Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1902-04-30

birth OF Christ, OF, more accurately,
from the beginning Of the day sane
toned by the church as the first day
of the Christian era.
A thousand million minutes,
How slowly FathorTime ambIes with
al, While the seemingly small mum
ber Of a billion grains Of sand have
dropped minutc-wise from his glass,
empires have risen and vanished, civ
ilizaiions have WaXcd and Waned, She
cloud-cappea towers and gorgeous pal
aces. Of Old have cfumbled. and the
sobs Of u myriad billion hearts have
gone hoaEcnWad. Wet6d and an
answered, since Christ was born.
Md so=Haes the WORLDLY It's min
Htes,,
But not so b. It. dollars. With dol
lars Father Time as Shakespeare has
ii. hath gaIlapea withal. dollars
were minutes even Be&@al@s would =be
immortal. II has taken tic world reel
ing through space at 2 yertigG0Us 30
locity, nearly / ,902 years 10 unwind q
billion minutes, but il took J. Piorpont
Morgan only a few hours 10 wind up I
billion dollars. Even Mr.. Carnegie
could bite his thumb at Gmonoa,
and at the rate of forty millions per an
nun not hear the faintcst Teycrbera-
ton of golden elank or jingle in his
trousers when twenty-five years had
elapsed Who said that time was
money?
Old Dionysius EXiguus, surnamed
the Lanl5-possibly out of prophetic
contrast to Mr.. Carnegie and MI. Nor
gan--is responsible for the Christian
era Strange to say, he founded it
525 years after Christ was born. The
world thus actually lived 525 years
without knowing when it was living
from the Christian point of view. 1t
was literally 525 years in the dark.
Barring these 525 years, now, prior
to Dionyaias, the Lank, it is easy to
show that our present billion-minute
year is really exceptional The round
numbers of our numerical system are,
let us say, the multiples of ten, viz,
one hundred one thousand, ten thou
sand, one hundred thousand. one mil
lion. ten million, one hundred million
and one thousand million or one bill
lion. Now, however, We mas
put these numbers together
with our existing units of time, viz.
weeks, months and years. we shall finu
that never has round number of birth
units elapsed in the Christian era
since the 9th lay of October, 1141,
when the era of Christ passed it's ten
millionth birth hour Monday. there
fore is red letter day in our cEro-
nology, for on that day the Christian
era was a billion-minutaire.
Let us look at the facts. In the
year 100 the Christian era did not eX-
ist The year 1000. the next round
numbered year. was. however. not only
memorable as such. but even histori-
cally tragic. 1t was the pathetic year
Of the millennium, of the end of the
kindom of Christ. Of the destruction
of the world when thousands and thou
sands of people voluntarily impover-
ished themselves and gave their be-
longings either to the poor Or to the
church.
The Christian era was 10000 months
old on the 30th of April. S34. 1t will
not be 100000 months old until the
year 1884, or over 5000 years from
now.
On the 18th of July. 1917. in the
night, round number of weeks
namely. 000O0-will have elapsed.
and this is the only date in our gen.
aration that will be memorable in the
way that the passed 2Sth of April was
in fact, two such dates have never be-
fore come together in any generation:
in this respect our generation is ex-
ceptional.
The Christian era was 10000 week:
old, and it was also 10000 days Old
before it was adopted. But it will not
be 100000 weeks old till nearly $4,000
years have elapsed-a point of time at
which possibly the world will have
ceased to eXist-while it will not be
100000 DAYS old till over 500 years
nave gone by.
round number of seconds-name
ly 00o-had elapsed on Octo-
Der of the year 1141. at o'clock in
the afternoon. Eurouean time. We do
not know whether the day was cele-
hrated, Since that time. therefore. on
y Monday, the bllion-minute day will
enjoy the distinction noted. for our era
will not be 100, ,0o9.000 hours old till the
twelfth millennium.
The other minute dsys are also ex
GUIDED. the hunaroa. million1h minnie.