A SEVENTH PART OF TIME by William H. Littlejohn

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 3, 1881

A SEVENTH PART OF TIME.

By William H. Littlejohn

BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.

FOURTHLY, the providence of God is against this exposition.

Having found that the internal evidence of the law is overwhelmingly against our opponents, we might rest here in the confident conviction that our case is fairly made out. But, remembering that men who are called upon to change opinions of long standing, desire, if they do not require, all the light which can be given, we pause before submitting it to them to pass upon, that we may present testimony drawn from the providence of God, showing that his dealings with his people, during the forty years in which he walked and talked with them in the wilderness, were such as to render it utterly impossible for them to keep any day but the last of the week.

If we shall succeed in doing this, as there is in Him "neither variableness nor shadow of turning," as he never does anything the effect of which he does not previously comprehend, and, as the rule of action is precisely the same now as then, we shall be condemned for attempting, now, that which the Hebrew then found it impossible to accomplish. Or, to state the proposition in another form, as there can never be any shade of conflict between God's revealed will and his secret purpose, as his words and his acts always tend to the same end, if the former were designed to vindicate the idea of a variable Sabbath, the latter would have been equally decided in its favor. We will, for the sake of brevity, suppose that some one of the mighty host of Israelites had been seized with this modern notion. He has conformed to the usage of the multitude a long time; but finally he grows restless, and makes it manifest by intimating that Moses takes too much upon himself, in that he teaches the people that all are to keep the Sabbath simultaneously, since this, to his mind, was by no means a part of the original plan. Weary, at last, with simple remonstrance, he takes a step further, determined either to become a martyr to his own faith, or revolutionize that of the camp.

Sunday affords a convenient opportunity for carrying his plan into operation. As with the Hebrews, that day began with the setting of the sun on what is now Saturday evening, he assembles his family in his tent at that period, they having been previously notified of, and having acquiesced in, his intention. As the shades of evening draw on, they retire to rest, wooed by the almost holy stillness of the night into the impression that they are keeping an acceptable Sabbath unto the Lord. Morning dawns at last; and, as the rising sun throws for the first time his golden pencils of light across the landscape, they awaken to the consciousness that it is holy time. The first inclination is to break a fast which has been of so long duration that nature is somewhat importunate in her demand for food. This is especially true of the children, and they clamor for bread. But their appeals are unheeded; there is not a morsel of food in the tent.

It is true that the fields without are white with that most delicious substance, whose taste was said to be "like unto wafers mingled with honey;" but they remembered that the Lord had said that the people must not go out to gather it upon the Sabbath day. Ex. 16:29. The dilemma is an unpleasant one. The father appreciates the awkwardness of the situation, and, stung to the quick at the prospect that his first attempt at innovation must prove abortive, since it would be folly to persist in it under the circumstances, and anxious to shift the responsibility of failure to the shoulders of another, reprovingly inquires of his wife why she did not foresee this upon the previous day, and guard against by furnishing a double portion of manna, according to the usual custom. She gently reminds him that it was impossible; for, that being the seventh day, no manna had fallen, else the word of the Lord would have been broken. Ex. 16:26. Mortified, but not corrected, and failing to comprehend to its full extent the moral which this lesson ought to have taught, he attributes his first failure to the unfortunate selection of a day that had been preceded by one upon which there was no fall of manna, and decides to make one more effort. Monday furnishes the first opportunity for this purpose, and is therefore fixed upon; and Sunday, the very one which had witnessed his disappointment, becomes the preparation day for the second experimental Sabbath. There is now no lack either of the material to prepare, or of a disposition to put it in a state of readiness for the morrow. When the seething and baking of a sufficient quantity is completed, it is viewed with evident satisfaction, since it is supposed to furnish a complete guaranty against a failure similar to the one which had occurred in the past. The sun goes down, and holy time is once more fairly entered upon, the night is passed in unbroken silence, and the first dawn is hailed as the arrival of the auspicious moment which is to witness the triumphant vindication of a theory, the enemies of which, through the merest accident, have been enabled to ridicule for a period.

Again, the family circle is complete. As they gather around to partake of the morning meal, the urn, in which is deposited that which is one and the same time the precious food of angels and that of God's wandering people, is brought forth and its cover removed, in order that each one may receive his portion of its most delicious contents. How perfect the revulsion of feeling and how great the chagrin, when they find in the place of that for which their souls longed, a living mass of loathsome worms. The words of Moses, that they should not keep any of that which was gathered on any day but the sixth until the morning, are brought to mind; and they perceive, at last, that they have but repeated the experiment of those who had formerly disregarded this injunction, and found that "it bred worms, and stank." Ex. 16:20. But folly had not yet run her perfect round. Reason seemed to have been dethroned until Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are tried with like success.

Upon the first day of the week, that which many are now solemnizing in supposed obedience to the commandment, there was found no food at all, while upon the remaining five, it was in such a condition as to forbid the entertaining, for a moment, the thought of its being appropriated as food by mortal man.

Thus terminates the first attempt to confound the sacred with the profane. Its victim, thoroughly humbled and profoundly penitent, returns to the old way, a wiser and a better man, resolving in the future, to atone, as far as possible, for the past, by a faithful observance of the Lord's Sabbath. Making Friday the preparation day, he once more enters upon its solemn hours. How different the experience now! No hunger here, nor sight of nauseating food! The creature is in harmony with the Creator. The latter, to make up for the lack of manna on the seventh day, gives a double portion on the sixth; and to obviate the difficulty which would arise from the fact that the manna which ordinarily fell would become corrupt within twenty-four hours, by an exercise of divine power, he makes this of a nature to last forty-eight.

Thus did the Lord distinctly teach his ancient people that his Sabbath was a particular, definite day of the week. If you would feel the force with which this conviction must have rested down upon their minds, you have but to remember that there were in each week, three distinct acts of God, or, if you please, miracles, all tending to confirm them in it; viz., the falling of the manna on the six days, the giving of a double portion on the last of them, the preservation of this over the seventh, and the absence of any, whatever, on this. Also, that, as there are in the year fifty-two weeks, they must have witnessed in each year one hundred and fifty-six of these occurrences (there being three each week), and, in the forty years of their wanderings in the wilderness, the enormous aggregate of six thousand, two hundred and forty.