HisToRY oF THE SABBATH. 155
weekly Sabbath. And thus Dr. Akers reconciles the
truthfulness of his theory and the veracity of the evan-
gelists. :
Dr. Akers’ attempt to count the exact number of
days from creation to the sixteenth of Abib at the exo-
dus, and his Biblical argument to show that God gave
Israel a new Sabbath by ordaining the fifteenth day of
the month, or sixth day of the previously-existing week,
for that purpose, are two propositions neither of which
amount to anything fur his purpose unless he can prove
the other.
For if he cannot prove by his counting of days that
the sixteenth of Abib was the original Sabbath from
the creation of the world, then his subsequent argument
to prove that the fifteenth of Abib was so regulated as
to come each year upon the seventh day of the Jewish
week, even if it be sustained, does not prove that the
seventh day of this Jewish week was not identical with
the seventh day reckoned from creation.
And again, if he fails to prove that the fifteenth day
of Abib must necessarily come upon the seventh day
of the Jewish week, even though we could find conclu-
sive evidence that he had reckoned time so exactly as
to be certain that the sixteenth day of Abib was the
seventh day from creation, we should then have no evi-
dence that the seventh day of the Jewish week was not
the seventh day from creation. The establishment of
one of the propositions amounts to nothing unless he
can establish the other.
Let us see what Dr. Akers is attempting to accom-
plish : It can be stated in one sentence: He is laboring
to prove that God took away the Paradisaical Sabbath
from the Hebrews, and that he gave them a ceremonial
sabbath in its place.
And what makes him anxious to do this? Simply
that he may show that the so-called Christian Sabbath
is the day ordained by God in Eden. If he can do
this, then he vindicates the prevailing first-day observ-
ance. If he fails to do it, then that observance has uo