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The universal and oxclueive designation of the day. 



the Sabbath having ever been ^'enjoined'^ on any people, ex- 

 cepting^^on the Jews'' (and those sojourning " witliin tlieir 

 gates''), the obligation of Saturday^ under the law, is clearly 

 commensurate with the obligation of the institution. 



But how is Haturday " enjoined on the Jews?" Simply, 

 as I before remarked, " by adopting the universal designation 

 of a well-recognizcd distinction." If the word " scvcn/' 

 having been in familiar use long before the Sabbath law, 

 rcquired no legal dcfiuition, so " the seventh day" of the week, 

 having been long antecedently cstablished, as little stood in 

 need of explanation. Hcnce, in the very outset of the Sab- 

 batic regulation, we find no hint of any date of computation. 

 (^Exod. xvi. 5.) It would have been superfluous. As ration- 

 ally might the word *^ day" have been defined. It requires, 

 then, no very profound research, or legal acumen, to discovér 

 with prccision, in this case, the meaning of the lawgivcr and 

 the application of the law. Both in the Decalogue and in 

 the preparatory enactment just prcccding {Exod. xx. 10; and 

 xvi. 2G), the language is most explicit: ';^'3iyn DV {^om ha- 

 sliihimji) "day *the seventh' is the Sabbath." To all who 

 understood the language, misconception and ecjuivocation were 

 alike impossible. The law appointed a specific "day" in the 

 most perspicuous manner possible ; it described the day in- 

 tendcd by using the appropriate name of that day, and the 

 only name that day had ! As I expressed mysclf in my 

 former lieply (p. 88) : " The term ' Sunday' is not more 

 precisive in our law than is the term ^ha-sMhin(j{ in that of 

 the Hebrews. It is applicable to no ^ seventh day' but 

 Saturday.^' 



But, says my friend, in reply : " This last remark is the 

 purest assumption. As it is by no means self-evident, I must 

 demand ample proof before I can admit its truth. Is the proof 

 found in ^ the universal designation of a wcU-rccognizcd dis- 

 tinction V If so, then the inference irresistibly follows that 

 the seventh-day Sabbath [!] was universally recognized hr>fore 



17* 



