Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-01-14
THE FLIGHT OF TIME.
Or. TALMAGE breaches ON THE
SuNDlAL OF AHAz.

Marked by the Sunrises-Daybreak on
the Mountain Tops.
BROOKLYN, Jan. l0.-Dr. Talmage's SER
mon this morning was full of brightness
and good cheer. HI might have called il
recipe for happiness. The buoyancy and
Elasticity of temperament which charac
terize him were conspicuous throughout
and must have been'imparted to his hear
ers His text was ii King Xxx, IL "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 chro-
nometer or timepiece of which the world
has any knowledge But it was watch
that did not tick and clock that did not
strike 1t was Il sundial Ahaz, the king,
invented it, Between the hours given to
statecraft and the cares of Office he invent
ed 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 Il 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 indi
Gated
THE WORLDS HoRoLoGEs.
The cepsydra or water clock followed
the sundlal, 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 re
ligion, and while the second part was burn
ing he gave himself TO politics, and while
the third part was burning he gave him
self to rest. After awhile came the wheel
and weight clock, and Pope sylvester the
Second was its most important inventor
And the skill of centuries of exquisite mech
anism toiled at the timepieces until the
world had the Nick's clock of the Four
teenth century and Huyghens, the inyen
tor, swung the first pendulum and DR.
Hooke contrived the recoil escapement
And the endless chain" followed and the
ratchet and pinion lever" took its place,
and the compensation balance and the
stemwinder followed, aud now we have
the buzz and clang Of the great clock and
watch factories of Switzerland and Ger
many and England and America turning
out what seems to be the perfection of
timepieces. IL took the world six thou
sand years to make the present chronom.
eter. 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 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 Baby lonians
had their measurement of the year and the
Romans theirs and the Armenians theirs
and the Hindoos theirs. Chronology was
busy for centuries studying monuments.
inscriptions. coins, mummies and astron-
omy, trying to lay plan by which all
question Of dates might be settled and
events put in their right place in the pro
cession of the ages. But the chronologists
only heaped up mountain OF confusion
and bewilderment until in the Sixth cen
fury Dionysius Exiguus, u Roman abbot,
said, Let everything date from the birth
at Bethlehem Of the Lord Jesus Christ the
Saviour OF the world The abbot pro
posed to have things dated backward and
forward from that great event. What
splendid thought for the worldl What u
mighty thing for Christianity It would
have been most natural to date everything
from the creation OF the world. But am
glad the chronologists could not too easily
guess how old the world WAS in order 10
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 years before Christ. and the deluge
came three Thousand one hundred and
ffty-five years before Christ. and all the
Industrious events OF the last nineteen cen
turtles 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 watch is, what |
"A plock ia what AN almanac IL. and learn 1