The Day Line by John Nevins Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 30, 1871

The Day Line.

By John Nevins Andrews

BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS.

It has not pleased the Creator of the world that the alternations of darkness and of light should happen at the same instant to all the inhabitants of the globe. Darkness, which is ushered in by the setting of the sun, and which forms the first division of each day of the week, does not commence as early to some of the earth’s inhabitants as to others. And indeed the difference between the extreme points must be twenty-four hours, the space of time requisite for sunset to accomplish the circuit of the globe. Our reckoning of time may thus be called relative, for the commencement of each day in any place is actually governed by its distance from the point where it is sunset earliest of all.

That we have relative time, i. e., time which varies in the commencement of the days, and not absolute time, i. e., time marked by the commencement of day at the same instant the world over, is very manifest. And the existence of relative time very plainly testifies to us that there must be somewhere a day line, i. e., a line whence each day sets out on its circuit of the globe, and also where it terminates that circuit. Those who go round the world must therefore observe these remarkable things:

1. If they go east, they find that each day begins earlier, for they are traveling back on the track of day.

2. That when they have gone east to where day begins earliest of all, if they still continue their eastward course, it is necessary that they drop one day from their count, in order to be in harmony with those who live where the course of day ends.

3. If they go west, they find that each day begins later, for they are traveling forward on the track of day, and all the time increasing their distance from its source.

4. But when they have gone westward to the end of that circuit, if they still continue their journey, they strike the commencement of the course of day; and to be in harmony with those who live where day begins earliest of all, they must add one day to their count. There is therefore a day line somewhere, on one side of which each day sets out, and on the other terminates its course. The commencement of day does therefore vary as sunset journeys westward from that point; and the two sides of this day line are of necessity twenty-four hours apart, for that is the time necessary for sunset to go round our world. It is the crossing of this line alone that changes our count of the days of the week, for we may encompass all the rest of the globe without doing it. Where, then, is this line?

To answer this properly, requires that we consider all the facts which bear upon this case: 1. It must be where the east and the west come together; for it is really true that what we must recognize as the east and the west on our globe do actually meet. 2. Or to state the case in different language, it must be where the old world and the new come together, i. e., where the extreme eastern verge of the old world makes its nearest approach to the utmost western extension of the new. These propositions are reasonable in themselves, yet their force may not be apparent to all. Let us therefore examine their grounds:

1. There is somewhere in the circuit of our globe from east to west a meridian or line where each day begins its course, and at which that course ends. This has been fully shown.

2. As the daylight and the darkness, which fill up the period of each twenty-four hours, make the apparent circuit of the globe in a westward course, the circuit of day begins on the west side of that line, and terminates on its east side.

3. The west side of that meridian must therefore stand in time twenty-four hours in advance of the east side.

4. Though the existence of this line is a necessity from the method of reckoning time which God has ordained, yet the establishment of this line through an inhabited land is an impossibility. For even were such a line laid down by the express revelation of the Almighty, through an inhabited land, as it must pass through cities, villages, towns, and hamlets, and between neighbors separated only by a street, and even through houses, the perplexity and confusion from the derangement of dates would be absolutely beyond remedy. No seventh-part-of-time theory could mend the matter, even by compromise. Nor would the difficulty be confined to those who wish to keep a definite day as the Sabbath. It would involve in hopeless confusion all observance of dates in these countries through which it should pass.

5. The wisdom of God made provision for all this in the original establishment of the ocean. The waters did at first cover the whole face of the earth. But on the third day, when he caused the dry land to appear, instead of separating the waters into many bodies upon the face of the earth, he said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto ONE PLACE.” Gen. 1:9. This great gathering together of waters he called seas. “And God saw that it was good.” So the vast ocean, with its subdivisions or lesser bodies, existed as one result of the third day’s work. The mighty barrier of the ocean makes the existence of the day line possible without causing any necessary confusion in the computation of time.

6. Asia is the cradle of the human race, for there man was first placed, and after the flood the family of man had its first seat in that part of the globe. Asia, therefore, with the other divisions of the eastern continent, is justly entitled to be called the old world; and America, which has been inhabited by civilized men only a few hundred years, must be counted the new world. This distinction is not to be attributed to the will of man, but exists in the providence of God.

7. As the day line cannot be established through a continent without involving such confusion that God would disclaim it as his work (see 1 Cor. 14:33), we may be certain that it was not placed by him in the eastern continent, nor yet in the western. Such a line does exist, but as it cannot be established upon the land, and can only be drawn through a body of water, we are shut up to the conclusion that it must be found either in the Pacific Ocean, to the east of the old world, or in the Atlantic Ocean, to the west of it.

8. But to place it in the Atlantic Ocean, to the west of the old world, is to make the old world twenty-four hours behind the new world in the reckoning of the days of the week. Because each day making the circuit of the world westward must start from the west side of the day line. And it is manifestly absurd to have day begin with the new world and go thence to the old.

