The Breadth of the Earth; or, the East and the West.
By John Nevins Andrews
EACH day of the week occupies twenty-four hours in passing any one place in its westward course around the earth. And each day begins earlier as we go east, and later as we go west. At the extreme limits of the east and the west, exists the day line which divides between the beginning and the termination of the course of day. Of necessity the two sides of this line are twenty-four hours apart. This has been fully shown in former articles. Because the east and the west touch each other of necessity on our globe, a mere line alone dividing between them, it is difficult for many persons to see that the difference between the east and the west sides of that line, is, in time, just the space requisite for the sun to go round the world; for there is a circuit to the sun as nature plainly teaches. And this fact is equally plain from revelation. Observe these remarkable words of David:
“In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the END OF THE HEAVEN, and HIS CIRCUIT unto the ENDS OF IT; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” Ps. 19: 4–6. This text recognizes the fact that there is a circuit to the sun. It also recognizes the fact that the sun has of necessity a starting point in this circular journey, and also an end to that journey where it enters upon a new circuit. As the sun could not start from all points of his circular course of travel, there was of necessity some point the farthest east of all, at which his light was seen when he first set forth as the light bearer and the ruler of the day. This must be “the end of the heaven” from which his going forth takes place, and here must also be “the ends” of the heaven at which his circuit terminates. Now it is plain that a mere line or point is all that divides the two ends of this circuit, and that the difference between the two sides of this line is the space of time requisite for the sun to make the circuit from the west side of that line round the globe to the east side. In other words, there is a difference of twenty-four hours between the two sides of this line. We may state the case in a different light, as follows: Most atlases have one map representing the earth upon what is called Mercator’s projection. This presents the entire surface of the earth at one view like a sheet of writing paper, the length of the sheet representing the breadth of the earth from east to west, and the width of the sheet presenting the extent of the earth from north to south. Such a map does therefore represent the surface of the earth as a parallelogram or oblong square; the length representing the distance from east to west, or the circumference of the earth; the breadth representing the distance from the north pole to the south. A sheet of foolscap paper laid crosswise before the reader will give a good idea of the surface of the earth as presented upon this projection. It is true that this kind of map is not correct with respect to the polar regions because it is drawn upon the plan that the circumference of the earth at the poles is the same as at the equator. Every map of our globe, however, is of necessity distorted somewhere. But for the purpose for which we want it, this map is quite accurate. It presents the breadth of the earth from east to west, and the belt of the earth along the equator is sufficient for our purpose. If we conceive the surface of the earth thus spread out, it will be very easy to understand why the east edge of it is twenty-four hours in advance of its west edge; for it requires twenty-four hours for the sun to pass from the one to the other. It is therefore plain to every mind that the eastern and the western extremities of the surface of this map are just twenty-four hours apart. If now we take this sheet of paper and bring the two ends together, so that it shall resemble a joint of stove pipe, the case is still the same. The eastern and the western edges touch, and a line having no breadth is all that divides them. Yet as the sun starts from the one side of this line, and making the circuit of the earth reaches the other side of that line in twenty-four hours’ time, the two sides of that line are in time one whole day apart. It is in evident allusion to facts of this kind that the Lord thus addresses Job:
“Hast thou perceived the BREADTH OF THE EARTH? declare if thou knowest it all. Where is the way WHERE LIGHT DWELLETH? and as for darkness, where is the PLACE THEREOF, that thou shouldest take it to the BOUND THEREOF, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the HOUSE THEREOF? Knowest thou it, BECAUSE THOU WAST THEN BORN? or because the number of thy days is great?” Job 38: 18–21. “The breadth of the earth” is manifestly the circuit of the earth from east to west along which light and darkness make their way. “The way where light dwelleth” is the place from which it first set out on the circuit of our globe. “The bound of darkness” and “the house thereof” must represent that point or place at the eastern extremity of the darkness where God first began the work of dividing the light from the darkness. When it is added, “Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?” it is plain that the Almighty cites the mind of Job to the most ancient things; viz., to the events of the creation week. And, indeed, nearly all the previous portion of this remarkable chapter relates to the work of the creation. The earth at the beginning of its existence was in appearance like a vast body of water. Gen. 1: 1, 2. And it is in reference to this fact that the Creator in this chapter speaks of the earth at the moment when he called it into existence, as though the creation was the birth of the mighty ocean. Job 38: 4–8. And pursuing this figure still further, he presents the darkness which shrouded the entire globe for the first twelve hours of its existence, as the swaddling band of the new-born earth. Verse 9. We cannot therefore doubt that this chapter relates to the events of the creation, and that the bound of light and of darkness whence they make their way over the breadth of the earth is that day line which the Creator established when he began on the first day of time to divide the light from the darkness. The existence of the day line will be disputed by no one who will give the subject serious attention. But if there be such a line, say some, it should certainly be on the meridian of the garden of Eden; that is to say, this line extending from north to south should cross this garden. But this would have been to subject the dwellers in Eden to the most extreme inconvenience; for in the garden of God itself would exist a difference in time of twenty-four hours. The observance of the Sabbath would have been rendered difficult, and the constant derangement of dates would have been inevitable. But as we have seen, the location of this line through the midst of the ocean is attended by no real difficulties at all. And as the whole face of the earth was water when God at the creation of light established the day line, it is certain that God did in the first place fix this line through the water. On the third day God gathered the waters together into one place and caused the dry land to appear. In order to do this, he had to depress the bed of the ocean to receive the vast body of