Which Is the Seventh Day?
By H. A. St. John
If I could tell which the seventh day is, I would keep it. How do we know which is the seventh day? May not Sunday be the seventh day? These, and many like them, are expressions ever falling upon the ear of the advocate of the observance of the fourth commandment. Now there are many ways of answering these frivolous cavils and flimsy excuses, as they most certainly are, but one only will I give here. Right here it may be observed, however, that rarely is a person thus confused about the numbering of the days of the week, until his duty to observe the seventh day is clearly manifest from the Scriptures. It may be further noticed that many who admit the binding obligation of the ten commandments, will go along for months, and even years, excusing themselves for trampling under foot the fourth commandment, with, "We can't tell which the seventh day is." Consistency is a jewel indeed. Are the ten commandments binding? This must be regarded as a primary question. If the ten commandments are binding, the fourth commandment is, most assuredly, for there are not ten without it. And if the fourth commandment is binding, the Lord requires the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. And if it be duty to keep the seventh day, we can tell which it is. To say otherwise, would be to represent that God requires that of his creatures which it is impossible for them to perform, thus making our all-wise Creator unjust and tyrannical. The requisitions of Jehovah must harmonize with his attributes. God commands the observance of the seventh day as the holy Sabbath of the Lord. We may, therefore, know which it is. The fifth commandment reads, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Now it would be utterly impossible to keep this commandment if we could not tell who father and mother were, but there is no trouble here. By the testimony of father and mother, and disinterested friends, we have no doubt of our parentage. So, likewise, by the fourth commandment itself, and the testimony of christendom, we need have no doubt as to the true seventh day. We know our parents no more certainly than we may know the holy Sabbath of the Lord.