And on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them (Acts 20:7). Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him (I Cor. 16:2). To the believer the Lord’s Day is the very highlight of the week, not for the form of it, but for the meaning of it: the communion of the saints, their mutual love and devotion to their Savior whom they come together to worship and honor, and the good word of the Gospel of which they gather together to rejoice in. The first day of the week, commemorates the close of the old dispensation and its difficult ordinances, its hard services and ceremonies which could not remit sins, the first day which became the eighth day, the new beginning commemorating resurrection life in Christ, the Prince of Life. There’s not anything under heaven that is more exalting than believers meeting together on the specified day of the week to praise God. However great may be other engagements, we shall always do well if we observe the fourth commandment, “Remembering the Lord’s Day to keep it holy” and spend time in sacred praise. Someone said, “a line of praise was better than even a page of prayer; that praise being the highest, noblest, best, most satisfying, and most healthful occupation in which a Christian man or woman could be found.” If these could be regarded as the words of the Church, the Church of old did well to turn all her thoughts in the direction of praising her God. Though converting souls is a great thing and the edifying of believers is an important matter, never may we cease from praising and magnifying the name of the Well-Beloved. This will be our occupation in heaven; let us begin it here and make a heaven of the Church below. “Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved” (Isaiah 5:1). A time to reflect upon the first moment in which sin was pardoned, to the last moment in which we are here on earth, the Lord’s Day will be a time of delight to sing to our well-beloved a song. The true Christian’s soul perceives the infinite love of Jesus Christ to them and they enter into the marriage relationship with Christ as their bridegroom and Lord. To them their song becomes the wedding hymn filled with joyfulness as they pour out their souls before the Most High. “Even to your old age”: my heart delights even more now in my old age when we sing “On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,” I cast a wishful eye. He has visited me and I will praise Him, where shall my time be spent but at His dear feet, adoring and magnifying His blessed name on the day that He has set apart for that very purpose. Should not a true Christian’s heart renewed by grace, rejoice from Monday through Saturday for gathering together in the Lord on His day? Christ is my Sabbath, in whom I rest and rejoice to honor Him on the first day and to the last day of every week. One has said, “You’ll show me a nation that has given up the Sabbath and I will show you a nation that has got the seed of decay.” And that statement fits no nation better than the USA.
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