The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-01-15

trail core and sometimes beautiful. A
fig was put upon it as poultice
Hezekiah did not want to die then.
His son, who was to take the king
dom, had not yet been born, and
Hezekiah's death would have been
the death of the nation. So he prays
for recovery and is told he will get
yell.
But he wants some miraculous sign
10 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 well. Now | 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 cloud came over and it
was uncertain which way the shadow
did go, 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 III 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 or 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. l
propose this morning to set the hands
on your watches and clocks to going
the other way. | 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-
kiahs courtyard moves upon us.
While looking at the Sundial of |
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 a 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
nave a rush of prosperity, and we
say: These successes are from God.
What a providential thing it was I
bought that lot just before the rise
IF real estatel How grateful to God
am that l made that investment
Why, they have declared ten per cent.
dividend What mercy it was that
sold out my shares before that col
apsew
Oh, yes, we acknowledge God in
the sunshine of a bright day or the
of a great prosperity. But (
suppose the day is dark You have
to light the gas at noon. The sun
1oes 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 .
ouy the day before the markets re- !
reat, or we make an investment that i
never pays, or we purchase goods
hat we cannot dispose of, or a crop {
IF grain we sowed is ruined by {
brought or freshet, or when we took |
account of stock on the first of Jan
larry we found ourselves thousands i
If dollars worse off than we expected.
Who under such circumstances says: !
This loss is from God. must have {
)een allowed to go into that unfor- {
innate enterprise for some good rea- I
on; God controls the east wind as J
we'll as the west wind" 1
A LESSON TO LEARN. '
My friends, | cannot look for one
moment on that rerogade shadow t
n Ahaz's dial without learning that y
rod controls the shadows and that /
esson we need all to learn That he L