News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-01-14
SUNDIAL OF AHAZ.
SERMON PREACHED BY REV. T. DE
WITT TALMAGE, D. D.

BROOKLYN, Jan. 10.-Dr. Talmage'
sermon this morning was full O
brightness and good cheer. He nigh
have called tia receipt for happiness
The buoyancy and elasticity Of tenn
permanent which characterize hin
were conspicuous throughout, anC
must have been impaired to his hear
ers. His text was II Kings Xxx, II
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto
the Lord: and he brought the shadow
ten degrees backward by which il
had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
Here is the first clock or watch OF
chronometer or timepiece of which
the world has any knowledge. But
it was a watch that did not tick and
clock that did not strike. TWAS q
sundial. Ahaz, the king, invented
it Between the hours given to state
craft and the cares of office he in
vented something by which he could
tell the time of day. This sundial
may have been 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 p. M, and
all the hours and half hours were sc
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
D. m, and likewise other hours may
have been indicated.
TIME MEASURE.
The clepsydra or water clock fol
lowed the sundial. 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
religion. and while the second part
was burning he gave himself to poll
tics, and while the third part was
burning he gave himself to rest.
After awhile came the wheel and
weight clock, and Pope Sylvester the
Second was its most important in
ventor. And the skill of centuries
of exquisite mechanism toiled at the
timepieces until the world had the
Vick's clock of the Fourteenth cen
fury. and Huyghens, the inventor,
swung the first pendulum, and DR..
Hooke contrived the recoil escape
ment.
And the endless chain" followed,
and the ratchet and pinion lever"
took its place, and the compensation
balance and the stemwinder fol
lowed, and now we have the buzz
and clang of the great clock and
watch factories of Switzerland and
Germany and England and America
turning out what seems to be the
perfection of timepieces 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 calculated from new
moon to new moon; then from har-
vest to harvest. Then the year was
pronounced to be three hundred and
fifty-four days and then three hun
dred and sixty days and, not until
a long while after, three hundred and
sixty five 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 Armen-
;o,,s, +b oi,.. an1 +lo HindOO- 4Iai,.C
Chronology was busy for centuries
studying monuments, inscriptions,
coins, mummies and astronomy, try
ing to lay plan by which all ques-
tons of dates might be settled and
events put IN their right place in the
procession of the ages. But the
chronologists only heaped upa noun
tain of confusion and bewildelment
until in the Sixth century DiOnysius
Exiguus, Roman abbot, said, Let
everything date from the birth at
Bethlehem 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 a splendid
thought for the world! What a
mighty thing for Christianity! It
would have been most natural to
date everything from the creation of
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 reference to the
birth of Christ, and, this matter set
tied. 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 fifty-five 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 | say that you may know
what watch is, what a clock is,
what an almanac is, and learn to APP
Ipreciate through what tolls and hard
ships and perplexities the world came
to its present conveniences and com
forts, and to help you to more respect
full consideration of the sundial of
3Ahaz planted in my text.
We are told that Hezeliah, the
king, was dying OF a boil. 1t must
have been one of the worst kind of
carbuncles, a boil without any cen
trail core and sometimes beautiful. A
fig was put upon it as a poultice
Hezekiah did not want to die then.
His son, who was to take the king
dom, had not yet been born, and |
death would have been |
the death of the nation. So he prays
for recovery and is told he will get
well.
But he wants some miraculous sign |
to make him sure of it. He has the
choice of having the shadow on the
sundial of Ahaz advance or retreat. |
He replied it would not be so wonder
full to have the sun go down, for it al
ways does 60 down sooner or later.
He asks that it go backward. In
other words. let the day, instead of
going on toward shutdown, turn and
go toward sunrise.
l see the invalid king bolstered up
and wrapped in blankets looking out
Of the window upon the sundial in
the courtyard While he watches
the shadow ON the dial the shadow