The World's Correction Line.
SURVEYORS find it necessary to have a correction line, and so do navigators. It is a fact known to everybody that when we journey east or west we are continually changing from the time of the locality whence we started. But these changes do not affect the identity of the days. Yet some are so exceedingly superficial in their knowledge of the subject that they suppose (or at least say, for it is difficult to understand how any sensible man can actually suppose) we cannot keep the seventh day unless we all keep the same time. That objection assumes that the seventh day must commence in all places at the same time! He must be wise indeed who will argue on such an assumption. Yet some do it; for instance, our neighbor of the Advocate in San Francisco. Everybody knows that we commence the Sabbath at sunset; but does anybody suppose that the sun sets at the same time in all places? or, does anybody suppose that, because the sun does not set in all places at the same time, therefore we cannot know when the seventh day begins in different localities? They might as well tell us at once that because the sun does not set at the same time in Oakland that it does in New York, therefore we cannot tell when it does set in Oakland! How do they avoid the difficulty in the time of keeping Sunday which they seem to suppose exists in regard to the seventh day? Shall we suppose that at that time they are all asleep, and unconscious of the fact that midnight does not come in all places at the same time? Something of that kind must be the case, for it is certain that they give proof that they are in midnight darkness whenever they speak on this subject. No, we cannot keep the same identical time in all places and keep the same identical day, for the evident reason that the day does not commence at the same time in all places. This our opponents have learned; yet we are left to infer from their pretended arguments that they have not yet learned that the same fact exists in regard to the Sunday. Poor seventh day! in the estimation of feeble, erring, self-willed men, it is beset with unusual unfavorable circumstances; yet it has the commandment of God to sustain it, of which the “day of the sun” is in great need to give it authority. This question of diversity of time is not new with us, though our opponents often talk as if they were imparting to us some much-needed information. Some years since, a Congregational minister by the name of Baird published sermons against the Seventh-day Adventists, in which he tried to ridicule us for “erroneously supposing that there is a sudden transition of twenty-four hours' time” in crossing “an imaginary day line somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.” Of course in writing thus he betrayed his ignorance of the most common facts of travel. In our reply to him we said:— It is a fact well known to scientific men and to navigators that each day of the week commences in the Pacific Ocean. If the reader will take the trouble to examine past volumes of the Scientific American, he will find the subject treated on by different writers at different times. The conclusion of all is the same, because it is not a mere theory—“an imaginary day line,” as Mr. Baird says—but a settled fact. It is well known that in traveling either east or west we find our time-pieces continually varying from the time of the different localities through which we pass. To keep our watches with sun time, that is, true, or correct time, we must often set them by local time. The whole amount of such changes in traveling around the world, will be twenty-four hours. For if we travel eastward we must correct our time-pieces by setting them forward four minutes to each degree, one hour for every fifteen degrees, and of course twenty-four hours for the complete circle. Having changed our time twenty-four hours in going round the world, it is evident that, on returning to the locality whence we started, we find there the same time with which we started, and to conform to that time we must drop out of our count all the variations we have made in traveling. The effect is the same in traveling westward, but the order is reversed. It is always a fact that a person starting in China and traveling westward will find that his enumeration of the days of the week will agree with that of every place through which he passes until he again reaches the Pacific, in California. And reversing the order, starting at San Francisco, he may travel eastward, and he will find that his days of the week agree with those of every place through which he passes, until he reaches the other shore of the Pacific. Through Asia, through Europe, across the Atlantic, and through America, no change is found. But let him start from the coast of China and cross the Pacific Ocean, and the case is different. On landing at San Francisco he will find his week one day in advance of those living there, unless103he corrected his count by one day, on the ocean. And in like manner, if he crosses from California to China, he will find himself one day behind the inhabitants of China unless he corrected his time, by one whole day, on the passage. This is not “imaginary.” The providence of God has preserved the certain knowledge of the order of the days of the week by indicating where each day begins, and where the correction must be made. We might quote from the Scientific American to verify this fact, but for brevity's sake will content ourself with an extract