The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-02
THE MARCH OF YEARS.
REV. TALMAGR PREACHEs A NEW
YEARS SERMON.

Divided Into an Army Divinely Cone
manded-Tims Only a Piece OF Eter-
nifty - Old and New Methods OF
Marking Time.
BROOKLYN, N. ", Jan. Rev. DR.,
Talmage this morning appropriately took
for the subject of his New Years day SER
mon. The Chronology OF the Bible, or
God Among the Centuries.n Before the
discourse. the great audience which fully
crowded the tabernacle sang the hymn:
Our God, our help In ages past,
Our hope for years TO come.
The text chosen was Deuteronomy xxxif.
z: Consider the years of many genera
tions."
At twelve O'Clock last night, while so
many good people were watching, an old
friend passed out of our homes and q
stranger entered. The old friend making
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 and said
nothing and seemed charged with many
secrets and mysteries. ] did not see either
the departure or the arrival, but was sound
asleep, thinking that was for me the bssb
way to be wide awake now. Good-by, 1S92F
Welcome, 1898
As an army is divided into brigades and
regiments and companies, and they observe
this order in their march, and their tread is
majestic, 30 the time of the worlds existenca
is divided into an army, divinely come
manded; the eras are the brigadss, the
centuries are the regiments, and the years
are the companies Forward into the
eternity past, out OF eternity to come For
ward fs the command. and nothing cam
halt them even though the world should
die While obeying my text, Consider
the years OF many generations" l propose
to speak Of the Chronology OF the Blbls,
or God among the Centuries"
We make a distinction between time and
eternity, but time is only piece Of eter-
nifty, and chronology has been engaged In
the sublime work OF dividing up this portion
OF eternity that We call time tnto compart-.
ments. and putting events In their rights
compartment. 10 Is as much an injustioa
against the past to wrongfully arrange it's
events as It would be an injustice if, through
neglect OF chronological accuracy, IL should
In the far distant future be said that Amer
ica was discovered in l776, and the declara-.
tion OF independence was signed In 1892.
and Washington born on the nd of March,
and tho civil war Of che 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
N@NAN
long IL 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 temple to the
destruction OF that temple. From the
destruction OF the temple to the return
from BabyIonish captivity. From Baby
lonish captivity TO the birth Of Christ.
Chronology takes pen and pencil, and CALI
ing astronomy and history TO help, says:
Let us fix one event. from which to cal-
oulate everything. Let 1t be star, ths
Bethlehem star. the Christmas star" And
from that we 60 back aud see the world
was created four thousand and four
years before Christ the deluge cams
two thousand three hundred and forty
eight years before Christ, the exodus out OF
Egypt occurred one thousand four hundred
and ninety lone years before Christ, and
Solomon's temple was destroyed ive hunA
dred and eighty-six years before Christ.
Chronology enters the first chapter Of
Genesis, ana says the day mentioned there
Is not day OF twenty-four hours. but os
ages; the word there translated as "day,"
in other places meaning ages, and so the
Bible account OF the creation and the geolo-
gisss account Of the creation are completely
harmonious. Chronology enters the book
OF Daniel. and says that the words
slime and a-half" mean a year add
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 Bible year was
three hundred and sixty days, instead Of
three hundred and sixty-ave; that the
day was calculated from six o'clock
In szsssthe morning TO six o'clock
at night; that the night was divided into
four watches, namely, the late watch, the
midnight, the cock-crowing, tho early
watch. The ciock and watch were invented
so long after the world began their mission
that the day was not very sharply divided
In Bible times. Ahaz had a sun dial, or a
flight OF stairs with column at the top.
and the shadow which that column threw
on the steps beneath indicated the honr, the
shadow lengthening or Withdrawing from
step to step. But the events OF life and ths
events of the world moved so slowly, for
the most part in Bible times. that they had
no need OF such timepieces as we stand on
our mantels or carry in our pockets 10 an
age when man may have half dozen or
a dozen engagements for one day and needs
to know the exact minute for each
oae OF them. The earth itself in Bibls
times was the chief timepiece, and IL turned
once on its axis aud that was a day, and
once around the sun and that was a year.
IL was not until the fourteenth century that
the almanac was born. the almanac that We
toss carelessiy about. not realizing that 10
took the accumulatediinRenuity Of more than
hve thousand years to make one. Chronol-
ogy had 10 bring into service the monu-
rnents of Egypt, and the cylinders of As.
syria and the bricks OF Babylon, and the
pottery Of Nineveh, and the medals struck
at Antioch for the battle OF Actium, and all
the hieroglyphics that could be deciphered,
and had to go into the extremely DELI
cate business Of asking the ages Of
Adam, and Seth, and Enoch, and Methu-
selah who. after their three hundredth year,
wanted 10 be thought young. / think 10
must have been in recognition Of the stu
pendous work Of making an almanac that
all the days OF the week are named after the
gods. Sunday after the sun, which was OF
old worshiped as a god. Monday after the
moon, which was also worshlped as a god.
Tuesday after Tuesco the god of war. We'd
nesday after Wooden, the chief god Of tha
Thursday after Thor, the
god Of thunder Friday after Fres, the
goddess Of marriage. And Saturday after
Saturn. The old Bible year began with
the 25th OF March. Not until 1852 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. Improve
ments all along have been made In chron-
ology until the calendar and the almanac
and the clock and the watch seem 20 have
reached perfection, and all the nations OF
Chrstendom have similarity Of time calcu-
a 4 H.. L. H.