We have already seen that God’s plan was to measure the days by the setting of the sun. This being the case, the fourth day, on which the sun was made, commenced at the precise point where at the time of its creation it would have appeared to a person to the east of it as sinking out of sight in the west. The day commencing at that point passed around the earth until every portion of it had in succession witnessed the setting of the sun on the fifth day. The only difficulty that remains in the case, consequently, is that of deciding where the day-line should be located. As already discovered, the practice of nations has fixed it in the Pacific Ocean. It is not a little remarkable that sailors change their reckoning while crossing that ocean backward or forward, and circumnavigate the globe at will without the slightest confusion. The only instance which has been cited in which any trouble has occurred, or any confusion of date has arisen, is that of Pitcairn’s Island, in which they failed to make the change under consideration.[19] Had they done this, they would have found themselves in harmony with the great mass of men living on the same meridian with their insignificant island. The only matter of debate which remains is that concerning the proper location of the day-line. Has there or has there not been a mistake made in fixing upon the place where it belongs? Certain it is that the providence of God seems to harmonize with the present arrangement. Man commenced his existence in the east. The progress of empire has been westward. Emigration has carried with it a harmonious system of counting the days, by which they have been recognized as beginning on the eastern, and traveling to the western, continent. Especially is this true of the Christian world. But, again, is there not, aside from this providential arrangement and from the universal opinion that the day does begin in the east, as well as the fact that scientific men have established the point of changing the reckoning somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, some additional reason for supposing that God would choose this locality for the beginning of the day? We answer, There is. Should the day-line run through any continent or large body of land, it will be readily perceived that it would produce great confusion, since, on the one side of it, though imaginary in its character, individuals would be keeping the seventh day of the week, while on the other, their neighbors in close proximity to them would not yet have made their exit from the sixth.