The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-01-04
GOD IN THE CENTURIES.
''0bnslder the Years Of Many oerer-
atoms"


Rev Dr.. Talmage Sunday morning
appropriately took for the subject OF his
New Years day sermon "The Chronol-
ogy Of the Bible, or God Among the
Centuries"
The text chosen was Deuteronomy
xxi, 7, Consider the years Of many
generations"
At 10 o'clock last night while 80
many good people were watching, an
old friend passed out of our homes and
a stranger entered. The old friend
making valedictory was 1899; the
stranger arriving is 1898. The old
friend was garrulous with the occur
rences Of many days, but the stranger
put his finger over his lip and said moth
ing and seemed charged with many
secrets and mysteries. l did not see
either the departure or the arrival, but
was sound asleep, thinking that was
for me the best way TO be wide awake
now. Good-by, 1891 Welcome, 1881
AS an army is divided into brigades
and regiments and companies, and they
observe this order in their march and
their tread is majestic, SO the time OF
the worlds existence is divided into an
army divinely commanded; the eras are
the brigades, the centuries are the regi-
ments, and the years are the companies.
Forward into the eternity past, out of
the eternity to comel Forward is the
command, and nothing can halt them,
even though the world should die.
While obeying my text Consider the
years OF many generations" ! propose
10 speak of the Chronology of the
: Bible, or God Among the Centuries"
We make distinction between time
and eternity, but time is only piece Of
eternity, and chronology has been en-
gagged in the divine work Of dividing
up this portion of eternity that we call
time into compartments and putting
events in their right compartment 1t
Is as much an injustice against the past
to wrongly arrange its events asst would
Be An injustice II, through neglect Of
chronological accuracy, it should IN the
far distant future be said that America
was discovered in 1776, and the declara-
, ton Of independence was signed in 1892,
and Washington born ron the 22d OF
March, and the civil war Of the United
States was fought in 1S4o,
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 ofthe Bible takes six
steps, but they are steps SO long II
makes us hold cur breath as we watch
the movement From Adam 10
Abraham. From Abraham to the
exodus out of Egypt From the exodus
TO the foundation Solomon's temple.
From the foundation Of Solomon's
temple 70 the destruction Of thai
temple. From the destruction OF the
temple TO the return from Babylonist
captivity. From Babylonish captivity
to the birth'of Christ
Chronology takes pen and pencil, ant
calling astronomy and history TO hell
says: 'Let us fix one event from which
10 calculate everything Let 1t be
star, the Bethlehem star, the Christmas
star" And from that we go back and
see the world was created 4,Oo4 year
before Christ; the deluge came ass
, Years before Christ; the exodus out o
rEgyptoccurred /, ,49l years before Christ
and Solomon's temple was destroye'
$50 years before Christ
Chronology enters the first chapte
OF Genesis and says the day mentione'
there is not day II twenty-four hours
but Of ages, the word there translate
as day" in other places meaning ages
and so the 2ible account Of the crea
alton and the geologists' account Of tn
creation are completely harmonious
Chronology enters the book OF Dank
and says that the words "time and
half mean a year and a half.
Chronology enters at another poir
and shows us that the seasons of th
year were then only two--summer an
winter. We find that the Bible yes
was 800 days instead Of 3ob; that I'll
day was calculated from 9 o'clock In II
morning 10 o'clock at night; that Il
night was divided into four watches
namely, the late watch, the midniRh
the cock Growing the early watch. II
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