The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-01-22
JTALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Shallow on the Dial or Ahaz
! 49, Turned Backward.
The Miracle An Connection with the First
Timmpiece or which We Have Rec
ord, and the Lessons to no
Drawn Therefrom-

the following discourse ia the Brooklyn
tabernacle, taking for his text:
And Isaiah, the prcphss cried unto the Lord;
and He brought the shadow ten degrees back
ward By which IL had gone down In the dial OF
Ahaz--H Kings III. IL
Here in the first clock or watch or
chronometer or time-piece of which the
world has any knowledge. But it was
q watch that did not strike. IL was n
sun-dial Ahaz, the king, invented it.
Between the hours given to the state
craft and The cares of Office he invent
ed 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 IL was nine o'clock I'm the morn
ing. and when It reached three o'clock
In the afternoon, and all the hours and
half hours were so measured Oritmay
have been fight of stairs. such as may
be found in Hindoostan and other old
countries, and when the shadow reached
one step it was ten o'clock In the morn
ing, or another step it was four o'clock
in the afternoon. and likewise other
hours may have been indicated
The clepsydra or water-cIock fol-
lowed the sun-dial, and the sun-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 him
self 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 III.
was its most important inventor. And
the skill Of centuries of exquisite
mechanism tofled at the time-pieces nm
I'll the world had the Vick's clock of
the fourteenth century, and Huyghens,
the inventor, swung the first pendu-
lum, and DIR. Hooke contrived the re-
coil escapement. And the endless
chain" followed, and the ratchet 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 clock and watch factories
of Switzerland and Germany and En-
gland 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 calculated from new moon to new
moon; then 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 three hum
dred 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 Armenians
theirs. and the Hindoos theirs. Chronol-
ogy was busy fore centuries studying
monuments, inscriptions, coins, num-
mics and astronomy, trying to lay a
plan by which all question of dates
might be settled and events put in their
right place in the procession of the ages.
But the chronologists only heaped up
mountain of confusion and bewilder-
ment until in the sixth century Dinny-
sus Exigurs, q 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 back
ward and forward from that great
event What a splendid thought for
the worldi What a mighty thing for
ChristiAnityi 1t would have been most
natural to date every thing from the
creation Of the world. But am glad
the chronologists could not too easily
guess how old the world was in order
TO get the nations in the habit of dat
ing from that occurrence in its docu-
ments and histories. Forever fixed as
Is IL that all history is 20 be dated with
reference to the birth of Christ, and,
this matter settled, 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 hum
dred and fifty 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 a watch is, what clock is, what
an almanac is, and learn to appreciate
through what tolls and hardships and
perplexities the world came TO its pres
ent convenience and comforts, and to
help you to more respectful considera-
tion of that sun-dial of Ahaz planted in
my text
We are told that Hezeliah, the king,
was dying of boil. 1t must have been
one of the worst kind of carbuncles, a
boil without any central core and some
Zines beautiful. A fig was put upon it
IS a 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
seath of the nation. So he prays for
recovery and is told he will get well.
But wants some miraculous sign to
make him sure of ii. He has the choice
Of having the shadow on the sundial of
Ahaz advance or retreat. He replied 1t
would not be so wonderful to have the
sun go down, for it always does GO
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. 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 begin to retreat. In
stead of going on toward 6o'clock in the
evening il goes back toward six o'clock
in the morning. The fig poultice had
been drawing for some time, and sure
enough the boil broke and Hezekiah
got well Now expect you will come
on with your higher criticism and try