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Section Titles
Saturday the True Seventh Day
The Week From Antiquity
Not Lost in
Egypt
Preserved During the Captivity
Christ and the Disciples Keep the Sabbath
The Jews Bear Unanswerable Testimony
Canright Quotes Rabbi Wise
Entire World
Agreement on Days of Week
Astronomy Bears Testimony
that no Time Has Been Lost
Change to the Gregorian
Calendar
The Evidence Summed Up
Becoming desperate in his effort to abolish the
Creator's Sabbath, Mr. Canright the Baptist turns to the ageworn
lost-time theory. On this point he says:
“Then how do Sabbatarians know that our Saturday is
the exact seventh day from creation down? … ‘There is no possible
means of fixing the day of the original Sabbath.’ … During the long
period before the flood, during the patriarchal age when they had no records;
during their slavery in Egypt when even traditional knowledge was largely lost;
during the anarchy under the judges, and all down the ages since, are they sure
that no mistake has been made, not even of one day? Of course they are
not.”—Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, pp. 183, 184.
This objection to the Bible Sabbath has been so often
and so adequately answered in the past that it hardly seems necessary to devote
much space to it here, and yet we find that some people are genuinely troubled
over it.
There is nothing more sure than that there has been an
accurate accounting of the days of the week from creation to the present hour.
The week was instituted in Eden before the fall, and its beginning and close
were marked by the Sabbath. Since that time God has carefully preserved the
weekly cycle, as can be proved beyond all possible doubt. But we must refrain
from replying to this point ourselves. Much better is it that Mr. Canright
again be answered by his own words. In this way it will be clear to the reader
that he was fully aware of the fact that the lost-time quibble was not valid,
and that he simply
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used it in an effort to create doubt in the minds of those
who had never properly looked into the matter.
In 1873 Mr. Canright published a tract entitled
“The Lost-Time Question,” in which he completely explodes all his
later arguments on this point. We will quote at some length from this tract in
order that the reader may see how fully and completely he has answered himself
and how he leaves himself entirely without excuse for advocating this lost-time
theory. The following is taken from this former publication, Canright the
Adventist speaking:
“Among the numerous excuses which men raise for not
keeping God's holy Sabbath, that one based upon the argument of ‘lost
time’ may be called the ‘last ditch.’ When all other arguments
fail, persons fall back upon this, and excuse themselves from any further
trouble about the matter. We often hear them say that they are convinced that
the seventh day is the Sabbath, and that they would keep it, if they only knew
which it was; but that, either before the flood or during the sojourn of Israel
in Egypt, or in the Babylonish captivity, or during the Dark Ages, or
somewhere, time was so lost that the true seventh day cannot be found. That
this excuse is utterly without foundation we are sure we can now
convince the reader, if he is candid enough to really desire the truth
in the case.
“That Saturday is the true and veritable seventh
day, the day upon which God rested at the creation of the world, can be proved
by an overwhelming mass of evidence. Is it not a little strange that until
seventh-day advocates came along no one ever said anything about time being
lost, and that you could not tell when the seventh day comes? From the minister
in the desk to the child in Sunday school, all agreed that Saturday was the old
seventh day upon which God rested, and Sunday the first day on which Christ
rose from the dead. But when it is shown that there is no proof for a first-day
Sabbath, and that the Scriptures teach
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that the seventh day is still the Sabbath, then, behold,
these same persons are very ignorant all at once. Time has been lost, and they
cannot tell when the seventh day comes. Can they tell when the first day comes,
the day of Christ's resurrection? They never seem to have any doubt about this.
If they can tell that, certainly we can find the seventh day; for it must be
the one just before it! Having found the first day, any person who can count
seven on his fingers ought to be able to find the seventh day! Somehow,
notwithstanding all the other days of the week are so easy to find and to
count, this seventh day is very slippery, bothersome, and hard to find. It
reminds me of the boy who was sent out by his father to count the pigs. He
returned, saying that there were six pigs besides one little spotted fellow
that frisked about so that he could not count him!
“We should naturally suppose that this cry of
‘lost time’ would be confined to those who claim that there is no
Sabbath now binding; but this is not the case. They generally freely
acknowledge that Saturday is the old and true seventh day, and that there is no
reliance to be placed upon the argument of lost time. Surprising indeed it is
to hear this argument used by those who profess a great regard for the Sabbath
commandment, and for Sunday as the Christian Sabbath, the resurrection day.
