Time Lost by WM. C. GAGE.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 27, 1866

Time Lost.

By WM. C. GAGE.

AN OLD OBJECTION ANSWERED.

EFFORTS to evade the claims of the fourth commandment are numerous, and many of them wonderfully inconsistent. Among this class may be reckoned the old, threadbare assertion that "time has been lost," and that therefore the true seventh day cannot be found. The inconsistency of this objection is made more apparent when we consider by whom it is urged. One would naturally suppose that this would be the pet argument of those who believe in no Sabbath, but such is not the case. This class generally, very frankly confess that if there is a Sabbath in this dispensation, the seventh day, or the day now commonly called Saturday, is the true one. What is most surprisingly inconsistent then, is to hear this objection from those who profess to believe in the perpetuity of the fourth commandment, and of the Sabbatic institution, and who have a tender regard for Sunday, little realizing that every argument against the preservation of the true seventh day militates with equal force against the first.

But let us examine this famous objection candidly, and see if it is not lacking in truth as well as consistency.

The first argument we would array against it is

drawn from the perpetuity of the commandment enjoining the seventh day. We cannot here go into a lengthy discussion of this point; indeed it would be unnecessary, when we consider that those who present the objection are professedly full believers in the ten commandments. But we would premise that first, the fourth commandment is perpetual and unchangeable; secondly, it enjoins the seventh day, and no other; therefore, the day cannot be lost. Some might contend that this logic is unsound, as conditions are necessarily involved in it. Allowing the premises to stand as they are, they would draw this conclusion: the seventh day is binding upon us if it were not lost. This deduction would be allowable were it not for the fact that the command is given, not by changeable man, making its fulfillment conditional, but by an unchangeable God, making its obligation imperative. Therefore our conclusion is that the day cannot be lost because it is binding, even if it were necessary to point it out by miracles, as in the case of ancient Israel in the wilderness.

But miracles are not necessary in order for us to find the true seventh day, as abundant evidence of the most convincing character will show.

The method of reckoning time by weeks is as old as creation. A period of seven days, the first six for labor and the last one for rest, constitutes a week, and, instituted by the Creator's example, has ever been one of his methods of measuring time. That the cycle of a week has never been lost is admitted by all, as all nations who are sufficiently enlightened to do so, still preserve it, and what is strikingly significant, commence it together. Thus the Jews and Sabbath-keeping Christians observe the seventh day by virtue of the injunction in the commandment, while the Catholics and the majority of the Protestant world keep Sunday, recognizing it as the first day of the week, and the Mahometans observe Friday, acknowledging it as the sixth day.

Now to prove that time has been lost it would be necessary to show that the cycle of a week has had, at some period of the world's history since the commencement of the Christian era, a new beginning and ending, and that all the Jews, scattered everywhere, have unanimously agreed to the change, and accepted the seventh day of the new week as their seventh day, while the Mahometans accepted the new sixth day as theirs, and the Pagans and Christians the new first day as their Sunday.

Let us illustrate this further by a comparison. Suppose that some one should attempt to change the observance of "Independence day" from the fourth to the second day of July. Making all his preparations, he might commence to fire cannon, and go through with all the operations so peculiar to this day, and it would be exceedingly difficult to convince a half dozen of his neighbors that Independence day had really come. But suppose he should succeed in convincing every one in town, how long would it take for them to find out their mistake? Carrying it still further, how much more difficult would it be to deceive the people of one county, or one State, or of a nation! Such a change would simply be an impossibility, and if impossible to change a yearly institution, what shall we say of losing the days of the week, which even children would not forget.

But says the objector there may have been a time when no day at all was observed, and the change could have been made then. Admitting for argument's sake that this is true, could the reckoning of the days of the week be lost even if no part of it was kept holy? It certainly would be quite difficult to convince every person even in one family that Tuesday was Wednesday, to say nothing of making a permanent change in the matter.

But what destroys the force of this objection is the fact that there never has been a time when no day has been observed. The worshippers of the Sun have always kept Sunday, and as it was anciently the first day of the week and is still the first day, it is quite evident that there has been no change.

If we trace carefully the history of the church we shall find that during its early stages the primitive Christians kept the true seventh day, until, becoming corrupted by Paganism, and by Papacy, "the mystery of iniquity" which had begun to manifest itself even in the days of Paul, 2 Thess. ii, 7, they began to lower the standard and fall in with the practices of their idolatrous neighbors. In the language of another, "the rising tide of Christianity, as it necessarily must, came into violent contact with the turbid waters of Heathenism. The Christian element was not preserved in its purity. The two streams mingled. The villainous compound, thus formed of heathenism and Christianity, produced the Papacy." A fitting time for Satan to accomplish a most wicked work, and the observance of Sunday, enforced as it was by law, became fastened upon the church just as she apostatized, and became as a body united to the State.

About the time this change was brought about, the Mahometans sprung up, observing as their Sabbath the sixth day of the week, or Friday.

From this time forward, if we examine ecclesiastical history at any period, we find the Mahometans keeping the sixth day, the Jews and a portion of the Christians, keeping the seventh day, and the Catholics, and, later, almost the whole Protestant world, keeping the first day. Although we have but little knowledge historically of the condition of things during the period known as the "dark ages" (during which time many assert that the Sabbath was lost) yet we know that both before and after that period these classes occupied the same relative positions in regard to the Sabbath, so that to believe in a change during that time, we must suppose that a grand mass convention was held, in which all agreed to the change, or, as we have sometimes heard it expressed, all the world was put into a mesmeric sleep, and so kept until one, two, or more days had passed; for upon no other supposition could a person of common sense be made to believe that such a great change could be brought about.

But to those who have the slightest knowledge of astronomy, all the above argument is wasted, as such well know that in the light of this science the loss of a day or even an hour, is simply impossible; and were we to tell an astronomer that time had been lost since the commencement of the Christian era, he would laugh us to scorn. The heavenly bodies, with their eclipses recurring in perfect regularity, constitute the chronometer of the great Ruler of the Universe; and so nicely can these eclipses be calculated that they can be foretold for centuries in the future or recorded for centuries in the past. Now suppose that history informs us that an eclipse occurred on a certain day of the week in the second, third, or fourth century. The astronomer calculates the eclipse, and finds that it did occur on that day of the week, corresponding with our present reckoning. What then becomes of the cry of "time lost?" Like all other objections to the mighty truths of the third angel's message it vanishes, leaving the objector the choice of accepting the "commandments of God," or, as is too frequently the case, of fleeing to some other objection.

The change from Old Style to New Style is sometimes made the basis of an objection against the finding the true seventh day, and I can do no better on this point than to refer the reader to the excellent article on this subject from the pen of Bro. Aldrich, in No. 4 of the present volume of the Review.

In the words of the poet, let me close:

Then as we would our God obey, In letter and in spirit too, O let us keep the seventh day, For it is plainly brought to view.

WM. C. GAGE.