The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-01-27
REV. DR.. TALMAGE..
THE BRooKLYN DIvINEts SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Sundial of Ahaz.r

Subject: "The sundiaI of Ahaz.n
TEXT: "And Isaiah the prophet criec
unto the Lord: md He. brought the shad
ON ten degrees backward BY tohich it hao
gone down in the dial of Ahaz"-II King
xx, II.
Here is the first clock or watch or chro-
nometer or timepiece Of which the world
has any knowledge: But it was a watch
that did not tick and q clock that did not
strike. It was a sundial. Ahaz, the king,
invented it. Between the hours given to
statecraft and the cares Of Office he Invented
something by which he could tell the time
of day. This sundial may have been a great
| column, and when the shadow Of that col
umn reached one point it was nine o'clock
A. NJ, and when it reached another point it
was three o'clock P. N, and all the hours and
half hours were so measured. Or 1t may
have been q flight OF stairs such as may now
tries, and when the shadow reached one step
it was ten o'clock A. H., or another step it
was four o'clock P. n, and likewise other
hours may have been indicated.
The clepsydra or water clock followed the
| sundial, and the sandglass 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
himself to politics. and while the third part
awhile came the wheel and weight clock,
and Pope Sylvester the Second, was its most
important inventor. And the skill of cen-
turtles Of exquisite mechanism toiled at the
| timepieces until the world had the Vick's
clock of the Fourteenth century and Huy-
| ghens, the inventor, swung the first pendu-
fum and DR.. Hooke contrived the re-
coil escapement. And the ''endless
| chain" followed and the ratchet and
pinion lever" took its place, and
the compensation balance and the
buzz and clang of the great clock and watch
factories of Switzerland and Germany and
England and America turning out what
seems to be the perfection Of timepieces. 1t
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 %ffty-four days and
then three hundred and sixty days, and not
until a long while after three hundred and
sixty-fve days. Then events were calcu-
tdL6U lEOm Uu0 1OQuuhIlOu VI eOuu6 alGtls
ward from the Olympic games. Then the
year and the Romans theirs and
the Armenians theirs and the Bin
loos theirs. Chronology was busy
for centuries studying monuments,
Inscriptions, coins, mummies and astron-
omy, trying to lay a plan by which all
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 a mountain Of confusion and
bewilderment until in the sixth century
Dionysius E1iguus, a Roman abbot, said,
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 a splendid
thought for the world! What a mighty
thing for Christianity, It would have bean
most natural to date everything from the
creation of the world. But I am glad
the ~ehronologists could not to3 easily guess
how old the world was in order to get the
nations In the habit Of dating from that
occurrence in its documents and his
tories. Forever fixed Is it that all history Is
to 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 ons hundred and fifty
ave years before Christ, and all the illus.
trious events Of the 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 I say that you may
know what q watch is what a clock is, what
an almanac is, and learn to appreciate
through what tolls and hardships and per-
~plexitfes the world came to its present con-
veniences and comforts, and to help you to
more respectful consideration Of that SUM-
dial of Ahaz planted in my text.
We are told that Hezekiah, the king, was
dying Of a boil. 1t must nave been n of
the wort kind Of ~carbuncles, a boil without
any central core and sometimes beautiful.
a fig was put upon it as a poultice. Hezekiah
did not want to die then. His son, who was
to take the kingdom, had not yet been born,
and Hezekiahs death would lave been the
death of the nation. So he prays for re-
covery 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 OF
retreat. He replied it would not be so won
derful to have the sun 60 down, for 1t al
ways does go down sooner or later.
he asks that it 60 backward. In
VbASh y GoS eoy AAoSSdN W oSNA6
on toward shutdown, turn and 60 toward
sunrise. Isee 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 morn
Ing. The big p~oultice had been drawing for
some time. and sure enough the boil broke
and Hezekiah got well. Now I expect you
will come on with your higher criticism
and try to explain this away and say 1t
was an optical delusion Of Hezekiah, and the
shadow only seemed to 60 back or cloud
came over and it was uncertain which way
the shadow did 60, and as Hezekiah. expected
1t to 60 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 of in Babylon the mighty men OF
the palace noticed the same phenomenon.
And if you do not like the Bible authority
turn over your copy Of Herodotus and lind
that away OF in 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 en-
tire world as easily as you can set back the
hour hand or minute hand Of your clock or
watch.
At the opening Of the n,w year people are
moralizing on tho fight Of time. You all
feel that you are moving on toward SUM-
down and many Of you are under a conse-
quent depression. I propose this morning
to.set the hands of your watches and clocks
to going the other way. I propose to show
YOU how you make the shadow Of your dial
like the shadow on the dial Of Ahaz to
stop going forward and make it go back
ward. You think 1 nave a big undertaking
on hand, but it can be done il the same Lord