Milford chronicle., 1892-01-15
THE FLIGHT OF
DR.. TALMAGE breaches ON
SUNDlAL OF A1AZ.

It mon this morning was full Of brightnes
o and good cheer He might have called
Y A recipe for happiness The buOyancy an
elasticity of temperament which eharaC
, terize him were conspicuous throughout
I and must have zen impaired to his hear
Q srs His text was II King Xxx, IL, "An'
!, Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord
and he brought the shadow ten degrCA
|. backward by which it had gone down y
the dial Of Ahaz." b
Here is the first clock or watch or chro
nometer or timepiece Of which the worlC
i. has any knowledge But it was watcl
that did not tick and clock that did no
strike. II was a sundial. Ahaz, the king
invented it. Between the hours given tt
statecraft and the cares of office he invent
ed something by which he could tell thi
time of day. This sundial may have beer
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 so measured
Or it may have been 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 u. M, or
another step it was four O'Clock p. IN, and
likewise other hours may have been indi
Gated
THE WORLDS HOROLOGEs.
The clepsydra or water clock followed
the sundiai, 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 be gave himself to re
ligion, and while the second part was burn
ing he gave himself to politics, and while
the third part was burning he gave him
self to rest. After awhile came the wheel
and weight clock, and Pope Sylvester the
Second was its most important inventor.
And the skill Of centuries of exquisite mech,
anism toiled at the timepieces until the
world had the Eick's clock of the Four
teenth century and Huyghens, the inven
tor, swung the first pendulum aud DR.
Hooke contrived the recoil escapement
And the 'endless chain" followed and the
"ratchet and pinion lever" took its place
and the compensation balance and the
stemwinder followed, and now we have
the buzz and clang Of the great clock and
watch factories of Switzerland aud Ger
many and England and America turning
out what seems to be the perfection Of
timepieces 1t took the world six thou
sand years to make the present chronom
eter. 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 day1s.and then three hundred
and sixty days. and not until ii long while
after three hundred and siXty-fve days
Then events were calculated from the
foundation of Rome, afterward from the
4 Tu-n l.
had their measurement of the year and the
Romans theirs and the Armenians theirs
and the Hindoos theirs. Chronology was
busy for centuries studying monuments. |
inscriptions, coins, mummies and astron- |
omy trying to lay plan by which all 1
question Of dates might be settled and |
events put in their right place in the pro
cession of the ages. But the chronolOgists
only heaped up mountain of confusion
and bewilderment until in the Sixth cen
tury DiOnysius Exiguus, Roman abbot,
said Let everything date from the birth
ut Bethlehem of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Saviour of the world" The abbot pro
posed to have things dated backward and
forward from that great event. What
splendid thought for the Worldl What
mighty thing for Christianity! 1t would
nave been most natural to date everything
rom 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 dating from
hat occurrence in its documents and his
cries Forever fixed is it that all history
S to be dated with reference to the birth of
1hrist, and, this matter settled, Hales the
hief chrOnologiSt. declared that the world
vas made five Thousand four hundred and
leven years before Christ. and the deluge ,
anne three thousand one hundred and ,
fty five years before Christ and all the
Ilnstrious events Of the last nineteen cen !
uries and all the great events Of all time
D come have been or shall be dated from t,
be birth of Christ These things ! say
bat you may know what a watch is, what ,
clock is, what an almanac is and learn
, appreciate through what tolls and hard :
hips and perplexities the world came to /,
s present conyeniences and comforts, and =
} help you to more respectful consider 6
tion of that sundial of Ahaz planted in =
y text =
THE AFFLICTIONs OF HEZEKIAH. :,
We are told that Hezekiah the king was Z
ying Of a boil 1t must have been one of !,
le worst kind of carbuncles, boil with n
1t any central core and sometimes death !,
H. A Zig WIS put upon it as poultice. +
ezekiah did not want to die then. His "
m, who was to take the kingdom, had not +,
t been born, and Hezekiah' s death would =
ave been the death of the nation SO be =
avs for recovery and is told he will get -
ELL But be wants some miraculous sign ~
make him sure of it. He has the choice ~
having the shadow on the sundial of "
haz advance or retreat. He replied it =
Ould not be so wonderful to have the sun :,
down, for it always does 20 down sooner ~
later. He asks that it 20 backward. In -
her words, let the day instead Of going 81
toward sundown, turn and go toward :,
nTise. see the invalid king bolstered >
and wrapped in blankets looking out OF
Q window upon the surdial in the court 4h
I'd. While he watches the shadow on the -
Al the shadow begins to retreat. Insteirl 4,
going on toward six o'clock In the even ~
2 It goes back toward six O'Clock in the "
1rning The big poultice had been draw n
2 for some time, and sure enough the boil T..
oke and Hezekiah got we'll Now ex a.
ct you will come on with your higher 4.
ticism and try to explain this away and -
! It was an optical delusion of Hezekiah, w
d the shadow only seemed to 20 back or Y'
loud came over and ii wls uncertain Ih
Itch way the shadow did 90, AMI rs Heze- 70
ia expected it to 90 back be took the nc 70
n of his own mind for the retrograde lhl
,vement. No. the shadow went back on pe
the dias Of that land and other lands. pi'
IN to II Chronicles xxxii 81, and find that pe
ny of in Babylon the mighty men Of the spl
lace poticed the same phenomenon And t9
you do not like Bible authority turn over ~
lr copy Of Herodotus and find that away ~,
in Egypt the people noticed that there -
s something the matter with the sun. 10
e fact is that the whole universe waits th'
on God. and suns and moons and stars pa
not very big things to him, and he can IT, r.
Ii his little finger turn back an entire ~
rid as easily as you could set back the ~.
Ir hand or minute hand Of your clock Or ~ ~
tch. ~
TiiK FLIGHT or TIME. ~
Il the opening of the new year people Joi
nloralizing on the flight Of time. You ol
r HaN