The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-07-04
few will come, and those who do con-
will wish they a not come al all.
THE SEVEN CANDLESTICIr

six miles on each brancr.. and kraT
that the more lovely add bright they
are the more fit they are to hold the
light. But a Chrjxtiess Light is .. dam
age to the void rather than a good
Cromwell st2.oied his cavalry horses in
st. PauPS Cathedral, and many now
use the church in which TO stable vani-
ties and worldiness. A worldly church
is a -candlestick without the candle.
and It had its prototype in ST. Sophia,
in Constantinople, built to the glory Of
God By Constantine, but transformed
to base uses by .Mohammed the Second
Built out Of colored marble; a cupola
, with "a windows soaring to a height of
$50 feet; the ceiling one great bewilder-
ment of mosaic; galleries supported by
; eight columns OF p~orphyry and 81 col
umns of green jasper; u bronze
doors with alto-relievo work, fascinat-
ing to the eye Of any artist; vases and
: veStments incrusted with all
Of precious stones. Four walls on fire
with Understandable splendor. Though
labor was cheap, the building cost ST.
500, 1000. Ecclesiastical structure, al
most supernatural in pomp and maj
esty. But Mohammedanism tore down
from the walls of hat building all the
sanity and Christly images. and high
up in the dome the figure Of the cross
was rubbed out that the crescent Of the
barbarous Turk might be substituted.
A great church, but no Christ! A gor-
geous candlestick, but no candle! Ten
thousand such church 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 larger type. Up with the
churches, by all means! Hundreds Of
them, thousands Of them, and the more
the better. But let each one be a blaze
of heavenly light, making the world
! brighter and hriOhta tiU tho Loot
shadow has disappeared, and the last
Of the suffering children Of God Shall
have reached the land where they have
no need Of candlestick OF "of candle,
neither light of h sun, for the Lord
God giveth them light, and they shall
reign forever q ever" Seven candle
sticks the complete number of lights!
Let your light shine before men, that
they, seeing our good works, ma
glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Turn now in your Bible to the seven
stars. We are distinctly told that they
are the ministers of religion. Some are
large stars, some of them small stars.
some of them sweep a wide circuit II
some OF them a small circuit, but so
far as they are genuine they get their
llght from the great central sun around
which they made revolution. Let each
one keep in his own sphere. The solar
system would be soon wrecked if the
stars. instead Of keeping their own
orbits, should go TO hunting down other
stars. Ministers @Mf religion should
never clash. But in all the centuries
or the Christian church some of these
stars have been hunting an Edward
Irving or a Horace Bushnell or an Al
bert Barnes. And the stars that were
IN pursuit of the older stars lost their
own orbit, and some of them could
never again find it. Alas for the heresy
hunters! The best way to DESTROY
error is to preach the truth. The best
way to scatter darkness is to strike a
light. There is in immensely room
enough Tor all the ministers. The min
lsters who give up Righteousness and
the truth will get punishment enough
anyhow, for they are 1.-The wandering
stars for whom is reserved the black
ness of darknes forever"
L should Like, as a minister. when I
am dying, to be able truthfully to say
what a ca of the English army.
fallen at IT, head of his column and
dying on the Egyptian battlefield, said
TO General Wolseley, who came to con-
dole with him: Il led them straight.
DIDN'T l lead them straight, general?'
God has put US ministers as captains
IN TINS battlefield. of truth against error.
Great at last will be our chagrin if we
ran leading the people the wrong way;
put great VIII be our gladness if. when
sword back to our great mmand
saying: Lord Jesus! We led the peo-
pie straight. Didn't we lead them
Straight?"
those ministers who go of at a tan
gent ana preach some other gospel are
not stars, put comets, and they flash
across the heavens a little while and
make people stare, and throw down a
rev meteorlc stones, and then go out of
slgnt II not out of existence. Brethren
IN the ministry, let us remember that
GOD calls us stars, and our business iS
| ~ SUl1e ana fO knnn n11t, ar,~
ana then when we get done trying to
Ight up the darkness of this world. we
WILL wheel into higher spheres. and in
US snail be fulfilled the promise "they
Ia urn many to Righteousness shall
shIne as the stars forever and ever"
The ministers are not all Pecksniffs
ana cantlng hypocrites, as some would
nave you think! Forgive me. if havino
at other times glorified the medical pro-
tesslon, and the legal profession, and
one llterary profession-I glorify my
own. l have seen them in their homes
ana heard them in their pulpits. and a
and array of men never breathaS
and the Bible figure is not strained
Wnen 1t calls them stars; and whole
considerations of glorious ministers
h hae aireaoy taken their places on
nlsh, Wnere they shine even brighter
IMAM they shone on earth; Edward N
klrk of the Congregational church
stephen H. Tying of the Episconai
cnurcn, Matthew Simpson of the Meth
0dist church. John Bowling, of the
the Presbyterian church. Thomas Ne
Witt of the Reformed church, John
chambers of the Independent church.
and there 1 stop, for it so happens thai
nave mentioned the seven stars of
the seven churches.
THE SEVEN SEALS.
L pass on to another mighty Bible
seven and they are the seven seals. ST
ooin III vision saw a scroll with seven
seals and he heard an angel crv 91Ehr
Is worthy to loose the seals thereof? ~
rake eight or ten sheets of foolscau
paper, paste them together and roll
them into a scroll, and have the scroll
at seven different places sealed with
sealing wax. You unroll the scroll Til
you come to one Of these seals. anG
then you can go no farther until yor
break that seal; then unroll again unit