The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-01-27


| or cloud came over and it was uncer-
tain which way the shadow did go, and
as Hezekiah expected it to go back ne
took the action of his own mind for the
retrograde movement. No, the shadow
went back on all the dials OF that land
| and other lands Turn to III. Chron.
xxi, 81, and find that away on in
Babylon the mighty men OF the place
noticed the same phenomenon. And II
you do not like Bible authority. turn
over your copy of Herodotus and hnd
that away off in Egypt the people no.
ticed that there was something the mat
ter with the sun. 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 new year people
are moralizing on the fight OF time.
You all feel that you are moving on to-
ward shutdown and many of you are
under a consequent depression. pro-
pose this morning to set the hand on
your watches and clocks to going the
other way. Propose to show you how
you may make the shadow OF the dial
of Ahaz to stop going forward and make
it 60 backward You think l have
big undertaking on hand, but it can be
done il the same Lord who reversed the
shadow in Hezekiah's courtyard moves
upon us While looking at the sun-dial
of Hezekiah and we find the shadow
retreating, we ought to learn that God
controls the shadows. We are all ready
to acknowledge His management OF
the sunshine. We stand in the glow Of
bright morning, and we say in our
feelings if not in so many words, ''This
life is from God. this warmth is from
God" Or we may have rush OF pros
perity and we may say, "These sue
cesses are from God. What provi-
dental thing it was l bought that lot
Just before the rise of real estate! How
grateful to God am that I made that
investment! Why, they have declared
10 per cent dividend! What mercy it
was that sold out my shares before
that collapse" 0, yes; we acknowledge
God in the sunshine of bright day or
the sunshine of great prosperity. But
suppose the day is dark? You have to
light the gas at noon. The sun does
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 buy the day be-
fore the markets retreat; or we pur-
chase goods that we can not dispose Of;
or crop of grain we sowed is ruined by
drought or freshet; or when we took
account 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
is from God. must have been allowed
for some good reason; God controls the
east wind as well as the west wind!"
My friends, cannot look for oIh
moment on that retrogradej shadow "a
Ahazs dial without learning that CPD
controls the shadows, and that LESSEN
we need all to learn That he controls
the sunshine is not SO necessary les
son, for anybody can be happy when
things go right. When you sleep eight
hours night and rise with an appetite
that can not easily wait for breakfast
and you go over to the store and open
your mail to read more orders than you
can fill, and in the next letter you find
dividend far larger than you have
been promised, and your neighbol
comes in to tell you some fiatterina
thing he has just heard said about you
and you find that all the styles of goods
, in which you deal have advanced II
) per cent in value, and on your way
home you meet your children il
full romp, and there are roses OF
the center of the tea table and roses
of health in cheeks all round tn,
: table, what more do you want of con
ISOLATION? don't pity you bit. Yo'
, feel as if you could boss the world
But for those in just opposite circum
, stances my text comes in with an ON
/ Impotence of meaning. The shadow
O, the shadow. Shadow of bereave
ment! Shadow of sickness! SHADOW
5 of bankruptcy! Shadow of mental de
/ preston! Shadow of persecution. Shad
ow of death! Speak out, sun-dial o
Ahaz, and tell all the people that Coz
| manages the shadow! As Hezekiah sa
l in his palace window wrapped in inva
. lidism and surrounded by anodyne
( and cataplasms and looked out upol
; the black hand of the only clock know
, at that time and ssw it move back tel
4 degrees, he learned a lesson that a ma
i jority of the human race need this hou
a to learn-that the best friend ma
4 ever had controls the shadow. Tn
4 setbacks are sometimes the best thing
i that can happen. The great Germa
d author, Schiller, could not work unles
: he had in his room the scent of rotte
i apples, and the decay of the fruits G
earthly prosperity may become an in
;, spiration instead of a depression. Rot
n ert Chambers lame feet shut him u
a from other work, and he became tn
: world-renowned publisher and helpe
It fashion the best literature of the age,
t The painful disorder like that of Hez,
e kiah called a carbuncle is spelled @,
/, actly the same as the precious ston
n called the carbuncle, and the pang {
3 suffering may become the jewel of in
|. mortal value. Your setback like tn:
o of Ahaz's sun-dial may be recovery an
e triumph. l never had a setback but
If turned out to be set forward Yo
it never would have become Christian