TIIK SrXDIAI. AM) THK CLOCK. lOI 



slioiikl he recorded, II Kings, XX, 4 how " afore Isaiah was 

 gone out into the middle court the word of the L,ord came 

 unto him " ' for in that very middle court may have stood the 

 dial of Ahaz. 



A marginal reading suggests " city " instead of " cf)urt," 

 but this alters matters not much. 



Moreover we read: — "And Isaiah said, this sign shalt 

 thou have of the Lord that the Lord will do the thing that he 

 hath spoken ; shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go 

 back ten degrees? " Now the margin in the Revised Version 

 assures us that the passage will bear a somewhat different 

 translation : — " the shadow is gone forward ten steps, shall it 

 go back ten steps ?" And Hezekiah answers in his ignorance 

 "It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, 

 nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees." 



May we not then conceive the sick monarch lying on his 

 bed in the "Winter House". The prophet bids him set his 

 house in order for he must die ; and so goes out ; but wdiile he 

 is crossing the court King Hezekiah is crying to the Lord. 

 The eclipse is on ; the prophet sees the shadow on the dial ten 

 degrees farther down than ever it was before, and is divinely 

 inspired to understand the cause and meaning of this pheno- 

 menon. The word of the Lord then comes to the prophet. 

 He is told to announce a reprieve to the dying man, and say 

 that the sign of the same shall V)e the going back of the 

 shadow. He turns again, declares the good news and bids 

 the king await the sign. Slowly but duly the eclipse passes 

 off, the shadow shortens to its normal length, and the Sign of 

 Hezekiah is complete. 



A natural event miraculously comprehended in an age to 

 which knowledge of such things had not yet been accorded. 



I have read, or have been told, that in the gardens of the 

 Tuileries in Paris there is an automatic device for proclaiming- 

 apparent noon. A suitable burning glass is so adjusted as to 

 focus on the touch hole of a loaded gun when the sun is due 



