Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-01-11

Hezskiah did not want to die then
His son, who was to take the king
dom, had not yet been born, and
Hezekiahs death would have been
che 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 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
begins to retreat. Instead of going
on toward six o'clock in the evening it
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 we'll Now l expect you will
come on with your higher criticism
and try to explain this away and say
it was an optical delusion of Heze-
kiah, and the shadow only seemed to
go back or a cloud came over and it
was uncertain which way the shadow
did CO. and as Hezekiah expected it
to go back he took the action Of his
own mind for the retrograde move
ment No; the shadow went back
on all the dials of that land and other
lands
Turn to II Chronicles xxi, 81, and
find that away off in Babylon the
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 in Egypt the people noticed
that there was something the matter
with the SUM- 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 OF watch.
At the opening of a new year peo-
pie are moralizing on the fight of
time. You all feel that you are moving
on toward shutdown and many of you
are under a 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 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 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 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 estate! How grateful to God
am that | made that investment!
Why, they have declared ten per cent.
dvidendl What a mercy it was that
l sold out my shares before that col
lapse!"
Oh. yes, we acknowledge God in
the sunshine of a 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. must have
been allowed to go into that unfor
tunate enterprise for some good rea-
son; God controls the east wind as
we'll as the west wind"
A LESSON TO LEARN
Ny friends, l cannot look for one
moment on that retrogade shadow