Note 40 — DIVINE MERCY; &c.

The Writer, since the completion of his Essay, has perused the First Volume of The Apocalypse Interpreted in the Light of the Day of the Lord, by the Rev. James Kelly, M.A., Minister of St. Peter’s Episcopal Chapel, Queen’s Square, St. James’s Park, from the Preface to which he has gleaned the following particulars:—‘The word Sunday is a very ancient Heathen appellation, the days of the week having been called by them after the names of the planets. The first day was denominated the day of the Sun, or the Lord Sun. All the Oriental nations gave the Sun the title of Lord. No doubt the early Christians elevated its application. For this ennobling of the common term, they considered that provision had been made by God himself, in the setting forth of Christ as the Sun of righteousness. Malachi iv. By most of the early Fathers, and from their time onwards, the term Lord’s-Day has been used to designate the Christian Sabbath.’ The Writer of this Essay, therefore, humbly submits that Christians should now call the seventh-day either the Lord’s-Day or the Sabbath-Day. In the present times this “ennobling of the common term” seems peculiarly necessary. The above Work explains many hitherto apparently mystical passages in the Revelations, and a perusal of it, in a right spirit, will supply arguments which will at once silence the sceptic, and, at the same time, confirm the reader in his belief that there is nothing contained in the Holy Scriptures, which shall not be made manifest to those who seek to be enlightened by the Spirit of God. It is published by Messrs. Nisbet and Co., London.