Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-01-14

THE FLIGHT OF TIME
~ the opening OF the new year people
are n.nralizing on the flight of time You
all te,i hat you are moving on toward sun
down and many Of you are under a colIse
auenI depression propose this morning
: sci the hands on your watches and clocks
10 going the other way propose to show
ION how you may make the shadow of your
iildi like the shadow on the dial of AhaZ to
stop going forward and make it 20 back
ward You think | have big undertaking
on hand, but it can be done if the same
Lord who reversed the shadow in HeZe-
klah's courtyard moves upon MS While
| looking at the sundial of HeZekiah and
we find the shallow 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 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 have Il rush of prosperity
| and we say, These successes are from God
Whit a proyidental thing it was | bought
that lot Just before the rise of real estate!
How grateful to God ! am that made
that investment Why they have declared
10 per cent. dividend What mercy it was
that | sold ont my shares before that col
lapse" Oh, yes; we acknowledge God in
the sunshine of Il bright day or the sun
shine Of a great prosperity. But suppose
the day is dark You have to light the
gas at noon. The sun does not show him
self all day long, There il nothing but
shadow. How slow we are 10 realize that
the storm is from God and the darkness
from God and the chill from God Or we
buy the day before the markets retreat, or
we make an investment that never pays, or
we purchase goods that we cannot dispose
of. or crop of grain we sowed is ruined
by drought or freshet. or when we took ac
count of stock on the LIST of January we
found ourselves thousands of dollars worse
off than we expected Who under such
circumstances says, This loss is from God
must have been allowed to go into that
unfortunate enterprise for some good rea-
son. God controls the east wind as well as
the west windS"
COP CONTROLS THE SHADOWS.
My friends. cannot look for one moment
on that retrograde shadow on Ahaz's dial
without learning that God controls the
shadows and that lesson we need all to
learn That he controls the sunshine is not
so necessary a lesson, for anybody can be
happy when things go right. When you
sleep eight hours a night and rise with an
appetite that cannot easily wait for break
fast and you 20 over to the store and open
your mail to read more orders than you can
fill, and in the next letter you find divi-
dend far larger than you have been prom
Used, and your neighbor comes in to tell
you some iattering thing he has just heard
said about you, and you find that all the
styles of goods in which you deal have adj
vanced u per cent. in value, and on your
way home you meet your children in full
romp and there are roses on the center of
the tea table and roses of health in cheeks
all around the table what more do you want
of consolationi don't pity you "A bit. You
feel rs II you could boss the world. But
for those in just opposite circumstances my
text comes in with an omnipotence of mean
ing The shadowl Oh, the shadowl Shad-
ow of bereavement Shadow of sicknessl
Shadow Of bankruptcy Shadow of mental
depressionl Shadow Of persecution Shad-
ow Of death Speak out, oh. sun dial Of
Ahaz, and tell all the people that God
manages the shadow As Hezekiah sat in
his palace window wrapped in invalidism
and surrounded by anodynes and cata-
plasms and looked out upon the black hand
of the only clock known at that time and
saw it move back ten degrees, he learned
lesson that a majority Of the human race
need this hour to learn-that the best friend
a man ever had controls the shadow The
setbacks are sometimes the best things
that can happen. The great German au-
thor, Schiller, could not work unless he had
in his room the scent of rotten apples, and
the decay of the fruits of earthly prosperity
may become an inspiration instead Of de
preston Robert Chambers lame feet
shut him up from other work, and he be
came the world renowned publisher, and
helped fashion the best literature Of the
ages The painful disorder like that of
Hezekiah called carbuncle is spelled ex
actly the same rs the precious stone called
the carbuncle, and the pang of suffering
may become the jewel Of immortal value.
Your setback, like that of Ahaz's sundial,
mag be recovery andtriumph. never had
a setback but it turned out to be set for
ward You never would have become a
Christian IL you had not had setback. |
The highest thrones in heaven are for the
setbacks. In 1861 the shadow of the sun
dial Of this nation WAS set back, and all |
things seemed going to ruin, and it was set |
back further in 1862, and further in 1863. |
and still further in 1865. but there is not |
an intelligent and well balanced man
north or south, east or west-but feels it |
was set back toward the sunrise.
HOW THEY MAY BE TURNED BACK
But promise to show you how the shad-
ows might be turned back. First by going |
much among the young people In most |
family circles there are grandchildren. BY |
this divine arrangement most of the people
who have passed the meridian of life can
compass themselves byauvenility. IL is
bad thing for AN old man or old woman to
sit looking ut the vivacity Of their grand
children shouting. Stop that racket"
Better join in the fun. Let the eighty
year-old grandfather join the eight-year
young grandson or granddaughter My |
father and mother lived to see over eighty
children and grandchildren and great
grandchildren. and a more boisterous crew
were never turned out on this sublunary
sphere, and they all seemed to cry 10 the
old folks, Keep young" and they did keep
young. Don't walk with cane unless you