The following article from the pen of S. Bliss, written in 1860, contains some facts of interest relating to the commencement of day in the Pacific Ocean:—
“SATURDAY—SUNDAY.”
“By general usage, time is now reckoned according as the longitude of any given place is east or west from Greenwich, Eng. Thus in Asia, and all the lands east of it, until we reach the meridian of 180° east from Greenwich, the day precedes that in Europe; whilst in America (and in all the islands of the Pacific to the west), until the same meridian is reached, the day follows.
“We were interested in listening last Sunday to Dr. Gulich, a son of Dr. Gulich of the Sandwich Islands, born there, and now a missionary of Micronesia, who spoke of the day as commencing away in those distant islands—they being west of the meridian named.
“Thus at the Kingsmill Group of islands which lie on the equator and in longitude 175° east from Greenwich the sun rises just two hours after it has risen at the Sandwich Islands which lie 165° west of Greenwich, but thirty degrees east of the former group. So that when it is sunrise at Kingsmill, it is eight o’clock in the morning at the Sandwich Islands. And though the same sun is shining at the same time on both places, the day which is reckoned as Sunday, and is observed as such at the former island, is regarded as Saturday at the latter.”—Advent Herald, Vol. 24, No. 2.
The lesson taught the missionaries in the case of the Society Islands seems to have been remembered by them. It was no very pleasing result to them to find that they had actually established the observance of the seventh day in that group of islands when nothing was farther from their intentions. The two shores of the Pacific being one day apart in time, the case is plain that somewhere in that ocean is located the line which divides between the beginning and the end of the course of day. The navigators who cross that ocean have found it important to fix the location of this line. And the missionaries who labor in the various islands that are so thickly strewed through that vast body of water, have felt the necessity of fixing the place of this line even much more urgent than have the navigators. But strange to say, while the missionaries have felt constrained to acknowledge that the day line is a necessity, and that it has an actual existence in nature, they seem never to have thought that such being the case, it was one of God’s works, and worthy of being sought out as such. Ps. 111:2. They left the decision to the navigators, who settled the question according to their own convenience.
The meridian of the royal observatory at Greenwich, England, being that from which longitude, east and west, is most generally reckoned, it was the most convenient to the navigators to fix the line of 180° as the day line. For there being three hundred and sixty degrees to the circumference of the earth, one hundred and eighty degrees east or west from the starting point of Greenwich is just half way round the world; in other words, one hundred and eighty degrees east longitude and one hundred and eighty degrees west longitude is the same meridian. But there is nothing in nature that indicates Greenwich, England, as the point from which we should reckon longitude. Therefore the line of one hundred and eighty degrees from Greenwich, which is just opposite to it, is selected by mere accident because the most convenient line for those whose longitude is reckoned east and west from that town.
We need not expect mariners to be governed by higher considerations than these. But we should expect missionaries to look into the subject to find the truth as it really is. The line of one hundred and eighty degrees east and west from Greenwich cuts off the north-eastern part of Asia. But as has been shown, the day line cannot answer its purpose if established through a continent. There is but one place in nature where this line can be located, and every consideration bearing upon the subject indicates that to be the place of this line. It must lie between the old world and the new, where the east and the west come together. There is the place where the day begins earliest of all on one side and latest of all on the other, the line between representing the space of twenty-four hours. The day line is not the result of accident, but is, as we have seen, something which exists in consequence of God’s purpose that it should. We may therefore be certain that its location was not left to chance. It exists in the only place where its existence is possible.
The writer speaks of the division of time by this line. His ideas are just, though the place assigned to the line is too far to the west, as has been shown in former articles. All places near the west side of this line witness the commencement of the course of day. And all places between the east side of this line and the west coast of America witness the close of that course. Dr. Gulich spoke truthfully when he spoke of the day as commencing earliest of all in those islands of the Pacific immediately to the west of the day line.
Though we do not agree with the location of the day line at 180° from Greenwich, yet we do not disagree with the writer that it is found between the Sandwich Islands on the east, and the Kingsmill Islands on the west. But the one being twenty-five degrees east of 180°, and the other being five degrees to the west of that meridian, they are thirty degrees or about two hours apart, so that if the sun rises at the Kingsmill Islands at six A. M. it is at that moment at the Sandwich Islands nearly eight o’clock. But there is one other error or inadvertence in this statement which should be corrected. If the sun rises earlier in reality at the Sandwich Islands than at the Kingsmill Group, why do we say that the former are one day behind the latter? In truth, the sun rises nearly one whole day earlier at the Kingsmill Islands than at the Sandwich Islands.
There is some point or line on our globe where the sun rises earliest of all because the first sunrise (or first day-break) was at this point. And to the east of that point it rises latest of all, for it has to make the twenty-four-hour circuit of the globe before it gets round to rise on the east side of that point. The line between the place where the sun rises earliest of all and latest of all is therefore what we term the day line. This line lies between these two groups. The sunrise at the Sandwich Islands, though apparently in advance of that at the Kingsmill Group is really almost twenty-four hours behind it; for the first sunrise (or first morning) necessarily started from the west side of the day line, and before it completed the circuit of the globe to the Sandwich Islands, the day at the Kingsmill Group was nearly finished.