They seem not to realize that if time has been lost, they are as bad off as we
are. This objection weighs just as heavily against the first day of the week as
it does against the seventh.
“Allowing that the seventh-day Sabbath is binding,
it is unreasonable to suppose that God has suffered it to be lost. If God has
given a law requiring the observance of the seventh day, He certainly is able
to preserve the knowledge of that day if He still desires men to keep it. It
is, then, highly absurd to admit that the seventh day is the day that ought to
be kept, and then to say that we would keep it if we could only tell which it
is, claiming that it has been lost! It is directly impeaching the wisdom and
power of God. Equally unreasonable is it to claim that any other day of the
week is the Sabbath, and yet to say that the days of the week have been
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lost so that you cannot tell when it does come. No; the
judgment day will show that all these objections and quibbles arise more from a
carnal heart unwilling to submit itself to the plain requirements of the law of
God than they do from any real difficulty in the case.
“But to the facts in the case,” continues
Canright. “Follow us carefully, and see if there is not an abundance of
proof that Saturday is the true seventh day from creation. Genesis 1 gives a
concise history of the first six days of time. Chapter 2:1-3 says: ‘Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the
seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh
day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh
day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work
which God created and made.’
“Here we have a sure starting point. God worked the
first six days. He rested the seventh. Then He blessed the seventh day. After
that He sanctified it. To sanctify is to set apart, to appoint to a holy use.
(See Webster.) This shows that God there appointed this day for Adam and his
family to keep holy. By thus keeping it, it would weekly mark off a period of
seven days. Hence originated a week of seven days, which we find so often
mentioned in the history of the patriarchs, and afterward of the Jews. Notice a
few instances. Just before the flood, God said to Noah, ‘For yet seven
days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth.’ Gen. 7:4. Of Noah it is
said: ‘And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the
dove out of the ark.’ Gen. 8:10. And again, ‘And he stayed yet other
seven days, and sent forth the dove.’ Verse 12. Laban said to Jacob:
‘Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which
thou shalt serve with me yet other seven years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled
her week.’ Gen. 29: 27, 28. These quotations … show that the week,
composed of seven days, was known and observed by the patriarchs
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both before and after the flood. Hence, it is strong proof
that they had the Sabbath and observed it. Of the antiquity of the week and the
Sabbath among all nations, Gilfillan, in his large book on ‘The
Sabbath,’ published by the American Tract Society, says:
“‘Let it suffice, however, in a matter on
which there is so general an agreement, to present the words of four eminent
authors: “The septenary arrangement of the days,” says Scaliger,
“was in use among the Orientals from the remotest antiquity.”
“We have reason to believe,” observes President DeGoguet, “that
the institution of that short period of seven days, called a week, was
the first step taken by mankind in dividing and measuring their time. We find,
from time immemorial, the use of this period among all nations, without any
variation in the form of it. The Israelites, Assyrians, Egyptians, Indians,
Arabians, and, in a word, all the nations of the East, have in all ages made
use of a week, consisting of seven days. We find the same custom among the
ancient Romans, Gauls, Britons, Germans, the nations of the North, and of
America.” According to Laplace, “the week is perhaps the most ancient
and incontestable monument of human knowledge.” It would appear that the
Chinese, who have now no Sabbath, at one time honored the seventh day of the
week.’ —Pages 364, 365.
“All these ancient nations, being descendants of
Noah and his sons, must have received the Sabbath by tradition from them. That
the Sabbath would not be lost from Adam to Abraham is manifest when we consider
that Adam lived and conversed with Methuselah for 243 years; Methuselah lived
contemporary with Shem about 100 years; and Shem lived and talked with
Abraham….
“The lives of these three men span the whole time
from Eden even to the old age of Abraham. How easy and natural for them to hand
down the Sabbath from father to son without any probability of losing it.
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Not Lost in Egypt
“Coming a little further down, was not the Sabbath
lost in Egypt? Let us read, in Exodus 16, what occurred immediately on their
coming out of Egypt: ‘Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold I will rain
bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain
rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no.
And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which
they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.’
‘And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating;
and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass, that on the sixth
day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the
rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is
that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto
the Lord; bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe that ye will seethe;
and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And
they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither
was there any worm therein. Anti Moses said, Eat that today; for today is a
Sabbath unto the Lord: today ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye
shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there
shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on
the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto
Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for that
the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day
the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of
his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.’
