The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-11
THE Sun DIAL OF AHAZ.
TIE FIRST CHRONOMETER IN The
WORLDS HISTORY.

| Glass Game Next--The Candle Clcc <
of Alfred the Grsar-The More Mod
era CLOCK.
BRooKLYN. N. Y, Jan. 10-Dr. Tall
mage's sermon this morning was full Of
brightness and good cheer. He might have
called it a recipe for happiness Toe buoy
ancy and elasticity OF temperament which
characterize him were conspicuous through
out and must have been impaired to his
hearers. His text was: II. Kings Xxx, IL,
"And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the
Lord: and he brought the shadow ten de-
grees backward, by which it had gone down
in the dial Of Ahaz."
Here is the first clock or watch or chro-
nometer or time-piece OF which the world
has any knowledge. But it was a watch
that did not tick and clock that did strike.
1t was a dial AhRz, the king. in
vented it. Between the hours given to state-
| craft and the cares Of Office he invented
something by which he could tell the time
| OF day. This sun. dial may have been q =
great column, and when the shadow OF that
column reached one point it was nine
| o'clock a. M, and when it reached another
point It was three O'clock .. M, and all the
| hours and half-hours were so measured.
Or 1t may have been flight of stairs such
as may now be found in Hindustan and
other old countries. and when the shadow
| IohCueu Ouo sep IL was ten O'CLOCK a. m.
or another step 1t was four O'clock D. M,
and likewise other hours may have been in-
dicated
The cepsydra or water clock followed the
sun dial, aud 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 relig-
| ion, 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 Sec
ond was its most important inventor. And
| the skill of centdries Of exquisite mechan-
| ism toiled at the time pieces until the world
had the Vlcks clock Of the fourteenth CEN
tury and Huyghens, the inventor, swung the
first pendulum, and Dr. Hooke contrived
| the recoil escapement. And the "endless
chain" followed and the ratchet and pin
ion lever" took its place and the compensa-
tion balance and the stem-winder followed,
| and now we have the buzz and
olang OF the great clock and
watch factories of Switzerland and
Germany and England and America turns
ing out what seems to be the perfection OF
| time-pieces. 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 calcu-
| lated from new moon to new moon; tlen
| 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, one hundred and sixty-fve
| days Then events were calculated from
the foundation Of Rome, afterward from
the Olympic games Then the Babylonians
| bad their measurement of the year and the
| Romans theirs and the Armenians theirs
and the Hindoos theirs. Chronology
was busy for centuries studying monu-
l int mir
astronomy, trying to lay plan by which
all question OF dates might be settiA and
| events put in their right place in the pro-
| cession Of che ages But the ohronooglsts
only heaped up mountain Of confusion and
bewil derment until in the sixth century
bot, said: "Lot everything date ate
| from the birth at Beth .
lehem 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 Tor
Christianity 1t would ave been most nat4
| ural to date everything from the creation
OF tho world. But am glad the chronolo-
| gists 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 histories. Forever fixed is
it that all history is to be dated with refer
ence 20 the birth Of Christ, and. this
matter settled, Hales, the chief
ohronologist. declared that the world
| was made five Thousand four hum
dred and eleven years before Christ, aud
the deluge came three thousand one
| hundred and ffty-hve 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 be dated from the birth of Christ.
These things 1 say that you may know
what watch is, what a clock is, what
| an almanac is, and learn to appreciate
through what tolls and hardships and
psrplexities the world came to its present
| conveniences and comforts, aud to help
| you to more respectful consideration of that
| sun dial OF Ahaz planted in my text
We are told that Hezekiah, the king was
| dying Of boil. 1t must have been one of
the worst kind Of carbuncles, a boil With
out any central core and sometimes death-
ful. A fig was put upon 1t as poultice.
Hezekiah did not want to die then. His SON
who was to take the kingdom had not vet
| been born and Hezekiah's death would
| have been the death of the nation. SO he
prays for recovery and is told he will get
well. Bnt he wants some miraculous sign
to make him sure of it. He has the choice
OF having the shadow on the sun dial Of
Ahaz advance or retreat. He replied II would
not be so wonderful TO have the sun 90
down, for it always does go down sooner or
later. He asks that it go back ward In
ONAS%
on toward sundown, turn and 20 toward
sunrise. see the invalid king boIstered up
and wrapped in blankets looking ont of the
window upon the sun dial in the court
yard. 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 ana,
sure enough. the boil broke and Hezs-
kiah got well. Now l expect you will
come on with your higher criticism and try
to explain this away aud say it was an opti-
cal delusion Of Hezskiah, and the shadow
only seemed to go back, or a cloud came
over and it was uncertain which way the
shadow did go, and as Hezskiah expected it
to go back he took the action of his own
mind for the retrograde movement No:
the shadow went back on all the dials of
that land ami other lands. Turn to III.
Chronicles, xxxiL, 81, and find that away
OIL in Babylon the mighty men of the pal
ace noticed the same phenomenon. And II
you do not like Bible authority turn over
your copy Of Herodotus and find that away
of IN Egypt the people noticed that there
was something the matter with the sun.
The fact is that the whole universe waits
upon esd, aud suns and moons and stars
are not very big things To him and ho cap