Time on a Round World by W. C. Young

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 20, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 28.

Time on a Round World

By W. C. Young

Days Gained and Lost as We Circle the Globe—The Ship’s Chronometer Explodes the Bomb

By W. C. YOUNG

WHILE on a recent trip to St. John’s, Newfoundland, I met a person on board the steamer who had often had his duty as to the sacredness of God’s Sabbath pointed out to him by Elder Keslake. A bombshell had been given him to drop into the Seventh-day Adventist camp whenever an opportunity presented itself; and he, thinking that my apparent innocency offered an excellent target for practice, approached me one evening with some complimentary remarks on my seeming intelligence and honesty of purpose, and remarked:

THE BOMBSHELL QUESTION

“We have often wondered, Mr. Young, how any people keep the seventh-day Sabbath on this round world. For when you pass the 180th meridian, the days are changed; so how can you keep the same day all around the world?”

Quietly I asked him if he thought the sun kept correct time, or if he had any idea that the wheels of the sun’s machinery ever slipped a cog when it reached the 180th parallel.

He replied that he was perfectly satisfied that the sun made no mistakes, and that it fulfilled the requirements of Gen. 1:14, 15 in perfect order. “But,” said he, “if another day is added, that must throw your Saturdays out of kilter in your reckoning of time.”

In my earlier life, I had made the circuit of the earth five times; so I felt it my duty as well as a privilege to show that the bomb was only a shell, that there was nothing in it. I explained as follows:

Every navigator on a voyage carries with him a timepiece called a ship’s chronometer, built expressly to withstand the influences of heat and cold; and it swings like a ship’s compass, so that the vessel’s motion may not affect the correctness of its time keeping.

This chronometer is set by the sun’s time at Greenwich, England, because that place is the starting point (degree 0) of and for all the calculations relating to the meridian (midday) lines of Mercator’s projection charts.

FOLLOW THE SHIP AROUND THE WORLD

With these facts in view, let us follow a vessel sailing around the world in an easterly direction. With each day’s progress on this journey, the ship meets the sun a little earlier than do the people at its starting point. When the sextant reveals the fact that the sun has reached its highest altitude, then the ship’s clocks (not the chronometer) are fixed so as to point to noon, twelve o’clock.

Thus day by day, as the vessel moves forward, the hands of the ship’s clocks are turned, until at last the ship crosses the 180th meridian, which is exactly opposite to Greenwich on the world’s surface; and when it is twelve noon there, it is twelve midnight at Greenwich. Thus the ship will appear to have gained half a day, when in fact it has not gained a moment of time. The difference is fully accounted for by the moving forward of the hands of the ship’s clocks, so as to be in harmony with the sun’s time where they happen to be each day.

After passing the 180th meridian, they must continue to adjust their ship’s timepieces to their observation of the sun’s time, until they again reach the meridian of Greenwich, when they will find that their ship’s clocks, the chronometer, and the people’s time are exactly alike, thus showing a change in the part of their clocks of still another twelve hours, making in all twenty-four hours that was only imaginary time.

NO TIME GAINED OR LOST

Now I want to ask you, dear reader, How much actual time did they gain in making the circuit of the globe? The chronometer was never changed from start to finish, and it is in perfect harmony with local time. Then any child can see that they who observe the Sabbath by the sun’s markings on a trip around the globe are in harmony with God’s arrangements, while those who keep Sunday by their midnight reckoning, having to depend upon their own reckonings, in their desperation try to excuse their faulty methods by criticizing God’s plan.

Let me illustrate how man himself admits that God’s plan alone is correct: In many parts of the world, a gun is fired by the signalman, who pulls the lanyard of his gun the instant the sun reaches its zenith, noon. Immediately, all over the city, men reach for their pockets, and pull out their watches. Women step to the family timepieces and look. What for? Is it to see if the sun is right?—Never! It is to see how their timepieces harmonize with the sun, and if different, to bring them into right relationship at once.

When my questioner found that he could do nothing against “the truth” (see Ps. 119: 142, 151), but for the truth, he remembered a call to the upper deck, and soon his head was wreathed in clouds of smoke, not from the bombshell, but from his pipe. I think he was studying.