The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-01-15


come ON with your higher criticism
and try to explain this away and say
It was an optical delusion of Heze-
kiah, 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 Hezekiah expected it
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 ii 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 Bible authority turn over
your copy of Herodotus and find that
away off in Egypt the people noticed
that there was something the matter
with the sun The fact is that the
whole universe waits upon God, and
SUNS and moons and stars are not
very big things to him, and he can
with his little finger turn back an
entire world rs easily as you could
set back the hour hand or minute
hand of your clock or watch.
AT the opening of new year peo-
Pile are moralizing on the fight of
time. You all feel that you are moving
on toward sundown and many Of you
are under consequent depression. l
propose this morning to set the hands
on your watches and clocks to going
the other way | propose to show
you how you may make the shadow
of your dial, like the shadow on the
dial of Ahaz, to stop going forward
and make it go backward. You think
| have a big undertaking ON hand,
but it can be done, if the same Lord
who reversed the shadow in Heze-
kiah's courtyard moves upon us.
While looking at the sundial of
Hezekiah, and we find the shadow
retreating, we. ought to learn that
God controls the shadows. We are
all ready to acknowledge his manage
ment of the sunshine We stand in
the glow of a bright morning, and
we say in our feelings, if not with so
many words This life is from God.
This warmth is FROM God. Or we
have rush Of prosperity, and we
say; These successes are from God.
What a providential thing it was /
bought that lot just before the rise
of real estate How grateful to God
| am that l made that investment
Why, they have declared ten per cent.
dividend What a mercy it was that
! sold out my shares before that col
lapsew
Oh, yes, we acknowledge God in
the sunshine of a bright day or the
sunshine of a great prosperity, But
suppose the day is dark2 You have
to light the gas at noon. The sun
does not show himself all day long.
There is nothing but shadow How
slow we are to realize that the storm
is from God and the darkness from
God and the chill from God. Or we
buy the day before the. markets re-
treat, or we make an investment that
never pays, or we purchase goods
that we cannot dispose of, or crop
of grain we sowed is ruined by
drought or freshet, OF when we took
account Of stock on the first of Jan
4lary we found ourselves thousands
of dollars worse off than we expected.
Who under such circumstances says:
This loss is from God. Imust have
been allowed to go into that unfor-
tunate enterprise for some good rea-
son; God controls the east wind as
well as the west wind"
A LESSON To LEARN.
Ny friends, cannot look for one
moment on that retrogade shadow
ON Ahaz's dial without learning that
God controls the shadows and that
lesson we need all to learn. That he
controls the sunshine is not so neces-
sary lesson, for anybody can be
happy when things go right. When
you sleep eight hours night and rise
with an appetite that cannot easily
wait for breakfast, and you go over to
the store and open your mail to read
more orders than you can fill, and in
the next letter you find dividend
far larger than you have been prom
ised, and your neighbor comes in to
tell you some fiattering thing he has
just heard said about you, and you
find that all the styles of goods in
which you deal have advanced fifteen
per cent. in value, and on your way
home you meet your children in full
romp, and there are roses on the cen
ter of the tea table and roses of health
in cheeks all round the table, what
more do you want of consolation
| don't pity you bit. You feel as
if you could boss the world But for
those in just opposite circumstances
my text comes in with an omnipo-
tence of meaning The shadow! Oh,
the shadow Shadow of bereave-
ment Shadow Of sickness! Shadow
Of bankruptcy Shadow of mental
depression Shadow of persecution
Shadow of death Speak out, o sun
dial of Ahaz, and tell all the people
that God manages the shadow!
As Hezekiah sat in his palace WIN
dow, wrapped in invalidism and sur
rounded by anodynes and cata-
plasms, and looked out upon the
black hand of the only clock known
at that time and saw it move back
ten degrees, he learned lesson that
majority of the human race need
this hour to learn that the best
friend a man ever had controls the
shadow. The setbacks are some
times the best things that can hap.
pen.
The great German author Schiller
could not work unless he had in his
room the scent of rotten apples, and
the decay of the fruits of earthly
prosperity may become an inspira.
ton instead of depression. Robert
Chambers lame feet shut him VI
from other work. and he became the