The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-10-26
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
REV. DR.. TAlMAGE'S SUNDAY MORN.
ING DISCOURSE.

The Mathematics Of the Holy scrIptures
The Figure Seven Crowned Above Al
Others-An Imperial and MuItipoten
Numeral.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 21.-This morning a
the Tabernacle the Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, ID. d., gave running commentary
on the twentieth chapter Of Revelation
concerning the claiming of the Ole
Dragon. The congregation Joined In
singing the familiar hymn of Paul Ger
hart, beginning:
Give TO the winds thy fears,
Hope and be undismayed.
DR.. Talmage's sermon was on Seven in
the Bible" and his text, Genesis ii, 20;
"God blessed the seventh day." The
preacher said:
The mathematics of the Bible is notice
able; the geometry and the authentic;
the square in Ezekiel; the circle spoken
OF in Isaiah; the 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 "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 the
following ages have taken from the Ara
bans. 1t stands between the figure six
and the figure eight In the Bible all the
other numerals 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 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 Pharaohs 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, signaled it's 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 comprised seven days;
Zachariah describes a stone with seven
eyes; to cleanse 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 multitude of people with seven
lOaves 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 candlesticks,
sever. --->els, seven angels. and seven
heads, and seven crowns and seven
horns, and seven spirits and seven walls,
and seven plaques, and seven thunders.
Yea, this numeral seven seems fav-
orite with the Divine mind outside as well
as inside the Bible, for are there not
seven prismatic colors? And when God
with the rainbow wrote the comforting
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 fash
ions it with seven features-the 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 while speak of the seven
candlesticks, 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 five hundred candle
sticks, and yet you could not see your
hand before your face. The only use of
candlestick, and the only use of
church, is to hold up the light. You see
it is a dark world, the night of sin, the
night of trouble, the night of superstition,
the night of persecution, the night of
poverty, the night Of sickness, the
night of death; aye, about fifty
nights have interlocked their shadows.
The whole race goes stumbling over
Frustrated hopes. and fallen fortunes,
and empty flour barrels, and desolated
cradles, and deathbeds. Oh, how much
we have use for all the seven candle
sticks, with lights blazing from the top
of each one Of theml Light Of pardon
for all sin! Light Of comfort for all
trouble! Light of encouragement for all.
dependency! Light of eternal richness
for all poverty Light Of rescue for all
persecution! Light of reunion for all |
the bereftl Light Of heaven for all the
dyingl And that light is Christ, who
Is the light that shall yet irradiate
the hemispheres. But mark Won. when |