The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-01-21
.SUN-DIAL OF AHAZ.
DR.. Talmage Advises People Not to
Allow Themselves to Be Scared
Out Of Life.
At the First Sneeze Of Grip Do Not
Give Up All as Lost. Don't
Watch for Symptoms.


IMAGES sermon was full OF brightness
and good cheer. His text was: II,
Kings, COLL, 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
thermometer or any time piece OF which
the world has any knowledge. But it
was q watch that did not tick and q
clock that did not STRIKE 1t was q
sun-dial. Ahaz the King invented
it. Between the hours given to state
craft and the cares of Office he invent
ed something by which he could
tell the time OF the day. This
sun-dlal may have been a great col
umn, and when the shadow OF that
column reached one point it was 8
o'clock a. M, and when it reached an
other point it was 3 o'clock p. M, and
all the hours and half hours were so
measured. Or it may have been
flight OF stairs such as may now be
found in Hindostan and other old
countries, and when the shadow
reached one step it was 10 o'clock a.
M, or another step it was 4 o'clock
p. m, and likewise other hours may
have been Indicated.
The clepsydra or water-clocE follow
ed the sun-dial, and the sand glass fol-
lowed 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 religion
and while the second part was burn
ing he gave himself to politics and
while the third part was burning he
gave himself to rest. After q while
came the wheel and weight clock and
POPE SYLVESTER THE SECOND
was it's most important inventor.
And the skill OF centuries of exquisite
mechanism toiled at the time pieces
until the world had the Vick:s clock
OF the Fourteenth century and Huy-
ghens, the inventor swung the first
pendulum, and DR.. Hooke contrived
the recoil escapement. And the ''end-
less chain" followed, and the ''rachet
and pinion lever" took it's place; and
the compensation balance and the
stem winder followed, and now we
have the buzz and clang OF the great
watch and clock factories OF SwitZer-
land and Germany and England and
America turning out what seems to be
the perfection of time pieces. It 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;
then from. harvest to harvest
Then the year was pronounced
to be 354 days and then $50 days,
and, not until a long while after, 365
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
Armenians theirs and the Hindoos
theirs. Chronology WAS busy for cent
uries studying monuments, inscrip-
tlons, coins, mummies and astrono-
my, trying to lay a plan by which all
question OF dates mi ht be settled and
events put in their right place in the
procession of the ages. But the chro-
biologists only heaped up a mountain
OF
CONFUSION AND BEWII.DERMENT,
until in the sixth century Dionysius
Exiguus, q Roman Abbott, said "Let
everything date from the birth at
Bethlehem of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Saviour of the world" The alb
bott proposed to have things dated
backward and forward from that
great event. What a splendid thought
for the world! What mighty thing
for Christianity! 1t would have been
most natural to date everything from
the creation OF the world. But am
glad the chronolosists 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 it's
documents and histories. Forever
fixed is it that all history is to be dat
ed with reference to the birth OF Christ
and this matter settled. Hales, the
chief chronologist, declared that the
world was made 5,4l1 years before
Christ, and the deluge came 3,155
years before Christ and all heillustri-
Gus events OF the last Is centuries
and all the great events OF all time to
come have been or shall be dated
FROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. H..
We are told that Hezekiah the king,
was dying of q boil. 1t must have
been one of the worst kind of carbun-
cles, a boil without any central core
and sometimes deathful A fig was
put upon it as poultice. Hezekiah
did not want to die then. His son
who was to take the kingdom had not
yet been born and Hezekiah's death
would have been the death Of the ma
ton. SO ne prays for recovery, and
is told he will get we'll. But he wants
some miraculous sign to make him
sure Of it. He has the choice of hav-
ing the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz
advance or retreat. He replied that
IT would not be SO wonderful to have
the sun 60 down, for it always goes
down sooner or later. He asks that
it go backward. In other words, let
the day instead OF going on towards
sundown, turn and go towards sun
rise. see the invalid king bolstered
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