Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1893 — CONSIDER THE YEARS. [ARTICLE]

CONSIDER THE YEARS.

“Tim* Was, Time Is, But Time Shall be No More.” Clirftn ologj of the Bible Not Impeached— Evolution of the Almanac—Dr, Talmoge’s Sermon. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn last Sunday. Subject: “The Chronology of the Bible, or God Among the Centuries,” Text: Deuteronomy xxxii, 7 —“ Consider the years of many generations.” He said: At 12 o’clock last night, while so many good people were watching, an old friend passed out of our home and a stranger entered. The old friend making valedictory was 1892; the stranger arriving is 1893. 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. I 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. Goodbye, mm We make a distinction between time and eternity, but time is only a piece of eternity, and chronology has been engaged in the' sublime work of dividing up this portion of eternity that we call time into compartments and putting events in their right compartments. As God puts all the events of time in the right place, let us bo pureful that we do not put them in the wrong place. The chronology of the Bible takes six steps, but they are steps so long it makes us hold our breath as we watch the movement. From Adam to Abraham, v From Abraham to the exodus out of Egypt. From tec 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 roturn from Babylonish captivity. From Babylonish captivity to the birth of Christ. Chronology takrs pen and pencil, and calling astronomy and history to help, says: us fix one event from which to calculate everything. Let it be a star, the Lethlehem star, the Christmas star.” And from that we go back and see the world was created 4,004 years before Christ; the deluge came 2,348 years before curved 1,491 years before Christ, and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed 586 years before Christ. Chronology enters the book of Daniel and says that the words “time and a half” mean a year and a half; Chronology enters at another point and shows us that the seasons of the year were then ouly two —summer and winter, We find that the Bible year w,ns 360 days, instead of 365; that the day was calculated from 6 o’clock in the morning o’clock at night. Ahnat had a sundial, or a flight of stairs with a colump at the top, and the shadow which that column threw on tho steps beneath indicated the hour, the shadow lengthening or withdrawing from step to step. It was r.ot until the fourteenth century* that the almanac was born —the almanac that we toss carelessly about, not realizing that it look the accumulated ingenuity of more than 5,000 years to make one. Chronology had to bring into its service the monuments of Egypt, and the cylinders of Assyria, and the bricks of Babylon, and the pottery of Nineveh, and the medals strade at Antioch for the batt o of Actium, and all the hieroglyphics that could be deciphered and hr/.l to go into the extremely delicate business of asking the ages of Adam and Seth, and Enoch and Metlmsaleh, who, after their 300th year, wanted to be considered young, Tho old Bible year began with the 25tli of March- Not, until 1752 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 It is something to thank God for that tho modes arc so complete for. calculating the cycles, the centuries, the decades, tho years, the months, the days, the hours, the seconds. Think of making appointments, as in the Bible days, far the time of the new moon. Think of making one of tho watches of the night in Bible times u rooster’s crowing. The Bible says: ‘"Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice.” “If the Master comoth at cockerowing,” and that was the way the midnight watch was indicated. The crowing of the barnyard fowl lira always been most uncertain. Compare these modes of marking time with our modes of marking time, whoa 12 o’clock is 12 o’clock, nud 6 o’clock is 6 o’clock, and 10 o’clock is 10 o’clock, and independent of all weathers, and then thank God that you live now. If vot: can prove au .alibi in the courts, and you cau prove beyond doubt that you were in souk; particular place at the time you were charged with doing or saving something in quite another place, you gain the victory, and infidelity lias to prove an alibi by contending that events and circumstances in the Bible ascribed to certain times must hutfe taken place at some other time, if they took place at all. But tins book’s chrOn ilcgy has never been caught at fault. It hus been proved that when tho Hebrews wqn*t into Egypt there were only seventy of , them, and that when they came out there were 3,000,000 of them. But, ray skeptical friend, hold a moment. The Bible says the Jews were 430 years id Egypt, and that