‘And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to
a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the
land of Canaan.’ Verses 4, 5, 21-30, 35….
“This was the special work of the Almighty, to
teach the Jews to remember, reverence, and keep holy His sanctified
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Sabbath day…. Truly, had all traces of the Sabbath been
lost, it was here so forcibly restored that none could doubt when it came. Here
it was certainly restored if it was ever lost.
“But was this the true, original seventh day here
pointed out? It would be preposterous to claim anything else. 1. God certainly
knew when His original, true seventh-day Sabbath came, and was able to point it
out. 2. That He should give them another day and teach them by the falling
manna, etc., to violate His own holy Sabbath, is highly unreasonable, and not
to be supposed unless most distinctly so stated. 3. The record directly says
that that day was ‘the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord’ (verse
23), ‘the seventh day which is the Sabbath.’ Verse 26. These
statements are repeated several times in the above record. 4. Shortly after the
manna began to fall on the six days and none on the seventh, while the whole
nation was keeping that day as the Sabbath, according to God's direct
instructions, the Lord came down upon Mt. Sinai and gave them the ten
commandments. The fourth one relates to the Sabbath, and reads thus:
‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and
do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day, and hallowed it.’ Ex. 20:8-11.
“What does this command require? That they keep
‘the Sabbath day,’ ‘the seventh day,’ ‘the Sabbath of
the Lord,’ the day which God had rested upon, and blessed and sanctified
at creation, after working six days. In short, it points out and specifies in
the most definite manner the very day we started with in Genesis 2:1-3. No
candid person can doubt this who will compare the two records. So, then, at the
entrance of the Jews into Canaan, 2,553 years after the creation of the world,
we are certain that we have the true seventh day.
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“In the Promised Land, they became a great and
numerous people, a settled and established nation for over 800 years. During
all this time, they had the strictest laws and regulations touching the
observance of the Sabbath. During this time, God often spoke to them by His
prophets, and frequently called their attention to His holy Sabbath. (See 2
Kings 4:23; 1 Chron. 9:32; Isa. 56:2-6; 58:13; Jer. 17:24-27; Eze. 20:10-24;
Amos 8:4-6.) Samuel, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and all the noted kings of
Israel lived in this time. To suppose that the Sabbath was lost during this
time would be simply absurd. It would have been impossible….
“Next comes, 600 years before Christ, the
Babylonish captivity of seventy years. Was it not lost here? Notice a few
facts: 1. God sent them into that captivity because they did not regard His
Sabbath strictly enough. Jer. 17:17-24; Neh. 13:15-18. Would He then allow the
Sabbath to be lost so that they could not keep it, and thus frustrate the very
object for which He sent them there? 2. Daniel, the greatest of all God's
prophets, lived in Babylon with the captives during the whole of their sojourn
there. (See Dan. 1:1-21; 9:1, 2; Ezra 1:1-6, etc.) Daniel thus having constant
communion with God would have corrected his people had they been in danger of
losing or forgetting the Sabbath, as he was very jealous for the law of his
God. Dan. 6:5. 3. As soon as the Jews return to Jerusalem, they solemnly
promise God not to violate His Sabbath any more; and Nehemiah reminds them that
this was the very sin for which they were sent into bondage. Neh. 10:31;
13:15-18. 4. It would not be possible for a whole nation in the short space of
seventy years to forget and lose the Sabbath, even though they had no prophets
to teach them, which, however, the Jews did have. What would we think of the
assertion that the Americans had lost Independence Day within the last hundred
years, so that we could not tell when the 4th of July does come? The idea would
simply be laughed at. Yet the 4th of July comes only once a year, and hence
would be much more easily
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lost than the Sabbath, which comes once every week, besides
being a day much more sacredly observed. 5. The records and genealogies were
all carefully kept during this time. 6. On their return, the whole nation is
still found keeping the Sabbath, without any disagreement as to which day it
was. Neh. 10:31. These facts show that it was not lost then.
“About 500 years before Christ, the Jews returned
to Judea, and there remained till the final overthrow of Jerusalem, seventy
years after the birth of Christ. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi prophesied
during this time.
“Again the Jews became a powerful nation, settled in
their own land, under the Maccabees and others. The Sabbath now comes in still
more prominently. They regarded it so strictly that some of the time they would
not even defend themselves in war on that day. 1 Maccabees 2:32-40. (See
Josephus.) Of course there was no possibility of their losing the Sabbath at
that time. So when Christ came, He found them all very strict and
overparticular in keeping the Sabbath. Matt. 12:1-12; John 5:5-19.
