John Thomson (1690-1753) was an important early Irish-American Presbyterian minister who served as a missionary in Virginia and North Carolina. He was the primary author of the 1729 Adopting Act. His commentary on the Westminster Shorter Catechism was the first Presbyterian book ever published in the Southern United States (in Williamsburg, Virginia).
In this commentary, Thomson includes an extended discussion of what it means to remember the Sabbath Day, which itself is worth remembering today.
John Thomson, An Explication of the Shorter Catechism, Composed by the Assembly of Divines (1749), pp. 116-117 on WSC #60 ("How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?"):
Q. 8. What is imported in remembering the Sabbath Day?
A. It imports a remembering of God's Command to keep it.
Q. 9. When should we remember it?
A. We should remember it before it comes, when it is come, and after it is past.
Q. 10. How should we remember it before it comes?
A. By preparing our Hearts for it, and the Duties of it; and by a prudent ordering all our worldly Affairs, so as they may least hinder or distract us in our Sabbath's Work when it comes. Neh. 13.19, 21.
Q. 11. How should we remember the Sabbath when it comes?
A. By a diligent, sincere and serious addressing ourselves to the successive Performance of all the Duties of the Day in Season and due Order; and a watchful guarding against every Thing that may hinder, interrupt or distract us in or from these Duties. Isai. 58.13.
Q. 12. How should we remember the Sabbath after it is past?
A. By serious Meditation on these Subjects which we were employ'd about during the Sabbath; and by a penitent Reflection on our short-comings, together with a sincere Resolution to be more watchful and punctual in sanctifying succeeding Sabbaths.
Saturday Evening Retirement
Ashbel Green (1762-1848) in his Lectures on the [Westminster] Shorter Catechism, Vol. 2, p. 112, on the Fourth Commandment, after arguing in favor of midnight-to-midnight observance of the Christian Sabbath, or Lord's Day, offers this bit of wisdom regarding preparation for keeping the day holy:
"As far as practicable, it will be well for you, my young friends, to adopt what I know has been the practice of some devout Christians; that is, to spend the evening of Saturday, as much as you conveniently can, in retirement from the world. The children of dissipation often spend it in parties of mirth and levity, or at theatres, or other places of carnal amusement; and they often add to their other sins, by an actual trespass on holy time. Take for yourselves an exactly opposite course. Whenever you can, so order your affairs that your worldly occupations on the evening preceding the Lord's day, may be of such a retired and peaceful kind, as to admit of serious meditation avoid promiscuous company altogether; let your associations at this time, be with the pious, and your conversation be on religious topics; or better still, if you can, spend a part at least of the evening, in religious reading and devout meditation. I am well aware that may are so circumstanced that a stated compliance with this advice will not be practicable; and I offer it, not as pointing out a prescribed duty, but as a matter of Christian prudence, with those who are favoured in providence to have their time in some degree at their voluntary disposal. Even our ordinary devotions, on secular days, will not usually be performed to the greatest advantage, unless they are preceded by a short space of recollected and serious thought. And it is highly desirable, with a view to the most profitable spending of holy time, to prepare for it, by getting our minds into a devoted frame. It is delightful in deed to the practical Christian, when the evening which precedes the Lord's day is so spent, that his very dreams become devout; and that he awakes in the morning on which his Saviour rose from the dead, with the aspirations of his mind going forth to Him, as he is now seated on his throne in the heavens, and with the whole soul attuned to the employments of the sacred hours of this blessed day."
It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming!
It is never too early (or too late) in the week to prepare for the Lord's Day. One valuable 19th century Presbyterian work that aimed to assist both ministers and church members in preparing to make the most of the day apart by God for his worship is Gardiner Spring (1785-1873)'s The Power of the Pulpit; or, Thoughts Addressed to Christian Ministers and Those Who Hear Them (1854).
It is full of counsel to preachers concerning the highest task to which they are called as God's ambassadors, stressing the importance of personal piety for ministers, and a reliance upon the Holy Spirit in the work of the ministry. Spring puts the utmost stress of the need to view preaching of the gospel from the pulpit as a minister's highest duty, and consequently, he also highlights the need for church members to pray for their pastors, to give diligence to the hearing of God's Word, and consider that God's Word is being proclaimed to them. There are duties of the pulpit for ministers, and duties of the people who are present to give ear to God's Word. The counsel that Spring offers in regards to both comes from an experienced minister and with pastoral concern for the exaltation of Christ in the pulpit and in the hearts of the people. Be sure to download this work and read over it prayerfully as you seek to make the most of your next Lord's Day.