News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-01-14
Grand Army Encampment.

mighty men of the palace noticed
the same phenomenon. And if you
do not like Bible authority turn over
your copy of Herodotus and find that
away off i'll 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 a new year peO-
pie are mOralizing on the flight of
time. You all feel that you are moving
on toward shutdown and many of you
are under a consequent depression. l
propose this morning to set the hands
on your watches and clocks to going
the other way. l propose to show
you how you may make the shadow
of your dial like the shadow on the
dial of Ahaz, to stop going forward
and make it go backward. You think
| have a big undertaking on hand,
but it can be done, if the same Lord
who reversed the shadow in Heze-
kiah's courtyard moves upon us.
While looking at the sundial of
Hezekiah, and we find the shadow
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 a bright morning, and
we say in 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 providential thing it was !
bought that lot just before the rise
of real estatel How grateful to God
l am that made that investment
Why, they have declared ten per cent.
dividend What a mercy it was that
sold out my shares before that col
lapsep'
Oh, yes, we acknowledge God in
the sunshine of bright day or the
sunshine of a great prosperity. But
suppose the day is dark? 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 re-
| treat, or we make an investment that
| never pays, or we purchase goods
that we cannot dispose of, or a crop
of grain we sowed is ruined by
| drought or freshet, or when we took
| account of stock on the first of Jan
uary we found ourselves thousands
| of dollars worse off than we expected. |
Who under such circumstances says:
This loss is from God. Unjust have
been allowed to go into that unfor
tunate enterprise for some good rea-
son; God controls the east wind as
well as the west wind.
A LESSON TO LEARN.
My friends, l cannot look for one |
moment on that retrogade shadow
ON Ahaz's dial without learning that |
God controls the shadows and that |
lesson we need all to learn That he |
controls the sunshine is not so neces-
sary lesson, for anybody can be
happy when things go right. When
you sleep eight hours night and rise
with an appetite that cannot easily
wait for breakfast, and you go over to
Hhe store and open your mail to read
more orders than you can fill, and in
the next letter you find a dividend |
far larger than you have been prom |
ised, and your neighbOr comes in to |
tell you some fattering thing he has
just heard said about you, and you
find that all the styles of goods in
which you deal have advanced fifteen
per cent. in value, and on your way
home you meet your children in 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 do you want of consolation?
| don't pity you bit. You feel as
if you could boss the world. But for
those in just opposite circumstances
my text comes in with an omnipo-
tence of meaning. The shadow Oh,
the shadow Shadow of bereave-
ment! Shadow of sicknessl Shadow
Of bankruptcy Shadow of mental
depression! Shadow of persecution!
Shadow of DEATH Speak out, o sun
dial Of Ahaz, and tell all the people
that God manages the shadow!
As Hezekiah sat in his palace WIN
dow, wrapped in invalidism and sur
rounded by anOdynes 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 a lesson that
a majority of the human race need
this hour to learn-that the best
friend man ever had controls the
shadow The setbacks are some
times the best things that can hap
pen
The great German author Schiller
could not work unless he had in his
room the scent of rotten apples, and
the decay Of the fruits of earthly
prosperity may become an inspira-
ton instead of depression Robert
Chambers lame feet shut him up
from other work, and he became the
world renowned publisher and helped
fashion the best literature of the
ages. The painful disorder like that
Of HezeBiah called a carbuncle, is
spelled exactly the same as the pre-
cious stone called the carbuncle, and
the pang of suffering may become
the jewel of immortal value. Your
setback, like that of Ahaz's sundial,
may be recovery and triumph.
never had a setback but it turned
out to be set forward. You never
would have become a Christian if
you had not had a setback. The
highest thrones in heaven are for the
setbacks. In 1861 the shadow of the
sundial Of this nation was set back
and all things seemed going to ruin,
and it was set back farther in 1862,
and farther in 1868, and still further
in 1865, but there is not an intelligent
and well balanced man, north or
south, east or west, but feels it was
set back toward the sunrise.
TURN THE SHADOWS BACK.
But l promised to show you how
the shadows might be turned back.
First, by going much among the
young people. In most family circles
there are grandchildren By this di-
vine arrangement most of the people
I