The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-10-31
GODS LIGHT OF. COMFORT.
REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE'S SUNDAY
SERMON AT TIE TABERNACLE.

Il.
SERMON AT TIE TABERNACLE.
the Seven Stars, the Seven Seals and the
seven TThunders-The Best Houses IL
Any City Ought to Be the Churches
Thunder Bolts as Modern Keformers.
At the Brooklyn Tabernacle Sunday
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D., IN his
sermon, gave running commentary on
the twentieth chapter of Revelations
concerning the chsining OF the oIo
dragon. The sermon was on ''Seven IN
the Bible" and, his text, Gen. ", 22:
ssGod blessed the seventh day. Having
spoken of the many times the word
ssssven" occurs in the Bible, and each
event q won6rous work Of God, he SAID
that the numeral seven was q fsNorite
with the Divine mind outside as well as
inside the Bible.
ssWhen God would make the most In
telligent thing on earth, the human
coun5enauce, he said, ''He fashions 1t
with seven features-the two ears, the
two eyes, the two nostrils and the mouth.
Yea, our body only lasts seven years, and
We gradually shed it for another body
after seven years, and so on, for we are,
as to our bodies, septennial animals. So
the numersl seven ranges through nature
and through Revelation. tits the number
OF perfection, and so I use it while l
speak of the seven csndlesticks, the seven
stars, the seven seals and the seven
thunders.
''The seven golden candlesticks were
and are the churches. Mark you, the
churches never were, and never can be,
candles. They are only candlesticks.
They are not the light, but they are to
hold the light. A room in the night
might have in it 500 candlesticks, and
vet YOU could not see your hand before
your face. The only use Of candlestick,
and the only use of q church, is to hold
up the light. You see it is dark world,
the night of sin, the night of trouble, the
night of superstition, the night of pese-
cuton, the night of poverty, the night
of sickness, the night of death; aye about
fifty nights have interlocked their
shadows.
ssThe whole race goes stumbling over
prostraSe6 hopes and fallen fortunes, and
empty -four barrels, and desolated
cradles, and death beds. Oh, how much
We have use for all the seven candle
sticks, with lights blazing from the top
of each one of them! Light of pardon
for all sin! Light Of comfort for all
trouble! Light of encouragement for ali
despondency! Light Of eternal riches
for all poverty! Light of rescue for all
persecution! Light Of reunion for all
the bereftl Light of Heaven for all the
dying! And that light is Christ, who is
the Light that shall yet irradiate the
hemispheres.
ssBut mark you, when say churches
are not candles, but candlesticks, l cast
no slur on candlesticks. believe in
beautiful candlesticks. The candlesticks
that God ordered for the ancient tsber
nscle were something exquisite. They
were dream of beanty carved out Of
loveiness. They were made of hammered
gold, stood in foot of gold and had six
branches of gold blooming all along in
six lilies of gold each, and lips of gold
from which the candles lifted their holy
fire. And the best houses in any city
ought to be the churches-the lest built,
the best ventilated, the best swept, the
best Widowed and the best chande-
liesed. Log cabins may do inpeighbor-
hoods where most of the people live in
log cabins, but let there be palatial
churches for regions where many ofthe
people live in palaces. Do not have a
-bettsrelacefo yourself than for your
Lord and King. Do,not live in parlor
and put your Christ In kitchen.
ssThese seven candlesticks;of which I
speak were not made ont of pewter or
iron-they were golden candlesticks, and
gold is not only valuable bat a bright
metal. Have everything about your
church: :bright-ycur ushers with smiling
faces. your music jubilsnt, your hand
shaking cordial, your,entire service at.
traetiqe. Many people feel that in
church they must look dull in order to
be reYerentlsl, and many whose faces in
other kinds of sssemblsse show all the
different phases CT emotion have il
church no more expression than the
back wheel of hearse. Brighten up and
be responsive. Ii you feel like weeping
weep; if you feel like smiling smile; if
YOU feel indignant at some wrong assa,led
from the pulpit frown. Do not leave
your naturalness and resiliency home
because it is Sunday morning. If, as
officers of chu1ch, you meet people st
the church door with black look, and
have the music black, and the minister
in black preach q black sermon, and
from invocation to benediction have the
impression black, few will come, and
those who DO come will wish they had
not come at all
sTnrn now in your Bible to the seven
stars" continued DR.. Talmsge. ''We
are distinctly told that they are the min
isters of religion. Some of them are
large stars, some of: them snnan stars,
some of them sweep wide circuit and
some OF them small circuit, but so far
as they are genuine they get their light
from the great central sun around whom
they make revolution. Let each one
keep in bis own orbit. The solar system
would soon be wrecked if the stars, in
stead of keeping their own orbit, should
20 to hunting down other stars. Ministers
olo p,,& ~