redicament for Sunday Keepers
invented this in-
terpretation sim-
ply to escape the
obvious com-
mand to keep
the seventh-day
Sabbath. But
they had no
sooner adopted
this interpreta-
tion than they
were confronted
with another dif-
ficulty. To con-
tend that the
Sabbath com-
mandment sim-
ply calls for one
day’s rest in sev-
en would leave
them with no
definite holy day
— a man could
with equal rea-
son keep the
first, the second,
the third, or any
day of the week
as his holy day
and be fulfilling
the command-
ment. Thus, in
practice, every
day would have
equal holiness,
and ultimately
and inevitably
no day would be
sacred; for defi-
niteness is neces-
sary to identity
in days as in
everything else. Thus in freeing themselves from
the binding claims of the seventh-day Sabbath they
found that they were also freeing themselves from
any sort of fixed or definite holy day. This they did
not wish to do.
Herbert Photos, Inc.
George Eastman, whose name
is synonymous with cameras
— and with calendar revision
DEgvious Logic
HEY therefore proceeded to amplify their
interpretation of the Sabbath command by the
explanation that while the command itself calls
simply for one day’s rest in seven, the Old Testa-
ment plainly declares that the seventh day of the
week was the holy day in ancient times, and that
the New Testament declares the first day of the week
to be the Sabbath for the Christian dispensation.
JULY, 1929
By such reasoning — which, however, is faulty so
far as the claim regarding the New Testament sup-
portof the first day—an apparently plausible explana-
tion is offered for their failure to keep the seventh-day
Sabbath and for their rigorous insistence on the
sanctity of the first day of the week.
So definitely did the leaders of Sunday-keeping
denominations persuade themselves as to the divine
importance of keeping holy the specific first day of
the week that the more militant, crusading element
among them have succeeded in persuading legislators
in most of the so-called Christian countries to enact
laws protecting *‘ the first day of the week, commonly
called Sunday.” And with an intolerance borrowed
from the Inquisitors of the Dark Ages, these cru-
saders have proceeded to hale before the courts those
who have been so profane as to trample even on the
edges of this specific twenty-four-hour period. And
many have naturally concluded, as a result of weary
days in prison cells and on chain gangs, that the
powerful Protestant denominations really believe
that the recurring first day of the weekly cycle is a
holy day.
Puzzrineg COMPLACENCY
OW then, are we to understand the complacency
with which these denominations in general, and
the Sunday Law Reformers in particular, view this
proposed calendar change that would cause the
specific first day of the week, commonly called
Sunday, to wander all around, only once in six
years corresponding with the day that would be
labeled “Sunday” in the new calendar? They can-
not hope to escape from the dilemma by declaring
that the change is a small one and occurs only once a
year, for it is evident that if we tamper in any way
with the weekly time eycle we immediately throw
out of line the various days of the week. The words
“first day” and ‘‘seventh day’ lose all meaning
if we skip even one day in counting the cycles of
seven. Furthermore, if we may with impunity skip
one day once a year, why may we not as safely skip
two days, or any number of days once a year — or
several times a year for that matter? The meaning
of “first day” or ‘‘seventh day’ will not thus be
any more completely destroyed, for their import
dissappears immediately when even one day is
skipped.
Sunday theologians may endeavor to minimize the
problem, but they cannot prevent the man on the
street from doing a little thinking for himself. He
would retire on a Saturday night at the end of the
first year under the new calendar and waken the
next morning prepared, from years of custom and
religious training, to consider that day as the weekly
holy day of numerous denominations. But, instead,
he discovers that it is simply (Continued from page 32)
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