Democratic messenger., 1892-01-16


the courtyard While he watches
the shadow ON the dial the shadow
begins to retreat. Instead of going
on toward six o'clock in the evening il
goes back toward six o'clock in the
morning The tig poultice had been
drawing for some time, and sure
enough. the boil broke and Hczekiah
got well Now | expect you will
come on with Your higher criticism
and try to explain this away and say
it was an optical dclusion of Iieze
kiah. and the shadow only seemed to
go back or Il cloud came over and il
was uncertain which way the shadow
did go. and as HcZckiah expected il
to go back hc took the action of his
own mind for the '.trogigl,ic 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 .Nay off iii Babylon the
mighty men of the palace notice d
1 the same phenomenon And if you
do not like Bible authority turn over
your copy of Herodotus and find that
away off III 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 as easily as YOU could
set back the hour hand or minute
hand of your clock or watch
AT the opening of new year peo
pie are moraliZing on the flight OF
time. You all feel that You are moving
on toward sundown and many of you
are under IL consequent depression.
propose this morning to set the hands
on your watches and clocks to going
the other way propose to show
of your dial, like the shadow on the
dial of AhaZ. to stop going forward
and make it go backward You think
have Il big undertaking on hand.
! but it can he done. If the same Lord
who reversed the shadow in Hczc
kiah's courtyard moves upon us.
While looking at the sunlial OF
1 HeZekiah. and we find the shallow
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 bright morning. and
we say i'll our feelings. if not with so
many words: This life is from. God
This warmth is from God. Or we
have a rush of prosperity. and we
say: These successes are from God
What a providenti,d thing it was
bought that lot just before the rise
of real estate! How grateful to God
am that | made that investment
Why. they have declared ten percent
dividend What a mercy it was that
sold out my shares before that col
lapse
Oh. yes. we acknowledge God in
the sunshine of bright day or the
sunshine of great prosperity But
suppose the day i, darl: 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 5 re-
treat, or we make an investment that
never pays. or we purchase good
that we cannot dispose of. or II crop
of grain we sowed is ruined by
drought or freshct or when we took
account of stock on the first of Jam
uary we found ourselves thousands
of dollars worse of than we expected.
Who under such circumstances says
This loss - from God must have
been allowed Ia go into that nnfor
tunate enterprise for some good rca-
son; God controls the east wind as
well aS the west wind.
LESSON To LEARN
My friends. | cannot look for one
moment on that rr,rogade shadow
on AhaZ's dial without learning that
God controls the shadows and that
lesson we need ali 10 learn That he
controls the sunshine is not so neces
sary a lesson, for anybody can be
happy when things go right When
you sleep eight hours a night and rise
with an appetite that cannot easily
wait for breakfast. and you go over To
the store and open your mail 10 read
more orders than you can fill. and III
the next letter you find Il dividend
far larger than you have been prom
ised. and your neighbor comes in to
tell you some flattering thing he has
Just heard said about you. and you
find that all the styles OF goods III
which you deal have advanced fifteen
per cent in value and on Your way
home you meet your children III 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 uo you M..Il UI cOllSuittlOn.
| don't pity you Il bit. YOu feel as
if you could boss the world But for
those III just opposite circumstances
my text comes in with an omnipo-
tence of meaning. The shadow Oh.
the shadow! Shadow of bercave-
mentl Shadow of sickness, Shadow
of bankruptcy, Shadow of mental
depression! Shadow of persecution,
Shadow of death. Speak ont. O sun
dial of Ahaz, and tell all the people
that God manages the shadow,
As Hezekiah sat i'll his palace WIN
dow, wrapped in invalidism and sur
rounded by anodyncs 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 man ever had controls the
Il. 4