The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-03-29
SUNDAY.
When Dees it Begin?
And When End.
Tynoll's Opinions as given in
the Nineteenth Century.

Theologians were Mortified when frst
informed that our planet was a sphere
The question of antipodes exercised thep,
tor long time, most of them pouring ridi
Guile on the idea that men could exist with
their feet turned toward US. aud with their
heads pointed downward. | think il is
Sir George Airy who refers to the case OF
an over curious individual aeking what we
should see if we went to the edge of the
world and looked oyer. That the earth
was fat surface on which the sky rested
was the belief entertained by the founders
Of all our great religious systems. Even
liberal Protestant theologians stigmatized
the Copernicau theory as being built on
fallible phenomena and advanced by
10 any arbitrary assum ptions against evi
dent testimonies of Scripture" New
ton finally placed his intellectual crow
bar beneath these ancient notions
and heaved them into irretrievable ruin
Then it was that penetrating minds. seeing
the nature of the change wrought by the
new astronomy In our conceptions of the
universe, also discovered the difficulty, if
not the impossibihty, of accepting literally
the Mosaic account of creation. They did
not reject it, but they assigned to it a
meaning entirely new. DR.. Samuel Clark,
who was the personal friend of Newton
apd Q supporter OF his theory, threw
out the idea that spossialv the sig days Of
creation might be typical representation
of greater periods" Clark contemporary
Sir Thomas Burnett, wrote with greater
decision 10 the same strain. The Sab
bath being regarded as a shadow
or type of that heavenly repose which
the righteous will enjoy when this world
has passed away, so these six days
of creation are SO many periods OF milen-
NUNS for which the world and the tolls
spd labors of our present state are destin-
ed to endure" The Mosaic ACCOUNT was
thus reduced to q poetc myth-a view
which afterwards found expression in the
vast reveriss of Hugh Miller. But If this
sympolic Interpretation, which is now
generally accepted. be the true one, what
becomes of the Sabbath day." 1t is abso-
lutely without ecclesiastical meaning, and
the man who was executed for gathering
sticks on that day must be regarded as the
victim of rude legal rendering of relig-
ious epic. There are many minor off
shoots of discussion from the great central
controversy, Bishop Horsely has defined
day 'as consisting of one evening and one
morning. or, as the Hebrew words liter
ally import, of the decay of light and the
vi Ats DVb WBht lusus III
was asked. becomes Of the Sabbath in the
Attic regions, where light takes SIX
months to 'sdeeay" and as long to ''re-
turDE" Difference of longitude, moreover.
render the observance of the Sabbath at
the same hours impossible. To some
people such questions might appear
triGiBg; TO others they we're OF the great
est Whether the Sabbath stretch from
sunset, or from midnight to midnight. was
also a subject of discussion, Voices,
moreover, were heard refusing to acknow
ledge the propriety of the change from
Saturday to Sunday, and the doctrine OF
seventh day observance was afterward
represe n; ed by a sect. The earth's spher-
lofty and rotation. WHICH had at hrst been
received with such alright, came eventu
ally TO the aid of those afflicted with
qualms and difficulties regarding the re
spective claims of Saturday and Sunday.
The sun apparently moves from east 10
west Suppose, then. we start on voyage
around the world 10 a westerly direction. |
In doing SO We sail away, as it were. from
the sun, which follows and periodically
overtAkes us, reaching the meridian of
our ship each succeeding day somewhat
later than if we stood still For every
fifteen degrees Of longitude traversed By
the vessel the sun will be exactly an hour
late; and after the ship has iraversed
twenty four times fifteen degrees, or 800
degrees that is to say, the entire
circle of the earth--the sun will
be exactly day behind. Here.
then, 10 the expedient suggested by DR..
Wallis, 4. r. s., SaviIian professors of
geometry in the university of Oxford, to
quiet the minds of those in doubt regarding
Saturday observance. He recommends
them to make voyage around the world
as Sir Francis Drake did, going out of
the Atlantis ocean westward by the straits
of Magellan to the East Indies. and then
to the east. returning by the Cane of
Good Hope homeward, and let them keep
their Saturday Sabbath all The way. When
they come home to England they will End
their Saturday to fall upon eur Sunday,
and they may henceforth continue to OBJ
serve their Saturday Sabbath on the same
day with US +"