Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-11
THE FLIGHT OF TINE.
DR.. TALMAGE BREACHES ON THE
5uNDIAL or AHAz.

BROOKLYN, Jan. 10. - DR. Talma0e's ser
mon this morning was full of brightness
and good cheer He might have called it
recipe for Happiness The buoyaucy and
elasticity Of temperament which charac
terize him were n~piruous throughout
and must have been impaired TO his hear
ers His text was / King Xxx, II, And
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 il the first clock or watch or chrO-
nometer or tinlepece of which the world
has any knowledge But it was "A watch
that did not tick and Il clock that did not
strike. 1t was Il sundial Ahaz, the king.
invented it, Between the hours given to
statecraft and the cares Of Office he invent
ed something by which he could tell the
time Of day This sundinl may have been
a great column, and when the shadow Of
that column reached one point it was nine
O'Clock n M, and when it reached another
point it was three O'clock p. m. and all the
hours and half hours were so measured
Or it may have been flight of stairs such
as may now be found in Hindostan and
other old countries and when the shadow
reached one step it was ten o'clock H. m, or
another step it was four O'Clock p. m, and
likewise other hours may have been indi
Gated
THE WORLDS HOROLoGEs.
The clepsydra or water clock followed
the sundiaI and the sand glass followed
the clepsydra. 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 re
ligion and while the second part was burn
ing he gave himself to politics, and while
the third part was burning he gave him
self 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 mech
anism toled at the timepipccs until the
world had the Nicl's clock of the Four
teenth century and lluyghens, the inyen
tor, swung the first pendulum and Dir
Hooke contrived the rccoii eScapement
And the endless chain" followed and the
ratchet and pinion lever took its place,
and the compensation balance and the
stemwinder 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 turning
out what seems to be the perfection Of
timepieces 1t took the world six thou
sand years to make the present chrouom
eter. 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 three hundred
and Gfty.iO days and then three hundred
and sixty days and not until long while
after three hundred and sNty-liye days.
Then events were calculated from the
foundation Of Rome, afterward from the
Olympic games Then the Babyloniaus
had their measurement of the year and the
Romans theirs and the Armenians theirs
and the llindoos theirs. Chronology was
busy for centuries studying monuments,
inscriptions, coins munmies and astron-
omy, trying to lay plan by which all
question Of dates might be settled and
events put in their right place in the pro
cession of the ages. But the chronologists
only heaped up II mountain Of confusion
and bewilderment until in the Sixth cen
tury Dionysius F,Xiguus, Roman abbot,
said, LET everything date from the birth
Mt Bethlehem Of the ord Jesus Christ, the
Saviour Of the world" The abbot pro.
posed to have things dated backward and
forward from that great event. What Il
splendid thought for the world What IL
mighty thing for Christianity 1t would
have been most natural to date everything
from the creation of the world But | am
glad the Chr0uologlsts could not too easily
guess how old the world was in order to
get the nations in the hautt Of dating from
that occurrence in its documents and his.
tories. Forever fixed is 1t that all history
Is to be dated with reference to the birth Of
Christ, and, this matter settled, llalcs the
chief chronologist declared that che world
was made five Thousand four hundred and
eleven years before Christ, and the delugc
came three Thousand one hundred and
fifty five years before Christ, and all the
illustrious events Of the last nineteen cen.
turtles and all the great events Of all time
to come nave been or shall he dated from
the birth of Christ. These things | say
that you may know what watch is, whit
Il clock Is, what an almanac is, and learn
TO appreciate through what tolls and hard
ships and pcrplrNities the world came TO
its present COnycnicuCeS and comforts, aud
10 help you to more respectful consider
alton of that sundial of Aha2 planted in
my text,
THE AFFLlCrlONs or HrEEElAU.
We are told that Hczcliah the king was
dying Of n boil 1t must have been one Of
the worst kind of carbuuclcs, a boil with
out any central core and sometimes death.
full A fig was put upon il ms a pouluce
HeHekiah did not want To die then. His
son, who was TO take the Kingdom, had not
yet been born, and llezekiuh' IS death would
have been the death Of the nation. So he
prays for recovery and is told he will get
we'll But he wants some miraculous sign
to make him sure of it, He has the choice
of having the shadow on the suudial of
AhaZ advance or retreat He replied 1t
would not be so wonderful TO have the sun
go down, for it always does so down sooner
or later, lie asks that IL so backward. In
other words, let the day instead of going
on toward shutdown, turn and go toward
sunrise | see the invalid King bolstcred
up and wrapped in blankets looking outot
the window upon the sundml IN the court
ward. Whilche watches the shadow ON the
dial the shadow begins to retreat Instead
of going on toward six o'clock i'm the even
ing Il goes back toward six o'clock in the
morning The big poultice had been draw,
ing for some time, aud sure enough the boil
broke and Hezckah got we'll Now eN
meet Won will come ON with your higher
criticism and try TO explain this away and
saw il was IN optical deiusjon Of Hczckiah,
and the shadow only seemed 90 go back or
a cloud came over and it was uncertain
which way the shadow did go and as Iic1e-
kiah expected IL TO go back he tool, the nc
ton of his own mind for the retrograde
movement. No. the shadow went back on
nil the dials of that land and other lands
Turn to IL Chronicles XXNii, 81, and find that
nvay of in Babylon the mighty men OF the
ualacp noticed the same phenomenon. And
If you do not Ike Bible authority turn over
,-n,,r ,nu, If N,radotus and find that away