The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1899-06-30


Washington, June 25.
Many of the important doctrines of
the Bible are by DR.. Talmage presented
in this sermon in very unusual way.
Genesis ii, 3: GOD blessed the seventh
day."
The mathematics of the Bible is no
ticeable; the geometry and the arith-
metic, the square in Ezekiel, the cir
Gle spoken of in Isaiah, the curve al
luded 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 a 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. 1t is the mineral seven, which
the Arabians got from India and all
following ages have taken from the
Arabians 1t stands between the fig
ure six and the figure eight. In the
Bible all the other numerals bow to it,
Over 300 times it is mentioned in the
Scriptures, either alone or compound
ed with other words. In Genesis the
week is rounded into seven days, and
l use my text because there this nu-
neral is for the first time introduced in
a journey which halts not until in the
close of the book of Revelation its mon
ument is built into the wall of Heaven
in chrysolite, which in the strata of
precious stones is the seventh.
<3y.Ih 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
Pharoah'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; to the house
that Ezekiel saw in vision there were
seven steps; the walls of Jericho, be-
fore they fell down, were comprised
seven days; Zechariah 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 muntitude Of people with seven
loaves, the fragments left filling seven
baskets, and the closing passages of
the Bible are magnificent and over
whelming with the imagery made up
of seven churches, seven stars, seven
candlesticks, seven seals, seven angels
and seven heads and seven crowns and
seven horns and seven spirits and seven
phials and seven plaques and seven
thunders.
Yea, the numeral seven seems ia
yorite 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 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 nos
trils and the mouth. Yea, our body
lasts only seven years, and we grad
nally shed it for another body after an
other seven years, and so on, for we
are as to our bodies septennial animals.
So the numeral seven ranges through
nature and through revelation. 1t is
the number of perfection, and so use
it while l speak of the seven candle
sticks, 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
yet you could not see your hand be-
fore your face. The only use of a can
dlestick, 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 so nights |
have interlocked their shadows. The |
whole race goes stumbling over pros
trated hopes and fallen fortunes and |
empty flour barrels and desolate era
dies and deathbeds How much we
have use for all the seven candlesticks,
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
riches for all poverty! Light of res
cue for all persecution! Light of re-
union for all the bereft! Light of
Heaven for all the dying! And that
light is Christ, who is the light that
shall yet iTradiate the hemispheres.
But mark you, when l say churches
are not candles, but candlesticks, cast
no slur on candlesticks. l believe in
beautiful candlesticks. The candle
sticks that God ordered for the ancient
tabernacle were something exquisite
They were a dream of beauty carved
out of loveliness. They were made of