The southern argus. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Cherokee County, Kan.) 1891-1???, 1892-01-14
LIFE'S CLOCKS.
Dr.. Tafmage Discourses on the His
tory of Time Measuring.
The Lords Wonderful Power-Bright and
Dark Days-Blessings From Adver-
Notwithstanding Toward
Happiness.


Happiness.
In late sermon at BROOKLYN Rev. 7
De Witt Talmage took his text from I
Kings, XXX. ii: ''And Isaiah, til
prophet, cried unto the Lord; and b
brought the shadow ten degrees bach
ward by which it had gone down in til
dial of Ahaz-" DR.. Talmage said:
i Here is the first clock, or watch, O
chronometer, or time-piece of which tn
world has any knowledge. But it wa
a watch that did not tick and clocl
that did not strike. 1t was sun dial
Ahaz, the king, invented it. Between
the hours given to statecraft and tn
cares of office he invented something b,
which he could tell the time of day
This sun dial may have been a grea
column. and when the shadow of tina
column reached one point it was nine
O'Clock a. M, and when it reached an
other point it was three o'clock %. m.
and all the hours and half hours were
0 measured. Or it may have been a
flight of stairs such as may now be
found in Hindustan aud 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
The clepsydra or water clock fol-
lowed the sun dial and the sand glass
followed the clepsydra. Then came
+1a -
and the candle was divided 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 its most i'm
portant inventor. as
s And the skill of centuries of exquisite
mechanism toiled at the time pieces
until the world had the Vick's clock of
the fourteenth century, and Huyghens,
the inventor, swung the first pendulum,
and DIR. Hooke contrived the recoil es-
capement And the endless chain"
followed, and the ratchet and pinion
lever" took its place. and the compen-
sation balance and the stem winder
followed, and now we have the buzz
and c1ang of the great clock and watch
factories of Switzerland and Germany
and England and America turning out
what seems to be the perfection of
time-pieces. 1t took the world 5000
years to make the present chrome
meter. e*e #EE
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 five DAYS. Then
events were calculated from the found
ion of Rome, afterward fro the
Then the Babylonians
had their measurement of the years,
and the Romans theirs, and the Armen- |
ans theirs. Chronology was busy for |
centuries studying monuments inscrip-
ions, coins, mummies and astronomy,
'rying to lay plan by which all ques-
ion of dates might be settled and
events put in their right place in the
procession of the ages. But the chron-
'logists only heaped up mountain of
commission and bewilderment until in
he sixth century Dionysius Exiguus, a
Roman abbott said: LET everything
late from the birth at Bethlehem of
he I'd Jesus Christ, the Saviour of
he world" The abbott proposed to
ave things dated backward aud for
yard from that great event.
We are told that Hezekiah, the king.
vas dying of a boil. A fig was put
pom it as a poultice. Hezekiah did
ot want to die then. His son, who
vas to take the Kingdom, had not vet
cen born, and Hezekiah's death would
ave been the death of the nation. So
e prays for recovery and is told he
ill get we'll But he wants some
lirdculous sign to make him sure of ;
He has the choice of having the
nadow on the sun dial of Ahaz adj
ance or retreat. He replicd1t would
ot be so wonderful to have the sun go 4;
own, for it always goes down sooner
r later. He asks that it GO backward.
4 other words. let the day instead of &
Ding on toward shutdown turn and 90 I
,ward sunrise. {
! see the invalid king bolstered ND c
nd wrapped in blankets looking out c
the window upon the sun dial in the J
'urt yard. While he watches the L
ladow on the dial the shadow begins h
retreat Instead of gong on toward '
x o'clock in the evening it goes back c
ward six o'clock in the morning. The a
; poultice had been draw ing for some S
me, and, sure enough, the boil broke a
Id Hezekiah got we'll t
At the opening of the new year pee e
9 are moralizing on the fight of time s.
on all feel that you are moving on il
ward sundown and many of you are s.
ldera consequent depression | pro- a
'se this morning to set the hands on o
'ur watches and cl Dcks to going the e
her way. ] propose to show you how e
III may make the shallow of your dial r
re the shadow on the dial of Ahaz to W
op going forward and make it GO a
ckward Il
While looking al the sun dial of Il
L. \ L