“Thus we have carefully traced the Sabbath for over
4,000 years, to the coming of Christ. Here, again, we have another sure
waymark: Christ, the Son of God, knew all things. If the Sabbath had been lost,
He would have known it, and have corrected it. But He gave no intimation that
the Jews were not keeping the right day. He kept the same day that they did. He
said it was the Sabbath day, and He was its Lord. Mark 2:27, 28. In Luke
23:54-56 and 24:1, we read thus: ‘And that day was the preparation, and
the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee,
followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how His body was laid. And they
returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day
according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in
the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had
prepared, and certain others with them.’
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“Here are several important declarations: 1. We
have the preparation day, which was the sixth day. Ex. 16:5. 2. Following this,
we have the next day, ‘the Sabbath day according to the commandment.’
3. And the next day was ‘the first day of the week.’ This is the
language of Inspiration, hence there is no discount upon it; therefore that day
was ‘the first day of the week.’ Hence, we are still on the
right track, and know that we have not lost the days of the week. This fact is
made doubly sure by the inspired declaration that the day before the first day
of the week was ‘the Sabbath day according to the
commandment.’ Here, again, we know that we have the correct Sabbath day,
the one enjoined in the commandment; for Inspiration says so. The Sabbath day
‘according to the commandment’ could be no other day than the
one which that commandment enjoined, which we have shown is none other than the
very day upon which God rested. After this, the Sabbath is frequently mentioned
in Acts. (See chapters 13:15; 15:21; 16:13; 17:2; 18:3.) The last time it is
named is in Revelation 1:10, 96 A.D., which brings us to the close of the Bible
and of the first century. Now we have spanned 4,100 years of the world's
history, and found no place for the Sabbath to be lost yet.
“But has not time been lost since the year 96 A.D.,
perhaps during the Dark Ages? Let us see. At the time of Christ, and ever
since, the Jews were and have been great sticklers for the Sabbath—very
careful in observing it. In 70 A.D., about forty years after the resurrection
of Christ, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, and the Jews were led away
captive into all nations, thus fulfilling Luke 21:20-24; Deuteronomy 28:25, 37,
64. Though eighteen hundred years have passed, the Jews are still a scattered
nation, and yet a distinct people. In every country, in every clime, in every
nation, and in almost every city, today may be found the Jew. During these
eighteen long centuries, under every vicissitude, they have still tenaciously
clung to the Sabbath. Every person of intelligence knows that the Jews all
keep
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the Sabbath on Saturday. Thus Webster, under the word
‘Sabbath,’ says: ‘The Sabbath of the Jews is on Saturday.’
M. A. Berk, in his ‘History of the Jews,’ page 335, says:
‘According to the Jewish computation of time, the day commences at sunset.
On Friday evening, and about an hour before sunset on this evening, all
business transactions and secular occupations cease, and the twenty-four hours
following are devoted to the celebration of the holy Sabbath.’
“Now that they have not lost the Sabbath day, but
have kept the days of the week correctly, is easily demonstrated. Scattered as
widely apart as they have been all this time, bad they lost the correct
numbering of the days of the week, they would now be found to disagree among
themselves as to which was the true Sabbath day. Some would claim that it was
Saturday; others, that it was Monday; still others, that it was Thursday, etc.,
etc. But there is no such disagreement among them, as every one knows. In Asia
and in Europe, in Africa and in America, all agree on the same day, namely,
Saturday. Now any one can readily see that the Jews, being for eighteen hundred
years so widely scattered, even on opposite sides of the globe, could not lose
the correct Sabbath, and yet all continue to keep the same day. It would be the
very height of absurdity to suppose that all the millions of the Jews so far
separated should lose just the same number of days, and at the same time, and
in the same direction, that is, by adding to, or dropping out, a day or
more.
“Take a simple illustration: Seven men go out into
the wilderness, hunting. At a certain point they all separate, each going a
different direction. After several weeks, maybe months, they all meet again.
Now the question arises, Have they kept the days of the week correctly, or have
they lost the Sunday so that they cannot positively tell when it does come?
They begin to compare reckonings. A says, Today is Monday. No, says B, today is
Thursday. Both wrong, replies C, today is Sunday. And you are mistaken, too,
exclaims D, for today is Friday. And thus, to the end, they all differ. This
would prove that they certainly had lost the day. No one would question that.
