The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-01-06

J
the hours. the seconds.
Think of making appointments rs in
the Bible days for tie time Of the new
moon, Think of making one of the
watches of the night in Bible times u
rooster growing The Bible says, Be.
fore the cock crow thou shalt deny me
thrice. "If 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 ut II o'clock ut night or
9 o'clock in the morning, and ut any on
of six hours Just before rain the
Growing of chanticleer in the night is al
most perpetual.
BIZ THANKFUL.
Compare these modes of marking time
with our modes of marking time. when
10 o'clock is l2 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,
II you can prove an alibi in the courts,
and you can prove beyond doubt that
you We're in some particular place at the
time you Were charged with doing or
saying something in quite another place,
you gain the victory, and inhdelity 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. II they
took place at all. But this books chro-
nology has never been caught at fault.
1t has been proved that when the He,
brews went into Egypt there We're only
seventy of them and that when they
came ont there We're 3,00O.0 600 of them.
Nov" says infidelity with guffav
that ii cannot suppress, what IN all
surdity, They went down into Egypt
seventy and came ont 3 eco, 600 That is
a falsehood on the face Of it. Nations
do not increase in that ratio" But. NY
skeptical friend, hold moment. Tie
Bible says the Jews Were 430 years in
Egypt. and that explains the Increase
from seventy persons to 1000 ,OG0, 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 IA nation of 10000, COO Where, til, 4
is SO called impossibility that the seven Y
Jews who went into Egypt in 430 yegs
became 5000 900? Infdelity wrong al
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 inmates 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 ald
watched the hammered armies go by and
the huzza has been three miles long and
until the populace We're SO hoarse they
A
and again the Germans by hundreds of
thousands have stood on the palacesl and
statued Inter den Linden Berlia. 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 Wat,
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
the bridges of the Thames! What al
the streets of our American capitals.
while mayors and governors and presi-
dents, with uncovered heads. looked on!
But put all those grand reviews to-
gether. and they are tame compared with
the review which on this New Year
day you from the pew and from the
pulpit witness.
Hear them pass in chronological order
all the years before the flood; all the
years since he flood; decades abreast;
centuries abreast; epochs abreast; mil
lenniums abreast; Egyptian civilization,
Babylonian populations, Assyrian do
minions armies of Persian, Grecian,
Peloponnesian and Roman wars; Byzaii-
tine empire, Saracenic hosts, crusaders
of the first. the second. third and the
last avalanche of men: Dark Ages in
somber epaulets and brighter ages with
shields of silver and helmets of gold
italy. Spain. France, Russia. Germany
England and America, past and present.
dynusties. feudal domains. despotisms,
monarchies. republics, ages on ages,
ages on ages, passing today in chrome
logical review, until one has no more
power to look upon the advancing col
umns. now brilliant, now squalid, now
garlanded with peace, now crimson with
slaughter. now horrid with ghastliness
now radiant with love and joy.
THE GLoRIEs OF THE PRESENT.
This chronological study affords
among other practical thoughts, espe
cially two the one encouraging to the
last degree and the Understanding The
encouraging thought Is that the mair
drift Of the centuries has been toward
betterinent. with only here and there {
stout reversal Grecian civilization WA
a vast improvement on Egyptian civil
! Zaiion and Roman civilization a vas
Improvement on Grecian civilization
and Christian civilization is vast i'm
provelnent on Roman civilization.
What was the boosted age of Pericle
| compared with the age of Longfellov
| and Tennysnn? What was Queen Eliza
beth ;ls specimen of moral womanhoof
compared with Queen Victoria? VIVA
were the cruel warriors OF olden tune
compared with the most distinguished
warriors OF the last half century, all o
them us mrch distinguished for kindnes
and good morals az for prowess-th
| two military lenders of orr civil war Ol