water which covered the face of the earth. And now observe how he states this act whereby he located the place of the water, when he says to Job, I “brake up for it MY DECREED PLACE, and set bars and doors.” Job 38: 10. As this line is a necessity in the economy of God, and as it cannot be established upon the habitable earth without the greatest inconvenience and perplexity, but can be thus established through the waters, and as it was established in the first place when water covered all the globe, we conclude that when God broke up his DECREED PLACE for the bed of the ocean, he caused that the place of that line should be the midst of the ocean, and that it should not be transferred from the water to the dry land, when the waters were gathered unto one place. As everything that God had made was very good, we may be sure that the location of the ocean was fixed with reference to the important purposes which it was to serve, one of these manifestly being that it should be the place for the bounds of the circuit of day. There are, indeed, since the deluge two oceans extending from north to south. But this line cannot be drawn through the Atlantic as we have seen heretofore, and can be drawn through the Pacific. Moreover, if this line were to be established through the Atlantic, as the course of day is westward, it would make the new world one day in time in advance of the old world, which is a manifest absurdity. But the providence of God has so ordered events that mankind have unconsciously but truly recognized the day line substantially where it exists; for the west shore of the Pacific is one day in advance of its eastern shore, a convincing proof that somewhere in the midst of that great body, this line is to be found. The bounds of the circuit of day were not therefore fixed at Eden, but in the midst of that ocean which lies to the east of it, and here it is that day begins earliest of all and latest of all, for here the east and the west come together. The line which divides these two extremes represents the time that is required for the sun to make the circuit from the west side of that line round the world to the east side. In other words, that line represents the space of twenty-four hours. This line, as has been shown in a former article, was established on the first day of time; but the garden of Eden was not planted, probably, till the sixth day. When we journey to the east our watches indicate that each day begins earlier than it does at the place we last left. This is because that we are tracing back the track of day toward its source. And in like manner when we journey westward, our watches indicate that we are following the track of day towards its termination. The changes which we make in our watches cause them to conform exactly to the course of day wherever we may be. And when we pass the day line, our change of one whole day in our numbering of the days of the week is because that one side of the day line is twenty-four hours in advance of the other as has been proved, and the reasons given. Our gain or loss of time, as we term it, in these several acts, simply keeps us with the people of each meridian that we cross. There are two bounds to each day; one fixed, the other movable. At the fixed bound, which is the day line, the transition from one day to another is taking place at each moment of every day. That is to say, as evening, or midnight, or morning, or noon, comes up to this line, and passes it, each changes in an instant to be the corresponding parts of a new day. Thus the noon of seventh-day on the east side of that line, becomes the noon of first-day on crossing that line, and so of every part of the day. But the movable bound of each day is the evening or sunset, which makes the circuit of our globe taking the day in its train. At the movable bound of day, which is simply its forefront as it advances, the transition from one day to another takes place only at evening, which is ever on the wing westward. This movable bound, for it is rightly termed a bound, inasmuch as it divides between the advancing and the retiring day, passes us westward each evening, closing the old day and bringing us the new one; and this it does every twenty-four hours. A few words should be offered relative to the place of sunset, for some do not rightly understand this. Though sunset itself is the disappearance of the sun in the west, yet when we speak of this as closing the day, we have reference to the standpoint of the observer, rather than to the place of the sun. We see the sun to the west of us for the whole afternoon, but the line of sunset, i. e., the narrow tract in which the sun is in the act of disappearing, is east of us, and is approaching us from the east with the same swiftness that the sun is traveling in his westward circuit. The place of sunset, as marking the transition from one day to another, is, properly, the place where the observer stands at the time of the sun’s disappearance, and not the place at which the sun appears to set; for could you be at that point in the west at that instant you would see the sun still visible in the western heavens. Remember, therefore, that sunset approaches us from the east, though the sun itself is west of us some six hours before that sunset reaches our own standpoint from the east; and it is then at our place of observation the moment of transition from one day to another. But if we regard the western horizon, behind which the sun disappears, as the line of transition with us from one day to another there is never a moment when that transition is at our own standpoint; for though that transition line was east of us up to a certain point, it then passes us far to the west in a moment. But this is not true; for at every point in the sun’s westward circuit of the globe the transition from one day to another takes place, and this transition is always the standpoint of the observer who witnesses the disappearance of the sun in the west. We have seen that each day of the week makes the definite circuit of the globe; and that the change of one whole day in the count of those who simply cross the Pacific Ocean is due to the fact that there is in that ocean a day line, one side of which is twenty-four hours in advance of the other. This line is a necessary consequence of the fact that each day of the week makes the circuit of the earth, and must therefore have a starting point and a termination. For if we go east, our day begins earlier, and if we go west, it begins later; and the points where it begins earliest of all, and where it begins latest of all, are simply the two sides of the day line, which are twenty-four hours apart. And here observe that we do not mean that the sun rises at a different hour, either earlier or later by the clock, in consequence of our going east or west, but that each hour of the clock comes earlier in the east than in the west. And thus when the two extremes meet as they do at the day line, for instance, five o’clock or the hour of sunrise on seventh-day morning on the east side of the line is five o’clock or sunrise of first-day morning on the west side of that line. Thus the10eastern and the western extremes of our earth’s breadth are as a consequence of its globular form separated from each only by a mere line; but this represents the space of twenty-four hours.