The increasing number of patients taking tranquillisers; the rising incidents of stress diseases; the frequency of attempted suicide, which has reached epidemic proportions; all these reflect sadly on our modern society and demand an answer.
I have no doubt that a proper regard for the LORD’s Day would help to ameliorate these problems. Speaking as a physician, there are good reasons physically, mentally and spiritually why we should set aside the first day of the week as a special day unto the LORD.
Physically
You cannot continue to work without sleep indefinitely. After a certain number of hours, you fall asleep, whatever you are doing. In a torture situation where people are forcibly kept awake, there comes a break point. There are many examples of 24-hour cycles in the body (called circadian rhythms), showing the natural functioning of the body on a daily basis. Your temperature varies by two degrees; many chemicals in the blood stream alter in their concentration; and your ability to concentrate fluctuates in a cyclical manner. You can test the last by keeping awake all night — at around 6.00 am you begin to ‘wake up’, even though you have not been asleep!
Similarly, there are weekly cycles. It is significant that the natural split of the year is in lunar months (4 x 7 days) rather than calendar months. From time to time, societies have tried to extend the working week to eight days or ten days. Each attempt has failed. The natural variation is six days’ work, one day rest. The body cries out physically one day in seven for rest and change. At the University of Leeds, we have measured for several months in a working man the 17-oxogenic steroids in his urine. These chemicals are breakdown products of the hormones from the adrenal gland. High volumes occur with stress and activity. There was a weekly rhythm of these chemicals in the urine. The lowest levels were on a Sunday. It is not clear whether this was an inherent rhythm, or whether it was a reflection of decreased stress and activity. Whichever it was, it demonstrates the beneficial effect of a weekly day of rest. This is one reason why responsible union leaders were opposed to Sunday trading.
Mentally
We need time to unwind from the tensions of the week, whether these are produced by the frustrations of a repetitious job, or by the demands of an administrative position. Doctors have to treat many illnesses which are categorised as ‘stress diseases’. These include peptic ulcer, muscular rheumatism, migraine, hypertension (raised blood pressure), and coronary heart disease. Stress is not the only factor. Very often there is a constitutional predisposition, shown by a family history of the same condition. Nevertheless, as the sufferers are only too well aware, stress plays an important part in precipitating attacks.
Animal experiments by Professor Hans Selye, a pathologist of Montreal, provided confirmatory evidence, suggesting that these stresses affecting the mind produce many hormones from the adrenal glands, and these, in turn, harm the body. God’s provision of a day of rest helps to combat the harmful effects of a week of stress.
As a university teacher, I warn my students against over-studying before exams and in particular advise them not to revise on Sundays. The most striking and sad case we had was a student who worked throughout Sunday, and took amphetamines to keep himself awake as he remorselessly revised through the night. He sat down to the exam on Monday and spent three hours covering sheet after sheet of paper with nothing but his name. The brain is an amazing computer which God has programmed to need one day’s rest in seven. That is not a rash analogy. There is suggestive evidence that most dreams are the computer ditching rubbish. Your own experience will tell you that then out of the blue the answer comes to your consciousness. The computer has been working, uncluttered by the additional data and signals you are trying to feed it. That is why Archimedes leapt out of his bath shouting ‘Eureka!’ It was while he was relaxing in the warmth of the water that his great principle came. Intense, single-minded concentration is not the best stimulus for creative thinking. We need that one-in-seven time to set our mind on other things.
George Nachman painted a delightful piece in the Chicago Tribune. He wrote, not as a Christian, but as a shrewd observer.
‘One weekend, recently, I looked out the window and discovered that Sunday had disappeared. Nobody had swiped it exactly, but something had gone out of the noble day. Suddenly, I realised what it was: Sunday had turned into Tuesday. Out on the street, people no longer were strolling about. They had direction, a midweek glint in their eyes that meant business. They were walking briskly in and out of stores instead of browsing quietly past the windows. The scene was as busy as your average workaday Tuesday, throwing the whole week out of whack.
‘Now Sunday is just another day, and it appears to have lost its real purpose. Back in the old days, Sunday had character. It was prim, but underneath it had a certain toughness. It was the most sturdy and unflappable of days, one people could count on. You did not market; you did not go to the office for a few hours; you didn’t even hunt for antiques. One of the things you definitely did not do was go downtown and buy sheets in a sale.
‘But just try lying around the house on Sunday now — knowing that half the world is out there doing things. Even people who claim to be relaxing are jogging and exercising like mad. So you see, we truly do need Sunday back the way it was, as a weekend cushion.’
Spiritually
To live as if man is just a body and a mind is to be guilty of unutterable folly. It leads to futility and frustration. It has driven many of the most ‘successful’ to suicide. Man has a spiritual dimension to his nature. Indeed he is distinct from the animal creation in being made in the image of God. For his spiritual wellbeing, he needs one day in seven to concentrate on this vital aspect of his character. We can too easily forget that ‘healing’ and ‘holy’ come from the same root. Since God made us in toto, he certainly knows what is best for us as individuals and as a society. Why should we argue with the command that we are to keep holy the Sabbath day?
A man told me it was needlessly restrictive. Yet it is no more needless than the law which forbids you to drive up the right hand side of the M1, or to mainline with heroin for pleasurable purposes. Restrictions are necessary for our welfare and the benefit of others. True freedom is not the liberty to do what you like, but the ability to be what you were meant to be and the power to do what you ought.
A man said to me recently, ‘“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Surely that means man can do what he likes on a Sunday.’ Perhaps I may illustrate the problem and solution in this way. I am driving along a clear road early one morning. As I approach a set of ‘Keep Left’ bollards, a child darts out from the pavement. The only way I can avoid the child is to drive to the right of the bollards. I do so unhesitatingly because the bollards were made for man, not man for the bollards. Yet as a general rule I still keep to the left of the bollards. Jesus himself delineated the two clear areas of exception, works of necessity and works of mercy. I will go into hospital to see a patient of mine who has developed a medical problem on Sunday, but I will not accept invitations to teach general practitioners taking postgraduate courses on the LORD’s Day. ‘But I thought we lived under grace, not under law’, another man said to me. It is true that our salvation is entirely of grace. I may keep the Sabbath meticulously, but it will not save me. I trust entirely in the redeeming work of Christ upon the cross for my salvation, not pleading a single good deed to merit favour with God. Justification is by faith alone. But that does not mean I ignore the law. Apart from being my schoolmaster to lead me to Christ, it provides the guiderails for my Christian living.
Conclusion
From a medical point of view, one day set apart for rest and worship is best for man physically, mentally and spiritually. The Creator God who made man in his own image certainly had man’s welfare at heart when, from the beginning of creation, he instituted the weekly Sabbath. We ignore the Sabbath at our peril. We keep it to our inestimable benefit.
Verna Wright was a Professor of Rheumatology at Leeds University. He was also Co-Director of the Bioengineering Group for the study of human joints.
This article is edited from the booklet The Lord’s Day, a Medical Point of View published by Day One, and is used with permission. For free copies of the complete colour illustrated booklet please contact Day One on 01568 613740 or by email sales@dayone.co.uk
