Welcome with joy each week the day that GOD has called His day.
To each day of the week GOD has given its special mission, its share of
pleasure and of pain, necessary to purify and fortify and prepare us for
eternity.
But _Sunday_ is a day of _Love_.
On Saturday we lay aside our garments faded and stained by toil, and on
Sunday we array ourselves in garments, not only fresher, but more choice
and graceful.
Why not prepare the heart, even as we do the body?
During the week has not the heart been wearied with petty strife and
discontent, interests marred, bitter words?
Then, why not shake off all this, that only chills affection? On the
Saturday let us forgive freely, press the hand warmly, embrace each other;
and then peace being restored within, we await the morrow's awakening.
Sunday is GOD'S day of truce for all. That day, laying aside all revenge
and ill-feeling, we must be filled with forbearance, indulgence, and
amiability.
Oh! how good for us to feel _obliged_ to be reconciled, and each Sunday
renews the obligation.
Let us leave no time for coldness and indifference to grow upon us ... it
only engenders hatred, and that once established in the heart, oh! how
hard is it to cast out again!
It is like a hideous cancer whose ravages no remedies can stay.
It is as the venomous plant that the gardener can never entirely
eradicate. Only by a miracle can hatred be destroyed. At once then let us
place a barrier in our hearts against the approach of coolness or
indifference, and each Saturday night the head of the family shall thus
address us: "Children, to-night we forgive, to-night we forget, and
to-morrow begin life afresh in love, one towards another."