Sunday – its Origin, History and Present Obligation by J.A. Hessey

Today’s free book is James A. Hessey’s 1860 Bampton Lectures on the Christian Sunday. Several of the lectures helpful survey the history of the observance of Sunday through Christian history. A copy of this public domain title was provided by Book Aid for digitisation.

More resources on Sunday observance can be found here. This post marks the beginning of a project to digitise an upload all of the Bampton Lectures that are now in the public domain – see here for the list and to follow progress.

James Augustus Hessey [1814-1892], Sunday. Its Origin, History,and Present Obligation, Considered in the Bampton Lectures Preached Before the University of Oxford in the Year 1860, 3rd edn. London: John Murray, 1866. Hbk. pp.435. [Click here to visit the download page for this title]

Table of Contents

• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface
• Postscript to the Second Edition

1. General Statement of the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day Question
2. The History of the Lord’s Day to the End of the Third Century
3. The History of the Lord’s Day to the End of the Fifth Century—and the Growth of Ecclesiastical Sabbatarianism in the Church of Rome
4. The History of the Sabbath to Our Lord’s Resurrection
5. What the Sabbath is Since Our Lord’s Resurrection
6. The Lord’s Day on the Continent Since the Reformation
7. The Lord’s Day in England Since the Reformation
8. The Lord’s Day Viewed Practically