But, on the contrary, suppose all unanimosly
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agreed on the day—that it was Monday, for instance. It
would be as sure as a mathematical demonstration that none had lost the
day.
“So of the Jews. Their unanimous agreement on the
day shows that they have kept it correctly. None who are not willingly blind
can fail the see this. We shall, then, put down the five millions of Jews now
in the world as so many living witnesses that Saturday is the true seventh-day
Sabbath. Indeed, I believe, and it is evident, that the loading object of the
Lord in scattering the Jews among all nations and yet preserving them a
distinct people, was to make them witnesses of the truth of His word, and to
preserve the knowledge of His holy Sabbath among all nations. Their strict and
continued observance of the Sabbath in all ages and among all nations, forms an
insurmountable argument which can never be set aside by those who assert that
the Sabbath has been lost. God has preserved a whole nation of witnesses, and
sent them into all parts of the world to bear testimony to the existence and
correct preservation of the knowledge of His holy Sabbath day.
“In response to an inquiry on this point, addressed
to Isaac M. Wise, of Cincinnati, Ohio, probably the most learned Jewish Rabbi
in this country, he returned to me the following communication:
“‘Rev. D. M. Canright.
“‘Dear Sir:
“‘There is no century in authentic history not
covered by Jewish tradition. Hence, one might just as well argue Sunday is not
the first day of the week or the third after the crucifixion, or the Hebrew
Bible is not the literature of the ancient Jews, or any other fact or facts, as
to maintain that the Jews forgot the order of the days, when the Sabbath was so
holy to them….
“‘The Jews, having no names of days, called
them first, second, etc., to Sabbath. If they had forgotten to count in
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any one locality where they were dispersed since 800 B. c.,
some would have done it in another locality, and a dispute among themselves
about the right Sabbath must have occurred.’
“With these facts well considered, the reader will
agree with the learned rabbi that it is an absurdity to claim that the Sabbath
has ever been lost.
“Some two or three centuries after Christ,
Christians began to regard the first day of the week as a sacred day. In a
short time, this practice became almost universal among Christians. Christendom
is now divided into three great branches; viz., the Greek Church, numbering
66,000,000, the Catholic Church, numbering 170,000,000, and the Protestant
churches, numbering 88,000,000, making a total number of 324,000,000.
“All these have always been, and are now, unanimous
in teaching that Sunday is the first day of the week, the resurrection day, and
that Saturday is the old, original, seventhday Sabbath. No one ever thought of
disputing this fact till of late, when it is found that there is no proof for
first-day sacredness. But here are 324,000,000 witnesses who, by their hymns,
their prayers, their sermons, their books, their customs, and all their
traditions, teach that Sunday is the first, and Saturday the seventh, day of
the week.
“The Mohammedans, and long before them the
Saracens, adopted the sixth day for their Sabbath. Numering 160,000,000, they
all still keep Friday. Gilfillan, in ‘The Sabbath,’ p. 359, says:
‘Before Mohammed's time, the Saracens kept their Sabbath on Friday, and
from them, he and his followers adopted the custom.’ Rev. Robert Morris,
who has traveled in Palestine, and written so extensively concerning the Holy
Land, also confirms the same fact. (See The Holy Land for January,
1871.) Here, again, we have 160,000,000 more witnesses that the days of the
week have been correctly kept.
“All the laws of Christendom recognize the fact
that Sunday is the first day of the week, and Saturday the seventh.
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Thus, the Sunday law of Iowa reads: ‘If any person be
found on the first day of the week, … engaged in any riot, fighting,’
etc.—‘Statute Law of Iowa,’ Revision of 1860, chap. 175, art.
2, sec. 1, p. 751. The venerable old family Bible, in its time-table,
teaches the same thing. It reads thus:
“Days Of The Week |
“1st day of the week |
Sunday |
“2d day of the week |
Monday |
“3d day of the week |
Tuesday |
“4th day of the week |
Wednesday |
“5th day of the week |
Thursday |
“6th day of the week |
Friday |
“7th day of the week, or
Sabbath |
Saturday |
“Turn to your large family Bible, and see if it
does not so read. So far, then, as we can rely upon this it corroborates the
fact that Saturday is the old Sabbath, the original seventh day. Could we ask a
better witness?
“Webster's great dictionary bears its testimony to
the same undoubted fact. Thus: ‘Sunday, n. First day of the
week.’ ‘Monday, n. The second day of the week.’
