CAN THE DAYS OF THE WEEK BE LOST?
By Elder A. J. Howard
"For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears; we would know therefore what these things mean." Acts 17:20. IN the providence of God the time has now come when increased light is shining from God's word, and a reformation is being wrought in the character of many souls. But when the binding obligation of the fourth commandment is shown to the unregenerated heart, rather than submit and yield obedience, it seeks to find some way of escape; and the one most pleasing to the carnal mind is that God is merciful, and our learned men tell us that time was lost, and we can't tell just which the seventh day is, so we are as near right in keeping Sunday as in keeping Saturday. Those who thus reason overlook the fact that God sanctified a definite portion of time—the seventh of his weekly cycle—called by inspiration the Sabbath. They overlook the fact that Christ, the Maker, and also Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27, 28), came to the earth, lived, died, and rose from the grave on the first day, Sunday (Mark 16:9), the day just after the Sabbath—yet the seventh day can't be found! Webster says that Sunday is the first day of the week, and inspiration says the same. Matt. 28:1. Christ as Lord of the Sabbath certainly knew which day it was, and if the Jews had lost the day, he would have informed them. Instead of keeping another, he kept the same day, and said it was lawful, that is, according to law. Matt. 12:12. It was also the same day given at Sinai (Luke 23:56), the same day being there commanded (Ex. 20:10) that was sanctified at creation (Gen. 2:3), the same reasons being given for its observation. "All nations, from time immemorial, are agreed upon the use of this period, without any variation in the form of it. The Israelites, Assyrians, Egyptians, Indians, Arabians, and all the nations of the East, have in all ages made use of the week, consisting of seven days, also among the ancient Romans, Gauls, Britons, Germans, the nations of the North, and of America." Laplace says: "The week is perhaps the most ancient and incontestable monument of human knowledge." The Chinese, who now have no Sabbath, at one time honored the seventh day of the week. The children of Israel observed the Sabbath before it was spoken from Sinai. Ex. 16:22, 24-26. The manna fell for more than a month before the law was spoken from Sinai. The Sabbath being known and observed even then, the manna being withheld on the day God gave as the Sabbath, shows they had a knowledge of it before. After the destruction of Jerusalem the Jews were to be scattered into all nations. Luke 21:20, 24. Thus scattered, all are united in observing the seventh day, or Saturday. (See Webster on Sabbath.) Rabbi Wise says that the Jews, having no names of days, called them 1st; 2d, etc., to Sabbath. If they had forgotten to count in any one locality where they were dispersed since 800 B.C., some would have done it in another locality, and a dispute among themselves about the right Sabbath must have occurred. But history328chronicles no such dissension. The calendar has been annually announced in regular succession by "the Great Synagogue," and afterward "the Sanhedrin"—to all Jews in the world—since the time of Ezra, more than five hundred years before Christ. When could they have forgotten the Sabbath? Has not the Lord through the Jews retained a knowledge of his holy Sabbath, that there might be no place for divisions among God's servants regarding the weekly cycle, in the last days, when the time should come to "cry aloud and spare not, . . . and show my people their transgressions" (sins, violations of law)? "We would know therefore what these things mean."