[Sabbath Controversy #3] A Vindication of the Seventh-day Sabbath, and the Commandments of God

THE BEGINNING OF THE SABBATH

Here, also, we cannot be too particular; God claims every moment of his day. Out of one hundred and sixty-eight hours in the week he claims twenty-four, to do his servile work. According to the record of Moses, in Genesis 1:2, God commenced the motion of this Planet from a chaotic state of darkness, and sent it flying round the sun at the rate of about fifty-eight thousand miles per hour. he “divided the light from the darkness, and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day.” - 4,5 God “made the sun and the moon; the sun to rule the day, and the moon the night, to divide the light from darkness.” SC3 198.1

Jesus says “are there not twelve hours in the day?” Well, then, there must be twelve hours in the night, to make a twenty-four hour day, and it must be equally divided, for us to keep the weeks correct. For example - say now the first of Jan., the inhabitants of the north pole have no sun, while those at the south have the sun all the twenty-four hours; now as we approximate to the centre or middle of the globe from the south pole, we shorten the days, but from the north we shorten the nights; when arrived at the centre, or under the sun, (the great time piece for the inhabitants of all the earth, Deuteronomy 4:19,) we find the days and nights are equal. At the beginning of the sacred year, for the passover, the sun rises at 6 A.M. and sets at 5 P.M., and there is not an inhabitant on any part of this globe that can regulate the time for day, or night without admitting the polar distance into his calculation, which is 90 (degrees) from the centre. This at once shows that all the way we can calculate time is by calculating from the centre of the earth, and also bringing the sun there, if his declination be north or south. Therefore by the same rule (and no other,) we regulate the weeks, and must of necessity begin the Scripture day at 6 P.M., or else being in one place, we never have two Sabbaths begin at one time. Says the objector we might begin at sunset. If so, no two persons could keep the same time except they were directly north or south of each other. But can they keep the same time all over the globe if they begin at six P.M.? Yes, certainly. For example - Jerusalem being about 90 (degrees), or fifty-four hundred geographical miles east of us, makes a difference of six hours; it is six P.M. with them when it is noon day with us; their Sabbath closes then, six hours before it does with us - but it is at six o’clock P.M. there. And so when the Sabbath closes here, although it is precisely the same hour of the day, viz. six P.M., and in like manner all round the globe. Hence the necessity of beginning the twenty-four hour day at sun set from the centre of the earth. We are told that we cannot keep time right, because men, who circumnavigate the globe, make a difference of twenty-four hours in time. Well, suppose men could girt the globe with their magnetic wires, so that half of the inhabitants of the United States could pass clear round ten times a day, what odds would that make to the motion of the globe. This looks like another snare of Satan. The change from old to new style, they say, if eleven days are taken from the calender then that certainly has changed the seventh day, but some how or other it does not affect the first day, Sunday. How is it done? say some two hundred members of the British Parliament on Thursday, at six P.M. the first day of Jan. pass a unanimous vote by uplifted hands that we drop eleven days from the calender. Now all the change here, is, it is now a few minutes past six P.M., on the same Thursday night called the eleventh of Jan. God never stopped the earth’s motion one moment to listen to them. This certainly did not effect the day of the week, any more than the sun’s standing still a whole day, that being true also, at 4 P.M., did not prevent them from counting Friday when it came. if he stood still for twenty-four hours, then no time would be lost to us, for Friday could not come until six, P.M., two hours after he started again. If it had been less than twenty-four hours then must it be regulated. The shadow going back ten degrees or forty minutes on the dial of Ahas, (‘not ten hours,’) was another miracle, but it remains to be proved that the sun went back. If any thing could possibly affect the time before the Christian era, Jesus certainly had the correct time, the Sabbath before he was crucified. Astronomers can find no change since. If the Christian era was four years out of date, it does not follow that the day of the week has changed since God instituted the Sabbath in Paradise. Gen. first chapter teaches when the sun is up it is day or morning; when he is down it is night, or evening. God reckoned the first six days from evening to morning; but further on, in the history of the world, he says “from even to even shall you celebrate your Sabbath,” or rest. This proves that every day in the week began at evening; so it must continue while we have day and night. Surely God has done all things well, but man has sought our many inventions. God help the little flock to follow the truth, and “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” Amen. SC3 198.2