‘Saturday, n. The last day of the week, … the Jewish
Sabbath.’ Do all these great authors have no authority for what they say?
Have they all conspired to tell a lie?
“Take up a family almanac, and it will teach us the
same undoubted and universally acknowledged truth, that Saturday is the
original Sabbath day. Look at your almanac and see Sunday marked first day of
the week, and Saturday the seventh or last day.
“But now the science of astronomy comes in and
settles this whole matter beyond the shadow of a doubt. Every one is familiar
with the fact that eclipses of the sun or moon can be so exactly calculated as
to tell to a minute just when they will occur, long beforehand. Indeed, they
can he calculated
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a thousand years ahead as well as one year. So they can be
calculated backward just as easily. Before the Christian era, and all along at
different times since, eclipses have occurred and have been recorded. By
calculating back, it would soon appear if even one day had been lost, as the
recorded eclipse would not have come when it ought to. Such calculations have
been made, and no such loss of time appears.
“In answer to a question upon this point which I
addressed to a celebrated astronomer, I received the following:
“‘Ogden, Utah, Sept. 24, 1873.
“‘Elder D. M. Canrigt: Back computations of
eclipses of the sun give the year right. Since Ptolemaeus (about 500 B. C.)
there cannot be one day lost, because his equinoctiums and those composed now
back to that time agree. A change or loss of one minute would be found out in
this way.
“(Signed) ‘Dr. F. Kampf,
“‘Astronomer of the U. S. Corps of
Engineers.’
“This is good testimony from the highest authority,
it shows that we have positive scientific proof that not a day has been lost at
least since 500 years before Christ.
“Indeed, when we come to the real matter of fact,
it is simply impossible to lose the days of the week, even though we had no
almanacs, no records, no histories. Look at the facts in the case. Take our own
nation, for example. How could we lose the days of the week? Suppose one family
in town should forget and lose the days of the week. Sunday comes and they go
to work, plowing, washing, etc. How long would it be before their neighbors
would come along and tell them their mistake? Such instances do occur; but
seldom does a person get through the day without discovering his error.
“Again, suppose a whole village should make the
same mistake at the same time, which of course is impossible, and all lose the
day of the week. Sunday they all go to work as usual; stores are opened, shops
run, etc. Soon, people from the country come in to meeting and find them all
at
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work. The result would be that they would compare reckonings
and count back and see what they had done on each of the last six days. In this
way the error would be immediately discovered. And so we might go on with the
illustration. If one family loses the day, the whole town is against them, and
will correct them; if a whole town makes the mistake, the rest of the country
is against them, and would soon correct them. In short, the established rest
day in each week coming so often and being kept by all the people, it is
absolutely impossible to lose it. No candid person who will look at the facts
can believe that the Sabbath day has ever been lost….
“Was not the Sabbath day thrown out of its order,
was not a day lost, when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still? No. The
record says: ‘The sun stood still in the midst of the heaven, and hasted
not to go down about a whole day.’ Joshua 10:12-14…. That day was
about as long as two ordinary days, but yet it was only one day, the sun
set only once. The Lord required us to keep only the seventh day, not
the seventh part of time. The day is to be reckoned from sunset to sunset. Gen.
1:5; Lev. 23:32; Deut. 16:6; Mark 1:32. Hence this was to be counted only one
day, and in no manner affects the reckoning of the week. The same principle
holds good in the case where the sun turned back ten degrees in the time of
Hezekiah. Isa. 38:8. It appears that this day also was longer than usual. Yet
it was only one day, as in the case of Joshua.
“Was not the Sabbath lost in changing from the Old
Style to the New Style of reckoning time? No. It did not affect the Sabbath in
the least, one way or the other. But what is Old Style and New Style? Let us
see.
“The Julian Calendar, so called, or that which was
established by Julius Caesar, by which every fourth year was made to consist of
366 days, and the other years of 365 days, is called Old Style. By this
mode of computation, the years were made to average something over eleven
minutes too
[107]
much; so that in the course of a few centuries there would
be a perceptible disarrangement of the equinoxes; i.e., the sun would actually
arrive at an equinoctial point several days, perhaps, before the time indicated
by the day of the month on which it should annually recur. It will be seen that
if such a mode of computation were to be continued, a complete displacement of
the seasons of the year would eventually be wrought. Pope Gregory XIII, 1582 A.
