The Penn's Grove record., 1892-01-15
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BRoOKLYN DTvINE'g sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Sandal Of Abaz."

gone doWn in the dial of-Ahaz."-u King
Xxx ii.
Here is the first clock or watch or chro-
nometer or timepiece Of which the world
has any knowledge. But it was n watch
that did not tick and a clock that did not
, strike. 1t was a sundial. Ahaz, the king,
invented it. Between the hours given to
statecraft and the cares of office he invented
| something by which he could tell the time
of day. This sundial may have been q great
column, and when the shadow OF that COL
umu reached one point it was nine O'Clock
A. M, and when it reached another point it
was three o'clock p. NJ, and all the hours and
half hours were so measured. Or IL may
have been a flight of stairs such as may now
be found in Hindostan and other old coun-
| tries, and when the shadow reached one step
it was ten O'Clock A. NJ, or another step 1t
was four o'clock P. NJ, and likewise other
hours may have been indicated.
The clepsydra or water clock followed the
sundial, and the ~sandglass 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 politics, 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 It's most
important inventor. And the skill OF CEN.
turtles of exquisite mechanism toiled at the
timepieces until the world had the Vick's
clock of the Fourteenth century and Huy-
ghens, the inventor, swung the first pendu-
lum and DR.. Hooke contrived the re-
coil essca ,1psnf and And md d the endless aas
pinion lever' took its place, and
the compensation balance and the
stemwinder followed, 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 harvest to
harvest. Then the year was pronounced to
be three hundred and fifty-four days and
then three hundred and sixty days, and not
until a long while after three hundred and
sixty-iye DAYS. Then events were calcu-
lated from the foundation of Rome. after
ward from the Olympic games. Then the
B~abylonians had TER measurement OF the
year and the Romans theirs and
docs theirs. Chronology was busy
for centuries studying monuments,
Inscriptions, coins, mummies and astron-
omy, trying to lay a plan by which all
question of dates might be settled and
events put in their right place in the pro-
/ CtNSlDh VI Dllb dRtosH Dut nv AotS
only heaped up a mountain of confusion and
bewilderment until in the sixth century
Dionysius Exiguus, a 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 a splendid
thought for the worldi What a mighty
thing for Christianity It would AVE been
most natural to date everything from the
creation of the world. But l am glad
| the chronologists 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 his
tories. Forever fixed Is 1t that all history is
to be dated with reference to the birth Of
Christ. and, this matter settled, Hales. the
chief ~chronologist, declared that the world
was made five thousand four hundred and
| eleven wears before Christ, and the deluge
came three thousand one hundred and fifty
five years before Christ, and all the illus
trious events of the nineteen centuries and
all the 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 a watch is, what a clock is, what
through what tolls and hardships and per-
| p~lexities the world came to its present con-
veniences and comforts, and to help you to
more respectful consideration of that sum
dial of Ahaz planted In my text.
We are told that Hezekiah, the king, was
dying of a boil. 1t must ave been one Of
the wort kind Of ~carbuncles. a boil without
any central core and sometimes deathful.
A fig was put upon it as a poultice. Hezekiah
did not want to die then. His son, who was
to take the kingdom, had not yet been born,
and Hezekiah's death would have been the
death Of the nation. So he prays for re-
covery and is told he will get well. But he
wants some miraculous sign to make him
sure Of it. He has the choice of having the
shadow on the sundial of Ahaz advance or
retreat. He replied it would not be SO Won
deTful to nave the sun go down, for 1t al
ways does go down sooner or later.
other words, let the day instead of going
on toward shutdown, turn and go toward
sunrise. Isee 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 morn
ing. The big ~poultice had been drawing for
some time, and sure enough the boil broke
and Hezekiah got well. 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 Hezekiah, and the
shadow only seemed to go back or a cloud
came over and 1t was uncertain which way
the shadow did go, and as Hezekiah expected
1t to go back he 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 III Chronicles xxi, 81. and find
that away off in Babylon the mighty men OF
the palace noticed the same phenomenon.
And if you do not like the Bible authority
turn over your copy Of Herodotus and find
that away off in Egypt the people noticed
1 49, a. -. ..-.tls.. Tho .nattar with
the sun. The fact is that the whole universe
waits upon God, and suns n moons and
stars are not very big things to Him, and lie
can with His little finger turn back an en-
tire world as easily as you can set back the
hour hand or minute hand OF your Clock or
watch.
A the opening of the new year people are
moralizing on the flight of time. You al
feel that you are moving on toward sun
down and many of you are under a conse'
quent depression. 1 propose this morning
to set the hands Of your watches and clocks
to going the other way. l propose to show
Won how you make the shadow of your dial
like the shadow on the dial OF Ahaz tc
stop going forward and make it go back
ward. You think / have a big undertaking
on hand, but it can be done if the same Lord
who reversed the shadow In Hezkiah's court
yard moves upon us. While looking at the
sundial of Hezkiah aud we find the a
retreating we ought to learn that Go.
controls the shadows. We are al
ready to acknowledge His manage
ment of the sunshine. We tand in t.
glow of q bright morning and we say il
our feelings if not with SO many words
'Ihis lie Is from God, this warmth is from
God" Or, We nave a rush OF prosperity
and we say, These successes are from God
What a providential thing it was ! bough
that lot just before the rise OF real estate
How grateful to God 1 am that l mad
that Investment Why, they have declare
ten per cent. dividend What a mercy it wa
hat ! sold out my shares before that CO
hapsep oh, yes; we acknowledge God q
the sunshine Of a bright day or the sun
shine of a great prosperity. But suppos,
the day is dark? You have to Lent ~
gas at noon. The sun does not show MIN.
self all day long. There II nothing bu,
shadow. How How we are to realize thai
the storm Is from God and the DARKNESS
from God and the chill FROM God. Or W.
buy the day before the market retreats or
we make an investment that never pays or
we purchase goods that we cannot dispose
! OF. or a crop OF grain we sowed d ruined
by drought or freahsk o. Hhsn We tooA n.