The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-04-07
A NEW q EsTION.
when Does sunday Hegin? when
Does it END?

Does it END?
prof. Tyndall in rineteenth Century.
Tbeolocisns we're Mortified when iirst IN
formed that our planet was sphere. Inc
question of antipodes exercised them for
long time, most of them pouring ridicu'e on
the idea that men could exist with their feet
turned toward us, and with their heads
pointed downward. think it il Sir George
Airy who refers TO tie case of an over CD
rious individual asking what we sn9uld see
If we went to the edge of the world and
looked over. That the earth was hat
surface on which the sky rested, was the
belief entertained BY the founders OF all our
GREAT religious systems. Even liberal pro-
tastsnt theologians stigmatized the Copernl.
can theory as being "built on fallible phe-
nomena and advanced by many arbitrary as.
sumptons against evident testimonies OF
scripture" Newton finally placed MS inteilec-
tual crowbar beneath these ancient notlops
and heaved them into lrr otrlevaDle rum. Inen
il was that penetrating minds, seeing the
nature of the change wrought by the new
astronomy III our conceptions OF tne universe,
also discovered the difficulty, II not the i'm
possibility. of accepting literally the Mosaic
account of creation. They did not reject it,
but they assigned to it meaning entirely
new. DR.. Samuel Clark, who was the per-
sonal friend of Newton and supporter of
bis theory. threw out the idea that "possibly
the six days of creation might be typical
representation of greater periods" Clark's
contemporary, Sir Thomas Burnet, wrote
with greater decision 10 the same strain. The
Sabbath being regarded as shadow or type
of that heavenly repose which the righteous
will enioy when this world has passed away,
$50 these six days OF creation are SO many
periods of milenniums for which
the world and the tolls and labors
of our present state are destined TO
endure" The Mosaic account was thus re-
duced to poetic myth--a view which al
terward found expression in the vast reve.
ries of Hugh Miller But if this symbolic
Interpretation, which is now generally ac-
ceptet, be the true one, what becomes OF the
Sabbath7 dsy? 1t is absolutely without &C.
clesiastical meaning, and the man who was
executed for gathering sticks on that day
must be regarded rs the victim OF a rude
legal rendering of a religious epic There
are MANY minor ofIshoots OF discussion from
the great central controversy. BISHOP
Horsely has defned day "ss consisting OF
one evening and one morning, or, as the He
brew words literally import, OF the decay OF
light and the return of it," But what then,
it was asked, becomes ofthe Sabbath in the
Arctic regions, where light takes SIX months
to "decay" and as long to return"
Differences of longitude, moreover, render
the observance of the Sabbath at the same
hours impossible. 10 some people
such questions might appear trihing; to
others they were of the greatest import
Whether the Sabbath should stretch from
sunset to sunset, or from midnight to mid
night, was also subject of discussion.
Voices, moreover, >were heard refusing to
acknowledge the propriety of the change
from Saturday to Sunday, and the doctrine
of seventh day Observance was 'atterward
represented by sect. Tho earth's spher-
jcity and rotation, which had al hrst been
received with such alright, came eventually
to the aid of those afflicted with qualms and
difficulties regarding the respective claims
of Saturday and Sunday. The sun appa-
rently moves from cast to west. Suppose,
then, we start on voyage round the world
in a westerly direction. La 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 he exactly an hour late; and after the
ship has traversed twenty-fou- times fifteen
degrees, or 800 degress-that is to say, the
entire circle of the esrth-the sun will be
exactly day behind. Here, then. is the
oxpedient suggested by DIR. Wallis, r. X. s.,
Savilisn professor Of geometry in the uni
versity 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,
s'goine out on the Atlantic OCEAN westward
by the straits Of Magellan TO the East
Indies, and then to the east, returning by
the Cspe Of Good Hope homeward, and Jet
them keep their Saturday Sabbath all the
way. When they come home TO England
they will find their Saturday 10 fall upon
car Sunday, and they may henceforth con-
tinue 10 observe their Saturday Sabbath on