Connecticut western news., 1892-01-14


 other words, let the day. instead of going on toward sundown. turn and go toward sunrise.
 see the invalid king bolstered up and wrapped in blankets looking out of the window upon the sundial in the courtyard While he watches the shadow on the dial the shadow begins to retreat. Instead of going on toward six O clock in the evening it goes back toward six o'clock in the morning. The fig poultice had been drawing for some time, and. sure enough, the boil broke -Hezel1iah got we'll Now l expect you will come on with your higher criticism and try to explain this away and say 1t was an optical delusion of Heze- kiah. and tie shadow only seemed to go back or a cloud came over and it was uncertain which way the shadow did go, and as Hezeliah expected it to go back be took the action of his own mind for the retrograde move ment. No; the shadow went back on all the dials of that land and other lands.
 . Turn to II Chronicles xxxii. 31, and find that away off in Babylon the mighty men of the palace noticed the same phenomenon. And if you do not like Bible authority turn over your copy of uerodotus and find that away off in Egypt the people noticed that there was something the matter with the sun. The fact is that the whole universe waits upon God, and suns and moons and stars are not very big things to him, and he can with his little finger turn back an entire world as easily as you could set back the hour hand or minute hand of your clock or watch.
 At the opening of a new year peo- pie are moralizing on the flight of time You all feel that you are moving on toward sundown and many of you are under a consequent depression. l propose this morning to set the hands on your watches and clocks to going the other way. l propose to show you how you may make the shadow of your dial, like the shadow on the dial of Ahaz, to stop going forward and make 1t go backward. You think have a big undertaking on hand, but it can be done, if tine same Lord who reversed the shadow i'll Heze- kiah's courtyard moves upon us.
 While looking at the sundial of
 
 retreating. we ought to learn that God controls the shadows. We are all ready to acknowledge his manage. ment of the sunshine. We stand in the glow of a bright morning, and we say in our feelings, if not with Sc many words: This life is from God. This warmth is from God" Or we have a rush of prosperity. and we say: These successes are from God. What a providential thing it was bought that lot just before the rise of real estate! How grateful to God 1 am that l made that investment Why. they have declared ten per cent. dividendl What a mercy it was that sold out my shares before that col lapse!
 Oh. yes. we acknowledge God in tho sunshine of a bright day or the sunshine of a great prosperity. But suppose the day is darkl You have to light the gas at noon. The sun does not show himself all day long. There is nothing but shadow. How slow we are to realize that the storm is from God and the darkness from God and tho chill from God Or we buy the day before the markets re. treat, or we make an investment that never pays, or we purchase good that we cannot dispose of, or crop of grain we sowed is ruined by drought or frcshet. or when we took account of stock on the first of Jan uary we found ourselves thousands of dollars worse off than we expected. Who under such circumstances says This loss is from God. Imust have been allowed to go into that unfor, tunate enterprise for some good Tea. son; God controls the east wind as well as the west wind.
 A LESSON TO LEARN.
 Ny friends, cannot look for one moment on that retrogade shadow on Ahaz's dial without learning that God controls the shadows and that lesson we need all to learn. That he controls the sunshine is not so neces sary a lesson, for anybody can be happy when things go right. When you sleep eight hours night and rise with an appetite that cannot easily wait for breakfast, and you go over tC the store and open your mail to read more orders than you can fill, and in the next letter you find a dividend far larger than you have been prom ised. and your neighbor comes in to tell you some fattering thing he has just heard said about you, and you find that all the styles of goods in which you deal have advanced fifteen per cent in value. and on your way home you meet your children in full romp. and there are roses on the cen ter of the tea table and roses of health l in cheeks all round the table, what more do you want Of consolation l don't pity you bit. You feel as if you could boss the world. But fol those in just opposite circumstances my text comes in with an omnipo tence of meaning The shadow! Oh the shadow Shadow of bereave ment! Shadow of sickness! Shadow of bankruptcy Shadow of mental depression! Shadow of persecution Shadow of death! Speak out, 0 sun dial of Ahaz, and tell all the people that God manages the shadowl
 As Hezelxiah sat in his palace win dow. wrapped in invalidism and sur rounded by anodynes and cata plasms. and looked out upon tho