02-03-2008, 06:42 PM
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 | Puritanboard Librarian | | Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Warrenton, VA, USA
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Max -- I think washing your dishes following a meal on the Lord's Day, if it cannot be left until Monday morning, as a matter of sanitation and health, is a reasonable work of necessity. That being said, each of us should endeavor to make what preparations we can beforehand to minimize "servile works" required on the Lord's Day (for example, think of using disposable paper plates, if possible). Moreover, when going about the business of cleaning up after a meal, you can always concurrently meditate upon the sermon or what you read in family or private worship, or other divine matters, or sing a psalm, or listen to a psalm sung or a scripture read on audio tape or some other means (I haven't entered the ipod age so I think in terms of a stereo or...a walkman). As William Gouge says in The Sabbath's Sanctification, p. 14: Quote: |
On the Lord's day our mind ought to be so heavenly, as thereby everything should be done after an heavenly manner; not only the works of piety, but also every other work that we do thereon should be so done. When we first wake we should call to mind what day it is and desire God to sanctify us to the duties thereof. Rising out of bed should bring to our mind the first resurrection out of sin and the second out of the grave. In apparelling ourselves we should meditate on the adorning of our souls. In washing face and hands, think on the cleaning of our souls. Servants, in making and blowing the fire, should thence take occasion of stirring up the fire of God's Spirit in them. In preparing meat they should think of the food of their souls. There is nothing which may lawfully be done, from which a pious mind may not draw matter of heavenly meditation; whereby, the things from which meditation is drawn, are sanctified.
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__________________
Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project
"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole
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