blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:
because that in it He had rested from all
His work which God created and made.”
Genesis 2:2, 3.
God did something different on this
seventh day from what He did on any other
day of creation week. He brought the
earth, and the things upon it, into existence
on the six days, and on the seventh day He
finished His work by resting. Then He
sanctified and blessed the seventh day, set
it apart, appointed it to be kept. There
certainly can be no dispute, no argument
at all upon this point. In the beginning
God established the seventh day as His
blessed, holy rest day. That is clear, is it
not?
But there still remains the question,
Can we identify that day now? Six thou-
sand years have passed; nations have risen
and fallen; generations have come and gone.
The world itself was overturned at the time
of the Flood. Human handiwork has been
broken up again and again. Over large
parts of the surface of the world ignorance
has reigned. Calendars have come and
gone. Here we are, living in the twentieth
century of the Christian era. Can we today
locate that identical seventh day from
creation? If we can, we have found the
Sabbath.
All will agree that the seventh day was
known by the immediate descendants of
Adam. In fact, an institution has come to
us in these days,—an institution separate
from the Sabbath, —which gives us evi-
dence of a uniformity in the practice of
man in counting time from that day to
this. That mstitution is the week.
Other periods of time which have been
grouped together and called by certain
names, such as the months and years, are
marked by definite movements of the celes-
tial bodies. Take the year, for instance.
DECEMBER, 1942
How is its length determined?—By the
movement of the earth in its orbit around
the sun in about 36514 days. The lunar
month is determined by the movement of
the moon. The length of the day is fixed
by the revolution of the earth on its axis.
But what movement of any heavenly
body determines the length of the week?
—None. It is not a natural but a manda-
tory division of time, and nothing in na-
ture suggests it. No moon circles this earth
in seven days, nor does any other planet
swing around it in seven days. No heavenly
planet, by its movements, so far as we
know, groups seven days into a period of
time. Where, then, did the world get its
week, if not at creation?
In the Encyclopedia Britannica I find
this statement:
“The week is a period of seven days,
having no reference whatever to the celes-
tial motions,—a circumstance to which it
owes its unalterable uniformity. . . . It
has been employed from time immemorial
in almost all Eastern countries; and as it
forms neither an aliquot part of the year
nor of the lunar month, those who reject
the Mosale recital will be at a loss, as
Delambre remarks, to assign it to an
origin having much semblance of proba-
bility.”—Vol. IV, art. “Calendar,” p. 988,
11th edition.
How will you account for the week?
Where did the grouping of seven days find
a place in the reckoning of the human
family, and for what reason has the week
been maintained in nearly all nations
throughout all the centuries of human
history, with a uniformity which has never
been broken?
We can find an answer to this query only
in the Sabbath institution. The well-nigh
universal recognition of the week is evi-
dence which cannot be disputed. It is
¥ Divine worship on board the U. S. S.
“Arkansas,” at Barcelona, Spain, when the
Midshipmen’s Practice Squadron visited that
country.
00 &&
positive proof that the Sabbath has been
known from the very earliest time, for days
are grouped into weeks wherever we may
go throughout the world, showing that the
week dates back to the very earliest years
of human history.
Can the Head Talk?
(Continued from page 7)
the sin that kept him out of the land of
Canaan, God, foretelling his death, said
to Moses, “Behold, thou shalt sleep with
thy fathers.” Deuteronomy 31:16. Both
the Old and the New Testament agree 1u
this particular; both Testaments liken
death to sleep; that is, this death that we
all die, good and bad alike. One further
thought: Paul says that it is the sleeping
saints that will be resurrected. (See
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-17.)
Our next question is, “ Where do we go
at death?” “Man dieth, and wasteth away:
yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where
is he?” Job 14:10. Job answers in verse
12, “So man lieth down, and riseth not:
till the heavens be no more, they shall not
awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
O that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave,
that Thou wouldst keep me secret, until
Thy wrath be passed, that Thou wouldst
appoint me a set time, and remember me!”
“If IT wait, the grave is mine house: I have
made my bed in the darkness.” Job 17:13.
In these texts Job first asks, ¢“ What shall
become of us at death?” He then proceeds
to answer his own question. He himself
likens death to sleep, and says that we shall
not be awakened out of our sleep until the
end of time (till the heavens be no more).
He says further that God would hide him in
the grave; and in the last verse he defi-
nitely says that while he is waiting in sleep,
or death, for the resurrection, he will wait
in the grave. Place beside this text the one
we read a moment ago in Ecclesiastes 9: 10,
“There is no work, nor device, nor knowl-
edge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither
thou goest.”
Let us read another text in the Old
Testament, this time in Daniel 12:2.
Speaking of the morning of the resurrection
at the end of the world, Daniel says,
“Many of them that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting con-
tempt.” From these texts we learn that
the Old Testament agrees that we stay in
the grave from the moment of death, until
the morning of the resurrection.
Now let us go to the New Testament.
“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming,
in the which all that are in the graves shall
hear His voice.” These are words of Jesus
(Continued on page 15)
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