Silas Andrews - The Sabbath at Home

fasting , as all ages and good men of every country have acknowledged, is promotive of the devotion of the heart, denying the appetite in some small degree cannot be injurious. And why should it be thought unreasonable that persons in our employment, and our children, who early notice the character of our religion, might receive some good impression, as to the nature of the Sabbath, by seeing us deny ourselves what on other days is innocent and right? I am not pleading that the Sabbath be made a day for afflicting our souls, but that we should not permit our sensual desires to interfere with our spiritual delight. On days of unusual political interest, we count it no sacrifice to be deprived of a regular meal, or to take of that which comes to hand, because our delight is elsewhere. Let the same interest be felt in the Sabbath, and we shall be equally loth to permit that, which might be done on Saturday, to interfere with our enjoyment and spiritual profit. If each family would, on the preceding day, prepare, as far as practicable, for their table on the Sabbath, would not much time be redeemed for the appropriate duties of the Lord's day?

To mention every thing that might, with advantage, be attended to on Saturday, bearing upon the Sabbath, would be to recount the events of each family – they all influence our profiting, though, when viewed separately, they seem hardly worthy of notice.

I have known the men of more than one family to spend the best part of Sabbath morning, in making such alterations in their carriage and harness as were necessary, in order to attend meeting; which changes might much better have been made the evening before.

In other households you will find the apparel appropriate to the Sabbath, must be subjected to certain emendations and improvements, before the family can be prepared for public worship. By this time the morning is gone, but the Sabbath of holy rest has not yet begun. How much more profitable, that all which pertains to our persons, "from a thread to a shoe-latchet," should be set in order before the Sabbath arrives, that as we have but one holy day in seven, we may enjoy it all.

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