Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-01-02
NOW YEARS sermon,
4 LARGE AUDIENCE CROWDS TRE BROOK
LYN TABERNACLE.
SThs Chronology Of the Bible or God Among the
Csnl1ries"-Dr. Talmags Welcomes the New
Year - The Last Chapter in The
Worlds ChrOnology-The Fl
nal Day on Earth.
Erscial 7slsQrcm o Ms Rsqlstsr.

IL Z
prlately took for the subject Of bis New
Hear's Day Sermon, The Chronology
OF the Bible, or God Among the Gen.
turies." Before the discourse, the great
audience which fully crowded the Tab
ernacle, sang the hymn:
Our God. our help in ages past,
Our hope for ages to come.
The text chosen was Deut. 80: z:
"Consider the year of many genera
tions."
At twelve O'Clock last night, while so
many good people were watching, an
old friend passed OEt OF our homes and
q stranger entered, The old friend max
Ing valedictory was 1892; the stranger
arriving is 1898. The old friend was
garrulouS with the occurrences Of many
days, but the stranger put his finger
over his lip aud said nothing aud seemed
charged with many secrets aud mys-
teries. ] did not see either the depar-
ture or the arrival but was sound asleep,
thinking that was for me the best way
10 be wide awake now. Goodbye, 1892!
Welcome, 1893!
As an army is divided into brlgades
ana regiments and companies, and they
observe this order in their march, and
their tired is majestic, so the time of the
worlds existence is divided into an
army, dvinely commanded; the eras
are the brigades, the centuries are the
regiments. and the years are the COM
panies. Forward ! into the eternity
past, out of the eternity to come. For
wardl is the command, and nothing can
IL. ~ J. "a Uvr n :
die. While obeying my text, Consider
the years OF many generation" pro-
pose to speak of the Chronology OF the
Bible. or God among the centuries"
WE MAKE A DISTINCTION
between time and eternity, but time is
only piece Of eternity, and chronology
has been engaged in the sublime work
of dividing up this portion Of eternity
that we call time into compartments,
aud putting events in their right COM
gartment. IL is as much an injustice
against the past to wrongly arrange It's
events, as it would be an injustice If
through neglect of chronological accu-
racy, it should, in the far distant fu-
ture, be said that America was disccv-
cred in 1T76 and the Declaration Of ln-
dependence was signed in 1902, and
Washington born on the 22d of March,
and the civil war of the United States
was fought in 1910. 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
chronology of the Bible takes six
steps, but they are steps so long
it makes US hold our breath as
we watch the movement. From Adam
to 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 Tenn
pie 10 the destruction Of that Temple.
From tho destruction of the Temple to
the return from BabylOnish captivity.
From Ba6ylonish captivity to the birth
Of Christ Chronology takes pen and
pencil, and calling astronomy and his
tory to help, says: "Let us fix one
event, from which to calculate every
thing. Let it be a star, the Bethlehem
star, the Christmas star" And from
that we 20 back and see the world was
created 4,0Of years before Christ, the
aeluge came 2,34S years before Christ,
he exodus out OF Egypt occurred 1,49l
FEARS before Christ, and SOlomon's
Temple was destroyed
$50 YEARS BEFORE CHRIST.
Chronology enters the first chapter Of
~Senesis and says the day mentioned
Ahere Is rot day OF twenty-four hours,
but OF ages; the word there translated
rs day" in other places meaning ages,
nd so the Bible account OF the crea-
ion ard the biologists account Of the
reation are completely harmonious
chronology enters the Book OF Daniel,
md says that the words time and a
Aalf' mean q year and half. Chron-
DOgy enters at another point and shows
IS that the seasons OF the year were
Snly two-summer and winter. We
Hnd that the Bible year was only 500
days, instead of 365; that the day was
caleulat ed from six o'clock in the morn
ing to six o'clock at night: that the
night was divided into four watches,
namely, the late watch, the midnight,
the cOck-crowing, the early watch.
The clock and watch were invented so
long after the world began their mis-
sion that the day was not very sharply
divided in Bible times. Ahaz had
sun-dial, or e flight Of stairs with
column at the top, and the shadow
which that column threw on the steps
beneath indicated the hour, the shadow
lengthening or Withdrawing from step
10 step. But the events OF life and the
events OF the world moved so slowly,
for the most part in Biole times, that
they had no need OF such time-pieces
as we stand on our mantels and carry
in our pockets in an age when man
may have a half dozen or dozen en-
gagements for one day and needs TO
know the exact minute for each one Of
them. The earth itself in Bible times
was the chief tim e-pieee, and il turned
once on its axis and that was day.
and once around the sun and that was
q year. II was not until the four
teenth century that the almanac was
born, the almanac that we toss care
lesSly about not realizing that il took
the accumulated ingenuity OF more
than five thousand years to make one.
Chronology had TO bring into its SER
vice the monuments OF Egypt, and the
cylinders Of AsSyrla, and
THE BRICKS OF BABYLON,
and the pottery OF Nineveh, and the
medals struck Sc Antioch for. the battle
of Actium. and all the hieroglyDhles
that could oe deciphered, and had to 20
into the extremely delicate business OF
asking the ages Of Adam, and Seth, and
Enoeh, and Methuselah who, after their
three hundredth year, wanted to be