In order to do this, let it be supposed that the day begins when it did in Bible times, with the setting of the sun. It is, if you please, Sunday at Pekin, and those who keep that day commence to celebrate it at sunset. Now, if we would ascertain just when the citizens of Rome would enter upon a like service, it is only necessary to determine how long it would take the sunset to travel the distance separating these two cities. By consulting the draft in question, we find that the time at Rome is six hours and fifty-five minutes slower than that at Pekin. This being the case, the sunset would reach them, and they would enter upon the first day of the week just six hours and fifty-five minutes after those dwelling on the meridian of Pekin have done so.
So we might go through the whole list. As the world revolves upon its axis, it would bring London to the same point where the people of Rome saw the sun sink in the west and entered upon the Sunday, just fifty minutes subsequent to that event. The citizens of New York would begin their Sunday, also, with the sunset, four hours and fifty-five minutes after those of London did so; and those of Chicago, fifty-five minutes later than those of New York; and those of San Francisco, two hours and twenty minutes subsequent to those of Chicago. All, however, would be hallowing the same day, though not, for a portion of the time, the same hours.[[18]] Each, in his own proper locality, would commence to keep the day when it reached him, and continue to keep it until by a complete revolution of the earth he is brought around to the commencement of another day, as indicated by another decline of the sun. This is as God would have it.
In the passage from Egypt to Palestine there was a variation of some minutes; but there was no change in the time of commencing the Sabbath. From even to even shall you keep your Sabbaths, was the divine edict, and his people, in going eastward or westward, obeyed this injunction. In doing so they needed no time-piece; nor would the traveler at the present time. In every habitable region, according to God’s plan, the great luminary of heaven visibly marks the boundaries of sacred time. The day began in the east, and travels to the west. A complete revolution of the earth brings it, with its complement of light and darkness, to the home of every man, no matter as to the meridian of longitude in which he lives. It is the same day, in the Bible sense, as that kept by the Christian thousands of miles to the east of him, though it may not begin at exactly the same moment.
Practically, this question has no real significance whatever. Though it may puzzle the brain of one who has not before him the facts, it has been settled forever in a most remarkable manner by the usage of mankind. The fact is beyond cavil that, from the extreme eastern boundary of the eastern continent to the extreme western verge of the western continent, there is such a perfect agreement upon this point that each day of the week, commencing on the western shore of the Pacific, continues its course across Asia, Europe, and America, until it arrives at the eastern shore of the same sea. So true is this that, were there a line of churches surmounted with bells, in hearing distance of each other, they could ring in the commencement of any day; say at Yokohama in Japan, and its march could be made known along the whole line from that place to San Francisco by a like practice in each of the churches, without a solitary break until the last bell on the Pacific coast had announced its arrival there. Whether it be admitted that it can be done or not, it is a fact that the Christians from China to California do observe the same Sabbath or Sunday all along the line between the two points.
Should it be replied that, although there is a uniform reckoning of the days to those passing from San Francisco eastward to China, or from China westward to San Francisco, that, nevertheless, should they cross the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco westward to China, or from China eastward to San Francisco, it would be necessary for them in the first case to add a day, and in the last, to drop one, in order to make their time harmonize with that of the people in these two countries, the reply is, that this is very true. It does not, however, prove that there is no definite day which can be kept alike by the inhabitants of the two continents; for in order to the keeping of the same day on a round world there must somewhere be a day-line, in other words, there must be a point where the day begins. In crossing that line the same result would ensue as that claimed in the passage from California to China via the Pacific, i. e., a day must be either dropped or added in the reckoning of the individual making the transit.
We have already seen that God’s plan was to measure the days by the setting of the sun. This being the case, the fourth day, on which the sun was made, commenced at the precise point where at the time of its creation it would have appeared to a person to the east of it as sinking out of sight in the west. The day commencing at that point passed around the earth until every portion of it had in succession witnessed the setting of the sun on the fifth day. The only difficulty that remains in the case, consequently, is that of deciding where the day-line should be located. As already discovered, the practice of nations has fixed it in the Pacific Ocean. It is not a little remarkable that sailors change their reckoning while crossing that ocean backward or forward, and circumnavigate the globe at will without the slightest confusion. The only instance which has been cited in which any trouble has occurred, or any confusion of date has arisen, is that of Pitcairn’s Island, in which they failed to make the change under consideration.[[19]] Had they done this, they would have found themselves in harmony with the great mass of men living on the same meridian with their insignificant island.
The only matter of debate which remains is that concerning the proper location of the day-line. Has there or has there not been a mistake made in fixing upon the place where it belongs? Certain it is that the providence of God seems to harmonize with the present arrangement. Man commenced his existence in the east. The progress of empire has been westward. Emigration has carried with it a harmonious system of counting the days, by which they have been recognized as beginning on the eastern, and traveling to the western, continent. Especially is this true of the Christian world.
But, again, is there not, aside from this providential arrangement and from the universal opinion that the day does begin in the east, as well as the fact that scientific men have established the point of changing the reckoning somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, some additional reason for supposing that God would choose this locality for the beginning of the day? We answer, There is. Should the day-line run through any continent or large body of land, it will be readily perceived that it would produce great confusion, since, on the one side of it, though imaginary in its character, individuals would be keeping the seventh day of the week, while on the other, their neighbors in close proximity to them would not yet have made their exit from the sixth.
To avoid this difficulty, therefore, the only remedy which could be found would consist in the employment of some great natural boundary, such as a range of mountains or an expanse of water, by which those on one side of the day-line would be so separated as to prevent the disorder which must arise from constant and uninterrupted intercommunication. That there is any range of mountains stretching northward and southward from pole to pole which would answer the purpose in question, no one will insist. The only resource left, consequently, is that of those vast bodies of water called seas or oceans.
Turning now to the one which is known as the Atlantic Ocean, it is found that the day-line could not be run through it without intercepting some habitable portion of the globe. The only resource which remains is found in the Pacific Ocean, which, as has been seen, has been selected by the mass of mankind as a suitable place in which to make those changes that would be necessary in case the day-line was actually located therein. Happily, an examination of a large globe will prove that a line drawn from Behring’s Straits southward across the latitudes which are available for the homes of mankind will not touch any portions of land whatever, or at least if it strikes any they would be so insignificant in their character that they would not be worthy of mention.