The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-04-03
A NEW q ESTION e..
When Does sunday Begin? When
Does IL End:


Prof. Tyndall In Nineteenth Century.
Theoogians were Mortified when first in
formed that our planet was sphere. The
question of antipode. exercised them for a
long time, most of them pouring ridicue 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 10 tie case of an over Gu
rious individual asking what we should see
if we went to the edge of the world and
looked over. That the earth was fiat
surface on which the sky rested, was the
belief entertained by the founders Of all our
great religious systems. Even liberal pro-
testant theologisns stigmatized the Coperni.
can theory as being "built on fallible phe-
nomens and advanced by many arbitrary as
sumptions against evident testimonies of
scripture" Newton finally placed his intelec.
tusl crowbar beneath these ancient notions
and heaved them into irrotrievable ruin. Then
il was thSt penetrating minds, seeing the
nature of the change wrought by the new
astronomy i'll our conceptions of the universe,
also discovered the difficulty, If not the i'm.
possibility, of accepting literally the Mosaic
account Of creation. They did not reject il,
but they assigned to it meaning entirely
new. DIR. Samuel Clark, who was the per-
sonal friend of Newton and supporter OF
his theory, threw out the idea that dpossibly
the six days of creation might be typical
representation of greater periods" Clark's
contemporary, Sir Thomas Burnet, wrote
with greater decision in tho same strain. The
Sabbath being regarded as n shadow or type
of that heavenly repose which the righteous
will enjoy when this world has passed away,
$50 these six days of creation are so many
periods of milepniums 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 Wow which af-
terward found expression in tho vast reye.
ries OF Hugh Miller. But if this symbolic
Interpretation, which is now generally &C.
cepted, he the true one, what becomes of the
SabbathI day? IL is absolutely without &C.
clesiasticsl meaning, and the man who was
executed for Gathering sticks on that day
must DO regarded rs the victim of rude
legal rendering of religious epic. There
arc many minor ofIshoots OF discussion from
the great central controversy. Bishop
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 month.
to "decsy" and as long to "return?"
Differences of longitude, moreover, render
the observance Of the Sabbath at tho same
hours impossible, 10 some peoplo
such questions might appear triaing; 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, wero heard refusing TO
acknowledge the propriety of the change
from Saturday to Sunday, and tho doctrine
( OF seventh day observance was afterward
represented by sect. The esr.h's spher-
lefty and rotation. which had at first been
received with such alright, came eventually
to the aid of these afflicted with qualms and
difficulties regarding the respective claims
of Saturday and Sunday. The sun apps.
rently moves from east to west. Suppose.
( then, we start on q voyage round the world
in a westerly direction. Ia doing so wo
sail away, as it were, from the sun, which
follows and periodically overtakes us,
reaching tho meridian of our shin
each succeeding day somewhat later than IL
We stood still. For every fifteen degrees Of
longitude traverscd by the vessel the sun
will DO exactly an hour late; and after the
ship hse trsversed twenty.four times fifteen
degrees, or 800 degress-Lhat is to say, the
entire circle of the osrth--the sun will be
exactly day behind. Here, then. ia the
expedient suggested by DR.. Wallis, +. Il. 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 mako voyare
around tho world, as Sir Francis Drake do
'going out on the Atlantic ocean westward
by the straits Of Magellan to the East
Indies, and then to tho east, returning by
the Cape OF Good Hope homeward, and let
them keep their Saturday Sabbath oil tho
way. When they como home to England
they will find their Saturday 10 fall upon
eur Sunday, and they may henceforth con-
tinuo to observe their Saturday Sabbath on
tho aarno dav with ua