The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1892-01-28
Or. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
FIRST CLOCK OF WHICH THE
WORLD HAS KNOWLEDGE,
Tho Flight Of Time-God Rules the Shsd.
ows-Daybreak on tho Heights of tho
Mountain Tops-Fun Report Of Re-
m8fkablo Discourse.
Sundial OF AllaZ.

Sundiai OF Ahaz.
DR.. Talmage's text was II Kings Xxx
IL, "And Isaiah the prophet cried unit,
the Lord: and he brought the SHADOW
ten degrees backward, by which it haG
gone down in the dial of Ahaz"
Here is the first clock or watch Of
chrOnometer or timepiece of which tn,
world has any knowledge But it wa
q watch that did not tick and a clocl
that did not strike. 1t was q sundial
Ahaz, the king, invented it. Between
the hours given to statecraft and thu
cares of Office he invented something by
which he could tell the time of day
This sundial may have been a great
column. and when the shadow of sthat
column reached one point it was o'clock
a. M, and when it reached another point
it was o'clock p. M, and all the ouI
and half hours were so measured. Or
1t 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 10
OF lDck a. m, or another step it was
4 O'clock p. M, and likewise other hours
nay have been indicated.
The clepsydra or water clock followed
the sundial, and the sandglass followed
clepsydra. Then came the candle clock
Z off, fred the Great. and the candle was
marked into three parts, and while the
first part was burning he gave himself
to religion, and while the second part
was burning he gave himself to politics.
and while the third part was
burning he gave himself 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 me-
chanism toiled at the timepieces until
the world had the Vick's clock of the
Fourteenth century, and Huyghens, the
inventor, swung the first pendulum, and
DR.. Hooke contrived the recoil escape
ment.
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 Germany and England and America
turning out what seems to be the per-
lection of timepieces. 1t took the world
5000 years to make the present chro-
nometer. So with the measurement of
longer spaces than minutes and hours.
Time was calculated from new moon
to new moon; Their from harvest to har-
vest. Then the year was pronounced to
be 354 days and then 800 days and, not
until long while after, 365 days. Then
events were calculated from the founda-
tion of Rome afterward from the Olym-
pic games. Then the Babylonians had
their measurement of the year, and the
Romans theirs, and the Armenians
theirs, and the HindoOs theirs
! Chronology was busy for centuries
studying monuments, inscriptions, coins,
niummies, and astronomy, trying to lay a
pSan by which all questions of dates
might be settled and events put in their
right place in the procession of the ages.
But the chronologists only heaped up
mountain of confusion and bewilderment
until in the sixth century Dionysius Ext
guus, a Roman abbot, said, ''Let every
thing date from the birth at Bethlehem
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of
the world.
The abbot proposed to have things
dated backward and forward from that
great event. What splendid thought
tor the world! What a mighty thing for
Christianity! 1t would have been most
natural to date everything from the
creation OF world. But 1 am glad the
chronOlOgists could not easily guess how
old the world was in order to get the
nations in the habit of dating from
that occurrence in its documents and
histories.
Forever fixed is it that all history is to
be dated with reference to the birth of
Christ, and, this matter settled, Hales,
ahe chief chrOnologiSt, declared that the
world was made 5,41l years before
Christ, and the deluge came $3.50 years
before Christ, and all the illustrious
events Of the last nineteen centuries and
all the great events of all time to come |
have been or shall be dated from the |
birth of Christ These things say that |
YOU may know what a watch is. what a |
clock is, what an almanac is, and learn |
to appreciate through what tolls and |
ana pcrpleXities the world |
came to its present cOnveniences and |
and to help you to more re-
spectful consideration of the sundial of
Ahaz planted in my text.
We are told that Hezekiah. the king,
was dying of boil 1t mnst have been
one of the worst kind of carbuncleS, a
boil without any central core and some
times beautiful. A fig was put upon it |
rs poulticc. Hezekiah did not want to
die then. His son, who was to take the
kingdom, had not yet been born, and
death would have been the
Heath of the nation. So he prays for re-
,overy and is told he will get well.
But he wants some miraculous sign to
make him sure Of it. He has the choice
IF having the shadow on the sundial of
Ahaz advance or retreat He replied it
would not be so wonderful to have the
sun go down, for it always goes down
sooner or later. He asks that it go back
ward. In other words, let the day, in
stead of going on toward shutdown, turn
Ind go toward sunrise.
I see the invalid king bolstered up and
in blankets looking out of the
upon the sundial in the court
1ard. While he watches the shadow on
he dial the shadow begins to retreat
Instead Of going on toward 6 o'clock in
'he evening it goes back toward 6 clock
f,o E0 ~ |