The Opelousas courier., 1893-01-28
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIV INES SUN
DAY SERMON.

rood people were watching, an old friend
nassed out of our homes and q stranger an.
tered. The old friend making yalad;ntorr
vas 1892: the stranger arriving is 1892 The
old friend was garrulous with the occur
rencesof many DAYS, but the stranger mi
hs finger over his lin and said NOTHING and
seemed charged with many secrets and mys.
teries. did not see either the departure or
The arrival, but was SCUM asieep. fhinkino
that was for me the best wav to ba VII
aEak4 now. Goodbv. 1927 Welcome 1saa
AS an army is divided into brigades AMI
regiments and companies, AMI they observe
This order in their march and their trea,j is
majestic, so the time of the worlds exist-
eDce is divided into an army aiyineIv com.
manded; the erds are the briga les. thetcen.
turies are the regiments, and the wears are
the companies. Forward into the aternitv
past, out OF tue eternity to comet Forward
is the command, andaothing can halt them,
even though the world should die. Wh;Ia
ObeYing my text, "Consider the vears of
MANY generations" I propose to sneak of
the Entomology of the Bible, or God Amony
the Centuries
We make a distinction between time and
eternity, but time is only a piece of eternity
and chronology has been engaged in the
sublime work of dividing up this portion Of
eternity that we call time into comnart.
ments ana puttlng events in their right
compartment. Iii as much an iniustiea
against the past to wrongly arrange its
events as it would be an injustice if thro,roh
neglect of chronological accuracy. il sbouId
iii the far distant future be said that Amer
ca was discovered in 1776, and the Declara-
ton OF Independence was signed in 1909
and Washington born on the 22d of Marc1'
and the Civil Wa of the United States was
fought in 1912.
AS God puts all the events Of time in the
right place, let US be careful that we do not
put them IN the wrong place. The chron-
ology OF the Bible takes six steps, but they
are steps so long it makes us hol1 our breath
as We watch the movement. From Adam
10 Abraham. From Abraham to the exodus
out of Egypt. From the exodus to the
foundation of Solomon's temple. From the
foundation of Solomon's temple to the de-
s~truction OF that temple. From the destruc-
ton OF the temple to the return from Baby-
lonish captivity. From Babylonish car.
tivity to the birth of Christ.
Chronology takes pen and pencil, and call
ing astronomy and history to helm saws:
LET us fix one event from which to calcu-
late everything. Let it be a star, the Beth
lehem star, the christina starr And from
that we go back and see the world was
created 1904 years before Christ: the deluge
came 234S years before Christ: the exodus
out of Egypt occurred 1891 years before
Christ, and Solomon's temple was DESTROYED
$50 years before Christ.
Chronology enters the first chapter OF
Genesis and says the day mentioned there is
not a day of tWenty-four hours, but or ages.
the word there translated as day. in other
places meaning ages, and so the Bible ac-
count Of the creation and the biologists &C
count OF the creation are completely har-
monions. Chronology enters the book of
Daniel and says that the words thine and
q half mean a year and a half.
Chronology enters at another point and
shows US that the seasons of the year were
then only two-summer and winter. We
find that the ~Bibleyear was $50 d~aysinstead
Of 1865; that the day was calculated from
6octoek in the morning to 6 o'clock at night:
that the night was dividedinto four watches
namely, the late watch, the midnight, the
cock growing, the early watch. The clock
and watch We're invented so long after the
world began their mission that the day was
not very sharply divided in Bible times.
Ahaz had a sundial, or a fight of stairs with
q column at the top, and the shadow which
that column threw on the steps beneath in
dicated the hour, the shadow frightening
or Withdrawing from step to step.
But the events of life and the events of
the world moved SO slowly for the most
pMAU DlDAp bltuE5 luhb tlGy Ilhu uU
need OF SUCH tinaepieces as we stand on our
mantels or carry in our pockets in an age
when q man may have a half dozen or a
dozen engagements for n day and needs
to know the exact minute for each one of
them. The earth itself in Bible times was
the chief timepiece, and it turned once on
its axis and that was a day, and once around
the sun and that was a year.
1T was not until the Fourteenth Century
chat the almanac was born, the almanac
that we toss careIessly about, not realizing
that it too the accumulated ingen uity OF
more than 5000 years to make 9 Chron-
clogy had to bring into its service the monu-
ments of Egypt and the cylinders OF Assyria,
and the bricks of Babylon and the pottery
Of Nineyeb. and the metals struck at An
fioch for the battle of Actium, and all the
hieroglyphics that could be ~deciphered, and
had to go into the extremely delicate bust
ness of asking the ages OF Adam and Seth
and Enoch and Methuse!ah. who after their
Booth year wanted to be thought young.
] think it must have been in recognition
Of the stupendous work of making an alma
nae that all the days of the week are named
after the gods. Sunday, after the sun,
which was of old woTshiped as a god. Mon.
day, after The moon, which was also Wor-
ahiped as a god. luesaay, aTrer Iuesco, Ine
rod of war. We Inesiay, after Wooden, the
CHIEF god OF the Scandinavian. Thursday,
after Thor. the god of thunder. FRIDAY,
after Frea, the goddess OF marriage; And
Saturday after Saturn. The old Bible year
began with the 25th OF March. MOI unsli
1852 did the first Of the month OF January
aet the honor in legal documentsin England
Of being called the first day OF the year.
improvements all along have been made
Id chronology until the calendar ana tne
almanac. and the clock, and the watch seem
I'd have reached perfection, and all the va
lions Of Christendom have similarity OF Jlml
calculations and have adopted Wnab .
called ssnew style,n except Russia, Wnicl
keeps what is called the old style 9 !
twelve days different, so that. writing iron
there. if YOU wish to be accurate. you dat
your letter January / and January 10, 9
December 10 end December ~. It rs some
thing to thank God for that the mode
are 81 complete for calculating the Cycles
Che centuries. the decades, the years, tn
months, the days, che hours, the seconds.
Think of making appointments as In Sh
Bible DAYS for the time OF the new moor
Think Of making one Of the waite nes OF %
night in Bible times q rooster GROWING. "
pihIa saws. stBefore the cock crow tho
shalf deny me thrice s'If the Master con
SEE at the c~ockcrowlng,p and tnae was q
Sgev 4ha midnight watch was 1naicaVee
INA growing Of that barnYard bird mas 9
1870 baen most uncertain. The rowih
At the lowest temperature OF the nignt az a.
the amount Of dew and the dIrecIlon y :.
wind may bring the lowest tefnpslaeuaa
II O'clock at night or 2 O'CLOCK IA ono =
ing, and at any mi OF six hours. 9uss e e
fore a rain tie growing Of chanticleer in tn
night is almost perpetual.
Compare these modes Of marking bin,
With our modes Of marking time, when
o'clock ii liz O'Clock, and 9 O'clock y
O'Clock, and 10 O'Clock is 10 o'clock, = =
dependent of ali weathers, and then tnan
God that YOU live low. But notwithstanc
inr All the imperfect modes Of markin
hours or years or centuries Bible cnroho
oRy never trips mp. never falters. never ~
araatcts ifselfs ana here is one ofthe best 81
gunents for the authenticity of the Scril
Eureg.