It is not therefore the result of man’s unauthorized and arbitrary decision that we have this extraordinary fact that the Sandwich Islands are twenty-four hours behind those islands which lie immediately to the west of them. It is indeed wonderful that the same sun may be shining on the Sandwich Islands on Sabbath morning and at the same time may be shining on other islands a little further west where it is actually the morning of the first day of the week. But the Creator himself ordained the circuit of the sun, and that circuit has of necessity a beginning and a termination, and these, though divided only by a line, are necessarily twenty-four hours apart.
Here is an article from an old paper which has some bearing upon the subject. We give it entire as follows:—
“WHERE DOES THE DAY BEGIN?”
“PACIFIC OCEAN, Feb. 3, 1856.
“This inquiry has perplexed my own mind more than a little. I knew it must begin in California, or in China, or some place between; but exactly where that place was I never have been able to find out before this voyage. And now for the gratification of the curious, I will publish my discovery. I got a hint in San Francisco which led to the conclusion that, as all Christendom has adopted the Greenwich reckoning of longitude and latitude, hence the meridian of longitude which begins at that place, passing round the globe at the equal distance of 180° east and west of Greenwich, cutting through the Pacific Ocean nearly equi-distant from China and America, must philosophically be the beginning point of each day. Still there remained a query in my own mind how we could practically start from San Francisco with the daily reckoning of that place, and keep up that reckoning all the way to China, without being one day too fast for the Hong Kong time when we got there.
“But to make this practically work, when we got to the meridian on the 30th of January, we simply dropped a day, so that January, 1856, to us had but thirty days—the first of the kind we had ever seen. This, however, rather perplexed the Chinese passengers, some of whom contended that one day was Sunday, and some another. And in fact their philosophy hardly reached to a sufficient extent to make this change correctly. Two or three days hence they are to celebrate their new year, but I have little doubt that they will be one day off the mark when they get to Canton, and will find that they made their new year one day sooner than their Canton friends.
“Hence the ultimate conclusion, the new day opens upon China and all the islands of the Pacific Ocean between the meridian and China; and closes upon California, Oregon, and all the islands of the Pacific Ocean between the United States and the meridian longitude of 180° west. This is the true philosophy of the beginning and ending of each day.
“I. J. R.”
This writer inquires, “Where does the day begin?” Each place upon the globe might answer, “The day begins and ends here, for we have here full days of twenty-four hours each.” But it is also certain that each day does not begin at the same time over all the world. There is a point, therefore, where the day begins earliest of all, and of consequence another at the end of the circuit where it begins latest of all. Between these two only is the line of transition which we call the day line. Properly speaking therefore, the inquiry should be, “Where does each day commence to make the circuit of the world?”
The writer had a strange state of confusion existing in his mind. He knew that the day “must begin in California, or China, or some place between.” But the day cannot begin on the east side of the Pacific when it is an undisputed fact that the west side of that ocean is one day in advance of the east side. He speaks of latitude as if, like longitude, that also were reckoned from Greenwich, instead of being reckoned from the equator. Even when he started from San Francisco he could not see how they could “keep up that reckoning all the way to China, without being one day too fast for the Hong Kong time when we got there.” This does not present the case in a right light. For if they made no change between San Francisco and Hong Kong, when they reached the latter they would be one day behind in time. It was because of this that at the passage of the day line, as fixed by navigators, they added one day to their count, so that January 30 was called January 31. This may be said indeed to shorten that month; for they could not add one day between those places to bring San Francisco time forward to that of Hong Kong in China except by adding it to their count. Yet though they set their count of days one day ahead, and thus reckoned that day as the 31st, which they would at San Francisco have called the 30th, they simply conformed to the time where they then were, and to the facts concerning that place. They had crossed the day line. And in crossing that line they struck that day which they would not have met for twenty-four hours had they remained where they were and waited for it to come to them. While, therefore, it was true that this was to them only the thirtieth day which they had witnessed in the month of January, it was the thirty-first day in the place where they then were.
This writer bears testimony to the fact already noticed that the day line established by navigators is the meridian of 180° east and west of Greenwich. Though this is not very wide of the mark, yet it is only fixed at that definite meridian because just half way round the world from Greenwich, and it cannot be the true line as has been fully shown.
He intimates that the Chinese did not make the change, and has little doubt that they will be one day in advance of the people of China when they arrive at Canton. This is indeed a singular conclusion when the writer knew that those who added a day to their count did it that they might be in harmony with the time on the west side of the day line.
Our changes of time to earlier or later each day according as we go east or west, are simply in consequence of the fact that each day has a definite course around our world, and is therefore earlier east and later west; and we do by these changes of the hour by our watches keep with the people of the meridian where we are. When therefore we come to either side of the day line we have just the same time that we should have had if we had always lived there. Our change of twenty-four hours in crossing that line is not therefore because we have been making the circuit of the globe, for those who have always lived nearest to this line have the same change to make if they cross it, but because we now cross the line that divides between the beginning and the end of the course of day, which line represents the space of twenty-four hours required by the sun to make the circuit of the world from its west side round to its east.