from the remarks of a correspondent of the Buffalo Express, who crossed the Pacific in July, 1874. He thus gives his experience in crossing the day line:— “No one thing on shipboard creates so much excitement, or gives rise to so much discussion, as the dropping of a day on the 180th parallel of longitude; and particularly to those who have been several times over the route, are these arguments laughable. It is evident that a uniform place must be established for days to begin, and mariners—or astronomers, I don't know which—long ago agreed upon the 180th degree as that place; and they decided that ships going east should there pick up a day, and those going west should drop one. This point we reached about eleven o'clock P. M., Saturday 25, and over we skipped into Monday, July 27. We had gone to sleep on Saturday night, and waked up on Monday morning, much to the disgust of the Rev. Mr. —, a missionary from Siam, who had prepared a sermon for the lost Sunday. On Saturday we were six hours and forty-four minutes behind our Buffalo friends; on Monday, seventeen hours and sixteen minutes ahead of them.” Commenting on this again, we used the following language in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, May 3, 1877:— An exchange says, “When it is noon at Washington it is nine o'clock in the morning at San Francisco.” Then Washington is three hours farther advanced in the same day than San Francisco, and of course Washington will see the next day three hours before it is seen in San Francisco. And he who starts from San Francisco with a watch indicating true time will find that his watch is three hours behind true time when he arrives in Washington. Say I am now writing in San Francisco at noon of Monday, April 23. Going instantly to Washington, we find at the same time it is Monday, 3 P. M. The same distance east of Washington we find 6 P. M., and once more the same distance we find 9 P. M. Counting the day from sunset, and it is evident that at some point in the last-named distance we suddenly passed from Monday into Tuesday, though it is still Monday where we started. Now if we should insist, inasmuch as we started with true time, and our watches are accurate time-keepers, that therefore they indicated true time at all the places we visit, we should find ourselves disagreeing in time with all the people of the several places, and with the sun also, the great time indicator. We are thus explicit on this point to fix on the mind of the reader the fact that we must correct our time in traveling. Having, as supposed, changed our watches nine full hours, it is plain to see that if we return to San Francisco they will vary nine hours from true time here. Hence, we must drop nine hours to restore our reckoning. We have now seen the necessity of changing our time, but we have not yet found the day line. In traveling eastward we have changed our time to keep in harmony with the inhabitants of the several places visited, and in this we have succeeded. Continuing our journey we pass to the opposite side of the earth, and our time varies twelve hours from San Francisco time. True, our watches in both places indicate twelve o'clock, but not the same twelve o'clock; one is noon, the other is midnight. Continuing to travel in the same direction the same distance, we will change our time to the same amount, namely, twelve hours more, making twenty-four hours. But this will bring us to our starting place, and again it is twelve, noon, both to us and to the people of the city, but not the same noon according to our reckoning. We have been regularly setting our time-pieces forward, and in the whole journey have set them forward twenty-four hours. But if it is Monday noon to the people of San Francisco, and our reckoning is twenty-four hours ahead of theirs, it is, of course, Tuesday noon to us at the same time. If we drop twenty-four hours out of our reckoning, one day, we shall restore ourselves to San Francisco time. Now we come to the interesting point. In our travels we were constantly changing our time-pieces to avoid any discrepancy of time between us and the inhabitants of the different places visited, and we succeeded all the way till we returned to the starting point, and here we found that by the same process, we had run into a discrepancy of twenty-four hours. This is a fact which we cannot ignore. Our earth is a globe—we travel round a circle. Were it an unlimited plane all corrections of time would be in the same direction, travel as far as we would. But as we compass the circle we find the necessity for a general correction of all the gradual changes we have made. This is made by what is called the day line. Such a line exists, as we have shown, in the Pacific Ocean. The line in the Pacific is recognized by all navigators, and is the only place where one can be located to prevent confusion and secure a uniform enumeration of the days of the week. Practically there is not a particle of difficulty in finding the day in any locality; no confusion is produced by correcting the count in the Pacific Ocean. This is easily proved. Vessels are constantly plying between California and Asia, and this change of a day is made on every trip. When our opponents find a vessel in San Francisco harbor which lost its count in coming from Asia, and has landed here reckoning by a different time from that reckoned in San Francisco, then they may revive their objections. Until that time they will show their wisdom by holding their peace.