Democratic messenger., 1892-01-16
SUNDIAL OF \ AHAZ.
SERMON PREACHED BY REV. T. De
WITT TALmAGE, D. D.

ows-Day break on the Height, of the
Mountain Tops Fun Report of Re
marki,bIe Discourse.
BROOKLYN. Jan. 10. DR. Talmages
sermon this morning WAS full OF
brightness and good cheer He might
have called ita 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 XN. ii.
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto
the Lord and he brought the shadow
ten degrees backward, by which it
had gone down III the dial of AhaZ.
Here is the first clock or watch OF
chronometer or timeplcce of which
the world has any knowledge But
it was a watch that did not tick and
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 Il great column. and
when the shadow of that column
reached one point ii 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
Af.rl,f .yt,,.l, l,,
found i'll Hindostan and other old
countries. and when the shadow
reached one step it was ten o'clock Il.
m. or another step II was four O'Clock
p. m, and likewise other hours may
have been Indicated
TIME MEASURE.
The clepsydIa 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 whi.c 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 III
veptor And the skill of centuries
of exquisite 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 contIived the recoil escape
ment.
And the endless chain" followed.
and the ratchet and pinion lever
took its place. and the compensation
balance and the stcmwinder 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 timemcces Ii took
the world six thousand years 10 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
fifty four days and then thiee hun
dred and sixty days and not until
Il long while after, three hundred and
sixty five 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 Hndoos theirs.
Chronology was busy for centuries
studying monuments. inscriptions.
coins. mummies and astronomy. try
ing TO lay plan by which all qucs
tions of dates might he settled and
events put in their right place III the
procession of the ages But the
chronologiSts only heaped upa noun
tain of confusion and bcwilleIment
until in the Sixth century Dionysius
Exigilus. Il 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 world What
mighty thing for Christianity! II
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 i'll the habit of dating from
that occurrence III its documents and
histories
Forever fixed is il that all history
is to he dated with reference 10 the
birth of Christ. and. this matter set
tied, Hales. the chief chronol"glst.
declared that the world was made
five thousand four hundred and
eleven years before Christ, and the
deluge came three thousand one
hundred and fifty five years before
Christ, and all the illustrious events
of the last nineteen centuries and all
the great events of all time To
come have been or shall bc dated
from the birth of Christ These
things | say that you may know
what watch Is. what Il clock Is
what an almanac is and learn To ap
preciate through what tolls and hard
ships and pelpleXities the world came
to its present convenicnces and com
forts. and to help you To more respect
full consideration of the slindial of
Ahaz planted III my text.
We are told that nezekiah. the
KING, was dying oi Il noh. II must
have been one of the worst kind of
carbuncles. boil without any cen
trail core and sometimes dcathful y
fix was put upon II as a poulticc.