The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-02
lnts, as in the Bible days.
he new moon. Think Of
Che watches Of the night in

ture of the night and the amount OF dew
and the direction Of the wind may bring the
lowest temperature at eleven O'Clock at night
or two o'clock in the morning and at any one
Of six hours Just before a rain the crow
ing of chAntioleer in the night Is almost
Compare these modes OF marking time
With our modes of marking time. when
twelve o'clock is twelve o'clock, and SIX
O'Clock is SIX o'clock, and ten o'clock 10
ten o'clock. and independent OF all wealth
srs. and then thank God that you live now.
But. not aithstanding all the imperfect
modes Of marking hours or years or cent
uries. Bible chronology never trips up.
never faIters. never contrsdicts 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 were in some
particular place at the time you were
charged with doing or saying something in
quite another place, you gain the victory,
and ipfidelity has tried to prove an
albi by contending that events and
circumstances in the Bible ascrlbed TO
certain times must have taken place at
some other time, if they took place at all.
But this books chronology has never been
caught at fault It has been proved that
when the Hebrews went into Egypt there
we're only seventy of them, and that when
thew came out there were three millions OF
them. Now says infdehty, with GUT
faw that IL cannot suppress, what an alb
surdity They went down into Egypt
seventy and came out three millions. That
IL a falsehood on the face Of il. Nations do
not increase in that ratio" But, my scep-
tical friend, hold a moment. The Bible
ssvs the Jews we're four hundred and thirty
years in Egypt. and that explains the in-
crease from seventy persons to three mill
ions. for it is no more, but rather less, than
the ordinary increase of nations. The Pile
grim Fathers came to America in the May
flower, one small shipload of passengers,
less than three hundred years ago aud now
we have a nation of sixty million. Where
then is the so-called impossibility that the
seventy Jews who went into Egypt IN four
hundred and thirty years became three
million. Infdelity wrong and Bible chro-
nology right.
Now, stop and reflect. why is it that this
sublime subject of Bible chronology has
been 90 neglected, and that the most Of you
have never given ten minutes 10 the con-
sideration of it and that this is the first
sermon ever preached on this stupendous
and Overwhelming themef 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
EIyseee, Frenchmen by the hundreds of
Thousands, have stood and watched the
hammered armies go by, and the huzZa has
been three miles long and until the popu-
lace were so hoarse they could huzza no
longer. Again and again aud again, the
Germans, by hundreds Of thousands, have
stood on the palsced and ststued Inter den
Linden, Berlin, and strewn garlAnds under
the feet of uniformed hosts led on by Won
Moltke or Butcher or Frederick the
Great When Wellington and Pom
sonby and the Scots Greys
came back from Waterloo. or
Wellesley from Egypt or Marlborough from
Blenheim, what military professions
through Regent street ana along by the
palaces of London and over the bridges of
the Thames. What almost interminable
lines Of military on the streets of all our
American capitals, while mayors and gov
ernors and Presidents with uncovered heads
looked on. But put all those grand reviews
together, and they ore tame compared with
the review which on this New Years 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 the food decades abreast; cent
uries abreast: epoohs abreast; mlllenuiums
abreast; Egyptian civilization, Babylonian
populations, Assyrian dominlons armies
of Persian, Grecian. Poloponnssian and
Roman wars; Byzantine empire, Ssracenic
hosts, Crusaders of the first. the second,
third and the last-avalanchs of men; dark
ages in somber epauettes and brighter
ages with shields of silver and helmets of
gold; Italy, Spain, France, Russia, Ger
many, England and America, past and
present; dynasties, feudal domains, despot-
isms, monarchles, republics. ages on ages,
ages on ages, passing to-day in a chronology
ical review, until one has no more power to
look upon the advancing columns, now
brilliant, now squalid, now garlanded with
peace, now crimson with slaughter, now
horrid with ghastliness, now radiant with
love and joy.
This chronological study affords, among
many practical thoughts. especially two
the one encouraging to the last degree and
the other startling. The encouraging
thought is that the main drift of the cent.
uries has been toward betterment, with
only here and there a stout reversal
Grecinn civilization was a vast improve
ment on Egyptian civilization, and Roman
civilization vast improvement on Grecian
civilization and Christian civilization Is q
vast Improvement on Roman civilization.
What was the boosted age Of Percles conn
pared with the age Of Longfellow and Ten
nysons What was Queen Elizabeth ss a
specimen of moral womanhood compared
with Queen Victorial What were the
cruel warriors of olden times compared
with the most distinguished warriors of the
last half century, all Of them as much dis
tinguished for kindness and good morals as
tOr prOWebs, the TWO military leaders OF our
civil war on northern aud southern side
eommunicant members or Christian
churches, and their home life as pure as
their public lifes Nothing impresses me in
this chronological review more than the fact
that the regiments of years are better
and better regiments as the troops move on
thank God that you and were not born
any sooner than we were born. How could
we have endured the disaster OF being born
In she eighteenth or seventeenth or six
teenth century? Glad am that we are . In
she regiment now passing the reviewing
stand, and that our children will pass the
stand In q still better regiment. God did
not build this world for slaughter house
or den of infsmy. A good deal OF clean
ing house will be necessary bsfore this
world becomes as clean and sweet as is
ought TO be, but the brooms and the scrub
bling brushes and the upholstersrs and
plumbers are already busy, and when the
world gets fixed up ss 1t will be, il Adam and
Eveever visit it, as I expect they will, they
will say to each other: "Well, this beats
Paradise when we lived there, and the pears
and the plums are better than we pluoked
from the first trees. and the wardrobes are
more complete. aud the climate is better ~
bince settled in my own mind the fact
that God was stronger than the devil,
have never lost faith Ia the emparadisetion
of this planet. With the exception of a
retrogression III the dark ages, the move
ment Of the world has been on and on, and
mn and nm and I hava two militant hOsaD-