9. We are, therefore, necessarily brought to the conclusion that the day line must be found in the Pacific Ocean, to the east of the old world and to the west of the new. And thus the new world would receive its days as they come to it from the old world, and not the old world take the days from the new.

10. And this causes us to call attention to the remarkable fact that there is but one portion of the entire circumference of the globe, and that a very narrow strip indeed, through which a line can be drawn from north to south, and strike no habitable land. A line from north to south through the Atlantic must strike through western Africa, or through Iceland. But a line may be drawn through the Pacific Ocean, between the old world and the new, i. e., through Behring’s Straits, that does not appear to cross even a small island from the frozen regions of the north to the equally frozen regions of the south.

11. And thus it appears that the only place in nature where this day line is possible, is the very place where every reason for its existence demands that it should be located.

But do scientific men recognize the fact that there must be such a line in existence? Here are the words of an English astronomical writer:—

“If the world were habitable all round, and not divided by the Pacific Ocean, which is opposite to Europe, it would be impossible to avoid a sudden break of time somewhere, which would make the same day March 20 on one side of the boundary, and March 21 on the other side. For the days begin and end later as you go west, and earlier as you go east; and if a man could sail round the earth westward, he would find that he had lost a day in his reckoning by the sun when he came home, and that he had gained one by sailing round the world eastward, as the earth turns from west to east.”—Denison’s Astronomy, p. 36.

If day begins earlier as we go eastward, and later as we go westward, it is inevitable that if this eastward and this westward course are followed to their utmost limit, there the break of twenty-four hours must occur. And as Mr. D. indicates, this boundary line must be found in the Pacific, which ocean, in the providence of God, saves mankind from the absolute and irremediable confusion that would exist were this line to be established upon the land, as it must be “if the world were habitable all round.” It is true that the circumnavigation of the globe involves a change of one day in our numbering of the days of the week. But it is very worthy of notice that we may make this entire circuit of the globe either east or west, with the exception of crossing that part of the Pacific through which this boundary line is drawn, and our count of the days remain unchanged. Though day will begin to us earlier or later, according as we go east or west, i. e., according as we follow back on the track of day toward its source, or forward on that track toward its end; yet we shall at every meridian have the correct reckoning of the day, and be in harmony with the people across whose countries we may travel. But when we come to where the beginning and the end of the course of day meet, we must recognize that fact by changing our numbering of the days.

The west shore of the Pacific, i. e., the east coast of Asia, is universally recognized as one day in advance of the east shore of the Pacific, i. e., the west coast of America. Yet it seems that this has hardly been carried to its legitimate result in determining the day line; for this would of necessity place it in the longitude of Behring’s Straits; but English navigators seem to have been governed, in part at least, in the determination of this line by the purpose to place it just opposite (i. e., just half way round the world from) the observatory at Greenwich, England, from which longitude east and west is very generally reckoned. Though the location of Greenwich has nothing to do in authoritatively settling this question, yet it so happens that one-half way round the world, either east or west from G., or longitude 180° east or west from G., does not vary very far from the meridian of the day line drawn through Behring’s Straits. So that practically the navigator in changing at the meridian does not involve himself in a mistake that affects his subsequent reckoning. For the line which we urge as that from which the day sets out on its westward circuit of the globe is about 168 degrees west from Greenwich, while that adopted by English navigators, and by sea-faring men in general, is the meridian of 180 degrees either east or west from G., being exactly half way round the globe from G. Navigators are constrained to acknowledge the existence of this day line in the Pacific, because of one most palpable fact; viz., that the people of eastern Asia are one day in advance of those in western America. The day line does, therefore, divide the Pacific ocean from north to south somewhere between the shores of Asia and America. But though the meridian of 180 degrees from Greenwich is convenient to the navigator because it is just half way round the world from the royal observatory at G., from which longitude by a very general custom is reckoned, and though this comes within a few degrees of that meridian which the Creator manifestly designed for the day line, and in most respects answers the seaman’s purpose, yet we cannot but call attention to the facts which show that this is not the true line. This line of 180 would cause the day line to cross the eastern part of Asia, from north to south, for several hundred miles. But such a line cannot be established through a habitable land. We cannot therefore rightly draw it through eastern Asia, nor through western America. But we can draw it from north to south between them, and here is where it should be, for here the old world and the new, or the east and the west, come together. And it is a fact, which the choice of man has had nothing to do in causing, that the east shore of Asia is one day in advance of the west shore of America. This difference of one day between these two shores is not in consequence of the act of navigators who change one day in crossing that ocean which intervenes, but the navigators make this change because these two shores do thus differ. It is the providence of God that planted mankind in Asia, and that caused civilization and the light of the gospel to go thence westward with the course of day around the world. And such being the course of day and of civilized man, it is not accident but the hand of God that causes the west shore of the Pacific to stand twenty-four hours in advance of its east shore, and that thus plainly indicates the existence and location of the day line between them. We next call attention to some facts and queries relating to this subject.