The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1892-01-14

The flight Of Time-God Rules the sfad-
ows-Daybreak on the Heights of the
Mountain Tops-Fun Report Of Re-
| markabIe Discourse.
BROOKLYN, Jan. 10.-Dr. Talmagef
sermon this morning was full of
brightness and good cheer. He might
have called tia receipt for happiness.
The buoyancy and elasticity of tenn
permanent which characterize him
were conspicuous throughout, and
must have been impaired to his hear
ers. His text was II Kings Xxx, II,
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto
the Lord: and he brought the shadow
ten degrees backward, by which it
had gone down in the dial of Ahaz"
Here is the first clock or watch or
chronometer or timepiece of which
the world has any knowledge. But
it was watch that did not tick and
a clock that did not strike. 1t was
sundial. Ahaz, the king, invented
it. Between the hours given to state
craft and the cares Of office he in
vented something by which he could
tell the time of day. This sundial
may have been a great column, and
when the shadow of that column
reached one point it was nine o'clock
a. m, and when it reached another
point it was three o'clock p. m, and
all the hours and half hours were so
measured. Or it may have been a
flight of stairs such as may now be
found in Hindostan and other old
countries, and when the shadow
reached one step it was ten o'clock a.
m, or another step it was four o'clock
p. m, and likewise other hours may
have been indicated
TINE MEASURE.
The clepsydra or water clock fol
lowed the sundial, and the sand
glass followed the clepsydra. Then
came the candle clock of Alfred the
Great, and the candle was marked
into three parts, and while the first
part was burning he gave himself to
religion, and while the second part
was burning he gave himself to poll
tics, and while the third part was
burning he gave himself to rest.
After awhile came the wheel and
weight clock, and Pope Sylvester the
Second was its most important in
ventor. And the skill of centuries
of exquis-ite mechanism toiled at the
timepieces until the world had the
Vick's clock of the Fourteenth CEN
fury, and Huyghens, the inventor,
swung the first pendulum, and DR..
Hooke contrived the recoil escape
ment.
And the endless chain" followed,
and the ratchet and pinion lever"
took its place, and the compensation
balance and the stemwinder fol
lowed, and now we have the buzz
and clang of the great clock and
watch factories of Switzerland and
Germany and England and America
turning out what seems to be the
perfection of timepieces. 1t took
the world six thousand years to make
the present chronometer. So with
the measurement of longer spaces
than minutes and hours.
Time was calculated from new
moon to new moon; then from har-
vest to harvest. Then the year was
pronounced to be three hundred and
fiftyfour days and then three hun
dred and sixty days and, not until
a long while after, three hundred and |
sixty-fve days. Then events were
calculated from the foundation of |
Rome, afterward from the Olympic |
games. Then the Babylonians had |
their measurement Of the year, and |
the Romans theirs, and the Armen-
ians theirs, and the Hindoos theirs.
Chronology was busy for centuries |
studying monuments, inscriptions,
coins, mummies and astronomy, try
ing to lay plan by which all ques-
tons of dates might be settled and |
events put in their right place in the
procession of the ages. But the |
chronologists only heaped upa noun
tain of confusion and bewilderment |
until in the Sixth century Dionysius
Exiguus, Roman abbot, said, ''Let |
everything date from the birth at |
Bethlehem of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Saviour Of the world"
The abbot proposed to have things
dated backward and forward from
that great event. What splendid
thought for the worldl What a
thing for Christianity It
would have been most natural to
date everything from the creation of |
world. But am glad the chronolo-
gists could not too easily guess how
old the world was in order to get the
nations in the habit of dating from
that occurrence in its documents and
histories.
Forever fixed is It that all history
is to be dated with reference to the
birth of Christ, and, this matter set
tied, Hales. the. chief chronologist,
declared that tho world was made
five thousand four hundred and
eleven years be fore Christ, and the
deluge came three thousand one
hundred and fifty-iive years before
Christ, and all the illustrious events
d the last nineteen centuries and all
tho great events of all time to
come have been or shall be dated
from the birth of Christ. These
things say that you may know
what watch is, what a clock is,
what an almanac is, and learn to ap-
preciate tn ough what tolls and hard
ships and pc s:olexities the world came
to its present srnnveniences and COM
forts, and to hclp you to more respect
full consideration of the sundial of
Ahaz planted in 1ny text.
We are told hat Hezekiah, the
king, was dying d :. ooil. It must
have been one of the worst kind of
carbuncles, boil without any CEN ,
tTal core and sometimes beautiful. A
hg was put upon it as a poultice. ,
iezakah did not want to die then. ,
t1ls son, who was to take the king s
1OfSl had not Uof 1>ao,, l>o>- |