explains the increase from seventy persons to 3,000,000, for it is no more, but rather less, than the ordinary Jncrease of nations. Inside ity wroqg and Bible chronology right. Now stop and reflect. Why is it that this sublime subject 6f Bible chronology dos- been so neglected, and that the mdst of you have never given ten minutes to the consideration of it, and that this is the first sermon ever preached on this stupendous and overwhelming theme? What almost interminable lines of military on the streets of all our American capitals, while mayors and governors and presidents, with uncovered heads, looked on| But put all- those grand reviews together, and they are tame compared with the review which on this New Year’s day*you from the jpew and I from the pulpit witness. Hear them pass in) chronological order— all the y ears before the flood; all the years since tho flood; decades -abreast; centuries abreast; epochs abreast; millenniums abreast; Egyptian civilization, Babylonian populations. Assyrian dominions, armies of Persian, Grecian, Peloponnesian and Roman wars; Byzantine empire, Saracenic host, crusaders of the first, the secoud, third and the last —avalanche of men; Dark Ages in somber epaulets and brighter ages with shields of silver and helmets of g*ld Italy, Spain, France, Russia, Gprmanv, England and America, past and present dynasties, feudal domains, despotisms, monarchies, re : publics, ages on ages, ages on ages, passing today iu a chronological 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 horfid 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 centuries has been toward betterment, with only here and there a stout reversal. Grecian civilization was a vast improvement on Egyptian civilization, and ■ Roman civilization a vast improvement on Grecian civilization, and Christian civilization is a vast improvemeat on Roman eivitization. Nothing impresses me in this chronological review' more than the regiments of years aro better and better regiments as the troops move 1557 I thank God that you aifdl were not born any sooner than we were born. How could we have endured the disaster of being born in the Eighteenth or Seventeen th or Sixteenth century? Glad am I that we are in the regiment now passing the reviewing stand and that our children will pass the stand in a still better regiment. God did not build this world for a slaughter house or a den of infamy. But the other.thought coming out of this subjecLis that Biblical chronology. andiindeed all chronology, is urging the world to more punctuality and immediateness. What an unsatisfactory and indefinite thing it must have been for two business men in the time of-Abaz to make an appointment, saying, “We will settle that business matter to-morrow when the shadow on the dial of Ahaz readies the tenth step from the top,” or, “I will meet you in the street called Straight in Damascus in the time of the new moon,” or when asked in a courtroom what time an occurrence took place should answer, ‘‘lt was during the time of the latter rain,” or, “It was at, the time of the third crowing of the barnyard.” .. Yon aud I remember when ministers of the Gospel in the country, giving out a notice of an evening service, instead of saying at 6 or 7or 8 o’clock, would say, “The services will begin at early candlelight.” Wo talk a great deal about the value of time, but will never fully appreciate its value until the last fragment of it has passed out of our posession forever. The greatest fraud a man can commit Is to rob another of his time Hear it, ye laggards, and repent! All the fingers of chronology point to punctualitjr as one of the graces. Dr. Rush, the greatest and busiest physician of his day, appreciated the vaiuo of time, and when asked how he had been able to gather so much information, for his books ’ and lectures be to do it by economizing my time. I have not spent ono hour iu amusement, in thirty years.” Napoleou appreciated thevalue of time when the sun was sinking upon Waterloo, and he thought that a little, more time would retrieve his fortunes, and he pointed to the sinking sun and said, “What would I not give to be this day possessed of the power of Joshua and enabled to retard thy march for two hours!” . John” Weslev appreciated the value-of time when he stood on his [ steps waiting for a delayed carriage to take him to an appointment, saying, “I have’lost ten minutes for!ever.” Lord Nelson appreciated the | value of time when he said, “I owe everything in the world to being always a quarter of an hour beforej hand.” A clockinaker in oneftf the old English towns appreciated the vaiuo of time when he put on the front of tiie tawn clock the words, “Now' or when?” That minister of the Gospel did not appreciate the value of time who, during a season of illness, instead of employing his time in useful reading and writing, wrote a silly religious romance, which in some unknown i way came into the possession of the ! famous Joe Smith, who introduced the book as a divine revelation, which i became the foundation of Mormon-

ism, the most beastly abomination or all time. But do not let us get an impression from chronology that because the years of time have been so long in procession they are to go on forever. Matter is not eternal. No, do! IX you watch half a day, or a whole day, or two days, as I did once, to see a military procession, you teroqmber the last brigade, and the last regiment, and the last company finally passed on, and as we rose to go we said to each other, “It is all over.” . 4 So this mighty procession of earthly years will'terminate. Just when I have no power to prognosticate. but science confirms the Bible prophecy that the earth cannot last always. Indeed, there has been a fatality of worlds. The moon is merely the corpse of what it once was, and scientists have again and again gone up iu their observatories to attend the deathbed of dying worlds and have seen them cremated. So I am certain, both from the word of God and science, that the world’s chronology will sooner or later come to its last chapter. The final century will arrive and pass on, and then will come the fiqal decade, and then the final year, and the final month, and the final day. The last spring will swing its censor of apple blossjms and the last winter bank its snows. The last sunset will burn like Moscow and the last morning radiate the hills. The clocks will strike their last hour, and the watches will tick their last second. No incendiaries will be needed to run hither and yon with torches to set the world on fire. Yet found in Christ, pardoned and sanctified, we shall welcome the day with more gladness than you ever welcomed a Christmas or New Year’s morn.