The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-01-07

/ L think 1t must nave Deen IN recOSnl-
ton of the stupendous work OF making
hn almanac that all the days of the week
are named after the gods. Sunday, after
the sun, which was of old worshlped as
god. Monday, after the moon, which
was also worshiped as god. Tuesday
after Tuesco. the god of war. Wednes-
day, after Wooden. the chief god OF the
Ecandinavians. 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. Not until 1859
did the first of the month of January get
The honor in legal documents in England
Of being called the first day of the year.
improvements all along have been
made in chronology until the calendar
End the almanac, and the clock. and the
watch seem to have reached perfection.
and all the nations of Christendom have
similarity of time calculations and have
adopted what is called new STYLE" ex
cept Russia, which keeps what is called
the ''old STYLE" and is twelve days diff
ferert. so that, writing from there, it
you wish to be accurate, you date your
letter Jan. / and Jan. 13. or Dec. 10 and
Dec. %. 1t is something to thank God
for that the modes are SO complete for
calculating the cycles, the centuries, the
decades, the years. the months, the days.
the hours. the seconds
Think of making appointments as in
the Bible days for the time of the new
moon. Think of making one of the
watches of the night in Bible times a
rooster Growing The Bible says, BE
fore the cock crow thou shalt deny me
thrice eff the Master cometh at the
cockcrowing and that was the way the
midnight watch was indicated. The
growing of that barnyard bird has al
ways been most uncertain. The crow
ing is at the lowest temperature Of the
night, and the amount of dew and the di-
rection of the wind may bring the low
est temperature at II o'clock at night or
2o'clock in the morning, and at any one
of six hours. Just before a rain the
growing Of chanticleer in the night is al
most perpetual.
BE THANKFUL.
Compare these modes Of marking time
with our modes of marking time, when
10 o'clock is IL o'clock, and o'clock is
o'clock, and 10 o'clock is 10 o'clock, and
independent of all weathers, and then
thank God that you live now. But not
withstanding all the imperfect modes of
marking hours or years or centuries
Bible chronology never trips up, never
falters, never contradicts itself, and
here is one of the best arguments for the
authenticity Of the Scriptures.
If you can prove an alibi in the courts,
and you can prove beyond doubt that
you were In some particular place at the
time you were charged with doing OF
saying something in quite another place.
you gain the victory, and infidelity has
tried to prove an alibi by contending
that events and circumstances in the
Bible ascribed to certain times must have
taken place at some other time, if they
took place at all. But this books chro-
nology has never been caught at fault.
It has been proved that when the He
brews went into Egypt there were only
seventy of them, and that when they
came out there were 5000, 900 of them.
Now" says infdelity, with guffaw
that it cannot suppress, what an alb
surdityl They went down into Egypt
seventy and came out 100000. That is
falsehood on the face of it. Nations
do not increase in that ratio" But, ~Ay
skeptical friend. hold moment. The
Bible says the Jews were 430 years in
Egypt, and that explains the increase
from seventy persons to 100000, for it
is no more, but rather less, than the or
binary increase of nations. The Pilgrim
Fathers came to America in the May
flower, one small shipload Of passengers
less than 300 years ago, and now we
have nation Of 60,e00,000. Where, then
is SO called impossibility that the seventy
Jews who went into Egypt in 430 years
became 5000, 900? Infdelity wrong and
Bible chronology right.
SPLENDID REVIEW.
Now stop and reflect. Why is it that
this sublime subject of Bible chronology
has been so neglected, and that the most
of you have never given ten minutes to
the consideration of it, and that this is
the first sermon ever preached on this
stupendous and overwhelming theme?
We have stood by the half day Or the
whole day at grand reviews and seen
armies pass.
Again and again and again on the
Champs Elysees Frenchmen by the hun.
dreds of thousands have stood and
watched the hammered armies go by, and
the huzza has been three miles long and
until the populace were SO hoarse they
could huzza no longer. Again and again
and again the Germans by hundreds of
thousands have stood on the palaced and
statued Unter den Linden, Berlin, and
strewn garlands under the feet Of uni
formed hosts led on by Won Moltke or
Butcher or Frederick the Great.
When Wellington and Ponsonby and
the Scots Grays came back from Water
loo, or Wolseley from Egypt, or MARI
borough from Blenheim, what military
professions through Regent street and
along by the palaces OF London and over