Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-01-15
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
rALMAoE ON THE SUN-DIAL OF
AHAZ.
Sermon Full OF Brightness ana Good
Chsor-Morallzing On tho Flight Of
Time at tho Close of Each Year.


full of brightness and good cheer. He
might have called it n recipe for happi-
ness. The buoyancy and elasticity OF
temperament which characterize him
were conspicuous throughout and must
have been impaired to his hearers. His
text was: ii, Kings POLL, "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 chronomc
ter or time-piece OF which the world has any
knowledge. But IL was q watch that did not
sick and clock that did not strike. 1t was
sun-dial. Ahaz the King, invented It, Between
she hours given to statccraft and tho cares OF
sfIice no invented something by which he could
tell the time OF day. This sun-dial may have
been great column, and when the shadow OF
the column reached one point IL was o o'clock
Am, and when IL reached another point II was
3 O'Clock p m, and all the hours and ha1f-hours
were so measured. Or IL may have been
/ flight OF stairs such as may now be found in
| Hindustan and other old countries, and when
the shadow reached one step II was 10 O'Clock
an. or another step it was O'Clock pm, and
likewise other hours may have been indi-
Gated.
The clepsydra or water-cloclS followed the
sun-dial and the sand-glasS followed the clep-
sydra 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 reiigion.and while this second
| part was burning he gave himself TO politics
and while the third part was burning he gave
himself TO rest After awhile came the wheel
and weight clock ard Pope Sylvester the Sec
ond was its most important inventor. Ana the
skill of centuries OF exquisite mechanism
toied at the timc-picces until the world
had the Vick's clock OF the Fourteenth century,
and Huyghens the inventor swung the hrst
pendulum, and DR. HCoke contrived the recol
! escapement. And the endless chain" followed,
and the ratchet and pinion lever" took its
place; and the compensation balance and tho
stem winder followed, and now We have tho
| buzz and clang of the great clock and watch
factories of Switzerland and Germany and Eng
| land and America turning out what seems to be
the perfection of time-pieces. 1t took the world
5000 years to make the present chonometer.
So with the measurement Of longer spaces
than minutes and hours Time was
calculated from new moon 10 new moon; then
from harvest to harvest. Then the year was
pronounced 10 be asa days and then $50 days
and, not until long while after, s95 days.
Then events were calculated from the founda-
ton OF Rome, aftcrward from the Olympic
gAmeA Then the Babylonians had their meas
uremeAt OF the year and the Romans theirs and
The Armenlans theirs and the Hindoos theirs.
Chronology was busy for centuries studying
monuments, inscriptions, coins, Rummios and
astronomy, trying TO lay 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
Rewildermcnt until in the sixth century Do
| nysiHs Exiguus, u 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 splendid thought for the worldl
What q mighty thing for Christianity ltwould
| have been most natural to date everything from
the creation OF the world. But l am glad tho
! ehr0nslogists could not too easily guess how old
shO wSrld was in order to get the nations in the
habit OF dating from that occurrence
In its documents and histories. For
ever nIed is ii that all history Is to
be dated with reference to the birth OF Christ
and this matter settled, Hales, the chief ehro-
| biologist declared that the world was made
SAL years before Christ, and the doluge came
oiS5 years before Christ, and all the illustrious
events of the last nineteen centuries and al
the great events Of all time TO come have been
or shall be dated from the birth OF Christ
These things 1 say that you may know what .
watch Is, what clock Is. what az almanac In,
and loarn to appreciate through what tolls and
kardships and perplexities the world came 10
| its present eonveniences and comforts, and 10
help ysu 10 more respectful consideration Of
that sun-dial OF Ahaz planted in my text.
We are told that Hezeliah the King. was
dying Of boil. II must have been enc Of the
worst kind OF carbuncles, boil without any
central core and sometimes beautiful FIG
was pat upon IL an q poultice. HeZekiak did
net want to die then. His son who was 10 take
the kingdom had not yet been born and Here
kiah's death would have been the death Of the
| nation. So he prays for recovery and ID told
| Ia Will mt ell Int h.
| lous sign to make him sure OF IL. He has the
shoico OF having the shadow on the sun-dial Of
AhaZ advance or retreat He replied IL would
not be so wonderful TO have ths sun 60 down,
Dor 1t always does go down sooner or later. BE
hSls that It 20 backward, in other words, let
the day instead Of going on toward shutdown,
burn and 90 toward sunrise. ! see the invalid
| King bolstered up and wrapped in blankets
booking cut OF the window upon the sun-dial in
the courtyard While he watches the shadow
on the dial the shadow begins to retreat In
stead OF going on toward six o'clock in the
svsning II goes back toward six o'clock in the
morning. The ng poultice had been drawing
for some time and, sure enough, the boil broke
and Hezekiah got we'll Now expect you will
some on with your higher criticism and try 10
explain this away and say IL was an optical de-
| fusion OF Hezokiah, and the shadow emily
seemed to 60 back or q cloud came over and IL
| was uncertain which way the shadow did 70
snA a. Hezekiah expected IL TO 60 back he took
nc action Of his own mind FOR the retrograde
movement No; the shadow went back on all
tho dials Of that land and other lands. Turn 10
L. Chron. 50: 81, and nnd that away OF In Baby
ION the mighty men OF the palace noticed the
kanne phenomenon. And II you do not like bible
nuthority, turn over your copy OF Herodotus
and End that away Ell in Egypt the people
Iiced that there was something the matter with
the sun. Tho fact is that the whole universe
J waits upon Cd 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 q new year people are NOR
allzing on tho flight OF time You ell feel that
you are moving on toward shutdown and many
Of you are under consequent depression. I
propose this morning to set the hands on your
watches and clocks to going the other way. I
propose to show you how you may make the
shadow OF your dial like the shadow on the dial
" Ahaz TO stop going forward and make 1t 60
backward You think have big I'M
tertaNing on hand, but II can he
tene II the same Lord who reversed the
Shadow in Hezelushs courtyard moves upon us.
While locking AZ the sun-dial OF HezelSiah and
NC End the shadow retreating. we ought to
learn that God controls the shadows. We are
AL ready to acknowledge his management OF
We sunshine We stand In the glow OF a bright
norning and we say In our feelings IL not with
~ rda O.