WHICH DAY IS THE SABBATH?
By C. P. B.
To the question, Which day is the Sabbath? the Bible gives definite answer,—“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. This is certainly plain enough; but plain as it is, some minds are not satisfied with it, and ask again, What seventh day? To this latter question the Bible also gives explicit reply; it is the seventh day of the week. In the account of the crucifixion and burial of our Lord, given by Luke, we read:— “And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:54–56. “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.” Luke 24:1. Now it is just as plain as anything can possibly be that Christ was crucified and buried on the day before the Sabbath; that the day following the day of the crucifixion was the Sabbath, which we are told the women observed “according to the commandment.” The commandment, it will be remembered, plainly specifies “the seventh day;” and the next day we are told was “the first day of the week.” Here is the weekly cycle of seven days plainly brought to view, and the last day of that cycle is the Sabbath “according to the commandment.” It follows necessarily that the commandment requires the observance of the seventh day of the week. But it may be asked how we know that we have the same weekly cycle as in the days of our Lord’s earthly ministry. We know it by the concurrent testimony of all history upon the subject. The world has had, within historic periods, but one weekly cycle. The “Encyclopedia Britannica,” art. “Calendar,” places the weekly cycle among the most ancient divisions of time known, and states that it has been “employed from time immemorial in almost all eastern countries,” remarks that “those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss, as Delambre remarks, to assign to it [the week] an origin having much semblance of probability.” It is needless for us in this examination to go back of the Crucifixion to inquire whether or not somewhere between creation and the cross the original week may have been lost. Inspiration says that the day observed by the holy women who followed Christ from Galilee was “the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” This proves conclusively that amid the shifting scenes of human life, amid the rise and fall of empires, amid the wreck of nations, through all the centuries that had passed since first God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath, His providence had preserved a knowledge of that sacred day. Men had forgotten God, they had turned to the worship of images, they had served the creature rather than the Creator; but they had not entirely forgotten His Sabbath. The most ancient languages bear witness to this fact by giving to the seventh day of the weekly cycle names equivalent to Sabbath or rest. One of these is the Babylonian, which was a written language 3,800 years before Christ. No student of history will for a moment entertain the thought that by any possibility could the weekly cycle have been lost or changed since the women who were last at the cross and first at the sepulcher “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Rome was then at the height of its power. Learning was not as common as it is to-day, but the world enjoyed a high state of civilization. Within forty years of the cross the Jews were scattered among all nations, and have been so scattered ever since, but Rabbi Wise declares that history records no disagreement among them at any time as to the day of the Sabbath, nor between them and other people. This perfect harmony between the dispersed Jews and between Jew and Gentile would not have been possible had there been any change in the weekly cycle. And to these facts all authorities bear witness to-day. Everywhere Sunday is the first day of the week and Saturday the seventh. Look at the tables between the Old and New Testaments in the old family Bible and there you will find a table giving the days of the week as follows:— 1st, Sunday.
2d, Monday.
3d, Tuesday.
4th, Wednesday.
5th, Thursday.
6th, Friday.
7th, Saturday, or Sabbath. This table is not Inspiration, but it is unimpeachable evidence that the seventh day of the fourth commandment is not an illusive thing that can not be located, but that God by His providence has identified it so clearly as to leave all without excuse who refuse to obey the commandment which says:— “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8–10.