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when he tells the Corinthians that the Lord 'rose again on the third day.' But without going so far or nearly so far as Loisy, we may reasonably think that the planetary associations of the day may, perhaps almost must, have contributed to its sanctity and do something to account for an institution, the origin of which is in fact somewhat obscure, or at any rate requires rather more consideration than it usually receives.
For in the first place we may ask whether a weekly commemoration of any event is a natural proceeding. The instinct of men in these matters is as I have said intensive. We prefer to keep yearly commemorations. Friday, it is true, is a fast-day, but otherwise the Church does not commemorate the Crucifixion every week. No one wishes for a weekly Christmas. In secular matters no one proposes to celebrate weekly the detection of the Gunpowder Plot or Armistice Day or his own birthday. Asa matter of fact the day of the week on which these events occurred is known to no one (unless he takes the trouble to investigate it) in the case of the first, to few in the case of the second and almost as few in the case of the third. But a more important consideration is that, though the predominant reason assigned in the second century is the Resurrection, it is not the only one. Justin, in the passage quoted above, couples with the Resurrection the beginning of creation, and elsewhere, thinking of Sunday as the eighth day, he
