LOST TIME by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 11, 1872

LOST TIME.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

(Concluded.)

But has not time been lost since the year A. D. 96, 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 A. D. 70, 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; Deut. 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, to-day 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 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, had 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, &c., &c. 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, it may be 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, To-day is Monday. No, says B, to-day is Thursday. Both wrong, replies C, to-day is Sunday. And you are mistaken, too, exclaims D, for to-day 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 unanimously 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 to 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 leading 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, probably the most learned Jewish Rabbi in this country, he returned me the following communication:—

REV. D. M. CANRIGHT, Dear Sir: Facts admit of no logical demonstration. They are matters of perception or tradition. The Jewish Sabbath is, in point of the particular time, a matter of tradition, to which the whole people of Israel from Moses to us testify, without any demonstration to the contrary.

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 resurrection, 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 days, when the Sabbath was so holy to them. Anybody arguing against a fact of perception, or tradition (this is the rule), has to prove it, viz., That the said perception, or tradition, is false. In this case, he who maintains it must prove when and where the Jews forgot the order of the days or computation of time.

The Jews, having no names of days, called them 1st, 2d, &c., to Sabbath. If they had forgotten to count in any one locality where they were dispersed since 800 B. C., some would have done it in any other locality, and a dispute among themselves about the right Sabbath must have occurred. But history chronicles no such dissension. From Ezra to 70 A. C., the body, called first, “The Great Synagogue,” and afterwards “The Sanhedrim,” existed in Jerusalem; and then to 300 A. C., at Jamnia, Ushah, or Tiberias. This body announced annually in regular succession, the calendar to all Jews in the world. Then followed in authority the Babylonian academy, from 200 to 1000 A. C. again in regular succession. When could they have forgotten the Sabbath? Those persons maintain an absurdity.

Yours, ISAAC M. WISE.

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 160,000,000, and the Protestant Churches, numbering 88,000,000, making a total number of 314,000,000.

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 seventh-day 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 three hundred and fourteen million 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. Numbering 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. Robt. Morris, who has traveled in Palestine, and written so extensively concerning the Holy Land, also confirms the same fact. See The Holy Land for Jan., 1871. Here, again, we have one hundred and sixty millions 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. Thus the Sunday law of Iowa reads: “If any person be found on the first day of the week, commonly called Sabbath, engaged in any riot, fighting,” &c.—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. Here is the way it reads:

DAYS OF THE WEEK.

1st day of the week, Sunday. 2d “ “ “ Monday. 3d “ “ “ Tuesday. 4th “ “ “ Wednesday. 5th “ “ “ Thursday. 6th “ “ “ Friday. 7th “ “ “ 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 be calculated 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 come when it ought to. Such calculations have been made, and no such loss of time appears.

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, &c. How long would it be before their neighbors would come along and tell them their mistake. Such instances do occur; but never 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, &c. Soon people from the country come in to meeting and find them all at 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.

We are not arguing that no time has ever been lost or miscalculated so far as the exact years and months are concerned. We do not think any one can tell the precise number of years since the creation. But while the years, and months and days of the year may be lost, this does not affect the Sabbath in the least. Why not? Because the Sabbath being kept by a whole nation and recurring every seven days, it becomes easy to keep track of it, and even impossible to forget when it does come, while the year being so much longer a period and having nothing important to mark its coming could be much more readily lost.

Further, we do not claim to know the exact number of Sabbaths from creation any more than we do the exact number of years. Nor is it at all necessary that we should. All that we need to show is that the correct reckoning of the days of the week and the regular recurrence of the Sabbath day has not been lost. Just how many years or Sabbaths there have been since creation does not concern us. It is important to remember this fact; for our opponents try to throw much dust just here, asserting that if we cannot tell just how many years and days there have been since the creation, then we cannot tell when the seventh day does come. This is a false issue. For instance; I can remember some important event which occurred on Sunday, years ago; and though I could not tell the exact number of days, or even of years, which has elapsed since that event, yet I am certain and could take my oath that I have regularly and correctly kept every seventh day from that day to this. The reader cannot fail to see the point.

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.” Josh. 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 only requires us to keep 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 returned 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 Cæsar, 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 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, A. D. 1582, in order to correct the equinoxes at that time, or to bring back the vernal equinox to the same day as at the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, found it necessary to retrench ten days. He accordingly retrenched that number of days in October, A. D. 1582, 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, A. D. 1751, 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 4, 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 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, To-day. 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!

But further; Russia has never adopted the New Style, but still reckons by the Old Style. Does her reckoning of the days of the week, or her Saturday, correspond to ours? Yes, exactly. Her Saturday is our Saturday and her Sunday our Sunday. The Jews in Russia keep the same Saturday that the Jews in England and America keep. If men would not offer their ignorance for argument we should never hear any more about the groundless objection of lost time.

To sum up the evidence: The Sabbath was given to the head of the human family at creation; evidence of its observance 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 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 that it was not lost in Babylon; again 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 of 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 A. D. 96; five millions of Jews to-day bear witness that it has not been lost; sixty millions of Greek Christians; one hundred and sixty millions of Catholics; and eighty-eight millions of Protestants, all agree that Saturday is the old seventh day; one hundred and sixty millions of 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 in 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? In all worldly matters where there is any doubt, we decide in favor of the strongest evidence. Do so in this case and you will certainly have to decide that Saturday is the old original Sabbath day.