D., in order to correct the equinoxes at that time, or bring back the vernal
equinox to the same day as at the Council of Nice, 325 A. D., found it
necessary to retrench ten days. He accordingly retrenched that number of days
in October, 1582 A. D., which was done by simply calling the fifth day of the
month the fifteenth.
“This reformation of the Julian Calendar by Pope
Gregory was adopted in Great Britain by act of Parliament, 1751 A. D., at which
time it was necessary to retrench eleven days. Accordingly eleven days
were retrenched in the month of September in the following year, simply by
reckoning the third day as the fourteenth. This method (by which
every year divisible by four, unless it be divisible by 100 without being
divisible by 400, has 366 days, and all other years 365 days) is what is called
New Style. By reckoning according to this ingenious mode, there can
never occur any perceptible disarrangement of the equinoxes, as would
continually occur under the former calendar, or Old Style. (See Thompson's
Higher Arithmetic, p. 157.)
“It may be readily seen that this did not in the
least affect the reckoning of the days of the week. October 5 was simply called
October 15. Suppose that before the change that day was Friday; what day of the
week would it be after the change? Would it not be Friday still? Most
certainly. The regular succession of the days of the week and of the Sabbath
continues to come just the same, whatever change may be made in the reckoning
of the year or month.
“But why talk about lost time on that
occasion? How was it lost? Do we not know just when it occurred? Yes. Do
we not know just how it happened? Yes. Do we not know
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just how many days were dropped? Yes. Is there not an
authentic record of the whole thing? Yes. In the name of common sense, then,
how was any time lost?
“Suppose I have just one hundred dollars in my
pocket. I go into my bedroom, carefully count out ten dollars and put it into
the drawer. Then I come out and tell my family that I have lost some money.
They ask, When? I say, Today. Where? In the bureau drawer in the bedroom. How
much? Just ten dollars. Would they not say I was jesting or insane? Just so
about lost time at the change from Old Style to New Style. When was it lost?
October 5, 1582. How much was lost? Ten days. Strange loss this! …
“To sum up the evidence: The Sabbath was given to
the head of the human family at creation; it was observed by the patriarchs,
three of whose lives cover the period from Eden to Abraham's old age, and hence
the knowledge of the Sabbath was easily handed from father to son; the Sabbath
was again miraculously pointed out by God, in the falling of the manna at the
exode; strictly guarded by law and kept by the whole Jewish nation for eight
hundred years; best of evidence is given that it was not lost in Babylon; it
was strictly kept for five hundred years till Christ; He gave no intimation of
any loss up to His time; taught that it was the correct Sabbath; positive
statement is made
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by Inspiration that the Jews had the days of the week and
the old Sabbath day correct at the death of Jesus; often mentioned in the New
Testament till 95 A. D.; 5,000,000 Jews today bear witness that it has not been
lost; 60,000,000 Greek Christians, 170,000,000 Catholics, and 88,000,000
Protestants all agree that Saturday is the old seventh day; 160,000,000
Mohammedans agree to the same fact; the laws of the land, the old Family Bible,
Webster, the almanac, and astronomy, all unanimously agree that no time has
been lost, but that Saturday is the old Sabbath day.
“What proof do they bring against all this mass of
evidence? None whatever. They want it so. They hope it is so, and hence assert
that it is so. Time is lost. Why? Because. How do you know? Because it has been
lost. This is the evidence, and the only evidence I ever heard. A man's mere
assertion against the evidence of the world!!
“In conclusion, reader, are you weekly violating
God's holy Sabbath under the vain plea that you cannot tell when it does come?
Is not this a mere excuse adopted to evade the cross? Are you willing to risk
your soul upon such a sandy foundation? Are not the preceding evidences
overwhelming that Saturday is the original seventh day? Even granting, which,
however, we do not believe is the case, that it is not positive proof beyond
any doubt, yet you must admit that, so far as there is any evidence, it all
goes to show that Saturday is the original Sabbath day. Shall we reject all
this mass of testimony and retain a day for which there is not a particle of
evidence? Will such a course stand the test of the
judgment?”—“The Lost-Time Question” (1873).
Surely the evidence offered here by Mr. Canright as a
Seventh-day Adventist, absolutely overthrows the lost-time theory of Mr.
Canright as a Baptist. How sad that he should have turned away from this clear
evidence of the continuity of the original seventh-day Sabbath in unbroken
succession from creation to our day.