Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-01-11
TURNED BACK.
4 DELICIOUS Sc NON ONA VERY PLEASANT
THEME
Dr. IalmaSs lmPreSses His Hearers With the
Brightness and Sunshine Of His Dis
course - Turning Toward
the Sunrise.

BROoKLYN, n. Y, January 1O.-Dr.
Ialmage's sermon this morning was
tuli OF brightness and good cheer. He
might have called it a recipe for hap
pineSS. The buOyancy and elaSticy Of
temperament which characterize him
were conspicuous throughout and must
nave been Impaired TO his hearers. His
text was: ii. Kings 20: IL, "And Isaiah,
the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he
brought the shadow ten degrees back
ward by which 1t had gone down in the
dial OF Ahaz."
Here is the first clock or watch or
chronombter or time-piece Of which the
world has any knowledge. But it was
watch that did not tick and a clock
that did not strike. II was a Sun-dial.
Ahaz, the king, invented it. Between
the hours given TO statecYaft and the
cares Of Office he invented something by
which he could tell the time OF day.
This suu-dial may have been q great
column, and when the shadow Of that
column reached one point it was nine
o'clock a. m, and when Ii reached an
other point ii was three o'clock p. m,
and all the hours and half hours were
so measured. Or il may have been a
hight OF stairs such as may now be
found in Hindustan and other old coun-
tries, and when the shadow reached one
step IL was ten o'clock a. M, or another
step four O'Clock D. m, and likewise
other hours may have been indicated.
THE CLEPsYDRA
or water-clock followed the sund-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 parts, and while the
first part was burning he gave himself
TO religion and while the second part
was burning he gave himself 10 politics
aud while the third part was burning
he gave himself 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 mechanism toiled
at the time-pieceS until the world had the
Vick's clock Of the fourteenth century
and Huyghens the inventor swung the
first pendulum, and DR.. HOoke contrived
the recOil eScapement. And the "end
less 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 Ger
many and England and America turn
ing out what seems TO be the perfection
Of time-pieces. 1t took the world six
thousand years to make the present
chronomOter. So with the measure
ment Of longer spaces than minutes and
hours.
TINE 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 days and then three hundred
and sixty days and, not until long
while after, three hundred and sixty
five days. Then events were calculated
from the foundation OF Rome, after
ward from the Olympic games. Then
'tifs Babylonians had their measure
ment Of the year and the Romans theirs
and the Armenians their and the Hin
docs theirs. Chronology was busy for
centuries studying monuments, in
scriptions, 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
procession Of the ages. But the Chron-
olOgists only heaped up a mountain
Of confusion and bewilderment
until in the sixth century Dionysius
Exiguus, a Roman abbott, said: "Let
everything date from the birth at Beth
lehem 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 a splendid thought for the world!
What a mighty thing for Christianity!
1t would have been most natural 70 date
everything from the creation Of the
world. But am glad the chrOnologists
could not too easily guess how old the
world was In order 70 get the nations in
the habit OF dating from that occurrence
in its documents and histories.
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 1--we thousand four hundred
and eleven years before Christ, aid the
deluge came three thousand one hun
bred and fifty-fve years before Christ
and all the illuStriOuS events OF the last
nineteen centuries and all the great
events Of all time 20 come have been or
shall be dated from the birth Of Christ.
These things l say that you may know
what a watch is, what clock is, what
an almanac Is, and learn TO appreciate
through what tolls and hardships and
perplexities the world came to its pres
EFT cOnveniences and comforts, and to
help you to more respectful cOnsidera-
tion Of that Sun-dial OF Ahaz planted in
my text.
We are told that Hezekish the king,
was dying OF boil IL must have been
one of the worst kind Of csrbuncles, q
boil witbou, any central core and some
times deathiul. A zig was put upon il
as q poultice. Hezekiah did not want
to die then. His son who was to take
the kingdom had not yet been born and |
Hezekiah's death would have been the |
death Of the nation. So he prays for |
recovery aud is told be will get well. |
But he wants some miraculous sign to |
make him sure Of il. He has the choice |
of having the shadow on the sundial OF !
Ahaz advance or retreat. He replied 10 |
would not be so wonderful to have the |
sun 20 down, for it always does go |
down sooner or later. He asks that il !
90 backward, iu other words, let the |
dav instead of going on toward sun |
down. turn and go toward sunrise. l !
sac the invalid king bOlstered up and |
wrapped in blankets looking out OF the |
window upon the sundial in the court
ward. While he watches the shadow OF |
The dial the shadow begins to retreat. |