Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1892-01-14
ABERNACLE PULPIT.
TALMAGE ON THE SUN-DIAL OF
AHAZ.
Cheer-Moralizing On the Flight of
Time ut the Close of Each Year.


temperament which characterize him
were conspicuous throughout and must
have been impaired to his hearers; His
text was: ii, Kings POLL, "Ahd 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 irst clock or watch or chronome-
ter or time-piece Of which the world has any
knowledge. But il was watch that did not
tick and a clock that did not strike 1t was i
sun-diah Ahaz, the King invented It, Between
the hours given to statpcrart and the cares of
office he 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 II was Q o'clock
am and when it reached another point il was
3o'clock p m, and all the hours and ha1f-hours
were so measured. Or IL may have been a
fight Of stairs such as may now be found in
Hindustah and otncr old countries, and when
The shadow reached one step II was 10 o'clock
am, or another step it was o'clock pm, and
likewise other hours may have been indi-
Gated,
The Ciepsydra or water-clock 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
gave himself to religion and while the 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 and Pore Sylvester the Sec.
ond was its most important inventor. And the
skill OF centuries OF exquisite mechanism
toiled ut the time-pieces until the world
had the Vick's clock of the Fourteenth century,
and Huyghcns the inventor swung the first
pendulum, and DR. Hooke contriVed the recol
escapemcnt. And the endless chain followed,
and the ratchet and pinion lever took its
place; and the compensation balance and the
stem winder followed and now we have the
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 to new moon; then
from harvest to harvest. Then the year was
pronounced to be 354 days and then 800 days
and, not until long while after, 365 days
Then events were calculated from the founda-
tion of Rome, afterward from the Olympic
games. Then the BabylOnians had their meas
urCment 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
IL
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
bewilderment until in the sixth century Do
nysius ExigUus, Roman abbot, said, Let
everything date from the birth at Bethlehem
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the
world" The abbot proposed 10 have things
dated backward and forward from that great
event What q splendid thought for the world!
What mighty thing for Christianity 1t would
have been most natural 10 date everything from
the creation Of the world. But ] am glad the
chronologlsts could not too 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 histories. For
ever fixed is 1t that all history is to
be dated with reference TO the birth of Christ,
and this matter settled, Hales, the chief chro-
nologist declared that the world was made
5,4ll years before Christ, and the deluge came
355 years before Christ, and all the illus trous
events of the last nineteen centuries and all
the great events of all time to come have been
or shall be dated from the birth of Christ.
These things say that you may know what a
watch is, what a clock is, what an almanac is,
| and learn to appreciate through what tolls and
! haTdships and pcrpleXities the world came To
| its present cOnvcniences and comforts and to
| help you to more respectful consideration of
We are told that HeZekiah the King, was
| dying OF boil. 1t must have been one Of the
! worst kind of carbuncles, boil without any
| central core and sometimes deathfuL a fig
was put upon it poultice Hezekiah did
| not want TO die then. His son who was to take
the kingdom had not yet been born and Hezc.
! Hahs death would have been the death of the
nation So he prays for recovery and is told
! he win get well. But be wants some miracu
! lous sign to make him sure of il. He has the
! choice OF having the shadow on the sun-dial Of
! Ahaz advance or retreat. He replied ii would
not be so wonderful to have the sun go down
! for IL always does go down sooner or later. He
| asks that it go backward, in other words, LEI
! the day instead OF going on toward shutdown
| turn and go toward sunrise l sec the invalid
| King bOlstered up and wrapped in blanket.
| looking out OF the window upon the sun-dial il
! 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 tn,
evening il goes back toward six O'Clock in tn,
| morning. The fig poultice had been drawing
for some time and, sure enough, the boil brOk
and HeZelIiah got we'll. Now l expect you " II
come on with your higher criticism and try l.
| explain this away and say II was an optical dc
fusion of Hezekiah, and the shadow onl
seemed to 60 back or a cloud came over and
was uncertain which way the shadow did G
and as Hezekiah expected 1t to go back he too
the action of his own mind for the retrograd
movement. No; the shadow went back on 81
The dials of that land and other lands. Turn
H. Chron. 80: 81, and find that away off in BABY
Ion the mighty men of the palace noticed tn
same phenomenon. And if you do not like bibl
authority, turn over your copy OF Herodotu
and find that away of in Egypt the people nc
iced that there was something the matter wit
the sun. The fact is that the whole univers
waits upon q cd and suns and moons and star
are not very big things to him, and he can wit
his little finger turn back an entire world q
easily as you could set back the hour-hand Q
minute-hand Of your clock or watch.
At the opening of a new year people are mo-
alizing on the flight of time. You all feel tina
you are moving on toward shutdown and man
OF you are under consequent depression.
, propose this morning 10 set the hands on you
watches and clocks to going the other way.
propose to show you how you may make tn
shadow of your dial like the shadow on the dis
of Ahaz to stop going forward and make it g
backward. You think have big VI
dertaldng on hand, but it can b
done If the same Lord who reversed tn
shadow in Hezekah's courtyard moves upon US
While looking at the sun-dial of Hezekiah an
we find the shadow retreating, we ought b
learn that God controls the shadows. We ar
all ready TO acknowledge his management O
the sunshine. We stand in the glow Of a brigh
morning and we say in our feelings if not wit
so many words, This life is from God thi
warmth is from God" Or, we have a rush O
prosperity and we say, These successes ar
from God What proyidential thing it was
bought that lot just before the rise Of rea
estate! How grateful TO God / am that mad
that investment! Why, they have declare
ten per cent dividend What a mercy II wa
that sold out my shares before that collapse,
Oh, yes; we acknowledge God in the sunshin
Of bright day or the sunshine OF great pro,
perity. But suppose the day is dark Yo
have 10 light the gas at noon. The sun doe
not show himself all day long. There is nothin
but shadow How slow we are to realize tha
the storm is from God and the darkness frol
: God and the chill from God. o,
we buy the day before the ma
kets retreat; or we make an inyes
ment that never pays; or we purchase good
! that We cannot dispose Of; or a crop OF graf
we sowed is ruined by drought or freshet; {
when we took account OF stock on the LIST ,
: January we found ourselves thousands of do
lars worse of than VIC expected. Who undo
such circumstances says, This loss is frol
God, must have been allowed 10 go into thf
unfortunate enterprise for some good reason
God controls the east wind as well as the we.
wind?"
My friends, cannot look for one moment O
that retrograde shadow on Ahaz's dial withoI
learning that God controls the shadows an
that lesson we need all TO learn. That he COZ
1NEa a.