The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-10-25
Z TABERNACLE PULPIT.
REV. Or. TALMAeE's SUNDAY MORN
ING DISCOURSE.

REV. Or. TALMAGE's SUNDAY MORN
ING DISCOURSE.
The Mathematics of the Holy Scriptures.
/ The Figure Seven Crowned Above Al:
Others-An Imperial and hiuisipotent
Numerai.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 2l.-This morning al
the Tabernacle the Rev. T, DE Witt Tai
mage, ID d., gave a running commentary
on tie twentieth chapter Of Revelation,
concerniiis the claiming of the Old
Dragon. ihe congregation joined in
singing tho familiar hymn of Paul Ger
hart, beginning:
Give 10 the winds thy fears,
Hope aJd be undisrnayed
Dr. Talma3e's sermon was on Seven IN
the Bible, and lis text, Genesis ii. 90:
''God blessed the seventh day." The
d ctor said:
The mathematics of the Bible is notice
able; tie geometry and the arithemtic;
the square in Ezekiel; the circle spoken
of in Isaiah, tic curve alluded to in Job;
the rule of fractions mentioned in Daniel;
the rule of loss and gain in Mark where
Christ asks the people to cipher out by
that rule what it would "protit man il
he gain the whole world and lose his
soul. But there is
ONE MATHEsIAT1CAL FIGURE
That is crowned above all others in the
Bible; it is the numeral seven, which
the Arabans got from India, and all the
following ages have taken from the Ara
bians. 1t stands between the figure six
and the figure eight. In the Bible all the
other numerals bow to it. Some three
hundred times is it mentioned in the
Scriptures, either alone or compounded
with other words. In Genesis the week
is rounded into seven days, and use my
text because there this numeral is for the
first introduced in journey which
halts not until in the close of the
Book of Revelations its monument
is built into the wall Of heaven in
chrysolite which in the strata of precious
stones is the seventh. In the Bible we
find that Jacob had to serve seven years
to get Rachel, but she was well worth it;
and foretelling the years Of prosperity
and famine in Pharaoh's S time the seven
fat oxen were eaten up of the seven
lean ones. and wisdom is said to be built
on seven pillars; and the ark was left
with the PhiliStines seven years; and
Naaman for the cure of his leprosy
plunged in the Jordan seven times; the
dead child, when Elisha breathed into
Its mouth, signaled its arrival back into
consciousness by sneezing seven times:
to the house that Ezekiel saw
in vision there were seven steps;
the walls of Jericho before they
fell down were compassed seven days:
Zachariah describes a stone with seven
eyes; to cleanse leprous house the door
must he sprinkled with pigeons blood
seven times: in Canaan were overthrown
seven nations; on one occasion Christ
cast out seven devils; on a mountain he
fed multitude OF people with seven
Ioaves, the fragments left filling seven
baskets: and the closing passages Of the
Bible are magnificent and overwhelming
with the imagery made up of seven
churches, seven stars, seven candlesticls,
seven seals, seven angels. and seven,
heads, aud seven crowns, and sevt'J
horns, and seven spirits, and seven yials,'
and seven plaques, and seven thunders.
Yea, this numcral seven seems q fav-
orite with the Divine mind outside as well
as inside tie Bible, for are there not
seven prsmatic colors9 And when God
with the rainbow wrote the comforting
thought that the world would never have
another daluge, he wrote it OIL the scroll
of the sky in ink of seven colors. He
grouped into tho Plei;,des seven stars.
Rome the capital Of the world,
sat on seven hills. When God would
make tho most intelligent thing on
earth, the human countenance, he fash
ions it with seven features-tlle two ears,
the two eyes. the two nostrils and the
mouth. Yea, our body lasts only seven
years. and we gradually shed it for an
other body after another seven years, and
so on, for we are, as to our bodies, sep
tennial animals. So the numeral seven
ranges through nature and through reve-
lation. 1t is the number of perfection,
and SO | use it Willie speak of the seven
candesticks, the seven stars, the seven
seals and the seven thunders.
THE SEVEN COLLEEN CANDLEsTIcKs
were and are the churches. Mark you,
the churches never were, and never Can
he, candles. They are only candlesticks.
They are not the light, but they are tc
hold the light. A room in the night
might have in it five hundred candle
sticks, and yet you could not see YOU
hand before your face. The only use q
a candlestick, and the only use of {
church, is to hold up the light. You sea
il is a dark world, the night of sin, tht
night of trouble the night of superstition
the night of persecution, the night O
poverty, the night of sickness, thi
night of death; aye, about fift,
nights have interlocked their shadows
The whole race goes stumbling owe,
rrostrated hopes and fallen fortunes
and empty flour barrels, and desolateS
cradles, and deathbeds. Oh, how mucl
we have use for all the seven candie,
sticks. with lights blazing from the tol
Of each one of theml Light of pardoi
for all sin! Light of comfort for al
trouble! Light of encouragement for al
despondencyl Light of eternal richne.'
for all povertyl Light of rescue for al
persecution! Light of reunion for al
the bereftl Light of heaven for all th
dying! And that light is Christ, VIII
is the light that shall yet irradiat
the hemispheres. But mark you, when
cay churches are not candles, but candls
Sticks cast no slur on candlesticks.
believe in beautiful candlesticks. TL
candlesticks that God ordered for tn
ancient tabernacle were something ex
Quisite They were q dream OF beaut
carved out of loveliness. They wes
made of hammered gold, stood in a foe
of gold and had six branches of goi
blooming all along in six lilies Of goi
each, and lips of gold from which til
candles lifted their holy fire. And th
best houses in any city ought to b
the churches-the best built, tb
best ventilated, the best sweri
the best windowed and the bcs
chandelicred. Log cabins may do |
neighborhoods where most Of I'll
people live in log cabins; but let there |
palatal churches for regions where man
Of the people live in palaces. Do n,
- q,