2. As sustaining scripturally this argument for the divine appointment of the Sabbath for the race of mankind, let it be noted that the seven-day division of time is unquestionably traceable to this primeval institution. It did not originate in the revolution of the earth on its axis which makes the common day, nor in its revolution in its orbit round the sun which makes the year, nor in the changes of the moon which mark off lunar months. It is an abnormal――we might say unnatural division of time――one which comes not of nature but from a source above nature――from God directly and from God alone. Historically we find this seventh-day period in existence during the flood. Noah observed it and sent out the raven and the dove after seven-day intervals of time.――――It becomes most distinctly apparent in the recorded history of the manna (Ex. 16: 22–30). By the natural law of the manna, each next day’s supply was distilled each night upon the adjacent grounds, ready for the labor of gathering it in the early morning. This would normally make labor a necessity for their subsistence _every day_, leaving them no Sabbath. Therefore God arrested the normal law at the Sabbath point and provided a double supply on the morning next preceding, giving none on the morning of the Sabbath. Moreover by another special provision, this double supply was kept two days from putrefaction――in this case only, so that it sufficed perfectly for their wants till the Sabbath was past. Some of the people, oblivious of the Sabbath, “went out on the seventh day to gather, and found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Ex. 16: 27–30). Most decisively therefore does this narrative assume that the Sabbath was not then a new institution but an old one. This scene and these words, be it remembered, were before (not after) the giving of the ten commandments from Sinai.