The Day Line by Roswell F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 19, 1872

The Day Line.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

BELIEVERS in the Bible as a revelation from God believe that there is a perfect harmony between nature, or the things which exist, and revelation; because the God of nature, or, in other words, the Maker of all things which exist, and the God of the Bible is the same. Hence it is held that all real science is in harmony with the Bible, and all that is called science which is opposed to its teachings, is “falsely so-called.”

On the other hand, it is the object of unbelievers, out of the church and in, to make it appear that there is a want of harmony between things as they really exist and the Bible revelation, and hence that God has stultified himself, or, in other words, that the Author of created existences contradicts the Author of the Bible, and proves its teachings false. I say unbelievers out of the church and in, because there are multitudes of professed Christians who take the side of the infidel and stand precisely upon the same ground, claiming that though God has commanded the observance of the seventh day, yet that it is impossible in the nature of things, as they exist, to know which is the seventh day. They profess to believe in the God of the Bible, and yet their creed makes him stultify himself. Truly they themselves are stultified, and their teachings are ridiculous. And the obstinate determination with which unbelievers, in the church and out, hold to their position, in the face of the clearest refutation, evinces either a lack of discernment or a lack of honesty. It is not for me to say in any given instance which.

These remarks are elicited by a recent conversation with some gentlemen, all strangers to me but one, on the subject of the day-line. They argued that there could be no boundary or line where the day begins and ends; and claimed that

they could demonstrate their position and prove the absurdity of mine, from the fact that the sun constantly enlightens one half of the earth’s surface, and that the enlightened part is unceasingly changing, as the earth steadily and constantly rolls upon its axis. I admitted this fact, but told them that they did not apprehend the point in question; and that I could demonstrate my theory, which I proceeded to do. But from the pertinacity of their opposition I was tempted to tell them that, though I could demonstrate my position, I could not find brains for them to comprehend it. But this, I am glad to say, I did not do; for if men are willfully blind, it would only irritate them and do no good; and if they really cannot comprehend the point, far be it from me to taunt them. The statement of the question at issue, and the demonstration by facts in the case, as I set it before them, were as follows:

To all the located inhabitants of the earth there is a constant succession of days, which they number as the first, second, third, &c., days of the year, month, or week. And from the eastern coast of Asia to the western shore of America there is a perfect harmony in the numbering of the days; so that a person may travel a whole life-time from east to west, and from west to east, over both continents and the Atlantic Ocean, and never gain or lose a day, or, in other words, get out of harmony with the located inhabitants of the whole earth in the numbering of the days. If he does not cross the Pacific Ocean, all is harmony; but if he crosses that ocean, even where it is narrowed to a few miles in distance, at Behring’s Straits, he will find himself out of harmony with the people of the continent on which he lands in the numbering of the days, or, in common parlance, he has gained or lost a day. This proves that in crossing the Pacific, and nowhere else, the traveler passes out of one day into another, as reckoned by the inhabitants of both continents. This is the statement of the real question at issue; and the bare statement of it contains the proof that in the Pacific Ocean lies the boundary between successive days, as known and numbered by all the located inhabitants of both continents—by all the inhabitants of the entire globe who have not deranged their reckoning by crossing that line.

Is the question understood? It is not whether the light of the sun is unceasingly revolving around the earth. This is admitted. But the question is, whether there is a dividing point between the days as they are known and numbered by the whole world.

To illustrate it, we will suppose that you start at noon on Sunday, Jan. 1, from the eastern coast of Asia, or off the Japan Islands, travel westward with the apparent velocity of the sun, and thus make the entire circuit of the globe. As you pass you ask the inhabitants of the time, and in every place they tell you it is Sunday, Jan. 1, at noon. On the meridian of Yeddo, Canton, Calcutta, Constantinople, Rome, London, Boston, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Salt Lake, San Francisco, and all other places, the answer is Sunday, Jan. 1, at noon. But you pass on and cross the Pacific, and, on arriving at Yeddo, you inquire the time, and the reply is, Monday, Jan. 2, at noon. And their answer is true. This proves that, somewhere in crossing the Pacific, you passed a point where you passed from noon of one day into noon of another day; for it has been noon to you all the time. It was not a gradual change, spread equally over ten thousand miles of travel, for if you, instead of crossing the broad Pacific, should go far enough to the north to cross the straits of Behring, which, at your rate of travel, you would accomplish in about ten minutes of time, it would be the same. Within that ten minutes you pass from noon of Jan. 1, to noon of Jan. 2.

Now these are facts; and instead of proving that days cannot be distinguished, and harmoniously numbered by mankind universally, they prove that they can and are; only with the exception of the few that have ignorantly crossed that line, as the Alaskans, who, in attempting to bring Sunday across that line on an eastern passage, fell back upon Saturday, which, in their muddled condition, as it is reported, they keep for Sunday.

It is also proved by the facts in our illustration that days are not reckoned as absolute but relative time, and that two days exist upon the earth at the same time. Each day begins at the setting of the sun. Suppose the sun to set at six o’clock, as it does at the equinoxes. Our traveler with the sun passes out of one day at twelve o’clock into another day at twelve o’clock. The day that he leaves lacks six hours of its completion at sunset, and the day that he enters has advanced eighteen hours, from sunset till noon, and lacks just six hours of being complete. Some seem not to comprehend how each day is forty-eight hours in completing its circuit round the globe; but if they will consider that the beginning of the day is twenty-four hours in making the circuit, they may see that the ending of the day, being twenty-four hours behind the beginning, must occupy twenty-four hours more in coming to the same point. Therefore, though the day is only twenty-four hours long at any given point, yet each day exists on the earth for forty-eight hours; and two of them exist and are going their round at the same absolute time.

God, the Maker of the Heavens and the earth, not only set in motion the vast machinery that causes successive days, but numbered the days and blessed and sanctified the seventh. His word will stand. All pretended science reared up to oppose it will fall and come to naught. It will be found to be falsely called science. Whoever opposes his own knowledge to the knowledge of the Creator of all things, will find in the end that his wisdom is folly. “Weighed in the balance and found wanting,” will be true of all this vaunted science. And the professor of faith in the God of the Bible who, to make null and of no effect the commandment of God, takes infidel ground, attempting to stultify and defeat the Almighty in the numbering of days, sailing, in his imagination, round and round this terrestrial globe to find some means by which to accomplish this end, so desirable to him, will find at the last that he has run in vain and labored in vain. Oh, that such would forsake their folly and be truly wise in accepting of the wisdom of God and obeying his word! Let all be assured that the Maker of all things knows more of science than any other being in the universe; and that all who would evade his law by attempting to derange his arrangement, stand upon infidel ground, and, unless this ground is abandoned, must share the infidel’s fate. We beseech all to accept of God’s arrangement and be saved.

R. F. COTTRELL.