Connecticut western news., 1899-06-29
THE SACRED NUMBER.
CR. TAlMAGE OlSCOURSES ON THE
 SIGNIFICANCE OF SEVEN.
Important Truths of the Bible Illus trated by the Use of That Mineral. Favored by the Divine Mind.

trated by the Use of That Mineral.
 Favored by the Divine Mind.
 Copyright, Louis Klopsch, ls9e.l
 WASHINGTON, June 25.-Many of the most important doctrines of the Bible are by Dr. Talmage presented in this sermon in very unusual way Genesis il, 8, God blessed the seventh day"
 The mathematics of the Bible Is no ticeable; the geometry and the arith metic; the square in Ezekiel; the circle spoken of in Isaiah; the curve alluded to In Job; the rule of fractions mention ed in Daniel; the rule of loss and gain in Mark, where Christ asks the people to cipher out by that rule what 1t 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; it Is the numeral seven, which the Ara bians got from India, and all following ages have taken from the Arabians. It stands between the figure six and the figure eight. In the Bible all the other numerals bow to 1t. Over 300 times 1t is mentioned in the Scriptures, either alone or compounded with other words. In Genesis the week is rounded into seven days, and 1 use my text because there this numeral Is for the first time introduced in journey which halts not until in the close of the book of Revelation 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 1t, and, foretelling the years of prosperity and famine in Pharaoh's time, the seven fat oxen were eaten up of the seven lean oxen, and wisdom Is said to be built on sev- en pillars, and the ark was left with the Philistines seven years, and Naa- man, for the cure of his leprosy, plung- ed in the Jordan seven times; the dead child, when Elisha breathed into it's mouth, signaled its 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 compassed seven days; Zechariah de- scribes stone with eyes; to cleanse a leprous house the door must be sprin- kled with pigeons blood seven times; in Canaan were overthrown seven na- tions; on one occasion Christ cast out seven devils; on a mountain he fed multitude of people with seven loaves, the fragments left filling seven bas- kets, and the closing passages of the Bible are magnificent and overwhelm- ing with the imagery made up of seven churches, seven stars, seven candle sticks, seven seals, seven angels and seven heads and seven crowns and sev- en horns and seven spirits and seven vials and seven plaques and seven thunders.
 Favored by tho Divine Mind.
 Yea, the numeral seven seems a fa- vorite 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 seven years, and we gradually shed 1t for another body after another seven years, and so on, for we are, as to our bodies, septennial animals. So the numeral seven ranges through na- ture and through revelation. It is the number of perfection, and so 1 use 1t while 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 candle sticks. They are not the light, but they are to hold the light A room in the night might have in 1t 500 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 1t is a dark world, the night of sin, the night of trouble, the night of supersti- ton. the night of persecution, the night of poverty, the night of sickness, the night of death. Aye, about 50 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 deathbeds. How much we have use for all the seven candlesticks, with lights blazing from the top of each one of them! Light of pardon for all sin! Light of comfort for all trou- ble! Light of encouragement for all despondency! Light of eternal riches for all poverty! Light of rescue for all persecution! Light of reunion for all the bereft! Light of heaven for all the dying! And that light Is Christ, who Is the light that shall yet irradiate the hemispheres.
 But, mark you, when say churches are not candles, but c3oliestieks, l east no sfur on candlesticks. believe in beautiful candlesticks. The candle sticks that God ordered for the ancient tabernacle were something exquisite. They were dream of beauty carved out of loveliness. They were made of hammered gold, stood in foot of gold and had six branches of gold bloom ing all along In six lilies of gold each and lips of gold, from which the can- dles 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 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 better place for yourself than for your Lord and King. Do not live In a parlor and put your Christ In kitchen. These seven candlesticks of which speak were not made of pewter or iron; they were gold on cAndlpstfcka and cold tc not only