The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-11-01

US OlHceIS OL u CnuTCn, you meet people
at the church door with black look, and
the music black, and the minister in
black preach black sermon; and from
Invocation TO benediction have the i'm
pression black, few will come, and those
who do come will wish they had not come
at all
Golden candlesticks! Scour up the six
| lilies on each branch and know that the
| more lovely and bright they gre. the more
ft they are tc Mold tie light. But a
Christiess church is ~ damage to the
world rathleI tnad good. Crsiinw-II
I stabbed his cavalry horses In St. Paups
| Cathedral, and mauy now use the church
as place in which to stable their vani.
ties and worldllness. A worldly church
IS eandlestick without thu candle ard
| it had its prototype in St. fopbia, III Con.
stantintpiel built 10 the glory of God by
Constantine, but transformed to base
uses by Mohammed III. Built out of coll
ored marbles, a cupola with twonty-
windows souring to the height of one
hundred and eighty feet: tre +oil,us one
| great bewilheJ rtitnl OF mosaic; galleries
| sntpcrted by eight columns of porphyry
| and sixty.seven columns of green jasper;
nine bronze doors with alto relieve work
and vestments encrusted with all manner
of precious stonos, Fcur walls on fire
with indescribabie splendor Though
labor was cheap, the building
cost million and d half aoiiars.
| Ecclesiastical structure almost super
al II pon1p and majesty. But Mo-
hammedanlsm tore down from the walls
of that building all the saintlp end Chi ist-
ly images, apd eigE up iu tho dome
the agure of the cross was
rubbed out that the crescent of
the barbarous Tlrk might be suhati.
tuted. A great church. brt &c Vhiist. A
gorgeous candie.'ict, Uut no C md le! Ten
thou'ard such churches would not give
the world as much light as one home
madG tallow candle by which last night
some grandmother in the eighties put on
her spectaclos and read the Psalms OF
David Ia large type. Up with the churches,
by all meansi Hundreds Of them, thou1
sands Of them, and the ,Iriorf the better
| But let each o3e te a blaze OF Heavenly
light making tho world brighter till tho
list shadow has disappeared and the last
Of the suffering children OF God she'll
have reached the Land where they have no
| need Of C md lcstiCk or "of candle, neither
light Of the sun, for the Lord God gIveth
them light, aud they shall reign forever
and ever" "
lpass on to another mighty Bible seven,
| and they are the seven seals. st. John,
! in vision, saw scroll with seven seals,
and he heard an angel cry; "WhO is
| worthy to loose the seal thereof" Take
eight or ten sheets OF toolscap paper,
| paste them together aad roll them into n
| scroll, and have the scroll at seven dit
! fercnt places sealed with sealing wax.
You unroll the scroll till You come to one
of these seals, aud then you can go no
| further until you break that seal, then
tint oil again until you come to another
| seal and you can 20 no further until you
| break that seal; then you 60 on until all
| the seven seals are broken and the con-
| tents of the entire scroll are revealed.
| Now, that scroll with seven seals held by
the angel was the prophesy OF what was
to come on the earth; it meant that the
| knowledge of the future was with God,
and no man aud no angel was worthy to
| open it; but the Bible says Christ opened
it and broke all the seven seals. He
broke the first seal and unrolled the
scroll, and there was q painting of q
white horse, and that meant prosperity
| and triumph for the Roman Empire; and
| so it really came to pass that for ninety
years virtuOus Emperors succeeded each
other, Nrrva, Traj0n and Antoninus.
! Christ in the vision broke the second seal
and unroled again, and there was a paint
ing Of a red horse, and that meant blood
she'd and so it really came to ;asS, and the
next ninety years were red with assassi-
nations and wars. Then Christ broke the
third seal and unrolled it, and there was
painting of q black horse, which in all
literature means famine, oppression and
taxation, and so it really came to pass.
Christ went on until He broke all the
seven seals and opened all the scroll.
Well, the future of all of us is q sealed
scroll, and l am glad that no one but
Christ can open it. Do not let us join
that class of Christians IN our day who
are trying to break the seven seals Of the
future. They are trying to peep into
things they have no business with. They
try to foretell what is going to come to
them and what is going to come on the
earth They know nothing about it.
Christ is the only one who can break the
seal of the future. Bible prOphesy was
not wri item to help us to tell things in
the future, but to have us, whom the
things actually do come to pass, COM
pare them with prophesy, and 50 learn
of the Scriptures. But you go into the
study Of the prophecies III order TO find
out what is going to happen year from
now, or twenty years from now, or ono
thousand years from now, aud | will
make a prophesy of my own, and that is
that you will have your brain added, If
you do not positively get into pu bile or
private insane asylum, where the great
est of expounders and preachers Of
prophesy ended his life few
years since, and where you may re-
gale the visitors of the institution
by incoherent mumblings over some
thing from Daniel or Revelations about
the leopard which means Greece, and the
bear which me ans edO-Persia, and the
image with the great toes. What mem
tai wreck did the persistent attempt to
forestall events make of that miracle of
preachers, Edward Irving, of London. 1t
would take several mad houses to hold
the demented victims of the improper use
of the prophecies OF Daniel aud Revela-
ton. What, are not those books to be
studied? Yes. No part Of the Bible is
more important Neither Is there any
more important shelf in that apothecary's
store than the shelf on which are the
belladonna and the morphine, but he is
more careful in using them than in the
use of peppermint and ginger. Keepyour
hands off OF the seven seals! Christ will
break them soon enough. Don't go to
some necromancer, or spiritualist or
soothsayer, or fortune tel Ter to find out
what is going to happen to yourself, or
your family, or your friends. Wait till
Christ breaks the seal to find out whether
in your own personal life, or the life of
the Nation, or the life of the world, it is