The Seventh Day Sabbath | Page 3

best of reasons, that it did not commence there. Let us examine
the text. "And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice
as much bread as on any preceding day, and all the rulers of the
congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them this is that
which the Lord hath said, to-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath,
bake that which ye will bake, &c. &c." If this had been the establishing
of the holy Sabbath and Moses had said to-morrow shall be the Sabbath,
then would it have been clear; but no, he speaks as familiarly about it
as we do when we say that to-morrow is the Sabbath, showing
conclusively that it was known before, or how could the people have
known that they must gather two day's manna on Friday the sixth day,
unless they had had some previous knowledge of the Sabbath? for
Moses had already taught them not to "leave any of it until the
morning"--v. 19. The 20th verse shows that the Sabbath had not yet
come since their receiving the manna, because it spoiled and "bred
worms by the next morning;" whereas, on the Sabbath morning it was
found sweet and eatible--24th v. This was the thirtieth day after leaving
Egypt (1st v.) and twenty days before it was given on Sinai. The
weekly Sabbath then was appointed before this or before the days of
Moses. Where was it then? Answer, in the second chapter of Genesis
and no where else; and the same week on which the manna fell, the
weekly Sabbath was revived among or with God's chosen people.
Grotius tells us "that the memory of the creation's being performed in
seven days, was preserved not only among the Greeks and Italians, but
among the Celts and Indians." Other [6]writers say Assyrians,
Egyptians, Arabians, Britons and Germans, all of whom divide their
time into weeks. Philo says "the Sabbath is not peculiar to any one
people or country, but is common to all the world." Josephus states
"that there is no city either of Greeks or barbarians or any other nation,
where the religion of the Sabbath is not known." But as they, like the
great mass of God's professed people in christendom, paid little or no
heed to what God had said about the particular day, (except the Jews,
and a few others) they (as we are informed in history) adopted peculiar
days to suit themselves, viz: the christian nations chose to obey the
Pope of Rome, who changed the seventh day Sabbath to the first day,

and call it the holy Sabbath; the Persians selected Monday; the
Grecians Tuesday; the Assyrians Wednesday; the Egyptians Thursday;
the Turks Friday, and the Jews the seventh day, Saturday, as God had
commanded. Three standing miracles a week, for about forty years
annually, ought to perpetuate the Sabbath. 1st, double the quantity of
manna on the sixth day; 2d, none on the seventh; 3d, did not spoil on
the seventh day. If it does not matter which day you keep holy to the
Lord, then all these nations are right. Now reflect one moment on this,
and then open your bible and read the commandment of the God of all
these nations! "REMEMBER! (what you have been taught before) the
Sabbath day to keep it holy;" (which day is it Lord?) "the SEVENTH is
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant nor thy maid servant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger, that is within thy gates." Who is the
stranger? (Gentiles.) Now the reason for it will carry us back again to
Paradise. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested on the SEVENTH; wherefore the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." "Wherefore the
children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath
throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant; it is a SIGN
between me and the children of Israel forever." (Why is it Lord?) "For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the SEVENTH day
he rested and was refreshed." Exo. xx and xxxi. Which day now will
you choose? O, says the reader, the seventh if I knew which of the days
it was. If you don't know, why are you so sure that the first day is right?
O, [7]because the history of the world has settled that, and this is the
most we can know. Very well then, does not the seventh come the day
before the eighth? If we have not got the days of the week right now, it
is