Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-11-02
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
T1,~ Mathematics of the Holy Scriptures
The Figure Seven Crowned Above. All
Others-An Imperial and Multipo tent MI
neral.
Tert-"God blessed the Seventh day~-tien-
sis ii, %.
The mathematics of the Bible is no.
ticeable: the geometry and the arith-
spoken of in Isaiah: the curve alluded
to in Job; the rule of fractions men,
toned in Daniel; the rule of loss and
gain in Mark where Christ ask the peo-
pie to cipher out by that rule what it
would profit man if he gain the whole
world and lose his soul. But there is
one mathematical figure that is crowned
above all others in the Bible. it is the
numeral seven, which the Arabians got
from India and all following ages have
taken it from the Arabians. 1t stands
between the figure six and the figure
eight. In the Bible, all the other nu-
merals bow to it. Over three hundred
times is it mentioned in the Scriptures,
either alone or compounded with other
words. In Genesis the week is rounded
cause there this numeral is for the first
introduced in q journey which halts not
until in the close of the Book of Rev
Citations its monument is built into the
wall of heaven in crysolite, 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 we'll worth it; and foretelling the
years of prosperity and famine in Pha-
raoh's time the seven fat oxen were eaten
up of the seven lean oxen; 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, signitied its ar
rival back into consciousness by sneez-
ing seven times: to the house that Eek
iel saw in vision there were seven steps;
the walls of Jericho before they fell
down were comprised seven days; Zach
ariah describes a stone with seven eyes;
to cleanse Il leprous house the door
must be sprinkled with pigeons blood
seven times: in Canaan were overthrown
seven nations; on one occasion Christ
cast out seven devils: on mountain he
fed a multitude of people with seven
loayes, the fragments left filling seven
baskets; and the closing passages of the
Bible are magnificent and overwhel lining
with the imagery made up of seven
churches, seven stars. seven candle
sticks, seven seals. seven angels, and
seven heads, and seven crowns, and
walls, and seven plaques, and seven
thunders.
Yea, this numerical seven seems ia
yorite with the divine mind outside as
we'll as inside the Bible, for are there
not seven prismatic colors? And when
God with the rainbow wrote the COM
forting thought that the world would
never have another deluge, he wrote it
on the scroll of the sky in ink of seven
colors. He grouped into the Pleiades
seven stars. Rome, the capital of the
world, sat on seven hills. When God
would make the most intelligent thing
on earth, the human countenance. he
fashioned it with seven features-the
two ears, the two eyes. the two nostrils
and the mouth. Yea, our body lasts only
for another body after another seven
years, and so on, for We are. as to our
bodies. septennial animals. SO the nu-
neral seven ranges through nature and
through revelation. 1t is the number of
perfection. and so use it while speak
of the seven candlesticks, the seven
stars, the seyel seals and the seven thun-
ders.
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 five hundred candle
fin1., and y,af -
hand before your face. The only use of
a candlestici, and the only use of a
church, is to hold up the light You see
it is dark world, the night of sin, the
the night of trouble, the. night Of super
stition, the night of persecution, the
night of poverty. the right of sickness,
the night of death; aye, about fifty nights
have interlocked their shadows. The
whole race goes stumbling over pros
trated hopes and fallen fortunes, and
empty flour barrels, and desolated era
dies, 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 all
all poverty! Light OF rescue for all per-
secution! Light of reunion for all the
bereft! Light of Heaven for all the
dying! And the light is Christ who is
the Light that shall yet irradiate the
hemispheres. But mark you, when say
churches are not candles but candle
sticks, l cast no slur on candlesticks.
believe in beautiful candlesticks. The
candlesticks that God ordered for the
ancient tabernacle were something ex-
quisite. They were dream of beauty
carved out of loneliness. 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 best built, the best VEN
tilated, the best swept, the best win
dowed, and the best chandeliered. Log
cabins may do in the neighborhoods
where most of the people live in log
cabins; but let there be palatial churches
for regions where many Of the people
live in palaces. Do not have a better
place for yourself than for your Lord
and King. Do not live in parlor and
put your Christ in kitchen. These
seven candlesticks of which 1 speak
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