Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1892-04-08
REV. TALMAGE'S SERMON
THE sUNDIAL OF AHAz."
The Brooklyn DlvIne's Sunday sormon n.

Here Is the first clock or watch or chro.
nometer or timepiece of which tho world
has any knowledge. But it was a watch
that did not tick and a clock That did not
strike. 1t was q sundial. Ahaz. the kline
invented it. Between the hours given to
statecraft and the cares Of Office he invented
something by which he could tell the time
Oh day. This sundial may have been a great
column, and when thu shadow of that col
umn reached one point it was nine o'clocl,
A. NJ, and when it reached another point it
was three O'Clock p b., and all the hours and
haif hours were so measured Or it NAV
have been flight OF stairs such as may now
be found in Hindostan and other old conn
tries, and when tho shadow reached one sion
u was ten O'CLOCK A. ~, or another step it
was Tour O'Clock p. NJ, and likewise other
hours may have been indicated.
Inc clepsydra or water clock followed the
sundiai, and the sandglass followed the
ciepsydra- Then came tho 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
Wnile tue second part was burning he gave
himself to politics, and while the third pars
was burning he gave himself to rest. After
awhile came the wheel and weight clock.
and rope Sylvester the Second, was its most
Important inventor. And tho skill OF CEN
turtles of exquisite mechanism toiled nt tho
timepiecss until the world had the Vick,s
CLOCK OF the Fourteenth century and Huy-
ghens, the inventor, swung the first penfji,
lum and DIR. Hooke contrived the re-
c cEn e sepeyos And the ''endless
pinion levers took its place md
tho compensation balance and the
stemwinder followed, and now we have tho
puzz anu c!ang of the great clock and watch
I9ctories OF Switzerland and Germany and
England and America turning out what
seems TO bc tho perfection of timepiecas. It
TOOK the world six thousand years to make
the present chronometer So with the
measurement OF longer spaces than minutes
an'i hours- lime was calculatad from now
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
slxty-nve days. Then events were calcu-
lated from tho foundation of Rome inter-
ward from the Olympic games. Then the
babyionians had J-eir measurement OF tho
year and tho Romans theirs and
the Armenians theirs and the Hin
aooS theirs. Chronology was busy
Tor centuries studying monuments
Inscriptions, coins, munmies and astron,
omy, trying to lay plan by which nll
question of dates might DO settled and
events put in their right place in the pro-
ceSsion OF the ages. But the chronoiogists
only heaped up n mountain OF confusion and
5ewilderment until in tho sixth century
Dlonysius Exiguus, n Roman abbot said.
Let everything date from the birth nc
Bethlehem of the Lord Jesus Christ tho
Saviour of the world" The abbot pronosnj
\ TO have things dated backward and forward
from TINT great event. What splendid
thought for the worldl What a mirhtv
thing for Christianity 1t would have been
most natural 10 date everything from the
creation ere OF the world. But am glad
the chronoloGists could not too easily ruess
now old the world was in order to get Tho
nations In the habit of dating from that
occurrence i'll 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 tho
chief chronoiogist, declared that the world
was made live thousand four hundred mud
eleven years before Christ, and the deluce
came three thousand one hundred and fltty-
I'VE years before Christ aud all the illus.
trious events of the nineteen centuries ana
all the great events OF all time to come have
been Oh shall be dated from the birth of
Christ These things 1 say that you NAV
Know what u watch is, what clock is, what
! IN almanac is, and learn to appreciote
through what tolls and hardships and per-
pleXities the world came to its present con-
| Vehlences anu comforts, and to help Won to
more respectful consideration Of that sun
dial OF Ahaz planted in my text
We are told that Hezekiah, the kim was
| dying of n boil. 1t must have heen One of
the wort KIND OF carbuncles, boil without
any central core and sometimes beautiful.
ig was put upon it rs poultice. Hczekiah
dld not want to die then. His son. who was
TO take the Kingdom, had not vet been born.
and HeZesah's death would have been Tho
aeath 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 IL. He has the choice OF having the
snadow on tho sundial OF AhaZ advance or
retreat. He replied it would not be so won.
deriul to have the sun go down, for 1t al
ways does go down sooner or later
nc asks that it go backward. In
other words let the day instead of going
on toward shutdown, turn and 60 toward
sunrise. see the invalid king bolsterei up
ana wrapped III blankets looking out of tho
window upon tho sundial in the COURTYARD.
while he watches the shadow on the dial
the shadow begins to retreat. Instead of
gong On toward six O'Clock In the evening
It goes back toward six O'clock in the morn
Ing. The big poutice had been drawing for
some time, and sure enough the boil broke
and HezeSiah got well. Now expect YOU
VIII come on with your higher criticism
anu Try to explain this away and say it
was an optical delusion of Hezekiah, and the
shadow only seemed to go back or cloud
came over and it was uncertain which way
the shadow did go, and rs Hczekiah expected
It TO go back he took the action of
MS own mind for tho retrograde move
ment. NO; the shadow went back on
all the dials of that land and other lands.
Turn to III Chronicles xxxii 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 find
that away off in Egypt the people noticed
that there was something tho matter with
the sun. The fact is that the whole universe
wits upon God, and suns md 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 OF minute hand of your clock or
/ watch.
AT the opening of the new yenr people are
moralzing on the flight of time You all
feel that you are moving on toward sun
down and many of you are under n conse-
quent depression. / propose this morning
10 set the hands of your watches and clocks
to going the other way. 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 have a big undertaking
on hand, but it can be done If tine same Lord
who reversed the shadow in Hezkiah's court
yard moves upon us. While looking at the
sundial of Hezkiah and we find the shadow
retreating we ought to learn that God
controls the shadows. We are all
ready to acknowledge His manage.