MEDITATIONS FOR THE SABBATH - Stark's Daily Handbook (1855)

    A weekly Sabbath is observed, if he spends

Sunday in contemplating the mercies of God.

    A daily or spiritual Sabbath does not con-

sist in an entire cessation from labor, but in a

daily laying aside of our sins. As he foregoes his

handiwork on Sunday, so he daily foregoes wan-

tonness and malice. He guards against speaking

evil of God or his neighbor, against doing evil

alone or in company with others, against being

seduced by others, and strives to keep his soul

undefiled of the world. He is at pains to think

of God often while at his work, to pray to him

for the assistance of his holy spirit.

Whoever has kept the weekly Sabbath

devoutly, and the daily one zealously, may be

assured of the eternal Sabbath in the life to come,

when the faithful and elect children of God will

repose from all bodily labor, from all trials and

sorrows, and from all sin, and will see God face

to face, praise him, and serve him unceasingly.

A holy and glorious Sabbath, which will never

be disturbed!

PRAYER.

Holy and merciful God, inasmuch as I this

day observe the weekly Sabbath, which, accord-

ing to thine own ordinance is a day of rest from

labor, so that I may be edified by thy word and

rejoice in thee - Oh grant me thy Holy Spirit that 

I may spend it in hearing, reading, and

meditating thy word, and may avoid all sinful

allurements, wantonness, evil company and sin.

This weekly Sabbath also reminds me of that

daily spiritual Sabbath, on which I am to re-

nounce all sin, and sanctify unto thee my body

and my soul, my life and my death. Now my

God, this by thy grace shall be my daily task,

hereafter to do thy will, not mine, to banish evil

desires and thoughts by thy power, that thou

alone mayest dwell in me, and enlighten and

sanctify me more and more. Grant that this

daily and spiritual Sabbath of my heart may

never be destroyed, and take me at last to thy

eternal Sabbath, where we shall in eternal rest

and in heavenly, blissful joy, forever praise thee

in the temple of thy glory. There shall I utter

the Holy, Holy, Holy, with all the angels and

cherubim. Oh my God! let me in the end

attain to this felicity, fro we ask all in the Name of 

thine only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. AMEN