The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-11-02

ties and worldliness. A worldly church
is a candlestick without the candle, and
it had its prototype in St. Sophia, in Con-
stantinople, built to the glory of God by
Constantine, but transformed to base
uses by MOhammed IL Built out of col
ored marbles, a cupola with twenty -four
windows souring to the height of one
hundred and eighty aet; the ceiling one
great bewilderment of mosaic; galleries
supported by eight columns of porphyry
and sixty-seven columns of green jasper;
nine bronze doors with alto relieve work,
fascinating to the eye of any artist; vases
and vestments encrusted with all manner
of precious stones. Four walls on fire
with indescribable splendOr. Though
labor was cheap, the building
cost a million and a half dollars.
Ecclesiastical structure almost super
natur al in pOmp and majesty. But Mo-
hammedanIsm tore down from the walls
of that building all the sanity and Christ
ly images, and high up in the dome
the figure of the cross was
rubbed out that the crescent of
the barbarOus Turk might be subs3-
tuted. A great church, but no Christi A
gorgeous candlestick but no candlel Ten
thousand such churches would not give
the world as much light as one home
made tallOw candle by which last night
some grandmother in the eighties put on
her spectacles and read the Psalms of
David in large type. Up with the churches,
by all means Hundreds Of them, thou
sands of them, and the more the better.
But let each one be a blaze of Heavenly
light, making the world brighter till the
last shadow has disappeared and the last
of the suffering children of God shall
have reached the land where they have no
need of candIestick or ''Of candle, neither
light of the sun, for the Lord God g1veth
them light. and they shall reign forever
and ever
Ipass on to another mighty Bible seven,
and they are the seven seals. st. John,
in vision, saw a 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 and roll them into a
scroll, and have the scroll at seven dit
ferent places sealed with sealing wax.
You unroll the scroll till you come to one
of these seals, and then you can go no
further until you break that seal, then
UNI oil again until you come to another
seal and you can go no further until you
break that seal; then you go 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 and 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 a 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, Nerva, Trajan and AntoninIs.
! 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
| shed, and so itreally came to rass, and the
next ninety years were red with assassi-
nations and wars. Then Christ broke the
! third seal and unrolled it, and there W as
| painting of a black horse. which in all
! literature means famine, oppression and
! taxation, and so it really came to pass.
| Christ went until He broke all the
seven seals and opened all the scroll.
! Well, the future of all of us is a sealed
scroll, and 1 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.
/
! seal of the future. Bible prophesy was
not wri item to help US to tell things in
! the future but to have US, when the
/ things actually do come to pass, COM
! pare them with prophesy, and learn
! Gods foreknowledge and the inspiration
| of the Scriptures. But you go into the
| study of the prOphecie in order to find
| out what is going to happen year from
now, or twenty years from now, or one
/ fhnUgand / w
make prOphesy of my own, and that is
! that you will have your brain added, IL
/ 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 means Medo-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
thesdemented victims OF the improper use
| of the prophecies of Daniel and 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 sealsl Christ will
| break them soon enough. Don't go to
| some necromancer, or spirituaust, 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
| going to be the white horse of prosperity
| or the red horse Of war, or the black horse
OF famine You will soon enough see
/ him paw and hear him neigh. Take care
| of the present and the future will take
| care Of itself. If a man 1--we seventy years
| his biography is in a scroll having al
! least seven seals, and let him not during
| the first ten years Of his life try to look
| into the twenties, nor the twenties into
| the thirties, nor the thirties into the
! forties, nor the forties in to the fifties, nor
the ffties into the sixties, nor the
| sixties into the seventies. From the
! way the years have got the habit of
| racing along, / guess you will not have %
| wait great while before all the seals OF
the future are broken. would not give
two cents to know how long I am going
to live, or in what day OF what year the
world is going TO be demolished. 1 would
| rather give a thousand dollars not Ia
/ know. Suppose some one could break
the next seal In the scroll Of your per-
| sonal history, aud should tell you that on
the 4th Of July, 1899, you were to die, the
summer after the next; how much would
! you be good for between this and thati
1t would from now until then be a pro-
longed funeral. You would be counting
Il narr /.