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking to Harvard divinity students, told them "On Sundays, it seems wicked to go to church" and advised them to "dare to love God without mediator or veil." Walt Whitman was a Pantheist that read scripture. He admitted that he was not Christian but applied it when he thought it would sooth others. Henry David Thoreau, of Walden Pond fame, was a Pantheist and a Pagan. Quoting Miller on Thoreau "Christianity, he says, turns people into neurotic souls who worry that an angry God will punish them for being idle, and for not observing the Sabbath." Writing with his typical satire, Mark Twain, in Extracts From Adam's Diary (from the Garden of Eden,) has Adam write "I believe I see what the week is for: it is to give me time to rest from the weariness of Sunday." I'm certainly not for legislation in this area. Even the church has found the perfect agenda of worship in the morning, sports in the afternoon and a good television special in the evening.
No, this is an individual thing. God laid out His design and we have conducted our revisions of it. Unfortunately, not only were, and are, Sundays gloomy to unbelievers, they are to many Christians. My personal experience is that when Christ is preached in all His glory and majesty, I am being rejuvenated and the day prepares me for the following week. When Christ is not preached, I also see it as gloomy; not that the scriptural application coming from the pulpit is not good and needed, nor that meeting with others who are Christian is not what we should do, but rather that the main course was bypassed.
The overall complaint by these many people was the "gloominess" of the day when Sabbatarians were in power. There was a distinct correlation between those that either rejected Christianity, doubted its legitimacy or were outright pagans and their desire to experience the wonders of nature and the joys of recreation on the day. The second correlation was the general health of the nation when it respected the Lord's Day and the disarray and general decline when it rejected God's commandment. In both cases, the church declined as its honoring of the Lord's Day did. According to Miller, William Wilberforce had two goals in life, to rid England of slavery and to see the improvement of manners which Miller said included a return to honoring the Lord's Day.
Time and time again, over the years, the issue would come to a head. Miller describes the situation in 1858; "The sabbatarians did not get what they wanted. Their clamor for change provoked a backlash. Twice in June and July 1858 more than 150,000 people demonstrated in London against a bill that would curtail Sunday trade and further restrict the hours that pubs could be open on Sunday. Karl Marx, who was present at the first demonstration, was ecstatic. The "English Revolution" had begun, he said."
As a sign of the times, in 1932 the English were finally given the right to play soccer on Sunday. Adolph Hitler came to power a year later. Our NFL football moved to Sunday play in 1933. My elementary and high school education was filled with glorifying accomplished writers from American history that discredited Christianity in their writings and certainly were opposed to the Christian concept of the Lord's Day. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking to Harvard divinity students, told them "On Sundays, it seems wicked to go to church" and advised them to "dare to love God without mediator or veil." Walt Whitman was a Pantheist that read scripture. He admitted that he was not Christian but applied it when he thought it would sooth others. Henry David Thoreau, of Walden Pond fame, was a Pantheist and a Pagan. Quoting Miller on Thoreau "Christianity, he says, turns people into neurotic souls who worry that an angry God will punish them for being idle, and for not observing the Sabbath." Writing with his typical satire, Mark Twain, in Extracts From Adam's Diary (from the Garden of Eden,) has Adam write "I believe I see what the week is for: it is to give me time to rest from the weariness of Sunday." I'm certainly not for legislation in this area. Even the church has found the perfect agenda of worship in the morning, sports in the afternoon and a good television special in the evening.
No, this is an individual thing. God laid out His design and we have conducted our revisions of it. Unfortunately, not only were, and are, Sundays gloomy to unbelievers, they are to many Christians. My personal experience is that when Christ is preached in all His glory and majesty, I am being rejuvenated and the day prepares me for the following week. When Christ is not preached, I also see it as gloomy; not that the scriptural application coming from the pulpit is not good and needed, nor that meeting with others who are Christian is not what we should do, but rather that the main course was bypassed.
