twelve o'clock
It seems to me that the error as regards the Puritan Sabbath was in representing it , not as a gift from God to man , but as a tribute of man to God . Hence all these hagglings and nice questions and exactions to the uttermost farthing . The holy time must be weighed and measured . It must begin at twelve o'clock of one night , and end at twelve o'clock of another ; and from beginning to end , the mind must be kept in a state of tension by the effort not to think any of its usual thoughts or do any of its usual works . The fact is , that the metaphysical , defining , hair-splitting mind of New England , turning its whole powers on this one bit of ritual , this one only day of divine service , which was left of all the feasts and fasts of the old churches , made of it a thing straiter and stricter than ever the old Jews dreamed of . `` The old Jewish Sabbath entered only into the physical region , merely enjoining cessation from physical toil . ` Thou shalt not _ labor _ nor do any _ work _ , ' covered the whole ground .